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Comparison of online vs offline effects of HD-tDCS induced modulation of cortical sensorimotor networks using a combined fNIRS-EEG setup
Muthalib M, Dutta A, Besson P, Rothwell, Tomas Ward, Perrey S
Publication Type:
Refereed Conference Meeting Proceeding
High-definition transcranial direct current stimulation (HD- tDCS) targeting the primary sensorimotor cortex (SMC) can produce comparable “Offline” excitability changes to conventional tDCS in a polarity specific manner (1). However, it is not clear how HD-tDCS modifies “Online” neuronal activity and haemodynamics within the modulated cortical sensorimotor network at rest and during a motor task. In this proof-of-principle case study, we first setup a HD-tDCS-neuroimaging (electrophysiological-EEG and haemodynamic-fNIRS) platform to target the SMC and simultaneously measure bilateral cortical sensorimotor network activation. Then we tested the system on one healthy subject to compare the “Online” and “Offline” effects of anodal HD-tDCS on fNIRS and EEG components.
Conference Name:
Neuroscience Conference 2014
Neuroscience Conference 2014
Digital Object Identifer (DOI):
Publication Date:
Conference Location:
United States of America
Research Group:
Open access repository: | <urn:uuid:4480d5e5-e0ef-4591-8daf-e077130c051b> | https://www.insight-centre.org/content/comparison-online-vs-offline-effects-hd-tdcs-induced-modulation-cortical-sensorimotor | en | 0.714477 | 0.029172 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Hip And Groin Pain In Sport | Physiotherapist Lucas Hoare
Groin Pain
Groin PainHip and groin pain in sport is very common throughout all regions. Being located in Swan Hill, Kerang and Bendigo sport is often referred to as the heart of these communities.
What can cause hip and groin pain?
It comes as no surprise that we see hip and groin pain affecting athletes of many levels from many ages. The majority of sports include at least one if not more of the following activities fast running, jumping, kicking, change of direction and physical contact.
Structures often implicated include the adductor muscles, hip flexor muscles, the hip joint, hernias, lower back referred pain and the pubic symphysis just to mention a few. Let’s not forget there could also be more sinister causes, which demand quality assessment to avoid long term harm.
running hip and groin pain
How can a physio help with hip and groin pain?
Physiotherapists have university degrees and continual professional development training. This continually helps in the effective assessment, diagnosis and treatment for hip and groin pain in patients. Is there one perfect treatment for hip and groin pain in sport? Absolutely not. Depending on what is causing your hip and groin pain the physio will provide a treatment plan. Sometimes an injury or diagnosis is beyond the scope of physio. Physio’s will guide patients in the right direction to manage their pain or injury.
The teams at Mallee Physio Swan Hill & Kerang and Healthy Mates in Bendigo work incredibly hard to match your treatment with the goals you have.
If you want to be back water skiing, playing football, netball, basketball, running, cooking in the kitchen the list is endless our goal is to get our patients back to doing what they love as soon as possible.
Is pain holding you back? Contact the teams at Mallee Physio and Healthy Mates or book in online.
Written by: Lucas Hoare
B. Physio, APAM Mallee Physio. | <urn:uuid:76290532-23ca-4cf8-81d0-49937fbe6376> | https://www.malleephysio.com.au/hip-and-groin-pain-in-sport-physiotherapist-lucas-hoare/ | en | 0.932453 | 0.028026 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Massachusetts is one of the most historical states because it was one of the original thirteen colonies. Boston remains the heart of New-England, and its significance in the furniture industry is very important. Massachusetts has been producing furniture for over 300 years. Early North American furniture design combined form and materials and was driven by necessity. Furniture was made from hardwoods such as cherry or walnut and steam was used to bend pieces. Boston remains mostly a traditional city but furniture in Massachusetts varies as much as the residents of this wonderful state.
Gallery 708 - American Furniture, 1650–1730
Many furniture stores in Massachusetts still follow the trend of only traditional furniture. Any furniture that spans from the 16th to the 19th century can be labeled traditional. Many sub-styles fall into this category including Federal style, Chippendale style, and Queen Anne style. Shell themes are common as well as animal feet or paws with or without claws in the base of the piece. The pieces are often made from thick carved wood with high-quality details and inlays. Traditional furniture is meant to be royal and regal and can be compared to the elaborate pieces in royal courts.
The Massachusetts furniture community has many lovers of the country and cottage furniture styles. Country furniture became popular in the 1980s, but its design originated out of the primitive necessity of the 17th and 18th centuries. Country furniture features simple clean designs with few frills and patterns. Oak and pine are the preferred materials and are polished for a clean look. Cottage furniture became popular in the time of the civil war but it making a comeback. It features brightly painted wooden pieces with simple design with almost a folk-art feel.
As we progress into the 21st century, modern and contemporary Italian and European designer furniture are the pieces that are captivating and taking over the Boston furniture scene. Contemporary design in Boston falls under the less-is-more school of thought. The pieces have a lot of simple strong lines and are recommended in neutral colors such as taupe, tan, black, or white. Bright and fun accessories are key to modern design and are perfect for standing out among larger neutral pieces. Bright pillows on a white sofa make everything pop without drawing too much attention from the sofa and without being inappropriately bright. Modern sofas, chairs and beds have strong bold lines and often feature simple geometric designs.
Gamma Jack Leather Sectional Sofa
With a focus on fulfilling increasing demand for modern furniture in Boston, IL Décor offers imported furnishings from every continent. We at IL Décor, bring you breathtaking furnishing, lighting and accessories for apartments, condos, homes or offices with smart multifunctional furniture that meets today's modern lifestyles. Buying contemporary furniture in Boston is easier than ever with IL Décor store conveniently located in the affluent Back Bay neighborhood at 10 St James Ave. | <urn:uuid:4a0f8df0-1f3b-4e6d-8e6d-fdac78431d86> | https://www.modernfurnitureinboston.com/blog/massachusetts-furniture-trends-ildecor/ | en | 0.964437 | 0.023392 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The Chinese
In 1865, the British Honduras Company convinced the British authority to allow the importation of 474 Chinese from Amoy to work on its estates on the New River. By the summer over 100 died from overwork, bad food and opium. 100 more fled to Mexico where they intermarried with the Santa Cruz Maya. Between 1868 and 1869, the Chinese population declined from 211 to 193 and by 1871, it fell further to 133 and continued to decline until the 1920s, when a new wave of Chinese emigrants began to arrive. Many of the remaining Chinese labourers was declared a failure and the colony turned to th importation of East Indian labourers in 1871.
Of the Chinese who chose to stay in Belize, many stayed in Orange Walk, Corozal or Toledo, but many others moved to Belize City where they established small shops, laundries, opium houses and brothels. The next large number of Chinese came in the 1920s and 1930s, mostly from Guatemala, where they had been indentured labourers, and also from Honduras. These included such names as Chi, Mak and Quan, many of whom started as farmers in Punta Gorda and later set up as merchants in Belize City. The local newspaper, the Clarion complained loudly in 1930 of a “Chinese invasion” and were once again heard in reference to the Taiwanese immigrations today who began arriving between 1990 and 2000. Today there is a hardly a town in the country which does not have at lease on Chinese business: dry goods or hardware stores, restaurants or hotels.
While some are using Belize as a stepping stone to the United States, many more have settled for good in Belize and sharing their culture such as the Dragon Dance which has been a part of the September celebrations for at least 25 years. Most Chinese continue to teach their language and traditions in food to their children. | <urn:uuid:3b810ab0-2784-4452-8ff8-3bf744802100> | https://www.mybelize.net/people-culture/the-chinese/ | en | 0.979898 | 0.063705 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Navigating the Playing Field: Knowing Your Rights in a Non-Compete or Non-Solicitation Contract Clause
Author: Shirtliff Hinds Law | | Categories: Attorney , Corporate Lawyer , Criminal Defence Lawyer , Criminal Lawyer , Divorce Lawyer , Employment Lawyer , Estates Law , Family Law , Family Lawyer , Law Firm , Real Estate Lawyer , Small Claims Court , Wills Lawyer
Blog by Shirtliff Hinds Law
Increasingly common in employment contracts are non-competition clauses (also known as a ‘non-compete’) and non-solicitation clauses (‘non-solicit’). Either when signing a contract for employment, or during the course of an employment contract, an employer may ask an employee to sign either of these clauses. What are the limitations placed by non-compete and non-solicit clauses? As an employer, how do you best devise a contract that will legally protect you? As an employee, what should you know before signing away your legal rights to conduct business post-employment with the firm? How enforceable are these clauses?
As an employee, a non-competition clause may restrict your ability to directly compete with your previous place of employment for a specified amount of time. Often, non-competes are restricted to a specific location (such as a city or town, but not an entire province) and within a particular time frame (usually limited to six months or less).
A non-solicitation clause can restrict the employee from soliciting the employer’s staff for clients either during or after the period of employment. Non-solicit clauses are also typically restricted to a specific region and time frame. The difference between non-competes and non-solicits are their scope. Non-competition clauses limit the access to the industry in a specific region whereas non-solicitation clauses more narrowly limit to clients of the firm.
How enforceable are non-competition and non-solicitation clauses? The enforceability may be dependent on several factors. How was the clause entered into? An employment contract is only enforceable if both the employer and employee receive “consideration”. Simply put, if both the employer and employee “get something” from the contract. The benefit may be a job if the contract was entered into upon hiring or may be an additional benefit if the contract changes throughout the course of employment. There may be a case of lack of consideration, rendering the employment contract invalid, if the contract was imposed partway through the employment without any new benefits offered.
The courts tend to uphold the contract post-employment if the employer can prove that these restrictions are truly necessary to protect the business. However, courts can decide not to enforce these restrictive clauses if they are too broadly defined. Examples could include too wide of a geographic scope or vague prohibitions (versus precise and specific exclusions).
Navigating the competitive playing field after leaving a previous place of employment may be tricky, especially with a non-compete or non-solicit clause. Similarly, as an employer, you may be wary of past employees entering into your competitive market with your business insights. To save yourself from entering into this grey zone as either an employer or employee, it is best to contact a qualified employment lawyer, such as the lawyers at SHIRTLIFF HINDS LAW. The skilled and passionate lawyers at Shirtliff Hinds Law will be able to help either employees or employers to ensure a fair employment contract.
This blog post offers a general overview. The blog should not be taken as legal advice nor should the blog be used for sole legal decision making.
Read More Blog Articles | <urn:uuid:e4432377-deea-4767-b0f2-c43f3ed20ab8> | https://www.shirtlifflaw.ca/blogs/newmarket-law-firm-blog/310948-navigating-the-playing-field---knowing-your-rights-in-a-non-compete-or-non-solicitation-contract-clause | en | 0.938457 | 0.045079 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Kashinath Chawan
*around 1950, India
Kashinath Chawan was born in Pune, India. He creates his drawings by using ballpoint pens on ripped up shoe boxes or pieces of used paper that he finds on the street.
He neither prepares sketches nor does he need preliminary drawings. His first lines are fine and imprecise. He then repeatedly draws small lines one upon the other so that thick lines ultimately appear. This technique allows him to realise sophisticated yet playful graphic forms and imparts his figures with a gentle, mysterious aura. Kasinath Chawan’s family is in the shoe business, and he has worked with shoes since he was 15. He dedicates himself to his drawings during the quiet hours of the afternoon. He is inspired by Hindu deities but also by the Mahabharata and Ramayana, two Indian epic poems, and by Bollywood stars. Kashinath Chawan’s work can be seen, for example, in The Museum of Everything and in the collection abcd/Bruno Decharme, France.
Selected works | <urn:uuid:3f918e88-31ae-4716-90c2-b2320571bb8e> | http://livinginartbrut.com/index.php/en/artists/artists-a-f/kashinath-chawan | en | 0.974277 | 0.021534 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Direct Programming
Here is a brief description of my latest work in progress, which I am submitting to PPIG.
Direct Programming
To make programming more accessible to regular people it may help to make it less abstract and more concrete. Towards that end I am taking another run at the old ideas of macro recording and Programming by Example. Many such efforts abstracted user actions into conventional code. Instead I co-design the PL and UI to be analogous, so that programs and users have much the same capabilities, and programs look much like recorded transcripts of user actions. Conscientiously following this design principle leads in the opposite direction of current PL trends, towards a deeply imperative semantics and a de-emphasis of functional abstraction.
Any attempt to make programming more concrete faces two challenges: loops and conditionals, for they necessarily deal with hypothetical situations. My approach is to extend the direct manipulation metaphor onto template states that prototype iteration, and example states that witness alternative cases.
This submission is a demo of early-stage work lacking evaluation, and indeed it is submitted in the hope of receiving guidance on an appropriate evaluation methodology.
As always, comments and criticisms welcome.
11 Replies to “Direct Programming”
1. Nice! I was very curious about how you handle iteration/loops and conditionals. I’m trying to do something similar in a VR-based environment but am struggling with these same issues. Not sure if your techniques will translate but they are certainly inspiring!
2. Hey Jonathan, this is amazing.
I’ve been thinking lately about all the troubles the beginners face with trying to abstract ‘methods’ before hand. I’m thinking that programming by example is for sure an easier way for them to make programs.
I’d love to play with what you have, is it available somewhere?
Also can you share a little about the stack you’re using to develop it? I’m curious about the stack, because it will mean how easy a person can start trying it out, for example if it’s a web site.
Thanks, it’s always great to see what you’re working on!
1. Thanks Daniel. I’m using Typescript and React, but just because I find that handy for this kind of UI programming. This is ages away from being ready for real users, or even for other researchers to play with.
3. Thanks for your response Jonathan.
Can you comment a bit about what would be the long term goal of the project? Also do you have a roadmap for the project?
4. My long-term goal is to noticeably improve programming, either through promulgating new ideas or an actual product. But my short-term goal is to just get enough things figured out so that I have a stable base on which to build, instead of rebooting every 18 months like I’ve been doing.
5. A tight distillation of your longstanding ideas. While programmers remain deeply entrenched in the plain text niche, other design software (CAD, 3D modeling, animation, and music) has been growing more parametric over the decade with [more]( and [less]) hideous embodiments.
Your formulas have a certain concatenative feel `9 * 5 / 32 +`. Concatenative languages share the nice quality that any sequence of steps can be [factored]( out. They’re also notorious for [stack shuffling words]( Where textual linearity forces order on concatenation, time linearity forces order on direct manipulation. Ultimately stack shuffling corresponds to shifting attention in the direct manipulation context.
When linearity is relaxed, we naturally end up with [flow diagrams]( Node-based editing follows. These graphs have the virtue of making data-flow more explicit (some systems allow for side-effects) and can show intermediate results. Archimatix shows a preview at the bottom of a node. Your example shows a preview to the right of each step after a blue arrow.
1. That sounds right to me, William. My strong intuition is to hug the linear end of the spectrum, with only nesting of linear expressions as right-hand arguments to binary operations. Use records for keyword parameters.
6. I played with similar ideas in the context of a “shell”, that is, where all commands are given as text. You could loop over an array by using “each 5 4 3”, where 5, 4, are references to the worked example, and 3 is the array to loop over.
Example here:
I also “rebooted” after about 18 months and subsequently worked on other things, but I believe programming by example has tremendous promise and can be made quite powerful.
1. In the context of the “each” verb, 4 represents an example value, and 5 represents an output that was calculated using that value. What it means is “take the calculation that created 5 from 4, and then map it over the values of 3”. The calculation of 5 from 4 is in this case the single caesarcypher verb, but it could be any arbitrary number of steps, and there’s no requirement that the example value came from the array we are iterating over (although the types should match).
It can be done in two steps with a “lambdify” verb that extracts part of the dependency graph into a function and then a map application, and this is what the each verb is doing internally, like so:
lambdify 5 4
map 3
However, I was trying to get away from exposing abstractions like the extracted lambda, so I rolled these two steps into the single “each” verb… it means the *only* way to do iteration is actually to start with an example value, calculate the output that you want, and then refer to the example input and result in an “each”.
1. Sorry, some formatting was stripped, but the two lines of code should be:
lambdify 5 4
map <that result> 3
Comments are closed. | <urn:uuid:a660ec8a-f39b-4fe4-bbd4-76c834e2886b> | https://alarmingdevelopment.org/?p=1145?shared=email&msg=fail | en | 0.930194 | 0.267362 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
I'm going to save the world? The evolution of video/computer game packaging
Go on a quest for some nostalgia! Museum Technician Drew Robarge investigates a 1984 computer game that puts the player in control.
One of my research interests has been how specific groups of people have been represented in videogames, particularly people with disabilities. As a result, I became interested in studies of immersion in games, identity, and what makes the medium of videogames unique. When I was exploring the museum's videogame collection, I became intrigued when I saw myself in the packaging of one computer game called Sorcerer. There was a shiny, mirror-like design that actually reflected back a fuzzy view of my own face. The message was clever but clear: you're the enchanter/sorcerer who is going to save the world.
Boy, I sure hope they know what they're doing.
The box for the game with the “mirror”
The box for the game with the "mirror"
What is this game that has summoned me? Sorcerer was a multiplatform computer game released by Infocom in 1984 and was the second game in the Enchanter series. The museum has the Apple II version of the game, but the game was released for at least 15 different computer operating systems. The game was written and coded by Steve Meretzsky who also created other interactive fictions such as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy and Planetfall.
As an enchanter, you seek to find your master, Belboz, who has mysteriously disappeared, and find out what happened to him. During your search, you explore the world and solve puzzles to advance further in your quest. There are no graphics in this game as it is an interactive text fiction. You use a text parser to give instructions to your player using specific verbs in conjunction with nouns like "Drink potion" or "Use torch on icicle." The introduction of graphics and the integration of direct user input to actions on the screen have made this interaction system almost obsolete, but variations of this system still live in games today.
The mirror in the packaging is meant to be a physical representation of what should happen when you play a game: you become the character you play. There are no graphical representations of your character or the world, so you need to construct your own perceptions of yourself as well as the world, much like you would when you read a novel. Easier said than done when you're just imagining the world and trying to explore and solve puzzles. Some people make maps and room diagrams to help solve puzzles and help players spot clues. We see this spatial reconstruction of the rooms created by the player of the game. Interestingly enough, the player only created the first few rooms he encountered, meaning either he gave up doing it for more rooms, felt that the other material included with the game was helpful, or it was simply not included with the game we have.
Some of the maps drawn by the player included with our game
Some of the maps drawn by the player included with our game
On a more nostalgic level, it makes me long for the days when video or computer games came with a lot more in the packaging than they do today. Sorcerer came in a nice big box that includes a manual, a booklet that had hints hidden and required a special marker in order to reveal the clues, a folder which can hold your handwritten paper sheets, and a spinning game reference card called an "Infolater." To top it all, the company created a fictitious magazine called Popular Enchanting.
Back at the turn of the 1990s, my family purchased Dragon Warrior III for the Nintendo Entertainment System and the game came with a huge chart that listed all the enemies and their stats, the list of magic spells in the game, the list of equipment that can be found in the game as well as where. The instruction manual did not only explain controls and hints for the games, but also had a full strategy guide.
All the extra material that comes with the game and box
All the extra material that comes with the game and box
By contrast, my most recent physical game purchase came only with an instruction manual that was only about five pages long and told me absolutely nothing other than warnings regarding limiting playing time and a list of button commands. This reduction in packaging material comes with an evolution in game design and creating tiers of games. More games teach the mechanics of the game with extensive tutorials and scaffolding-level design that slowly builds your skills and knowledge up. In addition to game design, publishers seek to increase pre-orders or sell more expensive versions of the same game by offering the game plus extras at a higher price. My purchased game offered at least three special editions, and I opted for the regular version which got me very little other than the game.
As I look towards the future of gaming, I find myself worried from a professional and personal standpoint. As more games are released only through digital means, this becomes a problem for museums like us. How do we collect games that have only been released digitally? Even then, how do we display digital games in exhibitions? This is a challenge recently confronted by the Art of Video Games exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum. We find ourselves approaching a time where perhaps all video and computer game content will only be distributed digitally. While it is understandable for many reasons, it is also lamentable. After all, I find it hard to see my reflection on a computer screen.
Drew Robarge is a museum technician in the Division of Medicine and Science of the National Museum of American History. He has also blogged about Battlestar Galactica glasses in the museum’s collection. | <urn:uuid:779f2ee0-58fa-430d-930d-967c67770f40> | https://americanhistory.si.edu/blog/2013/06/im-going-to-save-the-world-the-evolution-of-videocomputer-game-packaging.html | en | 0.971871 | 0.057031 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The bar necessities: 5 ways to understand coronavirus graphs
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Last updated June 5, 2020 at 5:45 pm
There’s a lot of COVID-19 data floating around at the moment. Three experts break down exactly what all those numbers mean.
face masks_covid-19 data_graph
With all the COVID-19 data floating around, it’s important to understand what all the numbers are saying.
Why This Matters: The better we understand the data, the better we can understand the situation as it evolves.
This article was originally published on 7 April 2020, and uses data current at that time.
Wrapping your head around the scale of a global pandemic is not easy, and the volume of stats and data can be bewildering.
What, for instance, are we to make of the fact Australia recorded just 109 new cases in its daily count for April 6? Given this figure peaked at around 400 new cases per day, does this mean the rate of infection is now tapering off?
And what, apart from sadness, are we to make of more gruesome statistics, such as the 969 COVID-19 deaths reported in a single day in Italy on March 27?
Which stats are most useful in making sense of the situation? To help interpret and understand the mountains of COVID-19 data, we’ll look at five commonly used methods, and explain the pros and cons of each.
Also: Take the panic out of pandemic
To illustrate each method, we’ll use Johns Hopkins University data for Italy during the 43 days from February 23 to April 5.
1. Daily increases
Much of the COVID-19 data is presented as a daily count of new confirmed infections for the preceding 24 hours. For example, on April 5, Italy had 4,316 new cases.
Such numbers accurately convey the horrific scale of the pandemic, but are less good at revealing how the situation is evolving. Without knowing the previous daily totals, it is impossible to say whether the trend is up or down. We need a way to put it into context.
2. Bar chart of daily new cases
One way to provide context is with a bar chart, also called a histogram, showing each new daily case count.
The graph below shows the number of new cases in Italy, from February 23 (the first day with over 100 new cases, and which we have labelled day 1), to 4,316 on April 5 (day 43).
COVID-19 data_bar chart_coronavirus cases
Histogram of daily numbers of new cases. Credit: Johns Hopkins Univ.
This type of graph can reveal meaningful trends at a glance. We can see the number of new cases began to stabilise on about day 26, and may even have begun to trend downwards.
But while large trends are obvious, we need to be careful when it comes to smaller trends – they may merely be random variations in the daily counts.
3. Graph of cumulative cases
Daily counts tell us how fast the epidemic is growing, but they don’t tell us how big it has grown overall. For that, we need a graph of the total number of cases so far.
This is called a cumulative graph, because each day’s data point is the sum total of all the previously confirmed cases.
COVID-19 data_cumulative graph_coronavirus cases
Increase in the total number of people infected with COVID-19 over time. Credit: Johns Hopkins Univ.
This is an excellent tool for visualising the full extent of the outbreak so far. But the danger is that it makes things look much worse than they are, because the total number of confirmed cases since the beginning of the outbreak can only go up, not down.
This method also makes it hard to see when growth rates are slowing, because you have to look for a plateau in the curve, rather than a drop.
Teach This: Education resource – Five ways to understand coronavirus graphs
4. Cumulative cases (log scale)
To compensate, we can present the same data on a logarithmic (or log) scale. This means the graph’s vertical axis (y-axis) is graduated by orders of magnitude (1, 10, 100, 1,000) rather than in equal increments (10, 20, 30, 40).
This basically “squashes” the y-axis so large numbers do not skew the whole graph. If an epidemic is growing exponentially, it arguably makes more sense to plot it this way because the trend line can “keep up” with the numbers instead of shooting off into the stratosphere.
COVID-19 data_cumulative graph_coronavirus cases_log scale
Increase in the total number of people infected with COVID-19 over time with log scale. Credit: Johns Hopkins Univ.
The log scale graph above shows the same data as the previous graph, but now it clearly tells the story of how Italy’s infection rates actually began to slow before day 26.
One downside is that this is clearly a more abstract way of looking at the COVID-19 data, so you need to know how a log scale works before you can make meaningful sense of it.
5. Percentage growth of the total
A less common, although extremely important, way to present the data is to express the daily number of cases as a percentage of the total so far. This is another good way to put the situation in context.
COVID-19 data_cumulative graph_percentage of cases
Percentage daily increase in the total number of people infected with COVID-19 over time. Credit: Johns Hopkins Univ.
Like the log scale graph, the graph above also shows that the daily rate of increase in total cases has dropped steadily over the 43 days.
This method is perhaps the most useful for demonstrating the effectiveness of social distancing and other public health measures for “flattening the curve”.
However, one drawback of using percentages is that this method does not reveal the actual numbers involved. It also risks lulling people into a false sense of security – the percentage graph can trend downwards even though the virus is still widespread, and the risk of resurgence still exists.
There’s no ‘best’ way to present COVID-19 data
These five different ways of presenting exactly the same data can give five different impressions of the situation.
There is also the question of the wider population context in which these numbers are presented.
Italy has more than 128,900 confirmed cases, compared with a reported 82,600 in China. Given the differences in population (Italy: 60.4 million, China: over 1.4 billion), that means 1 person in 468 has been infected in Italy, compared with just 1 in 16,949 in China.
In tiny Luxembourg, infections stand at 1 person in 223 – an even higher per capita infection rate than Italy.
Countries can also have large differences between regions. New South Wales, the hardest-hit state in Australia, accounts for 46.5% of the country’s cases, despite having 32% of the population.
Testing times
Another crucial piece of context is the total number of tests conducted. This varies hugely, both between countries and over time. When interpreting data on case numbers, it is important to know what proportion of the population has been tested.
COVID-19 data_coronavirus numbers_covid-19 graph
Number of positive COVID-19 tests per 1,000 people (blue) and overall testing rates (orange) for selected countries. Credit: Mark Osborn, Author provided
Widespread testing also helps to improve estimates of the true fatality rate among those infected with the virus.
As we strive as a society to flatten the curve, it will be heartening to know when our efforts are beginning to bear fruit. The better we understand the data, the easier that will be.
Not only is this important as we all try to come to terms with our new normal, but it will no doubt be crucial in convincing people of the necessity for various restrictions and lifestyle changes as the months drag on.
This article was co-authored with Irene Lena Hudson and Mark Osborn from RMIT University
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About the Author
Mark Sanderson
Mark Sanderson is Head of the Information Storage Analysis and Retrieval group at RMIT University.
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git conflicts are annoying. Your code can be working seamlessly and then when you go to merge it with another teammate’s code, it all falls apart.
Sometimes, you get a massive, multi-line error for a single edit. Sometimes, no matter what you do, you just end up bouncing your git conflicts back and forth between the same person.
It happens a lot more in production and commercial based projects than you’d expect.
Over the years, I’ve seen enough git conflicts to understand that it’s more than just the code. It’s also to do with your team’s processes, in addition to how work and the code are divided.
The bigger the team, the higher the chances of a git conflict. The same goes for your code repo.
So what can you do? First, you need to drill down to the root cause. These problems often crop up as persistent patterns. Here are some of the patterns I’ve encountered in a team space and how we fixed them.
how's my favorite branch doing
Pattern 1: You keep getting git conflicts with the same person
When you’re working in a team, having clear domains of work can prevent you from getting git conflicts in general.
If you’re getting the same git conflicts, especially for the same files over and over again, it usually means that your work is overlapping. As a result, any edit you make has a direct impact on the other person’s work.
So how do you prevent or stamp out this issue?
The first thing to do is to observe the scope of your work and decide how you and your teammate should abstract out each other’s portion of the work
The point of this exercise is not for one person to take over another person’s feature, but to modularize the code in a particular way to prevent it from the constant overlap.
git conflicts can often arise due to under abstraction, with not enough or clear boundaries on the suite of functions, modules, classes, and libraries.
Pattern 2: Your team keeps getting git conflicts in the same spaces
You’re all working on the same project, and no matter what you do, everyone on the team keeps getting git conflicts.
This may be due to how the branches are structured, and your team’s pushing workflow.
If your team is larger than the ‘two-pizza’ rule (if you need to order more than 2 pizzas your team is to big), coordination can be hard, especially if you’re all working on the same git branch. This is not recommended but for some workplaces, that’s simply how it’s done.
When these kinds of conflicts happen, the first thing you need to do as a team is de-tangle your workflow. How do you do this?
First, start by having your own personal branch to work on.
The second step is clearly separate out domains of code. This prevents your work from overlapping another person’s code, and therefore start of a series of neverending git conflicts.
The third thing you need to do is decide on a commit workflow. For example, this can be done through the ordering of features commit. Alternatively, it can be provisioned through a commit pipeline. This means that code needs to be reviewed before merging and committed to the main project branch.
commit workflow
Pattern 3: You’re getting git conflicts with yourself
Yes. This can happen and does happen quite a bit.
The problem with getting git conflicts with yourself is often caused by the repo on your machine not being up to date with the current branch. Alternatively, it can be caused by someone else working in your branch — hence the reason why your repo may be outdated.
Changes may have been committed in places you weren’t expecting, resulting in a git conflict with the files you’re working on.
Alternatively, you’re getting git conflicts with yourself maybe because you’re switching between too many branches and not merging them into a central branch.
This central branch is necessary to keep everything pipelined correctly and ensure that the repo you’re working on contains the most recent updates.
git conflicts when working on your own project
How to fix a git conflict at code and merge level
Often, the root cause of git conflicts is because your code pushes are not streamlined and single tasked.
Because git is very linear in nature
At the end of the day, the point of git is to let you work on multiple repos at the time but ultimately bring it all together into a single and final branch — which, in many cases, is the master branch.
The master branch acts as your single source of truth and anything that deviates from this is either an update or a conflict.
Your main aim is to make it an update, rather than conflict.
So to do this, you need to sequence your commits to accommodate for changes within dependencies — but sometimes, conflicts happen regardless, especially when you’re merging back several forks from multiple developers.
Here are some recipes to help you solve merge conflicts.
Competing line change merge conflicts
This happens when changes have been made on the same set of code. This can be through deletion or modifications. To resolve this issue, you’ll need to decide on which changes to keep in the new commit.
This issue often arises when more than one developer is working on the same file — hence why it’s necessary to keep your code domains separated to prevent such issues from happening again in the future.
To resolve this kind of merge conflict, use git status to get a list of all the conflicted files.
For this, you’ll need to manually go through the file and delete what you don’t want to keep. Search for the conflict marker <<<<<<<
Changes on the base branch are marked with <<<<<<< HEAD , followed by ======= . This divider acts as the divide between your changes and the changes made by others, marked by >>>>>>> BRANCH-NAME
Decide on what the final code will look like and delete all the conflict marker: <<<<<<<, =======, >>>>>>>
Once done, add your changes to the stage using git add .
Then officially commit your code using git commit -m “your commit note here”
Removed file merge conflicts
It happens sometimes where one person adds a file while another deletes it.
The issue pop up as an unmerged paths issue, with a list of files of who deleted the file. The issue may look something like this:
$ git status
> # On branch master
> # Your branch and ‘origin/master’ have diverged,
> # and have 1 and 2 different commits each, respectively.
> # (use “git pull” to merge the remote branch into yours)
> # You have unmerged paths.
> # (fix conflicts and run “git commit”)
> #
> # Unmerged paths:
> # (use “git add/rm …” as appropriate to mark resolution)
> #
> # deleted by us: filenamehere.js
> #
To solve this issue, you need to decide if you want to keep or discard the file. If you want to permanently remove the file from the repo, use git rm filenamehere.js
If you want to keep the file, use git add filenamehere.js and this will override the delete and keep your file as part of the commit.
Why do we do this?
Because this file may be a dependency for your commit and it prevents accidental deletion by another developer.
After you’ve added or removed permanently the file or files listed in question, commit your code using git commit -m “your message here”
Using git reset
Sometimes your code can be in a bit of a spaghetti state and you need to reset it to a known safe point.
To do this, you can use git reset to roll back the repo you’re currently in.
First, you need to figure out which commit you want to roll back. To do this, use git log
Take note of the commit hash.
Then use git reset [yourhashcommithere]
Once you hit enter, your code will have reverted back to how it was originally before commits. Changes made will be pushed to the unstaged space.
If you want a clean reset with no changes in the repo, use git clean –all
This will give you a clean reset with no changes. If you want to commit this roll back in your branch, you can push it to the origin — but do this with caution and only if you want to make the change permanent in your repo.
Final thoughts
git merge conflicts are never fun. They can be downright annoying — but it is often part and parcel with the job.
Regardless of where you go, you’re going to get git conflicts of some sort. Sometimes, they emerge in innocence, other times, it’s an indication of team workflows that are not optimized for modular code development.
Whatever the case, I hope this article has helped shed some light on why git merge conflicts happen and how you can potentially fix them.
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Tech Writer and Software Developer | <urn:uuid:ab573b59-80a9-4dca-89c0-ddfb3e9096c5> | https://blog.codota.com/how-to-resolve-git-conflicts/ | en | 0.924838 | 0.167017 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
#funkyfriday — The Mauskovic Dance Band / "Down In the Basement"
Since 2016, Amsterdam’s Nicola Mauskovic and his Dance Band have been less-and-less quietly taking over the European festival scene with their custom blend of psychedelic Caribbean Afrodisco. Their new EP, Down In the Basement, drops soon on Soundway (it’s yet another out-of-nowhere A&R coup for the label). We’ve just heard the title track and a previous single (on the Bongo Joe label) and already we know that the four tracks on the new record will not be enough.
Mauskovic Dance Band’s sound reflects the far flung origins of its members, and Amsterdam’s melting pot multinational music scene — the nexus and impetus for these crafty artists to hone their spectacular sound. Tube electronics and digital electronica, real and synthed drums, heavy disco accents and NYC loft-scene riffs, all catching a ride on a panoply of cumbia, palenque and other Caribbean riddims.
“Down In the Basement” starts out with a retro synth sound building up to the happy tappety-tap of the aforementioned percussion styles. On top of that, a choir-like vocal section sings something about islands and disco (two of our favorite things). Then, this slinky, swirly, noodly bassline, echoed by a township jive guitar lick, kicks in, and all of a sudden we’re deep into a crazy cosmic groove. Then it really gets going.
Wielding a sound they describe as “hypnotic analog dance music” and “Afro-Caribbean space disco,” Mauskovic Dance Band have carved themselves quite a special niche — one that’ll likely be spreading across dance floors worldwide.
| <urn:uuid:6219fd9e-a82c-417c-95c9-7d81d691bc9a> | https://blog.thevibrarian.co/funkyfriday-the-mauskovic-dance-band-down-in-the-basement/ | en | 0.854865 | 0.018867 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
dayal padmanabhan naveen krishna jayram karthik,
User Rating: 5 / 5
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puta 109 review
Puta 109 Movie Image
Dayal and his team is back after the sensational Aa Karala Ratri. The new film Puta 109 is an edge of the seat thriller with two main protagonists. The entertaining screenplay is a jugalbandi between a novelist and a police officer.
A police officer arrives at the home of a novelist to clarify some points in the investigation of the death of the latter's wife. You are left in no doubt that the novelist is also a suspect and that is why the police officer has come searching for him. But as they talk you get to know many more layers to the story.
There is not one but multiple suspects. During the course of this interview the police officer discards the suspicion one by one. But try as he may he is unable to pin the crime on the novelist. Who wins the duel forms the rest of this suspenseful investigative story.
Dayal is clinching in his narrative while the dialogues by Naveen Krishna adds a good dimension to this story telling. In fact the entire narrative is driven by dialogues. Naveen Krishna's abilities as a dialogue write is in full swing.
JK Karthik Jayaram and Naveen Krishna are the two main actors. Most of the film takes place inside a house. The cinematographer has put an extra effort to capture the minute moods of the characters. The background score with its strategic silence and genuine understanding of the requirement elevated the film by a few notches.
Overall Puta 109 is both an entertaining film and an experimental achievement. A film that deserves to be appreciated for its commitment to experiments in Sandalwood.
Chitraloka Rating - 3.5/5 | <urn:uuid:072376a3-9d4a-4e64-92d0-60dc16a0ec7c> | https://chitraloka.com/movie-reviews/18943-puta-109-movie-review-chitraloka-rating-3-5-5.html?tmpl=component&print=1&page= | en | 0.95211 | 0.064897 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Turkic mythology
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Turkic mythology features Tengriist and Shamanist strata of belief along with many other social and cultural constructs related to the nomadic existence of the Turkic peoples in early times. Later, especially after the Turkic migration, some of the myths were embellished to some degree with Islamic symbolism. Turkic mythology shares numerous points in common with Mongol mythology and both of these probably took shape in a milieu in which an essentially nationalist mythology was early syncretised with elements deriving from Tibetan Buddhism. Turkic mythology has also been influenced by other local mythologies. For example, in Tatar mythology elements of Finnic and Indo-European mythologies co-exist. Beings from Tatar mythology include Äbädä, Alara, Şüräle, Şekä, Pitsen, Tulpar, and Zilant. The early Turks apparently practised all the then-current major religions, such as Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and Manichaeism, before the majority converted to Islam; often syncretising these other religions into their prevailing mythological understanding.[1]
Irk Bitig, a 10th-century manuscript found in Dunhuang is one of the most important sources for Turkic mythology and religion. The book is written in Old Turkic alphabet like the Orkhon inscriptions.
Gods in Turkic mythology[edit]
Deities are impersonated creative and ruling powers. Even if they are anthropomorphised, the qualities of the deities are always in the foreground. In the Turkic belief system, there was no pantheon of deities as in Roman or Greek polytheism. Many deities could be thought of as angels in the modern Western usage, or spirits, who travel between humans or their settlement among higher deities such as Kayra.[2]
İye are guardian spirits responsible for specific natural elements. They often lack personal traits since they are numerous.[3] Although most entities can be identified as deities or İye, there are other entities such as Genien (Çor) and demons (Abasi).[4]
Kök Tengri is the first of primordial deities in the religion of the early Turkic people. He was known as yüce or yaratıcı tengri (Creator God). After the Turks started to migrate and leave middle Asia and see monotheistic religions, Tengrism was changed from its pagan/polytheistic origins. The religion was more like Zoroastrianism after its change, with only two of the original gods remaining, Tengri, representing the good god and Uçmag (a place like heaven or valhalla), while Erlik took the position of the bad god and hell. The words Tengri and Sky were synonyms. It is unknown how Tengri looks. He rules the fates of the entire people and acts freely. But he is fair as he awards and punishes. The well-being of the people depends on his will. Tengri worship is first attested in the Old Turkic Orkhon inscriptions of the early 8th century.
Other deities[edit]
Umay (The Turkic root umāy originally meant 'placenta, afterbirth') is the goddess of fertility and virginity. Umay resembles earth-mother goddesses found in various other world religions and is the daughter of Tengri.
Öd Tengri is the god of time being not well-known, as it states in the Orkhon stones, "Öd tengri is the ruler of time" and a son of Kök Tengri.
Boz Tengri, like Öd Tengri, is not known much. He is seen as the god of the grounds and steppes and is a son of Kök Tengri.
Kayra is the Spirit of God. Primordial god of highest sky, upper air, space, atmosphere, light, life and son of Kök Tengri.
Ülgen is the son of Kayra and Umay and is the god of goodness. The Aruğ (Arı) denotes "good spirits" in Turkic and Altaic mythology. They are under the order of Ülgen and do good things on earth.[5]
Erlik is the god of death and the underworld.
Ay Dede is the moon god.
Gün Ana is the sun goddess.
Alaz is the God of Fire.
As a result of the nomad culture, the horse is also one of the main figures of Turkic mythology; Turks considered the horse an extension of the individual -though generally attributed to the male- and see that one is complete with it. This might have led to or sourced from the term "at-beyi" (horse-lord).
The dragon (Evren, also Ebren), also expressed as a snake or lizard, is the symbol of might and power. It is believed, especially in mountainous Central Asia, that dragons still live in the mountains of Tian Shan/Tengri Tagh and Altay. Dragons also symbolize the god Tengri (Tanrı) in ancient Turkic tradition, although dragons themselves were not worshiped as gods.
The World Tree or Tree of Life is a central symbol in Turkic mythology. According to the Altai Turks, human beings are actually descended from trees. According to the Yakuts, White Mother sits at the base of the Tree of Life, whose branches reach to the heavens, where they are occupied by various supernatural creatures which have come to life there. The blue sky around the tree reflects the peaceful nature of the country and the red ring that surrounds all of the elements symbolizes the ancient faith of rebirth, growth and development of the Turkic peoples.
Among the animals the deer was considered to be the mediator par excellence between the worlds of gods and men; thus at the funeral ceremony the deceased was accompanied in his/her journey to the underworld or abode of the ancestors by the spirit of a deer offered as a funerary sacrifice (or present symbolically in funerary iconography accompanying the physical body) acting as psychopomp.[6] A late appearance of this deer motif of Turkic mythology and folklore in Islamic times features in the celebrated tale of 13th century Sufi mystic Geyiklü Baba (meaning "father deer"), of Khoy, who in his later years lived the life of an ascetic in the mountain forests of Bursa - variously riding a deer, wandering with the herds of wild deer or simply clad in their skins - according to different sources. (In this instance the ancient funerary associations of the deer (literal or physical death) may be seen here to have been given a new (Islamic) slant by their equation with the metaphorical death of fanaa (the Sufi practice of dying-to-self) which leads to spiritual rebirth in the mystic rapture of baqaa).[7] A curious parallel to this Turkic story of a mystical forest hermit mounted on a deer exists in the Vita Merlini of Geoffrey of Monmouth in which the Celtic prophet Merlin is depicted on such an unusual steed. Geoffrey's Merlin appears to derive from the earlier, quasi-mythological wild man figures of Myrddin Wyllt and Lailoken.
Grey Wolf legend[edit]
The wolf symbolizes honor and is also considered the mother of most Turkic peoples. Asena is the name of one of the ten sons who were given birth by a mythical wolf in Turkic mythology.[8][9][10][11]
The legend tells of a young boy who survived a raid in his village. A she-wolf finds the injured child and nurses him back to health. He subsequently impregnates the wolf which then gives birth to ten half-wolf, half-human boys. One of these, Ashina, becomes their leader and establishes the Ashina clan which ruled the Göktürks and other Turkic nomadic empires.[12][13] The wolf, pregnant with the boy's offspring, escaped her enemies by crossing the Western Sea to a cave near to the Qocho mountains, one of the cities of the Tocharians. The first Turks subsequently migrated to the Altai regions, where they are known as experts in ironworking, as Scythians are also known to have been.[14]
Ergenekon legend[edit]
The Ergenekon legend tells about a great crisis of the ancient Turks. Following a military defeat, the Turks took refuge in the legendary Ergenekon valley where they were trapped for four centuries. They were finally released when a blacksmith created a passage by melting mountain, allowing the gray wolf Asena to lead them out.[15][16][17][18][19][20] A New Year's ceremony commemorates the legendary ancestral escape from Ergenekon.[21]
Oghuz legends[edit]
Korkut Ata stories[edit]
Book of Dede Korkut from the 11th century covers twelve legendary stories of the Oghuz Turks, one of the major branches of the Turkish Peoples. It originates from the pre-Islamic period of the Turks, from when Tengriist elements in the Turkic culture were still predominate. It consists of a prologue and twelve different stories. The legendary story which begins in Central Asia is narrated by a dramatis personae, in most cases by Korkut Ata himself.[22] Korkut Ata heritage (stories, tales, music related to Korkut Ata) presented by Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkey was included in the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity of UNESCO in November 2018 as an example of multi-ethnic culture.[23][24]
Other epics[edit]
After Islam
Modern interpretations[edit]
Decorative arts[edit]
5-kuruş-coin features the tree of life
The Tree of Life, as seen in the flag of Chuvashia, a Turkic state in the Russian Federation
• A motif of the tree of life is featured on Turkish 5-kuruş-coins, circulated since early 2009.
• The flag of the Chuvash Republic, a federal subject of Russia, is charged with a stylized tree of life, a symbol of rebirth, with the three suns, a traditional emblem popular in Chuvash art. Deep red stands for the land, the golden yellow for prosperity.
See also[edit]
1. ^ JENS PETER LAUT Vielfalt türkischer Religionen p. 25 (German)
2. ^ Turkish Myths Glossary (Türk Söylence Sözlüğü), Deniz Karakurt(in Turkish)
6. ^ [1]
7. ^ [2]
8. ^ Bozkurt Legend (in Turkish)
9. ^ Book of Zhou, Vo. 50. (in Chinese)
10. ^ History of Northern Dynasties, Vo. 99. (in Chinese)
11. ^ Book of Sui, Vol. 84. (in Chinese)
16. ^ Murat Ocak, The Turks: Early ages, 2002, pp.76
22. ^ Miyasoğlu, Mustafa (1999). Dede Korkut Kitabı.
23. ^ "Intangible Heritage: Nine elements inscribed on Representative List". UNESCO. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
24. ^ "Heritage of Dede Qorqud/Korkyt Ata/Dede Korkut, epic culture, folk tales and music". ich.unesco.org. Retrieved 2018-11-29.
• Sproul, Barbara C. (1979). Primal Myths. HarperOne HarperCollinsPublishers. ISBN 978-0-06-067501-1.CS1 maint: ref=harv (link)
External links[edit] | <urn:uuid:0e794a85-e564-4d2a-8a15-84d363f20ea9> | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythology_of_Turkey | en | 0.898043 | 0.093424 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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2,392 Pages
This article, Revolutionary Army, is non-canon and does not affect the storyline in anyway.
The Revolutionary Army is one of the main factions of the world alongside the World Government and Pirates they serve as an major factor inside the one piece world with their goal being to end the World Government in their entirety and liberate the citizens of the world from the chaos and the corruptness the World Government has caused. The Revolutionary Army is infamous for being the organization with the highest bounty in the world because of how much of a threat it is to the World Government. The Revolutionaries have been working in secret at their hideout in the land of samurai Wano Country gathering more allied forces and weapons to face off the World Government lead by their supreme commander Darros and their Chief of Staff Francesco Elio, The Revolutionary Army seems to be almost done with finding enough resources and members to destroy the World Government.
Relationships Among The Members
Base of Operations
The Revolutionaries' base is in the land of samurai Wano Country ,in the current timeline due to the events in the past in where the island of Baltigo was found out by the World Government and other organizations the revolutionaries have decided to switch their main base after Darros became the leader. The Revolutionaries decided to choose the land of Wano as the location of their main base due to it's national border protection and how hard it is for enemies to get into the country. The way the Revolutionary Army went to Wano and claimed it was
| <urn:uuid:7e15ec26-6967-48f5-9b7d-17c171c43689> | https://onepiecefanon.fandom.com/wiki/Revolutionary_Army | en | 0.959811 | 0.148675 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Rogaining is a relatively simple sport with a few basic rules which have evolved since its inception. One of these rules relates to the Intention Sheet which is attached to each Control.
The Rules of Rogaining state:
How to fill the Intention sheet is pretty simple:
1. In the column under No., write your Team Number
2. In the column under Time, write the time you arrived at this Control Site
3. In the column under To, write which Control you are heading to.
Why fill in the Intention sheet?
1. Because it is one of the Rules.
2. The Penalty is the loss of points for the checkpoint under consideration (“R26 … Penalty is the loss of points for the checkpoint under consideration”).
3. For areas without mobile phone coverage, the Organisers use the Intention sheets to reduce the search area if a Search & Rescue is undertaken and the location of the missing team is not known.
4. It adds to the excitement of the Rogaine seeing which teams are just ahead of you and trying to work out what direction or route they are doing.
For short duration events such as our 3-hour minigaine, 4-hour twilight and some local 6-hour rogaines, Intention sheets are generally not used as there is good mobile phone coverage where participants can call the Organisers if a problem occurs, or the participant can call 000 direct in an emergency.
However, the Intention Sheets are an integral part of the overall Safety Management Plan for our major events (where there is limit mobile phone coverage) and are used to improve the response time and reduce volunteer manpower should a search be needed. | <urn:uuid:65b71cb0-e2a8-4064-954e-37800afb6da3> | https://sarogaining.com.au/news/the-why-and-how-of-the-intention-sheet/ | en | 0.928988 | 0.80687 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
system Index F-L
Fast Food 64 (CD)
Grade: C+
Publisher: Wave 1 Games (2017)
Reviewed: 2019/3/13
screenshotThe original Fast Food (Atari 2600, 1982) was an obscure bargain bin title. It was not an obvious choice to resurrect 35 years later, but here we are. Like the original you move a chomping set of lips around the screen consuming food items that rapidly approach from the left. As you might guess the game has made a dramatic leap in the audio/visual department. The food items are now digitized, and there's a lot more to chow down on including hot dogs, pink donuts, spinning sundaes, rotating tacos, and flapping pizza slices. Food items tend to clump together in groups, making it easy to rack up big points but at the risk of accidentally ingesting a nasty purple pickle. Eat six of those and it's game over. Fast Food 64 may be shallow but there's something about its weird, offbeat style. The bumping techno beats sound like something from the 1990's but the audio quality could be better. The psychedelic backdrops can be pretty mesmerizing if they don't make you sick. Each frantic game only lasts a minute or so, but you'll want to play over and over for high score. My friends were highly dismissive except for Brad who became hooked on Fast Food 64, rightly pointing out it required no buttons to play! How many games can you say that about? Secondary modes include a chaotic two-player variation and a confusing first-person "VR mode". Classic mode mimics the original's graphics but throws a lot more food your way. The box comes with a little laminated menu (and overlay) which is a nice touch. This homebrew doesn't try too hard, but if you're in the mood for something light Fast Food 64 might just hit the spot. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.
Our high score: BRP 2069
1 or 2 players
Food Fight (Atari 7800), Mangia (Atari 2600),
Rampage 2 (Nintendo 64), Keystone Kapers (Atari 5200)
Fever Pitch Soccer
Grade: B-
Publisher: Atari (1995)
Reviewed: 2013/8/2
screenshotFollowing in the footsteps of EA's FIFA series, this is a highly playable, fast-moving soccer game. In fact, the frenetic pace makes it hard to keep track of the ball! Over 50 teams are available to play in tournament or exhibition modes. The action is viewed from an overhead diagonal view. The ball looks sharp and its movement is smooth and realistic. It's easy to pass the ball around, despite the lack of a "scanner" to track your players. When you pass up field there's usually someone in the vicinity to receive it. Special moves are available for "star players", but apparently there aren't many stars on my USA team (*sad face*). The action is too frenzied to get all that creative, but I do like the ability to bend shots (like Beckham). It's not hard to score, but since the goal is usually off the screen, it can be hard to tell where to aim. Goalies usually get their hands on the ball but rarely make a clean catch. When someone scores you're subjected to a "celebration" screen featuring a pair of players that look more like hideous, overweight mutants. It's disturbing! Tie games are decided by shootout rounds, which are fun and well designed. The sound effects include a crowd that increases in volume as the ball approaches the goal. The players grunts sound clear but the sound of kicking the ball sounds more like a shotgun blast! It's not perfect, but Fever Pitch Soccer is easily one of the more playable sports titles for the system. © Copyright 2013 The Video Game Critic.
1 or 2 players
FIFA International Soccer (Genesis), Goal! (NES),
FIFA International Soccer (3DO), FIFA 2002 (Playstation 2)
Fight For Life
Grade: F
Publisher: Atari (1995)
Reviewed: 2006/11/1
screenshotVideo games are supposed to be fun right? Somebody needs to remind me after playing the monumentally abysmal Fight For Life. Reviewing this wretched one-on-one fighter is best described as a hardship. Fight For Life redefines the word "bad", with shabby visuals and pointless gameplay. Even in 1995, its blocky, texture-mapped fighters looked ugly. The backgrounds are sharp and colorful, but Fight For Life's basic gameplay is a complete joke. The characters can side-step and evade attacks, but they move like snails! Could they possibly take smaller steps? There's minimal technique involved in the fighting action, and each hit only removes a tiny sliver of your opponent's life meter. As both fighters endlessly trade punches, generic guitar music loops in the background. After what feels like an eternity, your opponent finally falls to the ground. But the sense of relief quickly turns into despair when you realize you're just beginning round two. NOOOOOOOOO! The one amusing aspect of this game lies in its instruction book, which claims you can save your game up to 100,000 times (sorry, you'll need to reset the cartridge after that). Is that supposed to be funny!? Did Atari really expect this to compete with Virtua Fighter and Tekken!? There has to be more to life than this! © Copyright 2006 The Video Game Critic.
1 or 2 players
Virtua Fighter 2 (Saturn), Virtua Fighter 4 (Playstation 2),
Tekken Advance (Game Boy Advance), Tekken 5 (Playstation 2)
Flip Out!
Grade: F
Publisher: Atari (1995)
Reviewed: 2006/11/1
screenshotSimple-but-addictive puzzle games were the flavor of the month in the mid-1990's, and Flip Out was Atari's feeble attempt to grab a piece of the pie. But as this game taught me, the ability to manipulate colored objects does not always result in a good time. The game is played in rounds, with the idea being to flip square chips on a matrix to match a certain pattern. It's pretty confusing at first, but once you get the hang of it, it's just tedious. By incorporating a whimsical soundtrack, goofy aliens, and the occasional fart sound effect, Atari hoped you might not notice how much fun you weren't having! Unlike similar puzzle titles, there's never any pay-off in the form of explosions or chain reactions. I can't recall the last time I've been more disinterested in a video game. © Copyright 2006 The Video Game Critic.
Our high score: 594
1 player
Puzzle Link (Neo Geo Pocket), Bust-A-Move 4 (Dreamcast),
Zenses: Ocean Edition (Nintendo DS), Assembloids 2600 (Atari 2600)
Frog Feast (CD)
Grade: D
Publisher: Songbird (2007)
Reviewed: 2015/6/9
screenshotMost classic gamers can probably surmise from the title that this is a translation of the old Frogs and Flies (Atari 2600, 1982) game, also known as Frog Bog (Intellivision, 1982). Those games were simple yet fun, so you'd expect this 64-bit CD edition to be gangbusters. Fire up the CD and you're treated to an attractive title screen with catchy, twangy music. There are one and two player options. So far so good. Then you start playing and wonder if this is even a finished game. Frog Feast is a contest between two amphibians leaping between a pair of lily pads, snagging flies that flutter over the pond to earn points. The game is timed and ends after two minutes. In the original versions you could control the height and trajectory of your leap, but not here. You always jump the same height and distance, which is lame. One button is used to both jump and stick out your tongue. It occurred to me there are 22 buttons on my Jaguar Pro controller, yet this game uses one to perform two functions. The frogs are well-defined but the forest background looks like it was drawn with Microsoft Paint. The sky darkens slightly as you play but never actually turns to night. The sound effects are basically limited to periodic croaks. Only the Jaguar could mess up a can't-miss concept like this. Frog Feast is actually a watered-down version of an already simplistic game, prompting my friend Scott to proclaim the Jaguar as the "reverse King Midas" of game consoles. © Copyright 2015 The Video Game Critic.
Our high score: 54
1 or 2 players
If you like this game, try: Frog Bog (Intellivision),
Frogs and Flies (Atari 2600), Sky Jaguar (Colecovision),
Venture (Atari 2600), King of Fighters 99 (CD) (Neo Geo)
Highlander (CD)
Grade: F-
Publisher: Atari (1994)
Reviewed: 2007/10/3
Rating: Kids to Adults (animated violence)
screenshotThis is the game Jaguar fans don't want you to see, because it exposes the Jaguar CD as the complete farce that it is. Highlander's intro features a lengthy animated sequence lifted directly from the TV series. There was a TV series? Hey, I'm as surprised as you! You then assume the role of an unarmed young man being hunted by soldiers in a burnt-out village. The high-resolution, pre-rendered scenery looks good, and the otherworldly soundtrack would be quite effective - in a good game. Unfortunately, your pixilated character is composed of about five triangles, and he moves like a turtle. You'd think a 64-bit powerhouse like the Jaguar would be able to handle a 3D adventure, but it struggles mightily. Simply wandering around the village is a chore due to sluggish, awkward controls. Making matters worse are the constantly changing camera angles. Not only are these disorienting, but take forever to render! Once the soldiers get close enough attack with clubs, you'll take a beating regardless of whether their blows actually make contact. This causes you to temporarily lose control, making you susceptible to further beat-downs. When will the hurting stop?! You can punch and kick until the cows come home, but your foes are always about a millimeter out of range. You'll find items in huts around the village, but just when you think you've come upon something useful (like a stick), you're told "you can't use that here". Attempting to flee the village causes you to be shot dead by an unseen assailant, but take it from me - that guy was doing you a favor! If there is a decent game buried deep down in this CD somewhere, I'd be surprised. Highlander is beyond awful - it's embarrassing. Why is the main character's hair blonde in the cut-scenes, yet bright pink in the game?? Equally shameful is the box art, which depicts Highlander as a blonde woman in what appears to be a cheap Aquaman outfit. If Atari expected garbage like this to pass as a legitimate game, perhaps the company deserved its untimely fate. © Copyright 2007 The Video Game Critic.
1 player
If you like this game, try: Double Dragon (Atari 2600),
King of Fighters 99 (CD) (Neo Geo), Onimusha 2: Samurai's Destiny (Playstation 2),
Who Shot Johnny Rock? (Sega CD), Ice Hockey (Atari 2600)
Hover Strike (CD)
Grade: D+
Publisher: Atari (1995)
Reviewed: 2001/1/4
screenshotHere's another polygon shooter from Atari along the lines of Cybermorph. It even has the same woman's voice. In Hover Strike you control a hovercraft on missions to destroy targets on various planets. While trying to locate your targets, you'll be attacked by all kinds of alien ships. The controls are pretty awkward. The fire and accelerate buttons are right next to each other, and you need to hold down accelerate to maintain your speed. In addition, your missiles can only be launched via the keypad, and it's tough to find them in the heat of battle. All the missions take place at night, which serves two purposes. First, it helps alleviate the "pop-up" problem found in most Jaguar polygon games. Second, it makes it impossible to tell where enemy shots are coming from! The graphics are very average, and the frame rate gets pretty choppy, especially when you're crossing rough terrain. A few stages are almost pitch black, and you'll be begging for them to end. On the positive side, you can select your missions, the music rocks, and their explosions are very cool. There are some neat camera options that let you view the action from different angles, but these aren't very useful during the game. © Copyright 2001 The Video Game Critic.
1 player
Space Battle (Intellivision), F-15 Strike Eagle (Atari XEGS),
Fatal Frame (Playstation 2), Alien Vs. Predator (Jaguar)
Hyper Force
Grade: B
Publisher: Visual Impact (1995)
Reviewed: 2003/11/23
screenshotSongbird has done it again, bringing another long-lost Jaguar game to the masses. Hyper Force is a fun platform shooter with exceptional sound and extremely large characters. You'll spend the first few levels exploring space caverns, jumping ledges, shooting robots, collecting items, avoiding traps, and searching for some very elusive switches. The stage designs are a bit uneven, with some that are difficult to clear and others that seem to end prematurely. The small switches you need to pull can blend into the surroundings, and you'll sometimes find yourself going in circles looking for them. Hyper Force has a LOT of secret areas, so always feel around the walls and ceilings. Your enemies include a wide array of robots, and they look pretty cool. Some look like odd top-heavy droids, while others resemble stormtroopers from Star Wars. Your firepower is very weak to begin with, but you can purchase better weapons between stages. Unfortunately, the weapon-buying screen is confusing, and it's hard to tell what you can buy and what you already have. You'll find bunches of money signs and other bonus items throughout the levels, and it's satisfying to walk or jump through them. The traps include your standard timed fire and spike mechanisms, but these aren't too tough to avoid. The controls are responsive, although touching a robot will send you out of control, and sometimes you get bounced around like a pinball. Fortunately, this damages the robots more than it hurts you. The gameplay starts to feel somewhat repetitious after a while. Although the scenery changes every five levels or so, the stages at each location don't differentiate themselves very much. The understated music is amazing, and the sound effects are also distinctive. You can save up to three games to cartridge. Hyper Force is a quality game that fills a void in the Jaguar library. Get your copy at Songbird Productions. © Copyright 2003 The Video Game Critic.
1 player
Apprentice, The (Philips CD-i), Super Star Wars (Super Nintendo),
Spike (Vectrex), Star Fire (Atari 2600)
Grade: D
Publisher: Atari (1995)
Reviewed: 2003/6/1
screenshotThe Jaguar has many primitive polygon shooters in its library, but this one is particularly bland. The levels take place inside a computer, which essentially gave the programmer an excuse to create the most blocky, uninteresting scenery EVER. You teleport between different rooms, trying to collect data pods while shooting enemies. Some stages contain simple puzzles that require you to hit switches to access new areas. As a first-person shooter, I-War needs a strafe button in the worst way. Most confrontations amount to trading shots until someone blows up. There are some nifty explosions, but they tend to slow down the action considerably. I-War does feature some respectable techno music, and I like how you can save your place between stages. There's also a bonus stage that lets you collect pods as you fly through a tunnel, but it's hardly what I'd call exciting. I-War is a playable game, but there's not enough here to make you want to come back for more. It's one of those games you forget about the instant you turn it off. © Copyright 2003 The Video Game Critic.
1 player
If you like this game, try: Sky Jaguar (Colecovision),
Medal of Honor (Playstation), Platoon (NES),
Mansion of Hidden Souls (Sega CD), Shadow Squadron (Sega 32X)
Iron Soldier
Grade: B
Publisher: Atari (1994)
Reviewed: 2002/8/27
screenshotThis is one of those "mech" games where you control a giant robot. It's a little slow, but it plays well. There are sixteen missions, and you can select the order in which you play them. Your mech has mounts for up to six weapons that you can select before each mission. Switching weapons is done via the keypad. The control scheme is pretty well thought out. Once you start moving, you can change direction without stopping. That works out well because your robot walks at a slow pace, and having to hold down a button to move would be tedious. Missions usually involve destroying certain landmarks. The cities are full of rectangular block buildings without much detail. You can destroy the buildings to find weapons or power-ups. Your enemies, which include tanks, helicopters and other robots, look great. Unlike games like Cybermorph, the animation here is very smooth. But I think the best part of Iron Soldier has got to be the explosions: they look awesome. They make destroying things all the more fun, especially when you throw a big grenade into a group of tanks. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.
1 player
If you like this game, try: Iron Soldier 2 (CD) (Jaguar),
Iron Soldier 3 (Playstation), Armor Ambush (Atari 2600),
Metalhead (Sega 32X), Mech Assault (Xbox)
Iron Soldier 2 (CD)
Grade: B
Publisher: Telegames (1996)
Reviewed: 2002/8/27
screenshotThe first Iron Soldier game was a standout title for the Jaguar, with its mission-based gameplay, smooth animation, and cool explosions. Iron Soldier 2 is more of the same, with enhanced graphics and more advanced controls. The intro features some cool cinematics of your mech wandering around a city blowing everything to bits. There are twenty missions this time around and more weapons too (including a chainsaw). My main problem with this game is that the missions are sometimes a bit ambiguous. It's not always clear what you're supposed to do, so you end up leveling the whole town! Also, I sometimes had a hard time controlling my mech. This game really requires a good investment of time before you can really sink your teeth into it. Although it's a CD game, you won't even notice the loading time. The futuristic soundtrack is solid. Iron Soldier is a tough game, but Iron Soldier vets will feel right at home with it. © Copyright 2002 The Video Game Critic.
1 player
If you like this game, try: Iron Soldier 3 (Playstation),
Iron Soldier (Jaguar), Blue Lightning (CD) (Jaguar),
Mech Assault (Xbox), Krazy Ivan (Playstation)
JagZombies (CD)
Grade: F
Publisher: Wave 1 (2018)
Reviewed: 2019/9/20
screenshotJagZombies might have made a decent light gun shooter. Each stage is a digitized image of a desolate location like a dark alley, graveyard, train tracks, warehouse, or corn field. These creepy, atmospheric stages are the highlight of the game. Zombies and bats appear in the distance and slowly shamble and flutter towards the foreground. And when I say slow, you could drink a cup of coffee before they get within striking distance! The only legitimate threats are the zombies and occasional werewolves that pop up directly in front of you. A jumpy red crosshair lets you to aim your shotgun or flamethrower. Button C is used to reload and you'll press it constantly. There are digitized growling and screaming sounds, but they are messy and repetitive. The gameplay could be a lot tighter as well. The difficulty is so low it's quite possible to beat the game on your first try. As if to compensate for the choppy reticle movement, the collision detection is ludicrously forgiving. Sometimes zombies appear to be sucked into the cursor. The graphics are glitchy with splashes of blood often appearing in the wrong spot. The nonstop shooting is tiresome, and it culminates with an exhausting battle against a "bat king" boss with 1000 hit points! JagZombies is a mildly amusing seasonal diversion but you're not likely to play it twice in a row - or twice ever! The good news is that Corpse Killer (Sega CD, 1994) is suddenly looking a lot more respectable. © Copyright 2019 The Video Game Critic.
