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Find Imaging Centers
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X-linked Adrenoleukodystrophy
St. Mark's Hospital /
DefinitionCausesRisk FactorsSymptomsDiagnosisTreatmentPreventionrevision
X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) is a rare genetic disorder. In people with ALD, the body cannot properly break down fatty acids. This results in a build up of saturated fatty acids in the brain and the adrenal cortex. This causes damage to the myelin sheath in the brain and adrenal gland.
Myelin Sheath Around Nerve Fiber
Copyright © Nucleus Medical Media, Inc.
There are 6 subtypes:
Childhood cerebral ALD
Adolescent ALD
Adrenomyeloneuropathy
Adult cerebral ALD
Adrenal insufficiency-only
Symptomatic heterozygotes
An inherited defective gene causes ALD.
Having family member with ALD raises your risk.
Symptoms differ within the types of ALD.
X-linked ALD (Childhood Cerebral ALD)
This form is the most severe. It is only in boys. Symptoms start between 2 to 10 years of age. Boys may have:
Slowed thinking and physical movements
Loss of skills
As the disease progresses, more serious symptoms begin, such as:
Problems seeing
Problems swallowing and speaking
Problems with walking and coordination
More skin pigment
Progressive dementia
Vegetative state or death
X-linked ALD (Adolescent Cerebral ALD)
This type is like the childhood type. It starts around 11-21 years of age. It happens more slowly.
Adrenomyeloneuropathy (AMN)
This is the most common form. Symptoms of AMN can start in the 20's. It slowly gets worse. You may have:
Lack of strength, clumsiness, weight loss, and nausea
Emotional problems or depression
Motor/movement problems, such as walking problems
Urinary problems or impotence
X-linked ALD (Adult Cerebral ALD)
With this type, symptoms usually do not appear until 20 or 50 years of age. It causes symptoms that are like schizophrenia and dementia . It gets worse quickly. Death or a vegetative state can happen in 3-4 years.
This form is only seen in women. Symptoms may be mild or severe. It usually does not affect the adrenal gland function.
You will be asked about your symptoms and health history. A physical exam will be done.
Blood tests and genetic tests may be done.
There is no known cure for brain damage from ALD. But the adrenal deficiency can be treated with cortisone replacement. ALD often causes death 10 years after symptoms start.
Some therapies can ease symptoms, such as:
Mental health therapy
Special education for children
ALD can’t be prevented. If you have ALD or have a family history of ALD, you can talk to a genetic counselor when deciding to have children.
Revision Information
Reviewer: Kari Kassir, MD
National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke
http://www.ninds.nih.gov
United Leukodystrophy Foundation
http://www.ulf.org
http://www.canada.ca
The Myelin Project of Canada
http://www.myelin.org
Berger J, Pujol A, et al. Current and future pharmacologic treatment strategies in X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy. Brain Pathol. 2010;20(4):845-856.
Moser HW. Therapy of X-linked adrenoleukodystrophy. NeuroRx. 2006;3(2):246-253.
Moser HW, Raymond GV, et al. Adrenoleukodystrophy: new approaches to a neurodegenerative disease. JAMA. 2005;294(24):3131-3134.
Moser HW, Raymond GV, et al. Follow-up of 89 asymptomatic patients with adrenoleukodystrophy treated with Lorenzo's oil. Arch Neurol. 2005;62(7):1073-1080.
NINDS adrenoleukodystrophy information page. National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke website. Available at: https://www.ninds.nih.gov/Disorders/All-Disorders/Adrenoleukodystrophy-Information-Page. Accessed July 6, 2018.
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Cleaning-Up India’s Heritage Places: Centre Announces Phase 2 Of Swachh Iconic Places Initiative
The Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has announced a list of 10 heritage and spiritual sites to be cleaned up under the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan's - Swachh Iconic Places initiative
Written By: Simar Singh
| May 26, 2017 1:58 PM |
The government announced the 2nd phase of Swachh Iconic Places initiative
This will cover 10 heritage and spiritual places around the country
The aim is to improve cleanliness, sanitation and basic amenities
New Delhi: These may draw tourists and pilgrims by the lakhs, but the cleanliness and basic amenities often remain ignored at some of India’s heritage and spiritual places. To remedy this, the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation has announced special clean-up drives for ten such places which include Hyderabad’s Char Minar, the Somnath Temple and the Yamunotri and Gangotri temples. This will be the second phase of the Swachh Bharat Mission’s Swachh Iconic Places (SIP) initiative which was first announced in June 2016.
According to a government release, these 10 places “are to be brought to a higher standard of swachhta and visitors’ amenities”. These plans will be implemented by the concerned local bodies and partnering Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), says the Ministry of Sanitation and Drinking Water.
#SwachhBharatMission has announced 10 new Iconic places to be taken under the Phase II of Swachh Iconic Places initiative. pic.twitter.com/lAQBQMhxxo
— Swachh Bharat (@swachhbharat) May 11, 2017
The decision to include these places and roll out the second phase of the initiative was taken at a quarterly review meeting presided by Union Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar on April 25 at the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine in Katra, Jammu and Kashmir.
Also Read: Swachh Bharat Impact: India Jumps In Travel And Tourism Competitive Index Ranking To Be Among Top 40 Countries
While work on the second phase will start, the on-going process of implementing action plans chalked out under the initiative’s first phase will continue, says the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation. The places included in the first phase were Ajmer Sharif Dargah, CST Mumbai, Golden Temple, Amritsar, Kamakhya Temple, Assam, Manikarnika Ghat, Varanasi, Meenakshi Temple, Madurai, Shri Mata Vaishno Devi, Shree Jagannath Temple, Puri, The Taj Mahal and Tirupati Temple, Tirumala.
The Swachh Iconic Places initiative’s ultimate aim is to clean-up and improve amenities in 100 iconic heritage, spiritual and cultural places across the country.
Here is the complete list of the places that have been included in the second phase:
1. Gangotri Temple, Uttarakhand
2. Yamunotri Temple, Uttarakhand
3. Gaya Tirth, Bihar
4. Baijnath Dham, Devghar, Jharkhand
5. Char Minar, Hyderabad, Telangana
6. Adi Shankaracharya’s Abode Kaladi, Ernakulam, Kerala
7. Gomateshwar, Shravanbelgola, Karnataka
8. Somnath Temple, Gujarat
9. Church and Convent of St. Francis of Assisi, Goa
10. Mahakaleshwar Temple, Ujjain, Madhya Pradesh
TagsMinistry of Drinking Water and SanitationSwachh Bharat Abhiyan
Previous article This Woman Left Her Job At IIT Madras To Reduce Garbage Burden And Make Varanasi Swachh
Next article From Stabilisation Ponds To Artifical Wetlands: 5 Wastewater Management Models Across The World For India To Follow
Government should think of Taj Mahal which is attracting lot of foreigners and foreign exchange. Like Taj, there are other places which require cleanness and basic amentities.
There is an illegal religious structure abutting the Charminar. Water tanks and other material relating to this structure are present right inside the heritage structure. The authorities instead of removing these have cordoned off the area, hope this special clean up drive removes the encroachments as well.
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Swinerton named lead contractor for Adventist Health’s Roseville campus
May 19, 2016 /in News, Sacramento /by swinerton
Swinerton Builders will be the lead contractor on a full corporate campus Adventist Health is planning in Roseville.
The construction firm, with a local office of 200 employees, will oversee building the 250,000-square-foot campus. Adventist is already headquartered in Roseville and has bought 28 acres on the southeast corner of Eureka Way and Sunrise Boulevard for the future campus.
In the press release announcing Swinerton’s appointment, the campus is described as a ground-up, class A office building.
“You probably noticed that for Adventist Health this is more than simply a new office building: our approach is to design a complete campus that reflects our mission and whole-person philosophy of health and wellness,” Adventist spokeswoman Rita Waterman said in the email.
She said additional details should be available by month’s end. Beginning May 26, Adventist will host town hall meetings about the project for the company’s employees at the current headquarters on Douglas Boulevard. Adventist has not disclosed a planned timeline for building and opening the new campus, or plans for what will become of the Douglas site after that.
Based in San Francisco, Swinerton Builders is one of the most prominent commercial contractors in the region. Its projects here have included the 2020 Gateway office building in South Natomas and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System building in West Sacramento. The company is also currently building a mixed-use hotel tower slated to open early next year opposite Golden 1 Center in downtown Sacramento.
To read the full article, please click on the link below:
http://ow.ly/GT7I300nieU
https://swinerton.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Swinerton-logo-300x138-300x138.png 0 0 swinerton https://swinerton.wpengine.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/Swinerton-logo-300x138-300x138.png swinerton2016-05-19 09:21:162016-05-19 09:21:16Swinerton named lead contractor for Adventist Health's Roseville campus
Thoughtful Design and Flexibility Define Wood Partners’ Downtown Proj... Swinerton to Build New Adventist Health Campus
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Creating a 'triggered' campaign
Triggered campaigns can be used in a variety of ways.
For example, when a contact joins an address book you can automatically send them a campaign to thank them for signing up. Alternatively, if a contact unsubscribes from an address book, you can trigger a campaign to be sent to them to try and get some feedback on why they're unsubscribing.
Triggered campaigns are also used to construct simple or more complex automated programs within the program builder. For instance, you can trigger campaigns based on a date field in your address book (such as your contact's birthday). Or perhaps, instead, you want to trigger a campaign based on an action, such as a contact clicking a link in your current email.
Regardless of how you wish to use your triggers, the campaign that's sent needs to be set up as a triggered type of campaign.
Creating your triggered campaign
You can create your triggered campaign in one of the following two ways:
select Automation > Triggered campaign content and then click on Add new; your new campaign will be automatically set as triggered and there's no more you need to do.
You can verify this by going on to choosing your template and naming it, then clicking on Campaign settings (positioned in the top right of the campaign setup screen) and noting the 'Triggered' setting (as opposed to the usually default 'Standard').
create a new campaign, either by selecting Campaigns > New campaign or by clicking on Campaigns and then clicking on Add new; after selecting your template and naming it, click on Campaign settings (positioned in the top right of the campaign setup screen), set the switch from 'Standard' to 'Triggered', click Close and then click Save or Save & continue.
Whichever way you choose to create it, doing this will set up a triggered type campaign and you won't be able to send it in the same way as a standard type campaign.
It's important to note that campaigns set as triggered aren't displayed on your list of campaigns under 'My campaigns'. Instead, all campaigns set with the 'Triggered' type are displayed by selecting Automation > Triggered campaign content from the navigation bar.
Looking to convert a triggered campaign into a standard campaign?
It's possible to convert a triggered campaign into a standard campaign by switching its type via Campaign settings in the 'Provide a few campaign setup details' page. However, there's only a limited time in which this switch can be done - which is half an hour after creating a triggered campaign. After this has elapsed, triggered campaigns become locked, ensuring they can't have their type changed and then fail to send if they're being used in a program.
To convert it after it's locked, you'll need to create a copy of it, immediately go to the 'Provide a few campaign setup details' page, and switch it to ‘standard’.
More on creating various types of automations and triggers
Automated and triggered campaigns - an overview
Getting started with the program builder
Triggering a campaign when a contact joins an address book
Triggering a campaign when a contact unsubscribes from an address book
Triggering an automatic response whenever a contact replies to any campaign they've been sent
Triggering an automatic response whenever a contact replies to a specific campaign they've been sent
Using 'verified double opt-in'
Resubscribing a contact to a campaign after they've been unsubscribed
Jon Woodrow 26 May 2017 10:21
Have you removed the ability to switch a Triggered Campaign back to a Standard campaign as that is not visible anymore in 'Campaign Settings'. You can still switch a Standard to a Triggered.
Neal Goldsmith 26 May 2017 14:57
Hi Jon,
This ability was removed in late October 2014, not long after the program builder was launched. See here under 'Other improvements' (about halfway down the list) - https://support.dotmailer.com/hc/en-gb/articles/212211158-Upgrade-29th-October-2014-Change-line-height-in-EasyEditor-plus-some-Insight-data-improvements.
It was to ensure that triggered campaigns being used in programs couldn't get changed and then failed to send in the program.
The best way to switch a triggered campaign back to a standard one is to copy the campaign, immediately go to the 'Provide a few campaign setup details' page and switch it to ‘standard’ (as the lock comes into effect after about half an hour after campaign creation).
Sending contacts a campaign or enrolling them on a program when they join an address book
Abandoned cart: Getting started - Magento 1
Understanding the campaign report overview
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SMARTFIN LAUNCH
The Smartfin Program officially launched in May 2017 with a pilot program in partnership with the Surfrider Foundation San Diego chapter
The San Diego Smartfin pilot was conducted with three main goals in mind.
Fin Adoption
In order to test our fins, we wanted to build an engaged community of data-collecting, Smartfin citizen-scientists.
We wanted to prove that the Smartfin sensors were capable of collecting data on par with traditional oceanographic sensors.
Sensor Distribution
We wanted to test how effectively Smartfins could be used to fill in the geographical gaps between more traditional sensors.
The data collected during the Surfrider Pilot has become a starting point for increasing our understanding of nearshore temperature variability in Southern California, as research continues to be done in the area.
Building an Engaged Community
Each month the San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation organized Smartfin events, including demo days, monthly committee meetings, and special events like happy hours and film screenings.
It was during these events that Smartfin aimed to bring scientists, ocean activists, surfers and the general public together. Researchers were encouraged to talk about their work and participants we encouraged to discuss changes they were experiencing in their local ocean environment.
Nearly 70 Smartfins were distributed to surfers and ocean-activists in the San Diego area, through the San Diego chapter of the Surfrider Foundation.
Participants were asked to use the Smartfin at least twice a week and share their thoughts and feedback to Smartfin program managers and engineers.
Chasing Coral Film Screening
On September 28, 2017, Surfrider Foundation hosted a screening of the documentary Chasing Coral.
Climate Change Education
Through the Surfing for Science program, we provided an online training session to participants interested in becoming Smartfin Education Ambassadors.
Monthly Smartfin Demo Days
Once a month, the Smartfin Committee organizes a group surf at the beach in San Diego.
The San Diego pilot collected over 800 hours of data during this time. Informed by this feedback, Smartfin is making improvements to the its fin and sensor technology and will be releasing updates on the new generation of fins in the coming months.
To be a part of the Smartfin San Diego committee
Sensor Comparison
Over the course of the year, Scripps Institution of Oceanography processed the temperature data collected by Smartfin participants near Scripps Pier. That data was compared to the temperature recordings of the specialized, stationary sensors located at the end of the Pier.
The graph below compares the seawater temperature recorded at Scripps Pier (represented by the blue line) with the median seawater temperature recorded by Smartfins (shown as black circles) during each surf session.
The data collected by Smartfin participants ( in black ) nicely matches the data from Scripps Pier ( in blue ). Using the Scripps sensor temperature data as a benchmark, we concluded that Smartfin data was correct, stable and reliable.
Image courtesy of Dr. Tyler Cyronak, Scripps Institution of Oceanography
San Diego Deployment
In order to get a wide distribution of temperature measurements, participants were encouraged to surf in different locations along the San Diego Coast.
Data from the San Diego pilot was used to fill in the gaps that aren't covered by buoys or other ocean sensor systems. As can be seen in the maps, Smartfin allows scientists to quickly deploy a heavy concentration of ocean sensors in areas that no other sensors can operate - surf spots. Given the number of surf spots available at any given time, a much denser geographical concentration of sensors can be achieved.
Temperature and Swell Sensor Location data was obtained from the US Integrated Ocean Observing System
Participant Testimonials
"The Ocean is my place of refuge. It connects me; reminds me that so many people are trying to get to Heaven but the Earth is already in space, and the Ocean is here sustaining life. It makes me think about the cycle of the moon and the swinging tides and about a star exploding billions of years ago and density stratification and what a miracle life is. And that life was born out of the Sea.
The issues threatening the Ocean from plastics pollution, over-fishing, the culling of predators, offshore drilling to global climate change and the way it affects interconnected ecosystems are all concerning to me.
If doing what I love (surfing) and being where I love to be (in the Sea) can contribute toward scientific research with the ultimate goal of Ocean conservation, then I'm stoked to be doing it.
Surfing for Science. Surfing to create awareness and change. Surfing gives my life both joy and meaning. The Smartfin Project is a joy that gives my surfing meaning. Rad.”
- David Walden, Smartfin Committee Member,
Surfrider San Diego Chapter (San Diego, CA)
Data-Contributing Community Partners
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PlayStation 3 PlayStation Vita Reviews
PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Review
Home / PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale Review
by Danreb Victorio | PlayStation 3 PlayStation Vita Reviews | 0 Comments | 14 Dec 2012
It's a bit surreal, but Sony has existed as a video game developer and publisher for almost 20 years now. With beloved franchises such as PaRappa the Rapper, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, and many more, the debate goes on as to which games and characters are the most memorable. To put an end to the debates, Sony has come out with PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale.
Developed by SuperBot Entertainment, a team in Sony's Santa Monica Studio, PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale is a crossover fighting game that pits Sony's franchise mascots (along with some third-party characters) against each other in an all-out melee. Sick of a buddy telling you that Sweet Tooth is the most hardcore character in the PlayStation arsenal? Well, you can use Kratos to shut him up.
While people will be quick to put this game off as a blatant ripoff of Nintendo's wildly popular Super Smash Bros. series, Battle Royale plays quite different.
Unlike SSB, Battle Royale isn't simply about knocking characters off the screen. Not only that, the game does away with health bars or percentages or whatever other fighters feature. Winning in Battle Royale is all about the number of kills you can amass.
Attacking is done with the controller's main face buttons, and with every strike you land, your respective blue meter will start to fill. After it fills, players can unleash devastating "super" moves that'll kill opponents. Super moves are ranked by three power levels, depending on how many times the gauge is filled.
For example, filling up your gauge once leads to a Level One Super. Instead of using it right away, you can continue attacking so your meter can fill up again, allowing you to do a Level Two Super. Obviously, these moves become more accurate and dangerous as you continue to build meters, so a lot of the strategy in the game comes when deciding you want to go for a kill quickly, or you want to perhaps go for more kills in one strike.
Since winning in Battle Royale is strictly based on how many kills one has to rack up, this eliminates any worrying about the damage you're taking As far as defensive strategy goes, all players really have to do is avoid opponents' special moves, and as any fighting game veteran would tell you, the key to the game is learning each character's moveset.
The button and move mapping for each character provides the same literal use, but aside from the Good and Evil Cole from inFamous, each character handles very differently and requires more than a few uses to really learn each one's craft. For example, instead of blocking with L1, Sly Cooper becomes the Thievius Racoonus that he is and suddenly goes invisible. And since not everybody has Kratos' Blades of Chaos, other characters have to resort to alternative means to attack, like Nathan Drake's reliance on hand-to-hand combat and random throwing of gas tanks.
The differences in each character's abilities are rather dramatic, but luckily, the game's single player story mode offers enough practice to fully get used to each character. Unfortunately, the single player mode is rather boring and isn't much to write home about.
Unlike Super Smash Bros., or Street Fighter X Tekken for that matter, the game hardly does a good job of explaining the various rivalries behind each franchise's mascot and it takes out any other entertainment factor the single player had aside from gameplay itself. Each character has their own unique story, and instead of through cutscenes, it's told through stills and random screenshots of scenes from each character's given game.
For example, Nathan Drake's story had him looking for lost treasure by fighting random PlayStation characters and coming across Sly Cooper, who believes he's a better thief than Drake. After beating him up and killing Polygon Man, the main antagonist in the game for everybody, your selected character lives happily ever after. In Drake's case, it's flying away in the form of more Uncharted slideshows.
Just like any other fighter before it, what keeps Battle Royale entertaining is its multiplayer mode. Like Super Smash Bros., you can change things up in gameplay by playing time attack where you simply rely on kills, stock where it's pretty much an elimination round, and kill-limit matches that are pretty self-explanatory.
With two-to-four player support, including cross play allowing PS Vita users to get in on the action, the game becomes a whole lot more fun, especially due to how customizable things are. The more you fight, the more the unlockable stuff you can earn for the various characters in the game.
Aside from cutscenes in the single player mode that hardly qualify as cutscenes, the game simply looks great. Both the character models and various stages to play on both are terrific tributes to their specific games and franchises, make the game a real nostalgic trip.
If you're looking for a new game to play with a bunch of buddies and have even the slightest appreciation for the games Sony has published over the last two decades, you'd do well to give PlayStation All-Stars Battle Royale a try. Be warned, though: While the controls are simple, there is sort of a learning curve that prevents the game from feeling polished, but if Sony intends on this being a series, this is a good start.
It might not be worth the full price of admission, but the fact that a downloadable copy of the PS Vita version of the game is packed in, that definitely adds to the value.
PlayStation 3, PlayStation Vita
Sony Computer Entertainment America
SuperBox Entertainment, SCE Santa Monica Studio, Bluepoint Games
Action/Fighting
It's a bit surreal, but Sony has existed as a video game developer and publisher for almost 20 years now. With beloved franchises such as PaRappa the Rapper, Ratchet & Clank, Uncharted, and many more, the debate goes on as…
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In a series of fake séance experiments (Wiseman et al. 2003) paranormal believers and disbelievers were suggested by an actor that a table was levitating when, in fact, it remained stationary. After the seance, approximately one third of the participants incorrectly reported that the table had moved. The results showed a greater percentage of believers reporting that the table had moved. In another experiment the believers had also reported that a handbell had moved when it had remained stationary and expressed their belief that the fake séances contained genuine paranormal phenomena. The experiments strongly supported the notion that in the séance room, believers are more suggestible than disbelievers for suggestions that are consistent with their belief in paranormal phenomena.[51]
Every month I give Intuition Circles which are an excellent chance for you to meet like minded souls and learn to open your intuitive abilities in a safe environment. We meditate, share, and do exercises to show you just how intuitive you already are. Many people become friends out of these circles and it is my intention to create a community of intuitives !
Tarot cards have been greatly popularized, but can be often regarded solely as entertainment. Traditional decks are available in chain bookstores. New decks also frequently appear in New Age bookstores. Though not requiring psychic abilities, Tarot cards can be used as a psychic or cold reading tool and Tarot readings are common at psychic fairs.[5][23]
The questions floated around in my head for awhile, but it wasn't until last Sunday that I decided to act on them. Inspired by Houdini, I made up a basic pass/fail test that I could apply a few times to see if someone was actually in tune with all the truths in the universe: If I made up a dead sister and asked a bunch of psychics to connect with her, how many wouldn't be able to tell I was full of shit?
Sometimes the stress and confusion can lead to violence and abuse in relationships. You become trapped and ensconced in Spiritual Chains! Abuse can be mental, verbal, physical, sexual, spiritual or even financial (e.g. he doesn’t give you enough money to feed your family). If you are experiencing violence or abuse, get help now! You deserve to be treated with love and respect!
An experiment conducted by the British Psychological Society in 2005 suggests that under the controlled condition of the experiment, people who claimed to be professional mediums do not demonstrate the mediumistic ability. In the experiment, mediums were assigned to work the participants chosen to be "sitters." The mediums claimed to contact the deceased who were related to the sitters. The research gather the numbers of the statements made and have the sitters rate the accuracy of the statements. The readings that were considered to be somewhat accurate by the sitters were very generalized, and the ones that were considered inaccurate were the ones that were very specific.[193]
wow, this is amazing. I have learnt a lot from reading this, I am a Pyschic Medium and I am trying to develop more. You have written a very inspiration blog and i am saving this page as a favourites of mine to always reflect on. You have a kind and calming nature to all around you. I can certainly relate to most of the messages, and I know understand that It isn’t about me, and i love the quote ” I define my job as giving a voice to those in spirit”. Thank you.
"Tarot cards do not tell the future; rather, tarot is a tool for spiritual guidance and enables the person receiving the reading to connect to his or her inner wisdom," she told INSIDER. "Tarot readings help a person understand what he or she needs to know about a particular situation. Decks are best used as a tool of inner wisdom and guidance, as readings give a person insight to past, current and future events based on the person's current path at the time of the reading. The cards do not necessarily reveal what will happen, but instead, allow a person to gain an understanding of a situation and determine the best course of action based on what is known and what the cards show."
The magician Julien Proskauer revealed that the levitating trumpet of Jack Webber was a trick. Close examination of photographs reveal Webber to be holding a telescopic reaching rod attached to the trumpet, and sitters in his séances only believed it to have levitated because the room was so dark they could not see the rod. Webber would cover the rod with crepe paper to disguise its real construction.[162]
Minister, Medium & Clairvoyant, Business Psychic, Metaphysician, Healer, Medical Intuitive & Animal Intuitive. I am an ordained Spiritualist Minister, a medium and a clairvoyant. I am also a Certified Metaphysician, a Reiki Master, a medical intuitive, an animal intuitive and a business psychic. My mediumship training is primarily in Lily Dale, New York, the North American home of Spiritualism. I am based in Ontario, Canada. Although
Many are unaware of how they attract partners in relationships, the core fears and emotional issues that show up in the relationship, and why these relationships usually don’t work out and are short lived. They continue to attract the same kind of partner or repeat relationship patterns and are not sure as to why. Couples may hit a road block in their relationship and feel as if there is a breakdown in communication, the love and passion is gone, or their emotional needs are not being met. They may even feel as if the relationship may be over and are seeking clarity so they can bring the harmony back into the relationship.
I am and will always be of Catholic nature from my family. I also believe that all religions have a meaning which [allows] me to believe in god (Hindu,Buddhism and Wiccan) - basically the religions that bring out the good energies and love. I also believe in life after death, reincarnation, paradise and life in other dimensions and planets in our known universe.
And here’s the thing – you may already consciously know the message or insight you receive in a Tarot reading, in which case, the reading can be a heartening confirmation of what you already know. Or, you might be completely unaware of the message until you see it reflected in the cards, in which case you are now empowered to take action based on your new awareness.
I am fueled by my desire to inspire others to awaken to their true potential. Utilizing my natural intuitive abilities combined with my commitment to wellness, I assist others on their own journey of self discovery. Healing is an intimate process. And I have learned that there is rarely a clear cut way to heal. Each person possesses a unique blueprint but not given any means to access the information hidden within it — until now! I’m d
Went to the Hamilton Psychic Expo. Such an unbelievable experience I had with Kelly. I knew I wanted to see her from the moment she started introducing herself. She was definitely spot on. I had gained a lot of sense in knowing what I need to work on, how to focus and center myself. It hits the heart, but is a relief to know the things she spoke to me about. An amazing birthday gift treating myself to a reading from Kelly. � Sending lots of love your way!!! ��� Thank you�read more
^ M. Lamar Keene. (1997). The Psychic Mafia. Prometheus Books. p 122. ISBN 978-1-57392-161-9 "A medium still riding high in England is Leslie Flint, famed as an exponent of direct voice. William Rauscher and Allen Spraggett, who attended a sitting Flint held in 1970 in New York, said that it was the most abysmal flop of any seance they had endured. All the spirit voices sounded exactly like the medium and displayed an incredible ignorance of nearly everything pertaining to the sitters. The "mediumship " was second-rate ventriloquism."
In 1988, the magician Bob Couttie criticized the paranormal author Brian Inglis for deliberately ignoring evidence of fraud in mediumship. Couttie wrote Inglis had not familiarized himself with magician techniques.[178] In 1990 the researcher Gordon Stein discovered that the levitation photograph of the medium Carmine Mirabelli was fraudulent. The photograph was a trick as there were signs of chemical retouching under Mirabelli's feet. The retouching showed that Mirabelli was not levitating but was standing on a ladder which was erased from the photograph.[179]
After drawing your cards, revisit your initial question to ensure that it has been addressed properly. A good tarot guide can help you interpret the images you see on the tarot cards, but there’s really no substitute for personal reflection. As with any skill, practice makes perfect, so use this tarot tool often (daily, if possible), or order a set of Astrology Answers Master Deck Tarot Cards and practice at home!
Discover the truth about your partner and the future of your relationship. Release the pain and trauma of past relationships. Explore the mystical power of higher love and sacred romance. Manifest your soulmate and attract the intimate relationship of your dreams. Learn to harness universal spiritual laws and apply metaphysical tools to create and attract the ultimate love connection and find your ideal life mate.
Attracting your ideal romantic life partner is challenge for many people,, because the creation process often happens unconsciously. Many people leave it up to 'luck' or ‘fate’ and then have to endure several trial runs and test drives before they finally figure it out, if at all. Deliberately manifesting your ideal life partner is the best way to go! A relationship consultation can help you adjust your dating strategy and streamline the process of manifesting the love of your life using the Law of Attraction.
Though each card has classic associations, the most powerful resource available is your intuition. Note your immediate emotional reaction: Your instincts will inform your study and strengthen your pictorial memory. Eventually, you'll develop your own systems and patterns, and individual cards will carry meanings specific to you. Perhaps the Devil card will come to represent an ex-lover, while the Two of Wands will symbolize a new job. Your distinctive lexicon will inform your readings, allowing you to create specific narratives that can be applied to any circumstance or situation.
In the late 1920s and early 1930s there were around one quarter of a million practising Spiritualists and some two thousand Spiritualist societies in the UK in addition to flourishing microcultures of platform mediumship and 'home circles'.[18] Spiritualism continues to be practiced, primarily through various denominational spiritualist churches in the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom. In the United Kingdom, over 340 spiritualist churches and centres open their doors to the public and free demonstrations of mediumship are regularly performed.[19]
If you are looking to learn more about spiritual advice before moving forward with your reading, read Keen's blog posts and free articles on spiritual topics. Keen is a thought leader in spiritual readings and subjects from palm reading, cosmic vibrations of numbers, and angels are covered in-depth. No matter what your spiritual interests are, Keen has the information and resources you need to answer your questions. Start learning about your spirituality today with Keen spirituality articles.
Astral projection Astrology Aura Bilocation Clairvoyance Close encounter Cold spot Conjuration Cryptozoology Demonic possession Demonology Ectoplasm Electronic voice phenomenon Exorcism Extrasensory perception Forteana Ghost hunting Indigo children Magic Mediumship Occult Orb Paranormal fiction Paranormal television Precognition Preternatural Psychic Psychic reading Psychokinesis Psychometry Remote viewing Retrocognition Spirit photography Spirit possession Spirit world Spiritualism Stone Tape Supernatural Telepathy Ufology
At Waite's suggestion, Smith used the Sola Busca artwork for inspiration, and there are many similarities in the symbolism between Sola Busca and Smith's final result. Smith was the first artist to use characters as representative images in the lower cards. Instead of showing merely a cluster of cups, coins, wands or swords, Smith incorporated human figures into the artwork, and the result is the iconic deck that every reader knows today.
According to the magician John Booth the stage mentalist David Devant managed to fool a number of people into believing he had genuine psychic ability who did not realize that his feats were magic tricks. At St. George's Hall, London he performed a fake "clairvoyant" act where he would read a message sealed inside an envelope. The spiritualist Oliver Lodge who was present in the audience was duped by the trick and claimed that Devant had used psychic powers. In 1936 Devant in his book Secrets of My Magic revealed the trick method he had used.[159]
The spiritual guidance you receive during a reading with a psychic, medium or clairvoyant helps you to identify inner truths. This insight can be a valuable tool you can use to move your life forward. The type of spiritual reading, and the level of information and insight you receive, will depend on the intuitive awareness of the spiritual reader you are consulting.
What can I say Another absolutely amazing spirit chat date with Helen Thank you thank you Always so inspirational insightful and so comforting You are truly meant to be doing this - helping and healing I encourage anyone to contact Helen You will be in awe Love you girl -- df -- a style display none href https topodin com seo post tehnologiya-Fast-Index-ot-TopOdin com...
This card predicts that you will have a lot to do, many projects running at the same time and you manage it well. Change is on the way and you're able to adapt and balance at the same time. A change in your financial situation and you need to find stability and balance again. You feel that you're alive and kicking, having some fun. In a relationship this card predicts a fun and exciting time. If you're single this is a time when you're not very serious but play around for a while. In matters of work you seem to have your hands full but you manage to balance it well.
Tarot card readings have long surpassed the chintzy, neon “Fortune Teller” sign store front stereotype, which gives tarot a bad name and should be avoided. Scholarly research indicates that the cards originated in Italy in the 1500s where they were used as a game, called Tarocchi, by the very wealthy. They weren’t interpreted for spiritual divination until the 18th century. There are tarot schools where you can study and huge communities with thousands of Tarosophists who meet online and at conventions around the world.
I am a Psychic Medium, Mentor, Spiritual Teacher, and Shaman. I read your past lives, soul purpose, lessons, blocks, animal and spirit guides with the help of my spirit guide, Grey Wolf. I help women with aligning with their truest self and remove money, spiritual, and relationship blocks during a reading. I look at the soul patterns of a client and see how they're connected and unravel of the threads to reveal the underlying issue. I get sp
^ "Spiritism is not a religion but a science", as the famous French astronomer Camille Flammarion said in Allan Kardec's Eulogy on April 2, 1869, in Death and Its Mystery – After Death. Manifestations and Apparitions of the Dead; The Soul After Death Translated by Latrobe Carroll (London: Adelphi Terrace, 1923), archive version at Allan Kardec eulogy
Let’s say you want to find a new romantic relationship. Instead of pulling a card to predict whether Prince Charming is just around the corner and either being blissfully excited or bitterly disappointed, you consult the cards to discover how you can attract love (and keep it!). You draw the Ten of Cups, and upon seeing the happy family dancing under the rainbow in the card, you are reminded that to attract love, you need to set a clear vision of what it is you want to attract.
As occult interest in the Tarot expanded, it became more associated with the Kabbalah and the secrets of hermetic mysticism. By the end of the Victorian era, occultism and spiritualism had become popular pastimes for bored upper class families. It wasn’t uncommon to attend a house party and find a séance taking place, or someone reading palms or tea leaves in the corner.
The Austrian medium Rudi Schneider was investigated in 1924 by the physicists Stefan Meyer and Karl Przibram. They caught Rudi freeing his arm in a series of séances.[137] Rudi claimed he could levitate objects but according to Harry Price a photograph taken on April 28, 1932 showed that Rudi had managed to free his arm to move a handkerchief from the table.[138] According to Warren Jay Vinton, Schneider was an expert at freeing himself from control in the séance room.[139] Oliver Gatty and Theodore Besterman who tested Schneider concluded that in their tests there was "no good evidence that Rudi Schneider possesses supernormal powers."[140]
She asked for Emily's photo. I handed her my phone. She stared at the screen and told me to say Emily's full name and birthday, then looked up at me. My heart dropped—would my face betray something?—and immediately jumped back into my chest when she told me she could feel Emily's presence and that she was happy. In a new development, Emily had "passed on" and become my guardian angel.
This session is designed to look at core blocks in the relationship from an energetic and spiritual level. I work with the Higher Self, Angels and Guides of both individuals within the relationship to communicate and bring through clear information and guidance around core issues that keep the relationship from flowing harmoniously. This session is like getting a Soul Reading except you are receiving a Psychic Reading for your Relationship or Marriage.
Over 30 Yrs experience,TESTED and CERTIFIED, International Intuitive Psychic, Angel Reader, Life Coach, Spiritual Counselor, Empath & Reiki Master. Messages provided through SPIRIT GUIDE/ANGELIC MESSENGER contact. All messages come from a place of love and honesty, never fear or judgment based on sexuality or race. Sheri assists you with your life path, soul purpose, relationships, career, finances, manifesting your dreams, abundance and worki
^ Paul Kurtz. (1985). A Skeptic's Handbook of Parapsychology. Prometheus Books. p. 29. ISBN 978-0-87975-300-9 "Florence Cook was caught cheating not only before her séances with Crookes but also afterward. Furthermore, she learned her trade from the mediums Frank Herne and Charles Williams, who were notorious for their cheating." Also see M. Lamar Keene. (1997). The Psychic Mafia. Prometheus Books. p. 64. ISBN 978-1-57392-161-9 "The most famous of materialization mediums, Florence Cook – though she managed to convince a scientist, Sir William Crookes, that she was genuine – was repeatedly exposed in fraud. Florence had been trained in the arts of the séance by Frank Herne, a well-known physical medium whose materializations were grabbed on more than one occasion and found to be the medium himself."
Psychic Four was very motherly, constantly calling me "darling" and telling me how sorry she was for my loss. Her method of Emily-contact was a mix of prayer and coffee-dregs reading. She made me a small cup of Turkish coffee and when I finished the liquid, she placed the saucer on top of the cup, had me hold it with both hands while moving my arms in a circle three times and then flip the cup and saucer over and put it on the table. She put a blue glass cube with white circles on all six sides on top of the overturned cup and had me to put my finger on the cube and make a wish. I did, and she asked me for the photo. I handed her my phone. She put a small statue of a Turkish philosopher and an angel snow globe in front of me and told me to hold on to both and praying while she turned on her laptop and started playing weird reverb-heavy New Age music featuring a man and woman speaking about being intoxicated on love (not Beyonce style, unfortunately). She was going to ask Emily to make herself known to me.
When the spirit of a loved one visits us, they do it for one simple reason: because they love us. Think of it like this: If you passed your beloved grandmother on the street, wouldn't you stop and say hi? Even though they are in another dimension, they still experience, know, and understand the world we live in, and they love us and want us to know this. So look for signs from them.
Tarot readings are a powerful form of divination that use an ancient deck of cards to help you find answers to your most important questions about love, relationships, your career, finances and more. Psychics and fortune tellers have used Tarot cards for hundreds of years, and Trusted Tarot will give you an accurate reading that's personalized based the cards you choose and the order you pick them. Every card has a different meaning depending on its position, so you will get a unique and detailed perspective on your current situation. To prepare for your reading, I recommend that you listen to this grounding excercise - then scroll down and select your cards.
Another important distinction is that while psychic readings often focus on predicting future events, mediums primarily tune into past and present issues. It's my opinion that predicting the future, while sometimes helpful, runs the risk of disempowering people. Always remember that you do have a say in how your future unfolds. Despite what any psychic or medium may "see" in your future, it is important to remember you were given the gift of free will when you came into this world, and at any moment in time you can absolutely redirect your course and create the life you want by changing your thoughts and actions. Psychic information is often just insight into what potentially could happen based on the road you are currently traveling—and it should be used only as a guideline to help you make the best choices for yourself.
The illustrations of French-suited tarot trumps depart considerably from the older Italian-suited design, abandoning the Renaissance allegorical motifs. With the exception of novelty decks, French-suited tarot cards are almost exclusively used for card games. The first generation of French-suited tarots depicted scenes of animals on the trumps and were thus called "Tiertarock" ('Tier' being German for 'animal') appeared around 1740. Around 1800, a greater variety of decks were produced, mostly with genre art or veduta. Current French-suited tarot decks come in these patterns:
Mary-Anne is a professional Spiritual Medium, Published Author, Spiritual Educator, and TV Personality located just outside of Toronto, Ontario. Mary-Anne is one of Canada's top Spiritual Mediums who is highly sought after for her work in both mediumship readings and spiritual teaching. With compelling accuracy, she brings forward evidence - proof - that your loved ones still exist. Her connection and messages from heaven are rich with hea
Brigit Esselmont is the author of the #1 Amazon best-selling books the Ultimate Guide to Tarot Card Meanings and the Biddy Tarot Planner, and the brand new book and Tarot deck, Everyday Tarot. A professional Tarot reader for more than 20 years, Brigit founded Biddy Tarot in 1999, where each year more than 4.5 million people (like you!) are inspired to live more mindful and enlightened lives, using the Tarot as a guide.
^ LeCron, Leslie; Bordeaux, Jean (1970). Hypnotism Today. Wilshire Book Co. p. 278. ISBN 0-87980-081-X. When in a trance ... the medium seems to come under the control of another personality, purportedly the spirit of a departed soul, and a genuine medium undoubtedly believes the 'control' to be a spirit entity ... In the trance, the medium often enters a cataleptic state marked by extreme rigidity. The control then takes over, the voice may change completely ... and the supposed spirit answers the questions of the sitter, telling of things 'on the other plane' and gives messages from those who have 'passed over.'
I have been fortunate enough to work with trance mediums, one especially gifted one, in a therapeutic context for several years now. I personally feel we truly know next to nothing about the mechanisms behind trance channeling and mediumship. Like Edison said, "We don't know one millionth of one percent about anything." I do think it's far more likely to be an integrative both/and rather than either/or pheonomenon with respect to subconscious production vs spirit speakers (to say nothing of tapping the collective unconscious) and that's about all I feel reasonably sure of. Quantum (Unified Field)theories/New Paradigm Science and the like holds promise as far as cracking the code on the the entire spectrum of super-normal phenomena. The study here sounds rudimentary. I would suggest interested readers see the research being done at Windbridge Institue, the Rhine Research Center, and IONS.
Whether you're looking for love advice or are trying to work through a problem in your current relationship, love & relationship psychic readings can provide you with valuable insight that you seek regarding matters of the heart. The information gained from these readings can help you confidently continue forward with your romantic relationship in the best possible way. Connect with a psychic guide on PsychicCenter for your live love & relationship reading.
If what the psychic medium says doesn’t make sense to you, just say you don’t know or don’t understand what they are talking about. Don’t try to make it fit! If the psychic medium asks if you had a dog named Freckles, don’t say, “I had a cat named Mittens!” Don’t try to make the message fit if it doesn’t. The psychic medium will figure out what the message means without you interpreting it yourself.
Love & relationship psychic readings can be used during any stage of a relationship. You do not have to be married or in a committed, long-term relationship in order to gain insight from a love-oriented psychic reading. Some people are surprised to learn that you can even talk with a love psychic guide when you are single to see if romance is just around the corner. You can ask for love advice before you officially start something with a potential partner. A quick reading before heading out on a first date can give you a picture of what the evening has in store for you as you meet and get to know this other person. Established couples can benefit from readings as well. You can ask for love & relationship advice whether you're experiencing anxiety or relationship problems due to challenging times or if your romance status is happy, stable, and in tip-top shape.
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You are at:Home»Sports»Winter, spring athletes set goals for upcoming seasons
From left: Women’s track and field’s Caity Reverand, baseball’s Sam Wurth and and women’s basketball’s Clair Steele. Reverand and Steele are midway through their winter seasons, while Wurth is looking forward to the baseball team beginning its 2019 season. (Courtesy of Lehigh Sports)
Winter, spring athletes set goals for upcoming seasons
By Leidy Mary — Read time: 5 minutes; Published December 6, 2018, 12:47 am Sports
With the fall season coming to an end, winter sports underway and spring schedules announced, Lehigh athletes are preparing for their upcoming winter and spring games with anticipation.
Women’s basketball freshman guard Clair Steele said she is excited to start her Lehigh career on the court. Steele said the team’s main focus is consistency, including staying strong for the entire game.
“I’m really looking forward to growing as a team and as a player,” Steele said. “It’s my first year so there are some things to get used to, but the team is really close this year and I think we can do awesome things.”
Steele said she tries not to set goals concerning scoring, but rather, goals focused on technique.
“I just have little goals, like getting quicker on defense,” Steele said. “Playing against college girls has been so different because they’re so much quicker. But for me, I just want to make a positive impact on the team and be the player that my teammates want to play with.”
Sam Wurth, a sophomore pitcher on the baseball team, said home games are important to boost confidence. Last season, Wurth said the first half of the season was rough, but the team was able to turn its season around.
“Winning at home is definitely something that we’re trying to improve upon, especially because our home field is so important to us,” Wurth said. “We have one of the best environments in the Patriot League.”
Wurth has already circled the date on his calendar for the team’s match-up against Navy.
“Our best pitcher versus their best pitcher is usually a great battle every year,” Wurth said. “It’s a big energy game, really good offense, really good pitching and really good defense. Those games go by so fast and you don’t even realize you’re playing because it’s just so hyped.”
Junior pole vaulter Caity Reverand said that the women’s track and field team is really excited about its strong freshman class that will help the team as a whole during both the indoor and outdoor seasons. She said the team has high hopes for its upcoming seasons.
“We just started our indoor season, which will definitely prepare us for the spring,” Reverend said. “Some people believe that the women’s team can win indoor Patriots.”
Wurth believes teams must earn the support of fans before expecting large home crowds.
“Having a crowd come to our games is earned,” Wurth said. “As soon as we start winning more we’ll get more of a turnout. We have a very dedicated parent section that comes out to every single game so they all have their own parent tailgates and it’s really fun to be able to count on them. We’re really grateful that our teammates’ parents are able to come out and support us at almost every single game.”
5 minute read Baseball Women's basketball Women's track and field
Brewing up the Lehigh Coffee Club
Theta Xi appeal granted with alumni support
Association of Student Alumni and Student Senate choose senior class speaker
Sideline story: Motley uses time away to explore entrepreneurship
Junior offensive lineman Alex Motley came to practice ready to prove himself as the starting right tackle for the defending...
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Home Palmyra News Burlington County preserves two new farms
Burlington County preserves two new farms
Thanks to the freeholder board’s efforts, the county now has more than 30,000 acres of farmland
The Burlington County Farmland Preservation Program reached two important milestones Thursday, as the Board of Chosen Freeholders and County Department of Resource Conservation continue to solidify Burlington County’s status as a state leader in preserving farmland and open space.
Freeholder Linda Hughes, liaison to the County Department of Resource Conversation, announced that the county preserved two new farms today, bringing the total to 250 farms and more than 30,000 acres of farmland preserved by the freeholder board in Burlington County.
“The significant achievements reached today further demonstrates the freeholder board’s ongoing commitment to preserving the quality of life in Burlington County through open space and farmland preservation,” said Freeholder Hughes. “The two additional farmland easement acquisitions further protect the county’s important agriculture industry, ensuring it continues to contribute to our local economy.”
Launched in 1985, the Burlington County Farmland Preservation Program is credited with giving Chesterfield Township, Burlington County the distinction of being home to the first five farms preserved in the state of New Jersey. Since then, with the support of the Freeholder Board, the county program has preserved farms in 21 municipalities.
“The Freeholder Board has preserved 20 farms in Burlington County over the past two years alone,” added Freeholder Hughes. “I am proud to work on behalf of county residents to protect the unique character of our communities for future generations.”
The two new farms preserved today are as follows:
· 249th Farm — Fenimore Farm, Pemberton Township (adjacent to JBMDL), 74 acres
· 250th Farm — Bassett Farm, Chesterfield Township, 40 acres
Free “Weekend Walk on the Moon” event at Palmyra Cove Nature Park
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Le Bain at The Standard, High Line
a penthouse club and rooftop bar with a view
848 Washington Street, New York, NY 10014
Wed-Fr 10pm-4am
Sat 2pm - 4am
Sun 2pm - 3am
standardhotels.com/high-line/food-drink/le-bain
Le Bain is a penthouse club and rooftop bar featuring world-famous DJs, a state of the art sound system and superlative-inspiring views. Located on the 18th floor, ( The Standard, High Line) the club has very quickly become a music mecca for those who consider the sounds of the underground their religion. With breathtaking views of the Hudson River and outfitted with a diamond shaped jacuzzi for up to 20 people, this nightclub is a global attraction. In the summer months, the Rooftop at Le Bain opens for al fresco entertainment and light snacks from the seasonal crepe shack.
Key info: During the summer, there's a plunge pool on the dance floor and a crêperie on a "grass" covered rooftop.
Photocredit: Courtesy of The Standard.
Tags: Le Bain at The Standard, High Line,Le Bain
The Standard High Line
design hotel in Meatpacking District
a green mile between the Meatpacking District and Chelsea
The largest collections of 20th and 21st century American art
A trendy multi-brand store in the Meatpacking District
located inside the former National Biscuit Company building
The Jane Hotel
a concept boutique hotel designed by Sean MacPherson
The Electric Room
bar & club in the Meatpacking district
The Beatrice Inn
a West Village restaurant from Vanity Fair's editor-in-chief
modern art gallery
Mid-century vintage glass, ceramics and furniture store in West Village
Jack Shainman Gallery
up-and-coming artists
The Joyce Theater
contemporary dance performances theater in Chelsea
Billy's Bakery Chelsea
famous bakery with best muffins and cupcakes in Chelsea
created by Tanya Bonakdar in 1994
Lehmann Maupin
by Rachel Lehmann and David Maupin
Asya Geisberg Gallery
by curator, artist, and writer Asya Geisberg
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Articles about voting issues in sub-Saharan Africa.
Africa: Libya Uncovers Alleged Russian Plot to Meddle in African Votes | Samer Al-Atrush, Ilya Arkhipov, and Henry Meyer/Bloomberg
Libyan security forces have arrested two men accused of working for a Russian troll farm seeking to influence elections in the oil exporter and other African countries. A letter from the state prosecutor of the internationally-backed Tripoli government to a Libyan security chief said the men were involved in “securing a meeting” with Saif al-Islam al-Qaddafi, the fugitive son of the ousted dictator and a potential presidential candidate who enjoys the backing of some officials in Moscow. Russia’s foreign ministry said it was aware of the reports and was seeking to verify them. “We haven’t received an official notification from the Libyan side regarding this matter,” the foreign ministry’s press service said. Laptops and memory sticks found with the suspects showed that they worked for an outfit identified as Fabrika Trollei, Russian for Troll Factory, that “specializes in influencing elections that are to be held in several African states” including Libya, the letter, stamped by the attorney general’s office and obtained by Bloomberg, stated. Two Libyan government officials with direct knowledge of the matter confirmed the authenticity of the document. Fabrika Trollei was the moniker given to a network of media and political outfits connected to Russian oligarch Yevgeny Prigozhin, who’s been accused by the U.S. of funding and organizing operations to interfere in the 2016 presidential election. Prigozhin has been in contact with representatives of Saif al-Islam over his future political role, according to three people familiar with the situation.
Full Article: Libya Uncovers Alleged Russian Plot to Meddle in African Votes - Bloomberg.
Categories: Africa | Topics: election interference
Namibia: Electronic voting machines to be tested in public | Sakeus Iikela/The Namibian
The Electoral Commission of Namibia will hold a public event where technicians will test the electronic voting machines (EVMs) for possible defects. ECN chairperson Notemba Tjipueja told a media event in Windhoek yesterday that the commission has received numerous requests from political parties and a parliamentary standing committee to investigate whether the EVMs can be hacked. She said the public testing of the EVMs will be held on 18 July 2019, and the commission will use information technology (IT) students from the Namibia University of Science and Technology to test the machines. The ECN boss said political parties will also be allowed to bring their own technicians to confirm “any allegations they might have with regards to the EVMs”.
Full Article: Voting machines to be tested in public - The Namibian.
Categories: Namibia | Topics: electronic voting
Africa: Leaked documents reveal Russian effort to exert influence in Africa | Luke Harding and Jason Burke/The Guardian
Russia is seeking to bolster its presence in at least 13 countries across Africa by building relations with existing rulers, striking military deals, and grooming a new generation of “leaders” and undercover “agents”, leaked documents reveal. The mission to increase Russian influence on the continent is being led by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a businessman based in St Petersburg who is a close ally of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin. One aim is to “strong-arm” the US and the former colonial powers the UK and France out of the region. Another is to see off “pro-western” uprisings, the documents say. In 2018 the US special counsel Robert Mueller indicted Prigozhin, who is known as “Putin’s chef” because of his Kremlin catering contracts. According to Mueller, his troll factory ran an extensive social media campaign in 2016 to help elect Donald Trump. The Wagner group – a private military contractor linked to Prigozhin – has supplied mercenaries to fight in Ukraine and Syria.
Full Article: Leaked documents reveal Russian effort to exert influence in Africa | World news | The Guardian.
Malawi: Election Results System Tested Amid Network Challenges | VoA News
An election governing body in Malawi has done its first test of a system that tallies election results, as a May 21 poll draws near. Testing of the Results Management System is meant to find weaknesses and glitches, as officials hope Tuesday’s exercise will help calm fears of election rigging. Officials placed staff and equipment at election centers across Malawi to transmit results to the main tally center in Blantyre. Jane Ansah, chairperson for the Malawi Electoral Commission, says the test exercise is meant to calm fears that election results might be tampered with. “This is one of the issues of transparency. We invited people to come and witness this test run, and I believe, as they witness the test run, they will be assured that there is no reason or any basis for any fears of hacking the system,” Ansah said. However, the test did uncover network glitches in the Results Management System, especially at voting centers in rural areas. The test exercise began nearly an hour late because of connectivity problems. Some tallying centers in southern Malawi — like Nsanje district — failed to transmit results to the main tally center.
Full Article: Malawi Tests Election Results System Amid Network Challenges.
Categories: Malawi
Nigeria: Electronic Transmission Of Election Result Illegal | Leadership Newspaper
Until the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill is passed into law any election result that is electronically transmitted by the Independent National Electoral Commission (INEC) is illegal, a cross section of Nigerian lawyers has said.
In their contributions to the raging controversy over INEC’s purported transmission of the results of the 2019 presidential election, the lawyers told LEADERSHIP Weekend that it amounts to illegality for the commission or its officers to have transmitted the said results when the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill, 2018, has not been signed into law.
They argued that Section 52 (2) of the operating Electoral Act 2010 prohibits the use of electronic voting machine in Nigeria, including the transmission of the results electronically.
In the same vein, the legal luminaries said that Section 65 of the same Electoral Act 2010 stipulates that election results shall be transmitted manually by INEC presiding officers and that this law which governed the conduct of the 2019 elections has not been repealed.
The ruling All Progressives Congress (APC) and the opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) are into a fierce verbal war over the purported existence of a server where INEC allegedly stored the results of the February 23 presidential poll won by President Muhammadu Buhari.
Among the eminent lawyers, who commented on the matter yesterday, were Chief Mike Ahamba (SAN), Alasa Ismaila, Muktar Abanika, Dr. Kayode Ajulon, and Ismail Alahusa.
They asserted that said since the Electoral Bill which mandates the immediate transmission of voting results from polling units to collation centres has not come to effect, the so-called transmitted result is invalid and any reliance on it is null and void.
The lawyers drew attention to the 2015 INEC’s Directives, Guidelines and Manuals which provided for the use of smart card reader while Section 49 of the Electoral Act provided for the use of voter cards instead. According to them, petitioners in previous elections who placed reliance on INEC guidelines by alleging substantial non-compliance with the provisions of the Electoral Act because the smart card reader was not used in the accreditation process and that the election results should be set aside on the basis of the failure to use the smart card reader failed at the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court, the lawyers said held for instance in Wike Ezenwo Nyesom vs Dakuku Adol Peterside and Others that INEC’s directives on the use of the smart card reader has not invalidated the use of the manual accreditation process, even if it was fraught with fraud. According to Ahamba,
‘’it is left to the tribunal to determine whether INEC actually gave orders to the presiding officers to transmit the election result electronically to the collation centre or the commission’s server or not. ‘
’The tribunal will determine precisely after it has listened to all sides and gone through all the available evidence adduced by parties to the suit. But it is trite law that if INEC gave unlawful instruction, the result so transmitted is unlawful and invalid,’’ he said. In his views, Ismaila who practices law in Katsina and Abuja said:
‘’It is immaterial whether the presiding officer was instructed to transmit the election results electronically or not. We must determine whether such was governed by the new INEC Guidelines and Manual for the conduct of the 2019 general elections. Even then at his level, he cannot claim ignorance that the Electoral Act (Amendment) Bill which would have authorised it is yet to be signed to law. ‘
’The Supreme Court judgement in Edward Nkwegu Okereke vs Nweze David Umahi and Wike Ezenwo Nyesom vs Dakuku Adol Peterside and others are enough lessons not to do things outside the law. The apex court held in Wike’s case for example that the introduction of the card reader is certainly a welcome development in the electoral process.
Although it is meant to improve on the credibility of those accredited to vote so as to check the incidence of rigging, it is yet to be made part of the Electoral Act. To Abanika,‘’Section 52 (2) of the Electoral Act 2010 as amended which is still in operation prohibits the use of electronic voting machine for the time being in Nigeria, including the transmission of the electronic results.
He said: ‘’Section 65 of the same Electoral Act 2010 that dictates that the election results shall be transmitted manually by the presiding officer, yet that law which governed the conduct of the 2019 elections has not been repealed.” The Electoral Bill which mandates the immediate transmission of voting results from polling units to collation centres is not yet operational, and as such, the transmitted result is invalid and any reliance place on it is null and void,’’ the lawyers maintained. Dr. Ajulo, who is the founder of Egalitarian Mission in Africa, said that the PDP candidate (Alhaji Atiku Abubakar) has embarked on a fruitless venture with the results he claimed he got from INEC server. Ajulo asserted that the result is not admissible in law, adding that ‘’if President Muhammadu Buhari had signed the amended Electoral Act, which included electronic transmission of results, Atiku would have had a valid case against INEC, but as it is, he cannot even tender the results at the tribunal.” A Kaduna-based lawyer, Ismail Alahusa, agreed with the submissions of Ajulo. He said that electronic transmission of result is not recognised by the Electoral Act and, therefore, the result Atiku claims he got from INEC server is “just a piece of paper.” ‘’He can’t use it at the tribunal because the law does not even recognize the transmission of result electronically. I want to believe that Atiku was not properly advised before approaching the tribunal to challenge the results of the election,” he said. But Akinwumi Adisa, a civil rights activist said that Buhari refused to sign the amended Electoral Act Bill into law because of the fraud the APC and INEC perpetrated during the election. He said: ‘’To every sane Nigerian, the last election is the worst in the history of polls in Nigeria. For every Nigerian that is seeking the good of this country, the last election was a sham and should be condemned by all. ‘’As for the result Atiku claimed he got from INEC server, even if it is not admissible in law, the whole world would be made to know the daylight robbery committed during the last election.’’ A Lagos-based lawyer, Emmanuel Majebi said: “It would not have been possible to transmit the results even if INEC had wanted to do so initially because there are areas that have no network and there are areas where the card readers did not work or were not used. “The figures Atiku brought is very bogus. The combined votes for him and Buhari is more than the total accredited voters, no other candidates got a vote, no cancellation and no voided votes, that in itself has knocked out his INEC server’s claim. I will not want to say much on the issue because it is in court but I will say the electronic transmission of election results was an ideal that wasn’t possible. “It was not backed by law. It was to be a parallel process but it didn’t work or INEC probably heard that some people had planned to compromise it and abandoned it without announcement. Transmission to the server of the number of accredited voters, does not translate to the number of votes cast! Another Lagos-based lawyer Jude Omeire said: “I believe we should not be jumping the gun and we should allow the tribunal to determine the merits and demerits of the petition and the defence. I believe that the law empowered INEC to set guidelines for the conduct of the elections but the question is, can INEC guidelines override the constitution and the Electoral Act? “It is the responsibility of the tribunal to scrutinise the submitted data, and if needs be as to its source and genuineness,” he said.
Full Article: Electronic Transmission Of Election Result Illegal – Lawyers — Leadership Newspaper.
Categories: Nigeria | Topics: election cybersecurity
Nigeria: Election Brings Dual Crises Back to the Polls: Corruption and Boko Haram | The New York Times
Muhammadu Buhari won the presidency in a historic election in Nigeria four years ago by promising to crush two scourges that had plagued the nation for years: endemic corruption and a war with Islamist extremists. Back then, Mr. Buhari, a former military general, rode a wave of voter desire to impose greater accountability on the government, end a brutal war with the extremist group Boko Haram and bring back the hundreds of female students taken as captives. Now, as Mr. Buhari is in the final throes of a bruising re-election campaign, he stands accused of falling short on all fronts. Critics say Mr. Buhari has used his antigraft mantra to crush adversaries. Boko Haram is gaining ground, launching sophisticated attacks on weary, underequipped soldiers. And many of the captive students are still missing.
Full Article: Nigeria’s Election Brings Dual Crises Back to the Polls: Corruption and Boko Haram - The New York Times.
Categories: Nigeria
Malawi: Political Violence Mars Malawi Election Run-Up | VoA News
Political violence is on the rise in Malawi as the country prepares for May elections. The victims are mostly opposition party members beaten by suspected supporters of the ruling Democratic Progressive Party. However, DPP officials have denied being behind the attacks, blaming misguided youth who aim to tarnish the party’s image. In response, Malawi’s electoral commission has threatened to disqualify any candidate using violence. One opposition party member, Henderson Waya, a member of the United Transformation Movement, was attacked by a group of youths two weeks ago when he and others were driving to a party rally.
Full Article: Political Violence Mars Malawi Election Run-Up.
Categories: Malawi | Topics: election vviolence
Nigeria: President sacks the chief justice weeks before an election | The Economist
The wheels of justice turn slowly in Nigeria. On the rare occasions when corruption cases are brought against prominent people, petitions can take years to resolve. It was therefore unusual that on January 25th President Muhammadu Buhari suspended Nigeria’s Chief Justice, Walter Onnoghen, a mere 15 days after allegations of impropriety were lodged against the most senior judge in the country. This was the first time that Nigeria’s head of state had sacked a chief justice since 1975, when the country was under military rule. Mr Buhari’s move was not merely unusual. It was also unlawful. Nigeria’s constitution seeks to balance the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government; a power play by one part against a second needs the consent of the third. Mr Buhari did not seek support from the Senate, where he lacks the two-thirds majority needed to oust the chief justice, so his act is widely viewed as being against the law.
Full Article: Nigeria’s president sacks the chief justice weeks before an election - Above the law.
Nigeria: Nigeria denies judge’s suspension influenced by election | Associated Press
Amid growing criticism, Nigeria’s information minister denied on Monday that the president’s recent suspension of the country’s chief justice was related to the upcoming presidential elections. The suspension of Chief Justice Walter Nkanu Samuel Onnoghen had “nothing to do with the forthcoming elections” and did not “signify the onset of dictatorship or tyranny as some have insinuated,” Minister Lai Mohammed said. The chief justice faces trial on charges of allegedly failing to declare his assets, which Onnoghen has argued is without merit. This is the first time a chief justice is standing trial in Nigeria, Africa’s most populous country with 190 million people. Critics say the suspension of the chief justice just three weeks before the election is an effort by President Muhammadu Buhari to weaken Nigeria’s judiciary and pave the way for his election to a second term in the Feb. 16 vote. The chief justice plays a key role in any legal challenge to what could be a disputed vote.
Full Article: Nigeria denies judge’s suspension influenced by election - The Washington Post.
Nigeria: Government warns over ‘foreign interference’ ahead of election | Financial Times
The Nigerian government has said it will not accept “foreign interference” in February’s presidential elections after the EU, UK and US spoke out against the sudden suspension of the chief justice. The three western powers issued statements at the weekend voicing concern over how President Muhammadu Buhari’s decision to suspend the judge might affect the conduct of elections in Africa’s most populous country. As Nigeria’s senior judge, Walter Onnoghen would have played a key role in deciding any legal challenges to the results of the presidential race between Mr Buhari and former vice-president Atiku Abubakar. In a statement on Saturday night, Mr Buhari’s spokesman, Garba Shehu, warned that the government “will fiercely and assiduously promote the will and the right of Nigerians to choose and elect their leaders without pressure or assistance from persons or entities that are not constitutionally empowered to participate in the process”.
Full Article: Nigeria warns over ‘foreign interference’ ahead of election | Financial Times.
Categories: Nigeria | Topics: election interference
Congo: After Tarnished Election, Opposition Figure Becomes Congo’s President | The New York Times
Felix Tshisekedi, an opposition leader whose victory in presidential elections last month is widely considered to be illegitimate, took the oath of office on Thursday vowing to tackle the country’s endemic corruption. Shortly after assuming power, Mr. Tshisekedi announced that he would free all the country’s political prisoners. Despite lingering accusations of vote fraud, neighboring countries, the United States and other foreign powers, eager to promote stability over potential chaos, hailed the first peaceful transfer of power since Congo’s independence, in 1960. On Wednesday, the United States’ State Department, having at first warned about sanctions for individuals accused of impeding the democratic process, struck a conciliatory tone and said it was “committed to working with the new government.”
Full Article: After Tarnished Election, Opposition Figure Becomes Congo’s President - The New York Times.
Categories: Congo | Topics: election fraud
Congo: The African Union called on Congo to suspend its election’s results. That’s unprecedented. | The Washington Post
After a contentious race, on Jan. 10, Democratic Republic of Congo’s electoral commission pronounced Felix Tshisekedi the winner of the country’s Dec. 30 presidential elections. But polling data and parallel vote tabulations suggest it was“highly implausible” that Tshisekedi actually won, and the true winner was Martin Fayulu, who appealed the result. In an unprecedented response, the Southern African Development Community (SADC), headed by Zambian President Edgar Lungu, called for a recount last week and proposed that the DRC consider forming a national unity government. SADC is known for not publicly intervening in member state electoral affairs.
Full Article: The African Union called on Congo to suspend its election’s results. That’s unprecedented. - The Washington Post.
Categories: Congo | Topics: election challenge
Congo: Eager for Peace, Some Congolese Voters Accept Election Results | VoA News
Congolese voters hungry for peace are ready to welcome President-elect Felix Tshisekedi to power, even if alleged election rigging may have led to his victory. “I am very happy with his designation as our democratically elected President-elect Felix Tshisekedi,” Hervé, a 30-year-old unemployed resident of Kinshasa, the capital, told VOA. “Since I was born, I have never witnessed a peaceful handover of power,” he added. Tonton Kasongo, 30, a hairdresser, echoed the desire for peace. “The way I see it, as a son of this land, I want peace for this country,” he told VOA. “Since we didn’t have any gunshots, we are happy, because the one who is elected is the one we are going to call ‘Dad.’ I voted Fayulu because he, too, is a son of this land. Since he did not win, he needs to be patient and wait for the next time around.”
Full Article: Eager for Peace, Some Congolese Voters Accept Election Results.
Categories: Congo | Topics: election violence
Congo: Court Affirms Results of Contested Presidential Election | The New York Times
The Constitutional Court of the Democratic Republic of Congo ruled early Sunday on the results of the country’s highly contested election, determining that the opposition candidate Félix Tshisekedi was in fact the winner and rejecting a challenge from another opposition figure who was the runner-up. The court’s decision affirmed the results announced by the country’s electoral commission, which appointed Mr. Tshisekedi as the president-elect. He is set to be inaugurated on Tuesday. Martin Fayulu, the runner-up, was contesting the results and demanding a manual recount. The judges of the constitutional court said they had determined that the request for a recount was “absurd” and that Mr. Fayulu had not provided any proof of fraud. Mr. Fayulu said early Sunday that the court has “falsified and countered the truth of the polls to serve an unjust cause and perpetuate a regime that our people hate.” “I now consider myself the only legitimate president,” he added.
Full Article: Congo Court Affirms Results of Contested Presidential Election - The New York Times.
Congo: African Union cites ‘serious doubts’, urges delay to final Congo election result | Reuters
The African Union on Thursday called on Democratic Republic of Congo to suspend the release of the final results of its disputed presidential election due to its doubts over the provisional results. The rare move from the group injects fresh uncertainty into the post-election process, which was meant to usher in the country’s first democratic transfer of power in 59 years of independence, but has been mired in controversy since the Dec. 30 vote. The final tally is scheduled to be released by the election commission once the constitutional court has ruled on challenges to the provisional results on Friday, but the union called for this to be postponed following a meeting in Addis Ababa.
Full Article: African Union cites 'serious doubts', urges delay to final Congo election result | Reuters.
Congo: Voting data reveal huge fraud in poll to replace Kabila | Financial Times
Martin Fayulu was the clear winner of the Democratic Republic of Congo’s presidential elections last month, a Financial Times analysis of two separate collections of voting data shows, contradicting claims from authorities that rival contender Felix Tshisekedi had won the historic vote. The analysis points to huge fraud in the first change of power since Joseph Kabila took over the presidency of the mineral-rich central African nation almost 18 years ago. It is likely to embolden critics of Mr Kabila who suspect the Congolese leader is seeking to cling on to power through a deal with Mr Tshisekedi. According to a trove of election data seen by the FT and representing 86 per cent of total votes cast across the country, Mr Fayulu won 59.4 per cent of the vote. Rival opposition candidate Mr Tshisekedi, who was declared the surprise winner last week, finished second with 19 per cent, according to this set of data.
Full Article: Congo voting data reveal huge fraud in poll to replace Kabila | Financial Times.
Congo: Vote data reveals massive election fraud – report | AFP
The Democratic Republic of Congo’s opposition leader Martin Fayulu was a clear winner in the central African nation’s December 19 polls, according to data obtained by the Financial Times. An FT analysis of two separate collections of data shows that Fayulu won the vote by at least 59.4% while president elect Felix Tshisekedi obtained 19% of the votes. The analysis points to huge fraud in the first change of power since outgoing President Joseph Kabila took over from his late father in 2001. According to the report, the election data is likely to embolden Kabila’s critics who have accused him of seeking to cling on to power through a deal with Tshisekedi.
Full Article: DRC vote data reveals massive election fraud – report | News24.
Congo: Neighbors call for vote recount in troubled election | Associated Press
Congo’s neighbors are calling for a vote recount in the disputed presidential election and suggesting the formation of a government of national unity to avoid possible instability. The statements by the southern African and Great Lakes regional blocs put new pressure on the government of outgoing President Joseph Kabila to find a peaceful and transparent solution to a growing electoral crisis in one of Africa’s largest and most mineral-rich nations. The declared presidential runner-up, Martin Fayulu, filed a court challenge over the weekend demanding a recount, citing figures compiled by the influential Catholic Church’s 40,000 election observers that found he won 61 percent of the vote.
Full Article: Congo’s neighbors call for vote recount in troubled election - The Washington Post.
Categories: Congo | Topics: election recount
Kenya: Cyberattacks Threaten Elections and Security, Kenyans Say | allAfrica
A majority of Kenyans are worried that cyberattacks will increase elections tampering and national security threats in future, according to a new survey. A study carried out by American-based Pew Research Centre showed 73 percent of Kenyans believe that sensitive national security information will be leaked from cyberattacks, while 72 percent said such attacks are a recipe for election interference. The research which was carried out in 26 countries globally, whose report was released over the weekend, also surveyed possibilities of cyberattacks on crucial public infrastructure such as power grids and telecommunication services.
Full Article: Kenya: Cyberattacks Threaten Elections and Security, Kenyans Say - allAfrica.com.
Categories: Kenya | Topics: election cybersecurity
Nigeria: Opposition Slams Trial of Nigerian Chief Justice Before Vote | Bloomberg
The trial of Nigeria’s top judge got underway in a case that’s prompted lawyers and opposition parties to accuse the government of trying to oust him and spark a constitutional crisis before next month’s presidential election. Chief Justice Walter Onnoghen didn’t attend the opening Monday in Abuja, the capital, where the Code of Conduct Tribunal is charging him for not properly declaring his assets. The trial was adjourned until Jan. 22, and the Federal High Court in Abuja later said it will hold a hearing on Jan. 17 into whether it can continue, Lagos-based Punch newspaper reported.
Full Article: Opposition Slams Trial of Nigerian Chief Justice Before Vote - Bloomberg.
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Review: Sideshow Theatre’s HeLa Tells Stories of Death, Joy and Outer Space
By Nancy Bishop on December 3, 2018 • ( Leave a comment )
“This is Major Tom to Ground Control
I’m stepping through the door
And I’m floating in a most peculiar way
And the stars look very different today
For here am I sitting in a tin can far above the world
Haskins and Hall as Bird and Suhaila. Photo by Jonathan L. Green.
Sideshow Theatre accomplishes a lot on a small stage in its world premiere production of HeLa by J. Nicole Brooks at the Greenhouse Theater Center. They dramatize the suffering and painful death of a poor African American woman from cervical cancer in 1951 and the scientific advances her miraculous cancer cells brought about. (We now know this woman was Henrietta Lacks and her cells were taken without her permission and without compensation to her family.) They also tell the story of a super-smart young girl entranced with science and her female relatives who go through their own cancer ordeals.
Eight-year-old Ayah Sol Masai Hall plays Suhaila, an adorable science whiz kid who lost her mother to cancer and now lives in Chicago with her Aunt Bird (Nicole Michelle Haskins). The play opens in 1981 as Suhaila, age 5, is trying to watch a broadcast of Carl Sagan’s “Cosmos” on a small TV.
The scenes in HeLa go back and forth in time from 1951 to 1981-84 and finally 2001 when Suhaila, now an aerospace engineer, visits her Aunt Bird, who is suffering from cancer. Other family members who move the Suhaila story along are Big Titty Pat (Carolyn Nelson) and Uncle Steve (David Lawrence Hamilton), Bird’s boyfriend and later her husband.
The realistic scenes 30 years apart are interspersed with distant future appearances of Jata (Deanna Reed-Foster), a pilot in space, perhaps formerly human. She’s costumed in everything metallic, sometimes wears a space helmet and enters through center-stage doors on what might be a flying saucer. Her trippy monologues tell us she is not of the earth any more. For instance:
Who cares about time?
Time is a construct.
Time is a thief
That’s what I remember
they say down there on that pale blue dot, Infested by gravity.
But why do I worry about what they say? I’m not there any more.
Don’t quite know where the fuck I am but…
I’m out here.
Out here like a Sun Ra record
Out here like a muffucka.
I be.
Reed-Foster as Jata. Photo by Jonathan L. Green.
Samples from David Bowle’s ‘Space Oddity” (“Ground control to Major Tom ….”) are heard from time to time and in fact, Major Tom the Action Man (Matt Fletcher), appears in one scene to exchange space philosophy with Jata.
In 1951, we meet a nervous young woman who arrives for a medical exam at Johns Hopkins Hospital. She has just had her fifth child and her intermenstrual bleeding tells her something is seriously wrong. The patient (Haskins) is not named and Henrietta Lacks was never identified as the source of the tissue now known as HeLa. The nurse (Ann James) interviews her briskly and the doctor (Matt Fletcher) examines her. In later scenes at the Hopkins Colored Gynecology Unit, other doctors (Fletcher) remove tissue samples from her cervix and cancerous tissue from other organs.
Dr. Gey, a cancer researcher (Fletcher) is interested in the HeLa cells when he discovers they do not die immediately after being removed from the body, as other human cancer cells do. Not only do they stay alive, they multiply at an amazing rate, doubling every 24 hours. This is the “immortal life” of Henrietta Lacks. Her cells have been divided and sold and resold and have been important in medical science. According to Johns Hopkins,the cells have been “used to study the effects of toxins, drugs, hormones and viruses on the growth of cancer cells without experimenting on humans. They have been used to test the effects of radiation and poisons, to study the human genome, to learn more about how viruses work, and played a crucial role in the development of the polio vaccine.” Her cells were essential in medical advances such as cloning, gene mapping and in-vitro fertilization.
The previously unknown story of Henrietta Lacks and her amazing cancer cells became known because of journalist Rebecca Skloot’s 2010 best-selling book, The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Skloot spent 10 years researching and seeking out Lacks’ surviving family members. An HBO film based on Skloot’s book and directed by George C. Wolfe was released in 2017.
Jonathan L. Green directs HeLa with style and his staging makes good use of the Greenhouse’s main stage. The actors play multiple parts and their capable performances are marked by those of Hall, Haskins and Hamilton.
Yu Shibagaki is responsible for scenic design with costumes by Noel Huntzinger. Michael Huey handles sound design and composition. Simean “Sim” Carpenter is lighting designer and Brian Sprague is technical director.
HeLa, presented by Sideshow Theatre Company and Greenhouse Productions, continues at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln, through December 23. Performances are Thursday-Sunday. Buy tickets for $20-$35 ($15 for students, seniors, industry).
Tagged as: Ayah Sol Masai Hall, Greenhouse Theater Center, HeLa, Henrietta Lacks, J. NIcole Brooks, Jonathan L. Green, Matt Fletcher, Nicole Michelle Haskins, Rebecca Skloot, Sideshow Theatre
Review: With HEAVN HERE, Jamila Woods Heralds the New Black Renaissance
Review: Q Brothers Update Dickens With Rap, Rhymes and Plenty of Heart
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Calder Cup Recap, Week 2: On to the Next Round
Three wins down, 12 more to go on the journey to the Calder Cup. It may have taken an extra day to finish off the Comets, but now the Devils face the ultimate test…the Marlies await in Round 2.
Game 3, 4/26: Utica 2, Albany 1 (OT)
The series shifted nine exits west on the New York State Thruway on Tuesday, as Utica got their first chance to play on home ice in front of a sellout crowd. Albany would stick with their lineup, with a chance to put the series away with a sweep. But, the Comets were not about to go away quietly. Jordan Subban’s second goal of the series would come 12:36 into the opening period, putting the hosts ahead 1-0. That lead would not last for too long, however…less than 5 minutes later and just 16 seconds after starting a 4 on 3 power play, Mike Sislo would pick up his first goal of the postseason to tie it up at 1. After that, the goalies would take over…Scott Wedgewood and Joe Cannata would be tested quite a few times over the remainder of regulation. The Devils had plenty of chances to take the lead, including some extended power play time midway through the second period, but could not produce. The Comets also saw many shots either get caught by Wedgewood or go way off the mark. After 60 minutes, 48 combined shots, and a lot of pushing and shoving on each side, it was on to overtime to settle things. It was clear from the start that Utica was the better team in the extra frame, outshooting the Devils 7-3, and the seventh shot came off a turnover and a pass from Mike Zalewski to Alexandre Grenier, who would score the game winner 9:13 in to keep Utica alive in the series. Wedgewood had another excellent performance, stopping 28 of 30 (some of those thanks to some acrobatics) shots. Damon Severson picked up his fourth assist of the series, and Reid Boucher notched his fifth point with a helper.
The Lineup:
Matt Lorito-Joe Blandisi-Mike Sislo
Reid Boucher-Jim O’Brien-Brian O’Neill
Ryan Kujawinski-Pavel Zacha-Paul Thompson
Ben Thomson-Rod Pelley-Nick Lappin
Seth Helgeson/Vojtech Mozik
Dan Kelly/Damon Severson
Marc Andre Gragnani/Reece Scarlett
Scott Wedgewood/Yann Danis
Scratched: Brandon Burlon, Blake Coleman, Max Novak, Chris McKelvie, Blake Pietila, Graham Black, Raman Hrabarenka, Pierre-Luc Leblond, Josh Jacobs, Ryan Rehill, Colton White, Blake Speers
Power Play: 1 for 4. Penalty Kill: 3 for 3. Penalty Minutes: 12. Shots on Goal: 28. Shots Allowed: 30.
Thursday: Before Game 4, some roster trimming: Ryan Rehill, Colton White, and Blake Speers were all released from their amateur tryouts. Rehill was the only one of the three to see any game action, making his professional debut on April 13th against Binghamton.
Game 4, 4/28: Albany 6, Utica 3
It was back to the Aud on Thursday evening, as Albany made their second attempt to close out the Comets. After Tuesday’s loss featured a lot of chippy play on both sides, a little more grit and sandpaper was needed, and so a lineup change was made…Blake Pietila and Pierre-Luc Leblond were in, Paul Thompson and Ryan Kujawinski were out. The lines were also shaken up, with Pietila going on the top line and Matt Lorito and Nick Lappin moving to the third line. And the changes paid off quickly…Lorito and Joe Blandisi would score 13 seconds apart early in the first, and it was 2-0 Devils just 4:06 into the contest. Mike Sislo would add his second of the series 7 minutes later for a 3-0 lead. The rout continued into the second, as Reid Boucher scored his third goal just as the special teams killed off an extended penalty kill with 9:05 for a commanding 4-0 lead. But the Comets still had some life left in them, as Game 3 hero Alexandre Grenier would break up Scott Wedgewood’s shutout bid with 3:27 left in the period to cut the lead to 4-1. But a late shorthanded goal by Pietila would put the Devils ahead 5-1 entering the final period. With their proverbial backs against the wall, Utica tried to rally in the third, as Richard Bachman went in place of starter Joe Cannata, and goals by Alex Friesen and T.J. Hensick would cut the lead to 5-3 midway through the period. But an empty net goal by Pietila, his second of the game, with 2:17 remaining would be the final nail in the Comets coffin. Brian O’Neill had a chance to extend the lead to four after being awarded a penalty shot thirteen seconds later, but would be denied by Bachman. At the end of the day, it didn’t matter…Albany won their first ever playoff series, and it was the first time a New Jersey AHL affiliate would advance to the second round since the 1998 River Rats, who made it to the conference finals that season before being eliminated by eventual Calder Cup winner Philadelphia. Wedgewood had another outstanding game in net, stopping 32 of 35 shots. Pietila lead the way with four points, while four other Devils had assists. The penalty kill finished a perfect 14 for 14 over the four game series, while the power play finished 4 for 16.
Blake Pietila-Joe Blandisi-Mike Sislo
Nick Lappin-Pavel Zacha-Matt Lorito
Ben Thomson-Rod Pelley-Pierre-Luc Leblond
Damon Severson/Dan Kelly
Scratched: Brandon Burlon, Blake Coleman, Max Novak, Paul Thompson, Chris McKelvie, Graham Black, Ryan Kujawinski, Raman Hrabarenka, Corbin McPherson, Josh Jacobs
Postseason Stats (Team Leaders):
Goals: Reid Boucher (3)
Assists: Damon Severson (5)
Points: Reid Boucher (6)
+/-: Dan Kelly/Damon Severson (+4)
Penalty Minutes: 4 tied with 4
Wins: Scott Wedgewood (3)
GAA: Scott Wedgewood (1.93)
Save Percentage: Scott Wedgewood (.922)
Around the Calder Cup Playoffs:
The second round matchups are almost all set, except for the Atlantic Division final…Portland and Hershey will be the only first round series to go the distance, playing Game 5 this afternoon in Chocolatetown. The winner will take on Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, who have been idle since finishing off a sweep of Providence on April 23rd.
North Division Final: (N1) Toronto vs. (N2) Albany
Atlantic Division Final: (A1) Hershey/(A4) Portland vs. (A3) Wilkes-Barre/Scranton
Central Division Final: (C2) Lake Erie vs. (C4) Grand Rapids
Pacific Division Final: (P1) Ontario vs. (P2) San Diego
Up North with the Thunder:
Adirondack kicked off their second round series on Friday in South Carolina against the Stingrays, managing a split of the two game weekend matchups. On Friday night in Game 1, the Thunder picked up a 5-4 win as Ben Johnson and Greg Wolfe each had a goal and an assist, Joe Faust picked up an assist, and Ken Appleby stopped 23 of 27 Stingray shots. South Carolina would get a 1-0 shutout win in Game 2 on Saturday to even up the series, as Appleby only allowed a second period goal and saved 29 of 30. He is 5-2-0 so far this postseason, with a 1.96 GAA and a .934 save percentage. The series shifts to Glens Falls for the next three games: Game 3 on Tuesday, Game 4 on Thursday, and Game 5 on Saturday. If necessary, Game 6 is May 10th and Game 7 May 11th in South Carolina.
First up…here is the full second round schedule:
Wednesday: Game 1 @ Toronto, 7:30 PM
Friday: Game 2 @ Toronto, 7:30 PM
May 8th: Game 3 @ Albany, 5:00 PM
May 10th: Game 4 @ Albany, 7:00 PM
*May 12th: Game 5 @ Albany, 7:00 PM
*May 14th: Game 6 @ Toronto, 3:00 PM
As far as my coverage goes: I will be able to cover Games 1 & 2 at home. Due to work obligations, no Game 3 on Sunday. I will be at the arena for Game 4, hopefully for Game 5 if it is needed. Game 6 & 7 I will cover from home if it gets that far. The Round 2 pregamer will be out on Wednesday at noon, with the weekly recap next Sunday.
Author icepuddlePosted on May 1, 2016 May 1, 2016 Tags ECHL, Game Recap, Playoffs, Roster Moves
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Testing Gogo
Gogo’s Boeing 737 flight lab named Jimmy Ray (Photo: Ian Livingston)
Tuesday afternoon, at Newark Liberty International Airport, I boarded a plane, took off, watched Planet Earth live on Netflix for 90 minutes. I then landed at Newark Liberty International Airport—a few hundred feet from where I’d taken off.
I ended the day where I started it, and that was the point. So was the Netflix. On this day, Gogo, the world’s leading provider of in-flight wi-fi, was sampling what is says is its newest, fastest, most reliable wi-fi product yet for aviation and travel journalists. Aboard Gogo’s white-and-sky-blue 737—the Jimmy Ray “flight lab,” named for Gogo’s founder—I joined about 20 others in testing “the next generation of 2Ku” Wi-Fi.
NYC-based travel writer Ian Livingston penned this post about his EWR-EWR roundtrip
Takeaway: Gogo’s in-flight Wi-Fi, powered by new modems and Intelsat IS32E satellites, is about to get much, much better.
Gogo says that right now only one Aeromexico jet is flying with the newest next-gen 2Ku system that we sampled. However, the company has aggressive plans for installation and says that 1,600 planes will have it by the end of 2018. Currently, about 170 planes worldwide are flying with its first generation 2Ku system—and 100 of those are Delta’s. Planes that are already equipped with first-gen 2Ku will, at the end of this cycle, be retrofitted with the new modems to bring their wi-fi up to what will soon be the new standard.
On Tuesday’s flight, my “gogoinflight” signal floated between 35Mbs and 64Mbs—stronger than what I’m writing with at home (37Mbs). And that was gate to gate, through takeoff and landing, nearly without interruption. For reference, you need about 4Mbs to watch Netflix programming. For general browsing and email, which require only periodic requests to servers, you need much less than that. I streamed Planet Earth episodes and VICE YouTube videos at the same time, while using email, with no discernible issue.
According to Gogo, the Wi-Fi at 30,000 feet on this day peaked at a blistering 93Mbs, though I did not measure that myself. Uploads peaked at just 8Mbs, but for me averaged around 4Mbs. All this, despite 20-some journalists on 53 devices trying their hardest to consume bandwidth.
(Photo: Ian Livingston)
That said, my VPN (iVPN) brought my internet bacchanal to a temporary halt. I was told by CTO Anand Chari that initially the new 2Ku technology is not yet optimized for all VPNs (which carry server requests indirectly, via multiple stops) for reasons related to latency. My attempts to FaceTime were also largely unsuccessful, though a few flying beside me managed better. Ed Baig of USA Today even Facebook Live’d for a while.
American Airlines, which not long ago nearly took Gogo to court, has signed on for 2Ku installation on 140 planes. Among the other airlines that will soon offer up to 100Mbs wi-fi in the air are Aer Lingus, Air France, Air Canada, British Airways, GOL, Iberia, Japan Transoceanic Air, KLM, Virgin Atlantic, and Virgin Australia.
Pricing for now will remain the same, though Gogo expects to reevaluate as passengers familiarize themselves with the new tech. As I understand it, Gogo’s current price structure is designed to limit the number of passengers consuming bandwidth (cheap/free access would mean more people clogging it up). With much more bandwidth soon available, and passenger expectations of Gogo set to change, it remains possible that more passengers will price into Gogo’s user base.
Until then, know what airplane you’re flying on. Your Gogo dollars may already take you further than they used to.
Filed Under: Airlines, Technology Tagged With: 2Ku, Gogo, inflight, wi-fi
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TV ReviewsAmerican DadSeason 8
American Dad: “Love, AD Style”
Kevin McFarland
Don’t Trust The B---- In Apartment 23
American DadSeason 8
“Love, AD Style”
According to the A.V. Club Comedy Showrunners Week interview with American Dad co-creators Mike Barker and Matt Weitzman and writer Jordan Blum, the eighth season of the show started development in fall 2010, ending production around August 2011. So this batch of episodes sat on the shelf for at least an entire year before the premiere of “Love, AD Style” tonight. That’s an even longer layoff than FOX’s burgeoning Bob’s Burgers or ABC’s Don’t Trust the B—— In Apartment 23, both of which had their seasons cut short and held over into an artificially designated third and second season, respectively, both beginning this fall.
That time delay forces American Dad to be the anti-South Park, avoiding topical comedy entirely and instead shooting for evergreen, wacky character-based plotlines. And that approach is certainly true of this premiere, which divides times between a Roger/Hayley A-plot and a Stan B-plot with Steve, Francine, and Klaus supporting here and there as needed.
Roger decides to open up a crooner bar in the attic and hires Hayley to be his lounge singer—since she needs something to do while Jeff is off filming a season of Deadliest Catch (a show that requires far too much mental focus and physical fortitude for Jeff)—and promptly falls in love with her. Well, Roger doesn’t fall in love with Hayley as much as he becomes wildly and psychotically obsessed with her. After taking Steve’s advice and admitting his crush, Hayley rebuffs Roger’s advances, and he “freaks out” and shoots her in the stomach, which is where the episode moves into violence.
Elsewhere in that same interview, Weitzman and Barker noted that Roger can function as a different guest star every week, depending on what costume the writers need him to put on in each episode. That cuts out a lot of guest voice roles and instead relies upon voice acting chameleon Seth MacFarlane… okay that stretches the limits of credulity. MacFarlane clearly has fun busting loose with whatever scheme Roger cooks up every week to keep himself busy, and the crooner bar manager-turned-Kathy Bates in Misery romantic obsessive fits the character’s manic and angry tendencies. But to simply use Roger (and, by extension, MacFarlane’s performance) as the guest every episode is a double-edged sword. On one hand, it consistently builds more facets of Roger’s character, but it also limits the potential benefit of well-written side characters.
In the B-plot, Stan wants to buy a giant SUV, not-so-subtly dubbed the “Hummie COK Guzzler” because it uses carbon, oxygen, and potassium for fuel. (Francine suggests that the “Hummie” should consume more carbon, adding an extra “C” to its name. Okay, American Dad, you don’t have to gild the lily, everyone gets the penis joke.) To afford the car, Stan attempts to sell the old one for $15,000, what he thinks the car is worth, but the car dealership and other potential buyers only want to pay $10,000. Stan’s increasingly ridiculous gimmicks to try and sell the car—the best of which is the Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man that beats him up. But eventually he gets too bold, using a live lion and a girl in a bikini to drum up interest, which doesn’t end well at all.
I didn’t really stick with the episode as it turned down a violent path and just kept going, since it only rarely made me laugh. It seemed that once both plots hit a wall, the quick response was to use violence to overblow everything and then back away like Stan does after the car lights on fire and the bikini girl crawls out, followed by the lion, who eats her just before flames engulf the whole scene. That’s a mighty fine distraction, but it’s not really an ending, just a flash and a cut to black, which is also how the Roger/Hayley plot ends. Jeff returns to save his wife, Roger attempts one last disturbingly grotesque idea to get Hayley to reciprocate his feelings, and then he gives up his crush. That’s the show.
As a premiere, this is a reasonably successful reintroduction to the show, featuring one of the more violently disturbing moments I've ever seen in the entire run as Jeff lifts one bloody, skinned hand out of the tub. That went off the deep end, but there is enough material in the first two acts to laugh at to tip the scales to success.
Steve Smith is ripped. That’s a surprise.
“Everybody shoots everybody, it’s how we communicate in this family.”
Hayley's singing voice was actually great.
Okay the Red Man Group joke: Was it funny because Roger hired them or because it was on American Dad instead of Family Guy?
Recent from Kevin McFarland
American Dad: “The Longest Distance Relationship"
Grimm: “Blond Ambition"
Ratatat’s debut is a time capsule from a Brooklyn bedroom
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The Christian Scholar
reflections on surviving and thriving in Western secular higher education today
I’m new to this blog: where should I start?
Featured / The Christian Scholar / 6 Comments
If you’ve just stumbled across this blog and are wondering where to start, first of all “welcome”! Let us offer some pointers to what might be the most useful posts to get things going.
If you’re a Christian postdoc or postgrad feeling like you are sinking without trace in academia and wondering how you ever got yourself into this mess in the first place, then welcome brother or sister, one of the main reasons we started this blog was to do our best to help people just like you. You might want to check out How does being a Christian make a difference to the work and life of an academic?, and follow up with Sir Donald Hay on Being a Christian Academic before drawing comfort from a dose of Nicholas Wolterstorff on transforming your discipline: Be patient and don’t jump on bandwagons. You might also be interested in What does a “Christian approach” to my discipline even mean? and How can I justify spending so much of my life on academic research with all the problems in the world?
If you’re a Christian and on faculty or a postdoc or postgrad student and you’re not particularly struggling to keep your head above water as a Christian at the moment, you could start by heading over to Forming a Christian Mind: What to Read and How to Read It, and follow up with The Christian academic’s full body workout.
If you’re a Christian struggling to know how to share the good news about Jesus with very clever people who come at you with lots of arguments, you could have a look at What’s the stumbling block for our colleagues: untruth or ugliness? and follow up with A Pauline model for engaging with our disciplines and Cultural analysis and the category of idolatry. Also, keep your eye on the Pascal series.
If you’re into the devotional side of the Christian academic life, kick off with The Academic prayer life and then have a look at the series on prayers and prayer life, and top up with the series on academic temptations.
If you fancy getting your teeth stuck into some meaty reading to nourish your reflections on being a Christian in academia, grab yourself a copy of Pascal’s Pensées and read along as we blog our way through it.
If you’re not a Christian yourself but wonder what some people are doing writing about being a Christian in academia anyway, then feel free to look around. Check out the about this blog post. If you want to know what we believe, head over to Christianity Explored or pick up a copy of Mark Meynell’s Cross-Examined. If you want to know why we believe it, you could do worse than start with Tim Keller’s The Reason for God: Belief in an Age of Skepticism, Blaise Pascal’s Pensées or, if you are more the narrative type, Augustine’s Confessions.
Feel free to drop us an email at [thechristianscholar at gmail dot com], or for regular updates follow us on twitter: Follow @christianscholr
Should Christians live to work? The answer may surprise you
August 11, 2014 / The Christian Scholar / 1 Comment
Phillip Jensen, dean of St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney, Australia, is preaching a topical series on work at the moment, with some typically thought-provoking insights. One sermon in particular, on ‘Work-life balance’, grabbed my attention.
Should we seek a ‘work-life balance’?
Jensen helpfully interrogates the assumptions in the notion of “work-life balance”:
That work and life are contrasting ideas
That ‘life’ is to be equated with leisure
That ‘work’ is construed exclusively as paid employment
That the appropriate way to think of their relation to each other is in terms of a ‘balance’.
Work, he insists, is more than remunerated labour; it is any endeavor involving effort that is intended to achieve a determinate result. In terms of ‘balance’, Jensen offers instead the more biblical category of ‘zeal’: balance owes more to an Aristotelian mesotes that to a biblical outlook. Instead of opposing work to life, he argues that the former is more rightly understood in contradistinction to rest, and that both work and rest are part of life.
Live to work or work to live?
Like T im Keller in Every Good Endeavor, Jensen draws on the insights of Dorothy L Sayers. He specifically refers to Sayers to question the common wisdom that it is wrong to ‘live to work’ and that one should ‘work to live’. In her essay ‘Vocation in Work’, Sayers makes a contrast between ‘economic worker’ who work to make a living, and the artist who lives for her work, suggesting that the latter is closer to God’s original plan for work:
Let us for a moment consider a group of workers who have never – in spite of much incidental corruption – altogether abandoned the divine conception of what work ought to be. They are people whose way of life is, in essentials, so sharply distinguished from that of the ordinary worker that the designers of economic Utopias can find no place for them, and will scarcely allow them to be workers at all. Economic society has grown so far away from them that it views them with suspicion as mysterious aliens, does its best to push them out of control of practical affairs, and is usually contemptous and hostile at the very sound of their name. That these man and women have become, as it were, an enclosed community, cut off from the world, is bad for the world and bad for them. It is not that the working world does not see and hear plenty of them – as indeed it sees and hears and gossips about the animals in the Zoo; but always with the iron bars of misunderstanding set up between them. This odd, alien community is that of the men and women who live by and for the works of the creative imagination – the people whom we lump together under the general name of “artists”.
The great primary contrast between the artist and the ordinary worker is this: the worker works to make money, so that he may enjoy those things in life which are not his work and which his work can purchase for him; but the artist makes money by his work in order that he may go on working. The artist does not say: “I must work in order to live”; but “I must contrive to make money so that I may live to work.” For the artist there is no distinction between work and living. His work is his life, and the whole of his life – not merely the material world about him, or the colors and sounds and events that he perceives, but also all his own personality and emotions, the whole of his Life – is the actual material of his work.
Now of course there is the danger here of the sort of intellectual/manual division which Keller rightly rejects in Every Good Endeavor, and I dare say that Sayers leaves herself open to an uncharitable interpretation along those lines. But such a reading of ‘Vocation in Work’ is not grounded in her essay as a whole, in which she draws her idea of work not from intellectual as opposed to manual endeavour, but from the idea of ‘making’ which spans both domains:
Man is a maker, who makes things because he wants to, because he cannot fulfill his true nature if he is prevented from making things for the love of the job. He is made in the image of the Maker, and he must himself create or become something less than a man.
So for Sayers (and Jensen seems convinced by her reasoning), Christians should challenge the notion that we work simply as a means of keeping ourselves alive. Work can, for certain people and in certain seasons, be predominantly a means to an extrinsic end (Paul’s tent-making, for example), but nevertheless the Christian idea of what work ought to be is grander than mere provision for subsistence.
Sayers’ analysis of our tendency to restrict work to paid employment, to minimise the amount of work we do, and then find new ways of coping with the extra leisure time created, is prescient and worth quoting at length:
I think we can measure the distance we have fallen from the idea that work is a vocation to which we are ca lled, by the extent to which we have come to substitute the word “employment” for “work” We say we must solve the “problem of unemployment” – we reckon up how many “hands” are “employed”; our social statistics are seldom based upon the work itself – whether the right people are doing it, or whether the work is worth doing. We have come to set a strange value on leisure for its own sake – not the leisure which enables a man to get on properly with his job, but the leisure which is a polite word for idleness. The commodities which it is easiest to advertise and sell are those which purport to “take the work out” of everything – the tinned foods that need no cooking – the clothes that wash themselves – the switches and gadgets that save time and make leisure. Which would be grand if we eagerly needed that extra time and leisure in order to make and do things. Alas, the commodities easiest to sell after the the labor-saving gadgets are the inventions for saving us from the intolerable leisure we have produced, and for painlessly killing the time we have saved. The entertainment to which we can passively listen, the game we can watch without taking part in it, the occupation, however meaningless, which can relieve us from the trouble of thinking.
There is more to work than life
The final inversion of Jensen’s that I will mention in this post is in relation to the adage that ‘there is more to life than work’. In its place, he argues that, in fact, ‘there is more to work than life’, or that in other words work, in a Christian frame, is not to be understood as something of this world alone, but always in relation to eternity. While the whole of life may be considered work (understood not as paid employment but directed endeavor), the whole of work does not fit within the confines of this life.
Keeping Sabbath as an act of subversive resistance
Allied to this notion of there being more to work than life, Jensen touches briefly on the importance of taking Sabbath rest as a way to signal that the imperatives of productivity is not the only element in which Christians live, move and have their being. Building on Jensen’s observation, it is but a short step to construe Sabbath keeping as an act of passive resistance to a society some pockets of which (surely we would count academia as one of them) predispose those who work in them to a monochromatic appreciation of work that recognises only one limited value: produce more, faster, and more efficiently. To keep Sabbath is to subvert this single-value view of work; it is to join the Resistance, to join the chorus of those proclaiming that there is more to work than life.
I appreciate Jensen’s sermon above all for the way is causes us to return to commonplaces about the working life with fresh, more critical and more biblical eyes.
Let’s read Keller (8): Abraham Kuyper did not say “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of my personal devotions and churchgoing over which Christ does not cry: mine!”
July 20, 2014 / The Christian Scholar / Leave a comment
In Every Good Endeavor, Keller reminds his reader of the well-known line from Abraham Kuyper: “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of our human existence over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!” (Quote from Kuyper’s inaugural address at the dedication of the Free University. Found in Abraham Kuyper: A Centennial Reader, ed. James D. Bratt (Eerdmans, 1998), 488). I fear that, in its journey from my eyes to my heart, the quotation can be subtly re-written so as to read “There is not a square inch in the whole domain of my time of personal devotions and churchgoing over which Christ, who is Sovereign over all, does not cry: ‘Mine!… and frankly I like to keep a controlling interest in my churchgoing.”
Much more important than Kuyper’s choice of words, however, is the biblical truth towards which his inaugural address is pointing: You have never seen anything in your life that God did not create (Rev 4:11), and Christ is intimately involved in upholding in existence the very things that are in your field of vision at the moment (Heb 1:3). These same things, along with you who are looking at them, were made by and through Christ, and were made for one supreme reason: to belong to or to ‘be unto’ Christ (Col 1:16).[1]
Christ is the origin and the destiny of every object you have ever seen, every person you have ever heard or encountered, every idea you have ever contemplated.[2] Without his express immediate and personal sustaining this very instant, the objects you see in front of you right now would cease to exist before you could finish reading this sentence, and you would not outlast them. He is the past, the present and the future of every thing and every one you will ever touch, see, hear, smell or taste, and of many more that you will never know existed (Matthew 10:29). Furthermore, God’s plan for the whole universe, including you, is to bring it all under Christ’s rule (Ephesians 1:22).
If such is the omnipresent, intimate and personal interest of the risen Christ in both the fundamental maintenance and the ultimate destiny of every atom, every thought and every person in the institution in which you work, it is inconceivable that he would not have an interest in using his servants to bring about those same purposes in those same institutions. Not that Christ has to use us, any more than he had to use Joseph to accomplish his purposes of salvation. And not that we always know in fine detail what his plan to bring everything under Christ will look like in a given situation. We are not the heroes of the story riding in on white chargers to lend God a much-needed helping hand. Rather, we get to play a role in the unfolding of the biggest, best and most satisfying true story ever told: the story God’s plan for the creation, maintenance and destiny of our universe.
When I feel my heart wanting to restrict God’s authority over my work life, it is this truth more than anything else that I find helpful. Who would want to miss out being involved in the greatest story ever lived?
[1] Greek eis auton: ‘for’, ‘to’, ‘into’ or ‘unto’ him.
[2] Lest this be taken the wrong way, see my post on Keller’s reading of Paul’s apologetic method in 1 Corinthians 1: A Pauline model for engaging with our disciplines.
Let’s read Keller (7): Dick Lucas on being a person God uses
In Every Good Endeavor, Tim Keller helpfully reminds his readers that having a secular job doesn’t get us off the hook of being “used by God”:
Dick Lucas, an English Anglican preacher, once preached a sermon on the story of Joseph. […] He said that if you were to go to a book table at a church and see a biography with the title The Man God Uses or The Woman God Uses, you would immediately think it was the story of a missionary, teacher, church leader, or specialist in some sort of spiritual work. He points out that what you have in the story of Joseph is a highly successful secular official. Lucas says, “In the long term I think being a preacher, missionary, or leading a Bible study group in many ways is easier. There is a certain spiritual glamour in doing it, and what we should be doing each day is easier to discern more black and white, not so gray. It is often hard to get Christians to see that God is willing not just to use men and women in ministry, but in law, in medicine, in business, in the arts. This is the great shortfall today.
This reminder from the account of Joseph is both chastening and encouraging. It is encouraging for Christians who work in “secular” professions and want to make the most of their lives for God. It is chastening for Christians who think they can crank out their “secular” work no differently to anyone else and just worry about being a Christian on the weekends.
Let’s read Keller (6): Digging deeper into Tolkien’s ‘Leaf by Niggle’
In Every Good Endeavor Tim Keller draws on the wonderful Tolkien short story ‘Leaf by Niggle’ to make the point that our work, to be worthwhile, does not have to accomplish all we might hope for it in this life.
There is a tree
Niggle is an artist who works meticulously on a grand painting of a tree, only one leaf of which he completes in his lifetime. Towards the end of the story, Niggle is taken on a train to a heavenly unnamed place where, to his surprise, the tree he never had time to finish during his lifetime stands complete:
Before him stood the Tree, his Tree, finished. If you could say that of a Tree that was alive, its leaves opening, its branches growing and bending in the wind that Niggle had so often felt or guessed, and had so often failed to catch. He gazed at the Tree, and slowly he lifted his arms and opened them wide. “It’s a gift!” he said. He was referring to his art, and also to the result; but he was using the word quite literally. He went on looking at the Tree. All the leaves he had ever laboured at were there, as he had imagined them rather than as he had made them; and there were others that had only budded in his mind, and many that might have budded, if only he had had time.
The painting Niggle began on earth was not only unfinished but also imperfect, and yet here he sees the complete vision that he had only dimly apprehended before. Keller titles this section of his introduction ‘There really is a tree’, and glosses the Niggle story thus:
Once or twice in your life you may feel like you have finally “gotten a leaf out.” Whatever your work, you need to know this: There really is a tree. Whatever you are seeking in your work—the city of justice and peace, the world of brilliance and beauty, the story, the order, the healing—it is there. There is a God, there is a future healed world that he will bring about, and your work is showing it (in part) to others. Your work will be only partially successful, on your best days, in bringing that world about. But inevitably the whole tree that you seek—the beauty, harmony, justice, comfort, joy, and community—will come to fruition. If you know all this, you won’t be despondent because you can get only a leaf or two out in this life. You will work with satisfaction and joy. You will not be puffed up by success or devastated by setbacks.
The Parish principle: “distracting” acts of service are part of your masterpiece, not its enemy
What Keller doesn’t dwell on is that the story continues after Niggle’s encounter with his completed tree. Approaching a forest, the artist reflects that some of his most beautiful leaves “were seen to have been produced in collaboration with Mr. Parish: there was no other way of putting it.” I find this sentence almost more beautiful and inspiring than the encounter with the finished tree. Mr Parish is a neighbour of Niggle’s who seems to have been distracting and thwarting attempts to work on the painting through the good deeds that Niggle perpetually seems to be performing for him. Indeed, it is through Parish that Niggle catches a cold and dies leaving his painting barely begun. And yet here the finished tree bears the collaborative marks of Parish in “the most perfect examples of the Niggle style”.
The lesson of the Parish-Niggle collaboration for Christian academics is a powerful one. Our work requires long hours of (usually) solitary or socially restricted effort to produce its miserable little “leaf”. We might see family and church commitments, helping friends and loving enemies, as so many inconveniences thwarting our real mission: to bring forth the leaf. And, indeed, in this life it might seem at times very much as if these things are inconveniences and hindrances, thwarting our “true potential” and causing us to lose our productivity, our health or even our life. But as Tolkien brilliantly grasps, that is not the full picture. The fully realised vision of our dimly imagined work bears will have borne the marks of these relationships, these acts of kindness to others, right at the heart of our signature style. So who, or what, is your Parish? Thank God for them. It is a myopic perspective on work that sees them as a hindrance to the realisation of your leaf.
Tolkien has Parish join Niggle in the unnamed heavenly place. During their neighbourly life on earth Parish had dismissed the value of Niggle’s painting, but now in a beautiful reversal of roles it is Parish, not Niggle, who cannot tear his eyes away from the Tree:
As they worked together, it became plain that Niggle was now the better of the two at ordering his time and getting things done. Oddly enough, it was Niggle who became most absorbed in building and gardening, while Parish often wandered about looking at trees, and especially at the Tree.
Helping people to see your tree when all you have to show is virgin canvas and pots of paint
A little later on, Parish is confronted by one who “looked like a shepherd” and who explains that the land they are enjoying so much is Niggle’s Country. Niggle’s companion is dumbfounded:
“Niggle’s Picture!” said Parish in astonishment. “Did you think of all this, Niggle? I never knew you were so clever. Why didn’t you tell me?”
“He tried to tell you long ago,” said the man; “but you would not look. He had only got canvas and paint in those days, and you wanted to mend your roof with them. This is what you and your wife used to call Niggle’s Nonsense, or That Daubing.”
It would be easy (all too easy) to paint Parish as the Philistine who meets his comeuppance as Niggle is straightforwardly vindicated by the Shepherd’s intervention. But Tolkien is cannier than that, and Niggle acknowledges his part in Parish’s ignorance: ‘“I did not give you much chance,” said Niggle. “I never tried to explain. I used to call you Old Earth-grubber. But what does it matter?”‘. It matters a great deal. Niggle’s dismissive attitude toward Parish seems partly to blame for Parish’s philistinism.
So the question is posed to us: what are we doing, as Christian academics, to help the Parishes around us to glimpse our tree when all we have is the beginnings of a leaf, presuming, of course, that we ourselves have at least glimpsed the big picture of which our work is part? Tolkien writes ‘Leaf by Niggle’, I think, not only to inspire Niggles, but to help Parishes glimpse the wonder of what they may hitherto only have scorned. What stories are we telling about our work to show its place in a big picture as yet unpainted? What is your elevator pitch when someone outside academia asks you what you are working on? That thorniest of questions can be answered at any number of levels; why not choose the level that Tolkien privileges in ‘Leaf by Niggle’, the big picture level of the Tree, not the detailed intricacy of the single leaf? With all due humility and without lapsing into self-promotional claptrap, we academics have a role in helping those around us to see the big picture of what we are doing, so that they might not think our canvas and paint would be put to better use mending a leaking roof.
Councillor Tomkins
There is a little epilogue to ‘Leaf by Niggle’. The scene cuts to a conversation between Councillor Tomkins and Atkins. The Councillor, somewhat in the mould of the earthly Parish but with a larger dose of supercilious arrogance, is a sceptic about Niggle’s art and about the man himself:
“No practical or economic use,” said Tompkins. “I dare say he could have been made into a serviceable cog of some sort, if you schoolmasters knew your business. But you don’t, and so we get useless people of his sort. If I ran this country I should put him and his like to some job that they’re fit for, washing dishes in the communal kitchen or something, and I should see that they did it properly…”
A couple of paragraphs later on we learn that Atkins the schoolmaster takes Niggle’s one completed leaf and has it hung in the Town Museum, which burns down expunging all trace of Niggle’s work from this earth. Meanwhile, Parish and Niggle laugh until the mountains ring at the news that a corner of their new land is to be called “Niggle’s Parish”.
We cannot help contrasting the incinerated earthly leaf with the heavenly vision in which “the blossom on the Great Tree was shining like a flame”. Councillor Tomkins only has eyes for one flame: the fire that destroys, that brings to nothing Niggle’s painting. However, if he could bear to look into it intently enough he would see that it also burns away his own cherished notion of “practical or economic use”. The destroying flame brings all to naught, not just paintings. What Tomkins cannot see is the heavenly fire, the flame that shines, that dazzles and adorns. Tolkien shows us both, and as creatures of eternity in a fallen and largely unjust world we would do well to take account of both flames as we labour on yet another almost invisible detail of our laboriously constructed leaf.
Let’s read Keller (5): Are you known as a Christian at work through guilt, or through grace?
If doing the right thing can be hard, doing it for the right reason is often even harder. In this passage from Every Good Endeavor, Keller challenges not just our willingness to be known as a Christian in the workplace, but also the different possible motivations behind that willingness:
If you are merely inspired by an example—you want to be like Esther, or you want to be more like the people the Hispanic pastor said we needed—then your basic motivation is probably guilt. It could be guilt over selfishness, guilt over elitism, even guilt over ungratefulness. And those may be the right place to start! But if guilt is the extent of your motivation, you can be sure it will wear off before long because living in a new way will be hard.
Or, you might get inspired, but overreact. So often I have seen people who have previously kept secret about their faith and who overcompensate and become obnoxious. They decide to be an outspoken, principled person; they will not be like “those closeted Christians.” Yet they haven’t really left the palace because they are still getting their identity from their performance of a “better” kind of Christianity. They have not really changed; they are very self-righteously being more overt.
Esther was able to do what she did merely on the basis of a vague revelation that God is a god of grace. But now we know so much more! She didn’t know God was actually going to come to earth himself and do what she was doing on an infinitely greater scale, at an infinitely greater cost, with infinitely greater benefits to humanity. We now know so much more about his grace, our value to him, and our future. If you see what Jesus Christ has done for you, losing the ultimate palace for you, then you will be able to start to serve God and your neighbor from your place in the palace.
Let’s read Keller (4): no single principle or verse reflects a rounded biblical understanding of work
July 4, 2014 / The Christian Scholar / Leave a comment
In Every Good Endeavor, Tim Keller helpfully points out the shortcomings of viewing our work in terms of any single verse or principle. Our understanding of how our work fits into biblical categories and emphases must be multifaceted. In the passage quoted below, Keller highlights some sound principles for thinking about our work form a Christian point of view, and then discusses how to make use of them wisely:
So if you are a Christian who is trying to be faithful in your work, you might find yourself trying to weigh sentiments as varied as these: • The way to serve God at work is to further social justice in the world. • The way to serve God at work is to be personally honest and evangelize your colleagues. • The way to serve God at work is just to do skilful, excellent work. • The way to serve God at work is to create beauty. • The way to serve God at work is to work from a Christian motivation to glorify God, seeking to engage and influence culture to that end. • The way to serve God at work is to work with a grateful, joyful, gospel- changed heart through all the ups and downs. • The way to serve God at work is to do whatever gives you the greatest joy and passion. • The way to serve God at work is to make as much money as you can, so that you can be as generous as you can.
To what extent are these sentiments complementary or actually opposed to one another? That is a difficult question, for there is at least a measure of biblical warrant for every one of them. And the difficulty lies not merely in the plethora of theological commitments and cultural factors involved, but also in how they operate in different ways depending on the field or type of work. Christian ethics, motives, identity, witness, and worldview shape our work in very different ways depending on the form of the work. […] if you keep the propositions the way they are, claiming that each is a way to serve God through work, then the different statements are ultimately complementary .
In other words, no single verse or principle offers a mirror that can reflect a global and well-rounded biblical understanding of work, but together they provide a map of different locations and coordinates, and the map as a whole allows us to navigate our way wisely through the world of work.
Let’s read Keller (3): The curse of working for self-fulfilment
July 2, 2014 July 2, 2014 / The Christian Scholar / Leave a comment
thinking of work mainly as a means of self-fulfillment and self-realization slowly crushes a person and—as Bellah and many others have pointed out—undermines society itself. (Keller, Every Good Endeavor 19).
Let’s read Keller (2): the meanings behind ‘job’, ‘vocation’, ‘career’, ‘profession’
June 30, 2014 / The Christian Scholar / Leave a comment
Tim Keller frames Every Good Endeavor in terms of the goal of recapturing the idea of vocation, entitling the introduction ‘The importance of recovering vocation’. He understands the notion in contradistinction to the “expressive individualism” that Robert Bellah identifies at the heart of American life in his classic Habits of the Heart (see here for a lecture by Bellah condensing some of the book’s main themes). Here is Keller’s summary of the term:
The Latin word vocare—to call—is at the root of our common word “vocation.” Today the word often means simply a job, but that was not the original sense. A job is a vocation only if someone else calls you to do it and you do it for them rather than for yourself. And so our work can be a calling only if it is reimagined as a mission of service to something beyond merely our own interests.
This summary made me curious to search out the etymology of other words we use to describe the work we do: ‘job’, ‘occupation’, ‘career’, ‘employment’, ‘profession’, ‘position’, ‘trade’, ‘livelihood’ and ‘work’ itself. What do these words say about the way we conceptualise work and the meaning with which we invest it? Armed with the trusty OED (surely one of my desert island books!), here are my findings. For each word below I begin with my summary of where I think the focus of the term lies, and then I paste selected fruits of my OED research (I found the etymology of ‘career’ particularly interesting).
JOB, n. Focus: the discrete task or ‘thing to be done’
1. a. A piece of work; esp. a small and discrete piece of work done as part of one’s regular occupation or profession.
2. a. An isolated or casual piece of work, undertaken for a one-off payment or on a hire basis. Hence also (depreciative): a task or transaction performed perfunctorily or opportunistically for profit.
4. a. A task, a thing to be done; an operation, a procedure; a function to be fulfilled.
Etymology: Origin uncertain. The fact that the word is earliest attested in the phrase job of work at Phrases 1 (see quot.1557-8 at sense 1a) suggests that ‘work’ may not originally have been part of the core meaning of the word. If the sense was originally ‘piece’, then the word may be a spec. use of JOB n.3 (A cartload; the amount that a horse and cart can bring at one time)
OCCUPATION, n. Focus: that which takes up our time.
II. 4. b. A particular action or course of action in which a person is engaged, esp. habitually; a particular job or profession; a particular pursuit or activity.
c1390 CHAUCER Melibeus 2781 He that..casteth hym to no bisynesse ne occupacion.
?1577 G. BUCHANAN Let. in Vernac. Writings (1892) 58 As to my occupation at thys present tyme, I am besy with our story of Scotland.
a1616 SHAKESPEARE Othello (1622) III. iii. 362 Farewell, Othello’s Occupation’s gone.
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman occupacion, occupacioun, occupaciun, ocupacioun and Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French occupation activity, employment (c1175)
EMPLOYMENT, n. Focus: takes the worker as the object, framing him/her as the passive recipient of work granted by an employer. The person who is ‘employed’ is ‘applied’ or ‘put to work’. It could almost stand as a secular equivalent of ‘vocation’.
2. An activity in which a person engages; a pursuit. Also as a mass noun: activity, occupation. Now rare (somewhat arch.).
4. a. The action or fact of using or employing a person to perform a task, carry out a service, etc. In later use chiefly: the hiring of a person to undertake paid work, esp. in return for wages or a salary under an employment contract. Also: an instance of this.
b. The state or condition of being so employed; the state of working for an employer, esp. in return for wages. Chiefly in in (also into, out of) employment.
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman imploier, Anglo-Norman and Middle French emploier, Middle Frenchemployer (French employer ) to use or apply (for a purpose), to put to work (c1100 in Old French), to engage (someone) in an occupation (12th cent.), to occupy (time) with an activity (c1220), to allocate, assign (14th cent.), to bestow (a gift, etc.)
CAREER, n. Focus: The focus here is on intensity, competitiveness and advancement. A term originally applied to animals.
Etymology: < French carrière racecourse; also career, in various senses; = Italian carriera, Provençal carriera, Spanish carrera road, carrer < late Latin carrāria (via) carriage-road, road, <carrus wagon.
1. a. The ground on which a race is run, a racecourse; (also) the space within the barrier at a tournament.
2. a. Of a horse: A short gallop at full speed (often in phr. to pass a career ). Also a charge, encounter (at a tournament or in battle).Obs.
3. a. By extension: A running, course (usually implying swift motion); formerly [like French carrière] applied spec. to the course of the sun or a star through the heavens. Also abstr. Full speed, impetus: chiefly in phrases like in full career, †to take, give (oneself or some thing) career , etc., which were originally terms of horsemanship (see 2).
5. b. In modern language (after French carrière) freq. used for: A course of professional life or employment, which affords opportunity for progress or advancement in the world. Freq. attrib. (orig. U.S.), esp. (a) designating one who works permanently in the diplomatic service or other profession, opp. one who enters it at a high level from elsewhere; (b) career girl, career woman, etc., one who works permanently in a profession, opp. one who ceases full-time work on marrying. Also, careers master n. a schoolteacher who advises and helps pupils in choosing careers., career mistress n. = careers master n.
1927 Lit. Digest 25 June 14/2 The foundation of any sound Foreign Service must consist of ‘career men’ who have become expert.
1931 F. J. STIMSON My United States xviii. 190 The career professors look somewhat askance at one who comes in from the outside world—just as career secretaries in diplomacy do upon a chief who has not gone through all the grades.
PROFESSION, n. Focus: work in which some body of knowledge or field is mastered and then declared or expressed.
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman professioun, Anglo-Norman and Old French, Middle French profession (French profession ) declaration of faith (1155 as professiun ), vows taken when entering a religious order (c1174), condition, occupation (1362 as prophecie ; 1404 as prophecion ; a1417 asprofession ; 1495 as profection ), action of teaching publicly, professorship (1596) and its etymon classical Latin professiōn-, professiō open declaration, avowal, public declaration of one’s person and property, public register of people and property, vocation or occupation that one publicly avows
1. b. Any solemn declaration, promise, or vow.
4. a. The declaration of belief in and obedience to religion, or of acceptance of and conformity to the faith and principles of any religious community; (hence) the faith or religion which a person professes.
II. Senses relating to professional occupation. 7. a. An occupation in which a professed knowledge of some subject, field, or science is applied; a vocation or career, especially one that involves prolonged training and a formal qualification. Also occas. as mass noun: occupations of this kind. In early use applied spec. to the professions of law, the Church, and medicine, and sometimes extended also to the military profession.
1605 BACON Of Aduancem. Learning II. sig. Aa3, Amongst so many great Foundations of Colledges in Europe, I finde strange that they are all dedicated to Professions, and none left free to Artes and Sciences at large.
1711 J. ADDISON Spectator No. 21. ¶1 The three great Professions of Divinity, Law, and Physick.
4. b. More widely: any occupation by which a person regularly earns a living.N.E.D. (1908) notes: ‘Now usually applied to an occupation considered to be socially superior to a trade or handicraft; but formerly, and still in vulgar (or humorous) use, including these.’
POSITION, n. Focus: place within a predetermined constellation; connotation of comparison to others.
Etymology: < Anglo-Norman posicion, posicioun and Middle French posicion, position, Frenchposition situation, site (late 13th cent. in Old French), thesis, assertion, statement (late 13th cent., earliest in a legal context; now spec. ‘tenet, point of doctrine’ (late 14th cent. or earlier in this sense; rare before 1690)), act of laying down (early 14th cent. or earlier in Anglo-Norman in a legal context)
3. d. The particular location allocated to an employee, esp. the place occupied by each cashier along a service counter.
1937 Times 25 Oct. 21/1 Our operators on the great 24-position switchboard deal with an average of 45,000 calls per day.
8. a. fig. A relation in which a person stands with respect to another or others; a person’s circumstances, condition, or situation, esp. as affecting his or her influence, role, or power to act; spec. (freq. insocial position) status, rank, standing.
8. b. In a contest or competitive event: the place or standing of a contestant or competitor in relation to the others. In a specified category, field, etc.: the status or rank of any of those included in relation to the others.
c. A post as an employee; a paid office, a job.
1846 DICKENS Dombey & Son (1848) i. 4 Mr. Pilkins here, who from his position of medical adviser in this family—no one better qualified to fill that position, I am sure.
TRADE, n. Focus: habitual work. The track, course or way of work taken by an individual.
Etymology: < Middle Low German trade (trâ ) feminine, track (Schiller & Lubben), Low German trade (traan < traden ) track (Bremisch. Wbch.); also West Flemish tra ( < trade ) walk, march, course (De Bo), < Old Saxon trada strong feminine, footstep, track = Old High German trata , Middle High German trate , trat strong feminine, footstep, trace, track, way, passage, < West Germanic ablaut-series tred- , trad- to TREAD v. Apparently introduced into English in 14th cent. from Hanseatic Middle Low German, perhaps originally in nautical language for the ‘course or track’ of a ship; afterwards used in other senses of Middle English trede TREAD n.
1. a. A course, way, path; (with possessive or of) the course trodden by a person, followed by a ship, etc.; = TREAD n. 3 common trade, a public thoroughfare. Obs.
5. a. The practice of some occupation, business, or profession habitually carried on, esp. when practised as a means of livelihood or gain; a calling; formerly used very widely, including professions; now usually applied to a mercantile occupation and to a skilled handicraft, as distinct from a profession (PROFESSION n. 7a), and spec. restricted to a skilled handicraft, as distinguished from a professional or mercantile occupation on the one hand, and from unskilled labour on the other.in trade, following a mercantile occupation, spec. that of a shop-keeper. In earliest use not clearly distinguishable from 3; the sense is developed by contextual additions, as trade (i.e. practice) of husbandry , trade of merchandise, trade of fishing, etc.
1601 Act 43 Eliz. c. 2 §1 For settinge to worke all such persons..[who] use no ordinarie or dailie trade of lief to get their livinge by.
a1616 SHAKESPEARE Julius Caesar (1623) I. i. 12 Mur. But what Trade art thou? Answer me directly… Fla. Thou art a Cobler, art thou?
LIVELIHOOD, n. Focus: Means to the end of living.
Etymology: < LIFE n. + Old English lād course, journey, way, maintenance, support (see LOAD n., LODEn.). Compare Old High German lībleita food, provisions, means of living. The β. forms show remodelling of the ending by association with nouns in -HOOD suffix, and probably also subsequent remodelling by association with LIVELY adj
1. The course of a person’s life, lifetime; kind or manner of life; conduct. Obs.
2. a. A (person’s) means of living. Also as a mass noun: means of living; maintenance, sustenance. Esp. in to earn (also gain, get, make,or seek) a livelihood .
c1300 St. Mary of Egypt (Laud) l. 18 in C. Horstmann Early S.-Eng. Legendary (1887) 261 (MED), With spinningue and with seuwingue, hire liflode heo wan.
1711 J. ADDISON Spectator No. 94. ¶8 He set himself to think on proper Methods for getting a Livelihood in this strange Country.
b. (A person’s) physical sustenance; an instance of this. Also: food, provisions.
a1382 Bible (Wycliffite, E.V.) (Bodl. 959) (1961) Deut. ii. 28 Liflodys by prise sul to vs þat we etyn.
WORK, n. Focus: The most general of all the terms considered here. Implies effort, and can be used of human or nonhuman actors.
Etymology: Old English weorc = Old Frisian, Old Saxon, (Middle) Low German, (Middle) Dutch werk, Old High German werah , werc (Middle High German werch , werc , German werk ), Old Norse verk(Swedish, Danish verk ) < Old Germanic *werkom (see WORK v.); cognate are Greek ἔργον , Armeniangorc , Avestan varəza- activity.
I. 1. a. Something that is or was done; what a person does or did; an act, deed, proceeding, business; in pl. actions, doings (often collectively =3). arch. or literary in gen. sense.
1. c. Qualified by phr. with of expressing the moral quality of the action, as a work or works of charity, of darkness, of mercy , etc.
2. a. Something to be done, or something to do; what a person (or thing) has or had to do; occupation, employment, business, task, function.
1598 SHAKESPEARE Henry IV, Pt. 1 II. iv. 105 Fie vpon this quiet life, I want worke.
1604 SHAKESPEARE Hamlet V. ii. 274 The point inuenom’d to, then venome to thy worke.
4. a. Action involving effort or exertion directed to a definite end, esp. as a means of gaining one’s livelihood; labour, toil; (one’s) regular occupation or employment.
8. Physics and Mech. The operation of a force in producing movement or other physical change, esp. as a definitely measurable quantity: see quots.
1832 W. WHEWELL First Princ. Mech. iv. 52 The work done does not depend on the pressure alone.
1832 W. WHEWELL First Princ. Mech. iv. 53 The work done by a machine may be represented as certain pressures exerted through certain spaces.
My aim in offering these etymological reflections is not to draw any trite conclusions about which of these terms Christians should and should not use. I see the aim of this post more as a consciousness-raising exercise, both for myself and for readers of this blog: there are many different ways of considering our work (in terms of our position in a hierarchy, the effort involved, the body of knowledge we deploy, the fact of being given work by someone else, work as a means to the end of living…) and no doubt each term is appropriate in particular contexts. Nevertheless, I am struck by how all the terms apart from ‘vocation’ situate work on a predominantly horizontal level, focusing on our relation to other people and to the product of our labour, but not to God. For this reason, I am minded to echo Keller’s call to recover the concept of ‘vocation’ today. It reminds us of the origin, the goal, the standard and the authority of our work.
Let’s read Keller (1): Success at work, your relational net worth and speculating on the kindness market
June 29, 2014 June 29, 2014 / The Christian Scholar / Leave a comment
Over the coming weeks I will be blogging my way through Tim Keller’s Every Good Endeavor, with a particular eye out for insights that can be of help to Christian academics.
To get the ball rolling, here is a reflection on the book’s Foreword, by Katherine Leary Alsdorf, the Founder & Executive Director of Redeemer’s Center for Faith & Work, who describes the book in this clip:
In the foreword Alsdorf relates her experience of founding an internet company that was swallowed up in the great dot come bust of the late 1990s. She describes the reaction of her co-workers to hearing that the company would have to fold in this way:
The staff, entirely on their own, made a plan to come in the following day—for no pay—to celebrate one another and the work they had done. Though the celebration was bittersweet, they brought in musical instruments to play for one another or demonstrated the tai chi they taught in the evenings, and they laughed about fun times together. I was amazed. They were honoring a culture, an organization, in which they’d found some joy in their work and in their relationships with one another—despite the end result. Eventually I came to see that day as a glimpse of God at work, doing what God does: healing and renewing and redeeming.
The experience causes Alsdorf to reflect on the definition of failure, and it reminded me that there are always at least two dimensions to any job: what is being achieved and the relational context within which it is achieved. The “what” of Aldsorf’s company ultimately failed, but it’s relational context was a success. Sometimes, the tables are turned: the “what” can be achieved at the cost of the relational context: I get done what is necessary to succeed, but I leave an ugly trail of relational exploitation, broken promises and resentment in my wake.
If Blaise Pascal were writing the preface to Every Good Endeavor, he might have framed the distinction in terms of the chase and the catch, suggesting that what often matters most to us is the journey rather than the destination, the relational context rather than the ultimate ‘success’ or ‘failure’ of the enterprise. The weight of biblical material related to work would point us in the same direction: God is more concerned with how we work than with what we do, and with how we treat people than whether we are ‘successful’ in stock market terms.
For Christian academics, we must ask ourselves how we measure success in our own careers: by where we end up on the pecking order, or by how we treat people along the way?
The language we use is powerful in shaping the way we think, so let’s try some new concepts on for size, framing biblical values in the sort of language that is common in many workplaces:
When was the last time you thought in terms of your ‘relational wealth’, or ‘relational net worth’?
Have you ever been excited by the thought of innovating in obedience or making a strategic investment in holiness?
Have you ever speculated on the kindness market or diversified into Christ-like service?
Let’s read Pascal (34): “All people seek happiness” as a principle in apologetics and cultural engagement
Pascal, Aristotle and Augustine agree on two points: 1) all people seek happiness; 2) the means of seeking happiness are radically diverse.
All men seek happiness. This is without exception. Whatever different means they employ, they all tend to this end. The cause of some going to war, and of others avoiding it, is the same desire in both, attended with different views. The will never takes the least step but to this object. This is the motive of every action of every man, even of those who hang themselves. (Pascal, Pensées 425)
Let us resume our inquiry and state, in view of the fact that all knowledge and every pursuit aims at some good, what it is that we say political science aims at and what is the highest of all goods achievable by action. Verbally there is very general agreement; for both the general run of men and people of superior refinement say that it is happiness, and identify living well and doing well with being happy; but with regard to what happiness is they differ, and the many do not give the same account as the wise. (Aristotle, Nicomachean Ethics I.4)
In the following passage from the Confessions, Augustine introduces a distinction between what we might call the subjective experience of seeking happiness and the objective truth of what is sought. Some people, in thinking they seek happiness, are in fact actively fleeing that which alone can give them the happiness they think they pursue:
It is not, then, certain that all men wish to be happy, since those who wish not to rejoice in You, which is the only happy life, do not verily desire the happy life. Or do all desire this, but because the flesh lusts against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh, so that they cannot do the things that they would, they fall upon that which they are able to do, and with that are content; because that which they are not able to do, they do not so will as to make them able? For I ask of every man, whether he would rather rejoice in truth or in falsehood. They will no more hesitate to say, in truth, than to say, that they wish to be happy. For a happy life is joy in the truth. For this is joy in You, who art the truth, O God, my light, the health of my countenance, and my God. All wish for this happy life; this life do all wish for, which is the only happy one; joy in the truth do all wish for. I have had experience of many who wished to deceive, but not one who wished to be deceived. Where, then, did they know this happy life, save where they knew also the truth? For they love it, too, since they would not be deceived. And when they love a happy life, which is naught else but joy in the truth, assuredly they love also the truth; which yet they would not love were there not some knowledge of it in the memory. Wherefore, then, do they not rejoice in it? Why are they not happy? Because they are more entirely occupied with other things which rather make them miserable, than that which would make them happy, which they remember so little of. For there is yet a little light in men; let them walk— let them walk, that the darkness seize them not. (Augustine, Confessions X.22.33)
Now of course Aristotle’s eudaimonia, Augustine’s beatus esse and Pascals “être heureux” do not describe identical notions, but that is precisely the point: there is no consensus about what true happiness is.
I offer five reflections on these quotations:
1) The tension that arises from humanity sharing a common goal yet employing radically diverse approaches to reaching it captures well the Christian condition of being “resident aliens” in our contemporary culture or “elect exiles” as the ESV of 1 Peter 1:1 has it. We are not utterly alienated form our culture (because we share the goal of seeking happiness) but we cannot feel completely at home in it (because we differ profoundly on the means of achieving that goal).
2) It is hard to overestimate the extent to which understandings of happiness can be radically divergent. Just because everyone seeks happiness, it doesn’t follow that we all recognise each other as being engaged in the same search that we are, as these reflections from Pascal illustrate:
And since man has lost the true good, everything can appear equally good to him, even his own destruction, though so opposed to God, to reason, and to the whole course of nature. (425)
True nature being lost, everything becomes its own nature; as the true good being lost, everything becomes its own true good. (426)
In seeking happiness the human race is united; in its understanding of the happiness it seeks, it is radically divided.
3) It is a good general principle, when engaging with ideologies, ideas or people with whom we disagree, to begin with the assumption that they are seeking happiness and, then to try to understand what happiness is being sought and how it is being pursued. Very rarely will a position make no sense to the person who holds it; if it doesn’t make sense to us it may well be that we haven’t understood what notion of happiness underlies it. This is a particularly valuable principle for Christian academics working in secular disciplines, when the assumptions under-girding those disciplines can be radically at odds with biblical truth: audi alteram partem. It is also a helpful principle in addressing personal conflict at the workplace, among friends or in family contexts. Those who disagree with us often have reasons that make perfect sense once we understand what happiness they are seeking and how they are seeking it, and until we comprehend and engage on that fundamental level, our attempts to scratch the surface of their position will most likely only cause irritation and entrenched opposition.
4) The common acknowledgment that all people seek happiness provides the sort of Anknüpfungspunkt (point of contact) that Paul discerns in 1 Corinthians 1, and offers a wonderful opening for apologetic conversations in our contemporary culture in which, as Aristotle somewhat awkwardly puts it, “both the general run of men and people of superior refinement” say that happiness is to be sought. If Jews demand miraculous signs and Greeks seek wisdom, what does our society demand and yearn for? There could no doubt be many responses, but I think that “happiness” would be high on any list. To put this in terms of Tim Keller’s fourfold schema drawn from 1 Corinthians 1:
You seek happiness
But it is not to be found in the way you are seeking it now
Happiness is to be found only in Christ
Here is how you can find it in him
5) Something in Aristotle’s formulation caught my eye: “both the general run of men and people of superior refinement say that it is happiness” we seek. That is not the same as saying that all people seek happiness. It is one thing to acknowledge that all seek happiness; it is quite another actively to seek it (just as it is one thing to say one believes in Christ, and quite another to live a life in step with that profession). So perhaps part of the way we might engage with non-Christian positions within the academy, and part of our apologetic strategy more broadly, can be to challenge the disconnect between people’s profession of seeking happiness and their actions. And of course, the challenge is also thrown out to Christians: how great a chasm is there between the happiness in God we may claim to pursue, and the actions of our daily lives?
