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Banks in Ottawa, IL
Ottawa Federal Savings & Loan Assn
925 La Salle St
Ottawa, IL 61350 - LA Salle County
About Ottawa Federal Savings & Loan Assn:
Savings & Loan Associations .
Ottawa Federal Savings & Loan Assn is located at 925 La Salle St in Ottawa, IL - La Salle County and is a business listed in the categories Banks, Savings & Loan Associations, Savings Banks, Mortgage Bankers & Correspondents, Commercial Banks, Savings & Loans, Real Estate Credit, Mortgage Bankers And Loan Correspondents and Mortgage Services and offers Mortgages, Savings Accounts, Mortgage Loans and Purchase Mortgages. After you do business with Ottawa Federal Savings & Loan Assn, please leave a review to help other people and improve hubbiz. Also, don't forget to mention Hubbiz to Ottawa Federal Savings & Loan Assn.
Categories: Banks, Savings & Loan Associations, Savings Banks, Mortgage Bankers & Correspondents, Commercial Banks, Savings & Loans, Real Estate Credit, Mortgage Bankers and Loan Correspondents and Mortgage Services
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First Federal Savings Bank Banks in LA Salle, IL
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Bravo plans 'Silicon Valley' reality show
(AP) -- Randi Zuckerberg, the sister of Facebook's founder, is working with Bravo on a TV show about Silicon Valley.
Utah breach affects 25,000 Social Security numbers
(AP) -- Utah health officials said Friday that hackers who broke into state computers last weekend stole far more medical records than originally thought, and the data likely includes Social Security numbers of children ...
'Mass Effect 3' fans promised expanded ending
Fans of hit videogame "Mass Effect 3" will get "more closure" to the end of the saga in add-on software to be available free for download in the months ahead.
Young Americans less likely to drive
(AP) -- Driving is becoming so last century. Since the end of World War II, getting a driver's license has been a rite of passage for teens, but that's less and less the case. The share of people in their teens, 20s and ...
Nokia town faces dim future as jobs shift to Asia
(AP) -- Tomi Marjuaho repaired mobile phones for 10 years in the town of Salo in southern Finland, where Nokia, the world's top cell phone-maker, set up its wireless operations in the 1980s.
Scientists identify major source of cells' defense against oxidative stress
Both radiation and many forms of chemotherapy try to kill tumors by causing oxidative stress in cancer cells. New research from USC on a protein that protects cancer and other cells from these stresses could one day help ...
Impact of warming climate doesn't always translate to streamflow
An analysis of 35 headwater basins in the United States and Canada found that the impact of warmer air temperatures on streamflow rates was less than expected in many locations, suggesting that some ecosystems may be resilient ...
Tech review: New iPad an all-around upgrade
Apple used to be good at keeping secrets, but when you start building millions of "something new," details are bound to start trickling out. Such was the case with Apple's new iPad, which was announced just last month.
Amazon aims to wring deep discounts from publishers
The bad news came to McFarland & Co. in an email from Amazon.com Inc. The world's largest Internet retailer wanted better wholesale terms for the small publisher's books. Starting Jan. 1, 2012 - then only 19 days away - Amazon ...
Pay by phone: More merchants embrace direct mobile billing
Charge it to my phone. It's the shopper's new mantra as wireless carriers increasingly let users tack on charges - racked up at other online stores - to their phone bills.
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Stories from Postelink Custom Content
focusing on green building technologies
Graphisoft USA, Louis' Design Articles
Do Creative Minds Matter?
Once the curtains lifted and the explosive, starburst chandeliers had risen to the ceiling, Plácido Domingo, Renée Fleming and Dmitri Hvorostovsky brought cheers and tears at the Met’s fiftieth anniversary gala at Lincoln Center this year. Baritone Hvorostovsky in a surprise return, despite a brain tumor, sang “Cortigiani, vil razza dannata” from Verdi’s Rigoletto.
Kyna Leski
In September 1966, architect Tadeusz “Tad” Leski joined a similar crowd of 3,800 for the world premiere of Samuel Barber’s Antony and Cleopatra for the Met’s opening night.
The backstory, however, was hardly so glamorous, according to his architect daughter Kyna. A Pole who fought valiantly in the French Resistance during WWII, Tad Leski was used to improvising under pressure. But as the designer for Lincoln Center and the Met for the firm Harrison and Abramovitz, her dad found himself in a very tight spot, even for him.
Tad Leski left, unidentified draftsman center, and Wallace Harriman right.
Having proposed forty-three designs accompanied by innumerable perspective sketches for John D. Rockefeller III and the Lincoln Center board, he was finally seeing some resolution. The long-standing war between modern and traditional architecture was approaching a truce. But then, just before his next meeting with Rockefeller, Leski splattered a white blob across one of the final sketches.
While some perfectionists might have caved, Leski’s right brain caused him to realize a cosmic connection, to dab the mess, draw some white lines through it and transform it into a chandelier of white light on the scale of the Big Bang, for which physical evidence just happened to be appearing, adds Kyna.
“Let’s go with that,” said Rockefeller at the meeting shortly thereafter.
Now that the curtain has descended on those distant ’60s and the stage has gone dark, do we still have room for the kind of creative insight that brought us the chandeliers at Lincoln Center, or has design creativity been oversold?
Kyna, a professor and former head of the architecture department at RISD, whose design firm 3six0, has won no less than nine AIA awards, has championed the central role of the creative process throughout her career. Her examination of how that role unfolds entitled The Storm of Creativity: Simplicity: Design, Technology, Business, Life (MIT Press, 2015), describes it as the act of unlearning old notions, embracing the unknown, tuning into the synchronicities and hidden connections of life.
That said, there are any number of cultural dikes and levees warding off such storms of creativity. Leski feels such storms make the difference between “mindless production” in architecture and “something new and meaningful, open to that bolt of lightning.” In her view, creative solutions to increasingly complex problems can hardly be taken for granted in 2017.
Seed-pod of a Dream House, 2000 (Kyna Leski)
So, what specifically, in my view, are some of the dikes and levees that prevent us from welcoming the creative storm into our studios?
Lack of diversity that leads sameness, while metaphorically speaking it takes some “unstable” air to make a creative thunderstorm: “Architecture, let’s face it, has a serious diversity problem. Statistics are hard to come by, but estimates indicate that 10 percent to 15 percent of the 110,000 registered architects in the United States are women, and about 1 percent to 2 percent are people of color,” Says Courtney Martin in Architecture's Diversity Problem, The American Prospect, Feb. 2010
The apprehension that creativity means experimental means impractical, means over-budget, means years of apologies and explanations, even clawbacks and lawsuits.
Also consider the anxiety around Starchitecture, that it has gone too far, inviting serious blowback. Won’t data-driven building function and performance carry as much weight or more than Starchitecture’s iconic forms, in any case?
Couple this Starchitecture anxiety with discomfort over being typecast as a card-carrying member of the pampered Creative Class. Given all these anxieties, wouldn’t a collaborative attitude in such a collaborative discipline as architecture make more sense than possessing a messy, idiosyncratic “creative vision?”
The population and environmental crises present barriers to creativity as well, real or imagined. Millions—billions—of people need or will soon need roofs over their heads plus access to clean water and food. It’s imperative for the next generation of architects to help scale up production and not be fooling around with suggestive splotches of paint!
The overwhelming fact that any architectural job is hard to get, let alone one that invites creative storms. As Duo Dickinson, FAIA, wrote in his acerbic essay Architecture Has Become a Lifestyle Choice in Common Edge: “There are 106,000 licensed architects, by AIA measure, chasing the U.S. Labor Department’s figure of 77,500 jobs.” Whereupon, Dickenson faults the shortfall in automation—a modern phenomenon affecting all industries and professions—as well as the design academy in the U.S. which, in his view, remains woefully detached from the challenges of real-world building.
Creative storm: Kyna Leski's inspiring spiral at Shepherd of the Valley in Hope, R.I.
Kyna Leski was certainly not looking for a lifestyle choice when she graduated from Cooper Union in 1985. She was ready to launch into the vortex of the creative storm but found herself in a stultifying big-firm drafting job with limited prospects, which prompted her to go back to for a degree at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design shortly thereafter.
As an educator, it would be hard to imagine her argue with Dickinson that there are plenty of creative jobs out there if only one looked. She would insist, however, that this depressing fact does not detract from the importance of creative storms, from droplets of impressions, sensations, and memories to a full-blown vortex that changes everything.
“All the professions are suffering, not just in architecture,” she says. Production efficiency takes precedence in almost any field from medicine to law, accidental blotches of paint are just that, nothing more. And in crisis situations — environment, population, inequality — she concedes that in some cases mass production and formalized checklists such as LEED for sustainability may be the right response.
She recalls getting caught up in production mode herself. Growing up, she drew with her father. And she became increasingly proficient. In her first year at Cooper Union, the class was required to draw self-portraits and hang them up. “Which one do you want to talk about?” asked the professor. The class all pointed to Kyna’s.
“I don’t know why you chose that one,” exclaimed the professor, “it’s visually retarded!”
And, indeed, Leski admits, her self-portrait though skilled, didn’t involve a search, of being in the moment and asking questions. This how her 3six0 architectural practice in Providence, R.I., works to this day. Every project involves setting pre-conceived notions aside and asking a lot of questions. There has to be an aha moment. She asks of this of her RISD students as well. Look at the trees outside, she asks: how do they sit in space, how do you understand them in terms of what’s in front of you, your moving hand? “One student saw broccoli, for example, another the ‘geometry of explosive forces,’ and another a giant lung inhaling CO2 and exhaling oxygen.”
Funneling the creative storm (drawing by Kyna Leski, RISD Dept. of Architecture 2015
One 3six0 design project in 2008, a chapel and pavilion for Shepherd of the Valley in Hope, R.I. involved an aha moment on the same order as Tad Leski’s paint splotch chandeliers for the Met. “Every time we carried the model to meetings in the car, our little hand-made spire would fall off,” said Kyna. “I got to wondering, ‘what is a spire’ anyway?”
Kyna looked it up in Webster’s. Etymology, she says, causes her to pause before doing, which is itself a way of getting off the design production line. Spire, she found, shares the same root as respire and inspire — to breathe— and it’s also connected to spiral.
The Shepherd of the Valley certainly needed to breathe, but did it require a spire or a spiral? The congregation fused two occasionally feuding parishes in a prefab 1970s “nightmare” according to Leski. “We designed the pavilion as a multi-functional space set on a trapezoidal footprint that could not be changed.” But by reimagining the trapezoid’s converging sides squared off geometrically, Leski found she could create a spiral within the space. Windows get closer and closer, narrower and narrower, culminating in an open skylight. The result: no spire or steeple, though inside the pavilion worshippers had by all accounts found an inspiring space to breathe as one.
Leski, in turn, found inspiration in the 1646 parish church of San Carlo alle Quattro Fontane (Saint Charles at the Four Fountains) in Rome, by Francesco Borromini. Architectural historian and GSD professor Robin Evans (1944–1993) made her realize how creative Borromini had been, that great Baroque was hardly a predictable rubber-stamped style, but one that involved an intense artistic struggle. Based on the drawings of the insanely complex interior of Quattro Fontane, where exactly to fit one’s compass point to find the center, given the ellipse on the ground was not the same as one moves up the various levels of the church?
Francesco Barromini in 1630
Borromini’s ability to come up with creative solutions to such problems is that a thing that can’t be taught, says Leski, having little to do with skill or knowledge. However, it’s important to understand that our own individual biographies yield unique perspectives and out of those perspectives comes an ability to make connections leading to the aha moment, the full blast of the creative storm.
“Take, for example, the biography of Katy Payne at Cornell,” says Leski. “How did she create a breakthrough for conservationists by learning the hushed language of forest elephants in the remotest regions of the Central African Republic? She could hear what no one else could. Payne could hear the air shudder. It reminded her of the low notes of the Quaker organ she heard in church growing up. That was how the connection was made,” says Leski.
Her next book after to follow her The Making of Design Principles (2007) and The Storm of Creativity? Leski hopes to examine more of these connection-making, biography-rooted phenomena close-up as “fields”. How personal narratives inform the creative process in design and elsewhere. “I’m interested in what we tune into,” she says. For those who lucky enough to tune into the singers at the Met’s fiftieth, what one wonders will come of that, precipitating what design storm, as her father’s cosmically explosive chandeliers descend with the final curtain?
by Louis Postel, first published in Graphisoft USA June, 2017
archicadarchitectureGraphisoft USA
By Louis Postel
Women of the New Wave
Uncollected Fees in Philadelphia
Cliché Riddance
Link to Postelink via Email
Louis Postel covers architecture, design, and technology.
Louis Postel, Freelance Writer and Editor.
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More Optimisation and Tweaks!
I have made a few small changes to the site recently and a few optimisations. Something that is pretty important these days is site speed. No one likes waiting for a site to load and although the site was pretty quick already once cached, initial load times is the most important for retaining new visitors on the site. Even though adding your game will only need an icon image and a promo image, when actually displaying a lot of different games on a single page like the homepage it will all add up.
So I have now developed a compressing feature for game images. I learned a few things as well, I wasn't aware before but JPEG seems to be much easier to compress and far more effective when being compressed. So although you are still required to upload your images in the PNG format, the system will convert your promo image automatically to JPEG and then compress. Icon images remain as PNG as JPEG does not support transparency. Also the promo images are the largest meaning they are far bigger in file size.
As an example from one game.
Promo.png: 172,579b
Promo.jpg: 92,663b
That's almost half what it originally was. It also means that on twitter and facebook the images are loaded a lot faster, which could mean the potential of more visitors. I also made a few more speed optimisation tweaks which might be noticeable for everyone too.
You won't need to do anything differently either as the system will automatically compress your images when you upload new ones and all the current images have already been compressed.
Apart from that I have also added something I haven't mentioned yet. If you haven't noticed in the footer you can now see the total time as a collective time spent in game by players. It's not a feature that is supported by every browser so it might not be 100% accurate but it is a great estimate and a statistic that I think is very important. This was already available to the developers personally for each game that can be found on the games statistics page and was integrated earlier last year. The time is recorded while a player is interacting with the game and won't count the time when the game is minimised or the player is idle. So it aims to deliver a true insight into how long players are interacting with our games.
I've also changed the games and new games etc pages to display 20 games per a page. Before it was only five so this makes browsing through games easier.
EDIT: Almost forgot to mention too, that you may have noticed the facebook widget has now gone. I guess its not surprising to find out that the facebook widget pulls a lot of Javascript files which was heavily weighing the site down. So I had to remove it from the site.
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Posted on June 25, 2019 July 7, 2019 by Psychedelics Today
Tom Lane – Quetzalcoatl and the Ceremony of the Deified Heart
In this episode, Kyle talks with Tom Lane, author of Sacred Mushroom Rituals: The Search for the Blood of Quetzalcoatl. In the episode, they discuss the history of Quetzalcoatl, the ceremony of the deified heart and sacred mushroom rituals.
3 Key Points:
Quetzalcoatl is a feathered-serpent deity of ancient Mesoamerican culture that can come to you when partaking in the ceremony of the deified heart. Quetzalcoatl teaches how to overcome fear and hatred and bring love.
The ceremony of the deified heart is a sacred mushroom ritual that when methods are combined correctly, can bring about Quetzalcoatl.
In the episode, Tom tells intriguing stories of his experiences with mushroom rituals and experiencing Quetzalcoatl, including a ceremony with Maria Sabina.
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Trip Journal Integration Workbook
He was not an Aztec, he originated as a King in the Toltec civilization thousands of years before the Aztecs
As legend has it, where his blood fell is where the sacred mushrooms grew
Some people believe he was a Naga, a combination flow of energy, a male/female serpent
A winged, jeweled, male/female, serpent
In the ceremony of the deified heart, the serpent will come to you
He was building geodesic domes in a remote area in Mexico
He had some of his first mushroom experiences, and it led him to realize that the story of mushrooms was about Quetzalcoatl
His first experience with the mushroom was mild
He said the mushrooms found him, he takes them as a sacrament
Ceremony of the Deified Heart
The legend was that Quetzalcoatl gave cacao to participants as an aphrodisiac and it would help release serotonin
The goal is not to talk a lot
Then, the mushrooms are to be retrieved from the ground, fresh
Before the ceremony, Tom says he likes to put four candles placed in all four directions
The key to eating the mushrooms is eating them totally covered with honey
You eat them two at a time, as it represents the male and female
And when you eat the mushrooms, you actually never swallow
You chew and chew and the mucous membranes of your tongue take the psilocin straight to the brain and spine
He says once it starts to take effect, it feels like there is a snake up your spine (He mentions his friends call this Kundalini)
Then you go out and Quetzalcoatl will come
When he comes, he is like a rainbow jeweled serpent, an embodiment of pure light, pure energy, pure love
Tom says the next day it feels like you’re 10 years younger
Its a pure force of love, an obliteration of the concept of time
Quetzalcoatl created this ceremony to bring about the serpent for healing, for a balance of male and female
This ceremony is best done during the night, with thunderstorms in the mountains
Ceremony with Maria Sabina
One night they went to see Maria Sabina
She agreed to do a ceremony at night
Her house was in the mountains and had a thatched roof with no windows or doors and sometimes clouds would come through her house
During a ceremony a lightning bolt came though the house, in one window and out the other
Maria’s daughter gave him truffle like mushrooms and he brought them back with him
Maria’s daughter really tried to learn his name, she repeated it a multitude of times until she said it exactly perfectly so she could say it during the ceremony
Quetzalcoatl Messages
God gave us love and pain
We have to learn how to celebrate the pain
God gave us knowledge, and tools of how to heal the pain
Tom’s goal is to teach people how to take the sacred mushrooms to meet Quetzalcoatl and find healing, love and peace
“Once you get rid of the ego, you get rid of fear, and then you have love.” – Tom
The only way you can overcome hatred and fear is with love
The body is teaching the mind when consuming the sacred mushroom
It’s best to just try to love people and be kind, and it’s all acts of kindness and love that makes a person feel good
Sacred Mushroom Rituals: The Search for the Blood of Quetzalcoatl
About Tom Lane
Tom, Author, has a Bachelors in Forestry from the University of Tennessee and a Masters from the University of Florida in Science Education and Middle School Education. He has worked full time in the Solar Energy field as a Contractor and Trainer and has a background in Mushrooms. Tom spent some time in 1973 living in the jungles of Palenque in Mexico and learn about mushrooms and mushroom ceremony. Tom is the Author of the book, Sacred Mushroom Rituals, The Search for the Blood of Quetzalcoatl.
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Next PostNext Veronica Hernandez and Larry Norris – Decriminalizing Nature: A Win for Plant Medicines
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Pride Matters
LGBT and beyond – Educating ourselves to educate others
Tag: equality
Interview with Hijra film makers.
By Darren Marples.
Edited by Tom Wiese.
I managed to catch up with a film maker who is in the process of setting up a documentary about the Hijra folk in India.
Hijra-Trans sex workers getting ready for work
Could you please introduce yourself:
I’m Ila Mehrotra Jenkins, I’m the director of the documentary HIJRA. I grew up in Delhi and I’ve been based in Britain for the last decade. During this time I’ve been working in British television, specifically in documentaries and current affairs with the BBC, Channel 4 and ITV. HIJRA is my first feature documentary.
Most people will not know who hijra people are who read our article, due to culture differences. How do the hijra differ from Western Transgender? Could you please explain?
Hijras are the oldest ethnic transgender community in the world. Hijras are known as the ‘holy hermaphrodites’ from ancient Hindu scriptures. The scriptures say the hijras have the power to bless and curse, and even today that belief is very prevalent.
Tradition holds that a hijra must leave their biological family and society to live within a hijra family and earn a living through their blessings. Through the centuries, the hijra community has grown to absorb very large numbers of trans and non-binary people, particularly from the lower sections of Indian society. Paradoxically, while hijras are considered ‘holy’ in society, it is a matter of grave shame to manhood to have a hijra within one’s family. Unfortunately, young trans-hijras are often excluded from their biological families to live amongst hijras. They continue to bless in exchange for money in India today, but a very large number of hijras are forced to beg and do sex work to survive, excluded from education and mainstream society. As in many parts of the world, hijra people in India face extreme violence, marginalisation and abuse; but unlike in many countries, while facing extreme ostracisation, transgender people can find a precarious acceptance in society as “sacred” figures.
What are the rights both legally and socially of the hijra community in India?
In 2014, the Supreme Court of India recognised transgender people as a Third Gender and a socially and economically backward class entitled to reservations in education and jobs, and also directed union and state governments to frame welfare schemes for them.
This tabled bill was then passed in 2018 in a much watered down and heavily amended version that provides the equal recognition and protection only in theory.
Although homosexuality was finally decriminalised in 2018, in reality, hijras continue to face massive discrimination, marginalisation, violence and abuse, as societal prejudice is very widespread.
Hijra- Trans activist – warrior, Rudrani
How important is the making of this film for yourselves and society understanding and what do you wish to achieve in the making?
We hope to share the stories of hijras. One such astonishing activist for the hijra community is Rudrani Chettri. Part of this film includes her and the hijras she helps, and through this film we hope the world will hear the voices of the trans-hijra community. Further, we hope for the film to raise support of Rudrani’s work and help with increasing acceptance for trans-hijra identities, in the way they wish to be defined.
What can other cultures learn from the hijra?
The hijra trans community inspires others to have the courage to live beyond restrictive gender norms. While they have faced severe discrimination hijras have also thrived as a welcoming community to those who choose to live a transgender identity.
Hijra blessing at a temple.
How can others support you?
We are currently asking for financial support through our crowdfunding campaign:
http://kck.st/2DgYx4G
These funds would allow us to continue making the documentary, and will help get us into production for two crucial shoots. We’d ask you to please support us and share the project widely and support Rudrani’s work for acceptance, love and respect for the trans hijras in all their human complexity.
This film will spread the word about the struggle these incredible people face, encouraging international solidarity by documenting the hope and force of will they display, and reaching out to the wider community on their behalf.
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Geology of Hungary
Janós Haas
Part of the Regional Geology Reviews book series (RGR)
Pages i-xxii
Geology and History of Evolution of the ALCAPA Mega-Unit
Tibor Szederkényi, Sándor Kovács, János Haas, András Nagymarosy
Geology and History of Evolution of the Tisza Mega-Unit
Tibor Szederkényi, János Haas, András Nagymarosy, Géza Hámor
Genesis and Evolution of the Pannonian Basin
János Haas, András Nagymarosy, Géza Hámor
Quaternary Evolution
János Haas, Áron Jámbor
Hungary lies in the central part of the Pannonian Basin, surrounded by the ranges of the Alps, Carpathians, and Dinarides. The geology of the country can be summarized as a process whereby complicated plate collision-type orogeny was followed by the formation of a young basin in which a relatively complete sequence of basin infill has been preserved. The handbook “Geology of Hungary” presents an outline of the main features of the geology and geohistory of the region in a single volume, illustrated by a great number of color figures and photos for the benefit of foreign geoscientists interested in this area. The volume follows the evolutionary history of the major structural units prior to their juxtaposition in the Tertiary and discusses the subsequent evolution of the Pannonian Basin. Due to the geohistorical approach to this study it was necessary to extend the scope of the discussion beyond the present-day political boundaries of Hungary, to cover most of the Pannonian region.
Pannonian Basin geology of Hungary paleography regional geology stratigraphy tectonics
1.Geological Research GroupAutohofs Lorand UniversityBudapestHungary
eBook Packages Earth and Environmental Science
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Partnerships and Foundations in Global Health Governance
Partnerships and Foundations in Global Health Governance pp 164-183 | Cite as
The Clinton Foundation and Global Health Governance
Jeremy Youde
Part of the International Political Economy Series book series (IPES)
Former heads of government occupy a unique niche in the international political arena. They may lack the official trappings of power and ability to implement policy directly, but their gravitas and connections often allow them to continue to play a role in international political issues after their terms of office end. Organisations like the Club of Madrid, which brings together former heads of state and government to strengthen democratic values and leadership, explicitly seek to capitalise on these individuals’ stature in order to facilitate positive change within the global community. After natural disasters like the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 or the Haitian earthquake of 2010, former political leaders often chair donation drives or work with international organisations to coordinate relief efforts. These actions may keep former heads of state and government in the public eye, but they are often framed in apolitical terms.
Global Health Global Fund Private Actor Social Entrepreneurship Global Public Good
© Jeremy Youde 2011
There are no affiliations available
Youde J. (2011) The Clinton Foundation and Global Health Governance. In: Rushton S., Williams O.D. (eds) Partnerships and Foundations in Global Health Governance. International Political Economy Series. Palgrave Macmillan, London
DOI https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230299474_8
Publisher Name Palgrave Macmillan, London
eBook Packages Palgrave Political & Intern. Studies Collection
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Carmela Hermann, MFA, is a choreographer whose work is informed by personal history, politics, and the things people don’t discuss in public. She creates dances for the stage, film and site specific venues. Her choreography has been presented throughout the
United States and Europe. Carmela has been admired by L.A. Times’ Lewis Segal for her
“confrontational connection between dancing and talking”, while proclaiming it to be “full of wild, unpredictable, emotional swings.” Her work has been presented at the Getty Center, Bootleg Theater, Highways Performance Space, and REDCAT, among others. Carmela has also created several projects in collaboration with other artists including a longtime collaboration with Terrence Luke Johnson. From 1998-2009 she collaborated with Pioneer improviser, Simone Forti, creating improvisational duets wherein words and movement intersect. She has taught Simone’s approach to dance improvisation “Logomotion” as well as her own “Talking Dances” choreography workshop. Her article “Learning to Speak,” about text based dance improvisation was published in the book, Taken by Surprise (Wesleyan Press.) In 2000 Carmela founded the Making Dances Workshop, a choreography workshop for dance artists to develop their choreography in a supportive environment with constructive feedback. She has taught choreography at UCLA, CSULB, Santa Monica College, Lawrence University, the Santa Barbara Dance Festival and ID Fest. She is the recipient of a Durfee grant, an ARC Grant, and been an artist in residence at UCLA’s Hothouse program.
Ally Voye is a dancer, choreographer, educator and dance filmmaker who began her dance training in Salt Lake City at the Life Arts Center. A graduate of the department of World Arts and Cultures at UCLA, she studied extensively with Victoria Marks and Maria Gillespie, among others. In 2014 Ally was awarded a year-long grant by San Francisco’s Margaret Jenkins Dance Company to develop her choreography and dance film work with her mentor, Cari Ann Shim Sham*. Ally's live choreography and dance films have been presented at a variety of venues throughout Los Angeles and the United States including the Pasadena Dance Festival, Ford Amphitheater, UCLA’s Fowler Museum, Highways Performance Space, Jacob’s Pillow and the American Dance Festival. She is co-artistic director of IN/EX Dance Project, a Los Angeles based collaborative dance company dedicated to unconventional performances. In addition to producing, performing and choreographing locally, Ally is a dance-teaching artist at The Growing Place preschool
Sweet Red Revolution
Structure/Concept: Carmela Hermann in collaboration with Leah Rothman
Music: Maybe "Yes it is" by the Beatles and/or "Red Roses for a Blue Lady"
Performers: Carmela Hermann, Leah Rothman, Terrence Luke Johnson
Costume and Set: Leah Rothman and Carmela Hermann
ON THE (COLOR) SPECTRUM
Choreography: Carmela Hermann and Ally Voye
Performer: Carmela Hermann
Costume Design: Leah Rothman
Set Design: Leah Rothman
Music: Tom Moose
Text: Carmela Hermann and Ally Voye
Direction: Ally Voye
Text Sources: Interview with Leah Rothman and articles from the "Autism Speaks" Website: "What are the Symptoms of Autism?", "Learn the Signs of Autism", and "Autism and Your Family"Voice-Over: Bill Ratner
This work was made possible by the generosity of Immanuel Presbyterian ChurchThese two works, developed for HomeLA will become part an evening length dance theater piece to be presented in 2015. These versions have been created especially for this space - the color, the placement of the paintings, and the architecture. Ally Voye and Carmela Hermann began a collaboration last year inspired by the secret corners of food obsession. This resulted in a dance film starring 5 dozen donuts and Carmela in high heels followed by a dance for Ally inspired by the conflict between choosing gooey cheese pizza over kale salad. This interest in exposing the metaphors of odd food behaviors expanded to an interest in other "adaptive behaviors" that people develop.The work will be a series of choreographic portraits of real-life people, all of whom have volunteered to bare themselves for this project. These works look at the nitty gritty details of the behavior, the underlying causes, and question why someone can, can't, or doesn't want to stop the behavior. "Sweet Red Revolutions" is inspired by the cupcakes Michelle, our host offered at our first homeLA rehearsal and ties in with the theme of food obsession and color. "Spectrum of Chromaticity" was developed from videotaped interviews with Leah Rothman. The movement was generated by recreating Leah's gestures as captured in the video and movements that her son and some of his school friends have been observed doing.
Special thanks to Michelle Jane Lee for opening up her space and herself to our process. Thanks for Rebecca Bruno for this wonderful opportunity to perform in a unique environment. And to everyone who supports HomeLA.
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Why a Whiff of Rosemary Does Help You Remember: Sniffing the Herb Can Increase Memory by 75%
by Rock Salt Lamps | May 25, 2018 | Other | 0 comments
The Tudors believed rosemary had powers to enhance memory
In Hamlet, Ophelia says ‘There’s rosemary that’s for remembrance’
Researchers have found the oil helps alertness and arithmetic
Useful and attractive: Research has found the essential oil from rosemary helps long-term memory and alertness
Shakespeare was right in saying rosemary can improve your memory.
Researchers have found for the first time that essential oil from the herb when sniffed in advance enables people to remember to do things.
It could help patients take their medication on time, it is claimed, or even help the forgetful to post a birthday card.
In a series of tests rosemary essential oil from the herb increased the chances of remembering to do things in the future, by 60-75 per cent compared with people who had not been exposed to the oil.
Other studies have shown the oil increases alertness and enhances long-term memory.
Rosemary has been long been linked to memory, with the most famous literary reference found in Hamlet when Ophelia declares: “There’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance: pray, love, remember.” It is used in modern-day herbal medicine as a mild painkiller and for migraines and digestive problems.
A team of psychologists at Northumbria University, Newcastle, tested the effects of essential oils from rosemary.
Dr. Mark Moss, who will present the findings today at the British Psychology Society conference in Harrogate, said the benefit of aromas was becoming clear through scientific investigation.
He said “We wanted to build on our previous research that indicated rosemary aroma improved long-term memory and mental arithmetic.
In this study we focused on prospective memory, which involves the ability to remember events that will occur in the future and to remember to complete tasks at particular times. This is critical for everyday functioning, for example when someone needs to remember to post a birthday card or to take medication at a particular time.”
Rosemary essential oil was diffused in to a testing room by placing four drops on an aroma stream fan diffuser and switching this on five minutes before people entered the room.
Altogether 66 people took part in the study and were randomly allocated to either the rosemary-scented room or another room with no scent.
In each room participants completed a test designed to assess their prospective memory functions.
Herb lore: William Shakespeare referred to rosemary’s power to enhance the memory in Ophelia’s line in Hamlet
This included tasks such as hiding objects and asking participants to find them at the end of the test and instructing them to pass a specified object to the researcher at a particular time.
All the tasks had to be done with no prompting but if the task was not performed then different degrees of prompting were used.
The more prompting that was used the lower the score.
The volunteers, all healthy adults, also completed questionnaires assessing their mood.
Blood was taken from volunteers and analysed to see if performance levels and changes in mood following exposure to the rosemary aroma were related to concentrations of a compound known as 1,8-cineole present in the blood.
The compound is also found in the essential oil of rosemary and has previously been shown to act on the biochemical systems that underpin memory.
The results showed that participants in the rosemary-scented room performed better on the prospective memory tasks than the participants in the room with no scent.
This was the case for remembering events, remembering to complete tasks at particular times, and the speed of recall.
The results from the blood analysis found that significantly greater amounts of 1,8-cineole were present in the plasma of those in the rosemary scented room, suggesting that sniffing the aroma led to higher concentrations.
Power of herbs: Rosemary is also used as a painkiller and for migraines and digestion
Previous research suggests volatile molecules from essential oils can be absorbed into the bloodstream through the nose.
The chemicals also stimulate the olfactory nerve in the nose directly, which could have effects on brain functioning.
Researcher Jemma McCready said “The difference between the two groups was 60-75 per cent, for example one group would remember to do seven things compared with four tasks completed by those who did not smell the oil, and they were quicker.”
“We deliberately set them a lot of tasks, so it’s possible that people who multi-task could function better after sniffing rosemary oil.” Miss McCready said “There was no link between the participants’ mood and memory. This suggests performance is not influenced as a consequence of changes in alertness or arousal.”
“These findings may have implications for treating individuals with memory impairments.
It supports our previous research indicating that the aroma of rosemary essential oil can enhance cognitive functioning in healthy adults, here extending to the ability to remember events and to complete tasks in the future.”
“Remembering when and where to go and for what reasons underpins everything we do, and we all suffer minor failings that can be frustrating and sometimes dangerous. Further research is needed to investigate if this treatment is useful for older adults who have experienced memory decline,” she added.
Article by Jenny Hope for the Daily Mail
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April 26, 2017 April 26, 2017 roywalkerdaygame Lay Reports
Lay Report: D4 with a 29yr old Serb
She looks slightly older than this but with prettier face
This was by no means an easy feat, I put a lot of work in and I actually really like this girl, so much so that I will probably see her again. Strap yourselves in, this is a long one…
It was day 1 of the jaunt and this would be my third set of the day. We were walking down one of the side streets off Knez when I saw a short girl with long black hair wearing white converse, tight ripped denim jeans, a black blouse and a denim jacket hugging her friend goodbye as she left a restaurant. As I walked by I turned to check her ass out as she reached up to hug her friend, it was very peachy. She was a high 7, I had to go in.
As she left her friend she started walking very fast so I ran to catch her. I opened and delivered the compliment, she immediately told me she was in a hurry. I ignored this and continued with my stack for about 30 seconds before she hooked asking “where are you from?”. I challenged her to guess and she said “no, I am bad at that”. I just told her as she had already told me she was in a hurry (calibrate). I asked what she was doing and she told me she was leaving the town at this very moment for the Easter weekend. All of this was done in the first minute of the set. I made sure to get in some stock teases of her living in a little village with no internet or running water and this got a laugh.
At 1m30s I said “I forgot your name”, and she rightly said “I didn’t say”. She told me her name, but lets call her Nyssa.
At 1m40s I went for the close asking for her number and she said facebook is better as she had a bad experience giving out her number in the past.
We exchanged pleasantries and went our separate ways. I walked away thinking that she wouldn’t even accept the friend request as the interaction was so short (it was 2mins 34s).
I sent her a stock feeler as there was nothing to go off. To my surprise, I got a long reply from her the next day where she actually used callback humour. Good sign.
We text a couple of times over the Easter break before I set up a date with her the following Tuesday. Nyssa would be my second date after the D2 with the 19yr old.
We met at 8pm on Republic Square. She arrived about 5 minutes late, but when she did, she did so in style giving me an instant boner. She was wearing heels, tight white pants, a black laced top and a black leather jacket. She would have been an 8 but I would later find out she was 29.
I fucked up a bit next as I didn’t have any proper date venues in mind, I winged it. I took us to the closest place which happened to be Boutique on the corner of the square. We walked inside and almost everyone was eating, it stunk. I should have turned and walked out, but I was stubborn and I insisted we stay after she gave me a funny look. We sat at a small table between a couple to my left and chubby dude eating alone to my right. She sat opposite me and I could barely hear her. We struggled through the normal comfort fluff as the annoying fat chubby dude kept butting into our conversation every 2 minutes. I kept my cool, being nice to him but giving him short, closed answers to his questions. I think she was impressed. Amongst the comfort fluff, Nyssa told me she was driving that evening and couldn’t drink much or stay out late. I started to drink my beer quicker, asked to taste hers and proceeded to drink most of it ensuring to leave her a sip. I got the bill and told her we were going to one more place. She asked where and I said “you ask too many questions” with a cheeky smile.
I started walking her to the Irish Bar, on the way I told her “you can’t go on a date with an Irish man and not go to an Irish bar”. She giggled and started to relax as she knew where we were going.
We walked in and there was a loud band playing shit Serbian music, how very Irish. She asked me “don’t you want to go somewhere quieter?”. I said “no, it’ll be fine”. We got a couch downstairs and sat beside each other. We ordered drinks and as I started the questions game she began shit testing me “you only want to play this sort of game so you can ask me hard questions”. I just laughed and said “and?”. She giggled and played along. We had to lean right into each other as the music was so loud (the reason I persisted). After about another hour of this I leaned in and kissed her, she responded with full tongues. Afterwards she said “I’m surprised, I thought you weren’t going to do it”.
The shitty band finally stopped, we chatted some more and I invited her back to my place about 10 times, not in a row. She laughed each time and said she admired my persistence but she doesn’t do this type of thing on a first date. Amongst our chit chat she told me she was good at pool. I challenged her to a game on our next date and if she lost she would have to do whatever I wanted. She said “No, you will say I have to come to your place!”. I said “no, if you lose, you have to cook for me”. She agreed and we arranged to meet the next day. It got to midnight and she had to be up for work in the morning so I walked her back to her car in the rain. I’m such a chode!
We met at the same time and place and I walked her to the sports bar across the square. We played pool almost straight away and I beat her easily. She said “I didn’t tell you when I would cook for you!”. I didn’t react.
We took a seat on a couch near the pool table and the waiter came over and told us in Serbian that it was reserved. Nyssa talked back to him for a few seconds and he walked away. I asked her what she said to him “he said it’s normally reserved for VIP’s, I asked who and he said never mind, you can stay”.
She was all over me and didn’t seem to mind that a lot of people were looking as she was practically riding me on the couch. After the second drink, I paid the bill and said lets go. She offered up the same resistance and I, the same answer.
As we were walking down the steps out of the venue she was behind me so I grabbed her legs, pulled her onto my back and gave her a piggy back down the steps, across the square to the entrance of my apartment. Location is everything. She said she wasn’t coming in. I said “let’s just have one glass of wine, you can leave as soon as you feel uncomfortable”.
I led her in, gave her a tour of the apartment and then we sat in the lounge and drank wine. After a while I led her to the bedroom and threw her on the the bed. I got on top of her and started kissing her, she pulled away and said “how did you do this!?”. I said “let’s just blame it on the alcohol”.
She giggled and we kissed passionately. I was groping her and dry humping her for about an hour whilst trying to get her clothes off. Every time I undid her buttons or bra she would re-do it. She eventually told me she was on her period. I told her we could put a towel down and she did not like this idea one little bit. No sexy time tonight.
I walked her back to her car (she drove on both dates so far so couldn’t drink a lot) and set up the D4.
It was Saturday, my last day and she insisted I do something touristy with her (I told her previously that i’m crap at being touristy). Due to my line of work, she thought it would be nice for me to see the Tesla Museum. She bought the tickets in advance and was quite excited to take me, I was even excited to go.
We met at the usual spot at 5.30pm and hopped in a cab to the museum. I decided to switch off all game whilst there and appreciate all of Teslas fine achievements in Engineering history, he was quite the lad.
After the museum we took a slow stroll back towards the city and she told me she wasn’t driving tonight and wanted to get a little bit drunk. Good sign. We had a drink in the craft beer place, then another in the Boutique just across the road from it. From there we went to another bar behind it that I can’t remember the name of. It was quite a fancy place and when the waiter came to serve us I asked for a beer, obviously in English. He then started speaking in Serbian to her, she started blushing and giggling and then ordered a drink. I asked her what that was all about. She said “he just told me that I am very beautiful and asked what I was doing with an English man”. What a wanker, calling me English!!
From here I bounced her to my place and there was no resistance this time. We had a glass of wine in the kitchen and as we sat there Xants and his girl came in. They all introduced each other and all got on fine. Shortly after I bounced her to the bedroom and there was no LMR whatsoever, the sex was fantastic. This was the first girl of the trip that insisted I wore condoms, I ended up using 5 of them as we went at it through the night and again in the morning.
I left Belgrade later that morning with my ball sack completely drained. I doubt I will ever have that much sex with different girls over three days again. My love for Daygame is fully restored.
4 thoughts on “Lay Report: D4 with a 29yr old Serb”
daysofgame.com says:
Great FR.
Every now and then I start to think I am pretty good… And then I read FRs like these and realize how “intermediate” I am.
I linked to your last one in the post is did last night.
>> you can leave as soon as you feel uncomfortable”.
IF! IF… She gets uncomfortable. : ]
>> My love for Daygame is fully restored.
Yeah! Viva daygame.
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Lay Report: Big Booty 19yr Old Serb
Near Miss: Maria Elena
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Cull hits 100,000
Written by Nigel Malthus
Here’s your surge: MPI data from the five latest updates since the announcement of the surge show a slight increase in confirmed Mycoplasma bovis properties, but a 70% increase in Notices of Direction (red) and a 92% rise in Active Surveillance numbers (yellow). Rural News Group/Data: MPI.
Figures from MPI to May 24 reveal 99,805 animals had by then been culled in the Mycoplasma bovis eradication programme.
However, that figure had almost certainly exceeded 100,000 as Rural News went to press last Thursday.
The figures also reveal a 92% rise (from 254 to 487) in farms under active surveillance since a ‘surge’ was announced just before Easter.
The number of farms under a notice of direction jumped from 103 to 175 – a rise of 70%.
Meanwhile, MPI’s surge in M. bovis eradication put “an extreme amount of pressure” on some farmers leading up to gypsy day, claims Hamish Walker, the Clutha-Southland National MP and the party’s associate agriculture spokesman.
He believes acknowledgement is lacking on the mental health effects of M. bovis eradication.
“We’ve got to make sure everyone in the community supports those affected by M. bovis,” he said.
Walker claims MPI “dropped the ball” in not having acted soon enough on the number of risk properties identified late last year.
“In saying that, MPI are working as closely as possible with those affected farmers and I encourage anyone to get in touch with me if they are having problems especially in communication with MPI,” Walker told Rural News.
“They were the first to admit they could’ve done things differently over that Christmas/new year period, but they’re working extremely hard, especially everyone on the ground, to ensure we give ourselves the best possible chance of eradicating M. bovis.”
M. bovis programme director Geoff Gwyn was unavailable for comment, but he acknowledged in a statement that surveillance was difficult for farmers.
“Active surveillance means that cattle on the farm have had a low risk of exposure to M. bovis, and we need to test these herds to determine their disease status,” he said.
“These farms are not under any movement restrictions while this testing is carried out, although they should contact the M. bovis programme if they need to move the cattle being tested.”
Gwyn claims that “fewer than 5% of farms” put under active surveillance have been found to have the disease, and that percentage is decreasing over time.
“Farmers under active surveillance can move and sell cattle, but often feel that it wouldn’t be right to do so,” he says.
“We suggest these farmers talk with their graziers, stock agents and other partners to discuss the risks and see if it can work for them to still move their cattle.”
DairyNZ and Beef + Lamb NZ can talk with farmers about this.
“For only a few of these farmers under active surveillance will testing indicate a higher risk that their cattle have M. bovis, and movement restrictions will be necessary.”
Gwyn says “the need for the surge” was to contact a large number of farmers who had some risk of exposure before winter grazing movements.
He says MPI has now contacted all those farms, but will continue to contact farmers over the winter when it becomes aware of new risk movements, in particular from newly confirmed properties.
“It is positive that fewer farms required movement restrictions and that fewer dairy farms are involved. That could be a good indication that we are progressing towards eradication,” said Gwyn.
GEOFF GWYN
MPI promises to act on M. bovis programme
Almost all the recommendations from two reviews of the Mycoplasma bovis programme have been accepted, after the ‘surge in activity’ leading up to this year’s moving day.
$100m for what?
Farmers pay nearly $100 million a year in levies to industry-good groups, says Federated Farmers Dairy chairman Chris Lewis. And for what value? he asks.
Vet gets top gong
Oamaru vet Dr Merlyn Hay, who in 2017 outed Mycoplasma bovis on an Oamaru dairy farm, won the premier award at the Feds conference.
Mentor-led project gaining ground
The Northland farmer to farmer learning programme Extension 350 is attracting nationwide attention.
The chair of the Mycoplasma bovis strategic advisory group, MPI’s chief science adviser Dr John Roche, says he wouldn’t wish the disease on his worst enemy.
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The Page Turner
By Ed Halter
As if taking a one-man stand against the alleged decline of bibliophilia in the digital age, Charles Broskoski read 356 books in 400 days, ending his own personal Reading Olympics in early 2008. If that doesn't sound grueling enough to you ADHD types, consider this: the books he perused were a collection of O'Reilly tech-guide e-books downloaded as a single torrent in late 2006: fat tomes with such alluring titles as Linux Device Drivers, XSLT Cookbook, Essential System Administration and ASP.NET in a Nutshell. Conceiving the daunting task as an endurance performance entitled Computer Skills, Broskoski took notes on every book he read, and later posted them to his website in both .txt and .pdf formats. Perhaps inevitably, his notes begin as detailed commentaries, but later devolve into sketchy exasperation and sideways minutia: "the photo for the chapter on DVDs is an image of a title screen for a movie called El Masko" reads one of only three comments Broskoski made in response to Mac OS X: The Missing Manual, Second Edition by David Pogue, thumbed through as volume number 212. Last month, for the Parsons School of Design show at the Chelsea Art Museum, Broskoski mounted further physical evidence: 356 physical copies of the books he read, happily donated to the show by the publisher. Seeing the multicolored monolith of paperbacks assembled together makes for a humbling monument to the sheer amount of information available online. Broskoski's super-sized 400-day book-binge, after all, comprises only an infinitesimally small portion of the networked era's ever-expanding universal library. -- Ed Halter
Image: Charles Broskoski, Computer Skills (Notes from Performance), 2008
Link »
processtext
Paddy Johnson June 5 2008 18:13Reply
This reminds me of A Boy Name Thor, which was a blog where Jason Corace wrote a song a day for I can't remember how how many months…I don't think the project is online any more.
http://rhizome.org/profile.php?1029577
Vijay Pattisapu June 7 2008 00:03Reply
Great review, Ed.
On page 4 of the-decline-of-bibliophilia article you cited ( http://www.newyorker.com/arts/critics/atlarge/2007/12/24/071224crat_atlarge_crain?currentPage=4 ):
"In a recent book claiming that television and video games were 'making our minds sharper,' the journalist Steven Johnson argued that since we value reading for 'exercising the mind,' we should value electronic media for offering a superior 'cognitive workout.' But, if Wolf's evidence is right ['Wolf recounts the early history of reading, speculating about developments in brain wiring as she goes. For example, from the eighth to the fifth millennia B.C.E., clay tokens were used in Mesopotamia for tallying livestock and other goods. Wolf suggests that, once the simple markings on the tokens were understood not merely as squiggles but as representations of, say, ten sheep, they would have put more of the brain to work. She draws on recent research with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), a technique that maps blood flow in the brain during a given task, to show that meaningful squiggles activate not only the occipital regions responsible for vision but also temporal and parietal regions associated with language and computation. If a particular squiggle was repeated on a number of tokens, a group of nerves might start to specialize in recognizing it, and other nerves to specialize in connecting to language centers that handled its meaning.'] , Johnson's metaphor of exercise is misguided. When reading goes well, Wolf suggests, it feels effortless, like drifting down a river rather than rowing up it. It makes you smarter because it leaves more of your brain alone. Ruskin once compared reading to a conversation with the wise and noble, and Proust corrected him. It's much better than that, Proust wrote. To read is 'to receive a communication with another way of thinking, all the while remaining alone, that is, while continuing to enjoy the intellectual power that one has in solitude and that conversation dissipates immediately.'" (my emph.)
How does it follow that the metaphor for exercise is misguided? The author appears to assume that electronic media are somehow requiring more (or always the same amount of) mental effort the deeper we get into that lifestyle.
ed halter June 10 2008 12:10Reply
Johnson's book assumes that the kinds of problem-solving cognitive activity in videogames and some television (24, et al) is a form of mental exercise, and therefore makes the brain "stronger." Crain's point, via his review of Wolf's study, is that the brain activity / muscle activity metaphor is not correct. Not all kinds of metal activity are necessarily improving over time–videogames may keep too much of your mind active, and reading may provide a different kind of activity that allows for a more productive contemplation.
This is a restatement of crain's argument, not necessarily an endorsement, but I do think it's a provocative idea. something about Johnson's argument always seemed like wish-fulfillment to me–"guess what, candy and cigarettes are really good for you!"
Vijay Pattisapu June 11 2008 13:43Reply
I'm not completely convinced of the assumption that all tv/video games(/internet/new media/etc.) involve a static amount of brain power as opposed to the declining base requirement of reading.
For example, watching baseball requires progressively less and less mental effort to watch over time. If you know the game well you can leave a game on on the TV while you work. Or start "productively contemplating" the game and write books like Men at Work or Moneyball or become a sabermatician, I donno…
As for video games, I think there are strategy games like Starcraft that require less and less base mental effort to engage in over time…
… just considering the possibility of counterexamples …
And of course if you reeeally get into baseball, you just might get smart enough to become President. :P
Johnson, fyi, does not make this claim wholesale for all TV and videogames. In fact, his argument is that both TV and videogames have been getting "better" (for him, more complex and puzzle-solving-y).
Wolf and some new studies on the Internet's effect on the brain in the latest Atlantic:
http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200807/google
And TV reduces alpha brain wave activity because things like sudden change in scene, panning, zooming, etc., drain blood from the brain to the body as a fight-or-flight reflex. Prolonged and frequent exposure permanently reduces the brain budget. The web often does the same.
And so on. I guess many of these studies find out the obvious.
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Obsolete Technology: Reel to Reel
Posted on May 13, 2015 by Melissa Kean
I came across a whole bunch of these recently:
I know there’s data on there but have absolutely no idea how this worked.
I started looking through old pictures of computers to see if I could figure out what machine they went with and, unsurprisingly, I’m stuck. My first guess was this:
But then I found this slide that shows the same kind of reels I have but with a very different keyboard than the one above:
There is no chance whatsoever that I will figure this out on my own so if you know what this is all about, I’d really appreciate your help. Thanks in advance!
32 Responses to Obsolete Technology: Reel to Reel
Don Johnson says:
Richard Schaefer can probably go into more detail, but what you show are known as “mag tapes” to the in crowd. Mag tapes probably were first used on IBM mainframes, but became de rigeur on many different computers, from mainframes to minis. We used mag tapes for backing up our minis in the EECE Department for several years. Top pic is of a mainframe’s tape drive bank. the bottom one is probably for a minicomputer. The label on the depicted tape suggests it contains pulsar data, probably from someone in Space Science.
Richard Miller (Hanszen '75 & '76) says:
Actually the bottom picture probably represents a typical office in the late 70’s. The user has a terminal and keeps a rack of his/her important tapes in their office. Prior to around 73-75 few terminals existed. Most work was via batch card/tape input. time sharing was just becoming available in the mid 70’s. I think my ELEC 220 course (fall of 72) may have been the first to have interactive labs (about 1/3 of the labs were APL using APL terminals in the terminal room). When I took ELEC 421 (compilers) most of the students where still using card decks (some two or three boxes) and reading them thru the card reader (or having the operator do it since they were so big). I was working for ICSA then so I loaded my parser input deck into a file on the 370 and then would edit it via TSO and submit it through the internal ‘card reader’. Still had to wait for the operators to dispatch the output to the bin but reduced the edit/submission time.
effegee says:
ENGI 240 (E.C.Holt and Ed Feustel) in Fall 1970 used the Teletypes attached to the Burroughs 5500. We could not use cards at all or save files; we had to punch paper tape as a backup and reload it if we could not finish our labs during our assigned 1-hour lab session. Saturday mornings were FCFS if you needed more time to finish.
We were the first students taking the 220 (there also was 221 for non-compsci people and 222 for business). It was self-paced and I along with David Dyche tended to move thru it as quickly as Dr. Feustel could produce the modules.
Philip Walters says:
Depending on how they have been stored and how long, they may no longer be readable anyway due to a phenomena called “print-through”. The magnetic image on one wrap of the tape will slowly affect the magnetized coating on the next layer (and vice versa) as all the bits of magnetized material attempt to align with each other. On audio tapes, this sounds like a weak echo, on digital tapes it simply becomes read errors.
And before the EEs, physicists and materials folks out there jump on me, I know that “bits of magnetized material” should be more properly called domains. 🙂
I don’t want to read them. I just want to know how one would have read them.
Just saw your reply above. IBM 2400/3400 series units or DEC-20s, I believe, were the way to go for that
Mark Williamson says:
There were even 700-series and 1400-series tape drives that used the same form factor reels before that. The specific tapes would have been manufactured during the 2400/3400 era, though, as they say they are tested up to 6250BPI. The label says the data were recorded at a lower density (1600BPI).
Don’t get too excited about the potentially sexy pulsar data on those 9-track reels. The frustratingly short (and poorly documented) life expectancy of magnetic tape is 10-20 years—at most 30, if you recovered it from inside some sort of mystical force field.
My mystical force field has been acting up lately . . .
Based on the label, the data on the tapes probably belonged to Space Physics. (“PV ORBITER DATA ORBIT: 4458”) One might guess that it was recorded on either one of the computers in Spec Physics or some special-purpose not-quite-computer recording equipment. Somebody who worked over there may recognize the mission and know what equipment was used.
Physically, the tape would have fit on the Burroughs tape drives in the second picture. It might even have been readable, given the right translation software. That form factor was used by a lot of different tape drives and tape formats over the decades. The tapes in the third picture are surely the same form factor.
The computer in the second picture is the Burroughs B-5500 that was in the Basement of Hermann Brown Hall in the early years that I worked there. I probably should recognize the gents in the picture, but I don’t; maybe hardware repair specialists.
Edward Feustel says:
The earliest tapes at Rice that I remember were on the Burroughs machine in 1968 when the Rice Computer Center was established. Previously I had seen tapes that were recorded at 500 Bits Per Inch and 8 or 9 tracks wide. 800 was a common format. 1600 followed and then 6400. I still have a number of tapes that I got while at Rice, though I left for the Institute for Defense Analyses in Princeton, NH in 1979 – 26 years ago and I doubt that they are readable. Fortunately I copied the files to other computers and have CD versions of everything. For each new media as soon as it is standard and inexpensive, one should copy over anything that is to be part of a permanent archive.
When I worked in the library (late 1960s), the 1401 had 7-track tape drives that recorded at 556BPI or 200(?)BPI. The reels were already the same shape as shown above, except that there were usually perforations so you could hold the end of the tape down with your finger until the second or third layer held it in place.
Walter Underwood says:
7-track tapes were early technology. They stored 6-bit data with a 1-bit parity track. They worked great for BCD, but were obsolete when the IBM 360 went to an 8-bit byte. The 9-track tapes store eight bits of data with a parity track.
I’m guessing that there is an EAD format descriptor for this, but I can’t find it in my first few searches.
Bill Peebles '70 says:
7-track tapes recorded octal data and 9-track tapes recorded hexadecimal. Univac used octal long after everyone else had switched to hex.
vkbenson says:
Ed, 1979 was 36 years ago! How time flies!
Bill Harris says:
Before the B5500, there was of course the R1, but its reels looked clearly differently. I also recall an IBM 7040(?) before the B5500, and I think it had tape drives. That doesn’t change any of the conclusions others are drawing.
Yes, the 7040 had tape drives, and the reels would have looked much the same.
9-track mag tape drives were made by many manufacturers. They were the universal interchange storage at the time. Scroll down to “other drive manufacturers” on this page to see a list:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/9_track_tape
Here is a vacuum-column drive in operation, they were noisy.
There were still a lot of 7-track tapes on campus in the ’70s. Space Physics had a computer room on (I think) the west end of the second floor of their building. And there were several 7-track drives on the various systems.
When ICSA replaced the B-5500 in the second picture with an IBM 370/155 in 1972, it had one 7-track drive (2401?) for backward compatibility with the rest 9-track (3420).
Open reel tapes eventually gave way to cartridge tapes that held more data and took less storage space.
Richard Schafer says:
On some of the older tapes, the density of the data was so low that you could spray “tape developer” on the tape (essentially iron powder in a carrier liquid) and visually read the data off of the tape. Yes, Spac’s computer room was on the west end. If I remember correctly, there were a couple of SDS Sigma 6 computers in there. In some sense, computer tape drives were just a fancier version of the reel-to-reel audio tape recorders that were common when I grew up, although using vacuum columns to provide slack on each side of the read/write head(s) instead of capstans.
James W. Hajovsky says:
Correct me if I’m wrong but I think most of the data on the tape came from punch cards. I know most of the time you had to have a punch card to access the tapes to get information off off the tapes. I think there was another way of storing information at this time and that was a multilayer disc disc that cane into play somewhere during this time. Maybe someone can elaborate a little more on these days before the PC’s and Microsoft.
Not necessarily. Initial input might come from cards but mag tapes were the medium used to store data before disk drives became common. When I started at Baylor our financial/HR and clinic billing was run on a Honeywell 120. This was a totally tape driven system. The OS was on tape, all of the data was on tape and most of the process was
1) read input tape(s) [we did data entry directly onto tape]
2) process
3) write updated information to output tape(s)
4) write reports/control totals to printer
Our tapes were 7track 200BPI. We had to maintain a 7track tape on the Dec10 for years to read archival Honeywell tapes
almost all of the tape drives used a vacuum column as Richard observed. Some were very short (for the desk top) and some were 4 feet (such as the 3420). (It was loads of fun when a drive died and you had to manually rewind a tape by spinning the supply capstan.
Almost all software was released on tapes. all patches (except for very small patch decks) were released on tape. Some data centers might have thousands of tape reels. Tape management systems were a major application.
Also, the ability to write to a tape was by the presence of a removable write ring (plastic ring) just outside of the backside of the hub. Without the write ring a tape could not be written on. Most organizations would remove the rings unless the tape was about to be written to
I think it is likely that the data on that tape came directly from telemetry equipment, despite the fact that the label mentions 80-byte records (the length of most punch cards).
Not that this is strictly germane, but audio archivists run into trouble trying to play old reel-to-reel tapes all the time. Ampex, a commonly used brand of audio tape in the ’70s and ’80s, are notorious for separating their oxide from the Mylar strip, or having the oxide adhesive seep through and glue two sections of oxide together. When converting the tapes to modern formats (sometimes a challenge because of the difficulty of finding well-functioning tape players) it is common to bake the reels in an oven at about 200 degrees F for a bit to “reset” the adhesive. If you are lucky you will get one usable pass. I remember transferring a reel tape once where it was raining oxide as it passed the playback head and we had to keep lubricating the head with oil so the tape wouldn’t stick.
Back in the 1980s some of the oil companies kept backup 9-track data tapes in salt mines for the low humidity and constant temperatures. Unfortunately salt has a way to get into anything. Often when the tapes were retrieved and read small crystals of salt would be on the tape. The number of read heads that needed replacing on the drives went through the roof. They soon found better places to store the tapes.
Writing data directly to tape was common by 1970 for high-volume data generators like seismic exploration, telemetry, and such. At Shell Oil, analog acoustic data from geophones was captured at the exploration site on tapes about 1-meter in length and about 4-inches wide. The analog data was replayed in the data center and digitized to 9-track tape for processing.
Applications that captured or generated large amounts of data wrote to tapes because online disk storage was too small in size and to expensive to capture and permanently store large quantities of data. The commonly used disk drive on IBM mainframes in 1972 only held 100 MEGAbytes (although the media could be swapped). That amount of data could fit on a couple of 9-track 1600-bpi tapes.
This mag tape is hanging on my wall at Chegg. You can read the labels, but it is a BCPL distribution tagged by two Rice grads, Tw Cook and Kevin Pei. The fragment of fabric in the upper right corner is a Rice pennant. My desk also sports an HP46 calculator and a 20″ slide rule.
Deborah Gronke Bennett BSEE Hanszen 1982 says:
My first job out of Rice in 1982 was at Ampex. The oxide “tape developer” liquid was first developed to help one splice 2″ videotapes. You wanted to make your cut between tracks which were almost perpedicular to the long side of the tape. You would put developer on both pieces of source tape, then try your best to cut between the tracks, then splice the tapes together. This was to avoid the “jump” in the playback when only a portion of a track was played back.
In the seventies with the advent of helical scan videotape recording, it was impossible to physically cut a tape between tracks, which were now almost horizontal with the long tape edge. The videotape equipment manufacturers started building simple electronic editing features into their videotape machines to do simple insert and assemble edits.
A personal anecdote about peeling tape oxide: When I was at Ampex, I once had to run an overnight test of a videotape recorder in a hot/cold box (to verify proper operation through the whole stated temperature range). My test played the whole tape, then rewound back to the beginning and started over. (I was testing operation of the control electronics, not the tape handling mechanics). I started the test at the end of the day to run overnight. Sometime during the night, the cooling in the hot box failed. I came in the next morning and the interior of the box was like an oven. The tape machine was still running and functional. However, the 1-inch videotape had gotten so hot that the magnetic surface had lost adhesion with the mylar backer, and there was loose tape oxide flopping all over the place as the machine dutifully tried to read the “tape” from end to end and then rewind.
arenson9 says:
Some time in the early 90s I was working for the Environmental Science & Engineering department and for one of our projects we had a reel tape (called a half-inch tape) from which we needed to get data. We ended up taking it to a local IBM office (if I recall correctly, though maybe it was Sun Microsystems) which had a half-inch reel drive that they let us use. That was when I learned the UNIX ‘dd’ command.
I Know its been some time since your first post of the Data reels, or mag tapes, but I have one of the machines that your tapes go onto, I also want to sell it, i’ve currently got it listed on Gumtree so if you search for “digi-data corporation” which is who made it, it should bring up the listing. this machine also have a 80 pin scsi interface but i’m unsure of what computer it would connect to.
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Home Ministries
Altar Servers participate with the Priest in performing various parts of the liturgy. They assist the Sacristan with preparing the altar, lighting the candles and other tasks as assigned. This ministry is open to all people who have been Baptized and have made their First Holy Communion. Adult altar servers assist at weekday masses and funerals. Youth altar servers assist at weekend masses, at weddings, and other special liturgies. Training is conducted several times each year.
Adult Servers – Contact Office, 239-566-8740
Youth Servers – Kathy Bailie, 239-566-8740
servers@sjecc.com
Arts and Liturgical Environment
The Arts and Liturgical Environment Commission provides leadership in setting the environment of the Church during all the Liturgical seasons. Its major responsibilities include decorating for the liturgical seasons of Advent, Christmas, Lent, Holy Week, Easter, Pentecost, Corpus Christi, Christ the King and other special parish and feast days. This Commission maintains the flowers and living plants in the sanctuary and other areas of the church.
Kay Sanfelippo, 239-949-7122
ksanfelippo@comcast.net
The Bereavement Ministry includes three separate groups: the Arimatheans who attend funeral masses and memorial services to provide support and compassion from the parish community; the funeral lunch committee, a group of 40 women who take turns serving lunch for the family and friends after a funeral mass; and grief facilitators who hold support groups as needed to give support to those suffering a loss.
Geralyn Poletti geralyn@catholiccharitiescc.org
The main goal of the Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion Commission is to assist the clergy in the distribution of Holy Communion within the Catholic community of St. John the Evangelist so as to ensure that all Catholics, within the parish boundaries, desiring to receive Holy Communion are offered that opportunity at least weekly. Ministers distribute Holy Communion at all Masses and on a daily basis to Catholic patients of North Collier Hospital as well as seven nursing homes and the homebound parishioners.
Maureen Reed – Call the Office, 239-566-8740
emministry@sjecc.com
Greeters and Ushers
The goals of the Greeters and Ushers are to greet, welcome and assist the faithful as they gather for worship. They assist in seating parishioners, help at the offertory, appoint and assist gift bearers, and direct the communion process. They are trained to handle any emergencies that may occur.
Bill Fuller, 239-566-8740
wfuller1@comcast.net
Habitat for Humanity of Collier County works in partnership with God and people of all walks of life in the Naples area to build homes for qualifying families in need. Homes are sold at cost with a no-interest mortgage to families who are living and working in Collier County. All Habitat families qualify if they are legal resident or US citizens, earn low wages, live in unacceptable conditions and are willing to partner with Habitat.
Nick Kouloheras, 239-775-0036
NKouloheras@HFHcollier.com
Knights of Columbus (KC)
The Knights of Columbus is a worldwide Catholic men’s fraternal organization founded on the principles of Charity, Unity, Fraternity and Patriotism. St. John’s Council provides regular financial support for our seminarians and our parish. Knights also conduct a wide variety of activities to enhance and strengthen family life in the parish.
Joe Hemrick: jhemrick21@gmail.com
Knitting and Crocheting
The Knitting and Crocheting ministry knits and crochets to benefit those in need. It makes baby hats and booties, blankets for babies, hats for chemo patients, lap robes for hospitalized servicemen, and prayer shawls for people who are ill. Visit our website for more information
Sharon Camp: sharon@naples.net
Ladies of Charity is a local chapter of a national organization, the Ladies of Charity of the United States of America. The Ladies meet monthly and they volunteer in Immokalee schools, the Guadalupe soup kitchen and clothing bank. The Ladies also visit local nursing homes to assist residents who want to attend Mass. In addition, they are available to provide friendly visits and to perform simple errands for the elderly and homebound.
Carole Mancini
froglady505@gmail.com
Lector Ministry
Lectors proclaim the Word of God at the Holy Mass in a clear, persuasive and with interpretive emphasis so that the faithful may discover anew God’s Word, live in our assembly.
Philip Baier
lectors@sjecc.com
Marriage Ministry: Together Forever
Couples gather: 1) To share and know; 2) To grow and love; and 3) To listen and serve and to celebrate our healthy marriages. All married or engaged couples are welcome to join us. Meets monthly on Saturday evenings at 6:30 p.m.
Rachel Baier: 239.498.4197
The Men’s Club organizes, cooks, orders and serves food and beverages and otherwise provides staff and support for a multitude of parish and parish-related functions. It hosts the parish picnic, Children Easter Egg Hunt, and the men work closely with the Family Ministry at many of their events. The Men’s Club organizes four or five big band dances each year and donates the proceeds to parish causes.
Jack Nalipinski, 239-566-8740
The Music Ministry consists of the Director of Music, who is also chief cantor, the pastoral musician and head organist, the adult, youth and children’s choirs, cantors and resident musicians. Members of the adult choir sing at either the 9:00 or 11:15 Sunday mass during the period October-May, as well as at other special liturgical events during the year. The newly formed youth choir sings at the 5:00 Sunday night Contemporary Mass, while the children’s choir sings at special masses during the year. Cantors sing at all Sunday masses and resident musicians are on call for special events and liturgies. Rehearsals are Wednesday evenings.
Call the Office, 239-566-8740
The Religious Boutique, located near the restrooms at the rear of the church, provides a convenient place for parishioners to purchase religious articles for their homes and families. The boutique is usually open during weekend Masses. Please consult the bulletin for hours of operation.
Elaine deLaurentis, 239-228-3921
Respect Life Committee
The Respect Life Committee educates and informs the parish community on all aspects of respect life, which include the unborn, mothers who have had abortions, the elderly, mentally challenged, the physically challenged, the imprisoned, and the terminally ill and the poor and hungry. The Committee requests participation by parishioners through prayers of the faithful, homily inclusion, legislative alerts and community outreach.
Rosemary Erickson, 239-597-3941
RELife@aol.com
The Committee works closely with the following local agencies:
Collier County Coalition for Life – A coalition of Respect Life Committees, Knights of Columbus, and Councils of Catholic Women from each of the Catholic Churches in the area. The mission is to collaborate in bringing the pro-life message to the church community and beyond.
Flo Rogers, 239-434-5452
respectlife@aol.com
Immokalee Pregnancy Center – a Christian counseling service for pregnant women and teens.
Diane Hanson – Director, 239-657-2016
www.immokaleepregnancy.com
Naples Prolife Center – an organization promoting education and legislation in regard to all “life” issues, i.e. abortion, euthanasia and respect for the physically or mentally challenged.
Joe Hennessey, 239-262-Life
afl1@comcast.org, actionforlifenaples.org
Gabriel Project – a one-on-one mentoring program for pregnant women and teens.
Nancy Farren, 239-434-0579
Project Rachel Lay Companion – a post-abortion healing ministry providing one-on-one counseling.
Providence House – a transitional, residential program for single parents and their children.
Nancy Farren – President, 239-434-0579
Sunlight Home –a residential program for pregnant women and teens.
Linda Hale – Executive Director, 239-352-0251
Rosemary Erickson – President, 239-239-597-3941
RELife@aol.com, www.sunlighthome.org
Collier Pregnancy Center – provides pregnancy testing, ultrasound exams, counseling and support services.
Kay Thurston – Executive Director, 239- 262-6381
www.cpimedical.com
Sacristan and Martha Guild
Sacristans prepare the vestments for the celebrant, set up the altar, and prepare the sacramental and lectionary for all masses. They maintain the holy water font and various candles in the sanctuary. They are also responsible for the maintenance of all altar cloths and the celebrants’ linens and arrange for their cleaning and repair. Members of the Martha Guild assist the sacristans.
Lan Tran, 239-566-8740 ext 133
Sewing Group
The Sewing Group Ministry provides children’s clothing for St. Pius X Parish in Jamaica and clothes for needy children of Immokalee, which are distributed through the Guadalupe Center or the Compassionate Friends of St. Johns, and provides various needs for the Sunlight Home. The Sewing Group also works with the Arts and Liturgical Commission to provide altar cloths and banners. In addition, the group makes vestment repair and works with the Family Ministry on making costumes for events like “A Night in Bethlehem”.
Phyllis Crivelli,
jandpcrivelli@gmail.com
Thanksgiving in the Park
Saint John leads the Naples environment to provide a Thanksgiving meal for thousands of people in need in Immokalee.
Donna Boucher, 239-566-8740
titp@sjecc.com
We welcome any woman of any age to study our faith using the Bible and other Catholic writings in a non-judgmental, supportive community. We meet Thursday at 9:30 AM.
Nancy Bouchard, 443-498-8452
nancybdh@hotmail.com
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Home » Headlines » KESSBEN arrested for laundering over $127m
KESSBEN arrested for laundering over $127m
in Headlines July 30, 2014 Comments Off on KESSBEN arrested for laundering over $127m
Source: myjoyonline.com
Director of the Kessben Group of Companies, Kwabena Kesse, has been arrested for alleged fraud and money laundry.
A confidential National Security document intercepted by myjoyonline.com accused him of using one of his firms, KESSBEN Shipping, Forwarding and Trading Ltd. (KSFTL), to facilitate the outward transfer of large volumes of foreign exchange to spurious and phony addresses.
From January, 2013 to February, 2014, Mr Kesse is said to have siphoned an amount of one hundred and twenty-seven million, nine hundred and thirty one thousand, seven hundred and twenty-seven dollars and sixty-five cents ($127,931,727.65) and transferred same to unknown foreign destinations, using fake documentation.
According to the intelligence report, the transactions were very frequent sometimes almost daily and involved Ghana’s hard earned dollars, thereby placing a huge burden on the cedi-dollar ratio.
In 2013 alone, the company is said to have transferred one hundred and twelve million, eight hundred and fourteen thousand, one hundred and seventy-nine dollars and sixty-five cents ($112,814,179.65) through a local bank to so-called shippers, whereas the invoices issued did not bear the official addresses and telephone numbers of the shippers.
In January and February, 2014 the company transferred additional fifteen million, one hundred and seventeen thousand, five hundred and forty-eight dollars ($15,117,548.00) out of the country under similar pretences.
“Interestingly, some of the shippers referred to by the company were individuals rather than firms or business entities,” the documents noted.
The Bureau of National Investigations, BNI, is therefore coordinating with local and international partners and banks to unravel the case.
Preliminary investigation reveals that “Various bills of lading presented by the company to the bank were examined. There were startling and remarkable differences between the description of the purported imported items as stated and the corresponding invoices from the shippers. Some of the Bills of Lading had no description of detailed goods or unit prices. Outrageously, some did not indicate the supplier or their addresses. As if that was not enough, different orders had same weight while many invoice descriptions differed from the Bills of Lading.”
According to the Bank of Ghana, usually a Bill of Lading should provide a brief description of the goods being transported and also disclose the place of issue.
“Contrary to this standard practice, however, it has been revealed that in many instances the Bill of Lading provided to the Bank by KSFTL merely described the goods as ‘1 Lot Assorted Goods’.
“Strangely, some Bills of Lading did not state the place of issue, while huge bills were still quoted. In many cases the same supplier, had same invoice number and different orders dated differently on same freight. Some goods were ordered in one country and shipped in another. The irregularities are numerous.”
It was also discovered that the irregularities also included situations where different quantities of the same items were given the same gross weight and charged equally.
Checks at the Customs Division of the Ghana Revenue Authority so far point to the fact that the Bills of Lading used by KSFTL for which millions of dollars were taken out of the country illegally could be fake as they could not be identified when entered into their system. “The implication is that no such documents had been used to clear goods at the port, as such no goods of that nature were imported into the country at all, yet millions of dollars were taken out of the country in the name of such non-existent freight.”
Even though the local bank, which was used for the transactions, insists that due diligence for adequacy, accuracy and authenticity was done as humanly possible, the BNI is yet to confirm that.
However, the frequency of the transactions coupled with the volume of money involved should have been enough to at least arouse the bank’s suspicion for further probing prior to the transfers, the intercepted documents stated.
The ongoing investigation is among others aimed at examining KSFTL’s transfers in detail and confirming the authenticity of the documentation and to confirm or deny the claim that the bank exercised the appropriate due diligence and controls available that could have averted the massive transfers.
“It appears so far that a clear case of fraud and money laundering is established against the ownership of KSFTL,” the confidential report concluded. Mr. Kwabena Kesse, popularly known as KESSBEN who is currently in custody is expected to be put before court Wednesday.
Mr. Kwabena Kesse holds a first-class honours degree in Economics and Law and a Master of Business Administration majoring in Finance from the Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology.
He is the Director of the Kessben Group of Companies: Kessben 93.3 FM, Kessben TV, Kessben Travel and Tours, Kessben Driving School, Kessben Shipping and Forwarding Ltd, Kessben Computer School, Fosua Hotel and Aseda Clinic.
He is also the majority share-holder in Multi Credit Savings and Loans Ltd.
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SASLI is sponsored by a consortium of National Resource Centers on South Asia and FLAS-granting institutions, with funding from the US Department of Education’s Title VI program. Please visit our partners’ websites for more information on their programs (all links open in new tab):
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SASLI History
The South Asia Summer Language Institute (SASLI) was formally created in 2001-2002 by a joint action of the Directors of the eleven Title VI South Asia National Resource Centers in cooperation with the US Department of Education. The International Education Program Service of the US Department of Education ratified the decision in 2002 and classes were first offered in the summer of 2003 on the University of Wisconsin campus in Madison. SASLI’s operation on the campus of the University of Wisconsin in Madison is subject to renewal in five year increments, following favorable review by the Board of Trustees and the continued availability of local resources to support the Institute.
SASLI Mission
SASLI is dedicated to training students, faculty, and professionals in the languages of South Asia through its primary and secondary missions:
Primary Mission
SASLI’s primary focus is two-fold: [1] South Asian language instruction, and [2] the professional training of instructors in language pedagogy appropriate to South Asia. To achieve these goals, SASLI offers intensive summer sessions of approximately a dozen languages on the elementary and intermediate levels; and pedagogy workshops for teaching best practices, and the application of newly developed language-learning tools.
Secondary Mission
SASLI likewise strives to effect secondary goals of increasing the number and quality of trained specialists to teach language, including from abroad, and to effect a close collaboration among other South Asian language-learning institutions, both domestic and foreign. Any organized activity that furthers those larger goals is considered to fall within the purview of the organization, and SASLI may from time to time effect additional individual or institutional collaborations to meet these goals.
B488 Medical Sciences Center
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Email: sasli@southasia.wisc.edu
Feedback, questions or accessibility issues: sasli@southasia.wisc.edu.
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ReputationWar 2015
ReputationTime 2016
Keynote venue
Speakers | Go back
Micha Bruinvels (NL)
Director Contests at World Press Photo
Micha Bruinvels has been at World Press Photo since the beginning of the millennium, starting as a project manager for youth education, corporate publications and the Children’s Jury, he is currently holding the position of Director of Contests.
Bruinvels became responsible for the World Press Photo Contest as of 2004, managing entries and the judging for the photo contest, initiated and developed the digital storytelling contest, organizes the festival that celebrates its winners and other industry professionals, and travels the world representing World Press Photo at lectures, exhibitions and festivals.
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Pop Tickets
Ray LaMontagne Tickets 🎵
Ray LaMontagne in Los Angeles (Orpheum Theatre)
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Ray LaMontagne with Kacy & Clayton
Orpheum Theatre – Los Angeles, CA
Ray LaMontagne with Kacy & Clayton at Orpheum Theatre on 11-22-2019 From $90
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Ray LaMontagne Tour Dates near Los Angeles
Copley Symphony Hall – San Diego, CA
Ray LaMontagne with Kacy & Clayton at Copley Symphony Hall on 11-21-2019 From $96
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Catching a Ray LaMontagne concert in Los Angeles will likely come to somewhere around $146. That being said, this price is an average and doesn't account for where you're sitting. If you'd like to see prices by seating section, scroll back to the top and click on one of the Ray LaMontagne events. If you're trying to find a bargain on a Ray LaMontagne ticket, you might want to consider these options:
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Ray LaMontagne at Staples Center
Ray LaMontagne touring through Los Angeles might involve performances at Staples Center, Hollywood Bowl or The Greek Theatre. Staples Center has a capacity of about 20000, which means it will probably be a big show if Ray LaMontagne is performing there. You can browse upcoming events at the venues mentioned above by visiting one of their pages: Staples Center, Hollywood Bowl or The Greek Theatre.
Previous Ray LaMontagne shows in Los Angeles
Avid Ray LaMontagne fans may have already seen them in concert in Los Angeles. The first Ray LaMontagne concert in Los Angeles that had tickets listed on SeatGeek was at The Greek Theatre on 9/10/11.
Los Angeles has seen some pretty big tour stops over the years. SeatGeek's ticket data lists Drake, Bruno Mars and Elton John as the three most popular tour stops in Los Angeles over the past 10 years. You can also take a look at other Los Angeles concerts by visiting our concerts in Los Angeles page.
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Ray LaMontagne Is A 'Supernova', Croons Into Fall Tour
Folk crooner Ray LaMontagne has just released his newest album, Supernova, and he’s heading out on tour to support this latest venture. The month-long tour will start on October 10 in Paso Robles, C…
Ray LaMontagne Sets Sights on North America
Ray LaMontagne Tour Dates Concerts Videos Ray LaMontagne Tour Singer-songwriter Ray LaMontagne has just announced plans for a summer tour around the United States and Canada. Dubbed the Supernova Tour…
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In a world where massive breaches seemingly surface on a weekly basis, businesses are scrambling to get their cybersecurity up to scratch.
Most of these breaches come from human error, according to Embedded Knowledge co-founder – and co-author of 'From Problem Solving to Solution Design: Turning Ideas into Actions' - J. Eduardo Campos, who asserts there can be a simple solution to many of these instances.
An office memo that tosses around terms like DRM, botnet, FTP, spear phishing and worm could be a quick, easy read for the head of the IT department. But for everyone else in the organisation it may or may not be one big mass of confusion – and with that bewilderment comes potential danger.
“There’s a serious gap in communication skills between cybersecurity pros and their general audiences, and it's essential for the people on the IT side to bridge it,'' Campos says.
“Increasingly complex security threats demand that cybersecurity professionals use plain language when they are communicating with those less familiar with tech talk.”
Campos says organisations can be vulnerable to hackers even if the staff have been warned about what to look for, simply because the employees don’t understand the language behind the warning.
After all, cyber threats aren't just a technology problem - they are a people problem, says Campos, who worked on cyber threats as a former employee of Microsoft.
''People are the weakest link in computer security and many companies don't promote a company philosophy of ‘computer security is everybody's business’,” Campos says.
In light of this, Campos has a few tips to improve communication between IT and everyone else in the organisation:
Incorporate this need into the hiring process. When hiring new staff for IT and cybersecurity teams, look for experts who have not only tech skills, but also the skills necessary to comfortably interact socially and clearly communicate in lay terms with all the stakeholders in the organisation.
Focus on training. Cybersecurity teams can be trained to become solution designers who can connect the dots, Campos says. They can then capture, clarify, and address all stakeholders' concerns, helping them to determine and keep their goals aligned.
Realize this is an ongoing process. It's important to ensure that the improved communication is sustained over the long haul, and people don't revert to old ways down the road, Campos says.
“Data breaches, data ransom plots, and email hacks intimidate us all. Cybersecurity teams themselves feel hard-pressed enough to prepare themselves for the onslaught of these gremlins, let alone to accomplish the challenging task of communicating to stakeholders about how to mitigate and deal with cybersecurity risks,” Campos says.
“But for organizations to keep their information and systems safe, that communication needs to be done, and in a way everyone can understand.”
BlackBerry launches new threat hunting solution
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Huawei is proactively working with Swascan researchers to fix the vulnerabilities, which could affect three main areas: confidentiality, integrity, and availability.More
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"Cybercriminals continue to develop new, more sophisticated attack methods, and they are carrying them out with astonishing frequency."More
CylanceGUARD is a subscription-based offering that validates, triages, analyses, prioritises, and automates analyst and incident engagement. More
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Facebook to Fund New Transit Study on Dumbarton Corridor
The damaged rail bridge that is part of the 20-mile Dumbarton Corridor.
Last March Facebook completed its new open-plan headquarters building on its campus in Menlo Park. CNBC put together a video tour. Buildings are nice. But of Mark Zuckerberg’s 12,000 employees, roughly half work in Menlo Park, with growth expected. How do they get to and from work?
Facebook announced yesterday that it was partnering with SamTrans to launch a “Dumbarton Corridor Study.” The study will cost $1 million, with Facebook fronting the entire nut.
If you’re not familiar with the area, there’s a 20-mile stretch of old railway tracks that runs from Caltrain’s mainline in Redwood City, continues past Facebook’s Menlo Park campus, and then runs across the fire-damaged Dumbarton Rail Bridge to the East Bay. It carried passengers long ago, and freight continued to use the corridor up until the 1980s. SamTrans purchased the tracks for a possible expansion of Caltrain in 1995. But then the bridge was all but destroyed in a suspicious fire in 1998.
“When SamTrans and the Transportation Authority purchased the Dumbarton rail corridor more than 20 years ago, we recognized the important role this facility could play in the regional transportation network,” said San Mateo County Transit District General Manager/CEO Jim Hartnett in a prepared statement. “This study represents an important public-private partnership that will provide lasting benefits for congestion relief across the region.”
“Facebook is committed to supporting initiatives that help reduce regional roadway congestion and is pleased to partner with SamTrans to explore ways of improving traffic and transit options on the Dumbarton corridor, ” said Facebook Campus Facilities Director Fergus O’ Shea, also in a prepared statement.
However, it should be noted that this new effort is not reactivating a 2011 project and study, defunded in 2014, into bringing passenger rail back to the corridor.
That ambitious plan would have linked Caltrain, the Altamont Express, Amtrak’s Capitol Corridor, and BART, as well as East Bay bus systems, at a multimodal transit center in Union City. Instead, this new Facebook-funded study will likely consider more modest goals such as “Maybe improving bus service, maybe looking at some improvements to the West and East Bay approaches of State Route 84, stuff like that,” explained Tasha Bartholomew, a spokeswoman for SamTrans. That’s primarily because the $200 to $300 million funding for the original project has been redistributed, explained April Chan, Executive Officer for Planning and Development at SamTrans.
Chan said that some kind of rail option isn’t completely out of the question. A short starter segment might be feasible, but first they have to do a study to find out if “new funding measures will be out there with future pots of money.” She said they’re also hoping to recycle at least some of the work done in the 2011 study.
Currently, there are three highway bridges spanning the San Francisco Bay, from the Oakland Bay Bridge to the Dumbarton highway bridge in the south, but there are no commuter or intercity rail crossings. Amtrak and Caltrain riders have to transfer to BART or a bus to cross the Bay.
In the meantime, Facebook is attempting to solve its employee housing and commuting issues in a variety of ways. One is a $10,000 cash incentive for employees to move closer to the campus. Considering the Peninsula’s notoriously high housing costs, the success of this is yet to be seen. Then there are the controversial “tech shuttles.” Another option: partially funding housing close to its headquarters.
Filed Under: Transit, Caltrain, Dumbarton, GJEL
Andy Chow
I blame Scott Haggerty and the City of Fremont for their opposition and/or non-support for the Dumbarton Rail project. Bad actors need to be identified so that their position can be corrected.
The West Bay is running out of options on the bus and highway side because of lack of freeway access between the bridge and employment centers including Palo Alto. Any reasonable offer of cooperation especially from Fremont on rail will be very helpful. Cities like Union City and Newark are supportive but not enough.
david vartanoff
Let’s just say that the defunding was an anti transit move. The $billion squandered on the Caldecott 4th bore and the OAC could have given us excellent connectivity in the South Bay. Time to get moving on Dumbarton. Envision cross platform transfer between ACE and Cap Corridor trains to a Dumbarton Bridge train connecting to Caltrain!
Clem Tillier
Dumbarton also has far higher potential than anyone (at any of these agencies) imagines for a fast rail connection from the Bay Area to the Central Valley. An express train could link San Francisco to Tracy in under 40 minutes with a stop in Redwood City, provided a new alignment is built (instead of Pacheco Pass HSR).
Putting a bike trail on that prime corridor would be a downright insult!
SuperQ
Instead of massive transportation expansion, why not massive housing expansion within walking distance of these huge office parks?
Jeffrey Baker
1: There’s nothing within walking distance of Facebook’s swamp facility. It is in a swamp. Unless you think crossing this freeway is going to be fun: https://www.google.com/maps/@37.4838427,-122.1453837,3a,75y,337.98h,74.45t/data=!3m7!1e1!3m5!1sVeka1GDQQSe_5keb8jWlkA!2e0!6s%2F%2Fgeo3.ggpht.com%2Fcbk%3Fpanoid%3DVeka1GDQQSe_5keb8jWlkA%26output%3Dthumbnail%26cb_client%3Dmaps_sv.tactile.gps%26thumb%3D2%26w%3D203%26h%3D100%26yaw%3D142.38396%26pitch%3D0!7i13312!8i6656
2: Google already tried to build drone storage at their Mountain View site and got shot down by the Mountain View government. Politics.
jonobate
Regardless of what happens with HSR, a good near term use of Dumbarton would be to implement the San Mateo Local / Silicon Valley Express service plan proposed by yourself, and extend the San Mateo Local down the Dumbarton corridor to a 5th Ave station (serving North Fair Oaks) and a Willow Rd station (serving Facebook).
Nothing required other than station construction and rehab of the existing track. And as a bonus, this allows the San Mateo Local to turn around clear of the mainline.
http://caltrain-hsr.blogspot.com/2013/10/census-driven-service-planning.html
What you apparently seem to ignore is that many of these workers don’t want to live in the not so interesting suburbs. Whether live music, interesting films, multitudinous excellent eateries, they prefer dense urban culture.
I agree this is a great idea, but I don’t quite see it as a near-term possibility.
The local/express pattern that I proposed requires both trains to arrive in RWC near-simultaneously at the same island platform–in fact, if you want connectivity from the Dumbarton corridor to points south, you need all four trains (SB local, SB express, NB local, NB express) to arrive in RWC near-simultaneously. This requires the midline overtake with Dumbarton flyover to be built first, not a trivial or quick investment… and not in anybody’s official plans.
Failing this, you would need a “timed transfer” as they currently exist with a minimum five minute transfer penalty, not exactly good for ridership.
Andrew Horta
just repaire the bridge to connect with Amtrak ACE and Caltrain so as freights connecting to the peninsula ALREADY JEZ PEOPLE WE ALL WANT THAT THE FRICKEN HIGHWAY IS GETTING SO PACT BECAUSE OF FACEBOOK
YES YES DUMBARTON Rail bridge needs to be activated with MORE TRAINS and less traffic on the Highway right next to the dumbarton rail bridge
Facebook Expansions Could Spur Dumbarton Rail in Menlo Park
By Andrew Boone | Mar 20, 2015
Long-delayed efforts to restore train service on the Dumbarton Rail Corridor, which links the mid-Peninsula to the East Bay, could get a boost as Facebook looks to add housing and offices along the tracks in Menlo Park. This spring, the San Mateo County Transportation Authority will study how to bring service to a 4.5-mile segment of the Dumbarton tracks […]
Dumbarton Study Update with SamTrans Planning Director
By Roger Rudick | Mar 8, 2017
Last January, Streetsblog reported on a Facebook-SamTrans collaboration to study transit uses for the Dumbarton rail corridor. The study is now about halfway completed and it’s already inspiring some intriguing ideas about how to use this asset. As Streetsblog readers may know, the Dumbarton corridor is a 20-mile stretch of old railway tracks that runs […]
This post is supported by
Another Study on Dumbarton Rail
By Roger Rudick | Feb 26, 2019
Could a public private partnership finally bring trains (and bikes!) back to the long defunct line?
Dumbarton Study Outreach Begins Tonight
By Roger Rudick | Aug 15, 2017
The San Mateo Transit District (SamTrans) released its report today on improving transportation links across the Dumbarton bridge and right of way. The agency will be soliciting public comment on the document–which runs 267 pages–over the next couple of months. The study proposes phased implementations of improved bus services and, somewhere down the line, rebuilding […]
SamTrans Pushes Both Transit and Traffic Expansions for Dumbarton Bridge
By Andrew Boone | Sep 15, 2016
SamTrans officials presented an update on the agency’s Dumbarton Transportation Corridor Study at two community meetings this week, fielding questions from residents on ways the agency is hoping to provide better transit service over the Dumbarton Bridge. Facebook donated $1 million to the agency in January for the transportation study, which it hopes can expand commute options for […]
Union City Votes to Divert Sales Tax Funds from Transit, Bike/Ped to New 4-Lane Highway
By Melanie Curry | Mar 2, 2018
Ignoring constituents, Union City's city council voted unanimously to divert $163 million to build a new four-lane, three-mile $320 million highway connector
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Risk and Return in High-Frequency Trading
Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA), Forthcoming
82 Pages Posted: 6 May 2014 Last revised: 10 Jan 2018
See all articles by Matthew Baron
Matthew Baron
Cornell University - Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management
Jonathan Brogaard
University of Utah - David Eccles School of Business
Björn Hagströmer
Stockholm University - Stockholm Business School
Andrei A. Kirilenko
Imperial College London - Centre for Global Finance and Technology
We study performance and competition among high-frequency traders (HFTs). We construct measures of latency and find that differences in relative latency account for large differences in HFTs’ trading performance. HFTs that improve their latency rank due to colocation upgrades see improved trading performance. The stronger performance associated with speed comes through both the short-lived information channel and the risk management channel, and speed is useful for various strategies including market making and cross-market arbitrage. We find empirical support for many predictions regarding relative latency competition.
Keywords: high-frequency trading, low latency, market microstructure
JEL Classification: G10, G19
Baron, Matthew and Brogaard, Jonathan and Hagströmer, Björn and Kirilenko, Andrei A., Risk and Return in High-Frequency Trading (November 14, 2017). Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis (JFQA), Forthcoming. Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2433118 or http://dx.doi.org/10.2139/ssrn.2433118
Matthew Baron (Contact Author)
Cornell University - Samuel Curtis Johnson Graduate School of Management ( email )
University of Utah - David Eccles School of Business ( email )
1645 E Campus Center Dr
HOME PAGE: http://www.jonathanbrogaard.com
Stockholm University - Stockholm Business School ( email )
Imperial College London - Centre for Global Finance and Technology ( email )
London, SW7 2AZ
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The Informant!