Our high score: 13646
1 player
Operation Blood: Light Gun Version (Atari XEGS), Dead Angle (Sega Master System),
Corpse Killer: Graveyard Edition (Saturn), Corpse Killer (CD) (Sega 32X)
Kasumi Ninja
Grade: D-
Publisher: Atari (1994)
Reviewed: 2006/12/1
screenshotWow, Atari must have been intent of having a Mortal Kombat-style game for their Jaguar system. Kasumi Ninja offers some decent digitized graphics, but its gameplay is just pathetic. It tries to mimic the bloody fighting style of Mortal Kombat, but it doesn't feel right at all. The control is lousy, and Atari didn't even bother listing moves in the 61-page booklet (written in about 20 languages). The roster of eight fighters is uninspired at best. The two obligatory "ninjas" are dressed in cheap jumpsuits that make them look more like hospital orderlies! Most of the others are extremely unattractive, including the Scottish fellow who shoots fireballs from under his kilt. Kasumi's visuals aren't bad at all, with smooth animation and picturesque exotic backgrounds. The sound is less impressive however. Each fighter is introduced by a guy with a laughably fake Asian accent, and sound effects during fights are sometimes out of sync. The music is an odd mishmash of styles, but most of it sounds like some guy goofing off on a Casio keyboard. Kasumi Ninja is a sub-par fighter, even for the Jaguar. This game caused my smart-assed friend Scott to quip, "I never thought I'd ever utter these words, but can we play Ultra Vortek?" © Copyright 2006 The Video Game Critic.
1 or 2 players
If you like this game, try: Ultra Vortek (Jaguar),
Mortal Kombat II (Sega 32X), Mortal Kombat Trilogy (Playstation)
Kobayashi Maru (CD)
Grade: B-
Publisher: RGCD (2013)
Reviewed: 2013/8/2
screenshotThis new homebrew brings the 2D shooting fun of Time Pilot (Colecovision, 1982) to the Jaguar. It's hard to improve upon a classic but Kobayashi Maru is not a bad little arcade game. You guide a ship freely around a screen that scrolls in all directions. Enemy planes approach from the edges, and I like the ability to spray rapid-fire bullets by holding in the fire button. The bullets are pretty fat too so you won't miss very often. There are also chubby little guys on balloons you can "rescue" for bonus points. Shooting the balloons will release the little fellow, so try to position yourself below him first. After a while a large "boss" airship will make an appearance. The bosses are unique in design but easy to defeat once you position yourself behind them. Beating the first stage takes practice, but after that things get easier - probably because you earn a free life for completing each stage. One thing lacking from Kobayashi Maru is variety and a sense of progression. Time Pilot created a sense of anticipation as you worked through the distinctive ages of time. In this game each stage features only slightly different skins and color palettes. The "warp" animation between stages is nice but unspectacular. Kobayashi Maru is a perfectly playable shooter but I can't shake the feeling that there should be more to it. © Copyright 2013 The Video Game Critic.
Our high score: 138,460
1 player
Time Pilot (Colecovision), Raiden (Jaguar),
Castlevania Judgement (Wii), Solar Quest (Vectrex)
More reviews: [Previous] [Next]
Jaguar Listing of Games
VGC Mobile Main
Screen shots courtesy of Atari Age
Rotten Tomatoes
Songbird Productions
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Irish Video Game Orchestra< Back to Shortlist
The orchestra, which started as a one-time project for ‘Qcon’, the gaming and anime convention held annually at Queens university Belfast, has continued for 3 years due to the popular demand of the musicians involved and the returning audiences.
What is really amazing about our orchestra is that we select, arrange and rehearse all of our music ourselves. Our repertoire is mainly music from pop culture sources (video games, tv shows and anime) which brings in enthusiastic young audiences to the ‘classical music’ venues.
People's Choice Award Vote for this group!
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Intelligent City Surveillance
Based on the concept of three-dimensional prevention and control, CEIEC designs Intelligent City Surveillance Solution to provide full coverage surveillance for city security. Combined with practical experience, it provides intelligent video applications such as face and vehicle recognition, key personnel control and management of vehicles and incidents, etc. These applications can reduce crime and improve detection rate effectively, thereby improving the public security and government's prestige.
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Develop first-class integration capabilities and create an outstanding international group
the CEIEC Corporate Vision
Find out which is the best for your consideration
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Posts Tagged ‘business image’
Why does my business need a website?
Wednesday, October 20th, 2010
The world wide web has become the world’s #1 source of information. While newspaper advertisements have been somewhat historically effective, the fact remains that it is a gamble whether or not your target audience will actually see them. It has become more of a gamble, as most newspapers offer free online versions of their printed articles funded by corporate advertisers, thus eliminating the need for a traditional subscription. In addition, a newspaper advertisement is typically “one and done”, meaning that once that issue has been distributed, your target audience has only that one chance to view your ad, then it’s gone. Does this really give you the most effect for your advertising dollar?
Similar to newspaper advertising is direct mailings. How many flyers do you need to send out just to bring in one customer? How many of those flyers end up in the trash or a recycling bin without ever being read? Probably more than you’d like to think about!
By contrast, in our technology-driven society, a very large portion of the public has internet access at home, at work, or both. More and more people use search engines, such as Google, Yahoo, or Bing, to research products of interest and local businesses. Believe it or not, your business is probably already on the internet… the problem is that you have little or no control over the information that is already there!
Having a website for your business is the equivalent of having your business open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, along with an advertisement that’s never tossed in the recycling bin. You are in complete control of the public image your business portrays, and users can find pertinent information, such as store hours, locations, and phone numbers, as well as your current sales and promotions, at their convenience. With a website, your sales flyer or advertisement is never “yesterday’s news”!
Ready to talk about how a website can improve your business and connect you with your customers? Give us a call today at (814) 723-4105. | <urn:uuid:7d358abf-882e-43ae-b8f6-1b13a30569e3> | http://darrwebsolutions.com/blog/?tag=business-image | en | 0.944078 | 0.052918 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Monday, July 17, 2017
Panic nation?
Samantha Bee is neither fresh nor funny.
She's an ugly woman who thinks screeching is what the world needs.
The same way John Oliver thinks Americans have been waiting for a thumb-up-his-ass smug Brit whose selective editing is comical.
Neither have anything to offer.
Jon Stewart?
He was an original who paved a road at least.
But, reality, even his best days at THE DAILY SHOW don't make for good TV or TV that COMEDY CENTRAL reruns.
If you're not getting how far from excellence -- what the Emmys are supposed to celebrate -- the nominations were this year, think of one program: TONY BENNETT CELEBRATES 90: THE BEST IS YET TO COME.
That special featured performances from Stevie Wonder, Aretha Franklin, Elton John, Lady Gaga, k.d. lange, Bob Dylan and several others -- including Tony Bennett.
Somehow this didn't qualify for a nomination for best variety special.
Who's going to clean up this sh*t?
That's actually the question the Emmys should be asking.
We have no quarrel with NETFLIX's two variety nominations -- LOUIE C.K. and SARAH SILVERMAN: A SPECK OF DUST.
Those are comedy concerts.
From celebrated comedians who offer their look at life.
Not a bunch of sexual put downs of a politician.
Stephen Colbert has always had the problem that he comes across like a child molester.
It's why his acting career never took off.
And Samantha Bee? How that woman ever snared a man (let alone a semi-attractive one) is beyond us.
They don't deserve to be nominated as they wind up their rants and their hysteria preaching to PANIC NATION in their attempts to alarm us all.
If you're not getting how bad it is, Bill Maher got an Emmy nomination this year: Outstanding Variety Talk Series.
Bill Maher.
Bill Maher who used the n-word again this year.
Bill Maher who preaches hate of Arabs.
Bill Maher who is sexist.
Bill Maher who is racist (his offensive Tweet about Asians being yet another example).
But, see, that's okay.
He puts down Trump.
And, for the voters on the coast of Panic Nation, that's enough.
They're not left, they may be 'liberals' with air quotes, but they're not left.
They're uninformed and uneducated little idiots.
They can't offer anything but comic book versions of reality because they're so stupid.
They applaud Barack Obama, for example, these Meryl Streeps (talk about another ugo) as though he didn't kill people with drones, as though he didn't save the banks while failing the home owners, as though the largest transfer of wealth didn't take place on his watch.
They're not left.
They're dumb idiots who couldn't hold a political conversation but let Stephen Colbert say Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are same-sex lovers and suddenly the homophobia gets ignored so they can hoot and holler.
And then they look down on the residents of so-called fly-over states?
They don't know the first thing about art which is why these disposable programs are nominated for excellence awards.
Ava and C.I. have written another must read.
"Iraq snapshot" (THE COMMON ILLS):
Monday, July 17, 2017. Chaos and violence continue -- as does The Mosul Slog.
1. Army soldier showcases just what ‘liberation’ in looks like
That passes for 'liberation' in Iraq.
And The Mosul Slog continues.
IRAQI NEWS reports today:
An Iraqi security member was killed on Monday during clashes with remnant Islamic State militants in western Mosul’s Old City, a security source was quoted saying.
Shafaq News quoted the source saying that a soldier was killed and another was wounded during operations targeting the remaining havens in Shahwan neighborhood in the Old City.
Looks like that announcement last Tuesday that The Mosul Slog was ended was premature.
As was the victory parade over the weekend.
Checking Elise Labbot's Twitter feed for her response and there is none. Elise infamously yelled out "NO!" in a State Dept press briefing when another journalist dared to suggest that Mosul was a slog.
Elise does offer this nonsense.
Bush and Clinton stress value of humility in Oval Office
Neither offered anything but hubris.
Bill destroyed the safety net.
That's the safety net, note, that held up his ass.
But he didn't give a damn about single mothers when he was president.
He was raised by one who depended on the safety net.
But his hubris was unbound.
There's also the Iraq sanctions which killed at least a half million children in Iraq.
That's not humility.
Then there's War Criminal Bully Boy Bush who started the Iraq War -- the one that's never ended to this day.
Bully Boy Bush was never one to show humility.
He was a vengeful, angry child.
As bad as Donald Trump is, he's not Bully Boy Bush.
He may become him.
But, at his worst, Donald's a petulant adult.
Bully Boy Bush was (and remains) a petulant child.
INTELLIGENCE POST offers a look back at Iraq which includes:
That's when the Islamic State took root in Iraq.
And none of the conditions that allowed ISIS to rise have been addressed.
Mosul's not liberated but it is destroyed.
Today from : Widespread devastation following Iraqi forces' 9-month fight to reclaim Mosul from the Islamic State
That's how a lot of Iraq will look if the conditions are not dealt with.
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Handicap match betting how do i bet on the kentucky derby 2020
Wednesday 24st, July 6:39:0 Pm
Once all the handicaps have been applied, the final league table in the eyes of the bookmaker can be worked out and you will discover whether your bet was successful. Handicap betting - also known as the spread or Asian handicap betting - effectively "even up" a market, by assigning a virtual deficit or surplus handicap to each selection.
Handicap betting markets apply either a positive or negative goalpoint handicap to each sideplayer depending on which is identified as the favourite negative handicap or underdog positive handicap. Asian handicap betting is a variation on the no draw handicap match betting market explained above, whereby the draw is eliminated. One of the major bets is a bet on handicap.
Every sportsbook offers it in the line.
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These wagers allow making stakes on more beneficial terms. Simply put, handicap gives a benefit expressed in figures matches, scores, seconds etc. We may also mark out negative chalk and positive outsider handicap.
US Handicap American handicap may be either negative or positive. For instance and + Negative handicap indicates how much you have to bet to win. Handicap betting offers a good method to get better odds on games and matches where you have strong favorite and respectively low odds. Furthermore, you can successfully use handicap wagers when you are convinced that one of the teams is to win but with a low margin.
Of course, you can turn to handicap wagers wherever you want, as you will always get better odds with a handicap bet. Handicap betting essentially adds points to one side or the other before the actual event. This is done to try and level the playing field between a competing underdog and favourite. If you see both sides with a handicap something is amiss or your bookmaker has been drinking. Thus, if the regular match is a draw, the handicap match will show Germany as the winner.
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There are two kinds of handicap matches when it comes to Counter-Strike. A match being played on one map only, meaning first time to reach 16 rounds and a best of three match, where a team needs to win two maps, to win overall. First off, a match being played on one map only. A few tournaments make the teams play all 30 rounds in the group stage.
What is special about a handicap bet on these matches is that a 16 round rule counts, betting results are settled when a team reaches16 rounds. Way Asian handicap betting puts more emphasis on the number of goals a team can score in a football match.
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Matches can be handicapped by a goal or more depending on the form of the teams that are playing. The fun part of this type of Asian handicap is that a player can actually bet on a weak team by giving them a positive handicap and win the bet.
Betting on stronger teams is easy but also tricky in the sense that it has to exceed the number of handicapped goals in order for one to win the bet. Handicapping, in sport and games, is the practice of assigning advantage through scoring compensation or other advantage given to different contestants to equalize the chances of winning.
The word also applies to the various methods by which the advantage is calculated. In principle, a more experienced participant is disadvantaged, or a less experienced or capable participant is advantaged, in order to make it possible for the less experienced participant to win whilst maintaining fairness. In basketball betting handicap bets are common and are generally referred to as point spread We will refer to them like that from now on in this section of the guide.
Screenshots from Sports Interaction Our top-rated Canadian betting app. You can also use the total match market with a handicap. For the result you total up the amount of games each player has won as a 2 way bet and then add the handicap as shown above for set betting.
Here is an example of these markets.
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Handicap Match Betting - This is the most common handicap bet. Here you are betting on goals or points scored during a match. The bet wins if your team wins once the handicap is applied.
This can be applied to any sport where points are scored.
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Handicap League Betting - It is generally possible to place handicap bets on league positions, especially if placed prior to the start of a season. Handicap betting is one of the increasingly popular bets in the soccer betting world.
In simple words, it is one of the two sides is commonly given a head start in terms of the number of goals. Odds are then offered established at that head start. Many bookmakers deal no draw, handicap match betting, so that there is a definite winner of the game in terms of the bet, irrespective of the actual outcome of the game.
The way that no draw, handicap match betting is set up to be by giving half handicaps to certain teams. What's in this articleBest tips for alternative Handicap BettingWhat does it actually mean?Alternative Handicap Result is the method of predicting the result of the match by. European handicap is basically a 3-way bet, similar to a 1X2 match result bet. That is why it is also found as Single handicap or 3-way handicap.
This makes betting on this match far more interesting as it is harder to correctly predict the outcome of the match. Regardless of the final result, if the European handicap stands at 3 goals, Germany is considered the winner only if they win by four goals or more. Respectively, whoever backs Andorra, will win the bet even if they lose with less than three goals.
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Handicap betting also has something the bookies call no draw handicap betting.’ This model provides for a guaranteed winner by removing the option for a draw, regardless of the final scoreline is. Under the Asian model, you can’t bet on a draw you can only bet on either team winning. If the match ends, your bet on Alaves is won because the final score on the market is Atletico Madrid 2 Alaves However, if the game ends, the scoreline is a tie. Asian handicap odds in football betting on online bookmaker is a good option for bettors.
We explained the detail of Asian handicap system, rules, and we created a chart that you can check your bet result. Asian Handicap Betting Guide - Detail Explained and Results Table.
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Updated1312 The Asian handicap works in exactly the same way as standard or European handicap betting but uses both half points half a goal!
And full points and removes the draw. In general Handicap or spread betting is essentially a way of making a match, where there is an apparent winner, more interesting. Handicap betting means giving or taking round wins to one of the teams involved before the game even starts, making the odds closer and more fun to wager on. So, to confirm a regular handicap bet involves giving or taking advantage to one team, making the game more even. nukoza.com Bonus of First Deposit.
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Draw no bet DNB handicaps The simplest Asian handicap is Draw No Bet DNB. If the match we have chosen ends with a regular draw or a draw considering the handicaps then our stake will be returned to us. If the match ends in a draw we lose half of the bet and the second half will be returned to us. If Schalke wins we lose the whole bet.
Read this guide to Asian handicaps if you want to know more. Handicap betting shows up in all kinds of sports betting.
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Bookmakers give a handicap to a player to level out the match. It’s a good way to bet when a match looks really one-sided but the match winner odds are too low to consider.
If you bet on handicaps, it’s important to count the number of games and not to predict the actual winner of the match. We’ve all heard the term game, set and match, but what does it mean? Well, it’s the scoring strategy of tennis.
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Handicapped betting is an alternative way to bet on certain events. For instance, if a professional m sprinter lined up against the average bloke off the street, you would expect the professional sprinter to win every time. This would be boring to bet on, and you would never get interesting odds. How about if you gave the average bloke a head start? If you’re backing Newcastle, you win the bet if they win or draw the match.
If lose the match by one goal, your stake is refunded. Asian Handicap betting enables punters to bet on the outcome of a football match where one of the teams are given a goal "handicap". Asian Handicap bets cover all kinds of matches, including games that are likely to be close and those where there’s a clear cut winner. They can be traded pre-match, or in-play just like any other sports betting market. Why Were Asian Handicap Markets Created. Betting with Asian handicap is an advantage or backlog of one of the teams in sports game.
Handicap is expressed in adding or removing goals, points, sets.
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If you bet on Qarabag +2 your bet will be winning in case they win the match, gets in a draw or loses by 1 goal.
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Difference between European Handicap and Asian Handicap. There are a couple of significant differences between European Handicap and Asian Handicap AH. In EH you have a draw option which is not the case with AH. This is the reason it is also called 3-way betting you can choose between three possible bets. Handicap betting creates exciting opportunities for the bettor.
There are three sorts of handicap or spread betting in football Handicap Match betting No Draw Handicap Match betting and Handicap League betting. A Handicap Match market may read as MCFC -1 21 Handicap tie -1 94 Norwich +1 Evens. If the result is a win for MCFC, then MCFC win bets win because the handicapped score is.
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How is it better to bet on the handicap with zero in a betting shop? Home 0 means the handicap of hosts with zero. The bet on hosts with a zero handicap will allow a handicapper not to lose money in an event that hosts win or end up in a draw. Going down If hosts lose a match time, period, then a player won’t receive a profit at the bet. The results, and so on won’t allow a tipster not only to win, but even repel money that has been delivered. Asian handicaps are a great option when betting on soccer, and they're easy to understand.
Here's a brief guide to soccer's version of the point spread.
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What Is Asian Handicap Betting? Soccer’s Version of the Point Spread. The Asian Handicap AH is a football betting system which eliminates the possibility of a draw. Therefore, if the result is a draw after the handicap has been applied, the original stake is returned.
For example, in a match between Chelsea and Everton, a bet of AH-1 can be placed on Chelsea. If Chelsea win, after the handicap is applied the result is, and in this instance the bookmaker would return the original stake to the customer.
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Asian handicap betting is something becoming more and more popular with sports gamblers, and this popularity means that more and more sports betting sites are now starting to offer it. If you’ve ever wondered what does Asian handicap mean, this is the page for you. Therefore, if the match ended, Manchester United would be seen as winners. This leaves room for the possibility of a draw though something that can’t happen in the Asian version of this bet type. Soccer betting strategies, meaning of Asian handicap soccer betting, split handicap, level handicap, single handicap, handicap bets, soccer betting tips and.
Meaning of handicap soccer betting.
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Read about the different types of Asian handicap soccer betting that are available. How bettors may use this type of bet. Understanding handicap betting become betting expert. Explanation of handicap soccer betting. Asian handicap soccer betting types.
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Asian handicap bets are both good and bad for betting sites. They help bookmakers minimize risk by balancing the number of bets on each side of the soccer match. But on the other hand, Asian handicap markets are typically low margin offerings that do not contribute as significantly to the gross win as higher vigorish betting options like 1X2 soccer bets. The term Asian handicap was popularized by Joe Smith when he asked an Asian bookmaker, in Indonesia, to provide a translation of hang cheng betting.
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Mention handicaps in betting markets and a glazed expression falls over most people’s face. The term instils fear or bemusement why make it so complicated with minus goals or plus goals? These are just some of the factors to bear in mind when looking for a match for handicap bets. How to Build Your Asian Handicap Accumulator. You’ve got to start with raw data. Once you have that, checking OmegaTipsters is vital.
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Handicap or spread is a type of bet on a sporting event in which the bookmaker gives a theoretically weaker team a point advantage, to equalize the chance of both sides to win. The handicap is calculated before the start of the match, and it is added to the final result. The bookmaker calculates whether there is a win or loss at the stakes. The main features of the handicap A Bettor can make a bet, taking into account the odds - an advantage on pointsgoals.
They are added to the result of the selected command.
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Handicap bets have been invented for a simple reason Betting odds are usually pretty low for a win of the favoured team for matches with a clear favourite and an explicit underdog.
Cup matches of a Bundesliga team versus a lower class team or matches like Germany against Luxemburg would be two examples for clear favourites. Such sports bets are neither very attractive for the bookmaker, nor for the sports bettor.
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Asian Handicap Explained A Guide to Asian Handicap Betting Asian Handicap Calculator Top AH Bookmakers Get Tips for AH Betting. Many seasoned football punters have at some time bet on the handicap markets to increase the odds. Backing the favourite team to win minus one goal or more will certainly pay bigger odds than a straight win. But it is never easy to predict a winning margin with any degree of certainty. This is where Asian Handicap betting comes into its own.
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Handicap betting is used to cancel out the differences in an uneven confrontation by subtracting points or goals from the favourite or by adding them to the outsider. There are two types of handicap betting Traditional handicap. Example of traditional handicap betting. Handicap England Italy rugby match. England starts with a handicap of 25 points.
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A handicap in betting means that the bookmaker has given a virtual advantage to one of the competitors. They are often called Asian handicaps because of the popularity in many Asian countries, but is also known as line betting, the spread or points betting. The main reason for handicapping is that the draw result is eliminated. The team gets half a goal handicap. This means the match including handicap cannot end in a draw. One of the teams will always win with half a goal when handicap is applied.
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Betting with handicap is not only backing the favorites, or expect them to overcome some difficulties. In another example, Chelsea are hosting Hundersfield. The score is in favour of the London side and from what you can see they are satisfied with scoreline. So which is the best football betting handicap strategy for this match?
First of all, in pre-game markets you will find on most betting sites that line for Arsenal at approximately at to In Asian Markets the odds you can find will be slightly better.
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Asian Handicap betting is one of the most popular markets in the last couple of years. This type of betting may look a bit of complex at the first look, but once you understand the rules and how it works, we are assured you are going to love it! It is offering a lot of fun, and usually decision if your bet is winning or losing one is determined by only one goal. You can back the home team to win the match with + Asian Handicap for example.
This means Burnley has the one goal advantage even before the duel started.
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Betting on the Asian Handicaps should lead to a higher strike rate of winning bets. This means shorter losing runs so not such a test of temperament. Given a good system, using the handicap lines will lead to steady bank growth the ROI may not be as high as 1X2 betting, but your bank will not need to be so big.
Achievable Return On Capital figures will be much better, and ultimately this means making more money. Asian Handicap Cons You don’t get the adrenalin rush of the big wins it’s slow and steady wins the race.
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Bet Scorecast Betting Single Bet Spread Betting Starting Price System Bets Teaser Bets Tote Betting Tricast Bet or Trifecta Value Bets Void Bet. There is a good chance that all of you have heard of Asian handicap, but European Handicap is not such a familiar term.
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Handicapping is also integrated into other betting styles such as in-play betting whereby football traders are equipped with the ability to build strong pre-match positions from which to trade. This dynamic element of betting has definitely made the betting market ever more popular. How To Use Handicaps In Sports Betting. A handicap is used for sports that operate on a point-based system.
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Match Handicap is a betting option which is often tricky to understand. We are trying here to explain it as simply as possible. For example, think about a cricket match between Bangladesh vs Pakistan. So Pakistan has a certain edge over Bangladesh as they are playing on their home ground. So Pakistan has more chances to win the match. Match Handicap Betting Guide for Beginners Now the odd provider gives us a Match Handicap option like this Match Handicap.
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What is tennis handicap betting? Handicap bets give an advantage to one player in an event and a disadvantage or handicap to the other. In most events, there is one clear favourite and the handicap can be used to create a more even playing field.
In practice, this allows you to back a player even if you don’t think they will win the match. When the match is finished, the player with the most games after the handicap is applied is the bet winner. The actual result of the game does not matter only who has the most games.
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Asian Handicap, sometimes known as Asian Line Betting or Hang Cheng betting, is a type of spread betting on soccer that originated in Asia. While it is best known for use in football bets, it equally applies to ice hockey and other sports where a draw is a strong possibility. An Asian Handicap involves the setting of a handicap by the bookmaker. A handicap, also known as a line, is typically designed to create close to a 50 chance of winning for each team by adding a predetermined number to the underdog’s goal tally.
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Read the comprehensive Asian Handicap betting guide from Mr Green and find out how Asian Handicap betting works and how you can profit. This is Asian Handicap Betting. Get match bonus up to deposit to get to play with + free spins. Min deposit 20 matched up to max in bonus cash. Wager of 20+ unlocks free spins 5 days of 20 free spins.
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The simple matched betting calculator is where all matched bettors will start out. It's often the most crucial tool for matched bettors and Profit Accumulator members when making money online. It lets us figure out how much to back and lay to make a bet risk-free. The type of bet, back stake, back odds, lay odds and lay commission are factors to let the user know how much to lay, what the liability will and how much profit or loss will be made.
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Arbitrage Betting the same event at separate sports books in order to lock in a profit by taking advantage of different betting lines. Asian Handicap Asian handicaps are, as the name suggests, a special type of handicap betting popular in the Far East and commonly used in football betting. If the handicap is set at or, 1, 1 etc of a goal, then any bets on the match will be settled as a split stakes bet, with half the stake going on the handicap of a goal less than the quote and half on the handicap a of a goal more.
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Today's asian handicap mathematical football predictions and the best odds for those soccer Type minimum 3 characters Show all results for Team League Match Fixtures.
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Explaining Handicap Betting Terminology. Still speaking about the example above, pitting Real Madrid against Almeria from the Spanish top division, Almeria effectively have a advantage for the purposes of the bet before the match begins.
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How to see the list of numbers that come out
Togel Number List – See your luck in playing lottery, a very classic gamble with little capital and generates abundant profits.
For lottery gambling dewatogel bettors, it is certain that knowing the Togel Number List that will come out is the most important thing in their lives. because knowing the list of lottery numbers that will be issued, that is tantamount to providing an open way for the bettors to predict the numbers that will be issued by the bookie. Of course that way, then with as little capital as possible, you can get sizable results from the lottery betting process that you do. Especially now there are so many formulas of lottery predictions that are scattered everywhere. However, not all of these formulas teach bookmakers to see a list of expenses from the lottery numbers.
So from that, if you want to know the list of lottery numbers that will be issued, you should understand some of the formulas that will be distributed below, which will make your chances of being able to win become more wide open. However, remember, that there are so many lottery formulas that you should pay attention to and are usually used to find dead numbers, play numbers, and a number of other numbers related to lottery games. So from that you have to know some formulas related to it. where this time we will share how to get dead head numbers, 2D dead numbers, and formulas for finding dead tails in online lottery or offline lottery games.
To be sure, in searching for the Togel Number List for head numbers die here, you only need to add numbers and numbers that were in US positions for the previous 2 periods. so, for example, Saturday comes out 3799, then Sunday comes out 2121. That means, the AS number for the 2 periods is 3 and also 2. Now, here you just add it up, which is 3 + 2 = 5. From this, it is found that the head number is 5. And it is unlikely that the number will come out on Monday. Meanwhile, if you are looking for numbers for 2D that die, the formula is 100 minus the numbers from 2D that have come out then you add angk 20. So, for example today the number that comes out is 6767, then the 2D number is 36. If you put it in formula, then 100 – 36, the result is 64. Furthermore, 64 + 20 = 84.
So, like that are some ways to see and read the list of numbers that will come out. make sure that you really understand the formula so that later you will really be able to read the lottery numbers that will be issued today, tomorrow, and so on. Of course that way, then your chances to get rich from this game will be even wider open. of course you want the victory to happen for you right? So from that, understand well, and get the results!
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Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Other Stress Tracks
Once you have the basic idea of a stress track, there's a lot of potential for interesting mechanics.
The first item of note is that there is room for other tracks beyond HURT. Exactly what they should be depends a lot on the tone and nature of the game. For example, a TIRED track might be a useful way to handle fatigue, while an UPSET track might be a useful way to handle social "damage". For purposes of my Leverage-esque play, I use the following pools: HURT, TIRED, UPSET and UNCERTAIN[1].
HURT and TIRED are both, hopefully, fairly self explanatory. UPSET may take a little more explanation, but I think it's pretty basic - at its heart, it's the result of all the emotional things that muddy our judgement - anger, hurt, fear, embarrassment and so on. UNCERTAIN, in many games, would probably be folded into UPSET, but for Leverage play (or other intrigue based games) it's a bit more important. It's a result of everything that takes a person's feet out form under them, from a clever deceit to a bit too much liquor.
Other games may use different stress tracks: Smallville, for example, AFRAID, ANGRY, EXHAUSTED, INSECURE and INJURED. Mouseguard's conditions, which are similar, include HUNGRY/THIRSTY, ANGRY, TIRED, INJURED and SICK. Even knowing nothing else about those two games, the comparison of those lists can tell you worlds about the differences between them.
For many game, the simple addition of, effectively, social and mental (and other) "hit points" makes the solution to a great many issues apparent. By offering a path to an outcome (which is what any damage system really is) you are offering support of that particular path.
That said, one clever element of handling stress this way is that in building up from zero, the track doesn't need to exist until you use it. Contrast this to, say, hit points: your hit point value is always on your sheet, a subtle signal that play is going down that particular path. Since stress tracks start from zero, they could just as easily not be on your sheet at all. That means that if you want to experiment with them, it's easy to add or subtract them as needed. Perhaps you have a table that's only comfortable with tracking injury - if you opt to experiment with adding fatigue, it's a non-disruptive addition. Similarly, if you have something you want to track for a single adventure arc, you can add a temporary stress track, like "Enemy Alertness"[2] or "Insanity" to pick two strongly themed options.
Now, themes are all well and good, but the real question any system must face is how useful this mechanic is as a component for constructing rules, systems and other elements of play. Stress tracks are, I think, pretty robust, and we'll delve into some of the things you can do tomorrow.
1 - I had previously called this CONFUSED, but UNCERTAIN seems to get the point across much more clearly.
2 - That would be a great one for the whole group to contribute to over the course of a very precise break in.
1. So, an addition; One idea that is getting thrown around some is that of tying stress tracks to stats. It's got some nice mechanical weight because it automatically indicates when you invoke a particular kind of stress. That is, if the stress is on your strength, it kicks in any time you would roll strength.
It's not a bad model, but it requires really rethinking the stats. A default spread introduces problems with physical stats having a lot of overlap. Having different stress for strength and agility can be very unintuitive, especially if you need to flesh out the details.
There are two possible fixes: the first is to retune the stats so there's no such overlap. This works better with conceptual stats (like the Wits, grace, Force and Resolve from Amber, which could map to Confused, Upset, Hurt and Tired) than with literal ones.
Second, you could group stats together to align them with stress types. That is to say, stress does not need to be a 1:1 match with the stats. HURT might be tied to both strength and agility (while Tired is tied purely to endurance). It's not quite as elegant, but it is probably the easiest way to reverse-engineer the idea onto an existing stat list.
-Rob D.
2. I was running into the same thing yesterday when looking at the Leverage stats- though I'm not sure I'd bother with stress in pure Leverage. It would depend on the type of game I'm running (like if I wanted to run a version of it that more heavily involved gunplay)
However, this all slides together quick nicely for D&D style: the 6 stats, 4 roles, and on top of that, a list of conditions with combat game effects that could tie nicely.
3. I can't see a way to use the 4 D&D roles very well, since they're not really clear to me when to use them.
I do like the Wits/Grace/Force/Resolve, 7th Sea had something like that list as well. I commented on yesterday's post expanding on Reverence Pavane's idea of stress decreasing stat die size, increasing likelihood of compliations.
4. @Atminn The idea of reducing the stats is mechanically totally doable, but it's something I would avoid for cinematic reasons: I don't want to make characters less likely to succeed, because then they're less likely to act, which leads to boredom.
For a more realistic or gritty game, I'd probably consider it, but for cinematic play, it's easier to add a d4 (maybe several) to reflect injuries or other problems. Increases the odds of a a complication, but characters can still be active.
5. Pure Leverage was designed to emulate the show, which is why it doesn't have specific set tracks; very rarely on the show are people killed or horribly maimed, and when people are injured it's a temporary plot device (aka Complication).
Smallville on the other hand features consistent evidence of people harming others in various ways, emotionally as well as physically, but then again it all goes away fairly rapidly. Spend time in a hospital bed and then you're fine. A pat on the back and a heart-to-heart and you feel better.
The first question, then, is when you're hacking a game like Leverage or Smallville is whether you want to build these into the play experience or not, and if so, how it effects the dynamic.
6. "...you can add a temporary stress track, like 'Enemy Alertness'...."
Which of course loops back to core Leverage, which uses Complications to accomplish the same thing. I seem to recall the main book, or perhaps the Quickstart Job using "Alert Guards" or something similar was an example of a growing Complication.
I'm enjoying your posts on the Stress Tracks and the Leverage RPG in general. Leverage is my current RPG crush. Your posts remind me that I have the Smallville PDF and really should get around to reading it, since I keep hearing so much good about it!
7. @alen Precisely. This speaks to the same thing that Dave talks about - the real virtue of stress is that it's really just a particular flavor of assets/complications/etc.
8. I started reading this post and thought "Unknown Armies Madness meters". Must continue to read to determine if the tech is here.
9. @Seth You could totally tweak this model to do madness and hardening, no problem.
10. @Seth as an example, let's use the rule of "if you're carrying stress, you add a d4 to you rolls" then modify it so that if your current level of stress is below your hardened level for that stress, you don't pick up the D4.
To see if you harden, when you recover from stress, roll a die equal to the highest level of stress you took, as well as one die of each smaller size. If the biggest die rolls highest, increase your hard for that stress by one step.
Hardening can ALSO get rolled against you (like stress can) but in very different situations.
Removing hardening takes therapy. Lots of Therapy. :)
11. I think one Stress track that would be good for games fairly close to Leverage would be "Overconfidence": it's a pretty common point of the show to build up the villain's belief in them having the upperhand, then use that cockiness against them as you pull the rug out from under their feet with a couple of big Flashback reveals...
12. @Rob I would like to clarify the concept of multiple d4s as Stress: if I inflict stress on your character's Strength he now hs his die +1d4 and I can continue to inflict Stress the d4 pool continues to grow in number. Such that after three inflicted Stress I could be rolling 1d10+3D4.
In this model, how would one be stressed out? Would it happen once you had enought d4s to cover the Attribute's die type steps? (so 4 in the case of a d10) or just once you hit a set number or if the total on d4s is higher than the Attribute (thus giving them the chance to produce 1s and if rolled too high take you out)
13. @Dave Ok, so the simplest mole is this: If you are carrying any stress (whether d4, d10 or anything else) and you do something that stress would effect, then two things happen:
1) Your opponent (probably the GM) adds your stress die to his pool.
2) You add a d4 to your pool.
Now, that's pretty simple, but an inverted method would be to simply add a d4 to your pool for every step of stress (1 at d4, 2 at d6, 3 at d8 and so on). In this case, "taken out" still occours when the amount of stress you take (measured as steps) exceeds your highest die (or, if you're being more fiddly, the appropriate stat die).
Make sense?
14. I am really digging that idea. I plan on running ShadowLeverage after the holiday and I will be using that as the way to handle stress (I will just hand out colored tokens to players so they know how many d4s they will need roll additional for different types of actions).
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The Future of Web Hosting
The Beginning
It is common knowledge that one needs a server to host a website, however, this proved to be a major problem in the early days of the Internet. Not many people had computers, which meant that owning a single server just for your website would be an expensive venture. It was out of this conundrum that the web hosting industry emerged.
The numbers associated with the very first web hosting companies’ verged on the absurd, with some companies offering just 35 KB of space at an excessive price! This made the prospect of creating a website unappealing, however, the emergence of e-commerce and the subsequent demand it created for web hosts ultimately launched the industry. More and more web host providers began to offer their services, which drove down the price and ultimately forced existing hosts to offer more space in order to stay competitive. This increased competitiveness in the industry played a fundamental role in launching the Internet revolution.
The web hosting industry has grown exponentially and is today a multibillion-dollar industry that is still growing, as more and more people, especially among the developing world, require a host. The web host industry has therefore started to make moves into the developing world as evidenced by the web host GoDaddy’s aggressive expansion into Latin America in early 2014. However, the technology involved in web hosting is changing just as rapidly. Which begs the question, “where exactly is the web hosting industry heading?
Cloud Hosting
Cloud hosting is undoubtedly the future of the web hosting industry as the demand for it begins to outstrip traditional shared server hosting, which has started to become outdated. The scalability constraints and general inefficiency of shared hosting, for example, means you are paying for a set amount of space on a web hosting company’s server, even if you don’t use all of your allotted space. Conversely, due to the scalability issues, if you do need more space it is very hard to leverage from your web host. Thus, the web hosting industry has begun a general shift towards cloud hosting.
The term ‘Cloud hosting’ is characterised by resources distributed over a number of different servers, in differing physical locations, which are connected through the Internet. Cloud hosting, just as web hosting did in its early days, is growing at an exponential rate. The overall worth of cloud hosting in 2010 was $37 billion but is expected to reach a valuation of $121 billion in 2015.
As the web hosting industry begins to embrace this platform, cloud technology is expected to improve with it. The future of cloud hosting should bear witness to a further detachment of software from hardware and a considerable decrease in costs as the technology becomes more streamlined, more accessible and more commonplace. This decrease in price will allow most small businesses to utilise the technology and the perks that go with it, paying only for what they use.
Without doubt, the web hosting industry is in the midst of something akin to a revolution and this accelerated shift to cloud hosting should benefit all involved, especially small businesses.
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Mathematically aren't you more likely to win 10 million on blackjack than on the lottery?
Even if you were to start with 4 dollars, you have betters working your way up to a million than winning the lottery
5 Answers
• 12 months ago
Favourite answer
There is no "the lottery" but I'll talk about the one I know about without googling, the Powerball. Its grand prize has a chance of 1 in 292mil and it has some smaller prizes. The 2nd prize is 1mil with a chance of 1 in 11.7 mil so it's irrelevant (the 2nd prize doesn't help you because even if you bought many tickets, there is essentially zero chance of winning the 2nd prize ten times.). $4 buys you 2 tickets so your chance of winning 10mil is 1 in 146mil (though you'd win much more than 10mil).
Now to blackjack. Assuming you only played basic strategy and didn't count cards, your chance of winning 10 million in blackjack would be even worse than the Powerball unless you could request a table limit of 400k or not far from it.
The table limits are key because your chances would be maximized by wagering as much as possible in an attempt to reach your target in as few hands as possible. Without table limits your chance would be in the order of 1 in 13 million, but in reality there are limits which would severely hurt your chances.
We can get a ballpark estimate of your chance by treating each hand like a 46.36% coinflip (no splits, doubles, blackjacks or pushes). With a 400k max wager you'd want to go all-in until $525288, then start betting 400k each hand. This would give you a chance of .4636^17 * [1 - (5364/4636)] / [1 - (5634/4636)^25] = 1 in 113 million. (I can explain this calculation if a geek reading this is interested.)
But a max wager of 100k would reduce your chance to 1 in 1.4 trillion!
I don't know how realistic it would be for you to be granted a larger wager than 100k. If you told them your plan was to turn $4 into 10mil in as few hands as possible starting with a freshly shuffled shoe, they might grant you more freedom than a typical player. I'm guessing the largest limits are to be found in Macau.
• Anonymous
9 months ago
Do not go to these sites. They will steal your credit card information.
• Commenter avatarLog in to reply to the answers
• 12 months ago
Yes, if you are willing to learn optimal play (including picking optimal places to play) and you are willing to spend a lot of time playing blackjack, and assuming you start with the same amount of money.
The odds are still low enough that anyone attempting to win million(s) at blackjack should recognize failure is almost inevitable.
• Commenter avatarLog in to reply to the answers
• 12 months ago
Mathematically, the odds are about the same for both. 0%.
• Commenter avatarLog in to reply to the answers
• 12 months ago
I’m not trying too
• Commenter avatarLog in to reply to the answers
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The dead end of 70s childrearing
People often raise their children with ideals that they don’t really hold themselves, either because they on some level think they would be better people if they shared these ideals and hope their children will be better (tolerance, patience), or because they think these ideals are particularly appropriate to this stage of life (sharing, studiousness, Santa Claus). But I’ve been realising that some of what I learned as I child — at home, at school, and from the general culture
I genuinely found it weird that Barack Obama was attacked for harboring a secret “anti-colonialist” agenda (inherited from his father’s experience fighting the British for Kenyan independence. If I’d had to say what the core historical experience was that Americans harked back to, that defined our national identity, that we could agree upon, it was the history as colonials fighting for independence. The people opposing Obama dressed up in colonial-era costumes, harked back to the Boston Tea Party, striking a blow against the imperial power. Continue reading “The dead end of 70s childrearing”
Slow travel
After plunging UK travel into chaos, British Airways CEO Alex Cruz announced that he will not resign. And why should he? BA needs his bold leadership now more than ever. In the spirit of not letting a crisis go to waste and no such thing as bad publicity and there’s no platitude like business platitudes, I’m expecting him to announce that this was actually a successful promotion for BA’s new motto: Slow Travel©.
Imagine the scene: First a harried woman being yelled at by her boss, forced to rush through some task, papers dropping every which way. Voiceover: Your work life can be pretty stressful. Rushing all the time.
Cut to: Same woman with her family, rushing through an airport, trying to catch a flight to Disney World or Mallorca. Boarding closed, children in tears. Voiceover: You don’t need the same stress on your holidays.
Cut to: Another family happily strolling through the duty-free selection. Voiceover: When you fly with British Airways, our international team of IT experts will make sure that you have untold hours to browse through the world-class shopping attractions of Heathrow… Maybe even days!Heathrow stay-and-playCut to: Happy children playing in the Terminal 2 play structure. Voiceover: Joyful moments like this can’t be rushed!
Cut to: Passengers sleeping on the floor and seats in the terminal. Voiceover: Travel means taking the time to get close to new people.
Cut to: Alex Cruz saying “Slow travel. Because Bland Acquiesence is what BA is all about!”
Montaigne on random controlled experiments
Electric guillotines
Just reading The Vanquished, Robert Gerwarth’s history of the violence that followed the ostensible end of the First World War. He has this to say about the atrocity rumours that circulated about the Bolsheviks:
Although the reality of the civil war was so terrible that it hardly needed any embellishment, fantastical stories about Lenin’s regime flourished and drifted westwards: of a social order turned upside down, of a never-ending cycle of atrocities and retribution amid moral collapse in what had previously been one of the Great Powers of Europe. Several American newspapers reported that the Bolsheviks had introduced an electrically operated guillotine in Petrograd designed to decapitate 500 prisoners an hour… The Bolsheviks, or so it was suggested [in the British press], had ‘nationalized middle- and upper-class women, who might now be raped at will by any member of the proletariat. Orthodox churches had been turned into brothels in which aristocratic women were forced to offer sexual services to ordinary workers. Chinese executioners had been recruited by the Bolsheviks for their knowledge of ancient oriental torture techniques, while inmates in the infamous Cheka prisons had their heads stuck into cages filled with hungry rats in order to extort information.
It seems that there are three things that escalate the ordinary horror of despotic violence into extraordinary horror, all of which are touched upon here:
1. Violation of the natural order, particularly of a sexual nature.
2. Upwelling of arcane, precivilised, non-European presumptively diabolic culture.
3. Abuse of modern technological means toward barbaric ends.
I’m particularly fascinated by the last, represented by the “electrically operated guillotines”, which prefigure the genuine industrialised slaughter of the Holocaust. More than the scale of the killing — which could be achieved by other means — it is the industrial precision that unsettles people, and makes the Holocaust unique. Or, perhaps better said, makes us want to see it as unique.
It’s hard to disentangle these feelings about the Holocaust, which is what makes the electric guillotines so useful: It’s not that this would have been all that exceptional, to kill 500 prisoners in an hour, and you wouldn’t need anything as unusual as an electrically operated guillotine. (It’s not even clear to me how electricity would accelerate a guillotine significantly.) But the combination of electricity, then the prime symbol of modernisation, with mass execution, was shocking. | <urn:uuid:47259d0d-995b-41ef-92f8-58cc86736491> | https://commoninfirmities.com/tag/modernity/ | en | 0.862966 | 0.03007 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
10 Radical 90’s Movies That Captured The Decade
O 1990’s America, where art thou? This fantastic decade–the last of the American Century that seemed to find the country at the height of its powers economically, socially, and politically–can easily be considered a high watermark in American history. With a booming economy, a culture that was dominating the world through its film and musical output, and largely a decade of peace and plenty, it’s no surprise that Americans who lived through this era, and especially those who came of age then, have such a strong nostalgia for the 1990’s.
Youth culture of this decade was largely defined by the “slacker” mentality that was exemplified by grunge music, casual styles that mixed rock and hippy aesthetics, and an attitude of extreme indifference characterized by sarcasm and irony. Of course, only those who lived in such material comfort and opulence as the American youth of the 90’s could afford to hold this sort of pose: in stark contrast, it seems active engagement and ferocity of voicing one’s beliefs has become the trademark of the leaner, meaner 21st century and its youth in America.
These sorts of attitudes also belies a certain naivete. The 90’s, after all, was the last decade before the internet as we know it today took over as the de facto media and news outlet, its polyphonic approach to disseminating information a sharp contrast to the narrow channels of cultural output that were available to the youth of the 90’s. Outside of the burgeoning internet, which was far too slow and obscure to be relied upon, there were radio stations, limited cable channels, and physical media outlets (VHS, CDs, magazines, and newspapers) that comprised all of media. It was the last great gasp of (at least the illusion of) innocence any generation could claim before the unwieldy, unstoppable future swept everyone up into the endless barrage of information that now batters everyone’s senses 24/7 in modern times.
It was a decade largely dedicated to celebration. Even the doom-and-gloom facade of its edgier components were reflective of an increasingly open culture that was allowing previously transgressive elements to share and produce its output into popular culture. Besides, it was easy to claim that life sucked when, in fact, life was pretty easy; it’s only when life actually sucks that nobody wants to hear about it. With that in mind, let’s look back at 10 movies produced in the 90’s that exemplify the sorts of attitudes, aesthetics, and conventions that could have only existed in the late, great 1990s.
Slacker (1990)
Richard Linklater’s first full-length feature film practically defined the decade just as it began with his seminal film Slacker. A relatively plotless film, instead it’s a slice-of-life movie that features vignettes of various young characters and bohemians whiling away their lives in Austin, Texas. Never staying with one character for too long, instead the camera picks up and moves on to the next scenario every few minutes, creating an interesting look at a group of pop-culture obsessed, navel-gazing indie Gen Xers.
On a meta level, Linklater’s film also represented a new wave of indie filmmaking, one where a tenacious would-be director said nuts to the studios, I’ll scrape together some money and make my movie on my own terms! And he did just that: made for just $20,000, Slacker was a gigantic arthouse hit, with Linklater’s trademark wandering-eye style and laid-back approach serving him well in later projects. Seemingly codifying the very idea of what a “slacker” is, Slacker kick-started what would become the dominant attitude and perspective among young people in the 1990s.
Singles (1992)
Although not as gritty or authentic as Linklater’s Slacker, Cameron Crowe’s Singles similarly focused in on a group of 20-somethings living in Seattle in the same apartment block at the height of the grunge era. Characters include Janet (Bridget Fonda), a coffee bar waitress that’s hopelessly in love with Cliff (Matt Dillon), the leader of a grunge band, and other assorted Gen X types faltering in their love lives. With the grunge scene as backdrop and shot on location in the now-famous city that started the Seattle Sound, Singles was made at just the right moment in time to capture the feel and look of the era. With numerous cameos by famous grunge artists–including members of Pearl Jam as Cliff’s backing band–and a soundtrack crammed with grunge bands, including Soundgarden, Alice in Chains, Mudhoney, Screaming Trees, and Pearl Jam, Singles is a streamlined introduction to early 1990s style, Gen X attitude, and especially music.
Reality Bites (1994)
A sort of companion piece to Singles, Ben Stiller’s Reality Bites is often cited as a good example of aspects of 1990’s Gen X attitude and culture that tends to infuriate modern-day audiences. For example: the (mostly) college-educated 20-somethings that populate the film continuously harp on how they’re so bored and don’t like their jobs, finding them below their haughty aspirations (despite rejecting any idea of compromise or negotiation with other parties to attain said aspirations). One example of this is how aspiring documentarian Lelaina (Winona Ryder) has snagged a job as a production assistant at a network and even gets to the point where a project she’s pitching is cut together as a teaser pilot to show executives. But she doesn’t like the cut and finds that it compromises her “artistic vision,” so she leaves in a huff instead.
Guess how many opportunities like that are awaiting aspiring artists just out of college in 2017? If you said none, congratulations! There’s just one example of how this movie tends to get on people’s nerves in the present day. Similarly, the character of Troy (Ethan Hawke) infuriates some because he often comes across as a spoiled, whiny narcissist who thinks he’s better than everybody else, often going out of his way to condescend to people. Meanwhile, he can’t hold a job and professes himself a musician even though his music sucks. Ironically, modern audiences would probably relate to Michael–Ben Stiller’s yuppie character–more, even though he’s set up to be the “bad guy” in the movie, as he’s shown to be a hard-working, ambitious straight-shooter that’s actually trying to get something accomplished in his life.
Still, there is something to say about Reality Bites: it may be infuriating, but it does capture the entitled, narcissistic attitude of many Gen Xers at the time, kicking against a conformity that in just a few years would be scattered to the winds and bitching about jobs that most young people would sell their souls for today. Let’s call it a good example of the bad side of the 90’s.
Clerks (1994)
And then there’s the fourth option of Gen X slacker representation in American cinema with 1994’s Clerks. Unlike the slightly glamorous lives of the characters in Singles or the spoiled brats of Reality Bites, Clerks presented a much more realistic look at what being a slacker gets you in life–mainly, working behind a convenience store counter and being the universe’s punching bag. At least, that’s Dante’s experience: having eschewed going to college, instead Dante is an on-call wage slave at a local convenience store in his home town, often the butt of jokes and at the receiving end of abuse from former classmates and strangers that file through the store over the course of one day. Much closer to the “slacker” stereotype is Randall, Dante’s best friend who works at the video store next door. Unlike Dante, Randall curses out customers that annoy him, barely does his job, and has a flippant attitude towards nearly everybody and everything. Capping this off are Jay and Silent Bob, two drug dealers who peddle their wares just outside the convenience store and occasionally interlude on the narrative.
Inspired by learning that Linklater spent only $21,000 to make a full-length feature on his own, Kevin Smith took out loans, maxed out credit cards, and begged his family and friends for money to make his first low-budget film, succeeding handily with $24,000. Smith’s Clerks captures the more humdrum existence of low-level young workers whose slacking has trapped them in a frustrating pattern in life, which makes them end up resenting the customers, their job, their friends, and even themselves. It’s the dark side of the 90’s attitude, and it’s scathing. Of course, Clerks would end up inspiring a whole generation to try their hand at filmmaking–to mixed results–but ironically the vocabulary, naturalistic dialogue, and small-scale scope of the film would end up being highly influential and even a signifier of 90’s film grammar.
Wayne’s World (1992)
In a strange reversal, Wayne’s World doesn’t particularly reflect 90’s American culture as much as it helped define 90’s American culture. Indeed, the music Wayne (Mike Myers) and Garth (Dana Carvey) listen to isn’t grunge but 70’s rock and roll; they don’t seem particularly hip to the current culture but instead live in a sideways town of Aurora, Illinois; although Wayne lives at home with his parents, he seems to have at least some ambition–mainly hosting his own public access talk show, the titular “Wayne’s World.”
But it was–again–the attitude that the film transmits that makes it such a 90’s film. In particular, its comedic style: silly, meta, ironic, self-aware, and cheeky. It was also a meme machine of its day: after all, how many people spent the decade saying “NOT!” as an interjection? Or “schwing!”? Chalk that up to Myers and Bonny and Terry Turner’s script, which often comments upon how what we’re watching is just a movie. The Turners would write more signature 90’s comedies in the same vein, particularly The Brady Bunch Movie, which is as self-reflexive and meta as a film can get. Although it seems Wayne and Garth were living in another decade–if not another reality–entirely, Wayne’s World’s casual approach to comedy became another signature stylistic of American comedies from the decade.
Clueless (1995)
Clueless was the sort of slacker flipside to the 90’s: while there were characters that embraced the grunge aesthetic in the film, this was (like it was for so many that adopted this look) simply a pose–after all, almost all of the characters in the film were fabulously wealthy. In many ways, the 90’s in America never truly shed the go-go capitalist ambitions and want for material wealth but simply hid them behind dressed-down fashions and prickly attitudes. This is the same decade that brought Beverly Hills, 90210 great success, after all: American kids never stopped pretending they wanted to be wealthy–they simply scoffed at the idea while secretly wishing all their materialist dreams would come true.
Clueless confronts this idea head-on in a way that would come to anticipate the more naked ambition and cleaned-up pop aesthetic that would come to dominate the second half of the decade in youth culture, where MTV went from playing Nirvana and Soundgarden videos to reverting back to pre-fab boy bands and slickly made rap videos where the artist would sing about how hungry they are for money (or conversely, boasting of how much money they have). The main character of Clueless is uber-wealthy Cher Horowitz: attractive, popular, and somewhat shallow, Cher lives her life in mansions and on Rodeo Drive and attends to the romantic lives of the people around her, unaware of the potential havoc she’s causing while fumbling towards her own romantic resolution. In case you haven’t picked up on it yet, Clueless is Jane Austen’s Emma updated to the 1990s.
But what this film captures–and transmits–is the style of the 1990s, particularly the teen set, which have never been uniform in their styles. You have jocks, artsy types, the popular and vain, and just middle-of-the-road types–and in this film, their styles are all captured rather immaculately. As all films, in one way or another, are time capsules of the era they’re produced, Clueless reflects the larger mainstream zeitgeist if the 90’s in style, aesthetics, and preoccupation with the trivial. Its attitude, visual style, and humor would be influential in comedies–both television and film–for the rest of the decade, and director Amy Heckerling, who had previously directed the “capturing the 80s” teen comedy Fast Times at Ridgemont High, would go on to create a television series inspired by the film.
PCU (1994)
What other genre but comedy is so adept at exposing the absurdities within a culture? While in just a few short decades the 21st century has seen some incredible leaps in social progress, newfound online extreme movements that have splintered into a thousand intense subcultures, each with their own concern to promote (and some holding severe viewpoints on particular social topics) has left some confused as to the intent and purpose of said causes. After all, specificity can be the death of movements, particularly when others that ostensibly agree with your base perspective cannot follow a movement down an increasingly narrow path.
Such is the thesis statement–of sorts–of PCU, a throwback raunchy college comedy released in 1994. Lampooning political correctness on college campuses–a concept that was then relatively new in the American collective conscious–PCU takes potshots at every political cause and niche group: feminists, conservatives, gay activists, black power groups, everyone’s fair game in this film. Following the lead of Droz (Jeremy Piven), who runs an unruly group that has rejected political correctness in favor of having fun, PCU follows a day filled with various groups pitted against each other, the conservatives (led by David Spade) playing lackey to the duplicitous college president (Jessica Walters), and of course the often-stoned bohemians attempting to pull together one giant kegger at their house.
More than just making fun of political correctness, however, PCU manages–unintentionally–to capture the look and spirit of the early 90’s college scene, with student activists and grungy partiers mixing together and creating comedy that would most likely be seen as distasteful in modern times. It’s another time capsule movie that preserved the attitudes and styles of the 1990s in comedy–one where political correctness could be made fun of instead of any criticism taken as a mark of fascism.
Mallrats (1995)
Kevin Smith got a lot of mileage out of 90’s culture, and his appearance twice on this list shows how much he had to do with distilling the image and style of the 90’s on-screen. Mallrats continues the tradition that Clerks started in depicting 20-something slackers and their mundane daily lives, following the misadventures of T.S. Quint (Jeremy London) and Brodie (Jason Lee, who steals the movie), two young men who had just been thrown over by their significant others and seek solace at the local mall.
The comedy aside–which is typically of the sarcastic and silly vein–the entire setup of Mallrats is a typical 90’s one, taking placeover one long day at one location, this time a mall, where the potential to satirize suburban and commercial culture intersect. Its soundtrack is similarly pure 90’s, populated by Bush, Weezer, Archers of Loaf, Elastica, Sponge, Silverchair, and any other group you’ll expect to see on a nostalgia tour that will surely be coming your way within the next decade. Youth culture dominated the 90’s, and Gen Xers were front and center at setting the tone of films aimed at the youth demographic. Mallrats has the aesthetic, story line, characters, soundtrack, and comedic style that was made popular in this slacker-dominated era, and as such is greatly representative of what the middle of the decade–not quite out of grunge but moving towards a more pop sensibility–looked and felt like for many.
Empire Records (1995)
Empire Records may be the most 90’s of all 90’s movies. It could serve as the blueprint to build a virtual realm of what the 1990’s looked, sounded, and felt like in American pop culture. And that realm would itself be a long-lost relic from the decade: a record store. This coming-of-age film is set in a record store (the titular Empire Records) and centers on a group of young employees who are facing various crises in their lives, the owner of the record store, who’s facing going under and being absorbed by a big record chain, and an 80’s pop idol that’s doing an in-store appearance that day.
Following the extremely popular “day in the life” format of 90’s films, this film is a mini-soap opera, with each character facing their own challenges, of which are revealed and faced over the course of the film like some sort of The Breakfast Club only instead of detention they get to hang out in a cool record store.
Again, fashions and attitudes are central at what make this film so very 90’s: everyone looks like they’re dressed for a commercial promoting “I Love The 90’s,” And in true 90’s fashion, it had its cake and ate it too: although there are troubled and disadvantaged characters, they’re contextualized in a comfy suburban dream; while the characters rail against corporations and “the man” (“Damn the man!”), any sort of action against the encroaching corporatization is solved through capitalistic self-interest; the problems characters have, such as promiscuity due to insecurity, suicidal urges, and amphetamine addiction, are tied up in a neat little package after a few heart-to-heart talks; and in general its supposed angst is covered up by bright visuals, catchy pop tunes, and a happy ending. The entire film is one cheesy love letter to the 90’s from the 90’s, and it’s perhaps the best encapsulation of the decade from an American pop perspective.
Fight Club (1999)
At the end of the 90’s, the frothy cheer of the decade began to curdle, particularly among its adolescents who were coming of age at the time. A generation began to rebel against the manufactured, safe version of rebellion that was produced by the mainstream media where listening to “angsty” music was married to conforming to a consumer ideal. As Nirvana t-shirts flew off the racks and bedrooms were decorated with Marilyn Manson posters, the youth that spent their teenage years in the 90’s began to catch on that it was mostly just good marketing that was selling a comfy version of “teen angst” to them. This became evident as the decade wore on and bands became smarter at marketing themselves: groups like Garbage and Elastica were slickly produced and coordinated efforts by music industry insiders that knew exactly how to package a sound and image to a demographic; music began once again to slide towards the shiny sounds of pre-fab over-produced pop music; and what was once considered “edgy” had its edges smoothed off to retain the aesthetic–but no longer the ethos–of what hard rock and grunge music earlier in the decade represented.
In a larger sense, young men began to grow more than a little weary of the extremely comfortable, pre-planned consumer life that seemed to be programmed for them to follow. A crisis of identity began to foment, however quietly, within a generation: was life just going to be this easy? If so, where’s the challenge in that?
It seems ridiculously stupid, in hindsight, that this was a problem anyone would have worried about, but such is the benefit of hindsight: if we knew then what a hard, rocky road the 21st century was going to be, we would have worshipped the time period when it seemed like it was going to be smooth sailing forever. Instead, books and films began to be produced that commented on the too-comfortable life of the middle-class and protagonists that wished to break out of its normatives. Perhaps the most memorable of these–and the one that most succinctly gave voice to the concerns that we were becoming over-complacent in the American Dream–was 1999’s Fight Club.
The film is notable for a number of reasons: coming at the end of the decade, it served as a sour commentary on the capping of the American Century as a whole; like American Beauty, which was released the same year, its criticism of American capitalism and its production of generations of consumers within its safe parameters was one many young people held but weren’t sure how to articulate; and it was a mainstream film that seemed to directly advocate for violent revolution against the status quo in America.
Again: if only we would be so lucky to live in the sort of economic paradigm as the 1990’s in America today. However, in many ways what Fight Club anticipated came to pass in the form of the terror attacks of 9/11. Suddenly, the rug was pulled out from under the status quo and with this the more comfortable assumptions that made people complacent and staid; the events of the following decade, in which war broke out across the globe, terrorism rose to unprecedented levels, and the very security that was once seen as boring in America was shaken. With the recent rise of radical left-wing groups in the country and an increasing disharmony within US society, we may well be witnessing the very beginnings of the anarchist state Fight Club envisioned.
Fight Club is a 90’s film in the way it serves as a closing curtain on the idealism and prosperity of the decade, and on the American Century as a whole, anticipating a darker immediate future where the fundamental assumptions that largely made the 1980s and 1990s such comfortable, prosperous decades in America would soon be shaken, and with it the cozy claims that capitalism and materialism could make one whole.
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The Search for Terry Brown
“Miss Brown is doing quite well, all things considered.” Doctor Abram’s voice was professionally reassuring. “Of course, a broken hip at ninety three is quite serious. I know you two are responsible for her being here. How are you related to her?”
Bobby and Julie looked at each other. “We aren’t,” Bobby answered. “She’s our tenant.”
“I got into the habit of checking on her every day,” Julie said. “When I went over this morning I heard her calling for help. I went in and found her crumpled on the floor. She knew exactly where her insurance card was and what hospital she wanted to be taken to. All I had to do was call 911.”
“Well bless her heart and bless yours too. You guys have done a great job. But now we need to get in touch with her family.”
Bobby and Julie looked at each other again. “We don’t know anything about her family,” Bobby said.
“She didn’t like questions,” Julie said. “Most old people like to talk about the past, but Miss Brown never did. There might be a brother…but I wouldn’t know how to get in touch with him…”
Terry Brown had brought almost nothing of herself into the small apartment. There were no knickknacks, no vases, no cushions or scarves. No pictures. There was one photograph on an end table. It was of two men, and one bore a strong resemblance to Miss Brown. Julia was curious about it, but hadn’t quite dared to ask this very reserved old woman. If that was a brother he’d probably be eighty or ninety by now…he might be dead…
“The thing is,” Dr. Abram was saying, “we need a responsible party. Mrs. Brown will be in the hospital for another two to three weeks, depending on how her healing progresses. Then she’ll be in a rehabilitation center for at least three weeks more. When she goes home she’ll have to have someone with her until she’s stable enough to be on her own.” He looked meaningfully at Julie.
Oh no, Julie thought. Not me. She was fond enough of Miss Brown, but had no wish to become a nursemaid. The doctor’s next words reassured her. “She has insurance enough to cover all her bills and pay a companion to stay with her as long as needed. The problem is that an emergency might come up; the hospital might need a signature—and she refuses to tell us anything.”
Julie spread her hands. “I can’t help you.”
“Well…we’ll hope nothing happens.”
But it did. With no warning at all, between beat and the next, Terry Brown’s heart gave out. There was no one to notify, and only one thing Julie could do. She went into the apartment and began a thorough search. Nothing in the kitchen, of course, except dishes, pots and pans, etc. A phone directory, a few books in the living room. Nothing personal.
