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Love Live Series Merchandise
Refined by : Premium Member Exclusive Sale, On Sale, In Stock, In Stock, Pre-Order & Special Order
Love Live! is a multimedia project co-developed by ASCII Media Works, Dengeki G’s Magazine, music label Lantis, and animation studio Sunrise. The project tells the story of fictional high school girls who start an idol group in order to save their school from closing down. The series launched in the August 2010 issue of Dengeki G’s Magazine and has gone on to encompass anime adaptations, manga adaptations, music releases, video games, and more. To date, the franchise has received two anime adaptations and a movie directed by Takahiko Kyogoku, written by Jukki Hanada, and produced by studio Sunrise: Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Sunshine!!, and Love Live! The School Idol Movie.
The Love Live! School Idol Project anime is the first in the franchise and its two seasons aired on Tokyo MX, TVA, and BS11 from Jan. 6, 2013 to June 29, 2014. Its story follows main character Honoka and members of the newly formed idol group μ's as they try to save their school, Otonokizaka Academy, from shutting down and follow their dreams of winning the Love Live idol competition and becoming full fledged idols. The anime spans 26 episodes total.
μ's Members:
Honoka Kosaka (CV: Emi Nitta) - The main character of Love Live! School Idol Project. She has a bubbly, cheerful personality and is the leader of μ's.
Kotori Minami (CV: Aya Uchida) - Honoka’s childhood friend who’s a bit airheaded. She is the wardrobe designer and choreographer of μ's.
Eli Ayase (CV: Yoshino Nanjo) - The Otonokizaka Academy student council president who is friends with Nozomi. She excels at sports and academics and is the choreographer of μ's along with Kotori.
Hanayo Koizumi (CV: Yurika Kubo) - A shy and quiet girl with poor self-esteem prior to joining μ's who later becomes president of the Idol Research Club.
Umi Sonoda (CV: Suzuko Mimori) - Honoka’s childhood friend who has expertise in kendo, koto, nagauta, shodo, and nichibu, and is the lyricist of μ's.
Rin Hoshizora (CV: Riho Iida) - A tomboy with an athletic and cheerful personality who is best friends with Hanayo.
Nico Yazawa (CV: Sora Tokui) - An idol superfan and founder of the Idol Research Club. She is the wardrobe designer of μ's along with Kotori. Her catchphrase is “Nico Nico Nii!”
Maki Nishikino (CV: Pile) - A talented singer and pianist, Maki is the main composer and vocal coach of the group.
Nozomi Tojo (CV: Aina Kusuda) - The big sister of the group who is demure with a mischievous side and acts as the group’s spiritual leader. Her hobby is fortune-telling.
The members of μ's are also divided into three mini groups. BiBi is comprised of Eli, Maki, and Nico, and their singles include "Diamond Princess no Yuutsu" and "Cutie Panther." Printemps is comprised of Honoka, Kotori, and Hanayo, and their singles include "Love Marginal" and "Pure Girls Project." The third group, Lily White, is comprised of Umi, Rin, and Nozomi, and their singles include "Shiranai Love*Oshiete Love" and "Binetsu kara Mystery."
The second anime, Love Live! Sunshine!! began airing on Tokyo MX, Sun TV, KBS, BS11, TVA, SBS, TVQ, and TVh on July 2, 2016. It tells a very similar story to Love Live! School Idol Project - girls banding together and forming an idol unit to save their school from closing - but its setting shifts to Uranohoshi Girls' Academy with a new lineup of characters who form the idol group Aqours. Its opening and ending themes are "Aozora Jumping Heart" and "Yume Kataru yori Yume Utao." Thirteen episodes of the anime are planned.
Aqours Members:
Chika Takami (CV: Anju Inami) - The main character of Love Live! Sunshine!! who has a complex about being too ordinary and looks up to μ's which leads her to form a school idol group of her own.
Riko Sakurauchi (CV: Riakko Aida) - A modest, down to earth transfer student and the group’s composer.
Kanan Matsuura (CV: Nanaka Suwa) - Chika’s childhood friend who takes care of her injured grandfather and has a hard time attending class.
Dia Kurosawa (CV: Arisa Komiya) - The Uranohoshi Girls' Academy student council president, Dia is prideful and joins the group after losing a bet to Chika. She is also a diehard fan of μ's.
You Watanabe (CV: Shuka Saito) - Chika’s childhood friend who has an energetic, positive personality. Her catchphrase is “Keep her steady!”
Yoshiko Tsushima (CV: Aika Kobayashi) - Yoshiko joins the group in an attempt to try and overcome her chunibyo. She refers to herself as Yohane, a fallen angel.
Hanamaru Kunikida (CV: Kanako Takatsuki) - A ditzy, talented singer whose family runs a local temple.
Mari Ohara (CV: Aina Suzuki) - A bright go-getter whose favorite music is industrial metal.
Ruby Kurosawa (CV: Ai Furihata) - Dia’s timid crybaby sister who has long dreamed of becoming an idol and has androphobia (the fear of men).
Just like μ's, the members of Aqours are also divided into three mini groups. The first, CYaRon!, is comprised of You, Ruby, and Chika, and their first single is "Genki Zenkai Day! Day! Day!" Azalea is comprised of Dia, Kanan, and Hanamaru and their first single is "Torikoriko Please!!" Yoshiko, Riko and Mari make up the third group, Guilty Kiss, whose first single is "Strawberry Trapper."
Being an idol franchise, there is a main focus on music. A total of 46 singles have been released for Love Live! School Idol Project including the first season opening and ending themes "Bokura wa Ima no Naka de" and "Kitto Seishun ga Kikoeru," the second season opening and ending themes "Sore wa Bokutachi no Kiseki" and "Donna Toki mo Zutto," and μ's final single “Moment Ring.” Other notable μ's singles include "KiRa-KiRa Sensation! / Happy Maker!," "Korekara no Someday / Wonder Zone,” "Susume→Tomorrow / Start:Dash!!," and “Snow Halation.” There have also been 14 original song CDs including those released with the Blu-ray volumes, 20 character albums, and 7 video albums of concerts including μ's final concert “μ's FinalLoveLive! 2016: μ'sic Forever.” Nine singles have also been released for Aquors, the idol group from Love Live! Sunshine!!, including "Kimi no Kokoro wa Kagayaiteru Kai?" and "Koi ni Naritai Aquarium" with their latest being "Yume de Yozora o Terashitai/Mijuku Dreamer," two insert songs used in the anime.
Aside from anime and music, the franchise also spans a wide range of other media. Three manga written by Sakurako Kimino have been published so far by ASCII Media Works in Dengeki G’s Magazine and Dengeki G’s Comic - these include Love Live! School Idol Project, Love Live! Anthology, and Love Live! School Idol Diary. A novel also titled Love Live! School Idol Diary written by Sakurako Kimino that remixes the anime series and is told from the perspective of different μ's members is published by ASCII Media Works and includes 11 volumes to date. Love Live! School Idol Festival, a collectable card and rhythm action game for the iOS and Android, was released by Bushiroad in Japan on April 16, 2013 and worldwide May 11, 2014. The game has since spawned the School Idol Festival Thanksgiving Festival, a competition held yearly in Japan since 2015 looking for the best School Idol Festival player. There have also been three rhythm action video games released on the PS Vita under the title Love Live! School Idol Paradise on Aug. 28, 2014, developed by Dingo Inc. These include: Vol. 1 Printemps, Vol. 2 BiBi, and Vol. 3 Lily White. There is also a board game called Love Live! Board Game: Fan Acquisition, School Idol Great Operation!, and radio web shows that include Love Live! µ's Public Relations Department ~NicoRinPana~ and RADIO Animelo Mix Love Live! ~NozoEri Radio Garden~. Love Live! characters have also appeared in four Bushiroad trading card games: Victory Spark Booster Pack "Baby Princess & Love Live!", Weiss Schwarz Love Live! School Idol Project, Fiveqross, and Love Live! School Idol Collection.
Love Live! Sunshine!!, Love Live!, First Live: with You
Chika Takami, You Watanabe, Nico Yazawa, Mari Ohara, Riko Sakurauchi, Yoshiko Tsushima, Umi Sonoda, Hanamaru Kunikida, Nozomi Tojo, Eli Ayase, Kanan Matsuura, Ruby Kurosawa, Rin Hoshizora, Dia Kurosawa, Maki Nishikino, Kotori Minami, Hanayo Koizumi, Honoka Kosaka, Nijigasaki Academy School Idol Club, Saint Snow, Leah Kazuno, Sarah Kazuno
Putitto Love Live! Sunshine!! Box Set
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Chibi Kyun Chara Love Live! Sunshine!! ~Mijuku Dreamer~ Vol. 3
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Chibi Kyun Chara Love Live! Sunshine!! Immature Dreamer Vol. 2
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The other Arts review
Tag Archives: Jennifer Leigh Allen
Darkness Falls on the Open Arts Café
On Thursday night I entered into a world of darkness and lurid twisted minds. No, I hadn’t just entered the pub with old friends, no, I had stepped foot into The Open Arts Café (cue overdramatic sound effect).
The Open Arts Café is a monthly themed arts event that gives new and emerging artists working in all mediums a platform on which to perform and present their works. It is the brainchild of Maya Levy whom with Tyne Rafaeli established the event in 2008 to give artists a non-intimidating and dynamic environment in order to foster creativity and encourage them at the beginning of their artistic careers.
The theme of the night was “Darkness Falls”, fitting for the Halloween period. As I sat down with some blood red wine and scary snacks the show began. First up was Emily Harrison a Poet who won the Christopher Tower Poetry Prize in 2010, the Bang Said the Gun stand up poetry prize, has been published in Pop Shop and is one of the Barbican’s 15 best young poets between 14-25 in the UK. She came to the front of the stage with a quiet air of confidence and proceeded to read her pieces which were energetic and witty with a sardonic bite. Two pieces stuck in my mind to the point I had to discuss it with a friend afterwards, “Self (Marc Quinn)”, an interpretative poem about Marc Quinn’s sculpture of his own head carved out of his own blood, and a poem about the backstage lives of actors in Disneyworld. She has her very own webpage where you can read more of her works www.blag-jazz.tumblr.com A great live performer with an edge, I would recommend everyone read her works or better yet, catch her live if you can.
Next came Gallit Shaltiel , a Brighton based Illustrator, visual artist, photographer and educator. She recently completed an MA in Sequential Illustration and Design at the University of Brighton and last night she presented us with “Talking Underwater with a mouthful of cement” a piece of animation for which she received a distinction. The animation was made fusing digital technology with handmade elements of paper cutting. There is a quality of the macabre in the monochromatic style and the visuals evoke images of coffins, death and skeletons. You can see more of her works on her website: http://gallitshaltiel.com/
Shortly after we were witness to the musical dexterities of Meadhbh Boyd whose songs like “smelly Defeat” had heads bopping to spooky experimental pop tunes. Having been born in Clare, Ireland Meadhbh now lives and works in London as a musician, Journalist and teacher. You can find out more about this dynamic musician on her website at http://meadhbhboyd.com/
The interval came and the audience were led into the bar area where we were also treated to some ghoulish displays by two very accomplished artists: Charlotte Orr and Karina Akyopan.
Oxford based freelance illustrator, Charlotte Orr’s works create a sense of wonder and awe in the landscapes and perspectives she portrays. Be it urban or natural, you can be sure that she will present you with an image that grasps your attention in its creativity. Visit her page at http://www.charlotteorr.com/ and have a look at her captivating works.
Karina is a London based artist and illustrator whose works are infused with intricate and repetitive patterns mixed with a dash of kink which maintains the viewer’s gaze. Head to www.karina-akopyan.com to be enthralled in her fetish wonderland.
To bring us back into the nightmarish world of darkness the multi talented Maya Levy, who along with being the sole artistic director of the Open Arts Café since 2010 is also a singer songwriter, performed some wonderfully humorous and dark pieces. One particularly funny one was inspired by the story of a school being evacuated due to a black widow spider sighting. Based on the music and witty lyrics you would never have guessed that she had only written it the night before. To end her set the audience were asked to sing along to a mash up of Stand by Me and The Monster Mash, a surreal and thoroughly enjoyable experience.
After Maya’s dynamic performance we were introduced to the writer Jennifer Leigh Allen who read us an excerpt of her original fairy tale entitled “Lux” which concerns the concepts of light and darkness as seen through a child’s eyes. The story was captivating and her talent can be noted in the fact that when she finished her excerpt, everyone in the audience wanted to know what happened next. We were all spellbound by her story. Jennifer Leigh Allen is also one half of the London based production company “CosmoLeigh” http://www.cosmoleigh.com .
The final treat of the night was the talented musician, Nick Edward Harris Nick is a guitar/harmonica player, songwriter and teacher based in London . His music is a mix of Andy Mckee’s brilliant percussive use of the guitar and John Martyn’s melancholic atmosphere. His debut album “Chimera” was produced by Nick Trepka and features collaborations with Ted Dwane of Mumford and Sons as well as Emma Gatrill of The Mariner’s Children. You can buy his album on his website where you can also find out more about this talented and inspiring musician, http://www.nickedwardharris.com/. If you have the chance to see him live, I advise you take it as he will surely grip you with his musical talents.
All in all, it was a great night full of jaw dropping, talented and ghoulish artists. Maya Levy never fails to do a wonderful job picking the best artists and performers for her themed night which are always thoroughly entertaining.
The next event at the Open Arts Café will be on the 28th of November. To find out details or to be kept informed of events, you can visit the website at http://www.openartscafe.com/ and also follow them on facebook at https://www.facebook.com/openartscafe.
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Julianne Geiger
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Another Massive Gas Explosion Rocks China, Casualties Unknown
By Julianne Geiger - Jul 19, 2019, 10:30 AM CDT
A massive explosion has been reported at China’s Yima gas plant in Henan province, damaging buildings in a 3-kilometer radius.
The casualties are still unknown as of the time of reporting, with some media citing Chinese television as saying that 18 people had so far been reported as injured, a dozen missing and possibly two confirmed fatalities.
Stills taken from Chinese television show giant plumes of smoke in the aftermath of the explosion.
Source: Straits Times / Screen shot from Chinese TV
According to AFP news agency reporters in Beijing, the explosion took place on Friday at 5:45pm local time in the air separation unit at the Yima gas factory and did not hit the gas tank areas.
Local authorities report that all production has been halted at the plant.
AFP reports two people missing and many injuries as emergency services scramble to contain the scene.
"Many windows and doors within a three-kilometre radius were shattered, and some interior doors were also blown out by the blast," state broadcaster CCTV said on its Twitter-like Weibo social media account, as reported by ChannelNewsAsia.
The situation is still developing, but is reminiscent of a string of recent and historical disasters of a similar nature in China.
In March, dozens were killed in an explosion at a Chinese chemical plant. Nearly 80 people were killed in the explosions, and hundreds of others were injured. Over 20 people were reportedly detained by authorities in the aftermath of this explosion, which was supposed to have prompted a nationwide inspection of chemical firms.
In August 2015, a warehouse handling hazardous chemicals in the city of Tianjin exploded, killing at least 165 people. The company that owned the warehouse did not have legal permission to handle the hazardous chemicals.
Drone footage of that photo taken by Chinese TV showed a massive crater caused by the toxic explosion.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
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U.S. Oil Rig Count Falls Amid Production Dip
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- January 21, 2020 -
Cuba-USA
Styles / Trends
Cuban Flavors
Home Cuba Science Health in Cuba
More of a doctor: less of a family person?
by OnCuba Staff
in Health in Cuba
After seven years in Venezuela, Dr. Jorge Humberto decided not to be away from his wife and daughter. Only the program Mais Brazil Doctors would make him think of leaving Cuba to meet the material needs not fully covered in his previous trips. In Brazil, they allowed him to take his family with for the duration of the work.
When in Havana he was offered the opportunity, he said yes and signed the six-page contract , where he handed over 70 percent of his salary to the authorities in Cuba. He passed a course on Portuguese and Brazilian traditions, boarded the plane and in just a week, started the paperwork to bring his people.
After considerable economic cost (more than two thousand dollars) and a bureaucracy which at times seemed endless in both countries (about fifteen steps between each side), Humberto got his family, protected by a visa granted by Brazil for 36 months, they were beside him.
However, the peace did not last long: in early February 2015, a Cuban official warned him that due to indications of the Ministry of Public Health, relatives should return to Cuba within a maximum period of two months or measures would be taken including, ultimately, the interruption of stay in Brazil.
Humberto Jorge is not his name. The team that has led this investigation changed the name to protect his identity. The reason: no Cuban doctor is authorized to disclose inside information about its work, pursuant to subsection r in the second paragraph of the contract.
“R) Keeping strictly confidential any non-public information received in such condition that accesses or by any means, in compliance with the work performed or performed under this Agreement, in Cuba and Brazil. Such confidentiality is from the signing of this Agreement and for one year after its termination for any reason “.
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“No One is Above the Law”
However, many of them use anonymity to report on the social networks and the Internet what they consider a serious violation of their rights as citizens: the threats by the Ministry of Public Health to withdraw their qualifications and suspend their stay in Brazil to every physician to prolong the stay of their families for longer than directed.
The outrage has even led to the collaboration of Cuban doctors with the Brazilian press to make the decision public, as evidenced by a recent article published by the Folha de Sao Paulo.
Another article, also published by the Folha relates the strong criticisms made by the president of the Brazilian Medical Association, Florentino Cardoso, and the presidents of the Regional Councils of Medicine of the states of Sao Paulo and Minas Gerais. In all cases make mention of the inadmissibility of this attitude, “because it is a contrary proceed to labor standards and family life established in Brazil.”
The conflict becomes more apparent when Brazilian authorities reiterate the validity of visas granted to relatives of Cuban doctors for a period of 36 months, a position that stress by exposing their intentions to remain unaltered the delivery of visas. Meanwhile, Cuba immigration laws allow their natural residents up to two years out of the country without losing residency. No immigration provision prevents the establishment of family in the South American country.
The only clause in contracts issued by Cuban authorities and signed by doctors, referring to the possibility of a family reunion in Brazil is done, use only the term “visit”, without specifying the time or conditions thereof.
“Q) Informing the Department of the Cuban Medical Brigade in the Federative Republic of Brazil, prior, his intention to receive visits from relatives or friends in the town where he provides his services under this Agreement; if the visit occurs, he will be totally responsible and shall take all measures to not occur any involvement in fulfilling their duties and obligations corresponding to the subscribed LEGAL INSTRUMENT and with this contract.”
The legal void on the right of families to be with the doctor in Brazil for as how long as they wish has implied the absence of an endorsement to counter via the right, the measure of the Cuban authorities. Doctors are literally disarmed.
Copy of the individual contract issued by the authorities of the island and signed by Cuban doctors enrolled in the Mais Doctors program. None of its pages state that family stay in Brazil is prohibited.
Nobody could believe that this measure was issued…
Since its inception in 2012, sending doctors to Brazil by the Cuban government, occurred abnormally compared to other medical collaborations that the island has established more than 60 countries. The negotiations were carried discreetly with the Pan American Health Organization as an intermediary. But apparently the Cuban and Brazilian authorities have lacked communication, since in many respects the lack of coordination has prevailed, as evidenced by the avalanche of shipments from Brazil by Cuban doctors, who collapsed services Cuba, a situation aggravated by the absence of agreements between postal companies of both countries.
With regard to the situation with the family, Laura S., a young doctor who at 32 has not yet had any children and saw in this mission the possibility to stabilize emotionally with her partner, told OnCuba: “Nobody could believe that after much effort a measure contrary to Brazil´s initial authorization would be issued. A measure that leaves us uncomfortable, outraged to reviewers and stain vision that authorities and patients here have on Cuba, on our mission. It is a blow to Mais Medical Program. A blow that paradoxically comes from Cuba “.
According to testimony from several doctors, mission coordinators in each state called personally for dates back to the families and small gatherings for groups warn them that there is a long list of staff wishing to join the mission “on the island, so there are no major setbacks to unlink them from the program if not complying with the order “.
The only institutional response so far is in CubaBras Blog in a post of the National Coordination of the Cuban Medical Brigade:
“To all of our employees, the issue related to the family in Brazil is of interest that everyone knows defined for it: The state coordinators have the argument on this issue, which will contenting with each of you, in addition to them they tell you how to be held this process for anyone wishing to bring family to Brazil or already have a family here. ”
OnCuba tried for over a month to get a statement from the Cuban Ministry of Public Health on the matter, which was denied flatly.
Brazil, another South Africa?
At present, the work of Cuban doctors abroad represents a major source of revenues for Cuba, and still no public data on gains in other activities, many define the export of medical services as the current support of the Cuban economy. Only in 2014, more than eight billion dollars in revenue was anticipated by the work of Cuban doctors abroad. Hence the importance that the Cuban government gives the sector and the precautions taken to avoid a massive emigration.
A notorious example and that there are no further references, was the one in South Africa during the nineties, when nearly three thousand doctors left with their families the collaboration program. Although this year announced the increase of shipping doctors in this country are evident efforts of the Cuban authorities to avoid South Africa’s experience with nearly 12,000 Cuban doctors in Brazil.
The comprehensive general medical Raunel Lugo, who has a wife in Campinas, Sao Paulo, explains on South Africa that “the mission was smaller, were specialists, ie oncologists, surgeons, clinicians receiving a huge salary, almost 12 000 dollars a month, plus car, house and other privileges. Errors were also committed, they did not let them bring cars to Cuba, had to give the embassy over half the salary, not allow the import of container, “adding that” conditions were in different historical moments “.
For the South American giant, dozens of Cubans (there are no official figures, nor published, only estimates) have left the Mais Medical Program. In these cases, the Cuban authorities immediately considered “deserters” and cancel their permits to practice medicine by Cuban procurement. One of the most notorious cases was that of Dr. Ramona Matos, who raised controversy for months after leaving the program Mais Doctors and speak negatively of Cuban participation in the Brazilian initiative.
But not all think or act like Dr. Matos. Published data show the Cubans as the group with the lowest dropout rate of Mais Doctors. While in Brazil there is a program designed to provide working facilities and revalidation of degree for those that leave the program or the existence of the visa system Parole designated for Cuban doctors abroad, which are granted by the government United States upon request at the US embassies.
Jorge Humberto explains that “most doctors who work here are older than 40 years, have deep roots in our communities in Cuba, we also have other family members who need our support, elderly parents, which import more than money. We have shown that we will always return, with the problems of our society but aims to help improve it.
“That’s part of our consciousness work, none of us, though there are exceptions, has protested Cuba getting 73 percent of our salary. We understand that this is to help our society and our people, but our sacrifices are not enough, they want our pain, humiliation and our shame. And that, my brother, I do not think that we will ever deliver “.
Meetings of the Antillean surrealism
Recently, sources in Brazil of this research reported that following reactions, the main responsible for the Cuban part of Mais Doctors Program, under instructions of the Cuban Ministry of Health, met with several groups of collaborators. In Sao Paulo, these meetings took place in several municipalities in the state. OnCuba talked about these meetings with Dr. Rigoberto Pereira, comprehensive general practitioner.
Where was the meeting held specifically?
We initially thought that the meetings would be conducted at the Consulate of Cuba in Brazil. Later we knew it would not be there because as these attitudes are not part of the immigration policy of Cuba, and is legislated by the Cuban state, as it doesn’t have to do with indications of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and should not be performed there. The meeting ended up in a premise of the municipality.
Who directed these meetings? Who were called?
The meetings are led by Dr. Maria Cristina Luna, Head of the Mission here in Brazil; there are consular officials, and in the State of Sao Paulo, participated Dr. Roilder Romero, Coordinator of Mission of the State. At the meeting are summoned all physicians in the municipality to which previously were shown discipline and methodologies for information to be sent. In some cases after individual meetings occur.
What did they say about the measure? What were the arguments this time?
The move is dictated by the Ministry (Health) without conclusive arguments. This time they raised the Cuban missions have a separate Government of Cuba legislation and Medical Services Company which was put in the contract that the family could only come to visit and not to live with the doctors. At this point the discussions are intense because nobody knew that part of the contract, that “visits” is a broad term without time limits and especially the fact that if you knew about the existence of that clause ( which they didn’t show) Why did they let us incur in all costs of paperwork and passage and then apply the measure?
Did they mention who is responsible for the measure?
No, as in other times they did not say who is responsible. No names.
Was some Brazilian representative present? How did they react?
To my knowledge, they avoid the presence of representatives from the Brazilian side. They know that Brazilians do not understand that our institution deprive us of a law and constitution they have given us. They do not understand this measure, which is illogical. If we do not understand neither can you imagine Brazilians?
What options were you given if you refuse to return the family?
They did not give us options, just told us we are to give a solution. We had to abide by what was “established” and that they would wait for the response. Otherwise, they would interrupt the mission.
Did you notice any differences between the positions of those who were in charge of the meeting?
I do not know whether to call them divergences. I cannot be sure of that. Although I can tell you that it seemed that the representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs do not agree with this and were there only to fulfill a protocol. They can do nothing with the provisions of another Ministry (the Health), but agree that this measure goes completely against Cuba immigration policy recently adopted by the National Assembly.
How do you feel after these meetings? Do you anticipate any change in the current situation?
The truth is I didn’t take any positive expectation for this meeting and the result is confirmed. It is lamentable. Feeling helpless for your own authorities, by those who should look after us. To feel that one has wanted to do for his country while having to live with the discomfort that transforms into rage and ends in great pain. Hopefully we can do something. I believe they are still time. It cannot be that we give this vision, so inhumane to a program that aims precisely the opposite note: the union and the health of all families.
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Capital Verdict
Sweep! It’s AAP all the way
AAP chief ministerial candidate Arvind Kejriwal is likely to take oath on 14 February - exactly one year after he resigned as the Delhi chief minister
Kumar Anshuman | 10 Feb, 2015
Dunia ne dekha hai dum, Dilli jeet gaye hain hum. Paanch Saal Kejriwaal (The world has seen our powers, we have conquered Delhi. Five years for Kejriwaal) The enchanting doesn’t stop this morning at Patel Nagar office of Aam Aadmi Party. All the top leaders of the party were reaching the office one by one. Kumar Vishwas was the first to reach the office. As the victory margins grew and the trends for more seats became available, the crowd outside also swelled to its full capacity. There is music, dance and all excitement outside the office.
Occasional addresses by leaders make the crowd turned frenzy. In between Vishwas turns up with his poetry and information on whom all are winning from where. Even the leaders had not expected such a landslide win. “My expectation was 45 to 50 but the people of Delhi have showered love on us,” says Vishwas.
When Yogendra Yadav reaches the party office the crowd tries to run over him. Yadav advises the workers to maintain peace and calm. “We should not behave like what other political parties do in victory. We are different.”
Inside the office a meeting is going on in front of TV screen where leaders are discussing the final tally and also the day of oath ceremony. Some say the final number of seat should be 65.
Suddenly a debate comes about 15 February, the day when Kejriwal should take oath. A young AAP worker mentions that on 15 February, there is an important match between India and Pakistan for the cricket World Cup.
Phone calls are made immediately and it is decided that the oath taking ceremony will be held a day before – on 14 February. Kejriwal had resigned from the chief minister’s post last year on 14 February and hence it would be exactly one year after he would take charge again.
At the party office, the crowd now is waiting for one speech and that would be of Arvind Kejriwal. Kejriwal has not reached party office and is still at his house in Kaushambi. But the leaders inform that he is expected any moment here and will give the victory speech.
AAPArvind KejriwalBJPCongressDelhi Assembly election 2015
Kumar Anshuman
The Republic@70
21 Jan, 2020 - 27 Jan, 2020
Vol 11 | Issue 54
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Field Marshall KM Cariappa: Coffee with the Commander
Sunanda Jain In a tribute to Field Marshall KM Cariappa, who was born 117 years ago on this day, an army wife recalls her first coffee and conversation with the Indian Army’s first and last Commander-in-Chief
Tibetans in Nepal Struggle for Donations After Quake
Namita Rao and Ritu Panchal Since 1989, the Nepalese government has not recognised Tibetans as refugees
Atmospheric Embroidery
Meena Alexander A preview of poet Meena Alexander’s new collection of poetry, out this June
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NOplays
Theatre for New Voices
May 6, 2019 by NOplays
Ladies First May
LADIES FIRST is a list of new productions, workshops, readings, and publications by female playwrights. Our goal is to create greater gender parity in theatre by highlighting the works of female writers and the organizations that promote and produce their works.
May 1st and 2nd – Dori Levit in association with The Tank presents
You Are Not Alone, a festival of short plays centered around the
anguish, stigma and difficulties of coping with mental illness.
Directed by Dori Levit
Assistant Directed by Sydney Wilson
Written works by Allie Costa, Rachael Carnes, Remington Moses, Joe
Starzyk, Joshua Crone, Maggie Wilson, and Eric Walkuski
Set and Lights by Jacob Prince
Stage managed by Natalie Streiter
Featuring Sydney Wilson, Jacob Saxton, Emily DeSotelle, Judith
Feingold, Alexander Chilton, Jason Sofge, Jaelyn Gavin, Andre Vauthey,
Kenneth Weinstein, Damien Palacios, Barbara Kinter, Valerie Donaldson,
Alexandra Sabina, and Howard Margulies
Proceeds go to the organization Active Minds
Tickets: https://you-are-not-alone.brownpapertickets.com/
Uncle John and The Men’s Room
by Maxine Kern#
Directed by Lynn Marie Macy
With Jane Rubinsky & Susan Skosko
Inspired by Hoboken Station by Philip Seltzer
Josie Divine
by Coni Ciongoli Koepfinger#
Directed by Glenora Blackshire
With Beth Griffith
Inspired by Energy Shadows by Liz Amadio#
The One & Only Amanda Palmer
by Kat Mustatea#
Directed by Katherine Elliot#
With Kendra Augustin, Cheryl Bear & Katherine Elliot
Inspired by Victim Impact Statement by Melanie Barksdale
An AEA Showcase production of:
Guardian of the Field
by Liz Amadio#
Directed by Shellen Lubin+#
With Amy Fulgham* & Lori Sinclair Minor*
(and Kendra Augustin, Cheryl Bear & Katherine Elliot)
Inspired by Birds by Carol Martinez
*Members: Actors Equity Association
+ Member: SDC
#LPTW members
Cindi Cericola – Art Curation Advisor
Jonah Farley – Video Artist
Joe Izen – Composer
Jak Prince – Lighting Designer
Art Opening – Thursday 5/09/19 @ 6PM
with 8 Theatrical Performances:
Thursday, 5/09 – Saturday, 5/11 @ 8PM
Sunday, 5/12 @ 3PM
Link for tickets: https://www.artful.ly/cosmicorchid-vdp4-0
May 10th-19th Eden Prairie Players presents the Women’s One Acts
Festival. Come prepared for laughs and tears as we celebrate women in
theater! Featuring:
Between Dollywood and Disney
by Robin Rice
directed by Taryn Verley
STAN: Mike Reardon
SUSIE: Kisten Thompson
Exceeding The Purchasable Calories
by Rhea MacCallum
directed by Kayla Hambek
WOMAN: Jen Cordes
MANAGER: Wendy Hathaway
CLERK: Christy Jones
by Emily Hageman
directed by Lori Alsdurf
MADISON NOW: Amanda Johnson
MADISON THEN: Reese Johnson
JESSICA: Samantha King
MOM: Tedra Bonner
DAD: Steven Ramirez
FATHER: David Durkee
MR. LEE: Mike Reardon
MATT: Sergio Aguado Drake
KATIE/ALYSSA: Kylie Borchardt
KATIE/ALYSSA: Caitlin Warshaw
Creating: The Enticing Esmeralda
by Tabitha Kerr
directed by Tabitha Kerr and Kelly Rohde
BEA: Shelley Wolf
ESMERALDA: Morgan Gray
JULIAN: Steven Ramirez
SURPRISE GUEST(S): David Durkee
Who She Could Have Been
by Allie Costa
directed by Elizabeth Michaelson
RHYS: Chris Maresca
SIMI: Jenny Robinson
The Morning Menage
by Tracey Jane
directed by Jessica Passaro
DAWN: Sher Unruh-Friesen
ALARM CLOCK: Ankita Ashrit
BED: Andrew Scipioni
COFFEE: Tim Williams
Tickets: https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/epp/4216249
May 18th-26th Ixion Theatre Ensemble presents Hope, a festival of
eight plays selected from over two hundred submissions. Each offers a
unique take on what it means to have hope. At the helm of this
production is Rose Jangmi Cooper, making her directorial debut.
The eight scripts being performed are:
Hijab by Andrea Clardy
Low Light by Allie Costa
Be More 282 by Rich Espey
Winter in the House by Lauren Ferebee
Scripted by Mark Harvey Levine
172 Push-Ups by Scott Mullen
Classics for Kids by Ellen Sullivan
One, Three, Two by Michael Weems
The performers will be: Sadonna Croff, Jacquelyn Marks, Leo
Poroshin,Paul J Schmidt, Ellen Weise, Lekeathon Wilson and Muthu
Jayatissa.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/hope-a-collection-of-short-plays-tickets-60574917208
To submit to the June issue of LADIES FIRST, email natalie.noplays@gmail.com before the end of the month. Send us your name, the name of your play, the name of the theatre producing your work, a sentence or two about the play, the where and when, and an image. Thank you to everyone who participated in this month’s LADIES FIRST newsletter.
April 2, 2019 by NOplays
Thank you to everyone who came out and supported this years Best of HERSTORY at the New Haven Free Public Library!
Thank you also to The Arts Council of Greater New Haven for writing this fantastic article on HERSTORY! If you missed the show or if you just want to remember a great afternoon, you can read the article right here.
March 30, 2019 by NOplays
HERSTORY SATURDAY!
The Best of HERSTORY Festival is only a few hours away! Please join us this Saturday at 3:30pm, at the New Haven Free Public Library, one show only!
To learn more about this years HERSTORY and NOplays Theatre, check out this interview with Artistic Director Natalie Osborne:
HERSTORY RESCHEDULED
Due to unforeseen circumstances, we’ve had to cancel our Thursday performance of HERSTORY. We will still have a performance on Saturday at 3:30pm. Thank you for your continued support.
Allie Costa Discusses Her New Play and Speaking Up
Allie Costa’s new play A Moment of Silence was originally featured in the HERSTORY 2: WE RISE Festival in 2017. It was one of the plays selected for a revival in the Best of HERSTORY Festival 2019. In this interview with Artistic Director Natalie Osborne, Allie Costa discusses Leelah Alcorn, LGBT representation, and what we as theatre-makers can and should do to raise our voices. You can see this play, along with the other winners, on March 28th at 6:30pm and March 30th at 3:30pm at the New Haven Free Public Library.
Trigger Warning: Suicide, Abuse, and Misgendering
1.) How long have you been with 365 Women a Year?
I have been involved with 365 Women a Year since the first year, 2014. I connected with Jess Eisenberg on Twitter, and when she spoke of collecting new plays about historical women, I immediately threw my hat in the ring. I have contributed plays to 365 Women a Year every year.
2.) Has your approach to writing about these historical women changed at all?
Whether it’s for stage or screen, I approach each new script in a similar way: stubbornly and honestly. Stubbornly because 99% of the time, I have to think of the ending before I start typing. Before I start typing, yes, but not necessarily before I start scribbling; I still like to write scenes/drafts longhand, and I often scribble down ideas and snatches of dialogue in my notebook and on scratch paper. And honestly because I intend to communicate the truth of the characters and the story.
When I am writing something inspired by real people and real events, I do a great deal of research. I want to honor the person’s real life and experiences. In many of my 365 Women a Year plays, I have incorporated quotes, things that were said or written by the women.
3.) Can you tell me more about the inspiration behind A Moment of Silence?
A Moment of Silence was inspired by Leelah Alcorn. Leelah was 17 years old when she took her own life in December 2014. She posted a suicide note on Tumblr which went viral. Leelah was a transgender girl whose parents refused to accept her identity and her chosen name. In her note, Leelah expressed, “The only way I will rest in peace is if one day transgender people aren’t treated the way I was, they’re treated like humans, with valid feelings and human rights. Gender needs to be taught about in schools, the earlier the better. My death needs to mean something. My death needs to be counted in the number of transgender people who commit suicide this year. I want someone to look at that number and say ‘that’s *&^%ed up’ and fix it. Fix society. Please.”
Leelah’s suicide note was subsequently removed by her parents, but is accessible via the Wayback Machine: https://web.archive.org/web/20150101052635/http://lazerprincess.tumblr.com/post/106447705738/suicide-note It was also shared by City Councilamn Chris Seelbach: https://www.facebook.com/ChrisSeelbach/posts/10152890372978559:0
4.) What was a big challenge for you while you were writing this play?
I decided early on that I would base the story on what I had learned about Leelah, but I named the main character Hailey in order to allow myself to fictionalize some things, to fill in the blanks and create a similar story without feeling as if anything I wrote was false or disrespectful.
5.) Why do you think it’s important for people to hear stories about the LGBT community now?
Love is love is love. The current political climate certainly means we need to keep fighting for inclusion for all, for not only tolerance but true understanding, for open-mindedness and acceptance.
Leelah felt like she was not being heard. In death, more people know her story than ever did while she was alive. That is heartbreaking.
6.) What do you think we as artists can do given the current challenges faced by the LGBT community?
Speak up. Speak out. Support others. Include others. For example, if you are an artistic director or producer who realizes your entire season is programmed with heteronormative stories, make an effort to consider and include scripts that have LGBTQ characters. If you are a writer, add LGBTQ characters to your next script. The same can be said for producing/writing scripts that feature minorities and characters who have disabilities, and stories with an equal number of male and female roles (or more female roles, or all female roles!) Do not write stereotypes. Write something real. Create and find new works that reflect the world’s true population and situations. Use your art and your heart to give voice to people who feel like they have been silenced, who feel like they have to be silent.
7.) What would you like the audience to walk away with after watching this play?
I hope it moves them, and that they make positive moves: “Give me emotion into action,” as Sara Bareilles says in her song Parking Lot.
I hope people will reach out to those they know who might be in a similar situation and offer them their support. Having someone listen to you, having a shoulder to cry on, can make a world of difference.
8.) What 365 plays are you working on now?
This year, I’ll be writing plays about Margarita “Peggy” Schuyler Van Rensselaer; author Zilpha Keatley Snyder; and singer/songwriter Sara Bareilles.