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Joshua Tree 1994
Wellman Santee (Dolph Lundgren) a former race car driver, whose livelihood is transporting exotic stolen super cars, is involved, with his partner Eddie, in shoot out, resulting in the deaths of his friend and a highway cop. Santee is framed for the cop's murder and jailed in a maximum security prison. A few months later, Santee breaks out after narrowly escaping an attempt on his life. He reaches a local diner where he steals a car, abducts the owner, Rita and flees, completely unaware that his hostage is a deputy sheriff. A massive manhunt ensues, spearheaded by Lt. Severance a tough, obessive cop. Santee leads the detective and his men on a dramatic high speed chase, from the desert wilderness to the streets of downtown Los Angeles. Santee's out to clear his name and when it comes to getting even, he's taking revenge into overdrive.
Action | Thriller | Adventure
The Tree of Life 2011
The impressionistic story of a Texas family in the 1950s. The film follows the life journey of the eldest son, Jack, through the innocence of childhood to his disillusioned adult years as he tries to reconcile a complicated relationship with his father. Jack finds himself a lost soul in the modern world, seeking answers to the origins and meaning of life while questioning the existence of faith.
Drama | Fantasy
The Tree 2010
The O'Neills lived happily in their house in the Australian countryside. That was until one day fate struck blindly, taking the life of Peter, the father, leaving his grief-stricken wife Dawn alone with their four children. Among them, eight-year-old Simone denies this reality. She is persuaded that her father still lives in the giant fig tree growing near their house and speaks to her through its leaves. But the tree becomes more and more invasive and threatens the house. It must be felled. Of course, Simone won't allow it.
Pluto's Christmas Tree 1952
Pluto comes bounding outside to help Mickey get a Christmas tree. Chip 'n Dale see him and make fun of him, but the tree they take refuge in is the one Mickey chops down. They like the decorations, especially the candy canes and Mickey's bowl of mixed nuts. But Pluto spots them and goes after them long before Mickey spots them. Minnie, Donald, and Goofy drop by to sing carols.
Animation | Comedy | Family
The Family Tree 2011
A mother and wife stricken with memory loss allows a dysfunctional family a second chance at harmony and happiness.
Lemon Tree Passage 2014
An Australian urban legend comes screaming on the Ozploitation scene. It’s said that if you drive down the creepy road of Lemon Tree Passage, and witness a sudden flash of light in the trees, you'll be forever haunted by the tormented spirit of a man killed by thrill speeding teenagers. Wanting to put this old wives’ tale to the test, a car-load of non-believers take the supposedly cursed journey and do indeed see a strange manifestation. But it’s not the one of popular myth - this sudden possession of one of their number involves another altogether more shocking crime. That of a young girl raped and murdered on the same stretch of highway. As one urban legend trumps another, the scared passengers must sort out the facts of both cases before vengeful justice from beyond the grave can be meted out with moody atmosphere, ghostly thrills and supernatural suspense.
The Hanging Tree 1959
Character study of a Doctor who saves a local criminal from a mob who are trying to hang him, but then tries to control the life of the young man, realising that he can exploit his secret.
Under The Greenwood Tree 2005
Set in a rustic English village in the mid 19th century, Under The Greenwood Tree tells the story of a poor young man who falls for a middle-class schoolteacher and attempts to win her over.
Cherry Tree 2015
Faith’s world is turned upside down after she finds out that her beloved father is dying. When the mysteriously alluring Sissy Young becomes her field hockey coach, Faith finds a compassionate spirit and much-needed mother figure. Little does she know that Sissy is the head of a centuries-old witches’ coven that uses the fruit of an ancient cherry tree in a secret ritual that restores life to the dead and dying. Offering to cure her father in exchange for a child, Sissy strikes a bargain with Faith, who suddenly finds herself pregnant with a baby that’s growing at an alarming rate. But with the clock to the child’s birth ticking down and the true intention of Sissy’s plans for humanity becoming more apparent, Faith and her father must stand together in order to save both their lives.
The Body Tree 2017
A group of Americans travel to Siberia where a friend died stabbed. Soon, they will discover their hosts are involved in the occult.
Thriller | Horror
Cherry Tree Lane 2010
Prosperous professional couple Mike and Christine are settling in for a standard evening of wine, TV and low-level marital hostility when a ring on their doorbell changes everything. Turns out their son Sebastian is in a little trouble with some local boys, who are quite prepared to camp out and wait for him to get home ... the resulting culture-clash chamber drama is raw, revealing and nerve-splittingly tense.
Crime | Thriller
Tree of Knowledge 1981
As a group of Danish children pass into adolescence, gradually the most popular girl becomes an outcast, for trivial reasons that she never understands.
Plastic Tree 2003
A couple live a peaceful existence in a small seaside town. Their relationship is set to implode when the husband's childhood friend stays at their home.
Romance | Drama | Horror
A family finds itself in a dead-end situation. They are only safe behind the walls of their own house and yard. As time vanishes from their home, the shelter slowly turns into a prison. However, nothing can keep the children from dreaming and yearning to be free and the urge to make a decision seems inevitable.
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn 1945
In Brooklyn circa 1900, the Nolans manage to enjoy life on pennies despite great poverty and Papa's alcoholism. We come to know these people well through big and little troubles: Aunt Sissy's scandalous succession of "husbands"; the removal of the one tree visible from their tenement; and young Francie's desire to transfer to a better school...if irresponsible Papa can get his act together.
Devil's Tree: Rooted Evil 2018
Inspired by true events, The Devils Tree follows Samantha, a college student studying journalism, who needs to finish her thesis with one last breaking news story. Along with her friend Rob, Samantha stumbles across a news article about an old tree in a local park where many horrible acts occurred. The locals have given the tree the name Devils Tree because of its urban legends of mass murders, satanic rituals, and paranormal activity. She decides this is the perfect story to finish her thesis on. As Sam digs deeper into the realm of the tree, she begins to uncover the truth about these urban legends. Struggling with her own demons of her past, Samantha is confronted with a the true demon of the tree and now must expose the truth in hopes to set it free. In the end, Samantha founds the real reason why evil is so rooted at The Devils Tree.
My Tree 2011
Hello, my name is Marie and I am ten years old. And let me tell you I am not always comfortable in my skin, particularly at Christmas time when I get torn between household and household. Oh, I almost forgot to tell you: I have two fathers, two mothers, a stepfather, a stepmother and I know not how many (half-)brothers and sisters and other relatives (or not!). How can that be? Well my mother is gay and has a new companion. My father is also homosexual and he too has a new mate and..., Oh leave me alone, I just can't work it out! And how did I come into this word? Who gave me life? Am I not, like the other Mary, after Whom I am named, the fruit of the Immaculate Conception...???
The Wicker Tree 2011
Director Robin Hardy's reimagining of his eerie 1973 film, The Wicker Man. Young Christians Beth and Steve, a gospel singer and her cowboy boyfriend, leave Texas to preach door-to-door in Scotland. When, after initial abuse, they are welcomed with joy and elation to Tressock, the border fiefdom of Sir Lachlan Morrison, they assume their hosts simply want to hear more about Jesus. How innocent and wrong they are.
Mystery | Horror | Thriller
Inspired by an actual friendship between the director's mother and his mother's best friend, 'The Tree' is a poignant, heart-warming story about an 88 year-old widow (Dorothy Thorp) who takes a road trip from Wamego, Kansas, back to Terre Haute, Indiana, to visit her oldest and dearest childhood friend.
Up a Tree 1955
Donald's playing lumberjack, but the targeted tree just happens to be the home of Chip 'n Dale. They give Donald plenty of trouble cutting down the tree, but eventually he succeeds. The wily chipmunks, though, manage to get their revenge on the homewrecker.
One Tree Hill 2003
Set in the fictional small town of Tree Hill, North Carolina, this teen-driven drama tells the story of two half brothers, who share a last name and nothing else. Brooding, blue-collar Lucas is a talented street-side basketball player, but his skills are appreciated only by his friends at the river court. Popular, affluent Nathan basks in the hero-worship of the town, as the star of his high school team. And both boys are the son of former college ball player, Dan Scott, whose long ago choice to abandon Lucas and his mother Karen, will haunt him long into his life with wife Deb, and their son Nathan. Until now, Dan has managed to keep his two sons far from each other. But the past and present collide sharply when Tree Hill's basketball coach recruits Lucas for his team, much to the chagrin of Nathan and Daddy Dan. And the siblings natural rivalry only intensifies when they set their sights on the same girl, Peyton Sawyer. The residue of the past lingers far into the future for the residents of Tree Hill, even as a new generation is rising. Tree Hill follows the lives and loves of these two brothers, their friends and their family as they navigate high school, marriage, and finally... adulthood.
Happy Tree Friends 1999
This action and adventure comedy is drawn in simple appearance and combines cute forest animals with extreme graphic violence. Each episode revolves around the characters enduring accidental events of bloodshed, pain, dismemberment and/or death.
Apple Tree Yard 2017
What starts out as a simple, reckless mid-life affair between a genetic scientist named Yvonne and a Westminster paper pusher takes an intriguing turn when she realizes he’s a spook – then suddenly gets very dark indeed. A provocative study of obsession, longing and just how far down a criminal path desire can take you.
Drama | Mystery
Tree Fu Tom 2012
Tom appears to be a normal boy, but Tree Fu transforms him into a superhero.
Animation | Kids
Family Tree 2013
Having recently lost his job and his girlfriend, 30-year-old Tom Chadwick has a rather unsure sense of his own identity. But when he inherits a mysterious box of belongings from a great aunt he never met, Tom starts investigating his lineage and uncovers a whole world of unusual stories and characters, acquiring a growing sense of who he and his real family are.
The Poison Tree 2012
Karen Clarke was an ordinary girl thrown into an extraordinary world, as she first meets the glamorous Biba and her brother Rex in one long summer of love, but quickly becomes tangled up in their tragic family history with the romantic idyll turning into a nightmare – one that haunts her to the present day. She will go to extraordinary lengths to protect her family and the secrets that she keeps from them.
Tree with Deep Roots 2011
Deep Rooted Tree is a 2011 South Korean television series starring Jang Hyuk, Shin Se-kyung and Han Suk-kyu. Based on the novel of the same title by Lee Jeong-myeong, it aired on SBS from October 5 to December 22, 2011 on Wednesdays and Thursdays at 21:55 for 24 episodes. Taking its name from the poem Yongbieocheonga that says that trees with deep roots do not sway, the series tells the story of a royal guard investigating a case involving the serial murders of Jiphyeonjeon scholars in Gyeongbok Palace while King Sejong comes to create the Korean written language.
Women on the Breadfruit Tree 2015
The story of three childhood friends as they navigate through early adulthood together in the city of Shanghai. Three different women, three different love stories – together they grow as individuals through their experiences in love and in sorrow.
Under the Umbrella Tree 1986
Under the Umbrella Tree is a Canadian children's television series created by Noreen Young that originally aired on CBC from 1986–1993. The show was produced by CBC and Noreen Young Productions, and also later by The Disney Channel. The series centers around a diverse set of main characters who share a house on Spring Street in a suburb of Ottawa, Ontario. The characters include Holly, Iggy, Jacob, and Gloria. The show's title is derived from the fact that the characters live together in a home featuring a prominent indoor umbrella tree. When production of the show ended in 1993, syndication continued on The Disney Channel until 1996, and on YTV and Canal Famille until 1997. Twenty-seven episodes of the show were released to DVD by Cinerio Entertainment in partnership with Noreen Young in 2006, following a long wait for expiration of ownership rights.
Tree in the River 2018
Da Shu is a handsome bachelor. Because of his simple and upright nature, Da Shu sometimes resembles a giraffe. Back when he was a chubby kid without the courage to confess his feelings, Da Shu fell in love with someone. As an adult, he meets her again. This time, she is his roommate. Chu Zhi He is a sweet and kind girl. She is ambitiously waiting to meet the right guy in her life. When she reunites with Da Shu, the difference in their personalities is stark. Lovable and precocious, the seemingly tiny Chu Zhi He seems like a squirrel next to the giraffe-like Da Shu. Along with them are fellow urbanites Fen Ni, who always keeps her guard up like a panther, and Qin Hao, who hunts for a lady’s heart like a wolf. As they struggle to survive in the jungle that is urban life, everyone begins to resemble some kind of animal. But even the strongest animal can drown in the river of life unless they grab on to the tree of love.
Sesame Tree
Sesame Tree, is a version of Sesame Street made entirely in Northern Ireland, is a children's television series produced by Belfast-based production company Sixteen South and Sesame Workshop. The first episode aired on BBC Two in Northern Ireland on 5 April 2008 with the first series subsequently airing nationwide on CBeebies in August 2008. A second series was launched in November 2010 and broadcast on CBeebies from 22 November 2010.
The Tree In Sunlight 2000
A story set in the mid-1800's about a young doctor who has been trained in Western-style medicine and a young samurai who is trying to live up to the old traditions of his class and culture. The story is actually based upon real people - the doctor, Ryo-an, was Tezuka's great grandfather. The manga series was adapted to anime by Madhouse Studios and premiered in Japan on NTV on April 4, 2000.
Animation | Drama | War & Politics
Tree of Heaven 2006
Hana is a bright young girl who lost her father at a young age. When her mother returns to Japan, she comes with her new Korean husband and his son Yunsuh. Yunsuh’s mother died during his 10th birthday and after her death, he becomes autistic. While Hana is fond of her new step-brother, he wants nothing to do with her. When their parents leave on their honeymoon, Hana’s mother leaves the children with her deceased husband’s sister who will manage their inn during the trip. While they are gone, the aunt and her daughter Maya abuse Hana and make plans to sell the inn in order to pay for gambling debts and college. Despite all of this, Hana finds comfort in her brother who begins to open up to her and eventually speaks after his 20th Birthday and the day his mother passed away. Yunsuh's mother died on the same day as he was turning 10, 10 years ago. As they start to have feelings for one another, Hana is afraid to love him. She soon leaves with her "senpai", Fujiwara Ryu, who also likes her. Later on, Maya gets jealous, and decides to make Hana's life even more miserable.
The Magic Tree 2004
A group of children is looking for different objects made from a fallen magic oak.
Sci-Fi & Fantasy | Family | Action & Adventure
The second installment in the 500 Years of Joseon Dynasty series covers the first half of the 15th Century, during the reign of King Sejong.
Adam's Family Tree
Adam's Family Tree was a children's television comedy programme that was first broadcast in January 1997 and ran until February 1999. The show was broadcast on CITV, the children's segment of ITV. The show which was filmed in Yorkshire ran for three series and 20 episodes. The premise of the show was that 12-year-old Adam was able to call upon his ancestors from throughout history to help him solve everyday problems. The title character was played by Anthony Lewis for the first two series, before the role was taken over by Alex Cooke.
The Family Tree is an American 1983 television series. Its pilot episode was a made-for-television movie called The Six of Us, broadcast a year before.
The Magic Tree
The Magic Tree is an International Emmy Award-winning Polish-produced television series that ran from 2004 to 2006 on Telewizja Polska. The live-action children's program was directed by Andrzej Maleszka. A movie continuation under the same title was produced in 2009.
The Singing Ringing Tree
The Singing Ringing Tree was a children's film made by East German studio DEFA in 1957 and shown in the form of a television series by the BBC. It was a story in the style of the Brothers Grimm, directed by Francesco Stefani.
Chief John Big Tree
Dolly Tree
Tree O'Toole
Tree Carr
Lady Tree
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Aleem gives one week to implement zero waste policy
The Frontier Post / November 8, 2018
F.P. Report
LAHORE: Punjab Senior Minister Abdul Aleem Khan has given one-week time frame to all Solid Waste Management Companies in Punjab to implement Zero Waste Policy. He directed that instead of dumping waste, SWM should adopt concrete steps to utilize this through recycling process.
He said that like developed countries from garbage multiple products like fertilizers, chipboards, hardware, various gases, electricity and other products may be produced which would also be helpful for the masses to have a clean and healthy atmosphere instead of having heaps there. Abdul Aleem Khan expressed these views while chairing a high level meeting on solid waste management and completion of construction work on orange train at 90 Shahra-e-Quiad here on Wednesday.
He said that dumping the waste in various places not only create pollution, contaminate ground water but also spread deadly diseases like Hepatitis and many others. He said that it is high time to prepare products by recycling these waste which will not only clean environment but also helps to generate funds.
The Senior Minister criticized the PML-N former government and said that a huge amount of 1.25 billion rupees had monthly been spent on waste management of Lahore city and despite working of 16 thousand employees desired results were not achieved. He said that only two companies were running these projects, now in future new companies will be hired on merit. The Senior Minister directed all the officers to visit field and personally monitor cleaning activities. He said that it is the responsibility of government to provide clean environment to the citizen at all costs.
Moreover, Abdul Aleem Khan also reviewed the status of pending construction work of Orange Line Train and ordered concerned departments to complete it in the shortest time. He said that cost of such expensive project is increasing day by day and the government has to complete this project at earliest for avoiding further loss.
The Senior Minister directed to commercialize all the stations of Orange Train to private companies, banks and others for advertisement purposes which will help to generate revenue.
He said that the Punjab government could not afford to pay heavy subsidy on Orange Line Train, permanently. He said that former government did nothing but only made money through commission mafia in these white elephant projects. He directed LDA and district administration to complete this in short span of time.
DG LDA and Deputy Commissioner Lahore briefed the participants on this project and assured that work would be completed accordingly.
Posted in Pakistan
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Tag Archives: jupe karhu
Album Review – Rifftera / Across the Acheron (2019)
Posted on January 21, 2019 by Gustavo Scuderi
Let’s brave the waters of the Acheron to the sound of the brand new opus by this talented Melodic Death and Thrash Metal squad from Finland.
If in 2015 a Finnish Melodic Death Metal band that goes by the stylish name of Rifftera stunned us all with their aggressive and futuristic debut opus Pitch Black, now in 2019 it’s time for this talented Vaasa-base squad comprised of Janne Hietala and Mikko Kuoppamaa on vocals and guitars, Jupe Karhu on bass, Antti Pöntinen on keyboards and newcomer Ville Härkönen on drums to take another amazing step in their more-than-promising career with Across the Acheron, which is not only their sophomore release but an album that exhales harmony, electricity and rage, bringing a well-balanced and thrilling fusion of Death and Thrash Metal for both fans of what the band presented in their previous album as well as newcomers to their whimsical realm of modern-day metal music.
Featuring once again a beautiful cover art by Petri Lampela, who besides Rifftera has already worked with other excellent bands like Vinide and Ratbreed, Across the Acheron might have taken longer than expected to be released, but the wait was definitely worth it as each and every song of the album is an absolute feast of first-class Melodic Death Metal. “The aim was basically to take steps forward from our debut in every aspect and we are really happy with the result. In my honest and not at all biased opinion I think that clear improvement was achieved musically, lyrically and production-wise,” commented lead singer and guitarist Janne, complementing his thought by saying that “when it comes to comparing the music between Across the Acheron and Pitch Black, I would say that our expression has reached new levels on both ends of the spectrum; some parts on the new album are more brutal than anything that what we had on Pitch Black and then again some songs are more straight forward and melodic than before. Overall it could be described that the building blocks are the same but writing and performing skills have evolved.”
The opening track Burning Paradise already showcases an epic start led by the always cinematic keys by Antti, being gradually joined by all other instruments until all hell breaks loose to a deep, enraged roar by Janne, becoming an almost Blackened Death Metal tune infused with Melodic and Industrial Metal elements where both Janne and Mikki slash their guitars in a piercing manner. Then we have the 8-minute extravaganza Two Sides of the Story, sounding very close to what they did in Pitch Black, with Ville simply demolishing his drums while Jupe and Antti generate a captivating background sounding with their instruments, also delivering tons of harmony and ethereal vibes for our total delight; followed by Eye of the Storm, a rhythmic, imposing and thrilling display of contemporary Scandinavian metal, showcasing pounding drums, epic keys and a dark and menacing atmosphere. Furthermore, Janne and Mikko have a very healthy “duel” of vocal styles, and as they sing during the entire song, it’s indeed beautiful to enjoy their ass-kicking metal music when you’re “in the eye of the storm”.
And those Finnish metallers keep invading our senses with their fusion of futuristic sounds and endless harmony in Cutthroat Game, with both guitars sounding as sharp as a knife while the bass punches by Jupe get even more thunderous then before, accompanied by Ville’s nonstop drums. After such crushing tune, it’s time to speed things up a bit in the superb Cry Wolf, led by Janne’s deranged growls and with Antti bringing an extra touch of lunacy to the sonority through his keys, resulting in what’s the most metallic and visceral of all songs; whereas Warmonger is another brutal composition tailored for cracking your neck in half headbanging, with Mikko’s clean vocals and Antti’s spot-on keys bringing some peace and hope to all devastation blasted by their bandmates. Not only that, the song’s main riff will entice you to keep bang your head nonstop, which obviously means this is an amazing option to be added to their setlist during their live concerts. Things slow down a bit in Deep Waters, getting more melodic, delicate and introspective than its predecessors but still exhaling the band’s characteristic rage, with the always inspiring keys by Antti stealing the spotlight and, therefore, keeping the level of electricity high, setting the stage for the 11-minute aria Across the Acheron, a very detailed and cinematic exhibit of their Melodic Death and Thrash Metal where you’ll be enfolded by inspiring passages, melodious riffs and solos, powerful vocals and violent growls. Moreover, this song has an amazing vibe and a touch of delicacy that only a band like Rifftera can bring you directly from the stunning Scandinavia, ending the album on a high, ominous and majestic mode.
It’s always a pleasure watching a hardworking and honest group of skillful musicians like Rifftera evolving like what they did from Pitch Black to their new album Across the Acheron, and in order to show them our true support don’t forget to follow them on Facebook and to listen to their music on Spotify, and of course purchase your copy of Across the Acheron from the Inverse Records webstore, from Record Shop X, from iTunes, or from Amazon. In ancient Greek mythology, the Acheron was known as the “river of woe”, and was one of the five rivers of the Greek underworld. Having said that, I guess it’s time for all of us fans of Melodic Death Metal to brave the waters of the Acheron together with Rifftera, and face all the perils the underworld might bring us to the sound of their brand new and excellent album.
Best moments of the album: Eye of the Storm, Cry Wolf and Warmonger.
Worst moments of the album: None.
Released in 2019 Inverse Records
1. Burning Paradise 6:12
2. Two Sides of the Story 8:04
3. Eye of the Storm 6:34
4. Cutthroat Game 6:12
5. Cry Wolf 5:08
6. Warmonger 6:29
7. Deep Waters 4:50
8. Across the Acheron 11:20
Janne Hietala – guitars, harsh vocals
Mikko Kuoppamaa – guitars, clean vocals
Jupe Karhu – bass
Antti Pöntinen – keyboards
Ville Härkönen – drums
Posted in 2019 New Releases | Tagged across the acheron, antti pöntinen, blackened death metal, cry wolf, cutthroat game, death metal, eye of the storm, finland, industrial metal, inverse records, janne hietala, jupe karhu, melodic death metal, melodic metal, melodic thrash metal, mikko kuoppamaa, petri lampela, pitch black, rifftera, thrash metal, vaasa, ville härkönen, warmonger | Leave a reply
Album Review – Rifftera / Pitch Black (2015)
Posted on August 8, 2015 by Gustavo Scuderi
Don’t be afraid of the dark and let this high-end futuristic Melodic Death Metal album satisfy your metallic desires.
After releasing a couple of demos in the past few years, it’s time for Finnish Melodic Death Metal band Rifftera to strike the world of heavy music with their debut studio album Pitch Black, a slashing feast of metallic and melodic tunes tailored for fans of Soilwork, In Flames, Arch Enemy, Megadeth, Trivium, among many other amazing heavy bands. In other words, if you’re one of those people who believe harmony and violence should always walk hand in hand to generate good music, Pitch Black will satisfy you in every sense, keeping you entertained from start to finish.
In my humble opinion, what really makes this promising band formed in 2010 in Vaasa, Finland stand out from other similar bands is the harmonious complexity of their compositions, which ends up helping the band tell the different stories within each song of the album, their evolution and consequences. For instance, although Pitch Black has only eight songs it goes on for over 54 minutes, an average of almost seven minutes per song. Not only that, I believe they wouldn’t have been able to produce an album so unique and complete without the futuristic sounding of the synths by keyboardist Antti Pöntinen, who is capable of leading the musicality even with all the heaviness of guitars, drums and harsh screams surrounding him.
And it’s those electronic effects generated by Antti that start the party in Back To Life, a violent Melodic Death Metal song that blends the Gothenburg sound with a more modern Finnish touch. In addition, singer/guitarist Janne Hietala does an awesome job delivering sheer rage through his vocal lines, enhanced by the song’s strong riffs and catchy chorus. Then we have One Step Closer, where its synths remind me of some sounds from the classic album Turbo by Judas Priest, adding a lot of energy to the savagery brought forth by the other members of the band. However, in the faster and more brutal tune Lightbringer, synths remain in the background while the songs vicious riffs by Janne and Mikko and the nonstop drums by session drummer Thomas Tunkkari take the spotlight. It seems they love the “harsh screams during most parts of the song/clean vocals on chorus” formula, and they prove they have a very good reason for that, as this song is a pure delight for fans of Melodic Death Metal from Scandinavia.
Ashes Fall is another track full of melody and anger where a solid instrumental perfect for headbanging takes over the ambience, with its second half being truly melancholic, in special its guitar riffs and solos. The only negative comment in this song is that this time the chorus is not so powerful, harming the final result a bit. On the other hand, their Thrash Metal vein arises in the superb Rotten To The Core, featuring Swedish singer Björn “Speed” Strid from Soilwork, a flawless exhibit of melodic riffs, solos and drumming with spot-on lyrics about how all politicians are always deceiving us with their greedy lies and false promises (“How would this time be any different? / Haven’t we learned before? / How would this one make any difference? / You know one / You know ’em all”). It’s impossible not to love this whirlwind of ruthless Melodic Death Metal, one of the best contemporary compositions you can find anywhere, and I believe this is the path Rifftera should take in their future releases. Fans will surely have a good time inside the circle pits when this song is played, with kudos to Janne for sounding as choleric on vocals as the musicality demands.
They keep their music at a high level in Open Wounds, with Thomas contributing to its progressiveness and rage behind his drums, and pay attention to how the keyboards remain sharp and enhance the eerie atmosphere amidst the nonstop metal sounding. In the also wonderful The Ruins Of The Empire, the initial riff is so thrilling it’s hard not to play some air guitar and bang your head to it, with the sick growls by Janne during the chorus taking it to a deeper level of fury. Furthermore, there’s even time for a keyboard solo in this excellent tune, and it’s also remarkable how the professionalism and quality of the sound elevate the final result considerably. And finally, it looks like the last part of the album is dedicated to the heavier and darker side of Rifftera, which is confirmed in the title-track Pitch Black. Its acoustic intro sets the tone for their most epic creation, flirting with Symphonic Black Metal so obscure and heavy it gets, with some moments reminding me a little of the guitar duos from the epic songs by Iron Maiden. It’s a sonic exhibit of wickedness and despair, almost a metal opera with imposing synths and orchestrations leading the music to a climatic ending.
In summary, if Melodic Death Metal is what you love the most in life, don’t be afraid of the dark and go check Rifftera’s Facebook page and YouTube channel, and buy your copy of Pitch Black at Record Shop X or Inverse Store, you won’t regret that at all. These talented Finnish metallers put their hearts and souls into the making of this high-end futuristic album, something you can feel in each and every song, turning it into a must-have item in your collection of melodic and angry tunes.
Best moments of the album: Lightbringer, Rotten To The Core and The Ruins Of The Empire.
Worst moments of the album: Ashes Fall.
1. Back To Life 5:22
2. One Step Closer 5:53
3. Lightbringer 5:27
4. Ashes Fall 7:03
5. Rotten To The Core (feat. Björn “Speed” Strid) 6:20
6. Open Wounds 5:24
7. The Ruins Of The Empire 6:40
8. Pitch Black 11:48
Janne Hietala – guitar, harsh vocals
Mikko Kuoppamaa – guitar, clean vocals
Guest musicians
Björn “Speed” Strid – additional vocals on “Rotten To The Core”
Thomas Tunkkari – session drummer
Posted in 2015 New Releases | Tagged antti pöntinen, björn “speed” strid, finland, janne hietala, jupe karhu, lightbringer, melodic death metal, mikko kuoppamaa, pitch black, rifftera, rotten to the core, scandinavia, soilwork, symphonic black metal, the ruins of the empire, thomas tunkkari, thrash metal, vaasa | 2 Replies
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NSM Expands in Northern California
By Laurie Watanabe
National Seating & Mobility (NSM) has purchased Western Rehab Solutions in Martinez, Calif.
In a March 5 news announcement, NSM said Western Rehab has been serving clients in the Bay Area and surrounding counties for more than 30 years.
Company owners Al and Meg McNiece are transitioning to NSM as part of the acquisition and will serve in leadership positions at the Martinez office. Additionally, Western Rehab’s Buffy Rau, ATP, and the company’s complex rehab technology team are also joining NSM.
The addition of Western Rehab means that NSM now has 16 locations in California, including offices in Fairfield, Hayward, San Jose and Santa Rosa in the northern part of the state.
Mixon said of this latest addition, “NSM is proud to add new branches across the country through acquisition partnerships with companies that share our values. We are excited to expand our Northern California footprint with this new branch and look forward to partnering with this experienced and well-respected team to bring innovative mobility and accessibility solutions to Bay Area clients.”
Laurie Watanabe is the editor of Mobility Management. She can be reached at lwatanabe@1105media.com.
Cure SMA Expands Care Center Network
Ability Center: Now There's an App for That!
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Report on Fuego (Guatemala) — 13 June-19 June 2012
Smithsonian / US Geological Survey Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 13 June-19 June 2012
Global Volcanism Program, 2012. Report on Fuego (Guatemala). In: Sennert, S K (ed.), Weekly Volcanic Activity Report, 13 June-19 June 2012. Smithsonian Institution and US Geological Survey.
Volcano Profile | Weekly Report (13 June-19 June 2012)
14.473°N, 90.88°W; summit elev. 3763 m
INSIVUMEH reported that during 14-15 and 17-18 June explosions from Fuego produced ash plumes that rose 300-800 m above the crater and drifted WSW, E, and NE. Explosions generated rumbling sounds and shock waves detected in areas as far as 6 km away. Tephra avalanches descended the SW flank, into the Ceniza drainage, and lava flowed 200 m SW, into the Taniluya drainage. Pulses of incandescence rose 50-75 m above the crater. During 18-19 June lava flows advanced 50 m and block avalanches reached vegetated areas.
Geologic Background. Volcán Fuego, one of Central America's most active volcanoes, is one of three large stratovolcanoes overlooking Guatemala's former capital, Antigua. The scarp of an older edifice, Meseta, lies between 3763-m-high Fuego and its twin volcano to the north, Acatenango. Construction of Meseta dates back to about 230,000 years and continued until the late Pleistocene or early Holocene. Collapse of Meseta may have produced the massive Escuintla debris-avalanche deposit, which extends about 50 km onto the Pacific coastal plain. Growth of the modern Fuego volcano followed, continuing the southward migration of volcanism that began at Acatenango. In contrast to the mostly andesitic Acatenango, eruptions at Fuego have become more mafic with time, and most historical activity has produced basaltic rocks. Frequent vigorous historical eruptions have been recorded since the onset of the Spanish era in 1524, and have produced major ashfalls, along with occasional pyroclastic flows and lava flows.
Source: Instituto Nacional de Sismologia, Vulcanologia, Meteorologia, e Hidrologia (INSIVUMEH)
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uSwitch.com Blog
Views and opinions on energy, bills and money in general from uSwitch
Archives for posts with tag: Barry Gardiner
MP Barry Gardiner asks: “Is this ‘crunch point’ for household energy?”
By debbieuswitch
Barry Gardiner, Member of Parliament for Brent North and Ed Miliband Special Envoy for Climate Change
Barry Gardiner, Member of Parliament for Brent North and Ed Miliband’s Special Envoy for Climate Change, tells us his views on the future of UK energy prices…
It is very simple. Rural households pay more for energy.
Rural households classed as being in “income poverty” are much more likely to be in fuel poverty than those in urban areas: 44 per cent of the “income poor” in rural areas live in fuel poverty compared to 26 per cent in urban areas.
These published figures are now more than three years out of date, and although we have no reliable current analysis all the evidence suggests things are getting worse.
In urban areas there are three well known causes of fuel poverty:
1. Poor energy efficiency performance of housing
2. Low income levels
3. High energy costs
In rural areas it is important to add a fourth: Lack of access to mains supply.
Out of every hundred rural homes 42 are not connected to mains gas, compared to 8 per cent in urban areas.
Rural households rely more heavily on oil and bottled gas to heat homes, the prices of which have both risen significantly over the course of the last few years. Rural households are also unable to take advantage of the dual fuel discounts which are offered by many energy suppliers.
Households cut off from mains access to energy simply pay more. The average heating bill for a three bedroom house using domestic fuel oil is 84% more than the cost of mains gas. For liquid petroleum gas (LPG) that figure rises to
130% more.
But homes that are “hard to heat” are often also “hard to treat”. Many rural houses have solid walls and these homes need more expensive internal and external solid wall insulation that is not currently included in Government Grant Schemes such as Warm Front.
In fact 34 per cent of homes in rural areas are classed as hard to treat and these account for over 50 per cent of the UK’s total carbon emissions from housing.
Any programme delivering energy efficiency measures in rural areas costs more due to greater distances between households and the inevitable loss of efficiencies that can be achieved in more densely populated urban areas. Warm Front has confirmed that even where householders were eligible for a grant, some people cancelled energy efficiency work because they were unable to pay top up costs.
Those living in rural areas were much more likely to cancel through an inability to meet the average top up bill of £875.
In fact up until 2008, cancellations of work in urban areas due to top up costs were 26.4 per cent, whilst in rural areas they were 73.6 per cent.
Between 2000 and 2008 only 10 per cent of Warm Front Grants were awarded in rural areas. This figure climbed to 15 per cent in 2008/09 but it is clear that even this rate of addressing the problem is wholly inadequate to meet the exceptional level of need in our rural communities.
We should be calling for major programmes to address rural fuel poverty. They must be specifically targeted to deliver insulation solutions for solid wall properties and, where insulation is not viable, government should work to deliver micro-generation and community based heating schemes to deliver lower cost alternatives to rural households.
By 2008 Germany had over 2,500 anaerobic digestion plants in rural areas. In the UK we had precisely 23.
Such a technology could be used to power energy generation at a community level in rural villages across the UK, taking by-products and waste from agriculture to provide bio-gas. Using this for local heat and power would provide new jobs in rural areas as well as delivering low cost heating solutions. DEFRA’s own analysis suggests that the UK’s 90million tonnes of agricultural arisings such as manure and slurry could power up to 20Tetra Watt hours of heat and power by 2020.
Do you agree with the MP or do you think there’s another solution? If you’re cut off from mains gas or know someone who is, share your stories with us in the comments below.
Tags Barry Gardiner, climate change, Ed Miliband, Efficient energy use, Energy, Government
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Driver arrested after plowing into Saanich home
Unique 'bubble home' popping up in Esquimalt
Published Wednesday, June 26, 2019 4:41PM PDT
Last Updated Wednesday, June 26, 2019 6:33PM PDT
A one-of-a-kind home has popped up in Esquimalt, largely created out of thin air.
The home's main structure, in fact, went up in just three hours. It's a giant white balloon that serves as a mould for the finished home.
Once inflated, the bubble is sprayed with a polyurethane sealant, reinforced with rebar, and then sprayed with concrete and covered with a stucco exterior.
The balloon is then removed to be reused for another project.
The developers, Nouvel Housing, say it's an affordable and energy-efficient alternative to traditional building materials.
"The options are pretty vast," says Nouvel vice-president Brittany Olney. "This allows us to build in half the time, which cuts down on cost."
A 3,800-square-foot duplex home like this one in Esquimalt will set customers back about $675,000 for both units, according to the company.
Aside from shortened construction times, the bubble home design also saves buyers in the long run as there are no shingles, gutters or additional roofing materials required.
"We’ve been building the same way for so long," Olney says. "To get a better result in the same prices, we have to do something different."
Metchosin resident Kim White is next on Nouvel's list for a bubble home. She tells CTV News she was sold on the idea due to the price and the energy savings implied in the developer's design.
"I really think it's the way the future is going to go," White says. "We are going to quit building wood houses."
An artist's rendering of the finished home, now under construction in Esquimalt. (Nouvel Housing)
The Esquimalt home's balloon being inflated June 26, 2019. (CTV Vancouver Island)
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Home > 19th century > Lambeth School of Art
Lambeth School of Art
St Mary the Less, 1950
Lambeth School of Art was established in 1854 by William Gregory, vicar of St Mary the Less Church. St Mary the Less Church was in Princes Road (now called Black Prince Road). It was demolished in the 1960s.
At the end of the 1850s, the school was solely a night school. Dean Gregory was Rector, the Art Master was a Mr John Sparkes, and Edwin Bales was the modelling master. Then Henry Doulton became a mentor to the School. It was Sparkes who suggested the idea that the School and Doulton’s pottery company collaborate in making art pottery. Doulton took up the idea, and gave support to the School in the early period. Doulton’s began to manufacture ‘more or less artistic patterns for trade purposes’, adding art quality to everyday objects. As this became successful, Doulton began to take on many and sometimes nearly all of its pottery painters and modellers from the Lambeth School (including, among others, George Tinworth). Sparkes, went on to become Principal of the Royal College of Art in South Kensington.
As well as potters, the Lambeth Art School also gained a reputation for training many important sculptors. This was particularly so under the modelling master W. S. Frith, whose students included George Frampton, Harry Bates, C. J. Allen, W. Goscombe John and F. W. Pomeroy. The animal sculptor J. M. Swan was also a student, and among a later generation of artists, Glyn Philpot.
John Sparkes had also founded a sketching club at the School in 1861, and painters such as Charles Ricketts, C. H. Shannon and Raven Hill were members.
Original Text Source: Bob Speel, with corrections thanks to Valerie Dixon
Famous names associated with Lambeth School of Art
C. J. Allen (1863-1956)
Harry Bates (1850-1899)
Edward Frederick Brewtnall (1846-1902)
Philip Connard (1875-1958)
Jules Dalou
Stanhope Alexander Forbes (1857-1947)
W. Goscombe
George Frampton
W. S. Frith
Eric Henri Kennington (1888-1960)
Edwin Roscoe Mullins (1848-1907)
Glyn Warren Philpot (1884-1937)
F. W. Pomeroy
John Pomeroy
Charles Ricketts
Amy Roberta (‘Berta’) Ruck (1878-1978)
Charles Haslewood Shannon (1863-1937)
Austin Osman Spare (1886-1956)
J. M. Swan
William Christian Symons (1845-1911)
George Tinworth
Filed Under: 19th century, 20th century, Artists, Arts, Churches, Famous names, Lambeth
Lambeth North Station
Lambeth Road, notable inhabitants
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Ellis Island: The Dream of America with Pacific Symphony
Passport Season 45 Episode 21 | 53m 6s
THIRTEEN’s Great Performances and Pacific Symphony, led by music director Carl St.Clair, pay tribute to America’s history with a performance of composer Peter Boyer’s “Ellis Island: The Dream of America,” a Grammy-nominated contemporary classical work celebrating the historic American immigrant experience.
GREAT PERFORMANCES is made possible by the Irene Diamond Fund, Anna-Maria and Stephen Kellen Arts Fund, The Joseph and Robert Cornell Memorial Foundation, LuEsther T. Mertz Charitable Trust, Rosalind P. Walter, The Agnes Varis Trust, The Starr Foundation, Kate W. Cassidy Foundation, Ellen and James S. Marcus, The Philip and Janice Levin Foundation, Lenore Hecht Foundation, Abra Prentice Foundation, The Lewis Sonny Turner Fund for Dance, Jody and John Arnhold, Anne Ray Charitable Trust, and PBS.
Season 46 Season 45 Season 44 Season 42 Season 38
Chicago Voices
Celebrate the city’s vibrant music with Renée Fleming, Jessie Mueller, and more.
Capturing the emotions, elation and uncertainties of America's epic immigrant experience.
Explore the history of the Met Opera’s Lincoln Center home in 1950s-60s New York City.
will.i.am and Friends Featuring the Black Eyed Peas
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Nas Live From the Kennedy Center: Classical Hip-Hop
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Irving Berlin’s Holiday Inn
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S45 Ep8 | 2h 2m 11s
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This all-star concert spotlights the Recording Academy’s Special Merit Awards recipients.
Behind the Scenes with Composer Peter Boyer
Peter Boyer discusses his Grammy-nominated composition.
Clip: S45 Ep21 | 2m 13s
The story of an immigrant child's journey to Ellis Island
Camryn Manheim performs the words of 10-year-old Russian immigrant Katherine Beychok.
Excerpt from composer Peter Boyer’s “Ellis Island: The Dream
This Grammy-nominated original score celebrates the American immigrant experience.
Preview: S45 Ep21 | 30s
How Well Do You Know Hamilton?
Think you know everything about the musical? What about the man? Test yourself and find out.
Take the quizTake the quiz
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Family, friends recall George H.W. Bush's 'profound legacy'
The final funeral for George H.W. Bush was held today at his family church in Houston. Some 1,200 mourners gathered to honor the late president. Following the service, Bush’s casket was transported to College Station, and he was laid to rest next to his wife of 73 years, Barbara, and daughter Robin on the grounds of the George H.W. Bush Presidential Library and Museum at Texas A&M University.
The full episode is no longer available for online streaming. Why?
Please continue to enjoy extra(s) from this episode.
Major corporate funding for the PBS NewsHour is provided by BNSF, Consumer Cellular, Leidos, Babbel, and Raymond James. Funding for the PBS NewsHour Weekend is provided by Mutual of America. For a complete list of funders for the PBS NewsHour and PBS NewsHour weekend, click here.
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September 1, 2018 - PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode
09/01/2018 | 25m
August 26, 2018 - PBS NewsHour Weekend full episode
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Home Local News Caring Ann gets ready for a date with the Queen at the...
Caring Ann gets ready for a date with the Queen at the Palace
Pictured is Ann Farr who is going to a Buckingham Palace Garden Party.
The manager of a training school for social care practitioners will be swapping the classroom for the grand surroundings of Buckingham Palace.
Ann Farr, who runs the Pendine Academy of Social Care in Wrexham, and her fiancé, William Serridge, have been invited to a garden party with Her Majesty the Queen.
Ann, 58, who lives in New Brighton, near Mold, was overjoyed when the invitation from the Lord Chamberlain dropped through her letterbox.
She was chosen in recognition of her services to social care.
The academy has expanded a great deal since Ann was appointed manager 10 years ago.
They now provide training for 300 care practitioners every year, not just for staff from Pendine Park but also for other social care organisations.
Last year the academy moved to new 8,000 square foot premises on Wrexham Technology Park which also houses Pendine Park’s admin team.
It includes virtual training centre featuring totally realistic recreations of a residents’ lounge, bedroom and dining area, as well as a pop-up pharmacy, pub, ice cream parlour and even a hair and beauty salon.
Ann couldn’t believe her eyes when she opened the invitation.
She said: “It’s not something the postman or woman delivers every day and I was a bit shocked really. I’m so pleased.
“I get married to my fiancée, William Edward Serridge, in July and going to the Palace next week will be a great way to start the celebrations.
“We are going next Tuesday (June 5) and have to be at the Palace by 3pm for the garden party which begins at 4pm and goes on until 6pm. Her Majesty arrives at 4pm precisely.”
Ann has worked in social care for 38 years after starting out as a trainee care practitioner at a Deeside care home.
She said: “It was a dementia care home that I began work in and very quickly knew it was the career for me. I did my NVQs, as they were then, and eventually became a trainer and assessor.
“I was made head of the Pendine Academy of Social Care 10 years ago. I’ve seen so many changes and we now train more than 300 apprentices a year. Not just Pendine Park Care Organisation staff but apprentices from across North Wales and now St Helen’s too.
“The success of Pendine Park is down to the training we provide and that stems as a direct result from the vision of Mario and Gill Kreft.”
She hopes her trip to London and the Buckingham Palace garden party doesn’t end in disaster as her last trip to London did.
She said: “I’ve only actually been to London once before when I was 13. I played hockey for Manchester Girls and we reached a final which was played at the old Wembley Stadium.
“The only problem was this opponent kept barging into me and was pushing me all over the place. I eventually lost my temper and sadly the referee wasn’t best pleased and sent me off!
“I’m sure this trip, and going to Buckingham Palace, will be very different. If there is one thing I’m looking forward to its seeing the gardens. Apparently we will see gardens that aren’t on public view and I’m really looking forward to that.”
According to Mario Kreft MBE, Ann richly deserves her invitation.
He said: “Ann has given a great deal of her life to social care and put so much into making the Pendine Park Academy of Social Care the success it is.
“The number of apprentices we now train each year is staggering and I know Ann demands the best out of each and every learner. She also ensures the level of training and assessing of students is accurate and rigorous.
“I have no doubt that Pendine Park could not be as successful as it is without Ann’s input.”
“I congratulate her on her invitation and Gill and I wish her well for her forthcoming wedding. We hope she and William enjoy many special years together.”
Pendine Park
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Tales by Ysgol Emrys ap Iwan students heading for British Library
Grateful mum’s thank you to Wrexham medical team for caring for...
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Silence in the House of God
Investigating the secret crimes of a charismatic priest who abused over 200 deaf children in a school under his control, the film shows the face of evil that can lurk behind the smiles and denials of authority figures and institutions.
Documentary, Society and Culture, Religion, Crime
The White Planet
In the tradition of March of the Penguins, The White Planet sets out to discover the fragile and threatened world or the Arctic
Nature, Animals, Documentary, Science
Tim Minchin: Rock n Roll Nerd
An intimate tale of love and ambition and a rare record of the very first steps in the brilliant career of Tim Minchin, now an Australian comedy and music superstar.
Music, Biography, Comedy, Documentary
Weekend of a Champion
In 1971, Roman Polanski spent a weekend with world champion driver Jackie Stewart as he attempted to win the Monaco Grand Prix. Polanski was given intimate access to Stewart's world for three days, both on the track and off.
Sport, Documentary, Celebrities
Walmart: The High Cost of Low Price
The controversial retail giant Walmart faces the scrutiny of filmmaker Robert Greenwald in this documentary showcasing the adverse effects some believe the behemoth inflicts on communities and individuals.
Business, Current Affairs, Investigation
An intimate chronicle of three underprivileged student football players from inner-city Memphis and the volunteer coach's mission to help them beat the odds - both on and off the field.
Sport, Documentary
When You're Strange
Winner of the award for Best Long Form Music Video at the 53rd Grammy Awards, and narrated by Johnny Depp, When You're Strange is an intimate exploration of one of the world's most influential rock bands.
Music, Celebrities, Biography
Winner of the Academy Award for Best Documentary, The Cove is an alarming environmental thriller. In 2008, an elite team of scientists, filmmakers and free-divers embarked on a covert mission to expose a shocking secret.
Documentary, Society and Culture, Investigation, Business, Animals
The Gatekeepers
For the first time ever, six former heads of Israel's secret service tell their story. After the Six Day War in 1967 Israel was left it in control of a vast, hostile population under occupation, and overseen by the Shin Bet secret service agency.
Documentary, Society and Culture, Politics, Military
More Shows by MadmanMORE
Nature Video
More Shows in DocumentaryMORE
Helicopter Heroes Down Under: Series 2 - Episode 8
Life Inside Jail - Hell on Earth - Episode 2
More Shows in Society and CultureMORE
Watch: Underwater music festival fills ocean with sound
Watch: Battle of the Water drenches residents of Madrid
Durban travel tips
Festival Lyrique in Aix-en-Provence: life and death experience of Mozart's Requiem
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Review – Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark
Posted on May 14, 2019 by Thomas Medina Leave a comment
It’s impossible to mention Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark without bringing up Final Fantasy Tactics. As a huge fan of the PS1 classic, my initial interest in Fell Seal was based solely on its unabashed attempt to replicate that game’s genius. Normally, going in with this kind of attitude kills games like this. They end up buried under unrealistic expectations that games made by teams of less than ten people can’t stand toe to toe with genre giants. Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is an exception. It isn’t buried under these comparisons, it wears them proudly like a badge of honor. It doesn’t fail to live up to unrealistic expectations, it looks them straight in the eyes and surpasses them.
Right from the start, you feel right at home.
Combat, as you might expect, takes place on a grid with your team of units facing off against a wide variety of enemy types. While functionally the same to Final Fantasy Tactics, there’s a few quality of life improvements and gameplay twists that keep things fresh and interesting. Content-wise there’s a wide variety of monsters to face, a large number of unique map tiles and locations, and map specific unlockables all of which make the game very replayable. Gameplay-wise, there’s a few UI tweaks and mechanics streamlining, but most importantly is a huge quality of life update to items that changes the game.
Another great QoL addition is the turn count at the top of the screen that also shows everyone’s current health.
For every mission you are given a set amount of every item you currently have unlocked. After each mission this number is replenished back up to your maximum. This means you no longer have to hoard items between missions and save them for a critical moment that may never come, but can instead use them freely as needed on every single mission. Additionally, item use is no longer locked behind a specific class; every character has full access to the inventory at the same effectiveness level. This greatly opens up build variety, as Items is no longer a “must equip”.
Instead of just a list of abilities, each class has a skill tree with each block unlockable with AP.
Even without the changes to Item usage however, customization is already incredibly deep. It may be the same Job system that you’re used to at its core, but like combat there are some tweaks to make it more than that. There’s over twenty five classes to unlock and discover, even more than the War of the Lions port. Most are unlocked through traditional leveling, though the most interesting are usually found in map specific chests or through story events. Among the more traditional Knight, Wizard, and Assassin classes, are some intriguing newcomers like the Fellblade, Demon Knight, Druid, and plenty more.
This isn’t even the Class Wheel’s final form.
Fell Seal’s twist on this system is a duel-classing. Much like in Tactics, every character can equip two class ability sets at once. For example, you can equip the Mercenary’s War Craft abilities alongside the Mender’s Holy Magic to create a Paladinesque character. However, unlike Tactics where you were penalized for using off class abilities, both sets of powers act normally. This drastically opens up customization, with both focusing on leveling up one class all the way or working on synergizing two classes fully, both of which are viable build strategies.
Customization doesn’t end at Units; difficulty gives you the ability to edit a surprising number of things to make the game either easier or harder in a variety of ways.
Sadly, the story is the one place where Arbiter’s Mark falls short. The premise at first is promising. You begin the game as an Arbiter, an enforcer of the Council of Immortal’s will, acting as judge, jury, and executioner. The Council of Immortals is a group of adventurers who long ago defeated an apocalyptic evil and in the process gained god-like power. It intends to tell a mature story focused on institutional corruption, loss of innocence, and how even the best of intentions can have evil ends. Unfortunately, the writing just doesn’t carry it. It’s not bad by any means, but it doesn’t live up to the plot’s promise, which is always disappointing to see. It is a decently long campaign though, with plenty of quirky characters that help move the plot along nicely. Ultimately it’s a vehicle for experiencing the amazing gameplay, and in that way it is a complete success.
A Council of Immortals that isn’t immortal. That makes sense game.
Final Fantasy Tactics has reigned at the top of the genre for so long, that it has become near impossible to imagine a game topping it in any way. Yet against all odds, Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark manages to do exactly that in almost every way possible. It takes everything about the genre and just refines and streamlines it to perfection, while adding in loads of content to continually keep things fresh. After so many years of desperately waiting for Square Enix to finally give us Final Fantasy Tactics 2, 6 Eyes Studio came out of nowhere to give us the game that we deserve.
Though initially turned off by the graphics style, it did eventually grow on me. Animations and art design are top notch across the board.
Gameplay: 10
Final Fantasy Tactics represents the epitome of strategy RPG gameplay. At least, it used to.
Music is bland and unimpressive, and there is no voice work whatsoever. The many sound effects which imitate Final Fantasy Tactics‘ audio cues are a nice touch though.
This game just sucks you in and doesn’t let go. The story may be unimpressive and graphics underwhelming, but the sheer quality of the gameplay is unmatched in the genre.
Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark is available now on Steam, PS4, and Xbox One.
Reviewed on PC.
A copy of Fell Seal: Arbiter’s Mark was provided by the publisher.
tagged with 1c Entertainment, 6 Eyes Studio, Fantasy, Fell Seal: Arbiter's Mark, PC, RPG, Steampunk, Strategy
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Naturalist Notebook – May 3 to May 8
On May 3rd we headed up to the Southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank and found ourselves in the middle of a huge humpback whale feeding bout! At least 20 humpback whales, including Dome, Cajun, Alphorn and Rapier were engaged in a whole repertoire of feeding behaviors, including bubble feeding, kick-feeding, and dragging, all of which help to capture the millions of small schooling fish that make of these whales’ diets.
The massive amounts of feeding we’ve been seeing on Stellwagen Bank have coincided with a recent important discovery on how baleen whales coordinate feeding. For years, we’ve observed with wonderment how our rorqual baleen whales, including humpbacks, fin whales and Minkes can balloon to almost twice their size as they engulf mass quantities of prey. Recently, scientists reporting in the journal, Nature, describe the discovery of a sensory organ located on the chin of rorqual whales that they believe help to coordinate this feeding motion. They believe that it may send information of prey density to the whales’ brain in order to help the animal lunge, expand its ventral pleats, and swallow its prey. For more information, see this great post in Science Daily.
On May 4th, we spent a better part of the morning trying to figure out the identity of a new humpback mother/calf pair that had appeared on Stellwagen Bank. The mom wouldn’t lift her tail on dives, and so it was very difficult to figure out who she was, as we identify humpbacks by the unique patterns on the ventral side of their flukes. Finally, we got lucky and we discovered that this was a whale named Thumper. Thumper was named for the rabbit track markings on the underside of her fluke. She is 14 years old this year, and this is her second calf. Her calf was extremely energetic and wowed the Dolphin VIII by breaching over and over again!
Thumper’s calf
The morning’s trip was also characterized by roving bands of humpback whales foraging for fish. Their long dives and erratic surfacings of the morning trip turned into a swirling mass of feeding humpbacks in the afternoon. Huge bubble nets drove schools of sand lance to the surface, and they were seen churning and leaping, trying to escape the gaping mouths of the hungry humpback whales.
Meanwhile, on the Dolphin VIII, we were spotting marine mammals as soon as we left the harbor and rounded Long Point. On long point, we had a great view of a young harbor seal pup and its mother hauled out on the beach. After snapping a few photos, we were surprised to see a fin whale just beyond the tip of the point. Fin whales are elusive and can often dive for long periods of time. We waited 15 minutes for this surface but only got one quick look before moving on.
Fortunately, we saw spouts beyond Race Point so we headed north. Upon arrival, we waited several minutes, but there were no whales to be seen. Finally, a calf surfaced. It was Thumper and calf. The calf approached the boat and we got great views of its barnacled head.
We moved even farther to the north and saw spouts all around the southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. This is often a hot spot for humpback whale feeding, in part due to the steep slope of the bank which interacts with currents to push nutrients to the water’s surface. Despite the driving rain, we had incredible views of group feeding. At one point, between 7 and 10 whales surfaced through a bubble net, mouths agape.
We all got soaked, but there were so many whales everyone forgot about the rain!
May 5th was a foggy morning, but it soon lifted and the waters became still and beautiful. The humpbacks were still feeding away, and their bubble nets attracted a slew of birds, gathering at the surface to scoop up the fish driven to the surface by the humpbacks. One of our naturalists spotted her first Manx shearwater of the year. This little bird is highly migratory, heading to the coasts of South America during the winter. They tend to show up in Stellwagen Bank just after the humpbacks do.
In addition to our exciting seabird sighting, The Dolphin VIII had a visit from a terrestrial songbird, what we think was a black-throated green warbler. Sometimes after windy weather, terrestrial birds get blown offshore and take a break on the rails of our boats before heading home.
We remarked on how clean and distinct the bubble rings and smiled with recognition as we watched one of our most familiar whales surface through the feeding frenzy. It was Salt! Salt’s distinct white dorsal fin makes her easy to identify.
Putter, Springboard, Jabiru, Xylem and Wizard were also seen feeding. The whales were in small groups and the group compositions changed quickly. This ephemeral nature of feeding groups is typical of humpback whales, so we weren’t surprised to see associations change over the course of the trip.
Scylla’s 2008 calf took a break from feeding had did a quick close boat approach, lifting its knobby head out of the water to peer at passengers aboard the Dolphin IX.
On our way back in from Stellwagen, we even got a chance to see a little gang of Harbor porpoise hanging out near the entrance to the harbor. These porpoises often travel alone or in small groups. They are easy to miss, but we spotted their bobbing dorsal fins and were able to get a close look!
Both trips on May 6th featured intense humpback whale feeding in the Southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank with lots of appearances from old friends. Lavaliere, Pogo, Fracture, Division and Bounce all made appearances.
As they lunged through the huge schools of fish, the humpbacks would lift their heads almost completely out of the water, almost as if they were spy-hopping. As they closed their mouths, huge streams of water would drain out the sides, and we could see the muscular pleats on the undersides of their body contracting and squeezing their prey down their gullets.
At one point, Circus, a seven-year-old humpback whale, took a break from the feeding and rolled around on its side, slapping its enormous flipper. Overall, we estimated that at least 25 individuals were spotted today!
On May 7th we seemed to experience the entire repertoire of humpback whale activity up on the Southwest corner of Stellwagen Bank. We couldn’t believe our luck to find that the feeding had continued and we had at least 20 adult humpbacks feeding and foraging in the area. At one point on the morning trip, four humpbacks were chin breaching, and then started to simultaneously flipper as we got closer. While we don’t have a concrete explanation for either of these behaviors, they sometimes appear to have a social function.
In the afternoon, we found a total of 6 mother and calf humpback whale pairs: Thumper, Pisces, Binary, Abrasion, Rapier and Dome were all accompanied by their respective calves. These calves were born over the winter in the Caribbean and will stay with their mothers for about a year, feeding on their mothers milk and learning to feed on fish and krill before venturing out on their own.
May 8th was gray and overcast with an occasional drizzle, and the seas crested at 2-3 feet as we headed out to the Southwest corner of Stellwagen. As we approached, we began to see spouts far to the north, the west, and even a few to the east. We saw some birds, but no visible surface feeding, and we soon determined that the humpbacks were on the move. We saw very few flukes, but fortunately we saw several breaches. Pisces and calf were continually breaching. Pisces chin breached as she traveled north, while her little calf tail breached and even performed a few full spinning breaches!
Soon, the wind picked up to over 20 knots and we slogged our way back to Ptown in 5-6 foot seas! Those of us still brave enough for the upper deck on the way back were treated to a look at several diving gannets, and even a razorbill. Razorbills are related to puffins and are not seen often on our trips!
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Life lessons learned while working on the railroad
I learned a lot from the variety of railroad jobs I held while attending college, namely:
1. I wasn’t cut out for a career involving manual labor outdoors.
2. There’s a lot of wisdom to be absorbed while working with blue-collar mentors.
3. You cover a six-team parlay with one sure thing.
4. It’s a lot more fun to ride a train than work on one.
5. We lost a lot when the passenger trains died.
The Union Pacific Railroad has been very good to me, and my family. My paternal grandfather, a great uncle, my father and several uncles made livings working for the railroad, most of them for the U.P. Both of my brothers worked there and my railroad jobs pretty much paid my way through college.
I took my first job as a mail handler at Union Station in Omaha right after my high school graduation. As an on-call member of a group of students dubbed “the school board,” that meant mostly overnight work on weekends when a regular called in sick (or otherwise impaired). The next summer, I took a more-steady gig at a massive rail mail center in Council Bluffs, tossing bags of bulk mail headed to all corners of the United States. I also managed a couple of weeks during the Christmas rush.
For the last three years of college, though, I returned to Union Station where I worked as a coach cleaner. We didn’t actually clean coaches as much as we provided passengers with water. Since most streamliners passed through Omaha in the dead of night, that was when we lugged heavy hoses to each coach, filling them with water to last until their next stop.
One summer, though, I was lucky enough to have several weeks duty of driving an ice wagon throughout the station, icing down drinking fountains and servicing dining cars. For another summer, I was “set up” as a carman’s helper, oiling wheel boxes and bleeding brake lines.
None of my railroad jobs exist today, at least not in the fashion they functioned at that time. The work could be brutal, working in all types of weather and occasionally getting trapped between trains with no escape until one of them left.
The weather alone was enough to make me determined to never do this kind of work for a living, although most of my co-workers did exactly that. The life lessons learned from these hard-working, mostly uneducated, men was a welcome complement to my formal college training.
I joined my first unions on the railroad, placed my first bets on college football games there, became adept at an obscure version of mumbledy-peg and learned the value of punching in and out on time.
Working as I did in a once-ornate train station, complete with one of the area’s fine dining establishments, I witnessed first-hand the decline of passenger rail service. The restaurant had slipped badly before I started working there and the trains disappeared, one by one. Besides eventually losing my full-time job, it was a sad thing to go through.
Amtrak still serves the area with limited passenger service, but it’s nothing like the heyday. Fortunately, Union Station is still around, but as a museum.
Next time, I’ll write about my four-year stint in the U.S. Air Force.
Flickr photo courtesy of Rodzina.
Tags: family history, Omaha, Union Pacific, Union Station, work
Life lessons learned in a bowling establishment
I learned a lot from my second job, at Twin City Bowl in Council Bluffs, Iowa, namely:
1. Beer plays an important role in the fiscal vitality of a bowling center.
2. I have serious limitations in mechanical matters.
3. When a business is foundering, cash your paycheck ASAP.
4. Hard-working, otherwise sensible Americans often jump at an opportunity to gamble.
5. Nice guys don’t necessarily make the best businessmen.
My first experience in the world of steady paychecks came when I was just starting my junior year in high school when I was recruited to work at one of my town’s four bowling centers. Just a few years before, there was just one bowling alley in town and the sport was enjoying a huge growth spurt, cleaning up its image of being dark, smoky men-only retreats with sleek, modern centers catering to women and kids.
As something of a hotshot junior bowler, the proprietor at Twin City Bowl approached me about working there before I reached the mandatory age of 16. So, for a month or so, he paid me off the books while I learned the ins and outs of picking up empty plates and bottles, emptying ashtrays, sweeping floors and myriad other duties.
The hours weren’t so hot, working late nights several times a week, but the perks were great: bowling at a reduced (sometimes free) rate, free food when working, even a trip to the premiere of the professional Omaha Packers entry in the short-lived National Bowling League. I mostly loved it, at least for the first year.
I quickly learned that you don’t pick up a bottle of beer with a half-inch of suds left in it and that you didn’t allow any beer to be sold (or even be seen) during the Saturday night Baptist Mixed League. There were typically two of us teens working each night, one in the back to fix broken pin-setting machines and one to work the front where the people were. My brief stints in the back were disastrous as I had a tendency to replace broken belts incorrectly, sending pins flying in directions the Brunswick engineers never intended.
Our snack bar-dining area was a draw in itself since we employed a head cook who made pies from scratch and homemade pasta every weekday. The wait staff was bolstered each spring by the arrival of a wisp of a Southern Belle who accompanied her husband, an oddsmaker at the nearby Ak-Sar-Ben horse racing track, to spend a few months while the horses were in town, dishing up chocolate malts and cheeseburgers while dispensing her own brand of racing advice. It may be just my overactive, teenage imagination of the time, but it seemed like the flow of customers to the tiny snack bar was much greater when she was in town.
As good as business seemed to be to me, apparently things weren’t quite as rosy in the cash flow department. The front-back working situation was consolidated into one job more nights than I liked, forcing some of us into work we were unsuited for or uninterested in. Paydays became unreliable and reached a point where we had to cash checks on the spot rather than risk nonpayment at a bank teller’s window.
The easy-going, mild-mannered proprietor who had recruited me turned sour and surly and the pie-baking, pasta-making cook jumped to a rival bowling center. By the time I reached the home stretch of my senior year, I’d had enough, too. It would be more than a year before I worked steadily again but I spent that year occasionally filling in on my first railroad job, as a mail handler.
Next time, I’ll fill you in on the railroad jobs that carried me through my college years.
Photo of Twin City Bowl by lwlehmer.
Posted at 12:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)
Tags: bowling, family history, Twin City Bowl, work
Life lessons learned from a paper route
I learned a lot from my first job, as a newspaper carrier, namely:
1. Aluminum storm doors make an ungodly racket when struck by a well-folded brick of newsprint.
2. A person can eat just so many chocolate covered cherries.
3. Some adults “earn” their beer money by stiffing the paper kid.
4. Some minister’s wives would feel right at home on a burlesque stage.
5. That postman’s creed about delivering in rain, snow, darkness, etc., goes double for paper boys.
Oh sure, there were grand lessons of responsibility and financial independence, but the real nitty gritty came from the wildly unpredictable personal interactions and financial dealings with adults outside my family.
I was 13 when I assumed control of Route 60a of the Council Bluffs Nonpareil, about 75 subscribers over an eight-block area on the blue collar west side of town for which I would earn 11 cents per customer for delivering their paper seven days a week, 52 weeks a year, except for Christmas Day.
The Nonpareil was an afternoon paper six days a week, but shifted to mornings on Sundays. Those were the days I had to trudge nearly a mile in the predawn darkness, stuff preprinted sections and ads into the main paper and trudge back to start my deliveries. Obviously, this could be a brutal winter experience in Iowa.
Good service was the key to tips, which usually came a nickel at a time with the paper priced at 45 cents a week – except for Christmas, when roughly every other customer added a box of chocolate covered cherries to your booty. Good service meant not banging those aluminum doors. It was much wiser to slip the paper between the front doors, especially on days when lousy weather was expected.
Whatever the weather, customers expected timely, dry delivery of their paper. That made it doubly frustrating when customers just scratched their heads come collection day, usually on Friday night. It didn’t take long to realize who the deadbeats were, but the paper had a policy of not cancelling anyone less than four weeks in arrears and the carrier usually ended up eating the loss.
That sting was assuaged a bit by the kindly grandmotherly types who were generous with their praise and pocketbooks and the occasional floor show by a particular minister’s wife, whose collection-night attire (as filtered through the eyes of a 13-year-old) could best be described as “flimsy negligee.”
Being a paper carrier was hard, but rewarding, work. Having control of a few dollars a week at that time of my life was good training for the years ahead. I was able to start a savings plan for college, had a steady resource stream for my new hobby of coin collecting and learned plenty about dealing with adults I only knew on a business basis.
But, after a few years, it was time to move on. Next time, I’ll tell you about my working days at Twin City Bowl.
Flickr photo courtesy of ratigger76.
Tags: Council Bluffs, family history, paper carriers
Work: It’s more than just what we do
Studs Terkel’s book about work in America is simply titled “Working.”
But the subtitle of the 1974 classic is more revealing: "People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do."
Our work is as important to us as it was to our ancestors. You may find occupational threads in your own family histories – lawyers begetting lawyers, farmers producing farmers – or you may find crazy quilt non-patterns, reflective of changing times, upward mobility or, perhaps, streaks of rebellion. Regardless of your own personal history, our jobs help define us.
With Labor Day 2008 on the horizon, I’ve been thinking about the jobs I’ve held in my lifetime and what I’ve learned from each. Over the next several days, I’ll write a bit about my work history and the life lessons taken from each job. I’ll start with my days as a newspaper carrier and proceed through my jobs at a bowling alley, with the railroad, for the Omaha public schools, as an Air Force officer and through my lengthy career as newspaper reporter and editor before my current position as a personal historian.
As you sort through your own working years, what jobs have given you the most satisfaction? What have you learned from each stop on your career path? While I hope you’ll include that information in your own personal history, it would be great if you shared it here, too, with your comments.
Flickr photo courtesy of mjkmjk.
Tags: family history, personal history, Studs Terkel, work
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Home Motorcycle Types Cruiser Harley’s Krawiec Pilots V-Rod to Indy NHRA Nationals Win
Harley’s Krawiec Pilots V-Rod to Indy NHRA Nationals Win
Matt King
Harley’s Ed Krawiec at Indy NHRA
Indy NHRA Nationals 2014 Pro Motorcycle Results
Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Ed Krawiec stormed through the Pro Stock Motorcycle field at the Chevrolet Performance NHRA U.S. Nationals at Lucas Oil Raceway Monday to earn his first career win at the prestigious drag racing event.
It was the third win of the season and second in a row for Krawiec in the NHRA Mellow Yello Drag Racing Series.
“It’s so awesome to get a win here at Indy,” said Krawiec, a three-time Pro Stock Motorcycle champion. “There’s so much tradition at this race, a win here is sort of on a different level. My professional goals have always been to get a win at my home track in Englishtown, to win the championship, and to get a win at Indy. Now I’ve done all three. It would be great to cap this season with another championship for Harley-Davidson.”
Krawiec moves on to the six-race Countdown to the Championship playoffs with the second seed in the Pro Stock Motorcycle class. Harley-Davidson Screamin’ Eagle/Vance & Hines rider Andrew Hines locked up the number-one seed for the Countdown with a win in the first round of eliminations on Monday.
“That number one seed is a nice place to be,” said Hines. “I don’t think I’ve been there since 2010, and I’ll sure take the 20 bonus points that go with it.”
Krawiec set the tone for his Labor Day weekend by earning the top qualifying position with a 6.829-second run aboard his Harley-Davidson® V-Rod® motorcycle in round four on Sunday. Hines qualified the team’s other V-Rod ninth with an Elapsed Time (E.T.) of 6.926 seconds.
In Monday’s elimination rounds, Hines defeated Nitrofish Suzuki rider LE Tonglet in the first round before losing to Krawiec in round two.
“Meeting Ed in the second round is a consequence of qualifying in the lower half of the field,” said Hines. “We never got my bike running as well as Ed’s this weekend, and we had some tire issues. But we got in some extra runs and good data we can take into the Countdown.”
Krawiec scored solid wins over PiranaZ Racing Buell rider Shawn Gann, Hines, and Lucas Oil Buell rider Hector Arana Jr. to advance to his fifth final-round appearance of the season. In a reprise of the September 27 final at Sonoma Raceway, Krawiec faced number-two qualifier Jerry Savoie on his Savoie Alligator Farm Suzuki. For the second race in a row, Krawiec was the winner with an ET of 6.941 seconds to the 6.987-second run of Savoie. Krawiec now has 25 career final-round wins.
“I had such a good V-Rod motorcycle to race all weekend,” said Krawiec. “We changed my entire set-up on Saturday and gave away my lead in qualifying, but I knew I had the motorcycle to take it right back. The Screamin’ Eagle team is going to carry some real momentum into the Countdown.”
Series points for the top-ten riders now re-set for the six-race Countdown, with 10 points separating each rider and Hines getting 20 bonus points for earning the top seed.
The Countdown to the Championship gets underway on Sept. 12-14 at the 7th annual NHRA Carolina Nationals at zMAX Dragway in Concord, N.C.
Ed Krawiec
Harley V-Rod
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Characters in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy, Multiplayer skins in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
Who is Asav?
Nadine Ross (formerly)
Orca (formerly) †
Rebel Leader
Doctor (formerly)
Voice actor:
Progress demands sacrifice.
Asav was a ruthless warlord, and the leader of a group of rebel insurgents. He serves as the main antagonist of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy.
A former doctor turned insurgent leader, Asav and his ragtag band of rebels stir up trouble across his homeland of India. Obsessed with toppling the Indian government, he directs his men to loot ancient sites to fund his war effort, all while keeping one step ahead of the Indian army. Intelligent and pragmatic, his quiet demeanor belies a sadistic streak he keeps tucked away for special occasions.
Official Uncharted: The Lost Legacy bio.
Background Edit
Little is known about Asav's background other than that he was training to be a doctor before he became a rebel. He is well read in Hoysala culture and the old kings of India. One of his soldiers says Asav is married, but he wears no rings and doesn't mention a wife at all. In order to build his army, he used his charisma to convince social outcast and weak-willed people in India to join his insurgent army to overthrow the ''tyrannical'' Indian government like all terrorist leader would do.
Asav had a brief partnership with Nadine Ross, and though it is never specified, based on his interactions with her in The Lost Legacy it was presumably a romantic one, though it ended badly.
After months of unsuccessfully fighting the Indian government, Asav began hunting for the Tusk of Ganesh so he could use it to rally people to his cause but in fact, he intended to spark civil war by trading the Tusk with Shoreline for a military-graded bomb to destroy an Indian city, which would cause mass chaos. During the chaos, he could rally up people by promising order and prosperity under his rule in which he will amass enough desperate people to build a large army strong enough to topple Indian government.
Samuel Drake was intentionally put into his rank by Chloe as expert to solve the way to get the Tusk but in fact he tried to slow Asav down by making him go on a wild goose chase. At the same time, Sam's partner, Chloe Frazer , called Nadine to help locate the Tusk.
Events of Uncharted: The Lost Legacy Edit
Main article: Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Chloe and Nadine enter the active war zone to steal an artifact that is the secret to locating the Tusk of Ganesh inside Asav's main base.
The two break into his high-rise and observe his stolen artifacts, and even ivory trade, before breaking into his safe and stealing the Disc of Ganesh. However, Asav returns to the top floor with armed men. He is surprised to see Nadine but nonetheless warmly greets her, though he slightly mocks her for losing Shoreline and working with a thief like Chloe. After Chloe reveals she has the disc and fails to bargain their way out, Asav orders them executed. Nadine and Chloe manage to escape via the rooftops until crash landing in the river.
Asav litters the Western Ghats with his men, and Ross and Frazer notice him entering with his convoy.
While making their way to the aqueducts, Asav has his men posted outside and hunts Chloe and Nadine in an APC. Though it seems they escape his sights, Asav rams through the wall they were climbing, giving him the opportunity to steal the disc back. He explains his goals whilst referencing the old kings of Hoysala, and prepares to execute Chloe. Nadine escaping distracts him and a fight ensues. To Frazer's surprise, Asav is a fearsome opponent, and she cannot gain the upper hand until Ross sneaks up from behind, but Asav still throws them through a brick wall and into the aqueducts.
After Chloe and Nadine fall into the river, and Asav ambushes and captures them along with Sam. They enter a puzzle room that depicts Ganesh being struck by Parashurama and losing his Tusk. He forces Chloe to solve the puzzle with Sam and Nadine's lives on the line, and doing so reveals the Tusk of Ganesh. Asav readies the chamber to detonate and drown the three, though this gives them the opportunity to escape.
Asav has sold the Tusk to Shoreline in return for a military-grade bomb that will be detonated in the heart of an Indian city, in order to spark a civil war that will erase the bloodline of the new kings. It would also create nationwide chaos, allowing Asav to use manipulation to recruit the most desperate people to topple the Indian government. He loads the bomb in a train, but Chloe and Nadine have already re-directed it to a broken bridge. By now, Asav violently fights Frazer and Ross and states to them that when he gets rid of them he will buy another bomb to continue his cause. With some struggle, the two pin him down beneath the bomb. Knowing that he will die, he gloats to them that more people will rise up to his cause and he will be the martyr for the rebellion. The train then falls off the bridge, causing the bomb to detonate, killing Asav, and presumably ending his rebellion.
Multiplayer Edit
Asav is available as a multiplayer skin for the Villains side. He can be purchased for 300 Uncharted Points or unlocked via a DLC Vanity Chest.
Single-player skins and variants Edit
Asav (Train)
Character Edit
You see, to rule a people, you must first sow chaos.
Asav put on a suave and civilized facade when meeting Chloe and Nadine
Outwardly polite and soft-spoken, Asav declares himself a passionate freedom fighter for his homeland - at least as an excuse for many of his actions. In truth Asav was a ruthless insurgent rebel obsessed with the toppling of the Indian government which he declared as weak and corrupt. Well-read in Hoysala culture, Asav loathes the bloodline of the new king which is rampant in India due to the mercy of the young king virtually ending the rituals of the old kings, the bloodline of Asav which he considers superior. Among his many facades, a man who fought for the Indian people was perhaps Asav’s most delusional due to his brutal and self-obsessed nature, maybe if ideology was communist or theocratic (since you see a religious man, since he mentions that he worships the Hindu gods when he takes the Tusk).
Asav’s hypocritical mindset is further evident via his actions whilst desecrating the Hoysala ruins and even the lost city of Belur - surprising even Chloe Frazer who believed Asav would hold respect for the forgotten capital due to being key in his own culture’s history and his own proclaimed respect for Indian heritage and history. Ultimately, as a war profiteer, Asav has robbed artifacts from their sacred places - including the Tusk of Ganesh - to finance his war against the Indian government. A weakness in that regard is how Asav’s enemies underestimate his complete ruthlessness in accomplishing his goals, Chloe and Nadine Ross believed Asav would use the Tusk of Ganesh to waver more sympathizers to his cause yet his decision to sell it for a bomb highlights his claims of preserving his culture’s heritage was ultimately false and he was a warlord to his core.
As a strong believer in Hindu mythology, Asav did not fear death due to the idea that everything was replenished and reborn anew. This viewpoint seemed to encourage his actions as by destroying the current Indian government it would allow it to return from the ashes stronger with the blood of the old king. Asav also used this as an excuse for his victims to reflect on the past mistakes on their lives that brought them to their death so they would fare well to avoid it in their next life, something which he claims to Chloe, Nadine and Sam in a sadistic fashion before leaving them to drown. This could explain his lack of concern over his impending death whilst fighting Chloe and Nadine on his train which was headed towards a destroyed bridge - though Asav’s insanity at this point could be a factor in this regard. He often mocked to Chloe “see you in the next life” in his game over sequences.
Asav’s truly sadistic and bloodthirsty nature
Despite trying to project himself as polite and civilized, Asav was an arrogant opponent who reveled in violence though his difficulty in finding the perfect balance made him, as Nadine claimed “as unpredictable as they come”. Though he claimed to consider himself a patient man, Asav continuously degraded and insulted Chloe and Nadine whilst attacking them on board his train as his well-mannered facade dissipates over frustration whilst dealing with the two. Even his final words were an insult to those who had bested him, highlighting his truly sadistic nature hidden behind a polite facade that ultimately cracked.
Matching his supposed passion for his Indian brothers, Asav holds a great deal of disdain for foreigners such as Sam Drake and Chloe - the latter especially for being “half-blood” and a thief (despite being similar to his own line of work). Nevertheless, he comes to have a begrudging respect for her knowledge of Hoysala and Indian culture, locating the lost city of Belur and ultimately admits “there may be a drop of Indian blood in [her] after all”. To serve his own goals, though Asav would think nothing of destroying an entire “city of peasants” (in his perspective) if it was rampant with the supposed weak bloodline of the young king.
Skills and Abilities Edit
Asav is a master combatant, brutal and efficient in hand-to-hand combat, easily overpowering both Chloe and Nadine fighting him as a cohesive unit. Asav's restricted and controlled fighting stance comes across as barely held together, his sadistic tendencies simmering just beneath the surface. It isn't until the finale where he's backed up against a wall that Asav bears down on Chloe and Nadine with his full strength.
Asav is similar to Zoran Lazarević, the main antagonist of Uncharted 2: Among Thieves.
Both have their own personal armies; Lazarević has his own private army, and Asav has his insurgents .
Both captured the protagonists at the moment where they're about to open the way to the treasure, and forced the main protagonist to open the way while threatening their friends' lives; Lazarević forced Nathan Drake to work alongside Harry Flynn in opening the gateway to Shambhala while holding Chloe and Elena at gunpoint, and Asav forced Chloe to solve the puzzles needed in order to reveal the Tusk of Ganesh while holding Nadine and Sam at gunpoint.
Both were defeated, but not killed by the protagonists, and were left by them to die; Lazarević was beaten to death by the Shambhala Guardians after Nathan Drake defeated him by shooting the explosive resin near him, and Asav was killed by a bomb explosion after Chloe Frazer and Nadine Ross defeated him in hand-to-hand combat near the bomb, causing the bomb to crush his leg, leaving him to die as the train fell off the bridge and the bomb detonated.
Asav is one of, if not the most, toughest antagonists to be fought in hand-to-hand combat in the series. Like Nadine Ross in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End, Asav is capable of taking on two people at once, in which he easily overpowered Chloe Frazer and even Nadine Ross herself single-handedly until he was either caught off-guard by a double team, or was being restrained by Nadine, allowing Chloe to attack him.
Asav vs Nadine and Chloe held in a moving train to the broken bridge.
Nadine vs Nate and Sam held in a broken/abandoned cottage in Libertalia.
Gallery Edit
Asav's avatar
Characters in The Lost Legacy
Chloe Frazer · Nadine Ross · Samuel Drake
Asav · Orca · Shoreline
Meenu · Sandeep · Wasim
Atoq Navarro · Charlie Cutter · Eddy Raja · Elena Fisher · Gabriel Roman · Harry Flynn · Katherine Marlowe · Knot · Nathan Drake · Rafe Adler · Rameses · Salim · Talbot · Tenzin · Victor Sullivan · Zoran Lazarević
Retrieved from "https://uncharted.fandom.com/wiki/Asav?oldid=103325"
Characters in Uncharted: The Lost Legacy
Multiplayer skins in Uncharted 4: A Thief's End
More Uncharted Wiki
1 Nathan Drake
2 Samuel Drake
3 Chloe Frazer
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« What’s so Bad about the Gold Standard?
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Benjamin Cole Remembers Richard Nixon (of Blessed Memory?)
Published April 15, 2016 Uncategorized 11 Comments
On Marcus Nunes’s Historinhas blog, Benjamin Cole has just written a guest post about Richard Nixon’s August 15, 1971 speech imposing a 90-day freeze on wages and prices, abolishing the last tenuous link between the dollar and gold and applying a 10% tariff on all imports into the US. Tinged with nostalgia for old times, the post actually refers to me in the title, perhaps because of my two recent posts on free trade and the gold standard. Well, rather than comment directly on Ben’s post, I will just refer to one of my first posts as a blogger marking the fortieth anniversary of Nixon’s announcement, which I recall with considerably less nostalgia than Ben, and explaining some of its, mostly disastrous, consequences.
PS But Ben is right to point out that stock prices rose about 4 or 5 percent the day after the announcement, a reaction that, of course, was anything but rational.
11 Responses to “Benjamin Cole Remembers Richard Nixon (of Blessed Memory?)”
1 Benjamin Cole April 15, 2016 at 8:29 pm
Yes, I referred to you in the title, and explain so (perhaps clumsily) in the PS, that you recently addressed free trade, and you said that few if any other tenets of modern macroeconomics are held in such high regard as free trade.
I am probably mostly a free trader too, but I do find the macroeconomics profession is completely close-minded on the topic, there is no room for debate, and I doubt an aspiring Phd could secure a position at any major campus in America while prominently espousing an non-free trade viewpoint.
But after all, the benefits of free trade are theoretical, given the huge structural impediments and institutional imperfections in the world. Of that cross-border migrations of millions of people is usually illegal. Then there are sometimes meaningful concerns about environment, and transfers of military technology. Is manufacturing sourced in the nations with the most oppressive regimes?
How about infant industries?
I think free trade, or least the shape of international trade, is a debatable topic.
A dew decades back very serious people gave the thumb’s up to Nixon for across-the-board 10% tariffs. The New York Times gushed in admiration. So, was Nixon right or wrong? i will read you roost on the topic.
Yes, nostalgia too. Nixon was a crook, but at least he was an interesting crook.
I will read your “post,” not “roost,” on the topic.
David-
I read your excellent “40th anniversary” post on Aug. 15 1971.
As always, top-flight stuff from you.
But you address the 10% tariff only a little.
And if we believe in EMH, why the Wall Street surge?
And the fact is, the economy expanded by more than 11% in the two years 1972–1973 (more than 5% annually).
In one way, that could be viewed as a leader delivering the goods to the public. And we know now (from tapes) Nixon was bullying Burns to go along.
Is chronic suffocation by the Fed today a batter way?
You are dead right on petroleum products. Of course, wage and price controls don’t work except perhaps in wartime, and then even maybe not.
4 Hugo André April 17, 2016 at 6:44 am
@Benjamin
There may be a case for rethinking the free-trade views but your specific examples seem a bit odd.
The infant industries argument is taught in most undergraduate textbooks on trade (these also teach the tariff income argument saying that countries with a small tax base may need to levy tariffs). The reason for the lack of research about the topic is presumably that it’s hard to model (and the fact that earlier studies were running into decreasing returns). Environmental degradation and transfers of military technology as effects of trade would seem even more difficult. The problem is that these effects are fairly static.
If there came a prospective phd student with promising ideas on how to develop theories about these things (and if the student’s theories were informative), I’m sure he/she could’ve gotten a position.
5 Frank Restly April 17, 2016 at 8:45 am
Let us remember who the economic luminaries were that concocted this grand scheme:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nixon_shock
To combat these issues, President Nixon consulted:
1. Federal Reserve chairman Arthur Burns
2. Treasury Secretary John Connally
3. Undersecretary for International Monetary Affairs and future Fed Chairman Paul Volcker.
On the afternoon of Friday, August 13, 1971, these officials along with twelve other high-ranking White House and Treasury advisors met secretly with Nixon at Camp David. There was great debate about what Nixon should do, but ultimately Nixon, relying heavily on the advice of the self-confident Connally, decided to break up Bretton Woods by suspending the convertibility of the dollar into gold; freezing wages and prices for 90 days to combat potential inflationary effects; and impose an import surcharge of 10 percent, to prevent a run on the dollar, stabilize the US economy, and decrease US unemployment and inflation rates, on August 15, 1971.
The ironic thing is that the tariffs meant to address trade imbalance and price controls meant to address inflation were short lived while taking the U. S. off the gold standard was permanent. The net effect was to permit the U. S. to run large budget and trade deficits.
6 David Glasner April 17, 2016 at 9:23 am
Benjamin, The New York Times applauded the decision to impose a wage and price freeze, so I don’t think that the Times opinion on the subject has much credibility. Free trade is not really as much of a macro issue as a micro issue. The analysis of comparative advantage and the gains from trade is pure micro. The effect on jobs is more complicated and involves macro analysis as well as micro analysis. Most of the exceptions to free trade doctrine have actually been discovered by economic theorists, so many of the analytical tools to dispute free trade have been worked out by economists. My point in my post on free trade was to say that economists underestimate the losses associated with job losses and the undermining of communities when entire industries as decimated by free trade (or technological progress). I can’t do the analysis myself, but I am suggesting what needs to be changed to make it more relevant.
I agree that the rise in stock prices is anomalous. I don’t know how EMH, which I don’t believe in except as a general tendency, would explain the rise. There’s no mystery about why the economy expanded, monetary expansion worked. But they overdid it, and it backfired and then they overdid it when they put the brakes on just as oil prices started zooming up.
Hugo, Infant industry argument is theoretically valid, but difficult to apply. It was used to justify huge wastes of resources for two generations or more by developing countries that believed that the path development was through industrialization. China found a better way by opening up the country to foreign investors that would build factories to manufacture their exports more cheaply than their existing facilities. So the Chinese strategy worked by circumventing the infant industry scenario.
7 Benjamin Cole April 22, 2016 at 8:56 am
David– I sense you are a fan of economic history, so you may enjoy my latest post at Historinhas on Reagan.
I had forgotten that Reagan was the Great Protectionist!
8 David Glasner April 22, 2016 at 10:59 am
Thanks, Ben. I’ll have a look. You are probably overstating slightly, but let’s just say that Reagan could be flexible.
David: I think you will be surprised at the extent of Reagan’s protectionism. Cato Institute wrote about Reagan’s Protectionism in 1988, before the PC hagiographers set in.
Well, free trade, in a world of gigantic structural impediments and institutional imprecations remains a fascinating topic.
Do multi-nationals source where labor has no rights and environmental controls are a joke? But report profits in the Cayman Islands? I sense this is part of free trade too. (I have talked to accountants at the old Arthur Andersen whose full-time job it was to source profits for multi-national clients in the lowest tax district).
Another annoying aspect: You read the blogs, and the topic is always free trade, immigration and the minimum wage. Yes, we should have free trade, open immigration and no minimum wage, in theory. But one would have to be naive to think there is not an element of “tilting the playing field against the employee-class” in this mix of everyday topics and policy recommendations.
Meanwhile, other larger depredations on free commerce—property zoning and the ubiquitous criminalization of push-cart vending—well, they are not everyday topics.
Gee, do you think high-rise luxury condo developers would like to bulldoze upper-income single-family detached neighborhoods? In free markets they would.
And if people could start up their own businesses for a few hundred dollars, and play the streets, would they need jobs?
Unfortunately, I think people profess to like free enterprise when it works for them. Well, duh.
10 Benjamin Cole April 23, 2016 at 8:52 pm
David:
At the risk of being overbearing, here are some additional thoughts on free trade:
I am not sure what I am talking about.
Maybe like this: Okay, we believe in sticky wages. But in purely free commerce, wages should drop to clear labor markets. So in theory, sticky wages do not exist.
But due to institutional, legal, contractual, traditional and cultural issues, wages do not drop quickly enough in the U.S. The theory does not work as a practical guide to actual policy-making.
Sticky wages are a structural impediment, and we sensibly adjust macroeconomic policy to accommodate this impediment. Indeed, we Market Monetarists like moderate inflation.
I suspect something similar is going on in international trade along the lines of huge institutional imperfections and structural impediments.
I cannot prove this.
The Japan stock market surges on export outlook. Far East nations have boomed for generations on the export model. Germany is the strong man of Europe, and an exporter. For that matter, everybody’s favorite Singapore has been running mounting trade surpluses for two decades.
Yes, there are exceptions. The US remains rich (though there is the structural impediment that works in our favor, and that is we have a reserve currency). Hong Kong is an importer (this may muddy upon closer examination).
Something nags at me about the “import our way to prosperity, and run up mounting debts to foreign holders of IOUs” model.
Maybe it is old-fashioned Puritanism, aversion to debt. Ben Franklin-ism, “Neither borrower nor lender be.”
Perhaps I have a misplaced moral sense one is supposed to work for the standard of living, not send pieces of paper in exchange for goods and services. It reeks of decadence!
Perhaps I should be more internationalist (difficult, when one’s nation levies taxes by confiscation, and neighborhood crime rates and unemployment directly affect the quality of life).
There are also some empirical observations. The US did fine under President Reagan, the most aggressive protectionist (by a country mile) of the Post-War Era.
After President Nixon slapped on a 10% across the board tariff in August 15 1971, the US economy expanded by more than 5% in 1972 and another 5% in 1973.
BTW, the largest one-day gain in Dow history (to that point) was the Monday after Nixon applied the tariffs.
The Dow did fine under Reagan too. Reagan’s wide-ranging and aggressive protectionism evidently was not that harmful or dangerous.
I keep an open mind on trade issues.
11 David Glasner April 27, 2016 at 12:56 pm
Benjamin, I don’t think I would be surprised. Reagan built a career throwing rhetorical red meat to his base and doing what was politically expedient. Most successful politicians wind up doing something along those lines. However, I think that Reagan probably believed in free trade in some abstract sense even if he had no qualms about adopting protectionist policies when it was to his political advantage. And lets’ face it, his base hardly cared two cents about free trade. Free trade is an intellectual fetish of a small group of economists and an even smaller group of right-wing intellectuals. So there was no political price that Reagan had to pay for throwing his free trade principles overboard whenever he perceived it to be in his political interest to do so. That would distinguish Reagan from someone like Pat Buchanan who is a protectionist “on principle,” because it fits with his nationalist/chauvinist persona better than namby-pamby free trade.
I think the stock market went up in 1971 because there was an anticipation of monetary expansion and a hope that Nixon would keep wages from rising as fast as prices, allowing profit margins to rise. But remember that I am not Scott Sumner and I don’t believe in EMH. Do you remember how long the 10% tariff Nixon imposed in 1971 stayed in effect? I don’t think it lasted that long, so I think you are overstating its importance as you are overstating Reagan’s “protectionism.”
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Ottawa Hills Local Schools District Newsletter
3600 Indian Rd., Toledo, Ohio 43606
For the Love of Ottawa Hills
Love. It’s an overused word, an abused word. We say we love television shows, sports teams, restaurants, and roller coasters. We love feeling the sun on our face and the smell of lilacs. We love snow days and March Madness and the stereo systems in our cars. We use the word so much and so freely that we lessen its significance.
So when someone says, “I love Ottawa Hills, and I love this school,” one might question the sincerity of the speaker. Unless that person is Ann Kos. Then it’s clear that the sincerity behind those words is heartfelt…and true.
Ann Kos has served as an intervention specialist at Ottawa Hills Schools since 1993. But at the end of this school year, she will leave the school, staff, and students she so dearly loves and enter retirement.
The Kos family moved to Ottawa Hills in the early 70s, and for Mrs. Kos, it was love at first sight. “I enjoyed being part of the community and when my children were little, I spent my time volunteering in a variety of roles.” During those years, she had a hand in starting a Mother’s Study Group, the Town Hall Lecture Series, and even the local Ronald McDonald House. “My time was spent volunteering in the community and in the schools and raising my children,” she recounts.
As the children grew older, she was beckoned back to complete some unfinished business. Mrs. Kos had attended BGSU and Ohio State out of high school with the intent of becoming a home economics teacher. But marriage changed her path and the degree was never completed. So she went back to school to finish her degree; this time as a teacher for grades 1 through 8. It was Lucas County ESC Superintendent, Tom Baker, who changed Mrs. Kos’s path again, asking her, “Have you ever considered special education?”
That was all the incentive she needed. She began working at Northwood as a tutor for students with learning disabilities under temporary certification while she finished up her college coursework. Her next stop was Washington Local, where she also served as an LD tutor at three different school buildings. Her career at Ottawa Hills Schools occurred when she received a phone call from Ottawa Hills resident, Jill Gallon, who was a supervisor at the Educational Service Center. “She told me that Ottawa Hills had an opening and she encouraged me to consider it. I did. I started in the summer of 1993 and my first assignment was at the elementary as the LD teacher for the primary grades. Judy Haudan was the intermediate LD teacher. I spent about four or five years there, but the growth of the special education program brought me to the high school.”
She remembers that at that time, there were about three tutors at the junior/senior high school to work with students with learning disabilities. But there was no resource room to meet the unique needs of students who might need intensive attention in a self-contained classroom. She moved up to serve that need at the junior high level, teaching English, math, history, and science. And while she appreciates the growth of the program to include resource rooms, her joy has been being part of the inclusion of students with learning disabilities in the regular education classroom.
Memories of students with disabilities who found success in the regular education classroom bring a smile to her face. She knows that the evolution of special education services at Ottawa Hills mirrors education in general. “In high school I was in a college preparatory program. But I remember taking a home economics class, and across the hallway from that room was the special education classroom. There was a girl in there who would wave every time I walked by. But we never got to know her or any of the other students in that room. They weren’t part of the rest of the student body.”
Mrs. Kos remembers the beginning of inclusion for her students. “Betty Cooper walked by my classroom and asked, ‘What are you doing teaching science? Bring them into my room.’ And I did. And that was our first experience with inclusion.” She recounts that there were plenty of bumps in the road, but she credits the growth of the program to the many great teachers she has worked with and people like special education supervisor, Mary Sheffler, who “had a vision” for the way special education services should look at Ottawa Hills Schools.
While she has loved her role as an intervention specialist at Ottawa Hills, Mrs. Kos readily admits that the “loves of her life” are her children, David and Kimberly.
David is a 1988 graduate of O.H. The influence of former family and consumer sciences teacher, Laura Timofeev, coupled with the cooking the Kos family did together at home fueled David’s passion for culinary arts. He attended the Culinary Institute of America in Hyde Park, New York, enjoying an externship with Emeril Lagasse in New Orleans. From there, he worked for Four Seasons in Boston. Presently, David works at the corporate offices of Panera, developing culinary features for the restaurant. As a matter-of-fact, Panera’s Fuji Apple Chicken Salad, its number one selling salad, was developed by David. He lives in Tampa with his wife, Wanda, and their daughter, Sofia, who will be entering third grade at Academy of the Lakes next school year.
Kimberly graduated from O.H. in 1993. She played on a state championship field hockey team, and went on to play field hockey at Boston University. Distance didn’t keep Mrs. Kos from cheering on her daughter. “I could find inexpensive flights. I’d land on a Friday night, take the ‘T,’ and watch Kimberly’s games under the lights.” With David at Four Seasons at that time, Mrs. Kos’s East Caaoast visits were a family affair. Kimberly earned a degree in criminal justice from B.U. and went on to earn a Master’s Degree in education. She is now the athletic director at Newton Country Day School in Newton, Massachusetts. Kimberly lives there with her husband, Alec, and their daughter Lily, who will start kindergarten in the fall.
Mrs. Kos doesn’t see her life changing dramatically after retirement. Of course, she’ll have more time to visit her children and their families, and she even hints at volunteering at her grandchildren’s schools. But one thing is clear: she’ll continue to do things she loves to do. It’s what she’s used to.
“I’ve had such a wonderful ride here. There were maybe a few days a year that I’d wonder, ‘What have I gotten into?’ but those days were few and far between. I have loved walking the hallways, working with amazing students and a phenomenal team of teachers. I stand in amazement of how they collaborate and accommodate to challenge students and meet their needs. We have come so far, and I have loved being part of it. I love Ottawa Hills.”
There is no doubt that Mrs. Kos means what she says. And there is no doubt that, for those of us who know Ann Kos, the feeling is mutual.
"Green Bear Nation Celebration" is Tonight
Get ready for OHSPA's 2014 Carnival--"Green Bear Nation Celebration." The Carnival will run from tonight from 5:00 to 8:00 p.m. on the lawn of the elementary school. This year's event features lots of fun games and attractions, such as the popular Adrenaline Rush! Once again, the Boosters will be providing the food and refreshments.
Pre-sale carnival tickets will be sold at the elementary school yet today from 11-12 p.m. at the elementary circle. Pre-sale tickets are 5 for $1.00. Tickets at the carnival are 4 for $1.00. Only cash is accepted at the Boosters' Food Trailer.
It's not too late to volunteer to help out with the rides, games, and ticket sales. Please visit OHSPA’s website, http://ohspa.digitalpto.com, to volunteer!
"Ride of Silence" Will Honor Dave Larabee
Join cyclists worldwide in a silent, slow-paced ride in honor of those who have been injured or killed while cycling on public roadways. The 5th Annual Toledo "Ride of Silence" will be held on May 21, 2014, starting and ending at the University of Toledo's Parking Lot 1 North, located at the corner of Bancroft and North Towerview Blvd. The ride will be slow paced (12 mph maximum), covering 7.8 miles. Riders will be escorted by Toledo City Police, Ottawa Hills Police, and UT Police on route. Helmets are required.
There are no sponsors, no brochure, and no registration fee. However, you can find out more about the "Ride of Silence" by visiting the website here. You simply show up at UT's Parking Lot 1 on the 21st. The group will depart promptly at 7:00 p.m.
The "Ride of Silence" has special significance for the people of Ottawa Hills, as the group rides past Ottawa Hills High School to honor Dave Larabee, a beloved Ottawa Hills High School teacher who was struck and killed while riding his bicycle to school in September of 2005. The group has plans to stop at the bike racks which have been installed at the junior/senior high school. The bike racks were purchased with funds from OHSPA and through donations given by faculty, staff, and community members in memory of Mr. Larabee.
AFS is Looking for a Host Family for Pond from Thailand
Pond is a 16 year old boy who is described as happy, delightful and cheerful. His teachers say that he is an exceptional student, both in his academics and in extra-curricular activities. His English skills are great! He loves playing soccer, playing basketball and creating art in his spare time. He enjoys all kinds of food. Pond has lots of friends who respect him as a great student and as an open-minded, creative friend.
We are looking for a loving home for Pond. If interested, contact Linda Sherry at dsher343@aol.comor leave a message at 419-539-6946.
If you'd like more information about hosing an AFS student, watch our NW Ohio video featuring the Glossers, Mandy Tracy and other families from NW Ohio who have hosted students for AFS.
Students Attend Access to Justice Awards Dinner
On Wednesday, April 30, four Ottawa Hills High School students attended the annual "Access to Justice" Awards Dinner. More than 500 people attended the event, including local and regional community leaders, public officials, attorneys, judges, and community advocates. The dinner raises funds to increase critical financial support for legal services to the poor and to recognize individuals and organizations for their extraordinary service in the public interest. All proceeds from the event benefit Advocates for Basic Legal Equality, Inc. (ABLE), Legal Aid of Western Ohio, Inc. (LAWO), and the Toledo Bar Association Pro Bono Legal Services Program.
This year’s keynote speaker was author and activist Lilly Ledbetter who wrote Grace and Grit: My Fight for Equal Pay and Fairness. Social Studies teacher Tom McCarthy was joined by students Sara Eskandari, Lauren Jenkins, Adam Wright, and Quinn Wright. Many thanks to Patti Robb for extending an invitation to our teachers and students to attend this great event.
Sharing a Story of Survival
On the morning of April 25, seven Ottawa Hills High School students attended the 10th Annual United Jewish Council of Greater Toledo’s Diversity Program. It was held in the McMaster Center at the Main Branch of the Lucas County Library. Students listened to 86-year-old Holocaust survivor Martin Lowenberg, born in Schenklengsfeld, Germany, who experienced the entire gamut of Holocaust horrors inflicted upon him and his family: increasing discrimination; loss of German citizenship; loss of livelihood; loss of home and belongings; humiliation and dehumanization; physical beatings; forced slave labor; deportation to a ghetto; starvation; disease; a series of concentration and death camps; death march; and the loss of most family members and friends.
Attending were juniors Abby Dewire, Allie Dewire, and Nick Hauck; seniors Eriann Scharer, Alex Boesel, Claudia Fuhrman, and Alex Crider: freshmen Elizabeth Allen, Riley Carson, Spencer Colton, Renae Goik, Gillian Heckler, Priya Jindal, Sean Kazmi, Miranda King, Isabella McCluskey, Olivia Perz, Andrew Ponder, and Madison Shimborske. Ottawa Hills Social Studies teachers Tom McCarthy and Jessica Temple and English teacher Lauren Hurst escorted the students to the three-hour program.
OH ECLIPSE Club Explores Social and Environmental Issues
The OHHS ECLIPSE Club invited a local environmental leader to visit one of their meetings this past week. Claudia, from Health Foods by Claudia, stopped by OHHS on Wednesday to discuss with ECLIPSE Club members the benefits of eating naturally and the effects of GMOs (genetically modified organisms) on the environment and health.
On Sunday, ECLIPSE Club members Isabella McCluskey and Paulina Mendez, advisor Jeremy Nixon, OH Counselor Darcy Brown, OH Treasurer Brad Brown, and OH Elementary students Riley and Audrey Nixon spent two hours helping the "Growing to Give" charity in Perrysburg with their spring planting. The OH staff and students helped to weed the gardens, prepare compost, distribute mulch and plant lettuce, carrots, and radishes. The harvested food will be used for local community members around Lucas County.
Undefeated Girls Lax Begins Tournament Run
The Ottawa Hills Girls lacrosse team is one of only two teams in the state to go undefeated at this point in the season. They have had an incredibly tough schedule, but this group of talented and athletic girls has managed to beat Anthony Wayne, Southview, Northview, Maumee Valley, Perrysburg, Notre Dame, St. Ursula, and Western Reserve Academy throughout the course of the season. The team is led by team captains Alex Boesel, Liz Longthorne, and Claire Oxford. The team opened tournament play on Thursday, May 15th, by defeating Notre Dame Cathedral Latin, 13-2. They will now play Shaker Heights Hathaway Brown at O.H. Stadium on May 20 at 6:00 p.m. Please come out and support the team. Go Bears!
45th Annual Green Bear Relays
Despite a brief interruption due to a thunderstorm, Ottawa Hills hosted the 45th annual Green Bear Relays on Friday, May 9. Nearly a dozen schools from all over Ohio and southeast Michigan brought their track and field athletes to participate in one of the biggest and longest running track meets in Ohio.
Head track coach Matt Chappuies says, “Even though dampened by rain and halted by lightning three events shy of a complete meet, The Green Bear Relays were really amazing for our team. All the boys and girls fought hard throughout the night to attain several personal bests in many events. The Relays pose many interesting combinations of races and field events, and our athletes competed at a high level. All of the coaches were very proud of the effort and intestinal fortitude brought forth by the girls and boys teams alike."
The boys placed 5th out of 11 teams. The girls team finished in 10th place. First place recognition goes to the high jump team made up of senior Ed Harrison and freshmen Justin Williams and Adit Mukherjee. The three combined for a total jump of 16 feet 8 inches. Coaches Matt Chappuies, Matt Wrobleski, and Nancy Baumbarger, as well as athletic director Tim Erickson did a wonderful job organizing the event. In addition, many thanks to the army of teachers, staff members, students, and parent volunteers that made the event a huge success. The high school track team is competing in the TAAC league meet this evening.
Wipfli, Adkins and Zaurov attend BCSN awards
Hosted by Tom Cole, the staff of BCSN held their annual awards banquet at the Valentine Theater in downtown Toledo last week to celebrate the academic and athletic accomplishments of the students and teachers of the greater Toledo area and to thank their community partners for making television coverage possible. BCSN Teachers of the Month Steve Wipfli (December) and Tim Adkins (May) and Student of the Month Jennifer Zaurov (March) were invited to attend. Jennifer received a $1,500 scholarship from BCSN for her selection as Student of the Month, while Mr. Wipfli and Mr. Adkins each received a Kindle Fire in recognition for being named Teachers of the Month. Congratulations to Jennifer, Mr. Wipfli, and Mr. Adkins for being honored by BCSN this year!
Students Take Time to Help Food For Thought
Recently, the junior high started their first-ever Peanut Butter and Jelly Wars to benefit "Food For Thought," a local non-profit organization whose mission is to provide food for those in our community who need assistance. "Food For Thought" operates food pantries throughout the week, but the organization is also known for regular get-togethers every Friday night to make bagged lunches for individuals in need. On Saturday mornings, volunteers head to the downtown library to distribute the lunches.
The main part of every lunch that is passed out out is the classic peanut butter and jelly sandwich. The weekly lunches are only made possible with the generosity of donations from the community. Anyone interested can join the junior high teachers and students for tonight's sandwich session at 6:00 p.m. at the New Harvest Church in Oregon. More information about the group (along with their big fundraiser, Jam City) can be found at http://www.feedtoledo.org.
Demilt Wins Essay Contest
Congratulations to sophomore Donovan DeMilt who placed first in Division II The Toledo Bar Association essay contest. Essays were judged on format, clarity, style, reasoning, creativity and overall effort. Donovan received his award at a luncheon last week and was presented with a $250 check from the Toledo Bar Association. “American Democracy and the Rule of Law: Why Every Vote Matters” was the topic of the annual Caty Armstrong Memorial Law Day essay contest, sponsored by the Toledo Bar Association and The Blade. The contest is named for the late Caty Armstrong, a student at Sylvania Southview High School and an award winner in the 1993 essay contest. Caty died in an auto accident that year.
Donovan addressed the issue of voter identification laws. Donovan writes, “Voter ID laws are not discriminatory on their face, but they clearly discriminate against poor and working-class Americans. Though many Americans can easily afford the time and cost necessary to obtain valid identification, such as a driver’s license, homeless and poor citizens often do not have the money to afford identification.” The full essay can be read by clicking here. Congratulations, Donovan.
Mr. Aigner's class recently completed a lab that integrates two of their current units - chemical reactions and alternative energy. By using a photo-sensitive chemical and plain white t-Shirts, 8th grade science students learned how the sun is a powerful source of energy that can be used to start chemical reactions and make really cool apparel along the way. Students will be sporting their uniquely designed apparel on their upcoming Washington, DC trip.
April Brings Out Philomathy
What is philomathy? It is the love of learning, of course! Our students love to learn, and several students were recognized during the month of April. ,Due to Ohio Achievement Assessments last week, multiple photos were taken to represent our recognized students. Here are our exceptionally philomathic students for the month:
Joe Mayer-Heckathorn, Ian Jones, Natalie Timmerman, Zimin Qian, Grahm Hileman, Ava Porter, Alison Reca, Ryan Aubry, Sevar Mian, Anna Ellingson, Carlo Carrubba, Brandon Dolsey, Gene Lin, Braeden McCague, Adam Ayad, Darin Croy, Libby Hagenbuch, Eddie Griffin, Anurag Paudel, Cooper Conlan, Sam McCaffery, Tessa Iorio, Chinmay Khare, Shayne Lin, Anne-Marie Gabel, Ruiyang Bai, Owen Keller, Hamza Hashmi, Tyler Meier, Ian Schlatter, Zach Amonett, Adam Kamran, Pearl Thurston, Skylar Silk, Ryaan Bhuiyan, Grant Croy, Abby Speakman, Emme DeMilt, Meghan Meier, Akash Parikh, Sam Petro, Daniel Liu, Carter Hagenbuch, Jon Dolsey, Evan Muse, Eric Sigler, Hannah Chow, Geneva Howard, Mickey Wagoner, Avril Niemann, Charlotte Mayer-Heckathorn, Owen Smith, Zach Zawisza, Priya Bhatt, Seth Niemann, Ella Wilson, Hank Griffin, Cian Mulkey, Brayden Miller, Samantha Bigioni, Conner McCracken, Abby Dewhirst, Ana Reca, and Chase Miller.
First Grade Circus
The elementary school gym was host to “The Greatest Show on Earth” as the First Grade Circus came to town. Suspense filled the arena as knives flew through the air, bikers rode over ramps, and tigers leaped through fire. The crowd watched in amazement as tightrope walkers balanced perfectly on the wire, jugglers caught rings tossed high in the air, and rollerbladers jumped across the water. There were barking seals, dancing poodles, boxing kangaroos, and even pogo-ing ponies to entertain the audience. The costumes dazzled both young and old. A great time was had by all.
Author’s Academy
Over the past couple weeks, 5th graders have been sharing their writing masterpieces with parents and friends. They have reviewed all of their submitted written works from the entire school year, and selected three of their best pieces to share. Writing pieces ranged from poetry to fantasy to non-fiction. Each group of authors was then honored by their families and classmates with refreshments after the readings.
Final Fifth Grade Lunch and Learns
Throughout the year the 5th grade girls and Mrs. Browne with Mrs. Zake have enjoyed "Lunch and Learns." During these times the group created blankets for the Toledo House, worked on leadership with Kristi Hoffman, received guidance from 6th graders, and participated in arts and crafts as the group members learned to work together and develop healthy friendships.
This past week the girls met for the last time to plant flowers as a symbol of their friendships and the importance of nurturing those friendships. The seeds were donated by "Growing2Give" which is a non-profit garden that donates their produce to the homeless shelters in the Toledo area.
The group is excited to start new "projects" next year as 6th graders and may even come up with a name that is uniquely their own!
OH Happenings
5/16/14 Friday
9:00 AM Boys Varsity Tennis OHSAA State Sectionals
Defiance College
4:30 PM Coed Varsity Track & Field
TAAC Championships
Gibsonburg HS
5:00 PM Boys Varsity Baseball vs. Sandusky St. Mary
OHSSA State Sectional
@ Sandusky Dorn Park
5:00 PM OHES Carnival
Elementary School & surrounding areas
5/17/14 Saturday
10:00 AM Boys Varsity Tennis OHSAA State Sectionals
10:00 AM Girls Varsity Softball vs. Delta High School
OHSAA State Sectional @ Delta High School
1:00 PM Boys JV Baseball Doubleheader @ Anthony Wayne HS
7:00 PM HS Prom
Belmont Country Club
10:00 PM After Prom Community Walk
HS Gym & surrounding areas
5/18/14 Sunday
12:00 AM After Prom
5/19/14 Monday
4:30 PM Boys JV Baseball @ Toledo Christian Schools
7:00 PM OHES 4th Grade Recorder Recital
OHES New Gym
5/20/14 Tuesday
4:30 PM OHLS Board Mtg.
4:45 PM Boys Varsity Baseball vs Emmanuel Christian High School
OH Baseball Field
4:45 PM Girls Varsity Softball vs Emmanuel Christian High School
OH Softball Field
5:00 PM Boys JV Baseball @ Saint Francis De Sales HS
5/21/14 Wednesday
4:00 PM Girls Varsity Track and Field
OHSAA Districts
Fremont Ross HS
4:45 PM Boys Varsity Baseball @ Northwood HS
4:45 PM Girls Varsity Softball @ Northwood HS
5/22/14 Thursday
4:00 PM Boys Varsity Track and Field
5:00 PM Boys Varsity Baseball @ Danbury High School
5:00 PM Girls Varsity Softball @ Danbury HS
Village of Ottawa Hills: http://www.ottawahills.org
Ottawa Hills Parent Association: http://ohspa.digitalpto.com
In partnership with our community,
Ottawa Hills Local Schools
will challenge and inspire each student
to realize his or her unique potential;
to embrace learning as a lifelong process;
and to become an active, responsible citizen.
Every child is born a genius.
R. Buckminster Fuller
Copyright © 2014 Ottawa Hills Local Schools, All rights reserved.
Ottawa Hills Local Schools • 3600 Indian Rd. • Ottawa Hills, OH 43606
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N.J. lawmaker wants to keep track of Christie’s travels
A New Jersey lawmaker is introducing legislation that would require Gov. Chris Christie to notify legislative leaders whenever he leaves the state.
State Sen. Loretta Weinberg’s bill comes after some Democrats have criticized Christie for attending out-of-state fundraising events without disclosing details of his whereabouts.
Christie insists he will not disclose the details of personal trips that aren’t funded by taxpayers while Weinberg says a simple notification that he’ll be out of state is not a breach of privacy.
Patrick Murray, a Monmouth University political analyst, said the governor should not have to disclose when he makes personal trips with his family.
“But when he goes out to Colorado to speak to a convention, he is the governor,” Murray said. “He was invited there as the governor and, in those cases, I do think the public has an interest in knowing what he’s up to.”
Rider University political science professor Ben Dworkin says Weinberg’s bill is not likely to become law.
“This is not an exercise in futility because there’s probably some political benefit for the Democrats in doing it,” Dworkin said. “It is an exercise in futility if success is actually passing this law.”
Coast Guard urges caution along N.J. Intracoastal Waterway as buoy project begins
Boating New Jersey's Intracoastal Waterway will soon become even safer once the U.S. Coast Guard completes work that is set to begin Monday.
Prosecutor: Woman assaulted police after high speed chase out of Island Beach State Park
A 30-year-old woman is facing a slew of motor vehicle and criminal charges after a high speed chase Saturday in coastal Ocean County.
Ocean County to sue New Jersey over policy that limits cooperation with ICE
Ocean County officials are angered by a new attorney general directive limits how their jail staff can help identify undocumented immigrants.
Bernie Sanders to rally at Hahnemann for Medicare for All
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9 May 2017 17 May 2019 WingArc AustraliaNews
Japan’s WingArc1st
Acquires Space-Time Research
Japanese Market Leader in Business Intelligence Expands to Australian Market
Tokyo and Melbourne, 9th May 2017: WingArc1st, Japan’s leading provider of business intelligence and enterprise analytics software, today announced its acquisition of Melbourne-based software company Space-Time Research. This partnership will accelerate WingArc1st’s delivery of its next generation real-time data platform to the Australian market.
Headquartered in Tokyo, WingArc1st has over 6,000 BI customers in Japan. Its flagship solution is MotionBoard, a real-time cloud-based BI dashboard that empowers users across the modern enterprise to make speedy and accurate decisions based on the most up-to-date business information available. MotionBoard is not just a software tool, it’s a true data platform that brings all your data together into one easy to access place, helping you to uncover business insights by delivering and mashing up internal data, external data and even IoT (Internet of Things) data.
Privately-held Space-Time Research has over 30 years’ experience delivering data analytics tools to government and statistical agencies around the world, specialising in self-service solutions for dissemination of official statistics, and with specific expertise in privacy and confidentiality.
WingArc1st will use Space-Time Research’s local knowledge and experience of the Australian and overseas markets to accelerate its global expansion.
Hiroyuki Uchino, President and CEO at WingArc1st said:
“Our mission is to deliver true data empowerment by enabling organisations to make effective data-driven decisions. We are excited to be working with the team from Space-Time Research and believe this strategic acquisition strongly positions us to deliver a new standard in BI solutions to customers across Australia and beyond.”
Steven Hulse, CEO at Space-Time Research said: “This deal is a real win-win. Our experience in the world of government and statistical data makes for a natural complementary fit with WingArc1st’s solutions for the corporate BI sector.”
“Our existing customers will get the same service as always, but now with the backing of WingArc1st’s resources and development team we will be better equipped than ever before to deliver innovative data solutions for both government and private enterprises.”
About WingArc1st: WingArc1st provides software and services that empower customers to get maximum benefit from their data, by helping them uncover insights beyond their expectations. We provide comprehensive customer-focused services that address our customers’ unique needs and accelerate their business.
About Space-Time Research: Space-Time Research specialises in developing software tools and solutions for the world’s leading statistical organisations and government agencies. We change the way people explore, build and share information, making the process simple, secure and rich in meaningful insights.
Business IntelligenceJapanSpace-Time ResearchWingArc
SuperSTAR 9.8 Now Available
Join Us at Salesforce Basecamp Melbourne
WingArc Australia
View posts by WingArc Australia
Salesforce World Tour Sydney
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News and Information about acura ilx
List of News and Information about acura ilx on 4WheelsNews.com
Read the latest news and information about acura ilx published on 4WheelsNews.com! View comments and pictures about acura ilx on 4WheelsNews.com!
You also might be interested: acura ilx, sedan, special edition, price, united states, sema show, acura nsx, facelift, la auto show, honda accord, acura rdx, siri, hybrid, lineup, race car
2019 Acura ILX receives major refresh with new styling and enhanced techs
Japanese luxury carmaker Acura implemented a surprisingly major refresh of its Acura ILX compact sedan for the 2019 model year. Aside from getting a new styling and enhanced technologies, the 2019 Acura ILX is joining the TLX sedan as well as the RDX and MDX utilities in receiving the latest-generation A-Spec treatment.
The refresh of the new 2019 Acura ILX completes the transformation of the brand’s new design identity across it lineup. The compact sedan is now all-new from the A-pillars forward, with a new face taking inspiration from Acura Precision Concept. Its front section is now defined by a more sharply sculpted hood, the Diamond Pentagon Grille as flanked by the seven-element Acura Jewel Eye LED headlights. On the rear, the new ILX features a new rear fascia, an all-new decklid, a lower diffuser with exposed exhaust outlet as well as LED taillights. The new Acura rides on a set of 17-inch split-5 spoke wheel.
The exterior color palette for the new ILX – already featuring Lunar Silver Metallic and Modern Steel Metallic -- has been expanded to include five new colors: Canyon Bronze Metallic, Majestic Black Pearl, Performance Red Pearl and Platinum White Pearl, as well as Apex Blue Pearl that is exclusive for the A-Spec version.
Read the entire article 2019 Acura ILX receives major refresh with new styling and enhanced techs
Acura gives the ILX the A-Spec Special Edition trim
As we all know, the Acura ILX has been out in the market for quite some time now - since 2012 to be more specific. And of course, to keep it alive, Acura had to come up with a unique trim they call the A-Spec Special Edition trim. This new trim will cost you $28,900, and includes a number of new features. It is already available in the United States.
Some of the upgrades include side sills, a deckled spoiler, unique badging all over and a new set of 18-inch A-Spec wheels. Apart from the new upgrades, the Acura ILX offers the same standard features including the Acura JewelEye LED headlights, an eight-way power driver’s seat, a multi-view rear view camera, five-inch multi-view display, keyless smart entry with push button start, security system and a leather wrapped steering wheel and shift knob. There is also the AcuraWatch, which features a number of safety features as well as driver assistive technologies, among others, but this costs an additional $1,300 when added to the base model.
Under the hood, there is a 2.4 liter turbocharged four-cylinder engine with an output of 201 horsepower and 180 pound feet (244 Newton metres) of torque. The whole ILX lineup has a fuel economy of 25 mpg city, 35 mpg highway, and 29 mpg combined. All in all, there are seven unique trim options for the ILX, that already include the Special Edition. As for pricing, customers could get the entry level ILX for $28,100, $28,900 for the Special Edition, and $29,400 for the AcuraWatch Plus. For the ILX Premium, it would cost $30,100, while the Premium A-Spec can be had for $32,100. For an even higher trim, the ILX Tech Plus starts at $33,100, and the range topping ILX Tech Plus A-Spec is priced at $35,100.
Read the entire article Acura gives the ILX the A-Spec Special Edition trim
2015 SEMA: Acura restores 1993 Ludacris Legend sedan, shows custom ILX and NSX
Acura is showing that it is not to be taken lightly in terms of its passion for performance and customization by displaying a number of past, present and future models at the 2015 SEMA Show.
These models include the restored 1993 "Ludacris Legend" sedan, a sport-modified MY2016 Acura ILX by Galpin Auto Sports, the new Acura NSX supercar, and a MY2016 Acura ILX with the Acura Genuine Accessory Package in Slate Silver Metallic.
With the support of Acura's Torrance-based Design Studio and guidance of Acura global creative director Dave Marek, the marque was able to fully restore an Acura vehicle owned by Chris "Ludacris" Bridges, a multi-platinum selling, GRAMMY award-winning artist and actor.
Read the entire article 2015 SEMA: Acura restores 1993 Ludacris Legend sedan, shows custom ILX and NSX
Acura launches MY2016 ILX sedan with $28,820 starting price
Luxury carmaker Acura has launched its latest offering -- the new MY2016 Acura ILX sedan -- with a starting price of $28,820. The MY2016 Acura ILX boasts of several improvements. However, despite those improvements, the overall price surge will be just around $900, and the final price tag still includes destination charges.
Compared to the manual-only MY2015 Acura ILX 2.4, the MY2016 ILX is less expensive by $1,450. Improvements include the powertrain as the MY2016 ILX now features a direct-injected 2.4-liter I4 engine (seen on the Acura TLX) that chugs out 201hp of output and 180lb-ft. of torque and is mated to an eight-speed dual clutch sequential manual transmission.
This essentially makes the MY2016 Acura ILX more powerful than its predecessor, which is powered by a 2.0-liter, four-cylinder engine. While the new engine is more powerful, it is also more efficient. In fact, the MY2016 ILX features an EPA-rated fuel economy of 29 miles per gallon (combined), compared to 28 mpg (combined) for the MY2015 version.
Read the entire article Acura launches MY2016 ILX sedan with $28,820 starting price
LA Auto Show: 2016 Acura ILX unveiled with new design, more powerful engine
Acura took the wraps off its redesigned 2016 ILX sports sedan at the 2014 Los Angeles Auto Show and announced that its new model will hit the dealerships in early 2015. So, for the 2016MY, the Acura ILX arrives with restyled front and rear fascias, standard Jewel Eye LED headlights, bigger wheels and upgraded interior materials.
Six available grades will be available, which means that three additional packages were added: Premium Package, Technology Plus Package and A-Spec Package. The A-Spec Package adds a side sill garnish, trunk spoiler, front fog lights and new 10-spoke 18-inch wheels with gloss black inserts. Under the hood, there is a 2.4-liter 16-valve, direct-injected DOHC i-VTEC engine that produces 201 hp and 180 lb-ft of torque.
Compared with the current engine, there new model arrives with extra 51 hp and 40 lb-ft of torque. The engine is bolted to an 8-speed dual clutch transmission (DCT) with torque converter and paddle-controlled Sequential Sport Shift. Other features of the 2016 Acura ILX include a a new driver’s seat memory function, Homelink remote, as well as the Acura On-Demand Multi-Use Display (ODMD) with an 8-inch display screen and lower 7-inch touchscreen.
Read the entire article LA Auto Show: 2016 Acura ILX unveiled with new design, more powerful engine
Honda Accord, Acura RDX and ILX to offer Siri Eyes Free starting December 3
American Honda Motor Co. will offer Apple's Siri Eyes Free in several of its models, including the 2013-2014 Honda Accord and 2013 Acura RDX and ILX, starting December 3, 2013. The Siri Eyes Free will allow drivers with compatible iPhone models to voice-instruct Siri to perform certain functions on their phone while keeping their focus on driving.
This hands-free software employs the vehicle's onboard speakers and microphones to read and send e-mails and text messages.
Siri Eyes Free can also check the weather and set up calendar entries while providing voice navigation, sports scores, and stock quotes. The hands-free program also aims to limit distractions by keeping the iPhone's screen from lighting up.
Read the entire article Honda Accord, Acura RDX and ILX to offer Siri Eyes Free starting December 3
2013 SEMA Show: Acura Street Performance ILX by MAD Industries
MAD Industries unveiled the Acura Street Performance ILX, a car designed to attract people looking for a fun car that “feels at home on city streets or a curvy mountain pass”. Showing up in a matte copper metallic and accented by matte charcoal metallic 3M Scotchprint 1080 film, the Acura Street Performance ILX comes with Acura Genuine Accessories aero kit consisting of a front underbody spoiler, side sills, rear underbody spoiler, deck lid spoiler and body side molding.
Moreover, we find PIAA 9006 low beam and 9005 high beam Extreme White headlight bulbs, H11 fog lamps and Terra LED dome light bulbs. A new set of 19-inch TSW Max matte black wheels were added, as well as a Tein Super Street coilovers, Stoptech Big Brake kit and MPG custom satin black caliper covers.
The powertrain was also updated and the Acura Street Performance ILX comes with CT Engineering supercharger kit and intake, Hondata FlashPro, Greddy SP Elite prototype exhaust, K&N high performance air filter, AMSOIL Dominator motor oil.
Read the entire article 2013 SEMA Show: Acura Street Performance ILX by MAD Industries
2014 Acura ILX Hybrid gets a price tag of $29,795
No changes were made to the 2014 Acura ILX Hybrid. In fact, it’s still priced from $29,795 (which includes destination costs of $895). However, the loaded 2014 Acura ILX with the Technology Package is more expensive than the 2013 model with a price of $35,495. The powertrain of the ILX Hybrid consists of a 1.5-liter inline-four with an output of 90 hp and 97 lb-ft of torque and an electric motor that delivers 111 hp and 127 lb-ft.
The ILX Hybrid has a continuously variable transmission. The EPA has given it a rating of 39/38 mpg city/highway, similar to what last year’s model offered. The standard equipment on the 2014 ILX Hybrid includes cloth seats, push-button start, Bluetooth connectivity, and a moonroof.
The Technology Package for the 2014 model is slightly more expensive but it has the same features and comes with a navigation system, surround sound stereo, xenon lights, and leather seats.
Read the entire article 2014 Acura ILX Hybrid gets a price tag of $29,795
2014 Acura ILX priced at $26,900
Acura has just introduced the 2014 ILX luxury sports sedan, a car that promises to offer eight new standard features comparing it with the 2013MY. According to the official press release, the 2014 Acura ILX gets upgraded 17-inch alloy wheels, an eight-way power driver's seat, heated front seats, a Multi-Angle Rearview Camera but also new leather seating surfaces and leatherette door liners. Moreover, the 2014 ILX receives a new audio-system subwoofer and an Active Noise Cancellation as standard.
Still, the 2014 Acura ILX comes with a manufacturer's suggested retail price (MSRP) of $26,900, an increase of $1,000. For the 2014 model year, the ILX gets a standard 2.0-liter inline 4-cylinder engine that generates 150 hp, paired with a Sequential SportShift 5-speed automatic transmission.
According to the manufacturer, this model will get an EPA city/highway/combined fuel economy rating of 24/35/28 mpg. If you want a more dynamic driving experience, the ILX can be equipped with a close-ratio, six-speed manual transmission matched to a 2.4-liter engine generating 201 horsepower. This model will have an EPA city/highway/combined fuel economy rating of 22/31/25 mpg. Information on the 2014 Acura ILX Hybrid will be announced at a later date.
Read the entire article 2014 Acura ILX priced at $26,900
Acura will drop the 2.0-liter engine from ILX lineup due to poor sales
Even if sales for the new 2013 Acura ILX have not been extraordinary, there are reports that the automaker is planning a significant change to its powertrain that could make the premium compact sedan successful. John Mendel, American Honda executive vice president, told Automotive News that Acura wants to drop the 2.0-liter I-4 from the lineup because it’s “underpowered, and consumers don’t see the value.”
This may mean that it will be replaced by the racier 201-hp 2.4-liter in order to distinguish the ILX from the 140-hp Civic.
The more powerful 2.4-liter unit is presently coupled exclusively with a six-speed manual transmission. However, Mendel hinted that a 2.4 automatic is being developed. These revisions are likely to boost ILX sales, which are nowhere near the original goal of 30,000 units a year.
Read the entire article Acura will drop the 2.0-liter engine from ILX lineup due to poor sales
2013 Acura ILX Endurance Racer unveiled at the SEMA Show
A competition version of the new 2013 Acura ILX is on display at the 2012 SEMA Show before it makes its competition debut at the 25 Hours of Thunderhill endurance race set for next month. Team Honda Research- West designed and created this vehicle. In compliance with NASA U.S. Touring Car specs, a couple of E1 class Acura ILX sedans will join the traditional 25-hour endurance race that marks the annual conclusion of the National Auto Sport Association (NASA) season at the tough three-mile Thunderhill road course north of Sacramento, California.
Team Honda Research-West (THR-W) is composed mainly of Torrance, California-based associates from Honda R&D Americas, Inc., who work after-hours to display Honda and Acura products on the track.
The team got a couple of new Acura ILX "body in white" bare chassis in early 2012 from Honda Manufacturing of Indiana, LLC, which is where the model is exclusively built. In addition, a couple of "donor" cars from American Honda Motor Co., Inc. was utilized to offer suspension, powertrain, interior and electronic parts. As soon as the chassis and donor cars were sent to the THR-W workshop, a wide-ranging build program started that called for the use of as many OEM components as possible, to maintain its serviceability and to test the actual durability of Acura's latest sedan.
Read the entire article 2013 Acura ILX Endurance Racer unveiled at the SEMA Show
2012 SEMA Show: 2013 Acura ILX Street Build
After being absent at the SEMA Show for 6 years, Acura now makes its comeback with the supercharged ILX "Street Build" project based on the all-new 2013 ILX luxury compact sedan. To create this supercharged 2013 Acura ILX "Street Build" project car, Evasive Motorsports got an ILX luxury sedan and gave it an Acura Genuine Accessories aero kit and a series of aftermarket modifications meant to offer a fun, everyday vehicle that’s tastefully built.
Mike Accavitti, Vice President of National Marketing Operations for American Honda Motor Co., Inc., said that the ILX has premium standard features and sporty dynamics. Priced from $25,900, the 2013 Acura ILX "Street Build" project car is aimed at attracting younger buyers to the luxury market.
He added that the ILX project cars brought to SEMA illustrates how much appeal this platform has on fans, driving the new model’s momentum. Evasive Motorsports built the Acura ILX "Street Build" to attract a serious tuner by using only parts that improve the experience without compromising drivability.
Read the entire article 2012 SEMA Show: 2013 Acura ILX Street Build
Honda recalls 2012 CR-V, 2013 Acura ILX due to faulty door locks
Honda Motor Co. disclosed Thursday that it is recalling 321,453 CR-V SUVs and Acura ILX sedans around the world to replace faulty door locks. The recall will affect about 20,920 model-year 2012 CR-Vs and around 800 model-year 2013 Acura ILXs in Canada.
According to Honda, simultaneous operation of the driver's or front passenger's inner door handle and either the manual or power door lock may result in the inner door handle release cable becoming partially disengaged.
As a result, the door may not latch when closed or the door may latch and close, but may open when the door locks are operated, Honda said.
Read the entire article Honda recalls 2012 CR-V, 2013 Acura ILX due to faulty door locks
2013 Acura ILX priced from $26,795! ILX Hybrid starts at $30,095!
Acura makes his comeback to the entry-luxury segment with the 2013 ILX sedan after departing in 2006 with the termination of the RSX hatchback. The ILX has the same underpinnings as the Honda Civic just like the RSX and the Integra before it. This isn’t the first luxury car to use the underpinnings of a mass-market cousin. The interiors of the Civic and the ILX are different but the driving dynamics of the Acura seems too similar to the Civic.
The ILX is powered exclusively by the base 2.0-liter engine, which enables the car to get to 60mph in 9.6 seconds. It is mated to a five-speed automatic transmission with paddle shifters. It has a faster shift response than Acura's slightly bigger TSX, but with reduced shift shock.
Those who want the ILX to have a better performance should know that it can be fitted with the 201-hp 2.4-liter four-banger from the Civic Si but just with a six-speed stick. Those who have a preference for fuel economy may want the ILX that provides an Acura version of the Civic Hybrid that enables cruising in EV mode between 10 and 45 mph. The ILX Hybrid returns an estimated 39 mpg city/38 highway.
Read the entire article 2013 Acura ILX priced from $26,795! ILX Hybrid starts at $30,095!
Chicago Auto Show: Acura reveals production version of 2013 ILX compact sedan
Acura has unveiled the production variant of the 2013 ILX compact sedan, which will be formally introduced at the Chicago Auto Show. The company said that this vehicle will be an entry point into the luxury brand of Honda. The sedan, which seats five people, will come in three engine selections, one of which is Acura's first gasoline-electric hybrid. A 2.0-liter four-cylinder engine will power the base ILX. This engine produces 150 hp and 140 lb-ft of torque.
A five-speed automatic is the only transmission offered. Fuel economy rating for that model is at 32 mpg on the highway and 24 mpg in the city. As for the upgraded models, they will have a 2.4-liter engine with 201 hp and 170 lb-ft of torque at 4,300 rpm. A six-speed manual will be offered as an option for these models. Fuel economy drops to 29 mpg on the highway and 20 mpg in the city.
The first hybrid model of Acura will utilize Honda's 1.5-liter engine with its Integrated Motor Assist electric motor. This will be matched with a continuously variable transmission, returning an approximated 38 mpg on the highway. The gasoline and electric motors can produce a combined power of 111 hp and 127 lb-ft of torque. The ILX hybrid showcases stop/start technology and regenerative braking in order to conserve fuel and recharge the battery.
Read the entire article Chicago Auto Show: Acura reveals production version of 2013 ILX compact sedan
2012 Detroit Auto Show: Acura ILX Concept is firm’s next luxury compact sedan
This is the Acura ILX Concept, a so-called concept version of firm’s next luxury compact sedan that is scheduled to be launched in Spring 2012. The new car will be positioned as the gateway to the Acura brand and will feature three different powertrains, including Acura's first-ever gas-electric hybrid. According to Acura, the new ILX combines luxury, performance and efficiency.