The bedroom held three pieces of furniture: a bed, a desk with a computer, and a dresser. The computer, of course, was password protected. Julie supposed an expert could get into it, but she thought the files would be as blank as the rest of Terry Brown’s life. The desk held paper, an assortment of pens and pencils, ink cartridges. Very plain underwear filled the dresser drawers, but in the bottom, under some wool socks, was a flat, locked box.
With a pair of pliers Julie soon opened the cheap lock. Inside were two pieces of paper. One was a will—obviously hand drawn, but it looked legal enough. All Terry Brown’s assets were to be left to the Oakhill Animal Shelter. It was correctly witnessed and dated, though she could not read the signatures. The other paper was prearrangement with Crestview Funeral Home. All expenses had been paid, and the hospital could now release her body. This would make Dr. Abram very happy.
The box also contained a small picture album, and, though everything seemed taken care of, Julie began to leaf through it just to satisfy her own curiosity. The first page contained pictures of a young couple and a baby. She wondered if that could be Terry Brown and her parents. As she turned pages the baby grew older but turned out to be a boy. Could this be the brother then? Why no pictures of Terry? And why weren’t there any names?
The boy began to look more and more like the picture in the living room. She matched them up. Yes—those faces were the same. Then there was a graduation picture—and then there were no more. Julie really believed that the young man in the photo album was Terry Brown’s brother—but she had no way of following that lead. Then a folded piece of paper dropped from the last page.
It was a letter. Hoping for a possible clue, Julie began to read. Dear Terry, Please know that I will always love you, no matter what. A love letter! Somehow Julie had never thought of love in connection with Miss Brown. She read on. The day we met was the sweetest day of my life. The memory will stay in my heart, like a jewel, forever. Julie wrinkled her nose. Corny! But kind of sweet…I don’t know why you’ve chosen to change your life like this, but it’s your decision, and I have to respect it. Of course, it means the end of us. It sounded as if Terry Brown got married…but that never happened. No day in my life will go by that I don’t think of you and what we were to each other, and what you’ll always be to me. D.
That was it. A single piece of paper with no address or date. And why was there no picture of this man? Julie put it back into the album and put them both back into the box. They’d raised more questions than they answered. She took the will and the funeral prearrangement to the hospital administrative office, ready to turn over the responsibility to someone else. She’d done all she could.
On her way out of the hospital Julie ran into Dr. Abram. “I think I owe you the truth,” he said. “I couldn’t tell you before, because I had to respect the-er-lady’s privacy. Now it makes no difference. Our first examination revealed that Terry Brown was a man.”
It all fell into place. Those pictures hadn’t been of Terry Brown’s brother but of Terry Brown. And the letter hadn’t been from her lover but his. The picture in the living room had been of the one who promised love no matter what…
“That explains a lot of things,” she told Dr. Abram.
In fact, she thought, that explains everything.
About Lela Marie De La Garza
Lela Marie De La Garza has had work published in Behind Closed Doors, Pound of Flash, ChickLit, Daily Romance, and Creepy Gnome. She was born in Denver, CO. in 1943 while her father was serving in WWII. She currently resides in San Antonio, TX. with two cats, a kitten, and a visiting raccoon.
>> Lela Marie De La Garza's author page
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Local News
Meghan and Harry ‘quietly meeting’ with key players around Black Lives Matter
Meghan Markle and Prince Harry have been "quietly having meetings" with people linked to the Black Lives Matter movement after the death of George Floyd.
The Duke and Duchess of Sussex have been speaking to different organisations and individuals to further educate themselves about racial injustices in the world and make sure they better understand what is currently happening.
According to Bazaar magazine, they also hope to further understand "the issues of police brutality" after black American George Floyd was killed by a white police officer in Minneapolis, Minnesota.
"Both Meghan and Harry have been quietly having meetings behind the scenes with people on all levels to make sure that they are educated and connected to the issues of police brutality and the Black Lives Matter movement," reported Bazaar.
A source told the magazine: "Harry and Meghan have been having private conversations with community leaders and people at every level.
"By speaking to as many people and organizations as possible, it has been a way for them to feel connected to everything that's going on and learn more about the issues surrounding it."
This comes after Meghan gave her own heartfelt address to the world about racial issues.
George Floyd died on May 25 after being arrested.
A police officer knelt on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds as he expressed that he couldn't breath.
The tragic event triggered protests all over the globe as people call for an end to systemic racism and police violence.
Meghan added to the conversation with a powerful video.
She said: "George Floyd's life mattered and Breonna Taylor's life mattered and Philando Castile 's life mattered and Tamir Rice's life mattered… and so did so many other people whose names we know and whose names we do not know.
"I wasn't sure what I could say to you. I wanted to say the right thing and I was really nervous that it would get picked apart.
"And I realised the only wrong thing to say is to say nothing."
Meghan also recalled the 1992 LA riots when black man Rodney King was beaten by the police.
"I was 11 or 12 years old and it was the LA Riots, which was also triggered by senseless act of racism," she explained.
"I remember the curfew and I remember rushing back home and on that drive home, seeing ash fall from the sky and smelling the smoke and seeing the smoke billow out of buildings.
Top news stories from Mirror Online PM's 11 fatal coronavirus errors Policewoman thrown off horse at protest How Maddie suspect was snared by police Small weddings could be allowed in July
"I remember pulling up at the house and seeing the tree, that had always been there, completely charred.
"And those memories don't go away."
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Linking to Multimedia Manager without autoplay
When creating links to Multimedia Manager you must link to a channel, a folder, or a media object in the Multimedia Manager, and something will always begin playing when you click the link. However, there is a workaround that may resolve this issue.
Create a slideshow with a single image in it, such as your school logo or static instructions on how to use the player and the navigation. Place the slideshow by itself in a channel you create, and link to that channel.
This will cause the Media Player to play the static, single-image slideshow. Since there is only one image in the slideshow, it will appear that the Media Player has stopped, giving you the effect you need. Viewers can then browse the other channels seen in the navigation.
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Find out what this means for travelers.
‘Hunger is common between travel and food’ says Chef Kunal Kapur
Image courtesy: Kunal Kapur
Celebrity chef Kunal Kapur dons many hats. He’s wowed the country with his food, unique television shows, cookbooks and judging on MasterChef India. But not many know that travelling is as dear to him as food. Here’s what he told us during a recent conversation.
A really bad banker. As I’m the only male child in my family, they always expected me to become a banker.
Describe the traveller in you.
I feel travelling is the biggest stress buster and it de-stresses me. Everybody is dealing with something or the other in their lives and it’s very important to keep travelling. Since my childhood, I always wanted to travel a lot but then money was always a concern so couldn’t travel a lot in those days.
How do you spend your time in transit?
I prefer reading while travelling or may be researching about that particular destination.
Food or travel?
Travel. You travel you eat, food is the fixed part.
What’s your regular comfort meal?
Karela, jeera alloo and roti.
What is your favourite travel snack?
Roasted nuts and juice.
What is the one thing that remains the same for both food and travel?
What would the traveller in you pick from street-side local cuisine and an authentic premium restaurant?
I would love to go local and try street food, but then I’m very particular about food and place hygiene.
Name one Indian city that serves the best food.
Amritsar. There’s honesty in food there. Whenever you cook at home for your loved ones, you would always take care of the basic food hygiene. The food cooked with honesty would definitely give you a different taste and flavour.
What is your fondest travel memory?
Four months back I went to Switzerland. Its a gorgeous place. At the Swiss Alps I spotted a lady and she taught me how to make real butter, and then an old man helped me in making cheese in cauldrons and collecting milk. This was real fun.
Image courtesy: Kunal Kapur
In what ways are cuisine and travel related?
Around 10-15 years back, travelling to a place meant visiting its tourist spots but now both are synonymous. Countries like Australia, New Zealand, France, Italy and thriving on their culinary tourism.
Where in the world would you go for an outstanding meal?
Do you ever consider a destination’s celebrity restaurants while planning your trip?
I do look up their restaurant food to see what they are doing. This gives me a chance to meet my friends.
Which is the one travel dream you’d rush to fulfil?
Travel to the poles (Arctic and Antarctica).
Best travel advice you’ve got?
Don’t take travel as an expense, instead it’s an investment that gives you unforgettable experiences in life!
Describe travel in three words.
Explore. Share. De-stress.
A funny experience while travelling.
This happened at the Indian railways where you would always find people making adjustments. It becomes a journey of entertainment. People not buying their tickets, sharing their berths and suddenly you see a hand from the window offering food. Its really entertaining.
Do you travel light?
I always want to but never could.
Worst food tasted?
Don’t want to name it but then there is a hyped dhaba at the Delhi-Chandigarh highway. I ordered some mutton, dal and roti, and trust me, everything was unpalatable.
Any guilty food pleasure?
Chocolates. I eat them everyday.
Newest thing tasted?
Lamb brain. It was delicious till I knew I was eating brain.
As told to Ekta Sachdeva | <urn:uuid:8ee50df1-47af-4754-9b4a-7f9fc549b863> | https://www.lonelyplanet.in/articles/12891/hunger-is-common-between-travel-and-food-says-chef-kunal-kapur | en | 0.951963 | 0.149656 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Remodeling the brain after stroke by astrocytic phagocytosis
[Speaker] Yosuke Morizawa:1
[Co-author] Schuichi Koizumi:2
1:Super-network Brain Physiology, Tohoku University, Japan, 2:Dept. Neuropharmacology, Univ. Yamanashi, Japan
Remodeling the brain by clearance of unnecessary network and debris is thought to be essential for the maintenance of brain function and microenvironment. Such events include phagocytosis, which is thought to be limited to the professional phagocytes, i.e., microglia in the brain.
Here, we show that astrocytes, other type of glia, also show highly phagocytic phenotype after stroke with different spatiotemporal patterns of microglia. Following transient brain ischemia, phagocytic astrocytes are observed within the ischemic penumbra region during the later stage of ischemia. However, phagocytic microglia are mainly observed within the ischemic core region during the earlier stage of ischemia.
Phagocytic astrocytes upregulate ABCA1 and its pathway molecules, MEGF10 and GULP1, which are required for phagocytosis, and upregulation of ABCA1 alone is sufficient for enhancement of phagocytosis. Disrupting ABCA1 in reactive astrocytes result in fewer phagocytic inclusions after ischemia. Together, these findings suggest that astrocytes are transformed into a phagocytic phenotype as a result of increase in ABCA1 and its pathway molecules and contribute to recovery or remodeling of damaged tissues and penumbra networks.
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Soul's Journey
Hades is a spacious place in the center of the earth where the people's souls were going after their physical body's death. This place's main rulers are Plouton and Persephone but other gods such as Hermes, Hekate, Fates and Nemesis have power and duties in Hades. There were five rivers:
• Acheron
• Kokkytos
• Pyriflegethon
• Lethe
• Styx
The whole place was derived in four main sections related to people: Court (Δικαστήριο), Purgatory (Καθαρτήριο), Tartar (Τάρταρος) and Elysian Fields (Ηλύσια πεδία). There was one more section where the Gods were staying. An extra section existed for the souls of the unburied bodies but it was right outside of Hades.
The Purgatory was a place were the people's souls were staying right after their death to be cleansed from the sins that were forgivable or very few. Tartar was Hades's house of bondage were the souls were imprisoned and punished because of the unforgivable sins the had done. Elysian Fields was a blissful place where the righteous and fair-minded souls were going.
The form of Hades was like a cave which was between a forest surrounded by rocks, and the black waters of Styx Lake which were encircling Hades nine times. Before the entrance of Hades there was the dwelling-house of beings like Sorrow, Illness, Age, Fear, Death, Sleep, Discord etc. After that, there was the road leading to Acheron river where Charon was. Beyond this place, it was the house of the dead derived in seven regions.
1. In the first one there were the souls of dead babies.
2. In the second one there were the souls of those who had been killed unfairly.
3. In the third those who had committed suicide.
4. In the fourth region those who died because of the pain of love.
5. In the fifth the glorious and brave warriors who died in the battle.
6. In the sixth area was Tartar, the place of disrespectful and villainous souls
7. In the seventh and last region was the Elysian Fields.
Hermes Psychopompos
Every single day, the Fates were writing in lists the names of the people that were going to die that day and then the Fate Atropos handed over the list to Hermes. After that Hermes was coming up from the underworld and according to the names of the list, he was visiting every ill person, foot passenger, marine, warrior etc and he was touching them with the Kerykeion and the person was passing away. After he had collected all the souls, he was leading the way by holding the Kyrikeion raised so that the souls could see him. He was taking them until Acherousia Lake. Persephone was the one that gave these duties to Hermes.
After the souls had arrived they were coming into Charon's ship with Hermes. There was standing the Fate Klotho and she was validating who was each soul, how he died and if his body was buried. Each soul's body that was not buried, had to stay outside of Acherousia Lake for one hundred years. Goddess Hekate was guarding them for 100 years and after that they entered Hades. The other souls were traveling by boat approaching the gate of Hades which was guarded by Kerveros, a terrible three-headed dog. Every soul before getting off the ship had to pay one ovolos (ovolos is money, a coin) to Charon. After the disembark Charon and Hermes were returning back. The souls were going straight to Court. Sometimes Hermes was accompanying them and then he was sitting in on the Court. There was only one road leading to the Court from the entrance of Hades. From the Court were starting three roads: one leading to Tartar, one leading to Elysian Fields and one in the middle of the other two that was leading to Purgatory.
In The Court there were judges who were judging each soul separately according to how they had lived their lives. Those who lived pious and virtuous were going to Elysium Fields. Those who had done moderate sins were going to Purgatory until the judges decided that they were clean and could go to Elysium Fields. Those who lived godlessness and unfairly and had done a lot of sins were going to Tartar.
Hekate Psychopompos
Hekate and Hermes are sharing this property of leading souls of the deads to hades, the place of the dead. The word psychopompos is a synthetic word of the two words psyche and pompos. Psyche is the soul. Pompos means the one who sends, who guides, who guards. Hekate is the protectress of the unburied souls and she protects the souls of the deads. As Kleidouchos, she holds the keys of the doors of Hades. The role of Hekate as psychopomp is quite logical because she is the Goddess of the thresholds of life.
Image: Lekythos depicting the God Death and the God Sleep carrying a soul of a man, National Archaeological Museum of Athens
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• Kingu Kongu tai Gojira / King Kong versus Godzilla (1962)
After a dormancy of more than seven years, the Godzilla franchise was revived and to kick things off on a spectacular note, the giant lizard confronts a legend of Hollywood cinema with giant monkey King Kong. The movie was commercially successful and remains one of the most profitable films in the franchise. Without this film, many other movies that followed would have never seen the light of day. Nevertheless, King Kong versus Godzilla is one of the franchise's worst movies and the terribly edited American version is particularly bad.
There are several elements to be criticized here. Godzilla almost only has a side role since the movie largely focuses on King Kong.
The story of the monkey retrieved from an isolated island by a greedy businessman is an almost exact copy of the original King Kong movie and lacks imagination.
The characters in this movie remain superficial and the fact that many actresses and actors overact in a way that recalls the slapstick comedy genre certainly doesn't help.
The edited and inserted scenes in the American version harm the pace of the original movie and leave out several key scenes. The monologues and communications between the additional American actors are bland and boring. They don't add anything to the story. Changing a movie and adding American characters to the plot would rightfully be considered disrespectful and even racist by today's standards. Things were different back then but cinephiles around the globe can consider themselves lucky that things have changed.
Even the monsters in this movie are far from convincing. King Kong looks mildly amusing with his chaotic fur and is seen hammering his fists against his chest in half of his scenes. Godzilla certainly doesn't look as scary as in the first two movies and has clearly taken a more accessible look to appeal to larger audiences.
Still, King Kong versus Godzilla has a few redeeming qualities after all. The scene when Godzilla awakes from an iceberg after a submarine collided with it is truly tense and impressive.
The scenes on Faro Island add an exotic touch to the movie and something new to the franchise overall.
The scenes when King Kong kidnaps a woman and climbs a building with her are obviously copied from the original Hollywood movie but they are nevertheless entertaining and impressive to watch.
The ways the military attempts to stop the monsters are quite diverisfied and portray the helplessness of mankind quite drastically.
The final fighting scenes between King Kong and Godzilla are certainly very entertaining. This movie might have multiple flaws but it isn't boring and doesn't overstay its welcome.
To conclude, King Kong versus Godzilla is one of the weakest entries into the franchise. The movie is basically a Japanese reinterpretation of the Hollywood movie of the gigantic monkey with a few secondary scenes involving their very own national treasure. Still, the movie is nicely crafted for its time and certainly entertainment that appeals to the whole family. Nowadays, this movie is only recommended to avid fans of both the Godzilla and King Kong franchises. Occasional fans of kaiju films can skip this overall average release without any regrets.
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• Gojira no gyakushû / Godzilla Raids Again (1955)
After the unexpected success of Godzilla, Toho Studios wanted to produce and release a quick sequel to cash in on the groundbreaking predecessor's excellent reputation. Director Honda Ishiro wasn't available, so Oda Motoyoshi was hired. Despite the limited time and the directorial change, Godzilla Raids Again is much better than its reputation and actually one of the series' greatest movies in its original Japanese version.
Godzilla looks more flexible in this movie than in the predecessor which amplifies the film's astonishing action scenes. In addition to this, a new monster in form of an ankylosaurus named Anguirus makes its appearance and battles Godzilla on two separate occasions. Their second battle in the port of Osaka is one of the series' most spectacular fighting scenes.
The characters in this movie are unique, sympathetic and profound. Tsukioka Shoichi is a dynamic, helpful and quick-witted pilot working for a tuna cannery company who saves his brave, creative and funny colleague Kobayashi Koji after his engine malfunctioned and he stranded on an isolated island inhabitated by Anguirus and Godzilla. Numerous buildings of their company get destroyed when the giant monsters destroy parts of Osaka later on. The two men are heartbroken when they get transferred to the company plant in Sapporo. Just as Tsukioka Shoichi is joined by his charming girlfriend and Kobayashi Koji develops a serious love interest as well, tragedy strikes again as Godzilla destroys one of the company's fishing boats. The two skilled pilots support the military in locating Godzilla and are thus heroically risking their lives.
Beside the main plot, Godzilla Raids Again features numerous excellent little ideas. Charismatic Doctor Yamane Kyohei from the first movie makes a short appearance explaining the origins of the monsters and adding a scientific dimension to the movie. There is a breathtaking scene when a groupe of criminals try to escape from a prison truck as Anguirus and Godzilla fight at the port. The chasing sequences are wonderfully shot and even add a tragic dimension to the story. The military is quite inventive regarding strategies to fight the monsters by enforcing a blackout, using flares to lure the monsters away and provoking an avalanche to bury Godzilla.
In just a few months' time, Oda Motoyoshi managed a seemingly impossible task by directing a sequel that lives up to its legendary predecessor. The only reason why this movie is just slightly less impressive than the original film is because it's missing the first film's gloomily philosophical depth. Still, Godzilla Raids Again is an overlooked masterpiece with action, creativity and depth all at once. It deserves more attention and credit than it has gotten and is one of the series' greatest highlights that has stood the test of time.
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• Gojira / Godzilla (1954)
This movie is a masterpiece. I have been a big fan of the Godzilla series since I was a child. When I discovered the original movie at the age of twelve, it was only the second movie in my life that truly impressed me after The Lion King. The movie hasn't lost anything of its intensity since then and I have watched this film again on multiple occasions.
Everything about this movie is perfect. First of all, there is the intense atmosphere. The beginning of the movie is worthy of an excellent horror flick. You see destruction, fear and pain and you are on the edge of your seat because you don't really know what's going on. When Godzilla then first appears on a Japanese island, you feel shivers running down your spine. The ugly look of this giant is truly scary and not comparable to the rather sympathetic look of the same monster in the upcoming features or the mediocre American movies.
Another big point is the strong acting. The strange and lonesome Doctor Serizawa that turns out to be a warm-hearted hero is simply amazing and the acting of Akihiko Hirata really touched me and almost made me cry in the end. The curious, old and stubborn Kyohe Yamane played by Takashi Shimura and his beautiful and charming daughter Emiko portrayed by Momoko Kôchi are also excellent. Add the dynamic and young Hideto Ogata that is played by Akira Takarada to this and you have four excellent characters and actors that interact very well. The emotions that connect them all go way further than just love and respect. It's about honour, knowledge, politics, responsibility, science and trust. In one hour and a half, the characters of this movie are more authentic, diversified and intense than any characters in any other monster movie I have ever watched. These Japanese were simply miles ahead and even today, this movie portrays Japanese culture in an extraordinary way.
Let's add to this that the special effects and the camera work of the movie are highly detailed and artistic for the time the movie was created in. When Godzilla grabs the trains in the Tokyo Bay, slowly disintegrates the clock tower and smashes the power lines that have all been constructed in a long process as miniature objects while a man walking around in a huge latex costume all destroys them in a few minutes, these moments have something epic, powerful and unforgettable that modern special effects can't reproduce. This is the magic of the early after war cinema.
Don't forget the memorable soundtrack of the movie filled with dark and menacing but also majestic melodies that you won't forget and that have been used over and over again during the upcoming decades. The scream of the monster is also extremely haunting.
The movie is somewhat divided into four parts and very well-balanced. It starts as an intense catastrophe and horror movie, then touches some serious parts dealing with science and politics, then turns into a stunning symphony of destruction to end on a highly human and philosophical note. This masterpiece is like four excellent movies in one and never gets boring. I could simply watch this every month. If you haven't seen it yet, go and change it now. This movie is definitely among my twenty favourite movies of all time.
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• Ladies and gentlemen!
Please trust me when I'm telling you that punk's not dead! Before I started discovering the gothic and metal scenes when I was fifteen years old, I had been listening to punk rock music for many years. German legends Die toten Hosen had been my favourite group for many years and I still listen to them occasionally. The quintet always comes around with fresh and new ideas such as the concept of a big band acoustic show that has now been released under the title Alles ohne Strom. I would like to invite you to read my review, check out the band and its amazing new record and to understand that punk rock will never die!
Die toten Hosen - Alles ohne Strom (2019)
German punk rock veterans Die toten Hosen have always been on the brave, creative and innovative side which helped them stay successful, relevant and energetic for four decades in a row. A punk double album, a single with French lyrics criticizing former French President Jacques Chirac, a greatest hits record only released in Japan, a Christmas album under the Die roten Rosen banner, an acoustic live album, a compilation for the Argentinian market, a compilation for the Polish market, exclusive concerts played in their greatest fans' living rooms and a concert with a symphony orchestra covering music prohibited in Nazi Germany are only some of the experiments the band has done since its inception in Dusseldorf in the early eighties.
Alles ohne Strom is the release of an acoustic concert with a big band playing accordion, cello, clarinet, melodica, percussion, piano, saxophone, sousaphone, trombone, trumpet, viola and violin. The concert took place on July thirteenth and fourteenth in the band's hometown and was released only three and a half months later on October twenty-fifth last year. This makes me wonder why certain bands take two to three years to release their live albums.
The German punk quintet reinvented its own repertoire creatively. The lyrics for energetic single ''Strom'' where changed to be more appropriate for the occasion of an acoustic show. ''1000 gute Grunde'' has a danceable, energetic and joyful vibe despite dealing with a bitter, sarcastic and serious topic lyrically. ''Hier kommt Alex'' was turned from an atmopsheric punk classic into a vibrant folk tune with polka and ska elements. As strange as these experiments might sound, they actually work out really well.
The already legendary concert also featured three quite unusual cover songs. The band transformed Rammstein's epic ''Ohne dich'' into a much more intimate song that sends shivers down the spine. Funny von Dannen's ''Politische Lieder'' focuses on simplistic acoustic guitar instrumentation while the lyrics deliver a thoughtful message. Foo Fighter's ''Everlong'' sounds more diversified than the gloomy original tune in its acoustic soundscapes.
The band also performed four new songs on this album. ''Kamikaze'' is a melancholic anthem with thought-provoking lyrics. ''Schwere(-los)'' is a sinister tune dealing with the haunting memories of a Holocaust survivor. ''Sorgenbrecher (Auf euch)'' on the other side is an uplifting ode to the band's fans and their support. ''Feiern im Regen'' is an ode to life with wonderful guitar melodies.
In the end, Die toten Hosen offer seventy-eight minutes of perfect entertainment with a creative reinterpretations of their own material, unusual cover songs and four strong new tracks that deserve more attention. Any fan of rock music with lyrical depth should purchase this gem of an album. Punk rock doesn't need angry bass sounds, ferocious drums and distorted guitars to work out. These twenty-one acoustic big band sound experiment are actually more relevant than many traditional punk albums in recent memory. Even in the thirty-eighth year of its existence, Die toten Hosen are still by far Germany's best punk band ever.
Final rating: 90%
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• Ladies and gentlemen!
Only two months after the heartbreaking end of the Ottawa Fury FC franchise in the United Soccer League, there might be professional soccer to be seen this year in Canada's beautiful capital after all. According to rumours, La Liga club Atlético Madrid might invest in a team that would be the eighth franchise to take part in the Canadian Premier League. An official announcement is expected to be made next week. Let's cross our fingers that everything will work out in time. If this project saw the light of day this season, I would certainly attend several home games as well. Stay tuned for more updates on my blog!
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5 Lifestyle Changes Could Prevent 80 Percent of Heart Attacks
Lifestyle Tips for Heart Health
Story at-a-glance -
• Engaging in five healthy lifestyle habits could prevent nearly 80 percent of first-time heart attacks in men
• The five healthy habits include eating healthy, staying physically active, maintaining a healthy waist circumference, not smoking, and limiting your alcohol intake
• Past research also found that 90 percent of heart disease cases are completely preventable by modifying diet and lifestyle factors
• Separate research also found that people who ate fruit daily had a 40 percent lower risk of heart disease, but you should be careful not to eat it in excess
• Metformin, a popular diabetes drug, is linked to low thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels in people with hypothyroidism, which may lead to heart problems
By Dr. Mercola
Heart disease claims the lives of about 1 million Americans every year, making it the leading cause of death for both men and women. The most common form of heart disease is coronary artery disease (CAD), which can lead to a heart attack.
This year alone, 920,000 Americans will have a heart attack, and close to half of them will occur suddenly without any prior warning signs.1
A heart attack occurs when blood flow to a part of your heart becomes blocked. This is often the result of plaque build-up inside your arteries (atherosclerosis), which may rupture and form a blood clot that blocks blood flow.
If the blockage isn't cleared quickly, a portion of your heart muscle will begin to die and be replaced with scar tissue, which can cause severe problems in the future.
For instance, a previous heart attack (especially if a large area of your heart was damaged) is a risk factor for sudden cardiac arrest,2 which is caused by abnormal heart rhythms and can be fatal.
5 Lifestyle Changes Could Prevent 80 Percent of Heart Attacks
It's remarkable that heart attacks are so common and cause so much pain (emotional and physical) and disability when they are nearly always preventable. You're probably already aware that your lifestyle plays a role in your risk of heart disease (and heart attacks), but perhaps you've not yet taken it to heart…
If you need some motivation, consider a new study conducted at the Karolinska Institute. It found that engaging in five healthy lifestyle habits could prevent nearly 80 percent of first-time heart attacks in men. Even the researchers were surprised at how powerful a healthy lifestyle could be, noting:3
Still, this isn't the first time such a drastic risk reduction has been uncovered. The 2004 INTERHEART study, which looked at heart disease risk factors in over 50 countries around the world, found that 90 percent of heart disease cases are completely preventable by modifying diet and lifestyle factors.4
Unfortunately, most people are not using lifestyle habits to their advantage. The featured study involved men aged 45 to 79… and only 1 percent of them engaged in all five of the "low-risk" behaviors that could prevent a heart attack. So what are the five healthy lifestyle habits?
1. A healthy diet
2. Being physically active (walking/bicycling ≥40 min/day and exercising ≥1 h/week)
3. Healthy waist circumference (waist circumference <95 cm or 37.4 inches)
4. Moderate alcohol consumption (10 to 30 g/day)
5. No smoking
What Is a Healthy Diet for Your Heart?
Most of the heart-healthy lifestyle habits are self-explanatory, but the term "healthy diet" is ambiguous… and when it comes to heart health, it is probably not what you think. Contrary to popular belief, refined carbs, sugar, and processed foods are the real enemy—not the saturated fats found in foods such as butter, lard, or eggs.
Part of the confusion on fats revolves around its impact on LDL cholesterol, often referred to as "bad" cholesterol. According to the conventional view, high LDL is correlated with heart disease, and saturated fat does tend to raise LDL. However, we now understand that there are TWO kinds of LDL cholesterol particles:
• Small, dense LDL cholesterol
• Large, "fluffy" LDL cholesterol
Ever-rising obesity and heart disease rates clearly illustrate the ramifications of this flawed approach. I recently interviewed Dr. Fred Kummerow on this topic. If you missed it, I highly recommend taking a moment to listen to it now.
Download Interview Transcript
A True Heart-Healthy Diet Plan
If you want to protect your heart, you need to avoid trans fats by eliminating all processed foods (which would also include most restaurant food). You also need to address your insulin and leptin resistance, which is the result of eating a diet too high in sugars and grains. To lower your heart disease risk, you need to adhere to the following suggestions, which are explained in detail in my nutrition plan.
1. Avoid sugar, processed fructose, and grains. This effectively means you must avoid most processed foods
2. Eat a healthy diet of whole foods, ideally organic, and replace the grain carbswith:
Large amounts of vegetables
Low-to-moderate amount of high-quality protein (think organically raised, -pastured animals)
High-quality healthy fat (saturated and monounsaturated from animal and tropical oil sources). Most people actually need upward of 50-85 percent fats in their diet for optimal health—a far cry from the 10 percent currently recommended. Sources of healthy fats to add to your diet include:
Butter made from raw grass-fed organic milk
Raw dairy
Organic pastured egg yolks
Coconuts and coconut oil
Unheated organic nut oils
Grass-fed meats
Balancing your omega-3 to omega-6 ratio is also key for heart health, as these fatty acids help build the cells in your arteries that make the prostacyclin that keeps your blood flowing smoothly. Omega-3 deficiency can cause or contribute to very serious health problems, both mental and physical, and may be a significant underlying factor in up to 96,000 premature deaths each year. You can do this by avoiding most vegetable oils and increasing your intake of small wild-caught oily fish (sardines and anchovies) or taking a high-quality krill oil supplement.
Should You Eat More Fruit for Your Heart?
A study presented this year at the ESC Congress in Barcelona, Spain found that people who ate fruit daily had a 40 percent lower risk of heart disease, and a 32 percent lower risk of death from any cause, than those who did not. Further, the more fruit they ate, the lower their risk of heart disease became.5 Fruit can be an excellent source of antioxidants, vitamins, minerals, and other phytochemicals, many of which have heart-healthy anti-inflammatory effects. For instance, research published in the British Medical Journal (BMJ)6 found that simply eating an apple a day might help prevent cardiovascular-related deaths in those over 50 to a similar degree as using a daily statin.7
I would caution against eating too much fruit, however, especially the sweeter fruits that are commonplace today. Many of the most beneficial phytonutrients found in fruits actually have bitter, sour, or astringent taste, and are found in the skin and seeds. To satisfy the modern palate, farmers have, throughout time, opted to selectively breed the sweetest varieties, which makes fruit far less nutritious than it once was. Still, carefully chosen fruit – such as organic apples, blueberries, or cherries – can certainly be beneficial when eaten in moderation. Fruit contains varying levels of fructose, and you will want to avoid over-consuming fructose to protect your heart. My recommendations on fruit (and fructose consumption) are as follows:
1. If you're insulin or leptin resistant (are overweight, diabetic, hypertensive, or have high cholesterol), which includes about 80 percent of Americans, then it would be advisable for you to limit your fruit intake. As a general rule, I recommend limiting your fructose intake to a maximum of 15 grams of fructose per day from ALL sources, including whole fruit. You can find a chart of fructose levels in common fruits here.
2. If you are not insulin/leptin resistant, (are normal weight without diabetes, hypertension, or high cholesterol) and regularly engage in strenuous physical activity or manual labor, then higher fructose intake is unlikely to cause any health problems. In this case, you can probably eat more fruit without giving it much thought.
3. However, if you are in category two above, you might benefit from a further refinement. Fruit will still increase your blood sugar and many experts believe this will increase your protein glycosylation. So my approach is to consume the fruit typically after a workout, as your body will use the sugar as fuel rather than raise your blood sugar.
4. Additionally, if you're an endurance athlete, you can probably get away with eating fairly large amounts of fruits since your body will use most of the glucose during exercise, and it won't be stored as fat. (That said, I still believe athletes would be well-advised to consider becoming fat adapted rather than relying on quick sugars).
5. If you're still unsure of just how stringent you need to be, get your uric acid levels checked and use that as a guide.
Diabetes Drug Increases Heart Disease Risk
Metformin, a drug that makes your body's tissues more sensitive to insulin, is one of the most common diabetes drugs on the market. However, new research shows that among people with hypothyroidism, the use of metformin was associated with an increased risk of low thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels.8 If your TSH levels become too low, it may lead to serious damage, including heart problems such as atrial fibrillation, which in turn could lead to congestive heart failure.9 Separate research has also shown that treating type 2 diabetes with glucose-lowering drugs actually showed the potential to increase your risk of death from heart-related and all other causes. Researchers noted:10
These risks are typically unnecessary, as type 2 diabetes is easy to reverse without drugs. If you want the short version… simply swapping processed foods for whole organic foods lower in sugar and sugar-forming carbohydrates -- combined with a few minutes of regular high-intensity exercises -- will quickly put you on the road to reversing diabetes. See my nutrition plan for a healthy eating guide and, for more specifics, read my diabetes prevention (and treatment) plan here.
A Warning About Beta-Blockers and Scientific Misconduct
Beta-blockers are drugs commonly used in the treatment of high blood pressure and congestive heart failure. They work primarily by blocking the neurotransmitters norepinephrine and epinephrine (adrenaline) from binding to beta receptors, thereby dilating blood vessels, which reduces your heart rate and blood pressure. Until recently, the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) recommended using beta-blockers in patients undergoing non-cardiac surgery. Earlier this year, however, researchers calculated that this guideline, which they found was based on "questionable and probably fraudulent research," may have caused up to 800,000 deaths over five years in Europe alone.11
The beta-blocker guidelines were based largely on research done by a scientist who was fired for scientific misconduct in 2011, and who was also the chairman of the committee that drafted the European treatment guideline. You would think that once this was known, immediate action would result. However, it took two years before the ESC withdrew the beta-blocker recommendation once the scandal had unraveled. This is absolutely scandalous as nearly a half of a million people died unnecessarily due to the delay.
In that two-year span, many European clinicians may have felt that their hands were tied, as failing to follow guidelines can lead to being penalized—even if the doctor knows the guidelines are likely to do more harm than good. Last month, a revised version of the article was published,12 which went into even more detail of the harms that occur when fraudulent research is published and put into clinical practice… even years after the fraud is uncovered. As Forbes reported:13
"They write about a culture of neglect in which few if any participants have anything to gain by finding or reporting scientific misconduct. They cite numerous examples in which misconduct has been alleged but the responsible actors– authors, home institutions, journals, and medical societies– have responded in only the most minimal and nonaggressive fashion. The portrait they paint is of a scientific and medical establishment devoted to not rocking the boat."
Avoid Becoming Another Heart Attack Statistic
There are many strategies that can protect your heart and virtually eliminate your risk of heart disease. Please don't wait until you experience heart attack symptoms to take action because the most common symptom of heart disease is sudden death, so you will be dead before you even know you have a problem. Do so now in order to prevent any long-lasting damage:
• Eat unprocessed saturated animal fats, and ignore the media, as you will benefit from these fats. Many may also benefit from increasing the healthy fat in their diet to 50-85 percent of daily calories
• Exercise regularly, as physical activity along with a healthy diet of whole, preferably organic, foods may be just as potent—if not more potent—than cholesterol-lowering drugs. Use a combination of high-intensity interval training, strength training, stretching, and core work.
• Avoid excess sitting; aim for three hours a day or less of sitting and try to take 10,000 steps a day (exclusive of your exercise).
• Avoid statins, as the side effects of these drugs are numerous, while the benefits are debatable. In my view, typically, the only group of people who may benefit from a cholesterol-lowering medication are those with genetic familial hypercholesterolemia. This is a condition characterized by abnormally high cholesterol, which tend to be resistant to lifestyle strategies like diet and exercise
• Optimize your vitamin D levels, either through appropriate sun exposure, a tanning bed, or as last resort an oral vitamin D3 supplement
• Manage your stress daily. My favorite tool for stress management is the Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT). | <urn:uuid:1b6460c5-4b33-41a0-9430-571dfc9c4f07> | https://articles.mercola.com/sites/articles/archive/2014/10/06/5-healthy-lifestyle-changes.aspx | en | 0.952335 | 0.051448 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Successful businesses aren't built by one person. They're grown by committed teams that are working towards the same goal. The harder the team works, the more likely the business will succeed.
Having a ground-breaking product is great, but it'll sit on the shelf if you don't have passionate personnel who can market, sell, and support it. You need a team that's invested in your company and willing to put in time and energy to make it successful.
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And, that's no easy task no matter how big your company gets.
Employee engagement is a problem that many organizations struggle with. It's hard to motivate employees, especially when you can't afford to pay them more than your competitors do. Eventually, people start wondering why they're doing the same amount of work for less pay.
But, even if your company is faced with this roadblock, you can still keep pace in your industry. There are plenty of ways to improve employee engagement without raising your team's wages.
Let's review how you can do that in the section below, then we'll provide you with some specific ideas to increase engagement at your business.
1. Collect employee feedback.
If you want to improve employee engagement, the first step is understanding why your employees don't engage with your business. You need to learn what your employees want that your company isn't offering. This will give you an idea for the type of initiatives and programs you'll want to adopt.
One of the best ways to do this is with an employee feedback survey. There are plenty of employee feedback engagement tools that can be used to gather information about your team.
2. Clarify team and business goals.
Even if employees aren't itching to get involved with your engagement activities, at the very least, they should be meeting your team and business goals. These metrics should act as the baseline for engagement at your company. Employees should be clear on their initiatives and held accountable for their completion.
3. Set expectations for engagement.
Some employees just don't know what's expected of them. They don't participate because they don't know it's common practice at your company.
This is where you need to set clear expectations for your team. If you want them to participate in certain activities or events, make that abundantly clear as well as the repercussions for missing them. When employees understand that your "voluntary meeting" isn't just for volunteers, you'll get the engagement you're searching for.
4. Create engagement activities.
Your team isn't going to be inspired out of the blue. Rather, they'll need a kick-starter to get them excited about their work. Creating and hosting engagement activities is a great way to show employees that your company is focused on more than their daily output.
We'll list out a bunch of these activities later on in this post.
5. Assess your corporate culture.
If you're struggling to improve engagement, then it may be a matter of corporate culture. Culture forms from the top down, so you need to make sure your executives and upper management are invested in employee engagement. If not, it'll be hard to motivate employees when their managers aren't bought in either.
6. Devote resources to employee engagement.
Employee engagement is like any other business program. If you don't put resources behind it, it'll fizzle out and your culture will revert to the status quo. You need to permanently invest in employee engagement if you want to see long-term change at your business.
One way to do this is by creating a culture committee. This is a team that's dedicated to internal engagement and makes sure your company is constantly rolling out new initiatives for your employees.
7. Hire the right people.
In some cases, employees aren't engaging with your company because they're not the right fit. They don't jell with your culture and aren't interested in participating in your new initiatives. These employees may not be ideal for your company and you should consider having a conversation with them to see if you can captivate their interest.
Better yet, you can avoid this altogether by hiring the right people in the first place. Reassess your hiring model and look for candidates who are likely to engage with your business. We'll discuss this more later on.
Now that you know how employee engagement works, let's dive into the unique and effective ideas you can implement to improve it.
1. Set an ambitious goal.
Tom Bilyeu, co-founder of Quest Nutrition, calls this a "BHAG," which is short for "big hairy audacious goal."
Have your team set a goal that seems impossible or out of reach. Then, work backward to determine how you could realistically achieve that goal. Once your plan is in place, set aside some time for your team to work on this project. You'll be surprised to find that your impossible goal wasn't as farfetched as it sounded.
2. Plan a team outing.
Team outings are a great way for employees to bond outside of work. They can share personal stories and act more casual than they would in a professional setting. This forges stronger bonds between teammates which carries over to their day-to-day work. When employees see each other as peers in addition to coworkers, collaboration and productivity increases.
Check out this list for the best team outing ideas.
3. Acknowledge consistent performance.
You don't need to hand out rewards or trophies to make people feel valued. Instead, simply acknowledging employees who do consistent, excellent work is enough to make your team feel appreciated. Call these people out in meetings or have a time out in the office to update everyone on how well a particular employee is performing.
4. Start a contest.
If you're looking for more immediate engagement, one of the best things you can do is start a contest. Set a goal and a deadline, then provide an incentive for the first employee or group of employees who achieve that goal. If the prize is right, you'll be shocked to see how many employees flock to participate.
5. Assign peer mentors.
When employees are starting out it can be difficult to grasp the daily workflow of their new role. By assigning them peer mentors, you can help them overcome common roadblocks that new hires face when beginning at your company. That way, you'll get these employees on the fast track to success and reduce potential turnover.
6. Host networking events.
Networking events are a great way to connect employees with executives and upper management. They can get to know each other and share ideas that help employees further their careers at your company. And, by introducing them to your higher-level employees, your team will be more familiar with its executive leadership and their vision of the organization.
7. Offer healthy foods and drinks.
Sometimes it's the little things that get your employees excited to work. For example, offering healthy foods and drinks ensures your team is fueled and physically ready to take on the workday. Your management may think that's trivial, but you're removing one more distraction that's keeping your team from achieving business goals.
At HubSpot's Cambridge office, we have a cafeteria stocked with amazing foods and beverages. I can say firsthand that the fresh fruit in the image below and some mixed nuts are the perfect afternoon pick-me-up that energizes me through the final portion of my day.
8. Distribute eNPS surveys.
While NPS measures customer satisfaction, eNPS monitors the happiness of your employees. Like NPS, this system uses the same 10-point scale to determine how satisfied your employees are with your business. If the score is lower than a nine or 10, employees are asked to explain their response. This helps identify areas of friction in your workplace and create solutions that improve the employee experience.
9. Hold an employee appreciation day.
If you can afford it, take one day off each year to recognize all the hard work your employees put in for your business. You can host events, plan an outing, or give everyone the day off. It doesn't matter, so long as it shows how much you value your employees.
At HubSpot, we hosted a field day for our customer service employees. We invited everyone outside, played games, and competed as teams for prizes. It was a great way to take a break and refresh from the everyday grind of customer support.
lQHL-YXk6WyyFUGJNOw1OQM0jHGpnwkUYCAcaD79h1gZz2xjXVGShdld-e8TGwW7mgtJ5bRgRzhRzLj0L3ZlDtTy593fWMAmz2XZq97Vm3SANuF5T2tYWR_KtfcY7iWJA5KevB0D10. Encourage work-life balance.
It's great if your employees are committed to your business. But, it's not so great if they never stop working. Employees need to have a healthy work-life balance if they want to avoid burnout. As an SMB owner or manager, it's your job to make sure every employee is finding the right mix of work and play.
11. Remove cubicles.
When we say to "break down barriers," we really mean it. Tear down those cubicles and create an open-space environment where employees can actually see each other. This encourages collaboration because employees can look and speak to one another instead of having to get up and walk around a maze of plastic walls.
If removing cubicles isn't an option, consider standing desks or communal workspaces. These alternatives push employees out of their seats and get them talking about their work.
12. Evaluate your hiring process.
We mentioned above that hiring the right people is crucial to employee engagement. So, you should evaluate your hiring process to ensure you're interviewing ideal candidates for your business.
First, consider your company's goals. What experience or skills will the candidate need to help your team achieve them?
Next, think about your cultural values. What characteristics are you looking for in this candidate? How will they fit with the rest of your team?
Finally, ask yourself if there's room for growth. Once they've mastered their role, how will they continue to add value to your business?
Answering these questions before hiring is the key to bringing on employees who are the right fit for your business. This makes it much easier to rally your team and motivate them towards a common goal.
13. Adopt an employee onboarding program.
Onboarding programs aren't solely for customers. In fact, they can be used to help new employees adapt to their roles. This reduces stress and frustration for the employee, especially when they need to learn complicated software or procedures for their work.
14. Create a culture code.
The biggest challenge for employee engagement is getting management on board with your new programs and initiatives. One way you can do this is by creating a culture code that summarizes everything your company values, including employee engagement. This document will act as a public resource that you can use to enforce your engagement policies.
If you're wondering what a culture code looks like, here's what we did at HubSpot.
15. Remember holidays, birthdays, and achievements.
When you're running an SMB, your brain may be so focused on improving your business that you forget dates like holidays, birthdays, and professional achievements. It's important to recognize these days as it shows employees that you value them as people, not just coworkers. Create a calendar that records this information and set up reminders that alert you when an important milestone is coming up.
16. Give out annual awards.
Awards are a nice way of recognizing employees who go above-and-beyond for your company. They make individuals feel proud of their contribution and sets a standard for the rest of the team as well. By giving out awards, your employees know exactly what they need to do if they want to stand out in your organization.
17. Sponsor charity events.
Some employees will engage with your company if it's for a good cause. After all, if they're going to volunteer their time it should at least be for something they're passionate about.
Sponsoring a charity event is a great way to appeal to these employees. Employees can give back as a team and bond over doing good deeds together. And, your marketing team can leverage these events as a public relations campaign for your business. Everybody wins.
18. Incorporate an ideas forum.
Almost every employee has a great idea to improve your business. But, let's face it. Setting up time to discuss all of them in-depth is nearly impossible.
However, if you have an ideas forum, you can create a communication channel for employees to voice their ideas. Team members can upload suggestions and have coworkers comment or upvote their posts. This way, management can quickly review the most popular ideas uploaded by your staff.
19. Host career training.
Every employee wants to succeed in their career, but not everyone knows how. Career training is a great way to teach employees how to get the job they want at your company. This gives them an actionable plan to pursue and keeps their career path centered around your organization. By investing in your employee's long-term growth, you can retain valuable staff members before they look to your competitors for work.
20. Invest in technology.
In some cases, employees aren't happy because their workflow is more difficult than it needs to be. This is usually the result of an outdated process or software that can be corrected by new technology. However, it's common for businesses to refrain from updating their systems because of pricing, onboarding, etc.
It's important to invest in technology if it makes your employees' lives easier, especially in customer-facing roles where speed and efficiency are key. Your employees will be more productive in the long-run and happier with their day-to-day workflow.
21. Set up weekly meetings with management.
Another way to encourage engagement from the top down is to hold weekly meetings between employees and their managers. Have your employees sit down for 30 minutes each week to catch up with their manager and update them on anything new that's happening in their life. Managers can also bring up anything they observed earlier that week or highlight new information for the employee. This keeps everyone on the same page, strengthens relationships, and reduces surprises between employees and managers.
22. Promote volunteer opportunities.
If you need help with a project or task, these are good opportunities to outsource jobs to your coworkers. Your employees are always looking to stand out and simply asking for help is a great way to drive engagement. Just be sure to thank your peers as soon as the job gets done.
23. Hold office hours.
Some employees know the job they want, but don't have the skills needed to get it. This is where you can host office hours where employees can meet and learn from one another.
For example, if a support rep wants to transition to the marketing team, they can meet with a marketing associate to learn about their role. They can learn about the skills they'll have to acquire and the experience they'll need on their resume. And, since they've worked with your team to prepare, they'll already have a foot in the door when they apply for the role.
For more ways to rally your team, read this guide to employee engagement.customer support training
Customer Support Training Template
Originally published Nov 6, 2019 8:00:00 AM, updated November 06 2019
Customer Service & Support Training | <urn:uuid:38c29388-a159-4780-b06e-69f16dea56d7> | https://blog.hubspot.com/service/employee-engagement-ideas | en | 0.96577 | 0.162035 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Hey Mike!
@TimGTech, with the latest update to Device OS, is there an updated solution for Xenon to communicate directly with Blynk?
Only if you are using an ethernet featherwing on the Xenon board.
@TimGTech, Thanks. I thought of two possible scenarios:
1. Argon is acting as an edge router communicating on BLE with Xenon and communicating on WiFi with(and cellular or Internet router) with Blynk Cloud
2. Xenon is communicating with my phone running Blynk and my phone communicates with Blynk Cloud.
Can you confirm/deny if it’s possible (without going through Particle Cloud)? Using only one cloud service?
In any case, communication with the Blynk cloud (or a personally hosted Blynk server) happens via an HTTP call, which by nature happens over TCP. Unless the Xenon is used with the Ethernet Featherwing shield, it is not currently capable of TCP networking, only UDP.
One thing to consider would be doing the translation of your data on the Argon, which is capable of both TCP and UDP. The Argon can then send what it received over UDP from the Xenon, to the Blynk cloud over TCP. I haven’t personally done this but I imagine it would be possible.
@addisonwk Thanks. I need to study more how Particle system works. I had an impression that BLE is not an IP protocol (except 6LoWPAN over BLE, which is probably not used by Particle). What version of BLE is used on Particle devices?
I saw some examples of using Xenon to communicate with smartphone using some BLE profiles (serial port profile). So if I don’t use mesh, it can be possible to talk to Blynk on my phone, right?
@janek 6LoWPAN is exactly what Particle Mesh uses because that is what Thread is based on, luckily.
From the particle mesh product page:
What is Thread®?
Thread® is an open mesh networking protocol released by the [Thread Group}( Particle Mesh uses OpenThread, an open source implementation of Thread® released by Nest, as the foundation of Particle Mesh, our mesh networking technology.
Check out the solid BLE documentation over at Particle Reference Documentation:
The mesh networking in Gen 3 devices is Thread Mesh (6LoWPAN over 802.15.4).
The Xenon will not connect directly with your phone using BLE like many other Arduino type devices using BLE. Using Particle’s Tinker app as an example: Your phone and the Argon or Xenon do not communicate with your phone (only during initial setup process). The app on the phone and the devices communicate with the Particle Cloud. The Particle Cloud is like the broker for the platform. The Xenon will only communicate with the cloud and other devices part of the mesh network. Blynk requiring UPD will only work on a Xenon with the Ethernet shield for a direct connection to the internet. Somewhere down the road there may be firmware updates to allow this hopefully but so far it look like not for some time.
The prerequisites have been made available with 1.3.0-rc.1 and just recently 1.3.1-rc.1 has expanded on that.
So direct BLE communication between your phone and any of the Gen3 devices should be possible already.
However, in order to have the device talk to Blynk the Blynk team would need to add that feature to their library or provide a dedicated library for BLE communication.
Wow, thats cool. Thanks for the heads up on that. Hopefully Bynk will jump on board soon with a library update. Progress is good news! | <urn:uuid:2f45cfb2-9f43-4b74-89aa-f41d716f3baf> | https://community.particle.io/t/getting-a-xenon-to-communicate-to-blynk-app-directly-works-with-argon-but-not-xenon/49830/9 | en | 0.934626 | 0.096317 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Half Empty Stadiums A New Normal for the Negro Felon League
Lee Rogers
Daily Stormer
October 17, 2017
Week 6 of the Negro Felon League season has come and gone and the end result was more half empty stadiums.
Numerous photos showing poor stadium attendance were seen all over social media. Years ago these stadiums would have been packed full of fans. Now they are barely able to fill half the seats.
Here’s a few of them.
There were a few items of interest pertaining to the Jacksonville Jaguars game. Not only did it have the smallest home attendance for a game since 2009, but somebody flew a plane over the stadium with a banner calling on people to boycott the team and the league.
In California, someone paid for an electronic billboard encouraging people to boycott the NFL.
And it gets better.
There is actually a group of Blacks in Philadelphia protesting the NFL because Colin Kaepernick hasn’t been signed by a team!
This NFL is in trouble. They’ve tried to play the middle ground on this national anthem issue and have pissed off both sides. They’ve angered the majority White fan base for not forcing their million dollar monkeys to stand while it’s played. They’ve also pissed off a bunch of Blacks for simply asking but not requiring the players to stand. This request has apparently been perceived as institutional racism by these Blacks.
And to think, all that was required for this situation to go nuclear was for Donald Trump to use the term “son of a bitch” to describe the players who weren’t standing for the national anthem. The cultural significance of what is happening cannot be overemphasized enough. As more and more White people tune out of these breads and circuses our people will be in a better place to focus on issues of real significance.
Join the discussion at TGKBBS | <urn:uuid:8c82ef28-0c82-44af-9fe3-d874910afb2f> | https://dailystormer.name/half-empty-stadiums-a-new-normal-for-the-negro-felon-league/ | en | 0.960737 | 0.038533 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Starting with a project from /hub
Head to and choose a project that you want to start with.
Here are some useful projects to start with:
1. hasura/hello-*: Projects that are published by the hasura user are projects that we have published for different frameworks to help you get started. See Starter hub projects:
2. hasura/base: Use the base project to start off on a completely empty project. You can add your own microservices, schemas and configurations to this.
Clone the project and deploy it to a new cluster
First, install the hasura CLI.
Then, run the following instructions on your terminal or command line:
hasura clone <user/my-project>
cd <my-project>
Now, you’ll have the project source code on your computer. You now need a cluster to deploy this project. Please see this for instructions on creating a new cluster and adding it to a project. Once you’ve added the cluster to the project, run the following commands on your terminal or command line, from inside the project directory:
git add . && git commit -m 'Initial commit'
# replace hasura with your cluster's alias
git push hasura master
Once your git push succeeds, everything is deployed to a new Hasura cluster.
Now you can add/remove/modify:
1. microservices: In the microservices/ directory
2. schema: Run hasura api-console and head to the Data tab. You can browse, modify the schema appropriately.
3. conf: Modify the appropriate files in the conf/ directory. | <urn:uuid:5802b77b-7b44-49e9-939e-1f518d6c9af8> | https://docs.platform.hasura.io/0.15/platform/manual/hub/start-project.html | en | 0.862495 | 0.449664 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
London is a big city with millions of people scrambling onto the tube every single day, so if you are seeking out apartments for rent, it is worthwhile to consider your options. No matter where you reside in the city, you can guarantee there will be easy access to other spots, due to the London Underground traveling system. The North boasts an excellent range of apartments for rent and a serene atmosphere to accompany it.
Hampstead is a good choice to locate apartments for rent and it is part of the Camden Borough, making it ideal for the younger generation. Hampstead can suit many tastes, with this destination being renowned for various associations, including liberal, literary and musical associations. If you are someone who wants to have a break from the city life at times, then you can breathe in the natural surroundings when you destine to Hampstead Heath. Hampstead Heath is a parkland spot with spectacular panoramic views for miles. Bear in mind that apartments for rent in London near Hampstead can be relatively cost-effective but others can be quite steep, due to more millionaires residing here than anywhere else.
Archway is based in the Borough of Islington, displaying an assortment of apartments for rent in London, nestled into the many historical streets. Some sites of interest here include Whittington Park, Cardinals Way and Dartmouth Park. These are just some of the many green areas, which is surprising, because Archway is rather built-up in most spots. The Archway Tower can be found here, as well as the London Underground station for easy access to South, East and West London. When choosing apartments for rent here, you can expect to pay anything from £300 to £1000 a week, but budgets can be found if you hire a relocation agent.
Finally, Highgate, which is a top choice for apartments for rent. The village atmosphere entices people from all over the world to relocate here, for a peaceful, yet social experience. If you visit Hampstead Heath, there is a breathtaking view of Highgate from the beautiful parkland. Highgate can be quite an expensive place to live in, but this is due to its original character and diverse landmarks. One of these landmarks includes St Michael’s Church, which is very fitting for anyone transferring to the city with a religious background. This place is sat on top of a hill, which means that investing in apartments for rent in London will provide you with an astounding view to wake up to, every single day.
Sharing is Caring! | <urn:uuid:f2144be7-9849-4ea4-83bd-39931cac6b8d> | https://londonrelocation.com/blog/about-london/london-neighborhoods/apartments-for-rent-in-london-living-up-north/ | en | 0.95804 | 0.035202 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The flavour of Indian coasts
A sweet and spicy sampling
November 1, 2019
/ By / New Delhi
Think of coastal cuisine, think of sea food; but interestingly the sea side menus in India are not devoid of vegetarian dishes and also have some rather interesting sweet dishes to conclude the spicy meals.
While it is only natural for one to relate coastal cuisine with prawn curries and fish fries, there are a whole lot of vegetarian dishes and snacks enjoyed in the coastal states of India. The western state of Gujarat is known for its primarily vegetarian cuisine. While it has a variety of namkeen (crispy, salty snacks) and finger foods like dabeli defining the daily meals of people, idli and sambar (rice cakes and lentil stew) are a staple in south Indian states, which boast of sea food as well. Vada pav (bread stuffed with potato balls) is the spine of street food in Mumbai and there is a vegetarian version of xacuti (curried dish with chunks of chicken) in Goa. There is also a plethora of sweets along the more than 7,500 km coastal line of India, giving sugary edges to this spicy journey. So, the food journey along with the Indian coast is indeed an eclectic mix of sea food, spices, and sweets.
One might find cuisine from Odisha to be similar to that of its neighbouring states. Rice is the staple enjoyed with variety of vegetables, making the daily diet of the locals primarily vegetarian. The state is deeply religious, particularly because of it being the location of the much revered Jagannath temple in its city of Puri. This is one fact that explains the extreme vegetarianism, despite the state being coastal. There is however, a significant proportion of population that relishes fish and other sea food delicacies like prawns, crabs and lobsters. Yams, brinjals and pumpkins are enjoyed liberally. Cooked with little or absolutely no oil, Oriya food has a less calorific value. People here are very fond of curd, coconut milk, as well as sweets. A popular item are the pithas, which are small cakes of both sweet and savoury variety. Chhenapoda pitha, the caramelised custard-like dessert is also very popular not only with the locals but with the tourists also. While in the state, one must try the traditional mahaprasad (Abadha thali) or the sacred food offered as to Lord Jagannath. The temple has the world’s largest kitchen with 400 cooks and 200 hearths that feed 10,000 people daily. The Puri beach not only has the fresh fish from sea being fried in spices and served hot to the tourists, it also has a lot of traditional sweets on offer like ukhuda, rasabali and the famous gaja which is bought back by people in huge amount as the prasad (food offerings) from Puri!
West Bengal
A Bengali meal is a perfect blend of sweet and spicy flavours and of course many dishes of rice and fish. With so many beach destinations in West Bengal like Digha, Mandarmani, Tajpur and Bakkhali, seafood and fish delicacies are abundant. With fresh fish such as pomfret, ilish (hilsa), parshe, rohu, bhetki (barramundi) and tiger prawns from the sea, they are served on the seaside sautéed with spices. While you can also get your fill of coconut water at the sea-shores, you can try the daab-chingri, prawn curry cooked and served in green coconut. You can also try the various preparations of sea crabs too. The places also serve typical Bengali food, snacks and sweets at the shacks and restaurants lining the shore.
The huge state that Maharashtra is, it features different dishes in its various cities. Although there are some dishes that are common across the state, their preparation varies. While a dish may be mildly spiced in cities, it will be rather hot in the rural areas. So, while staples like kanda poha (rice flakes with onion), sabudana vada (a type of fritter) and sweets like aamras (mango juice) and sheera (semolina sweet), remain common across the state, their preparations may vary. Another Maharastrian flavour to try is the refreshing mattha, which is just like the Punjabi buttermilk but a tad bit spicy and is a traditional drink. Maharashtrian food is known for the use of local spices such as the malvani masala, goda masala, and kala masala, which add the extra kick. The coastal parts of Maharashtra have a wide variety of seafood preparations on offer for the taste buds. For the authentic taste of the Malvani cuisine (a town in the Sindhudurg district on west coast), people may try the bangda fry (fried mackerel) and kolambi (prawn curry). The city of Mumbai known for its street food variants will leave you spoilt for choices- vada pav (bread stuffed with potato balls), sev puri (a biscuit topped with onion, tomato and chutney), pav bhaji (a mashed preparation of vegetables served with buttered bread), ragda puri (crispy balls made of wheat or semolina stuffed with boiled, hot chickpeas or ragda), and bhel puri (mix of puffed rice, mild spices, coriander, and chutneys (sauces) tossed with diced tomatoes, onions and lemon juice) among some other snacks. The popular non-veg dishes include kolambi bhaat (prawns and rice), varhadi chicken (a spicy dish traditionally made in a clay pot), vajadi (a mutton dish), karwari (a mutton preparation).
Food from Goa boasts of a Portuguese influence, left by its former colonisers. It has many a preparation of fish- both dry and curry, which are served as starters and main course. A typical Goan platter consists of steamed rice, kismur (salad made with fresh grated coconut and pan fried prawns), poi (local bread), which are relished along with sol kadi (kokum coconut milk drink). Some signature dishes also include kokum juice (made from the fruit of kokum plant), xacuti (curry with vegetables or chicken) and preparations of king fish, pomfret, mackerel, shellfish, tiger prawns, lobsters, squids, etc. Prawn curry or fish curry with rice, called humann also known as ambot are particularly famous dishes among both locals and tourists. Fish udid methi, which is another curry based dish of fenugreek and mackerel is also heartily relished. With an interesting blend of the mild and mellow along with the hot, Goan cuisine is a derivative of the state’s varied culture with influences from its Hindu origins, Portuguese colonialism and Catholic culture. The peri-peri chilli is the most important part of Goan spices. It is one of the ingredients the Portuguese colonisers had introduced here along with potatoes, tomatoes, pineapples, guavas and cashews. Some popular Goan sweets, which are unique to the state, are bebinca (a stack of 7 or 16 wafer thin layers of sweetened semolina), dodol (a chocolate-coloured dose of coconut and jaggery, blended in rice flour or wheat flour), pinaca (rice mashed with crushed jaggery and coconut milk), and doce (crushed split gram blended with coconut shavings and jaggery) amongst other coconut based preparation and of course a variety of cakes.
One of the oldest culinary treasures of India, Gujarati cuisine is primarily vegetarian. With added sugar even in savoury and spicy dishes, it has its own twists on tastes, which are rather unique and unlike food from other coastal states. A typical meal consists of signature dishes such as dhokla (spongy savoury of rice and chickpeas), bajra bhakri (millet bread), methi thepla (fenugreek bread), kathiawadi akha adad (Gujarati whole black gram curry), dal (lentils), kadi (a curry of curd and chickpea flour), chaas (buttermilk) and papdi (fried snack). Different cooking styles and combination of spices are used in preparing different dishes. While some dishes are stir fried, others are boiled. There are also a whole lot of pickles and chutneys (sauces) that are tasty as well as healthy. Gujarati food is incomplete without namkeen or farsan and then are tea snacks like patra (fried snack made with spinach leaves), handvo (savoury cake), fafda (fried gram flour sticks), which can be found in almost every household. The Kharwa community of the coastal area has developed a cuisine of its own around the fresh and dried fish and common sea foods are pomfrets, khandwas, gedadas, surmai (seer fish), prawns, crabs, lobster and narsinga (calamari).
Andhra Pradesh
A quintessential Andhra meal includes hot rice with ghee (Indian butter) poured over, which are enjoyed along with mudda pappu (lentils). Vepudu (fried vegetable preparations of potato, okra, bitter gourd, plantain, ivy gourd), pulusu (a tangy broth made with tamarind juice or sour yoghurt with vegetables) and yoghurt are served along. Spicy powders, pickles, chutneys also embellish the platter. Traditional sweet offerings include the boorelu (sweet dumplings made of rice flour, jaggery and soft-cooked lentils) or bobbatlu (a flat bread stuffed with the same mix).
Like most big states, even though many dishes remain the same in various parts of Karnataka, a change in preparations and flavours occurs with a change in region. While the north Kanara region of Karnataka boasts of seafood delicacies with rice and fish curry being the staple, the Mangalorean cuisine from Karnataka is known for its unique diverseness in food due to the different communities settled in the region. Coconut in different forms and curry leaves along with local south-Indian spices form the basic ingredients of most of the dishes. The local dishes most popular among people are bisi bele bath (spicy, rice-based dish), neer dosa (rice crepe) or the ragi mudde (millet moist ball), kori rotti (chicken and wafers made of rice), Mangalore Buns and macaroons and the popular Udupi food, which is an eponymous to the city of Udupi. Also being a coastal region it has a variety of fish options available for savouring.