9.) Are there any other thoughts or pieces of advice you have for your fellow writers or the theatre community at large?
Keep listening.
Keep showing up.
Keep speaking up.
If you would like to make a donation to support the project and win some awesome prizes, click here! All money goes to support the artists in the Festival. We need to raise another $250 before the 30th, and you can help!
Lylanne Musselman on Frida Khalo, Painting, and Identity
Lylanne Musselman discusses her new play Frida Khalo: Heartbreaker, part of the HERSTORY 3: JOURNEY WOMEN. This interview was originally published in 2018 leading up to the HERSTORY 3: Journeywomen Festival. The play with be performed again as part of the The Best of HERSTORY Festival at the New Haven Free Public Library on March 28th at 6:30pm and March 30th at 3:30pm. Interview by Natalie Osborne.
Q: Can you tell us more about your experience writing for 365 Women a Year?
A: I’ve been on-board from the beginning. Jess Eisenberg is doing a great thing where women are concerned with this project to get women, well-known and obscure, on stage. I’ve met a few of the other playwrights from the project, and I was even Festival Director for the 365 Women a Year Festival in Detroit in 2016. I can’t say enough good things about 365 Women a Year!
Q: What drew you to Frida Khalo?
A: Well, I’m a visual artist too and I’ve always loved Khalo’s work – she’s so colorful! I especially love her “Self-portrait with Cropped Hair.” I was so happy to write a play featuring her for the 365 Women a Year project…I was afraid someone else would request her before I did!
Q: What was a major challenge you had to overcome while writing this play?
A: I really didn’t want Frida to come off as shallow. I also wanted to give the play humor, but not make fun of the situation at hand. I feel that I still gave Frida respect, and I feel that there are some humorous moments without being “mean.” I also didn’t want it to be a takeoff of the movie about her life either…so I wanted to focus on other aspects than were highlighted there.
Q: Your play focuses on a side of Frida Khalo most people are unaware of, what lead you down this path?
A: As a lesbian, that didn’t come out until later in life, I was fascinated when I found out that Khalo had dalliances with women, even though she was always “with” Diego. I felt that writing this play would allow others to see that she had that side to her as well.
Q: People seem almost as fascinated by Frida Khalo’s personal life as they are by her artwork, if not more so, why do you think that is?
A: As I said, her art is “colorful” and I think we could say her life was pretty “colorful” as well. She certainly lived her life, had a forceful personality, gave Diego as good as he sent, she was politically active at a time women weren’t known to be, and then she had such pain from the bus accident…so I think there’s a lot there for all types of people to be fascinated by!
Q: During her life, Frida Khalo’s work was overshadowed by her husband Diego, do you see this as a problem women creators still face today?
A: Yes, she certainly was overshadowed by Diego, wasn’t she! Yes, I feel that many women still take a backseat to their partners/husbands today. And, unfortunately, being creative isn’t always seen as an integral part of our society…so if you’re a woman, and you’re creative, you’ve got two hills to climb already, then if you have a man who is not supportive…or is also in the arts, as Diego was, there’s another obstacle! I do hope that with the women’s movement picking back up again, that this will all even out for all of us.
Q: What are you hoping audience members will be left with after seeing your play?
A: I hope it makes them think that people are attracted to who they’re attracted to…we shouldn’t be so quick to judge and put people in a box. By the same token, I feel that the play shows that if you love someone…they do have a hold over you…for better…or worse.
Q: What’s next for you? What are you working on now?
A: I’m working on more plays for 365 Women a Year! The immediate play I’m working on is a play about another woman artist, Francoise Gilot. I find her fascinating because she’s in her 90s now, and she still paints! In addition, she had an affair with Picasso for 10 years and is the mother of two of his children. She also was married to Jonas Salk until he died in 1995…so I feel like she’s got a lot of interesting twists that I can write a play about! I’m also going to write a play about the poet Ruth Stone after I finish this one. Additionally, I’m always writing poems and painting!
Q: Is there anything else you would like to share with us?
A: I have a full-length collection of poetry coming out this spring, It’s Not Love, Unfortunately, which will be published by Chatter House Press. I’d also like to express my appreciation for being a part of HERSTORY 3! I’m so honored, and especially happy that it is with my Frida Kahlo play. Thank you! (End of interview).
Allie Costa on Dance and Memory
Allie discusses her play LITTLE SWAN. This interview was originally done in 2016 for the first HERSTORY Festival. This is a four part series of interviews with playwrights who’s work will be featured in The Best of HERSTORY on March 28th and 30th at the New Haven Free Public Library. The event is FREE! Click here to rsvp to our facebook event.
Q: How did you hear about 365 Women a Year?
A: I first crossed paths with Jess Eisenberg on Twitter when the 365 Women a Year project was in its early stages and she was seeking submissions. I immediately asked how I could be involved, and the rest is history.
Q: Why did you choose Anna Pavlova as one of your historical woman? What drew you to her?
A: The idea for Little Swan came to me in March 2013 as I was preparing to write a new play for PlayGround-LA in honor of Women’s History Month. I wanted to write about someone who made an impact on society and history, and as that was all percolating in my brain, I was at an audition studio where I saw a replica of a piece of art I like – the statue Little Dancer Aged Fourteen by Degas – and thought, “Perhaps a dancer.” Anna Pavlova came to mind. I researched her life and discovered her last words, and I knew her story was one I had to tell.
Q: Can you walk me through the process of adapting a person’s life for the stage? What were some of the challenges? What parts really clicked together?
A: Little Swan is set backstage before the first performance of The Dying Swan, a ballet choreographed by Mikhail Fokine as a solo piece for Anna Pavlova. Without giving too much away, the encounter she has in this piece is imagined, but some of the lines in this play were spoken by the real Anna Pavlova. I wanted to incorporate real quotes because the statements she made about life and about dancing were so powerful, so telling, and I couldn’t say it better than she said it herself. Those quotes really inspired the story, from start to finish.
Q: You’ve been involved with 365 Women a Year since the original incarnation. Has your experience in the first year influenced your writing the second time around?
A: So far, I have written five pieces for 365 Women a Year:
Little Swan, a Pas de Deux (Anna Pavlova)
The View From Here (Anna Christina Olson, subject of Andrew Wyeth’s painting Christina’s World)
She Walks (Ada Lovelace)
She Was Never Lost (Alice Liddell, inspiration for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland)
A Moment of Silence (Leelah Alcorn)
….and this year, I will be writing about Natalie Wood and Audrey Hepburn.
The first year, I submitted pieces to the project that I had already written, whereas for the second year and now the third, the project was what motivated me to write the pieces. I enjoy doing research because I’d like to be as accurate as possible and truly honor their lives and accomplishments.
Q: What are you most excited about for the reading on the 29th and 30th?
A: I am so flattered that Little Swan was chosen for this reading! I hope you all enjoy it. It will be the first time my work has been presented in Connecticut, so that is exciting.
Q: Are there any playwrights that inspired you while you were working on this piece, or who inspire you in general?
A: I love a good story. I appreciate good storytellers. I am an actress, a playwright, a screenwriter, a singer, and a director. When I’m not performing someone else’s work, I’m writing my own. I am constantly reading books, scripts, and screenplays, watching TV, films, going to the theatre, listening to music – those are my favorite story streams.
Lin-Manuel Miranda inspires me. I’m going to work with that man someday. I am so glad that Hamilton is getting the recognition is deserves. #yayhamlet
Q: What has been your favorite aspect of working with 365 Women a Year?
A: I enjoy seeing, hearing, and reading all of these stories and learning about women I didn’t know about before as well as learning new things about familiar names. I also like meeting new playwrights, directors, and actors in the process!
Q: Do you have any advice for the playwrights joining 365 Women a Year for the first time?
Pick someone you think is awesome. It doesn’t matter if she is famous, if she’s a household name or not. All that matters is that you think she’s story-worthy – so jump right in and tell her story!
Allie Costa works in film, TV, theatre, and voiceover as a writer, director, actress, and singer. Her original works have been produced internationally, including Femme Noir (Best Script, 2015 One-Act Festival), Safe Distance, Who She Could Have Been (LBDI semi-finalist), A Taste of the Future (Lakeshore Players semi-finalist) and Can You Keep a Secret? Her play Little Swan, a Pas de Deux, inspired by the life of ballerina Anna Pavlova, was named Best of PlayGround-LA 2014 and subsequently published. Tofurkey Day has been staged in Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, San Diego, the UK, and Florida, where it was named Best of the Fest, Audience Choice.
Allie is an accomplished stage and screen actor whose credits include Spring Awakening, Hamlet, 90210, Wake, and You Me & Her. She has lent her voice to video games, appeared in commercials, and narrated audio books. She is a proud member of the Los Angeles Female Playwrights Initiative, the 365 Women a Year Playwriting Project, PlayGround-LA, and SAG-AFTRA. She always has energy to burn and a song to sing. Occasionally, she sleeps.
HERSTORY 2: WE RISE
The Masks of the Goddess
365 Women a Year at Hubbard Hall
In Her Name
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Home/Shop/NWP Originals/Mama Tits Saves the World
View cart “Queer Creatures Tote” has been added to your cart.
Charles “Zan” Christensen, Terry Blas, Marissa Louise, Sonya Saturday, Diego Gómez, Justin Hall,
Categories: Adventure, NWP Originals Tags: drag, drag queen, Mama Tits, superhero
Mama Tits Saves the World
by: Charles “Zan” Christensen, Terry Blas, Marissa Louise, Sonya Saturday, Diego Gómez, Justin Hall,
Can one Pacific Northwest drag queen prevail in the fight against hate? With your help… she can! Writer Charles “Zan” Christensen and artist Terry Blas—along with guest artists Diego Gómez, Sonya Saturday, and Justin Hall.—take Seattle’s most famous activist queen to a new level in the new comic book Mama Tits Saves the World!
Watch the video trailer for the book below!
Choose an optionPaperbackDigital
Tags: drag, drag queen, Mama Tits, superhero
Charles “Zan” Christensen
Charles “Zan” Christensen was the founding President of LGBT comics nonprofit Prism Comics and is currently the owner of Northwest Press, an indie publishing house in Seattle, WA which has released 29 LGBT-focused comics, collections and graphic novels since 2010, in addition to the digital versions of over 100 LGBT-focused comics. His writing credits include The Mark of Aeacus and The Power Within (both with Mark Brill), "The Plan" in the anthology The Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy!, and Mama Tits Saves the World (with artist Terry Blas).
Work by Charles “Zan” Christensen
Mama Tits shirt 2017
Mama Tits Saves the World 2016
Unsafe for All Ages 2
The Lavender Menace: Tales of Queer Villainy! 2012
The Myth of Aeacus 2010
The Power Within 2012
Mark of Aeacus T-Shirt
The Mark of Aeacus #2 2010
The Mark of Aeacus #1
Terry Blas
Terry Blas is the illustrator and writer behind the ongoing web series Briar Hollow. His work has appeared on comic book covers for Bravest Warriors, Regular Show, The Amazing World of Gumball, Adventure Time, Rick and Morty, and The Legend of Bold Riley. As the host of The Gnerd Podcast, he runs a monthly pop culture examination show. He is a member of Portland’s own, Helioscope Studio, a collective of award-winning illustrators, cartoonists, and writers. His latest project with Oni Press is an original graphic novel, a murder mystery set at a fat camp, called Morbid Obesity, which he co-wrote. His auto-bio mini comic, You Say Latino, was featured on NPR, OPB, Vox.com and Cosmo.com.
Work by Terry Blas
Theater of Terror: Revenge of the Queers! 2019
Comics are for Everyone T-Shirt
The Legend of Bold Riley #2 2014
Marissa Louise
Marissa Louise is a colorist for Dark Horse, Oni, Boom!, Stela & more.
Work by Marissa Louise
Sonya Saturday
Sonya Saturday is a Los Angeles-based cartoonist and writer. She uses humor in her work to explore love, sex, gender and politics. Sonya began her indie comics career in 2000 with the weekly adult humor comic strip Load, which she wrote and drew for nine years. Sonya is also a produced playwright. Her play for high school students, Don’t Party With My Mom, is published by Playscripts, Inc. From 2011 to 2014, Sonya created interactive storybook apps for children through her company Corky Portwine. She wrote, illustrated, animated, coded and published apps for iOS, Android, Chrome, and Windows. Sonya has been active with Prism Comics–the LGBTQIA comics non-profit organization–since 2008. She regularly attends comic book conventions throughout Southern California, often speaking on panels related to queer comics.
Work by Sonya Saturday
Why Do You Cry When I’m On Top? 2013
Diego Gómez is a freelance art director, illustrator, coutourier, performer, idea-man and more. A San Francisco native, his art & antics have been featured in Antebellum Gallery, Cocktailgate, East Bay Express, The International Latino Film Festival, MUNI, SF Weekly, Street Worthy, YO! Youth Outlook, and World of Wonder. Diego started his foray into comic books lettering The Adventures of Wonder Mark & Johnny Freedom, Pride High, and Planet Gay XXXPress. His comics art debut was Glamazonia, in 2010 from Northwest Press. His work has also appeared in Mama Tits Saves the World.
Work by Diego Gómez
Queer Creatures Tote 2017
Pride High 2012
Justin Hall is a San Francisco-based cartoonist and educator. He created the comics series True Travel Tales, Glamazonia, and Hard To Swallow (with Dave Davenport), with his work also appearing in such places as the Houghton Mifflin Best American Comics, Best Erotic Comics, QU33R, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian. He is the editor of No Straight Lines: Four Decades of Queer Comics, which won a Lambda Literary Award and received an Eisner Award nomination and is now being adapted into a documentary film. Hall has curated shows of comics art at the S.F. Cartoon Art Museum and the Schwules (Gay) Museum in Berlin, helped create the Artists’ Area at the Folsom Street Fair, and is the co-organizer of the Queers & Comics conference. He has been on the boards of the nonprofits Prism Comics (supporting LGBTQ comics) and Our Books (supporting Cambodian comics), and has done academic writing on comics for the Routledge and Cambridge presses. He is an Assistant Professor of Comics at the California College of the Arts, and a Fulbright Scholar. Find out more at justinhallcomics.com.
Work by Justin Hall
Dirty Drawings: Raise the Pole 2016
My Life in 26 Letters 2013
Hard to Swallow 2016
Unsafe for All Ages 2005
Queer Pin-Ups Cards
Watch the video trailer for the book below:
Publisher: Northwest Press
Multiversity Comics – August 25, 2016
“Throughout the comic, Christensen and Blas hit home that the fight against bigotry is all our fight and yes, it’s empowering. Mama Tits Saves the World tells us that it gets better, that it’s getting better, but it also reminds us not to neglect our history.” Read Matthew Garcia’s whole review on Multiversity Comics.
Pepe – May 6, 2017
I loved the comic. It was to short though. Great message and illustration.
The Legend of Bold Riley #1 by: Leia Weathington, Jonathon Dalton, $2.99 – $3.99
Bold Riley—who has set out to find adventure in the lands beyond her home of Prakkalore—comes across a fragment of bone that shares a tale of lost love. Riley tries to reunite the lost spirit with its beloved, but soon discovers that all is not as it seemed…
A Waste of Time by: Rick Worley $7.99 – $19.99
The first full-length collection of irreverent and sweet comic strips from Rick Worley. Featuring a foreword by StevieD and EvilJeff from the Comic Book Queers podcast.
Foul-mouthed, sex-obsessed and misanthropic, Rick is no ordinary cute cartoon rabbit. The strips in this hysterically funny, surprisingly sweet collection range from fantasy tales about a closeted fundamentalist teddy bear, an oversexed fox, and a doomed robot love affair to autobiographical comics that share maybe a little too much information about the author. In their quest for contentment, the characters fail, fail, and sometimes fail again, but they never stop looking. There’s always the chance they’ll find that one person who was worth the search.
Or maybe not.
RAVES:
“There’s a brutal frankness and honesty coming from these foxes and teddy bears that you rarely see anywhere else. Comics are the one of the last havens to be truly offensive and beautifully unapologetic.” — from the foreword by StevieD and EvilJeff from the Comic Book Queers podcast.
“Beautifully drawn, hilarious, wistful, profane and very human. Rick Worley’s A Waste of Time knocked me out.” — Robert Kirby, creator of Curbside, Boy Trouble and THREE.
“Rick Worley’s insightful A Waste of Time comic strips are simultaneously tender and perverse—like his bunny.” — Howard Cruse, author of Stuck Rubber Baby and Wendel.
A Waste of Time #2 by: Rick Worley $2.99 – $4.99
Worried about Rick’s prospects for a successful art career, his creations decide he needs some inspiration. They set out to find his favorite artist, the reclusive Bill Watterson, whether Watterson wants to be found or not.
The Legend of Bold Riley by: Leia Weathington, Marco Aidala, Vanessa Gillings, Kelly McLellan, Konstantin Pogorelov, Jason Thompson, Brinson Thieme, $9.99
Leia Weathington’s sword-and-sorcery epic The Legend of Bold Riley is illustrated by Leia and a host of talented artists.
“Who is Bold Riley?” you might ask. She has hunted the wildest game and dallied with countless beautiful girls, but still longs to know the world beyond the city walls. Princess Rilavashana SanParite, called Bold Riley, leaves behind her station and sets out to travel through distant lands and find forgotten ruins, fearsome enemies, inscrutable gods and tragic love.
She’s as capable with a sword as she is with her wits—man, does she carve things up when the need arises—and is a strong, beautiful, confident woman who doesn’t wear a bikini into battle. And she always gets the girl!
Created by Leia Weathington, with art by Weathington, Marco Aidala, Vanessa Gillings, Kelly McClellan, Konstantin Pogorelov and Jason Thompson. Cover artwork by Brinson Thieme. 232 pages. 7″x10″. Full-color with metallic ink cover.
Retailers! Download a Bold Riley Promotional Display that highlights the foreword by fan-favorite writer Jane Espenson and helps encourage customers to check out the book.
You can download a 67-page preview of the book in PDF or EPUB (iPad-only) format right here on the site. The preview includes excerpts from four of the stories in the book, bonus artwork and more.
Additionally, there’s a ZIP file of preview images available for use in reviews and articles. Download it here. (11MB ZIP file.)
Feature on Panel Patter by Rob McMonigal — “Ms. Weathington, working with a variety of other artists, has created a fantasy world ripe for exploration, with our guide being Bold Riley, a young woman with royal (but restless) blood. It’s great to see the ‘Uncharted Fantasy World’ idea given a new twist by having a protagonist that’s not only female, but queer as well.”
Feature on Portland Comic Books Examiner by Christian Lipski — “Author Leia Weathington is releasing Bold Riley, her first book, at the end of June, and spoke with the Portland Comic Books Examiner about her own journey.”
Interview on Portland Comics by Doug Dorr — “I worked with 5 other artists for Bold Riley and made the mistake at first of trying to really tightly control the visuals of the comic. That was something I learned to back off from pretty fast. If you are working with artists you probably decided to get into a collaboration with them for a reason. SO TRUST YOUR ARTIST! What I’ve started doing is making model sheets characters, objects and places that must look a certain way to maintain continuity in the story, after that I send photo references, script and descriptions of mood and setting and turn the artist loose to have fun with it.”
Interview on The Hathor Legacy by Maria Velazquez — “Like many creators I started writing the kind of story I always wanted to see. Like most women I was raised with fairy tales and the complex feelings that go with them. Sure they focus primarily on female leads, but those leads tend to be passive objects. The women are what things happen TO not people who make things happen themselves.”
Interview on Sequential Tart by Lee Atchison — “We like the anti-hero right now. And with reason. Things are shit, we’re all pretty jaded. How can you not be when at the click of a button you can see the latest string of atrocities played out before your eyes. I like the anti-hero, but somewhere amid all of the horror and the skepticism, I wanted to place a story about a hero who, while not beyond reproach, is good and wants to do good and tries her hardest.”
× Queer Creatures Tote
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Home Driverless bus
Driverless bus
News 21. May 2019
Oslo’s first bus route with driverless bus opened
In rainy weather, Oslo’s newest bus route 35 was opened on Monday. The special thing about the route is that it is operated by a…
News 9. November 2017
Driverless bus crashed after two hours in operation
A driverless minibus crashed in Las Vegas just two hours after it was put into operation. Nobody was injured in the accident. Police in…
News 23. September 2016
Norwegian Minister got ride from a driverless bus in Oslo
Norwegian Minister Monica Mæland and the Mayor of Oslo Marianne Borgen (SV) had their first experience as passengers on a driverless bus in the center…
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Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnet 24
Introduction and Text of Sonnet 24
In sonnet 24 from Sonnets from the Portuguese, Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s strategy resembles the metaphysical poet’s use of the strange conceit as she compares the world’s harshness to a clasping knife.
John Donne often dramatized with this device in his poems of seduction. He employed the ghost metaphor in "The Apparition," and he used blood in the poem, "The Flea." Both abundantly odd choices for such a poem that seeks to woo.
Let the world’s sharpness, like a clasping knife,
Shut in upon itself and do no harm
In this close hand of Love, now soft and warm,
And let us hear no sound of human strife
After the click of the shutting. Life to life—
I lean upon thee, Dear, without alarm,
And feel as safe as guarded by a charm
Against the stab of worldlings, who if rife
Are weak to injure. Very whitely still
The lilies of our lives may reassure
Their blossoms from their roots, accessible
Alone to heavenly dews that drop not fewer,
Growing straight, out of man’s reach, on the hill.
God only, who made us rich, can make us poor.
Reading of Sonnet 24
The speaker is comparing the negative attitudes of others to a "clasping knife" that she will simply close up to rid her love of destruction.
First Quatrain: The World's Intrusion
The speaker engages the conceit of a "clasping knife" to refer to the "world’s sharpness" that would intrude upon the love between herself and her belovèd. Like the metaphysical poets who employed such devices, this poet follows their lead at times, engaging strange metaphors and similes to express her comparison. But this speaker allows that the world should just close itself up like that "clasping knife" so that its threat will not interfere with the love she feels for her belovèd.
The speaker begs that no "harm" come to "this close hand of love." After the knife closes to shut away the sharpness, then there is no danger. She asks for "soft and warm," without the "sound of human strife."
Second Quatrain: Putting Away Sharpness and Danger
The speaker continues the knife conceit into the second quatrain of the sonnet. After the sharpness and danger are put away, she and her belovèd will exist "without alarm," and they will be safe. They will be "guarded by a charm / Against the stab of worldlings." The speaker finds obstacles everywhere.
After overcoming her own inner doubts, she now has to battle the unsympathetic barbs of others. But by likening the ridicule to a "clasping knife," the speaker dramatizes her method for overcoming the negativities of other people; she will merely close them off from her consciousness.
First Tercet: Too Weak to Cause Pain
The knife conceit has worked well because she is able to admit that the stabs of those worldlings are many yet they "are weak to injure." She then takes up another conceit which likens the lovers’ relationship to "the lilies of our lives" that "reassure / Their blossoms from their roots."
The roots of the flower are hidden, but they are strong and sustain the beauty of the blooms. The speaker is dramatizing the love between herself and her belovèd, averring that they possess a strong, hidden core like the flowers.
Second Tercet: Growing Out of the Reach of Humankind
And the source of their love is "accessible / Alone to heavenly dews." Their love "grow[s] straight, out of man’s reach" and resembles flowers growing on a hill. Their love comes from God, and "only God, who made us rich, can make us poor." The speaker is echoing the marriage vows as she has done before in Sonnet 22: "what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matthew 19:6).
The Brownings
An Overview of Sonnets from the Portuguese
Robert Browning referred lovingly to Elizabeth as "my little Portuguese" because of her swarthy complexion—thus the genesis of the title: sonnets from his little Portuguese to her belovèd friend and life mate.
Two Poets in Love
Elizabeth Barrett Browning's Sonnets from the Portuguese remains her most widely anthologized and studied work. It features 44 sonnets, all of which are framed in the Petrarchan (Italian) form.
The theme of the series explores the development of the budding love relationship between Elizabeth and the man who would become her husband, Robert Browning. As the relationship continues to flower, Elizabeth becomes skeptical about whether it would endure. She muses on examines her insecurities in this series of poems.
The Petrarchan Sonnet Form
The Petrarchan, also known as Italian, sonnet displays in an octave of eight lines and a sestet of six lines. The octave features two quatrains (four lines), and the sestet contains two tercets (three lines).
The traditional rime scheme of the Petrarchan sonnet is ABBAABBA in the octave and CDCDCD in the sestet. Sometimes poets will vary the sestet rime scheme from CDCDCD to CDECDE. Barrett Browning never veered from the rime scheme ABBAABBACDCDCD, which is a remarkable restriction imposed on herself for the duration of 44 sonnets.
Sectioning the sonnet into its quatrains and sestets is useful to the commentarian, whose job is to study the sections in order to elucidate meaning for readers unaccustomed to reading poems. The exact form of all of Elizabeth Barrett Browning's 44 sonnets, nevertheless, consists of only one actual stanza; segmenting them is for commentarian purposes primarily.
A Passionate, Inspirational Love Story
Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s sonnets begin with a marvelously fantastic open scope for discovery in the life of one who has a penchant for melancholy. One can imagine the change in environment and atmosphere from beginning with the somber thought that death may be one's only immediate consort and then gradually learning that, no, not death, but love is on one's horizon.
These 44 sonnets feature a journey to lasting love that the speaker is seeking—love that all sentient beings crave in their lives! Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s journey to accepting the love that Robert Browning offered remains one the most passionate and inspirational love stories of all time.
Thank you, Coffee! Yes, it is a fine book, great addition to any library. Elizabeth Barrett Browning's skillful craftmanship makes the sonnets a wonderful reading experience. Have a great day!
I enjoyed reading your analysis. I love poetry, and this book is one I wouldn't mind in my collection.
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Dominant Individual Wins Rule The Day At Bloomsburg
PIAA District 4 Championships
Barbara Krohn
RACE VIDEOS | PHOTO ALBUMS | INTERVIEWS | RESULTS
BLOOMSBURG---The District 4 Cross Country Championships held at Bloomsburg University October 26 were not just contests for the best in north central Pennsylvania. They were also a preview of how PIAA-championships ready some of the state's highest ranked runners and teams were.
The answer?
Ready. Very ready.
In a highly competitive boys Class AA race, Jersey Shore's Isaac Davis exorcized a disappointing sixth-place 2016 district finish by regaining the crown in 15:58 beating Loyalsock's Quinn Serfass, the 2016 district champion by 17 seconds. The Lancers, though, took the team title.
The girls Class A race showed that Warrior Run's Lauren Trapani is no fluke as the freshman cruised to her first district crown in 19:04, a full 85 seconds ahead of Wyalusing's Hannah Corson. The five freshman and one junior behind Trapani also showed they were ready to give to the PIAA A team title a run, whooping the 2016 champions Troy 32-88.
Class AA girls got a sudden infusion of individual talent literally minutes before the starting run of their race when Loyalsock was unexpectedly moved from A to AA. That meant the 2016 district A champ Isabel Sagar became the immediate favorite and she didn't disappoint, winning in 19:06. Though Danville's runners would have liked one of their own to have that individual medal, the Ironmen were once again dominant in the team competition beating the other state-qualifying team, Lewisburg, 36-72.
Southern Columbia's Ethan Knoebel won the boys A race (17:11) and Mount Carmel put an end to Northeast Bradford's team title streak beating Wyalusing 62-75.
Trapani and her team are for real
When Trapani laid down her 17:41.40 at the 19th Annual Bear Mountain River Run at the beginning of the season, the question was - is this a fluke?
The freshman's performances of the season answer for the soft-spoken first-year runner.
Trapani's biggest challenge competition-wise and mentally was at the PIAA Foundation race in September when a mix-up at the start of the White division race sent much of the field including Warrior Run into the Blue Division.
It turned out not to be a problem as Trapani premiered her high-school kick beating Eastern York's Maddie McLain by two seconds. (In the official results the two were reshuffled into their correct divisions with Trapani winning the White race in 18:56 and McLain taking the Blue in 18:58.)
Trapani also dominated Sagar over the course of the season beating her at a quad meet by 90 seconds and by a smaller margin at the Shikellamy Boosters Classic, the league meet that leads up to districts.
"Lauren is just really a competitive kid," said her coach Corey Dufrene.
Though Trapani takes every race out hard and works to hold the pace, the last-minute removal of Sagar from the A field may have taken a little intensity away from her race.
"It was a relief," said Trapani. "Obviously going into the race I was expecting (Sagar) to be there.
"I guess I didn't feel as much pressure.
"(The race) went OK but it's definitely not my best time."
But the district goal for Trapani was more able her team than herself.
"(She) wanted this more for her team today," said Dufrene. "It was more important for her for the team to be successful than to be successful individually."
"(The individual district championship) is a good accomplishment," said Trapani. "But it's our team accomplishment and our team had a really good race today."
Indeed the Defenders scorers took 1, 3, 5, 10, and 13 with all seven runners in the top 16.
Lauren's cousin Cameron Trapani was third with a PR of 20:29. just
"I just really wanted to work really hard today so the whole team could make it to states," said Cameron. "I just really had extra mental motivation. I wanted to push myself."
The Warrior Run girls belied their youth placing second at the PIAA Foundation race but may be a year or so off in contending the PIAA A team championship - or not.
"I still think they're running a little clueless," said Dufrene. "They're just so competitive that group, it's really exciting.
"They enjoy each other, they're a tight-knit group.
"(Today) they saw they could do something special together and it paid off."
Danville girls ready to challenge
Villa Maria Academy has been a tough nut for the Iromen to crack.
Veteran coach Jeff Brandt said his team didn't have its "A" game in September at the PIAA foundation race where they were bested by 106-92 by Villa.
And the Ironmen have been wrestling with injuries resting first District 4's AA silver medalist Elaina Klinger at the Northeast Invitational and then Marisa Maffei at the league meet.
Thursday Danville was still without its absolute top-7 and Maffei was still feeling the lingering effects of bronchitis.
No matter.
Indeed the Ironmen scorers finished 2, 3, 7, 11 and 13 with a 1:47 split.
Junior Klinger finished in 19:40 while freshman Grace Petrick (21:07) was the last scorer across the line.
"I thought we ran real well today," said Brandt. "Our grouping keeps getting better and that's the key."
Klinger was one of the Danville runners ready to contend for the individual gold but that all changed when Sagar got bumped into the AA field.
"It is what it is," said Klinger. "Today was thing to see what I could do and to push Emma (Mikta), push Marisa (Maffei), push the entire team."
"Personally I think I pushed it harder than I've usually been," said Mikita who took third (19:41). "I'm proud of that and proud of the team today."
"I'm still getting over bronchitis," said Maffei who was seventh (20:16). "This race I didn't do the best I've ever done (but) it gave me confidence that I can go to states and run well."
The team's lone senior Nikaela Haas was 11th (21:00) finishing at 21:07 was freshman Grace Petrick.
"Grace has been phenomenal," said Brandt. "It's the closest she's been to Niki all year."
"It's a great team," said Petrick. "I'm pretty excited to go to states."
"It's why we're so successful as a team," said Haas. "We just want to have fun with it."
"Whether we're the runners-up or winners it will be great," said Klinger.
Their coach though likes their chances to be the later.
"We had a couple of people injured - if we get them coming around - and even without them - we can contend for best in the state," he said.
Davis dominates
Brandt said the boys AA field was as good as he's seen and the veteran coach has seen quite a few of them.
With a tight team competition going on behind him Davis separated himself early and never looked back dashing the hopes of Serfass to defend his 2016 crown.
As the winner of the PIAA Foundation Blue race (16:01) the 'Shore senior is looking like the runner to beat on November 4.
Last year at districts Davis was fighting sickness and finished sixth. Thursday, he wasn't going to let anything stop him.
"(Serfass) won last year and I was happy for him," said Davis. "He wasn't very close to me at Shikellamy and he wanted to keep with me today.
"I like battling it out with him."
Not being in perfect condition didn't matter.
"I felt a little tired but sometimes you have to work with it."
Davis won't be surprised if the two aren't racing each other come states.
"Just what he did today makes me think he'll be right there with me."
Preferably behind.
"I'm going to give first my best shot but right now I'm focused on my training."
Serfass takes second
The idea was to defend his title but that was not in the cards Thursday.
"I'm tired with a little headache going on," said the Lancers senior after the race, joking. "Maybe focusing too hard."
The mental had been, by his own admission, a factor in racing not just Davis, but in general, this season.
The two slapped hands after the district race and though he fell short of his goal he felt ready to challenge at the PIAA championships.
"I want to give the state gold a run," said the Temple-bound runner. "I was feeling pretty good today - it was mostly mental - (but he deserved that race).
"I think if Isaac is close to first, I think I can give it a run for the top three."
Part of history
Regardless, Serfass will go down in school history, as the school's first district cross country champion and Thursday, as a member of the school's first cross country team championship.
Fittingly he was one of the program's first runners.
"Four years ago I had four guys running and one girl," said Loyalsock coach Nicole Reed. "This is our school's first running district championship in anything."
Out front all year as well as Thursday were Serfass, Ryan Sullivan (third, 17:05) and Alejandro Quintana (sixth, 17:08). With strong challenges looming from Warrior Run and Milton, the question was what would the Lancers fourth and fifth runners do.
It turned out just enough.
Senior Matt Nickolaus finished 18th (17:36) and sophomore Alex Reed took 44th (18:30) to best Milton, the 2016 defending champions by five points. Warrior Run was third with 84 points.
"This team title was won with our fourth and fifth guys," said Reed.
"I ran a course PR," said Reed. "We worked on speed this week and it helped me a lot. It prepared me for this race."
"That our program went from nothing to district champs is amazing," said Nickolaus."
"I was really focused on what I had to do," said Quintana. "I'm excited for states and a little nervous."
For Sullivan it was a reminder when at first you don't succeed, try, try again.
"I started high school cross country my sophomore year," said the Loyalsock senior. "I was really bad in eighth grade.
"But we had such a small program so I thought if I could help I would.
"We grew our team and everybody worked."
Serendipity for Sagar
So this is not a changeover year for PIAA classifications.
But Loyalsock was evidently wrongly placed in A last year.
But when it sunk in that the Lancers girls would be moving to the AA race Thursday, Coach Reed quickly realized it would work to her junior's advantage.
"There was a little serendipity for everyone here today," she said. "Apparently they had us (in the wrong classification) last year.
"So we rethought.
"Okay, and then Isabel was able to take the district AA title and our team finished third."
"That was crazy," said Sagar. "We were lined up and totally prepared to run this race against Warrior Run. Then we saw our box was in AA and our jaws dropped to the floor.
"Our coach was fantastic. It was unexpected but it was a great race. It was humbling."
And without having to physically chase Trapani, Sagar found it relatively easy to finish just two seconds behind her time, winning in 19:06.
"It's interesting how your mental state affects you," said Sagar. "When I was racing Trapani my mental state isn't where it should have been.
"It was a relief (to be in a different classification) but I do like the competition.
"It was nice to bring home the district championship."
Knoebel and Mount Carmel the class of boys A
Despite his top seeding Knoebel was leaving nothing to chance Thursday.
"Going into the race you want to think positive - being the district champion is the goal," he said. ""But I did know two guys from Wyalusing and one from Wellsboro were out there.
"You can't take anyone for granted."
Indeed Wellsboro's Aidan Perry made a great pass at the end of the race to beat one of the Wyalusing runners and finish just four seconds behind Knoebel's winning time of 17:11.
"I finished third last year," said Knoebel. "To come back and win is really special."
Mount Carmel won with grouping. Freshman Derek Lawler and sophomore Krystof Lapotsky both crossed the line in 17:31 taking sixth and seventh respectively. Anthony Moser, Peter Long and Tyler Adams rounded out the scoring with their 13th, 15th and 20th place finishes.
"I was just thinking we need to get in as a team," said Lawler. "We needed to get in to win - and we did."
"I thought it was a good race for the whole team," said Lapotsky. "It feels great to win districts."
Hannah Corson
Isaac Davis
Nikaela Haas
Elaina Klinger
Ethan Knoebel
Krystof Lapotsky
Derek Lawler
Peter Long
Marisa Maffei
Matt Nickolaus
Grace Petrick
Alejandro Quintana
Alex Reed
Quinn Serfass
Cameron Trapani
Lauren Trapani
Entries: Kevin Dare Invitational Jan 17, 2020
PA Indoor Week 7 Results & Coverage Hub Jan 18, 2020
Pennsylvania Indoor Rankings: Top 25 Boys By Event Heading Into Week 7 Jan 16, 2020
Weekly Merge: Top 25 PA Girls Performances Of Week 7 By Event Jan 20, 2020
Top Pole Vault Improvements In 2020 Jan 17, 2020
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by Mark Delaney
Meet Misfits, Inc. Investigations: Peter, the genius; Jake, the athlete; Byte, the computer whiz; Mattie, the “magician.”
These four teenage super-sleuths have a knack for uncovering and solving unsolvable crimes. An appeal from an old friend lands the young detectives in the middle of a mystery surrounding a hit-and-run accident.
What at first seems like a routine investigation quickly turns dangerous as the four teens find themselves caught in a complicated plot involving a gang-controlled car-theft ring, frightened law-abiding citizens, and a twisted plan for revenge. For Mattie, the case is also uncomfortably personal, and one that provides an unwelcome reunion with the mother he has not seen in years. Now Byte, Peter, and Jake must work fast to stop an innocent woman from going to prison while Mattie must learn an important lesson in forgiveness.
Featuring an engaging group of outcasts with varied interests, each book in the Misfits series offers an intriguing mystery, supported by Delaney’s well-paced plot and believable dialogue, that will keep readers captivated to the very end.
Size: 5 ̎ x 7-1/8 ̎
F&P: Z, Gr 7th & up, Genre RF
Themes: Friendship, Loyalty, Mystery, Teamwork
BISAC 2: YAF029000 YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Law & Crime
BISAC 3: YAF018060 YOUNG ADULT FICTION / Family / Parents
Edgar Allan Poe Awards (Nominee, Best Young Adult) ―Mystery Writers of America, 2003
The Secret Science of Magic 2019-02-21T09:35:27+00:00
eBook, Melissa Keil, New Releases Spring 18, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction
The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl 2018-11-19T10:04:47+00:00
The Incredible Adventures of Cinnamon Girl
eBook, Melissa Keil, Mike Lawrence, New Releases Spring 18, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction
Life in Outer Space 2018-11-19T09:50:45+00:00
Life in Outer Space
eBook, Melissa Keil, New Releases Fall 16, Young Adult, Young Adult Fiction
Mark Delaney earned a masters degree in comparative literature from the University of California at Irvine. He is the author of the Misfits, Inc. series and Pepperland. A former bookstore owner, he now teaches high school. Delaney lives in Tennessee.