The Informant!: follows ADM executive Mark Whitacre, and his turbulent relationship with colleagues and the FBI during a global corporate price-fixing conspiracy. What hits you first is the lo-fi, softly lit yellow hue’d, old-skool, late 1960s TV aesthetic that dominates the style – no film has looked like this for decades, which makes it stand out. To match this there’s a snappy, finger clickin’ jazzy soundtrack with a hint of old spy movie about it – no coincidence there. Damon is superb as the conflicted lead in both his performance and physical transformation – a tubbier frame, moustache and wig puts decades on him. The supporting cast are interesting choices given the number of out-and-out comedians giving restrained performances – but it works. The Informant! boils down to being a two-man show: one at each side of the camera lens. Soderbergh has taken a massive corporate crime story and turned it into a quirky little white-collar caper – and whilst it’s entertaining enough, the story would have had more impact as a flat-out documentary.
Allan Havey
german for pen
lysine price-fixing conspiracy
Mark Whitacre
MATT DAMON!!!
Price Fixing
Thomas F. Wilson
Tom Papa
wire tap
Ryan McNeely said: May 17, 201208:59
Hey dude, guess what? Yep, it’s weird similarity time again…
Paragraph Film Reviews said: June 2, 201209:05
Ha ha ha, never really surprises me any more dude! Deliberately avoid reading your reviews of films I’m about to watch/review in case I think I’ve already done it!
fernandorafael said: May 20, 201221:55
Great review. I agree with you on many things. Personally, I enjoyed the look, the sound and the performance by Matt Damon, but I never was very interested in what was going on or entertained by it.
The Cinemaniac said: May 24, 201222:48
Great review. I’ve always been on the fence with this film. I love Matt Damon, but I’ve heard this film to be very boring and absurd.
Shaft said: May 28, 201209:38
“the story would have had more impact as a flat-out documentary” – couldn’t agree more. As it is, I’ll admit it, I found this to be boring as hell. I barely sat through it.
Maybe I’m just boring, but I thought it was trivialising, and a tiny little bit ambiguising, a pretty steep corporate scandal – would have liked to have seen more of the wider effect, and seen the actual scale etc.
Shaft said: June 6, 201214:21
I echo your sentiment again: “would have liked to have seen more of the wider effect, and seen the actual scale”. During the film I had the feeling this was a scandal in some backwater town company with a staff of 5. Don’t know, the film just didn’t sit well with me.
Lukok said: June 9, 201212:19
I have to agree with Shaft on this one. The fact that I can barely even recall it isn’t good. I’ve seen it about a year ago and I just can’t remember a memorable scene; can’t even remember the plot actually. It had the cast and premise but I just found it flat-out boring.
fernandorafael said: June 9, 201219:24
I agree with Lukok.
Opinions are like nipples... I WANT TO SEE YOURS! Cancel reply
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Parasite 10.6
The residual foam on my glove made my hand sticky as I reached into the compartment at my back and grabbed my baton. It took me two tries to get my thumb onto the button so I could whip it out to its full length.
I strode towards Bitch, weapon in hand. Tattletale hurried to catch up to me, turning to keep an uneasy eye on the ongoing fight with the Protectorate.
“Hey, Skitter!” Tattletale grabbed my shoulder.
I whirled to face her, hand clenching my baton. I could see the change in her expression as some piece fell in place for her.
“Shit,” she swore, “Hey, listen-”
She didn’t get a chance to finish. White smoke billowed around us. My first thought was that our adversaries were using some sort of bug spray.
The way today was going, it would be just my luck.
I held my breath and hurried out of the cloud, Tattletale following, and searched for the source. Assault was taking on Regent and Imp, while Grue and Shadow Stalker were dealing with Battery and Weld. Bitch and her dogs, on the other hand, were facing down Triumph. Not the matchup I would have chosen, taking on the guy with the sonic shout using dogs with sensitive hearing.
I almost went after Bitch right then and there, but self-preservation won out over any desire for retribution. As Tattletale and I made our way around the cloud, I spotted Miss Militia.
A black-green energy crackled in her hand, and she lobbed a grenade my way. I scrambled back, only for it to turn out to be another canister of smoke, billowing out between Miss Militia and me.
Why the smoke?
The bees I had in the smoke were acting funny. I was surprised to find out why. I’d known that beekeepers used smoke to pacify the bees before collecting the honey. My assumption had been that it acted as a tranquilizer, putting them to sleep. In reality, it was forcing them to revert to instinctual behavior. It made them want to eat and feed and to flee. For those near enclosed spaces or even the corners of walls or the foundations of buildings, it made them adjust their wingbeats to divert the flows of oxygen.
If she’d been intending to use the smoke to screw with my insects, she’d underestimated my power. I canceled out the instincts and sent the bugs through the smoke, blind, feeling out for her. I found her running towards us, through the smoke.
“She’s coming!” I shouted.
In retrospect, that was a mistake.
Much as I might have warned Tattletale and the others, I’d also informed Miss Militia on my location. I turned to run, but she was already raising her gun to fire with an ear-shattering crack.
From the way it cut past my bugs, and the wake of disturbed air the pellets left behind them I could only guess she’d just grazed me with a shotgun. I collapsed sideways to the ground, and the pain came a heartbeat later, radiating over half of my upper body, from my shoulder to my right butt cheek. I was guessing it was nonlethal ammunition – it could well have been lethal, for the sheer degree of hurt it delivered, if my costume had prevented it from penetrating.
Before she could shoot again, I directed my bugs to her hands and eyes, hoping to incapacitate her. I still had a small few of the capsaicin-loaded bugs, and sent them all her way.
As hard as it was to see in the smoke, there was still faint light. That light disappeared the instant Grue used his power.
Miss Militia was staggering and reeling as her hands and face lit up with stings and burns. The gun wasn’t in her hands anymore, which meant we weren’t at risk of getting shot. I sent more bugs across to the other members of the Protectorate, to try to disable them.
Tattletale fumbled around and found me in the darkness, clasped her hand around the same hand I held the baton with, and helped me to my feet. She gave me her support as we limped away. Nothing seemed to be broken, judging by what I felt.
The darkness disappeared after we’d traveled across the street. Grue greeted us. “Dragon?”
“Kaput, thanks to Tattletale,” I spoke.
He looked back the way we’d come, “Damn that smoke. Listen, Tattletale, head down this street, wait for us. Skitter and I are going back in to find and retrieve the others.”
I supposed that would be another benefit of using the smoke. If you didn’t expect to be able to see, then it didn’t hurt to deny your enemy that same privilege. Miss Militia had been thinking about this. If her team wasn’t so sparse on members, she could have done a lot more damage.
“My bugs are telling me they’re over there, there and there,” I pointed in the direction of our teammates. “That’s all I can do for you. I kind of got shot, not sure I’m up to running around.”
His head snapped around to face me, “Shot?”
“I’m okay, it was nonlethal. I think,” I assured him, “Go!”
He did, glancing over his shoulder to look at me before disappearing back into the midst of the darkness.
Tattletale and I made our escape. We got three blocks away before we found a spot to hide. Tattletale got out her phone and began sending messages, presumably to Grue and Coil.
Our hiding place was the lobby of an apartment building. Boards had been placed over the windows, and there were signs that some people had camped out here, not long ago. It was otherwise similar to Grue’s apartment complex. Less tidy, obviously.
“You okay?” Tattletale asked me.
“That question seems to come up a lot.”
“I’m sorry. I knew the gun would inevitably overheat, and what little I could read off of Dragon told me she’d deal with that above anything else. I didn’t think you’d be stuck there, too.”
“No. Your gun thing there saved my skin. The real problem was…” I trailed off. I still had the baton in my hand – the residual containment foam meant I’d probably have to peel the glove away from the weapon. I clenched the weapon tight.
We sat in silence for nearly ten minutes before the rest arrived as a massed group. Shadow Stalker was limping, and two of the dogs were their normal size, draped across Bentley’s back, but everyone was more or less intact.
Bitch’s eyes widened fractionally as she saw me.
I was already standing, barely feeling the hurt from where I’d been grazed. Blood pounded in my ears, and I could feel the buzz of my insects.
“How-” she started. I didn’t let her finish. My baton held in both hands, I struck her in the upper thigh. When she didn’t fall, I let go of the baton and backhanded her. She toppled, and protests and shouts echoed around me.
It hurt. Damn it, I’d never really hit someone with my hands before. I wondered if I’d managed to break something.
There were still bugs on some of my teammates. I could sense them approaching, Grue and Imp moving to stop me. I ducked out of the way of their hands before they could grab me, and then held up my baton, menacing them. I cast a momentary glance towards Shadow Stalker, then augmented my voice with the buzzing and chirping of my swarm, “Don’t.”
“What the hell are you doing!?” Grue roared.
“Ask her,” my response was barely above a growl.
Grue glanced down at Bitch, who was rubbing her chin, opening her jaw wide, as if testing it.
I dropped down to a crouch so quickly that my knee slammed into the ground. I grabbed the upper end of the baton and pulled it over Bitch’s head, forcing the bar between her teeth, pulling back hard.
Grue moved to stop me once more, and I shook my head. He hesitated, then stopped.
Bentley was pacing towards me, snarling at the attack on his owner. I met his gaze with my own, unflinching, and he didn’t lunge to attack, maybe because he didn’t want to hurt his master in the process. I didn’t break eye contact with the dog as I spoke with the swarm buzzing in accompaniment, “Regent, this isn’t for Shadow Stalker’s ears.”
“Got it,” Regent spoke. Shadow Stalker moved to the bench by the elevators, sat down, and buried her face in her arms, covering her ears. Regent informed me, “She can’t hear much of anything, now.”
“Bitch,” I pulled on the bar, eliciting more struggling from Bitch, “Just tried to fuck me over in the fight with Dragon. Shoved me into the foam.”
Bitch made a muffled noise, then jabbed me in the side, where I’d been grazed by Miss Militia’s shotgun. It hurt, and in the interest of keeping her from doing it again, I shifted my position so I could force Bitch onto her back against the ground, her head pinned down by my baton. She could still hit me and jab me, but my shins could take a lot more abuse than her jaw could. I belatedly realized I’d taken my eyes off Bentley, but he didn’t maul me. When I looked up, I saw Tattletale had a grip on his chains.
“You’re a coward, Rachel,” I spoke, “You just did the very same thing you hate me for almost doing. You stabbed me in the back. You fucked over your own teammate.”
She mumbled something around the bar. The look in her eyes made me seriously worry she would kill me when I let her go.
“I’m in a position to hurt you now, and I’m pissed enough to do it,” I spoke, my voice low. “But I won’t. This vendetta against me ends, now. You got your shot at me, you fucked it up. If you’re still mad at me, you fucking better cope, got it!?”
She snarled out two muffled words. I suspected they were rude.
When I spoke next, I bent low and whispered the words for her and her alone, “When you’re tossing and turning and trying to sleep, remembering what I did and said here and getting pissed off about it? Remember that you were the weak one. You embarrassed yourself, fucked up, you were the weakling, the wuss who couldn’t even confront me face to face. And knowing you like I do? I’m betting it’s going to gnaw at you. That’s as much a punishment as I could inflict, I think. That’s on you, not me.
“You said it yourself, a while back. It’s a mistake to underestimate me. You want another shot at it, it had better be really damn good. Because if it isn’t, I’m going to survive, I’m going to get away. And then I might break your jaw for real. For starters.”
I stood, removing the baton from her mouth and stepping away, to give her room to stand. Leaning against the wall, I pressed the button and collapsed the baton into the handle. I stared at her.
Working her jaw, she stood and glared at me. She either didn’t have a response for me, or she did and her jaw hurt too much for her to try giving it. None of the others were jumping into the middle of this.
In the face of the silence, I offered one final comment, “I think I’ve already covered what happens if you want to continue this vendetta. Now I’m going to offer you a deal. Number three, I think, and my deals with you are usually pretty fair, if I may say so myself.”
Her eyes narrowed.
“I fucked up, you fucked up, whatever. Insult for insult, blow for blow, I’d like to think we’re even. So now I’m going to trust you to have my back. I’m going to put myself in more situations where you have a prime chance at fucking me over, backstabbing me, catching me at my most vulnerable. Because we can’t function as a team any other way.
“I’m going to treat you like a damned teammate, Rachel, but I’ll go one step further. You think you can put this behind you and satisfy yourself with what you tried to pull earlier tonight? Cool. Because if you’re willing, I’ll come with you to help take care of your dogs. I’ll bring fucking lunch, if you want it. That’s the deal I’m offering you, pissed as I am right now. I’ll be your damn friend.”
She looked away, down at the ground, scowling.
“Take it or leave it.”
She decided to leave it, apparently. Bitch stomped away, slamming the door the moment Bentley passed through it, leaving the rest of us standing there in the rubbish-strewn apartment building.
Grue sighed audibly and looked over our group, “We’d better go. We should decide what we’re going to do with Shadow Stalker, now.”
“We could keep her,” Imp spoke.
Regent shook his head, “Nope. There are drawbacks to this, and one of them is that I lose control of anyone I’m controlling while I sleep. Better to get rid of her on my terms than have her trying to shoot me in the throat while I take a nap.”
“And it’s kind of fucked up,” I spoke.
“I thought you were all-in,” Regent said.
“I am. But that doesn’t mean I’m an idiot,” I retorted. “This kind of mind control-”
“Body control,” Regent interrupted, his tone bored, “Her mind still belongs to her.”
“Semantics. This kind of mind control is pretty high up there on the scale of fucked upness. People are going to respond to that. It might be the nudge they need to start responding to us with lethal force. Think of how different tonight would have played out if Dragon and Miss Militia hadn’t held back.”
“Sure,” he shrugged. “Whatever. I don’t know why you’re arguing with me. I agree, we should get rid of her.”
“What did you do, back in the old days?” Tattletale asked.
“Kept three people I used regularly, with my sister’s help. But this is fine. Look, watch.”
Shadow Stalker stood, lowering her hands and arms from around her head, and walked over to the door. She faced Regent.
“I’m letting you go,” he spoke.
And then he did. She dropped to all fours on the ground, grunting. A second later, she was loading her bolt, spinning to point her crossbow at him. She stopped before firing.
“There’s a catch,” he spoke. “My power? Once I’ve figured someone out? It’s a lot easier to control them, after. Any time you come near me, I can do this. I can use my power and retake control in the blink of an eye.”
He had her raise her crossbow and point it at her temple. It was a tranquilizer dart, but the meaning seemed pretty damn clear.
“Next time I get control? I’m keeping you for a full day. Maybe two, if I feel like pulling an all-nighter. And here’s the funny part,” there was no humor in his voice, “I’m going to do it even if I’m in civilian clothes, if my power tells me you’re in range. You won’t even know when it’s coming. You’re now a liability to the Wards, and you won’t ever know when or where I’m going to get control again…
“Unless you leave. Skip town. Join another team.”
She nodded, slowly. The movement was jerky, which was peculiar. Was he giving her limited control of her own movements?
“Now let’s walk you off to the other end of the city before I release you. I don’t think you’re quite stupid enough to try and follow us, but I think my teammates would be more comfortable if they were sure.”
Shadow Stalker turned and walked through the door.
Regent looked at us, shrugged. “Good enough?”
“She might be mad enough to come after someone else in our group, but yeah. Good,” Grue said. “Let’s go deliver the stuff.”
We didn’t meet Coil in the underground base, and the people surrounding him weren’t all the same uniformed mercenaries that had made up his entourage in our prior meetings. The meeting place was at the south end of the Docks, near the border to the downtown area, and it was closer in appearance to the refurbished, ramshackle building where I’d reunited with the Undersiders than anything else.
The building was an old quadruplex, and it had been reinforced with metal panels, sandbags and plastic sheeting to keep the interior crisp and dry, much as the other building had. Small rooms with bunk beds filled half of the lower level, with a bathroom, kitchen and living room taking up the rest.
Finding the lower level empty, we headed to the second floor and found an open space supported by two metal pillars. There were a half-dozen mercenaries with Coil, as well as a collection of people who looked like they had come from every walk of life. Teenagers, professionals, and two guys that might have been capes – one thin, short guy with brown skin and a tattoo around his mouth, depicting a mess of sharp teeth penetrating the skin of his cheeks and lips. The other was burlier, shirtless, and wore a rusty, old fashioned looking mechanical rigging around his hands, with a bear-trap jaw plate. The frame seemed set up to hold metal claws around his fingertips while allowing his hands the full range of motion. He had a spiked collar of much the same style.
Coil sat in a black leather armchair, with a laptop set on the table beside him. Dinah was there, too. She sat at the base of the chair, on a cushion just beside Coil’s feet, picking at the threads of her white dress with a dazed single-mindedness that told me she had probably received her ‘candy’ pretty recently.
“Undersiders. Tattletale informed me you were successful, despite complications. May I see it?”
Tattletale stepped forward and handed Coil the USB thumbstick. He plugged it into the laptop, then turned the computer so the middle-aged man to his left could type away.
“Data’s corrupted, sir. Looks like the download was interrupted at the ninety-seven percent mark.”
“Can you fill in the blanks?” Coil asked him.
“Probably. Will take some time. There’s encryption. Good encryption. Maybe a few days, with the full team working on it?”
“Most likely it is Dragon’s work,” Coil spoke. “Let’s assume it’ll take a week, minimum. Perhaps Tattletale will be able to assist.”
“Priority number one, I want the data on the Slaughterhouse Nine.”
I felt a chill, but didn’t say anything. Was he intending to hire them? It would be a huge mistake in my book, if he was.
Regent asked the question for me, “The Slaughterhouse Nine?”
“At least some of their members have been seen in town, preying on the locals, disrupting recovery efforts. The recent chaos makes the city a playground for them,” Coil spoke. “One of my teams is bound to run up against them soon.”
“How likely is it?” Tattletale asked. She tilted her head in Dinah’s direction. “Can you ask her?”
“I suppose.” Coil put his hand on Dinah’s head, stroked her hair, then slid his hand down the side of her face until he could place his fingertips under her chin, raise her head to look at him, “Pet?”
It was disturbingly intimate in a way I’d rather not think about. No, not intimate. That was the wrong word for the impression I was getting. Possessive. I looked away.
“Yes?” Dinah asked.
“Likelihood that one of my groups encounters the Slaughterhouse Nine?”
He moved to take the laptop, and the middle-aged man stepped back to let him. He typed for a few seconds, then turned it around so Dinah could see. It was a gallery of images.
“Bonesaw.” he spoke. The girl on the screen looked barely older than Dinah, maybe the same age as Aisha. The image showed her wide-eyed, a spray of dried blood painted her face at a diagonal.
“Shatterbird.” A dark-haired, brown-skinned woman with a helmet covering the upper half of her face, in a beak shape. I was reminded of Iron Falcon, the boy I’d tried to help, who’d died in the Endbringer attack. From what I’d read, Shatterbird usually used her power as the Nine arrived in a city, to maximize panic and terror. I supposed they were flying under the radar for now. Fuck, I’d have to do something about my costume, just in case.
“Crawler.” No portrait, this time. It was a still from a surveillance camera, a misshapen silhouette, not even humanoid, in a shadowy area. I’d come across stories about him when I’d been researching possible superhero names for myself. Not pretty.
“Mannequin.” Another long-distance shot. The figure was standing by Bonesaw in the photograph, with other hulking figures within the shadows of the background. He stood almost twice her height, and he looked artificial. His body was in pieces, each section wrapped in a hard shell of ceramic or plastic or white-painted metal – I couldn’t be sure. His joints were a mix of loose chains and ball joints. A Tinker with a body-modification fetish. I couldn’t say how much of the transformation was his own power and how much was Bonesaw’s work.
“The Siberian.” A woman, naked from head to toe, her body painted in alternating stripes of jet black and snow white. She had gone up against the Triumvirate – Legend, Alexandria and Eidolon – on a dozen occasions, and she was still around to talk about it. Or around, at least. From what I’d read, she didn’t talk.
“Burnscar.” Younger, maybe an older teenager or a young-looking twenty-something. She looked almost normal, with her dark hair badly cut, but then I saw the vertical row of cigarette burns marking each of her cheeks, and a faint glow to her eyes.
“Hatchet Face.” This was one I hadn’t even heard of. The man didn’t wear a mask, and his head was shaved. He looked like he had been beaten, burned and just plain abused so often that his face was as much scar tissue than flesh, and he didn’t look like he’d been handsome to begin with.
“Jack Slash.” Jack looked like someone on the attractive side of average, his dark hair cut short and styled with gel. His beard and moustache were immaculately trimmed so that each had a serrated edge, and his shirt was wrinkled, only half buttoned so his hairless upper chest showed. He had kind of a Johnny Depp look to him, though he had more of a widow’s peak, a longer face and lighter eyes. Good looking, if you looked past the fact that he was a mass murderer. He held a small kitchen knife in the photo.
There were parahumans who were fucked up before powers entered the picture, like Bitch, and there were parahumans who became monsters after they got their powers, like Bakuda. Then there were the really dangerous ones, the people who had probably been monsters before powers were even on the table, and then they got worse.
And if that wasn’t bad enough, you had Bonesaw, who was like some kind of artist, as psychopaths went. The sort of person that drew other lunatics to her, just because they wanted to see what she would do next. Even that wouldn’t normally work as a dynamic, but as I understood it, Jack somehow managed to play them off one another and keep the group more or less intact. He was familiar enough with the psychology of his group and just plain charismatic enough to keep them from killing one another.
Which wasn’t to say they didn’t. There were only eight members in their group at present, and the turnover rate was pretty damn high, because they had a tendency towards recklessness, infighting and showy displays. They thought nothing of descending on an elementary school, just because they could. When the heroes came for them, they came with lethal force.
“Mmm,” Dinah said.
“What is it, pet?” Coil murmured.
“It’s him.”
She pointed at the screen, at Jack Slash. “Him.”
“You’re going to have to explain it to us, pet. What about him?”
“He’s the one who makes everyone die.”
I shivered. What?
“Everyone here?”
Dinah shook her head, her hair flying out to either side. “Everyone. I don’t understand. Can’t explain.”
“Try,” he urged her.
“Sometimes it’s in two years. Sometimes it’s in eight. Sometimes in between. But if he’s alive, something happens, and everyone on Earth starts to die. Not that everyone doesn’t die anyways but they die really fast when that something happens, all one after another, and in a year almost everyone is dead. So I said everyone, if that makes sense and a few live but they die pretty soon after anyways and-“
“Shh, pet. I think we understand what you’re saying. Quiet now, unless you think of something important. We need to consider this.”
Silence reigned for a few long seconds. You could have heard a pin drop.
“His power isn’t all that, I don’t think,” Grue spoke, slowly, as if considering the words as he spoke. “Space warping effect, so any blades he’s holding have an edge that extends a horrendously long distance, all with the optimal force behind the swing. Swings his knife, cuts through an entire crowd. Doesn’t make sense that he’d be able to murder everyone on Earth.”
“Unless he somehow cuts the planet in half,” Tattletale mused.
That was disquieting.
“No,” Dinah spoke. “He doesn’t.”
“I think we need more numbers if we’re to understand this, pet. What is the likelihood that he succeeds in this? To one decimal point.”
“Eighty three point four percent.”
“You said if he’s alive. What if we killed him? Now? To one decimal point. If I use my power.”
“Thirty one point two percent chance someone kills him before he leaves the city, if you use your power. It doesn’t happen until fifteen years from now, if you do.”
“So it still happens?” Coil asked.
“Yes. Always happens.”
Tattletale spoke up, “He’s the catalyst for something else, then.”
“Is it always successful, pet? This something that kills everyone on Earth?”
She shook her head, “Not always, not all the way. Sometimes more people live. Sometimes hundreds, sometimes thousands, sometimes billions. But millions or billions always die when it happens.”
“If I were to send the Travellers? How likely would they be to kill him?”
“My head hurts.”
“Please, pet, this is important. To one decimal point.”
“Twenty two point six percent. Thirty point nine percent chance some of them die.”
“And the Undersiders?”
“Eleven point nine percent chance they succeed. Fifty five point four percent chance they die if they fight those people.”
Coil sighed, then straightened. He looked at the middle-aged man, handed him the computer, “I strongly recommend you get what information you can on the group. Any detail in the PRT records could be invaluable. Lose sleep if you have to.”
The man took the laptop, swallowed, and then offered a quick bob of his head. The others in the assembled group around Coil looked just as alarmed by what they’d overheard.
“We should contact the local heroes,” Grue spoke. “Let them know what’s up.”
Coil nodded, slowly, “I’ll look into it. That said, I think the numbers illustrate one thing. You are not equipped to fight that group. If you encounter them, you-“
“Sixty percent,” Dinah muttered.
“Sixty percent, pet?”
“Sixty percent chance the Undersiders encounter some of those people.”
Coil turned to look at us. “So you’re likely to encounter them. When that happens, you run. Cede any territory, abandon any job. I would rather you were alive than successful in a job.”
“Got it,” Grue spoke.
“In the meantime, we move on to the next phase of my plan,” Coil spoke. “You may be wondering about this location, how it is similar to the new headquarters I provided you. I have outfitted these areas to be your stations, points from which you will operate, work to seize and keep territory. I have several more. If you’re amenable, I would have each of you take one of these stations for yourself. Grue, this would be your station, shared with Imp, which I assume is alright?”
Grue looked around, “Big place and a lot of beds for two people.”
“More on that later. Rest assured, I can provide staff, help. I expect you’ll wish to find and recruit people of your own. Contact me about funds – I will ensure that anyone you hire is paid well.”
Grue nodded.
“Regent? Your territory is near Grue’s, close to the water.”
Regent nodded.
“Bitch is absent?”
“Interpersonal stuff,” Grue replied. “She’ll be back.”
“A shame. Your other headquarters, where I moved your collective belongings, that will be her station. Barker and Biter here showed up for the Endbringer fight, and I got in contact with them. They, alongside these three young individuals,” he gestured to the two parahumans, and three college-aged kids who looked rather intimidated, “Will work under her. Barker and Biter profess to be fearless, and should have little difficulty managing the dogs, even when Bitch’s abilities are at work. The men and the young lady I’ve provided have some degree of training in veterinary medicine or handling dogs. Let her know this. She is free to accept them or refuse them as she sees fit.”
Grue looked over the five people who would be Bitch’s henchmen, nodded.
“Tattletale, I’ve set up quarters near Lord Street, in one of the ABB’s old locations. I assume your teammates will want to be in contact, and this area is both accessible, and it can reach any other area readily. The area is already furnished with computers, and you’ll find staff there, people who are capable at gathering information, be it from media, computers or the streets. You’ll also find a small force of mercenaries that I’ve assigned to you, so you can act on that information where you see fit.”
“Skitter, I have set up quarters near the south end of the Boardwalk. Reconstruction and repair work is still ongoing there, but if you will be patient, it may well be one of the more lucrative locations when things are up and running again.”
I nodded. That wouldn’t be far from my old home, close to our old hideout. Did that mean something? Did he know who I was, or had Tattletale suggested it? I felt uneasy about that.
“Regent, Grue, Imp and Skitter, I realize I have not detailed any employees to you to begin with. I leave it to you to start this task for yourself, to decide what you need and how you intend to operate. Once you have decided this for yourselves, let me know, and I will endeavor to help you fill in the blanks in your individual operations.
“As you leave, you’ll receive emails on the locations of your individual headquarters. For the time being, all I require from you, for now, is that you establish order and assume some measure of control over your territories.”
There were nods all around.
“Your payment for tonight’s job will be in your accounts shortly, with a bonus for the obstacles you faced. Any questions? Any topics you would like to raise for discussion?”
“A few questions, but I figure I’ll see what’s up with this new role we’re taking,” Grue replied, “Then I’ll ask them.”
“I’ve got something I’d like to talk to you about,” I spoke, augmenting my voice with the swarm’s noises to mask it. “In private.”
“Yes. That’s fine, I was hoping to have a private conversation with you anyways. Anyone? Anything else before we part ways?”
Nobody had anything further to say. Grue and the others turned to leave, and the crowd around Coil followed them soon after. One of Bitch’s henchmen – Barker, was it? – leered at me as he passed, dug his hand into his groin in some sort of scratch or a lewd gesture.
Lovely. He’d get along great with Bitch.
When the group had left the room, I could hear noises downstairs, as they moved about the house. Or maybe it was Grue, checking his new place. I was left alone with Coil and Dinah.
I wasn’t sure I liked that our group was being split up like this. The timing seemed bad. I’d sort of been hoping I could repair the divide, and that would be hard if we were each in our own territories, doing our own things.
I’d cross that bridge when I came to it.
“I heard about the incident at the hospital, following the Endbringer attack.”
“Tattletale told me that you know I was fully informed about your true nature.”
“Did she explain how?”
I shook my head. She’d told me about his power in confidence.
“Well, I suppose I may share that detail at some point in the future. You understand my desire to keep certain things private?”
“Yeah, no. I get it. It makes sense, it’s smart.”
“Mmm,” he murmured. He turned to his pet, stroked her head like one might with a dog or a cat. She stared down at her dress, picked at a thread that was sticking out, stretching it out long. The thread snapped, and she let it drift from her hand to the ground. Then she started picking at another. Coil interrupted my observations, “So. You wished to discuss something?”
“Yeah. I’ve made a decision.”
“Do tell.”
“Before, back in the limousine, you asked me what I wanted out of all this, what I desired from my deal with you.”
“I asked you to fix the city, you told me you planned on doing that anyways, that I should ask for something else.”
“And you’ve decided.”
“Yeah,” I took a deep breath. “Dinah. Your… pet.”
“You want me to release her. I’m afraid-“
I hurried to cut him off, “No.”
He stopped, tilted his head slightly.
I swallowed, felt an ugly feeling in my gut, “I know she’s invaluable to you. I know how useful her talent is, and the lengths you went to in getting ahold of them. I don’t like it, but I get it.”
He didn’t respond. He just stared at me, his mask lacking eye holes, just black cloth stretched over eye sockets.
“I… All I’m asking is that you let her go when you’ve done it. When you take this city, when you succeed in your plan, you release her to go home to her family. If you do that, I’ll work for you. I’ll try harder than anyone, to get this city under your control, and then I’ll work for you for as long as you’ll have me, afterward.”
“I’m afraid, Skitter, that this deal doesn’t quite balance out. I intend no offense, but my initial impression is that my pet is far more valuable to me than you are.”
No. My heart sank.
“But I can accept it,” he spoke. “Provided you prove to me that your talents are worth losing hers. I admit, the active assistance you can provide might prove more useful when the city is firmly in my grasp, when I have less to be concerned about in terms of day-to-day operations.”
I nodded, numbly.
I shook my head, then turned to leave, wordlessly.
When I went downstairs, Tattletale and Regent were already gone. Maybe they were checking out their new places. Grue and Imp were in the ‘living room’, opening crates of stuff to see the supplies they had available.
I wasn’t up to talking to them, or explaining the recent conversation.
Leaving the building without a word, I sloshed through the water. I realized my fists were clenched, and my glove was sticking to itself, thanks to the residual containment foam. Annoying. I wondered if I could scrub it off.
When I peeled my fingers away from the glove, I realized my hand was shaking.
I took a deep breath, to calm my nerves. I could do this. Whatever I had to do, I was going to help that girl.
This entry was posted in 10.6 and tagged Assault, Barker, Battery, Bentley, Bitch, Biter, Bonesaw, Burnscar, Coil, Crawler, Dinah, Grue, Hatchet Face, Imp, Jack Slash, Lucy, Mannequin, Miss Militia, Regent, Shadow Stalker, Shatterbird, Siberian, Sirius, Sophia, Tattletale, Taylor, Triumph, Weld by wildbow. Bookmark the permalink.
88 thoughts on “Parasite 10.6”
afifakhan2001 on May 12, 2012 at 00:34 said:
mistake I think..’ I can providing staff, help’.. doesn’t make sense..
but otherwise ….. finally we find out what her big decision was and although it would have been cool if she went screw everyone and saved Dinah it probably wouldn’t have been realistic. This decision was really realistic. Its nice to see a main character who isn’t always super strong. Also, Bitch got what she deserved and Taylor was a complete badass..tis lovely seeing this side of her sometimes.
soo worth it being awake at 5am to read this first!
Change made. Thanks.
Also, 5am? Damn. Thanks for being a fan. 😀
welcome….time difference in UK so this comes out at 5am
I doubt that she will be able to help this girl in such a way.
Coil may have some honor, but I really do not know how far it goes.
Nice fight, wonder what bitch will do now.
Given the low profile- and for them, ONLY nailing some people to some buildings is pretty low profile- it could be that the Nine are looking for their ninth member. Recruiting.
I thought Skitter handled Bitch pretty well. Not so sure about what she did with Coil. Seems somewhat premature- but it could of course just be because she thinks Coil is expecting it.
Gene Wirchenko on June 6, 2017 at 16:34 said:
Oh, my. I just thought of two possible recruits. One would be Bitch (not too likely), but quite possible is Shadow Stalker considering what just happened to her.
Jinx on May 12, 2012 at 04:38 said:
Taylor has issues. I’m not going to suggest that her actions about Dinah are out of character or bad writing, people make stupid decisions all the time, especially if they’re as messed up as she is. Taylor’s plan is morally wrong and unlikely to succeed. As far as resue attempts go, it’s likely to fail in so many ways and is going to f**** up Taylor’s life and hope of not being a criminal even if she suceeded.
“if my costume had prevented it from penetrating.” should be “hadn’t” I think.
I really hope Taylor’s thought her plan thru a bit further than she’s letting on to Coil. It looks like it’s bound to screw up otherwise.
So, each of the Undersiders is getting minions to run criminal operations in some teritory? That’s going to be a serious temptation to Imp at least. Be interesting to see what they do with them.
IronFalconlives! on May 12, 2012 at 06:14 said:
At least grue’s there to rein her in. What’s rule no. 1 little sis? Do Not Sleep With The Henchmen.
Speaking of which, its nice to see bitch has people like her.
Slaughterhouse Nine. What a group.
I see we have a Bird, a psychokinetic like Carrie, a tall inhuman-looking fellow of unknown origin(is he unnaturally Slender, perhaps?), a slasher like from Friday the 13th or Hatchet, a mysterious crawling creature that watches you from the darkness(I hope he doesn’t know how to use a Rake), and an American psycho.
Don’t go out tonight, it’s bound to take your life.
There’s a bad moon on the rise.
That aside, this is an interesting situation. Dividing the team up to control different portions of the city. Individuals with experience in the city who are motivated to maintain control and in deep with the operations who are comfortable with the level of conflict around put in command of different areas and expected to act independently with their own forces.
War time.
No more guerrilla style tactics as criminals by utilizing a few groups of powerful individuals all bunched up to take advantage of spread out enemy forces. Amusing. As Sun Tzu says, strive to be like water, which flows to the low areas. Take advantage of an enemy’s weakness and hit them there. So Coil spreads out his forces at a time when opposing forces are at their weakest, after the city was flooded and attacked.
Money isn’t a problem for him, nor are supplies. His opposition is bringing in relief supplies daily, which can be easily intercepted.
Coil has a chance to become an integral part of the city in the way that the Yakuza are in Japan, and may be capable of creating a scenario like the Kowloon Walled City where the city stays out of any kind of government control.
There’s just one flaw…
*He clings to Coil’s boot* Come on, please? We really need Nude Wednesdays for morale purposes! Can you honestly think of any better way to spend hump day? *Gets kicked enthusiastically by Coil* How about bikini Sundays, for tanning purposes? You can wear a one piece if you’d rather not have a skimpy top. I have this one pink and white polka dot twopiece that’ll knock your socks off. *Starts getting attacked by henchmen wielding socks full of coins, soon forced to let go.*
No fair! Can I at least start up an ice cream shop here? I can?
*grins evilly, thinking back to a plan he detailed once*
A pyrokinetic like Carrie* excuse me. Sleepy. *Has a tiger pounce on Emma, sharp claws convincing her to try and remain as flat a surface as possible as he drops onto his back on top of her, using the tiger as a pillow.* I don’t always take power naps, but when I do, I make sure they’re real powerful. Stay sleepy, my friends.
No, Carrie /was/ psychokinetic (I prefer telekinetic); the fire happened by accident.
usermist2 on May 14, 2015 at 12:30 said:
The pyrokinetic is in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Firestarter_%28novel%29
So Charlene, not Carrie.
Dread Pirate on January 14, 2018 at 05:33 said:
Fortunately, there’s also a bathroom on the right.
casualPhilosoph on May 12, 2012 at 08:45 said:
Argh Taylor get yourself a damn genetic tinker if there exists something like that, I already thought that since a long time and now Coil offers personel and it does not even cross her mind sigh.
I mean if she can control everything with a sufficient primitive nervous system as it sems so far the most obvious way to raise her effectiveness is to get stronger lifeforms and in case you do not want these to disturb the ecosystem,make them run on the biological equvialent of rocketfuel so they simple starve to death in case they leave Taylors care.
Sigh or atleast import some darwin bark spiders and build yourself a tropical greenhouse,.
Pahan on May 12, 2012 at 20:05 said:
Well, Grue said that he’ll hold off on personnel requests until he takes a look at his accommodations, and Skitter might do the same. I kind of hope she does, (further) descent into villainy or not.
There is such a person- unfortunately, Panacea is ambivalent at best towards Taylor.
I just wanted to tell you that I really, really like your story. I discovered it a few days ago and read it in several late night archive binges and now am eagerly awaiting more. The quality of your story is on par with some of the commercial stuff out there and better than some of the stuff in the Amazon ebook bargain bin. You really should consider, once you are done, to split this up into good sized books, make the first one free and sell the rest for a dollar or two on some place with low entry barriers like Amazon Kindle Market.
As for what is currently going on in the story, I expect things to get a lot of worse for pretty much anyone involved. If the Endbringer fight had such huge casualties I can only imagine what sort of a mess this current end of the world scenario will be. At the very least it might get our heroine closer to her original wish of being a superhero, if she helps out.
More short term she is going to have to put up want adds “Experienced criminal with entomology degree wanted must be both loyal and ethical.” Or perhaps something more feasible.
For Shadow Stalker I hope she leaves gets help and eventually in the run up to a cataclysmic fight has to team up with Skitter, tries to apologize and then learns exactly why Skitter dislikes her so much.
When you’re talking about the late night binges on a work you just discovered, you’re definitely talking my language, haha. Done that myself with some stories/novels/shows/games. So it means a lot to hear that. Thank you.
I do intend to publish Worm. Not positive on the route I’m going to go, but yeah. I’d love to go with a method that sees a print book, but that’s purely a vanity thing on my part (I’d love to have such a book on my shelf and be able to say I wrote it) and there’s a few hurdles with wordcount & breakpoints that would be harder to get past.
The idea of releasing the first book for free is interesting. I say that because I know that if I were to divide the book, I might divide it so that the first ‘book’ ended at the end of Arc 4 (after defeating Bakuda), which would put the word count at 70,000…. short for a book. Going too much later, though, feels like I’m cutting the story short in the middle of something. I’ve been debating adding an incentive/bonus material so that people who have actually read my story onlnie might want to buy it for reasons other than thanking me. Something like ‘Guts and Glory’, a 30k-50k word arc based around Glory Girl and Panacea. Or something based around our second-favorite Tinker, Armsmaster, casting more light on him.
That’d require me to find the time to write a side arc, though, and I’d want to make it good, keep it tied into the main story. Tricky business. The easier route might be to release the shorter book 1 for free, as an incentive to buy what follows. Hmm.
Dunno if I can comment on the other stuff without spoiling/misleading/whatever, so I’ll stay mum for now. Thanks for reading, hope to see you in the comments section in the future.
why not just make short books from every arc…shorter than your average book longer than say a manga/graphic novel/short story… its not the norm but that doesn’t mean it can’t work. So instead of having 3 long books which is typical you have 10 short ones. The cliff hangers and the interest in plot development alone would encourage people to keep buying/getting the next books..that’s my opinion anyway. Who knows maybe this could become a new way of publishing books. Smaller books are easier to carry, quicker to read and it may be cheaper for some people to buy small books one at a time or they could just buy it all together as a set. Also by publishing it as a short book you can test the waters in a wider market of readers. I know some people that publish short stories to see how they do and if people are interested enough they continue publishing… I think I just really think you should publish since I really enjoy this series and I’ve told other people about it and they agree…
zoetewey on May 12, 2012 at 17:58 said:
What afifakhan2001 is suggesting is actually what “Ubersoft” is planning to do. He’s intending to publish on a monthly basis, much like a comic.
Is that a good idea? No clue.
Personally, I’m planning to divide things into roughly 90K chunks, and publish that way.
Paige P. on December 29, 2013 at 00:27 said:
From an inventory management perspective, as it were – I really hope wildbow doesn’t break it up into too many books. I read ridiculously fast, and thus have a truly absurd number of ebooks to keep track of; I tend to buy omnibus editions of everything just so I don’t have to check the internet for the order of the books in the series, or remember to redownload all fifteen books before going out of town, or whatever. There’s a balance to be struck between attractive pricing (omnibus may be cheaper in the long run, but it’s easier to get people to shell out $0.99 per installment until they’re hooked) and reader convenience, but at least physical restrictions aren’t in play any more.
70k words is not unreasonable for an Amazon eBook if it’s priced appropriately (usually around $2-4) It’s *definitely* a reasonable size for $0. :).
toafan on February 4, 2016 at 00:03 said:
I’m reading afifakhan2001’s suggestion as “like the Animorphs books” — release each arc as a short “book”, and maybe gather up groups of arcs into storyline-sized “omnibus editions”. Then you could (assuming e-publishing) release the first appropriate unit for free, and charge for the following ones.
(Of course, that’s slightly undermined by everything still being available for free here. I appreciate it obviously, but it makes it harder for you to make money off it. But you’ve presumably thought of a way around that, even if it’s just tighter editing.)
irrevenant on February 4, 2016 at 00:13 said:
I understand that Wildbow’s goal is to do a comprehensive rewrite. I’m not sure how far along he is in his goal but he seems to be an even better writer nowadays so it should be brilliant when it’s done.
Drunkfu on May 12, 2012 at 13:27 said:
I’ll just leave this here….
http://drunkfu.deviantart.com/art/Grue-ala-Worm-301164399
I had fun doing the first Skitter fanart and thought I might work my way through the other characters if I can find easier ways of digging up their descriptions, and I had a fairly good mental image of Grue I thought I’d take a wack at.
Loved the addition! I agree that having Skitter asking Coil to release her after his plans were finished are way more realistic (at least more so than a daring rescue against a guy who creates alternate realities and has his own organized army). And that girl has to have a spirit of iron with all the pain and suffering she’s gone through, to not just throw all her ideals to the ground and say “screw it”. She’s like the spiritual successor of Batman in the body of one of his enemies daughters or something. Except texting killed her mom, and not robbers… maybe she’ll organize an underground war against texting while driving, one day. And after the big reveal of the identity of the Shadow Stalker girl (who I assumed would go insane after being controlled for so long, with her personality), I started thinking how much it would make sense for Skitters father to be a retired villain of some kind, and the wife to have been a hit by someone.
The above comment about the Slaughter House 9 being there also to recruit someone was an interesting thought… especially with how Skitter might be getting a bit of a reputation as a freakazoid with her insect powers and habit of hacking pieces out of people like Lung.
Anyway, keep up the great work!
It seems like Taylor just got on a slippery slope. It also seems like she’s becoming a bit of a badass, if I may say so. If she can use Coil’s resources to acquire more powerful bugs, so to speak, she could be quite a formidable anti-villain. Or is it antihero? Time will tell. We’ll see if “all-in” includes lethal force.
I can’t imagine her avoiding killing anyone for long, though, as word will probably get around. Then again, if anyone could avoid killing someone, it’d be Taylor, as her power can be psychologically devastating. Ditto with Regent (in terms of psychological impact), as we just saw. I can see him just finding the most powerful person in a particular group, arranging for them to be kidnapped, and then using them to kill the rest of the group. Rinse and repeat, if he’s so inclined.
Then the criminals run to where Bitch is and get mauled by stray dogs that have suddenly turned into monsters. The survivors have to choose between swarms of bugs, a girl who knows way more than she should, and whatever the hell Imp and Grue end up doing. Coil’s plan could well prove highly effective.
I haven’t had much time to comment lately, but good chapter as always, Wildbow.
I am a little bit perplexed by Coil’s decision to split up the team and give each member a territory. Not only does having homogeneous teams (Tattletale’s Badass Normal mercenaries, Bitch’s canine squad, etc.) reduce their versatility, it seems like Peter Principle in action: the Undersiders are very good at what they do (sneaking into places and then fighting their way out, usually), so they are getting promoted and assigned to do something else (control territories and command minions), which requires a very different set of talents and skills. In other words, not every good soldier makes a good caporegime. Tattletale and Grue would probably manage well, and Skitter will learn to quickly, especially if she requisitions a good consigliere, but Regent would probably rather play video games, and Bitch is Bitch.
A big part of me hopes that Taylor does embrace her new job (all the while telling herself that she is just doing it to help the city and save Dinah), and starts spending her ill-gotten gains and requisitioning personnel and equipment to make her life more comfortable and her powers more effective, if nothing else because the girl deserves a break. Also, it would be fun to see what sort of a lair she could build for herself and what minions she could hire.
Incidentally, she used the buzzing to mask her voice again in this chapter. Does she always do it when dealing with relative strangers, was she trying to be more intimidating in front of Coil and the newbies, or is it becoming a habit?
“Regent, Grue, Imp and Skitter” is missing a serial comma after “Imp”.
At the very least, she can do something to look after her dad and try to help out his guys if possible.
Catastronaut on May 13, 2012 at 05:17 said:
I have to disagree, at least a little, with the suggestion that the promotion of the Undersiders is an instance of the Peter Principle in play. One thing to consider is that while being a good enforcer/criminal is sufficient to establish competence at leading and organizing such people, it is certainly reasonable to assume that the capacity to be a good criminal at the street level is a necessary prerequisite. That said, given only this necessary but insufficient sort of confirmation, it’s still a gamble to enact such a promotion.
Too bad Coil doesn’t have any way of calculating the odds on such a gamble. Oh, perhaps he does. Well, even so, success in leadership is vague enough that precise numbers may not be so useful. What he really needs is a way to assess longer-term consequences of handing such power over to the Undersiders. It’s not like he can have it both ways, promoting them and not promoting them, to see which works out better. Right?
Good points, especially about the probability girl. On the other hand, Coil can only keep track of two realities at once, so he will only be privy to the immediate consequences of splitting up Undersiders before he has to commit to a path and split on some other dilemma.
At the same time, I am not so sure that being a good Soldier is a necessary condition for being a good Caporegime. Case in point, Tattletale: without muscle, she is just a girl with a gun, who happens to be unusually good at anticipating what her opponents will do, so even on the proverbial battlefield, her optimal role is of a coordinator, and if she has to be a Soldier, something has already gone very wrong.
So, I wonder if there is an ulterior motive here, implementing a Divide and Rule strategy to keep the Undersiders from potentially challenging him, and to surround each Undersider with minions whose first loyalty will be to Coil and not to the other Undersiders.
Anyway, it just sunk in that Skitter made Caporegime in a crime syndicate at 15, after a (rather eventful) month as a Soldier. Talk about an overachiever! 😉
Actually, here’s another random thought about Coil’s use of Dinah. It seems to be harder for Dinah to get the probability down to a higher precision, yet Coil keeps asking her to give three digits of precision, even for decisions that seem to only require one, if the decision threshold is greater than 0.9 or less than 0.1. Is it because he can’t ask the same question twice, so if the answer does turn out to be something that would be rounded to 0 or 1, he can’t ask for a follow-up? Or, is he just bad at decision theory? Ideally, he would decide on a decision threshold, and then ask Dinah if the probability is higher or lower than that. That’s only 1 bit of information (sort of), which is equivalent to asking for 1/3 of a digit. (Just to be clear, I am talking about fractions, not percents, so “one digit” means essentially rounding to the nearest 10%.)
thomas on February 3, 2014 at 10:38 said:
I think it is the other way around. He asks her to limit herself to 5 significant digits because otherwise her power might compel her to rattle off irrational numbers. Perhaps he’s found that 5 sig figs is enough to keep her from hurting herself too badly by cutting off her power before she’s finished reciting the actual value, while still being a small enough string that he can comfortably round off without losing his train of thought. Alternately, he could be an asshole who intentionally triggers her headaches to keep her hooked on the ‘candy’. Or maybe both? Both is good. A happy balance between villainy and utility.
I get the impression, though, that poor Dinah is–at least for now–a slave to her power, rather than gifted with it. Otherwise, she might have been a bit harder for Coil to abduct, and a lot harder to keep.
When I say that any caporegime (to use your term) ought to have the capacity to be a good street-level criminal, I’m not saying that it ought to be a good idea for a potential caporegime to be used as such. In fact, almost by definition, people who can lead and organize criminal activities are “wasted” in a position like that, so far as Coil’s concerned.
That said, any caporegime ought to *have the capacity* to perform effectively at the street level, which Tattletale certainly does, on numerous occasions. If Tattletale had been unable to contribute on the field as part of the Undersiders despite the “just a girl with a gun” limitation, then it would suggest at the very least an inability to take best advantage of her powers.
Fair enough. I am still not sure it’s that straightforward, though I would never question Tattletale’s badasstitude.
One interesting motive for Coil to organize things this way is parahuman solidarity. He is trying to set himself up as a parahuman ruling over a city populated primarily by ordinary humans. My sense is that, at least in North America, there is a strong undercurrent of fear of parahumans taking over. Indeed, one likely reason that Canary (or whoever was the rogue with the compelling voice) got sent to the Birdcage for her first offense that was an accident, while captured supervillains are often given a second chance without an unmasking, is that her power is directly conducive to manipulating public opinion on a grand scale and acquiring political power. Scion, for all his might, could not just tell a city or a country to vote for him in an election or an army to march and have them be compelled to do it. Canary could.
Coil is making that fear come true, and if it provokes a response, he needs the top of his chain of command to all be parahumans, who would not be able to save themselves from an anti-parahuman backlash by betraying him. However, he only has a limited number of parahumans at his command, so he doesn’t have a choice but to spread them out as Capos.
One minor criticism I have of this chapter is that only a few of the Slaughterhouse Nine got their powers described. I think that the readers should “know” everything that Taylor knows about them. Perhaps in the Cast tab?
Well, Taylor knew the powers of all sorts of folks that weren’t mentioned until they fought- some of the 88s, even the Endbringers…
Perhaps an aura of mystery surrounding them so that exact details aren’t always known by the general public? I don’t mean a literal aura, I just mean that all the rumors and assumptions collide in such a way that you can’t know for sure.
Not so sure their powers need to be in Cast already. We will have to see.
The thing is, we are not general public. We already know a lot more about he superhero community than the general public, and unless there is value in suspense and surprise with respect to this specific question, which there shouldn’t be unless the information is not available to Taylor since her actions would incorporate what information she does have, why shouldn’t we know?
Perhaps a Parahumans wiki?
Psycho killers. ques ques se. fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa fa. Better run run run run run run run away!!!
Touchy subject in a different way. Many misconceptions about mental illness that are the result of or incorporated into depictions of so-called psychopath types. Technically speaking, just being a psychopath, or even one with powers, doesn’t mean you’re going to go and start taking people apart with a cheesegrater. Just more likely. Regular people also go and do a lot of that crazy stuff all the time. To once again talk out of my butt (or as a bad speller on the internet would call it “Ur anus”) it could be difficult to differentiate between the actions of a psychopath and those of someone who was carrying out a sufficiently despicable order if all we looked at was bodycount, horror, selectivity of victims, and gore involved.
But maybe it’s not psychopathy. It’s just normal for a bunch of various effects we associate with insanity to be tossed together into one person who does really bad things and call them a psycho. Obviously, some people have those, but not everybody who goes crazy hears voices or feels like someone else’s intestines are trying to escape from their tyrannical body and its dictatorial brain.
Throw in the fact that most people are presented as a psycho with no look at the cause, because there is always a cause to it, and you just have some two dimensional crazy man who snapped one day.
Now, now, some people might accuse me of hypocrisy there, but I assure you that I, Psychopomp Gecko, am merely advising some caution while also picking at a detail I dislike if I were to do a deep intellectual analysis of something. I don’t have reason yet, I think, to think Wildbow’s going to try and imitate Saw or Hostel just to show that the crazies really are crazy.
PS, You might want to avoid going the Mortal Kombat route of having every other person decapitated. A man in tight pants with super powers just can’t pull it off. The French could, but they’ve always been stylish.
David Burns on December 26, 2013 at 03:21 said:
Qu’est que c’est! Mon Dieu!
David DeLaney on December 29, 2016 at 04:41 said:
> I, Psychopomp Gecko
… wait, reading these rants is preparing our souls for the afterlife?
–Dave, KEWL
awjs on May 13, 2012 at 23:54 said:
Okay I amit I was distracted for the last couple weeks and haven’t been reading this. Sorry.
Well, I just spent the last 2 days reading the last 2 arcs.
I got to say they were amazing!
And I am going to take a guess and say the world ending event is going to be a war of parahumans vs humans. Don’t respond to that! Please don’t confirm or denie it it is just a guess.
Well, I look foward to reading more.
“Not the matchup I would have chosen, taking on the guy with the sonic shout using dogs with sensitive hearing.”
Sonic shout eh? I guess not every ticket wins in the power lottery. In fact last I checked, NOT having a sonic shout was a disability.
Further reading on the topic:
http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sonic
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/YouKeepUsingThatWord
And yes, that latter one is there for the very purpose of showing I’m quite aware I’m being anal here.
And yes, I’m quite aware I just did the same thing.
Haha. I’m torn between leaving it as is and changing it.
Leave as is. The sentence is understandable in its context.
If you try to make every sentence exact in its meaning you will end with: A sonic shout capable of transporting enough energy to topple of a building if said building was built using …
Or: Capable of somehow emitting longitudinal waves of pressure in a range of frequencies from 100 to 15000 Hz, intensity from 1 to 30 KJ/m^2.
Even when teaching quantum mechanics sometimes we must use the flexibility of the language instead of giving a complete definition of all.
Taylor’s a teenager who probably hasn’t taken physics class yet, with the typical US curriculum these days.
1.5, I think, she mentions she had the option but didn’t take physics (but she still knows she couldn’t jump off a building with the bugs helping her float).
Indivisible on February 8, 2013 at 23:45 said:
I’m taking forever to go through this but I wanted to comment to tell you how much I’m enjoying this. I feel somewhat disappointed in Taylor but her reasons for doing everything are well thought out. I look forward to being surprised by the next arc.
wildbow on February 9, 2013 at 00:09 said:
I’m glad you’re enjoying.
Not surprised you’re taking a while to get through it. As of the last time I checked, Worm amounted to 9-13 full length novels. 🙂
Packbat on March 28, 2013 at 23:07 said:
Belated question: if Coil knows the Slaughterhouse Nine is in town, why is he keeping his computer equipment — and the files he just stole — there?
wildbow on March 28, 2013 at 23:13 said:
Can’t answer without spoiling, but it should be evident if you think about it.
*thinks about it for approximately twenty seconds*
Oh. Right. Coil. Forgot. Yeah, that is pretty evident.
Also, countermeasures? He certainly has some.
That also makes sense.
Intelligent Fool on August 9, 2013 at 20:11 said:
I haven’t gotten back to the point I was at when I started reading Worm, but I think Parasite is where I’d start the series. Beginning with Taylor being introduced as an aspiring hero who intended to betray her teammates – but switched sides – is a good curiosity hook. It seems best to start by diving right into her core motivation with Coil and Dinah, and the emergence of the S9, as well as beginning with the team dynamics that really start everything off. As I’ve said elsewhere, I’d rework the previous material a bit and turn it into a prequel.
Nothing I’ve read in it has struck me as particularly important to know for where I started from, and hasn’t added a whole lot of content that I feel warrants reading the rest of it along the way as a vehicle to get to the S9 arc. What I mean to say is that the story seems to stand alone from here on out – the previous content is like getting breadsticks with a pizza. It’s nice to have and you’ll want to dig into it later, but the pizza is what you paid for, and the breadsticks don’t make the pizza better – even if it makes the order you placed a better thing.
Packbat on August 9, 2013 at 21:13 said:
I see what you mean. I’m reading 10.1 with the idea of starting there in mind, and yeah — there’s a few events that you wouldn’t have seen, people like Lung whom you wouldn’t know about, but it’s a good chapter for getting a new reader up to speed.
Just to be clear: I like the place it starts, and I like everything in the first nine arcs, and I wouldn’t refactor the story to start here … but in the same way that the author of Schlock Mercenary has told new readers to try starting at Book 3 or Book 10 rather than the absolute beginning, new readers of Worm who aren’t picky about getting the whole story and want to skip ahead a bit could start at Arc 10.
Personally I disagree. For me that slow burn where we got to know the characters and the series gradually escalated is very important to fully appreciating where we are now.
You could possibly argue that nothing from the first nine chapters is critical information-wise. But this point in the story matters to us so much because we journeyed with the protagonists in getting here. I don’t think I would care half as much if the story had started at this point (which isn’t to say it wouldn’t still have been interesting).
The space to do that sort of slow burn and gradually draw the reader deeper and deeper is one of the beauties of the web series format and it’s great to see that used so skilfully and effectively here.
oblivion6 on October 21, 2013 at 01:50 said:
So I was just watching a Johnny Depp movie before I came by to continue my re-read. It is really sad that I can totally see Jack in that lunatic of an actor. Can’t believe I missed that on my first read-through of Worm.
[spoiler removed.]
I edited your comment to remove a spoiler. Doing something like saying “there’s a twist ending” is a spoiler in and of itself (this isn’t what oblivion6 said, but it still illustrates my general point), and we mustn’t upset the new reader’s reading experience.
Yes, please. I am a first-time reader. I have read a few other things so I have a vague idea of what ultimately happens, but not really that much.
When I make a speculation, it is based on information to this point only. If I guess right, it is not a spoiler but me picking up on some cue or foreshadowing. If I guess wrong, well, it is not a spoiler then either.
If I do see how something ties into the little future bits I know, I am not going to state anything. I would appreciate others toeing this line, too.
Hadron Sterner on October 27, 2013 at 18:24 said:
I think you mean “One of Coil’s henchmen” when you say “one of Bitch’s henchmen.”
Never mind, it looks like I skipped a page. Sorry for bothering you.
Archimedes said, “Give me a long enough knife and a place to rest it and I will cut the whole world in half.”
Wait, no, that’s not right.
Would Bentley really stand around and let Skitter take Bitch down? Skitter needs a better strategy than “My baton makes me badass, just ignore the monster dogs.”
KhorneFlakes on February 13, 2014 at 07:19 said:
Regent you glorious bastard, that was everything I ever wanted. BLOOD FOR THE BLOOD GOD.
Robin Lionheart on February 26, 2014 at 06:31 said:
Taylor’s parameters may be being a little shortsighted. What with Jack Slash, after taking the city, Coil may need Dinah to save the whole damn world. Now there’s a quest for a superhero…
Bonsai on March 9, 2014 at 20:24 said:
Hey in this chapter the alternate end of world count is eight years. Later i believe it becomes 15 or 16 years did the prediction change or is that an oversight?
Fifteen years is given as the maximum time in which it would occur in this chapter as well. They just have to kill Jack first.
Steve Neiman on November 16, 2014 at 03:53 said:
I think the creepiest thing about Coil so far, is that he has to tell a henchman that it is acceptable to lose sleep over something, with the obvious implication that knowing that there was an 83% chance of total human extermination wouldn’t do that already. It seems like if they could convince the Protectorate of how important it was, even someone as tough as one of the Slaughterhouse 9 wouldn’t be able to survive. If only he was a normal villain, they might be able to convince him to kill himself to save the world, but if he’s one of the really nasty ones he would probably just get a good laugh out of it.
Clownie on January 2, 2015 at 20:14 said:
>If her team wasn’t so sparse on members, she could have done a lot more damage.
Weren’t.
>“Bonesaw.” he spoke.
Grammatically and stylistically incorrect. Try a comma.
Fucking Taylor. Coil could give you pretty much anything, and you settle for this? Goddamn, girl, his pet can easily be considered collateral, and her situation isn’t that bad anyway.
Fucking Taylor.
>>>>>>>>>You are posting comments too quickly. Slow down.
NO! DON’T TELL ME WHAT TO DO, WORDPRESS! I AM AN INDEPENDENT INDIVIDUAL! YOU CAN’T DO THIS TO ME JUST BECAUSE THE FLAT HAS TWO PEOPLE AND ONLY ONE INTERNET WIRE AND I DEVELOP A BACKLOG OF COMMENTS TO POST! THAT’S IMMORAL!
Devon Jolly on January 27, 2015 at 04:07 said:
Umm…Bark spiders? She mentioned a need for them to make more material and that it would be better than wearing a high carbon steel suit. She not remember?
Chevron on April 6, 2015 at 23:30 said:
Quick grammar point
his face was as much scar tissue than flesh
Should be as much X *as* Y, I believe.
Or, of course, “more scar tissue than flesh”. I imagine you changed between these two options but forgot to change one word.
Rob on September 14, 2015 at 06:09 said:
“I still had the baton in my hand – the residual containment foam meant I’d probably have to peel the glove away from the weapon.”
“When [Bitch] didn’t fall, I let go of the baton and backhanded her.”
Isn’t this a logical error? Taylor spent like ten minutes sitting around doing nothing, she should mention it if she manages to peel the baton off her glove.
Nah, she grabbed it with both hands and let g with the other one.
MisterTeatime on November 5, 2015 at 13:51 said:
And if that wasn’t bad enough, you had Bonesaw, who was like some kind of artist, as psychopaths went. The sort of person that drew other lunatics to her, just because they wanted to see what she would do next.
UVYNEVBHF va uvaqfvtug.
Nyfb nzhfvat: Znaardhva vf qrfpevorq nf “n Gvaxre jvgu n obql zbqvsvpngvba srgvfu.” Na haqrefgnaqnoyr zvfgnxr, tvira uvf nccrnenapr, ohg shaal orpnhfr vg ernyyl vf n tbbq qrfpevcgvba… bs gur crefba ur’f cubgbtencurq arkg gb.
Huh. The current S9 are tagged in this chapter. That’s interesting, considering that they come up in discussion only briefly- one paragraph each about them as individuals, and that split between physical description and vague references to their exploits- and don’t actually appear. Very interesting when you compare it to Extermination, and all the people who do appear in those chapters but don’t get tagged. (Particularly notable is Shielder’s tag- despite his key roles in certain Extermination chapters, and the fact that his tag was established previously on his appearance in Buzz, he isn’t tagged in Extermination at all.)
It’s a very small thing, and barely connected to the actual literary work, but I always get curious about the nuts and bolts.
ahdefault on January 24, 2016 at 20:26 said:
The Slaughterhouse Nine. It’s interesting to try and figure out how a doomsday could occur through the actions of one person, although I suppose it didn’t specifically mention that his actions alone cause the world to keel over, just that by him existing, everyone dies. One has to wonder if this might become a moment when Taylor has to sacrifice a bit of herself for the greater good, a setup for her to kill. She popped Lung’s eyes out to stop his rampage, although she knew he was going to regenerate; I wouldn’t put it past her to kill, if she could convince herself she was in the right for it.
Dragon saying she would be in touch really seems like the sort of thing that needs to be told to the rest of the Undersiders, or at the very least Tattletale. They just agreed to try trusting her again, and if they find out about Taylor talking to the enemy, I’m hard pressed to believe they’d give her a third chance, regardless of circumstances.
Onward to the next chapter!
Some Dude on March 20, 2017 at 01:51 said:
Everyone that thinks Regent went overboard has never been bullied before. That evil bitch got what she asked for.
jmdlugosz on April 7, 2017 at 15:42 said:
«I let go of the baton and backhanded her.» You just said it was stuck to her glove. She can’t let go of it, but will have to peel it away.
ClickPause on September 22, 2017 at 04:01 said:
Please tell me she’s going to use Coil to import some bugs for once. A swarm of insects that can paralyse an opponent, or a whole bunch of Bird-eating Spiders would be awesome. Maybe even a couple Coconut Crabs, considering her abilities.
Shiki Seiren (@ShikiAkaitsuki) on October 23, 2017 at 18:47 said:
“She had gone up against the Triumvirate – Legend, Alexandria and Eidolon – on a dozen occasions, and she was still around to talk about it.”
Oh, come the fuck on. I do love your story, I really do, but there are WAY too many villains than can fight whole droves of the highest powered Heroes and rogues and just get away with it. The Endbringers? Ok, 3 villains to one “Hero” (Scion), sure. But now even MORE of them? Even if Villains are twice as many, there should at least be some semblance of balance, but the completely busted OP villains have a way too big numbers advantage here. There are way more villains than Heroes in DC/Marvel too, but at least there aren’t, like, 7+ “I can crush whole cities and fight 5 “Superman”s at the same time” villains per Hero. Most of the villains can be stopped mano-amano by the Hero, even if it takes a few tries and/or the villain escapes, but there aren’t multiple “Dormamu” or “Ultron” level threats. There are villain teams like Hydra for a reason.
Oh and in case somebody come sout with “but the power is stronger the more dire the awakening event, so those that experianced such fucked up shit are more likely to turn ti villainy” arguement : Yes, that would be true, if not for one simple thing : The more villains, the higher the chance the awakening event happens from a villain doing some fucked up shit, meaning the affected person would be more likely to become a Hero. So while villains MIGHT be in the majority, there should be quite a few Heroes with powers rivaling the Endbringers around. Hell, a whole city blown up by one of them with only few survivors should make the amount of strong Heroes EXPLODE.
Blub on August 12, 2018 at 12:30 said:
What? What does that mean?
Is this supposed to mean that Tattle wanted to tell him about her, but he already did?
And I really loved how Taylore handled bitch. That was well done 🙂 Finally she is getting a bit more serious.
As as side note….
Please tell met that she will order Coil to import some badass insects.
Leave a Reply to casualPhilosoph Cancel reply
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The Tao of physics : »
The Tao of physics: an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism
Capra, Fritjof.
MLK Jr. Magnet - Teen Non-Fiction
530.01 CAP
2000, c1999. 4th ed., updated. Shambhala, 366 p. : ill. ; 23 cm. English
OverDrive Macmillan Audio English
After a quarter of a century in print, Capra's groundbreaking work still challenges and inspires. This updated edition of The Tao of Physics includes a new preface and afterword in which the author reviews the developments of the twenty-five years since the book's first publication, discusses criticisms the book has received, and examines future possibilities for a new scientific world.
Physics -- Philosophy
e0f4bdb9-99e6-6c58-06b7-fd8d89286fcd
tao of physics an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and eastern mysticism
capra fritjof
Capra, Fritjof
MLK Jr. Magnet
Science does not need mysticism and mysticism does not need science, but man needs both. -Fritjof Capra, Ph.D. Their paths to the truth could not be more different-but the amazing thing is that, in their own ways, the mystics and the scientists are discovering the same truths about our world. In non-technical language, with no complex mathematics or formulae, this thought-provoking program explores the main concepts and theories of modern physics, the revelations coming from particle accelerators and laboratories-and compares them with the ancient tenets of Hinduism, Buddhism and Taoism. In the process, we gain a clear and fascinating picture of how such seemingly disparate areas of thought are ultimately quests for the same kind of understanding.
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ils:CARL0000169924|Book|Books|4th ed., updated.|English|Shambhala,|2000, c1999.|366 p. : ill. ; 23 cm., overdrive:49a3dcc1-ee86-455b-be2c-fad49f1e23b9|eAudiobook|Audio Books||English|Macmillan Audio||
overdrive:49a3dcc1-ee86-455b-be2c-fad49f1e23b9 -1 Available Online Available Online false true true false false false
Mysticism, Physics -- Philosophy
The Tao of physics : an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism
The Tao of Physics An Exploration of the Parallels between Modern Physics and Eastern Mysticism, The Tao of physics : an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism / by Fritjof Capra
The Tao of physics :
an exploration of the parallels between modern physics and Eastern mysticism
Mysticism, Nonfiction, Philosophy, Physics, Science
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Modern Military Planes
Gaining exposure in the Korean War, and coming of age in Vietnam, advances in military aircraft, such as the jet engine, have enabled armed forces to fight faster, farther and with fewer lost pilots.
Fokker Dr I Triplane
Albatros D.Va
Recovered 'Lost Squadron' Plane Leads to New Mystery
Focke Wulf Fw 190
F-35As Put to the Test in First-ever 'Elephant Walk'
The U.S. Air Force showed its might during this unprecedented exercise. But why?
By Cherise Threewitt Nov 28, 2018 Aircraft / Modern
How do they deice airplanes?
If you're traveling during the winter time, there's a good chance that your flight may be delayed because the plane needs deicing. Why do they wait until the last minute to do this?
By Karen Kirkpatrick Aircraft / Modern
How Laser-firing Jets Will Work
"Star Wars" at sea? That's sort of the promise of a new generation of laser-firing jets now being developed by the U.S. military.
By Dave Roos Aircraft / Modern
How Drone Strikes Work
We know how drone strikes are supposed to work: After careful monitoring, the bad guy is targeted and taken out. The reality is often much hazier — and deadlier.
By Clint Pumphrey Aircraft / Modern
How No-fly Zones Work
After the airplane was invented, it just took a few decades for the world's despots to realize air power could be used to terrorize civilian populations. Do no-fly zones succeed at protecting the innocent?
By Patrick J. Kiger Aircraft / Modern
Watch Your Six: Military Jet Pictures
Jets are one of the best tools that a military has at its disposal. They’re fast, fierce and effective. From reconnaissance to target engagement, these aircraft are 10 sophisticated assets.
Aircraft / Modern
How Military Flyovers Work
The thrilling roar of fighter jets performing a military flyover is now a common experience at many big events. In fact, the military approves most of the 850 or so flyover requests submitted annually. What does it take to arrange a flyover?
By Jacob Silverman Aircraft / Modern
How the MQ-9 Reaper Works
Early unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) primarily carried out reconnaissance missions in war zones, but the Reaper packs some serious heat. Is there anything more foreboding than a drone with a Hellfire missile?
By Tom Scheve Aircraft / Modern
Mikoyan-Guryevich MiG-15
The Mikoyan-Guryevich MiG-15 was a surprise when it appeared in combat during the Korean War. Read the details of the MiG-15 and learn how it shook the United States aviation industry out of its somewhat complacent state following World War II.
By the Editors of Publications International, Ltd. Aircraft / Modern
McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II
In its first few years, the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II set eight new aviation records, among them altitude (98,557 feet), speed (1,390 mph), and time to climb (9,000 feet in 34.5 seconds). Learn details about this popular and powerful aircraft.
Lockheed F-117A Nighthawk Stealth Fighter
The F-117A is purely an attack aircraft, and lacks the arms and maneuverability for dogfights. The nature of its mission and the characteristics of the aircraft demand extremely skilled, well-trained pilots. Learn about the Nighthawk Stealth fighter.
North American F-86 Sabre
The North American F-86 Sabre was the beneficiary of German research on the advantages of the swept wing for high-speed jet aircraft. Read about the development and details of this amazingly fast and superbly maneuverable single-engine fighter.
Douglas A-4 Skyhawk
The tiny but potent Douglas A-4 Skyhawk remained in continuous production for 25 years, longer than any other warplane. Learn how this tough and nimble fighter came to be famous more for its peacetime activities than for its military accomplishments.
The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress has taken on many roles since its debut in 1952. The plane that started as a high-level nuclear bomber is now being considered for electronic countermeasures. Learn the long history of and specifications for the B-29.
In the 1970s, the Mikoyan-Guryevich MiG-21 was the Soviet equivalent of the McDonnell Douglas F-4 Phantom II. Learn the specifications of the MiG-21, the preferred tactics that the plane used in combat by the Soviets, and its weaknesses in dogfights.
The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird first flew in 1964, and since that time it has remained the world's fastest aircraft. Tanks in the inner wings and upper fuselage carry the 80,000 pounds of special, superheated fuel.
McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle
The McDonnell Douglas F-15 Eagle features a combination of inspired engineering and sophisticated on-board computers. Its large wings and powerful engines give tremendous agility and a remarkable climb rate. Learn about the dominant F-15 Eagle.
The General Dynamics F-16 Fighting Falcon had many advanced features, including a blended wing and fuselage, fly-by-wire controls, splendid visibility, and superb maneuverability. Read specifications and history of the popular F-16 Fighting Falcon.
Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit
The Northrop Grumman B-2 Spirit is known as the most expensive bomber ever, at $2.2 billion each. It has evolved into a low-level weapon to destroy enemy battle potential by using precision-guided munitions. Read about this versatile, pricey bomber.
Grumman EA-6B Prowler
The Grumman EA-6B Prowler is a perfect symbol of the Jet Age's remarkable syntheses of engines, airframes, and electronics. Learn the Prowler's specifications, and how new technologies allow the Prowler and similar planes to stay in operation.
How F/A-22 Raptors Work
As the newest fighter in the U.S. Air Force's aerial arsenal, the F/A-22 Raptor incorporates the latest stealth technology along with a mind-boggling array of weapons and computer systems. Learn about this dual-purpose fighter jet and attack aircraft and see what sets it apart from the F-15.
By Gary Wollenhaupt Aircraft / Modern
How F/A-18s Work
F/A-18s are now the go-to jet for the U.S. Navy and Marine Corps. The reason? They're plenty fast, they can carry a dizzying array of bombs and missiles, they have amazing onboard electronics and they can be reconfigured to accomplish a range of missions. Check out these amazing military machines.
By Robert Valdes Aircraft / Modern
How the Predator UAV Works
The Predator Unmanned Aerial Vehicle exemplifies the military trend toward high-tech, low-risk equipment. This remotely-operated spy plane offers the most bang for the human-safety buck.
How F-15s Work
Floats like a butterfly and stings like a bee -- the F-15 is the Muhammad Ali of the skies. The military has been using this fighter jet since the '70s, and it still outmaneuvers the competition. Find out why this plane has a perfect combat record.
By Tom Harris Aircraft / Modern
How Apache Helicopters Work
An Apache helicopter went down near the Iraqi town of Taji yesterday -- it's the third helicopter to go down in Iraq in 10 days.
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CREATED 3/2/2010
Edward P (Ed) Beauchemin
(misspelled Beauchmin)
An in-house corporate lobbyist for Philip Morris who worked in the Southern States, mainly Texas, but also in Oklahoma. He was intimately involved with the corporate corruption of politicians and closely associated with the activities of Andrew Whist.
• There are 7237 refs to Beauchemins in the tobacco documents: some are to to M and N (McGill Uni). EP and E Beauchemin number 6,164
1997: He is on the Tobacco Institute's list of lobbyists in Southern USA .
1997 Feb 11: He is at a third middle manager level on the PM Corporate Affairs staff, and receives budget information.
1997: He is on the Tobacco Institute's list of lobbyists in Southern USA along with: Stewart Bell, Ed Beauchemin, Joe Bell, Stan Boman, Bill Brady, Eric Donaldson, Ron Fuller, Earl Jones, Jr., Mario Munoz, Henry Stokes, and J. J. Vigneault.
Little Rock Arkasas has just enacted an ordinance which penalises anyone who sells tobacco products to people under 18. They also impose advertising and marketing restrictions and impose a licensing fee.
1997 July 9: Lunch meeting with [Republican] Governor Frank Keating from Oklahoma who has "graciously agreed to have lunch with us in his official capacity as Governor in an effort to 'get to know' the people at Philip Morris."
Governor Keating's term has been marked by a significant emphasis on shaping the state to fit the needs of business. In Oklahoma City, Keating has heavyhanded support from the Gaylord-owned newspaper The Daily Oklahoman for an aggressive and conservative pro-business agenda. In Oklahoma City, Keating has heavyhanded support from the Gaylord-owned newspaper The Daily Oklahoman for an aggressive and conservative pro-business agenda.
Guests included:
Tom Cole, Oklahoma Secretary of State. who was a professional lobbyist and still has a lobbying company. He is President of Cole, Hargrave, Snodgrass and Associates (CHS). CHS specializes in strategic planning, survey research, marketing, and public relations.
Scott Reed who was a Philip Morris Washington DC 'consultant' (political lobbyist) who works for Chesapeake Associates. He was the former 1996 Dole for President Campaign Manager.
PM Staff:
Ed Beauchemin, Regional Director, Government Affairs
Kirk Blalock, Corporate Affairs Associate
Tom Collamore, VP Public Affairs
Phil Davis, VP, Corporate Relations Programs
George Knox, VP, Corporate Affairs Strategy & Communications
Rosemary Ripley, VP, Corporate Business Development
Ralph Rogers, Director, Financial and Political Analysis
Tim Sompolski, Senior VP, Human Resources and Administration
Andrew Whist, Senior VP, External Affairs
1997 Aug 4: "Tobacco Funded Groups give Legislators Free Trips:" The Wall Street Journal's expose of Andrew Whist's fake New York Society (NYSIA) and its relationship to Philip Morris's lobbying efforts says:
That shadowy figure on the Costa Rica trip was Ed Beauchemin, a highpprofile Philip Morris lobbyuist in Austin, Texas. Two Texas state legislators also made the trip.
The article also mentions Kevin Callahan as a Director of the society who works under Whist.
[Note that Philip Morris has received a copy of this story directly from the typesetter (before it made it into the newspaper) and that a copy was sent on 19 December to the law firm Hunton & Williams]
CONTRIBUTORS:samf in22 srs2
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PRACE offers access to Europe’s fastest Supercomputers
Brussels, Belgium. The most powerful supercomputers in Europe are offered to European researchers in academia and industry, as the PRACE Research Infrastructure launched the third call for access to its resources on May 2nd, 2011. In this call, a total of 3 Tier-0 supercomputers at the highest performance level are available for applicants plus 17 national Tier-1 systems, via a synchronized DECI call.
Only one year ago, at the end of a successful EC-funded preparatory phase project, PRACE was created as one of the first Research Infrastructures listed on the ESFRI roadmap and started to provide high-end (Tier-0) supercomputer resources and services to the European scientific communities. Since then, it has managed to increase the aggregated capability of its Tier-0 systems by more than a factor of 3. In addition to the access to Europe’s fastest supercomputers, PRACE offers also support for the preparation and optimisation of applications. This important element of the PRACE offer is supported through EC-funded implementation phase projects.
The latest Tier-0 system, “HERMIT” is available for researchers in this call for the first time. HERMIT is a Cray XE6 system, and will be installed in fall 2011 at the Gauss Centre for Supercomputing (GCS) partner HLRS (High Performance Center of University Stuttgart) and has a current peak performance of 1 Petaflop/s. This first installation step is to be followed by a 4-5 Petaflop/s second step in 2013.
Also, the 1 Petaflop/s IBM BlueGene/P system, JUGENE, hosted by the GCS partner Jülich Supercomputing Centre (JSC), Germany and the Bull Bullx cluster CURIE hosted by GENCI partner CEA at Bruyères-Le-Châtel, France are available for European reseachers in the third PRACE call. CURIE will reach peak performance over 1.6 Petaflop/s in its second installation phase in October 2011. The phase 1 system has been available for PRACE since January 2011.
Seventeen different Tier-1 systems are also available for European researchers in this call. This is the first time the European Tier-1 resources are available for use through a PRACE call. The Tier-1 resources were previously provided by DEISA (Distributed European Infrastructure for Supercomputing Applications) in so called DECI calls, now part of PRACE.
The Tier-1 systems provided by the PRACE RI are the following:
Cray XT4/5/6 and Cray XE6 – three large Cray XE and XT systems at EPCC (UK), KTH (Sweden) and CSC (Finland).
IBM Blue Gene/P – three BG/P systems at IDRIS (France), RZG (Germany) and NCSA (Bulgaria).
IBM Power 6 – three IBM Power 6 systems at RZG (Germany), SARA (The Netherlands) and CINECA (Italy).
Eight clusters at FZJ (Germany, Bull Nehalem cluster), LRZ (Germany, Xeon cluster), HLRS (Germany, NEC Nehalem cluster plus GP/GPU cluster), CINES (France, SGI ICE 8200), BSC (Spain, IBM PowerPC), CINECA (Italy, Westmere plus GP/GPU cluster), PSNC (Poland, Bullx plus GP/GPU cluster and HP cluster) and ICHEC (Ireland, SGI ICE 8200).
Commission Vice-President for the Digital Agenda Neelie Kroes said: “PRACE is proving to be the European supercomputer infrastructure. PRACE is a key driver for the development of European science and technology and provides vital support to researchers addressing the major challenges of our time like climate change, energy saving and the ageing population."
PRACE Council Chair Achim Bachem said: "PRACE is now opening a call every six months. In the last year the calls awarded already more than 27 European proposals with needs of Tier-0 capabilities with more than a billion core hours. In this call, HERMIT the new HPC system at Gauss Centre in Stuttgart, will be available to users and the coordination and interoperation of PRACE with Tier-1 is initiated with the Pilot Call for the national systems.”
The third call closes on 22 June, 2011, to be followed by other regular calls. There is also a continuous preparatory access call for the PRACE RI Tier-0 resources.
The PRACE RI will be boosted by an IBM 3 Petaflop/s Tier-0 system called “SuperMUC” by the GCS partner LRZ (Leibniz Supercomputing Centre in Munich), available in mid 2012. Further Tier-0 installments to the PRACE RI will be procured in Italy and Spain.
More information about PRACE calls and application forms are available at: www.prace-ri.eu/hpc-access
More information about the PRACE RI Tier-0 systems:
http://www2.fz-juelich.de/jsc/jugene
http://www-hpc.cea.fr/en/complexe/tgcc-curie.htm
http://www.hlrs.de/systems/platforms/cray-xe6-hermit
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Astrid the unstoppable
Parr, Maria, 1981- author.
Puzey, Guy, translator.
Harnett, Katie, illustrator.
"Speed and self-confidence, that's Astrid's motto. Nicknamed "the little thunderbolt," she loves to spend her days racing down the hillside on her skis or sled, singing merrily as she goes, and drinking hot chocolate made from real chocolate bars with her grumpy best friend and godfather, Gunnvald. She just wishes there were other children to share in her hair-raising adventures. But her world is about to be turned upside down, first by the arrival of a family with children to her village, and then by a mysterious woman whom everyone but Astrid seems to know. Gunnvald has been keeping a big secret from her --one that will test their friendship. Astrid isn't happy about all the changes in Glimmerdal. Luckily, she has a plan to set things right."-- Jacket.
306 pages : illustrations, map ; 19 cm
Girls -- Juvenile fiction.
Rural children -- Juvenile fiction.
Children and adults -- Juvenile fiction.
Sledding -- Juvenile fiction.
Norway -- Juvenile fiction.
Puzey, Guy,
Harnett, Katie,
Candlewick Press,
Somerville, Massachusetts : Candlewick Press, [2018]
J PARR
33607003401174 New Juvenile Fiction PARR
Pippi Longstocking meets Heidi meets Anne Shirley in this tale of an irrepressible girl in a mountain village who navigates unexpected changes with warmth and humor.
Speed and self-confidence, that's Astrid's motto. Nicknamed "the little thunderbolt," she loves to spend her days racing down the hillside on her sled, singing loudly as she goes, and visiting Gunnvald, her grumpy, septuagenarian best friend and godfather, who makes hot chocolate from real chocolate bars. She just wishes there were other children to share her hair-raising adventures with. But Astrid's world is about to be turned upside down by two startling arrivals to the village of Glimmerdal: first a new family, then a mysterious, towering woman who everyone seems to know but Astrid. It turns out that Gunnvald has been keeping a big secret from his goddaughter, one that will test their friendship to its limits. Astrid is not too happy about some of these upheavals in Glimmerdal -- but, luckily, she has a plan to set things right.
Maria Parr is the author of Adventures with Waffles, which has been translated into twenty-six languages and made into a children's TV series in Norway. Astrid the Unstoppable has been translated into nineteen languages and adapted for the stage. Maria Parr lives in Norway with her family.
Guy Puzey grew up in the Highlands of Scotland, just a short swim away from Norway. He now works at the University of Edinburgh as a teacher of Scandinavian linguistic history, children's literature, and literary translation.
At nine years old, free-range Astrid Glimmerdal has the whole wide world (or at least her tiny Norwegian town) "in front of her skis." As the only child around, the small songstress ("It is important to sing when you're skiing") has to get creative about finding friends-her best friend is her 74-year-old godfather, Gunnvald-but she's managed to turn Mr. Hagen, the owner of Hagen's Wellness Retreat who's more fond of quiet than of children, into her nemesis. As she speeds toward her 10th birthday, Astrid discovers that her beloved Gunnvald has a secret, a daughter she doesn't know about, that may change her view of the world forever. Imbued with a Scandinavian sensibility, this novel by Parr (Adventures with Waffles) presents fun alongside concepts such as death, physical distance between friends, and estrangement in an age-appropriate format, and both encourages readers to question new ideas and offers a fertile foundation for imagination. Fans of Pippi Longstocking and the Moomins will delight in Parr's indomitable Astrid. Ages 7-10. (Nov.) © Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
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Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG points out to the buyer that the data collected within the scope of concluding a contract are collected, processed and used by Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG in accordance with the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG), (GDPR) and the Teleservices Data Protection Act (TDDSG) to fulfil the obligations arising from the purchase agreement. These data may also be transmitted to commissioned and carefully selected partners (e.g. mail order companies) in accordance with Sect. 11 BDSG for the purpose of credit checks or to fulfil our contractual obligations. Your data will only be used for the stated purpose and will not be passed on to unauthorized third parties.
Information, correction, revocation or deletion of your personal data stored by us
For further questions on the subject of data protection, please send an e-mail to: datenschutz@warwick.de. You can obtain information about your personal data stored by us at any time or change or correct them. You may also revoke your consent to the collection and storage of your data, if given, or have these data deleted. Please contact us in writing:
Warwick GmbH& Co Musik Equipment KG
Attn. Data Protection Officer
08258 Markneukirchen
Telephone (037422) 555-0
Fax (037422) 555-9999
or by sending an e-mail to: datenschutz@warwick.de.
Please note that we may be obliged by law to store certain data for the duration of the statutory period.
For the creation of access statistics, your IP address, the URL of the page you accessed, the referrer (the previous page from which you were referred to the currently accessed page), as well as date and time of access are recorded when you access our homepage.
These data are only used internally to generate access statistics and is not passed on to third parties. You can object to this use in accordance with Sect. 15 (3) Telemedia Act (TMG) by sending an e-mail to datenschutz@warwick.de. Please tell us your IP address and the exact time of your access to our pages. We will then delete the corresponding entries from our log files.
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The tracking measures listed below and used by us are carried out on the basis of Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. f GDPR. With the tracking measures used, we want to ensure that our website is designed in line with requirements and continuously optimised. On the other hand, we use the tracking measures to statistically record and evaluate the use of our website in order to optimise our offer for you. These interests are deemed to be justified within the meaning of the aforementioned regulation.
The respective data processing purposes and data categories can be found in the corresponding tracking tools.
b) Google Analytics1
We use Google Analytics, a web analysis service provided by Google Inc. (https://www.google.de/intl/de/about/) (1600 Amphitheatre Parkway, Mountain View, CA 94043, USA; hereinafter 'Google') for the purpose of tailoring our website to meet your needs and continually optimising the site. In this context, pseudonymised user profiles are created and cookies (see point 4) are used. The information generated by the cookie about your use of this website such as
• Browser type/version,,
• Operating system used,
• Referrer URL (the previously visited page),
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• Time of the server request,
are transferred to a Google server in the US and stored there. The information is used to evaluate the use of the website, to compile reports about website activities and to provide other services related to website and Internet usage for market research purposes and the design of these Internet pages according to requirements. This information may also be transferred to third parties where required to do so by law or where third parties are contracted to process these data. Under no circumstances will your IP address be collated with other Google data. The IP addresses are anonymised so that your identity cannot be traced (IP masking). You can prevent the use of cookies by selecting the appropriate settings in your browser; however, please note that if you do so you may not be able to fully use all functions of this website. In addition, you may prevent the collection of data (including your IP address) generated by the cookie and relating to your use of the website and the processing of your personal data by Google by downloading and installing a browser add-on (https://tools.google.com/dlpage/gaoptout?hl=de). As an alternative to the browser add-on, in particular for browsers on mobile devices, you can also prevent the use of Google Analytics by clicking on this link. An opt-out cookie is placed on your device to prevent your data from being collected in the future when you visit this website. The opt-out cookie applies only to this browser and only to our website and is placed on your device. If you delete the cookies in this browser, you will need to place the opt-out cookie again. Further information on data protection in connection with Google Analytics can be found, for example, in Google Analytics help (https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/ 6004245?hl=de).
c) Google Adwords Conversion Tracking
We also use Google Conversion Tracking to record the use of our website statistically and to evaluate it for the purpose of optimising our website for you. Google Adwords places a cookie (see point 4) on your computer if you have reached our website via a Google advertisement. These cookies expire after 30 days and are not used for personal identification. If the user visits certain pages of the Adwords customer's website and the cookie has not yet expired, Google and the customer can recognize that the user clicked on the ad and was redirected to this page. Data protection authorities require Google Analytics to conclude a contract data processing agreement for the use of Google Analytics to be permitted. Google provides an appropriate template at http://www.google.com/analytics/terms/de.pdf. Each Adwords customer receives a different cookie. Cookies can therefore not be traced via the websites of Adwords customers. The information collected with the help of the conversion cookie is used to generate conversion statistics for Adwords customers who have opted for conversion tracking. Adwords customers find out the total number of users who clicked on their ad and were directed to a page tagged with a conversion tracking tag. However, they will receive no information with which users can be personally identified. If you do not wish to participate in the tracking process, you can also refuse to have a cookie placed as required for this purpose - for example, by setting your browser so that the automatic placement of cookies is generally deactivated. You can also deactivate cookies for conversion tracking by setting your browser so that cookies from the domain "www.googleadservices.com" are blocked. Google's Privacy Policy for Conversion Tracking can be found here (https://services.google.com/sitestats/de.html).
d) Social Media Plug-ins
We use social plug-ins of the social networks Facebook, Twitter and Instagram on our website on the basis of Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. f GDPR to promote our brand. The underlying advertising purpose is deemed to be a legitimate interest within the meaning of the GDPR. The responsibility for ensuring that operations are in compliance with the regulation lies with the respective providers. We have integrated these plug-ins by way of the so-called two-click method in order to protect visitors of our website in the best possible way.
aa) Facebook
Social media plugins from Facebook are used on our website to make their use more personal. To do so we use the "LIKE" or "SHARE" button. This is an offer from Facebook. If you call up a page on our website that contains such a plugin, your browser establishes a direct connection with the Facebook servers. The content of the plugin is transmitted directly from Facebook to your browser, which integrates it into the website.
By integrating the plugins, Facebook receives the information that your browser has called up the corresponding page of our website, even if you do not have a Facebook account or are currently not logged into Facebook. This information (including your IP address) is transferred directly from your browser to a Facebook server in the US and stored there. If you are logged into Facebook, Facebook can directly allocate your visit to our website with your Facebook account. If you interact with the plugins, for example by clicking on the "LIKE" or "SHARE" button, the corresponding information is also transmitted directly to a Facebook server and stored there. The information is also published on Facebook and displayed to your Facebook friends. Facebook may use this information for purposes of advertising, market research and tailoring Facebook Pages to your needs. To this end, Facebook creates usage, interest and relationship profiles, e.g. to evaluate your use of our website with regard to the advertisements displayed to you on Facebook, to inform other Facebook users about your activities on our website and to provide other services associated with the use of Facebook. If you do not want Facebook to allocate the information collected through our website to your Facebook account, you must log out of Facebook before visiting our website. To know more about the purpose and scope of the data collection and the further processing and use of the data by Facebook and your rights and settings to protect your privacy, please refer to Facebook's privacy policy (https://www.facebook.com/about/privacy/).
bb) Twitter
We have integrated plugins of Twitter Inc. (Twitter) on our website. You will recognize the Twitter plugins (tweet button) by the Twitter logo on our site. You can find an overview of tweet buttons here (https://about.twitter.com/resources/buttons). If you access a page of our website that contains such a plugin, a direct connection will be established between your browser and the Twitter server. Twitter then receives the information that you have visited our site with your IP address. If you click the Twitter "tweet" button while logged into your Twitter account, you can link the content of our pages to your Twitter profile. This allows Twitter to allocate the visit to our pages to your user account. We would like to point out that, as the provider of the pages, we do not have any knowledge of the content of the data transmitted or its use by Twitter. If you do not want Twitter to be able to allocate visits to our pages, please log out of your Twitter user account. For further information on this, please refer to Twitter's privacy policy (https://twitter.com/privacy).