Hailed as God’s own country for its natural beauty, Kerala is a star when it comes to food, too. Although offering an eclectic variety of vegetarian meals, it is known for a pre-dominantly non-vegetarian cuisine. It is also known for including ingredients or vegetables in its preparations that are often ignored. With a diverse population belonging to different religions, the dishes Kerala offers make for an interesting mix. In vegetarian meals there is the usual idli (savoury rice cake), sambar (lentil soup), dosa (savoury crepe), and vada (fried savoury), but there is also cheera thoran (Kerala style stir-fry for any vegetable), Malabar parota (a type of bread), appam (a unique crepe that has a soft centre and crisp edges), puttu (cylindrically shaped mashed rice). On the non-vegetarian menu there is a whole lot of chicken, mutton, pork, beef and a vast range of seafood – mussels, crab, tiger prawns, king prawns, tiny prawns, oysters, sardines, mackerel, tuna and gorgeous red lobsters. Paal payasam (made of rice and milk) is a celebratory sweet made on various festivals such as Onam. The state also has an official fruit- jackfruit, which was given the title in 2018. Kerala is a mass producer of the fruit but 30 pc of it gets wasted annually; so the fruit was declared as official, with the hope of the production being consumed entirely.
Tamil Nadu
Of course a food journey in any south Indian state has to begin with the spicy and soupy sambar. But, Tamil Nadu has a bit of a twist here. The sambar (lentil soup) in Tamil Nadu is tangier and thicker with more of lentils and local vegetables such as drumsticks, brinjal, white and red pumpkins and doodhi (bottle gourd). It also has a distinct flavour and aroma that comes from adding asafoetida. The state is known for its Chettinad cuisine, which is known for being a spicy variety. One reason for the cuisine being extra hot is often credited to the fact that Chettiars were a community of spice merchants. Little wonder then why and how unique spices like Marathi moggu (has a flavour similar to that of mustard and pepper) and Kalpasi (flowers that you may not find in other parts of the country) are used in the preparation of the cuisine. Some dishes that decorate the menus in the state are- Kozhambu (gravy preparation with a base of tamarind and lentils), milagu pongal (a breakfast dish), urlai roast (roasted baby potatoes), chicken Chettinad (the traditional recipe of this uses a mix of 28 spices), Mulligatawny soup (apples, carrots, potatoes and red lentils simmered with coconut milk, tamarind pulp and black peppercorns), and Arisi thengai payasam (a traditional Tamil sweet). While Chettinad is the known cuisine of the state, the coastal cuisine is also celebrated by the Nanjil Nadu cuisine of Kanyakumari and its surroundings. The cuisine of this region is abundant with fish and coconut cooked with the tang of ginger, garlic and green chillies.
Andaman and Nicobar Islands and Lakshadweep
Andaman and Nicobar Islands is paradise for sea food lovers. Cuttle fish, crabs, lobsters, prawns, and fish of probably every kind is cooked and relished here along with the staple rice. There are plenty of options for vegetarians as well. Coconut, along with fruits such as mango, sapodilla, banana, pineapple, etc. are commonly available as they grow here unlike other fruits and most vegetables that have to be bought in from mainland India. This is also one reason why the island serves cuisines from various south Indian states as well as West Bengal. Tourists can also find other north Indian dishes at hotels and resorts, but those are not, of course, ethnic. The diet of the natives, majority of which is the tribal community, consists of meats of turtles, wild boar, and other animals endemic to the Islands. Use of fire to cook food is still a rare phenomenon and the Sentinelese, which is a protected community and an un-contacted tribe, are known to eat raw meat. Wild honey is harvested and stored for use and sea turtle eggs are also a delicacy. On Lakshadweep islands, which are about 420 km off the Kerala coast, a south Indian influenced cuisine as well as traditional recipes of sea food make for the daily diets of people. | <urn:uuid:7b8571a6-221f-428a-b24f-9695a806b35b> | https://mediaindia.eu/dossier/the-flavour-of-indian-coasts/ | en | 0.954578 | 0.059348 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Nootropics Tutorials
Nootropics: A Beginner’s Guide To Cognitive Enhancers
The realm of nootropic substances (aka cognitive enhancers or smart drugs), at the time around its conception, was reserved for the very select few who had access to these novel cognition-enhancing drugs. In recent years, nootropics have gained more widespread recognition, and are more accessible to average individuals than ever before, thanks to the rising number of online vendors and communities who make these substances accessible for all.
The term “nootropic” has been consistently more and more searched on google ever since 2011 (the year when the film Limitless was released) , and people’s interest in the subject will certainly continue to rise. Although nootropics still maintain a type of “fringe” status in the world of drugs, their infiltration into the mainstream is undeniable.
Nootropic Trend - Google searches of keyword "nootropics"
What is a Nootropic?
nootropic brainCorneliu E. Giurgea, the Romanian chemist who first synthesized piracetam, developed the concept of nootropic substance in 1972.[1] It is a combination of the Greek words “νους” (nous) meaning “mind”, and “τρoπoς” (tropos) meaning “bend” or “change”. This is what nootropics do. Essentially, they positively alter the way in which your mind works.
Nootropic drugs are a specific subtype of psychoactive substances. According to Giurgea, in order for a drug or supplement to be considered a nootropic, it must adhere to the following criteria:[2]
1. Enhances learning and memory
2. Enhances resistance of learned behaviors to conditions that will disrupt them
3. Protects the brain against physical of chemical injuries (such as concussions or neurotoxic drugs)
4. Increases the efficacy of cortical/subcortical control mechanisms of the brain (such as improving reaction time)
5. Typically lacks negative side-effects (i.e. sedation), and possesses low toxicity
Though these criteria lay out the foundation for what a nootropic is, most modern definitions are much more general. As a more common definition, nootropics are chemical substances or herbal supplements that enhance cognition and mental function.
If we think in terms of this general definition, there is about a 90% chance you use a pseudo-nootropic substance regularly. Caffeine, the most popular drug in the world, is commonly classified as a nootropic, due to the fact that it is stimulatory and enhances attentiveness linked to cognition, learning, and memory. [3] [4]
Certain substances that don’t explicitly enhance cognition are still sometimes grouped in with nootropics. This would include substances that improve mood, reduce anxiety, or promote an overall feeling of wellbeing. Some examples of these substances are phenibut, sulbutiamine, and ashwagandha. Even if these supplements don’t have mechanisms that directly improve cognition, their mood-improving capabilities will tend to lead to an enhanced ability to focus and think clearly.
Who Uses Them?
Giurgea coined the term “nootropic” after he synthesized piracetam, which is, under Giurgea’s definition, the first substance to display purely nootropic properties. Piracetam has cognitive enhancing and neuroprotective capabilities while also possessing relatively few side effects. [5] Because of this, piracetam is commonly used to improve cognition in individuals who are experiencing the cognitive decline that comes with old age, dementia, or Alzheimer’s.
With the development of piracetam, other nootropic substances were investigated and researched for their applications in those who experience cognitive decline. Many drugs derived from piracetam (referred to as racetams) have been developed in hopes that they would yield even more benefits than piracetam. For instance, phenylpiracetam displays stimulant properties in addition to cognitive enhancement. [6] Likewise, aniracetam works as an anxiolytic. [7]
Modafinil is wakefulness-enhancing nootropic used by college students as a safer alternative to Ritalin and Adderall
Up until the past decade, these kinds of cognitive-enhancing drugs were only used extensively in clinical applications, such as treating cognitive illnesses. However, the past few years have seen tremendous growth in the use of nootropics among younger healthy individuals in hopes that they could improve their performance in work or academic studies. For example – modafinil (Provigil), a wakefulness-promoting nootropic substance, has seen increased usage among college students as an alternative to Adderall, due to the fact that it aids the brain in focusing on tasks for extended periods of time without fatigue. [8]
Many nootropic substances, such as the racetams and tianeptine (an antidepressant nootropic), are prescription drugs in Europe but are unscheduled in the United States. This has led to many of them being sold online by nootropic vendors, making them readily available for those who wish to purchase them.
Not surprisingly, Russia, the country that has developed a large number of nootropics (including Phenibut, Picamilon, Phenylpiracetam, Selank, Semax, Cerebrolysin, Emoxypine and so on), it’s the place where the keyword “nootropic(s)” is most popular in 2016[9], according to Google.
The increasing number and growth of online communities, such as the nootropics subreddit, has attracted the attention of younger individuals who seek to improve their cognitive performance and preserve their youthful cognitive capabilities. These online communities are extremely valuable sources of information on all things related to nootropics. They are open forums where anyone can ask questions about smart drugs and cognitive enhancement and engage in valuable discussion. Many newer nootropic substances have not been extensively tested in clinical settings, but anecdotal user reports can be found within these online communities.
Where Do I Begin?
If you are determined to make a go at nootropic supplementation, then logically the smart thing to do is implement the smartest ways to use smart drugs. You do not have to be a brain surgeon to begin effectively supplementing with nootropics, but understanding at least the bare bones of the foundations of a few related fields like neuroscience, neurology, and drug metabolism, is vital to getting the most out of them.
Ideally, you want a good working understanding of all the major mechanisms of action, including receptor systems involved in memory, mood and cognition (dopamine, GABAacetylcholineserotonin, etc).learning memory nootropics Attempting anything other could end up as catastrophically as fiddling with the kernel of your operating system without knowing how it works. The best way to go about it is to learn what happens to drugs inside the body, how the classic nootropics work (like Piracetam and Aniracetam), and what are some of the basic nootropic stacks.
Even though it can be a bit daunting at first, you will also want to learn how to access & read scientific researchwhat is acetylcholine (the learning and memory neurotransmitter), how it works, how the brain produces it and what is a choline precursor. Learning the major neurotransmitters, understanding the difference between excitatory and inhibitory neurotransmitters, all these are great places to start.
When first getting into the world of cognitive enhancement, the sheer number of substances out there can be very intimidating. Here is a short list that outlines some of the most popular and proven nootropics for beginners.
Wakefulness and Motivation
• Caffeine and L-Theanine – Promotes wakefulness and is stimulating in general. The addition of L-theanine helps reduce the negative side effects of caffeine, such as anxiety. Additionally, L-theanine also improves cognition.
• Modafinil, Armodafinil, and Adrafinil – These three compounds are chemically related. Armodafinil is the active isomer of modafinil and is thus generally more potent. Adrafinil is a prodrug to modafinil. In other words, it is metabolized into modafinil by the body. All three of these are used to promote wakefulness and reduce fatigue.
• Rhodiola Rosea – A herb that acts as an adaptogen, meaning it aids the body in reacting positively to stressful stimuli. It typically reduces feelings of fatigue and is slightly stimulatory. It is also sometimes used to lessen the effects of caffeine withdrawal.
Note: Prescription drugs such as Adderall (amphetamine) and Ritalin (methylphenidate) are especially effective at increasing feelings of motivation. However, they carry additional side effects and risks of dependency, and should be used with caution.
General Cognition
piracetam nootropic adhd
• Piracetam – The original racetam, was originally developed as a sleep-aid because of it’s GABA structure, when given to rats it improved their memory and cognition.
• Noopept – Is chemically similar to piracetam but is active at a fraction of the dose (10 mg vs 1000 mg), and also increases the production of NGF and BDNF, two neurotrophic factors that promote the survival and differentiation of neurons. It typically provides an increase in cognitive ability along with mild stimulation.
• Aniracetam – Provides cognitive effects that are similar to Noopept, but is also anxiolytic in nature. It is especially helpful in helping the brain associate different thoughts and piecing them together to form the “bigger picture.”
• Phenylpiracetam – Similarly aids cognition like noopept and aniracetam, but it noticeably more stimulatory. It is also known to be more neuroprotective, and aids in preventing cognitive decline. It is a good alternative to Modafinil.
Note: Because racetams and noopept work through modulation of acetylcholine, they should be supplemented alongside a choline source, such as alpha-GPC or CDP-choline.
Mood Improvement
• Tianeptine – Chemically a tricyclic antidepressant, tianeptine is novel in the fact that it improves mood while also serving as a neuroprotectant and cognitive enhancer.
• Phenibut – an anxiolytic compound that may enhance cognition in stressful situations (like exams or a public presentation) through means of reduced anxiety.
• Bacopa monnieri – Bacopa has been found to improve the formation, retention, and acquisition of memory. It is an adaptogen and is often taken for its anxiolytic properties
• Huperzine A – an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor (a compound that prevents the breakdown of the neurotransmitter acetylcholine) extracted from the plant Huperzia Serrata.
What To Expect
Most nootropics rarely display immediate or noticeable acute effects on cognition and well-being (the only exception being stimulant nootropics like Modafinil and Phenylpiracetam) . In fact, they are typically used for long-term neuroprotection, and may not display immediate or noticeable results from use. The psychoactive effects of nootropics are more subtle than the effects of recreational drugs but are ultimately more beneficial. By definition, the daily use of nootropic substances should be far more sustainable than that of recreational drugs.
Nootropics are meant to be safe to use indefinitely though not all drugs sometimes referred to as “nootropics” will meet these criteria. For instance, phenibut, a GABAergic anxiolytic, is sometimes discussed as having nootropic capabilities related to anxiety reduction. However, phenibut has a fairly high risk of causing dependency or withdrawal, and should not be used on a daily basis.
coffe and modafinil pure nootropics
Modafinil is used by college students as a safer alternative to Ritalin and Adderall
Many people supplement multiple nootropics at once to maximize their cognitive benefits. These combinations of substances are referred to as “stacks”. For instance, one might stack caffeine and L-theanine because L-theanine is known to reduce the jitters and anxiety that come with caffeine. [10] When taking multiple nootropics, it is extremely important to research any potential negative interactions between substances. is an invaluable resource for researching nootropics and their possible interactions.
Nootropics can certainly be of great benefit to those who wish to improve their cognitive function and protect their minds from degradation. However, nootropics will likely be far more beneficial when they are used in combination with exercise, a proper diet, and meditation.[11] Nootropics can only do so much, and are certainly not an excuse to neglect these other primary health factors.
In addition to this, nootropics should not be used to treat mental disorders unless under the direction of a trained health professional. It may seem tempting to use promising and novel nootropics to treat something like depression, but there is still some amount of risk involved with doing so, especially given the fact that many of the newest nootropics still require a great deal of research before they can be used clinically.
Even if “old” nootropics like racetams are totally safe, it is still a good idea to check out interactions if you’re taking prescription medications.
Up Next
References [ + ]
Where To Buy Nootropics: Get The Biggest Bang For Your Buck
Corneliu E. Giurgea, the Romanian chemist who first synthesized piracetam, developed the concept of nootropic substance in 1972. It is a combination of the Greek words “νους” (nous) meaning “mind”, and “τρoπoς” (tropos) meaning “bend” or “change”. This is what nootropics do. Essentially, they positively alter the way in which your mind works.
1. Enhances learning and memory
Recommended Nootropic Suppliers
* Modafinil and Armodafinil supplier
Cholinergics Nootropics
What Is The Best Choline Supplement For Cognitive Enhancement?
Although any aspiring researcher will no doubt have encountered what was once classified as a vitamin, choline, many intriguing questions surround its use, questions which are not always addressed in the literature. The aim of this article is to provide the reader with an introduction to choline and its effects, as well as the different forms of cholinergic supplements and some of the most common combinations with other nootropics.
What is Choline?
Choline is an essential nutrient for intestinal, cognitive, and neuromuscular health. It is a water-soluble vitamin, and it is sometimes grouped with other B-complex vitamins as vitamin J.
An endogenous agent first isolated from ox bile, choline is distributed throughout the body, where it fulfills a variety of functions ranging from the liver to the brain, but it is notable for being the precursor to acetylcholine, an important neurotransmitter which is involved in many functions including memory, muscle control, and mood.
The forms found in the body are often very close (or exactly the same) as the ones you buy at your supplement store: CDP-Choline (also known as Citicoline) and GPC (glycerophosphocholine) both occur naturally in all animal brains.
CDP is actually the last step before phosphatidylcholine (an essential cell membrane component, like cholesterol), while GPC is the very next step after phosphatidylcholine. From there, it becomes plain old choline, then acetylcholine or betaine. The figure below helps paint a picture of what’s going on inside the brain. GPC appears in the center, while CDP is in the upper right corner. Now, you may wonder how GPC and CDP can occur before choline, that is, be precursors, and still be more effective supplements than plain choline? Surely supplementing the final step in the ladder would be better? Not quite. The answer lies in the fact that the precursor enjoys interesting effects of its own, as well as a higher bioavailability and blood-brain-barrier permeability.
Choline synthesis from Citicoline
Across a range of experiments and ethnicities, elderly individuals show the greatest response to choline supplementation. Age-related memory decline is a complicated process, with many contributing factors. It seems likely that a reduction in the availability of choline in the brain is one of them. By addressing this issue, the severity of the mental decline might be lessened. Choline is also somewhat helpful in stroke recovery, with studies supporting citicoline[1] and Alpha-GPC.[2]
However, there may be benefits for healthy subjects too. A study showed that Donepezil, an acetylcholinesterase inhibitor, improves certain measures of learning and memory in young adults.[3]
Interestingly, it plays a role in physical health too, especially with the liver, which is the first organ to show signs of stress in deficiency, but also in certain autoimmune diseases. In cases where the rogue antibody attacks neuromuscular acetylcholine receptors, symptoms usually include impaired motor skills, and increasing the supply of acetylcholine (to compete with the antibodies) is the first line of treatment.
Natural Occurrence
The recommended daily intake ranges from 350 to 600 mg. It is found in reasonable quantities in many foods, with common sources including eggs, peanuts, grains, meats (especially organ meats), spinach and beets.So while athletes who eat a lot of whole foods are unlikely to benefit from supplementation, elderly and more sedentary individuals may. Those who eat more processed than whole foods may also benefit from a choline supplement because processed foods are often lacking in choline.
So while athletes who eat a lot of whole foods are unlikely to benefit from supplementation, vegans, elderly and more sedentary individuals may. Those who eat more processed than whole foods may also benefit from a choline supplement because processed foods are often lacking in choline.
Interactions & “Stacking”
Too little choline results in mental slowness or brain fog, while too much causes a low mood, dysthymia, and muscular stiffness.
Choline should not be combined with pharmaceutical or herbal acetylcholinesterase inhibitors, like Huperzine, Galantamine, and Donepezil, as this can overwhelm the neuromuscular junction with too much acetylcholine. Many snake and spider venoms work by inhibiting or activating the peripheral acetylcholine receptor, inducing death either by asphyxia (low acetylcholine) or convulsion (high acetylcholine).
When taken with Piracetam (or another “-racetam“), some people find that the Choline should be taken about two hours before Piracetam. So, one idea is to take choline with breakfast, and piracetam with lunch. There are reports of fatigue or brain fog, the fatigue moreso with aniracetam than piracetam, but this may be caused by either an excessively high dose, or also the “depressive” characteristic of aniracetam contrasted against a more stimulant characteristic of piracetam. This may explain why some users have opted for aniracetam without choline (after reporting fatigue, brain fog, and low mood when combining the two). But choline has still been reported to act synergistically with Pramiracetam and Noopept.
A question commonly asked is how often it should be taken, or at what time of the day. With most supplements, it does not make much difference how the dose is divided, but acetylcholine can interfere with the deeper stages of sleep, so taking it with breakfast is advisable. And, as explained above, piracetam itself is thought to deplete choline, so a common strategy is to take the choline a few hours earlier. This lends itself well to taking piracetam with brunch. Some users may choose to take piracetam twice a day, and choline once or twice a day.
Having given the reader a background on choline, we now turn our attention to the focus of the article, which is explaining differences between common forms of choline.
CDP-Choline (Citicoline)
CDP-CholineCDP-Choline is unique among choline sources for containing Cytidine, a compound related to Uridine, a media spectacle which once made rounds in the nootropic community, it has served as the basis to the “Mr. Happy stack” and inspired many nootropic enthusiasts.
After ingestion of Citicoline, there is a significant increase in choline and uridine plasma levels[4], after which the latter goes on to induce a plethora of beneficial effects, particularly on the dopamine system. Studies indicate it promotes dopamine release[5] and increases the densities of dopamine receptors. While offering the benefits of uridine, CDP makes no sacrifice in delivering choline.
Daily dose varies between 300 and 1000 mg.
Alpha GPC
Alpha GPC is glycerylphosphorylcholine (a metabolite of CDP-Choline) with an added acetyl group that makes it more lipophilic, thus able to cross the blood-brain barrier more easily. The most bioavailable, pure, and blood-brain barrier permeable of all choline sources considered in our review, it also has interesting properties that other sources do not. It boosts HGH and physical performance[6]. It also improves the functioning of the vesicular choline transporter[7], as well as serotonin, dopamine[8] and GABA synthesis.[9]
Although highly effective in the elderly, this one in high doses carries a risk of hypercholinergic states. Even though it is not harmful, too much brain choline is reported to have a counterintuitive effect of causing brain fog, fatigue, or confusion. Used in moderation, this choline source can be very effective. Although expensive, a little goes a long way.
Daily dose varies between 300 and 800 mg.
Choline Bitartrate & Citrate
Behind lecithin, these are the most inexpensive and widely available forms of Choline and are commonly supplemented by those who suffer from fatty liver, hepatitis, and cirrhosis to enhance their liver detoxification pathways.
Choline bitartrate nootropicAs with any supplement, users have reported differing effects, but researchers are inclined to the view that both bitartrate and citrate are more or less identical in effect, with differing experiences being explained by individual differences. The foods you eat, how well you sleep, the mood you wake up in, and your activity level are all things which vary from day to day and things which might influence your response to choline, but these factors are not always included in the reports.
This would be a decent choice for someone looking for general health benefits, but it may not be the best solution for cognitive enhancement as these forms of choline do not cross the blood-brain-barrier as well as Alpha GPC and Citicoline.
Daily dose varies between 250 and 1000 mg.
Lecithin, the most natural form, commonly derived from soy or sunflower, it supplies a unique form of choline, phosphatidylcholine.
Soy lecithinPhosphatidylcholine is an interesting supplement by itself, it not only helps as choline precursor but also plays a role in cell membrane integrity by donating itself to components of the ”phospholipid bilayer” which was so passionately extolled by our high school biology teachers.
Although the least potent form of choline (the most potent being Alpha GPC and Citicoline), a higher dose can be used to a somewhat similar effect. It contains certain other “less essential” phosphatidyl groups (including phosphatidylinositol), which though not harmful, contribute little to the nootropic effects of lecithin. Because of this, a larger dose is needed than with most choline supplements.
Its bioavailability is as good, and there is no concern over contamination or purity, however, beware of cheap soy lecithin because it is often derived from genetically modified soy, so make sure you’re buying GMO-free soy lecithin. More importantly, it may not be as good as other choline precursors, as far as cognitive enhancement.
Daily dose varies between 500 and 2000 mg.
Capable of improving acetylcholine synthesis[10], DMAE improves physical performance and alertness[11], as well as some measures of mood[12] in healthy volunteers, making it by definition a nootropic. However, even though it may look excellent on paper, it is not very effective as a cognitive enhancer, and it may even act as an anticholinergic according to some research.[13]
Daily dose varies between 100 and 500 mg.
Although not strictly a “choline source,” Centrophenoxine (also known as Meclofenoxate) is a potently and selectively cholinergic supplement often used in dementia patients. It is an improved version of DMAE, and it has been found to improve memory, attention, and general cognition in young and aged rats.[14]
One of its remarkable properties is to increase acetylcholine release[15] while slowing down lipofuscin accumulation[16] [17], which is thought to cause Alzheimer’s disease.[18]
Daily dose varies between 200 and 800 mg.
Acetyl-L-carnitine has more rich and interesting effects on brain health than plain L-carnitine, suggesting the acetyl group plays a pivotal role, helping acetylcholine pathways.
It is known to significantly boost NGF[19], mitochondrial function, and alertness in both healthy and elderly subjects. Supplementation increases serotonin and noradrenaline synthesis in the cortex and hippocampus[20].
Daily dose varies between 400 and 2000 mg.
Although not strictly cholinergic, this supplement often taken alongside ALCAR, an acetyl donor, and both supplements can indirectly help in methylation as well as acetylcholine pathways.
Taken on its own, it is able to partially restore acetylcholine levels of aged rats. It has cortisol and stress-lowering properties, particularly after chronic administration.[21] Studies on spatial memory in healthy volunteers have been mixed, but against ADHD they have been more conclusive[22] [23], with a noteworthy effectiveness. Phosphatidylserine makes up an important part of the nerve membrane, its ratio to phosphatidylethanolamine and phosphatidylcholine determines the overall strength of the membrane.
Daily dose varies between 100 and 300 mg.
References [ + ]
1. Citicoline in the treatment of acute ischaemic stroke: an international, randomised, multicentre, placebo-controlled study (ICTUS trial). (2012)
2. alpha-Glycerophosphocholine in the mental recovery of cerebral ischemic attacks. An Italian multicenter clinical trial. (1994)
3. Acute cognitive effects of donepezil in young, healthy volunteers. (2009)
4. Effect of oral CDP-choline on plasma choline and uridine levels in humans. (2000)
5. Dietary uridine-5′-monophosphate supplementation increases potassium-evoked dopamine release and promotes neurite outgrowth in aged rats. (2005)
6. Acute supplementation with alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine augments growth hormone response to, and peak force production during, resistance exercise (2008)
7. Effect of L-alpha-glyceryl-phosphorylcholine on amnesia caused by scopolamine. (1991)
8. Modulation of monoaminergic transporters by choline-containing phospholipids in rat brain. (2013)
9. Evidence for an in vivo and in vitro modulation of endogenous cortical GABA release by alpha-glycerylphosphorylcholine. (1996)
11. The influence of 2-dimethylaminoethanol (DMAE) on the mental and physical efficiency in man. (1967)
12. Mood alterations during deanol therapy. (1979)
13. Deanol and methylphenidate in minimal brain dysfunction. (1975)
14. Age-related differences in memory and in the memory effects of nootropic drugs. (1990)
15. Effect of centrophenoxine on acetylcholine release in perfused cerebral ventricles of cats under dynamic electrophysiological control. (1979)
16. Neuronal lipofuscin in centrophenoxine treated rats. (1977)
17. Lipofuscinogenesis in mice early treated with centrophenoxine. (1978)
18. Lipofuscin hypothesis of Alzheimer’s disease. (2011)
19. Acetyl-L-carnitine treatment increases nerve growth factor levels and choline acetyltransferase activity in the central nervous system of aged rats. (1994)
20. Chronic acetyl-L-carnitine alters brain energy metabolism and increases noradrenaline and serotonin content in healthy mice. (2012)
Nootropics Tianeptine
Tianeptine Abuse, Safety and Withdrawal Syndrome
Tianeptine is a tricyclic antidepressant whose mechanism of action has been puzzling scientists for years. In fact, unlike most antidepressants, Tianeptine does not target monoamines (serotonin, norepinephrine, dopamine). It is, therefore, a very effective solution for individuals suffering from depression and anxiety, especially those who are afraid of the side effects of currently available antidepressants.
A few years ago, a new mechanism of action has been unveiled that is now thought to mediate the beneficial effects of Tianeptine on depression and cognition: mu-opioid receptor agonism. So what does this mean for Tianeptine users? Is it time to starting worrying about potential opiate-like addiction and withdrawal symptoms? Let’s find out.
1985-2009: Discovery & 5-HT theory
Tianeptine was discovered by French researchers Antoine Deslandes and Michael Spedding in the 1980s. We do not know exactly when that happened, but the first study that mentions “Tianeptine” was published in 1986.[1]
The animal studies carried in the late-90s to early 2000s showed that Tianeptine may be part of a new class of drugs named serotonin reuptake enhancers (SRE). In short, these drugs enhance serotonin uptake, instead of inhibiting it, thus reducing the overall amount of serotonin (5-HT) in the synapse. Serotonin reuptake enhancers, therefore, have the opposite mechanism of action of SSRIs drugs like Prozac and Zoloft.
It is important to point out that, until a couple of years ago, depression was thought to be the result of a depletion of monoamine neurotransmitters[2] [3], and, in particular, serotonin. This is known as the monoamine theory of depression.
However, when experimenting with pharmaceutical agents that are known to cause monoamine depletion, researchers have failed to generate (or worsen) depression in healthy subjects.[4] In addition, the MOA of drugs like Opipramol, — and Tianeptine itself —, is unrelated to monoamines, and they still have been found an antidepressant effect. Nowadays the monoamine theory is no longer the ruling paradigm in depression research, and depression is thought to be a consequence of several different neurotransmitters and brain changes.
So the theory that Tianeptine is an SRE may have been influenced by the technical limitations of the time, as well as the popular theory that antidepressant work by “fixing” a monoamine imbalance. But that was going to change with two new discoveries.
2010-2014: New findings
A study published in 2010[5], first mentioned the fact that Tianeptine’s antidepressant effects may have nothing to do with serotonin and other monoamines. The researchers thought, instead, that the antidepressant effects may be due to glutamateric modulation[6]. Tianeptine, in fact, has shown to be neuroprotective and to promote neurogenesis, as well as reduce the release of glutamate, a neurotransmitter that is thought to be implicated in schizophrenia, anxiety, depression, psychosis and bipolar disorder.[7]
However, the real surprise came four years later, when a study[8] showed that Tianeptine activates mu-opioid receptors[9], the same receptors targeted by frequently abused opioid drugs such as morphine, heroin and oxycodone.
Abuse of Tianeptine
Tianeptine is a relatively safe drug. However, like many pharmaceutical drugs, it can be used for purely recreational purposes.
Many heroin users in Russia, in fact, were abusing Coaxil (one of Tianeptine brand names), long before scientific research proved that it works as an opioid agonist. An article, published in the newspaper “Moscow Komsomolec” in 2008, first raised the alarm about Tianeptine abuse in Russia. This was the about the same time that Krokodil — a cheap homemade heroin substitute[10] that it is famously known to destroy body tissues[11] and cause death in a manner of weeks — hit Russia and neighboring countries, when the former USSR country started a major crackdown on heroin production and trafficking.
The drug market has changed completely in past few years in Moscow. “The time of synthetics has come!”-say drug users.
Everything was clear before: heroin, cannabis, “clubbing” pills. Today the main drugs are so-called pharmaceutical drugs: drugs that cannot be sold without a prescription, but nevertheless they are sold in big quantities through dishonest pharmacists. The most widely-spread and most dangerous one is antidepressant Coaxil. Its affordable and life-threatening if injected intravenously. […]
-If you watch the process of making coaxil substance by drug users you will see quite clearly why. They crush the pills and dissolve them in water, very often it is tap water. Then they get a disperse substance and it’s particles cause damage to a vessel and build a thrombus (clot) inside it. The thrombus starts growing rapidly. The thrombus itself is a very good environment for various microorganisms and that provokes purulent complications. If a drug user by chance injects coaxil into an artery –then that develops thrombus not only in a big vessel, but even in small ones, called arterioles. In these cases gangrene starts very quickly. As a rule complications come in the first six months of using the drug, sometimes even sooner. Very often “neophytes of coaxil” slip up at first injection. The most careful and accurate can last maximum for a year.
As a consequence, Tianeptine is now a controlled substance in Russia and France.
Tianeptine is not the only drug of the tricyclic family of antidepressants that has been banned. Amineptine – a drug closely related to Tianeptine – was banned years ago due to liver damage and frequent abuse and addiction among patients who were prescribed it as a depression treatment. I would like to point out that, unlike Tianeptine, Amineptine is also a dopamine reuptake inhibitor, so it may have a higher recreational value compared to Tianeptine.
Safety of Tianeptine
Tianeptine is safe at the recommended dose (12.5 mg three times a day) and users may benefit from the neurogenic, neuroprotective and antidepressant properties of the drug without having to worry about addiction and withdrawal symptoms.
That said, Tianeptine is not the kind of nootropic that you take every day and “forget about it.” It is still a very potent compound, with multiple molecular targets, and I can easily imagine how some people — particularly those with a history of drug abuse — may be tempted to binge on it, in an attempt to emulate the effects of prescription painkillers.
It is, therefore, a good idea to cycle it with other antidepressant nootropics, like Coluracetam or NSI-189. Tianeptine has instant mood elevating properties, and some users report tolerance to the positive effects after repeated administration, so it may be a good idea to use Tianeptine as needed instead of taking it daily for extended periods of time.
Withdrawal Symptoms
Tianeptine withdrawal is characterized by high level of anxiety and excitability[12] akin to withdrawal from opioids. The severity of the symptoms is directly influenced by the dosage used and the length of time that the drug has been taken.
A Reddit user reported full-blown withdrawal syndrome akin to opiate withdrawal when using Tianeptine at an incredible dose of 250 mg to 1 gram (!) of Tianeptine sodium a day. You can find more details about his experience here. However, as said before, it’s no wonder that the user had those symptoms when talking about that sort of amount of drug in their bodies. In my experience, Kratom is an overall better opioid replacement as far as safety and risk of addiction.
If you are going to use Tianeptine long-term, we suggest Tianeptine Sulfate or Free Acid. The slightly longer duration of effect of these compounds means a lower risk of addiction and withdrawals (though it has not been scientifically tested).
In the end, I feel that Tianeptine is an incredible drug, one that can be truly life-changing for those who suffer from depression and anxiety. I discourage anyone from trying Tianeptine if they are just looking for a “legal high”.
It would be a shame if the drug were banned because a few subjects exploiting the legal status of this amazing substance in search of a poor man’s high.
That’s all for now — for any question or doubts leave us a comment; and if you have enjoyed the article consider following our Facebook and Twitter age.
References [ + ]
DMAE Nootropics Picamilon Vinpocetine
The 5 Most Overrated Nootropics
DMAE Deaner advertisement nootropic
DMAE advertisement from the late 50s
• DMAE causes birth defects[4]
• DMAE reduced lifespan in a study on quails[6]
Try instead: Centrophenoxine, CDP-Choline, Alpha GPC
Ginkgo Biloba
Try instead: Bacopa or Noopept
Picamilon Russian Nootropic
Russian Picamilon
Try instead: L-Theanine, Tianeptine, Phenibut
Vinpocetine and Vincamine comparison
Try instead: Piracetam, PRL-8-53
How Adrafinil gets converted to Modafinil in the liver
Try instead: Modafinil or Armodafinil
References [ + ]
5. DMAE sucks! – LONGECITY Forum
8. Ginkgo biloba for Prevention of Dementia
12. FDA sends five warning letters over supplements containing picamilon
14. [Pikamilon pharmacokinetics in animals]
17. Modafinil: past, present and future.
Life Extension Nootropics Reviews
Cerebramin and the Cytamins – My Experience
Even though the first nootropic, Piracetam, was discovered by a Romanian chemist, we can truly say that Russia is the true motherland of nootropics. From the “oldies”, such as Phenibut and Picamilon, to the newest additions, Russia has always been the bleeding edge of nootropic research. Today we are going to talk about Cerebramin and other compounds of the cytamins family.
Cytamins are nucleoproteins complex isolated from the organs of healthy cattle. These compounds are part of a new family of compounds developed in Russia, and called peptide bioregulators, that are being researched as anti-aging treatments.
Peptide bioregulators
From 1971 to 1996, researchers at the St Petersburg Bioregulation and Gerontology Institute studied and documented the role of peptides in aging. [1] [2] What they discovered is the body releases tissue-specific compounds, of peptide structure, that mediate interactions between cells. As such, they were named peptide bioregulators.
The researchers then isolated and purified those peptides from the organs of healthy cattle and pigs and found out that they had a normalizing effect on the abnormal cells of senescent and/or sick animals. These promising peptides have been developed into a new class of pharmaceuticals, the cytomedins, (e.g. Cortexin, Thymalin and Epithalamin, which has been further developed into Epitalon) as well as para-pharmaceuticals, the cytamins, such as Cerebramin, Vasalamin and Retinalamin.
So what’s the difference between the cytamins and the cytomedins?
Cytamins are “interpolymer complexes of tissue-specific proteins with nucleic acids.”[3] Essentially, they are a mixture of compounds such as nucleoproteins, vitamins, peptides and amino acids. The patented technology of cytamins manufacture includes alkaline hydrolysis from tissue cells, consecutive precipitation of nucleoprotein complexes, their purification from ballast substances, and manufacture of the ready form as enterosoluble tablets or capsules.[4]
In the manufacturing of Cytamins only calves and pigs less than 12 months old are employed, and strictly from Russian farms where “no human-endangering infectious diseases including transmissive bovine spongiform encephalopathy has been registered”.[5] Also, Russia is known for “its epizootological and epidemiological safety in respect to prion diseases.”[6] Not only that, but electrophoresis and Congo red staining (the recommended method of testing for Mad Cow disease) are employed to check for the presence of prion proteins.
There are over 17 cytamins on the market, and they are manufactured at “Longvy Farm” in Russia. More information about the cytamins can be found at the official website.
Some of the most famous cytamins are:
• Brain (Cerebramin)
• Liver (Hepatamin)
• Stomach and duodenum (Ventramin)
• Pancreas (Pancramin)
• Lungs and respiratory system (Bronchalamin)
• Heart (Coramin)
• Circulatory system (Vasalamin)
Dr. A.S. Bashkireva[7] tested the use of Cerebramin and Vasalamin on driving performance, in both healthy subjects as well subjects with depression, anxiety and other mood disorders. The results were that the cytamins were “very effective in the correction of psychoemotional disorders and for attaining stable psychic adaptation”. [8]
[…] 150 professional drivers (men aged 30-59 years) were examined using a clinical questionnaire to identify, estimate and compare neurotic states according to 6 scales of anxiety, neurotic depression, asthenia, hysterical type of reacting, obsessive-phobic disorders and neurovegetative disturbances. The drivers were divided into 5 groups, 30 persons in each: I group received Cerebramin→, II — Vasalamin→, III — Cerebramin→ + Vasalamin→, IV — placebo, V — no preparations. […] The analysis of the incidence of various PES revealed a statistically significant increase in the number of drivers with stable psychic adaptation in Groups I, II, and III after cytamin correction as compared to the baseline level (3.3-, 2.4-, and 2.3-fold, correspondingly, p<0.001-0.05). A statistically relevant decrease in the number of the drivers with unstable psychic adaptation in Groups I, II, and III after a cytamin course was noted in comparison with the baseline level (2.5-, 3.0-, and 3.3-fold, respectively, p<0.001- 0.05). […] A detailed examination of the drivers’ PES according to different scales convincingly demonstrated the efficacy of combined application of Cerebramin and Vasalamin in correction of anxiety (p=0.001), neurotic depression (p=0.0001), asthenia (p=0.0001), hysterical type of reacting (p=0.0004), obsessive-phobic states (p=0.0001), and neurovegetative disorders (p=0.003). […]
The presented results showed the occupational hazards and long driving experience being the risk factors for the development of BMD. The applied parameters of PES and early manifestations of BMD are informative criteria for assessing the life quality and professional suitability of lorry-drivers. Cytamins […] are very effective in the correction of psychoemotional disorders and for attaining stable psychic adaptation. [9]
Cerebramin: My Experience
In my anecdotal, and totally unscientific experience with Cerebramin (the cattle brain extract), I can’t say to have noticed any effect. However, I am 24 years old, and this supplement is to be used in the elderly, so I cannot make any real judgment. That said, I feel that “real drugs” like the cytomedins (eg Epitalon, a pineal gland peptide, and Cortexin, a brain peptide) have a huge potential, and I’d like to try them out in the future.
You can buy Cerebramin, Cortexin and other rare Russian nootropics at RUPharma.
Reviewer 5.5
References [ + ]
Look at this beautiful DMAE ad from the 70s
This beautiful magazine advertisement from Eduardo A. Cánovas depicts the brain, that is, the primary target of Tonibral, one of the many names by which the p-acetamidobenzoate salt of DMAE was being sold, from the early 50s to the late 70s.
We already know by now that DMAE is basically useless as a nootropic, but what the hell, this is awesome, don’t you think?
DMAE Tonibral 70s ad
Nootropics Phenylpiracetam Racetams
Phenylpiracetam — Stimulant Nootropic: Effects, Dosage & Experiences
Those who spend any amount of time looking into nootropics will be very familiar with the racetam class of nootropics, a group of drugs that are structural derivatives of piracetam. These drugs display variance in the details of their effects, but they all exhibit neuroprotectant and cognitive-enhancing properties.
One of these piracetam derivatives, phenylpiracetam, is appealing to many nootropic users due to its many purported benefits.
Background and Benefits
phenylpiracetam nootropicPhenylpiracetam is frequently cited to display the following effects:[1][2]
• Memory enhancement
• Anti-amnesia
• Antidepressant
• Anticonvulsant
• Antipsychotic
• Anxiolytic
If phenylpiracetam does indeed have these listed properties, its appeal extends beyond just the sphere of nootropics. Any drug with that kind of resume is certainly impressive. Here we will examine this unique substance and its purported effects.
Phenylpiracetam, also known by its Russian pharmaceutical names Phenotropil and Carphedon, was developed in Russia in the 1980s as a piracetam derivative, with the hopes that it would display and expand upon the nootropic properties that make piracetam such a popular drug. Specifically, phenylpiracetam is a phenylated analog of piracetam, meaning that it is essentially a piracetam molecule with a phenyl group attached. Interestingly, some have theorized that phenylpiracetam’s purported stimulant effects may be due to the molecule’s similarity to phenethylamine (and, by extension, amphetamine).
These potential stimulant properties, along with phenylpiracetam’s ability to improve physical stamina, has led to the drug being banned from use in Olympic competitions.[3]
Dosage, Mechanism, and Effects
Phenylpiracetam is typically sold by online vendors in its pure powder form or as pharmaceutical tablets. Most of these sources sell a racemic mixture of the molecule, but some of the studies done on the effects of phenylpiracetam were conducted using only the R-isomer.
Phenylpiracetam Phenotropil Nootropic
Original Russian Phenylpiracetam (Phenotropil)
A single dose of phenylpiracetam typically ranges from 100200 mg. Most prescription guidelines state that phenylpiracetam can be taken 2-3 times per day, as the drug will exert effects on the body for about 4-6 hours before receding. It should be noted that most anecdotal reports from users indicate that phenylpiracetam builds up a tolerance rather quickly, so it might not be wise to use it for days in a row. That being said, the drug appears to be relatively safe to use regardless of tolerance buildup.
Phenylpiracetam’s mechanism of action still remains largely uncertain. While various studies have been conducted on its effects, few have dealt with the specifics of its pharmacology. However, one study performed on rats found that phenylpiracetam decreased the density of nACh and NMDA receptors in the hippocampus when they had previously been given scopolamine, an anticholinergic drug.
Phenylpiracetam was also found to increase the density of the D1, D2, and D3 dopamine receptors[4]. Dopamine receptors are important for motivation, arousal, pleasure, and memory.
It also appears that phenylpiracetam’s enantiomers have unique effects and properties. Most notably, studies indicate that the R-enantiomer is mostly responsible for its stimulating and cognition-enhancing effects while the S-enantiomer may be more responsible for stopping cognitive decline.[5]
One of the drug’s biggest potential uses is for treating cognitive decline brought on by diseases like Alzheimer’s. Various studies have been conducted in Russia studying the effect of phenylpiracetam on cognitive decline caused by organic causes. These studies found that phenylpiracetam improved the cognition of those with Alzheimer’s disease, and showed minor effectiveness in improving the cognition of patients afflicted with epilepsy. The drug did not, however, appear to improve cognition for those whose cognitive decline was brought on by traumatic brain injury.[6] In a study conducted on 400 patients with ischemic stroke, phenylpiracetam was able to improve cognition when taken at a dose of 400 mg per day for one year.[7]
There is currently no research conducted on phenylpiracetam’s effect on cognition in young, healthy subjects, although anecdotal reports throughout the internet suggest that it does improve cognition among those with no cognitive disorders. One study conducted on rats found that the R-enantiomer of phenylpiracetam was able to enhance cognition, but this result has not been replicated in any study using the racemic mixture.[8]
Zhiliuk, Mamchur & Pavlov[9] found that Phenylpiracetam improves the processes of learning and storing conditional skills when studying cognitive processes and functional state of mitochondria in the neocortex of alloxan-diabetic rats.[10]
Gustov, Smirnov, Korshunova IuA and Andrianova argue that Phenylpiracetam is beneficial to people who develop cognitive deficits and/or depression after encephalopathy and brain injuries.[11] It increased quality of life in patients with encephalopathy after acute lesions (30 people), brain traumas (33 people) and glioma surgery (36 people). The average Mini Mental State Examination (MMSE) scores (a 30-point questionnaire) from baseline improved in all groups. Anxiety improved and depression declined substantially, resulting in less discomfort and better ability to execute everyday activities.[12]
phenylpiracetam memorySome preliminary studies have found phenylpiracetam to have antidepressant properties. However, this area of effect has not seen as much research as the area of cognitive enhancement. A study performed on rats found that when phenylpiracetam was administered to rats, it significantly reduced depression symptoms caused by a forced-swim test.[13] A study conducted on human patients with cognitive decline concluded that phenylpiracetam is able to alleviate symptoms of depression.[14]
Perhaps one of the most unique and attractive benefits of phenylpiracetam is its ability to act as a psychostimulant. However, this effect is not very well researched, although one experiment conducted on rats found that phenylpiracetam increases locomotor activity for upwards of 2 hours.[15]
Anecdotal Reports
As with any nootropic drug that has not seen as much clinical research as one might hope, it is useful to look at anecdotal reports from users to give a fuller picture of the drug’s effects. Obviously, individual user reports are especially prone to the placebo effect and should be weighed and judged by the reader with caution.
Reddit user The_Antagonist said –
At the peak of it’s effects (about an hour in) I feel intense focus, not especially jittery, unless stacked with something else, just pure attention, and a complete abolishment of any lethargy I would have been feeling previously. It’s not really a euphoric compound, but I’ve noticed it seems to make me significantly happier when I’m accomplishing something on it. It might be the racetam effects rearing their head, but solving mathematical problems, or gaining a more complete understanding of a concept just feels plain good. This attribute [in particular], for me at least, makes it a hell of a study drug.[16]
Reddit user Notlambda
I’m not a social butterfly. I’m retarded when it comes to explaining a concept or defending an argument.
On phenylpiracetam (or daily doses of piracetam), I’m a social genius. What it feels like is that I’m not the one saying the words that I’m saying. It’s like I feed a “command” into a register in my brain that is then picked up by whatever part of my cortex deals with speech, and then I find myself just saying the perfect words to explain everything concisely.
It’s like I’m watching somebody else be awesome, but that somebody else is me. It’s really nice because I can free the rest of my mind to think about concepts while the “other” me is doing all the talking.
It’s also very subtle. I’m explaining this like it’s a dissociative experience or something like that. It’s not.[17]
From user le_unknown
I’ve had great results with phenylpiracetam. Without a doubt, it has been the nootropic that works best for me. Gives me alertness (but no jitteriness, I just feel awake and normal – kills all drowsiness), focus, and a tiny mood elevation. I’m surprised I don’t see more people talking about it…[18]
Phenylpiracetam’s seemingly wide array of effects and benefits makes it well worth looking into. Most notably, phenylpiracetam seems to provide many of the benefits of piracetam, while seemingly being more potent or effective in certain areas. Phenylpiracetam seems to noticeably provide cognitive capacity improvement, mood elevation, and stimulation. Experiences will vary widely among individual users, so we would highly recommend you try phenylpiracetam for yourself to see how it works for you.
You can buy Phenylpiracetam in powder form as well as in capsules at NootropicsDepot.
Reviewer 9
References [ + ]
Biohacking Coluracetam Nootropics PRL-8-53 Tutorials
Photographic Memory: Nootropics and Mnemonic Devices 101
What is Photographic Memory?
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary[1]
Case 1: The Mind of a Mnemonist
Solomon Shereshevsky Photographic Memory Nootropics
Solomon Shereshevsky
So what kind of visual perceptions did the Divine Comedy evoke?
Case 2: The Girl with Eidetic Memory
dot pattern photographic memory
A random dot pattern like the one given to Elizabeth
Kim Peek Super Memory
Kim Peek
Stephen Wiltshire Eidetic Memory
Stephen Wiltshire
How to Develop Photographic Memory
Memory: What is It, How to Improve it
• Choline is essential for short-term memory and memory consolidation
• Dopamine helps focus, motivation and general cognition[5]
• AMPA improves synaptic plasticity and strengthen synapses
References [ + ]
Nootropics NSI-189 Recovery
NSI-189: A Nootropic Antidepressant That Promotes Neurogenesis
The use of antidepressant medications in America is a rapidly growing portion of the pharmaceutical industry. The number of people who take antidepressants has increased by almost 400% from 1990 through 2008.[1] In addition, eleven percent of Americans aged 12 years and older take some form of antidepressant medication.
Antidepressants have long been a troubled group of drugs in terms of side-effects, with even the most recent class of antidepressants (SSRIs) exhibiting potential side-effects like insomnia, sexual dysfunction, or even worsened depression. These troublesome side-effects have displayed a clear need for more effective treatment options.
Prozac capsules and packaging anti depression medication
Despite the apparent need for a more effective class of antidepressants, no new major milestones have occurred regarding antidepressants since 1987, the year fluoxetine (Prozac) was approved by the FDA.[2] Since the beginning of Prozac’s use to treat depression, SSRIs have dominated the area of medical treatment for depression. This era of depression treatment has been going on for about 29 years. However, some progress is being made in the development of new antidepressants. One of the newest experimental drugs for depression, NSI-189, also displays nootropic properties. Here we will be examining some of the claims surrounding the purported benefits of NSI-189.
Origins of NSI-189
NSI-189 is an experimental drug currently being developed and studied by Neuralstem Inc., a biotechnology company that commercially produces neural stem cells for therapy.[3] The research and development of NSI-189 began in the 1990s, during the years of Bill Clinton’s presidency.
The Clinton administration contracted Neuralstem to research the possibilities of creating a “super soldier,” one that was able to stay awake and alert for extended periods of time.[4] The researchers at Neuralstem recognized that a drug targeting the hippocampus could possibly alleviate the effects of sleep deprivation and exhaustion, and set out to find a drug that could induce neurogenesis. Neuralstem, finding their prospects to be promising, continued research in this vein even after the government program was canceled.
This preliminary research would eventually result in the drug NSI-189. Clinical research on NSI-189 has been in the works since 2011, and a phase 1b trial was completed in July of 2014.[5] Clinical phase 1 trials typically focus on finding the correct dosage range of the drug, which has been placed around 40 to 80 mg per day in the treatment of Major Depressive Disorder (MDD) and cognitive decline.
NSI-189 structure
Chemically speaking, NSI-189 is classified as a small-molecule benzylpiperazine-aminopyridine drug, making it structurally unique among other antidepressants. However, the drug has also seen increased interest in terms of its ability to stimulate nerve growth in the hippocampus.
According to the official Neuralstem, Inc. press release concerning the phase 1b trial, “[NSI-189] is a proprietary new chemical entity that stimulates new neuron growth in the hippocampus, a region of the brain believed to be implicated in MDD, as well as other diseases and conditions such as traumatic brain injury (TBI), Alzheimer’s disease, and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD).”[6]
The phase 1b trial of NSI-189 was “a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multiple-dose escalating trial evaluating the safety, tolerability, pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamic effect of NSI-189 in the treatment of MDD.” Now that the trial has been completed, the results have been released, and they appear quite promising.
The study, which was conducted on 24 patients over the course of 28 days, found that NSI-189 administration reduced the symptoms of depression and cognitive decline significantly more than placebo. The drug was tolerated well by the subjects, and it “may also exhibit pro-cognitive properties associated with increases in prefrontal alpha coherence.” [7] [8]
Mechanism of Action
Selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs) attempt to treat depression by increasing levels of serotonin in the brain. This model of depression, known as the “monoamine hypothesis,” states that depression is caused by a shortage or imbalance of certain neurotransmitters in the depressed patient, mainly serotonin. However, this model has been quite drastically debunked in recent years.[9] Many researchers and psychiatrists now recognize that depression is far more complex than a simple chemical imbalance. New theories have emerged that recognize factors such as emotional trauma, environmental factors, glutamatergic dysfunction, and inflammation as potential causes of depression.
In short, depression is a complex web of interweaving causes and effects, both psychological and physiological. While scientists know from research that SSRIs and other antidepressants certainly have an effect in alleviating depression, the actual pharmacology behind the medications is far more unclear. Why do some respond to medication negatively? Why do some not respond at all? Because these questions are so intimately tied with genetic and biochemical factors, they are very difficult to address in a comprehensive manner.
These observations lead to two important points: First, depression is such a complex disorder that we don’t yet know the best way to treat it with medication. Second, SSRIs may be somewhat effective in alleviating depression, but we don’t completely understand why they work the way they do. Because the root causes of depression are still somewhat uncharted territory, exploration of new treatments that work differently than SSRIs is very important. By pioneering these treatments and observing their effects, the puzzle pieces that make up the full picture of depression can be pieced together into a comprehensive model.
NSI-189 vs Placebo Hippocampus
Topographs of average amplitude at 10-12 Hz showing increased high-frequency alpha in patients receiving NSI-189 at Day 28. Differences scores comparing conditions show most significant differences between total subjects receiving NSI-189 (left) vs. Placebo (right) in the left posterior temporal and parietal regions.
Some researchers, like those at Neuralstem, have noticed a correlation between reduced hippocampal volume and increased incidence of Major Depressive Disorder.[10] According to this theory, NSI-189 could potentially be a remedy to those suffering from depression by contributing to the growth of the patient’s hippocampus. Because the hippocampus is also so closely associated with memory, NSI-189 also has the potential to impact cognition.
This “hippocampal” model of depression is still in its infancy, and NSI-189 is one of the first drugs being researched that uses this specific form of treatment. Although it is known that NSI-189 increases hippocampal volume, the exact mechanism underlying this effect is still unsure. The results of the phase 1b trial even suggested that NSI-189s effect on hippocampal volume was not as drastic as that which was seen in animal studies.[11] Whether or not the increase of hippocampal volume persists after ceasing the medication remains to be determined. As the research and experimentation with NSI-189 continue, new research will shed light on this model for depression, and the medical community will be better able to understand the correlation between depression and hippocampal volume.
Purported Benefits
As mentioned above, the potential benefits of NSI-189 are:
1. Improvement in behavioral responses associated with depression.[12]
2. Reversal of hippocampal atrophy.[13]
3. May enhance memory and cognition through increase neurogenesis, particularly in depressed subjects.
4. Positive effects may persist after treatment ceases.[14]
Subjective Experiences
Because NSI-189 is still in its infancy as a clinical treatment for MDD and cognitive disorders, anecdotal information is important for those determining if they want to try NSI-189. This community poll conducted by /u/MisterYouAreSoDumb on /r/nootropics is useful for seeing various users’ experiences with NSI-189
A Reddit user, Code_of_Error, relayed his experience with NSI-189 in a post on reddit[15]:
I have been on NSI-189 Phosphate for three weeks now. I take 40mg orally once per day. I used to take it sublingually, but I learned that doing so may be counterproductive due to the possibility that too much is absorbed. Apparently, 40mg-80mg ORALLY was the sweet spot in clinical trials, so sublingual administration has too many unknowns to be worth it. Albeit, the freebase form is a different story.
Anyway, I started exploring this substance in hopes of counteracting my chronic brain fog, slight depersonalization, anhedonia, general feelings of haziness, and slow cognition.
Most notably, I have noticed an intensification of emotions, as well as pleasure. The first few days, I felt the inclination to tear up at every positive emotion. It felt ridiculous, but that has mostly leveled out. Although I am only three weeks in, I notice I am more inclined to look forward to plans. I am quicker to laugh and socialize.
Prior to NSI-189, every emotion I experienced felt like nothing more than background noise. Now a days, all of my emotions feel more genuine, as if they’re at the forefront of my brain. When I experience anxiety, I no longer feel so dissociated from it. When I feel joy, it tends to last longer. Although these new perspectives are scary, I welcome the change. My default state of mind tends to be slightly perkier as well.
I will admit that I am more guided by my emotions than I have been in years, and I am totally enabling it. I don’t recommend falling in love while on this substance. However, this substance is bringing me closer to my long-lost inner feelings. The effects aren’t perfect, and I still often feel that irritating haze (i.e., brain fog/dulled-out sensation/whatever ambiguous symptoms) to a degree, but I hope that my mental issues continue to improve as I stay on this. I’ve certainly made strides.
Interestingly, I have noticed that I better able to “feel” the effects of nootropics while on this as well. Caffeine has a much more profound effect on me (comparable to when I first started using it), and the effects of tianeptine are as potent as ever. Again, I feel as if this speaks MORE to NSI-189’s ability to make you feel and less to its ability to reduce tolerance.
Lastly, I would venture to say I am bit sharper mentally, and less likely to experience “cluttering” when I go to speak.
Side effect wise, I only experience a mild fluttering (almost like a twitch) directly behind the inner half of my right eyebrow. Other than that, no headaches. I may have a mild reduction in sex drive, but nothing too troubling.
Overall, I am looking forward to staying on this drug for a while. My mental symptoms are nowhere near gone, but I see enough benefits to keep going. Like many people who try an under-researched compound intended for depression, I feel as if I have little to lose.
This is the experience of flare1028us, another reddit user:[16]
Personally, I’ve found NSI-189 to be very useful. I’m taking 50mg freebase once daily in the morning. The acute effects for me are a gentle wave of calmness, improved long-term memory, and notably improved vision.
The improved vision, as another redditor put it, is like my vision being “zoomed out” by 5%, like having a slightly larger field of view. Improved memory is the strong point of this substance. I find myself having vivid recollection of memories going back to my single digit ages. This has also allowed me to remember times when I encountered some of the same struggles I have to this day, and how I handled them – I feel better equipped to tackle them with better memory of what did and didn’t work in the past.
As far as side effects, child-like emotions are coming on fairly strong. This is both good and bad. The good is that the sense of wonderment that we experience as children has come forth again, the bad being somewhat immature initial emotional responses. For example, jealousy – on a very childish level. It’s not debilitating, but it’s something to be mindful of.
Speaking of being mindful, it has gotten a whole lot easier to practice mindfulness meditation and commit experiences I’ve gained through it to long(er) term memory.
Interactions: Cannabis now gives me a mild headache, but if the high is balanced well (sometimes I’ll add some sublingual CBD), it is a very useful state of mind – for me it’s like being high with a better ability to remember the observations I make about my decisions and behavior that I may not come to so quickly in other states of mind. I tried taking piracetam once on NSI, and I’m never doing it again. Total dysphoria for most of the day from 3.5g piracetam in the morning. This stuff is supposed to reset piracetam tolerance, but I won’t be testing that until I’m off NSI-189 for a while.
Tianeptine (sodium and sulfate) feels like it meshes really well with NSI-189, along with neurogenic peptides – took 200ug NA-Semax Amidate (sub-q) with NSI and went to yoga class (pretty intense class too). That was a level of control I would love to be able to gain every time I exercise in general.
Hope this helps, I’m still waking up – I’ll answer questions if you have them
If NSI-189 proves to be an effective treatment for Major Depressive Disorder, it could have a potentially large impact on the direction of depression medication in the upcoming years. The long-standing dominance of SSRI drugs in the treatment of depression has left many wondering just how much longer it will be before the next major breakthrough occurs in depression treatment.
A novel drug like NSI-189 could be the answer, and the studies concerning NSI-189 also give us a useful glimpse into the correlations between depression, hippocampal volume, and cognition. As we move further into the 21st century, the scientific community will undoubtedly continue to map more accurately the territory that is the human mind.
References [ + ]
Coluracetam Nootropics Racetams Reviews
Coluracetam Review: A Nootropic With Antidepressant Properties
The drug piracetam is often regarded as the first truly nootropic drug, due to its ability to promote healthy brain function and cognition without potentially debilitating side effects. The family of nootropics that are structurally related to piracetam, known as racetams, have also been held in high esteem by the nootropics community. Coluracetam is one of the many members of this nootropic drug class, but it has some unique properties that set it apart from the rest.
ColuracetamColuracetam is a fairly new addition to the racetam category of nootropics, being developed and initially researched in the mid-1990s.[1] Coluracetam, known also by its research names of MKC-231 and BCI-540, was initially developed and researched by the Mitsubishi Tanabe Pharma Corporation in Japan as a potential treatment for Alzheimer’s disease. Coluracetam has also seen some limited research concerning its potential use for treating Major Depressive Disorder and Generalized Anxiety Disorder.[2]
Mechanism of Action
When ingested, coluracetam becomes present in nerve tissue within 30 minutes of administration. The concentration in the body begins to decrease about 3 hours after ingestion.[3]
The most definitive mechanism through which coluracetam works is high-affinity choline uptake (HACU). HACU is a crucial step in the process of the body’s converting of choline into acetylcholine, a vital neurotransmitter for cognition processes. [4] In essence, this means that an increase in HACU (caused by coluracetam) will also increase the activity level of acetylcholine in the nervous system. This is the basis for coluracetam’s ability to enhance cognition
My Experience with Coluracetam
My trial run for NootropicsDepot’s coluracetam lasted for one week, due to the fact that coluracetam’s effects seem to all take place rather quickly. In other words, the effects do not appear to be cumulative like some other nootropics. Typically, I took 30 mg orally in the morning, along with another 30 mg in the afternoon. If necessary, I took another dose later on in the day. Dosage recommendations for coluracetam range anywhere from 3 mg up to 100 mg or more, but this dose seemed to work just fine. Having experimented with coluracetam briefly a few months ago, I had a general feel for what dose might work.
Coluracetam powder nootropicDuring the time of this trial, I was not taking any prescription medications. In the morning, I was taking Vitamin B12, Vitamin D, potassium gluconate, fish oil, and turmeric. The effects I experienced from taking coluracetam have been very positive. However, bear in mind that this is only a subjective experience. The placebo effects cannot be ruled out (although I am convinced it was the coluracetam I felt), and experiences will vary between individuals. That being said, I will now go into what I felt are the major benefits of coluracetam:
1. Motivation enhancement
Right off the bat, coluracetam seems to provide a decent increase in motivation to engage in productive work. I felt a stronger desire to work on school work that I don’t find very interesting. It made it much easier to push through to get things done, leaving a very satisfactory feeling when things were accomplished.
2. Stimulation
This effect goes somewhat hand-in-hand with motivation enhancement. Coluracetam has the effect of making me feel more awake and alert. It seems to help me feel more ready and able to get work done. It didn’t make me feel “jittery” either – I felt quite relaxed the whole time.
3. Reduction in fatigue
Coluracetam appears to help alleviate both physical and mental fatigue. There were a few instances when taking it where I went from being exhausted and drained to energized and ready to go.
4. Enhanced cognition
This effect is very important for any nootropic compound. After all, it is the main thing that nootropics are purported to influence. Within half an hour of taking coluracetam, I felt much more able to formulate thoughts and translate them into writing. I also felt more able to connect ideas in my mind and get a better idea of the “bigger picture.” I also felt more naturally able to hold conversations with others, feeling much more engaged and fluent.
5. Music enhancement
While this is mostly unrelated to the topic of cognitive enhancement, listening to music while on coluracetam was very pleasant. The music itself felt more full, interwoven, and immersive than usual. Individual pieces of melody and minor details became more distinguishable than usual.
6. Mood Boost
After taking coluracetam, I can understand why it is being researched as a treatment for depression. It helped me remain more positive and upbeat throughout the day. I also seemed to make things more enjoyable in general.
Coluracetam seems to be a very promising nootropic in terms of its multiple benefits and few side-effects. I did not experience any apparent increase in tolerance during the week I was taking it, even with multiple doses in one day. Experiments in which rats were given coluracetam for 14 days at a time seems to reinforce this.[5] The only possible side-effect I experience was mild to moderate headaches, which occurred throughout the week. This should be taken with a grain of salt because I am normally fairly prone to headaches in the first place. I’ve also heard that taking choline can alleviate headaches that come with racetam supplementation, so that could be a potential remedy.
All things considered, I was very pleased with the effects of coluracetam. I will certainly be implementing it into my nootropic stacks, as it is one of the most noticeable and useful nootropics I have personally taken. It seemed to have a real impact on my motivation, energy, and cognition. Everyone is bound to react differently to coluracetam, but I strongly encourage nootropics users to give it a try.