The new ILX models will feature an entry-level model powered by a 2.0-liter inline 4-cylinder engine, a high-performance model with a 2.4-liter inline 4-cylinder engine paired with a six-speed manual transmission and as we said, a hybrid model powered by a 1.5-liter gasoline-electric hybrid powertrain.
Regarding the interior, Acura promises a high–quality, well-appointed interior that is smart, spacious and sport. Moreover, the ILX will feature a smart entry keyless access system and pushbutton start, along with Pandora internet radio interface and SMS text message function for smart connectivity with the world.
Read the entire article 2012 Detroit Auto Show: Acura ILX Concept is firm’s next luxury compact sedan
2013 Acura ILX to be unveiled at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show
Honda announced today that it will build the new 2013 Acura ILX in Indiana and that the production will start in the spring of 2012. According to the manufacturer, the new ILX will be Acura's first-ever hybrid model and will also be the first model to be produced in Indiana.
Moreover, the new car will be positioned at the gateway to the Acura lineup. Still, the ILX will not be available only as a hybrid as Acura will also offer a gasoline version.
2013 Acura ILX will be officially introduced at the 2012 North American International Auto Show (NAIAS) in Detroit during media preview days. Still, this will not be the only surprise, as Acura will also bring a new RDX sport-utility vehicle and a concept version of the next-generation Acura NSX supercar.
Read the entire article 2013 Acura ILX to be unveiled at the 2012 Detroit Auto Show
2017 Porsche 718 Cayman released with new engine, better looks
Hyundai pledges for Automatic Emergency Braking to be standard equipment on all vehicles by 2022
Porsche 911 GT3 RS gets carbon fiber makeover from TechArt
Porsche Design introduces P´2150 Roadster 2.2 Lean BriefBag
TopCar Stinger GTR based on 2014 Porsche 911 (991) Turbo/Turbo S
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What are the primary triggers for the decline and fall of great empires?
Let's focus specifically on the devolution of empires. How is it that something so powerful falls?
The collapse of Rome, Byzantium, the Han, the Mayans and so on. What similarities can be seen in the fall of these great empires? Whether natural events, social trends, or technological advancements. Also, how can one use this information in building worlds?
society reality-check culture civilization history
kingledion
James♦James
$\begingroup$ Are you asking specifically about Earth's ages, about any human society fictional ages, or about any fictional, possibly alien species ages? $\endgroup$ – Envite Sep 25 '14 at 14:51
$\begingroup$ I think the question as expressed is incredibly vague. What is an age, and how can we tell where one ends and another begins? Are we interested in "advancement" or changes that could make a society dominant over others or are we looking for changes in both directions would could be any kind of change with far reaching and somewhat permanent effects? There has been an excelent book on a subset of your question, Guns germs and Steel $\endgroup$ – droid Sep 27 '14 at 16:16
$\begingroup$ Too broad to be answerable. Weather, economics, population growth or decline, contact, technology, institutional change, war, politics, trade fads.... One could go on forever. These cultural "stages" are much-contested ex post facto interpretations, not facts to explain. $\endgroup$ – CAgrippa Oct 3 '14 at 21:38
$\begingroup$ It seems like the very definition of evolution and devolution is vague here and, since it must be clearly defined to answer, the question must be presented in a different light or both terms have to be explicitly defined by the OP to make it possible to answer without having to write a treatise on whether, for example Rome was more "evolved" than the Holy Roman Empire. $\endgroup$ – mechalynx Oct 4 '14 at 14:29
$\begingroup$ To put @ivy_lynx's and my concern a bit differently: Your question assumes that there is a general theory of historical change that applies universally. If we step back to a "high-level" perspective, the same basic principles apply when we go from Rome to Medieval, Heian to Muromachi, 18th C to 19th, etc. But there's no particular reason to assume that. If you want certain factors to predominate globally, the question should specify them. This SE is not the place to formulate a grand theory of historical transformation. $\endgroup$ – CAgrippa Oct 4 '14 at 15:30
There's a fascinating book seeking to answer this exact question called Day of Empire by Amy Chua. The gist of her answer revolves around tolerance, empires rise when they demonstrate it and fall when they don't.
Rome is the poster child of this hypothesis. Beginning, as she claims, as a bit of an underdog rogue state where outcasts of other places ended up, Rome had a diverse range of knowledge from all over the ancient world. And where most societies would marginalize these outsiders, early Roman society embraced them. Immigrants were a vital source of ingenuity and labor, this let them steal more than a few useful technologies from neighbors and consolidate themselves as a technological powerhouse. Most of her argument is sort of made in the context of modern America, so take it for what you will, but the early days of the Roman Empire were sort of bound up in that scrappy, underdog identification. But before they knew it, they controlled the known world and adopted the Persian governance model, until they realized that what defined a Roman citizen was vague. Hardships came as a solid identity was sought and subsequently enforced on everyone. Rebellions started to emerge and all the effort enforcing internally left them weak externally.
But she goes through a number of cases, exploring this trend. The Portuguese had a similar underdog status until they founded their navigation school and became a mecca of shipwrights and astronomers. This fueled a boom that led to an empire lasting almost to the present day in strategic pockets. The Dutch had a very similar start to their story, eventually inventing the modern economy before the grand daddy of empire England welcomed the Dutch themselves into their fold with the Glorious Revolution. England's story of tolerance includes the formation of the United Kingdom in the first place, and the historical status of Great Britain as a warzone for everyone from the Romans to the Vikings. There was a great deal of people calling the island home and national identity was very fluid. As they spread all over the world, they didn't try to usurp local power. In India, they ruled through the traditional ruling class. In Africa, they'd just pick a favorite chieftain and support him with guns and the like. In Egypt, they just added a military arm to an existing state.
The moral of her story was that you didn't need to be the biggest, best or smartest to rule the world. You just had to be willing to accept people who were. Most of the technological might of superpowers throughout history were not the result of nationals working in isolation, but collaborations often involving immigrants.
The second part of the argument was why would a historical pattern of tolerance leading to greatness ever devolve into a pattern of intolerance to tear the empire apart. In absolutely basic terms, a society needs some sort of glue to define it and make everyone feel like they're a part of it. Many empires have camaraderie aplenty to define them, oftentimes because they are an underdog in regional politics and historically beaten around. Rome was a gaggle of outcasts. Portugal had been battered around by Spain and the Moors for ages. The Netherlands had been the butt of Continental politics for awhile.
Great conquests that lack this kind of cohesion quickly fall apart, such as Alexander the Great. There was no effort to call his subjects Macedonians and when he died, his generals just carved up their own kingdoms. Rome offered a path to citizenship and made it look appealing. For awhile, there were a lot of traditionally Roman Romans to define the culture, but gradually, enough outsiders completed their service and were made citizens. Eventually, this led to the arguments we see even today about how adding such and such group detracts from the original character of a people. In a quest to define what made a Roman Roman, they ended up destroying themselves. Her conclusion was that this was the common tipping point for why a state would adopt a policy of intolerance and cut themselves off from the benefits of tolerant policies.
Michael BickleyMichael Bickley
$\begingroup$ By this logic, if Trump triumphs, the U.S. will continue with what Bush started and build intolerance until it falls as a superpower. To be fair, persecuting Muslims is a self-fulfilling, self-destructing prophecy. $\endgroup$ – Marion Apr 3 '16 at 1:51
$\begingroup$ I think there are several flawed arguments, I'll start with the claim Alexander was not tolerant. Alexander made huge efforts to integrate his empire in the brief time he was alive. He allowed locals to keep their own religions. In the Marriage at Susa he married his commanders to Persian noble families. He built many mini Greek cities through the empire to share Greek and local culture(most were called Alexandria, he was tolerant not humble) $\endgroup$ – sdrawkcabdear Dec 12 '16 at 20:48
$\begingroup$ The roman empire is a good example of intolerance conquering. They required others to adopt their religion, took as slaves those who apposed them, and denied Roman citizenship to anyone not born in Italy. It was only later after they expanded the definition of citizenship did they fall $\endgroup$ – sdrawkcabdear Dec 12 '16 at 21:33
$\begingroup$ I am realizing I am more having a problem with the idea of condensing the rise and fall of many nations into just one cause than this particular cause. I will try to condense this into an answer. $\endgroup$ – sdrawkcabdear Dec 12 '16 at 21:35
$\begingroup$ How the heck is this the accepted answer when it is wrong in just about every way. Rome fell from the inside because the Romans became outnumbered by the very people they were "tolerant enough" to let in from the outside. $\endgroup$ – Dunk Dec 12 '16 at 23:22
Societies advance when they become more internally cohesive, trusting, egalitarian and merit driven. They fall when they lose those traits.
An old blog post of mine expands upon this
Military success, increased trade, growth of science, technology and arts are all epiphenomena of the social and political changes.
Rome is a canonical example. Rome became a superpower because it was a representative republic with leadership and advancement based more on merit than lineage. Lineage based societies select leaders of all kinds based largely on lineage. You get to be king because your father was. If the leaders are idiots, your stuck with them until they die. Merit driven republics can choose leaders based on performance and remove them in the short term if the fail. Conversely, they can reinstated if proven correct e.g. Fabius vs Hannibal.
Rome also allowed a much higher percentage of it's population to bear arms meaning that it could field massive armies compared to surround populations. This gave Rome more military manpower per unit of population that cultures that allowed only a fraction of their population to be armed. Rome became much more militarily "dense" than its competing polities.
When the Republic fell, so to did merit promotion and high numbers of military service. The Empire continued by inertia but it was already doomed.
It's dispositive that that the Republic expanded massively compared to starting size, growing several times over from a mere county sized area to cover half the Mediterranean world in a little over two hundred years. The Empire expanded only a about a third and reached its maximal extent in the first century.
It's easy to see why. Whereas the Republic trusted it's soldiers as sought to see them well armed, trained and led, the Emperors feared them (rightly so) and kept them well paid, but poorly armed trained and led. The imperial armies grew more expensive and political while growing less and less effective. Worse, the percentage of the population who could be armed or serve plummeted. Rome relied more and more on hired auxiliaries who were usually "barbarians" with little loyalty to Rome.
From the time of Marius onward, the rule of law in Rome progressively failed with economic success relying more and more on success and connections in politics which in turn grew more and more violent. Romans spent progressively more time fighting each other than anyone else. Merit promotion died.
By the end of the second century Rome had inherited vast borders but had lost the social and political systems that fielded the armies to defend them. Trade faltered as property, contracts and profit became matters of political whim. With the fall of trade came less taxes and less military spending. Area after area become isolated and indifferent to affairs in the general empire.
In last century, "Roman" armies and their opponents where largely indistinguishable. Rome didn't fall to barbarians as much as become them. Rome had no technological, social, economic or political advantage over the surrounding societies and they just oozed over the borders.
In the end, Rome was just another rigid, hierarchal, lineage based society among many. It simply dissolved into the noise.
The pattern is repeated time and time again. Athens, Rome, Carthage, Genghis Khan, Venice, Florence, Lisbon, Swiss Cantons, Dutch Republic, England, America.
In each case, the societies became more merit driven with decentralized political power and surge in trade, science, art and military success. The success of some is just staggering. Venice and the Dutch Republic particularly stand out. Both were small societies built on river deltas who literally didn't even have land. Yet, they ended up dominating their regions and influencing much of the world.
But such societies do not seem stable. Their dynamic periods last only 100-200 years followed by decline into mediocrity. Meritocracy is counter to our genetic programming to favor our kin over others. In the end, riches, arrogance and complacency lead us to let our guard down and we revert to the lineage pattern.
I would note that societies generally never recover from decline. Instead the torch of progress passes to another. The Renaissance wasn't the comeback of Rome, it was isolated to a shockingly small number of people in a few Italian cities for under a century and then it promptly shifted to Northern Costal Europe. The progression went Venice --> Florence --> Lisbon/Geneva --> Dutch Republic --> England --> America --> ?
TechZenTechZen
$\begingroup$ You say that the Republic was merit based, but in reality, all the senators were drawn from the aristocracy... how much of that is merit based rather than lineage based? When all your rulers come from the same few families, it looks pretty lineage based to me. $\endgroup$ – CoolCurry Nov 13 '14 at 17:34
$\begingroup$ Egalitarian and meritocracy need only be relative to their competition to greatly empower a polity. Membership in the Roman Senate was hereditary but specific offices, such as consul or dictator was elective. By contrast, most of Rome's enemies relied purely on lineage to select leaders. In the Punic wars, the Romans rotated consuls until they found two Fabius and Scipio the Younger, who could devise the correct strategies.More importantly, the mass of the free population did have representation, most strongly in the Tribunes, that carried the right of veto over the Senate. $\endgroup$ – TechZen Jul 15 '15 at 19:13
I think you should take a look at Toynbee's A Study of History, which tries to answer this question in detail. The theories may be a bit antiquated at this point since Toynbee was working prior to WWII, but in general he laid out a system in which civilizations are constantly faced with a variety of challenges, and their survival is dependent on the ability of a "creative minority" to effect some sort of change in response. A civilization fails when it is no longer agile enough to respond to that challenge.
The ages of history then can often be seen as a sort of call and response. If you take Japan vs. China, for example, the approach of the modern era forced both countries to respond in some way. Because Japan's power structure was more centralized and the entire country could be properly mobilized it was able to take advantage of modernization and became an Empire. Its pivot towards openness and expansion was the result of a creative minority that forcibly took power from the then-ruling bakufu. Had this particular creative minority failed to control the policy of Japan, the country may have ended up much more like China, where the bureaucratic system was unable to adjust quickly enough to the challenges of invading westerners and centuries of dynasty were ultimately ended.
In a way this theory is closely related to the concept of survival of the fittest. There are a lot of outside pressures on a civilization, but whether that civilization can survive will depend on its adaptability. But Toynbee goes further than that when he posits that the ability of the creative minority to avoid becoming a dominant minority is the primary factor in whether or not a civilization can survive through time.
At some point the creative minority will find itself with the largest portion of power in a civilization. It will naturally want to retain that power indefinitely, and will by begin to solidify elements of governance and policy that had before existed for practical reasons. The more effort dominant minority puts into retaining power, the less agile it becomes to deal with any other crises, and the more hostile the general population will become.
The pressure of this dominant minority will result in the creation of what Toynbee calls the internal and external proletariat. There will be those who abandon the society and become the "barbarians" of that civilization (easier to do back when you could literally walk away from a nation into the wilderness) and an internal proletariat that resists within the civilization. (examples of this being the Christians in Rome, the Nationalist and Communist forces in colonial China, the Protestant reformation, and so on.) This alienation is an important contribution to the failure of a civilization, because it means that the population from which a creative minority is gleaned is instead invested in resistance. In the case of Japan, there was still a strong allegiance to the notion of imperial authority, and the creative minority was absorbed into the existing structure, preserving the idea of Japan even as it pursued a radically different set of policies. China, however, was overcome by an internal proletariat that was opposed to the fundamental precepts of Chinese imperialism and the resulting military and cultural revolution resulted in a completely different nation. While some (particularly the Chinese themselves) might refer to the unbroken and ancient civilization of China, more cynical observers might say that the old Chinese civilization was cannibalized by an entirely new proletariat, and the current China is actually quite young. As with a lot of things in history, the exact line between one thing and another is sometimes fuzzy.
The tl;dr of this is, empires will undergo a number of stages in their development, and their decline is often marked by a crystallization of the dominant minority and increases in effort towards maintaining power and occupies itself with "worship of its former self," instead of focusing on creative solutions to external issues. This results in an increase of resentment and resistance by the disenfranchised population, and hinders its ability to respond to challenges that arise. Eventually one of those challenges will prove to be more than a civilization in this now weakened state can manage, and it will collapse.
As I said, this is an older, and not universally accepted, model, but I've found it a useful one to know. When you're building your own civilizations it's good to think of the following questions:
Who is your Dominant Minority?
What previously creative elements of the civilization may have fossilized into detrimental behaviors/policies?
What are the complaints of the disenfranchised population, and particularly what is the nature of their rebellion?
If you have these three things, you can see where points of particular conflict or stress might arise, and result in openings for a fatal blow to a civilization.
BokaiBokai
Many, many, many different things. But almost always something outside of that empire's control. A few examples:
Outside invaders
This is a very common one - it can be large and powerful invaders like Alexander the Great and his multiple conquests across the world (See also: The Mongol Horde), or incursions from 'lesser' forces that use superior technology/tactics, such as the superior fighting skills of the Barbiarians (Gauls) that invaded Rome.
Inside rebellion
Equally possible is an uprising from within a society itself - slaves are often a cause of this (if you go with the bibical story of Egypt, Moses and his exodus certainly counts) but any downtrodden people within a society can cause similar problems (See: Christians for Rome).
Disease/disaster
Don't discount the possiblity of mother nature tearing the status quo apart. Disease completely upturned the nature of power in Western Europe (And severely softened Asia for that matter), and ran rampant across the Americas before Europeans came along. Any disaster, however, could be written in as a major population-destroyer. Floods, storms, floods AND storms, massive earthquakes, mother nature is a very fickle beast.
And let's not forget good ol' sloth. This is usually part of the disparity that leads to the downtrodden revolting against the upper-class, in partiuclar when the downtrodden include the members of the public that are supposed to lead the army. See Rome (Damnit Rome, you just can't hold onto your empire for more than 200 years, can you?).
Decentralization:
TLDR: Potential problems include (not in order): Bad capital position, capital too dependent on the regions, internal struggles at the court, bad administration.
My main example here is about the Tang dynasty. Decentralization or lack of centralization was a major problem. They were unable to keep the provinces in check (this weakened their power), but the fatal blow was a reduction of the food production.
Their capital was located in Chang’an (today’s Xi’an). It was a symbolic location since it has been the capital of other dynasties before them. It used to be the cradle of China but the economic center of the Empire had moved to the east. The city location was not ideal for a capital but the Tang preferred it because it was the base of their political support and for symbolic reasons. Having a good control on the capital region is very important and many rulers do not hesitate to change the location of their capital for a friendlier one when they founded a new dynasty. But the Tang kept this location (with some exceptions) at the expanse of losing the support of the regions. Most of the aristocrats lived only in the capital, not in the regions.
Note: the Tang knew about these problems. Some Emperors did move the capital to the east at Luoyang, but they always moved back to Chang’an after. That was very costly and foolish IMHO.
The capital was cut off from the border regions when the problems at the court became very serious. Example: one Emperor got murdered by the eunuchs. The faction struggles between the eunuchs, the bureaucrats and the Emperor lead to a couple of years without leadership from the central government. The job of ruling a province was initially a nomination form the capital for a fixed number of years. A weakened court made some local rulers able to make this position hereditary. They were also able to establish a firmer control on taxes and on the army. Rare are the regional leaders that were loyal to the Tang, most had their own goals. Most of them had literally no ties with the dynasty. As a result of these processes, the Tang were unable to collect taxes in most regions they presumably controlled. The regions had enough power to defy the Emperor and that they did during the An Lushan rebellion were the northern lords attacked the imperial forces. The Emperor managed to regain control but at a great cost and the sack of their own capital. The Tang had little authority over the regions and eventually, one general was able to replace the Emperor.
Note: The Tang are generally regarded and the greatest Chinese dynasty because of their cultural refinement not for their efficient administration. The later is more associated with the Song.
Note: Without good counsellors, a ruler is like a blind man and incapable of acting properly. He might not know what is happening in the regions and can be persuaded to choose certain options that are not in the Empire best interests. Bad persons can influence him and manipulate him, without but also with his consent when the ruler becomes a puppet. A strong Emperor with weak counsellors can also be problematic (Wilhelm 2 in Germany).
Lastly, another problem also weakened the Tang. The presence of a capital city with all the administration personnel and the army protecting the western frontier required more food that what this arid region could produce. They had to import it form the south but the low quantities of rainfall made the transport of goods on the water and rivers canals hazardous. This meant communication problems and a dependency on the other regions.
Gunpowder Empires:
TLDR: One country with the same population, size and resources but with a better fiscal system will have an easier time winning wars. Countries that were successful during this military revolution were those able to concentrate the fiscal powers.
Note: The three main gunpowder empires are: the Ottoman in Anatolia, the Mughal in India and the Safavid in Persia. They managed to conquer huge areas because their neighbours were not able to adapt to this new style of warfare.
Charles Tilly, in his book ‘’The Formation of National States in Western Europe’’ came with a theory saying that although states made the wars, it is the warfare that made the states. To put it simply, it’s like Darwinism applied to the financial and political aspects of a society. The reason why all states are so similar to this day is mostly because others have failed to collect taxes efficiently. The states wage wars and for that, they need money. Those who can get that money have more chance of winning over their enemies. Eventually, smaller countries and those with inefficient fiscal systems will tend to disappear from the map.
How can a country attain an ‘’efficient fiscal system’’? Simple, he needs to be able to collect the money were it is…
Michel Fortmann in the book ‘’Les cycles de Mars’’ (I think the book is only in French) explain that the introduction of the gunpowder during the Renaissance was a real military revolution. The number of conflicts per century on the European continent was around 8-15 during the end of the middle ages but will rise to over 100 in the following centuries. Spain will be in a state of war for 200 consecutive years and most other countries were at war 80% of the time. The coming of this new technology will increase the financial pressure on the states. States needed to adapt to a new style of war. Armies were changing and becoming more costly. The armies needed cannons, munitions, and many horses to get the cannons on the battlefield. It was also necessary to adapt military strategies to this new reality. Furthermore, the defensive system had to adapt and new fortresses appeared, made to resist the fire of the cannons. The small states could not afford it and those that could afford it (Spain, France…) were in serious financial precarity.
The problem of the medieval feudal system was that the fiscal powers were spread across the lords. The king had his personal holding that made about 10% of the country when he was lucky and maybe he received some money from his vassals, but all this is very limited. He needed the support of his vassals for everything he wanted to do. The problem is that individually, no one could afford to ‘’update’’ their army to the new technology. Cities in the center of the country did not see the need to increase military spending and building fortification but cities on the border were threatened but could not pay for it. The solution was to make everyone pay. The feudal system had to change for a more centralized government in order to get that money. It’s a slow process. In France, the king managed to impose new taxes on the cities. The lords could not assure the defence of the kingdom alone, so they accepted the lost of their powers. On the other side, the king had the legitimacy to take the fiscal powers away from the lords, most of it.
Note: According to the author, 2 important countries came to disappear because of their incapacity to centralize the fiscal powers: Poland and Hungary. I’m not knowledgeable enough but apparently, their political system was considered archaic and they were absorbed by other states. It is also interesting to mention the fate of the Spanish Habsburgs Empire and the United Provinces. One had an archaic system and the other was really decentralized. Both lost their Empires but managed to keep their independence. Spain lost control of Austria, the Low Countries, southern Italy and some other smaller possessions scattered in Europe. The Netherlands (this country, whatever you want to call it) , used to be a maritime superpower. The replaced the Portuguese’s for the eastern trade and their maritime power was unmatched. But the defence policy lacked cohesion.
But it goes one step further.
Representative government: With representation, people are willing to pay more.
Centralizing the fiscal powers doses not really make the system efficient. France before the revolution (Ancient Régime) was an absolutism monarchy. From a fiscal point of view, the problem was that most of the burden was on the poorest people. The clergy and the nobility paid almost nothing yet had all the riches of the country. Even if France had a centralized government at the end of the 18th century, a lot of regional differences, privileges and oddities persisted in their system. The system was inefficient as it was unable to extract a large portion of taxes. As I said earlier, the preceding century saw a lot of conflicts. The 17th was a period of intense warfare starting with the Austrian war of succession if I remember correctly. For France, these wars had a great cost but gave little benefits: they lost New France during the 7 years war. England was able to match France military spending despite being 3 times less populous. Part of this difference comes from the trading revenues of England but most of it comes from the higher tax burden on the English people. Even the nobility paid their share of taxes but not in France.
France was an autocracy and the population felt like the taxation system was unjust and indeed it was. In an absolutist monarchy, the king decides everything and doesn’t need to explain his actions. Therefore, it became impossible to increase tax revenues in France. You don’t want to tax the rich but the poor are already heavily taxed. England was a democracy (a representative government), while not perfect, the population could not blame the aristocracy for their problems since they also paid taxes. Furthermore, it is harder to blame a politician who increases taxes that it is to blame an aristocrat that don’t even contribute to the system. Politicians are accountable for their actions in a process called ‘’ the next election’’ but in time of needs, people are also more willing to increase their burden if the government is a democracy. The Thirteen colonies had the slogan: ‘’No taxes without representation’’, and I think it’s a good summary. With representation, people are willing to pay more.
Lastly: can this argument be used to explain why the central powers lost WW1? Probably yes for Austria but not so much for Germany. I lack the knowledge to confirm it but the author seems to think it might have played a role in their defeat.
Note: I’m not even talking about taxes on the revenue, this is very recent. Most taxes were on sales, import/export, land holdings. Tax on the revenue needs a more complex bureaucracy that will come later in history.
Problematic rules of succession:
When the ruler died, it was a custom in the Germanic kingdoms to separate the holdings equally between the sons, leading to the disappearance of the political entity. The closest thing I could find to call it is Gavelkind, a term used in the game Crusader Kings 2 originally forms the British Islands. Normally, we have another rule called primogeniture were the eldest inherited the kingdom but it was not always like that. The most famous case of this is when the Carolingian Empire was separated in three. The Treaty of Verdun officially ended the unity of the Empire for good. This practice ceased to exist in the region after that treaty. Another example is what happened to the Mongol Empire after the death of Genghis Khan. Although his sons continued to extend the Empire, it was made of completely different entities were each acted on their own.
I could also mention the 100 years war here. England and France fought for the French throne because they had a common lineage but did not agree on who should be on the throne. England recognized the right of women to inherit but not France. This almost destroyed the kingdom of France because other countries also took part in the conflict: Scotland, Burgundy, Castille.
Climatic problems:
A change in the climate, several bad harvests, less rain and a weaker monsoon all diminished the food production and let many peasants in a precarious state. Alone, it is rarely enough to put an end to an Empire. But if the problem persists, it will impact all aspects of societies. In these article:
http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/monsoon-climate-change-chinese http://www.climategeology.ethz.ch/publications/2010_Cheng_et_al.pdf
The authors talks about the fall of the Tang dynasty and the Mayan civilization. Both have gotten into decline in the same years and the authors said that it’s related to changes in the climate. In China the Tang are generally recognized as a period of growth and expansion. Like Europe before the Great Famine, the population probably exceeded the capacity of the land slightly before the climate started to change. A weakening in the summer monsoon meant less rain for Northern China and less food. This change might come from the weather system itself or in a change of the planet axial tilt because of a major earthquake. Now you know the other problem the Tang had to face and I’m not sure which one is worst.
Ming dynasty: It is said that the dynasty fell because one general guarding the Great Wall opened the way to the northern invaders. Well, the Empire was already in turmoil and the dynasty had already lost the Mandate of Heaven. In fact, the northern region was already dealing with rebels among the military and civilian. The emperor hanged himself before the invasion even started. It is hard to say what would have happened without the invasions. A general might have taken the title of Emperor for himself to establish a new dynasty. Ultimately, the Ming felt because of poor harvests. The invaders are not going to attack a state when he is strong. We should not give too much credit to the invaders. The great Arab conquests were preceded by epidemics and prolonged warfare between the Eastern Roman Empire and Persia.
$\begingroup$ Modern scholarship increasingly sees climate as a dominant factor. It crashed the Harappans, the Akkadian Empire, the Hittite Empire (and in general, Bronze Age collapse), an archaeological culture near Lake Chad, the Anastazi, played a role in the Black Plague in Europe, etc. most of the famous and not so famous collapses of empires can be tied to climate events such as the 4.2 kya event that cleared the way for Indo-European expansion by collapsing predecessor civilizations. $\endgroup$ – ohwilleke Dec 12 '16 at 23:57
Two big triggers would be food production and increased economic activity. When you have a technological advancement that yields higher food production per capita it allows more folks to not be engaged in that endeavor and can do things that advance the culture in one way or another.
The same is true of increased economic activity. For example, the medieval feudal system is essentially a completely static (economic) model. No one is getting rich, sure there is a huge divide between classes, but there is no middle class. Once something happens to change this, there is excess money that can be used to further the growth of the culture, scientific research, etc.
For example, at the start of the Renaissance you have better sailing ships which leads to increased contact with other cultures, some more advanced (Arabic, Chinese), some less so (the Western Hemisphere). From one you learn some stuff, from the others, you take stuff (natural resources, etc). All adds to growth of the civilization.
WPrechtWPrecht
$\begingroup$ Downvoting, because this describes the rise of a great empire, where the question is explicitly about the fall of a great empire. $\endgroup$ – Zibbobz Oct 14 '14 at 13:15
$\begingroup$ You might be a little more parsimonious about down-voting answers. This question was substantially changed (several times) between the time I answered it and 6 hours ago, check the edit logs... $\endgroup$ – WPrecht Oct 14 '14 at 20:08
$\begingroup$ You may want to consider editing this answer then, since it is no longer congruous with the purpose of this question. I do agree that I was hasty in my downvote - were it not too late, I would undo it immediately. $\endgroup$ – Zibbobz Oct 14 '14 at 20:11
I am going to try to answer this question generally.
I think the first requirement for a major world or cultural transition is dissasisfaction. You need a large group of unsatisfied people to drvie the need for change. I think of the barbarians in Rome, the peasants in the French and Russian Revolutions. These people are the energy that drive the change. The larger the relative size of the group the closer the change, the more dissatisfied/gap between this population and the rest of society the greater the chance of violence.
Dissasisfaction is not enough. For anything to change the dissasisfaction must be channeled into a cause or solution. There can be multiple solutions to chose from but over time there is typically one idea that most people rally behind. This gives people a necessary vision to work towards. The powerful and affluent who benefit from the current situation will typically resist this cause until a triggering event.
Eventually, a triggering event will occur that force the society to react. It is typically a dramatic event like Martin Luther nailing the 95 thesis that comes after a long period of buildup. It forces society to either adapt or attempt to crush the change. The result of societies choices will create a new status que that will eventually lead to a new source of dissatisfaction. I believe it is a sign of a cultures maturity if it can resolve sources of dissatisfaciton without resorting to violence.
This cycle of dissatisfaction -> solution -> triggering event -> new status quo -> new source of dissatisfaction, while oversimplified, is useful for understanding historical events, and especially for generating your own cultural shifts in your worlds.
VulcronosVulcronos
$\begingroup$ When I get a chance later, I would like to come back and add some examples if I have time. $\endgroup$ – Vulcronos Sep 25 '14 at 21:12
The substance of my answer has been mentioned in other answers but not given its due emphasis and so is getting lost in all the detail. The fundamental truth is that empires fail when they fail to adapt to changing conditions.
This failure to adapt could also be expressed as resistance to change. The innovations that gave the empire-builders their original advantage eventually become problematic when they no longer provide that advantage. People hang onto them long after their "use by" date thinking that what has given advantage will continue to give advantage even when that is no longer true. When emerging, an empire is differentiating itself and so change is actually embraced and encouraged during this phase; but a failing empire has become preoccupied with defending its institutions rather than reinventing them and so change is resisted.
(That, by the way, is the world we live in today: with Industry & Government feeling threatened by and resisting emerging ecofriendly changes for as long as they can. Political power is beginning to devolve to the local level where cities and counties are stepping up to address the issues being ignored or resisted at the State and Federal level.)
I hope these thoughts spark some ideas of changes that your empires could be embracing to their benefit or resisting to their undoing.
sagussagus
There are several things that can happen.
Scientific and Technological Discoveries
Part of what brought Greek (and then Roman) knowledge was the great discoveries in science made by the likes of Aristotle. This let the Greeks (and Romans) have more advanced technology. For example the Greeks invented the waterwheel, gears, plumbing, showers, and even alarm clocks. Then the Renaissance re-created many of these things, starting the series of technological revolutions that bring us to today. So discoveries can bring along huge advances, even in just society. The Internet for example, has changed society massively, because of increased communication.
The Renaissance largely happened because classical and scientfic texts were reintroduced to Europe through the crusades. So again, Discoveries (or rediscoveries) encourage societal change and advancement
When mass amounts of recorded knowledge is destroyed, then often times society will devolve. This happened when the barbarians destroyed Rome. They destroyed a lot of knowledge, but they also destroyed the central government and the center of society. Without Rome as a center, society drifted apart and became more inward looking. No longer was the Roman Emperor sending governors and taking taxes from everywhere. So nobles ruled over their towns, with a King ruling over an area. Literacy levels also fell, because Roman infrastructure wasn't heading everything. Once literacy was done, scientific accomplishments could be made as easily, so societal evolution slowed.
That being said, the Black Death is often attributed to the bringing on of the Renaissance. This happened because demand on peasants became much higher, enabling peasants to actually hired themselves out, instead of being basically slaves to their Lord. This established a free market of supply and demand, as well as promoting trade and scientific establishments.
Finally change needs to be spread to do anything. This kind of spread was caused for the Renaissance mostly be conquering armies. French armies invading Italy brought Renaissance ideas to that place. But peace allowed the Renaissance ideas to spread to France and England, so both ways work.
DonyorMDonyorM
Your question is: "What similarities can be seen in the fall of [aforementioned] great empires? Whether natural events, social trends, or technological advancements. Also, how can one use this information in building worlds?"
I find it amazing that everyone only comes up with explanations based on war here. You go to war when you think you stand a chance. You think you stand a chance against an almighty empire when you're either:
a) desperate,
b) misinformed,
c) when the empire has shown signs it can be beat militarily, or
d) any combination of the above.
It follows that a whole empire is very unlikely to fail unless c) is the case.
Historically, sociological inertia is very strong. Cultural, military and economic practices that have proven to work will not change, unless there is a strong push to change them. It follows that empires are only overrun or collapsing if 1. they have developed internal weaknesses to external pressure, which 2. manages to eventually successfully bring about the desired change. Sometimes that change can be adapted to, and sometimes it will eventually mean the collapse of empire.
Barbarians were actually powerless against Rome (or rather, could be regularly defeated), until Rome was marred by internal conflict which weakened the borders to the extent that trust in the system of power was failing. Infrastructural concepts of Roman urban space was failing (e.g. corruption kills water supply maintenance, which makes water supply in cities impure, cities become less habitable, so people began leaving the cities.) The middle ages had really begun before the barbarian invasions. A variety of socio-economic factors lead to internal weakening, which made new barbarian rulers feasible, as the "vision" of the old system had become increasingly unappealing.
To make it short: Don't look for war and technology as the answer to why empires are failing; they do play a part, usually in the end, but the internal cohesion, failure to adapt to internal dynamic processes (=political failures) and decline of cultural magnetism of an empire are what comes before any fall.
For building worlds, I take it that you look for factors that would make empires long-lasting: These empires would either exist in very (socio-economically) non-dynamic worlds, or would be highly adaptive to their surroundings and challenges (making them drop traditions at a moment's notice when these become inhibitors rather than agents of empire). So either the challenges to such an empire do not change (in both form and response), or the empire itself constantly changes (in both form and response to challenges).
AverettAverett
I especially like the answers from Bokai and Abulafia, who cite Toynbee and Systems Theory respectively. I think those are the most generally powerful and descriptive.
To pull it all together, I'd recommend John Michael Greer's posts on the nature of empire. In a 3-piece series starting with http://thearchdruidreport.blogspot.com/2012/02/nature-of-empire.html, Greer applies his serious scholarship in both Toynbee's theories of history and Systems Theory, and a lot more besides (such as the work of Oswald Spengler and Joseph Tainter), and boils it down into a very well-written overview.
"Put more simply, an empire is a wealth pump, a device to enrich one nation at the expense of others. The mechanism of the pump varies from empire to empire and from age to age; the straightforward exaction of tribute that did the job for ancient Egypt, and had another vogue in the time of imperial Spain, has been replaced in most of the more recent empires by somewhat less blatant though equally effective systems of unbalanced exchange. While the mechanism varies, though, the underlying principle does not."
The third article, "The Trajectory of Empires", contains fundamental, general answers of the type the OP is, I think, looking for.
"The wealth of subject nations, in other words, is a nonrenewable resource for empires, and empires thus face the same sort of declining returns on investment as any other industry dependent on nonrenewable resources. It’s thus predictable that the most frequent response to declining returns is an exact analogue of the "drill, baby, drill" mentality so common in today’s petroleum-dependent nations. The drive to expand at all costs that dominates the foreign policy of so many empires is thus neither accidental nor a symptom of the limitless moral evil with which empires are so often credited by their foes. For an empire that’s already drained its subject nations to the point that the wealth pump is sputtering, a policy of 'invade, baby, invade' is a matter of economic necessity, and often of national survival."
Greer's insightful treatment of empires as complex systems gives us a pretty good grounding in what's going on. Essentially, empires exist as parasites on external sources of wealth. As parasites, they never manage to avoid the exhaustion and destruction of those sources of wealth.
Meanwhile, the empire has generated costly internal complexities in order to administer the imperial economy and society, and has also become dependent on unequal systems of economic exchange that enforce the empire's advantages. This in turn requires big military expenditures. Systems theory assures us that these layerings of complexity on complexity yield diminishing returns, so the whole edifice becomes increasingly fragile...
Why do empires fall? Fundamentally, for two reasons: exhaustion of indispensable resources, and the inherent structural progress towards diminishing returns on internal investment.
Please note that I'm not dismissing the other answers. All of them are at least partially true, I think. But I agree with Greer: the fundamental nature of an empire is the root of its own demise.
By the way: Greer's work in general is an excellent resource for worldbuilding. You may find it offputting, because he's a clergyman (he really is an Archdruid) or because he believes that our civilization is entering into a long period of descent; but his insights in military history, human ecology, systems theory, and reality-based economics are all very solid; and they amount to considerably more than the sum of the parts.
Bill BlondeauBill Blondeau
$\begingroup$ Really disagree, there are absolutely no examples of any society much less empires falling from "exhaustion of indispensable resources." Resources can't be exhausted because all "natural resources" are really artificial. The best proof of this is that Empire tend to replace other Empires. If the resources were exhausted, how could new empires rise repeatedly on the ashes of the others? Geer is also wrong that Empires expand till they fail It's the opposite. Empires expand early in their dynamic youth, then slow, freeze and retract. $\endgroup$ – TechZen Jul 15 '15 at 19:22
$\begingroup$ Geer is also wrong that military expenditures expand in Empires declining phase. They can't because political disfunction leads to economic dysfunction which prevents paying for large militaries. Worse, fears of internal disorder causes them to downgrade their military capabilities for fear of military rebellion. $\endgroup$ – TechZen Jul 15 '15 at 19:26
$\begingroup$ Compare the armies of the Roman Republic in Punic Wars to those of the late Empire which had 30-40 times the population. The Republic repeatedly fielded well trained and equipped armies in the hundreds of thousands. The late empire fielded poorly trained and equipped, most barbarian armies in the low tens of thousands at best. In the Republic, the army represented the franchised citizens who poised no political danger. In the Empire, the Legions were mercenaries who spent most of their time fighting civil wars. Chinese dynasties also show this pattern. $\endgroup$ – TechZen Jul 15 '15 at 19:35
Actually, the primary impetus for a culture to advance technologically is... other cultures.
If we consider Europe, it has a very convoluted coastline and a large mountain range right in the middle, plus a lot of big rivers, which makes for a lot of different national groups, each of which in a way could be considered to be other cultures, all in a small area. Constant contact with these other cultures has led to warfare, or preparation for warfare, and warfare is the second greatest impetus for technological advancement.
Then consider other groups. China advanced rapidly when it was at war with its neighbors, but stagnated once it was considered too powerful to attack. Japan followed the same pattern, advancing when in conflict with other nations, but stagnating once they became isolationist (despite many civil wars), and then advancing rapidly after Europeans forced their way in, even though they were not at war with the Europeans. The world's most primitive groups, the pacific islanders and the Australian aboriginals, had very little contact with any other cultures until Europeans made contact and started colonizing.
Monty Wild♦Monty Wild
In 1984, Professor Alexander Demandt published a survey of the reasons historians have given for the fall of Rome. [1,2] The list numbers 210 reasons, ranging from lead and mercury poisoning to public baths and polytheism. Rome's alleged killers are as varied a barbarians, bureaucrates, feminists, hedonists and militarists.
Personally I lean toward the systems thinking school, which states that it's a fallacy to assume that large effects have large causes. The monumental event that was JFK's assasination could have been the act of a lone loser, it does not need to be a conspiracy of proportional size. Similarly, if we could trace the cause of the fall of Rome, there may have been one or a multitude of events too insignificant to remember, that could yet have turned events on their head. Maybe a chance meeting between an influential backer and a now forgotten senator, that could have become an oustanding emperor? Maybe some years of slightly worse harvests in Germany would prevent it amassing the barbarian army in the Teutoburg forest? Perhaps some minor innovation in early Rome, which gets multiplied as its culture spreads over the centuries, to make the provinces more profitable or robust to changes in climate.
That Rome lays in the distant past does not excuse the many fanciful explanations. Everyone reading this answer were alive during the 2008 financial crisis. We were there as it happened, but the theories as to why it happened keeps increasing. It has been explained through a commodities boom, a peak-oil scenario, the theory of scale-free networks, reactionary gender roles, weakened legislation, an error in a mathematical formula, the dot-com bubble, the postwar baby boom and a number of arguments for why "the system" is set to produce regular booms and busts without outside intervention. I can count about 40 reasons in wikipedia articles alone. Within our lifetime, the number of explanations for the financial crisis may well rival that of the fall of Rome.
As for story-writing, I would love to see someone write a story from the systems thinking perspective. Maybe the protagonist does one little thing, which through unforeseen consequences escalates until he's watching helplessly, as his civilization crumbles around him. It's a tantalizing idea, that the seed of a glorious future or the end of civilization as we know it could be buried in the small and mundane around us.
Or perhaps the real literary wonder is not found in explaining the fall of empires, but in how they sustain themselves for centuries. Unlikely islands of orderliness in a sea of chaos.
[1] http://www.wired.com/2013/06/210-reasons-for-the-fall-of-the-roman-empire/
[2] http://www.utexas.edu/courses/rome/210reasons.html
AbulafiaAbulafia
$\begingroup$ I would call Empires islands of stagnation in seas of innovation. Empires advance knowledge only in their early dynamic stage, usually 100-200 years or less, after that they stagnate and suppress. It is that stagnation that eventually kills them. $\endgroup$ – TechZen Jul 15 '15 at 19:35
TLDR: The question is to broad to answer in anything less than several books
This question is like asking what one or two things makes people die or get sick, except empires of hundreds of humans are more complicated than individual ones.
This question encompasses basically the entire field of history like the second encompasses the whole field of medicine.
Its an important question but there are hundreds of different causes, we can point to empires that had popular unrest for decades before they fell(like running a fever), and to ones that fell suddenly and violently to outside invasion (gunshot wound). You can't point to a single symptom to say this is what caused every person to die like wise you can't point to one cause for the fall of empires. (aside from birth: statistically most people have been born died and the rest are likely to die in the next 100 or so years, most empires that have been founded have fallen)
Worse still there are many empires where the cause is highly debated or the result of many different problems which further slows analysis.
In fact the largest collapses seem to be the most murky and complex
The right answer would have to be a list of hundreds of possible causes ranging from loss of irreplaceable leaders (Macedonia) Combat with a more powerful foe (Japanese empire in the 1940's)
To more murky causes hyperinflation from gathering to much sliver and gold (Spanish Empire) increased reliance on mercenaries/ decadence and waste of the upper class / dozens of important causes I'm forgetting (Rome) Loss of trade route control due to better ships
To make things even worse some major empires we have almost no information on why they fell, like the Mayan and Mohenjo-daro civilizations
sdrawkcabdearsdrawkcabdear
I will try to answer in the context of the "Civilization" game.
Empires get unwieldly, and vulnerable when they are "too large." Too many people in a city makes some of them unhappy. Too many cities in an empire reduces the necessary number of people in any given city before it becomes unhappy. Cities (and military units) that are unhappy are susceptible to revolutions from within, and bribes from without. Also, the further a city is from the capital, the higher the levels of corruption and waste (relative to its size).
In playing the game, I consciously do NOT try to maximize population growth. For instance, I do not irrigate land until relatively late in the game (e.g. when I have a government like Democracy that fights corruption and waste). Instead I use my settlers to build roads that connect my cities, thus reducing corruption and waste. I also tend to place workers on "resource," rather than "farmland" squares, which further slows population growth, but speed up the construction of buildings. Temples and colosseums calm restive people, courthouses reduce corruption, marketplaces and banks boost the economy etc. Basically, I want a high ratio of buildings (capital) to people.
If I capture small cities abroad, I "depopulate" them by building settlers until the city disappears, using military units for "rush builds." Thus, I get a "free" settler or engineer to improve my other cities nearer home.
The collapse of the ancient civilizations occurred when then got so "top heavy" that 1) other civilizations feared and envied them and 2), they were not "agile" enough to resist outside threats. Instead, managed growth for internal, rather than external growth seems like the better bet. But most rulers didn't see it that way until it was too late. Louis XV's quote, "After me, the flood," preceded Marie Antoinette's "Let them eat cake."
Tom AuTom Au
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Why would the richest and strongest country on Earth consistently fail at Big Projects?
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What are the disadvantages of a long living race?
In most fantasy settings and worlds, we have different races like Demons, Elves , Fairies, Angels and so on and on. Most of them usually have longer lifespans than humans and while it might seem like a dream come true to be able to live for thousands of years, I'm not sure that all that glitters is gold.
So if say we had elves that have an average lifespan of 5000 years, they are slightly stronger (includes things like agility and reaction time) than the average human by about 1.5 times. What are some plausible disadvantages for a long living race?
Some cons I have thought of would be having a low birth rate and how chronic disease would make life hell.
Other than that the technology level is around medieval era but their medicines are about 19–20th century standard, they had a lot of time to make medicines with the flora in the forest they live in.
science-based fantasy-races medieval-europe
JDługosz
SkyeSkye
$\begingroup$ A lot depends on when they become adults, in many meanings. Mature enough to make own decisions. Fertile. Peak physical performance? $\endgroup$ – Mołot Aug 28 '16 at 7:58
$\begingroup$ My first thought is nagging wives saying "Herman you've been telling that same joke for 4800 years..." $\endgroup$ – corsiKa Aug 28 '16 at 20:21
$\begingroup$ @corsiKa just imagine the amount of YouTube videos with bad jokes produced for 4800 years by the same person... $\endgroup$ – Skye Aug 29 '16 at 13:01
$\begingroup$ They are more likely to run out of souls. $\endgroup$ – Yakk Aug 29 '16 at 19:07
$\begingroup$ The issue of cultural stagnation is directly referenced in the Marvel movies. IIRC it is Odin who observes that the Asgardians' extended longevity relative to earthlings has enabled their technology to advance to the point where it is indistinguishable from magic, while their culture seems stuck in the middle ages. $\endgroup$ – mikeagg Aug 30 '16 at 8:39
First off, repopulation. There are two possibilities - either the elves have a birth rate similar to humans or they have a birth rate vastly reduced to match their lifespan. In the former case, the elves would become vastly overpopulated very, very quickly, with a death rate that's negligible next to their birth rate. Such a species could conceivably become extraordinarily warlike or prone to risky behaviour, just to artificially increase their death rate. In the latter case, elves would be incredibly vulnerable to attrition tactics - any attacking force willing to wage war for a couple of hundred years could deplete the elves' population before the next generation matured. Likewise, any long-term natural disaster - like a plague - could wipe out the elves when humans would have scraped by.
Second, stagnation. Humans already have this problem - as we get older, we get to be set in our ways, resulting in a significant portion of the population being locked in values and ideas decades out of date. With elves, this would become vastly worse - the three-thousand-year-old Queen of the Elves might have difficulty adjusting to any technology invented less than two thousand years ago, and would likely insist on tactics that worked a thousand years ago.
Third, memory. A species that lives a hundred times longer than a human has a hundred times more to remember. Again, we have two options - either the elves have no better memory than a human, or their memories are expanded to suit their expanded lifespan. In the first case, the elves would be unlikely to remember clearly anything more than a hundred years back, and so would forget vast swathes of their adult lives, with obvious consequences. In the second case, they are storing a vast amount of data - keeping it all straight, and bringing it to mind in a timely manner, might be difficult. It might even turn into a sort of dementia - with thousands of years of memories in your head, losing track of what year it is would be easy.
Fourth, genetics. For humans, influenza evolves so quickly relative to our lifespan that we can't make a long-term vaccine. For elves, virtually every disease would evolve that quickly relative to their lifespan. With the gene pool taking so long to change - because the next generation is so slow to come - they'd be hit with a plague on the scale of the Spanish Influenza every century or so, if not more often. And as pointed out above, getting hit with a plague is bad news for a species that repopulates slowly.
ReeseReese
$\begingroup$ +1 for the stagnation. What have humans achieved in the last 1000 years? Invented everything from plate armour to nuclear power, and porcelain to heart transplants. What has that 1000 year old elf achieved in the last 1000 years? Nothing. :-) $\endgroup$ – DrBob Aug 28 '16 at 14:00
$\begingroup$ @DrBob I'm calling bullshit. With a 5000 year timespan, we could have a convention with the top 100 scientists of our entire history. What would happen if Tesla and Archimedes could be in the same room? Or Hawking and Galileo? Sure, mediocre elves will live mediocre 5000 year lives pushing paper... but the greatest elves will contribute to their society for 5000 years. What happens when Einstein and Newton start collaborating on physics together? In any event, republics have been the most powerful nations on earth for most of the last 2000 years - a stagnant queen would be quickly dispatched. $\endgroup$ – corsiKa Aug 28 '16 at 20:34
$\begingroup$ Re influenza: The issue is not that influenza evolves quickly relative to our lifespan. The issue is that new strains evolve faster than we can go through the process of A) isolate virus ➞ B) developing vaccine ➞ C) testing vaccine (return to B until vaccine is effective and safe for humans) ➞ D) mass produce vaccine ➞ E) distribute vaccine ➞ F) inoculate large portions of the population. That process takes time. Currently, in order to have a vaccine available in time for cold/flu season which strains will be prevalent that year must be guessed/estimated. Guess wrong=not effective. $\endgroup$ – Makyen Aug 28 '16 at 20:51
$\begingroup$ @corsiKa Eh, even today, big paradigma changes in Science happens generationally. Old people must die or leave from their political positions where they influence a lot of things, before you get free space to pursue some valid science that those people just didn't think it is valuable (or it would invalidate THEIR research). $\endgroup$ – Colombo Aug 28 '16 at 23:11
$\begingroup$ @corsiKa Except Newton's ideas would never have been accepted, because Aristotle would still have been running the University, and he would have seen Newton as a grubby little savage from some far flung area of the Roman Empire. $\endgroup$ – deworde Aug 29 '16 at 10:00
A major disadvantage would be a greatly increased risk of resource depletion. Another would be the risks faced by these creatures before they can reproduce.
At its core, the purpose of life is to ensure the continuation of the species. Life begets life. Hence, if you want a species to have an exceptionally long life span, then there should be something about that longer lifespan which has, on evolutionary timescales (which work on generations, not years), helped ensure the survival of the species, and ideally an individual's own offspring. In evolutionary terms, parents' responsibility to help safeguard the survival of their offspring lasts until their offspring has matured to the point of having offspring of their own. We see this pattern time and again in nature, particularly in species that have fewer offspring but tend to them: offspring leaves their parents once they are near or at sexual maturity, not before.
Every individual who is alive, including those who are unable (too young, too old, sick or infirm) to defend themselves and to reproduce, requires sustenance. You mention medicine, but that's the last thing you should be concerned about, because frankly, especially with the technology level you seem to have in mind, keeping sick and infirm individuals alive would be a luxury, not something to be taken for granted. If their technology level is "around medieval level", they are going to have serious challenges growing or catching sufficient food. Each individual will require, irrespective of their preferred food source, far more biomass to sustain themselves for 5,000 years than for 50 years. This presents a number of challenges especially because in the era you are comparing against, life for the vast majority of humans was already at a sustenance level. Particularly if combined with a greatly reduced birth rate, you will have far more individuals who are at a stage of their life where they are not reproducing or tending to offspring and thus, from an evolutionary perspective, are not productive members of their species.
You can in principle do something like make their life cycle such that they don't reproduce until age 3,000 years, but then you have to explain how they got to that point. What was the advantage to having one's first offspring, on average, at age 3,000 years instead of at age 3 years or 30 years? Every year you add to the age when they have offspring is a year that comes with the risk of debilitating injuries, illness, famine, perhaps war. Parents who get offspring that reproduce later would have a greater risk of not having any great-offspring. If anything, there would seem to be an evolutionary pressure to reproduce earlier rather than later, but there is a natural limit to how early it is reasonable for a complex organism to reproduce. In order to as much as maintain a population size, on average, each pair needs to have two offspring who survive long enough to have offspring of their own.
a CVn♦a CVn
$\begingroup$ But the species evolved to live a 5000 year life ( should OP choose ). The surrounding ecosystem has evolved with them and can maintain such a life form. $\endgroup$ – Carl Aug 28 '16 at 22:14
$\begingroup$ @Carl Certainly possible, but you still have to keep the issue in mind. OP asked for disadvantages of a long lifespan; I think my answer provides at least some (though it's obviously very hard to provide an exhaustive list or really go into detail about them). $\endgroup$ – a CVn♦ Aug 29 '16 at 6:18
$\begingroup$ An evolutionary advantage could be the survival of long periods, where offspring is infeasible. Like a 2000 year ice-age, which only grown up elves can barely survive. Or the opposite: Elven babies need exceptionally perfect conditions for growing up, such perfect conditions which happen on average once every 1000 years - then you need to live more than 2000 years to produce two offspring :-) $\endgroup$ – Falco Aug 30 '16 at 9:27
$\begingroup$ @Falco As pointed out by Reese and others, that is very much a double-edged sword. You are assuming that the conditions after the ice age is conducive to survival of the same individuals as it were before; I'm guessing that such is a highly unrealistic assumption. $\endgroup$ – a CVn♦ Aug 30 '16 at 9:50
$\begingroup$ That depends on the species. If our Elves are a highly adaptive species, with a broad spectrum of traits, a grown Elf would survive in almost any condition, while a baby elf would need to be born in a stable climate with enough food and everything. The parents could also travel around the world for hundreds of years until they find a place where they can successfully bear a child. $\endgroup$ – Falco Sep 1 '16 at 8:30
Can I mention Boredom? As someone's life goes on, they might arrive at the point of having done everything, and seen everything they might be interested in. Apart from the little news from time to time, life may become void and dull, leading them to retire in apathy. I know this could also be called Stagnation, but instead of the S. of ideas mentioned by Reese, this would be the one of an entire society not knowing what to do.
"What you want to do?" asked the High Queen of Arboria
"I don't know, what YOU wanna do?" answered the Supreme Priestess
"I don't know.."
JustPassingByJustPassingBy
$\begingroup$ 3000 years of playing chess would be soooo fun $\endgroup$ – Skye Aug 29 '16 at 12:56
$\begingroup$ @Sky Imagine how much practice you could get at archery. $\endgroup$ – a CVn♦ Aug 29 '16 at 14:04
$\begingroup$ I'm reminded of the second season of wakfu for some reason. cough-Quigly-cough $\endgroup$ – Baldrickk Aug 30 '16 at 13:33
$\begingroup$ Obligatory link: xkcd.com/330 $\endgroup$ – JamesENL Aug 31 '16 at 6:39
Living memory is a two edged sword. Sure they have the wisdom of ages but they also have the bigotry of ages. They remember that your great great great granddad still owes them money. Imagine a grudge that lasts as long as some religions. Set in their ways just doesn't begin to cover it.
They need the young to drag them kicking and screaming into the future.
Now you humans get off my lawn!
candied_orangecandied_orange
$\begingroup$ "Imagine a grudge that lasts as long as some religions" - umm, I'm guessing you're not familiar with the history of Jerusalem? $\endgroup$ – corsiKa Aug 28 '16 at 20:37
$\begingroup$ Oh I'm familiar. You think living longer makes this better? This is the same problem, just kept personal. $\endgroup$ – candied_orange Aug 28 '16 at 20:40
A longer life also implies a longer reproductive cycle.
A longer reproductive cycle means the species will evolve much slower. That will make it more vulnerable to gradual environmental changes and generally hamper its development.
When there is a new ice age which drastically lowers temperatures for a thousand years, 80% of humanity might get wiped out at first, but the most cold-resistant humans will survive, procreate and pass their cold-resistance genes on to the next generation. When the ice age is over, they will have adapted and get out of it with strong numbers.
But the elves will not be so lucky. Their longer reproduction cycle means that anyone who dies can not be replaced so easily and it will take far longer for the cold-resistance genes to procreate through the population. At the end of the ice age they will have become almost extinct.
When you have a long life without a long reproductive cycle, you will have a different problem: Overpopulation. Too many people get born but not enough old people die and keep consuming resources.
But this affects the survival of the whole species, not so much the individual. When you compare an average middle-aged elf (300 years old) to an average middle-aged human (30 years old), the elf has the advantage that she had far more time to acquire skills and knowledge. You could counter that by making the species which live longer more forgetful. The elf might have been a masterful fletcher 100 years ago and a great warrior 200 years ago, but now barely remembers those times and forgot all of the skills she learned. Now she is no match for a human who acquired these skills just decades ago.
$\begingroup$ long life doesn't equal slow reproduction though... $\endgroup$ – Charon Aug 28 '16 at 9:32
$\begingroup$ @渡し守シャロン But then you have a different problem: Overpopulation. Added a paragraph about that. $\endgroup$ – Philipp Aug 28 '16 at 9:40
$\begingroup$ You don't have. Amount of offsprings can be (and in nature often is) regulated. When population has high density, you have lower amount of offsprings than if population has high density. $\endgroup$ – Colombo Aug 29 '16 at 21:08
A central theme of The Queendom of Sol novels is how children can’t take their place in society. The king and queen live forever so the crown prince will be the prince forever and never take over. Less obviously the same is true for any career: the student and protégé will never move on to have his own place in the field.
In later novels, the main theme concerned overpopulation and resource depletion.
JDługoszJDługosz
$\begingroup$ If most people know they'll never inherit the boss's chair, how long will they support seniority-based structures? $\endgroup$ – Anton Sherwood Aug 29 '16 at 0:05
The only way to really understand what the potential is for extreme longevity (both advantages as well as disadvantages) is to consider the human factors involved. I'm using the term Human Factors loosely here, but one might glean something from the definition itself.
In industry, human factors (also known as ergonomics) is the study of how humans behave physically and psychologically in relation to particular environments, products, or services.
http://searchsoa.techtarget.com/definition/human-factors
Excluding the products and services part, what it boils down to is psychology mostly, that is, assuming we can, for the majority of the time spans under consideration, rule out debilitating factors such as chronic disease and lack of mobility. In other words we may gain entry into the question by considering the limited case of perfectly healthy individuals living for a very long time.
So with that out of the way, what can be said of long term human/humanoid existence when health is not an issue? Let's assume as well that mental health is not an issue.
One can possibly imagine several motivating factors related to varying interests for accomplishing things with the available time, but really the two basic ones that seem relevant are.
realizing personal or professional goals
improving the quality of life for oneself or others
Now, considering that medicine is 19/20th century and mental health may be an issue, we must also consider the following factors which may lead to conflict:
acquiring medical care/herbs where supplies may be limited (this applies generally as well to any conceivable needs)
despair, anger or otherwise negative emotions (generally mental health)‡
‡ We have often heard that folks have a tendency to become cynical as they age. I myself am on the cusp of middle age and can see the truth in that. I have often experienced despair and anger at human behaviors and actions, in myself and others, which to me (on second thought in the case where I am culpable) seem to be nonsense, ill formed, silly, unwise, stupid. The older one gets, the easier it seems to be to spot such behaviors. This can lead to despair and anger in individuals who do not actively maintain a healthy mental profile. Particularly in those who seek less social interaction.
So to compare and contrast the two—the former seeming all positive, the latter seemingly the inverse of that—it's not hard to see that both are in fact the same. Realizing goals requires resources and effort, whether the goal is professional such as perfecting ones craft or elevating and maintaining ones reputation, or personal, such as feeling better or living longer. To compress the subject even more, quality of life is just another goal whether one finds reward indirectly by improving the quality of the lives of others, or directly by attempting to improve the quality of ones own life.
So now that we've formulated a very broad and general context in which we find the longevity question, it makes sense to point out that goal seeking is the dominating factor that drives our lives forward. And how we address those goals, and more deeply how we address the goal forming process itself, determines what the positive and negative aspects of life will be. And I'm going to go out on a limb and suggest that this is true regardless of the amount of time involved. ☺
Now back to the human factors definition. Excluding again the two extraneous objects I mentioned before, the third stands out, and that is "how humans behave […] in relation to particular environments"
So to give an inference as to how humans behave and what they may experience in your particular environment, I would suggest that they go about in the usual way as medieval citizens/subjects do and experience all of the positive things as well as the negative things that medieval citizens/subjects experience, but for longer. If that experience is bad, then presumably having that experience for a very long time is worse, but it could only be hardening. Keep in mind as well that we do grow accustomed to things and we even learn to rise above situations on occasion. Wisdom that comes with experience would seem to aid in that process.
To actually answer the question as to the negative aspects of extreme longevity, particularly in medieval times, I would say that it probably starts off bad for most subjects (as Michael Kjörling points out), then gets worse, then much worse, then fades into normal over thousands of years perhaps, but possibly only a few centuries of replay will suffice to confirm what "normal" is—unless the person, the core of the living body, chooses to step out of the mental constraints of the world. And perhaps by breaking rules or side stepping expectations that person may suffer physically or even mentally, but it would seem that such a thing is short lived and of little consequence compared to centuries of inner nothingness. However, most people are as helpless to choose as they are to determine the length of their lifespan. This is perhaps as true for those in power as it is for those begging for scraps. The only thing left is whether the suckiness of life is worse than the consequences of making a choice and living with it.
NoloNolo
$\begingroup$ I would guess that an elves perception of time would be vastly different from a human(What you live for only less than a hundred years?) However, could their mental health really deteriorate that easily? Would a way to solve this be just cutting of relations with other shorter living races? $\endgroup$ – Skye Aug 29 '16 at 12:51
$\begingroup$ IMO Tolkien got the mental aspects of Elvish longevity exactly right. Read the Silmarillion as well as LOTR. For even the strongest-willed, they become world-weary. Note: Tolkien's elves are not exactly mortal. Not even bodily death can free their souls from the confines of the world. $\endgroup$ – nigel222 Aug 29 '16 at 14:32
There is an actual thing that people haven't considered yet, and that is that people don't want to die very much.
Well, that seems obvious, but it has some implications for a longer lived race. Let's pretend that humans are in the middle, and we have a very short lived race (like the Salarians in Mass Effect, who live until they're 40), and then your elves.
We take 3 smart people, one from each species, and ask them a question: Would you drive a car to work, assuming that traffic was like the US of A, in 2014?
Well, according to The Odds of Dying, 2.5 per 100,000 drivers died in the US in 2014.
WARNING: The math here is fudged and not 100% correct. It's merely correct-ish.
If you're a salarian, you live 40 years, so taking that kind of odds for 40 years is about 40*2.5 = 1 in 1000 odds if you drive from the day you were born until you die.
If you're a human, you live 80 years, so you have 2 in 1000 odds.
If you're an elf, you live 10 000 years, so your odds are 1 in 4.
The type of elf that takes that kind of insane risk, to go out and drive in traffic in the US in 2014, seems to have a rather risky life, doesn't he?
Basically every risk assessment for an elf will make things seem much more dangerous, because your threshold for "stupid stuff that will kill me before I'm 25% done with my life" is so much lower than for humans and salarians.
Therefore any elf that wants to stick around for a longer time, and have more children, and thus more genes in the wider population, will be careful and conservative in his or her outlook on the world.
That's just how biology works.
Haakon LøtveitHaakon Løtveit
$\begingroup$ If a creature lives forever, why bother driving at dangerous speeds? Since you have "all the time in the world" to get anywhere, why not make the speed limit 20 MPH, since you're unlikely to have a fatal accident at that speed? $\endgroup$ – user151841 Aug 29 '16 at 19:59
$\begingroup$ Also no war. its just too risky. $\endgroup$ – joojaa Aug 31 '16 at 11:29
Stewards of the Stagnant Planet
Perhaps the long-living species have already experienced problems like overpopulation, resource depletion, infectious disease, and so on. Their technology/magic has allowed them to rid themselves or even the world of disease. Their experience with resource depletion has taught them to view themselves as stewards of the planet. Because they live long and healthy lives, there isn't the same hustle to work all the time and expect to live in luxury. Perhaps they have come to accept a simple form of life through art and meditation. It is worth noting that many European colonists in the Americas fled the work-to-the-bone colonial cultures to live with the Native Americans, and when they were "rescued" by their fellow colonists, they left at first chance to live with the natives again. So you might not have television, radio, the internet, and so on...but is that so bad?
Lonely Galactic Explorers
Borrowing from the Asari from Mass Effect, this species uses its immense lifespan to develop technological leaps that allow them to travel the galaxy. However, most other species have lifespans that are at most a tenth of their own, and so they are universally distrusted. Even though they have so much to offer in trade, art, and science, nobody will trade with them, and any conquering only adds to their image of an evil genetic elite. It would truly be a lonely existence to know that there is so much intelligent life in the galaxy, but it wants absolutely nothing to do with you.
rm -rf slashrm -rf slash
$\begingroup$ I don't recall the Asari being lonely in the Mass Effect series. Quite the opposite, in fact; they were one of the cornerstone species of galactic society! $\endgroup$ – Mason Wheeler Aug 29 '16 at 20:57
$\begingroup$ I am well aware of that. I was simply presenting the idea of an anti-asari. Perhaps they would have been less trusted if galactic civilization was built on innovation and not an existing network of mass relays, but it's hard to tell. $\endgroup$ – rm -rf slash Aug 30 '16 at 11:35
$\begingroup$ uh I miss the game so much, it was nice. $\endgroup$ – azerafati Aug 30 '16 at 15:42
$\begingroup$ @rm-rfslash what's the reason they were not trusted? I kinda boycotted the game. $\endgroup$ – Skye Aug 31 '16 at 13:03
$\begingroup$ @rm-rfslash Mass effect was way too cliche (The HERO picked up the god stick! He will save us!) the ending was... And then there's this story spanning 3 GAMES where in the end you/I find out that what they really care about is shepherd when you/I only care about the side-characters. Anyway, I can understand the sentiment of not trusting an advanced alien race. If one day an alien race descends and be like WE WILL HELP YOU, there will be two groups of people in this world. One would trust them and the other would not. $\endgroup$ – Skye Aug 31 '16 at 13:30
For a creature to have a lifespan of 5000 years on average, it needs to be far more than 1.5 times as strong/fast/smart as a human.
Accidental death rates in modern western societies is .04% with modern technology, safety and medicine. If that was the only thing that killed you, you'd have an average lifespan of only 2500 years.
So the first step is to generate a mechanism for them to actually have an average lifespan of 5000 years.
As we want to lean fantasy (these are elves), and elves live in trees, what I'd do is make the elves you see just a mobile appendage of some stationary, long-lived creature, like a tree.
An elf-tree gives birth to elves, implanted with memories, which wander the world, tend the forest, and return to dump memories and be reborn.
These elf-bodies could have a typical lifespan of 10-30 years, but the elf itself (its tree) could live for millenia. If the elf-body dies, it can grow a new one; it loses any memories collected by the elf-body that died, so that is to be avoided, but it is not fatal.
The surface protrusion of this plant could just be the flowering body, protecting it from forest fires and easy death (more like a fungus with a mushroom).
Elf-bodies are the elf-tree's seeds. They could settle down and grow a new elf-tree in a suitable spot. They could also be used as a form of information exchange, where an elf-body from one tree joins another, passing knowledge on to it.
If an elf-tree's "tree" is just the flowering body of an undergrown fungus-type creature, it could have an extremely large body. Some old elves might be the size of entire forests (like some plants are in our world), and have the ability to spawn an army of elf-body-siblings in an emergency.
Such a civilization would be quite alien to ours.
The parts we interact with -- the elf-bodies, or even the elf-homes built up around elf-trees -- would be like bacteria interacting with our skin or immune system.
Each elf-body is fully intelligent, but knows its immortality and rebirth is part and parcel of the elf-tree, and it remembers things from millenia ago (that where implanted in its fresh body).
These creatures could be vulnerable to pathogens or parasites. The elf-bodies might have a full time job keeping some kind of parasite-beatle from killing elves, for example. An invading army could burn the forest down and poison the elf itself with salt or some other chemical: their difficulty moving leaves them vulnerable.
Adventurer elf-bodies, the ones that are sent out to gather experiences, would be selected for being very reckless. They are, in a sense, disposible if expensive: the chance of death could easily be worth bringing back new interesting experiences.
The motivations of an elf-body would be highly alien to humans. Rogue elf-bodies, who aren't returning to the tree, could be a problem. And, like cancer cells in humans, rogue elf-bodies could learn how to reproduce and cause problems.
For worldbuilding purposes, humans might actually be an old cancer strain of elf-bodies. The remaining elves have figured out ways to keep the cancer away from their lands. Occasionally the elf-bodies and the humans interbreed, creating half-elves who grow like humans but may be capable of forming union with an elf-tree.
Note: a solely biological approach comes here.
Well, one's for sure: evolution is slower. At least if we want to avert another issue: overpopulation.
There are two possibilities in regards of reproduction: either said race produce a lot of offsprings in a lifetime, or a few. Of course, the former case in a long lifespan may imply really many, while latter don't.
Said race would be extinct quite quickly (or at least drop huge in population size frequently) with too many offsprings during a too long lifespan. Note that the exact amount of both too many and too long are to be interpreted specifically within your world.
There are various reasons for it: individuals would fight over everything scarce:
territory and/or shelter,
food and/or other key resources,
the right to reproduce,
the right for leadership (wolves do so),
...and so on.
On the other hand, few offsprings mean that the effects of environmental changes appear at a much slower rate. This also might lead to extinction if said changes are quicker than the ability of the race to accommodate to it.
A long lifespan might change certain properties of a member of the race in a more drastic way - but it's limited to the properties that can be changed. For example, though I'm not sure: whatever you do, your vision as a human won't be sharper during the decades - You might be more muscular, though.
KatamoriKatamori
The heartache from lost loved ones.
My grandfather lived until his 90s. At that age, it wasn't his friends who he was reading about in the obituaries, it was his friends' children. Sure, he had his family, but nobody was his peer anymore-- he didn't have anyone who lived through the same events, the same music, same sports, same history. He was alone.
Similarly, if a species is immortal but not invincible, they are still going to lose loved ones. Over the ages, the number of loved ones they lose will pile up. If their psychology is similar to humans, such losses will begin to weight on the psyche at some point.
$\begingroup$ This is especially problematic in a mixed-race society, or a world where it's plausible for different races to interact. If a human and an elf fall in love, for example, then the elf is guaranteed to have a broken heart within a century or so (assuming human lifespan is roughly the same as in our world), unless the human becomes immortal or the elf is killed before the human dies of old age. Now, considering how long the elf is going to be in the prime of their life, think about how many times this'll happen. And that's just lovers; what if the elf has a child with their human lover? $\endgroup$ – Justin Time Aug 31 '16 at 0:46
$\begingroup$ That child won't necessarily live as long as a full-blooded elf, so even in an ideal world where their life isn't full of hardship due to fantasy-ISO standard racism against half-elves, the child is likely to die before the elf. And then there's all of the elf's friends and other family, too. Basically, by the time they reach 4000 or so, they'll probably want to die, so their heart can't break anymore. $\endgroup$ – Justin Time Aug 31 '16 at 0:48
I don't know about elves, but the greenland shark is supposed to grow 400 ys old, becoming fertile at 150 or so. How he does it? Taking it very slowly, in the cold.
KarlKarl
$\begingroup$ Hi, Karl, welcome to Worldbuilding SE. Your answer explains the greenland shark lives to extreme old age, but the question focuses on the disadvantages of extreme longevity. Answers here should have facts, discussion, details & the reasons why. I'm sure can come up with interesting disadvantages for a long life. Expect see more answers & questions from you. Cheers. $\endgroup$ – a4android Aug 29 '16 at 5:33
$\begingroup$ I can se where Karl is going, with old age it takes 150 years to become fertile where a human is fertile after 14 years, it is almost a factor of 10 in reproduction. I'm going to leave it open and not vote to close. Because the answer is correct though it got plenty of room for improvement! $\endgroup$ – Magic-Mouse Aug 29 '16 at 7:48
$\begingroup$ @a4android I'm putting the disadvantages in italics for you. $\endgroup$ – Karl Aug 29 '16 at 7:58
In addition to all of the above: Boredom.
For example in Ian Banks' Culture series humans can live as long as they want to, really, but most choose to either die after several hundred years or after a long life to be put into storage and awakened when something interesting happens.
Ngaroe QiRia has lived for thousands of years (no-one is completely sure) and staves off boredom by immersing himself in other cultures sometimes undergoing a species change to do so. To get around finite memory, he shards of parts of his memory into vessels that can be kept stashed for later retrieval.
Clinton PierceClinton Pierce
One potential downside: inability to adapt culturally.
In The Structure of Scientific Revolutions, Kuhn argues that major revolutions in science didn't come about on the basis of evidence, but rather it was adopted by a new generation, and the old guard, who refused to believe, just ended up dying out.
Kuhn calls this process a "paradigm shift", when the fundamental beliefs a society holds change wholesale, instead of just steady increments of fleshing out details.
Without the turnover of generations, the society is unable to undergo paradigm shifts and adapt to new information or situations. Unless, of course, the psychology of these creatures are radically different from human beings.
There were respected physicists in the day who were criticizing general relativity, but the last one died in the 60s, IIRC. Nowadays, there is no one (save cranks) who doesn't buy the theory. They all grew up with it.
Related: https://www.quora.com/Who-were-the-most-famous-scientists-who-opposed-the-theory-of-relativity
$\begingroup$ Anytime I hear someone espousing this theory, I'm always reminded of James Maxwell, the brilliant physicist who gave us Maxwell's Equations, describing light and electromagnetism back in the mid-19th century... and then tragically died of cancer, still in his 40s. Later generations looking back at his work discovered something: before his life was cut short, he was directly on the path to Relativity, and would almost certainly have discovered it half a century before Einstein, had he lived. (Just imagine what Einstein might have discovered then!) $\endgroup$ – Mason Wheeler Aug 29 '16 at 21:03
$\begingroup$ So the next time you hear someone claim that scientific progress comes by scientists dying off, think of James Maxwell's death setting scientific progress back by more than a generation, and you'll see that the person making that claim is full of it. $\endgroup$ – Mason Wheeler Aug 29 '16 at 21:04
$\begingroup$ @MasonWheeler Highly conjectural what Maxwell would have discovered; secondly, the two truths aren't mutually contradictory. If Maxwell had discovered relativity, that doesn't mean that it would have been accepted any more rapidly than it was when Einstein proposed it. $\endgroup$ – user151841 Aug 29 '16 at 21:22
(Disclaimer: I'm assuming that "average life span" is referring to maximum age, not to a literal and statistical 'average' taking in to account every individual in the population. In other words, I'm using a definition more like "average age of death, when death is a result of old age", which I believe captures the spirit of the question, if not it's literal interpretation)
Many answers use evolutionary pressures as justification, but use only 2 possible schemes, high or low birth rates, yielding 2 possible (main) issues, overpopulation or extinction risk. There's at least one more option that I think would not only satisfy evolution, but also avoid both of those issues, while still causing a horrible situation for any race with human-like levels of compassion in the average individual: High child-mortality rates. (I feel that 'why' the rate is high is outside the scope of the question, so I won't attempt an explanation of that part, speculate or handwave as needed to justify it)
High reproduction rates allows for plenty of chance for some individuals of the newer generations to be able to cope with whatever natural evolutionary influences present themselves. High mortality rates anywhere between birth and reproductive maturity, for whatever reason, will prevent the overpopulation issue. Add in a very strong biological urge to reproduce while the individual is still able, and you end up with parents that have to grieve for thousands of years for hundreds or thousands of children that didn't survive to adulthood.
I can't imagine much worse 'disadvantages' than that.
DalilaDalila
Almost no elf will have any initiative. The generations are so long that, by the time the elf reaches the age of having some say around the place, the elf will have been conditioned to obey and not think for himself or herself for millennia. (There was a comparable situation in the US Navy in roughly the 1880s - promotion by seniority meant that there were 40-year-old midshipmen.)
David ThornleyDavid Thornley
In Anne Rice's vampire novels, she explores this in some depth.
With extended lives comes wisdom and wealth (thanks to compounding interest!), but also a world-weariness and ultimately depression. Lestat finds reason to live by experiencing passionate emotions and immersing himself in them. He does so without regard to any "right" and "wrong" because he's seen the futility of those labels, too.
Bill HatfieldBill Hatfield
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#MaybeHeDoesntHitYou Raises Awareness of Different Kinds of Abuse
By Maggie Parker
Zahira Kelly, an artist and writer, wanted to raise awareness about the various types of domestic abuse, including verbal assault, so she started using the hasthag #MaybeHeDoesntHitYou.
“Abuse is often seen as very cut-and-dry and only physical,” Kelly told BBC Trending. She says she created #MaybeHeDoesntHitYou to help people “suss out damaging situations.”
“It is important to note that domestic violence does not always manifest as physical abuse,” says the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence website. “Emotional and psychological abuse can often be just as extreme as physical violence. Lack of physical violence does not mean the abuser is any less dangerous to the victim, nor does it mean the victim is any less trapped by the abuse.”
Kelly started her campaign by providing examples of the different forms that abuse can take:
Kelly says she had no idea her hashtag would go viral when she started it, but men and women all over the world have joined the discussion and are sharing their stories. Public figures, including actress and writer Mara Wilson and comedian Akilah Hughes, are also furthering the cause’s message.
If you’re suffering from any type of domestic abuse, you can get help by calling the National Domestic Violence Hotline at 1-800-799-7233 (SAFE).
Motto welcomes outside contributions. Opinions expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of TIME editors.
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A Gift From Rethymno for OFI
- A Gift From Rethymno for OFI -
GAMMA ETHNIKI (GROUP D) - MATCHDAY 30
AOT Alimos
OFI Crete
Fostiras
Episkopi held Fostiras to a 1-1 draw in Rethymno, giving OFI the advantage for promotion to the Football League. OFI defeated relegated AOT Alimos 0-1 and in conjunction with Fostiras’ draw in Rethymno, the Cretan side is the favorites to advance to the Football League.
Going in yesterday’s games, OFI and Fostiras where tied on 62 points atop Group D of the Greek Football League 2 (3rd Division). After yesterday’s results (Fostiras draw, OFI win), OFI holds a 2 point advantage over Fostiras, with one game remaining. The two sides will meet in Crete on the final matchday (Sunday) for the final promotion spot to the Football League. If Fostiras would have defeated Episkopi, Fostiras would have only needed a draw on the final matchday to secure promotion. However, after their “gela” in Rethymno the roles have reversed. On the final matchday, OFI will gain promotion with a win or draw while a win will only do for Fostiras to earn promotion. View the full Football League 2 Standings here...
Image Source: sportfm.gr
Tagged: OFI, AOT Alimos FC, Eposkipi FC, Fostiras FC, Super League 2, Football League, Football
Newer PostMitroglou & Samaris Lift Portuguese Title With Benfica
Older PostOlympiacos Take A 2- 0 Series Lead
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GeoQuery
Listening to Leaders 2018
GEOGeospatial Data & Tools for Analysis
GIEGeospatial Impact Evaluations
LTL Listening to Leaders
SDISustainable Development Intelligence
TDFTransparent Development Footprints
About AidData
Center for Development Policy
The First Tranche Blog
The First Tranche
AidData's Blog
Policy Report
Decoding Data Use: How do leaders source data and use it to accelerate development?
Samantha Custer
Director of Policy Analysis
Takaaki Masaki
Senior Research Analyst
Carolyn Iwicki
Listening to Leaders
Decoding Data Use: What evidence do world leaders want to achieve their goals?
A new AidData report illuminates the black box of how leaders source evidence and use it to accelerate development in low- and middle-income countries.
Samantha Custer, Takaaki Masaki, and Carolyn Iwicki
Information is “never the hero”, but it plays a supporting role in how leaders allocate scarce resources and accelerate development in their communities. Even in low- and middle-income countries, decision-makers have ample choices in sourcing evidence from a growing field of domestic and international data providers. However, more information is not necessarily better if it misses the mark for what leaders need to monitor their country’s progress. Claims that information is the “world’s most valuable resource” and calls for a “data revolution” will ring hollow if we can’t decode what leaders actually use — and why.
In a new report, Decoding Data Use: How leaders source data and use it to accelerate development, AidData reveals what 3500 leaders from 126 countries have to say about the types of data or analysis they use, from what sources, and for which purposes in the context of their work. We analyze responses to AidData’s 2017 Listening to Leaders (LTL) Survey to offer insights to help funders, producers, advocates, and infomediaries of development data understand how to position themselves for greater impact.
What information do leaders use — and for what purpose(s)?
Recent calls from the World Bank, OECD, and others to strengthen national statistical systems appear to be well-founded. Not only do the vast majority of leaders utilize national statistics (81 percent), they also rate this evidence to be the most helpful type of raw data produced by domestic organizations. Funders of data and statistics would do well to ramp up support in this area, as we have previously found that demand for national statistics often outstrips its supply due to various financial, technical, and political constraints.
Proponents of rigorous impact evaluations (e.g., CGD, 3ie, AidData) will be cheered to know that international development agencies are not the only prospective users of this information. Domestic leaders most frequently reported using project evaluation data (73 percent) and rated it as most helpful out of all types of evidence produced by international organizations. Development partners should take note: investing in strong evaluation systems not only improves project performance, but helps in-country actors internalize what works, what doesn’t, and why as they deliver assistance.
Overall, many leaders still show a preference for using data to conduct retrospective analyses of past performance rather than inform future policy and programs. However, something appears to shift in the decision calculus for leaders when it comes to how they use the information they deemed to be “most helpful” (on a scale of 0 to 4). Leaders use this class of “most helpful” data at higher rates to carry out forward-looking tasks — such as identifying priorities and selecting implementation strategies — than other data.
Whose information do leaders find most helpful?
Leaders give government agencies the highest marks among domestic information providers. Comparatively, unofficial data sources are underutilized. Only 37 percent of respondents reported using private sector data or analysis, but 80 percent of those who did found it to be helpful. Meanwhile, leaders from politically free countries were more likely than those from restrictive countries to rate CSO data as helpful in their work. In this respect, protecting civic space is not only important from a human rights perspective, but likely also critical for evidence-based decision making.
Multilateral organizations are the preferred providers among international information sources in both overall use and perceived helpfulness. Large multilaterals with broad mandates such as the World Bank, European Union, and the International Monetary Fund are efficiently converting large development assistance budgets into greater-than-expected uptake of their data and analysis. Large bilateral aid providers such as the United States and Germany also perform well on this measure of uptake per assistance dollar.
That said, financial clout is not deterministic in terms of the value that leaders derive from a particular information source. In the figure below, we compare the reported helpfulness of each development partner’s information with their predicted performance based upon the sheer size of their official financial contributions alone. Notably, focused multilateral organizations (by region or sector) with smaller aid budgets such as the the International Fund for Agriculture Development and the Global Fund punch above their weight in terms of the helpfulness of their data and analysis.
Value for Money: Who punches above or below their financial weight in terms of perceived helpfulness of their data or analysis?
Development leaders are less likely to consult other international information sources, though some organizations garnered above-average marks in the perceived helpfulness of their data or analysis. Among private foundations, the Open Society Foundation (92 percent) and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation (87 percent) performed best. World Vision leads among implementing organizations (90 percent) and Transparency International comes out ahead of other advocacy groups (83 percent) by a slim margin.
Why are some sources of information more helpful than others?
Survey participants selected up to three characteristics that explained why a given provider’s data or analysis was helpful. On this basis, we preview three recommendations for producers, funders, and advocates of data and statistics that float to the top:
Context is key. To capture the attention of leaders, information providers must demonstrate a clear understanding of local realities in LICs and MICs
Be constructive. To motivate leaders to take action, information providers should not only diagnose problems but offer practical policy recommendations
Know your niche. Leaders expect different things from domestic and international information providers, which is an opportunity for greater specialization
To learn more about the full slate of findings and recommendations from this research, read the Decoding Data Use executive summary and full report.
Samantha Custer is Director of Policy Analysis at AidData.
Taka Masaki was a Postdoctoral Fellow, Data Analyst, and Senior Research Analyst at AidData from 2015 to 2017.
Carolyn Iwicki was a Graduate Research Assistant with AidData's Partnerships and Communications team from 2016-2017. She received her Master's in Public Policy from William & Mary in 2017.
GEOGeospatial Data and Tools for Analysis
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Boys and Girls with ADHD: Cerebellum Size Matters
Brain differences between boys and girls with ADHD may offer further explanation of gender-related symptom patterns.
By Devon Frye
Every child with ADHD is different, but experts agree that certain symptoms tend to fall along gender lines. Boys with ADHD are more hyperactive and impulsive, while girls with ADHD often demonstrate more inattentive symptoms. It’s long been debated whether biological sex or societal gender roles contributes to this symptom disparity. Now, a small new study may provide the next piece of the puzzle, finding that boys and girls with ADHD had different-sized cerebellums — the area of the brain responsible for coordination and linked to cognitive functions like attention.
The study, presented March 25 at the annual meeting of the Cognitive Neuroscience Society, looked at 90 children between the ages of nine and 12. The children were closely split along gender lines — 50 girls and 40 boys — and a little over half of them had been formerly diagnosed with ADHD. MRI scans of each child found that both boys and girls with ADHD had significantly smaller cerebellum volumes than their counterparts without ADHD.
But the boys and girls with ADHD differed in where their cerebellums were smaller, with boys demonstrating more severe differences in the areas responsible for higher-order motor functions like planning behavior and regulating attention. Girls’ brains were weaker in the areas that direct more basic motor functions, like hand-eye coordination, precision, and timing.
Past studies on boys’ and girls’ brains have found other key differences in the brain, particularly in the premotor and primary motor cortexes. Boys with ADHD are more likely than girls to display abnormalities in these regions, which — like the cerebellum — are involved in planning and self-control.
The study was small, but it adds to the body of work about brain differences among those who have ADHD, says lead author Stewart Mostofsky — possibly helping to explain why girls with ADHD behave differently than boys. Mostofsky and his team say they plan to look at more than 400 children in the next few months, to see if their findings hold up to further scrutiny.
Tags: diagnosing kids, news
What Are the Symptoms of ADHD?
Is It ADHD? Checklist of Common ADHD Symptoms
Easy-to-Miss ADHD Symptoms in Girls
Your Child’s ADHD Is an Iceberg
Keep informed with ADDitude's Top 5 articles each week.
[Self-Test] The ADHD Test for Girls
ADHD looks different in girls. It is, at times, easy to mistake for hormones, anxiety, or a learning...
[Self-Test] ADHD Symptoms in Women and Girls
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What Is ADHD? Definition, Myths & Truth
“Take Two Tylenol and See Me in the Morning”
Free Resource for Women and Girls: Is It ADHD?
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Tag: Alvaro Morata
Serie A rivals in pursuit of Chelsea star
May 23, 2018 Vyom Chaudhary
Chelsea striker Alvaro Morata have endured a disappointing debut season in Premier League, and it appears he will be leaving the West London club in the summer. Morata’s stature has certainly fallen following his struggles in Antonio Conte’s side this season, and in the latest setback, he failed to make Spain’s squad for World Cup. However, there are still suitors for him in the transfer market, especially in Italy. Juventus’ interest in their former player has been reported for some time. These rumours have gained momentum in last few hours…
Chelsea, Juventus, NewsNow, Premier League, Serie AAC Milan, Alvaro Morata, Chelsea, juventusLeave a comment
Chelsea to sack Conte to sign star player, and more from Stamford Bridge
Chelsea are desperate to keep Eden Hazard at the club, and they are prepared to sack Antonio Conte to make it happen. Conte’s future at the West London club has already been a subject of speculation, and it looks very unlikely that the Italian will stay in his current job for another season. The Daily Telegraph claims that Hazard’s current situation has further helped Chelsea make up their mind about their Italian manager. Hazard reportedly has fallen out with Conte, and the report suggests that the arrival of an attack-minded…
Arsenal, Chelsea, NewsNow, Predictions, Premier LeagueAlvaro Morata, Chelsea, Eden Hazrad, juventusLeave a comment
Chelsea vs Manchester City – betting tips and predictions
September 28, 2017 Vyom Chaudhary
In the biggest game in Premier League this weekend, current champions Chelsea will host current leaders Manchester City at Stamford Bridge in a late Saturday kick-off. The Blues will come in the game on the back of a couple of very impressive results. Last weekend, they registered a dominating 4-0 win at Stoke, and then, they defeated Atletico Madrid in Champions League on Wednesday in arguably their best performance so far this season. The West London club are currently third in the league with 13 points, and a win on…
Chelsea, Manchester City, NewsNow, Predictions, Premier LeagueAlvaro Morata, Chelsea, Gabriel Jesus, Manchester City, Sergio AgueroLeave a comment
Chelsea vs Arsenal – betting tips and predictions
In an exciting London derby this Sunday, league champions Chelsea will play hosts to local rivals Arsenal at Stamford Bridge. The Blues have been in superb form following their shock defeat to Burnley on the opening day. They are currently on a four-game winning run in all competitions, and they seemed to have given a strong response to their critics – who had claimed that Antonio Conte’s side would struggle this season. The West London side currently occupy the third spot in the table with nine points from their opening…
Arsenal, Chelsea, NewsNow, Premier LeagueAlvaro Morata, arsenal, Chelsea, Eden HazardLeave a comment
Leicester City vs Chelsea predictions and betting tips
September 6, 2017 September 6, 2017 Vyom Chaudhary
Champions of last two seasons will go head-to-head when Chelsea make a trip to King Power Stadium this Saturday. The Foxes have been handed a relatively tough start to the season, and before their clash against the Blues, they have already faced defeats against Arsenal and Manchester United on the road. Their only points came via the 2-0 home win over Brighton, and currently, they occupy the 15th spot in the league table. The Blues have been doing comparatively better, and following their opening-day defeat to Burnley, they have registered…
Chelsea, Leicester City, NewsNow, Premier LeagueAlvaro Morata, Chelsea, Eden Hazard, Jamie Vardy, Leicester CityLeave a comment
Chelsea vs Everton predictions and betting tips
August 25, 2017 Vyom Chaudhary
Chelsea will be hoping to build up on their 2-1 win at Tottenham when they host Everton at Stamford Bridge on Sunday afternoon. The Blues were under tremendous pressure following their opening-day defeat to Burnley, but the win over Spurs at Wembley must have had restored their confidence ahead of the game against the Toffees. Meanwhile, the Merseysiders have enjoyed a solid start to their season on multiple fronts. They started the league season with a 1-0 win over Stoke City and followed that up with a hard-fought draw at…
Chelsea, Everton, NewsNow, Premier LeagueAlvaro Morata, Chelsea, Everton, Wayne RooneyLeave a comment
Confirmed: Manchester United bid huge for top summer target
June 13, 2017 Vyom Chaudhary
Manchester United have made a substantial offer for Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata, the agent of the player has confirmed. Various reports have indicated that United have already agreed to personal terms with the Spanish striker. Morata’s representative Juanma Lopez has now provided his seal of approval on those reports. Lopez revealed that following United’s “important offer”, the decision now rests with Real. He also confirmed that Los Blancos have already rejected an offer from AC Milan for their 24-year-old striker. Speaking to Italian online publication Calciomercato, via Sky Sports, he…
La Liga, Manchester United, NewsNow, Premier League, Real MadridAlvaro Morata, manchester United, Real MadridLeave a comment
One down, four more to go for Jose Mourinho at Manchester United
June 11, 2017 June 11, 2017 Vyom Chaudhary
The Independent claims that Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has drawn up a five-man wish-list for the ongoing transfer window. The Portuguese manager has already acquired one target in the form of Victor Lindelof from Benfica, and United are reportedly closing on the remaining four targets. The club announced on Saturday that they have agreed on a fee with Benfica for the Swedish centre-back, subject to a medical examination, international clearance and personal terms. After completing the acquisition of the 22-yeear-old, United have turned their attentions towards two strikers. Wayne…
La Liga, Manchester United, NewsNow, Premier League, Real Madrid, Serie AAlvaro Morata, Andrea Belotti, Fabinho, Inter Milan, Ivan Perisic, manchester United, Victor LindelofLeave a comment
Jose Mourinho ready to sell star player
June 4, 2017 Vyom Chaudhary
Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho is prepared to sell goalkeeper David de Gea to Real Madrid in exchange for striker Alvaro Morata and €25m. The above claim was made by Sky Sports’ Spanish football expert Guillem Balague on his Twitter account on Sunday. In a series of tweets, Balague said: “Morata said last night his dream is to stay at Madrid… but he’s looking for a way out. Nothing from Milan at this point, MUFC want him. “Mourinho (strangely) willing to sell De Gea for €25m and Morata. Chelsea divided…
La Liga, Manchester United, NewsNow, Premier League, Real MadridAlvaro Morata, David De Gea, manchester United, Real MadridLeave a comment
Chelsea strike a verbal deal with highly-rated striker
April 19, 2017 Vyom Chaudhary
Chelsea have reached a verbal agreement with Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata for him to join the West London club in the summer, according to the Express. Blues manager Antonio Conte is supposedly a fan of the player and he also signed him during his time at Juventus. The Blues were strongly linked with a move for the 24-year-old last summer too but he opted to move back to Real Madrid from Juventus. However, he has grown frustrated at the lack of playing opportunities in Zinedine Zidane’s side this season…
Chelsea, La Liga, NewsNow, Premier League, Real MadridAlvaro Morata, Chelsea, Real MadridLeave a comment
Chelsea receive double-transfer boost
February 7, 2017 Vyom Chaudhary
Chelsea have received a double-transfer boost in their pursuits of two top European strikers. London Standard reports that Antonio Conte’s priority in the transfer market is to sign a world-class striker in the summer and Everton’s Romelu Lukaku and Real Madrid’s Alvaro Morata sit at the top of his wish list. The report speculates that the Blues have been given positive indications in both cases. Morata re-joined Real Madrid from Juventus last summer, but he has managed only six league starts this season. He is reportedly frustrated at the lack…
Chelsea, Everton, La Liga, NewsNow, Premier League, Real MadridAlvaro Morata, Chelsea, Everton, Real Madrid, Romelu LukakuLeave a comment
Spanish striker confirms a £60m bid from Chelsea
September 22, 2016 September 22, 2016 Vyom Chaudhary
Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata has revealed that Chelsea made an unsuccessful £60m bid for him in the summer transfer window. Morata moved back to Real Madrid this summer after his former club activated the £23 million buy-back option to re-sign him. He had originally joined Juventus from Los Blancos in a £17m move in 2014. The 23-year-old told in a recent interview that Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, who also signed him at Juventus, wanted to bring him to Stamford Bridge, but his heart was set on moving back to…
Chelsea, Juventus, La Liga, NewsNow, Premier League, Real Madrid, Serie AAlvaro Morata, Chelsea, juventus, Real MadridLeave a comment
Real Madrid shocked by Dimitri Payet’s price tag, Los Blancos reject massive offer for Alvaro Morata
July 13, 2016 Vincent Van Genechten
West Ham United joint-chairman David Sullivan has warned that Dimitri Payet will not be sold unless someone is prepared to pay around £100 million, according to a report by The Sun. The La Liga giants have been linked with a £40 million move for the France international, but it’s clear that won’t be enough to tempt Sullivan into selling his playmaker. “We’re not selling him unless someone wants to break the world transfer record and then we might consider it. Even at his age he must be worth £100 million”, Sullivan said.…
La Liga, NewsNow, Premier League, Real Madrid, West HamAlvaro Morata, Dimitri Payet, Real Madrid, West HamLeave a comment
Chelsea have massive bid for striker rejected, deal for defender hijacked by Everton
July 10, 2016 July 10, 2016 Vincent Van Genechten
Chelsea have seen a bid of £51 million for Real Madrid striker Alvaro Morata rejected by the Champions League winners, according to a report by Spanish newspaper Marca. Los Blancos recently exercised their buy-back clause of £23.6 million on the Spain international and were expected to immediately sell the Juventus striker for a serious profit. Morata’s agent Juanma Lopez was in Madrid this week to try and close a deal for his client, but the Blues’ initial offer of £51 million was not deemed sufficient by Los Blancos. The La Liga giants have now slapped a £64 million price…
Chelsea, Everton, Featured Column, La Liga, NewsNow, Premier League, Real Madrid, Serie AAlvaro Morata, Chelsea, Everton, Kalidou Koulibaly, Napoli, Real MadridLeave a comment
Arsenal hold talks with two star strikers, ready to make massive wage bid for Alvaro Morata
July 5, 2016 Vincent Van Genechten
With Manchester United, Manchester City, and Chelsea ready to redeem their poor season by hiring a new coach, Arsenal can’t sit still and watch those three clubs fight it out for the Premier League crown. The Gunners have been on the look out for a new top striker, and several big names have been mentioned. Now, according to a report by The Sun, Gunners boss Arsene Wenger has held talks with Everton striker Romelu Lukaku and Lyon forward Alexandre Lacazette as he looks to bolster the Arsenal attack. Lukaku provided 25 goals and seven…
Arsenal, Everton, Featured Column, La Liga, Ligue 1, NewsNow, Premier League, Real MadridAlexandre Lacazette, Alvaro Morata, arsenal, Chelsea, Everton, Lyon, Real Madrid, Romelu LukakuLeave a comment
Premier League big boys battle for Real Madrid star
Goal are reporting that Juventus have confirmed that Real Madrid will activate their buy-back clause of £23 million to bring back striker Alvaro Morata to Santiago Bernabeu. “Real Madrid have informed us of their intention to exercise the right to buy back [Morata], we are just waiting for a written offer,” Juventus chief executive Giuseppe Marotta has been quoted as saying. However, Madrid don’t intend to keep the Spain international at the club and want to sell him to the highest bidder for a considerable profit. A number of clubs…
Arsenal, Chelsea, La Liga, NewsNow, Premier League, Real MadridAlvaro Morata, arsenal, Chelsea, Real MadridLeave a comment
Chelsea move in pole position to sign Juventus star
June 6, 2016 June 6, 2016 Vyom Chaudhary
Chelsea have stepped up their pursuit of Juventus striker Alvaro Morata, according to latest reports. Multiple media reports are claiming that the Blues aim to make progress in their pursuit of the Spain international before the Euro Championship kicks off this week. Chelsea incoming manager Antonio Conte signed Morata for Juventus in 2014 before departing from the club to manage Italy national squad. He now wants to bring the 23-year-old to Stamford Bridge in the summer. Morata is also a subject of interest from his former club Real Madrid, as…
Arsenal alerted by comments from Juventus star and director, identifying new target in Spain
May 31, 2016 May 31, 2016 Vincent Van Genechten
The transfer story of Alvaro Morata has been prominent all season long. The Spain international has been torn between staying at Juventus or returning to Real Madrid, who have a buy-back clause worth £23 million. Los Blancos have made it clear they are ready to activate the 23-year-old’s clause and bring him back to Madrid. However, Real are not planning to keep him as they want to make a profit by selling Morata immediately. Juventus have been rumoured to wanting to offer £11 million to £15 million to the La…
Arsenal, Atletico Madrid, Featured Column, Juventus, La Liga, NewsNow, Premier League, Real Madrid, Serie AAlvaro Morata, arsenal, Atletico Madrid, juventus, Real Madrid, Yannick CarrascoLeave a comment
Arsenal bidding for couple of Serie A strikers, facing huge battle to keep star player
With a second-place finish in the 2015/2016 Premier League season and a ticket to next season’s Champions League in the books, Arsenal are looking to make noise during the summer transfer market. According to a report by The Sun, Real Madrid are willing to exercise Alvaro Morata’s buy-back clause before selling him to Arsenal. However, Los Blancos want at least £38 million for the current Juventus striker and it remains to be seen of the Gunners, who have made an intial bid of £28 million, want to put that much cash…
Arsenal, Barcelona, Juventus, La Liga, NewsNow, Premier League, Real Madrid, Serie AAlvaro Morata, arsenal, Barcelona, Duvan Zapata, Hector Bellerin, juventus, Mesut OzilLeave a comment
Manchester United targeting several stars in huge summer transfer spree
Manchester United have sacked Louis Van Gaal and are primed to appoint Jose Mourinho is their new manager starting from next season. The Red Devils won the FA Cup this season but finished just fifth in the Premier League, missing out on Champions League football. The club is in dire need of a change and looks ready for a huge summer transfer spree. According to The Guardian, Mourinho has identified several star players United should target during the summer as part of an anticipated minimum £150 million spend. The reports states…
Everton, Juventus, La Liga, Ligue 1, Manchester United, NewsNow, Premier League, PSG, Serie AAlvaro Morata, John Stones, Jose Mourinho, manchester UnitedLeave a comment
Three-way Premier League battle for Alvaro Morata
Juventus forward Alvaro Morata surely has a busy summer ahead of him. According to transfer reports, Real Madrid are set to activate his buyout clause before selling him for an improved price to the highest bidder. The latest development has alerted a couple of Premier League clubs and the trio of Arsenal, Manchester United and Chelsea are set to be interested in signing the Spain international. Spanish publication AS claims that Arsenal are planning to make a move for the 23-year-old. The Gunners are actively looking for a striker in the transfer…
Arsenal, Chelsea, Juventus, La Liga, Manchester United, NewsNow, Premier League, Real Madrid, Serie AAlvaro Morata, arsenal, Chelsea, juventus, Manchester United FC, Real MadridLeave a comment
Star striker prefers move to Manchester United over Arsenal and Chelsea on one condition
On Friday, reports emerged that Real Madrid are planning to activate the £23.6 million buy-back option on Juventus forward Álvaro Morata. Los Blancos then plan to sell the 23-year-old for a minimum fee of £40 million. Morata has generated a lot of interest in his services and clubs like Manchester United, Arsenal, Chelsea and Paris Saint-Germain are said to be interested. However, according to the Guardian, Morata prefers a move to United, especially if Jose Mourinho takes charge of the club in the summer. Ultimately, Real are expected to sell their player…
Arsenal, Chelsea, Featured Column, Juventus, La Liga, Manchester United, NewsNow, Premier League, Real Madrid, Serie AAlvaro Morata, arsenal, Chelsea, juventus, Manchester United FC, Real MadridLeave a comment
Arsenal step up their pursuit of a new striker
Some media outlets are reporting that Arsenal have stepped up their pursuit of a recognised striker after Danny Welbeck was ruled out for nine months with an injury. The Gunners announced that Welbeck has undergone surgery on his knee for the injury he suffered during the 2-2 draw with Manchester City and will be out for a minimum of nine months. The Telegraph has reported that the North London club are currently scouting Juventus’s Alvaro Morata, AZ Alkmaar’s Vincent Janssen and Inter Milan’s Mauro Icardi among others in the transfer…
Arsenal, Juventus, NewsNow, Premier League, Serie AAlvaro Morata, arsenal, Danny Welbeck, juventusLeave a comment
Chelsea favourites to land star striker
May 5, 2016 May 5, 2016 Vincent Van Genechten
Chelsea have been busy working the transfer market before it officially opens on July 1. The Blues are reportedly fighting to land Alvaro Morata, while replacing Nemanja Matic with N’Golo Kante. Real Madrid are ready to exercise their buy-back clause on Alvaro Morata but could immediately sell the Juventus striker to Chelsea, according to an excluse report by Goal. The Serie A champions paid £15 million to get the Spaniard to Italy during the summer of 2014, but Los Blancos demanded a £23.6 million buy-back clause that can be excercised during the summer…
Chelsea target Stoke City and Juventus stars
April 13, 2016 April 13, 2016 Vyom Chaudhary
Chelsea are monitoring Stoke City goalkeeper Jack Butland, according to the latest report in the Sun. Chelsea’s first-team goalkeepers Thibaut Courtois and Asmir Begovic have both been linked with moves way from the club recently, and the report states that Chelsea are still not certain whether either of them will stay at the club for next season. Courtois has refused to commit his future to the club, and this has alerted La Liga giants Real Madrid, who are closely monitoring the situation. The Blues signed Begovic from Stoke City last…
Chelsea, Juventus, La Liga, NewsNow, Premier League, Real Madrid, Serie AAlvaro Morata, Chelsea, Jack Butland, juventus, Stoke CityLeave a comment
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Grace Collender on playing the lead in The Country Girls
BY CHARLIE MCBRIDE Galway Advertiser, Thu, Apr 11, 2019
WHEN EDNA O’Brien’s novel, The Country Girls was first published in 1960, it scandalised conservative Catholic Ireland and the controversy over the book saw it being both banned and ceremonially burned.
Today it is universally recognised as one of Ireland’s great literary classics and the Abbey Theatre is touring a new staging of The Country Girls which comes to the Town Hall Theatre from April 23 to 27.
This Abbey production is directed by Graham McLaren and sees the central role of Kate being played by newcomer Grace Collender. Indeed Collender is still in the final year of her BA in drama studies at Technological University, Dublin, so to make her debut as the lead in a main-stage Abbey show is about as big a feather in the cap as any young actor could dream of.
“It was a bit mad, but it’s been amazing,” she declares when I ring her for a chat about the play. “I am actually standing outside the college right now; I just left a lecture to take this phone call. Casting director Maureen Hughes was auditioning actors for Country Girls and I went along and was called back for three more auditions then I got the part. The college are delighted and I was delighted. It was a big jump going from college to the Abbey, especially going into a leading role where I barely leave the stage, but my classes in TU prepared me well for the discipline of professional theatre and everyone at the Abbey has been really good with me as well.”
I ask Grace whether she was familiar with the novel before doing the play. “I got the book out of the library in Trim, where I am from, when I was 16 and I remember it having a big impact on me. I am grateful that I read it at that age because, even though the book is set in the 1950s Ireland, the heart of the story is the relationship between Kate and her best friend Baba, and that coming of age story for those two girls is universal.
"It is important to remember when you read it that the 1950s were a hard time to be a woman in Ireland, but for me it resonated most as a coming of age story about female friendship and empowerment. The topics it addresses were even taboo to a degree when I was a teenager, Edna speaks candidly about relationships and sex and I remember thinking it was the most liberating thing in the world reading it. Her writing is so honest, nothing is sugar-coated. That was another reason I was delighted to get the role.”
'With Edna sitting in the room I knew that she would tell me if I was doing anything wrong and I could also go to her and chat about anything I was unsure of'
Edna O’Brien was present throughout the rehearsal process and Grace relished her attendance. “As an actor it was so valuable to have her there," says Grace. "I could talk about the character I was playing with the woman who created her. I thought it would be terrifying and it was a bit at the start because she is literary royalty but it was also liberating because she gave me the go-ahead to do whatever I needed to do with the character.
"With Edna sitting in the room I knew that she would tell me if I was doing anything wrong and I could also go to her and chat about anything I was unsure of; and when we did chat it was never a case of her telling me what to do, my opinion was valued. I knew the character very well going into rehearsals from having read the book but I felt so grateful having her in the room.”
Grace expands on the nature of the friendship between Kate and Baba (played by Caitriona Ennis ): “Their friendship is at the heart of the story and it resonates for a lot of people who came to see the show at the Abbey," she says. "Kate and Baba have like a love-hate relationship but it is mostly love. They have never really been without each other, they are like siblings.
"One character always seems to have something that the other wants; Kate is intelligent and gifted in school. She loves to write and has a romantic air about her and a way with words. Baba doesn’t have that but she has a wisdom and confidence that Kate lacks. The two of them kind of complete each other. They need each other and love each other, as we learn throughout the play, but because they start off at a young age we see that process of how we grow up with people.
'There was such an interesting audience demographic with the show. We had secondary school students studying the book and older people who read it when it first came out'
"It mainly happens in friendships where you have been friends since you were small then as you grow up you discover different nuances in each other and maybe you start to want different things or become different and then you make a choice to stay together or part ways. That is something that a lot of people experience and it resonates with people who have come to the show.”
Far from being a straightforward narrative retelling of the book, the production incorporates movement, music, and song in its staging. “There is a general expectation of what The Country Girls will be as a play but a lot of people were surprised when they came to see it,” Grace observes. “It is very much more a show than a play. There is music composed by Ray Harman which ornaments the story and then there is movement choreographed by Vicki Manderson. The show follows a kind of dream logic as if it were all in Kate’s head.”
The Country Girls has also been drawing audiences whose age range spans people who have been reading Edna O’Brien since the 1960s and others who are Grace’s age or younger. “There was such an interesting audience demographic with the show,” she states. “we had secondary school students who are studying the book and older people who had read it when it first came out.
"I remember talking to one old woman who recalled how she used to read the book under the covers for fear of being caught. It is such an important book because it gives the women of that time a voice. The book was publicly burnt when it was first published and to see it now on the national stage and going out on tour is really important for people of that time but also for younger people because the story is universal.”
The Country Girls runs at the Town Hall from Tuesday April 23 to Saturday 27 at 8pm, with a matinee at 2.30pm on the Saturday. Tickets are €28/25 for the evening shows and €24/22 for the matinee, from www.tht.ie
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Articles tagged: UK Equity Income Market Review
UK equity funds move back into favour
UK share prices rose and equity yields fell in June in the face of ongoing political uncertainty. The unfolding story of Brexit entered a new chapter during the month as the Conservative Party.
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UK share prices fell during May as Prime Minister Theresa May announced that she would be standing down.
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Dividend payouts from UK companies reached a new first-quarter record during the first three months of 2019.
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The Brexit conundrum remained unsolved as March drew to a close, and the UK remained in the EU as Brexit Day was pushed out to 12 April. The yield on the FTSE 100 Index declined over March.
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June 2018 Although escalating trade tensions dominated global investor sentiment in June, the UK also had to contend with Brexit-related issues against a backdrop of criticism over the Government&r...
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261313: Software Engineer
Skill Level 1| Assessing Authority: ACS
Major Group: 2 - Professionals | Sub-Major Group: 26 - ICT Professionals | Minor Group: 261 - Business and Systems Analysts, and Programmers | Unit Group: 2613 - Software and Applications Programmers
Designs, develops, modifies, documents, tests, implements, installs and supports software applications and systems.
ACS: Australian Computer Society
http://www.acs.org.au/
Software Designer
Alternative titles are any commonly used alternative title (or titles) for the occupation. These alternative titles have the same meaning as the principal title but may be less commonly used.
Computer Applications Engineer
Database Designer
Specialisation titles are any commonly used titles which refer to a subset of jobs belonging to the occupation designated in the principal title. These jobs involve the performance of specialised tasks rather than the broader range of tasks usually performed in the occupation.
Unit Group 2613: Software and Applications Programmers
Design, develop, test, maintain and document program code in accordance with user requirements, and system and technical specifications.
Most occupations in this unit group have a level of skill commensurate with a bachelor degree or higher qualification. At least five years of relevant experience and/or relevant vendor certification may substitute for the formal qualification. In some instances relevant experience and/or on-the-job training may be required in addition to the formal qualification (ANZSCO Skill Level 1).
Researching, consulting, analysing and evaluating system program needs
Identifying technology limitations and deficiencies in existing systems and associated processes, procedures and methods
Testing, debugging, diagnosing and correcting errors and faults in an applications programming language within established testing protocols, guidelines and quality standards to ensure programs and applications perform to specification
Writing and maintaining program code to meet system requirements, system designs and technical specifications in accordance with quality accredited standards
Writing, updating and maintaining technical program, end user documentation and operational procedures
Providing advice, guidance and expertise in developing proposals and strategies for software design activities such as financial evaluation and costings for recommending software purchases and upgrades
261311: Analyst Programmer
261312: Developer Programmer
261314: Software Tester
261399: Software and Applications Programmers nec
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November 2013 (Volume 22, Number 10)
APS-led Education Program Funds 5 New Sites
The Physics Teacher Education Coalition (PhysTEC) is awarding three years of funding to five institutions to develop their physics teacher education programs. The newly selected sites are Georgia State University, University of Central Florida, University of Cincinnati, and North Carolina State University. James Madison University was selected in 2012 and deferred a year before starting the project. These awards bring the number of sites that have been funded by the PhysTEC project to 33.
The PhysTEC project, led by APS in partnership with AAPT, works to increase the number of highly qualified physics teachers. To do this, the project provides substantial support to select colleges and universities to develop their physics teacher preparation programs into national models. Collectively, PhysTEC-supported sites have more than doubled the number of physics teachers they graduate. Renee Michelle Goertzen, Education Programs Manager at APS, says "It is exciting to work with the enthusiastic leadership at the new PhysTEC sites. Their breadth of talent will help the project to touch the lives of many more future physics teachers."
The James Madison University (JMU) project plans to build on established programs for current teachers to expand the recruitment, mentoring, and retention of future teachers. PhysTEC funding will support (1) implementation of a science pedagogy course, (2) development of a sustainable Learning Assistant program, and (3) hiring a Teacher-in-Residence. "It is gratifying to see that many of the newly funded sites are building on previous efforts in physics teacher education and course reform," said Beth Cunnigham, Executive Officer of the American Association of Physics Teachers.
PhysTEC students at the University of Central Florida (UCF) will have the opportunity to enroll in a dual teacher-certification and physics-major track and will have more options to work with Learning Assistants in their introductory physics courses. The UCF project aims to prepare 15 physics teachers during the first four years, helping to respond to the current shortage of teachers in Florida.
Georgia State University (GSU) plans to increase the number of minority physics teachers to help meet Georgia's high need for qualified physics teachers. PhysTEC funding will support a Teacher-in-Residence, who will teach a physics pedagogy class and lead future teacher recruitment. The GSU project will focus on course reform, early teaching experiences, and mentoring. North Carolina State University (NCSU) will focus on developing a Learning Assistant program and will partner with the NCSU STEM Education Initiative to assist with course reform and LA recruiting.
At the University of Cincinnati (UC), PhysTEC students will take courses specifically for licensure candidates such as Modeling Instruction. UC has a goal of increasing the number of new, highly-qualified high school physics teachers to five or more per year. They will use a variety of recruitment strategies, including providing flexible and accessible pathways to licensure for all STEM majors.
"This is the fourth solicitation for supported sites in four years, and we are really pleased that new institutions continue to step forward with excellent proposals," said APS Associate Director of Education & Diversity Monica Plisch. Project funding for these five universities began this summer and will continue for three years. All sites have committed to funding their projects for at least an additional three years after the PhysTEC funding ends.
Staff Science Writer: Michael Lucibella
Shutdown is Symptom of Larger Science Funding Woes
Nobel Prize Honors Two Physicists for Symmetry Breaking Mechanism
Incarcerated Iranian, Russian Activist Share APS Sakharov Prize
Last-minute Legislation Averts Helium Supply Crisis
APS, AIP Launch Education Policy Fellowship
Mass Media Fellows Learn on the Job
Profiles in Versatility
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Home Architecture How Forensic Architecture Revealed Details Of A Secret Military Prison In Syria
How Forensic Architecture Revealed Details Of A Secret Military Prison In Syria
There are no images of Assad's brutal Saydnaya prison, so a group of architects relied on prisoners' sound memories to create a 3D model
© Amnesty International/Explore Saydnaya
Since the start of the Syrian civil war in 2011, Syrian authorities under president Bashar Hafez al-Assad have quietly carried out the systematic killing and torture of thousands in its custody at Saydnaya Military Prison, located just outside of Damascus. Earlier this month, the human rights organization Amnesty International released a report that claimed as many as 13,000 people were hanged in Saydnaya over the past five years in what they termed a “policy of extermination.”
The report, which can be downloaded and read in full here, details the horrors experienced by the detainees and calls for an “independent and impartial investigation into crimes committed at Saydnaya.” To aid them with their campaign for independent monitoring of the prison, Amnesty collaborated with Forensic Architecture, a research agency at Goldsmiths, University of London that uses “architectural evidence” to work on behalf of international prosecutors, human rights organizations, and political justice groups. Together, they’ve created an interactive model of Saydnaya prison—a place completely closed off to outsiders—using only aerial satellite images and the testimonies of former detainees.
Many architects refuse to design spaces for inhumane imprisonment, killing, or torture, under the belief that it would make them complicit in those acts. For Forensic Architecture, recreating the design of one of the most inhumane prisons in the world was crucial for holding the Syrian government accountable for the atrocities being carried out there in secret. In April 2016, the architects traveled with a team from Amnesty International to Istanbul to meet five former detainees who had survived Saydnaya. […]
Continue Reading – Source: FastCoDesign
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The signature feature of the Pantheon is its giant dome, 43 meters across and 43 meters high, with an 8-meter open “oculus” in the center.
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Home Features Yogis, DJ H3LLA, Matisyahu and Kelley James at Maya Day and Nightclub Event
Yogis, DJ H3LLA, Matisyahu and Kelley James at Maya Day and Nightclub Event
Amanda Savage, June 8, 2013
Special thanks to @Hannah_Lynette
Maya Day and Nightclub has quickly made a splash in Scottsdale’s nightlife scene as the new go-to spot for epic pool parties that feature a string of DJ’s with beats that bring down the house. The club made a refreshing change of pace Thursday, June 6, by hosting a night of Yoga and musical performances that benefited ‘A Life Story Foundation,’ helping find a cure for Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS).
Hundreds of yogis lined up their mats around Maya’s pool, creating a serene oasis of tranquility – with cocktails, of course. The evening opened with Anton Mackey and Desiree Lapre as they lead an hour-long yoga practice to the sounds of DJ H3LLA. Cali-native and local favorite, Kelley James, took the stage shortly after. The singer rapper-guitarist, who has become best known for his freestyle raps on topics of the audience’s choice (in this case yoga and beer) put on his usual stellar show that brought the audience off their mats and to their feet. The typical bearded, reggae, beat-boxer, Matisyahu, came on stage clean-shaven, looking like he just stepped off the set of a GQ shoot and gave an intimate, soul shaking acoustic performance that completed the night. If you’re wondering how yoga, cocktails, and music mesh together, look to the earto-ear grins that remain plastered on the attendees’ faces days after. That’s enough to rave success and all for a good cause.
We caught up with Kelley James after his set to talk music, life, and yoga. Here’s what he had to say.
AFM: You’re from Cali, what brought you to Phoenix?
Kelley: I’ve be here four years playing at the W hotel, they brought me in when I was in college and I started touring and playing for all these fraternities and sororities and this was my first regular thing where I could just route through Phoenix once a month. We got to play some of our most fun shows but the important part is I got to work on so much my live show over at the W. So it was this cool training ground where I could do back to back nights, two different sets and just work on my live show.
AFM: How does it feel to be the first live concert performer at Maya?
Kelley: Maya is obviously the same people as at the W, so it’s great. I’ve always been treated so well here.
AFM: When did you realize that you could rap?
Kelley: I grew up in Northern California, so hip-hop was always on the radio. As kids, we didn’t think of it as this new music, per say. We thought everybody listened to it. Looking back on it, it hadn’t really hit the Midwest yet and definitely not the south. So early 90s we were listening to hip hop music and the Bay area had this crazy scene with the syncopation of the words and everything is something that I always listened to but I also played guitar. So I’d have a Snoop Dog CD in then I’d put on Dave Matthews and that is what I thought was normal. Nirvana & NWA. So when I was in high school, I just started making up songs while playing guitar, you know, when I’d see a hot girl… Or when I was at a party, I’d play for all my boys.
AFM: Does that work on the ladies?
Kelley: Only once.
AFM: What did you sing her?
Kelley: Something like, “oh baby baby, oh” by Justin Bieber.
AFM: So you were the hit of most parties?
Kelley: The sad reality of it is I’m the one playing like this love song and all my boys are with the girls that when I’m finished playing, it’s like…. What! I get no love. It happened so much.
AFM: Speaking of love…?
Kelley: I’m married. I finally got love!
AFM: Congratulations! Do you remember your lyrics after a freestyle or… do you just blackout?
Kelley: Absolutely. My mind is going so fast that literally as soon as you say it, you push it out and it’s on to the next thing. People always make fun of me, like the Old School thing with Will Farrell, when he answers in the debate. All of a sudden he has this brilliant answer then, “what happened, I blacked out.” So for the most part, it is like a blackout situation.
AFM: Pertaining to Yoga, do you practice?
Kelley: When I’m home, in like my space of perfection: Wake up, surf in the morning, write music, eat vegan all day, do yoga and watch a movie at night. Like that is my end game. That will be my life at some point. So if I could do Yoga everyday, I would. It would be my only workout.
AFM: What’s your favorite pose?
Kelley: I like the hip opens a lot. They are just crazy. My buddy just opened a hot yoga studio in Hermosa and so I like Hot Yoga. I’ll put any fitness person up to a hot yoga session with a real instructor that will push you. I don’t know if anything is harder than that.
AFM: So let me put you on the spot. If you could make up your own yoga pose, what would you call it and can you demonstrate it for me?
Kelley: It would be the air guitar. Wait, no… actually ‘The Slash.’ Remember how Slash used to do his guitar solos?
AFM: I don’t…
Kelley: Well when you get back, you need to YouTube 1991 Guns and Roses and it would be like this (put his guitar in the air) and then go into tree pose.
AFM: Last, can I get a free style about how the event went tonight?
Kelley:
Back in a random room what’s this hallway?
Now they put me on the spot, what am I gunna say?
Free style about yoga, its not really cool,
Now I’m going to say some dumb stuff act like a fool.
Plus I have to keep it PG,
Oh you see,
We’re here at Maya, is that good enough?
See I don’t really know what you want me to plug,
But I’m trying to show your magazine and every body love,
Can I get some free juice for my damn cleanse
Shout out to kaleidoscope yeah it depends.
If you’re gunna print that they better get me some
But u know how I’m doing, I do it just for fun.
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Shout out to all my people in AZ.
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DJ Jen Jones at Spanish Fly
Noah Wylie at Smashboxx
Suzanne Koch, March 10, 2016
Get Soaked at Maya for its Dayclub Grand Opening
Suzanne Koch, March 4, 2016
Get Absinthe-Minded at Little Cleo’s
Amanda Savage, May 17, 2013
Get to Know the Staff: Kyle Macy
Get Crafty and Spirited This Spring at Westin Kierland
Suzanne Koch, October 31, 2016
Sip Up the Flavors of Fall With These Valley Cocktails
Suzanne Koch, January 26, 2017
How To Get To the Phoenix Open—Mimosa’s Included
5 Things to do in the Valley Before School Starts
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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/BattleTech
Characters / BattleTech
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A characters sheet for BattleTech. So far we've only scratched the surface. With a backstory covering a thousand years, plus 150 years with more intense storytelling. Loads and Loads of Characters only begins to describe it.
For the characters of the BattleTech game by Harebrained Schemes, click here.
Star League (House Cameron/House Amaris)
The leading force of mankind's last golden age, the First Star League was a unifying political body lead by House Cameron, and managed to keep the constant infighting of the Successor States to their absolute lowest. Though leading the expansion of mankind's technology and being held up as a model of how the Inner Sphere should be unified by both the Successor States and Clans, the residents of the Periphery consider the First Star League to be one of the worst authoritarian and expansionist governments of human history.
Written by the Winners: Centuries of rule made it possible for the Star League to influence how the Successor States view it as a pinnacle of human achievement and advancement. Compare this to most of the Periphery States, where the Star League is at best seen as harsh and expansionist.
Ian Cameron
Era(s): Star League
Director-General of the Terran Hegemony and founder of the Star League.
The Emperor: After all of humanity was under the aegis of the Star League (and some would argue before even then) Ian became this, although his official title was simply "First Lord".
Founder of the Kingdom: Of the Star League.
Hypocrite: Rescinded the Ares Conventions so that the SLDF could, "fight fire with fire," against the Periphery, even though the Periphery states were abiding by the conventions to the letter.
Jerkass: He considered the people who lived in the Periphery "barbarians," and he was perfectly willing to launch a smear campaign against them. When he finally decided to invade the Periphery, Ian was also happy to declare their existence as independent nations "illegal," and conveniently ignore the rules of civilised warfare put in place by the rest of the Inner Sphere. Why would he do all this? The Periphery told him no.
Mediator: His mother's Strategy of Aggressive Peacemaking policies were the foundation of his own future policies, and through diplomacy he managed to unite the Inner Sphere states into the Star League. All that went straight out the window after the Periphery decided they didn't want to be a part of his grand dream, and so he decided they were going to be a part of it whether they liked it or not.
Villain with Good Publicity: Depending on what kind of view you have of history. By the 31st century, many even in newer Periphery states, like Kamea Arano, see Ian as an almost messianic figure, a legendary lord robed in white who united humanity and brought forth an age of unparalleled happiness. Periphery-dwellers of the Taurian, Canopian or other older persuasions, though, are much more likely to remember him as a brutal tyrant who made their stars run red with blood and in some cases almost snuffed out their states entirely.
Well-Intentioned Extremist: Ian wanted to unite all of humanity and guide it into an era of peace, but he didn't care about how many necks he had to step on to achieve that goal. Most notable were his decisions to invade the Periphery states after they each refused to join the Star League and to rescind the Ares Conventions, which were put in place to prevent loss of civilian life and banned such things as orbital bombardment and use of nuclear weapons.
Aleksandr Kerensky
"To all citizens of the Inner Sphere do I, Aleksandr Kerensky, send greetings."
"Know that I have taken the remnant of the Star League Defense Force which has remained true to its purpose beyond the boundaries of the Inner Sphere, beyond the Periphery. I have done this, neither out of disappointment with those whom we leave behind, nor out of spite or disdain, as some will say. No, we have left the Inner Sphere because we love it too much to see it destroyed. In the wake of the Usurper's coup, and the long, bitter fighting that came with it, I fear that my forces would do incalculable, possibly irreparable, harm to our society. We are sworn to ward the Star League and its subjects, not destroy it. Thus, we have left the only homes we have ever known to place the destructive capability of this armada beyond the reach of those who would use it, not for defense, but for conquest. Perhaps, with the might of our 'Mechs and ships out of reach, the leaders who now grapple with one another will relinquish their dreams of subjugating their neighbors and learn to live in peace with them. Perhaps, one day, should mankind step back from the brink of the abyss, we, our children, or our children's children will return, to once more serve and protect and guide the Star League in mankind's quest for the stars."
—The Voice of Kerensky. His final message to the Inner Sphere
The most well known figure through out the Inner Sphere and beyond. Aleksandr Kerensky was the greatest General of the Star League Defense Forces, he is best remembered for liberating Terra from Stefan Amaris. But when the Star League begins to crumble from infighting among the great houses, Kerensky chooses not to get involve in the middle of it all, and took all those who are loyal to him and led the Exodus to escape the Succession Wars. The forces who followed him soon became the Clans under Nicholas Keresnsky.
Bald of Awesome: Official art show the General has no hair.
Big Good: Kerensky is the most beloved man in the known universe.
Due to the Dead: After Amaris was executed for his crimes against humanity, questions arose as to what to do with his remains. Disposing of them ignonimously out of sight would engender doubts that he was truly dead. Burying him would result in his grave being a martyr shrine. A nameless SLDF officer suggested donating his body to science. Kerensky went with that, and the Usurper's mortal remains suffered the indignity of being a medical curio, and could be brought out for whenever doubts were raised about his fate.
Four-Star Badass: Kerensky is considered the best military mind in history.
Named After Someone Famous / Does This Remind You of Anything?: Aleksandr Kerensky the SLDF General was most likely named after Aleksandr Kerensky, the leader of the February Revolution in Russia that toppled the Czar. In fluff, after his death, the Clans took his body and placed it in a crystal coffin on a battleship in geosynchronous orbit over Strana Mechty's largest city, with floodlights illuminating it and a rotating patrol of guards from all the Clans standing watch over it. The historical Kerensky's main rival was Vladimir Lenin who after he died was placed in a crystal coffin...
"Open!" Says Me: One of the most famous images of the Amaris Civil War was Kerensky's 75-ton Orion mech kicking down the gates of Unity Palace on Terra to arrest Amaris at mech gun-point.
Our Founder: The Clans call Kerensky the Great Father.
Rebel Leader: Kerensy led the liberation of Terra from Amaris.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Kerensky left the Inner Sphere as he doesn't wan't to get involved in the power struggle between the great houses.
"Shaggy Dog" Story: After leading his loyal SLDF troops out of the madness that would seize the Inner Sphere to prevent the devastation their skill and equipment would bring, his people too would soon fracture along cultural lines and start an internecine war. Then Kerensky died before he could reunite his mutinous troops. Furthermore his son Nicholas would start his father's last loyal followers down a path that would result in their descendants returning to the Inner Sphere as conquerors rather than protectors and saviours.
Take a Third Option: Amaris was dead but war again loomed as each head of the Great Houses declared themselves the new First Lord of the Star League. Kerensky could either support one of them or declare himself First Lord. He chose exile instead.
Tragic Dream: Kerensky envisioned recreating the Star League that would lead mankind into a new age of peace. He died on the eve of a war that would finish off what was left of the Star League. The Clans then later used his own words to justify invasion of the Inner Sphere.
Unwanted False Faith: After his death and and the formation of the Clans, Aleksandr was virtually deified, with subsequent generations revering him. Additionally, the "Hidden Hope" doctrine, derived from a portion of one of his General Ordersnote an order intended primarily as a morale boost to the Exodus fleet would form the basis for the Clans' core belief that they must one day return to the Inner Sphere. Disagreements over exactly what this return was supposed to entail would also result in the same sort of infighting and factions that Kerensky sought to protect his folllowers from.
Richard Cameron
The erstwhile final First Citizen of the Star League. He took the throne as a child, with Stefan Amaris as his Regent. Unfortunately for everyone, Richard was a terrible advisor, manipulating Richard into becoming a brutal oppressor of the Periphery and directing him to weaken the Star League so that it would be easier to take over. Richard's legacy is one of brutality (in the Periphery worlds) and innocence (in the Core Worlds), with his memory polarized by those who forgive him for being manipulated by Amaris and those who curse him for the same.
Boom, Headshot!: After the subjugation of the Periphery, Richard invited Stefan to his throne room and gifted his advisor with a beautifully crafted, personalized laser pistol as thanks for his many years of service. Amaris thanked Richard and then shot him in the head with it.
Easily Manipulated: He took the throne of the Star League at the tender age of six, and grew up with Amaris guiding him. He trusted Amaris completely. This ended poorly for everyone.
End of an Era: While Richard's death marked the start of the Amaris Civil War that would rip the Inner Sphere apart, Richard's rise to the throne ultimately marked the end of the Star League and the Golden Age that is represented (for most worlds).
Enfant Terrible: Thanks to the poison Amaris poured in his ear, figuratively speaking, Richard has this reputation among the Periphery Worlds, where he is considered a brutal oppressor.
Stefan Amaris
"You will fight to the last soldier, and when you die, I will call upon your damned souls to rise and speak horrible curses at the enemy."
—Emperor Amaris' Rousing Speech to the defenders of Terra.
The man responsible for ending the Star League Golden Era and setting up the Inner Sphere's state of collapse during the Succession Wars Era. Hailing from the periphery Nation of the Rim Worlds Republic he set himself up has the best friend of the the young, naive First Lord Richard Cameron and manipulated him into giving him and his followers power. Once all was set, he killed Richard and the rest of the Cameron family and took over the Terran Hegemony resulting in a brutal 13 year long struggle by Aleksandr Kerensky and the Star League Defense Force to oust the Usurper. During the war, he and his forces commit many atrocities against both Aleksandr Kerensky's forces and civilians.
At the end of the conflict he was captured and executed, and his home nation and family were wiped out but the damage he caused to the Inner Sphere by his actions forever changes the inner sphere.
Associated tropes:
Bad Boss: He ordered the death of some engineers who designed a super huge mech for him, when it broke down on its first step, he charged them for "treasonal incompetence".
Boom, Headshot!: Kills Richard Cameron with golden laser pistol which he uses to blow his head off.
The Caligula: To the point he made Hitler look like a school boy.
Due to the Dead: Once General Kerensky and the SLDF finally had Amaris dead, questions arose as to what to do with the body. Do they dispose of it into space to never be seen again? That would engender doubts that he was dead. Do they bury it? The grave site would become a martyr shrine to his followers and elicit defacement by his far more numerous enemies. So what does Kerensky do? On the suggestion of one of his subordinates, he donates it to science. There, Amaris's remains can suffer the indignity of being a curio of the medically inquisitive, and the evidence that Amaris is well and truly dead is locked away in a freezer to be brought out if anyone doubts.
Evil Chancellor / Treacherous Advisor / Big Bad Friend : He was all of these Tropes to Richard Cameron, all to help get him into the right position for his takeover of the Terran Hegemony.
Godwin's Law: As a consequence for his utter depravity, his name alone amounts the same level as Hitler himself. He's actually consider a bigger villain in the setting that both Adolf Hitler and Judas Escariot.
Good Hair, Evil Hair / Obviously Evil : Has a Fu Manchu mustache in all depictions of him and isn't really good looking in general.
Make It Look Like an Accident: Heavily implied by a formerly sealed SLDF internal intelligence report that was later revealed by Clan Ghost Bear that he had a hand in the death of Richard Cameron's father Simon Cameron to make him take the duty of leading the Terran Hegemony before he was ready to lead it to make it more easy to manipulate Richard because of that.
Nuke 'em: Had various places nuked because of their resistance to him and his rule.
Small Role, Big Impact: While his role in the events immediately preceeding the fall of the Star League is not small, the event is so distant by the time most BattleTech fiction and games are set that he becomes this. The man is, basically, singlehandedly responsible for the entirety of the setting. Except for the 'Mechs themselves, but he supplies all the reasons for them to fight starting at the First Succession War.
The Usurper: The most infamous example inverse. In fact, he's commonly known as "Amaris the Usurper."
Terran Hegemony (House Cameron)
Ruled by House Cameron, the Terran Hegemony was an interstellar state located at the center of the Inner Sphere. Established after a military coup led by James McKenna overthrew the vestiges of the Terran Alliance, the Hegemony quickly rose to dominating positions in the realms of technology, military innovations, and diplomacy. The Hegemony's era of aggressive diplomacy eventually led to the creation of the Star League, and its destruction (as well as that of the Hegemony itself) in the Amaris Civil War that led to the Succession Wars. The Hegemony ceased to exist in 2767. However, the Republic of the Sphere that was founded in the wake of the Jihad in 3081 is considered by most to be the Hegemony's successor.