Legal notice regarding the protected contents
The contents and structure of this website are protected by copyright. Any duplication, distribution, publication, modification, provision for third parties or editing of all contents and structural elements, in particular texts, text parts, images, graphics, animations and design elements, shall require the express prior consent of Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG, provided and to the extent that the contents and structural elements are capable of being protected under German law, in particular German copyright law. In particular, the transfer to other websites shall require the aforementioned consent. Only the private, non-commercial use of the contents and structural elements without their processing at one workstation is permitted without consent. Surrender of use: All information, documents and illustrations published on this website are the sole property of Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG. Permission to use them is subject to the proviso that the copyright notice appears on all copies, the information is used for personal purposes only and is not used commercially, the information is not changed in any way and all illustrations of the website are only used together with the associated text.
Liability for external contents
Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG regularly checks and updates the contents of this website. Despite all diligence, changes may occur in the meantime. Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG is not responsible for the contents of other websites that the user accesses by activating a link.
Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG points out to the buyer that the data collected within the scope of concluding a contract are collected, processed and used by Warwick GmbH & Co Music Equipment KG in accordance with the Federal Data Protection Act (BDSG) and the Teleservices Data Protection Act (TDDSG) to fulfil the obligations arising from the purchase agreement. These data may also be transmitted to commissioned and carefully selected partners in accordance with Sect. 11 BDSG for the purpose of credit checks.
Transfer of personal data to third parties
We will only pass on your personal data to third parties if this is necessary to deliver the products or services you have ordered and subsequently is permissible for the necessary purposes under the provisions of the GDPR, if you have given us your consent to do so or if the transfer is otherwise permitted by relevant statutory provisions. Your personal data will not be transferred to third parties for purposes other than those listed below.
We will only pass on your personal data to third parties if:
you have given your express consent in accordance with Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. a GDPR,
the disclosure is necessary pursuant to Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. f GDPR for the assertion, exercise or defence of legal claims and there is no reason to assume that you have an overriding legitimate interest in not disclosing your data,
in the event that there is a legal obligation to pass on the data pursuant to Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. c GDPR, and
this is legally permissible and required for the execution of contractual relationships with you pursuant to Art. 6 (1) sentence 1 lit. GDPR.
Data protection notice of Klarna
Klarna checks and evaluates your data and maintains an exchange of data with other companies and business information agencies if there is a legitimate reason for doing so. Your personal data are treated in accordance with the applicable data protection regulations and as stated in Klarna's data protection regulations for Germany and Austria.
to request information about your personal data processed by us in accordance with Art. 15 GDPR. In particular, you may request information about the processing purposes, the category of personal data, the categories of recipients to whom your data have been or will be disclosed, the planned storage period, the existence of a right of rectification, deletion, restriction of processing or objection, the existence of a right of complaint, the origin of your data unless they have been collected from us, as well as the existence of an automated decision-making process including profiling and, if applicable, meaningful information on its details;
to immediately request the correction of incorrect or incomplete personal data stored by us in accordance with Art. 16 GDPR;
to demand the deletion of your personal data stored by us in accordance with Art. 17 GDPR, unless processing is necessary for the exercise of the right to freedom of expression and information, for the fulfilment of a legal obligation, for reasons of public interest or for the assertion, exercise or defence of legal claims;
to demand the restriction of the processing of your personal data in accordance with Art. 18 GDPR if the accuracy of the data is disputed by you, the processing is unlawful, but you refuse its deletion and we no longer need the data, but you need the data to assert, exercise or defend legal claims or you have lodged an objection against the processing in accordance with Art. 21 GDPR;
to receive your personal data which you have provided to us in a structured, common and machine-readable format or to request transmission to another responsible person in accordance with Art. 20 GDPR;
to revoke your consent you once gave at any time in accordance with Art 7 (3) GDPR. This has the consequence that in future we may not continue the data processing, which was based on this consent, and
to lodge a complaint with a supervisory authority according to Art. 77 GDPR.
or send an e-mail to datenschutz@warwick.de.
We use appropriate technical and organizational security measures to protect your data against accidental or intentional manipulation, partial or complete loss, destruction or against unauthorized access by third parties. Our security measures are being continuously improved in line with technological developments.
Date and amendment of this privacy policy
This privacy policy is currently valid as of December 2018. It may become necessary to change this privacy policy as a result of the further development of our website and offers provided on it or due to changed legal or official requirements. You can call up and print out the current privacy policy at any time on the website https://shop.warwick.de/privacy.htm
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NCNN/Real Estate
Pahrump NV
Stay out of the Broad wildfire burn area in rural Nevada
The Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest’s Austin-Tonopah Ranger District is asking the public to please stay out of the areas burned in the Broad Fire.
Corrine Dowers/Special to the Times-Bonanza A look at the Broad Fire near Round Mountain in July. The blaze burned more than 500 acres.
Not only is the fire not contained, there are many hazards including damaged trees that are prone to falling; rolling rocks; and smoldering stumps, the Forest Service said in a statement last week.
Public safety is our number one concern,” said Bill Panagopoulos, central zone fire management officer. “Wildfires dramatically alter the terrain and ground conditions.”
Panagopoulos added that one of the district’s biggest concerns is the risk of floods and slides from significant rain storms before vegetation regrows to hold the soil. Normally, vegetation absorbs rainfall, reducing runoff. However, wildfires leave the ground charred, barren, and unable to absorb water, creating conditions ripe for flash flooding and mudflow.
The district is working collaboratively with Nye County and U.S. Bureau of Land Management on numerous fire-recovery fronts, including efforts to protect the integrity of the Fremont Route road (between Hadley and Carvers, Nevada) in case flooding does occur.
The lightning-caused Broad Fire started on July 17 is located by Round Mountain near Austin and Tonopah, Nevada.
The fire was aerially mapped at 522 acres and is still 50 percent contained.
Posted on: News
Former Nye County Sheriff DeMeo passes away at age 67
Pahrump man’s death linked by authorities to California earthquake
Reward for info on pool vandalism in Pahrump
Tonopah family to appear in TV series about turquoise
Pahrump man is facing firearm-related charges
Nye County responds to DA employee termination
By Jeffrey Meehan Pahrump Valley Times
A complaint filed against Nye County with the state-run Nevada Local Government Employee’Management Relations Board is set to move onto a hearing in early December—barring a resolution in an August settlement conference.
Opportunity opens for young adults seeking high-tech careers in Nevada
Recent high school graduates, high school students that are at least 18 and post-secondary students in Nevada dreaming big of entering careers in some of state’s emerging industries could get a chance to meet the people already living the reality in sectors such as mining, urban farming, advanced manufacturing and other fields.
Emergency calls: Pahrump Valley crews respond to fires, motorcycle crash
By Selwyn Harris Pahrump Valley Times
It was a very busy past few weeks for area fire crews as they responded to numerous emergency service calls.
Nye County District Attorney’s Report
Special to the Pahrump Valley Times
Editor’s note: The Nye County District Attorney’s Report is provided by the office of DA Chris Arabia. Plans call for it to be provided on a monthly basis as the information becomes available. Duplicate names represent separate cases.
By David Jacobs Pahrump Valley Times
A $500 reward is in place for information leading to the arrest and prosecution of the person/people responsible for vandalism that closed Pahrump’s Community Swimming Pool for four days starting on Independence Day, a government official said Wednesday.
California Lottery
No one matched all five numbers and the mega number in the Wednesday, July 10 drawing of the California Super Lotto. The next jackpot will be at least $61 million.
By Robin Hebrock Pahrump Valley Times
Former Nye County Sheriff and well-known local figure Tony DeMeo passed away on Tuesday, July 9 at the age of 67.
Possible earthquake link in Pahrump man’s death
The death of a Pahrump resident may be related to an earthquake last week near Ridgecrest, California, according to the Nye County Sheriff’s Office.
VEA to deliberate net metering policy at upcoming meeting
Editor’s note: This is Part 1 of a look at Valley Electric Association’s possible restructuring of its net metering policy.
Back to School Health Fair set for new location in Pahrump
It may seem as if the summer vacation for Nye County students has only just begun but, with just one month left until children head back to their academic pursuits, it is already time for parents to begin readying their students for the return to school.
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Julien Doré
Julien Doré Concert Films Julien Doré Top Tracks Related Artists Top Tracks on Qello
Julien Doré Concert Films
Løve Live
Løve is the third studio album by French singer Julien Doré, released through Columbia/Sony BMG in 2013. The album peaked at number four on the French Album Chart.
Julien Doré / 2 hr 12 min
Julien Doré Top Tracks
Mon apache
Løve Live / Julien Doré / 06:01
London nous aime
Femme Like U
Platini
Corbeau blanc
En Tete a Tete: L'Integrale De Bercy
-M- gained international exposure through his recording of the song "Belleville Rendez-vous" for the soundtrack of the 2003 Sylvain Chomet animated film The Triplets of Belleville in both French and English. The song, with lyrics by Chomet and music by Benoit Charest, was nominated for a 2003 Academy Award. The music video for "Belleville Rendez-vous" uses both a live-action depiction of ‑M- and an animated depiction incorporated into footage from the film.
Je Veux Du Bonheur
Christophe Maé
The live performance of Christophe Maé recorded at the Paris Theater.
Christophe Maé / 1 hr 30 min
Bruel Barbara: Le Châtelet
"Bruel Barbara - Le Châtelet" is the 9th live album by Patrick Bruel released on December 2, 2016 at Columbia. The recorded show is part of the tour solely dedicated to Barbara. Only four of the songs are from Patrick Bruel’s own repertoire, essentially to evoke his own childhood or youth.
Black City Tour
Indochine is a French pop/rock and new wave band, formed in Paris in 1981. The Black City Tour, took place in three phases in 2013 and 2014 and includes performances of the most fan-appreciated songs.
Indochine / 3 hr 36 min
Les nuits paraît-il
Christophe Willem among the myriad young singers launched to fame via the reality TV phenomenon of the early 21st century.
Christophe Willem / 2 hr 48 min
Of Dirt and Grace
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The Meaning Machine
Posted on April 27 by algekalipso
Excerpt from Every Cradle Is a Grave: Rethinking the Ethics of Birth and Suicide (2014) by Sarah Perry
Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Superduper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life’s experiences?
– Robert Nozick, Anarchy, State, and Utopia
I believe that we should be very cautious about creating conscious beings, and I believe that the ideal number of conscious beings (and perhaps even living beings) in the universe is probably zero, for the good of those beings themselves.
Since suffering and misery are inescapable parts of life, if we are to justify creating life there must be something that outweighs suffering and misery within the space of universal judgements. Candidates generally fall into two categories. The first category is essentially hedonist: pleasure or good experiences are said to outnumber or outweigh bad experiences. This is the objection Bryan Caplan is making with his Free Disposal argument, discussed in the first chapter; assuming preferentism (that people choose what is good for them), and assuming that people have free choice in the relevant arenas, people would merely commit suicide if it were not true that the pleasure of life outweighs the suffering. And since only a million people per year commit suicide, creating life is obviously the right choice. A more subtle variation of this argument does not rely on suicide, but on a sort of imaginary survey: most people would probably report that their lives are worth living, that the good outweighs the bad, and therefore it must.
The second category of responses is that there is something valuable and meaningful about life that makes it worth living even if the bad vastly outweighs the good. In the previous chapter, we explored and categorized some of the things that people find meaningful, noting how these change according to circumstance and over time. One of the most salient features of the things that make life seem meaningful is that they frequently rely on illusion: the illusion of unchanging permanence, of a future state of happiness, of one’s ability to affect the world. It is my view that the sense of meaningfulness is itself an illusion, a cognitive phenomenon that is very adaptive for individuals and groups. This illusion is maintained by communities in order to organize the behavior of individuals, in part by easing their suffering.
One response to this is to counter that meaning is not an illusion- that there is real value in the world beyond what is experienced by living beings. Unfortunately, the proposed real and true meanings are often difficult to express in words to others who do not sense their truth. The feeling that life is meaningful is a pre-rational sensory perception that is widely shared. However, the specific meanings that people find satisfying and convincing are disparate and often contradictory. These underlying realities should make us question whether the sense that life is meaningful- or that some specific meaning can be found in life- is a true observation, or merely an illusion. The very adaptiveness of this belief, even if it were not true, must also make us suspect its veracity. The meaning realist has the further problem that no specific meaning is held by a majority of humanity; if there is one true meaning, then whatever it is, the majority of people’s lives go very badly because they do not perceive it.
Another response is that while meanings vary, it is enough that almost everyone finds some meaning in life. In other words, that sense that life is meaningful is enough to justify life, and the myriad meanings found and elaborated by individuals are all, in fact, the meaning of life. This seems to be the most common position articulated in modern post-Christian Western societies: if a person finds his life to be meaningful, then it is meaningful- even if different people find contradictory meanings in life. One person might find a sense of meaning in fighting for equality, another in ethno-nationalism, and they are both right.
This second response is actually a variation on hedonism, in that the experience of meaning, rather than the experience of pleasure, provides value. According to this view, a life of overwhelming suffering but with a deep experience of meaning might be better than a life of joy and pleasure that is internally felt to be meaningless. But ultimately, divorced from the meaning realism of the first response, this grounds meaning in subjective experience; the sense of meaning becomes another form of pleasure. The modern ideas that it is up to each individual to find meaning in life, and that this meaning justifies life, means accepting a meaning-based Experience Machine.
The things that we find to be meaningful are, in fact, miniature Experience Machines. They rely on illusion and filter the information that reaches us so that we may continue to feel that life is meaningful, or continue to search for meaning in life if it is missing. They are very useful; they help us organize our behavior, coordinate with others, and manage our emotions. In a practical sense they often make the suffering of life bearable; but, once they are recognized to be illusions, they cannot justify suffering in an abstract sense any more than pleasure can.
We need not jump into a Nozickian Experience Machine to get pleasure and a sense of meaning from intricate illusions. The Reverse Experience Machine experiment is close to the illusion we find ourselves in- if we found out we were in an Experience Machine already, would we choose to leave it for the real world? Institutions, religions, social communities, and even individual people function as Experience Machines, creating and maintaining illusions that help us feel that life is worthwhile. A meaning realist would reject the Experience Machine, but to be consistent he must also reject those aspects of life that use illusion or information filters to provide meaning. A meaning subjectivist has little ground to reject the Experience Machine. This has implications for the justification of life’s misery based on meaningfulness.
Excerpt from SUPERHAPPINESS: Ten Objections To Radical Mood-Enrichment by David Pearce
The ‘EXPERIENCE MACHINE’ objection [to engineering superhappiness with genetic technologies]
According to this objection, the prospect of “artificially” ratcheting up our hedonic set-point via biotech interventions just amounts to a version of Harvard University philosopher Robert Nozick’s hypothetical Experience Machine. Recall the short section of Anarchy, State, and Utopia (1974) where Nozick purportedly refutes ethical hedonism by asking us to imagine a utopian machine that can induce experiences of anything at all in its users at will. A full-blown Experience Machine will presumably provide superauthenticity too: its users might even congratulate themselves on having opted to remain plugged into the real world – having wisely rejected the blandishments of Experience Machine evangelists and their escapist fantasies. At any rate, given this hypothetical opportunity to witness all our dreams coming true, then most of us wouldn’t take it. Our rejection shows that we value far more than mere experiences. Sure, runs this objection, millennial neuroscience may be able to create experiences millions of times more wonderful than anything open to Darwinian minds. But so what? It’s mind-independent facts in the real world that matter – and matter in some sense to us – not false happiness.
POSSIBLE RESPONSE
This Objection isn’t fanciful. In future, technologies akin to Experience Machines will probably be technically feasible, perhaps combining immersive VR, neural nanobots and a rewiring of the pleasure centres. Such technologies may conceivably become widely available or even ubiquitous – though whether their global use could ever be sociologically and evolutionarily stable for a whole population is problematic. [If you do think Experience Machines may become ubiquitous, then you might wonder (shades of the Simulation Argument) whether statistically you’re most probably plugged into one already. This hypothesis is more compelling if you’re a life-loving optimist who thinks you’re living in the best of all possible worlds than if you’re a depressive Darwinian convinced you’re living in the unspeakably squalid basement.]
However, feasible or otherwise, Experience Machines aren’t the kind of hedonic engineering technology we’re discussing here. Genetically recalibrating our hedonic treadmill at progressively more exalted settings needn’t promote the growth of escapist fantasy worlds. Measured, incremental increase in normal hedonic tone can allow (post-)humans to engage with the world – and each other – no less intimately than before; and possibly more so. By contrast, it’s contemporary social anxiety disorders and clinical depression that are associated with behavioural suppression and withdrawal. Other things being equal, a progressively happier population will also be more socially involved – with each other and with consensus reality. At present, it’s notable that the happiest people tend to lead the fullest social lives; conversely, depressives tend to be lonely and socially isolated. Posthuman mental superhealth may indeed be inconceivably different from the world of the happiest beings alive today: meaning-saturated and vibrantly authentic to a degree we physiologically can’t imagine. Yet this wonderful outcome won’t be – or at least it needn’t be – explicable because our descendants are escapists plugged into Experience Machines, but instead because posthuman life is intrinsically wonderful.
Perhaps. The above response to the Experience Machine objection is simplistic. It oversimplifies the issues because for a whole range of phenomena, there is simply no mind-independent fact of the matter that could potentially justify Experience Machine-style objections – and deter the future use of Experience Machine-like technologies for fear of our losing touch with Reality. Compare, say, mathematical beauty with artistic beauty. If you are a mathematician, then you want not merely to experience the epiphany of solving an important equation or devising an elegant proof of a mathematical theorem. You also want that solution or proof to be really true in some deep platonic sense. But if you create, say, a sculpture or a painting, then its beauty (or conversely, its ugliness) is inescapably in the eye of the beholder; there is no mind-independent truth beyond the subjective response of one’s audience. For an aesthete who longs to experience phenomenal beauty, there simply isn’t any fact of the matter beyond the quality of experience itself. The beauty is no less real, and it certainly seems to be a fact of the world; but it is subjective. If so, then why not create the substrates of posthuman superbeauty rather than mere artistic prettiness?
There’s also a sense in which our brains already are (dysfunctional) Experience Machines. Consider dreaming. Should one take drugs to suppress REM sleep because our dreams aren’t true? Or when awake, should one’s enjoyment of a beautiful sunset be dimmed by the knowledge that secondary properties like colour are mind-dependent? [Quantum theory suggests that classical macroscopic “primary” properties as normally conceived are mind-dependent too; but that’s another story] If you had been born a monochromat who sees the world only in different shades of grey, then as a hard-nosed scientific rationalist, should you reject colour vision gene therapy on the grounds that phenomenal colours are fake – and grass isn’t intrinsically green? No, by common consent visual experience enriches us, even if, strictly speaking, we are creating reality rather than simulating and/or perceiving it. Or to give another example: what if neural enhancement technologies could controllably modify our aesthetic filters so we could see 80-year-old women as sexier than 20-year-old women? Is this perception false or inauthentic? Intuitively, perhaps so. But actually, the perception is no more or less authentic than seeing 20-year-old women of prime reproductive potential as sexier. Evolution has biased our existing perceptual filters in ways that maximised the inclusive fitness of our genes in the ancestral environment; but in future, we can optimise the well-being of their bodily vehicles (i.e. us). Gradients of well-being billions of times richer than anything humans experience are neither more nor less genuine than the greenness of grass (or the allure of Marilyn Monroe). Could such states become as common as grass? Again, I suspect so; but speculation is cheap.
Sarah Perry argues that we already live in a meaning-based Experience Machine. David Pearce reminds us that our experience of the world is itself just a phenomenal representation of a mind-independent quantum mess, and that what makes us feel good or bad is merely a reflection of what increases or decreases the inclusive fitness of our genes. In both cases, Nozick’s Experience Machine thought-experiment is turned on its head. Namely, that if we value life, we are inescapably already agreeing to living on an Experience Machine of sorts.
It is hard for me not to roll my eyes when someone says “I am not looking for happiness; I’m looking for meaning.” Although perhaps not obvious to everyone, the way in which your world-simulation is implemented is such that activities that foster the inclusive fitness of your genes feel good, while those that bring fewer future copies of your genes generally feel bad. Thanks to our neocortex, we are able to “encephalize” our deep primal emotions and render them in conjunction with (and indeed phenomenally embedded in) high-dimensional state spaces of consciousness. Key predictors of inclusive fitness such as social status, environmental stability, and the mutational load of one’s tribe are not explicitly rendered in our experience as “beneficial for your inclusive fitness.” Rather, they are rendered in a concrete simulation-congruent form (i.e. as meaningful), such as being a good person, having a home, and being able to tune in to highly evolved aesthetics, respectively. Indeed, we are adaptation executers rather than utility optimizers; the causal effect of our aesthetic preferences (e.g. preferring to think of ourselves as “meaning-seeking” rather than “pleasure-seeking”) is not legible from our subjective vintage point. But… the inherent entwining of meaning and valence (i.e. the pleasure-pain axis) is crystal clear as soon as we mess with one’s psychopharmacology, for people who fetishize meaning are not immune to mu-opioid antagonists. Unsurprisingly, it is hard to enjoy either a personal meaning, a sense of community, or even higher art while on the opioid-antagonist naltrexone. Likewise, isn’t it strange that psychedelics and empathogens seem to simultaneously increase depth of meaning and capacity for pleasure? Indeed, realizing that subjective meaning is implemented with valence gradients has extraordinary explanatory power. For this reason, it is thus clear that, as David Pearce likes to say, “if you take care of happiness, the meaning of life will take care of itself.”
What about anti-natalism? My take on anti-natalism is pretty standard for a negative leaning utilitarian and transhumanist. Namely, that selection pressures against any proclivity to self-limit human reproduction guarantees that the psychological traits that bring about hard anti-natalist views will not sustain themselves over time. If one impartially cares about the wellbeing of sentient beings, one should take into account how evolution works. Advocating for gradients of intelligent bliss rather than non-existence could satisfy anti-natalists’ craving for the absence of suffering while also being compatible with an understanding of the reality of selection pressures. Tongue-in-cheek, I thus advocate for antinatalists to have lots of children, and for pro-natalists to have no children at all. More seriously, the real solution is to develop and promote “Triple-S genetic counseling” so that every child that is born is emancipated from the agony of his or her- otherwise inevitable- future suffering.
See also: The Tyranny of the Intentional Object, Open Individualism and Antinatalism, The Purple Pill, and Consciousness vs. Pure Replicators
I have one major rule: everybody is right. More specifically, everybody — including me — has some important pieces of the truth, and all of those pieces need to be honored, cherished, and included in a more gracious, spacious, and compassionate embrace.
– Introduction, Collected Works of Ken Wilber, vol. VIII (2000)
Ken Wilber recently commented on Jordan Peterson for 1 hour and 20 minutes in this interview. You can probably gain about 80% of the value in the video by watching the first 20 minutes. Using ribbonfarm‘s signature concept handle “refactoring perception”*, we could say that Ken Wilber refactors Jordan Peterson in Integral Theoretic frameworks. His affinity for Peterson is the result of interpreting his actions as those of someone who sees the world through Integral lenses, in the sense that he acknowledges the partial truths of each level up to and including Teal.
Is the Integral Theory meme-plex capable of absorbing Jordan Peterson’s sphere of influence? Probably not, because as Ken Wilber might put it, Peterson followers are a mixture of Teal (Integral), Orange (Modern), and Amber (Traditional) people all pulling together against the memetic totalitarianism of the Green (Post-Modern) developmental stage. That said, we could perhaps anticipate a degree of memetic revival of Integral Theory thanks to its compatibility with Petersonism.
What do I personally think of the Integral meme-plex? I see it as an upgrade relative to current mainstream worldviews. Alas, in my experience interacting with people who really dig that worldview (of which there are plenty in the Bay Area consciousness development/hacking space), I’ve encountered strong resistance against some of the core values and perspectives that QRI‘s Qualia/Valence meme-plex brings:
Integral Theorists tend to dismiss concerns about wild animal suffering, the genetic roots of suffering, and the possibility of identifying the physico-mathematical signature of bliss– which they might dismiss as a Modernist fantasy(!).
To upgrade the Integral Theory meme-plex, I’d emphasize the following:
The Tyranny of the Intentional Object (which has material bearings on how we interpret the nature of “mystical” states, e.g. Jhanas are not so much ‘spiritual’ as glorified high-valence states with long-term mental health benefits thanks to neural annealing).
That Open Individualism is consistent with (and indeed even implied by) monistic physicalism.
And that the goals of transhumanism (superhappiness, superintelligence, and superlongevity) are indeed a direct implication of systematizing ethics (rather than being driven by egoic structures, as swiftly assumed by most).
*As of March of 2019 they seem to have moved on to “constructions in magical thinking.”
Burning Man Theme-Camps of the Year 2029: From Replicator to Rainbow God (2/2)
Posted on April 8 by algekalipso
[Epistemic Status: Fiction; see related non-fiction Burning Man articles – 1, 2, 3; See part 1/2 here.]
What follows is (the second part of) the result of an exercise in considering the questions: “Which novel memes, and meme-plexes, will be alive 10 years from now? And, what new worldviews will have a ‘full-stack’ account of where humanity is at, and where it is headed?” Hope this sparks interesting discussions.
The elucidation of the origin of qualia-rich subjectivity is important not only as an activity in the natural sciences, but also as a foundation and the ultimate justification of the whole world of the liberal arts. Bridging the gap between the two cultures (C. P. Snow) is made possible only through a clear understanding of the origin of qualia and subjectivity.
Qualia symbolize the essential intellectual challenge for humanity in the future. The impact of its elucidation will not be limited to the natural sciences. The liberal arts, religion, and the very concept of what a man is will be reassessed from their very foundations.
– Ken Mogi in The Qualia Manifesto (1998)
Compared to the natural sciences (cf. the Standard Model in physics) or computing (cf. the Universal Turing Machine), the “science” of consciousness is pre-Galilean, perhaps even pre-Socratic.
– David Pearce, in Co-Evolution, Fusion or Replacement? (2012)
Thursday: Camp Super Intelligence
You wake up at 10AM, in what you feel is a surprisingly good mood given the fact you rolled last night. You still notice that your mind is a bit zonked. Taking LSD, MDMA, and Ketamine within the span of two days is not something you’ve done before, and it makes sense that they would each contribute their own distinct aftermath. If acute drug effects can be synergistic (as it was for MDMA + K), could hangover types also be synergistic? It doesn’t feel that way, but then again, you remember that by most accounts the “real MDMA hangover” happens 36 to 48 hours after taking it, not the morning after. So you figure that right now you are probably experiencing the afterglow and staving off tiredness with the psychostimulant metabolites of MDMA. With regards to the acid, you can’t really tell if there is any hang-over from it, so you figure that your feeling of being a bit discombobulated comes from the mixing of K and MDMA last night. “Oh, that! This reminds me- I should try to figure out what on earth was the massive life-energy ball I felt last night”- you think to yourself, reflecting on the fact that you had never experienced anything like it before.
You prepare a large bowl of fresh fruits and vegetables. Conveniently your camp still has many fruits and veggies in the collective dry-ice cooler that Astro Burrito is prototyping. He got his playa name because his power of invention is such that people claim that he would be able to figure out how to make a burrito from scratch in zero-g; after all he served hot burritos to the entire camp during the intense day-long dust storm of BM 2025, which is something everyone still remembers. You eat two carrots, an apple, a pear, some celery, two raw tomatoes, and a ton of grapes. Once you feel satiated, you sit down to chill for a bit at your camp’s shared shade structure.
Galaxy Fox and Cardamom join you to chill for a bit. They each have a mango slushy they got from Camp Glacier Breeze next door, and share some with you. You ask them if they have ever experienced giant life-energy balls on Ketamine and/or MDMA. Galaxy Fox admits she does not know what you are talking about, but Cardamom’s eyes brighten. She says: “I used to take ketamine weekly in my twenties, until I had some bladder problems and stopped. I remember a lot of wild visions. I’m an atheist, but man, some of these visions had a strong mystical quality to them. Perhaps the strongest experience I had was the one time I combined LSD and ketamine right after coming back from a neuroscience conference. I recall hallucinating a cast of famous neuroscientists whose work I’ve read and who I’ve interacted with over the years; almost as if I could access their soul and connect with them on a deep level. We all went on a quest to figure out the essence of life as a group of friends- naked in front of the mystery of life- rather than with all of the social pretense that inevitably comes with academic prestige. At the peak of the experience, we all witnessed this huge ball of light that looked like a sun coming down and telling us to ‘hang in there, life will make sense soon’ and ‘keep trying to make sense of it all, you will soon see the big picture’. I tried to dismiss this experience after the fact, but the feeling was very compelling. I still think about it every once in a while.” This more or less fits your experience, but you don’t recall the life-energy ball telling you anything specific. It was more like a sense of what could be possible if we all saw our underlying unity; but no words or concepts, at least not humanly recognizable. They finish the mango slushy and take off. You take a nap in a recliner, and wake up at noon, hungry again.
You eat a handful of mixed nuts, almond milk, hemp milk, macadamia milk, and electrolytes. Half a MealCube. You get ready to explore and by 1PM go on your way. You keep under shade and walk alone this time. After all you are sober and won’t be experimenting with anything tonight, and your best friends are who knows where by now. You stop a couple of blocks down, as the sign attracts you: Camp Super Intelligence.
The camp is mostly composed of a large central dome. Inside is dark and cool. There are water coolers, fans, and plenty of “mist projectors”. It also has walls with fabrics of two colors only (green and blue), which strikes you as a rather conservative aesthetic in a place like this. Some people are chilling, a few are in pairs, and there is a circle of people halfway between the center and the north corner hanging out and talking fast, and clear.
You ask if you can join them, and they say “definitely!”, and they ask your name. Then they continue their conversation, as if you weren’t there: “I thought Friston’s book was really easy to understand” – the girl in blue says. “Yes, even my mom seemed to understand it when I explained it to her.” – replies the guy in red. From what you gather, people here are obsessed with the prospect of digital Artificial General Intelligence. But rather than discussing the substance of the problem, they seem more interested in asking each other about what their “timeline is”, meaning, when they think it will happen. For better or for worse, you conclude they do not have a vision of the future – the AGI scenario interrupts their thoughts about what the future sans AGI could hold (with e.g. “mere” recursively self-improving genetic engineering).
Interestingly, one of the topics they touch on is psychopharmacology. Everyone in the circle is on some or another psychiatric drug. They have, moreover, discovered that if you combine cholinergic nootropics (e.g. oxiracetam, pramiracetam, etc.) with adenosine agonists (cf. ‘anti-caffeine’ rutaecarpine) you can discuss philosophy without being bothered by questions about consciousness. They tell you that once you get used to it, you think back to the time you used to worry about consciousness as a time you were crazy in inscrutable ways. “It puzzles you that you used to fall in that trap, but once you ‘transition’, you know better”- a kid with grey eyes says. He continues: “You internalize the fact that, as Graziano puts it, ‘there is no subjective impression; there is only information in a data-processing device’ [source].”
They take purely causal approaches to reality, and in fact disregard subjectivity explicitly. Sometimes you feel you must be too tired to understand them, because you don’t believe what they tell you. You don’t believe that someone is trying to reconstruct intelligence without ever mentioning consciousness, experience, or qualia. But your friend- many hours later- reassures you that you had heard correctly. Indeed, that camp is known for saying things of this sort, and challenge each other to say it loudly, as a sort of memetic purity test.
From your point of view, you wonder whether they’ve turned into philosophical zombies in some sense, or if they have experienced a reframing of their approach to language at the very core. They now seem to lack introspective access to the intrinsic referent of experience they used to have. Alas, they say that didn’t exist to begin with; it was the “illusion that emerges from a system modeling its own attentional dynamics“. Their system is self-consistent, and seemingly complete from the inside. But from the outside you can see they are missing a critical piece. Or so it seems to you.
They tell you that getting rid of the concept of consciousness is a necessary step to take if you want to move on to actually solving the problem of intelligence. But you resist their persuasion. It somehow feels rude… in light of what you’ve experienced the last couple of days. You think to yourself just how much there is to talk about concerning what you experienced recently, and how much this knowledge has expanded your understanding of how large the world of experience truly is. You try to share some of your recent experiences with them. They look at each other, and one of them says “I feel like every time we hear the stories from people who’ve taken drugs, the story always boils down to ‘these peeps were on drugs and something crazy happened’.” They all laugh, and agree. You sense they are not interested- anywhere in their minds- about what you may have to say.
Is this what it feels like to have a serotonin dip, from the inside? Being convinced that the people around you are choosing uncooperative strategies? Or are these guys really being that unkind to me? They feel rude. “But never-mind, go ahead, we are listening”- says the same guy. They were kidding; they did want to hear your story after all. It turns out they became quite intrigued by some of your observations, including how you felt at the Pleasure Palace- I mean- what was it called? (you realize your memory is not as sharp as it usually is, mmm… wonder why). Camp Valence. They hadn’t heard of Camp Valence, or Camp State-Space of Consciousness. They seem to use Burning Man as a sort of complex interpersonal tension resolution event, and usually don’t interact much with others at the event, but do take drugs and go to see the art. Interestingly, they claim this makes them more productive during the rest of the year; it resolves the conflicts between them like nothing else. They are not very open to being changed from the outside, though, so to speak. Their behavior at Burning Man seems to be governed by a closed system and has a goal-oriented focus. You would much rather come at it with radical openness, but other forms of experiencing this place are valid, right?
You thank them for their company, stand up, and walk around. The place has tons of hammocks, reactive LED tables, and rationalist fiction lying around. Their art was geeky stuff like a dodecahedral metal-frame supporting an icosahedral “dual” internal metal-frame, itself supporting another dodecahedral frame and so on for several iterations. They also had a “statue” of a giant robotic “stuffed bear” that would vibrate if you gave it a hug with the right pressure and length. In a way, this statue was, gently, teaching you how to give pleasant hugs to others. You gave it a biiiig hug… putting all your heart into it. But it does nothing. The screen reads: “Try giving shorter hugs.” This makes you feel sad.
A girl who happens to have seen your disappointing interaction with the statue runs to you, saying “you can change the settings. How about we try ‘hug explosion’? It vibrates in a monotonically-increasing way as a function of the amount of time you keep hugging it.” It was incredible how this little act of kindness made you feel included and appreciated. You hugged her and she hugged you back for over a minute. Your mind somehow made you think about that time a kid in Korea ran up a crane to hug Michael Jackson during one of his concerts. You don’t know why your mind makes this association with what’s happening- the symbolism escapes you- but you choose to just let it be.
The camp’s entrance has a chart about humbling yourself and accepting the fact that the world is full of people who are intellectually more capable than you at essentially any task you can come up with. This wasn’t made in a way that was meant to be a put-down in any way. Rather, it was a call to look around you for people who can help you in surprisingly efficient ways. We don’t need to reinvent the wheel everywhere, and collectively we benefit if we share what we can do, sustainably, really well.
You feel tired by 6PM. Again, you were artificially energized for two consecutive days; it makes sense you would feel the need to rest tonight. You nonetheless dance for 20 minutes at a near-by major soundcamp on your way back listening to throw-back 90’s rap, check out some art, and chill with a campmate near your camp’s kitchen in a retractable chair until you feel compelled to sleep, which you do without trouble at 11PM. It’s cold tonight, really cold.
Friday: Camp Replicator – “Live Your Fantasy at Porky’s”
You wake up at 9AM and feel well rested, and hungry. Your mood is pensive, but you look forward to going out with friends tonight. One of your campmates, Lasagna Man, is preparing a batch of clean meat dishes for people to try. The sampler includes beef steak, octopodes in lemon juice, fried insects, and a James Franco BBQ.
The Keynote Ingredient of your Friday breakfast
Actor James Franco arrives at the Golden Globe Awards Sunday, Jan. 16, 2011, in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Matt Sayles)
You try each dish with a lot of curiosity. It is a bit disconcerting, to be honest, considering you’ve been vegetarian for over 12 years, and you feel compelled to verify it isn’t market meat. Either way, it is delicious, and you swallow the lab meats along with banana bread, coconut water, a 100mg capsule of 5-HTP, and 4000 fibrin units of nattokinase (as suggested by Longevity Camp to prevent cardiovascular events in periods of recovery). Satiated, you casually comment to your campmates: “I didn’t realize eating a celebrity was a hidden fantasy of mine.” Upon hearing this, Lasagna Man says: “Have you been to Replicator Camp? I think this year they call it Porky’s. It’s a place where you are compelled to live your hidden fantasies.” Galaxy Fox adds: “Strongly recommended. It’s a trip, and you do not need drugs.” Determined to check it out, you get ready by putting your Friday costume on (a tight-fitting dress inspired by the ThunderCats) and head over.
They say that “Porky’s” is just what you need to hear in this lifetime, in this branch of the multiverse, today. In reality this camp transcends this timeline, this place, this eon, this branch. It is an eternal Platonic concept which repeats itself at all scales of reality. If something exists, there were causes and conditions that gave rise to its form and quality. What people at this camp call “Generalized Darwinism” suggests that even before “the reproduction of the fittest” you have “the survival of the stable” as a primary trivial implication of time moving forward. What we see is driven by patterns trying to make copies of themselves, and being stable is a way of “making copies of yourself in the future” with an n of 1. But this is not relevant to you right now. The camp has a full-fledged metaphysical theory of the universe- and it self-describes as a spiritual camp- but in practice it looks nothing like it. Their explicit mission is to help you “experience an unrealized mental need”, and what this looks like is a bunch of actors playing a scenario for you, where you do something you’ve really been craving for a long time but have been unable to do due to the constraints of the real world.
Why would this be “spiritual”? You inquire about it with a girl that is wearing a swan costume and who seemingly volunteers at this camp. She tells you that the point is to help people fulfill an earthly craving of theirs so they can move on to their core mission in life. Most people will have a reaction of self-loathing once they finally scratch that itch, upon the realization that it wasn’t that big of a deal after all. It makes you realize that you would have been willing to throw a big chunk of your life away for what is essentially a side dish. Better to find that out in a simulacrum than risk your career, family, health, etc. with a terrible life decision, right?
At the entrance there is a menu of options that lists the role-playing scenarios they can do for you. There is a “custom” option for which you need to sign-up days in advance. They do not agree to about half of the custom requests because they exceed the bounds of what actors can feel comfortable role-playing, so there are limits as to how deep and dark your fantasy can be. The default options themselves are pretty shocking, though. The list contains things that range from adultery and incest all the way to abuse of power scenarios. Some of them are so R-rated that they make the rest of Burning Man seem conservative in comparison; heck they make the Orgy Dome seem conservative in comparison. Interestingly, the most requested role-playing scenarios among the options are completely family-friendly. For example, “work acknowledgment” fantasies account for 30% of the requests, and a whole other 25% involve receiving affection from neglectful family members.
You think to yourself: “I suppose I do feel undervalued at work, and I sometimes use outlets like Burning Man to find a place where people value me for who I am.” So you choose the “have a real conversation with your boss” option. You tell the attendant that you made up your mind, and she goes to the back of the room to inform the actors of your choice, and then proceeds to ask you for details about the scenario.
You tell her that you have been working as a journalist at a technology magazine for about 7 years. Your coworkers like you, and you are highly praised by your immediate manager, who thinks that you are a whiz kid and loves to “sell your work” to upper management. The thing is, you have a feeling that he does not represent you very well, and since you’ve been passed over for promotion already for four consecutive years, you sense that he is somehow taking credit for your work. He is very warm, and it is hard to think badly of him when he is around. He has a sort of professional candor that makes you feel rapport with him. The thought that he may be screwing you behind your back despite his warm relationship adds to the psychological torture. You tell her all of this and then she asks a few follow-up questions, mostly details like his first name, the name of a couple coworkers, and the ways the people at work refer to you such as nicknames and phrases they may use. She tells you to stand in line, that the actors will be ready in about 15 minutes.
When it’s your turn, she takes you to the backroom and tells you to be “ready for a wild ride”.
The backroom has a number of props appropriate for your job. You sit at the desk, and stare at the computer in front of you. Then an actor comes in, pretending to be your boss:
Howdy Steve! How’s it going? I was just passing by and thought I should say hi. I also remembered you mentioned you’d have the deliverable today, and it isn’t in my desk, so I thought checking wouldn’t hurt.
That’s right. He says “howdy”; this is already starting to bother you, reminding you of the pinched nerves you were experiencing less than a week ago at your job. He continues:
Don’t worry about it. There is always another tomorrow. Hey, I’ve gotta tell you something. Promotion rounds are coming up- this time around, I promise, you will get promoted. As I always say: “We’re getting there, you and me, together” [winks].
That phrase irks you horribly. You feel your blood pressure go up. The girl was right, this is really wild. How did the actor know how to emulate his demeanor? You thank him, and mention that you are hopeful and determined to get the promotion this time. Then he leaves for a minute. When he comes back, he is wearing a different attire, as if it was a different day:
Howdy Steve! I’ve gotta share something with you. Look. Sorry… they passed you up again. See, I think it’s the changing times, because the… how do you say it? They said your lateness on many assignments demonstrated lack of commitment to the company. They want you to take on a bit more responsibility before we can move you up next year. But hey, remember: “we’re getting there, you and me, together” [winks].
You feel your blood pressure sky-rocket; you feel rage boiling inside you. Or was it there all along and you are only now becoming aware of its depth? You decide to confront him. You mention how in each of the last four years you have seen him go out to conferences and present your ideas as if they were his. That you have seen him get the credit in meetings. And that once, a middle manager accidentally copied you on an email where he was bragging about how well the story you wrote did online without ever mentioning your name in the writeup. He falls silent for 5 seconds. He looks serious now. He says:
“Yes, it’s true, I stole your work, ok?! I told my wife, and she said I should always deny, deny, deny, no matter what, that she being pregnant meant that we couldn’t risk not getting the next bonus. Can you blame me screwing you to benefit my family? Are we not all like that in the end?”
Fuck! You knew it. You’ve known this for over three years, intuitively. Your boss’ kid is soon going to be entering preschool. Your head trembles and you feel your heart rate go up, crazy. After a pause he adds:
I can’t be responsible for the fact that you are a sucker. That you let yourself be taken advantage of. Darwin Awards, anyone?
The rage becomes a steam of hellfire inside you, and you feel yourself getting ready to shout and scream and kick him and bite him. But there is something stopping you. You know you could go all out on this poor fellow, and rub it in his face how the family excuse is completely bogus (it’s unsettling that the family thing is exactly the sort of rapport-congruent thing that he would actually say to justify himself), and it’s infuriating how many times you gave him a graceful exit despite your dark suspicions. You know you could hit him where it hurts most. But you instead choose the high road. “I am not like him” – you tell yourself. Silence for 10 seconds as you breath in and out, calming yourself. You say:
That one time you had me stay in the office on a Friday I had requested off a month in advance broke my heart. I missed a camping trip with my friends to satisfy your careerist hunger. But you are right, I am a sucker. Yes, being well adapted to a deeply sick social environment is not a sign of mental health. This is it. I quit. I will see you when I see you. Good bye.
“And Cut!”- a girl behind the curtain shouts. She runs up to you: “You did well! How did it feel?” But you can’t respond. The experience is cathartic, and you cry, folded upon your knees on the floor.
You notice internal boundaries dissolve. It is now clear that over the years you’ve built barriers inside yourself; some kind of protective field around your inner representation of your boss and his warm demeanor. You didn’t allow yourself to think bad thoughts about him; you empathized with him deeply. Why? Why did you make yourself blind to all of the evidence, to the fact that he was screwing you? You realize that your sense of worth has been tied to his praise for so long that it feels like part of your professional grain. If it wasn’t for him, would you even have a job? You can’t stop crying. As you let those feelings come and go, a feeling of empowerment begins to run through your body; feeling vindicated and validated by yourself is something you are not used to. Especially not concerning professional matters. But now you feel… like you are worth it. The addiction to his praise is something of your own making, you now realize. You placed conditions on your own happiness; you had it in you to love yourself all along.
The girl brings you a box of tissues. She tell you that it is common to experience a rollercoaster of emotions. She said to come back if you needed additional support. You exit Camp Replicator. You feel good. Tired, but good… and relaxed.
It feels like the image of your boss has a lot less power over you, and this process has “released” a lot of energy – you feel like your own self again- how strange. With this weight off your shoulders, you wander aimlessly… looking for something to find.
As you walk along the streets you begin to imagine your mind as an ecosystem of agents with disparate inclinations. You wonder: “And what is the distribution of ‘power’ among my subagents?” It stands to reason that, given that subagent interactions form a complex system, subagent power would follow the same distribution that income, citations, and social influence have, i.e. a power law. Your subagents compete for a place of influence within you. And the one who (temporarily) holds power tends to have substantially more mental resources than the second next one. At the bottom you have thousands of tiny subagents – like the time you wonder “should I do x?” where x is only congruent with a small part of all of your motivations. MDMA, you figure, changes this power distribution during its acute effects; the “harmonization of your experience” (as Camp Valence might call it) is not only about your sensory impressions and emotions, but also about the causal power of your sub-agents. It is fascinating to see that in ego-softened states- such as the one you are having thanks to the recent catharsis- one can see one’s highest subagent give in to the concerns of the ones below, and start a representative assembly of subagents trying to arrive at a much more fair global distribution of power that satisfies as many subagents’ preferences as possible.
The experience of having two conflicting subagents have equal degrees of power is very peculiar; one feels that, somehow, one’s future is “truly up in the air”. You wonder: “Is this agent power distribution annealing?” Within the multiplicity of subagents bidding for your attention on a daily basis, which ones of those have purely replicator objectives, and which ones are trying to increase the subjective wellbeing of people (including your own)?
You come across a little bike handing out Whisky to passersby. You pass on your cup, and receive a shot; not because you feel the need to, but because you like it. You savor the Whisky very slowly.
On the way back you come across a Chindogu Hands-on Exhibit, which you find incredibly entertaining. It makes you feel like a kid again. You start wondering about your next career. Mentally you already disconnected from your boss’ authority, though you suspect that the full consequences of having done this will only be revealed over the next days and weeks. How to break it to him? What should you work on next?
Upon arriving to your camp you get ready to go out by putting on a spiral LED hat and glow gloves. Astro Burrito and Cardamom join you, and you walk for many hours until 2:30AM, wandering from art to art, and talking to strangers, and asking them about what they do for a living… perhaps you’ll get inspired. You cap the night with James Franco left-overs- which you turn into a sandwich-, a mango, and a handful of supplements (BCAA, Magnesium Citrate, Quercetin, Turmeric, Aminoglycotetraquinone, Ashwagandha, and L-Theanine). You write some notes, and quickly pass out by 3:30AM.
Saturday: Camp Anti-Replicator
A 1980s throwback art-car driving by your camp wakes you up at 11AM. You feel refreshed, and happy. The first thought that comes to mind is “today is the day the Man burns.” You processed so much pent-up emotion yesterday it’s unreal to you. You feel light, and energized. You then remember that you have a tested 25mg 2C-B tablet, which you had intended to use the night of the Burn. You check yourself emotionally and physically to decide whether you will go ahead and take 2C-B tonight, and all of the signs are good (blood pressure is good, VO2 Max is good, mobile ECG looks good). You feel good about the prospect of tripping today. You will be heading out to see the Man burn with your campmates at 7PM. What to do till then? You get a “shower” at the Human Carcass Wash, drink a cocoa Soylent, eat dried apricots, and devour a sun-heated bean & rice burrito. It is now 2PM so you have about 4 hours to explore before you have to get back and prepare to head out to see the Burn. What should you do? For reasons you don’t yet know, you feel an urge to take the 2C-B right now. You rationalize this decision based on the feeling that you should not stay up too late tonight if you intend to look for theme-camps tomorrow. Great press secretary internal monologue you have there.
So you wander into the Playa with a borrowed bike looking for camps you haven’t even noticed yet in order to get the most surprising and novel stimuli possible. Along your way you see a surprisingly large number of sculptures of beasts and wild animals. You stop at a place in which you see about 50 people meditating quietly in front of a 3m-tall caterpillar statue, which intrigues you deeply. A sign close to the bike racks reads: “Camp Anti-Replicator.” At this very point you feel the first sign of the 2C-B come-up. You get off the bike and look around for someone to interact with. You check behind a blue wooden wall decorated with ʻaʻā clinkers arranged to form the shape of a mandala, whose center is an endless knot. A few people dressed in magenta robes are talking quietly on the floor, seating on cushions and drinking tea. When they notice you, they invite you to have tea with them.
Endless Knot Mandala (cf. 74 topology)
They look like monks, and they emit a rather serene but lively vibe. They explain that Camp Replicator is their “sister camp”. Replicator is designed to help people identify the most gnarly karma bundle of samskaras in one’s energy body, which is the first step in untangling them. To put it in a secular way: living your deep fantasies and unmet emotional needs helps identify the most emotionally imprinted memories that haunt you behind the scenes. Empirically, working on these bundles in a psychologically safe container is useful. Away from civilization, one can more directly address repressed impressions in a safe psychic environment.
One of the persons there pours you a cup of rooibos, while another one asks you if you know why you are here. Puzzled, you reply in the negative.
They say that Burning Man is one of the seven Pure Lands on this planet- one for each of the karmic clusters of the human species. These are places where catalytic tools for spiritual potential are plentiful. There are many scattered groups of humans around the globe doing intense spiritual development work, but when it comes to transformations happening at a large scale, this is one of the seven core locations. Each of these Pure Lands serves between 10,000 to 100,000 people a year. Burning Man, they say, is not what it looks like at first sight. The physical component of the temporary community is just a superficial facade of the spiritual processes that are being catalyzed under the surface. They explain that this is why when you go there the place becomes a new location for your dreams in which to take place; Burning Man is alive all-year round, but on the etheric level of reality, which can be accessed in a variety of states of consciousness including meditation, dreaming, and psychedelics. Indeed, many benefit from this Pure Land without ever attending, though having been there secures a karmic link to it. They say that there are some really important Light Workers here, whom you will be working with when you are ready. They say that you are not yet ready for that. But you are ready for something else.
You ask them where they are getting all of this- implausible-sounding- information. They say that their philosophy- and thus their understanding of what Burning Man is about- is the result of a synthesis of Buddhism, Metamodernism, and Martinus’s Philosophy. Their camp members tend to come from families with what they call “new religious energy”. Often they will have been born in religions such as Unitarian Universalism, Theosophy, Integral Theory, and New Age, to name a few. Based on the synthesis of these disparate sources, together with experiments they have conducted, and the download of information from spirit guides, they can affirm in consensus that this world is currently at the boundary between the immanent energy of the animal world and the human kingdom levels of consciousness. The monk who looks the youngest, around 18 years old, begins:
“You see, the cosmological principle states that, when seen on a sufficiently large scale, the universe looks regular and uniform. Locally, you see many different kinds of planets, stars, nebulae, brown dwarves, neutron stars, and so on. But on a grand scale there is asymptotically the same amount of matter, energy, dark matter, and dark energy, in large volumes of space. Similarly, the surrounding spiritual dimensions, locally, are very heterogeneous, but they are not a representative of the entirety of the multiverse. While evil can win within a given pocket of reality, on a large scale good prevails…. Well, it prevails in about 99.7% of the multiverse as far as we can determine with our spiritual telescopes.”
Then the person in the circle who looks the oldest, around 70 years old and with a heavy Swedish accent, continues:
“There are uncountably many flavors of consciousness, but they can all be placed on a cyclic evolutionary timeline. Buddhism divides the multiverse into six regions, each hosting beings who share the same main karmic signature: Gods, Titans, Human, Animal, Hungry Ghost, and Hell.”
A girl who looks of Indian descent, who is around 35 years old takes over: “Martinus’s philosophy claims that there are six basic energies of God. Each of us is an offspring of God, a soul/monad that reflects and diffracts divine light. The six stages are: plant kingdom, followed by the animal kingdom, then the real human kingdom, the kingdom of wisdom, the divine world, and the kingdom of bliss [source]. The cycle never ends, and it is driven by a principle of hunger and satiation.”
“In cases like earth, there are two energies with roughly comparable power over the beings who inhabit here. Although the keynote of the universe is Love with a capital L, locally, other energies tend to dominate.”
Martinus’ Philosophy: plant kingdom (red), followed on the right by the animal kingdom (orange), then the real human kingdom (yellow), the kingdom of wisdom (green), the divine world (blue) and the kingdom of bliss (light indigo)
Metamodernism
“Metamodernism”- the one who is bald and has a French accent, says- “asks us to consider how new forms of democracy and collective action can take place in light of an emerging cluster of people who have reached advanced psychological developmental stages (e.g. Kegan level 5). In the context of global spiritual transformation this is very relevant. What do we do as more people begin to pass over the threshold of 50% human consciousness? We are developing secular implementations of spiritual liquid democracy in order to overcome the game-theoretical short-comings of the current democratic system.”
You ask them if this is a common view. You had never heard of this kind of syncretism. They tell you that the overall picture has been developed in Scandinavia and is gradually getting exported to other places in the world. After all, the Nordics are a culturally interesting corner of Europe in a somewhat similar way to California being a culturally interesting corner of America.
You ask them why you are hearing all of this. They said they were waiting for you. Incredulous, you start standing up to leave, but the Indian girl says:
“We all saw you the other day. You were a bright star on Wednesday night. We saw you saying hi to your grandfather, and then visiting the palace of light and its dome. We knew you would come over here later this week.”
“You mean that what I experienced on the God Helmet, MDMA, and later on with ketamine was not an illusion?” – you ask, shocked. She winks at you in response.
The man with the Swedish accent pours you another cup of rooibos. He says that at this camp shamans of consciousness gather to help you see through as many of your internal demons as possible. The atmosphere here is completely unlike the mental health institutions most people know. Here people don’t show any kind of learned helplessness (internally wondering “is there really anything that can be done in this situation?”). People here are trained technicians of consciousness. They have sharpened psychological tools to break into your psychological stress points and help you release anxiety about your life-decisions and embrace an open-ended forgiving approach to thinking about the future. Leaving your attachments is not a sacrifice when you are trading them for options that feel both good and more real.
On the table there is a book that you pick up and open at random. A pamphlet that was inside the book falls on the tea table, and you decide on reading the pamphlet instead: “[I]f enough people gather in these tents, our shamans can do efficient combinatoric searches for pairs of people in the group that can help each other grow as fast as possible in the span of 1 hour. The clock is ticking, and there is tremendous pressure and conviction that a breakthrough will happen.” The people at the table mention that a significant percentage of people who come to this camp are on serotonergic psychedelics, but the majority go sober. More than half are people who have been here before and had a breakthrough, and want to go and take more advanced classes. People remark on the intense contact-high of this particular region of the playa. Typically, people say that they had an inexplicable urge to come over to this camp, and they find ways of rationalizing it.
One of the techniques listed on the pamphlet is called “deprogramming meta-programmers”. You take a moment to let that sink in. “This sounds like a cult; only the CIA would get away with calling something ‘deprogramming’ and not sound like a cult.” – you think to yourself. “I thought Rainbow God was a cult, but this?”
But at this very moment you realize that you are, and have always been, a prisoner of your reward architecture. You’ve been programmed by evolution to execute adaptations you are not even aware of. These animal urges… they don’t feel like yours. “What is going on?”- you wonder. From the inside, certain things feel right and others feel wrong and you don’t even know why. Sure, you can justify your feelings by claiming direct and exclusive access to the universe’s utility function. “What is this?”- You look at your hands and you have a tremendous vision of your hands being like claws. You imagine all of the terrible things for which human hands have been used throughout history.
You start identifying with the abstract human rather than with yourself as a particular human. The vision of all humans sharing a divine essence comes over you. But why do you have these animal feelings? You feel in you the demon-like cast of emotions that allows the persecution, bullying, and torturing of other sentient beings. You experience profound disgust at the realization that these underly many of your dearly coveted self-concepts.
“Am I experiencing a bad trip?” – you ask them. “No, what is happening to you is that you are at the fence between animal energies and the human kingdom. You seem to be hovering close to the very middle, and you recently crossed the threshold where 51% of you can contain human kingdom energies. The interference is highly uncomfortable, of that we are aware. But do not fear.” – You ask: “Are you killing my ego?” – They say: “No, your ego is committing suicide. You are about to cross over, and that’s why you are here.”
Don’t Fear
“What happens when you have 51% of human kingdom energy?”- you wonder out loud, tripping pretty hard by this point. “Well, that is a milestone of sorts, because it forces some realignments inside you. There is some risk of falling into Messiah complexes, manic states, and self-harm. With regards to self-harm, it is important to acclimatize you to the fact that the craving for non-existence is itself one of the animal energies. Given reincarnation and the oneness of consciousness, self-harm is strictly counter-productive. Philosophies like negative utilitarianism and antinatalism are fantasies of systematizers who are, precisely, craving non-existence to such an extent that they create a worldview to relieve that craving.”
They tell you that you have also been imprinted with quasi-parental figures primarily concerned with the replication of their attachments and vices throughout your life, be it teachers, advisors, company CEOs, or even your boss. Your imprinting will determine whether you emphasize fast or slow reproductive strategies (cf. evolutionary psychopathology). The people in Camp Replicator helped you figure out who has imprinted you. The mock confrontation with your boss was a psychological technique that effectively works by helping your System 1 come to terms with the fact that your quasi-parental figures are almost certainly constraining your behavior out of neuroticism rather than thought-through rational analysis and altruism. Camp Anti-Replicator, now, is helping you with a push in contextualizing your suffering in a larger picture that allows you to identify with spirit rather than with your animal reproductive drive.
“We are not a religion; we are a diaspora of students of the spiritual sciences. We don’t need dogma, because we have Abhijñā (‘direct knowledge’).”- says the 18 year old.
He continues: One of the most important sociological theories they deploy involves realizing that social movements work by providing an internal voice for people to be able to deal with their internalized authority figures. No social movement starts out from the altruistic desires of people, at least not on people dominated by animal consciousness. Beyond social signaling theory (cf. Mating Mind, Elephant in the Brain), the human mind has many tricks up its sleeves to transmute growth-oriented energy into the execution of replicator strategies. The true reason for this involves the relative low density of dark energy in this part of the universe, which biases physical evolution towards entropic finite games and away from negentropic infinite games.
“God of the Old Testament was really a Wrathful Deity. Marcionism and Catharism knew this truth, but it was suppressed by the more dominant replicator-based and politically powerful conservative spirit of the time, which sanctified the God of the Old Testament and pretended it was the same being as Jesus.” – Says the Indian girl. “Jesus was a Bodhisattva world-redeemer who came here to break a link in the chain of tit-for-tat karma of the animal consciousness level.”
You open the pamphlet again. The section is titled “The stages of spiritual evolution”:
– 1. Nature spiritism/shamanism
– 2. Multi-god religions
– 3. Mono-theistic religions
– 4. Hollow mono-theism (“hey man, nobody believes this nonsense about the virgin birth anyways but we just pretend to go along”)
– 5. Cynical materialism/atheism (money and power and NO re-incarnation)
– 6. Humane materialism (“Let’s all be friends but there is still no God”)
– 7. Low quality spirituality/New Age (“Peace, man. Let’s all be friends and smoke weed and not do anything practical. SOMETHING grander is going on. But we don’t have a clue about it.”)
– 8. Mature spiritual instinct. Religions, atheism and New Age now all seem a bit childish. Deep inner growing seed of spiritual knowing. The divine is real but undefined. Interest in mystics like Martinus emerge.
– 9. Cosmic glimpses. One sees the divine workings behind the veil for brief moments but still too immature to put the pieces together.
– 10. Full blown cosmic consciousness. Like Martinus, Buddha and most likely Jesus Christ. Everything is completely intuitive. You are one with God, it all makes sense and you can tap into any answer about the cosmos at any time.
The guy with the Swedish accent says: “Good, you are reading about the stages. I’d say the world is now roughly between #4 and #5, with some regional variations. For example, places like Denmark and Norway are centered around #5 and #6, whereas places like Saudi Arabia are on average between #3 and #4. Burning Man and the other Pure Lands are designed to concentrate people who are between #6 and #7, and moving towards #8.”
They said that you now know what you needed to know. You are free to hang out and ask more questions, but to feel free to walk out any time. You feel a high level of energy coursing through your veins, purifying your sense of self, making it more humane. You decide to continue reading the pamphlet:
“When Professor Christopher M. Bache was asked what was the most important thing that he learned from taking LSD in high doses in silent darkness more than 70 times, he responded:
The most important? That the universe is the manifest body of a Divine Being of unimaginable intelligence, compassion, clarity, and power, that we are all aspects of this Being, never separated from it for a moment, that we are growing ever-more aware of this connection, that physical reality emerges out of Light and returns to Light continuously, that Light is our essential nature and our destiny, that all life moves as One, that reincarnation is true, that there is a deep logic and significance to the circumstances of our lives, that everything we do contributes to the evolution of the whole, that our awareness continues in an ocean of time and a sea of bliss when we die, that we are loved beyond measure and that humanity is driving towards an evolutionary breakthrough that will change us and life on this planet at the deepest level. Take your pick.
(Source: Meet the professor who self-administered 73 high-dose LSD sessions)
This is just one of the tens of thousands of people who reached level #9 in the last 50 years, and in the coming century we expect a few million people to get there.”
You save the pamphlet in your camelback, thank everyone at the table, drink the last bit of rooibos, and start taking off. “One more thing” – the 18 year old says – “you will confront a difficult moral dilemma tonight. Keep your heart open.”
As you leave, you pass by the same place where people were meditating in front of the caterpillar statue. But the statue is not there anymore, and the people who are there are now completely different. More so, they are now facing the opposite direction… meditating in front of a 4m-tall butterfly statue, which you swear wasn’t anywhere to be seen when you arrived.
You hurry up and try to get back to your camp before people leave to see the Man burn. On your way back, you overhear a conversation between two 20-something girls who happen to be biking in the same direction as you for what seems like an eternity. One of the girls points out that she went to Burning Man with the intention of having fun and maybe some casual sex with older men. But she is now feeling a bit disgusted with her original intention, that she feels drawn to starting a family with a beta boy who, she now realizes, she has been in love with for years but wouldn’t admit it to herself. The other girl kept saying to speak louder, that the acid was making it hard for her to make out the words of what she was saying. Soon enough they turn right at a junction as you continue forward, riding fast to make sure you don’t miss your campmates. You notice you came across a large number of Human-shaped sculptures. Where are the beasts? You don’t see them anywhere.
You arrive late by a couple minutes. Thankfully Astro Burrito is still there, and he informs you that there is a second wave of people who will be departing in half an hour. You quickly eat some granola bars, drink a protein shake, and swallow some dried apricots, and to add some hydration, drink the last soda water can left in the cooler. Astro Burrito hands you some mixed nuts and orange slices. You refill your camelback, and join the group of people right outside the camp who will be the second wave. 5 minutes later you all start walking towards the Man as a group.
You are still a little high from the 2C-B, but you feel yourself coming down. You walk alongside Astro Burrito, and you share with him some of the things you experienced at Camp Anti-Replicator.
Astro Burrito tells you to consider the fact that Burning Man is a breeding ground for meme-plexes that reproduce in an ecosystem of people in altered states of consciousness open to be infected by new memes. “What survives in here is mood congruent… so you shouldn’t be surprised to experience extremely compelling theme-camps with a worldview to- subtly or otherwise- pass on to you.”- He says. You reply: “I guess there is a lot of memetic evolution going on here.” He responds: “Yeah, right? Somebody should write an article about what Burning Man theme camps will be like in, er… 10 years from now. I’m really curious about that myself.”
“But how about the apparent independent memetic convergence of people who meditate and take psychedelics over the course of many years? The pamphlet of Camp Anti-Replicator talked about how this convergence is happening throughout the world even in places not exposed to those memes.” – you ask him.
“You really have to wonder about the extent to which pre-existing beliefs, inclinations, and wishes for a satisfying positive view of reality figure in a person’s psychedelic revelations. Indeed, as we know from Steve Lehar’s epic trip reports, not being confused with implicit direct realism about perception protects you from reaching spiritual conclusions. Direct realists about perception, admittedly, probably have the wildest trips.” He then goes on into a complex narrative about how you can think of communities of people as metal alloys. “Think of a certain type of people with characteristic cognitive and personality traits as being analogues to atoms of a certain type. When you bind together many of those atoms as a group, the material has some unique properties. But as soon as you sprinkle atoms from a different metal, the overall properties of the resulting alloy can be radically different than the pure version. The same happens with meme-plexes. Burning Man allows new memetic alloys… which can have unexpectedly sticky qualities you wouldn’t easily predict from the contents alone. Be wary of things that sound too good to be true.”
At the half-way point between Esplanade and the Man your campmates stop at some port-a-potties for a bathroom break. After you pee, you join your campmates in waiting for everyone to be done. Out of the corner of your eye you see rapidly-blinking lights and hear loud laughter. Turning in that direction, you notice a large group of college-aged chaotic neutral ravekids playing with an interactive sculpture. You have a bad feeling about this. They seem to be climbing it in unsafe ways, and playfully daring each other to interact with it creatively. They are clearly too excited, intoxicated, and unaware of the potential danger… and nobody is looking after them. You tell your campmates that you will stay there to look after them. Astro Burrito tells you that if you stay there you won’t be able to see the Man burn with them. “There is a sea of people out there, don’t you remember? You won’t be able to find us if you don’t come with us.” Determined, you insist. Astro Burrito says: “It’s your call. See you back at the Camp late, later tonight, or tomorrow, as the case may be.”
Your campmates continue onwards towards the Man as you stay behind, watching over the guys. One of them reaches the top and shouts: “This is freedom!” and opens his arms wide, making a Titanic pose. “This is Fre…” he shouts, but loses equilibrium, and falls six meters towards the ground, landing on his left leg, which snaps, and then landing on his torso on his left side, breaking a couple ribs. The poor guy starts screaming in agony. “Fuck! I knew this was going to happen” – you think to yourself. You run to him, but realize that’s not useful, and course-correct towards the nearest Ranger post, which is about 250 meters away. The ranger jumps on a Jeep and drives with you to the site to confirm the location, then backs out and drives to the closest medical center. There they dispatch a medical unit, and you stay there. From afar, you can start to see the Man being set alight. You feel shaken, but in your heart you feel like you did the right thing. The Man gets fully covered in flames as the medical unit comes back with the ravekid with a twisted leg, biting a pacifier and looking slightly less distressed than before. The friends thank you for watching over them, and gift you some Kandi.
You climb a nearby platform, and watch the Man burn slowly. Then a powerful feeling overtakes you: “Oh dear… the Man is not being burned… it’s being illuminated! Dear heaven! I now realize Burning Man was a Symbol of the dawn of the Human Kingdom all along!”
You walk over to your camp, processing what happened today. Your body is resonating to an energy you are not used to. It’s as if the burden of competition… the drive to prove yourself to others, has exited every cell of your body. Green etheric energy and a sense of connection to Gaia electrifies your body. “I feel like I can appreciate anew the point of view where all of life is one, and we are all connected at the root” – you think to yourself.
Galaxy Fox is at the camp, and she is applying make-up to herself, and is wearing a gorgeous butterfly costume. She didn’t go see the Man because she wanted to watch it from the highest place in the playa, which was a five-story-tall tower at 4:00 and E. She said it looked amazing, and she also sensed a deep connection to the planet and all life while watching it burn. She then hands you a vegan alcosynth grasshopper, and you both chill for a bit. You then hit a THC vape pen, and decide to go for a long walk and admire art you haven’t yet seen. It all feels ethereal, like you are in a dream. Perhaps the veil of reality is lifting? Is reality a collective hallucination? The levity of being overwhelms you. You hold hands with Galaxy Fox from time to time, in a friendly way, and dance with her whenever an art car drives by. At 4AM both of you are exhausted, and you return to your tent. You pass out immediately after laying on your sleeping bag.
(Second) Sunday: Continuity Camp
Our identity is that which we seek to preserve.
– William Eden (HT Divia Caroline)
Your first thought upon waking up: “Did yesterday really happen?” You glance over your luggage and sure enough, there is the Kandi the ravekids gave you. Your recollection of last night feels very dreamy and ethereal, not to speak of your visit to Camp Anti-Replicator. That said, the pamphlet you took is still on your camelback. You open it at random and start reading it. “Once you cross the threshold of 51% human kingdom consciousness vibration energy in your body, you will feel the need to go back and fix the troubles you have caused to others during your life, as well as try to eliminate all suffering throughout the living world. This is a very heavy burden for many people to bear, and subconsciously you are likely to suppress some of your insights for this reason. Have faith; insight comes in waves. Do not be alarmed if you can’t reach that magical place in the near future. It always comes back, eventually. And with each wave, the human kingdom energy plants deeper roots in your mind, body, and soul.” You feel at peace. But in addition to this inner peace, you notice that your desire for new experiences isn’t gone. You should hurry up and get ready to explore before all theme-camps pack their stuff!
You know that many people are leaving today, and you need to start packing up yourself. Come to think of it, you don’t really know whether any theme-camp is still up and running. But you will look for it. You borrow a bike and from 1PM to 2:30PM you bike around looking for an active camp. The outer rings of the city are starting to look a bit deserted, and even the Esplanade is starting to empty out. Between C and 5:15, though, you spot a camp that’s still looking quite active. It is leaving a little later than the rest. The camp is called “Continuity Camp”. It turns out they make it a point to provide shelter for people who need to stay Sunday night. Many people miss their ride, or have some kind of car problem, or are too exhausted to pack and leave. The reasons are myriad, and inevitably a few hundred people find themselves lost Sunday night. To remedy this, the camp doubles as a shelter Sunday night for people who’ve experienced any planning mishap and need to stay the night to sort it out. That said, the camp’s core structures are coming down, and you can tell that some of the sculptures are already gone, given the visible craters on the ground.
You park the bike, and venture in. There is a kitchen still open under a large shade structure. In the background, pieces by classical Mexican composers are playing (Arturo Márquez, Miguel Bernal Jiménez, José Pablo Moncayo, and others). You also notice that the walls are decorated with strange symbols with eyes of different sizes, fire rings, rainbows, plants, etc.
They welcome you with a plate of black beans, tortillas buttered with coconut oil, cacao nibs, and fresh slices of avocado. They also give you a cinnamon horchata agua fresca. You look around at the tables and see a group of people having a friendly discussion, so you ask them if you can join them, and when they say yes you sit down and start eating.
One of the persons in the group is part of the camp. She explains that this camp’s theme is centered around the the concept of continuity, which in turn gives rise to questions about personal identity. How do you truly know that you will wake up in your body tomorrow? How about a couple of seconds ago? Are you the same “subject of experience” as your past and future self? And how about others?
Closed Individualism: You are a distinct narrative over time
Open Individualism: All is One
Empty Individualism: You are a “moment of experience”
She goes on: “There are three main views of personal identity. First you have Closed Individualism, which is the view that you are a person, that is, whose existence is limited to a linear narrative or a story over time. Most people are Closed Individualists, and identify with their bodies, memories, or some kind of transcendent individual soul. Then you have Empty Individualism, which is the view that you are just a moment of experience, and that in some ways you only exist for a tiny slice of time and then disappear… though this gets complicated by what your theory of time is… so some say you really are just there forever, like a Platonic experience in the sea of conscious possibilities. Then you have Open Individualism, which is the view that we are all, on some fundamental level, One. All of us, as apparent separate beings, are different facets or projections of the one universal consciousness.”
She points you to the symbols hanging on the walls. “The first three symbols over there represent each of these views. The one with a ring of plants and as many eyes as individual lines represents Closed Individualism. Each being has a different size, shape, and lifetime. Like trees, identities are messy and complicated; each bearing its own unique temporally-extended narrative. The symbol with a large eye in the center and a rainbow represents Open Individualism. It is the consciousness of All Is One, which has a full-spectrum rainbow flavor. And the one on the right is Empty Individualism. Each moment of experience is its own unbridgeable monad, separated from every other monad by the fundamental fire of differentiation.”
You ponder about it for a moment, and then ask her: “What are the pros and cons of these views? Why should someone believe one over another?” To which she says: “There are good philosophical arguments for each of these views. Contrary to what most people believe, it is not like the common-sense view has as much solid backing as we feel it does by default. Aside from the philosophical question of which one is true, there are game-theoretical implications as well as psychological effects on people from each of these views. Most commentators agree that Open Individualism solves a lot of game-theoretical problems, and if we could make society more Open Individualistic we would generally experience more interest in solving current coordination impasses. That said, people who take a given view very seriously tend to experience some archetypical effects. Open Individualists tend to become either solipsistic or messianic, which are both usually dysfunctional states in the long-term. Closed Individualists feel isolated, and generally experience intense fear of death. And when someone believes in Empty Individualism too strongly at a gut level, they tend to experience a sort of motivational collapse. So there are pragmatic considerations when it comes to adopting some of these views.”
As you finish your food and drink, someone comes over to ask you if you want dessert. You agree, and they give you some quince paste (“ate“) and tequila lime ice-cream, which they sprinkle with some Miguelito. You take a minute to delight in this engrossing mixture of flavors. You then tune back into the conversation:
“Then there are people who have what we might call ‘hybrid’ views on personal identity. Really, to get there you need to give some credence to, well, paraconsistent logic people.”
Someone overhearing the conversation becomes startled. He turns around and asks: “Wait, are paraconsistent logic people real?”
And she responds: “Well, yes and no.” – people laugh. She pauses for a moment. She then goes on- “For people who hold two of those views at once, you could think of what is going on as them experiencing a bistable representation for their metaphysics. Insofar as language cannot fully specify a worldview, what remains undecidable from your linguistic axioms is fundamentally ambiguous. More strongly, some people assert that reality itself (rather than just their representations of it) is fundamentally ambiguous at the most basic level. Personally, I’ve gotten a lot of mileage from exploring that view. After all, questions like ‘why is there something rather than not?’ seem very robust against classical logic accounts.”
She goes on to explain how computational theories of identity have open, closed, and empty versions. Even philosophy of physics ultimately faces the same questions as philosophy of mind, she says, as physicists struggle to define boundaries between physical events, and grasp at straws like quantum decoherence to identify ‘natural kinds’.
“Hybrid views are more common than you may realize. Look over there, those three symbols represent the three possible hybrid mixtures of two accounts of personal identity.”
Open-Closed: Common-sense spirituality; all is one but we are all personal souls or “sons of God”
Open-Empty: Monistic physicalism – Universal wavefunction of quantum mechanics + topological bifurcation
Empty-Closed: People as coalitions of moments of experience
“I think that the most common hybrid view is Closed Individualism + Open Individualism, the symbol on the left. This view is extremely common in spiritual communities. Basically, this is the view of people who somehow combine the existence of an ultimate God who connects us all at the root of our being, and individual souls that carry our karma around. Outside of esoteric Buddhism and other obscure spiritual philosophies, few religious communities really take Empty Individualism seriously. For them, the continuity from one moment to the next is not questioned, so a ‘soul’ ontology is usually the philosophical backdrop of their worldview.”
“Interestingly, physicists are perhaps the people who are most likely to be Open + Empty Individualists, the symbol in the middle. Namely, they will assign to each moment of experience an eternal here-and-now spatio-temporal coordinate while also recognizing the fundamental unity of reality in the form of a universal quantum field. Monistic physicalism entails that consciousness is the fire that breaths life into the equations of physics, so to monists who take quantum mechanics seriously reality is equivalently describable as the total wave-function, or the collection of topologically-bound quantum coherent bundles. Two sides of one coin: either the universe is a collection of connected coherent bundles, or it is a unified field whose dynamic generates coherent pockets of energy. So for them, you have the symbol in the middle, which combines a central observer and countless ‘individual reflectors’ of the central light corresponding to bundles of coherent energy.”
“What about the one on the right?” – asks a fully-dusted naked man, who recently sat down with a bowl of black beans. She says: “That’s a very rare view to have. In some ways people who are functionalists in that they believe that consciousness is the result of the internal dynamics of information-processing systems are drawn towards this view. They, for example, imagine consciousness as having two facets: the instantaneous state of the system and at the same time the entire range of possible configurations of the system, which is what determines the meaning of a particular state. A system’s state is meaningless without the context of counterfactual states it might have been in, is a common trope in this view. A neighboring view is the one which says that the essence of a conscious system is its utility function (aka. its ‘values’), which again gives rise to a co-dependent relationship between the individual states and the complete being.”
The dusted man says: “That’s how I think of my life. Sure, I experience many different things over, say, even a single day, and there is a sense in which each of those experiences are separate. But they all share a common theme- they are part of a life-arc with definite goals and obstacles. So each moment is strung together with the other ones in a coherent way.”
She adds: “For example, when you are in your room, look at the decorations and objects around you. Each portrait, each drawing, blanket, pillow, furniture and even the overall feng shui of the space, can be attributed to the decisions and actions of experiences that exist as moments in your life. You could think of what they left behind as a monument to a moment of your life. It helps to try to feel grateful to “them”. They are there, really, truly, existing, just like you now, just elsewhere in space-time. And they generated intentions for you now, for the chain of future moments of experience. One can feel gratitude for all of those moments of experience over there in the past trying to build a good future for you here. When you have a moment of peace, and feel love and gratitude to all who helped you be where you are now, send them a message: ‘This level of creation and kindness will eventually carry you to the success you are looking for. Thank you, friend.'”
“What about the big symbol over there?” – you ask, pointing to the largest image, which is hanging from the ceiling and prominently displayed. She says: “We are fans of the idea of ‘transcending and including’ worldviews. Many of us have converged on a view of identity that could be described as the paraconsistent superposition of Open, Closed, and Empty Individualism.”
“Contrary to common-sense views, this one takes as granted that you can exist in multiple places, times, and scales at once. Open Individualism already takes the view that you are all beings in existence. But the Promethean state, as we call it, goes further by acknowledging the seriousness of the topological folds that create the simultaneous reality of differentiated beings and universal consciousness. You are an eddy in the universal wavefunction of quantum mechanics, and your personal self is also an eddy but at a higher topological level of organization. So in reality each moment of experience is topologically distinct, each human or animal being is also topologically distinct, and the field upon which this happens is the shared ground of being. You are a topologically enclosed eddy in the life-flux of the universe. So all of Open, Closed, and Empty Individualism are true in their own terms, and yet without negating each other.”
She goes on: “Some people go at it from the point of view of physics. Feynman diagrams show how reality can be described as the sum total of all possible interactions of a universal Platonic particle with itself. Reality is what emerges from the fact that the Big Electron can pretend to be somebody else, when crossing its own alternate trajectory, to function as a stranger with whom to interact.”
“This brings us to the Prime Radiant. You can experience self-interference patterns of the one universal mind while on peak LSD states, for instance. Here, read this transcript” – she hands everyone a little card that reads:
Prime Radiant is the concept that all that exists in physicality is one point of life, whizzing around at such speed, and with such freedom, that it creates all that we see in the universe. Now what that means is there’s one ‘atom’, if you like, and it whizzes around the universe, the whole universe, at incredible speed, such that it appears almost to cross itself sometimes, as it is going around, it does it so quickly it will come back to itself and appear to almost create a second point, and it goes around to create a third point, and so on, and that, believe it or not, is what creates everything that you see in our whole galaxy. It is doing it at such speed, this one tiny point of life, it is going around at such speed, that it is creating everything that you can see, not only Planet Earth, not only every blade of grass, every animal, every grain of sand, every person, but every planet, every star, every thing in the whole universe, all being created [nearly] instantly from this one tiny point of life.
Difficult to believe, but it is apparently so.
Now, this is true, but the story is a lot more complicated than that. In that there is a Prime Radiant for every person alive. Each and every person has their version of Prime Radiant, which operates under the control of their consciousness forming the universe in which they live. That is why no two people have identical lives. In other words, you probably understood, but what they are saying is, that for every person alive on the Planet Earth at the moment, I think there are about 7 billion people, there are 7 billion Prime Radiants, whizzing about, creating the universe exclusive to that one person, each person has a unique aspect whizzing around creating what they see and appreciate.
It may be difficult to imagine that you create a universe that is unique to you, but it is further complicated by the fact that by common agreement people can join their thoughts and agree to create similar universes or parts of universes in order to try to make sense of Life. But even that is not always quite the same. We have stated that in the case of a crime if the police asks witnesses what they saw, the descriptions can vary widely. That this is because we all create our versions of life and so we may not all see the same things. We might all see a crime but do not all see the same event.
– Zero point energy, Bob Sanders 2019
“Do you just have these cards on hand all the time?” – you ask. “Yes, we print them in many different colors and shapes”- she responds. The dusted man sneezes, which causes a dust cloud to lift around him, which settles over 20 or so seconds as people laugh and stand up to undust themselves.
She continues: “Many colors and shapes… but they all say the same thing. Well, perhaps they say it in different words, and using unique metaphors, but there are many ways of saying the same thing. The Promethean view of identity is beyond any particular qualia, particular points in time and space, particular causes and conditions. Since reference to a particular is not necessary to express the view, as it posits the non-conflict between instantaneous, personal, and cosmic identity, one can think of this philosophy as a universally-accessible Schelling point in concept-space. There are innumerable ways of expressing it in concrete form. Mythically, we could say that this is the ultimate referent of any conversation to have ever taken place, if only had such conversation been extended for long enough to catch its own tail. This is the ultimate view when it comes to the progression of transcending and including worldviews, as it points to the asymptote of synthesis at the limit of the development of the concept of Self.”
A young guy who recently sat down mentions: “Sadly, this view entails that you are, in a very non-trivial way, the non-human animals suffering in factory farms.” She agrees to that. The discussion is then wrapped up with an exposition of the Buddhist notion of the interpenetration of all 10 realms and how this also applies to interpenetrations of philosophies of personal identity. Analogous to how Tiantai Buddhism proclaims that: “One thought contains three thousand worlds”, so does Continuity Camp proclaim that oneness, individuality, and instantaneous separation are inter-dependent ontological states.
You figure that the religion of this camp- trying to articulate it in as few words as possible- could be expressed thus: “The universal essence devoid of inherent properties was clever to create a reality in which questions of self, time, space, and continuity are fundamentally ambiguous. The engine of creation is not a lawful and dependable ground of being, but rather, it is what emerges out of the compromises that inconsistent ontologies need to make in order to coexist.”
On your way out you ask people why they were so keen on pushing an artistic vibe of the 20th Century Mexican intelligentsia. Not that you had anything against it, but it certainly seemed random to you. They tell you conflicting stories. One person says that this is an artistic style chosen to ground people and help them ease their way back into civilization where people have strong identities and attachments. That a good way to ease your way into the madness that is ego-identification in modern cities is to show you a defunct artistic expression with which a lot of people used to identify at some point in the past. Alternatively, the second person explains, the vibe is used as a form of meditation into a computational theory of identity. Namely, that in some accounts of identity, semantic and episodic memories fall on a secondary position relative to the preponderance of felt-sense. If you can set alight the essence of a past aesthetic, you are, quite literally- and perhaps in the only sense that matters– reviving the people of that historical period. Thus, they all meditate into becoming the life-force which identified with 20th Century Mexican Nationalism as a philosophy of identity, and use that experience to feel, process, and let go of the pain of identification. Alas, this second person seemed high as a kite, so you figure “who knows how much he actually knew about what was going on?”.
You bike back to your camp, eat a protein bar, drink coconut water, and have some white tea. You don’t feel very hungry for some reason, but you put some high-calorie foods into a bag for later, just in case. You walk towards the Temple with the two thirds of your camp that haven’t departed and aren’t actively involved in taking down structures at the moment.
Temple Reflection
When you arrive at the ring of people around the structure you feel peaceful, pensive, and puzzled. Your campmates also seem to share your general state of solemn satisfied exhaustion. You have been exposed to so many views over the last week that you don’t know where to start. How to put all these views together into a global worldview? Do you even have to?
You realize that every camp has its own way of painting itself as the “final point of view”. As if rehearsing, you utter quietly: “A meme is a unit of cultural meaning that can be passed around from mind to mind. A particular joke is a meme. A particular name is a meme. Most memes make references to other memes. This right here is a meme. When a large bundle of memes support each other we call those meme-plexes. For example, religions and ideologies are meme-plexes because they use memes that fit well together.” You still remember giving that presentation in middle-school, where you introduced your classmates to memes. “No, not the things your parents and older siblings share online in Internet 2.0 social media. The concept of a ‘meme’ is a much more profound and wide-reaching idea.” – you still remember other students passing around Internet memes (i.e. image macros) of you explaining what a “meme really was.”
Your thoughts are interrupted when you notice that the Temple is being prepared to be burned. A campmate who was involved in building the Temple this year tells you that the theme for the structure is “Temple of Courage” (cf. Temple Themes). You weren’t aware that the Temple has a theme each year. You had visited the Temple this year, and the thought crossed your mind that it takes courage to visit it, considering the depth of grief and sorrow that is often felt in it. At the same time, you feel that you have been courageous during this visit, too. You set the goal of visiting a different camp each day and deeply engaging with its worldview. In retrospect, you realize that it really takes courage to delve into new meme-plexes, let alone full-stack ones. Being presented with compelling views that, if you were to take seriously, would mean the radical restructuring of your mind could be a dodgy matter.
This week you consciously chose to be as open as possible to every new worldview you encountered. You were seriously shaken by more than one of these visits, but it currently feels that this has been for the better. A courageous move to expand yourself, whose consequences are yet to be seen.
You now wonder about what makes a meme-plex “full-stack”. If you recall correctly, meme-plexes are “full-stack” when they can generate a defensible and stable response to most questions humans would ask, including how the universe was made, what is love, and what it means to laugh. Usually they provide an account of what is, and what is good (i.e. valuable). Full-stack meme-plexes are immensely more powerful than other meme-plexes, because as such they do not have ‘any cracks’ from the point of view of people who buy into them; they seem “air-tight from the inside”, so to speak.
So what is the big-picture story of the camps you visited this week? Well, Camp Longevity has the mindset of assigning infinite weight to your own life and trying to survive personally and promote personal survival for others. Rainbow God wants to explore the entire state-space of consciousness. Camp Valence wants to eliminate suffering and maximize bliss, which in practice may involve ultra-blissful drugs and brain modifications. Camp Superintelligence considers intelligence intrinsically valuable and is concerned with the arms races that may ensue with drastically new intelligence coming online. Camp Replicator says that we are bound by our subconscious desires and express them in unproductive ways. We can address them directly, unleash all the built-up tension, and become free from self-replicating patterns. The Anti-Replicator Camp would say we are on a spiritual path of development which uses replicators as a means for learning. Ultimately, we will be grown out of replicator desires and focus our spiritual energy on loving each other. And finally, Continuity Camp would say that we are not who we think we are; being individual humans is an illusion. It is evolutionarily adaptive, but in order to save the world we need to agree on an expanded sense of identity.
Life is not like Scrabble… you need to know the meaning of the concepts in order to win. In that sense, to play ideological rock-paper-scissors you need a good model of each ideology both on its own terms and in the terms of other ideologies. You ask yourself: How would each of these meme-plexes think of each other?
Longevity can be attacked by Continuity by emphasizing that Open Individualism (i.e. oneness) suggests we should not put all our eggs in the basket of personal survival. Longevity can attack Superintelligence by saying that working on AI is to betray humanity. In here, Rainbow God can come in and argue that both Longevity and Superintelligence are working on the same goals, but they do not realize that yet. More so, that the goals of Rainbow God are a super-set of all that could be achieved by both Longevity and Superintelligence. That is, mapping out the state-space of consciousness gets you both the ability to understand what survival even means, and also access to states of consciousness critical for sentient superintelligence.
Interestingly, the pair of Anti-Replicator and Valence seem to have fundamental disagreements. Anti-Replicator will tell you that good comes from our spiritual development and the Love with a capital L that emerges out of that. Valence would say that love, capital letter or not, is a label used to identify positive qualia related to pair-bonding, family, friendship and other evolutionarily adaptive social behaviors. In turn, what makes love valuable is the high valence that such states of consciousness tend to exhibit. MDMA imbues high valence across your entire world-simulation. The fact that you describe this experience with words like “I love the world and the world loves me” is the result of trying to put the experience into words. But high-valence is what is behind the “magic” of the state when it comes down to scientific fact. Anti-Replicator would simply say that such a point of view exists in people who are close to the boundary between animal and human realms, such that they try to make sense of love in materialistic ways. The conclusions are always wrong because the ontology they start with is incorrect (love as high valence which corresponds to particular material configurations). Each paradigm can explain the other by including it. There are converts in both directions. These worldviews are experienced as bistable perceptions to some people. Camp Continuity could come and say that their views are complementary rather than contradictory. Each experience is a mixture of Empty, Open, and Closed ontologies, and high-valence is achieved when there is the right balance between them. Thus love is fundamentally connected to the act of defeating duality of self, which involves undoing ancient symmetry breaking operations. Thus love is both the result of mathematical harmony, and a metaphysical quality associated with selfless giving.
The highest expression of God, as it were, is not the one that incorporates the most diverse range of qualia, but rather, the one that incorporates the largest amount of coherent energy in a state of harmony.
– Camp Valence
Now, Rainbow God and Valence would probably also have a complicated relationship. In truth, having access to high-valence states enables you to have the hyper-motivation necessary to explore the state-space of consciousness. And doing such explorations, in turn, leads to discoveries about how to create better high-valence states. Rainbow God, on the one hand, will continue on exploring as long as there is more to be found. Camp Valence might retort that learning about each of the possible varieties of beetles is not rational considering the opportunity cost. Why not leave aside variety for variety’s sake, and focus on making high-tech bliss instead? Rainbow God would feel defensive here. It would say that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. So far, pursuing full-spectrum experiences seem to be exhilarating and wonderful. Valence might then say that this could be an illusion caused by endogenous opioid release in response to novelty. Not everyone seems to enjoy exploring consciousness for its own sake, and doing so is correlated with general openness to experience. As an axis of human variability, this would suggest that people are more or less drawn towards novelty. So rather than fixating on novelty, we should investigate what makes novelty in some people feel so good. Despite these misgivings, Valence would still be open to there being a fundamental connection between valence and diversity of qualia. Both camps would agree that there might be a possible dual relationship between the symmetry of the mathematical object isomorphic to a person’s experience and the rainbowey-ness of the experience. As such, both meme-plexes would keep an eye on each other and cooperate insofar as it is mutually beneficial.
What about Porky’s? Porky’s (i.e. Camp Replicator) could argue that people going to every other camp is merely expressing and projecting their unmet psychological needs. People will be drawn towards the ideas that fulfill a certain void in them. So for example, people who support Continuity Camp have a higher existential distress baseline than the average person such that belonging to a community that reassures them of the survival of oneself-as-consciousness fulfills the need they started with. Porky’s wouldn’t necessarily disagree about key memes of other meme-plexes, but it would nonetheless be cynical about the typical motivations that draw people to these meme-plexes. Longevity is in fact a social club for people of all ages who enjoy the company of young-looking people. Valence responds to people who empathize too strongly with others. Superintelligence is a club for people insecure about their own intelligence who want to compare themselves against other smart people. Anti-replicator is dual with Porky’s; they emphasize the same facts but interpret them with complementary metaphysics.
A friend hands you an electrum necklace, and tells you that it is meant to materialize this very moment, as you receive it. The Temple is set alight as you are tying it to put around your neck. This moment. This moment. This moment. Are we counting moments, or are we counting selves? You get lost in a long now.
Your mind is surprisingly clear for being so cluttered with memes and meme-plexes. The image comes to you that your mind right now is working as a council, or general assembly, of seven tulpas representing each of the seven meme-plexes.
The meme-plex convention.
The experience felt odd. All your life you’ve identified with a given point of view, especially as it pertains to your view of the world. But right now your experience is simultaneously hosting meme-plexes in what feels like an impartial space. The task at hand is not the competition between the meme-plexes in order to take over center-stage, but their incorporation into a meta-space which can simultaneously host each meme-plex.
In a sense, you feel like seven people at once. Each of these beings being your answer to the question “who would I become if I were to have this meme-plex as my default view?” You remember the following quote:
We aren’t afraid of dying, we’re afraid of living while never doing anything of value.
– Hi There
You make a prayer. The prayer is to be free from fear when considering alternate worldviews. You hear some chanting in the background, and after a few more minutes the Temple collapses. Everyone cheers, and then people go quiet again. The now-flat incandescent surface burns slowly but steadily. It seems like the tulpas are learning to coexist in your mind. They are learning to be there and trying to provide value without overtaking your world-model, at least not without your permission. Are the tulpas friends? Not really. But they also are not hostile against each other. Rather, they personify rational worldviews open to new evidence and arguments. If you try to imagine them, they feel like large statues of peaceful Gods minding their own business. They are all open to being asked questions and to meet each other for conversation. This feels good. It feels peaceful.