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All about Monsters!
Home / All about Monsters!
By Charkrid Pornpitackchaikul May 18, 2017
What’s up #Indies!
So we’ve just wrapped up our ninth production sprint and we’re deep in production for our game , Project Jith.
We introduced Project Jith in our previous blog post and how it’s an evolution from our previous project, The Debugger (that we collectively decided to abort). To put things simply, we decided on this change of direction for more clarity and focus in both our studio’s production and marketing efforts.
So let’s do quick recap of our previous sprint (Sprint #8).
Specifically, we were working on a new game map which entailed settling on specific technical and design aspects of the map – from the color palette of the environment, to the terrain generation engine, all the way to the prop/asset layouts – to accurately present the emotional theme of the map (and the game), which was our biggest challenge yet.
Since our game’s going to be based on the central theme of negative human emotions, it was an absolute priority to be able to nail down how we were going to portray each negative emotion, which is easier said than done.
As with any game design, there were numerous factors to take into account and combine together to build up the correct mood for players to experience – something that we were quite pleased to say that we accomplished 🙂
And so we’re pleased to have our first game map to build upon, for this production sprint #9.
What we did in Sprint #9…
It’s all about MONSTERS!
That’s right 🙂 Monsters!
So for sprint #9, we moved on to start working on our game monsters that will populate our first game map. We’re forecasting that this would occupy the bulk of our work for the next couple of weeks (and sprints), and couldn’t be more excited about getting to work on (arguably) one of the more interesting aspects of our game!
After all, monsters have always been one and the same with almost all video games, and they come in every shape and form. Monsters provide challenges and entertainment in (almost) all the games we play and ahve always been something we have been fascinated with (or scared of).
So before starting off to design the game monsters, it was important for us to set some context first – some guidelines to give us a framework for efficient ideation.
Turns out this was a great lesson for us as we sought to answer some fundamental questions in our game design for Project Jith…
First of all, what is the reason for having monsters?
What purpose do they serve? How did they come to be?
Are they obstacles in a story challenge? Why must we kill them?
What happens after we kill them?
And on and on…
So we debated and discussed amongst ourselves, fleshing out the details of each of Project Jith’s first game monsters – from the particular emotion it’s supposed to represent as part of the game map they’re found in, to the character’s components and effects, animation designs, attack styles, in-game behavior etc.
Making sure to keep with our game’s overall abstract and minimalist design, our greatest challenge thus far is to actually fully realize our ideas when in production. Every single little detail counts in design, animation and programming and is something that we always be working to improve upon on a daily basis. Being a small team with not much experience, our dreams often surpasses our reach (which is the case with any small team just starting out).
Not being discouraged in the least, we’re slowly making progress with endless checking & testing, asking for feedback whenever we have a chance, and always trying to prototype work quickly to fail fast, and (hopefully) be successful down the line.
As we move towards our first mini production milestone at the end of our next sprint (Sprint #10), we’re starting to feel some pressure on ourselves to deliver a playable and enjoyable game so we’ll be checking back with you soon to show-off some of our first monsters for Project Jith!
So this is where we’re at for our game development so far as we work to realize the monsters that will inhabit our first game map.
Stay tuned for more updates and thank you as always for your continued support!
#webuildwhatwewannaplay
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Every Porsche model to come with hybrid option?
Brett Davis May 16, 2013
Car News, Hybrid, Porsche
Brett Davis
Rumour has it every model Porsche could be available with a hybrid powetrain in the near future. The news spiked after a Porsche representative revealed plans of a new hybrid module, compatible with all models.
Although there’s no sign of a 911 hybrid hitting showrooms any time soon, Porsche has been busy working on various hybrid setups for its current crop of vehicles. There’s already the Cayenne hybrid, and more recently the Panamera hybrid.
Due to ever-tightening emissions laws, every manufacturer will soon have no choice but to at least offer a super eco-focused variant in their lineup. A Porsche source has said it feels it would be prepared for such a move.
Speaking at a recent technology presentation for the Panamera Hybrid, Porsche’s Daniel Semmer said the company is currently developing a hybrid module which will have the potential to be interchangeable between models.
Although Semmer stopped short of confirming if this is the plan, the module has the potential to be implemented universally between the range, offering a similar boost in power on all models and a subsequent improvement in economy.
Those who are fretting the demise of the pure sports car needn’t worry. Porsche has just finalised its latest, most epic and most powerful supercar, the 600kW-plus Porsche 918 Spyder. The car features a hybrid powertrain. A very complex and high-output hybrid, but nonetheless a hybrid.
Could we soon see everything from the Boxster to the Cayman, to even the 911 in hybrid form? We will keep you updated.
Porsche 911, Porsche Boxster, Porsche Cayenne, Porsche Cayman, Porsche Panamera, Porsche Panamera S E-Hybrid
2020 Toyota Kluger revealed, gets 'Dynamic Force' hybrid option April 17, 2019
Toyota RAV4 plug-in hybrid (PHEV) option in the works, 50km range – report August 16, 2019
2019 Porsche 911 992 previewed, electric option possible February 25, 2018
2019 Porsche 935 exposed carbon fibre option revealed July 1, 2019
Brett is the editor and founder of PerformanceDrive. He's obsessed with driving, having played with Matchbox cars until he was tall enough to drive a real one. After initially working as a mechanic, Brett earned a degree in journalism and entered media as an editorial assistant at Top Gear Australia magazine. He then worked at CarAdvice.com.au. His dream is to live next door to the Nurburgring in Germany.
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Rosen apologizes over comments against Ann Romney
(CNN) - Hilary Rosen offered an apology Thursday after her comments about Ann Romney sparked an uproar and a debate over women and the economy.
"I apologize to Ann Romney and anyone else who was offended," Rosen, a top Democratic strategist and CNN contributor, said in a statement. "Let's declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance."
The previous day, Rosen argued Ann Romney could not understand the struggles of women in the sluggish workforce because she "never worked a day in her life" as a stay-at-home mother.
Her comments quickly set off a spiraling controversy, as high-profile leaders on both sides of the aisle rushed to the defense of Ann Romney and that of women opting not to pursue their careers to solely focus on raising their children.
Read the full statement below:
"Let's put the faux 'war against stay at home moms' to rest once and for all. As a mom I know that raising children is the hardest job there is. As a pundit, I know my words on CNN last night were poorly chosen. In response to Mitt Romney on the campaign trail referring to his wife as a better person to answer questions about women than he is, I was discussing his lack of a record on the plight of women's financial struggles. Here is my more fulsome view of the issues. As a partner in a firm full of women who work outside of the home as well as stay at home mothers, all with plenty of children, gender equality is not a talking point for me. It is an issue I live every day. I apologize to Ann Romney and anyone else who was offended. Let's declare peace in this phony war and go back to focus on the substance."
Filed under: 2012 • Ann Romney • Economy
CypressSteve
I am somewhat surprised and dismayed at the majority of comments on here. NO ONE should be required to justify the life choice to be a SAHM and it should NEVER be implied that a SAHM cannot possibly understand how other women work and think. And for all of you who look at the Romneys and believe that they've always had life handed to them, look a little harder. You'll find that Ann Romney has worked tirelessly, not just for her family, but for others as well.
Of course, you have all done your homework and you know that President Obama and his wife "couldn't afford for Michelle to be a SAHM" on a paltry few hundred thousand dollars a year, right? Does that sound like someone who relates to the plight of single mothers and working women? Give me a break! You are being led to believe that Romney and his wife are "out-of-touch" with average Americans because they're wealthy. News flash: Even by his own stated standards, Obama is a wealthy ivy-leager who has NEVER faced what the majority of people in this country have faced. He has never worried about having a job, feeding his kids, putting them through college, etc. Does that make him "out-of-touch" and does it disqualify him to be president? Of course not!
Rosen and her cadre of cohorts have created a logical fallacy that if you haven't lived exactly like someone else, you cannot understand their plight. She got caught in the crossfire her own "faux" war and now wants a truce. If she is sincere, where is the real demonstration that she understands that Ann Romney is as qualified, if not more so, than she is to understand the plight of women AND men in this country.
April 12, 2012 04:24 pm at 4:24 pm |
Bootstomper
I forgot,how many Cadillacs does poor Ann have?
That was a pretty lame apology. Sounds like when you're mean to your sibling as a kid and your mother makes you apologize. Once more with feeling, please.
nell ryan
Hilary Rosen knows exactly what she's talking about in regard to women and the economy, as well as women's issues in general. She shouldn't have to apologize for the truth. She didn't concoct the truth. It just is. There is no way in the world a woman in the upper economic bracket can have the slightest knowledge of the unrelenting challenges a working mother must cope with - financially, emotionally, socially, physically and mentally.
I thought this was over long ago! Women who happen to be Democrats are the harshest critics of any woman who happens to be a Republican. Enough already. I want Hilary to get a clue that women who are Republicans think, work and care about this world just as much as Democrats. If you are really for women's rights, you will allow women to think for themselves and not disparage us any more because we think and choose differently from you.
My mother is a stay at home Mom who has no idea what to do with a dressage horse
I sense a great deal of hatred from women jealous that they were unable to have any children let alone five kids. The reality is most women in America would LOVE to be able to live the life that Ms. Romney does. So you can:
1. Marry someone with money.
2. Become successful in your own right.
3. Stop hating people who are prettier, thinner, richer or better educated.
4. Stop blaming rich or wealthy people for your own failures in life or ability to get ahead.
Joe from Ohio
Amazing how one low level Dem strategist making an opinion about Romney's wife is FRONT PAGE HEADLINE news all DAY on the FOX/GOP channel. They are grasping at straws for this election for sure!
My "stay at home" wife worked plenty hard taking care of me, the house, and two kids. I cannot imagine the work involved to care for 5 children. I would say she has worked plenty!
beevee
I admire Mrs. Romney. She seems like a very decent person which I can't say of her husband at this time. The remark of Ms. Rosen about her may be a bit uncalled for, but if you set emotions aside and think with a calmer mind, it may be that Mrs. Romeny was indeed a stay-at-home mom taking care of her children which is a full time job, but she definitely has a lot of help in doing that job. Many middle class mother taking care of their children and working do not have that luxury. I think Mitt Romney is hiding behind her skirt on this one.
I am a strong democrat. This was wrong! Unless politicians wives are engaged in politics, actively debating issues, if their actions were prior to their political activities, whether they worked or not, is out of bounds. And frankly, it doesn't matter. Could Ann Romney have worked and contributed something to society? Perhaps. But it is her right not to, for whatever reason. even if it's being rich. If Ms. Rosen believes it is admirable to work, then that is HER opinion. But just as Republicans try to thrust their opinions and beliefs on Democrats, it is not right for Rosen to do the same.
I don't like the way Wolf Blitzer treated Hillary Rosen He was taking her to task as if she was a child I could see the blush in her face. She had to sit there and take it . What she said was true. One person said something all of a sudden it get turned against the democrates . Issues are what's important.
Rosen said nothing wrong. Romney said that his wife has real work experience and knows what other women go through. Rosen just pointed out that Mrs. Romney does NOT know how the average working mother feels. She might know how other super-rich, stay-at-home moms feel, but there aren't that many of them.
Democrats bashing a stay at home mom! I love it. Keep apologizing oh you so called "Friends" of women.
fghjrtr545
Do you woman wading this "war" hate money? Do you want your kids on welfare? CNN turns to total garbage come election time!
Liberalism at its best. What a hypocrisy.
Lefties claim they are the folks of inclusiveness.
I believe they are the people of exclusivity. Moms like Ann Romney aren't welcome.
Left Elites are the most fascist, unwelcoming bunch of them all.
WOW a real horse woman. You women who get up go to work and put up with all of that and still have to come home and care for your kids – if you feel Ann Romney is a feel sorry for case – "You are so stupit" She has it all except maybe responsiblity, a job, a home to care for without maids, a taxi are rental when her car breaks down. OH NO she has two cars Mitt told us that..... remember...... Ann Romney does not know what the middle class is all about. She is rich and has been rich all her life. GET REAL women, this is why you get s.....d so badly all the time. Think like the men with your head sometimes. Or shut up and stop trying to make it worst for women who have to be everything to everyone and still have to put an asprin between because a so call "good old boy" wants you to be a mommy first. You can't have it both ways. Either you stand up and speak or someone will always speak for your.
What Hilary said should not be surprising to those that pay attention. This is how the far left view women, especially women to whom they disagree with.
coolheaded
The Obama elite's prejudices backfire as they accidentally expose, then keep digging themselves deeper into their arrogant dismissal and mean spirited attacks. Ann Romney needs no credentials nor defense; she holds her own with ease against Rosen, Obama, and Axelrod.
aertzc
Too little, too late. The left has spent the last three months trying to frame the GOP as waging war on women and Hilary Rosen brought it all tumbling down with a few careless words.
infraredted
Hillary Rosen is a class act, an intelligent, politically savvy woman who is being unfairly pilloried for speaking the truth. Ann Romney is a woman of privilege who hasn't 'worked' a day in her life at a job outside the the home. True, she bore 5 children but I would suspect that a large portion of the heavy lifting was provided by help, be they nannies, cooks. housekeepers or whatever. I doubt that she (Romney) spent the day cooking, doing the laundry, menial household chores and the 100's of other daily tasks that most working class mothers perform. She smiled, looked good, and did all the perfunctory perfect things that wealthy women bestow upon their progeny along with the 'goodness' of Mormonism but as far as being a long suffering mother enduring the raising of five children, I don't buy it. The kids all look to be good little Mitt clones that popped out of the toaster oven. To even begin to equate the Romney household with the average American one is ludicrous. There have been people of wealth in political office in this country for the past two centuries but almost none with the high degree of disconnect as the Romney's and yes, I am including the Kennedy's in that equation. At least they had a populist streak which is something that's anathema to the Romney's and a large slice of the Republican higher echelon.
I am grateful that my mother who worked and took care of us did what she did. I thank her for it everytime I see her. But, lets be honest....Anne Romney has never worked a day in her life. If she has I wanna know what those jobs were. Hilary Rosen should not apologize for her comment unless it was incorrect. If it is correct than the Romney's should shut up and take it., The moment you decide to run for public office your life becomes an open book that is going to be scrutinize every minute. The job of a stay at home is a job but it does not compare to working in the work force and especially not when you are wealthy and have a nanny and housekeeper.
Tim Strickland
I wonder if the same comments were made about John Kennedy and his wife, Jacqueline, would have met with the same easy out apology. Jackie was a stay-at-home mom... Does anyone honestly believe she had no clue about the concern of women just because she lived the life of a millionairess? That would be as ridiculous a statement for her as it is to believe the same about Ann Romney. You don't have to put your hand into a fire to know that it hurts... Geez people... More "class warfare" but now mixed with "the war on women". Can't you see what the democrats are doing here? Why give Rosen a pass that she doesn't deserve...
I disagree what Hilary said was true – that Mrs. Romney wouldn't understand what is important to women. True, she chose to be a stay at home mother however, this doesn't insolate her from understanding the issues and concerns women face. In addition, Mrs. Romney has been out on the campaign trail for a year – I'm sure she has heard from many women and men accross the country and what their concerns are. Why couldn't she be a resource for Mr Romney? She is listening to the people she meets, isn't that the first step to understanding. I think Hilary just dissed women everywhere by her biased comments.
Kind of a curious thought here. But would a mother who struggles to balance a full time job, put food on the table, and keep a household be considered an expert. An expert would be someone who excels at something, which means a successful mother who can work, put food on the table, and keep the house without a worry in the world...that would be an EXPERT on the issue. Anyone can comment on something, especially someone who has gone around and specifically talked to mothers that are having trouble...and she attributes their comments to the mothers that made them to her. The actual comments made were that Mitt had talked to his wife, Ann, who had been talking to mothers on what their concerns were over the economy...since she had talked to them, and gathered information...she is well qualified to then submit her observations to her husband on those meetings.
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The client, a multi-disciplined detail engineering company, subcontracted Process Engineering Associates, LLC (PROCESS) to provide process engineering services in the design of a new process for sulfonating a polystyrene block copolymer at an existing Northeastern U.S. manufacturing facility for the ultimate client, a leading producer of basic and intermediate chemicals for a variety of industries. PROCESS was assigned the following project responsibilities:
Assist the client with improving the original preliminary process design.
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Develop new, and markup existing facility piping and instrumentation diagrams (P&IDs) for the complete sulfonation process. Eleven (11) total P&IDs were delivered. PROCESS maintained ownership of the P&IDs during the project.
Walk down the facility to produce existing as-built P&IDs and for the development of demolition P&IDs for the facility. Demolition drawings were required so that several pieces of existing equipment (tanks, pumps, pipe, etc.) could be re-used in the new process.
Prepare the equipment, instrument, specialty item, and line lists for the project.
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Write instrument specifications for all new parts that are needed for the new process. This included providing datasheets for 62 new units.
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Facilitate and participate in a process hazards analysis (PHA) held to analyze any potential hazards associated with the sulfonation process.
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The project progressed to detail design of the new process and is expecting to start production soon.
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TS Radio: Guardianship abuse, A personal experience Is Your Favorite Charity Infiltrated?
Vaccine and Medication Lottery
Lynn Swearingen Child endangerment, vaccines CDC Policy, dutch prevenar deaths, FDA, gardasil deaths, Gardasil for boys, gardasil for butt cracks, japanese prevenar deaths, Pfizer, Supreme Court Autism decision, vaccination death rates, vaccine recalls 3 Comments
Lynn Swearingen (c) copyright 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
We’ve all heard how safe vaccines are. They don’t cause Autism, they don’t cause death, and they protect the general populace. In surfing through the various studies and professional opinions, I wonder just one thing. How many of the researchers involved have actually had a family member have a negative reaction?
What prompts this question is this article which is getting little, if any, play time in the Mainstream Media (Prevenar is also referred to as HIB):
Deaths of Four Children Prompt Pfizer, Sanofi-Aventis Vaccine Halt
Japan has temporarily stopped using vaccines from U.S. drugmaker Pfizer Inc. and Sanofi-Aventis SA of France while it investigates the deaths of four children who were inoculated, the health ministry said Monday.
The decision to halt the vaccines against pneumonia, some types of meningitis and other infections was made Saturday. The government is hearing from experts at a meeting Tuesday, the health ministry said.
The four children, from under six months to 2 years old, died between March 2 and March 4. The deaths occurred the same day to three days after the vaccines were administered, the ministry said.
Those of us who wonder just what is being accidentally included in some vaccines know the routine. Child/ren dies, halt of specific vaccine usage is implemented, and “batch” issues arise. SSDD routine. Unless of course the collateral damage happens to your child or family member.
In November 2009, the Dutch Government banned the use of a specific batch of Prevenar when 3 babies died, although an average of 5 – 10 die each year. The article does not state whether that is country specific or not:
A single batch of the Pfizer anti-infection vaccine Prevenar (which is called Prevnar in the United States) has been banned by Dutch health officials after three babies there died within weeks of getting the shots.
The Dutch health institute RIVM has quarantined about 110,000 doses of the vaccine, which is widely given to newborns around the world to prevent pneumonia and related infections. Batch D66977 of the drug is the subject of the quarantine.
My concern is information reported such as on “WebMD” which include statements as:
While no major surprises were seen in the study, Prevnar “warrants continued surveillance,” the researchers conclude.
Can you hear the crickets? Where are the follow-up studies? What about the “Whistleblowers’ ” who provided information that indicated faulty manufacturing practices?
The release of this specific vaccine were based partially on a study that is now almost a decade old:
A study conducted by researchers Robert Wise, MD, MPH, of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and colleagues analyzed data from the national Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System (VAERS) during February 2000-February 2002, the first two years since Prevnar was licensed.
This statement sums up many concerns of parents. Unfortunately, no one is listening:
And another question: why did the CDC’s policymaking committee vote to recommend “universal use” of Prevnar by all children before the FDA Committee even got a chance to review the data and take a vote about whether it should be licensed at all? The same thing happened with the ill-fated Rotavirus vaccine for infant diarrhea that was pulled off the market in 1999, less than a year after it was released, because it was causing bowel obstructions in babies. The CDC had voted to recommend that all babies get rotavirus vaccine weeks before the FDA Committee voted on scientific proof of safety and efficacy. And before the FDA Committee even got a chance to vote on Prevnar, Wyeth Lederle and Kaiser Permanente officials were being quoted in national press releases that Prevnar was an ear infection vaccine – when their own trial data showed that the vaccine only decreased a child’s chance of getting an ear infection by 7 percent!
The FDA has never licensed Prevnar as an ear infection vaccine but lots of doctors in America tell parents it is because that is how the vaccine has been promoted. No wonder Prevnar vaccine was the number one best selling new pharmaceutical introduced to the market in the year 2000 – generating more than $450 million for Wyeth Lederle that year.
There have been wide-ranging batch recalls : Rotarix, H1N1, Measles, Rabies (animal lovers worry as well), Flu in ’07, Gardasil in ’09, Lipitor , methotrexate, pet vitamins, varieties of Tylenol and OTC cold treatments , 500 cold drugs, – the list of various vaccines or medications seems to leave the “food safety” argument in the dust.
Even more amazing? After all the life changing reactions from the Gardasil insanity in our daughters (not to mention the 16 deaths reported in 19 months), the FDA approved it to treat every butt crack in the world (who can afford it of course). This PPJ article written by Marti Oakley has more detailed information on Gardasil.
A recent Supreme Court decision chose to listen to Industry instead of individuals in vaccine cases.
Here’s an idea. If periodically all of these vaccines and medications have “batch issues”, why not have the hundreds of thousands of Researchers, Manufactures, Office Personnel, WHO Officials and others who profit from the sale of them be required to enter a Lottery. Your number comes up – you take your chance on the batch.
After all – they are safe every time – right?
elpres
first we destroy the family unit and teach mothers to teach their kids to hate their father. (family court)
then we enslave the father to pay the mother “cupcake support” and deny the father any rights to have a say in the child’s upbringing.
then the majority of mothers have little formal education and rely on handouts from the govt and other social justice services and they dictate medical procedures in “the interests of the child”
the children are being sickened and some even die from these mandatory health social justice programs and the fathers have no say and are the only ones who can mount any resistance to such health destroying programs.
the resulting adults, having survived this childhood assault on their physical beings, are weakened, diseased and mentally retarded to their true spiritual capabilities and make
GOOD MINDLESS SLAVES.
shutup and eat your genetically modified corn flakes and growth promotant milk.
this was all planned in the Tavistock institute
JANET JUBILEE
Well, it’s simple really, just check the ingredients and don’t poison yourself/kids/pets.
If only fatal reactions were the only worry with vaccinations. You’re being chemically altered. For more youtube: lobotomized Alan Watt
Alex Jones who interviews him, did his best to be annoying and change the subject to one of his goons “getting arrested” (another publicity stunt)
TS Radio Network: Tanya TalkS 2020- THE VOICES MUST CARRY; & WE NEED YOURS
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Author - PropertyWheel_GW
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Slick’s Hits: Styx: Master of Shadows
Handel·
Styx is coming closer and closer to starring in his own adventure, sans Arkail the Orc. Master of Shadows takes place long before 2011’s Of Orcs and Men and Styx has no muscle to fall back on in this adventure. Regardless, Styx will reach the World Tree and getting him there means players are going to have a lot of nasty fun with Styx’ enemies.
The last time we checked in on Styx, we saw the array of abilities that drinking the Amber provides him with. We also saw how disposing of bodies can make it easier for him to move about the Tower of Akenash without being hunted. In this new video, it becomes abundantly clear that hiding bodies will not always be possible. Styx will not necessarily be without places to hide a corpse so much as having a lack of “privacy.” Crafty players will have no issue with this intended hindrance as making use of a combination of Styx’ agility, diminutive size and offensive and defensive abilities will allow you to “run and gun,” so to speak. If I had to describe Styx to someone bereft of internet, I would say that he moves with the ease of Spider-Man in Shattered Dimensions, has the stealth capability of Batman in the Arkham games and the assassination skill of Altaïr from the first Assassin’s Creed. With a recipe like that, I for one cannot wait for October to get here. Hopefully this is one goblin we will not have to wait until Halloween to see.
Focus Home InteractiveR.A.G.E. WorksSlick's HitsStyx: Master of Shadows
Slick is a man of many hats and can be found all over RAGE Works delivering content to the masses. As Games Editor at RAGE Works and moderator on the RAGE Works fan page and FB Group. Slick ensures everything is running smoothly and everyone is having a good time. When not dissecting games for RAGE Works Slick can be found digesting movies and anime. Hollar at him for anime recommendations.
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Sifu Khun Kru Guru Harun Raja
Grandmaster Dan Medina
Sifu Al Zepeda
Khun Kru Sonya Browning
Contra Mestre Neguin and Professora Risadinha
Sensei Isa Waduud Brown (Judo/Jiujitsu Instructor)
Francis Fong Instructor Association
Thai Boxing Association
Inosanto Academy of Martial Arts
Student Creed
Arts / Classes
Wing Chun Video(s)
Muay Thai Video(s)
Filipino Martial Arts Video(s)
Brazilian Martial Arts Dance – Capoeira Video(s)
Frequently Asked Questions (Adults)
Frequently Asked Questions (Children)
Travel & Train
We are certified instructors under the Francis Fong Instructor Association from Sifu Francis Fong.
Sifu Fong is taking the Association to the next level by creating standardized curriculum and an effective business model for our members.
Sifu Francis Fong has over 35 years of experience in Wing Chun Kung Fu, and is recognized as one of the top Wing Chun instructors and martial artists in the world.
In addition to actively teaching students at his academy, Sifu Fong has trained both amateur and professional fighters for competition, appeared in movies and television, and traveled both internationally and throughout the U.S. to teach his highly regarded martial arts seminars, as well as conducting innovative business leadership and motivational seminars for major corporations.
Originally from Hong Kong, Sifu Fong began training in martial arts training at the age of 12 years old. The promise of competition first attracted him to a Tae Kwon Do school, as well as Judo and WuShu. Several years into his martial arts training, his school friend Sifu Jason Lau introduced him to the art of Wing Chun Kung Fu. He was selected into a closed-door school led by Sifu Jiu Wan, a well-known instructor who had immigrated to Hong Kong from Southern China.
Sifu Jiu Wan and Yip Man (considered by many to be the father of Modern Wing Chun as well as Bruce Lee’s Wing Chun instructor) studied martial arts together at the Jing Mo Guen in Foshan. It was considered one of the most elite institutions in southern China, dedicated solely to the highest levels of martial arts training.
Yip Man left early, completing the Wing Chun system elsewhere, and was the first to teach Wing Chun in Hong Kong. Sifu Jiu Wan went on to become a teacher at the Jing Mo Guen. When the communists came to China, Sifu Jiu Wan went to Hong Kong and joined Yip Man’s organization. Sifu Fong describes his early training under Sifu Jiu Wan as very traditional and old-fashioned training, with a LOT of sticky hands training (Chi Sao).
In 1973, Sifu Fong came to the U.S. from Hong Kong in search of new opportunities. He first went to college in Canada and then to Connecticut for work. On the weekends and summers he would travel down to New York City to train with his Wing Chun brother, Sifu Jason Lau, who a few years earlier had come to New York. A few years later, in 1975, Sifu Fong moved down to Atlanta, GA and soon after established his own school teaching Wing Chun Kung Fu in 1976.
In 1981, Sifu Fong was asked by film coordinator Bobby Bass to help choreograph the fight scenes for the movie Sharkey’s Machine. It was during this filming that he met up with Sifu Dan Inosanto (Bruce Lee’s well-known student and successor). This led to a lifelong friendship with Sifu Dan and a sharing of their mutual respect and interest in the martial arts.
Sifu Fong says of him, “I respect him not only as a martial artist and teacher, but also for his attitude and philosophy.” Sifu Dan later introduced Sifu Fong to Ajarn (Master) “Chai” Sirisute (the first native Thai instructor to offer Thai boxing in America). These associations sealed his move into exploring his material by mastering other systems.
Throughout the years, Sifu Fong’s open-mindedness and desire to explore other arts led him to include Filipino Kali, Jeet Kune Do, Muay Thai and Grappling arts, such as Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu and Shooto, alongside of the Wing Chun curriculum taught at this Academy, along with hosting some of the top authorities in those arts for seminars here in Atlanta.
Sifu Fong is currently the ‘Georgia Representative’ for Guro Dan Inosanto with ‘Senior Full Instructor’ rankings in both Filipino Martial Arts and Lee Jun Fan Gung Fu and Jeet Kune Do. Additionally, Sifu is a Senior Full Instructor in Muay Thai (Ajarn) and is recognized as the ‘Director of the Southeastern Region’ for the Thai Boxing Association of the U.S.A., under the direction of Ajarn Chai Sirisute.
Sifu Francis is an honorable member of the Defensive Tactics Instructor Association of the state of Georgia, and has been a certified ‘Head Police Defensive Tactics Instructor’, whom has trained police officers, S.W.A.T. teams, and “Fort Benning Rangers” in close quarters tactics.
Due to his diverse background and experience, the U.S. Army sought his help in updating Army training manuals to include principles in the arts of Wing Chun, Muay Thai and Filipino Kali. He maintains ‘Special Deputy Sheriff’ classification in the Training/Special Operations Division in the state of South Carolina.
WHY RAJA ACADEMY? :
Increase Coordination and Motor Skills
Improve Cardiovascular Conditioning
Learn Self-Defense
Achieve Weight Loss Goals
Build Muscle while Toning
Improve Self-Control or Self-Discipline
Aid in Stress Relief
Become a Teacher in Martial Arts
Raja Academy of Martial Arts
1200 Woodruff Rd
Merovan Center, Ste B-8
PACKED WITH AWESOME STUDENTS : The main goal to Martial Arts training is self improvement. Raja Academy students range from age five to well into their sixties. You are never too young or old to train.
info@rajamartialarts.com
Our lead instructor at the Academy has been certified under Sifu Francis Fong, Ajarn Chai Sirisute, Guro Dan Inosanto, and Grandmaster Dan Medina.
Along with learning the culture for each class taught at the Academy, class uniforms are chosen to aid in establishing training environment that enhances the student experience.
Our adult and children's programs are taught in separate classes, which focus on the needs of each student group.
In addition, for practical self-defense it is important to learn how to deal with different situations that exist and learn self-defense training against a weapon, on the ground, and in stand-up scenarios.
© 2017 Raja Academy of Martial Arts. All Rights Reserved. Powered by Ebenezer Technology, LLC.
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Brittany Sellner
(Redirected from Brittany Pettibone)
This article requires expansion. Please help.
Though not a stub by pure word count, this article lacks depth of content.
A "pro-white" activist.
“”Have a few white kids = fight 'climate change'.
Have lots of white kids = stop whites from becoming a minority by 2042.
Choice is yours.
—Brittany Pettibone, baby factory enthusiast[1]
Frogs, clowns and swastikas
Chuds
Hoppe and Evola
Taylor and Spencer
Bannon and Milo
SF, TDS, TRS and /pol/
Rebuilding the Reich, one meme at a time
Forumbiodiversity
Murder of Seth Rich
Occidental Dissent
Policies of Donald Trump
Varg Vikernes
Buzzwords
Alt-right glossary
Manosphere glossary
Brittany Sellner Brittany Alicia Merced Pettibone (1992–) is a Catholic,[2] American young adult-fiction writer, alt-right commentator, Schrödinger's white nationalist,[3][4][5][note 1] and overall conspiracy theorist who refers to herself as an "American nationalist".[6] Her prominence among the alt-right is generally due to her status as a sort of white power Barbie.[citation NOT needed] She is married to "European identitarian" Martin Sellner in 2019 and changed her name to Brittany Sellner.,[2]
2 Hatred Day and Virtue of the West
2.1 Hatred Day
2.2 Virtue of the West
3 Alt-right activism
3.1 ADL Hate List
3.2 Generation Identity
3.3 Pizzagate and other conspiracy theories
3.4 Schrödinger's white nationalist
3.5 Trump shilling
3.6 Anti-Semitic dog whistling
4 Wingnut infighting
Sellner was born in California to Theodore and Sabrina Pettibone (née Gurries), with 7 siblings. Her father was a candidate for Governor of Kansas in 2002 under the Reform Party.[7][8]
She rose to prominence for her support of Donald Trump;[9][10] along with her promotion of nutcase theories such as white genocide[11][12] and Pizzagate.[13] She is also a supporter of Russia against NATO and the modern West.[14][15][16]
Sellner's posts about "white genocide" often include Israeli and communist flags flying in the background.[citation needed] (Jewish Bolshevism )
Is this intentional?[17]
Hatred Day and Virtue of the West[edit]
Nicole (left) and Brittany Pettibone signing their book, The Steel Inferno in 2013
“”An active imagination is so important to writing fiction! Yours must help you a lot with your novels!
—Victoria Aveyard [18]
Hatred Day[edit]
Continuing the apparent alt-right trend of writing shoddy fiction with the suffix 'Day', Sellner (as Pettibone) is co-author of the Hatred Day book series alongside her twin sister Nicole, under the pen name T.S. Pettibone (previously N.B. Pettibone).
Virtue of the West[edit]
Sellner has very strong ties to the alt-right, despite claiming that she herself isn't a racist. She co-hosted a webcast called Virtue of the West with British white supremacist Tara McCarthy, one of the most extreme racists on YouTube; its GoFundMe was taken down by the site as promoting hate speech.[19] Sellner has also been a guest on McCarthy's Reality Calls webcast.
Alt-right activism[edit]
ADL Hate List[edit]
Unsurprisingly, her actions led her to be listed on the ADL's hate group list.[20] Sellner responded that BLM, Antifa and BAMN were the "actual violent extremist groups".[21]
Generation Identity[edit]
See the main article on this topic: Generation Identity
She was a part of Defend Europe.[22]
Pizzagate and other conspiracy theories[edit]
“”You act like Alex Jones [and] Paul [Joseph] Watson are unreliable...
—Brittany Pettibone, explaining that InfoWars is a reliable news source[23][note 2]
#ImVotingBecause the Podestas are alleged pedophiles and have a torture chamber.
#PodestaEmails34[32]
YUGE shoutout to the Anons of 4chan & The_Donald #Reddit for all of your hard work uncovering the alleged Comet Ping Pong pedophilia ring. 🙌[33]
So why am I being shadow banned? Could it have anything do to with exposing spirit cooking & the suspected D.C. pedophilia ring, I wonder?[34]
Why is Wikileaks suddenly being DDOS'D? Could it have anything to do with the Clinton's murdering Vince Foster, I wonder?
#DNCLeak2[35]
Reddit The_Donald believes they may have connected John/Tony Podesta to the abduction of #MadeleineMcCann.
Confirmation of what we suspected. #SethRich [Headline: "Dead DNC Staffer 'Had Contact' With WikiLeaks" – Drudge Report][37]
#2017Predictions The skeletons in President Barack Obama's closet will be exposed. [Headline: "Sheriff Joe Arpaio Says Investigation 'Concludes' Obama's Birth Certificate is Forgery"][38]
Schrödinger's white nationalist[edit]
Brannon1776: The future of the west depends on those brave enough to be called racist, bigot, sexist, homophobe, xenophobic and not flinch or back down.
Pettibone: One of the greatest tweets in the history of Twitter.[39]
Sellner's stances on white nationalism have been contradicting, vague, and unusual to say the least. In an interview with Tim Pool, she denied allegations that she was a racist or white nationalist:
Pool: You are not advocating for a white ethnostate in the United States? You don't think that...
Pettibone: No.
Pool: ...white people should be in charge and that there should be, like, a purging or an ethnic cleansing?
Pettibone: No, I don't. I've never advocated for this. What I do--
Pool: Are you racist?
Pool: Do you believe that white people are inherently better than other races?
Pettibone: No, I don't think so.[40]
However, in another video she stated that "civic nationalism" can't work which seemed to imply support of white nationalism:
This is why civic nationalism isn't working and won't work, because of this. So it's based on the idea that as long as you have the same ideology and you love America and you believe in equality then it's gonna work. You know, all the bases of civic nationalism. But the left has made it where or, I don't even know what to call them anymore, these people have made it so we're not equal anymore because of the identity politics. You know, it's like a white straight guy can't even talk. His opinion's worthless. Do you understand what I'm trying to say, like why that would not then work? Because there's such an unequal balance throughout our country now of different groups. If you're an oppressed minority then you're automatically treated way better and so it can't work because of that. It's too divided now and so that's why I don't say I'm a civic nationalist because I don't think it can work.[41]
Sellner also described the following passage as "wise words":
[Highlighted passage]:
"For Aristotle, democracy is possible only within homogeneous ethnic groups, while despots have always reigned over highly fragmented societies.
A multi-ethnic society is thus necessarily anti-democratic and chaotic, for it lacks philia, this profound, flesh-and-blood fraternity of citizens. Tyrants and despots divide and rule, they want the City divided by ethnic rivalries. The indispensable condition for ensuring people's sovereignty accordingly resides in its unity. Ethnic chaos prevents all philia from developing."[42]
Tweeted the same page about a month ago. Wise words. For those curious, the page is from “Why We Fight” by Guillaume Faye. [43]
She has said that too much immigration "dilutes a country's identity".[44] Pettibone also regularly reposts white nationalist propaganda on "white genocide".[citation needed] There is a case to make that whether she is just sympathetic and supportive of white nationalists, or is one, the effect is the same.
Sellner also continues to support and promote the work of open unapologetic white supremacists and eugenicists such as McCarthy, Stefan Molyneux and Russian-American white nationalist radio host Lana Lokteff, as well as other racists such as YouTuber 'Blonde In The Belly Of The Beast'.[note 3] Sellner has refused to publicly disavow any of these people's racist statements or views.[note 4] But of course, she wants you to know she totally isn't a racist white supremacist herself.[45]
Trump shilling[edit]
The following are tweets from Sellner before the 2016 presidential election:
Trump's only real victim is Hillary Clinton, when he schooled her in the Second Presidential Debate.