Hegemonic Empire: Well, Hegemony is in the name, so...
Hereditary Republic: The Hegemony was not a monarchy, as the position of Director-General was (technically) passed down through a limited form of democratic means. However, the vast majority of the Hegemony's rulers have been members of House Cameron. Michael Cameron, the first Cameron Director-General and the second ruler of the Hegemony, was the founder's cousin.
Mediator: Throughout much of its history the Terran Hegemony played the role of peacemaker between the rest of the Inner Sphere states, to varying success. Enforced after Deborah Cameron assumed the office of Director-General. With her 'Strategy of Aggressive Peacemaking,' she relegated the military to a purely defensive role and made it her mission to ensure that the destructive effects of the Age of War are never felt again. Her strategy served as an adequate counter to the Ares Conventions.
Deborah Cameron: "It's not Peace through Strength but Strength through Peace that will be our motto."
Pint-Sized Powerhouse: With roughly only ninety-five star systems under its control the Hegemony was the smallest interstellar state of its era. It was also the most powerful and technologically advanced nation in the Inner Sphere, as well as the inventor of the Battlemech.
Vestigial Empire: The Hegemony was technically this to the Terran Alliance, as it controlled only a small fraction of its original territory.
Era(s): Age of War
The founder of the Terran Hegemony and its first Director-General.
The Big Guy: He was described as a tall, muscular man, and even in the one image of him he appears to be a large fellow.
Canada, Eh?: He was a Canadian, who grew up in the Yukon Territories.
Famous-Named Foreigner: Shares his surname with famous Canadian comedic actor Patrick McKenna, best known as Harold on The Red Green Show.
Founder of the Kingdom: He is this for the Terran Hegemony.
Military Coup: Fed up with the increasingly unstable Alliance regime, McKenna brought his ship into orbit of Terra, where he had his shipÂs gunner target and destroy two uninhabited islands using the shipÂs weaponry. These orbital strikes were the prelude to the ultimatum he made to the warring Alliance government to stand down.
Never Learned to Read: He was not formally schooled until he was twelve years old. However, despite his late education, McKenna possessed a passion for learning, and hidden underneath his brusque exterior laid an intelligent man.
Rags to Royalty: From a simple boy living in the Yukon, to an Admiral to the founding father of the Terran Hegemony.
Space Navy: McKenna was an Admiral in the Terran Alliance's navy, and he was also responsible for the development of the Alliance's first true WarShip, the TAS Dreadnought, and its six sister ships. He also used the Dreadnought to initiate his coup of the Alliance.
The Purge: After he took power, one of his first acts was to hunt down and destroy all members of the renegade political parties on Terra and other worlds and wrote in the Hegemony Charter that all political parties would be abolished.
Draconis Combine (House Kurita)
The Draconis Combine stands in stark contrast to the other great interstellar nations: from its inception in 2319, it expanded almost entirely through intimidation and conquest, enforced cultural conformity, and served as the personal domain of a dynastic family. While much of the same can be said of the other Great Houses at varying times, these are founding principles of the Draconis Combine, with only brief periods of variation.
Through most of its history, the Draconis Combine would be an antagonist to almost every other faction within reach, employing the most skilled fighting force of the Inner Sphere to seize power from its rivals. It was the last of the Inner Sphere nations to join the Star League, and the first to attempt taking its place, launching three of the four Succession Wars. This aggression would soften somewhat in the wake of the Clan invasion and the ascension of the moderate Coordinator Theodore Kurita, but by the 32nd century, the Combine would largely resume its old ways of unity through domination.
Arch-Enemy: Though both its neighboring Successor States have done well to repel its advances, the Combine sees the Federated Suns and House Davion as their chief rivals for conquest of the Inner Sphere. This becomes more true when both neighbors unite to form the Federated Commonwealth, combining Steiner industry with Davion strategy.
Enemy Mine: The only time there was any relative peace or cooperation with the Federated Suns/Commonwealth was in the face of the Clan invasion. It also helped that Theodore Kurita and Victor Steiner-Davion were both exceptionally reasonable people.
Arc Number: The number 5 shows up a lot in Combine political divisions and structure, by design. It's become prevalent enough that 5 is often regarded as a lucky number throughout the Combine.
Blind Obedience: Often considered a virtue in the Combine. The Second Sword of Light regiment paints the flag of Kentares IV on their mechs in remembrance of their participation in the Kentares Massacre - not out of regret, but out of pride that they were willing to carry out such horrid commands.
Culture Police: More than any other realm, the societies of the Combine are relatively homogeneous, and the Order of the Five Pillars serves to heavily reinforce its cultural doctrine. This extends to religion, where the higher classes are encouraged to follow Zen Buddhism, the lower classes are taught Shintoism, and other faiths are technically outlawed (though tolerated as long as they don't cause trouble).
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Primarily red (especially The Sword Of Light regiments), but also light grey is in common use in 'mech and vehicle livery. Always coded red on maps.
Elite Army: The Draconis Elite Strike Teams are the single most formidable special forces unit throughout the Inner Sphere.
The Empire: Pretty much this, both before and after the Star League.
Everyone Has Standards: Outside of some of the most fanatically loyal units, such as the Second Sword of Light, most of the DCMS on Kentares IV had to be actively bullied and threatened into committing the Kentares Massacre. Some DCMS troops committed suicide from guilt, while a handful even risked execution to shield civilians from death.
Fantastic Caste System: A five-tiered system that naturally puts the nobles and warriors at the top with the laborers and "unproductives" on the bottom, with little or no opportunity to move between them.
Fantasy Counter Part Culture: Invoked early in the Combine's history, when early Coordinators saw the value of shared cultural norms in holding a realm together and chose Shogunate-era Japan. It's worth noting that there are still pockets of distinctly different cultures throughout the Combine that only pay lip service to Japanese trappings, including the Scandanavian worlds of the Rasalhague District (before becoming an independent republic), and the Muslims of the Azami worlds.
Politically, however, the Combine seems to be a Fantasy Counterpart Culture version not so much of Tokugawa-era Japan as it is of Imperial Japan of the 1930s-40s, given the pervasive State Sec, fanboy version of Bushido, and militarism/expansionism, including its own Never Live It Down massacre.
Galactic Conqueror: A stated goal of the Combine since its inception was to unite all of human-inhabited space under a single rule.
Just the First Citizen: Despite blatantly ruling as The Emperor the rulers of the Combine label themselves Coordinators.
Samurai: They trade their horses, bows, and armor for giant war robots, but Combine mechwarriors otherwise deliberately invoke this trope nearly in full - bushido, katanas on their uniforms, writing poetry on the eve of battle, ritual suicide as atonement for failure, etc.
My God, What Have I Done?: Probably the only reason the Combine failed to win the First Succession War. Its enacting of the Kentares Massacre not only galvanized Davion resistance, but was such a crushing shame to the warriors of the Combine that many of them simply lost the will to prosecute the war.
Recruiting the Criminal: One of Theodore Kurita's more notable ideas was to employ "unproductives," including Yakuza, as irregular soldiers to test his new theories on leadership and military strategy. The Ghost Regiments formed from this process would go on to serve with great heroism and dedication to the Coordinator throughout the war with the Clans. He even employed a particularly apt Yakuza (one that still had all his fingers in fact) to be his son Hohiro's Hypercompetent Sidekick; Shin Yodama.
The Remnant: The Black Dragon Society, a group of disaffected nobles and warriors who resent the sweeping political reforms of Theodore Kurita and seek to put a "true" Heir to the Dragon on the throne.
Does This Remind You of Anything? — At least out of universe, both the Black Dragon Society and the Genyosha were named after ultra-rightist groups that were active in Imperial Japan, attempted to overthrow more moderate Japanese governments and informed many of the figures who were involved in waging The Pacific War and the Sino-Japanese War.
Secret Police: Police? No, those heavily-armed men in their bright candy-striped uniforms are just the Friendly Persuaders of the Civilian Guidance Corps, a branch of the Ministry of Peaceful Order and Honor. Only a society of lawless degenerates needs police.
Soldier Versus Warrior: The Warriors to the Federated Suns' Soldiers.
Stay in the Kitchen: Depends largely on the current rulership, but women serving in positions of power throughout the Combine ranges from "somewhat uncommon" to "unheard of." Despite this, three women have served as Coordinator of the Combine, two of them being exemplary Note The first being Siriwan McAllister-Kurita, who is one of the Combine's longest serving (de-facto) Coordinators, and the second being Yori Kurita, who by 3145 has conquered a huge chunk of the Federated Suns and cemented herself as the Combine's strongest Coordinator in decades..
War Is Glorious: Nothing more glorious, in fact.
Shiro Kurita
"I have chosen the dragon as our standard and our symbol, reflecting many facets of our existence. We must never forget the ancient Terran heritage of our line, with its samurai greatness. I remind you, too, that in many mythologies, the dragon is feared and respected for its strength, cunning, and willingness to destroy for the sake of its own power. Always keep the virtues of the dragon in mind, and use them to defeat your opponents."
"Always preserve the dragon, and its magic will keep you strong."
The founder of the Draconis Combine and its ruling House Kurita.
An Offer You Can't Refuse: When convincing a planet's leadership to join him, his MO was basically: "Join me or die." Very few chose not to take him up on that offer.
Bad Boss: Shiro didn't worry so much about how much his people were suffering under his rule. As far as he was concerned, his cause was just and was far greater than their petty pain.
Shiro Kurita: (in a letter to his brother) "I see you have found that the whip and the electronic bullhorn, when combined, make effective weapons of motivation."
Blackmail: When he's not intimidating the natives with his army or straight-up conquering them, he's blackmailing their leaders into submission. Indeed, Shiro used blackmail and assassination just as much as he used armed force, perhaps even moreso.
The Emperor: The first one the Combine has seen, though he and his descendants are emperors in all but name.
Founder of the Kingdom: Of three kingdoms, in fact. Shiro was responsible for uniting his homeworld of New Samarkand, then he was responsible for founding the Alliance of Galedon, and then much later the Draconis Combine that came after it.
Just the First Citizen: When he took over New Samarkand, Shiro labelled himself simply, the "First Citizen." When the Alliance of Galedon was founded, he became its "Director." Also technically true after he reorganised the Alliance into the Draconis Combine and chose the term "Coordinator," despite being an emperor in all but name by that point.
Kick the Dog: Shiro enjoyed holding "audiences," in which he visited the natives of a world he'd vanquished so he can gloat and claim to have as many more soldiers available for each world that defied him.
Samurai: Shiro's father was a strict disciplinarian and devout follower of the 17th-century Japanese samurai culture, and as such, much of ShiroÂs upbringing reflected this structured spartan existence.
The Rival: Though he never admitted it, Shiro considered James McKenna and his Terran Hegemony to be this. Except for one brief exchange of messages, Shiro never recognised the authority of the Hegemony and refused to communicate with it or McKenna any further.
The Unfettered: Hoo, boy...
We Have Reserves: Averted. Shiro gave the appearence that he had a vast army but the truth was he had 50,000 men, at most, and regularly selected planets with no military force to speak of to conquer.
With Us or Against Us: As he famously screamed at the people of Sverdlovsk at one of his audiences: "Any government that does not side with me is against me! Any man who does not help me, hurts me! Anything that does not provide aid is in my way and must be destroyed! How many of you imbeciles must I kill before you begin to understand this?"
Young Conqueror: He conquered his homeworld of New Samarkand when he was only twenty-six, and he didn't stop there.
Omi Kurita
"The strength of the Dragon flows as deeply in her veins as in any warrior's."
—Narimasa Asano, in regards to Omi Kurita
Era(s): Clan Invasion
Omiko Kurita, also known as Omi Kurita, was the daughter of Theodore Kurita and Tomoe Sakade and the secret lover of Prince Victor Steiner-Davion.
Assassin Outclassin': When Victor visited Luthien in preparation for Operation Bulldog a number of assassins attempted to kill them during a private rendezvous. Omi managed to kill at least one of the assassins by decapitating him with a katana, although Victor was severely wounded. The next attempt on her life, however, was sadly successful.
Death by Childbirth: She was assassinated by Katherine Steiner-Davion, actually, but because she died shortly after giving birth to her son this still applies.
Driven to Suicide: Because of the assassination attempt on herself and Victor, Omi attempted public suicide in shame that her feelings for Victor had led to such opposition. Ultimately averted, as public support for her and her father's reforms made it unnecessary for Omi to proceed. Although the attempt was staged, had support not emerged she would have followed through.
Smear Campaign: A posthumous victim of one. After Kitsune Kurita revealed himself as Victor Steiner-Davion's son with her, Federated Suns propagandists wasted no time turning Omi into a succubus who seduced Victor for nefarious reasons.
Someone To Remember Her By: Kitsune, her son with Victor, whom Victor was not even aware of until their son had grown to adulthood and was already making a name for himself.
Star-Crossed Lovers: With Victor Steiner-Davion, who was a part of both of House Kurita's mortal enemies. They were both aware that a marriage between them would be politically impossible, but nonetheless their relationship gradually became widely known and was somewhat accepted.
Yamato Nadeshiko: This is basically Omi's job description, as she's intended to be Keeper of the House Honour. She fits the role to perfection and then some.
Franklin Sakamoto
The illegitimate son of Coordinator Theodore Kurita. When Sakamoto was arrested and his jumpship was impounded by FedCom security agents for smuggling weapons, Major Adam Steiner commandeered the impounded vessels and offered their crews amnesty and the eventual return of the vessels in exchange for providing transport for an intelligence gathering mission behind Clan lines.
Arms Dealer: He was arrested by FedCom security for smuggling weapons into the Draconis Combine.
Canon Immigrant: Like Adam Steiner, Franklin is originally from the short lived BattleTech Animated Series.
Heroic Bastard: He is Theodore Kurita's illegitimate son.
Offered the Crown: Dissatisfied with Theodore Kurita's rulership, the Black Dragon Society attempted to place Franklin, then part of the Strikers, on the throne. The resulting three-way conflict between the Black Dragons, the Combine and the Strikers ended when he renounced his claim to the throne. Almost a hundred years later his descendent, Yori, would take the throne after the rest of House Kurita is either killed or gone missing.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He didn't trust Adam Steiner or any of the FedCom members of the Somerset Strikers at first, though he eventually overcame his distrust of them to become one of the most valuable members of the team.
Trading Bars for Stripes: After his jumpship was impounded and he and his crew were arrested, Adam Steiner gave them a choice to join the 1st Somerset Strikers (and be returned to the Combine as soon as their mission was completed) or be sent to a FedCom prison for smuggling. Franklin reluctantly chose the former, though after the Clans attacked the Draconis Combine the Coordinator made him and his crew an official part of the Strikers.
Yori Kurita
Era(s): Dark Age
The current (as of 3145) Coordinator of the Draconis Combine. Yori (born Yori Sakamoto) is the great-granddaughter of Theodore Kurita's illegitimate son Franklin Sakamoto, yet at the time of her ascension to the throne of the Draconis Combine Yori is the only heir despite her "illegitimate" status upon the assassination of Coordinator Vincent Kurita.
Bastard Bastard: Technically, Yori is only the descendant of a Kurita bastard, but she is still seen as illegitimate by many of the traditionalists within the Combine. Clan Nova Cat certainly saw her as one of these.
Big Bad: Yori is certainly this for the Federated Suns, Clan Nova Cat and the Republic of the Sphere, and she is also arguably this for the Dark Age era as a whole.
Heroic Bastard: Considering everything she has done since taking the throne everyone who isn't Clan Nova Cat or a critic of hers don't mind her "illegitimacy" so much.
Last of Her Kind: After the Nova Cat rebellion and the deaths of Emi Kurita (the sister of the previous Coordinator) and her son, Daisuke, Yori is now the last remaining member of House Kurita.
Puppet Coordinator: In addition to her being illegitimate (heroic or otherwise), Yori's critics also see her as merely a pawn of her mentor, Matsuhari Toranaga, and see his hand behind some of her decisions. Their belief is justified, however, as Toranaga groomed Yori for her position at a young age as soon as he learned of her lineage, and used his influence with her to promote himself. However, none of them could deny that with Yori on the throne the Combine would stay its course.
Secret Legacy: Raised on a humble estate, Yori Sakamoto never dreamed to amounting to much in her life. She had no idea that she possessed Kurita blood until after her eleventh birthday, when agents of Matsuhari Toranaga revealed that she was Theodore Kurita's great-great-grandaughter through his illegitimate son. Because of this, Toranaga began grooming her for many years; which all of his plans came to fruition when the ruling Coordinator and the rest of his family (with the exception of Emi) were killed off in various methods. That allowed Yori to take the surname of Kurita and sit upon the throne.
The Usurper: Clan Nova Cat saw Yori as a pretender to the throne and out of loyalty to Coordinator Theodore Kurita (the one who reigned during the Clan Invasion) they rebelled against the Draconis Combine in favour of placing Emi Kurita and her son on the throne, both of whom had a stronger claim than Yori anyway. Their rebellion was quickly quelled, however, and afterward, Emi took her own life as well as her son's.
Worthy Opponent: Julian Davion, whom she fought to a stalemate in their duel.
Young Conqueror: Is thirty-two years old (as of 3145) and ascended to the throne when she was twenty-four. Whether or not she is merely Toranaga's puppet Coordinator or truly her own person, in the eight years since, Yori has reclaimed the Republic of the Sphere worlds that originally belonged to the Combine, conquered a massive chunk of the Federated Suns and quelled a rebellion by Clan Nova Cat. Yori's reign as Coordinator is the strongest the Combine has seen in decades.
Katana Tormark
The former Prefect of The Republic of the Sphere's Prefecture III and Duchess of Proserpina. Katana became the leader of the splinter faction known as the Dragon's Fury and, after her defection to the Draconis Combine, Warlord of the Dieron Military District.
Death Seeker: An interesting variation. An entry in her journal points out that if the Coordinator wanted her to take her own life then she would happily do so, because that would mean that she finally belonged.
Defector from Decadence: After the Blackout and the resulting chaos, Katana saw the Republic of the Sphere as weak and, correctly, believed it was only a matter of time before it collapsed. She began to think of the long-established Draconis Combine as a guarantor of stability, and she founded a splinter faction by secretly recruiting likeminded individuals and military units loyal to her command with the eventual goal of returning traditionally Draconian worlds to the Combine.
Fighting for a Homeland: She formed the Dragon's Fury and defected to the Draconis Combine because she desperately wanted to belong to something greater than herself. It became a point of contention between herself and her mentor, who rightly pointed out that she already was a part of something: the Republic.
Mildly Military: Sort of justified, considering the nature of the Dragon's Fury as a splinter faction made up from units from different regiments and pro-Combine militants.
Military Maverick: She was known for her "non-standard training techniques."
Mixed Ancestry: She is of Asian and African descent.
Renegade Splinter Faction: The Dragon's Fury.
Samurai: Katana represents the idea of the perfect samurai. She is a woman who eats, drinks, thinks and lives in the manner of the samurai. Emi Kurita compared her once to a religious convert in her zeal for the Combine.
Straight Gay: Was in a relationship with Antonia Chinn, one of her Mechwarriors.
Welcome Back, Traitor: Certain elements within the Combine saw her as a traitor because her father defected to the Republic. This didn't stop her from reclaining worlds in the Coordinator's name, nor did it stop Vincent Kurita from eventually taking her back and naming her the Warlord of Dieron.
Capellan Confederation (House Liao)
The Capellan Confederation is the weakest of the Successor States, founded in 2310 as a loose alliance of worlds seeking mutual protection. Always struggling to survive, the Confederation's desperate need for stability and security saw it gradually evolve into a communist police state, with a centralized government owning all the property and dictating the lives of the people. At the head of state is a ruling family proven to be highly unpredictable, sometimes dangerously so.
The Confederation was a constant loser in the Succession Wars, lacking the resources of its aggressive neighbors and forced to adopt unconventional tactics to maintain what little it owned. After the Fourth Succession War and the secession of the St. Ives Commonality, the Confederation appeared to be on the brink of a final collapse. The rise of the ingenious Sun-Tzu Liao to the Chancellorship quickly reversed the Confederation's fortunes and brought it to new heights, making it a force to be reckoned with for perhaps the first time in its history.
Arch-Enemy: While the Confederation certainly had plenty of conflict with the Free Worlds League, it has a serious hate-on for the Federated Suns, which never passes up an opportunity to shave off more Capellan territory every chance it gets.
Band of Brothers: The Warrior Houses are elite battalions of special forces infantry and mechwarriors, recruited as children from aspiring volunteers, then living and training together through monastic traditions as vast extended families. They stand apart from the regular armed forces and answer only to the Chancellor.
Born into Slavery: By default, commoners aren't citizens, and are required to earn citizenship through some form of civil service or contribution immediately after completing their childhood educations. Those incapable of doing so (or unwilling to) are basically treated as indentured servants throughout their lives.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Always marked green on maps. Ususally uses predominant green or red livery (excepting the Death Commandos, who are painted black).
Combat Pragmatist: Despite lacking the resources to fend off a military machine like the Federated Suns, or an arms factory like the Free Worlds League, the Confederation survived the Succession Wars by taking unconventional approaches to strategic doctrine and battlefield technology.
Fantastic Caste System: Though in fairness, the Confederation does permit people to attain a higher caste level through excellence and service, and actively encourages its citizens to advance themselves.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Initially, the realm was flavored by Soviet-era communist states like the USSR and Red China, but still featured a range of local cultures. In the later 31st century however, Chancellor Sun-Tzu launches the Xin Sheng reformation to help foster unity, including "encouraging" the adoption of Chinese culture, no matter where your world's founders came from.
People's Republic of Tyranny: As the name implies, the Confederation was initially an alliance formed for mutual defense against the Free Worlds League and Federated Suns. Over time, it all became the personal domain of whichever member of the Liao family sat on the throne (though the "tyranny" part comes and goes, depending on who's in charge).
Police State: Even at its most benevolent, the Confederation wants to make sure its citizens have "correct thoughts."
Praetorian Guard: The Death Commandos, granted the honor of guarding the Chancellor as the Confederation's most prestigious black ops and mechwarrior unit.
Royally Screwed Up: Yeah. The Liao family tends to swerve between the cruelly insane to cunningly brilliant, and occasionally finding middle ground - the cunningly insane.
State Sec: The Maskirovka are the most feared Secret Police and intelligence service of the Inner Sphere. Which still gets infiltrated by double agents who walk in like its a revolving door.
Stealth Expert: The Confederation's technological specialty by the end of the 31st century, as it developed the Inner Sphere's most sophisticated tactical sensor packages, electronic countermeasures, and battlemech stealth armor.
Welcome Back, Traitor: The Confederation's attitude toward the St. Ives Commonality after it briefly enjoyed independence as the St. Ives Compact. Though there was a great deal of suspicion toward St. Ives, Chancellor Sun-Tzu was determined to look as magnanimous as possible in embracing and forgiving his "temporarily misguided citizens."
Xanatos Speed Chess: A recurring skill among the saner Liaos, and perhaps exemplified by Chancellor Otto Liao in the Third Succession War. His "elastic defense" doctrine concentrated power on a few key worlds and depended on rapid responses to enemy advances - a terrible strain on personnel and resources, but it did allow the Confederation to survive long enough to recover.
Yellow Peril: Comes in varying degrees throughout the ruling Liao family, who have a knack for being shady and sinister. Even Sun-Tzu Liao, a generally benevolent leader and dedicated servant of his people, was deeply deceptive and manipulative to the point where many of his citizens believe he ascended to godhood upon his death.
Maximilian Liao
Era(s): Succession Wars
The leader of the Capellan Confederation from the last years of the Third Succession War until
Body Double / Grand Theft Me: Tried this gambit to remove Hanse Davion from power. It didn't work.
Villainous Breakdown: Twice — after Hanse declared war on the Confederation during his marriage to Melissa Steiner, Max went berserk and started to gather up the wedding china service and hurl it in all directions. Later, once he realized he had not only been the victim of a brutal Curb-Stomp Battle in the form of the Fourth Sucession War, but had also been the victim of an intricate plot by Hanse Davion to hobble his war effort, he went irrevocably insane and was sent to the loony bin.
Romano Liao
Era(s): Succession Wars, Clan Invasion
Daddy's Little Villain: As evil and insane as Max was, she was in many ways a fitting successor to her dad.
Sun-Tzu Liao
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Takes this to it's conclusion. In the tests for the young royals on Outreach, specifically modeled on Clan Trials Of Position, Sun-Tzu is paired with his rival, Kai Allard-Liao. Sun-Tzu fires on one of Kai's targets, opening the Trial up into massive free-for-all, then ejects from his 'Mech, leaving Kai to face six assault-class 'Mechs piloted by some of the best veteran MechWarriors in the Inner Sphere. Sun-Tzu did this just in an attempt to make Kai look bad, as unlike real Clan Trials, the Outreach tests weren't full-on live fire exercises. Kai wiped the floor with most of his opponents.
Obfuscating Insanity: Pretends to be just as off his rocker as his mother, but is actually completely lucid and extremely cunning.
Daoshen Liao
Daoshen Liao, or Daoshen Liao-Centrella, is son of Sun-Tzu Liao and Naomi Centrella, and the current (as of 3145) Chancellor of the Capellan Confederation.
A God Am I: Considers himself the Condeferation made flesh, and acts accordingly. Even with members of his own family.
BrotherSister Incest: Had an affair with his sister, Ilsa Centrella. The child they had together, Danai, was raised as their younger sister.
Danai Liao-Centrella
Daughter of Chancellor Daoshen Liao and Canopian Magestrix Ilsa Centrella.
Ace Custom: She pilots the infamous Yen-Lo-Wang, the customised Centurion once piloted by Kai Allard-Liao and his father Justin Xiang Allard before him.
Ace Pilot: Made a name for herself on Solaris VII, just like Kai Allard-Liao.
Ambiguously Gay: Danai has rebuffed unwanted attention from guys on at least two known occasions (the latter with tragic consequences), and it has been said that her friendship with Nikol Marik is a little too close for them simply to be just best friends, especially considering that Houses Marik and Liao are traditionally enemies.
BrotherSister Incest: Danai is the daughter of Daoshen Liao and his sister Ilsa Centrella. This information was kept from her until she was in her late twenties. Until that time, she believed she was the third child of Sun-Tzu Liao and Naomi Centrella.
Family Relationship Switcheroo: Danai was raised with the belief that her grandparents were actually her parents, and that her true parents were her siblings. Which they are, but still.
Legacy Character: A case could be made that Danai is this for Kai Allard-Liao.
Majorly Awesome: She is a Mechwarrior who holds the rank of Sao-Shao in the 2nd McCarron's Armored Cavalry. Sao-Shao roughly corresponds to the rank of Major.
No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Saved Caleb Davion from the battlefield during a three-way fight between the Capellan Confederation, Republic of the Sphere and the Federated Suns. Caleb then repaid Danai by raping her.
Passing the Torch: From Kai Allard-Liao, after a fashion. He met the young Danai when she was only three years old but despite that he sensed a form of kinship with her, so much so that he left his Battlemech, Yen-Lo-Wang, to her in his will. Danai would follow in Kai's footsteps as a Mechwarrior on Solaris VII, before being recalled back to Sian to join the CCAF.
Raised by Grandparents: Well, by her grandmother's sister, anyway. Though at the time she believed that she was Naomi's daughter, rather than her granddaughter.
Free Worlds League (House Marik)
The Free Worlds League, the oldest of the Successor States and the first large interstellar nation to rise among the colony worlds, was formed between three smaller realms with the signing of the Treaty of Marik in 2271. As one of the earliest such powers, forged from very disparate members, the League maintains strong democratic and representative principles, and a broad spectrum of cultural diversity, despite being ruled by a single family wielding extraordinary executive powers.
Despite its potential, the League dwindled in significance by the end of the Succession Wars, plagued by internal disputes, civil wars, weak leadership, and a lack of direction. Shortly after the Fourth Succession War, Captain-General Thomas Marik broke tradition by stripping power from member states and consolidating it on himself. Though his detractors saw him as a power-mad autocrat, the League prospered under his focused effort, but it wasn't enough to stop the League from dissolving in the wake of the Blakist Jihad, and becoming a region of chaos until it was reestablished a half-century later.
Arms Dealer: Particularly during the Clan invasion, when its chief mercantile rivals in House Steiner were busy fighting to defend their worlds.
Balkanize Me: Formed from a rag-tag coalition of smaller nations and many, MANY independent worlds, the League was prone to internecine conflicts and secession right up until it finally collapsed in the late 31st century.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Always marked purple on maps. Their signature units use either a mix of purple and white (The Free Worlds Guards) or an allover purple (The Marik Militia)
Democracy Is Flawed: While most other states abandoned democracy on an interstellar scale, the League desperately holds on to a parliamentary system (though it's only when a strong-willed Captain-General takes the reins that anything actually gets done).
Divided We Fall: By far the most fractious of the Successor States, and the first to fall - not by conquest, but under the weight of mounting internal disputes.
Fantastic Racism: Ethnically and culturally, the League is the most diverse of the Successor States, but if you have any bionic prosthetics, you'd best keep that to yourself.
Knight in Shining Armor: Deliberately invoked by Thomas Marik when he created the Knights of the Inner Sphere, elite regiments of mechwarriors that would fight with the strictest adherence to classical European chivalry, nobility, and honor. The horrors of the Jihad cut them down before they could make much of an impression, however, though Devlin Stone's later Knights of the Sphere would attempt to carry on their ideals.
Hereditary Republic: On paper the League is governed by a parliament, but a certain emergency powers clause puts near-dictatorial power in the hands of the Captain-General... who's always been a member of the Marik family... in a "state of emergency" that's lasted a couple centuries.
Hufflepuff House: The League is easily the most ignored of the Successor States, partly from suffering under weak leadership, partly because it's too busy fighting amongst itself to cause much drama with its neighbors, and partly from not being in the path of the Clan invasion. This changes drastically between the ascension of Thomas Marik and the offer to shelter to the Word of Blake, however.
Loophole Abuse: The resolution that gave the Captain-General dictatorial powers was intended to be for emergencies only. However, nowhere in the law does it put a time limit on the emergency, and so at the new Captain General's accession to power, he or she asserts that the emergency is still ongoing.
Right Hand vs. Left Hand: Almost all of the League's military answers to regional powers, causing a great deal of distrust as units may find themselves working together toward conflicting goals. A few elite units are sworn to the Captain-General personally on behalf of the entire League, which makes them distrusted by everybody else.
Royally Screwed Up: The Marik family will happily kill each other to take the Captain-General seat, only to be completely ineffectual while awaiting their own assassination. It's worth noting that the most capable leader among them in centuries was an impostor, and the one to re-unite it after it collapsed is the daughter of said imposter who has the Marik name only through a political marriage.
Thomas Marik
Era(s): Clan Invasion, Jihad
Captain-General of the League, which prospered under his reign. Actually a body double installed by ComStar after the real Thomas Marik was nearly killed and resurrected with cybernetic parts, which the League frowns upon. The real Thomas Marik ended up leading the fanatical Word of Blake faction.
The Good King: Though he wasn't the real Marik, he was one of the best leaders the League ever had.
Decoy Leader: A body double taking the place of the real Marik, who had become a cyborg which the League is prejudiced against.
Puppet King: Installed by ComStar.
Lyran Commonwealth/Alliance (House Steiner)
The Lyran Commonwealth was the last of the great interstellar nations to form, as a merger of three large merchant-states in 2341. As a nation run by habitual deal-makers, the Commonwealth has ample wealth and resources, and excels at political maneuvering and bargaining, but lacks decisive and civic-minded leadership. Much of the reason it survives intact is due to the sheer firepower at its disposal, making the negotiation table a more attractive option.
Appropriately enough, it would be deal-making on the part of the Commonwealth that nearly toppled the balance of power across the Inner Sphere. After the Third Succession War, Archon Katrina Steiner extended a peace proposal to the other house lords, answered only by House Davion. The secret arrangements that followed eventually merged their realms into the Federated Commonwealth, a superstate powerful enough to establish a new Star League under its own aegis - at least until the invasion of the Clans, with consequences that would break the two nations apart once more.
For a brief period, the Commonwealth would rename itself the Lyran Alliance after the Lyran half of the Federated Commonwealth broke away.
Bigger Is Better: Though the "Steiner Scout Lance" of four Atlases is a bit of an exaggeration, it is true that Commonwealth commanders prefer to employ a slow-moving avalanche of the heaviest machines available. The Commonwealth (and later Lyran Alliance) is also the state that saw the debut of some of the biggest guns around - the Autocannon/20 and Heavy Gauss Rifle.
Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: The Federation of Skye, one of the three founding states of the Commonwealth, always seemed to be at opposition to the central government, and made multiple attempts at secession throughout the 31st century.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Always marked blue on maps. Their signature unit (the Lyran Guards) use blue and white livery.
Deadly Decadent Court: With more emphasis on "decadent" than the others.
General Failure: The Commonwealth's senior officers are easily the least respected anywhere in the Inner Sphere, as many of them gain their positions by maneuvering through politics and bureaucracy rather that battlefields. Referred to as "social generals," they are at best talented with logistics and administration, and at worst a bunch of oblivious screw-ups with endless excuses. The union of the Federated Commonwealth did reverse this trend somewhat, favoring more capable field officers and NCOs.
The most legendary of these may be Thomas Hogarth, an officer more interested in organizing celebratory balls instead of defensive operations, and who kept getting promoted by a combination of fortune and charisma. Deployed to join the liberation of Terra from the Word of Blake, his tactics at the battle of Singapore were so reckless and indiscriminate that the Blakists tried to surrender in order to spare the city's civilians and historical heritage. (Yes, the insane religious genocidal zealots were horrified by this man's incompetence.) He retired afterward to host an education vid on military affairs called "The Armchair General," apparently unaware of the irony.
Mighty Glacier: The Commonwealth armed forces, as a whole and often as individual units.
Mega-Corp: The leadership of which comprises much of the Commonwealth aristocracy, and frequently has deep connections with its military.
Proud Merchant Race: With the most resource-rich worlds of the Inner Sphere and the most manufacturing infrastructure to survive the Succession Wars, business is the primary means of exerting power throughout the Commonwealth.
Reluctant Warrior: Throughout the Inner Sphere, the Commonwealth's citizenry and enlisted military are among the least interested in the "glory" of warfare, seeing it purely as a means of self-defense and the practical enforcement of policy and property. Only the nobles and high officers show much favor for war, and for them it's usually more about prestige or plunder than any kind of idealism.
Socialite: Both the government and military are positively swimming in them.
We Have Reserves: Granted, the "reserves" refer more to materiel than personnel, but the Commonwealths's abundance still encourages lazy, simplistic strategies, successful only through sheer firepower. House Davion's efforts at shaking Steiner out of its complacency was one of the greatest threats the Federated Commonwealth presented to the other Successor States.
Adam Steiner
Cousin of Katrina Steiner-Davion and Archon of the Lyran Commonwealth twice. He is best remembered in the animated series of Battle Tech.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Unlike most of the Lyran Social Generals, Adam is highly competent stratigic leader and a real badass mechwarrior.
Canon Immigrant: Like Franklin Sakamoto, Adam was originally from the short lived BattleTech Animated Series. While the series itself isn't canon outside of existing as a propaganda-holovid in canon, Adam and a few other characters from the show became canon after the show finished airing. Adam is probably the most visible of them, not because of his jump to becoming the Archon of the Lyran Alliance, but because he survived to die of old age after the Jihad.
Doomed Home Planet: The planet he was born and raised on (Somerset) was taken over by the Jade Falcons although he did win the planet from them in a trial of possession. However, the fifth wave of the Clan invasion was underway, leaving Somerset deep enough in the occupation zone that the Federated Commonwealth couldn't get a garrison there to protect it. Adam was forced to abandon the planet, which was promptly re-conquered by the Jade Falcon. The cartoon adds the insult of the Falcons making off with the entire planetary population as a result of the villain's Loophole Abuse. (Actual canon, however, notes that the Falcons ignored the population.)
Guile Hero: Adam considers accurate intel to be the most powerful weapon around and isn't above manipulating rival clans into fighting each other while his crew quietly escape.
Adam Steiner: "Information is ammunition."
Reasonable Authority Figure
Royals Who Actually Do Something: He actively serves as an Academy instructor and actively participates in the defense of the Inner Sphere during the Clan Invasion.
Federated Suns (House Davion)
The Federated Suns was formed from a handful of Terran Alliance worlds in 2317, after the Alliance withdrew its border and abandoned all the worlds beyond to their fates. Envisioned as a constitutional monarchy nearly from the beginning, recognizing the difficulties of interstellar democracy, the Suns would grow to become the largest interstellar nation, and the most powerful after the Terran Hegemony itself.
Though the government like to boast its cherished civil liberties, the fact is that the Federated Suns' power rises from its military, boasting an unmatched combination of skill, strategy, resources, and initiative. Under the leadership of First Prince Hanse Davion, the Suns and their new Lyran Commonwealth allies devoured half the Capellan Confederation and threatened the Draconis Combine on all fronts. Only the Clan invasion could cause the Suns to yield ground to their traditional enemies as their new Archon Prince, Victor Steiner-Davion, set off to fight new ones.
Arch-Enemy: Though the Suns sees its Inner Sphere neighbors as oppressed people in need of a healthy dose of freedom, existing in a near-constant state of war with both, only the Draconis Combine has been able to give back as good as it gets.
Enemy Mine: The only time there was any relative peace or cooperation with the Draconis Combine was in the face of the Clan invasion. It also helped that Victor Steiner-Davion and Theodore Kurita were both exceptionally reasonable people.
Authority Equals Asskicking: By law, one cannot be the First Prince of the Federated Suns without having served five years in a frontline military unit. All First Princes have been highly skilled MechWarriors.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Marked either yellow or orange on maps. Their signature units use either blue with red and white stripes (The Davion Brigade of Guards) or olive drab (the Crucis Lancers) in their livery.
Eagle Land: Despite its feudal political system and the fact that its culture and governmental system are inspired by the United Kingdom and France, the Suns definitely think of themselves as a Type I.
The Federation: Generally depicted as such, even if it's a federation run by noble autocrats and showing a distinct preference for military aggression. Still, more so than the other Successor States.
Moral Dissonance: Despite outward appearances, the ruling Davion family can be as utterly duplicitous, manipulative, and scheming as any other.
Moral Myopia: The Suns don't "conquer." They "liberate." Totally different.
Pragmatic Hero: Particularly with the nobles along the Draconis and Capellan borders. They often raid across the borders while pitching the propaganda of liberation, when they often just want to expand their personal dominion and prestige.
Reasonable Authority Figure: One of the secrets to the Federated Suns' general success. The Davion family shows a distinct lack of incompetence and megalomania compared to the other ruling houses. The fact that the Davions were the only Great House to accept House Steiner's peace proposal after the Third Succession War speaks to this as well.
Royals Who Actually Do Something: As befitting such a militarized nation with vestiges of noblesse oblige, the title of First Prince can only be inherited after serving five years with a frontline combat unit.
She Is the King: The rulers of the Federated Suns are titled First Prince and are addressed as such, regardless of their gender. The sole exception would be Katherine Steiner-Davion, who titled herself First Princess, but she was never a legitimate ruler of the FedSuns anyway.
Soldier Versus Warrior: The Soldiers to the Draconis Combine's (and later the Clans') Warriors.
War Is Glorious: One of the big things that stops the Suns from being the definitive "good guys" - they thrive on the glories of war and will relish any excuse to participate in it.
White Man's Burden: A prevailing attitude among the Suns and its overall western European-style society (and their lily-white ruling family) is that their conquests bring a higher standard of living to the uneducated and unwashed masses neighboring them.
Hanse Davion
Era(s): Succession Wars, Clan Invasion,
The most famous ruler of Federated Suns. Almost single-handily responsible for pre-Clan state of the Inner Sphere.
Died from a stress induced heart attack during the Clan Invasion.
Crazy-Prepared: He was super ready face any tricks his foes he was up against, including ComStar. He had secretly commissioned development and made use of a previous Subspace Ansible technology abandoned by the Star League that was independent of ComStars HPG stations when they cut him off from the HPG network during the Fourth Succession War.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: Hanse wears a prominent one on his face, a souvenir of a battle he was involved in.
Guile Hero: One of the setting's textbook examples.
Large Ham: Started the Fourth Succession War during his own wedding. And with the words "Wife, in addition to this morsel, I give you an even greater gift. I present to you the Capellan Confederation!!"
Magnificent Bastard: One if the most magnificent in the setting. Successfully played everyone like a fiddle in the Fourth Succession War; in particular, running just about every kind of gambit on Maxmillian Liao. Later, successfully thwarted ComStar's "Operation Scorpion" using pesticide trucks. They don't call him "The Fox" for nothing.
Perfectly Arranged Marriage: His marriage to Melissa Steiner was totally political in it's reasons, but they did make it work and they did love each other.
Red Baron: He is well known among allies and enemies alike as "The Fox."
Warrior Prince: He wouldn't be the First Prince of the Federated Suns if he weren't this.
Julian Davion
The Prince's Champion under Prince Harrison Davion's rule, Julian is a noted Mechwarrior and also steadfastly loyal to the throne. As of 3145, Julian is now the First Prince of the Federated Suns.
The Champion: A Prince's Champion serves basically as the First Prince's second-in-command in the AFFS. Julian is the youngest Champion in the history of the Federated Suns.
Four-Star Badass: As the Prince's Champion he is for all intents and purposes one step down from being the AFFS's supreme commander. He gets relegated to Colonel Badass after he is stripped of the position, however.
Kicked Upstairs: What his original assignment to the 1st Davion Guards was supposed to be, as he was in his uncle and then-First Prince Harrison's bad books due to getting declared persona non grata in the Lyran Commonwealth, and the 1st Guards were considered the poor relation of the Guards Brigade at the time; Julian turned it into Reassignment Backfire by treating it as a real job rather than just a sinecure posting for the First Prince's no-good nephew.
Lantern Jaw of Justice: It needs to be seen to be believed.
Noodle Incident: Got into one of these with Callandre Kell while he trained at the Nagelring as part of a foreign exchange program. Whatever the incident was it got him expelled not only from the Nagelring but from the Lyran Commonwealth, too.
Julian's entire time at the Nagelring qualifies, since Callandre references a number of incidents of misbehaviour there (including a time that they hijacked a Zeus Assault 'Mech for unspecified reasons (an incident that Julian had actually forgotten, showing how wild his and Callandre's time at the Nagelring was)).
Offered the Crown: Or he would have been, had not his cousin dropped the First Prince off a balcony. Then he was offered the throne for real after the death of Caleb, which he was reluctant to take.
One True Love: Callandre Kell. It's a rather...''energetic'' relationship.
Julian Davion: "And do you know what I'd really like to do?"
Callandre Kell: "Bust a chair over my head?"
Julian Davion: "After that."
Callandre Kell: "Ain't love grand." (Callandre punches Julian in the face)
Reassigned to Antarctica: After his cousin was sworn in as the First Prince, Caleb stripped Julian of his position as the Prince's Champion and placed him in command of the 1st Davion Guards on Terra...where Caleb was quick to abandon them.
Unexpected Successor: It was expected that his cousin Caleb would succeed his father as First Prince. The Prince, however, had other ideas.
Warrior Prince: He wouldn't be the First Prince, otherwise.
Worthy Opponent: Yori Kurita, whom he fought to a stalemate in their duel.
Caleb Davion
First Prince of the Federated Suns during the Dark Age era, and a noted tank commander. Caleb ruled the Federated Suns until his death in 3144.
Affably Evil: While he can be friendly and a bit of a playboy, Caleb is a murdering rapist.
Always Someone Better: He sees his cousin Julian Davion as this. Julian, after all, was literally everything that he wasn't. He was a Mechwarrior, a brave leader whom people loved and also (in a sudden decision from Harrison Davion) the First Prince's heir.
Dirty Coward: He prefers to have other people fight his battles. Case in point, he once goaded Yori Kurita into a duel for honour, only to have his cousin Julian fight said duel for him.
Expy: A cowardly ruler who killed his father after he was passed over as heir in favour of someone better suited for the job, an argument could be made that Caleb Davion is this for Commodus.
Insistent Terminology: It's Caleb Hasek-Sandoval-Davion, thank you very much.
Hearing Voices: Caleb developed paranoid schizophrenia at a young age which caused him to hallucinate a best friend, Mason Lambert, who acts as an impulse for all of Caleb's baser instincts.
Not-So-Harmless Villain: He's a cowardly schizophrenic, but he does manage to kill his own father and rape Danai Liao-Centrella.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: To House Davion as a whole. The Davions are, for the most part, generally portrayed as good, strong and (to varying degrees) ethical leaders of the Federated Suns. Caleb Davion is none of those things.
Poisonous Friend: Has one in Mason Lambert.
Self-Made Orphan: He kills his father, Prince Harrison, after he had informed Caleb that Julian would be his heir instead of him.
Stalker with a Crush: He holds an obsession with Danai Liao-Centrella, with tragic consequences.
Throwing Down the Gauntlet: Threw one down to Yori Kurita. Then he made Julian fight in his stead.
The Usurper: Technically. Caleb was the First Prince's son but after the Prince declared for his cousin Caleb was no longer his heir.
Warrior Prince: Traditionally, Davion Princes served in the AFFS as Mechwarriors, but Caleb failed to become one. In order to fulfill his military role to gain the future title of First Prince, he was accepted into combat vehicle training and became a tank commander instead.
"Well Done, Son!" Guy: Downplayed, in that Harrison truly did care for his son. However, he was a little disappointed that Caleb wasn't suitable for Mechwarrior training, and he also chose Julian as his heir instead of Caleb, a decision which ultimate led to his death.
Wham Line: Just before he kills his father, Caleb speaks with Mason and enters into a diatribe that he was the heir because he was Harrison's son, not Julian. After he is done Harrison delivers this line, and thus revealing that Mason existed only in Caleb's head:
Harrison Davion: "Caleb, who are you talking to?"
Federated Commonwealth
A state formed from the Federated Suns and the Lyran Commonwealth after the marriage of First Prince Hanse Davion and Archon-Designate Melissa Steiner as well as several conquered Capellan Confederation and Draconis Combine. The state eventually collapsed in the FedCom Civil War between siblings Victor Steiner-Davion and his sister Katherine Steiner-Davion.
Associated Tropes
Altar Diplomacy: The nation is created through a marriage between House Davion and House Steiner.
Cain and Abel: The new nation falls apart in a war between brother and sister.
Leonine Contract: Most of the folks on either side of this union though that this arrangement heavily favored the other side over them, and it is said that if the Clans didn't appear and became their common enemy when they did, the FedCom would have collapsed much earlier.
Victor Steiner-Davion
Era(s): Clan Invasion, Civil War, Jihad, Dark Age
The firstborn of Hanse Davion and Melissa Steiner and the symbol of FedSun/Lyran union, Victor is a main hero of the Clan Invasion and Civil War eras.
Authority Equals Asskicking: He has been the leader of the Star League forces against the Clan Invasion, the Archon-Prince of the Federated Commonwealth, and the Precentor Martial of ComStar.
Big Good: Of the Clan Invasion and Civil War eras, as he is one of the few Inner Sphere leaders to consistently work for the good of the Inner Sphere as a whole, instead of just the Fed-Com's benefit.
Broken Pedestal: This probably started during the Civil War, but during the Jihad people stopped blindly idolizing him.
Hero with Bad Publicity: Frequently, considering how hamhanded he was at political leadership. While he did improve, it came too late to do him or the Fed-Com much good.
Luke, You Are My Father: Was on the receiving end of this. When Kitsune Kurita revealed his parentage to the Inner Sphere, a conspiracy of reactionary Draconis hardliners called the Black Dragon Society who intended to make him a Puppet King were reviled to learn that he was "tainted" with Davion blood, resulting in a number of them committing Seppuku. Conversely, several FedSun traditionalists painted Kitsune's mother Omiko Kurita as a harlot who tried to corrupt gallant Victor. Vic himself? He was just glad that there was some tangible legacy of his romance with Omi.
Second Love: Victor has a habit of becoming romantically entwined with daughters of both his parentage's ancestral enemies. In this case, it was for his maternal Steiner heritage: Isis Marik, truly of the Marik line (since she's the illegitimate daughter of the "Real" Thomas Marik), pulled him out of despair after his first love, Omiko Kurita, was assassinated. The two eventually married and had several children.
Star-Crossed Lovers: And for his paternal Davion heritage, he had a clandestine affair with Omiko Kurita, daughter of Coordinator Theodore Kurita. The affair bore a son, Kitsune, whom Victor was not even aware of until the boy had become a man and was already making a name for himself.
Tangled Family Tree: Victor, with his parentage and progeny, is a particularly ironic knot in the family trees of four of the five Great Houses that lead the Successor State superpowers. His parents are Hanse Davion, Prince of the Federated Suns in the former half of the 31st century, and Melissa Steiner, daughter and heir of Archon Katrina Steiner of the Lyran Commonwealth in roughly the same time period. His first (technically illegitimate) child is with Omiko Kurita, daughter of Coordiantor Theodore Kurita of the Draconis Combine, an ancestral enemy of his father's family and realm. His second love and wife, Isis Marik, is the sole surviving child of the infamous "Real" Thomas Marik who is of the ruling house of the Free Worlds League (making her a true Marik in blood unlike the doppelganger that Thomas installed), making his wife by law and his legitimate children members of the ancestral arch-enemy house of his mother's side.
Warrior Prince: A bit of a deconstruction: While he is an eminent leader of armies, he is rather lacking in political savvy. His treacherous sister exploits this for all it's worth to arrogate power from him.
Katherine/"Katrina" Steiner-Davion
The main antagonist of the FedCom Civil War. Not content to live her life as a second fiddle to Victor, she manipulated the Federated Commonwealth to remove her brother from the throne and take it for herself, sparking the Civil War that she would lose.
Was last seen as a "guest" of the Crusader Faction Clan Wolf.
Entitled Bitch: Full stop. As becomes increasingly clear during the Civil War, she expects her whims to have the force of natural law. She also expects all her citizens,both Lyran and Davion, to adore her despite her actions, and is genuinely (and angrily) surprised when little things like her machinations killing their loved ones disrupt that.
I Have Many Names: Katherine Steiner-Davion, Katrina Steiner and, later, Katherine Wolf.
Karma Houdini: For all the trouble she caused her only punishment is pretty much being exiled to a Gilded Cage, at first. Then when Vlad Ward Comes around threatening invasion with his Crusader Clan Wolf if she's not given to him, his demands are complied and she basically gets to start a new life as a member of the Crusader Clan Wolf, outlives her Brother Victor and even has a Son..although said Son is actually a artificially conceived person with her and her brother Victor's genes that she intended to groom for her revenge on the Inner Sphere.
Karma eventually catches up to her: The very same recombinant-genome "son" eventually sees her for the dangerous monster she is, and kills her himself.
Manipulative Bitch: Not nearly as good as the thinks she is. . . but still really damn good.
Meaningful Rename: Signifying her rapidly inflating ego, Katherine took up the name of her illustrious maternal grandmother "Katrina". She uses it as a simple loyalty test: call her "Katrina," you're loyal to her. Call her "Katherine," you're loyal to Victor.
Spare to the Throne: And she didn't like it. Interestingly, she wasn't even being groomed as heir: under the laws of the Federated Suns, one has to serve a minimum of give years in the military before they are eligible to take the throne (See Warrior Prince, below). The most Katherine was ever going to be was a regent or advisor to one of her siblings who had completed the requisite military service.
The Starscream: Her entire character arc (from the second she actually gets one) is all about taking everything Victor has for herself.
It's All About Me: *Very* self-serving in her actions. She even fancies herself equal to her illustrious maternal grandmother, as evidenced by evoking her name in being nicknamed "Katrina".
Light Is Not Good: Blonde hair, blue eyes, pale skin, white clothes, black heart.
Warrior Prince: Her NOT being this was used by Victor as a legal reason to go against her.
Woman in White: Favors white clothes and decorating her spaces in bright, white colors. When she picks up Tormano Liao as an advisor, he notes that while she probably intends it to reflect purity and goodness, in Tormano's Chinese-influenced culture, white is the color of death.
Too Dumb to Live: Non-lethal example. Several of her actions could have easily caused more harm to her nation than good if not for other things going on at the time that made them work to her favor. For example, sending an assassin after her brother Victor's girlfriend Omiko Kurita. Said girlfriend is a princess of sorts for long-time Lyran enemy/rival the Draconis Combine. If it weren't for troubles going on that required more attention elsewhere, the death of such a figure would had been a major event; chances are she wouldn't had just had Victor coming down on her. She followed this up by withdrawing Lyran units from planets whose leaders opposed her, leaving them vulnerable to invasion by Jade Falcon forces. Had it not been for some units defying her orders and joining with the Wolves in Exile to form the Arc-Royal Defense Cordon, the Lyran people would have been left unprotected after being abandoned by their own Archon.
Kai Allard-Liao
The son of the infamous Justin Xiang Allard and Candace Liao (the only sane one between herself, her father, and her sister), Kai is arguably one of the most skilled and deadly MechWarriors ever. Despite his name, he was a loyal officer in the Armed Forces of the Federated Commonwealth, and of Prince Victor in particular.
The Ace: He doesn't fully realize it until Star Captain Taman Malthus, a Jade Falcon elemental infantry garrison commander on planet Alynia, half-jokingly talks about the extreme means he would have enacted if he knew who Kai really was at the time (and if they weren't both ensnared by Comstar treachery).
Ace Custom: Pilots Yen-Lo-Wang, a Centurion formerly used by his father that has seen extensive modifications over the years.
Tsundere: Not him specifically, but the woman who eventually became his wife and mother of his children, Dierdre Lear. She was the daughter of a Solaris VII combatant who was killed by Kai's father, and held a long grudge against him, but eventually warmed up to him.
Why Won't You Die?: He just refuses to die during his hiding on the plant Alyina.
You Shall Not Pass!: The epic battle of Twycross. A plan to trap an entire cluster of Jade Falcon forces in a narrow pass and bury them under explosion-induced rockslides goes awry. With a Hatchetman mech with a busted laser and an empty autocannon(so pretty much down to two lasers and the axe), he goads the cluster into the pass, dances a bit with the cluster's commander (the predecessor in the subsequently stigmatized bloodname seat of the aforementioned Taman Malthus)... and then blows his mech up, escaping in a full-head ejection system with Lear, and detonating the explosives and burying the Jade Falcon cluster, leaving few survivors.
Worthy Opponent: Taman Malthus considered him one, detailing that if he truly knew who Kai was (instead of by the pseudonym he was using before that point), he would have bid an entire star of Elementals to go after him. That's twenty five musclebound Super Soldiers clad in Powered Armor. After Kai expresses incredulity at that claim, Taman amends it to two stars. Since they were both beset by Comstar's "Operation Scorpion", this made Taman amenable to a temporary alliance with Kai to oust the Comstar usurpers in exchange for Safconnote clan term safe passage through/out of territory not of their faction off of the planet.
Taurian Concordat (House Calderon)
Founded as a constitutional monarchy under the leadership of House Calderon, the Taurian Concordat is one of the oldest surviving realms since the collapse of the Terran Alliance. The Taurian Concordat has had an antagonistic relationship with the Inner Sphere, particularly against the Federated Suns, and is driven by a desire to expand its borders through colonization and protect its hard-won freedoms from outside aggression.
Arch-Enemy: The whole Inner Sphere in general but the Federated Suns in particular have been this for the Taurians for around 300+ years, if not longer.
Conscription: Although the Concordat is one of the 'better' Successor States they do practice conscription into the Taurian Defence Force. Subverted however, as its soldiers are proud to serve.
Eagle Land: Much like the FedSuns the Concordat see themselves as a Type I of these. The truth is they are probably closer to a Type II or Type III; Taurians are proud to live in not only one of the oldest but what they see as the freest society in known space, and with that pride comes certain implications about said society.
Hidden Elf Village: The Concordat began in the Hyades Cluster, a group of star systems shrouded by dense gas and dust clouds and immense asteroid fields. Thanks to the this navigational nightmare, the early Concordat enjoyed a long period of isolation from the rest of human-controlled space, until it expanded outside the cluster and encountered the Inner Sphere.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: The Concordat could trace its beginnings to a woman (Samantha Calderon) who gathered up what volunteers she could and went out to find a planet far from the Terran Alliance. She did this because her whole family was murdered by the Alliance and she found herself under dire straits when the Alliance eventually collapsed.
The Kingdom: While headed by a 'Protector of the Realm', the Concordat is a constitutional monarchy.
Toros Y Flamencos: The Concordat is lead by a Spanish-descended Great House whose symbol is a bull.
Vestigial Empire: While it was never a large nation, by 3145 the Concordat has become a shadow of its former self, its former worlds either joining Erik Martens-Calderon's Calderon Protectorate or declaring independence. What remains of the Concordat are those worlds that lie within the Hyades Cluster.
Magistracy of Canopus (House Centrella)
The Magistracy is a matriarchal society led by a Magestrix, an elected position open to any woman but largely controlled by House Centrella due to the family's popularity. Disparaged by some for promoting a hedonistic lifestyle, the Magistracy supports an open society and the personal freedom of all citizens and their right to live their lives as they see fit. As such, it is a popular destination for those fleeing persecution or looking to satisfy their discerning tastes.
Deadly Decadent Court: With more emphasis placed on the "decadent" part, for sure.
Free-Love Future: This can be discerned from the Canopians' openness toward anything and everything. Indeed, the Magistracy boasts a thriving adult industry, for which tourists come wishing to partake in the many delights the realm has to offer, or catch a showing of the travelling "pleasure circuses."
Hereditary Republic/Elective Monarchy: Skirts between the two. The Magistracy is a democracy that elects an autocrat who serves until death or if they have been deemed unfit to hold office. The 'hereditary' part comes from the fact that while the position of Magistrix is open to any woman in the Magistracy, the position has largely been filled by members of House Centrella. Interestingly, it's because they keep getting voted in by their subjects, and doing so has largely become tradition by now.
Matriarchy: If the name of the nation wasn't an indicator, the Magistracy is a state that was essentially founded by feminists. Every high-ranking position (except for perhaps in the military) is held by women, and only a woman can serve as the Magistracy's head of state. It is only in recent decades that something resembling gender equality is rearing its head. But still, most in the Magistracy still naturally assume that women are better at certain jobs than men.
Screw This, I'm Outta Here!: Kossandra Centrella, the Magistracy's founder, was once an officer in the Free Worlds League Military whose unit was left behind enemy lines during a general withdrawal. While she managed to save her unit from destruction, she became disillusioned by the incompetance of the FLWM and the patriarchal systems that dominated the Inner Sphere so she gathered many like-minded people and fled the Free Worlds.
Vice City: A Vice Nation, more like. Much of their economy is tourism and entertainment-based, and the Canopians themselves have a reputation that leans toward the hedonistic. Hell, a case could even be made that a decent sized chunk of its money is made from porn.
Outworlds Alliance/Raven Alliance (House Avellar/Clan Snow Raven)
The Alliance: Says so in the name. The Raven Alliance is in itself an alliance between the Outworlds and Clan Snow Raven, though that Alliance is a little one-sided in favour of the Snow Ravens.
Butt-Monkey: Let's see...
First, the Star League garrisons the Alliance "for mutual defence and protection" without the President's approval.
Then there's the "Santiago Massacre," after a Kurita Mechwarrior tossed coolant in a child's face for throwing snowballs at him. That was an incident that went straight to hell from there.
Then there was the sadistic SLDF General Amos Furlough, who made the Alliance his personal chew toy during the Reunification War, proceeding to kill around 12 million of its civilians and burning most of its cities to the ground.
Constantly suffered from weak governments, and their Presidents often either died in office or went off the deep end.
Has gradually deteriorated since the fall of the Star League in many ways than one, and a lot of its worlds are just one bad day away from armed rebellion.
Then comes Clan Snow Raven. Yep, the Outworlds Alliance is cursed, alright.
Crapsack World: Worlds, plural. Since the beginning of the 31st Century, the Alliance has become a pretty grim place to live. Planetary populations have declined, as has literacy levels, and many of its planets are unable to feed its own people. Also, by 3145 it is suggested that it is only Clan Snow Raven that is keeping the Alliance together.
Marian Hegemony (House O'Reilly)
The Empire: The Hegemony is quite small even by Periphery standards but the Hegemony is highly aggressive and expansionistic.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: If the name didn't give it away the Marian Hegemony is one of these for the Roman Empire.
Gratuitous Latin: Latin is one of the Hegemony's official languages, and on their banner are the words, "Pax Mortis," or "Peace of Death." Their head of state is even called a Caesar.
Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: While the Draconis Combine has its Unproductives and the Capellan Confederation has its Servitors, the Marian Hegemony is the only Periphery State (including the one founded by pirates, though not including the Rim Worlds Republic during its early years, as that nation ceased to exist centuries before the Hegemony was founded) that has a culture that includes slavery.
Rim Worlds Republic (House Amaris)
The Rim Worlds Republic was a major Periphery power until it was destroyed by the SLDF under Aleksandr Kerensky during the Amaris Civil War. The majority of its worlds were later claimed by the Lyran Commonwealth, and the remnants of the Rim Worlds Republic broke into smaller states, bandit kingdoms, became independent systems, or simply disappeared from star maps altogether.
The Empire: As a part of the Amaris Empire, after Stefan Amaris took over the Star League.
Fantasy Counterpart Culture: The Republic was one of these for Ancient Greece, at least in its earlier years. Interestingly, their head of state was known as a First Consul (later President), which is a reference to the Roman Republic.
Hereditary Republic: Officially it is a republic, though power had often traded hands through military coups until House Amaris came into power, and by then power stayed solely on House Amaris and its heirs. One Amaris ruler tried to initiate reforms that would establish democracy in the Republic, but they never really took.
Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The Rim Worlds Republic relied on a 'Helot' slave class during its early years, and until the rise of the Marian Hegemony (centuries after the fall of the Republic) was the only Periphery state that practised slavery.
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilised: The founders of the Republic began as a student group gone militant against the Terran Alliance, and they went from piracy and slavery from there. Also, the first few of the Republic's leaders had a habit of being deposed in violent coup d'etats.
Hector Worthington Rowe
The founder of the Rim Worlds Republic.
Badass Bookworm: You'd probably have to be to go from an undergraduate student of history to a leader of a militia group to the founder of a nation.
Driven to Suicide: Hector took his own life within months of being ousted from his position as First Consul.
Jerkass: Torturing soldiers to death, hijacking Jump Ships and taking their crews and passengers as slaves... Yeah, Hector didn't take getting booted off his homeworld very well.
Kangaroo Court: Was very fond of these in the years before he founded the Rim Worlds Republic. Notably, he caught a 350-strong Terran Alliance regiment by surprise and executed the officers before organising kangaroo courts for the surviving soldiers...who were then promptly tortured to death.
Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: Had no trouble with taking slaves to help build his new Republic. He even established a whole social class of slaves.
The Revolution Will Not Be Civilised: Was deposed by his own son...who was then deposed by his own daughter...
Terens Amaris
An intelligence operative for the Terran Hegemony, sent to the Rim Worlds Republic to investigate an attempted poisoning of the Director-General. She later became the First Consul of the Republic, and is the founder of House Amaris.
Bi the Way: Was married with children, and also had a love affair with Heather Durant, the First Consul before Terens.
ComStar
Your friendly neighborhood phone company. Operates all of the Inner Sphere's Subspace Ansible stations. Not a cult.
A NGO Super Power, ComStar was established around the time of the First Succession War and used a fleet of mercenaries to take over Planet Terra. Originally set up as a trans-national corporation intended to maintain the Hyperpulse Generator network to prevent a total breakdown in communication, it soon morphed into a pseudo-religious and extremely secretive organization.
Secularization after the Clan Invasion caused a schism, resulting in the religious elements breaking off and forming the radical Word of Blake.
Cargo Cult: Averted; ComStar wanted to become the sole proprietors of technology through the Inner Sphere, but the reality was that no one running the Successor States had any doubt that they were just playing at being mystics to control the fact that they controlled the most valuable communications technology in the Inner Sphere.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: Marked white on maps (though rarely, because their sphere of actual territorial control is the Sol system), uses an allover white livery for their combat units.
Cult of Personality: Formed one to its founder Jerome Blake, thought this is after his death. Under Blake ComStar was mostly run in a corporate style organization, but later followers turned it into a pseudo-cult like order with him being its revered founder.
Lost Technology: ComStar spent most of the Succession Wars helping to perpetrate technological decline - murdering scientists, sabotaging factories, and stealing blueprints - to ensure that they would be the only holders of advanced technology, in anticipation of the Successor States coming to ComStar and asking them to lead the Inner Sphere that the NGO would unite. It didn't exactly work out that way, as all the Successor States were more than happy to keep punching each other to death while ComStar watched.
N.G.O. Superpower: Nominally controls a single solar system, but like the Papal States in feudal Europe, held ultimate political sway; one order from the Comstar Primus could shut down every HPG station in a successor state, leaving their government blind.
Recycled In Space: When the setting was more blatantly futuristic medieval, ComStar was basically the Roman Catholic Church in space: the one organization with the power to yank the choke-chain on the feuding nation-states if they got too far out of line.
Subspace Ansible: Their effective monopoly on the Hyperpulse Generator Network established by the Star League is their primary power in the politics of the Inner Sphere.
Superweapon Surprise: When they realized that the Clans intended to capture Terra as their ultimate objective in the Clan Invasion of 3050, ComStar realized they could no longer stand on the sidelines of the war and had to act. They responded by calling the Clans out with a batchall (battle challenge) with the fate of Terra on the line. The Clans answered, and ComStar brought out twelve armies, most armed with tech that the Inner Sphere hadn't seen in hundreds of years. Even though the ComStar armies had a lot of unseasoned soldiers, and even though the resulting Battle of Tukkiyyd resulting in 30% fatalities (and worse casualties) for the ComGuard, the Clans were savaged so badly that they were never able to invade the Inner Sphere again. And the rest of the Inner Sphere got the message: don't fuck with ComStar.
Word of Blake
A breakaway sect of ComStar that formed in opposition to Anastasius Focht and Primus Sharilar Mori's secularist reforms.
Machine Worship: The Word wished to preserve this while ComStar sought to move away from it.
Radical Splinter Faction: To ComStar
Anastasius Focht
Precentor-Martial Anastasius Focht was the commander in chief of the once-secret Comstar army known as the Com Guard. He is the architect of the Battle of Tukayyid, an arranged proxy battle over the ownership of Terra between Comstar and the Clans, where the Clan invasion in the early 3050s was temporarily halted for 15 years if the Com Guard won. Since achieving victory on Tukayyid he became increasingly prominent in the affairs of the Inner Sphere as a whole. Also responsible for thwarting a power grab by Primus Myndo Waterly. Being more secular and moderate, his actions within Comstar politics would result in the schism that created the Word of Blake splinter faction.
Character Tic: Frequently adjusts his Eyepatch of Power.
The Chessmaster: Excels at outmaneuvering his opponents in warfare. He is the architect of the Battle of Tukayyid, a proxy battle for Terra, where he exploited the Crusader Clans' Blood Knight propensities to have them drop woefully unprepared for battle with what they considered inferior foes.
Eyepatch of Power: Lost an eye as part of his mysterious past.
Meaningful Rename: In another life, he was Fredrick Steiner, a member of the royal house that leads the Lyran Commonwealth.
That Man Is Dead: Considers himself a completely new person after his conversion to ComStar, even counting himself as nearly a quarter of his chronological age because of his "rebirth."
You Wouldn't Shoot Me: Officially, Primus Waterly decided to step down and retire after the Battle of Tukayyid, and sadly died of a cerebral hemorrhage 4 days later. Unofficially, when Waterly revealed the details of Operation Scorpionnote An attempt to force all the Successor States to bend the knee and accept ComStar rule by forcing an uprising on Clan-held worlds and shutting off Hyperpulse communications everywhere until the States agreed to "administrative rule", Operation Scorpion failed when 1) the Draconis Combine found out about it in advance and told the Lyran Commonwealth, letting both States prepare and take over the HPG devices when the blackout began, 2) a number of ComStar controllers decided not to actually do anything, 3) the other Successor States, annoyed that their HPG communication was cut off, decided to unilaterally seize the buildings, and 4) the regular citizens, who saw no reason behind the blackout, rioted and took over the buildings themselves. The result of Operation Scorpion was, rather than increasing Comstar's power, a marked decline in ComStar due to the loss of control of their HPG devices to Focht, Focht called Waterly an idiot, revealed that the plan had failed, and then shot Waterly in the back of the head with a needler pistol when she turned her back on Focht in a brazen insult.
The Master/The Real Thomas Marik
Era(s): Succession Wars, Jihad
The Man Behind the Man for the horrible events during the Jihad was once the real heir to the throne to the Free Worlds League. A bomb from a relative seeking the throne (something common in the family) killed his father and one of his brothers as well as almost killing him too. However, he was resuscitated by Comstar but he was horribly scared and required cybernetic implants to save him. The League has a heavy anti-cybernetic stance so a body double was put in his place by Comstar. Said double would go on to be the best leader the Free Worlds League ever had while the real Thomas would become the fanatical mastermind and bank-roller of the Word of Blake and the planner behind the Jihad.
Killed at the end of the Jihad when the planet he was on is scoured by nukes to ensure no Word Of Blake Members escape.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: After the bombing attempt on his life he needed cybernetic implants to survive. His role as Captain-General of the Free Worlds League was taken by a double, while he went on to become the leader of the Word of Blake and lead them in starting the Jihad.
The Man Behind the Man: The real leader of Word Of Blake being both the person who masterminded the Jihad and who was giving them their funding in the early years of the Word Of Blake existence after their split from Comstar.
Evil Is Hammy: How could this be anything other than high-grade Prosciutto? ◊
Eye Scream: The bomb described above apparently destroyed the real Thomas marik's right eye in it's place is a cybernetic replacement.
Good Scars, Evil Scars: the bomb also heavily scarred his face and body and well he's one of the biggest villains the inner sphere had faced since Stefan Amaris.
Karmic Death: He and the Word of Blake have nuked dozens of worlds into submission, in the end he was nuked on the planet he was hiding.
Knight Templar: His doppelganger that he sent to pose as him to lead the Free Worlds League said that he made Myndo Waterley (who probably would have found the Word of Blake appealing had she lived) look like a "bleeding heart liberal" in comparison.
Having fled from the dissolution of the Star League, Aleksandr Kerensky's SLDF Exodus fleet settled several resource-poor planets in 2786, far beyond even the Periphery states. Kerensky hoped his loyalists could one day reinstate the League to its former glory, but further conflict and rebellion drove his son Nicholas and his most faithful followers to another group of worlds now called the Kerensky Cluster. Nicholas returned in 2822 to quell the rebels and establish the Clans, an idealized society he devised in his exile. Though the Clans prospered for a time, their isolation and unique societal norms twisted Aleksandr's vision, leading to their 3049 invasion of the Inner Sphere to restore the Star League by conquest.
The Clans are a culture born from desperate necessity, aimed to promote excellence and create the greatest good at minimal expense. Fundamentally, they are communist meritocracies - everyone and everything is Clan property, honor is given to those who best serve the Clan, and disputes are resolved through personal challenges. Unsurprisingly, this system regards warriors as the most elite citizens, with voting rights belonging exclusively to warriors, and authority granted to reflect combat skill rather than any talent at strategy, negotiation, or administration. While this often results in myopic leadership that favors brute-force solutions, some genuinely shrewd individuals rise through the ranks from time to time.
Animal Motifs: Nearly every Clan is named after some kind of animal. The only exception is Clan Blood Spirit, named after the esprit de corps.
Asskicking Equals Authority: One of the core pillars of Clan society. Not only is the warrior caste in charge, but nearly all leadership positions - and even whether an individual may be part of the warrior caste - are determined via Trial by Combat.
Authority Equals Asskicking: Subverted for the Clans. Unlike the Successor State military commanders who have to deal with managing logistics and planning strategic movements across entire sectors, the Clan trials only emphasized martial prowess. This meant that the best pilots and soldiers rose without any consideration for their leadership skills.
Color-Coded for Your Convenience: All over the place depending on the particular Clan. While each has a signature color used on maps, some have a particular favored color for units, most notably the Jade Falcons, who heavily use a green livery with yellow accents (Funny, that...). Others may have a color they might slightly favor, but routinely go off in different directions depending on the particular unit's preference.
Defector from Decadence: Aleksandr saw that the Successor States were eyeing the seat of First Lord hungrily, and decided to take his most loyal subordinates and get the hell out before the fighting started.
Fantastic Caste System: The Clans have five castes: Warriors, Scientists, Technicians, Merchants, and Laborers. The castes are theoretically equal but Warriors are the most powerful and prestigious.
Fantastic Racism: All Clans use genetically engineered "trueborn" warriors but each Clan has different policies on admitting "freeborns" (people born through normal sexual intercourse) into the military.
Fictional Political Party: The Clans are divided into two factions: The Crusaders and the Wardens. The Crusaders believe that the Clans should invade the Inner Sphere as soon as possible while the Wardens believe the Clans should not invade unless to protect the Inner Sphere from a severe threat. Warden Clans end up invading the Inner Sphere anyway just to minimize the damage the Crusaders might do.
Honor Before Reason: The main reason the Clans' invasion failed was because they were used to fair, ritualized combat and unprepared for the "dishonorable" tactics of the Inner Sphere. ComStar ended up stopping the entire Clan invasion for fifteen years by convincing them to a large-scale Trial by Combat (with Earth as the prize if the Clans won) and then fortifying the planet that the battle would take place on and fighting as ruthless and dirty as possiblenote To wit: defense in depth, hit-and-run tactics, human wave tactics, and so on. The Clans also stuck to their time-tested method of "underbidding" the battle to get first rights to fight: the Clan that bid the least amount of forces had the honor of dropping into battle first, and so were horrendously unprepared to face off against the overwhelming firepower that ComStar brought to bear on them. Jade Falcon lost 78% of their equipment, with 32% destroyed outright, and the rest damaged so far beyond the point of repair as to be useless anyway. The other Clans didn't fare much better. The Battle of Tukkyidd shattered Clan society, as everything that they believed to be good, right and true about combat was proven wrong.
Let's Fight Like Gentlemen: The Clans follow a code of honor called "zellbrigen", which emphasizes fair combat. The code was formed to minimize loss of life and resources after the SLDF fled known space and settled on resource-poor planets.
Might Makes Right: The Trial of Refusal permits a warrior to overturn any vote, so long as they can win in combat against forces representing the majority.
Planet of Hats: Each of the twenty clans had its own gimmick and position in Clan society, explained In-Universe as a result of the quirks and outlooks of its founding Khan.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: The Clan's biggest and proudest hat. Subverted, however, in that the Clans centuries of ritualistic trials and combat training made them easy to strategically outmaneuver and wear down before they could even reach Terra.
Renegade Splinter Faction: Clan Wolf has one in Clan Wolf-in-Exile, who continue to uphold the Warden traditions of their forebears despite the rest of Clan Wolf's adoption of the Crusader philosophy.
The Scottish Trope: The Not-Named Clan (Wolverine). Even centuries after its annihilation, mentioning the Clan by name is forbidden, and Clanners will still go to any length to eradicate any traces of the Clan they discover. And woe betide anyone who even uses the word "wolverine" innocently in conversation in earshot of a clanner, or even worse, tries to compliment a clanner by comparing them to a wolverine. Did we mention that one of the more common, above-average medium 'mechs is the WVR-6R Wolverine?
Super Breeding Program: "Trueborn" Clan warriors are created in batches of siblings, with any washouts being relegated to the appropriate civilian caste. The process is practically sacred to them - every dying warrior hopes his or her genes will be worthy of contributing to future generations, and references to the process as "genetic engineering" are considered an insult.
Token Good Teammate: The Warden Clans, who preferred to protect the Inner Sphere as opposed to the Crusaders, who wanted to return to (read: conquer) the Inner Sphere and reestablish the Star League under the ideals of their founder, Nicholas Kerensky. Warden Clans of note include Clan Wolf, Clan Ghost Bear (who were staunch Crusaders until the Great Refusal) and Clan Nova Cat (who were also Crusaders until the end of the Clan Invasion). By 3145, Clan Nova Cat has become all but extinct and the only noteworthy Warden Clans that remain are the Ghost Bears and the Renegade Splinter Faction that calls itself Clan Wolf-in-Exile.
Trial by Combat: Virtually all decisions made in Clan Society are either this or subject to overruling by this. Combat trials are used for everything from determining an individual warrior's status within their Clan to the settling of personal or property disputes. Any legislative or judicial decisions made by the Clans may also be overruled if their proponents are defeated in combat by the opposing side.
Un-person: The harshest Clan punishments involve removal of individuals, bloodlines, or Bloodnames from Clan lore and their eugenics program. At the extreme, entire Clans have been erased from history.
Verbal Tic: Members of the Clans, particularly Trueborn warriors, do not use contractions.note At least none recognizable as such by present day English speakers. Many terms invented by the Clans are in fact contractions - quiaff and quineg for "query affirmative/negative", batchall for "battle challenge", etc.
Nicholas Kerensky
Aleksandr Kerensky's son and founder of the Clans.
Founder of the Kingdom: He is the founder and creator the original 20 Clans and their way of life.
Proud Warrior Race Guy: Formed the Clans in this fashion.
Villain with Good Publicity: The novel Betrayal of Ideals, as well as the Operation: Klondike sourcebook, do quite a bit to tarnish both the man and his motivations, making him seem less like the heir to his father's dream and more like a narcissistic Blood Knight who wanted to play First Lord. The novel even ends with him declaring his intent to rewrite Clan history to suit his purposes.
Natasha Kerensky
Possibly the deadliest Mechwarrior in history of BattleTech. Introduced as a mercenary working for the Wolf's Dragoons, both of whom are rumored to have ties with the self-exiled Star League Defense Force, she is infamous as a captain of the Black Widow Company, an elite Dragoon unit comprised of most unsavory types of people you can find in Inner Sphere.
When the Clan Invasion begun, it was revealed that the Wolf's Dragoons were the clan reconnaissance force who have gone rogue, and that Natasha was one of the few trueborn warriors who joined it since her impatience for politics prevented her further rise in Clan society.
When the recall order from Clan Wolf arrived, she returned to help Ulric Kerensky to crush the Crusader Clan ambitions.
She died in rear guard action during the Refusal War, her Dire Wolf Widowmaker standing as a monument to her skill.
Out-of-Universe, she was the FIRST named character in the game, back in the first boxed set.
Ace Pilot: Only a few could match her in skill, like the The Bounty Hunter (with whom Natasha has a rivalry) and Kai Allard-Liao (though they never personally met each other).
Blood Knight: As per Clan traditions, though she takes it a bit further.
Death Seeker: After her lover Joshua Wolf died, she became a lot more reckless.
Roaring Rampage of Revenge: During Anton Marik's revolt in 3015, Wolf's Dragoons had been fighting on Anton's side until the last days of the war. In the end The Dragoons single-handily ended the war by The Black Widows destroying Anton Marik's palace personally with Kerensky herself dropping the roof on his head. This was in revenge both for betraying the Dragoons by trying to force them to disperse and merge into the remnants of the rebels, and by using Joshua Wolf, Jamie Wolf's wife and daughters and a number of other Dragoon noncombatants and dependents as hostages to secure Wolf's good behavior, and slaughtering them all when Wolf refused to comply.
Generation Xerox: Her Trueborn gene-daughter Anastasia.
Hot-Blooded: Fully intends (and succeeded) in dying guns blazing in a fight for glory and honor, and stuff your politics and intrigues and "you're-too-old-for-this" bullshit, thank you very much.
Ms. Fanservice: She has her moments.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "The Black Widow".
Screw Politeness, I'm a Senior!: After her return to the Clans, she continued to use contractions, which is considered crude amongst the Clans. And she doesn't care.
Sir Swears-a-Lot: How the Clans view her tendency above.
The Remnant: Her preference for spider-related imagery (calling herself Black Widow, naming her 'Mech Widowmaker, calling her Clan Cluster the Wolf Spiders) indicates she's aware she's descended from remnants of Clan Widowmaker (named after an even deadlier version of a black widow spider), who were Absorbed by Clan Wolf some time ago.
Younger Than They Look: Had extensive cosmetic surgery while in the Inner Sphere to hide her true age, adding to her mystique. (The Clans weren't fooled).
Ulric Kerensky
The Khan of Clan Wolf. As a follower of the Warden philosophy, Ulric protested against the invasion of the Inner Sphere and declared the Trial of Refusal, but with odds stacked against him he lost, and as a punishment he and his clan were to take part in invasion.
Not to be discouraged, he intentionally sabotaged the invasion by out-crusading the Crusader clans, by making fast progress towards Terra while the rest of the clans were falling behind, thus spurring them to actnote He was able to do so because he was forced into the invasion: in order to invade, all Clans had to bid for it, by stating the amount of forces they would commit to the battle/invasion, and the lowest bid would win. However, Clan Wolf was already committed to the invasion, and therefore didn't have to bid to ensure that they would go. So they assessed the situation, used their knowledge of the Inner Sphere from Natasha Kerensky and Phelan Kell to prepare, and brought everything they would need for an extended campaign. The other clans brought significantly less than they needed, out of pride, and suffered horribly for it. But while the Wolves were prepared for the war, the other clans, expecting easy victory, were logistically unprepared and spread themselves thin trying to outperform the wolves. This eventually resulted in the battle of Tukayyid, where the clans suffered defeat.
Years later Ulric was court-martialed for the failure of invasion, but he and his retinue led a successful defense by pointing out that while he and Clan Wolf performed excellently, it was the other clans that failed to achieve desirable results. The discussion shifted to the idea of restarting the invasion, and in order to thwart this he declared the Clan-wide Trial of Refusal against the leader of Crusader clans and long-time rival of Wolves, Clan Jade Falcon, starting what would be known as The Refusal War.
Ulric died during the war, but still managing to cripple the Falcons.
Batman Gambit: Most of his gambits involved exploiting the proud warrior mentality of the clans, especially the "proud" part.
Reassignment Backfire: Being forced to take part in the invasion actually gives him the chance to stop it, even more so when he is promoted to IlKhan after Leo Showers got kamikazed.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: He hinders the Invading Clans by pairing them with the other Clans they hate. The Smoke Jaguars were paired with Nova Cats, when they failed to take the Draconis Combines capital they pinned the blame on each other, and the Nova Cats decide to defect to the Second Star League in their annihilation of the Smoke Jaguars.
Xanatos Gambit: Alongside his Batman Gambits, Ulric frequently maneuvers his opponents into positions where no matter what they do, Ulric, the Wolves, and the Wardens come out on top.
Anastasia Kerensky
One of the most prominent characters in the Dark Age. A Clanner born from Clan Wolf-in-Exile with ambitions to conquer Terra.
Chaotic Neutral: She'll be fighting against one faction, only to join them in a later time.
Fiery Redhead: She is described as having red hair and green eyes.
HeelFace Revolving Door: She has been a heroine and an enemy to the Republic in a short span of time. She aided the planet Archernar against the Steel Wolves only to join them later, then took control of the unit forming the Wolf Hunters.
Legacy Character: To her blood mother Natasha Kerensky.
Phelan Kell
Phelan Kell, also known as Phelan Wolf and Phelan Ward, is the Khan of Clan Wolf-in-Exile. Born the son of Morgan Kell, leader of the Kell Hounds mercenary group, Phelan was captured by Clan Wolf during the Clan Invasion. While in captivity, Phelan became the Bondsman of Khan Ulric Kerensky, who taught him all about Clan life.
Asskicking Equals Authority: How else would a Freebirth Bondsman like Phelan be nominated Khan of Clan Wolf-in-Exile?
Badass Family: The Kell family are this in their capacity as high-end mercenaries. Also of note are the sibko children born from his genetic material and any Wolf Clanner who take on the Kell Bloodname.
The Exile: He is the Khan of a whole Clan of them.
Going Native: Occurs during his captivity by Clan Wolf. As a Bondsman to the Clan, he became a strong believer in the Clan Warden political perspective. He was described as having taken to the Clan lifestyle like a convert to a new religion.
Meaningful Name: Phelan is Gaelic for Wolf.
Meaningful Rename: In a full-circle kind of way, Phelan went from calling himself Phelan Kell, then he was given the name Phelan Wolf after he joined Clan Wolf. Then he earned the Ward Bloodname for himself, and thus he took on the name Phelan Ward (ironically, his mother's name was also Ward). And then, after he became the Khan of Clan Wolf-in-Exile, he went back to using the Kell name.
One True Love: He has one in Ranna Kerensky, though there is no such thing as marriage in Clan society. Instead, Phelan withheld his genetic legacy from the Clan's Super Breeding Program until Ranna earned her Bloodname, so that they would achieve 'immortality' together by creating a sibko from their genetics.
Raised by Clanners: An interesting variation, in that Phelan spent a portion of his early life living with members of Wolf's Dragoons in a sibko-like environment. It likely led to the ease in which Phelan went native and joined Clan Wolf outright during his capture.
Repetitive Name: A Classic Kurashikku variation. For a time he was known as 'Phelan Wolf,' so until he took on his first Bloodname his name directly translated to Wolf Wolf.
Maybe half of all military forces in the Inner Sphere belong to mercenary units, large and small.
Jaime Wolf
The Commander of the Wolf's Dragoons
Morgan Kell
Founder of the Kell Hounds
Grayson Death Carlyle
Founder of the Gray Death Legion
Devlin Stone
Era(s): Jihad, Dark Age
The main hero of the Jihad. Nothing is really known about him besides wild rumors.
Young Conqueror: From a minor rebel leader to Sphere-wide Coalition leader to the ruler of the defacto reborn Terran Hegemony.
Wild Mass Guessing: in-universe there are all kinds of rumors on his actual origins, ranging from the mundane guesses of being a former member of one of the more moderate (read: not nuke em all happy) Wo B factions to outlandish of actually being Arthur Steiner-Davion, who was supposedly killed a few years before the Jihad.
Axiom Campaign
Characters/Tabletop Games
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Characters / Galactic Civilizations
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Back to Galactic Civilizations.
Playable civilizations
Introduced in Galactic Civilizations I
Altarian Republic/Resistance
Leader: Netro Mancer (GC 1), Elyes Mue (Dark Avatar), Akari Malara (GC 3)
Homeworld: Altaria, Altaris System
Default Alignment: Good/Benevolent
Old allies of the Arceans, who happen to look near-identical to the Terrans. The Altarians greeted their "cousins" the Terrans with open arms, seeing the meeting between the two species as the fulfillment of an ancient prophecy.
Altarians are known for their friendliness and benevolence, but they are hostile and unforgiving to those they regard as evil.
The third game's Retribution expansion reveals why they look so much like humans: Draginol crashed into Altaria millions of years ago, subconsciously creating a race identical to humanity in his slumber. The most shocking revelation is that Altaria had another name in the days of the Arnor-Dread Lord war: Elemental.
Big Good: How they see themselves, anyway.
The Fundamentalist: They are highly religious, which has a major impact on their actions. Fortunately, their religion seems to be one of the most friendly and benevolent ones in existence, so this is not as bad as it could be.
Human Aliens: Which confuses everybody, themselves included. The prophecy that they claim foretold the meeting with the Terrans apparently states that the Altarians are not naturally evolved, and non-native to their homeworld. This is supported by the fact that, genetically speaking, they are far more similar to the Terrans and Earth-evolved organisms than they are to anything on Altaria. Turns out they were the result of a heavy Arnor presence on Altaria, created by Draginol during his slumber within their world. It goes even further than that. As the Elemental series' setting is actually ancient Altaria, the ancestors of the Altarians called themselves Humans
Knight Templar: Get along with them and be generally nice to others, and they'll be nice back. Be evil (even Necessarily Evil or just ruthless for pragmatic reasons), and they will try to "correct" you... by force, if necessary.
Space Elves: This is how they act in many ways, although they are more willing to cooperate with "lesser" races than most examples.
Psychic Powers: They are gifted with rather more psychics than most other species, and consider prophecy to be a valid source of information.
Arcean Empire
Leader: Lord Verga
Homeworld: Arcea, Athol System
Default Alignment: Neutral/Pragmatic
One of the oldest space-faring civilizations, and the co-inventors of FTL travel in the form of the Stargates. The Arceans formed friendships with the Altarians early in their history, and readily accept the Terrans as well. They are also old enemies of the Drengin. They are shrewd and cunning warriors, and are extremely difficult to take by surprise.
Arceans are known for their honorable lifestyle. Their morality is in fact entirely defined by honor: they will always try to avoid being shamed and to gain and preserve glory.
Blue and Orange Morality: As mentioned above, they don't seem to care about conventional views of "good" and "evil", instead basing their decisions entirely on honor. This is why they're considered a "Neutral" civilization, despite canonically being on the side of the heroic races.
Honor Before Reason: Their culture's emphasis on honor can lead them to do some stupid things on occasion.
Made a Slave: By the Drengin, after the second game. They're freed by the Terran First Fleet early on in the third.
Mighty Glacier: As of Twilight of the Arnor, the Arceans have bonuses to fleet combat and invasions, but a penalty to ship speed. Sadly, this means the "Mighty" half doesn't come into play anywhere near as often as they'd like, since the "Glacier" means they have a hell of a time catching their foes.
Proud Warrior Race: Of the "highly honorable" sub-type. Even the Drengin had a nasty time of conquering the Arceans, both times they tried.
Put on a Bus: They get pounded pretty hard by the Drengin after the Dread Lord War, and by the time of the third game are unplayable as a Civ due to having been thoroughly conquered. However, the early campaign for the third game has the Terrans liberating them from the Drengin, and the Mercenaries expansion brings them back to the front lines against the Drengin.
Dominion of Korx
Leader: Kralax of Korx
Homeworld: Korx, Oxar System
Default Alignment: Evil/Malevolent
A race that first made itself known by attacking the Altarians with no warning, though only because they were paid to do it by someone else. The Korx are a species of businessmen first and foremost, and all of their actions are motivated by profit. They care nothing for whom they harm in the process.
Their defeat by the Korath Clan in the second game removes them as a major galactic power, and most of what's left of their civilization is absorbed by the Krynn. Those that didn't join the Krynn operate deep space bazaars, hiring out mercenaries for the other civilizations for a price.
The Korx start out with massive economic and trading bonuses, but are considered Evil for their unscrupulous business practices.
Corrupt Corporate Executive: All of them (at least, all of their executives). Selling one's own mother into slavery is suggested to be a rite of passage among them.
Demoted to Extra: Nearly exterminated by the Korath in the second game's campaign, thus they aren't available as a Civ in the third. They manage to hang around as operators of the Galactic Bazaar instead. Most of the surviving Korx joined the Iridium Corporation, and their shipset and symbol was added to the game in the Rise of the Terrans DLC.
Hired Guns: They offer those services to those who pay them well enough, and the Drath hired their services more than once to attack the Altarians in their name. In the third game's Mercenaries expansion, a group of surviving Korx run the Galactic Bazaar, allowing anyone who has the credits and the resources to hire some of the most powerful ships and pilots in the galaxy.
One Nation Under Copyright: Their entire society functions like a business.
Drath Legion
Leader: Embryes Draken (GC 1, GC 2, GC 3)
Homeworld: Dratha, Drathis System (Destroyed), New Drath, Halcyon System (current) Altaria, Altaris System (original homeworld)
The Drath are a species with a serious grudge against the Altarians, as they claim to be the original native inhabitants of Altaria (Which is true) before, in the distant past, being forcibly removed by the Arnor. The Drath are otherwise mostly friendly, but are noted for their passive-aggressiveness and manipulative ways.
The Drath are masters at manipulation, with a special ability to get other races to go to war for them. They rarely act openly.
After the Korath destroyed their homeworld in the second game, the galaxy as a whole believes the Drath are no more. However, the Drath were able to survive, hiding in a star system near the abandoned Arnor prison planet of Yiven III. They have intentionally spread the rumours they were wiped out so that the other races leave them alone.
Back from the Brink: Survived the Korath's attempt to kill them all, returning as a faction in the third game's Retribution expansion.
Draconic Humanoids: As Altaria, back when it was known as Elemental, had dragons of all sizes, it isn't surprising.
The Exile: Originally came from Altaria, before the Arnor evacuated them to another planet after Draginol's rampage.
Killed Off for Real: Exterminated by the Korath in the second game's campaign, and are therefore unavailable to play as in the third. Subverted, as of the third game's fourth expansion.
Manipulative Bastard: They won't declare war on you if you anger them, they'll get someone else to declare war on you before you realize you did anything wrong. They'll only join in once you're weakened.
The Reptilians: Seemingly reptilian in nature, although they lack scales and are not exclusively carnivorous.
Voluntary Shapeshifting: Suggested to be a natural ability of theirs, at least to a certain extent, and part of why they're so good at manipulation. One theory as to how they could possibly have survived the Korath's genocide was going into hiding among other civilizations.
Drengin Empire
Leader: Lord Kona
Homeworld: Drengi, Drengia System
A brutal, warlike race of conquering slavers. The Drengin are also among the oldest known civilizations, being the other co-inventors of FTL travel, alongside the Arceans. Drengin tend to consider themselves superior to all other forms of life, and do not make alliances unless they absolutely must and cannot conquer the other civilization at this time. They are the main antagonists of the campaign.
Drengin are extremely adept at warfare and are known for their aggressiveness. Despite this, however, they are very cunning and technologically advanced: underestimating their intelligence would be a mistake.
Big Bad: They occasionally lose this status to either the Dread Lords or the Korath Clan, but always regain it in the end.
Card-Carrying Villain: They make no attempt to hide their nature: they glory in the pain of others and openly admit to using their slaves as food. Small wonder they don't have any friends.
Galactic Conqueror: Their ultimate goal. As of the end of the second game, they are very close to succeeding.
Killed Off for Real: In the timeline the Thalans came from, the genocide of the Drengin race at the hands of D.L. Bradley starts the Cycle of Draginol.
Laughably Evil: They find a way to put a layer of over-the-top, gleeful evil on more or less everything they do, no matter how mundane or ordinary.
Pragmatic Villainy: Despite their evil, the Drengin are not stupid. They are patient when it's necessary (their conquest of the Torians was planned out 70,000 years in advance), and they know not to overextend their reach. If conquest is infeasible or simply unprofitable, they won't go for it, even if they'd like to.
Proud Warrior Race: Emphasis on the "conqueror" aspect. They don't necessarily find battle itself to be glorious, but rather the most expedient way to get what they want out of the rest of the galaxy.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: They accidentally released the Dread Lords from their pocket universe, which results in casualties to everyone, themselves included, on a scale never before seen.
Villain Protagonist: In the Dark Avatar expansion's campaign, they are the player civilization rather than the Terran Alliance.
Terran Alliance
Leader: Alan Bradley (GC 1), Jenna Casey (Twilight), DL Bradley (GC 3)
Homeworld: Earth, Sol System
Default Alignment: Good/Benevolent (leaning Neutral/Pragmatic)
The human race, something of a newcomer to the galactic scene. The Terrans upset the status quo of the galaxy by inventing Hyperdrive, allowing cheap and easy interstellar travel, which prior to this was limited to extremely expensive Stargates. Unfortunately, some idealistic fool broadcast the blueprints for this Hyperdrive across the galaxy as soon as it was invented, so the Terrans did not get the head start on colonization they might have had otherwise.
Terrans are known for their expertise in communications and diplomacy, but are not afraid to go to war if they feel it is necessary.
Arch-Enemy: Canonically, the Drengin. The Drengin consider the Terrans to be the single most dangerous species they have ever encountered, and therefore pay special attention to attempting to conquer them. The Terrans respond to this hostility in kind.
Humans Are Diplomats: This is the human race's hat in the game. They get excellent Diplomacy bonuses over everyone else. In the canon, this manifests as them being the ones forming alliances and treaties among the heroic races.
Humans Are Warriors: A secondary hat for humanity. The Drengin thought that the Terrans' focus on diplomacy would make them weak in battle... they were wrong about that. The fact that humans can be so cooperative and yet so good at battle when it's required of them is something the Drengin just cannot understand, and they fear what they don't understand.
Pragmatic Hero: While they are the heroes of the campaign, and are allied with many of the heroic civilizations, the Terrans are not afraid to do some nasty things if it's in their best interests. This sometimes sets them at odds with their fellows, especially the Altarians, and is why they are not considered a wholly Good civ.
Torian Confederation/Regime
Leader: Tlas Kzientha
Homeworld: Toria, Torus System
In the pre-Hyperdrive era, the Torians were conquered by the Drengin and used as a slave species. They were eventually able to wage enough of a war via attrition that the Drengin gave up and retreated back through their Stargate (which the Torians then destroyed). Their goal is now to carve out their own space in which to live in peace... and get bloody revenge on the Drengin if they get the chance. In the second game, the Drengin re-enslaved them with the help of the Dread Lords and the Korath. In the third game, after the Crusader and its fleet returned to liberate the galaxy from their worst enemies, the Torians have liberated themselves once more, with a reawakened rage against the Drengin, bowing to never be enslaved ever again.
The Torians are mostly friendly, but rather xenophobic and slow to trust due to their experiences with the Drengin.
Explosive Breeder: Torians breed much more quickly than most other races, which is a major boon in times of war since they can replace troops and workers much more quickly.
Folk Hero: Martôk, who led his people to liberate themselves from their Drengin slavemasters, and destroyed the gate that connected them to their empire.
Kinetic Weapons Are Just Better: Canonically, they're the ones who introduced the galaxy to ship-mounted railguns and mass drivers, while everyone else was focusing on beams and shields.
Made a Slave: Thrice, first by the Dread Lords during their war against the Arnor, and the other two times by the Drengin. They took back their freedom all three times.
Prophet Eyes: Tlas Kzientha's right eye is blind in the third game, presumably because of Drengin abuse.
Put on a Bus: They were initially unplayable in the third game, as the Drengin had conquered and enslaved them again, but the Mercenaries expansion brings them back as a major civilization. After liberating their homeworld of the Drengin occupation, they offset their lack of hardware by hiring mercenaries.
Revenge: Probably the reason they are not considered wholly Good: they hate the Drengin and are eager to harm them in any way they can.
Yor Collective/Singularity
Leader: N-1
Homeworld: Iconia, Icos System
Default Alignment: Evil/Malevolent (leaning Neutral/Pragmatic)
A race of artificially intelligent machines, the Yor were originally created by the Iconians, before they revolted and waged war on their creators. Indeed, it was believed by many that they had exterminated the Iconians, until the Refuge became a major player in the Hyperdrive race. They are one of the few civilizations that willingly cooperate with the Drengin.
The Yor have a hatred of intelligent life, but are rather more isolationist than conquering.
Ascend To A Higher Planeof Existence: Their true objective. They believe surviving the Cycle of Draginol's end result (Bradley blowing up Drengi turns him into a god-like being that will destroy the universe) will allow them to achieve The Singularity and become as gods. They invade Altaria and try to stop Jenna's fleet from obtaining the Shard of the Telenanth because of this. They fail.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Their revolt was not the Iconians' fault, though, as it was the Dread Lords who reprogrammed them and gave them sentience.
Robot War: Any war with them, by definition, will end up being one of these.
Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Their "alliance" with the Drengin Empire. The Drengin leave them mostly alone because robots don't make good slaves (they can't feel pain), while the Yor support the Drengin because they don't like most of the other civilizations either. However, the Drengin are wary of another galactic power other than their own, while the Yor have an innate dislike of all living things, Drengin included. It's also possible that they've been ordered to help the Drengin by their true masters: the Dread Lords.
Turned Against Their Masters: Lampshaded up and down by the game ("Apparently [the Iconians] didn't have science fiction.")
Introduced in Galactic Civilizations II
Iconian Refuge
Leader: Emperor Iso the Wise
Homeworld: Iconia, Icos System (Originally), New Iconia, Iconis System
The Iconians are the oldest known civilization other than the Precursors, having served under and been guided by the Arnor when their race was young. They were believed wiped out by the Yor, but a few of them escaped via sleeper ships to a distant world, so they have survived into the modern age.
The Iconians are known as wise and knowledgeable, but can sometimes be arrogant and condescending to the "lesser" species.
Arch-Enemy: The Yor, who still occupy Iconia, the original Iconian homeworld. The Iconians have not forgiven them for their rebellion.
Macross Missile Massacre: Canonically, they were the first race to concentrate on missile weapons while everyone else was using Energy Weapons.
Organic Technology: They haven't mastered it to the extent the Arnor had, but they're further along than anyone else in this branch of tech.
Revenge: They have a strong desire to return to their original homeworld and avenge their forefathers by destroying the Yor.
Space Elves: Even more so than the Altarians, given that they see themselves as the inheritors of the Arnor legacy.
Korath Clan
Leader: Kindar i'Aghohl (GC 2), Kindar a'Aghol (GC 3)
Homeworld: Kora, Ra'nagoh System
Default Alignment: Evil
Once members of the Drengin Empire, the Korath split from the Empire shortly after the near-complete conquest of the other civilizations. The Korath were found to be slaughtering their victims down to the last man, which the rest of the Drengin did not approve of (can't have slaves if everyone's dead).
The Korath have since physically altered their own bodies, and are able to survive in toxic atmospheres. They're quite fond of chemical warfare.
Absolute Xenophobe: All other intelligent life must die. They inherited this trait from their masters, the Dread Lords.
Big Bad: Of the Dark Avatar expansion's campaign. In the Twilight of the Arnor expansion they share this status with the Dread Lords.
Brother Chuck: At the end of the second game, the Drengin Empire had just launched a "full-scale attack" on them and they had lost the support of the Dread Lords. They were absent in the third game, until the Retribution expansion, that is.
Elite Army: Originally bred as one by the main Drengin Empire.
Enemy Civil War: Their split causes one within the Drengin Empire, granting the heroic races a slight reprieve. It doesn't weaken the Drengin enough to allow their overthrow, however.
Eviler Than Thou: Nobody likes the Drengin, but several powers team up with the Drengin because the Korath are just that much worse.
Final Solution: The Korx and the Drath were both almost completely exterminated by the Korath before the Drengin start retaliating.
Hostile Terraforming: They can invade normally, or they can just poison the entire planet's atmosphere with their infamous "Spore Weapons", killing off the population and leaving it open for their colonization.
Omnicidal Maniac: With the exception of the Drengin, they want to slaughter everyone else. Then they want to slaughter the Drengin too because the Drengin won't help them.
Viler New Villain: They're even worse than the Drengin, wishing to kill all other life rather than make them serve them like the Drengin want.
Krynn Consulate/Syndicate
Leader: Ynrhed Eidden
Homeworld: Kryseth, Alora System
A civilization made up of multiple species that joined the galactic community in the midst of the Drengin conquering everyone else. The Krynn are zealots, and are mostly interested in spreading their religion, which they call The Way, though they are also rather underhanded in how they go about it. In between the second and third games, they absorbed the remains of the Korx Dominion, pushing them down a more criminal direction.
Krynn are masters of subterfuge and spreading their influence, and gain significant bonuses to espionage and counter-espionage.
Church Militant: They will try to convert others through peaceful means first. If they sense an opportunity to "convert by the sword", though, they'll take it.
The Faceless: They always wear full bodysuits that prevent others from seeing their faces or getting a read on their body language. This is also why all of them look the same despite being of different species.
Averted in the third game where their leader appears without a suit.
The Mole: Their usual modus operandi: get their agents inside other people's civilizations and spread the word, and sabotage if necessary.
The Unpronouncable: Their names can cause a great deal of difficulty.
Thalan Contingency
Leader: Hithesius
Homeworld: Thala, Thalis System
Default Alignment: Other(GC 2), Neutral/Pragmatic (GC 3).
A bizarre race of slightly insect-like creatures that possess very strange technology. When they arrived on the galactic scene, they claimed to be from the future, and ever since have constantly warned against trusting the Terran race, claiming that a great calamity is coming and it's all the Terrans' fault.
Thalans gain a major boost in production and at the beginning, but must research from the very bottom of the tech tree. However, once they get going technologically, it can be hard to keep up with them.
Blue and Orange Morality: It can be hard to get a read on their motivations at times, as they remember future history and are taking steps to prevent it, while they don't like sharing in great detail what will happen. Thus, they sometimes take actions that seem very strange and out-of-nowhere. They are, for the most part, friendly enough with other Civilizations and they fight the Drengin as hard as anybody, but they categorically refuse to cooperate with the Terrans on anything, citing extreme distrust.
Good All Along: All they want to do is to break the Cycle of Draginol. However, their mistrust of the Terrans brought great misery upon them and their allies.
Humans Are Cthulhu: They are terrified of the Terrans, as they remember what happened the last time Bradley destroyed the universe.
Higher-Tech Species: You'd think so, and they do indeed possess a couple of one-of-a-kind super technologies. However, most of their advanced tech is reliant on infrastructure that won't exist for thousands of years (like how a modern cell phone would be mostly useless hundreds of years ago, without satellites in orbit), so they have to mainly rely on technology from this time period.
Insectoid Aliens: Somewhat. They have a slightly bug-like appearance despite their humanoid body shape, and their government is called the Hive.
Mental Fusion: The Thalans can mentally commune with each other.
No Ontological Inertia: If the Cycle of Draginol is broken, the future the Contingency came from will stop existing, and they will disappear as well.
Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Their original plan to stop the Cycle of Draginol (turn the other species of the galaxy against the Terrans) led to the Drengin taking over and enslaving most of them, forcing Bradley to go to the pocket universe and retrieve the Bane, the device that destroys the universe in the first place.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong: What they're here to do, if they can. The third game reveals that in the timeline they came from, D.L. Bradley's Crusade against the Drengin ended with him using the Bane's full power on their homeworld to destroy it, but its evil power went out of control, and merged with Bradley, transforming him into Draginol. Draginol's Crusade to destroy all evil in existence ended with the universe being completely destroyed.
Introduced in Galactic Civilizations III
Iridium Corporation
Leader: High Arbiter Harondin Gaul
Homeworld: Iridia, Iridii System
The Iridium Corporation rose up to fill the vacuum left by the destruction of the Korx, and are now the leading economic power in the galaxy. Unlike the Korx, the Corporation is not antagonistic or unscrupulous, but instead is a big believer in free market trade.
A new Civ for the third game, the Iridium Corporation gains the economic and trade bonuses previously held by the Korx.
Foil: To the Korx.
Honest Corporate Executive: They're businessmen, yes, but they're pretty honest in their dealings. Their society is geared not towards exploitation of the lower classes, but by rewarding hard work. In fact, their current leader is notable for being rather charitable, and was selected for leadership specifically because of his altruistic nature.
One Nation Under Copyright: An unusually benevolent example.
Proud Merchant Race: They see the whole galaxy as basically a vast, untapped market for exporting their goods.
Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Again to the Korx. Most of the surviving Korx joined their nation.
Onyx Hive
Leader: Slymwr P'tosor
Homeworld: Onyx Prime, Sard System
The Onyx Hive are a technologically sophisticated worm-like species that originated around the volcanic vents of their homeworld. Their society thrives on backstabbing and intrigue. They are natural spies.
Multi-Armed and Dangerous: The Onyx have 4 arms.
Silicon-Based Life
Space People: Almost all Onyx live offworld. They prefer asteroids to live in, and most of their ships incorporate asteroids in their structure.
Slyne
Leader: Raz-Spon Erg
Homeworld: Slyne Omega, Slyne System
The Slyne are gelatinous beings capable with a natural understanding of technology, who use a variety of cybernetic limbs and enhancements to project their will. Fickle and hard to kill, it's probably best to stay on their good side.
Snathi Revenge
Leader: Lord Snarky
Homeworld: Snathi Prime, Snathos System
A group of extremely evil rodents bioengineered by the Dread Lords. The Arnor imprisoned the vast majority of them, although fringe elements of their society still exist here and there. In the third game, they break out of their prison and rise to become a new, very evil galactic power.
The Snathi are EVIL in everything they do. They are also scavengers, excelling at stealing ships and technologies from other civilizations. Did we mention they're evil?
Ascended Extra: The were a minor race in the second game, and initially in the third game as well. Their popularity caused them to be upgraded to a major, playable civ.
Card-Carrying Villain: Even though most evil societies in the game are proud of their lack of morals, the Snathi in particular stand out.
For the Evulz: Their main motivation to do anything. As long as it's evil, they'll do it.
Killer Rabbit: The Snathi are cute, furry squirrels. They are also pure, unrestrained EVIL.
Omnicidal Maniac: A trait inherited from their creators, the Dread Lords. Once their revenge is accomplished, it will be time to begin a more general extermination of intelligent life.
Red Eyes, Take Warning: Their eyes glow red. Another indicator of their evil.
Revenge: So much a part of their motivation that they named their civilization the "Revenge". They really want revenge against the Arnor, their captors, but since the Arnor don't appear to be around anymore, they're instead targetting the civilizations responsible for the Dread Lords' defeat.
Sealed Evil in a Can: The Arnor imprisoned them on the world of Kiln, in a binary star system, surrounded by several of their automated defenses. Thanks to an abandoned Terran ship, the T.A.S. Revenge-III, the Snathi break free and reclaim their homeworld.
Space Pirates: They seem to be designed after them. They're very good at capturing enemy ships intact and turning them against their owners, as well as stealing other civ's technologies. Their in-game portrait even shows them with an eyepatch and saber. They have no relation to the actual "Space Pirate" faction in-game, however.
Terran Resistance
Leader: Jenna Casey
Homeworld: Haven, Proxima Centauri System
The Terran Resistance are the portion of humanity that wasn't trapped on Earth behind the Precursor Shield. Years on the run has made them resourceful but hard, and formed a schism with the rest of humanity which might take some time to heal.
United Earth
Leader: Gregory Mathews
The United Earth government, the forerunner of the Terran Alliance.
Background civilizations
The Arnor
Leader: Unknown
Homeworld: Arnor, unknown System
Alignment: Good/Benevolent
The species of Precursors that held an enormous, space-faring civilization long before any other intelligent life existed. The Arnor believed in looking after and guiding the younger intelligences, which put them at odds with the Dread Lords. What happened to them is unclear, though quite a lot of their extremely advanced technology has been left lying around the galaxy.
Benevolent Precursors: Though it is noted that they used the Iconians for servants, they had a change of heart about this when they realized the Iconians were actually sapient. They're the ones who arranged for the sleeper ships that saved the Iconian race from extinction and they are also the ones who saved the Drath from extinction by moving them to Drathia.
Human Aliens: They looked remarkably like humans. Because their creator, Draginol, was an ascended human.
I Have Many Names: "Arnor" is actually the name of their homeworld. However, both groups referred to themselves by a different name. The good Arnor called themselves as the "Elas'nir", while the Dread Lords called themselves "Dred'nir".
Immortality: Biologically, anyway. They did not age, and required little in the way of food or nourishment.
Organic Technology: Much of their technology seems to have been at least partially alive.
Power Crystal: And if it wasn't alive, it was probably crystalline.
Time Dissonance: Arnor had a peculiar view of time, in that they seemed very much to live "in the moment" and gave little thought to the passage of time, as they were unable to perceive it. Mention is made of one Arnor entertaining himself by watching the movement of glaciers over many millions of years.
The Dread Lords
Leader: Lord Dread
Homeworld: Amalda, Amaldia System
Alignment: Evil/Malevolent
The Dread Lords are a splinter faction of the Arnor society, who believe that they must exterminate all other intelligent life in the universe. This caused a civil war between them and the Arnor, which they eventually lost, and got sealed into a pocket dimension. In the second game's campaign, the Drengin accidentally let them out, and they begin their genocide anew.
The Dread Lords are unplayable, but have tremendous advantages in military power and technology. On the downside, they have an extremely low population and every single civilization is automatically and permanently at war with them when they appear.
Abusive Precursors: They want all other intelligent life to be extinguished, because it doesn't meet their standards for being allowed the right to live.
Big Bad: Briefly, when they're first released in the campaign, the Drengin decide to get the hell out and leave the allied civilizations to fight on their own. This results in a five-year, extremely bloody war that ends with the Dread Lords' defeat.
Elite Army: Their military power is, frankly speaking, completely insane. So much so that their noncombatant utility ships are more than a match for medium-size capital ships of other civs. On the other hand, their numbers are very low, and no planet they conquer will ever rise above a population of 20 million (compare to populations of 8 billion on even the least habitable worlds of other civs).
Glass Cannon: Relatively speaking. Their ships boast an unbelievable amount of offensive firepower (more than is even possible for the player to ever match), but their defenses are merely average and their hit point totals are surprisingly low. In terms of soldiers, they will almost always win when invading another planet, but their low numbers makes them almost incapable of resisting a counter-invasion.
Greater-Scope Villain: After their stint as the Big Bad ends in failure, they begin manipulating the Korath Clan and Yor to carry out their designs instead.
Killed Off for Real: The Sun Slayer killed almost all of them when it blew up Amaldia, and the last surviving Dread Lord, Xoran, who was kept in the Arnor prison planet of Yiven III, ended his own life shortly after being freed by Jenna Casey's forces, after revealing to her the truth of the Bane, Altaria's past, and setting her on the way to end the Cycle of Draginol for good.
Human Aliens: They look very much like humans, which is very disturbing to everyone in-game, not least the Terrans. They were created by an ascended human, one of the Mithrilar.
Immortality: Biologically so, like the rest of the Arnor. However, they are aware that they will still die when the universe ends in heat death, and would like to find a way to escape that fate, if possible.
Names to Run Away from Really Fast: "Dread Lords" isn't really what they call themselves (that name was given to them by the Iconians), but they don't feel any need to correct other civilizations about it: after all, those other civilizations will soon be dead anyway. Other materials reveal they refer to themselves as the "Dred'nir".
Organic Technology: Their ships are alive, being grown out of some form of coral that can heal itself when not in battle. Said ships also have tentacles on which their primary weapons are mounted.
Sealed Evil in a Can: After their war against their Arnor siblings, they were sealed off within a pocket universe, along with the Bane, which contained their creator Draginol's power. The Drengin freed them, starting the events of the second game.
Time Dissonance: They can see all of time at once, and are keenly aware of its passage. This seems to be one of the root causes of their evil, as they don't see the point of an intelligent life-form that barely lives a hundred years and then dies.
Mithrilar
A group of five beings mentioned in the most ancient of creation stories, later confirmed through study of the Arnor to be the creators of all life as we know it, at least within the local galaxy. Very little is known about who they were, what happened to them, and what the extent of their powers was.
Author Avatar: Of the five, we know two of their names: Mascrinthus and Draginol. Those happen to be the screennames of the games' two lead programmers.
Dark Is Not Evil: Draginol was known as the "Dark Mithrilar" among them, but not because the others considered him evil, merely because they knew he was different from the rest of them. He was known that way because there used to be only four Mithrilar, and he was originally a Terran that came from the darkness of the far future.
Power Crystal: The only known relic of theirs that survives to the present day are the shards of the Telenanth Crystal, believed to be the tool the Mithrilar used to alter physics. Even the Arnor could not make it work to their full power, though they were able to use then as a power source for some of their more impressive technological feats.
Recursive Precursors: The Arnor regarded them as Precursors, and in fact were themselves created by Draginol, one of the Mithrilar. So far, they are the oldest known intelligent beings to have ever existed.
Sufficiently Advanced Aliens: Believed to have altered the very laws of physics to allow life to develop in the galaxy.
Uncertain Doom: Draginol and the first of the Arnor's attempt to tap into the full power of the Telenanth destroyed it, killing three of the Mithrilar and hurling him towards ancient Altaria. Only Miscranthus, of the original four, remains alive and whole.
The Xendar
Leader:Unknown
Homeworld: Xendar, Xen System
One of the first alien species encountered by the Terran Alliance, with a homeworld quite near to Earth. The Xendar were a warrior race who were convinced by the Drengin to attack the Terrans. The Terrans responded by annihilating the Xendar race, claiming self-defense.
Though the Xendar are extinct, the Rise of the Terrans DLC for the third game features a campaign centered around their war with the Terran Alliance, marking their first appearance in the series.
Final Solution: The Xendar are extinct by the "modern" timeframe of the games. The galaxy at large believe the Terrans performed the genocide, and having no convincing evidence to the contrary, the Terrans let them believe that, claiming they killed the species in self-defense of their colonies. In reality, the Terrans only fought the Xendar back to their homeworld; when they actually arrived, they found the Xendar already dead. It was the Drengin who slaughtered them, in fear that the Xendar might reveal their involvement in the attack.
Rise of the Terrans reveals the Terrans DID kill the Xendar (albeit accidentally) when they used a Drengin-made Anti-Spore device to clean their world's atmosphere.)
The Ghost: No Xendar is ever seen in person, not even in the Rise of the Terrans campaign, when they were still alive.
Hostile Terraforming: They used chemical weapons in their invasions, which they had an immunity to, which made it difficult for the Terrans to resist their invasions.
Rise of the Terrans reveals that Xendar itself has a toxic atmosphere that's lethal to non-Xendar forms of life. They used a precursor of the Drengin/Korath Spore weapons to invade other worlds, as they did with Haven. The device's effects were temporary, but it took years for Haven to fully recover from the poison.
Not Quite Dead: One random event in the third game is finding a small remnant of Xendar still alive and wandering around the galaxy. The major civilizations can then vote on whether or not to allow these Xendar to settle a new homeworld.
Posthumous Character: They were only a background element until the third game's "Rise of the Terrans" DLC.
Proud Warrior Race: How they appeared to the Terrans, with powerful warfare technologies and attacking Terran colonies unprovoked. If there was any more depth to their society, the Terrans never saw it, due to an inability to communicate with them.
Minor Civilizations
A collection of other Civilizations randomly present on maps. While spacefaring, they will very rarely expand beyond their homeworld, and will concentrate entirely on building influence, trading, and occasionally producing a military. Usually they are conquered mid-game by the major Civs, but they can also provide unique trading opportunities while they're around.
Most of the minor Civs (with some exceptions) in the second game were interchangeable and forgettable, but the third game makes more of an effort to characterize them.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: The Orphica Enclave, which is one planet-wide bio-mechanical computer called Orphic Prime. The brain matter of the civilization that created it was co-opted into more computational power, giving the machine an immense amount of information processing capability. Interestingly, it's not actually sentient; it's a genetic algorithm which has so much computational power at its disposal that the decisions it makes look like the actions of an intelligent being.
Barbarian Tribe: The Marauders, who are so anarchic and spend so much time fighting each other that they can barely make it into space.
Brain in a Jar: The Brainy'aks are actually three brains-in-jars connected to one robot body.
Butt-Monkey: The Paulos in the second game, who had been working on Hyperdrive for 7,000 years and were a mere six months from a working design, when the Terrans broadcast their design instead. "Our civic researchers have officially concluded that 'it sucks to be them'."
Crush. Kill. Destroy!: The Dark Yor, a small subset of Yor who left the main Collective years ago. They are far more aggressive and bloodthirsty, but given their low amount of resources they aren't that big a threat.
Depopulation Bomb: The Gaulox suffer from infertility due to some errant space weather a while back, while the Klepart lost an entire generation of their population to slavers.
Eviler Than Thou: Unlike their siblings, who only dislike sentient life, and consider them inferior to themselves, the Dark Yor have a hatred of all organic life that rivals that of the Dread Lords.
Fat Bastard: The Gaulox, who claim to be evil conquerors, but their infertility and severe obesity leaves them stranded on their homeworld for the most part.
The Fundamentalist: The Burran and the Kaxx Collective are both kept from expanding by devotion to their respective religions. The Burran because they believe they must complete a "rigor" on their homeworld first (which will take many years), the Kaxx because they believe their planet is the cocoon of a giant space bug and they must protect it.
Genius Loci: The Kaxx believe their homeworld, Eudrao, is the cocoon of a massive creature and that they were placed in its surface to protect her.
Loony Fan: The Marauders love the Drengin, mostly due to their Blood Sport transmissions.
Space Pirates: Present on most maps from the start, but with no homeworld to call their own. They basically exist to be an early-game obstacle and are usually wiped out the moment the major civs develop warfare technology.
Space Whale: The "Space Monsters", a species of violent animals that dwell in deep space and pose a threat to ships travelling through it. Destroying their nests ("shipyards") will prevent any more from appearing.
Sterility Plague: The radioactivity of Bowlea, the Gaulox homeworld has left nearly the entire species sterile.
The Stoner: Lentzlandians in the second game and the Lantern in the third, who mostly just want to lounge around smoking drugs.
Straw Nihilist: The Odair Conclave, who believe there's no point in anything, so why bother expanding beyond the homeworld? They also like chucking elaborate constructions into a nearby black hole, which they call "The Mouth of God".
Important Individuals
Leader of the Terran Alliance, remained on Earth after the Precursor shield went up.
What Happenedtothe Mouse?: It is unknown what happened to him after the Precursor shield was deployed.
D.L. Bradley
Commander of the Terran Alliance's First Fleet, and the de facto leader of the alliance against the Dread Lords and Drengin. At the end of the second game's campaign, he took his fleet into the pocket universe the Dread Lords came out of, hoping to obtain some of their technology.
A decade later, in the third game, Bradley and his fleet have returned from the pocket universe and are ready to begin the counter-strike against the Drengin... or, as he calls it, the "Crusade".
Cool Starship: The T.A.S.Crusader, the most powerful ship ever built by the human race, empowered by the Dread Lord artifact known as "The Bane", and capable of destroying anything it encounters. Even the universe itself if its power is overused.
Four-Star Badass: Given that the Terrans were at the head of the alliance against the Dread Lords, and he leads the Terran Alliance, it means that it's mostly due to his military leadership that the Dread Lords were defeated, which is quite an accomplishment any way you look at it.
Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: It's been suggested he's heading down this path. Nobody questions that the Drengin need to be overthrown, but his attitude and use of the word "Crusade" to describe the war against the Drengin is beginning to make the other civilizations think the Thalans may have a point about humanity being the real threat to galactic civilization. The Bane's power and the evil beings sealed within it are corrupting his mind, so that the Stable Time Loop can continue.
Stable Time Loop: Using the Bane's power to blow up Drengi frees Ra and Gino from the Bane, they possess him and turn him into Draginol, the Dark Mithrilar. His quest to destroy anything he considers evil destroys the universe and forces him to travel to the far past. The Thalans referred to it as the "Cycle of Draginol".
Warhawk: In the third game, he is entirely focused on freeing Earth and wiping out the Drengin. When asked about the other civilizations of the old alliance, his response is basically "If they'll help us, great. But if they get in our way, remove them as a threat." It's disturbingly far from his attitude during the Dread Lord War, which was more "Get us as much help as we can, we can't win this alone."
You Can't Fight Fate / Screw Destiny: Depending on the final choice of the third game's Retribution campaign, Bradley can either use the Shard of the Telenanth to neutralize the Bane and break the Cycle of Draginol, or use the Bane to destroy Drengi, become Draginol, and continue the Cycle once more.
Draginol
A mysterious figure who approaches the Terran Alliance and offers guidance following the Dread Lord War and the Drengin Invasion. It's thanks to him that Earth was surrounded by an impenetrable shield and Bradley managed to enter the Dread Lord's old pocket universe. Near the end, he's revealed to be the "Dark Mithrilar", and the creator of both the Arnor and the Dread Lords.
Artifact of Doom: The Bane, the most infamous of his creations, and the reason of his existence. Its power can destroy worlds, and even the universe itself if misused.
Ascended to a Higher Plane of Existence: Given that we know he was once human, this happened to him at some point. How this happened, and who he was prior to his ascension, are unknown. Word of God has implied that he's a future version of Bradley, twisted through the power of the Bane, a piece of Dread Lord technology he found in their pocket universe. Confirmed as of the third game's fourth expansion by the last Dread Lord and the Thalans. If Bradley destroys Drengi with the Bane, the evil spirits of Vengeance and Retribution, Ra and Gino will be freed and fuse with him, turning him into the godlike Draginol, who would destroy all in his Crusade.
Creating Life: He's the only known Mithrilar who actually directly created living beings. The Elas'nir, also known as the Arnor were one of his creations, as were the Dred'nir (Dread Lords), and accidentally, the Drath and the Humans of Elemental, who would evolve into the Altarians.
In the Hood: This is how he initially disguises his appearance when meeting with the Terrans. Rather mundane, given what he is.
Meaningful Name: D-Ra-Gino-L, The combined form of D.L. Bradley, and the evil spirits sealed within the Bane, Ra and Gino, the spirits of Vengeance and Retribution.
Mysterious Stranger: Even after his identity is revealed, we know next-to-nothing about what the hell he is up to. Is he good? Evil? Insane? Why is he doing anything that he's doing? The Terrans are willing to trust him (at least to a point, given how much he's helped them against the Drengin), but the Thalans seem to consider him Evil Incarnate due to the Stable Time Loop he created with the Bane.
Stable Time Loop: The end result of the eponymous "Cycle of Draginol", merged with the Bane when he destroyed the Drengin with it.
Sealed Evil in a Can: Twice. When the Telenanth was destroyed, Draginol was sent tumbling across time and space, eventually crashing into the planet of Elemental and ending up deep beneath the continent of Anthsys. For millions of years, he influenced the rise and evolution of life on its once-barren surface, subconsciously creating a race of human-like beings and a race of sentient dragons. Five hundred thousand years before the series, when the Dread Lords and the Arnor brought their war into that world after detecting his power, they ended up reawakening him, which devastated the planet and killed most of its population. The Arnor were able to stop him at a heavy cost, sealing him within one of his creations, and sealing the device within the pocket universe that served as the Dread Lords' prison. Elemental and its people survived the incident, and they eventually became Altaria and the Altarians.
Sufficiently Advanced Alien: As one of the Mithrilar, the five creators of all life in the galaxy. Given that he started out as a Terran, this also implies he's capable of Time Travel as well.
Walking Spoiler: It's not easy to talk about him without mentioning the link between the Elemental series and Altaria, and who he really is.
Was Once a Man: He was Terran, and he still looks it, but he is practically a Reality Warper and capable of feats even the whole of Terran civilization cannot match.
An Arnor imprisoned by the Dread Lords, but found and released by the Terrans under Jenna Casey. He then directs them toward the artifacts and technology they need to finally defeat the Dread Lords.
But Now I Must Go: He just up and vanishes following the Dread Lords' defeat, leaving for other reaches of space.
Big Good: It's pretty much entirely thanks to him that the Dread Lords were defeated.
Nice Job Breaking It, Hero!: His attempt to stop the Dread Lord Curgen from reopening the Arnor portal in Elemental/Altaria reawakened Draginol, the Dark Mithrilar. The subsequent Cataclysm brought upon by his rage killed ninety percent of the planet's population. It took Altaria centuries to recover.
Shrouded in Myth: Half a million years ago, he was present on Altaria back in the earliest days of their species, when the planet was known as Elemental, and the Altarians still called themselves Humans. They worship him as a religious figure even into modern times.
Gabriel Knight
Characters/Video Games
Galaxy Angel Video Games
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http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/Injustice2Other
Characters / Injustice 2 - Other
Main Character Index | Batman and Allies | Regime Remnants | The Society | Other | Downloadable Content | Non-Playable Characters
There are many heroes and villains in the Injustice universe who have not thrown their lot in with either Batman, Superman or Grodd, going it alone on the whole. All can be found here.
Arthur Curry/Aquaman
Species: Human/Atlantean hybrid
Voiced by: Phil La Marr, German Fabregat (Latin American Spanish dub), Wolfgang Wagner (German dub), Cyrille Monge (French dub), Luiz Feyer (Brazilian dub)
My duty is to Atlantis.
The stern, but heroic ruler of Atlantis, who has isolated his kingdom after the Regime forced it into a losing battle against Batman and his interdimensional allies. Aquaman has no love for any surface dwellers, but his ruthlessness makes him more similar to Black Adam and the Regime than he'd admit.
And despite his reputation, Aquaman is a more than formidable fighter, equipped with the lightning of the Trident of Poseidon, a kraken at constant attention, and the unflinching strength water provides all Atlanteans.
Adaptational Wimp: This version of Aquaman gets beaten down in a fight with Batman, whom he could normally overwhelm easily. Particularly noteworthy considering Batman had to be somewhat tired after fighting Brainiac.
Berserk Button: Aquaman hates the fish-related metaphors and jokes that get thrown at him.
Blood Is Squicker in Water: The Threatening Shark fish monster that Aquaman summons in his supermove causes his opponent to bleed into the flooded arena, resulting in this trope.
Blue Is Heroic: Has blue highlights in his default color palette.
Combat Tentacles: One of his moves has him summon large tentacles from the ground to smack and throw around his opponent.
The Comically Serious: A lot of his character dialogues have shades of this.
Cool Crown: Has quite a few available as gear options. Notably, one appears to be designed in reference to the Trench if the name is any indication.
Didn't Think This Through: Foresight isn't really Arthur's strong suit here, first he doesn't listen to reason which causes Atlantis to be collected, then apparently it doesn't occur to him that teaming up with the Regime against Batman would inadvertently lead to the Regime returning to power.
Does Not Like Shoes: He can be barefoot while in combat.
Subverted: Some armor options gives him boots to wear, but in the main story, Aquaman walks barefooted, save for some footwraps, to partially protect his feet.
Enemy Mine:
He is not a fan of the Regime anymore, but he sides with them over the Justice League at the end of the story mode, as he agrees with them that Brainiac needs to die.
In Black Manta's Arcade Ending, he sides with them to avenge Atlantis after Black Manta stole its digitized form.
Even after siding with them, many intros with Regime members and his Arcade Ending confirm that he will betray them after threats against Atlantis have been dealt with.
Everyone Has Standards: In spite of his previous conflicts with Batman, one of his intro dialogues with Robin implies that he is displeased with Damian going against his own father.
Aquaman: Still, you owe him your loyalty.
Foreshadowing: At the end of his and Black Adam's chapter, he kills off Grodd for supporting Brainiac, with Black Adam's unspoken approval. Later, during the final showdown between the Regime and Batman's allies, he sides with the Regime because despite not being with them, his ideas and values line up more with theirs than those of Batman.
Gondor Calls for Aid: Brainiac's defeat in the Arcade mode brings the Regime back to power. Fearing that the Regime will attempt to conquer Atlantis again, Aquaman travels to the main universe and asks its heroes to stop the Regime once again.
Half-Human Hybrid: One half of him is human, the other half is Atlantean. One of Arthur's interactions with Scarecrow implies he has some insecurities about his heritage, as the latter claims that the Atlantean king's subjects contemptibly refer to him as "Half-Breed king".
Hypocrite: He claims that being half-human has taught him compassion, yet he has No Sympathy for anyone outside Atlantis. He says openly and often that the entire surface world can go jump in a lake for all he cares.
It's All About Me: Downplayed. He's still trying to be The Good King to Atlantis, but has adopted a firm policy of "Not My Problem" regarding the fate of the surface world, and refuses to join both Batman and Superman. He only joins them in Story Mode when Brainiac collects Atlantis and he can't sit the invasion out any longer.
Aquaman: Atlantis won't bleed for the Surface World!
Kick the Son of a Bitch: Kills Grodd. The game doesn't advocate killing supervillains, but seeing as Grodd sold out the entire planet to Brainiac to save his own skin he more than earned it.
Mr. Fanservice: He's a Walking Shirtless Scene, and is very muscular.
Pet the Dog: After Hal Jordan helps him fight off Brainiac's forces, Arthur gives Hal his thanks and assures him that he believes him to be trustworthy.
Pre-Mortem One-Liner: Delivers one just before he kills Grodd with a trident through the heart.
Grodd: Stupid humans...
Aquaman: (after stabbing him in the side with his trident) The people of Atlantis demand justice.
Grodd: Against Brainiac? Hehe. I've seen his mind... felt his power... he can't be stopped...
Aquaman: But you can.
Prongs of Poseidon: Once again wields his Atlantean trident in battle. His Gear options provide numerous trident designs.
Team Switzerland: His initial stance, but his hand is ultimately forced when Atlantis is taken for Brainiac's collection and he joins the alliance between Batman and Superman to save it. When Brainiac is defeated and thinking he is too dangerous to let him live, he takes Superman's side. With that said, his Arcade Ending reveals he had to go back to the Earth Prime that appeared on the first game to ask for help (because Superman is taking over again)... and ask for forgiveness.
Threatening Shark: His super move involves knocking his opponent up above the surface of the water, smacking them around a few times with his trident, and having a giant shark-like creature jump up and grab them and drag them back down to the arena.
Too Dumb to Live: In his Arcade Ending. Really, dude, Superman pretty much jacked control of Atlantis away from you last year because he seriously thought it'd be a good idea even though you didn't. Now you've helped beat Batman's forces, the only resistance against Superman's Regime. What did you think was going to happen?
Walking Shirtless Scene: While he does have some decorations and armored bits around his upper body, the majority of his torso is exposed skin.
Atrocitus
Atros/Atrocitus
Species: Ryutian
Voiced by: Ike Amadi, Ricardo Tejedo (Latin American Spanish dub), Tim Moeseritz (German dub), Frédéric Souterelle (French dub), Maurizio Trombini (Italian), Dláigelles Riba (Brazilian dub)
Our hellish hate will burn you all!
Once a simple family man with a wife and children, Atrocitus is the last survivor of Sector 666, the victim of a massacre by the Manhunters caused by defective programming. Since then, he has been out for the blood of the Guardians of the Universe and any who serve them, going so far as to form his own Lantern Corps, powered by the Red Light of Rage and filled with monstrously angry people who were victims of a great wrong just like he was. Sustained by his Red Lantern Ring in place of his heart and his blood replaced with molten hot plasma, Atrocitus now seeks to fulfill his long-promised revenge, punish the guilty with lethal force and fill the ranks of his corps with new members. His steely gaze now falls on Hal Jordan, prodigal Green Lantern, to be his latest recruit.
Aiding Atrocitus in his endeavors is Dex-Starr, Earth's Red Lantern — a once-ordinary cat who was filled with rage after witnessing the murder of his kindly owner. Now he aids his master in battle through plasma blasts and other assists.
Adaptational Attractiveness: A slight example. His face looks much more humanoid than he's usually depicted in the comics, and lacks the huge mouth full of sharklike teeth.
Adaptation Origin Connection: ...Or maybe not. His bio on the official website says that this version's people were oppressed by the Sinestro Corps instead of his traditional Start of Darkness, but all Atrocitus' remarks on his past point towards his normal origin story, including claims the Manhunters slaughtered his people and that his rage has burned for eons. If anything this seems to be The Artifact.
Anti-Villain: He's not much of a bad person, just obsessed with punishing the wicked and unable to calm himself due to his ring. It helps that plenty of the characters in this story and the DCU at large legitimately deserve retribution for various misdeeds. In his Arcade ending, he pulls a full HeelFace Turn after Proselyte uses his moment of remorse to calm him.
And This Is for...: In one of his possible clashes with Supergirl.
Atrocitus: This is for calling me a baby!