You overhear a campmate say: “I took a microdose of 2C-G-5 three days ago, and I can still feel it. I like it, but it made sleeping really hard last night.” This is the cue that makes you aware that your campmates are getting ready to leave. You take a last long look at the fire and wonder about how many selves watched this event. You walk back to your camp with your campmates. People are now really engaged in dismantling structures and cleaning. The last remaining structure is the roofed dance area, which has cushions and blankets for the people who will take it down tomorrow, and a hexayurt for those who will do the final MOOP sweep on Tuesday. You decline some nitrous and get ready to leave.
(Second) Monday
You wake up and load your vehicle with grey water from the camp along with all of your stuff. You look around and decide to make one more bike trip before taking off. You bike around with a borrowed bike. The place is about 90% deserted, which makes navigating a lot harder as the landmarks you got used to over the last week are gone. You bike towards the Temple. You notice a shiny dot at the distance, which you use as a guide. You arrive there and pick it up. It is an electrum necklace identical to the one you got last night. You then notice that you don’t have that necklace on. This must be it, you found your necklace and you weren’t even searching for it. In that moment you remember that the necklace was a symbol of the precise moment in which you received it. Paradoxically, both now and that time feel just as real. Perhaps, you wonder, this is my own proof that I exist over time. But you fail to translate your newfound intuition into words.
You then bike back to your car, and take off.
Thanks to: Mike Johnson, Romeo Stevens, David Pearce, Anders Amelin, Liam Brereton, Enrique Bojorques, Andrés Silva Ruiz, Alfredo Valverde, Duncan Wilson, Mac Davis, Mario Montano, Lauge, and playa friends Tryp, Special, Expo, Nectar, Daphne, Frank, Victor, and many others for the conversations that led to ideas featured in this text (both part 1 & 2).
Note: Apparently Buddhists did make Rainbow Body a core practice and got phenomenological mileage out of doing that.
“Letter from Utopia” and Other Triple-S Transhumanist Media
Posted on March 2 by algekalipso
by Nick Bostrom (2010)
Dear Human,
Greetings, and may this letter find you at peace and in prosperity! Forgive
my writing to you out of the blue. Though you and I have never met, we are
not strangers. We are, in a certain sense, the closest of kin. I am one of your
possible futures.
I hope you will become me. Should fortune grant this wish, then I am not
just a possible future of yours, but your actual future: a coming phase of you,
like the full moon that follows a waxing crescent, or like the flower that
follows a seed.
I am writing to tell you about my life – how good it is – that you may choose
it for yourself.
Although this letter uses the singular, I am really writing on behalf of all
my contemporaries, and we are addressing ourselves to all of your
contemporaries. Amongst us are many who are possible futures of your
people. Some of us are possible futures of children you have not yet given
birth to. Still others are possible artificial persons that you might one day
create. What unites us is that we are all dependent on you to make us real.
You can think of this note as if it were an invitation to a ball that will take
place only if folks turn up.
We call the lives we lead here “Utopia”.
How can I tell you about Utopia and not leave you mystified? What words
could convey the wonder? What inflections express our happiness? What
points overcome your skepticism? My pen, I fear, is as unequal to the task as
if I had tried to use it against a charging elephant.
But the matter is so important that we must try even against long odds.
Maybe you will see through the inadequacies of my exposition.
Have you ever known a moment of bliss? On the rapids of inspiration,
maybe, where your hands were guided by a greater force to trace the shapes
of truth and beauty? Or perhaps you found such a moment in the ecstasy of
love? Or in a glorious success achieved with good friends? Or in splendid
conversation on a vine-overhung terrace one star-appointed night? Or
perhaps there was a song or a melody that smuggled itself into your heart,
setting it alight with kaleidoscopic emotion? Or during worship?
If you have experienced such a moment, experienced the best type of such a
moment, then a certain idle but sincere thought may have presented itself to
you: “Oh Heaven! I didn’t realize it could feel like this. This is on a
different level, so very much more real and worthwhile. Why can’t it be like
this always? Why must good times end? I was sleeping; now I am awake.”
Yet behold, only a little later, scarcely an hour gone by, and the softly-falling
soot of ordinary life is already piling up. The silver and gold of exuberance
lose their shine. The marble becomes dirty.
Every way you turn it’s the same: soot, casting its veil over all glamours and
revelries, despoiling your epiphany, sodding up your white pressed collar and
shirt. And once again that familiar beat is audible, the beat of numbing
routine rolling along its tracks. The commuter trains loading and unloading
their passengers… sleepwalkers, shoppers, solicitors, the ambitious and the
hopeless, the contented and the wretched… like human electrons shuffling
through the circuitry of civilization.
We do so easily forget how good life can be at its best – and how bad at its
worst. The most outstanding occasion: barely is it over before the sweepers
move in to clean up the rice. Yellowing photos remain.
And this is as it should be. We are in the business of living, and life must go
on. Special moments are out-of-equilibrium experiences in which our
puddles are stirred up and splashed about; yet when normalcy returns we are
usually relieved. We are built for mundane functionality, not lasting bliss.
So the door that was ajar begins to close, disappearing hope’s sliver behind
an insensate scab.
Quick, stop that door! Look again at your yellowing photos, search for a
clue. Do you not see it? Do you not feel it, the touch of the possible? You
have witnessed the potential for a higher life, and you hold the fading proof
in your hands. Don’t throw it away. In the attic of your mind, reserve a
drawer for the notion of a higher state of being. In the furnace of your heart,
keep an aspiring ember alive.
I am summoning this memory of your best experience – to what end? In the
hope of kindling in you a desire to share my happiness.
And yet, what you had in your best moment is not close to what I have now
– a beckoning scintilla at most. If the distance between base and apex for
you is eight kilometers, then to reach my dwellings requires a million lightyear ascent. The altitude is outside moon and planets and all the stars your
eyes can see. Beyond dreams. Beyond imagination.
My consciousness is wide and deep, my life long. I have read all your
authors – and much more. I have experienced life in many forms and from
many angles: jungle and desert, gutter and palace, heath and suburban creek
and city back alley. I have sailed the high seas of cultures, and swum, and
dived. Quite some marvelous edifice builds up over a million years by the
efforts of homunculi, just as the humble polyps amass a reef in time. And
I’ve seen the shoals of colored biography fishes, each one a life story,
scintillate under heaving ocean waters.
The whole exceeds the sum of its parts. What I have is not merely more of
what is available to you now. It isn’t just the particular things, the paintings
and toothpaste-tube designs, the record covers and books, the epochs, lives,
leaves, rivers, and random encounters, the satellite images and the hadron
collider data – it is also the complex relationships between these particulars
that make up my mind. There are ideas that can be formed only on top of
such a wide experience base. There are depths that can be fathomed only
with such ideas.
You could say I am happy, that I feel good. You could say that I feel
surpassing bliss. But these are words invented to describe human
experience. What I feel is as far beyond human feeling as my thoughts are
beyond human thought. I wish I could show you what I have in mind. If
only I could share one second of my conscious life with you!
But you don’t have to understand what I think and feel. If only you bear in
mind what is possible within the present human realm, you will have enough
to get started in the right direction, one step at a time. At no point will you
encounter a wall of blinding light. At no point will you have to jettison
yourself over an end-of-the-world precipice. As you advance, the horizon
will recede. The transformation is profound, but it can be as gradual as the
growth that made the baby you were into the adult you think you are.
You will not achieve this through any magic trick or hokum, nor by the
power of wishful thinking, nor by semantic acrobatics, meditation,
affirmation, or incantation. And I do not presume to advise you on matters
theological. I urge on you nothing more, nothing less, than reconfigured
physical situation.
The challenge before you: to become fully what you are now only in hope
and potential. New capacities are needed if you wish to live and play on my
To reach Utopia, you must first discover the means to three fundamental
transformations.
The First Transformation: Secure life!
Your body is a deathtrap. This vital machine and mortal vehicle, unless it
jams first or crashes, is sure to rust anon. You are lucky to get seven decades
of mobility; eight if you be Fortuna’s darling. That is not sufficient to get
started in a serious way, much less to complete the journey. Maturity of the
soul takes longer. Why, even a tree-life takes longer!
Death is not one but a multitude of assassins. Do you not see them? They
are coming at you from every angle. Take aim at the causes of early death –
infection, violence, malnutrition, heart attack, cancer. Turn your biggest
gun on aging, and fire. You must seize control of the biochemical processes
in your body in order to vanquish, by and by, illness and senescence. In
time, you will discover ways to move your mind to more durable media.
Then continue to improve the system, so that the risk of death and disease
continues to decline. Any death prior to the heat death of the universe is
premature if your life is good.
Oh, it is not well to live in a self-combusting paper hut! Keep the flames at
bay and be prepared with liquid nitrogen, while you construct yourself a
better habitation. One day you or your children should have a secure home.
Research, build, redouble your effort!
The Second Transformation: Upgrade cognition!
Your brain’s special faculties: music, humor, spirituality, mathematics,
eroticism, art, nurturing, narration, gossip! These are fine spirits to pour
into the cup of life. Blessed you are if you have a vintage bottle of any of
these. Better yet, a cask! Better yet, a vineyard!
Be not afraid to grow. The mind’s cellars have no ceilings!
What other capacities are possible? Imagine a world with all the music dried
up: what poverty, what loss. Give your thanks, not to the lyre, but to your
ears for the music. And ask yourself, what other harmonies are there in the
air, that you lack the ears to hear? What vaults of value are you witlessly
debarred from, lacking the key sensibility?
Had you but an inkling, your nails would be clawing at the padlock in sacred
frenzy.
Your brain must grow beyond the bounds of any genius of humankind, in its
special faculties as well as its general intelligence, so that you may better
learn, remember, and understand, and so that you may apprehend your own
beatitude.
Mind is a means: for without insight you will get bogged down or lose your
way, and your journey will fail.
Mind is also an end: for it is in the spacetime of awareness that Utopia will
exist. May the measure of your mind be vast and expanding.
Oh, stupidity is a loathsome corral! Gnaw and tug at the posts, and you will
slowly loosen them up. One day you’ll break the fence that held your
forebears captive. Gnaw and tug, redouble your effort!
The Third Transformation: Elevate well-being!
What is the difference between indifference and interest, boredom and thrill,
despair and bliss?
Pleasure! A few grains of this magic ingredient are dearer than a king’s
treasure, and we have it aplenty here in Utopia. It pervades into everything
we do and everything we experience. We sprinkle it in our tea.
The universe is cold. Fun is the fire that melts the blocks of hardship and
creates a bubbling celebration of life.
It is the birth right of every creature, a right no less sacred for having been
trampled upon since the beginning of time.
There is a beauty and joy here that you cannot fathom. It feels so good that
if the sensation were translated into tears of gratitude, rivers would overflow.
I reach in vain for words to convey to you what it all amounts to… It’s like a
rain of the most wonderful feeling, where every raindrop has its own unique
and indescribable meaning – or rather a scent or essence that evokes a whole
world… And each such evoked world is subtler, richer, deeper, more
palpable than the totality of what you have experienced in your entire life.
I will not speak of the worst pain and misery that is to be got rid of; it is too
horrible to dwell upon, and you are already aware of the urgency of
palliation. My point is that in addition to the removal of the negative, there
is also an upside imperative: to enable the full flourishing of enjoyments that
are currently out of reach.
The roots of suffering are planted deep in your brain. Weeding them out
and replacing them with nutritious crops of well-being will require advanced
skills and instruments for the cultivation of your neuronal soil. But take
heed, the problem is multiplex! All emotions have a natural function. Prune
carefully lest you reduce the fertility of your plot.
Sustainable yields are possible. Yet fools will build fools’ paradises. I
recommend you go easy on your paradise-engineering until you have the
wisdom to do it right.
Oh, what a gruesome knot suffering is! Pull and tug on those loops, and you
will gradually loosen them up. One day the coils will fall, and you will
stretch out in delight. Pull and tug, and be patient in your effort!
May there come a time when rising suns are greeted with joy by all the living
creatures they shine upon.
How do you find this place? How long will it take to get here?
I can pass you no blueprint for Utopia, no timetable, no roadmap. All I can
give you is my assurance that there is something here, the potential for a
better life.
If you could visit me here for but a day, you would henceforth call this place
your home. This is the place where you belong. Ever since one hairy
creature picked up two flints and began knocking them together to make a
tool, this has been the direction of your unknown aspiration. Like Odysseus
you must journey, and never cease journeying, until you arrive upon this
shore.
“Arrive?” you say; “But isn’t the journey the destination? Isn’t Utopia a
place that doesn’t exist? And isn’t the quest for Utopia, as witnessed
historically, a dangerous folly and an incitement to mischief?”
Friend, that is not such a bad way for you to think about it. To be sure,
Utopia is not a location or a form of social organization.
The blush of health on a convalescent’s cheek. The twinkling of the eye in a
moment of wit. The smile of a loving thought… Utopia is the hope that the
scattered fragments of good that we come across from time to time in our
lives can be put together, one day, to reveal the shape of a new kind of life.
The kind of life that yours should have been.
I fear that the pursuit of Utopia will bring out the worst in you. Many a
moth has been incinerated in its pursuit of a brighter future.
Seek the light! But approach with care – swerve if you smell your wingtips
singeing. Light is for seeing, not dying.
When you embark on this quest, you will encounter rough seas and hard
problems. To prevail will take your best science, your best technology, and
your best politics. Yet each problem has a solution. My existence breaks no
law of nature. The materials are all there. Your people must become
master builders, and then you must use these skills to build yourselves up
without crushing your cores.
What is Suffering in Utopia? Suffering is the salt trace left on the cheeks of those
who were around before.
What is Tragedy in Utopia? There is tragedy in Snowman’s melting. Mass
murders are not required.
What is Imperfection in Utopia? Imperfection is the measure of our respect for
things as they are and for their history.
What is Body in Utopia? Body is a pair of legs, a pair of arms, a trunk and a
head, all made of flesh. Or not, as the case may be.
What is Society in Utopia? Society is a never-finished tapestry, its weavers equal
to its threads – the parts and patterns an inexhaustible bourne of beauty.
What is Death in Utopia? Death is the darkness that ultimately surrounds all
What is Guilt in Utopia? Guilt is our knowledge that we could have created
Utopia sooner.
We love life here every instant. Every second is so good that it would blow
our minds had their amperage not been previously increased. My
contemporaries and I bear witness, and we request your aid. Please, help us
come into existence! Please, join us! Whether this tremendous possibility
becomes reality depends on your actions. If your empathy can perceive at
least the outlines of the vision I am describing, then your ingenuity will find a
way to make it real.
Human life, at its best, is fantastic. I’m asking you to create something even
greater. Life that is truly humane.
Your Possible Future Self
See also a musicalized video rendition of this piece by Mario Montano: Letter From Utopia
Nick Bostrom is a prominent transhumanist philosopher and academic who works at Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute. An incredibly prolific writer, Nick has a very wide and comprehensive worldview. I find his work extremely valuable and worth diving into. Letter From Utopia is one of my favorite works of his, as it encompasses what David Pearce called “The Three Supers of Transhumanism“: Super-Intelligence, Super-Longevity, and Super-Happiness (cf. Triple-S Genetic Counseling). Bostrom also has other amazing stories and essays (such as The Fable of the Dragon-Tyrant, cf. story video rendition by CGP Grey: video), but Letter From Utopia takes the cake for not leaving behind anything of crucial importance.
Alas, despite Bostrom’s far-reaching contributions, many argue that Nick’s most important impact has been in the field of AI Alignment (cf. Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies). In 2009 AI safety research was perceived to be a fringe concern of sci-fi aficionados and weirdos. Today, partly thanks to Bostrom (along with Yudkowsky, Chalmers, and others), many top journals publish serious work in this area.
I worry that this is not as good as it may seem. Nick Bostrom’s name is first and foremost associated with AI safety, followed by the Simulation Argument and Existential Risk, and only later by his extensive work on all other areas of transhumanism. For example, if you search Youtube for his name, you will see that of the top 20 results, 15 concern AI safety/digital superintelligence. Of the remaining 5, 3 are about the Simulation Argument, 1 is about agnosticism, and 1 is CGP Grey’s Dragon-Tyrant video. Where are the Triple-S videos?
I remembered that I encountered the work of both David and Nick when I was 16, googling terms like consciousness, AI, psychedelics, and far future. I was drawn to both of them, though I particularly liked David’s focus on ending suffering as a priority and his acknowledgment of the scientific significance of altered states of consciousness. I thought that their work was complementary rather than redundant. Alas, Bostrom is far more well known than Pearce, perhaps due to his success as both a fringe philosopher and a mainstream academic. In contrast, David dropped out of Oxford out of frustration with the academic community; the analytic philosophy of the time was not empirical, and it focused on language use rather than real philosophical questions, including the nature of suffering, psychedelics, and physical causality (e.g. “Philosophy may in no way interfere with the actual use of language, it can in the end only describe it. For it cannot give it any foundation either. It leaves everything as it is. It also leaves mathematics as it is, and no mathematical discovery can advance it.” – Wittgenstein). Bostrom, unlike Pearce, has the blessing of Ra, the God of optionality, superlativity, status legibility, and groundless prestige. And yet, it was David’s conversation with Nick that gave rise to the creation of the World Transhumanist Association, and provided one of the most important memetic Schelling points of the early 2000s. Alas, David is not focused on AI Safety. Why?
People in the transhumanist community accuse David of not getting it. David, after all, is not a mathematician, computer scientist, or physicist; he is merely a philosopher. I must confess that the very first time I met David Pearce in person I got the sense that (1) he was an incredibly well-read and creative genius in most areas of philosophy, and yet (2) naïve and unenlightened in the field of AI. As a fan of his work, and having co-founded the Stanford Transhumanist Association a couple of months earlier, I thought to invite him to give a talk at Stanford (see: David Pearce at Stanford – 2011).
David Pearce and the officers of the Stanford Transhumanist Association (December 1st 2011) at Palo Alto’s Chinese Vegan restaurant Garden Fresh, before David’s talk.
We had a lively conversation while eating dinner at a Chinese vegan restaurant before the event along with other members of the Association. I recall that he checked all of the right boxes when it came to personal identity (Open/Empty Individualism), ethics (consequentialism), physics (Everettian multiverse), psychedelia (they disclose new varieties of qualia), evolution (modern synthesis; selfish gene), social signaling theory (Mating Mind and sexual selection theory), and more (see his Reddit AMA). And yet, how could he dare to say that a digital computer would never be conscious? Meeting a brilliant thinker who had a better grasp of my favorite topics than I did and yet would try to hit on one of my core load-bearing beliefs was uncomfortable and unexpected. I dismissed his take on AI as that of a fuzzy thinker (at least in this area); I reassured myself by recalling that it was me who was studying AI academically at a top US institution and not him. Little did I know that over the next few years, and after hanging out with him in person for over 20 cumulative hours, he would finally change my mind- and worldview- concerning this whole field. If it wasn’t for him, I suspect I would have jumped on the bandwagon of AI-as-the-top-priority (cf. Altruists Should Prioritize Artificial Intelligence). Thankfully, I was already extremely interested in consciousness and didn’t have it in me to dismiss it. Additionally, my interest in personal identity reduced my (relative) interest in longevity research (at least as the top priority), for if we are all one consciousness, dying is more akin to forgetting a timeline than a true ontological death. The instrumental value of intelligence, however, ought not to be taken for granted, which is why I now advocate for a twin approach of improving subjective wellbeing while retaining critical insight. Figuring out that consciousness required more than digital computation utterly transformed my approach to transhumanism, and I largely credit this change to my conversations with David.
Later on I met Mike Johnson, Romeo Stevens, and a number of other top thinkers in the field of consciousness who could both understand the genuine problems consciousness poses and at the same time grasp the broader transhumanist meme-plex, transcend it, and include it (cf. Why I think the Foundational Research Institute should rethink its approach). Thus we founded the Qualia Research Institute, in order to bring a new full-stack meme-plex where consciousness – and valence – are front and center. Alas, we have experienced some resistance…
AI safety is sexy. If you are a smart, industrious, open-minded, and systematizing undergraduate, studying AI gives you access to a wide circle of really fun people to hang out in. It also signals intelligence, sober-mindedness, and stoicism. It gives you both an in into smart cool kid circles, and a profitable career in Silicon Valley. It allows you to straddle the world of normies and cutting-edge thinkers.
But, crucially, you have to consider the opportunity cost that comes from directing such a large fraction of hyper-intelligent young altruistic systematizers to this problem. The field is plagued with misconceptions about pleasure and value; Eliezer Yudkowsky’s Fun Theory suffers from the severe delusion that value comes from the intentional object of experience, rather than from its phenomenal character. Brian Tomasik’s (admittedly tongue-in-cheek) People for the Ethical Treatment of Reinforcement Learners is seemingly unaware of the fact that neuroscience has found that pleasure/suffering and reinforcement learning are doubly dissociated. Pleasure is not reinforcement, and until you grasp this, your ethical models will output nonsense.
Tongue-in-cheek, perhaps AI risk is a real threat. Not because of the usual reasons, but because it siphons out top brain power into a relatively sterile field, leaving vast amounts of unclaimed marginal value in the fields of rejuvenation research and valence technologies by the wayside.
In light of all of this, I would want to advocate for the reinvigoration of the broader transhumanist meme-plex, now updated with a post-Galilean understanding of consciousness. Writers, animators, Youtubers, and philosophers ought to collaborate in creating more balanced Triple-S Transhumanist outreach in the form of widely consumable media. This, I think, is the path forward.
Detailed 2C-B Trip Report by an Anonymous Reader
Posted on February 3 by algekalipso
by an anonymous reader
Yesterday I took about 30mg of 2C-B. In my experience, the “peak” of 2C-B is rather short-lived, so I decided to divide my dose in half so that I could have time to examine the effects over the course of a prolonged plateau. I took 15mg at 2:15pm and then another 15mg at 4:00pm. The whole experience lasted around seven hours, with residual effects for about two more hours. I was just about back to baseline by 11pm. Today, I woke up hangover-free and quite happy and refreshed. I love 2C-B for this reason; unlike MDMA, it does not feel like it taxes the body very much, and unlike LSD, it does not seem to be a completely unpredictable trip with the potential for undesirably deep existential worries – “ontological paranoia”, as a friend once put it. And unlike 2C-I, 2C-E, or 2C-T-2, it is relatively nausea-free and very upbeat. I think that the quasi-entactogenic boost in mood provided by 2C-B, more so than its trippy, psychedelic effects, may be the reason why it feels “psychologically safer” than acid. I’ve never had a bad time on 2C-B- only somewhat uncomfortable- but it never gets worse than a -2 on a sadness-happiness scale from -10 to +10, whereas acid can take you all the way down to -6 or -7 if you are really unlucky and you let it happen. Anyway- I am very happy I did it and I wanted to share some observations about my experience.
From a third person point of view, I’m sure my behavior wasn’t too out of the ordinary. I laughed harder than I usually laugh, and I was clearly giggly and arousable. But I wasn’t slurring my speech, speaking slowly, or making nonsense sounds. I am reasonably certain that for most of the experience, I could have spoken to a sober person without them realizing I was on anything. They might have thought that I was in a very open-minded mood, perhaps, but I don’t think it would have been obvious that I was tripping. Time-wise, I spent the first two hours or so listening to music, looking at patterns that I had saved for just this occasion, and staring at the ceiling. From the time I re-dosed (4pm) until about 7pm, I spent a lot of that time chatting online with a friend, smelling scented objects I was able to find in my house, and trying to test some hypotheses about the state I was in. From 7pm to about 9:30pm, I danced, chatted a bit with a different friend, and tried to take some notes- but I had trouble staying on track due to my short attention span. And from 9:30pm and onwards I mostly just laid back, got sucked into a rabbit hole learning about the Unarius religion, and played chill music.
For context, I should add that I’ve read a good number of Qualia Computing articles and I like to follow the links I find in them. I may get something wrong- please forgive me if I botch any specific reference. But I do think that this analysis of my experience might be helpful for the project of consciousness research. That being said, here are some highlights of the thoughts and observations that I gathered from my trip:
Key Signatures and Atasoy’s Work
In a presentation about brain harmonics (link), Selen Atasoy described how the “repertoire of brain states increases” on LSD. But she also mentioned that LSD has the general effect of (1) increasing the amplitude of brain harmonics across the spectrum, and (2) increasing the amplitude of high-frequency harmonics more so than that of low-frequency harmonics. I remember that the first time I read about brain harmonics, I thought it was some kind of hippie fantasy, or like some sort of 19th century model of how the brain works (e.g. Atasoy quotes Tesla in her presentation). But thinking about it while coming up on a psychedelic is quite revealing. The first thing I noticed was that at the 40 minute mark, I felt an overall amplification of the energy of my consciousness. I know this sounds crazy- especially if you’ve never tried a psychedelic- but there is a global increase in the intensity of your experience. It’s very much true that when you start coming up on psychedelics, it feels like someone is turning up the volume of your experience overall. This is not only true for every sensory modality of your experience (visual, sound, tactile, etc.), but also true for the affective (emotional) and cognitive (thought) components!
On a low dose, or at the beginning of the come-up on a medium or large dose, all you really notice is this global amplification across the board. But then it gets more interesting. I realized yesterday that the mild background noise that I can hear in my head when things are silent kept changing as I was coming up. At first, the noise kept slightly increasing in amplitude. There was a certain mixture of ringings (I don’t really have tinnitus, but I hope you see what I mean… I think weed and dissociatives amplify this noise too, but in a different way), and what I noticed was the way that the mixture of components that make up this subtle background noise started changing and shifting upwards in frequency. The thing is, this didn’t happen in a simple linear progression. I paid attention to how this happened, and I noticed that at around the 50 minute mark, I experienced perfect silence. It was like all of that background noise was gone (apparently MDMA does this to people who suffer from tinnitus). But then, at around the 55 minute mark, other sounds started to appear. It was a new mixture, but the overall spectrum of frequencies was now higher than before- like a higher-pitched mixture of subtle ringings. Then, at the 1 hour mark, I heard silence again! And then another episode of ringing, but higher still- then it switched to silence again, and then it mostly stayed that way. It felt like there were several phase-changes; it seemed like mixtures of brain harmonics can sometimes cancel each other out, but at other times they leave a residue. And the higher the overall spectrum of your brain state in frequency, the higher the pitch of the residue- unless it is silence, which feels the same at any level.
While I was noticing these qualitative changes happening in the background noise that I can hear in my head, I was also paying attention to my visual field. I noticed that something quite similar was happening there too. There were several phases that I would cycle between depending on how high I was. Usually, there is a little bit of “static” random noise in my vision. And on the 2C-B, I noticed that at first, this noise diminished and my vision felt like it was perfectly clear. But then, I would see criss-crossing patterns across my visual field. They were very subtle at first, and then grew more and more noticeable over time. Then the criss-crossing patterns would get higher in their spatial frequency (lines with less space between them), up to the point where they started to saturate my visual field. And then, the whole thing would break into a visual noise pattern similar to where I started from, except that now, it seemed both brighter and more defined than before. Then, again, my visual field would go clear and crisp, like the air was being sucked out of the room. And then again, subtle criss-crossing would start overlaying it, and the entire process would repeat. It repeated itself about four times during the first hour and a half of coming up, and it ended up in the criss-crossing region, now at fairly high frequencies.
I spent some time during the trip wondering how this could happen. It reminded me of a few concepts which I had studied previously: aliasing, beats, and Moiré patterns. I’ll leave some pictures here (courtesy of Google Images) that do a good job of replicating some of the elements of the transitions:
This one in particular, but imagine time flows upwards
I like the one on the left in particular, in which the concentric circles increase in their spatial frequency as you go up. You can imagine that going up that image is how it felt coming up on 2C-B. The thing is, at any given point, I was experiencing an overlap of many different frequencies, but the most dominant ones would interfere with each other- sometimes generating a single, clear, strong beat pattern when superimposed, sometimes generating silence/crisp images, and sometimes making a strange mesh of noisy, grainy, superpositions. But one thing is for certain- the frequency of the underlying components, both temporally and spatially, seemed to go up as a function of how high I was on the 2C-B.
I suppose that many people would read Atasoy’s work and Andres’s speculation about how it could be extended to quantify how happy you are (ref) to mean that in any given moment, you are experiencing just one frequency- or maybe two or three. But I think it’s more like you have a broad range of frequencies active at any point in time, and on psychedelics, the range of possible combinations explodes. At any single point in time, they are both superimposed on and interfere with each other. I guess I thought this was very abstract before the trip, but now I think I was able to feel that process from the inside and know what brain harmonics refer to. The mesh of increasingly high-frequency Moiré patterns is how it looks and sounds like- how it feels like- from the inside, to retune your connectome-harmonics upward.
Sober affective keyboard
2C-B affective keyboard
LSD affective keyboard
At the time, I thought that this could potentially be explained by making an analogy to keyboards, where each brain harmonic is like a musical note on a keyboard. On 2C-B, you get a double keyboard, with a wider range of possible notes. And perhaps LSD would be not only giving you more possible notes, but also providing you with additional features- like, for example, a general synthesizer that can apply distortions to the sounds. 2C-B has some other effects in addition to increasing the range of available notes, but they are hard to describe. Reverb and delays are there for sure, but not crazy things like on-the-fly timbre modifications, which are more akin to the weirdness of LSD. More generally, my experience has been that phenethylamines have fewer features than lysergamides and tryptamines. On the other hand, when it comes to establishing an emotional base, phenethylamines have a certain “loving” frequency that persists throughout the experience, and I think that makes them better in many contexts.
This train of thought led me to consider my experience in light of something that Mike Johnson recently blogged about: the view that our moods are the result of the key signature of our brain state:
This is not to say our key signatures are completely static, however: an interesting thread to pull here may be that some brains seem to flip between a major key and a minor key, with these keys being local maximas of harmony. I suspect each is better at certain kinds of processing, and although parts of each can be compatible with the other, each has elements that present as defection to the internal logic of the other and so these attractors can be ‘sticky’.
– Mike Johnson, A Future for Neuroscience
With respect to emotion, the things I experienced are very hard to describe, but I’ll give it a go. I think, on average, if you aggregated all the micro-moods of the experience, it would come out to be fairly positive overall- maybe a +3 on the -10 to +10 scale. But the mood would fluctuate in peculiar ways over a period of just fractions of a second. There was an underlying low-frequency tonality to the experience- which was very pleasant- that I think may be the result of the mildly euphoric, stimulant-like effect which 2C-B has. This was a strong base for the overall quality of the total mood, and it made the experience very pleasant for the most part. But there was another big component of mood, that could switch from pleasant to worried and back in the span of about half a second. It didn’t sway the base euphoria very much, and I was actually able to appreciate the switching quality. All in all, I mostly stayed on the positive side, and the negative moods were very fleeting (seconds at most). But I was amazed at how little stability there was, and how the buzzing of various frequencies didn’t settle into a particular coherent emotional impression. It certainly felt like the mood was directly connected to the buzzing of notes, which were creating a complex, chaotic symphony made up of meshes of brain harmonics. Thankfully, it was certainly biased towards positive and awe-inspiring moods. My self-model was also disassembled and reassembled with constantly shifting emotional tones. The come-up in particular had a certain anxious edge, and the semantic content of that anxiety seemed to be connected to particular things I’ve done in the past which have embarrassed me. Undergoing those emotions was intense, but it also felt somehow cleansing. It’s like- once you fully see the consequences of your embarrassing actions (or at least imagine them), you don’t worry about it as much. You get used to it and move on.
High-Energy Consciousness
As I approached the moment I would finally plateau, I experienced many different philosophical views of reality as distinct, short, intense bursts of existential feelings. In these states, one “realizes” that particular philosophical views must be true by the sheer fact of how intense they feel. I can certainly recall having believed in such intense feelings in the past, especially when I was in my early twenties and trying psychedelics for the first time. This time, the images were still as intense as they had been before in similar levels of alteration, but they were about different topics (it’s been a while since I’ve experimented with psychedelics). I recognize that these experiences have a powerful capacity to shake up your pre-existing model of the world. You either cling to your previous models and suffer, or you let go and get brainwashed into having new metaphysical views of reality. I don’t know… Over the years, the content of those feelings has changed, and I’ve seen contradictory things which seemed like the final truth at the time. I think I now interpret these intense bursts of philosophically-flavored experiences as being instances of some kind of “energetically super-charged, super-coherent state of consciousness”. I can see how many people could arrive at the conclusion that these bursts of intense consciousness are messages from aliens, or perhaps psychic laser beams coming from a secret organization, or whatnot. God, the divine, infinite life, now-ness, Buddha nature, awakening, etc. are all suitably grandiose concepts that sort of provide a conceptual framework to make sense of these super-high-energy states of consciousness. Alternatively, we just haven’t figured out how to harness these unusual state-spaces of consciousness for information-processing purposes, or even for non-brainwashy aesthetic experiences… they confuse the heck out of us.
We currently lack the conceptual frameworks and adequate techniques to make sense of, and make use of, super-high-energy states of consciousness.
Anyhow, in this particular case, the intense flashes of super-energetic consciousness seemed to be about the reality of the present moment on the one hand, and the way in which scent is related to feeling alive on the other. It sounds arbitrary, but it didn’t feel arbitrary at the time. I remember looking for things to smell in my house and finding an essential oil of orange (as well as cinnamon powder, mint tea, ground coffee, and nutmeg). The particular orange smell of that essential oil really seemed to resonate with my state. How should I put it? It was an intense feeling of awake effervescence, youthful reality, and spacious energy. The scent seemed to be a key for a lock, that when turned, would bring all the channels of my experiential field into contact and into a unified expression of “presence/aliveness”. Ok, this is word salad. I’m not going to pretend this is anything but poetic allusion. Here is a concrete, logical-sounding insight instead: I felt like I was finally able to make sense of what scent qualia is getting at. Scent qualia is the phenomenological expression of the resonant signature that is produced in a high-dimensional manifold as a result of energizing it with a certain combination of frequencies. Sorry, word salad again. Let’s try once more…
Orange essential oil seemed like the olfactory equivalent of playing all the notes of a major chord at once. In fact, every scent felt like it had an equivalent in auditory qualia, and that we could describe a scent as presenting you with every note in a key signature all at once. It gave me the impression that perhaps scent is a qualia that can be experienced in a much more general way. Imagine that, all your life, you’ve only ever listened to music made by playing all the notes of certain keys at the same time. I’m sure you could make compelling music that way, and if our brains didn’t separate the notes, we might get the impression that that is all there is to music. Perhaps we are restricted in this way for scents, and the scent of lavender is, in fact, decomposable into a whole number of notes. And I don’t mean chemically purifying the product, because I think that even pure chemicals have complex smells. During the experience, I kept coming back to the orange scent to try to capture the overall emotional key signature of my state. Warm, loving, intense, bright, surprising, flickering, effervescent, citric. Make of this what you will.
State-space of scent qualia (adapted from: Categorical Dimensions of Human Odor Descriptor Space Revealed by Non-Negative Matrix Factorization; Castro, Ramanathan, Chennubhotla. 2013; link)
Many of the “moments of experience” (ref) of high energy I experienced seemed to be half-posed questions and lack semantic content in the conventional sense. I assume that they could be co-opted by beliefs that say “that’s your karma” and “that’s God” or “that’s a vision of the future”, but honestly, all of those interpretations fall short of the actual thing- which, at the time, seemed more like random snippets of hyper-associations in a super-energized form, akin to a high-dimensional neuronal resonance box, if that makes any sense.
Sometimes the powerful bursts of high-energy consciousness were about the concept of now, and its connection to Open and Empty Individualism, and also the way it connects to the concept of “pure awareness”. I’ve explored these threads before, and it’s always startling when you get these flashes that feel like they mean something and yet contain almost no information. To extend the analogy with musical key signatures, it occurs to me that these states are in fact important nodal points in high-energy state-spaces of consciousness, but we don’t understand either their context or the way in which they fit together with all other possible experiences. I got the impression that these states have their own unique grammatical, syntactic, and semantic structure that is ultimately closed and self-consistent. I’m sure you’ve had the experience of recognizing a song by hearing one brief sub-second fragment of it. You realize there is more, much more, to it, and that the little fragment you heard is meaningless out of context. Yet the fragment is compelling in that it evokes and suggests a whole world of experience. These states feel like that- a high-energy fragment of something that seems completely genuine, whose level of structure and emotional depth is just complete enough to be highly suggestive of a higher world of organization into which such fragments could fit perfectly. From a secular point of view, one could perhaps describe this as the first glimpses of an art form that will be accessible to transhumans and posthumans, once the underlying laws that rule the emotional character of such experiences are understood and mastered.
Existential Humor and Semantic Nihilism
At the conceptual level, I remember that my mind latched onto two related themes: existential humor and semantic nihilism. For reference, I Heart Huckabees would be an example of a movie that plays with existential humor. The movie touches on existential crisis and absence of meaning; and it manages to be funny not despite it but because of it.
Existential humor is humor in the face of unresolved existential questions. Part of what makes this humor work is its self-reflective nature. It’s the humor of the fact that humor is possible in such circumstances. I think that the unresolved mood of the 2C-B state didn’t allow for an over-arching gestalt to form, and one could say it kept being a sort of affective pastiche. Like musical improvisation without a central theme. The deep philosophical questions that were posed didn’t produce deep undertones, like they usually do on LSD. Perhaps this makes it a more friendly state in a way… the buzzing of competing moods protects you from going too deep into some existential crisis, and allows you to sort of have some distance from any particularly unpleasant impression. The only somewhat constant feature here was giddiness, which probably explains why humor was present even though deep existential questions seemed to be both posed and left unresolved.
In turn, I also gained a new appreciation of the general idea of semantic nihilism (which I saw mentioned here). I once took a philosophy of language class in which we discussed Frege, Quine, and Wittgenstein. I was impressed by the fact that these authors would suggest that the semantic content of words was in some way completely relative. I may be misremembering, but I have the image in my mind of a text by Quine where he talks about how meaning is the result of a network of references and has no fundamental grounding (ref). He claimed that analytic and synthetic statements weren’t truly different- at least, not out of context. I didn’t know how to respond to this at the time, but over the years, I’ve thought about it now and then. It’s not like I’ve had the time to sit down and read that philosophy of language textbook again- and maybe I should- but I get the sense that one could, in principle, reformulate meaning by grounding it in qualia. These “no ground of reference” ideas fly in the face of felt-sense and my ability to use attentional attractors as designators. [Edit after writing this – turns out Andres has already discussed something along these lines in an article]. But what if someone claims that qualia is not enough to ground meaning? I think that hearing a strong argument against the view that qualia and meaning are connected would be very interesting. This is what my mind came up with during the trip- the view that not even feelings can be used as the source of meaning. The existential humor seemed to play very well with semantic nihilism. After all, isn’t it funny if nothing means anything and you are still laughing about it? It’s contagious laughter, that’s why. The thought that there was no true reason for why the laughter was appropriate was itself very funny. And then I’d apply the same mental move to this meta-funny layer, and so on. It was hilarious- in a niche philosophical sort of way- which only certain people who are obsessed with understanding reality could probably relate to.
As an aside, I think that if we look at it from a cultural point of view, most people would have a bad time if they were to experience a high-energy state of consciousness that does not reach a conclusion. The abstract expressionism of felt-sense, meaning, and audio-visual qualia is alarming without a framework to make sense of it. I realized that applying semantic nihilism to these experiences made me feel comfortable with them not actually meaning anything specific. It seemed okay that they would stay as they were: existential feelings with no resolution. I think that perhaps some aesthetics could really turn this into an art form. Perhaps Buddhist Vipassana meditation is trying to get at this.
Symmetry Groups
I paid a lot of attention to the visual textures I saw during the relatively long plateau. The textures that I had saved to look at were a bit enhanced, but they were not as interesting, I found, as the textures of the wall, ceiling, carpet, and blankets. The key difference was the fact that the live textures had actual depth. Although subtle, it still gave rise to interesting effects. I started the journey with the intention of examining the symmetrical structures of the textures I saw. I was impressed by the idea that a mathematician who experimented with LSD was able to catalogue each of the 17 wallpaper groups in his visual hallucinations (ref). I, on the other hand, was only able to see a few. Sadly, I didn’t practice naming the symmetries before going into the trip. But I can say that I noted mirror symmetry was rarely involved, and that the simplest, the one called “o”, was the one I saw the most frequently. By looking at the table now, I can definitely say that I also saw “2222”. I did see a lot of rotational symmetry elements, and they would click together to form larger symmetrical bundles. It was very interesting to watch.
I tried to really pay close attention to how the visuals were formed. It was very fascinating. I recall that there are many “subtypes” of visual effects, and they’ve been catalogued to some extent (ref). But what I noted this time was how they are all interconnected. Here is the story: first, the texture would appear relatively normal, just slightly brighter than normal. Then the positive after-image of the texture would linger for long enough to start overlaying onto itself. Then there would be a critical moment where that positive after-image would flip into a negative after-image (e.g. from orange to aqua, green to magenta, white to black, etc.). My brain would then try to deal with the presence of the negative after-image, and somehow fit it discreetly into the texture, in order to preserve as much information as possible from the “real texture”. Here is where the depth comes into play. For whatever reason, the negative after-image would tend to find its place in the crevices of the texture. There, it would form wavy patterns that seemed to self-organize in parallel lines. Once parallel, the patterns would lock into symmetrical shapes and dance together in synchrony. So now I had this two-layered texture that behaved as a unified wave pattern, and after a little while that would form a positive after-image, which in time would start to overlay onto itself- and then my mind would have to find a way to deal with that. With each iteration, my mind would find new ways to fit all of that residual after-image bundle together, and this would often look like some kind of surface trying to be shaped into something recognizable. I got the distinct feeling that whenever I could see something in the texture (cf. apophenia), the overall amount of after-image to deal with would be drastically reduced. I remember an article where the concept of energy sinks was discussed, and I think that both symmetrical re-arrangements of the residual after-image bundles and semantically-meaningful re-arrangements of them both seemed to work as energy sinks. Hence, the symmetrical texture repetition is a way by which the energy of these after-image bundles gets dissipated (and the surface gets locked in the shape that sucked out its energy). I remember thinking how the entire process somehow encapsulates many of the classic visual effect categories; tracers, drifting, pattern recognition, and symmetrical texture repetition all fit together in a continuous sequence of unfolding re-arrangements of an after-image bundle surface. Perhaps some trippers will relate to this description.
Visual Tracers
I also spent some time trying to figure out how to describe the tracers. I probably spent about 10 minutes doing this, and got to a fairly satisfying account, I think. The tracers were mostly composed of “echoes” rather than being the result of applying just a smooth and long decay function. Based on playing with GIFs, I estimated that the first visual echo lagged behind the original stimulation by about 200ms. Then there was another echo (the echo of the echo) which happened roughly 400ms afterwards. I took some time to look at the pictures in How to secretly communicate with people on LSD, and the GIFs seemed to work, but not exactly as the text describes it. It was really cool, though. During the plateau, I found it hard to tell which of the images had the artificial tracer on top (see the article’s “Secret C” GIFs for reference).
(notice the double echo)
I will conclude by mentioning that music was very intense and interesting in this state. I specifically noted that music with reverb sounded massively amplified (example). With the appropriate combination of meditation and reverb-rich sounds, I could experience very pleasant states of equanimity that I don’t usually experience sober. I tried playing pulses of sound and seeing if I could experience “auditory tracers”, but it didn’t seem to work. That is, there wasn’t a clear analogue to the trace structure in the auditory domain. Rather, it’s less that “sound itself sounded like it had more reverb”, and more that “for the sound that already does have reverb, such reverb seemed amplified”. Why would the reverb itself sound amplified? And what is the reverb signature of such amplification? I don’t know! These seem like fertile grounds for novel research.
And that’s about it. I hope you find these observations useful, and if not, at least interesting to read. Peace! 🙂
Philip K. Dick’s LSD Trip
Posted on January 3 by algekalipso
Scene from Philip K. Dick’s novel “Maze of Death”. According to him, this is a detailed and 100% accurate description of his most intense LSD trip. During this experience he allegedly started speaking out loud religious phrases in perfect Latin even though he had never studied this language in his entire life (he also claimed that a girl was there and can confirm that it really happened, though I haven’t found any direct retelling of this event from her):
Opening The Book at random she walked toward him, and as she walked she read aloud from The Book. “ ‘Hence it can be said,’ ” she intoned, “ ‘that God-in-history shows several phases: (one) The period of purity before the Form Destroyer was awakened into activity. (two) The period of the Curse, when the power of the Deity was weakest, the power of the Form Destroyer the greatest—this because God had not perceived the Form Destroyer and so was taken by surprise. (three) The birth of God-on-Earth, sign that the period of Absolute Curse and Estrangement from God had ended. (four) The period now—’ ”
She had come almost up to him; he stood unmoving, still holding the gun. She continued to read the sacred text aloud. “ ‘The period now, in which God walks the world, redeeming the suffering now, redeeming all life later through the figure of himself as the Intercessor who—’ ”
“Go back with them,” Thugg told her. “Or I’ll kill you.”
“ ‘Who, it is sure, is still alive, but not in this circle. (five) The next and last period—’ ”
A terrific bang boomed at her eardrums; deafened, she moved a step back and then she felt great pain in her chest; she felt her lungs die from the great, painful shock of it. The scene around her became dull, the light faded and she saw only darkness. Seth Morley, she tried to say, but no sound came out. And yet she heard noise; she heard something huge and far off, chugging violently into the darkness.
She was alone.
Thud, thud, came the noise. Now she saw iridescent color, mixed into a light which traveled like a liquid; it formed buzzsaws and pinwheels and crept upward on each side of her. Directly before her the huge Thing throbbed menacingly; she heard its imperative, angry voice summoning her upward. The urgency of its activity frightened her; it demanded, rather than asked. It was telling her something; she knew what it meant by its enormous pounding. Wham, wham, wham, it went and, terrified, filled with physical pain, she called to it. “Libera me, Domine,” she said. “De morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda.”
It throbbed on and on. And she glided helplessly toward it. Now, on the periphery of her vision, she saw a fantastic spectacle; she saw a great crossbow and on it the Intercessor. The string was pulled back; the Intercessor was placed on it like an arrow; and then, soundlessly, the Intercessor was shot upward, into the smallest of the concentric rings.
“Agnus Dei,” she said, “qui tollis peccata mundi.” She had to look away from the throbbing vortex; she looked down and back . . . and saw, far below her, a vast frozen landscape of snow and boulders. A furious wind blew across it; as she watched, more snow piled up around the rocks. A new period of glaciation, she thought, and found that she had trouble thinking—let alone talking—in English “Lacrymosa dies illa,” she said, gasping with pain; her entire chest seemed to have become a block of suffering. “Qua resurget ex favilla, judicandus homo reus.” It seemed to make the pain less, this need to express herself in Latin—a language which she had never studied and knew nothing about. “Huic ergo parce, Deus!” she said. “Pie Jesu Domine, dona eis requiem.” The throbbing continued on.
A chasm opened before her feet. She began to fall; below her the frozen landscape of the hellworld grew closer. Again she cried out, “Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna!” But still she fell; she had almost reached the hell-world, and nothing meant to lift her up.
Something with immense wings soared up, like a great, metallic dragonfly with spines jutting from its head. It passed her, and a warm wind billowed after it. “Salve me, fons pietatis,” she called to it; she recognized it and felt no surprise at seeing it. The Intercessor, fluttering up from the hellworld, back to the fire of the smaller, inner rings.
Lights, in various colors, bloomed on all sides of her; she saw a red, smoky light burning close and, confused, turned toward it. But something made her pause. The wrong color, she thought to herself. I should be looking for a clear, white light, the proper womb in which to be reborn. She drifted upward, carried by the warm wind of the Intercessor… the smoky red light fell behind and in its place, to her right, she saw a powerful, unflickering, yellow light. As best she could she propelled herself toward that.
The pain in her chest seemed to have lessened; in fact her entire body felt vague. Thank you, she thought, for easing the discomfort; I appreciate that. I have seen it, she said to herself; I have seen the Intercessor and through it I have a chance of surviving. Lead me, she thought. Take me to the proper color of light. To the right new birth.
The clear, white light appeared. She yearned toward it, and something helped propel her. Are you angry at me? she thought, meaning the enormous presence that throbbed. She could still hear the throbbing, but it was no longer meant for her; it would throb on throughout eternity because it was beyond time, outside of time, never having been in time. And—there was no space present, either; everything appeared two-dimensional and squeezed together, like robust but crude figures drawn by a child or by some primitive man. Bright colorful figures, but absolutely flat. . . and touching.
“Mors stupebit et natura,” she said aloud. “Cum resurget creatura, judicanti responsura.” Again the throbbing lessened. It has forgiven me, she said to herself. It is letting the Intercessor carry me to the right light.
Toward the clear, white light she floated, still uttering from time to time pious Latin phrases. The pain in her chest had gone now entirely and she felt no weight; her body had ceased to consume both time and space.
Wheee, she thought. This is marvelous.
Throb, throb, went the Central Presence, but no longer for her; it throbbed for others, now.
The Day of the Final Audit had come for her—had come and now had passed. She had been judged and the judgment was favorable. She experienced utter, absolute joy. And continued, like a moth among novas, to flutter upward toward the proper light.
From a 1979 interview:
I only know of one time where I really took acid. That was Sandoz acid, a giant horse capsule that I got from the University of California, and a friend and I split it. And I don’t know, there must’ve been a whole milligram of it there. It was a gigantic thing, you know, we bought it for five dollars and took it home and we looked at it for a while—looked at it, we were all gonna split it up—and took that, and it was the greatest thing, I’ll tell you.
I went straight to Hell, is what happened. I found myself, you know, the landscape froze over, and there were huge boulders, and there was a deep thrumming, and it was the Day of Wrath, and God was judging me as a sinner, and this lasted for thousands of years and didn’t get any better. It just got worse and worse, and I was in terrible pain, I felt terrible physical pain, and all I could talk was in Latin. Most embarrassing, ‘cause the girl I was with thought I was doing it to annoy her, and I kept saying Libera me domine in die illa. You know, and Agnus dei qui tollis peccata mundi […] and especially, Tremens factus sum ego et timeo—timeo meaning “I’m afraid”—and I said Libera me, domine! Whining like some poor dog that’s been left out in the rain all night. Finally, the girl with me said “Oh, barf” and walked out of the room in disgust.
Two more references:
Yes, friends, you, too, can suffer forever; simply take 150 mg [sic] of LSD—and enjoy! If not satisfied, simply mail in—but enough. Because after two thousand years under LSD, participating in the Day of Judgment, one probably will be rather apathetic to asking for one’s five dollars back.
I perceived Him as a pulsing, furious, throbbing mass of vengeance-seeking authority, demanding an audit (like a sort of metaphysical IRS agent). Fortunately I was able to utter the right words [the “Libera me, Domine” quoted above], and hence got through it. I also saw Christ rise to heaven from the cross, and that was very interesting, too (the cross took the form of a crossbow, with Christ as the arrow; the crossbow launched him at terrific velocity—it happened very fast, once he had been placed in position).
(same as above)
Brief Analysis: Philip K. Dick extensively explored the literary theme of simulationism. This theme posits that the reality that we experience is an illusion; it is not what it originally seemed to be. The fakeness of reality includes not only one’s perception of the world, but also one’s beliefs about oneself. Indeed, it is a narrative staple of a good PKD story for the character to turn out to have been a robot, secret agent, alien, and/or a computer program all along. Oftentimes the fundamental plot twists are layered, multifaceted, recursive, and ultimately undecidable thanks to the presence of contradictory versions of events and narrative ambiguity.
More than almost any other author, PKD indeed explored to a great depth the implications of indirect realism about perception (e.g. in many of his stories the main character discovers that she/he never perceives the world in an unmediated fashion). That the world we perceive is a simulated reality is to be expected in the works of this author; whether this simulation is created by one’s brains or a large cosmic computer is the deeper question that PKD tends to posit again and again and often leaves in fully unresolved terms.
The LSD trip above recounted is interesting in this context. PKD’s trip illustrates just how insidious the reality transformation caused by psychedelics can be, to the point that they can make you doubt fundamental implicit background assumptions you’ve constructed your life around. While PKD remained skeptical of the cosmic significance of most of his life experiences, he seems to have given a very high degree of metaphysical credence to specific intensely emotional events in his life, including the above LSD trip. Perhaps PKD didn’t know at the time that LSD does not merely make you experience weird qualia, but that it also intensifies its emotional power. Psychedelics are interesting in part because they are remarkably effective means to increase the energy of one’s consciousness (via increasing the amplitude of connectome-specific harmonic waves). People describe them as experience intensifiers. Thus, positive, negative, and mixed emotions can be felt in much greater depth. According to our work, this process is related to symmetry and harmony. On psychedelics the pseudo-time arrow of experience elongates and spatial representations cohere on symmetrical shapes (such as wallpaper groups for 2D texture repetition or 3D hyperbolic manifolds on high doses of DMT). The increased level of energy leads to entropic disintegration, and ultimately to neural annealing, a process which is experienced as intensely emotional and full of meaning. Interestingly, PKD’s trip report showcases all of these features in one way or another.
For instance, the thumping/throbbing described is first experienced as intensely unpleasant and only at the end is described as blissful. The existence of this thumping can be accounted for by a process of neural annealing; its initial unpleasantness is the result of the dissonance between the core metronome (“Central Presence”) and the rest of the experience; the final bliss is the result of successful annealing and the high levels of consonance that ensue. The increased subjective time reported can be explained by changes to the pseudo-time arrow, including the eternal-seeming nature of the Central Presence. And so on.
In so far as we choose to reduce spirituality to valence (rather than the other way around) we will expect to find that intense life-altering spiritual experiences will all bear the signatures of high/low valence. That is, it is not that spirituality is emotionally intense. Rather, emotional intensity underlies spirituality. PKD’s account displays this in a very explicit way. The thumping of the Central Presence could certainly have theological significance, but it is not specifically predicted by any kind of formal theology. On the other hand, if the Symmetry Theory of Valence is correct, such thumping (and associated intense emotions) are expected to be found in typical intensely blissful/hellish states. That said, due to the Tyranny of the Intentional Object such intensely valenced states will appear to be reflections of inherently good/bad situations or entities. The emotion comes first. The illusion of grasping the “fundamentally good/bad essence of a being” comes second, as an after-the-fact ideation. Alas, thanks to implicit direct realism about perception, most people fail to attribute the intense emotional character of these experiences to things as impersonal as neural annealing, and instead interpret what happened in terms of metaphysical happenings like meeting God or experiencing telepathy.
The fact that intense emotions masquerade as insight into the fundamental nature of other beings is perhaps one of the most deceptive aspects of the world simulations created by our brains. After all, nothing is good or bad, but the encephalization of phenomenal valence via afferent neural connections from our limbic system’s hedonic hot spots makes it so. While Philip K. Dick managed to be skeptical and cautious about the way he made sense of reality, it is clear that he still somehow took at face value the representational content of intense emotions. Thus, he was still under the spell of a fundamental illusion, and hence at the mercy of gripping mystical visions. In future, however, PKD-like authors imbued with a 21st century science of consciousness shall go even deeper, and explore simulationism in light of, not only indirect realism about perception, but also of the Tyranny of the Intentional Object, egocentric bias, personal identity, and other evolutionarily adaptive shenanigans of our perception.
Lucid LSD Trip Report from an Anonymous Reader
Posted on December 29 by algekalipso
Writer: Anonymous (here substituted as “Bill”)
Dose: 2 blotters
I remember at one point feeling and saying that I was on the “sandy beaches of time.” Normally there are story arcs to events. There’s peak arousal and closure. But the hoffman [“LSD blotter”] was sustained arousal. In an expected upbeat I found a downbeat. All downbeats. So I found myself with extra moments unexpectedly. Moments that normally would have been blank or dim transitions were just as full as the moments they connected. The idea of the “sandy beaches of time” came from the feeling of rolling around in the sand on the inclines. Imagine you’re floating in water and then you wash on shore. Then you’re on the sand. That’s a feeling of unexpected support. You’re lying passively and find yourself on solid ground somehow. That’s how I felt that I found myself (without trying or initiating a thought) supported unexpectedly in additional moments. This reminds me of the experience I had on a stronger dose in 2016 (same number of blotters but higher potency due to freshness) where I always felt “in the middle of my thought.” It’s like there’s a moment of height and openness at the peak of the thought where you expand open to figure out how you’re going to fit together the structural pieces of the highest level of organization of the thought. But I was continually in the middle of the thought and never finishing a thought, I felt. I tried a lot harder to have complete well formed thoughts back then too, so the experience would have been more notable. In general this time I was least excited or interested at all. Quite passive and peaceful, but not exploring with great energy or amusement. It was a lower dose. I thought it was going to be difficult and possibly be my first bad trip, but when I did them I saw as always that psychedelics are nice to me and weed is the only one who occasionally gets medieval. When I figure out my van and living situation I will definitely seek out more hoffmans and things like it, because they have a certain potential to make my mind work better and they don’t seem to make me insane at all. On weed I can picture some bad day it getting me into a fetal position, but on psychedelics I have a relaxed “power pose.”
I also slightly expanded my sense of unifying with the perceptual (and otherwise conceived/imagined) environment. I’m putting on equal footing (there’s that equal footing theme again… In an article (link) the author used the phrase on “equal footing” once. I had an idea to explain the equal footing phenomenon but I forget what it was). I feel like my implicit understanding of “merge your awareness with the world around you” increased and so I didn’t have to try so hard to figure it out. At this point I started to reflect on the kind of spiritual poverty of the spiritual ideas and theories I had and would often think about. The ideas I have often come from a dim dull state of mind. Anyway the merging came at the same time as understanding objects on their own terms. So rather than forcing a single texture onto two objects to see them both, I would see both objects with their own unique shapes and the only thing bridging them together was my awareness. That felt like the cubism people talk about in psychedelics (by the way Brahms is notoriously full of time distortions and musical cubism and disintegrations. The very long lines and irregular rhythms (implying a much lengthier process to “resolve,” i.e., achieve a full round of symmetry) are like the decreased decay of stuff in the mindstream. You can use sentences, words, sounds, symbols in a way that sustain moments of that openness, the middle-of-the-thought, and use sleight of hand to keep it from compensating or closing back down.). So I’d put on equal footing perceptions and all the notions I had which would be replaced by syntheses. Like I’d see a plane out the window and have a notion of the distance I was from it and then the notion of the angle of the distance line on my body and the plane, maybe picturing the underside of the plane and then the point of view from the plane looking back down, and I thought these images were all valid, and with the cubism going on it seemed to put the plane and the skyspace relationship to me on equal footing as myself, so I would see and not identify with my physical body and it’s vantage point and I would begin to get a sense of omniscience. Normally I’d reject this and say, “Well, look, we can take the pieces of the collage and infer that there’s only one body with eyes who can see and a brain that can think… it’s not like the plane actually sees or thinks” and yet I was going beyond that somehow. The panpsychism I’ve long subscribed to is like particulate panpsychism. It’s just like molecules and atoms have basic building blocks of complicated mechanical chemical processes, likewise simple consciousness properties of the oxygen atom and the carbon atom are modified by complex activities. However, the way I always thought of it wasn’t very smart. It wasn’t distributed consciousness at all. Nor did the consciousnesses of particles grow or interact or form “consciousness molecules” out of consciousness atoms. It was only the ability of surrounding forces to dance upon a carbon atom’s surface that I could imagine some experience arising. As for the human state—there are billions of consciousnesses and you just happen to be the one seeing this or hearing that or having the feeling of talking. In fact, all these examples of phenomenal experience would be vastly too complicated. But it’s no problem when you don’t believe in binding to suppose that I’m not a single person who talks and hears single sounds, but I’m an army of tiny mind particles that contribute their own tiny dust threads to experience… an experience that remains unbound and separate from all the other threads. So something like mind dust.
The cubism, by the way, was like dissociation, except that, like with the sandy beaches of time rushing in to provide an unexpected moment of support, there was always some unexpected maximally abstract unity support rushing in to bridge the disperate cubist pieces. That bridge was found in ongoing openness to find out. It was like an exercise in faith, and, in turn trust and compassion.
Anyway, that’s one kind of panpsychism. Another kind is nihilistic. Something about my coefficients was altered. Something normally was disproportional in my approach to panpsychism. Something similarly was out of place in the approach to open individualism. Well, the hoffman seemed to tune me a bit and adjust the amount of belief and nihilism and so on I was going into it with to give me a fuller experience. It turns out that what I see as “taking at face value” is actually an important state of openness. One doesn’t truly take it at face value because one isn’t ever pretending to have complete knowledge, but one does take something without devoting so much resource to reconceiving it in order to conform to one’s beliefs. The hoffman experience was generally very in favor of bottom up mindfulness. Let go of socially motivated reasoning and imaginary conversations trying to prove yourself to ignorant people with no imaginations who want to ruin everything good… just put your energy into understanding something with openness and then you’ll see it. I got higher understandings or understandings I realized I otherwise wouldn’t get.
The experience really gave me a strong sense of the doom of my life while at the same time making me light hearted about it and trying to show me around. Normally I’m scared that a psychedelic is going to be like weed and be scary, but it never is. In fact the hoffman took me around my room to see that in some areas where there was some mess or something that I projected an ugly identity onto (like I see my shoes and the first thing I think is, “That’s asperger’s shoes. Those are the shoes someone with asperger’s wears.” So I have my social “identity disturbance” imbued into virtually all the objects around me. Any object that signifies someone else in my life is imbued with boogeymen and gremlins of the relationship I have with that person). I’m oppressed by my room and the needless flavoring of everything with stigma and shame… it’s so comprehensive that I’ve lost the sensitivity to it. It’s like a fish in water, I’m drowning in stigma to the point that I take it for granted and no longer realize there’s any other way of being. So the hoffman tried to show me around my room and show me there aren’t any boogey man and reconnect me to the personality I do have which isn’t aspergery and is fine and contradicts the stigmas. Every time I look in the mirror I see someone more attractive than I expected to see. I think this started in middle school. I always always always underestimate my appearance by quite a bit. And I load my self image with all those bad stigmas. Going to the mirror is like a reality check, but it’s worn out because I’m largely desensitized to it. But the hoffman helped me see that being aspergery or any other stigma was an unnecessary self-fulfilling trap I didn’t have to go down because I did have… I was in good standing and nothing meant I had to be aspergers. My posture my voice my skin etc.., all was fine.
But the hoffman did go over my life. I expected it would attack me about my relationship with my family (which I stigmatize myself for… “I must be some kind of deranged monster” is a load I begin every thought on the matter with) and turn me vegan, but it’s never what you expect. It wasn’t a fear based assault but it was really sane and reasonable. It gave me a sense of the trap I’m in. I ordinarily only feel one part of the trap at once, like I’m in a maze going from one dead end to another. But the hoffman gave me a sense of all the traps of my life I’m in at once. Yet I was lighthearted and amused and smiling about it. I was ego dead but I didn’t even know it. It’s like my ego left without making a sound. Another thing is that it isn’t necessarily key to have no ego, but it is key to be in the moment which is often conflated with having no ego. Like if you’re alone walking and having an inner monologue conversation, that’s probably being lost in thought having some imaginary future conversation and that exemplifies the problems and life-of-it’s-own of the ego. But it actually could be that one is checking into the present moment continuously and one is having that conversation for the nobody, for the consciousness. After all, the consciousness divided and packaged into different points of view and bodies in an audience is the same as the consciousness you have, so why not have the conversation before it? I used to regiment being in the moment, a certain grid of checkpoints of checking in. But that top-down systematic way of being mindful doesn’t work because I find shortcuts and seem to be beyond the age where I can keep going back to the beginner’s mind in a subject and question everything I know to the point where I am not allowed those shortcuts. Further those shortcuts are easy to take without knowing it. They masquerade as true mindfulness. So an informal bottom up spontaneous not regimented continuous mindfulness is important. I like the short ego stories mentioned… (to be continued… must use bathroom now)
I like the idea of short duration egos/stories Mike Johnson mentioned in his recent meditation article. I used to have long systematic stories with regimented moderately high frequency check ins with the present moment proportional to what I used to call “salience essentialism” (a silly name, but the idea of making some element of information that’s only found in a state of lots of reflection and skepticism and metacognitions essential). But, as I said, I can’t do that regimentation anymore, so I’m going with Mike Johnson’s idea of short egos linked together. To have short ego stories that remain close to the present it’s key not only to bring a story to a natural end soon but also to not linger on that ending. If you linger on that ending rather than immediately continuing the moment, keep it rolling in a new moment, then you end up just getting lost in a nothingness epilogue to the story. Useless. You can’t end and then stop with nothing to continue with. So key to keeping short ego stories is also continually making them. Always be shedding light on the situation (keep no secrets. The ego performer has no secrets to keep as the actor. Continually to unravel it in any situation it finds itself. Don’t worry about nullifying a previous performance…because the previous performance was never meant to fool you as complete reality. Hold onto no pretense, but continue to act while shedding light always. A dance without deceit.)
Rather than being mindful to grasp the moment, to pas a yes/no test, I be mindful anew each time. Every time I be mindful is a new way of being mindful, and it’s about quickly jumping to the moment. When you’re really mindful like this listening to Beethoven’s cello sonata, you can’t tell if it’s you that’s singing or the cello. It feels like your own mind almost. I used to be a yes/no tester. I would have a preconceived idea of reality I strove for. But now I’m not doing that. I’m letting go of all my notions and quickly coming to the moment with openness.
One more word on the cubism thing. It’s related very much, I think, to the feeling of open individualism as well as the sandy beaches of time thing because each item has with it it’s own competing structure. Normally we resolve things into one system, but this cubism takes different elements on-their-own-terms, which means there are terms and structures and systems and orientations attached to them. In these systems are simulated the ego and its orientation to things. It’s like when you have some words and are deciding what sentence to make of them you ordinarily subordinate certain words to other words (the main verb being at the highest level of organization), but instead this cubism would have competing sentences for different words. It wouldn’t force the collapse of one structure or system for the other. Likewise the feeling of always being in the middle of one’s thought (or the sandy beaches of time) is like the noncollapse of the thought structure. There are many overlapping thoughts, all of them in the middle, rather than one thought with a start and a finish spanning several moments. You see? I think a similar thing can explain the proliferation of selfhood in objects in one’s perceptual/imagined environment. You go beyond your ordinary selfhood sense structure and see no problem attaching it to multiple things, like anthropomorphizing things with your sense of orientation and first person perspective. This gives rise to a sense of perspective that is beyond seeing and hearing and all the ordinary things. Yet what is it? Alas, perspective as a concept is only as advanced as the abstraction of perceptions and imaginations and so on, so we don’t actually have a more advanced concept of perception/perspective-having. What we have is the abstraction that’s forced upon us by the cubism and multiplication of competing perspective-having structures attached to different objects. All we know is that whatever it is must go beyond any individual object and is seen only when you’re continually opening up to the idea by watching the cubism unfold. So it’s easy to understand how this is all just a conceptual trick of the mind, but it has a very good way of taking everything you know and all your beliefs and spinning those into the picture to convince you of something beyond all that still. And I really do like to believe the idea of a perspective that transcends my human situated perspective of sense organs and a center of imaginations. I’d like the floating above everything and seeing the symphony. I see how MC Escher pictures are very evocative here, because you have competing “structures” or competing whatevers… competing resolutions. MC Escher is a form of cubism in this way.
Another thing I notice is a decrease in bad compulsions. Generally psychedelics relieve anxiety and obsessions and stuff like that. I have this nasty habit of looking at attractive people and getting a pang of pain and loneliness and stuff. My work involves me being on social media all day long, so I often see a lot of attractive people and it’s just a pang of badness. But fighting with the compulsion is no good either. Flee it. I’ve got to stop correcting past mistakes. Short ego story. Don’t go down one road and then smack your forehead and then reverse and go back down another road. Nobody wants to see you back up. It’s not valuable. You’re not submitting or apologizing to anyone. Once you go down one road simply poof out of existence and then poof back into existence on the right road. No ego story of grinding corrections and punishments and obstacles. Just skip ahead to the right spot the moment you notice a better spot. Ordinarily seeing or hearing attractive people makes me tense up and go ouch and feel a dose of desperation and so on. This time I’m not doing that. I find that I’m lucky that I haven’t had that and a state of not clinging and so on is naturally here (I’m not anxiously monitoring my clinging level). I think it’s good to just zip to the right moment, the right thought and not spend time wrestling with the thing trying to undo it explicitly. Learn the habit of bypassing it, not reversing it. Don’t even expedite reversal. There should be no struggle to correct anything. Rather just jump freely to a better state of mind. But that’s easier said than done. I think it’s very hard to see the possibility of freedom in the present when faced with very strong recurrent thoughts or states of mind that one doesn’t want. It feels like the only hope of getting out of there is by contending with it, reversing it. But I’m suggesting that actually one can unlearn ever going down the wrong path in the first place (as opposed to learning to make the mistake and then the correction) and that is found in the present, the elusive present we overlook (or underlook). In fact, the present moment isn’t known to you yet while you’re still trying to struggle to escape the undesirable thought pattern. Trust that it will show you the way and open up to you as you open up to it. It will progressively open up, and you’ll say, “Oh, I see now.”
So short stories are good, being in the moment is good. The intentional object is particularly tyrannical (ref) when it lives in a long story. Short stories can still have intentional objects. Things can have purposes, there can be a point, but the point should be found in the present (or the very very near future). When you find yourself having imaginary conversations for the future, then quickly start speaking that to the present. Whom are you talking to? Nobody. The nobody of the now (or yourself, or the non-people of the now) is a perfectly interesting audience. You have within your consciousness basically what any audience can actually supply anyway. Consciousness differentiated through filters of points of view and personality and so on is only just the same as what you have in your “solitary” conversation.
Well anyway, I found myself having a bit of a love for the present. I like knowing that fulfillment is found in the present. It is beautiful and wholesome. I like not being chained to anxieties and compulsions. I like the spontaneousness of the higher rate of mindfulness. I don’t normally have so much mindfulness and trying with much effort to be mindful backfires. As explained above about reversing mistakes, today I was quickly and without making a fuss finding myself snapping back into the present. Rather than trying to make an ordeal of an error report trying to diagnose the lapse in mindfulness and see to it that it doesn’t happen again, I let go of that controlling and just join the present moment “ready to rock” as [person] from [previous job] would put it.
Here’s part of the trip report. I wrote the other half of it in a paper notebook:
5:10PM I recorded everything earlier in a notebook.
Wow so much easier to type fast. Anyway I see how the ego and the self, I created a dark scary world of doubt and fear and shame for this Bill character. It’s just a character. Bring as many emotional resolutions as possible to make the story have as happy an ending as can be, but ultimately just don’t forget it’s all fiction.
And I guess that’s key. The fears of the hellishness of being a “bad human” and so on…all fictions of the Bill story in the world, in consensus reality. Make the story look nice, but see through it. It’s just a story for some TV viewer. I’m so predictable, what I’m paranoid about, what my hang ups are, etc… How the grass is greener on the other side of being social.
But this trip, rather than dipping me in guilt and attacking me with my own problems is actually more like a refresher on how these places aren’t full of boogeymen like I think they are, and if I just realized this I’d have a better day. But ultimately the desperateness and the loneliness and so on…gosh what a drag. On and on and on being upset about my life. I cultivate a sense of loss before fulfilling it. I should instead not have any needs and just pursue excitement… It’s interesting to think about whether you can get anywhere in life or have a very interesting time without those needs and voids held open by fear.
5:19PM I think I watch Minecraft playthroughs as a surrogate for socializing. Now without getting emotional or caught up in the Bill story, let’s just assess whether this is necessary.
5:25PM I’m listening to music. I’m admiring the majesty of some things in it. CPE bach. Just like Huxley said about my nonself being the non self of that chair leg, I identify as a non self with the non self of the grand music at points. Anyway, I notice how a lot of my enjoyment of music is really grinding and unpleasant. Forceful and full of pain like fighting through wounds, forcing your way through barbed wire. It’s senseless, isn’t it? If I can control it and enjoy music without this forceful stuff, this suffering forcefulness and longing and neediness and narrowness.
5:30PM Those headphones cause such misery. I get lost in those things. I’m getting a bit morbid, aren’t I? I’m not coming down but I’m tired and maybe my blood sugar is lower or something.
9:51PM Watched the Terence McKenna in Prague with Ram Das and Shulgin and others (link 1, link 2). Fascinating. Then I listened to this I noticed how this time I did acid my mind didn’t expand very much at all. I feel old and like my brain is stuck in certain ways of seeing things. I do have a gentle calling to feel myself situated in terms of nature and evolution and the mystery of the universe…I just want to see the open night sky like our ancestors did, but not clouded by all these paved roads and jobs and clocks and so on. Missing the moment for some future goal, measured by time and streets and so on. I liked what Watts said about playing a musical instrument for the enjoyment of music and not to do secondary things like make money or impress an audience. Now one could say that their goal is to impress audiences and so one isn’t “playing music” but one is “impressing audiences” and happening to play music. But I like the idea of only playing music in an innocent way because of the pleasure the noise gives. Unlocking the song by learning the music is rewarded by the music as it comes along. Not the prospect of performing or this becoming a dance of your ego or something. That’s kind of the problem. At least not living acts for the present well enough. That’s what I meant a couple weeks ago about having present moment self goals. Have goals for the moment. Don’t do stuff for later. The goal shouldn’t be set on some fulfillment of something later on. Why? Because people who say things like that have broken heads and my head is broken so I say stuff like that. Anyway, when I play music it should be to produce sound. When I try to get a self image, a social ego, a sense of my social personality, it shouldn’t be aimed at a future date. I should be genuine where I am, even if I’m alone. That is the moment. When it happens, it isn’t practice for some future performance. I’m not scripting. Rather, that is it. That was the moment to make the joke or be clever or do something. If I’m alone, that’s who I do it for. I do it for myself and nobody. I don’t do it for anybody, at least nobody to be abstracted and conceived in a later date. What happens happens then…what happens in the moment stays in the moment. Right now, who am I journaling with? Whom am I talking to? Wow, I can’t even believe I’ve got the depth to question that. Above I mentioned how not expanded my mind felt. Well I’m not very reflective, and the fact I just brought up the question who I am journaling for shows that thing. A lot of life has been lived in these journals. Some good, a lot bad. I can imagine myself throwing my journals away. I can imagine my laptop getting stolen or destroyed or lost. I no longer am hoarding up notes on philosophy projects. So what is this all for? Well, it’s all for itself. And right now it feels better. This feels like a good use of my time and a legitimate experience of living. Nothing lacks. I don’t need to add on some need to escape here and strive for a better place. Apples and oranges. This is adequate in itself. What I do, I must enjoy doing for the sake of itself. I don’t read books to build a vocabulary and a wit so I can talk to people. I have to enjoy reading the books and having that vocabulary and wit as the reader. Not for some future moment. The journey of a book isn’t an overture to something else. It is the journey. I need really to start becoming intrinsically motivated by everything I do, see things as ends in themselves. Really end. Not mindfulness to some other place. I make this mistake all the time. I think of the future now, of the future present moment mindfulness state. I’ve got to enjoy the mindfulness I already have before I can progress further…or rather before it can progress to unfold and intensify. I have to appreciate the experience of education I’m getting by reading a book, raw education however unglamorous and rudimentary, before my education can grow and intensify.
Sunk cost is big when trying to improve yourself (referring back to Alan Watts talk there). If I haven’t already implemented these notes about living in the present moment, then why do I think I can? Seems like the game has run stale. I’ve been narrowly focused and in sunk cost and escapism and I need to just let go of the outcome and step back and observe. Just like what I said about the stand-up comedian’s ego filtering out the amount of feedback based on how massively they’d have to renovate their act—they’re unwilling to open themselves up to just assess what’s wrong and fix it because they’re trying to open up to a small amount, one repair guy and see what he says and see if he recommends a follow up repair guy when he can’t figure it out, and then two slightly more in-depth expert repair guys come by and so on….why is this progression of repairmen economical? It is if you have no idea what’s wrong with your electricity in your house, but if you are a standup comedian and your ability to correct your act depends on your ability to recognize what’s wrong with it and you have access to that consultation, why limit yourself by peeking through a half closed eye? Why not just open up and see the whole situation? You won’t waste time…oh so much time you’ll spend fighting your way back up from the later stage repair men to earlier repair men…correcting later stage specific advanced diagnoses but still something’s wrong but it’s simpler than before. Just always wrestling with the errors in your performance trying to keep them in the simple no biggie zone rather than in the serious fail zone. But if only you were willing to open your eyes fully to see the true extent of the problems, then you could fix them all.
10:30PM Down with an edible. Wow, surprised how powerful the acid still is. Let’s see I took one at 12:33PM and the other at 1:49PM. Well, and I just took an edible. A tinge of regret because it’ll dull and otherwise contaminate the acid, but I’m getting tired so it wasn’t like I was going to get much out of it anyway. Alas, I’m still looking for gold to fill my notebooks for for later reading. I still take notes for the future. I should see notes as what they really are, which is just prosthetics for the experience of narratives in the present moment. Nothing more. (And I’m often blind to that possibility! I’m blind to the potential of the present! I only think in terms of future stuff. I just overlook the present.)
10:36 Wow that Alan Watts talk though. I know I always can’t help but put in my disclaimers. I don’t even feel like going through the various examples of why I have critical reasoning bla bla bla (don’t think of me as a stupid sheep). Just how helpless I seem to be in my current mode of doing things to get myself to live in the present and for the present. I don’t make decisions. I don’t decide what meanings my words have. I rather sit there passively waiting for the right words to come and fill in. I could do with some asserting myself more. But when the moment is right, when it gives energy rather than drains.
And rather than striving for an answer for a theory about consciousness or something or reality or whatever crazy… that is so rewarding that it can be done for itself in the moment. Think about consciousness. The mystery of the ever elusive background. The unknown is stimulating. It is exciting. Seeing the implications of the unknown and questioning old frameworks is enjoyable. It just is. 🙂
11:30PM Just took my second edible. (Saw: Alan Watts – Nature of God)
12:31AM Only do things for the now. Don’t solve problems for the future. Propose solutions for the future in the now. It’s a present act. You’re just exercising talking and proposing and speculating recreationally for the present. You ‘re not putting your will into the future. And the idea I have is that the bleakness of my life is in my head. Living in a van can be positive. I can have a happier social life. But doubts just feed. They’re demonic. They love sadness like heroin. They love to feed on the anxieties about not being able to make friends, of how poor my track record has been, how my life used to be in my control and going in a direction has now fallen so dramatically in a different way….The doubt tempts you. The decisions stop being made in the present moment. IT says “Hold on now. Think about this…” as it proceeds, foot in the door, to tempt you to sadness and doubt, as if there’s some social reward for having a sufficiently pessimistic view.
Below you will find key quotes from two very interesting interviews. The first one is an interview of a mafia hitman, and the second one deals with a legal executioner. Of note is the fact that a key motivation for choosing their lines of work (killing people illegally, and killing people legally, respectively) was to be someone. That is, they wanted to be recognized by other people’s mental models as someone who is good at their job and whose line of work can command respect. I bolded the sections that show this in the most prominent way.
In other words, even people who would squarely belong to Slytherin are motivated by otherwise very normal, very human kinds of emotions and signaling behaviors. Perhaps what’s different is that for whatever reason the degree of moral disgust they experience concerning their choice of career is vastly out-weighted by the positive emotion they experience from their secure place in a robust competence hierarchy. Parallels to military, police, and political social roles are obvious. There are many people in the world whose internal affective triggers are configured in such a way that they will do anything to be someone. In turn, the world’s militaries, mafias, and slaughterhouses can always find people willing to cause immense suffering to sentient beings in exchange for crumbs of social recognition.
How do we steer people like this away from unethical lines of work? In light of the actual motivations behind their actions, here are four general approaches I think can work:
Increase their moral disgust in response to causing suffering (cf. Clockwork Orange)
Reduce the positive emotion associated with having a secure place in a competence hierarchy (cf. Rank Theory of Depression)
Increase the positive emotion they associate with other’s happiness (cf. MDMA), and
Make them believe/realize that we are all one consciousness (cf. Open Individualism, Peaceful Qualia, LSD for Criminals).
Which approach should be pursued? We shall come back to this in future articles.
Related: The Universal Plot: Part I – Consciousness vs. Pure Replicators, The Banality of Evil (David Pearce), Virtue Signaling (Geoffrey Miller), Book Review: Evolutionary Psychopathology and Radicalizing the Romanceless (Scott Alexander).
Susskind: My guest is a man named Joey. He by his own admission has murdered 38 people. He was a paid killer. A “hit man” for the mafia. Joey is the author of the recently published book “Killer” in which he describes his career and the world of organized crime. You’ve killed 38 people.
Joey: Yes, sir.
Susskind: When did you first kill somebody. How old were you?
Joey: I was 16 the first time I hit somebody in the head.
Susskind: How did that come to pass?
Joey: I was working numbers as a kid. I was a big, tough, kid. I became a controller very shortly. And one day a guy came to me and said “I got a job for you”. So what is it? “I want you to hit somebody in the head.” I looked at him. And said when do you want to know? “By tonight.” I said “ok, see you tonight”. So I thought it over. If I turned this guy down. All my life I will be scuffler. I’ll be looking to hustle, make a dollar somehow. If I take the job, I’m somebody, if I do it right. So I decided to take it. And then I was paid what I considered a fortune. And after I did the job guys who used to see me and just fluff me off, like “that’s just another kid walking around”, suddenly were “hi kid, how are you?”. All of a sudden I had new friends I didn’t know I had.
Susskind: How much were you paid?
Joey: Five thousand dollars.
Susskind: At 16?
Joey: That’s correct.
Susskind: How did you killed them?
Joey: I walked up behind them and shot them in the back of their head.
Susskind: Why did you kill them?
Joey: Because I was paid.
Susskind: Did you know what he did?
Joey: I didn’t ask. It was none of my business.
Susskind: Who hired you? Not the name of the man. I mean, was it an organization?
Joey: It was part of an organization, yes.
Susskind: Did they tell why he was going to be killed?
Joey: No.
Susskind: You didn’t ask?
Joey: No. It was none of my business. You weren’t supposed to ask. They offer you a job. You take the job, you do it. You don’t take the job, you don’t do it. It is not my business to know, unless it happens to be somebody, where as you go by you get a reputation, and they are going to knock somebody down, and it is somebody you happen to know, well they tell you “you know them” and they give you the option. By the description of what they tell you, and you think you know the person, then you can say “I am not interested”.
Susskind: How did you feel when you killed somebody? The very first time.
Joey: I don’t know. I guess I was a little shook. But after that it didn’t bother me.
Susskind: Did your conscience hurt?
Susskind: Could you sleep?
Joey: Yeah.
[….]
Susskind: Did you ever wonder about the person, like they had a wife, or children…
Joey: I don’t worry about any of them. The same as if somebody comes after me. He ain’t gonna worry about me.
Susskind: Are there don’ts in killing people?
Joey: Yeah. You do not kill them in houses of worship. You do not kill them in their home, in front of their families. And you do not torture a man.
Susskind: Do you rob them?
Joey: No, you do not rob them.
Susskind: Do you torture, at all?
Susskind: You just do it discretely…
Joey: You just do your job and get out of there. You are not there to play games. You are not there to decide why he should die. Somebody already decided he is going to die. He ain’t have a chance to cross himself before you pull the trigger.
Susskind: What about their begging?
Joey: I don’t give them enough time to give the word “please” out. If they see me, it’s all over by the time they see me. If they don’t see me because I came up behind them, they never had a chance anyway.
Susskind: Do you think you have any ethics at all?
Joey: I have a lot of ethics. My word is my bond. That’s number one. I’m more honorable than anybody in the course of your life. That’s my ethics. If I say something will be done it will be done. If I make a promise I will keep it. If I tell you I will be at a certain place, I will be there. I will not break my word to you.
Susskind: You say in your book that women find you irresistible.
Joey: No, I didn’t say they find me irresistible.
Susskind: They find you sexually very attractive.
Joey: They find the fact of what I do very attractive.
Susskind: You tell them what you do?
Joey: No. I’ll give you an example. At a party one time after I had been acquitted, I was introduced to this girl, who incidentally comes from one of your better families. She couldn’t wait to jump into bed with me.
Susskind: Because you were a killer.
Susskind: And that’s somehow alluring.
Joey: Yes, to her.
Susskind: Was she just a stunning exception?
Joey: No! When girls find that you deal in violence… in controlled violence, as I call it… the fact that you know you have taken a life. Or that you do this. That you have no compunctions about it… it has a strange fascination for them. Don’t ask me what it is. I don’t know!
Susskind: How long does this fascination last?
Joey: I don’t know… they do it two or three times and all of a sudden they look up and ask “where the hell am I?”
Intro: “Ashmawy” is the name given to an executioner in Egypt. We met with a retired “Ashmawy” who carried around 1,070 executions across his career.
Q: How did you become an executioner?
A: After I joined the army, I became part of the security forces. But two or three months after I joined the army, there was an execution. I watched as the executioner walked in with his two assistants and his subordinate officer, and he just commanded the whole room. It’s a job that earns people’s respect because it’s so unique. From that moment on, I knew it was something I wanted to do.
Q: What are the requirements needed to become an executioner?
A: The most important thing is maintaining your fitness and being a physically strong person. You also need to be observant, pray regularly and be close to God. You need to be over 30 or 40 years old because the job is tough and cruel. People’s minds begin to mature in their 30s and 40s, as they have many more life experiences compared to a young person. Sometimes, young men attend the executions, and they end up vomiting or fainting. And some of them are police officers!
Q: Did you love your job?
A: Of course, I did. I loved my job. I mean, some newspapers and magazines even wrote about how I was “in love with the noose”, or something like that. What they really meant was that I was so good at what I did, I became an innovator. And indeed I was innovative. The first time was difficult… I can’t deny that it was difficult. I couldn’t sleep for two days. There is usually a committee of 30 or 40 people watching. People with so much copper on their shoulders – lieutenants, security managers. And they are all watching you. I was scared, but not because someone was dying. I was scared of not doing my job properly.
Q: How did you feel executing someone?
A: It became a very normal thing for me… to the extent that during quiet times, I’d get upset because there were no executions to carry out. In the end it was just like meeting up with you now, or like going to see some friends and taking one to hang. That’s really it. No emotions involved.
Q: How do people treat you when they find out what your job was?
A: The job makes you famous. You can get someone out of trouble with the police. You can end a problem. A wise person in this position should be humble, and not take advantage of the position. Be humble about it and respect others. You will then find that people will respect you even more.
Hell Must Be Destroyed
Posted on December 3 by algekalipso
Singer called the movement that grew up around him “effective altruism”, and its rallying cry was that one ought to spend every ounce of one’s energy doing whatever most relieves human suffering, most likely either feeding the poor or curing various tropical diseases. Again, something his opponents rejected as impossible, unworkable, another example of liberal fanaticism. Really? Every ounce of your energy? Again, they could have just read their Bibles. Deuteronomy 6:5: “And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength.”
Then Singer changed his tune. In the 1970s, after the sky cracked and the world changed, he announced that charity was useless, that feeding the poor was useless, that curing tropical diseases was useless. There was only one cause to which a truly rational, truly good human being could devote his or her life.
Hell must be destroyed.
The idea of billions of human beings suffering unbearable pain for all eternity so outweighed our little earthly problems that the latter didn’t even register. He began meeting with his disciples in secret, teaching them hidden Names he said had been vouchsafed to him by angels. Thamiel put a price on his life – quite a high price actually. Heedless of his own safety, Singer traveled what remained of the civilized world, making converts wherever he went, telling them to be perfect as God was perfect, and every speech ended the same way. Hell must be destroyed.
– INTERLUDE ג: CANTORS AND SINGERS from UNSONG
An angel appears on Earth. This genderless being connected to God shows up on every screen on Earth at once and asks us if we are interested in drastically improving life on Earth. A large enough portion of those who hear the message (which gets a coverage of 80%+ of people worldwide) see into their souls and find the willingness to make life better, and then they see into their hearts and see the warmth of hope, and so they resolve to agree to do whatever is necessary to help the angel improve life on Earth. And thus the angel says “thanks to the collective desire to make it so, I shall change some things about how the planet is programed, and you will see a 99% reduction in suffering and a 20% increase in overall happiness.”
And so the angel gets to work.
A year passes, and nobody can really tell the difference from before. Most people’s day to day experience is perhaps even slightly more tedious and slightly more boring. What happened? After a few years it is clear that no major change has happened, and indeed affective psychologists report a mild but very generalized decrease in people’s engagement with their day to day activities and increases in feelings of being a bit disoriented. Did the angel scam us? Or did people fail to do their part? Or why are there no improvements? A large enough mass of people asked this question that the angel felt the need to provide an update. He comes back down and appears in all of the planet’s screens and says:
“Everything went according to plan. It is just that your society hasn’t reached the point of scientific development where you are able to measure the quality of experience of sentient beings. You aren’t quantifying pain very well.”
“Here is what I did. Above of all, I focused my energies on trying to prevent some of the worst experiences, which in aggregate happened to be an ethical catastrophe. I managed to reduce how bad these experiences were by about 99.99%.”
“I started by reducing how bad cluster headaches feel. They are now only about 44,000 dolors per second (d/s). They used to be around 450,000,000 d/s. You see, when most people get a fleeting headache, we are talking about headaches that range from 0.5 to 1d/s. You know, the type of headache that people are willing to wait out, and perhaps some people will ask for a little aspirin or some placebo of some sort and then get on with it. Most headaches are of this kind. But even if you bundle all of them together we are talking about a rounding error relative to the suffering caused by other types of headaches, the bad ones. Migraine, for example, tends to get to about 1,000 dolors per second, and sufferers have a hard time communicating the fact that it is not just a lot worse, it is a thousand times more painful than the “normal” ones. But even then that does not register relative to one of the really really bad ones, like cluster headaches, which as I said can spiral up to values close to a billion d/s. As it happens, on your planet there are simple chemical tricks to reduce that particular type of pain (e.g. LSD), so I just went ahead and got rid of the bulk of it very easily. It’s still super painful by human standards, but not by my standards, like it was before. To have a cluster headache now is just as “indescribably bad” as before, meaning it goes beyond people’s ability to imagine and make sense of. But that doesn’t challenge the fact that the 99.99% improvement I did is an ethical victory of civilizational magnitude.”
“Next I went on to reducing how bad it feels to have kidney stones, bone pain, and various kinds of particularly bad neuropathies in people with schizophrenia. By the time I had taken care of about the dozen or so worst kinds of pain, I had already overdelivered by an order of magnitude and was starting to run into diminishing returns. So I decided to go on to helping other planets in my quest to prevent as much suffering as possible.”
“I apologize I used about 0.13 hedons per second (h/s) from mundane experiences to implement one of those cosmic pain diminishing plans. In order to increase the amount of happiness in the world as I promised I made the experience of showering about 50% more enjoyable and the experience of listening to music about twice as good. As you can see, the bathing industry did take off, but not many thought much of it. And the musicians were able to tell that music was awesome again and wondered why, but most people seem to have attributed their increased musical enjoyment to what they imagined had been their own hidden musical talents all along.”
“Thank you, and keep enjoying your drastically improved planet.”
Thus, people realized that the world was indeed a lot better. Well, some did. And others complained, but it was ok.
Thanks to Michael Aaron Coleman and Jonathan Leighton for inspiring this piece. Michael suffers from cluster headaches and has described their phenomenology in gruesome detail. He says that in a 0 to 10 scale, cluster headaches are solid 10/10. But he also says you really need a different scale to make sense of this monster. He once used the phrase “minus one million hedonic tone”. He says that morphine makes the pain go from 10/10 to 9/10, if at all, maybe more like 9.5/10. Thankfully, LSD in small doses (~25 micrograms) makes it go to 1/10. DMT also works, but 5-MeO-DMT does not (and yet it still expands time, so not a good idea). Jonathan is the Executive Director of the Organization for the Prevention of Intense Suffering (OPIS). He works on identifying cases where intense suffering can be prevented on a massive scale and doing what has to be done. I recommend getting in touch with him if this is a particular interest of yours.