#NextFakeTrumpVictim[46]
Yes, Hillary, we do understand what's at stake for this election. You, a globalist, versus Trump, a nationalist.
#debatenight[47]
#OurFutureDependsOn this election. If we don't step up and elect Trump, we'll soon be at war with Russia.[48]
LOL to the people tweeting about the already debunked #TrumpsTiesToRussia. What about Hillary Clinton's ties to Satan? #SpiritCooking[49]
Anti-Semitic dog whistling[edit]
“”With 9 days left until the US presidential election, here are the 9 real threats to humanity. #GoHillary [Pictured: John Rothschild, Jacob Rothschild, Evelyn Rothschild, Henry Kissinger, David Rockefeller, Larry Summers, George Soros, Lloyd Blankfein]
—Pettibone[50]
Sellner supports conspiracy theories relating to George Soros[51]:
So, after funding mass voter fraud and inciting Trump rally riots, why aren't the DOJ arresting George Soros?
#Veritas[52]
George Soros is funding and organizing the riots.[53]
Wingnut infighting[edit]
RooshV has argued that they are "deep seated feminists". [54]
Lauren Southern — a fellow traveller[55]
Vox Day – Sellner is essentially the millennial version of this guy.
OK Hand Sign – Sellner has used this alt-right dog whistle[56]
Marine Le Pen – Sellner supports her[57]
Tommy Robinson – A "personal hero" of Sellner[58]
Traditionalist Catholicism – The religion she believes according to her social media sites.[59][60]
Gab.ai page
↑ Her comments on the matter have been contradictory and vague, and she doesn't claim to be a "racist". See below.
↑ Other sources Sellner believes are reliable include:
National Enquirer[24]
Zero Hedge[25]
Daily Mail[26]
The Daily Sheeple[27]
The Gateway Pundit[28]
Breitbart.com[29]
Drudge Report[30]
/pol/[31]
↑ Yes, that is the name of her YouTube channel.
↑ Sound familiar?
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20180327034239/https:/twitter.com/brittpettibone/status/885164640870821888
↑ 2.0 2.1 Brittany Sellner Twitter (archived from December 31, 2019).
↑ http://www.ocweekly.com/news/a-rising-star-in-pro-trump-circles-isnt-who-he-says-he-is-or-is-he-8066499
↑ http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/articulo/mundo/2017/07/22/extrema-derecha-contra-los-migrantes-en-europa
↑ "Ted Pettibone (Reform)" (in en-US). Fox News. October 31, 2002. http://www.foxnews.com/story/2002/10/31/ted-pettibone-reform.html.
↑ WIBW. "Kathleen Sebelius Defeats Tim Shallenburger" (in en). http://www.wibw.com/home/headlines/134652.html.
↑ Authors Risk Career Publicly Supporting Trump: Political views frowned upon in liberally biased writing community (October 14, 2016) InfoWars.
↑ Twitter Purge of "Alt Right": Censorship of alternative media ramping up as Trump prepares to take office (November 17, 2016) InfoWars.
↑ "I went behind the front lines with the far-right agitators who invaded Berkeley" (in en). Mother Jones. http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2017/04/far-right-white-supremacists-berkeley-protests-antifa-trump.
↑ "Here's What Really Happened At Saturday's Berkeley Riot" (in en). BuzzFeed. https://www.buzzfeed.com/blakemontgomery/heres-what-really-happened-at-saturdays-berkeley-riot.
↑ http://observer.com/2017/01/gofundme-pizzagate-podcast-brittany-pettibone
↑ https://twitter.com/brittpettibone/status/816453412992598016
↑ https://gab.ai/BrittPettibone/posts/3227789
↑ http://www.searchlightmagazine.com/2017/05/the-growing-nazi-axis/
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170205013208/https://gab.ai/BrittPettibone/posts/3517138
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20170422204030/https:/twitter.com/VictoriaAveyard/status/798308504616505344
↑ "Alt-Right 'PizzaGate Expert' Starts GoFundMe for Her Podcast, Internet Revolts". New York Observer. January 30, 2017. http://observer.com/2017/01/gofundme-pizzagate-podcast-brittany-pettibone/.
↑ https://www.adl.org/education/resources/backgrounders/from-alt-right-to-alt-lite-naming-the-hate
↑ http://www.reuters.com/article/us-europe-migrants-farright-millennials-idUSKBN1A61J6
↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20190322212020/https://twitter.com/BrittPettibone/status/788501151276756992
https://web.archive.org/web/20190322225425/https://twitter.com/brittpettibone/status/800046245720883200
https://web.archive.org/web/20170519015029/https:/twitter.com/BrittPettibone/status/864554279721254912
https://twitter.com/BrittPettibone/status/866095985189019648
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QgL9uFnyqAA&t=15m52s
↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VM2J97WmE3E&t=1h6m25s
↑ https://www.rooshvforum.com/thread-60088-post-1469403.html
↑ Arrests made as protesters clash at pro-Trump rally in Berkeley by Cynthia Dizikes (updated 3:45 pm, Sunday, April 16, 2017) San Francisco Chronicle.
↑ https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCesrUK_dMDBZAf7cnjQPdgQ/about
↑ https://twitter.com/BrittPettibone
Retrieved from "https://rationalwiki.org/w/index.php?title=Brittany_Sellner&oldid=2152003"
Alt-lite
Anti-Semites
Authoritarian wingnuttery
Christian apologists
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Conspiracy theorists
Enablers
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Food & Entertainment »
FMCG »
Mohan Goenka
Kesh King
Emami Q2 net profit declines 33% to Rs 61.34 crore
Emami Ltd today reported 32.97 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 61.34 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2015 on account of amortisation of Kesh King intangibles.PTI | Updated: October 30, 2015, 09:05 IST
Emami Ltd today reported 32.97 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 61.34 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2015 on account of amortisation of Kesh King intangibles.
NEW DELHI: FMCG firm Emami Ltd today reported 32.97 per cent decline in consolidated net profit at Rs 61.34 crore for the second quarter ended September 30, 2015 on account of amortisation of Kesh King intangibles.
The company had posted net profit of Rs 91.52 crore during the same period of previous fiscal, Emami said in a BSE filing.
However, the company's total income from operations rose 17.36 per cent to Rs 574.62 crore during the quarter under review as against Rs 489.60 crore in the same quarter of the last fiscal.
"PAT at Rs 61 crore de-grew by 33.0 per cent during the quarter and by 8.9 per cent in H1 FY16 at Rs 149 crore on account of amortisation of Kesh King intangibles," the company said in a statement.
Commenting on the results, Emami Director Mohan Goenka said, "Despite deflationary environment along with lower rural wage growth and an overall sluggish consumer environment during the quarter, we are happy to announce the domestic business growth of 19.5 per cent in the second quarter and of 21.5 per cent in H1 FY16."
Emami's consolidated net profit for the first half of FY 2015-16 also declined 8.85 per cent to Rs 149.09 crore as against a net profit of Rs 163.58 crore in the same period a year ago.
Its total income from operations on a consolidated basis during the first half of the current fiscal was up 19.88 per cent to Rs 1,164.49 crore as against Rs 971.33 crore in the same period a year ago.
Emami had acquired hair and scalp care business under the Kesh King and allied brands for Rs 1,684 crore in June, 2015.
It had raised around Rs 950 crore debt to partially fund the acquisition and balance was funded by its internal accruals.
Emami shares today settled 3.04 per cent down at Rs 1,049.60 per scrip on the BSE.
Tags : Food & Entertainment, FMCG, profit, Mohan Goenka, Kesh King, emami, Decline, BSE
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Ralph Lauren Polo has opened its debut ‘Women’s’ store in Australia
Vinny Halo August 8, 2019
Source: Ralph Lauren Polo
American heritage brand Polo Ralph Lauren has opened its debut ‘Women’s’ store in Sydney in July, 2019, ahead of four more womenswear outlet openings across Australia, according to multiple local media reports.
SEE ALSO : Australian streetwear retailer General Pants to enter New Zealand
Located in Sydney’s Queen Victoria Building (QVB), the iconic mall in the heart of the city’s Central Business District (CBD) on George Street, the new Polo Ralph Lauren Women’s store and the Ralph Lauren traditional millwork details, complement the
building’s historic architecture style.
Inside the loft-like space, key design accents include signature black and white finishes for a modern touch, alongside an array of vintage fixtures.
The store serves as Australia’s first standalone store dedicated to the New York brand’s Polo Ralph Lauren for Women’ collections, formerly known as ‘Blue Label’. And four more outlets just like this Sydney flagship are set to open by the end of 2019.
In September to October, Polo Ralph Lauren stores will open in Indooroopilly and Sunshine Plaza in Brisbane, Queensland; in the Emporium in Melbourne, Victoria; and in the Canberra Centre, Canberra, in the Australian Capital Territory.
Having first entered Australia in the late 90’s, Ralph Lauren bought back distribution rights in 2013. The brand is currently sold via its standalone stores and via multi-brand outlets and department stores including David Jones, Myer and Glue, as well as
online at The Iconic.
The latest retail rollout coincides with the 50th anniversary celebration of the Ralph Lauren brand, founded by its namesake designer, Ralph Lauren in the late 60’s.
For its latest financials, Ralph Lauren reported strong overseas growth. Internationally, the company continued to perform well, with revenue rising 1.5% in Europe and 4.3% in Asia, which includes Australia.
SEE ALSO : Canada’s Indochino enters Australia via localised e-commerce site
“We expect continued strength in our international businesses and a more challenging outlook for North America,” Chief Financial officer Jane Nielsen said at the time of reporting on July 30.
Tags Business International Polo Ralph Lauren Fashion First store heritage brand Retail American overseas growth design Standalone Store expansion Womenswear australia style Sydney celebration
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Article| November 01 1995
Cross-linking of major histocompatibility complex class II molecules by staphylococcal enterotoxin A superantigen is a requirement for inflammatory cytokine gene expression.
K Mehindate
Centre de Recherche en Rhumatologie Immunologie, Le Centre Hospitalier de l'Université Laval, Sainte-Foy, Québec, Canada.
J Thibodeau
M Dohlsten
T Kalland
R P Sékaly
W Mourad
J Exp Med (1995) 182 (5): 1573–1577.
https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.182.5.1573
PDF LinkPDF
K Mehindate, J Thibodeau, M Dohlsten, T Kalland, R P Sékaly, W Mourad; Cross-linking of major histocompatibility complex class II molecules by staphylococcal enterotoxin A superantigen is a requirement for inflammatory cytokine gene expression.. J Exp Med 1 November 1995; 182 (5): 1573–1577. doi: https://doi.org/10.1084/jem.182.5.1573
Staphylococcal enterotoxin A (SEA) has two distinct binding sites for major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules. The aspartic acid located at position 227 (D227) in the COOH terminus of SEA is one of the three residues involved in its interaction with the DR beta chain, whereas the phenylalanine 47 (F47) of the NH2 terminus is critical for its binding to the DR alpha chain. Upon interaction with MHC class II molecules, SEA triggers several cellular events leading to cytokine gene expression. In the present study, we have demonstrated that, contrary to wild-type SEA, stimulation of the THP1 monocytic cell line with SEA mutated at position 47 (SEAF47A) or at position 227 (SEAD227A) failed to induce interleukin 1 beta and tumor necrosis factor-alpha messenger RNA expression. Pretreatment of the cells with a 10-fold excess of either SEAF47A or SEAD227A prevented the increase in cytokine messenger RNA induced by wild-type SEA. However, cross-linking of SEAF47A or SEAD227A bound to MHC class II molecules with F(ab')2 anti-SEA mAb leads to cytokine gene expression, whereas cross-linking with F(ab) fragments had no effect. Taken together, these results indicate that cross-linking of two MHC class II molecules by one single SEA molecule is a requirement for cytokine gene expression.
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Staphylococcal enterotoxin A has two cooperative binding sites on major histocompatibility complex class II.
DIFFERENTIAL INHIBITORY EFFECTS OF CHOLERA TOXOIDS AND GANGLIOSIDE ON THE ENTEROTOXINS OF VIBRIO CHOLERAE AND ESCHERICHIA COLI
Molecular Cloning and Functional Characterization of the Receptor for Clostridium perfringens Enterotoxin
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Freemans Bay
While Freemans Bay may have lost the ocean, today it is the confident yet quiet over-achiever with a savvy and cultured soul.
Few places in Auckland can claim as dramatic a Cinderella story as Freemans Bay.
In a past life it was home to lower-class workers and rebels and the gritty grindstone for Auckland’s early industries. Now it is one of the city’s most affluent areas, with commercial and residential spaces rubbing shoulders, and rather fewer rebels - unless it’s a crime to think outside the box.
In Freemans Bay stylish homes nestle among a thriving hub of unique and interesting businesses. This inner-city suburb joins the CBD, Ponsonby, Wynyard Quarter and the Viaduct, but it still maintains a sense of wonder and craft, a nod to the past in a way only a small and creative area can.
Today, the glorious green space of Victoria Park is well utilised. There are sports events, sports groups, exercise bootcamps, joggers and strollers, as well as spectators enjoying the various activities from the comfort of a park bench. Magnificent London plane trees, planted at its opening, line the park. In addition to the sports oval, the park has a popular skatepark, petanque court, children’s playground and cricket nets. The old caretaker's house (c 1906) is now the GreenKeeper Café.
Victoria Park offers a multitude of activities from people watching through to the more adventurous.
Foodies and coffee fiends are spoilt for choice in Freemans Bay. It’s tempting to pop into Queenies Lunch Room for the Turkish eggs, or to order one of the single-origin coffee options from Caffetteria Allpress on Drake Street. Sweat Shop Brew Kitchen promises a great vibe for afternoon drinks in the sun, and Drake Street’s unassuming streetscape and large wooden doors open up to an array of popular bars and restaurants – Tom Tom, Matterhorn and La Zeppa –all boasting outdoor seating.
Victoria Park Market has the makings of a bustling village with delightful eateries for any taste. Choose between Vietnamese, Indian, Japanese, Indonesian or bistro-style, topped off with gelato for dessert. And a word for activewear fans – Nike Platinum has pride of place in the market. The latest season’s gear is well framed by Victoria Park’s signature industrial loft-style décor.
Rounding out the hospitality options - City Works Depot is a hop, skip and a jump away. Other amazing spots like Odettes Eatery, Best Ugly Bagels and Food Truck Garage further extend your choices.
So, rebels, foodies and Cinderellas, unite in this great little suburb. While Freemans Bay may have lost the ocean, today it is a confident, yet quiet, over-achiever with a savvy and cultured soul.
Housing in Freemans Bay is a treat, with something for every desire – whether you’re after a grand home, compact apartment, townhouse or loft. Franklin Road, one of Auckland’s most desirable and iconic streets, features many beautiful old homes, for example, McGregor House at 2 Franklin Road, and Sinclair House at number 68 – notable for its 19th century brickwork with verandahs. There is also the distinctive Turret House at 4 Anglesea Street. At Christmas, Franklin Road residents transform their homes with grand lighting displays, and Aucklanders from near and far come to enjoy the festive spirit.
One of the oldest establishments in Freemans Bay is The Birdcage, named the Rob Roy Hotel when it was built in 1885-1886 on the original quayside. Today, it is a designated heritage building, recognised for its cultural significance by the Auckland City Council and the New Zealand Historic Places Trust. Other buildings with heritage value include the Victoria Park Market buildings, the former Auckland Gas Company buildings in Beaumont Street and the former Campbell Free Kindergarten in the park.
Despite its current land-locked location, the name denotes its beginnings as a bay. The original cliff line ran along where Drake Street is now. Clues are visible in the Victoria Park market complex where there’s a large coastal pohutakawa tree. To further prove the point, pre-European Maori named the area ‘The Reflecting Waters’. Two streams in particular provided a abundant natural resource. The Waikuta (‘waters of the reed’) met the bay at the foot of College Hill, and the Tunamau (‘to catch eels’) at Franklin Road.
Looking east from Beaumont Street showing Freemans Bay and reclaimed land. Early 1900's. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.
The origin of the English name 'Freemans Bay' is disputed. It either acknowledged the free settlers or refers to James Stuart Freeman, one of Governor Hobson's officials. Despite major reclamation of land in the area, the name stuck. We’ve been left to imagine what a sandy back doorstep would have been like ever since.
Looking west from St Matthews Church tower across Freemans Bay towards Ponsonby, 1921. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries
Europeans picked Freemans Bay as early as the 1840s for development and land reclamation. Despite their enthusiasm and the hurried settlement, the area was relegated to the working classes. It heaved with industrial enterprise and, because of the noise and smell, was deemed to be the “wrong side” of Queen Street. It was home to ship builders, sawmills, a brass and iron foundry, glass and asphalt works, coal and lime dealers and an abattoir. There were also several public facilities like the city morgue, the Auckland Gas Company and a “night soil” dump. Despite Victoria Park Market’s current charm, the Edwardian-style industrial brick buildings housed the city rubbish depot from 1905, complete with an incinerator known as the ‘Destructor’.
Looking south along Victoria Street West, showing the Auckland City Council depot, showing the destructor chimney,1921. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries.
Local workers lived nearby in tiny, poorly constructed cottages with dirt floors, all tightly packed together. The area was as close as Auckland got to a slum, made worse by the great depression in 1930. It had a reputation for crime, prostitution, civil unrest, and – horrors – union activity. To compensate for the living conditions, the powers that be opened Victoria Park in 1905 on the first land reclaimed from the bay, providing the workers with green space and respite from their tiny hovels. Rest assured, Franklin Road was considered more upper class, with larger homes built as boarding houses for workers.
Change began in the 1950s when the council and government replaced some of the run-down cottages. The construction of the motorway in 1955 sped up the demolition of large areas in the name of progress. More new flats and townhouses were built during the 1960s and 1970s. It wasn’t until the 1980s and 1990s that wealthy Aucklanders realised the area’s ideal geographical location – and swift and enthusiastic gentrification began. This mirrored the activity in neighbouring suburbs Ponsonby and St Marys Bay – where the remaining Victorian villas were snapped up and renovated to fashionable and modern glory.
Filled with interesting collectables and colour, the essence of Queenies is great food, coffee, colour and people.
Things to do, places to see
Rupa's
Rupa's has been owned by the same family for many years and is one of Auckland's most iconic inner city buildings. It is a favourite with the locals serving both cafe style food and authentic Indian curries and samosa's.
Western Park
Fantastic inner city park - bigger than it looks. Great Kids playground with flying fox. Off leash dog walking and sculptures by John Radford.
The Cav
Built sometime between 1864 and 1868 , when the area was known as Dedwood, The Cav has been a feature of the landscape for over 150 years. Serving classic gastropub fare and a selection of craft beer it is the perfect spot for a meal or after work drinks.
With large grounds for playing cricket and rugby, a skatepark, a playground for the kids or simply finding a sunny spot for a midweek lunch break Victoria Park offers an oasis of green in the central city.
Franklin Rd. Christmas Lights
Once a year Franklin Road residents light up their street to create a magical Christmas setting. The lights are on every night until Christmas Eve from 6.30pm. You can drive the street but it's well worth the walk up and back down the road so you can take in the very talented busking musicians.
Ponsonby Primary School
44 Curran Street
Freemans Bay School
Ponsonby Intermediate
Kowhai Intermediate
26 Onslow Road
Western Springs College
Motions Road
Auckland Girls' Grammar School
Howe Street
Freemans Bay For Sale Schools Places of Interest
If you would like to know more about a property or require further information about the local market please get in touch and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
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Service in Action
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Rotaract club committed to empowering local youth
Posted on May 16, 2018 by rotaryservice
By Seb Cox, President of the Rotaract Club of St. Jude’s Arusha, Tanzania
Vijana Poa, meaning “youth are cool” in Kiswahili, was designed to combat one of the biggest social problems facing youth on the African continent – unemployment. In 2017, the Rotaract Club of St. Jude’s Arusha took on this initiative and started a Vijana Poa project in our own community.
We discovered 53% of Tanzanian youth are unemployed, so we decided that work readiness training and entrepreneurship education through the project would be a great way to inspire and empower some deserving youth.
The Rotaract Club of St. Jude’s is a club for staff, graduates and friends of The School of St. Jude, a charity school located in the Northern Tanzanian city of Arusha. The School of St. Jude provides a high quality, free education to over 1,800 students living in extreme poverty. Since the founding of the school, Rotary members have provided endless support.
Using the Vijana Poa models developed by our District 9211, the club projected a budget, held a fundraiser, and sought support through Rotary clubs in Arusha Mount Meru. Through an extensive application process, we found 12 motivated and deserving local youths to participate in the program.
The majority of these participants had attained only a primary-level education and struggled to find gainful employment, with many spending their days walking door-to-door to find a job. Workshops comprising of intensive one-day classes began in February and covered topics including ‘generating a business’ and ‘developing and managing employment’.
While no financial or employment opportunities from project participation were promised, our club members were so impressed by the participants’ skills and aspirations, they were soon soliciting within their networks for potential mentors, internships, and pathways to employment.
Our club members drafted a letter to local Rotarians and business owners that resulted in 12 suitable internships. The internships lasted three months, with club members assigned to oversee each placement. These internships included hairdressing, juice making, cleaning, cooking, and customer service. At the completion of the three months many of our youth received full-time employment in the company, while two started their own sustainable businesses, with start-up capital given by our club.
Carlos, one of the 12 program participants, excelled in this project. At the beginning of 2017, Carlos was unemployed when he applied to our program. After completing the training, he had an internship as a customer service assistant in an algaculture company, which turned into full-time employment. By the end of the year, Carlos was honoured with the company’s customer service person of the year award. Stories like Carlos’ show the power of Rotaract and what can be achieved when a group of youth work together.
The Rotaract Club of St Jude’s Arusha is committed to supporting the youth of our local community. At our most recent District Conference, our club won a best Interact and Rotaract partnership in the district award. This is showcased annually when our club hosts an Interact RYLA for youth in our local area.
The Rotaract Club of St Jude’s Arusha won the 2017-18 Rotaract Outstanding Project Award for the Sub-Saharan region.
Posted in Community ServiceTagged community engagement, Community Service, empower, entrepreneurship, young leaders, young professionals
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2 thoughts on “Rotaract club committed to empowering local youth”
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“Thor: The Dark World” Review: That Mythology + Science Cocktail That Makes Thor So Good…
November 8, 2013 Ashley
When I heard tickets were selling for Thursday night showings of Thor: The Dark World, I booked some right away. I got super nerdy about it. Thor is one of my favorite superheroes — or maybe I should say his world is one of my favorites. I love the blend of science fiction, other realms, mythology, and what could be called magic. And in the 2011 Thor film, directed by Kenneth Branagh, you’ve got the addition of a whole lot of science through Thor’s love interest Jane Foster, who is upgraded from a nurse in the comics to a super smart astrophysicist in the film.
❤❤♡
Thor: The Dark World, directed by Alan Taylor, takes the best of Thor and strings it along a storyline that’s simple but strong. That includes action, war, worlds converging, romance, and all of Thor’s family drama with his father Odin (Anthony Hopkins), his mother Frigga (Rene Russo), and power-hungry brother Loki. It all starts with the Dark Elf Malekith (Chistopher Ecceleston), who is back after battling Odin ages ago. He plans to use a mysterious substance called Aether to destroy the universe.
Meanwhile, back on Earth, Jane and her intern Darcy (and her intern’s intern, too) investigate an abandoned warehouse where physics have gone haywire, causing things to disappear into the air and sometimes rematerialize later. During her investigation of the place, Jane ends up passing through a portal to another realm, where she is infected with Aether.
Thor comes to collect her and whisks her back to Asgard with him, but his people can do nothing for her. She will eventually die of the Aether unless the Dark Elves draw it out of her. Malekith senses the Aether in Asgard and pinpoints its source — Jane — so he leads the Dark Elves in an attack on Asgard. Odin wants to fight to defend Asgard against recurring attacks, but Thor would rather come up with a more tactical plan.
So he recruits the help of his brother Loki, and together with Jane they visit Malekith and trick him into removing the Aether from Jane. In the ensuing battle, Malekith escapes — and he’s going to destroy the universe with the Aether when the nine realms converge. The eye of that storm is Greenwich, London on Earth. Thor and Jane travel there to defeat Malekith — and to do that, they need to employ some pretty cool science. Jane, Darcy, and fellow scientist Erik (who’s gone slightly bonkers and spent some time naked at Stonehenge) are able to manipulate the portals opening up to different worlds to help in the fight. I loved this…
If you’re into Thor movies for the action, The Dark World does not disappoint. You’ve got everything from Thor putting Mjolnir to good use to Dark Elf spaceships shooting their way through Asgard — and there’s a ton of CGI. One of my favorite parts was watching Thor hijack one of the enemy’s ships and fly through Asgard, hitting nearly everything in the ship’s path along the way.
The only thing missing from the action is that key ingredient of character. The war set-up makes the action relevant, but it’s cold as most of the fights take place between faceless warriors instead of characters with personal history they’re bringing to the battlefield. Even Malekith lacks a certain spark when pitted against Thor.
However, the teleporting makes the action more interesting than ever as characters tumble from one scenic world to another mid-punch. Sure, the science in these Thor movies is preposterous, but that’s all part of the fun. I love the bizarre mash-up of physics, technology, and supernatural phenomena. The last battle in Greenwich is like a giant game of Portal, with Jane and Erik manipulating the portals so Thor and Malekith (and others) fly through the air from one world to another.
As a side note, this creativity also exalts intelligence as characters like Jane think rather than fight their way through things — even battles. In many fantasy or sci-fi tales, humanity is depicted as a blundering, war-mongering race, so here it’s refreshing to see humans contrasted with the Asgardian warriors and presented as vulnerable and reliant on their wits.
ACTING AND CHARACTER
The acting in The Dark World is just as entertaining as the action. Chris Hemsworth seems very comfortable as Thor now, and this time around he conveys not only Thor’s arrogance but also his growing wisdom as Thor ages. Meanwhile, Tom Hiddleston plays Loki with the perfect blend of melancholy and sarcasm. The drama between the two of them is always a show-stealer, and having them jet off on a space trip together to save the universe is inspired; I only wish that particular journey had been a little longer.
However, Natalie Portman gives my favorite performance as Jane Foster. In the 2011 Thor film, Hemsworth had some of the funniest lines as he tried to navigate Earth for the first time, but in The Dark World, Portman shines as Jane makes her way around Asgard. She maybe gets to slap Thor and Loki one too many times. Maybe. But she’s consistently funny, and when she’s faced with real war breathing right there in the same room, she’s terrified — a realistic, natural response that makes her character even more well-rounded.
As for the romance — there’s just something so enjoyable about seeing a super smart scientist chick fall in love with a hot prince from another world. As superhero movie romances go, this relationship is one of my favorites ever.
To be honest, I thought the romance between Thor and Jane felt awkward and a tad unbelievable in the 2011 Thor film. The whole movie felt a little choppy, mostly because it was hard to juxtapose these two worlds — Asgard and Earth — into a single 2-hour film. Fortunately, The Dark World is much more fluid, with Jane spending a good chunk of time in Asgard. Having the romance already established also helps, and the romantic rival and all-around awesome warrior Sif (Jaimie Alexander) makes me appreciate Jane as Thor’s love interest even more. I actually wish Sif had a slightly larger role, given her place in the comics. But as for Thor and Jane, I really bought the relationship this time around.
Although The Dark World may not have quite as much character development as the 2011 film, it successfully shows Thor becoming tamed by events and age. He doesn’t party as hard as he used to — or, you know, feast as hard. He’s concerned about Jane, even when she’s worlds away back on Earth. He prefers to come up with a clever plan of action rather than risk countless Asgardian lives in needless fighting. And when Odin gives him the throne, he’s not sure he wants to take it. He’s not the brash young warrior we first meet in Thor — he’s maturing.
Of course, this could also mean that Thor is at last becoming a more stable protagonist to pit against the ever artful and ambitious Loki…
FINAL IMPRESSION
❤❤❤❤❤❤♡♡♡
For Marvel fans! As always, there are cameos (Stan Lee as a patient in a mental institution and Chris Evans as Captain America — er, actually, Loki playing Captain America, but you know…) and not one but two post-credits scenes to enjoy.
— Ashley
Tagged Alan Taylor, Asgard, Chris Hemsworth, Jane Foster, Loki, Malekith, movie review, Natalie Portman, nine realms, Odin, Portal, portals, reviews, science, Sif, Thor, Thor romance, Thor: The Dark World, Tom Hiddleston
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12 thoughts on ““Thor: The Dark World” Review: That Mythology + Science Cocktail That Makes Thor So Good…”
Gary Smith says:
Excellent review Ashley.
I really enjoyed the first one, and I’m looking forward to seeing this one. I’ve never been a comic book guy, but the Marvel movies have certainly appealed to me. Thor is definitely one of the better heroes/worlds.
Ashley Hagood says:
Thanks! Yep I agree — love the worldbuilding in Thor. I felt like I enjoyed this one even more than the first one, but I’d like to go back and rewatch the original now. It’s been a while… =)
C. T. Murphy says:
I dunno if I will see this one in theatres, but I am moderately excited to see it. The first one was a really solid movie, all-around.
Yeah, I have to admit that I’m having a frugal week so I didn’t bother paying to see it in 3D. There is quite a bit of CGI that looks cool on the big screen, though.
Yeah. It made sense when I worked in a theatre to see everything, but I don’t really have any friends to justify paying big screen prices now. I get to wait!
Besides, I’ll probably see a lot of the holiday releases. Need to save!
seifsalamakarem says:
Just came back from the movie, in the overall I liked it except for the last battle, I think it needed more tuning.
Yeah, I wish they had done a little more creatively with the last battle… with the portals, etc. Glad to hear you enjoyed the movie too though!
simpleek says:
I’m looking forward to seeing this movie at some point! Also, thanks for adding that there’s something worth staying for post-credits. :)
It is a good one, hope you like it too! And yeah, it seems with Marvel it always pays to stay through the credits. =)
mohammedabdal says:
Much better review than the one I gave… think I need to be more technical now when I give my reviews
Billy M. says:
Very nice approach to this review, definitely dig your style… I have to add that like Gary these kinds of movies aren’t really my cup of tea. My wife loves them though, and I myself found the first one to be mostly to my liking.
Thank you! Yeah, I do like these for being pretty character-driven and not just action oriented. The first one was a lot of fun.
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Home / Press / A box for baby: New Program to Reduce Infant Death Launches in Alabama
A box for baby: New Program to Reduce Infant Death Launches in Alabama
New moms get information and help at a breastfeeding support group, August 15, 2011.( LINDA STELTER )
A new program launching this week will bring cardboard boxes that can double as sleeping spaces to all parents across Alabama in an effort to reduce the state's high rate of infant mortality.
The partnership between Baby Box Co. and the Alabama Rural Development Office will be the third for the company, which has started similar programs in Ohio and New Jersey. Parents can go online, watch short educational videos and take a quiz to qualify for a box. Once they have obtained certificates of completion, parents can pick up boxes from distribution sites or arrange for home delivery.
"Each box is essentially a cardboard bassinet," said Jennifer Clary, CEO of the Baby Box Co.
Each box contains a firm mattress and fitted sheet and can hold a baby up to age six months, Clary said. Boxes also contain onesies, diapers, wipes and breastfeeding supplies.
"We are excited to be one of the first states to offer this program statewide to provide families with the tools and education to give their babies a healthy start in life," said Ron Sparks, Director of Alabama Rural Development Office, in a press release. "The ultimate goal of the program is to save babies' lives."
Boxes provide a safe sleeping environment for babies and are easy to transport. But Clary said parents also benefit from the educational component. The videos teach parents about safe sleep and baby care.
Alabama's infant mortality rate is higher than the national average. Every year, hundreds of babies born in the state die before their first birthdays. The infant mortality rate has risen for African-American babies in Alabama, who die at more than twice the rate of their white counterparts.
Many babies die as a result of suffocation from unsafe sleeping. Doctors encourage parents to put babies to sleep on their backs in cribs or bassinets without bumpers, pillows, blankets or stuffed animals.
The program is modeled after the Finnish tradition of providing sleeping boxes filled with baby supplies to expectant parents. The box gives babies "an equal start in life," according to a 2013 BBC News story about the program. Finland has one of the lowest infant mortality rates in the world. In Finland, 1.3 out of 1,000 children died during infancy in 2013, compared to 8.6 in Alabama.
"There is much work to be done to address the ongoing challenge of infant mortality here in the state," said Dr. Tom Miller, state health officer, in a press release. "This initiative will assist in addressing the challenge by providing education to parents from medical providers that practice within our state."
Baby boxes in Alabama will be available to all parents, regardless of income. Many parents in Alabama may not have a crib or bassinet where their baby can sleep. The boxes will fix part of the problem, Clary said.
"It really is the education that I think is going to lead to improved health," Clary said.
Copyright © 2019 The Baby Box Co.
THE BABY BOX, SAFE + SMART, and all related trademarks are owned by The Baby Box Co. All Rights Reserved.
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“Crisis On Infinite Earths”: Wait, What Does The Destruction Of Earth-6 Mean?!
Posted December 9th, 2019 by Jax Motes
DC Universe/Warner Brothers
SPOILER ALERT: If you did not catch the first episode of The CW’s “Crisis On Infinite Earths” crossover, this contains a massive SPOILER, so turn back now or proceed with caution.
The comic book “Crisis on Infinite Earths” kicked off with the destruction of a couple of different parallel Earths, including Earth-3, home of the villainous Crime Syndicate. Likewise, the TV adaptation on The CW did the same, sending a wave of anti-matter to destroy Earth-X (the focus of The CW’s 2017 crossover, home of Russell Tovey’s The Ray, who seemingly perished), Earth-89 (setting of the first Tim Burton ‘Batman’ movie and presumably ‘Batman Returns’ as well), Earth-66 (setting of the 1966 ‘Batman’ TV series), and perhaps most interestingly, Earth-6, which turned out to be the home of the DC Universe series ‘Titans’.
During the opening montage sequence, a quick clip showing Alan Ritchson as Hawk and Curran Walters as Robin II, flashed, with that world’s sky turning red just before it was seemingly wiped from existence. While the destructions of the other Earths were Easter Eggs for longtime DC fans, or in the case of Earth-X, a tying up of loose ends, Earth-6 and ‘Titans’ are still part of an ongoing narrative. What does this mean?
Endgame decided to revisit Thor 2. Crisis on Infinite Earths decided to visit Titans. We built DIFFERENT #CrisisOnInfinteEarths pic.twitter.com/N5AgWrUovD
— Kinetic Kid (@Supreme_Khai_) December 9, 2019
One possible SPOILER that this destruction could have hinted at is that at the end of the story all of the destroyed parallel universes will be restored, no worse for wear. That would be extremely anticlimactic. But then again, the dispatching of the worlds of ‘Batman’ ’66 and ’89 also seemed a bit disrespectful, so I could see those destructions being undone as well.
Another explanation is that the ‘Titans’ cameo was just done for fun for fans and that this brief clip will have no impact on ‘Titans’. After all, that show just wrapped up its second season and has been renewed for a third. And to be honest, it seems to just now be hitting its stride.
And another pure guess is that we don’t know how the timelines of ‘Titans’ and The CW shows line up. Maybe this cameo takes place years into the future, at the end of the ‘Titans’ series. But I doubt that even the writers and producers of ‘Titans’ know exactly how it’s going to end and which characters will still be around, or what form they will be in at the time. (It’s unlikely that Jason Todd will still alive or still be Robin by that point.)
Fans will just have to wait for an explanation. It may come soon, or possibly in January, after the crossover has been completed.
ComicBook.com is reporting with pretty strong certainty that Brec Bassinger’s Stargirl, who is set to star in her own DC Universe show in 2020, will appear in “Crisis On Infinite Earths.” Actually, according to that site, she won’t just appear but will play a major role. I have not seen anywhere that this is a certainty, although there have been rumors. Once again, we have to wait and see.
At any rate, what do you think the destruction of Earth-6 means?
Alan Ritchson
Curran Walters
Hank Hall
jason todd
Robert Wuhl
Jax Motes
Jax's earliest memory is of watching 'Batman,' followed shortly by a memory of playing Batman & Robin with a friend, which entailed running outside in just their underwear and towels as capes. When adults told them they couldn't run around outside in their underwear, both boys promptly whipped theirs off and ran around in just capes.
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Topic AI technologies
AI business strategies
SubTopic NLP techniques
Bot technology
Neural networks and deep learning
Open source AI tools
Generative adversarial networks could be most powerful algorithm in AI
The emergence of generative adversarial networks has been called one of the most interesting successes in recent AI development and could make AI applications more creative.
George Lawton
A novel approach for pitting algorithms against each other, called generative adversarial networks, or GANs, is showing promise for improving AI accuracy and for automatically generating objects that typically require human creativity.
Yann LeCun, director of AI research at Facebook and professor at New York University, wrote that GANs and the variations now being proposed are "the most interesting idea in the last 10 years in machine learning."
The reason for the excitement is the technique promises to automate the process of training algorithms in AI applications. The use of GANs makes it possible to improve the internal representation in AI algorithms for detecting important data features in the face of noise and other variations. In the long run, GANs could also help improve the algorithms used for discriminating fake objects from the real thing and improve results for detecting objects in poor images or speech in noisy environments.
The core idea behind GANs was introduced by Ian Goodfellow, who's now staff research scientist at Google Brain, and associates from the University of Montreal in 2014. He used GANs to generate realistic fake photos. Since then, variations of the core idea have been applied to audio and text.
How generative adversarial networks work
The basic idea behind GANs is a data scientist sets up a competing set of discriminative algorithms -- for example, models that detect an object in an image -- and generative algorithms for building simulations. As another example, a discriminative algorithm would try to decide whether a given email is spam based on the distribution of words in the message. Then, the generative algorithms would try to craft a spam message that would not be detected as a fake by the latest discriminative algorithm and use that message as a model for what spam might look like.
How to use GANs for quality, stability and variation.
The main benefit of GANs is a neural network only interprets the world through the lens of its training data. But GANs develop a deeper understanding of the world by generating new data and learning through the process.