You can buy Coluracetam powder and capsules at NootropicsDepot.
Reviewer 8.4
I highly recommend coluracetam for anyone who needs to spend extended periods of time working on demanding mental tasks. The cognitive boost and mental stimulation was extremely useful.
References [ + ] | <urn:uuid:59190cf8-6927-418e-9091-ff7e4798b887> | https://nootropix.com/category/nootropics/ | en | 0.946275 | 0.031482 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
5 things to consider when drafting an employment contract
“Stephenson Harwood has contributed to the SCT campaign with the following article:”?
An employment contract is a legally binding agreement between two parties, the employer and the employee, and is designed to give both parties security and protection. It is usually made in writing.
The following is a checklist of the top five points to consider when negotiating the employment contract:
1. Compensation & Benefits
Remuneration is a key factor for employees but it is often the case that the package is not clearly set out or defined. Points to consider:
• Is the salary broken up into a basic salary and allowances? If so, what is the break-up and is it set out clearly?
• Is there a signing-on bonus for the employee especially if the employee would be losing alternative options and/or benefits from moving from his previous employer?
• Is there a bonus entitlement? Is it discretionary? Is it payable quarterly or annually and what milestones is it dependent upon?
• What benefits are afforded under the contract? For example, are you provided with medical coverage and does it cover your dependents? What about life insurance and critical illness cover?
• Are you entitled to an annual ticket allowance to your home country?
• Does the employer provide you with other benefits such as education allowances, housing grants etc?
• Does the employer operate a pension scheme? Are you entitled to gratuity under the UAE regime and if so on what basis?
• How many holidays do you have per year? How many days can you carry over into the next year?
• Are national holidays inclusive or exclusive of your holiday entitlement?
2. Designation and Role
It is often the case that the role is not clearly defined within the employment contract. Therefore consider addressing the following questions:
• What is the job title?
• What responsibilities have been assigned to the employee?
• Where is the employment located? Can the employer relocate the employee to a different jurisdiction and if so is the consent of the employee required?
• Who is the employee’s supervisor/line manager?
• Is the employee allowed to be involved in other activities (e.g. directorships on other Boards etc)
3. Term & Termination
This is a key clause of the employment contract and is most heavily relied upon when things go wrong. It is therefore important to consider the following:
• Is there a probationary period? How long is it for? Can it be extended?
• Is the employment for a fixed term and if so what are the renewal provisions?
• What are the grounds upon which the employer can terminate the employee? What are the grounds for termination for cause?
• What is the notice period contained within the employment contract?
• Is the employee entitled to a reference letter? If so what should this articulate?
• Can the employee claim unfair dismissal? What other rights (if any) does the employee have if they feel they have been terminated unlawfully?
• When should the final settlement be paid? Are any penalties attributed to late payments?
4. Governing Law and Jurisdiction
The governing law and jurisdiction clause in any employment contract is vital as it determines where and under what law you can bring an action. Accordingly it is important to note the following:
• How are disputes resolved? Is it by arbitration or through litigation?
• Is there an option for mediation to resolve the dispute amicably?
• Where must a claim be brought (ie what court has jurisdiction) in the event of a dispute?
• What is the governing law?
5. Post-Restrictive Covenants
The employment contract can place various restrictions on employees post-termination and in some instances can keep the individual out of the market for a considerable period of time. Therefore it is important to consider the following:
• Are there any limitations on employees working for a competitor?
• Does the employment contract restrict employees from soliciting clients and/or employees?
• What is the duration of such limitations?
• Are there any geographical restrictions?
• Does the contract require a duty of confidentiality?
Connect with SCT and DIFC Courts | <urn:uuid:084f356f-8989-4f77-8826-c9723aa36083> | https://sct.difccourts.ae/whats-on/5-things-to-consider-when-drafting-an-employment-contract/ | en | 0.949017 | 0.308612 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Image by NIH
The NIDA Blog Team
Did you know that your brain is made up of 100 billion nerve cells called neurons? Neurons constantly exchange information between your brain and other parts of your body.
As neurons communicate with each other, they’re helped by a type of chemical called a neurotransmitter. When one part of your brain wants to communicate something to another part, it releases small amounts of neurotransmitters from one neuron to another.
Your body makes all kinds of neurotransmitters. One kind is called serotonin. It’s known as the “calming chemical” because its activity in certain brain circuits:
• Lifts a person’s mood.
• Eases tension and helps a person cope with stress.
• Reduces anxiety and aggression.
• Promotes sleep.
• Affects appetite and memory.
Thanks to research funded by NIDA, scientists have learned that serotonin has another job. By attaching itself to a protein, serotonin can enter a cell’s nucleus and turn a gene on or off (this is called “gene expression”). That means that serotonin can help control how genes express themselves.
Serotonin’s ability to do this allows a cell to respond better to its changing environment. It helps a person’s personal biological “map” to develop as they grow, make choices, and are affected by outside influences like diet, lack of sleep, or drug use.
The newly discovered role of serotonin may increase our understanding of mood disorders and other psychiatric conditions like substance use disorders.
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Current state: Approved | <urn:uuid:b71640b2-e4f4-4994-8d8f-6e439090ec64> | https://teens.drugabuse.gov/blog/post/say-what-serotonin | en | 0.932959 | 0.661367 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Bright Black
by Glenn H. Mitchell
In the crowded supermarket, Pete snarled at a life-sized cardboard cut-out of a celebrity chef, briefly considering taking a ‘selfie’, getting behind it and acting like he was doing it doggy style. That would make his friends crack up. They’d love that. Then again, they were just as likely to respond with a series of profane reminders:
‘Stop dickin’ around and get to the barbeque.’
‘Where the hell is my Pepsi Max?’
‘You’re missing the football, dickhead!’
Maybe it was best to focus.
In and out. Easy as you like. Ten minutes, tops.
He’d imagined the kind of afternoon that might suit a Dean Martin tune—a whistle-worthy frolic through happy families and perhaps even a few smiles from attractive women—but he soon realised punk would be a more appropriate soundtrack. It was anarchy.
The aisles were littered with discarded trolleys, heavily laden with cans, packets and sweating milk cartons as drivers sauntered off, caring little about their contribution to the logjam. It was pushing Pete’s infamously short temper into the red zone. His trolley suffered a stroke, its left side refusing to roll correctly, pulling him toward the pasta section. With great persistence he managed to navigate the battlefield, taking barely a second to consider each purchase as he gritted his teeth and steered his awkward vehicle.
Turning the corner of the last aisle, he rolled his eyes as a demolition derby of oddly placed trolleys formed an obstacle course. He’d reached the end of his tether and began to shed courtesy in favour of efficiency, slamming the corners of a few trolleys on the way to his target.
At the ridiculously large tomato sauce section, he saw an old woman lingering in front of his favourite brand of sauce. Somehow she’d managed to completely obstruct his access. Using his last ounce of patience, he shut his eyes and breathed deeply.
Make up your mind, you stupid old bitch.
He couldn’t help noticing her gypsy garb, and the elongated fingers that stroked labels as though they were pets. At that moment she glanced over her bony shoulder at him. She was less than five foot tall, so she looked at his chest and followed the contours of it until her eyes flickered and stared into his. She looked ancient but her eyes were vivid.
Bright black. I hate it when people have eyes that dark. It’s freaky.
She smiled but it wasn’t friendly—it was condescending.
Desperate to interrupt the tense standoff, he vaguely pointed at the sauce.
‘Do you mind?’ he asked, his voice sounding like it was being squeezed out of a smaller person.
Slowly looking in the direction of the bottles, she languidly made a sweeping gesture with her skeletal fingers while shuffling begrudgingly to the side. By only moving one step, she forced Pete to reach further than he would have liked. His body pressed close to her tiny frame. Her hair was wrapped in a black cloth that whispered its absorbed scents: the mélange of burnt, musty odours garnished with the subtle yet distinct smell of iron.
When he was at full stretch, concentrating on retrieving the bottle of sauce without touching her, she whispered a melodic line that ended in a hiss:
‘I know how you’re going to die.’
Pete remained in the same awkward, bent posture. Many things were running through his mind: he wondered if he had misheard her; he asked himself why anyone would say such a thing; and he considered ignoring it, treating it as a random statement from a senile old woman. But he was sure he’d heard her correctly, and despite his tendency to be a sceptic, he thought it was true—he actually believed she knew the exact time and cause of his death.
He’d been frozen in the same position but the little old woman had not hesitated, slipping away quickly and about to reach the end of the aisle, cheerfully swinging her small red basket in rhythm with her neat steps, her tiny flat shoes clipping the tiles delicately.
Pete rushed after her and caught up as she carefully chose a checkout lane.
‘Excuse me,’ he asked, trying not to sound too agitated. ‘Did you just say’—and at this point he lowered his voice to a whisper—’you know how—’
She nodded without looking at him, frowning at the many lines of waiting patrons but still retaining that eerie smile, the one that seemed painted on.
Suddenly, Pete felt incensed.
‘Why would you say that?’ he shouted.
People within earshot suddenly stopped their conversations or daydreams to focus on the confrontation.
‘Even if you thought it was true,’ he continued, dropping the volume of his voice and sounding more hurt than angry. ‘Why would you say it?’
She shrugged her shoulders, flaming his anger before raising her eyebrows and deciding on checkout number twelve. Pete gritted his teeth, looked to one side and took a deep, calming breath before following her.
For a moment he hesitated.
Why would you want to know?
That was a good point. Does anyone really need to know the hour of their death? He answered his own question by lurching into motion again, hungry for an answer.
‘How would you know, anyway?’ he asked sceptically.
She seemed more interested in unpacking her basket. Each movement was graceful and carefree. It tortured Pete who attributed her playful mood to satisfaction. His fear had become her amusement.
From behind, Pete could see her ears change shape as she flashed a friendlier grin at the youngster behind the cash register. Then her ears drooped and she resumed her default smirk.
‘Can we talk?’ he whispered over her shoulder, quickly checking the reaction of the acne-scarred youngster who was methodically scanning the woman’s purchases—just two cans of peeled tomatoes and a bottle of sauce.
Pete saw the kid glance at him suspiciously and suddenly felt embarrassed, leaning back and deciding to wait. Soon they’d both be outside and he’d be able to confront her more candidly. The old woman paid cash, the exact amount down to the ninety-five cents of change required, which she plucked expertly from a tiny cloth purse, heavy with coins.
She moved toward the exit with small graceful steps that were deceptively quick.
‘Sir,’ said the kid at the cash register impatiently, pointing at a sign above. ‘It’s eight items or less.’
Since when do they enforce that rule?
Much to the dismay of all in sundry, he pushed eight items forward and left the rest on the conveyor belt.
‘I just want these.’
The kid begrudgingly passed the products under the sensor, which issued a ‘bleep’, another ‘bleep’ and then nothing.
Oh God no.
‘Price check aisle twelve. Gary, price check aisle twelve’.
Peter was panicking. ‘It costs 5.99, mate! It’s always been 5.99!’
‘Please be patient, Sir,’ said the increasingly impatient youngster.
Pete stared at his eight items and thought about the rapidly disappearing old woman. Then he looked deep into the apathetic eyes of the kid.
‘Fuck it,’ he said, rushing out the door, followed by a choir of moans from the queue of shoppers.
Peering through layers of crisscrossing shapes, he searched below armpits and over shoulders, between conversing mouths and under the hems of dresses.
Where are you, you spooky little bitch?
It should have been futile. There were so many ways to slip out of the cavernous hall, and so many shops to hide in. But she was in the most logical place he could imagine, growing smaller in his perspective view as she headed toward the escalators that descended down to the street.
She isn’t trying to lose me.
Instead of pursuing that observation, he chased her, sprinting in long strides, probably faster than anyone has seen a human moving in a mall. Mothers pressed their stray children to their skirts, reverse-parked prams closer to shop windows, held the hands of confused-looking teenagers. The large running man was like an awkward bullet punching through the scene with no intention of changing course, only stuttering to a halt at the escalator, which was gladly surrendered to him by anyone approaching it. His pounding steps on the steel warned its passengers who stepped to the left, hugging the rubber rail in fear.
Searching the street, he scanned the crawling traffic, parked cars and pedestrians. An old sedan lurched into motion, pulling from the curb and revealing the bent prophet shuffling along the opposite sidewalk. She seemed to be walking faster, rushing away.
‘Fucking bitch,’ he said slowly, amazed.
Sprinting across the road, he was barely conscious of the cruising vehicles that skidded to a halt as he disrupted the traffic. She’d taken a side road and he was lucky to turn the corner in time to see the hem of her black dress swish flirtatiously around a letterbox before disappearing. Her smile was like a lure that trailed behind her, gleaming in the bright sunshine.
Finally catching up to her, Pete decided to take a different approach, laughing as he sucked in a few laboured breaths.
‘Whoa, you’re pretty quick on your feet,’ he said.
She didn’t answer, intent on continuing her journey. Her eyes hinted at thoughts that her wooden, fixed expression veiled.
‘Hey, seriously, are you trying to scare me or do you really—’
He still wanted to believe that it was a joke—just a little jolt from an eccentric old lady. Perhaps he’d upset her with his mood in the shopping centre. Maybe she was just trying to teach him a lesson, to spook him.
‘Tell me how then. How’s it going to happen?’
He ran in front of her, turning to walk backwards, beginning to get flustered again, but when she angled to enter a small alley, he was obviously in her way. She looked slightly impatient and he backed off, apologising quickly and stepping to the side.
‘Please,’ he pleaded.
As she walked past a row of tall green rubbish bins, Pete’s mood was turning black again. At the end of the neatly arranged row, he was about to shout at her—to demand she stop—but that was the moment when the tall man emerged, suddenly looming above him.
Pete only had enough time to be startled. A large shape appeared before his eyes, covering him in shadow and he felt a powerful, blunt impact. His nose was crushed underneath it. He could feel a sharp pain, replaced by a sickening numbness that pushed tears from his eyes. That feeling distracted him from the obvious: he was falling. The sky’s colour was instantly desaturated, becoming a shining grey. He saw the lanky man in jeans and black t-shirt leaning over him, searching his eyes.
The tall stranger’s skin was olive and he wore the same smile as the old woman. His eyes shone with the same vivid darkness.
Bright black.
The young man disappeared and Pete felt two comfortable but tight vices closing around his ankles. Then his dulled head was scraping awkwardly along the cement, rolling over tiny balls of gravel. A course sound filled his ears and his spine was pulled straight.
His limp body was dragged until the bins appeared, obscuring the bright sky. Surrounded by glare, the woman’s face appeared, close and smiling. Over her shoulder the young man flipped through Pete’s wallet and counted the money. The youth stuffed the cash into his pocket and Pete heard the sound of the discarded wallet dropping to the bottom of an empty bin. The impact created a muffled echo just a few centimetres from his ear.
Reaching behind his back, the gypsy’s apprentice frowned, and when his hand returned, it held a knife. They descended, mother and son. Pete could see the close resemblance: the teeth, shining beyond rich crescent lips forming knowing smiles; the eyes so dark that the pupils seemed lighter than the hue surrounding them, set against the purest white, as though neither of them had ever consumed a single toxin. They were brilliantly pure.
What the smiles were hiding, the eyes communicated like some terrible hint that sent a chill through Pete’s body.
‘Yes,’ the old woman said. ‘I know how you’re going to die.’
As the young man descended with her, casting shadows across Pete’s face, the old woman began to laugh.
‘Can’t you tell?’ she asked. ‘I’m psychic.’ | <urn:uuid:af6dc04e-2164-4cc8-a885-0fcf1ee4655a> | https://thejjoutrereview.com/the-review/volume-i-issue-2/bright-black/ | en | 0.979965 | 0.109123 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
How to Split a Video Clip in iMovie
Clean up your video clips before starting an iMovie project
All Apple computers ship with iMovie software installed. The video clips in your Photos albums are available to iMovie automatically. You can also import media from your iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, from file-based cameras, and from tape-based cameras. You can even record video directly into iMovie.
Whichever method you use, after you import video into iMovie, take the time to clean up and organize the different clips. This keeps your project orderly and makes it easier to find what you are looking for.
Screenshot of iMovie 10 opening screen
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Assemble Video Clips in iMovie
You need to create a project and import video clips before you can start working on your iMovie project.
1. Open the iMovie software.
2. Click the Project tab at the top of the screen.
3. Click the blank thumbnail image labeled Create New and select Movie from the pop-up.
4. The new project screen is given a default name. Click Projects at the top of the screen and enter a project name in the pop-up field.
5. Select File on the menu bar and click Import Media.
6. To import a video clip from your Photos library, click Photos Library in the left panel of iMovie. Select the album that contains videos from the drop-down menu at the top of the screen to bring up thumbnails of the video clips.
7. Click on a video clip thumbnail and drag it to the timeline, which is the workspace at the bottom of the screen.
8. If the video you want to use isn't in your Photos application, click the name of your computer or other location in the left panel of iMovies and locate the video clip on your desktop, in your home folder, or elsewhere on your computer. Highlight it and click Import Selected
9. Repeat the process with any additional video clips you plan to use in your iMovie project.
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Split Master Clips Into Separate Scenes
If you have long clips that contain several different scenes, split these large clips into several smaller ones, each containing only a single scene. To do this:
1. Drag the clip you want to split into the iMovie timeline and select it by clicking on it.
2. Use your mouse to move the playhead to the first frame of a new scene and Click to position it.
3. Click Modify the main menu bar and choose Split Clip or use the keyboard shortcut Command+B to split the original clip into two separate scenes.
4. If you won't be using one of the clips, click it to select it and click Delete on the keyboard.
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Split or Crop Unusable Footage
If some of your video footage is shaky, out of focus, or unusable for some other reason, it's best to trash this footage so that it doesn’t clutter up your project and take up storage space. You can remove unusable footage from usable footage in two ways: split it or crop it. Both methods are non-destructible editing; the original media files are not affected.
Splitting Unusable Footage
If the unusable footage is at the beginning or end of a clip, just split that section off and delete it. This is the best way to go when the part that you don’t want to use is located at the beginning or end of a clip.
Cropping Unusable Footage
If you want to use a piece of video that is in the middle of a longer clip, you can use an iMovie shortcut.
1. Select the clip in the timeline.
2. Hold down the R key while dragging across the frames you want to keep. The selection is identified by a yellow frame.
3. Control+click the selected frame.
4. Choose Trim Selection from the shortcut menu.
Any video that is deleted through either of the methods outlined in this step disappears from iMovie for good, but not from the original file. It does not show up in the trash bin, and if you decide later that you want to use it, you must reimport it to the project.
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Trash Unwanted Clips
If you add clips to your project and decide later you don't want to use them, just select the clips you want to get rid of and click the Delete key. This removes the clips from iMovie, but it doesn't affect the original media files; they are retrievable later if you decide you need them.
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Create Your Movie
Now, your project should only consist of the clips that you are planning to use. Because your clips are cleaned up and organized, it’s much easier to put them in order, add still photos, add transitions, and create your video project. | <urn:uuid:dd3bc5f8-4b8a-4ae9-953c-64a67b311310> | https://www.lifewire.com/imovie-edit-video-clips-1081810 | en | 0.867753 | 0.062408 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Photograph of a sign for Cavern Walks
© National Museums Liverpool
When cities experience severe economic problems leading to the decay and dereliction of buildings and neighbourhoods, this tends to provoke efforts towards renewal and regeneration. In some cases, popular music has provided a starting point for the re-building process.
Music and dance clubs provide a good example. Liverpool's Mathew Street is a short narrow street situated towards the north end of the city centre, linking the city's financial and shopping districts. It was at the Cavern Club on Mathew Street that the Beatles performed regularly between 1961 and 1963, making the club famous around the world.
The Cavern Club was demolished in 1973 but was rebuilt during the 1980s in connection with a new shopping development named Cavern Walks. Other parts of the street and its surrounding area remained run-down, however, so in the early 1990s a group of business people and professionals with an interest in the area got together to discuss ways of improving it. They decided that the way forward was to create a distinctive and cohesive image through which the area could be marketed and they launched the Cavern Quarter Initiative (CQI).
Through this initiative, efforts were made to improve the appearance of the Mathew Street area, giving it a physical identity and coherence in order to attract visitors and further investment and make the area more upmarket. In this way the initiative, as its name suggests, aimed to capitalize on Mathew Street's musical and bohemian past and its associations with a youthful vibrancy. According to the chairman of the initiative, all of those involved with it "see the area branded with the musical tradition". A CQI newsletter explained how the name of the initiative was decided upon:
"In the end the answer was obvious. The area included the world's most famous club, the Cavern, mecca for hundreds of thousands of Beatles fans every year; Beatles connections abound, and are the area's most high-profile assets."
At the same time efforts were also being made to renew another area of Liverpool city centre known for its vibrant and youthful music and arts activity, and to categorise it as an official 'cultural quarter'. During the 1990s Wolstenholme Square, lying at the centre of the area, was home to the dance club Cream hence one of the many plans for the area involved the establishment of a 'Cream Zone' featuring a 'kiddies Cream' and a Cream hotel in addition to the Cream club and shop. Also in the 1990s, Manchester's Hacienda dance club closed down and lent its name to a regeneration initiative involving the construction of residential luxury flats.
Initiatives like these provoked one Liverpool music entrepreneur to describe musicians as the 'foot-soldiers' of urban regeneration, but they have both positive and negative implications for local music activity. Music-makers in Liverpool and Manchester have commonly complained that whilst such initiatives take music as their starting point, they often end up excluding certain kinds of music activity. This is illustrated by Sharon Zukin's study of New York's Soho area (1989). The area once provided cheap accommodation for artists but following commercial investment and redevelopment the artists could no longer afford to be based there. | <urn:uuid:e9a3bbdc-596a-4ec5-9f9b-90f17a5a389f> | https://www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/wml/exhibitions/thebeatgoeson/thebeatgoesonline/sounds/musicinachangingcity/renewal.aspx | en | 0.967767 | 0.173556 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
6 ways to protect your mental health from social media's dangers
6 ways to protect your mental health from social media's dangers
More than one-third of American adults view social media as harmful to their mental health, according to a new survey from the American Psychiatric Association. Just 5 per cent view social media as being positive for their mental health, the survey found. Another 45 per cent say it has both positive and negative effects.
Two-thirds of the survey’s respondents believe that social media usage is related to social isolation and loneliness. There is a strong body of research linking social media use with depression. Other studies have linked it to envy, lower self-esteem and social anxiety.
As a psychologist who has studied the perils of online interactions and has observed the effects of social media (mis)use on my clients’ lives, I have six suggestions of ways people can reduce the harm social media can do to their mental health.
1. Limit when and where you use social media
Using social media can interrupt and interfere with in-person communications. You’ll connect better with people in your life if you have certain times each day when your social media notifications are off – or your phone is even in airplane mode. Commit to not checking social media during meals with family and friends, and when playing with children or talking with a partner. Make sure social media doesn’t interfere with work, distracting you from demanding projects and conversations with colleagues. In particular, don’t keep your phone or computer in the bedroom – it disrupts your sleep.
2. Have ‘detox’ periods
Schedule regular multi-day breaks from social media. Several studies have shown that even a five-day or week-long break from Facebook can lead to lower stress and higher life satisfaction. You can also cut back without going cold turkey: Using Facebook, Instagram and Snapchat just 10 minutes a day for three weeks resulted in lower loneliness and depression. It may be difficult at first, but seek help from family and friends by publicly declaring you are on a break. And delete the apps for your favorite social media services.
3. Pay attention to what you do and how you feel
Experiment with using your favorite online platforms at different times of day and for varying lengths of time, to see how you feel during and after each session. You may find that a few short spurts help you feel better than spending 45 minutes exhaustively scrolling through a site’s feed. And if you find that going down a Facebook rabbit hole at midnight routinely leaves you depleted and feeling bad about yourself, eliminate Facebook after 10 p.m. Also note that people who use social media passively, just browsing and consuming others’ posts, feel worse than people who participate actively, posting their own material and engaging with others online. Whenever possible, focus your online interactions on people you also know offline.
4. Approach social media mindfully; ask ‘why?’
If you look at Twitter first thing in the morning, think about whether it’s to get informed about breaking news you’ll have to deal with – or if it’s a mindless habit that serves as an escape from facing the day ahead. Do you notice that you get a craving to look at Instagram whenever you’re confronted with a difficult task at work? Be brave and brutally honest with yourself. Each time you reach for your phone (or computer) to check social media, answer the hard question: Why am I doing this now? Decide whether that’s what you want your life to be about.
5. Prune
Over time, you have likely accumulated many online friends and contacts, as well as people and organizations you follow. Some content is still interesting to you, but much of it might be boring, annoying, infuriating or worse. Now is the time to unfollow, mute or hide contacts; the vast majority won’t notice. And your life will be better for it. A recent study found that information about the lives of Facebook friends affects people more negatively than other content on Facebook. People whose social media included inspirational stories experienced gratitude, vitality and awe. Pruning some “friends” and adding a few motivational or funny sites is likely to decrease the negative effects of social media.
6. Stop social media from replacing real life
Using Facebook to keep abreast of your cousin’s life as a new mother is fine, as long as you don’t neglect to visit as months pass by. Tweeting with a colleague can be engaging and fun, but make sure those interactions don’t become a substitute for talking face to face. When used thoughtfully and deliberately, social media can be a useful addition to your social life, but only a flesh-and-blood person sitting across from you can fulfill the basic human need for connection and belonging.
Written by Jelena Kecmanovic, Adjunct Professor of Psychology, Georgetown University. Republished with permission of The Conversation. | <urn:uuid:fc614c35-c0fa-4fc4-be5e-6fb0728a0d22> | https://www.oversixty.com.au/health/mind/6-ways-to-protect-your-mental-health-from-social-medias-dangers | en | 0.938982 | 0.021403 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Why Is It Important To Contact Pest Control Services Every Now And Then:
People often go to lengths for their homes, it is their sanctuary and they do anything to keep it safe and intact. So it would be obvious if something intrudes into their house uninvited they would feel threatened. Whether it is a burglar or a rat, they would not prefer anything in their other than their friends and family. Pests are not excluded from the list of uninvited, whether it is a termite infestation or a cockroach problem, pests can be very troublesome. So it is important to get your house inspected by pest control in Bella vista services every now and then. Termites can be a handful as they eat up anything wooden in your house whether it is the structure of the house itself or the furniture. They can cause huge sums of damage if gone unchecked. Cockroaches on the other hand crawl out from gutters and can cause diseases. They get attracted to food items and can crawl all over them with their bacteria covered bodies. Not to mention tons of people are grossed out by their presence. kill-pest
Here are a few reasons why it is important to contact pest control every now and then for inspections:
Avoiding Pest Infestations:
It is important to keep your house pest free, so they do not end up colonizing and infesting your house. Whether it is rats, termites or cockroaches, they are all very harmful to you and your house. They are quick to multiply and hide in corners where people cannot reach or see them. They are very troublesome to deal with once they start to reproduce and spread around the house’s nooks and crevices.
Staying Healthy:
These pests can cause all sorts of problem from structural damage to health issues. Rats and cockroaches specially are very dirty and crawl out from gutters and into them. They can find their ways into the cupboard shelves and walk all over food and eat it with their germ infested bodies. If a rat dies in the house by accident after a while it’s body starts to decompose and the germs it releases are very dangerous not to mention the foul smell. Cockroaches are the same they can walk all over your dishes and your food and can dirty them with germs.
Better Safe Than Sorry:
Rats can also eat cardboard and soft wooden furniture not to mention they can they can tear out clothes to build their nests or homes. Termites can be very dangerous as they can not only eat out wooden furniture but an weaken wooden pillars or flooring in your house. If you have a house that is supported on wood it is essential to contact pest control for termite inspection. An inspection does not cost much and it is always better to be on the safe side of things. Since internet’s evolution you can find the best service providers online and Pesticom is one of them. Pesticom is a Sydney based company and are licensed pest control service with over 20 years of experience in the field. For more information, please log on to https://www.pesticom.com.au/. | <urn:uuid:b608459a-f902-4671-860f-20700cf9d049> | http://bglospot.com/why-is-it-important-to-contact-pest-control-services-every-now-and-then/ | en | 0.957073 | 0.095094 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Counterfeit and Weird devotees #2
This article is a continuation of part one.
Devotees of All Gods
In this category we see people who worship a lot of different Goddesses and when they go online they claim to be devotees of Hekate in a forum of Hekate, of Demeter in a forum of Demeter, of Isis in a forum for the study of the Egyptian religion… They say they worship and invoke many Goddesses and they sense them.
This is very common here in Greece/Hellas, where modern followers of the ancient Hellenic religion are still in a “baby” stage, denying even that they are pagans etc. they claim to be devotees of all ancient Hellenic Gods and Goddesses. If you ask them something particular, you take no response. As I have noticed, in most cases they don't achieve a communication with a specific deity. They even see very strange and ill to be a devotee of one God or one Goddess like we see in Wicca or like it was common in ancient Hellas. Why do they find it strange? Because this happens in other pagan religions and they don’t want to incorporate anything foreign or because they have less understanding of ancient religion than they should have.
The problem with those devotees is that they show no devotion to a particular God or Goddess, though they claim that they show devotion to each of one. So, their life and magickal practice cannot be centered around one deity, they cannot imitate one God they like and be like him, as the ancient Stoics advice to do. Those persons are usually open to learn more on Hekate from fora and experiences of other people, but as soon as they haven’t decided which Goddess to choose, they can achieve nothing specific.
This category contains people who have not the discipline to study one tradition, educate themselves, make the magickal tools, learn the beliefs, pass tests, work with a group of people and contribute and they follow even a new/modern tradition from a book or they create an eclectic tradition or they follow no tradition at all. They don’t work with things that others will make them work, like a specific material for each grade, or passing tests of this material or having responsibilities on a group etc. They think that they are independent and free spirits that belong nowhere. They support this, but they haven’t study the traditions they reject, because we are talking about people who hate to read, study and practice. They go to a coven or to a seminar and they expect the teacher to put knowledge inside their heads, like using magick to educate them. Most people leave very soon magickal temples and covens when they discover they demand loyalty, dedication, study and a change of their daily routine.
They prefer black clothes, smoked eyes, cigarettes, having cats and making fun. Maybe picnics, coffee meetings, movie nights etc. instead of developing visualization skills, practicing cartomancy through books, reading astrology, Kabbalah, ancient texts and classical studies. Or even try to make their own tools, developing woodworking skills or working with metals in a right and safe way. Or calculating planetary hours and designing a birth chart.
Those people read one book, see some videos online and bam they have opinion on everything. They go to pagan meetings to learn gossips, to make friends and have fun. They also tend to judge others. They are ready to tell you that Hekate was born in Egypt, that She is powerful, strong, independent Goddess. That you should be extra-careful when you work with Her. They even attribute to Hekate accidents that happen to their favor or against them. Of course those persons don’t participate much on serious conversations and groups but they find the group that suits them and they attack anyone who comes and asks facts. Mainly those conversations are based in personal mythology, illusions, oracles, dreams and stories that never happened. They call those, experience! The bad thing happens when in a conversation there are more than those who actually work with the Goddess Hekate, as they are more in number, they have fake profiles and they don’t care to insult, write lies and offend the person from the safety of their screen and keyboard.
Those persons will have absolutely no problem to attack well known authors and practitioners, priests of actual traditions and elders of the Craft. They even attack people who present facts and share their research. They use all kind of fake stories and they mainly insult without providing some sources to the conversation or even something to work and think about. When the admin of the group supports this behavior, actual practitioners will leave the group and when the admin take no position those practitioners will stop writing to that group as it is a lost case. I have seen this happening to groups with hundreds of people which have 1-4 admins that are online and they don’t have the time to read the conversations or they misunderstand what each side tells as they do not watch all the conversations. I have seen it in a respected group, which was taken by people who have an original hate for the ancient Ηellenic texts and even science, when the admin was absent for some days and then he didn’t punished anyone, he just deactivated the comments. Another example is a group for museum history and exhibits, which has only one admin and numerous posts every day. People post whatever they want and they even insult or make irrelevant comments without any penalty from the administration.
Of course there are devotees of Hekate who have studied one or even more magickal traditions, but they are very eclectic in their practices as they draw elements, which can be combined, from different traditions. Those aren't fake or weird devotees at all. They are independend but they know why and they acknowledge limits. They are usually self-disciplined and they don't want to have someone else to tell them what to do.
Graeculi & Haters
Graeculi and haters are people who hate ancient, medieval, later and modern Hellas. Those people have no problem to declare in their articles that the Gods of ancient Hellas are dead, the books of ancient Hellas are dusted and thus there is no reason to read them. After all, they justify themselves by saying that Gods change and evolve, thus there is no reason to read things that have changed totally in our days.
Those are bad excuses from people who don’t want to study what they believe. How one forms his personal religious beliefs when he reads nothing? There are cases that He reads some new age books and then he has opinion on anything. Those are easy to buy and study, after all, the modern publishing houses like to publish books for beginners, as simple as they can be. But after that stage, there are too few books. It is such a shame to see serious books of writers who have died, not to be published again. It is very difficult to find Ellen Cannon Reed’s books. Or books like Magickal Knowledge of Josephine Mc Carthy or books of Pat and Chris Zalewski.
Ancient Hellenic texts are fairly difficult to read and even translate them right and demand constant reading with the one writer and then with the school of this writer. It is a challenge but it is worthwhile as the ancient Hellenic texts are the cause of western civilization as this writer/poet says in his book.. . The width of ancient Hellenic history goes far back in time, to thousands of years, having a civilization which influenced all others and gave birth to numerous civilizations. With 5 known world conquests, the whole world is a province of Hellas.
We have responded why Gods do not change or why the mythology isn’t wrong and what is the purpose of mythology etc. on various articles you can read in the Crossroads Witch, but you should also think of reading the Platonic Dialogues to find out yourself. The writers of the Crossroads Witch present, or we think we present, valuable knowledge, but it is up to the reader to go further and walk that door.
With people denying ancient history, which is science, or archaeology, which is science or philosophy, which is science, we wonder on what they base their beliefs. Personal ideas belong to the world of senses (physical world) and thus they are bound to a necessary change in time, on the other hand, the knowledge of the mental world or world intelligence is static and solid. That’s the difference between science as it was taught by rhetors and science as it was taught by philosophers and though this thing had been clarified in the classical Athens of Socrates, 1500 years after, we should write it again and again.
People in Hellas who try to reconstruct a form of the ancient religion usually ignore ancient texts or they use only those which suit their beliefs. It is odd to read that one specific group attacks monotheism, when I have read not just books of ancients but whole philosophical schools expanded monotheism as well as initiative practices and mysteries. Those modern groups speak in the name of the ancient religion, which they call national religion, or they use words in a way that aren't used now or in the past, just to promote specific views they share. Of couse, to this wave of hate and misinformation, Gods and Goddesses like our own Mother, will be changed by them, as well as practices of the past will be denied and also ancient theology, which in many cases, is similar with modern theology.
I recently was a guide of a devotee who came from the other side of the globe, just to see Hekate’s places in Athens. In our conversations, she told me several times how lucky she feels that she came in Athens. She really liked to absorb every moment. She looked the houses, the soil, the trees, the ancient ruins, the ancient temples and museum exhibits. As I was providing information on almost anything I could say, I noticed her saying that we are lucky to be born in Hellas, Hekate’s place and be next to Her. And I thank the Goddess for that, I also feel the same way, but everyone can have a connection with the Goddess, from all over the globe. Many people have succeeded and I have been inspired by them a lot. My final word is that everyone can take books of Plato, Aristotle, Diogenes Laertios, Epictetus, Seneca, Cicero, Plotinos etc. and read them, try to understand them. Everyone can read ancient Hellenic history and fall in love with that world. It is worth it, a million times. You will discover instructions on piety, theology, spirituality from Aristotle who is the most logical man, to Plato’s metaphysics and the theurgist Iamblichos’s mysteries.
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News & Results
REPORT of the participation of IC Hungary on the Four Nations Tournament
REPORT of the participation of IC Hungary on the Four Nations Tournament
The members of the Hungarian team were the following:
1.Janos Almai
2.Judit Farago
3.Gyorgy Florianschitz
4.Ferenc Pohly
5.Andras Vary
(on the second playing day, for one match, Andras Pinter helped out)
The other participating countries delegated competitors from, Great Britain 6, Belgium 11, while the host Czechs participated with 15 players in the events, in which, in theory, a team had to consist of a minimum of 6 players but, fortunately, they accepted our entry even though we could only produce 5. As a result, in the calculation of the team final standings, the results of only the 5 best point winners of each country were counted.
Per the customary practice in Prague, during the first day doubles teams from each country played against each other, whilst in the second, men and ladies doubles teams of mixed nationalities were paired by the organizers. The matches lasted 60 minutes, and the sum of the number of games won determined the standings between the countries.
Though small in numbers, the efforts of the enthusiastic Hungarian team were only able to produce a meritorious result, its 90 points could not surpass that any of the other team, while the Belgians, with 166 points (with a difference of a single point) surprisingly took the winners cup ahead of the home Czech team.
On the other hand, we had a lightning start as the Vary-Florianschitz pair began with a 9:4 win over the Wimbledon club members of the British team, then the Pohly-Vary duo also did well (5:8) against the hosts, but there were matches where we had to face really "greats" as, amongst others, Judit Farago twice played against Iva Simunkova-Budarova who, at her peak, was 24 in the WTA rankings...On the second day, Andras Vary, partnering a British, Janos Almai and Ferenc Pohly each partnering Czech ladies, secured wins and Janos Almai's endurance managed to secure a tie while partnering a Belgian lady colleague.
As anticipated, the hosts provided a most generous and warm hospitality to the participants, particularly through Jiri Medonos and Helena Sukova who, while this time did not make use of a tennis racquet, was most active in the planning and organizing activities. The world class tennis club's facilities and restaurant were also of the highest standards, while the related programs provided excellent opportunities to make acquaintances and to appreciate the beauty of Prague and its surroundings.
Between the two playing days everybody was invited for a 3 hour boat excursion, including a Moldavian dinner, during which the protocol greetings took place and we thanked Jiri and Helena with a brief speech and some traditional Hungarian presents/souvenirs
On the day after the tournament we toured with a professional guide the gothic Nelahozevesi Castle, about 35 km from Prague, where we were able to see not only the beauty of this renaissance building but also the incomparable artistic and interior furnishing collections of the Lobkowicz Family.
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10 Tips to Avoid Relapse
10 tips to avoid relapse
In addiction recovery, relapse prevention is one of the most important and most enduring steps. While a rehab program, in any of its many forms, can help a person struggling with alcoholism or drug addiction to get clean and develop the skills that they need to stay clean, rehab eventually ends. Relapse prevention becomes an everyday reality. Here are ten real tips to prevent relapse and stay clean and sober:
1. Remove yourself from the tempting situation. Some people will try to prove to themselves that they are “over” their addiction by putting themselves in a situation where they could use. It is much safer and much more effective to avoid the situation altogether.
1. Build a network of support. There’s a reason that AA and NA programs can be effective—they give you positive people, striving for the same goals, to rely on. You will buoy each other up.
1. Replace bad habits with good ones. Most rehab programs incorporate healthy eating and exercise into education. Stick with those good habits and find new hobbies to occupy free time.
1. Don’t let your guard down. The moment you become complacent is the moment temptation finds a chink in your self-control. Keep up with an AA or NA group that will keep you motivated and moving forward.
1. Find a positive attitude. It can be easy to let negativity take over. While you don’t have to be sunshine and rainbows every day, do avoid obsessing about negativity. Look, instead for positivity in your daily life.
1. Have one person you can call. A network is great, but having one person that you can really rely on to pick up the phone when you call and need them is even better.
1. Talk about it. If you’re having a hard time, don’t bottle it up. Tell someone about how you are feeling. Seek out help if you need it.
1. Learn stress reduction techniques. Stress can drive a person back to their addiction, especially if that addiction started out as a method for dealing with stress. Learn healthier ways to deal with and reduce stress instead.
1. Make a plan. One of the best ways to avoid relapse is to have a very clear plan to follow when temptation comes around. Have a list of activities to do and numbers to call on hand.
1. Give Back When You Can-Giving back is a significantly fulfilling progression in your recovery. When you get to a place where you have a better understanding of your addiction and how to better avoid a relapse being able to give to others who are in need can have a powerful impact not just on their life but also on the recovering addict. When you go from a place where you were once helpless to a place where you have the ability to help others that need it there is a certain amount of pride, gratitude and self-growth that takes place. Being able to get to that point where you no longer are feeling helpless but can help others can be a goal in your relapse prevention plan.
Avoiding relapse is the hardest part of early recovery….and for some the effort never ends. Understand yourself, your addiction drivers and your environment and learn the techniques for heading off a relapse. Almost every addict relapses, repeatedly for most, before they are able to achieve long-term sobriety. A family member or friend will wonder how it could happen, time after time, when there has been a period of sobriety. Focus on your recovery and find the tools and people that help you in that effort.
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How Social Media Marketing Can Contribute to A Company’s Revenue Generation?
Social media marketing has become an important aspect of online selling for any business. Usually, a social media agency provides an out of the box and effective platform with creative solutions for any business. The main aim of a social media agency in Malaysia is hence to form a very attractive and interactive marketing design that could strengthen the company’s image.
Social Media Marketing
More often, a social media agency in Malaysia focuses on the designs, marketing, technological and strategic need of its customers. The process includes building social applications to launch integrated campaigns for multiple channels. A single post can reach out to millions in fraction of seconds worldwide.
What an agency must do?
To initiate and make an effective marketing campaign that reaps the intended returns, you need to have great content and designs. The role of social media marketing hence becomes even more important.
1. Discovering the Goal
The concerned agency should understand both internal and external sources of the client’s company to know its existing market position. This will not only build good terms but also create a platform for long-term association.
1. Creating plan
The social media marketing team engaged to work should be well experienced in assorted fields like website designing, content creation, art direction, etc. One needs to understand the mindset and expectation of the client to produce the desired results.
1. Execution
Targeting the right audience and reaching them to generate direct ROI holds high importance. A campaign that hits the client’s audiences and makes them react is effective execution.
1. Result
The success of any campaign depends on the result achieved in return of the sources utilized. If you have achieved the specific goal as per your expectations then your campaign has succeeded. Else, it will give you information and way for improvement in future.
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by jbystrom
Last updated 10 years ago
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link your: +images, +audio, +videoadd text.....
They needed water,sip,compass,food,maps,andthings that is for travel.
Explorers brought diseases and guns and traded animal furs with the First Nations people that they met. The first nations people hunted with guns for the first time and brought the beaver furs to trade with the explorers. The explorers sold the furs in Europe for lots of money. The aboriginal people didn't have any immunity against the diseases and many died or became sick.. Because the first nations people had guns to hunt with many more animals were killed causing some animals to almost become extinct.
FAMOUSEXPIORERS:John Cabot,Jacques Cartier,Henry Hudson,Samule de Champlain,,Alexander Mackenie, James Cook,George Vancouver, Simon Fraser. . . . . .
poster yourself
JAMES COOK did three trips to the Pacific Ocean,and the last one was in 1776.SIMON FRASER made the first fur-trading in the West. A dog followed ALEXANDER MACKENZIE when he travelled. JOHN CABOT's ship disappeared in his second trip.
• jbystrom 10 years ago
jbystrom's avatar
I would like to see your name on the glog please. Not just your glog nickname.
• jbystrom 10 years ago
jbystrom's avatar
Asia I think it's cool how you've creted a collage out of all the images that you've imported. I'd like you to focus now on adding some information, detailed facts to show what you've learned in addition to the variety of images you've chosen. You've begun a list of what explorers might have needed: Please edit your spelling of the word ship. You have two copies of one of the images; perhaps you could label the image, tell who its a picture of and why you've included it on your glog. To date you've earned a 2 for your unfinished glog. | <urn:uuid:7402cbb8-a587-41c2-82b1-c6a960c5dc7e> | https://edu.glogster.com/glog/asia-ahn/fbcvghjko | en | 0.952244 | 0.129941 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Why Uber/Ola is Nehruvian
According to Ramachandra Guha’s India After Gandhi, the ostensible reason for India adopting a statist/socialist/planned approach was the scarcity of capital.
With capital being scarce in the newly independent country, Jawaharlal Nehru had reasoned that in order for the country to develop, whatever capital existed had to be deployed in the most productive manner possible. A free market for capital would end up deploying capital where it wasn’t required the most, denying more critical sectors of capital. A planned economy, on the other hand, would result in more efficient usage of capital.
While India has developed significantly in the 70 years since independence, it is still not completely out of the woods. Poverty remains high and India’s per capita income is at the lower end of the spectrum. Thus, while capital may not be as scarce a resource as it was in 1950, effective deployment of capital is still necessary to ensure India’s continued economic growth.
From this perspective, think of the car. When at rest, it is adding no economic value apart from making itself available to its owner (and its owner alone) at a point of time when the latter needs it. From this perspective, the economic value that the parked car adds is almost entirely in terms of “option value”.
A parked car also consumes valuable economic resources, with the most important being the real estate it stands on. This particular resource is so important that it forms an important form of urban regulation in most markets (a building or a business needs to have a certain minimum number of parking spaces and so on).
Moreover, the two common axes on which the value of a car is evaluated are age and distance travelled. Considering that the car adds economic value only in terms of the latter – when it helps transport someone, depreciation of the car in terms of age is entirely uncompensated. On this account, too, a parked car is a dead weight loss.
It is not hard to see, thus, that a parked car is an enormous waste of capital; capital that an emerging economy such as India could very well utilise elsewhere. Yet, the large number of cars in the country that are standing still at any point in time show that despite being an overall inefficient use of capital, a large number of people value the inbuilt option value.
Back in the time when Nehru had his way, he had solved the problem in his own unique way – by limiting the number of cars that could be manufactured and sold in the country, which automatically put a limit on the number of parked cars. In this technologically advanced day and age, however, we don’t need such drastic measures.
All we need is a restructuring of economic incentives such that the option value of a parked car goes down. And what better incentive than to provide the option to summon a car on demand? While this summoned car might have a higher marginal cost per trip than an owned car, taken in aggregate it leads to a significantly lower cost.
Thus, the Nehruvian answer to the inefficient capital wasted in parked cars would be to encourage services that allow you to summon a car on demand. In other words, services such as Uber and Ola fulfil a Nehruvian objective by freeing up capital that was being earlier wasted in parked cars. There is data to show that such services have resulted in a decline in growth of car ownership.
Given that Uber and Ola follow the Nehruvian ideal of reducing wasteful capital, it is baffling that the government in Karnataka, which belongs to the Congress party which is based on Nehruvian ideals, or the government in Delhi, headed by the Nehruvian Arvind Kejriwal, were to campaign to clamp down on such Nehruvian services.
There might be some tremors under Shanti Van.
Meeting your husband’s old crush
I wonder what it’s like to meet your husband’s old crush. Someone who you know he was quite obsessed with back in the day, when he did all sorts of crazy things because his crush was hardly materialising, in honour of whose stillborn love he wrote short stories (something he has never ever done for you), and someone who he is still good friends with even a decade after his crush ended.
I wonder what it’s like to be in a new city, where you’ve only been for four days, and then venturing out to an unknown part of town to meet someone who you’ve never met before, who you’ve never even spoken to, and about whom you know only because of reading your husband’s blogs about her, and because of what your husband has told you about her.
I wonder if it feels weird, or if it is just a part of the game, that you are going to travel two hours to meet someone whose only connection to you is your husband, who is not going to be there with you when you meet her. He has made that introduction, told both of you perhaps more than you need to know about each other, but now he’s throwing both of you into the deep end, asking you to meet, to hang out, to make conversation. Is he asking too much of both of you?
What are you even going to talk about? Your husband, who both of you know very well, is one obvious topic, but what about that signboard in Bishop Cottons Boys’ School (that your husband told you about) that said “great mind discuss ideas, average minds discuss events, small minds discuss people” (or some variation of that)? There is the professional stuff that you guys can talk about, which you perhaps would even prefer, but would you want to spend most of your time on your first meeting with someone you are likely to get along with, just talking about work? Then again, it helps immensely that both of you are outgoing and extroverted and generally good conversationalists, people who are inherently good at putting the counterparty at ease. But with two of you being of the same “type”, will there be a clash?
If not anything else, one good thing that will come out of this meeting is that your husband (evil guy he is) is going to call up both of you after you’re done with each other, and find out “how it went”. If not anything else, there will be value added in terms of some entertainment for him, as he will speak to the two of you and try and elicit gossip after you’re done meeting. As far as the universe is concerned, the cost that the two of you will have to pay in terms of possible discomfort and awkwardness will be offset by the value that your husband will gain by means of “entertainment value”. And then there is the option value of the two of you actually getting along and having a good time together!
So for the universe, it works out. For you and for your husband’s old crush, it may lead to negative value. But then such deals are precisely the kind of stuff that your evil ex-banker husband is good at structuring!
Derivatives trading in football players
I love it! It’s a dream come true!! It’s official!!!
Football clubs have finally wisened up to trading in derivatives on players’ contracts, it is apparent based on the transfer deadline news of yesterday. Alvaro Negredo has been loaned out by Manchester City to Valencia, but at the end of the year Valencia have an obligation to make the deal permanent. The same article mentions Fiorentina taking Micah Richards on loan, also from Manchester City. In this case, however, Fiorentina has the option to make the deal permanent after a year.
In fact, thinking about it, this kind of option trading in football contracts is not all that new. When Brendan Rodgers was initially appointed by Liverpool in 2012, he was given a three year deal, with the club having an option of extending it by a year (the deal has since been revised).
It’s all very interesting. I’ve constantly lamented that some of the great concepts in finance which are well applicable to everyday life are not applied to the extent that is required. Option valuation is one such concept, for example. I wrote to a friend just now asking why I should join a club he is exhorting me to join, given it’s not doing much now. His reply can be condensed to “option value”.
Option valuation is not the only thing. There is the concept of liquidity. A very commonly used concept within financial markets, it is surprisingly absent in general economic literature. For example, in finance it is a well understood concept that the more the number of active market participants the less is the transaction cost (measured as the bid-ask spread). The same concept can be used to analyze markets for taxis, housing, cooks (why a cook costs much more in Rajajinagar where demand is much lower than in Jayanagar), etc. You never see too many economists talking about it, though.
The problem might be that practitioners of financial economics concepts find finance too lucrative to apply their concepts elsewhere, while mainstream or left-leaning economists might find finance (especially complex derivative finance) abhorrent, and thus are loathe to borrow concepts from that (generally speculating)!
In terms of liquidity, though, things seem to be changing. My old friend Sangeet has been practically making a living over the last couple of years evangelizing the concept of liquidity, through his excellent blog on platform economics. Check out his recent post on Uber, for example. Platform economics is nothing but the economics of liquidity. The success of Sangeet’s blog shows that people are finally beginning to take the concept seriously. Still not mainstream economists, though!
Inefficiency of Restaurant Reservations
Quartz reports that restaurant reservations have been taken over by bots in San Francisco. Certain restaurants in that city are incredibly hard to get reservations at, so people have started letting lose bots that check for availability every minute and grab the table as soon as it’s available. In fact, there are enough bots out there that at a particular restaurant which opens reservations at 4 am, all tables are taken by 4:01. Every day.
In Kannada, there is an idiom that says “gubbi mEle brahmAstra”, which means using the weapon of Brahma (widely recognized in Hindu epics are the most powerful weapon) to annihilate a sparrow. Using a bot for restaurant reservations is a solution that falls under this category. However, that someone had to think up of this solution shows that there is something wrong with the restaurant reservation market. And it is not just in San Francisco (I guess this solution was first implemented there thanks to the penetration of online restaurant reservations and the high number of techies in the city. Bangalore fails on the first count).
The problem with the way restaurant reservations currently work is that the option is priced at zero. And thus gets allocated on a first come first served basis. Suppose I want to go out on a date tonight but am not sure what cuisine my wife is craving today. Anticipating crowds, given that it is a Saturday, I will make reservations in four different restaurants serving four different cuisines. There is nothing that currently prevents me from doing that. And it costs me nothing (apart from the cost of four phone calls).
A restaurant reservation is essentially an option to occupy a table of a certain size at a certain restaurant in a particular time period. If you show up at the restaurant at the appointed time, the restaurant is obliged to offer you a table. However, the way it is currently implemented is that you are not obliged to show up at that restaurant at that particular time. If you don’t show up, the table the restaurant had “reserved” for you will go empty for that evening, thus resulting in loss of business.
How can a restaurant handle this? One idea is to overbook. If you have 10 tables, allow 12 people to make reservations, in the hope that on an average day, 10 or less will show up. While this may lead to higher occupancy, problem is when all 12 show up. You then run the reputational risk of making a reserved guest wait, or worse, turning them away. Another option is to book only a fraction of the tables. If you have 10 tables, give out reservations only for 8, and let people know that you are open to walkins (if someone calls after the 8 are taken, you can say “I’m sorry, but we can’t take any reservations. However, we have some unreserved tables. You can come and check it out. If you’re lucky you’ll get it”). That way, by keeping yourself open for walkins, you can prevent loss of inventory- except that if you are a high end restaurant you are unlikely to get too many walk in customers.
Another option (which I believe is a method online retailers in India use for cash-on-delivery customers) is to maintain a list of people who called you along with their phone numbers and whether they showed up. That way, you can deny habitual offenders a reservation. However, considering that if you are a high end restaurant people are unlikely to visit you very often this may not work either.
The ideal economic solution, of course, would be to charge for reservations. People pay a small deposit when they make a reservation. If they do show up, this amount gets adjusted against their bill. However, given that most reservations happen over the phone (except in SF), you have no way to charge for it. So is the solution that you move your reservations exclusively online, so that you can charge for it? Then you could lose out on customers who are uncomfortable with making reservations online.
Even if all your reservations were online (like in SF), there is a problem in charging for reservations – you wouldn’t want to be the first restaurant doing that. One thing high end restaurants pride themselves on is their reputation, and charging for reservations can make them appear “cheap”, and they wouldn’t want to do that unless it is the done thing.
So how are restaurants managing the situation now? My take is that they are adjusting for it in the price. They are not overbooking, but assuming the cost of empty tables (as a result of no shows) in their overall pricing. This way, customers who are honouring reservations are effectively subsidizing those that don’t. While the market “clears”, the implicit subsidy towards customers who don’t honour their reservations leads to dead weight loss. There is also moral hazard – since desirable customers (the ones who show up) are subsidizing the un-desirable (the ones that don’t).
Is there a solution to this? One way to look at this would be for restaurants to centralize their reservations. I’m surprised no one has done it yet. You can have a website and a call centre from which you can take reservations for a large number of restaurants. The restaurants will pay for it since it will mean that they don’t need to have someone by the phone taking and managing reservations. And given that the same call centre manages bookings for multiple restaurants, they can identify duplicate bookings and overbook accordingly. Customers can be incentivized to use the same ID for booking for multiple restaurants by introducing a multi-restaurant loyalty card. And then – once there is a large number of restaurants that have moved their reservations to this call centre, they can start thinking of collectively moving towards a system of penalizing for unfulfilled reservations.
There – I’m giving a business idea away for free!
Disconnected Life
The last forty eight hours were spent without internet connection, perhaps the first time I’ve spent an extended period of time at home without being connected. At first, it was incredibly peaceful, as without distractions it gave me enough time to finish off in 2 days all the 3 books (none of them very heavy, mind you, and all were “funda books”) that I’d brought home from the British Library. What was incredible was the amount of time I had in general, for everything. With the internet on, there are way too many distractions. Tweetdeck buzzes every minute. You are keen to “unbold” every mail as soon as it arrives in your inbox. Out of sheer habit, you periodically check out facebook and cricinfo. Lots of time gets wasted, no doubt.
I’d be lying, however, if I were to seay that I didn’t miss the net at all. Foremost was the need to check email, which I did though my phone periodically. I didn’t bother, however, unbolding all the stuff that was there. I only checked the mails that I thought were important, and the rest were “cleared” after I got back my connection this morning (the outage was because I’d applied for a new data plan, and the worthies at BSNL (bless them) decided I should go through some pain for having put them though the pain of changing the plan).
Then, there was some research I was trying to do yesterday, and I was looking for some data, which I wasn’t able to get since there was no internet. I went out of touch with my usual gtalk/twitter friends, but since it was only for a day I don’t really mind that. Most importantly, I missed regular updates of Ranji trophy scores, since those weren’t available anywhere else. It was too much of a hassle to be only via the phone (I don’t have 3G) for extended periods of time. There was also a lot of writing I did in the period, and all those blog posts are now sitting on my hard disk. I’ll upload them one by one with sufficient gaps so that I don’t flood you.
The worst part of no internet was the loss of the “option value” to stay connected. The best part was that it gave me a lot of time to do whatever I else really wanted to do without all the distractions the internet brings. I hope to go on an “internet break” for some time every day, switching off my modem for a few hours. Hopefully that’ll help me make better use of my time. For now, I’m glad to have the 4Mbps connection!
The deal with plays
I live near Basavanagudi in South Bangalore, hardly 6 km from the city’s best theatre Ranga Shankara. In the other direction, a (relatively) new auditorium which plays host to several promising plays (KH Kala Soudha) is even closer. There are times when we consider going for a play at one of these locations. To date, however, I’ve been to a performance (can’t call it a play) at KH Kala Soudha once. The only time I’ve been to Ranga Shankara was five years ago, back when i was in college.
I think one of the reasons for this is that I can never muster the necessary incentive to go watch a play. A large number of plays, as I understand, hold nothing much of promise in the stories that they tell. I’m not much of an actor, and don’t have an eye for fine acting which I want to discover. Yes, sometimes the way some stories are told is fantastic, and this is even more so when the play in question is telling a known story (the one play I’ve watched in Ranga Shankara was a Harivansh Rai Bachchan interpretation of Hamlet; where they use Yakshagana dancers for the play-within-a-play, and that was a fantastic way of telling the story).
Still, the thought of having to sit there in one place, without doing anything that might distract the performers, focusing all my energies on the performance, for the “option value” that there might be something really insightful in what the performers are trying to convey is daunting. With widespread sponsorship from governments and corporates, most plays are very reasonably priced, but the attention they demand can put me off.
And then I wonder if the reason I don’t like plays so much is because they’re rehearsed, that everything goes according to a particular script, that every move of the actor has been choreographed! The way plays are structured essentially requires discipline on part of all the actors, and the play could sometimes be seen as just an exhibition of discipline! I must mention here that I have even less patience for other more obvious exhibitions of discipline such as parades.
I read that the Rangashankara festival is coming up soon, and I do hope I can get myself to at least check out a few plays (especially since I’m now fairly rich in terms of time). However, I must say it will take a lot of convincing on your part to make me come watch your play. If you say “we’re performing Shakespeare’s Romeo and juliet” I’ll say “why should I come watch you when I can read the play?”. But if you tell me that there’s a story that you want to say, which you’re going to say in a particularly unique way, then I might be interested.
Working Hours at Work
Ranji Reform
Perhaps the best thing that the BCCI has done in recent times is to hike the match fees given to players in First Class and List A matches. If i’m not wrong, first class players now get Rs. 2 lakh per game as match fees, and 1 lakh for List A games. Thus, if a player is a regular in his state team, he is assured of at least Rs. 15 lakh per annum, thus ensuring he can remain professional and not have to do a “day job”.
This is excellent in terms of option value for high school students who are good at cricket who are undecided if they should concentrate on their cricket career or if they should go to college and concentrate on studies. And this in turn leads to better quality of cricketers in the pool available for first class games.
For a fringe player, selection to the national team is a lottery. It is also a big step up from the Ranji game. And when you are an under 19 cricketer (unless you are Tendulkar of course; let’s talk about normal people here) there is little that indicates if you are going to be an international regular. However, your performances in school/college level and age group tournaments are an extremely good indicator of how well you are likely to do on the domestic circuit.
Now, the income that the domestic circuit offers means that it might be more profitable for you to concentrate on cricket and try and make it big, rather than giving up cricket and going to college. Even if you fail to make it big, you won’t end up doing too badly in life. So if you think you have a good chance of making the state team, you would rather go for it than playing safe and going to college.
And this means that several players who would have otherwise left the game (in the absence of reasonable income from playing domestic cricket) are available in the pool which makes it more competitive and raises the overall quality of cricket in the country, and consequently that of the national team.
At least the BCCI gets some things right.
It’s about getting the Cos Theta right
Earlier today I was talking to Baada and to Aadisht (independently) about jobs, and fit, and utilization of various skills and option value of skills not utilized etc. So it is like this – you possess a variety of skills, and the job that you are going to do will not involve a large number of these. For the skills that you have that match the job’s requirements, you get paid in full. For the rest of the skills you possess, you only get paid the “option value” – i.e. your employer has the option to utilize these skills of yours and need not actually utilize them.
Hence in order to maximize your productivity and your pay, you need to maximize the cos theta.
Assume your skill set to be a vector in a N-dimensioanl hyperspace where N is the universe of orthogonal skills that people might possess. Now there are jobs which require a certain combination of skill sets, and can thus be seen as a vector. So it’s about maximizing the cos theta between your vector and your job’s vector.
So it’s something like this – you take your skills vector and project it on to the job requirement vector – your total skills will get multiplied now by the value of cos theta, where theta is the angle in the hyperspace between your skills vector and the job vector. For the projection of your skills on the requirement, you get paid in full. For the skills that you have that are orthogonal to the requirement, you get paid only in option value.
One option is to of course build skill set, and keep learning new tricks, and maybe even invent new skills. However, that is not a short-term plan. In the short to medium term, however, you need to maximize the cos theta in order to maximize the returns that your job provides. But as Baada put it, “But there is slisha too much information asymmetry to ensure that cos theta is maximised.”
There are two difficult steps, actually. First, you need to know your vector properly – most people don’t. Even if you assume that you can do a lot of “Ramnath” stuff and get to know yourself, there still lies the challenge of knowing the job’s vector. And the job’s requirement vector is typically more fluid than your skills vector. Hence you actually need to estimate the expected value of the job’s requirement vector before you take up the job.
The same applies when you are hiring. It is actually easier here since the variation in the hiree’s vector will not be as high as the variation in the job profile requirement vector, and you have a pretty good idea of the latter so it is easy to estimate the “projection”.
This perhaps explains why specialists have it easy. Typically, they have a major component of their skills vector along the axis of a fairly well-defined job profile (which is their specialization). And thus, since theta tends to 0, cos theta tends to 1, and they pretty much get full value for their skills.
At the other extreme, polymaths will find it tough to maximize their returns to skills out of a single job, since it is unlikely that there is any job that comes close to their skills vector. So whichever job they do, the small value of the resulting cos theta will cancel out the large magnitude of the skills vector. So for a polymath to maximize his/her skills, it is necessary to do more than one “job”. Unless he/she can define a job for himsel/herself which lies reasonably close to his/her skills vector.
(there is a small inaccuracy in this post. i’ve talked about the angle between two vectors, and taking the cosine of that. however, i’m not sure how it plays out in hyperspaces with a large number of dimensions. let us assume that it’s vaguely similar. people with more math fundaes on this please to be cantributing) | <urn:uuid:37e173a3-e7ab-4165-bb06-8cbc122ddd66> | https://noenthuda.com/blog/tag/option-value/ | en | 0.971856 | 0.038421 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Shiva Stone: Hampi’s Hidden Treasure
Mithila is a senior archeologist on the Hampi site along with two other UNESCO scientists. They decide to open some secret vaults in the underground Shiva temple. Treasures and artifacts from the 18th century make the headlines but the Shiva Stone was kept a closely guarded secret.
When a RAW officer hires Mithila on a secret mission to safely transport an ISRO professor and the Shiva Stone to Bangalore, she knows something is up.
Why is the stone called the Shiva Stone? Why are archeologists, UNESCO, ISRO, and RAW interested in a discovery at Hampi? Why is Mithila working for RAW? Is she the only agent on the mission?
Shiva Stone will take you on a thrilling adventure through the historical site of Hampi. Buy it now!
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About the author
I am an Electronics and Telecommunication Engineer with an inclination towards reading and writing. Besides, being Engineer, I enjoy running.
My first novel is Shiva Stone which is self-published on Kindle.
I was born in a small town called Wai, near Panchgani, Maharashtra. Moved to Satara for High School.
Under-graduation from Pune University and Masters from California State University, Long Beach.
Currently, working as a Cloud Support Engineer for Amazon Web Services.
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Home » Letters » Can The Departed Receive Food Offerings?