Posted on October 28 by algekalipso
An interesting variable is how much external noise is optimal for peak processing. Some, like Kafka, insisted that “I need solitude for my writing; not ‘like a hermit’ – that wouldn’t be enough – but like a dead man.” Others, like von Neumann, insisted on noisy settings: von Neumann would usually work with the TV on in the background, and when his wife moved his office to a secluded room on the third floor, he reportedly stormed downstairs and demanded “What are you trying to do, keep me away from what’s going on?” Apparently, some brains can function with (and even require!) high amounts of sensory entropy, whereas others need essentially zero. One might look for different metastable thresholds and/or convergent cybernetic targets in this case.
My drunk or high Tweets are my best work.
– Joe Rogan, Vlog#18
Mechanical Turk is a service that makes outsourcing simple tasks to a large number of people extremely easy. The only constraint is that the tasks outsourced ought to be the sort of thing that can be explained and performed within a browser in less than 10 minutes, which in practice is not a strong constraint for most tasks you would outsource anyway. This service is in fact a remarkably effective way to accelerate the testing of digital prototypes at a reasonable price.
I think the core idea has incredible potential in the field of interest we explore in this blog. Namely, consciousness research and the creation of consciousness technologies. Mechanical Turk is already widely used in psychology, but its usefulness could be improved further. Here is an example: Imagine an extension to Mechanical Turk in which one could choose to have the tasks completed (or attempted) by people in non-ordinary states of consciousness.
With Mechanical Turk you can already ask for people who belong to specific demographic categories to do your task. For example, some academics are interested in the livelihoods of people within certain ages, NLP researchers might need native speakers of a particular language, and people who want to proof-read a text may request users who have completed an undergraduate degree. The demographic categories are helpful but also coarse. In practice they tend to be used as noisy proxies for more subtle attributes. If we could multiply the categories, which ones would give the highest bang for the buck? I suspect there is a lot of interesting information to be gained from adding categories like personality, cognitive organization, and emotional temperament. What else?
States of Consciousness as Points of View
One thing to consider is that the value of a service like Mechanical Turk comes in part from the range of “points of view” that the participants bring. After all, ensemble models that incorporate diverse types of modeling approaches and datasets usually dominate in real-world machine learning competitions (e.g. Kaggle). Analogously, for a number of applications, getting feedback from someone who thinks differently than everyone already consulted is much more valuable than consulting hundreds of people similar to those already queried. Human minds, insofar as they are prediction machines, can be used as diverse models. A wide range of points of view expands the perspectives used to draw inferences, and in many real-world conditions this will be beneficial for the accuracy of an aggregated prediction. So what would a radical approach to multiplying such “points of view” entail? Arguably a very efficient way of doing so would involve people who inhabit extraordinarily different states of consciousness outside the “typical everyday” mode of being.
Jokingly, I’d very much like to see the “wisdom of the crowds enhanced with psychedelic points of view” expressed in mainstream media. I can imagine an anchorwoman on CNN saying: “according to recent polls 30% of people agree that X, now let’s break this down by state of consciousness… let’s see what the people on acid have to say… ” I would personally be very curious to hear how “the people on acid” are thinking about certain issues relative to e.g. a breakdown of points of view by political affiliation. Leaving jokes aside, why would this be a good idea? Why would anyone actually build this?
I posit that a “Mechanical Turk for People on Psychedelics” would benefit the requesters, the workers, and outsiders. Let’s start with the top three benefits for requesters: better art and marketing, enhanced problem solving, and accelerating the science of consciousness. For workers, the top reason would be making work more interesting, stimulating, and enjoyable. And from the point of view of outsiders, we could anticipate some positive externalities such as improved foundational science, accelerated commercial technology development, and better prediction markets. Let’s dive in:
Benefits to Requesters
Art and Marketing
A reason why a service like this might succeed commercially comes from the importance of understanding one’s audience in art and marketing. For example, if one is developing a product targeted to people who have a hangover (e.g. “hangover remedies”), one’s best bet would be to see how people who actually are hungover resonate with the message. Asking people who are drunk, high on weed, on empathogenic states, on psychedelics, specific psychiatric medications, etc. could certainly find its use in marketing research for sports, comedy, music shows, etc.
Basically, when the product is consumed in the sort of events in which people frequently avoid being sober for the occasion, doing market research on the same people sober might produce misleading results. What percent of concert-goers are sober the entire night? Or people watching the World Cup final? Clearly, a Mechanical Turk service with diverse states of consciousness has the potential to improve marketing epistemology.
On the art side, people who might want to be the next Alex Grey or Android Jones would benefit from prototyping new visual styles on crowds of people who are on psychedelics (i.e. the main consumers of such artistic styles).
Artist: Alex Grey
Artist: Android Jones
As an aside, I would like to point out that in my opinion, artists who create audio or images that are expected to be consumed by people in altered states of consciousness have some degree of responsibility in ensuring that they are not particularly upsetting to people in such states. Indeed, some relatively innocent sounds and images might cause a lot of anxiety or trigger negative states in people on psychedelics due to the way they are processed in such states. With a Mechanical Turk for psychedelics, artists could reduce the risk of upsetting festival/concert goers who partake in psychedelic perception by screening out offending stimuli.
On a more exciting note, there are a number of indications that states of consciousness as alien as those induced by major psychedelics are at times computationally suited to solve information processing tasks in competitive ways. Here are two concrete examples: First, in the sixties there was some amount of research performed on psychedelics for problem solving. A notorious example would be the 1966 study conducted by Willis Harman & James Fadiman in which mescaline was used to aid scientists, engineers, and designers in solving concrete technical problems with very positive outcomes. And second, in How to Secretly Communicate with People on LSD we delved into ways that messages could be encoded in audio-visual stimuli in such a way that only people high on psychedelics could decode them. We called this type of information concealment Psychedelic Cryptography:
How you see it sober
These examples are just proofs of concept that there probably are a multitude of tasks for which minds under various degrees of psychedelic alteration outperform those minds in sober states. In turn, it may end up being profitable to recruit people on such states to complete your tasks when they are genuinely better at them than the sober competition. How to know when to use which state of consciousness? The system could include an algorithm that samples people from various states of consciousness to identify the most promising states to solve your particular problem and then assign the bulk of the task to them.
All of this said, the application I find the most exciting is…
Accelerating the Science of Consciousness
The psychedelic renaissance is finally getting into the territory of performance enhancement in altered states. For example, there is an ongoing study that evaluates how microdosing impacts how one plays Go, and another one that uses a self-blinding protocol to assess how microdosing influences cognitive abilities and general wellbeing.
A whole lot of information about psychedelic states can be gained by doing browser experiments with people high on them. From sensory-focused studies such as visual psychophysics and auditory hedonics to experiments involving higher-order cognition and creativity, internet-based studies of people on altered states can shed a lot of light on how the mind works. I, for one, would love to estimate the base-rate of various wallpaper symmetry groups in psychedelic visuals (cf. Algorithmic Reduction of Psychedelic States), and to study the way psychedelic states influence the pleasantness of sound. There may be no need to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars in experiments that study those questions when the cost of asking people who are on psychedelics to do tasks can be amortized by having them participate in hundreds of studies on e.g. a single LSD session.
17 wallpaper symmetry groups
This kind of research platform would also shed light on how experiences of mental illness compare with altered states of consciousness and allow us to place the effects of common psychiatric medications on a common “map of mental states”. Let me explain. While recreational materials tend to produce the largest changes to people’s conscious experience, it should go without saying that a whole lot of psychiatric medications have unusual effects on one’s state of consciousness. For example: Most people have a hard time pin-pointing the effect of beta blockers on their experience, but it is undeniable that such compounds influence brain activity and there are suggestions that they may have long-term mood effects. Many people do report specific changes to their experience related to beta blockers, and experienced psychonauts can often compare their effects to other drugs that they may use as benchmarks. By conducting psychophysical experiments on people who are taking various major psychoactives, one would get an objective benchmark for how the mind is altered along a wide range of dimensions by each of these substances. In turn, this generalized Mechanical Turk would enable us to pin-point where much more subtle drugs fall along on this space (cf. State-Space of Drug Effects).
In other words, this platform may be revolutionary when it comes to data collection and bench-marking for psychiatric drugs in general. That said, since these compounds are more often than not used daily for several months rather than briefly or as needed, it would be hard to see how the same individual performs a certain task while on and off the medicine. This could be addressed by implementing a system allowing requesters to ask users for follow up experiments if/when the user changes his or her drug regimen.
Benefit to Users
As claimed earlier on, we believe that this type of platform would make work more enjoyable, stimulating, and interesting for many users. Indeed, there does seem to be a general trend of people wanting to contribute to science and culture by sharing their experiences in non-ordinary states of consciousness. For instance, the wonderful artists at r/replications try to make accurate depiction of various unusual states of consciousness for free. There is even an initiative to document the subjective effects of various compounds by grounding trip reports on a subjective effects index. The point being that if people are willing to share their experience and time on psychedelic states of consciousness for free, chances are that they will not complain if they can also earn money with this unusual hobby.
LSD replication (source: r/replications)
We also know from many artists and scientists that normal everyday states of consciousness are not always the best for particular tasks. By expanding the range of states of consciousness with economic advantages, we would be allowing people to perform at their best. You may not be allowed to conduct your job while high at your workplace even if you perform it better that way. But with this kind of platform, you would have the freedom to choose the state of consciousness that optimizes your performance and be paid in kind.
Possible Downsides
It is worth mentioning that there would be challenges and negative aspects too. In general, we can probably all agree that it would suck to have to endure advertisement targeted to your particular state of consciousness. If there is a way to prevent this from happening I would love to hear it. Unfortunately, I assume that marketing will sooner or later catch on to this modus operandi, and that a Mechanical Turk for people on altered states would be used for advertisement before anything else. Making better targeted ads, it turns out, is a commercially viable way of bootstrapping all sorts of novel systems. But better advertisement indeed puts us at higher risk of being taken over by pure replicators in the broader scope, so it is worth being cautious with this application.
In the worst case scenario, we discover that very negative states of consciousness dominate other states in the arena of computational efficiency. In this scenario, the abilities useful to survive in the mental economy of the future happen to be those that employ suffering in one way or another. In that case, the evolutionary incentive gradients would lead to terrible places. For example, future minds might end up employing massive amounts of suffering to “run our servers”, so to speak. Plus, these minds would have no choice because if they don’t then they would be taken over by other minds that do, i.e. this is a race to the bottom. Scenarios like this have been considered before (1, 2, 3), and we should not ignore their warning signs.
Of course this can only happen if there are indeed computational benefits to using consciousness for information processing tasks to begin with. At Qualia Computing we generally assume that the unity of consciousness confers unique computational benefits. Hence, I would expect any outright computational use of states of consciousness is likely to involve a lot of phenomenal binding. Hence, at the evolutionary limit, conscious super-computers would probably be super-sentient. That said, the optimal hedonic tone of the minds with the highest computational efficiency is less certain. This complex matter will be dealt with elsewhere.
Concluding Discussion
Reverse Engineering Systems
A lot of people would probably agree that a video of Elon Musk high on THC may have substantially higher value than many videos of him sober. A lot of this value comes from the information gained about him by having a completely new point of view (or projection) of his mind. Reverse-engineering systems involves doing things to them to change the way they operate in order to try to reconstruct how they are put together. The same is true for the mind and the computational benefits of consciousness more broadly.
The Cost of a State of Consciousness
Another important consideration would be cost assignment for different states of consciousness. I imagine that the going rates for participants on various states would highly depend on the kind of application and profitability of these states. The price would reach a stable point that balances the usability of a state of consciousness for various tasks (demand) and its overall supply.
For problem solving in some specialized applications, for example, I could imagine “mathematician on DMT” to be a high-end sort of state of consciousness priced very highly. For example, foundational consciousness research and phenomenological studies might find such participants to be extremely valuable, as they might be helpful analyzing novel mathematical ideas and using their mathematical expertise to describe the structure of such experiences (cf. Hyperbolic Geometry of DMT Experiences).
Unfortunately, if the demand for high-end rational psychonauts never truly picks up, one might expect that people who could become professional rational psychonauts will instead work for Google or Facebook or some other high-paying company. More so, due to Lemon Markets people who do insist on hiring rational psychonauts will most likely be disappointed. Sasha Shulgin and his successors will probably only participate in such markets if the rewards are high enough to justify using their precious time on novel alien states of consciousness to do your experiment rather than theirs.
In the ideal case this type of platform might function as a spring-board to generate a critical mass of active rational psychonauts who could do each other’s experiments and replicate the results of underground researchers.
Accurately matching the task with the state of consciousness would be critical. For example, you might not necessarily want someone who is high on a large dose of acid to take a look at your tax returns*. Perhaps for mundane tasks one would want people who are on states of optimal arousal (e.g. modafinil). As mentioned earlier, a system that identifies the most promising states of consciousness for your task would be a key feature of the platform.
If we draw inspiration from the original service, we could try to make an analogous system to “Mechanical Turk Masters“. Here the service charges a higher price for requesting people who have been vetted as workers who produce high quality output. To be a Master one needs to have a high task-approval rating and have completed an absurd number of them. Perhaps top score boards and public requester prices for best work would go a long way in keeping the quality of psychedelic workers at a high level.
In practice, given the population base of people who would use this service, I would predict that to a large extent the most successful tasks in terms of engagement from the user-base will be those that have nerd-sniping qualities.** That is, make tasks that are especially fun to complete on psychedelics (and other altered states) and you would most likely get a lot of high quality work. In turn, this platform would generate the best outcomes when the tasks submitted are both fun and useful (hence benefiting both workers and requesters alike).
Keeping Consciousness Useful
Finally, we think that this kind of platform would have a lot of long-term positive externalities. In particular, making a wider range of states of consciousness economically useful goes in the general direction of keeping consciousness relevant in the future. In the absence of selection pressures that make consciousness economically useful (and hence useful to stay alive and reproduce), we can anticipate a possible drift from consciousness being somewhat in control (for now) to a point where only pure replicators matter.
If you are concerned with social power in a post-apocalyptic landscape, it is important that you figure out a way to induce psychedelic experiences in such a way that they cannot easily be used as weapons. E.g. it would be key to only have physiologically safe (e.g. not MDMA) and low-potency (e.g. not LSD) materials in a Mad Max scenario. For the love of God, please avoid stockpiling compounds that are both potent and physiologically dangerous (e.g. NBOMes) in your nuclear bunker! Perhaps high-potency materials could still work out if they are blended in hard-to-separate ways with fillers, but why risk it? I assume that becoming a cult leader would not be very hard if one were the only person who can procure reliable mystical experiences for people living in most post-apocalyptic scenarios. For best results make sure that the cause of the post-apocalyptic state of the world is a mystery to its inhabitants, such as in the documentary Gurren Lagann, and the historical monographs written by Philip K. Dick.
*With notable exceptions. For example, some regular cannabis users do seem to concentrate better while on manageable amounts of THC, and if the best tax attorney in your vicinity willing to do your taxes is in this predicament, I’d suggest you don’t worry too much about her highness.
**If I were a philosopher of science I would try to contribute a theory for scientific development based on nerd-sniping. Basically, how science develops is by the dynamic way in which scientists at all points are following the nerd-sniping gradient. Scientists are typically people who have their curiosity lever all the way to the top. It’s not so much that they choose their topics strategically or at random. It’s not so much a decision as it is a compulsion. Hence, the sociological implementation of science involves a collective gradient ascent towards whatever is nerd-sniping given the current knowledge. In turn, the generated knowledge from the intense focus on some area modifies what is known and changes the nerd-sniping landscape, and science moves on to other topics.
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Tony Award Predictions 2018
LIZ: Were I to take awards seasons seriously, I’d join with the city’s professional theater critics in wringing my hands over the purported death of Broadway at the end of this weirdly inconsistent and ultimately disappointing season. But I don’t take them seriously, and I’m not a professional theater critic. Yay for me! Also, since critics have been bitching off and on for at least a century over the imminent death of Broadway, I can leave the histrionics to them. Sure, whatever, it’s not been the most thrilling season, but then, it still beats the daylights out of reality lately, so there’s that. I’m just as eager as I always am to watch the awards, and to catch up on shows I’ve missed—whether on, Off, or Off Off Broadway—this summer. While I haven’t seen as much on Broadway as I usually have by this point in the year, I’ll venture my most educated guesses below.
SANDRA: The Tony Awards are fun to watch, and they do recognize theatrical talent ... but not every person who deserves a Tony wins one. Laura Linney, Victor Garber and Judy Kuhn are statue-less (all nominated four times!). So, here are my predictions/preferences for the prize ... submitted with me wishing that occasionally you could have two individuals win the same category.
WENDY: When people argue about who will win an award, they often leave out a tricky wild card: math. If you have five nominees, someone could win with as little as 25% of the votes—far from a majority. Is it likely? No, but it’s absolutely possible. And this is an interesting year, in that a number of categories have no shoo-in winner.
Best Play
LIZ: Again, no clue—I haven’t seen a single one. But of the list, the one I regret never catching was the one I chose
Farinelli and The King
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
SANDRA: Saw none of the nominations but Harry Potter could win – especially since it will probably sweep design awards.
WENDY: People seem to like the production more than the play, but since there’s no separate playwright’s award (which I think there should be), I think this will indeed go to Harry Potter,
Latin History for Morons
The Band's Visit
LIZ: It really could go to SpongeBob, frankly—but considering the wailing in the press right now about how corporations have taken over and destroyed Broadway (where the hell have these journalists been since the early 1990s?!), I suspect the vote will reflect the concern.
SANDRA: While the other musicals offer often clever and fun lyrics, this one had real heart.
WENDY: I’m not 100% confident this will win, but I loved it.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
Best Revival of a Play
LIZ: This could go to any one of them except Iceman, I suspect.
SANDRA: Angels in America. It still resonates.
WENDY: This feels like the clear winner to me.
Edward Albee's Three Tall Women
Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh
Lobby Hero
Travesties
Best Revival of a Musical
Once On This Island
WENDY: Strange year for musical revivals, with controversies and complaints, yet also with much love and enthusiasm. I’m betting that My Fair Lady and Carousel cancel each other out, and Once on This Island squeaks through.
Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
SANDRA: Beautifully cast, all leads perform brilliantly and the choreography is divine.
Best Book of a Musical
The Band's Visit: Itamar Moses
Frozen: Jennifer Lee
Mean Girls: Tina Fey
LIZ: Come on, now, Fey’s a comic mastermind. Also, while all four of these plays are adaptations from something else, Lee and Fey wrote the damn movies and adapted them as musicals, because women are badass like that. Still, I see Mean Girls winning over Frozen if only because the former translates to the stage somewhat better than the latter.
SANDRA: A tough call. I want it to be Itamar Moses (A Band’s Visit) but I think Tina Fey (Mean Girls) put together a witty extension of the movie that offers a darker take and more character context.
SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical: Kyle Jarrow
Best Original Score (Music and/or Lyrics) Written for the Theatre
LIZ: What’s this nonsense about Angels getting a nod here? Seriously, it’s a great revival, but I don’t remember a damn thing about the music. Not a snowflake’s chance in Hell. Give the prize to Yazbeck, please—the show’s sweet, the tunes are catchy, the score isn’t assembled by committee, what’s not to love?
SANDRA: Music and lyrics by David Yazbek (A Band’s Visit) will best the others’ fun, campy sounds.
WENDY: Yazbek did a gorgeous job here.
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Play
Andrew Garfield, Angels in America
LIZ: It’s tough to reinvent Prior Walter, even 25 years after Stephen Spinella more or less broke the mold, but Garfield did it, and is richly deserving.
Tom Hollander, Travesties
Jamie Parker, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
Mark Rylance, Farinelli and The King
Denzel Washington, Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Play
Glenda Jackson, Edward Albee's Three Tall Women
LIZ: I eagerly await Condola Rashad’s richly deserved awards, but this one belongs to Glenda Jackson. Holy moly, her rip-roaring performance has been harboring all the energy and fire the rest of the season lacks.
SANDRA: Amy Schumer doesn’t have a shot in hell, but I’m glad she was nominated. Her turn in Meteor Shower was hilarious, spontaneous and unexpected.
WENDY: I think this is the closest thing to a lock of all the acting awards.
Condola Rashad, Saint Joan
Lauren Ridloff, Children of a Lesser God
Amy Schumer, Meteor Shower
Best Performance by an Actor in a Leading Role in a Musical
Harry Hadden-Paton, My Fair Lady
Joshua Henry, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
SANDRA: Loved Tony Shalhoub (A Band’s Visit), but I think Joshua Henry in Carousel will get it. Too bad there can’t be a tie; they both deserve it.
Tony Shalhoub, The Band's Visit
WENDY: In truth, I don’t have a clue on this one.
Ethan Slater, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
LIZ: Yeah, you heard me right. The dude works incredibly hard and breathes life, energy and incredibly sweetness into….a sponge.
Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role in a Musical
Lauren Ambrose, My Fair Lady
Hailey Kilgore, Once On This Island
LaChanze, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
Katrina Lenk, The Band's Visit
LIZ: The upset here could be Ambrose, but Lenk is wonderful and I don’t think the show would be quite the same without her.
WENDY: I didn’t think she was superduper or anything, but I think a lot of other people did.
Taylor Louderman, Mean Girls
Jessie Mueller, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Play
Anthony Boyle, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
Michael Cera, Lobby Hero
Brian Tyree Henry, Lobby Hero
Nathan Lane, Angels in America
LIZ: I’ve heard great things about Morse, and I LOVE Brian Tyree Henry. But Lane is not someone I’ve been consistently impressed with over the years, and I was absolutely gobsmacked by the intensity of his performance as Roy Cohn.
David Morse, Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Play
Susan Brown, Angels in America
Noma Dumezweni, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
Deborah Findlay, The Children
Denise Gough, Angels in America
LIZ: I actually didn’t love Gough in this, but she seems to be favored, and I either haven’t seen or was not hugely impressed by anyone else. This could go to Dumezweni, which would be lovely, too.
Laurie Metcalf, Edward Albee's Three Tall Women
Best Performance by an Actor in a Featured Role in a Musical
Norbert Leo Butz, My Fair Lady
SANDRA: Norbert Leo Butz (My Fair Lady) or Ari’el Stachel (A Band’s Visit). I’d like to see Stachel get it, but NLB is a bigger name.
Alexander Gemignani, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
Grey Henson, Mean Girls
Gavin Lee, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
LIZ: A game and winning showman—with double the legs and tap shoes!
Ari'el Stachel, The Band's Visit
Best Performance by an Actress in a Featured Role in a Musical
Ariana DeBose, Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
Renée Fleming, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
LIZ: Actually, I have no idea, and since I love Mendez in everything, I hope it goes to her. Still, I think Fleming is favored and I have big money riding on this (actually I don’t).
SANDRA: Seeing her perform “You’ll Never Walk Alone” was worth the ticket price even if you spent the remainder of the show in the bathroom.
Lindsay Mendez, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
Ashley Park, Mean Girls
Diana Rigg, My Fair Lady
WENDY: This is arguably a dumb guess, what with the size of her role, but people love her. A lot.
Best Scenic Design of a Play
Miriam Buether, Edward Albee's Three Tall Women
Jonathan Fensom, Farinelli and The King
Christine Jones, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
LIZ: All the tech awards are going to this monster, no question.
SANDRA: Magic will beat everything else.
Santo Loquasto, Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh
Ian MacNeil and Edward Pierce, Angels in America
Best Scenic Design of a Musical
Dane Laffrey, Once On This Island
Scott Pask, The Band's Visit
Scott Pask, Finn Ross & Adam Young, Mean Girls
SANDRA: Scott Pask, Finn Ross and Adam Young (Mean Girls). Those video sets were remarkably lifelike and I loved the desk-turning choreography.
Michael Yeargan, My Fair Lady
David Zinn, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
LIZ: The set had me at the enormous clusters of pool floaties.
Best Costume Design of a Play
Nicky Gillibrand, Angels in America
Katrina Lindsay, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
Ann Roth, Edward Albee's Three Tall Women
Ann Roth, Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh
Best Costume Design of a Musical
Gregg Barnes, Mean Girls
Clint Ramos, Once On This Island
Ann Roth, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
LIZ: Those pink and green sardines!!
Catherine Zuber, My Fair Lady
Best Lighting Design of a Play
Neil Austin, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
Paule Constable, Angels in America
Jules Fisher + Peggy Eisenhauer, Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh
Paul Russell, Farinelli and The King
Ben Stanton, Junk
Best Lighting Design of a Musical
Kevin Adams, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
Jules Fisher + Peggy Eisenhauer, Once On This Island
LIZ: This might be way off, but hell, it’s deserving: the lighting of that show stayed with me, which is not at all a weird thing to say about lighting once you tune in to how important it is.
Donald Holder, My Fair Lady
Brian MacDevitt, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
Tyler Micoleau, The Band's Visit
Best Sound Design of a Play
Adam Cork, Travesties
Ian Dickinson for Autograph, Angels in America
Gareth Fry, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
Tom Gibbons, 1984
Dan Moses Schreier, Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh
Best Sound Design of a Musical
Kai Harada, The Band's Visit
WENDY: Sat in the 2nd-to-last row and could hear perfectly. That’s good sound design to me!
Peter Hylenski, Once On This Island
Scott Lehrer, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
Brian Ronan, Mean Girls
Walter Trarbach and Mike Dobson, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
LIZ: For Squidward’s squeaky footsteps alone. Also, a continued yay for the reinstatement of this important award!
Best Direction of a Play
Marianne Elliott, Angels in America
Joe Mantello, Edward Albee's Three Tall Women
Patrick Marber, Travesties
John Tiffany, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
LIZ: A shoutout, though, to Joe Mantello for his work on Three Tall Women.
George C. Wolfe, Eugene O'Neill's The Iceman Cometh
Best Direction of a Musical
Michael Arden, Once On This Island
David Cromer, The Band's Visit
Tina Landau, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
LIZ: Landau’s direction made what could have been trashy garbage into a genuinely imaginative, playful, and engaging production.
Casey Nicholaw, Mean Girls
Bartlett Sher, My Fair Lady
Best Choreography
Christopher Gattelli, My Fair Lady
Christopher Gattelli, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
Steven Hoggett, Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, Parts One and Two
Justin Peck, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
LIZ: I loved, especially, the emulation of ocean waves.
Best Orchestrations
John Clancy, Mean Girls
Tom Kitt, SpongeBob SquarePants: The Musical
Annmarie Milazzo & Michael Starobin, Once On This Island
Jamshied Sharifi, The Band's Visit
LIZ: Truly, no clue; this was a total guess. May the best orchestrator win.
Jonathan Tunick, Rodgers & Hammerstein's Carousel
WENDY: I don’t really have a clue, either, but Tunick is regularly brilliant, so he seems a good guess.
Labels: Liz Wollman, Sandra Mardenfeld, Wendy Caster
the hollower
Peace for Mary Frances
League of Professional Theatre Woman presents Chit...
The Sea Concerto
Follies (second viewing)
Happy Birthday, Wanda June
Historians on Hamilton: How a Blockbuster Musical ...
Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
Unexpected Joy
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Student’s Cornell Pic Wins Regional Art Competition
Maggie Meister's photograph SEEING DOUBLE won a gold medal at the Regional Scholastic Art Competition.
Maggie Meister
Abby Wexler, Staff Writer
When Maggie Meister was in the Cornell Library this past summer taking a picture of her friend for her assignment, little did she know what would come of it. She was simply completing an assignment for her Cornell University Summer Program and taking a picture of her friend reading a book. What was to come was a national award winning photograph.
Meister has always had a passion for art. Since elementary school, art was always her favorite subject in all aspects; she constantly looked forward to going to that class. Her parents have always been involved in the art industry. Her mom, Robin Selden, is the Executive Chef and Co-Owner of Marcia Selden Catering Company. Her father, Michael Meister, is the Director of Exhibition Design at the American Museum of Natural History. Art clearly runs in her family.
The summer of her sophomore year, Meister had the privilege of attending a three week summer program at Cornell University. The program entailed a class focused on photography, drawing, and printmaking. For her final project, Meister took a picture of her friend reading a book in the beautiful, vibrant Cornell Library.
As most art students did, Meister decided to submit that specific photo to her Regional Scholastic Art and Writing Competition. The competition is for teens in grades 7-12 to show off their art, displayed in 29 different categories. For the 2019 year, the competition received 340,000 submissions of work. Many people first place at the regional level and can receive Gold Keys, Silver Keys, Honorable Mentions, or American Voices and Vision Nominations. Three Stamford High students received keys for their work submitted at the regional level: Meister won a Gold Key for her photograph, Dechante Clarke won a Gold Key for drawing and illustration, and Khalil Briscoe won a Silver Key for Digital Art. Students who receive a Gold Key at the regional level are automatically entered into the national competition. The national awards consist of Gold Medals, Silver Medals, American Visions and Voices Medal, Gold Medal and Silver Medal with Distinction Portfolios, and Special Achievement Awards.
At the national level, Meister was awarded a Silver Medal for her photograph titled, “Seeing Double.” The award is extremely prestigious, with Meister being the one student representing Stamford High School at the national level. It is an especially big honor after submitting work in previous years and only placing at the regional level for honorable mention, showing her immense improvement. Meister shared, “I am so honored to have won a national medal for this competition. It means a lot to me as I’ve worked so hard to improve, and this shows that I’m doing something right! Not only is this an incredible honor – it also pushes me to produce more art.”
Alongside her art, Meister is in all honors and AP classes, the co-president of the class of 2020, a varsity tennis player, and has won several other awards for her art. She hopes to pursue art in some aspect in the future, in both her professional and recreational career. As for the near future, she said, “I would love to go to college for advertising and commercial design.” Regarding her photography career, she said, “I might minor in photography.”
Tags: maggie meister, regional scholastic
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Avengers Endgame: a worthy conclusion to 11 years of Marvel cinematic history
Students Compete at All States
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Bishop's Commission on Women in Church and in Society
September 15, 2014: Bus Pilgrimage - Our Lady of Sorrows in Chicago, see flyer below for registration information.
November 2014: Prayer Journaling - Attend this Advent gathering and learn about the power of prayer journaling. The event will include the materials to create a prayer journal. More details available soon.
March 2015: Easter Egg Decorating (Pysanky) - Quad Cities, more details soon.
April 18th - 27th, 2015: Pilgrimage - Fatima, Portugal.
Our trip will be led by Fr. David Whiteside
Visit the Catholic Diocese of Peoria website to view the flyer.and access the form to submit your deposit. Only 40 spaces are available.
Email dpavinato@att.net if you are interested in receiving a hard copy of the itinerary. We would be happy to send one to you.
September 15 - Chicago Bus Pilgrimage
Bishop's Commission on Women
419 N.E. Madison Ave., Peoria, IL 61603
Current Commission Membership
We serve the Bishop of Peoria, the Most Reverend Bishop Daniel Jenky, C.S.C., D.D.
Spiritual Director: Fr. David Whiteside, St. Patrick's, Havana
Chairperson: Deena Pavinato, Holy Family, Oglesby
Vice-Chairperson: Martina Miranda-Lugo, St. Mary's, Champaign
Treasurer: Susan Redman, St. Mary's, Downs
Secretary: Susan Real, St. Joseph's, Henry
Commission Members:
Joan Weber, St. Jude, Peoria
Ellen Ehrgot, St. Rose, Rushville
Michele Dorbeck, Sacred Heart, Rock Island
A special welcome to our newest Commission Members:
Cheryl Stinauer, St. Patrick's, Havana
Carolyn Zinck, St. Mary's,Canton
Consider Joining The Bishop's Commission on Women
The Bishop's Commission on Women seeks to help women of the Diocese of Peoria to become holier and grow closer to God. We are committed to providing opportunities for women to come together for prayer and fellowship. We support and encourage women to pray at home and teach their families consistent Catholic doctrine and be an example of Christian faith in the community. We act as an advisory group to the Most Reverend, Bishop Daniel Jenky, C.S.C., D.D.
Visit our Facebook Page, Bishop's Commission on Women, and let us know you are interested in more information or contact Chairperson, Deena Pavinato via email at dpavinato@att.net
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Spanish & Portuguese Studies
Submit an Update
Admission to the Spanish Major
Spanish Major Requirements
Spanish Minor Requirements
Portuguese Minor Requirements
Spanish Honors Program
Spanish Linguistics
Learning Goals for Majors
MA Program Overview
MA Admissions & Application Procedures
MA Complete Application Guidelines
MA Degree Requirements
MA Reading List
PhD Program Overview
PhD Admissions & Application Procedures
PhD Complete Application Guidelines
PhD Degree Requirements
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10-Year Review
Bridging the Gap from Antiquity to the Present | Faculty Spotlight on Donald Gilbert-Santamaría
Submitted by Holly J Winters on April 29, 2014 - 9:32am
Piled on Donald Gilbert-Santamaría’s desk is a set of very old books. With their worn brown covers and gold lettering, the books have a reverential presence in the room. They are the elders, the ancients that provide a connection to the newer books surrounding them and remind us of a time when ideas that are still being explored today were new.
Gilbert-Santamaría, Associate Professor, specializes in Spanish Early Modern literature, which covers the period from 1492 to the mid-seventeenth century. His undergraduate degree from UC Berkeley is in English and Economics as is his graduate degree in Comparative Literature.
“I am the product of a public university,” explained Gilbert-Santamaría, whose parents were elementary school teachers and the first in their families to go to college. “Access to a school like Berkeley that is committed to excellence in public education is the reason I am sitting here today,” he said.
Gilbert-Santamaría came to UW in 2001 after working for five years at the University of Tulsa, a private school. “Teaching in a public university is satisfying,” he explained, “primarily because of our ability to bring a high-quality education to a broad population.”
Gilbert-Santamaría’s undergraduate classes include a course on Cervantes and Don Quixote, a Spanish drama class and a summer course on sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Spanish poetry. “As someone who works in a field that’s a bit antiquated,” he remarked, “it is rewarding to watch students connect with material they didn’t even know existed.” The time period Gilbert-Santamaría teaches may be historically remote but the themes are relevant to the present. “There are themes that persist throughout hundreds of years,” he said.
In addition to teaching undergraduate classes for the Spanish Division, Gilbert-Santamaría teaches one course for the Comparative Literature Department and one graduate seminar per year. His current graduate seminar, based on his research for a book project, examines representations of friendship in the Spanish Early Modern period that challenged the paradigms inherited from classical antiquity. “For example, in Don Quixote,” explained Gilbert-Santamaría, “the questions and contradictions Cervantes poses present something different from the ideas about perfect friendship espoused by the ancients.”
Gilbert-Santamaría’s sixteenth and seventeenth century poetry class is taught in the summer intentionally because it is a slower time of year, allowing students to dig deeper. “There is a long tradition of poets aspiring to immortality through writing. But that only works if someone reads the poems,” he laughed. How do students fare in a class like this during the beautiful Northwest summer? “If anyone can make sixteenth century sonnets and poems not boring, especially in a daily three hour summer class, Professor Gilbert-Santamaría can!” laughed Pragya Kc, one of his students.
Speaking about his work and that of his colleagues, Gilbert-Santamaría said, “We are custodians of a cultural legacy. There are very few people who work in this specific period and a lot of skepticism about the value of the humanities in general.” But that is not enough to stop him from continuing to teach “esoteric things that have intrinsic value.”
Gilbert-Santamaría appreciates the collegiality and informality of the Spanish and Portuguese Studies Division at UW. “People have the freedom to pursue their intellectual goals in this department,” he said. “A deeper cultural understanding is the most important thing we give our students along with the concrete skills of being able write and think and express themselves.”
Reflecting on his role as a teacher, Gilbert-Santamaría affirmed, “We live in a society where education is meant to have a vocational end. While that’s certainly true, it’s also nice to teach something that has other redeeming values.”
RETURN TO NEWSLETTER
People Involved:
Donald Gilbert-Santamaría
PrintPDF
Newsletter | Spring / Summer 2014
Support Spanish & Portuguese Studies
Department of Spanish & Portuguese Studies
C-104 Padelford Hall
spsuw@uw.edu
Be Boundless for Washington | For the World
© 2019 University of Washington. All rights reserved.
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The debate on reform of teacher evaluations
By Capital Tonight Staff City of Albany
PUBLISHED 12:37 AM ET Jun. 13, 2018 PUBLISHED June 13, 2018 @12:37 AM
SPECTRUM NEWS VIDEO: A push to reform the way school teachers and administrators are evaluated has made its mark this session. Supporters argue the current system inadequately measures both teacher performance and student achievement. A bill has already cleared the Assembly, but that version appears dead on arrival at the Senate's doorstep, as the chamber introduced its own version of the bill, tacking on additional provisions such as charter schools. Tim Kremer, executive director of the New York State School Boards Association, joins the show to talk more about this debate.
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One in custody after Schenectady standoff
By Spectrum News Staff Schenectady
PUBLISHED 11:24 PM ET Jun. 04, 2018 PUBLISHED June 4, 2018 @11:24 PM
SCHENECTADY, N.Y. -- One man was taken into custody following a standoff Monday.
Police surrounded a home on 437 Plymouth Avenue around 4 p.m. for reports of a barricaded person inside. Police took a man into custody around 9 p.m. The 35-year-old man, who left the residence after approximately 5 1/2 hours, was taken to a local medical facility for evaluation, according to police. Multiple weapons were then found inside the residence.
A SWAT team was on the scene, and officers took up positions around the house. Schenectady police told people to avoid the area.
pic.twitter.com/LDVmSv6Y8a
— Jackson Wang (@TVJacksonWang) June 5, 2018
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Council Loans, Wasted Millions, Arrests Made in Northampton
- September 19, 2017 4:31 AM |
Categories: Procurement Commentary | Tags: L1, local government, public money, public procurement
£10.25 million is a lot of money for a fairly small borough council. Think how hard the procurement team at Northampton Borough Council would have to work to make that sort of saving. Yet in 2013, the council loaned that amount to the local Northampton Town football club to pay for a stadium redevelopment – that never happened.
Instead, the money apparently disappeared, after the club handed over £8.75 million to the developer, Howard Grossman and his firm 1st Land Ltd, which later went bust. Of course it didn’t disappear – the BBC did a pretty good job of tracking down the cash, actually. But contractors working on the stadium weren’t paid and work ceased. And now, finally, the matter seems to be coming to the courts. Last week, the BBC reported this:
Seven people have been arrested in connection with a missing £10.25m loan to Northampton Town Football Club. A statement from Northamptonshire Police said it was investigating "allegations of theft and fraud, bribery, misconduct in public office and electoral offences".
The Northampton Borough Council loan was made in 2013 to redevelop the Sixfields stadium. Nine other people have also been interviewed under caution, police said. Detectives would not be drawn on the "nature of the interviews or the identity of those interviewed", Thursday's statement said.
Former Northampton MP David Mackintosh who was leader of Northampton Borough Council when the loan to Northampton Town was granted in 2013 is not one of those arrested, but donations to his 2015 election campaign may be tied up in the affair (hence perhaps the mention of “electoral offences” in the police statement). But an internal council inquiry found that the loan was made “too quickly and with inadequate information and safeguards”, partly because Mackintosh was pressing for it.
Of course, any loan should have been checked out more thoroughly and you might think the logical thing would have been to link stage payments with the work being done on the stadium. (And was no security against the loan sought?) The club was then owned by David Cardoza – we don’t know if he is one of those referred to in the recent announcement but he was previously arrested back in January 2016 so we might assume so. The BBC article suggested that some of the money went to his father and more ended up being used to rebuild his house!
While this isn’t strictly procurement, it is a depressing example of the ability of local government to squander taxpayers money through greed, incompetence, corruption or all three. It also supports one of our theories. Procurement fraud does happen, without a doubt. But it generally seems far easier to get money out of the public sector for dubious purposes via grants, loans, and similar means that aren’t strictly procurement - and therefore have fewer controls.
And just last week we saw another depressing example – the Yorkshire Evening Post reported that:
“A £4.8m taxpayer loan made to an abandoned Leeds city centre hotel project is to be written off. The revelation was made at today’s full council meeting at Leeds Civic Hall, following a question from councillor John Procter … He asked for confirmation that “the £4.8m loan given by the LEP (Local Enterprise Partnership) and held by Leeds City Council for the Arena Hotel scheme has now been lost”. Councillor Lewis confirmed that the money had been “written off”, but also that work on the site was due to recommence by an unnamed developer”.
Wynkin: 28.11.2018 at 7:14 am
The scandal in Northampton is still dragging on with the council employing their auditors KPMG to look into what went on. They seem to have got nowhere and the costs are in seven figures and rising. KPMG are also the local police auditors.
Paul Wright: 19.09.2017 at 2:24 pm
Lancashire (and then Liverpool) -further arrests? Seems to be quite a wave
Peter Louch: 29.11.2018 at 6:38 am
In my working life, I did experience instances of crooked practice , albeit a few years ago now.
But it certainly did exist.
Discuss this: Cancel reply
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From Spirit Island Wiki
Revision as of 17:10, 24 April 2018 by EricReuss (talk | contribs) (Added spirit interaction notes to Dahan page (from BGG thread))
Specific Spirits
The Dahan
General Lore
Currently Unknown Lore
A Spread of Rampant Green
A Spread of Rampant Green is an ancient and enthusiastic spirit of growth and renewal that is extraordinarily difficult to keep down. It can play up to 3 Presence a turn under the right circumstances, and may return its destroyed Presence to play. It assaults the Invaders directly and bodily: clogging water supplies, tearing down buildings with creepers, and overgrowing the land so badly that it brings everything to a standstill: anywhere it has a Sacred Site, it can destroy one of its Presence to flatly prevent a Ravage or Build.
A Spread of Rampant Green is a force of continual renewal and regeneration, a jungle so thick and verdant you can barely see five feet ahead with plants overgrowing your path behind as you walk. Wherever it goes, creepers and greenery twine their way across the land, and the leaves rustle with sounds of laughter; for all that it's ancient and primal, it loves life with the same wholehearted exuberance as a toddler, and shows up at human villages with all the enthusiasm of a kid doing a flying belly-flop atop an unsuspecting parent.
Thankfully, it's powerful enough that its acts of reckless enthusiasm happen at a timescale humans can react to: a village may be overgrown in a night or three, but not in minutes.
From the Playmat
One of the older spirits on the island, though it's even more wild and exuberant these days than when it was young. Contrary to some stories, it does think things through - it's just far more concerned with the process of life than with things like 'consequences".
It's not unfriendly to the Dahan, but its idea of a good time is to smother their buildings in all manner of inconvenient greenery, and its notion of "help" transforms careful cultivated areas into overgrown thickets. Entire villages have been known to move to fresh planting-sites y ears early if a spirit-speaker suspects that Rampant Green is going to stay in the area for too long.
Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares
Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares draws a distinction only between dreams it carries to slumbering minds and those which arise independent of its touch. It may bear visions of wonder or terror, of prophecy or muddled echoes of past experience; they may illuminate or deceive or simply confuse. It has existed since long before the Dahan arrived, bearing dreams to those few Spirits which receive them from without, but there is little question that its nature changed - and enlarged - once humanity began living on Spirit Island. Some speculate that it is related to those which prey upon the not-yet-departed souls of the dead, though others counter that it does not seem to feed off dreams, merely carry them.
Even amongst other Spirits, it communicates almost entirely through the touch of dreams, either by manifesting in some form suitable to the dreamscape, or by taking a few moments of its mind-to-mind contact for more direct - if often no less cryptic - communication. Spirits are generally better able than humans to retain these fleeting memories, though humans sometimes help interpret a vexing conversation for some Spirit poorly suited to nuanced interpretation.
Bringer of Dreams & Nightmares is a spirit of nighttime mindscapes for humans, beasts, and those Spirits which dream. It has both kindly and fearsome aspects, but since the Invaders arrived has worn only the latter. Its powers are fundamentally over the mind and perception - it has extreme difficulty doing any direct, real harm; its Powers instead cause the Invaders to believe that they have been harmed. These mass hallucinations breed more fear than if they had been real. (High complexity.)
When the moon is bright, and the leaves overhead are thin enough to let stray beams fall to earth, the Bringer of Dreams and Nightmares may sometimes be spied, an apparition of pale light and deep shadow. Seen this way, it will neither stop nor acknowledge attempts to communicate with it, whether by Dahan or Spirit. It might not even be there at all: perhaps it's a reflection of a self somewhere else entirely; the realm of the The Pathmaker, or some strange road that borders it.
But beings which dream hear from the Bringer frequently, even if they rarely remember it. Certain patterns may even call its attention, if drawn with sand and scatters with breath before sleep. Since the Invaders came, it has tended towards more terrifying forms, even well before the current conflict arose.
Heart of the Wildfire
Burning, blazing, rising, consuming - Heart of the Wildfire is quite fond of humans, in a general sense: they keep hearths and use fire as a tool all the time, and those sparks give birth to so many lovely conflagrations! It is the nature of Spirits to be true to what they are, so even though Wildfire knows on some level that too much fire is bad for the land, it just doesn't think about that aspect of things very much. It is also, after all, a spirit of renewal after the blaze, so it implicitly assumes that everything will regrow eventually. (Its strong ties to A Spread of Rampant Green probably contribute to this point of view.)
It fights the Invaders partly due to the exhortations of other Spirits, but more for the sake of the Dahan, as it's become clear that the Invaders have no compunctions about putting them to the sword. (The Dahan and it have a long and storied history together, beginning with the very first Dahan settlements.) It is also, it should be said, somewhat gleeful over the chance to really cut loose without the other Spirits getting all riled up and putting out its firestorms.
A spirit of natural destruction... and renewal after destruction, though those whose lands have been scoured by flame don't usually much appreciate the latter. Thrives near human habitations, glorying in their fires and sparks, but has existed on the island since long before the Dahan arrived, a child of the Volcano and the Green.
The Wildfire is a long-standing friend of the Dahan: the early slash-and-burn agriculture which turned most Spirits against them gave it the best decades it had had in centuries. It later supported the Dahan during the Second Reckoning, backing their threats of reprisal. It doesn't interact with the Dahan often these years, but spares their villages as best it can, and fights the Invaders in large part for them.
Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds
Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds is a guardian-spirit, charged with maintaining the sanctity of the deepest wilds of Spirit Island. It serves spirits of deep root and ancient branch which foresaw the need for a more energetic guardian, being immensely slow in their age and great power. It takes its charge with unnerving seriousness, and the Dahan have learned that no matter how carefully they respect the land, raising their roof-poles too close to its domains will result in retribution: its charge is to prevent trespass, even if well-intentioned or scrupulously polite.
Spread throughout Spirit Island are pockets of deep wilderness, untouched by human hands. A few have a spirit of sanctity about them. The leaves there whisper words of forbiddance, of warnings, of wrath for those who trespass. The Dahan know how to listen, and stay well away.
A few spirit-seekers claim that these wild-spirits (powerful as they are) are merely custodians and wardens for other more powerful, spirits of ancient trees and deep roots who wake neither frequently nor easily. Nobody much cares to test the truth of the matter.
Lightning's Swift Strike
Most spirits of storm travel the sky, never touching down or staying in any one place for too long, but a few find a place they’re sufficiently drawn to to stay - often a site with high winds or violent weather. Spirits of lightning are especially prone to this, finding the earth below more interesting than their cloud-formed bretheren.
Lightning’s Swift Strike was born long ago, of a storm-spirit off the shores of Spirit Island. It decided to stay in the instant it first struck ground, and has remained ever since. Lightning destroys with a fierce and glorious joy, not for the sake of destruction itself, but for the exultation of swiftness-in-power.
The child of a passing storm-spirit, Lightning's Swift Strike danced off the shores of the island many ages ago, and liked it enough to stay. It spends much of its time resting and quiet, waking up to dance through the sky when the winds blow strong.
It only concerns itself occasionally with the Dahan, usually appearing out of nowhere to send them off on some obscure errand. The Dahan cooperate - partly out of wary respect for Lightning's power, but as much for the sake of the Thunderspeaker - Lightning's child - who is a patron and ally of their people.
Ocean's Hungry Grasp
The seas around Spirit Island were not always so dangerous as they now are; when the Dahan's ancestors first arrived, the journey was no more (or less) perilous than any other voyage between islands. Several centuries ago, between the Second Reckoning and the rise of the Spirit-speakers, Ocean's Hungry Grasp arrived in the nearby waters. It has severely curtailed the Dahan's trade with other islands, though not extinguished it: expeditions are careful to propitiate the Ocean before setting out and upon their return. Some smaller ocean spirits still exist - some playful, some indifferent, some moody - but all are overshadowed by the hungry, waiting presence lurking deep offshore, and many have fled. Thus far, the tall-shipped Invaders have mostly escaped its attention, but that is sure to shift soon.
Ocean's Hungry Grasp is by turns tempestuous and patient; it may slowly eat away a rocky shore over centuries or devour half an island in a hurricane. It has an awful fascination to it, luring sailors to founder and people to hurl themselves into its embrace. The one constant is that it is always willing to consume more, until all things lie beneath the waves.
The hunger of the ocean runs deep and powerful, sometimes patient, sometimes tempestuous and angry. It slowly wears away at rocky shores, or devours half an island during a hurricane. It lures humans out onto the wtaer with its sire call, then consumes ship and crew alike unless the proper offerings are made.
The ocean's voraciousness keeps the Dahan from frequent sea travel, though they still manage a trading expedition every decade or so. These trading-trips take the cooperation of several families, and always involve at least two spirit-speakers. That way, even if one perishes abroad, the expedition will still be able to get home.
River Surges in Sunlight
River Surges in Sunlight is one of the greater river-spirits of the island, at least among those moderate enough in their locus of power to still interact readily with humans. (Joining of Three Rivers, for instance, is much larger and more powerful, but sluggish even by spirit standards, and very difficult to contact in any but a few very particular, well-worn ways.) River Surges has a well-established symbiotic relationship with the Dahan, who gain fertile ground from its controlled flooding and gifts of health from its magic; in turn, they tend to the river's needs during times of drought and darkness.
Like the river it embodies, it is a spirit of many moods: exuberant or subdued, curious or focused, playful in its power or grim under gray skies. For the Invaders, it brings its more destructive aspects: the force of rushing water, the destructive power of a flash flood, the inexorable rise of waters in a flooded land.
On most of SPirit Island, the rivers run high during the rainy season, as one would expect. There is one exception: the lingering remains of an ancient curse keep a high ridge shourded in ice, and when the sun beats down, it feeds a single river with abundant meltwater.
River Surges in Sunlight is a spirit of rushing water, inundation, and bounty out of season.
It gets along well with the Dahan who farm along its banks; they reap the benefit of good harvests, and tend to the health of the river in its drier times. Both gain.
Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island
Let's shift our sight so we see only spirits. There are throngs of them visible across the surface of the island: spirits of tree and glade, of rushing river and entangling vines, of beast and butterfly and mists floating eerily over the marshes.
Turning our vision downward, we see nearly as many within the land itself: spirits of hard unyielding stone and of drifted sand dunes, of sinkhole and high peak. Vital Strength of the Earth is here.
As we look deeper, fewer spirits greet our eyes - some of volcano, some of dark and ancient caves, a handful of others. But like the earth itself, most of those we see are large, powerful, and slow.
Deeper and larger than all of those lies the Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island. It could be argued that it is the Island, or at least its roots. Like all spirits of such size and power, it is slow beyond human reckoning. Unlike many of them, it is also asleep.
Or, now, mostly asleep. The distant sting of the Invaders' blight has begun to rouse portions of its consciousness towards waking, those fragments aware of the land's surface far above. Even that small aspect of the Serpent is slow to act, slow to awaken... but contains the potential for power greater than most spirits could ever muster.
Long ago in an earlier age, there was only water where islands now lie. One day - for there were day and night by then, though humans did not yet exist - a great serpent grew tired of swimming and decided to rest. It drew the earth up around itself, and so the island was born.
Other stories say different things - in particular, Volcano Looming High has its own account - but stories do not need to agree for them to be true.
Regardless, many spirits can sense the immense serpent deep below. It is mostly asleep, and its influence on the land above is limited, but the Invaders' Blight already begins to sting it towards greater wakefulness.
Shadows Flicker Like Flame
A spirit of darkness and fire, of the alien and unnatural just out of vision around the corner. Its mindset is even more non-human than most Spirits', and it's somewhat dangerous just to be around; the only reason the Dahan have anything to do with it is out of a sense of reciprocity for a great favor it did them some generations ago. Its darkness works in ways not intuitive to humans; it may engulf a single person or an entire city, and it can act at great distance by reaching through the shadows of the Dahan. While not a spirit of fear, all of its Powers cause some amount of Fear due to their unnerving effects.
Spirits corresponding directly to natural features make instinctive sense to human minds: "the spirit of this river here", or "a spirit of stormy wind" are straightforward and easy to grasp. Some spirits are more inscrutiable, such as the Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds, or harder to perceive, such as the Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island. And then there are others still whose nature simply does not mesh well with humanity's view of the universe, such as Shadows Flicker Like Flame.
It is the shadow of a candleflame; a fire that withers what it touches rather than igniting it; the dark silhouette of a tree cast across the ground which, when you step on it, turns out to be a pit of ink-black otherspace. Its form is as fluid as as smoke, rising up from any shadow lying on the ground.
Shadows Flicker Like Flame does not seem to represent any natural phenomenon known outside of itself, but is associated with shade, transformation, shadows given life, unnatural spaces, and engulfing dark. While it is not a spirit of terror per se, it evokes a primal fear in humans, both due to its associations and the alienness of its nature. It seems to honor its bargains, but it thinks along strange lines... and when it's near, you're never entirely sure that you won't just vanish.
Other Spirits do not seem to find Shadows Flicker Like Flame the least bit unnatural, however; perhaps humanity's view of nature is not perfectly complete.
The Dahan say, "If the long shadows of sunset stretching beside you being to shift and flicker like tongues of hungry fire, do not run. That will only feed your fear, and whet the shadows' appetite."
This spirit invokes an instinctive fear in humans, perhaps because it doesn't think at all like humans do - it's more alien-minded than most. Until a few generations ago, the Dahan careful propitiated it only at a distance, steering as clear as they could. But during the Years of The Relentless Sun, it shaded large swaths of the Island, averting catastrophe; since th en, many Dahan have been willing to carefully - and cautiously - heed its words, feeling they have a debt they out to try to replay.
Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves
Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves is a predator-spirit, half-seen stalker in the jungles, hunter of prey large and small. This most emphatically includes humans - though a pair of heroes long ago won the Dahan the status of "not entirely prey", and with it an uneasy semi-reprieve from its more active predations. Still, the Dahan know better than to stick around too long when it moves into an area to stay.
Where it lairs for any length of time, the jungle becomes a hunting-grounds, and not just for its own hunts - Sharp Fangs can bring the aggressive and predatory instincts of other animals to the fore. Creatures that ordinarily might be dangerous only when provoked become actively marauding threats, or even driven into a berserker frenzy if it suits Sharp Fangs' purposes. It's not that it lives for the hunt and the fight: it is the hunt and the fight, the way that Lightning is lightning and Earth is earth.
A predator-spirit of the jungles, a stalker and hunter of animal and human alike. Wherever it lives, savage beasts emerge to hunt, and the jungle grows dark and ominous.
Sharp Fangs doesn't bother talking to the Dahan. Sometimes it will hunt them, or run them off, but for the most part it ignores them. The Dahan's legends tell of a time when Sharp Fangs hunted them more actively, until a pair of warriors - twins, sister and brother - drove it off with traps and guile, then turned the tables and hunted it down. Since then, it has seen the Dahan as not-entirely-prey, which, for it, is something akin to respect.
Thunderspeaker
Thunderspeaker is a child of Lightning's Swift Strike, metamorphosed through a binding-oath to the Dahan that saved it from imprisonment. It wears human form, now, and is sometimes called upon by the Dahan to act as a leader against larger threats which must be confronted by many clans: partly because of the powers and knowledge it can bring to bear, and partly because following Thunderspeaker's lead helps circumvent the delicate question of who should be in charge of such a large coalition. Thunderspeaker primarily acts via the Dahan, organizing them to fight in ways they have not had to fight for many generations, but is capable of direct Power use - and must decide when choosing new Powers whether to double-down on its allegiance to the Dahan, or to complement that with more direct effects.
Thunderspeaker is a spirit of sound and of power, of words on the wind and bright bursts of destruction. It is tied strongly to the Dahan by a long-standing vow, and most often appears in human form as a result, but no one would mistake it for an ordinary person: its form crackles with energy and its voice carries a storm-born strength.
It serves the Dahan mostly in times of great need - it fought fiercely alongside them during the Second Reckoning - but has also been known to turn up from time to time offering aid unasked-for, calling messages to distant families or guarding against a hitherto-unknown threat. It has occasionally agreed to serve as a commander of sorts, when multiple Dahan clans wish to make common cause but cannot agree on which of them should lead the effort.
Thunderspeaker has not been much seen since the destruction of the Servant Cults. Some speculate that fighting against Dahan - even on behalf of other Dahan - must have taken a heavy spiritual toll, given the oath that binds it.
Child of the Lightning, once known as Bright Thunder Roars in the days when it tore across the land as an avalanche of sound and chaos. It lost that form when the Stalker of Hidden Secrets imprisoned it in a canyon, binding it to echo perpetually back and forth until its thunder died out or the stones of the island wore away.
The Dahan freed it from that imprisonment. Weakened but grateful, Bright Thunder Roars bound itself to aid the Dahan untlil a generation had passed for every year of its imprisonment, and in so binding changed its nature, becoming both less and more than it had been. It often takes human form, now, and with centuries' practice wears it with ease.
Chiefs call on the Thunderpseaker only in times of great need; it has not been much seen since the destruction of the Servant Cults.
>G Forum post on Gender and Spirits: Thunderspeaker appears as female or male or neither or who-knows because it chooses to, but that choice may not have deep import. Some days you pick clothes to make a particular impression, but some days you just throw something on because it's comfortable. Given its nature, it's much more likely to be forming its guise based loosely on Dahan it once knew who had exceptional voices than as any sort of social message! :-) (Particularly since gender among the Dahan is mostly relevant in matters of family - marriage, households, having kids, kin relations, family status, etc - and Thunderspeaker isn't really hooked into that part of Dahan society.)
Vital Strength of the Earth
Vital Strength of the Earth is a spirit of the support and sustenance that growing life gains from the ground below. It finds animals (including humans) quite interesting, but they fall outside of its bailiwick. While it is not a Spirit born of sunlight, its cycle of life is ultimately nourished by the sun, and the sun's constancy and power align well with its nature.
It is old, and its strength runs deep; while most Spirits have heard tell of the Serpent Slumbering Beneath the Island, Vital Strength is one of a few which can sense its uneasy sleep. It is patient and unhurried, though it understands the need to act with more alacrity when dealing with humans. (If you take too long, they forget what you were working on together and pack up to move elsewhere, which is such a shame.) It has good ongoing relations with multiple Dahan clans, treading carefully around their attitudes towards debt and favors; it does not see the world from the same angle of reciprocity, status, and obligation that the Dahan do.
A spirit of great and unhurried power. The life that earth yields up to roots, the ground supporting the life that lives upon it. The patience of seasons and of stone.
It is not usually a direct benefactor of the Dahan - rather than giving blessings it prefers to work in concert with them, lending power to joint undertakings.
Currently it is trying to rouse itself to fight against the Invaders, but this swift and direct action runs somewhat counter to its nature.
Brandenburg-Prussia
In the alternate history of Spirit Island, Brandenburg-Prussia became a much more significant power than it was in our own world, maintaining some crucial alliances which greatly increased its size, population, and (significantly) port access.
From the Rulebook
Fredric William inherited the Duchy of Prussia and Electorate of Brandenburg upon the death of his father George William in December 1640. Eschewing the ineffective and vacillatory foreign policy of his father, Fredrick William abandoned the Polish Vasa dynasty and allied with King Gustavus Adophus of Sweden against Catholic Poland. The triple alliance of Sweden, Russia, and Brandenburg-Prussia resulted in the resounding defeat of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1644, and its subsequent partition more than doubled the size of Prussian lands.
As a result of this victory Fredrick William, the Great Elector of Brandenburg, declared himself Frederick I, King in Prussia, and set about the process of building infrastructure and extending Prussian control throughout his newly acquired territory. Upon his death in 1701, his sun Frederick II inherited a thoroughly Prussian kingdom and one of the premier European armies.
Frederick II sought to further expand Prussian territory without upsetting the continental balance of power between Sweden Russia, France and the Habsburgs. Building up the Prussian navy, the new king strove to catch up to other European colonial powers and quickly integrate new colonies into the Prussian economy.
The alternate-history of the British Isles has taken a different course from our own: Scotland remains independent, for one thing, and while England is certainly powerful, neither it nor the other Great Powers of our own history are quite so dominant in this one.
Queen Elizabeth I of England married Robert Dudley, son of the Duke of Northerumberland, in 1562. The marriage was initially a scandal due to the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Dudley's first wife, and inspired a revolt in several noble houses. However, the co-monarchs Robert I and Elizabeth I grew in popularity after the suppression of the revolt in 1564 and the birth of their son Edward in 1566. With the defeat of an attempted invasion from Spain and Scotland in 1587, the Kingdom of England became one of the premier naval powers in the North Atlantic. After the death of Robert in 1588, and Elizabeth in 1603, their son Edward VII became King of England
England was only briefly involved in the religious wars on the continent in the 17th centurly. Following a disastrous invasion attempt in France in 1633, and a clash with Scotland in 1651, the Kingdom of England focused on fortifying the Scottish frontier and building up its naval power.
Unable to project power on the continent and constrained to southern Britain, the Kingdom of England was one of the first to seek colonies in the New World, using its oversas possessioins to provide citizens with opportunities that were increasingly hard to come by at home.
The French Plantation Colony is really a twofold Adversary: some of its effects are derived from historical France, while others are based off of the Caribbean plantation colonies founded by multiple European powers. Note that this is 1700s France - the policies and practices of later French colonization (such as homeland representation and strong public-health/infrastructure investment) are absent.
From the Rule Book
King Louis XIV, the longest ruling monard in Europe, rules France with an iron fist but requires a constant stream of revenue to finance his wars on the continent. Recently involved in a war against Sweden and the Holy Roman Empire to place his grandson Philip on the Spanish throne, Louis relies on the strength of the French Army to hold together a tenuous alliance with Span and Scotland against the Swedish, Habsburg, and Prussian Kingdoms.
Prevented from raising money from the aristocracy, and with a peasant population already suffering under some of the highest tax rates in Europe, he has begun setting up plantation colonies and extracting the resources of distant lands for the benefit of the Kingdom of France.
Ruler: King Erik XV
Following his triumph at the Battle of Lützen in 1632, King Gustavus Adolphus led the Kingdom of Sweden to further victories over Catholic armies, defeating and partitioning the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth with Brandenburg and Russia in 1644. Following his death in 1651, Gustavus Adolphus was succeeded by his son, King Gustav III, who went on to defeat Kingdom of Denmark in a series of campaigns between 1657 and 1668 and secure total Swedish dominion over the Baltic Sea.
Gustav III was succeeded by his son Erik in 1683, who became the eight Vasa ruler of Sweden. Under his rule, constrained from further growth on the continent by Russia to their East and the Holy Roman Empire and Prussia to their south, Sweden begun leveraging their powerful navy to set up colonies throughout the world.
The absorption of former Polish lands in the eastern Baltic has given Sweden a significant influx of Slavs and other non-Scandanavian people. While a tremendous boon to their economic and military power, this demographic shift has also been a source of internal turmoil as the Kingdom of Sweden attempts the historically difficult task of integrating a multi-ethnic society. Along with a desire for more natural resources, Sweden's desire for a "safety valve" outlet for discontents and political agitators has driven their desire to establish themselves as a colonial power.
The Dahan are the first human inhabitants of Spirit Island, who have resided there long enough to develop their own language and culture. They immigrated many centuries ago, in a time when Ocean's Hungry Gasp prowled nearby waters less frequently, and travel between islands was easier. Their lore spoke of Spirits, and they expected their new home would have some, but were greatly surprised by the Spirits' numbers, vitality, and intensity of manifestation. Some mistook the greater Spirits for gods.
The Dahan's agriculture and animals brought Blight to the land and conflict with the Spirits, triggering the First Reckoning. The Dahan capitulated quickly, and an accord was reached: the Spirits would transform crops and animals to be more compatible with the ecosystem. The Dahan would change their methods of farming and seek counsel from friendlier Spirits. The two became neighbors, though unequal: the Dahan were reliant on and obligated to the Spirits.
Many generations later came the Second Reckoning, when the Dahan discovered their advisors and protectors had not been entirely candid with them, and the power balance between Dahan and Spirits evened out - but that is another story. Suffice it to say that the Dahan no longer view the Spirits as gods.
At the game’s start, the Dahan are just recovering from the foreign diseases which swept across the Island in the wake of the first major Invader settlements. They will work with the Spirits if requested, and fight back against the Invaders if attacked, but otherwise tend to their own affairs.
BGG review: ...the Dahan don't have graveyards. Rather, they set up a spiral-carved post of wood as a mourning-place, far away from where anyone - most especially the deceased - has recently died or been buried. This distance is to help protect the essence / soul of the dead, by drawing away the attention of any malefic Spirits that would destroy or consume them before they depart.
The Spirits are pretty clear about what usually happens to humans directly after death - a non-physical portion of them lingers, for a varying amount of time - but vague about what follows afterwards, expressing variations on "they become absent". Most Dahan interpret this as "leaving for somewhere else". Stories speak of heroes seeking to discover whether the souls of the dead travel Pathmaker's ways. None of them got a straight answer - or at least, none of those who returned.
>G Forum post on Gender and Spirits: "Somewhat matriarchal" is a pretty good descriptor for the Dahan. Their families / households are formed around (and headed by) women. Formal clan/village leadership is not gender-associated, though the chief is a semi-proxy for their family, so it's a little muddy there. War-leader(*) is also not gender-associated, but is often drawn from those-who-travel, who statistically lean slightly male due to some women not wanting to take on far-ranging roles during late pregnancy / early motherhood and heads-of-household (who are always women) nearly always being among those-who-stay. Other roles of leadership and/or prestige that I can think of offhand aren't gender-associated and don't skew either direction across the Dahan as a whole. Gender among the Dahan is mostly relevant in matters of family - marriage, households, having kids, kin relations, family status, etc.
(*) = The normal Dahan version of "war" is a far cry from the modern usage, and what Thunderspeaker leads the Dahan in is not considered "war"; "raiding" would likely be the closest translation. This is why "Call to Bloodshed" isn't named "Call to War"... and "The Trees and Stones Speak of War" is the Spirits/land advising the Dahan not just on tactically useful information, but on the different way in which the Invaders are approaching this conflict.
Spirit Interactions
BGG thread: How the Dahan interact with sacred sites depends very much on the Spirit and on the Dahan who come across it. Here are some examples, off the top of my head, if a small traveling group of Dahan were to happen upon a previously-unknown but obvious sacred site (with clear indication of what Spirit it was):
River Surges in Sunlight: Discuss maybe moving into the area next time they migrate their village. Tend the river's banks for a day or two, greeting the spirit (with dance, perhaps?) if they see it.
Sharp Fangs Behind the Leaves: Detour around / leave the area if reasonably possible. Keep a wary eye out with weapons at the ready, regardless.
Keeper of the Forbidden Wilds: Immediate purposeful flight at top speed.
Vital Strength of the Earth: Chisel marks into nearby stone, both as a marking-of-place and as a friendly greeting/offering[1]. Don't bother hanging around - it might be months before it notices the stone marks - but trust that that space will probably be a safer one in the coming years.
Ocean's Hungry Grasp: If there's a spirit-speaker with the group, make some appropriate propitiatory offerings to the ocean then move carefully on. If not, stay away from the shore and camp well away from water.
[1] = It's both of these things, similar to, eg, housewarming gifts. "Offering" does not mean "a gift to a worshipped being", but something more like "something freely given that might not be accepted, and is outside of gift convention". (Gifts between Dahan usually have social implications - the giver's family gains status - that offerings to Spirits do not, at least not in the same way.)
These were mentioned in the Rulebook, but only in passing and have not yet been elaborated on (Thanks Chaosmancer!)
Stalker of Hidden Secrets (imprisoned Bright Thunder Roars, leading to Thunderspeaker)
Volcano Looming High (Probably also “The Volcano” mentioned as one of the parents of Heart of the Wildfire and as a creator of the Island, similar to the Serpent)
The Green (Possibly Spread of Rampant Green, partially gave birth to Heart of the Wildfire)
The Pathmaker (has a Realm, was also mentioned in regards to the spirits of Dead Dahan if memory serves)
Voice of the Deepest Gorge (no longer around?)
Watcher Acts Not
And implied but not named there is the Storm Spirit which birthed Lightning’s Swift Strike
Next some events, named or not
The Years of the Relentless Sun which Shadows Flicker Like Flame helped “combat”
The Ice Curse which feeds River Surges in Sunlight
First Reckoning
Second Reckoning (This is implied to be super important, but no details are given)
Other Names of Potential Interest
Servant Cults (these seem like they could be important, perhaps related to the Second Reckoning)
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← “Stadium Shenanigans”
“The Roddick of Old”
Posted on August 22, 2010 by kramerj7 | 4 Comments
Many had hoped to see a Roddick vs Federal Finals matchup in Cincinnati today. Instead, fans got a Mardy Fish vs Roger Federer 3 set battle.
Yesterday, at the Cincinnati ATP Tennis Master Series event, fans were thrilled to see an All American Semifinals matchup between childhood buddies Andy Roddick and Mardy Fish. This was a big time match that featured three sets of solid tennis, high tension and emotions, and two rain delays. The man who sports the last name of “Fish” swam his way into a finals date with Roger Federer that occurred earlier this afternoon. Federer came out victorious in an exciting three set rumble, but Mardy had a great tournament and looks very solid heading into the US Open.
Yesterday’s match was quite disappointing on many fronts though for not only Andy Roddick, but for American tennis in general. Sure many were shocked to see the struggling American men’s game put two players into the Semifinals. But the “it” guy in American men’s tennis for the past 8 years has been none other than Andy Roddick. Roddick fell out of the top ten a couple of weeks ago and could have really used a finals appearance or possibly even a title in Cincinnati heading into the final Grand Slam of the year.
Roddick, as I have said many times before, has thoroughly impressed me for years now. He has truly worked his tail off to develop a backhand and a more patient game. He used to just blast big first serves and rely on his very strong forehand. For years now, he has demonstrated an all around game. And though he hit number 1 in the summer of 2003, his game was not nearly at the level in which it is at now. Many of you are probably asking how that could be possible. I mean he was ranked number 1 then and is not even in the top 10 now. Well it comes from watching the guy play.
ARod still demonstrates a very strong forehand and first serve. But he has really cut down on his unforced errors and now has a somewhat effective backhand. Plus he has developed a reliable net game and his fitness level is light-years better than it ever was. Lastly, he typically has demonstrates a cool, workmanlike demeanor on the court. Andy’s amazing work ethic shows in his abilities to play all around tennis these days.
All of this went out the door though against his good buddy Mardy Fish. The match was all knotted up late in the first before a rain delay. Roddick took advantage of the delay though and immediately closed out the first set in the first game following the delay. Then in the 2nd, he seemed to be cruising until a second rain delay hit. This time, Fish took advantage coming back from a 5 to 2 deficit, and captured the 2nd set in a tiebreaker. Fish cruised to finishing things off in the 3rd.
The end of the 2nd and the entire 3rd set reminded me of the “old” Roddick days. Andy appeared out of shape and looked to close out points as quickly as possible. His patience went out the window and it showed with the amount of unnecessary unforced errors he committed. Plus his backhand was lapsing. Lastly, his temper came out. Roddick has generally been good at keeping his emotions in check for years now. Yesterday was a major exception though.
In the end, the Roddick of “old” came out and cost him a finals showdown with his old rival Roger Federer. Roger captured a much-needed title today though and looks very sharp heading into the US Open.
Roddick still had a great week and knocked off 2 top five players in Djokovic and Soderling. But his recent bout with mononucleosis seemed to hurt his stamina yesterday. Lets hope that this does not hurt him in Flushing as he is probably the only American hope to bring home the title.
Which Roddick will show up in Flushing Meadows? The new and improved Andy, or the “old” Andy?
This entry was posted in Tennis and tagged Andy Roddick, Cincinnati, Flushing Meadows, Mardy Fish, Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Roger Federer, US Open, Western & Southern Financial Group Masters. Bookmark the permalink.
4 responses to ““The Roddick of Old””
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Miri Mawr
Ceridwen
Sain
Areas & Activities
Cycling from Graig Wen
Caban Culture
You're in bike-riding heaven here in Snowdonia. The Slate Shed B & B welcomes you whether you're mountain biking at Coed-y-Brenin, pedaling along the flat Mawddach Trail, or exploring the hills on quiet lanes.
We can provide bike storage and washing facilities and give you tips on our favourite routes and local mountain bike hire.
Graig Wen is a great place to bring your bike and cycle the Mawddach Trail – a disused railway line which is one of the most scenic, traffic free cycle rides in the country linking Dolgellau and Barmouth. Graig Wen is about 4 miles from Barmouth and 5.5 from Dolgellau. You can access the Mawddach Trail down a 500 – 600 metre track through our fields which is steep in places. Most (but not all!) cyclists tend to push their bikes back up! You can get to the George the III at Penmaenpool, the pubs, cafe and restaurants of Dolgellau or the sites and sounds of Barmouth.
Bike hire is available from Dolgellau Cycles at the start of the Mawddach Trail, Mawddach Trail Bikes, Birmingham Garage in Barmouth and Coed y Brenin mountain bike centre.
As well as the Mawddach Trail running past our gate, there are other excellent purpose made family friendly cycling routes in wider Snowdonia – see details here.
For some biking routes and distances click here.
Get your pedals turning...Head out on the Mawddach trail...Looking for adventure...In whatever comes my way....
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" a stay at The Slate Shed near Dolgellau lets you enjoy the stunning landscape when the sun comes out – or when the weather is less kind, snuggled up indoors. Built in 1868, this "shed" was where men would split the locally quarried rock into slate roof tiles. Today, character is retained with big beams running beneath slanted eaves and plenty of slate everywhere, from the flooring to the place mats breakfast is served on. The interiors have been given a comfy, modern make-over, but the best feature is timeless: the view over the Mawddach Estuary, where the mountains meet the sea."
“The B & B is housed in a former slate-cutting mill dating from 1868. In the two years since Sarah and John came from Brighton to renovate it, it’s become a light and airy sanctuary, entirely natural and at one with the surroundings, all slabs of slate and chunks of blonde wood. The first “B” is spacious, tasteful and comfortable, while the second is made completely from locally sourced ingredients. You can count the food miles on one hand
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← Just Between Us by Hayley Oakes BLOG TOUR
The Prologue (The Things We Can’t Change #1) by Kassandra Kush →
by casperfitz | May 30, 2014 · 9:11 pm
City of Heavenly Fire (The Mortal Instruments #6) by Cassandra Clare
ΕRCHOMAI, SEBASTIAN HAD SAID.
I am coming.
Darkness returns to the Shadowhunter world. As their society falls apart around them, Clary, Jace, Simon and their friends must band together to fight the greatest evil the Nephilim have ever faced: Clary’s own brother. Nothing in the world can defeat him — must they journey to another world to find the chance?
PURCHASE LINKS :
AUTHOR’S LINKS :
Goodreads / Facebook / Website / Twitter
10 IMPRESSIVE STARS!
This is one of those series that I kept checking and hoping for the release day… And when that day came, it’s like it’s Christmas!!! And this, is so worth every wait!!!
I was also so excited when they made this into a movie! Though I have to be honest… I feel like the movie they did not quite do justice with the book, like it’s missing that certain something, but.. I still enjoyed it, just that I love the book more… 😉 I am still hoping that the 2nd movie release would be way way better. 😀
BUT, at this moment, I am on emotional high!!! Call it book hangover… I just can’t believe this is the end… but….. am I sensing a spinoff?!!! Maybe we won’t have to say goodbye to our favourite characters yet! Maybe…
The story continues with Sebastian creating an even bigger havoc amongst the shadowhunters world…. Where Clary, Jace, Simon, Isabelle, and Alec have to outsmart and defeat Sebastian.
The angst…
“I always thought being a Shadowhunter meant that I had to approve of what the Clave did,” he said. “I thought otherwise I wasn’t loyal. I made excuses for them. I always have. But I feel like whenever we have to fight, we’re fighting a war on two fronts. We fight the enemy and we fight the Clave, too. I don’t—I just don’t know how I feel anymore.” – Alec
The humour…
“So have we DTRed now?”
Isabelle shrugged. “I have no idea what that means.”
Simon hid the fact that he was inordinately pleased by this. “Are we officially boyfriend and girlfriend? Is there a Shadowhunter ritual? Should I change my Facebook status from ‘it’s complicated’ to ‘in a relationship’?”
Isabelle screwed up her nose adorably. “You have a book that’s also a face?”
“I loved you recklessly from the moment I knew you. I never cared about the consequences. I told myself I did, I told myself you wanted me to, and so I tried, but I never did. I wanted you more than I wanted to be good. I wanted you more than I wanted anything, ever.” – Jace
The suspense… the action…. everything was written to perfection! With every character and with every scene that was both fascinating and captivating!!! It’s everything I could ask for and more!
In the end, I was running with so much emotions…. but then comes another surprise….
A lot of sigh worthy moments… Alas, I didn’t want it to end.
I am gonna miss our most brave couples… Jace and Clary, Simon and Isabelle… and Magnus and Alec…. I really loved their group dynamic. Their bond of friendship is above and beyond…
I’m even gonna miss the very cunning and evil Sebastian, a most hateful antagonist that I couldn’t even fully hate!
Impressive! Amazing world building, awesome character growths, and a most fantastic and surprising twists, storyline and ending!
Written in multi POV.
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Home Basketball News Lakers’ LeBron James hosts personal dunk contest in dominant performance against Bulls
Lakers’ LeBron James hosts personal dunk contest in dominant performance against Bulls
The Los Angeles Lakers‘ season has fallen apart in recent weeks, but you wouldn’t have known it watching LeBron James lead them to a dominant victory over the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night.
“The King” had yet another strong game, finishing with 36 points, 10 rebounds and four assists; it was his highest-scoring game since mid-December, when he put up 36 points on the Nets. But what everyone will be talking about from this game was four points in particular, which came via two electric dunks.
His first highlight-reel slam came early in the third quarter, in the form of a very rare full court, bounce-pass alley-oop. After a Bulls turnover, LeBron immediately sprinted out ahead of the defense, and no Bulls followed him. Kyle Kuzma picked up the loose ball and tossed ant outlet pass that bounces once, right into LeBron’s path. He obliged by scooping up the ball and throwing down a reverse slam.
This dunk was so sweet it’s even worth taking a look at the still image from the low-angle on the baseline. It’s pretty cool.
LeBron capped his show with another rare slam: an off-the-backboard alley-oop. With just a few minutes left in the fourth quarter, and the Lakers running away with the game, LeBron picked off a pass and immediately tossed the ball up ahead to Josh Hart. With a 3-on-0 fastbreak developing, Hart had plenty of time to make a decision, and he picked the most exciting one. The youngster tossed the ball up off the backboard, and LeBron zoomed in to finish the alley-oop with another reverse.
This may have been a bit of a wasted season for LeBron, but his performance on Tuesday night was a good reminder that even as he approaches the twilight of his career, he’s still one of the most exciting players around.
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Coach Karen Boen
NE10 Cross Country
NCAA Cross Country
USTFCCCA Division II Polls
Donate to Cross Country Program
NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: Women's Cross Country Finishes 14th Overall
Junior Nicole Borofski became the sixth All-American in program history after her 39th place finish Saturday.
Borofski registers sixth All-American performance in program history
EASTON, Mass. (November 21, 2015) – Stonehill College, ranked 16th in the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches' Association (USTFCCCA) Division II rankings, posted a 14th place team finish at the 2015 NCAA Division II women's cross country championships in Joplin, Misouri, hosted by Missouri Southern State University this afternoon.
Stonehill finished first among East Region teams at the Championship with 369 points. Adams State University ran away with the team championship with 83 points as it placed three in the top 15 spots, led by freshman Noel Prandoni, who completed the six-kilometer course in tenth place with a time of 20-minutes, 21.5-seconds. Grand Valley State University finished second in the team standings with 97 points, while Hillsdale College rounded out the top three (140).
Junior Nicole Borofski (Plymouth, Massachusetts/Plymouth North) led Stonehill and was the top East Region finisher by completing the course in 21:26.0 for 39th place overall out of 247 individual competitors. With her 39th place performance, Borofski becomes the sixth All-American in program history, joining Meghann Shanahan, '04, Diana Chivakos, '05, Kelly Chaisson, '07, Erin Carmone, '13, and Chelsea Bishop, '14.
Classmate Alexandra Grimaldo (Marlborough, Massachusetts/Marlborough) placed 95th overall in 22:11.6, while freshman Elizabeth Hannon (Franklin, Massachusetts/Bishop Feehan) finished 96th in 22:12.2.
Sophomore Emily Knox (Worcester, Massachusetts/Notre Dame Academy) finished 108th with a time of 22:15.0 for Stonehill and then junior Alexandra Buonfiglio (Lynnfield, Massachusetts/Lynnfield) rounded out the Skyhawks five scoring runners in 117th with a time of 22:21.9.
The Skyhawks earned their 16th-straight appearance to the NCAA Division II National Championships after winning its sixth NCAA East Regional title in the past seven on Sunday, November 8th. Stonehill also captured its seventh-straight Northeast-10 (NE-10) title on Sunday, October 25th. The top-five runners for the Skyhawks earned All-East Region accolades and All-Conference honors this season.
For the latest on Stonehill Athletics, follow the Skyhawks via social media on Twitter and Facebook.
June 10, 2016 Stonehill Women Finish 11th in USTFCCCA Program of the Year Standings
May 26, 2016 Stonehill Trio Earns CoSIDA Academic All-District™ Honors for Women’s Cross Country/Track & Field
March 4, 2016 Women’s Cross Country Earns USTFCCCA All-Academic Team Award
February 17, 2016 McAdams Earns NE-10 Scholar-Athlete Sport Excellence & Academic All-Conference Honors
November 21, 2015 NCAA CHAMPIONSHIPS: Women's Cross Country Finishes 14th Overall
November 19, 2015 #16 Women's Cross Country Set to Compete at NCAA Division II National Championships
November 11, 2015 Boen Named USTFCCCA Division II East Region Women’s Coach Of The Year
November 11, 2015 Borofski Named USTFCCCA Division II East Region Women’s Athlete of the Year
November 8, 2015 #16 Women's Cross Country Claims 13th East Region Title
November 6, 2015 #16 Women’s Cross Country NCAA Division II East Regionals Preview
October 27, 2015 Boen Named NE-10 Women’s Cross Country Coach of the Year
October 27, 2015 Borofski, Cyr Collect NE-10 Honors
October 25, 2015 #16 Women's Cross Country Runs to Seventh Straight NE-10 Championship
October 23, 2015 #16 Women's Cross Country Seeks Seventh-Straight NE-10 Championship
October 16, 2015 #16 Women's Cross Country Places Fourth At Bruce Kirsh Cross Country Cup
October 13, 2015 Skyhawk Women Sweep NE-10 Cross Country Weekly Awards
October 10, 2015 Borofski Leads #16 Women's Cross Country to Fourth Place at New England Championships
September 28, 2015 Cyr Earns Second NE-10 Rookie of the Week Award
September 26, 2015 #16 Women's Cross Country Captures Ted Owen Invitational
September 23, 2015 Borofski Named NE-10 Athlete of the Week
September 19, 2015 #17 Women's Cross Country Wins Kutztown DII/DIII Challenge for Second Straight Year
September 9, 2015 Cyr Earns NE-10 Cross Country Athlete & Rookie of the Week Honors
September 5, 2015 No. 18 Women's Cross Country Posts Runner-Up Finish At Shacklette Invitational
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Tag Archives: Eric Boardman
Show 124, May 30, 2015: Show Preview with Executive Producer & Co-Host Andy Harris
Posted on June 1, 2015 by abell
Congrats to our Emeritus Host, Chef Jet Tila. He battled his way into the entrée round of The Finals of Food Network’s high octane “Chopped All-Stars Tournament.” He bested 9 other seasoned celebrity chefs along the way. Food Network’s Anne Burrell won the $75,000 grand prize for her charity. Chef Jet was competing for K9s for Warriors. They were so appreciative of the national exposure (and contributions) Chef Jet generated for this worthy effort that a future assistance/service dog matched with a returning Vet (with either physical or mental challenges) will be named “Jet Tila.”
Now a provocative preview of Saturday’s delightfully over-stuffed show. We’re not counting calories…
Earlier in the month the Los Angeles branch of the national Careers Through Culinary Arts Program presented over $600,000 in scholarships and cash awards to 28 deserving high school seniors at the annual awards ceremony hosted by the Montage Beverly Hills. These students will now advance their education in the culinary arts. Food TV producer and media personality Eric Boardman (a long-time Advisory Board Member of C-CAP Los Angeles) joins us with the details.
Bricia Lopez, the engaging co-owner of Guelaguetza in Koreatown is back with us. On May 4th she was in Chicago at The James Beard Foundation Awards to receive the America’s Classics Award. This is an especially noteworthy honor as the Award for Guelaguetza was the only Beard Award received by a Southern California chef or restaurant this year. We’ll hear about her once-in-a-lifetime adventures in Chicago with her Family and the true luminaries of the food world. Perhaps a bit of Champagne was enjoyed along the way…
On June 6th microbreweries, craft beer makers and brew pubs from throughout Southern California and beyond will descend on Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula for the 7th Annual Pechanga Microbrew Festival and Chili Cookoff from 1 to 5:00 p.m. in the Pechanga Grand Ballroom. In addition to the craft beer samples the talented Pechanga chefs are preparing eight varieties of their crowd-pleasing, house-made chili for all the guests to enjoy. The chefs are all competing for the coveted fan favorite award. Bragging rites are at stake! Damian Stanley, the Executive Sous Chef at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, is our guest providing all the details.
Anita Lau is the well-known and closely followed Diary of a Mad Hungry Woman blogger. She principally shares her Orange County and San Diego finds with her followers but there is an occasional Los Angeles find, too. Her prose comes to life with her accompanying food photos. We’ll catch-up with Anita with both a profile of a worthy San Diego (Catania in La Jolla) and Orange County restaurant (Leatherby’s Cafe Rouge.)
The always eloquent Philip Dobard is a Board member of The Museum of the American Cocktail which is part of the SoFAB Institute in New Orleans. Dobard is also the Vice President of SoFAB Institute. He is based in Los Angeles and produces their local programming in addition to a lot more duties. This time we’re talking about MOTAC’s Tuesday Tastings at The Three Clubs in Hollywood and MOTAC’s first permanent Los Angeles exhibit, curated by Joe Keeper, at Seven Grand Whiskey Bar.
Anne Marie Panoringan is one of the highly readable food writers for OC Weekly. She has earned the respect of her peers. Her signature pieces are nuanced chef interviews and coverage of the emerging Long Beach restaurant scene. She is always out there doing her research…Anne Marie just returned from Portland, a new foodie paradise. She will share some of her dining adventures there including eating (multiple times) at the most famous food cart in Portland! Of course there is a story…
Don’t miss Guest Host Chef Andrew Gruel’s new restaurant makeover series, “Say It To My Face” on FYI. An original episode is aired every Thursday evening with an encore episode thereafter. Check your local listings. On-line food reviewers confront restaurateurs with the shortcomings of their establishments. It’s then up to Chef Andrew and his colleague, Chef Anthony Dispensa, to coach the chef and restaurateur to achieve a much higher level of guest satisfaction when the on-line reviews return for another look! Sometimes it’s tough-love…
All of this and lots more absolutely incredible deliciousness on Saturday’s show!
Posted in Podcasts, SoCal Restaurant Show | Tagged Andrew Gruel, Anita Lau, Anne Marie Panoringan, Bricia Lopez, C-CAP, Damian Stanley, Eric Boardman, Guelaguetza, Jet Tila, Mad Hungry Woman, OC Weekly, Pechanga Microbrew Festival, Pechanga Resort and Casino, Philip Dobard
Show 124, May 30, 2015: C-CAP Los Angeles’ Eric Boardman – Scholarship Awards Breakfast
Earlier in the month the Los Angeles branch of the national Careers Through Culinary Arts Program presented over $600,000 in scholarships and cash awards to 28 deserving high school seniors at the annual awards ceremony hosted by the Montage Beverly Hills. These students will now further advance their education in the culinary arts.
C-CAP is a national non-profit that prepares at-risk high school students for college and careers in the restaurant and hospitality industry. Founded in 1990 by noted culinary educator and cookbook author Richard Grausman, C-CAP provides job training and internships, scholarships, teacher training, cooking competitions, college and career advising, lifetime career support and product and equipment donations to schools.
C-CAP manages the largest independent scholarship program in the United States. Since its inception C-CAP has awarded over $43 million in scholarships and classrooms have received $3.2 million worth of supplies and equipment.
Food TV producer and media personality Eric Boardman (a long-time Advisory Board Member of C-CAP Los Angeles) joins us with the inspiring details.
Posted in Podcasts, SoCal Restaurant Show | Tagged C-CAP, Careers through Culinary Arts, Culinary Arts, Eric Boardman, high school senior, Montage Beverly Hills, podcast, Richard Grausman, scholarship
Show 124, May 30, 2015: C-CAP Los Angeles’ Eric Boardman & Bricia Lopez of Guelaguetza
Eric Boardman continues his coverage of C-CAP’s 2015 Scholarship Awards for L.A. County.
“Hard work, good grades, and a lot of broken eggs paid off for Hannah Chang of Hoover High School and Jose Gordillo of Manual Arts High School, who both received full-tuition scholarships in Culinary Arts. Jose will attend the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) in Hyde Park, NY and Hannah Chang will study at Johnson & Wales University in Providence, RI come fall. Isabel Castro of Carson High School received the Art Institute National Scholarship.
Bricia Lopez, the engaging co-owner (with her brother and sister) of Guelaguetza in Koreatown is back with us. On May 4th she was in Chicago at The James Beard Foundation Awards at the Lyric Opera to receive the America’s Classics Award. This is an especially noteworthy honor as the Award for Guelaguetza was the only Beard Award received by a Southern California chef or restaurant this year.
The America’s Classic Award is an honor given to regional establishments, often family-owned, that are treasured for their quality food, local character, and lasting appeal.
Guelaguetza, founded by Fernando Lopez in 1994, is the center of Oaxacan life in Los Angeles, and the setting for countless quinceaneras, weddings, and anniversaries. A sprawling restaurant located in Koreatown, it features live music on a bandstand every night. Open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, the restaurant attracts both homesick Oaxacans and foodies in search of honest Oaxacan foods.
We’ll hear about her once-in-a-lifetime adventures in Chicago with her Family (including dinner at Paul Kahan’s The Publican) and alongside the true luminaries of the food world. Perhaps a bit of Champagne enjoyed along the way…
Posted in Podcasts, SoCal Restaurant Show | Tagged America’s Classics, Art Institute, Bricia Lopez, C-CAP, Carson High School, Chicago, Culinary Institute of America, Eric Boardman, Fernando Lopez, Guelaguetza, Hoover High School, James Beard Foundation Awards, Johnson and Wales University, Korean American, Manual Arts High School, oaxacan, Paul Kahan, podcast, The Publican
May 30: Bricia Lopez, C-CAP, Pechanga Microbrew Festival, Mad Hungry Woman, Philip Dobard, Anne Marie Panoringan
Posted on May 28, 2015 by abell
Segment One: Show Preview with Executive Producer & Co-Host Andy Harris
Segment Two: C-CAP Los Angeles’ Eric Boardman – Scholarship Awards Breakfast
Segment Three: C-CAP Los Angeles’ Eric Boardman & Bricia Lopez of Guelaguetza
Segment Four: Pechanga Resort & Casino’s Executive Sous Chef, Damian Stanley
Segment Five: “Diary of a Mad Hungry Woman” Blogger – Anita Lau
Segment Six: Museum of the American Cocktail’s Philip Dobard
Segment Seven: Anne Marie Panoringan, OC Weekly Part One
Segment Eight: Anne Marie Panoringan, OC Weekly Part Two
Congrats to our Emeritus Host, Chef Jet Tila. He battled his way into the entrée round of The Finals of Food Network’s high octane “Chopped All-Stars Tournament.” He bested 9 other seasoned celebrity chefs along the way. Food Network’s Anne Burrell won the $75,000 grand prize for her charity. Chef Jet was competing for K9s for Warriors. They were so appreciative of the national exposure (and contributions) Chef Jet generated for this worthy effort that a future assistance/service dog matched with a returning Vet will be named “Jet Tila.”