"This is a very profound difference, as it means the AI can generate previously unseen data that may be completely novel and unique, but agrees with the same type and class of data in the real world in terms of statistical properties," said Babak Rasolzadeh, vice president of applied AI at Clusterone, a company based in Palo Alto, Calif., which provides a distributed deep learning platform that runs in the cloud or on premises.
Rasolzadeh said he sees the most value for this approach in generating data associated with a particular form of input, such as automatically generating a cartoon to go with a script. GANs can also create high-resolution images from low-resolution ones.
Generative jumbles
It's still early for the commercial applications of GAN algorithms in AI applications. Rasolzadeh said he has only seen them successfully used in super-resolution image generation and text-to-image synthesis. And these have only been in academia.
The biggest challenge is getting GANs to generalize an overall data structure for a given input class. With images of flowers, the generative algorithm might output a jumble of the local and global features of a flower in the wrong place -- transposing petals and leaves, for example.
"This doesn't just apply to 2D and 3D image data, but to any type of input data structure that has complex variation of structure," Rasolzadeh said. "It's still hard for GANs to learn these types of implicit structures in object classes well." He said he expects services and platforms for machine learning could help reduce the complexities of rolling out GANs as better practices are codified for implementing them.
Generative adversarial networks variants for audio
Data scientists have started experimenting with variations on the GAN approach to help overcome some of the limitations of early GANs. For example, deep convolutional generative adversarial networks, or DCGANs, introduce a topological constraint and use an operation -- transposition -- that's the opposite of convolution, which is what GANs use. Also, they don't connect across multiple layers of neurons in a deep neural network in the same way GANs do. "DCGANs typically yield better results on image-generation type of problems," Rasolzadeh said.
Researchers at University of California, San Diego, have done some initial work on WaveGAN, which applies the basic ideas of GANs to generate realistic speech audio from a much smaller sample of real human speech. Lyrebird.ai has demonstrated an alternative approach for mimicking voices, like that of former President Barack Obama. Google has been demoing another approach, called WaveNet, which also shows promise in generating simulated voices.
Rasolzadeh said Lyrebird seems to be faster at generating voices than WaveNet, and Lyrebird claims to be language-agnostic, which WaveNet is not. WaveNet uses dilated convolutional neural networks that allow for training over thousands of timesteps of the raw audio input to map from text to speech during generation time. "GANs, however, generate samples faster than WaveNet, because you don't need to generate the samples sequentially," Rasolzadeh said.
Text generation lagging
The performance of generating realistic text is lagging behind other applications of algorithms in AI, like image generation, said Or Levi, founder and CEO of AdVerif.ai, an ad verification and fake news detection service. "When you compare GANs to other deep network text generation baselines, the performance gain is marginal, even in recent papers."
Levi has been experimenting with trying to teach GANs to generate jokes based on a data set containing existing jokes as a side project. "Even though it could generate well-formed sentences, a person could still notice, based on the semantics, that it's not human-generated, especially in texts with multiple sentences."
In the long run, Levi said he believes text generation will be a major breakthrough for GANs and could quickly be exploited for generating fake news -- a potentially troubling application of the technology.
"As it stands, human fact-checkers are only scratching the surface of fakes on the web, so you can imagine that having to deal with automatically generated texts will only strengthen the case for automated solutions," Levi said.
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George Lawton asks:
How do you think your enterprise can use GAN algorithms?
How IT leaders can prepare IT architectures for an AI future using Intel Xeon® ... –Intel
Exploring AI Use Cases Across Education and Government –DellEMC
voice emulation (voice reproduction) – WhatIs.com
New uses for GAN technology focus on optimizing ... – SearchEnterpriseAI
Using artificial intelligence for forgery: Fake could... – IoT Agenda
George Lawton - 6 Jun 2018 9:23 AM
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Round-up: The Ketel One Artist Commission
This year, we launched the Ketel One Artist Commission, an exciting new collaboration between our founding sponsor Ketel One Vodka and the artists based here in Sarabande studios. For 2018, artists-in-residence Judas Companion and Tenant Of Culture were selected to travel to Schiedam to visit the iconic Nolet Family Distillery and witness first hand how Ketel One Vodka is created. Following the trip, both artists were commissioned to create a piece of work inspired by the shared ethos between Ketel One and Sarabande (creativity, sustainability, community and craft) which then featured in their individual exhibitions in the Sarabande gallery space.
First to show was German-native Judas Companion with the artists first UK solo show 'A Face In Me'. The exhibit revolved around the concept of metamorphosis; the unsettling yet potentially freeing experience of transforming into someone or something else. The show featured sculpture, photography and moving image.
For the Ketel One Artist Commission, Judas Companion centred her work around the iconic Ketel One jugs, that take inspiration from "Distilleerketel #1", the original copper ketel at the Nolet distillery. The result was a wearable mask made of recycled copper-coloured jugs and a series of photographic self-poraits. In these images, the artists wears said mask with it's tiny doors and compartments ajar, revealing the ingredients and processes used to make Ketel One Vodka - wheat, coal and fire.
Following these photographs, Judas Companion developed the mask further into an embellished helm which sat on a concrete cast of the artists head, a nod to the artists commitment to storytelling through identity. Once the mask was complete, leftover copper-coloured materials were reused throughout the exhibition, cementing the artists dedication to sustainability, a shared value between the artist and Ketel One Vodka. For example, a second mask features 'chains' made from Ketel One jug cuttings, suspending the artwork from the ceiling. These copper-coloured connections illustrate the passing down of the Nolet name, through 11 generations, and over 325 years of Ketel One Vodka. On Judas Companions work for the commission, Katarina Damrée, Acting Head of Culture & Entertainment at Diageo, says "[the] photography is absolutely striking and captivating, we are incredibly lucky to be working with Jasmin who is an obvious visionary talent, and we look forward in promoting her work far and wide.".
Following Companion's show was 'DEADSTOCK', an exhibition by Dutch-native and Sarabande artist-in-residence Tenant Of Culture. At the core of Tenant Of Culture's practice is 'the lifecycle of the garment' and how used or unwanted materials have the potential to find new life within the spectrum of art and fashion. In all of her works, the artist aims to prevent decay, preserving items that might be discarded or seem worthless in order to limit waste. Once preserved, these garments are held in time, each with an individual history - functional and honest products that become elevated through art.
For the Ketel One Artist Commission, Tenant Of Culture applied this concept to a simple yet vital garment used every single day at the Nolet family distillery - the glove. After visiting the distillery earlier this year, the artist acquired a pre-worn glove used by the distillery workers daily to stoke the fires of "Distilleerketel #1". Worn and stained, the gloves were spliced and preserved in a painting before being displayed on a metal frame - a nod to the extraordinary structures found within the distillery. To most, these tired gloves may have seemed ready to be discarded, but to Tenant Of Culture, they presented the opportunity to communicate the craftsmanship and passion it takes to create Ketel One Vodka. "It’s an amazing talent to be able to express a narrative with a repurposed item. Tenant Of Culture is able to really identify the potential for storytelling in the world around her enabling an audience to see ordinary items in a completely different light." says Damrée on Tenant Of Cultures work for the commission.
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Agricultural Research Institute Mingora upgradation to varsity opposed | Peshawar | thenews.com.pk
Editor's Picks Highlights National News
Agricultural Research Institute Mingora upgradation to varsity opposed
PESHAWAR: The employees of the Agricultural Research Institute (ARI) in Mingora have opposed the upgradation of the institute to university.
A senior official at the ARI, wishing anonymity, said the decision would affect agriculture, particularly nurseries across the province. The official claimed that the institute was the main source of certified fruit plants and vegetables and other agriculture crops to the fruit nursery sector for temperate regions of the country, mainly Malakand, Hazara,Balochistan, Gilgit-Baltistan, Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Chitral. He said the All Nursery Growers Association Malakand (ANGAM) based in Swat would be affected as its members are getting technical guidance from this institute. He added that the business of over 40 registered nursery owners will face difficulty in the procurement of quality budding material as ARI Mingora is the main source for quality fruit plants and vegetable and other crops. Currently, he noted that ARI is the main source of quality bud wood for peaches, apple and cherry and other crops at the nurseries. Around 40 percent of the fruit plants produced in the nurseries of Swat are consumed locally while 60 percent are supplied to other districts. The Agricultural Research Station in Mingora was established in 1980. It was upgraded to Agricultural Research Institute in 2007.
The institute has eight sections, including the ones for fruits, vegetables, oilseed, cereal crops, entomology and pathology with 167 staff. Over 50 labourersdaily are engaged for various field activities. Out of 54 approved varieties in various agriculture crops at the country level, 46 are fruit plants. Of the 46 approved fruit varieties, 36 are from Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. Out of 36 okayed fruit varieties in KP, 28 (78 percent) varieties have been released by horticulture (fruit section) of the ARI Mingora. Besides, 12 peaches sequential varieties are released by the ARI Mingora ensuring prolonged supply of peaches to the national market for more than five months. The peach season starts in May and continues till October. According to agriculture statistics, 76 percent of the total peaches of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa are produced in Swat.
The peach production and business is the main source of livelihood of the local farmers. The lower part of Swat is also famous for rice production. Due to consistent efforts of ARI Mingora, per acre production of rice has increased from 20 to 70 mounds. The release of FakhreMalakand variety of rice, 16 rice mills have been established in Swat and rest of Malakand division buying paddy grain from the rice growers and converting it to processed rice which is supplied to markets contributing to poverty reduction and creating job opportunities for local people. The ARI introduced improved and innovative fruit and vegetable techniques like offseason and tunnel vegetable production in various fruit and vegetables providing high-value production. The ARI also developed oyster mushroom production and home-scale processing of soybean. By 2050, experts noted that the global demand for agriculture products will increase by 70-100 percent due to rapid growth in the global population which reflects the strong research system for more productivity. They pointed out that China’s total public investment in agriculture research and development doubled during 2001-2008. It put China on top of the list in fruit production in most of the fruits produced in the world.
The example of Australia is also relevant. It cut public investment for research and development activities from $1 billion to $716 million in 2008 due to economic crisis. This led to Australia dropping globallyfrom 9th position to 16th in agriculture productivity.
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Holidays on the Dole!
ssst
The Ghosts Have Ears
May 26, 2014 by schlomosteel
The “I’m an ally, so” trope, redux
[content note for discussion and use of transphobic language]
Hello kittens,
Every time I think I’m done writing/talking/vlogging about this issue, the world reminds me that I will never, ever be done writing about it.
It thought I was done with it a couple of days ago when I made this video. No such luck.
The “I’m an ally, so” trope won’t die. That’s probably why it’s a trope. (*Ting.*)
[Note: the next six paragraphs are taken from this post.]
The “I’m an ally, so” (or IAAS) trope relies on your knowledge that the person with whom you are interacting is an ally of such and such a group, allowing them, in their minds, to act in any way they see fit. This trope is used to justify some very un-ally-like behavior. Because, hey, you know we’re cool, right?
The IAAS is closely related to “some of my best friends are.” “Some of my best friends are” is used to show that, because you have (alleged) friends among the group you are maligning, your words or actions are somehow acceptable. For instance: “I think gay people are a dangerous menace to society and they don’t have the same rights as us normal folk, because God said homosexuality is an abomination. But hey, some of my best friends are gay, so you can’t call me homophobic.” A similar trope is “you know I’m not racist/sexist/homophobic, but…”, which is always used to contradict itself.
The difference between “I’m an ally, so” and “some of my best friends are” is that a person employing IAAS has committed hirself as an ally to a community, but wants to share prejudiced, biased or hateful views about that community which ze thinks should be covered by hir ally status. Let’s take a look:
“I love gay people, and I fully support their rights, but like, okay. Why are lesbians so grumpy? And why do flamey gay guys act like that? Like, just be yourself! But you know, like, I really love gay people, so don’t get mad.”
You can see the danger this trope represents. The ally in this situation thinks ze can wrap all hir beliefs up in a bundle, making anything ze says ally-worthy.
It’s just not true.
When someone – or thousands of someones – tell you you’re being a bad ally, “but I’m an ally” is not a legitimate or even cogent response.
As others have written about at length, being an ally is not an identity. It’s a series of actions, and it is incumbent upon you to maintain those actions to continue to be an ally. (Or to work in concert with people, etc.)
One of the reasons this post is getting a redux is because I fell into a Twitter rabbit hole. It started (for me) with a tweet from Pandora Boxx thanking Kate Bornstein for her response to the current incarnation of the RuPaul’s transphobia clusterwhoops, and from there I spiraled down.
Kate Bornstein is standing behind RuPaul on this one. That’s her choice. Kate Bornstein has also stood behind, for instance, Dan Savage when people call him on his transphobic behavior. That is also her choice.
My initial reaction to *ahem* stuff like this is to be scquicked out by how gross it is that so-called allies run and hide behind their friends in the maligned community and use them like human shields.
I don’t begrudge Kate Bornstein the right to defend her friends. But I’m also pretty sure she’s far, far too smart to be used as a human shield. So she either doesn’t know or doesn’t care what people are getting away with in her name.
That is her choice.
I think it’s shitty beyond compare when we solicit harbor from our friends to avoid being called out. It’s gross to do that to a friend. And it’s gross to suborn in-fighting to deflect the fact that you’re (being) a shitty ally.
When a famous/prominent/wealthy/etc. member of a community says they agree with the person being called out, the person being called out uses that as an excuse to silence other people. “I can’t possibly be transphobic because this prominent trans person I’m friends with says I’m not!”
Woopty. Damn. Doo.
Last night someone was trying to tell me what RuPaul had in his “heart of hearts” like I was just too stupid to understand why RuPaul is above common decency. I’m not stupid. I disagree with you, mmk?
Some people seem to genuinely feel that “allies” should be able to get away with whatever they want because they say they’re allies. This so-called ally will say “how dare you come at me after everything I’ve done? You have much bigger fish to fry!”
Here’s the thing: if I can’t tell the difference between an ally and a bigot, then how the hell am I supposed to trust that you’re an ally? There are no ally laurels, so stop acting like you have something to rest on.
RuPaul says that he has been called a tranny, so he gets to use that word.
Ok: if, on his own time for his own self, RuPaul wanted to use that word? None of my business.
But time and again in my own life, I’ve seen people who have had hate speech “misdirected” at them turn against the oppressed instead of the oppressors. Straight men who experience homophobic taunts often grow up to be at least a little homophobic, because hating queers is easier than fighting the heteropatriarchy, at least in this society at present.
Ugh, blerg, TLDR: communities don’t have hive minds and don’t just follow whatever your friend who’s a prominent member of that community says. If people disagree with you about the extent to which you’re an ally, you can “pay them no mind” all you want, but your ally status is getting downgraded.
Please, GAWD, let me stop having to talk about this shit.
~Big Mama Schlomo
This entry was posted in Assholism, faggotry, feminism, politix, transness. Bookmark the permalink.
I don’t care why I’m gay
2 thoughts on “The “I’m an ally, so” trope, redux”
sugarrrrrrr says:
since imma foreighner,i’d had to reassume what’s meant for ally in english,i’ve look up to urban dictionary.(don’t laugh)
http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Ally
ma ‘am,me as a bi,i ll just try not to be a such hypocrite bitch.
and whether you like or not,i appreciate your talk like this by far.keep updating!XOXO
elaineph says:
This post will make me a better ally.
Leave a Reply to elaineph Cancel reply
Ten Years Out, Why I Call Myself a Faggot
So you're going to your first drag show
take me w/ you
Click to follow Big Mama Schlomo by the emails.
Gimme Schlomo
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6400 – Black and White Leather
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SKU: 6400/59 Category: Smooth
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David Motadel “Spectacles of Sovereignty: Persian Shahs in Imperial Britain, 1873-1905” (07/02)
Dr David Motadel (Assistant Professor of International History, Department of International History, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)), présentera sa communication “Spectacles of Sovereignty: Persian Shahs in Imperial Britain, 1873-1905” le jeudi 7 février 2019 de 17h30 à 19h30. Maison de la Recherche, 28 rue Serpente, Paris 6e , salle D421
“The paper explores the royal visits of the Persian monarchs Nasiral-Din Shah (1873, 1878, 1889) and Muzaffar al-Din Shah (1900, 1902,1905) to Imperial Britain. Both monarchs were received with full pomp in places like London, Windsor, and Edinburgh. The visits of the shahs all became huge public events, attracting many thousands of onlookers onto the streets. The paper offers a reinterpretation of the relationship between European and non-European rulers in an age of European domination. It explores how participation in the rituals and ceremonials of a state visit – such as gift-giving, the exchange of decorations, and military spectacle – gave expression to the non-European monarchs’ dynastic legitimacy and their country’s sovereignty. It discusses the ways in which state visits provided non-European monarchs with a way of integrating themselves and their countries into a system of international relations that was dominated by the European powers.”
Discutante : Guillemette Crouzet (Université de Warwick)
Ce contenu a été publié dans 19ème siècle, Séances par Anh-Dao Bui Tran, et marqué avec diplomatie, Empire britannique. Mettez-le en favori avec son permalien.
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Last stand for freedom
Posted by Steven Greffenius in State Crimes Against Democracy
People looked at the wreckage in New York, Pennsylvania, and the District of Columbia on September 12, 2001, and said, “9/11 changed everything.” What the phrase meant at the time, however, is not what it turned out to mean later. At the time, people meant that we could not feel safe from the world anymore. We were at war, and our enemies could strike anywhere. They could annihilate thousands of people in downtown Manhattan. Homeland security became a national preoccupation.
Then, as many people around the world and in the United States began to realize what actually happened on 9/11, they began to see the calamity – and the putative initiation of hostilities – in a different way. They began to ask questions that the American government should have been able to answer, and could not. Gradually it became clear that government preferred not to answer straightforward questions because it had a lot to hide. At last, government officials refused to answer persistent and pointed questions from victims’ families, because it could no longer hide what had become obvious: government counted itself among our enemies. 9/11 changed everything, because at last citizens perceived the truth about their own government.
One article of faith for many Americans before 9/11 was that, for all its faults, our government was different from other governments. It did not routinely commit crimes against its own people. It tried to set an example of good behavior for other states. As a result, other states looked to it for leadership, and it responded generously. Among the things that changed on 9/11, this exceptional behavior and exceptional position were the first to go. The U. S. government became, in its own eyes and for others as well, just another criminal, power grubbing machine that served its own interests, not anyone else’s. This change did not take place in one day, of course. The events that unfolded after 9/11, however, simply made these changes apparent to anyone who cared to observe them.
To see the direction of these changes, as well as their ominous outcomes should they go unchecked, consider the civil war in Syria. Not long after we unleashed the furies of armed conflict in Iraq, Jordan’s King Abdullah worried that the war could spread to other countries in the region. His fears about contagion proved correct. We have seen prolonged civil conflict in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, Syria, and Iraq. Syria’s war is the most serious right now. It has already merged with the one in Iraq.
When we tote up the war crimes of the gang of cronies in Damascus, we see what a government will do to preserve its power. Is Syria an extreme case? Yes, it is, but our government has not bombarded cities, sniped citizens in the streets, or openly tortured children because it has not needed to. Given what it has already done, we cannot predict how much further it might go. As we assess the self protective actions of governments everywhere, we observe differences of degree, not kind. The more rulers feel threatened, the more force they call into play. The more force they call into play, the more they undermine their ability to rule.
No one has charged the United States government with torture and murder of children, as Bashir Assad’s government has done. Yet who predicted in the years after 9/11 that we would torture people on a large scale, and publicly defend these crimes. Moral decay occurs gradually, as does escalation in the use of violence. Assad’s forces use their murderous techniques as means of intimidation: if we are willing to torture and kill this innocent young man, imagine what we will do to your family. Imagine what we will do to you.
Our government uses methods of intimidation, but it has not escalated its use of force against people to the degree we see in countries like Syria and Russia. As it feels itself under threat, however, it applies force sufficient to protect its power. No one can say, right now, what limits our government might observe to constrain its use of force. Rulers and secret police, for their part, like to create uncertainty on that score. Unpredictability and secrecy are hallmarks of people who operate outside the law.
Altogether, government’s use of force to protect its power and privileges presents something of a mystery. When the only foundation for your power is punishment and threats, you have already lost. So-called officials rule as a gang of criminals protected by laws they promulgate or rescind to serve their own interests. So we ask, for people who hold power in Syria, “Why would Assad and his associates be willing to do these things in the first place?” A government that has to use methods like that has lost its legitimacy. It does not lead anymore, and can accomplish no good for the country. The citizens know it and the government knows it. So what is the point of bombarding cities and killing so many civilians every day?
We know the answer by now. Legitimacy, leadership, or serving citizens’ welfare does not concern the government at all. Preservation of power – and of the parasitic relationship where so-called public servants benefit from their access to the country’s treasury – is all that is at issue in this case. No one in Syria pretends otherwise.
The interesting thing is that in principle, we have headed in a similar direction in the United States. We still have officials who praise public service, but even when they mean it, the praise sounds hollow. One travesty after another reminds us of the true relationship between government, and the people who suffer under its humiliations. As Peggy Noonan remarked about a wasteful government conference and shindig in Las Vegas, the notable thing was not that government officials wasted taxpayer money. That is not news. The notable thing is that they wasted taxpayer money, and openly mocked taxpayers while they did it.
So we understand that government officials not only feel entitled to throw a big party for themselves, but show contempt for the people who pay for it. As people remarked after seeing Hunger Games, someone needs to shoot the apple out of this pig’s mouth. We need a leader who can make these jerks feel uneasy. We need a leader who demonstrates courage to say, “We will bring you down. You appropriated our republic for yourselves. We want it back.” That would make their chests tighten up a bit. People who instill fear and humiliation in others, ought to feel a taste of it themselves.
Some would go further and say, “We will bring you down. We will put you away, as you put Jack and Bobby away.” The problem is, the people who put Jack and Bobby away required only a few loaded guns and assassins to do so. You cannot replace your government with a few loaded guns. You cannot replace your government with a republic even if you have a lot of loaded guns. You have to find a way to remove government’s internal supports. Think of a building, like World Trade Center 7, or a tent that collapses when you remove the supports that hold it up. A government’s structural supports are financial and moral. Remove those, and the whole structure comes down.
“But we can’t replace the government with anarchy,” you say. Some would counter that anarchy, or something close to it, is the best possible outcome. Others would say our traditions call for more legal authority than anarchy would permit. That’s why planning for a democratic republic, or multiple republics, must occur while the existing government, its wits clouded by its own power, prepares its own end. We know from history that when governments collapse, they collapse suddenly. They fall after an extended period of changes that throw it off balance, until it passes its tipping point. When we citizens observe government’s self-destructive behavior, we have to recognize it. We have to be prepared to act when corrupt institutions at last inflict a blow, intended for their adversaries, that turns out to be fatal for them.
The first, critical step onto this path of self-destruction occurred when hired assassins shot John Kennedy and John Connally in Dallas, Texas. The gunmen hit Connally by mistake. They executed President Kennedy in the nation’s most infamous public square, Dealey Plaza. In most circumstances – think of Cesar Borgia in Machiavelli’s Prince, or Mexico’s drug lords right now – the perpetrators of a murder like that would want people to know who did it. You can’t intimidate and control people when you finger a patsy to take the blame for your crimes.
The people who hit Kennedy wanted it both ways: a public execution, but with secrecy about who did it. Secret assassination teams were trained to get Fidel Castro, and murder was in the air: our enemy in Havana may be out of reach, but our friend in Dallas is not. After Robert Kennedy received news of his brother’s death, one of the first calls he made was to one of contacts in the get-Castro underground. He asked right off the bat, “It was one of your guys, wasn’t it?”
If we don’t recognize the murder as an execution, we won’t grasp its significance. If we don’t grasp its significance, we won’t be ready when the shadow state that planned this act reaches an endgame where its previous moves cause its own defeat. No government persists indefinitely after it squanders its legitimacy, just as no building can stand after its foundation deteriorates. Processes of degradation and collapse may take some time; eventually a crisis or explosion occurs that reduces the weakened structure to a pile of bricks and shattered wood. Our government will not escape the destination it set for itself.
We citizens cannot resign, or become spectators in this process. If we merely watch, we could sit in bleachers, or in a prison camp that stretches from sea to sea, for two centuries or more. The Roman republic ended long before the structure fell. The secular power of the Catholic church in the Middle Ages underwent a similarly long decline. We still have enough freedom to prevent passive subjugation to prevent subjugation to corrupt tyrants and their toadies, who expect us to kiss their rings. We have to be ready for the crisis. We have to expect the explosion of civic entergy that accompanies reform and revolution. We have to resist, plan, and rebuild, as the bloated ticks eventually fall off the unfortunate animal.
First, we have to resist government’s overreach wherever we can. Our government maintains its power at our expense. It makes our lives miserable by degrees, so gradually that we don’t realize how little freedom we have, or how much prosperity we have lost. We must find practical ways to resist processes of governmental aggrandizement, to regain our freedom, our elemental ability to act. We have become hamstrung. Freedom, which we all seek, includes the ability to do work we love, and to dispose of our property as we wish. That is happiness in the social and economic arenas. When government persistently interferes with citizens’ pursuit of happiness, it violates its own charter.
Second, we have to plan to cooperate effectively. Carlos Casteneda wrote, “We either make ourselves miserable, or we make ourselves strong. The amount of work is the same.” Collaboration to set plans of resistance, to execute strategies and guide civil action, is hard work. However difficult or risky, that work is better than the hopeless drudgery and indignity we suffer when we simply submit. We can act together to make our lives better, and to make our interactions better as well.
Third, we have to prepare and build new institutions to replace decadent ones when they fall away. We know the dispiriting consequences of surprise, born of limited foresight: long periods of disorganized conflict, where powerful people willing to use the most force prevail, only to fall when a stronger person arrives. New rulers, flush with new power, can be even more ruthless and energetic than the ones they replaced. Power groups may put up stooges that are weak and incompetent, but no less criminal than their masters. Only citizens prepared to act in advance can prevent outcomes like that. Only citizens prepared to act in advance can block the ascendance of warlords, demagogues, and strongmen who pretend to be leaders, but are nothing more than thugs with power.
Eventually the pot boils. Stay hungry. Be ready.
9/11 ACA Barack Obama CIA Constitution Democratic party Donald Trump Edward Snowden FBI freedom Free Speech George W. Bush Hillary Clinton Iraq Iraq war JFK JFK assassination Kennedy assassination Lee Oswald NSA President Obama Syria torture Vladimir Putin
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The State of Us
Brave Face
The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried
The Apocalypse of Elena Mendoza
Feral Youth
At the Edge of the Universe
We Are the Ants
Violent Ends
The Five Stages of Andrew Brawley
The Deathday Letter
Cover art and design by Regina Flath
Henry Denton doesn’t know why the aliens chose to abduct him when he was thirteen, and he doesn’t know why they continue to steal him from his bed and take him aboard their ship. He doesn’t know why the world is going to end or why the aliens have offered him the opportunity to avert the impending disaster by pressing a big red button.
But they have. And they’ve only given him 144 days to make up his mind.
Since the suicide of his boyfriend, Jesse, Henry has been adrift. He’s become estranged from his best friend, started hooking up with his sworn enemy, and his family is oblivious to everything that’s going on around them. As far as Henry is concerned, a world without Jesse is a world he isn’t sure is worth saving. Until he meets Diego Vega, an artist with a secret past who forces Henry to question his beliefs, his place in the universe, and whether any of it really matters. But before Henry can save the world, he’s got to figure out how to save himself, and the aliens haven’t given him a button for that.
Praise for We Are the Ants
A Junior Library Guild Selection
★ “Hutchinson’s excellent novel of ideas invites readers to wonder about their place in a world that often seems uncaring and meaningless. The novel is never didactic; on the contrary, it is unfailingly dramatic and crackling with characters who become real upon the page. Will Henry press the button? We all await his decision.”
–Booklist starred review
★ “[Henry’s] journey is subtle and hard-won, with meditations on the past, the present, and the future that are equal parts sarcastic and profound. Bitterly funny, with a ray of hope amid bleakness.”
–Kirkus starred review
★ “Effectively combines the best of elements of Nick Burd’s The Vast Fields of Ordinary (Dial, 2009) with hints of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five. Highly recommended.”
–School Library Journal starred review
★ “Hutchinson has crafted an unflinching portrait of the pain and confusion of young love and loss, thoughtfully exploring topics like dementia, abuse, sexuality, and suicide as they entwine with the messy work of growing up.”
–Publisher’s Weekly starred review
“We Are the Ants is a very complex story about serious subjects. The voices of each character are strong and unique, [and] their language and actions match the situations in which they find themselves.”
“[We Are the Ants] is a book about more than love and loss; it’s about struggling to find motivation and not taking the people in your life for granted. A beautiful, masterfully told story by someone who is at the top of his craft.”
★ “Shaun David Hutchinson’s bracingly smart and unusual YA novel blends existential despair with exploding planets.”
–Shelf Awareness starred review
CCBC Choices (Cooperative Children’s Book Council)
Georgia Peach Book Award Master List
Chicago Public Library’s Best of the Best
Nutmeg Children’s Book Award Nominee (CT)
NYPL Best Books for Teens
Texas Tayshas Reading List
ALA/YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults – Top Ten
ALA Rainbow List Top Ten
We Are the Ants contains the following:
Attempted Rape
Depressive behavior
© Shaun David Hutchinson All Rights Reserved
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Posts Tagged ‘loan marketplace’
Marketing 101: What are microsites? (plus 3 successful microsite examples and 2 missteps)
November 21st, 2019 Daniel Burstein
Marketing has a language all its own. This is our latest in a series of posts aimed at helping new marketers learn that language. What term do you find yourself explaining most often to new hires during onboarding? Let us know.
Microsites are somewhere in between a single landing page and an entire website. They are small, special-purpose websites for a single, dedicated communication (and conversion) goal set up by companies that already have a full site. They work well for the communication of an idea or product that requires more than a single landing page, for example, an event.
Successful microsite creation requires a clear goal and focus for the microsite and should be built from the ground up optimized for achieving that goal.
Here are a few tips to help you use microsites.
Tip #1: Tightly tap into visitor motivations
Microsites can be more focused on an ideal customer subset than a company’s overall website that often must serve multiple audiences. For that reason, microsites can be used to create a more forceful prospect-level value proposition.
For example, MECLABS Institute (parent organization of MarketingSherpa) was engaged in conversion marketing services for a national land and home sales organization for consumers. The company had microsites for individual communities.
In an A/B test of a community’s microsite, the control offered a community guide to prospects and used sales-oriented language like “… learn why [community name anonymized] is Paradise Found.”
The treatment offered a community map to prospects and a more helpful tone. The map was described as something that would help prospects. “Be prepared for your visit to …”
By better tapping into the motivations of people interested in visiting the community, the control produced a 326% increase in conversions.
Tip #2: Use microsites to target specific locations to garner local search
A large brand that sells warranty and car servicing options was performing well on keywords for the United Kingdom as a whole, but there were towns with service garages where the brand was off the top of the search rankings.
The team at agency DFY Links built three microsites for their client’s least competitive towns — Bath, Chepstow and Swindon. There was a similar technical setup to the main site, but with a heavy focus on the town, and the team went to work building links to these microsites every month. The team chose microsites because any increased effort to help the main site rank in certain areas would dilute the UK search and also reduce rankings in other local areas, according to Brett Downes, SEO Specialist, DFY Links.
“Within a year, Chepstow and Swindon sites featured in [spots] one to five on SERP (search engine results page) results for 90% of keywords we were targeting,” Downes said. “Bath was slightly different, as competition was higher and the other sites had a lot more backlinks. However, we did rank on page one for 50% of [keywords] we were targeting, with around 10-20% ranking in position one to three, especially on long-tail keywords.”
The sites also appeared in the local map pack, the listing of nearby businesses that appear under a map on the main SERP.
“The microsites were minimal in code and very simple. Having a lean site ensured we would have a very fast-loading website, as speed has become more of an important ranking factor (especially on mobile) this has given us the advantage [over] local, bloated sites,” Downes said.
The microsites were completely different sites, not subdomains or subfolders. Local businesses they were competing against usually had less than 50 referring domain links, so the team knew they could match the best competitors within six to nine months of link building.
“We could have used the extra budget and created subfolders on the [main] site and had targeted sections for different locations. This may have diluted the main site; plus with the microsite, the assumed location managed to qualify us for proximity searches,” he said.
However, your business may have a very different competitive mix and that can affect how you consider your URL structure, so read the next tip …
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Learn Slicing Pie
Discounted Six Packs
Praise for Slicing Pie
Lawyers & Contracts
Although Slicing Pie is a universal, one-size-fits-all model for determining a perfectly fair equity split, implementing it really depends on your startup's local legal and tax environment. Rules throughout the world can be extremely nuanced and it is always helpful to work with an attorney who can provide guidance.
The lawyers below have been carefully selected because they understand intimately the Slicing Pie model and are willing to help their clients implement as cleanly as possible. Altering the model only makes it less fair. These lawyers can help you make good legal and tax choices for your situation.
I’m always on the lookout for good, cutting-edge lawyers who want to become a Slicing Pie lawyer, if you are one or know one, please let me know.
Matt Rossetti
MIDWEST: Matt has counseled hundreds of attorneys and entrepreneurs around the world on the Slicing Pie model since early 2013. His practice focuses on his passion: helping startups and entrepreneurs achieve their goals. READ MORE...
Slicing Pie Operating Agreement
The terms of Slicing Pie built into a US LLC Operating Agreement. Includes a free 30-minute overview discussion with Matt Rossetti $50 USD
Slicing Pie Loan Agreement
Just like a typical loan, but skipped payments add slices to the Pie. Includes a free 30-minute overview discussion with Matt Rossetti $50 USD
Roger Royse
WEST COAST: Roger works with companies ranging from newly formed tech startups to publicly traded multinationals in a variety of industries, including technology, entertainment and new media, sports, READ MORE...
Slicing Pie Vesting Agreement
Allows the team to vest restricted shares or membership interests using Slicing Pie rules. Includes version with a Loyal Employee clause. $50 USD
Jennifer Rohleder
EAST COAST: Jennifer is an experienced attorney with a background in engineering and project management. She provides a well-rounded perspective for business consultation, regulatory strategy, READ MORE...
Corporate Slicing Pie Agreement
For use with a US C-Corp of S-Corp
Buy ALL FOUR US Agreements for $100 USD
Jetse Sprey
THE NETHERLANDS: Jetse has been around the startup scene for over a decade as a mentor and trusted advisor of many companies. His math and physics background helps him easily understand the technical issues a company may face. He and his team combine flexible out-of-the box solutions with customized advice. READ MORE...
Dutch Agreement
Slicing Pie terms in a pre-incorporation agreement form. Includes implementation guide and 15-min consult.
Buy from Cofounding.info
Jana Nevrlka
SWITZERLAND: Jana is building a network of startup attorneys across Europe who can implement Slicing Pie contracts. READ MORE...
Swiss Agreement
Slicing Pie terms in a pre and post-incorporation agreement form. Includes implementation guide and 15-min consult.
Georgi Chisuse
BULGARIA: Georgi is attorney-at-law, registered with Sofia Bar Association and King’s College London LL.M. He specializes in Law of International Finance, Litigation, Law of Contracts and Corporate. READ MORE...
Seppe Stroo
BELGIUM: As one of the first to implement Slicing Pie in Belgium as the co-founder of Buffl, Seppe is ideally placed to understand your concerns as an entrepreneur and how implement the terms into straightforward yet legally solid agreements. CONTACT
Ants Karu
ESTONIA: Ants is one of the top experts in tax and company law in Estonia. He is one of the founders of LEXTAL and has been a member of the Board of the Estonian Bar Association (2010-2016). He has remarkable experience in advising on concluding international transactions. Ants co-developed the dynamic equity split solution for Estonia. READ MORE...
Estonian Agreement
Kasper Kiilsholm Ottesen
DENMARK: Specialists in startup matters, seed and venture capital law, and mergers and acquisitions, we take away the growing pains of growing companies. We work closely with founders in structuring the equity split in a manner that protects the entity’s interest while minimizing areas of conflict between the company and its founding teams or outside investors. READ MORE...
Danish Agreement
Alexis Aronio de Romblay
FRANCE: Alexis is attorney-at-law, registered with the Paris Bar, specializing in corporate, M&A and commercial law. He assists many entrepreneurs/start-ups as from their incorporation, focusing in particular on fundraising and M&A transactions, as well as on their-day-to day legal issues, including for instance the incentive schemes of the managers and employees. Alexis co-developed the dynamic equity split solution for France. READ MORE...
French Agreement
Stefanie Strümpfler
GERMANY: Stefanie is certified specialist attorney for commercial and corporate law with seat in Berlin. her work is focused on start-ups. she supports them in the phases of incorporation up to the integration of investors and in their legal questions of day-to-day business. she works as a partner with her clients and develops practical and individual solutions with them. Her goal is always the realisation of your entrepreneurial opportunities. Stefanie co-developed the dynamic equity split for Germany. READ MORE...
German Agreement
Achille Ciccarelli
ITALY: Achille assists Italian and foreign companies in their business and in last years he has focused on advising start-ups, in the healthcare and medical sectors, advertising, media and energy with principal aim to grow up their business from first steps, following the phases of before and post incorporation and helping them in their relationship with business angels or others funders, warding their ideas and giving shape to them across contracts and advisory. READ MORE...
Italian Agreement
Kiarash Abbaszadeh
IRAN: Kiarash runs SlicingPie.ir. He is a business consultant, university lecturer, and the Vice President of Science for the Innovation and Development Fund in Iran. READ MORE...
Shahab Heshmat
IRAN: Shahab is the co-founder and CEO of Darskakaoo who created an online translation of Slicing Pie in the Persian language. READ MORE...
A law firm by grunts, for grunts. We offer legally-binding tax-efficient solutions for UK grunt funds to setup and share equity fairly.
Deborah Griffiths
Deborah specialises in commercial and intellectual property law. She has extensive complex contract drafting and business experience, including corporate IP securitisations. READ MORE...
Maxine Chow
Maxine specialises in corporate, M&A and business law. She is experienced in working with VCs and private equity, and has worked at LGC, the Wellcome Trust, Catalyst BioMedica, and Theodore Goddard. READ MORE...
Our network of lawyers bring their experience and training from leading national and international law firms and top in-house teams.