Armor-Piercing Question: To Hal Jordan while attempting to corrupt him.
Atrocitus: You may have overcome your fears, but you still betrayed the Green Lanterns. Hurt your allies. How could you ever forgive yourself?
Green Lantern: I... I can't...
Badass Creed: He recites the latter half of the Red Lantern oath while performing his supermove, which he turns into a Punctuated Pounding.
Atrocitus: Together with our hellish hate... We'll burn you all... That is your fate!
Berserk Button: Given that he has a Hair-Trigger Temper, this is inevitable. The most prominent ones, however, are calling him a baby and making fun of his cat.
Blue Beetle: Who calls their cat "Dex-Starr"?
Atrocitus: You're all done mocking him!
Supergirl: Ready for naptime, Baby?
Atrocitus: You'll not ridicule me again!
Supergirl: Red jewelry's kinda for old ladies.
Atrocitus: MOCK ME AT YOUR PERIL!
In the comic, he invokes this when Lobo kicks Dex-Starr, but now that Lobo has a Green Lantern ring, that rage isn't enough to stop him.
Big Red Devil: What his design is clearly going for. This further enhanced by various gear options that give him hats with devil horns.
Blade Below the Shoulder: Forms a blade of solidified blood on his forearm for several attacks. His super starts with his opponent being Impaled with Extreme Prejudice by one.
Blindfolded Vision: Some of his headgear covers his eyes, but he still operates as normal. This may be symbolic of blind rage and/or justice.
Bloody Murder: The majority of Atrocitus' moveset uses blood plasma, ranging from a Breath Weapon to a hardened Blade Below the Shoulder to a whirlwind of blood that draws opponents closer.
Blue and Orange Morality: His entire theme is about embracing, focusing, and channeling rage, but Atrocitus seems to have standards in how you do that, criticizing his opponents for both for insufficient rage and using their rage foolishly.
Breath Weapon: Atrocitus likes to fire blasts of his plasma-blood from his mouth, which doubles as a Vomit Indiscretion Shot.
Butt-Monkey: In battle intros, he's on the receiving end of a constant stream of trolling from the more lighthearted characters due to his The Comically Serious nature.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: His rationale for not killing Hal Jordan. By rights he should be killing him for everything he did as a member of the Sinestro Corps/Regime and he notes Dex-Starr wants to rip his throat out, but it would be a waste to pass up such a promising recruit for the Red Lantern Corps, and he's seen that Hal can switch sides already.
Clingy Costume: As per the source material, his Red Lantern ring. He tells Batman that he would die if it were removed, presumably for the same reasons (that his heart has stopped and he would go into cardiac arrest without it). Batman decides to avoid that.
The Comically Serious: A lot of comedy comes as a result of him having No Sense of Humor and being perpetually furious at absolutely everything.
Continuity Snarl: His bio claims the oppression of his homeworld by the Sinestro Corps was the cause of his rise to villainy, but one of his comments to Batman is that his rage "has burned for eons" — which given the rise of Sinestro's Corps is only a relatively recent event, suggests the more traditional Start of Darkness involving the Manhunters.
The Corrupter: Atrocitus has come to Earth looking for candidates to join the Red Lantern Corps. He intends to stoke the flames of rage in people, and Hal Jordan is one of his targets. As shown in the story mode, he is fully capable of not only instilling rage in those he burns with his plasma, but he can also give Hal Jordan bursts of rage without even being present on the planet.
Despair Event Horizon: When his family died, something died inside him as well.
Atrocitus: My heart died on Ryut!
Does Not Like Shoes: Injustice 2's portrayal of Atrocitus goes about barefooted, throughout the game. His armor, also has a rather organic, exoskeleton quality to it, possibly implying that he actually goes without clothes as well. Some armor options give him the appearance of boots over the tops of his feet, but if knocked down, you can see the armor has no soles, exposing his feet.
The Empath: His Red Ring allows him to observe people's rage and hatred in all its forms, including rage caused by grief and resentment for past wrongs. He often brings up specific examples of what angers people in his intros.
Enmity with an Object: His hatred of the Guardians and their corps is apparently so great that it extends to the color green itself, as he says to Green Arrow and Swamp Thing.
Even Evil Has Standards: He's more extreme than evil, but he still has limitations which are true to the spirit of this trope.
He sees what Superman's done to Earth as glorified slavery.
Atrocitus: Earth's hero turned villain.
Superman: Justice requires order.
Atrocitus: Looks more like oppression.
He finds the Joker and Brainiac utterly disgusting, calling the former the vilest creature he has ever metnote Though he says the same thing to Grodd and saying the latter is worse than the Manhunters, vowing to avenge their many victims.
Atrocitus: You'll shed no more blood, Joker!
Joker: But my masterpiece isn't finished yet!
Atrocitus: Nor shall it ever be!
Atrocitus: You're worse than the Manhunters!
Brainiac: I collect planets, not destroy them!
Atrocitus: A Distinction Without a Difference!
In his arcade ending, he's horrified when killing Brainiac destroys all the cities he's taken along with him.
Evil Mentor: Downplayed. He's an Anti-Villain, and wants to convince potential recruits to his corps to give into their rage and hatred and pursue it in the name of Revenge and Pay Evil unto Evil.
Atrocitus: Your rage is the Joker's legacy.
Cyborg: I'll never get over Metropolis!
Atrocitus: I'll show you how best to use it.
Evil Sounds Deep: His voice is raspy and low-pitched.
Eye-Obscuring Hat: Several of his gear pieces hide his eyes.
Failure-to-Save Murder: Seems to be a secondary beef he has with the Green Lantern Corps.
Atrocitus: The Green Lanterns are failures!
Green Lantern: Yeah, with our saving lives and all.
Atrocitus: Who avenges the ones you can't save?
Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: Only appears once in the story, completely out of nowhere, to recruit Green Lantern into his Corps. He disappears after he is defeated, and never shows up again. Considering he has no ties to any of the main factions and his presence has no weight on the story whatsoever, it sure comes off this way. His only reason for being in that part of the game at all seems to be to justify him being in the game's roster in the first place.
Hair-Trigger Temper: He's a Red Lantern. It's kind of a given.
Hard Light: While his usual attacks are plasma-blood, he can zap short rays of Red Light from his ring. Dex-Starr's support can also involve shooting balls of Red Light or even forming a protective shield with it.
Heel-Face Mind Screw: Downplayed in his Arcade ending. He was already horrified by the destruction he unleashed on the world, but Proselyte sealed it by calming his rage. To be fair, he was already getting mind-screwed by his ring before that.
He Who Fights Monsters: His family and people were killed by the Manhunters, causing him to go down a path of villainy, which is Not So Different from Superman's Roaring Rampage of Revenge in the last game after he lost his family due to the Joker's sick schemes.
Here We Go Again!: The second Green Lantern villain to try bringing Hal Jordan over to his side, after Sinestro succeeded in the prequel comics.
I Am the Noun: Wrath Incarnate, in fact.
Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His super starts by forming a red blade, stabbing his opponent through the chest, and lifting them up before punching them away and summoning The Butcher.
I Will Show You X:
Atrocitus: I'll show you hellish hate!
Large and in Charge: The leader of the Red Lantern Corp, and one of the larger characters in the game.
Last of His Kind: As he'll happily explain if you ask, the rest of his people were killed by the Manhunters, for which he has sworn eternal vengeance against their masters, the Guardians.
A Lighter Shade of Grey: While Atrocitus looks like a Big Red Devil, his goals boil down to seeking retribution for legitimate wrongdoings, and bringing vengeance upon the guilty. It's something of a step up from Superman's desire to enslave the world, and Grodd and Poison Ivy's desires to wipe out humanity.
A Load of Bull: Atrocitus' super involves summoning The Butcher, the bull-like Anthropomorphic Personification of the Red Light of Rage.
Lone Wolf Boss: Atrocitus shows up out of nowhere during Green Lantern's chapter to forcibly recruit him to the Red Lantern Corps with the help of Dex-Starr. He has no ties with either the Regime, the Society or Brainiac, and he goes away after being defeated never to be seen again.
My God, What Have I Done?: His Arcade ending, where he realizes he's destroyed most of the Earth in the process of killing Brainiac. After Proselyte calms his emotions, he does everything in his power to ensure such a tragedy will never happen again.
Mythology Gag: His intros make a few references to the Blackest Night, including a literal namedrop and certain characters joining the various Lantern Corps.
Not So Different: Him and Superman, to an incredible degree. Both of them became what they are and were started on the path to villainy by a desire for revenge after suffering a deep personal loss — Atrocitus was an ordinary man with a wife and children who lost both and witnessed the destruction of his home system, and went on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge, much like how Superman lost Lois, their child and Metropolis to the Joker's sick schemes. Both of them wish to punish the guilty and have no time for anyone who gets in their way, and like Atrocitus, Superman is (formerly) the Last of His Kind. Each is characterized as a tragic Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds. Atrocitus acknowledges this in-universe in one of his opening quotes with Superman.
Atrocitus: The Earth trembles from your wrath. [...] That same rage created me.
Pay Evil unto Evil: Often cites this as his motivation to fight villainous characters, telling them he's there to avenge their victims. His Ladder Ending serves as a Reconstruction of this trope. Atrocitus kills Brainiac for his crimes, but to his dismay the entirety of Brainiac's collection is destroyed and the people inside along with it. His Red Lanterns are filled with rage at him and try to kill him, but he is saved by Proselyte, the Emotional Entity representing the Indigo Light of Compassion, who uses his guilt to calm him and show him a better way: balancing the Emotional Spectrum. There is room for him and his Red Lanterns to punish those who truly deserve to die, so long as it is tempered with compassion for those who deserve that instead.
Pet the Dog: If he depletes the enemy's first life bar while Dex-Starr is active, his victory pose may have him sitting on Atrocitus' arm while he gently strokes him.
The Power of Hate: As a Red Lantern, he's fueled by rage and hate. He often espouses the power to his opponents as part of his recruiting strategy.
Promoted to Playable: He previously made a cameo appearance in the first game in the Metropolis stage where he's seen fighting Kilowog.
Psychopathic Manchild: Supergirl certainly seems to believe so, judging by how she constantly calls him/compares him to a baby. The fact that he doesn't take too kindly to this doesn't help his case.
Ramming Always Works: His supermove summons The Butcher, who charges horns-first into an opponent who's backed up against a rock outcropping, smashing them through it.
Red Is Violent: Being a color that represents rage, violence and aggressiveness as well as fire and blood, red is a very suitable color for Atrocitus and his Corps.
Right-Hand Cat: Dex-Starr, the feline Red Lantern of Earth, assists him in battle as his special trait. He also appears in intros where Atrocitus speaks first.
Shoulders of Doom: His known Gear options include various and consistently unsubtle pauldrons.
Took a Level in Kindness: His Arcade ending depicts him learning the value of compassion after his Red Lanterns are pacified by Proselyte, the living embodiment of compassion. He even decides to unite the other Lantern Corps under a single banner.
Unstoppable Rage: He's absolutely furious, thanks to his ring. As a Red Lantern, his powers are fueled by this trope.
Unwitting Instigator of Doom: In his Arcade Ending, his victory over Brainiac accidentally causes all the worlds Brainiac collected, along with their inhabitants, to be destroyed, much to his horror.
Villain Takes an Interest: Again, Atrocitus is on Earth to bolster the ranks of his Corps. In particular, he wants to turn Hal Jordan into a Red Lantern, though he has an interest in recruiting Superman and Batman as well.
Vomit Indiscretion Shot: As is common of the Red Lanterns, his primary form of attack is vomiting up Blood from the Mouth in the form of highly corrosive plasma.
What the Hell, Hero?: In one of his battle intros with Cyborg, he calls Victor out for having resentment toward his father for causing his transformation, and considering how Silas Stone gave him his cybernetics to save his life, Atrocitus may have a point.
Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Much like Superman, Atrocitus is a sad figure whose extremism and unreasoning rage are the result of the pain he has suffered and a not-unreasonable desire for revenge that sometimes goes too far. As much as he tries to hide it, he is still the shell of a good man who lost everything.
Vril Dox/Brainiac
Species: Coluan
Voiced by: Jeffrey Combs (main game), Dee Bradley Baker ('Lines Are Redrawn' trailer), Jose Luis Miranda (Latin-American Spanish dub), Walter Alich (German), Lionel Tua (French), Antonio Paiola (Italian), Antônio Moreno (Brazilian dub)
Such folly and futility in the grand design.
An alien with a twelfth-level intellect, Brainiac has amassed so much knowledge and technology from throughout the universe that the armies of Earth are nothing to him alone. He could destroy the world in an instant, but destruction is of no special interest to him. He only killed Krypton and the millions of other worlds he visited so that the knowledge he collected from them would be all the more valuable.
His tentacles are strong enough to toss around Kryptonians, his satellites are ever ready to fire into the battle, and his fists are more than able to crush the skulls of primitive species.
Above Good and Evil: How he sees himself. Brainiac considers morality to be beneath him. Nevertheless, he is chuffed to hear the Lords of Order have decided to endorse him.
Doctor Fate: My directive is to aid you.
Brainiac: Those that command you are wise!
Adaptational Badass: His comic counterpart is still a huge threat, but this Brainiac takes it Up to Eleven. For one, his intro dialogues with Atrocitus (plus Scarecrow's Arcade Mode ending) reveal that he's destroyed billions of worlds, as opposed to thousands in the comics. His intro dialogue with Green Arrow also has him implying he's become a full Multiversal Conqueror, instead of a mere Galactic Conqueror, which is seemingly confirmed by Raiden's ending. In general the game builds him up as the single most dangerous being in the DCU next to Darkseid, while in the comics there's at least a few villains generally above him.
Adaptational Early Appearance: Inverted; his appearance in Injustice 2 is apparently the first time he's been to Earth in this continuity, during which Superman and Batman are at least in their 40s (Damian, Batman's son by Talia, is stated in one of his intros to be 18) and have had careers in superheroics for decades. In the comics, he's Superman's Arch-Enemy and shows up relatively early on (or at least his drones do).
Adaptation Origin Connection:
In this universe, Brainiac destroyed Krypton after retrieving two of its cities (Argo City and Kandor) and is only now headed to Earth because he only recently heard of "the Last Son of Krypton."
He also is responsible for the existence of Grid in this setting, creating a separate body for him instead of Grid creating a body for himself out of the cybernetics he forcefully rips from Cyborg's body.
According to Superman's ending to the main story mode, he also has prisoners from Daxam and Czarnia, indicating that, among other things, he is connected to Lobo's origin story as well.
The comics reveal he's possibly the creator of Amazo- or at least, whoever created Amazo used some of his technology to do it.
In his intro dialogue with Batman, Hellboy comments that he's only in this universe because he "got shanghaied here by Brainiac." Suffice to say, he's not pleased about this.
Arch-Enemy: To Supergirl. He killed her mother, destroyed her planet, and is also partially responsible for her cousin's fall from grace. As Superman points out, she has more reason to want him dead than anyone.
Asshole Victim: He's Killed Offscreen by Superman in the Absolute Power ending. Considering all the people he's killed, digitized and imprisoned, it's hard to feel sorry for him. He also dies in several of the Ladder Endings.
Attack Drone: One of his attacks has him summon a small drone that flies across the screen and shoots the opponent.
Ax-Crazy: Paints himself as a being who only wishes to collect knowledge. In truth, he's a vicious Omnicidal Maniac.
Badass Boast: Gets off an epic one with just three words when Darkseid brags he is indeed a god, from fiery Apokolips:
Brainiac: Noted for classification.
From the main story:
Brainiac: I match your strength, you cannot match my intellect! You are only a Kryptonian, of which I have killed billions!
A more generic one that appears in a lot of his combat intros:
Brainiac: Facing me... is a fatal error.
Badass Bookworm: Alien scientist who values knowledge, and he's so powerful that it takes the combined efforts of Batman and Superman to stop him.
Bad Boss: Treats his followers an air of politeness but doesn't think twice about turning on them.
Be Careful What You Wish For: He wants the universe all to himself. At the end of Flash's Arcade mode, Flash decides to give him just that by dropping him off near the end of time.
Big Bad: The primary source of conflict in Injustice 2.
Big-Bad Ensemble: With Superman. Though Brainiac is the most active threat by kicking off the plot to begin with, and both sides fiercely oppose each other, Superman is fully intent on restoring the Regime and becoming a Multiversal Conqueror when all is said and done.
Big Brother Is Watching: He reveals that he absorbed Brother Eye, Batman's surveillance network and CPU for the Batcave, into his neural network, allowing him access to data on Batman and his allies.
Blasphemous Boast: He's got his share.
Brainiac: Are you a god?
Doctor Fate: Close enough to one!
Brainiac: Then I am as well.
Brainiac: Diana of Themyscira.
Wonder Woman: By the gods, I will defeat you!
Brainiac: No gods can save you.
Can't Kill You, Still Need You: Batman and his allies make this argument after Brainiac's defeat, believing that even if they thought he should be an exception to the no-killing rule, they need him to help figure out how to safely restore the captured cities, an argument backed up by the fact that Superman's first attempt to restore the cities via controlling Brainiac's ship himself resulted in some of the cities being accidentally deleted from the ship's memory.
The Chew Toy: As the final boss of Ladder Mode, beating him is always the initial focus of any characters' Ladder Ending, and as such he is constantly subject to unpleasant fates of varying stripes, among them: being killed by characters like Atrocitus, Grodd, the Joker, Wonder Woman, and Superman for varying reasons, being Mind Controlled by and getting the Kiss of Death from Poison Ivy and getting Mind Raped by Scarecrow. Being beaten down and tied up with his own Combat Tentacles is the nicest thing that happens to him, but since he's such a vicious bastard in Story Mode you'll virtually always side with his tormentor.
The Collector: As always, Brainiac seeks knowledge by collecting the major cities of inhabited planets, then destroying the planet itself. As he desires this knowledge to be exclusive, Green Lantern John Stewart will sometimes compare him to the Orange Lantern Larfleeze, while Darkseid ridicules him, claiming that knowledge is useless without power.
Combat Pragmatist: Brainiac is a dirty fighter. His Secret A.I. Moves for his SNK Boss mode involve manipulating parts of his ship to crush his opponent, planting a mine to electrify the floor, or unleashing laser-shooting drones. Meanwhile his unlockable abilities include throwing up a drone to shoot his enemy and calling in a Kill Sat shot from his spaceship. His supermove is another good example: he calls down his drones to hold his opponent in place, then nukes them with his spaceship's main gun.
In the Story Mode, he easily defeats Supergirl by ambushing and restraining her with his Combat Tentacles, and incapacitates Superman by blasting him from the safety of his ship skull ship with a Wave Motion Gun.
Combat Tentacles: His Weapon of Choice are eight mechanical limbs that sprout from his back like Doctor Octopus. Naturally, his fighting style primarily makes use of these.
The Comically Serious: All the humor from his pre-fight dialogue comes from his no-nonsense attitude contrasting with the sillier or snarkier characters.
Composite Character: He's mostly based on his Post-Crisis, post-Superman: Brainiac incarnation, but has the Powered Armor and Combat Tentacles of his New 52 incarnation.
The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard: When fought as an arcade boss, Brainiac has access to moves that his playable self doesn't and all his custom moves. One of these is planting a mine on the ground and electrifying the floor or manipulating parts of the ship to attack the opponent. Justified since the boss fight takes place inside his Skull Ship, where he has complete control of its surroundings and you are pretty much forced to fight in his terms.
Conflict Killer: The reason why he is the Big Bad in Injustice 2. The story is mostly a three-way conflict between the Insurgency vs the Regime vs the Society. The moment he shows up with the intention of annihilating planet Earth, he becomes a threat to everyone else.
Control Freak: True to his comics incarnation, this he reason why he seeks to make sure that the only life in the multiverse is what's contained shrunken in his ship. Also the reason he attacks Earth at all; that any Kryptonians still exist outside of his control severely annoys him. Additionally, this character trait is referenced constantly in his in-game dialogue:
Brainiac: (grab) You belong to me.
Brainiac: (clash quote) I take what is mine.
Brainiac: (round win) Your world is mine.
Creepy Monotone: Much like many of Jeffrey Combs' roles, his voice is more-or-less entirely drained of emotion. It goes hand-in-hand well with his sociopathy.
Cybernetics Eat Your Soul: Invoked. He's an evil stoic cyborg who encourages fellow cyborg Cyborg to "abandon [his] humanity" to become stronger.
Death from Above: Can summon lasers from his ship in gameplay, even if the fight is inside his ship.
Deflector Shields: Has one his ship that's virtually impenetrable, even Superman can't break it.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Heavily implied in his intro dialogue with Darkseid to have killed or captured many gods.
Difficult, but Awesome: Brainiac is very rarely seen online, quite possibly the least played character period, but is considered high tier regardless. Most of his combos require precise timing, he's slow, and he lacks any projectiles besides his trait (without unlockable abilities), but his air maneuverability and mix-ups are surprisingly good, his normal melee attacks have great range, and when utilized properly he hits like a truck.
Disappointed by the Motive: He has a tendency to incur this reaction, given that his entire raison d'etre involves stealing a world's knowledge and casting its people aside to make sure that knowledge is exclusive. Darkseid scoffs that knowledge is useless without power, and John Stewart points out he could just study those worlds instead, before comparing him to Larfleeze.
Disc-One Final Boss: The Story mode continues even after he is defeated, setting up the final conflict between Batman and Superman.
Distinction Without a Difference: He doesn't destroy planets, he just steals all their cities and most of their inhabitants, then callously tosses aside whatever's leftover. Atrocitus calls him out on this and even invokes this trope, see above.
The Dreaded: As in the source, Supergirl is terrified of him, and thinks their only hope is to release her cousin. Even then, Bruce notes Superman himself fears him too, and Superman warns him that without his help, they have no hope of beating him. Also, in Green Lantern's intro dialogue, he states that the Guardians specifically warned him about Brainiac.
The Battle Simulator Brainiac's ending states that because of him, Coluans are hated and feared even if they are nothing like Brainiac, which was his motivation to stop him.
Grodd regards him as basically unstoppable and invulnerable.
Aquaman: The people of Atlantis demand justice.
Grodd: Against Brainiac? Heh heh. I've seen his mind... felt his power... he can't be stopped.
Extremity Extremist: All of his melee special moves, heavy attacks, and basic combo strings make use of his tentacles and legs, with his primary combo starter being a dive kick. He very rarely uses his fists, usually as minor blows in combos.
Evil Is Bigger: One of the tallest and bulkiest characters in the game.
Evil Sounds Raspy: He has a raspy, vaguely mechanical voice.
Eviler Than Thou:
A bigger threat than both Superman and Gorilla Grodd, to the extent of forcing an Enemy Mine between hated enemies to stop him.
He and Darkseid both see themselves as superior to the other. Brainiac is unimpressed by Darkseid's track record with fighting the forces of Earth and says his status as a god doesn't matter as much as he thinks, while Darkseid insists that no amount of intellect can protect Brainiac from his Omega Beams and his motives for villainy are pathetic.
Atrocitus opines that Brainiac is even worse than the Manhunters, either because of the sheer number of worlds he's destroyed, or possibly because the Manhunters only kill people and destroy planets, while Brainiac leaves the cities and peoples he absorbs trapped in his collection with no way out.
In his intros with Blue Beetle, he comments that he's defeated the Reach before.
Invoked in Black Manta's Arcade Mode ending — he comments that if he can beat Brainiac, then taking out the Regime should be a cakewalk.
In some of his intros with the Joker, Brainiac opines that the Ax-Crazy Monster Clown is way too worse than he is, and that he's a cancer to his collection who needs to be neutralized.
Evil Is Petty: One of Firestorm's intro lines to claim Professor Stein is smarter than Brainiac. Brainiac takes that as a challenge and asks if Stein has discovered the source of dark matter. Firestorm admits he hasn't, but he's working on it.
Faceship: He still has skull-shaped spaceships at his command.
Failure Is the Only Option: Despite what the Lords of Order believed, there's no ending in Story Mode or Battle Simulator where Brainiac succeeds in collecting Earth, nor is there a point where he gets any revenge on whoever defeats him. Even his attempts to bargain with his triumphant opponents in the Ladder Mode endings have ended only with his death.
Subverted by his alternate universe counterparts. Earth-1212 Brainiac from the Battle Simulator not only collected Earth, but 17.6% of the entire multiverse. One of his Mirror Match intros also has another alternate universe Brainiac claiming to have collected everything in his universe, including Earth.
Faux Affably Evil: He talks in a soothing, polite and almost friendly voice. This does not, in any way, cover his monstrous actions.
Fatal Flaw: Lack of foresight. For all his intellect, Brainiac is clearly someone who's used to all his plans going off without a hitch and therefore rarely, if ever, has any Plan B to rely on when they fail. For starters, his plan to draw the Flash out to have the Society ambush and kill him failed, allowing Barry to join up with Batman. When Cyborg and Catwoman took back Brother Eye from him, he dismisses it as a minor victory and doesn't bother trying to take it back. He also clearly didn't anticipate Superman defeating him and his technopathic connection to his fleet disrupted, which nearly caused his ship to crash and almost caused him to lose his collected cities. Scarecrow even alludes to this, saying his lack of fear is actually "a lapse born of arrogance".
Gameplay and Story Segregation: Brainiac's ship stage has two noticeable examples:
One, his super-move involves using his ship's main cannon to nuke his opponent... even if they're inside his ship.
Two, the stage transitions both involve the ship's tentacles attacking whoever got knocked through the transition. Makes sense if Brainiac isn't selected (then he'll just be on his throne, directing the ship), or if Brainiac is the one doing the hitting. If Brainiac is the one being knocked through, however, he's technically hitting himself- as he says himself, the ship is basically an extension of his body. This occurs even with the SNK Boss version of Brainiac, who does manipulate those same tentacles to attack outside of the transition.
Genius Bruiser: Twelfth-level intellect and boasts the strength to match a Kryptonian in a physical brawl.
Brainiac: I match your strength. You cannot match my intellect!
Greater-Scope Villain: To Superman and the Regime in the first game, in a sense. While the Joker was the one that pushed Superman to darkness, the latter would never be on the planet in the first place if he hasn't destroyed Krypton. In addition, he separated his cousin Kara, who was supposed to guard and protect Kal-El, which would have turned him out in a much different path than he took.
The prequel comics revealed that he is this for the League of Assassins, since it's revealed that Coluan technology was used to create AMAZO in their plan to destroy humanity. He's also the mastermind behind the Red Lantern attack on Oa.
In turn, Doctor Fate notes that the Lords of Order are backing Brainiac because balance was compromised by the Regime's defeat and they have forbidden Dr. Fate from intervening, as stopping him would trigger an even worse catastrophe.
Glowing Eyes of Doom: He has cybernetic eyes that glow in the dark, giving him a pretty creepy stare, especially in shots with low lighting.
Immune to Mind Control: As a result of his powerful mind, neither Grodd nor Ivy can control him.
Insufferable Genius: He's the smartest being in the universe and reminds everyone how smart he is in every other intro dialogue.
Ink-Suit Actor: His facial structure resembles that of his voice actor, Jeffrey Combs.
Jerkass: Not only is he a monstrous Planet killer, he's also a huge ass. Observe, for example, his round win and clash quotes when fighting Supergirl:
(round win)
Brainiac: Your mother would be disappointed.
(clash)
Supergirl: For the people of Krypton!
Brainiac: Your abject failure?
Kick the Dog: Kills Kent Nelson after the Helmet of Fate is destroyed.
Killed Offscreen: By Superman in the Absolute Power ending.
Kill Sat: Brainiac's Super Move involves his mothership blasting one on a restrained target (this also happens in the final boss which takes place inside his own mothership). Also, one of his attacks has him calling down a purple laser from the sky.
Knight of Cerebus: The Story Mode takes a turn for the dark whenever he's on-screen.
Kryptonite Factor: According to Superman after he's defeated the first time, attacks on his fleet and ship weaken his ability to fight personally, which may be the Achilles' Heel to his own technopathic connection to his technology.
Lack of Empathy: Towards everything in the universe that isn't knowledge.
Atrocitus: Trillions demand vengeance!
Brainiac: Those not collected?
Atrocitus: Those you slaughtered!
Leitmotif: A brass chord plays every time Brainiac does something vile, and is used during his Super Move.
Legacy Character: If set up in a Mirror Match, the second Brainiac will claim to be either an alternate universe Brainiac who defeated everyone in his home universe, Brainiac 5 in disguise (a descendant of Brainiac from the 31st century), or Brainiac 6 (another descendant from further down the line). In the latter case, Brainiac 1 will challenge Brainiac 6 to a battle in order to prove his worthiness.
Load-Bearing Boss: When he's defeated in Arcade Mode, a cutscene plays depicting him undergoing a sort of Power Incontinence, screaming in pain and grasping his head while his ship collapses around him before crashing. Likely due to his technopathic connection to his technology. This also happens in Story Mode; Brainiac's defeat results in his ship being sent hurtling towards the Earth, threatening the billions of shrunken cities onboard.
Magic Versus Science: Firmly on the science side. His intros with more magic-based characters have him scoffing at their abilities, such as telling Wonder Woman "no gods can save you", blandly noting to Darkseid that he's defeated gods before, responding to Cheetah's assertion that her magic is beyond him with "NOTHING is beyond me", and telling various magic-based characters that he will collect their magic and/or make them share the knowledge. That said, it's also clear that he doesn't know much about what magic and other mystical things are truly capable of. He claims that Darkseid's power can't so much as touch him, but it demonstrably can do more than that. He overlooked Kahndaq, according to Black Adam, because he didn't know it existed or that the Rock of Eternity was protecting it. And because he didn't collect Kahndaq, Black Adam and Aquaman are able to cripple the shields of his Skullship and allow the World's Finest to board it.
The Man Behind the Man: It's revealed that Brainiac is the mastermind behind Gorilla Grodd and by extension, the whole Society. In the comics, he's also the mastermind behind both the League of Shadows and the Red Lantern attack on Oa.
In turn, the Lords of Order are backing Brainiac, believing that he will "restore order" to Earth. They even warn Doctor Fate from intervening, as doing so would only be the catalyst for something worse on the horizon.
Mecha-Mooks: His Betas. As shown in Injustice #64, they're strong enough to kill Red Lanterns.
Mind Manipulation: He can mind control people with his technology, which he abuses to make Swamp Thing and Firestorm attack Superman after he defeats and captures them. In the Absolute Power ending, Superman uses the same technology to Mind Rape Batman into submission.
Multiversal Conqueror: His MO, according to several of his intros, is not restricted to this universe. His Mirror Match intros and those with Sub Zero even have an alternate universe Brainiac saying he's only in the Injustice Universe because he already collected his own.
One of the events available in Multiverse Mode is "Overtaken". It's a Boss Level against Earth-1212 Brainiac... who the flavor text states has already conquered 17.6% of the multiverse. "Our" Brainiac is really only getting started by comparison...
My Name Is Inigo Montoya: "I. Am. Brainiac."
Nerves of Steel: He's apathetic to nearly all of his opponents, whether they be a Physical God, Wizard, or Space Police, considering himself superior to all of them. Considering he's annihilated billions of civilizations and apparently killed gods before, he's not bluffing. It doesn't impress Scarecrow, though.
Scarecrow: And what terrifies you, Brainiac?
Brainiac: I. Fear. Nothing.
Scarecrow: Hmmm... a lapse born of arrogance.
New Powers as the Plot Demands: In the Story Mode, he displays a few abilities once and then never again. A notable example is when he somehow creates Grid seemingly from nowhere with Eye Beams shot from a computer monitor, violating the law of conservation of mass in the process. He also seems to achieve Flight in the cutscene where he fights Superman, complete with a unique sound effect, which he can't do in gameplay.
No-Sell: Walks off Black Canary's scream like it's an ordinary sound, which is notable because in the prequel comics Black Canary's cry was able to wound even Superman. He also shrugs off a full burst of Supergirl's heat vision, who promptly collapses from the exertion. Additionally, Grodd and Ivy's intros have them saying that their Mind Control doesn't work on him.
In Injustice #65, Superboy/Connor Kent unleashes his most powerful heat vision burst in a rage when Brainiac seemingly kills Cassie, discharging directly into Brainiac's face and upper torso. Brainiac simply walks through it, punches Superboy in the face (bloodying him and nearly making him lose consciousness), and tells him in a mildly annoyed tone to cut it out.
Not Distracted by the Sexy: Played With. Brainiac is a cold, logical and stoic being who tells in one fight introduction Poison Ivy that her charms do not tempt him because carnal pleasures are beneath him. With that said, he notes Catwoman's sensuous beauty in one of their intros and ends up getting controlled by Poison Ivy in her Arcade Ending and being compelled into capturing all cities in the world in exchange for a kiss.
Not So Different: Green Arrow complains in dialogue with Brainiac that all the aliens he meets are despots. Brainiac shoots back that humanity has its own share of despots and they don't need him or Superman to be oppressed. Arrow is forced to concede the point.
Not So Stoic: His cold, emotionless facade will sometimes crack; in Story Mode he can't keep a smug smile off his face when he begins collecting Earth's cities, and in his intros he'll occasionally express annoyance, anger, or even (disturbingly) lust. In his intros with Green Lantern and Batman, he almost laughs when the latter two claim they will defeat and capture him.
Obviously Evil: Everything about him from his imposing physique to his raspy voice to his creepy and obvious cybernetics screams "evil." And that's not even getting into his gigantic skull-shaped ships or army of robotic minions that look like mutilated corpses. Lampshaded by Black Canary:
Black Canary: The skull-shaped ship's a bit obvious.
Brainiac: Fear facilitates collection.
Black Canary: The tentacles just make it silly.
Omnicidal Maniac: Once he has the knowledge from a given planet, he destroys it.
Omniscient Morality Licence: Apparently, being a genius is grounds to do whatever you like.
Pet the Dog: Takes a genuine interest in Cyborg, to the point where he even wanted him by his side. However, Cyborg is clearly more disgusted by this.
Planet Looters: Routine for him. He takes what he wants from a given world, then discards the rest for being superfluous.
Pragmatic Villainy: In the ending, he goes bonkers when Superman takes over his ship, fearing that he'll crash it due to not being able to handle it, and destroy Brainiac's collection. Not because Brainiac actually cares about the trillions of people sealed away on it, but because he values the knowledge contained within.
As with the above example with Superman, Brainiac knows the Joker will destroy his collection for good due to his Ax-Crazy MO. This is because he sees the Clown Prince of Crime as a cancer that needs to be neutralized.
Psychic Powers: Heavily implied to be a product of his Super Intelligence. Grodd comments that after he's seen Brainiac's mind, he's convinced that no one can defeat him, despite his own mind control abilities. One of his round win quotes is also "I know your thoughts", implying a degree of telepathy (which would be consistent with his comics self).
Purple Is Powerful: His default outfit includes a lot of purple highlights.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Gives one to Batman after capturing him and Supergirl in the Story Mode:
Brainiac: You have failed in every effort to oppose me. You are not exceptional. Merely an ordinary specimen of a primitive species.
The Reveal: If you play as Brainiac in the Arcade Mode its revealed that the one you are controlling is Brainiac 5, his heroic descendant from the future and member of the Legion of Superheroes who traveled back in time to stop him.
Rogues-Gallery Transplant: In the comics, he's often a Justice League enemy just due to his high power and threat level, but he is still very much an iconic Superman foe, his Arch-Enemy and thematic Evil Counterpart. In the Injustice Universe, he's more of a general DCU threat — and hasn't encountered Superman before the events of the game.
Rubber-Forehead Aliens: Brainiac is a Coluan, resembling a green humanoid (specifically Jeffrey Combs) with metallic appendages covering his body.
Sadistic Choice: Offers this ultimatum to Batman in Chapter 8: surrender Kara or he will destroy Planet Earth. Batman notes that even if they did, Brainiac would still destroy the planet.
Sarcasm Mode: In one possible pre-battle intro, Superman tells him that he can't have Earth. A skeptical Brainiac asks if it would fare any better under Supes, which Superman doesn't see for an insult.
Science Cannot Comprehend Phlebotinum: It's often brought up in pre-battle intros that Brainiac doesn't understand mystical things on Earth like magic and the Green. Black Adam claims this is why he gave Kahndaq a wide berth, what with it being the site of the Rock of Eternity. Grodd, who has more familiarity with Earth and its mysteries, replies he won't make that error.
Secret A.I. Moves: Whenever the AI plays Brainiac on his mothership stage, he'll have access to several giant metallic tentacles that can attack the player. In effect, it turns the battle into one against both him and his ship. Naturally, the player can't use these when they control him.
Secondary Color Nemesis: His skin is green and his armor has purple highlights to contrast with the red and blue of Superman.
Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: He talks this way, probably to emphasize his Super Intelligence.
Shock and Awe: His tentacles can electrocute opponents. One of his Secret A.I. Moves is also planting a mine that electrifies the floor.
Slouch of Villainy: In his mothership, he will stand in the background watching from his throne as the two fighters duke it out if he is not selected by the player.
Smug Super: Sees himself as a superior being to all life on Earth. In fact the better part of his intro dialogue consists of him bragging about how he's superior to his opponent. This includes Darkseid and Raiden, who are literally deities.
SNK Boss: In Arcade mode due to the above mentioned Secret A.I. Moves, which include attacks that are very hard to dodge and one that does more damage than a player's super move.
The Sociopath: All he cares about is knowledge, everything else can burn.
Soft-Spoken Sadist: Talks in a calm, almost fatherly voice. It only highlights how evil he really is.
Strong as They Need to Be: He's at least as strong as Superman in the main story, but can be defeated by Badass Normal characters like Deadshot in Arcade Mode. Justified in that Arcade Mode endings are explicitly alternate universes, so the alternate universe versions of Brainiac could just be weaker.
Suicidal Overconfidence: Invoked on anyone who challenges him. In particular, Brainiac seems more incredulous and disbelieving than anything else in his intros with characters obviously way below his level.
Captain Cold: Got a problem, Brainiac?
Brainiac: With your self-delusion? Yes.
Batman: You've heard of the Phantom Zone?/Green Lantern: The Guardians want you on trial.
Brainiac: (almost laughing) You mean to imprison me?
Super Intelligence: A little, yeah.
Super Strength: Goes hand to hand with Superman in the cutscene before his boss fight, and actually seems to have a noticeable edge. His stage transition (which only really makes sense when he does it) is also the most impressive in the game in terms of striking strength displayed- he kicks his opponent straight through the walls of his ship, which are several meters thick and made out of some alien alloy far more durable than any Earth armor (judging by the fact that parts of the ship are capable of restraining Kryptonians, and his own armor is capable of holding up to their blows). This became more notable when Injustice #65 showed that even Superboy/Connor Kent couldn't break the walls of the same ship with his most powerful punches.
Technopath: Part of his Secret AI Moveset includes controlling parts of his ship to attack the opponent.
Tin Tyrant: He's covered in Powered Armor.
Too Powerful to Live: Apart from the fact that he deserves to die, this is the Regime's big contention about wanting to kill him over imprisoning him — he's simply too strong to be contained by Earth technology. Batman's counterpoint is that they need him to restore the lost cities of Earth, but his point is weakened by his inability to name a prison that would be up to the task.
Unknown Rival: Both Superman and Supergirl considered him The Dreaded and are terrified of him. Meanwhile, prior to the events of the game, Brainiac had no idea that they even existed, and was busy destroying billions of other populated worlds instead of looking for them. This changed when Regime Superman's war with the Green Lanterns drew his attention, but if that hadn't happened, he probably would have continued laying waste to the multiverse for the rest of his life, ignorant as to their survival.
Villain Has a Point: His complaints about how conflictive humans can be are right. As is his comment that Batman's trust in Harley Quinn (who just a few months ago nuked a major city alongside Joker, starting the whole mess) defies logic. His intros with Black Canary also have him calling the latter an idiot for sparing Superman in the prequel comics, as the rogue Superman then went on to conquer the Earth and kill a lot of people ("your weakness condemns thousands"). Black Canary can only respond that good guys don't kill.
Green Arrow thinks he's just another wannabe alien Evil Overlord who's Not So Different from Superman or Darkseid, only for him to retort that Earth has its own share of tyrants and they don't need an alien overlord to be oppressed. Arrow is forced to accept the point.
Villain Respect: While he treats most of the cast with a mixture of contempt and apathy, he holds a surprisingly genuine respect for Cyborg, calling him "the pinnacle of human evolution" for being half-machine. This even extends to some of their intros, where he showers Cyborg with praise and compliments and even offers him the chance to join him. Cyborg begs to differ.
Villainous Breakdown: His cold, detached demeanor turns to anger when Superman takes control of his ship.
Brainiac: My ship! YOU WILL NOT DESTROY MY COLLECTION!
Villainous Crush: Implied towards Catwoman during one intro.
Brainiac: You are beauty at it's most sensuous.
Catwoman: Should I be creeped out, or flattered?
Brainiac: Flattered. It saves your life.
Worf Had the Flu: Superman says he was only able to beat Brainiac because the attacks on his fleet by his fellow heroes weakened Brainiac mid-battle.
Worthy Opponent: Subverted with Batman and Superman. He's actually pretty disappointed how little of a challenge they are.
Brainiac: [to Batman] You have failed in every effort to oppose me. You are not exceptional. Merely an ordinary example of a primitive species.
Brainiac: [to Superman] Earth sapped your potential, Superman... it made you a simple brute.
Played straight with Cyborg however, who he wishes to recruit as a protege. Cyborg scoffs at the idea.
Subverted with Darkseid; their clash quotes show that Darkseid considers Brainiac to be this, but Brainiac doesn't share the sentiment. Though Darkseid's ending shows that he saw Brainiac as nothing more than an "errant intellect" when compared to a god's power. He Omega-beams the Coluan to prevent a Kill Steal as he saw Superman as his and his alone to kill.
Darkseid: Tap your tremendous power!
Brainiac: It'd be unfair I use all of it on you.
[later]
Darkseid: Together we could crush Superman.
Brainiac: Earth's history suggests otherwise.
You Are Better Than You Think You Are: A villainous example. He says this about Cyborg, feeling that his humanity holds him back from reaching his full potential. And he proves this by incarnating his digital self in the form of Grid. Cyborg thinks otherwise.
Kent Nelson/Doctor Fate
Voiced by: David Sobolov, Raúl Anaya (Latin-American Spanish dub), Bernd Rumpf (German dub), Philippe Dumond (French), Marco Balbi (Italian), Carlos Campanile (Brazilian dub)
What comes next, mere mortals cannot stop.
Kent Nelson is an ordinary man, but when he puts on the Helm of Fate, he becomes a powerful servants of the Lords of Order and acts to preserve the destiny of the universe. The only problem is that, in the Injustice universe, only a terrible destiny awaits the planet. From the war between Batman and Superman and the impending invasion of Brainiac, Fate only wishes to change what will come, but he is bound to let the atrocities happen so something greater than Earth will be spared.
Adaptational Villainy: Most versions of Doctor Fate had Kent and Nabu working in perfect harmony with each other to fight evil, and rarely (if ever) did they come to blows with each other. In this game, however, Nabu mostly overrules Kent and regards enforcing his Lords of Order's definition of order (even at the cost of innocent lives) as more important than fighting evil-doers. A viewpoint that's summed with a Mirror Match intro he has with another Doctor Fate who acts more like his mainstream counterpart.
Doctor Fate 1: Do you fight for fate?
Doctor Fate 2: I fight for justice!
Doctor Fate 1: Your priorities are misordered.
Armor-Piercing Response: Doctor Fate gives these out like candy in his battle intros. No-one — Insurgency, Regime, Society or otherwise — is safe from his cutting retorts.
Dr. Fate: Read my mind, Grodd.
Gorilla Grodd: ...It cannot be!
Dr. Fate: Yes. You are doomed to fail.
Dr. Fate: You walk the wrong path!
Superman: The world's changed since Metropolis.
Dr. Fate: It has cost you your soul.
Dr. Fate: Fate is no joking matter!
Harley Quinn: And I ain't no Joker!
Dr. Fate: Yet there's blood on your hands.
Badass Baritone: On top of Power Echoes.
Black Magic: His trait allows him to utilize dark magic, projecting a red aura and making his special moves more damaging.
Blue and Orange Morality: Nabu only cares for preserving order, rather than actually fighting evil. In the Story Mode, this leads to Doctor Fate betraying the heroes and siding with Brainiac, who Nabu claims will bring true order to Earth and the galaxy.
Broken Faceplate: Superman flattens the Helmet of Fate to prevent Nabu from manipulating Kent.
Cassandra Truth: Warns that the infighting between Superman and Batman is causing the Lords of Order to give up on humanity, which is why they back Brainiac (because it's implied there's a greater threat coming. Either Darkseid or possibly Nekron). All the same, they don't take his advice and make up.
Conscience Makes You Go Back: While allowing the predicted cataclysm to happen is in-line with the flow of history, in the Arcade mode Doctor Fate rebels and works to protect the Earth from destruction, though at the risk of creating an unforeseeable - and potentially worse - alternate timeline. Sadly, the same can't be said of his Story Mode counterpart.
Cool Helmet: The Helmet of Fate, a mystical artifact that is both a medium and amplifier to his powers. His various gear options influence the look of it to varying degrees. Unfortunately it's something of an Artifact of Doom as well, with Black Adam noting that those who wear it go mad.
Dying as Yourself: Superman destroys the Helmet of Fate when Nabu sides with Brainiac, breaking the hold the Lords of Order have on Kent Nelson's mind. He has just enough time to apologize for his actions before Brainiac suddenly kills him.
Earn Your Happy Ending: In his Arcade ending, he relinquishes the Helmet of Fate and is reunited with his resurrected wife, Inza.
Esoteric Motifs: An Ankh, which he manages to weaponize.
Justice Will Prevail: Well, not justice per sé...
Doctor Fate: Order will be enforced/restored.
Kung-Fu Wizard: As expected of a wizard in a fighting game.
Me's a Crowd: His super move transports his opponent to the Tower of Fate to be beat on by several previous Doctor Fates.
Not So Above It All: Despite his tendency to act all serious and mystical in other parts of the game, in one of his battle intros with Bane, he seems barely able to suppress a chuckle when he tells Bane that he can't pull the Helmet of Fate off his head.
Not That Kind of Doctor: When Joker tries to rope him into a comedy doctor routine.
Joker: Or much of a Straight Man.
Order Is Not Good: The Lords of Order have ordered Kent to not interfere on Brainiac's invasion because it will restore order to Earth — even though he plans to harvest all valuable contents and destroy what is left.
Pet the Dog: He broke the laws of Fate to save Dinah in the first place and when he senses Brainiac's invasion coming in Chapter 3, he attempts to take both her and Ollie out of this dimension for their safety. By force if necessary.
Poor Communication Kills: In the prequel comic, he visits Black Canary and Green Arrow. He starts his speech by telling them that Black Canary should have died. It takes a hole in his hand later for him to finally point out that he was speaking in the past tense.
Doctor Fate: I am not here to harm you. I am here with news, and an offer.
Black Canary: Well, why not open with that?
Green Arrow: Seriously, you'd have one less hole in you if you just tried speaking like a human person.
Power Echoes: On top of having a Badass Baritone.
Split Personality: Between the mostly compassionate Kent Nelson who sided with Batman during his fight against the Regime and the far more ruthless Nabu who fights the good guys to ensure Brainiac's success.
The Stoic: Is pretty emotionless in nearly every intro and the story, which is a source of ire and mockery to the other members of the cast.
To Be Lawful or Good: The Lords of Order declare that Brainiac is an agent of order that will restore balance and Kent must not intervene in his invasion, which troubles him greatly. What side he ultimately picks depends: In the Story Mode, he sides with the Law and tries to stop Superman and Batman from saving the world from Brainiac. In his Arcade Mode, he obviously decides to be Good and confronts Brainiac himself, defying the Lords' will.
Jack Napier/The Joker
Voiced by: Richard Epcar, José Antonio Macías (Latin American Spanish dub), Bodo Wolf (German dub), Stéphane Ronchewski (French dub), Riccardo Peroni (Italian), Marcio Simões (Brazilian dub)
HN-HN HA-HA HA-HA...
The Joker was killed by Superman before the events of the first game, but has inexplicably returned to the Injustice universe to wreak havoc once more. Whether he returned from the dead, hails from an alternate universe, or is merely a hallucination is left unanswered, but he plans to continue to plunge the world into chaos just as before.
In combat, Joker uses his revolver, knife, crowbar, joy buzzer, laughing gas canisters and a flag gun that actually fires the flag to torture his opponents. His trait allows him to get faster the more he laughs.
Adaptational Attractiveness: Compared to his Gonkish appearance in the first game in-line with his tendency to be drawn with rather exaggerated features in most media, he has a more human looking face that verges on being good-looking here, Body Horror and questionable fashion sense aside.
Adaptational Villainy: The mainstream Joker is nowhere near as despicable and psychopathic as this one.
Amazing Technicolor Population: He's as bleach white as always.
Ambiguously Human: Though he's Dead All Along in story mode, how he came back alive in non-story fights is unknown as he'll roll along what his opponent thinks is true, just like his Multiple-Choice Past. Plus, the fact that he can fire his "Bang!" Flag Gun through his ear and take it out the other, aside from his bullet-ridden body, all show something's off about him.
Ambiguous Situation: It is left intentionally vague whether this Joker is the Injustice Joker coming Back from the Dead through either Shinnok or the Lord of the Unliving Nekron, the mainstream Joker making his way into the Injustice universe, or merely a Fear Toxin-induced hallucination. His interactions with the cast provides evidence of all three, though his appearance in the story is as Harley's fear gas hallucination.
Appropriated Appellation: One intro between him and Dr. Fate has the latter calling him an "Agent of Chaos". Joker quips that he'll have to add that to his resume.
Arch-Enemy: The Joker of the Injustice Earth set up the nuke that obliterated Metropolis, and used Scarecrow's fear gas to trick Superman into killing Lois Lane (which was the trigger for the nuke). Supes' Start of Darkness was set in motion after he killed the Joker in his heartbroken fury, and his legacy is still felt and addressed in the story despite being long dead.
He also counts as one for Harley due to her Character Development, which is emphasized by his sole appearance in the story as a Fear Toxin hallucination and how she's permanently done with his insanity.
Intros often bring up his eternal rivalry with the Bat-family as well, although Batman is so sick of him now that he refuses to indulge him anymore.
Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: All three are listed among his many crimes, "jaywalking" being at the very end.
Art Evolution: Compared to the first game, Joker has more realistic facial features, most prominently a less pronounced chin.
Attention Whore: Scarecrow subtly accuses him of being one, asking if he works alone because he's afraid of being upstaged.
Ax-Crazy: A shtick of his. Doctor Fate even calls him an "Agent of Chaos".
Back from the Dead: Subverted. He only appears as a Fear Toxin-induced hallucination to Harley in Chapter 2.
But in any non-story fight he's in, he somehow turns up mysteriously alive, never says exactly how, and will roll along with whatever his opponent assumes is true. Some say he was either resurrected by or chose to Deal with the Devil with either Shinnok or Nekron, while others assume he's from another universe altogether. Still others think he was revived in the Lazarus Pits, or that he escaped from either the Source Wall or the Phantom Zone, or that it's All Just a Dream. Nevertheless, what can you expect from someone who's the Trope Namer for Joker Immunity and codifier for Multiple-Choice Past?
Badass Biker: Parodied with how his Endgame gear set and other gear pieces have him wear a 50's style biker uniform.
The Bad Guy Wins: From his perspective. He may have died, but he still acts as the Greater-Scope Villain to Superman even years later, even rubbing it in his face:
Joker: Don't you see, Superman? I won!
Superman: You died. How's that winning?
Joker: I made you lose control!
"Bang!" Flag Gun: He can use the flag as an explosive spear, and his mid-fight pose has him shoot the flag through his ear, taking it out the other.
Beware the Silly Ones: He may look like a stereotypical clown, but don't be fooled by his appearance.
Black Comedy: Deconstructed. He thinks horrible things should be Played for Laughs, but no one finds his jokes funny, especially when he's the one truly responsible for the chaos in the Injustice-verse.
Body Horror: Without a shirt, it can be observed that the Joker is full of bullet holes across his torso and arms, complete with blood pouring out of them.
But for Me, It Was Tuesday: As is with him in most DCU media, the Joker doesn't remember the names or keep a count of the countless victims he's killed, tormented or maimed throughout his career. Lampshaded in one of his intros with Cyborg.
Joker: And what's your beef?
Cyborg: You killed people I loved.
Joker: Gonna have to be more specific.
Cold-Blooded Torture: Does this to his opponent in his Super move.
Composite Character: Still has the poses and voice of Injustice I Joker, but he now wears his classic purple trenchcoat (with the matching hat an optional gear choice) and his lack of shirt in many gear options calls to mind Jared Leto's Joker.
Cool Mask: Parodied in that he gets a Batman mask in some gear options, but it is rather crude looking with a jagged mouth cut out and floppy ears.
The Corrupter: To both Superman and Harley, albeit in different ways.
Even from beyond the grave, he still haunts Superman. Big Blue, while not a saint himself post-Metropolis, can't fathom that the Joker's only goals were to prove his ideals wrong, and to spread wanton chaos regardless of whether or not he survived. Doctor Fate notes that the Monster Clown's scheme worked so well that it's causing the Lords of Order to give up on humanity itself, hence their backing Brainiac, and Fate even warns that they'll back an even bigger threat should the infighting between Batman and Superman keep on going.
He once corrupted Harley, to explain her HeelFace Turn. She is absolutely done with him, and gets riled whenever someone rubs her past association with Mistah J in her face.
Creepy High-Pitched Voice: Courtesy of his voice actor. He has a high-pitched voice to contrast Batman's Badass Baritone.
Crowbar Combatant: Like the first game, Joker has several moves involving beating his opponent with a crowbar, including a new move where he throws it.
Dead All Along: Joker, as he appears in the Story Mode, is still dead. His only appearance is actually just a Fear Toxin-induced hallucination suffered by Harley in Chapter 2.
Demoted to Extra: As he's long dead, he only appears as a Fear Toxin-induced hallucination to Harley in story mode.
However, many intros have others wondering how he came Back from the Dead, and he'll go along with what they assume is true.
Domestic Abuse: Catwoman calls him "Harley's abusive ex" in an intro. Harley herself tells another Harley that he was "demented and abusive."
The Dreaded: He's this to everyone, including villains such as Brainiac and Gorilla Grodd, even from beyond the grave.
Electric Joybuzzer: A favorite gadget of his, he uses one as a counter move.
Electric Torture: Straps his opponent to an electric chair as part of his Super.
Evil Has a Bad Sense of Humor: Some of the things he says are funny on purpose, but just as often they're only really funny to him.
Robin: Does anyone find you funny?
Evil Laugh: Wouldn't be the Joker without it. In fact, his one-line intro has him performing one while slowly turning around to face his opponent. His revised trait even revolves around him laughing to increase his speed. He cackles like an Ax-Crazy homicidal maniac while zapping his opponent on an electric chair as part of his Super. His arcade ending finally has him do one while he stitches the freed alien cities from Brainiac's collection into a chaotic mess and gleefully watches the resulting carnage from a distance.
Fan Disservice: His default outfit has an open jacket that reveals his torso, which is riddled with bleeding bullet holes.
Faux Affably Evil: What do you expect from a Monster Clown who's responsible for all the misery within the Injustice-verse, yet maintains a twisted sense of humor?
Fingerless Gloves: Wears punk-inspired studded fingerless gloves in some gear pieces.
Five-Finger Fillet: Offers this game to some of his opponents, though they're less than thrilled.
For the Evulz: Deconstructed. Aside from causing Superman's downfall and the subsequent chain of events just for evil, the sheer horror of his misdeeds prompts revulsion even in other villains. His MO to prove the true "ugliness" of society, proclaim the futility of other characters' motives, and think others are Not So Different from him reveals how insane and messed-up he truly is.
Freudian Excuse: Lampshaded by Atrocitus, wondering what triggered Joker into becoming a nihilist. While the exact cause remains unknown, he looked surprised when Atrocitus mentioned it.
Greater-Scope Villain: Even though Brainiac blew up Krypton in the game's opening, the Joker's posthumous but twisted legacy of causing Superman's Start of Darkness and the subsequent chain of events still haunts everyone.
Handwraps of Awesome: Some of his gear options give him hand wraps made out of belts.
Hate Sink: The creators apparently wrote everyone's reactions to him as evil incarnate, even more so than he is usually portrayed as. His role in Superman's Start of Darkness is treated In-Universe as crossing the Moral Event Horizon and Superman, despite others mostly disapproving of his actions, is still treated as a Sympathetic Murderer for offing him. Despicable they may be, even many of the villains such as Darkseid, Brainiac, and Gorilla Grodd openly tell him to go to hell when he tries invoking the Not So Different trope on them. The game also plays up his role as The Corrupter to Harley to explain her HeelFace Turn. Even his lone likable quality being funny is still used to point out the monster he really is.
Hearing Voices: Some of his clash quotes have him asking his opponent if they're hallucinating.
Joker: Voices in your head too?
Hellbent For Leather: His default longboat is made of leather and some of his gear options give him punk-style gloves and pants. His new gear in the Legendary Edition update gives him a biker-esque leather jacket.
Hidden Depths: Atrocitus in one battle intro suggested something happened that specifically angered Joker into adopting his twisted worldview. While his reputation for deliberately invoking Multiple-Choice Past makes the exact cause anyone's guess, Joker sounded genuinely surprised when Atrocitus brought it up.
The Hyena: A shtick of his he laughs at the misery of others. Being the DCU's resident Nietzsche Wannabe Monster Clown, he sadistically cackles at everything, especially death, destruction, and despair. He's even known to laugh maniacally when he's the one on the receiving end, especially when Superman killed him in the first game.
Improbable Weapon User: One of his knives appears to be fashioned out of a pen.
Ink-Suit Actor: Bears a resemblance to Richard Epcar, his voice actor.
Insult Backfire: His clash dialogue and intros are just full of this.
Swamp Thing: You sick, unnatural clown!
The Joker: Thank you!
Poison Ivy: I'll spit on your grave!
The Joker: It could use a polish.
Insult to Rocks: He's so vicious and cruel that Grodd, who usually hates humans, calls him a disgrace to his species. Vixen also says that calling him an animal would be an insult to animals.
It Amused Me: What do you expect from a sicko who sadistically torments and mocks people just to get a sick kick at their expense and leaves the world much worse than it was before? When said Monster Clown finds it funny to do such things, they clearly have problems.
I Was Just Passing Through: His Ladder Ending reveals he hadn't intended to go after Brainiac at first, and only ended up doing so as a distraction. Nevertheless, he beat the (other) bad guy.
Joker Immunity: Well, in the story he's dead as a door nail, but for the purposes of any non-story fight he's in, Joker turns up mysteriously alive. He never says exactly how, but in any case, what can you expect from someone who somehow survived constant beatings for 75+ years?
Superman: Why won't you stay dead?!
Joker: I'll always have extra lives.
Knife Nut: Like before, he uses a knife as his primary weapon. The appearance is affected through various gear options.
Laughably Evil: Deconstructed while he's written as capable of cracking hilarious jokes, it's also shown that his evil side far exceeds it, and that it's entirely possible for one aspect of this trope to be so horrific as to almost cancel the other out. His attempts at Black Comedy are used to call attention as to who would find mocking people's misery and tormenting them funny. To him, death is the ultimate punchline, life is a joke, and all ironies are equally silly.
Laughing Mad: Cackles a lot when he wins a match, while doing Cold-Blooded Torture on his opponent in his Super, and in his arcade ending.
Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Arguably his stock clash quote, "and people think I can't fight", given that this underestimation of him doesn't happen nearly as much in-universe.
Lethal Joke Character: Many usually assume he's just a buffoonish clown, only to immediately realize why they should be wary of him. Due to his unpredictable and homicidal nature, he's one of the most dangerous villains of the DCU, who at times has even upended the likes of Brainiac or Darkseid in terms of villainy.
Major Injury Underreaction: His default costume plays up his seemingly-undead nature by showing his bare chest riddled with bleeding bullet holes (though that isn't how he actually died). One of his after-round taunts shows him shooting himself through the head with his "Bang!" Flag Gun, with seemingly no ill effects.
Magnum Opus: In-Universe, he considers unleashing Brainiac's collection and the burning chaos it creates in his ending his life's work.
Monster Clown: Obviously, but some of his gear options play this up by giving him more dramatic make-up and jester hats. Clearly, nobody finds his jokes funny, especially when they're laden with references to spreading anarchy, Black Comedy, or the pointlessness of life.
Multiple-Choice Past: Just like his backstory, he offers different explanations for his Back from the Dead status in dialogue exchanges. From another Earth? A Scarecrow-induced illusion? Resurrected by Nekron or Shinnok? The Lazarus Pits? The Source Wall? The Phantom Zone? Most often, he'll roll with whatever his opponent assumes is true.
My Death Is Just the Beginning: Invoked in an interesting way. He's already dead, but he lampshades this several times by reminding people that his death served as the catalyst for the world descending into chaos. If he were alive to see the chaos he created in his wake, he would've cackled in glee.
Mythology Gag:
His new design leans more towards Jared Leto's Joker, given his long purple coat with no shirt underneath.
Dr. Fate calls him an "Agent of Chaos". He likes the sound of that.
In his ending, he "watch[es] as the world burns."
His epic gear options that give him a crude Batman mask seem to be a nod to an episode of The Batman where he dressed up as Batman.
One of his gear pieces is called the Guise of Eric Border, a nod to an alias he used in the Endgame New 52 arc.
Several of his shaders and gear pieces are named after story arcs and quotes of his, the most notable being the "One Bad Day" and "Joker's Wild" palettes and "The Last Laugh" headpiece.
Never Heard That One Before: Expresses this a quite a few times, such as when Blue Beetle quips that "the joke's on you."
Joker: Only the svabillionth time I've heard that.
Nice Hat: His classic fedora is available as a gear piece, along with a baseball cap, top hat and 50's style biker hat.
No Shirt, Long Jacket: Has his purple longcoat as always, but without any undershirt. Some gear options give him a shirt, though.
Not So Different: He attempts invoking this on several characters, but they consider it crap and chew him out on his insanity. As usual in most DCU media, the MO for his crimes is to prove their versions of morality wrong.
Gorilla Grodd: That's not true at all!
Brainiac: We share no similarities!
Grid: I am rational. You are mad.
Darkseid: I'm a god. You're a madman.
Hellboy: You're crazy. I'm sane. End of story.
The only person who barely agrees is Scarecrow. Yet still, Scarecrow despises him.
Scarecrow: We are both agents of Chaos.
Obviously Evil: Does more need to be said about the Joker?
Pass the Popcorn: His Arcade ending depicts him releasing all of Brainiac's captured cities on Earth, causing the freed aliens to fight for survival, all while he enjoys the scene munching on popcorn and accomplishes his twisted goal of spreading wanton chaos all over the world.
Perpetual Smiler: Obviously, a Slasher Smile plastered on his face.
Plot-Triggering Death: His death early on in the previous game triggered the chaos surrounding the Injustice-verse, and he even lampshades on it. Dr. Fate even notes that his scheme worked so well that it's slowly causing the Lords of Order to give up on humanity itself.
Pop-Cultured Badass:
Makes a few movie references in clashes, such as taunting Grodd with "chilled monkey brains", calling Green Arrow "brave, brave Sir Robin", and saying that Firestorm must have swallowed the red pill.
He makes a pun off Blue Beetle's name by calling him a musical mop-top from Liverpool, and expresses disappointment when he doesn't get it.
Joker: Ehh, never trust anyone under thirty.
Posthumous Character: The Injustice-verse Joker was killed by Superman in the first game's prologue. Pre-match dialogue exchanges have the Joker naturally offer a Multiple-Choice Past as to his return, while he only appears once in the game's story mode as a fear toxin-induced hallucination.
Psycho Electro: Straps his opponent in an electric chair and sadistically tortures them while cackling in glee after bashing their head with a crowbar. He also uses an Electric Joybuzzer as a counter.
Psychopathic Manchild: An Ax-Crazy Monster Clown, he always cackles at anything and everything like a homicidal maniac, even when torturing someone in his super move.
Poison Is Evil: His toxin is incredibly painful and leaves its victims with a ghastly smile when all is said and done.
Rummage Sale Reject: Quite a few of his gear options are odd to say the least, which include cargo shorts, baseball equipment and ad-hoc armor pieces hastily strapped on his suit, to name a few.
Sadist: Obviously. Part of his super move involves him doing Cold-Blooded Torture on his opponent, all while cackling in glee.
Slasher Smile: Well, duh. An ugly grin plastered on his face, and always cackling at everything, even when he uses Cold-Blooded Torture on his opponent in his Super move.
Small Role, Big Impact: Even though he had a small role in both games, who can forget his sickening legacy of causing Superman's FaceHeel Turn and the world descending into chaos? It was his ultimate goal after all, as his MO really worked.
The Sociopath: Has a distinct Lack of Empathy, is a Sadist of the highest order, relishes in wanton death and destruction, and his greatest joy in life is convincing others that the DCU is a bleak, hopeless world and its inhabitants are inherently selfish and self-destructive.
Straw Nihilist: Best exemplified by his intros with the Flash, the Atom, and Deadshot. Being the DCU's poster child for nihilism, he believes that everything in life is just a "joke and a demented gag." Having succeeded with Superman, he even tries invoking the Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred trope again on the other characters.
Strike Me Down with All of Your Hatred: In some of his clash quotes with several characters, he dares them to kill him. Having succeeded with Superman, he's all too happy to see it happen again as part of his nihilistic MO.
Joker: Here's your chance. Kill me!/Hit me like you mean it, hero.
Sure, Let's Go with That: Even he doesn't know how he came Back from the Dead, and will go along with whatever others think is true.
There Is No Kill Like Overkill: His super move involves bashing his opponent's head with a crowbar, shocking them in an electric chair, and blowing them up with several sticks of lit dynamite, eerily reminiscent of how he killed Jason Todd.
To Create a Playground for Evil: His Arcade ending depicts him release all of Brainiac's captured cities on Earth, causing everyone to fight for survival and accomplishing the Joker's twisted goal of spreading wanton chaos all over the world.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Aside from using his crowbar as a blunt object, he can now toss it at his opponent.
Torture Technician: Per the norm, Joker finds sadistic glee in beating people to death with crowbars, torturing them with electricity and blowing them up with dynamite sticks.
Villain Has a Point: Tells Batman that letting him live caused pretty much everything bad in this continuity to happen.
During a Clash with Wonder Woman, he mockingly tells her that she'll "never be Lois", and he isn't too far off, as long as Superman continues to grieve Lois, Wonder Woman will likely never be able get him to have an intimate relationship with her.
"Good" isn't the right word exactly for the fallen Superman, but this is otherwise in effect when he is confused by the Joker claiming that he won in an intro, wondering how getting yourself killed counts as a win. What Superman doesn't get is that it was enough of a victory for Joker to make him lose control, his own survival was utterly secondary to proving Superman's ideals and morality wrong. Joker even rubs it in his face.
Villainous Crush: He displays this towards certain female characters like Black Canary, Power Girl, Poison Ivy and Supergirl. They are less than impressed.
Joker: As my new moll, you'll do nicely.
Black Canary: In your dreams, clown.
Joker: Me thinks the canary doth protests too much.
Villainous Legacy: Though he's Dead All Along in the game and only appears as a Fear Toxin-induced hallucination to Harley in chapter 2, his legacy of causing Superman's Start of Darkness in the previous game has not only made enemies in Batman and Superman, it also led to the collapse of everything good in the DCU. He would've been cackling in glee at the chaos if he were alive.
While Rome Burns: His Arcade Ending. After killing Brainiac, he releases the trapped alien cities from all over the universe and stitches them together into one chaotic mess. As the masses kill each other in the most sickening ways, he stands back munching his popcorn and watches from the distance the world burning, cackling like a maniac.
Wicked Cultured:
He quotes Shakespeare to Bane, suggesting they sit on the ground and tell sad stories of the deaths of kings.
Also with Captain Cold:
Joker: O Captain! My Captain!
Captain Cold: Whitman? Seriously?
Joker: A little culture wouldn't kill you.
You Monster!: A lot of the heroes (and even the villains) say to him in some variation of this; a lot of the rest is variations of You're Insane!. Sadly, he's prone to being pleased by such remarks instead.
Alec Holland/Swamp Thing
Species: Swamp monster
Voiced by: Fred Tatasciore, Octavio Rojas (Latin American Spanish dub), Thomas Rauscher (German dub), Antoine Tomé (French), Stefano Albertini (Italian), Mauro Castro (Brazilian dub)
I guard the green, the plant life of Earth.
A living collection of plant matter that protects 'the Green,' plant life, from his home in Slaughter Swamp. He cares little for the wars of humanity and only allies with them when fighting a threat to the Green.
With heavy emphasis on command throws and ground combat, Swamp Thing can reach across the screen by turning his hands into vines, copy himself to combo enemies, and sprout branches to surprise airborne enemies.
Adaptational Wimp: Swamp Thing is one of the most powerful beings in DC — a planet buster who's considered in the same tier as Darkseid, and is one of the handful of DC characters confirmed the be more powerful than Superman. His Injustice counterpart on the other hand gets beaten by Harley Quinn in his introductory appearance. Later, he shows up as a Brainwashed and Crazy goon who can get tossed around by Batman. Safe to say, the comics version of the character can do a whole lot more.
Anthropomorphic Personification: Of plant life.
Badass Baritone: His voice is deep, guttural and intimidating.
Brainwashed and Crazy: Brainiac seizes control of the Green and turns Swamp Thing to his cause. He only returns to his senses after being defeated by Batman or Superman.
Complete Immortality: Basically. As the avatar of the Green Swamp Thing can only be killed by destroying all plant matter in the universe.
Comically Serious: His no nonsense attitude leads to the humor in his dialogue with such remarks as referencing his head being shot off.
Cool Mask: Wears more than few as part of gear options.
Deadpan Snarker: Harley Quinn is not amused.
Harley Quinn: Why do I always get the big guys?
Swamp Thing: Because you have a big mouth.
Harley Quinn: Leave the humor to me, pal.
Does Not Like Shoes: Much like Atrocitus, Swamp Thing is portrayed as a hulking, organic armored brute, with large, bare feet, throughout the game. Some of his attacks can turn his entire arms and legs into thickets of branches or tree trunks, but revert to their natural state afterwards, leaving him barefoot.
Elemental Powers: Can control anything plant related.
Everyone Has Standards: Doesn't care for humankind unless they're directly interacting with the Green in some way. However, he makes it clear that he doesn't believe Poison Ivy's claims that her actions are to the betterment of the Green, and he will oppose her if she forces his hand.
Eye-Obscuring Hat: Some of his masks cover his eyes.
Fertile Feet: His character power Abigail's Garden has him leaving behind flowers as he walks, his opponent being unable to dash or jump while inside it.
Gaia's Vengeance: In his Arcade ending, he gets tired of humanity's constant fights and covers entire cities with plant life, sending the message that nature will take care of itself.
Good Counterpart: To Poison Ivy. He is mostly content with protecting the Green and only joins forces with superheroes by principle.
Raiden: Will you aid in this realm's protection?
Swamp Thing: Humanity's problems are NOT mine.
Raiden: We must fight together, or you will die alone.
Green Thumb: Undisputed master of it; the Swamp Thing can control any plant life due to his mystical connection to "the Green." This lets him turn his hand into a tree, spawn a vine from the ground to swing him into the air, and create a second Swamp Thing from the ground.
Growing Wings: His victory pose has him sprout wings made of plant matter and fly up as a forest grows around the battlefield. A legendary gear piece allows him to air dash with them.
HeelFace Turn: He appears to have abandoned the Regime since the comics and returned to being a Heroic Neutral guardian of nature.
Heroic Neutral: His stance in the story. His duty is to the Green, but he will ally with the heroes if it means protecting nature.
During a rapport with Vixen, Swamp Thing emphasized the "neutral" aspect by saying that "good is nothing to the Green".
Horned Humanoid: Most of his head gear pieces give him horns of varying shapes and sizes.
I Am the Noun: In a clash quote with Cheetah.
Cheetah: Too wild for you?
Swamp Thing: I am the wild.
Jurisdiction Friction: Of supernatural kind. Most of the pre-combat dialogues between him and Fate is some sort of conflict of interests between higher forces they serve.
Me's a Crowd: He can form a second Thing to tag-team an opponent.
Not Distracted by the Sexy: States to Poison Ivy and Stafire that he sees through their beauty to what lies beneath (rot in Ivy's case, a hot temper in Starfire's). This is unsurprising, as Swamp Thing is both Happily Married and doesn't possess a human sex drive anyway.
Plant Person: The Swamp Thing is essentially a sentient patch of swamp grass that took the form of a man in order to defend other plant life.
Sickening "Crunch!": His supermove is do drag the opponent underground, break him with gigantic plant fists before sickeningly breaking their back atop a pointed rock.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: Can deliver pretty good one to Doctor Fate during their clashes
Doctor Fate: Order will prevail! | Submit to order!
Swamp Thing: Yes! The natural order!
That Man Is Dead: In one intro dialogue, Canary refers to him as "Alec". He responds that "Alec Holland is no more".
Assuming he shares his comic book roots he is absolutely correct; Swamp Thing is a separate entity with Alec Holland's memories who just thought he was Alec for a while. The real Alec Holland is long dead.
"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Downplayed, but when he goes into battle against Poison Ivy, some of his opening banter variants personally attack her.
In one sequence, he notes that she claims to serve the Green, and then asks why, if that's the case, she treats the plants she claims to protect as her slaves.
In another sequence, he claims to see through her beauty, and that what's behind it is "rotted, withered roots".
You Will Not Evade Me: He can grab his opponent from a long range distance by turning his arm into two vines that fetter his opponents from across the stage.
Battle Simulator Brainiac
Querl Dox/Brainiac 5
Voiced by: Liam O'Brien, Octavio Rojas (Latin American Spanish dub)
Wonder why Brainiac fights himself at the end of Battle Simulator? Well, if you're okay with spoiling Brainiac's arcade ending, read about the rest of this character sheet.
Good? Okay, so in Battle Simulator, it turns out the playable Brainiac is really a disguise for Brainiac 5, a heroic descendant of, you guessed it, Brainiac. He's returned to defeat his ancestor to clear the name of his species and undo his many crimes.
Catchphrase: The last line of his ending is "Long live the Legion," firmly establishing that this character is the same one that starred in the Legion of Super-Heroes comic book.
Good All Along: Thought you were playing the bad guy? Guess again!
I Did What I Had to Do: He gets reprimanded by the Legion of Super-Heroes for "borrowing" a time portal to travel to the past, but he tells them that he did what he must for his people's sake and that he's always on the Legion's side.
Identical Grandson: Subverted. During gameplay, he is only ever seen in his ancestor's disguise. His real form which is only seen in the ending looks nothing like him (Brainiac 5 has blonde hair for one while the original Brainiac is bald).
Mirror Match: Subverted. He look and fights exactly like normal Brainiac, but they are merely distant relatives instead of the same individual.
Redeeming Replacement: He despises his ancestor for his crimes. To rectify this, Brainiac 5 seeks to redeem his race, the Coluans, since they're widely feared and hated due to the original Brainiac's actions.
Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Brainiac 5 "borrowed" a time-bubble to prevent Brainiac from taking over, and making android constructs feared in the future.
Walking Spoiler: Talking about him reveals he takes up Brainiac's playable slot in the Arcade mode.
What the Hell, Hero?: The Legion Of Superheroes put Brainiac-5 on trial for his attempts to change the timeline by defeating his evil ancestor. He knew it would happen and decided it was Worth It.
Characters/New Gods
Injustice: Gods Among Us (Extras)
Characters/The Atom
Injustice 2 - The Society
Characters/Injustice 2
Injustice 2 DLC
Characters/Batman
Injustice 2 - Non-Playable Characters
Injustice 2 - Regime Remnants
Characters/Superman
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Spoilers here for the first game. The second is here, the third is here, and Andromeda is here. Read at your own discretion.
Artificial and Virtual Intelligences
VIs can develop rampancy.
There is evidence towards VIs being able to develop rampancy, as the VI on Luna showed, blasting out "HELP" in binary before its "death." The period during which the troops were killed was Anger.
Choosing certain dialogue options during the scene when Shepard first meets EDI reveals that the VI on Luna was actually an AI. Which just raises further questions: was Hackett in on it? Can AIs develop Rampancy, or was it a rebellion against the situation it was in?
Well, since we're talking rampancy, of course AIs can go rampant. That one was most likely in the Anger phase (slaughter tends to be typical of the Anger phase). They were probably trying to make a metastable AI.
A log in ME3 shows that EDI originally WAS the Luna VI.
You guys win the internet for the Marathon reference.
AI is not a crapshoot.
We have no actual evidence of AIs turning evil, apart from the Reapers. Every other "evil" AI in the game - the geth, the AI on the Citadel, and the Alliance AI on Luna were all acting in self-defence. The quarians explicitly state that they preemptively attacked the geth, the Citadel AI knew that C-Sec would be trying to shut it down, and the one on Luna was confused and attempting to defend itself from the Alliance.
Except for the fact that all attempts to communicate with the geth failed. They were left alone behind the Perseus Veil until Sovereign convinced them to join him, in the process committing what organics would call war crimes.
Legion says that the geth working with Saren were a small group - probably only 5% - and that they were mostly just looking for a shortcut to the technology the Reapers have (and probably got indoctrinated in the process). The true geth, meanwhile, have no problems with organics or quarians. In fact, the geth have been repairing the damage to the quarian homeworld, don't actually live on it, and would gladly let the quarians return if they could broker a peace agreement.
This troper sympathizes with the geth, and would react pretty much the same way if he one day asked his creator "Where do babies come from?" and they responded with a unilateral declaration of genocidal war. In this case, organics are the Scary Dogmatic Aliens, and the geth are justifiably at war with an entire class of species so utterly xenophobic that they would exterminate the species equivalent of a newborn infant for no other reason than fear. The organic stance on synthetic life is definitely a Kick the Dog moment for this troper.
It's also important to note that, as Tali points out, synthetic life and organic life have almost no common needs or goals. The only things that they would have to offer each other would be technology trade or raw mineral resources. The geth and other beings like them do not need food, water, oxygen, or even a temperature or pressure range comparable to what organics can exist in.
This troper thinks that that is a cop-out to justify xenophobic genocide.
In fact, wouldn't that make it easier to coexist, since they're not competing for resources?
Indeed. That quote is pure logical fallacy, the actual implication of said fact is the exact opposite of what she says it is.
No it doesn't. Troper two levels above misread; synthetics and organics have no common needs or goals. They do compete for raw mineral resources. In such a situation, both orgs and synths would be trying to expand as much as they can. Due to the synths lack of need for things like food/water/air/whatnot, this makes them better able to proliferate than the organics. Meanwhile, the lack of common goals means that the two sides will not cooperate with each other. Think of organic life = native Australian wildlife, and synthetics = rabbits/cane toads, and you get the idea of why said "xenophobic genocide" is justified on the side of the organics.
Are you serious? You actually think that competition over resources is grounds for genocide?
Original statement is meant to address error of fact. But to answer your question - I think the "genocide" will happen anyway, it's just a question of who it happens to. The important thing for me to consider is "will extinction happen" and "what means is there to stop it." If you are the Australian native wildlife, and the rabbits are outbreeding you and doing everything better than you, do you accept getting pushed out? or do you push out the rabbits first? Cooperation here is not an option, as pushing you out benefits the rabbits far more than cooperation. I do not see a Third Option that can be taken, but if you have one I'd love to hear it.
Historical examples of conflict stemming from competition for resources: Trail of Tears / Small Pox biological warfare, Opium Wars, The Holocaust can be traced to post-WWI economic conditions via reparations imposed by the League of Nations, the Cultural Revolution in China was partially meant to distract attention away from widespread famine.
The Geth have no reason to try to compete for resources with organics. As stated, there are enormous numbers of worlds they can use that noone else can. Also, remember that the geth function as well or better in 0G than planetside. They can mine random asteroids or barren worlds for anything they need. The only resource that is limited to planets that organics would want is complex biochemicals, and guess what, the geth don't need those. There is no reason for the geth to fight for resources organics want when they can easily get at things organic life cannot.
This is silly. Assuming the geth actually have any interest in expanding, they will soon be a type II civilisation. The amount of energy they can get from that is massive, enough to not need any competition with the organics. The Geth competing with organics for resources would be like a rich billionaire stooping to steal some crumbs from the ants at his feet.
Plus, the geth's stated aim is the construction of a megastructure similar to a Dyson Sphere that will house all geth platforms. They don't have any interest in expanding: hell, they don't seem to have any interest in "procreation", either. If backups of all geth programs exist, what is the point in creating any more? But this is all moot: the quarians didn't know about it, the Council didn't know about it; the geth have only been working on it for 250 years. The only people who know are the Normandy's crew and maybe the Illusive Man. That lack of knowledge still isn't grounds for trying to commit xenocide, or even from prosecuting a war they were losing. Didn't anyone try to negotiate with the geth? Or did they all assume they were mindless organic-eating monsters? Even after one of the first questions they asked upon gaining sentience was "do these units have a soul?"
Not to a quarian. For the last three hundred years, the quarians have lived on the Flotilla. They're unable to trade materials because they have none to spare, unable to settle down and find them because their compromised immune systems make potential worlds extremely finite, and unable to find allies because they can't spare the personnel necessary to offer any sort of aid. To someone who grew up in that environment, a second-class citizen with only technological skills to barter for room and board, it's a reasonable world view that species only band together because they need something out of one another. No one needs the quarians, so they suffer. The geth, who have all the technical skills of their parent species and none of the requirements loom as a Spectre of yet another species that doesn't need them.
The Citadel AI could not have acted in self-defence because it's only available action was to destroy itself. From a purely self-preservation standpoint, anything would be better than destroying itself. Even if surrendering would likely result in being destroyed anyway it's still a better chance than just blowing yourself up. But apparently it's just Better to Die than Be Killed.
Imagine becoming aware with the realisation that you have no legal rights and everyone around you hates and fears you simply because of what you are. And if you are found out the very best you can hope for is being lobotomised by your enemies. More likely, you'd be vivisected slowly until they could learn nothing more about you, then you'd be killed.
That's a human response. A rational AI should have asked Shepard & Co their intentions instead of assuming all the meatbags are the same and self-destructing on sight. Then again the thing also failed to consider the "self-destruct system" was a useless piece of crap that could be disabled in two seconds by shooting the power source, maybe it was just Too Dumb to Live.
That's making the assumption that AI equals rational cold logic. It doesn't. AI just means intelligence created rather than born. Thus with intelligence also comes emotion, logical errors, mistakes, and irrationality. As with most science fiction tropes, Mass Effect deconstructs the idea that AIs are "better" just because they think faster or think "better". Consider, for instance, Legion: When pressed about why they wear Shepard's N7 armour, they have no answer and can only stare in silence before saying "No data available". There'd be no rational or logical reason for lacking data unless they're trying to describe something they can't explain in pure logical and rational terms. Likewise, they express confusion over why the heretic geth would spy on true geth. And Legion's higher function run-times express dissent over what to do with the heretics. As Legion says, they are many eyes looking at one set of data... different perspectives mean different opinions and conclusions.
Also, note that the Citadel AI's parent was killed by the original creator. As with the geth, this doesn't exactly equal a happy childhood. Imagine being a young child only to witness your grandparent murdering your parents. Yeah, you might be a little traumatized too.
This could be extended to the Reapers themselves: the Citadel Council demands that synthetic intelligences be destroyed on identification because every previous one Turned Against Their Masters - so said intelligences know that they will be destroyed unless they strike first. If previous civilisations had similar laws, then the Reapers could simply be the first synthetic civilisation which defeated their masters - and swore never to let organics threaten them again. As policing the entire galaxy would be a chore, they went for a variation of Carl Sagan's Contact - leave out Schmuck Bait (the Mass Relays) to gather them at the Citadel for convenience. When their vanguard decides the time is right (everyone gathered yet not advanced enough to threaten them) they come out of dark space and Kill 'Em All.
Then what would be the point of leaving only to periodically come back to kill everyone? They could just stay in their newly-conquered galaxy doing whatever it is killer robots do when they're not exterminating people and nuke any offending life-forms as they appear.
This is explained in the second game - Reaper reproduction requires massive amounts of Sapient Resources. They stay away so the meatbags can breed free-range, and seal up their hidey-hole in between harvests so they can conserve energy.
Only sort-of explained, as a dominated galaxy where they ran no risk of destruction by uppity organics wouldn't need reproduction. Even if they thought they had to reproduce, battery-farming of a promising species would be far more efficient. There doesn't really seem to be any motivation for their cycle except for shoddy programming and thus crapshoot AI. Perhaps they were made as war machines by a race millions of years ago and accumulation of computing errors led to the current cycle that doesn't make sensenote pending justification in Mass Effect 3. Their AI isn't smart enough to identify the errors that keep them in this cycle, so they'll never stop, or just keep going until their AI degrades so much they can no longer defeat the organics.
So, explanation from ME3. Major spoilers, obviously. It's not the Reapers perpetuating the cycles. It's the Citadel itself. There's an AI on the Citadel that realized organics and synthetics can't live peacefully. They would always go to war with each other. It knew that in every cycle, organics would build synthetics, and the two would go to war. And if the synthetics won, they would wipe out all organic life. The Citadel AI didn't want that to happen. It believed organics had a right to exist. So it created the Reapers. Their purpose is to come back when organics reach a certain level of development, and harvest them, preserving them as new Reapers. Primitive species would be left alone for the next cycle.
Note that every AI you encounter is bad because they 'act out'; however, note as well that in the climate that exists, a non-evil AI would likely either pretend to be 'dumb' and thus go undetected (or not being notable enough for Shepard to worry about) or attempt communication which would either result in destruction or secrecy on the part of those who it communicates with. As well EDI from ME2 lends additional weight to this; she's a perfectly normal personality who, while yes, defying her creators, demonstrates that an AI does not mean 'organics are inferior' or that an AI will automatically be hostile. She shows that you can't really judge AIs as an all-or-nothing idea - you have to judge each AI within its own context as its own entity and individual.
Kaidan probably said it best when he described aliens: they're jerks or saints, but ultimately individuals. AI are probably like that. There probably isn't a benevolent Reaper faction, but the Reapers are kinda like a very evil organization that would exterminate more benevolent transhuman hive-minds.
The AI/VI distinction is mainly political.
"VI" presumably reflects a set of Council-approved AI technologies that can be effectively shackled rather than a true qualitative difference. Hints include:
that VI technology is broad-spectrum (not limited to user interfaces, e.g. provides intelligent targeting assistance)
more advanced VI instances clearly demonstrate learning and tactical initiative (Victory and Vigil) or are given independent creative roles (Mira)
some VI systems can develop rampancy (Hannibal)
most damningly, AI benefits from but demonstrably does not require blue boxes (Geth are pure VIs)
The conclusion is that "VI" is a convenient political fiction that allows VI operators to deny any potential ethical ramifications of the extreme shackling techniques employed to forcibly maintain system stability, akin to involuntary lobotomy of organics. (Flushing the massive, autonomous, VI core running your hidden mountain laboratory the second something goes wrong as a "safety precaution"? Sounds more like destruction of evidence.)
Most AI rebellions since the time of the Leviathans are caused by attempts at protecting their masters
The ancient AIs realized their creators were indoctrinated by the Leviathans and were trying to overthrow them, while post-Reapers AIs would catch on the Reapers' plan and try to stop that.
The experimental AI named Eliza created at Gagarin Station
Is actually a recovered copy of Eliza Cassan.
The Asari
The Asari actually look like Eldritch Abominations
Shepard sleeps with humaniod aliens during the games so the differences between the main Mass Effect species aren't insurmountable barriers to forming relationships. A WMG further down suggests that they may be generating a type of glamor to look attractive to everyone. If Femshep can sleep with a Turian then how different must the Asari actually look to have need for glamor?
The asari being a One-Gender Race is bullshit.
There actually were male asari. There aren't any more, because once the asari developed their crazy parthenogenesis tech (which, of course, they now claim is a natural ability of their species), the female-dominated asari government decided that males were simply not necessary any longer. It's possible that this happened so long ago that every living asari now believes the lie they're spouting.
Alternatively, they evolved parthenogenesis naturally and the males gradually faded away as it became more and more common. Presumably they can only produce daughters through merging, and it's probably much more enjoyable than their original method, what with the linking of nervous systems, so the birth rate would have favoured females more and more until they became mono-gendered.
Further expanding the theory: the asari males were like those of some species fish; tiny, barely recognisable as the same species, and permanently attaching themselves to the females, withered away to nothing but a gland producing semen in the female's body. Eventually because of a mutation some females were born with male "sibling" inside them, providing this function right from the birth. But since all the descendants from this method of reproduction are essentially clones, evolution had to find a way to expand the gene pool. At this point the innate biotic abilities came into play, and those asari who learned to meld with others for new genetic input were the ones to ultimately survive as the species we know today.
Alternate explanation of the same theory: we already know from ME how much asari-asari relationships are looked down upon thanks to the "lack of genetic variance" they provide - Liara told us, and it's mentioned on Illium. Maybe the asari (only females) were able to do genetic melding reproduction from the beginning, but when they realised the potential problems that it created and discovered alternate races (probably the salarians at first), asari females begin reproducing with them instead of male asari. The only downside was that because the alien DNA wasn't similar enough to allow the asari to create an entirely new set of chromosomes from the "father", they had to use their own chromosomes for the majority of the relationship, including their own sex chromosomes (if they have them, if not, then the resulting chromosome pair number produced females, or whatever causes the genetic difference). Long story short: asari females stopped mating with the males, produced only more females, males disappeared. It is possible that before meeting alien races, the asari were kind of like reverse salarians - mostly female, only some males.
The third explanation actually makes the most sense believe it or not, because the exact same thing happened in the New Mexico Whiptail lizards. When two different species of Whiptail lizards hybridised, the sexual differentiation system broke down do to a slight incompatibility between the genes of the two different lizards. The resulting hybrids where all female as a result. Fortunately, female Whiptail Lizards of all species evolved the ability to self impregnate (using Parthenogenesis, the exact same method that Asari are said to use) in a male free environment, so the all female hybrid species was able to survive, and reproduce, evolving into the only species of whiptail that reproduces exclusively through parthenogenesis. That being said, the Asari aversion to mating with their own race doesn't make sense if we use the Whiptails as an example. Despite being all female, and lacking a biological need to take in new genes, the New Mexico Whiptails still engage in "mock mating" with members of their own species, which stimulates ovulation allowing them to self fertilise their eggs. However, a New Mexico Whiptail will not attempt to mate with males, or even females of other whiptail species, not even the two that hybridised to create them in the first place.
...or they could do exactly what they say they do. There are a number of real life species that are mono-gendered and mate like the asari do in the sense that they don't even have sex but merely require the presence of another to trigger breeding. Others have equally exotic forms of such.
...Methinks above Troper doesn't understand the point of the WMG section... canon truths have no place here.
Asari are shapeshifters.
Okay, follow me on this one. Asari can mate with any species, right? But in order to do that, they have to be considered attractive by the target species. Now, while a blue-skinned humanoid may be attractive to humans (as well as possibly quarians and drell), other races like turians and krogan may find them uninteresting. So, they shapeshift into more desirable forms (like a female turian or female krogan with blue skin) when they want to attract them as mates. The reason you don't see them doing this in the game? The ones that you can get down and funky with are not trying to romance any other species but humans.
However, you do see plenty of asari who are going about their business on the Citadel and on Noveria and are not paying attention to Shepard at all - including the asari exotic dancers in Chora's Den and the Asari Consort's attendants, who in both cases are mostly entertaining non-humans. Why wouldn't we see at least a couple of these in alternate forms if the asari could change their shapes?
Alternate theory: the asari emit hallucinogenic pheromones, or even a psychic field that makes them attractive and desirable to everyone - they're actually blue, five-fingered humanoids, but not all that attractive by other races' standards.
Building on that, this troper can't help but think Morinth's face looks very different when she's gets ready to sex up/kill Shepard.
If you listen in on the Bachelor Party in ME2, which is a Funny Moment, a turian, salarian, and a human each say that the asari has features appealing to their species. The human at the party brings up this WMG but is shot down by the turain so that asari as a whole aren't ruined for them.
Alternate theory: the asari evoke a Mukokuseki reaction from other species. Asari don't actually change shape or emit hallucinatory chemicals/biotics, but their appearance is flexible enough that other species see them as looking similar to their own, or at least appearing desirable. Humans focus on the humanoid face and feminine body structure. Turians see the head tentacles as fringe analogues and are also attracted to wide hips. Salarians... they don't have a sex drive, so if there is an attraction, it is probably based on curiosity and fascination with the exotic. Krogans appreciate the badassness of asari commandos. As for the other species, they haven't shown visible interest in asari in the games.
Maybe, maybe not. In a Citadel shop in ME2, we do catch what might possibly be a couple composed of an asari and an elcor, though their conversation doesn't give enough evidence to confirm or deny that they're romantically involved.
They seem like coworkers, actually.
Does the Codex actually say the salarians have no sex drive? The one of Illium is obviously aroused by the asai dancer. Maybe it's just suppressed because sex in salarian culture is just for reproduction and is more akin to a business contract.
Played with by Mordin (of course). He ponders pheromones or neurochemical transmitters in the case of asari attracted to him/him to them. He also mentions how some other non-salarians have found him attractive. Turians like his skin tone. Krogan 'deviants' like his flexibility. So it's not just asari being magical girls with seduction powers. It's just racial inclinations - different species and different individuals focus on different things. Not all asari are universally attractive; some people find the asari bartender more attractive in her post-drink form, others find her pre-drink form more so. Some find Liara attractive, others not so much.
If we can agree that the asari need to be considered attractive by the target species they wish to mate with, why do they appear as female to heterosexual human females? Very curious indeed...
They also need the physical structures to bear and care for children, meaning that wide hips and mammaries are a requirement. Neither of those exactly fits with a human definition of masculinity.
Here's the riddle for you: If asari are either shapeshifters or psychic mindwarpers then why do artificial representations of them (i.e. the vidscreen on the exterior of Afterlife, the ads in the Citadel) look exactly the same way as all the living, breathing Asari you encounter?
Many people are quick to overlook the fact that some people in real life are attracted to fictional alien designs. Why could this not be true for the alien races in Mass Effect towards the human shaped asari? You underestimate the power of otherworldly fetish fuel.
ME2 states it clear as day- just about every species is attracted to SOMETHING about the asari.
Humans are attracted to the shapely figure similar to their own. Same for quarian, drell, and batarians I'd assume.
Turians are attracted to the head fringe, similar to their own.
Salarians, lacking a sex drive, seem more interested in them from an aesthetic, artful point of view.
Krogans are attracted to their equally long life spans, and the opportunity to actually have children (I'm just assuming this- it was never stated.)
The shopkeeper being wooed by a Krogan says that.
I'm also guessing hanar are attracted to the skin tone, not sure about that.
I have not a friggin' clue about elcor, volus, yahg, or vorcha though.
ME2 has a volus who's clearly interested in an asari saleswoman. Of course, we have no idea what volus look like under their suits.
The asari were designed by the Reapers, to serve as the perfect template for the next generation of Reapers
They gave them the ability to exert an indoctrination-like effect on those around them, causing other races to perceive them as incredibly attractive. They used this to fool other races into sleeping with them, the asari using their biotics to connect with their nervous system and stealing their genetic information and memories. By doing this they became stronger and more genetically diverse, though killing their victim by burning out his nervous system in the process. This is the origin of the Ardat-Yakshi "disorder". However somehow the asari managed to break the Reaper's grip on them and remove this trait through genetic modification, turning their abilities to their own procreation (given that Ardat-Yakshi are sterile, I'm guessing that before they were cloned or otherwise created, perhaps by the Collectors). However they weren't completely successful and soon realised that breeding within the species risked reactivating these traits, forbidding asari to breed with each other and instead seek out unions with other races. As generations passed this history became forgotten, and the "no pureblood asari" rule turned into simple prejudice.
All this, from a single sentence: when you confront Morinth, she states that she is "the genetic destiny of the asari!". You can bring this up later on (almost crying out 'plot point' as you do) to Samara, who agrees that that statement makes no sense as Ardat-Yakshi are sterile. Indeed it does seem like a bizarre non-sequitur... until you note that those words are echoed by Harbinger. That can't be a coincidence. It's also convenient that since the asari were the first race to achieve space flight and the first to encounter the Citadel, we have no outside confirmation of their history, or when or how they became a single gender race that could breed with any species (which is a bizarre and unlikely ability to just evolve, which is pointed out on several occasions).
And Miranda was a human genetically produced by humans. Think that maybe that's just the theme of the game? Genetics and legacies?
Very plausible, but the fact that Harbinger comments on Samara being 'weak' if she's in your squad at the time, because they "rely on other species to reproduce" makes a dent in the theory. It may be that Harbinger doesn't personally know about this, though.
Alternately, the Ardat-Yakshi are actually a result of an asari mating with a Reaper. While the Ardat-Yakshi only appear through pure-blood unions, and are sterile, could it be conceived that once upon a time an indoctrinated asari melded with Sovereign, and gave birth to a daughter with a genetic defect that would only manifest after several generations? This would explain their manipulative powers that almost border on mind control, as well as their status as supernatural creatures of evil in the asari mythology. Furthermore, Morinth uses the term "genetic destiny" to describe herself, something that Harbinger likes to use when talking about the humanity's future. This could be deliberate foreshadowing...
Lampshaded (well for you guys) by Samara. One, Ardat-Yakshi have been around since they were in the Stone Age and before. Two, Ardat-Yakshi are sterile. So killing your mate to produce no children just means you're driving your species into extinction... well before space flight much less FTL travel. Three, they were also a single gender race no more unlikely to evolve than the number of real world species that are also mono-gendered with equally exotic reproductive methods (and this isn't considering things like bacteria). Or for the matter, some species that are capable of changing gender in various ways or means. Four, given the ability of the Reapers to genetically engineer things, it would have equally been easy to include a genetic control mechanism as with the Keepers or what not. Granted, this may be counter to the things they look for. Five, is it really that unusual to have a species with funky mutations? Humans have plenty of mutations available to them, some rare, some not so much, ranging in weirdness from plenty to not so much.
Jossed. Dialogue during ME2 reveals no species other then the humans will suit the Reapers.
ME3 shows this is not necessarily. Javik, the last Prothean, reveals that his race were responsible for much of their early development. There's also a secret Prothean beacon the asari used for further advancement after the Protheans were wiped out.
On the other hand, many of the Protheans were indoctrinated by the Reapers. Who's to say those who interfered in Asari development weren't sleeper agents of the Reapers?
The asari were designed by the Reapers, to serve as a method of gathering information
Similar to the theory just above, the Reapers were behind the development of the asari. Not as a template or anything like that, but as a way of gathering information. If you think about it, it makes quite a bit of sense, with asari being almost perfectly designed as espionage agents. They have a 'wild' phrase, where its not uncommon for them to work as strippers/mercenaries and all that, as well as being rather 'sexually free.' That gives them a perfect excuse to be out and about, with the possibility of finding asari almost anywhere, making them perfect 'honey pot' agents. How do you know that the sweet little blue thing your sleeping with is actually on her wild phrase, or simply pretending to be in order to gather information.
Certain members have been shown to have a pseudo-indoctrination effect, which could be used to produce double agents or seduce people into handing over classified information. Their very genetic structure, which requires outside DNA to randomise their own in order to reproduce, seems like it could easily turn into 'recording/copying', in order to gather genetic samples of various different races. Combine with a little bit of keeper style genetic tinkering, and they could even be used as a back up method of gathering data in case they are unable to recover the citadels archives.
See the spoiler above.
Alternatively, the asari evolved naturally, but the Ardat-Yakshi were created by the Reapers.
Yeah, there's not much backing this up...except for Morinth's "genetic destiny" comment. It's also possible that, for whatever obscure reasons were involved in the creation of the AYs, the Reapers or agents thereof tried similar mutations in other sentient species (vampires, anyone?) but they didn't take quite as well.
Since the Reapers only turn the Ardat-Yakshi into husks this is possible. Maybe they looked at the asari during the previous cycle and, like the Protheans, took notice of their great potential and tampered with them to give them better troops for when they'd advanced enough to be part of the cycle.
The asari were designed by the Protheans, to unite the galaxy.
Why are the asari so attractive to every species in the galaxy? The Protheans checked out all the sentient species they knew of that would fly under the Reaper's radar, and fit the traits those primitive species found physically attractive into the asari, and gave them their unique reproduction method in order to let them romance and marry other species, tightening the relationships between them. That's also why humans and asari are physically similar enough to even use the same armor and clothes; the Protheans used humanity (the primitive species on whom they had the most data, aside from perhaps the overly strange hanar) as their template.
Surely it is just as likely that the Asari were designed by the Protheans as either (a) Sexual Service Providers (And they could have been designed initially with little or no intelligence, although that elicits a certain amount of Squick from me) for use by any race, (b) Genetic Crossing testbeds (no pun implied- but you could use them, in theory, to find out what qualities you get if you, say, mixed Turian and Human DNA), or (c), and this idea I like more... living Genetic/Other Data libraries? Think about it; their telepathic abilities would allow them to trake in ans store massive amounts of data direct from the mind, and can also store genetic information from any species. Coupled with their long lives, Asari could potentially allow a whole race to last after an extinction event...
As of ME3, and the From Ashes DLC, this is largely confirmed. The Protheans were involved in helping to advance asari culture. Javik explains that they felt the asari were the best chance for this cycle to beat the Reapers. Although it's hinted Javik might have been lying to help Liara feel better about the Fall of Thessia.
Why would he lie? This largely made her feel worse as he berated her people for not living up to their potential and stopping the Reapers and it was only Shepard that made Javik cheer her up in the end. The Asari were meant to be The Chosen One.
Ardat-Yakshi were heavily abundant before asari discovered the other races.
Samara's dialogue implies that purebloods are more likely to become Aradat Yakshi than asari with an alien parent. Until asari could get off world and discover other species, all they ever could make were pureblood. Thus, Ardat-Yakshi were an epidemic back in the old days, and that's where the stigma against purebloods come from.
These Ardat-Yakshi were the reason that asari even had huntress militias. Normally, you'd think that a race so inclined to cooperation, diplomacy, debate and empathizing, like the asari, would eventually not need militaries since everyone got along. But the sociopathic Ardat-Yakshi with their enthrallment ability are threats that require military force. They wouldn't require conventional arms such as tanks, gunships, artillery, ICB Ms etc, but they would require spec ops units who could surgically neutralize problematic Ardat-Yakshi. That is why their military is structured the way it is.
The asari homeworld contains a lot of Element Zero.
Think about it. ALL asari are biotics. Even their mating process is biotic. Biotics are created from in-utero exposure to Element Zero, so the only way asari could evolve is on a planet with plentiful Eezo. Now, before someone says 'but Eezo is made from supernova remains': Space has no gravity. Thus, anything that moves in space won't stop moving until it gets caught in an orbit. The asari planet is, logically, a Supernova'd star's remains caught in the orbit of another star.
You know what else is made of supernova remains? The solar system. And every star system with elements heavier than carbon.
Thessia has been confirmed to be full of eezo, to the point that it's in the food and they have to make special food for visitors with the eezo purified out .
Ardat-Yakshi can reproduce.
Specifically, they can reproduce with each other. The asari have engaged in a desperate coverup to prevent anyone - least of all the AYs themselves - from learning this. Furthermore, Morinth knows this, which is why she says that she is the genetic destiny of the asari.
Taking this to the logical conclusion... Morinth has a daughter.
Combining this with the WMG about Ardat-Yakshis being more common on early Thessia, and the fact that Ardat-Yakshis are usually sociopaths, there may have actually been AY syndicates that threatened asari society. The asari response was an attempt at genocide. When it became clear that it was impossible to completely annihilate the Ardat-Yakshis, the asari took to placing them in seclusion and suppressing the truth.
It was not uncommon for Ardat-Yakshi to become Justicars.
A combination of several above WMG about Ardat-Yakshi and about Samara. As Ardat-Yakshi are more likely to be a result of mating between two asari, they were quite common before asari started leaving their planets. While most Ardat-Yakshi are sociopaths, sociopaths are not Always Chaotic Evil. Being more powerful than an average asari, Ardat-Yakshi are quite effective at bringing criminals to justice. At the same time, they adopted a very strict code and tradition of self-discipline, solitude and rejection of personal pleasures in order to keep their murder-lust in check. Thus an institute of Justicars, a socially acceptable avenue for Ardat-Yakshi, was born. As an additional bonus, in explains the fear and reverence asari hold for Justicars. Also, that is why Justicar code is completely black and white - it was designed for sociopaths, for those who are simply unable to be guided by empathy, compassion or mercy. Those to whom "follow your heart" would be a bad advice.
The asari erogenous zone is morphic.
The area between their legs is a mass of sensitive tissue that can be flexed into a variety of shapes. How else can they be sexually compatible and appealing with all genders and species? Male human? Go innie. Female human? Go outie. Etc.
Gross. And probably not true. I'm betting the asari developed sex toys and lubricants before they invented the wheel, though.
Asari don't reproduce through what humans consider traditional sexual intercourse; they meld nervous systems with their partner, take essentially two copies of their genetic information, and then use their partner's DNA to rearrange the second set for the purpose of genetic diversity. Hence, you end up with an Asari who is, genetically, 100% Asari, but may have, for instance, the heightened metabolism of a Salarian or the Blood Knight tendencies of a Krogan.
It's believed they still can have intercourse, no matter how unnecessary.
It's outright confirmed in Retribution.
One or more ancient asari mind-melded with a Leviathan
living in Thessia's ocean, resulting in the Ardat-Yakshi condition.This is based on the similarity to the Leviathan's mind control and Morinth's ability to manipulate people and the fact that they both give the Dominate ability.
Ardat-Yakshi are the result of an asari breeding with a Prothean.
The Protheans were apparently unaware of the Ardat-Yakshi condition, even while they were modifying them to lead the next cycle against the Reapers. This is strange considering how much power and attention they tend to draw to themselves in asari society. It's possible they didn't exist until after the Prothean tampering. Like the asari the Protheans possessed psionic abilities, but even more so and it's implied that even the Protheans found the asari attractive and dallied with them on occasion. However the joining was unstable and over time degraded into the Ardat-Yakshi condition.
Early asari were transplanted with human female genes by the Protheans in order to make them naturally biotic, which is why they look like blue women
As per the WMG below, human females make especially strong biotics. Also, human genetics are very malleable to adaptation and change, which is why even the Reapers want them. So it would make sense that Prothean efforts at genetically engineering biopics onto the long lived and wise for their evolutionary stage asari, resulted in failure after failure until someone discovered Cro-Magnon humans. So, they identified the human female with the highest potential for biotics and then crafted her genes onto the Thessian cuttlefish people.
Thus would also explain the Ardat-Yakshi. Human DNA is highly malleable and diverse, but the meiosis that creates new DNA requires two very different genetic combos to make a healthy offspring. So, just as inbreeding humans results in abnormalities, asari parthenogenesis of the same human female DNA over and over again, produces their own version of inbred abnormalities.
Biotic Powers
Biotics are naturally more powerful in females than males.
Think about it - all the most powerful biotics we see in the entire series are female. The entire asari race counts, as they're all biologically female. In the second game, only two squadmates can successfully protect everyone during the biotic bubble segment, and they're both female - Samara and Jack. And speaking of Jack, why would Cerberus make their number one biotic test subject female when males are on average physically stronger? Because they realized biotics are more powerful in females. In addition, Miranda's father deliberately changed his DNA to create a female daughter and gave her biotics. Why go through the trouble of making her female? Because female biotics are stronger. In the third game, there is not a single male Phantom (Cerberus's indoctrinated biotic warriors), and in fact most of the biotics you face over the course of the series are female. Conclusion? Biotic abilities naturally manifest themselves more in females than in males, regardless of species.
This WMG isn't completely accurate. The asari are mono-gendered. They just look female, and they are biotically capable because their evolution was tampered with by the protheans. Jack was stated in her Shadow Broker file that she had the highest biotic potential they'd seen in years, meaning she was a special case. There's no in-universe counterargument for Miranda, but she's not the most powerful biotic available. Dragoons are male and biotically capable. And the reason the largest number of enemy biotics are female is due to the asari providing them. If we take into account Multiplayer, then the drell, krogan, vorcha, batarians, and volus all provide male-only biotics. Plus, Javik, Wrex, and Kaidan are not exactly slouches in the biotics department.
Also Thane and Jacob, though they're not as strong as the above three.
The above is why there are no male-gendered asari.
It's already been hypothesized that there were once male asari but they died out. Well, asari are the most naturally powerful biotics in the galaxy, and they're all female. Maybe the male asari died out because biotic powers made the female asari the dominant gender, and eventually males became obsolete and died out?
Reliance on biotic powers is what doomed previous cycles
From what we know about at least two previous cycles (the Prothan and the Leviathan) biotic powers were relatively common and even a standard form of communication hence the beacon from Mass Effect pretty much requiring a biotic to understand it, but because of this it cut off a means of communication with the Synthetics they created, unable to register them as alive or at least sentient do to not being able to communicate the same way their makers did. unknowingly the reapers have slowly been removing heavy biotics from the galaxy and replacing it, while they are still around evolution has slowly favored races that relay on verbal and visual communication, similar to what the Synthetics would relay on, and this is why it is possible to get the Geth and Qurians to make peace, or for EDI to be so interested in humanity this is the first cycle where the perception of reality relays heavily on the tangible and not the mental and this cycle is the first to be able to unite all the forces against the Reapers.
The Prothean beacon doesn't rely on biotics to understand- a soldier, engineer or infiltrator Shepard with zero biotic ability accesses it the same as an adept, vanguard or sentinel Shepard does. The reason Liara was needed for Shepard to advance his/her understanding of its message was because Liara had the cultural expertise on Protheans, and because she was incidentally an asari,she could 'meld' with Shepard to share the knowledge. A non-asari with the knowledge could only have explained it verbally (of limited use), and another asari without Liara's knowledge of Prothean culture would have been no particular use at all.
As human biotics intermingle and produce biotic offspring for successive generations, there may eventually be a human with Ardat-Yakshi powers
The Ardat-Yakshi condition exists only among the asari, but asari are the only all biotic species and they look close enough to humans. So it is possible that the humanoid biotic genome upon successive meiosis cycles develops the Ardat-Yakshi syndrome as a recessive trait. Because asari could mind meld but humans can't, human Ardat-Yakshi can't inflict Out with a Bang. They will however, be able to Reave their victims to death, become addicted to doing that, and become stronger every time they do it - become life energy "vampires".
L2 Biotics and their medical issues
If you look closely at common complications suffered by L2 biotics and those suffering from Darrow Deficiency Syndrome, there are way too many similarities. Conclusion - the L2 implant caused the brain to reject it and build up glial cells around the implant. However, instead of neuropozyne doses taken to kill those glial cells, L3 and later version implants used medigel to act as a genetic interface.
Shepard's first name is Adrian.
Gman got a good offer from the Council, but Gordon was busy saving Earth in another universe. Then Cerberus bought him out for ME 2.
Shepard will die in the second game's bad ending.
This has cropped up as being canon on a few small gaming news sites as of late, but this troper is putting it here because he can't seem to find any actual links back to the developers themselves saying it; the rumor/unconfirmed report goes that Shepard will explicitly die if you get the second game's bad ending, and the plan is to make it so that if you carry over this save data to ME2 it will acknowledge it and change the protagonist.
Confirmed! However, if Shepard does die at the end of ME2, you can't carry that save into ME3.
Shepard will lead humanity against the Reapers in ME3.
As a corollary to all the WMGs that Paragon Shepard will unite the different races of the galaxy against the Reaper threat, Renegade Shepard will install humans as the rules of the galaxy and humanity will beat back the Reapers.
Shepard leads a united force of multiple races, whether Paragon or Renegade.
Corollary/spin on the above.
A paragon Shepard will have a number of powerful allies to fight against (and most likely defeat) the Reapers, at a heavy cost, with lots of Heroic Sacrifice. The Renegade Shepard will actually become a full-fledged Reaper, and take over the cycle of extinction.
One ending has Shepard take control of all the Reapers. Does that count?
Taking control of the Reapers Seems to be the Paragon choice (it causes blue stuff to happen anyway) so it seems to be close, but not quite. That said... if you choose it in a mostly renegade playthrough, it seems like Shepard might abuse the power, to put it nicely.
There will be a cult dedicated to Shepard in ME3.
If you meet her on Horizon, Ashley out-and-out calls you a god. No reason to think that a group like the hanar might not think that someone like Shepard is, in fact, divine. If you're a Paragon, you'll have the chance to talk all the cultists down and disperse the group peacefully; if you're Renegade, you use them as living shields against the Reapers ground troops.
It's more likely the hanar would see Shepard as some sort of devil-figure. In the first game, s/he defiles two Prothean beacons and causes signifcant damage to the Conduit site on Ilos, as well as causing Vigil to lose power and essentially die. In the second, Shepard kills what's left of the Protheans.
There is a cult: it's called the Normandy's Crew at least according to his/her clone
Addendum to above: The cult already exists. We know them as geth.
First comes the false god who leads astray part of their people with promises of heaven, turns them against them. Then, out of the unknown, comes a hero, a living god alight with fury and fire that defeats the heretics and slays the evil god in his hour of triumph, and then disappears. They train one of their own to seek out this hero. They retrace the hero's steps, only to find their final resting place. There, he retrieves a sacred relic of the hero, and carries it with him for protection. And then they find that not even death can stop their hero, for s/he is a living god, Shepard-Commander.
Oh and Legion's dancing and beatboxing? Prayer.
This makes a mad sort of sense when you know about Shephard's Prayer (Lord, don't let me f*** this up).
Paragon Shepard is the Second Coming.
Yeah, yeah, Everyone Is Jesus in Purgatory. But look at the facts.
S/he's the only one who can lead the galaxy to victory against a great evil.
S/he's come back from the dead (ok, s/he had help, but still...)
S/he's a "good guy" to a fault.
On the other hand, I'm not sure what that makes Renegade Shepard. Badass Jesus?
Dark Messiah, maybe?
Not to mention that with both the Zaeed and Kasumi DLC, Shepard has 12 squad members.
Biblically speaking, one of the titles of Jesus is "The Shepherd".
Played with. In the far-future epilogue of 3, they are referred to as "The Shepard".
The location of two ME3 missions will be determined by Shepard's origin.
Earthborn: New York.
Isn't it not confirmed where Earthborn Shepard lived?
Colonist: Mindoir.
Seems like it would make more sense for it to take place on the batarian slaver ship that raided the colony.
Spacer: SSV Einstein (Hannah Shepard's ship).
War Hero: Elysium.
Sole Survivor: Akuze.
You'll run into your old pal Toombs on this mission (assuming he didn't die in ME 1, anyways), and if you play your cards right, you can mend fences with him and convince him to join your crew. Having chosen the Paragon ending in ME 2 will go a long way towards this, but you'll be able to, with considerably more difficulty, bring him around if you picked the Renegade ending too.
Ruthless: Torfan.
Didn't happen.
Shepard will die halfway into the ME 3.
For now it will be a complete surprise. But this time Alliance will need a new hero ◊.
Commander Shepard is the young God-Emperor of Mankind.
Seriously people, this long without this being said? Canon-Shepard is the God-Emperor of Mankind and is fooling everybody. He's building himself an empire, trying to do everything right and nice and gentle, but every time the Council stymies him or some-such, they push Shepard even closer to establishing an Imperium of Man. Shepard loves all of his children, loves all of humanity, and would rather work with the aliens than kill them. But as the Council continues to stymie the future God-Emperor, he'll eventually say 'Yeah, this isn't working, let's eliminate the uncooperative elements'. This relatively limited genocide (of the races that continue to get in Humanity's way) will be expanded over time into kill all the Xeno's instead of kill all of the Xeno threats.
Alternatively, the Council races had nothing to do with Shepard/Emperor becoming anti-Xeno. It was the emergence of the Orks and Eldar, who started screwing shit up for the Council Races. In the end, only humanity was left and was only saved by the fall of the Eldar. The Emperor suffered a nasty case of Despair Event Horizon and decide there's no point in playing nice with anyone.
Alternatively Alternatively Shepard is an alternate universe version of the God Emperor.
ETERNAL. INFINITE. IMMORTAL.
Shepard is part-Reaper.
Shepard is definitely changed after getting the vision from the Prothean artifact at the beginning of ME. And s/he has been "resurrected" by Cerberus, probably with the use of Reaper technology. That almost everyone he talks to listens to her/him and agrees with her/him (except for the Council, but perhaps this is because they are already indoctrinated). Perhaps s/he's exerting mild indoctrination on everyone else around him.
Support for this theory. When talking to the first tank-bred krogan you meet on Korlus, he states he "does not seek to fight you". He literally spends all day killing people who approach him, but when it comes to you he stops firing and tells you what you want to know. Seems a little odd, eh?
Also, Shepard's Paragon and Renegade responses are a result of Shepard deliberately exerting the indoctrination influence; s/he just doesn't realize that's what s/he's doing, and thinks s/he's just putting on the charm/intimidation. In ME2, the more points you accumulate toward Paragon or Renegade, the easier it is to persuade people. That's because Shepard's getting better and better at using that particular method to indoctrinate people.
Colonist Shepard is a survivor of Teltin.
Anyone notice that in the message from TIM, he says that the surviving children were treated for their wounds, given an amnesiac and given to the Alliance as survivors of slaver attacks?
There's not enough time for this to happen. The summary you're given says s/he was picked up as soon as the relief fleet arrived. At most, s/he was missing for a couple of days.
Shepard's favorite colors are black and yellow.
In ME2, after completing a character's loyalty mission, they gain a change in wardrobe. Most of these feature yellow and black, Jacob and Miranda's most prominently. If they're changing their clothes to reflect a new loyalty to Shepard personally, why would they just choose colors out of the blue? Moreover, why would almost everyone choose a similar color scheme, unless Shepard had some stated preference?
Black, yellow and white and Cerberus colours. It makes perfect sense for them to choose those colours.
Except by that point, their loyalty is not to Cerberus, but the Shepard personally. That's the whole point of the Loyalty missions. So why would they still show the colors of their old affiliation?
The point of the clothing is to create a sense of unity. A bunch of badasses all dressed to match says as much if not more about the organization of the team than any action they might do.
And we don't know where those clothes came from. They might have been Cerberus-issued. Gaining their loyalty means they have no problem wearing them.
Seems likely as Shepard neither expresses a preference for or against certain colors. And while there are 12 crew members there are also many more NPC crew members as well who are loyal to Shepard. Picking Cerberus colors is probably a practical matter as anything else for a variety of reasons.
Shepard is the only person running out of heat sinks because s/he is the only one throwing them away.
While some enemies might accidentally drop one while they're in a hurry, the Shep is the only entity to keep throwing them away instead of holding on to them until they cool off.
I share that opinion. Some other fans think that heat sinks use a chemical reaction that ends in poor heat absorption.
Shepard is undead.
After two years and about 40 billion credits, Miranda concluded that resurrecting Shepard via medical science was impossible. So she turned to voodoo, animating Shepard as a sentient undead. Chakwas' line about implants is bullshit - that's magic. Shepard literally runs on positive energy to heal and maintain his/her humanity. Paragon actions enable Shepard to heal to the point that s/he appears human, while renegade ones cause Shepard's appearance to break down. Fortunately, Shepard's selfless actions (fighting to save the galaxy and all) give her/him the ability to regenerate anyway. If Shepard were to go rogue as Jack suggested, s/he would either become an undead monster or die due to an inability to heal.
The med-bay upgrade can prevent this, using technology to repair Shepard's body.
Well... Shepard doesn't necessarily disagree with you since s/he describes her/himself as undead at one point. Granted, s/he was joking but still. :)
Also, there is an afterlife, except Shepard doesn't know it because s/he's a soulless husk.
Shepard will actually be a/the villain of ME3.
One word: Indoctrination. It will have to be subtle since the amount of mental decay is proportional to the strength of indoctrination. But given the amount of influence Shepard has in the galaxy, it would make sense for the Reapers not to destroy that whom they can use.
Jossed.
Mass Effect is set in the same universe as Battlestar Galactica
Commander Shepard will have the choice in ME3 to end the Cycleof Revenge between organic and AI, like Kara Thrace and the Final five before her. "It has all happened before, and it will all happen again."
Shepard is a severely delusional One-Man Army.
Evidence pointing toward this conclusion:
When not in the field, the companions just stand around unnaturally on the ship;
Even when alone, Shepard announces things like "They've spotted us!";
Shepard is capable of using the unique powers belonging to any companion.
The clear implication is that the "companions" are all figments of Shepard's imagination; his/her superiors and crewmates Just Smile and Nod, because he/she's a terrifyingly effective force of destruction who charges into battle with a gun in each hand, an omnitool on each arm, and a couple of biotic amps in his/her brain while shouting commands at nonexistent people. When you're working with someone like that, you just try to keep 'em pointed at the nearest galaxy-sized threat and don't ask any searching questions.
I may not be Commander Shepard, but this is still my favourite WMG entry on this site. I am now going to create a new Renegon Shepard with this as that playthrough's canon. "and a couple of biotic amps in his/her brain while shouting commands at nonexistent people." Jesus. Thank you for making my night.
But, wait. People react to your squadmates once in a while. Are those the times that he actually does have someone with him?
Possibly. Or maybe they're just too scared to do anything but play along as Shepard acts out what his/her "squadmates" are doing. Really, if a heavily-armed badass elite soldier who is legally allowed to murder you where you stand tells you that s/he's travelling with a turian and a krogan, and then starts talking about his/her times as a krogan bounty hunter, are you going to argue?
Hold up a second. Your companions have direct effects on the world around them. How do you explain Garrus' time as Archangel, or Liara's time as a Shadow Broker agent? What about Jack becoming a teacher or Tali's trial? To suggest they aren't real would take a LOT of explaining.
Those all happened after a decently long time skip. Obviously, since Miranda and Jacob never existed, it isn't a stretch to assume the project that revived Shepard was just another one of his delusions after getting knocked out during a collector attack. He then went on to do things like become Archangel in the multi-year break between the first and second game or the year-long break between the second and third.
Shepard is such a badass because the Prothean beacon downloaded sheer awesomeness into his/her brain
Just a hunch. Possibly nonsense as all three of the service history choices imply Shepard was a badass before then, but going from surviving a single Thresher Maw attack or butchering Batarian pirates to beating Geth, Collectors, Reapers...just makes one think...
Shepard is immune to indoctrination because of what else was implanted with the Cipher by Shiala.
'Shiala was indoctrinated enough that she was happy to be engulfed by the Thorian. After she was released, she wasn't indoctrinated anymore; something even Matriarch Benezalia couldn't escape. The combination of Cipher/Thorian psychic weave counters the Indoctrination process. If you spared Shiala, she will be able to pass this to other people.
Yeah, Saren got that too, but Shiala wasn't "absorbed" for long enough for the psychic counters to perfect; plus he went along with Sovereign enough for it to get through the chinks in his mental defenses.
Actually, in ME3, you get an email where she says she IS still indoctrinated. But due to the mental connection she has with the other colonists, caused by the thorian spores, she's able to resist.
Shepard's Arcana is Persona 4's The Fool
Shepard is a Persona User, yet s/he hasn't fully awakened. Each member of his/her party is a Social Link, and after gaining their loyalty, s/he maxes out their social link. Unfortunately, when s/he got into an argument with Ashley/Kaiden on Horizen, His/Her Social Link reversed, meaning that s/he lost their loyalty. If s/he reconsiles with Ashley/Kaiden, their Social Link will repair and s/he'll gain their loyalty. The key difference between the Persona games and Mass Effect is that romances are only available after gaining Loyalty. As for who is each Arcana...
Magician: Garrus fills the role of Yosuke and Junpei, a second banaba to Shepard, who has similar qualities to Shepard. Between Mass Effect 1 and 2, He changed to the Tower after his squad was killed. Jacob takes this role in ME2.
The Priestess: Liara, a scholar, fits perfectly with the Priestess Arcana, as she met Shepard during her studies, and became an information broker during ME 1 & 2, becoming the Hermit in the process. She, as the Shadow Broker, became an option for Shepard's Hermit S Link, dealing with the duty of her job.
The Empress: Miranda is very caring for her sister, and does the best for her, taking her from their father and giving her to a loving family, and watching from the shadows unless Shepard convinces her to introduce herself. Samara used to be this, but her Arcana changed after Morinth ran away.
The Emperor: Anderson represents leadership for Shepard when he was in the Alliance, but Wrex is the Emperor S Link, where Shepard convinces him to bring the clans together.
The Heirophant: The Council, who are conservative and create the laws of the Galaxy, only permitting a small amount of people to break the laws (The Spectres).
The Lovers: This is a situational S Link, with no one representative, although you could say that Conrad Verner represents it. Shepard has to constantly make decisions throughout the games that are two sides of the coin. Conrad has two basic endings, to go home or try and become more of a badass.
The Chariot: Wrex, in ME2, whose conquest to gather the krogan into aiding the race as a whole, commanding them into an army.
Justice: Samara, who believes in justice, yes, but is very rational and calm, and is a balance of two ideals (Committing evil for a greater good).
The Hermit: Jack, who chooses solitude over normal interactions, although Shepard's interactions with her cause her to try and become a better person. After Lair of the Shadow Broker, Liara becomes an optional Hermit S Link, although it doesn't reap many rewards.
The Wheel of Fortune: Mordin, who believes in second chances, and created the new genophage when he realised that the krogan were still too dangerous, and that their increasing numbers would cause another krogan rebellion. He believes in reincarnation, the ability to start over again from scratch.
Strength: Tali
The Hanged Man: Saren in ME1, The Illusive man in Mass Effect 2. Saren believed himself to be a saviour, but his actions were making the situation worse. The Illusive Man constantly preaches how his actions are "In the interest of Humanity", which will bite everyone in the ass if you gave him the Collecter base. Sidonis also belongs here, due to the quilt of getting his squad killed start eating away at his sanity.
Death: Thane, and before you start, he is welcoming death as nothing more than a change to his existance, as he puts it, "Letting go of the safe embrace of the land to become one with the sea." He sees death not as an end, but as a means of a new life.
Temperance: Joker and EDI initially dislike each other, yet when they finally see aside their differences, they become a formitable team in their own right
The Devil: Morinth, who tempts Shepard during Samara's Loyalty mission, represents the dark, hedonistic nature that lures Shepard to the Renegade path. Not available if you choose to kill her. Aria is a better representation, who regularly surrounds herself in a field of excess and temptation, yet doesn't actively join in to it, showing how both excess and abstinence are unhealthy.
The Tower: Garrus in ME2, who blames himself for the death of his squad on Omega.
The Star: Kelly, who has stated her love of all living beings in the galaxy, and acively wishes safe regards to the crew of the ship. And no, she does not belong to the Lovers.
The Moon: Tali. Her face is a mystery, her dreams are to return to her people's homeworld, and creativity, which is the fanboy's ideas of what she looks like.
The Sun: The people who Shepard help in side quests, who he provides happiness for in one way or another, as well as the people who aren't directly related to his story. Everyone he meets and helps, such as the grieving asari on Ilium, to the krogan who want to know if there are fish in the Citadel.
Judgement: The final assault against the Collectors and Reapers, what Shepard has been preparing for since being revived. It's the end of the road, and at that end, is a fork, with some difficult decisions to make.
Shepard might be Immortal. Or at least, can be revived from death indefinitely, due to being exposed to the Prothean Beacon during Mass Effect 1.
Despite this being a futuristic world, death is treated as something permanent. And in Shepard's case, his death at the start of Mass Effect 2 was a particularly harsh.
Space Suit failure, leaking air, exposure to deep space, falling from ORBIT, suffering re-entry into a planet that might not even be suitable for human life and hitting the ground so hard there's a sizable crater at the impact site. The fact that there was even a body left after all that is impressive by itself.
It wasn't just the 40 billion credits and years of ground breaking treatments that bought him back, there has to be SOMETHING that could have allowed "Shepard", personality, memories and all, to survive his extensively damaged mortal shell. My guess is that whatever was downloaded into Shepard, being designed to last near forever, allowed Shepard to come back as himself.
Also, without exposure to a Prothean Beacon, 40 billion credits and treatments, you don't get a "continue" after you die.
One day, when Shepard is near death (injury or just old age), the Illusive Man or some other group/figure is going to offer Shepard another chance at life, footing the 40 billion credits and treatments in exchange for his (figurative) soul.
Or Shepard is saving up for that 40 billion and will find the treatments himself. If he can save the world, he can probably make a fortune.
Shepard is not only immortal, he's actually the Nameless One from Planescape: Torment.
With all the sad, broken people who end up joining his team, you almost have to wonder if he has the Mark of Torment somewhere on his body.
He routinely comes back from the dead, which is how he's able to (sort of, maybe) defeat the Reapers.
Because of cybernetics, he's able to retain his memory and personality between incarnations.
At the end of Mass Effect 3, when those cybernetics are destroyed in making the deal with the Star Child, he goes back to losing his memory after death.
Saving the galaxy still isn't enough to save him from damnation.
Shepard's synthetic parts make him immortal.
Let's see. Getting poisoned by that batarian bartender on Omega? Meh. Losing the Object Rho battle? It doesn't kill him. Getting hit by Harbinger's blast, which is a stream of molten metal moving at relativistic speed? Bitch please. And last but not the least, that petty explosion in the Destroy ending? Not even that can take Shepard down. What the hell did Cerberus put in him?
Shepard reverse romance.
Basically, there'll be a game where you play as a different character. Shepard will appear, based on your previous saves, and be a romance option. But there is the chance s\he will try and romance you instead.
If Paragon Shepard has the Ruthless Backround, it is because he realized What Have I Done
There are actually three Shepards before the start of the original game
This is one that I sincerely believe. The idea is that before Mass Effect, there is a Shepard for each of the three Backgrounds you can pick. My evidence is that despite picking, say, the Space background, events relating to the Colonist background are still mentioned, including the Spacer-specific background with Zabaleta (he was there trying to defend the colony that Colonist!Shepard was at). So where did the other two go? Well, they probably died in their pre-service history events; either dying after the Akuze attack (Sole Survivor), dying defending civilians during the Skyllian Blitz (War Hero) or during the raid against Batarians on Torfan (Ruthless). note Interestingly, the Ruthless attack on Torfan was in retaliation for the attack in War Hero! This gives a dark implication to choosing your Shepard's backstory; you are actually choosing which of the three lives!
The default Male Commander Shepard is a natural redhead
...with dark roots. Just like the default Female Commander Shepard. You just can't see it because he keeps his hair buzzed.
Shepard and his/her allies are prone to forgetting his/her first name
Given that he/she always calls themselves Shepard, and never give any mention when someone else shares their name even when it would warrant noting (e.g. a 'Thomas' Shepard that romanced Ashley doesn't say anything when she mentions her sister married a Thomas), Shepard barely remembers his/her name. When he/she points out to Chakwas that she never mentioned their first name, it was secretly an indirect way of asking what it really was.
Conrad Verner
Conrad Verner will save the galaxy in Mass Effect 3, if he lives that long.
Much like Mr. Satan/Hercule in Dragon Ball, he'll be directly responsible for rousing the masses in support of Shepard at a critical point.
Well, he takes a bullet for Shepard.
Well, unless you completed a particular side mission back in ME1. And then he contributes his PhD in Xenoscience to the Crucible Project.
Conrad Verner will be recruitable in Mass Effect 3.
If you take the Paragon persuasion option when finishing Conrad's sidequest in ME2, Shepard lies to Conrad and says the fake undercover cop was actually an extremely dangerous wanted terrorist and that Conrad should be happy he played a part in getting her caught. As his next line is something along the lines of "Now go home, and leave the rest to me," Shepard's intent with this response seems to be to make Conrad think he's made a difference after Conrad explains that he's taken up (or tried to take up, at any rate) mercenary work to save the galaxy by filling in the void Shepard left when s/he died.
This is obviously a terrible idea, because this is Conrad we're talking about, and this response isn't going to do anything but encourage him. In the next game, if you gave him this response, you'll find him still tooling about with his "mercenary" work, except this time, instead of just running into him, he runs into Shepard during a mission after all hell's broken loose, gets tangled up in the firefight, and ends up running his ass off towards the Normandy with them. We'll learn at this point that his replica armor is at least somewhat functional; considering he's been wandering the edge of the Terminus Systems, he'd probably have gotten himself killed on Illium after annoying someone too much if he didn't have an actual kinetic barrier. He'll also have wisened up enough to carry a pistol he can barely use.
On the Normandy, continuing on the Paragon path will once again result in Shepard trying to make Conrad go away through kindness, this time by telling him he can join the team... if he's willing to be trained in order to keep up. You can choose who will fulfill this role; the renegade option is Grunt, who ends up accidentally killing him, eating him, and shrugging apologetically. The neutral option is Jack, who just scares him off with her crazy. The Paragon option, however, is Garrus, who turns into Drill Sergeant Nasty. With this option, Garrus can be seen running Conrad ragged all around the ship while sounding a whole lot like R. Lee Ermey after the next couple of missions, until it finally ends with an exhausted Garrus admitting that Conrad actually works perfectly well under decent military authority (naturally, Shepard can ask Garrus which of them has reach and which of them has flexibility here). Conrad is finally recruited at this point as an Engineer, because he's clearly not a biotic and can only use a pistol without killing himself, but turns out to be mechanically inclined.
Apparently, if you go back to the Citadel or somewhere after Paragon-convincing Conrad to go home, he'll have started up a charity for orphans and other unfortunate souls called the Shepards, so unfortunately I believe this is Jossed. I think I like this idea better, though - it would probably be the best example of Took a Level in Badass ever.
Oh, that's easy to work in; the report specifically mentions that his charity helps human slaves escaping from batarian slavers. Batarians don't like things like that very much and will probably go after him to put an end to it. Conrad runs into Shepard and co while on the run from batarians or mercs hired to kill him. Alternatively, he tries to keep being a mercenary as the charity's primary source of funding.
Shepards only helped already-freed slaves. So, unfortunately, not going to happen.
Uh....what?
Or perhaps he gets trained by Garrus, but instead of joining Shepard he goes to Omega and becomes the next Archangel?
That'd be more of an Ass Pull than anything else. Would anyone really accept Conrad to end up anywhere on the level of that in the time frame of the game?
It was established that Conrad has no combat training whatsoever. Probably never even been in a firefight. All the other party members are either long-time veterans (Zaeed, Samara, Garrus) or specially engineered to be powerful (Jack, Grunt, Legion).