Earlier in the month the Los Angeles branch of the national Careers Through Culinary Arts Program presented over $600,000 in scholarships and cash awards to 28 deserving high school seniors at the annual awards ceremony hosted by the Montage Beverly Hills. These students will now advance their education in the culinary arts. Food TV producer and personality Eric Boardman (a long-time Advisory Board Member of C-CAP Los Angeles) joins us with the details.
On June 6th microbreweries, craft beer makers and brew pubs from throughout Southern California and beyond will descend on Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula for the 7th Annual Pechanga Microbrew Festival and Chili Cookoff from 1 to 5:00 p.m. in the Pechanga Grand Ballroom. In addition to the craft beer samples the talented Pechanga chefs are preparing eight varieties of their crowd-pleasing, house-made chili for all the guests to enjoy. The chefs are all competing for the coveted fan favorite award. Damian Stanley, the Executive Sous Chef at the Pechanga Resort & Casino, is our guest providing all the details.
Anita Lau is the well-known and closely followed Diary of a Mad Hungry Woman blogger. She principally shares her Orange County and San Diego finds with her followers but there is an occasional Los Angeles find, too. Her prose comes to life with her accompanying food photos. We’ll catch-up with Anita with both a profile of a worthy San Diego and Orange County restaurant.
We’ll hear about her once-in-a-lifetime adventures in Chicago with her Family and alongside the true luminaries of the food world. Perhaps a bit of Champagne enjoyed along the way…
On June 6th microbreweries, craft beer makers and brew pubs from throughout Southern California and beyond will descend on Pechanga Resort & Casino in Temecula for the 7th Annual Pechanga Microbrew Festival and Chili Cookoff from 1 to 5:00 p.m. in the Pechanga Grand Ballroom.
Microbrew Festival tickets are $50.00. Guests receive a two ounce souvenir glass to sample unlimited beer tastings. Designated driver tickets are available for $30.00. Both ticket levels let attendees taste all chili and other gourmet food samples, take in live music by two bands including iconic bassist Lee Rocker of The Stray Cats, and an extensive silent auction. Guests must be 21 or older to attend. For tickets or more information, visit www.Pechanga.com or call 877.711.2946.
In addition to the craft beer samples the talented Pechanga chefs are preparing eight varieties of their crowd-pleasing, house-made chili for all the guests to enjoy. The chefs are all competing for the coveted fan favorite award.
Damian Stanley the Executive Sous Chef at the Pechanga Resort & Casino is our guest providing all the tasty and thirst-satisfying details. He’ll also talk about his own signature recipe for Black Bean Chili con Carne, Poblano Rajas with crispy pork and Shishito peppers.
Anita Lau is the well-known and closely followed Diary of a Mad Hungry Woman blogger. She principally shares her Orange County and San Diego finds with her followers but there is an occasional Los Angeles find along the way, too. Her prose comes to life with her accompanying food photos. We’ll catch-up with Anita with both a profile of a San Diego and Orange County restaurant.
“This blog is a journal of mostly my eating adventures, but also, other things I’m passionate about, including travel, the arts, and also, necessities to complete my life. Centered predominantly in and around Orange County, CA, some will extend to Los Angeles, San Diego and beyond. I am constantly searching for delicious food to eat and fun things to do, nothing is out of bounds. Sometimes it doesn’t end well, but I can definitely say, it will always be an interesting journey.”
The always eloquent Philip Dobard is a Board member of The Museum of the American Cocktail which is part of the SoFAB Institute based in New Orleans. Dobard is also the Vice President of SoFAB Institute. He is based in Los Angeles and produces their local programming.
This time we’re talking about MOTAC’s Tuesday Tastings (complimentary) at The Three Clubs in Hollywood and MOTAC’s first permanent Los Angeles exhibit, curated by Joe Keeper, at Seven Grand Whiskey Bar.
The MOTAC Whisk(e)y Gallery will debut on June 22nd. The gallery will feature rare and funky whiskey artifacts, a range of “lost spirits” and “noble experiments,” a selection of rare books and menus, and a few surprises.
Anne Marie Panoringan is one of the highly readable food writers for OC Weekly. She has earned the respect of her peers. Her signature pieces are nuanced chef interviews and coverage of the emerging Long Beach restaurant scene. She is always out there doing her research…
Her newest “On the Line” chef interview feature is of Manfred Lassahn of Watertable in Huntington Beach.
Anne Marie just returned from Portland, a new foodie paradise. She will share some of her dining adventures there including eating (multiple times) at the most famous food cart in Portland! That would be Nong Khao Man Gai which has expanded to two food carts and one bricks -and-mortar location. Of course there is a story…
She also visited Imperial where Bravo’s “Top Chef” alum Doug Adams (Season 12) is the Chef de Cuisine. How about his Smoked Steelhead Trout Hash as a Special?
On the national doughnut scene Portland’s Blue Star Donuts is a revered cult favorite. We’ll hear about “Doughnuts for grown-ups.”
PSU Farmers Market and the upscale bars at both The Ace Hotel and The Heathman Restaurant and Bar are also on the menu.
It’s definitely time for a food holiday escape in Portland.
Posted in Blog, Show Notes | Tagged Anita Lau, Anne Marie Panoringan, Bricia Lopez, C-CAP, Damian Stanley, Eric Boardman, Guelaguetza, Jet Tila, Mad Hungry Woman, OC Weekly, Pechanga Microbrew Festival, Pechanga Resort and Casino, Philip Dobard
Show 93, October 18, 2014: C-CAP’s “Sweet & Savory Spectacular” Benefit
Posted on October 23, 2014 by abell
The Careers through Culinary Art Program’s (C-CAP) Sweet & Savory Spectacular benefit is this Sunday afternoon, Oct. 19th at the Art Institute of California Los Angeles campus in Santa Monica.
C-CAP Advisory Board member Eric Boardman previews the event. Eric is an accomplished Food Television personality and producer (Food Network’s “Calling All Cooks”) and will be MCing the Sweet & Savory Chef’s Challenge at the Benefit.
The Challenge is a “Chopped”– style cooking competition where C-CAP graduates will compete for cash prizes to showcase their talents and test their skills, speed and creativity. It’s serious…
Posted in Podcasts, SoCal Restaurant Show | Tagged Art Institute, benefit, C-CAP, Careers throu, Challenge, Eric Boardman, podcast, Santa Monica, Sweet and Savory Spectacular
October 18: Andrew Gruel, Jet Tila, Fairmont Waterfront, Rudi Sodamin, Eric Boardman, Nick Liberato, KTown Night Market
Segment One: Chef Jet Tila
Segment Two: Guest Host Chef Andrew Gruel and Andy Harris
Segment Three: Marc Witney, The Fairmont Waterfront
Segment Four: Master Chef Rudi Sodamin, Holland America Liner
Segment Five: C-CAP’s “Sweet & Savory Spectacular” Benefit
Segment Six: Chef Nick Liberato & Venice Whaler Part One
Segment Seven: Chef Nick Liberato & Venice Whaler Part Two
Segment Eight: KTOWN Night Market’s Halloween Food Fest
Chef Andrew Gruel of Slapfish is today’s Guest Host.
The Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit Convention & Expo is this Saturday & Sunday, October 18th & 19th at the Anaheim Convention Center. Companies representing every segment of the global produce and floral supply chain will be there. Some 900 exhibitors from 60 countries will be welcoming 20,000 attendees.
Chef Jet Tila, the emeritus host of the “SoCal Restaurant Show,” will be there performing cooking demos on Saturday for Idaho Potatoes.
Jet joins us from the floor at the Produce Marketing Association’s Fresh Summit Convention & Expo at the Anaheim Convention Center. He’s doing cooking demos at the Idaho Potato booth. About 20,000 attendees will pass through there on Saturday and Sunday.
Guest Host Chef Andrew Gruel and “SoCal Restaurant Show’s” Producer, Andy Harris, preview the show.
Vancouver, British Columbia is a wonderful food town. The Fairmont Waterfront in downtown Vancouver also has a reputation for culinary excellence. Their new destination restaurant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is ARC. Their motto is, “Life is Complicated, Good Food Shouldn’t Be.” We’ll get all the 411…
The “SoCal Restaurant Show” recently was aboard Holland America Line’s ms Zaandam on the Vancouver, BC to San Diego sailing of a longer 22-day Inca Discovery Tour ending in Valparaiso, Chile. This morning we continue our exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the key people who oversee this 716 room floating luxury hotel with some 1,400 guests aboard. With us is HAL’s Master Chef Rudi Sodamin who also serves as Chairman of their celebrated Culinary Council.
The Careers through Culinary Art Program’s (C-CAP) Sweet & Savory Spectacular benefit is Sunday afternoon, Oct. 19th at the Art Institute of California Los Angeles campus in Santa Monica. C-CAP Advisory Board member Eric Boardman previews the event. Eric is an accomplished Food Television personality and producer.
The classic Venice Whaler (dating from 1944) located across from the beach in Venice has a new look and attitude. Specialty handcrafted cocktails are on the menu as well as “upscale dive-bar” cuisine created by Executive Chef Nick Liberato.
The creative forces behind the KTOWN Night Market are at it again. Their inaugural Halloween Food Fest comes to Koreatown for two days on October 25th and 26th. The Seoul Sausage Co. partners (winners of Food Network’s “Great Food Truck Race” Season 3) are “curating” the selection of diverse food outlets.
Vancouver, British Columbia is a wonderful food town. The Fairmont Waterfront in downtown Vancouver also has a reputation for culinary excellence.
Dana Hauser, Executive Chef at The Fairmont Waterfront, hails from Newfoundland and brings a passion for regionally-inspired cuisine. Her culinary philosophy (influenced by the abundance of just-caught seafood) continues to focus on an appreciation for the freshest of ingredients sourced from neighboring farms and artisanal producers.
Their new destination restaurant for breakfast, lunch, and dinner is ARC. Their motto is, “Life is Complicated, Good Food Shouldn’t Be.”
The chef’s bench offers communal dining. Power lunches get guests in & out in an hour. Our guest, Marc Witney, is the Outlets Manager for The Fairmont Waterfront.
The “SoCal Restaurant Show” recently was aboard Holland America Line’s ms Zaandam on the Vancouver, BC to San Diego sailing of a longer 22-day Inca Discovery Tour ending in Valparaiso, Chile.
This morning we continue our exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the key people who oversee this 716 room floating luxury hotel with some 1,400 guests aboard. With us is HAL’s Master Chef Rudi Sodamin who also serves as Chairman of their celebrated Culinary Council. (Australian Chef Mark Best is the newest member.)
An internationally respected food authority with 30 years of hospitality and cruise industry experience, Chef Rudi is perhaps the most highly decorated chef working on the world’s oceans. He is considered one of the hospitality industries most innovative and peripatetic chefs.
Chef Rudi has authored 13 cookbooks including his most recent, Holland America Line’s Appetizer’s (Rizzoli, June 2012.) Chef Rudi’s books can be found on Amazon.com and in bookstores everywhere.
The classic Venice Whaler (dating from 1944) located across from the beach in Venice has a new look and attitude. Specialty handcrafted cocktails are on the menu as well as “upscale dive-bar” cuisine created by Executive Chef Nick Liberato (Spike TV’s “Bar Rescue.”)
“We source from local farms, bakeries, and our in-house Chef’s Garden.”
There is live music in the Crab Shell Bar.
“Absorbing culture and passing it on through food is part of Chef Nick Liberato’s heritage. Raised believing that every day is a holiday which should be celebrated with food, wine, great conversation, and loved ones, Chef Nick has been cooking professionally for 18 years and now calls the Southern California coast his home.”
Chef Nick is also an accomplished mixologist. Part of the repositioning of the Venice Whaler is a new emphasis on specialty handcrafted cocktails made with fresh ingredients.
The signature “Crab Shell” Bloody Mary comes with a real crab claw instead of a celery stalk…
The creative forces behind the KTOWN Night Market are at it again. Their inaugural Halloween Food Fest comes to Koreatown for two days on October 25th and 26th. Saturday is 2:00 p.m. to Midnight and Sunday is Noon to 9:00 p.m.
The Seoul Sausage Co. partners (winners of Food Network’s “Great Food Truck Race” Season 3) are “curating” the wide selection of food outlets. Look for the Lobsta Truck along with Seoul Sausage Co. It’s an international selection of flavors.
Posted in Blog, Show Notes | Tagged Andrew Gruel, C-CAP Los Angeles, Careers through Culinary Professionals, Eric Boardman, Fairmont Waterfront, Jet Tila, KTown Night Market, Lobsta Truck, Nick Liberato, Rudi Sodamin, Seoul Sausage, Sweet and Savory Spectacular, Venice Whaler
Show 66, March 22, 2014: Eric Boardman, Food & Travel TV Producer, On-Camera Host & Personality, and Writer
Clearly The Food Network which celebrated it’s 20th Anniversary last year has had a major influence on American popular opinion. They had to create a 2nd channel, “The Cooking Channel,” to accommodate all the potential sponsors who wanted to be represented. It’s now actually cool to talk about food and cook. Dudes share recipes…Chefs have become huge celebrities. Wolfgang Puck is better known World Wide than a lot of film and TV celebrities.
Food Network started modestly and with tight budgets. Our guest, Eric Boardman, was there in the early days. In 1999 he was the host of the popular series “Calling All Cooks.” The concept was the host going into the guest’s home kitchen where they make (with the series host) a recipe they are famous for in their immediate social circles, family or community. A lot were shot in Southern California but some exotic locations were used, too. The guests were talented home cooks.
Posted in Podcasts, SoCal Restaurant Show | Tagged celebrities, Eric Boardman, exotic location, home cooks, podcast, recipes, social circles, Southern California, Wolfgang Puck
March 22: Brooke Williamson, Selanne Steak Tavern, Grand Central Market, Eat LBC, Food Network 20th Anniversary, Blue Bottle Coffee
Segment Two: Executive Chef Brooke Williamson, Hudson House, The Tripel and soon, Playa Provisions
Segment Three: Executive Chef Josh Severson, Selanne Steak Tavern
Segment Four: Kevin West, journalist, cookbook author, home preserving expert
Segment Five: Elizabeth Borsting and Terri Henry, Co-Producers, EAT LBC – Long Beach Restaurant Week
Segment Six: Eric Boardman, Food & Travel TV Producer, On-Camera Host & Personality, and Writer
Segment Seven: David Wicker, Managing Partner and Vice President of Sales & Marketing, West Coast Prime Meats
Segment Eight: James Freeman, Founder & CEO, Blue Bottle Coffee
Chef Brooke Williamson of Hudson House and The Tripel is back with us. Her latest venture, Playa Provisions, is about to debut. In Laguna Beach we’re checking in with Executive Chef Josh Severson at the booming Selanne Steak Tavern.
The Grand Central Market in Downtown Los Angeles is the grandfather of food halls in the area. Exciting things are going on there with the arrival of distinctive new food businesses. We’re continuing with our preview of EAT LBC, Long Beach’s first ever restaurant week set for March 30th through April 5th.
The Food Network celebrated its 20th Anniversary last year. That’s a lot of history. We’ll be talking about the early days of FN with one of their original show hosts.
Also on the menu is another information segment with our resident meat expert. We’ll discuss wet and dry aging and other meaty matters.
The hit of the just concluded Natural Products Expo West in Anaheim was a new cold-brewed coffee from Blue Bottle Coffee. The founder of Blue Bottle Coffee is with us to explain.
Chef Brooke Williamson’s entire life has always been about food. With chef-husband Nick Roberts she now owns Hudson House in Redondo Beach and The Tripel in Playa Del Rey. Both are popular neighborhood spots. Soon to launch is their latest venture, Playa Provisions.
Chef Brooke has earned a Level 1 accreditation from The Court of Master Sommeliers.
Chef Brooke gained a national following on Bravo’s “Top Chef – Season 10” were she finished as a runner up. There is a strong rumor she will be part of Celebrity Cruises’ “Top Chef at Sea,” 7-day voyage to Alaska on August 15th out of Seattle.
We’re revisiting the new Selanne Steak Tavern in Laguna Beach. It’s less than a half-year old but is already attracting loyal repeat diners from the highly discriminating neighborhood. Our guest is Executive Chef Joshua Severson.
Chef Josh previously spent time with celebrity chef Tom Colicchio at CraftSteak in Las Vegas at The MGM Grand.
There is a lot more than juicy steaks on the Selanne Steak Tavern menu.
Kevin West is a respected writer, cookbook author and hobbyist-turned professional-canner. His first cookbook (published last year) was, Saving the Season: a cook’s guide to home canning, pickling, and preserving.
He’s also part of the team suggesting the appealing new food enterprises at the historic Grand Central Market in Downtown Los Angeles, opened in 1917. Already there (and making an impression) are Valerie Confections, Horse Thief BBQ, G&B Coffee, Eggslut, DTLA Cheese, and Sticky Rice.
On the way are Wexler’s Deli, The Oyster Gourmet, Olio Pizzeria, and Berlin Currywurst. Also opening soon is Belcampo Meat Co., a full-service butcher shop featuring organic, grass-fed meats.
Over 50 Long Beach restaurants are participating in EAT LBC – Long Beach Restaurant Week, the city’s first-ever Restaurant Week. The dates are March 30th through April 5th.
Several prominent Long Beach neighborhoods are represented including Downtown, East Village, Downtown Waterfront, Belmont Shore, Belmont Heights, the PCH Corridor and East Anaheim/Zafaria District. In addition to their regular menu, each restaurant will offer a special three-course menu during Restaurant Week which includes an appetizer, entrée and dessert for $26 at casual eateries, and $38 at fine dining establishments. Tax and gratuity are additional.
Restaurants participate in restaurant weeks to persuade first-time guests to return. You see restaurants at their very best and the menus are value priced.
Co-producers Elizabeth Borsting and Terri Henry join us to preview Restaurant Week.
West Coast Prime Meats really knows the meat business as only an insider can. Most of their seasoned, senior executives have an extensive background in the restaurant business or are master butchers. If fact West Coast’s key master butcher has more than 30 years experience in the field.
Dave Wicker, WCPM’s Vice President of Sales & Marketing and Managing Partner, is back with us to talk beef. We’ll talk about wet and dry aging and the cuts of steak. We’ll also weigh-in on whether having the bone-in on a steak adds moré flavor once it’s cooked.
Blue Bottle Coffee is a sensation for coffee lovers in San Francisco and New York. They are soon to arrive locally in Venice on Abbot Kinney Blvd. and in Culver City.
Blue Bottle Coffee was a big hit at the recently concluded Natural Products Expo West @ the Anaheim Convention Center. They were there to introduce their newest product, Cold Brewed New Orleans Iced Coffee packaged in a mini milk carton. It was one of the biggest hits at the show and the talk of the floor!
Founder and CEO James Freeman is with us to provide the background. He was actually at the show pouring samples!
Blue Bottle Coffee – New Orleans Iced Coffee. Blended with chicory, cane sugar & Clover Organic Milk.
“Near the beginning of the 19th Century, the French brought chicory-infused coffee to New Orleans. Two hundred years later we crafted our own organic, cold—brewed version for our farmers market stand, adding cane sugar and whole milk. We hope you enjoy it as much as we do.”
Posted in Show Notes | Tagged 20th Anniversary, Abbot Kinney Blvd, Anaheim, Anaheim Convention Center, Andy Harris, appetizer, Belcampo Meat, Belmont Heights, Belmont Shore, Berlin Currywurst, Blue Bottle Coffee, bone in steak, Bravo, Brooke Williamson, butcher shop, Calling All Cooks, casual eateries, Celebrity Cruises, Chef Jet, coffee lovers, Cold Brewed, cold brewed coffee, cookbook author, Cooking Channel, Court of Master Sommeliers, Craftsteak, Culver City, Dave Wicker, dessert, Downtown Long Beach, Downtown Los Angeles, Downtown Waterfront, dry aging, DTLA, DTLA Cheese, East Anaheim, East Village, Eat LBC, Eggslut, Elizabeth Borsting, entrée, Eric Boardman, Executive Chef, exotic location, Fine Dining, food businesses, food enterprise, food hall, Food Network, G&B Coffee, Grand Central Market, grass fed meats, hobbyist, home canning, home kitchen, Horse Thief BBQ, Hudson House, Iced Coffee, James Freeman, Jet Tila, Josh Severson, Joshua Severson, Kevin West, Laguna Beach, Las Vegas, Long Beach, Long Beach Restaurant Week, Managing Partner, master butchers, meat business, meat expert, MGM Grand, milk carton, Natural Products Expo West, New Orleans, New York, Nick Roberts, Olio Pizzeria, organic meats, Pacific Coast Highway corridor, PCH Corridor, pickling, Playa del Rey, Playa Provisions, preserving, Producer Andy, professional canner, Redondo Beach, restaurant business, restaurant week, San Francisco, Saving the Season, Seattle, Selanne Steak Tavern, social circles, Southern California, steaks, Sticky Rice, Terri Henry, The Oyster Gourmet, three course menu, Tom Colicchio, Top Chef, Top Chef at Sea, Tripel, Valerie Confections, Venice, WCPM, West Coast Prime Meats, wet aging, Wexler’s Deli, Wolfgang Puck, writer, Zafaria District
Show 7: November 24, 2012: Eric Boardman
Posted on November 28, 2012 by abell
Food TV Producer and Culinary Personality Eric Boardman who is also an Advisory Board Member for Careers through Culinary Arts Program – Los Angeles.
Eric was the Host & Master of Ceremonies for C-CAP’s “Just Dessert Challenge” on Nov. 17th at The Art Institute of California-Los Angeles as part of the “Getting Our Just Desserts” Benefit. The competition pitted five C-CAP graduates against each other in an intense “Chopped” –like competition. There was a mystery basket of five ingredients and the alums had two hours to create a standout dish using all of those ingredients. After an intense deliberation on the part of the judges panel (including Keith Roberts, the Executive Chef at the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel) Anthony Greco took the crown. Anthony currently works in the kitchen of The Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills.
Posted in Podcasts, SoCal Restaurant Show | Tagged Anthony Greco, Art Institute, C-CAP, Calling All Cooks, Careers through Culinary Arts Program, Eric Boardman, Executive Chef, Food TV, Food TV Producer, Four Seasons, Four Seasons Hotel Los Angeles at Beverly Hills, Getting Our Just Desserts, Just Dessert Challenge, Keith Roberts, Loews, Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, Podcasts, Santa Monica, The Art Institute of California-Los Angeles
November 24: Ricardo Zarate, Inn at Europa Village, Deep End Dining, Marche Moderne
Segment One: Chef Jet Tila and Producer Andy Harris
Segment Two: Chef Dean A. Thomas, Innkeeper (with his wife, Nicole) of The Inn At Europa Village and Executive Chef de Cuisine at Europa Village Winery and Tasting Room
Segment Three: Eddie Lin of the blog “Deep End Dining” and the new Web series for YouTube, “Kamikaze Kitchen.”
Segment Four: Eddie Lin Part Two
Segment Five: Chef Ricardo Zarate and Business Partner & Restaurateur Stephane Bombet of Picca in West Los Angeles and Mo-Chica in Downtown Los Angeles
Segment Six: Ricardo Zarate and Stephane Bombet Part Two
Segment Seven: Amelia Marneau of Marche Moderne in The Penthouse (Level 3) at South Coast Plaza
Segment Eight: Food TV Producer and Culinary Personality Eric Boardman
The Holidays are upon us and the “SoCal Restaurant Show” is getting into the spirit of the season. It’s a stuffed grab bag of entertaining info this week.
Ever wonder what a busy chef (and new father) does for his own Family on Thanksgiving? Chef Jet gives us the behind-the-scenes on his Thanksgiving 2012.
The picturesque Temecula Valley Wine Country is only 90-minutes from most of Los Angeles and is a great local getaway with numerous inviting attractions including a winery for every palate and budget.
In the last year The Inn at Europa Village (located on a hilltop with an unrivaled view of the Valley) has been remodeled and enhanced, and now defines the standard of truly memorable bed and breakfast establishments in the Temecula Valley.
The personable Innkeepers are the dynamic duo of Executive Chef Dean Thomas and his wife, Nicole. Chef Dean also oversees the culinary operations at the neighboring Europa Village Tasting Room & Vineyards.
We’ll talk with Dean about his unusual hands-on approach to managing a bed and breakfast and the show-stopping breakfasts he creates with premium local ingredients for his appreciative guests every morning!
Joining Jet in studio will be Asian food blogger extraordinaire and culinary personality Eddie Lin. You may know him from “Deep-End Dining.” He also has a new Web series, “Kamikaze Kitchen.”
Eddie’s most recent assignment is as a contributor to Los Angeles Magazine’s “Digest” blog.
Peruvian cuisine has captured the attention of SoCal foodies. At the forefront is Chef Ricardo Zarate who achieved fame in L.A. with his hole-in-the wall spot, Mo-Chica, originally located in the Mercado La Paloma just East of the USC campus. This was later relocated to a more ambitious and expanded space Downtown at 514 W. Seventh St.
Before that Ricardo and his business partner Stephane Bombet launched the upscale Picca (Peruvian/Japanese small plates) on W. Pico Blvd. just East of Century City.
A new spot in Marina del Rey is on the horizon.
Jet will chat with both Chef Ricardo and Stephane Bombet about their expanding restaurant empire which started quite modestly.
Our vote for nicest couple in the hospitality business in Orange County has to be Florent and Amelia Marneau who are the greatly respected proprietors of the acclaimed Marche Moderne located in The Penthouse (Level 3) at South Coast Plaza.
Since they opened in 2007 the restaurant has earned the reputation as the premier French restaurant in Orange County and beyond. Florent is behind the stoves and Amelia creates the incredible desserts and also graciously runs the front-of-the-house.
Throughout the year they do noteworthy special events to keep their establishment fresh. This morning Amelia joins the show to preview Marche Moderne’s “40 Days of Champagne and Caviar” Holiday Celebration. Nightly until December 30th Marche is showcasing a nightly special menu of six top caviar selections and bubbly from four renowned Champagne houses along with the traditional accoutrements and caviar-friendly cocktails. If you don’t think that says “Holidays” with a flourish then forget about it…
Finally Careers through Culinary Arts Program Los Angeles Advisory Board Member (and food TV producer) Eric Boardman is with us to discuss the spirited C-CAP alum competition in the style of Food Network’s “Chopped” that was part of last Saturday’s “Getting Our Just Desserts” Benefit at The Art Institute of California-Los Angeles’ campus in Santa Monica. Eric was the Master of Ceremonies for the competition and shares the results.
Posted in Show Notes | Tagged Amelia Marneau, Art Institute of California, Asian food blogger, bed and breakfast, C-CAP, Careers through Culinary Arts Program, Century City, Champagne and Caviar, Dean Thomas, Digest, Downtown LA, DTLA, Eddie Line, Eric Boardman, Europa Village Tasting Room & Vineyards, Executive Chef, Florent Marneau, food blog, French Cuisine, French Restaurant, Getting Our Just Desserts, Holiday Celebration, Inn at Europa Village, Jet Tila, Level 3, Los Angeles, Los Angeles Magazine, Marche Moderne, Marina del Rey, Mercado La Paloma, Mo-Chica, MoChica, Orange County, Penthouse, peruvian cuisine, Picca, Pico Boulevard, Ricardo Zarate, Santa Monica, Seventh Street, small plates, socal foodies, South Coast Plaza, Stephane Bombet, Temecula Valley, Thanksgiving, The Art Institute of California-Los Angeles, USC, Wine Country
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Fifty Shades of Soccer… Sex and the Game..
My summer post-World Cup recess is coming to an end and time to get back to work of bringing you the important stories from the female perspective.
One of the things I did on my break was power reading the entire Fifty Shades of Grey series (it took a weekend but it is done). I deserve a medal for that… [Editorial Rant: Can someone PLEASE get E.L. James a flipping thesaurus. Girl knows like 15 adjectives and used them insistently and incorrectly A LOT…]
Now why do you care about this? Well because one of the things that kept me hanging on, pardon the bondage pun, is that the only stable male influence in the lead female Ana’s life, is her step-father Ray. Now Ray is salt of the earth, old school guy… I should mention the story is set in Seattle in 2011 for the most part. Part of Ray’s characterization being salt of the earth is his love of sports… Only two are covered the Mariners and the Sounders… Ray is all kinds of obsessed with soccer, European club and his beloved Sounders.
Sadly for Seattle, comic gold for the rest of us, EL James is not a fan… Seriously, they lose to Real Salt Lake TWICE in the trilogy which spans about 5 months. They never win.
MLS, however, does win… The series has sold 100 million+ books globally and been translated into 51 languages. Nothing MLS marketing has done has had the kind of global reach. Yes I am including the Beckham thing… they paid a lot of money for that mess, he got the vast majority of the money and the new recognition and not sure it reached the same audience: predominately women and soccer moms at that.
The trailer for the film was released less than two weeks ago and it is already the most viewed of 2014 by a WIDE margin.
MLS needs to jump this bandwagon hard… Many, many, many women hate this story.. god knows it is a horribly written series but it is also a massive way to get new women into the game.
I always described the game as an introduction to my non-inclined girlfriends the same way, “the prettiest boys on the planet, of every flavor you could possibly desire, run for 90 minutes and then all get shirtless and hug at the end.. what is not to love.”
No, by no means do I think that is all there is to the game or that it is a biggest reason to watch.. It is simply the selling point to get ladies to tune-in. The beauty of the game will seduce them. Honestly, I have never seen it fail…
Sex and soccer is not exactly a revolutionary concept I grant you, but MLS has never been given this sort of free marketing opportunity.
One of my favorite bringing ladies to MLS programs was DC United’s “Ladies’ Nights,” which have tickets to a game, cocktails, mani/pedis, shopping and player meet-and-greets. It was a brilliant way to ease women into the game in a way that does not assume women are inferior. The most important part of it was that it treated female fans as individual fans, not just taxi moms who drive the kids or accessories on the arm of their partners who are actual fans.
DC United said, “we support our female fans… we want more female fans…we support you being girlie and hardcore too” that needs to happen more. Tying it to a 100 Million+ book series that has already laid the groundwork is the simplest way to do it.
Also we should ALL support Seattle losing as much as possible.. yes? [before the drama.. I am not suggesting a MLS bondage night thing… simply focusing on a highly under-represented segment of the fanbase]
Also producing appear actually designed for women but…I digress on that point.
DC United, fifty shades of grey, MLS, Real Salt Lake, Seattle Sounders, sex is soccer, women in soccer Leave a comment
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Where does this concept of “favor composition over inheritance” come from?
In the last few months, the mantra "favor composition over inheritance" seems to have sprung up out of nowhere and become almost some sort of meme within the programming community. And every time I see it, I'm a little bit mystified. It's like someone said "favor drills over hammers." In my experience, composition and inheritance are two different tools with different use cases, and treating them as if they were interchangeable and one was inherently superior to the other makes no sense.
Also, I never see a real explanation for why inheritance is bad and composition is good, which just makes me more suspicious. Is it supposed to just be accepted on faith? Liskov substitution and polymorphism have well-known, clear-cut benefits, and IMO comprise the entire point of using object-oriented programming, and no one ever explains why they should be discarded in favor of composition.
Does anyone know where this concept comes from, and what the rationale behind it is?
object-oriented inheritance composition
As others have pointed out, it's been around a long time - I'm surprised you're just now hearing of it. It's intuitive to anyone who has been building big systems in languages like Java for any amount of time. It's core to any interview I ever give and when a candidate starts talking about inheritance, I begin to doubt their skill level and amount of experience. Here's a good introduction to why inheritance is a brittle solution (there are many many others): artima.com/lejava/articles/designprinciples4.html – Janx Apr 4 '11 at 23:59
@Janx: Maybe that's it. I don't build big systems in languages like Java; I build them in Delphi, and without Liskov substitution and polymorphism we'd never get anything done. Its object model is different in certain ways than Java's or C++'s, and a lot of the problems that this maxim seems to be meant to solve don't really exist, or are much less problematic, in Delphi. Different perspectives from different points of view, I guess. – Mason Wheeler Apr 5 '11 at 0:13
I spent several years on a team building relatively large systems in Delphi and tall inheritance trees certainly bit our team and caused us significant pain. I suspect that your attention to the SOLID principles is helping you to avoid the problem areass, not your use of Delphi. – Bevan Apr 5 '11 at 8:33
Last few months?!? – Jas Apr 5 '11 at 12:41
IMHO that concept has never been fully adjusted to the variety of languages that support both interface inheritance (i.e., subtyping with pure interfaces) and implementation inheritance. Too many people follow this mantra and don't use enough interfaces. – Uri Apr 5 '11 at 15:04
Though I think I've heard composition-vs-inheritance discussions long before GoF, I can't put my finger on a specific source. Might have been Booch anyway.
<rant>
Ah but like many mantras, this one has degenerated along typical lines:
it is introduced with a detailed explanation and argument by a well-respected source who coins the catch-phrase as a reminder of the original complex discussion
it is shared with a knowing part-of-the-club wink by a few in-the-know for a while, generally when commenting on n00b mistakes
soon it is repeated mindlessly by thousands upon thousands who never read the explanation, but love using it as an excuse not to think, and as a cheap and easy way to feel superior to others
eventually, no amount of reasonable debunking can stem the "meme" tide - and the paradigm degenerates into religion and dogma.
The meme, originally intended to lead n00bs to enlightenment, is now used as a club to bludgeon them unconscious.
Composition and inheritance are very different things, and should not be confused with each other. While it is true that composition can be used to simulate inheritance with a lot of extra work, this does not make inheritance a second-class citizen, nor does it make composition the favorite son. The fact that many n00bs try to use inheritance as a shortcut does not invalidate the mechanism, and almost all n00bs learn from the mistake and thereby improve.
Please THINK about your designs, and stop spouting slogans.
</rant>
Steven A. Lowe
Booch argues that implementation inheritance introduces high coupling among classes. On the other hand, he considers inheritance the key concept that distinguishes OOP from procedural programming. – Nemanja Trifunovic Apr 5 '11 at 2:06
There should be a word for this kind of thing. Premature Regurgitation, maybe? – Jörg W Mittag Apr 5 '11 at 2:08
@Jörg: You know what will happened to a term like Premature Regurgitation? Exactly what is explained above. :) (Btw. when is regurgitation ever not premature?) – Bjarke Freund-Hansen Apr 5 '11 at 13:18
@Nemanja: Right. The question is whether this coupling is really bad. If the classes are conceptually strongly coupled and conceptually form a supertype-subtype relationship, and could never be conceuptually decoupled even if they're formally decoupled at the language level, then strong coupling is fine. – dsimcha Apr 6 '11 at 15:44
The mantra is simple, "just because you can shape play-doh to look like anything doesn't mean that you should make everything out of play-doh." ;) – Evan Plaice Apr 19 '12 at 3:56
Like you say they are tools for different jobs, but the phrase came about because people were not using it in that way.
Inheritance is primarily a polymorphic tool, but some people, much to their later peril, attempt to use it as a way of reusing/sharing code. The rationale being "well if I inherit then I get all the methods for free", but ignoring the fact that these two classes potentially have no polymorphic relationship.
So why favour composition over inheritance - well simply because more often than not the relationship between classes is not a polymorphic one. It exists simply to help remind people to not knee jerk respond by inheriting.
So basically, you can't say "you shouldn't be using OOP in the first place if you don't understand Liskov substitution," so you say "favor composition over inheritance" instead as an attempt to limit the damage done by incompetent coders? – Mason Wheeler Apr 4 '11 at 23:08
@Mason: Like any mantra, "favor composition over inheritance" is targeted at beginner programmers. If you already know when to use inheritance and when to use composition then it's pointless to repeat a mantra like that. – Dean Harding Apr 4 '11 at 23:14
@Dean - I'm not sure beginner is the same as one who doesn't understand inheritance best practices. I think there is more to it than that. Poor inheritance is the cause of many, many headaches in my job and it's not code written by programmers who would be considered "beginners". – Nicole Apr 4 '11 at 23:27
@Renesis: First thing I think of when I hear that is, "some people have ten years of experience, and some people have one year of experience repeated ten times." – Mason Wheeler Apr 4 '11 at 23:46
I was designing a fairly large project right after first "Getting" OO and relied on it heavily. Although it worked well, I constantly found the design brittle--causing minor irritations here and there and sometimes making certain refactors a complete bitch. It's kind of difficult to explain the whole experience, but the phrase "Favor Compisition over Inheritence" describes it EXACTLY. Note that it does not say or even imply "Avoid Inheritence", it simply gives you a little nudge when the choice is not obvious. – Bill K Nov 28 '12 at 18:04
It's not a new idea, I believe it was actually introduced in the GoF design patterns book, which was published in 1994.
The main problem with inheritance is that it's white-box. By definition, you need to know the implementation details of the class you're inheriting from. With composition, on the other hand, you only care about the public interface of the class you're composing.
From the GoF book:
Inheritance exposes a subclass to details of its parent's implementation, it's often said that 'inheritance breaks encapsulation'
The wikipedia article on the GoF book has a decent introduction.
Dean Harding
I don't agree with that. You don't need to know the implementation details of the class you're inheriting from; only the public and protected members exposed by the class. If you have to know the implementation details, then either you or whoever wrote the base class is doing something wrong, and if the flaw is in the base class, composition won't help you fix/work around it. – Mason Wheeler Apr 4 '11 at 23:15
How can you disagree with something you haven't read? There's a solid page and a half of discussion from GoF that you are getting just a tiny view of. – philosodad Apr 4 '11 at 23:30
@pholosodad: I'm not disagreeing with something I haven't read. I'm disagreeing with what Dean wrote, that "By definition, you need to know the implementation details of the class you're inheriting from," which I have read. – Mason Wheeler Apr 4 '11 at 23:47
What I wrote is just a summary of what's described in the GoF book. I might've worded it a little strongly (you don't need to know all the implementation details) but that's the general reason why the GoF says to favour composition over inheritance. – Dean Harding Apr 5 '11 at 0:05
Correct me if I'm wrong but I see it as, "favor explicit class relationships (ie Interfaces) over implicit (ie inheritance)." The former tell you what you need without telling you how to do it. The latter not only tell you how to do it but will make you regret it down the road. – Evan Plaice Apr 19 '12 at 4:03
To answer part of your question, I believe this concept first appeared in the GOF Design Patterns: Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software book, which was first published in 1994. The phrase appears at the top of page 20, in the introduction:
Favor object composition over inheritance
They preface this statement with a brief comparison of inheritance with composition. They don't say "never use inheritance".
vjones
"Composition over inheritance" is a short (and apparently misleading) way of saying "When feeling that the data (or behaviour) of a class should be incorporated into another class, always consider using composition before blindly applying inheritance".
Why is this true ? Because inheritance creates tight, compile-time coupling between the 2 classes. Composition in contrast is loose coupling, wich among others enables clear separation of concerns, the possibility of switching dependencies at runtime and easier, more isolated dependency testability.
That only means inheritance should be handled with care because it comes at a cost, not that it isn't useful. Actually, "Composition over inheritance" often ends up being "Composition + inheritance over inheritance" since you often want your composed dependency to be an abstract superclass rather than the concrete subclass itself. It allows you to switch between different concrete implementations of your dependency at runtime.
For that reason (among others), you'll probably see inheritance used more often in the form of interface implementation or abstract classes than vanilla inheritance.
A (metaphorical) example could be :
"I have a Snake class and I want to include as part of that class what happens when the Snake bites. I would be tempted to have the Snake inherit a BiterAnimal class that has the Bite() method and override that method to reflect venomous bite. But Composition over Inheritance warns me that I should try to use composition instead... In my case, this could translate into the Snake having a Bite member. Bite class could be abstract (or an interface) with several subclasses. This would allow me nice things like having VenomousBite and DryBite subclasses and being able to change bite on the same Snake instance as the snake grows of age. Plus handling all the effects of a Bite in its own separate class could allow me to reuse it in that Frost class, because frost bites but isn't a BiterAnimal, and so on..."
Very good example with the Snake. I met a similar case recently with my own classes – Maksee Apr 19 '12 at 6:59
Some possible arguments for composition:
Composition is slightly more language / framework agnostic
Inheritance and what it enforces / requires / enables will differ between languages in terms of what the sub/superclass have access to and what performance implications it may have wrt virtual methods etc. Composition is quite basic and requires very little language support, and thus implementations across different platforms / frameworks can share composition patterns more easily.
Composition is a very simple and tactile way of building objects
Inheritance is relatively easy to understand, but still not as easily demonstrated in real life. Many objects in real life can be broken down into parts and composed. Say a bicycle can be built using two wheels, a frame, a seat, a chain etc. Easily explained by composition. Whereas in an inheritance metaphor you could say that a bicycle extends a unicycle, somewhat feasible but still much further from the real picture than composition (obviously this is not a very good inheritance example, but the point remains the same). Even the word inheritance (at least of most US English speakers I would expect) automatically invokes a meaning along the lines "Something passed down from a deceased relative" which has some correlation with its meaning in software, but still only loosely fits.
Composition is almost always more flexible
Using composition you can always choose to define your own behavior or simply expose that part of your composed parts. This way you face none of the restrictions that may be imposed by an inheritance hierarchy (virtual vs. non-virtual etc.)
So, it could be because Composition is naturally a simpler metaphor that has less theoretical constraints than inheritance. Furthermore, these particular reasons may be more apparent during design time, or possibly stick out when dealing with some of the pain points of inheritance.
Obviously its not this clear cut / one way street. Each design merits evaluation of several patterns / tools. Inheritance is widely used, has lots of benefits and many times is more elegant than composition. These are just some possible reasons one could use when favoring composition.
TJB
"Obviously its not this clear cut / one way street." When is composition not more (or equally) flexible than inheritance? I would argue that it very much is a one-way street. Inheritance is just syntactic sugar for a special case of composition. – weberc2 Dec 12 '15 at 4:05
Composition is often not flexible when using a language that implements composition using explicitly implemented interfaces, because those interfaces are not allowed to evolve in a backward-compatible manner over time. #jmtcw – MikeSchinkel May 10 at 21:53
Perhaps you just noticed people saying this in the last few months, but it has been known to good programmers for a lot longer than that. I've certainly been saying it where appropriate for about a decade.
The point of the concept is that there is a large conceptual overhead to inheritance. When you are using inheritance, then every single method call has an implicit dispatch in it. If you have deep inheritance trees, or multiple dispatch, or (even worse) both, then figuring out where the particular method will dispatch to in any particular call can become a royal PITA. It makes correct reasoning about the code more complex, and it makes debugging harder.
Let me give a simple example to illustrate. Suppose that deep in an inheritance tree, someone named a method foo. Then someone else comes along and adds foo at the top of the tree, but doing something different. (This case is more common with multiple inheritance.) Now that person working at the root class has broken the obscure child class and probably doesn't realize it. You could have 100% coverage with unit tests and not notice this breakage because the person at the top wouldn't think of testing the child class, and the tests for the child class don't think of testing the new methods created at the top. (Admittedly there are ways to write unit tests that will catch this, but there are also cases where you can't easily write tests that way.)
By contrast when you use composition, at each call it is usually clearer what you are dispatching the call to. (OK, if you're using inversion of control, for instance with dependency injection, then figuring out where the call goes can also get problematic. But usually it is simpler to figure out.) This makes reasoning about it easier. As a bonus, composition results in having methods segregated from each other. The above example should not happen there because the child class would move off to some obscure component, and there is never a question about whether the call to foo was intended for the obscure component or the main object.
Now you are absolutely right that inheritance and composition are two very different tools that serve two different types of things. Sure inheritance carries conceptual overhead, but when it is the right tool for the job, it carries less conceptual overhead than trying to not use it and do by hand what it does for you. Nobody who knows what they are doing would say that you should never use inheritance. But be sure it is the right thing to do.
Unfortunately many developers learn about object oriented software, learn about inheritance, and then go out to use their new axe as often as possible. Which means that they try to use inheritance where composition was the right tool. Hopefully they will learn better in time, but frequently this does not happen until after a few removed limbs, etc. Telling them up front that it is a bad idea tends to speed up the learning process and reduce injuries.
btilly
All right, I guess that makes sense from a C++ perspective. That's something I never thought of, because it's not an issue in Delphi, which is what I use most of the time. (There's no multiple inheritance, and if you have a method in a base class and another method by the same name in a derived class that does not override the base method, the compiler will issue a warning, so you don't accidentally end up with this sort of problem.) – Mason Wheeler Apr 4 '11 at 23:51
@Mason: Ander's version of Object Pascal (a.k.a. Delphi) is superior to C++ and Java when it comes to the fragile base class inheritance problem. Unlike C++ and Java, overloading of an inherited virtual method is not implicit. – bit-twiddler Apr 5 '11 at 1:37
@bit-twiddler, what you say about C++ and Java can be said about Smalltalk, Perl, Python, Ruby, JavaScript, Common Lisp, Objective-C, and every other language I've learned that provides any form of OO support. That said, googling suggests that C# follows Object Pascal's lead. – btilly Apr 5 '11 at 1:57
That's because Anders Hejlsberg designed Borland's flavor of Object Pascal (a.k.a. Delphi) and C#. – bit-twiddler Apr 5 '11 at 2:15
It's a reaction to the observation that OO beginners tend to use inheritance when they don't need to. Inheritance is certainly not a bad thing, but it can be overused. If one class just needs functionality from another, then composition will probably work. In other circumstances, inheritance will work and composition won't.
Inheriting from a class implies a lot of things. It implies that a Derived is a type of Base (see the Liskov Substitution principle for the gory details), in that whenever you use a Base it would make sense to use a Derived. It gives the Derived access to the protected members and member functions of Base. It's a close relationship, meaning it has high coupling, and changes to one are more likely to require changes to the other.
Coupling is a bad thing. It makes programs harder to understand and modify. Other things being equal, you should always select the option with less coupling.
Therefore, if either composition or inheritance will do the job effectively, choose composition, because it's lower coupling. If composition will not do the job effectively, and inheritance will, choose inheritance, because you have to.
David Thornley
"In other circumstances, inheritance will work and composition won't." When? Inheritance can be modeled using composition and interface polymorphism, so I'd be surprised if there are any circumstances for which composition won't work. – weberc2 Dec 12 '15 at 4:12
Here are my two cents (beyond all the excellent points already raised):
IMHO, It comes down to the fact that most programmers don't really get inheritance, and end up overdoing it, partially as a result of how this concept is taught. This concept exists as a way to try to dissuade them from overdoing it, instead of focusing on teaching them how to do it right.
Anyone who has spent time teaching or mentoring knows that this is what often happens, especially with new developers who have experience in other paradigms:
These developers initially feel that inheritance is this scary concept. So they end up creating types with interface overlaps (e.g., same specified behavior without common subtyping), and with globals for implementing common pieces of functionality.
Then (often as a result of overzealous teaching), they learn about the benefits of inheritance, but it's often taught as the catch-all solution to reuse. They end up with a perception that any shared behavior must be shared through inheritance. This is because the focus is often on implementation inheritance rather than subtyping.
In 80% of the cases that's good enough. But the other 20% are where the problem starts. For the sake of avoiding rewriting and for making sure they have taken advantage of sharing implementation, they start designing their hierarchy around the intended implementation rather than the underlying abstractions. The "Stack inherits from doubly-linked list" is a good example of this.
Most teachers do not insist on introducing the concept of interfaces at this point, because it's either another concept, or because (in C++) you have to fake them using abstract classes and multiple inheritance which is not taught at this stage. In Java, many teachers do not distinguish the "no multiple inheritance" or "multiple inheritance is evil" from the importance of interfaces.
All this is compounded by the fact that we've learned so much of the beauty of not having to write superfluous code with implementation inheritance, that tons of straightforward delegation code looks unnatural. So composition looks messy, which is why we need these rules of thumbs to push new programmers to use them anyway (which they overdo as well).
Thats a true part of education. You have todo the higher courses to get i.e. the rest of 20% but you, as the student, was just teached the basic and and perhaps intermediate courses. In the ending, you feel well teached because you did your courses well (and simply dont see it just a pin on the ladder). It's just a part of reality and our best bet is to understand it's side effects, not attack the coders. – Independent Apr 19 '12 at 5:24
In one of the comment, Mason mentionned that one day we would be speaking about Inheritance considered harmful.
The problem with inheritance is at once simple, and deadly, it does not respect the idea that one concept should have one functionality.
In most OO-languages, when inheriting from a base class you:
inherit from its interface
inherit from its implementation (both data and methods)
And here become the trouble.
This is not the only approach, though 00-languages are mostly stuck with it. Fortunately interfaces / abstract classes exist in those.
Also, the lack of ease for doing otherwise contribute to making it largely used: frankly, even knowing this, would you inherit from an interface and embed the base class by composition, delegating most of the method calls ? It would be considerably better though, you'd even be warned if suddenly a new method pops in the interface and would have to choose, consciously, how to implement it.
As a counter-point, Haskell only allow to use the Liskov Principle when "deriving" from pure interfaces (called concepts) (1). You cannot derive from an existing class, only composition allow you to embed its data.
(1) concepts may provide a sensible default for an implementation, but since they have no data, this default can only be defined in term of the other methods proposed by the concept or in term of constants.
Matthieu M.
The simple answer is: inheritance has greater coupling than composition. Given two options, of otherwise equivalent qualities, choose the one that is less coupled.
Jeffrey Faust
But that's the whole point. They're not "otherwise equivalent." Inheritance enables Liskov substitution and polymorphism, which are the entire point of using OOP. Composition doesn't. – Mason Wheeler Apr 5 '11 at 3:11
Polymorphism/LSP are not "the whole point" of OOP, they are one feature. There is also encapsulation, abstractions etc. Inheritence implies an "is a" relationship, agregation models a "has a" relationship. – Steve Haigh Apr 5 '11 at 9:18
@Steve: You can do abstractions and encapsulation in any paradigm that supports the creation of data structures and procedures/functions. But polymorphism (specifically referring to virtual method dispatching in this context) and Liskov substitution are unique to object-oriented programming. That's what I meant by that. – Mason Wheeler Apr 5 '11 at 14:59
@Mason: The guideline is to "favor composition over inheritance." In no way does this mean don't use or even avoid inheritance. All it says that when all other things are equal, choose composition. But if you need inheritance, use it! – Jeffrey Faust Apr 5 '11 at 20:27
I think this sort of advice is like saying "prefer driving to flying". That is, planes have all sorts of advantages over cars, but that comes with a certain complexity. So if many people try to fly from the city centre to the suburbs, the advice they really, really need to hear is that they don't need to fly, and in fact, flying will just make it more complicated in the long run, even if it seems cool/efficient/easy in the short term. Whereas when you do need to fly, it's generally supposed to be obvious.
Likewise, inheritence can do things composition can't, but you should use that when you need it, and not when you don't. So if you're never tempted to just assume you need inheritence when you don't, then you don't need the advice of "prefer composition". But many people do, and do need that advice.
It's supposed to be implicit that when you really DO need inheritance, it's obvious, and you should use it then.
Also, Steven Lowe's answer. Really, really that.
Jack V.
I like your analogy – barrylloyd Apr 5 '11 at 12:24
Inheritance isn't inherently bad, and composition isn't inherently good. They are merely tools that an OO programmer can use to design software.
When you look at a class, is it doing more than it absolutely should (SRP)? Is it duplicating functionality unnecessarily (DRY), or is it overly interested in the properties or methods of other classes (Feature Envy)?. If the class is violating all of these concepts (and possibly more), is it attempting to be a God Class. These are a number of problems that can occur when designing software, none of which is necessarily an inheritance problem, but which can quickly create major headaches and brittle dependencies where polymorphism has also been applied.
The root of the problem likely to be less a lack of understanding about inheritance, and more one of either poor choice in terms of design, or perhaps not recognizing "code smells" relating to classes that are not adhering to the Single Responsibility Principle. Polymorphism and Liskov Substitution need not be discarded in favour of composition. Polymorphism itself can be applied without relying on inheritance, these are all quite complimentary concepts. If applied thoughtfully. The trick is to aim to keep your code simple, and clean, and to not to succumb to being overly concerned about the number of classes that you need to create in order to create a robust system design.
In so far as the issue of favouring composition over inheritance, this is really just another case of the thoughtful application of the design elements that make the most sense in terms of the problem being solved. If you don't need to inherit behaviour, then you probably shouldn't as composition will help to avoid incompatibilities and major refactoring efforts later on. If on the other hand you find that you are repeating a lot of code such that all of the duplication is centred on a group of similar classes, then it may be that creating a common ancestor would help to reduce the number of identical calls and classes you might need to repeat between each class. Thus, you are favouring composition, yet you aren't assuming that inheritance is never applicable.
S.Robins
The actual quote comes, I believe, from Joshua Bloch's "Effective Java", where it is the title of one of the chapters. He claims that inheritance is safe within a package and wherever a class has been specifically designed and documented for extension. He claims, as others have noted, that inheritance breaks encapsulation because a subclass depends on the implementation details of its superclass. This leads, he says, to fragility.
Although he doesn't mention it, it seems to me that single inheritance in Java means that composition gives you much more flexibility than inheritance.
Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged object-oriented inheritance composition or ask your own question.
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[CES 2017] Acer Predator 21 X shipping soon, prepare yourself
Gaming / PC / Press Releases / Tech
This is the kind of gaming laptop that will steal the lunch money of your other gaming laptops.
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21″ 21:9 Curved display
7th Gen Intel Core i7-7820HK (overclockable)
Dual NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 in SLI with 16GB GDDR5X VRAM
64GB DDR4 2400MHz RAM
5 cooling fan system
World Domination Button
Instant Win Everything controls
OK, so those last two were fake, but based on how completely and utterly crazy-go-nuts the rest of the hardware on this laptop is, one might be inclined to believe this laptop really does have a World Domination Button. The rest of the specs are just as crazy too. If you’ve been waiting patiently to order one of these behemoths for yourself, your wait is almost over. Hopefully you’ve been saving your pennies, because it isn’t going to be cheap… The Predator 21 X will be available in North America in February with U.S. prices starting at $8,999; and in EMEA in February with prices starting at €9,999.
If sticker shock is getting the best of you, maybe you’ll want to consider Acer’s refreshed Predator 17 X gaming laptop. While not the complete and utter juggernaut the 21 X is (though really, what is?), the Predator 17 X will provide an amazing gaming experience on its own. The refresh includes up to the same Intel Core i7 as is available in the 21 X, and up to NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU (just one of them though, sorry!). The 17 X will be available in either FHD (1920 x 1080) or 4K (3840 x 2160) models. The refreshed Predator 17 X will be available in North America in January with U.S. prices starting at $2,599; in EMEA in January with prices starting at €2,999; and in China in February with prices starting at ¥39,999.
Acer Predator 17 X. Still pretty crazy, just not quite as crazy as the 21 X
You can read more about the impressive Predator series of gaming laptops in the full press release below.
Acer’s Highly-Anticipated Predator 21 X Gaming Laptop, Featuring the World’s First Curved Screen Notebook, Shipping This Quarter
Loaded with high-end features and technology, the Predator 21 X is the de facto dream machine for ultimate gaming enthusiasts
LAS VEGAS (Jan. 3, 2017) – Acer today announced the availability of its highly anticipated Predator 21 X gaming laptop, the world’s first curved screen notebook. Featuring Windows 10 and designed for ultimate gaming enthusiasts who only want the best, the Predator 21 X is advanced beyond anything on the market today.
As the world’s first notebook to offer a curved 21-inch IPS display (2560 x 1080 resolution with a 120Hz refresh rate), it delivers a truly immersive gaming experience, especially when combined with the notebook’s eye-tracking technology from Tobii. Taking PC gaming immersion to new depths, eye tracking lets gamers identify enemies, aim and take cover simply by gazing at objects on the screen in more than 45 titles like Elite Dangerous, Deus Ex: Mankind Divided and WATCH_DOGS 2™. The curved screen also features NVIDIA® G-SYNC™ technology, ensuring smooth and sharp gameplay.
Beneath the notebook’s curved hood lies a powerful engine just waiting to be unleashed. The Predator 21 X GX21-71 features dual NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 1080 graphic cards in SLI and an overclockable 7th Generation Intel® Core™ i7-7820HK processor for ultimate performance and responsiveness.
Supporting all this power is 64GB of DDR4-2400 memory, up to four 512GB solid state drives in RAID 0 configuration (including 2 NVMe PCIe SSDs which are up to 5x faster than SATA SSDs) and a 1TB 7200 RPM hard drive. In addition, Killer DoubleShot Pro automatically picks the fastest network connection (Ethernet or wireless) and sends all high priority traffic over that interface while standard traffic is sent over the other. This ensures the highest priority traffic will always be put on the fastest and most reliable link. Thunderbolt™ 3 brings Thunderbolt to USB-C at speeds up to 40 Gbps.
Dissipating excess heat effectively for uninterrupted performance during intense gaming sessions, the notebook also features an advanced cooling architecture consisting of five system fans (including three ultra-thin AeroBlade™ metal fans) and nine heat pipes. It also includes Acer DustDefender, which removes dust build-up and improves heat dissipation, and Acer’s CoolBoost app, that can be used to adjust the fans’ airflow to deliver extra cooling performance during heavy use.
Its full-sized mechanical keyboard features Cherry® MX Brown switches with individually programmable backlit keys, offering 16.7 million color options. Customers can swap out the black W, A, S and D keys with teal ones using the included accessory kit. Its unique numeric keypad can be flipped over and used as a Precision Touchpad.
Making the action come to life, the Predator 21 X features a new three-way (tweeter, midrange, woofer) audio design which produces Hi-Fi quality sound and is powered by four speakers (two tweeters, two midrange) and 2 subwoofers to produce a full spectrum of sound.
The Predator 21 X works with Windows Hello, supporting secure and password-free sign-in by recognizing your face. Skype for Business Certification ensures people can communicate with crisp and lag-free quality and also allows for clearer, higher quality audio and a great Cortana with Voice experience on Windows 10.
Preloaded Acer PredatorSense software allows users to control and customize the whole gaming experience from one central interface, including overclocking, lighting and fan control. In addition, the included Xsplit Gamecaster software makes it easy for gamers to record and edit videos and live stream on Twitch and YouTube channels.
Located just above the keyboard on the right side is a metal maintenance panel which provides access to the RAM modules and one 2.5-inch hard drive. The notebook ships with a blue dragon graphic on the panel, or it can be customized with a combination of graphics, nation flags and name engraving. In addition, the first 300 notebooks will include a limited edition series number on the panel.
For safe transport and storage, each Predator 21 X ships with a custom ultra-durable hard-shell carrying case which securely stores the notebook and accessories.
Predator 17 X gets an upgrade with higher performing CPU and GPU
The Acer Predator 17 X (GX-792) gaming notebook also received both a CPU and GPU upgrade, and will now include models with a 7th Generation Intel Core i7-7820HK processor and an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 GPU with 8G GDDR5X video memory. Featuring overclocking, desktop grade components, a custom triple-fan cooling system with front air intake and a server-class vapor chamber, it is ideal for the most demanding games and running virtual reality (VR) devices. It’s overclocking lets gamers experience turbo speeds1 of up to 4.3GHz for the CPU; up to 1732MHz for the GPU; and up to 5.4GHz for VRAM. Immersive game play is delivered with buttery smooth visuals via the notebook’s 17.3-inch G-SYNC Full HD IPS (1920 x 1080) or UHD IPS (4K 3840 x 2160) display.
The Predator 17 X is also configured with up to 64GB of DDR4-2400 memory and an enterprise level NVMe PCIe solid state drive2 or three-SATA-SSD RAID 0 array for immense data transfer speeds. It features a Precision Touchpad supporting Windows 10 gestures, and also Skype for Business certification for crystal-clear audio communications.
The Predator 21 X will be available in North America in February with U.S. prices starting at $8,999; and in EMEA in February with prices starting at €9,999.
The refreshed Predator 17 X will be available in North America in January with U.S. prices starting at $2,599; in EMEA in January with prices starting at €2,999; and in China in February with prices starting at ¥39,999.
Exact specifications, prices, and availability will vary by region. To learn more about availability, product specifications and prices in specific markets, please contact your nearest Acer office via www.acer.com.
Related Items:#CES2017, Acer, Acer Predator 17X, Acer Predator 21 X, CES 2017, featured, gaming
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Located: Forli, Italy and Cattolica, Italy
Category: Motoryachts, Express Cruisers, Sport Yachts
Ferretti Yachts came into being in 1968 when brothers Alessandro and Norberto Ferretti created the first nautical division of the family business, then a specialist luxury car dealership. Three years later, in 1971, at the Genoa Boat Show, their first model, a wooden motor-sailer, was greeted with great acclaim. This 10-metre yacht, equipped with both sails and an engine, was particularly comfortable and safe for leisure cruising. Their intuitive flair enabled Ferretti Yachts to figure on the list of the world’s most prestigious boatyards.
In 1975, the Ferretti brothers decided to abandon cars altogether in order to commit themselves fully to the nautical world and the next decade saw the great leap forward – the switch from sail to engine power. In 1982 the first Ferretti motor-yacht made its debut and the company began producing boats for sport fishing, with an open and flying bridge, bearing witness to all the revolutionary changes that have transformed today’s boat-building industry: the stern bridge, the up-and-over salon windows that open onto the cockpit and the internal corridor from the salon to the flying-bridge.
In the 1990s, Ferretti was dedicated to research and development in nautical engineering with the start-up of the in-house engineering division and winning performances in offshore races. Subsequent years have seen the range increase to its current size, but the story doesn’t end here, as there is constant renewal with state-of-the-art design solutions.
The Ferretti Group is a world leader in the design, construction and sale of luxury motor yachts, with a unique portfolio of prestigious and exclusive brands, all distinguished by their distinctive and highly complementary characteristics: Ferretti Yachts, Riva, Pershing, Itama, Mochi Craft, CRN and Custom Line.
Buying a Ferretti: We offer used Ferretti Yachts for sale worldwide, including Ferretti Flybridge, Ferretti Motoryacht, Ferretti Navetta models and more. Contact our sales professionals for immediate assistance.
Selling Your Ferretti: With a team of experienced yacht brokers and marketing professionals, we will employ a comprehensive marketing approach to ensure your vessel receives maximum global exposure online as well as exposure in person at major boat shows. Learn more about how SYS Yacht Sales will help to sell your Ferretti yacht!
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T-Stór
Irish Journal of Agricultural & Food Research
All of T-StórCommunitiesPublication DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsFunderThis CommunityPublication DateAuthorsTitlesSubjectsFunderProfilesView
Shalloo, Laurence (2)
Davis, S.R. (1)Garrick, D.J. (1)Geary, U. (1)Heinschink, K. (1)Hickson, R.E. (1)Lopez-Villabos, N. (1)Sneddon, N.W. (1)Wallace, M. (1)Subject
expansion (1)lactose demand; (1)linear optimisation (1)milk processing (1)New Zealand (1)processing model (1)seasonality costs (1)View MoreDate Issued
Deposit AgreementLicense
The costs of seasonality and expansion in Ireland’s milk production and processing
Heinschink, K.; Shalloo, Laurence; Wallace, M. (Teagasc (Agriculture and Food Development Authority), Ireland, 2016-12-30)
Ireland’s milk production sector relies on grass-based spring-calving systems, which facilitates cost advantages in milk production but entails a high degree of supply seasonality. Among other implications, this supply seasonality involves extra costs in the processing sector including elevated plant capacities and varying levels of resource utilisation throughout the year. If both the national raw milk production increased substantially (e.g. post-milk quota) and a high degree of seasonality persisted, extra processing capacities would be required to cope with peak supplies. Alternatively, existing capacities could be used more efficiently by distributing the milk volume more evenly during the year. In this analysis, an optimisation model was applied to analyse the costs and economies arising to an average Irish milk-processing business due to changes to the monthly distribution of milk deliveries and/or the total annual milk pool. Of the situations examined, changing from a seasonal supply prior to expansion to a smoother pattern combined with an increased milk pool emerged as the most beneficial option to the processor because both the processor’s gross surplus and the marginal producer milk price increased. In practice, it may however be the case that the extra costs arising to the producer from smoothing the milk intake distribution exceed the processor’s benefit. The interlinkages between the stages of the dairy supply chain mean that nationally, the seasonality trade-offs are complex and equivocal. Moreover, the prospective financial implications of such strategies will be dependent on the evolving and uncertain nature of international dairy markets in the post-quota environment.
Dairy product production and lactose demand in New Zealand and Ireland under different simulated milk product-processing portfolios
Sneddon, N.W.; Lopez-Villabos, N.; Hickson, R.E.; Davis, S.R.; Geary, U.; Garrick, D.J.; Shalloo, Laurence (Teagasc (Agriculture and Food Development Authority), Ireland, 2016-12-30)
Maximising dairy industry profitability involves maximising product returns for a specific set of costs or minimising costs for a certain level of output. A strategy currently utilised by the New Zealand dairy industry to optimise the value of exports is to incorporate imported lactose along with local milk to maximise the production of whole milk powder (WMP) while complying with the Codex Alimentarius (Codex) standards, in addition to increasing the exported product for every litre of milk. This study investigated the impact of different product portfolio strategies on lactose requirements for the Irish and New Zealand dairy industries for current and predicted 2020 milk output projections. A mass balance processing sector model that accounts for all inputs, outputs and losses involved in dairy processing was used to simulate the processing of milk into WMP, skim milk powder (SMP), cheese, butter and fluid milk of different proportions. All scenarios investigated projected an increase in production and revenue from 2012 to 2020. Higher cheese production reduced industry lactose demand through whey processing, while scenarios reliant on an increase in the proportion of WMP were associated with increased lactose deficits.
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"The Wall" aired on April 20, 2016.
After the Cabin Edit
Nic explains that season one was delivered as though things were happening in real time, but he actually went back after emerging from the cabin to piece together the narration. Morgan, Sam Reynolds and Veronika Pilman are still missing, Tara Reynolds is in Oregon under psychiatric care, and a large wall has been built around the cabin. Nic actually feels excited to learn more about Tanis, despite the fact that his and everyone else's journey around the phenomenon has been perilous.
Job Offer from Cameron Ellis Edit
Ellis says he doesn't know what happened to Morgan, Sam or Veronika Pilman, and that the cabin has disappeared from inside the wall they built to contain it, saying it shimmered for a second and then vanished. Ellis warns Nic to be careful, asking him to consider why he's the only one to have made it out of the cabin, as he's not sure Tara technically made it out safely. He offers Nic a job looking into strange occurrences happening in the vicinity of the cabin or "the breach".
MK and The Last Movie Edit
After letting her know he's okay after emerging from the cabin, Nic asks MK about the videos she mentioned in a previous email, containing horrific things happening in the forest. While at first she says she deleted them, she admits that she didn't forward them simply because she didn't think Nic should see them. He requests them anyway, and confirms the footage is so awful that he regrets watching it. MK and Nic talk about how she largely erased his online identity after he felt his safety was threatened, preserving only his Twitter account. She confirms Ellis' information regarding the shut-down of Pacifica in 1985, but she's having a hard time finding anything on the group called Section that was responsible for Pacifica until the shutdown. MK suggests some believe Section to be the CIA, EPA, or possibly the NSA or FBI, but she personally believes it could be people from each organization. She found evidence linking Section to Parzavala in the form of messages from people with both organizations, looking for a 70s film that supposedly makes any viewer insane. It's said to be a collection of images from the Pacific Northwest, and its title may be Tenebris Oculta, Enfer Sur Terre, Hell on Earth, The Trees. But most people on the deep web simply refer to it as The Last Movie, as it's the last thing you see before you die. MK says she can't find a copy of the film, so she doesn't believe one actually exists.
The Severed Feet Phenomenon Edit
Nic was looking into accounts of severed feet washing ashore in Washington and British Columbia when he was first creating the podcast, so he decides to revisit the strange story. 16 feet--mostly right feet--have washed ashore since 2007 and asks MK to look into it. MK discovers DNA profiles of the people to whom the feet would have belonged are available, but she can't get access to that information; Nic then asks Ellis for help, and tells Nic a man named Alan Malden was linked to one of the feet. Nic goes to interview Malden and discovers he still has both of his feet, and that the verification was dismissed as a clerical error. However, MK tells Nic she discovered Malden was reported missing for a month by his wife, and once lived near the area the cabin once occupied.
Hypnosis with Dr. Bernier Edit
Nic plays a recording of his most recent hypnosis session with Dr. Bernier, where he talks about watching Veronika rearrange the letters for "Saint Raywood" to compose "Tanis Doorway", and hearing her repeating "it's waking up" as they moved closer to "the calm".
Eld Fen Manuscript / Wick / Corroman Edit
Nic receives an email from a listener containing a document written by John Corroman, a "writer collector and conservator" who Nic believes to have attended Seattle University in the 70s. Nic asks MK to research Corroman and August Wick, the writer of an epigraph on the first page of the manuscript. She finds evidence that Wick is regarded to some as the Lovecraft of the Eld Fen set, though August Wick is most likely a pseudonym, some theorising that he was actually Carl Panzram, a serial killer writing from prison.Nic reads Wick's introduction to the Eld Fen collection, stating Corroman was his professor at Cornell University, and while Wick wishes he hadn't found Corroman's notes on Eld Fen, he's past the point of no return in his obsession. Corroman advised Wick to go into journalism or writing, and Corroman followed his suggestion, wanting to develop more of a friendship in later years, but having that plan cut short by Corroman's death by a hit-and-run driver.
Mysterious Audio Recording Edit
MK sends Nic an audio file that sounds like a recording made in a movie theatre of indistinct footsteps, heavy breathing, bells ringing, and a large drum beating.
Meerkatnip, information specialist
Alan Malden, DNA linked to severed foot
http://tanistranscripts.weebly.com/episode-201-the-wall.html
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Health & Fitness Apps Top Charts
Android App Guides
Zombies, Run! – The Apocalypse Is Coming….
For the exercise enthusiast who may need or want a little more encouragement or excitement in their fitness routine, the Zombies, Run! app may have just what you need. Part action and adventure story, part fitness app and part science fiction movie, Zombies, Run! is an exercise program like nothing you’ve ever experienced.
This app takes all of the excitement of a zombie game and combined it with an exercise program. The result is an intense, heart-pounding, calorie burning workout that will have you in top shape in no time.
Available for download for $3.99, the Zombies, Run! app is for users aged 17 and older due to adult content such as drug and alcohol use, mild sexual content, intense horror and realistic violence.
While this may sound like the rating warning for a blockbuster movie, this fitness app will have you sweating and running as though your life depends on it.
With up to 120 missions available for purchase, your workout routine will never get old. Additional episodes range in price from $2 – $18.
You star as the hero in an epic drama where you must run to survive the zombie attack, and humanity is counting on you. You’ll need to race against the clock (and the zombies) to collect supplies, avoid the growing zombie horde and solve the mystery of the apocalypse.
Designed to work with all skill levels, you can walk, run or jog through the courses, gathering supplies to survive as you go. The zombie training will have you increasing your speed and intensity – no matter where you start.
When you turn on the Zombie Chase mode, you’ll find that suddenly you have a stronger motivation to perform interval training – who knew it could be this fun?
Once you’ve made it back to base, you’ll have to decide how to parcel out the supplies you gathered. As you build your base, you gain access to other missions and can start to plan for your next adventure/run.
Detailed reports show you speed and distance while sharing options let you tell everyone about your zombie avoidance success through Facebook and Twitter.
The app is easy to use, and the newest versions seem to have corrected some of the bugs and crashes that were happening. Due to the accelerated mode of the app, battery life may be significantly decreased.
This app is strictly a running app. It doesn’t have fancy tracking or analytics, it won’t tell you how many calories you’ve burned, and it isn’t going to give you menu suggestions.
It’s going to give you motivation to run, and a reason to lace up your tennis shoes. And really, isn’t that all you need?
Unlike other running apps, Zombies, Run! can be interfaced with your own playlist, and narrates the storyline to you over the course of a 30 minute workout.
Perfectly timed to give you a full workout, you can get in a run, save humanity from certain destruction and still be home in time for dinner. Now that’s a fitness app!
More Under: android, apps, exciting, Exercise, fitness, ios, routine, Run, Running, Zombies
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Limit processed foods to help increase your energy levels and accelerate fat loss.
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Instagram @topfitnessapps
© 2019 TopFitnessApps. | Interested in promoting your app? Publish Your App
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By rohitthakur, 22nd Jun 2018 | Follow this author | RSS Feed | Short URL http://nut.bz/1k2rjrnv/
Posted in Wikinut>Travel>Asia>India>Jammu & Kashmir
Planning a trip to the Holy Shrine of Vaishno Devi? Here are some tips to help you plan your trip.
How to Reach Vaishno Devi Easily?
By Air:
Availability of Trains:
Vaishno Devi
Vaishno Devi temple is located in a small town called Katra, 50 km from Jammu. It is a small town, which serves as base camp for the yatra to the Holy Shrine, which is a 13.5 km uphill trek. Katra is well connected to Jammu by different modes of transportation. There are two major ways of reaching the temple.
1. Reach Katra via Jammu. Jammu is around 580 Kms from Delhi and well-connected through road, air, and rail.
2. Reach Katra directly through Train
Read on to find out what is the best mode of transport for you.
1. By Road
2. By Air
3. By Train
You can reach the temple via road transport, by either boarding a bus or by personal or hired conveyance. Several public and private Road Transport Corporations operate buses that take you straight to Katra, avoiding a halt at Jammu. And if you plan on going by car, you can get on the National Highway 1A that passes through Jammu, towards Srinagar. However, travelling by road is not the best option as it can be very tiresome and uncomfortable especially for the elderly. Also, the way to Jammu passes from rugged terrains, and if you must travel by road, it is advisable to hire an experienced driver to commute.
Reaching Vaishno Devi Shrine by air is the fastest way to get there. Jammu Airport has regular flights connecting Jammu to Delhi and the rest of the country. Once you arrive at the airport, you can easily avail a cab or board a bus to cover your distance till Katra. Katra is 49 Kms away from the airport, and it takes about an hour to get there. For elderly, cabs may be a better option.
Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra railway station is the nearest station to the pilgrimage. Many trains run from Delhi and other major cities of North India to Katra via Jammu. You can board the train from Delhi at night and reach Katra early morning and start fresh. During peak season, special trains ply for the comfort of the passengers.
Trains are always preferable when making such journeys, especially with family and elders. This way you don’t get tired on the trip and get ample of time to rest. Trains are safer, provide more room for luggage and affordable. What’s more, you can always track your train arrival time and train running status to be doubly assured, thanks to user-friendly mobile apps.
There are close to 18 trains that can take you to Katra from New Delhi. You can choose from Express trains and Super Fast trains. From Delhi, Delhi Sarai Rohilla - Udhampur AC Express is the fastest train that takes about 10 hours and 40 minutes to cover the distance to Udhampur. From Udhampur, you can hire a cab till Katra which is a 1-hour drive.
Other trains like Sarvodaya Express, Swaraj Express, Hapa SVDK Express, Malwa Express and Shri Shakti AC Express take you to the closest station, i.e., Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Katra railway station. With live train status available online and through mobile apps, train journeys are now safe and convenient especially for the elderly.
Recommended Reading: how can apps make your travel experience better in Indian railway?
Once you reach there, there are private hotels available and dharamshalas run by the Shrine Board. You can choose one according to your preference and affordability. It is best to start your journey to the shrine in the evening when you are well rested. It takes about four to six hours to get to the main temple, and the trek downhill takes about three to four hours.
Have a safe and fun trip!
Live Train Status, Train Running Status
I am Rohit Thakur. Travel freak & Food lover. I like to explore the adventures occurred during travelling at different places in India.
Exciting Crocodile, Kudu and Hyrax Safaris in Tanzania
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Delhi & Around
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The Andaman Islands
Traditions & Culture
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Smoke-Free Hotels in Ocean City, Maryland
Caryn Anderson, Leaf Group
Many Ocean City hotels feature a smoke-free environment. (Photo: Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images )
Resorts in Ocean City, New Jersey
Ocean City Beach Hotels
Pet-Friendly Hotels in Ocean City, Maryland
Hotels on 34th Street in St. Petersburg, Florida
Ocean City, Maryland, has been a vacation destination for hundreds of years, with a history dating back before 1875, when the Atlantic Hotel first opened. Ocean City features a boardwalk nearly three miles long and a diverse selection of amusement rides, shops and restaurants. Travelers seeking smoke-free accommodations can choose from a variety of hotels.
Hotels With Suites
The Cayman Suite Hotel (caymansuites.com) is a half-block from the beach on 125th Street, near Northside Park and Montego Bay Shopping Center. Each suite features a separate living room, efficiency kitchen, two televisions, private balcony, wireless Internet service and daily maid service. Sleep Inn and Suites (sleepinn.com) is on Baltimore Avenue and First Street, a short walk from the boardwalk. Each room features a refrigerator, in-room coffee, plush bedding and private balcony. Amenities include an outdoor pool, free wireless Internet service and free deluxe continental breakfast.
Downtown Ocean City Hotels
Travelers looking to stay on the boardwalk can choose from downtown hotels such as the Hotel Monte Carlo and Suites (montecarlo-2000.com). It is steps from the boardwalk and ocean at Third Street, and also has an all-suite building on 11th Street. All rooms feature kitchenettes and wireless Internet service. Amenities include a rooftop outdoor swimming pool and heated spa tub with views of the ocean and boardwalk, indoor pool, fitness room and laundry facilities. The Courtyard Marriott (marriott.com) is on the boardwalk at 15th Street, a short walk from shops, restaurants, rides and the beach. Amenities include a limited fitness room, jogging trail, indoor swimming pool, on-site restaurant and laundry facilities.
Budget-Friendly Hotels
Travelers in search of budget-friendly options have several choices, including Days Inn Oceanfront Hotel (daysinn.com), at 23rd Street and the boardwalk. Amenities include premium cable in every room, free Internet, two outdoor swimming pools and on-site restaurant. Castle in the Sand Hotel (castleinthesand.com), 37th Street and the ocean, has free wireless Internet service, two on-site restaurants, direct beach access with beach equipment rentals and Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Typical Weather
Ocean City, Maryland in JanuaryFebruaryMarchAprilMayJuneJulyAugustSeptemberOctoberNovemberDecember
--°F High
--°F Low
Chance of Rain
The temperature in Ocean City, Maryland in July tends to be very predictable, so you can generally count on the forecast and travel light.
The temperature in Ocean City, Maryland in July is somewhat unpredictable, so be on the safe side and prepare for a variety of conditions.
The temperature in Ocean City, Maryland in July is highly unpredictable, so use the forecast as a guide, but be ready for anything!
Ocean City is home to two resort hotels, including Princess Royale Oceanfront Family Resort (princessroyale.com) on 91st Street at the ocean. The hotel features a marble-tiled lobby, free valet parking and a four-story glass atrium overlooking the ocean. Amenities include an on-site health club, Olympic-sized indoor swimming pool, sundeck with heated spa tubs, convenience store, gift shop and three restaurants. The Princess Bayside Beach Hotel (princessbayside.com) is on the bay at 48th Street, one block from the ocean and within walking distance of shops and restaurants. Amenities include an on-site water sports center, rooftop swimming pool with bay views, indoor swimming pool, private bayfront beach, game room, laundry facilities and on-site Irish pub.
Ocean City Maryland Convention and Visitors Bureau: Ocean City History
Cayman Suites Hotel: Suites
Sleep Inn and Suites: Hotel Highlights
Hotel Monte Carlo and Suites: Hotel Info
Courtyard Ocean City Oceanfront: Explore Our Hotel
Days Inn Oceanfront: Hotel Overview
Castle In the Sand: Amenities
Princess Royale Oceanfront Family Resort: Hotel Information
Princess Bayside Beach Hotel: Amenities
Caryn Anderson combines extensive behind-the-scenes writing experience with her passion for all things food, fashion, garden and travel. Bitten by the travel bug at the age of 15 after a trip to Europe, Anderson fostered her love of style and fashion while living in New York City and earning her degree at New York University.
Hemera Technologies/PhotoObjects.net/Getty Images
Attribution: Notyourbroom; License: GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2
Attribution: . The original uploader was Xiaphias at English Wikipedia; License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Attribution: Morgan Tremper; License: Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license
Anderson, Caryn. "Smoke-Free Hotels in Ocean City, Maryland." Travel Tips - USA Today, https://traveltips.usatoday.com/smokefree-hotels-ocean-city-maryland-58484.html. Accessed 16 July 2019.
Anderson, Caryn. (n.d.). Smoke-Free Hotels in Ocean City, Maryland. Travel Tips - USA Today. Retrieved from https://traveltips.usatoday.com/smokefree-hotels-ocean-city-maryland-58484.html
Anderson, Caryn. "Smoke-Free Hotels in Ocean City, Maryland" accessed July 16, 2019. https://traveltips.usatoday.com/smokefree-hotels-ocean-city-maryland-58484.html
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Man docked for alleged assault on wife with hot semovita
A 35-year-old man, Bawa Joshua, on Monday appeared in an Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrates’ Court, for allegedly pouring hot semovita on his wife, Grace.
The defendant had pleaded not guilty to a count charge of assault.
The prosecutor, Insp. Johnson Okunade told the court that the defendant committed the offence on May 7, at about 8:00 p.m., at Ayoomodara St., Ado-Ekiti.
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He said the defendant quarrelled with the complainant, and in the process poured hot semovita on her, which caused her harm.
He said that the offence contravened Section 415 of the Criminal Code, Law of Ekiti State, 2012.
The prosecutor applied for an adjournment to enable him to study the case file and present his witnesses.
The defendant’s counsel, Mr Kayode Oyeyemi, urged the court to grant bail to his client and promised that he would not jump bail.
ALSO READ: My husband beat me up for voting in 2015 poll in Ekiti ―wife
The Chief Magistrate, Mr Adesoji Adegboye, granted bail to the defendant in the sum of N50,000 with one surety in like sum and adjourned the case until June 15 for hearing.
Ado-Ekiti Chief Magistrates’ Courtassault
Reintroduce commodity price control board
World Bank encouraged by Nigeria’s growth
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Butler County United Labor Council, AFL-CIO
Northwestern Pennsylvania Area Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
2019-2020 NWPA ALF Scholarship Winners Announced
rosann.barker on Sunday, June 2 - 8:46am
First, let us thank every applicant to all of our scholarships. We congratulate you for demonstrating how determined you are to obtain the necessary funding to further your education. You have shown more initiative than most of your peers. Our judges commented that they had an extremely difficult time selecting one winner from the Essays they were judging because so many were excellent. You should all be as proud of yourselves as we are.
We had twenty-eight judges total who served on a panel of judges for a given Scholarship (The NWPA ALF Scholarship, the David A Bielski Educational Scholarship, the Dr. David Ferster Educational Scholarship, the Theme Slogan Contest Scholarship) and we thank each of them for giving us time from their already busy schedules. Our judges were notified who they selected as winners. When they review the essays they were assigned a letter and all identification was removed.
Andrew Harkulich our Chairman and one of our judges contacted the winners to inform them before we informed the public of the results. Our scholarship winners are as follows;
NWPA Area Labor Federation Scholarship was won by Letter "K", Stone Robert Helsel whose father is a member of AFSCME 2102,
David A Bielski Educational Scholarship was won by Letter "F", Emily Hughes whose father is a member of IAFF 293,
Dr. David Ferster Educational Scholarship was not awarded because we had no applicants, and
Theme Slogan Contest Scholarship was won by Letter "B ", Samuel Vrenna his slogan was "Unions Unite A Community" which we will be proud to use for the theme of the Labor Day Parade in Erie this year.
If you know any of our winners, please congratulate them and encourage them to join us on June 26th.
We reminded all of the applicants that they would be able to apply again next year.
We made them aware there are two articles on our website (http://unionhall.aflcio.org/nwpaalf), about additional funding for education under the category of Resources: "Educational Funding Opportunities" and "Additional Scholarship Links", we hope they will check them out. We wish all of the applicants well as they go forward with your education and encourage them to apply again next year.
Our scholarships will be awarded on Wednesday, June 26th at our 12th Annual Meeting/Convention. The essays selected will be in our program book for the convention. Our Convention will begin at 12:00 NOON in the Crystal Ball Room of the Ambassador Center which is located at 2225 downs Dr., Erie, PA 16509. The winners and their parents are invited to join us. They will receive their awards then.
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Southern Mongolia: Protest Against The Resettlement of Herders
Local herders have been protesting against the central government’s ‘five-year-plan’ to resettle the last nomads in order to use their grazing lands for development projects.
Below is an article published by World War 4 Report:
Newly announced plans by China's central government for the "resettlement" of the last remaining nomads over the next five years have sparked protests in Inner Mongolia, with traditional Mongol herders accusing authorities of the illegal expropriation of grazing lands for development projects. At least four protests by Mongol herders have been reported over the last month. The most recent protest took place on July 2 in Imin Sum (Yimin Sumu in Chinese; "Sum" is equivalent to township), Eweenkh Banner (Ewen Keqi in Chinese; "banner" is equivalent to county), Hailar district. According to an appeal letter to the New York-based Southern Mongolian Human Rights Information Center (SMHRIC) written by the Imin Sum protesters, local herders have lost large tracts of their grazing lands to government projects including highway and rail line construction, mining and power plants. The process began in 1984 when Chinese state-run company Hua Neng Coal Electricity developed up a coal mine on local grazing lands.
Hundreds of herders also marched June 19 in Haliut, seat of Urad Middle Banner (Wulate Zhongqi), where a long banner read "Corrupt officials are occupying herders' grazing land; Herders are demanding justice." Riot police were immediately deployed and the streets and parks were ordered cleared and shut. Two weeks before that, there were clashes in Imin Sum as thugs hired by land-grabbers attacked herders who were tending their livestock on a last remaining piece of remaining grazing land. Many herders were reportedly beaten up and wounded, with two women hospitalized. One still remains unconscious.
On May 30, Premier Wen Jiabao announced a "12th Five-Year Plan for the Project on Resettling Nomadic People within China," which calls for settling the remaining nomad population of 1.157 million people by 2015. Authorities say 90% of China's 400 million hectares (988 million acres) of grassland now show some degree of environmental degradation, with over-grazing by nomads seen as a key contributing factor. SMHRIC says environmental concerns are being used a pretext for land-grabbing, and that the policy violate China's obligations under the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).
Ethnic Mongols make up not quite 20% of the 23 million people of Inner Mongolia, which the SMHRIC calls Southern Mongolia. The majority of the residents are now Han Chinese. The 12th Five-Year plan would also affect remaining nomadic populations in Tibet and the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
30 Years After Tiananmen Square: The Endurance of Violent Oppression
Southern Mongolia: Two More Detentions by Chinese Authorities
Southern Mongolia: Historian Tried in Closed-Door Hearing for Publishing on Mongolian Culture
Southern Mongolia: School Under Investigation for Displaying Flag of Independent Mongolia
East Turkestan, Tibet & Southern Mongolia: Joint Statement From Rights Groups Calls for Global Pressure on China Over Treatment of the Uyghurs
Protest: Put Human Rights in China on the ASEM Agenda!
Joint Protest - Resist Xi Jinping: Dictator of the Unfree World
More Southern Mongolia news »
UNPO reports to the UN CESCR on abuses in China, Indonesia, and Ukraine
Universal Periodic Review: UNPO Calls for Scrutiny of China over Extrajudicial-killings and Enforced Disappearances in East Turkestan, Inner Mongolia and Tibet
UNPO Report Highlights Severe Marginalization Faced By Tibetans, Uyghurs And Mongols In China
Report Details Persecution of UNPO Members in China
More Southern Mongolia publications »
UNPO Urges Ban Ki-moon to Speak Up for the Rights of Mongolians, Tibetans and Uyghurs
More Southern Mongolia appeals »
Southern Mongolia
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Aidan Joly
Aidan Joly is Senior Managing Editor of The Upstate Courier. In the past, he has been a beat reporter covering Section II Athletics, Siena College men's basketball, the Tri-City ValleyCats, and the Perfect Game Collegiate Baseball League. In Aidan's current role, he oversees game coverage and content. Aidan is a native of Saratoga Springs and a graduate of Saratoga Springs High School.
Tri-City ValleyCats
Aidan Joly Jul 11, 2019 0
TROY -- The ValleyCats kept up their winning ways on Thursday night as they beat the State College Spikes in the second game of the series, 4-3. The ValleyCats entered the top of the…
TROY -- The ValleyCats had their best game of the season at the plate on Wednesday night as the scored a huge win over the State College Spikes, 14-7 The ValleyCats got going early as…
AJ Lee home run, bullpen lead ValleyCats to win
Aidan Joly Jul 8, 2019 0
TROY -- It's not often that when you have 19 of your batters retired in a row you will go on to win the game, but that's what happened on Monday night for the ValleyCats, who grinded out a…
ValleyCats’ offense sputters in Fourth of July loss
TROY -- This year's annual Fourth of July home game was not kind to the ValleyCats as they fell to the Hudson Valley Renegades, only getting four hits and dropping the contest 4-0. The…
ValleyCats grab 5-3 win to close homestand
Aidan Joly Jun 30, 2019 0
TROY -- The Tri-City ValleyCats used early offense on Sunday night at Joe Bruno Stadium to carry them to a 5-3 win over the Aberdeen IronBirds, taking two of three on the series. The…
Kessinger walks-off ‘Cats in comeback win
TROY -- So far, it's been the season of the walk-off for the Tri-City ValleyCats. They continued that trend on Saturday night at Joe Bruno Stadium, this time it being Grae Kessinger…
Guillen records first ejection, ValleyCats lose in 11
TROY -- Ozney Guillen was ejected one time during his playing career, but got his first as a manager on Sunday night in a game that the ValleyCats dropped to the Vermont Lake Monsters, 7-6…
Stubbs’ walk-off double lifts ValleyCats to win
TROY -- Another game, another walk-off. That's become the theme for Tri-City ValleyCats home game so far this year as they did it again on Saturday night, their third walk-off win in…
Amsterdam Mohawks
Mohawks keep rolling with win over Glens Falls
GLENS FALLS -- It took them until later in the game, but Amsterdam Mohawks continued its hot start to the PGCBL season on Wednesday night, earning an 8-2 win over the Glens Falls Dragons at…
ValleyCats enter 2019 season on top
TROY -- Last September was one to remember for the Tri-City ValleyCats. They defeated the Hudson Valley Renegades two games to zero to claim the franchise's third New York-Penn League title.…
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Street Football
URBAN PITCH
The Stunning ‘Around The World’ Documentary Trailer Has Us Hyped For Its Release
Stephen Gray - November 19, 2018
After over a year of securing funding and traveling the world to different filming locations, the first official trailer for the Around the World documentary was released last week. While you...
A Conversation With Designer Mark Johnson, Whose Illustrations Have Garnered Ronaldinho’s Stamp of Approval
Ramsey Abushahla - February 16, 2018
England native Mark Johnson is yet another creative designer that has taken inspiration from the beautiful game. Using social media as a powerful exposure tool, Johnson's designs have been...
An Exclusive Interview with the Directors of ‘American Futbol’
Andrew Mitchell - March 19, 2019
Released last week, the American Futbol documentary centers on a group of friends' four-month journey through Latin America during the 2014 World Cup. Showcasing the region's raw passion and emotion surrounding...
Getting to Know Some of the Ambitious Artists Behind Nike’s Stunning NYC Garage Murals
Ramsey Abushahla - February 8, 2018
Just over a month ago, Nike unveiled a stunning new six-level parking structure for its employees in New York City. Much more than just an average garage, the building...
The Final Season of ‘Club De Cuervos’ Gives Us a Fitting End
Kevin Vote - March 8, 2019
Drama, suspense, and football — what more could you want out of a show? We give our thoughts on the final season of Club de Cuervos, Netflix's hit Spanish drama surrounding...