Sarah Bartholomeusz
Sarah is the founder of You Legal. She has an active practice in corporate and commercial law, giving peace of mind to growing businesses at all stages of their lifecycle. READ MORE...
Kirrily Mitchell
With extensive experience working as a commercial and taxation lawyer Kirrily can assist you with implementing the Slicing Pie principles in your Australian business. Kirrily advises start ups on all areas of their business journey. READ MORE...
For a free 15-minute Slicing Pie overview discussion contact Sarah or Kirrily.
As startup accountants & advisors, we see fair equity splits as a smart investment into the welfare of your business.
Stuart Reynolds, C.A.
Stuart is a partner at Fullstack Advisory, a tech-driven accounting firm to some of Australia’s most innovative ventures. As a 3rd generation accountant, he enjoys working with founders with the drive to grow their businesses & build globally successful products. READ MORE...
For a free 20-minute discussion on how Slicing Pie could be applied to your business book a time with Stuart & the Fullstack Advisory team here.
Erin Best
Atlantic Canada and Ontario
Erin is the chair of the Newfoundland and Labrador litigation group. She also deals in intellectual property, including trademark prosecution (registrations), copyright, entertainment, media law and privacy. Erin is continually refining her knowledge and skills, so as to provide her clients with timely and efficient results. READ MORE...
J.P. McAvoy
JP practices corporate and commercial law and has counseled hundreds of companies from startup to multinational. He assists his clients with a wide range of transactions including financings and acquisitions, re-organizations, and corporate entity structuring matters. READ MORE...
A creative legal agency - Cape Town, South Africa
Eitan Stern
Legalese's founder and director, Eitan is a practising attorney with a background in commercial and entertainment law and tech entrepreneurship. READ MORE...
For a free 30-minute Slicing Pie overview discussion contact Eitan
Matais Apparcel
CHILE: Matias has acted as legal counsel for multiple early-stage investments within the Latin American region. He often participates as a mentor at local start-up competitions and was a legal advisor for Chile's National Entrepreneurs Association. READ MORE...
Maria Balsa
ARGENTINA, MEXICO, URUGUAY: CEO at IP Facilis and Creanexus, Intelectual Property Law advisor at Unesco, Ingenio Incubator, and at Catholic University, UM University, and ORT University. Catholic´s University Representative at Red Latinoamericana de Propiedad Intelectual (Pila Network) , uruguayan representative at Cámara de Empresarios Culturales de Argentina.
Contact Maria
Copyright © 2010 - 2020 by Fair and Square Ventures, LLC
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Stu Forster/Getty Images
Ronaldo’s early tally gives Portugal win over Morocco
By Matt ReedJun 20, 2018, 9:55 AM EDT
It was far from a convincing performance, but manager Fernando Santos and Co. came away with their first win at the World Cup and now sit in the drivers’ seat in Group B.
[ MORE: Latest 2018 World Cup news ]
Portugal earned a narrow 1-0 win over Morocco on Wednesday, after Cristiano Ronaldo’s early header proved to be the difference.
Santos’ group now sits atop Group B with four points, while Morocco is eliminated after losing its first two matches.
It took just four minutes for Portugal to break the deadlock, with Ronaldo once again at the center of the Portuguese attack.
The Real Madrid man brilliantly latched onto a header at the near post off of a corner kick, giving Ronaldo his fourth goal at this World Cup (seventh goal overall).
#MundialTelemundo Así lo narró 🎙@AndresCantorGOL ¿Quién más sino @Cristiano ? Gran remate de cabeza para adelantar a #POR en el marcador frente a #MAR pic.twitter.com/u46VLJNjUq
— Telemundo Deportes (@TelemundoSports) June 20, 2018
Morocco did well to insert its presence in the match following the early goal, but various chances from Medhi Benatia and Hakim Ziyech weren’t enough to break past Portugal goalkeeper Rui Patricio.
Click here for live and on demand coverage of the World Cup online and via the NBC Sports App.
The African side also had a legitimate appeal for a penalty kick in the first stanza, however, referee Mark Geiger opted to play on despite the Moroccan protest.
Morocco continued its pressure in the second half, and Patricio was forced to make an incredible save in the 57th minute when Younes Belhanda headed a cross towards the far corner.
Portugal will close out Group B play on June 25 against Iran, while Morocco takes on Spain
Tags: Cristiano Ronaldo, Morocco, Portugal, Fernando
USMNT youngster Vassilev praised by Villa boss
18-year-old USMNT youngster Indiana Vassilev has been praised by Aston Villa boss Dean Smith after making his Premier League debut at the weekend.
Vasillev came on for the final 25 minutes at Brighton and Hove Albion with Villa 1-0 down and helped them rescue a point as his run opened up the chance for Jack Grealish to score a late equalizer.
The lively attacking midfielder/forward has excelled in Villa’s reserve side after his arrival in England in the summer of 2018 following impressive displays for the U.S. youth national teams.
With Villa struggling with injuries up top after main striker Wesley went down with a season-ending injury early this month, Smith is clearly ready to put his faith in Vassilev.
“He is definitely ready to start,” Smith said. “The kid’s a bright spark, and we’ve seen that when he’s come on so far. He gave them (Brighton) problems on Saturday when he came on. It was a super ball from Douglas but, unless Indi makes that run down the side, he doesn’t drag Webster across, and Jack get in for the goal. He knows what he’s doing up there, he’s got a lot of pace, and he can run all day as well.”
American Indiana Vassilev makes his debut for @AVFCOfficial! 🇺🇸 pic.twitter.com/RcrO4AnLL1
— NBC Sports Soccer (@NBCSportsSoccer) January 18, 2020
Villa’s boss didn’t stop there though, as he also revealed that the young striker born in Savannah, Georgia has the backing of the senior players around him to go on and become a regular contributor in the Premier League.
“I’ve never been afraid to go and put young kids in if I feel they’re ready. I congratulated him after the game and said, ‘You’re a Premier League player now.’ He’s surprised me in a good way,” Smith added. “Sometimes when you give an opportunity to a young player they can sink or swim. He is certainly a swimmer. He has looked really good so far. You can always tell how the reaction is through the other players, in their relationships with them. You can see them all behind him. He goes in and puts a shift in for them. If you do that and have quality to add to it you will do alright in the dressing room. He’s got a goalscoring ability, he knows where the back of the net is, he knows what runs to make. Tactically he’s intelligent. Physically he’s impressive as well.”
Vassilev comes from a long line of soccer players and his father, grandfather and great-grandfather all played in Bulgaria and he was born and raised in the USA after his parents emigrated from the eastern European country in the early 1990s.
It looks like the USMNT have another top talent breaking through in Europe which is great news for Gregg Berhalter and potentially even better news for Villa as they badly need a forward to deliver goals in their fight against relegation from the Premier League.
Expect to see more cameos, and maybe even starts, from Vassilev in the final months of the Premier League season.
Tags: Aston Villa, Indiana Vassilev, Premier League, USMNT
Chicharito on LA Galaxy arrival: ‘Right place, right time’
By Joe Prince-WrightJan 21, 2020, 9:43 AM EST
Javier ‘Chicharito‘ Hernandez has made a living out of being in the right place at the right time.
The LA Galaxy’s newest Designated Player believes he is now in the “right place at the right time” in his career as Mexico’s all-time leading goalscorer confirmed his move to Major League Soccer.
Hernandez, 31, joins the Galaxy from Sevilla in La Liga and the former Chivas Guadalajara, Manchester United, Bayer Leverkusen and West Ham United striker is ready to take MLS by storm.
“Like when people describe me playing. You know, that he’s always in the right place at the right time,” Hernandez said in his first interview as a Galaxy player, with the LA Times.
After a few years battling for minutes at West Ham in the Premier League and Sevilla in Spain after a successful spell at Leverkusen, Hernandez is heading closer to home as the Mexico star is ready to play week in, week out for the most-successful franchise in MLS history.
“I’m going to be playing. That’s what I want in my life,” Hernandez said. “People are going to say it was because I couldn’t make it [in Europe], but sometimes in football there are things that are not in your hands. The last two years, the managers decided on giving confidence to other players rather than me. And now, the LA Galaxy, the manager of the club and the league, are telling me, ‘Look, Javier, we want to give you all the trust, all the confidence to help us,’ and that’s why I’m taking this opportunity.”
He will link up with Mexico teammate Jonathan dos Santos in the Galaxy’s team as they try and wrestle back the City of Angels from MLS new boys and reigning Supporters’ Shield champions LAFC.
Hernandez was always destined to play in MLS before he retired and now that day has arrived. Following in the footsteps of Zlatan Ibrahimovic will not be easy but if anyone can score goals, it is Hernandez.
Get ready for his jersey to be the fastest-selling in history as Mexico’s favorite son is ready to become an even bigger star in MLS in the final years of his career.
Tags: Javier Hernandez, LA Galaxy, La Liga, Major League Soccer, Mexico, Premier League, Sevilla, transfer news, Ba, Chicharito, Ibe, Nathan, Zlatan Ibrahimovic
Mourinho denies bust-up with Rose January 21, 2020 11:32 am Solskjaer: United have made “strides forward” January 21, 2020 10:47 am USMNT youngster Vassilev praised by Villa boss January 21, 2020 10:08 am Chicharito on LA Galaxy arrival: ‘Right place, right time’ January 21, 2020 9:43 am Mbappe lavishes praise on Liverpool January 21, 2020 8:47 am Man United charged after Liverpool game January 21, 2020 7:52 am La Liga head takes on FIFA over expanding Club World Cup January 20, 2020 10:08 pm USMNT left back Robinson a surprise target for AC Milan? January 20, 2020 9:13 pm Premier League Storylines: Matchweek 24 January 20, 2020 8:24 pm Sixteen matches toward immortality: Ranking Liverpool’s remaining tests January 20, 2020 7:34 pm Transfer rumor roundup: Werner prefers Liverpool, Bentaleb to Newcastle January 20, 2020 5:51 pm Scottish manager reports himself for breaching gambling rules January 20, 2020 5:11 pm Aston Villa gets its man in prolific Tanzanian captain Samatta January 20, 2020 4:29 pm Real Madrid adds Brazilian teen phenom Reinier Jesus January 20, 2020 3:30 pm Prince-Wright’s Premier League picks January 20, 2020 2:08 pm USMNT’s Bradley suffers serious ankle injury; Altidore hits out January 20, 2020 1:48 pm Premier League TV, streaming schedule January 20, 2020 1:15 pm Guardiola praises Liverpool; injury update January 20, 2020 12:24 pm Man United’s recruitment policy slammed January 20, 2020 11:32 am Arteta: Arsenal’s game at Chelsea ‘must win’ January 20, 2020 10:37 am Cavani linked with Man United, Spurs, Chelsea January 20, 2020 9:39 am Gio Reyna: “A dream came true” January 20, 2020 8:44 am Setien rekindles Barcelona’s passing style in first game January 20, 2020 7:54 am Americans Abroad: Chandler, Gooch score; Reyna, Vassilev debut January 19, 2020 11:11 pm Mexicans Abroad: Jimenez makes Wolves history; Guardado assists in Betis win January 19, 2020 10:08 pm Unhappy reunion for Klinsmann as Bayern beats Hertha 4-0 January 19, 2020 7:53 pm La Liga roundup: Messi scores, wins game in Setien’s Barcelona debut (video) January 19, 2020 7:35 pm Serie A roundup: Ronaldo sets record with brace in Juventus win over Parma (video) January 19, 2020 6:04 pm Salah: ‘We don’t have to think that now we’ve won the Premier League’ January 19, 2020 4:34 pm In the Mixed Zone: Liverpool v. Man United January 19, 2020 3:31 pm WATCH: Henderson’s motivated comments after Liverpool win January 19, 2020 2:58 pm Solskjaer: ‘Very many positives’ from Manchester United loss at Liverpool January 19, 2020 2:33 pm Klopp promises to admit when he feels Liverpool will win the league January 19, 2020 2:22 pm Player Ratings from Liverpool 2-0 Manchester United January 19, 2020 1:40 pm Three things learned: Liverpool v. Man United January 19, 2020 1:32 pm Liverpool rides past sloppy Manchester United January 19, 2020 1:22 pm Rashford out for 2-3 months with back fracture January 19, 2020 11:30 am Burnley snaps losing skid with scrappy win over Leicester January 19, 2020 10:57 am Watch Live: Liverpool v. Manchester United January 19, 2020 10:47 am Transfer rumor roundup: Man Utd eyes $32M teen phenom; Bruno Fernandes latest January 19, 2020 10:06 am
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Graduate (by Research)
NTU's School of Humanities (SoH) is home to five major programmes: Chinese, English, Linguistics & Multilingual Studies, History and Philosophy. The School offers Graduate Research Degrees in all of these disciplines.
The School promotes new interdisciplinary research and has five strategic research clusters.
Master of Arts programme (MA)
Gain an edge in your career with the Masters programme at SoH. Alongside courses, you will work on an approved thesis to further your understanding of the subject via research. Receive guidance from your supervisor and faculty members from a wide range of research interests.
Doctor of Philosophy programme (PhD)
The PhD programme at SoH will enable you to gain a solid background in research and be fully equipped to have a career in research and teaching in world-class universities.
Prospective Students Current Students
Our aim is to achieve excellence in education and research. Graduate studies in the humanities act as a central feature of this vibrant intellectual life.
Key aspects of graduate studies in the School of Humanities include:
•Global and comparative perspectives
•Broad-based intellectual stimulation
•Multi-disciplinary approaches
•Complex cultural awareness
•Contemporary Asian relevance
•International network of researchers
Last modified on 26-Jun-2018
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Thirteen Days
by MULCH
© Copyright - Bull Branch Music / BBR (634479404535)
Mulch offers an ear pleasing blend of pop punk americana with loud guitars, memorable melodies, and songs add energizing entertainment for whatever occasion.
Genre: Rock: Punk-Pop
Song Share Time Download
1. Bury it away
2. Travelin' road show
3. Hey cool aid
5. Nowhere to climb
6. Backout
7. Pinata
8. Men in suits
9. Melting pot
10. Brand new car
11. Left handed
12. 13 Days
Mulch, the band, has been around since forming in 1993. They have always made an attempt to blend a power pop sound with honky tonk, yielding a unique alt-country sound. Although the members have changed over the years, they still have been able to stay focused on their vision of bridging the gap, putting out two albums and plans for a third coming in 2006. Mulch has been a featured on various videos and television including ESPN on a special segment for Dave Mirra, Video Groove in-line skate videos, and numerous surfing videos. They were also a house band at the Galaxy Theater and Coach House for a minor league wrestling for ECW and WWF. Their music has also been featured in various commercial segments for radio stations. The original lineup included Snidley, Randy Edgerly, and Scraps as the core, initially with Lora Pagani and Jason Thornberry on drums for the 13 Dayz record, and finally, Armondo Del Rio making contributions on drums for the Reasons to Quit record. The current lineup features the original singer and songwriter, Brad Grit(aka Snidley),on guitar and vocals. Grit has always been the creative force behind Mulch and has penned several notable songs over the years, including Greener Skies(R. Edgerly- Lyrics), Dear Aunt Rosie, and Pinata. On the drums is Jerry Lee, who has had previous touring experience with a band called the Ditch Bank Oakies, of which he was a founding member. On the bass guitar is Jason Carmen aka Cousin Carms. His previous gigging experience was in a punk rock outfit called Broken Gavel who had a short run in the O.C.. The new lineup has been busy in 2006 preparing for the release of their third album which will be released in late 2006. Players on Reasons To Quit include: Snidley on vocals & guitar, Scraps on guitar, Randy Edgerly on bass, and Armondo Del Rio on the drums.
ummm um
im pretty sure jason thornberry played drums on this album. not mondo.
The Rev
Great album! mix of cow punk, rock etc. one of my favorites!
Great cd! Wish I could find my copy it! Mixes alt-country/punk/rock/cowpunk/etc., with hillbilly sensibilities! If you are lucky enough to find a copy BUY IT and burn one for me!
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St Pats to Spartans
The journey of a life
Global Irish Community
Its time for a month of football
Where has Billy been?
Two years ago…….
Delia on One year in the USA
Stacy Bearden Grein on So a few little things
Sandra Hope on Where to next?
KTC on Irish American or American Iri…
Billy Galligan on So what’s new?
Follow St Pats to Spartans on WordPress.com
stpatstospartans@gmail.com
Tag: Wales
Feast of Football
Before I start this post I just want everyone to know I am talking about Association Football, soccer, not American Football when I say football. The USA can try rename the most popular sport in the world, Heineken may even have an advert where they tell you it’s OK to call it soccer, but to me it’s FOOTBALL.
Anyway, June has started with a bit of a football feast. Normally the seasons around Europe are winding down but I still have the Airtricity League in Ireland and St Patrick’s Athletic to follow, but this summer not only do I have my normal football, but I have the European Championships in France and the Copa America in the USA. I have been enjoying the Copa America live on US tv but like at home I have to turn the commentators to mute. What is it with TV commentators talking absolute rubbish during games or not having a clue about teams or matches?
I went to watch the USA play on the big screen outdoors, which is an advantage living in Atlanta, last week but unfortunately for the championship hosts the first game ended in defeat to Columbia but the USA still have a great chance to progress but first up they need to defeat Costa Rica in their next match later tonight. The game of the competition so far has definitely been Argentina v Chile but it is very early days with only 8 matches played so far. It was end to end stuff throughout the full 90 mins, which was great to see.
This Friday sees the start of the Euro 2016 Championships in France and Ireland have qualified so there is an added interest. Ireland are joined by Northern Ireland, Wales and England so there will be a lot of interest among the British Isles nations. I will be cheering on 3 of those 4 nations and it doesn’t take me to spell it out who I won’t be cheering on 🙂
Ireland will be hoping Robbie Keane can get fit and score at the Euros
Ireland are in a tough group and I will be delighted if they progress and it will really depend on how well they do in their very first game. A defeat in that match will make it extremely tough for Ireland to qualify for the next phase so a win or draw is vital. With the Airtricity League taking a break for a week I will be following the Euros and the Copa as much as I can, especially with kick offs in the Euros in the mornings and the Copa in the evenings, some days I will see some matches, others I won’t see any at all.
Club and Country
St Patrick’s Athletic aren’t having a great season so far so maybe the small break will allow them to regroup and start the second part of the season in better form. Either way I look forward to following them online and via radio commentary. As a football fan, this summer is a dream summer with so much football on, and nearly all of it live on tv here in the USA. Of course nothing beats being at a live game so I look forward to Atlanta United starting next season in the MLS and I hope to get to a Atlanta Silverbacks game soon as well. Maybe I will even get back into photographing matches over here like I did back in Ireland.
These last 8 weeks or so have seen me make a bit of a come back to playing some football, purely for fun and a little bit of exercise. I joined a 7 a side team which playing in a supporters club league run by Sons of Pitches and even though we were a new team who only met the day of our first match we done well. We finished the league part of the season in 6th place put of 8 but 4 teams had near identical records of wins and loses. So into the playoffs we went and in our quarter final we defeated the 3rd place team to qualify for the semi finals and to meet up with a team who had given us our biggest defeat and were the 2nd ranked team. This time though we had our full squad, knew each other a lot better and after a 2-2 draw we won on penalties and so qualified for the final. Alas, the final was one game to many and we lost 3-1 to the number 1 ranked team. We have already signed up to play again in the Summer league and will be hoping to go one better or at least have fun trying.
By Billy Galligan June 7, 2016 802 WordsLeave a comment
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Glazers linked with sale of Man Utd following reported interest from one of the world’s richest families
Posted October 14, 2018 12:51 by
Dale O'Donnell
Follow @odonnelldale
Saudi Arabia’s ruling Salmans are said to be worth £850 billion and there are reports of interest in buying Manchester United from existing American owners the Glazers.
The Daily Star cite reports from the Middle East that claim the price would be around £4 billion.
This, quite clearly, would go hand-in-hand with their plan to diversify Saudi Arabia’s future economy away from oil.
They will also view a takeover as a way to compete with fellow Gulf states Qatar (Paris Saint-Germain) and the United Arab Emirates (Manchester City) as world football powers.
Credit to the Daily Star for digging deep into this story and backing up their claim United have long-term links with Saudi Arabia.
Last year the club agreed a “memorandum of understanding” with the Arab country’s General Sports Authority to help a `sustainable and thriving football’ sector.
According to United’s official website the “strategic partnership” involves “United lending its business and sporting expertise to clubs, sporting authorities and individuals in Saudi Arabia”.
“The partnership forms part of Saudi Vision 2030 – the plan to diversify the Saudi economy and to develop its public sectors, announced last year by Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman,” the website said.
Richard Arnold, who acts as the club’s managing director, said at the time: “The club has a long-standing relationship with Saudi Arabia and has over five million passionate fans in the region.
“Our partnership with Saudi Telecom is the longest running of all our commercial partners.
“Having the chance to help shape the football industry in the Kingdom is a great honour and it is something where we believe we can make a big difference.”
But is any of this good for United? The Glazers may be cancerous leaches, but United having Saudi owners could have even greater consequences.
Ever since Malcolm Glazer died in 2014, there have been whispers of disinterest from members of the Glazer family. Could this be there last big payday?
The Glazers are as much to blame, if not more, for United’s struggles in recent years, though people will always point the finger at the players or manager first, as is often the case.
United are not in safe hands with the Glazers, but are these Saudi Arabian business any better if not worse?
More Stories Salmans The Glazers
MUFC Not For Sale: Glazers dismiss takeover talks with Saudi Prince
Manchester United: Financial Corporation formerly Football Club
October 13, 2018 9:30
Glazers view star as Man Utd’s ‘Messi’, ‘untouchable’, and won’t consider sale
The Glazers still backing Mourinho as Man Utd manager, says Mark Ogden
Why Man Utd should learn from the Juventus model of running a club
October 1, 2018 7:37
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Atlanta tagged posts
Atlanta Hawks And Intel Sports Share True View 360-Degree Tech Experience At State Farm Arena
November 19, 2019, Blog No comments
Atlanta Hawks and State Farm Arena Partner with Intel Sports to enhance viewing experience
The Atlanta Hawks and Intel Sports invited me to witness the unveiling of Intel’s ‘True View’ platform at State Farm Arena last Friday. Fans can see it in action tomorrow night, Nov 20, when they host the Milwaukee Bucks during the Peachtree Night home game. NBA owners do not like when a venue is not full, it’s not a good look for the league so here comes sports technology to the rescue as executives, management and staff experiment with implementing different solutions, systems and products to enhance the live sport experience should your team not be in the top tier of attendance. The professional basketball fan experien...
Barebones 2019 DCSD Special Olympics Track and Field Has No Room For Budget Cut
I attended 2019 DeKalb County School District Special Olympics, Track and Field event at Hallford Stadium today because my 5-year son was a willing and happy participant along with his mates at Coralwood School, a real God-send of an inclusive, K-3 through kindergarten, public elementary school. Kellan is on the autism spectrum therefore he and I ran in the assisted 50-yard dash together taking second place in our closely contested heat and fourth place in the baseball/softball throw! Three virtual cheers for Special Olympics.
Special Olympics Atlanta
2019 DeKalb County School District Special Olympics
To be honest, the event today was not one where you would say tons of money was being spent to operate it...
State Farm Arena Ready For Atlanta Hawks Opening Night
October 24, 2018, Atlanta, basketball, Business, CEO, City, community, Digital, Electronics, Entertainment, Executives, Fan Engagement, Fan Experience, history, Influencer, launch, Media, NBA, Partnership, Review, Samsung, Seattle, Sponsorship, SportsBiz, Stadium, sustainability, Teams, THE Sports Techie, Ticketing, United States, Venue, Video No comments
State Farm Arena Transformation With Sports Tech Enhanced Features
State Farm Arena Transform With Sports Tech Enhanced Features
State Farm Arena opens tonight when the Atlanta Hawks play the Dallas Mavericks after a $200 million arena refurbish of which $142.5 million came from Georgia public funding, something I am fully against because billionaire owners don’t need the money, right. This is touted as the second-biggest facility redesign in NBA history after MGS in New York. My son and I went to the “Welcome to the Neighborhood” Open House Party which was free to the public last weekend and had a good time indeed which bodes well for fans this evening and throughout the 2018/19 season. Unfortunately, with the new sponsor and all the technology-driven bells and whistles like the fan...
American Express Experience Is Unique Seattle Seahawks 12s Fan Experience
September 24, 2018, Fan Experience, Football, NFL, Seattle, Sponsorship No comments
SEATTLE, WA – SEPTEMBER 23: Seattle Seahawks legend Steve Largent makes a special guest appearance at the American Express Experience on September 23, 2018 in Seattle, Washington. (Photo by Mat Hayward/Getty Images for American Express)
The American Express Experience located in the SoDo district hosted Card Members and Seattle Seahawks fans during a grand opening together with team legend Steve Largent before the Dallas Cowboys game at Century Link Field on Sunday. The Sports Techie community blog loves to cover NFL business, sponsorship, social and technology news. AMEX and the Hawks have a unique partnership unlike any other professional football organization. As a result, they push the partnership envelope resulting in tech innovation, memorable engagements and absolute fun...
England VAR World Cup Destiny Should Influence Premier League
July 13, 2018, Atlanta, Blog, Bundesliga, Data, England, Football, Fox Sports, France, Media, MLS, Nations, odds, Officials, Premier League, Soccer, sports tech, Superstars, Systems, Teams, Time, tournament, Video, wagering No comments
What Changed To Make England More Successful In This World Cup?
The pride surrounding the England team is unmissable. It’s been since 1966 when the Three Lions last roared as one for the football loving country when the men’s national soccer team won the World Cup final which so happens to be the year I was born. Give the hungry English lads credit getting through to the semi-finals through a combination of strong players that mostly play in the Premier League, inspirational and youthful management and… the use of Video Assistant Referee (VAR) sports tech ensuring accuracy in decisions and fair rulings? Only now in 2018 has VAR been in place at the World Cup in Russia to the credit of FIFA but long, long overdue...
Matthew Berry Game Changer Awarded To World Championship Of Fantasy Football
June 28, 2018, community, Culture, DFS, ESPN, Fantasy Football, fantasy sports, Football, Gambling, Hall of Fame, history, Media, pioneers, Rewards, Sports Management, sports tech, SportsBiz, Stadium No comments
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP OF FANTASY FOOTBALL NAMED FIRST-EVER “MATTHEW BERRY GAME CHANGER” AWARD WINNER
Winning the inaugural Matthew Berry Game Changer Award earned the World Championship of Fantasy Football (WCOFF) a check for $200,000, the Crystal Trophy and a piece of sports tech history. With the NFL 2018 season and training camp less than a month away, the 2018 Fantasy Sports Trade Association (FSTA) Conference was hosted in Minneapolis by U.S. Bank Stadium, home of last season’s Super Bowl LII won by the Philadelphia Eagles. If you play or want to play fantasy football, either traditional or daily, Berry is the ESPN go-to guy for expert insight as their Senior Fantasy Analyst...
Student Debt Highest In Southeast Where Atlanta Ranked Two Overall
June 27, 2018, Atlanta, City, College, Data, Education, Financial, Football, Georgia, NCAA, Parent, resource, Student-Athlete, Study No comments
Top 100 Metros With Most Student Debt
Student loans debt reached $1.5 trillion in the United States and the Southeast has a large portion of it according to a study by Lending Tree provided to the Sports Techie community blog.
Student loans debt reached $1.5 trillion in the United States and the Southeast has a large portion of it according to a new Lending Tree study provided to the Sports Techie community blog. They looked at loan data regarding the top 100 metro regions across the U.S. where Atlanta ranked number 2 overall. The Sports Techie community blog understands the pains of student loans as many of our readers and followers do as well. I have undergrad student debt after graduating from Whittier College where tuition in 2017 was a staggering $44,184 a year...
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy Xbox One Copy Delivered To Richard Sherman
June 26, 2018, Blog, Football, Microsoft, Partnership, Video Games, Youth No comments
Richard Sherman and Crash Bandicoot Become New Best Friends
– San Jose, CA – 06/25/2018 – Richard Sherman gets a surprise visit from Crash Bandicoot in San Jose.
-PICTURED: Richard Sherman
-PHOTO by: Michael Simon/startraksphoto.com
Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy players like injured pro football star Richard Sherman and countless fellow video gamers are ready to WUMP it up on June 29th when a multi-platform release is scheduled for the Nintendo Switch, Microsoft Windows (PC) and Xbox One systems after launching on the PlayStation 4 (PS4) last year. Sherman got a visit to his lovely home in San Jose by the jacked up marsupial and was delivered the FIRST EVER Xbox One copy of Crash Bandicoot. Crash and Sherm did some WUMPING together to commemorate the fun times...
TeamSnap Officials, Refs and Umps Sports Tech Management
June 19, 2018, baseball, basketball, Blog, Coach, Football, hockey, Lacrosse, Officials, Parent, Soccer, softball, software, Sports Management, sports tech, volleyball, Youth No comments
TeamSnap Launches New Officials Management Platform to Serve Referees and Umpires
TeamSnap Officials is ready to use. It was designed specifically to manage game officials as an intuitive online sports tech platform. This new feature allows for the management of match officials, referees and umpires while meeting communication and scheduling needs in regards to youth and recreational sport. The Sports Techie community blog encourages the use of sports tech products, solution’s and systems to optimize and streamline business operations. TeamSnap continues to build out innovative sports technology assets as a single solution to meet the constantly evolving demands of that occurs when managing sport teams, leagues and now refs, in the digital age.
TeamSnap Launches New Officials Management Pl...
Improve Athletic Performance with Better (and More) Sleep
June 10, 2018, athletic performance, Atlanta, basketball, Blog, community, health, resource, running, Seattle, sports tech, THE Sports Techie No comments
Sleep Enhances Athletic Performance
Sleep Like A World Sports Champion
Hours spent in the weight room, interval training, speed training, and a well-balanced diet all affect athletic performance. But, there’s one common factor that’s often forgotten – sleep. When you consider the strain that an athlete’s body undergoes during a competition, it should come as no surprise that adequate rest is necessary for peak performance. The Sports Techie community blog encourages everyone to reflect on your sleep habits, especially if you are an amateur, elite or professional athlete. Optimizing sleep is the name of game.
A study published in Sleep investigated the effects of extended sleep time on col...
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clips tagged posts
How to Take Your Passion for Sports Further with a Drone
May 21, 2018, Blog No comments
Sports and tech make such a good team that they influence each other every moment. While drones develop into new shapes and technologies, their prices also lower for the end customer. Sports enthusiasts – such as you and us – now can use the best drones in so many ways that they even become players in specialized competitions. Drones influence the way we see and even practice our hobby. Some of the best drones can capture matches and championships from unique perspectives. The Sports Techie community blog adheres to responsible drone flying and usage.
There’s more to these gadgets than flying and capturing images...
Sacramento Kings Social Media Night At Golden 1 Center Powered By Panasonic USA
February 12, 2018, Blog One comment
From Social Media night content, to Kiss Cam, to the Noise Meter, to promotions about upcoming games and shows, this giant video display was both easy on the eyes and so lifelike, viewers tend to watch the video board more than the live action.
Being at Golden 1 Center during the Sacramento Kings social media night as an industry expert on behalf of Panasonic was an ultimate fan experience I will never forget, thank you. Downtown Commons (DOCO) features the NBA’s most technologically advanced and sustainable venue. The Panasonic Solutions Group and I were given a private tour of the arena by team executives...
Should Replay Decisions Be Ended In The NFL?
January 17, 2018, Blog One comment
After a review that lasted almost five minutes – the NFL’s head of officiating Al Riveron deemed that the evidence proved that James had failed to survive the ground and the pass was incomplete. Source: AKjoshgray via Twitter
The New England Patriots have benefited again from the NFL’s review system to secure the number one seed in the AFC Conference for the post-season. Their fortune has drawn the ire and the whisper of ‘conspiracy theory’ by fans and the teams chasing them alike in the battle to reach the Super Bowl. The question has been posed whether the usage of replays, especially slow-motion, is taking the moment out of the sport. The Sports Techie community blog is firm in our support to continue the use of instant replay in sports...
MLB Social Media Data Breakdown By MVPindex And 120 Sports
120 SPORTS AND MVPINDEX PRESENT MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL SOCIAL DATA
Chicago Cubs & Kris Bryant dominate Top Social Posts and Team Rankings Mariners’ Robinson Cano Most Valuable MLB Athlete on Social.
Major League Baseball has entered the big data age and according to MVPIndex and 120 Sports, social activity is a criteria that can be measured for the good of the game, players, teams, sponsors, and especially the fans. The sport business partnership used technology to measure metrics produced by MLB teams and each player throughout the 2016 season and offseason...
Tech Meets Soccer: Could VAR Change the Game Forever?
IFAB (International Football Association Board) approved a new type of referee to feature in soccer matches to work in tandem with the on-field referee.
Within the last year, IFAB (International Football Association Board) have approved a new type of referee to feature in soccer matches to work in tandem with the on-field referee, a move which could potentially change the game forever. The Sports Techie community blog is in agreement with this game-changing decision towards the inclusion of more technologies to help get calls right...
DeskSite Enhances Daytona 500 And Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series Fan Experience
February 15, 2017, Blog No comments
NASCAR Becomes First Sports League to Launch DeskSite Video App
NASCAR DeskSite video app launched today allowing race fans to enjoy the delivery of an automated, interactive and personalized stream of digital content directly to computers and digital devices. NASCAR is the first professional sports league to offer the platform that delivers NASCAR.com high-definition videos on-demand in addition to automatic updates to desktops, laptops and tablets. The Sports Techie community blog chatted with Megan Bennett, VP of Marketing, and Jake Phillips, Content Partnerships at DeskSite, about the product roll out with NASCAR and their sports tech business...
It’s about Time we Let Technology Tell the Truth in Football
February 6, 2017, Blog No comments
I can still remember that gloomy afternoon when England lost to Germany in the 2010 World Cup, I had just launched the Sports Techie community blog. Surely that Lampard shot was over the line! There’s plenty more stories where that comes from, though that Geoff Hurst shot in the 1966 World Cup Final was miles over the line, wasn’t it?
It took the world of football until 2012 to finally agree on introducing goal-line technology and not a moment too soon. Finally we do have the goal-line technology that answers the question of whether a goal is indeed a goal or not. About time too I hear you screaming “and why has it taken so long?”
Hawk-Eye goal-line technology uses cameras
Changing History
We may well jest about that Geoff Hurst goal in 1966 (the year I was born) but it’s not t...
A Brief History of Technology in Sports
February 2, 2017, Blog One comment
Since its appearance, technology has strived to intermingle with almost every area of human life. And even when you thought that was impossible, it did the same with sports. Sports fans were a bit frustrated at first, thinking that tech specialists would interrupt or even slow the game down. The Sports Techie community blog has championed sports tech for the past six years but really going on more than twenty years when you count my career.
The troublesome goals and seemingly equal race times, however, were much more irritating. Hence, sports technology became widely accepted soon after its first appearance. For betting enthusiasts, in particular, it managed to provide indisputable results, without giving them the opportunity to blame it on the betting services, such as NJ Casinos and many...
Watch Live Premier League Football Action On BT Sport App Powered By Deltatre
September 12, 2016, Blog No comments
The BT Sport app and deltatre give fans extra this Premier League season.
Proprietary digital solutions by deltatre produce an enhanced EPL fan experience for streaming live games, highlights and breaking news on iOS and Android as well as on demand.
BT Sport App powered by deltatre, part of Bruin Sports Capital group, is showcasing 42 Premier League 2016 and 2017 matches exclusively to subscribers. Proprietary digital software solutions by deltatre produce an enhanced EPL fan experience for streaming live games, highlights and breaking news on iOS and Android as well as on demand...
ScoreStream Powers High School Football Scores On Snapchat And Buffalo Wild Wings B-Dub TV
September 2, 2016, Blog No comments
ScoreStream partners with Snapchat to offer crowd-sourced, high school scoreboard Geofilters.
ScoreStream is first to provide fan-driven scores, photos and chat with family and friends to digital devices of high school football fans on Snapchat beginning today, and to Buffalo Wild Wings B-Dub TV. The sports tech company out of Del Mar, CA developed a proprietary crowd-sourcing platform to generate live sports scores. Snapchatters now have the option to use geofilters to engage with real-time high school football games and scoreboards nationwide, sponsored by Gatorade. Buffalo Wing Wings patrons can also enjoy each score, image, conversation, highlight, and experience, from local teams at 600 restaurants nationwide on large big screen TVs...
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White Supremacy in America Starts with America's Police Force
by Sean Blackmon, Eugene Puryear
Sean Blackmon, Eugene Puryear. Sputnik International
https://sputniknews.com/radio_by_any_means/201912071077507057-white-supremacy-in-america-starts-with-americas-police-force/
EU pumps the breaks on Facebook's Libra; French union protests continue; OAS, US Government Seek Regime Change in Dominica
On this episode of "By Any Means Necessary" hosts Eugene Puryear and Sean Blackmon are joined by technologist Chris Garaffa to talk about several Google employees being fired for organizing workers, employees at GitHub demanding their company drop contracts with ICE, and the European Union demanding tough rules be placed on Facebook's cryptocurrency Libra.
In the second segment, Eugene Puryear and Sean Blackmon are joined by Steve Keen, the author of “Debunking Economics” to talk about the latest job numbers from the United States, how the "gig economy" is leading to misleading labor data, the massive labor protests in France, the economics behind Brexit, and the latest from neo-liberal protests in Latin America.
In the third segment, Sean and Eugene are joined by Dr. Jeb Sprague, a Research Associate at the Institute for Research on World-Systems (IROWS) at the University of California, Riverside and author of “Globalizing the Caribbean: Political economy, social change, and the transnational capitalist class” to discuss the upcoming elections in Dominica, interference from the US government and the Organization of American States, and why an independent Caribbean is such a threat to Western supremacy.
Later in the show, Eugene and Sean are joined by independent researcher Sam Menefee-Libey to talk about West Virginia prison staff being suspended after taking a group photo while giving the Nazi salute, the rise of classical fascism from Brazil to Poland to Turkey, and the shocking number of empty homes in California compared to those who need homes. The show also says goodbye to Eugene Puryear.