Question: When we make offerings such as fruits to departed ones, can they receive them?
Answer: Only if they are hungry ghosts or wandering spirits, can they be received via the power of dedication, and to various extents, depending on their karma.
Question: How can we further ensure offerings will be received?
Answer: What we can do is to offer to the Buddhas and Bodhisattvas (or the Triple Gem on the whole) at the same time in the name of the departed, which creates more merits, which can then be dedicated to the deceased, wherever they are, to be able to receive the offerings.
Question: Why can’t beings in other realms receive them?
Answer: Beings of the hell realm have negative karma that is too strong to be able to receive the offerings, while beings of the heavenly realm have positive karma that is too strong to require such offerings. Unless the ones the food is dedicated to have been reborn as animals or humans who have access to the offerings, they can’t be partaken.
Question: When we offer the same to Buddhas and Bodhisattvas, will they receive them?
Answer: As they do not need the, they thus do not partake of them. However, they will know our sincere intentions of paying respect. In this way, when we cultivate reverence and generate generosity, we can create merits. Offerings have Dharma significance too (see page 167 of http://tinyurl.com/bealamp6). In this sense, the offerings are actually offerings of the Dharma to ourselves as reminders when we make them too. For example, the offering of fruits represents mindfulness of the law of karmic cause and effect, to diligently avoid all evil and to do all good.
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Workforce LibreTexts
4.16: BJT Quirks
• Page ID
• An ideal transistor would show 0% distortion in amplifying a signal. Its gain would extend to all frequencies. It would control hundreds of amperes of current, at hundreds of degrees C. In practice, available devices show distortion. Amplification is limited at the high frequency end of the spectrum. Real parts only handle tens of amperes with precautions. Care must be taken when paralleling transistors for higher current. Operation at elevated temperatures can destroy transistors if precautions are not taken.
The class A common-emitter amplifier (similar to Figure previous)is driven almost to clipping in Figure below. Note that the positive peak is flatter than the negative peaks. This distortion is unacceptable in many applications like high-fidelity audio.
Distortion in large signal common-emitter amplifier.
Small signal amplifiers are relatively linear because they use a small linear section of the transistor characteristics. Large signal amplifiers are not 100% linear because transistor characteristics like β are not constant, but vary with collector current. β is high at low collector current, and low at very low current or high current. Though, we primarily encounter decreasing β with increasing collector current.
SPICE net list: for transient and fourier analyses. Fourier analysis shows 10% total harmonic distortion (THD).
The SPICE listing in Table above illustrates how to quantify the amount of distortion. The “.fourier 2000 v(2)” command tells SPICE to perm a fourier analysis at 2000 Hz on the output v(2). At the command line “spice -b circuitname.cir” produces the Fourier analysis output in Table above. It shows THD (total harmonic distortion) of over 10%, and the contribution of the individual harmonics.
A partial solution to this distortion is to decrease the collector current or operate the amplifier over a smaller portion of the load line. The ultimate solution is to apply negative feedback. See Feedback.
Temperature drift
Temperature affects the AC and DC characteristics of transistors. The two aspects to this problem are environmental temperature variation and self-heating. Some applications, like military and automotive, require operation over an extended temperature range. Circuits in a benign environment are subject to self-heating, in particular high power circuits.
Leakage current ICO and β increase with temperature. The DC β hFE increases exponentially. The AC β hfeincreases, but not as rapidly. It doubles over the range of -55o to 85o C. As temperature increases, the increase in hfe will yield a larger common-emitter output, which could be clipped in extreme cases. The increase in hFE shifts the bias point, possibly clipping one peak. The shift in bias point is amplified in multi-stage direct-coupled amplifiers. The solution is some form of negative feedback to stabilize the bias point. This also stabilizes AC gain.
Increasing temperature in Figure below (a) will decrease VBE from the nominal 0.7V for silicon transistors. Decreasing VBE increases collector current in a common-emitter amplifier, further shifting the bias point. The cure for shifting VBE is a pair of transistors configured as a differential amplifier. If both transistors in Figurebelow (b) are at the same temperature, the VBE will track with changing temperature and cancel.
(a) single ended CE amplifier vs (b) differential amplifier with VBE cancellation.
The maximum recommended junction temperature for silicon devices is frequently 125o C. Though, this should be derated for higher reliability. Transistor action ceases beyond 150o C. Silicon carbide and diamond transistors will operate considerably higher.
Thermal runaway
The problem with increasing temperature causing increasing collector current is that more current increase the power dissipated by the transistor which, in turn, increases its temperature. This self-reinforcing cycle is known as thermal run away, which may destroy the transistor. Again, the solution is a bias scheme with some form of negative feedback to stabilize the bias point.
Junction capacitance
Capacitance exists between the terminals of a transistor. The collector-base capacitance CCB and emitter-base capacitance CEB decrease the gain of a common emitter circuit at higher frequencies.
In a common emitter amplifier, the capacitive feedback from collector to base effectively multiplies CCB by β. The amount of negative gain-reducing feedback is related to both current gain, and amount of collector-base capacitance. This is known as the Miller effect.
The ultimate sensitivity of small signal amplifiers is limited by noise due to random variations in current flow. The two major sources of noise in transistors are shot noise due to current flow of carriers in the base and thermal noise. The source of thermal noise is device resistance and increases with temperature:
Noise in a transistor amplifier is defined in terms of excess noise generated by the amplifier, not that noise amplified from input to output, but that generated within the amplifier. This is determined by measuring the signal to noise ratio (S/N) at the amplifier input and output. The AC voltage output of an amplifier with a small signal input corresponds to S+N, signal plus noise. The AC voltage with no signal in corresponds to noise N. The noise figure F is defined in terms of S/N of amplifier input and output:
The noise figure F for RF (radio frequency) transistors is usually listed on transistor data sheets in decibels, FdB. A good VHF (very high frequency, 30 MHz to 300 Mhz) noise figure is < 1 dB. The noise figure above VHF increases considerable, 20 dB per decade as shown in Figure below.
Small signal transistor noise figure vs Frequency. After Thiele, Figure 11.147 [AGT]
Figure above also shows that noise at low frequencies increases at 10 dB per decade with decreasing frequency. This noise is known as 1/f noise.
Noise figure varies with the transistor type (part number). Small signal RF transistors used at the antenna input of a radio receiver are specifically designed for low noise figure. Noise figure varies with bias current and impedance matching. The best noise figure for a transistor is achieved at lower bias current, and possibly with an impedance mismatch.
Thermal mismatch (problem with paralleling transistors)
If two identical power transistors were paralleled for higher current, one would expect them to share current equally. Because of differences in characteristerics, transistors do not share current equally.
Transistors paralleled for increased power require emitter ballast resistors
It is not practical to select identical transistors. The β for small signal transistors typically has a range of 100-300, power transistors: 20-50. If each one could be matched, one still might run hotter than the other due to environmental conditions. The hotter transistor draws more current resulting in thermal runaway. The solution when paralleling bipolar transistors is to insert emitter resistors known as ballast resistors of less than an ohm. If the hotter transistor draws more current, the voltage drop across the ballast resistor increases— negative feedback. This decreases the current. Mounting all transistors on the same heatsink helps equalize current too.
High frequency effects
The performance of a transistor amplifier is relatively constant, up to a point, as shown by the small signal common-emitter current gain with increasing frequency in Figure below. Beyond that point the performance of a transistor degrades as frequency increases.
Beta cutoff frequency, fT is the frequency at which common-emitter small signal current gain (hfe) falls to unity. (Figure below) A practical amplifier must have a gain >1. Thus, a transistor cannot be used in a practical amplifier at fT. A more usable limit for a transistor is 0.1·fT.
Common-emitter small signal current gain (hfe) vs frequency.
Some RF silicon bipolar transistors are usable as amplifers up to a few GHz. Silicon-germanium devices extend the upper range to 10 GHz.
Alpha cutoff frequency, falpha is the frequency at which the α falls to 0.707 of low frequency α,0 α=0.707α0. Alpha cutoff and beta cutoff are nearly equal: falpha≅fT Beta cutoff fT is the preferred figure of merit of high frequency performance.
fmax is the highest frequency of oscillation possible under the most favorable conditions of bias and impedance matching. It is the frequency at which the power gain is unity. All of the output is fed back to the input to sustain oscillations. fmax is an upper limit for frequency of operation of a transistor as an active device. Though, a practical amplifier would not be usable at fmax.
Miller effect: The high frequency limit for a transistor is related to the junction capacitances. For example a PN2222A has an input capacitance Cobo=9pF and an output capacitance Cibo=25pF from C-B and E-B respectively. [FAR] Although the C-E capacitance of 25 pF seems large, it is less of a factor than the C-B (9pF) capacitance. because of the Miller effect, the C-B capacitance has an effect on the base equivalent to beta times the capacitance in the common-emitter amplifier. Why might this be? A common-emitter amplifier inverts the signal from base to collector. The inverted collector signal fed back to the base opposes the input on the base. The collector signal is beta times larger than the input. For the PN2222A, β=50–300. Thus, the 9pF C-E capacitance looks like 9·50=450pF to 9·300=2700pF.
The solution to the junction capacitance problem is to select a high frequency transistor for wide bandwidth applications— RF (radio frequency) or microwave transistor. The bandwidth can be extended further by using the common-base instead of the common-emitter configuration. The grounded base shields the emitter input from capacitive collector feedback. A two-transistor cascode arrangement will yield the same bandwidth as the common-base, with the higher input impedance of the common-emitter.
• Transistor amplifiers exhibit distortion because of β variation with collector current.
• Ic, VBE, β and junction capacitance vary with temperature.
• An increase in temperature can cause an increase in IC, causing an increase in temperature, a vicious cycle known as thermal runaway.
• Junction capacitance limits high frequency gain of a transistor. The Miller effect makes Ccb look β times larger at the base of a CE amplifier.
• Transistor noise limits the ability to amplify small signals. Noise figure is a figure of merit concerning transistor noise.
• When paralleling power transistors for increased current, insert ballast resistors in series with the emitters to equalize current.
• FT is the absolute upper frequency limit for a CE amplifier, small signal current gain falls to unity, hfe=1.
• Fmax is the upper frequency limit for an oscillator under the most ideal conditions. | <urn:uuid:bad97e7d-66f1-41ea-ad45-9db9bb7f84ee> | https://workforce.libretexts.org/Bookshelves/Electronics_Technology/Circuitry/Book%3A_III_-_Semiconductors/4%3A_Bipolar_Junction_Transistors/4.16%3A_BJT_Quirks | en | 0.893068 | 0.05232 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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Writ of Habeas Corpus Federal Appeals
When individuals are incarcerated, they will often challenge the legality of the conditions where they are being held as well as the legality of their imprisonment. This challenge is done by filing a writ of habeas corpus with the court. It is used in cases involving the U.S. Court system but also with immigrant deportation cases, military detentions and more.
Habeas Corpus
It is known as the Great Writ. Habeas corpus provides incarcerated individuals the chance to obtain help from the court system. It is designed to keep the government and other institutions with the ability to incarcerate people doing such a thing according to the law. A writ of habeas corpus provides those in jail with the ability to request a judge release them from jail or end jail conditions they believe are improper. It is a way to make certain individuals are not incarcerated for long periods of time when doing so would violate their rights.
The 39th clause of the Magna Carta signed in 1215 created the legal concept of habeas corpus. During the 1600s, the English courts started utilizing this legal concept and considering habeas corpus petitions. The Founding Fathers of the United States argued about the inclusion of habeas corpus into the Bill of Rights. Chief Justice Marshall was the first U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice. He believed in the importance of habeas corpus. Marshall wrote that habeas corpus is a way to liberate individuals incarcerated without a sufficient legal reason
Suspending Habeas Corpus
Case law and statutory law have habeas corpus elements provided from the Constitution. It defines situations where habeas corpus can be suspended. There are situations where public safety makes suspension of habeas corpus necessary. It can also be done in cases of rebellion. Only the U.S. Congress has the authority to suspend habeas corpus. The executive branch of government does not have the authority on its own to suspend habeas corpus.
Seeking Federal Habeas Corpus
Should an individual need federal habeas corpus relief, they must have sought and been denied all their state’s legal remedies. This is part of federal case law. Individuals who are incarcerated must initially present their claim in state court at least once. This must be done as part of an appeal. It is unnecessary for an incarcerated individual to repeatedly go back to state court and raise the same issues. Should a state court refuse to review an incarcerated person’s claim on the grounds it has already performed such a review, this makes it possible for a federal review of habeas corpus.
Individual Freedom
A writ of habeas corpus has been identified by the U.S. Supreme Court as a fundamental tool essential for protecting individual freedoms from actions by government that are lawless and arbitrary. It is something that must be administered by the court. It must be done with the necessary flexibility to make certain any miscarriage of justice, within the court’s purview, is discovered and corrected.
A writ of habeas corpus is not a legal action that can be substituted for the appeal process. It has not been designed as a way to test trial procedures as well as state law violation. Should appropriate proceedings have taken place, a court deciding habeas corpus could determine the facts of the case and the law requires a prisoner to be awarded relief. Once a writ of habeas corpus is granted, the government must release a prisoner from incarceration.
Capital Sentences
Once an individual has been convicted of a capital crime, a writ of habeas corpus can’t automatically be applied to their case. There are exceptions. One is when a subsequent decision involving the case identifies a fundamental right denied during the court proceedings that could have had a major impact on an accurate conviction. Another is when a subsequent decision puts a defendant, or specific conduct, past the reach of the law used for a conviction.
The writ of habeas corpus is a legal tool in place to protect an individual against lawless actions of the state. It is a procedural device that places decisions by the government under judicial scrutiny as a way to protect individual liberties. It was not designed to determine an individual’s guilt or innocence but to test the legality of an incarcerated person’s detention. A court’s job is to determine if the government does or does not have the authority in certain situations to detain someone.
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Samantha Balaban
Over four years is a long time to go between albums in pop music, and it has been an especially eventful period for Selena Gomez. In the space between 2015's Revival and her latest release, Rare, Gomez has battled Lupus, depression and anxiety, and had two high profile breakups — all while millions followed along on social media.
When Ellison Nguyen was 4 years old he got the chance to meet Thi Bui, the illustrator of one of his favorite books. He was so inspired by her work that he promptly wrote and drew his own picture book — "It came to me," Ellison, now 6, explains simply.
Children love to pronounce the name of Olive Senior's new book: Boonoonoonous Hair. ("You break it down into boo noo noo nous, and then you say it fast," she advises.)
It's a word that comes from Jamaica where Senior was born. She says this evocative term has fallen out of fashion, but she's working to bring it back.
"It's just a word that suggests something lovely, something beautiful, something warm, something wonderful," she says. "So if you're told you're boonoonoonous that's a great compliment."
In the spring of 2018, 2-year-old Parker Curry visited the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, D.C., with her mom, her sister and her best friend. They saw a lot of artwork that day — but it was Amy Sherald's portrait of first lady Michelle Obama that made Parker stop in her tracks and look up in awe.
Growing up in northwestern Ontario, author Brittany Luby would hear things in history class that didn't line up with what she learned at home. She descends from the Anishinabeg, and "growing up I would hear about our peoples being 'discovered' or our territories being 'discovered,' " she says. "It was really confusing when I would go home and my parents would tell me: That's not actually how things happened."
Author Eoin Colfer knows the world has plenty of "boy-and-his-dog books." So if you want to write a book about a boy and his dog, he says, "you have to have something new."
Colfer's The Dog Who Lost His Bark is a book in two halves: "In the first half the boy heals the dog, and in the second half the dog heals the boy," Colfer explains. Music plays a role in helping both characters cope.
Dr. Carrie Jurney is on the board of an online organization that works to prevent suicides. It's called Not One More Vet.
This isn't a mental health support group for veterans — it's for veterinarians.
Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayor was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes early in life, and ever since has given herself insulin shots before she eats, to help manage her blood sugar levels. No big deal. But some years ago, she had an upsetting experience at a restaurant.
She was in the restaurant bathroom, just finishing up her injection when another woman walked in. They both returned to their dinners, but as Sotomayor left the restaurant, she heard the woman from the restroom say: "She's a drug addict."
In My Papi Has A Motorcyle, a little girl named Daisy Ramona waits for her dad to come home from work so they can ride around their city, Corona, Calif., on the back of his motorcycle. They pass a tortilla shop, a raspado shop, her grandparent's house, and her dad's construction site. | <urn:uuid:99ced718-c703-491d-874b-828b577e6045> | https://www.kunc.org/people/samantha-balaban | en | 0.979887 | 0.083031 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Like many women I know, I have a vast array of shoes. Unlike clothing, shoes, for the most part, continue to fit whether you gain or lose weight, so they are the bright spot in a sometimes cruel and taunting closet. For this reason, women take their shoes very seriously and will spend quite some time organizing their shoes by either height or color or occasion. Personally, I organize mine by the amount of time I can spend in them before my feet fall off.
Take for example my regular everyday boots which I call my 10-hour shoes. I can wear these all day without a problem as long as I get some breaks in between and am not scaling Mt. Everest.
Then I have my 3-5 hour shoes. These are generally for one occasion out with minimal walking involved. I call them my 3-5 hour shoes because they are really good until that 3-hour mark, but can suddenly, without warning, turn on me between the 4th and 5th hour and become merciless instruments of pediatric torture.
My 1-hour shoes are generally for sitting and the occasional posing so people can admire them before I sit again. There is really no walking involved in these shoes, except maybe to the bathroom, and even then, I will endeavor to hold it in rather than have to teeter my way across the room to go and use up even 7 minutes of my precious 60-minute time limit.
Then there are my 5-minute shoes. Why, you might ask would someone buy shoes they can only wear for 5 minutes? If you’re a woman you probably don’t need to ask this. But for the rest of the population, 5 minute shoes can best be described as those unbelievably gorgeous and obscenely expensive shoes you had to buy because they winked at you seductively from the store window and just happen to go perfectly with a new party dress you just got. When you bought them at the store, you had no idea they were 5-minute shoes because you only had them on for 2 or 3 minutes and were walking around on rugs with Tempurpedic cushioning (they plan it that way) so you don’t really know how they will feel in the real world. But then you wear them with your new party dress, go to an event, and discover after 5 minutes that they are so incredibly painful to actually wear, you immediately become crippled and will need to be rescued by a llama standing by in case of emergency who will carry you around the event for the rest of the night while he spits on the other guests.
Most shoe store salespeople will not tell you that you are looking at 5-minute shoes. They show you the fine workmanship, tell you how great they make your feet look, and complement your calves. So there you are strutting around the shoe store in your slinky shoes and your sweatpants hiked up over your knees like you are the queen of some fancy pilates class, while a good-looking salesguy who looks at ugly feet all day tells you they make your legs look great. What the heck are you supposed to do? So of course you buy them, wear them to some fancy event, and the next thing you know, you are riding around on a rescue llama.
Fortunately for me, I have fine-tuned my 5-minute shoe radar and rarely fall prey to the seduction of the killer shoe. But when I do, I know I always have my 24-hour pink fuzzy slippers to fall back on.
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About Us
Zess Industries is a US Veteran owned company that provides highly effective micro-channel heat exchangers for high temperature applications. Highly effective recuperators are essential to improving the efficiency of micro-turbines and SOFC’s used in power generation, transportation, and aerospace.
Under funding from the federal Department of Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) the founder of Zess Industries, in cooperation with US National Laboratories, developed patented manufacturing methods and applications in the field of micro-channel technology.
Efficiency Through Micro-Channel Technology
High temperature, micro-channel heat exchangers are becoming more and more important as efficiency requirements increase and advances in high temperature materials allows for higher system operating temperatures. Many critical thermal issues become problems best solved by Zess Industries’ affordable, micro-channel heat exchangers.
Micro-channel heat exchangers are heat exchangers in which fluid flows in lateral confinements with typical dimensions below 1 mm. As the Reynolds Number is proportional to hydraulic diameter, fluid flow in channels of small hydraulic diameter will predominantly be laminar in character. Thus, the heat transfer coefficient (h) is inversely proportional to the hydraulic diameter (De) of the flow channels.
h = (Nu*k)/De
Nu Nusselt Number
k Fluid Thermal Conductivity
As the effective diameter De of the flow channels becomes smaller, the heat transfer coefficient becomes larger. With hydraulic diameters on the order of tens or hundreds of micrometres, an extremely high heat transfer coefficient results. Closer approach temperatures are obtained as a result of the exceptionally high surface areas and heat transfer coefficients inherent to Zess Industries’ micro-channel proprietary design.
Experienced Engineering and Advanced Manufacturing
Recuperators for small turbines and SOFC’s must have the following attributes:
1. High effectiveness, with limited pressure drops through the recuperator, in order to offer the performance necessary to reduce the specific fuel consumption of the engine.
2. Structurally robust and capable of long-term operation under high temperature, cyclic operation.
3. Able to be manufactured at a cost point that will allow the recuperator to be offered at a commercially attractive price.
4. For aerospace and transportation, small size (volume) and low weight are required.
The experienced engineering team at Zess Industries works closely with their customers to design the optimum recuperator for the customer’s system. The detailed design of the recuperator may require an iterative process where designs/specifications go backwards and forwards between our recuperator design team and our customer’s component designers (turbines, compressors etc.) to reach a balance where each design team can achieve the required performance from their respective components.
Zess Industries has recently transitioned to using an innovative 3D Metal and Ceramic Screen Printing process for precision, high volume, low cost manufacturing. 3D solid state screen printing developed by Fraunhofer-Institute for Manufacturing and Advanced Materials www.ifam.fraunhofer.de provides an alternative to extractive manufacturing methods. https://www.scientific.net/MSF.941.2148 | <urn:uuid:4db1e59e-fc9c-4c59-b908-574d709d0c15> | https://zessindustries.com/about-us/ | en | 0.895102 | 0.042437 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
How to choose the best moisturizer for your skin
Good moisturizers are those that make your skin lively and fresh! But how to know what is the best moisturizer for your skin?
Moisturizers are an important part of daily skin care for anyone. They help protect, conserve and improve the quality of your skin against ongoing daily assault due to pollution, weather changes and general dehydration. A hydrated skin not only looks visually appealing but is also known to have many health benefits. However, there are many types of moisturizers in the market and similarly there are many types of users, I mean people with different skin types. So, what is the best moisturizer? For you, of course! To find out the best skin moisturizer, it becomes imperative that you assess your skin’s demands and accordingly zero in on the best moisturizer for your skin.
What is a good moisturizer?
It all depends upon the ingredients of the moisturizer. If you read the labels of the moisturizing creams or lotions, you will perhaps be able to identify as to what is the best moisturizer for your skin! But for that, you need to know what ingredients moisturize your skin at what level and how do they do so? In short, if your skin is dry, you would look for a face moisturizer that has humectants, occlusive agents and emollients. They hydrate your skin in the best ways and also retain the moisture for a long time. But if you have an oily skin, you should not only look for moisturizers having emollients and occlusive agents but also those that have water like properties instead of oil like qualities. In commercial terms, you would require an ‘oil- free, water-based’ moisturizing lotion. Let’s understand how these moisturizing ingredients work so that you are able to find the right combination of moisturizing agents for your skin type.
Humectants attract water from the dermis below towards your outer skin layer and then bind that water up there. Glycerin is a good example of a humectant.
Occlusive agents create a physical barrier to the epidermal of skin and thus prevent water loss. Petroleum jelly is one of the widely used occlusive agent.
Emollients have some properties similar to occlusive agents but they are not as heavy as occlusive agents are. They too provide a protective film to the outer layer of your skin to prevent water loss. Additionally, they improve the appearance of your skin by making the flaky skin cells smooth. Fatty acids are nothing but emollients. Some other examples of emollients include lanolin, mineral oil, coconut oil, palm oil, petrolatum, Shea butter and sunflower seed oil. Emollients differ on the basis of their oil (lipid) to water ratio. The higher the oil content, more good it is for dry skin and higher the water content, more good it is for oily skin. Generally, moisturizing lotions have lower lipid content and ointments have higher lipid contents. Moisturizing creams have medium levels of oil content. Most of the moisturizing lotions therefore, are non greasy and thus the best moisturizers for oily skin. Creams are the best dry skin moisturizers and ointments are best for excessive dry skin.
More on ingredients later.
Now, when you know the basic ingredients used in a moisturizer, are you still able to make out as to what is a good moisturizer? Your answer should be- a good moisturizer is the one that includes all these moisturizing agents- humectants, occlusive agents and emollients but in different proportions matching the requirements of different types of skin.
So, if your skin is dry, the moisturizer that contains high levels of lipid based emollients along with humectants and occlusive agents, is the best moisturizer for you. For that matter, any oil based emollient is the best dry skin moisturizer.
But if your skin is oily, the moisturizer that has water based emollients along with only a low amounts of humectant and occlusive agent, is the best one for you. So, look for ‘water-based’ or ‘oil-free’ label on the moisturizer that you buy.
Are there other factors when choosing the best moisturizer for your skin?
Of course, there are!
Here are a few things to keep in mind before buying that large bottle or the jar of moisturizer on your next shopping trip to the mall.
Cleansing requirements before moisturizing your skin
When you plan to go for a moisturizing solution, its best advised to fix on the cleansing requirements first, before coming to the moisturizing one. Cleansing helps free your skin of impurities like excess oils, dead skin cells, make-up and pollution. They help to prevent clogged pores and prepare your skin for receiving moisturizers in the best ways. Generally, if your skin is dry and demands heavy moisturizing, it is best to have a gentle cleanser, the one which is not harsh on your skin and rather leaves it feeling fresh than peeled. A fresh skin can do wonders because moisturizers can work and repair better on a clean, healthy skin rather than a damaged, disoriented one. If you are using a gentle cleanser, a soft moisturizer is the ultimate requirement. Why? Because a gentle cleanser would not take away all of the natural oils from your skin. But if you are using a hardened cleanser, an advanced type of moisturizer would be better. You know why! Yes, because it strips your skin off its natural oils. Advanced moisturizer here means the one that has more moisturizing properties like the one that has oil based emollients!
Understanding the moisturizing needs of various skin types
Most skin types are different and their demands are different too as you have already realized while reading about how to identify a good moisturizer for your skin type. The list of different skin types is a large one- dry skin, oily skin, combination skin, sensitive skin and so on. However, the basic types of skins can be classified as oily and non-oily. Here’s how to select the right moisturizer for all types of skin!
How to choose the right moisturizer for dry skin?
Those with dry skin have to use moisturizers with high humectant and emollient levels and they get a plenty of moisturizers meant for dry skin. Just go for any moisturizer that says it is made up of lipid or oil based emollients. If you have an excessive dry skin, read the top few ingredients of a moisturizer and select the one with high amounts of humectants and oil based emollients as well as occlusive agents. Remember, the list of ingredients on moisturizers usually contain the things in descending order of their volumes used.
How to choose the right moisturizer for oily skin?
For those with oily skin and acne prone skin, it is a struggle to decide about the best moisturizer for their skin. They either get ‘over hydrating’ or a complete non-hydrating one. But, there is always an option called ‘oil free moisturizer’ and we have known earlier why they are called oil-free. Because they have those emollients that have higher water based content. If you suffer from severe acne prone skin, you might look for a ‘non-comedogenic’ moisturizer. They don’t clog pores and save you from getting acne and pimples!
How to choose the right moisturizer for combination skin?
Now comes the requirement for those who have combination skin. For them, it becomes more difficult to zero in on the best moisturizer for themselves. So, if you are one of those who have an oily T-zone (with your forehead, nose and chin shining always due to the oily skin there but with a dry skin elsewhere on your face), you do not need the same moisturizer as someone with severe acne. You may buy a good moisturizer that has light lipid based moisturizing emollients. The trick is to apply it judiciously on your face. For the dry skin areas, apply moisturizer as usual but for your T-zone oily area, just take a little amount, may be pea size, of moisturizer and rub it lightly over your T-zone. Then, wipe it lightly with a cotton ball and that’s all. However, if you have excess oily T-zone combined with excess dry skin then you might need to use a water-based or oil-free moisturizer for oily areas and a heavier lipid based moisturizer for dry areas of your skin.
How to choose the right moisturizer for sensitive skin?
If you have a sensitive skin, it’s going to be a tough task for you to select a good moisturizer for yourself! Sensitive skin may get contact dermatitis caused by allergens and irritants. These allergens may be the very ingredients used in your skin care products including good moisturizers! Perfumes and preservatives both can lead to allergies. So, avoid buying such moisturizers that have perfumes and preservatives. When going for preservative-free moisturizers, you might have to buy smaller bottles and store them in fridge but this is far better than having swollen and irritated skin. Most of the common emollients and humectants also have been associated with allergic reactions in people with sensitive skin. Therefore, you will have to resort to trial-and-error method. Stick with the one that finally soothes your skin instead of irritating it. If, however, trial-and-error doesn’t work for you, consult a dermatologist to get a medically approved moisturizer for sensitive skin. And remember, just because a moisturizer contains a label reading ‘hypoallergenic’ doesn’t mean that it will suit your sensitive skin. This is just a marketing buzzword. Conduct a patch test before using any type of moisturizer on your sensitive skin.
Seal in the moisture of your moisturizer
Only applying a good moisturizer doesn’t work all the times. Those who have to use an oil free moisturizers or even normal moisturizers, complain that after applying it, their skin starts feeling tight and not really relaxed. This is especially true for those who use the moisturizer after a hot shower or bath. So, always have a warm shower and not a hot one. Hot water strips your skin off its natural oil making it drier than ever. Also, apply the moisturizer to your skin as soon as possible after bathing. Moist skin absorbs moisturizer very well. Once your skin gets dried, the moisturizer is not absorbed by the skin that effectively. One more thing you might do is, after applying the moisturizer lightly on your skin, wrap it with a warm (not hot) towel for sometime. With this, not only will your oil free moisturizer give better water retentive properties to your skin but will also last longer on the skin.
Common ingredients in a moisturizer and their utility
We have already known about the basic ingredients that are used in moisturizers. However, they are not always written as humectant or emollient on the label. Here are few of the common ingredients present in most of the moisturizers and written on the label as they are. The knowledge about their effects on your skin will make it a little easier for you to choose the best moisturizer for your skin.
Glycerin: Most moisturizers have this chemical which is slightly sweet, has higher viscosity and is highly gentle on dry skin. It is an excellent hydrating agent and some people even use diluted glycerin as an alternative to moisturizing lotions and creams. Glycerin, a humectant, is known to hydrate and keep the skin healthy; you can feel the softness of your skin after using it for few days. Even though most of the good moisturizers have glycerin, it is highly recommended that you take note of its presence in the moisturizer before buying it, especially if you have a dry skin.
Petroleum/Mineral Oil: This ingredient is common in most oil based moisturizers. It is critical to the ‘oily’ feeling of the moisturizer and is best known for creating a protective layer over your skin to prevent water loss. Petrolatum and lanolin also fall in the same category. They are present in most moisturizers but are best avoided by those who seek oil free solutions in their moisturizers.
Hyaluronic Acid: Hyaluronic Acid is a humectant that hydrates by drawing water in to the outer layers from deep within your skin. It is believed to hold up to hundred times its weight in water. Perhaps that’s why it can plump and soften your skin amazingly. So, if you have a sagging, aging skin with dryness, fine lines and wrinkles but want to have a plumper, softer and smoother skin, get a moisturizer with this hyaluronic acid. However, many people feel dryness after using moisturizers with high amounts of this acid. It is contradictory to the basic concept of moisturizer! But this is true. To save yourself from this situation, buy those moisturizers that are in form of cream or lotion and along with hyaluronic acid, also contain water, proper emollient oils and esters, natural emulsifiers similar to your skin’s sebum (like jojoba oil) and occlusive materials to keep the moisture trapped at your skin’s surface.
Jojoba oil and other oils: All the oils are good for dry skin’s moisturizing needs but what about the oil-free moisturizers for oily skin! Oil free moisturizers don’t really mean that they function completely without oil because even the oiliest of skins require certain critical oil balance to stay healthy. Understand it like this- when you apply acne products etc. to your skin, they make it dry and in an attempt to combat this dryness, you skin starts producing more oil (sebum) which in turn leads to more oily clogged skin and more acne and pimples! So, moisturizing your skin with some oil which is similar to your skin’s sebum would restrict the production of excessive oil and save you from getting more acne. Jojoba oil is just like that, it mimics your sebum. Jojoba oil is a good oil which also helps in striking the right balance on the external side of the skin cells and keeps them strong from the inside too. Besides, it is known to adjust well with water. So, if you are looking for a good moisturizer for oily skin, go for one having jojoba oil. But it is still recommended that users who are highly allergic to more oil in their skin, best avoid this ingredient or conduct a patch test before using it.
Next time when you ask, what is the best moisturizer for your skin, remember, moisturizing needs are unique to everyone! It is best to know what we plan to use on our skin in advance rather than changing types of moisturizers at random. Knowing the ingredients of moisturizers and how they react with your skin type helps a lot when you are looking for a good moisturizer for your daily skin care needs. All the best to you in your search for the best moisturizer for your skin!
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Anima Sola follows in the footsteps of the first two singles «An all too human heart» and «Tro, håp og kjærlighet».
«An all too human heart» is the culmination of a mental fire and ice. The forces of Muspell and Nifl collided into a frenzy of poetic lyrics and hard riffs, willing this song to be a revolt against myself and my own myth. It echoes the works of Aleister Crowley and John Muir, and certain lines of the lyrics were written all the way back in 2005. It’s the most personally challenging and painful song I’ve ever done, because I had to work through so many demons in order to clear the right path for it to take shape and become what it wanted to be. To me this song is like looking into a broken mirror, not knowing if the cracks are in the glass or in yourself. They say beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but what about the darkness?
“Tro, håp og kjærlighet” (“Faith, Hope and Love”) is a song with a sharp and accusatory pointed finger. This is the opening track, and the leading line «Can you believe in God when children wish to die?» (transl.) sets the tone for the rest of the album. While it is a peremptory indictment against blind faith, it also speaks volumes about the state of the world. It’s about self-destructiveness, about reaping what you sow, and about the brutality of merely existing. It revolves around loss, and uncomfortably asks all the questions we really don’t want to answer about ourselves.
These two opening tracks sets the scene for the remaining songs on the album. Seeing how the album opens with a question, it also closes with the question of «Oh why cast this blackness upon me?» from «Time for Suicide», pulling everything out in the open and not providing any answers.
This is ice cold and relentless Norwegian Black Metal, the sonic equivalent of an open wound going straight for your guts. It definitely has the unique Minneriket sound, but with an added flair of more rock-oriented drums and a heavy audible bass making the rythmic sections something hard and uncompromising.
The album is hugely experimental in the vocal section, but also in song-structure and rythms. The heavy energies of songs such as «Alle hjerter banker ei» is in stark contrast to vicious pieces such as «When life gets sick the dead grow strong», but they all fill the same atmospheric void.
Actually, parts of the lyrics on this album was written back in 2005, so it’s been in the making for quite some years… Most of the music was written in 2015 and completed in 2016. Some parts had to be re-recorded early/mid 2017 after I re-wrote a lot of the lyrics. It’s important for me to be able to be what I present, and to become the right entity when I perform it. So I had to re-write a lot of the lyrics and record vocals again, performing it with the right feeling. This is also the first time I’ve had an external partner providing the mastering, and the music this time was mastered by Nagasaki Sound who did a fantastic job.
The art for both the two singles and the main album is of course tied to the lyrics of the album. I had some sketches I did myself, and reached out to the renowned goth artist Anna Marine who was able to bring her touch into this and really perfect my ideas. The atmosphere of artwork and lyrics both diverge from «normal» Black Metal aesthetics, and I’m very pleased with what we were able to achieve. All the three art pieces complement eachother and provides another depth to the holistic interpretation of this era of Minneriket.
Right now Minneriket is focusing on establishing a firm presence in the underground and digging up some tombstones along the way. I want this music to reach out and touch some broken souls along the way.
The first singles were released digitally, with a complimentary music/lyric video, and featured on different compilation CDs in international magazines. The full-length album is released in a limited edition CD (first print: 50 copies) and a bundle with merch, and digitally of course.
Where and how will you promote this new release?
Other than the above mentioned exclusive releases with magazines for the singles, there have been a few select and private listening sessions for the whole album with relevant people attending.
Where can we order it from?
All news and music will be available from
December 2017 | <urn:uuid:18b535ae-506c-4402-b637-7e5835be5797> | http://pestwebzine.com/index/minnericket_anima_sola/0-1748 | en | 0.965607 | 0.028861 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Amazon Echo Spot smart speaker
An Amazon WiFi and Bluetooth wireless smart speaker system with informative display and the Alexa digital assistant. Stereo analog audio input Stereo analog audio input Has a standard 3.5mm jack for a ... ( read original story ...)
MOKA Coffee Cup Speaker by Alessandro Valenti
This is the fundamental idea of MOKA speaker system by product and graphic designer Alessandro Valenti. At first sight, it seems like any standard coffee mug, but it is actually an upcycled cup speake... ( read original story ...)
10 Best Home Theatre Speakers
Each option offers their pluses and they all produce premium sounding audio. The Orb Audio: Mod1 Mini 5.1 Home Theater Speaker System is hand-made in the USA from premium materials, so you are going t... ( read original story ...) | <urn:uuid:a06c30b9-c689-41dc-b369-c11d3bb0f54d> | http://soundbizz.com/2019/03/page/12/ | en | 0.818369 | 0.050996 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Proudly serving Erie, Crawford, Mercer, and Warren counties.
Fax : 814-836-1149
PhonePhone : 814-836-1147
Toll FreeToll Free : 1-877-652-8048
The Physical and Mental Effects of Family Caregiving
Walking with Dad
Roles of Care Giving
Family caregivers have played a significant role in our society since the beginning of time. Each year, the demand for caregiving affects millions of America families from all socioeconomic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds. Today, family caregivers play an essential role in our system of care by providing a significant proportion of our health and long-term care for the chronically ill, disabled, and aging. The associations between physical and psychological health and being an informal caregiver are well established. In this article, caregiving denotes care that is provided by a family member or friend rather than by a professional who is reimbursed for service.
Clinical observation and early empirical research showed that assuming a caregiving role can be stressful and burdensome. Caregiving has all the features of a chronic stress experience, it creates physical and psychological strain over extended periods of time, is accompanied by high levels of unpredictability and uncontrollability, has the capacity to create secondary stress in multiple life domains such as work and family relationships, and frequently requires high levels of vigilance. Caregiving fits the formula for chronic stress so well that it is used as a model for studying the health effects of chronic stress.
Evidence on the health effects of caregiving gathered over the last two decades has helped convince policymakers that caregiving is a major public health issue. Professional advocacy groups, including nurses and social workers, have been instrumental in raising awareness about this issue. The dominant conceptual model for caregiving assumes that the onset and progression of chronic illness and physical models can be used to study caregiving.
Factors linked to caregiver’s physical health include the care recipient’s behavior problems, cognitive impairment, and functional disabilities, the duration and amount of care provided; vigilance demands, caregiver and patient coresidence. Feelings of distress and depression associated with caregiving also negatively affect the caregiver’s physical health. Caring for a patient with dementia is more challenging than caring for a patient with physical disabilities alone. People with dementia typically require more supervision, are less likely to express gratitude for the help they receive, and are more likely to be depressed. All of these factors have been linked to negative caregiver outcomes.
Greater degrees of depression and stress and low ratings of subjective well-being in caregivers are consistently associated with the following factors. The care recipient’s behavior problems, the care recipient’s cognitive impairment, the care recipient’s functional disabilities, the duration and the amount of care provided, the caregiver’s age, with older caregivers being more affected, the relationship between caregiver and care recipient with a spousal relationship having a greater effect, the caregiver’s sex with females being more affected.
Recently researchers have focused not only on providing care as a cause of distress, but also on the caregiver’s perception of how much the patient is suffering. Patient suffering is manifested in three related and measurable ways: overt physical signs, including verbal and non verbal expressions of pain and physical discomfort, such as difficulty breathing, psychological symptoms of distress, such as depression and apathy, and existential or spiritual well being, reflection the extent to which religious or philosophical beliefs provide inner harmony, comfort, and strength or, alternately, lead to despair.
Loving Hearts Home Care, Inc. is able to provide your family with assistance to ease some of the stress that goes along with the physical and mental effects of family caregiving.
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Atlas Shrugged Response
(Response challenging my views being opposite the lessons of Atlas Shrugged)
I don't see it that way. I am a pretty pure capitalist. I support Milton Friedman's ideas about school vouchers to maximize privatized education. I never supported Obama’s plan to control CEO pay. In my MBA classes I was one of the few students to oppose CEO pay regulation, as compensation is a market function. I even work for one of the largest corporations in the world which provides a lesson everyday about supply and demand. I think government subsidies for corporations are anti-capitalistic. I thought that the American car companies should fail. I think unions have outlived their purpose and are the major cause of the auto company’s demise (and airlines). I think minimum wage laws are useless and unnecessary and I disagree when Democrats push regulatory legislation. I think the Federal Reserve is what allowed banks to undertake excessive risk with minimal consequence. If the Philadelphia bank in the 70’s, the Savings and Loan bank in the 80’s, and other large banks in the 90’s were allowed to fail, it would have sent a clearer message to manage risk this past decade, instead of embrace it. I don’t think it’s possible for a company to make too much money. This includes drug companies, as profit drives innovation.
However, there are times when I see conflicts between capitalism and the best interests of society. Healthcare is one example. The interest of shareholders does not align with the interests of the people. I see insurance companies as one of the most wasteful corporate entities, being fed by taxpayer dollars, and supported by legislation to stifle competition, creating a high barrier to entry. Tell me how this plays into a free market belief? I also find it absurd that the largest buyer of drugs pays the highest price driven by legislation making negotiation illegal. Tell me how that is capitalistic? (By the way, I have enormous respect for your brother who bucked party lines to vote against the Republican monstrosity healthcare bill. The Medicare 2003 bill is perhaps one of the most detrimental pieces of legislation to ever come out of Congress. A one trillion dollar entitlement program over ten years?! And the right calls Obama a socialist!)
Remember that Ayn Rand was a Russian immigrant seeing firsthand the problems with communism. It was the Russian Government that taught her how destructive anti-capitalistic models are, and drove her motivation to push ideas on capitalism. I don’t think anyone would question Greenspan’s dedication to free markets, but even he saw a flaw with the current capitalistic model stating that he had made a "mistake in believing that banks, operating in their own self-interest, would do what was necessary to protect their shareholders and institutions." Greenspan called that “a flaw in the model that defines how the world works.” This contradicts Adam Smith. This also demonstrates to me that Ayn Rand needs some revision.
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By definition, a “code talker” refers to a Native American who served during a foreign conflict and transmitted a secret coded message in their traditional tribal language for military operations during World War I and World War II.
In 2000, Navajo Code Talkers were honored with Congressional Gold Medals for their services in developing and implementing their traditional Dine’ language as a secretive code of communication on the battle fields in both WWI and WWII.
“However, many Americans do not know that members of nearly 32 other Indian tribes served as codetalkers in World War I and World War II and have never been formally recognized for their service to our country,” said Chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell of Colorado at the Senate Hearing on Code Talkers
During this hearing on the “Contributions of Native American Code Talkers in American Military History, Senator Campbell lists 32 other tribes to serve as code talkers during both the Pacific and European campaigns as; Comanche, Cheyenne, Cherokee, Osage, Lakota, Dakota, Chippewa, Oneida, Sac and Fox, Meskwaki, Hopi, Assiniboine, Kiowa, Pawnee, Akwesasne, Menominee, Creek, Cree Seminole Tribes and Other unlisted tribes...
Clarence Wolf Guts, last surviving Lakota code talker who passed away in 2010, testified at the 2004 Senate Hearing, “I am a full-blood Indian, and we do whatever we can to protect the United States because we love America… I was sitting there in the foxhole with a radio, trying to give the orders that were given to us to pass on to the chief-of-staff… We used our own code and we did whatever we could to protect our country… When I see young children playing without supervision, I realize why we’re over there.”
It was during World War II when many of the other Oceti Sakowin tribal groups served as code talkers. This would include the Oglala Sioux Tribe, Rosebud Sioux Tribe, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, Lower Brule Sioux Tribe, Crow Creek Sioux Tribe, Sisseton Wahpeton Sioux Tribe, with Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe continuing research to confirm code talkers.
The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe (SRST) has the largest number of code talkers for any tribe across the country to receive the Congressional Gold Medal; including Navajo code talkers.
Despite not becoming citizens of the United States until June 2, 1924, the first reported use of Native Americans as code talkers was on October 17, 1918 during World War I. This was nearly 24 years after the Battle of the Little Big Horn.
Walter "Cody" John served as a code talker during World War II.
The Native American code talkers took great pride in the oath of secrecy for their service as military instruments which helped to defeat the enemies of the United States on many battle fields.
Responses to "Honoring 33 Native Tribes who Served As Code Talkers to Save the U.S"
1. Unknown says:
They all deserve recognition and medals!
2. Anonymous says:
Thank you to a group of men who used their personal skills to aid this country in such a valuable way!
3. Anonymous says:
I'm not an American but have always respected the native Indian Tribes for not only what they did during WW2 but now have found out what they did in WW1 as well.The native tribes are to America what the Gurkha people of Nepal are to us British people completely loyal and should be honored that way.
4. Anonymous says:
now look at what they're doing at Standing Rock... ungrateful
5. Unknown says:
Just taking care of our country! I'm so proud of all that helped win the war. May you all walk with the Creator. Rest in peace. Thank you. ❤️
6. Anonymous says:
Thank you all for serving our country & our people! You honor us all, even though I did not know you personally! Now you have taken your places beside The Great Spirit & continue to be a Blessing to all of us ♡♡♡
7. Unknown says:
More information like this NEEDS to be shared with more americans, in the U.S.A. especially.. Even teenagers in schools do not know of the long dedicated services that the First Nations Indigenous People have sacrificed to help keep this country safe!
8. Unknown says:
What a unique way of using your own language to help keep this country and soldiers safe. I applaud you and the work you have done. Thank you for your service and may you always remembered with honor for doing an outstanding job. It shouldn't of taken so long for Native Americans to be recognized for their unique abilities. I understand why it had to be secret though. The fact that the language of each tribe is
different definitely made a bigger challenge for the enemy.
9. 1sbwa says:
Of course that would lead to needing so.e answers to the claims by natives that the US Government wiped out all native languages by forbidding them.
10. Unknown says:
When there is no more water, land, food, the circle of life has a code , and to all wars the language of the universe can only see to it that original people of "turtle Island" and granted that of the man and women with the gift of language. Then being said, it is not to forget to the begotten people. Honor is Victorious, dishonor is a rude awakening. Always know your path of life, for choices of riches is not always the protection of spiritual being, however you will always be victorious that you walk humble. Protect Mother Earth and her children for the blood will soon appear to be showing its true colours. -endensum 777-17
11. Anonymous says:
Thank you all for your service to America.You are true American heroes that our childern ought to be learning about in schools.You have alot of repect from me.
12. Yatee he ...I was lucky to meet a Navajo code talker and thank him personnally during a pow-wow.
As a tour guide I always talk about that story during my stay in Dine nation. I have lots of respect for the Indian nations that survived today. They have so much to teach us ...
13. Anonymous says:
Aho,from Korean war UNSMC,Winchester,NH
14. Unknown says:
15. Unknown says:
In the world today, greed and disrespect rule our society. Does anyone remember when dedication to America as a nation of fellow citizens was our standard? Our Native American citizens have NEVER forgotten. There is a cost to the wonderful membership we enjoy as American citizens!
16. neache says:
Every Native American Tribe and its members and their respective Nations, should receive the respect that was taken from them. Thank you all for winning the wars this country has fought, for without you, many more lives would have been lost. I salute you all.
17. Unknown says:
Is Very Very importan Heart is Mhoter-
18. The statement "This [1918] was nearly 24 years after the Battle of the Little Big Horn" is incorrect. That battle took place in 1876, 42 years before.
19. Unknown says:
I realize that the Navajo completed a great service to a country they owed nothing to. The 2 original Choctaw code Talkers and their brothers that made up a total of 26 languages in the 36 th Division in World War I,need more recognition in my (doesn't matter) opinion. Without these men, would the U.S. military have actually thought of using languages they were trying to destroy?
20. Thom Faircloth says:
It is a shame that Ben Nighthorse Campbell did not mention the Dine' (Navajo). As a chief of the Northern Cheyanne who served Colorado which borders on Navajo lands in both Arizona and New Mexico he should know better. The Navajo Code Talkers memorial at Window Rock Arizona is breathtaking.
21. Unknown says:
The land is still theirs, the minds and souls of the occupiers will not return to connectivity with the earth and skies until they can understand what they have done with repentance and humility and return to equality and respect for all life
22. Wizard says:
Semper Fi...USMC 63-67 Such an honor!
23. So much respect for the Tlingit Code Talkers!
24. Unknown says:
In my new book, Memories of War and Peace, I tell the stories of the 19 Choctaw Code Talkers of World War I and Joseph Oklahombi, Oklahoma's greatest warrior. Thanks to these brave men and what they did, it is estimated that the helped to defeat the Germans and end the war a year and a half earlier than it did.
25. There were also members of the North Eastern United States Iroquois Nations I was told were code talkers. There was also an "Ace" pilot of a P-40 Curtis Warhawk. He was of a Ho Chunk father and a Seneca mother from Wisconsin. I know this is not a Code Talker person, BUT according to all accounts from Army Air Force veterans I have talked with, THEY said he must have been a "natural" as P 40's were NOT known for good areal combat planes. They were VERY tough ground support planes and they were the ONLY plane ready for combat in mass production at the start of WWII. TOO little is known from or about him.
26. It is amazing for all the good they have done for this country they and there lands are treated like shit. If you went to Standing Rock as I did you would have seen how poorly they live it is as bad well really worse than the Harlum slums and yes I have been to both places. And our government turns around every chance they get and McCain was one of them that sold there lands to mineral companies to destroy with out permission form the tribes. We still kill them with impunity they also don't get any of the royalties. It is a shame we are all so wound up in our own lives that we never think about the native Americans that have suffered ever since our ancestors took there land and there lives. Think ab out that and they still come to our aid to win wars and even then they are in the back round only to be forgotten.
27. GeneBetit says:
Dear courageous "anonymous:" Those at Standing Rock are only trying to protect their land from despoliation and water from contamination.
28. Nantanian says:
The people of Turtle Island are probably the most forgiving in world history. After being robbed of their land, and raped of their culture, they turned around and helped their transgressors in America's darkest hour. There should be a National Native American Day.
29. Unknown says:
very proud to hear the story of the code talkers
30. Unknown says:
Thank you code talkers. We really confused all those people
31. Mohawk315 says:
Akwesasne is a RESERVATION that is occupied by the MOHAWK tribe.
32. Jerry Medlin says:
As a Native Oklahoman, but not of Indian decent, I have many friends that ARE NATIVE AMERICANS, and some ARE RELATIVES of the CODE TALKERS. I am PROUD to call them FRIENDS, and HONOR THEIR RELATIVES for their SERVICE and SACRIFICE to OUR country. GOD BLESS THEM ALL!!
33. Miranda says:
I just love this and everything I have read on those Code Talkers .. They are TRUE HERO'S
34. I met a code talker at old town in Albuquerque, New Mexico while I was visiting my da. I had my daughter go n talk with him n take a picture with him also. She was a JROTC Army Cadet in high school. I sure wish I could remember his name. She asked a few questions n he was very Quiet man. I stand up n applaud our Native veterans. They helped save the USA. Kiowa code talkers. Many Ah ho’s n may Daw kee bless all the families of the code talkers.
35. Anonymous says:
My mother said my grandfather was used more like a dispensable dog in the forests of France during WWI carrying messages to the front lines. He was Native American and got out of forced Indian Boarding School at 15 by joining the army....
36. Unknown says:
I commend all the Native peoples for their contribution in the wars, and also the Natives in Canada, whom I am sure they were in the wars also. Not only the American Natives. They deserve a lot. Thank you to them all.
37. In 2016 I walked across the United States from Seal Beach California at the Pacific Ocean through 11 states to the Vietnam War Memorial arriving at the Wall on 9/11/2016 at sunrise. One of my most memorable experiences was meeting Peter MacDonald the past President of the Navajo Nation. He was a Code Talker and you can see our conversion on Youtube Butch Azar and the Navajo Code Talker he tell this story when he was 88 years old. I took this footage in his home and he spoke for 20 minutes and nailed the whole story of the Navajo Cold Talker.
38. May God Bless all who serve! I have two Sons in the U.S. Army, and my Father, Sister, numerous uncles, and a nephew have also served our Beloved Nation! My heart is filled with gratitude and pride as I am also decendent of American Revolution Soldiers! AMERICA, LAND OF THE FREE. BECAUSE OF THE BRAVE!!
39. novak says:
This comment has been removed by the author.
40. novak says:
This comment has been removed by the author.
41. novak says:
rip Soldiers, and thank you. My heart is filled with gratitude and pride at the freedom ya'll helped all Americans to have...until we meet in the hunting grounds of our forefathers
42. Unknown says:
43. Gary says:
I honor your service! I too served in the Army.My kin also served in europe & the pacific in WW2. Have heard if the famous navajo code talkers all of my life. Am part Cherokee so am also glad to hear of the other nations participating. Your name lives on. Be blessed of the LORD!
44. JEP311 says:
Aho each and everyone of the Code Talkers are Heroic. WWII would not have been as it came to end without them . WADO Medals are an honor very deserved.
45. Shawna says:
Thank you code talkers, you are all heroes!!
46. Anonymous says:
You never know when somebody will tap you on the shoulder and ask you to show your talents. It's always good to have two or three of them that you can pull down off the shelf and save lives along with an entire country.
47. Unknown says:
How sad the other tribes have not been recognized. How disrespectful.
48. Unknown says:
I'm so honored to be Native. Im very much vexed by the position the US government has forced on my people. Before white man came. We were at peace. We fought for necessity, not to conquer. This land, mother earth was given to us. Beautiful. And the white man's ways have destroyed a fruitful land, it's wild life, it's resources, etc. We have been put through a genocide,each tribe here in the Americas. Made to change our life ti suit a selfish, power hungry, people. So forgive me if I have a bad taste in my mouth.
And by the way, it hasn't ended. Standing Rock is a prime example of a corrupt government taking what they want. And not honoring a treaty for personal gain. That's despicable, that's beyond disrespectful.
49. Unknown says:
Thanks for all the service.
50. Unknown says:
Thank You God Bless
51. They will always be honored
Thank you to all code talkers
That helped in that historical
52. Anonymous says:
I have much respect for our Native Americans, I have always felt our country would be in much better shape if they had more control over their native lands, instead of us the white man who took that away their land from them and their people. They in return helped us to protect our freedoms and rights, again we owe them much respect and honor for what they done for us in WW2 and beyond.
53. Billy says:
It's about time they are getting the recognition that they deserve. I am proud to say that I am a Army veteran. And that the Code Talkers did one great job.
54. akwesasne is a reserve. should say mohawk
55. Anonymous says:
And yet no mention of the Choctaw.
56. ������������Our late father Rodney Lincoln, Sr.of Kotzebue, Alaska was a code talker along with A. Browser, a gentleman from Barrow, Alaska during WWII. They were both in the Army. Our late father was in the hundred and first airborne! Our Inupiaq language was not a written language then. Very proud of these two Eskimo men who were coders! ������������
57. At a military training class at Camp Shelby Mississippi one time I was asked to do report on Communications. my communication subject that I chose were the codebreakers. I showed in my class how communication is the base of winning a war or objective and how the Native Americans did that not just for the United States but for the whole world. I would love to sit down with a shaman and go through a few ceremonies. My family's home was 3.4 miles off the Trail of Tears in Middle Tennessee. At 5:20 in the morning one time, I woke to a 6ft 2in Native American standing at the foot of my bed. I telepathically heard the name Testanchuo. I have his tattoo on my left arm now.
58. Unknown says:
They saved the US $Billions, but not their Tribes... And a "Thanks" is all they got... Shoulda stayed home and fought for their Sovereignty and Rights instead...
59. I knew Clarence Wolf Guts when I served as Chaplain to the SD Veterans Home, great American, also worked the Navajo Code Talkers special event amateur Radio station, N7C, this past weekend.
60. Unknown says:
Honor all Semper fi Brothers
61. Unknown says:
For all you Navajo Tribal members,and you Navajo Admirers
As well as our
US Nation History books.There were 32 other tribal nations that were also Code talker during WW II. And for you Readers, It wasn't the Navajo nation that implemented the Code talkers. It was the Choctaw nation from Oklahoma who implemented it During the 1st World, and continued it into the 2nd World War. So DON'T BELIEVE everything you read or what you see on the Internet. Ralp, 1/2 Ponca, 1/2
Tohono O'Odham.
62. Daniel says:
Heroes, all of them!
63. Unknown says:
Wow. Thank you for the history lesson and thank you to all of the Indians who participated in any of our country's wars
64. Unknown says:
Gentlemen, thank you for your service. I wish we had publicized it more. You deserve the recognition and appreciation of the entire country...including our government.
65. They should make statues of native soldiers to memorize the natives.
66. Unknown says:
This makes me even more proud of my Native American Heritage. Thank you so much to all the men and women who served then or are still serving to protect this great country of ours. Like someone already said in the comments above, May you all walk with the Creator.
67. Greg says:
Admire them all. Most folks don’t realize that more than a dozen Apache scouts were awarded the Medal of Honor for their bravery in working with the US Army in its campaign against the Chiricahua....By the way, 1918 is 42, not 24, years after Little Bighorn, June 25, 1876. Just sayin’...I knew of several of the tribes providing code talkers but, not all. My friend Ravis Yazzie’s father was one.
68. Thank you for service to your country.
69. Unknown says:
We owe all these men a debt of gratitude we can never repay. Thank you for seeing beyond the obvious!
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I've got an iPad mini 4, running iOS 10.3.3.
When you head to the Settings > Display & Brightness, you can set if you want the iPad to lock when you close the cover/press the power button, as well as set a time for when it automatically locks. This does not, however, require a password.
Is there any way to lock these settings so that a certain person can't keep changing them? There doesn't seem to be a way to do this is the Restrictions or anything, and I can't find anything on how to do this.
No, unfortunately there is no way to lock this particular setting.
This is similar to how it isn't possible to lock the auto lock setting on iPhones – if someone has access to the device in an unlocked state, that person can change the auto lock duration freely from the settings app.
However, you can use a device management profile from something like SimpleMDM. There are many other apps which allow you to hide or restrict system apps, like the settings app. In order to access the settings app, you will need to disable this profile which will require your passcode or your fingerprint. In this way, someone will be unable to modify this setting without your passcode or Touch ID authentication.
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Aqsa Rashid
I'm a freshman majoring in International Studies with a concentration in the Middle East and North Africa. I've always had a passion for writing, and I find journalism to be an outlet for writing about my interests in certain topics and to convey my opinions and facts to an audience.
Fun fact? I've literally never finished a Netflix show before in my life.
Aqsa Rashid, Writer
Dec 05, 2018
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In the Shadow of Jehovah: Is Religion’s Devil a Reflection of a Limited Concept of God?
As always, this writing does not represent the official views of Universal Co-Masonry, but is simply the reflections of one Co-Mason.
The figure of the Devil is among the most prominent and significant religious figures in the world today, particularly in the Abrahamic family of religions that have come to dominate the globe. The contrast between God (or his representative) and the devil is taken to be one of the most fundamental dynamics of many religious worldviews, even to the point that Satan serves as a symbol for those who oppose or criticize religion. Even for the non-religious, it’s impossible to deny the significance of the devil as an archetype in our culture.
This good vs. evil, God vs. Devil idea is actually much older even than Abraham, and has its roots as far back as Zoroastrianism in ancient Babylon, and many scholars even believe that the Abrahamic faiths picked the devil up from the Babylonians during their capture in that civilization. Many interpretations of the devil have been made on a symbolic level, ranging from a representation of our own carnal nature, to a reincarnation of the nature-spirit Pan, to the light bringer known as Lucifer
Today, I’d like to take a slightly different approach: Is it possible that the entire concept of the devil emerges directly from a certain limited concept of God?
Our Father, Who Art In Heaven
Inasmuch as the Devil is a shadow figure, perhaps even the quintessential iconoclastic antithesis to all that is regarded as good or holy, it represents the unconscious “dark” elements that are regarded as the opposite of the divine. In other words, the devil becomes the shadow aspect of God, and within us, the shadow of our own divinity. Whether or not a literal, supernatural entity that we might identify as the devil exists, we can see this symbolic truth. We can also surmise that the most essential quality of the devil is rebellion or resistance to the divine will, for the sake of self-gratification, and so represents the temptation each of us feels to indulge in personal pleasure, at the expense of our moral principles or nobler priorities.
All of this presupposes a divine ruler on high, sitting on a throne in heaven, issuing commands, directing angelic activities, hearing and responding to prayers, even feeling gratified or displeased with earthly events. This is the image of God described in the Abrahamic faiths, often taken quite literally by believers. Even less anthropomorphic concepts of a monotheistic God are generally finite, in this way. God is thought of as a being who is somewhere, perceiving events, doing things, even peering into our very hearts and whispering in our minds, a sort of ultimate person above all lesser people, or as the saying goes, “King of Kings, Lord of Lords.”
Given all of this, it seems inevitable that out of this supreme, uber-person-God’s many created lesser beings, one of them would eventually question his position and rebel, and as it so happens, Lucifer was the first angel created, and the leader of the rebellion not long after. The relatively recent origins of this idea can be picked apart at an academic level, but nevertheless, it is the dominant devil mythology of the dominant religion of our time, Christianity.
Father and the Rebel
Rembrandt Return_of_the_Prodigal_Son
“Return of the Prodigal Son” by Rembrandt
Of course, if God is an authority figure, there has to be an anti-authority rebel. How else could it be? If the devil hadn’t gone rogue, a human surely would have. The real question we should be asking ourselves is: should we take either of these two concepts seriously?
It’s no secret that many intellectuals have been critical, if not outright rejecting of this traditional concept of God and the devil. It seems too obvious how this uber-person was simply created by human minds, attempting to imagine a divine authority based on earthly authorities, or perhaps being imposed upon them by those earthly authorities as a justification for their rule.
If you want your sovereignty supported by your subjects, be sure you have the endorsement of the highest authority. Even regular philosophers have increasingly questioned and rejected this idea, from the time they gained the right to do so without being tortured and killed.
Likewise, it’s difficult not to see the utility of the penultimate bad boy devil as both a scapegoat for our human failings and a scare tactic to keep the pews filled. That’s not to say that this dynamic duo doesn’t have symbolic value and that these stories aren’t useful in helping to shape human behavior towards a better trajectory. This is especially true for those who have trouble understanding a more rational concept of God. But for the rest of us, how else might we understand God, and is the devil even necessary?
Light Casts No Shadow
If we look to the many religions of the world, there are some for whom the figure of penultimate evil is either nonexistent or has a much lesser emphasis. It’s no coincidence that these also have quite different views on the nature of God, as well. We can easily see in this comparison how it is precisely the authoritarian concept of God which produces our angelic rebel. After all, without heavenly authority, who would he have to rebel against?
In Buddhism, for instance, while some variations may carry over personifications of evil from their polytheistic precursors, in general, the only enemy of mankind is ignorance itself. Likewise in Hinduism, while various Gods and Goddesses represent manifestations of “aspects” of God, even the dark or destructive ones are seen as mere parts in the divine play or dance of creation. In Paganism, Taoism, and occult or esoteric traditions the world over, there is likewise little-to-no concept of an embodiment of all evil, or at least not one that carries the same cosmic significance and literal personification as the Abrahamic devil.
What else do all of these various non-Abrahamic traditions have in common? You guessed it, a quite different concept of God, or the divine. While there are minor differences, they tend towards a view of God as a universal mind, or omnipresent, transcendent cosmic consciousness, like the Hindu Brahman. Even the mystical elements of Abrahamic faiths, such as Christian Mystics, Islamic Sufis, and Jewish Kabbalists have less anthropomorphic, more mystical concepts of God, and emphasize the devil less.
Many thinkers have proposed that these varying views are merely stages in a linear evolutionary development of our understanding of God, and that each can serve various people, depending on their capability to comprehend. For many, perhaps the simpler stories and images can suffice. In Freemasonry, each Mason is entitled to his or her own religious belief and conception of God, however personal or mystical; only the belief in a higher power is required.