How Geoff Gouveia is Igniting Football Culture in America Through His Unique Art
Jeremy Rist - February 23, 2018
Artist Geoff Gouveia's creative and unique style stays true to his Southern California roots while also showcasing his undying passion for the beautiful game. In addition to sharing his...
An Exclusive Teaser of the Upcoming ‘La Reta Documental’ Film
UP Staff - March 12, 2019
Planning to highlight the importance of the beautiful game in Latin America, the La Reta Documental film crew is in the process of traveling throughout the region and capturing some...
Urban Hype
Reminisce on the Glory Days of Kits With ‘Your First Football Shirt’
Ramsey Abushahla - April 30, 2018
A project long in the works by the Football Shirt Collective, "Your First Football Shirt" takes a look at — as the title suggests — the stories behind the...
The Power Of the Game: An Interview With ‘One Goal’ Author Amy Bass
Victoria Hernandez - June 7, 2019
Chronicling the ups and downs of the refugee-led Lewiston High School soccer team's run to a state championship, Amy Bass' One Goal has been lauded by critics and sports...
Relive Magical World Cup History at Forest Lawn’s ‘GOOOOL! The World Cup’s Greatest Moments’ Exhibit
Patricia Sanchez - May 8, 2018
The Forest Lawn Museum's "GOOOOL! The World Cup's Greatest Moments" exhibit is a fine tribute to some of the most memorable moments in World Cup history. We were at the...
‘The Return of the Cup’ Makes a Stellar US Debut at the Kicking + Screening Soccer Film Festival
Wayne Girard - June 12, 2019
Documenting Eintracht Frankfurt's Cinderella run to their first German cup in 30 years, The Return of the Cup made a triumphant United States debut at last week's Kicking + Screening...
‘This Is Naija’ Showcases the Beautiful Culture That is Pushing Nigerian Football Forward
Kevin Vote - June 29, 2018
Similar to the 'Ginga' of Brazil, Nigeria's Naija is ever-present in all of its people — from the way they walk, talk, and of course, play football. Nike's "This...
A.S. Roma’s New York Pop-Up Shop Sets A New Standard for Club and Fashion Collaborations
Kevin Vote - August 16, 2018
A.S. Roma has established itself as one of the world's most stylish clubs with their recent New York City pop-up shop, which featured limited-edition clothes, sneakers, and artwork from...
Geoff Gouveia Discusses His Most Impressive Mural Yet, the Watts Empowerment Center Futsal Court
Jeremy Rist - September 28, 2018
In partnership with adidas, the US Soccer Foundation, and The Red Eye Foundation, artist Geoff Gouveia was recently commissioned to paint a mural unlike any he had previously done...
INARIA Goes Back to School With its Detail-Oriented Kit Closet Academy Collection
Ramsey Abushahla - October 26, 2018
Featuring a houndstooth print that likens itself to high fashion, INARIA's latest Kit Closet installation, dubbed "The Kit Closet Academy," is simplicity with a touch of class. In addition...
Geoff Gouveia’s Nonstop Hustle and Creative Business Approach Sets Him Apart From Your Typical Artist
UP Staff - October 31, 2018
In addition to his distinctive style and deep love for the beautiful game, artist Geoff Gouveia has used a clever approach to business and constant hustle to establish relationships...
Five Underrated Goalkeepers Every Fan Should Know
Urban Hype Thomas Clark - March 21, 2019
In Copenhagen, Elite Street Ballers Contend for Pannahouse Title
A Look Back at the Iconic Boots That Propelled Cristiano Ronaldo to Five Ballon d’Or Trophies
Lexicon, Part 2: A Guide to Street Football Terms
Puma Jumps on Street Football Train, But Can They Compete?
Contact us: info@urbanpitch.com
Eitsols - Electro & IT Solutions
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Author: therealwadelazz
March 3, 2018 March 3, 2018 therealwadelazz
The best films of 2017 and my picks for the big Oscar categories. Continue reading My Favorite Movies of ’17 (And What The Oscars Should Really Look Like)
Mudbound (2017)
March 3, 2018 therealwadelazz
I feel like that if Mudbound was shot on film instead of the Netflix-brand shiny digital and was mass-released in theaters rather than streamed, it would be up for Best Picture. Continue reading Mudbound (2017)
It cannot be said that Darkest Hour is anything but a good movie. It checks all of the boxes: an all-time portrayal of a real figure, a tight script about a trying time in history, and a director with the eye for the picturesque. Continue reading Darkest Hour (2017)
Certainly, there are moments when the script gets funky, and the ending may not totally satisfy, but Roman J. Israel, Esq is a very good (and surely rewatchable) film and is top-shelf Denzel canon. Continue reading Roman J. Israel, Esq. (2017)
Known colloquially as the “fish sex” movie, Guillermo Del Toro’s The Shape of Water is so much more. It is a mash-up of two mid-century genres, monster movies and light-footed romance, directed by a master, with good performances, and a great score. Continue reading The Shape of Water (2017)
While The Disaster Artist is funny it is not as touching as it hopes to be, and never answers the big question about why the lowest of art can reach the height of sublimity. Continue reading The Disaster Artist (2017)
February 25, 2018 March 3, 2018 therealwadelazz
The Florida Project is about the long shadows and the forgotten people in them. Continue reading The Florida Project (2017)
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Ten candidates confirmed for Conservative leadership race
Will Metcalfe
Yahoo News UK 10 June 2019
The nominees for the Tory leadership - l to r Boris Johnson, Dominic Raab, Jeremy Hunt, Rory Stewart, Mark Harper, (bottom row, left to right) Esther McVey, Matt Hancock, Andrea Leadsom, Michael Gove, and Esther McVey
Ten contenders in the Tory leadership race have been nominated to go through to the first round of voting by MPs, the joint acting chairman of the backbench 1922 Committee Dame Cheryl Gillan has said.
The full list of nominees is: Boris Johnson, Michael Gove, Jeremy Hunt, Dominic Raab, Esther McVey, Rory Stewart, Sajid Javid, Matt Hancock, Andrea Leadsom, and Mark Harper.
On Thursday, MPs will vote in the first ballot with candidates needing 17 votes to progress to the second round. If there is a tie, the nominee with the fewest votes will be eliminated.
At present, Boris Johnson is considered the favourite with bookies offering odds of 2/5 for the former Foreign Secretary.
Tory leadership contest timetable.
Speaking after the announcement Rory Stewart, MP for Penrith and the Borders, said: "I'm the only person who can beat Boris in the final two."
Environment Secretary Mr Gove insisted he was still in the race to "win it" despite calls for him to withdraw over his cocaine admission.
He said he had explained his regret at his past mistakes after the revelation over the weekend that he took the drug in the 1990s cast a shadow over his campaign launch on Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Secretary's campaign was bolstered by the backing of two Cabinet ministers - influential Remain supporter Amber Rudd and prominent Brexiteer Penny Mordaunt.
A man, who gave his name as Graham Moore, invades the stage at Esther McVey's launch for her bid to become Conservative leader. He branded the audience fake news before being escorted from the event.
Mr Hunt positioned himself as a "serious leader" and warned that the Tories would be "annihilated" if they fight a general election before delivering Brexit.
Other contenders - including Andrea Leadsom, Sajid Javid, Rory Stewart, Mark Harper and Boris Johnson - are expected to launch their campaigns later this week.
The MPs - who each had the backing at least eight of their colleagues - will need at least 17 votes to get through the first ballot on Thursday, while the candidate with the lowest votes will be eliminated.
Mr Hancock pledged to increase the national living wage to more than £10 an hour, and said he would reduce taxes on working people "when we can afford it".
Read more from Yahoo News UK
Boris Johnson pledges to cut top rate of income tax
Victoria Derbyshire accidentally calls Jeremy Hunt a c***
Nigel Farage has ‘good’ meeting with Donald Trump
Mr Raab spelled out his desire to break from the EU by October 31 even without a deal if necessary, and called for a "generational change in leadership".
And Ms McVey promised public sector workers a pay rise and vowed to increase police spending and boost funding for education as she set out her vision for the country.
She told the Eurosceptic Bruges Group: "My clear agenda is to deliver Brexit on the 31st of October and then we must unite the country, and then unite our party too."
Sam Gyimah withdrew from the race on Monday claiming he had left it too late to enter the race.
Watch the latest videos from Yahoo UK
Ebola has been raging in DRC for 12 months: why is it proving so hard to control?
Iran’s supreme leader promises response to seizure of Grace 1 tanker
Fake email scam thwarted by Government cybersecurity experts
'Executed' North Korean negotiator is alive, says South Korea's spy agency
Plane comes in to land just metres from tourists in Greece
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February 12, 2019 / 7:21 AM / 5 months ago
Investors cheer after Debenhams secures £40 million lifeline
(Reuters) - Shares in Debenhams surged by a third in value on Tuesday after the embattled UK retail chain secured £40 million in extra funding from some of its lenders, giving it more time to secure its longer-term future.
FILE PHOTO: A new Debenhams department store is seen in a shopping centre in Watford, Britain, September 24, 2018. REUTERS/Peter Nicholls
Once Britain’s biggest department store chain, Debenhams has been struggling with net debts of almost 300 million pounds and plans to close 50 underperforming stores, putting about 4,000 jobs at risk, after it failed to keep pace with consumers moving online and to cheaper outlets.
It said the new loan, agreed for a period of 12 months, would act as a bridge to “facilitate a broader refinancing and recapitalisation”, adding it was still talking to its stakeholders and would conclude a “comprehensive refinancing”.
The retailer, which is striving to avoid the fate of collapsed rivals BHS and House of Fraser, also said it had signed an agreement with Hong Kong-listed supply chain solutions firm Li & Fung to develop a strategic sourcing partnership.
Shares in Debenhams, which lost more than 85 percent of their value in 2018, were up 33.9 percent at 4.23 pence by 0820 GMT. That lifted the company’s market value to 52 million pounds, although some analysts questioned whether the extra funding would be enough or whether Debenhams might yet take up an offer of financing help from Mike Ashley’s Sports Direct, its biggest shareholder.
(GRAPHIC: Debenhams fights for survival - tmsnrt.rs/2UVFRfr)
“This interim solution ... shows the ongoing discussions with their lenders are constructive and ensures Debenhams can get through its working capital peak in April,” analysts at brokerage Investec said in a note.
“The strategic announcement with Li & Fung also enables them to consolidate its supplier base more quickly and helps those suppliers which have a credit insurance issue.”
UK media have reported previously that Debenhams had turned down an offer of a similar cash injection from Ashley’s Sports Direct, which already holds almost 30 percent of the company and has snapped up businesses after a number of UK high street collapses.
Other London-based analysts remained downbeat about Debenhams’ prospects.
“While this (refinancing) takes away the immediate pressure and provides a short respite, we believe Debenhams is likely to move forward with a CVA in order to reduce its lease commitments and store numbers, with longer-term financing also likely to be contingent on some form of equity raise,” John Stevenson, retail analyst at Peel Hunt, said in an email.
“The prospect of a CVA and equity raise may well secure the future of Debenhams, but also leaves little equity value for existing shareholders and we reiterate our Sell stance.”
Before Tuesday’s plan was announced, Debenham’s combined credit score - which measures how likely a company is to default in the next year on a scale of 100 (very unlikely) to 1 (highly likely) - was “1”, Refinitiv Eikon data showed.
Reporting by Noor Zainab Hussain in Bengaluru; editing by Patrick Graham and Susan Fenton
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Fact-Checking Fiasco
Tess Malone September 10, 2014
What do you think gets fact-checked the most rigorously: newspaper articles, magazine stories, or books? If you guessed books, you’d be surprised to know that they are rarely, if ever, fact-checked. At The Atlantic, Kate Newman questions why we have so much faith in books’ accuracy but why publishers don’t bother.
Tess Malone is an associate editor for The Millions and an editor in Atlanta. She tweets at @temalone.
A New Whodunit
Thomas Beckwith March 3, 2015
“They were town men. The sheriff and the other four went into his shack. One of them was Hines, the undertaker. They were in there for some time. They even opened the stove and dug through the ashes.” Stephen King has a story in this week’s New Yorker.
Thomas Beckwith
Rhian Sasseen May 14, 2013
Let’s Have a Panel About It
Brian Etling October 22, 2016
Man Booker Prize-winner Marlon James is finished talking about diversity, and here’s part of his logic: “A panel on diversity is like a panel on world peace. It should be seeking a time when we no longer need such panels. It should be a panel actively working towards its own irrelevance. The fact that we’re still having them not only means that we continue to fail, but the false sense of accomplishment in simply having one is deceiving us into thinking that something was tried.”
Brian Etling
RIP Jimbo’s
Nick Moran March 26, 2012
South Floridian bandits, fishermen, drunks, madmen, and college students are mourning the imminent demise of beloved Miami institution, Jimbo’s. The site of the “Who Lets The Dogs Out” video, the Flipper movie starring Elijah Wood, and a couple iterations of the now-defunct Swampstomp music festival, Jimbo’s defied summation. Put simply, you had to see it yourself. The way I always explained it to my friends up North was by telling them it was like The Rum Diary met CBGB’s and Will Smith’s “Miami” video. Still, even that’s insufficient, so I recommend reading the Miami New Times‘ epic chronicle of the place’s history.
Writing Without Rain
Kaulie Lewis August 31, 2014
“We don’t yet know how to make it rain. But increasingly, we may be talking about what to do when the rain doesn’t come.” Anna North writes for The New York Times about literature in the age of drought.
Kaulie Lewis
Rhian Sasseen December 12, 2012
Bruna Dantas Lobato November 10, 2015
Lindsey Drager considers the novella and argues that it is neither a feminine form nor a smaller type of novel. As she puts it, “while other fiction aims outward, the novella curls in, coiling around itself until there’s no distinction between the story’s body and the story’s shell.” Pair with our own Nick Ripatrazone’s essay on the art of the novella.
Bruna Dantas Lobato
Occupy a Classroom
Nick Moran December 11, 2011
NYU students can take a 4-credit undergraduate course on Occupy Wall Street and America’s debt issues this spring. According to the university’s website, this year’s tuition costs start at $19,672.
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Hot Cabin, Cold Service: LOT Premium Economy (787-8) From Chicago to Warsaw
by JT Genter
The LOT Premium Class felt older and outdated than it should’ve been for a product just a few years old. Pros include a comfortable chair for sleeping and sizable well-presented meals. Cons included a hot cabin, cold service from the crew, poor communication during a delayed departure, a limited entertainment system and no Wi-Fi.
What’s the best premium-economy experience to Europe, especially when you don’t have enough points for business class but just can’t deal with another long-haul flight in economy? It’s not an easy question to answer, but it’s what I had in mind when I flew LOT Polish Airlines. LOT currently flies 20 weekly flights from the United States to its hub in Warsaw (WAW) using its fleet of Boeing 787-8 Dreamliners:
New York (JFK): 6x weekly, increasing to 1-2x daily from late March to late October
Chicago O’Hare (ORD): 6x weekly, increasing to 1x daily from late March to late October
Newark (EWR): 4x weekly, increasing to 5x weekly only in April before returning to 4x weekly in May
Los Angeles (LAX): 4x weekly, increasing to 6x weekly from April through October
In This Post
Looking for the best way to try out LOT Polish Airlines, I first checked out the points-and-miles options, but I wasn’t able to find any available LOT premium-class awards for any dates. Per a footnote on the awards chart, LOT premium economy was supposed to be available for 37,500 Miles and More miles one-way. But I couldn’t redeem these awards online, and a Miles and More agent was unable to find any dates with availability.
Theoretically, I could’ve redeemed 45,000 Aeroplan miles for a Star Alliance premium-economy award from the continental US to what Aeroplan calls its “Europe 2” region, but, again, I couldn’t find any dates with premium-economy award availability.
So that left me to book the flight with cash. Thankfully, LOT priced its premium-economy product reasonably — even for last-minute, one-way international tickets. From Chicago O’Hare (ORD) to Amsterdam (AMS) via Warsaw (WAW), the premium-economy flight cost $1,314 one-way when I purchased it 11 days before departure. I paid for the ticket with my Platinum Card® from American Express to earn 5x Membership Rewards points on the airfare — in total I earned 6,570 MR points for the purchase, which are worth approximately $125 according to TPG’s latest valuations.
I landed in ORD’s Terminal 3 on a separate American Airlines ticket and — after using my Citi AAdvantage Executive World Elite Mastercard to enjoy the Admirals Club for a few hours — took the bus over to ORD’s international Terminal 5. The LOT check-in desk was on the far right of the terminal. There were three check-in lines: Business class (including Star Alliance Gold elites), premium class (including Star Alliance Gold elites) and economy class. There was no one waiting in either the business- or premium-class lines.
The check-in agents waiting around for premium- and business-class passengers were friendly, asking if I got their good side when I was taking photos of the check-in area. The agent working on checking me in recognized my Star Alliance Gold status, checked my bag through to AMS, then invited me to go to the lounge and wait there for a LOT representative to invite me to board; she said that there was no need to head to the gate before that.
There was a problem, though: She didn’t mention which lounge to use. Using the signage outside the lounge, I figured out that LOT contracted with the Air France/KLM lounge. What if I didn’t have Star Alliance Gold status? Well, anyone with a Priority Pass membership could’ve used this lounge.
The lounge was small but fairly well-stocked with fresh food and a variety of drinks. After working for a bit, I ignored the check-in agent’s recommendation to stay in the lounge and headed to the gate to stake out my place as first to board so I could get clean photos for this review.
According to the LOT signs, there was one zone for business class, premium class and Star Alliance Gold elites and another for economy. But there was a third zone, which I figured out by noticing the confused Zone 3 passengers wandering around looking for where to line up.
We were told just 12 minutes before the scheduled departure that the flight was delayed, and we ultimately ended up pushing back 45 minutes late. If I hadn’t been looking to board absolutely first, I might’ve opted to wait in the lounge, as business-class passengers and Star Alliance elites were allowed to board the aircraft from a door connecting the Air France/KLM lounge to the gate. This boarding process was just starting as I hurried down the jet bridge to board first.
Cabin and Seat
My first impression of LOT’s premium-class cabin was that it didn’t feel modern. Although the aircraft we were flying on was less than four years old, the premium-economy seats and cabin felt much older than that.
The seats were arranged in a 2-3-2 seating arrangement. Seats measured 20 inches between armrests. The middle armrests measured 6 inches wide, allowing enough elbow space for both passengers.
Pitch measured just 37 inches, which was especially tight given the thick seats.
There was very little storage space in these seats. Only a 10-inch-wide seatback pocket provided any sort of storage space.
In the armrest between seats was a two-prong headphone jack, a USB power outlet and a universal power outlet for each seat.
Each premium-class seat had a leg rest; non-bulkhead seats had a footrest that folded down from the seat in front. It didn’t seem particularly comfortable to me at first, but the combination of the leg rest, enough recline and firm headrest wings helped me sleep well between meal services.
The cabin was very warm. Topping out at 81 degrees Farenheit in the middle of the flight, the cabin was at least in the high 70s throughout the flight. While the temperature was uncomfortably warm, the humidity was great. According to my hygrometer, the humidity didn’t drop below 13% the whole flight, generally ranging between 15% and 25%. While that’s similar to desert humidity, it was much better than I’ve experienced on other aircraft — even Dreamliners — leaving me much less dry than on a typical flight.
While some Dreamliner windows only turn a dark blue, darkness wasn’t an issue on this flight. At their darkest, the windows were totally black.
The in-flight entertainment was subpar on LOT’s 787-8. The airline didn’t install Wi-Fi on these aircraft, so you were limited to what you brought on board, or the provided IFE system for entertainment.
LOT had a bulky 10.5-inch touchscreen that stored in the middle armrests. Since this system wasn’t in the seatback of the seats in front, the IFE screen had to be stowed during takeoff and landing. Flight attendants directed passengers to stow these screens about 30 minutes before landing, leaving us without entertainment for the descent.
You’d think that the bulkiness of the screen implied a wide variety of content to choose from, but that wasn’t the case. The entertainment options were limited, with only a few categories of movies and TV shows. While there were 24 individual episodes of TV dramas, some categories had just one entertainment option. For example, there was just one 30-minute show for sports, an entertaining history of the Winter Olympics.
TV shows and movies began with two commercials. At least most of them did. A couple of movie selections I tried would only play the two commercials before sending me back to the menu without playing the movie.
Simple earbuds were provided. While of decent quality for earbuds, they felt cheap for a premium-economy product.
The IFE system was easily controlled by the touchscreen, which was well within reach, but an IFE remote was also located in the lower part of the armrest. Although the remote was stored in the armrest near my thigh, I didn’t have any issues with my leg accidentally pressing up against it.
The service from flight attendants was consistent but far from friendly. Service felt obligatory, as if the crew were simply going through all the required actions. Drinks and meals were served and dishes collected without any pleasantries.
One example of this cold service came when I was looking for a bathroom after we reached cruising altitude. With economy directly behind the premium-economy cabin and a galley ahead of the cabin, I first checked the forward galley for a bathroom. The flight attendants, annoyed, told me, “There’s no toilet here,” and waved me away to find the bathroom on my own.
At boarding, seats were stocked with a plastic-wrapped blanket, plastic-wrapped floral pillow, plastic-wrapped earbuds and a small plastic-wrapped amenity kit. In addition, a bottle of water was in the pocket in front of each seat.
I tried to use the pillow for lumbar support, but the pillow compressed easily, so it didn’t provide much support. The blanket wasn’t necessary in the warm cabin, but the water definitely came in handy for keeping me hydrated.
The amenity kit was small and felt cheap, but it provided the basics. There was a pair of socks, a plastic-wrapped simple eye mask, plastic-wrapped earplugs and a collapsible toothbrush with toothpaste.
While IFE and service were lacking, LOT provided solid food and beverage.
During boarding, welcome drinks were served from a tray. Water, orange juice and prosecco were available in LOT-branded glasses, accompanied by a moist towelette. During our long taxi to the runway, flight attendants handed out printed premium-class menus that appeared to be a standardized menu for all of LOT’s US routes.
Shortly after the seatbelt sign was turned off, flight attendants completed a warm towel service and then launched right into drinks and snacks. Water, juices, sodas, beer, wine and liquor were all served alongside packages of peanuts and pretzels.
I didn’t have much time to enjoy those snacks, though, as dinner was served less than 15 minutes later. I had roast duck with vegetables and mustard dressing; lettuce with grapes and feta cheese; herb-roasted chicken with steamed asparagus, quinoa and a demi-glace; and a brownie with walnuts.
The salad was a solid start accompanied by a lemon vinaigrette. The chicken was well-seasoned and mostly well-cooked, but it was a bit on the tough side, and the quinoa served on the same plate didn’t reheat well. Passengers were invited to reach into a bread basket to pull out a roll rather than the flight attendant pulling it out and serving it, which came off a bit unsanitary.
LOT-branded metal silverware was wrapped in a LOT-emblazoned cloth napkin. Between the metal silverware and the thick plates, the meal tray was quite heavy even after the meal was consumed. Similarly, the mugs for coffee and tea were thick and heavy. While probably not great for aircraft weight, these gave the feeling you were actually sitting in a premium class.
For breakfast, I got the plate of fresh fruit (cantaloupe, watermelon, blueberries) and strawberry yogurt. There was also a plate of what the menu described as smoked duck with potatoes and baby carrots, but there were no carrots to be found. The duck wasn’t bad, but the potatoes seemed almost pickled. Again for breakfast, passengers were welcomed to reach into a basket of rolls to select their own.
Your priorities really determine whether or not you’ll enjoy flying LOT Polish Airlines premium class. If you’re looking to sleep for much of the flight in a sizable recliner chair with a solid meal before and after you sleep, LOT Premium Class will serve those needs. If you value service and/or a good entertainment system, you’re likely going to be disappointed. If you need to stay connected, the lack of Wi-Fi makes this a no-go. And if you can’t stand a warm cabin, you might want to look to another carrier.
JT Genter is a digital nomad who travels full-time while covering American Airlines (Executive Platinum), IHG (Spire Ambassador) and anything points & miles. He's flown 57 airlines and 667k miles since 2017.
WELCOME OFFER: 60,000 Points Terms Apply.
CARD HIGHLIGHTS: Delta Sky Club and Centurion lounge access, $200 annual airline fee credit and up to $200 in Uber credits annually
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Make Your Way Down The Rabbit Hole to California’s Most Whimsical Holiday Event “The Mad Hatter Holiday Festival” that Recreates an Alice in Wonderland Enchantment for All in the City of Vallejo
Nov 2, 2017 | Art
The Mad Hatter Holiday Festival attracts thousands to the historic downtown district with its Mad Hatter Parade and fire-shooting Wonderland recreations that turns the city into a fantasy world for children and adults alike!
VALLEJO, CA, November 02, 2017 /24-7PressRelease/ — Every year there are acclaimed Burning Man sculptures surrounding the Festival as well as participating in the Mad Hatter Holiday Parade. The SOMA Sculpture created for Burning Man 2009 event, will be on display, an interactive stainless steel structure with 97 LED Lights and the fire shooting Santa Gnome both by the Flaming Lotus Girls. Another added attraction is the Steampunk Airship, a Victorian pirate ship with a helium multicolored balloon by the Airpusher Collective that was born and nurtured through the heart of Burning Man.
The Mad Hatter Holiday Parade also offers romantic classical moments as well with the fully uniformed CAL Maritime Cadets and their beautifully dressed partners waltzing in the parade. Award winning high school marching bands and Color Guard each year wow the spectators with their outstanding choreographed holiday performance. Vallejo’s schools shine brightly as they march down the tree lighted streets of Wonderland in Vallejo’s historic district.
Decorated floats of tea parties fill the parade along with Cinderella’s Carriage, The Mad Hatter’s Tea Pot and shirted motorized characters from Wonderland. There are also battleships and lighted tricycles and airships that all glide through the Mad Hatter Holiday Parade most created by Vallejo’s Obtainium Works, Steampunk Collective Shannon and Kathy O’Hare.
Many iconic characters appear out of the rabbit hole to be in the parade and festival from Star Wars as well as from the Hatter’s Tea Party including the celebrated Mad Hatter, White Rabbit, Cheshire Cat, Lion King and other famed movie and comic book heroes that come out of the rabbit hole to Vallejo’s Wonderland.
This year’s Grand Marshall is Roy Rogers, one of the premiere slide guitar players in the world with over 20 recordings to his credit and eight Grammy nominations for producing, recording and as a songwriter. He has collaborated with many renowned artists including John Lee Hooker, Bonnie Raitt, Carlos Santana and Sammy Hagar among many others. He is known world-wide for his talent and continues to tour with his band The Delta Rhythm Kings. The Hatter’s honorary community organization is S.O.C.K supporting our cancer kids: Amanda Ferron’s son diagnosed with Leukemia said that she was touched by all S.O.C.K does for their little cancer warriors.
The Mad Hatter Holiday Festival, Parade, & Tree Lighting is held Saturday, December 2, 2017 more of the Mad Hatter activities happen for several weekends afterwards with tea parties and holiday performances: The Empress Theater hosts pictures with Santa in the afternoon and the Mad Hatter’s after party with The Tasmanian Devils and The Edge Reunion. Many other merchants and artists galleries are engaged with holiday shows and tea parties during the Festival. Another highlight is the popular Grand Victorian Homes Tour on Sunday, December 10, 2017 in Vallejo, CA., in Vallejo’s designated historic home district with a festive reception at the Vallejo Naval & Historical Museum and the after party at Godfather’s Winery on Mare Island.
Wonderland Festival Activities begins at 2:00 p.m. in Unity Plaza, downtown Vallejo
Mad Hatter Parade starts at 4:30 p.m.
Tree Lighting Ceremony starts at 6:00 p.m.
Lighted Boat Parade starts at 6:30 p.m.
Empress Theater Mad Hatter After Party starts at 8:00 p.m.
The award winning Burning Man Fire Shooting Dragon Wagon will make an appearance in the Mad Hatter Holiday Parade as well as dancing horses. Harry Potter’s recreated Night Bus, and the Mad Hatter’s Flash Mob Dancers all light-up Vallejo’s downtown streets in the Mad Hatter Holiday Festival.
There are also several food courts and one Wonderland Forest Food Court surrounded by a multicolored inflatable forest by Astro Botanicals. There is an Artisan Wine & Beer Garden by the lighted holiday tree and fire shooting Santa Gnome. Many of the attendees are donned with top hats and Victorian attire that come in droves to celebrate Wonderland once again where the Mad Hatter rules.
There will be R2D2 droids roaming about along with Darth Vader and other Star War characters taking the parade and festival to Galactic Empires as well as dancing horses and multi-colored sparkling contraptions of wonderment and a children’s amusement park and holiday train taking families around the lighted holiday festival.
In addition, many of the downtown merchants, Victorian home owners, galleries, eateries, besides the theater and museum all participate with Wonderland surprises throughout the month of December.
Find us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/MadHatterHolidayVallejo
Website: http://HatterVallejo.com
You Tube video produced by WhatSF, a weekly television program in San Francisco, has a growing viewership of 100,000: https://youtu.be/jN6MhLHYFrI
For more information contact: Frank Malifrando, 414-533-1522
Hyperion Community Partners LLC produces in partnership with the City of Vallejo, The Mad Hatter Holiday Festival, Parade & Tree Lighting and the Mad Hatter July 4th Waterfront Festival that attracts over 10,000 attendees enjoying a Wonderland mix of creative entertainment plus the most unusual attractions for children and adults with live entertainment, carnival rides, an artisan beer and wine tasting garden, colorful cultural performances, and zany parades.
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Arie Luyendyk Jr. allegedly dumps pick, goes back with runner-up
Bachelor Arie Luyendyk Jr.: Emily Maynard Reacts - screenshot
'The Bachelor' spoilers are out now and things are going pretty crazy.
by Mandy Robinson (article) and Parasshuram Shalgar (video)
January 23, 2018 at 12:44 PM Tue 23 Jan 2018 12:44:46 PM EST
Arie Luyendyk Jr. allegedly dumps pick, goes back with runner-up - Video
This morning Reality Steve finally made the announcement that he has been teasing for weeks. It turns out that he says that Arie Luyeyndyk Jr. has dumped the girl he picked and is now dating the runner-up from his season. This is the exact same thing that Jason Mesnick did, but it sounds like Arie's went down a little bit different. Several times this season Arie mentioned that he fell in love with two girls and it sounds like that is the case.
Reality of what went down
Steve shared that on the night of the premiere of "The Bachelor" Arie actually called Lauren on the phone. He was still with his pick at this time. At this time, he was engaged to Becca K. Steve says that he was having some second thoughts about his decision.
Steve says that Arie broke up with Becca and that they actually went to Virginia where Lauren B. lives to film.
This could be pretty interesting. Hopefully, it all shows up on the "After the Final Rose" special. They actually went to Lauren's parent's house to film. Steve also said that when Arie dumped Becca they were on one of their weekend dates and that "The Bachelor" cameras were filming it all.
He says that Lauren actually is dating Arie now and that he called off his engagement to Becca. This is going to make for an interesting rest of the season watching his chemistry between these two girls.
It sounds like Arie was engaged to Becca for about two months before calling it off and moving on. It will be about five weeks before the fans get to see this all go down on "The Bachelor" and everyone is going to enjoy seeing it. For now, they aren't engaged, but that could end up happening before the rest of the season airs.
When did this happen before?
If you remember, Jason Mesnick picked Melissa, but they were not doing well.
Waitrose worker gets signed by music exec during shift
On the "After the Final Rose," he told Molly that he made a mistake and wanted to be with her instead. It all went down on the show. She was shocked, but took him back and then they later got married. It worked out for this couple and it could end up working out for Arie as well. Everyone is going to have to wait and see. This is a huge flip that hasn't happened in a long time, but that is also part of what makes this show great television.
Are you shocked to hear that Arie Luyendyk Jr. allegedly dumped his pick and moved on to the runner-up? Do you feel like this will last? Sound off in the comments below on your thoughts, and don't miss the new episodes of "The Bachelor" 2018 on Monday nights on ABC.
'90 Day Fiance': Ashley Martson's excuse for dumb decisions beside a dart in the brain
Mandy Robinson
Mandy Robinson has been a freelance writer for eight years. She will never shy away from a good story and loves to write on the best reality TV spoilers, celeb news and more.
Follow Mandy on Facebook Follow Mandy on Twitter
Read more on the same topic from Mandy Robinson:
Jill and Derick Dillard spent their fifth anniversary with an out-of-town trip Anna Duggar celebrates her 31st birthday with family 'Counting On': Jessa Duggar Seewald shows off baby bump, baby could arrive any day
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Monster Hunter Stories TGS 2016 Preview - Mini Monster Hunters
Steven Bogos | 15 Sep 2016 06:20
Video Games - RSS 2.0
One of the biggest games at the Capcom booth this year was Monster Hunter Stories, Capcom's upcoming Monster Hunter spin-off for the 3DS. Right from the get go, I could tell that this spin-off was aimed for a younger audience than regular Monster Hunter players. Everything was a lot more cutsey, a lot more simple, and arguably, a lot more fun.
In Stories, you play as either a boy or a girl, and set out to conquer and capture the monsters of the world. The TGS demo I played started me off in an ice zone, alongside my faithful "Monstie" - this strange velociraptor thing. Much to my glee, I discovered I could ride my monstie around the world. As I played on, I learned that the monsters you capture, just like the main series game, play an integral part in combat.
Following a short tutorial from "Nyavi", the helpful navigation cat, I was tasked with invading monster lairs and stealing eggs. I rode my little raptor through the lairs, until we ran into a monster, which triggered a round of turn-based combat. The combat is a super, super simplified version of what we have seen before, and utilizes the rock-scissors-paper method of attacks (power, speed, dexterity) that is really popular in Japanese arcade games for young children. You have to pay attention to the monster to see what kind of attack it is going to use, and then counter it with a move of your own. Both the player (referred to as "Rider" in the game) and the monster can attack, although apart from special moves, the monster attacks on its own.
When you and your monster have filled up a special meter by making attacks, you can unleash a "kinship attack". Your character has his own set of special moves, and you can switch out monsters and use items during battle. That's about all there is to the battle system - it's just a very straightforward, slimmed down version of popular turn-based RPGs like Final Fantasy.
It's also worth noting that the combat is exorbitantly easy. It's very hard for a monster to actually take you down, and even if it manages to, you are given three "hearts" that act as lives, fully reviving you if you fall.
After cleaning a monster lair, you'll get an egg, which you can take to town to hatch, adding another monster to your collection. This was essentially all I did in the demo: clear lairs, collect eggs, hatch eggs. The game seemed to be very light on any sort of story, but I'm not sure if the TGS demo was made specifically to highlight combat or not. I visited two locales: a desert city and a frozen mountain, and while they were unique and interesting, the actual monster lairs were very boring, short, and samey. Everything also seems a bit... bare, which may have to do with the graphical limitations of the 3DS.
Speaking of which, I played the demo on the New 3DS, and it is very clear that this was a deliberate choice by Capcom. The c-stick was absolutely vital to the game, and I couldn't imagine playing without it. Similarly, as the game features amiibo support (which the vanilla 3DS lacks), I really find it hard to recommend if you haven't upgraded.
Monster Hunter Stories is Monster Hunter distilled, and very obviously aimed at children. I don't think it will appeal as much to hardcore Monster Hunter fans, but if you are a fan of simpler, more light-hearted RPGs like Pokemon or Zelda, then this may be one to pick up.
Liked this? Check out the rest of our Tokyo Game Show 2016 coverage right here!
steven bogos3dscapcommonster hunter storiesnintendotokyo game show 2016video games
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Baby Food Challenge | That's What We Said
THE PADULA SHOW
Celeb FC v Millers Stars – Charity Football
teammum
Every summer, there are always a number of Celebrity “Charity Football” games happening throughout the UK. Early 2013 a group of celebrity football players, who had been playing at various charity events for many years, ended up at an event which Karin, now affectionately known as Team Mum was volunteering at and helping to organise.
After the match, when the celebs & Karin were sitting & discussing the game, the subject of funding for such events arose. A number of the Celebs felt it wasn’t right that people attending were donating to charity events, unaware that some of those donations were being paid as fees to the organisers, celebs & venues.
Particularly for small charities & individuals who needed immediate help, it was felt no one should be taking a cut of the money raised. Celeb FC grew from that belief – Celebrities involved with them, play voluntarily to bring a showbiz feel to small UK events in aid of charity; this ensures that the charity or individual does NOT have to factor in for appearance fees or event organiser fees before they can even begin to think about an event.
In fact most of the events Celeb FC attend are to help people at the sharp pointy end of a crisis, and they have raised funds for disability aids & equipment, holidays for families with children who are suffering from life-limiting illnesses, foodbanks, domestic abuse charities, football clubs for children & other such important causes. They have also attended events just to create happy memories for families in difficult circumstances.
Celeb FC Celebrity players do not charge appearance fee’s & everything the team & support network do is voluntary; such as promotion of events by creating flyers, PR on social media and press releases for the charities.
This Video is of a July 2016 event for MILLERS STARS
It took place on 17th July at Raunds Town F.C. The match was to raise some funds & awareness for the small charity. The weather was beautiful & there was lots going on, including stalls, a fully stocked bar, food, children’s activities and much more. Millers Stars aims to help bereaved parents who have sadly lost their baby to stillbirth by purchasing a memorial item for their angel baby as it can be a great help to those suffering and a place for them to go to remember and be near their child.
Overall, a beautiful & very worthy small Charity & one Celeb FC were more than happy to help out.
We had a terrific time despite losing (for the first time in 12 games).
nobledo
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Greenland ice sheet data explorer: License
Open source tool, version 1.1
Data explorer: Greenland Ice Sheet
This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
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GNU General Public License below for more details.
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Mobile ⋮ Op-Ed
Strategically, LG G6 Could Not Have Had a Better Launch Period
By Omar Sohail
A leaked slide showing that the LG G6 would be equipped with a Snapdragon 821 sounds like very disappointing news to the general public who were waiting to upgrade to an Android flagship in 2017. However, it is very easy for the general consumer to assume that the manufacturer is going through a ‘cost saving’ strategy when there are a number of things happening behind closed curtains and all of those business decisions have been undertaken to make sure that LG is able to provide consumers with a premium product while making a profit. Here we explain the strategically impressive decision that it took to make sure the G6 gets announced earlier, along with the necessary trade-offs the company has to make.
Using a Snapdragon 835 Would Have Delayed the Launch of the G6, Thus Taking the Advantage Away From the Manufacturer
LG knows very well that its smartphone division is nowhere near as successful as Samsung’s and even if the G6 was launched at the same time as the Galaxy S8 while running a Snapdragon 835, chances are that the company would not have borne sufficient fruit from its hard work. It is honestly not the company’s fault; the V20 is a great example of a smartphone that comes with its hefty share of premium features but because of Samsung’s global popularity driven by the public’s impression of the brand, the V20 was and is still regarded as the most underrated flagship of 2016.
Related LG G6 Is Discounted to an Unbelievable $250, but It Is Just for Today
This, combined with LG’s lack of marketing campaigns as opposed to Samsung’s did not make a very successful recipe to sell phones in 2016 so we’re hoping that the company has changed its stance on experimenting with different marketing campaigns the same way it will end up giving the G6 a complete design and feature overhaul. As most of you know, the smartphone is going to be announced on February 26, and Samsung’s absence at the MWC 2017 trade show in regards to releasing a smartphone should be a breath of fresh air because the Korean firm isn’t wasting any time in rushing the launch date of its G6.
According to our previous report, the G6 is going to launch in Korea on March 9, then immediately head to the United States on April 7, giving it a massive 6-week timeframe advantage. This formula was also well thought out; first sell a device on its home turf where it will be easier to distribute the phone, then make it across the market which generates the most revenues from smartphones. However, this rushing process has cost LG just one major trade-off and that happens to be featuring a Snapdragon 821 instead of Snapdragon 835.
Mobile hardware has come to a point where the performance difference of a Snapdragon 821 and Snapdragon 835 will be visible in benchmarking tests and charging times (since Snapdragon 835 supports Quick Charge 4.0, thus charging the phone much quicker in contrast to Quick Charge 3.0). Though we also expect battery life to improve as a result of the smaller lithography, if you’re the kind of user who invests multiple hours on his smartphone, it is unlikely that you’ll see the benefits of a 10nm FinFET chipset.
The perks that you will get for purchasing an LG G6 have been listed as follows, as well as what you’ll be giving up:
IP68 water-resistance
Wireless charging support
Here are the compromises you will have to make should you intend on purchasing the flagship:
Related LG G7 Might Feature an Improved LCD Than OLED to Save Costs – Better Battery Than Standard LCD Screen
Rumored to be using an older chipset (Snapdragon 821)
Non-removable battery feature no longer present
LG has been criticized for its UI and boot loop issues with previous-gen phones
No LG Pay support
I also managed to read the comments where one person said that LG should price the handset at $500 otherwise it is going to be a complete waste. This decision I am assuming was probably made because the information was divulged that the G6 would ship out with a Snapdragon 821 instead of a Snapdragon 835. To bring in a different comparison, OnePlus 3T currently has its 128GB storage model up for pre-order, with the smartphone’s price being a hefty $479.99. Its specifications are definitely great on paper, but there are more than a few gripes from the flagship that has resulted in pricing the device at that point; lack of water-resistance, 1080p display, poor stabilization on front and back cameras, lack of storage expansion, and lack of wireless charging support.
Despite these limitations, the OnePlus 3T is going for a rather expensive $479.99, so looking at the G6 and what it is bringing to the table, how can you possibly imagine that LG should price it in the same bracket as a OnePlus 3T while giving more than its fair share of features? From a business decision, and the fact that there were very little options to choose, our opinion still stands that the company chose the better path out of the two, and we’d like to hear what you think down in the comments.
LG G7 to Arrive in May With a G7+ Model – Base Model to Cost $100 More Than Its Predecessor
Omar Sohail • Mar 13, 2018
LG Will Not Launch The LG G7 This Year; Company Aiming To Completely ‘Re-brand’ Lineup, Believes Korean Press
Ramish Zafar • Jan 3, 2018
Black Friday: US Cellular Offers The iPhone 8, Galaxy S8 At $0 Down-payment & No Monthly Installments Conditional On Eligible Trade-In + Data Plans
Apple iPhone 8 Plus Vs Samsung’s Galaxy Note 8, Galaxy S8+ Vs LG’s G6 Vs The Nokia 8; A Much Needed Benchmark Comparison
Ramish Zafar • Oct 7, 2017
LG V30 and G6 Press Renders Reveal That Company Has Taken ‘Reducing Bezels’ on Upcoming Flagship to a Whole New Level
Omar Sohail • Aug 20, 2017
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[REVIEW] Super Mario World – Super Nintendo
14th June 2018 Off By thatretrovideogamer
I can’t avoid it for much longer. Out of the five Super Nintendo launch games (of which I’ve covered the first four already), Super Mario World was and is the star of the show.
So what can I say about a game that for over 25years hasn’t been said already, most likely not a lot! so let’s look at the wider pool of the launch titles, namely F-Zero, Gradius III, Pilotwings, and SimCity.
F-Zero and Pilotwings main selling point was to capture your interest based on the spectacle of seeing mode 7 in action. Gradius III on the other hand tries to promote the use of multiple sprites on screen at one time (remember the NES really only could put up with 4 before struggling), which then falls to the dreaded stutter of framerate due to the sheer overkill of on screen action. SimCity on the other hand plays it totally safe with it’s direct PC to console port, which then suffers from the control method rather than the capabilities of the machine.
Then we come to Super Mario World, which just seems to knock it out of the park from the moment you start the console up. In it’s rawest form, this is just an evolution of things learned from SMB3, taking the level count from SMB3’s 90 to SMW’s 96 (and yes that does still come as a surprise!), adding new dynamics, revising old ones, and just streamlining the formula that little bit more…. and Yoshi! don’t forget this game introduced that lovable green gulper with a slight hankering for allowing fat plumbers to ride gratis.
Ahhhhh everybody loves Yoshi, Mario’s dinosaur pal. When Mario jumps on Yoshi’s back, you feel more powerful at the cost of some slowdown on the movement front. Yoshi can eat most enemies and fruit (and some other surprising things). Providing new ways to deal with hazards in ways that don’t exist in earlier Mario games.
And of course one of the first things you find out about in the game is the ‘hidden’ switch palaces which when the giant button is pressed, activates the appropriate coloured ! blocks within the game, it’s a great idea! Modifying the levels to allow for replay ability and allowing for a different exit route to occur…
Yes, different exit routes. Unlike SMB3 where we had most of the map visible from the first moment, SMW is an evolving map, taking a route dependent on your actions. But giving you enough hints to replay to discover more.. As yellow markers indicate 1 route, Red indicate 2 or more routes, Ghost Houses always contain a 2nd route (and most importantly a way to save your progress, a first for the series) and then we come to the keyholes hidden in levels..usually with a key nearby providing a new puzzle element to bring the two together to find a hidden exit, which always leads to a more interesting path.
And then when you discover your first Star…. well that’d be telling, especially with what comes after that..
Yet the game isn’t a perfect Mario game, I always found the cape a pain in the ass to use, fun, but a pain, especially when trying to fly. Sure it works like Racoon Mario from SMB3 but that makes me think.. “Well why did you change it?”.
The Boss battles, and very meh.. similar to the ones from SMB3 again (using a cheeky bit of transparent textures before hand in the castle to showcase the consoles abilities,) they lay on the Mode 7 rotational technology again to make a seesaw platform to take down your first koopa kid. And as before, it’s 3 jumps and your done with the world.
In this case given the variations to the levels, it’s a shame that the designers didn’t think further on how they could twist the boss room portions a little more. A run-a-thon away from a wand zapping Iggy Koopa could have been fun, or twisting the route map to force you to uncover the hidden boss loction to escape the forest area could have played further on your need to revisit levels. But no matter, we still have a great game here.
Overall this game is a must play, even if you’ve completed previously, it’s well worth a look again. Even if only to work out that 2nd goalpost in Donut Plains again..
The game isn’t perfect, though. The cape is fun to use but is very similar Super Mario Bros. 3’s raccoon tail, which also granted the ability to do a spin attack, fly after a running start, and slow down Mario’s fall speed. Many levels in Super Mario World can be skipped over entirely with clever use of the cape or a Yoshi, but you can’t fly over the tremendously dull boss battles. Here’s my strategy guide for the boss battles: jump on them. Done!
Still, what keeps me coming back to Super Mario World is difficult to articulate. The game just feels good and modern in a way that a game almost a quarter-century old shouldn’t. It holds up. Play it if you haven’t, and play it again if you have before.
CategoryGames Review Super Nintendo
Polymega Playmaji – Modular Game Station preview
[PREVIEW] Fighting Fantasy Legends Portal
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Posted BY Pratyay Maitra
Celtic Stop Rodgers From Roping In Versatile Ace For Leicester: Statement Of Intent From Lawwell?
Despite grabbing a historic treble ‘treble’ over the past three campaigns, Celtic are struggling to keep hold of their key individuals amid interest from European heavyweights. The Hoops are sweating over the future of Kieran Tierney amid strong interest from Arsenal while versatile Callum McGregor is being linked to a reunion with ex-boss Brendan Rodgers at Leicester City.
While Tierney is expected to leave Parkhead for the right price, Peter Lawwell has taken a strong stance to retain McGregor beyond this summer. They won’t entertain any bid for the 26-year-old, and according to MailSport (as cited by the Daily Record), an approach for the Scotsman would be a complete waste of time for his potential suitors.
The midfielder progressed through the youth ranks of his boyhood club and eventually became an integral part of the senior side. A season-long loan to Notts County early in his career helped him to stake a claim for first-team football, and the player went on to make 227 appearances so far for the Hoops across all competitions.
Although he has been regular for years, McGregor enjoyed the most productive spell under Rodgers who utilised him in various roles. The Scotland international did not disappoint at all as he not only made his mark in the middle of the park but also down the wide areas as well as in a makeshift fullback role.
The Northern Irishman roped in Joe Allen from his former club Swansea City after being appointed as the new Liverpool boss replacing the iconic Kenny Dalglish. The trend continued at Celtic too when he convinced Kolo Toure to join him at Parkhead upon being released by the Reds.
However, the Bhoys are adamant about keeping hold of McGregor and refraining Rodgers’ from raiding them prior to the upcoming campaign. This must be a massive blow for the Foxes in their battle to claim a place in Europe but depicts the statement of intent from the champions of Scotland.
The growing uncertainty over the future of Olivier Ntcham led to the Hoops bolstering their midfield by tying down teenage sensation David Turnbull from Motherwell. Skipper Scott Brown, in his mid-thirties, is at the twilight of his career and the presence of McGregor is of the utmost importance right now for his experience as well as excellence all over the pitch.
This is definitely a statement of intent from Peter Lawwell as Celtic could have easily cashed in on the player and tried getting a replacement on the cheap. However, given the circumstances where so many players are poised to leave, this was the correct decision.
Pratyay Maitra
A sports enthusiast in his mid-twenties who reads, breathes, as well as dreams (mostly) about football and attempts to share his views with the fanatics by jotting it down. Prefers to learn through extensive interaction, communication and exploration. So don't be in a quandary and SHOOT.
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Brighton Weighing Up A £10m Move For This Celtic Talent: Why Rodgers Should Be Worried?
Why The Contract Extension Of This 24 Year Old Midfielder By Celtic Is A Smart Move By Rodgers
Celtic’s Midfield Ace Sign A New Deal: What It Means For Rodgers Given Bournemouth’s Interest?
This Celtic Midfielder Wants Club To Appoint 47 Year Old As the Manager: The Best Bet For The Hoops?
Bournemouth Ready To Pay £10m For Celtic Midfielder: Only One Course Of Action For Rodgers
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Posted BY Abhinab Ghosh
Tottenham Hotspur Reaches Out To Experienced Defender For A Move: What Will He Bring To North London?
According to the renowned journalist, Duncan Castles’ comments in the Transfer Window Podcast (transcripted by the Daily Star), Tottenham Hotspur have reached out to Dani Alves, who is a free agent, to discuss a potential move to North London before the start of the new campaign. Castles shed some light on the Brazilian’s future and said (via the Daily Star),
“I understand that there’s been contact with Tottenham Hotspur about the possibility of Dani moving there in what would seem quite a strange addition for Tottenham, given that this is a club that’s focused on younger players, players whose value will increase, players they can get on reasonably cheap salaries.”
The Brazilian right-back has a wealth of experience in European football and could be a shrewd, short-term acquisition for Spurs. The 36-year-old is currently a free agent as he is in the twilight years of his playing career. Alves had a productive campaign with Paris Saint-Germain last season when he put in a string of impressive displays in the Ligue 1.
The former Barcelona defender featured in 32 matches for PSG in the previous term, scoring three goals while grabbing eight assists in all competitions. On the defensive end, he made an average of 1.8 tackles, 0.3 interceptions and 0.3 clearances per game in the French top-flight (stats via whoscored).
What Will The Brazilian Veteran Bring To North London?
The former PSG full-back was also an integral member of the Brazil squad that won the Copa America earlier this month. At 36, he has got a lot of winner’s medal in his trophy cabinet so he will undoubtedly bring a winning mentality to the North London club if Mauricio Pochettino can convince him to move to England this summer.
Alves can read the game well and can still be quite productive while operating in the right-back position. He has a knack for scoring or creating goals going forward as he takes up dangerous positions in the opposition half. However, he can be a liability in defence at times as he has lost a yard of pace and has a tendency to make reckless challenges inside his own half.
Pochettino should only consider recruiting the Brazilian international if he intends to use him as a squad player next season. Alves does have enough left in his tank to regularly feature in the Premier League so Spurs would have to be careful in how they handle him if he ends up moving to the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium ahead of the new season.
Abhinab Ghosh
A 26-year-old sports writer and an aspiring football coach who has road-tripped across the Scottish Highlands, but has never been to Wales. Sucker for cliff-hangers and catchy riffs. Known to be a grunger and not to be a stranger.
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Barcelona New Signing Eager To Link Up With Messi: What Will He Add To Valverde’s Team? - July 16, 2019
Manchester United Ace Is Set To Pen A New Contract: A Good Move For Both Parties? - July 16, 2019
Tottenham Face This Stumbling Block In Pursuit Of Serie A Ace: What Should Be Pochettino’s Play? - July 16, 2019
Coutinho Agent Provides Positive Update Amid Liverpool Interest: A Massive Boost For Klopp? - July 16, 2019
dani alvesLatestTottenham Hotspur
Celtic Miss Out On This Defender But It Opens Door For Another One: Will He Solve Lennon’s Right Back Woes?
Leeds United Still Interested In This 24 Year Old Striker: Why Bielsa Should Consider Signing Him?
Tottenham Hotspur Eyeing A Move For This Juventus Star: A Definite Upgrade On Walker?
Chelsea Line Up A Shock Move For This Brazilian: Can Conte Bring Him To The Premier League?
Emery Keen On Signing This Brazilian Serial Winner With Spurs Interested: Sensible Option For Arsenal
Manchester City Close In On This French Defensive Beast: Why He Will Be A Crucial Signing
Manchester City Close In On This Brazilian Fullback: Pep’s Ideal Player?
Walker Nears Tottenham Hotspur Exit: 3 Players Pochettino Should Target To Fill the Void
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Filing Alert: #Fallbrook Technologies Files Chapter 11 Petition in Delaware
Texas-based Fallbrook Technologies has filed for chapter 11 protection. The committee formation meeting will take place on March 9, 2018 at 10:00 a.m. in Wilmington, Delaware. The formation notice is available here.
World Domination, One Gear At a Time
Fallbrook develops and manufactures the NuVinci continuously variable transmission systems. What is that, you ask? It makes stuff more efficient. So the company’s mission can be summed up as achieving world domination by creating a better mousetrap. Or as it says, setting the new global standard for managing mechanical and electro-mechanical power systems.
And it will do this by “transforming gears to (NuVinci) spheres.” That is, by using a set of rotating and tilting spheres between the input and output components of a transmission. If you have a degree in engineering, perhaps this brings something to mind. For the rest of us, the company has provided a helpful illustration.
Cool! Fallbrook’s system is now commercially available for bicycles and e-bikes. And, Fallbrook says, its technology has exciting applications in machinery, vehicles, and other equipment.
The company has two divisions.
Its Enviolo-branded bicycle division, which was formed to demonstrate mass market viability and to continue to develop the NuVinci technology.
Its licensing division, which provides NuVinci technology to “industry leaders” such as Allison Transmission, Dana Limited, TEAM Industries and Conti Temic microelectronics.
The Start-Up Business Encounters Liquidity Problems
The company landed in bankruptcy because of its “inability to meet operating expenses and satisfy debt obligations with current revenue streams.” Translation: Licensees are not yet selling products that utilize NuVinci, so hoped-for royalty income is not yet there. And revenue from its bicycle division is not enough to sustain the company.
Before filing for bankruptcy, Fallbrook says it “exhausted all other available courses of action, including a comprehensive marketing process for the Debtors’ assets, refinancing existing obligations, and negotiations with its noteholders.”
The Bankruptcy Plan
Those efforts, Fallbrook tells us, resulted in a restructuring support agreement that will de-leverage its balance sheet by allowing it to pay interest in kind, convert certain debts to equity, and obtain additional working capital. The plan is supported by holders of the company’s senior secured notes, bridge notes, and subordinated convertible notes. The company hopes to obtain support from others in the coming weeks. Here is what the plan looks like:
Administrative Expense Claims: Paid in full in cash or other agreed treatment.
Priority Claims: Unimpaired.
Other Secured Claims: Secured claims other than existing notes and bridge notes to be paid in full in cash, unimpaired, reinstated or receive other agreed treatment.
Senior Secured Claims: Existing notes to be allowed in the amount of roughly $49.6 million, and bridge notes to be allowed amount of roughly $8.8 million. Existing notes and bridge notes to be cancelled, with holders participating in the new second lien facility and equity in the reorganized company.
Convertible Notes Claims and General Unsecured Claims: If the class of general unsecured claims votes to accept the plan, claimants will receive a pro rata share of 13% of the new common stock.
Existing Equity Interests: Extinguished.
Convenience Class: TBD
Notwithstanding its revenue struggles, Fallbrook says that it believes in its technology. Perhaps more importantly, it believes the total market for its technology is $150 billion.
Financing and Critical Vendor Status
To support its restructuring, Fallbrook has obtained a $8 million credit facility from with Kayne Credit Opportunities Fund (QP). Fallbrook has also asked for authority to pay critical vendors up to $1.25 million. And key vendor Tri Star has agreed to continue performing under a manufacturing and supply agreement in exchange for critical vendor status and other protections.
The Company’s Current Capital Structure
Secured Debt:
Existing notes: $49.6 million
Bridge notes: $8.8 million
Unsecured Debt:
Convertible notes: $15.3 million
Trade debt: $5.4 million
The debtors are represented by Shearman & Sterling and Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor. Roy Messing of Ankura Consulting is the CRO.
The case has been assigned to Judge Mary Walrath (case number 18-10384 (MFW)).
Posted on 03/06/2018 03/07/2018 by Mette H. KurthPosted in Filing Alerts
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Pingback: Fallbrook Technologies: Gears to Spheres…with a Bankruptcy Detour | Delaware Bankruptcy Litigation
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Kate Noble / September 4, 2017
Review: Drinks at Gold on 27, Burj Al Arab
For Christmas we had a voucher for dinner at Junsui (full review here) which is one of the restaurants in the Burj Al Arab. As you can imagine, we were beyond excited. It’s not every day you get to step foot in a 7 star hotel, never mind dine in one. We decided we should make a night of it and go for drinks beforehand to really get a sense of what the Burj Al Arab has to offer.
As pretty much anyone who has visited Dubai will know, the Burj Al Arab is the iconic sail like building that stands on its own slightly out to sea on the Jumeirah Beach front. It’s unique and impressive and although it can’t compete on height with the likes of the Burj Khalifa, it still stands out as one of the most well known sights in Dubai. You need a reservation to visit and the cheapest way to steal a look around is by booking a table for drinks.
For drinks, there’s really two main options to pick from (in my view) and these are bars on the 27th floor – the Skyview Bar and Gold on 27. Skyview bar is at one end of the 27th floor with expansive views over the sea. It’s next door to Al Muntaha, a fine dining restaurant that also shares the floor. Both have the same decor with blue and green interiors in a similar opulent style to the main hotel lobby. Skyview Bar offers light snacks, drinks & afternoon tea. If you’re after drinks, note that they don’t start serving until 7pm in the evening and there is a minimum spend of AED 350 per person here.
Looking over towards the Skyview bar from Al Muntaha restaurant
At the other end of the floor, Gold on 27 looks inland with views over Dubai including Downtown and the Marina so offers equally stunning views. As you might have guessed, there’s a lot of gold going on from the interiors through to the cocktails (more on the cocktails below). It opens at 6pm and the Gold on 27 minimum spend is less than Skyview at AED 200 per person (however this has almost doubled from the 2018 minimum spend which was AED 105). There’s actually quite a good deal (in Dubai terms) for 2 cocktails and a gourmet dish for AED 250 per person (when you consider that cocktails start at AED 100 it’s worth considering).
*NOTE this has increased to AED 275 for two drinks (but it’s no longer restricted to cocktails though), however no gourmet dish is mentioned anymore! To see what drinks are included on the menu have a look here. There is also another menu offering a wider selection of drinks including Champagne!
View from Gold on 27 overlooking the Jumeirah Beach Hotel
Interiors at Gold on 27
Even the toilets are gold!
Drinks – Gold on 27
The drinks are pretty unique here and not your standard bellini or mojito so if you’re after something familiar then you’ll be disappointed. But then again this is the Burj Al Arab so you shouldn’t really be expecting the norm. I wasn’t but I don’t think my imagination had stretched to considering that one of the cocktails would include Lobster Bisque! I gave that one a miss. The presentation of the drinks is special, mine came on it’s own dry ice presentation box which made for a great photo. They are pretty strong and although the presentation and the descriptions are impressive, we were weren’t as blown away by the taste, but that might just be because they were pretty unusual! They regular update their creations so have a look at their menu for the latest selection.
The bar snacks are to die for and we were treated to deep fried seaweed which was dangerously moorish considering we were meant to be saving ourselves for dinner downstairs!
Cocktail menu for Gold on 27 (Check out The Wisdom of the Pearls!!)
Fried seaweed bar snack (sounds grim but it’s delicious)
Cocktail presented on dry ice
This place delivers the wow factor and is definitely one for the bucket list. Make sure you ask to go and have a look around the Skyview bar so you get to see both of them. Whichever one you pick pre book in advance, you need your reservation at the main barriers to gain access.
The Guestbooks comment: “For a drink with a view and for a very special occasion this has to be on your list. I’d recommend Gold on 27 over Skyview because there’s a lower minimum spend (this was the case when we went but do check). I also preferred the interior but both offer amazing views and an experience to remember.”
Want to make a night of it? Have a look at our review of Junsui also located in the Burj Al Arab.
No freebies have been offered or provided by any of the establishments featured in this post!
Bars and Pubs, Burj Al Arab, Dubai, Reviews
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Best Ethernet Cables
Wireworld Cable Technology makes the best ethernet cables on the market today, as demonstrated by our Platinum Starlight Cat 8 Ethernet Cable. Wireworld has been engineering the industry's best ethernet cables for years, with more than 25 years in business to date. Throughout the past three decades, we've become one of the most reliable and most respected cable engineering companies in the world. Because we're not a cable marketing company, but rather a cable engineering company, we patent and create our own cables to do what we think they should. Platinum Starlight Cat 8 Ethernet Cables from Worldwide Cable Technology our Twinax ethernet cable is a revolutionary, proprietary, brand new way of transmitting data over ethernet cables. This cable is Cat 8 ready to 40 gigs per second at up to 50 meters, which makes these the highest speed ethernet cable available today. How did we achieve this breakthrough? Partially, with a combination of cable topology, state-of-the-art cable construction, and triple shield technology.
There's nothing like it Experience the Difference for Yourself The first thing you'll probably notice when you hold the Starlight Platinum Twinax is that it is a flat cable and not round like conventional ethernet cables. Compared to its rivals, the Platinum Starlight Cat 8 stands out for being super fast. Here's the scoop on the other ethernet cable speeds: Cat 2: 4 Mbps Cat 3: 10 Mbps Cat 5: 100 Mbps Cat 6: 1 Gbps Cat 7: 10 Gbps Cat 8: 40 Gbps- that's super fast!!! Digital is Lossy To begin with, people need to dispell the mistaken notion that is prevalent regarding digital not being lossy because it's ones and zeros. When we send digital signals through a cable and depend on ones and zeros getting to the end (if we're saving a file), we know it will get there. That's because there is an error correction system that resends anything that's missing on the first send. From this, we learn that error correction is necessary, and not all of the information always gets through on the first send. That's why we often have to resend. Whenever we stream music through ethernet or USB, the error correction is not in play. Whatever is sent on the first send is all of the sounds you're going to hear. Hence, any garden variety ethernet cable will not suffice. Unlike when you save a file, there is no error correction with audio. The argument about ones and zeros making everything go through a cable is wrong just based on the definitions.
When you listen to streamed audio through different digital cables; if you change the cables, you will notice that you've changed the sound. Therefore, what you need is a cable that lets you hear the most sound possible. If the transmission worked perfectly, the audio would sound the same as the file sounded before it went through the cable. This is the background upon which we developed the Platinum Starlight Twinax ethernet cable, the fastest and best ethernet cables in the world.
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Steve Nichols
Embraer announces bumper 300 aircraft deals worth $15.3bn
Gasps as new contract announcements brings Farnborough 2018 total to 300 aircraft
Embraer made a host of new contract announcements on Tuesday, bringing its Farnborough 2018 totals to 300 aircraft, worth a total of $15.3bn.
An audible gasp came from the crowd in Embraer's packed media centre after its announced deal after deal with Mauritania Airlines, NAC, Wataniya Airways, Helvetic Airways, Azul, Republic Airways and an undisclosed Spanish Airline.
The deals announced were for:
Two firm E175 orders for Mauritania Airlines
A letter of intent (LOI) for three E190s for NAC
A five-aircraft (three firm, two purchase rights) E195-E2 order for an undisclosed Spanish airline
An order for 20 E195-E2 (10 firm, 10 purchase rights) for Wataniya Airways
A 24 E190-E2 (12 firm, 12 purchase rights) aircraft order from Helvetic Airways in Switzerland
A 21 E195-E2 firm order letter of intent from Azul
And a massive 200 E175 (100 firm, with the right to convert to E175-E2, and purchase rights for an additional 100) letter of intent for an order from Republic Airways in the US.
These announcements joined Monday's news that Embraer has signed United Airlines for 25 E175s in a 70-seat configuration, bringing the total aircraft ordered at Farnborough to the magic 300.
An ecstatic John Slattery, President and CEO, Embraer Commercial Aviation, said: "We established momentum with the E1, and are continuing now with the E2. We have an 85 per cent market share in our segment, and that is certainly continuing to move in the right direction."
Demand worth $600bn over next 20 years
And the run of good news has probably not ended. Embraer forecasts demand for 10,550 new aircraft with up to 150 seats worldwide, worth $600 billion, over the next 20 years.
It says the in-service fleet is set to increase to 16,000 aircraft, up from the 9,000 aircraft currently in operation. It also predicts market growth will drive 65 per cent of this demand, while the remaining 35 per cent will replace ageing aircraft.While region-specific outlooks vary considerably, it says efficiency and sustainability remain the underlying drivers of the projected market demand. Embraer says the up to 150-seat segment will form an ever more integral part of the global air transport ecosystem.
FIA2018
Farnborough International Airshow 2018
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3AW is Melbourne's Best Talk Station
Australia Overnight with Tony Moclair
Ross and John
Neil Mitchell
3AW Afternoons
3AW Drive
AFL and Toyota sign monster..
AFL and Toyota sign monster sponsorship deal
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Football Featured
The AFL and Toyota have signed a sponsorship deal worth almost $100 million over the next five years.
But what exactly do both get out of it?
Neil Mitchell spoke with Colin McLeod, a former head of marketing at the AFL.
He’s now a professor at Melbourne University.
Mr McLeod said it wasn’t as simple as Toyota hoping to “sell a few cars” as a result of the sponsorship.
“You would like to sell some cars, but you also want to find ways to engage your dealer network,” he explained.
“Having spoken over the years to many, many Toyota dealers, they were really proud of the fact they were supporting the AFL.”
As for the AFL, Mr McLeod expected a big investment in women’s football.
“I’m not sure whether that’s where the bulk of the money will go, but it’s certainly where some of the money has to go,” he said.
“Women is where the major growth is taking part and I just couldn’t see it being overlooked.”
Click PLAY below to hear more on 3AW Mornings
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Disaster brews as cyclone stalks north
Photo: Crossing the coast: Cyclone Yasi approaches Queensland (Bureau of Meteorology)
Video: North Qld prepares for Cyclone Yasi (7pm TV News QLD)
Video: Locals should prepare for Cyclone Yasi: Bligh (7pm TV News QLD)
Video: Qld's tourism, resources sectors brace for another weather hit (7pm TV News QLD)
Video: Bowen escapes major cyclone damage (The Midday Report)
Audio: Anthony crosses the coast, as Yasi looms larger (The World Today)
Related Story: 'Ugly sister' cyclone menaces Queensland
Related Story: Perth largely unscathed from cyclone Bianca
Related Story: North Queensland 'dodges a bullet'
Map: Bowen 4805
Premier Anna Bligh says the cyclone bearing down on the Queensland coast has the potential to be the biggest the state has ever seen.
Ms Bligh is calling on Queenslanders to prepare for gale-force winds, torrential rain and massive storm surges when Cyclone Yasi crosses the coast on Wednesday night.
Residents in low-lying parts of Townsville, between Mackay and Innisfail, are already being told to evacuate and move to higher ground.
Authorities fear the massive cyclone, which could pack winds up to 260 kilometres per hour, may be as intense as Cyclone Larry, which devastated parts of far north Queensland in 2006.
Listen to ABC Local Radio for the latest coverage
In an emergency, call the State Emergency Service (SES) on 132 500
Current weather warnings
"[Yasi] may well be one of the largest and most significant cyclones that we have ever had to deal with," Ms Bligh said.
"This is an event we have to take seriously. I know cyclones can at the last minute turn off the coast, and I certainly hope this one does.
"But the bureau advises me in the most serious terms, that all of the modelling right now says this is going to cross our coast."
Ms Bligh says Yasi is expected to turn into a category four system by Wednesday.
She says while areas between Cooktown and Maryborough are likely to be affected, the Innisfail to Mackay region will bear the brunt of the cyclone.
"We expect to see gales in that Innisfail to Mackay region of more than 100kph by mid-morning on Wednesday," she said.
"We are encouraging people in that region to start stocking up and begin preparing yourselves, your homes and your families for a very significant event."
Flood fears
Townsville Mayor Les Tyrell says Cyclone Yasi could cause a storm surge of up to four metres, inundating low-lying suburbs and parts of the city and affecting thousands of properties.
Councillor Tyrell says the council is not providing evacuation centres until after the cyclone has passed and residents should stay with friends or relatives.
He says people who need to leave must do so on Tuesday.
"The major issue we've got at the moment is the possibility of up to a four metre storm surge and we are currently looking at all the areas in the city that would be affected by a storm surge and we are asking those people to consider evacuating by Tuesday afternoon," he said.
Ms Bligh says the threat of the cyclone is compounded by severe rainfall in areas already saturated by a wet summer.
"In addition to the effects of a cyclone, we are preparing in that Innisfail to Mackay region for potential flooding of low-lying waterfront areas," she said.
"The best advice we can give to people in those areas is to start considering possible relocation on Tuesday."
Ms Bligh says the rain could affect areas in central and western Queensland still reeling from December's floods.
"We expect to see this event to become a significant rainfall event in areas to the south and surrounding where it crosses the coast," she said.
"That means we can expect very significant rainfall, in some cases up to a metre, into catchments that are already saturated.
"We are currently doing modelling into what that might mean, particularly into areas such as the central and western areas of Queensland ... which we have already seen significant flooding in."
All ports from Cairns to Mackay will be closed by Tuesday afternoon and the Premier is urging those with waterfront properties in the affected areas to evacuate.
Evacuations have already started at some nursing homes in the main danger zone and at Hamilton Island in the Whitsundays.
Weather forecasters says it is very unusual to have two cyclones tracking the same path only days apart.
Yasi is tracking a very similar path to Cyclone Anthony that crossed the coast near Bowen on Sunday night.
Forecaster Greg Connors says he cannot remember anything quite like it.
"Usually at this time of year the Coral Sea is constantly changing, but for the next few days it's showing a general westerly flow and that flow is capturing not only Anthony but also the upstream Tropical Cyclone Yasi," he said.
Topics: cyclones, disasters-and-accidents, weather, cyclone, bowen-4805, qld, ayr-4807, cairns-4870, innisfail-4860, mackay-4740, townsville-4810
First posted January 31, 2011 19:44:00
More stories from Queensland
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Election 2016: Eric Abetz says Tasmanians will be heard in Canberra despite lack of Cabinet spots
By Lucy Shannon
Updated July 19, 2016 12:37:49
Photo: Senator Abetz did not mention demoted Senator Colbeck in his statement. (ABC News)
Related Story: Frontbench changes: Who's going where?
Related Story: Finger-pointing begins over Liberal losses in Tasmania
Related Story: Abetz says Liberals must be more 'savvy' to 'expose dishonest' GetUp
Map: TAS
Senior Tasmanian Liberal Senator Eric Abetz has expressed disappointment the state will not be represented in the new federal Cabinet, but believes his Senate team will still comprise vocal representatives.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull left out Senator Richard Colbeck from his new-look Cabinet announced on Monday afternoon, as counting continues to determine whether he is re-elected.
As Tourism and International Education Minister, Senator Colbeck was Tasmania's most senior Liberal in Canberra but was relegated to the fifth spot on the party's Senate ticket, while conservative power broker Senator Abetz was at number one.
Senator Colbeck was Tasmania's only federal representative who did not publicly back Tony Abbott in last year's leadership spill.
He said he was extremely disappointed in Mr Turnbull's decision but proud of his achievements.
In a statement, Senator Abetz did not mention Senator Colbeck but said it was disappointing there would be no minister from Tasmania.
Political analyst Richard Eccleston said the pre-selection process certainly made it difficult for Senator Colbeck.
"I think that the fact that the state's only sitting minister was preselected to what's increasingly looking like an unwinnable position on the Senate ticket really makes it that much harder for a Tasmanian member of the Liberal Party to be appointed to the Turnbull ministry," he said.
Mr Eccleston said, however, that he believed the fact that the Government lost all three of its lower house seats meant Tasmania would not be ignored.
"The Coalition hold a very slim majority in the House of Representatives, and almost every piece of policy is going to have to be negotiated through the Senate, so clearly there's going to be ample opportunities for Tasmanian interests to be considered," he said.
Topics: federal-elections, federal---state-issues, federal-government, tas
First posted July 19, 2016 07:24:47
Follow the ABC's coverage of the 2016 election
Check out the count so far
Where do the crossbenchers stand on the major issues?
What does Bob Katter's 'supply and confidence' deal actually mean?
The resurgence of Pauline Hanson's One Nation
Ballot mishaps across four states plague the AEC
Election results 2016: What just happened?
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On Rohan Wilson's Daughter of Bad Times, Hallie Rubenhold's The Five and Kauffman & Kristoff's YA SF Aurora Rising
Friday 10 May 2019 12:05PM
Image: Writing and reading the future (Rahul Pandit for Pexels)
Cassie and Kate are joined by Antony Funnell (from RN's Future Tense), to read the dystopian novel Daughter of Bad Times by Rohan Wilson, and by writers Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff for insights into the creation of a funny, playful, and occasionally heartbreaking space story in their Aurora Rising; while historian Hallie Rubenhold reflects on the ways five women's lives have been fictionalised, mythologised and even trivialised in the 130-year-old story of Jack the Ripper.
Image: It's 2075. There's been a tsunami, there's been a global movement of refugees and in Tasmania there's been a riot. There's a love story too, in Rohan Wilson's new novel (Supplied)
Rohan Wilson's first two novels were historical stories of a violent Tasmanian frontier, with The Roving Party and To Name Those Lost. (You can listen to him talking about those books here.)
Now, he has turned to a flooded future, in which climate refugees are ruthlessly exploited for their labour and their hopes, in Daughter of Bad Times (Allen & Unwin).
It's a dystopian critique of the world, with an action filled plot, and a love story between people on each side of the (literal) fence.
Image: A detailed cultural history of the five women killed by Jack the Ripper, showing who they were, where they lived, how they moved through the streets - giving them back their names, in Hallie Rubenhold's The Five (Supplied: Penguin)
How many novels, TV programs, films and video games feature Jack the Ripper? He is so identifiable he can cross genres and time periods.
Now, can you recite the names of the five women he killed? And what do you know of their life and work?
Cultural historian Hallie Rubenhold has written a history of these women's lives, tracking their biographies and showing, among other things, that only one of the five worked as a prostitute.
This scholarly approach has riled many Ripperologists.
Hallie Rubenhold spoke to Kate Evans from London about her book, The Five: the Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper (Penguin)
Image: Space folds, personalities clash, and the action tears along, in Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff's Aurora Rising.
Amie Kaufman and Jay Kristoff write for both adults and young adults. Their Illuminae series has been enormously successful internationally.
Their latest, Aurora Rising (Allen & Unwin), begins a new cycle. It's a playful sci fi space story, in which a group of misfits come together to save the galaxy (as you do).
While it takes familiar tropes of heists and pirate worlds, an unlikely group coming together in a crisis, it does so with great warmth and humour. And it doesn't let its readers off the hook either: there's both love and tragedy in the mix.
Cassie passed the book on to an 11 year old friend, Enzo, who rated the book highly (although generally the readers would be a tad older).
Kaufman and Kristoff will talk about writing together and creating the series in a 'podcast extra' edition of the Bookshelf next week.
Other books mentioned in today's episode:
Hallgrimur Helgason, The Woman at 1000 Degrees
Ian Townsend, Line of Fire
Susan J. Brison and Katharine Gelber, Free Speech in the Digital Age
Elise Valmorbida,The Madonna of the Mountains
J. R.R. Tolkien, Lord of the Rings
Music played on today's program:
Kate Miller-Heidke, The Last Day on Earth
Tiny Ruins, You've Got the Kind of Nerve I Like
Morrissey, Jack the Ripper
Björk, Earth Intruders
Friday 12pm Repeated:
Sunday 3pm, Monday 11pm
Presented by Kate Evans and Cassie McCullagh
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NewsCrime
PD: Woman arrested in deadly Mesa hit-and-run crash with a motorcycle
By: Joe Enea
Anrisa Sukion
MESA, AZ — A woman has been arrested after a deadly hit-and-run crash with a motorcycle in Mesa.
Mesa police report that on June 7 they responded to a crash between a car and a motorcycle on Dobson Road near Southern Avenue.
Court documents show that the driver, later identified as 43-year-old Anrisa Sukion, turned left in front of a motorcycle going north on Dobson Road. The motorcycle rider, Kenneth Wayne Shelley, sustained an amputated left leg, a broken neck, and fractures to his thigh, pelvis, and arm. He later died from his injuries.
Sukion allegedly parked her car, then fled on foot. Investigators reportedly found pay stubs in the vehicle that identified Sukion.
Police located Sukion at her Mesa home later that day. She reportedly told police that she saw the motorcycle "driving really fast and came at her as she was turning left."
She then parked her car at her employers' parking lot, which was near the collision site and went to work.
Since her employer's office wasn't open yet, she walked home.
Sukion moved to Arizona from Guam five months ago and was aware that she needed to stop after an accident, police say.
Investigators also say she knew that she needed to get a driver's license, but never got one.
She has been charged with leaving the scene of a fatal accident.
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South Africa: Zuma influence- peddling inquiry opens as judge seeks more witnesses
The judge leading an inquiry into claims of influence-peddling against former South African president Jacob Zuma on Monday, urged more witnesses to come forward, as public hearings began in a case that could last two years.
Deputy Chief Justice Raymond Zondo will review allegations that the Gupta brothers, who headed one of the nation’s largest conglomerates , unduly influenced Zuma over political appointments and winning government contracts.
Protest greeted proceedings. Rudy Heneke is a representative of organization undoing tax abuse.
It is important that we find out who's the culprits and that the recommendations by the inquiry can be made and that we, in a year or two years' time, can put this state capture behind us.
“It is important that we find out who’s the culprits and that the recommendations by the inquiry can be made and that we, in a year or two years’ time, can put this state capture behind us”, he said.
“It is important for the country to know what went on because the name of the former president now and then is mentioned in the state capture’‘, said protester, Ali Gule.
On Monday, it was unclear whether he or the Guptas , who all deny any wrongdoing will appear at the inquiry, which is mandated to make recommendations for prosecutions.
The exact whereabouts of the Guptas are not known. Reuters said the brothers, officials from their companies and their family representatives could not be reached for comment on Monday.
The inquiry stems from a 2016 report into alleged influence-peddling by the Public Protector South Africa’s main anti-graft authority. The allegations and other scandals surrounding Zuma’s nine-year rule forced him out of office in February.
A harrowing heroin addiction grips South Africa
'Not guilty': South African court rules on homicide case against Zuma's son
[Sports] Rooting for African teams at 2019 Netball World Cup
THIS IS CULTURE
South Africa adds Ghana, Sao Tome to visa-free countries list
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300 Suspected Illegal Immigrants Caught in SC Raid
AP, October 8, 2008
Federal agents swept through a chicken processing plant Tuesday, detaining more than 300 suspected illegal immigrants, sending panicked workers running and screaming through the hallways. Worried relatives collected outside, fearful their loved ones would be deported.
Police and agents during a shift change ordered all workers at the House of Raeford’s Columbia Farms to show identification, according to officials and witnesses. The business had been under scrutiny for months and the raid comes on the heels of even larger roundups at plants across the country.
Immigration officials kept the workers inside, spending most of the morning trying to figure out how many are in the country illegally, Assistant U.S. Attorney Kevin McDonald said.
The number could be substantial. A recent review found that immigration paperwork for more than 775 of 825 workers contained false information, McDonald said. Immigration agents scoured the plant for paperwork and other information for the investigation.
House of Raeford processes chickens and turkeys in eight plants in North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Louisiana and Michigan. A sales manager at the Greenville plant referred questions to the company’s Rose Hill, N.C., headquarters, where a woman answering the phone said there was no immediate comment.
Federal prosecutors and immigration agents have been investigating the plant’s hiring practices for several months. Eleven supervisors and the plant’s human resources director have been charged, most accused of falsifying documents. Seven have pleaded guilty, three are awaiting trial and two have fled, McDonald said.
U.S. Attorney Walt Wilkins wouldn’t say whether other plants or executives were being investigated.
Topics: Illegal Immigrants, Immigration Law Enforcement
< “Obama Clearly Will Work a Magic in the Islamic World”
HUD: Five Million Fraudulent Mortgages Held by Illegals >
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Your Google Assistant recordings are listened to by human operators (Updated)
Scott Adam Gordon / @scottadamgordon
Update, July 12, 2019 (7:15AM ET): Earlier this week, Belgian broadcaster VRT NWS lifted the lid on audio transcription practices at Google, highlighting privacy concerns associated with human contractor involvement. In a blog post published yesterday, Google has responded to the criticism.
Google has defended its approach to audio transcription, stating the language experts employed were critical to developing the product. Google reiterated that contractors only work on a small number of anonymous audio clips, and said that it uses a “wide range of safeguards to protect user privacy” during the process.
Regarding conversations that may be sent to Google by accident, Google said: “Reviewers are directed not to transcribe background conversations or other noises, and only to transcribe snippets that are directed to Google.”
Looking for local specialities and discount meals? Google Maps has you covered
At an event in New Delhi, Google announced that Google Maps will now start aggregating deals for local restaurants. One of three major Google Maps-related updates announced, the move signals the search giant's intent to …
The company conceded there are “false accept” occurrences where a device will misinterpret the OK Google hot phrase and begin recording. However, Google said it had “a number of protections in place” to prevent this from happening, and that it only happens “rarely.”
Unfortunately, Google doesn’t describe what these protections are in any detail. Further, these false accepts occurred in 135 of 1000 or so recordings VRT NWS reviewed, meaning it may happen around 10 percent of the time.
Finally, Google said it was investigating the recent data leak to VRT NWS, which breached its policies, and would take action to stop these kinds of leaks in the future.
In its blog post, Google did not discuss the lack of information in its privacy policies regarding human involvement in the audio transcription process.
It stands to reason that language experts would be required to work on language-related products, so I suspect human operators are here to stay for now. If you aren’t okay with that, it might be time to ditch your connected devices.
Original coverage, July 11, 2019, 11:05 am ET: A Belgian broadcaster has shed light on what goes on behind closed doors of Google’s Assistant voice transcription work (via The Verge). The broadcaster, VRT NWS, spoke to three anonymous sources and listened to more than 1,000 recordings while investigating the transcription process.
VRT NWS learned that Google employs human contractors to transcribe certain audio in order to improve the service. However, these often include personally identifiable, private details. VRT NWS says it was able to contact some people based on the sensitive information — like addresses — included in the recordings.
Android TV and Google Assistant both built into the JBL Link Bar
Update, July 10, 2019 (01:15 PM ET): The JBL Link Bar is now officially available for sale -- roughly 14 months after it was announced. Its price in the United States is $400. You can buy …
Further, the broadcaster found 153 of the samples it listened to appeared to have been recorded without the user clearly giving the “OK, Google” hot phrase.
These recordings sometimes include sensitive discussions recording love, children, health, money, etc. One of VRT NWS sources said they heard a recording which included the voice of a woman in obvious distress.
You can watch the video report on the matter below but you’ll have to enable captions for the English translation.
Didn’t we already know this?
Google appears to be reasonably transparent about the data it collects from users, and we already know it saves our voice recordings. You can take the fun trip here to hear all your personal recordings if you’ve ever used Google Assistant (it’s in Voice and Audio activity).
What’s more, it recently came to light that Amazon employees listen to Alexa recordings in much the same way as Google.
However, Google isn’t clear about the human contractors listening to recordings or what happens when a Google product thinks it has heard the “OK Google” or “Hey Google” activation phrase when it was never clearly employed.
In Google’s data collection page linked above, there’s no mention of either of these factors.
Why are humans listening in?
Companies such as Google and Amazon rely on human listeners to transcribe text in order to improve things like voice recognition algorithms or customer experience.
The companies claim only a small number of samples are used for this process, however, and those samples aren’t supplied to contractors with identifying information. There are no names or location data attached to the files, just the audio.
Google acquired Word Lens years ago, giving Google Translate the nifty ability to translate words with the aid of a smartphone camera. It's a rather practical feature, but it's getting even better with a series …
But this does not exempt the possibility that the person speaking reveals sensitive information during the course of the recording — something especially troubling in cases where the recording happened accidentally.
In a statement to Wired, a Google spokesperson said the company uses language experts around the world to transcribe “around 0.2 percent” of recordings. The company later posted a blog entry which further illustrates this policy.
The spokesperson also said Google would review how it could clarify its policies on how user data is utilized to improve its speech technology. In the video report above, Google is also quoted as saying this kind of work is essential to provide products like Google Assistant.
Regardless, Google has sold millions of Home products and billions of Android phones; that 0.2 percent figure quoted still means potentially millions of our recordings — perhaps recorded by accident, perhaps including our private information — are being listened to by human operators.
I’d bear that in mind if you own or intend to buy such an Assistant-enabled device. Perhaps make use of the “microphone off” switch from time to time too.
Read next: Google Home Hub vs Amazon Echo Show 2: Battle of the smart displays
Google, Google Assistant
GoogleGoogle Assistant
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Google acquired Word Lens years ago, giving Google Translate the nifty ability to translate words with the aid of a smartphone camera. It’s a rather practical feature, but it’s getting even better with a series of new additions.
For one, instant camera translation now supports over 60 more languages, allowing you to translate from 88 languages into over 100 tongues. Some of the prominent additions include Arabic, Hindi, Malay, Thai, and Vietnamese.
Google Translate’s instant camera translation also offers automatic language detection now. Previously, users had to manually enter the source language being scanned. This addition could be ideal for people traveling in regions with many languages, where you can’t always be sure of the language on a menu or road sign.
What’s Spanish for phishing? Hackers now use Google Translate for scams
Cyber-criminals have a variety of tools at their disposal, and it now looks like they've added Google Translate to their box of tricks. Akamai security researcher Larry Cashdollar received a suspicious email last month (h/t: ZDNet), …
Google has also focused on the feature’s accuracy, now using previously disclosed neural machine translation (NMT) tech to reduce translation errors by between 55 and 85 percent for some language pairs. The feature — which also appears in Google Lens — should result in more accurate translations when you’re connected to the internet.
The final major tweak is a visual change, as the search giant has tried to make the app more intuitive. This tweak sees the major features each having their own button at the bottom of the app (Instant, Scan, and Import).
Google has also tried to address the amount of flickering on translated text when using instant camera translations. “We’ve reduced that flickering, making the text more stable and easier to understand,” the company noted. Are there any other features or improvements you’d like to see in Google Translate? Let us know in the comments!
NEXT: The Google Pixel 4 XL seems to have large bezels, and it could be a wise move
Google, Google Translate
GoogleGoogle Translate
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Share info
DMTN Programme
Security & human rights
Regions and operations
Continental Africa
AngloGold Ashanti is an independent, global mining company with operations and projects on four continents.
AngloGold Ashanti is the third-largest gold mining company in the world, measured by production.
Our portfolio of assets
As at 31 December 2018, our portfolio of 14 operations in nine countries included long-life, relatively low-cost operating assets with differing ore body types, located in key gold-producing regions around the world. These operating assets were supported by three greenfields projects in a tenth country and a focused global exploration programme.
Our operations and greenfields projects are grouped into the following regions: Continental Africa, Americas, Australasia and South Africa.
Our business activities span the full spectrum of the mining value chain – from exploration through mining to the production of refined gold and its sale. Our activities also include mitigating our impact on the communities and environments in which we operate.
To maintain and strengthen our social capital, we aim to create sustainable value for shareholders, employees, and social and business partners through safe and responsible mining and discipline in the allocation of capital.
Over the past five years, AngloGold Ashanti has transformed itself by increasing efficiencies and competitiveness, focusing on safety and sustainability performance, improving margins, containing operating and overhead costs, and generating positive cash flows, in line with our strategic objectives.
Our organisational and management structures align with global best practice in corporate governance. By using our human capital efficiently, enabling functions cover planning and technical, strategy, sustainability, finance, human resources, legal and compliance, and stakeholder relations. The planning and technical functions focus on identifying and managing opportunities, maintaining long-term optionality, and ensuring the optimal use of our intellectual capital through a range of activities that include brownfields and greenfields exploration as well as innovative research focused on mining excellence.
Our exploration programme is aimed at establishing an organic growth pipeline to enable us to generate significant value over time. Greenfields and brownfields exploration is conducted in both established and new gold-producing regions, through managed and non-managed joint ventures, strategic alliances and wholly-owned ground holdings.
Our world-class greenfields discoveries include La Colosa, Gramalote and Quebradona (Nuevo Chaquiro) in Colombia.
Our strategy and investment case
Focusing on the strategic areas of the company
AngloGold Ashanti’s core strategic focus is to generate sustainable cash flow improvements and shareholder returns by focusing on five key areas, namely:
People are the foundation of our business. Our business must operate according to our values if it is to remain sustainable in the long term.
We must ensure our balance sheet always remains able to meet our core funding needs.
All spending decisions must be thoroughly scrutinised to ensure they are optimally structured and necessary to fulfil our core business objective.
We have a portfolio of assets that must be actively managed to improve the overall mix of our production base as we strive for a competitive valuation as a business.
While we are focused on ensuring the most efficient day-to-day operation of our business, we must keep a close eye on creating a competitive pipeline of long-term opportunities.
These focus areas drive our plans for inward investment, to deliver better quality production aimed at increasing margins, extending mine lives and shaping the portfolio in the longer term.
To create value for our shareholders, our employees and our business and social partners through safely and responsibly exploring, mining and marketing our products. Our primary focus is gold, but we will pursue value creating opportunities in other minerals where we can leverage our existing assets, skills and experience to enhance the delivery of value.
To be the leading mining company.
Our business values and beliefs guide our behaviour, in order that we make a positive impact. These behaviours and beliefs link our business activities to our social performance.
Safety is our first value.
We treat each other with dignity and respect.
Dignity and respect
We value diversity.
We are accountable for our actions and undertake to deliver on our commitments.
We want the communities and societies in which we operate to be better off for AngloGold Ashanti having been there.
We respect the environment.
+ 27 (0) 11 637 6000
76 Rahima Moosa Street
Johannesburg 2001
> Whistleblowing
> Disclaimer and legal notices
> Webmail
> VPN Gateway
>Global Supply Chain Portal
> Gold Wage Negotiations
> This is Gold
© 2017 All rights reserved. AngloGold Ashanti
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Franco Molina
Osvaldo Battelli
Home > Vol 53, No 1 (2010) > Molina
Variazione stagionale del sistema di correnti Sq
Franco Molina, Osvaldo Battelli
The present work is concerned with an examination of the seasonal variation of the Sq current system at a latitude of about 40˚ N in the European region, with particular regard to the shifts in latitude of the «focus» of the system. The period of time under examination extends from June 1958 to December 1960 inclusive. Use has been made of the magnetograms of Asiago (45˚52' N, 11˚31' E; geomagnetic latitude 46.6˚ N), L'Aquila (42˚23' N, 13˚19' E; geomagn. lat. 42.9˚ N), and Gibilmanna (37˚59' N, 14˚01' E; geomagn. lat. 38.5˚ N) and of the hourly values of the Fürstenfeldbruck Observatory (48˚10' N, 11˚17' E; geomagn. lat. 48.9˚ N). For this study, days with Ap < 10 were chosen. However, the reading taken on some of these days...
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Closing in 0
R$ 2,000,000+
~ $ 532,600+
Unfortunately, we don’t accept entries for the draw at the moment. We start to sell tickets again soon. Please reach our Customer Support Service if you have any questions.