We'd love to get your feedback at radio@sputniknews.com
West Virginia, Dominica, library
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Category: Submissions
Remember the de Young
For a week in September, Maia Ipp came into Creative Writing and taught a “Craft and Critique” class in order to prepare us (well, us being CDubs sans seniors, ’cause our three years of sweaty toil has earned us privileges, dammit) for a new department requirement— the literary critique (see Smolly’s Daily Report for reference).
We began by defining the word “critique” and its connotations— for someone to be critical is usually negative, though to look at something with a critical eye is pragmatic and sort of good. Using these definitions as a springboard, we then worked to redefine “critique” and came up with a new operational definition: analysis of the text and its effects with the intention to either better it or to simply point out its success.
(Yes, those are my words, and yes, they are carefully diplomatic, but that’s the jist of it, I think. Y’know, people always say to not shoot the messenger, but what if the messenger screws up?)
(No I change my mind. Please don’t shoot this messenger.)
We also discussed ekphrasis, which is sort of the evolved version of part two of the lit critiques, which are the creative responses. An ekphrastic piece of art is inspired by another piece of art in another medium— the example we looked at was a poem inspired by a painting. The poem stood on its own well enough, but with the painting there was a basis to work from, and there was suddenly a synesthetic duality to its evoked meaning.
On Friday, September 20th, Maia’s class ended on a high note. We visited the de Young museum and the Diebenkorn exhibit (which I will admit I did not see, sadly— it was just so… populated there) to create our own ekphrastic pieces of writing. And it’s kind of hilariously awesome, because Maia was so inspired by all the poems we turned in, that she took lines from all of them and created a group found poem, so it’s something like meta-ekphrasis.
(Though if we really did the math, it’s 1.5 ekphrasis, because while not everything we wrote was poetry— mine certainly wasn’t— words to words still doesn’t count as an entire ekphrasis, I don’t think. Hence the point-five.)
On top of that, Frances (’14) and Lizzie’s (’14) poems were chosen for special mention. Here they are below:
After the de Young: a group found poem
The poem that follows is composed of lines taken from the Fold-Up responses. Every Creative Writer is represented, and lines have been only minimally changed where necessary.
Tell me about the life you’ve built
the way it seems to fall apart
in the drifting winds that run through empty houses.
I, too, remained nameless that year.
A stretched film over the skywater above us.
It fractures though, by gravity or worse.
How hard it is to keep it together:
the water that was made in darkness.
The sun is smooth and patient, a pulse of light wavering between leaves and branches.
The ocean offers a flat relief.
I would die in this place,
my body slouched on a blue plastic chair, the door
open for the world to see.
Skin the taut surface of water—
A round, flat eye.
It is dangerous without being alive.
Examine for bloodlessness the bold predawn birth.
I had golden feathers,
but now everything is moonlight
undersea.
Stung, bitter, by our blackened palms.
I found you beached,
your burnt snow gills gleaming.
To do something with these arms—
I nod quietly, stare into wind and snow, letting its sting replace the one I feel in my chest.
I am not to be approached.
The most refined woman is nothing but texture.
You may be full to the core with honey and old water.
So soon, we’ll both be useless things.
Frances Saux, after Richard Diebenkorn, Untitled, 1955
I, too, remained nameless that year—learned in the clench of summer the constituencies of self, somehow—
One night she’d gone and I took three, four tries at a match, but too selfless to start supper I let them die out—
What was moving that year, what was anything?
I needed medicine and thought a spoon of vinegar, a slice of lemon looked all right.
And I thought I’d go on a walk but of course I didn’t. She came home, I stayed seated, she let the water run in the kitchen sink, I thought about the lengths of water, for lengths, the anonymous water.
Lizzie Kroner, response to The Wild Swan by Alexander Pope
It is wild—it is like painted taxidermy. The swan hangs so majestic but still so pathetic in its demise, tied to a door. With its full, faded head it can only exist as a symbol now. It evokes meaning without having a meaning of its own. In its death, as in all deaths, it has lost life, but its corpse, bright and beautiful and sprawled, wings spread, emanates such vivacity you have to question whether it is really dead or not. Of course it is dead, its webbed feet are tied by a string to the hinge of a green door and its gold is only visible when it is directly under the light. But the stillness of its heartbeat means nothing. The painting doesn’t have a heartbeat either, neither do these words, but they mean something.
[DR]: Friday
by Lizzie (’14)
As this blog post is delayed and I have had the weekend (which seems like ages) to think (or rather not think) about class, much of my memory of Friday CW has been muddled by the utter blur of Saturday and Sunday. However, here are the details of class that have prevailed—It was a beautiful day, disproving Jenna Maroney’s (of 30 Rock) snarky remark on the Bay Area, “Have fun always carrying a light sweater,” for no outerwear was required. Now this point may seem irrelevant to CW but the presence of the sun completely alters the CW environment—everyone seems to have a sunnier disposition (pun intended). With that in mind, our class discussion on our soon-to-come show was light-hearted and (although correlation is not causation) thus more productive. Yet this was only the first half of class. For the second half, we went, as a class, to the Ruth Asawa memorial held in the Dan Kryston Memorial theater.
It was a well-staged production that reflected and respected Ruth Asawa’s artistic vision. The memorial began with a Taiko performance and ended with a ballad sung by the entire vocal department. Not only did it honor the life of Ruth Asawa but it also boosted the morale of us SOTA students, combining our art forms in a moving and well-executed way.
[DR]: Thursday
by Justus (’15)
After excessive quantities of democracy it seems a sort of constitutional monarchy has been established in Creative Writing: we have our no-longer-negotiable show idea, the still-currently-unnamed show involving aliens and cruise ships (possibly Starboard or Alienation Generation, among other suggestions). We are also not allowed to argue about what the skit– er… interludes’ themes will be anymore, by royal decree of our Monarchs Tony, Rachel, and Carol. Finally.
So today it was time to create our skits interludes, and we split into groups to begin the plot outlining process. I myself was in the group dealing with the opening of the show, in which we attempted to introduce the characters of our alien protagonists, while still making them seem like aliens (“what they communicated via interpretive dance?” and “is crash-landing a UFO a totally normal thing in alien culture?” were just two of the important decisions our group needed to make). The other groups held meetings on how best to discuss the themes of [Redacted][No spoilers] through our unconventional plot thread.
The democracy in Creative Writing has been overthrown. Let the group writing begin.
[DR]: Democracy
September 25, 2013 February 14, 2019 Leave a comment
by Avi (’15)
Democracy. It isn’t what you participate in on the first Tuesday in November. Nor is it a system of government through elected officials (thank you Google). It means to raise your hand and vote!
Today in Creative Writing we closed our eyes, covered our heads, and raised our hands high to vote for the theme of the show we liked the best.
And after the results were in, and ALL tallies were counted, we found our answer, our result, our president: The Yet to be Titled Show Involving Aliens and Cruise Ships!
It took some discussion, it took some frustration, it took some back-tracking, but like a green alien, it finally came to us… in a UFO containing Jules’ brain (what a wonderful genius he is, what a shame he isn’t taking Calculus.)
After voting on whether or not we should choose our script-writing groups, we divided ourselves and began the arduous process of writing our scripts— excuse me, interludes (as skits are FAR too elementary, get with the program.)
For those of you non-Creative Writers reading the blog, you should be— need to be— worried, confused and most importantly, excited. Preferably feel all of these emotions at the same time. Just know that the aliens of planted CDub are coming to a stage near you… if you live in San Francisco. Sorry Grandma and Grandpa, you will need to fly out, no C-Dub wants to perform in fifteen feet of snow in suburban Minnesota.
[DR]: In Process
by Emma E. (’17)
One of the most exciting parts of planning anything is watching it begin to come to life. During Creative Writing today, we began discussing details of what we want our fall show to look like. Although we are still in preliminary (and top secret) planning stages, the show already feels real and immediate. To help us begin working on the show itself, we had two artists, Tony and Rachel, come in. One of the nice things about enlisting outside help is you get the benefit of their ideas and opinions. Having Tony and Rachel in helped us make our plans more detailed and organized. It’s crazy how much can happen in a class period; at the beginning of the day, we hadn’t even decided on a theme and now our show is already taking shape! One of my favorite parts of the day was when we each said one thing we could bring to the show that was specific to us; the list included knife throwing and onstage cooking, so it’ll definitely be exciting. Today was both productive and enjoyable and I can’t wait to keep planning our show and seeing the new directions it takes!
[DR]: Onset of Fall
by Jules (’14)
It’s no secret these days that it’s rapidly turning into autumn. It rained this saturday, I can’t wear just a tank top and a sportscoat at night anymore, and, perhaps most importantly, the Fall CW show is just around the corner. Today in Creative Writing we spent most of the period listening to theme ideas from Tony and Rachel and Carol (the person who gave birth to me, for anyone who didn’t know), our artistic directors. They took us through the various stages of David Bowie’s work as an example of an artist who has both gone through a very complete journey, and as an artist who works within in many different personas and genres. We then got to propose our own ideas for the show, which, like many matters of national security, will remain secret until it comes out of our proverbial oven, so to speak (to give a little food analogy retort to Midori who assumes I just never read the blog and so seeks to slander me with being an unpatriotic CW student).
[DR]: de Young
by Midori (’14)
On Friday, we visited the de Young museum, the cherry to top off the ice cream sundae of Maia’s Craft & Critique unit (this is for you, Jules, and all of your food analogies. Except, of course, Jules doesn’t actually read the blog, so I should actually slander his name, the jerk). We received a cute little fold-up worksheet and had free reign over where to go, the caveat being that we should do this quietly, preferably alone, as to enjoy the full museum experience.
I spent most of my time in the Inuit art exhibit, with all of the walrus tusk-carvings of intricate little creatures. I was particularly caught by the smoothness of it all, obviously pieced together yes, but fitted so proportionally that even the seams seemed natural. It’s awe-inspiring to consider it was all done by hand, the stone, ivory, and bone pieces as small decorations around the house, just for fun.
There was a room in particular that caught my eye, for it was really… weird. The de Young channels the sparse, elegant galleries very well, until one stumbles upon this room, with its brilliant array of glass and colors and stuff, all kind of crammed together, so there’s something strange everywhere you turn.
colors everywhere
stuff everywhere
on the ceiling, too
Well anyways, it was super fun (italics absolutely warranted). I work right across the street at the Academy of Sciences, and I rarely go to the de Young. It’s a completely different museum experience than the hustle and bustle and screaming children of the Academy, and I must say, it’s nice to just settle down and enjoy art.
[DR]: Lit Critiques
by Molly (’15)
we practiced critiquing on this painting and its ekphratic poem
Once a marking period, freshmen, sophomores, and juniors are required to write a review on a piece of published writing, focusing mostly on the craft. I doubt anybody really looks forward to writing these lit critiques, but by now it’s a bit of a rite of passage within creative writing, and this practice improves our essay-skills drastically. Recently, Maia Ipp has redesigned the way lit critiques (formerly lit reviews) are to be written; instead of focusing on the work inside an issue of a literary magazine, we can now choose any work of creative writing, and have the chance to study it in-depth and write a longer, more comprehensive essay.
Today in Creative Writing, Maia, after noting the despairing looks on our faces after being confronted with this new assignment, had us workshop our first lit critique drafts with our writing buddies. She even kindly extended the due-date toMonday so that we can be sure to have greatly improved our essays with the help of peer-editing. Thank you, Maia!
Let’s Talk Petrarch
I’ve been reading Petrarch— Scott, my Euro Lit teacher, introduced him to me (well, introduced him to the class, but I took major interest and asked to borrow some books). Prior to this, I’ve known Petrarch only as that one Big Deal Poet Laureate who got the crown from the Pope who wrote love poems to a Lady Laura. Y’know, the standard famous poet stuff.
Now, I know he had never met Laura, and suffered from a crippling depression that I’m surprisingly familiar with.
It’s just weird, y’know, to consider that this figure of practically-myth is actually such a familiar character. He glorified Laura to frightening heights and longed to reach that height, but obviously never could. The funny part though? Is that he knew exactly what he was doing. He was making Laura unobtainable, and hated himself all the more for not being able to obtain her love. This self-crippling cycle seems a very modern thing— we rarely think of figures from Back In The Days suffering from anxiety and depression.
Self-doubt is a very familiar feeling for me, and… Well, I don’t know if it’s comforting to know that Petrarch also had it, but it is somewhat easier to forgive myself when I remember that. It’s such a funny thing, see— just being told that your anxiety is all in your head doesn’t really help, because if it’s all in my head, it’s all on me, and I’m making a big deal out of something that doesn’t matter at all, isn’t that embarrassing? It just makes me more anxious, if anything. Reading famous poetry that many people studied and liked and empathized with reminds me that it’s not just me. Other people are people too; I am not living in a world of perfect Lauras. I shouldn’t hoist the greatness I perceive in everyone else above myself, because that’s not fair to me or to them.
This has been a little life advice, to myself more than others. Just ease up, man. Make like Petrarch and write through the sadness. Frances should make that into a motivational poster.
A Self-Contained Explosion
I love entertaining the thought of stars aligning– I always envision it to be like Hercules, where these giant planets just kinda sidle up against each other with the arrogance of frat boys and collectively build up this awesome mega sonic beam of power that pews down to Earth.
…And then something blows up, but in this Hollywood day and age? That’s practically a prerogative, even for non-film-tastic grand celestial phenomena. All ye beware, here there be C4.
So, there’s that whole thing about planets in orbit and electrons in orbit, which means it only stands to reason (actually, it really doesn’t, but whatever) that the alignment of stars is graphically comparable to the alignment of thoughts.
I googled “pretty picture of neurons,” which is something I’ll have to live with forever
(Tangent Anecdote: Photoshop is one of the things many middle school master Escapists learn to do in their spare time, and as a devout Anti-Realist of that time, I dedicated hours of my life learning to simulate those sparkles (which are, of course, just dots with the glow effect) on a hipster non-Photoshop program. It involved too many layers and manual dotting to count, and I soon gave in and used my father’s ancient Photoshop 5, which was a very decent step up. I now have family pictures buried in USBs all sparkle-tastic and color-balanced.)
In the scatterplot of life, how awesome would it be to be able to derive the the perfect linear function? Instead of completely random events and happenstances, I can say my life is f(x) = 12x + 11. Like, not even quadratic– we’re talking seventh grade-vanilla math. How awesome would it be for my writing to just be input-output simple and correct? Perfect in content and easy in execution. It’s so dreamy.
I’m dreaming and dreaming, and all of a sudden I hear Heather’s voice in my head, all excited-like:
But it’s not perfect or easy. Life’s not perfect, writing’s not easy, and that’s what makes it all so worth going through.
And yeah, snaps to that. I mean, why else would everyone get bored in math class? It’s all so predictable after a while, like eating exquisite European banquets every day and crying with feelings over fried rice (my entire family has a Chinese food complex, I don’t even want to talk about it, oh my god). It’s kind of the entire point of writing, y’know?
(The non-perfection, not Chinese food.)
(Though it’s debatable.)
If I had to identify my life philosophy, I’d probably say Absurdist (yes that’s a perfectly legitimate philosophy shush), which, to rehash sort of all my previous posts, is the notion that Life seems to mean so much when it really means so little, and that’s the joke. Absurdism easily turns to a kind of bitter nihilism once you lose the humor, so you can sprinkle in a bit of existentialism there too, that nothing matters unless you make it matter. It’s why I write, to assign meaning to things so I can better maintain my brain-filing system (just call me Radar O’Reilly, bugle under B, clipboard under K).
So this filing, most of the time done with intention, but sometimes, things just line up, y’know? Jules (’14) tells me that someone told him that things come in waves– the happy wave, the sad wave, the people-getting-the-wrong-orders-at-random-cafés wave– and maybe, maybe. It’s a fun thought to entertain, but a bit too unsubstantial for me (which is strange, because I’m certainly not above superstition and strange beliefs, like whistling at night or untying friendship bracelets). Though there was the time with the Connecticut school shooting happening right after CinéClub showed Elephant, and the intruder alert practice at SOTA soon after. Maybe I don’t consider three “a wave,” just connections. Perhaps if five or six folks in my life all gave birth at the same time or something I’ll consider it a wave (of babies, so many babies), but it’s too big a unit of measure for me to consider viable.
Well anyways, things happen, big surprise there, and when things happen, other things happen, and though correlation is not causation, correlation is correlation. When things happen that I feel connect, the stars align. Stars move fast in my world, all this hyperactive spinning, and sometimes, I get three in a row, or an apple, a pile of gold, and the Taj Mahal. It’s all very motion sickness-inducing, but also awesome when I find the connections and draw a straight line.
I like bookend endings, so I often scroll up to reread what I’ve written and find the one thing to nicely tie things up (though Maia Ipp has told me to refrain from that urge, because it’s not necessary). Now, though, I can’t think of anything to tie back into Hollywood explosions, except maybe that they’re unnecessary, but is kind of necessary (c’mon, Pacific Rim was awesome)? Just like life. Alright there we go, ending tied up, life is unnecessary, but also kind of necessary. You know what I mean.
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Review: Kong Skull Island, or “Hold onto your butts… again!”
Posted on March 20, 2017 by spacecortez
As the second entry in Legendary’s newly established Monsterverse, “Kong: Skull Island” revives one of cinema’s oldest icons in a colossal way. The film begins with two pilots, one American and one Japanese, crash landing on the beaches of Skull Island near the end of World War Two. They fight, chase, and scrap their way into the jungle and are quickly met by the giant ape himself. Fast Forward to 1973, just as the Vietnam war is coming to a close, and we’re met with an introduction to the Monarch corporation as it tries to secure funding for one last venture into the mists of the unknown, a journey to the fabled Skull Island. “A place where God never finished creation” is how John Goodman’s Bill Randa explains it in his pitch, however it’s his associate Houston Brooks, played by Corey Hawkins, that sells the idea to the gatekeeper by suggesting that the Russians and Chinese will have the same data they do soon enough, and if there is something to benefit from, shouldn’t America be the first ones there?
“Kong: Skull Island” quickly introduces us to the remaining heavy hitters in the cast’s lineup. There’s former British SAS tracker, James Conrad (Tom Hiddleston) who’s recruited after showcasing his barroom brawling skills, Brie Larson’s Mason Weaver as the anti-war Vietnam photographer, and Samuel L. Jackson’s Preston Packard- a discouraged Vietnam Army officer that leads the military helicopter escort to the island. Once assembled they fly into the storm forever swirling around the eponymous island. Once there they quickly begin dropping bombs to survey the land and retrieve the seismic data. This immediately triggers the first large scale set piece wherein Kong smashes the entire fleet of helicopters like the annoying gnats they are to him.
So let’s talk about what the film does right. From my perspective, this film adequately does what a giant monster movie should do. It focuses on the monsters. It keeps the pace breezy and yet tense. The film gets its tone right. Most importantly though, Kong is a constant force throughout the film. Kong’s motivation was also clearer than that of say, Godzilla in Gareth Edwards 2014 iteration. Kong is the protector of the island, he respects nature and those who care for it, and he chooses peace over violence unless provoked. In Godzilla’s case, it seemed to simply be his need to challenge and reign supreme over the M.U.T.O.s? Or to align some monster’s code of balance?
Anyhow, back to Kong. I loved Sam Jackson’s revenge storyline with Kong, he went full Ahab and Kong was his white whale. Though admittedly I never tire of Jackson’s Shtick, it just works for me. John C. Reilly’s Hank Marlow, was also incredibly noteworthy. He gets the most complete storyline, and while he provides some comic relief, he never wanders into any zany or out-of-place performances. His character retains the heart of the flick, and it shows in palpable ways throughout the runtime. He’s also the connection to the natives of the island, which were represented not as savage tribesmen, but as a small peaceful community trying to survive in this hellish environment.
Speaking of the cast, I know the film has been steamrolled at times for “wasting” such a talented cast. However I don’t think they were wasted in the least to be honest. It’s a giant monster movie with “B-genre” aspects throughout it. I don’t know about you, but I didn’t expect any Oscar nominations to come from a King Kong movie, and that’s okay. It doesn’t have to be the most fleshed out and layered monster movie-Godzilla certainly wasn’t with Aaron Taylor-Johnson’s character, not to mention that film actually wasted Bryan Cranston. To that end, story and background information can be told in ways other than dialogue. The sets, locations, subtle acting, and even over-the-top acting all combine to tell a story. Sometimes it feels as though people simply watch films to point out as many problems and issues with a performance or story as possible, and that’s a shame. When did we all become so consistently cynical? Honestly, if you don’t love something, that’s okay-not everyone has to enjoy everything.
In the end I had a ton of fun with “Kong: Skull Island”. I loved the shameless “Apocalypse Now” influences. I thoroughly enjoyed the chaos, the variety of monsters, the fight sequences, and of course the king himself, Kong.
Final Score: Two Kong-sized thumbs up
Review: Logan or “Old Man learns new Snikt”
Finally, after 17 years we’re getting a ‘rated R’ Wolverine movie. However, the real question we should be asking ourselves is; is it any good? Rest assured comic fans, and western fans for that matter, because this Wolverine solo flick is leagues ahead of the notoriously awful “X-men Origins”, but it’s not necessarily perfect.
The year is 2029, and the mutants have all but disappeared.”Logan” begins with a ragged and hungover Wolverine waking to a bunch of thieves trying to steal parts from the limo he drives for petty cash. This bloody scene brilliantly sets the stage for the rest of the story that is about to unfold. This Wolverine is tired, he heals slower, he drinks away his days making ends meet while he hides an increasingly sick and potentially dangerous Professor X south of the border in Mexico. Eventually they become entangled with a new young mutant, Laura. Perhaps better known as X-23, young Laura is a feral and mostly mute ball of fury from the moment she enters the screen. Thankfully she develops beyond this stage later in the film. Such is the state of old man Logan’s life when the picture begins.
There is some superb acting in Hugh Jackman’s performance. He feels more human and yet more calloused as he tries to keep everything from falling apart. His claws don’t always fully protrude, having to pull them into place at times, he limps after skirmishes, he is flawed here. There is a great sadness in Logan’s eyes and it is palpable. Professor Xavier on the other hand isn’t faring much better, in fact he is definitely in a worse condition. His seizures cause quite the chaos and he seems to go in and out of fully realizing his surroundings. They both live and strive together with Caliban, an albino mutant that can sense other mutants, he helps to keep the professor medicated while Logan finds and funds the aging Xavier’s medication.
From a filmmaking perspective, there is an ubiquitous western influence throughout the film. They even go so far as to point this out by having the characters watch “Shane”, the hugely influential 1953 western. “Logan” borrows and pays homage to this through it’s cinematography, emphasizing scale and embracing the ominous landscape backgrounds of “the old west”. The score itself was adequate, but it never felt bombastic or powerful. It was happy to match the movement and run parallel to the story, but it was never noticeable or standout. The incredible action sequences are well choreographed and nothing ever feels too ridiculous. It doesn’t feel like the characters are swinging from wires like in “X-men Origins”, however there is one scene where Logan is a bit exaggerated in his leaping ability, but it was an emotionally charged sequence so I’ll let it slide.
The film attempts to balance the somber and melancholy aspects of its characters and setting by counteracting it with a gratuitous helping of extra bloody violence. For me, personally, it was a joy to see Wolverine hack and saw through bad guys like a child attacks a birthday cake, but just as with cake, eventually it can be a bit too much. I feel this is what threw the film off for me at times. An excessive amount of gusto for the R rating they finally achieved is admirable, but sometimes it clashes with character. For example, having Professor X drop a F-bomb once or twice would set the tone and be incredibly funny or deadly serious depending on the scene, but having him do so as much as he did in the film felt over-excessive, it didn’t feel in tune with his character. The reveal of X-24 speaks directly to this issue. That whole “character” and how he was utilized was a disappointment in my eyes. I understand the obvious thematic ideas behind it, but there wasn’t enough done to differentiate it/him, or to make it any more useful than say “something to fight Logan”. I can only speak for myself, but sometimes the film went a little overboard. Hey, a few claws directly in the face of several bad guys-that’s cool and shocking, but over fifty incredibly gory stabs directly into people’s faces and heads.. it can get away from itself at times.
In the end this is the best Wolverine solo movie out of the three we got and it will likely be remembered for how well executed it was. X-23, or Laura, was an excellent addition to the film and it will be interesting to see if anything is ever done with the character again. If you’ve been hankering for a bloody western starring Hugh Jackman’s Wolverine, you’re in luck, this one’s worth the price of admission.
Final Score: Six razor sharp SNIKTS!
Mystery Blogger Award!
Posted on March 8, 2017 March 8, 2017 by spacecortez
The Vern’s Video Vortex (a pretty cool movie blog you should check out, link posted below) recently nominated me for the mystery blogger award (A Thousand Thank yous!)! The fact that anyone reads my articulate nonsense is great to hear. So, here I am to respond and nominate others in turn.
All acknowledgements/shout-outs go to Okoto Enigma for creating this award. It’s an excellent way to connect bloggers!
The rules of the tag/award are:
Put the award logo/image on your blog.
List the rules.
Thank whoever nominated you and provide a link to their blog.
Mention the creator of the award.
Tell your readers 3 things about yourself.
Nominate 10 – 20 people.
Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog.
Ask your nominees any 5 questions of your choice; with one weird or funny question.
Share a link to your best post(s).
THREE THINGS ABOUT ME:
1 While I am not directly involved in any filmmaking in a profitable sense, it is my goal in life to make movies. I’m moving forward in the most shoestring budget of ways to obtain gear and write out ideas for shorts and features. Somehow, someway, I will be involved in the filmmaking process.
2 In high-school I was voted most likely to write a book and get it published. I intend to do that at some point. Film is my favorite medium of storytelling, but authors do have an advantage over directors and cinematographers; imagination doesn’t have budget restrictions.
3 I will literally watch any movie at least once. I feel I can’t rant or rave about a flick until I’ve seen it completely. I’ve seen a great many awful, yet oddly entertaining, horror movies because of this. See: ThanksKilling, Carver, I spit on your grave (either version), Black Christmas, Scanners, Exorcist 2: The Heretic, and many, many others. Also, Hellride. That’s not a horror movie, well, it IS a horrific movie-It’s a direct to video flick about warring biker gangs with some of the most awful (yet hilarious) dialogue and line delivery you’ll ever find. I don’t recommend it. See this link for more details: https://spacecortezwrites.com/2015/09/03/rant-time-hell-ride/
THE VERN’S TOP 5 QUESTIONS:
1 Q: ScreenTrax(screentrax.net) is a new podcast I’m starting that reviews movies and the soundtrack that goes with them. What is your favorite Movie Soundtrack?
A: Currently, it’s “La La Land”, but that should come as no surprise. Of all time though? There are so many to consider! “O’ brother where art thou?” comes to mind, certainly “Moonlight”‘s score was powerful as well. I think I’d have to settle on “Raiders of the Lost Ark” though as my final choice among favorites.
2 Q: If you had the chance to live inside the world of one movie for a year. Which one would it be?
A: I’d have to go with “The Lord of the Rings” (specifically Fellowship). I enjoy nature quite a bit and it would be both challenging and rewarding to live and move around that universe, carefully avoiding places like Mirkwood forest and any treacherous caverns or caves. And, as great as modern technology is, it would be refreshing to have to live without having to be constantly “plugged in” for a bit.
3 Q: What do you find frustrating about the status of movie criticism and blogging?
A: The process of attributing scores and points to film, or art in general, seems to me, to be problematic at its core. I understand that we all want to know the status of “Who’s winning at the Box office?” Or “What’s their score on rotten tomatoes?” but the focus should be aimed more at meaningful conversations about the merits, or perceived failures of any such film. Some do this, quite well even, but all art is subjective in the end and the scores don’t really matter. If you loved a movie that’s hated unanimously, or despise one that’s universally loved, well- that’s your opinion and you’re totally allowed to have it. I don’t generally approve of going out of your way to crap on any one movie-unless it’s funny. I’ve been relying mostly on ‘youtubers’ for film reviews lately and most seem to understand the idea of having a conversation about film-rather than racing to the scoreboard.
4 Q: What do you find rewarding about being a movie critic or blogger?
A: I just love talking about movies. Another medium to feed into this love (obsession?) is always welcome! Some day I’ll get around to making one!
5 Q: (Funny One/ Weird One) You have 45 days to find a partner. Otherwise you will be turned into an animal of your choice. Which animal do you pick?
A: I’d choose the Southern Royal Albatross, it’s a large seabird that lives mostly around New Zealand and the average lifespan is 58 years!
MY NOMINEES:
dbmoviesblog https://dbmoviesblog.wordpress.com/
Jordan and Eddie (The Movie Guys) https://jordanandeddie.wordpress.com/
Geekritique https://geekritique.net/
Dan The Man’s Movie reviews https://dtmmr.com/
Honoring the Heroines https://swanpride.wordpress.com/
Zen Ron’s The Most Enjoyable Day https://themostenjoyableday.wordpress.com/
Film The Madman https://filmlefou.com/
Cine Muse Films https://cinemusefilms.com/
CFY Movie News and Reviews https://contentforyoublog.wordpress.com/
Cinetactic https://cinetactic.com/
MY BEST WORK:
I’m rather proud of my movie pitch for an adaption of Ernest Shackleton’s “Endurance”. It took me awhile to consider who would be involved, and who could make interesting or clever choices with the material, after all acting is all about making choices. Mostly though, I just want to watch this movie!
https://spacecortezwrites.com/2016/09/22/movie-pitch-adaption-of-endurance-ernest-shackeltons-fated-antarctic-voyage/
SPACECORTEZ’S TOP FIVE QUESTIONS:
1 If you could remake a film, how would you change it? Anything goes.
2 Who is your most admired person in the film industry? This could be anyone involved in the process, director, writer, actors, even editors- they need love too!
3 What’s your favorite black and white film? What makes it your favorite?
4 What is your favorite movie that has come out since 2000, and why?
5 (Funny/Weird one) If you had to occupy the headspace of any one film character and act as a sort of conscience, a disembodied consciousness that said character would be able to hear perfectly, who would you pick?
The VERN’S VIDEO VORTEX link below:
https://videovortex.wordpress.com/
The Ten Commandments for Cinephiles.
Posted on March 7, 2017 by spacecortez
Some wise words for anyone considering writing about film!
The Vern's Video Vortex.
Every person who writes for a movie site can agree on one thing. We all have a undying love for films. We may not all agree on every one, but we all share a common love and joy of watching them. It’s doesn’t matter if you prefer the art-house over the multiplex. Action over drama. As long as you are honest about what you write. You are considered to be a cinephiles in my book. No I don’t have an actual book. It’s just a figure of speech, but I do have ten guidelines that I follow.
A Triple Shot of Mystery Blogger Awards.
Many Thanks to The Vern for nominating my film blog! My own response article/post will arrive soon.
Right now I am feeling extremely humble because I have received, not one but three Mystery Blogger Awards. They come from three very talented sites whose links will be listed below. They are Rhyme and Reason, DB Movies Blog, and Plain Simple Tom’s Reviews. I am very thankful that they each nominated me, and I do apologize for the lateness of this post.
A big shout out goes to Okoto Enigma for creating this award in the first place. It’s damn good thing that this exists so we can help support each other.
Put the award logo/image on your blog
Mention the creator of the award
Tell your readers 3 things about yourself
Nominate 10 – 20 people
Notify your nominees by commenting on their blog
Ask your nominees any…
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Tag Archives: TV movie
I know Trailer Thursday’s are usually reserved for movies, but, this upcoming miniseries “event” on NBC looks just too crazy and bad/good not to share. I don’t know much about The Slap except that it is an American adaptation of a UK miniseries that actually won some acting awards and shit. And since this version features a cast of heavy-hitters (Peter Sarsgaard, Uma Thurman and Brian Cox in a miniseries? On NBC?! insanity!) and is directed by Oscar-nominated writer/director Lisa Cholodenko, I figure it’s either gonna be really good or really crazy bad.
Either way, our DVR has been set for weeks. Enjoy!
Filed under Date Night TV, TV Stuff, Writing Stuff
Tagged as Academy Award nominees, Academy Awards, bad acting, bad dad, bad dads, bad days, bad TV, bad TV shows, bad/good movies, bad/good TV, Brian Cox, crazy TV, Lisa Cholodenko, mini-series, miniseries, NBC, Oscar nominees, Oscar-nominated writer, Oscars, Peter Sarsgaard, Stay-at-home-Dad, stay-at-home-fatherhood, Stay-at-home-Yeti, stayathomeyeti.wordpress.com, Thandie Newton, The Slap (2011), The Slap (2015), The Slap UK, The Slap US, trailer thursday, trailers, TV, TV ads, TV commercials, TV mini-series, TV mini-series event, TV movie, TV show, TV shows, TV stars, TV stuff, Uma Thurman, Zachary Quinto
Allison Williams as Peter Pan!
OK, I love me some Allison Williams (she is probably my favorite character on Girls) but, even I was a little taken aback by the news that she had been cast in NBC's upcoming Peter Pan Live! I mean, I'm sure she can sing and everything, but, if NBC's latest live “musical event” is as lame and over-produced as last year's The Sound of Music Live!, well, let's just say there's a pretty high probability that it's gonna totally suck.
And then I saw this super cheesy pic (above) of Williams in costume as Peter Pan and I knew that this movie wasn't just gonna suck, it also has serious train wreck potential. Which I always love, especially at Christmas! So, slap my wings and call me Tinkerbell, because this train wreck — which is produced by the reliably ham-fisted duo of Craig Zadan and Neil Meron and also features Christopher Walken (!) as a singing Captain Hook! — is only gonna get better/worse from here on out. Simply put, I cannot wait!
Peter Pan Live! airs December 4th on NBC.
Filed under Daddy stuff, Movie Stuff, TV Stuff
Tagged as Allison Williams, Allison Williams as Peter Pan, bad idea TV, bad ideas, bad TV, bad TV shows, Captain Hook, Christmas 2014, Christmas fun, Christmas movies, Christmas specials, Christmas traditions, christopher Walken, Craig Zedon, Girls, movie, movie musical, music for kids, musicals, NBC, NBC Christmas Special, Neil Meron, Peter Pan Live!, Peter Pan The Musical, Stay-at-home-Dad, Stay-at-home-Dads, stay-at-home-parenting, Stay-at-home-Yeti, stayathomeyeti, The Sound of Music, The Sound of Music LIVE, Tinkerbell, TV, TV movie, TV show, TV shows
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Review: The Nintendo Switch
Devin Coldewey @techcrunch / 3 years
Nintendo’s long-awaited Switch console has arrived, alongside the even more long-awaited New Zelda. The Switch combines the convenience of a handheld with the power of a home console — or at least, that’s the pitch. And while the two roles make considerable compromises in order to accommodate one another, the result may be said to be more than the sum of its (many) parts. Or at least it could be once a few games come out.
6.2″ capacitive 720p touchscreen
2 removable wireless controllers
Dock with HDMI out for “console mode”
$299; available for preorder today, launches March 3
One-upping the competition
The Switch may very well be Nintendo’s Hail Mary in the console business. After the Wii U failed to make itself comprehended by consumers, the company was left scrambling while Sony and Microsoft solidified their biumvirate in the gaming world. Now the latter two are locked in combat over timed exclusives, framerates, and basically showing how hardcore they are — not a fight Nintendo has ever wanted to get in the middle of.
After the Wii U, no one was about to suggest doubling down on weirdness. Yet a traditional console would not only be a crushing defeat to Nintendo’s experimental nature over the last decade, but it would be too little, too late to compete with the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. And over this landscape the grim specter of the smartphone loomed, ever siphoning away the hours and dollars of Nintendo’s erstwhile superfans…
What to do? Nintendo’s solution, while it has its shortcomings, is a remarkably cohesive and smart one.
The Switch is a home console that can compete directly with the PS4 and Xbone on some levels, but it’s also a handheld system that exceeds the capabilities of existing systems and smartphones. It attempts to please all of the people — but thankfully stops short of trying to do so all of the time. It’s a huge gamble, but the more you think about it, the more it seems like the only bet they could have made.
So what is it again?
If you haven’t been paying attention to the ceaseless coverage of the Switch these past few months, here’s a quick rundown of the system.
Entirely contained in a nameless, Kindle-sized tablet-like device (Nintendo calls it “the main unit,” which seems a missed opportunity), the Switch has two modes. When it’s plugged into your TV via its dock, it acts like a regular gaming console: the two small wireless controllers (insensibly called “Joy-Con R” and “Joy-Con L”) can be held individually or attached to a grip and you have your ordinary big screen experience.
But when you want to head out, you grab the tablet and pull it out of the dock — boom, your game continues on the built-in screen immediately, right where you were. Not a video stream running through the cloud, not a pared-down mobile version — the same exact game, running on the same hardware, just a different screen.
You can attach the controllers to the sides of the tablet to make a single unit, or prop up the screen with its kickstand and play with them in your hands. Each controller can also be used independently by multiple players, so you can do some split-screen Mario Kart or what have you just by handing your friend one “half” of the two-part controller you use to play Zelda single-player.
Switch units can also be linked together wirelessly for up to 8-person multiplayer, although we didn’t have a chance to test this.
Something you didn’t know you wanted
I own a PS4, Wii U, 3DS, smartphone, PC, Famiclone, and numerous other gaming platforms. But the Switch almost immediately felt like something that was missing until now — something midway between a “real” console and a “real” handheld.
It was a small but substantial “Eureka” moment: I’d been playing Zelda for a couple hours like I’d play a normal console game, and I was vacillating between going to bed and finishing whatever task I was occupied with in the game. “Wait,” I thought. “I can do both!” Without trying, I’d stumbled upon one of the many situations where you’d like to play a game but don’t feel like sitting down in the same spot staring at your TV. Later I experimented with playing the switch reclining on the couch, as if it were my 3DS, and propped up next to my PC while I worked. (Oh, like you never secretly got your game on at the office.)
I found myself automatically segmenting the game and my time more effectively. I used the less-intense handheld mode in spare moments to explore idly and accomplish the inevitable mundane tasks you encounter in games: sorting inventory, crafting, reading lore. But when work and dinner were done and I wanted to tackle that dungeon I’d spotted between calls, in a handful of seconds I was in hardcore mode: lights out, big screen, speakers blasting.