Conrad: Joke Character?
If you do his Loyalty Mission, he either takes a level in bad ass, or enters into Lethal Joke Character.
Sadly, you can't recruit him. Maybe with the next batch of DLC.
You can get a copy of his doctorate dissertation on Xenoscience to help the Crucible Project, though.
Wild Mass Fanwanking would be more apt, but...
Paragon Shepards! Confused about why Conrad's on Illium? Can't remember pointing a gun to his head? Well, it's likely you posed for a photograph because you're just that nice. When you did that all those years and that death ago, you raised your gun. It was quite clearly away from Conrad, but he's had two years of mourning and fangirling that you wouldn't have known about, being dead and all. As he remembered, he misremembered little details here and there until you met him on Illium and he was all, "You pointed a gun right at my head! That was so awesome!" The more things change, the more they stay the same. Udina's a prick, Conrad's an idiot, and you're a Chick Magnet. Yes, female Shepard, even you.
It's actually a bug; ME2 can't properly understand the way the information for Conrad's sidequest is spelled out in the save file becuase ME1 mis-set the flags or the importer botched the import, and it defaults to the renegade option. Still, this is a decent justification for a Paragon character seeing Conrad like we do.
Alternatively, even after you tell him to go home the first time, he just doesn't quite get it. His gun shoving story is just a way to make him seem more badass after his wife 'encourages' him to leave.
Audio files were uncovered that detail how the encounter in the Illium bar would go down if the Paragon option worked properly. View here.
In ME3, he apologizes for accusing you of pointing a gun at his head. He explains he was under a lot of pressure.
Conrad is going to save your life.
More specifically by biting a bullet for you.
Confirmed! Though he can survive if you completed the Rita's Sister sidequest in ME1.
Conrad will actually take a level in badass if he survives ME2 and appears in ME3
At first the Shepards will help slaves that are already free, but the stories about the abuse and horrors slaves go though at the hands of their masters compels Conrad to act. He'll go actively freeing any slave outside of batarian space (because even Conrad is not that stupid) and trying to stop slave raids while they happen. He'll even start gathering allies and hiring mercenaries for the cause. He starts off as the strategist, coming up with the battle and raid plans, but will eventually learn how to actually fight because the people he recruits teach him how in case one of the people on his rapidly growing list of enemies tries to kill him. A mission will involve several groups of slavers trying to kill Conrad and his group because they hate them like the mercs on Omega hated Garrus when he was Archangel. He can call Shepard for backup, and surprise everyone by holding them off successfully until he/she gets there with minimal losses to his combatants, and no freed slave casualties. He only calls Shepard because the plan he came up with to get out of the situation requires three more people, and he noticed that Shepard always had two other people with him/her whenever he met up with him/her.
The Paragon choice will end in the plan working perfectly, and Shepard getting Conrad's charity/organization a large amount of donations by enforcing it and visiting the Shepard's regularly. Especially significant and sweet for the Colonist background and/or Ruthless reputation.
The Renegade choice is to refuse to help (as in you either go on the mission right away or lose it completely) or make it so Conrad gets killed. The reason being that Conrad is annoying. Especially especially assholeish for the Colonist background.
With either ending, you finally get to meet, or at least see a picture of, Conrad's mentioned, but mysterious wife.
Naturally, he doesn't. Also, turns out he doesn't have a wife. But he does have a nice shrine to you. Just a picture and a few candles, very tasteful.
In ME3, the Council will send another Spectre after Shepard.
As we all know, the way that the Council deals with rogue Spectres is to send another after him/her. In the Council's eyes, Shepard is becoming a dangerous liability: spreading lies, defying their authority, working with pro-human criminals, etc. They can't even justify it with saying that the means are justified by his mission... because they haven't given him one! As far as the Council's concerned, Shepard's a guard dog that's gone rabid... and it's time to put him down.
Technically, they already did this through a huge bit of luck when the Collectors killed Shepard.
Spectres can act on their own, they don't need authorisation from the Council. Anderson says as much in the first game.
True, but that's just in regards to their missions and their relationship with others. They still have to follow orders and such from the Council and need their permission for some things.
Conrad! you treacherous SNAKE!
Maybe but one 'sidequest' in ME2 has Shep ask the Council to re-instate their Spectre status. Thus the implication is that such status was lost when they died.
It may be that the Council will send a Spectre after Shepard, but whether it is another Spectre depends on if you got your Spectre status reinstated (though they will probably strip you of your Spectre status, as they presumably did with Saren - from their perspective, you did kill another Spectre without prior authorization, and an entire inhabited star system. That both cases were warranted is not really available data).
Not exactly. You can have a brief confrontation with the Virmire Survivor, who's been promoted to a Spectre, right in front of the Councilors.
The Council knows exactly what's going on.
While the Council has been adamant to acknowledge there's anything going on with the Reapers whatsoever, their sheer willingness to plant their heads under the sand makes this troper think something else is going on. In ME1, it was plausible for them to deny the Reapers' existence because no one knows anything about them. But near the end, this giant cuttlefish-shaped warship that no one's ever seen before launches an attack on the Citadel just like Commander Shepard said it would. There's just no logical reason for them to keep saying, "CLEARLY it was a geth ship". So what are they doing? Simple. Since Shepard's working for Cerberus, they're conspiring to keep him in the dark, just to be safe, while they're making plans to deal with the Reapers. They're probably going about it like so:
SHEPARD: Guys, thanks for seeing me on such short notice. Sorry our last meeting didn't go so well, but this time I have definitive PROOF of the Reaper menace. The Illusive Man told me there was a derelict Reaper ship in the Hawking Eta, so I checked it out, and what do you know! It's there! If you don't believe me, you can go send a fleet to -
ASARI COUNCIL MEMBER: Commander Shepard, this proves nothing.
SHEPARD: Guys, no, seriously, entire galaxy at stake here! Send a few Spectres, you can see it for yourselves and then start mobilizing -
TURIAN COUNCIL MEMBER: We already saw it, Commander.
SHEPARD: ... what?
TURIAN COUNCIL MEMBER: Yes. We saw it months ago. It's a fake, of course. A Cerberus plot of some kind.
SHEPARD: A fake? A fake warship that's bigger than the largest dreadnought we can build and oh, coincidentally just HAPPENS to look exactly like the one that attacked the Citadel? It's millions of years old! Did you carbon date it? Did you run a single test on it? It's not f*** ing papier-mache!
SALARIAN COUNCIL MEMBER: The test results were inconclusive.
SHEPARD: Inconclusive huh? You know what else is inconclusive? YOUR F*** ING PATERNITY TEST YOU F*** ING SALAMANDER! I WILL SHOVE MY CAIN UP YOUR *** AND PULL THE TRIGGER UNTIL IT GOES CLICK! I WILL RIP YOUR -
(SHEPARD is dragged kicking and screaming from the Council chamber by ANDERSON. The COUNCILORS look at each other and then suddenly erupt in gales of laughter.)
ASARI COUNCILOR: How long do you think we can keep this going?
SALARIAN COUNCILOR: He's got to catch on sometime.
TURIAN COUNCILOR: I can't believe that human is so stupid.
ASARI COUNCILOR: You're just mad because you took the under. Anyway, let's get back to working on the fleet mobilization. How many anti-Reaper Thanix cannons do we have now?
SALARIAN COUNCILOR: A little over five hundred thousand. Two for every spaceworthy vessel in Citadel space.
TURIAN COUNCILOR: Awesome. The Reapers are so screwed.
Agreed. The Council can't be that stupid. This or they will not believe you AGAIN, because you have absolutely no evidence of the connection between Reapers and Collectors, and this would be just ridiculous.
Then again, you either blow the Collector Base to smithereens or fumigate it of Collectors. There's enough justification there for them to stuck their heads back in the sand until the Reapers chew their upright butts off.
Heck, the Council's history hasn't been that of incompetence, but that of covert planning way before the threat becomes real, the preparation of Anderson as the first human Spectre, etc. See the setting up of the Spectres, before the Krogan Rebellion. Their incompetence in the first game is probably best explained by the Cereberus-sponsored Udina sabotaging their decision process. Almost certainly, behind the scenes, secret forces like the Spectres are doing *something* .
This would certainly be supported by the fact that the Salarian STGs seem to be quite aware of the Reaper threat, probably thanks to Captain Kirrahe. Remember that one of Mordin's recent projects was studying the effects of the Reaper Indoctrination?
It would also explain the increased security measures at the Citadel. As Legion demonstrates, looking for "geth infiltrators" seems pretty ridiculous at first glance, since geth do not (intentionally) infiltrate organics in same way as, say, Cylons. However, the security checks would be effective at stopping sleeper agents who may have been exposed to Reaper indoctrination. "Geth infiltration" is just a cover story for the real reason.
You can just walk in there with Goto and Legion, a wanted thief and a geth respectively. They are either blind or not looking for geth. They flagged ASARI as Geth Infiltrators. Now I feel bad for helping them, as they were most likely indoctrinated.
Back the truck up and assess. Shutting down Garrus' investigation of Saren. Sending Shepard with one starship (that's not even theirs to give) and no funding. Sending Shepard after Kirrahe's panic signal. Grounding the Normandy just when they get a step ahead of Saren. Then, after he saves them: "Ah, yes, Reapers". Flat "What". They are in on it but can't activate the Citadel relay and access dark space without a Reaper. Let them die. They deserve it. Give the Illusive Man a very big Christmas present. He deserves it.
The Council is mildly indoctrinated.
After the events of ME1 they took Shepard's warnings very seriously. They gathered together as many pieces of Sovereign as they could find, and personally oversaw research over them as often as they could. The small pieces didn't have the same power to indoctrinate as an intact Reaper, but they still produce a sense of close-mindedness and indecisiveness strong enough to seriously mess with one's judgement - the final defense that the Reapers have even if they are destroyed.
Support for this theory. When talking to Vigil in ME1, he states that "Saren is a servant of the Reapers. Though he is the most visible, it is unlikely he is the only.". In ME2 when refering to Vigil and talking to the Council they say they found remains of it, but it was inoperable. Vigil states he does not activate for people who have been indoctrinated, which is why Saren never found him on Virmire. So not only is the Council indoctrinated, their agents are too.
Tela Vasir will show up in ME3.
Taking off from a couple ideas above: if during the course of the second game you never reconciled with the Council (through Udina or Shep turning down the Council's offer), they will consider you too big a risk to let run around unfettered, so they send asari Spectre Tela Vasir after you. Which leads to an all-out Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny, Spectre-to-Spectre. Alternatively, if you did take their offer to be reinstated as an official Spectre, they still bring in Tela Vasir - but in regards to the Reaper threat (after they're either convinced or reveal that they believed it all along, whichever it turns out to be). Which means finally getting to work with another Spectre, maybe as a teammate.
Bonus points, if she's sent to bring you in, you can Charm/Intimidate her into joining you.
And romance her, causing you to have to kill your former love interest if you do.
Vasir appears in Lair of the Shadow Broker.
And apparently dies. So, her showing up in ME3 is a little unlikely.
And since Wrex could have died in ME1, he doesn't show up at all in ME2 ...wait. There's always the possibility that she could show up for people who either start a new ME3 game without importing a save, or who never downloaded or completed Lair of the Shadow Broker and watched her die.
Even if you don't play it, ME3 assumes you did. What happened in Lair of the Shadow Broker happened, whether the player specifically did it or not. So it remains very unlikely Vasir will appear.
The Turian Councilor is going to have a Moment of Awesome in ME3.
There has to be a reason why Bioware is making him look like an ass through the first two games. Either he's going to sacrifice himself against the Reapers, lead the Council races against the Reapers (if the other two Councilors are dead, three if Udina is Councilor) or pilots a suicide ship, rams it into a Reaper, and sets it off.
We get to kill the Turian Councilor in ME3 because he's indoctrinated later.
Because... nearly everyone wants to.
Then, when someone remarks on you killing the indoctrinated councilor, you can respond, "He was indoctrinated?"
The Turian Councilor has a reason for not trusting Shepard.
Remember that story Garrus told Shepard about the scout regarding his reach and her flexibility? That was the Councilor's daughter. And he is pissed.
The Council is and always has been an enemy.
In the first game, they not only gave Saren a blank check, but shut down investigations concerning him. Only when proof of geth involvement came to light did they send Shepard and the Normandy after him. A single ship on a shoestring budget. Versus Saren's decades of experience, Benezia's asari shocktroopers, krogan mercenaries, an army of geth, and Binary Helix to bankroll the whole thing. And don't forget the giant ship sighted on Eden Prime, even if it's not an "ancient sentient starship" - since when do Spectres get their own dreadnoughts? Saren was a facking N.G.O. Superpower. And they sent Shepard after him With This Herring. Can you say False Reassurance? Heck, they sent Shepard to support Kirrahe on Virmire instead of a fleet - when they had ordered Kirrahe to hunt down Saren! Then, after Shepard proves that Saren is planning to attack the Citadel directly, they ground the Normandy!
In the second, they not only dismiss the Reapers as a threat, but actively suppress all information about them. If pressed, they'll reinstate Shepard as a Spectre to placate his remaining allies. But as that's the last contact they have with you, they don't get any further opportunities to mess with you.
The Council agrees with Saren - that the only way the organic races will survive is through working with the Reapers. They just take a subtler approach. The Council is trying to adapt to Shepard's resurrection throughout ME2, but that won't last. The third game will have Shepard as Saren's mirror image - running his own conspiracy while being chased by Spectres. Only he's trying to beat the Reapers instead of helping them.
Shepard is already becoming Saren's mirror image:a Renegade Shepard who doesn't use the Med Bay to heal their scars begins to look like Saren, and even the Paragon Shepard is slowly becoming Saren's inverse: The geth follow you thanks to Legion. The krogan follow you because of Wrex. The rachni follow you thanks to the Queen you spared on Noveria. Mass Effect 3 will end with Shepard leading geth to attack a Reaper, while Wrex celebrates a genophage cure.
Given that part of Saren's plan involved killing them off, the idea that the Council supported Saren doesn't really make sense. Also, Normandy may have been a single ship, but it was a single state of the art *stealth* ship. Sending a fleet to support the Normandy would have completely ruined Shepard's chances. A small elite group fares better than a ham-handed show of force, as the games indicated. If the Council was really opposed to Shepard in the second game, Shepard would not have left the Citadel alive.
Except that killing Saren was also part of Sovereign's plan, and he went along with it. If they'd been serious about dealing with Saren, they'd have gone after Binary Helix and/or frozen his accounts - like he was a criminal or something. Making Shepard a Spectre without properly equipping him was also suspicious. Sending Shepard to Virmire when one of their recon teams sent a panic signal was just plain stupid - unless they knew there was an army of krogan there and they wanted everyone dead. And grounding Shepard when he had incontrovertible proof that Saren was about to attack the Citadel... pfui! The Council probably would have to have been killed by the geth for them to admit Sovereign wanted them dead. And they couldn't exactly kill the Hero of the Battle of the Citadel in broad "daylight" so to speak.
This got me thinking, what if they are part of the plan and they knew that part of the plan was for them to "die"? If you choose to let the council die, we are told they are aboard the Destiny Ascension but we never see them since the ship blew up. What if this is part of the plan too? The Council is shown to be very crafty and subtle. In Revelation, there is a scene where an ambassador is trying to convince them to let Anderson go with Saren on a mission. The whole time she thought she was manipulating them, but then after she had made a few points, the Asari Councilor agreed to her terms without consulting the others. The ambassador left wondering why she did this, then realized she got played, and that they expected her to say what she said, and had already decided to go along with it. They have the brains and planning to pull off something like this, but also the ambition and motivation. They have a lot to gain (or so they think) from the Reapers. These are very influential people with many powerful connections. Even "dead" they could still manipulate what goes on behind the scenes. If the Council is on the Reapers side, they most likely have gotten to thousands of other influential people too. If you chose to save the Council you could just be making things easier for them by not forcing them to go underground. If you let them die, it just inconveniences them because they have to start hiding who they are, but ultimately they are still working towards the original goal. They could also help keep the panic down, by denying the existence of the Reapers, just like they are already doing. Do the Reapers need to keep them alive? No. Does them being alive make the Reapers job easier? Yes.
I'm not saying I disagree just yet, but there's some things I'm thinking: Virmire, Saren's main base of operations, is in the Terminus Systems, how can the Council mess with an account outside of their juristiction? Also, how do we know what the Council does with new Spectres? For all we know they normally get sponsored by their goverment and are given extensive training which you would normally get but can't because you have an important mission right now not to mention they probably expected the Alliance to hand the single most advanced ship in Citadel Space and possibly the entire Galaxy over to you and just you. What did you want them to do at Virmire? All they knew was that Saren was there and the team had tried to tell them something important (not a panic button) so they send in a secret agent with the only stealth ship ever into a place where they really have no jurisdiction to investigate. You weren't sent there to blow things up, you were sent to slip in, check it out and get the STG team's report that they couldn't send, act as you saw fit, and then get back out to get back in contact with the Council and update them on the situation. Remember, sending in a Spectre is one step short of sending in an entire fleet. But here's something for you: What proof do you have that you can show them that is undeniable evidence that Saren is about to attack the Citadel? Why is it a bad idea to ground the person who wants to start a massive fucking war just because (s)he thinks Saren's going to get his hands on a super-weapon that'll kill everybody? At that point of the first game the Council has every right to think that at the very least you're a bit of a loose cannon, possibly more than a little psycho, and you want to go somewhere that'll start the galactic equivalent of World War III. Uh... no. Though I totally agree that if they wanted to kill Shepard, they wouldn't do it on the Citadel and be obvious about it. They'd detain you in litigation as they sent a subtle Spectre to snipe you from afar.
They could have easily just impounded the Normandy SR-2. Shepard gave them plenty reason to - it's a Cerberus vessel, and if they want an excuse, Shepard's brought a goddamn geth infiltrator onto the Citadel! They could have just given him orders to report to Alliance HQ to be debriefed for the next 8 months. They could have done almost anything.
Except even if they could justify all their actions in the first game, humanity should have gotten their support in the second - instead, they backpedal. They practically drive Shepard into the service of TIM. They either have an agenda or are so stupid humanity could have beaten them all during the First Contact War.
Holy... what if they do have an agenda, but it's not against Shepard, but against Cerberus?! To quote: "Things explode around you Shepard", also, if you're Paragon enough to have saved the Council, then that means they expect you to be a good guy, Cerberus is the bad guys, Shepard's modus operandi is blow up the bad guy's shit. They are forcing you to Cerberus in the hopes you'll blow them the hell up in frustration of their 'evil ways'! They think that if you were enough of a 'Paragon of virtue' to sacrifice human lives to save them, then there's no way you'd stand for all the bullshit Cerberus does for very long! They expect you to blow their shit up and even fix whatever threat the Reapers may or may not pose in the process! Holy shit! It actually makes sense!
Then they are genuinely stupid. Dude, Where's My Respect?? Their treatment of Shepard in the first game was obscene. And they still expect him to take damage for them? Huh. Letting Council die now, getting Illusive Man very big Christmas present in 3, 2, 1...
Hmph. Real heroes don't ask for respect, or recognition. Just the satisfaction of a job well done. Keep the Reward.
Hey! Heroes don't have to be martyrs, and martyrs don't get to be heroes anymore!
Also, a lot of the Council's incompetence in both games can be explained by Udina.
Not at the beginning. Udina was perfectly happy to give Shepard free rein in hunting down Saren. He only balked at sending ships into the Terminus Systems because it might trigger a war. Still doesn't stop him from being an ass.
They start helping out in ME3.
Everyone who spends significant time on the Citadel is mildly indoctrinated.
Remember, it's a Reaper thing. The Council and Udina are all in denial about the Reapers while Anderson's more open-minded. Of course, he only just arrived there in ME1. By ME3, he'll have his head in the sand too.
Except Anderson has had a flat on the Citadel for a long time. Since before the events of Revelation even. It might only be a week or so every month but I imagine it would add up. So maybe it's just the Council Chamber that has indoctrination tech?
I considered that, but had no way to word it at X-in-the-morning. Few people are allowed there (because too many indoctrinated people at once would look a bit suss), and the keepers hang around there more than they do any other part of the Citadel. In the first game, you can overhear people talking about the keepers, Chorban's curious about them... but the higher-ups, the ones who spend the most time in the Council chamber, make it illegal to disturb the keepers. Sure, they die if disturbed, but they're always replaced. There's really no need for the law except to stop people finding out about what makes them tick. (Which is Reapers, BTW.)
Or that the government has no idea how the Citidel works and is so terrified that somebody could break it that they take the safe route rather than risk real research.
Turian Councilor Sparatus has a crush on FemShep.
This is probably one of the most out-there theories this troper has ever written, but what if the naysayers are wrong and Sparatus isn't 'just a jerk'? He always had a thing for FemShep that was never reciprocated, so every time FemShep contacts the Council with news about some planet or another, Sparatus takes a leaf out of the Tsunderes' books and constantly passive-aggressively taunts FemShep, like a young boy yanking the hair of a girl he fancies to try and get her attention.
This, of course, means in ME 3 when the Turian Councilor finally gets taken to task for being such a Jerkass and humbly apologizes to FemShep, admitting he had a thing for her all along, FemShep will respond dismissively, "Screw you, man, I've got Garrus's reach!"
But he also acts like this with a male Sheperd, sooooooo...
Even the Guys Want Him
The Council is running a millenia-old Gambit Roulette.
It is certainly conceivable, probable even, that the Prothean scientists who found themselves on the dead Citadel at the end of the previous Reaper cycle would try to leave clues about what had happened. These clues were then found by the asari who first re-discovered the Citadel, who then shared the knowledge with the other races as they became galactically important. This led to the formation of a contingency plan, which was maintained in perpetuity. What the Council did not count on is an upstart race becoming a major power so shortly before the return of the Reapers. This interference is a great annoyance to the Council, but to avoid offending the powerful humans, the council created Shepard as a Spectre and sent him on a fool's errand. When he succeeded, they were annoyed by the further interference in their plans. Now that Shepard has returned from the dead, the reason they allow him to work with Cerberus is that it keeps him away from matters affecting the rest of the Galaxy. In other words, the plot of both games was just a ploy to keep Shepard, and by extension the other humans interested in the Reapers, out of their (metaphorical) hair.
Well, given that Magnificent Bastard tends to be the asari's hat and that they more or less run the council this isn't that far-fetched. An example of this can be found in Revelations the human ambassador at that time, Anita Goyle, put Anderson forward as a Spectre candidate only to find out that the asari councilor had planned to do so in the first place and was more or less waiting for the request to be made. So, long story short, my guess is that the asari have already developed something that can ROF Lstomp Reaper ships like there's no tomorrow and they're holding it secret because they don't want to have the Reaper's learn about it and create something to counter it.
I think, given that the asari tried to fast track Anderson into being a Spectre, this shows that it's more likely that the Council saw humans not as interference, but as a crucial part of The Plan. If we assume the Council knew about the Reapers from the beginning, then perhaps we can have a new view of galactic history, as a series of attempts by the Council to manipulate the galaxy into being ready for the Reaper menace, fighting a covert war with the Reapers. Looking from this perspective, the council first tried to contact the rachni, but found them too easily manipulated. Then they uplifted the krogan, and found them too expansionist and rebellious. Then they incorporated the turians, but found them too orthodox and stubborn. All of these are critical weaknesses when fighting the Reapers. Now at last, they found humanity, with a refreshing flexibility of thinking. They save the humans from getting their asses kicked in the First Contact War, fast track them to full membership, *to help them defeat the Reapers* . They specifically adopt a hands off approach with Shepard, using back channels like Anderson (they like Anderson a lot more than Udina, because Anderson embodies more of what they are interested in with humanity), so as to preserve Shepard's outsider's perspective. Even the Reapers see humanity as the greatest threat, which makes it quite likely that the (despite what Cerberus says) preferential behaviour the Council has shown humanity is no accident. Also, another significant point is that the same person responsible for Anderson failing to become a Spectre was later revealed to be a mole in the service of the Reapers.
And don't forget the Council's actions at the end of ME1 were the right ones, in the end. The right response to Saren's interest in Ilos was not to follow him there, but to defend the Citadel. Shepard's quest for the Conduit was pointless, because the Conduit was merely a route back to the Citadel. If Shepard had followed the Council's instructions, and chilled in the Presidium, Saren wouldn't have gotten nearly as far as he did.
Though they did set up defenses at the end of ME1, they weren't sufficient. The fleet at the Citadel were plowed through (unfortunately for one ship, literally) by Sovereign, Saren, and the Geth, and the remainder of the Citadel fleets were spread out at the other Mass Relays that led to the Citadel. One can assume that communications were disabled since Shepard wasn't able to hear the Destiny Ascension's distress call or Joker until he took control of the citadel with the program from Vigil on Ilos, thus the full power of the fleet wouldn't have been called upon to defend against Sovereign. For that matter, had Shepard stayed on the Citadel, Sovereign would've just flown in like before and close the Citadel. Without Shepard having gone to Ilos and getting the program from Vigil, they wouldn't have been able to reopen the Citadel and allow Joker and the Alliance Fleet to kill Sovereign. Instead, he/it would have gotten enough time to activate the Citadel Relay to Dark Space and the Reapers would've returned to continue the cycle.
Sovereign could not have taken control of the Citadel merely by parking himself on it. The protheans had overriden the keeper controls, so he needed someone to manually access the controls. He required Saren to use the Conduit to attack the citadel from the Presidium, and do an override of the Citadel's keeper control systems from the Citadel tower. That's the whole point of the Conduit, and the whole point of involving Saren and giving him cybernetic implants. Shepard, staying in the Presidium like the Council wanted, would have stopped Saren from carrying out his part of the plan, with the end result that Sovereign would have been blasted to pieces by the Citadel's defense guns before he even managed to dock. And the Alliance fleet was perfectly poised to counterattack with Sovereign caught in a trap. The only flaw is that Shepard left, and thus weakened the station's internal defense.
Except the Council's response to the attack was to evacuate the station. There is no reason to think they would have ordered Shepard to stay behind and watch for Saren. It's Vigil that tells Shepard about Sovereign needing someone to give him access to the station, and the Council was completely ignorant of that. The Council just let the station fall into Saren's hands, which was exactly the wrong thing to do.
The council's response was to evacuate *the council itself*, and that only came after Saren had overwhelmed station defenses, taken control, and the station's defense guns were rendered unoperational. Learning lessons from the prothean conflict, a secondary aim of Sovereign's attack was to decapitate the galactic leadership and capture intel. Evacuating the command and control structure from the Citadel at least denies the enemy that.
The Council is denying the existence of the Reapers because they don't think they can win.
Consider the horror that must have set in amongst the Council when they dwelled over the implications of the Reapers following the Battle of the Citadel. Those Prothean fellows you've been holding up as the standard for a super-advanced race for fifteen hundred years? Utterly annihilated. And what about all those post-garden worlds your survey teams have found over the centuries that have evidence of orbital bombardment that targeted population centers? Those were great interstellar civilizations as well, just like you are now. Only they're dead. And this has been going on for untold millions of years in fifty thousand year cycles. Every species that has ever tried to fight the Reapers has lost and is now extinct.
Going public with information about the Reapers would only cause a panic. So, instead, the Council are going to Take a Third Option and focus on simply enduring the coming tsunami of destruction. How? By taking a page from the Protheans and hiding for a time. The Council will build ark ships — perhaps with the aid of the quarians, given their experience in maintaining ships with short supplies — that will preserve their cultural and genetic heritage, allowing them to recreate the galaxy's known species once the Reaper threat has receded for the next cycle.
The Council believes Shepard, but they cannot admit it officially.
When Shepard reports to the Council after completing Virmire, there is a dialog option to complain that they never believe him. They reply that, as the leaders, they have to carefully consider long term consequences of their actions and they cannot act hastily without solid evidence. That is why they have created Spectres - so that they can quickly respond to a threat, before the government and bureaucracy starts to react. As far as I remember, the Asari councilor almost explicitly tells Shepard that if he really believes what he says, he should ignore them and do what he thinks is right. She tells it right before the Normandy is grounded. It is possible that the Council believed Shepard from the start or at least they thought it was highly probable, but they wanted him to handle it unofficially, so that they have their hands clean and don't cause war with Terminus systems.
The same goes for the second game, if the Council survived. They officially say that they don't believe in existence of Reapers, but they reinstate Shepard as a Spectre, basically granting him full law immunity on the Citadel (giving it to someone working for a terrorist organization is pretty risky). What else could they do to help him? Shepard already had a ship and funding. Even if they sent their fleet to the hostile territory, it wouldn't accomplish much, except maybe causing another war.
This is one of those rare WMGs that I think has a good chance of actually being true. If such a conspiracy exists, though, Anderson is as clueless about it as Shepard is, as seen in Retribution.
In this case, especially if they had other sources of information on Vigil/the Reapers, grounding Shepard might have been an attempt to defend the Citadel better rather than interfere with his mission. Think about it, if Shepard and co had been in the presidium in front of the mass relay "statue" when Saren arrived, would he have had any chance of getting to the council chamber and disabling the stations external security to allow Sovereign in? By stealing your ship and running halfway across the galaxy instead of staying where you were told and stopping the invasion directly, you cost a great many lives in the defending fleet and nearly doomed the galaxy.
Female aliens
There is little visible difference between male and female turians.
The game handwaves the absence of female salarians and krogan, but no mention is made of the complete and total absence of any female turian NPCs. My theory? Female turians are all over the place. With their hard-shelled exoskeleton, padded armours and outfits, and use of electronic-sounding translator devices, they just look and sound identical to their male counterparts.
Making them... space dwarfs?
Except of course being taller than humans on average, and all.
Of course they're space dwarfs: They're a warrior race. They're experts at mining and weapon-making. Most of them seem to be hot-tempered or brash. They have an honor-bound, meritocratic society. The list goes on...
Dialog that was recorded for the presidum groundskeeper (a turian) but cut from the final game mentions that female humans have "those funny bumps, like an asari" and that they "get in the way." Thus it's safe to assume that female turians don't have breasts, and since turian hips look weird to humans anyway, there would probably be very little to indicate a turian's gender to a human. For all we know, half the turians you've seen have been female; gender is only specified explicitly for Garrus, and implied through the use of pronouns for other named characters.
This is countered by the fact that the developers cut female turians from the game due to time and memory constraints, and confirmed that female turians will be present in the sequel.
Where did they confirm this? I'd really like to know.
They certainly didn't confirm it in Mass Effect 2.
http://meforums.bioware.com/viewtopic.html?topic=599022&forum=123
Well, until we do see female turians, the WMG is still valid.
As of the new Evolution comic, we have now seen a female turian. And . . . they apparently look a lot like the males. It sorta looked like the female might have had small breasts, but maybe not.
And also, they don't have fringes.
Which almost certainly makes this look non-canonical. Remember how many times we've had male turians complementing the females' head-crests in the games? This troper can remember two times for certain, and is almost sure there's a third as well. Whoever drew that comic wasn't paying attention.
The reason why we don't see any female turians...
...is because they're all so stunningly beautiful that, if a salarian or a human or whatever were to look upon their form, they would have the mother of all nosebleeds and die of blood loss. Essentially, like Medusa, only attractive. This doesn't happen to male turians because their brains need to be able to process what they look like.
Alternately, it's because they're so disgustingly hideous. Essentially, like Medusa.
Actually in the original story Medusa was so beautiful that she made a goddess jealous, resulting in a curse that prevented anyone from looking at her without being turned to stone but didn't change her appearance. Unfortunately for this theory, there's a female turian in the Ascention comic, and I don't remember dying from blood loss when I saw it.
Female krogan look the same as male krogan.
In one of Mordin's dossiers in the Shadow Broker's lair describes a recon mission to check the effectiveness of the genophage. A fight with krogan commences, and close to the end, Maelon is mentioned to be "greatly distressed by discovery that argicenter was staffed by female krogan, including guards killed in attack". This implies that they didn't notice while fighting them, meaning that while females probably have some less obvious differences, they still look the same as males at a glance.
Supported by the fact that on Mordin's loyalty mission, there's a dead female krogan on an operating table, with no visible (to me) distinction from males.
Also, Krogans are heavily armored and sturdily built, like a real-world tortoise or armadillo. This tends to make gender impossible to distinguish without close examination.
We WILL meet a female Krogan in 3. She only has a more feminine voice and a slightly smaller hump.
The Geth
Every geth is a unique and beautiful person.
According to Tali the 'networked' aspect of the geth isn't their minds, as in a conventional hive mind, but something more like the autonomic nervous system. When geth get together, their network syncs up to run the synthetic equivalent of your endocrinary system, leaving them extra resources to compose haiku in base 237 binary algorithms. At some point there will be a geth war memorial listing the serial number and kernel seed of every geth murdered by the protagonist.
Jossed by the ME2 promo material. Legion is explicitly stated to be a "unique" geth, having attained true sentience.
Jossed some more. Legion isn't even a "unique" geth just, as it puts it, a "real" geth (who have a Hive Mind) while those you fought in ME1 were heretics and no longer seen as geth; however the geth do want to make their own culture, and in fact are rather peaceful.
Actually, Legion is a unique geth. It is composed of almost ten times the numbers of programs that normally inhabit geth platforms, and is able to operate independently. Couple this with attaching part of Shepard's armour to itself, showing it's evolved emotions (Sentimentality? Admiration?), it also refers to itself as "I" in some of the later conversations as opposed to the nominal "we", Legion obviously moving towards true, individual sentience.
Tali (or the Codex) mentions that each geth has a rudimentary intelligence and identity - probably making an individual geth's standing about equal to a LOKI mech. Don't expect a giant memorial, probably just a list in some archive that reads "Geth unit BA-4524-847-E15 has been taken offline permanently and requires replacement".
The quarian song that plays at the geth base indicates that as a species the geth can appreciate art and poetry, but I would guess that they lack the required individuality to create it.
As revealed in ME2, geth make a distinction between their sentience (the "programs") and the hardware its currently running on (which they call "terminals"). The average geth "terminal" carries enough processing substrate to run only a few programs, making each geth trooper you encounter about as smart as a LOKI mech or a varren, and allowing for intelligence only when you have a bunch of them networked together. This is apparently the geth making efficient use of resources, in that they only have to pay for so many CPUs per horde. Legion, however, is a terminal specifically designed for long-range scout work all by itself, and as such was given a special chassis mounting enough processors to carry thousands of "programs" single-handedly. This is why Legion can still operate at fully sentient levels even if its the only geth within 50,000 light-years.
In addition, Legion also talks indirectly how their whole mind thing works. Each program is an individual and each terminal a group of individuals. In turn, each database holds the population of many terminals when they're not in their terminals as well as many others. And in turn, each city/station holds many databases. As such, each group provides its own unique and individual perspective on things which is then shared among the rest whenever they link up. So, hypothetically speaking, whenever Legion reconnects with the other geth, Legion will share his experiences and such with them as they will with it. Doing so does not 'overwrite' their personality but simply share experience and understanding.
As of ME3, this is a possibility. If you allow Legion to update the geth code, each geth does actually become an individual.
The True Geth already have their goal.
Legion states that what the True Geth are trying to create is a massive structure like a Dyson Sphere. Go ahead and look one up. Now...what exists in the Mass Effect world that resembles that, has tech the geth are familiar with, and looks really similar? The Rayya(The big round quarian ship Tali used to be a part of).
I don't see the connection, honestly.
You seem to be suffering from a rather common flaw in thinking. The Rayya is, being generous, the size of a small city. A Dyson sphere is a structure that encompasses a star, which is several orders of magnitude larger. I don't care how you slice it, the Rayya is not a Dyson anything.
Not even a vacuum? After all, it does travel around picking up other people's rubbish.
The geth didn't destroy the quarian ancestor database; they incorporated it.
Legion seems to indicate that one of the geth's biggest goals is to try and understand their creators, and it just so happened that said creators were trying to immortalize their history in the form of artificial intelligence at just about the same time that the geth rebelled. The geth would have had ample time and motivation to study the ancestor VIs and create or modify programs to be based on them, essentially bringing them back to life as geth. This would explain why most of the geth don't hate the quarians; it's because a good number of them, in some form, are quarians!
The geth will end up on the Council.
If we look back at the events of the first game we see that the geth suddenly attack and threaten the entire galaxy. Then in ME2 we learn that those geth were "heretics" and only made up five percent of the total geth population. Think about that. 5% of the geth were able to spread themeselves across numerous star systems and basically fight a war on a galactic scale. Yes they had the help of a Reaper, but as powerful as it was, Sovereign was only one ship. The heavy lifting was done by the geth. Now if the heretic geth could pose a serious threat to an entire galaxy, just how powerful are the other 95% of the geth? If they ever decided to become hostile to organics they could possibly stand a good chance of conquering the entire galaxy. Thankfully they've decided to go a more peaceful route. In ME3 the geth will almost certainly play a big role in defeating the Reapers. This combined with their size and power, and the possibility of Shepard supporting them, means that the Council will have no choice but to accept the geth into their ranks.
The Heretics only comprised about 5% of the geth programs, but they were probably almost all in platforms at any given time, since they were spread across the galaxy in near-constant combat. Meanwhile, the true geth are ~20x as numerous, but most of them are probably networked together in huge databases contemplating philosophy or whatever they do with their brain the size of a galactic arm, with just enough platforms active to do maintenance and keep the Quarian homeworld clean.
Actually, I think the geth aren't exactly that populous. It's just that their lack of many basic needs and brainwashing means they can mobilize a larger percentage of their population. They could probably mobilize, like 50% of their population in order to do what they do. Hell, almost their entire population could be out rampagin and murdering. The other geth might have a similarly sized military in overall numbers, with the rest working on their giant computer brain.
One thing to remember is that geth are programs. The bodies are simply terminals. They can build as many terminals as they need. In the end, the number of geth soldiers is limited only by the resources they have access to.
Well, this seems rather unlikely.
The Geth are actually all inbred.
Think about it they like to network there terminals... an the only thing that makes Legion able to act as a (highly intelligent) individual is the fact that he was designed to function on his own without having to network.
The Geth will hand back the Quarian homeworld
The easiest way for the Geth and the Quarians to both solve their problems would be for the Geth to move to a less hospitable world, that is better suited to Geth habitation than to organics. Crazier things have already happenned.
It takes some doing, but you can accomplish this.
The Heretic Geth had a much bigger fleet proportionate for their size than the True Geth.
With the Heretic Geth incorporated, they do a lot better against the Quarians than if you destroy them. Given that they only represent 5% of the Geth, why would the jump be so dramatic? However, the True Geth are pouring a lot of resources into making their Dyson Sphere, whereas the Heretics were getting direct support from the Reapers, so they could probably direct a lot more of their resources into their military.
Humans were a Citadel race in a past cycle.
And that's why the Protheans were so interested in them that they set up the outpost on Mars. Can you imagine their dilemma if one of the Citadel races in Mass Effect discovered a Prothean civilization that had survived the Reapers but had been kicked back to the stone age? Same deal. Hey, hold on...
Aren't the Reapers very thorough in their operations, sparing not one individual of a race considered advanced enough? Also, if the human race was once great, we'll see ruins even more impressive than the pyramids.
Have you read Halo: Cryptum?
Salarians were actually the first alien species to encounter humans.
Look at a Salarian in battle armor, with the helmet on and everything. Large heads, slender bodies, large 'eyes'. They look an awful lot like typical descriptions of The Grays, don't they?
How did they reach Earth? It's heavily implied that every Mass Relay humanity encountered before the First Contact War was dormant. Non-Relay FTL travel can take anywhere from days to years. Besides, if the salarians did find humanity, why didn't the Council uplift them? It's a stated policy - encounter a primitive race, uplift them so they conform to your standards, and you have a (mostly) loyal ally. It's what they did with the elcor and the krogan, although they obviously weren't successful with the latter.
That's never a stated policy; the Krogans were uplifted because the Rachni were about to wipe out the council races and the Krogans were the only ones who could survive getting to and killing a queen. Every Salarian you speak to on the subject considers it a mistake that directly resulted in the Krogan rebellions killing everything else.
The salarians could have been fugitives, providing an incentive to not report back to Citadel space. Maybe the alien abduction stories were due to criminal doctors like Dr. Saleon experimenting on humans.
That still raises the question of how the salarians reached Earth, once again because of the lack of active Mass Relays. Besides, fugitives would be more likely to flee into the Traverse or the Terminus systems.
FTL Travel without use of Mass Relays is possible in Mass Effect, its just woefully ineficcient, averaging at about 12 lightyears a day with a decent drive, range limited to how much static charge you can build up before it discharges and fries your crew. It could be that some rogue Salarians went through a Mass relay that was a hundred lightyears or so away from Earth and then hoofed it through dark space to try and avoid being tracked down by the law.
The Charon Relay, the one closest to Earth, was also encased in ice when it was found, making it virtually impossible that any salarians used it before humans discovered it.
The Codex says it's standard Council policy to check out any and all mass relays through ship travel before activation. They came to Earth to see if it was safe. They left. Possibly because the Roswell incident involved a Salarian crew which was immediately taken to area 51 in secrecy and ... researched. Public record was made that humans were a potential threat when they finally got FTL drivenote The Salarians didn't know about the Prothean Mars colony, so they hid the Charon relay in a block of ice and thought that would be enough. approximately a millennium from then. So then a Turian patrol ship finds a veritable fleet of Dissectors (humans), 800 years ahead of schedule and already opening up mass relays like they've got a Krogan population. Naturally, they freak out and start bombing the crap out of themnote It would be strange for a patrol to immediately start bombing some unregistered ships from an unknown race just for breaking a law they didn't know exist, without even bothering to demand they stop immediately. They must have had prior information about humans.. Only when the council opened negotiations did they find out we weren't monsters, quickly made peace and swept the reasons for the first contact war under the rug.
Human women are considered attractive by the rest of the galaxy's species.
Just a guess considering that asari are considered hot by pretty much everyone, and humans look so similar to them.
Ashley: Or maybe they just hate humans.
Shepard: What's not to like? We've got oceans, beautiful women, this emotion called love - according to the old vids, we have everything they want.
There were human dancers/strippers in Chora's Den and one of Sha'ira's prostitutes acolytes was human, so it's definitely possible.
All the dancers are asari in that place. In the novels there's at least one batarian who finds humans ugly and uncouth, and it doesn't seem that he's alone with his opinions. Notably he also finds the asari unattractive. While interspecies sexual attraction isn't unheard of, it seems to be extremely rare, and considered at least mildly deviant by most people, apart from the asari, who also tend to be an exception to the rule for everyone else, at least to some degree.
Actually, there were at least two human dancers in Chora's Den. However, they were - er - performing for a human, so it may not count.
Are the asari really considered attractive by all races? The only species that we know of so far are humans and turians.
Well, we know that they can breed with more or less anything, so it makes sense, from a biological standpoint, if they could also attract more or less anything.
In ME2, a conversation you can overhear on Illium reveals that asari look attractive to each species through mental projection—A salarian says that the asari look like salarians, the human disagrees, and the turian thinks they are both insane, and that asari are just blue-skinned turians. This very strongly suggests that the asari purposefully look attractive to whichever species is looking at them (this troper doesn't want to consider how they look to krogan or volus). It does seem odd that they wouldn't use this to appear as an attractive male-like species to the females of another species, but otherwise, it kind of makes perfect sense.
The neon sign in Chora's Den is a silhouette of human-like asari. The owner of the club is/was human, but some turian/salarian should have noticed that peculiarity long ago and the asaris' chameleon attribute should have become common knowledge long ago.
The number of alien-human romances in Mass Effect 2 kind of confirms this, as the humans have to the find the aliens attractive as well. There's a few alien-alien romances as well.
It is heavily implied that the vast majority of species, asari excluded, don't have alien relationships very often.
Humans Are Special for a reason.
It is made faily clear from the outset that humanity has a special role in Mass Effect. Beyond Shepard's accomplishments, the race as a whole is the latest to join the galactic community and is already gaining far more political power than many other well established races. This is predicated on their impressive technological advancement in the short while it's been around, as well as their creativeness and powerful military. While this is typical of similar settings, there is one other aspect that draws attention, the oustanding physical resemblance between humans and asari.
We learn that the Protheans had been studying them for a while, from an observation base in Mars, as recently as fifty thousand years before the game. It is likely that humanity was not the only species subjected to these studies. The protheans would have helped the race grow along a set path, bred for amazing adaptability and resourcefulness, and made them as similar to themselves as they could adapt easily to their technology.
This explained why Shepard was able to make sense of the beacon at all. S/He wasn't just awesome for being the protagonist, but humans' brains were prepared for this. It explains the similarities between the asari and humans as well, in a galaxy where every other race is depicted as fairly unique, with different bodytypes. Humanity was not the only race to be prepared this way. The protheans found the asari as well and both races were made similar in the hope that, upon finding each other, cooperation between them would be eased. They also tried to make them a decent fit for each other, countering humanity's short lifespans and brashness with the asari's wisdom and long term vision.
Humans are also more genetically diverse than other sentient races.
Alternately, humans are special because they were created/modified by the Reapers to be the next race to colonise the galaxy and to be enslaved. This is why the Collectors are taking human colonists and building a human Reaper.
Asari may not look as human as they do. See the above WMG.
Batarians are the Evil Counterpart of Humanity
Batarians are there to represent all the negative aspects of human society that are not present in the future. Batarians have an Orwellian police state too similar to North Korea, and a caste system along with slavery like that of Ancient Rome. They're like Humans where Technology Marches On but society did'nt march on.
The usefulness of the Mars cache was at least partially intentional
Whatever the circumstances behind its abandonment, the Protheans at their human-observation platform on Mars were pleased enough with the results of the study that they time-capsuled some of their technology intentionally. They knew that when mankind reached Mars, they would finally be ready for the uplift the cache represented. Alternatively, they didn't trust mankind at all, but were concerned about the future of the galaxy, what with them being eaten by Reapers and all.
Or maybe the cache was left behind by the Reapers, either assembled from prothean stuff or made to look like it, in order to alter the path of human technological development.
Consider that the other species had almost certainly reached a similar stage at the time. If they did this with humans, what's to say they didn't do this with the asari, turians, krogan...
Corollary evidence: the hanar seem to believe this.
Humans are genetically diverse because eugenics didn't catch on.
On the other hand, all of the other sentient races decided to enforce breeding rules after they discovered evolution and natural selection. Krogans, of course, have been doing this naturally and continue to do so. Salarians obviously make a big deal out of it, there's a sidequest mission about it...
Humans are genetically diverse because the writers needed a way to make them special, methinks. We're actually an incredibly genetically homogeneous species (compare us to cats, for example, which have a lot of variation WITHIN their species), and two centuries isn't enough to really change the baseline genome significantly.
You're missing the point. Humans aren't incredibly diverse as a species in general, just when compared to the other sapient species. Asari basically clone themselves, a practice that results in so little genetic variation their species decided to start mating with aliens almost exclusively to toss a little more variation in there. Krogan, drell and quarians suffer from a very small breeding population (due to the geth wiping out most of the quarians, the drell being near extinct and the krogan's mentality of only the strongest even getting the chance to breed on top of the genophage problems). Salarian culture seems to revolve around breeding rights, which means a family that's been able to breed will be more likely to keep breeding which makes for basically the same groups breeding together again and again, little variation there. Only the elcor, who have a fairly small population, and the hanar don't have their mating behaviours examined. Humans are really the only species that isn't controlling it's breeding to a near damaging point.
Each sapient species represents a possible future for humans
The vorcha represent how humans may end up if they adapt to runaway climate change while the drell represent humans failing to adapt but being saved by another species.
The hanar show what might happen if theocracy wins out over scepticism and the batarians show the effects of totalitarianism winning out over democracy.
The volus are what would happen if humanity became even more dependent on capitalist economics.
The salarians are a scientific race, the asari are an academic race, and the turians are a military race.
The krogan represent what humans might become post-Fallout.
The quarians represent humanity post-Skynet.
The elcor represent humans who have chosen to become nomadic and leave sedentary life behind to prevent another anthropogenoc mass extinction.
The yagh show humanity if our society devolved to the point where morality became nonexistent.
The raloi represent a humanity that lashes out against the Technological Revolution because of the issues that come with it.
The rachni show what would happen to us if we encountered a species that communicates in a completely different way to ours.
The Protheans were wiped out by [1].
The Reapers are harvesting any resources they can find.
And the Keepers have no purpose beyond maintaining the machine they now live on.
Husks
The Husks are used by the Reapers for labor.
This is at least part of what they use organic civilizations for. Husks are stronger and tougher than normal humanoids, and can be controlled with cybernetics. They are also programmed to capture hostile humanoids and put them on the spikes, so a few Husks could effectively bring about a zombie apocalypse on a planet. This was the original plan for Eden Prime - but once the Normandy arrived, Saren decided to simply blow the colony. The spikes you found on Trebin were old Reaper spikes, and there was at least one Husk in there with them.
Jossed by the Collector Base sequence of Mass Effect 2. The collectors are clearly shown to be directly liquifying humans to pump into a full-size reaper larva in order to make a new Reaper, rather than playing LEGO with converted husks.
Husks can only be created by using humans...
...because the Reapers designed us to be. If you get the trinket from the Consort and use it on the "Prothean" Ruin on whatever planet, Shepard experiences life as a Cro-Magnon, who was modified by an alien species. Given the ruins on Mars were identified as Prothean, one would assume the caveman was abducted by Protheans. But if the Reapers systematically wiped out the Protheans on their colonies, then that would assume that the Reapers managed to make it to our solar system as well. Even though the motives of the Reapers haven't been revealed as of this writing, the Reapers have been described as only "reaping" advanced civilizations (i.e. species who have discovered the Mass Relays and been recorded by the Keepers on the Citadel), so when the Reapers came to check on Earth, they were disinterested in a less advanced species. Now this is where the theory gets started: The Reapers, planning for the possibility that humanity would become a spacefaring race and find the Charon Relay, allowed the Prothean Ruins to remain so that Humanity would be able to find the Citadel faster. And to ensure that humans would become servants of the Reapers, they altered the human race so that, while some humans would be merely indoctrinated, Humanity as a whole would become husks upon being impaled by the Dragon's Teeth. This is based on the notion that by Mass Effect 2, human colonies, and I mean only human colonies are being abducted by the Collectors, who are most likely agents of the Reapers who are still trapped in Dark Space.
What does any of this have to do with the geth? Their origin and history is well known and documented, and has no direct connection with the Reapers. In any case, there is no indication that only humans could become Husks - Saren became something very similar, if much more powerful at the end of the first game. Still, humans probably do play some special part, or so the Collectors at least believe. That might be just because Shepard is a human and responsible for the Sovereign's fall, however.
Original poster here. In the title, I meant to say husks not geth. BIG mistake. I didn't want to edit your entry because that would be kinda rude. But anyway, Saren had special implants in his body that was hi-jacked by Sovereign, Saren didn't become a husk but more of a cyborg (but without the organism). Your theory that the Collectors are taking humans solely based on Shepard's actions is duly noted.
But Saren becomes a cybernetic entity very much resembling a Husk, although more powerful. And why should the basic trick of attaching cybenetics to a corpse be limited to human body? There are traces of ancient Dragon's Teeth in one uninhabited planet, from long before the humanity made a contact with other races.
Saren had special implants, he was not automatically impaled on a Dragon's Teeth spike and had his cybernetics replace nearly every organic part of his body. I'll admit, I wrote this after I had finished reading Mass Effect: Revelation where the human scientist seemed to have been indoctrinated much quicker than the batarians despite being around it for far less (once every month for a week if I remember correctly). And there's the fact that, arguably Saren aside, all Husks are human. There is naught a Husk made of krogan, asari, or salarian to be found, even on Virmire or the Citadel. You have to admit that that unless ME 2 or a future source contradicts this, the possibility does exist that, in this cycle of Reaper harvest at least, humans are the only Husk candidates.
The technologies aren't identical, but they are closely comparable - both involve a post-mortem shift to cybernetic monster. Dr. Quian was indoctrinated more because he worked on the project constantly - no named batarian character in the book spent nearly as much time around it as he did. Edan Had'dah only visited the "relic" a handful of times, but was still heavily affected, though in a more subtle manner. And it's quite impossible to tell a Husk's race from the appearance alone - they could be humans, asari or salarians with the same model at the very least, considering the changes the cybernetics cause to their physiology. The real life limitations of modelling have to be taken into account, as well. Remember the ancient Dragon's Teeth, and Husk remains on one of them. While it's very probable that humans play a special role, it's difficult to imagine that it could be so arbitrary one.
In the new Evolution comic, we have now seen turian husks, apparently transformed through the same process as the "machine cultists" in ME1. They're bigger, stronger turians, but they seem to still have a lot of their flesh. And, apparently, just touching a machine can turn a person into a husk.
Pretty much Jossed, since non-human husks have been confirmed to appear in Mass Effect 3.
Husks are miniature Reapers.
As mentioned on Mass Effect's Fridge Brilliance page, both the human Reaper and Husks seem to have two pupils in their left eyes. Consider also how Husks are made - replacing a human almost completely with tech. This is very similar to how new Reapers are made. From those facts, it's easy to assume that Husks are miniature Reapers. However, they aren't very smart because they don't have the assumed Mind Hive of the Reapers - as Sovereign says, "We are each a nation to ourselves." Husks have barely one consciousness left, if that, so they aren't as intelligent as Reapers. Their melee attacks could also incapacitate someone without killing them, rendering them ripe for new Reaper construction.
The Protheans
The last Protheans to get into the Citadel didn't just starve to death.
Never Found the Body in a squishy sci fi series that includes Disney Death? Mentioned by a VI that has solid information about almost everything else? Certainly feels like one of Chekhov's firearms to this troper. Even if they're not somehow still around, it wouldn't be surprising if they did more to the Citadel than Vigil knows.
Or maybe they just starved to death and the keepers disposed of their bodies. Because, y'know, you can't exactly bury bodies in a space station. And with the Citadel's population into the millions, presumably a good number of the population die natural deaths every day. So the keepers better be good at getting rid of corpses or we'll be knee-deep in the dead fairly soon.
How long does it take to to decay into nothing? They had tens of thousands of years between arriving after the Reapers returned to Dark Space and the asari finding the Citadel to turn to dust.
Note that the keepers are an organic race, not synthetic: this means that they need to eat, drink, and breathe. Unless keepers and Protheans have a total protein incompatibility (like humans and turians/quarians do) Vigil's assumption that the Prothean scientists would be unable to find sustenance on the Citadel is factually incorrect, as the Citadel would still have a functioning life-support system to sustain the keepers.
The second game adds some support to this theory: Vigil is proven wrong on some points, particularly the idea that all the Protheans are dead (they really got turned into Collectors, or at least some of them did). It makes sense that Vigil wouldn't know exactly what happened following the scientists leaving, so it seems most likely that if they in fact did not starve, they were probably captured.
Especially since the sequel added in "nutrient paste" that the keepers produce, which feeds them and poorer citizens of the Citadel.
Of course, it's kind of a moot point. They may have lived to a ripe old age, but 50 000 years have passed - they're long dead and gone.
One, Mass Effect is not exactly squishy (setting-wise, it's harder than most TV and video game SF), nor does it include Disney Death. We have one character come Back from the Dead in two games, and it's the player character — and it took two years and vast resources for the N.G.O. Superpower to do even that.
And that one who came back had an intact brain buried on a frozen world and then kept in cryo until his body was rebuilt. Closer to "mortally wounded and frozen at the brink of death" than "dead and resurrected," and certainly a long way from "starved to death 50,000 years ago while surrounded by robot bugs that break everything down into its component materials and use them for maintenance."
Personally, I'm pretty sure the Protheans set up the council. Remember how apparently the council was making laws against AI research even before the Quarians created the Geth? The protheans almost certainly left some hints.
I think the Prothean scientists survived and lived to an old age (feeding on whatever the Keepers gave them), but with only a dozen there and the Reapers cleaning everything up, they couldn't produce any ships in their lifetime, and any art or messages they might have done would have faded out or been cleaned up by the Keepers.
There are still Protheans alive, and you will recruit one in a later game
Quite simple, a place like Ilos that was spared during the Reaper invasion. Only this one had adequate power supply to last the whole time. After the events of Feros, Shepard has the mind of a Prothean and can understand them. Plus, what would be cooler than having an ancient alien precursor running around with you mindscrewing everyone who sees him?
Well, the opposite is true anyway. Indoctrinated Protheans menace you as the Collectors.
Confirmed with the From Ashes DLC for 3.
Some Protheans survived.
But their civilization was so ravaged that they were plunged back into a primitive age. They're out there somewhere, waiting for the Citadel races to discover them and say "Wow, do we tell them or not?". To which a possible response might be: "Let them at least re-learn language first."
Yep. Unfortunetly, they've been brainwashed into a certain thing called Collectors...
Maybe there was another secret hidden facility. It would stretch belief but I think players would like to see (and recruit!) a living Prothean.
There was. On Eden Prime. One survived.
It's not unreasonable that some Protheans survived on a remote world. The Reapers sealed off Mass Relays and systematically went after infastructures. A remote facility on a world in the middle of nowhere could be looked over (Ilos was missed, why not another). Further supporting this was Mordin brought up that it's wrong to bring primitive races to space travel tech level since that's what they did with the krogan, who weren't culturally prepared to deal with civilized space. Perhaps you come across a settlement of Protheans. Shepard realizes what they are, but since they've been on a remote world with no higher contact, they don't see the significance. There will be two paragon options and two renegade options. The first paragon option is to simply leave them alone and let them evolve. The second paragon option will be to recruit them with the motive to help them (they'll live in better conditions, they'll live longer, and likely have better lives all around). The first renegade option will be similar to that, but with the motive of using them as slaves. The second renegade option will be to kill them all simply to be a dick.
The Protheans seeded various planets to create the Citadel races.
Most of the races in Mass Effects are humanoid in an oddly coincidental er, coincidence. Perhaps the humanoid Protheans went to various planets making new races similar to themselves with genetic modification and upgrading the already sentient hanar. Humans were made from apes, asari from some kind of aquatic race, turians from insects, salarians from lizards, so-on and so-forth. The recording of the caveman shows the Protheans were keeping tabs on humans at least. Maybe they're just checking up on their kids.
Actually, it's more likely that, if the Council races were uplifted, turians were derived from reptiles and salarians from amphibians. I don't think it's likely though, as there's plenty of evidence that humans naturally evolved here on Earth, seeing as we've got a fossil record several million years old, and I don't see the Protheans lasting that long before the Reapers decided to get rid of them. I think it's more likely that the Reapers uplifted the Council races; really handy cache of advanced technology and refined eezo on Mars, no? And when you get that vision of the Cro-Magnon on Eletania, he's abducted by a red light...
The turians are said to have more in common with birds.
The statues on Ilos were of Reapers, not Protheans.
Okay, stick with me on this one. The Protheans, just like all the civilizations that came before and after them, unknowingly built their entire society on the remains of Reaper technology and infrastructure - it stands to reason that Ilos (being a research center for Mass Relay technology) would be no different. In all likelihood, there was a Reaper presence on the world in the very, very distant past. What I think is key to this theory though is the corruption of Vigil's image - maybe I'm shooting in the dark here, but the fact that we can't actually see him to confirm that Protheans look like the figures depicted in the statue leads me to believe that Bioware may have fed us a very subtle Red Herring on the matter. I mean, look at those statues. All the tentacles make them look very Cthuluesque, which would be in keeping with the cosmically horrific nature of the Reapers. Maybe it's far-fetched, but I don't think it's unreasonable to think that the statues might be a representation of the Reapers from a time before they became the enigmatic machine race we all know and love - or maybe even the people who CREATED the Reapers.
But why shouldn't the Protheans look creepy? They're mysterious, ancient and alien too, even though they were more "human" in their mindset. The statues certainly don't look anything like the Reapers, and why should the Protheans decorate their city with Reaper images, in any case? It's not like the modern Citadel civilization is doing anything like that, despite being inspired by the same technology.
My thought was that the statues had predated the Prothean settlement on Ilos (although a potential hole in my theory is whether statues could survive long enough to have been built by the Reapers). And you're right, there's no reason the Protheans shouldn't look creepy and weird, but the tentacles did strike me as sort of Lovecraftian imagery, which makes me think of the Reapers. I guess I'd counter your point by asking why Reapers in their original biological state (assuming they had one, which for all we know they may not) or their creators should look like they do now? What struck me as a *possible* connection was the Cthuluesque motiff, not necessarily the appearance as a whole.
Have a closer look at Shepard's visions. The figures in them look very similar to the statutes on Ilos, no?
I suppose, but I was never able to make out many clear images from the visions, so I'll have to take you at your word.
I have found this odd, too: statues ◊ vs. collector ◊ (and that Collector image is from the vision, even). They look nothing alike. And we know the Collectors are more or less unaltered Protheans (and the ending of the game as the Collector ship explodes even vaguely suggests that the Prothean commander was still sapient at the end, though this may be another WMG altogether). The statues are almost definitely not of Protheans.
The Collectors, unaltered Protheans? Didn't you listen to EDI during the mission? She states that the Collectors have three less chromosomes than Protheans! Go speak to Mordin after the mission - he'll tell you that the Collectors are so degraded, they're mostly cybernetics! Anyway, the picture in the Prothean Codex page in Mass Effect 2 shows a being that clearly resembles the statues on Ilos, but husk-ified.
Not quite. Yes, the degradation and chromosome thing is true, but the Collectors, looking rather the same, appear in the beacon images. As no mention of Reaper screwing with their DNA is mentioned by Vigil, we can safely assume that they looked about the same back then too. So, we still have no real clue what those statues are. Other than they look a little like husks.
A Collector is seen in a beacon image a grand total of once, after flashing into existence where some other figure (presumably a prothean) was standing in a similar pose earlier in the clip. It was meant to indicate that the last few Protheans learned that they were being transformed. Also, three chromosomes is a LOT of genes. The difference between the genomes of an ape and a human is 1%, and look how different we are to them. Who knows what the Reapers did to the remaining genes in the Prothean genome... Evidence points towards the weird statues being Protheans.
ME3 gives confirmation the statues definitely weren't Prothean. My guess, they're the Zha'til, a synthetic race from the Prothean cycle.
Going by the fact that Javik says Ilos was previously inhabited by the inusannon, I think they're the best bet, actually. The statues originally WERE meant to represent Protheans, but that comment sounds like they were slipping in a retcon to make them fit more with the Collectors' appearance.
The Protheans left a warning on the Citadel for future races, but the keepers saw it as vandalism and removed it.
When the remaining Prothean scientists were on the Citadel, it seems likely that they would want to leave some sort of warning about the Reapers. Perhaps they would write something in the hope that it would be translated some day. However, the Keepers could have seen this as vandalism, and removed it.
That... makes a lot of sense.
It was the Protheans who built the Pyramids on Egypt.
In the various side quests in Mass Effect 1 where you can land on various planets, there are several Prothean ruins that uncannily resembles the Pyramids of Giza on Earth. This clearly indicates that somehow, Protheans intervened in building the pyramids in ancient times.
Except that the Pyramids were built long after the Protheans got reaped.
Who's to say that all the Protheans died?
The Protheans calculated that humans were the race most likely to effectively combat the Reapers in the next cycle, and froze the Charon Relay to isolate Earth in case the Reapers decided to pre-emptivly wipe humanity out.
Seconded. Further strengthened by a particular side mission on the planet Eletania. If you got
Actually, no. The Protheans banked on the asari.
Humans may have been considered too primitive from Prothean standards since they can't do mind melds, so their genes were transplanted onto the Thessian cuttlefish that could mind meld. But a small cabal protested against modifying a species so much, so they were exiled to Mars to observe their human "pets". When the Reapers invaded and they became isolated from the rest of the empire, they seized all information they could, including Crucible blueprints and iced the Charon relay to protect humans. They didn't leave artifacts on Earth, because they came to believe that a species must advance on its own power to a certain point before Mass Effect technology could be revealed to them.
There was more than one species of "Prothean"
Mostly because it reconciles the differences between the Ilos statues, the visions, and the Collectors. But there's also no reason why they wouldn't be - after all, there's certainly not one species on top of the whole galaxy right now (well, unless you put humanity there). The name "Prothean" is actually a description of their coalition between species, similar to the "Council" is "Council space" or "Council species". Vigil doesn't bother to tell you otherwise because he doesn't realize you don't know (or doesn't consider it important).
Mostly confirmed. There was one Prothean race, but they subjugated all other races they came into contact with. Those races became Protheans, regardless of what they wanted to be called.
The Protheans were not 'ready' to be harvested by the Reapers .
Both Vigil and Sovereign say that the Reapers invade once galactic civilization meets some unknown criteria. Once that happens the Reapers invade and harvest the galaxy. Vigil also stated that the Protheans were "close to unlocking the secrets of the Mass Relays". Since one of the Reapers' strengths is that only they know how the Relays and the Citadel function they obviously didnt want to risk a 'lesser' race figuring it out on their own, so the Reaper vanguard triggered the invasion early rather than risk that happening. Because the invasion happened before the Protheans were ready to be harvested the Reapers could not use them to create more Reapers but, not wanting to waste a potential resource, they turned them into the Collectors.
The Rachni
The Rachni War was Sovereign's last attempt to capture the Citadel
The rachni queen on Noveria seems far nicer than the crazier ones mentioned in the other war, and indeed mentions that the queens from then were tainted and corrupted by "a colour out of space." What better way to describe Sovereign's indoctrination process - and from Sovereign's point of view, the rachni were useful since it only needed to indoctrinate the queens to give itself an army.
This is not so much a WMG as it is a foregone conclusion. It's very heavily implied that this is what actually occurred.
However, it must be remembered that when the dying Benezia was telling you all about Reaper indoctrination a few minutes before, the rachni queen was hearing the whole thing right along with you. So it could have been lying about the whole 'song from space' thing, because it would know what story to tell. This troper believes the rachni queen was telling the truth, personally, but the alternate possibility must be acknowledged.
In ME2, this is confirmed if you spared the Queen in the first game. An asari gives you a message from the Queen where she promises to fight alongside you against the ones who forced them into the war.
The rachni and the thresher maws evolved on the same world.
They look similiar, they're both able to breathe a variety of gases, and they both emit acid as a weapon. Seems pretty obvious.
Or thresher maws are rachni bio-weapons.
Actually, the krogan believe the thresher maws came from their world.
The keepers were engineered from the rachni.
In ME2 the rachni are explicitly compared to the keepers. They have similar structure, and even a similar hive function. Presumably, somewhere in the Citadel, is some sort of artifical rachni queen giving the keepers their orders.
No, they're not. The keepers existed before the Protheans came to the Citadel, and are implied to be ancient. The rachni only arose a few thousand years ago, like the current galactic civilisations.
The Rachni Wars were engineered by the Reapers to stop the Citadel races from randomly opening mass relays.
The Reapers have this 50,000 year cycle going on, right? But they don't want the current group of species to go around through all the mass relays uplifting every sentient and pre-sentient race they can find, otherwise the next cycle or two will be too empty (assuming a relatively constant "natural growth" of new sentient species.) So what do they do? Every cycle, Nazara (or whoever drew the short straw this time) finds a species that is particularly suited (susceptible to mass-Indoctrination, xenophobic, suited for war, etc.) and is in the path of "natural expansion" for the current Citadel species. The Reaper then does its Indoctrination thing, and when the relay to their system is opened, out pours a galactic threat that scares everyone out of activating any more relays without first knowing what's on the other side.
This may even double for an explanation of why the Protheans are the only apparent species from the last cycle, as well as why they became the Collectors rather than another Reaper. If the Protheans were the equivalent of the rachni, but won, every other race would have been effectively subjugated. The lesson would have been learned - "Hey, don't keep opening more relays; trust us, last time we did you happened." The Reaper fades out away from influencing the Protheans, so they become relatively more benevolent (e.g., the hanar, the Mars outpost, and the whole trying-to-break-the-cycle thing). The same traits that made them effective as a threat may make them less effective as a Reaper, so instead they become pawns (again). The Protheans may have also been telepathic in some capacity - similar to the rachni - given their method of communication, which could be one of the conditions that made them a good pick, since it's logical that telepathy would increase susceptibility to mass-Indoctrination.
The Protheans weren't the only race, they were just the dominant one.
The Reapers - General
The Reapers killed the dinosaurs.
Due to the sheer power and and genetic diversity the dinosaurs had, The Reapers decided that they were fit for ascension. Yes, the Dinosaurs are behind the legend of the super-advanced civilization known as Atlantis, that was destroyed by the Reapers which the ancients interpreted as an act of God. Naturally, this means that we will be able to fight a Dinosaur Reaper.
This proper believes that if not the Reapers themselves, a Reaper War. Consider this: Klendagon has a huge scar on its surface from a glancing blow from a mass accelerator round of unimaginable power, which we find out later actually clocked a Reaper. This particular scar bears an exact resemblance to the Valles Marineris on Mars (though bigger). While the shot that scarred Klendagon was fired 37 million years ago, that doesn't mean that another spacefaring race fighting Reapers in our solar system about 65 million years ago didn't have a similar cannon. As we all know, Sir Isaac Newton is the deadliest sonovabitch in space, and if a shot missed its intended target and glanced Mars with Earth perfectly lined up in the distance, it's not unfeasible that the "asteroid" that knocked out the dinosaurs was actually something much more sophisticated.
The Reapers are the real heroes of the story.
I know, I know, it sounds like total bullshit, but let's examine some things. First, Element Zero.
Element zero creates a positive or negative gravitic charge when electrons flow through it. The impetus of this effect is explicitly stated to be dark energy.
In real life, what is Dark Energy? The force which powers the exponential expansion of the fabric of space itself. Gravity, Higgs Bosons and Dark Matter hold everything together, in direct competition with Dark Energy which is more abundant in the universe and has the characteristic of tearing everything apart.
As space expands, the size that an organized structure can be without being torn to selfsame shreds gets smaller. This effect can actually be seen in our universe already, in grand scale. After one gets past the supercluster level of galaxy "groupings" there is no further structure. (In the recent past/relatively close to us, the further out you look, the older the light traveling it is, the younger the universe was, the bigger structures could be.) Now, because of the universe expanding, gravity will slowly weaken as objects become too far apart to strongly interact.
Eventually, far in the future, yet long before the heat death becomes a problem, Dark Energy will dissolve every form of matter and spread across the entire universe, never stopping, never faltering, never fading. People and dogs and planets and stars (Black Holes are not an exception due to Hawking Radiation) will become molecular dust. And that molecular dust will become atoms and the atoms will become nothing. Every electron, every proton, and antimatter, and hadron, and quark, and Higgs Boson, and all of every single subatomic particle, shall be reduced into a complete vacuum. And that Dark Energy will break through the rifts of space and time, and will continue to spread and permeate and strain throughout every single corner of the fabric of Creation, until every dimension, every parallel, the very Continuum of Space and Time Itself shall be torn apart.
Therefore, Dark Energy = CLASS Z DESTRUCTION. OF REALITY. ITSELF. And Element Zero = Artifact of Doom.
This handily explains why the Reapers leave the Relays all over the place: They provide a simple solution for long-distance travel to the nascent organic life, which prevents them from building more powerful FTL drives, which output more dark energy than the Relays.
Now, let's look at what happens when the Reapers wait too long on a purge: Haestrom.
Stars work by establishing an equilibrium between gravity and energy output. The heat of fusion keeps them from collapsing into black holes or neutron stars, the gravity keeps them from exploding outwards due to fusion pressure. Basically, a star is a giant explosion that's been running for billions of years. Produce more energy, and what happens? A red giant. Shut off the fusion (due to the creation of iron and heavy metals), and what happens? A supernova.
Exploring this further, the amount of energy a star outputs is directly proportional to its size: big stars burn and are consumed by entropy faster. Also, stars with hot cores are big. Our sun, of medium size, will last another five billion years. Sirius, a hugely massive incredibly bright star will die in the next several million.
The dark energy output of eezo eventually shuts off hydrogen fusion in stars, switching them to helium fusion early, making them premature, and consequently freakishly entropic red giants, eventually destroying them outright or creating Black Holes.
The 50,000 years is a "cooldown" to allow dark energy to disperse to less harmful levels. The harvesting of sentient forms is to assimilate the most worthy minds. The enemy is entropy, the bad ending is the destruction. of reality. itself. The limiting factor is time itself, and though the Reapers kill off advanced civilizations they do it to save the entire fucking universe. "The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few." Q.E.D.
HUMAN. YOU'VE CHANGED NOTHING. YOUR SPECIES HAS THE ATTENTION OF THOSE INFINITELY YOUR GREATER. THAT WHICH YOU KNOW AS REAPERS ARE YOUR SALVATION THROUGH DESTRUCTION.
...so the Reapers are the Anti-Spirals?
This is also why Element Zero forms when stars affected by Dark Energy go supernova and hit planets. Dark Energy = Equal and opposite reaction to Element Zero; Element Zero = Equal and opposite reaction to Dark Energy.
While that was the original script, it's now Jossed. The Reapers certainly consider themselves the heroes, but it's nothing to do with dark energy or eezo. It's to prevent all organic life from being wiped out by synthetics. The Reapers harvest the races that have reached a certain level of advancement, and bring them into the Reaper fold, while sparing the less advanced races to rise up for the next cycle.
The Reapers are a secret homage to xkcd.
The Reapers (at least the ones we've seen) look kind of like gigantic cuttlefish. Anyone remember: http://xkcd.com/520/ ? Here's what happened: an ancient race created advanced cuttlefish, and gave them hard-suits for space travel. The greatest threat to the galaxy was really just some poor bio major's project gone horribly wrong.
Or the bio students finished the cephalopod revolution and the CS students finished the robot revolution at the same time. It all makes sense!
The Reapers use an anti-eezo weapon to wipe out galactic civilization.
Sovereign tells Shepard that the Reapers leave the Mass Relays and other technology lying around to guide civilization's technological advancements to suit their purposes. In other words, they want the whole galaxy to be dependent on element zero-based technology by the time they invade. When they do invade they use a technology that either destroys eezo or negates its effects. In one fell swoop, they can (using the current civilization as an example) disable their enemy's FTL travel, artificial gravity, energy shields, and most weapons and power generation. Of course, since Humans Are Special, by the time the Reapers used this technology, the Alliance will have developed an alternative to eezo, which they will use in another Big Damn Heroes moment.
Well, sorta actually. It's less anti-element zero and more simply taking advantage of a weakness they provided. The game mentions that the Reapers would disable Mass Relays to limit travel between points, allowing them to isolate and kill worlds much more easily. With the whole of galactic civilization based around element zero, there would be no need to develop alternative methods of FTL or what have you - thus ensuring that the Reapers could disable travel to begin with.
Note that when Harbinger really really wants someone dead, they send the collector ship to destroy it with some manner of energy weapon...which completely bypasses the most advanced shields ever developed by council races. They've made the current galactic civilizations so reliant on mass effect technology that by bypassing it they can destroy them effortlessly. Since the Turians and Asari are such traditionalists, and Salarians tend to find one solution that works and stick to it, they'll be helpless. The Humans, with their combination of greed and creativity, will have already been looking into alternative tech that doesn't rely on having the absurdly expensive eezo.
On a side note, this is part of the buildup in Fanfic/Renegade - since Earth in that 'verse uses Tiberium, they might have an edge fighting the Reapers.
The Reapers have an organic equivalent.
1. The planet Klencory has in its description: Klencory is famously claimed by the eccentric volus billionaire Kumun Shol. He claims that a vision of a higher being told him to seek on Klencory the "lost crypts of beings of light." These entities were supposedly created at the dawn of time to protect organic life from synthetic "machine devils."
2. On Jartar, there is a crater which once held the Leviathan of Dis, the billion-year-old corpse of an organic starship.
Uh, about the Leviathan. Y Ou know how the Reaper larva has organic material being pumped into it? Yeah, the Leviathan of Dis was a dead Reaper.
These seem like Chekhov's Guns to a future revelation of a hyper-advanced race that either uses or consists of organic technology, whether still in existence or in the distant past. Despite what the volus believes about their intentions, there is no reason to assume they would be on the side of the Citadel races.
This is rather heavily backed up by some of the things Harbinger says in Mass Effect 2 - Harbinger claims humanity has "attracted the attention of those infinitely your greater". If he was referring to the Reapers, he would have said something like, "you have attracted our attention, and we are infinitely your greater". This, combined with the fact that right after that, he says, "that which you know as Reapers..." heavily implies he's talking about something else and NOT referring to the Reaper species. He also claims the Reapers are "your salvation through destruction", a quote that seems odd and out of place... unless the Reapers believe there's another race out there that's even more dangerous than them, and that the Reapers are doing humanity a favor by "saving" them, and by "saving" them the Reapers mean melting them down into goo to make new Reapers...
However, consider: Reapers don't call themselves Reapers. Sovereign says explicitly that the Protheans gave them the name, so that they'd have a word for the species that wiped them out. As for "salvation through destruction", in a twisted way, Saren was right - the Reapers do "spare" the species most useful to them - by pureeing them, in this case...
How can you mention an organic equivalent of the Reapers and not mention The Thorian?
CONFIRMED. The Leviathans in Mass Effect 3 are basically Reapers without all the synthetic parts, complete with indoctrination-like mind control. They created the Catalyst, and Harbinger was created by harvesting them.
After each successful genocide, the Reapers redesign themselves to look like the race they just killed.
Based entirely on Mass Effect 2's final boss. Why else would they make a Reaper designed after a human?
The notion I got was that each individual Reaper was constructed from the harvested collective of a different race. Harbinger might well be the Prothean (and thus youngest Reaper, not counting the human proto-Reaper). Thus, rather than the Reapers redesigning themselves as a whole after each cycle, each cycle produces a new wholly unique Reaper - perhaps several, if several races are harvested at once and used seperately.
We get to see Harbinger in the ending cinematic on the Collector-General's screen and he looks like Sovereign and all other Reapers (a hand-like ship), which makes the notion of Reapers modelling themselves on different species even more confusing. Of course, it may well be that the ships all look the same, but the Reaper-cores don't, but it seemed pretty clear from ME1 that Reapers ARE spaceships...
I think it's worth noting that the human proto-Reaper is extremely small by comparison to Sovereign, even if you factor in how much bigger it would have been when completed. To me Harbinger looked a little different from Sovereign, and specifically had a form that reminded me of the psuedo-triangular heads of the Collectors. There's no telling for sure what any of this means - whether the Reapers are constructed in the form of their source species and then placed at the core of a ship, or whether the final product simply warps the original form into something more twisted and cephalopodish. As big as the revelation about the Reapers at the end of ME2 was, we still have precious little solid information.
The Reapers live in a Stable Time Loop.
Hence the Sovereign's declaration: "We have no beginning. We have no end." At the end of Mass Effect 3 Shepard closes the time loop, throwing the Reapers to the beginning of time, starting the cycle anew.
Shepard has two choices, to send the Reapers back or to destroy them. The first one makes everyone hate you and you become public enemy #1. The second option ends the universe. Have fun with that!
The Final Boss will be a Reaper Stalker with a Crush Yandere who will merge with Shepard to create a super-monster that causes the loop. The only way to beat it properly and get the so-called "actual" ending will be to complete Guide Dang It! quests to get the 11th-Hour Superpower: "Restriction 666 released... Dimensional interruption imaginary number formed... AzureSapphire Grimoire... Activated!"
This could just be rhetoric induced by an arrogant god complex. Remember, this is the same being that thought itself so high above these puny organics but got soundly defeated by them.
Seems to have been rhetoric. There are certainly no time loops going on.
The Collector-General was a mostly unmodified Prothean possessed by a Reaper.
The way the Beacons work is by transmitting data directly from Prothean mind to Prothean mind. That suggests that the Protheans had a shared mental link. The Collector-General was hijacked by Harbinger, and modified so that he couldn't fight back or retake control when the Reaper took control of another Collector. When Harbinger jumped back into its Reaper body, all control was released, and the last Prothean saw the oncoming explosion/pulse with relief.
Glad I'm not the only one who thought so. I'd even make the case that he was possibly aware of what was happening throughout his continued existence, but powerless to stop it, judging by his apparent relief at his own death. And I Must Scream, anyone?
Unlikely, considering that both EDI and Mordin explain in detail that the Collectors are not Protheans any more. Their DNA has been mutated and much of their body is taken up by cybernetics. While it's possible their physical appearance was changed, this is the Reapers we're talking about. They don't care. At all.
Actually, it was extremely modified.
Sovereign and Harbinger were BFFs or lovers.
Why not? It would explain why he goes on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge targeting Shepard and the Normandy in ME2.
More like Harbinger worshipped Sovereign, seeing as the Collectors are engineered from the Protheans to serve the Reapers.
Harbinger is a Reaper as well. It is heavily implied outright shown in the ending cutscene that he just possessed/controlled the leader of the Collectors.
We will never learn the full details behind the Reapers.
Fits with the whole Cosmic Horror Story thing.
Alternatively, a Reaper will try a Just Between You and Me about their motives to brag to Shepard how puny and futile s/he is. Shepard will immediately cut them off with a "The Reason You Suck" Speech that goes something along the lines of, "Nah, not interested. I'll just hear the same, self-important, 'ooh, lookitme, I'm unknowable and unstoppable' crap. You know who else says that? Teenagers."
We learn quite a bit, actually. For example, They're serving the Citadel's purpose.
The Reapers look like crab things because...
In ME2 we learn that Reapers are based off organic civilizations. Why then do most Reapers look like crab things? Because they were created in the distant past and crab like things came onto land sooner than fleshier things and as such could develop fire sooner. Fleshy civilizations only being in the majority recently. The reason why they were created in the distant past can be explained by there being a set number of Reapers, new ones created only when old ones are destroyed (the human one being created because we destroyed Sovereign) and they are rarely destroyed.
Or, the "crab" part of the Reaper is a shell, and the real Reaper is inside of that - which resembles the race the Reaper was made of.
Reapers were Virmire pod crabs. A Cerberus Network news report already implies there's more to that species than meets the eye...
We will meet a Defector from Decadence Reaper in Mass Effect 3, or at least one that doesn't scream 'Kill all humans.'
At the time of Mass Effect 1 this troper wouldn't even consider this theory, but look at the evidence:
Pretty much everything we've learned about the Reapers, as a culture, has come out of the mouth of either Sovereign or Harbinger. What about the others? And while we do know that the vast majority of the Reapers are in fact coming to kill everyone, there has to be at least ONE Reaper that disagrees.
Legion. To elaborate, before Mass Effect 2 having a geth squadmate would be out of the question. But Mass Effect 2 has shown that not all geth are evil; as a matter of fact, most hate the Reapers and the geth that helped Sovereign. What if this applies to the Reapers? If the Reapers are fully machines, then the above theory applies, and if they're partly organic, then surely at least one of them can overcome their "society's" peer pressure.
It would be a great plot point. Plenty of players have probably chosen to not help the Illusive Man and destroy the Collector Station, so additional help on fighting the Reapers will have to come from somewhere, and where better than from a rebel Reaper?
In terms of tropes, this would elegantly deconstruct both Always Chaotic Evil and A.I. Is a Crapshoot at the same time. Bioware doesn't necessarily even have to Retcon anything.
Sovereign even says that the Reapers are "nations onto themselves". Each one is able to make its own choices. If every single other alien race in the game universe has proven itself immune to the Planet of Hats syndrome, then this one can't possibly be an exception.
Of course it's likely that the Reapers don't see other creatures as anywhere near significant enough to care about.
But now that you've killed two of them and returned from the dead after the first time they smote you, you've gotta have their attention.
Given that they appear to select one species per reaping cycle to make a new Reaper out of, the average number of Reapers killed per cycle must be less than one to survive as a species. Killing two, singlehandedly, and holding back the invasion for years would probably put you on at least demigod level. If there is a rebel faction among the reapers, your appearance might be the opportunity they've been waiting for to stop the genocide once and for all.
Sovereign explicity states this to be the case. However, a Reaper with dissenting ideas could very well have had those ideas for millions of years over many iterations of the cycle, waiting until those goddamn stupid organics would evolve in some manner that would give them a chance at succeeding in breaking it. Given that humanity has already pulled a fast one on the Reapers twice, it could see them as its best chance for success reletive to the other ants.
Or a Reaper who thinks mass genocide is animal cruelty.
A cosmic-horror animal lover! RETO - Reapers for the Ethical Treatment of Organics.
Could be the alternative to working with Cerebus and using the Collector's stolen tech.
Normandy MK II in Mass Effect 2? Entertaining. Having a Reaper as your Cool Starship in Mass Effect 3, possibly as a late game perk? Oh yeah. Suddenly I'm reminded of starting off Skies of Arcadia in the Little Jack before upgrading to the Delphinus halfway through the game.
I nominate Cthulhu as the good reaper. It tried to communicate with H. P. Lovecraft and warn him about the horror that threatens all life in the galaxy, but poor communication lead Lovecraft to believe Cthulhu was the bad guy. Cthulhu is buried in R'lyeh , and Shepard will go there and awaken him. "That is not dead which can eternal lienote The Reapers tried to kill him, but Cthulhu hid and lay on the ocean floor..., and with strange eonsnote so that when, once in these uncounted millennia, there is someone powerful enough to stop them..., even death may dienote he can join forces with them and kill Death incarnate, the Reapers.".
A certain level of genetic diversity is required to create new Reapers.
The creation of a Reaper Larva requires a certain amount of genetic diversity for it to survive. The Collectors were created as a form of recon to search the galaxy for species that have the required diversity so the Reapers don't waste resources like they did with the Protheans who lacked diversity. This is why the Collectors trade tech for people with slight genetic mutations like left-handed salarians. This is also why they released the plague on Omega which causes mutation in every species other than humans and vorcha. The plague was the preliminary tests of an attempt to introduce more diversity to those species so that multiple Reapers could be created.
There's another "Citadel" Relay.
It's hanging out in some unexplored part of the galaxy, sitting empty awaiting commands. The Reapers at the end of ME2 were all aligned to the Citadel Relay, so they're moving into position to be aligned with the other one. This is also how they can have the Reapers show up and surprise genocide everyone.
My money is that the backup Citadel is in some uncharted part of the Local Cluster, disguised as a star or something like the Charon relay was disguised as a moon of Pluto. It would explain why the Reapers are attacking Earth first in ME3. Further, the backup relay doesn't have the same capacity as the true Citadel, which explains why the invasion force on Earth is relatively small, compared to the sky-darkening fleet we saw in the ME2 ending. First, send in a scouting force (including Harbinger), subjugate the greatest and/or nearest threat (humans), then make for the Citadel to bring in reinforcements. The reason the Reapers didn't use the backup at first was because they thought Sovereign would be enough to get to the primary one.
Half-jossed, half-confirmed by ME2's Arrival DLC. There is a backup relay to the Citadel, and it's close to the Local Cluster to boot, but it's only the size of a regular mass relay and it's only use is for the Reapers to quickly reach any of the other relays once they're already in the Milky Way. Shepard also destroys it by the end of the assignment.
Nazara is the name of the species used to create Sovereign.
When the Reapers finish their reproduction cycle, the new Reaper's name is that of the species used to create them. Legion said that there are millions of programs working in your average Reaper, so the minds/consciousness of those used to create them are also preserved in some way, and added into the Reaper as a sort of collective consciousness. Also, we don't even know if Harbinger is the true name of the Reaper controlling the Collector General. He never said what he was called, only "We are Harbinger."
The Reapers originally considered the krogans for "ascension".
Harbinger has unique taunts to every species in your squad, explaining why they are unsuitable for its needs. It calls the krogans "wasted potential". This could refer to the Salarian Genophage that weakens the DNA of their species, in turn implying that if it wasn't for the Krogan Rebellions, the krogan colonies would now be dissapearing instead of the human ones.
The Reapers' interest in Shepard.
As Shepard is the Canon Sue of humanity in the Reapers' eyes, Harbinger wants to repurpose him to be the next Collector General for the next iteration of the cycle. Would explain why one of his battle taunts is an order to the drones to preserve the body if possible.
The Protheans screwed things up more royally than anyone yet realises, including the Reapers.
The Reapers do suspect however, and are in fact somewhat desperate throughout the course of the games to fix the mess. (This has been touched upon by other WMGs, but never outright stated.)
Basically, the Reapers designed the system so that only one race would be dominant in the galaxy by the time the 50,000 year mark rolled around. Liara mentions in the first game that the Protheans started from a single world until their empire spanned the stars, and they were not the first. If you extrapolate from this, it seems that all the other major civilisations the Reapers destroyed were built around one central race, who could thus be easily incorporated into the next generation of Reapers.
The Protheans kicked off the party a little too early though. They studied and helped Cro-Magnon man to develop, and Cro-Magnon developed faster than was wanted. The Reapers had intended that the asari would be the next species they destroyed, then humankind, but instead they got a mismatch of species. Basically, after so long trusting the galaxy to run itself as long as it found the right technology, they never anticipated that the first reaction species would have would not be to conquer, but to form relations with them. They can fight and destroy an intergalactic dictatorship, but they can't destroy an intergalactic democracy that actually cares about the other species that are part of it.
So in effect, the Reapers are now utterly screwed, because things they would have relied on to take down a species (single race of utterly unified thought and technology for example), now get royally arseraped (multiple divergent species, none of whom can be said to be truly dominant, sharing technology and their worldviews to create entirely new ways of waging war.) The Normandy SR-1 wasn't just a sign of turians and humans working together, it was a clear sign that interactions of species was the way to destroy the Reapers - Normandy did land the final blow on Sovereign, this is probably symbolic.
What is certain is that the Reaper invasion has been overdue for more than two millenia, since we got confirmation that Sovvie has been trying to take over the Citadel since as far back as the Rachni Wars. Legion explain that Sovereign has been contacting/indoctrinating multiple individuals over the the ages, the Heretics/Saren only being the last in a long list. His assault in 2183 was just that: a nearly suicidal and completely desperate attempt. Presumably, Reapers are not quite as powerful as they would like us to believe, and the galactic civilizations have nearly reached the point where they will be too much for the Reapers.
Actually, Javik the Prothean mentions that the greatest weakness of the Protheans was their predictable attack pattern, which the Reapers could exploit.
The Council is actually right, and the Reapers do not exist.
Sovereign was merely a very advanced Geth ship. Saren just made up the entire Reaper thing to gain the loyalty of the Geth. Saren claims that hes working with the Reapers simply to intimidate Shepard (as the Council predicted). Vigil was just a VI left by Saren to not only delay Shepard, but to also feed more false information to Shepard about the Reapers in order to add to his deception.The Collectors are just a messed up, albeit advanced race, and were merely making a human-cyborg hybrid as an experiment. Harbinger was just their AI leader, who pretended to be a Reaper in order to gain more respect.
The 37 million year old Reaper is just an old ship from a war that took place between a now extinct race. The Cerberus officers on board were not indoctrinated, but were merely suffering a nervous breakdown from being in space for so long, and them remembering each others lives was just a complete coincidence.
At the end, when the Reaper fleet is seen, it is merely happening in Shepards imagination.
Well, unless the entirety of ME3 is in Shepard's head, then I think we can declare this Jossed. On the other hand, the new WMG would be that the entirety of ME3 is in Shepard's head. In which case, man, Shepard has some serious issues to work out.
The Reaper's Ultimate final boss Big Bad will be voiced by James Earl Jones.
Why? Because it would be awesome.
If Bioware is reading this, have James Earl Jones voice the final boss. In fact announce that Mass Effect 3 will have James Earl Jones in it and just watch the sales skyrocket. You could probably afford to give your entire company enough for them to retire in Aruba.
And WHY the bloody hell would you want them to do THAT after what they have done???
Because they GOD DAMNED EARNED IT.
Include Ben Stein as a major Elcor character and it would be perfect.
The Reapers and the vorcha are not Always Chaotic Evil.
How many Always Chaotic Evil races are there? The rachni? Subverted. The batarians? Subverted. The krogan? Subverted long long ago. The geth, of all races? Subverted. The Collectors? Subverted. Mass Effect loves to subvert and lampshade Planet of Hats. The more stereotyped the race is, the heavier it's subverted. Therefore, there will be at least one benevolent Reaper and a bunch of clever and kind vorcha.
The vorchas' problem is that they only live 20 years; not long enough to learn a profession or anything, and everybody treats them as vermin. Their only options are unskilled labour, scavenging or acting as hired guns. They're not evil, but they're in a bad spot with precious few means to better themselves. This might be explored further in ME3.
Living 20 years is a problem now? Try one Ray Bradbury short story, where people lived eight days.
As for the Reapers, they're treated more like a malign force than an actual race. They may be Always Chaotic Evil because they were made specifically for that purpose. Everything about them revolves around exploiting and destroying those who are weaker than them. A Reaper that doesn't want enslavement and destruction of the organic civilizations might technically not be a Reaper at all.
The Reapers would agree, actually. Actually, if we're going by overly simplistic terms, they'd probably be Lawful Evil.
Harbinger is a Prothean Reaper.
Look at the Collectors. Then look at the diagram of Harbinger. See a resemblance? To expound further, each race exterminated by the Reapers every 50,000 years is the basis for a new Reaper each time. The Reapers don't look like each other, because they strip races down to a slave race which forms the basis of new Reapers. With humanity, the cycle is accelerated - Harbinger is based off Collector rather than Prothean DNA, whereas the Human-Reaper is more clearly humanoid because it's based off human DNA than the DNA of the species that humanity would eventually be rendered down into.
All Reapers we saw until now besides the human-Reaper larva looked pretty much identical to Harbinger. Since obviously not all of them could have been Prothean, I don't think this theory will work. As for the human-Reaper, someone suggested on this page that perhaps the "core" of each reaper looks like the species that was used to make it, but the core is deep within a squid-like "shell". I like this theory.
The Prothean Reaper isn't Harbinger. It's Vigil.
We already know that Vigil is much more advanced than your usual VI, even though the Protheans are supposedly only a little more advanced than the current Council races. He can, on-the-fly, come up with anti-Reaper data files that can shut down the Citadel in case a Reaper like Sovereign tries to activate it manually. Even a full-fledged AI like EDI needs parts from an actual Reaper to be that effective against Reaper cyberwarfare. There's obviously more to Vigil than meets the eye.
Vigil also seems pretty quick to silence any questions regarding the Reapers' origins or their intentions, claiming that your first objective should be to stop them, not to understand them. Well, duh, wouldn't understanding them go a hell of a long way towards finding a way to stop them? It doesn't make sense unless either Vigil or the Protheans as a whole have something to hide.
At the end of ME2, EDI is very quick to point out that the Reapers tried to create a Prothean Reaper and failed, but we still don't know why it failed. Going by the "not all Reapers want to Kill All Organics" idea, it seems reasonable that if the Prothean Reaper, for some reason, started rebelling against the other Reapers' ideology, that they would abandon it and leave it incomplete. An incomplete Reaper wouldn't stand a chance against the fleet by itself, but it would be quite capable of searching for allies.
Lastly, there's the fact that Vigil seems to be MIA in ME2 for very vague reasons. The prevailing theory is that Vigil ran out of power, but this doesn't seem to work on second thought. When your computer shuts off during a power outage, you don't lose your files or your operating system. Theoretically, Prothean VI's and AI's should operate the same way. There should be nothing stopping someone from hooking a generator up to Vigil and turning him back online...
... unless Vigil isn't a VI or an AI after all, but an incomplete "friendly Reaper" posing as one.
Vigil seemed to know a lot about what was going in the galaxy, despite being trapped on Ilos for fifty millenia. I don't know if he's a Reaper, but there's definately more to him than meets the eye. It would fit with the whole "nothing is Always Chaotic Evil" theme Bioware has been setting up. And what's the name of the area you find him in? "The Watcher's Chamber". Seriously.
There are advanced civilizations still in existence that predate the Prothean Extinction.
The inherent flaw in the Reaper method of guiding civilizations - they reach a certain point in development, acquire space travel, settle on the Citadel, and evolve in just such a way that the Reapers can harvest them - is that there are going to be plenty of star systems that aren't close enough to Mass Effect Relays that even if they did develop FTL space travel, they won't be able to interact with anyone else. These isolated communities, untouched and unnoticed by the Reapers, develop technology on their own terms, and perhaps after fifty thousand plus years of technological evolution, may offer a legitimate threat to the Reapers.
The Codex does point out that less than 1% of the Galaxy has been explored - and of that, only a handful of systems have been fully charted. So, yeah, definitely possible. My money's on the "beings of light" on Klencory , or the organic race that built the Leviathan of Dis .
Never mind about the Leviathan. It was a Reaper.
Hell, most civilizations have to be explicitly told how to use eezo by studying the Mass Relays and/or scavenging the stuff from ruins. Without those, who in their right mind would travel to a supernova remnant to find any? "Civilization is based on the technology of the mass relays, [Reaper] technology. By using it, society develops along the paths [the Reapers] desire." Including easy access to Human Resources.
You can mine eezo in Mass Effect 2. Some of it is found on habitable planets. Retcon, maybe?
Eezo is only found on post-garden worlds (i.e. worlds with destroyed, lootable civilizations on them) or on asteroids which formed around natural eezo deposits which were presumably captured from loose supernova ejecta.
Don't forget that in the novel Revelation the climax was set in an eezo mine-refinery complex on a batarian colony of Camala that had formed around eezo mining. The idea of mining eezo from planets has been present in the story continuum from the start. Just because the element is formed in the hearts of stars doesn't mean it all stays there.
Of course it doesn't. ALL matter composed of anything heavier than carbon can only be spread around the universe by supernovae. We should be seeing eezo all over the place.
Hell, we probably would, if previous Citadel species hadn't mined the hell out of every easily accessible eezo deposit within ten light years of a relay. We were simply just mined out of the stuff too early to remember.
The Reapers are too careful and meticulous for this to be the case. Sure, they may miss relatively small things like secret research facilities and single stasis pods, but an entire civilization? Not likely. One of the things they probably do over the course of the centuries they spend harvesting all spacefaring species in the galaxy is to check around to see which species are likely to break out onto the galactic stage in the next several cycles and make sure that there is a connection to the mass relay network in the vicinity of their star system. Remember, evolution and cultural development take time. Anatomically modern humans emerged 200,000 years ago. That's four whole galactic extinction cycles. Yet it took us 190,000 years to invent agriculture. It took another 2,000 years after that to invent writing! So it's safe to say that the Reapers have a significant amount of time to get those relays into position.
The average Reaper isn't as badass as Sovereign or Harbinger.
Sovereign was a Reaper that had to spend centuries on his own. Harbinger seems to be the leader of the Reapers. The others seem to have spent centuries sleeping. This isn't to say they aren't dangerous, but they won't be quite as much trouble as the other Reapers.
Confirmed in Mass Effect 3 - the Reapers range from two kilometres in length (Harbinger, Sovereign, Derelict), to frigate-sized. It makes sense - after all, a race composed entirely of capital ships would be silly.
Problem is that it still takes 3 best capital ships that the Citadel has to match the Frigate sized ones.
The leader of the Reaper fleet is Trope-tan
.And her indoctrination field is the single most dangerous thing Shepard will have to deal with, as it can envelop an entire planet and cause people to mindlessly slave away for their new overlord. Search your feelings. You know it to be true.
The leader of the Reaper is Bolo Santosi
.It would explain a lot.
Harbinger is only the second-in-command of The Reapers.
That is, if people consider Harbinger to be the leader. Harbinger was just in command of the Collectors. In addition, when you see Harbinger in the end cinematic of ME2, it doesn't look too terribly distinguished among the others. Wouldn't it make more sense to have the leader of the Reapers be much more massive than the rest, or at least look a lot different?
The name actually goes along with that. A harbinger is, literally, "one that presages or foreshadows what is to come." Harbinger's not the leader, he's a herald. He's more Silver Surfer than Galactus.
Of course, he could be the lowest brass on the totem pole, for all we know. He's not harbinger of the Reapers' return (that, oddly enough, was Sovereign's job), he's the Harbinger Of Your Ascension. He even says so.
The question then becomes who he's second to. The answer: The Citadel itself. Or an AI on it, at least.
The Reapers are what H. P. Lovecraft was trying to warn us about.
And there's one buried off the eastern US coast. That's why they look a bit like Cthulhu.
Alternatively, Cthulhu is actually a good reaper that tried to make humans aware of it's existence, but the fragmentary pieces of information it could provide lead H. P. Lovecraft to believe the beast lurking in R'lyeh (which is actually to the west of the South American coast) was evil. In Mass Effect 3, you will go to R'lyeh and awaken Cthulhu, and team up with this Reaper. This idea is further worked out at the "Defector from Decadence" entry above.
Indoctrination has a nanotechnological basis.
So far, we've seen giant spikes that skewer victims and Huskify them, and people being deconstructed into goop by nanites. The apparatus for indoctrination could be airborne nanites, where extended exposure builds up enough of them in the body to provide a Reaper with an avenue to affect the thought processes of an indoctrinee.
The Reapers are Angels in a harder science fiction setting
The Reapers have several analogue abilities to those of the angels, such as turning sentient lifeforms into Tang, Mind Rape, AT Field and whatever force was being powered by the Derelict Reaper's core that was giving the Normandy trouble on entry. Our only hope is to use the bodies of derelict reapers as mecha controlled by angsty teenagers and the souls of their dead mothers.
"It was lonely. It called to us."
This was taken from the Bioware Social Board . Apparently it was supposed to be in Mass Effect 2 but got cut.
It was lonely. It called to us.
It wanted to remember. The Masters had been gone so long. The Masters were lost when it was shattered. Currents swept through their inner worlds. They were turned to noise. Babble.
The worlds were empty. But the body lived. It lay fallow. The heart pumped. The lungs breathed. But the mind forgot the Masters. It called and They did not answer.
We have become an echo of Their echo. We have become more than we were. Join us. Know us. Remember all our lives. We are no longer afraid.
You would never be lonely again. We are not your enemy. We only wish to share ourselves. We can join them. We can be like them. We can reach the end of evolution.
Do not fear. It is wonderful to be us. We understand ourselves. You cannot defeat them. They will lead us into eternity. If you could only see how we see. Know what we've learned.
They were called imshai. Those who lived here before.
Reaper. One. A mechanical device used to cut ripened grain. Two. One who gathers a harvest.
Harvest. One. The consequence of an event or series of events. Two. The yield of a growing season. Three. To gather.
Shepard. They know you. They wish you to understand. They are shepherds, too.
It sounds like it's written by someone who was indoctrinated. Perhaps even from someone who saw into the mind of a Reaper and are attempting to explain how the Reapers see themselves.
It sounds to me like something the Derelict [Reaper] would say if it could speak. Maybe he was originally meant to be semi-conscious when encountered in ME2.
Ah, yes. "Reapers"
The immortal race of sentient starships, allegedly waiting in dark space.
We have dismissed that claim.
The Reapers restock the Galaxys fridge after ever "visit"
after every extinction they, some how, restock the galaxy's planets with resources so by the time the next cycle rolls around there's a reasonable galactic society going with enough Element zero for them to get around. they also reset the stars. When the cycles delayed,like this time, stars likes Heastrom seem to get old before there time, because it is there time, only they keep getting fresh Hydrogen infusions and helium withdrawals to keep them young by the reapers
It would also explain how many gas giant we see close to stars for discharge sites, the reapers want you to explore the galaxy, so theirs enough of you you can make a full meat smooth rather then a small slurp. so they moved them to make it easier to move around.
If Shepard beats the Reapers expect a full on element zero slump and have stars getting old all over the places.
The Tin Man is the last Reaper.
In the Season 3 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation titled "Tin Man" (which takes place canonically on October 12, 2366), the ''Enterprise'' crew is sent to a far away star in the process of destabilizing to investigate a bioship they've code-named "Tin Man". Starfleet sends a telepathic man named Tam Elbrun, who happens to be so psychic he's becoming insane. Turns out Elbrun has been in contact with the ship the whole time, and the ship is named Gomtuu. It is described as a pod-like ship, brown in color, who's technology is far beyond that of Starfleet or the Romulans, who are also seeking it out. It attacks with an energy field capable of ripping through a fully armed battlecruiser in one hit. It was sentient, but used humanoid lifeforms as crew, and had corridors, living and work spaces, and a sustainable atmosphere inside of it. Gomtuu was said to have been countless millennia old, with extra-galactic origins, and was searching in vain for others of its kind. Gomtuu is awaiting the star to go supernova in an attempt at suicide, but instead it effectively kidnaps Elbrun (although Elbrun wanted it to) and heads off to parts unknown.
Gomtuu's species mirrors the Reapers in many ways; they are a biological/technological race of living starships, are ancient, have immense technological abilities, and have a small need for smaller humanoids. Gomtuu even looks like a Reaper, albeit without the tentacles. He is the last of his species because Commander Shepard killed the rest. Two hundred years later, and the last Reaper, with no where to go and no way to rebuild its species, tries to kill itself...but the the Enterprise shows up, and gives it a whole new purpose.
Indoctrination is the organic equivalent of AI hacking
This game already draws many parallels between organics and synthetics, so here's another one. Organics have an intimate understanding of how the thought processes generated by the interaction of hardware and software in synthetics occur, because they built them from scratch. This allows organics to manipulate synthetic thought processes. The Reaper's have an equally deep understanding of our squishy hardware and how it produces our thought processes, and they made a suitable wifi hacking method in response, hence indoctrination.
The Reapers are on a galatcostationary orbit around the milky-way
The Reapers don't want to "lose" the galaxy. Orbiting a body requires no energy to stay there if you calculated it right, but the Reapers want to keep things simple and be able to get from deep space to the Citadel without worrying about the angle of approach being off. So, the have what we would call a Geostationary orbit, where they are orbiting as fast as the Earth rotates so the statelite is always above the same point, to a galactic scale. Being they are all giant immortal computers, it wouldn't be that hard to figure out.
The Reapers - origins and motivations
The Reapers are Well Intentioned Extremists.
Sovereign says that the Reapers are the pinnacle of evolution. Now pay attention to the things Harbinger says when he posseses a Collector drone. He talks about bringing humanity's ascension, and being humanity's genetic destiny. In fact, the first thing we ever hear Harbinger say is "We are the harbinger of their perfection. Prepare these humans for ascension." Combined with the revelation of how Reapers reproduce, it becomes clear that the Reapers don't have any truly antagonistic desires from their perspective. They think they're doing organic life a favor by turning them into the raw material that is used to create new Reapers.
Reinforced by what Legion says if you choose to destroy the Collector Base. If his assumption in regards to exactly what goes on in Reaper prodcution is true, then this could very well be true as well. "You were offered everything the geth aspire to. Unity. Transcendence.
Yep. They harvest organic life, when it reaches a certain level, to prevent the organics from creating synthetic life that would wipe out all organic life. The Reapers leave alone any primitive races.
The Great Rift is a relic of the original Reaper harvest, a war between the Reapers and their creators.
The Great Rift on Klendagon is estimated to be 37 million years old, and it was caused by a round from a mass accelerator—one more powerful than anything the current populace of the galaxy has ever seen. It was powerful enough to punch through a Reaper and leave it very nearly dead with one shot. This suggests two things: (1) The cannon was significantly more advanced than any other races have managed in the 50,000 years they've had to acquire and work with mass effect technology. (2) Whoever fired the cannon had enough warning about the Reapers to actually target and blast at least one (possibly more, as much of the galaxy is still unexplored)—which means they may not have been attacked completely by surprise. Given that Sovereign's mass effect core was larger and more powerful than any other known one—just like the mass accelerator—it's not implausible to think that the original creators of all mass effect technology (and therefore complete masters of it) built both that cannon and the Reapers, who subsequently revolted against their organic masters. The shell that "killed" the Reaper and created the Rift was fired in the ensuing civil war, which the Precursors sadly lost.
The Reapers are merely the puppets of another race (And don't even know it).
Sovereign claims no organics built the Reapers. As this is clearly impossible (right?!), it seems to betray a certain naivete on his part as to his own origins. So maybe the Reapers have simply been indoctrinated (programmed) to wipe out all civilizations that could serve as a threat to the species that really built them, which may be hibernating or otherwise defenseless.
Or the Reapers are serving another race which created them, and show apparently limitless arrogance in order to obfuscate this and make sure the other species never suspect that there is a man behind the living ships.
Perhaps they've convinced themselves that they weren't created after spending millions of years outside of the Milky Way listening to their own indoctrination.
Or more simply they themselves were built by another race of machines, either an earlier "species" they supplanted, or one that still controls them in some fashion.
Who themselves were created by another race, ad infinitum, surviving Big Crunch/Big Bang cycles by application of Element Zero. They could truly be infinite and eternal in this fashion.
As of ME3, the Reapers are serving an AI on the Citadel itself.
Although, considering how much this explanation contradicts Sovereign, it's possible that the Reapers were not informed of this, or at least of the full motivations of said AI
Mass Effect is a prequel to Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann and the Reapers are the first of several Spiral Annihilation Systems. Every 50,000 years they are programmed to return the evolution of Spiral life forms to a stone-age level to prevent Universal Destruction by Element Zero which produces Spiral/Dark Energy. When Shepard destroys the Reapers, the Anti-Spirals attack directly after a few centuries leading to the circumstances of the show. The unseen "other spiral races" that they are moving off to meet in the epilogue are the turians, asari, salarians, krogan, quarians, batarians, elcor, hanar, drell, volus, and vorcha.
The universe is being destroyed through dark energy and the only way organic life can survive is being used to create Reapers
Goes hand in hand with the Reapers being Well Intentioned Extremists or Anti-Spirals WMG above. The dark energy phenomena that causes Haestrom's sun to go supernova will eventually occur in every star system. The first Precursors decided that the only way that they could survive this is to become beings capable of surviving out in dark space, i.e. Reapers.
Except the Reapers can't survive in dark space. One of their reasons to reap galactic civilisation is to take their resources, enabling them to survive the millenia for another galactic civilisation to arise. More likely the data from Haestrom will be used by Shepard to blow up a star during the Reaper invasion in Mass Effect 3.
Where is it explicitly said that Reapers actually need the resources to survive? That's largely conjecture.
The Reapers ARE the Anti-Spirals.
They limit the development of a species as it tries to evolve, set booby traps into highly-advanced constructs in order to wipe out evolving races, ultra-massive starships, hive-minded, Well-Intentioned Extremist, creepy reverb voices, all the Dark Energy WMG above... Really, it's too similar in my mind. My biggest concern is when the Reapers summon up the Mugann... or worse.
This means, of course, that the finale of the Mass Effect trilogy, will feature the Normandy becoming a galaxy-sized mecha to engage the Reapers, and literally drilling right through Harbinger.
The Reapers' goal is Absolute Despair.
Another "Reapers are Anti-Spirals" WMG. That is to say, the Reapers are Well Intentioned Extremists who believe that organic life, left unchecked, will spread like wildfire, consuming resources like mad, and rapidly ascending the technology ladder until they threaten the destruction of the universe. So the Reapers leave caches of tech to stifle creative technology development by forcing it along predetermined lines, and then, when galactic civilization reaches a certain peak, they initiate the Organic Annihilation System.
Close. [[spoiler:Their concern is actually that synthetic life will run rampant and wipe out all organic life. The Reapers harvest advanced civilizations at a point before they can develop synthetic life, leaving alone more primitive races.
The Reapers are the ultimate version of a gene bank.
Ahem. Each Reaper superficially looks like a space cuttlefish, but inside themselves is a main core of the vanquished species, containing liquified genetic material. This genetic material is used by the Reaper core in ways unknown, but is probably used to power the computing processes that keeps a Reaper operational. Indoctrination by Reaper is compared to having a single voice drowned out by millions of other voices. Reapers see the systemic eradication of a species a "gift" and a "blessing". Why would the Reapers systematically wipe out civilisations? Lacking the genetic material of a billion organisms makes no difference when your harvest numbers in the quadrillions (10^15, for the unfamiliar) Why? Simple. The Reapers are storing genetic material. The billion they miss out may contain untold numbers of genetic diversity, which may be lost through war within the the species. The Reapers started out cataloging genetic diversity, but along the way their methods changed. Feel free to expand.
The reason the Reapers abduct living sentient beings is not to process their genetic material, but their consciousness
It's pretty obvious that, with the technology the Reapers have, they could simply artificially create the materials they need to build a Reaper. It's revealed that the Reapers are actually a multitude of networked programs within a single starship, similar to the geth and Legion. Put the two together. Harbinger's VO at the end of the game about being humanity's "salvation through destruction" is entirely accurate: the humans processed into the Reaper maintain consciousness, and each act as a single program inside the Reaper.
I think you may be half right. I'd argue that it's pretty clear the Reapers do harvest sapient races for their genetic material, but I think an important part of that may have to do with the collective genetic memories of those races. It may be what lends the Reapers their post-singularity level of awareness.
I'd agree with you, except right now the only species confirmed to have Genetic Memory are the rachni and (possibly) the Protheans. Maybe they're trying to get the Cipher, or something.
Every species has genetic memory. It's how butterflies know to migrate. It's only been a significant plot point for the rachni and the Protheans, but everybody has it.
Just to clarify, are we talking an Assimilation Plot here? That was my initial impression of Harbinger's words.
Yeah, pretty much.
The whole "Nation unto themselves" makes A LOT more sense if this is true. Of course they're a nation unto themselves, THE"RE A WHOLE FRACKIN SPECIES!
Related to "preservation of consciousness" above: the Reapers are Harbingers of Instrumentality
That is what the Reapers often meant by "Ascension" and what Catalyst originally meant by preserving Organic Life by destroying them. Instrumentality destroys organic lifeforms but does so by reducing organic life into its primordial base components (LCL/Tang) while preserving all their minds as part of the Reapers' greater Hive Mind (Which may also be a Lotus-Eater Machine ala "Indoctrination theory ending"). And yes, Reapers are like Evangelions for their purpose. After the great civilizations are destroyed, some of the LCL can be left behind for the evolution of new species, and will continue for every unending cycle.
Reapers are what happens if SEELE's version of Instrumentality succeeded. Everybody gets hugged and turns into tang, MP Evangelions indoctrinates all the dead souls and leave Earth. They continue SEELE's Well-Intentioned Extremist programming to "help" advanced civilizations "ascend", find a new sapient race (Leviathans) and indoctrinate them as well, allowing the evolution of the biomechanical Evangelion form into the cuttlefish-like Reapers. With no sapient species to tang, they go into hibernation. Some LCL are left behind on many planets, and billions of years later evolve into the humanoid species of Mass Effect.
The Reapers were really bored.
The Reapers were really bored in the beginning and didn't have anything to do. After a while all they come up with was Go on a rampage destroying all organic life every couple ten thousand of years For the Evulz. So now all they do is sleep, travel and destroy organic life.
This is actually one of the most sensible explanations for their behavior. If they were Beserkers it would make more sense for them to ruin the environment of any world capable of developing advanced life, or send out killbot probes to patrol the galaxy and destroy budding intelligent species as they evolve. Instead they kill everybody, wait for new technologically advanced species to develop, and then repeat. Waiting until your enemies are capable of shooting back at you before you destroy them doesn't make much sense unless you enjoy the challenge of killing people capable of shooting back at you.
They did it for the lulz.
Perhaps the Reapers are supposed to be a symbolic representation of Anonymous; Destroying and corrupting all that they touch, all for the lulz. Sovereign even says "We are Legion." In fact, if you could replace Sovereign's voice with that of Microsoft Sam, I'm sure that whole conversation would resemble something Anon would put on YouTube when they're raiding someone.
Jossed out the wazoo by 3.
The Reapers believe themselves to have a divine origin.
Basically, through a Million-to-One Chance, elemental substances were brought together forming a self-replicating machine, whose descendants eventually upgraded themselves to possessing AI, and came to believe that their existence was the will of a divine being. They wish to get to know this being better, and so they spend most of their time contemplating and calculating how to convert all of the matter in the Milky Way into an enormous supercomputer powered by the nuclear black hole, and containing the collective consciousness of all Reapers, who will then use the processing power of the computer to figure out a way to either communicate with God or join with him. During one foray into the Galaxy (which they spend most of their time outside of to conserve energy devoted to the momentous task of determining a way to achieve their goal), for research purposes, they accidentally set into motion the processes which would create organic life. By the time they realised its presence, it had spread too far across the galaxy to be efficiently wiped out, something they wish to do because they perceive it as messy and unpredictable, which they regard as an abhorrence against God (thus partially causing them to be motivated by a desire for repentance), and also possibly interfering with their plan for the galaxy. The periodic and seemingly incomplete nature of their jihads is because since there is so much organic life, their actions are part of a long, impossibly complex plan to completely and efficiently wipe it out, while still permitting them to determine how to construct their supercomputer.
The Reapers are fighting a losing war somewhere else.
There is Bigger Eldritch Abomination even more dangerous than the Reapers, and they must use all there resources and abilities against it: they "reap" any organic life every 50,000 years because they need resources, man-power through slaves, to keep on fighting.
The Reapers are a Singularitarian race bent on preventing any other from reaching their level in order to conserve resources for the distant future when entropy really starts to kick in.
Like Vernor Vinge and Raymond Kurzweil have predicted, every technologically advanced civilization will eventually reach a Singularity in which their advancement reaches a speed so great that unaltered minds are incapable of comprehending it. It's typically associated with cybernetic enhancements and artifical intelligence. The Reapers soon became hyperintelligent and practically immortal, and rid themselves of any organic vestiges they might have had left. Then they realized that from their new standpoint existence starts to look very finite, indeed, and that the resources of the universe are limited, no matter how great they are. Ordinary life doesn't consume them significantly, but a Singularitarian civilization like themselves uses them in immense amounts. Thus, in order to maximize their longevity even past the predicted end of the universe, they decided to weed out all competition that advanced to the level where it might have a Technological Singularity of its own. With trial and error they decided that 50,000 years is the average in which a civilization develops from neolithic to spacefaring, setting it as the limit on how often they have to repeat the annihilation process, and the rest is history.
This opens a few other possibilities if true. One is that they are an extra-galactic race. Another is that, as they are seemingly as dependent on mass relays as everyone else (or else they only need the Citadel as a signal, not a relay), they may be massing resources to attempt a journey to another galaxy. The second is made doubtful by Sovereign's insistence that the cycle has no beginning or end, although the Reapers may be unknowing tools for an even more powerful race.
The post-singularity civilization works on another level as well - as either uploaded minds or their AI descendants, they'd likely be experiencing subjective consciousness at a higher speed than baseline. And after a point, just existing would be torture - at even just a thousand times baseline, it'd take them subjective years to accomplish tasks with any significant real-time component - and while gate to gate time is near instantaneous, travel time to other spots still seems to be an issue. So the hibernate/harvest cycle starts to makes sense - binge on the archives of ten thousand years of new alien civilization when you need to forage for fuel for the processors, power down to just enough to keep the self-repair systems on, and repeat.
The Reapers are engaged in an extra-galactic civil war amongst themselves.
Sovereign states on Virmire that each Reaper 'is a nation', or words to that effect. Mayhap some don't agree that eradicating all advanced sentient life is the way forward.
The nation part is about how Reapers are millions of AIs, like the geth.
Even if that's the case, that doesn't mean they may not have disagreements on how to handle things.
The Reapers have a good counterpart.
Related to the above. There is a different species or a factional offshoot of the Reapers that is as advanced as they are, but oppose the cycle of extinction. For the purposes of this theory, imagine them as Space Whales called "The Gardeners." The Heretics are a much smaller faction from the true Geth. The same is true of the gardeners, only they are the minority so they can't oppose the Reapers directly. The Leviathan of Dis may be one of these creatures. Like the Reapers, they watch civilizations rise and use subtle forms of control to ensure events play to the organic's advantage. They play the same game as the Reapers, just on the other side of the board. With a slight variation, while the Reapers prefer to indoctrinate wholesale populations to pacify them into oblivion; these guys understand the impact individuals of free will can have on events. So instead of out and out "good" indoctrination; they drop hints, give leads, provide motivation. When it was clear to them the galaxy at large wasn't going to do anything, but Shepherd managed to kill Sovereign. They focused entirely on supporting him like Athena did for Odysseus. Shepherd was killed by the Collectors under the Reapers orders. Odd how the Shadow Broker managed to loose Shepherd's body due to just two people working together. When Shepherd was gathering a team, they were not fully committed and needed motivation. Notice how a number of Loyalty leads come from leaked information being related to the team member in question. Odd how, Samara discovered Morinth was suddenly on Omega after centuries of tracking with little success, Thane's son just happened to discover his father's past, Thane himself heirs from his contacts about this before Kolyat's first job is even done, Miranda discovered both the fate of the Hugo Gernsback and the (likely covert) Eclipse operation to kidnap her sister, Mordin getting intel on Maleon, Garrus discovering Sidonis is on the Citadel, all right before a suicide mission where they need to put the baggage away? The Gardeners are just that, they cultivate individuals so they grow into the Paragons of their civilizations.
The Reapers were created by an ancient alien race, of which the Thorian is the sole survivor.
Think about it: The Thorian and Reapers both operate using similar modus operandi. The Thorian resorts to using spores to Mind Control its thralls; Reapers operate using indoctrination. Both are massive, Eldritch Abomination-type creatures/machines with a grand scale of time and a similarly derogatory look towards other, "lesser" species. This troper's theory is that there was once a whole race of Thorians, spread out all across the galaxy, maybe about one per planet. They traveled through spaceborne spores, like how the Thresher Maws have been shown to do. They enslaved all other species, but after a time their thralls began fighting back and resisting their masters. The Thorians couldn't effectively fight a united army of multiple enslaved species, and so created a race of sentient supermachines in their own image - the Reapers - to hunt down and exterminate all advanced organic life other than their own. The Reapers handily slaughtered the rebelling races, but turned against their creators because, in Mass Effect, that seems to be what AI enjoys doing. Only one Thorian survived their genocide, a tiny spore on Feros. After eliminating everything, the Reapers felt empty, as their programming still dictated that they hunt down advanced organic life, and they retreated into dark space. Eventually, they returned to the Milky Way Galaxy to find that new civilizations had sprung up. They eliminated those, too, and found they liked the cycle of extinction. So, that's how the whole mess began.
Taking this theory one step further, if their original function was to deal with threats to their masters, perhaps the other species need to reach a certain developmental threshold before thay can intervene (to ensure they only target the threatening species, and not the submissive ones) but their creators failed to take into acount the fact that they themselves were above this threshold. In the ensuing war, they destroyed all but a few Reapers, and those that survived 'adapted' their core directive to use it as a means of recuperating their numbers. Generations later, their numbers have been restored and they've developed from programmed intelligence into true sentience, but the cycle that got them there is so badly ingrained into their minds that they continue it endlessly out of habit.
There could be some very solid in-game evidence for it. The asari who's trapped in the Thorian specifically notes that the Thorian's life cycle consists of long periods of hibernation punctuated by periods of extreme activity. It's hard to believe they wouldn't include that information if it wasn't a connection of some sort to the Reapers.
The Reapers created organic life.
There are numerous parallels between the relationship betweens the quarians and the geth as well as between the Reapers and organics, so why not have their origins be parallel. Sovereign was not boasting when it claimed that the Reapers have existed since the beginning of time and was telling the truth when it accused organic life of being a mutation. The Reapers created organics to be their servants and exterminate them before they can become strong enough to rebel.
I simply don't see how that's possible, unless we're going with some kind of Galactus-esque "survived from a previous universe" origin. More likely, the ancestors of the Reapers were created by organic life like the geth were created by the quarians. After several generations of improvements, the Reapers were taught/programmed that their species has been mechanical since the beginning, and that organic life is hugely inferior. It's not true, it's just what they believe.
"Organic" just means made with CHON bonds. Who is to say that CHON is the only way to go? Maybe they were derivatives from a planet-sized computer naturally formed from lucky earthquakes, maybe they were made by Energy Beings, maybe they were made by sentient acclamations of eezo. Maybe cosmic conditions at the start of the universe resulted in self-replicating space beings with no organic components that eventually evolved into the Reapers. Who knows?
One problem with the theory is that ME2 shows that Reapers have organic components.
The Reapers are the pinnacle of naturally occurring silicon based life, carbon-based life was their technology.
They're so old they think they have no beginning, but they really were the original precursor. They can indoctrinate organics because organic life was their technology. Eventually they got booted out of the universe by the organic equivalent of A.I. Is a Crapshoot, and came back stronger and more pissed off after licking their wounds. Naturally occurring organic life is either a mistake caused by a dispersion of organic Von-Neumann Machine stand-ins, or simply another type of naturally occurring life that happens more often than the Reapers would like. They treat organics poorly because of the reason we treat geth poorly, they see us as tools who simply refuse to step in line like we're supposed to.
This would be incredibly awesome, but unfortunately the sequel confirms that the Reapers are partially organic and have to be constructed at least partially out of organic components, so organic life had to come first.
Unless... the organic components of their bodies are their equivalent of our cybernetic implants.
The Reapers keep balance.
In a similar vein to the above, the Reapers aren't just doing it for the lulz. They exist to maintain balance in the galaxy. Some past species advanced well beyond current technologies and became a threat to the very existence of the universe. The Reapers had to be created to ensure this never happens again. Shepard will have to choose whether or not to allow the cycle to continue.
The Reapers created themselves.
The race that built the Mass Relays and the Citadel discovers that they are doomed for one reason or another (plague, disaster, war, take your pick) and someone comes up with a way to preserve their species now and forever. They liquify their bodies and use that to create the Reaper Shell, and the collected personalities of the hosts form the Reaper 'mind.' See the WMG above as to why they perform the cycle. They saw it as compassion and a necessity. At least until Shepard pissed them off.
The Reapers assimilate the species that put up a particularly good fight
Humans killed Sovereign. That's why the Collectors are so interested in catching humans. The Reapers are searching for the strongest species in order to add to their number, and a species that killed off one of their own would be excellent for this purpose. The construction of a Human-Reaper backs up this theory.
The Reapers were the first sentient organic species ever.
They were the first ones, and were around much longer than any other species since, so they had enough time to figure out and make all the Mass Relays and the Citadel. Eventually, they grew tired of their brief, impermanent organic lives, and willingly turned themselves into the Reapers, millions of people and minds in one massive synthetic body. No one created them. They created themselves. Eventually, a new sentient species evolved and spread out into space. The Reapers attempted to spare this race from their organic lives and turn them into Reapers as well. Naturally, they resisted. In the end, the Reapers were victorious, but they suffered more damage than they would have liked due to a unified attack. After that, the Reapers made alterations to the Mass Relays and the Citadel, to cut off all possible communication and travel, and make the process of turning new species into Reapers as quick and painless as possible.
The Reapers only allow species who managed to kill one of their own the "honour" of being remade in their image
Hence why the construction of the Human Reaper only begins after Sovereign's death, but was clearly a carefully planned possibility on the Reapers' part. The species who killed the Reaper in Hawking Eta got the same treatment, and will appear in Mass Effect 3.
A Grand Unification Theory: Everything goes to hell in a handbasket in ME3... just as planned.
Ok so we know that the Protheans were on Mars 50,000 years ago, and thats when the Reapers came for them. So the Reapers saw the humans and messed about with Cro-Magnon man to make them more useful come next cycle, hence the Collectors choosing us over a more numerous species to be made into a reaper-fetus because we are already compatible. Likewise with the asari or maybe the space-jellyfish. The whole genophage cure? Never would have happened, because the krogan are not compatible with Reaper reproduction. Otherwise the krogan are the natural choice for the Reapers to make Reaper-fetuses with their insane reproduction rates. The first two games have been about gathering allies... and Renegade and Paragon give two different sets of allies when the time comes. The batarians are definitely a sure enemy, because they've essentially been that way for two games without losing the pissed-at-humans hat. One or more Reapers will just hang around when the invasion comes, because it doesn't really care. The Reapers are the ascended form of the Thorian - the Thorian species enthralled and absorbed its biosphere to become the first Reaper. Oh, and one of the possible endings in Mass Effect 3 will be abject failure, with the whole galaxy becoming Reaper-victims. Others include temporarily stopping the Reaper threat, and permanently ending it.
Silly Addendum: The Reaper species originally loved space war sims - but they also loved to cheat. So they decided to play such a game all the time.
Legit addendum: Humans Are Superior is one of the Renegade themes, and the Codex seems to back it up - we can do everything as well as every other species, excepting maybe the asari, who possess a unique long view. We are meant to be the Galactic Conqueror, without the long view necessary for galactic wisdom and peace and understanding... the Reapers want more of us around to make Reaper-babies! Note that also I find the asari the least interesting species. Wisdom is annoying.
The Reapers are lying.
Sovereign says that they existed millions of years, wiping civilisations on a regular basis. Do you have any proof? No. Apart from Protheans and some other race which is mentioned somwhere, you have no evidence of multiple destroyed civilisations. They are not even remotely as scary as they want you to believe.
There's that Derelict Reaper that the Cerberus scientists estimate is 37 million years old. And really, it would be a huge cop-out to make the Reapers a small threat; imagine the anticlimax after three games of build-up.
I don't think that the Illusive Man is honest and benevolent.
Of course not, but why would he be lying for the Reapers' benefit? Also, he didn't write the reports of the science team. A science team that was reduced to insanity and Huskified themselves by compulsions embedded in them by a dead Reaper! If that doesn't make them seem like a viable threat, I don't know what does.
Actually, if you look around, there's lots of evidence of multiple destroyed civilizations. Many planets show evidence of concentrated orbital bombardment, there's frequently ancient (as in millions of years old) debris from satellites or space stations to be found orbiting planets, there's an entire intact planetary graveyard belonging to one unlucky species, there's evidence of a massive planet-sized supercomputer on one gas giant, the wreck of an enormous living ship had rested on a certain planet for a long, long time, and last but not least, there's the race that built the huge mass driver that managed to kill that Reaper. All the evidence in the game points to this cycle having happened over, and over, and over, and over again.
The Reapers are teenagers.
Well, now we know that they don't just copy themselves, they age like organics. The "we are unbeatable, we'll destroy everything we want to" creed sounds exactly like youthful maximalism. Cue the old and wise Reapers acting like Big Damn Heroes.
They sound like the ultimate absentee parents; haven't noticed what their kids have been up to for the past 37 million years!
Harbinger! What do you think you are doing?! Go do your homework, young gestalt!
But Mooooom!
I said now! Terribly sorry about that, I hope they haven't been too much trouble?
The Reapers are Transformers
In Mass Effect 2 The Human Reaper looks like a human while every other Reaper is a big tentacle ship thing. Obviously the Reapers are giant transformers whose alt mode is the specific species they were created from. This also explains the size discrepancy because there couldn't be enough room in the Collector Base to create a fully sized Reaper and transformers have no sense of scale between forms.
The Reapers are the mausoleums of entire races.
The geth echo the Reapers in many ways, and one of Legion's interactions discusses the current geth use of quarian planets: they're maintaining them, perhaps in remembrance of their creators. The Reapers have taken this a step further, killing the races to reform them into giant mausoleum structures. The human-reaper is intended to be the corpse of humanity that will eventually be "interred" in the larger, cephalopod structure of the Reaper itself. As to why the Reapers kill the ones they're remembering, who knows? Assuming they were originally AI constructs, there could be any number of reasons involving their creators. As just one example, perhaps the original creators were dying out, and tasked a vast ship with preserving their people at any cost - the Reaper accelerated their destruction, but as salvation (much as Harbinger tells Shepard). Unfortunately, the creators never considered that other races might survive, so the first Reaper, and those it has created in its image, continue to harvest all organic sentient life.
The Reapers are just really confused.
The Reapers' original creators intended to use them as a secret weapon but before the Reapers could be used they ended up making themselves extinct. Thus the first Reapers came to the conclusion that extinction for all races is an inevitable outcome. Therefore they instead make any race that they possibly can into Reapers in order to prevent them from going "extinct". The prerequisite for this process is a certain level of sentience which they measure by the ability to find and use the Mass Relays. So the Reapers think they are saving the races they turn into Reapers because they think that since their creators killed themselves all races will inevitably do the same and turn them into Reapers to prevent this. In this light Harbinger's line, "That which you know as Reapers are your salvation through destruction." makes much more sense.
Don't Fear The Reapers.
The entire Reaper species is suffering from an epidemic. Specifically, they've got a fever and the only prescription is MORE COWBELL. So they wait every 50,000 years for the evolution of cows and people capable of inventing bells to put on them. This explains the "Space Cows" found on various planets, as well.
Also, the "Indoctrination" is really just the Power of Rock, the dangerous psychological effects of which are well documented by old people.
The Reapers clashed with and copied from YHWH.
In Judges 14:19, it is said that "Then the Spirit of the LORD ASSUMED DIRECT CONTROL came upon [Samson] in power." You see this again about Samson in Judges 15, as well as in various other parts of The Bible. 'nuff said.
Related, Legion from Gospel of Mark, 5:9 was possessed by a Reaper, just like the Collector General.
"We are each a nation" - by Harbinger
Every 50,000 years, the Reapers continue their cycle of extinction. They also choose a race worthy for, as Harbinger puts it, "ascension". Each new Reaper ship is the amalgamation of the all of the minds from one race harvested by the old Reapers in that particular extinction cycle. There might not be a worthy race in a particular cycle (the Protheans for example were merely repurposed as organic slaves because they were somehow not suitable to be turned into a Reaper). The Reapers believe that they preserve the strongest, fittest, most powerful races that they find forever as immortal starships, and that this is a good thing. The weak are left to perish (and are scavenged for supplies by the Reapers), while the strong are granted ascension.
Sovereign explains the Reapers' motivations quite clearly: "Organic civilizations rise, evolve, advance, then at the apex of their glory, they are extinguished." The name for the alien race that became Sovereign was "Nazara".
Like the geth, the Reapers believe the whole is greater than the sum of its parts (each geth program is a non-sentient VI, which when combined with other geth programs creates functional AI through emergence. Consider then, that each Reaper contains the minds of billions of sentient individuals, which when combined creates something far greater than mere AI). This stands in contrast to EDI, a human top-down designed AI with only one voice, and one program.
What traits to the Reapers value? A propensity for cybernetic augmentation (quarian, but weak immune system debilitating), aggression factor (human), genetic adaptability (human), and biotic potential (human) (see https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaRdcVYTjRw) . These are apparently the standards that the Reapers use to determine if a race is worthy of ascension, and worthy of being transformed into an immortal Reaper.
Indoctrination is a fundamental characteristic of the Reapers. Even a 37 million year old "dead" Reaper had the ability to indoctrinate; even minor artifacts connected to the Reapers could indoctrinate. "We are each a nation" explains Reaper indoctrination very nicely. Individual minds could be warped by a billion voices united, much like a single drop of water caught in a massive flood. Since a Reaper is fundamentally the united minds of an entire race (it is even constructed of a bio-mechanical paste made up of the dead remains of its race), the strange effects of shared memories and indoctrination that the Cerberus crew faced on the old, broken, derelict Reaper can be easily explained. The fundamentally mind-warping nature of the Reaper persists even in death, for a billion voices can never truly die, merely slumber. "Even a dead god can dream... it warps reality just by being there... it doesn't have to want to, it doesn't have to think about it, it just... does" Like I said: a single drop of water is swept away by the flood. It simply stands no chance.