About Mega Sena
The Mega Sena lottery is one of the largest national lotteries in Latin America and one of the oldest in the world. The Jackpot of this popular lottery was first drawn in 1961 under the leadership of the State Bank of Brazil — The Caixa Economica Federal Bank.
The draw of the Brazilian lottery Mega Sena is held every week on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 19:00 (GMT) in the capital of Brazil Brasilia.
The Mega Sena Jackpot once achieved the incredible mark of R$ 200.000.000! The starting Jackpot is R$ 2.000.000. With each draw this amount goes up by R$ 1.000.000+ if nobody wins it.
The Special New Year's draw of Mega Sena — Mega da Virada — takes place on the 31th of December. This draw is extremely popular among Brazilians because of the huge Jackpot, which is formed during the whole year: 5% of each draw’s prize fund are summered up and drawn on New Year’s Eve.
60 regular balls are drawn in Mega Sena.
Who can take part in Mega Sena?
With Lotto Agent each player over 18 years can purchase a ticket of the state Brazilian lottery Mega Sena regardless of country of his residence!
How to win in Mega Sena?
The Brazilian lottery Mega Sena has only 3 prize categories: 4, 5, and 6 (the number of balls matched). The amount of the secondary prizes of Mega Sena is determined taking into account the results of the draw, the number of winning tickets, and the size of the total prize fund.
The minimum prize of the state lottery Mega Sena goes to the player who matches the number of four winning balls (prize category "4"). Good luck!
Taxation and prize reception
All Mega Sena winnings are subject to federal tax of 27%.
Lotto Agent does not charge any fees with any of your winnings!
You can claim your Mega Sena winning as a one-time, lump-sum cash payment.
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Royalty Search
Home > Where the money comes from
Where the money comes from
FOR THOSE WHO WRITE OR CONTRIBUTE TO BOOKS
We collect two main types of income for writers of, or contributors, to books:
1. Photocopying, scanning and the digital reuse of electronic and online publications
This income is from licences issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency (CLA), originally set up by ALCS and the Publishers’ Licensing Services (PLS) to license reproduction rights on behalf of its member organisations. The CLA offers a number of licensing options for businesses, educational institutions and government agencies to ensure writers are paid fairly when their works are copied or scanned.
2. Overseas Public Lending Right (PLR)
Public Lending Right (PLR) schemes are typically set up to pay authors when libraries lend their books (to compensate them for the lack of sales). But not all PLR schemes are run in the same way as in the UK. German PLR payments, for example, are based on information about the author’s name (rather than the book titles that are borrowed) and French PLR payments are based on a system that monitors which books the libraries are buying (not lending out).
Are you signed up for UK PLR? If not, do it now www.plr.uk.com
Other smaller income sources for book writers and contributors include:
overseas income for the reading of extracts of literary works on radio and TV, and the rental of audiobooks and other schemes for allowing accessible copies of works (known as ‘small literary rights’)
payments to book authors when their works are adapted into scripts.
FOR SCRIPTWRITERS
There are several sources of income for scriptwriters:
1. Retransmission of all types of scripted works broadcast on TV and radio
This is the simultaneous showing of one country’s broadcasting in another country through a cable network. We receive fees for the cable transmission of British programmes and we distribute these to the writers concerned.
2. Educational recording
The Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 gave schools, colleges and other educational establishments the right to record any radio or TV broadcast for educational purposes without infringing copyright. The Educational Recording Agency (ERA), which was established in 1989, licenses this activity and collects fees to compensate the authors and other owners of rights in the broadcast works. We’re responsible for paying writers their share of these fees.
3. Private copying
In most European countries, a levy is charged on the sale of recording and copying equipment. This is usually referred to as a private copying levy and is intended to compensate rights owners for the reuse of their works. We claim fees on behalf of UK writers from the various private copying levies in Europe. Other smaller income sources for scriptwriters include schemes operating in overseas territories for the public broadcast of works and the rental of audiovisual works.
FOR WRITERS OF MAGAZINE AND JOURNAL ARTICLES
As with books, money for articles also comes from the photocopying, scanning and digital reuse of electronic and online publications.
See our animation showing where the money comes from
Details of all the overseas sources of income ALCS collects Download
Thinking of joining? Find out if we've already collected money for your works
Lifetime membership costs just £36, sign up now
Subscribe to ALCS News
© 2019. Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society. All rights reserved.Fifth Floor, Shackleton House, 4 Battle Bridge Lane, London SE1 2HX. 020 7264 5700
Made by Outlandish and Minx Creative
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"I come from Ireland and I've seen the damage of religious warfare. I am a believer. I don't wear the badge on the outside but it is on the inside." — Bono
U2 Tour: PopMart - 2nd Leg (Europe)
U2 performed 32 times during the 2nd Leg (Europe) portion of the PopMart tour. Those performances included unique songs and an overall total of 724 songs.
PopMart - 2nd Leg (Europe)
Jul 18, 1997 Rotterdam, Netherlands at Feyenoord Stadium
Jul 25, 1997 Werchter, Belgium at Rock Werchter Festival Grounds
Jul 27, 1997 Cologne, Germany at Butzweilerhof
Jul 29, 1997 Leipzig, Germany at Festwiese
Jul 31, 1997 Mannheim, Germany at Maimarktgelände
Aug 02, 1997 Gothenburg, Sweden at Ullevi
Aug 04, 1997 Copenhagen, Denmark at Parken Stadium
Aug 06, 1997 Oslo, Norway at Valle Hovin
Aug 09, 1997 Helsinki, Finland at Olympic Stadium
Aug 12, 1997 Warsaw, Poland at Sluzewiec Racetrack
Aug 14, 1997 Prague, Czech Republic at Strahov Stadium
Aug 16, 1997 Wiener Neustadt, Austria at Airfield
Aug 18, 1997 Nuremberg, Germany at Zeppelinfeld
Aug 20, 1997 Hanover, Germany at Expo Gelaende
Aug 22, 1997 London, England at Wembley Stadium (I)
Aug 26, 1997 Belfast, Northern Ireland at Botanic Gardens
Aug 28, 1997 Leeds, England at Roundhay Park
Aug 30, 1997 Dublin, Ireland at Lansdowne Road
Sep 02, 1997 Edinburgh, Scotland at Murrayfield Stadium
Sep 06, 1997 Paris, France at Parc des Princes
Sep 09, 1997 Madrid, Spain at Estadio Vicente Calderon
Sep 11, 1997 Lisbon, Portugal at Estadio Jose Alvalade
Sep 13, 1997 Barcelona, Spain at Estadi Olimpic de Montjuic
Sep 15, 1997 Montpellier, France at Espace Grammont
Sep 18, 1997 Rome, Italy at Aeroporto dell'Urbe
Sep 20, 1997 Reggio Emilia, Italy at Festival Site
Sep 23, 1997 Sarajevo, Bosnia-Herzegovina at Koševo Stadium
Sep 26, 1997 Thessalonica, Greece at Harbour Yard
Sep 30, 1997 Tel Aviv, Israel at Yarkon Park
All Kinds Of Everything 1
Daydream Believer 8
I Am Sailing 1
I Love You Love Me Love 1
MLK 11
Macarena 1
Radar Love 2
She's A Mystery To Me 1
Sugar Sugar 3
Suspicious Minds 5
Volare 2
Whiskey In The Jar 1
(Marie's The Name Of) His Latest Flame 1
(Sitting On) The Dock Of The Bay 2
All That She Wants 1
America (Stephen Sondheim) 26
Barbara Ann 15
Black Betty 19
Block Buster! 4
Broken English 3
Can't Help Falling In Love 1
Children Of The Revolution 1
Discotheque (Howie B, Hairy B Mix) 20
Happiness Is A Warm Gun 3
Hole In My Life 1
I Feel Love 2
I'd Like To Teach The World To Sing (In Perfect Harmony) 1
In The Name Of The Father 1
Loch Lomond 1
Love Will Tear Us Apart 1
Many Rivers To Cross 2
Material Girl 3
Molly Malone 1
My Mammy 27
Mystery Train 5
Playboy Mansion 21
Staring At The Sun 1
Stayin' Alive 2
Summer Holiday 1
That's The Way (I Like It) 4
The Message 9
The Sash My Father Wore 1
Walk To The Water 1
Whole Lotta Love 14
You're So Vain 1
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Narrated by: Joe Barrett, Carrington MacDuffie
In the summer after his junior year of high school, Jonathan Stride fell in love with Cindy Starr, the girl who would become his wife. But that same summer, Cindy's sister, Laura, was brutally murdered. The police suspected a vagrant of committing the crime, but Stride and Cindy were both convinced that the killer was someone close to Laura. Thirty years later, Laura's best friend, Tish Verdure, returns to Duluth to write a book about Laura's death.
3.5 Lost A Little Of The Spark
By Lia on 10-25-17
Best of the best...so far?
Fantastic character development, narration, descriptive narrative that puts you there, hearing and feeling the wind, the weather, the emotions, fears, anger and love. Brian Freeman's books bring me right back to the Duluth I spent parts of my life growing up in. So far, this is the best of his "crop" of the best!
The Discarded
Jonathan Quinn, Book 8
By: Brett Battles
He thought his final assignment would be simple: Transport a package from Japan to Amsterdam. But for Orlando's mentor, Abraham, the job was not at all like he expected and ended up haunting him. Seven years later, Quinn and Orlando know something is up when Abraham asks for a favor. At his age, he should be sitting on a beach, enjoying his retirement, not working.
Quinn does it again - I love this work
By Cecil Brathwaite on 10-09-14
Quinn series
It's like hearing from old friends. I always look forward to the "next story", from my favorite characters and authors and one of my most favorite narrators. As usual, I'm seldom disappointed! Good work...you kept me glued to the book, and that's what I look forward to when I select my next book to read or listen to. Thanks for never lessening the integrity of your talent and work.
The Sound of Glass
By: Karen White
Narrated by: Therese Plummer, Susan Bennett
It has been two years since the death of Merritt Heyward's husband, Cal, when she receives unexpected news - Cal's family home in Beaufort, South Carolina, bequeathed by Cal's reclusive grandmother, now belongs to Merritt. Charting the course of an uncertain life - and feeling guilt from her husband's tragic death - Merritt travels from her home in Maine to Beaufort, where the secrets of Cal's unspoken-of past reside among the pluff mud and jasmine of the ancestral Heyward home on the Bluff.
You'll LAUGH, LOVE, and maybe CRY a little
By Jennifer on 08-08-15
Thank you. It's been awhile since I've listened to a well-written book. The plot was interesting and kept my attention to the point I didn't get much else done. Books are meant as an escape and it did just that.
The Ruby Brooch
The Celtic Brooch, Book 1
By: Katherine Lowry Logan
Narrated by: Teri Schnaubelt
As the sole survivor of the car crash that killed her parents, grief-stricken paramedic Kit MacKlenna is stunned to learn her life is built on lies. A legacy from her father includes a faded letter and a well-worn journal. The journal reveals she was abandoned as a baby 160 years ago. The only clues to her identity are a blood-splattered shawl, a locket with the portrait of a 19th century man, and a Celtic brooch with magical powers.
Missed opportunity.
By Sanny on 11-18-15
Time Travel!
The beginning was a little confusing, and I was preparing to be disappointed in the author's approach to time travel. However it all came together with some nice surprises. Thanks to a excellent narrator...I really enjoyed the first book of this series, and look forward to Ms. Logan's next books.
Kill Zone
A Lucy Guardino FBI Thriller, Book 3
By: CJ Lyons
Narrated by: Lauren Roth
Lucy's back! In a story ripped from the headlines, the violence is the worst she's ever seen, the stakes are higher than ever, and then...things get personal. It's a vicious, horrific crime: the brutal killing of a teenage girl. When Pittsburgh detectives call FBI Supervisory Special Agent Lucy Guardino to the scene, their focus is on who and why. Was it the girl's Afghan father striving to regain his honor after she became too Westernized? Her Jewish boyfriend? Someone from Afghanistan settling an old grudge?
Unable to finish!
By mth on 10-06-15
Most the time I can move beyond the narrator...but couldn't this time. Even I could do better. This may be a good book, but will have to read it.
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Posted by artadmin on Aug 13, 2014
The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys TD, is today attending the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to support and promote Irish artists performing at the event. Culture Ireland is supporting over 80 performances by Irish artists at the prestigious event this year. Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world...
Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular
Posted by artadmin on Jul 29, 2014
Vision Nine and BBC Worldwide are delighted to announce the UK and European premiere of the hugely popular Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular at six major city venues in May 2015. The live show, which was a sell-out on its world premiere in Australia, will enjoy a limited run of twelve UK performances in London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle and Glasgow. It features over 100...
Home » Scotland
Posted By artadmin on Aug 13, 2014 | 0 comments
The Minister for Arts, Heritage and the Gaeltacht, Heather Humphreys TD, is today attending the Edinburgh Festival Fringe to support and promote Irish artists performing at the event. Culture Ireland is supporting over 80 performances by Irish artists at the prestigious event this year. Edinburgh Festival Fringe The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world and takes place every August for three weeks in...
Posted By artadmin on Jul 29, 2014 | 0 comments
Vision Nine and BBC Worldwide are delighted to announce the UK and European premiere of the hugely popular Doctor Who Symphonic Spectacular at six major city venues in May 2015. The live show, which was a sell-out on its world premiere in Australia, will enjoy a limited run of twelve UK performances in London, Cardiff, Birmingham, Leeds, Newcastle and Glasgow. It features over 100 performers and is conducted by Ben Foster, who...
68th Edinburgh International Film Festival
Posted By artadmin on Jun 29, 2014 | 0 comments
The recipients of the 68th Edinburgh International Film Festival Awards were announced at the EIFF awards ceremony, held at Filmhouse in Edinburgh today, hosted by Grant Lauchlan, producer and presenter of STV’s Moviejuice. The ceremony took place ahead of Sunday’s Closing Night, which concludes the 12-day Festival with the International Premiere of WE’LL NEVER HAVE PARIS, and which will see the announcement of the...
Aliona Vilani Joins Brendan Cole
Posted By artadmin on Dec 28, 2013 | 0 comments
Brendan Cole will be joined by fellow Strictly Come Dancing professional Aliona Vilani for his Licence to Thrill tour, which comes to Aberdeen Music Hall on March 11 and Inverness Eden Court on March 12 and 13. She will be stepping into the leading lady shoes for the tour after French Dancing with the Stars champion Fauve Hautot pulled out having injured her cruciate ligaments in her knee. “It is such a shame to not have Fauve...
The Ugly Sisters on National Tour
Posted By artadmin on Sep 24, 2013 | 0 comments
Double Scotsman Fringe First winners tackle body image and the media in a riotous cabaret style interpretation of Cinderella, with a live band Directed by Kyle Davies |Designed by Alison McDowall .. Performed by Abbi Greenland, Helen Goalen & Not Now Bernard *NOMINATED* Total Theatre Award for Innovation, Experimentation & Playing With Form 2012 National Tour until 10 November 2013 “electrifying… an anarchic, cabaret-style...
Rocky Horror 40th anniversary
Posted By artadmin on Aug 1, 2013 | 0 comments
Strictly Come Dancing finalist and Tracy Beaker star Dani Harmer is to play the role of Janet in The Rocky Horror Show 40th Anniversary production which is coming to His Majesty’s Theatre in Aberdeen in September. And Ben Forster, who won the ITV1 series Superstar and then went on to play the lead in Jesus Christ Superstar, will star alongside her in the role of Brad while West End actor Oliver Thornton stars as the lead character...
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Testing Information Testing Information
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Immunohistochemistry Stains
The ARUP Immunohistochemistry Laboratory performs more than 175 stains on formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded tissues/cellblocks. These stains are used to detect the presence, abundance, and localization of specific proteins to aid in determining the direction of differentiation in neoplasms with similar morphology as well as to provide prognostic or therapeutic information, among other applications.
This lab is pathologist oriented, providing a stain and return service only, without interpretation, to our client pathologists to assist in their diagnostic studies. Most stains are returned the next day. The available stains are listed under the Stain and Return Immunohistochemistry tab. If interpretation is needed, please order a consultation.
To order a surgical pathology consultation, please use test code 2013263 Consultation, Surgical Pathology or 2013258 Consultation, Hematopathology. For more information, call (801)581-2507. Please include pertinent clinical history and surgical pathology report.
The Immunohistochemistry Laboratory has a menu of immunohistochemistry tests for which we will provide interpretation by one of our ARUP faculty pathologists. A list of these tests can be found under the Immunohistochemistry Tests tab. The ARUP Immunohistochemistry Laboratory is an NSABP-approved laboratory for the testing of breast markers.
Stain and Interpretation
Stain and Return
- Any -Breast/Endometrium/Ovary/TestesDifferentiation MarkersEpithelial MarkersGerm Cell Tumors/Placenta MarkersHematopoietic MarkersHistiocyticLiverMelanocytic MarkersMesenchymal MarkersMicrobial MarkersMucinous MarkersMuscle MarkerNervous SystemNervous System MarkersNeuroendocrine MarkersOncogene/Tumor Supressor MarkersPancreasPeripheral Neuroectodermal MarkersPituitary MarkersPrognostic MarkersThyroid/Parathyroid MarkersVascular MarkersViral Markers
Test #
Test Keywords
Test Description
Consultation, Muscle/Nerve Pathology Special Study
2003430 Adenovirus by Immunohistochemistry Adenovirus
Specific to all subtypes of adenovirus
2003427 Adrenocorticotropic Hormone (ACTH) by Immunohistochemistry Acromegaly, Cushing Syndrome, Hypopituitarism, Tumor Markers, Endocrine/Adrenal Cancer, Lung Cancer, Pituitary Cancer, thymoma, medullary thyroid carcinoma Adrenocorticotropic hormone:
Subclassifies pituitary adenomas
2003433 Pan Cytokeratin (AE1,3) by Immunohistochemistry Glucagonoma, Somatostatinoma, VIPoma, Gastrinoma, Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (NET), Mesothelioma, Testicular Cancer, Tumor Markers, Synovial Sarcoma, Epithelial Sarcoma, Carcinoma, Adenocarcinoma, Tumor Markers, AE1,3
Cytokeratin antibody cocktail for acidic and basic cytokeratins
2003418 Alpha-1-Antichymotrypsin (A1ACT) by Immunohistochemistry Pancreatic Acinar Carcinoma, Alpha-1 Antitrypsin Deficiency, Tumor Markers Alpha 1 ACT:
Aids in identifying hepatomas and some germ cell neoplasms
Histiocyte marker for normal/neoplastic tissue
2003424 Alpha-1-Antitrypsin (AAT) by Immunohistochemistry Alpha-1-Antitrypsin Deficiency (AAT), Hemochromatosis Alpha 1 AT:
Expressed by cells of histolytic origin
Aids in identifying germ cell and histolytic neoplasms, as well as embryonal and some lung carcinomas
2003436 Alpha-1-Fetoprotein (AFP) by Immunohistochemistry Testicular Germ Cell tumor, Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor, Brain Tumors, Tumor Markers
Expressed by neoplastic liver and gonad tissue
Aids in identifying bladder carcinomas, yolk sac tumors, some germ cell tumors and a high proportion of hepatocellular carcinoma
2003419 Alpha-Synuclein by Immunohistochemistry aSynuclien (SNCA):
Demonstrates Lewy bodies in brain cells associated with Parkinson's and Alzheimer's.
2003439 Anaplastic Lymphoma Kinase 1 (ALK-1) by Immunohistochemistry Sarcoma, T/NK-Cell Lymphomas, B-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers, Non-small cell carcinoma, lung, malignant rhabdoid tumor Anaplastic lymphoma kinase 1:
Reacts with the NPM-ALK fusion protein expressed by t(2;5) positive anaplastic large cell lymphomas
2011890 Arginase 1 by Immunohistochemistry
Aides in the distinction of HCC from other hepatocellular and non-hepatocellular mass lesions, as well as in cases of metastatic carcinoma and other benign and malignant nonhepatocellular mimics
2014499 ATRX by Immunohistochemistry Prostate Cancer, prostate epithelium, breast, ductal epithelium, gastric mucosa, glial cells
Expression of ATRX is implicated in cancer pathogenesis and is useful in the diagnosis of astrocytic gliomas. Its specificity and prevalence in lower-grade gliomas with an IDH-mutation argue for thorough characterization of associated signaling networks to facilitate therapeutic development.
Mutation or loss of alpha-thalassemia/mental retardation syndrome X-linked (ATRX) expression has been described in anaplastic gliomas. ATRX loss is a hallmark of astrocytic tumors and defines a subgroup of astrocytic tumors with a favorable prognosis.
2003442 B Cell Specific Octamer Binding Protein-1 (BOB-1) by Immunohistochemistry B-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers B-cell Oct-binding protein 1; OBF-1:
Expressed in spleen and peripheral blood leukocytes, Reed-Sternberg cells, B-cells, and germinal centers
Aids in differentiating Hodgkin lymphomas and B-cell lymphomas
2004513 BCL-2 by Immunohistochemistry Follicular lymphoma, Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, B-Cell Lymphomas B-cell lymphoma-2:
Proto-oncogene
Over expression increases life span in B-cells
Aids in identifying colorectal adenomas, carcinomas
Distinguishes follicular lymphoma from reactive follicles
2003457 BCL-6 by Immunohistochemistry B-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers
Transcription factor important in germinal center formation
Aids in identifying large cell lymphomas, Burkitt lymphoma, and Hodgkin lymphoma (nodular, lymphocyte predominant)
2003463 Anti-Human Epithelial Antigen, Ber-EP4 by Immunohistochemistry Mesothelioma, Lung Cancer, mammary Paget disease, lung adenocarcinomas, trichoepitheliomas, dermatofibromas, basal cell carcinoma, Lung cancer, mesothelioma
Epithelial cell membrane glycoprotein
Differentiates mesothelial from epithelial cells
Aids in identifying mammary Paget disease, lung adenocarcinomas, trichoepitheliomas, dermatofibromas, basal cell carcinomas, and other carcinomas
2003454 Beta-Catenin-1 by Immunohistochemistry Solid-pseudopapillary Neoplasm of Pancreas, Desmoid-type Fibromatosis, Ovarian Cancer, Tumor Markers, Stain and return service only type
Binds to cytoplasmic region of e-cadherin molecule
Plays a role in cell adhesion, signal transmission, and actin cytoskeleton anchoring
Aids in identifying skin, liver, ovary, brain, prostate, and some breast cancers, as well as endometrial, ovarian, and colon carcinomas
2003466 BF-1 by Immunohistochemistry T/NK-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers Beta framework 1; BF-1:
Recognizes T-cell receptor (TCR) beta subunit
Aids in characterizing alpha-beta T-cell receptors from T-cell clones or polyclonal populations of T-cells
Aids in diagnosing T-cell lineage neoplasms
2003472 Breast 2 (GCDFP-15) by Immunohistochemistry Tumor Markers, Mammary carcinoma, Extramammary Pagets disease
Gross cystic disease fluid protein-15
Produced by cells with apocrine function
Differentiation marker for mammary carcinomas
Extramammary Paget disease
2003445 Breast Carcinoma b72.3 by Immunohistochemistry Mesothelioma, Lung Cancer, Tumor Markers, Adenocarcinoma, Breast carcinoma Tumor-associated glycoprotein (TAG.72):
Recognizes tumor-associated oncofetal antigen
Aids in identifying adenocarcinomas and breast carcinomas
2008652 c-MET by Immunohistochemistry
Tumors derived from c-Met expressing epithelia are usually positive; these include colorectal carcinomas, gastric adenocarcinomas, and non-small cell lung carcinomas
In gastric cancer and non-small cell lung carcinoma, it has been determined that c-MET drives the cancer
It has also been found that c-MET is a resistance pathway in lung cancer for EGFR inhibitors
This antibody may be used to aid in the identification of normal and neoplastic c-MET expressing cells. The pattern of reactivity is cytoplasmic/membranous
2008317 C-MYC by Immunohistochemistry
c-MYC expression has been described in a variety of cancers including breast cancer, prostate cancer, lymphoma, lung and colon cancers
The c-MYC antibody may be used to characterize lymphomas
The pattern of reactivity is nuclear
2003475 C4D by Immunohistochemistry
Deposits in peritubular capillary might distinguish between Acute Humoral Rejection (AHR) and Acute Cellular Rejection (ACR).
AHR: deposits prominently and diffusely in the peritubular capillaries, intense staining has been seen in a widespread, uniform distribution
2003481 Calcitonin by Immunohistochemistry Medullary Thyroid Cancer, Tumor Markers, Endocrine/Adrenal Cancer, Head and Neck Cancer, Thyroid medullary carcinomas
Thyroid parafollicular cells (C-cells)
Thyroid medullary carcinomas
2003484 Caldesmon by Immunohistochemistry Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors, GIST, endometrial, stromal, smooth muscle tumors, Tumor Markers
High molecular weight isoform is H-caldesmon
Calcium-, calmodulin-, tropomyosin-, and actin-binding protein
Regulates smooth muscle contraction
Aids in identifying angioleiomyomas, glomus tumors, GIST, some endometrial stromal tumors, and uterine smooth muscle tumors (benign or malignant)
Differentiates uterine smooth muscle (usually positive) and endometrial stromal differentiation (usually negative)
2003487 Calponin by Immunohistochemistry
Can be used to characterize the differentiation process of mammary myoepithelial cells in the developing mammary glad, investigate the nature of myoepithelial cells and to study the development of human smooth muscle cells.
High expression might be used as an additional marker of vascular smooth muscle cells, myopithelial cells in normal and benign human mammary gland, and certain stromal myofibroblasts.
2003490 Calretinin by Immunohistochemistry Mesothelioma, Ovarian Cancer, Tumor Markers
Calcium-binding protein
Mesothelial cells: 89% sensitive, 90% specific for differentiating mesotheliomas from lung adenocarcinomas
Aids in identifying mesothelial hyperplasia and epithelioid mesotheliomas
2003824 Carcinoembryonic Antigen, Monoclonal (CEA M) by Immunohistochemistry Mesothelioma, Ovarian Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Tumor Markers, Cervical Cancer Carcinoembryonic antigen:
Specific marker for colon carcinoma
Associated with other cancers: breast, stomach, and lung (see CEA polycolonal)
2003827 Carcinoembryonic Antigen, Polyclonal (CEA P) by Immunohistochemistry Hepatocellular Carcinoma, canallicular marker, Pancreatic Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Lung Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Tumor Markers CD56e; biliary glycoprotein 1:
Reacts with CEA and CEA-like proteins
Normal colon: small intestinal crypts and apical surfaces of epithelial cells, small intestinal goblet cell mucin (not intracytoplasmic)
Breast: some epithelial cell membranes expressed
Liver: biliary tract, hepatocytes are positive
Lung adenocarcinomas or mesotheliomas: 85% sensitive, 96% specific for lung adenocarcinoma, diffuse cytoplasmic staining with membrane enhancement
Hepatocellular or non-hepatocellular carcinomas: canalicular pattern has 50-90% sensitivity for hepatocellular carcinoma and greater than 95% specificity
Present also with lung adenocarcinoma, medullary thyroid carcinoma, colonic adenocarcinoma, pancreatic adenocarcinoma, and hepatocellular carcinoma
2003523 CD10 (CALLA) by Immunohistochemistry Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), Follicular lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma, Diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, B-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers
Common acute lymphoblastic leukemia antigen (CALLA)
Aids in identifying lymphoblastic lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, and CML
Aids in differential diagnosis of small B-cell lymphomas and subtyping of lymphoblastic leukemias
2003806 CD117 (c-Kit) by Immunohistochemistry Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST), Lung Cancer, Breast Cancer, Melanoma, Mast Cell Disease, Germ Cell Tumor of Testes and Ovary, Brain Tumors, Myelodysplastic Syndromes, Acute Myeloid Leukemia, (AML), Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN), Tumor Markers
Inhibitor of apoptotic cell death
Aids in identifying small and large cell lung carcinomas, GIST, AML, CML (in blast crisis), breast carcinomas, glioblastomas and melanomas
2003809 CD123 by Immunohistochemistry
A marker of dendric cell precursors: is expressed by plasmactoid monocytes, dendric cells, and plasmacytoid dendritic cells.
2003812 CD138 (Syndecan-1) by Immunohistochemistry Plasma Cell Dyscrasias, B-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers
Transmembrane heparin sulphate glycoprotein
Expressed by normal lymphoid cells, IgG plasma cells, Pre B-cells and immature B-cells
Co-receptor for differentiation growth factors
Differentiates squamous cell carcinomas, postgerminal center B-cells, and plasma cells
Expressed in plasma cells of CLL, plasmacytoid lymphomas, and myelomas
2003526 CD14 by Immunohistochemistry Acute Myelogenous Leukemia, Chronic Myelomonocytic Leukemia, Tumor Markers
Acts as a co-receptor for the detection of bacterial lipolysaccharide (LPS).
Expressed on cells of myelo-monocytic llineage, including monocytes, macrophages and Langerhan's cells.
2003529 CD15, Leu M1 by Immunohistochemistry Hodgkin Lymphoma, Acute Myelogenous Leukemia, Mesothelioma
Hapten X
Present in Reed-Sternberg cells, 90% granulocytes, 30-60% monocytes
Absent from lymphocytes
Expressed by some non-Hodgkin lymphomas, mycosis fungoides and some leukemias
Is restricted in its expression to the monocytic/macrophage lineage.
Is present on all circulating monocytes and most tissue macrophages except those found in mantle zone and germinal centers of lymphoid follicles, interdigitating reticulum cells and Langerhan’s cells.
2005114 CD19 by Immunohistochemistry Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Tumor Markers, B-Cell Lymphomas CD19:
CD19 is to be used in a panel of antibodies to aid in the characterization of B-cell malignancies. The pattern or reactivity is membranous.
In normal tissues, the CD19 (clone BT51E) detects protein expressed on the membrane of cells of the B-cell lineage. Staining is seen in the mantle zones and germinal centers of tonsil and tissue infiltrating B-lymphocytes.
CD19 is detected in hematological malignancies including: 95% of B-cell lymphomas including small lymphocytic lymphoma, chronic lymphocytic lymphoma, mantle cell lymphoma, follicular lymphoma, Burkitt lymphoma, marginal zone lymphoma, diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, T-cell rich B-cell lymphoma, and lymphoblastic lymphoma; 75% of B-cell leukemias including small lymphocytic leukemia, chronic lymphocytic leukemia and Hairy cell leukemia.
2003502 CD1a by Immunohistochemistry Langerhan cell histiocytosis, T-ALL
Non-polymorphic MHC class I-related cell surface glycoprotein
Expressed by interdigitating reticulum cells, cortical thymocytes, thymomas, langerhans cells and Langerhans histiocytosis cells (histiocytosis X)
Aids in identifying some T-cell lymphomas and leukemias
2003505 CD2 by Immunohistochemistry T-cell lymphomas, Mast Cell Disease, Sézary Syndrome, Tumor Markers
Mediates adhesion of activated T-cells and thymocytes with antigen-presenting and target cells
Expressed by T-lymphocytes and cortical thymocytes
Aids in identifying natural killer cells and most malignant cells of T-cell origin
2003532 CD20, L26 by Immunohistochemistry B-Cell Lymphomas, Plasma cell dyscrasias, Tumor Markers
Expressed on B-cell precursors and mature B-cells, but lost following differentiation into plasma cells
B-lymphocytes: germinal center cells, mantle zone lymphocytes, and interfollicular lymphocytes, but not T-cells, plasma cells, or histiocytes
Aids in identifying common acute lymphoblastic leukemia, pre-B acute lymphoblastic leukemia, CLL, prolymphocytic leukemia, hairy cell leukemia, lymphoma cell leukemia, B-cell lymphomas, including Burkitt, Waldenstrom, and immunoblastic B-cell
May show some membrane staining of Reed-Sternberg cells in Hodgkin lymphoma
Primarily aids the distinction between CLL/SLL and mantle cell lymphoma where CD200 is usually positive in CLL/SLL and negative in mantle cell lymphoma.
CD200 is also positive in other B-cell lymphoproliferative disorders.
2003535 CD21 (Dendritic Cell) by Immunohistochemistry T-Cell Lymphomas, B-Cell Lymphomas, follicular dendritic cells, follicular dendritic sarcoma
C3D receptor, CR2, and EBV receptor
Expressed by follicular dendritic cells, mature B-cells, some types of epithelial cells, reactive hyperplasia, and plasma cells
Low expression on T-cell ALL cells, subset of normal thymocytes and mature T-cells, lymphocytes in the mantle zone, sinus lining cells, and monocytoid B-cells
Aids in identifying B-cell CLL, follicular lymphoma, low-grade MALT-type B-cell lymphoma, primary salivary gland and gastric lymphoma, T-cell and histiocyte-rich B-cell lymphoma, angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, nodular lymphocyte-predominant Hodgkin lymphoma, follicular dendritic sarcoma and some Reed-Sternberg cells not expressing other B- or T-cell-associated markers.
2003541 CD23 by Immunohistochemistry Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
Expressed by activated B-lymphocytes, activated macrophages, and a portion of follicular dendritic cells
Aids in differentiating small lymphocytic lymphoma (+) and mantle cell lymphoma (-)
2003544 CD25 by Immunohistochemistry Mast Cell Disease, Myeloproliferative Neoplasms (MPN), Hairy cell leukemia, Sezary syndrome
Mediates helper, suppressor, and cytotoxic functions
Expressed on T-cells, HTLV-1-transformed T- and B-cells, EVB-transformed B-cells, myeloid precursors, and oligodendrocytes
Aids in study of inflammatory and malignant conditions
2003508 CD3 by Immunohistochemistry T-cell lymphomas, T-cell leukemias, Tumor Markers
Binds to the non-glycosylated epsilon chain of CD3 complex
Present in T-lymphocytes, thymocytes/early thymocytes
Expressed on normal and neoplastic T-cells
2003547 CD30 (Ki-1) by Immunohistochemistry Hodgkin lymphoma, T-cell lymphoma, B-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers, solitary fibrous tumor, sarcoma
Ki-1 positive lymphoma
Ber-H2
Expressed by activated B- and T-lymphocytes, Reed-Sternberg cells
Aids in identifying Hodgkin lymphoma, lymphomatoid papulosis, anaplastic large cell lymphoma, some peripheral pleomorphic T-cell lymphomas (both HTLV-1 positive and negative) including those of angioimmunoblastic type and Lennert type and embryonal carcinoma
2003550 CD31 by Immunohistochemistry Vascular neoplasms
Platelet-endothelial cell adhesion molecule
Expressed by endothelial cells
Glycoprotein in platelets
Aids in evaluating vascularization in normal and neoplastic tissue and demonstrating endothelial cellderived tumors
2003553 CD33 by Immunohistochemistry Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Tumor Markers
2003556 CD34, QBEnd/10 by Immunohistochemistry B-ALL, T-ALL, Acute myelogenous leukemia, MDS, Tumor Markers
Human progenitor cell antigen
Present in immature hematopoietic cells and vascular endothelial cells
Expressed by some acute myeloid leukemias, undifferentiated leukemias, and acute lymphoblastic leukemias
2003559 CD35 by Immunohistochemistry Sarcoma
Mediates neutrophil and monocte phagocytosis of particles coated with C3b and or C4b
Shows strong staining pattern on follicular dendritic cells
Aids in characterization of histocytic/dendritic cell neoplasms and follicular dendritic cell sarcomas
2003511 CD4 by Immunohistochemistry Sézary Syndrome, T-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers
Present on a subset of helper/inducer T-cells, thymocytes, and at a lower level on monocytes
Aids in identifying cutaneous T-cell lymphoma, including mycosis fungoides and HTLV-1-associated adult T-cell leukemia and lymphoma
2003565 CD42b by Immunohistochemistry Acute myelogenous leukemia, megakaryocytes
Platelet glycoprotein Ib
Expressed on platelets and megakaryocytes in bone marrow
Aids in phenotyping megakaryoblastic leukemias
Absence of CD42b on platelets may indicate Bernard-Soulier syndrome
2003568 CD43, L60 (Leu 22) by Immunohistochemistry T/NK-Cell Lymphomas, B-Cell Lymphomas
Expressed on T-lymphocytes, B-lymphocytes, and granulocytes
Aids in identifying cells of lymphoid lineage and T-cell lymphomas, and mantle cell lymphomas
2003574 CD45 by Immunohistochemistry Non-Hodgkin lymphomas, Hodgkin Lymphomas, Tumor Markers Leukocyte common antigen:
Expressed on the majority of leukocytes
Aids in differentiating lymphoid from non-lymphoid neoplasms
2003514 CD5 by Immunohistochemistry T-Cell Lymphomas, B-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers
Expressed in T-lymphocytes, thymocytes and subset of B-lymphocytes in lymph nodes
Aids in identifying T-cell leukemias, most B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemias (B-CLL) and mantle cell lymphomas/T- and B-cell lymphomas
2003586 CD52 (CAMPATH-1) by Immunohistochemistry B-cell lymphomas, B-cell leukemias, T-cell leukemias
Expressed by lymphocytes, monocytes, eosinophils, thymocytes, and macrophages
Expressed by most lymphoid-derived malignancies
Variable expression on myeloma cell
2003589 CD56 (NCAM) by Immunohistochemistry Brain Tumors, Sarcoma , Rhabdomyosarcomas, T/NK-Cell Lymphomas, Plasma Cell Dyscrasias, Tumor Markers, Lung Cancer Neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM):
Expressed on natural killer cells and most neuroectodermal tissues
Retinoblastoma, medulloblastoma, astrocytoma, neuroblastoma, and rhabdomyosarcoma
2003592 CD57 by Immunohistochemistry T/NK-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers Leu-7, HNK1:
Expressed by a subset of natural killer cells and some T-lymphocytes
Reacts with myelin-associated glycoprotein in neuroectodermal tissue
Aids in identifying small cell lung carcinoma, NK lymphocyte-mediated cytotoxicity, AIDS and AIDS-related complex (ARC), NK and T-cell subset tumors and neural tissue neoplasms
2003595 CD61 (Platelet Glycoprotein IIIA) by Immunohistochemistry Acute myelogenous leukemia, megakaryocytes Platelet glycoprotein IIIa:
Expressed on platelets and megakaryocytes
Specific for cells showing megakaryoblastic differentiation
Aids in identifying megakaryocytic/megakaryoblastic leukemias
2003598 CD68, KP1 by Immunohistochemistry Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), Monocytes, Histiocytes, Tumor Markers KP-1:
Expressed by Macrophages, blood monocytes, mast cells, and the cell population known as "plasmacytoid T-cells" in reactive lymph nodes
Strong to moderate staining in acute myeloid leukemia (AML), chronic myeloid leukemia (CML), true histiocytic neoplasia, melanoma, and some B-cell neoplasms (usually small lymphocytic lymphoma [SLL]) and weak staining in hairy cell leukemia
Weak staining in hairy cell leukemia
2003517 CD7 by Immunohistochemistry Sézary Syndrome, T/NK-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers
Earliest T-cell-specific antigen to be expressed in lymphocytes
Present in thymocytes , most peripheral T-lymphocyte, most natural killer cells
Aids in identifying T-cell lymphomas and leukemias of T-cell origin
2003800 CD79A by Immunohistochemistry Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML), B-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers
Expressed on pre B-cells until plasma cell stage
Found as intracellular component in plasma cells
Aids in identifying acute leukemia of precursor B-cell type (common ALL), B-cell lymphomas and some myelomas
2003520 CD8 by Immunohistochemistry T-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers
Expressed on a cytotoxic/suppressor subset of T-lymphocyte natural killer cells, thymocytes, and on a subpopulation of null cells
Aids in identifying T-cell lymphomas/leukemias
2005534 CDK4 by Immunohistochemistry Sarcoma, liposarcoma
2003821 CDX2 by Immunohistochemistry Intestinal-type sinonasal adenocarcinoma, Colorectal Cancer, Tumor Markers, Lung Cancer
Exclusively marks nuclei of colonic epithelial cells and colorectal cancers
May be involved in the regulation of proliferation and differentiation in intestinal epithelial cells
May be used identifying metastatic colon carcinoma
2003830 Chromogranin A by Immunohistochemistry Neuroendocrine Tumors (NET), Carcinoid Tumors, Medullary Thyroid Cancer, Tumor Markers, Paraganglioma, Carotid body tumor, Olfactory neuroblastoma, pituitary adenomas, islet cell tumors, phaeochromocytomas, medullary thyroid carcinomas, Merkel cell tumors, and carcinoids
Expressed in neuronal cells and in secretory granules of endocrine cells: parathyroid gland, adrenal medulla, anterior pituitary gland, islet cells of the pancreas, and C-cells of the thyroid
Aids in identifying neuroendocrine tumors: pituitary adenomas, islet cell tumors, phaeochromocytomas, medullary thyroid carcinomas, Merkel cell tumors, and carcinoids
2003839 Collagen IV by Immunohistochemistry Alport Syndrome Renal disease, chronic kidney disease, hematuria, alport
Reacts with basement membranes in kidney, skin, striated and smooth muscle, spleen, lymph node, lung, placenta, and tendon
2013260 Comprehensive Muscle Biopsy Workup
2013261 Comprehensive Nerve Biopsy Workup
2008622 CXCL13 by Immunohistochemistry B-lymphocyte chemoattractant / B-Cell attracting chemokine-1 (BLC/BCA-1),
CXC chemokine family controlling the organization of B cells within follicles of lymphoid tissues such as spleen, lymph nodes and Peyer’s patches.
In T-lymphocytes, CXCL13 expression is thought to reflect a germinal center origin of the T-cell.
Useful marker in the diagnosis of Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphoma, when used in a panel can differentiate it from other proliferative T-cell lymphoma.
2003842 Cyclin D1, SP4 by Immunohistochemistry Head and Neck Cancer, Tumor Markers, Mantle cell lymphoma, B-Cell Lymphomas
B-cell lymphoma-1
Mantle cell lymphoma, various carcinomas (strong staining in carcinomas), multiple myelomas, some parathyroid adenomas, and parathyroid carcinomas
2003845 Cytokeratin 19 (CK 19) by Immunohistochemistry Thyroid Cancer, Tumor Markers CK 19:
Reacts with a large number of epithelial cell types, including many ductal and glandular epithelia
Aides in identification of many benign and malignant epithelial lesions
2003848 Cytokeratin 20 (CK 20) by Immunohistochemistry Tumor Markers, Bladder Cancer, Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer, HNPCC, Lung Cancer, Colorectal Cancer, Multiple Carcinomas , Merkel Cell, adenomas, gallbladder, bile duct, gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma, ductal cell adenocarcinomas of the pancreas, mucinous ovarian tumors, transitional cell carcinoma, Pancreatic carcinoma, cholangiocarcinoma, Mesothelioma Cytokeratin 20:
Expressed in intestinal epithelium, gastric foveolar epithelium, some endocrine cells of the upper portions of the pyloric glands, urethelium, and Merkel cells in epidermis
Aids in identifying colorectal carcinoma, adenomas of the gallbladder and bile ducts, ductal cell adenocarcinomas of the pancreas, mucinous ovarian tumors, transitional cell carcinomas, and Merkel cell carcinomas of the skin
Gastrointestinal adenocarcinomas express CK20 to a lesser degree
2003851 Cytokeratin 5,6 (CK 5,6) by Immunohistochemistry Mesothelioma, Bladder Cancer, Prostate Cancer (PSA), Lung Cancer, Tumor Markers Cytokeratins 5 and 6:
Stratified squamous epithelial cytokeratin
Aids in diagnosing low differentiated pavement epithelium carcinoma, adenocarcinoma, and mesothelioma
Differentiates epithelial mesotheliomas (positive-cytoplasmic staining with perinuclear enhancement) from lung adenocarcinoma (89% sensitive, 95% specific)
2003854 Cytokeratin 7 (CK 7) by Immunohistochemistry Gastrinoma, Mesothelioma, Bladder Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Lung Cancer, Tumor Markers, Multiple Carcinomas, Breast Cancer Cytokeratin 7:
Reacts with most glandular and transitional epithelia: breast, lung, bladder, female genital tract (endometrium, fallopian tube), gastrointestinal tract (gallbladder, hepatic ducts, pancreatic ducts), urinary tract, and bile duct
Present with subtypes of ovarian, pulmonary, and breast adenocarcinomas, transitional cell carcinomas, tumors of female genital tract (endometrium, fallopian tube), urothelial carcinomas, breast carcinomas, and lung carcinomas
2003493 Cytokeratin 8,18 Low Molecular Weight (CAM 5.2) by Immunohistochemistry Carcinoid Tumors, Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Renal Cell, Rhabdoid tumors, Neuroendocrine, Pancreatic Cancer, Pheochromocytoma, Melanoma, Tumor Markers, Multiple Carcinomas, Colon Cancer, Gastrointestinal Cancer
Cytokeratin 8/18 , low molecular weight cytokeratin
Hepatocellular and renal cell carcinomas
Aids in identifying neuroendocrine carcinoma, melanomas (3%), nuclear inclusions of rhabdoid tumors (composed of tangled intermediate filaments made up of CK8 and vimentin), and mutations associated with idiopathic cirrhosis and chronic hepatitis
2003833 Cytomegalovirus (CMV) by Immunohistochemistry Cytomegalovirus Cytomegalovirus:
Reacts with the delayed and early DNA-binding protein p52
Does not crossreact with other herpesviruses or adenoviruses
2003857 D2-40 by Immunohistochemistry Mesothelioma, Brain Tumors
High sensitivity and specificity for lymphatic endothelium
Can be used as a reliable lymphatic endothelial cell marker in the evaluation of lymphatic involvement in tumors
2003863 Desmin by Immunohistochemistry Smooth Muscle, Reactive Mesothelial cells, leiomyosarcomas, myogenic sarcomas, rhabdomyosarcoma, PNET, neuroblastoma, GIST, gastrointestinal stromal tumor, Tumor Markers
Intermediate filament present in smooth and striated muscle
Expressed in reactive mesothelial cells, myoblasts, myofibroblasts (variable), endometrial stroma, and smooth muscle cells
Aids in idenitifying smooth muscle tumors (leiomyosarcomas), myogenic sarcomas, striated muscle tumors (rhabdomyosarcoma), PNET, neuroblastomas, and intra-abdominal desmoplastic small round cell tumors
2010168 DOG1 by Immunohistochemistry
Shown to be highly specific and sensitive in the diagnosis of GIST
Approximately 4–15% of GIST will stain weakly or be negative for CD117 by IHC; in the vast majority of these cases, DOG1 is expressed by IHC.
2003869 E-Cadherin by Immunohistochemistry Mesothelioma, Breast Cancer, Tumor Markers Cellular adhesion molecule:
Loss associated with invasive carcinoma
Differentiates LCIS from DCIS in indeterminate breast carcinoma
Reduced expression in invasive bladder cancer and ductal carcinoma
No expression in lobular carcinoma and LCIS
2003872 Epithelial Membrane Antigen (EMA) by Immunohistochemistry Adenocarcinoma, anaplastic large cell lymphomas, epitheloid sarcomas, Pagets’ disease, plasmacytomas, Pancreatic tumors, Tumor Markers Epithelial membrane antigen:
Prognostic
Expressed by almost all glandular and ductal epithelial cells including breast and pancreas, activated T-cells, monocytes, some B-cells, follicular dendritic cells, and perineurial cells
Aids in identifying most adenocarcinomas, anaplastic large cell lymphomas, epithelioid sarcomas, meningiomas, some mesotheliomas, myelomas, Paget disease, plasmacytomas, squamous cell tumors, and metastatic carcinomas
Associated with invasion in pancreatic tumors
2003875 Epithelial-related Antigen, MOC-31 by Immunohistochemistry Mesothelioma, Head and Neck Cancer, Lung Cancer adenocarcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, adenomas, small cell lung cancers, carcinoids, adenocystic carcinomas, and carcinosarcomas Epithelial related antigen (MOC-31):
Aids in identifying adenocarcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, adenomas, small cell lung cancers, carcinoids, adenocystic carcinomas, and carcinosarcomas
2007332 ERBB2 (HER2)(HercepTest) by Immunohistochemistry HERCEP IHC
Predicts a patient’s response to Herceptin Therapy
See Test Code 0049174 for HercepTest with Interpretation.
2012555 ERG by Immunohistochemistry
Prostate marker
May be used to aid in the identification of prostate adenocarcinomas through the detection of truncated ERG
2004516 Estrogen Receptor (ER) by Immunohistochemistry Ovarian Cancer, Breast Cancer, Tumor Markers Estrogen receptor-alpha:
Prognostic for breast cancer
Predictive for response of breast cancers to hormonal therapy
Differentiates endocervical from endometrial adenocarcinomas
2004055 Ewing Sarcoma (O13) by Immunohistochemistry Ewing Sarcoma, Sarcoma, PNET
MIC2 gene products
Glycoprotein HBA 71 antigen
Aids in identifying primitive peripheral neuroectodermal tumors, peripheral neuroepitheliomas, Ewing sarcoma and lymphoblastic lymphoma
2003878 Factor XIIIa by Immunohistochemistry Hepatocellular Carcinoma
megakaryocytes, and fibroblast-like mesenchymal or histiocytic cells present in the placenta, uterus, and prostate
Present in monocytes, macrophages, and dermal dendritic cells
Aids in differentiating dermatofibromas, dermatosarcoma protuberans, and desmoplastic malignant melanomas
Positive in capillary hemangioblastomas, hemangioendotheliomas, hepatocellular carcinomas, hemangiopericytomas, xanthogranulomas, glomus tumors, and meningiomas
2003896 Gastrin by Immunohistochemistry Gastrinoma, Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (NET), Carcinoid Tumors, Tumor Markers
Expressed in G-cells of the pyloric antrum
Aids in identifying G-cell hyperplasia and gastrin-secreting tumors
2012558 GATA3 by Immunohistochemistry
Breast marker
Can be used in a panel of antibodies for diagnosis of unknown primary carcinoma when carcinomas of the breast or bladder are a possibility. The pattern of reactivity should be nuclear.
2003899 Glial Fibrillary Acidic Protein (GFAP) by Immunohistochemistry Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors (GIST), Brain Tumors Glial fibrillary acidic protein:
Expressed in astrocytes and some CNS ependymal cells
Identifies astrocytomas and ependymomas
Many neural tumors, such as neuroblastomas, schwannomas, and extra-CNS tumors, do not stain
2003905 Glucose Transporter-1 (GLUT-1) by Immunohistochemistry
Involved in glucose transport across epithelial and endothelial barrier tissues
Stains the membrane of normal erythrocytes in various normal and neoplastic tissues
2003908 Glycophorin A by Immunohistochemistry
Expressed in erythroid cells
Identifies M6 subtype of acute myeloblastic leukemia, erythroleukemia, and erythroblasts
2011925 Glypican 3 by Immunohistochemistry
Useful tumor marker for the diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), hepatoblastoma, melanoma, testicular germ cell tumors, and Wilms’ tumor
2007173 Granzyme B by Immunohistochemistry
Granzyme B has been found to be expressed in the neoplastic counterparts of cytolytic CTL and NK-cells, therefore, Granzyme B may be a valuable tool in the diagnosis of T-cell/NK-cell lymphomas with cytotoxic phenotypes.
High percentages of cytotoxic T-cells have been shown to be an unfavorable prognostic indicator in Hodgkin’s disease.
2003860 Hairy Cell Leukemia, DBA.44 by Immunohistochemistry B-Cell Lymphomas
Developed against the B-cell antigen
Aids in identifying Hairy cell leukemia (particularly "hairy" cytoplasmic processes), some follicular center cell lymphomas, high grade B-cell lymphomas, splenic lymphomas with villous lymphocytes
2003914 HBME-1 (Mesothelial Cell) by Immunohistochemistry Mesothelioma, Thyroid Cancer Anti-mesothelial cell:
Has been demonstrated to immunostain the membrane and cytoplasm of normal plural and peritoneal mesothelial cells and of neoplastic epithelial mesothelioma cells.
Although both the membrane and cytoplasm of epithelial mesothelioma cells stain positive, the thick membrane staining pattern is found to be a more diagnostically useful marker of malignant mesothelioma.
2003941 Helicobacter pylori by Immunohistochemistry Gastric adenocarcinoma, gastric B-cell lymphoma persistent dyspepsia;duodenal ulcer, gastric MALT, early gastric cancer, gastritis
Reacts with antigens of the H. pylori organism
2003923 Hepatocyte Specific Antigen (HSA) by Immunohistochemistry Hepatocellular Carcinoma Hep Par-1:
Expressed in hepatocytes
Differentiates hepatocellular carcinomas and metastatic carcinomas
Differential diagnosis of hepatocellular carcinomas, cholangiocarcinomas, and hepatoblastomas
2003932 Herpes Virus 8 by Immunohistochemistry Kaposi Sarcoma, B-Cell Lymphomas, B- and T-Cell Markers Lymphoma, Castleman disease, Primary Effusion Lymphomas, Tumor Markers Human herpes virus type 8 (latent nuclearantigen):
Aids in identifying multicentric Castleman disease, angioimmunoblastic lymphadenopathies, and Kaposi sarcoma
2003935 Melanoma Antibody, HMB45 by Immunohistochemistry Melanoma, Tumor Markers, HMB45 Melanoma-specific antigen:
Expressed in junctional cells, blue nevus cells, and fetal and neonatal melanocytes
Reacts with the majority of melanomas and other tumors with melanoma/melanocytic differentiation, including melanotic schwannoma clear cell sarcoma
3000101 HSV Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV) Types I/II by Immunohistochemistry Herpes Simplex Virus (HSV)
Reacts with antigens common to HSV types 1 and 2; reacts with all the major glycoproteins present in the viral envelope
HSV I/II by IHC will aid in identifying tissue infected with the herpes simplex virus
2003920 Human Chorionic Gonadotropin (Beta-hCG) by Immunohistochemistry Trophoblastic, germ cell, lung, melanoma, gastrointestinal, ovarian, testicular cancer hCG:
Expressed on placental trophoblasts
Aids in identifying trophoblastic germ cell tumor
2003938 Human Placental Lactogen (HPL) by Immunohistochemistry Gestational Trophoblastic Disease, Products of Conception HPL:
Reacts with placental syncytrotrophoblastic cells
Identifies placental site trophoblastic tumors and exaggerated placental sites
2005857 IDH1R132H Mutation by Immunohistochemistry Glial tumors, astrocytomas , oligodendrogliomas, glioblastomas
Distinguishes primary from secondary Glioblastoma multiform (GBM)
IDH1 mutations occur in approximately 70% of astrocytomas and oligodendroglial tumors
Allows the highly sensitive and specific discrimination of various tumors, such as astrocytoma from primary glioblastomas or diffuse astrocytoma grade II from pilocytic astrocytoma or ependymoma
2003957 Immunoglobulin A (IgA) by Immunohistochemistry
Alpha chains of Ig
2003960 Immunoglobulin D (IgD) by Immunohistochemistry
Delta chains of IgD
2003963 Immunoglobulin G (IgG) by Immunohistochemistry
Gamma chains of IgG
2005844 Immunoglobulin G4 by Immunohistochemistry
IgG4-related sclerosing disease has been recognized as a systemic disease entity characterized by an elevated serum IgG4 level, sclerosing fibrosis and diffuse lymphoplasmacytic infiltration with the presence of many IgG4-positive plasma cells. It is important to recognize this entity and differentiate it from such mimics as lymphoma.
Immunohistochemical analysis in the cases of IgG4-related sclerosing disease exhibits significantly more IgG4 positive plasma cells in affected tissues. Clinical manifestations are apparent in the pancreas, bile duct, gallbladder, lacrimal gland, salivary gland, retroperitoneum, kidney, lung, breast thyroid, and prostate.
2003966 Immunoglobulin M (IgM) by Immunohistochemistry
Mu chains of IgM
2003969 Inhibin by Immunohistochemistry Brain Tumors, Ovarian Cancer
Expressed in Sertoli cells, granulosa cells, and prostate, brain, and adrenal cells
Present in sex-cord stromal tumors (including Sertoli cell tumors), adrenocortical tumors, placental and gestational trophoblastic lesions, granular cell tumors of gallbladder and extrahepatic bile ducts, and some carcinomas
2003448 INI1 (BAF47) by Immunohistochemistry Head and Neck Cancer, Sarcoma
Indicative of a tumor suppressor role
Heterozygous tumors in the soft tissues of the head and neck
2003975 MUM1/IRF4 by Immunohistochemistry B-Cell Lymphomas, Hodgkin lymphoma, Tumor Markers
Transcription factor required for B- and T-cell development
Expressed in a subset of diffuse large B-cell lymphomas and used in cell of origin classification
Aids in the differential diagnosis of PEL among other lymphomas involving the serous body cavities
2003981 Kappa Light Chains by Immunohistochemistry Plasma Cell Dyscrasias, B-Cell Lymphomas, plasma cell dyscrasias
Reacts with free kappa chains and those in intact immunoglobulin molecules
Restricted expression suggests monoclonality and neoplastic process
2003978 Keratin 903 (K903) High Molecular Weight by Immunohistochemistry Mesothelioma, Bladder Cancer, Prostate Cancer, Breast Cancer High molecular weight keratin, 34βE12:
Specific to prostate basal cells
Rules out prostatic adenocarcinoma
High grade PIN demonstrates K 903 staining
Identifies squamous cell carcinomas, urothelial carcinomas, adenocarcinomas of ductal origin (breast, pancreas), and small benign acinar lesions of the prostate
Aids in differentiating mesotheliomas from lung adenocarcinomas
2004519 Ki-67, MIB1, by Immunohistochemistry B-cell Lymphomas, T-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor marker, astrocytoma
Proliferation index indicator
Determines growth fraction
Aids in differentiating melanoma from nevus cells for sentinel node biopsy
Distinguishes benign and malignant adrenocortical tumors
2003984 Lambda Light Chains by Immunohistochemistry Plasma Cell Dyscrasias, B-Cell Lymphomas
Reacts with free lambda chains and those in intact immunoglobulin molecules
2013802 Langerin by Immunohistochemistry Indicated as an aid in the identification of Langerhans cells in the clinical differential diagnosis where Langerhans cell histiocytosis is suspected.
2003990 Lysozyme (Muramidase) by Immunohistochemistry Acute Myeloid Leukemia (AML)
Histiocytic and bacteriolytic enzyme
Present in granulocytes, monocytes, macrophages, histiocytes, normal hematopoietic cells, and some epithelial cells
Present in myeloid leukemias
2003993 Mast Cell Tryptase by Immunohistochemistry Mast Cell Disease
Present in secretory granules of mast cells
Present with inflammatory diseases
2003996 Melan A by Immunohistochemistry Melanoma, Tumor Markers
MART-1 antigen
Expressed in melanocytes, steroid-producing cells of the adrenal cortex, ovary, and testis
Identifies melanomas, adrenocortical tumors, Leydig tumors of the testis, and Sertoli-Leydig ovarian tumors
2011998 MITF by Immunohistochemistry
Used in the identification of melanotic lesions, such as malignant melanoma and melanotic neurofibroma
2004002 Muc-1 by Immunohistochemistry Glandular differentiation marker, Pancreatic, thyroid cancer, biliary, Salivary gland
Expressed in mucin-secreting epithelial cells of normal endometrium, kidney, lung, pancreas, and stomach
Utilized in the detection of Muc-1 glycoprotein in benign and malignant tumors
2004008 Muc-4 by Immunohistochemistry Colorectal Cancer, Tumor Markers, Pancreatic, thyroid, salivary gland, biliary
Stains stomach, colon, and the endothelial cells of small blood vessels and capillaries
Strong positive staining in colon polyps, colon carcinoma, and gastric adenocarcinoma
Positive staining also demonstrated in lung adenocarcinoma and ovarian mucinous adenocarcinoma
2004011 Muscle-Specific Actin (MSA) by Immunohistochemistry Sarcoma, leiomyomas, leiomyosarcomas, rhabdomyosarcomas, some pleomorphic liposarcomas, glomus tumors, desmoid tumors
Present in skeletal, cardiac, smooth muscle, and myoepithelial cells
Identifies soft tissue tumors with muscle differentiation (leiomyomas, leiomyosarcomas, and rhabdomyosarcomas), some pleomorphic liposarcomas, the majority of glomus tumors, occasional desmoid tumors, and myofibroblasts in some lesions
2004014 Myeloperoxidase (MPO) by Immunohistochemistry Myelodysplastic Syndrome (MDS), Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML), Tumor Markers MPO:
Reacts with myeloperoxidase from granulocytes
Aids in differentiating lymphoid leukemias from myeloid leukemias
Identifies granulocytic sarcomas
2004017 Myogenin (Myf4) by Immunohistochemistry Sarcoma, Tumor Markers, leiomyosarcomas, rhabdomyosarcomas
Expressed early in skeletal muscle differentiation.
Is a sensitive and specific marker for rhabdomyosarcoma.
Is more specific than desmin and muscle-specific actin and more sensitive than myoglobin.
2004031 Myoglobin by Immunohistochemistry Sarcoma, Tumor Markers, rhabdomyosarcomas
Oxygen binding protein
Expressed by striated muscle (cardiac, skeletal)
Present in rhabdomyosarcoma and other tumors with skeletal muscle differentiation
2004034 Myosin by Immunohistochemistry Sarcoma, Tumor Markers, rhabdomyosarcomas
Contractile protein
Expressed in smooth muscle (non-sarcomeric) and skeletal muscle (sarcomeric) forms
Aids in muscle differentiation
2008716 Napsin A by Immunohistochemistry
Napsin A is highly specific in adenocarcinomas of lung and is useful in distinguishing primary lung adenocarcinomas from adenocarcinomas of other organs
The pattern of reactivity is cytoplasmic
2004049 Neurofilament by Immunohistochemistry Tumor Markers
Cytoskeletal element in nerve axons/dendrites
Reacts with neurons, neuronal processes, peripheral nerves, sympathetic ganglion cells, and adrenal medulla
Identifies neuroblastoma and gangliomas
2004052 Neuron Specific Enolase, Polyclonal (NSE P) by Immunohistochemistry Neuroendocrine Marker, neuronal or neuroendocrine cells and their tumors: neuroblastomas and retinoblastomas Neuron-specific enolase:
Expressed by neuronal or neuroendocrine cells and their tumors: neuroblastomas and retinoblastomas
May label non-neuronal tumors: meningiomas, medulloblastomas, astrocytomas, glioblastomas, oligoastrocytomas, oligodendrogliomas, pituitary adenomas, schwannomas, ependymomas, meningosarcomas, gliosarcomas, small cell lung cancer, melanomas, and germ cell tumors
2004046 Neuronal Nuclei (NeuN) by Immunohistochemistry
Aids in the definitive identification of neuronal elements in ganglion cell tumors or hamartomas, in which a distinction between atypical glial cells and neurons may be difficult.
May be used, similarly, for the study of neuronal loss in epilepsy, neurodegenerative diseases, or other conditions
2004061 Octamer Transcription Factor-2 (Oct 2) by Immunohistochemistry B-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers Octamer-binding transcription factor 2:
Aids in differentiating Hodgkin lymphomas (typically weak to negative) and B-cell lymphomas
2004058 Octamer Transcription Factor-3 and -4 (Oct 3/4) by Immunohistochemistry Testicular Cancer
Expressed by embryonic stem cells and germ cells.
Has been reported to be expressed in germ cell tumors and their metastases which exhibit features of pluripotentiality including seminoma/dysgerminoma/germinoma and embryonial carcinoma.
Has been proposed as a useful marker for germ cell tumors and to assist in establishing a germ cell origin for some metastatic tomors of uncertain primary origin.
2004064 p16 by Immunohistochemistry Head and Neck Cancer, Cervical Cancer, Bladder Cancer, Ovarian Cancer, Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer, HNPCC, Colorectal Cancer, Tumor Markers, Pancreatic Cancer, Melanoma, prognostic F-12:
Negative regulator of the cell cycle
Prognostic significance (breast, colon, stomach, lung, and pituitary)
2004067 p21 (Waf1/Cip 1) by Immunohistochemistry Pancreatic Cancer, Melanoma, Bladder Cancer, Hereditary Nonpolyposis Colorectal Cancer, HNPCC, Colorectal Cancer, Tumor Markers WAF1/Cip1:
Inhibits and blocks cell cycle progression
Present in melanomas, pancreatic carcinomas, cervical carcinomas, thymomas, thyroid carcinomas, breast carcinomas, head and neck carcinomas, colon carcinomas, and Hodgkin lymphoma
2010142 P40 by Immunohistochemistry
More specific marker than p63 for lung SCC, bladder, breast, prostate, and head and neck cancers.
Selectively expressed in lung SCC.
2004076 P504S (AMACR) by Immunohistochemistry Prostate Cancer
α-Methylacyl-CoA Racemase (AMCAR)
Specific for prostate adenocarcinomas
Detected in two premalignant lesions: high-grade prostatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PIN) and atypical adenomatous hyperplasia
2004522 p53 by Immunohistochemistry Tumor marker, Non-small cell lung cancer, lung cancer
Tumor suppressor protein; prognostic indicator
2004073 p63 by Immunohistochemistry Bladder Cancer, Lung cancer, small cell lung cancer, neuroendrocrine
Differentiates prostatic adenocarcinoma and benign prostatic tissue.
Also distinguishes poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma from small cell carcinoma or adenocarcinoma.
2004094 Paired Helical Filament -Tau (PHF-Tau) by Immunohistochemistry
Tau is abnormally phosphorlated in Alzheimer´s disease
Main component in paired helical filaments (PHFs) and neurofibrillary tangles
2004118 Parathyroid Hormone (PTH) by Immunohistochemistry Acromegaly, Parathyroid Cancer, Tumor Markers, adenomas and primary and secondary hyperplasias PTH:
Reacts with parathyroid epithelial cells
Present in adenomas and primary and secondary hyperplasias
2004082 Pax-5 by Immunohistochemistry Acute Myelogenous Leukemia (AML), B-Cell Lymphomas, Hodgkin lymphomas, Tumor Markers
Member of the paired box family
B-cell-specific activator protein (BSAP)
Expressed in pro-, pre-, and mature B-cells, but not in plasma cells
Present in pre B-cell acute lymphoblastic leukemias and classic Hodgkin lymphomas
Aids in differential diagnosis of lymphoplasmacytic lymphomas or plasmacytomas
2010787 PAX8 by Immunohistochemistry
Expressed in a high percentage of ovarian serous, endometroid, and clear cell carcinomas, but only rarely in primary ovarian mucinous adenocarcinomas
Important marker of ovarian cancer and a useful marker for the differential diagnosis in lung and neck tumors, or tumors at distant sites where primary lung carcinoma, breast carcinoma, or thyroid carcinoma are possibilities.
2004085 PD-1 by Immunohistochemistry
Angioimmunoblastic T-cell lymphomas are the only hematopoietic tumors that are positive for PD1 protein.
In tonsil and lymph tissues the protein is expressed on T-cells and some B-cells of the light zone of germinal centers.
2011158 PD-L1 by Immunohistochemistry PD-L1 IHC
2010045 PIN4 Prostate Triple Stain by Immunohistochemistry Prostate Triple Stain:
Contains Basal Cell Cocktail (34βE12/p63) and P504s
Aids in the identification of prostate carcinoma
More sensitive than the individual staining of each antibody in the detection of prostatic basal cells
2004097 Placental Alkaline Phosphatase (PLAP) by Immunohistochemistry Testicular Cancer, Brain Tumors, Tumor Markers, Ovarian Cancer PLAP:
Expressed by placenta
Present in most germ cell tumors, and breast, lung, stomach, pancreas, and ovarian carcinomas
2004103 Pneumocystis jiroveci by Immunohistochemistry Pneumocystis jiroveci Pneumocystis jiroveci (pneumocystis carinii):
Detects presence of Pneumocystis jiroveci in infected tissue and free trophozoites
2004525 Progesterone Receptor (PR) by Immunohistochemistry Tumor Markers, Breast Cancer, Ovarian Cancer
Identifies A and B forms of progesterone
Predictive of response to hormone therapy for breast carcinoma and endometrial cancer
Aids in differentiating endocervical from endometrial adenocarcinomas
2004109 Prolactin by Immunohistochemistry Hypopituitarism, Tumor Markers
Produced in the anterior pituitary gland
2004112 Prostate Specific Antigen by Immunohistochemistry Prostate Cancer, Tumor Markers Prostate-specific antigen:
Expressed by prostatic glandular epithelial cells and periurethral and perianal glands
Present in prostatic carcinomas, tumors of the colon, liver, lung, parotid, adrenal, and ovary, and, rarely, in metaplasias of the bladder walls
2004079 Prostatic Acid Phosphatase (PAP) by Immunohistochemistry Prostate Cancer Prostate acid phosphatase:
Reacts with prostatic epithelial cells and hyperplastic prostate
Present in carcinomas of the prostate and metastatic cells of prostate carcinoma, bladder carcinomas, and carcinoid tumors
2004091 Protein Gene Product (PGP) 9.5 by Immunohistochemistry Glucagonoma, Somatostatinoma, VIPoma, Ewing Sarcoma, Gastrinoma, Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (NET), Carcinoid Tumors, Pancreatic Cancer, Pheochromocytoma, Tumor Markers, neuronal neoplasis Protein gene product 9.5:
Expressed in neurons, neuroendocrine cells, and melanocytes
Present in neuronal neoplasias (carcinoid tumors)
2004124 Renal Cell Carcinoma (RCC) Antigen by Immunohistochemistry Renal cell carcinoma:
Localized along the brush border of the pars convolute and pars recta segments of the proximal tubule and focally along the luminal surface of Bowman?s capsule.
Of normal tissues, is also localized along the luminal surface of breast lobules and ducts, the luminal surface of the epididymal tubular epithelium, within the cytoplasm of the parathyroid parenchymal cells and focally within the colloid of thyroid follicles.
2004127 S-100 Protein by Immunohistochemistry Melanoma, Tumor Markers
Brain protein composed of S-100a and S-100b
Expressed in neural crest (Schwann cells, melanocytes, glial cells), chondrocytes, adipocytes, myoepithelial cells, macrophages, Langerhans cells, and dendritic cells
Present in 95% of melanomas (including desmoplastic and spindle cell tumors), 50% of malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumors, clear cell sarcomas, and occasional breast and undifferentiated carcinomas
2004137 Simian Virus 40 (SV-40) by Immunohistochemistry BK Virus, Simian Virus
Closely related to BK Virus and JC Virus
Used to identify all polymavirus infections due to cross-reactivity between SV-40 and BK Virus and JC Virus.
2006403 Smad4 by Immunohistochemistry
May be useful in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer, juvenile polyposis syndrome, and hereditary hemorrhagic telangiectasia syndrome
The pattern of reactivity is mostly cytoplasmic but sometimes nuclear expression is seen in many cell types with highest expression levels in placenta and gastrointestinal tract
2004130 Smooth Muscle Actin (SMA) by Immunohistochemistry Smooth Muscle Marker
Reacts with the alpha-smooth muscle isoform
Present in smooth muscle cells of vessels, parenchymes, myoepithelial cells, pericytes, and some stromal cells in the intestine, testis, and ovary
Aids in differentiating leiomyosarcoma from rhabdomyosarcoma
2012561 SOX11 by Immunohistochemistry
Lymphoma/hematopoietic marker
Will stain those cases of Mantle-cell lymphoma that are negative for the cyclin D1 stain, thereby aiding in a more timely diagnosis of MCL
2004139 Synaptophysin by Immunohistochemistry Neuroendocrine Marker, Glucagonoma, Somatostatinoma, VIPoma, Insulinoma, Ewing Sarcoma, Gastrinoma, Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (NET), Carcinoid Tumors, Brain Tumors, Pancreatic Cancer, Pheochromocytoma, Lung Cancer, Tumor Markers
Labels neuroendocrine cells and neurons in the brain, spinal cord, and retina
Present in neuroendocrine tumors and neuroendocrine tumors of epithelial type
2004148 T-cell Intracytoplasmic Antigen (TIA-1) by Immunohistochemistry T/NK-Cell Lymphomas, Tumor Markers T-cell intracytoplasmic antigen:
Reacts with 50-60% of CD8 lymphocytes, 10% of CD4 lymphocytes, monocytes, granulocytes, activated CD4 T-cells, activated NK cells, and con A-activated thymocytes
Aids in differentiating T-cell leukemias and lymphomas from B-cell leukemias and lymphomas
2004160 Tartrate-Resistant Acid Phosphatase (TRAP) by Immunohistochemistry Hairy cell leukemia, B-Cell Lymphomas
Found in hairy cells, osteoclasts, activated macrophages, and giant cells
Useful as a marker for hairy cell leukemia in bone marrow
2004142 TdT by Immunohistochemistry Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), B-cell and T-cell Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, Tumor Markers
Used in subtyping of blastic leukemias
Positive in all Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL), except Burkitt's and B-cell FAB L-3
Positive in Lymphoblastic crisis of Chromic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML-BC-ALL) and Lymphoblastic Lymphoma
Some non-lymphocytic leukemias express positivity, but there is less intensity and greater variability
2010688 TFE3 by Immunohistochemistry
Indicated in the clinical diagnosis of malignancy as an aid in the recognition of Xp11 translocation in renal cell carcinoma and alveolar soft-part sarcoma.
Also reported in transitional renal cell carcinoma, lung adenocarcinoma, papillary thyroid carcinoma, melanoma, and mesothelioma.
2004145 Thyroglobulin by Immunohistochemistry Thyroid Cancer, Tumor Markers, Thyroid Disease
Protein synthesized by the follicular epithelial cells of the thyroid
Aids in the localization of thyroglobulin in hyperplastic and neoplastic thyroid and in monitoring of patients after treatment for follicular carcinomas
2004166 Thyroid Transcription Factor (TTF-1) by Immunohistochemistry Thyroid Cancer, Lung Cancer, Tumor Markers, sarcoma, mesothelioma, neuroendrocrine Thyroid transcription factor-1:
Expressed in lung and thyroid epithelial cells
Present in pulmonary small cell carcinomas, some pulmonary non-small cell carcinomas, papillary carcinomas, follicular carcinomas and goiter, thyroid medullary carcinomas, and thyroid papillary carcinomas
Aids in differentiating pulmonary adenocarcinomas from breast carcinomas
2004157 Toxoplasma gondii by Immunohistochemistry Toxoplasma gondii
Detects the presence of Toxoplasma gondii in infected tissues
2004169 Ubiquitin by Immunohistochemistry
Detects intracellular ubiquinated filamentous inclusions in the periphery of senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in Alzheimer disease and Lewy bodies in Parkinson disease
2004181 Vimentin by Immunohistochemistry Melanoma, Ovarian Cancer, Sarcoma, schwannoma, Endometrial Cancer, mesothelioma
Aids in identifying Melanomas and schwannomas
2004184 Wilms Tumor (WT1), N-terminus by Immunohistochemistry AML, Mesothelioma, Ovarian Cancer, desmoplastic round-cell tumor
Aids in identifying Wilms' tumor, mesotheliomas
Test Subspecialties
All Anatomic Pathology Tests
Bone and Soft Tissue Pathology
Breast Pathology
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Genitourinary Pathology
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All Hematopathology Tests
Acute Myelogenous Leukemia
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B- and T-Cell Markers Lymphoma
Burkitt's Lymphoma
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Hematopathology IHC Stains
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All Stains
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Differentiation Markers
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Australia Dominates China's LNG Supply Featured
By AOG Staff Friday, 14 June 2019 04:52
Australia's fast-expanding liquefied natural gas industry has this year been supplying the lion's share of China's growing demand for imports of the commodity, with appetite surging as Beijing shifts away from dirtier fuels such as coal.
Offshore Australia: Shell’s Prelude floating liquefied natural gas (FLNG) facility delivered its first LNG cargo earlier this week. Pictured is the Prelude FLNG facility, with the Valencia Knutsen berthed side-by-side (Photo: Shell)
Australia supplied over 53% of China's LNG imports during the first five months of 2019, shipping data in Refinitiv showed, up from around 40% in 2016 when a previous round of new Australian export projects started to ramp up.
With Royal Dutch Shell's Prelude facility delivering its first LNG cargo this week from northwest Australia, that share is likely to increase further.
Prelude's start-up completes a $200 billion LNG construction boom that is putting Australia on track to surpass Qatar as the world's top exporter of the fuel.
"With uncertainty of demand in more traditional LNG markets ... China has emerged as the largest source of new LNG demand growth, and hence a focus for LNG marketing efforts for the next wave of Australian LNG volumes," said Saul Kavonic, an analyst with Credit Suisse.
The export surge means Australia is well ahead of China's traditional main suppliers of gas such as Malaysia, Qatar and Indonesia, as well as newer exporter the United States.
The United States, which only started LNG exports in 2016, initially saw increases to China, supplying a peak of around 10% of its overall imports last year. But shipments have all but ceased after Beijing enacted a 25% tariff on U.S. supply as part of a tit-for-tat trade dispute with Washington.
"The China-U.S. trade dispute has had an impact on LNG markets. The tariffs make U.S. LNG much less cost-competitive for Chinese buyers, so they have to consider other options," said James Taverner of consultancy IHS Markit.
With production surging across the world, the Asian LNG market has become oversupplied just as demand stutters from traditional buyers like Japan, resulting in a 60% plunge in prices since last year to near record lows of just over $4 per million British thermal units.
Shift to gas
China's natural gas consumption has surged amid a gasification program that is shifting millions of households and a large number of factories to natural gas from coal. Global LNG producers are keen to meet that demand.
However, some analysts warn that headwinds in China's economy could take the edge off demand for LNG.
"Coal-to-gas mandates have moderated in line with affordability ... and weakening economic growth will weigh on demand," Taverner said, adding that growth in LNG imports could ease over the next few years.
China also appears to be diversifying gas supply, potentially importing more from sources such as Russia and Mozambique, the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies said in a paper released this month.
"The 'Power of Siberia' line commissions at the end of this year and Russia will become China's most important new supplier in recent years," the firm said.
"China may also look more favorably on additional pipeline deals with Russia given its resource base and its desire to reach agreement on further gas projects."
(Reporting by Jessica Jaganathan and Henning Gloystein; Editing by Joseph Radford)
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We're building
trust on the internet.
We see a future where it's easy to bring a great idea into the world using the internet, while respecting data security and privacy. The next generation of businesses will design security and privacy into their operating processes. If every business is going to be a software business, every business will need to be a security business.
We're working to make information security a core competency of every startup. We envision a world in which startups have access to great information security, are empowered to focus on their business instead of on compliance, can scale faster and more efficiently, and are confident that they're creating quality products.
See Careers at Aptible
Commitment to the Team
We're passionate about building a diverse team of talented people who accomplish great things together, regardless of where they are. We talk a lot about the science of high-performing teams and how to make Aptible the best environment to support that kind of team. If you love the mutual support and camaraderie of a strong team that wins together, we want to hear from you.
Commitment to Each Other
We commit to each other as individuals, one on one. We measure our commitments carefully and hold each other accountable, which means we’re able to deliver more for our colleagues and customers in the long run. We set only a few very clear, ambitious goals as a company each quarter, and talk about them constantly to reinforce focus. We make time to recognize, praise, and reward those who consistently deliver on their promises.
Commitment to The Mission
Startups are hard, and we expect challenges and missteps. We love winning, but most of all, we value getting back up and getting better at what we do. We are deeply motivated to build trust on the internet by empowering teams, and we respect grit and perseverance in furtherance of that mission.
Growth Over Perfection
We fail often and early, and learn from it. We talk about improving constantly. We praise those who give feedback early and often. We put effort into being good at giving feedback: When we give feedback, we make each other feel big, not small. This helps create an environment where we can take reasonable risks, which in turn helps us make decisions quickly and learn fast. We expect managers to delegate a lot, and acknowledge that delegation means sometimes letting someone make what you think is the wrong decision.
Teaching as Learning
We are a team of learners. We value and respect teaching as the best way to learn, and make time to share information openly. We set explicit goals around training, and devote resources to developing and improving our internal training. We praise those who share knowledge in public by asking and answering questions in team chat, writing documentation, and writing for our customers.
Taking Responsibility Over Giving Responsibility
Identifying problems is a good start, but we love solving them more. We think and talk a lot about how we can improve, and work hard at it. We value and reward those who take initiative. We don't like meetings where we only talk about problems.
Asking Why
We ask “why?” a lot in order to understand root causes. Asking why helps us cultivate focus and make high-quality decisions quickly. We don't attribute mistakes to human error. We view them as a starting point for an inquiry, not the end.
How We Prioritize
Long-Term Customer Empowerment Over Short Term Gratification
We think of customer success in terms of empowerment and growth through self-improvement, which makes it easy to have a deep passion for that success and be deeply invested in it. We want to see our customers grow into mature teams that excel at protecting data. That said, the customer is not always right. Sometimes we tell customers things they don't want to hear, to help them improve. We think and talk about empowerment across the entire team, not just product: In our marketing, we're more likely to give away knowledge than swag. In sales, we always try to answer substantive questions and provide a roadmap for prospects, even if they don't buy.
Experience and Opinion Over Flexibility
Empowerment and growth as self-improvement also deeply inform our design for customer experiences, like product and support. We help our customers by solving hard problems in multiple domains. Our customers look to us as guides, and we weave our deep legal and technical experience into our software and services. Our products teach you how to get better as you use them. To do this well, we often choose to sacrifice flexibility first.
Leverage Over Effort
Our customers value leverage—doing more with less time and money, and fewer people. Our products give them leverage by making complex processes simple and safe. With Comply, our customers can launch an enterprise-grade compliance program without a CISO or security department. With Deploy, our customers get the benefits of a secure, highly-available, fault-tolerant infrastructure without having to recruit, run, and retain a DevOps team. We build products and experiences that give customers more value as they invest more into them.
Albert Wong
Raised in the East Bay Area, Albert is an engineer who loves understanding the big picture and obsessing over the details. Prior to Aptible, he worked as a Risk Advisor for EY performing SOC and ISO attestations, then later developed tools to help modernize the mortgage industry. After work, he loves night hikes and is obsessed with fancy Swiss music boxes (though he hasn't ponied up the cash to buy one).
Customer Reliability Engineering Manager
Alex has been taking things apart for fun since elementary school, and has never ejected a USB device before unplugging it. He has a degree in Electrical Engineering Technology from Purdue, and prefers working for companies the size of his Dachshund.
Ashley Mathew
Senior Service Reliability Engineer
Ashley spent 5 years as a Software Engineer before joining Aptible. Before that she was working on her BS in Computer Science from Purdue University. When she's not doing support, Ashley enjoys kayaking with her dog.
Caroline Lau
VP People
Caroline is passionate about building people-first businesses. Prior to Aptible, she led People Operations at several high-growth, mission-driven technology companies, including Architizer, Artsy, and Give Real. She holds an A.B. in History from Princeton University.
Chas Ballew
Co-Founder, CEO
Before Aptible, Chas served on active duty in the Army for 4 years as a lawyer at the Pentagon, which is where he first learned regulatory law. Prior to that, Chas ran two small dev shops for beer money in high school and college. His dog's name is Dilla.
Chris Gomes
Product Management Lead
Chris is a whiteboards and Legos kind of guy. Prior to working as Aptible’s Product Management lead, he co-founded a startup that helped consumers turn their personal data into cash for charity. His past lives include Lattice Data, Stanford’s MBA program, the Boston Consulting Group, and the Department of Justice.
Christian Pearson
Data Protection Advisor
Before joining Aptible, Christian served as an intelligence analyst in the Army and practiced commercial and regulatory law in Washington D.C. Most recently Christian worked at Proctor & Gamble, Accenture Strategy, and Google’s Trust & Safety organization. Christian holds a JD from the University of Virginia, an MBA from the University of Michigan, and a BS from Campbell University.
David Wen
David is a management consultant turned software dev. He founded the non-profit Time Auction, which allows people to bid volunteer hours for rewards money can’t buy. He enjoys reading what Bill Gates reads and playing sports where height matters.
Elyssa Cendana
Prior to Aptible, Elyssa worked her way up from SDR to Account Executive in the Medical Vertical at Demandforce. She graduated from the University of San Francisco with a BA in Advertising and Minor in Philippines Studies. She enjoys trying new restaurants and watching reality tv.
Frank Macreery
Co-Founder, CTO
Prior to Aptible, Frank led engineering teams at Give Real, XGraph (acquired by Clearspring / AddThis), and Artsy. He holds a B.S.E. in Computer Science from Princeton University.
Henry Hund
VP Growth
Henry left big finance to help grow RJMetrics and launch Stitch (Data). He now leads Aptible's growth efforts, but also tries to do a good job as a husband and father. Henry earned his MBA from Wharton and his BS from Penn State.
Jeremy Dye
Jeremy used to tour the country playing music, but now he prefers staying home crafting code. When he's away from the keyboard he enjoys snuggling his 3 cats, gardening, and rock climbing.
Josh Raker
Customer Reliability Engineer
Josh has a BS in Computer Science from Purdue University. He has a passion for automation and creating tools that save time. In his spare time he likes to play video games and spend time with his wife and pets. He has two German Shepherds, a cat, and a hedgehog.
Mia Lopez
Senior Growth Operations Manager
Mia worked in Sales Ops at RJMetrics and Customer Success at roundCorner before coming to Aptible to work in Growth Ops. She graduated from Santa Clara University. In her free time, Mia loves being by the ocean and hiking with her husband and pup.
Before joining Aptible, Michael spent five years practicing antitrust and healthcare law in New York. He holds a JD from Duke University and a BA from UC Santa Barbara.
Growth Engineer
Michael has over a decade of experience in marketing & technology for high-growth startups. He has a degree in Psychology and researched the effects of ADHD medications on the developing brain.
Mike Aibel
Currently living in Santa Monica, CA, born and raised on the chilly east coast in Boston. After graduating from college, Mike lived on a boat for a couple years to pursue a career in sport-fishing. He previously worked at VMTurbo (now Turbonomics), Datadog, and Funnel.io.
Peter Kong
Peter is a full stack engineer. Before that, he was briefly a food critic. He's always been an enthusiast and practitioner of literature and music. He works hard to make the internet a better place and to support his future dog family.
Rob deJuana-Matthews
Rob is passionate about helping companies bring customers, product, and marketing together. Prior to joining Aptible, he ran product marketing for both high-growth startups and midsize enterprises. He earned his MA from Columbia University and his BA from Swarthmore College. In his free time, Rob enjoys playing with his Chihuahua, Lucy, working on his project car, and playing Dungeons and Dragons.
Sarah Veirs
Sarah is a results driven, customer advocate with almost ten years of experience driving overall value and adoption for the clients she manages. Prior to joining Aptible, she held a variety of customer success, support and sales roles while working at ISN and Infor. Outside of work, she enjoys staying active, traveling with her husband and ensuring her standard poodle, Norman, lives his best life.
Skylar Anderson
VP Design
Skylar is a designer and engineer, leading UX and design at Aptible. Prior to Aptible, Skylar worked as an independent consultant and helped ship products for Salesforce, Intuit, Eli Lilly, Oracle, and Facebook.
Taj Moore
Taj most recently worked as Assistant Counsel to Governor Phil Murphy. Before then, he practiced privacy and data security law at Morrison & Foerster LLP, conducted national security and foreign policy research at the Stimson Center and Brookings, and worked at the Department of Defense. He received an A.B. from Brown and a J.D. from Harvard. Taj is passionate about the intersection of tech and national security and the history of peanut butter.
Tasia Johnson
Tasia is a motivating, customer success-driven sales executive who has helped grow sales teams at YARDI, Salesforce, and Houzz. She is a Southern Californian native, but a new Arizona transplant. Tasia loves to explore and travel with her two kids and husband. In her spare time, she likes to find her zen during yoga or going on a long run.
Taylor Edwards
Business Operations Associate
Taylor worked in Operations at Uber where she helped launch the Dallas market before coming to Aptible to work in Growth & BizOps. In her spare time she enjoys exploring new places, hiking and playing frisbee with her husband and their pup, Ripley.
UX Software Engineer
As UX software engineer, Tom brings design and code together to create accessible user experiences. He comes to Aptible from Lonely Planet where he helped build their design system. Outside of work, you’ll find him with his dogs, on his bicycle, or hanging out at a punk show.
Tyler Bamberg
Jack of all trades and master of none, Tyler spent the last 4 years in customer success, sales, support, and project management at both Carta and Simply Hired. He enjoys travel, video games, and spending time with his fiancé and their two cats, Hendrick and Nori.
Vijay Nambiar
VP Sales
Vijay was born in Canada, moved to Atlanta and now lives in San Francisco. Most recently he was leading sales teams at GitHub and was involved in the acquisition by Microsoft as part of their Alliances team. He has two kids (14 year old boy and 11 year old girl) and likes travel, food, wine, exploring NorCal and playing golf.
Zachary Starr-Glasser
People Operations Associate
Zachary's enthusiasm for building great teams and helping them thrive led him to Aptible. He started his career as a management consultant before helping to grow the team at Juicero and working across sales, ops, CX and recruiting at Nebia. He also opened a second office for Nebia in Mexico City. Zachary holds a BA in Psychology from Columbia University and a BA in Jewish Ethics from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. He loves going on adventures with his wife.
Want to build the future of privacy and security on the web?
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View Grand Opening Photos
New Delhi, India - April 13, 2014 - Avaal Technology took great pride in announcing the grand opening of its new international office in New Delhi, India on Sunday, April 13, 2014. Located in Fortune Global Arcade, Suite G-2 on Mehrauli Gurgaon Rd, the office focuses on software products and services targeted at the Indian transportation industry. Avaal has combined its robust I.T. expertise with its logistics experience to release a suite of software products that cater to the Indian market. By recognizing the intricacies of order management, dispatching and fleet navigation through the different states in India, the new products streamline operations while improving fleet efficiency. Avaal�€™s Indian and Canadian teams now collaborate to develop products that meet local market demands while implementing the best practices of the North American transport industry.
The grand opening event began with prayers and the reading of the Vedas in the new offices followed by a reception in the luxurious Vivanta by Taj Hotel in Gurgaon. The event was attended by over 100 distinguished guests including Mr. Gulati, National Secretary, AITWA and other committee members from AITWA. Guest speakers at the reception included Raman Kalra, Senior Sourcing Manager, British Telecom; Dinesh Verma, Regional Head, DARCL Logistics; and Gurpreet Toor, owner of several restaurants in Canada. The reception party featured an outdoor Indian village festival theme, Indian buffet, henna hand painting, and live entertainment.
Avaal Technology Solutions Inc. is an industry leader in providing software and cloud based solutions to the transportation industry. With its head office in Toronto, Ontario and regional offices in Surrey, British Columbia and Winnipeg, Manitoba, Avaal Technology provides services that cover North America. Its dispatch and fleet management software - Avaal Express - has a client base of some of the largest carriers in the region. Avaal also offers an eManifest web portal approved by the U.S. CBP and Canadian CBSA for carriers to submit their electronic cargo manifests ahead of reaching the border. A 24/7 Business Process Outsourcing (BPO) centre based in Canada supports these ventures. The software and web portal are supported by the latest technology to offer real time updates to drivers and dispatchers. For more information on what Avaal offers, visit www.avaal.com, or contact the Head Office at 1(877) 995-1313.
Avaal Technology celebrates the completion of its 83rd Successful Class in the Dispatch Specialist Course
On Sunday May 12, Avaal Technology celebrated the graduation of its 83rd successful class of students for the Avaal Dispatch Specialist Course. Read More
Avaal Technology celebrates the graduation of its 13th class in the Dispatch Specialist Course at its Winnipeg campus
On Thursday April 26, Avaal Technology celebrated the graduation of its 13th successful batch of students for the Avaal Dispatch Specialist Course at its Winnipeg campus. Read More
On Thursday April 18, Avaal Technology celebrated the graduation of its 26th successful batch of students for the Avaal Dispatch Specialist Course at its Surrey campus. Read More
Avaal Technology celebrates the completion of its 82nd Successful Class in the Dispatch Specialist Course
This Sunday, Avaal Technology celebrated the graduation of its 82nd successful class of students for the Avaal Dispatch Specialist Course. Read More
Avaal Technology celebrates the completion of its 81st Successful Class in the Dispatch Specialist Course
On Sunday, March 24, Avaal Technology celebrated the graduation of its 81st successful class of students for the Avaal Dispatch Specialist Course. Read More
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