Inner and Outer: The Shamanic Thread Through All Religions
Inner and Outer: The Shamanic Thread Through All Religions
While we make no bones about the esoteric nature of our beliefs and interests in Universal Co-Masonry, what may be missed by many is the connection which this esotericism, in general, has to a historical divide within perhaps all religions. While we may know the history of religion or at least the religious tradition(s) we’ve been closest to in our lives, do we know their esoteric history? Do they all have an esoteric history? What is the purpose of this split between the esoteric (inner) and exoteric (outer) teachings?
The word occult means hidden, and can be used interchangeably with esoteric, but what is it hiding from? Did this secretiveness arise simply to avoid the persecution of the church in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, as we’re often led to believe, or has concealment always been in its nature?
The Shamanic Thread in Religions
It would be absurd to attempt to tell any sort of true history of religion in the context of a single blog post, but I do want to highlight what is most relevant to the topic. In doing so, I think it’s useful to return to the beginning.
Where did religion begin? Archaeologically, we see the dim traces of the beginnings of religion as signified by cave paintings and burial sites, the point at which humans began honoring and burying our dead. In truth, we know very little about this twilight of belief.
Female Shaman Khakas 1908
Female Shaman (Khakas 1908)
The first instance of religion which we have more direct experience and knowledge of is that which occurs in tribes, which has come to be referred to by anthropologists as Shamanism. We see shamans in the indigenous tribes we encounter and study in modern times, and we assume that this system must have been present from our own beginnings and that these people serve as a glimpse into our past; for the moment, I’ll work with this assumption without question.
Shamanism involves a minority of the tribe, often only a single shaman and one or more apprentices, serving as the interface between the spiritual realms and the tribe. What makes the shaman unique is that he or she is able to communicate with the world beyond the senses in a way that most aren’t, whether through natural capacities, or the use of psychoactive plants. In the case of Shamanism, we can clearly see the beginnings of a “mystical minority” of the population, who are acknowledged and even vital to the tribe.
Growth, Monopoly, and Compartmentalization
As we move forward through the progressive trajectory of civilization, we see the same pattern but with changes over time. As people developed kingdoms and larger civilizations, they also began to build separate structures within each city, and temples emerged as spaces uniquely devoted to interfacing with the divine. It’s interesting to note that, just as the various buildings physically cordoned off each “area” of life, with the government here, the market there, etc., so too did religion begin to be separated. It became less and less woven into the whole of life, as was more-so the case in the tribe, and became something you do “there” specifically.
egyptians and acacia
Egyptian Tree of Life
Furthermore, we might even say that this, in fact, was the beginning of religion, inasmuch as religion describes a specific, separate domain of human activity; if this be the case, then we can recognize that the emergence of religion was a product of the divvying up of life into categories, and simultaneously, a continuation of the shamanic tradition. All of the above was also mostly relevant in cities, while the people living in villages still relied on shamanic figures for much of the time, until the priesthood of the city began to replace the shamans and druids with priests.
As far as we know, the esoteric side of religion also emerged during this time. Greece and Rome had their mystery schools, the Hindu kingdoms had their Brahmins and Yogis, Israel their prophets and later their Kabbalists, etc.
However, this mysticism wasn’t necessarily separated from the priesthood. In ancient Greece, for instance, it was expected or even required to undergo the initiations, in order to be a priest, or for that matter, any other prominent and influential member of society. Since these things weren’t always recorded, we may never fully know just how connected the various esoteric traditions and their correlating priesthoods were.
The Standard Deviation from the Mundane
A question that I find very interesting is: Why has this mystical minority seemingly always existed? Are they simply those which are smarter, less “neurotypical”, more prone to transition between different states of consciousness, or more likely to experiment with psychoactive drugs? Or could it be some combination of all these things?
It’s commonly understood that many things, including human traits like height, IQ, blood pressure, and salaries, occur in the form of a normal distribution, or bell curve. This just means that when you plot them on a graph, the majority are “normal” and so the middle of the graph is the largest, and the further from normal you get in either direction, the more it slopes off, like the edges of a bell, with fewer people being abnormal.
IQ Bell Curve
IQ Bell Curve
Could it be that whatever trait or collection of traits contributes to someone being open to, and capable of embracing the mystical side of life more completely is simply always a minority of people out at the edges of the bell? And what about the rest of the people, who live in the middle of that bell curve, who are normal? Why must they be separated?
Will That Be Milk, or Solids?
For most of us who find ourselves at the mystical end of the curve, life experience has taught us that those who dwell within the realm of normality are often not willing or able to understand many of the more profound concepts, for whatever reasons. It often seems that what they need is exactly what exoteric religion provides, simplified stories and concepts which can give meaning and purpose to their lives, but which the more mystically inclined would find lacking. Perhaps that is exactly why exoteric religion was created; at some point, the inheritors of the shamanic thread understood what Jesus expressed, when his disciples asked why he must speak in parables to the masses: because having ears, they cannot hear, and having eyes, they cannot see.
Masonic Symbolism
Of the many esoteric traditions, Freemasonry has served as an ideal refuge and vehicle for the mystically inclined. This is primarily because of its level of organization and practicality, which has facilitated its membership not just studying high concepts behind closed doors, but having a major influence on society at large, as well as a highly functional internal structure that allows us to be effective at getting things done. While the milk of parables is enough for most, for those who seek more solid food, we welcome sincere truth-seekers of every kind
Colors in Freemasonry: Part I
Colors in Freemasonry: Part I
Freemasonry is a system of age-old knowledge handed down primarily through the language of symbolism, and a part of the vocabulary of symbolism that is most significant is that of color. Color saturates our entire experience, and can be quite easy to take for granted, or simply see as a case of happenstance. This or that object simply “happens” to be this or that color, and while it certainly has aesthetic effects, this is more or less the scope of it’s significance, as people normally think.
Yet anyone who has spent time learning the language of symbolism, whether in the context of Masonry, the interpretation of dreams, or analysis of art and fiction will know that color carries enormous symbolic significance. To dream of a blue boat can be quite different in meaning than to dream of a red boat, and the same principle applies to any dream symbol and it’s color. As a body of knowledge communicated in the same language of symbol as dreams, the arts, or religious mythology, color in the Masonic Lodge is likewise an essential layer of meaning for the Initiate.
So, what is the meaning of colors in the language of symbolism in general, and to Masons specifically?
finaltumblr_inline_nxatcedBV71riiuei_500_1 (2)Color of darkness, the endless expanse of space, the depths of the Earth, and absence of light. Black is first and foremost the unknown, as it is literally what is dark, what is not illuminated. As such, it can also represent not just the unknown, but the hidden, and the act of concealing.
Archetypally, we often associate black with evil, as we see evil as a kind of darkness, an existence not brightened by the light of love and knowledge. Black does not correspond to any standardly recognized chakra, however the absence of light from any given chakra can be said to be blackness, in effect.
In Freemasonry, black can represent grief, can be connected to Anubis the God of Death and all that he represents, as well as carrying all of the symbolism described above. The role of black in the Masonic mosaic pavement is a central element of the Lodge, and worth pondering.
Color of blood, fire, passion, gore, and anger. We say we “see red” when we are angry beyond maintaining composure; prostitution occurs in red light districts; we give red roses to those we are in love with, and “paint the town red” when we release all inhibitions and indulge our whims and passions. It can represent anything from war and bloodshed to health and vitality.
Tubal Cain
Red is also the color of Vulcan, or Tubal-Cain (see image), descendant of Cain, progenitor of civilization. It’s also noteworthy that the name Adam is akin to the word for red, and so the mythological first human is connected to the first chakra, and the first level of the hierarchy of needs.
The red chakra is usually associated with the most basic physical needs and drives, including money, sex, and health.In Masonry, red carries an association inherited from the ancient Egyptians, that of fire, which is the regenerator and purifier of souls.
Color of autumn, dawn and dusk, and bright flames. Orange is a color which tends to elicit strong reactions from people, whether positively or negatively; as the saying goes, either you love it or you hate it. Orange conjures feelings of vibrancy and energetic overflowing, perhaps due to its association with the sun and fire. The orange chakra is associated with both personal power as well as sexual the sex drive.
Oddly, the color orange seems not to make many appearances in the Lodge. Perhaps it is lumped in with red in some cases, and yellow in others, but we can assume it carries much the same symbolism as above, when it does appear.
Color of the element of gold, the sun, sunflowers, and the happy face. Yellow is a color which has mostly positive symbolism, perhaps because of its association with gold, and is often also connected to the intellect, as well as radiance, as that of the sunflower, and happiness.Yellow Golden Wheat
We also use it to describe cowardice, but this is virtually the only negative association. The yellow chakra has to do with the intellect, and also social aspects of life, those having to do with society at large.
Yellow appears on various regalia and aspects of the lodge, often in the form of metallic gold, and in addition to the inherent associations with the precious metal, was also the symbol of light in the ancient world. Thus, although it may not play a central role in the lodge, it nevertheless represents the goal of Light which the Mason seeks, including the radiant beams reaching out from the All-seeing Eye
Alright, we’ve made it halfway through the spectrum, we’ll continue our review of the symbolism of colors in Part II.
Behind the Widow’s Son: A Deeper Dive into the Enigmatic Mythology
Behind the Widow’s Son: A Deeper Dive into the Enigmatic Mythology
I recently covered the topic of the Widow’s Son in Freemasonry, and several avenues of interpretation and investigation about this concept, ranging from biblical genealogy to archetypal mythology.
Now, I would like to take you along for a deeper dive into the topic of the Widow’s Son, and the possible source of it in Rosicrucian, Gnostic, and generally esoteric thought. Here again, there is a range of realistic vs mythological interpretations, but the occult significance of either, or both, will be further explored.
As always, this writing does not represent the official views of Universal Co-Masonry, but is only the reflections of one Co-Mason.
A Tale of Fire and Water
At the heart and origin of the Widow’s Son concept, according to the Rosicrucian writings of Max Heindel, is an alternative take on the biblical story of Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel, which is itself embedded in an alternative cosmology related to, but quite different from the biblical story of creation.
fire and water in freemasonryIn this Rosicrucian take on biblical cosmology, briefly, the spirits or angels of various elements represent different spiritual forces and archetypes unfolding in the early events of creation, and the Angels of Fire play a major role. In this story, the Angels are spirits of various elements, and the Spirits of Fire are those who decided to manifest the latent potential in matter by ignition; in the form of the sun and other stars, this effulgent quality provided a polar contrast with the cold vacuum of space and inert matter.
By burning, they created an engine of manifestation, as the heat evaporated the water, which re-condensed to fall and cool the surface of the planets, eventually creating a habitable crust-zone for biological life. Therefore, the Spirits of Fire, and all who are affiliated with them, are aligned with the archetype of dynamic power, manifestation, and light, and are also somewhat rebellious in nature, hence breaking energy free from the bonds of matter, literally what Fire does.
The Spirits of Water, on the other hand, have exactly the opposite essence and agenda, chiefly to quench the flame of the Spirits of Fire, and to keep energy bound in matter. Thus, the evaporated water condenses and rains down onto the hot molten earth, cooling it, and stabilizing it back into a more structured, albeit less free existence. Thus, the world as we know it, and in fact every individual, is some combination of these two fundamental forces, Fire and Water, dynamism and restraint, power and passivity, entwined together, encased within one another, playing out their polaric dance upon the stage provided by Earth and Air, Solidity and Space.
What does the dynamic of the elements have to do with the Widow’s Son, and the biblical first family?
Good Old Uncle Samael?
Chapter Two of this Gnostic creation story presents us with the more familiar characters of Adam, Eve, Cain, and Abel, with one less familiar guest appearance: an angel by the name of Samael. In this version of the story, Samael is said to be of the hierarchy of the Angels of Fire, and is identical with the serpent who convinced Eve to eat of the Tree of Knowledge. Thus, true to fiery archetypal form, he paved the way for the freeing of the latent potential of the human mind from the blissfully ignorant liquid passivity of the Garden existence. freemasonry mythology
In this version of the story, though, Samael did a bit more than just some slick apple-salesmanship; he also provided Eve with her first child, Cain. However, before Cain was born, Jehova forced Samael to flee elsewhere, for his crime of corrupting Eve. By the way, Adam hadn’t been created yet, in this version; he was only created after Samael’s banishment. This means that Cain is not only a Fire Angel/Human hybrid, but also the Son of a Widow, although he got a stepfather and half brother in the form of Adam and Abel, respectively. As a child of a Fire-angel, it’s safe to say Cain probably didn’t have much in common with them.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as they say, and while Cain is best known for his murder of his (perhaps half) brother Abel, water-child of Adam, he was also the first who labored to till the soil, indicating his identity as the original innovator of agriculture, the basis of all civilization, while his water-brother Abel went with the flow, and lived a leisurely life of animal husbandry.
Furthermore, after his rejection by Jehova, ostensibly for being a bit too clever and independent for the jealous god’s tastes, and the resulting fratricidal episode of course, Cain went on to found his own civilization, and his descendants are also identified as the inventors of metalworking, writing, and music, essentially the beginnings of all intellectual and technological endeavors. You could say they had, as it were, Fire in their blood, and they used that Fire to forge the foundations of civilization.
Meanwhile, Cain’s younger brother Seth, and his proceeding generations, like their late brother Abel, were of solely human birth, and therefore had a much more watery disposition, being mostly obedient and, though attuned to spirit and intuition, not all that bright, hard working, or innovative.
According to the myth, these two kinds of people continue to exist from ancient history to the modern day. The idea is that people are usually of one or the other disposition, either fiery, rebellious, intellectual, and valuing works over faith, or watery, trusting, faithful and obedient, the good flock who don’t stir up a fuss, and rely on (hopefully) divine guidance, often from religious authority figures. In fact, you could also characterize these two types of people as goats and sheep
Liquid Light
What has all this to do with Masonry? As you probably know, the construction of Solomon’s temple is an important biblical myth in Masonic lore.
What many may not have realized from their Bible studies is that Solomon’s need to hire Hiram Abiff, the Master Craftsman, to build his temple wasn’t simply a matter of delegation; Solomon was himself a descendant of Seth, and for all his wisdom and poetic acumen, wasn’t particularly up to the task of designing and overseeing the construction of the Grand Temple. It required a fiery descendant of Cain to get the job done, and widows son in freemasonryHiram Abiff was not only a descendant of the original Widow’s Son, but was also a Widow’s Son, himself. This makes him both a Widow’s Son, and a Widow’s great great great great great…Grandson.
This duality within humanity is said by some to continue even now, with the church representing the sons of Seth, quenching the thirst of the weary with their holy water at the entryway to every church, rituals of baptism, and symbolism of the good shepherd and his obedient flock. Meanwhile, the sons of Cain build, advance intellectually and technologically, shun authority, tame the wilds and illuminate the world with their Fire. Perhaps these two sides, that of the goat and the sheep, the fire and the water, the intellect and intuition, are ultimately destined to meet, intertwine, and come to balance.
Whatever the case, it’s hard to deny that Freemasonry leans heavily on the fiery side of this equation, as evidenced by all of the symbolism around being craftsmen, builders, intellectuals, valuing labor for the betterment of man, personal initiative, and of course, the significance of Hiram Abiff, the Widow’s Son and Master builder from the Fire-tinged bloodline of Cain, himself.
What does it all mean? As with any mythology, one can take it in a variety of ways; perhaps there is some literal truth to it, different populations of people from the ancient past, born of different dispositions, with threads of this dichotomy continuing even today. We could also, however, take it as symbolic of our own inner polarities, with our inner intuitive Solomon, wise and watery son of Seth, needing the intellect and determination of our inner son if Fire, Hiram, to complete the great work of the Temple within us, and vice versa. It’s always possible to form our own theories, but the only way to find out for sure what it means to a Mason, is to ask one.
Was Victor Hugo a Freemason?
Was Victor Hugo a Freemason?
Poet, politician, and playwright, Victor Marie Hugo [1802 – 1885] believed in the inherit beauty and worth of all mankind. He sought to lift the masses out of the darkness of ignorance and vanquish injustice by promoting the virtues of liberty, equality, and fraternity. As the leader of the Romantic literary movement, Mr. Hugo crafted a lasting legacy as one of the most influential and beloved writers of his day.
A humanitarian who utilized the written word to influence hearts and minds, Victor supported social causes to improve the lives of the disadvantaged, including ending social injustice and abolishing capital punishment.
Hugo wrote:
“There is a point, moreover, at which the unfortunate and the infamous are associated and confounded in a single word, a fatal word, Les Misérables; whose fault is it? And then, is it not when the fall is lowest that charity ought to be the greatest?”
As key components to liberating the masses, Mr. Hugo advocated for freedom of the press and self-governance by the people. Every individual was worth saving and their salvation was a possibility, in his opinion, as long as the entire society reformed. What did he request for these individuals foundering in darkness? Light. Hugo stated:
“They seem not men, but forms fashioned of the living dark… What is required to exorcise these goblins? Light. Light in floods. No bat resists the dawn. Illuminate the bottom of society.”
Was Victor Hugo a Freemason? There seems to be conflicting information as to his involvement in Freemasonry. Some writers claim he was a Mason, while others write that he was a Rosicrucian or a Martinist. Despite a lack of written record establishing his status as a Mason, Hugo’s writings contain numerous references to Freemasonry and its philosophies. “God manifests himself to us in the first degree through the life of the universe, and in the second degree through the thought of man. The second manifestation is not less holy than the first. The first is named Nature, the second is named Art,” wrote Hugo. Victor Hugo was reported to support one of Universal Co-Masonry’s founders, Brother Marie Deraismes, stating:
“Carry on the Holy work, Honest people honour you and admire you and it is only right and fair to say so.”
The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Les Misérables, and The Legend of the Ages all contain Masonic ideals, concepts, and principles. The Hunchback of Notre Dame’s Quasimodo character may have been based on an operative Mason who worked on the Cathedral, as recently discovered documents reveal evidence of a hunchbacked sculptor who worked on Paris’ Notre Dame cathedral in the 1820s, while Hugo was writing the book. Legend is a collection of poems by Victor Hugo, conceived as an immense depiction of the history and evolution of humanity – from darkness into Light.
Hugo’s characters aspire towards the ideal of perfection, a seemingly impossible dream is given wings through his masterful writings. Jean Valjean’s fortitude against almost insurmountable odds, Javert’s justice, or Cosette’s enduring faith, each is an example of a Masonic virtue personified. Soldiers of the revolution, Hugo’s characters march diligently towards that glorious victory – overthrowing tyrants, trampling evil, developing virtues, and discarding vice. These legendary stories populated with archetypal figures are Hugo’s immortal gift to humanity, providing examples of divine virtues for mankind’s enrichment and emulation.
Hugo was so beloved by the people that when he died – in 1885 at the age of 83 – forty thousand people spent the night on Paris streets and accompanied his casket, from Arc de Triomphe to the Pantheon. It is estimated that more than two million individuals came to pay their respects to the departed writer as part of the funeral procession.
Famous Works: Les Misérables, The Hunchback of Notre Dame, The Contemplations, The Legend of the Ages
“From remotest antiquity, the human race has employed architecture as its chief means of writing.”
“From a political point of view, there is but one principle, the sovereignty of man over himself. This sovereignty of myself over myself is called Liberty.”
“God is behind everything, but everything hides God. Things are black, creatures are opaque. To love a being is to render that being transparent.”
“History has its truth, and so has legend. Legendary truth is of another nature than historical truth. Legendary truth is invention whose result is reality. Furthermore, history and legend have the same goal; to depict eternal man beneath momentary man.”
The Elements: What Are Their Significance for Freemasonry? [Part 2]
In our previous discussion in Part 1, we began an examination of the elements as symbols, and we will continue with that here.
We covered the first two elements, Earth and Water, and discussed their essential qualities, and symbolic correlates in mind or consciousness. As we continue with Air and Fire, the reader will do well to recall the importance of structure and fluidity, as well as inertia and change.
The element Air is a step up in dynamic quality from Water, yet not quite like Fire. In many ways, Air is different and yet not so different from Water. Like Water, it rises when heated, and falls when cooled. Like Water, it flows around the globe, in the form of wind. Yet, unlike Water it has a quality of expansiveness, there is more outward pressure, and less downward pressure, as it doesn’t fall or flow in a liquid form. One critical aspect of Air in our own experience is that it is the most immediately necessary element to our biology, we can go much longer without food (Earth) or drink (Water), than we can without Air. Air is an essential ingredient of Fire, and without it, Fire will immediatelyelement air die. Air has a spacious quality to it, it offers very little resistance to movement, and anything light enough can actually float or fly, which is essentially like swimming in the ocean of Air.
So, what is Air within us? As with the previous elements, clues lay in our direct experience of it. When we are in the Air, we can see clearly the furthest, like the eagle flying high above, yet able to see the smallest mouse. We refer to the most intellectual human endeavors as the “Ivory Tower,” which is of course high above and far removed from the rest of human life, able to see it all through the Air. The same could be said of mountains, which are also where saints and great teachers are often said to be found, those who are wise and “see” the true perspective of life. Air also resonates with the concept of freedom, precisely because of the lack of obstruction, and freedom is often embodied symbolically as flying – like a bird. Therefore, Air is freer and less inert than the previous three elements, and corresponds to aspects of our mind and experience which are most free and clear. Part of what Air represents is pure mind, or intellect, it is the mental space within which clear images, thoughts, and conceptual models can be formed.
In many ways, the element Fire seems to be separate from the other three elements. Rather than being a something, a substance, fire is more of a process, a change. Fire transforms one thing into another, and also separates one thing from another. The simplest example is the separation of the gases trapped within a log from the inert earth that is left over in the form of ashes, after the burning of that log. Additionally, it involves radiation, the freeing of not just gas, but also energy which was latent within the element firesubstance that burned, giving off both light and heat. Thus, in a way it can be viewed as a transformation of that which is bound into that which is free, of matter into energy.
We can say that the essential qualities of fire are dynamism, change, transformation, and purification. In a sense, although it appears separate, fire is also the source of all other elements, for it is only by the fire of the sun that all things have motion and existence. Without Fire, all would be motionless darkness.
For these reasons, it can also be difficult to pin down the exact symbolic meaning of Fire within us, although it clearly seems significant. Certainly, Fire dwells within us, in the form of energy produced by the slow chemical “fire” of the gut, and without the Fires of our various biochemical processes, including neural Firing, we would die even more quickly than we would without Air. In terms of our consciousness, represented by light, since Fire emits light, perhaps Fire represents that which creates or liberates consciousness from matter?
In myth, Fire is featured as the gift which Prometheus stole from the Gods to give to man, which allowed humanity to have knowledge and civilization. Certainly, the discovery of Fire and how to use it is often regarded as the beginning of true Human existence, and also technology. Even those Human cultures which we regard as most primitive still possess and utilize Fire. In terms of the gradient from inertia to dynamism, certainly Fire is at the farthest dynamic end of the spectrum; representing a release of energy, it is even more “free” than Air. Fire, in a way, represents pure change, pure dynamism.
The Elements in Perspective
What is this universe? One way to answer is to say that it consists of these elements, but what does that really tell us? Another compatible perspective is the one given in the perennial philosophy, the philosophy of the Vedas and the Idealists, that this reality is most fundamentally consciousness, or mind. This is a concept being re-visited by many modern philosophers as panpsychism, due to various shortcomings in our attempts to explain the universe purely in materialistic terms. This is also the perspective generallypanpsychism four elements accepted within the occult traditions, and in fact the wisdom traditions of most cultures, if you dig deeply enough. That all is ultimately mind is also described in the Principle of Mentalism, from the Kybalion.
If all of the universe contains elements of mind or consciousness, then perhaps the dichotomy between viewing the elements symbolically vs. literally is unnecessary. If all is mind, which is tantamount to saying that all is a dream, perhaps these are simply different iterations of the same essential dynamic or pattern, at different levels of the dream; as above, so below; as within, so without. If the different elements are different forms of the same fundamental mind-stuff, whatever that fundamental substance might be. It seems to me that these elements represent a process which begins being bound by inertia, of which Earth would be the extreme, being gradually subjected to change, until it eventually becomes more and more free, of which Fire is the extreme.
This whole process could be viewed as a transmutation from matter into energy or light, just as the Fire is matter being transformed, to light the darkness. Of course, as without, so within, and some version of this same process is going on within all of us. The most matter-bound aspects of us are gradually being acted upon and transformed by the forces of change, whether from within, or from without. Every experience is to some greater or lesser degree a catalyst within this process, and causes “movement upon the waters of the deep”. Eventually, this process culminates in the ignition of Fire within us, of the inner Light.
alchemy four elementsOur pains and our pleasures, our highs and our lows ultimately give birth to the dawn of true Awareness, what some might call Gnosis. Why? Because just as the light which is emitted by Fire was previously trapped within the matter of the fuel, that Divine Spark has always been latent within us, watching, waiting for its moment to arise.
Now, we come full circle to Freemasonry, and the significance of the elements symbolically to the Craft. What are we doing as masons, if not kindling, stoking, and maintaining a light in the darkness – a Fire in the denseness and confusion of material existence? Every element plays its part, and exists within all of us; the culmination of the interplay of those elements, when utilized skillfully, is the igniting of that Promethean Light, within the self and within the world. What nobler endeavor could one set oneself to, than that of bringing light to the darkness within oneself, and within all of humanity?
The Symbolism of the Cube: Why is it both Qabalistic and Masonic?
Symbols can often have double or multiple interpretations, ranging from the obvious exoteric meanings to the more esoteric ideas understood by a few. Somewhere in the middle of these two extremes can be found the hidden knowledge. Symbols conceal as much, or more, than they reveal.
Where does the masonic cube fall on this continuum? How did the hidden knowledge of the mystical qabalah influence its use in Freemasonry?
To start with, what is Qabalah? It’s difficult to define with a phrase. Even after a few decades of study I don’t think I can come up with a definition. How can you describe the indescribable?
Perhaps one could say the Qabalah is a mystical symbolic system of looking at the microcosm and macrocosm from the standpoint of the Creator. For a qabalist, there is nothing in life that is not interesting; the speck of dust on the ground, the glowing nebulas in the heavens, and the tiny living cell — all these have their message and tell a story of the Creator.
Can masons relate to this? Of course. That is why most of the early 18th century English ritualists were acquainted with the qabalistic teachings. Since many of them studied the qabalah while the masonic rituals were being written, it was likely a source for many of the signs, symbols and allegories of Freemasonry. Brother Albert Pike 33° indexed over seventy entries to the subject of qabalah in his book Morals and Dogmacabala21
The book indicates that the more you study the hidden meanings (or occult), it becomes clearer and clearer that everywhere in the universe, at every conceivable point in space, there is a Consciousness, which expresses through what is visible and invisible.
Pike tells us that:
“Qabalah is the key of the occult sciences.”
The qabalists used models such as the Tree of Life, The 32 Paths of Wisdom and the Cube of Space to describe the plan and processes of creation. The cube is especially significant to the themes of freemasonry. How, so?
The Qabalist’s Cube of Formation
Perhaps a good place to start is the Book of Formation or Sefer Yetzirah. It is one of the oldest treatises on qabalistic philosophy that concerns itself with the Divine creative process. It describes how the Creator literally thought and spoke everything into existence, and continues to do so. The type of creation that it shows proceeds through manipulation of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
I am always in awe of the Sefer Yetzirah whose short verses can easily conceal its depth and complexity. The seeming simplicity is only a taste of its mystery. The premise is that everything in the universe is directed by intelligence. The scheme of life and activity that we call evolution is in accordance with a Plan made by a Master Mind or Great Architect. Final Cube Sepher Yetzirah
Everything is considered to be constructed of the Hebrew letters, or at least the forces they represent. The three Hebrew Mother letters (Aleph, Mem, Shin) corresponded to the three simple letters to form the name Jah (IHV).
From Verse II of The Sepher Yetzirah:
He looked above, and sealed the Height with (IHV)
He looked below and sealed the Depth with (IVH)
He looked forward, and sealed the east with (HIV)
He looked backward, and sealed the west with (HVI)
He looked to the right, and sealed the south with (VIH)
He looked to the left and sealed the north with (VHI)
Brother Paul Foster Case, scholar and Freemason, popularized the Sepher Yetzirah through his concept of the Cube of Space using the verses in Chapters IV and V to add the tarot keys and astrological correspondences. It alludes to defining the boundaries of our perceptions. Quite a remarkable diagram, indeed!
The Divine Mind conceives the archetypal form, and then it exists in the world of ideas. A long process of human evolution has to take place before the ideal can be manifested in form, and the soul in full consciousness can achieve the archetypal form.
Some might look at the diagram and say, “so what!” Why does it matter for a Freemasonblack-background-1468370534d5s_1 (1) work with these archetypal ideas, specifically the cube?
The Freemason’s Perfect Stone
One possible reason is that archetypal themes underlie many of the masonic rituals. It is no coincidence that the form of a masonic lodge is a symbolic cube.
Freemason Albert G. Mackey writes:
“The lodge or collected assemblage of masons, is adopted as a symbol of the world. The solid contents of the earth below and the expanse of the heavens above give the outlines of the cube, and the whole created universe will be included within the symbolic limits of a mason’s lodge.”
In Revelation Chapter 21, the new Jerusalem is described as a perfect cube: “The plan of the city is perfectly square, its length the same as its breadth.” Also, the room known as the Holy of Holies in the Temple of Jerusalem was constructed in the shape of a cube. In the center of the room was the Ark of the Covenant that contained the Scroll of the Law.
The candidate in a masonic lodge symbolically represents one of the stones used in the construction of King Solomon’s Temple. The ritual portrays the shaping, testing and laying of that stone. Ultimately, the moral and spiritual preparation that he must undergo is to become a “living stone” in the heavenly temple.
Brother Manly Hall says:
“The perfect cube represents the personality that has had all the unevenness, roughness, and inequality polished away by experience. Such a stone is ready to become a block in the Everlasting House not built by hands but eternal in the heavens.”
If left to our own devices, our evolution and progress would be infinitesimal. But fortunately, we have teachers and perfected individuals of past ages to guide us to be perfect stones. Instead of using the working tools to build a physical structure out of stone and mortar, a speculative mason uses these same tools symbolically for spiritual, moral and intellectual development. finaltumblr_inline_nxatcedBV71riiuei_500_1 (2)
In the end, what does the symbol of the cube offer? I believe it is archetypal concepts that help all of us connect with something larger. Are we not all just sculptors? Writing our own books of creation? “Becoming” perfect cubes?
“A block of marble, deep within the quarry lies. Hidden within it lies likewise a form of beauty rare. The sculptor works, patterning true to that which lies revealed unto the inner sight. He patterns true and beauty comes to life.”
– Brother Alice Bailey
Universal Freemasonry
The Daily Post
The Art and Craft of Blogging
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The latest news on and the WordPress community. | <urn:uuid:3ef9de64-8210-4a27-9290-1fd695ec639e> | https://bloguniversalfreemasonry.wordpress.com/tag/philosophy/ | en | 0.956036 | 0.11133 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Tag Archives: asha
Zoroastrianism: disappearing religion of Persian empire
Zoroastrianism, once the official religion of the Persian empire, is now one of the smallest religions in the world. The New York Times reported in 2006 that there were less than 190,000 Zoroastrians worldwide. Zoroastrianism is one of the monotheistic religions and has existed for more than 3,500 years. The religion was one of the most powerful religions for over 1,000 years. The central ideas of Zoroastrianism are summed up as “Good Thoughts, Good Words, Good Deeds”
Zoroastrians believe in one God who they call Ahura Mazda which translated to the Wise Lord. They believe that he is omniscient, omnipotent, omnipresent, impossible for humans to conceive, unchanging, the creator of life and the source of all goodness. They believe that he created the world. Zoroastrians believe that God’s truth was revealed through Zoroaster.
Zoroastrianism was founded by the Prophet Zoroaster in Iran during a time when most religions had multiple gods. Zoroaster was considered a family man. He was married and had three sons and three daughters. Zoroaster had a vision at tumblr_lsu0mdDVQu1qlziglo1_400age 30 while he performed a bathing ritual for pagan purification. He saw a shining being on the shore made of light. It was revealed to him as Vohu Manah which means the Good Mind. The vision transformed Zoroasters life and faith. He spent the rest of his life trying to teach others his new views.
The holy book is called the Avesta. This book contains the Gathas, which are 17 hymns that are thought to be written by Zoroaster. It also contains The Younger Avesta which is a book of commentaries on older writings that contains myths and stories.
The religion focuses on the idea of dualism. They believe in the existence and complete separation of good and evil. There are two types. Cosmic dualism focuses on the opposing forces in the universe while moral dualism focuses on the opposing forces in the mind. The cosmic dualism is a battle between good (Ahura Mazda) and evil (Angra Mainyu) in the zoroastrianism-was-the-religion-during-most-of-the-persian-empireuniverse. Examples of this are life and death, and day and night. One cannot exist without the other. Moral dualism is the battle between good and evil within man. Zoroastrians believe that humans all have free will and that we make choices to either follow evil (druj) or good (asha). Following druj will lead to a life of misery and condemn you to Hell while a life of asha leads to happiness and Heaven. Through every choice evil can be eliminated. Although these opposing forces exist, Zoroastrianism believes that humans are ultimately good and that good always wins over evil.
Fire is important to Zoroastrianism because they believe in the elements and that fire represents God’s light and wisdom
Zoroastrian worship takes place in a Fire Temple called Agiary. They pray several times a day. Most Zoroastrians go through a purification process of washing the hands before prayer. Zoroastrians should pray while facing the sun because it is symbolic of divine light.
When Zoroastrians turn seven they have a Navjote, or an initiation ceremony. During the initiation children receive a shirt, called a sudreh, and a cord, called a kusti. By this time children should already know the daily prayers and should engage in the ceremony rituals.
Zoroastrian weddings have two stages. The two stages are the signing of the marriage contract and a service of feast and celebration that lasts between three and seven days. Both the bride and the groom dress in white to show purity.
Zoroastrians are world known for their ritual DSC_5002of “laying out the dead.” They believe that once someone stops breathing the body becomes impure because death is a work of evil. They do not believe in contaminating the world with dead bodies. Instead, Zoroastrians lay out the body in a tower called dokhma, which is translated as “Tower of Silence.” The bodies are then exposed to the sun and eaten by birds.
| <urn:uuid:f192d0e2-9a71-4e87-b071-62a1aad936ab> | https://colleenday.wordpress.com/tag/asha/ | en | 0.959344 | 0.085593 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Pit Stop
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Race Result Details
Racer Pravesh Kunwar (praveshk)
Race Number 317
Date Thu, 12 Dec 2019 18:34:43 +0000
Speed 90 WPM Try to beat?
Accuracy 96.5%
Rank 1st place (out of 5)
Opponents jjsremedy (3rd place) mojtaba_jahan (4th place)
Text typed:
I search the faces of the gods... for ways to please you, to make you proud. One kind word, one full hug... where you pressed me to your chest and held me tight. Would have been like the sun on my heart for a thousand years. What is it in me that you hate so much?
The Gladiator (movie) by Ridley Scott (see stats)
Typing Review: | <urn:uuid:17b86772-a33e-42fc-9953-641ef135edbe> | https://data.typeracer.com/pit/result?id=%7Ctr:praveshk%7C317 | en | 0.911223 | 0.061662 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
To unshare one or more objects:
1. Go to the area where the object(s) you want to unshare is located. From the top menu bar:
• If the object is a table or worksheet, click Data.
• If the object is a pinboard, click Pinboards.
• If the object is an answer, click Answers.
2. Find the object(s) in the list, and check the corresponding box(es).
3. Click the Share icon.
4. Click the X next to the users and groups that you want to remove from sharing.
5. Click Save, and then click Done. | <urn:uuid:e0d33a53-d1e0-4189-9dc3-e6c0fc7212cb> | https://docs.thoughtspot.com/5.2/end-user/pinboards/unshare.html | en | 0.875065 | 0.052698 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Farm Life Mod
Growing crops is the heart of farming. Here are a few examples of new crops that you can farm in Farm Life.
Ancho Pepper
Green Beans
There are fruits, vegetables, and herbs. There are so many crops that you will spend hours farming and tending to your fields. The rewards for farming in Farm Life are great and it adds an extreme amount of depth to the end game of 7 Days to Die. | <urn:uuid:7d974f25-5f37-4e4b-bd3a-d239520d5336> | https://farmlifemod.net/?p=268 | en | 0.927948 | 0.020881 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
MOZA Air is a handheld gimbal stabilizer for all mirrorless cameras!
MOZA Air is a lightweight (2.4 lbs/1.1kgs) gimbal stabilizer designed for all mirrorless and most DSLR cameras and has a maximum payload of 5.5lbs\2.5 kgs. The Air works with the Sony a7 and a6000 line, Panasonic GHx, Blackmagic Cinema and Pocket, Canon’s smaller DSLR’s like the Rebels and 5D, and more. Basically, if the camera and lens combo comes in at or under 5.5lbs\2.5 kgs you’re good to go!
The Air can rotate 360 degrees on yaw, tilt, and roll making it free to capture 360-degree panoramic videos from an immersive wide-angle perspective. The Air's 360 rotation can be controlled via a wireless thumb controller (sold separately) or the app. Users can start or stop the camera recording from the handgrip control as well as adjust the gimbal movement and switch operation mode.
A useful feature is that the Air provides camera body and lens specific PID tuning meaning an operator can skip over the difficult learning curve of PID tuning and focus on filming.
A ¼’’ mount at the bottom of the handgrip allows the gimbal to be mounted to a tripod, slider, jib, crane or anything else with universal connection of ¼’’ mount.
The handgrip houses three lithium batteries with 2000mAh capacity, These batteries can run the stabilizer up to 8 hours because of the power savings of encoders!
The MOZA Air can be held in a few different ways: upright and underslung. Switch freely between the two handheld modes or shoot from a variety of different angles. Four filming modes are available: yaw-follow, pitch-follow, yaw-pitch follow, and all-lock. No matter how complicated the shooting scenario, the MOZA Air has the right filming mode for the job! | <urn:uuid:e03c0d39-404e-466a-bb78-4cb649a214b2> | https://gimbalguru.com/blogs/news/moza-air-is-a-handheld-gimbal-stabilizer-for-all-mirrorless-cameras-1 | en | 0.803546 | 0.027841 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
THE ECLIPSE OF MARS When you run a $13 billion privately held company, you answer to no one -- except the market. But are the Mars brothers listening to what it's saying to their global empire?
By Bill Saporito REPORTER ASSOCIATE Justin Martin
(FORTUNE Magazine) – TO STEAL, and mangle, a phrase from Churchill, Mars Inc. is an enigma inside a mystery tied up in a bright candy wrapper. We are all familiar with its branded products -- Snickers, M&M's, Milky Way, maybe even with its Pedigree pet food. As a global marketer, Mars spends millions to keep their names before us. Yet the privately owned company otherwise stays hidden beneath a shell thicker than any candy coating: it grants no interviews, allows no pictures of executives. The enigma hints of contradiction, even weirdness. The company pays lavishly but runs a pinchpenny operation. Mars is family-owned, run by John Mars and Forrest Mars Jr., but the family has more in common with someone like Howard Hughes, in his last years, than with Sam Walton. Of late, with the brothers pushing 60 and beyond, observers of Mars say the company is headed for a change of ownership. The most glaring current mystery surrounds the change in the company's performance: For three years now Mars has been quietly but dramatically yielding market share in both its U.S. and Western European candy businesses. Its pet food business, the biggest in the world at about $4 billion in annual sales, is bleeding money in the U.S. and slowing down in Europe, even in such strongholds as Germany, where Mars has had an incredible 80% market share. The numbers tell part of the story: in the 12 months ended in May, Mars gave up 1.4 market share points in the $10 billion U.S. confectionery business, according to Goldman Sachs. Over the past two years Mars has coughed up about three market share points -- a lot of M&M's. With annual sales estimated at $13 billion, the company still remains an enormous power in confectionery, pet food, and a collection of other food and food-vending businesses -- Uncle Ben's rice, for instance -- worldwide. Mars has sales aplenty, but the company seems to be fresh out of ideas, and its go-it-alone strategy -- this is not an outfit into idea-sharing or strategic alliances -- isn't producing results. Says Gary Stibel, who runs the New England Consulting Group: "Mars has not done as good a job at managing its brands as its competitors; that includes not being aggressive in some areas, being too aggressive in others." The company's new-product-development record is dismal, and the lack of hit products inhibits growth. Mars has long been fanatical about quality control and manufacturing efficiency -- humans taste-test the pet food -- but there don't seem to be any miracles left in process technology. The company's sales and marketing arms have not been able to take up the slack. Strangely, all this bad news has Mars competitors worried. Why? Because to other candy and pet food venders, Mars is the worst, most feared enemy -- totally unpredictable, capable of anything. "At a certain point they have to defend their market share," says an executive at Hershey, his tone seeming to say: "Don't they?" Indeed, in a letter to FORTUNE, the company acknowledges competitive losses, but asserts that "1994 shows that we are well on the way to recovering market share." For instance, sales of Snickers surged 14% in the past six months, aided by a big advertising campaign built around the company's sponsorship of the World Cup soccer championships. Mars says that in the past 12 weeks sales at M&M/Mars, the U.S. candy division, were up 9.3% ahead of total industry growth. Adds an executive from another rival: "I fear them even more as a competitor now. They don't play by the same rules as everybody else."
By "they" competitors really mean John Mars, 59, and Forrest Mars Jr., 63, the barmy billionaire brother act that runs the company with varying degrees of vision, intuition, intelligence, and ineptitude. It is from the brothers, really, that all the mysteries of Mars spring. One reason competitors aren't breathing any easier may be that, so far, the Mars brothers have shown few signs of worry, and even fewer signs of wavering from their basic strategies. "Yes, they've lost share, but I suspect they don't care," says a consultant who has worked for the company. The reason: they have bigger, arguably longer- term things in mind. Like some roving missionary, the company seems obsessed with its strategy of global expansion: finding converts to its brands in new country after new country, not worrying about those in existing markets whose faith has lapsed. "You've got to understand," says one of the former Mars executives who talked to FORTUNE, "these guys play for the long haul and they aren't afraid of anybody. That is really the way they capitalize on opportunities." But how can a company create capital for growth initiatives if its profitability is < being hurt in its home markets? Thus, the question really being asked today by those who compete with, or do business with, Mars is this: are we witnessing a work of strategic genius or are the mad-scientist owners letting the business slide as they chase dreams of global conquest? Of this much, we are absolutely certain: The Mars boys ain't saying. The men who occupy Mars's headquarters in McLean, Virginia, are at least as secretive as their neighbor, the CIA, and better at it, given the way moles have tunneled through that federal agency. For all the company's secretiveness, within industry circles the Mars brothers' reputation as executives is legendary. When FORTUNE published a story last year entitled "America's Toughest Bosses" and neglected to mention the two, a Mars executive begged to differ: "The CEOs you profiled are Barney compared to the bosses of Mars Inc.," he wrote. "Forrest E. and John would make your group of tough bosses look like kindergarten ((teachers))." Says one executive evacuee of Mars: "Senior managers are scared of the Mars boys. They are like Russian czars, dictatorial in spirit and manner. There's a court around them. You don't pick a fight with John or Forrest, despite what they say. The Mars brothers are shits." Forrest Jr. is a mouthful of gasoline in search of an ignition source, and he can find it in the smallest disappointment. He has a habit of blowtorching managers in front of a roomful of colleagues. Fear of Forrest fires has built a culture that can only be described as every man for himself. A former executive recalls being left for kindling at one of his first meetings because his superior, who knew a crucial piece of supporting information, would not dare come to his rescue once Forrest commenced a tirade. Brother John is usually described as the brainier of the two, but is also said to be extremely uneasy with people and possessed of a lack of patience similar to, if less vocal than, his brother's. A kinder analysis? "They enjoy running their business very much. And they think of it as their own money," says a former executive, who also believes Forrest's bark to be far worse than his bite. Why would anyone want to work for such a company? Money, for one. Mars manages to attract high-level talent by paying salaries often twice what competing packaged-goods companies offer. "Where else can a 25-year-old make $70,000 a year?" asks one who did. In Britain, where brand managers typically earn 35,000 pounds annually, Mars pays 70,000 pounds. Says another former sales executive: "At that pay scale you've got to be willing to take a lot." It's not clear, however, that Mars can continue to pursue this anodyne for the irascibility of its owners. In an era when most branded-goods companies are cutting staff to lower costs, Mars finds itself bloated with an inordinate number of six-figure salaries. So about a year and a half ago Mars offered U.S. employees an opportunity to cash out of the company in a voluntary separation agreement. The Mars brothers' attitude toward money is yet another example of their penchant for contradiction. For all the big salaries they dole out, they are incredibly penurious about almost everything else. On a visit to Britain several years ago, for example, Forrest was enraged to learn that Mars executives had company cars at their disposal -- a common managerial perk in that heavily taxed nation -- and quickly disposed of them. Their traveling habits add to their legend. When the two visit the company's pet food plant in Melton Mowbray, two hours outside London, they usually drive up in a rented subcompact car such as a Ford Fiesta. They are not beneath using discount coupons for hotel stays.
THE BROTHERS' disdain for ostentation has become such a part of company culture that for the occasion of their visits, British managers routinely dress down in a sort of reverse royal treatment -- rolling out the brown carpet. "You go through your closet and pull out the most threadbare suit you can find," says one veteran of the drill. Much of the brothers' attitude toward such things can be traced to their tutelage by their father, Forrest Mars Sr. In 1964, Forrest the elder bought the candy company his father, Frank Mars, had founded in the Twenties, then merged it with the company he had founded in 1940 after he became estranged from his family and moved to England. Forrest Sr.'s company made M&M's. When Forrest Sr. wrested control of Mars Inc. from other family members and investors in 1964, his first act was to destroy the fancy corporate surroundings. Ever since, Mars has practiced an open-office policy for everyone. Indeed, in its egalitarian Hackettstown, New Jersey, operations headquarters, there are no private offices. Desks are arrayed from the center of the floor in descending order of rank through "zones" of management: lower- ranking zone fives are typically brand managers, while zones one and two ^ are accorded to senior executives. And try this out in your own office: salaries for all occupants of each zone are posted. The company has no special parking spaces and no executive dining rooms or washrooms at any of its locations. Sure, much of this stuff is weird, but it's always worked before. So why are the time-honored methods of the Mars brothers now not working? Probably the most basic explanation is that Mars has ignored some fundamental changes in its competitive environment over the past five years. For one, the candy industry has experienced dramatic consolidation, with food monsters such as Philip Morris, Nestle, and Cadbury Schweppes gobbling up smaller competitors like so many gumdrops. And all these competitors are bombarding Mars with new offerings, then overmatching it in ad money. Hershey in particular has beaten Mars like a gong with new-product innovation and marketing. In the past three years, Hershey has scored hits with the introduction of products such as Hugs, a white-chocolate version of the chocolate Kiss, and NutRageous. Hershey is now introducing Nuggets, a thick chocolate bar.
WITH such aggressive marketing, along with acquisitions, Hershey has wrested the U.S. chocolate crown from Mars, increasing both its market share and profits in a flat market. It bought Cadbury's U.S. confectionery operation and two other brands. Competitors such as Nestle, which bought the top-selling Butterfinger brand, have been active too. Mars stood pat, watching Hershey push to a nearly eight-point market share lead. Meanwhile, in Europe, Philip Morris not only bought Jacobs Suchard, a leading European chocolatier with sales of $3.9 billion, but then added Freia Marabou, a Scandinavian company with $900 million in sales. Cadbury bought Chocolat Poulain in France, and several other European outfits. Even Hershey, an also-ran outside the U.S., purchased Italy's Sperlari from H.J. Heinz and Overspecht, adding about $165 million in sales. These companies are pouring out new bonbons, even as the total European market stagnates. As a result, Mars has lost share in western Europe. In Germany, for instance, its market share has faded from 30% in 1991 to 26% last year in the candy bar category, according to industry sources. Nor has Mars reacted well to innovations taking place along the retail and wholesale distribution chain, where consolidation has shifted power to the hands of big supermarket chains and discount stores, as well as a few megawholesalers. These retailers and wholesalers, not to mention consumers, have forced branded-good makers to reengineer their marketing and logistics, trying to strip out costs and bring more value to the table. Mars is adjusting, but in the process has enraged some segments of the trade by making abrupt policy changes that reduce retailers' profits. Mars's most persistent problem has been an inability to supply enough product to meet the orders it takes. In the parlance of the trade, Mars has a poor "fill rate." Says one insider familiar with the problem: "They have formed task force after task force to deal with the issue, but they just waste their time and money." The reason most often cited for Mars's distribution problem is its long-held policy of maximum asset utilization or, as some put it, beating its plants to death. The company is obsessed with asset utilization, to the point that the sales force is allowed to sell beyond capacity, even in peak periods. And Mars managers toe the line on this policy, knowing that their monthly pay packets rise and fall based on a computed return on total assets. Mars has also alienated any number of retailers and wholesalers by eliminating promotional money -- special discounts -- in favor of what is called "dead net" pricing. These funds, say $3 on a case worth $100, represent a major source of profit for the big wholesalers that employ forward buying: the practice of stockpiling huge amounts of deal merchandise for later sale at regular prices. Mars's move to dead-net pricing is in tune with contemporary global marketing practices. In fact, the company has done particularly well with warehouse clubs like Costco. But it approached the issue with its typical lack of diplomacy, simply withdrawing its promotional spending program cold turkey. Says one distributor: "They said, 'We are not going to spend any money with you; you are now just flow-through agents.' Well, there's a little company called Hershey out in Pennsylvania." That little company has been more flexible in its promotional spending. Another problem at Mars, cited by nearly every former Mars executive interviewed by FORTUNE, is the belief that the brothers' imperialist approach to management stifles all independent risk taking or thinking at the company, whether on the invention of new brands or the acquisition of other companies. And Mars clearly needs some new thinking: Of late it has been regarded as pathetically uncreative, particularly for a privately held business not shackled by the quarterly tyranny of Wall Street. The company has resorted to flinging line extensions into the air like so much confetti. The result: additions such as Almond M&M's or ice cream novelty knockoffs of each candy bar, products that have barely budged the sales needle. Milky Way II, an effort to produce an oxymoronic low-fat candy, died a miserable death but is now being revived as Milky Way Lite. Another bon bomb, P.B. Max, the company's answer to Hershey's popular Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, was just taken off life support and is being removed from the marketplace. To solve its new product problems the company recently named Ton Van Elst, a Dutch executive, to head up innovation efforts, according to industry sources. For all its problems, the Mars culture still displays great abilities as a field organization. Forrest Sr., a meticulous engineer, spent decades in Europe patiently developing the brands. He started a pet food industry long before most people in those countries would even consider feeding Fifi out of a can. His kind of pioneering required an organization that could take an expansion strategy and execute it without much help. Says one global competitor: "One thing Mars does better than any public company is understand the true importance of the international markets." Adds a former European executive of Mars: "Mars's real strength, to their credit, is excellent on- the-ground operations. You can go back to a market three years after it opens, and their brands have distribution on a wide scale." Mars was an early entry into the Russian market, and today the fruits of that groundwork are evident. From Moscow to St. Petersburg, kiosks bearing Mars products dot the landscape. The company advertised so heavily in Russia that Snickers has easily become one of the best-known American brands in the country. Last year the company shipped some 100,000 tons of chocolate into Russia, according to one analyst at Salomon Brothers. And then came the real miracle: Mars actually got its money out of that country. According to a number of sources, the "Russian bonus," as it became known, bailed the company out in 1992 and 1993, keeping factories humming all over Europe and the U.S. in the face of lagging market shares there. Mars also recently agreed to invest $100 million to build several factories in the town of Stupino to make pet food, candy, and human provender. The Mars brothers aren't just believers in global expansion, however. They also are unrepentant practitioners of global marketing, the theory that because we live in a homogenizing universe, many products can be sold the same way everywhere. One world, one brand, one message. That's why Mars has heavily backed such global sporting events as the World Cup and the Olympics. This simplicity of sell generates savings in advertising, packaging, distribution, and staff.
But global branding and its kin, Euro branding, has not proved to be a marketing cure for every product. It works for a product like Snickers because the brand's promise -- Snickers satisfies hunger toothsomely -- has universal application. Other forays on the international front have not fared well: Mars is just beginning to recover from John Mars's creation in 1992 of a so-called pan- European management structure, which was built on the idea that the company could run the same marketing program in Spain as in England, say, without maintaining separate marketing staffs in different countries. Many marketers still argue that European consumers are much less homogeneous than EC politicians might lead people to believe -- even when it comes to pet food. The program disrupted the entire organization.
ADDING TO the mess, say those who were on the scene, was brother Forrest's apparently arbitrary insistence that the company change the color of all the labels in the Whiskas cat food line to purple. The company, like its competitors, had traditionally used different color bands on the cans to denote different varieties: green for rabbit, red for beef. But to Forrest, building a block of color in the manner of a Coke, a global marketing paragon, made more sense. It didn't to European cat owners. The brothers further compounded their problems by refusing to invest money in new European pet food products and again found themselves behind the innovation curve. The results of all this were abysmal. In Britain, market share for the company's Whiskas brand cat food plummeted from 45% in 1989 to about 27% in 1994, before the company could apply a tourniquet. Sources say the unit earned 55 million pounds on 455 million pounds in sales in 1990, then plunged into the red by 1992. It eked out a small profit last year. The same global marketing strategy failed to stanch red ink at Kal Kan Foods, the U.S. pet food division. Over the past decade, Kal Kan brands have been changed to Mars's global brands -- Pedigree dog food and Whiskas and Sheba cat foods. The Pedigree change was brilliantly executed. But Kal Kan's big cat food brand, Whiskas, has turned into, well, a dog, with Mars losing half its market share in the transition. Last year brought more failure in the launch of Expert, a dog food designed to compete against the so-called scientific brands -- almost health food for your pet -- such as Iams and Colgate-Palmolive's Hill's. With infantrylike precision, Mars rolled the product across every supermarket in the country, creating special displays for stores. It also ignored the basic fact that consumers who purchase this type of product do so in pet shops and veterinary offices, not supermarkets. Industry experts say Expert is an unmitigated disaster that has cost the company at least $50 million. Competing pet food makers only shake their heads in wonder at the way Mars continues to lose money at Kal Kan. Says one pet food foe: "They are an enormously tough competitor. And they stick with it; but the downside is that they throw good money after bad. No publicly traded company would ever stay in a business that long and lose that much money." Any analysis of Mars always turns to the brothers and then inevitably turns into armchair psychology in search of some explanation for the enigmatic. They are the sons of an impossibly demanding father in Forrest Sr., about 90, whose single-mindedness built Mars into a powerhouse. But the elder Mars harangued them mercilessly and continuously, even in his retirement. Now in frail health, he lives in North Miami, Florida. The legacy of this abuse, goes the general view, is that the two brothers have worked like dogs -- and treated their employees similarly -- to prove to the old man that they are worthy successors.
IN THE PROCESS, John and Forrest have chewed up quite a bit of executive talent. And now that they are getting on in years, the question of what comes next is beginning to be asked around the company and the industry. Recently they named Graham White, head of Mars Canada, as company president. White has been described as a nice guy with a solid general-manager background by Mars standards. "The brothers are confident that Graham understands them," says an insider. White is the third president this decade, however, and the revolving door in the Mars executive suite is a serious issue. Departing executives, without rancor, openly question whether the brothers have the will or the vision to lead the company into the next decade, or at least until the next generation can take over. So who will succeed them? One possibility is that the company will be sold. Mars is wholly owned by John, Forrest Jr., and their sister, Jacqueline, but it's not as simple as it sounds. Both Forrest Jr. and Jackie have been to divorce court, and the dissolution of their marriages could yet come to bear on the company's future. Forrest is now remarried to a former lower-level Mars manager he met at the company's snack division -- a "zone five," sniffs one observer. Estimates of the divorce settlement with his former wife vary from $50 million to $800 million. Sister Jacqueline Mars Vogel last year splashed briefly into the tabloids with her divorce -- her second -- which is being loudly contested by her ex, a former boot salesman named Harold. He signed a prenuptial agreement that left him without a major share of the fortune, but he now claims that somehow in the bliss of pending matrimony Jackie neglected to tell him about the odd billion dollars in company stock she had tucked away, a disclosure required by New Jersey law. When Vogel's lawyer demanded to know the value of the company, he was told that the figure was not known, and not ascertainable. Here's some help: candy companies or brands have been selling for a multiple to sales of around 1.4. Grand Met recently sold its Alpo brand pet food, a No. 5, for 1.1 times sales. Mars Inc. is worth at least $15 billion. With family matters unsettled and the business under pressure, Mars now faces a critical period of uncertainty. New president Graham White is in all likelihood merely buffing the chair until one of the next generation of the Mars family inherits the Milky Way mantle. Which one of the ten Mars children that might be, and when, is unapparent because none of them have ever distinguished themselves, even though some are reportedly moving up the ranks. More important, if Mars continues to lose share in its mature markets, there could be less out there to run. Is it possible that the brothers' inability to hold together a management team, their failure to innovate, and their grating personal style are finally wearing down a once invincible foe in its industry? Says a competitor: "Their own hubris is their downfall. They are arrogant, and when arrogance exceeds your intellect you've got trouble." | <urn:uuid:ae141ff6-41d9-450e-b282-77c81e27e1b3> | https://money.cnn.com/magazines/fortune/fortune_archive/1994/11/28/80000/index.htm | en | 0.969795 | 0.105988 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Questions tagged [violence]
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How can I help my 5-year-old introvert boy relax?
I have a 5-year-old boy, with two younger brothers (1 year and 3 years old). He is intelligent, sensitive (easily stressed) and shy. I would definitely label him an introvert, but he does not like to ... | <urn:uuid:88cbdd41-b397-4e63-8056-ac8b101e4bb9> | https://parenting.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/violence?tab=Unanswered | en | 0.961461 | 0.052561 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Here is the list of the “Contract with the American Voter” policies detailed by Trump’s Administration:
3. Require for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated.
4. Institute a five year-ban on White House and Congressional officials becoming lobbyists after they leave government service
5. Create a lifetime ban on White House officials lobbying on behalf of a foreign government.
6. Institute a complete ban on foreign lobbyists raising money for American elections.
7. Announce intention to renegotiate NAFTA or withdraw from the deal under Article 2205.
8. Announce withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership.
9. Direct Secretary of the Treasury to label China a currency manipulator.
14. Cancel every unconstitutional executive action, memorandum and order issued by President Obama.
16. Cancel all federal funding to Sanctuary Cities.
20. Work with Congress on a End The Offshoring Act Establishes tariffs to discourage companies from laying off their workers in order to relocate in other countries and ship their products back to the U.S. tax-free.
21. Work with Congress on a American Energy & Infrastructure Act Leverages public-private partnerships, and private investments through tax incentives, to spur $1 trillion in infrastructure investment over 10 years. It is revenue neutral.
22. Work with Congress on a School Choice And Education Opportunity Act Redirects education dollars to gives parents the right to send their kid to the public, private, charter, magnet, religious or home school of their choice. Ends common core, brings education supervision to local communities. It expands vocational and technical education, and make 2 and 4-year college more affordable.
28. Work with Congress to Clean-up Corruption in Washington Act. Enacts new ethics reforms to Drain the Swamp and reduce the corrupting influence of special interests on our politics.
Join the Prayer Warriors Coalition
Weekday prayer via telephone for our President and our country.
Brief morning call with like-minded patriots with focus on prayer/sharing of scripture.
Contact Kathy Reynolds
404-663-6853 (call or text)
Join Twitter
Twitter for Beginners 101
1. Turn on your computer
2. Go to a Web browser, Ex: Google-search bar, Firefox.)
3. Type in “”
4. Select “Join Twitter”
5. Enter your full name
6. Enter a valid e-mail address
7. Enter a username; you could use your name; or, you could use a clever “tagline” that’s not taken, Ex: RebelPatriot
8. Check or uncheck the “Tailor Twitter based on my recent website visits” option, which means Twitter can offer recommendations based on your postings and re
9. Enter a strong password
10. Enter your phone number
11. Confirm your e-mail address
12. You can now use Twitter and all of its features
13. Attach a picture so people can see that you are a real person
14. You can put in a profile that attracts Trump-like types of people
Important Tips:
1. Try and tweet regularly, especially throughout September; Lunchtime is ideal
2. If someone has #Resist or #NeverTrump, they do not like DT (Donald Trump)
3. You can edit your profile and update it at any time
4. Lots of Trump supporters are also #Never Forget Benghazi
First steps: Who to follow suggestions:
The following are folks who consistently support our President; and, you could “follow,” soon. After reading other folks and their profiles, you can add followers; and you may pick up your own followers; then you can become a Twitter champion for DJT.
Trump: @realDonaldTrump
Hannity: @seanhannity
Lou Dobbs: @LouDobbs
Kellyanne Conway: @Kellyannepolls
Newt Gingrich: @newtgingrich
Diamond and Silk DJT “celebs”: @DiamondandSilk
Herman Cain: @THEHermanCain
Dan Scavino: @DanScavino
Bill Mitchell: @mitchellvii
James Woods, the actor: @RealJamesWoods
Robert Fischl, Presidents Team Twitter Chair: @robtdfischl
NOTE: Don’t feel like you are under any “yuge” obligation. While we hope that you plug in and become a regular “Twitter voice” for President Trump, just do what you can do, especially by focusing on our Presidents Team activities. There is a statewide county contest. We hope it can become a part of your routine to support President Trump.
Last, but NOT least, OUR PURPOSE:
Our Purpose is: to educate folks on the facts; to engage in real news; to engage in grassroots’ activities; and to promote civic involvement. Our country is worth fighting for. It is up to us, “The People.” Let’s do this. | <urn:uuid:0788c52a-5184-4608-9f30-368d92a8e8da> | https://presidentsteam.org/get-involved/ | en | 0.914546 | 0.028291 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Tag Archives: mood
Why do humans get nostalgic?
Nostalgia is one of my greatest weaknesses, I think. For such a long time I’ve been severely missing aspects of my childhood, and often these memories are a source of depression. For me, nostalgia prevents me from moving forward. However, I know many other people experience nostalgia as a calming mechanism and can easily look back on happy memories without any emotional turmoil in the present. “‘When you’re nostalgic about something, there’s a little bit of a sense of loss—[the moment has] happened, it’s gone—but usually the net result is happiness,’ says Clay Routledge, a social psychologist at North Dakota State University, who, with several other researchers, has studied the emotion extensively over the past decade.” Either way, experiencing nostalgia definitely influences mood, and can affect how we live our lives. So where does it come from?
Routledge conducted a study on the possible triggers of nostalgia (found here). Participants were asked to describe situations that lead to experiencing nostalgia, and scientists found that negative emotions, chiefly loneliness, were the most common answers. This makes sense, going along with Routledge’s initial statement- nostalgia is possibly brought about in an attempt to cope with any negative mental state someone may find himself or herself in. Routledge refers to these as “psychological threats.” But if this is the case, it doesn’t make sense that my negative mental states often come from the nostalgia itself. Also, this study is observational, and results may be confounded by third variables such as the age of the participant or possible mental disorders. I would need an actual experiment studying the levels of brain chemicals during episodes of nostalgia to be completely convinced that nostalgia is brought about by a negative mental state.
Upon doing some more digging, I thought it was a bit odd that many news articles studying nostalgia and its effects cite the same study by Routledge (and on some occasions, nothing else.) I find it hard to believe that there are so few modern studies conducted on this topic of psychology. There are several older studies that take a more negative view on the effects of nostalgia, but the only study used to inform the public about the new light scientists are seeing the nostalgia issue under is the one conducted at North Dakota State University. The findings of the study do look decent, and many researchers were involved, but there should be more scientists doing similar experiments in order to reduce the likelihood of chance. | <urn:uuid:9becf6df-26e4-4ec4-9295-ae3e3d85cb63> | https://sites.psu.edu/siowfa15/tag/mood/ | en | 0.960147 | 0.451155 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Are Flowers Good For Your Health?
man-giving-woman-bouquet-flowers-4779623It is Spring, finally. The air is warm and breezy, and everywhere there is color. Grass and trees are green, and flowers are making a rainbow before our eyes.
For hundreds of years, men have brought women flowers as a gesture of romance. Now there is actual science to show that flowers really do affect mood and make women feel romantic,
A study done by Nicolas Gueguen of the Universite de Bretagne-Sud in France, and published in the journal “Social Influence,” found that females who had been sitting in a flower-covered room were much more likely to accept an invitation for a date than women sitting in an identical room without flowers.