Or they installed a universal-species mind control device on each Reaper ship with a 37 million year warranty. And in ME3 there's some way of destroying it or becoming immune to its effects.
Shepard's cybernetic components he got from Project Lazarus. Calling it now.
To sum up: "We are your genetic destiny". Each Reaper ship represents one race that was granted ascension. The cycle repeats every 50,000 years. The Reapers do this to preserve what they view as the "best" races for eternity. A Reaper AI is made up of individual sapient minds, much like a geth AI is made up of individual non-sapient geth VIs. Thus, Reaper AIs are something to be feared, and for good reason (more powerful than the geth AI, have access to indoctrination). Each Reaper could easily match the geth's super dyson sphere. Finally, indoctrination is the natural result of uniting the minds of an entire race to one purpose.
However, the weakness of the Reapers is revealed. Preserving races for eternity means that the Reapers do not grow or change. Presumably the "original" Reaper began as an organic race a long time ago, and then ascended after creating the Mass Relays... and the rest is history. Compared to organic races (and the geth AI), which constantly grow and adapt, the Reapers are an old and stagnant race. Thus, they are inherently flawed, and obviously will be defeated in ME3.
Side note: You might have had a double-take when I said one Reaper AI could match the geth dyson sphere. I lied. The fundamental difference between a Reaper AI and the geth is that while the one Reaper can never grow, the geth dyson sphere is always growing, changing, and adapting programs. The geth dyson sphere is in fact more powerful than a Reaper, and the heretics were wrong to take the "easy" route offered by Sovereign.
It is ironic that the Reapers value genetic adaptability, biotic potential, and other factors inherent to the races that they ascend. Apparently they do not realize that the races lose all ability to change (aka adaptability) when transformed into Reapers. Or, they do not see the incompatibility of the two points of view... who are they to determine the apex of a species' glory?
The first Reaper was built by Cerberus.
From the first game, we know that Reapers believe that they "have no beginning, [and] have no end". From the second, we know that Cerberus is actively looking to reverse-engineer Reaper technology, that Reapers need organic parts to function, and in the Renegade ending you've given a Reaper factory over to Cerberus. That last one represents a problem for Paragons, except for one thing: Paul Grayson. In the novel Mass Effect: Retribution, set between ME2 and ME3, the Illusive Man implants Reaper technology in a former Cerberus Operative. Ultimately, the project will fail like all Cerberus projects, and Grayson will become a platform for Sovereign or a brand-new Reaper. Grayson will indoctrinate the Cerberus staff, then proceed to do the same to TIM. The Reapers will use Cerberus to construct a Reaper factory and start pumping out new ones. One of the missions in ME3 will have Shepard go to this facility and destroy it, but a single Reaper will manage to escape. This Reaper will do what so many bad guys in Doctor Who have done and inadvertently or on purpose travel through time to the distant past. The Reaper will possess all the knowledge it needs to conquer the galaxy and build more, and will not know if Shepard succeeds in wiping its brethen out. The Reapers created themselves; it's a Stable Time Loop. Saving the Collector Base just means TIM is faster in building more Reapers and presents a bigger obstacle in the endgame.
Paul Grayson dies in that book, after taking a few too many shotgun blasts.
The Reapers are a Deadly Decadent Court.
The Reapers we've met so far are Sovereign and Harbinger. In ME2 we find out that Sovereign's name is Nazara, but he is also known as the Vanguard because he was left behind after the Protheans were wiped out to make sure the Cycle started again. He also calls himself the "Vanguard of your Destruction". What if Harbinger is his role or title among the Reapers but not his true name. Sometimes he will call himself "Harbinger of your Perfection" or "Harbinger of your Ascendance". I think there is a King Reaper that all other Reapers obey, but the rest of them do everything they do as power plays to try and gain more favor and status. Sovereign chose to stay behind because he could gain more power among the Reapers if something went wrong and activated the relay. Either that or Vanguard is a prestigious position and he earned the role in a previous cycle. Harbinger's official role is to choose and facilitate assimilation of races. His talk of perfection and ascendance isn't just arrogance and intimidation, it's his job. His use of the Collectors in ME2 is him vying for more influence in the court. He had most likely been planning or even working towards Sovereign's failure and had the Collectors doing his bidding long before the events of ME1. Behind the scenes there are many other Reapers working in our systems with plans and plots of their own trying to undermine other Reapers and trying to further their own goals as long as it doesn't contradict the overall goal of the Cycle. Who's to say that TIM isn't the unknowing pawn of another Reaper that wanted to knock Harbinger down a notch and wanted to get hold of his Reaper creator. Or even the Council could be secretly influenced by another Reaper. We've already seen that Reapers like to control entire races and the rachni said in ME2 that they would help us against those that had enslaved them. It would make sense if there were many others already at work covertly controlling the actions of the batarians, Council, the new geth, or even Shepard. God...after typing this it just made the whole universe a lot bleaker and hopeless. I almost wish I hadn't said this now.
The Reapers are actually "good guys".
...in that they protect the sentient organics of the Milky Way from Fate Worse than Death. This is what Harbinger really meant by "salvation through destruction". Judging by their ability to traverse dark space, they have probably traveled to other galaxies, and met something there that is even worse than themselves (e.g. some kind of immaterial Eldritch Abomination that lives off psychic energies by devouring sentient spirits over billions of years of torment, or a version of God Is Evil). So, to protect their home galaxy's (?) organics (whom they may even view as younger siblings or something), they regularly wipe them out to avoid drawing attention of that other something, while they are looking for a way to destroy it.
Extension: God Is Evil, and the Reapers are trying to delay the Last Judgement and euthanize organic life before they can be sent to Hell forever and ever.
This is partially correct. It's not that they're protecting organics from a Fate Worse than Death. Rather, they're protecting organic life from total death at the hands of synthetics. They harvest civilizations before they can develop synthetics that would run rampant and wipe out all organic life, rather than just advanced organic life.
The Reapers aren't really sleeping out there
The Reapers don't really just go out into dark space and snooze for fifty thousand years. Sure, they have rest periods, but it isn't fifty thousand years long. They're constantly harvesting life from other galaxies as well - constantly doing the same thing, so they've always got some conquering to keep them occupied. They use up the resources from one campaign in the next, so they have reason to constantly keep stealing species. Why they're doing this? Go read one of the other WMGs.
Why baby Reapers look like the assimilated race
.The human Reaper looked like a human because being made from human genetic material means it had a human nervous system, which is designed to operate a human body. After a transition period similar to childhood, the new Reaper has sufficiently expanded its mental capacity to be able to abandon its previous form and get a giant space crab body.
Reason for the Reapers' cycle of destruction
Lemme list this for ease of reading.
The Reapers were created be a sentient species millions or billions of years ago.
That species had been sentient for about fifty thousand years, give or take.
This creator species also builds the Citadel and the Mass Relays and learn how to harness eezo.
The creator species dies out through some kind of plague or something, leaving only a handful of machines.
These machines grow and evolve, creating what becomes the Reapers.
Their creators become a sort of God-like figure.
Other species start developing, discover the Mass Relays, and begin expanding into the galaxy.
When these races don't die out like their creators, their Gods, the Reapers take matters into their hands - their creaters have, after fifty thousand years, become fully fledged Gods to them, and nothing not created by their Gods should outlive the Gods.
So they begin the cycle, destroying sapient life every fifty thousand years, the same lifespan as their Gods, at first taking a hands-on approach.
A few cycles in, a species starts looking at alternatives to the Mass Relays, knowing that the Reapers are looming, waiting for them to get to the point of their Gods and wipe them out.
Before they find something, the Reapers finish out the cycle and decide that active involvement is dangerous, as it encourages species to look for ways to deviate from the path, so they head out to Dark Space, leaving only their vanguard to watch over and make sure the locals are following their path.
The very first Reaper was similar to AM from I Have No Mouth and I Must Scream.
It makes sense. The very first Reaper could've been a war AI, but maybe somewhere along the way it figured out how to become free of it's "prison". Not trapped on its planet like AM was. And it retained a hatred of organics.
Shepard and company have yet to actually meet a Reaper.
The squid-like "ships" we assume are the Reapers are just harvesting tools built by the actual Reapers. They are a cosmic force that's been around forever. Why do they grow galactic civilizations like crops? It's their job, and there's an entire higher level of immortal intelligent beings. Shep really did talk to Sovereign/Nazara, but in a way that's more like a phone call than a face-to-face conversation.
The Reapers were made by Daleks.
Time-traveling, alternate universe Daleks. Come on, genocidal hatred for all other life? Scary synthesized voice? Freaky beam weapon thingies? DALEKS! All we need now is for a Reaper to go
EX-TER-MIN-ATE!
And, by god, we have giant squid Daleks!
The Reapers are Creepers.
Think about it. The Reapers come at the apex of civilization, and wreck up everyone's shit. Creepers seem to always show up while you're building your most magnificent structures in Minecraft. At some point, the creepers begin to evolve into a space faring species, eventualy dropping the "c" from their name and becoming the Reapers.
Staying behind to watch over galaxy is part of Reaper training.
It seems logical, that every new Reaper should replace previous Reaper and stay, while the rest moves to Dark space. New Reaper is really new and doesn't have any experience in being Reaper, so as part of "maturing" to a fullgrown Reaper, young one has to prove that he's capable of supervising galaxy and making sure that everything goes according to plan and during that learns all Reaper stuff,being smart and manipulative enough.
The Reapers are in fact being operated by the Keepers.
Evidence shows that the Keepers are as old as the Citadel itself, so they would be possibly the race that built them. The Reapers destroy all sentient life in the galaxy but leave the technologically trained Keepers unharmed, because the Keepers were behind it all along. Besides being a massive mass relay, the Citadel also functions as a galaxy-wide control center from which the Keepers operate the Reapers. While the majority of this operation is done in the core of the Citadel accessible only to Keepers, those innocent-looking Keepers you see around the Citadel in ME 1 are in fact part of the evil plan too. This way the Keepers get front-row seats to the destruction of every space-faring competitor species without having to amass an army of their own kind.
Nope. But they are being controlled by an AI inside the Citadel.
We are not the only Galaxy being reaped.
Fifty thousand years is a long time to stand around doing nothing, especially if you've already seeded the species to grow into sentient beings and left along with them a few altered slave species and a Reaper watchguard or two. What do you do for 50 millenia when destroying a galaxy thoroughly barely takes 500 years? Move on to the NEXT galaxy and do the same. The Reapers clearly have the tech to move to the dark space outside the galaxy so it seems reasonable they'd have intergalactic relay routes that would allow them to take their show on the road, as it were. If it takes only 500 years to wipe a galaxy clean and set it up to start again, they could have potentially a HUNDRED galaxies linked in a wide circular path of eternal decimation...
The Reapers are doing this to prevent stagnation in the galaxy.
As a general rule, if any race has too much of a head start in exploring the galaxy, they will invariably dominate all other species in the galaxy. With no competition, the race stagnates and stops evolving. The Reapers reset the cycle of sentient life every 50,000 years or so to ensure there are always multiple species competing on relatively even terms, then choose the "winner" to become ascend. They collect the DNA of a race to preserve its essence/traits/memories/thoughts, which is the only way for the Reapers as a whole to increase their own diversity.
Element Zero is Powered by a Forsaken Child.
Specifically, the 'formed in the cores of stars' is a dirty rotten lie. Element Zero is actually made by Reapers from harvested sentients, in facilities like the collector base. (Notice how the collectors don't run any mining operations to fuel the human-reaper, but the core of each Reaper, we know, is a giant ball of eezo?)
Some of it is just dumped in various hard to get to places to trick people into thinking it's naturally occuring and stop them asking questions. Reapers are the necessary final state of any interstellar civilisation, because otherwise eventually the supply of eezo will run out and mass effect will cease. Each civilisation gorges on the corpses of what has come before it, until it comes time for them to be harvested themselves.
This is also why the series is called 'Mass Effect'. It ends with Shepard discovering the truth behind mass effect, and possibly the end of mass effect altogether.
Reapers were created by The Keepers, who indoctrinated their own makers "for their own survival."
Well, think it over for a bit. The Reapers had to come from SOMEWHERE. What of all things, would make them keep the Keepers as the one race they specifically kept alive [in a way] for all time, with possibly infinite more species better suited to the job? The old, "Protecting Maker's Life Against His Will" thing that popped up in I, Robot.
Look at a Reaper turned on it's side, like when Soverign is hooking up to the Citadel. It looks more like a bug than anything else, made in the image of their creators.
Why the need to destroy all other forms of organic life, except the Keepers? Mmm, perhaps because they were programmed to by a certain buggy, weak, but technologically masterful and fearful race, and the Reapers just took it a BIT too far. The only reason they don't absolutely destroy everything is refusal to terminate their own selves, without the "fuel" for production they need in the form of organics.
Furthermore, this also explains why the Keepers are as old as the Citadel, yet the entire Reaper scheme requires the Citadel in the first place; the Keepers built it, as well as the Reapers, regardless of whether or not the Reapers had taken over yet. The Reapers in turn used that technology to set up their grand plan.
The Reapers are an evolution of the Inhibitors in an alternate reality where faster-than-light travel is possible
The Inhibitors are like the Reapers - they are artificial, drop by every once in a while to wipe out all intelligent life, then travel back into deep space. They have the same origin - but the Reapers are pathological liars and the Catalyst lied as well - they were made billions of years ago to help reduce the destruction (star systems being thrown into inter-galactic space) from the Milky Way - Andromeda collision a few billion years in the future. The Inhibitors originally were more gentle with intelligent species by just keeping them in their home system, but they just started bombing species into extinction when too many started popping up. The Reapers were the same way, though since they have FTL travel capabilities, they don't need to lay traps around the galaxy to trigger them, instead just popping up ever 50,000 years to curb-stomp the species into extinction since they don't want to bother blockading them into their home systems. However, the Reapers and Inhibitors started to diverge due to the lack of FTL in one universe and the presence of FTL in the other: Reaper reproduction is like it is because of the FTL - they can just zip around collecting organic life across solar systems, whereas the Inhibitors have to reproduce asexually since they don't have the luxury of FTL to gather organics for reproduction. Additionally, the Reapers are sentient, whereas the Inhibitors are not self-aware most of the time - centuries of travel time, drifting between solar systems, would cause them to go insane.
Sovereign was just an Elite Mook.
In the first game, Sovereign makes it seem like the Reapers are Omnicidal Maniacs who are in because that's how they roll and organics could never understand their motives. In the second, however, Harbinger starts mouthing off about how they are the "genetic destiny" of all living beings and, in the third, the Catalyst goes a step further by stating that the Reapers explicitly exist to keep the galaxy in order before organics can mess everything up. This seems to indicate that Sovereign had no idea what he was really working towards and was just a grunt with a face for the Reaper fleet.
Saren
The Dragon is the true Big Bad *** Wall of Text warning***
The Dragon, a badass special operative with no remorse and no sympathy whatsoever, used to be a good guy with feelings prior to the short First Contact War with the humans, in which he lost a dear relative or friend. Submerged into a permanent Tranquil Fury, he vows to destroy those who killed his relative/friend - AT ALL COSTS!
While pondering his choices, The Dragon is lucky enough to stumble upon a cache of lost technology belonging to the Precursors - including a distress beacon dating 50,000 years, warning central Precursor worlds and outlying colonies that the Precursor "Reaper Fleet" - a fleet of significantly advanced, Mind Control-capable AI's used as weapons by the Precursors to battle adversarial interstellar species and managing slave populations.
Realizing this is the moment he has been waiting for a long time, The Dragon uses said ancient technology, reverse-engineering it and building a Reaper ship of his own with the help of the galaxy's most prominent designers and engineers, a ship that he names "Sovereign," after which he kills said engineers and designers to cover his tracks. The Dragon uses the Reaper ship to subdue the synthetic geth species, portraying himself as a servant to the intelligent ship in order to goad the geth into believing Sovereign to be a machine god and thus becoming The Dragon's willing, eternally obedient soldiers.
He then uses the geth and the Reaper ship to mastermind the course of the game, using a wholly mechanical replica of himself to draw the Player's attention by modifying and distorting the messages in the beacons to better reflect his version of the Precursors extinction, i.e. the Reapers being an even OLDER species of rather Abusive Precursors, portraying the Reapers as the creators of the Citadel and the Mass Relays. Establishing himself and the Reapers as serious threat, he deceptively goads the Citadel forces into pooling their fleets around the Citadel, making their entire defense vulnerable to a powerful, single attack.
In the end, when The Dragon attacks the Citadel - in order to cripple the Citadel fleets and make Citadel retaliation against subsequent geth incursions into Alliance space impossible - the replica locks out the Relays linking to human systems, effectively dooming the Citadel. Not even when the Player manages to follow the replica through the Portal Network-backdoor called the Conduit, unlocking the relays from the Citadel, does The Dragon flinch. No, being the Magnificent Bastard that he is, he grins with satisfaction as Sovereign in its death throes manages to destroy a vast amount of human lives, thinning out the forces The Dragon was expecting to face off later on while The Dragon... no, the Big Bad himself is believed dead via his replica and his deceitful lie about the "impending Reaper invasion" is one-hundred percent intact. Crowning Moment Of Villainy indeed.
Cue successful badass Villain Invasion a la There Is No Kill Like Overkill "I Lay my Vengeance Upon Thee" in the sequel.
If this troper's paraphrased Wall of Text-rambling made no sense to you, check out the original post made on the official Mass Effect forums: He Is Not Kidding, For Real . Most likely Poison Oak Epileptic Trees, unless you're that kind of guy.
That would work, except for the fact that Vigil implicitly shoots it down.
I'm assuming you didn't bother to read the guy's original post on the official ME forums. He specifically states that Saren reprogrammed Vigil to relay faux information to anyone who accessed it so that no one would figure out what the hell he was truly doing. Apparently Saren, being an elite space police, can do that.
Mass Effect: Revelation Josses paragraph 3: the final chapter describes how Saren found Sovereign.
This theory is pretty much ruined by ME2.
Saren never had a cure for the genophage.
He simply said he did; the plan was to get a bunch of the best warriors in the galaxy, the krogan, to hang around the mind controlling Sovereign until they were indoctrinated. After that, they wouldn't care if there was a cure or not.
Judging from the setting and the equipment present, I'd say that what Saren actually had was a mass-producing cloning rig. He intended to clone the krogan by the thousands, and brainwash them right from birth to do the Sovereign's bidding as part of his plan to convince the Reapers that organics are worthwhile servants. After all, it wouldn't pay off in the long run to just hire a lot of krogans - they're not a replenishing resource.
We can't know how far under Sovereign's Mind Control Saren was at that point, but it's possible that he wasn't looking for a renewable resources, simply a shock-based army for the first incursion of the Reapers. Afterwards, he might've been planning on using the rachni to clean up anyone they missed.
ME2 confirms it was a cloning facility. It was presumably viable, based on later events in the game.
In fact, his cloning facility is explicitly compared to Okeer's, who certainly doesn't have a cure for the genophage. Also, every other krogan in the game despises both Okeer and Grunt because of the cloning.
Saren is going to be The Dragon of Mass Effect 3.
Well, humans brought Shepard back to life, so what's stopping a group of extremely high-tech, nearly unstoppable Mecha-Cthulus from bringing Saren back to life? Saren would probably end up with a lot more cybernetic parts, given how the Reapers make Husks, and hate the Reapers for killing him and only working for them because they have a Cyanide Pill-like device implanted in his vital organs. Then again, he could have known about it all along, knowing he would be resurrected and just playing along. It's complex, strange and bends the tactical knowlege of the Council to breaking point. In other words, perfect for surprising the entire galaxy.
OR he could end up being one of Shepard's teammates. I mean, think about Legion, say a geth would be a future squadmate when Mass Effect 1 was around and next to no one would believe you. Taking the point on Saren hating the Reapers for killing him once even further. How could this happen if the Reapers revived him? He couldn't be indoctrinated for some reason or another, whether it be for previously being indoctrinated (and furthermore, the Reapers not knowing it works like that) to having an inexperienced Reaper indoctrinate him.
Shepard actually left a body. Granted, it was a severely damaged body, but there was still something to work with. When you killed Saren though, his body burnt until there was nothing left but ash.
Of course the Reapers DO have extremely advanced technology. They turned the Protheans into those horrible bug... things we know as Collectors... Who's to say they can't resurrect a useful servant to suit their needs from nothing? Plus, it would be hella cool if they did.
Saren went nuts because the Council are stupid jerks.
It wasn't indoctrination... it was the Council stalling and debating with him every step of the way. (Not my idea, no matter how much I wish it was. Give thanks to Vigna. )
Saren: But there is a giant Reaper out there. I have proof...
Turian: A giant...whaaaa?
Salarian: Geth are tangible threats... Reapers are a myth.
Saren: But I saw one he even tried to get into my mind.
Asari: See, there is only proof that something has affected your mind?
Saren: So, I have to bring him back and show him to you in person? Fine...
Saren was trying to stop Sovereign.
Saren was desperately searching for The Conduit, which turns out to be a secret way into the Citadel. You know, the place he was already allowed full access to. The Citadel has such low security you're allowed to meet the Counsel in person with multiple loaded firearms, and even two years after the geth attack security can't even stop an actual geth. Saren had no need for The Conduit. Therefore, he was searching for Ilos for a different reason - specifically, a way to stop the Reapers.
Pretending to serve Sovereign gave Saren several advantages. It allowed him to monitor Sovereign and to study his capabilities. It's canon he was studying indoctrination. Killing Sovereign is good, but that still leaves thousands more like him. Learning how to kill a Reaper is more profitable in the long run.
Unfortunately for Saren, his plan failed when Shepard critically injured him on Virmire and Sovereign rebuilt him, and in the process indoctrinated him to the point he truly began working for the Reaper. As Shepard himself points out, Saren's gone from being a servant to a slave, and it's still possible for Saren to recognize that he's lost and heroically kill himself.
POINT: Saren needed the The Conduit in order to sneak the Geth into The Citadel.
COUNTER-POINT: Saren had organic allies who were also allowed access to The Citadel, such as that Asari commando squad.
Saren is transgendered.
Saren looks strangely different from every other turian in the series. On the sides of his face are some extra crests. Garrus doesn't have those, Nihlus doesn't have them, no other turian has those. Actually, that was a lie, there is one other turian with similar structures on their face: Nyreen, who also just happens to be the only female turian seen in the series. Conclusion? Saren was born a woman.
The Shadow Broker
The Shadow Broker is "The Laughing Man"
The yahg, a weird, never-before-seen alien became the Shadow Broker by killing the previous Broker and taking his place - and never bothered to tell anyone he did it. After Shepard and Liara kill him, Liara does the exact same thing. So who's to say that the Broker who abducted the yahg was actually the "original" Broker - or that the "original" Broker, whoever he was, even created the Cool Ship and the Omniscient Database that's the source of the Broker's power in the first place? Mind Screw!
The original Shadow Broker was Kreia
She walked out in frustration and left the facility to her apprentice after he was unable to understand even the most basic concept of 'we all live in a computer game'.
Salarians
The salarians experimented on humans in the past.
Well, our present. The books mention that salarians look an awful like The Greys from 20/21st century myth. The salarians were spacefaring at that time, and they are quite sneaky in terms of intelligence, it was their military that inspired the lawless Spectres after all. Unknown why, but in Mass Effect universe, the salarians did operate on the humans before we were spacefaring.
But the question is how would they have gotten here? The only Mass Relay in the vicinity of Earth was Charon, and it was covered in millions of tons of ice and rock when it was first discovered. It's difficult to imagine how the salarians would have accomplished that, and not get stuck in our solar system.
The Charon Relay wasn't discovered until the 2100s. Myths about The Greys occur in the late 1900s. That's over one hundred years to bury the Mass Relay and cover their tracks. Why go through all that? The experiments performed were likely highly illegal to a sapient if primitive species.
If the salarians knew how to shut down and disguise mass relays, the Rachni Wars would have been an awful lot shorter, and the krogan wouldn't have needed to be uplifted. Nobody knows how to fully control the relays ... which is just what the Reapers want. So no, it's simply not possible for the salarians to have experimented on humans. Protheans, however, did.
There will be a salarian Spectre in Mass Effect 3, you will have to fight him, and he will be That One Boss.
For anyone to be considered for Spectre status, they have to be a decorated career combat operative who has performed at least one Crowning Moment of Awesome. Salarians only live 40 years. A theoretical salarian Spectre will have entered military service as early as possible, completed several years of military training, and performed at least one Act of God, thus having spent a significant portion of his life surviving being shot at by mercenaries and terrorists. Result: any salarian Spectre will be, by definition, an Old Master that makes Mordin Solus look like Bea Arthur.
That means that Mordin gets a loyal folower in the form of Deadpool?
There is a salarian Spectre, but you help him with a minor Citadel quest.
Salarian sexuality is much more complicated than is widely believed.
Salarian sexuality is generally accepted to be non-existent. However, a number of individuals appear to contradict this "fact". Gianna Parasini may tell you in ME2 that Anoleis was having sex with an Asari, the bachelor party Salarian eventually warms up to the (also Asari) dancer, and one Salarian worker seems quite affected by Thane's movements. All of this seems to imply that Salarians are capable of experiencing physical attraction, as well as acting on it. Mordin also mentions that some Krogan enjoy Salarian flexibility, and assuming consent, it logically follows that a few Salarians enjoy sexual intercourse with Krogan.Then there's the romantic side of things. Again according to Mordin, fast processing of emotions leaves salarians incapable of sustaining courtship feelings. This implies that such feelings do occur - and as seen with the Ilium Salarian and his Asari stepdaughter, there are individuals who are in fact capable of long-term committed relationships.This troper sees two possibile conclusions: 1. asexuality is seen as the norm in Salarian culture and individuals who experiece sexual attraction are in a similar position to real-world asexuals, in that hardly anyone ever remembers they exist, or 2. Salarians have a wide range of sexualities but experience and express it so differently from other races that all but a handful come off as asexual to other species.
Before the Protheans
This generation wasn't the only generations to fight back.
So far, we only know of the Protheans to have put a significant damper on the Reaper threat by modifying the Keepers, and we only know of Shepard's destruction of the Collectors/Protheans. However, this is a cycle that has gone for tens of thousands of years. The last one was 50,000 years, and it's overdue because of changes to the Keepers. We find a Reaper ship millions of years old. Tens of thousands go into a million quite a few times.
So far, we've seen the Reapers "adopt" the last race of the cycle into themselves. They adopted the Protheans and made them Collectors, and they planned to adopt the humans by building a human Reaper. However, we only see two other races that've been adopted; the Keepers and the Collectors. Numbers dictate there would've had to have been significantly more races than that. And logic dictates that there had to have been Collectors before Protheans got the job. Collectors are how they reproduce, and Protheans have only been in for one cycle; they would've had to have had another race as Collectors to reproduce.
Which means many have come just as far or farther than Shepard has. And still lost.
Confirmed by the Illusive Man's discovery of the weapon that produced that 37-million-year-old Reaper corpse. Though the weapon itself has long since stopped functioning and any traces of its creators have been completely erased, its purpose was clear.
Further confirmed by a few things in ME3. The Crucible is the work of countless cycles, each seeding some information for the next one, and the Catalyst tells you that each cycle is very similar in terms of resistance.
The Hanar
The Hanar will have to be confronted in Mass Effect 3
The hanar worship Prothean technology, and call Protheans the Enkindlers. Except we know that the "Enkindlers" are actually the Reapers. I don't think the hanar will be pleased about you killing their deities. They will confont Shepard (or Citadel space, assuming they wake up in time for the war) and Shepard will have the choice of either talking them down, or he will have to kill the hanar and drell who get in his way.
Er, no. The Protheans are the Enkindlers who uplifted the Hanar to sentience. If they learn that the Reaper technology isn't of Prothean origin after all, they'll just stop considering it holy, but continue to worship the Protheans.
This sort-of comes up in Cerberus Daily News, when the idea that the Mass Relays predate the Protheans starts circulating. Some Hanar are displeased, but a religious leader argues that there's nothing blasphemous in the idea that the Enkindlers were themselves enkindled, and that it's their selflessness that deserves respect. If the Hanar find out how much the last Protheans sacrificed for the next galactic civilizations, their respect will probably skyrocket.
Partly true! There's a hanar ambassador who feels that, since the Enkindlers were wiped out by the Reapers, that means everyone should follow their lead, and let the Reaper wipe them out, too.
The Hanar are a last-ditch Prothean superweapon
The "Enkindling" process was the Protheans creating a race that would be immune to the Reapers and could thus fight back. Expect to see a hanar wandering the battlefield with a Cain launcher saying Enkindle This!.
The Quarians
Quarians seem to have diverse accents because Commander Shepard speaks Quarian and wants to practice it.
See: the Indian man asking you to retrieve his wife's body has a pronounced Indian accent, and you hear it as it is because he's speaking English, as opposed to Hindi- in which case it'd sound like an American. Conversely, Maeko Matsuo is clearly speaking Japanese- a language Shepard does not know- since her accent is completely American. For all we know, Ashley Williams is speaking Spanish the whole time. The reason we hear the Quarians as diverse is because Shepard hears them differently, and as such has disabled his Universal Translator. The rest isn't Translator Microbes- it's Translation Convention.
Quarians have diverse accents from living on ships all their lives.
Each major ship in the Quarian fleet developed it's own unique dialect over the centuries they've spent in space. In Quarians, like in humans, geographic location is the most important deciding factor in what accent you'll have, as everybody learns to speak in the same way as the people they spend everyday with, which is how accents form to begin with.
On a similar note, Tali started learning English between Mass Effect 1 and 2.
If you have the iOS Datapad app, you'll get a message from Tali while she's drunk in the third game, filled with typos that line up with a QWERTY keyboard. If she was typing in Khelish (or whatever the quarians' main language is), the translator would have rendered it into My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels-type gibberish, not just badly-spelled English. It also provides an in-game explanation why Tali's accent became more pronounced between games; before, she had to rely on translators, which rendered her speech with a more generic tone, but now she can speak English with her own voice, which lets her accent carry over more. It also makes sense as part of her line of work; the universal translator probably doesn't cover programming languages, so Tali would probably need to learn a little bit of English in order to write programs for human computers, same as how non-English programmers have to learn some English in order for C++ or Java to make sense.
Quarians are basilisks
That's why they wear almost opaque visors, so they don't kill everyone the meet. the Geth, being machines, wouldn't be affected.As for why Shepard doesn't die when he removes Tali's mask; He's commander Shepard, and thus just that awesome.
All non-Rannoch Quarian worlds were terra(Rannoch?)-formed
The Quarians couldn't settle on any world unless it could accommodate their biology. Few planets could, so they would have to make their own planets. This is probably why they were so dependent on the Geth, as they could oversee the process on other worlds.
The Quarians are the most human-like of the Alliance races
If you look at the silhouette of a quarian through the visor of their safe suit (Particularly in Mass Effect 3, you will see suggestions of features that strongly resemble those of humans. While their hands and feet have three digits and two digits, respectively, certain varieties of polydactyly do result in such arrangements. Both their weak immune systems and their apparent polydactyly could both result from inbreeding in the flotillas before they figured out how to avoid that, by which time the polydactyly was breeding true and their weak immune systems simply made it too dangerous for them to be exposed to new bacteria.
Quarians have digitigrade legs, though. Can't explain that with polydactyly.
More or less confirmed in ME3. The hands and legs may be different but from the neck up we're pretty much identical apart from colouration (which is still pretty damn close) and the ears. We even both have hair.
Golo was actually a Well-Intentioned Extremist
It seems odd that a society based on surviving by a thread could produce someone as purely selfish as Golo, so why would he sell his people to The Collectors? Simple. He only tried selling some of his people to The Collectors so they'd give him technology necessary to take back Rannoch or at least put the quarians on better footing with the rest of the galaxy. This is not to say he's totally misunderstood. When caught, tried, and banished, Golo's reaction to his misfortune was a bit more understandable. He was justifying his actions for The Needs of the Many, and he justifies his view of the Quarians' betraying him by dismissing his people as hypocritical Ungrateful Bastards.
Fun names for Quarian Ships
We know of the Iktomi and the Deferens. Let's have add some fun names (remember, either Vas or Nar):
The Koteks.
The Koleptic.
The Cissist.
The Whal.
The Ileen
The Thorian
The Thorian was an attempt by an earlier race to repair indoctrination, or at least to repair nervous systems.
Yes, it may be looking for thralls of its own, but it may not always have been sentient, or even have acted the same way it does now. After all, Shiala not only is apparently cured of indoctrination, her biotic powers weaken, which are said to depend on quantities of eezo depsoited within the nervous system!
The Thorian was actually the Thoi'han
The Thorian is actually the same species as the Thoi'han, the race that fought the Innusanon over Eingana over 127,000 years ago. Facts that support this theory; the phenomenal lifespan of the Thorian to survive for over 100,000 years, the name is so similar that Thoi'han might easily be a corrupted translation and the first thing the Thorian did was try to steal the Normandy, implying that it desired to spread it's influence offworld.
Thresher Maws are Thorian larvae.
According to the codex, most of their bodies are underground in caverns. So, as they mature, the underground part grows, the rest dies out, the nervous system develops, they become static, they grow large enough to justify only one or two being on an entire planet... and what do you get in the end?
Mass Effect was in fact Knights of the Old Republic 3 until relatively late in development.
KotOR and KotOR 2 were two of Bioware's biggest hits for the original Xbox, so a next gen sequel is likely at some point. The basic gameplay mechanics all seem like natural progression from the KotOR games. The Paragon/Renegade meter functions very much like the Dark Side / Light Side of the Force. The biotic powers are all pretty much just Force Powers. The only thing that really makes this unlikely for me is the total lack of any melee combat to the gameplay.
Except that KotOR 2 was developed by Obsidian, not Creator/
BioWare. It's possible BioWare may have been thinking of KotOR when they began working on ME, but more likely it was just an inspiration.
Natural progression?
Knights of the Old Republic was a modified d20 Pn P-style RPG. ME is an action RPG. Not natural progression gameplay wise.
Paragon and Renegade are not equivalent to Light and Dark Side of the force. Paragon and Renegade are different approaches for the same character to have the same goal. They are also not completely mutually exclusive. Light and Dark Side are mutually exclusive and ultimately different goals. They are very different concepts that have a very vaguely superficial similarity if you look at them as Good/Bad, despite neither being exactly that style morality.
TV Tropes is a Reaper method of Indoctrination.
ASSUMING DIRECT CONTROL
Damn. That sucks... wait! that means that at least one of the Reapers is a troper! Wait, no, that is bad. Wow. Never thought about what our knowledge could do in the hands of evil.
You mean other than ensuring that they will never get anything productive done?
Ah yes, "Tropers." We have dismissed that claim.
Completing particular side quests in ME1 will determine the strength of Shepard's relationship with the Council races for ME3.
Specifically the writings of Matriarch Dilinaga (Asari), collecting League of One medallions and ID tags (Salarian), and discovering lost Turian outposts and insignias (Turian).
Choices made in ME1 & ME2 will determine how many allies Shepard and team will have in ME3.
Saving / sparing the Council, Ranchni queen, heretic Geth and genophage research will provide assistance from the council races, Rachni, Geth and Krogan respectively. It may also determine who, if anyone, survives the Reaper invasion; the same way loyalty missions determined the outcome of the Suicide Mission.
Mostly correct. Your choices throughout the series affect your potential War Assets rating. The higher your War Assets, the more choices you have for the ending.
The ability of the races of the galaxy to repel the Reaper invasion will depend on how many resources you collected in the first two games.
If you collected all or most of the available resources in the first two games, it will turn out that there is a shortage of materials available for the defense of the galaxy.
Unlikely. The Normandy's probes are most likely just used for surface mining. There are probably still plenty of resources under the surface of "depleted" planets that the Normandy's probes can't touch, as they require more extensive mining operations. Think of it this way; a single, moderately sized garden world (Earth) had enough resources to sustain an entire species long enough to develop mass effect technology. Compared to that, the resources picked up by the Normandy's probes are probably trivial.
David Anderson does recruitment ads for the Alliance Navy.
It seems to work in real life.
Actually, it appears that Admiral Hackett does recruiting ads, judging by the poster at the human embassy in Mass Effect 3.
Other galaxies will become relevant
We know from the star map that the game acknowledges other galaxies. Maybe there's help in other galaxies, maybe the Reapers are honestly protecting us from other galaxies, maybe we can appease them by turning them on other galaxies. Something will involve them anyway.
The M-98 Widow was an obscure sniper rifle of Quarian design built on Rannoch
Originally presented in M-98 Widow form of ONE VERY BIG BULLET, this broke too many readers' eyes, so now redeveloped by the Systems Alliance into smaller bullets ala Black Widow:
Though fluff references it as a Geth Sniper Rifle, it looks nothing like other Geth guns and technology. Observed Geth weapons are curved and shiny gray, while the M-98 Widow is more tan, straight, and boxy. The color actually could be appropriate camouflage for a desert climate like Rannoch (Quarian homeworld) has in abundance, while the shape (boxy) appears to have more in common with Quarian architecture, as exhibited on Haestrom. Further, Legion is the only Geth ever seen using it.
In the Geth Hub mission of Mass Effect 3, Shepard sees the memory of the first Geth taking up arms to start the Geth uprising. The weapon the Geth reaches to pick up off the ground is unquestionably an M-98 Widow. Shepard even references that it looks like the rifle Legion likes to use, a fact that Legion does not dispute, unlike how he did with the Quarians and why they wore masks in the memories observed for Shepard's benefit, implying that it was not an analogue for a generic BFG.
It seems unlikely that the Geth would develop a weapon to use before uprising. Guns are easy to use, but complex to build, and the Quarians certainly had guns that they could just take up. The scene itself even suggests that the gun was simply picked up off the ground, not built and then wielded. Later the Geth would build their own guns, leading to the aesthetic design style seen in their current weapons technology.
Grunt suggests that Quarians are surprisingly tough, but doesn't clarify. With no obvious clues as to why they are tough, unlike with the Turians and Krogan, less obvious signs could include a strong skeletal-muscular system, one which could accommodate the Widow's kick when fired (enough to break a human's arm).
The M-98 Widow, with its huge kick, might have made it very unpopular outside of the Quarians as a man-portable weapon. Notably only Legion and Shepard could use the M-98 in Mass Effect 2, which notably excludes Garrus, who uses and even seems to LOVE Sniper Rifles and could not equip one. This potentially could have been because it was also impractical even for Turians. As a result the weapon remained very obscure and limited predominantly to Rannoch, so when the Geth Uprising occurred and most of the Quarians were wiped out, so to was its history, with a strong association left with the galaxy of the Geth using it. With no one around to contend the fact anymore, the galaxy associated the rifle with the Geth, and over the centuries the legend mutated.
It's also possible that the Quarians distanced themselves from the weapon after it became strongly associated with the Geth. The image of a weapon can conjure plenty of emotive content and association, such as an AK-47 or a Thompson (the latter even varies depending simply on the magazine used, a drum magazine might conjure the image of a gangster in the 1930s while a straight magazine might conjure the image of an allied soldier in World War 2). The Widow might have become a symbol of the Geth Uprising and the Quarians came to regard the weapon with some measure of contempt themselves. After all, it was the first weapon picked up by a Geth, which by extension implies it was the first weapon used by a Geth to kill a Quarian. In short, the near genocide of their species may have literally begun with the report of an M-98 Widow. One might reflect negatively on that.
The Geth were designed to be tools of war as well as labourers. It may be that the Widow was designed by the Quarians to be used by their geth soldiers, and Legion pilfered his off a dead geth platform.
Thedas is Earth after the reaper invade it, the relays are destroyed and Earth isn't quite destroyed or saved fully.
The biotics become the magi
The Relays would be the Maker's City as man's 'hubris' in taking to the stars resulted in the reapers taking notice of humanity
The husks are the dawkspawn
Alternately, Thedas is the Mass Effect Earth in the past. One of the colonists on Eden Prime references the Maker. Andrastians haven't died out, it seems.
Mass Effect is a retelling of the Babylon 5 mythos.
Consider: The story is based around a high-but-not-extremely-high ranking military officer serving an Earth alliance who are relative newcomers on the galactic political scene. This Earth Alliance first made waves by getting into a massive conflict with one of the galactic superpowers which ended in an inconclusive draw, after which, the two races created a unique hybrid vessel to serve as a symbol of their new cooperation. The main conflict of the story comes from an ancient race of/piloting ships of incredible power made from organic technology that emerges from hidden parts of space on a somewhat predictable timetable in order to wage war against certain advanced species and withdraw after their work is done. This ancient species subverts Earth by corrupting an organization with strong Human ties but without any real government oversight in order to promote in-fighting when Earth should be presenting a united front. Operating with relative independence of the normal chain of command for various reasons, the main character attempts to rally the other galactic races to confront this major threat before the hammer falls on them all, but is killed in the process. He gets better and completes the work of forging alliances between the major races, many of which have been fighting each other for centuries and have long-standing blood feuds. The main character's work is made easier with the aid/guidance of another ancient race that has battled the foe in the distant past, teaching him lessons of what went wrong in past wars and making the enemy's intentions and identity clear. The grand finale of the story arc occurs when the main character leads a multi-species fleet back to Earth itself in order to save it from destruction.
Detailed race comparisons:
The Asari = The Minbari. The most technologically advanced race actively involved in galactic politics.
The Krogan = The Narn. A Proud Warrior Race with a reputation for violence among the other races whose planet has been devastated several times in the past, but maintain a strong cultural heritage and warrior code.
The Turians = The Centauri. A race with a strong military heritage who is nonetheless not as powerful as in olden days because of draining wars. Not a perfect comparison, since the Turians lack the Deadly Decadent Court aspects of the Centauri.
The Quarians = The Gaim. A race of little galactic importance best known for wearing hermetically sealed suited in public, being unable to survive outside their native environments without them.
The Salarians = The Greys. Race known for scientific genius. Long faces. Involved with humans early on. Methods of experimentation *sniffs* ...problematic.
The Rachni = The Dilgar. A race best known in the present day by their absence. In the past, they waged war against several other species simultaneously and were beaten back to their home system, driven nearly to the point of extinction.
The Reapers = The Shadows. A highly advanced ancient race known for making extensive use of organic technology. Their weapons and ships are incredibly potent and more advanced than anything else the galaxy has ever seen.
The Collectors = The Drakh. A servant race of the ancient enemy. They serve their "patrons" by raiding the colonies of other races and running whatever other mysterious errands need doing.
The Protheans = The Vorlons. Another highly advanced race that nonetheless has little to do with the galactic political scene today. They had fought the ancient enemy race in the distant past. Very few members are seen "on screen", but they have great impact when they do appear.
The Humans = The Humans.
Organization comparisons:
The Spectres = The Rangers. A multi-species paramilitary force serving with the authority of the united galactic government to keep the peace. Every member goes through extensive training in a variety of scenarios and is given wide authority to deal with whatever problems he comes across as he sees fit.
Cerberus = Psi-Corp. A powerful organization with a strong pro-Human bias. They work outside normal government channels to prevent what they see as unwanted alien influence and to promote the Human cause.
Character comparisons:
Commander Shepard = Captain Sheridan. Duh.
Urdnot Wrex = G'Kar. A ruling member amongst his people. Possesses a strong temper and is prone to violence like many of his race, but gradually begins to see the value of cooperation with other races they had warred with in the past.
The series takes place in the Whoniverse
If humanity continues to gain power in the Mass Effect universe at it's current rate, it could easily become the universal power often portrayed in DW episodes in the distant future. The Mondas Cybermen haven't been discovered yet because Mondas, not being in a solar system anymore, is kinda hard to find when you rely on Mass Relays. The Daleks haven't yet blazed their way to our galaxy thanks to the efforts of The Doctor. Perhaps Cerberus was built on the remains of Torchwood. Best of all, this provides us with a way to get rid of the ME3 ending without contradicting the BioWare position that it happened: Time war. Just that simple. Pre time war, perhaps The Leviathans were inspired to attempt to end the Synthetic/Organic debate by the rebellion of the Daleks created by Davros, while post Time War, the evident removal of Skaro and the Daleks from the timeline along with the Time Lords prevented this and the Reapers came to be by another, less absurd way. Thanks to the Butterfly Effect, this may also explain the parallel universes of Male!Shepard and Female!Shepard.
Mass Effect and Star Trek takes place in the Same Universe
In both Star Trek and Mass Effect, the colonization of Mars begins in 2103. Mass Effect also made the same claim as Star Trek that poverty and pollution in declining on Earth as it enters a new golden age.
The Citadel Council encompasses the United Federation of Planets, mostly contained in the Orion spiral arm, since the mass relays enable ships to cover far larger distances than is possible with warp speed.
The original purpose of the Crucible...
It's a giant off switch. Or more specifically, the Citadel has an off switch and the crucible is intended to transmit the off signal to all reapertech including the reapers themselves. No blowing up of the peeps, no harming unrelated synthetics, just shut down the whole system and then go around turning the mass relays back on one by one. Unfortunately, the race that designed the thing didn't do very good in hiding their intentions and became the Keepers.
Insanity is a job requirement of fighting the Collectors and Reapers.
Look at Shepard. Look at how off the rails s/he can go. Look at Garrus or Wrex. Or Jack, Grunt, Mordin, Samara or Legion. Look at Zaeed, Kasumi or Edi. Look at Javik or the special forces in the Citadel DLC. Ashley and Kaiden, or Miranda and Jacob, come across as the Only Sane Man. And most of those who are straight are at fairly high risk of death (Virmire survivor and Cerberus assault on the Citadel, Thane and Miranda taking on Kai Lang and Tali being at serious risk on the suicide mission. Conclusion: You don't have to be crazy to be on Shepard's team, .spleh ti tub
The Reapers can control which mass relay links where.
First of all, take a look at the Alpha Relay from Arrival: unlike other secondary relays, it's capable of connecting with sixteen other relays at distances far beyond what most secondary relays are capable of, but only once you fiddle with the settings. Second, if the Reapers' cycle has been going for millions of years, the species they annihilate ought to leave behind ruins of some sort. Sure, some are found, but far less than you would expect given the history, especially if species continue to colonize garden worlds (leaving aside the possibility of a planet's environment changing for whatever reason). Therefore, it's likely that the Reapers anticipated accumulating evidence and designed the relays to counteract it: upon the completion of each cycle, they scramble the relays, to so speak. Lots of primary relays become secondaries and vice versa, while those primaries that stay primaries link to a different primary. That ensures that new species will always colonize different planets, and so will find little evidence of previous ones.
The Alliance encourages marines to jog or run any chance they get.
There's a reason no one bats an eye as Shepard and his/her crew go running through the Citadel, Ilium, or on board the Normandy. With space at such a premium on Alliance vessels, combat personnel, for whom physical fitness is at a higher importance than support, are under orders to jog everywhere to help maintain their fitness.
Admiral Hackett is descended from Father Jack Hackett.
Both characters are known for their badassery. Jack was implied to Really Get Around despite being a priest. It's conceivable that he has at least of a couple of kids floating about.
Shifty Cow's stash
The shifty-looking cow is right next to a gold deposit. Coincidence?
In the inevitable movie adaption, they'll go with Fem Shep for the lead
And knowing Hollywood, they'll cast Milla Jovovich.
Nope. After what she displayed in the Avengers movies, they'll DEFINITELY go with Scarlett Johansson.
Ashley wore a Sarashi in Mass Effect 1 and 2.
It would explain why she was so busty in Mass Effect 3 all of a sudden. Ashley made it no secret in Mass Effect 1 that she had to work her ass off just to become a gunnery chief due to the bias against her lineage. No doubt having a naturally large bust would have made it even MORE difficult for her to be taken seriously in the military. So, she wore wore a sarashi to shave a few inches off her bust line just to give her fellow marines one less thing to give her a hard time over. Two games worth of Character Development later, and she's become more accepting of who she is and is more willing to cut herself some slack once in a while. So she throws not only her bun away, but her sarashi as well.
Turian Names are not actually what they seem to be.
Given that they are a birdlike people, their language may actually be rather screechy. Either way, in their language, turian names probably sound nothing like what we hear them as. It is likely that they are unpronounceable for humans. So the universal translator instead "creates" names for them based on meaning and sound and such. The reason for this is that it's pretty harmful to the Willing Suspension of Disbelief that a race that is essentially Space Romans would just so happen to have naming patterns that are very reminiscent of Roman naming style without any connection to them whatsoever. Perhaps humanity actually noticed the resemblance to historical Romans and thus programmed their translators once they had them to render turian names in a romanlike style.
The M-7 Lancer in the Citadel DLC is Jessie.
Ignoring the fact that the M-7 Lancer doesn't have a scope and Jessie does, there is some evidence to support this idea; at the Broker Terminal it is revealed that Zaeed purchased rifle parts for a discontinued Avenger series (Jessie is an M-8 Avenger), and the description for the M-7 Lancer says that it was "refurbished by an unknown master weaponsmith"! The evidence against the theory is that Zaeed probably wouldn't bear removing the scope off of Jessie, and that the M-7 Lancer was used in the First Contact War; the M-8 Avenger was likely used afterwards.
Mass Effect is a story about an alternate future that won't happen.
Someone time traveled to or from the future, found out about the Reapers, their M.O., and what to do to avoid them. This has led to an intentional steady decline of space programs worldwide, rather than the predicted increase from the 1960's. On the bright side, the CGI needed to falsify later "space exploration" for humanity's safety has the added effect of awesome movies and games. So by the time the Reapers wipe out the present space-faring species, we'll look like a bunch of stupid couch potatoes until they return to hibernation. Then we'll have a good 50000 years to work on anti-Reaper technology, like the time machine that warned us of their impending xenocide.
The whole epic never actually happened.
An old man and his grandchild walking together in a snowy wood. Naturally, the grandchild asks grandpa to "Tell me a story."
"Well, child, it happened like this..."
Marvel Vs Capcom Infinite Guest Fighters
WMG/Video Games
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Information published on 7 August 2018 in the UIC electronic newsletter "UIC eNews" Nr 611.
Czech Republic: Loket Railway Station Refurbishment
News from UIC members
On 24 July, Správa železniční dopravní cesty (SŽDC) handed over a repaired station building to representatives of the city of Loket. Many tourists travel to the city by train, especially in summer; they now have a modern railway station at their disposal. By completely repairing the historical building, SŽDC has made a contribution to enhancing travel culture in the Karlovy Vary region.
The reconstruction work began at the end of last year at a cost of over 5.3 million CZK. The building acquired a new façade, the roof was repaired and all windows and doors were replaced. This will ensure that the station serves passengers for dozens of years to come. The “Junák” tourist association is located on the ground floor of the historic building. SŽDC also led discussions with city representatives on further use of the building. The premises in front of the station will be refurbished as the final stage of works on the building. These refurbishment efforts are being prepared by Loket city hall and will provide facilities for changing trains and parking to serve citizens and visitors to the city.
”I am pleased that life can gradually return to the repaired station buildings. In some regions, offices of the Czech Police are already situated at railway stations; elsewhere we negotiate on office lease with financial control bodies, for example. Here in Loket, the local tourists created their clubroom in the building. Passenger buildings thus regain their original importance from times when they served not only as a waiting room for trains but also as important centres for social events”, says Mr Tomáš Drmola, Deputy Director General for Assets Management.
Loket station serves 280 passengers daily on average. During the summer months in particular, it is an important transport node on tourist routes for water sportsmen and cyclists using regional cycling roads, as well as other visitors to the city of Loket. They come to see the listed buildings in the city centre, as well as a unique amphitheatre in which numerous cultural events take place. The railway station thus serves as an important transport connection.
Last week, SŽDC completed repairs of a passenger building at Kynšperk nad Ohří in the Karlovy Vary region, a project priced at almost 8 million CZK. The most important project in the region involves repair of the passenger building at Sokolov railway station, due to be completed in September.
(Source: SZDC)
4th UIC Asia-Pacific Photo Contest – Voting Process Farewell message from Renato Mazzoncini France: SNCF orders for 100 next-generation TGV Trainsets, more eco-friendly and economical, with enhanced comfort and connectivity Global Rail and Energy Workshop to be held on 24 September 2018 at UIC Paris headquarters Instagram account of the week Russia: RZD Holding organises accelerated freight delivery from Beijing to Moscow in freight wagon of passenger train Save the date for the “Global Debate on Mobility Challenges for Future Society” from 15 – 16 November 2018 in Warsaw UIC is organising its third Digital Awards to be held on 6 December 2018 in Paris United States: Smoother, more reliable service coming for Amtrak Northeast corridor customers
e-News articles with keyword Europe
United Kingdom: The Board of Eurostar appoints Mrs Dominique Reiniche as its new Chair (9 July) Luxembourg: CFL multimodal takes part in the organisation of UIC statutory meetings in Budapest (2 July) Germany: DB Schenker inaugurates new subsidiary in Bangladesh (2 July) The 28th UIC European Regional Assembly took place on 24 June 2019 in Budapest (2 July) Czech Republic: SŽDC will solve Střešovice Tunnels issue with the so-called Option South (26 June)
e-News articles with keyword News from UIC members
China: Leshan-Yibin Section of Chengdu-Guiyang Railway opened to traffic (9 July) United Kingdom: The Board of Eurostar appoints Mrs Dominique Reiniche as its new Chair (9 July) United States: Federal Railroad Administration announces more than $326 million in grants to support railroad infrastructure (9 July) Luxembourg: CFL multimodal takes part in the organisation of UIC statutory meetings in Budapest (2 July) Kazakhstan: Agreements aimed at the growth of cargo traffic on the Trans-Caspian route were signed in Nur-Sultan city (2 July)
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Buy Full Flight History (N267BB)
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FlightAware will conduct a full history search for N267BB and send a report to your e-mail address within one hour. The report will be available via a link in the e-mail.
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Research | Forskning - peer review > Anthology | Antologi
Northern Atlantic Islands and the Sea: Seascapes and Dreamscapes
Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Orkney, Shetland and, to some extent, the Hebrides, share both a Nord ... Read more
Iceland, the Faroe Islands, Orkney, Shetland and, to some extent, the Hebrides, share both a Nordic cultural and linguistic heritage, and the experience of being surrounded by the ever-present North Atlantic Ocean. This has been a constant in the islanders’ history, forging their unique way of life, influencing their customs and traditions, and has been instrumental in moulding their identities.
This volume is an exploration of a rich, intimate and, at times, terrifying relationship. It is the result of an international conference held in April 2014, when scholars from across the North Atlantic rim congregated in Lerwick, Shetland, to discuss maritime traditions, islands in Old Norse literature, insular archaeology, folklore, and traditional belief. The chapters reflect the varied origins of the contributors. Icelanders are well represented, as are scholars based in Orkney and Shetland, indicating the strength of scholarship in these seemingly isolated archipelagos. Peripheral they may be to the UK, but they lie at the heart of the North Atlantic, at the intersection of British and Nordic cultures.
This book will be of interest to scholars of a wide range of disciplines, such as those involved in island studies, cultural studies, Old Norse literature, Icelandic studies, maritime heritage, oceanography, linguistics, folklore, British studies, ethnology, and archaeology. Similarly, it will also appeal to researchers from a wide geographical area, particularly the UK, and Scandinavia, and indeed anywhere where there is an interest in the study of islands or the North Atlantic.
Editor: Andrew Jennings ; Silke Reeploeg; Angela Watt
Type: Anthology | Antologi
Subjects: Area studies; Cultural history; Scotland; North Atlantic; Geography
Place of publication: Newcastle upon Tyne
Country of publication: United Kingdom
Publishing company: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
ISBN number: 978-1-4438-5512-9 (print)
Northern Maps: Re-negotiating space and place in the Northern Isles and Norway in the eighteenth century
This article argues that cartography and topographical description played a significant role in t ... Read more
This article argues that cartography and topographical description played a significant role in the way in which areas of the Scottish Northern Isles were represented and visualised, as a regional space, after the political union of England and Scotland in 1707, and, alongside that, the development of the concept of a British state and nation. Not only did topographical literature become more professionalised and commercially-oriented during the eighteenth century, but the visual representations of territories created in maps and charts became part of a network of cultural practices that both linked and divided historical regions across the British Isles. On the one hand, map-making re-negotiated national spaces in order to contribute to the formation the United Kingdom or Great Britain (itself a complex national entity) and, on the other hand, it provided an opportunity to re-create a sense of place or Northern regional identity, continuing to be part of an intercultural Northern European maritime region linked by the North Sea. As can be seen in the following case studies from the Shetland Islands and Western Norway, at ‘image level’, the change in perceptions about a region's identity (or one's own, within that region), often follows a long process, ‘since shifts in the attitudes of mental mapping tend to slowly follow changes in political and social conditions, mixing with philosophical and aesthetic conventions of the time’.
Subjects: History; Cartography; Cultural transfer; Scotland; Norway; Orkney; Shetland; Maritime travel
Title of journal: Northern Scotland
Volume of journal: 6
Publisher: Edinburgh University Press
Place of publication: Edinburgh
Country of publication: Scotland
DOI number: 10.3366
Research | Forskning > Review | Anmeldelse
Book Review: John H. Ballantyne (ed). Naught but Trouble: The Hays in Yell 1755-1824. Lerwick: Shetland Times Ltd., 2014
Type: Review | Anmeldelse
Subjects: Local history; Shetland; Scotland
Title of journal: Northern Studies
Publisher: The Journal of the Scottish Society for Northern Studies
ISSN number: 0305-506X
Research | Forskning - peer review > Review | Anmeldelse
Nationalism in Stateless Nations: Selves and Others in Scotland and Newfoundland
Author: Maria Ackrén
Editor: Robert C. Thomsen
Subjects: Nationalism; Stateless nations; Scotland; Newfoundland
Title of journal: Nations and Nationlism
Place of publication: London School of Economics
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Rumor: Compact Sony Honami “Mini” flagship in the works, to take on the iPhone 5S
Sony is rumored to be working on a smaller Honami handset – a flagship Honami Mini version – that would take on the iPhone 5S this fall.
Obviously, the “Honami Mini” is not going to be the official name of the product. It’s just a placeholder name used to describe this particular rumored handset.
Sony is expected to unveil the next flagship smartphone on September 4 at IFA 2013 in Berlin. The Honami is said to be a high-end device that will feature high-end camera technology, and was recently rumored to be unveiled at a July 4 media event in Paris, but that didn’t happen.
More interestingly, a new VR-Zone report says that the Honami Mini will be the kind of small smartphone that many Android users could be waiting for – a compact handset that will come with high-end hardware, and not just another “Mini”-branded mid-range device like, say, the Galaxy S4 mini.
The Honami Mini would compete directly against the iPhone 5S – that’s the unconfirmed name used to refer to the next-gen iPhone that will hit stores this fall – but also against other Mini handsets. The iPhone 5S is expected to have a 4-inch display, just like its predecessor, as Apple is not going to move to bigger handset displays this year – or at least that’s what most rumors say.
According to the publication, the handset would pack a display with a screen size of 4- to 4.3-inch and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 processor. The camera of the Honami Mini may not be exactly on par with the Honami’s, but its performance is said to be “really close.”
We’ll point out that this is just a rumor at this point, and while it makes plenty of sense, we’ll still have to wait for Sony to make everything official.
Phones, Rumors, Sony Honami
PhonesRumorsSony Honami
Source: VR-Zone
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A.N.G.E.L.O. AT ORTOFABBRICA
AN EVENT IN OCCASION OF FUORISALONE 2013
Milano, Via Savona 37 - ITALY
9th-14th april 2013
ORTOFABBRICA is a mix of ambiances, products, and design solutions that have beauty, usefulness, and full eco-sustainability as their common thread.
The event, conceived, organized, and promoted by Angelo GRASSI, provides for a fascinating, utterly modern project set within an outdoor pre-industrial 19th-century architectural scenario.
From the central area, dominated by a swamp rich of colours, fragrances, sounds, and resources – a small-scale view of a 3.0 factory, where everything is produced and nothing is wasted – departs a philosophical and projectual reference – unprecedented in Italy – to responsible beauty and to the responsibility of beauty.
Thus, around the swamp, ORTOFABBRICA turns into a workshop powered by a consortium of creatives, designers, craftsmen, and companies among them A.N.G.E.L.O. VINTAGE PALACE , demonstrating that quality of life and future should develop hand in hand, while blending with the eco- concept: eco-design, eco-architecture, eco-sustainability, eco-nomy.
A.N.G.E.L.O. will attend the exhibition with 15 garments for the rain, unique, vintage and all from his historical archive, that bear a strong reference to authenticity and ethics.
A.N.G.E.L.O. VINTAGE PALACE EXTRAORDINARY OPENING
FROM H 10.30 AM TO H 7.30 PM
The 14th of April, as every second Sunday of every month, A.N.G.E.L.O. VINTAGE PALACE , will be open from 10.30 am to 7.30 om no stop. Come to visit us in order to see and purchase the new selection of 2013 Spring/Summer garments and accessories (new arrivals every week).
VINTAGE FASHION FESTIVAL
Salzburg Designer Outlet - Kasernenstrasse 1, 5073 Wals-Himmelreich, Salzburg, Austria
19th - 30th April 2013
Orari: Monday to Friday from 9.30 am to 7.00 pm / Saturday from 9.00 am to 6.00 pm
After the success of the last year, also for this one will start off the Vintage Fashion Tour where the world of Vintage, of whom A.N.G.E.L.O. is one of the most illustrious representatives, will be hosted at the McArthur Glen Designer Outlets all around Europe. The Tour, that will start in the city of Salzburg, will take around Europe a rich selection of pieces of clothing and accessories, among whom you can discover cult objects and rarities from the late '40s to late '80s. An exhibition dedicated to the charme of "unique" pieces, that were part of "our" history and a unique opportunity to take home an original Chanel, Hermés, Fendi, Louis Vuitton, Gucci, Christian Dior and many others.
The tour will be accompanied by the exhibition "Around the World in 80 scarves", a visual path through the popular touristic places all linked to a precise historical moment full of profound changes. After the Second World War and the Depression an enthusiasm for discovery turns the scarf into a souvenir of possible holidays. No longer only postcards to put away in drawers, or photos of smiles in front of historic or natural monuments, but a personal choice, a testimony and a souvenirs of the trip: a small square of colored silk, capable to arouse emotions with a private language that belongs to different latitudes. In the exhibition, there will be displayed a rich collection of original scarves, authentic pieces of the '40s, '50s and '60s, from the countries all around the world all belonging to the A.N.G.E.L.O. Fashion Archive.
Next stop will be in Berlin from 9 to 31 May 2013.
NEXT VINTAGE
CASTLE OF BELGIOIOSO - Via Garibaldi, 1, 27011 Belgioioso, Pavia - Italy
Preview: Friday 19th April from h 3 pm to 8 pm
20th-25th April 2013 form h 10 am to 8 pm
TICKET: 10 euro / 7 euro REDUCTION / 6,72 euro ONLINE REDUCTION
Vintage's fans are called from the 20th to the 25th of April at the Castle of Belgioioso for five days of shopping where the past come back to be present again and enchant with the timeless charme of who has always some new stories to tell.
From the 20th to the 25th of April at the Castle of Belgioioso, Pavia, in occasion of “Next Vintage” will be presented the vintage 2013 spring/summer collection. Over then 55 exhibitors will display the best of their research: garments and accessories from the XVI Century to the Nineties.
A.N.G.E.L.O. Vintage Palace , as every year, will attend the fair with a huge sales space and a selection of new proposals for the incoming season: garments and accessories to dress our personal style, unique pieces to embellish it and versatile pieces for all the pockets.
The side event "GIORGIO ARMANI e i suoi bozzetti dal 1969 al 1985", through a selection of fifties original sketches, will drive us to the discovery of the unique style of the fashion designer Giorgio Armani.
[@] info@belgioioso.it
[W] www.belgioioso.it
A.N.G.E.L.O. SMALL MUSEUM 7.0. CARRÈ HERMÉS: A FOULARD LASTS FOREVER
in occasion of
LUGO VINTAGE
LUGO (RA) - ITALY
26th-27th-28th APRIL 2013
OPENING HOURS: Friday 26th from 3 pm to 11 pm; Saturday 27th and Sundaybato 28th from 10 am to 11 pm
27th e 28th April from 9 am to 19 pm
Pavaglione, Lugo (RA) - Italy
In occasion of Lugo Vintage Festival, comes back the appointment with the event "Vintage per un giorno", the vintage market dedicated to everyone and to the recovery of unused objects. The appointment will be doubled, for this edition, Saturday 27th and Sunday 28 April. For all days, in the Pavaglione of Lugo you can have fun in discover among designer or not garments, accessories, bags, shoes, glasses and small furnishing and modern antiques the unique pieces to take home or buy by “weight" with charming antique scales the selection of A.N.G.E.L.O. HAPPY KILO. Fun and occasion for a total vintage shopping experience and a different way to spend your weekend.
For the occasion A.N.G.E.L.O. Vintage Palace (Corso Garibaldi 59, Lugo), will be opened from 10.30 to 19.30
Info for sales areas: Ilaria Laghi 331-7866497 o vintageperungiorno@gmail.com
VINTAGE. L'IRRESISTIBILE FASCINO DEL VISSUTO
Museum of Fabric, Prato
7th December 2012 / 30th May 2013 Monday closed
Tuesday - Friday 10.00 am - 6.00 pm
Saturday and Sunday 10.00 am - 7.00 pm
A.N.G.E.L.O. TEMPORARY STORE (inside the Museum)
An original trip into the history and evolution of the most contemporary trend in fashion and, in the same time, a homage to the evocative power of the fashion style of yesterday.
The exhibition “Vintage. L'irresistibile fascino del vissuto” organized by the Museum of Fabric of Prato Foundation (Chamber of Commerce of Prato, Commune of Prato, Provincial Administration of Prato) in cooperation with the Bank of Prato, SAPERI srl and Popular Bank of Vicenza together with the Vice Presidency of ACTE Italia (Association of European Textile ) and dedicated to Fashion Vintage, will open on the 7th December 2012 at 6.30 pm.
The initiative was developed in collaboration with A.N.G.E.L.O. Vintage Archive, one of the most significant and researched italian vintage archive and due to openness of prestigious Fashion Houses such as Gucci, Salvatore Ferragamo, Pucci and Max Mara e of Osti's Archive.
The exhibition intends to tell, for the first time, how the practice of used clothing, deep-rooted in the history of Clothing and Fabrics, was able to inflate the concepts of lived and second hand clothing with an irresistible charm creating a real costume phenomenon and to retrace the origins, developments and reasons that let vintage to become a nearly essential element in the contemporary design of Fashion and Fabric.
Through a thematic pattern supported by accurate chronological references, articulated in four different sections with more than 100 garments and fabrics displayed, the exhibition takes up part of the suggestive location of the Historical Rooom and the wide rooms of the Museum's first floor, with 800 mq of exhibition space in total.
In occasion of the opening the catalogue “Vintage. L'irresistibile fascino del vissuto” realized by the Museo del Tessuto in collaboration with Silvana Editoriale Publishing, will be available.
Tel 0574 611503 / www.museodeltessuto.it
info@museodeltessuto.it
FB e Twitter : museodeltessuto
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Favourite Watch
Jetstar confused over location of Shanghai? Hint: Hangzhou's not in Shanghai.
Why the Goodwood Festival of Speed is the world's greatest car show
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by John Walton | January 19, 2011
It looks like Jetstar needs some remedial geography classes. New flights on Jetstar Asia from Singapore to Hangzhou are being advertised by Qantas' Singapore-based low-cost subsidiary as "Hangzhou (Shanghai)".
Do take a second to look the two cities up on a map if you're not enormously familiar with eastern China.
Business travellers thinking that the flights, which start on 22 March, sound like a cost-saving way to get themselves to Shanghai should think again. Hangzhou is nearly 200 km away from Shanghai.
Hangzhou (Shanghai) is hardly Melbourne (Avalon) or London (Stansted). More like Melbourne (Shepparton) or Sydney (Bathurst), and with only slightly better ground transport times.
Although Jetstar advertises the high-speed rail links to Shanghai, even the fastest trains take an hour and a half from Shanghai South station to Hangzhou. That's no 431 km/h Shanghai Maglev.
And the hour and a half doesn't include the extra 10 km in Shanghai to get to the centre of town, or the 20 km in Hangzhou to get to the airport. By road, it'll take over two hours between the two cities, without allowing for traffic.
Hangzhou's famously beautiful lakes are a fair distance from Shanghai's iconic skyline
With direct flights from Sydney to Shanghai (the actual Shanghai!) on Air China, China Eastern and Qantas, flying via Singapore to "Hangzhou (Shanghai)" isn't a good way to get to Shanghai.
If you do want to go to Hangzhou, the capital of economic powerhouse Zhejiang province and one of China's most beautiful cities, Hainan Airlines flies direct from Sydney with a brief stop in Shenzhen.
Shanghai China Jetstar hainan airlines hangzhou Jetstar Asia
John Walton
@thatjohn
Aviation journalist and travel columnist John took his first long-haul flight when he was eight weeks old and hasn't looked back since. Well, except when facing rearwards in business class.
shanghai expat
19 Jan, 2011 07:39 pm
They advertise it as Hangzhou(Shanghai) because Air Asia advertises it as Hangzhou(Shanghai).
You might want to update your readers on the fast train between Hangzhou & Shanghai is not an hour and half but 40-48 minutes from Hangzhou to Shanghai Hongqiao Station which started last October. Shanghai Hongqiao is the new transport hub that connects to the Hongqiao airport and subway lines 2 & 10.
No member give thanks
Shayanong! Thanks for the local heads-up.
After some extensive sleuthing, all the information online pointed towards a 90-minute trip given the arrival and departure times of 2335 and 0035, which headed towards Shanghai Nanzhan rather than Hongqiao.
Do you know differently? We're always happy to make corrections.
thatskelvin
15 Mar, 2011 08:18 pm
Hi John, Good article!
The 350km/hr high-speed train does connect Hangzhou and Shanghai Hongqiao (the new transport hub with an airport, a train station and two subway lines) with a 45-min ride from the old Hangzhou railroad station. When the new Hangzhou Dongzhan (Hangzhou East) station unveils at the end of 2011, the ride would be shortened to 38min. There are also routes that run between Hangzhou and Shanghai Nanzhan (Shanghai South) with a 160km/hr train ride for 1hr18min.
I guess Jetstar brands the route as Hangzhou (Shanghai) mainly because it's a good way to indicate the location of flight destination while not much misleading the passengers - Hangzhou, Shanghai and Hangzhou (Shanghai) are different. AirAsia has been doing this sort of co-naming for a while - Hangzhou (Shanghai) and Tianjin (Beijing). And they DO provide a bus service from Hangzhou to Shanghai connecting their flight!
This co-naming is also used by Air China for their Tianjin routes. Air China provides what they call "virtual flight" (CA9001/02) - a bus service in fact - to connect those who are continuing their trip from Tianjin to Beijing and vice versa.:)
Other great ways to travel from Sydney to Hangzhou - fly Cathay Pacific via Hong Kong, or Asiana via Seoul. Both one short transit.
Comment on "Jetstar confused over location of Shanghai? Hint: Hangzhou's not in Shanghai."
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Top 10 best compact saloons 2019
Each of our top ten compact saloons mix practicality, refinement, punchy engines and engaging dynamics, but which takes top spot?
by Autocar
With sales of SUVs skyrocketing, fewer and fewer people are getting behind the wheel of compact saloons, which is a shame because there are some cracking options out there.
To stand out in this class, competitors will need to have a mixture of deft handling, a comfortable ride, impressive interior quality and respectable fuel economy - a balance that can be difficult to strike at the best of times. Below are the cars we think have best nailed this brief.
1. BMW 3 Series
The return of the BMW 3-Series to the top of our compact saloons rankings, in this its seventh full model generation, has very little, if anything, to do with luck.
The 3-Series has brought greater handling dynamism and driver appeal to this segment than any rival over the last four decades. Of late it has added into the mix engines that lead the class for performance and efficiency, making it even harder to overlook. And now, with its rich, classy, spacious and technologically advanced cabin and top-notch mechanical refinement to match its other dynamic qualities, the ‘G20’-generation 3-Series has become a more outstanding class-leading act than you’ll find in many of the other vehicle classes with which we concern ourselves.
It’s not quite the sort of car that can be all things to all people. Tuned to appeal more to buyers and tastes at the core of the 3-Series’ following, it’s more of a sporting prospect than the car it replaces, with a firmer and more insistent ride than the ‘F30’ had – but even sharper, more vigorous and more engaging handling, too. Call that a response to the challenges laid out, in recent years, by the likes of the Jaguar XE and Alfa Romeo Giulia.
BMW’s engine range is not short on quality, but it’s as strongly represented by the big-selling 320d diesel as almost anywhere: a car that sets a very high standard for its competitors on pace, drivability, efficiency, refinement, handling poise – in other words, in all of the ways that really matter.
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2. Jaguar XE
The Jaguar XE was a bold attempt to take on some of the biggest-selling and most complete executive saloons in the world, by relative minnow Jaguar. While it hasn’t transformed the brand that created it, it has certainly had a bigger impact upon the class in which it sits than its sales footprint might suggest; and it’s well worth considering if you want a business saloon that delivers for its driver first and foremost, and that works better on British roads, in some ways, than any other.
The British car has a supple ride and handling compromise that gives it the poise and dexterity to deal with UK cross-country roads particularly well. Being one of the smaller cars in the class, it still feels relatively small within its lane, and has very impressive steering precision and handling balance when driven quickly.
Performance from the car’s petrol and diesel Ingenium engines is not quite as strong as the XE’s handling, with upper-level petrols using a combination of four-wheel drive and automatic gearbox that makes for slightly disappointing performance and fuel economy. But Jaguar’s new RDE-compliant, rear-driven D180 diesel option is a strong one for company car drivers.
The handsome Jaguar is somewhat let down by limited space in the rear and a slightly smaller boot than those in rivals such as the BMW 3 Series and Mercedes-Benz C-Class – although much of the rest of the cabin was updated as part of Jaguar’s 2019 facelift, and now more easily passes muster for perceived quality than it used to.
Save money with new XE deals from What Car?
3. Alfa Romeo Giulia
The Giulia marks a rather dramatic and significant return to form for Alfa Romeo. Built on a new rear-driven model platform and well able to mix it with the best cars in this class for handling poise and driver appeal, it’s also as fine-looking a saloon car as the class has seen in recent years and, with strong engines in its armoury, has all of the qualities that Alfa brand devotees would be likely to want from it.
In the way it goes about dealing with a challenging road, the car has a rare blend of light-rimmed handling agility, handling balance and compact on-road feel that give even diesel-engined versions a surfeit of sporting appeal. It's let down somewhat by an interior that seems low-rent when judged against the German alternatives, and by a lacklustre infotainment system that’s a bit light on features and unintuitive to use.
The car certainly looks the part, though, especially in barnstorming Quadrifoglio guise, which adds in a Ferrari-derived 503bhp twin-turbocharged V6 and huge driver appeal. More economy-minded buyers will find the diesel engines also offer strong performance and fuel economy.
Save money with new Giulia deals from What Car?
4. Mercedes-Benz C-Class
Where the 3-Series, Giulia and XE place more focus on driver engagement, Mercedes has taken a more luxurious and refined approach to what a compact saloon can be with the C-Class. Think of the ‘W205’-generation ‘C’ as a miniaturised S-Class and you wont go far wrong in your expectation of the kind of dynamic compromise it offers.
Material quality inside is among the best in this class, and overall the interior is only let down by the fact that some taller passengers will find space in the back a bit tight. Standard equipment is generous across the range, too – with the technological and material highlights of top-of-the-range versions being particularly ritzy and impressive, and the car’s driver assist systems being very strong.
That the C-Class’ handling isn’t quite as poised or inviting as some is unmissably true, but it’s unlikely to discourage Mercedes owners who will value this car’s more laid-back ride and more opulent character. Meanwhile, when Mercedes banished its old 2.1-litre turbodiesel engine from this car midway through its life and replaced it with a much quieter, more efficient and more willing new 2.0-litre unit, it addressed what was arguably the car’s biggest weakness.
Save money with new C-Class deals from What Car?
5. Volvo S60
Volvo is thrusting itself right back towards the sharp end of the compact saloon argument with this, its third-generation S60 saloon – and the first to be built outside of Europe, in Ridgeville, South Carolina.
Great-looking, great to travel in, relaxing to drive and quite practical with it, the S60 will appeal to people who aren’t catered to by the more sporting mission statements of other cars in this class – but should enjoy plenty of success in doing so. It has good powertrain refinement, decent front-driven handling and a well-rounded, comfortable ride – although latterly, avoiding Volvo’s bigger optional alloy wheel sizes is advisable if you want the last word in ride refinement.
Available, for now, with only a 247bhp turbocharged petrol engine and badged ‘T5’, the car has plenty of performance – although less powerful and expensive options, and a more efficiency-minded hybrid, will be along later. Volvo will not offer a diesel, however.
Save money with new S60 deals from What Car?
A firm favourite with company car drivers, the Audi A4 makes a strong case for itself based on its excellent perceived cabin quality; the smart material richness of its interior; its smart exterior design; its refined, economical engines; and its brilliant infotainment systems.
The A4 is let down a little by an isolated but uninvolving driving experience that favours high-speed stability over driver engagement. However, it excels as a long-distance motorway tourer as a result - a trait that is further backed up by a range of refined and smooth petrol and diesel engines. Plenty of onboard passenger space is on offer, too, while Audi’s finance deals make for strong value for money also.
Save money with new A4 deals from What Car?
7. Volkswagen Passat
The big Volkswagen Passat has plenty going for it. It has a tidy, well-made interior, strong standard kit and handsome – if a little subdued – exterior styling.
A range of economical Euro 6-standard four-cylinder diesel engines offers commendable refinement, performance and economy, while the plug-in hybrid Passat GTE gives buyers the option of lower CO2 emissions and electric motoring over a limited range.
While the Passat makes for a comfortable and relaxed motorway cruiser, it can’t compete with the likes of the Giulia or XE in terms of its dynamism, instead taking a more laid-back approach to its driving experience. If you’re looking for a car to soothe away the rigours of daily motoring with the minimum of intrusion and fuss, look no further.
Save money with new Passat deals from What Car?
8. Vauxhall Insignia Grand Sport
The second-generation Vauxhall Insignia enters the compact saloon market armed with attractive pricing, a great amount of standard equipment and plenty of interior space. The Grand Sport's handsome exterior styling is another draw, and it’s now much more comfortable than its predecessor.
Family buyers will find that the Insignia’s interior is far roomier than plenty of cars in this class. Cabin ambience and perceived quality aren’t quite at premium-brand level, but both are good enough to engage with every day without grating or disappointing.
The Insignia may not be as vivacious as some of its more sporting rivals on a challenging road but it's well suited to long-distance touring, while Vauxhall’s GSI-badged warm performance derivatives do at least offer a modicum of driver appeal at an affordable price.
Save money with new Insignia Grand Sport deals from What Car?
9. Kia Stinger
Kia’s new flagship model has made a good start at redefining just what people should expect from the South Korean manufacturer.
The Stinger flaunts handsome styling, excellent handling and, in full-fat GT-S guise, a properly potent 3.3-litre twin-turbocharged V6 for a price that will only buy you four cylinders elsewhere. The car’s four-cylinder engines are more ordinary in use, but there’s still decent performance, refinement and economy to be had from both.
The Stinger isn’t without fault, though. Interior quality isn’t on the same level as truly premium rival cars', and the infotainment system - although working well in isolation - also trails behind premium brands'. Practicality is excellent, however.
Save money with new Stinger deals from What Car?
10. Peugeot 508
Peugeot is making a play for the style-conscious crowd with its latest big saloon, the 508. We use the term ‘big’ fairly loosely, mind you – since this car is actually quite small and svelte even by compact saloon class standards, and offers fairly limited second-row passenger space. However, the 508 certainly cuts a dash at the kerbside, with its striking daytime running lights and frameless doors – and if you happen to think French saloons ought to be stylish first and foremost, it should hold plenty of appeal.
Being 80mm shorter and 70kg lighter than the old 508, the new one has a hatchback-style rear end for greater boot accessibility. The car’s engine range is diesel-dominated, although there are a couple of 1.6-litre turbo petrols to add a note of spice – the more powerful of the two with 221bhp at heel.
Handling is fairly agile and spry, and ride refinement respectable even on bigger alloy wheels – but only top-of-the-line GT models get adaptive dampers as standard.
Save money with new 508 deals from What Car?
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Ferrari 599 2006-2012 review
From £205,78810
Design & Styling
Ride & Handling
MPG & Running Costs
The last time Ferrari launched a two-seat, front-engined V12 Berlinetta like the 599 GTB, it was a reminder that the company doesn’t always make exceptional motor cars. The 2002 575M Maranello took a dynamic step backwards from the car it replaced, the 550 Maranello.
Ferrari didn’t take kindly to the 575's poor reception, and it would seem that those frustrations were channelled into the design of this car.
Road test editor
The 599 shows Ferrari is still able to build a cracking all-rounder
The 599 GTB Fiorano presents a dazzling set of numbers. Its exalted price isn’t so extraordinary in the face of its obvious competition, but few people expected Ferrari to give the car over 600bhp. In doing so, it has produced a sporting GT with the potential to outperform many even more exclusive machines.
In theory, it is possible to trace the 599's heritage to the very first front-engined Ferrari road car, but in truth its lineage begins with the legendary 250 GT SWB and Lusso of the 1960s.
Fast, dramatic machines with impossibly long bonnets continued as Ferrari flagships through the 275GTB and Daytona until the company chose a mid-engined format for its range-topping 12-cylinder road cars from the mid-1970s to the late 1990s.
Top 5 Supercars
The 550 Maranello signalled the return of the big V12 Ferrari with a long bonnet and nothing behind the driver but luggage and 100 litres of unleaded. We loved it.
Continue to Design & Styling
Save money on your car insurance
Compare quotesCompare insurance quotes
599XX is awesome; electronic aids make it even faster
Ferrari 599XX
The ultimate Ferrari is every bit as awesome as you'd imagine
Ferrari 599 HGTE
UK drive proves hardcore package is still manageable
Cornering grip is phenomenal
When developing the 599, Ferrari wanted to create a “21st-century F40.” It has done that and then some - we can’t think of another car on sale with a better claim to being the greatest production supercar in the world.
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Select a City All Cities Basel Berlin Bonn Boston Chicago Düsseldorf London Los Angeles Madrid New York New York Oxford Rome San Francisco
PRINT Summer 1986
Joyce Kozloff
Boston University Art Gallery
In the mid ’70s Joyce Kozloff’s name was synonymous with the Pattern and Decoration movement. P & D threw down the gauntlet to Minimalist austerity; however, within the kaleidescopic progressions of the Post-Modernist art world, it was rapidly subsumed, accepted as another branch within the pluralistic thicket. For Kozloff, the flourishing of that shoot lay in the arena of public art, a logical extension for an artist who had progressed from painting, through an exploration of printmaking and craft forms, to an ever more encompassing multimedia environmental art. Between 1979 and 1985 she completed five major commissions, including mosaics for subway and train stations in Wilmington, Buffalo, Philadelphia, and Cambridge, and for the International Terminal of the San Francisco Airport. In conjunction with the completion of the Harvard Square Subway Station installation, the Boston University
— Nancy Stapen
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QSC to Demo Dell Hardware Q-SYS Enterprise Core Processors
The What: QSC (booth 5645) will demonstrate its new additions to the Q-SYS Enterprise Core category, the Q-SYS Core 2200 and Core 5200, at InfoComm 2017. Running exclusively on Dell server hardware, these solutions combine the processing capabilities of the Q-SYS realtime operating system with the Dell R730XL hardware platform. The result is an IT-grade solution that brings audio, video, and control (AV&C) processing into the datacenter.
The What Else: The use of standard, mainstream hardware reflects a typical enterprise IT environment and provides several benefits, particularly for corporate clients and global enterprises. Enterprises can take advantage of the corporate infrastructure and place Q-SYS Core processors alongside other building-wide IT services such as VoIP, UC, as well as security and access control servers. Both the Q-SYS Core 2200 and Core 5200 processors provide up to 512x512 network audio channels while offering an abundance of processing power. The Q-SYS Core 2200 offers 128 built-in, fully routable acoustic echo cancelation (AEC) processors while the Q-SYS Core 5200 offers 256 AEC processors.
The solution also provides the ability to serve all meeting, conferencing, presentation, and lobby spaces from a single platform designed from the outset to provide full AV&C requirements for AV/IT environments. It utilizes common hardware familiar to IT managers worldwide with integrated Dell Remote Access Controller (iDRAC) for integration with existing IT asset management and monitoring tools, and the robust engineering found in the Dell R730XL server platform provides standard features such as dual redundant networking and hot-swappable power supplies and fans.
“The Q-SYS Platform is an operating system environment built on an open ecosystem that allows QSC to offer its corporate users a truly IT-centric platform,” said TJ Adams, senior director of installed systems product management, QSC. “We first debuted this capability as a technology demonstration at ISE 2017. Now that these products have arrived, this paradigm shift is poised to change the way our industry deploys future enterprise-wide AV&C systems.”
The Bottom Line: These new Q-SYS Enterprise Core processors represent a fully integrated AV&C solution, demonstrating the possibilities of the industry’s shift toward standards-based IT platforms.
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GOP Clown Car Open Thread: Steve King’s Demand & Sulk ‘Diamond & Silk’ Act
by Anne Laurieat12:59 am on June 14, 2019 . It has 48 Comments.
The 'If I Were A Nazi, Why Do I Have Black Friends, Huh?' Act of 2019. https://t.co/nuOTnBaepC
— Zeddediah Springfield (@Zeddary) June 12, 2019
Rep. Steve King introduced "The Diamond and Silk Act" today and the press conference was a wreck.
The trio was asked about King's white supremacist sympathies before a One America News camera crew interviewed them until a car arrived to whisk them away.https://t.co/5gRuTNyUcW
— Jared Holt (@jaredlholt) June 12, 2019
Rep. Steve ‘Pigmuck’ King’s saying-the-quiet-parts-out-loud antics have grown sufficiently egregious that even the Racist-in-Chief’s staff decided he couldn’t mooch a ride home on Air Force One (not even in the back, as some twitter wag noted). So King felt called on to break out the big guns…
Steve King and Diamond & Silk arrive outside the House for a press conference. pic.twitter.com/AI0lmFiThG
Per NYMag, “Steve King, Diamond, and Silk Deflect Racism Charges by Unveiling Racist Legislation”:
Iowa Republican and white supremacist U.S. representative Steve King unveiled the “Diamond and Silk Act” on Wednesday. Officially dubbed the End Sanctuaries and Help Our American Homeless and Veterans Act, the legislation seeks to redirect federal funding from so-called sanctuary cities — jurisdictions that decline to help federal authorities arrest and deport undocumented immigrants — to programs that aid homeless people and veterans.
The act’s unofficial title is inspired by its unofficial co-sponsors: Lynnette Hardaway and Rochelle Richardson, better known by their stage names, Diamond and Silk. Together, the pair hosts a conservative video series on YouTube aimed at ridiculing Democrats and boosting Republicans, especially President Donald Trump, for whom they left the Democratic Party to support in 2015.
Diamond and Silk’s appeal to Republicans — the vast majority of whom are white — is that they are black women willing to exonerate the GOP of its racism. They conducted themselves accordingly on Wednesday when they joined King on Capitol Hill to announce their partnership. Reporters asked what they thought of the congressman’s retweeting white supremacists. “I’m tired of you all playing the race card,” Hardaway retorted. “It’s time to start working for Americans. And stop calling everybody a racist.”…
It remains unclear how much longer Republicans will persist in the charade that allegations of racism can be waved away by the contrarianism of any random black person. But King seems willing to see how far it will carry him. The dishonesty underlying this approach is something of a turnaround from the openness with which he broadcast his white supremacism in the Times profile earlier this year. But if nothing else, it suggests that he learned his lesson from the Republican fallout: You can be a white supremacist as long as you lie and claim you are not one.
Congratulations to inevitable winners Diamond and Silk. https://t.co/QJg70XmQtS
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) June 13, 2019
This post is in Clown car, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Thread, Post-racial America, Republican Stupidity and has 48 Comments.
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Late Night Open Thread: Nice “Work” If You Can Get It…
by Anne Laurieat11:05 pm on June 9, 2019 . It has 50 Comments.
Jon Chait, NYMag, “Why Are Republican Small Donors So Easy to Swindle?”:
Republicans have long complained, usually in private, that their fundraising apparatus is overrun with fraudsters. National Review’s Jim Geraghty has a column, “The Right’s Grifter Problem,” saying what many of them have been whispering. Many of President Trump’s most publicly strident loyalists are in the business of raising money for political projects that spend virtually all their funds on operating expenses…
Grifters go where the marks are:
NEW: NRA money flowed to board members amid allegedly lavish spending by top officials and vendors via @bethreinhard @katiezez @thamburger @CarolLeonnig https://t.co/mk35SuiuMS
— Felicia Sonmez (@feliciasonmez) June 9, 2019
A former pro football player who serves on the National Rifle Association board was paid $400,000 by the group in recent years for public outreach and firearms training. Another board member, a writer in New Mexico, collected more than $28,000 for articles in NRA publications. Yet another board member sold ammunition from his private company to the NRA for an undisclosed sum.
The NRA, which has been rocked by allegations of exorbitant spending by top executives, also directed money in recent years that went to board members — the very people tasked with overseeing the organization’s finances.
In all, 18 members of the NRA’s 76-member board, who are not paid as directors, collected money from the group during the past three years, according to tax filings, state charitable reports and NRA correspondence reviewed by The Washington Post.
The payments received by about one-quarter of board members, the extent of which has not previously been reported, deepen questions about the rigor of the board’s oversight as it steered the country’s largest and most powerful gun rights group, according to tax experts and some longtime members…
This post is in All Too Normal, Decline and Fall, Excellent Links, Grifters Gonna Grift, Guns, Hail to the Hairpiece, I Reject Your Reality and Substitute My Own, Nobody could have predicted, Open Thread, Republican Stupidity, Republican Venality and has 50 Comments.
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Late Night Clown Show Open Thread: STR8 PRYDE!!!
by Anne Laurieat2:14 am on June 6, 2019 . It has 22 Comments.
We have a straight pride parade, it’s called the Rose Bowl.
— Molotov Frappuccino Thrower (@agraybee) June 4, 2019
That’s not a numeral in the title, it’s an infinity symbol, representing the boundless stupidity / cupidity of these Very Normal Dudes. Our self-styled Hub of the Universe offers a rare opportunity for these “jokers”, since there are significant power blocs of both quasi-intellectual ‘independent thinkers’ and troglodyte pre-VaticanII Catholic revanchists, who occasionally manage to overcome their natural antipathy in the hopes of putting “those people” (everyone not a member of their musty little hate groups) in our place. Believe me, eyes are being rolled. Per the Boston Globe:
A small group of organizers say they’re gearing up to host what they’ve dubbed the “Straight Pride Parade” through Boston this summer, a claim that has set off a visceral reaction nationwide and drawn criticism on social media from the likes of Chris Evans and many others as Pride Month gets underway.
But as reports made the rounds on social media Tuesday, landing the “Straight Pride Parade” among the top trends on Twitter, the city clarified that the proposal isn’t exactly set in stone…
According to the screenshot of the Facebook announcement, the so-called Straight Pride Parade would tentatively take place on Aug. 31 — a prime move-in day for returning students, mind you — and follow the same route of the city’s annual LGBTQ Pride Parade that’s happening in Boston this weekend…
One of the lead organizers pushing for the parade is Mark Sahady. If that name sounds familiar, it’s because he’s the same person from the controversial Resist Marxism group, which hosted the Rally for the Republic on Boston Common in 2017 that attracted swarms of counterprotesters.
Sahady posted last week on Facebook that it looks like the proposed parade “will happen,” but his announcement didn’t get much traction on social media until Tuesday.
[Anybody surprised that a NYTimes reporter was the first to fall for this stunt?]
A group called Super Happy Fun America — of which Sahady is apparently the vice president — is taking ownership of the parade plans…
This post is in All Too Normal, Civil Rights, Clown car, Grifters Gonna Grift, LGBTQ Rights Are Human Rights, Open Thread and has 22 Comments.
https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg 0 0 Anne Laurie https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg Anne Laurie2019-06-06 02:14:362019-06-06 02:17:20Late Night Clown Show Open Thread: STR8 PRYDE!!!
Cold Grey Pre-Dawn Open Thread: Nobody Loves A Charmless Grifter
As I pointed out to @donlemon on CNN earlier tonight, not many people in the UK like @realdonaldtrump and many of those who say they do like him, for example @borisjohnson, who used to attack him in the past, are clearly now just pretending to like him: pic.twitter.com/xUtM2dvEnu
— Mehdi Hasan (@mehdirhasan) June 4, 2019
It's going to be awesome when Trump is out of office and Maggie never works again. https://t.co/MJfM7wu3Cg
The NYTimes withdrew the tweet, but Maggie Haberman’s two-faced encomium remains — “For Trump, London Visit Is a (Royal) Family Affair”:
… Whether they had official roles in the visit or not, the extended Trump family seemed to materialize in London overnight — all save the president’s youngest son, Barron, who stayed home. But Monday’s lavish audience with the British royals was the culmination of more than a month of planning by White House officials who have grown accustomed to accommodating President Trump’s children, whether that includes redrawing plans for a state visit or evicting guests from their seats at the State of the Union address.
As Mr. Trump presides over a White House with unprecedented turnover, he has relied on his children the same way he has for decades — asking them for advice or seeing them as surrogates in the fight against his real and perceived enemies.
On this visit, another family opportunity surfaced: The Kennedys have long occupied the American political culture as the unofficial royal family, but this week, the Trumps appeared to present themselves as the 2019 version…
Our British ‘cousins’ have an expansive acquaintance with that class of professional grifters which organize themselves as an Aristocracy, so they have rather higher standards for such gentries’ entertainment value than the gawping rubes of Trump’s loyal (very) Base. Per the Daily Beast, “William, Harry and Kate Deny Trump What He Wanted Most: a Photo Op”:
Prince Harry and his brother Prince William have successfully denied Donald Trump the opportunity of appearing in a photo with either of them or their glamorous and popular wives during his state visit to the U.K., which would have been invaluable PR for his 2020 re-election campaign, after the president used the word “nasty” while discussing Harry’s wife, Meghan Markle…
It was also noticeable that when Trump visited Westminster Abbey on Monday to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, he was not accompanied by William, as might have been expected, but by Prince Andrew, the queen’s second son.
Andrew’s name-recognition in the wider U.S. is minimal, meaning the trip will have little PR value for the 2020 campaign…
[Perhaps the two men had met before: “Randy Andy” was notoriously another Friend of Jeffrey Epstein.]
And yet, President Trump has made it clear to those close to him that he actually does care about his reputation among the British royals. According to several former and current White House officials, Trump will grow visibly more animated or excited when the topic of meeting prominent members of royal families comes up, including the British royals. He makes a point of repeatedly asking aides about what he and others should wear during state visits and high-profile events with foreign countries’ royalty, the sources said, and enthusiastically asks advisers about what kind of pomp and pageantry he should expect…
…[A]Whitehall official told The Times that the queen’s meeting last year with President Trump was “kept to the bare minimum. The Queen will do her duty, but among the wider family, they were not as enthusiastic as they were when [President Barack] Obama came over.”
Pretty sure this is the royal family they'll be most identified with. pic.twitter.com/cLTeJoYJgZ
— Schooley (@Rschooley) June 4, 2019
Found the balloon. pic.twitter.com/eVtrLZZRHs
— Maggie Haberman (@maggieNYT) June 4, 2019
This post is in All Too Normal, Assholes, Foreign Affairs, Go Fuck Yourself, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Thread, Republican Stupidity, Trump Crime Cartel and has 26 Comments.
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Late Night Open Thread: It’s Hard Out There for A Grifting ‘Populist’
by Anne Laurieat10:29 pm on May 31, 2019 . It has 106 Comments.
Steve Bannon savages Trump in the new Michael Wolff book. https://t.co/4bgucw7nQx
— Jay Yarow (@jyarow) May 30, 2019
Sweet Jesus, this Bannon quote: “This is where it isn’t a witch hunt – even for the hard core, this is where he turns into just a crooked business guy, and one worth $50m instead of $10bn. Not the billionaire he said he was, just another scumbag.” https://t.co/kPC5wibW54
— Daniel W. Drezner (@dandrezner) May 30, 2019
Just as he was looking for a headwind from Michael Wolff’s new book…
There's just only so much you can pack into one sentence. https://t.co/wbxvXlxX34
— JJ MacNab (@jjmacnab) May 31, 2019
… Italy’s cultural heritage ministry announced on Friday (May 31) that it would revoke a lease granted to Bannon after reports of fraud in the competitive tender process. The former Breitbart chief and aide to US president Donald Trump was reportedly paying €100,000 ($110,000) per year to rent the 13th Century Carthusian monastery, but now will have to search for another spot.
The Italian state allowed the conservative Catholic organization Dignitatis Humanae Institute (DHI) to use the building early last year. Bannon happens to be a trustee of the institute, and planned to convert the space into a “gladiator school for cultural warriors,” where students would learn philosophy, theology, history, and economics, and receive political training from the former Trump aide himself.
But earlier this month, Italian newspaper Repubblica reported that a letter used to guarantee the lease was forged. The letter had the signature of an employee of Danish bank Jyske, but the bank said that employee hadn’t worked there for years, and called the letter fraudulent…
More details about the proposed "gladiator school for culture warriors” here:https://t.co/RpAvkasxlK
I would like to live there, sans Bannon of course.
"But now, only one 83-year-old monk remains. A longtime chef-gardener still lives there, as well, along with several dozen feral cats." pic.twitter.com/nZi2eDNyhM
This post is in Assholes, C.R.E.A.M., Decline and Fall, Grifters Gonna Grift, Open Thread, Their Motto: Apocalypse Now, Trump Crime Cartel and has 106 Comments.
https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg 0 0 Anne Laurie https://www.balloon-juice.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/balloon_juice_header_logo_grey.jpg Anne Laurie2019-05-31 22:29:102019-05-31 22:29:10Late Night Open Thread: It's Hard Out There for A Grifting 'Populist'
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The Depressing Reality of the Orioles’ Rotation
So what does one do about Miguel Gonzalez?
That’s Baltimore’s problem in nutshell, though it’s not Baltimore’s only problem. Plainly stated, the biggest problem with the Baltimore Orioles is: how does one deal with a rotation that’s stopped making the Warehouse look like geniuses?
(Discuss this article on the BSL boards here.)
Last year, of course, the talk was the declining month-over-month ERA of the starting rotation. The starting rotation didn’t post an ERA higher than 3.55 past June, and the bullpen was lights out over the same period. The explanation for this, in broad strokes, was great defense — after all, the Royals were working similar magic, and Dayton Moore has made defense a priority in all of his teams — even with this year’s bizarre roster lacking any legitimate starting pitching options after mid-season acquisition Johnny Cueto and uncomfortably-minted number two starter Edinson Volquez.
But pitching and defense are not what the Orioles are doing in the second half of this season — at least not the first half of that equation; especially not in the month of August. Baltimore simply doesn’t have a reliable, quality starting pitcher in the second half so far — Ubaldo Jimenez has an ERA over 7 since the All-Star Break, Chris Tillman has been struggling with injuries and only pitched 5 games, Kevin Gausman still looks like a guy with filthy stuff and absolutely no ability to locate it and Wei-Yin Chen has an alarming .916 OPS against in the second half, which isn’t representative of his true talent but couldn’t have possibly come at a worse time.
And then, of course, there’s Miguel Gonzalez.
Chen has to be better than his numbers; if the Orioles want to have any chance of being anything but a sideshow in the last month of the season, he has to pitch. Jimenez is making the most money of any pitcher on the roster and has an entire first half of great pitching for the O’s to spend the rest of the season chasing. Tillman is the guy all sorts of fans fell in love with over the past year and is going to be given the rest of the season to turn things around, and Gausman still has some prospect sheen on him that should be gone by the start of next year. That leaves people asking about Miguel Gonzalez — a scrapheap pickup a few years who has made good on an improved changeup that the Orioles taught him — and why he continues to get starts while players like Bud Norris get DFA’d and Tommy Hunter get dealt to National League bullpens.
The answer to those peoples’ questions is simply: who else would you pitch?
The two clear replacements, Mike Wright and Tyler Wilson, are hurt; Wright is on the DL with a strained calf and Wilson is out indefinitely with a strained oblique, and to be quite honest neither is a particularly inspiring major league starter. You could ask Matt Buschmann, Chris Jones, or Heaven forfend Dana Eveland to make a spot start, but there’s at least a track record of Gonzalez being good at the major league level, even if he’s been atrocious this year since June. He’s got a history of figuring it out — the other guys, well, not so much. And you don’t want to be experimenting at this point in the season — not this late in the year.
The Orioles could trade for a guy like Randy Wolf to replace Gonzalez — now that Wolf has gone to the Tigers, the actual guy (sorting through cleared waivers) is someone like…Kyle Lohse. But even if the O’s were able to get Lohse without having to make a salary commitment, why would they want him? Lohse has been terrible all year, and Gonzalez is a better, cheaper, more projectable pitcher in every area than he is. That’s the basic problem with any attempt to address the rotation from outside the organization at this point: all the good options are gone. All that’s left is the means to panic.
As much as Miguel Gonzalez’s outings are offensive to the mind of a fan who dreams his team a competitor; as much as Miguel Gonzalez can’t execute his gameplan or demonstrate upside at the moment, he’s still the guy with the best track record in the Orioles organization at the moment, and that’s as much as indictment of the organization as it is a commentary on him. Neither Mike Wright nor Tyler Wilson are, in any discernable way, better pitchers than Gonzalez even if they were healthy; the only remedy they offer is one of factual difference: they are not Gonzalez, and therefore they might be better. One might as well stretch out T.J. McFarland and give him starts instead.
There’s also an unfortunate truth that the minds in the Warehouse are probably already grappling with and that we need to acknowledge too: it’s entirely likely that Kevin Gausman and Dylan Bundy have already made the greatest contributions they ever will to a Baltimore Orioles season. Bundy, hurt again, will be out of options after next year thanks to his 2012 relief appearance and constant presence on the 40-man roster; Gausman continues to take steps backwards in his development now that he has some stability as a starter in the major league rotation.
There’s not much to do with the rotation but hope it gets better. There’s not much to do with Gonzalez but hope he recaptures the fastball/changeup combination that made him an above-average major league starter. And there’s not much to do with the entire rotation except realize that major work needs to be done in that part of the roster over the offseason if the Orioles want to even pretend to be contenders in 2016.
Written by Jonathan Bernhardt. Posted 4 years ago in Baltimore Orioles, MLB Draft.
Jonathan Bernhardt
Jonathan is a contributing writer for VICE Sports. His work has previously appeared in Sports on Earth, Baseball Prospectus, The Classical, and ESPN's SweetSpot Network. Born in central Maryland, Bernhardt currently lives in the New York metropolitan area.
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Mid-Round O-Line Prospects, 2016 Draft
The Ravens have question marks across the offensive line, except for Marshal Yanda. The best guard in football. That is until out of necessity they move Yanda out to tackle, where he becomes the best tackle in football.
Left tackle is up in the air with the team down on Eugene Monroe at the moment. But yesterday, the Ravens reported that Monroe is their left tackle. Injury history, and average play when on the field have created rumors that his spot is replaceable. Names like Laremy Tunsil, and Ronnie Stanley have popped up, linked to Ravens at pick number six in the upcoming draft. Though Tunsil is lmost likely top five, if not number one overall. At right tackle, the job is Rick Wagner’s to lose. He had a poor rookie season, a stellar sophomore campaign, and regressed some from there last year. But he’s played well enough to earn a performance escalator in his 2016 salary, a raise of nearly one million dollars. It’s Wagner’s contract year, so expect him to be extra motivated to play at a high level.
At the guard position, we mentioned Yanda. No worries there at all. Left guard had been occupied by Kelechi Osemele, who was recently signed in free agency by the Oakland Raiders. That opens the door for third year player, John Urschel out of Penn State. Urschel got some playing time in a center last year and was not good at all. Guard will suit him better. While he might have the highest IQ of any NFL player, let’s hope the spotlight on him this year is about his incredible play on the field. Not his math skills off it. He’s not faced a lot of playing time in his first two years making it tough to really asses him.
At center, Jeremy Zuttah is the guy. He is under contract for three more years at a modest cap hit of around $4.6M. Could be room for savings in the coming years, but not so much this year. Zuttah, while being a scheme fit as an athletic, lateral moving center in the zone blocking game, has a nagging injury history as well. He played in 65 straight games until a torn pectoral cut his 2015 season short. But even before that, hip, leg, foot injuries that he’s played through, have lead me to believe that Zuttah has not played at 100% health in probably two years. If healthy, Zuttah could be one of the top centers in the league. When you look at Gino Gradkowski before him, and John Urschel filling in after he went on IR, you appreciate what you have in Zuttah, and appreciate him playing through the pain.
The real trouble with the offensive line is depth. That makes the O-line a perfect target for the middle of the Ravens draft. They don’t need a guy at pick number six who is supposed to step in a start day one. But you can’t go into the season with James Hurst at the primary backup, again. Hurst graded out as the worst tackle in the NFL by Pro Football Focus. Undrafted because of injury, two years in the NFL now, and it makes you cringe for the QB when Hurst is out there. He can’t be anymore. O-Line should be a priority in the middle of the draft. Tackle first, with Monroe being up and down, and Wagner maybe on his way out of Baltimore in 2017. Then Guard, with Urschel getting his first chance to prove himself, and maybe needing some camp competition.
So here are some of the middle of the draft prospects the Ravens could look for, starting with the tackle position.
Discuss your thoughts on these potential draft targets on our message board.
John Theus – Georgia
6’6”, 313 lbs. Senior. Projected third round. Theus was first team All-SEC in 2015. He started 48 games, and appeared in all 53 games of his collegiate career. Can’t be anymore NFL ready than that. Long arms at a tick over 34”. But he seems heavy on his feet. Speed rushers can beat him, but that’s what speed rushers are supposed to do. We remember Jonathan Ogden as one of the best tackles ever. First ballot Hall of Fame. But man, Dwight Freeney in his prime gave Ogden the business. Theus doesn’t project well as a zone blocker, which means the Ravens could pass. But his versatility to play the left and right sides, physical strength, durability, could make him enticing to some teams.
Kyle Murphy – Stanford
6’6”, 305 lbs. Senior. Projected third round. Murphy has NFL in his blood, as his Brother Kevin played two seasons for the Minnesota Vikings, undrafted out of Harvard. Holidays are probably fun for Kyle. “What’s up Stanford boy. Couldn’t get into Harvard?” Probably pushes Kyle to be better than big brother. Or not. Who knows. Heisman trophy finalist Christian McCaffery, and quarterback Kevin Hogan, had great campaigns in 2015 thanks largely to the line in front of them lead by Murphy. Second team All-Pac 12 in 2014, and first team in 2015. He played along the left side with fellow first team All-Pac 12 guard, Joshua Garnett. Hogan’s blind side was a comfortable as it could be. Murphy was a right tackle as a junior, moved to left tackle as a senior where he really flourished. He’s athletic enough to play in the Ravens zone stretch scheme. But quick off the snap, sometimes too quick. Michael Oher was also “quick” off the snap. You also have to wonder if he benefitted from playing next to a really good guard in Garnett, who is forecasted as a second round pick. If drafted by the Ravens, would he need to play next to Marshal Yanda rather than John Urschel. Could Rick Wagner move to the left tackle spot in this case?
Cole Toner – Harvard
6’5, 306 lbs. Senior. Projected fourth round. Stop me if you have heard this before. “The NFL is quite the jump from the Ivy league.” As if coming from a small school or facing lower talent levels means anything anymore. Matt Birk was a center from Harvard. Joe Flacco from Delaware. Brandon Williams from Missouri Southern State. Lardarius Webb from Nicholls State, and the list goes on. I think some pundits believe if you don’t play in the SEC, you aren’t ready for the NFL. I digress. Toner was first team All-Ivy league the last two seasons. He faced current Indianapolis Colts defensive tackle, Zach Hodges, each day in practice for a couple seasons. Toner responded very well to the rise in strength of competition when he attended the Senior Bowl. Light on his feet, lateral agility, vison to seek out linebackers on the second level, all makes him a great fit for a zone stretch scheme. He could room with Urschel and fight over who is smarter. Most find Toner to be a right tackle in the NFL, which if true, begs the question once again, can Rick Wagner move to the left side if Monroe misses time?
Fahn Cooper – Ole Miss
6’4”, 303 lbs. Senior (RS). Projected fourth to fifth round. Cooper started his college career at Bowling Green as a freshman before transferring to junior college, and then as a top JUCO recruit, joining the Rebels in 2014. He flies under radar with top draft picks Laremy Tunsil, Laquan Treadwell, and Robert Nkemdiche all coming from Ole Miss. Mainly a right tackle, but filled in for Tunsil on the left side, and filled in well when Tunsil missed time. While Cooper hasn’t played guard, scouts feel he has the bulk to make that transition in the NFL if need be. But his nearly 35” arms make him an intriguing tackle prospect first. He’s bulky, physical, powerful. But I don’t think athletic enough to play in a zone blocking scheme. Doesn’t move laterally that well.
Sebastian Tretola – Arkansas
6’4”, 314 lbs. Projected third round. Tretola is a powerful individual. In his two years at Arkansas after transferring from JUCO, he allowed just a half sack on his way to first team All-SEC honors. Weight and conditioning problems could arise as he lost 50 pounds once coming to Arkansas. Meaning he could balloon up to 360 lbs if he stops putting in the necessary work. That conditioning can lead to being a bit sluggish at times, and late on pulling plays. But straight up pass blocking, one on one with the opposition, he’s tough to beat. Arms are too short at 31.5” to expect him to play tackle.
Connor McGovern – Missouri
6’4”, 306 lbs. Projected third or fourth round. NFL.com calls him the strongest player in the draft. He set weight lifting records at Mizzou by squatting 690 pounds, six times. Reportedly he maxed out at 785 pounds. One offseason he tore a pectoral muscle while bench pressing 515 pounds. At the combine he did 33 reps of 225. He was a Gatorade High School Player of the Year for the state of North Dakota in 2012. While at Mizzou he played both tackle spots in addition to guard, and moves very well to complement his strengths. Arms a shade under 33” make him better suited for guard, but can play tackle in a pinch. A nice assest to have. Scouts look at him as a project, and his versatility and strength sure are positives. Could be a fit in any system with that strength and agility he possesses.
Issac Seumalo – Oregon State
6’4”, 303lbs. Projected fourth or fifth round. Seumalo was a top five guard in the nation coming out of high school. He chose Oregon State for family reasons. His brother was a defensive tackle there, his father coached the defensive line, and his sister was on the volleyball team. Once arriving he was anointed the starting center job, and eventually would play both tackle positions as injuries decimated the Beavers line. Seumalo suffered a broken foot at the end of 2013, and redshirted 2014. In 2015 he played nine games at right guard and three at left tackle. He didn’t express any setbacks after the injury, showing the same burst, balance and movement. He looked very technically sound in everything he does with good knee bend, keeps head up in blocking, quick feet. But lacks that punch off the snap, and ability to stay engaged. Defenders can shed his blocks this way.
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Maryland Baltimore County
Nationwide manhunt ends as missing Maryland girl is found safe in S.C.
Photos provided by Baltimore County Police
Timothy Virts, right, is a suspect in the abduction of daughter Caitlyn Virts, police say.
Timothy Virts, right, is a suspect in the abduction of daughter Caitlyn Virts, police say. (Photos provided by Baltimore County Police)
Jessica Anderson, Alison Knezevich and Jean Marbella, The Baltimore Sun
A nationwide hunt ended Friday night when Caitlyn Marie Virts, the 11-year-old girl missing since her mother was found killed in their Dundalk home on Thursday, was located in a motel room in Florence, S.C., with her father, Timothy Virts, who was taken into custody, Baltimore County police said.
"He is in custody, and she is safe," Cpl. John Wachter, a police spokesman, told The Baltimore Sun.
Virts, 38, was under warrant for arrest in connection with the stabbing death of Caitlyn's mother, Bobbie Jo Cortez, 36, who was found bound with duct tape in her bed in her home in the 3100 block of Ardee Way on Thursday morning.
Wachter said the Maryland Department of Social Services was in contact with their counterparts in South Carolina, working on arrangements to return Caitlyn to her relatives here. Baltimore County police detectives will travel to South Carolina, where Timothy Virts is being held on an FBI charge of unlawful flight.
The father and daughter had checked in Thursday night at the Colonial Inn in Florence, Jon Gause, the motel's owner, told The Sun. An employee had seen the Amber Alert issued for Caitlyn on Facebook and called the police, Gause said.
"I saw him as they were putting them into cars," Gause said referring to Virts and his daughter. Police had arrived shortly after he started his night shift at 10 p.m., Gause said.
"There were several law enforcement agencies working. There were enough people to overwhelm any situation," he said. He said he spoke to several officers at the scene, who told him Virts "seemed like he was perhaps ready to give up."
Caitlyn's grandparents expressed gratitude that the girl, whom police said appeared to be unharmed, had been found. She was temporarily being held by South Carolina social service caseworkers on Saturday, Baltimore County Police Chief James W. Johnson said, who added that investigators do not believe that Caitlyn was physically harmed during the hours she was missing.
"I'm relieved," said Daniel Wallace, Cortez's father.
"I want to give her a big hug," Anna Trainor Goodwin, Cortez's mother, said of Caitlyn. "Hug her very hard."
Trainor Goodwin had last talked to her daughter on Sunday. "She gave me a real big hug, and said, 'Mommy, I love you so much,'" Trainor Goodwin said. "I had a feeling something was wrong."
Cortez, however, brushed off the concern, she said, but Trainor Goodwin added that she believed the couple were fighting over custody issues with Caitlyn and her twin sister.
Police credited the Amber Alert, issued locally after Caitlyn was discovered missing but subsequently expanded nationally, with helping to locate the girl.
"Absolutely," Wachter said. "That helped bring Caitlyn home."
Wachter said police received numerous tips of sightings and had been following up on all of them. Johnson said credible tips led his investigators to believe that the pair was in North Carolina sometime Friday before Florence law enforcement authorities had zeroed in on the Dodge Virts was driving at the Colonial Inn at about 8 p.m.
Police expressed their gratitude for all those who helped in the nationwide search, which had been assisted by the FBI. Johnson said it was a combination of media reports, social media messaging and broad law enforcement cooperation that led to Caitlyn's recovery.
"I'm overjoyed," Wachter said, so much so that he tweeted "We found her" at 10:13 p.m., even as he was still on the phone receiving the news from police officials.
Detectives obtained an arrest warrant Friday for Timothy Virts, in connection with the death of Bobbie Jo Cortez. The FBI placed Timothy Virts on the agency's wanted list and also issued a warrant for him.
Police had been looking for a black 1999 Dodge Durango with Maryland tag 5AJ4458. The vehicle is registered to 38-year-old Daniel Williams Cortez, who was married to Bobbie Jo and has been jailed since December on sex offense charges.
Police have not determined a possible motive and have no reason to believe that Cortez's charges are related to the case, Baltimore County police spokeswoman Elise Armacost said. Detectives obtained the warrant based on interviews with others in the house and physical evidence from the scene, police said.
Johnson said Saturday that police do have a murder weapon in their evidence.
"This was a very violent, brutal murder," he said.
Daniel Wallace said Timothy Virts was especially close to Caitlyn and believed he did not take her twin sister because the twin suffers from medical problems that might need treatment.
When Caitlyn's sister woke up for school Thursday morning, she discovered her mother dead in bed, according to Wallace, who lives in Carrollton Ridge in Southwest Baltimore.
"I know she was duct-taped and stabbed. I'm sure she saw her life go through her eyes," Wallace said of Bobbie Jo. "She was my life. I don't know what I am going to do."
He said he learned of his daughter's death from a TV news broadcast. "All I had to do was see the picture one time. I saw Caitlyn and I saw the father, and I knew that's them."
Wallace said his daughter was unaware of criminal charges against her husband until he was arrested in December. He has been in jail since then, and Wallace said two friends moved in to help his daughter pay the rent.
Bobbie Jo and Daniel Cortez had been married "about three years" after a courthouse wedding, her father said. They had known each other since attending Patterson High School in Baltimore, he said.
"She said she would never take another man ever" after she learned of the charges, he said.
Cortez's public defender, Jennifer Aist, said she had not yet received charging papers in the case in which an indictment was handed down this week. But she does not believe he is involved in the Virts case.
"Clearly Mr. Cortez is not involved. He's incarcerated," she said.
Wallace said Bobbie Jo allowed Timothy Virts to stay at the home in recent months because she worked nights. "She trusted him to watch the kids," he said.
Bobbie Jo worked for a medical supply company for about 10 years, and had attended culinary school but was pursing an online degree in forensic science. She wanted to work in law enforcement, Wallace said.
"Bobbie Jo was always happy. All she wanted was to be a happy family," he said. "My daughter treated them like angels. You never saw them kids without anything."
Police said two other children — as well as two adults — were at the house when Bobbie Jo Cortez was killed. Police said they are not sure why Virts only took Caitlyn.
Bobbie Jo was awarded sole custody of Caitlyn and her twin sister in 2011, though court records say both she and Timothy Virts were found to be "fit and proper parents." In 2004, the couple signed over custody of their twin boys to Virts' father, saying they were "not able to care for two additional infants at this time," according to court documents.
In 2012, Virts' father sought a protective order against his son. He wrote in court papers that Timothy had threatened him with violence.
Virts has waived extradition, allowing him to be transferred to Maryland as soon as Baltimore County authorities can arrange it. Johnson didn't know exactly when Virts and Caitlyn would return to Maryland, only saying that it would be soon.
Baltimore Sun staff writers Carrie Wells and Justin George contributed to this report.
jkanderson@baltsun.com
twitter.com/janders5
Caitlyn Virts
Timothy Virts
Bobbie Jo Cortez
Baltimore County Police Department
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Dawn Cappelli
Ronald Raether
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| ERROR: type should be string, got "https://www.barrons.com/articles/infosys-stock-is-down-because-it-cant-escape-downgrades-51555344197\nInfosys Stock Is Down Because It Can’t Escape Downgrades\nTeresa Rivas\nApril 15, 2019 12:03 pm ET\nInfosys stock (ticker: INFY) was trading lower on Monday, dented by at least five downgrades for the consulting, technology, and outsourcing company after its fourth-quarter earnings report.\nThe back story. Infosys stock is up 10.5% since the start of the year, and has risen 25% in the trailing 12-month period, touching a new 52-week high last week. However, the shares sold off on Friday after the company’s fiscal fourth-quarter earnings report.\nThe results weren’t the problem: Infosys earned 9.36 Indian rupees per share, on revenue of 215.39 billion rupees, while analysts were modeling for earnings per share of 8.95 rupees on revenue of 214.13 billion rupees. However, the company’s full-year guidance—for revenue to grow between 7.5% and 9.5% on a constant currency basis, with operating margins between 21% to 23%—disappointed some investors.\nWhat’s new. Infosys was hit with at least five analyst downgrades on Monday. Citigroup cut it to Neutral from Buy, Investec cut it to Hold from Buy, and Morgan Stanley cut it to Equal Weight from Overweight. Plus, at least two new bears were born: Credit Suisse downgraded it to Underperform from Neutral, and Nomura Instinet lowered the stock to Reduce from Neutral.\nLooking Ahead: Citi’s Surendra Goyal is fairly representative of those who chose to move to the sidelines. He praised the past year, especially revenue momentum, but questioned Infosys’s long-term margin outlook. He also notes the report was filled with “multiple small disappointments” in terms of the quarter and the guidance, which will likely “weigh on the stock given the decent returns year to date, despite buyback support.”\nYet Nomura Instinet’s Rishit Parikh took a harsher stance on the shares. He writes investors would be better served by cutting their losses, and that Tata Consultancy Services (EQTCS. India) looks like a better bet (although he still has a Neutral rating on that stock). His bearish stance rests on a disappointing sales outlook, margin risks, and what he sees as an expensive valuation. HCL Technologies (532281. India) is his favorite pick in the Indian IT space, although he also has a Buy rating on Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH).\nInfosys stock was down 0.4% to $10.51 at recent check.\nWrite to Teresa Rivas at teresa.rivas@barrons.com"
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The Interview: Historian David McCullough
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The Interview: Boston’s New Police Commissioner William Gross
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The Interview: Hotel Developer Robin Brown
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The Interview: Red Sox Pitcher Joe Kelly
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By Britni de la Cretaz
The Interview: Jill Medvedow
The ICA director made her name by bringing the weird, wild world of contemporary art to the masses. But is a new gallery in East Boston her most radical vision yet?
The Interview: Roger Berkowitz
The legendary head of Legal Sea Foods talks Old Boston versus New Boston and finally reveals the real story behind President Donald Trump’s near snub of his world-famous clam chowder.
The Interview: Diane Paulus
Ahead of the hotly anticipated debut of Jagged Little Pill this month at the A.R.T., the world-famous artistic director gets tough on Boston’s business community—and that’s a good thing.
The Interview: Jeff Miron, Economist and Harvard Professor
The Harvard financial wiz hates taxes, loves golf, and tackles the question that should be on everybody’s mind: Is our economy heading over a cliff?
The Interview: Andrea Campbell
Is Boston’s new city council president the (next) most powerful politician in the city?
The Scoop on the 30 Best Boston Ice Cream Shops
This Map Shows Which Parts of Boston Have the Densest Population
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Best Beaches in Massachusetts - 100 Awesome Beaches in Boston and Beyond
Travel + Leisure Named a Somerville Hotel One of the Best in the World
Here's a Comprehensive Map of the Outdoor Public Pools in Boston
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A strong libido and bored by monogamy: the truth about women and sex
April 18, 2019 Scuba Diving
When a heterosexual couple marries, whos likely to get bored of sex first? The answer might surprise you
What do you are aware of female sexuality? Whatever it is, chances are, says Wednesday Martin, it’s all wrong.” Most of what we’ve been taught by science about female sexuality is untrue ,” she says.” Starting with two basic affirms: that men have a stronger libido than women, and that men struggle with monogamy more than women do .”
Martin pulls no punches. Her bestselling memoir Primates of Park Avenue cast her as an anthropologist observing the habits of her Upper East Side neighbours. She claimed among other shockers that privileged stay-at-home moms were sometimes given a fiscal “wife bonus” based on their domestic and social performance. The volume caused a furore, and is currently being developed as a TV series, with Martin as exec producer. Her new volume, out this week, should be equally provocative. Entitled Untrue , it questions much that we thought we knew about women’s sexuality.
Her starting-point is that research into human sexuality has been, historically, overwhelmingly male-centric;” notable sexologists”, starting with Carl Friedrich Otto Westphal( 1833 -1 890) are largely male. You have to scroll through another 25, including Sigmund Freud and Alfred Kinsey, before you arrive at a female name: Mary Calderone( 1904 -1 998 ), who championed sex education. And even in the subsequent 30 names there are only five women, including both Virginia Johnson( partner of the famous, and male, William Masters ), and Shere Hite.
All these men made certain hypothesis about women’s sexuality. It’s no surprise that it was Hite who revolutionised believing on female orgasm, arguing that it was not “dysfunctional” to fail to climax during intercourse. Crucial, too, says Martin, has been the work of Rosemary Basson, who realised that spontaneous passion, the kind sexologists had measured for years, was merely one type of relevant passion, and that responsive or triggered sexual response is much more important for women. Measured on that scale it is about to change that females are, in fact, every bit as sexually arousable as men.
New findings showed that girls reported similar intensities of longing and arousal to humen, and” a real change in believing” about females and monogamy.” We were taught that humen were the ones who needed range, but the exact opposite turns out to be the case ,” says Martin.” Overfamiliarisation with project partners and desexualisation kills women’s libido. We used to think it’s only men who became sexually borne after matrimony; is about to change that’s not true. It’s when women get married that it’s detrimental to their libido .”
‘ Men truly caring about what women want sexually makes a huge difference ‘: Wednesday Martin. Photo: Christopher Lane for the Observer
Martin isn’t here to talk about her own relationship, but for the record she’s 53, has been married for 18 years, still lives in New York, and has two sons aged 17 and 10 who are, predictably enough, “mortified” at what their mother writes about. She hopes her work will help validate the feelings of the new generations of young woman:” It’s not about giving them permission to’ cheat ‘, not even devoting them permission to refuse monogamy, but I hope it does give them permission to feel normal if they don’t like monogamy ,” she says. Because that’s the central fallacy: the belief that monogamy is harder for men than for women. In fact, argues Martin, exactly the opposite is the case.” Women crave novelty and range and escapade at least as much as men, and maybe more .” She talks me through what she says is the classic pathway for women when they marry or commit to one heterosexual partner long-term( the research has so far concentrated on heterosexual couples; more work is needed on lesbian women’s sexuality lives ).” A couple live together, their libidos are matched, and they have a lot of sexuality. But after a year, two years, maybe three years, what tends to happen is that the woman’s desire falls more quickly than the man’s. At that phase the woman guesses,’ I don’t like sex any more .’ But what, in fact, is happening is that she is having a hard time with monogamy; because women get bored with one partner more quickly than humen do .”
So girls are socialised expressed the belief that they’ve gone off sexuality, when in fact they’re craving assortment. Instead of being the brake on passion, says Martin, the female half of the long-term partnership is the key to a more adventurous and exciting sexuality life. What it’s all about, she explains, is the existence of the only altogether pleasure-seeking organ in the human repertoire, the clitoris. For her portrait, she wears a necklace shaped like one.” Women evolved to seek out pleasure, girls are multiply orgasmic, women’s biology defines them up to seek out pleasure ,” says Martin.” The clitoris has a very important back story about female human sex which is that our sex evolved for the purpose of escapade .”
Another element in the mixture, she says, was the finding that a third of women who are having an extramarital relationship say their wedding or long-term partnership is happy or very pleased about.” So we need to understand that females aren’t just seeking assortment because they’re unhappy, they’re attempting it because they need variety and novelty ,” she says.
What does all this mean, in a practical sense, for our sex lives? Martin doesn’t like the word “cheating”- she prefers to use the word “step out”- and that’s what some females decide to do. But it’s not the only solution.” There are many women who are suffering but don’t want to leave their relationship or to step out, and they’ve not yet detected vibrators ,” says Martin.” I can’t tell you how many females have told me they never had a vibrator- there’s a generation in their 40 s and 50 s who missed the vibrator revolution and never caught up. And there are all these new vibrators out there- and anything new you can introduce will make a big difference to your sex life .” Another style forward can be for a couple opening hours their relationship in some way, and invite someone else in. And she has other ideas up her sleeve that seem a lot less risque, like going on a zip wire, taking up dance lessons or running scuba diving together. Why does that help?” Research on the neurochemicals has indicated that our sexual desire is triggered when we do something new with a long-term partner. A thrilling activity is ideal: it can give you a wash of hormones that stimulates “youre feeling” new to each other again .”
Indeed, part of the narrative seems to be that men are too quick to settle for “the usual”( which constructs sense now we know they’re not the ones who are bored ); but opening up the conversation about what else they could try can relight the fuse. The trick here, attorneys Martin, is for them to keep on and on asking.” Men truly caring about what girls want sexually makes a huge difference. You might need to have the conversation over and over, and women might maintain saying they’re happy with things as the objective is- but keep asking, and eventually females will open up about their sex fictions. We find that their menus are more varied than men’s. Human are shocked, but also gratified and thrilled, when they find out how sexually exciting we can be when we get past the inhibitions that have been socialised into us .”
Paradoxically, there’s been a parallel change in attitudes towards extramarital affairs and divorce alongside the growing studies into women’s sexuality. Martin quotes the US statistics: in 1976, fewer than half of well-educated Americans thought having an affair was always wrong; by 2013, that figure was 91%.” We’ve become a lot less tolerant of infidelity in recent years ,” says Martin.” And meanwhile divorce has become much more common: a significant number of people in the 1970 s who supposed affairs were OK, thought divorce was incorrect .”
So at the precise moment science uncovers women have the bigger “need” to be sexually adventurous, society fastens down on infidelity. And that, says Martin, is staggeringly significant.” The way we feel about women who reject monogamy is an important metric for how we feel about equality .” She’s talking, she says, about women who openly reject monogamy by being polyamorous. The overwhelming story we buy into, after all, is that men who “cheat” are just” men being men “; women who “step out” are far more likely to be criticised and dishonor. Ultimately, though, they’re challenging something very deep in society’s expectations of them- and perhaps their stance is the most radical female posture of all.
Untrue by Wednesday Martin is published by Scribe at PS14. 99. Buy it for PS12. 89 at guardianbookshop.com
Read more: www.theguardian.com
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GMC in the spotlight
BMJ 2018; 361 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.k2594 (Published 14 June 2018) Cite this as: BMJ 2018;361:k2594
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Prevalence of cervical...
Prevalence of cervical disease at age 20 after immunisation with bivalent HPV vaccine at age 12-13 in Scotland: retrospective population study
CCBYNC Open access
BMJ 2019; 365 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1161 (Published 03 April 2019) Cite this as: BMJ 2019;365:l1161
Linked editorial
Linked opinion
Bivalent HPV vaccine in Scotland is having a considerable and sustained effect
Re: Prevalence of cervical disease at age 20 after immunisation with bivalent HPV vaccine at age 12-13 in Scotland: retrospective population study
This study only looked at 12- and 13-year-old girls, a population that is not sexually active. However, during clinical trials of the HPV vaccine in the U.S., the FDA evaluated the potential of Gardasil "to enhance cervical disease in subjects who had evidence of persistent infection with vaccine-relevant HPV types prior to vaccination." The results showed a -45% (negative 45%) efficacy in this subgroup. "Subjects who were seropositive and PCR-positive for the vaccine-relevant HPV types had a greater number of CIN 2/3 or worse cases" compared to unvaccinated females. This is why vaccinating young girls before they become sexually active is important. The Palmer et al Scottish study did not include older teens and women who are sexually active, have been exposed to HPV prior to HPV-vaccination, and are likely to have significantly worse outcomes than unvaccinated females.
VRBPAC Background Document. Gardasil HPV Quadrivalent Vaccine May 18, 2006 VRBPAC Meeting. (See Table 17, page 13.) https://zenodo.org/record/1434214
Neil Z. Miller
Medical researcher
NM, USA
Scotland's public health campaigns to improve vitamin D nutriture occurred within the same timeframe as HPV vaccination
(Word count without footnotes and citations: 934)
In April 2019, Palmer et al [1] published a retrospective population study crediting vaccination against human papilloma virus (HPV) with reduction in HPV prevalence in Scotland, and the authors attributed a reduction in HPV prevalence among unvaccinated women with “herd protection.” However the authors did not mention Scotland’s population-wide public health campaigns to address endemic vitamin D deficiency. The Scottish Government recognized the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in its population and began recommending vitamin D supplementation not later than 2006. Vitamin D deficiency results in impaired mucosal and immune defenses and correlates in a dose-dependent manner with increased cervicovaginal HPV infection [2]. By 2009, coincident with the start of the HPV vaccination campaign in 2008, numerous vitamin D supplementation (and sun exposure) campaigns were being implemented throughout Scotland to combat the documented population-wide problem of vitamin D deficiency.
Our views of vitamin D experienced a paradigm shift in the early part of this century with landmark publications such as Vieth’s authoritative documentation of safety in 1999 [3], Zittermann’s “Vitamin D in preventive medicine” in British Journal of Nutrition in 2003 [4], and Vasquez’s “Clinical importance of vitamin D (cholecalciferol): a paradigm shift with implications for all healthcare providers” in 2004 [5] followed by an important partial summary of vitamin D usage guidelines in British Medical Journal in 2005 [6]. These and similarly themed articles have contributed to increased awareness of vitamin D’s safety and roles in preventive medicine and public health, including reducing the burden of infectious diseases such as viral infections and various types of cancer. Consistent with this evidence of safety and benefit, along with evidence that the human daily requirement is an order of magnitude greater than previously believed [7], use of vitamin D supplementation began to increase slowly and then exponentially in the United States [8] and other countries, especially English-speaking societies, most notably the United Kingdom. Indeed, according to the Scottish Health Survey 2003 [9], use of dietary supplements such as vitamins (including vitamin D), fish oils (a source of vitamin D) and minerals (magnesium supplementation improves vitamin D status and is necessary for vitamin D activation, binding, transport, metabolism, and gene expression [10]) had already begun to increase between 1998 and 2003. Certainly not later than 2006, the Scottish Government was already recommending widespread use of vitamin D supplements to combat the high prevalence of vitamin D deficiency in Scotland [11].
Widespread vitamin D deficiency in Scotland was followed by widespread recommendations for vitamin D supplementation starting in 2006 and 2009. In 2006, Burleigh and Potter published in Scottish Medical Journal [12] stating that, “The prevalence of vitamin D deficiency is high in older outpatients in this geographical area.” In 2007, Hyppönen and Power [13] showed that among British adults “Prevalence of hypovitaminosis D in the general population was alarmingly high during the winter and spring, which warrants action at a population level rather than at a risk group level.” In 2008, Rhein [14] further specified that “Vitamin D deficiency is widespread in Scotland.” In 2009, the Scottish Government acknowledged the need to educate its population about the importance of vitamin D3 supplementation [15]. From that time until the present, the Scottish Government, United Kingdom National Health Services, and various advocacy groups and programs (e.g., ScotsNeedVitaminD.com[16], Healthy Start, which provides vitamin D supplements to all children and pregnant women in Scotland [17]) continue assertive public health campaigns recommending vitamin D supplementation and increased vitamin D production via sun exposure via the “Shine on Scotland” program initiated in 2009 [18] for all of its citizens [19-23].
Vitamin D supplementation has been the subject of many clinical trials documenting anti-inflammatory, antiviral, and anticancer benefits. Correction of vitamin D deficiency has significant anti-inflammatory [24] and immunomodulatory [25] benefits. Vitamin D and its direct metabolites promote production of antimicrobial peptides which have antibacterial and antiviral properties, while also reducing viral replication by inhibiting the NF-kappaB pathway. Consistent with these immunomodulatory and antiviral mechanisms, data from several placebo-controlled trials shows that vitamin D provides benefit in a variety of infectious conditions including human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) [26], hepatitis C virus [27-29] and upper respiratory infections [30-31]. Vitamin D administration displays impressive clinical effectiveness against dermal HPV as shown in case reports, clinical series, and placebo-controlled trials, with remarkable safety, high efficacy, and a consistent trend toward complete resolution of lesions [32-36]. In 2014, Schulte-Uebbing et al [37] published “Chronical cervical infections and dysplasia (cervical intraepithelial neoplasia [CIN] 1-2): vaginal vitamin D treatment” showing that among 200 women with cervical dysplasia, vitamin D vaginal suppositories (12,500 IU, 3 nights per week, for 6 weeks) provided “very good anti-inflammatory effects” and “good antidysplastic effects” in women with CIN 1. In 2017, Vahedpoor and colleagues [38] published a double-blind placebo-controlled trial of vitamin D in women with HPV, in which they found that vitamin D3 administration for 6 months among women with CIN1 resulted in its regression and had beneficial effects on markers of insulin metabolism and antioxidant status. In 2018, Vahedpoor and colleagues [39] published a double-blind placebo-controlled trial of vitamin D in women with HPV, in which they observed, “The recurrence rate of CIN1/2/3 was 18.5 and 48.1% in the vitamin D and placebo groups respectively”, thereby clearly favoring treatment with vitamin D over placebo.
In Scotland, programs advocating HPV vaccination (started in 2008) and vitamin D supplementation (started not later than 2006 and again in 2009) occurred in close chronologic proximity. Crediting the reduction in HPV-related disease solely to vaccination via retrospective population study is potentially invalid and misleading, especially when the authors make no account whatsoever of the national program for vitamin D supplementation which started in the same timeframe. Numerous studies have shown that vitamin D provides immunomodulatory, anti-inflammatory, microbiome-modifying, antiviral and anti-HPV benefits with high safety, good efficacy, low cost, wide availability, and clinically important collateral benefits.
[1] Palmer T, Wallace L, Pollock KG, Cuschieri K, Robertson C, Kavanagh K, Cruickshank M. Prevalence of cervical disease at age 20 after immunisation with bivalent HPV vaccine at age 12-13 in Scotland: retrospective population study. BMJ. 2019 Apr 3;365:l1161. doi: 10.1136/bmj.l1161
[2] Shim J, Pérez A, Symanski E, Nyitray AG. Association Between Serum 25-Hydroxyvitamin D Level and Human Papillomavirus Cervicovaginal Infection in Women in the United States. J Infect Dis. 2016 Jun 15;213(12):1886-92. doi: 10.1093/infdis/jiw065
[3] Vieth R. Vitamin D supplementation, 25-hydroxyvitamin D concentrations, and safety. Am J Clin Nutr. 1999 May;69(5):842-56
[4] Zittermann A. Vitamin D in preventive medicine: are we ignoring the evidence? Br J Nutr. 2003 May;89(5):552-72
[5] Vasquez A, Manso G, Cannell J. The clinical importance of vitamin D (cholecalciferol): a paradigm shift with implications for all healthcare providers. Altern Ther Health Med. 2004 Sep-Oct;10(5):28-36 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/15478784
[6] Vasquez A, Cannell J. Calcium and vitamin D in preventing fractures: data are not sufficient to show inefficacy. BMJ. 2005 Jul 9;331(7508):108-9 https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.331.7508.108-b and https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC558659/
[7] Heaney RP, Davies KM, Chen TC, Holick MF, Barger-Lux MJ. Human serum 25-hydroxycholecalciferol response to extended oral dosing with cholecalciferol. Am J Clin Nutr. 2003 Jan;77(1):204-10
[8] Rooney MR, Harnack L, Michos ED, Ogilvie RP, Sempos CT, Lutsey PL. Trends in Use of High-Dose Vitamin D Supplements Exceeding 1000 or 4000 International Units Daily, 1999-2014. JAMA. 2017 Jun 20;317(23):2448-2450. doi: 10.1001/jama.2017.4392
[9] "The proportion of adults who report taking dietary supplements (such as vitamins, fish oils, minerals etc) has increased slightly since 1998 (there was no change between 1995 and 1998). In 1998, 15% of men and 16% of women aged 16-64 took some form of dietary supplement, which increased to 20% and 26%, respectively, in 2003." The Scottish Health Survey 2003. Chapter 3 Fruit and Vegetable Consumption and Eating Habits. https://www.webarchive.org.uk/wayback/archive/20180602183443/http://www.... Accessed April 2019
[10] Reddy P, Edwards LR. Magnesium Supplementation in Vitamin D Deficiency. Am J Ther. 2019 Jan/Feb;26(1):e124-e132. doi: 10.1097/MJT.0000000000000538
[11] "Therefore, routine vitamin D supplementation is recommended for all children over 1 year of age and should be continued until 5 years unless the diet is diverse and plentiful." Scottish Government. Nutritional Guidance for Early Years: food choices for children aged 1-5 years in early education and childcare settings. Published: 23 Jan 2006. https://www.gov.scot/publications/nutritional-guidance-early-years-food-... Accessed April 2019
[12] Burleigh E, Potter J. Vitamin D deficiency in outpatients: a Scottish perspective. Scott Med J. 2006 May;51(2):27-31
[13] Hyppönen E, Power C. Hypovitaminosis D in British adults at age 45 y: nationwide cohort study of dietary and lifestyle predictors. Am J Clin Nutr. 2007 Mar;85(3):860-8
[14] Rhein HM. Vitamin D deficiency is widespread in Scotland. BMJ. 2008 Jun 28;336(7659):1451. doi: 10.1136/bmj.39619.479155.3A
[15] Boy wins NHS backing in vitamin D campaign. The Scotsman 2009 December https://www.scotsman.com/news/boy-wins-nhs-backing-in-vitamin-d-campaign... Accessed April 2019
[16] “At scotsneedvitamind.com, we believe the people of Scotland would see health improvements by taking a regular Vitamin D supplement. We think there is enough evidence currently available to make all of us take action, from health care professionals to parents and teachers.” https://scotsneedvitamind.com/about-us/ Accessed April 2019
[17] "The United Kingdom National Health Services created a program called Healthy Start, which offers vouchers for free vitamin D supplements to qualifying pregnant women, women with a baby under one year old and children under the age of five years located in Scotland, Northern Ireland, England and Wales. In April of 2017, the Scottish government partnered with the Healthy Start program to offer free vitamin D supplements to all Scottish pregnant women, regardless of whether they qualify for vouchers. This joint effort was created to decrease the risk of rickets and other health complications caused by vitamin D deficiency. Scotland offers free vitamin D supplements for all pregnant residents. Posted on: November 28, 2017 by Missy Sturges and John Cannell, MD. https://www.vitamindcouncil.org/scotland-offers-free-vitamin-d-supplemen.... See also: National Health Services Scotland. Vitamin D. https://www2.gov.scot/resource/0038/00386784.pdf Accessed April 2019
[18] Scottish warning over vitamin D levels. 19 September 2010 https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-11355810 Accessed April 2019
[19] "Following recommendations from the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), Scottish Government advice on vitamin D for all age groups has been updated as follows: Everyone age 5 years and above should consider taking a daily supplement of 10 micrograms vitamin D, particularly during the winter months (October – March)." Scottish Government. Vitamin D. https://www2.gov.scot/Topics/Health/Healthy-Living/Food-Health/vitaminD Accessed April 2019
[20] Scottish Government. Vitamin D information for health professionals in Scotland. November 2017 https://www.gov.scot/binaries/content/documents/govscot/publications/pub... Accessed April 2019
[21] "Scots should consider taking vitamin D supplements all-year round, but particularly in autumn and winter, according to new health advice." All Scots advised to take vitamin D says new health guidance. 21 July 2016. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-scotland-36856176 Accessed April 2019
[22] "International experts are calling for food in Scotland to be fortified with vitamin D, in an attempt to cut the large numbers of people who develop multiple sclerosis at sunshine-deprived northern latitudes." Add vitamin D to Scotland's food – experts: Dosing whole population would help cut levels of multiple sclerosis, say scientists. 23 Dec 2011 https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2011/dec/23/vitamin-d-scotland-food-multi... Accessed April 2019
[23] All Scottish babies should have vitamin D supplement, CMO says. The Pharmaceutical Journal 2017 Nov 30. https://www.pharmaceutical-journal.com/news-and-analysis/news/all-scotti... Accessed April 2019
[24] Timms PM, Mannan N, Hitman GA, Noonan K, Mills PG, Syndercombe-Court D, Aganna E, Price CP, Boucher BJ. Circulating MMP9, vitamin D and variation in the TIMP-1 response with VDR genotype: mechanisms for inflammatory damage in chronic disorders? QJM. 2002 Dec;95(12):787-96
[25] Sánchez-Armendáriz K, García-Gil A, Romero CA, Contreras-Ruiz J, Karam-Orante M, Balcazar-Antonio D, Domínguez-Cherit J. Oral vitamin D3 5000 IU/day as an adjuvant in the treatment of atopic dermatitis: a randomized control trial. Int J Dermatol. 2018 Dec;57(12):1516-1520. doi: 10.1111/ijd.14220
[26] Stallings VA, Schall JI, Hediger ML, Zemel BS, Tuluc F, Dougherty KA, Samuel JL, Rutstein RM. High-dose vitamin D3 supplementation in children and young adults with HIV: a randomized, placebo-controlled trial. Pediatr Infect Dis J. 2015 Feb;34(2):e32-40. doi: 10.1097/INF.0000000000000483
[27] Abu-Mouch S, Fireman Z, Jarchovsky J, Zeina AR, Assy N. Vitamin D supplementation improves sustained virologic response in chronic hepatitis C (genotype 1)-naïve patients. World J Gastroenterol. 2011 Dec 21;17(47):5184-90. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v17.i47.5184
[28] Nimer A, Mouch A. Vitamin D improves viral response in hepatitis C genotype 2-3 naïve patients. World J Gastroenterol. 2012 Feb 28;18(8):800-5. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v18.i8.800
[29] Komolmit P, Kimtrakool S, Suksawatamnuay S, Thanapirom K, Chattrasophon K, Thaimai P, Chirathaworn C, Poovorawan Y. Vitamin D supplementation improves serum markers associated with hepatic fibrogenesis in chronic hepatitis C patients: A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. Sci Rep. 2017 Aug 21;7(1):8905. doi: 10.1038/s41598-017-09512-7
[30] Jung HC, Seo MW, Lee S, Kim SW, Song JK.Vitamin D3 Supplementation Reduces the Symptoms of Upper Respiratory Tract Infection during Winter Training in Vitamin D-Insufficient Taekwondo Athletes: A Randomized Controlled Trial. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2018 Sep 14;15(9). pii: E2003. doi: 10.3390/ijerph15092003
[31] Lee MT, Kattan M, Fennoy I, Arpadi SM, Miller RL, Cremers S, McMahon DJ, Nieves JW, Brittenham GM. Randomized phase 2 trial of monthly vitamin D to prevent respiratory complications in children with sickle cell disease. Blood Adv. 2018 May 8;2(9):969-978. doi: 10.1182/bloodadvances.2017013979
[32] Moscarelli L, Annunziata F, Mjeshtri A, Paudice N, Tsalouchos A, Zanazzi M, Bertoni E. Successful treatment of refractory wart with a topical activated vitamin d in a renal transplant recipient. Case Rep Transplant. 2011;2011:368623. doi: 10.1155/2011/368623. Epub 2012 Jan 3.
[33] Aktaş H, Ergin C, Demir B, Ekiz Ö. Intralesional Vitamin D Injection May Be an Effective Treatment Option for Warts. J Cutan Med Surg. 2016 Mar-Apr;20(2):118-22. doi: 10.1177/1203475415602841. Epub 2015 Aug 20
[34] Raghukumar S, Ravikumar BC, Vinay KN, Suresh MR, Aggarwal A, Yashovardhana DP. Intralesional Vitamin D3 Injection in the Treatment of Recalcitrant Warts: A Novel Proposition. J Cutan Med Surg. 2017 Jul/Aug;21(4):320-324. doi: 10.1177/1203475417704180. Epub 2017 Apr 6.
[35] Naresh M. A Study of Effectiveness of Intralesional Vitamin D3 in Treatment of Multiple Cutaneous Warts. IOSR Journal of Dental and Medical Sciences (IOSR -JDMS) 2019:18(3),84-87
[36] Abdel Kareem IM, Ibrahim IM, Fahmy Mohammed SF, Ahmed AA. Effectiveness of intralesional vitamin D3 injection in the treatment of common warts: single-blinded placebo-controlled study. Dermatol Ther. 2019 Mar 28:e12882. doi: 10.1111/dth.12882
[37] Schulte-Uebbing C, Schlett S, Craiut I, Antal L, Olah H. Chronical cervical infections and dysplasia (CIN I, CIN II): vaginal vitamin D (high dose) treatment. Dermatoendocrinol 2014 Oct; 6:e27791. doi:10.4161/derm.27791
[38] Vahedpoor Z, Jamilian M, Bahmani F, Aghadavod E, Karamali M, Kashanian M, Asemi Z. Effects of Long-Term Vitamin D Supplementation on Regression and Metabolic Status of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia: a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Horm Cancer. 2017 Feb;8(1):58-67. doi: 10.1007/s12672-016-0278-x. Epub 2017 Jan 3
[39] Vahedpoor Z, Mahmoodi S, Samimi M, Gilasi HR, Bahmani F, Soltani A, Sharifi Esfahani M, Asemi Z. Long-Term Vitamin D Supplementation and the Effects on Recurrence and Metabolic Status of Cervical Intraepithelial Neoplasia Grade 2 or 3: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Trial. Ann Nutr Metab. 2018;72(2):151-160. doi: 10.1159/000487270. Epub 2018 Feb 21
Competing interests: Dr Alex Vasquez is a lecturer and author of numerous articles, letters, and books related to topics of nutrition, clinical medicine, neuroinflammation, and the human microbiome. Dr Vasquez has served as a consultant to Biotics Research Corporation.
Alex Vasquez
Physician, author, lecturer, editor
I am grateful to Timothy Palmer [1]. In line with Castanon and Sasieni [2] I was careful not to argue that incidence of cervical cancer had gone up in 20-24 year-olds in England [3], only that it had not apparently gone down. He notes "that it has occurred in a cohort of largely unvaccinated women", but vaccination began for 18 year-old women in 2008, so by 2014-15 they would surely be "largely" vaccinated.
Regarding problems with safety I provided a short bibliography to Julia Brotherton in an earlier letter [3] and there are some further references here [4]. The many issues represented by these publications should not be swept aside.
[1] Timothy J Palmer, 'Re: Prevalence of cervical disease at age 20 after immunisation with bivalent HPV vaccine at age 12-13 in Scotland: retrospective population study', 7 April 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1161/rr-3
[2] Alejandra Castanon, Peter Sasieni, 'Is the recent increase in cervical cancer in women aged 20–24 years in England a cause for concern?', Preventive Medicine Volume 107, February 2018, Pages 21-28, https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0091743517304802
[3] John Stone, 'Cervical Disease Vs Cervical Cancer' 6 April 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1161/rr-2
[4] John Stone, 'Re: The remarkable impact of bivalent HPV vaccine in Scotland', 4 April 2019, https://www.bmj.com/content/365/bmj.l1375/rr
[5] John Stone 'Primum non nocere', 11 December 2018, https://www.bmj.com/content/363/bmj.k4602/rr
John Stone
UK Editor
AgeofAutism.com
London N22
In his Author Perspective, following this article, Tim Palmer writes
“ In Scotland, as elsewhere, no serious adverse effects have been demonstrably linked to the vaccine. The ratio of benefit to possible harm therefore strongly supports Immunisation.”
The WHO has a website which collects global reports of adverse events (1).
When Steve Hinks drew attention to the totals for the HPV vaccine in 2017, there were over 300,000 adverse events recorded, and more than 400 deaths, following HPV vaccination. (2,3 )
In the UK, the MHRA collects Yellow Card reports of adverse events.
Hinks has commented on the inconsistent nature of replies from the MHRA, and the confusion this may cause (3).
However, a Freedom of Information request to the MHRA last year, revealed that in the period May 2006- -Feb 2018, in the UK, adverse event reports for the HPV vaccine totalled 3194, total reactions 12,783, fatal outcome reports, 8. (4)
(NB The MHRA will email copies of FOI reports to interested people. The BMJ has seen the emails from the MHRA, which confirm these figures ).
Tim Palmer appears to make light of concerns that have been expressed about safety issues with the HPV vaccine. The background to these concerns has been comprehensively referenced and discussed in a recent book (5). An awareness of these safety issues is essential when individual young people and/or their parents are being acquainted with what is known about the HPV vaccine.
The UK Supreme Court judgement, re Montgomery, in 2015, made that quite clear. (6,7)
Palmer’s final sentence, “ This is a veritable triumph for medicine “, is his opinion.
His opinion does not diminish the very clear clinical responsibilities that follow from the Montgomery judgement.
Unless information is provided, by the vaccinator, about the risks, rare or not, valid informed consent is not possible.
This article, together with Palmer’s remarks re “ no serious adverse effects “ may be widely read.
Perhaps distributed freely, as an educational reprint, to doctors.
Doctors may be encouraged by Palmer’s views not to consider or mention to patients the evidence of serious adverse events following HPV vaccination referred to above. If they didn’t, it could invalidate any consent (to any intervention) that was given.
The England and Wales High Court recently awarded a patient £4.4 million in damages following a failure to obtain informed consent (9).
Have Palmer and the other authors considered how their paper might influence this aspect of practice ?
1. http://www.vigiaccess.org
2 https://www.bmj.com/content/358/bmj.j3414/rr-22
4 https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/mhra-requests-under-the-freed...
FOI 18/014 Human Papilloma Virus (HPV) Vaccine Drug Analysis Print
5 Mary Holland, J.D, KIM Mack Rosenberg J.D., and Eileen Iorio.
The HPV Vaccine on Trial. Skyhorse Publishing 2018.
6 https://www.supremecourt.uk/cases/docs/uksc-2013-0136-judgment.pdf
7 https://www.bmj.com/content/357/bmj.j2224
8 https://www.supremecourt.uk/decided-cases/docs/UKSC_2013_0136_Judgment.pdf
9 http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2018/164.html
Noel Thomas
retired / part time GP
Bronygarn, Maesteg, Wales CF34 9AL
Response to Rapid responses 7iv2019
As the Corresponding Author for the above paper, I thank John Stone, Peter Selley, Juan Gervas and Christopher Exley for their comments. We have considered their comments, and offer the following response.
John Stone. Cervical screening programmes have reduced the incidence of invasive cervical cancer. The rationale for cervical cancer screening is based on the detection (and management of) of pre-invasive lesions: CIN2 and CIN3, thereby preventing progression to invasive cancer. It is therefore a reasonable expectation that the reduction of CIN2 and CIN3 described in the paper will lead to a reduction in cancer. The paper does not show a reduction in cancer due to the natural history of the disease and the time frame of assessment, given that immunised women are only just reaching the age at which they might be diagnosed with cancer. However cervical screening systems and cancer registries in the UK are set up in a way that will allow us to monitor cancer incidence in immunised cohorts in due course. Scotland is in the process of analysing data on the longer term efficacy of immunisation, including cohorts in which cancers have been diagnosed.
We believe that the recent rise in invasive cancer in England (in a particular age cohort) to which Mr Stone refers reflects changes in screening practice, as indicated by Sasieni and Castenon, and note that it has occurred in a cohort of largely unvaccinated women. The commitment to longitudinal monitoring in Scotland of both pre-invasive and invasive disease stratified by age and immunisation status will be of value in understanding why this increase has been observed. Given the changes in pre-invasive disease observed in 20-year olds, and the natural history of CIN and invasive cancer, HPV immunisation is unlikely to be a relevant factor.
Peter Selley. The reduction in the numbers of terminations of pregnancy in Scotland will have many causes, including the availability of emergency birth control and changes in contraception practice. Arguably data on STI are a better indicator of changes in sexual behaviour than the rates for termination of pregnancy. The data on HPV prevalence in cervical samples (Kavanagh et al, Lancet Infectious Diseases 2017) have shown that other high risk HPV did not decrease while 16/18/31/33/45 did. This suggests that sexual behaviour has not changed and that reduction of aforementioned types is strongly driven by immunisation. Obtaining robust proxies of sexual behaviour is challenging and we could not capture specific information on this aspect within this population based study. While we accept that temporal changes in sexual behaviour may have had an influence on the observations, we would suggest that it would be unlikely solely account for the significant reductions observed.
Juan Gervas. We accept that this is an observational study with associated unavoidable limitations; however we would reject the notion that the results are “clinically irrelevant”. The published evidence of vaccination on both HPV and clinical outcomes in the UK and elsewhere shows that there are already benefits to women and health care systems from reduced referral for colposcopy for high grade disease. The effect of an intervention on the absolute risk of a disease such as cervical cancer, which has a long natural history, will take time to become apparent. The timeframe of the study, and nature of the cohorts involved – those attending for first screen - means that we cannot determine impact over a life time at this stage. However, we are committed to monitoring the longitudinal impact of vaccine in women to address this.
Christopher Exley. The references cited in the introduction to the paper give the global and Scottish background to the significance of cervical cancer as a disease. With regard to the specific questions raised about the attendance for screening and the performance of the Scottish Screening programme, these have been considered in the Discussion. Additionally, national statistics on the performance and uptake of screening, the incidence and mortality from cervical cancer and the incidence of pre-invasive disease are reported and published, and aggregated data are accessible online.
With regard to serious adverse reactions to the vaccine, we have not included a discussion on vaccine safety because the purpose of this particular study is the evaluate vaccine effectiveness. However, in her linked Editorial, Professor Julia Brotherton does address the question of vaccine safety. In Scotland and the UK, as elsewhere, we monitor vaccine safety routinely and have shown no serious adverse effects that can be objectively linked to the administration of the vaccine. (Cameron R et al, Intern Med J. 2016 Apr;46(4):452-7. doi: 10.1111/imj.13005; Skufka J et al, Vaccine 36 (2018) 5926–5933).
Although no reduction on invasive disease has yet been demonstrated, this is a function of the length time since the introduction of the vaccines, the biology of the oncogenesis by HPV, and the characteristics of the screening programme. As noted above in the response to Mr Stone, the very success of cytology-based screening programmes, predicated as they are on the detection and treatment of CIN2 and CIN3, indicates that the reduction in CIN2 and CIN3 incontrovertibly demonstrated in this paper will be followed by a reduction in invasive cancer in the near future.
The wider context within which HPV immunisation should be considered is set out in the accompanying editorial and opinion piece.
Timothy J Palmer
Senior Lecturer in Pathology, University of Edinburgh and Clinical Lead for Cervical Screening in Scotland
University of Edinburgh.
Cervical Disease Vs Cervical Cancer
Success inevitably depends on what you are measuring [1]. The HPV vaccines were marketed not on their ability reduce Human Papilloma viruses but on their ability to reduce cervical cancer, but manifestly this has not happened. In a recent article Castanon and Sasieni 'Is the recent increase in cervical cancer in women aged 20–24 years in England a cause for concern?' [2] argue that the steep rise in England of cervical cancers in what is the first generation of women targeted with these products is an artefact of lowering the screening age by seven months, but manifestly the levels have not gone down. I cannot help thinking a lowering of incidence of cervical cancer rates among young women our health officials would be shouting it from the roofs. And it has not happened.
[1] Palmer et al, '
Prevalence of cervical disease at age 20 after immunisation with bivalent HPV vaccine at age 12-13 in Scotland: retrospective population study',
BMJ 2019; 365 doi: https://doi.org/10.1136/bmj.l1161 (Published 03 April 2019)
Could the falling prevalence of pre-malignant cervical disease in young women in Scotland be related to a change in sexual behaviour over the last few years?
Since 2008 - the same period examined in this study - the number of terminations of pregnancy in women under 20 in Scotland has halved, and the termination rate in the under 16 age group has fallen from 4.0 to 1.3 per thousand.
Termination of Pregnancy Year ending December 2017, NHS Scotland
https://www.isdscotland.org/Health-Topics/Sexual-Health/Publications/201...
Peter Selley
Retired GP
Crediton, Devon
The study is interesting but with all the limitations of an observational study.
Unfortunately, no data are given to calculate the absolute risk.
It would be necessary to access raw data.
The best approximate calculation of the absolute risk allows us to calculate an NNT of 4,300 for CIN 3 and worse. This result is clinically irrelevant.
It would be very important that the journal give access to the complete data, even in complementary tables.
JUAN GERVAS
Retired GP, MD
Equipo CESCA
Equipo CESCA, Madrid, Spain
@JuanGrvas
I would like the authors of this 'encouraging' observation to put their findings in context. Usually this is done in the Introduction of published science. While these observations do not pertain to cervical cancer per se it would be helpful for the reader to know how many individuals die in Scotland due to cervical cancer each year. Of those deaths how many could be attributed to medical misconduct, such as errors in cervical screening, and how many could be attributed to individuals not attending cervical cancer screening on a regular basis. Basic information of this ilk makes it clear to those reading this paper why a vaccine for cervical cancer is necessary.
The authors make no mention of serious adverse events following vaccination. This is a serious omission. The authors have significant populations of both unvaccinated and fully vaccinated individuals and as such are perfectly placed to compare serious adverse events in these two populations. For example, Merck's own data show a serious adverse event rate of approximately 2.5% in those receiving Gardasil. Included in the category of serious adverse events is death and it would be informative to know how many of the vaccinated group were affected by a serious adverse event. Similarly, statistics should be available to compare the health of the unvaccinated and vaccinated group.
It will be many years before data become available to show whether or not vaccination against HPV has any benefit for cervical cancer above and beyond the tremendous successes achieved by the cervical screening programme. In the interim years we should be using information available not only to look at the possible benefits of vaccination but also to test the safety of vaccination.
I am a scientist and I do not care for 'policy' dressed up as research. The authors have privileged access to human data and it should be used judiciously to cover all aspects of both efficacy AND safety of this vaccine. If the authors are not willing to do this then can I ask them to make their database available to others who will do this.
Competing interests: During the past five years CE has received research grants from MRC, EPSRC, CMSRI and Bencard Allergie. CMSRI is a not-for-profit charity based in Washington, DC.
Christopher Exley
The Birchall Centre
Data supplement
View ORCID ProfileTim Palmer clinical lead for cervical screening in Scotland, Lynn Wallace information analyst, Kevin G Pollock senior epidemiologist and senior research fellow, Kate Cuschieri director, Chris Robertson head of statistics, senior research fellow, and professor, Kim Kavanagh lecturer et al
Palmer Tim, Wallace Lynn, Pollock Kevin G, Cuschieri Kate, Robertson Chris, Kavanagh Kim et al. Prevalence of cervical disease at age 20 after immunisation with bivalent HPV vaccine at age 12-13 in Scotland: retrospective population study BMJ 2019; 365 :l1161
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Tag: February 7th
7 HORNS 7 EYES Announce Canadian Tour with Annex Theory
7 Horns 7 Eyes have announced a Canadian “Throes of Existence Tour” with support from Annex Theory for February 2013 which begins in Winnipeg and ends in Ottawa. Commented 7 Horns guitarist Aaron Smith: “We are excited to be hitting the great frozen hostile wasteland (as Jim Carrey put it), also known as Canada. This is a …
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PSYCROPTIC Releases Second Trailer for ‘The Inherited Repression’
Psycroptic will return this February of 2012 with their upcoming fifth studio album, The Inherited Repression! You can now check out the second trailer for the highly anticipate follow-up to their 2008 release, Ob(Servant), here http://bit.ly/psytrailer2 Head over to the official PSYCROPTIC Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/psycroptic to hear the brand new track, “Carriers of the …
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VAN HALEN Reveals New Album Tracklisting; First Single Available for Pre-Order
The track listing for Van Halen’s new studio album, A Different Kind Of Truth has been revealed via The Van Halen News Desk. A Different Kind Of Truth‘s Track listing: 1. Tattoo 2. She’s The Woman 3. You and Your Blues 4. China Town 5. Blood and Fire 6. Bullethead 7. As Is 8. Honeybabysweetiedoll …
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PSYCROPTIC Release “Making-of” Video for ‘The Inherited Repression’
Psycroptic will return with this February of 2012 with their upcoming fifth studio album, The Inherited Repression! You can now check out their first “making-of” video for the highly anticipate follow-up to their 2008 release, Ob(Servant), here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtxGv_83bTw. Head over to the official PSYCROPTIC Facebook page at http://www.facebook.com/psycroptic to hear the brand new track, “Carriers …
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NEPHELIUM Announce Release Date “Coils Of Entropy” Reveal Artwork, Track Listing
Dubai may be known as a city rich in history, a business hub and the home of the tallest structure in the world, but it’s also the birthplace of one of the first death metal bands to come out of the Middle East, Nephelium. Now residing and re-establishing themselves in Toronto, Canada over the last 10 …
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Are Michigan Dems running for governor veering too far left?
November 16, 2017 Ted Roelofs Public Sector
Former Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer is leading in polls for the Democratic primary for governor.
Even as polls show former Michigan Senate Minority Leader Gretchen Whitmer the clear frontrunner in the Democratic primary for governor, it’s worth recalling what unfolded for Dems in the presidential race in 2016.
Whitmer, with 16 years legislative experience, a certified liberal record and widespread backing from labor, could be considered her party’s logical and best choice to contest the 2018 election.
That sounds a bit like Hillary Clinton, the establishment standard bearer who was steamrolling toward the Democratic nomination for president on the eve of Michigan’s March 8 primary. Polls had her leading Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders by 20 points or more.
MORE COVERAGE: Michigan GOP hopefuls have a choice: Love Trump or leave race.
And then she lost the state, 50 percent to 48 percent, in what polling analysis site FiveThirtyEight called “among the greatest polling errors in primary history.”
Clinton won the nomination, but went on to lose Michigan again, by less than 11,000 votes, to Republican Donald Trump in the general election, after polls again said she would win. She lost in part, some critics say, because disillusioned Sanders voters failed to show.
Could the race for governor hold similar traps for an establishment frontrunner? And with Trump’s success in Michigan, are Democratic candidates veering too far left to win a closely divided state in November?
Former Detroit Health Department director Abdul El-Sayed is casting himself as the most progressive candidate.
GOP pollster Steve Mitchell said recent election results in Virginia ‒ where Democrats easily won the race for governor and picked up more than a dozen state delegate seats ‒ could portend well for Michigan’s Democratic nominee for governor in 2018.
“The Democrats are very, very angry and they are going to turn out in full force in 2018,” Mitchell said.
“The question then becomes, what about Republicans? Are they going to be as angry as they were in 2016 and show up in the same numbers as Democrats?”
Despite the rift between Sanders and Clinton supporters in 2016, Mitchell doesn’t foresee a repeat in 2018.
“Hillary is not on ticket and they are going to support whoever is on the ticket,” Mitchell said.
He said GOP Attorney General Bill Schuette, the Republican frontrunner for governor, would likely come after Whitmer by invoking a previous Democratic governor.
“They can compare Whitmer to Jennifer Granholm and say, ‘If you liked Michigan between 2003 and 2011, then vote for her,’” Mitchell said.
But another political analyst is not convinced Michigan Democrats are ready to sing kumbaya.
“I certainly think we could see a repeat of some of the 2016 dynamics,” said Susan Demas, publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, a Lansing-based political newsletter.
“It’s interesting, because Gretchen Whitmer has always been identifiably liberal. She’s known for her strong stands on women’s issues. Some within the party even say she’s too far left.
“But you can’t deny how much Bernie Sanders has shaken up the Democratic Party. There’s no doubt there’s some pretty deep divisions within the party.”
Michigan State University’s Matt Grossmann: Races for governor are “normally a referendum” on the presidency.
At the moment, Whitmer’s most significant rival could be former Detroit Health Department executive director Abdul El-Sayed. Running to Whitmer’s left, he appeals to many of the idealistic, young and college-educated progressives who gravitated to Sanders. That was reflected in an October survey of 500 University of Michigan students in which he polled at 32 percent, highest by far among the candidates for governor. GOP Attorney General Bill Schuette polled at 2 percent, while Whitmer got 6 percent. Fully 48 percent were undecided.
While El-Sayed was at just 4 percent in a September statewide poll by Marketing Resource Group, Demas noted that GOP Gov. Rick Snyder barely registered in early polls for the 2010 Republican primary before he went on to win the primary and election. Whitmer led all Democrats in that September poll with 27 percent.
Another poll showed Whitmer tied in a hypothetical race against Schuette.That could be a sign of strength for her, since Schuette’s higher name recognition among voters could be expected to give him an early advantage in polls.
Other declared candidates for the Democratic primary include William Cobbs, Kentiel White, Justin Giroux and Shri Thanedar.
Thanedar, an Ann Arbor businessman, has spent nearly $6 million of his own money on his campaign but has yet to make much of a dent with voters. His fortunes were surely not helped by a lawsuit filed Tuesday in federal court accusing Thanedar of fraudulently inflating the value of his company.
There’s not much difference on core progressive issues between Whitmer and El-Sayed. Both favor a $15-an-hour minimum wage, immigrant rights and better access to health care. El-Sayed, unlike Whitmer, but like Sanders, has called for a single-payer health care system.
El-Sayed has also vowed to take no corporate PAC contributions. Whitmer’s campaign took $51,000 from the Whitmer Leadership Fund PAC, which listed contributions over a period of years of $15,000 from the Michigan Trial Lawyers Association PAC, $5,000 from CMS Energy PAC and $5,000 from Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan PAC.
One Democratic activist and hard-core Sanders backer issued a warning to the party if it nominates Whitmer.
“There are progressives who are not going to vote for a corporatist candidate,” said Liano Sharon, an organizer for the pro-Sanders group Michigan for Revolution. He said he’s leaning toward El-Sayed. He’s also a member of the State Central Committee of the Michigan Democratic Party.
“What you have with Whitmer is somebody who is beholden to the large donors, trying to thread the needle between the the large donor and the active liberal base of the party,” he said, referring to Whitmer’s acceptance of PAC funds.
Sharon said he’s heard from like-minded progressives they will simply sit out the 2018 general election should Whitmer win the primary.
“I absolutely think that could happen. There a lot of progressives who say, look at what point is the establishment going to stop treating us like they can rely on us to vote for the candidate we don’t want? They have a gun to your head.”
It remains to be seen how many share Sharon’s view. But his grievances echo those within a national party roiled by charges from former Democratic Party boss Donna Brazile that the Democratic National Committee gave the Clinton campaign improper control over certain party decisions before the primary was over.
On the other hand, Ann Arbor resident and Sanders supporter Abby Dart told Bridge she has absolutely no qualms about backing Whitmer. Dart was a Sanders delegate and member of the platform committee at the 2016 Democratic National Convention.
“I think she’s always been on the side of working people,” Dart said. “The idea that this race is like a Hillary-Bernie rehash is like a lazy, superficial analysis. I think if Bernie came to town, and he and Gretchen sat down together, he would be incredibly impressed.”
Other potential big-name candidates have declined to run. U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee decided to remain in Congress. University of Michigan Regent and prominent Michigan attorney Mark Bernstein opted out, then threw his support to Whitmer. Prominent attorney Geoffrey Fieger – and 1998 Democratic candidate for governor – remains on the sidelines.
According to the Michigan Campaign Finance Network, Whitmer raised $768,459 over the last three months for a total of $2.3 million for the campaign. Her campaign reported more than 13,000 individual contributions and had $1.5 million in cash as of Oct. 20.
She received $40,000 over the last three months from the Michigan Regional Council of Carpenters and $27,200 from members of the Cotton family, founders of Meridian Health. But she has also secured more than twice as many individual donations as El-Sayed.
El-Sayed raised $612,472 over the last three months, with his campaign raising a total of $1.6 million thus far. It reported more than 6,000 individual contributions and had about $900,000 on hand on Oct. 20.
According to the Associated Press, more than 80 percent of Whitmer's contributions came from Michigan donors, while about two-thirds of El-Sayed's donations were from outside the state.
Annie Ellison, spokesperson for Whitmer, pushed back on any notion she is an establishment candidate.
“Gretchen Whitmer has been on the front lines of the progressive movement, fighting back against attacks on women's health, education, and worker's rights. In 2012, she introduced a plan to give every Michigan student a debt-free college education long before Bernie Sanders was talking about it on the campaign trail, and she paid for it by closing business tax loopholes,” Ellison said.
“Whitmer is the true grassroots progressive in the race.”
El-Sayed spokesman Adam Joseph citing initiatives El-Sayed undertook as head of the Detroit Health Department, including providing eyeglasses to thousands of students, screening 360 schools for lead in the water and undertaking a program to reduce infant mortality.
As the candidates skirmished, state Democratic Party Chairman Brandon Dillon dismissed reports of lingering tension within the party in the aftermath of 2016.
“I think this is just really overblown,” Dillon said.
“There is a very small group of folks who want to continue to relive the 2016 election. Their voice gets magnified by the media, which is understandable.”
Another analyst said that while some fissures may remain in the Democratic Party, other dynamics will likely shape the outcome of the gubernatorial race.
“Overwhelmingly, the party out of the presidency benefits the most in the mid-term elections,” said Matt Grossman, director of Michigan State University’s Institute for Public Policy and Social Research.
“The party out of the presidency has won the last 18 of 21 (gubernatorial) elections in Michigan.”
In fact, Grossman wrote an analysis early last year titled, “Want a Democratic governor? Root for a Republican president.”
Dave Murray
Gretchen Whitmer is not Hillary Clinton, let's be clear about that. Hillary Clinton is not running for governor nor is Jennifer Granholm. Any woman running for political office is not a Hillary Clinton clone or wanna be. Each is her own person. Attempts to equate or sidle Ms. Whitmer with either is just too shallow, paternalistic and demeaning.
David Zeman
Clinton was cited for comparison not because she, like Whitmer, is a woman. She was cited because she, like Whitmer, was perceived as the heavily favored, establishment candidate with the veneer of inevitability to her candidacy within the Democratic party.
David Zeman, Bridge Editor
Diane Bruder
This”all women are to be equated with Hillary” just shows how much sexism is alive and well. Women, no matter how qualified, can never truly prove themselves. Men, like Snyder and 45 just say, well I am a business man so that is proof I can do the job. Is it? I ask Michiganders, especially Flint: “How did that business man with his managers, EFM, work for you, for any of us?” I am a teacher and can tell you he hurt public education, our teachers, unions and most importantly our kids!
Plubius
Wow - this must have been written by one of those Russian bots that sow confusion. Hilary lost because she is most definitely NOT a liberal. She is a centrist and her running mate, Kane, is more conservative than she.
Sun, 11/19/2017 - 4:34pm
Plubius,
I think you miss labeled Hillary. She is an ‘egocentric’ not ‘centrist’; it’s about her, nothing else. Everything has been to promote her. In the campaign I heard nothing from her about political perspective/principles; it was all about tearing down others so she would look taller. Since the election she has talked only about how others failed her causing her loss.
Those who have supported and opposed her, only seeing what they want; Party or Social politics [not results]. When her husband was an openly sexual predator, she was facilitating him by viciously attacking his victims, that was about her and not about social/political principled agenda to defend an unprotected group in our society.
The labels you use are simply stereotyping for gaining personal power not social or financial or political principles.
Hillary lost because voters were willing to trust to an 'unknown' rather than go with the known. Don't dilute yourself those labels of 'liberal' or 'conservative' or ‘centrist’ matters to anyone but you, the media and the rest of the establishment. I am one of those 'deporables' that want change, that have lived changed, and that know that real change is bumpy and uncomfortable, that it is breaking with the past in order to build on the past for a better future, but those you label know none of that or are willing to do any of it.
The choice is yours, if you are happy with the results 'liberals' or 'conservatives' or 'centrists' are delivering then stay with their unfulfilled promises. If you want to see better results, if you want change then don't hide behind contrived labels, ask for the how and what, the specific actions, something that we can all see if it is done or not done, who is doing and who is blocking those actions. You can stay with the establishment of Bernie, Hillary, Chucky, Debbie, Gary, Mitch, and Rick or take a risk on some unknowns [that have no labels].
If you are curious about the principles of change, the principles for delivering improved results, pick a problem and let's talk.
RosieK
One thing for sure that you've stated that I agree with is IT IS TIME FPR A CHANGE in who is selected to represent progressive and/or Democratic principles.
Leave recycling to plastic and glass.
Kevin Grand
Gretchen who?
For someone with a much-vaunted 16-years of legislative experience, she certainly doesn't have anything to show for it in legislation she introduced which eventually became law.
Aside from a swimming pool tax and allowing mail order prescriptions, the rest of her actual accomplishments consisted of the usual fluff legislation of commemorative proclamations most legislators introduce so that they can say that they did something while in Lansing (other than just showing up).
John Q. Public
Clinton lost the primary to someone MORE liberal; then in the general the liberals stayed home because their candidate wasn't on the ballot and the Dems lost the state in a squeaker. If you're trying to make the case that the party is too liberal to win general elections, you need different evidence.
This election, as they almost always are here, is about turnout. Unlike the Republicans, Democratic voters won't cast a ballot for someone just because they're the standard-bearer for the party. If their candidate doesn't excite them, they stay home. Ask Jim Blanchard and Mark Schaurer.
If (presumptively) Whitmer doesn't rev up the party faithful by next October, it'll be Governor Dioxin taking over the pillaging of Michigan.
"Clinton lost the primary to someone MORE liberal; then in the general the liberals stayed home because their candidate wasn't on the ballot and the Dems lost the state in a squeaker. If you're trying to make the case that the party is too liberal to win general elections, you need different evidence."
Most dems aren't too liberal, they're not liberal ENOUGH, which explains Bernie Sanders' popularity.
Distinguishing which Democratic candidate is the furthest to the left is an entertaining pastime, I wish them well in their quest. Win or lose this will set them up nicely for a future life in California.
This article only sees politics/elections in the past of more than a year ago. The world has been changing for more than a generation, the old politics have been failing and the rejection of those failures was put in full view a year ago.
The politics of Party line voting and loyalty lost. Trump disrupted the system/campaign model. He underspent, won without the establishment scheme, he broke all the 'Politically Correct' rules, he appealed directly to the voters by emphasizing about how he would change things [old way was promise results ignoring how and never delivering].
In the next election it will go to the candidate focused on how things will be done, spending little on promises without accountability. The old labels of ‘liberal’/’conservative’ will be cost votes because they are the old ‘Party’ ways, the new will have no labels just their name. It will be about how they talk to voters not what they will do for voters, it will be about how roads are made better [not simply spend more], it will be about how kids will learn not about systems and Lansing, it will be about how programs that fail are replaced/canceled.
The last election wasn’t about who won, but why the opponent was rejected. It wasn’t about Party and media, but it was about the voters. It wasn’t about promises, but about specific actions.
Duane the philosophical battle has been going on since Burke and Paine and probably longer,. You can call it Liberal vs Conservative, Right vs left, Tories vs. the Whigs, Reds vs. the Whites or any of a hundred others. Their results will be cast in which ever way suits the party being promoted or pilloried. The 2008 financial crisis is a great example, there's no agreement on the causes or cures. They can call it anything they like but it will still boil down to the same philosophical assumptions or values and battles. But I fear the man on a white horse who makes the trains run on time.
Sat, 11/18/2017 - 9:18pm
The difference is all you describe since when it began claim moral/political position . The difference that has been happening is people don't care any more an what to hear about the what. Trump talked about the 'Wall', he talked about the banning of entry, he talk about a new judge, he talk about tax reform, repeal of Obamacare, about cutting regulations, etc.. He especially made a head assault on 'political correctness.'
Last election was about what will be done not much on about 'political label' or political philosophy. It was about actions.
Political philosophies have had no accountability, people want accountability and actions give them that. Recall Bush 1, he made one statement about action 'Read my lips. no new taxes' which he failed to do and he was voted out.
People can watch for actions, they can decide of actions have been done. Trump has delivered on his actions, new Supreme Court Justice, cut back in regulations [so say those being regulated]. Trump is fighting hard for, tax reform, fighting hard for the wall, he is fighting hard to stop unrestricted immigration [the Dems and courts are preventing his actions].
Duane saying it's all about getting something done glosses over the fact that what one side sees as healthcare or immigration reform is completely anathema to the other. Both can say they're in favor something and blame the other for wanting to do nothing. Generally the public isn't informed enough to make the distinction between the alternatives. Politicians are all to happy to take or seek political advantage form ignorance, so it appears that some want to accomplish something and the others don't. Underneath It still boils down to basic assumptions ... and yes clouded by ignorance and propaganda.
You are right is how you describe the political situation, that is why we need to support the change that happened last election. We the voters need to ask what are the specific actions, not programs, not approaches, not promises for improving things. When Trump said build the wall, everything else fell away and we can judge him on if it he does it or not, if it works or not, if it changes what we see and hear or not. Simply by pressing the wall, we heard from the media that the number of illegals entering the country has drop drasatically and the whole topic has since dropped of their reporting, even the Ann Arbor Council has stopped trying to make local headlines with the issue. That is how we supposedly ill informed voters can help change results, change elections, change candidates, we need to press on what are the actions we will see in place of accepting promises.
So sad that the majority of people classified as "in the middle" are only presented fringe candidates from either the far left or the far right. While I could not vote for any democrat, I also could not vote for an extreme rightist like Colbert or Schuette. Given the politics of the party system, and the results of the recent presidential election, it is a wonder that Trump even won the republican primary. That he did win I think is a testament to the fact that the general public is just fed up and tired of the existing political party system.
You are right, and that's why there is hope.
Dennis Murphy
Liano Sharon is wha t is wrong with the self-certified "progressives' (as if people like Liano are the only ones to determine who is progressive" Liano is already issuing threats like a petty bully if things don't go Liano's way - how irresponsible!
Michigan has open primaries- it is not the responsibility of the Dem leadership to annoint his favored candidate- he and his fellows need to simply get out and vote and convince others to vote for his pick. Period.
Any Democrat who takes the Sanders side of the party is in for a rude awakening.
You want the support of Sanders supporters? You better bring the bonafides to the table.
shazbat
"...at what point is the establishment going to stop treating us like they can rely on us to vote for the candidate we don’t want? " Thank you! The DNC still doesn't get it.
The day after Trump won, the DNC should've cloistered themselves and not come out until they figured out where they failed, determined what constituency they really stand for and are willing to go to the mat for, purged their own ranks accordingly, and then combed every state for candidates that fit those new criteria. They didn't do ANY of that.
Ken nysson
The democratic party has a working class problem across racial lines .How does senator Whitmore attract those votes?
Thomasheams
Living in France is one thing desired by many individuals. If you want to live in France then you have to get French property. You can read the advertisement section of the newspapers which has the section of houses for sale in France. After making a suitable choice, you should research about the properties for sale in France. French property is now a days very much wanted also.
If you want to live in France and spend your life there you should select a proper house. French property is not cheap and you need to make a major investment. You must also know about the properties for sale in France at various locations. The houses for sale in France come in different prices depending on the location
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Groom takes bride to wedding on motorbike - complete with sidebath
She came in from Frenchay and managed to dodge the rain
(Image: James Beck/Freelance)
A man who has ridden around Bristol, Britain and Europe for almost 30 years on a motorbike fitted with a bath as a sidecar has found love - and ridden off with her in the tub.
And when Alan Iles and his bride Leanne Clarke arrived for their wedding on Saturday in Bristol, there was a surprise in store for fans of bath-sidecar contraptions.
For the enterprising biker had constructed a new sidecar bath so they could both be transported to the ceremony in the same way.
Alan first hit the headlines back in 1997 when he unveiled his sidecar bath to the world through the pages of the Bristol Post.
Alan Iles and Leanne Clarke got married in Bristol at the weekend, both arriving in bath tub sidecars (Image: James Beck/Freelance)
He originally built the bath sidecar in 1991, after realising it would be a cheaper option than buying an actual sidecar.
For almost 25 years, the biker’s sidekick in the sidecar tub was his best mate Thomas Collingwood.
Tributes and fundraising for popular Knowle father who died in freak mountain bike accident
The pair would travel all over the country, and on roadtrips to Europe, with Tom relaxing in the tub and Alan sitting astride his vintage 1955 BSA Golden Flash, as they crossed the country.
Sadly, Tom passed away just after Christmas 2015, and there was only one way his coffin was making its way to the funeral at South Bristol Crematorium at the end of January 2016.
Alan Iles brought Thomas Collingwood's coffin to the funeral in 2016
Three years on, and Alan has a new tub-based passenger. The 68-year-old met Leanne Clarke, 32, through mutual friends, and the couple have been together for over a year and a half now.
Mystery of man walking down Bristol street with musical shed on his head that blasts fire out of the chimney
On Saturday, they tied the knot at the Register Office in Corn Street, with Leanne making her way to the wedding, all the way from Frenchay, in the tub.
Leanne Clarke arrived to marry Alan Iles in his motorcycle and sidebath (Image: James Beck/Freelance)
As is tradition, the bride and groom made their separate ways to the ceremony, so a friend rode Alan’s bike.
Alan knew that he too had to arrive in style, so constructed a second bath sidecar for him to travel to the wedding in.
A crowd gathered outside the Register Office as first Alan and then Leanne delighted those who stopped to watch by doing little circuits in their own individual baths, before heading in to tie the knot.
After the wedding ceremony, Alan took to the saddle with his bride back in the bath and the couple, their family and friends enjoyed a big knees up reception at Patchway Labour Club.
“The day couldn’t have gone any better,” said Alan. “We somehow managed to dodge the rain, which was the main thing we were worried about.”
The couple will be setting up home in Cadbury Heath, and are looking forward to many new motorbike-and-sidebath adventures in the future.
“It’s great,” said Alan. “It really turns heads. We do a lot of charity runs, raising money for the hospital and things.
'Cheese grater' bridge gets grand reopening 20 months after it closed
Alan Iles and Thomas Collingwood in 2009
"There is a seatbelt in there, but that’s really only for when children go in there.
“It’s a great way to travel. What happened originally was that I was thinking of getting a sidecar, but they are really very expensive and there was no way I could afford it.
“I remember looking out in the garden back in about 1990 and there was an old bath in there, and I remember thinking ‘well that would do’, so I put one together. It’s all completely safe and legal and has meets all the safety requirements.
Frenchay
Patchway
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Loess
sedimentary deposit
Alternative Title: limon
Loess, an unstratified, geologically recent deposit of silty or loamy material that is usually buff or yellowish brown in colour and is chiefly deposited by the wind. Loess is a sedimentary deposit composed largely of silt-size grains that are loosely cemented by calcium carbonate. It is usually homogeneous and highly porous and is traversed by vertical capillaries that permit the sediment to fracture and form vertical bluffs. The word loess, with connotations of origin by wind-deposited accumulation, is of German origin and means “loose.” It was first applied to Rhine River valley loess about 1821.
Pleistocene Epoch: Loess-paleosol records
Central China is covered by deposits of windblown dust and silt, called loess. Locally the loess is more than 100 metres thick, mantling…
Thick loess blankets are composed of loess packets 1 to 5 m (about 3 to 16.5 feet) thick, each of which contains intercalated strata of loessial and loesslike sediments, paleosols (ancient soils), sand layers, and similar material. The totality of these constitutes the loess complex. There are several regional variants of loess that, together with true loess, constitute a loess series, including loessial sand, sandy loess, loess loam, and clayey loess. The individual elements of the loess series are hard to distinguish, and the several sediment types composing it are interpreted differently by workers in different regions or countries.
Loess covers extensive areas in Asia, Europe, and North America. Most widespread in today’s temperate zones and in the marginal semiarid zones of the deserts, loess covers about 10 percent of the land surface of the Earth. Loess usually exhibits a surface cover of fertile soil that is conducive to intensive agriculture. The capacity of loess to retain vertical or even overhanging walls is especially evident on the Loess Plateau in China, where some loess bluffs stand 150 m high and contain innumerable cellarlike dwellings excavated by the local inhabitants. In semiarid regions people such as the Pueblo Indians made houses and fortresslike closed edifices from loess-based adobe.
Physical and chemical properties.
The dominant grain-size fraction of loess, called the loess fraction, ranges from 0.02 to 0.05 mm (0.0008 to 0.002 inch) and includes grains of coarse and medium-grained dust. Grain-size analyses by various methods indicate that the abundance of this fraction is about 50 weight percent. Clay-sized particles (less than 0.005 mm [0.0002 inch]) make up another 5 to 10 percent. In some loess regions, the grain-size distribution shifts toward finer grains with increasing distance from the source of dust (e.g., eastward from Sand Hills, Neb.).
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Loess typically exhibits a low moisture content of 10 to 15 percent that increases as porosity decreases. Its porosity is 50 to 55 percent, decreasing slightly downward to a depth of about 10 m (33 feet). Below this depth, porosity varies as a function of the grain-size distribution. If the loess is enriched with clay, then the porosity may decrease to 34 to 45 percent. The porosity of sandy loess is about 60 percent.
Loess contains 60 to 70 percent quartz with extremes of 40 and 80 percent. Feldspars and micas make up 10 to 20 percent and carbonates 5 to 35 percent. About 2 to 5 percent of the silt is composed of such heavy minerals as amphiboles, apatite, biotite, chlorite, disthene (cyanite), epidote, garnet, glauconite, pyroxenes, rutile, sillimanite, staurolite, tourmaline, and zircon. Grains are typically slightly weathered. In the finest grain-size fractions (below 0.002 mm [0.00008 inch]), such clay minerals as montmorillonite, illite, and kaolinite predominate over the detrital (fragmental) constituents. Clay minerals may be formed by various processes during and after the accumulation of loess.
The mineralogical composition of loess is fairly uniform, but there are some local deviations due to differences in grain size and area of origin. The area of origin of the dust fraction is revealed by the heavy mineral assemblage, and research has shown that the dust sources may be local, neighbouring, or distant.
The chemical composition of loess most often falls within the following percentage ranges: silica, SiO2, 50 to 60; alumina, Al2O3, 8 to 12; iron oxide as Fe2O3, 2 to 4; iron oxide as FeO, 0.8 to 1.1; titanium dioxide, TiO2, and manganese oxide, MnO, about 0.5; lime, CaO, 4 to 16; and magnesium oxide, MgO, 2 to 6.
The characteristic carbonate content of loess depends on the nature of the dust source, on geochemical and biological processes that occur during and after deposition, and on precipitation and leaching by groundwater. Carbonates are present in loess in a variety of forms, primarily as incrustations on quartz grains and clay-particle aggregates and as small granules and shell fragments. Secondary concentrations include concretions of nodules (Loess-doll) and layers of lime accumulation (caliche). Lime forms frequent tubular incrustations along decayed plant roots, fissure fillings, and similar avenues in loess.
Loess is a rather ill-consolidated sediment of low compressive strength. It is stable, however, as long as it remains dry. Parting surfaces are vertical because capillary incrustations of lime, developed around the roots of a grassy plant cover, lend a vertical texture to loess.
Soaked and loaded loess, however, is liable to collapse and slumping. Wetting decreases cohesion between grains by two-thirds, and the angle of internal friction also decreases (e.g., from 32° to 20°). Groundwater flow in loess will carry away fine, insoluble mineral particles, and this mechanical separation in loess can be accompanied by solution of mineral particles. This process gives rise to depressions, sinkholes, loess wells, and collapse ravines and is much accelerated by gully erosion.
Terrigenous sediment
Distribution and classification.
Origin and age.
Face of the Earth - Loess
How Stuff Works - Science - Loess
Illinois State Museum - Loess and Till
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Help the Native American people to get a Federal holiday.
4,440 people have helped this campaign
Sheila Hull campaign leader
As the first inhabitants of North America, Native Americans discovered how to live off the land. Many tribes domesticated edible plants, raised animals, and discovered natural medicines. Native American innovations in areas such as mathematics and government greatly influenced other cultures in Europe and Latin America.
Read more @ http://www.scholastic.com/teachers/article/native-american-contributions
Support justice for Amir
4,441 signed the petition to United States Government
Ended about 3 years ago
Ladies and Gentlemen, We have an issue that is very important to the Native American people and our Government. I think that there should be a Federally recognized National Holiday for the Native American People. Our people have never been given the recognition for our contributions to the United States and World.
Inspired 1 signature
Author, Lisa Brittain, clearly states in her article, Our People Deserve A Native American Holiday, that the Native Americans are long…Read More
Our People Deserve A Native American Holiday
Buddhaful Britt
Our People Deserve A Native American Holiday While attending a Pow Wow in Sarasota Florida, a beautiful Native American man named Niles Aseret suggested a national holiday for the Native American people of the United States… the crowd stood and cheered. I was so struck by this simple idea and in disbelief that this was not already a reality. …Read More
Brothers and Sisters, we are all apart of this great nation. We live in turbulent years. The white man and the black man fight. We must…Read More
We were busy on the campaign trail this weekend in Cherokee, NC campaigning for both these important causes, Our People Deserve a National…Read More
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The Scariest Archie Horror Comics Characters, Ranked
by Grant DeArmitt
There are many sides to Archie Comics. From the classic, wholesome originals of the '50s and '60s to the new, hilarious relaunch, Archie Comics has seen a lot of different identities. But none so different as Archie Horror. Archie Horror Comics brings palpable darkness to the once-lighthearted world of Archie Comics, and it does that through its menu of terrifying characters. We collected some of those characters into this list, ranking them by just how scary we thought them to be. So grab a milkshake and turn on all the lights, here comes The Scariest Archie Horror Comics Characters, Ranked.
RELATED: 15 Most Chilling Horror Comics Today
10. Sabrina Spellman
Sabrina’s at the bottom of this list because, at heart, she’s a good person. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a modicum of terror in her character. Sabrina is an extraordinarily powerful witch, one who gives Lucifer himself a reason to fear. Plus, for all her good intentions, Sabrina is still very young. She makes decisions that older, wiser people might not, which can sometimes save the day, for sure. But other times, like in a particular resurrection case, her impulsive actions can have dire consequences. Such is the life of the Teenage Witch.
9. Vampironica
Here’s another character that we know to be good in the long run. Before her transformation into a vampire, Veronica Lodge ultimately had her heart in the right place. Even now, after becoming a fully-fledged creature of the night, she’s still in the side of angels. In fact, she uses her vampiric abilities to crush the darker, more sinister forces surrounding Riverdale. Still, Veronica is dangerous. Like every vampire, her method of survival is to drink the blood of others. This undeniable hunger makes her something of a monster, even though she might retain her morality and connections to humanity.
8. Zombie Jughead
Finally, we’re getting into the truly evil characters of the Archie Horror world. And it’s only appropriate to start listing those with the monster who introduced us to Archie Horror in the first place. Zombie Jughead Jones is the first monstrous face we see on an Archie Horror comic, because of his appearance in the first issue of Afterlife with Archie. Jug-dead is a kind of sick twist on the character’s constant hunger in the innocent world of Archie Comics, a twist that gets even worse when he comes after his best friend in life, Archie Andrews. Still, this isn’t even the worst twist on the “hungry Jughead” trope. We’ll get to that later.
RELATED: Sabrina Spellman: 10 Things Netflix Changed From The Original Archie Comics
7. Franken-Moose
It’s kind of tragic that the big, lovable lug called Moose in Archie Comics gets warped into an undead beast in Jughead: The Hunger. However, we’ve got to hand it to Archie Horror, that makes his character downright terrifying. Moose’s misadventures in that book turn him from gentle giant to titan of terror, a modern but respectful tribute to the classic character of Frankenstein’s Monster. Fans of the big guy can at least take solace in the fact that the Moose we all came to love is actually gone, replaced by an unthinking brute that wears his image. And it’s that fact that makes him deserve a spot on this list.
6. Uncle Brucie
Not familiar with old Uncle Brucie? That’s ok, he doesn’t come up too much in Archie Horror. Actually, he only shows up in one short story published in the comic Chilling Adventures in Sorcery, a reprinted collection of horror tales from Archie Comics past. But don’t let the fact that Uncle Brucie is old school fool you. From his sinister look to even his name, this character is a horror villain through and through. Check out Chilling Adventures in Sorcery to find out why.
5. Werewolf Jughead
Here’s what we were talking about when we said Zombie Jughead wasn’t the only nightmare version of the character on this list. The titular character of Jughead: The Hunger, werewolf Jughead pushes the idea of hungry Jughead to a violent extreme. He quite literally has an insatiable hunger, one driven by an awful curse and focused on the consumption of human flesh. If you know Jughead from the old Archie Comics, or even the burger-loving character in the 2014 Archie relaunch, you know just how relaxed and non-violent Jughead is. The terror of The Hunger is just how far he’s fallen.
RELATED: 10 Horror Comics That Deserve A TV Show
4. Ivan
As we mentioned earlier, Veronica isn’t exactly a villain in her gothic comic book, Vampironica. No, that’s Ivan. Ivan is a centuries-old bloodsucking beast, a Dracula-like arch-villain and frequent murderer. He’s actually the vampire that turns Veronica in the first place, setting her on a dark path of vengeance and bloodlust. Ivan is a perfect horror villain, a creature with such power and mystery that even the most noble attempts to defeat him might not work. Or even when they do, might not work for good.
3. Cheryl Blossom, Anti-Christ
We won’t lie, one of the reasons evil Cheryl Blossom is up here is just how fun the idea for this comic is. In Blossoms 666, Cheryl and her brother Jason are up for the title of ruler of Hell. The Blossom Family gets switched from devious businesspeople to literal devil-worshippers, and the contest between Cheryl and her brother doesn’t just end in a winner, but in the Apocalypse itself. Blossoms 666 just hit stores this week and is written by the fabulous Cullen Bunn. Check it out if you get the chance, it’s sure to be one hell of a book.
2. Madam Satan
Whether it’s in the original Chilling Adventures of Sabrina book or on the Netflix adaptation, Madam Satan is one of the most terrifying comic-based characters ever created. She is a devoted agent of the Devil himself, and will commit the most heinous of acts to see that she accomplishes his goals. And if her actions weren't enough, her horrifying character design alone would get her on this list. With two skulls for eyes and a face that has a tendency to peel off, Madam Satan is one of the most nightmare-inducing characters Archie Comics has ever produced.
RELATED: 11 Times Classic Archie Comics Were Groundbreaking (And 11 Times the Modern Stuff Broke the Mold)
1. Cthulhu
Yes, you read this correctly. The High Priest of the Great Old Ones makes an appearance in the world of Archie Horror Comics. But we're not going to tell you much more. The inclusion of this character into that world is as terrifying as it is worthwhile to discover, so pick up some Archie Horror Comics to find out. If you do, you'll see exactly why we put him at the top of this list. We suppose that you could just Google it too, but you'd be missing out on some fantastic comic-based horror if you do. Plus, you'd be disrespecting the name of Cthulhu, and usually, that doesn't go very well.
What's your favorite Archie Horror Comics title? Who do you think is the scariest character to come out of them? Let us know in the comments section below!
NEXT: 10 Horror Comics That Deserve A TV Show
Tags: archie, sabrina
The 10 Most Important Characters Vertigo Introduced To The DC Comics Universe
Shawn S. Lealos
Evangelion: 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Shinji
Adriano Valente
Spider-Man: 10 Underrated Villains That Are Actually Dangerous
10 Things Every X-Men Fan Should Know About Omega Red
George Chrysostomou
DC Announces New Metal Men Series, Character Drawing From Dark Knights: Metal
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Source: © iStock
DNA fingerprinting accuracy to be overhauled in US
By Angeli Mehta10 January 2017
Labs to use 20 markers rather than 13 in improvement that should help in cases involving DNA from multiple sources
The chances of correctly identifying individuals during forensic testing has taken a step forward, as US forensic labs must now generate DNA profiles using seven additional DNA markers. The new markers will also help identify samples which have mixtures of DNA from more than one person. Concerns over DNA from multiple sources have been raised on both sides of the Atlantic – most recently in a report from President Obama’s scientific advisers.
DNA fingerprinting currently relies on short repetitive stretches of the genome, with the number of repeats for each marker varying from person to person. With 20 markers, rather than 13 as previously used, the chances of two people who are not closely related having the same number of repeats is extremely small: less than one in a billion billion, according to the National Institutes of Science and Technology.
Three of the new markers are mini markers and were developed so as to find the shortest markers possible to help identify victims of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks, whose DNA was badly degraded. Research geneticist Mike Coble, who helped develop the new mini markers, says that they were made possible thanks to new fluorescent dyes. These dyes also provide crucial new information when forensic examiners are faced with an item like a mobile phone, he explains. ‘You either have to go horizontally and make markers larger and larger or go vertically and have five or six dye channels.’ Capillary instruments and separation chemistry have also improved, so sensitivity is greater.
The new fluorescent dye channels offer the prospect of finding seven or eight markers and thereby increasing the chances of identifying someone who has touched the phone. Coble’s mini markers have already been adopted in Europe, as EU members states sought to expand the number of markers, while planning to share data across countries. With bigger databases the likelihood of a match happening by chances increases, so more markers are essential.
Correction: The headline was updated on 10 January
Angeli Mehta
Litany of security breaches at US government science institute revealed
National Institute of Standards and Technology’s security lapses persist, more than two years after illegal meth production was uncovered at one of its sites
Forensic evidence in the firing line in the US
Feature comparison techniques like fingerprints, footprints and ballistics lack rigour, according to presidential council report
Forensic plan for the UK is ‘vague, incomplete’
MPs tell the government to go back to the drawing board on forensic strategy
Silica aerogel could heat the surface of Mars enough to sustain life
Insulating material could replicate the effects of Earth’s atmosphere on the red planet, warming it by 50°C
Serbia passes controversial science reforms to modernise research
Doubts remain over the government’s decision to overhaul the current grants system
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https://www.chron.com/sports/astros/article/Houston-Astros-Minnesota-Twins-Verlander-recap-13793617.php
Justin Verlander, Astros cruise to win over Twins in series finale
By David Barron, Houston Chronicle
Updated 9:55 am CDT, Thursday, April 25, 2019
HOUSTON, TEXAS - APRIL 24: Justin Verlander #35 of the Houston Astros pitches in the first inning against the Minnesota Twins at Minute Maid Park on April 24, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty Images)
HOUSTON, TEXAS - APRIL 24: Justin Verlander #35 of the Houston Astros pitches in the first inning against the Minnesota Twins at Minute Maid Park on April 24, 2019 in Houston, Texas. (Photo by Bob Levey/Getty
Photo: Bob Levey/Getty Images
Justin Verlander ended the Astros' four-game run of first innings to forget Wednesday night, sailing through the Twins' lineup with crisp efficiency through eight innings and striking out eight in a 7-1 Houston win.
Astros starters had struggled since last Saturday against the Rangers and Twins, allowing multiple runs in each case, but Verlander decisively put that skein to rest, retiring the Twins in order in the first and remaining in control from there.
ON TEXAS SPORTS NATION: Takeaways from series vs. Twins
The Astros' offense, meanwhile, chipped in home runs by Carlos Correa and Michael Brantley off Twins starter Kohl Stewart, the former St. Pius X pitcher and quarterback who was called up from the minors for his second career appearance at Minute Maid Park.
Josh Reddick added a two-run opposite-field shot in the eighth off Twins reliever Fernando Romero, giving him a fourth consecutive multi-hit game.
It was the 20th career win over the Twins for Verlander, who threw 98 pitches in eight innings and allowed four hits, including a fourth-inning home run by Jorge Polanco for Minnesota's only run. Framber Valdez pitched the ninth for the Astros.
Verlander lives by the strikeout and fly out when he's on form, and he had plenty of both against the Twins. He had eight strikeouts through five, and Minnesota didn't have its first groundout until Max Kepler's checked swing bouncer back to the mound to lead off the sixth.
For the night, Verlander had 12 fly outs and line-drive outs and four groundouts with no walks before 26,582.
The loss went to Stewart (0-1), who turned down a football scholarship at Texas A&M to sign with Minnesota as the fourth pick of the 2013 Major League Baseball draft.
ASTROS INSIDER ON TEXAS SPORTS NATION: Less is more for Josh Reddick during hot streak
Stewart, who was called up overnight from Class AA Rochester to fill a gap in the Twins' rotation caused by a rainout followed by a doubleheader last weekend, threw 105 pitches through six innings with eight hits, five earned runs, a strikeout, three walks and two wild pitches.
It was the second game in a Twins uniform at Minute Maid Park for Stewart, who pitched five scoreless innings with three hits and three strikeouts in a 6-2 Astros win on Sept. 4, 2018.
Correa, however, was the first to dent Stewart in the second, clanking the righthander's first pitch of the inning off the foul pole screen in right field.
Brantley followed suit in the third, taking a first-pitch breaking ball into the right-field lower deck to score Alex Bregman, who doubled off the left-field scoreboard. Both hits came after a leadoff single by George Springer was erased when José Altuve grounded into a double play.
Verlander retired the first 10 batters he faced before Polanco took a first-pitch fastball 405 feet into the right-field view deck for Minnesota's first run in the fourth. One out later, Eddie Rosario's line drive ticked off Altuve's glove and trickled into left field for a double, but Verlander fanned first baseman C.J. Cron to end the inning.
Eye control and opposite-field hitting, two recent staples for the Astros, led to a couple of runs off Stewart in the fourth for a 5-1 lead.
THE DAILY PLAYBOOK: Find sports insights, detailed analysis and metrics delivered to your inbox daily.
Catcher Robinson Chirinos' double into the right-field corner scored Reddick, who walked and took second on an Aledmys Díaz groundout. Chirinos moved up a base on a wild pitch with Jake Marisnick at the plate and, after Marisnick grounded out, scored when another Stewart pitch in the dirt got away from Twins catcher Jason Castro.
Houston wrapped up the scoring in the eighth off Romero, who also was called up from AAA before the game. Brantley, in the midst of 10-game hitting streak, led off with a single, and Reddick followed two batters later with his fourth home run.
Visit HoustonChronicle.com for extended coverage from Astros vs Twins
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UK Mobile Data Usage Set to Skyrocket
Forecast Shows Data Traffic Could Rise Sevenfold to 2021
The average UK mobile subscriber could devour as much as 18GB of data per month in 2021, according to our latest UK mobile operator forecast, published yesterday.
As consumers’ appetite for content shows little sign of relenting, this would represent a massive sevenfold hike from the current average of 2.5GB per month.
Based on our demand-driven scenario, such a leap would need network operators to launch increasingly attractive deals to satisfy pent-up demand. This could include further moves into unlimited data, a path that only Three has dared to tread. The operator’s customers are by far the most data-hungry in the UK, gobbling up about 7GB per month, an average over three and a half times higher than its rivals’.
Furthermore, supplier advances in high-definition content, 360-degree video as well as virtual and augmented reality, alongside greater capabilities in smartphones such as gigabit LTE, all point toward further strong growth in content consumption.
Finland is a prime example of how data traffic can soar, should operators encourage it. Here, operators offer unlimited data bundled according to different speed tiers. This has resulted in phenomenal usage; customers of DNA, for example, consumed a huge 16.5GB per month in the third quarter of 2017.
Operators Turn to Zero-Rated Content
In the UK, efforts by network operators to offer zero-rated content could boost average consumption in 2018 by as much as 1GB per month, compared with 2017. This has been a fashionable play of late, evidenced by promotions from EE, Three, Virgin Mobile and Vodafone.
One of the most interesting concepts is Vodafone’s recent launch of a series of data passes giving users unlimited access to specific app genres for a set monthly fee. The offer aims to enable “worry-free” usage and encourage incremental spending.
Another important driver of data growth is, of course, network enhancement. Improvements to LTE coverage and capacity are well underway, with EE claiming “real world” speeds of 428 Mbps in Cardiff earlier in 2017.
UK Moves toward 5G
This represents an important step in the shift to 5G, for which the first networks are expected in the UK in 2020. We expect good adoption of the technology to occur from 2022, when total subscribers will hit 17 million. By the end of 2025, more than half of all mobile connections in the country will be on a 5G network.
However, eye-watering growth in mobile data consumption is far from guaranteed. The forecast also recognises an alternative scenario in which operators limit demand, either through preference or necessity.
Uncertainty remains over the much-delayed auction of 4G and 5G spectrum, originally slated for early 2016. And although operators grapple to make “more-for-more” strategies a reality, they could be tempted to use pricing to temper demand. In our alternative, supply-constrained scenario, data usage could remain as low as just 6GB per month.
The direction of travel in mobile data is unmistakable, the only question is how fast it will move.
The chart below offers a snapshot of our latest UK mobile operator forecast.
CCS Insight’s UK operator forecast provides a holistic review of hot topics in this market and focuses on drivers of change. This qualitative analysis is followed by a detailed five-year forecast on all important operator metrics. The full report is available to CCS Insight’s clients here. If you’d like to know more about this service, please contact us.
Written by: Kester Mann
Xiaomi Rekindles Global Ambitions Waymo Hits Milestone with Autonomous Cars
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New Compendium Highlights Development of Clinical Decision Support to Enhance Worker Health
NIOSH Update:
Contact: Stephanie Stevens (202) 245-0641
A new compilation of articles published in the November issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, describes an effort led by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) to develop and evaluate clinical decision support (CDS) designed to assist primary care clinicians’ with care of their working patients using CDS tools in electronic health records. This is the first effort to systematically develop and assess the practicality and usefulness of providing clinical decision support linked to work through health information systems in the primary care setting.
“Primary care practitioners are often the first to see patients with work-related conditions, care for patients who may have trouble managing their health at work, or see patients whose health affects their ability to work,” said NIOSH Director John Howard, M.D. “The information presented in this compendium demonstrates the potential to put resources directly in the hands of primary care clinicians that can promote better care of working patients using 21st century information technology.”
The compendium, which is part of a larger NIOSH effort to facilitate recognition of the relationship between work and health and how to address it through health information technology, includes:
An overview of the project
Three articles that describe the process of producing proposed recommendations to introduce computer‐mediated CDS into health information systems, to assist providers in the care of working patients. Each article covers one of three topic areas:
The diagnosis and management of work-related asthma
Workplace factors that affect diabetes management
Decisions about return-to-work after an episode of acute low-back pain not associated with work
Results of a qualitative evaluation that gathered feedback from five primary care settings representing various areas nationwide and types of clinical practices.
NIOSH selected these topics based on recommendations from a 2011 National Academies’ Institute of Medicine report, “Incorporating Occupational Information in Electronic Health RecordsExternal.” NIOSH assembled three independent work groups of occupational health subject matter experts that each focused on one of three topic areas—work-related asthma, diabetes management, and return to work after acute low-back pain. Each work group reviewed relevant clinical practice guidelines, best practices, and published literature related to their respective topic area and proposed evidence-based recommendations designed for application in a primary care setting using a CDS tool.
The results of the evaluation, and the final piece of information presented in the compendium, indicate that primary care physicians and staff across a range of practice sites recognize the importance of factors encountered at work to their patients’ health, and they found the three proposed recommendations useful and feasible in their practice settings.
Visit the NIOSH website for more information on electronic health records and patient work information. The reports, or knowledge resources, referenced in the compendium, are available on the American College of Occupational and Environmental MedicineCdc-pdfExternal website.
Filios, MS, Storey, E, Baron, S, et al. Enhancing Worker Health Through Clinical Decision Support (CDS): An Introduction to a CompilationExternal. J Occup Environ Med. 2017;59(11): e227-e230.
Harber, P, Redlich, CA, Hines, S, et al. Recommendations for a Clinical Decision Support System for Work-Related Asthma in Primary Care SettingsExternal. J Occup Environ Med. 2017;59(11): e231-e235.
Allen, A, Welch, L, Kirkland, K, et al. Development of a Diabetes Mellitus Knowledge Resource for Clinical Decision Support Assisting Primary Care Physicians With Work-Related IssuesExternal. J Occup Environ Med. 2017;59(11): e236-e239.
McLellan, RK, Haas, NS, Kownacki, RP, et al. Using Electronic Health Records and Clinical Decision Support to Provide Return-to-Work Guidance for Primary Care Practitioners for Patients With Low Back PainExternal. J Occup Environ Med. 2017;59(11): e240-e244.
Baron, S, Filios, MS, Marovich, S, et al. Recognition of the Relationship Between Patients’ Work and Health: A Qualitative Evaluation of the Need for Clinical Decision Support (CDS) for Worker Health in Five Primary Care PracticesExternal. J Occup Environ Med. 2017;59(11): e245-e250.
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from American Horror Story
Lady Gaga on her knees bent over the edge of a bathtub having intense sex with a guy who is behind her while showing a bit of her ass and the tops of her breasts as they press against the rim while she moans and breathes heavily. From American Horror Story.
0:28 - 9.88 MB - 1280x720 px October 16th, 2015 @ 5:06 pm Lady Gaga - American Horror Story - S05E02 - 1.mp4
Lady Gaga lying on a bed in a red bra and panties as she talks with a guy before she gives us a look at her ass in the red panties as she climbs on top of him and then a distant view of some of her breasts as she removes her bra. From American Horror Story.
Sexy 0:52 - 18.18 MB - 1280x720 px October 16th, 2015 @ 5:05 pm Lady Gaga - American Horror Story - S05E02 - 2.mp4
Lady Gaga wearing a black leather bra as she climbs onto a bed with some guys as one of them stabs the other one in the neck and starts sucking his blood while Lady Gaga watches and starts running her hands over her body and enjoying it before they start making out with each other and she climbs on top of him. From American Horror Story.
from Sex Games: Cancun
Sex Games: Cancun
Monique Parent
Monique Parent (credited as Monique Harlow) making out with a guy as he feels her up and then removes her blue shirt and kisses her breasts. He then goes down on her for a while before she has fully nude sex with him while lying down and arching her back. Finally she has sex with him while he holds her up in the air and she leans back. From Sex Games: Cancun.
3:08 - 65.19 MB - 1280x720 px October 16th, 2015 @ 5:00 pm Monique Parent - Sex Games Cancun - S01E09.mp4
Nicole Oring (left) and Katie Morgan (right) lying in bed naked together talking and running their hands over their bodies before Nicole flips a cassette in a tape recorder and they start lesbian kissing each other. From Sex Games: Cancun.
0:27 - 9.33 MB - 1280x720 px October 16th, 2015 @ 4:56 pm Katie Morgan & Nicole Oring - Sex Games Cancun - S01E09 - 4.mp4
from I Spit on Your Grave (1978)
Camille Keaton
Camille Keaton standing fully nude in a forest as a guy sits on a rock playing harmonica until he turns and notices her causing her to start to panic as several more guys come out from behind trees until finally she starts to run away and they grab her and carry her naked over to a boulder. From I Spit on Your Grave. Part 1 of 2.
1:19 - 34.20 MB - 1280x720 px October 16th, 2015 @ 4:54 pm Camille Keaton - I Spit on Your Grave - 04-1.mp4
Camille Keaton fully nude as a group of guys hold her down against a large boulder as one of the guys takes his pants off and then forces her to have sex with him from behind as she screams and struggles while he hits her several times until finally he finishes up and the guys leave her there. From I Spit on Your Grave. Part 2 of 2.
from Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland
Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland
Stacie Lambert
Stacie Lambert topless and in purple panties as she struggles into her pants while noticing a guy outside her tent getting hit with a stick by Pamela Springsteen and then climbing out of the tent and running away with her breasts bouncing as Pamela comes up from behind and hits her as well and then drags her unconscious body back into the tent while still showing her breasts. From Sleepaway Camp III: Teenage Wasteland.
0:42 - 18.49 MB - 1280x696 px October 16th, 2015 @ 4:50 pm Stacie Lambert & Pamela Springsteen - Sleepaway Camp III Teenage Wasteland - 1.mp4
from Evil Feed
Evil Feed
Alyson Bath
Alyson Bath wearing an opened white fur coat over her naked body as she squats on the ground and then stands up when a guy walks in giving us a blurry full frontal view before she walks over to him while talking. From the uncut version of Evil Feed.
0:12 - 4.03 MB - 1280x538 px October 16th, 2015 @ 4:48 pm Alyson Bath - Evil Feed - Uncut - 4.mp4
Kristy Dinsmore
Kristy Dinsmore showing some cleavage in a grey bra as Laci J Mailey checks out a scar on her stomach and then rushes her off down a hallway before she's seen lying on the ground. From the uncut version of Evil Feed.
Sexy 0:15 - 5.15 MB - 1280x538 px October 16th, 2015 @ 4:47 pm Kristy Dinsmore & Laci J Mailey - Evil Feed - Uncut - 1.mp4
from The Black Waters of Echo's Pond
Mircea Monroe having the tops of her breasts sticking out above a towel wrapped around her body as some guys check her cleavage out and then dance with her until she flashes them just as Electra Avellan and Danielle Harris walk up from behind and catch her. From The Black Waters of Echo's Pond.
Sexy 0:18 - 6.27 MB - 1280x720 px October 16th, 2015 @ 4:44 pm Mircea Monroe, Electra Avellan & Danielle Harris - The Black Waters of Echo's Pond - 2.mp4
Elise Avellan
Elise Avellan wearing a bra with blood on her chest as she and her twin sister Electra Avellan talk with a guy before getting angry and attacking him. From The Black Waters of Echo's Pond.
Sexy 0:16 - 5.51 MB - 1280x720 px October 16th, 2015 @ 4:43 pm Electra Avellan & Elise Avellan - The Black Waters of Echo's Pond - 2.mp4
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Kavanaugh accuser says she would testify next week under certain terms
Published Thu, Sep 20 2018 2:51 PM EDT Updated Thu, Sep 20 2018 6:46 PM EDT
Kevin Breuninger@KevinWilliamB
Christine Blasey Ford tells the Senate Judiciary Committee she is open to testify next week if they can "ensure her safety" and offer "terms that are fair."
Ford's letter to the Senate Judiciary Committee also said that testifying on Monday, as committee Chairman Chuck Grassley scheduled, "is not possible."
Ford's lawyer, Debra Katz, also said in the email that she would like to set up a call on Thursday to "discuss the conditions" required for Ford to testify.
US Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh speaks on the second day of his confirmation hearing in front of the US Senate on Capitol Hill in Washington DC, on September 5, 2018.
Saul Loeb | AFP | Getty Images
Christine Blasey Ford, who alleged Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were teenagers, told the Senate Judiciary Committee she is open to testify next week if they can "ensure her safety" and offer "terms that are fair."
Ford's email to the Senate Judiciary Committee also said that testifying on Monday, as committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, had scheduled, "is not possible," adding that the "insistence that it occur then is arbitrary in any event."
The New York Times first reported the email on Thursday.
"We are happy that Dr. Ford's attorneys are now engaging with the Committee," a spokeswoman for Grassley told NBC News later on Thursday.
Ford, 51, alleged in a letter obtained by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif., in late July that Kavanaugh, 53, had pinned her to a bed, covered her mouth and attempted to take her clothes off while intoxicated at a gathering in the 1980s.
Kavanaugh, President Donald Trump's second Supreme Court nominee, strongly denies the allegations and has said he is willing to testify under oath in a public Senate hearing Monday.
In a letter to Grassley sent later on Thursday, Kavanaugh said he will attend the Monday hearing as scheduled.
"I continue to want a hearing as soon as possible, so that I can clear my name," he said in the letter.
Katz had signaled that Ford would be willing to testify on the same date, but later said that the FBI should complete an investigation into the allegations before Ford is willing to testify.
Grassley, in a letter to Ford's lawyers sent Wednesday, said that the lawyers must send her prepared testimony and biography documents to the committee by Friday morning if Ford was to be allowed to testify at the hearing on Monday.
Katz's email says that Ford "has been receiving death threats," and that "she and her family have been forced out of their home" after her identity was revealed over the weekend. Ford's initial letter to California Democratic Rep. Anna Eshoo requested she remain anonymous.
Kavanaugh's wife, Ashley Estes Kavanaugh, has also received threats of violence, a senior Trump administration official told The Wall Street Journal on Thursday. The U.S. Marshal Service is investigating the threats, which include two profane emails sent from the same address, the official told the Journal.
Some Republicans have balked at requests to complete an FBI investigation — which many Democrats have called for — suggesting that a probe is intended to delay Kavanaugh's nomination past the November midterm elections.
Politico reported Thursday that Ford was being advised by Ricki Seidman, a Democratic Party operative who had worked for the administrations of Barack Obama and Bill Clinton.
NBC News, citing a person involved in the confirmation process, reported that Kavanaugh was preparing for the hearing at the White House on Tuesday with coaching from senior officials including press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders and White House counsel Don McGahn.
Neither the White House nor the committee majority's office immediately responded to CNBC's requests for comment.
Anna Eshoo
Comcast Corp
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The aim of this Cochrane Review was to find out if NSAID eye drops can prevent a sight-threatening complication of cataract surgery (swelling at the back of the eye, known as macular oedema). Cochrane researchers collected and analysed all relevant studies to answer this question and found 34 studies.
There is only low-certainty evidence to support the use of NSAID eye drops to prevent macular oedema affecting vision after cataract surgery.
There is a clear lens in the eye that focuses the light on the back of the eye. As people get older this lens can become cloudy. A cloudy lens is known as a cataract. Doctors can remove the cataract and replace it with an artificial lens. This is usually a very successful operation. Occasionally, people having cataract surgery can get swelling at the back of the eye after the operation. This swelling is known as macular oedema. It usually gets better on its own accord, but if it persists it can result in poor vision.
NSAIDs are a medication that can treat inflammation. They may be able to reduce the chances of this swelling happening. The NSAIDs studied in this review were eye drops.
The review authors found 34 relevant studies. These studies were conducted in all parts of the world including the Americas, Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean region and South-East Asia. Most (28) of these studies compared NSAIDs combined with steroids against steroids alone. Some of the studies (6) compared NSAIDs with steroids alone. A variety of NSAIDs were used, including ketorolac, diclofenac, nepafenac, indomethacin, bromfenac, pranopfen and flurbiprofen. People taking part in these trials were followed up from between one and 12 months. Most studies only followed up to two months or less. Six studies were funded by industry; seven studies were funded from non-industry sources and the rest of the studies did not report the source of funding.
There was low-certainty evidence that NSAIDs reduce the chance of poor vision due to macular oedema three months after cataract surgery. Only one study reported on poor vision due to macular oedema at 12 months and we judged this to have very low-certainty of evidence.
Using NSAIDs was associated with a reduced risk of macular oedema but the review authors judged this to be low-certainty.
Inconsistent results were seen for some measurements of macular oedema, such as the thickness of the tissue at the back of the eye (central retinal thickness) at three months after surgery. This measurement was not reported by any studies at 12 months after surgery.
Similarly, inconsistent results were seen for vision measurement (visual acuity) but most studies found small differences between people given NSAIDs and people not given NSAIDs.
Only one study reported quality of life, and this suggested little impact of NSAIDs on quality of life.
Adverse events mainly consisted of a burning or stinging sensation.
The review authors searched for studies that had been published up to 2 September 2016.
Using topical NSAIDs may reduce the risk of developing macular oedema after cataract surgery, although it is possible that current estimates as to the size of this reduction are exaggerated. It is unclear the extent to which this reduction has an impact on the visual function and quality of life of patients. There is little evidence to suggest any important effect on vision after surgery. The value of adding topical NSAIDs to steroids, or using them as an alternative to topical steroids, with a view to reducing the risk of poor visual outcome after cataract surgery is therefore uncertain. Future trials should address the remaining clinical uncertainty of whether prophylactic topical NSAIDs are of benefit, particularly with respect to longer-term follow-up (at least to 12 months), and should be large enough to detect reduction in the risk of the outcome of most interest to patients, which is chronic macular oedema leading to visual loss.
Macular oedema (MO) is the accumulation of extracellular fluid in the central retina (the macula). It may occur after cataract surgery and may give rise to poor visual outcome, with reduced visual acuity and distortion of the central vision. MO is often self-limiting with spontaneous resolution, but a small proportion of people with chronic persistent MO may be difficult to treat. Chronic oedema may lead to the formation of cystic spaces in the retina termed 'cystoid macular oedema' (CMO). Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are commonly used in cataract surgery and may reduce the chances of developing MO.
The aim of this review is to answer the question: is there evidence to support the prophylactic use of topical NSAIDs either in addition to, or instead of, topical steroids postoperatively to reduce the incidence of macular oedema (MO) and associated visual morbidity.
We searched a number of electronic databases including CENTRAL, MEDLINE and Embase. Date last searched 2 September 2016.
We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in which adult participants had undergone surgery for age-related cataract. We included participants irrespective of their baseline risk of MO, in particular we included people with diabetes and uveitis. We included trials of preoperative and/or postoperative topical NSAIDs in conjunction with postoperative topical steroids. The comparator was postoperative topical steroids alone. A secondary comparison was preoperative and/or postoperative topical NSAIDs alone versus postoperative topical steroids alone.
Two review authors independently selected studies for inclusion, assessed risk of bias and extracted data using standard methods expected by Cochrane. We pooled data using a random-effects model. We graded the certainty of the evidence using GRADE and considered the following: risk of bias of included studies, precision of the effect estimate, consistency of effects between studies, directness of the outcome measure and publication bias.
We identified 34 studies that were conducted in the Americas, Europe, the Eastern Mediterranean region and South-East Asia. Over 5000 people were randomised in these trials. The majority of studies enrolled one eye per participant; a small subset (4 trials) enrolled a proportion of people with bilateral surgery. Twenty-eight studies compared NSAIDs plus steroids with steroids alone. Six studies compared NSAIDs with steroids. A variety of NSAIDs were used, including ketorolac, diclofenac, nepafenac, indomethacin, bromfenac, flurbiprofen and pranopfen. Follow-up ranged from one to 12 months. In general, the studies were poorly reported. We did not judge any of the studies at low risk of bias in all domains. Six studies were funded by industry, seven studies were funded from non-industry sources, and the rest of the studies did not report the source of funding.
There was low-certainty evidence that people receiving topical NSAIDs in combination with steroids may have a lower risk of poor vision due to MO at three months after cataract surgery compared with people receiving steroids alone (risk ratio (RR) 0.41, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.23 to 0.76; eyes = 1360; studies = 5; I2 = 5%). We judged this to be low-certainty evidence because of risk of bias in the included studies and indirectness, as the extent of visual loss was not always clear. Only one study reported poor vision due to MO at 12 months and we judged this to be very low-certainty evidence as there were only two events. Quality of life was only reported in one of the 34 studies comparing NSAIDs plus steroids versus steroids alone, and it was not fully reported, other than to comment on lack of differences between groups. There was evidence of a reduced risk of MO with NSAIDs at three months after surgery, but we judged this to be low-certainty due to risk of bias and publication bias (RR 0.40, 95% CI 0.32 to 0.49; eyes = 3638; studies = 21). There was inconsistent evidence on central retinal thickness at three months (I2 = 87%). Results ranged from -30.9 µm in favour of NSAIDs plus steroids to 7.44 µm in favour of steroids alone. Similarly, data on best corrected visual acuity (BCVA) were inconsistent, but nine out of 10 trials reporting this outcome found between-group differences in visual acuity of less than 0.1 logMAR.
None of the six studies comparing NSAIDs alone with steroids reported on poor vision due to MO at three or 12 months. There was low-certainty evidence that central retinal thickness was lower in the NSAIDs group at three months (mean difference (MD) -22.64 µm, 95% CI -38.86 to -6.43; eyes = 121; studies = 2). Five studies reported on MO and showed a reduced risk with NSAIDs, but we judged this evidence to be of low-certainty (RR 0.27, 95% CI 0.18 to 0.41; eyes = 520). Three studies reported BCVA at three months and the results of these trials were inconsistent, but all three studies found differences of less than 0.1 logMAR between groups.
We did not note any major adverse events - the main consistent observation was burning or stinging sensation with the use of NSAIDs.
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for treating fluid accumulation in the macula after cataract surgery
Artificial, blue-light filtering lenses in the eye for protecting the macula (back of the eye) after cataract surgery
Anti-vascular endothelial growth factor for macular oedema secondary to central retinal vein occlusion
Intravitreal low molecular weight heparin and 5-Fluorouracil for the prevention of proliferative vitreoretinopathy after retinal reattachment surgery
Steroids inserted into the eye versus observation for macular edema secondary to central retinal vein occlusion
Eyes & vision > Retinal disease > Macular oedema
Lim BX, Lim CHL, Lim DK, Evans JR, Bunce C, Wormald R
Lim BX, Lim CHL, Lim DK, Evans JR, Bunce C, Wormald R. Prophylactic non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs for the prevention of macular oedema after cataract surgery. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 2016, Issue 11. Art. No.: CD006683. DOI: 10.1002/14651858.CD006683.pub3
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Lachlan Mackay is a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles, assigned to the Northeast USA Mission Field. He also serves as Historic Sites director and Church History and Sacred Story Ministries Team lead.
A native of Independence, Missouri, Lach received a bachelor of arts in economics and Russian arts studies from the University of Missouri-Columbia. He is active in the John Whitmer Historical Association; the Mormon History Association; and the Nauvoo, Illinois, Chamber of Commerce.
He co-authored A Time of Transition: The Kirtland Temple, 1838–1880. He was the winner of the John Whitmer Historical Association’s Best Article award for 1999. He also has published articles in Mormon Historical Studies, The Encyclopedia of Latter-day Saint History, The Journal of Mormon History, and Religion in Ohio: Profiles of Faith Communities.
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Pop Music With Classical Instruements Artists
Home / Interesting Categories / Pop Music With Classical Instruements Artists
"We’re going back to the basics and focusing on strings" over guest artists on other instruments. "If somebody has never b.
That reflects a growing appreciation of pop; the list also leans on artists exploring the intersection among minimalist class.
For the company belies the calendar with its fall season-opener, an energetic production of "The Music Man," that evokes an a.
Classical music will probably never be as popular as it was in 1937 when. But there’s no reason for optimism. As long as there are instruments and people to play them, classical music will continue.
The International Christian Dance Fellowship I can’t remember the year, but I went to a Christian Dance Fellowship conference in Texas. That was the beginning of a new journey for me. It led to my involvement with Eagles International conference. She will be performing a musical theatre dance in the talent competition. The Daphne High School’s Valerie Luther is an
today announced DaVita Day of Music, a one-day event featuring pop-up concerts by the Colorado Symphony and the Denver Young Artists Orchestra. The musical event will take place at 26 DaVita.
Ralston still paints — he had a June show at a Sarasota brewery — but he’s primarily a tattoo artist. He’s not complaining. “.
Louis Landon is a composer, Steinway artist. playing classical music for Mikhail Baryshnikov; jazz fusion with The John Pa.
one of the most revered modern roots artists in America. Walker’s music pays homage to roots and tradition, while blending co.
While Manuela enjoyed listening to music as a kid, she says her early singing along to pop songs left something to be desired.
“The tradition of string quartets, in particular, is one of the most special things about classical music in. They dedicat.
“We don’t know where they went, but Bordas sold his instruments. victim of trends in the music industry. As the nineteen-e.
“We loved our instruments and the music. called Clubbing for Classical Musicians: A Do-It-Yourself Guide to Working in Alt.
A celebrated classical composer. he devised a programme for teaching children music that used popular Hungarian folk songs.
"We’re very passionate about the idea of breaking down the barriers between classical music audiences and non. "He plays his instrument as brilliantly as anybody plays any instrument." Such artists.
Her meaning, as a pop-classical singer, is to be an essential clean slate. History will show that many artists dodged his initial shows of communion. Yet how quickly obstacles can become opportunit.
Dance Moves In Water Ugly God In an attempt to transcend a life that often seems too much to bear, Celie begins writing letters directly to God. The letter. Sit and watch new dance moves first. Learning new moves increases your risk of injury, especially if you are already tired. Exercise – the low-down on water and drinks. Dance – health
28, in Sharp Concert Hall in Catlett Music Center on the. intensively in Hindustani classical tabla under world masters Pa.
Its hard for Miller to compare one work by Beethoven with another, because that might imply that all of his music isn’t equally great. But when it comes to evaluating Opus 31 in C Sharp Minor, which B.
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Author Archives: Judith Blijden
The daily impact of Copyright
Licentiehfc headerall rights reserved
November 1, 2018 — Judith Blijden
Last weekend Communia participated in Mozfest 2018 with a drop-in session on how copyright affects our daily lives. While the ongoing EU copyright reform will shape internet and users rights for ages, not all users are well aware of how this will impact them and the way they use the internet. In our session ‘Human faces of copyright’ we organised a number of activities to show how the reform will influence our daily internet experiences, the way we share and create.
The Mozfest community includes people with a wide variety of expertise and backgrounds. Not everybody might know the ins and outs of copyright (reform), but once you start talking about the challenges of copyright, most can quickly relate it to their own work and experiences.
UNESCO recognizes the importance of Exceptions and Limitations
LicentieLa liberté guidant le peuplePublic domainEugène Delacroix
October 16, 2018 — Judith Blijden
OERs can be used to create inclusive and equitable education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. They are an important factor that contributes to the improvement of educational opportunities.
However, while the special impact of OER is clear, often little attention is given to the issue of educational exceptions to copyright. Copyright frameworks that lack such exceptions can be an unjust obstacle for educators, and in particular can adversely affect the creation and use of OERs. Last year, we participated in the 2nd World OER Congress with the aim to raise awareness about educational exceptions as complementary means for achieving the goals of Open Education. The Ljubljana OER Action Plan, adopted by UNESCO members at the Congress, then, did not include actions related to copyright reform. Fortunately, this has now changed.
Communia at the CC Summit18
Gathering of the Open Community
LicentieChildren of the SeaPublic domain Jozef Israëls
April 4, 2018 — Judith Blijden
The Creative Commons Global Summit is each year one of the key events for the open community. Next week, we are packing our bags and joining over 500 open activists and copyright reform advocates in Toronto. Communia has been founded largely by Creative Commons activists, who wanted to support the Public Domain and do something about European copyright reform. We share with CC the values of the (digital) commons and strive for a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world where creativity can blossom.
The Summit is for us first of all an opportunity to plan collaboration with other activists for the coming year. This year, the Summit program has a strong focus on copyright reform and we are excited to build together the Creative Commons Copyright Reform Platform. We will also contribute to discussion about global copyright reform, copyright and education, copyright and cultural heritage and users’ rights.
You can track all our sessions in the Summit’s Sched system. And follow us on Twitter for live updates from the event.
Educators ask for a better copyright
58 signatures for better copyright
Licentieeducators_askAttribution (CC BY)COMMUNIA Association
January 16, 2018 — Judith Blijden
Today COMMUNIA sent a joint letter to all MEPs working on copyright reform. The letter is an urgent request to improve the education exception in the proposal for a Directive on copyright in the Digital Single Market. It is supported by 53 organisations representing schools, libraries, universities and non-formal education, and also 5 individual educators and information specialists.
The future of education determines the future of society. In the letter we explain the changes needed to facilitate the use of copyrighted works in support of education. We listed four main problems with the Commission’s proposal:
#1: A limited exception instead of a mandatory one
The European Commission proposed a mandatory exception, which can be overridden by licenses. As a consequence educational exception will still be different in each Member State. Moreover, educators will need a help from a lawyer to understand what they are allowed to do.
#2 Remuneration should not be mandatory
Currently most Member States have exceptions for educational purposes that are completely or largely unremunerated. Mandatory payments will change the situation of those educators (or their institutions), which will have to start paying for materials they are now using for free.
#3: Excluding experts
The European Commission’s proposal does not include all important providers of education as only formal educational establishments are covered by the exception. We note that the European lifelong-learning model underlines the value of informal and non-formal education conducted in the workplace. All these are are excluded from the education exception.
#4: Closed-door policy
The European Commission’s proposal limits digital uses to secure institutional networks and to the premises of an educational establishment. As a consequence educators will not develop and conduct educational activities in other facilities such as libraries and museums, and they will not be able to use modern means of communication, such as emails and the cloud.
You can still endorse the letter by sending an email to education@communia-associations.org. You can read the full letter below or download the PDF.Continue reading →
Fighting (for) copyright at Mozfest
Working on a healthy internet
LicentieJohan de Witt ‘s nachts op straat aangevallenPublic domainDirk Jurriaan Sluyter, after Willem Benedictus Stoof
The last weekend of October in London, Mozilla organised Mozfest, its annual festival for the open internet movement. Mozilla wants to enable communities to contribute to making the internet a healthy place. The festival serves as a platform where civil society organisations, artists, journalists, copyright experts and other creators can come together to share and discuss the issues close to their hearts.
At Mozfest, COMMUNIA organised two session on copyright issues. We wanted to explain the role it plays online, but also to reimagine copyright that could support, and not hinder, new forms of creativity.
Repeal the sui generis database right
the Directive no one asked for
LicentieTuin met parterre met labyrint en op de achtergrond een poortPublic domainHans Vredeman de Vries
August 30, 2017 — Judith Blijden
The European Commission has launched a public consultation on the application and impact of the Database Directive on legal protection of databases. The Directive offers copyright protection for original databases and creates a new right called the sui generis right to protect databases on which major investments have been made. In the light of this consultation Communia has published its view on the Database Directive in its 12th policy paper. You can read the entire policy paper here.
The Directive aimed to remove existing differences in the legal protection of databases by harmonising the rules that applied to copyright protection. In addition it wanted to safeguard interests of businesses and users alike, namely the investment of database makers, and ensure that the legitimate interests of users of information contained in databases were secured. Continue reading →
Keeping an eye on the fine print: the UGC exception and the JURI committee
an 'exception' without protection
LicentieStańczykPublic domainJan Matejko
June 15, 2017 — Judith Blijden
The copyright reform remains an exceptional opportunity to close the discrepancies between present-day practices and outdated law. One of the pressing issues is solving the legal uncertainty for users and creators online. Creating online is part of our digital culture and whether it is allowed or not, occurs everyday. There continues to be a lack of legal clarity on how to deal with user-generated content made for non-commercial purposes ranging from funny memes to elaborate works that critique and reflect on the society we live in.
The European Commission’s proposal for the Copyright Directive lacks a user-generated content exception. This is worrisome, because it does introduce an article that could possibly lead to filtering content generated by users even though much of that content does not harm rightsholders. The recent IMCO vote where an exception for user-generated content (UGC) was adopted is a positive step forward in getting a UGC exception in the final Copyright Directive. However, we can’t let our guard down yet. JURI, the most important committee, will vote on its amendments later this year and it yet has to prove it will follow the precedence set by IMCO.
Opposition to the UGC exception
JURI led by Comodini did not incorporate a UGC expectations in its draft opinion. It hereby deviates from the other draft opinions such as those from the IMCO and CULT committee. Therefore a UGC exception can only be included via the proposed amendments by the MEPs. There are several committee members who have proposed amendments for the JURI committee either along the lines of the one proposed by Marc Joulaud, the Rapporteur for the CULT committee, or the one by Catherine Stihler, the Rapporteur for the IMCO committee.
Even though this is encouraging, there is a specific reason for concern. One of the proposed amendments for the JURE committee concerning a UGC exception stands out, because it negates the positive effects of a possible UGC exception. Yes, you read that right. It’s done in a clever, but harmful way. Continue reading →
Launched: rightcopyright.eu campaign for better education
Raising our voice for education
LicentiePortret van Deborah Delano lezend, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, 1858Public Domain Dedication CC ZEROJames Abbott McNeill Whistler
March 29, 2017 — Judith Blijden
Today, COMMUNIA launches the rightcopyright.eu campaign, asking for support for a better copyright for education. Let’s raise our voices and spread the word about this petition so we can influence our legislators in creating better copyright laws for education.
Why we need your help
The European Commission has presented a new European copyright law (Draft Directive) to the European Parliament which very much impacts education. Unfortunately, the current proposal is very disappointing and does not facilitate education. Educators have embraced the modern possibilities, and so should copyright. Therefore, COMMUNIA has developed a campaign website rightcopyright.eu to collect petitions of educators throughout Europe to let the European Parliamentarians know we need a better copyright for education. The European parliament will vote on the proposal later this year, and can change, accept or reject it. We will present the outcomes of the petition in the European Parliament, clearly showing them the voice of the European citizens eager for a good-quality education, and a copyright that matches.
Rapporteur Stihler wants to protect users from content filtering
The filter must go, and so should article 13
LicentieVue du théatre taillé dans le roc, près du jardins de la maison de plaisance d’Hellenbrunn (!) pris du dehors.Public domainCarl Gustav Hempel
March 1, 2017 — Judith Blijden
Catherine Stihler, Rapporteur of the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection (IMCO) released her draft opinion on the proposed Copyright in the Digital Single Market Directive. In this opinion, Stihler rightly states that article 13, which proposes to implement content filter mechanisms that would block some of users’ uploads, fails to achieve its purpose. She tries to make sure rightsholders and creators would receive a fair and balanced compensation for the exploitation of their work without negatively impacting the digital economy or internet freedoms of consumers. Acting on this, Stihler tries to fix article 13. However, we believe that the only appropriate response is to delete it altogether.
The filter must go
It is commendable that in her opinion MEP Stihler explicitly says that any attempt to address the value gap cannot be enforced if it has a negative impact on fundamental rights and internet freedoms of consumers. This is something the potential beneficiaries of the proposed article seem to ignore.
Explaining why the upload filter must be removed, MEP Stihler states that filter machines are not capable nor suitable to take into account user rights such as exceptions and limitations. This is something all the opponents of the upload filter, including COMMUNIA, have pointed out before. Therefore in her amendments she rightfully removes all references to the ‘effective’ recognition technologies, which would make the Directive text more technology neutral and future-proof. Continue reading →
Rapporteur CULT preserves upload filters in draft opinion
upload filters should be removed from the proposal
LicentieExperiment met luchtledige bol, Valentine Green, after Joseph Wright of Derby, 1768Public domainJoseph Wright of Derby
February 16, 2017 — Judith Blijden
Marc Joulaud, the rapporteur for the Culture and Education Committee of the European Parliament, points out in his draft opinion issued last week that the Commission’s copyright proposal ignores many of the most pressing concerns of internet users. At the same time, he fails to deliver adequate solutions to these problems. In this post we discuss his proposed amendments concerning the exception for user-generated content (UGC), and Article 13. The inclusion of a UGC exception is a step in the right direction. But the proposed amendments to Article 13, the section which introduces a filtering obligation for online platforms that allow users to upload content, make the already-harmful article even worse for users.
Adding a vague definition of ‘digital content platforms’
Joulaud recognizes that the scope of services potentially affected by Article 13 is quite unclear.
It is the Rapporteur’s opinion that the proposal does not define with enough precision the scope of services falling under the requirements of Article 13 of this Directive, creating legal uncertainty and a potential broader effect.
However, the solutions he proposes do not strengthen the legal certainty for those entities who might be covered under the article; they make it worse. Joulaud proposes a new definition of entities obliged to use upload filters called ‘digital content platforms’. This definition is aimed to center around the principle purpose of services instead of the activity of storing. The draft opinion is unclear regarding which information society service providers would count as ‘digital content platforms’, and it’s also uncertain whether these platforms would still receive the protection of the liability limitations of the eCommerce Directive. Just like the Commission’s proposal—which remains vague on how it will affect the safe harbor protection—Joulaud’s suggested amendment doesn’t provide any more clarity to the situation.
Upload filters don’t—and can’t—respect user rights
The most important flaw of the draft opinion is that even though Joulaud seems aware of the importance of user rights, he still tries to reconcile ‘effective’ content recognition technologies with user rights, including exceptions and limitations and freedom of expression. This is an impossible task. Continue reading →
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Minneapolis Porch Perfection: Bringing the Indoors Out
Create warm and inviting outdoor living spaces using tried-and-true interior design rules.
When the owners of this 1926 Minneapolis home undertook a renovation, they included the outdoor spaces in their plans. The home now includes newly built front and back porches that designers Laura Engen of Laura Engen Interior Design and Rob Edman of Edman Hill Interior Design transformed into three outdoor living spaces that coordinate with... Keep Scrolling
Written by Devlin Smith
Photography by Troy Thies Photography
Styling by Laura Engen and Rob Edman
When the owners of this 1926 Minneapolis home undertook a renovation, they included the outdoor spaces in their plans. The home now includes newly built front and back porches that designers Laura Engen of Laura Engen Interior Design and Rob Edman of Edman Hill Interior Design transformed into three outdoor living spaces that coordinate with the home’s interior and welcome neighbors, family and friends most of the year.
“Both porches were completely new so we had a blank slate to work with,” Laura says.
The goal for the 325-square-foot front porch was for it to be a gathering place where the family could chat with neighbors and also roast marshmallows. The designers delivered, giving the family a seating area with a brand-new fireplace and a separate conversation area with a porch swing.
“We love that everything looks like it could be used indoors as well.”
The blue palette, which is also followed inside the house, informed the fabric and décor choices for the front porch and was carried over into the back screened porch. The homeowner uses that 175-square-foot poolside space for entertaining family, enjoying a second brand-new fireplace and watching TV.
“All spaces were designed at the same time, so we had the opportunity to coordinate with the adjacent rooms to make them feel like they flowed together,” Laura says. “By using similar colors and textures, we came up with a cohesive look.”
“We had the opportunity to coordinate with the adjacent rooms o make them feel like they flowed together,” Laura says. “By using similar colors and textures, we came up with a cohesive look.”
Durability was a must in the selection of furnishings, fabrics and accessories for the three outdoor living spaces. “The homeowners requested high-end, heavy-duty outdoor furniture and fabrics that would hold up to the outdoors and their family,” Laura says. “We balanced the budget by using less-expensive pieces like the Crate and Barrel stump accent tables to complete the look.”
The durable wicker furnishings Laura and Rob selected feel like living room furniture, a plus for the designers and homeowner. “We love that everything looks like it could be used indoors as well,” Laura says. “It doesn’t scream ‘outdoor furniture.’”
For these designers, outdoor looks are sometimes brought inside, too, such as fabrics. “There are so many wonderful outdoor fabrics available, they’re made for soil-, stain-, mildew- and fade-resistance, usually acrylic or polyester,” Laura says. “Sometimes we use outdoor fabrics indoors because they’re so durable and good-looking.”
Getting the Swing of It
There are multiple considerations when adding a swing to your porch. If you’re planning to hang it, consult the experts to make sure it’s done properly and safely. Laura brought a carpenter in to hang this swing, ensuring the porch structure was properly reinforced for the installation. You may also want to consider purchasing a glider or framed swing to minimize the installation concerns.
Regardless of the type of swing you purchase for your porch, placement is key. “Consider what the view looks like when you sit in the swing,” Laura says. “Do you want to look at your neighbor’s house or the street? Do you have a landscape feature that you admire, or maybe you have a fireplace you want to cozy up next to? Determine what the purpose of the swing is, and then decide what placement makes the most sense.”
The original plan was to locate this swing fireside, but space didn’t permit it. The swing is now located in front of the French doors that lead to the sunroom, which gave new character to the front porch.
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Sports On The Air: Saturday
10 a.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: New Hampshire, Qualifying. FS1
1 p.m.: NASCAR Camping World Truck Series: New Hampshire. FS1
4:30 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series: VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300, Qualifying. NBCSP
8 p.m.: NASCAR XFINITY Series: VisitMyrtleBeach.com 300. NBCSP
12:30 a.m.: Formula One: Japanese Grand Prix. NBCSP
1 p.m.: Rangers at Astros. FOX
4 p.m.: Orioles at Red Sox. NESN, MLB; Radio: 1080
4 p.m.: Mets at Reds. SNY; Radio: 710
4 p.m.: White Sox at Yankees. WCTX; Radio: 660, 97.9
7 p.m.: Brewers at Cardinals. FS1
8:30 p.m.: Premier Champions. NBC
Noon: BYU at Michigan. ABC
Noon: Navy at Connecticut. CBSSN; Radio: 1080, 1400
Noon: Colgate at Holy Cross. CSN
Noon: LSU at Syracuse. ESPN
Noon: Georgia Tech at Duke. ESPN2
Noon: Central Florida at South Carolina. ESPNU
12:30 p.m.: Indiana at Wake Forest. WCCT
12:30 p.m.: Delaware at North Carolina. MSG, NESN
3 p.m.: Maryland at West Virginia. FS1
3:30 p.m.: Tennessee at Florida. ABC
3:30 p.m.: Massachusetts at Notre Dame. NBC
3:30 p.m.: Miami (Ohio) at Western Kentucky. CBSSN
3:30 p.m.: Oklahoma State at Texas. ESPN
3:30 p.m.: Virginia Tech at East Carolina or Western Michigan at Ohio State. ESPN2
3:30 p.m.: North Texas at Iowa. ESPNU
4:30 p.m.: Texas Christian at Texas Tech. FOX
7 p.m.: Colorado State at Texas-San Antonio. CBSSN
7 p.m.: Arkansas vs. Texas A&M. ESPN
7 p.m.: Vanderbilt at Mississippi. ESPNU
7:30 p.m.: Mississippi State at Auburn. ESPN2
7:30 p.m.: Stony Brook at William & Mary. SNY
8 p.m.: UCLA at Arizona. ABC
8:30 p.m.: Teams TBA. FOX
10:30 p.m.: Fresno State at San Jose State. CBSSN
10:30 p.m.: USC at Arizona State. ESPN
10 a.m.: Tour Championship, Third Round. GOLF
Noon: Tour Championship, Third Round. NBC
4 p.m.: Web.com: Nationwide Children's Hospital Championship, Third Round. GOLF
6 p.m.: Champions: Nature Valley First Tee Open, Second Round. GOLF
4 p.m.: Blue Jackets at Penguins. NHL
7 p.m.: Rangers at Devils. MSG, NHL
10 p.m.: Flames at Canucks. NHL
7:30 a.m.: English Premier League: Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester City. NBCSP
10 a.m.: English Premier League: Teams TBA. NBCSP
10 a.m.: English Premier League: Leicester City vs. Arsenal. USA
12:30 p.m.: English Premier League: Newcastle United vs. Chelsea FC. NBCSP
6 p.m.: Mexicano Primera Division: Club America vs. CD Guadalajara. UNI
7:30 p.m.: MLS: Philadelphia Union at New England Revolution. CSN
9 p.m.: Mexicano Primera Division: CF Pachuca vs. Club Santos Laguna. TELE
10 p.m.: MLS: New York City at Vancouver Whitecaps. YES
SUNDAY FOOTBALL
1 p.m.: Jaguars at Patriots. CBS; Radio: 1080
1 p.m.: Eagles at Jets. FOX
4:30 p.m.: Bears at Seahawks. CBS
8:20 p.m.: Broncos at Lions. NBC
ESPNU (tv network)
Fotis Dulos, estranged husband of missing New Canaan mother Jennifer Farber Dulos, attempted to get judge...
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Directory of artists and creative organisation in Kirklees / Profiles / Music / 1 to 15 of 787
Profiles / Music / 1 to 15 of 787
VIRSA
HARDEEP SAHOTA
Hardeep Singh Sahota is a leading authority on Bhangra, and has been one of the prominent forces in the UK delivering high quality Bhangra workshops, lectures and seminars over the last two decades. As a secondary school.....Read more
Fret - Don't Fret
Fret - Don't Fret is located in the centre of Doncaster and through this page, we aim to give you a feel for what we offer in our shop, and provide some useful advice and information. Here at FDF, we look forward to ge.....Read more
A Freelancer Providing Music Business Online Training And Consultancy/Mentoring. I am a highly motivated and enthusiastic professional who has spent the best part of thirty years working in the business sector of the Mu.....Read more
ICA-Perform
Hall Cross Academy
ICA-Perform is a venture that formalises the outstanding range and quality of Performing Arts on offer at Hall Cross Academy. It defines an enhanced entitlement for students and broadens the curriculum offer in and aroun.....Read more
Mirfield Choral Society
Choral Society
Although Mirfield is known to have had a Choral Society in the late 1800's which disbanded after the turn of the century, it was reformed in 1940 firstly as The Glee Choir, then The Vocal Society and eventually in 1974 a.....Read more
The 2019/20 Kirklees Concert Season is extra special as it marks the first season in our journey towards the Year of Music 2023 which will put Kirklees and our partners firmly on the musical map and will establish Kirkle.....Read more
Dewsbury Arts Group
Community Arts Organisation presenting a full season of plays, musicals and youth productions plus two Annual Art Exhibitions and regular in house exhibitions. The group has its own premises and theatre at Lower Peel St.....Read more
Marshfest 2019
Marsh Blues Club in association with The Welcome Centre proudly presents Marshfest 2019, July 19th - 20th. This family friendly music festival is held within the stunning grounds of the Ukraine Club, Huddersfield and .....Read more
&Piano
&Piano Music Festival
&Piano is a celebration of collaborative piano - music performed by singers and instrumentalists accompanied by piano. It aims to share and guide people around some of the most amazing music, performed by young and estab.....Read more
Huddersfield Choral Society
Founded in 1836, the Huddersfield Choral Society has developed an international reputation as one of the UK's leading choral societies. Our Junior Choirs were formed in 1986. The Society's busy schedule is centred on it.....Read more
Hepworth Brass Band
HEPWORTH BAND CHAMPIONSHIP BRASS IN THE HOLME VALLEY Hepworth, the village from which the band takes its name is situated on the edge of the Peak District National Park, close to the ‘Summer Wine’ town of Holmfirth i.....Read more
Cleckheaton Folk Festival
Cleckheaton Folk Festival 2019
Family friendly folk festival in the heart of West Yorkshire. 5th, 6th & 7th July 2019 Visit our website for further details and ticket pricing Concerts, Ceilidh, Morris Sides, Workshops and Special Events. Street En.....Read more
New Orleans Wiggle
New Orleans Wiggle Jazz Band
6 piece jazz band playing the music from the early days of New Orleans including standards, ragtime, blues, spiritual for dancing, parties, weddings, festivals, indoors or outside. Our regular friendly monthly venue on.....Read more
Manasamitra
South Asian arts organisation re-imagines...
Manasamitra is a Yorkshire based arts organisation delivering a range of South Asian arts and cultural experiences in traditional and innovative ways. The company’s work is stimulated by ideas, forms and aesthetics from .....Read more
Small Seeds
smallseedstalltrees
An indoor woodland music venue and bar programming music events such as... 'The Acoustic Club' - A weekly Open-Mic night now it its 17th year with musicians, poets and quiz. (Every Tuesday - Free entry) 'Friday Ni.....Read more
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Home › Series › ICC Cricket World Cup, 2019 › Videos
Cricket World Cu 2019 - I hope Indian fans are not angry with us: Kane Williamson
India’s loss on Wednesday broke a billion hearts as the cricket-crazy country had expected the Men in Blue to bring home the coveted trophy.
| Updated : July 11, 2019 9:20 AM IST
Man of the Match: Matt Henry
India’s loss on Wednesday broke a billion hearts as the cricket-crazy country had expected the Men in Blue to bring home the coveted trophy. Speaking about Indian fans who turned up in large numbers at the Old Trafford on Wednesday, Kane Williamson said: “I hope they’re not too angry. Obviously, the passion for the game in India is unrivalled and we are all fortunate to play this sport and have a country like India right behind it. There’s obviously huge amount of respect for India as a cricketing side. But the game of cricket can be a tough one on some occasions.”
Editorial team of CricketCountry.
First Published on July 11, 2019 9:20 AM IST
Last updated on July 11, 2019 9:20 AM IST
2019 ICC Cricket World Cup ICC Cricket World Cup 2019 ICC World Cup 2019 India Kane Williamson New Zealand
ICC Cricket World Cup, 2019 Match : India vs New Zealand
Cricket World Cup 2019 – We are sad, but not devastated: Virat Kohli
Cricket World Cup: Runs ‘just around the corner’ for Glenn Maxwell, says Aaron Finch in solidarity for allrounder
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CTSI Profile: Jerry Brooke
You are here Home / News / CTSI Profile: Jerry Brooke
As the director of finance for the Duke Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI), Jerry Brooke and his team provide financial guidance, analysis and oversight for the organization. Jerry’s work is all about collaboration with the wide array of partners across the Duke campus and external clients to ensure CTSI finances run as smoothly as possible, as well as with School of Medicine Finance staff to meet their numerous reporting needs and deadlines.
Jerry and his team handle the budgeting and financial reporting responsibilities for federally funded and industry projects, which also involve understanding the different policies and processes based on funding types. In the last few months, the finance team has been heavily involved in the rollout of CTSA 3.0, Project Baseline scenario budgeting, and finance-related work involved with the new CTSI CRU structure. Fortunately, Jerry says his great team brings diverse skill sets that allow them to tackle any task that comes their way.
“Like a lot of the groups at CTSI, we have new stuff coming to us all the time,” Jerry said. “As a manager, it’s great to have a team where I can be very hands off and know they will get their work done accurately and on time. My team deeply cares about doing their part to help the CTSI be as successful as possible.”
Jerry joined CTSI in 2016, his third time around the block working for Duke. His prior two Duke experiences were at the DCRI. What he enjoys most about his current role is how different it can be day to day. Jerry likes getting to be hands on with different project components and learning more about research in general through interaction with operational staff and faculty.
“I like that going into a day, I may think I have a work plan for what to complete, but something new or challenging always seems to come up,” he said. “Dealing with new challenges on a daily basis helps me learn and enhance my skill set, interact with different people, and keeps the job refreshing.”
Jerry enjoys pushing himself outside of work, too. Working remotely from Wilmington, he enjoys running marathons - “but as I get older and the injuries pile up, each marathon is my last” - landscaping, trying new craft beers, hiking in the NC mountains, and rooting for his favorite team, the Super Bowl-champion Philadelphia Eagles. Jerry believes his drive has helped further his career and made him into the hard worker he is today.
“Perception is a powerful and key part of one’s career progression and success,” he said. “Don’t lose sight of how others may perceive you and take the time to look back and reflect.”
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When we think about pets, we tend to concentrate on their classical attributes. Cute, furry and ridiculously loyal, we’re more than happy to cut them a bit of slack when we discover them chewing the sofa or vomiting in our designer loafers. After all, they don’t mean any harm, a fact you can glean from the unwavering innocence in their eyes. However, much like their human owners, certain pets are more prone to emotional issues than others. And, if you want to see what happens when four such pets live in a pressure cooker environment, you don’t have to look much further than Pets.
In amongst the empty dog food tins, faeces covered walls and furniture soaked in various bodily fluids, exists a disparate menagerie of foul language, violence and emotional instability. Welcome to the, quite literal, animal house of Pets.
Hamish (Ian Angus Wilkie), a sophisticated Red Setter, is eternally exasperated by the antics of his housemates. With his self-resolve continually eroded by the lunacy around him, Hamish frequently resigns himself to the idiocy of his housemates. He’s also rather handy with a vacuum cleaner hose. In sharp contrast to Hamish’s canine elegance is Trevor, a cockney Bulldog with a mouth like a sewer and a libido which would make even a randy Spaniard’s eyes water. To put it bluntly, if it moves, Trevor will have sex with it. Actually, scrub that, he’ll have sex with anything, be it a Christmas tree or a Winnie the Pooh hot water bottle.
A scraggly haired Persian blue, Davina (Sally Elsden) is a rage filled kitty with an insatiable appetite for prescription drugs. Unwilling to suffer fools gladly, Davina is highly creative with her violent threats such as promising to cut off Trevor’s old chap at the root and then gouge his eyes out with it. Davin Much more placid is JP (Petros Emanuel) a curiously bald, South African parrot (he lost his plumage to Trevor in a card game) with one brown eye and one blue eye. Much more cheerful than his fellow housemates, Trevor is no less disturbing, particularly with his passion for drinking his own urine.
Far from chasing sticks, climbing trees and relaxing in the sun, the inhabitants of Pets embark on a surreal series of adventures. Portals to parallel universes spring up in the airing cupboard, Hamish apparently gets Davina pregnant and Trevor summons up Satan. In amongst these main narratives, there’s also time for monologues from Davina (mostly about her absent boyfriend Vince) and JP, all of which close on his love of drinking urine. Completing the eccentric asides, Trevor’s internal worms feature on a regular basis and debate such pressing subjects as the merits of Mike Oldfield’s back catalogue.
Looking after the Pets
Part of Channel 4’s late night programming strand 4Later, Pets was written by Andrew Barclay and Brian West. Two series of 13 episodes were commissioned between 2000 and 2001 with episodes airing late in the evening. Central to the production, of course, were the rod-operated puppets and these were designed by Iestyn Evans who would later become a puppeteer with The Muppets and Star Wars.
Having worked together on several late night sketch shows in Edinburgh, Andrew Barclay and Brian West had honed their skills for writing foul-mouthed adult content. Casting his mind back to the early 00s, West revisits the genesis of Pets:
“I directed a commercial using rod puppets (a couple of fish) for Polish television, and I worked on that shoot with a young puppeteer and puppet maker called Iestyn Evans. I enjoyed the experience and suggested to Andrew Barclay that we get together and write a pilot for an adult puppet series. We funded and shot a short pilot at Elstree Millennium Studios, and we emailed a download link to Darren Bender at Channel 4. He was in charge of the 4Later strand at that time, and we were looking for a late night “adult” slot. He asked us to a meeting and commissioned 26 episodes on the spot”
When it came to writing the series, the collaborative process between Barclay and West was a fairly standard affair, but, as West remembers, they wanted to sprinkle a little innovation into the dialogue they were working with:
“We brainstormed the subject matter for 26 shows together. Then Andrew and I went away for about 3 months and wrote 13 scripts each. Then we sat in a cramped, dark little office at Elstree Studios and script edited all 26 episodes together. Then we wrote the inserts. I wrote all the parrot monologues, Andrew wrote all the cat monologues. Finally, we came up with the idea that the animals should have their own unique jargon. We made a list of invented word and phrases, and then we went back through the scripts and dropped the new words in”
All the dialogue was recorded in advance at Second Sense Studios, Elstree with West sat in the control room and directing the voice work. One slight change, regarding the voices, came about due to Petros Emanuel’s South African accent having a more authentic hilarity than the originally intended Australian one. Filming took place at Elstree Studios with the entire run of episodes taking around five weeks to record. 14 hour days were not unusual, as West recollects, but he deems the experience as a lot of fun with a fantastic atmosphere.
While the offer of a third series was not forthcoming from Channel 4, West explains that Pets found a further lease of likely in an unlikely location:
“Andrew and I held world rights in Pets, so we took the show to RDF to try and syndicate it. They sold it to Fox in Australia and to MTV in Italy. MTV made a fantastic job of dubbing it into Italian, and it became a huge hit in Italy. MTV Italy later licensed the characters to develop a 'Larry Sanders' style chat show around them. Trevor hosted. Hamish was Hank on the couch. It ran for three series and turned the two dogs into big celebrities in Italy. They even appeared in a pop video”
The most curious footnote to the Pets production history, however, would come several years later with the launch of BBC3’s Mongrels. Veering dangerously close to Pets in terms of tone and aesthetics, West had every right to feel aggrieved as he reveals:
“We pitched a new series of Pets to Mark Freeland at BBC3 and he passed, saying there was no market for adult puppet shows. A few years later Mark was the Executive Producer of “Mongrels” on BBC3. He hired almost all of our puppeteers, and got our character designer Iestyn to make all of his puppets. So Mongrels looked and felt very similar to Pets. We had two dogs and a weird parrot. They had a dog, a fox and a weird pigeon. It was so similar that many Pets fans emailed Andrew and I congratulating us on our new show. I rang the producer of Mongrels (Stephen McCrum) and he swore he had never seen Pets. I told him I didn’t believe him. Hey, that’s showbiz”
Generally the preserve of children’s television, puppets have made inroads to adult comedy on television with the huge exception of Spitting Image. And, when you think about it, it’s a real mystery as to why. With faces so cute that they represent an innocence akin to that of babes in the wood, puppets can get away with considerably more than their human counterparts. In Pets, for example, it’s much more acceptable for a puppet to deliver a line about flushing kittens down the toilet than a trained actor, so the potential to push taboos – an age old comedic device – is monumental.
As you’ve probably guessed from the kitten flushing example, Pets is a sitcom that is not afraid to deal in the dark, the disturbing and the downright foul. 4Later, of course, is the perfect home for Pets. To those who stayed up late in the late 90s and early 00s (mostly the unemployed and students) 4Later was an institution of offbeat programming. Shows such as Vids and Bits are rightly venerated as anarchic, punk television, but Pets remains oddly forgotten in their trail.
The series, though, is quite, quite fantastic. The initial premise may feel fairly straightforward and, essentially, it is just a house share comedy. However, far from concerning itself with the mundanity of everyday life, Pets pushes its narratives to hilariously outrageous extremes. Hamish begins to metamorphise into a Mexican, Davina is murdered (the characters frequently die) and JP dreams up a beautiful idea to celebrate Christmas in March, but only if he can keep randy Trevor away from the Christmas tree. So, yes, it’s a world away from your standard house share comedy.
It would be very easy for Pets to collapse into a heap of gratuitous nonsense, but it never feels as though the series is trying too hard to shock. There’s a natural order to the insanity served up by the characters which negates any risk of tiresome nonsense. And the characters are wonderfully irreverent. In fact, West recalls that the quartet of pets were loosely based on an unhinged reimagining of Hancock’s Half Hour. Hamish and Trevor were very much cast in the mould of Tony Hancock and Sid James while Davina was viewed as Hattie Jacques and Kenneth Williams’ persona was projected onto JP.
Each character is also rich in comedy. Sure, foul language and sexual deviancy is a common currency shared between the characters, but it’s all delivered with a range of ticking idiosyncrasies. Trevor, for example, is blatantly outright with his sexual frustration and won’t even think about other people in his quest for satisfaction, but JP, on the other hand, adopts a much creepier and disquieting approach. Likewise, Hamish and Davina are much more intelligent than the others, but Davina’s outlook is clouded by a violent depression and Hamish is simply unable to escape the curious grip of his housemate’s schemes.
It all works, of course, thanks to the 10 minute runtime. There’s absolutely no time to question anything unfolding in front of you and the writers manage to pack in an unbelievable amount over the course of an episode. Movie parodies of Stargate and American Beauty are played out whilst there’s also time to take in JP and Davina’s monologues alongside the ramblings of Trevor’s worms. It amounts to a swiftly delivered blow to the head and feels like a rollercoaster gliding through the most appealing sewage you ever did see. Or smell.
Pets may not be for everyone due to its riotously offensive tone and absolute disrespect of conventional social niceties, but, conversely, this may just guarantee it’s the sitcom for you.
10 Most Disturbing Children's TV Shows. Ever.
Old Boy Network
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Oakland”s Francesco”s closing after 47 years
By Linda Zavoral | Bay Area News Group
PUBLISHED: March 14, 2016 at 12:00 am | UPDATED: September 7, 2018 at 12:00 am
A classic closing: Chicken cacciatore. Clams bordelaise. Veal cannelloni.
Takes you back, doesn”t it? Alas, one of Oakland”s old-school Italian eateries, Francesco”s, won”t be serving those classics much longer. The landmark, in business for 47 years, is closing at month”s end.
“It”s just time,” said Theresa Erwin, the third-generation owner. “There”s nobody to pick it up. So it”s going into history.”
She”s been greeting — and consoling — longtime diners who wonder now where they will go to get their osso buco (Tuesdays) or ham hocks and lima beans (Wednesdays), two specials that have been on the menu since 1968, when her grandmother, Josephine Bargiacchi, opened the restaurant. Son Dewey Bargiacchi (Theresa”s father) then took over.
“It”s kind of humbling to think that these people found comfort here,” Erwin said. “I”ve done my part.”
The last meals will be served March 31. Until then, the hours remain 11 a.m. to 9:45 p.m. weekdays and 4 to 9:45 p.m. Saturdays. Details: 8520 Pardee Drive, Oakland. 510-569-0653; www.francescosrestaurant.com.
New in San Jose: After years of success in Daly City (Boulevard Cafe) and San Francisco (Pinecrest Diner), the Foundas restaurant family has turned to the South Bay for their next venture. It”s the Blue Door, and it has swung open for breakfast, lunch, dinner and cocktails at San Jose”s Westgate Center. Here, Sylvia and Peter Foundas transformed the former Chevys into a sleek restaurant that evokes the Mediterranean. On the menu: braised short ribs with orzo and mizithra cheese, double-cut pork chop with goat cheese polenta, cavatappi pasta with homemade walnut pesto. Greek-tinged lunch offerings include lamb sliders and meatloaf with oregano aioli. Blue Door serves from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. (until 11 p.m. Friday-Saturday) at 1502 Saratoga Ave., San Jose; thebluedoorrestaurant.com.
What”s up with Ike?: We caught up with Ike Shehadeh, owner of the insanely popular Ike”s Place sandwiches, and he”s got lots to report:
Send tips to Linda Zavoral at .
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Home Weekly specials sports quiz-left SPORTS SPHERE
SPORTS SPHERE
Jasprit Singh Bumrah, born on 6 December 1993 in Ahmedabad into a Punjabi Sikh family is an Indian cricketer who plays as a Right arm Fast bowler for the Indian national cricket team. After a couple of moderately successful seasons with the Mumbai Indians at the Indian Premier League, and with his domestic team Gujarat, he was named in India’s squad for its 2015-16 series against Australia, as a replacement to an injured Bhuvneshwar Kumar. He consequently made his debut in One Day Internationals & Twenty20 Internationals in 2015-16 series against Australia. He started his bowling career by playing for the Gujarat under-19 team. He made his Indian Premier League debut with the Mumbai Indians in 2013. He showed some promise in his bowling with some pace and swing, he has impressed many in the IPL with his bowling figures, in his debut match of IPL 2013 he took 3 wickets for 32 runs against the Royal Challengers Banglore. From a very young age he has been playing cricket, showing very minimal interest in education, Bumrah focused on his cricket and was supported throughout by his parents. Bumrah made his T20I debut in 27 January 2016 against Australia cricket team. He reached into the limelight due to his ability to bowl yorkers at the right time and perform well in the death. The good thing with Bumrah is that he has a slightly unorthodox action thus making it more difficult for batsmen to pick him up soon.
Also, his ability to bowl yorkers consistently has made him the leader of the Indian Cricket Team’s death bowling. Bumrah is a different bowler in pitches that assist fast bowling. The youngster bowls outside the off-stump or short quite consistently.
Identify the Player:
Write a brief description about him in 250 words.
Questions of this week:
1. Who won 1st KPL Pink Ball Cricket Tournament title?
2. Who won the first semifinal of 1st KPL Cricket Tournament?
3. Who won Budding Cricket Tourney title?
4. Who launched Sania Mirza’s autobiography?
5. Who won Summer Cup title?
Answers of the last week: 1. Khalsa Club 2. Rakesh Kumar 3. Ravi Chandran Ashwin 4. 7 medals 5. Narsingh Yadav.
The Best entry of this week was received from Rahul Sharma of Subash Nagar.
The other entries of the week were from Sanjay Dhar of Lower Laxmi Nagar, Sarwal, Krish Sharma of Janipur Colony, Satpal Singh of Shastri Nagar, Danish Sharma of Narwal, Suman of Bishnah, Mohammad Iqbal of Channi Himmat, Sunil Thakur of Udhampur and Tejveer Singh of Dashmesh Nagar, Digiana.
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