What causes this romantic response in women exposed to flowers? Gueguen suggests that perhaps flowers act as environmental iStock_000014150618XSmallcues that affect a woman’s behavior and perception toward a man.
Other studies have shown relaxation is associated with exposure to nature, and increased activity in facial muscles associated with smiling have been evoked by images of flowers.
A behavioral study conducted at Harvard University and Massachusetts General Hospital confirmed that people who generally do not describe themselves as morning people felt happier and more energetic after looking at flowers the first thing in the morning. Happiness, friendliness and warmth manifest much later in the day for people with morning blahs according to Nancy Etcoff, Ph.D. It was found that flowers at home impact people emotionally and they then felt less anxious and more compassionate. A boost of energy that lasted throughout the day was reported after viewing flowers in the morning in their homes, particularly in the kitchen.
Etcoff states “If you start the day in a more positive mood, you are likely to transfer those positive feelings to others – it’s what is called mood contagion”.guy-giving-flowers-111208
Jeanette Haviland-Jones, Ph.D. is a professor of psychology and director of the Emotions Laboratory at Rutgers University.
She believes that flowers support the so-called Big Bloom theory of evolution. Flowers cause positive emotions, and research shows that positive emotions make people better survivors from an evolutionary standpoint. This is because positive people are more likely to maintain social relationships, reproduce, find needed resources and be creative. Many flowers and plants rely on humans to fertilize them, nurture their growth and remove the weeds that would choke them to death. In return, they give us pleasure.
Scientifically, the way they repay us is that they have developed little chemical factories that decrease anxiety and improve our mood, says Haviland-Jones.
In studies Haviland-Jones and colleagues at Rutgers did, they found that women given flowers all smiled with true enjoyment, as determined by the smile being one associated with the raising of the cheeks and crinkling around the eyes. This type of smile is called the Duchene smile.
Couple in love smiling. Over white background
This type of smile has been linked to positive emotion and related changes in the brain. At the end of the study, people who received flowers reported being happy but the people in the study who didn’t receive the flowers did not.
Overall, these studies showed that the presence of flowers triggers happy emotions, heightens feelings of life satisfaction, and affects social behavior in a positive manner.
Why is this related to romance? Because when you feel happy, satisfied and relaxed, you are capable of being open to lots of other positive and strong feelings, like love and sexual desire.
So giving flowers to your significant other is a very good way to ensure the flow of loving and aroused feelings, all of which are very good for your mental and physical health. | <urn:uuid:195dd0de-a994-4ca7-919d-62684cd36103> | https://sizzlesheridankesselman.wordpress.com/tag/sexual-desire/ | en | 0.960417 | 0.445275 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
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The Icons came from the sky. They belong to an inhuman enemy. They ended our civilization, and they can kill us. "Most" of us. Dol, Ro, Tima, and Lucas are the four Icon Children, the only humans immune to the Icon's power to stop a human heart. Now that Los Angeles has been saved, things are more complicated - and not just because Dol has to choose between Lucas and Ro, the two great loves of her life. As she flees to a resistance outpost hidden beneath a mountain, Dol makes contact with a fifth Icon Child, if only through her visions. When Dol and the others escape to Southeast Asia in search of this missing child, Dol's dreams, feelings and fears collide in an epic showdown that will change more than just four lives -- and stop one heart forever. In this riveting sequel to "Icons, "filled with nonstop action and compelling romance, bestselling author Margaret Stohl explores what it means to be human and how our greatest weakness can be humanity's strongest chance at survival.
Book Title Idols
ISBN 9780316205177
By Author(s) Margaret Stohl
Publisher Little Brown Books
Pages 415
Format Hardback
Dimensions 15.24cm x 3.17cm x 21.59cm | <urn:uuid:63cb0a07-057e-4334-9959-49969bf14beb> | https://www.bookxcessonline.com/products/idols-hb | en | 0.894591 | 0.069519 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Sleep, Circadian Rhythms, and Relaxation
Dear to Whom it may concern,
I think my circadian rythmns are messed up and I don't sleep well.
Is it beneficial to try to relax just before bed? Will this help?
Will it help with my nightmares? Does relaxation before bed help to promote R.E.M. sleep?
How do I know if I have a sleep disorder?
Dear Geo,
The first step to take is to see your medical doctor for a checkup. Your doctor can determine whether you have a sleep disorder and help suggest treatment.
Some of the steps you can take yourself right now are as follows: YES, relaxing just before bed is beneficial. Relaxation is a natural sleep aide that helps you calm your mind to fall asleep. Relaxation also helps you fall asleep in a positive frame of mind, which can help with nightmares.
Relaxation by itself will probably not help to reset ("entrain") your circadian rhythms. What can help to "phase shift" your circadian rhythms (reset your internal clock) is environmental factors. For example, the times you eat, are exposed to light, and your daily schedule. Using relaxation to calm yourself for sleep can help you adjust to a regular sleep schedule and therefore reset your circadian rhythms.
Just for interest, if you are without any environmental cues, and just allow your body to set it's own internal clock, the average person's circadian rhythms function on a 25 hour clock. We can use cues in the environment to set our internal clocks to anywhere between 23 hours and 27 hours - obviously we can usually function best if we are adjusted to a 24 hour clock. If you work shift hours, it can cause difficulty with your circadian rhythms and make you feel jet lagged.
The most important cue to set your internal clock is the cycle of light and dark. Indoor lights are usually not bright enough - sunlight is best. If you do not get enough sunlight, special full-specturm lamps, called SAD lamps for Seasonal Affective Disorder, S.A.D., are a good alternative.
Relaxation can help you to fall asleep. It may help to promote restful sleep, and thus promote REM sleep, but I am not aware of any specific relationship between relaxation and REM sleep.
Incidentally, dreaming occurs during REM sleep - so if you are having nightmares you are experiencing REM sleep.
Relaxation might help decrease nightmares by helping you to fall asleep in a positive frame of mind. This can prevent your anxieties from being on your mind as you fall asleep and as you dream. Relaxation can help you to calm yourself after nightmares, and replace frightening images with more positive ones when you are awake.
In summary, I recommend that you first see your doctor to find out if you have a sleep disorder. Second, you can use relaxation to help you be calm and fall asleep in a positive frame of mind. Try the sleep relaxation script for an example of relaxation to help you fall asleep.
Pleasant dreams!
Links and references for this episode:
Vander, A., Sherman, J., & Luciano, D. (2001). Human Physiology: The Mechanisms of Body Function. New York: McGraw-Hill.
Sleep Relaxation Guided sleep relaxation is a natural sleep aid that will help you unwind and simply sleep. Listen to this relaxation script any time you need to drift easily into deep, healthy sleep.
Listen to the sleep relaxation audio on the Relaxation Downloads page.
Need relaxation advice? Click here to ask Inner Health Studio.
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| <urn:uuid:2896734b-919e-4819-8830-6fd6fc61b8f2> | https://www.innerhealthstudio.com/circadian.html | en | 0.91211 | 0.147367 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Where’s the equity for adjuncts?
Where’s the equity for adjuncts? (Getty Images)
Last week, Mayor de Blasio announced a breakthrough in pay equity for the pre-K teachers of New York City. No longer would teachers of different unions be paid different wages for the same job. No longer would they pay more for health care than their public-school counterparts. DC 37, representing public school workers and DC 1707, representing the workers of the non-profits where pre-K teachers also teach, had merged to align their wages and overcome “pattern bargaining.”
They had found an ingenious way around the “pattern,” and I applaud their win for the teachers and pay equity in New York City. But too many other public workers, including thousands of CUNY adjuncts like me, remain victims of the tyranny of this lockstep system for determining pay and benefits.
“Pattern bargaining” is a contract negotiating process that is designed to set a floor for contracts. The first union that reaches an agreement in a given round of bargaining sets the pattern, and then, hopefully, no other union will get less. Wikipedia explains it as the process of setting a “favorable” arrangement for a contract and then presenting it to other employers as the “pattern agreement.” Over time this has created lock-step contracts that have given cost of living increases to most of New York City employees with little chance of breakout earnings.
Kim Medina, the executive director of DC 1707, said that teachers and workers no longer had to suffer. Pre-K teachers had been paid $20,000 less for the same job and were required to pay more for health care before this new contract. But now both wages and benefits were being brought into alignment to give full equity to all by the end of the contract in three years. She thanked the mayor and Corey Johnson, the City Council speaker, for their effort in crafting this deal that gives dignity back to the teachers and other workers.
Henry Garrido, the DC 37 President said the Mayor and the Speaker were responsible for the achievement of “extraordinary things for workers,” and that they tackled inequity, saying that it was one of the most pervasive problems in New York City. Garrido said that we won't tolerate a "system that treats workers like second class citizens.” If only that could be said for all New York City unionized workers.
I’m an adjunct at CUNY. Every three years or so, we get a new “pattern conforming” contract. Our union, the Professional Staff Congress, has had some non-conforming deals, but for the most part, has not broken the wage “pattern.” Few other city municipal unions have as many “part-time at will” workers as the PSC. We are about thirteen thousand people fired and rehired every semester and like lettuce pickers or other migrant workers, our contingency and low wages are an essential part of running the university. A few of us now have a three-year guarantee of work that will pay $14,000 a year. Where is the dignity in fourteen thousand dollars a year?
I teach more than is expected of a full-time professor and earn $36,000 per year with no vacation, little sick time, and no access to subsidized family health-care coverage. My full-time colleagues teach the same classes with the same students and earn at least $20,000 more to start, plus they receive subsidized family medical coverage, vacation time, access to a different pension system, accumulated sick leave and family leave. These are things most full-time workers in New York City take for granted. Eventually, their pay will reach $90,000 while I’ll never get to $50,000. Is that equity?
CUNY has two classes of workers: those who are compensated justly for the work they do and those who aren’t. It’s straightforward, and the answer is easy: wage parity. Right now, the PSC is bargaining for equity between those two groups of workers much in the same way that DC 37 bargained for the parity between the pre-K teachers. We are asking for a $7,000-per-class minimum.
We are equal to our counterparts teaching in the CUNY colleges. We need to be recognized by the contract as doing the same job. If the mayor and the speaker are really committed to overcoming pay inequality in New York City, I’d suggest that they turn their attention here, to CUNY, and negotiate equal pay for equal work.
Stemberg is an adjunct assistant professor of English at City College of New York/Hostos Community College. | <urn:uuid:ab9c4c04-86be-4ab6-9e0b-565c42825a1b> | https://www.nydailynews.com/opinion/ny-oped-wheres-the-equity-for-adjuncts-20190716-jckhv2mrsvdz5k4susoivfqr24-story.html | en | 0.975254 | 0.043217 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Home > Chinese > Alchemy Emperor of the Divine Dao > 573 Arrogance to Deference
Alchemy Emperor of the Divine Dao 573 Arrogance to Deference
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Ling Han shook his head, and said, "Business is about integrity. You guys bought those quotas and used them today; no refunds!"
"Bullsh!t!" Someone immediately jumped up. "A mere Flower Blossom Tier dares to have such nerve, you tired of living?"
"Hand over the Origin Crystals, and I can spare your life!"
"Youngster, don't seek your own death because of some external possessions."
Some threatened and some advised, but all of them wanted to take back the Origin Crystals from Ling Han.
Ling Han cracked a smile, and said, "The Spirit Treasures Pavilion took away ten percent of the commission; do you guys dare demand it from them?"
"That's your problem and has nothing to do with us!" those people immediately said.
No way; the Spirit Treasures Pavilion had Shattering Void elites keeping watch, so who would dare ask them for money?
"What if I don't hand it over?" Ling Han said, smiling.
"That's not up to you!" Everyone pressured him.
Being able to take out such a large sum of money, they were obviously the city's noble families, with at least Spiritual Infant Tier elites keeping watch; Deity Transformation Tier oness wouldn't be rare, either, and even Heaven Tier warriors might be found.
Now, it wasn't the problem of 180 people, but also the families behind them. Such a force united was enough to sweep across the north region.
What could Ling Han use to block them? He couldn't block it at all!
However, Ling Han was still full of smiles, absolutely unafraid, and said, "You guys threaten me like this... don't regret it afterwards!"
"Haha, could you also set up something like the Fourth Killing Formation?" Everyone burst into laughter.
"Even if he could, don't we still have a mighty Shattering Void Tier?"
"Boy, quickly return the Origin Crystals!"
"In addition, we need compensation for daring to deceive us. Hand over your arts and skills!"
"Yes, yes, yes, also your arts and skills!"
Everyone's eyes lit up. Earlier, Ling Han's display was extremely freakish; no matter the defensive ability, the movement art, or the attacks, it was all far surpassing that of a second layer Flower Blossom Tier…
When did this boy become a fourth layer Flower Blossom Tier?
In a single night, he actually improved two small tiers; who could believe this!
However, everyone's hearts immediately burned with desire again. This youngster had too many secrets, and if they could obtain them… it might be able to change a family's prospects.
Everyone surrounded Ling Han, seething with killing intent.
Helian Xun Xue hurriedly swung the brick, and said, "You, don't you guys act reckless. That person over there is Han Han's older brother!" She was rather smart, learning to rely on someone else's power.
As everyone heard her, they instantly burst into laughter.
Older brother? Older your sister!
How could a mere Flower Blossom Tier be the brother of an extremely strong Shattering Void Tier? The two were several hundred years old apart.
"If you don't hand it over now, I'll kill you!" some people said impatiently.
"Oh, you guys want to do what to my brother?" A voice sounded from afar.
Hearing this voice, most people immediately began to shiver. However, some people simply stared at Ling Han as they didn't distinguish the voice, clamoring on. "Of course we're forcing him to hand over Origin Crystals, arts, and skills!"
"Such great nerve!" Feng Po Yun already walked over, and the presence of the Shattering Void Tier rumbled. With each step, divine patterns blossomed profusely like celestial flowers.
Pa, pa, pa, everyone hurriedly knelt down.
Feng Po Yung walked to Ling Han's side with a smile, and said, "Brother, someone trying to harm you?"
Ling Han smiled faintly, turned to look at the masses, and said, "My big brother is asking if you guys are trying to harm me?"
Everyone was on the verge of crying. This boy really became the brother of a Shattering Void Tier? If they'd known, they wouldn't have dared to threaten Ling Han even with the greatest of guts. They hurriedly shook their heads one after another, and said, "We wouldn't dare! We wouldn't dare!"
"Then why did you guys just surround me and look seething with killing intent? Don't you guys know that I've the smallest of guts and am easily scared?" Ling Han said intentionally.
'You've the smallest of guts?'
Quite a few people mocked him inwardly, but didn't dare to say it out loud, and hurriedly said, "We were thinking of gifting you Origin Crystals."
"Yes, yes, yes, gifting Origin Crystals." the other people hurriedly said. Everyone was smart; Ling Han didn't crack down on their coercive actions and left them a way out in order to have them use money to save themselves.
Ling Han smiled, and said, "Big Brother, they're all good people!"
Feng Po Yun nodded, and said, "Good, then. I'll break all the bones in the body of whoever dares to harm my younger brother."
Everyone felt a chill in their hearts. This was a mighty Shattering Void Tier elite's words, powerful and resonating; how could it simply be a reckless remark?
Ling Han laughed loudly, and said, "Then send the Origin Crystals to the Spirit Treasures Pavilion, I live there. Big Brother, let's go drink."
"Alright!" Feng Po Yun nodded, and left side by side with Ling Han.
Heaven Tier elites didn't speak up; even Yin Xue Yang and the others didn't dare to interrupt, simply watching the two leave. Contrarily, Zhu Xuan Er, Helian Xun Xue, and Hu Niu chased behind.
Xuanyuan Zi Guang's expression turned dark, and he clenched his fists tightly. He never would've thought that Ling Han would become sworn brothers with a Shattering Void Tier warrior; would he still dare to kill Ling Han?
What was so special about this boy that Feng Po Yun viewed him in a favorable light!?
Ling Han and Feng Po Yun came to Ling Han's private quarters in the Spirit Treasures Pavilion. Taking out the ingredients inside the Black Tower and cooking them, the five people sat down and began eating.
Hu Niu feared nothing and no one, and Helian Xun Xue didn't know about the tiers of martial arts, so only Zhu Xuan Er showed the proper respect, appearing extremely reserved.
This made Feng Po Yun quite interested as he said, "This little girl is remarkable!" He looked at Hu Niu and revealed an astounded expression.
Even a Shattering Void Tier elite said so.
"Niu's the most impressive!" Hu Niu was not humble at all, and even reached out with her small arm and made a flexing pose.
Feng Po Yun laughed loudly, and said, "Younger Brother, you've got quite the luck with women, being surrounded by them!"
Zhu Xuan Er immediately revealed a bashful look, but Helian Xun Xue was absolutely unaware, and simply fought over food with Hu Niu. She was strong, so Hu Niu absolutely couldn't get the upper hand.
"Niu's the most beautiful. Ling Han's Niu's!" Hu Niu clung onto Ling Han, and didn't consider that her small hands were covered with oil.
Feng Po Yun was astonished; this little girl matured real early. He looked at Helian Xun Xue a few times, and said, "Younger Brother, the sea tribe's waters are deep; you'd better be careful."
Ling Han was astounded, and said, "Big Brother, you know of this Hai Niu's identity?"
"Sea tribe's royalty, the descendant of true dragons," Feng Po Yun said casually.
Shattering Void Tier elites were Shattering Void Tier elites, after all; this couldn't be concealed from him as expected.
Ling Han nodded, and said, "This chick has lost her memories." He lowered his voice, and spoke about the ancient mineshaft, including the terrifying giant silver spider.
"Oh?" Feng Po Yun immediately revealed a curious look, and said, "Then I shall take a look."
"Big Brother, be absolutely careful!" Ling Han had seen the great spider when it displayed its divine prowess; just the silhouette of it almost shattered his divine sense.
5 Best Chinese Romance Books of 2018 So Far
Table of Contents
New Books: Accident Prone Pernisia ^And%$#And*^ The Iceman BEYOND THE EYES Tales of a killer flower The Strongest Cultivator The Strongest Masterr Magical Academy: Rise of the Supreme Magic Craftsman Best Story Ever2 Best Story Ever Reborn In Harry Potter | <urn:uuid:70505b9f-c849-44b0-ad6f-7df9fd568288> | https://www.romanticlovebooks.com/chinese/352_chapter_572.html | en | 0.964461 | 0.193365 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
I’ve been having social media fatigue, recently. I know you have, too. I’ve seen in. In you. In me. In many people. There’s a shift, like slow creeping shift you barely noticed, but it’s here. It’s same as when Facebook was really important and we cared so much what people would say on there and the comment you’d get that was annoying or upsetting. Then all of the sudden, out of the blue, Facebook just stopped mattering. When did that happen? Do you even remember? I sometimes remember it exists, like the dirty socks I forgot, in the corner of the room. My mother is on there, and she responds to my messages Iike 17 days later. Not even she gives a fuck.
The shift is creeping again. If you are an aware, present, sensible, woke human being, you’ve had enough. You’re tired with the triviality. What are we doing here? Why does the Instagram feel like a job nowadays? It was so much fun before; leisure, unimportant fun. But now? We’re expected to be models, inspirational gurus, philosophers? Produce content all the time? For who? For what purpose? What are we contributing to this world with our content?
I watched two brilliant shows this weekend that tackle the triviality Instagram became; first in the fun, sarcastic way, and the second, the opposite, bit of tragic way. First is German show on Netflix called – How to Sell Drugs Online (Fast), and it tells a true story of a teenager from Germany who sold 5,9 Million Euros worth of drugs from his mother’s home. He’s a programmer, highly intelligent, tired of triviality, social media bullshit, and when he calls out a fellow class member who spends his days posting shirtless selfies on Instagram with –
“What would we do without him? Daniel Riffert. With his protein shakes and his stupid Capoeira, and his constant shirtless photos and 1,764 Instagram followers, half of which are bought! Yeah, what are you looking at? Namaste to all the Riffert fans at the click farm in India!”
… it showcases the exact fatigue I mentioned at the beginning of this post. Why are we doing this? This desperate race of trying to matter? Simply, not everyone can matter. You can not matter if you don’t have a quality material, something not seen on every corner, something not common, something significant. My friend just posted this while I was writing this article – “How does mediocre know its mediocre?” See that right there, mediocre is usually loud. Quality is silent. So many people that actually have something to give to the world are backing up, pulling back more and more, while triviality gets so loud. Mediocre are those folks whose mothers keep telling them all their childhoods they are great at things, while they sucked at things. They grow up, they can’t make it in the real world where, au contraire from your mother, people tell you you suck at things when you don’t suck at things; but lucky for you, someone called Mark Zuckerberg couldn’t get laid in college, so now you clog our feeds with irrelevant shit.
If social media is used by celebrities to give their fans an inside scoop in their lives, I’m all for it. If it’s used by creatives showcasing their projects to public or buyers, I’m all for it. If it’s used by people with serious quality content they want to share for helping people, I’m all for it. Or you’re just using it to have fun with your friends, I’m all for it.
Last few months I saw, as I’m sure you did too, the dumbest, most trivial content been put out, like people are running out of fuel, but are desperate to matter, desperate to influence. Why? Why are you doing this? Writing platitudes like – “Try hard, follow your dreams, live your life, work hard”, I mean are you fucking kidding me with this? Taping videos how to wash your make up brushes (“first, you let the water run”, please shot me now), how to cut melon, how to overline your lips, how to fold your drawers, how to do crunches, how to cut bread, walk, breathe, sit, shit, how to do everything we know how to do, JUST – please stop. Buying half a million followers, buying likes and comments to appear like an influencer, while you shelling the most idiotic products known to man that mean nothing, to no one, except your ego.
You know who is the actual influencer? Greta Thunberg. A child who is trying to advocate climate change at age 15, instead of trying on make-up looks on Youtube. No one else is an real influencer.
I spend most of my days googling and researching my contemporaries. People who do the same work I do. Every day I try to be aware and realistic with what I can do and why something I do would matter? Does anyone do it better than me? Does everyone do it better than me? What do I offer? And in fast paced world we live in, it’s hard to perform at the top quality. But you have to stay realistic to where you stand. I often wonder, why don’t people do this? How can you write actor in your bio if you never had a role in your life or walked through short movie once? How can you be 5’4 and claim you’re a model while you never had an actual modeling job, outside of shady photographers snapping you for Instagram? How can you tape videos of working out and giving people advices what exercises to do when you puff up to 3 push-ups in a row? What are we actually learning from your video?
This insanity where everyone thinks they have something of a value to give to people online, blows my mind. Honestly, if I see another video on Instagram that starts with – “Hiiiiii Guys!”, before shelling some dumb product, or shocked face for 3 minutes standing still, stunned at the angle and level of beam your highlighter just projected? Honestly, you are aware of the world, and all that goes on, right? And your contribution to it is the level of beam of your highlighter? Fuck me, you just arrived! I know nothing.
The second show you absolutely must see is always brilliant Black Mirror and the episode is called – Smithereens, a TV version of Twitter. This episode will absolutely twist you apart. And it will, maybe, open the new horizon for you, and make you realize we should use social media, and not let it use us. We should readjust the misguided measure of talent or substance by the numbers next to our names and number of likes that doesn’t equal worth.
And how does mediocre know its mediocre? We tell it, three million times, until it knows. Even if its our own. | <urn:uuid:78364c74-87f9-45f0-b443-6d8c64d2ccdd> | http://mirandavidak.com/2019/06/11/social-media-fatigue-how-to-cure-it/ | en | 0.959956 | 0.135355 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
The Rainbow of Consciousness
It's easy to recognize here. Here- this world, the physical world. It's easy to see it, pay attention to it.
But there's more.
Everything on this earth has a Frequency Pattern.
The Frequency Patterns are all connected like spiderwebs across the Earth.
The connection to Spirit, Vibration, Consciousness, etc.
All of us have what's known as a "Soul" a Higher Self that sees all, knows all, is in contact with all other Higher Selves.
We are attached with a Crystalline Cord to our Higher Self.
This is similar to what it looks like:
Whatever SHIFT we create on this planet, in physical form... SHIFTS within the Consciousness of the Cosmos.
Anything you are struggling with (WE, US, I Am struggling with) that comes in the form of Temptation, Stress, Discouragement.... etc... IS OUR opportunity to SHIFT it collectively.
Life is Frequency and Vibration. When a STRUGGLE... like losing our temper, comes into our space, and we MASTER the energy--- the SHIFT goes out through the GRID, through ALL the WEB and EVERYONE receives the LIFT/SHIFT.
SO, the GREATEST SERVICE we give to HUMANITY is to Master Self-Discipline, LOVE, PEACE, Patience... etc.
Sometimes we walk in circles of despair (ME TOO!) asking why I chose the life I did, why the people in my life are doing or did what they did, why I had to go through the painful things I did....
and the answer is::::::;;;;;
I Chose it because looking down at our Little Earth Mama from the Pre-existence, I saw the things I wanted to SHIFT and knew in order to do it I GOT TO CHOOSE IN to the situations to Master and SHIFT the energy. SOME things ONLY occur in PHYSICAL FORM.
AND WE ALL have SPIRITUAL SUPPORT, our own HEAVEN TEAM who's engaged in our efforts.
Popular Posts | <urn:uuid:a8c0b7b2-53de-46e1-8858-cc716aeb7822> | http://ww.katiejodrum.com.katiejosoul.com/2014/11/the-rainbow-of-consciousness.html | en | 0.913376 | 0.022789 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Work Header
In the Malfoy Dungeon
Work Text:
Luna shivered in the cold, dark dungeon, the sliver of light from the stairs not much comfort.
They were questioning Ollivander again and she was worried about him. She tried to be brave and not let him or the Malfoys see how scared she was but when she was left alone, it was difficult not to despair.
She stiffened when she heard heavy footsteps coming down the stairs, not even realising she was backing away until she bumped into the stone wall.
The person kept walking toward her, however, covering her mouth with his big, sweaty palm.
"I don't want to hurt you," he said. She recognised his voice as that of Malfoy's friend Goyle. "We've got to pretend," he whispered. "Do you understand?"
Her heart was pounding and her hands shaking, tears beginning to stream out of the corners of her eyes, but she nodded slowly.
"I don't want to hurt you," he repeated. He pressed his leg between her thighs but otherwise seemed to be trying not to touch her. He slid his hand away from her mouth and began to rock against her.
"Please stop," she said, tearfully.
"Louder," he whispered. "They're listening."
She knew what he was trying to do, trying to make it appear as if he was molesting her, grunting and groaning, his breath hot on her neck.
"Stop!" she cried out. "Please stop!"
"'M sorry," he muttered.
She couldn't keep herself from sobbing even though she knew it could be a lot worse. | <urn:uuid:e0603cb3-df13-4931-afed-d8bcc804eb03> | https://archiveofourown.org/works/10905393 | en | 0.994848 | 0.02497 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Lair – a sneak peek.
Today I’m delighted to share with you all a sneak peek at my erotic vampire novella that was published by Memento Mori Publications, ‘Lair’. Read, enjoy and let me know what you think!
Her eyes wide, Dixie stopped for a moment to steady herself and finally catch her breath. Now she knew why Jamie was so determined to come here. Castle Vancura was, quite possibly, the most spectacular sight it had ever been her fortune to behold.
The moon hovered low over the castle in the clear night sky, the castle’s numerous towers stretched high up towards her like a lover’s fingers reaching out to steal one last touch from the one they craved before they slipped out of reach. The dark stone blended in effortlessly with the night and the lush, verdant green ringed around the castle called out to something deep inside her.
It was easy to see why Jamie couldn’t see away from Castle Vancura. The space of just one heartbeat was enough to have her hooked, and before she even knew what she was doing she found herself putting one foot in front of the other again, the path rapidly slipping away in front of her as she stared wide-eyed at the castle ahead.
For all intents and purposes though the castle seemed to be abandoned. The path towards the door was worn and covered with all sorts of tangled undergrowth, thick ivy clung tenaciously to the castle’s stone walls and not a single light could be seen in any of the hundreds of windows.
Whether or not there was anyone there to help her, she had to press on. This was her last hope.
Dixie stumbled up the uneven path when it narrowed further still as it wound its way towards the door that was swinging open on rusted hinges. The castle wasn’t abandoned. Clearly someone was inside after all, and it seemed they had caught sight of her.
Out of nowhere the compulsion to turn and flee nearly overwhelmed her. She shook her head to clear it. She had come this far against all the odds. The answer to Jamie’s fate lay behind the door now opening, and there was no way in hell that she wouldn’t reach out and take it.
More determined than ever, Dixie squared her shoulders and then came to an abrupt halt when her eyes finally focused in the darkness. A stranger stood framed in the vast, arching doorway, and she couldn’t take her wide-eyed stare away from him.
He was tall; intimidatingly so. Jamie was nearly six foot, but this man was taller still. He would tower over her. His dark hair reached down past his shoulders, and he wore a loose, billowing white shirt tucked into the waistband of his old-fashioned breeches. Despite that formality, though, he was barefoot.
That strange juxtapose made it feel as if they weren’t strangers at all.
The shiver that chased down her spine had nothing to do with the cool night breeze.
He stared past her into the distance, almost as if he hadn’t even noticed her, but she took a hesitant step closer to him.
“Ah – do you speak English?”
She let loose the breath she hadn’t realised she was holding when comprehension flitted across his pale face. The moon passed behind a cloud overhead, briefly throwing the pair of them into total darkness, and some deep instinct made her breath catch again as the stranger tilted his head to the side and ran his thumb across his lips before he spoke, his heavy accent unable to mask the clipped, perfectly polished words that made her heart soar.
“You seek the Englishman, yes?” he said.
“Yes!” Her tired eyes alight once more, Dixie took another step nearer. “Do you know something about Jamie?”
His face was inscrutable. “If that is his name.”
This was far from promising, but she pressed on nonetheless. “Please!” she said, blinking back the fresh tears that threatened to fall. “I’ve come a hell of a long way and I’ve got nowhere else left to go but here. I’m begging you, if you know something then tell me.”
The stranger leaned against the doorframe. His arms were folded across his chest and his lips were pressed together in a thin line. A low sob built deep inside her and as the thick, oppressive silence stretched out, she turned away from him and buried her head in her hands to hold it back. It was no use. Whatever he knew, he wasn’t going to tell her.
Dixie twisted the diamond solitaire on her finger and closed her eyes tightly, preparing herself to set off back into the night. She had no idea where to go or even what to do, but it was clear she would find no answers here.
Before she could put one foot in front of the other, though, the stranger spoke again.
“He is inside.”
Hope flared anew and she whirled back towards him. “Then can I come in?!”
“If it is your wish,” he said without moving aside.
It was hardly the warmest of invitations, but she was too damn tired to care. As she neared the door she unzipped her jacket, for her temperature was steadily rising despite the thin mountain air, but as she did so she realised the stranger was making no effort to welcome her inside. In fact, he had positioned himself now so that he was directly blocking her way in.
Dixie inhaled sharply. Growing deeply frustrated now, she fixed her stare onto him despite the fact he was still gazing past her down the path behind her. “Much as I appreciate the hospitality, you’re making it impossible for me to get inside,” she said curtly.
The faintest of smiles finally drew back the corners of his thin lips. “Believe me, that is not my intention.”
“Then will you stand back so I can get in?”
The stranger inclined his head, but instead of stepping aside he came out onto the path – the path that was barely wide enough for one person, let alone two. As he drew near, he ran one hand through his loose hair and looked directly at her for the first time.
A fresh shiver chased down Dixie’s spine, dancing down each and every one of her vertebrae this time. When their eyes locked and he took another slow step towards her, her head rolled to the side. The stranger breathed in sharply and her eyes widened. There was nothing more imperative than making her way into the castle and away from this strange, ethereal intimacy that sprang out of nowhere.
As she darted up the path, she brushed against him and her breath hitched violently, a sudden twist of heat coursing through her veins that made her face flame even before his hand reached out to steady her. He spoke not a word, but the fierce, almost covetous expression on his pale face made her heart race. For a moment she forgot the reason why she was here, but then the moonlight glinted off the ring on her finger.
It was as if she had been doused with ice cold water. Backing away from the stranger, Dixie fumbled behind her until she felt the reassuringly solid frame of the castle’s door. With a strangled cry, she whirled around and darted through it, her heart beating so fast that she could barely even breathe.
No sooner did she find herself inside the castle, though, than she realised that far from fleeing danger, she had walked straight into it. She was inside now. He had her exactly where he wanted her, and she was entirely at his mercy – and when Jamie had gone missing since coming here, following the stranger inside with no way to defend herself was surely the worst thing she could possibly have done.
She swore softly and looked around the vast, cavernous hall as she slowly turned to face the door. Maybe if she was swift she could make a break for it and come back in the daytime. No sooner did she think that, though, than she realised that the stranger was already was at her side.
Dixie backed up towards the nearest stone wall, shaking from head to toe, but without speaking he reached out for her hand. The instant his fingers threaded through hers she could no longer remember why she felt so afraid just a few moments before.
Her lips parted uncertainly and he bestowed the smallest of smiles upon her as the heavy door swung closed in their wake, sealing out the moonlight and plunging the vast hall into darkness. It offered an intimacy that almost made her believe no one but the two of them existed.
The stranger’s hand was unnaturally cool against hers. Maybe it was because they were inside of the castle now, locked away from the lingering heat of the late summer’s day. A faint draught danced around the cold stone floor beneath their feet, and a whispered musty scent was carried upon it. Dixie swallowed hard, badly unnerved by the realisation she had made no effort to pull away from the stranger’s touch.
The cold air didn’t seem to trouble him, but she shivered again, aware now that her nipples were painfully taut. Maybe that was because of the cold castle too. She feared it had a different, far more powerful cause, one that could be directly attributed to the man whose fingers were still wound so intimately through hers.
“You are shivering, my lady,” he said under his breath, far closer to her than she anticipated him to be. “Is the cold air troubling you?”
In truth, the chill in the air was proving to be a welcome if inadequate balm for the fever she felt that was steadily spiralling out of control. It was the fact she was entirely blinded that frightened her. “I think it’s the darkness, actually,” she heard herself say.
“Forgive me, for my eyes are accustomed to the gloom. If it would suit you, though, I will gladly light a candle for you to see by.”
Dixie drew a shallow breath. “I’d appreciate that, yes.”
The stranger moved away without another word, and to her consternation the loss of his hand on hers was a physical pain. Her heart was in her mouth as she heard him strike a match and within moments a candle to the left flamed into life. Hugging herself tightly, she watched him in the flickering light as he moved around the hall, lighting all of the half dozen or so candelabras nearest to the front door.
It came as no surprise that the ancient stone castle wasn’t powered by electricity. Modern light bulbs would be jarringly out of place here. The candles were a perfect fit for the castle, as was the man whose face she could now see clearly once more.
When he came back to her side he bowed deeply to her, a spark of something indefinable in his eyes as he straightened back up. Perhaps it was just the candlelight’s reflection. Dixie couldn’t help but think she saw something more.
As she stared at him, he broke the tense silence that had settled over them. “May I introduce myself, my lady?” he said.
She forced herself to draw a deep, steadying breath. “Yes, of course,” she said, though her voice wavered.
The stranger smiled and reached out to take her hand again. “My name is Maxim Vancura, and this is my castle. I live here alone, the last of a long and spectacular dynasty, but of all of them I am the only one left. Castle Vancura is my prize – and my penance.”
There was no denying it now. She was intrigued, and Maxim’s enigmatic words were the hook that had her caught. “Your penance? In what way?”
“The lonely life it forces upon me. I rarely receive guests, being as isolated as I am.” He raised her hand to his lips and pressed the gentlest of kisses against it. “I am glad, though, that you have somehow found me. May I take your bag, my lady?”
The contrast to his earlier cool demeanour now she was over his threshold couldn’t be more marked. It left her on the back foot, and before she could think of any excuse she found herself mutely shrugging the battered rucksack away and handing it over to him.
Maxim. Dixie found herself silently repeating his name inside her head as he left her side, rolling it round her tongue again and again until a deep crimson flush rose from nowhere to burn her skin. The old-fashioned European name suited him. She couldn’t imagine herself shortening it, but what she could imagine very clearly was crying out his name as he took her into his arms and buried himself inside her.
Her breath caught in her throat.
Copyright 2016 Memento Mori Publications
Everyone knows that if you willingly walk into the monster’s lair, you won’t come out alive – or untouched. When Dixie goes in search of her missing boyfriend, her journey leads her straight into the dark and mysterious castle of the enigmatic Maxim Vancura, and he has no intention of letting her leave again…
Cara Fox’s first vampire novella for Memento Mori Publications is an outstanding debut. Dark, ethereal and wickedly sexy, the simmering undercurrent of danger running throughout is everything a vampire romance should be.
Amazon US
Amazon UK | <urn:uuid:1e867ba9-09ee-4f38-b2d3-0f37bcc54dfd> | https://carafoxauthor.wordpress.com/tag/memento-mori-publications/ | en | 0.986957 | 0.028704 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Nothing New Under the Sun… June 7, 2015
There is nothing new under the sun. It’s all been thought of and done before. There are times when this seems the distressing reality. In fact the times that it seems untrue grow shorter as my time upon this earth continues. Just when I think I have an original thought, a unique idea, I find that someone had it previously.
Just when you think you have found something new… to your dismay it turns out to be simply a different mix of old things. A different arrangement… something that could result from putting all the old within a mixer and what results seems new but isn’t really. It turns out that everything is built upon what was and nothing is really new from the ground up because the ground never changes.
nothing-new3Interchangeable parts comprise all things. In the end the substance of that thought new is simply of material that isn’t. Just like the Total Recall suggestion that your vacations are boring because in the end it’s the same old you that is there. Everything is indisputably composed of the same atoms that existed during all of the eons of existence.
Yes, I suppose everything is boring for people who feel they have thought and done it all. Perhaps that is the reason evolution gave us such short lives. The young have not seen it all, thought it all, and think, though they be in error, that they bring something new to the table. The only thing of course that is possible is that the bring a new arrangement. Even that of course may simply be an arrangement that was forgotten in days past.
Is it even possible to bring something new to existence without it having a foundation in the past?
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Well, I was letting my fingers do the walking through the Netflix offers, and I’d just started a show called Nightflyer when my wife got home. She wanted to watch her soap operas, I was about to step out onto my balcony and smoke a big fattie, and I could see I wasn’t going to like the program much, so I haven’t even gone back to it.
This blog is about my reason why.
I do like science fiction, of course, and I’m not terribly discriminating. Something can be a fantasy, and not very science fictiony at all, and I’ll enjoy it if the stories good and the characters compelling. I enjoy post-apocalyptic movies, and view them as sort of an instruction manual. If the apocalypse ever comes, the person who will lead the ragtag band of survivors, outcasts and mutants will be the person who’s seen The Postman the most times. I particularly enjoy sci-fi with themes of space travel, robots, and AI. That’s all stuff that I think is coming, it’s totally physically believable, and it’s important that they keep making lots of films about it so we can explore the ethical considerations. I like sci-fi with lots of aliens, because aliens make very interesting people. Of course, if we ever do make contact with an alien species, they are likely to make all films made up to that point seem quaint. I even like time travel themed stuff even though it’s way beyond our current technology and I actually think it’s not possible. I enjoy history as well as sci-fi, and it usually makes for a great story.
What I don’t like is telepaths. While some people are good at cold readings, and can figure things out from watching body language and analyzing tone of voice, that’s not the same as actual mind reading, or being able to see the future, or stuff like that.
And, it’s a cheap plot device. In the future, there will be all sorts of cool spy software, foolproof lie detector tests, future prediction algorithms, and more. This whole ‘ship’s telepath*’ thing is kind of crap. Why do they even need to bring telepaths into it, with nary a mention of how they came to be that way?
It’s a bit too much like magic. No matter how dark the situation, somebody will come along and magic you right out of it. That’s too easy.
*DeeAnna Troy was an empath. That’s totally different.
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Tag Archives: equal as life
348. Self Honesty in Equal Money
Without Self Honesty We Cannot Create a World that is Best for All.
– Bernard Poolman
• The nature of the system in itself has created the definition of ‘Honesty’ wherein we are supposed to act according to its rules and regulations, not questioning the system but just complying to how everything works where we protect our ‘loved ones’ only, where we ensure we don’t tell lies and stand as a ‘responsible’ person that has nothing to hide – yet little is understood on how such ‘cleanliness’ and apparent honesty is in fact possible due to the amount of money we have that enables us to have enough means and services to generate that care and have such ‘decency,’ but what about all the people that have no means to live in an ‘unacceptable manner’ according to our standards wherein only those that have ‘enough money’ can become respectable beings, because the person with no money has to resort to steal to feed their family.
• People are considered to be ‘Honest’ when they are able to openly ‘express their feelings,emotions or opinions’ such as how much they dislike something and how they are being ‘true to themselves’ as to why they don’t want to cooperate in a particular job or activity, why they dislike a particular person and how they ‘feel’ about another or a particular circumstance in our reality.
• I am being honest’ is expressed as what we believe is ‘who we are’ and in that, we are placing our personal preferences, desires, views, opinions and perspectives to the level of our self-religion, our creed that we are able to expose and ‘stay true to ourselves’ without ever questioning if such ‘truth’ is in fact leading to a best for all outcome. We can look at this reality and all the people that have claimed to be honest but never questioned how it is that such honesty is just another value shaped according to the nature of this system that caters self-interest, self abuse and disregard for life in Equality. This means that we have measured this ‘honesty’ according to the Value System of this world system where life is not considered Equal, where Money decides whether you live or die and where you are able to ‘honestly earn your living’ by working and getting money without questioning what kind of damage onto others or the environment it is producing, why it is that you are not able to easily ‘get more money’ to live more comfortably, why not everyone is able to have the same privileges you do, why you can only be supported if you have enough education to have a job and if you don’t, you starve to death along with your family. Yet no one questions why it is ‘dishonest’ for people to have to steal or sell their own organs to get money to live – all of these are aspects that correspond to our Self Responsibility which is a key aspect to start developing Self Honesty.
• We are taught to follow our dreams and be ‘honest’ about our desires, yet we never question who or what lead us to have such desires, what has caused us to believe that we have to ‘trust our feelings’ and do whatever we can to achieve a goal that we probably watched in a movie, read in a book or heard from our peers at school or the neighborhood. Yet people value ‘being honest’ to these feelings as a ‘motivation to live’ without realizing the level of brainwashing that this implies when a human being is taught to make decisions, give themselves direction based on ‘how they feel’ instead of analyzing practically and mathematically the outcomes and common sensical determinations to generate a best for all outcome.
• Emotions like hatred, disgust, dislike and aversion can be ‘honestly expressed’ which then propitiates another to value the person for being ‘so honest’ about how they experience themselves, instead of questioning Why such experiences exist within themselves in the first place. ‘I am being honest with myself,’ is said when someone admits a fault and a deliberate pattern of abuse wherein the ‘honesty’ point sheds a positive light upon it that ensures people generate another ‘cloak’ in the system which is Respect and ‘accept’ another’s experience based on how they feel without questioning the origin of it and what it is revealing about the individual themselves, how it is actually imperative that the individual takes self responsibility for their experience, because it is simply leading to a point of separation and disruption from what is best for all.
• Then we have the world system wherein people are Honestly paying their debts on time, never missing a single payment, being very obedient to not commit a ‘fault’ in the system and having a belief of being ‘an honest citizen that abides to the law’ – however, do they question such laws and if they in fact abrogate what is best for all? Do they question why is it that Debt exists? Why it is that their children have to enroll themselves with over a thousand dollars of debt at the end of their career to make an ‘honest living’ in the system’? Why is it that if they have no money to pay the debt, they ‘honestly’ accept that there is no way out of it but asking for more debt, without any form of common sense indicating that getting further in debt is Not the way things should work in the system – yet, the system rewards ‘system loyalty’ and becoming a respectable and honorable person in the system is only possible if you pay your debt on time, send your children to school, support the system of profit by following all your desires and dreams to be the driving force for every work you do and never question who is actually having ‘all the power’ in the system, because you ‘honestly enjoy the benefits’ and ‘honestly feel good about yourself being successful in your business’ which is not a ‘good’ or a ‘bad’ thing, it is about realizing if such security and success is available as an equal opportunity for everyone else in this planet to have an assured means of support.
• ‘Honesty’ has turned into a blatant façade to hide the actual abuse that exists in every one of us accepting the system to be ‘as is,’ a system where ‘honest, respectful beings’ are in office, leading wars in the ‘honest’ regard for homeland security and being ‘honest’ in their despise for those that are apparently a threat to the honest hard working respectable people. This is how our words became shields to not see the obvious: that there is No Self Honesty and that no one has ever been a respectable being, because the moment we comply to the system ‘as is’ and use the value of money to only satisfy our needs, we forget that we are part of a world where we coexist with all other beings that Should also by virtue of being part of this ‘honest world’ should have equal access to the necessary means to live. This is not happening, because Self Honesty does not exist.
• Honesty is the ‘good doer’ joker card developed in the system to make believe there is goodness and benevolence in humanity, but we know that this is not so otherwise we would not be writing today about having to take self responsibility for the world and become Self honest to change it.
So, what is Self Honesty?
• Self Honesty is becoming an individual human being willing to take Self Responsibility for what we have accepted and allowed ourselves to be and become, being willing to see ourselves first as who we are, what our thoughts, emotions and feelings reveal of our own nature and measure what is it that requires to go through a process of Self Correction in order to become individuals that are able to be trusted with Life and being willing to Live as Equals which means: becoming the creators and participants of a world that is Best for All where everyone is granted access to that which we require to eat in order to live in the most dignified sustainable condition.
• Self Honesty is not nice nor beautiful, this is the ‘ugly truth’ of ourselves that has been hidden behind nice words of grandeur that painted a great picture of our lives without realizing it is blood that we were using to paint it with. This means that Self Honesty implies being willing to look at the reality of this world in its mechanics, how it functions, how are relationships existent, questioning why poverty exists, why do people starve to death, why is our money based on debt, why and how it is that only a minority have all the money in the world? How it is that we have only always cared for our own interests and disregarded everyone else’s? Why can’t we change the mechanisms in which our food is produced? Why can’t we give free health support to everyone’? and the list goes on and on.
• Beginning to write ourselves, to look within who we are, what we like, what we have participated in is what enables us to get a glimpse of what we self honestly have participated in as all the aspects we rather kept secret and not expose of ourselves, because in common sense we know that such attitudes are in fact Not what is best for all, but we did it anyways because we felt good about it, we didn’t think that our thoughts, words and deeds could have outcomes in our reality that would affect everyone equally, but they do and this is the time when we come to face this reality as our world that is the mirror of our individual actions which we can all agree, have become our very own hell to exist in. This is why we first have to walk this process of Self Honesty to realize what we have been and become to later on begin to understand the responsibility we hold toward every single outcome that exists within this reality as everything we are only currently angry, ashamed, desperate, frustrated and depressed about without looking at how it is all our creation from beginning to end. Then we want to ‘change the world’ overnight, without understanding how it is that our very own thoughts, words and deeds have contributed to this absolute global crisis that isn’t a ‘curse’ imposed onto us: we have created it, we are it.
• Self honesty implies realizing and becoming aware of everything that we have accepted and allowed ourselves to be and become in disregard of everyone else’s’ well being and equality to ourselves – this means having acted and existed only based on Self Interest wherein ‘who we are’ as ‘honest people’ lead us to blind ourselves from the crimes against life that we have perpetuated every time that we simply comply to ‘how the system works’ and do nothing to change it. The system is ourselves which means that all its ‘ugly truth’ is in fact the mirror of who we are and have become as individuals in our own minds. When living in Self-Honestly one is wiling to look at all of these aspects of ourselves in detail that have lead us to only care about satisfying our personal interests without caring about another as equal and one as ourselves.
• Self Honesty is being willing to question every single thing we have been and become, what we believe, what we have ‘lived for’ and the purpose we have created toward our own life. It is about daring to see who we are beyond the ‘idea of self’ and all our ‘good traits’ and ‘bad traits’ and see how they all stem from the inherent configuration of the system we are born into wherein No Self Honesty exists, because life is sold and abused and never honored – this should then place the foundation to understand how no word that we are currently using can be in fact Self Honest, because all our Value Systems have been based upon words that support the abuse, that hide the self interest and glorify the ‘success’ of what it means to disregard everyone else and only care accumulating to cater for your very own self at the expense of others. This is what capitalism represents as the ‘blueprint’ of our personal interests externalized as an economic system, this is precisely why we say: we have to take Self Responsibility for the system, we cannot just complain about Capitalism because it is our actual inherent nature: it is who we are and have become.
• Self Honesty means investigating everything of this world, looking at and understanding how we intervened to bring the whole system to abuse and massive failures to then understand that our collective responsibility resides in taking part of this system ‘as is’ and walking the necessary processes to correct it from within – not destroying it, not opposing it, not ignoring it or allowing it to just’ fall apart’ but actively create the necessary means such as political processes and economic reforms to ensure that the world system we have created by our individual participation is lead through a process of correction determined by us, the individuals, that first have to begin this process at an individual level to realize who and what we are and have become as our minds, seeking after our self interest. Instead we become the living principle of what it is to become an example of acting, thinking and doing that which is best for all in Equality.
• Self honesty is not Morality of right or wrong, it is the living principle that guides our every breath, every single moment that we decide to live according to that which will support everyone equally and lead to a best for all outcome wherein we can gauge the outcome and consequential outflows of our actions through mathematical and empirical means where we can ensure that the way we conduct our lives is in fact leading to creating that which is best for all. This means that each individual as a self responsible being is able to stand as the solution of this system by becoming the living example of what it is to act in the best interest of all and work with stopping, correcting and aligning one’s ‘personal interests’ that lead to segregation, disregard, neglect, self importance and superiority or inferiority complexes that have created the current psychological problems in our society that absorb much of our lifetime due to focusing on sorting out ‘how we feel’ instead of ‘how the world is being created according to what we want and how we feel.’
• Equality is thus not only a quality of being, but the quality of words that we live in consideration, honor and regard for one another as equals. This is the foundation of the Equal Money System and Equal Money Capitalism, where we have realized that unless the individual takes self responsibility for our thoughts, words and deeds as the building blocks of our current global crisis at all levels of our existence, we will remain seeking for ‘change’ outside of ourselves instead of within.
For Examples of How to Walk Self Honesty read the 7 Year Journey To Life blogs
“Self-Honesty is the process to finding the “Key” to “See” to live/be the change of self and this existence as self.” – Sunette Spies
“Only with self honesty do the potential become available to birth yourself as life.” – Bernard Poolman
• Establishing Self Honesty as our Principled Living is the first step to ensure that everything we create in order to ‘change this world’ stands in fact as a reliable and trustworthy solution that can be proven to be in fact producing that which is best for all.
• The ultimate reward is being able to trust each other as life, with life to the extent that we will be able to ensure that no matter whose life I am living, it will always be a dignified life, living in the best way possible, in the best living environment where everyone can enjoy life at last and for once and for all get past all the fears and limitations that we are currently living in. It will be the absolute renaissance of humanity as it never has existed before, an actual rebirth by virtue of our own words which means: it is in our hands to actually make this happen.
Change by Matti
Artwork by Matti Freeman
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Excalibut Sonic using Soul energy.
Soul Gauge energy
, or just Soul, is a type of energy that appears in the Sonic Storybook series .
Soul is a type of energy akin to Chaos energy , as it is primarily used to dish out magical attacks. Like Chaos energy, it can be utilized for varying abilities, such as time manipulating abilities (time break ), flame-based attacks (Flames of Kilekion ) and even Chaos Powers (Chaos Punishment ).
Pearls and Rich Pearls are objects that contain Soul energy within them , replenishing a user’s Soul energy reserves when ever they are obtained. This Soul energy is represented by the Soul Gauge.
Shahra is also capable of utilizing this energy form, as she is the reason Sonic is capable of utilizing the Fire , Wind , and Dark elements in Sonic and the Secret Rings .
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6 weeks post op
Eating and supplements
A little over a year out now from losing my stomach eating seems to get easier with each month that passes. There are still days that are rough but overall getting used to what I can and cannot tolerate. I still sometimes struggle with how much I can eat. It seems sometimes like I can eat any amount and the next day maybe two bites. My tastes have also changed somewhat and it is disturbing to eat something and have it taste totally different than you expected.
From other stomach less friends that I have made and blogs and support groups that I follow, the one thing that is common among all of is that we are all different. We had our stomachs removed for a variety of reasons and our surgeons, gastroenterologists, nutritionist all had us start off eating differently. Many came home with feeding tubes, some have never gotten rid of them and some have never had one.
I did have a feeding tube while I was in the hospital at Mayo Clinic. It become blocked while I was in the hospital and they were no longer able to use it. I also developed an anastomotic leak which is a leak where they joined my esophagus to my small bowel. At this point is when I started TPN, or IV nutrition that I have mentioned before.
Looking back now, I know that I left the hospital too soon. I also know that it is because I pushed for that to happen every single day. I was not honest with them or myself about the condition I was in….but I blame part of that on drugs. I was on a lot and came home on a lot. Staying at least one or even two more weeks would have probably been more beneficial for myself and my family.
I had to have a barium swallow study done before I was even allowed to have ice chips because as long as there was a leak it was very strict nothing by mouth. I did pass the test, less than a week before I got to come home. I started with liquids only, then soft foods and was sent home to progress as my body was able to tolerate. The biggest “rule” was chew, chew and then chew some more as that is the only real breakdown that your food is going to get. Also going slowly, which is much more difficult than you would think.
I was used to eating in a hurry to get this or that done. We have always eaten as a family and I now have difficulty sitting with other people to eat because I quit paying attention to what I am doing. If I swallow something that I have not chewed well enough it feels stuck in my chest. I am either going to be in pain (severe) until it works its way down or my body is going to rebel and I will start heaving until I can force it back up. Both of the options suck so I really do pay attention to what I am doing when I am eating. It is amazing to me to watch other people eat now. The speed at which others (previously myself) eat is just astonishing to me now and sometimes even repulsive. Just a heads up to those who do and may eat with me in the future, I’m not judging you and if it seems like I am ignoring you it’s because I’m thinking about chewing….lol.
So a year later I can eat almost anything. The key is eating frequently enough, chewing enough and not eating too much. Things that I cannot tolerate are actually easier to list.
Sugar… I can eat very, very small amounts of sugar occasionally but this usually leads to dumping syndrome, severe hypoglycemia, racing heart and terrible nausea that can last for several hours. It is not worth it, but times passes and I try again (like last night) and then I am quickly reminded how bad it is.
Another thing that I have difficulty with is milk. I was a big milk drinker and I can tolerate some dairy products but plain milk is just about as bad as sugar. Bread is very difficult unless it is toasted. Large amounts of carbohydrates will almost always cause me to end up with dumping syndrome.
I am also a very picky eater and that makes things a little bit harder for me than most but I feel like I am finally getting a handle on it. The best news is that for the most part I can manage and maintain my weight now. The worst part is the vitamin and nutritional deficiencies that occur from malabsorption.
Without a stomach there is no time for food to sit and break down and absorb. There are also a lot of things that are only absorbed in the stomach. Fortunately, all of this is managed by my physicians and lab results and then prescribed what my body needs that I am not able to get.
Currently I take Vitamin D, I wear a multivitamin patch that I change every day, I give myself B12 injections every other week, I take potassium and magnesium. I still run low normal on some of these but they will always be monitored closely. Fortunately, I am learning to recognize what my “normal” feels like and recognize when something feels off. I am also lucky to have a physician that will check if I am concerned.
I have learned more about nutrional needs this past year than I ever wanted to know. I can remember the food pyramid and your daily servings, etc in health class in middle school. I didn’t care about that and it was boring. I still think it’s boring and although occasionally interesting still a very boring topic….at least for me. | <urn:uuid:3af80434-0667-4bdf-b5c1-652f31a4f3fc> | https://stomachlessinks.com/tag/eating/ | en | 0.983105 | 0.209817 | mlfoundations/dclm-baseline-1.0-parquet |
Frequent Buyer Options
This article deals with the RICS Enterprise Frequent Buyer Program and the various options and configurations that can be enabled for Frequent Buyer.
Manage Frequent Buyer Options
The following options are available on the Manage Frequent Buyer screen. They are grouped into two basic categories: those that affect the accumulation towards rewards, and those that affect when and how the rewards may be redeemed. There are also some general settings that are not closely related to accumulating or redeeming rewards.
Note that Frequent Buyer Plans will only be saved at the level where the customers are stored within the organization (usually the Store Owner level). While plans can be edited at any level where the customers are stored or below, they will always be saved at the Customer Save At Level. For this reason, RICS Software recommends managing all Frequent Buyer Plans at the level where customers are stored.
Accumulation Options
Accumulate Rewards: This option determines whether the plan is currently ‘active.’ If it is turned on, rewards will accumulate as normal. If not, customers will not accumulate or be granted any new rewards on this plan. However, any existing rewards may still be used. This option is generally used when a store is phasing out a plan (though RICS recommends using a Graduation Plan instead; see below).
Minimum Price: This is the minimum price a product must cost (after all discounts and coupons have been applied), in order for it to count towards accumulation. This is often used with the quantity-based plans, such as Method 1 and Method 4.
Accumulating Classes: These are the classes that will count towards Frequent Buyer accumulations. The user can select any or all of the classes from the tree view. If no classes are selected, the POS will assume that all classes are to be included (this is the default for a new plan).
Maximum Markdown Percent: This setting determines the maximum allowable discount on a product that will still count towards Frequent Buyer. The POS will take the difference between the retail price of the item and the item’s final price (including all discounts, but not coupons), and divide it by the retail price of the item. If the percentage is more than the Maximum Markdown Percent, the item will not be counted as accumulating. For example, suppose an item costs $100 retail, and is selling for $60 on markdown. If the Maximum Markdown Percent were set to 50%, the item would still accumulate (since the item is currently 40% off, which is less than the maximum of 50%). If the user at the POS applied another 20% discount to the item (making the final price $48), it would not accumulate.
A Maximum Markdown Percent of 100 means that all items will accumulate regardless of price, and a value of zero means that any discount or markdown will cause an item to be disqualified from accumulation.
Break Point: This option determines how many items must be purchased (for plans using Methods 1 or 4) or how many dollars must be spent (for plans using Methods 2 or 5) in order to be eligible for a reward. Note that the customer is eligible for a reward when he or she meets the breakpoint. In order to actually claim the reward, the breakpoint must be passed.
For Method 3 plans (which grant a reward on every qualifying ticket), Break Point instead is used to trigger a Graduation onto another plan (see Graduation Plan, below). In this case, for Method 3 plans, a Break Point of zero indicates that the plan will never graduate.
Redemption Options
Discount Percent, Discount Amount, or Discount % of Average Purchase: This field stores the value of the reward. For Method 1 plans, this is the percent of the average purchase price that the reward is worth. For Method 2, it is the dollar value of the reward. For Method 3, it represents the percent that will be taken off all items on the ticket. Finally, for Methods 4 and 5, it is the percent that will be taken off the highest-priced item on the ticket when the reward is claimed.
Maximum Discount % or Maximum Discount Amount: This option will set a maximum discount beyond which the reward will not be applied.
For a percent-off plan, this option will represent the dollar value of the reward. For example, if a plan were set to grant a 50% reward with a Maximum Discount Amount of $60, then an item worth $100 would get a $50 reward, while an item worth $200 would only get a $60 reward.
For a dollar-off plan, this option will represent the percent off the highest-priced item that the reward is worth. For example, if the plan were set to grant a $20 reward with a Maximum Discount % of 50%, then an item worth $50 would get a $20 reward, while an item worth $15 would only get a reward of $7.50.
Any excess rewards may be carried over to future tickets, as described below.
Retain Partial Rewards: This option controls whether any excess reward value that cannot be applied to the current ticket will be saved to apply to future tickets. This option is only available for Methods 1 and 2. Partially-used percent-off rewards cannot be saved.
There may be excess reward value if the ticket on which the reward is claimed is affected by the Maximum Discount % option, or if the value of the item on which the reward is claimed is less than the value of the reward itself.
Discount Full Price Only: If this option is selected, only items selling at their full retail price will be eligible to claim a reward. Any items on Markdown or with a Discount applied at the POS will not cause the POS to prompt for using a reward.
Redeem Classes (Accumulating Only): If this option is selected, then rewards may only be used on items that are in one of the Accumulating Classes specified for the plan, as described above. If the option is turned off, then any product, regardless of class, may be a valid target for a reward.
Rewards Expire After X days: This option allows the store owner to set rewards to expire after a certain number of days. After that point, the rewards will no longer show up on the customer’s receipt, and the store may decline to offer the reward to a customer.
Note that the expiration date is stored on the individual rewards, rather than the plan. This means that if the expiration days on the plan are changed, any existing rewards will continue to use the same expiration date they had when they were created.
This option is not available on plans using Method 1 or 3.
Expiration Grace Period: If this option is set, expired rewards will not be deleted for the given number of days after they expire. This allows the store to be flexible and allow a user to claim a reward even after it is expired. Note that expired rewards will still be deleted from the system once the grace period has elapsed; after that point they may no longer be selected on the POS.
Note that the Grace Period is stored on the Frequent Buyer Plan, not on the rewards themselves. This means that if the Grace Period on the plan is changed, it will immediately affect all expired rewards outstanding for the plan.
Ticket Redemption: This option controls when a reward may be redeemed. There are two options: Current Ticket and Next Ticket.
If Current Ticket is selected, then a reward may be used on the same ticket on which it was earned (provided there is another item beyond the plan breakpoint on which the reward might be claimed).
If Next Ticket is selected, then the user will be notified that the reward is available, but it may not be claimed until the customer’s next ticket.
This option is not available on Method 3 plans (since the reward will always be applied). On Method 1 plans, the only option is Current Ticket.
Other Options
Set as Default Plan: This option makes the current plan the default plan, which will be applied to all new customers. If a user loads a customer on the Manage Customer screen, and the customer is not already on a Frequent Buyer Plan, the default plan will be automatically selected. See also the “Auto-Enroll customers in FBP” option, below.
Graduation Plan: This option tells RICS what to do with the customer once the customer has earned a reward. The default option is “Same,” which will restart the customer on the same plan as before (carrying over any excess accumulations from the previous iteration of the plan).
If “None” is selected, then the customer will be removed from Frequent Buyer once the reward is earned.
The user can also choose any other Frequent Buyer Plan in the system to be the Graduation Plan. If another plan is used, the customer will immediately begin accumulating towards a reward on the new plan.
For consistency, RICS recommends that graduation plans use the same calculation type as the original plan, but this is not required.
Points Factor: This option can be used to print “points” on the customer receipt rather than a dollar value. The customer’s accumulation will continue to be measured in terms of dollars. However, the dollar value of the accumulation will be divided by the Points Factor before being displayed to the customer. The Points Factor must be a positive number greater than zero, but it may be a decimal. The same calculation will be applied to the Break Point in order to display how many Points the customer must earn in order to get a reward.
For example, if the customer has an accumulation of $54.32, and the Points Factor is set to 5, then the customer would have 10 points. If the Points Factor were instead set to 0.2, then the customer would have 271 points.
This option is only available on plans using Method 2 or 5.
Receipt Settings
Show Total Accumulations: If this option is checked, the customer’s current accumulation will be displayed on the POS receipt. Plans using Method 1, 2, or 5 will show the total dollars accumulated, and plans using Methods 1 or 4 will show the total quantity accumulated.
Show Estimated Discount: This option will display the estimated reward on the POS receipt. If the customer has outstanding rewards, the value of those rewards will be printed. Also, if a customer’s reward will expire, the expiration date of the reward will be printed (if multiple rewards will expire, the earliest expiration date will be shown).
If the customer does not have any outstanding rewards, the POS receipt will show the reward value based on the plan reward amount. However, if the customer is on a Method 1 plan, an “Estimated Reward” will be shown instead. This is the average purchase price of the items accumulated divided by the quantity purchased. Because Method 1 plans are based on the average price at the time the reward is used, this estimate might change before the customer uses the reward.
Show Remaining Purchases Needed: This option will print the customer’s remaining purchases to go (if using Methods 1 or 4), or dollars/points to go (if using Methods 2 or 5) in order to be eligible for a reward. If the customer has already met the plan Break Point, the receipt will instead show “Reward Achieved!”
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