No other consoles do this (apart from some cumbrous streaming solutions), and now it feels like they’re missing something. Why can’t I do my gear comparisons in Final Fantasy XV in bed? Why doesn’t Fire Emblem have a big screen mode I can use for those climactic battles?
This is the thing Nintendo has going for it — well, that and Zelda. And Mario. And Splatoon. The Switch truly offers different value. Because of the way the market is right now, people are unlikely to buy both a PS4 and an Xbox — even the upgraded versions of those consoles are hard sells except to very motivated gamers. But the Switch is something different from both, with different games and different ways to play them. It didn’t take me long to find out that was something I didn’t even know I’d wanted.
Actual review time
“Yeah yeah,” I hear you saying, “spare me the woolgathering — how does this thing actually play?” Well then, Mr or Mrs I’m-in-such-a-hurry, I’ll get to it.
The Switch console itself measures about 8 inches across by 4 inches tall, and half an inch thick — about the size of a Kindle or small tablet. Comparisons to the Wii U’s controller are not unwarranted, but the difference is like night and day, and I’m not just talking about the color. While the Wii U’s controller felt like a Playskool toy with its plasticky screen and marshmallowy curves, the Switch is like a premium smartphone: thin, very well made, and while not quite fragile, fragile-feeling enough that you don’t want to find out exactly how fragile it is. I have a feeling Switch armor will be a thing soon.
Familiar features adorn the edges of the tablet: power, volume, slots for the cartridge and Micro SD, speakers at the bottom, and a vent at the top. The sides look a bit raw because that’s where the rails are that the controllers attach to.
Games are the size of SD cards and stick into the top right corner there. Wait times to read and load games were as good as non-existent. I wasn’t able to test speeds from internal storage or any kind of file management, though.
The tablet fits into a dock for console mode. This dock is a lightweight plastic thing, and slotting the Switch into it is simple but not at all satisfying. It kind of clatters in there and maybe half the time goes straight onto the hidden USB-C connector. The other half you miss by a quarter inch and wince as you think about how many times it’ll take before something snaps in there. It also wobbles a bit and would definitely fly out if the dock was tipped over. Got to be honest with you: this thing isn’t worth the $90 they’re charging for a spare. Of all the parts of the Switch, this connection seems the most likely to fail, so do yourself a favor and be careful with it.
Sliding the Joy-Con (TM) controllers onto the tablet is a considerably more pleasant experience. Not only do they slide securely and precisely along their grooves, but they make a nice, tactile little click at the end — accompanied not only by a snapping sound effect from the tablet — but a subtle on-screen effect indicates each one is locked in place. Once in, they’re in for good — I never felt once that the display part was coming loose or had trouble or grit when putting the other pieces in place. Pro tip: pull them down by the bottom, don’t push from the top. You’ll avoid hitting buttons that way.
When joined with the “main unit,” the Switch feels like a single piece of hardware, and while it isn’t ergonomically perfect (it’s hard not to hit buttons while you’re putting it down or moving it around), it is very nice. It’s light (under a pound) and thin — perhaps slightly too thin, giving those with larger hands little to grip.
Taking the controllers off isn’t quite the frictionless process portrayed in commercials, but it is easy. You hold the release button on the back (I never did by accident) and they come away — sometimes catching a bit, and if you’re not careful, lifting the whole thing off the USB-C connector. There’s a technique to it, and don’t try to do both at once.
The controllers themselves, let us admit, are too small. (Banana for reference.)
[gallery ids="1458727,1458728,1458719,1458720,1458721,1458717,1458716"]
I have medium-to-large hands, so your mileage may vary, but really, these things are tiny. Each one is smaller than the grip of a Dual Shock controller, and they pack a lot of little buttons on there. Any games that require you to use the face and shoulder buttons will leave your hand a gnarled claw if you’re not careful. There are little caps with wristbands attached that help with this slightly, but not much. I expect third-party caps to ease this problem as well.
Despite being small, however, the controllers are very well made and comfortable as long as complex interactions are kept to a minimum. I will tell you that selecting arrows in Zelda is one of these interactions and I avoid it if at all possible. You have to hit down the right trigger with your right index finger, then hold down the left d-pad button with your left thumb, while moving the right analog stick with your right thumb. It’s like a cross between finger wrestling and Twister. I implore developers to find alternatives like gestures.
The included Comfort Grip is a decent way to avoid some of these problems, but I actually felt happy most of the time without it, since I could move my hands independently for things like aiming arrows. Improved or adjustable grips are inevitable and will be welcome. If you like it, consider grabbing the $30 charge grip — also handy if you plan on having more than the basic two controllers.
Motion controls, from what I was able to test in Zelda, feel smooth and accurate. For example, I thought I would discard the motion bow aiming as a clever novelty, but it’s become a lifesaver. I’ve never been a good at right-stick aiming, and this lets me do that quickly then fine tune it seamlessly and reliably with a flick of the wrist.
1-2 Switch gave me the opportunity to test the IR rangefinder, but only in an elementary fashion (i.e. it works as far as I can tell). We’ll have to see what developers make of it. The HD rumble shows more promise; one minigame has the controller imitate a small box in which a number of marbles are hidden, and which you must count by rolling them around and feeling the vibrations. It was surprisingly — almost eerily — effective and I think game designers are going to… have a ball.
Battery life is as stated by Nintendo, and will vary by game. I got about two and a half hours at max brightness in Zelda. I haven’t had the controllers run out of battery yet (they supposedly last 20 hours), so clearly it’s super easy to keep them charged. Each game will probably have its own average, and using wireless should pull down a predictable amount of power as well. Don’t expect all-day gaming, but do feel free to trust Nintendo’s estimates.
The OS is remarkably straightforward in every aspect I encountered. Some tutorial items had a bit of personality, and you can still make Miis, but they don’t run around your screen or anything. Options are minimal — the usual user management, Wi-Fi, etc — and there’s an always available quick settings overlay (brightness, sleep, airplane mode) if you hold the home button.
Things I couldn’t test
Consoles are always pretty barebones at launch, so the following features we’ll have to come back to.
Online services: Nintendo’s chat and online multiplayer options were not available for the review period.
Couch multiplayer: Aside from some 1-2 Switch minigames, I didn’t get a chance to test out the kind of multiplayer that you’ll probably want to try — Mario Kart, Bomberman, and so on.
Networking Switches: Nintendo was too miserly to send me two Switches to test network play and sharing games. Unforgivable!
Multiple controllers: Only 2 controllers total means I couldn’t test how easy it was to sync 4 or keep them charged.
Storage and downloads: No online means no eShop and no putting games onto the Switch’s internal storage or Micro SD card.
Pro controller: Didn’t get one of these, but the original pro controller was great, so this one probably will be too.
Virtual console successor: How do the “free” NES games play? Beats me. Another online feature.
Red and blue Joy-Cons: Can’t tell you whether these are tasteful or loud.
As I get the chance to test these out, I’ll add them to the review and remove them from this list.
Launch “lineup”
You may have noticed that I haven’t talked a lot about the games for the Switch. Well, you can kind of consider this the largest and most important “Thing I couldn’t test.” The fact is that at launch there are only a handful of games available, let alone having.
Zelda, of course, is both. I’ll be posting something more specific to it a little later. But what else is there? Snipperclips looks good. Bomberman is almost guaranteed to be fun.
1-2 Switch bears brief discussion. Nintendo consoles going back to the NES usually launch with a demo title of some sort to show off the capabilities of the system. The Switch is the first to fail to do so, but considering the nature of the last few, which were collections of mini games, 1-2 Switch ostensibly acts this part. But I implore you not to buy it. The presentation is the worst kind of “corporate cool” — imagine Nintendo’s always cringe-worthy scripted on-stage demos, over and over — and few of the games are worth playing more than once. Considering the quality of Wii Sports and Nintendoland, I would have felt shortchanged if 1-2 Switch came free in the box. But that they’re charging $50 for it is to me insane.
All the titles that look like they’re going to be a blast on the Switch — Arms, Splatoon 2, Rime, Mario Kart — aren’t coming for months or more. It’s simply not a game-rich launch.
Conclusion: Trust, but verify
I think Nintendo has a winner here. The Switch is well made, super easy to get the “gimmick” of, though that’s not really the right term, and it does what it promises. Problem is: there’s just not much to play, and there won’t be for some time to come. I firmly believe Nintendo will make the Switch more than worth its purchase price, but there’s no reason for you to pay up front unless you really want to.
Specifically, unless you really must have Zelda on the go (it’s available for the Wii U as well), the Switch is not by any means a day-one purchase, and you can feel perfectly secure holding off for a bit. In a couple months you’re going to see game bundles, deals on accessories, additional info on things like the online services and virtual console, and more. Armed with that information you can form a better idea of what you’re willing to pay for the console. Hell, in six months you may even be able to find one used.
Personally I’m looking forward to the Switch not just as a platform for the next few first-party games, but as a platform fitting to lighter indie titles and innovative mobile crossovers. It’ll be great for kids, for people on the go, and for gamers who don’t always have the time or inclination to sit down and do the big screen thing.
Nintendo and its partners will come through and the Switch will eventually be a must-have for any gamer — Xbox, PlayStation, mobile, PC, or whatever else there is out there. But with a slow rollout over the year, they’re giving themselves time to do that right. So go ahead and take your time, too.
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MOSQUE SECURITY
Video of Racist Bullying in Huddersfield is not Shocking. It Happened to Me Too
by TellMAMA | Nov 28, 2018 | Opinions |
I was deeply disturbed by viral footage of a young Syrian refugee being beaten and humiliated at a school in Huddersfield. However, the attack, described by the media as racially motivated, did not shock me. Instead, the video is an ugly reminder of a history of racism in the UK.
Growing up in Huddersfield, I too faced and witnessed prejudice and bullying at school during the 90s. A devastating phenomenon that was even worse for my father’s generation in the 70s and the generation before him in the 60s.
As a British Muslim of Pakistani descent, who is proud to have been raised in Huddersfield, I and other Pakistanis were subjected to racial slurs, hatred and even violent attacks. The same was true for many black and Irish children growing up at the same time. There was no logic or rational basis to the prejudice we faced; it was pure hatred, based on generations of ignorance.
While children are the most cherished members of any society, they can also be a troubling and cruel reflection of the very worse aspects of society. A Primary School child is not genetically racist or prejudiced. He or she comes to discriminate between ethnicity, race and gender on the basis of their socio-economic environment or if they come across hateful material. Furthermore, if the spark of hatred and racism is struck up in the home, then it is large sections of the media and many public commentators who douse it with fuel.
There is ample evidence that media coverage of Muslims and Islam is disproportionately negative. Moreover, common sense tells us that hatred towards Muslims is only increased by headlines such as ‘Muslims’ Sympathy for Jihadis,’ ‘Muslims Tell us How to Run our Schools’ or ‘Muslims Tell British: Go to Hell!’. Despite this, the mainstream media will continue to influence playgrounds by providing platforms to hate preachers such as Tommy Robinson.
In my experience, it would also be fair to say that racism and prejudice are not exclusively a ‘white’ problem. For example, some of the worst hatred I faced was from fellow Muslim children and teenagers who would verbally abuse and assault me and others purely on the basis of sectarianism; because we were Ahmadi Muslims, a peaceful sect of Islam they disagree with. Racism really does affect us all.
As a lawyer, human rights activist, long-time youth worker and grass root community activist and anti-hate campaigner, I have had the opportunity to work with thousands of young people in Huddersfield and across the breadth of the UK. One of the most powerful lessons I have taken from my experience is that children and even adults, if given the chance have the capacity to learn tolerance, acceptance and plurality.
By way of example, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community runs a series of community projects. These include tree planting, cleaning up fly-tip areas, visiting and helping the elderly, supporting World War II veterans through the Poppy Appeal, responding to floods and other natural disasters, and raising money for the most disadvantaged in British society.
In twenty plus years of carrying out this work, I have witnessed countless people embrace, thank tearfully and befriend young Muslims who took the time to help and value them. Even members of far-right parties have knocked on our doors not to abuse or assault us, but to thank us, shake our hands and tell us that our kindness has caused them to question and even shed their prejudice.
Experience has taught me that the fire of hatred that is raging across the UK and Europe can be extinguished by mutual love, compassion, understanding and kindness. For that to happen, we need to get up and pro-actively meet one another. Living in isolation will only breed ignorance, prejudice and racism.
Farooq Aftab is a member of the British Ahmadi community and works to ensure human rights and justice.
‘Punish a Muslim Day’ letter distributed in London
The truth behind the photo of the Muslim woman ...
Hijabi Victim Requests Media Agencies to Stop Circulating Picture ...
Want to See What Racist and Anti-Muslim Hate Looks ...
Muslim woman assaulted in unprovoked attack at Stratford station
Gladstone and Islam – Anti-Muslim Memes Going Round, by ...
Threatening Anti-Muslim Leaflet Sent to Family in Bradford
Far Right groups
© 2020 Faith Matters, founded by Fiyaz Mughal OBE.
Tell MAMA is a national project of Faith Matters CIC.
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Have a look at each and every PC game that was nominated for an award this year. Scope games from multiple categories such as Game of the Year nominees Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Celeste or Best Score/Music nominee Ni no Kuni II: Revenant Kingdom. After December 6th, we will know the winners of each category and which game was considered the best of 2018. Will it be one of the games available on PC? Tune in to find out.
Ranked #98 in popularity with 9,857 tests in the last 30 days
Ni No Kuni 2: Revenant Kingdom
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7 October 2009 Jon Cayzer
At an el fresco lunch, on a warm summer’s day in Cape Town a few years back, I reminded Margaret Thatcher of when a former junior minister had vindictively described former Conservative leader Michael Howard as having “something of the night about him”. “That’s what makes us interesting as human beings dear” she replied with…
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Yes they can! SA’s opposition-led government takes shape
Today President Jacob Zuma will, again, formally unveil his latest party trick: the presidential “hotline”. Our president, we know by now, has the magician’s knack of drawing the eye away from the trick. Should a fraction of his talent for getting himself out of trouble be deployed in some wider national purpose, South Africa would…
Angels, demons and Benedict’s ambrosia
30 September 2009 Jon Cayzer
In the same week that the Vatican announced that Pope Benedict is to visit Britain, the Roman Catholic Church continues to be embroiled in scandal. In a provocative gesture, the Vatican lashed out that sex abuse is rife in other religions as it seeks to contain a paedophilia scandal which has cost the American church…
The Dalai Lama will trump China — soon
China’s ban this week on tourists to Tibet — in the run-up to a Cold War era style military parade — will further strengthen the resolve of supporters of the Dalai Lama and, at first glance, the unrelated Chinese pro-democratic movement. Every time they restrict Tibet’s freedom, they, ironically, bring freedom’s day closer. In…
Good sex for life
I would like to offer my rule for good sex for life. But, first I would like to ask the hard question: why does sex play such a dominant role in South Africa — more than anywhere else I believe — and, more specifically, in our HIV/Aids discourse? (If you are not interested in this,…
Buenos Aires! Tony Leon and the new(ish) Evita
Next Wednesday, Tony Leon’s friends will be bid him and Michal a fond adios as they depart for wonderful Argentina. I am seething with envy. So is Richard Calland. His M&G column “Tony, I want your job in Buenos Aries” two weeks ago was so full of animus, it demands a response — albeit a…
McCauley: Zuma’s camerlengo is a threat to liberal democracy
Ray McCauley and the Rhema Church exercise an inappropriate influence over President Jacob Zuma and seek to change South Africa’s liberal democratic Constitution. Though the relationship between Zuma and McCauley is not institutionally formalised, the Rhema founded National Interfaith Leadership Council, as Mandy Rossouw’s rigorous investigative reporting last week reveals, plans to challenge the Constitution:…
The curious case of the apartheid lawsuits
9 September 2009 Jon Cayzer
President Jacob Zuma is, as the cliche goes, the consummate politician. One of his most likeable qualities is that he is an instinctive politician. He feels it in the gut: his political antennae uncannily aligned to the electorate’s bandwidth. Clearly a “people’s person”, Zuma is an eminently likeable, charming, dapper dude. Refreshingly too, unlike most…
Accountability is on the march
Robert Gabriel Mugabe’s inane giggle (testified to by those who have seen him up close and nervous) came straight to mind when I read the Presbyterian-sounding judgement of Kenny MacAskill, the Scottish Justice Secretary. The ruling paved the way for the stomach-churning scenes of Lockerbie bomber Mr al-Megrahi returning to a hero’s welcome in Tripoli….
Exit Buthelezi? Real change must emanate on the ground
The images of demonstrators brandishing placards along Durban Club Place, the street that runs outside the IFP head office in Durban, evoke the atmosphere of the pre-1994 city and country where so much that mattered to the people on the ground had to be proclaimed on the periphery of the formal decision-making processes. Why do…
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Jon was an Edward S. Mason Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government from 2010 - 2011, and holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration. He was awarded the Gundle South African Public Service Fellowship. Jon is the speechwriter to Democratic Alliance Leader, Helen Zille. He has also served as the speechwriter to the leader of the official opposition, private secretary to elder statesman, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and, briefly, as the Head of Ministry of Transport and Public Works in the Democratic Alliance-led Western Cape Provincial Government. He spent time at the Tony Blair Faith Foundation in London in 2011 working on the Faith and Globalisation, and Faiths Acts programmes. In 2000 he worked as a consultant policy writer for the then Democratic Party. [email protected] Twitter: jonthekaizer
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Thrive Impact
Transforming nonprofits
Making the Donors the Hero of the Story
By Kevin Hagan
How many times have you opened your inbox to see an email from a nonprofit that starts something like this:
“If you give just 15 cents a day, nonprofit X can save the life of a child living in poverty.”
Or, “Nonprofit X is the best steward of your dollars. 95% of your donations go to programs and that means less than 5% of your donations go to our overhead costs.”
Or, “ Nonprofit X gave away one million pounds of food last year to feed the homeless.”
Practically, there’s nothing wrong with these statements.
These are factual declarations. They tell more about the impact of the organization’s mission. It’s what a donor may want to know about an organization before making a first donation.
Also, you could argue, they speak to a culture of transparency—of organizations that want to stand out in the wide arena of charitable giving—communicating to their donors the good work they’re doing.
IT WORKED FOR THE BOOMER GENERATION
Nonprofits love to use this language because for decades now, that’s exactly what the Boomer generation of donors have wanted to hear. They’ve wanted to know that the organizations they support are institutions they can trust.
If you take a step back, what you realize about these appeals is that they all come from a position of:
Consider us. Look at how good we are. Look at how much good we’ve done. Look at our low overhead rates. Look at how well we manage your dollars.
It’s the kind of information my mom likes to know about when she’s going through the various direct mail appeals that end up in her mailbox each month.
When I asked her about it, she tells me she wants to know whether or not her funds are being used as she intends.
She wants to get proper receipts when she does make a donation that accurately reflects her information and donation amount. And she wants to hear some good news reports as the organization grows in its mission.
“SOME reports” she says, “But not too many.”
MILLENNIALS VIEW IT DIFFERENTLY
Yet, the millennial donors that so many nonprofits are turning their attention towards these days want to be spoken to differently.
They want to be part of the story and they want to be part of the solution to the issue that the nonprofit is tackling.
They want to know that by giving a piece of their hard-earned cash to you, they are having impact. Real impact. Impact that is direct, noteworthy, and that helps them feel good about themselves.
Recently, when I was chatting with a younger donor, she told me she regularly gave to nonprofits, even with the meager resources at her entry-level salary.
My young colleague and her friends, she said often gave to places like Charity Water, organization that makes the bold promise of “100% of your money brings clean water to people in need.”
If you think about it, why wouldn’t you want to give to an organization like Charity Water?
You immediately know that 100% of your money is going to bring clean water to people in need.
It’s a direct link between the donor and the impact. Yet, it also begins to make the shift from putting the nonprofit organization as the hero of the story. The donor is the one who makes the difference.
PIVOTING TO MAKE THE DONOR THE HERO OF THE STORY
I would assert that the move may be a subtle one, but one that will continue to gain traction as nonprofits begin to remove themselves as the hero of the charitable story and ensure that the donor becomes the hero instead. And if you fundamentally think about it, it makes sense.
Nonprofits only exist at the desire of their donors who entrust them to work on their behalf to tackle some of the world’s toughest problems.
As you look at your own fundraising appeals, where is the organization in the story?
Who is the donor?
Do you tout all the great work that you do?
Or do you tout all the great work that your donors do?
If it’s the former, how might your organization begin to make this pivot of making your donor appeals less about you and more about your donors?
The use of “we” language is a good start. Yet, while the use of “we” language still can highlight the organization, it also begins to reflect the collaboration of the donor and the organization in the accomplishment of the mission.
For example, Partners in Health tagline on their homepage says this:
we go. we make house calls.
we build health systems. we stay.
The use of “we” is much better than I (insert the name of the organization) did this. I changed many lives.
But it must go a step further.
Consider Food for the Poor, a nonprofit whose mission is to work in communities devastated by poverty by providing food, clothing and emergency relief.
On their impact page, they focus on the donor. One section contains this block of text:
Your Impact in 2019 . . .
You built 540 homes
You shipped 413 containers
You provided over 26 million meals.
(As of February 28, 2019)
The donor feels spoken to directly and knows that they are the ones who made all that great work possible.
For example, Food for the Poor gives the donor the credit instead of taking it for themselves. The donor becomes the hero of the story.
YOU ARE IN THE PAIN SOLVING GAME
Just like your work as a nonprofit CEO is to solve the pain of the beneficiaries of your programs (we all call this “impact”), it is important to think in a similar way regarding your donors. What pain are you solving for them? What impact are having upon their lives?
Arthur Brooks, CEO of the American Enterprise Institute, summed it up very well in an OpEd he wrote called Why Fundraising is Fun. He speaks directly to this ‘pain’ that you are solving for the donor and what creates the magic when you are working with donors. He says:
In [my] role [as a fund-raiser], I have found that the real magic of fund-raising goes even deeper than temporary happiness or extra income. It creates meaning. Donors possess two disconnected commodities: material wealth and sincere convictions. Alone, these commodities are difficult to combine. But fund-raisers facilitate an alchemy of virtue: They empower those with financial resources to convert the dross of their money into the gold of a better society.
As a nonprofit CEO, you are helping your donors find meaning in their lives.
When you create the conditions, for example, that allow for a donor to build a bridge between the “dross of their money” into behaviors that have impact on the world, you will win.
IT’S RARE TO SEE THE DONOR AS THE HERO OF THE STORY
However, when you look around, examples of putting the donor as the hero of the story are hard to find.
Go to the first 5 nonprofit websites that you can think of and test it for yourself.
It’s likely you’ll find a narrative of how great the nonprofit is and how much they have accomplished.
I understand. We’re all human. And sometimes that makes it’s hard to give others the credit, but I pose the question:
“What would your revenue and impact look like if you made the donors the hero of your nonprofit’s story?”
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Sword-Wielding Attackers Injure Opposition Candidate at Burma Election Rally
Injured NLD MP Naing Ngan Lynn lies on bed as he arrives at Yangon General Hospital in Rangoon on Oct. 29, 2015
Lynn Bo Bo—EPA
By Rishi Iyengar
Violence broke out at an election rally of Burma’s leading opposition party on Thursday, when men wielding knives and swords attacked the party’s candidate for the area and his supporters.
Naing Ngan Lin, a member of Nobel laureate and democracy icon Aung San Suu Kyi’s National League for Democracy (NLD) and the incumbent local member of parliament, was immediately rushed to the hospital, the BBC reported.
He received injuries to his head and hands and was fading in and out of consciousness, his wife said.
Burma, officially known as Myanmar, goes to the polls in just over a week in what looks like its first completely open general election in 25 years. However, tensions have been running high leading up to the ballot, and the NLD, which is expected to win a large number of seats in parliament, had received threats to cancel the rally in Thaketa township.
Suu Kyi, who has been barred from becoming the Southeast Asian country’s President because she was married to a Briton and has two sons who are British citizens, is set to hold a large rally of her own in Rangoon, Burma’s former capital and biggest city, on Sunday.
Championing Rohingya Rights in Myanmar Cost Me 12 Years in Prison. It’s a Price Worth Paying
U.S. Sanctions Myanmar General Accused of Ethnic Cleansing
[BBC]
Read next: 7 Things to Know About Burma’s Upcoming Elections
Write to Rishi Iyengar at rishi.iyengar@timeasia.com.
'Nobody Likes Him, Nobody Wants to Work With Him.' Hillary Clinton Critiques Bernie Sanders in New Documentary
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You are here: Home / Stories / Issue 1 / Room Service
by Dan Parker
Rain on glass was the first sound he heard. The drops beat an unsteady rhythm, pushed gently by soft gusts of wind. He woke slowly, stretching out in the bed. He unfurled his legs from the foetal position and rolled from his side onto his back. His hands moved apart and out, his arms untangled, fingers stretched apart. He yawned heavily and blinked his eyes open. His mouth tasted strange. The room was in darkness, a pale light attempted to squeeze around the curtains. The man sat up in bed. His mind was empty. He did not know who he was.
His heartbeat quickened. His breathing accelerated. His mind was a sphere of swirling gas. He made a sound from his gaping mouth. A whimper. His jaw moved up and down, the tongue wagged and the breath came, but no words. He scanned the room, but saw only walls.
He threw the covers aside and leapt out of bed. He did not notice he was naked. The carpet was thick and plush. It sprang between his toes as he took the two steps to the window. He gripped the curtains and tore them apart. Daylight screamed into the room, the sky white and blinding, the sun a massive burst of pain as it burned through the rain clouds. He yelped and covered his eyes as the light stabbed into them. A roaring headache erupted in his skull.
The man swayed as he gradually opened his eyes and they adjusted to the light. The room was bathed in a warm glow. Below him, many storeys down, lay a city. A city of green parks and trees, and low narrow streets with buildings of red brick and grey roofs. He did not recognise it. He looked for a building to remind him of where he was. He found nothing. He did not know it.
He turned and looked at the room. He felt the warmth of the new sun on his back through the glass. The rain had stopped. The water on the glass projected tiny fragments of rainbow colour onto the mirror facing the window. The man stood with the light behind him, looking at his reflection. His dark hair was surrounded by a halo, his face was in shadow. His body was a silhouette.
The man walked around the end of the bed toward the mirror. He did not take his eyes off his reflection as his body and face came into focus. He looked at himself. He saw his face but he had no recollection of it. A stranger’s face. He touched his skin and rubbed his eyes before looking again, peering closely, examining the features of this face in front of him.
The eyes were blue, the eyebrows thick above them. The face was solid, not narrow or fat, but strong. The chin was peppered with dark stubble. The nose was short, and had been broken at some point. The man touched the tiny scar at the bridge of the nose. The movement felt familiar. The nose had been re-set expertly after the break before much damage had settled. He smiled at this vague thought. The smile was a surprise, lopsided and a little too wide, revealing strong teeth that had been worked on before. Straightened and capped.
The man’s adam’s apple bobbed as he tried to swallow. His throat, dry and closed, called for water. The air-conditioner unit clicked on and pumped recycled air into the room. The man realised he was in a hotel room. The colour scheme was a jaunty blue and red. The bed was wide, with fine sheets and plump pillows. The walls held paintings of bucolic scenes, calming vistas and delicate meadows. A single armchair sulked in a corner, more for aesthetic reasons than for use. The man looked around but could see no telephone, no television, no media screen, no radio unit. Despite its simple austerity, the sunlight made the room seem warm and cosy. Moving away from his reflection in the mirror, the man padded across the carpet into the bathroom, flicking on the light.
The water was cold and refreshing as he bathed his face and neck. He gulped the water down, feeling it chill and cleanse his dry throat. He looked up at the mirror above the sink and studied his body. It was a toned, lean body, with a thick sheen of solid and well used muscle. He turned slightly and glimpsed scar tissue on his right bicep. It looked like a burn or a scald. The man noticed his torso was covered with other smaller blemishes and marks. The left of his ribcage was speckled with small, round and pale scars. There was a thick pale stripe of puckered scar tissue that stretched six inches across his right hip, the crude stitch marks clearly visible. A welt of hardened scar tissue crept across his right pectoral. The man ran the fingertips of his left hand along it. His stomach fluttered and the muscles of his abdomen tensed. He almost recalled something, fleeting and loud, a flash of light and a starburst of pain…but it fluttered away into nothing.
Looking back into the bedroom, the man glimpsed a small holdall by the side of the bed. He stared at it for a second before lunging out and seizing it. Turning it upside down, he shook its meagre contents onto the bed. He scrambled through the pile of shirts, underwear and socks, emptying the wash-bag and examining all the items. Nothing gave him any hint of memory, no possibility of recall.
He stood in silence. There was a knock at the door.
The man froze. He held his breath. Then he called, in a croaking dry voice: “Who is it?” There was silence. Then a voice, muffled by the door, offered a reply in French.
“Room Service!” it said. The man heard a familiar tone in the voice but he could not identify it.
“What? What Room Service?” He cried in French, suddenly shocked at the loud and deep sonority of his voice.
“Breakfast, Sir” came the response, “As you ordered.”
The man’s mind was a fire of questions and fear. He shouted again:
“Just leave it outside! Thanks!” and he waited. There was no further response. The man dressed rapidly in jeans and a t-shirt from the pile of clothes on the bed. He went to the door and looked through the spy hole that shone a tiny circle of light at him. He saw only a pale corridor on the other side. The owner of the voice had gone. He reached down and turned the handle of the door, and the lock sprang open. He opened the heavy door slowly, and looked down.
Below him, on the carpet, was a tray of food. A fried breakfast of eggs and bacon, toast and coffee. He lifted the tray and, having closed the door, locked it again. He placed the tray on the table by the window and smelt the food. He was not hungry, but he tasted the coffee. The hot liquid soaked his taste-buds and he felt a moment’s rush of pleasure as he swallowed.
The man looked to the side of the tray and saw a travel wallet on the table, lying next to an empty ashtray. Grasping the red leather, the man quickly opened the wallet to reveal money, in several denominations of Pan-American Dollars and Offworld-Euros. And there was a passport. A Canadian Plus-passport. The man sat on the bed, staring at the words on the passport’s cover. Gently he opened the passport and turned to the picture at the rear. There was his face, a sour expression upon it, gazing back at him. The man read the name out loud, his voice soft yet loud in the near silent room. The air conditioning hummed around him.
“My name is Adam Vrayment” he said, and he realised as he spoke that he had added an accent to the surname. Adam stood and walked to the window again. The air-conditioner raised its volume and the air cooled slightly in the room. Adam looked down to the green city far below and his head began to spin; his vision swam and the carpet undulated beneath his feet. Adam’s eyes rolled upwards as his knees buckled and the passport slipped from his fingers. The light cascaded through the window and diffused into yellow and orange as he slumped down to the thick carpet, the deep pile opening like a wet mouth to swallow him whole.
Adam awoke in bed. His mouth tasted of salt and acid. The curtains were closed. He felt across his body and found he was naked. He sprang out of bed and lurched to the window, ripping the flimsy curtains apart. Blazing sunlight sang into the room and danced around him. His eyes stayed open as his pupils shrank.
A parade of huge skyscrapers, hotels and offices marched across the skyline, a metropolis of gigantic glass growth and decadent, thrusting architecture. Heli-Cars buzzed between the towers, Skytrains hurtled on their maglev rails at great speeds taking people across the cityscape. Adam looked down far below to see a maze of tiny streets choked with traffic, people teeming in their millions, Road-Cars and Road-Trucks jostling in the lanes and weaving together in a frenzied rush hour dance.
Adam thrust both hands out, slapped his palms against the glass and his body shook. He banged the thick pane until his palms screamed in protest, but the glass did not move or shake. A wave of sickness rose in his stomach as his legs quivered. The air conditioner behind him clicked on and started its breathing. As Adam lifted his hands from the glass, his fingertips left smeared marks. The swirls and loops of his fingerprints remained on the pane. The light shone through the residue of his touch, illuminating the smears as if they were jumbled hieroglyphs that spoke of his presence in the room.
His heart pounding, Adam whirled around and looked at the hotel room. It had not changed. The leather holdall was there. The pile of clothes was on the floor. The travel wallet was on the table. Adam shivered suddenly as the temperature fell, and he grabbed the travel wallet. The money was there, only it had been joined by English Pounds/Offworld-Sterling and Neo-Malaysian currency. Adam leafed through the money until he found a passport. It was blue. An Australian Plus-passport. Adam turned to the picture identifying the holder. There was his face, clean shaven, with a head of unruly blonde hair, a tanned face, smiling cheekily. Adam read the name next to the picture, then turned and ran to the mirror facing the window. He looked at his hair, blonde and sun-bleached, cut shorter and spiky. His stubble was longer, dark against his blonde hair. He gasped in air and sat on the bed. He faced himself.
“My name is John Porter” he whispered, and closed his eyes. There was a knock at the door. John opened his eyes and his body tensed; he crouched lower. A voice called in Japanese if anyone was awake. John answered in rapid Japanese, asking what they wanted.
“Room Service!” came the reply, in the most formal and polite fashion.
John told the voice to leave it outside and that he was most grateful for the food. The voice called out an appreciative thank-you and was silent. John found and dressed in a t-shirt and jeans, pulled a pair of shoes onto his feet, and took the money and Plus-passport. Stuffing them into the back pocket of the trousers, he looked through the tiny peephole in the door. A blank corridor looked back at him. He turned the handle of the door and the lock sprang open. Easing the door open, John looked down and saw a tray of cereal, green tea and fruit had been placed by the threshold. He stepped over it and eased the door shut behind him.
John looked left and right. The corridor stretched away from him. He looked at the door he had just closed and saw the number upon it. Number nine hundred and eleven. John knew he was a long way up, too far to climb down if he could get outside, so it had to be the stairs or the elevator. He turned left, paused to listen but heard nothing, and walked slowly away from his hotel room. He padded down the hall, past doors identical to his own, with numbers corresponding to each other. At the end of the corridor, John had to take a right turn, past more identical doors. The carpet was a deep blue, the walls were a creamy white and without the adornment of art or windows.
John looked for the door to the stairs or the elevator but could not see any way out. He reached the corridor’s end and turned right again, walking past more sequentially numbered doors. John increased his speed, jogging lightly down the corridor, looking for the elevator, yet unable to see anything except doors with numbers. Concealed lights overhead seemed to fly towards and over him as John hurried onwards. He turned the corner and ran to the next corner, turning right again. Then he slowed down and walked to his hotel door. He looked at the number. Nine hundred and eleven. John sighed and tried the handle. He opened the door and went inside, pausing to reach down and take the tray inside with him. The tea steamed gently as it swilled in the ceramic teapot.
John lay on the bed as the sunlight poured through the window. The fractured light from the glass of the buildings across the skyline made colourful patterns on the walls and mirror of the hotel room. John’s heart slowed and he breathed gently. The air conditioning clicked and hummed a lullaby of dry air. John felt the warmth of the sunlight on his body as he drifted into unconsciousness. The bed enveloped him, cocooning him in security and comfort. The purring of the air vent was like a steel cat on the edge of his sleep.
John could hear someone crying. There was a soft sobbing, a deep breathing in of air and an exhalation of tears and sorrow. He listened for what seemed like forever in his half-asleep state, then awoke with a jolt. He felt the tears on his face, his mouth wide open, the air rushing into his lungs. He had heard himself crying, yet he felt no emotion, and his heart was light and empty. The cause of tears was forgotten and unknown. He felt reborn as the veil of sadness lifted. His crying echoed away into the silence.
John felt the sheets were tight across his body as he lay on his back. His arms were outstretched from his sides and his legs were straight. He realised he was naked within the cool sheets. The light squirmed its way into the darkened room around the closed curtains. John breathed in and out and lay still as his heart began to race once more. He rose from the bed slowly, pulling the covers aside. He stood up, stretched his weary body up and out, hearing the shoulders pop, and the elbows click themselves awake. He grasped the flimsy curtains and slowly pulled them apart.
John squinted into the sunlight as it bounced up like a million needles from the sea far below him. The harbour was full of tiny yachts and huge pleasure cruisers, the buildings high and low, orange and white. A Heli-Car swooped down to a landing pad by the marina; it bumped down onto its tyres and scooted away, its rotors folding back and down to lie flush with the roof. A motor launch purred out across the pure blue sea towards a gigantic ocean liner as it wallowed lazily in the bay. In the deep azure sky, light clouds could not obscure the two crescent moons that were clearly visible despite the powerful sunshine. John closed his eyes, pressed his fingers into the bridge of his nose, feeling the tiny bump of bone beneath the scar. He turned to the table. Opening his eyes he reached down and picked up the travel wallet. Inside, the Pan-American Dollars had been replaced by Offworld-Yen, and the Euros had increased – there was a thick wad of high denomination purple notes, their plastic surfaces warm to the touch. There was also a Plus-passport. A red one.
John sat on the bed and looked at the passport. As his fingers opened and flicked through it, he saw the holo-stamps and glistening plastic visas that filled its pages. He looked at the picture on the identification page and saw himself looking back. He smiled at the severe expression, the lips clamped shut, the frown, and he saw the name and date of birth.
He breathed in and said: “My name is…” and there was a knock at the door.
A voice called out a good morning to him in Italian. His body tensed, his muscles contracted. The air conditioner rattled a song to itself.
“Who is it?” He asked, his voice sounding soft and lyrical in the Italian tongue.
“Room Service” the voice replied.
Outside the window, the sea sparkled. The man sat on the bed, naked and shivering. The air conditioner eased the temperature down and purified the air in the hotel room. The man looked at himself in the mirror and saw his eyes were bloodshot and tired. The scars on his body were pale in the light that bathed the room. The distinguishing marks on his skin, the colour of his hair, his eyes, all were reflected back at him. The sky beyond the glass was a violent, passionate blue. He closed his eyes and sighed. The passport in his fingers felt as heavy as stone.
July 13, 2018 /by Dan Parker
https://i2.wp.com/thenewaccelerator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/07/room-service.jpg?fit=1024%2C1024&ssl=1 1024 1024 Dan Parker https://thenewaccelerator.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/header-logo-300x69.png Dan Parker2018-07-13 13:00:392020-01-17 11:28:30Room Service
The Lonely God
by Jeff C. Stevenson Stellar Nursery
by Frank Smith
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Is Your Company Data-Driven or Data-Informed?
In an age when data is more valuable than money itself, it is the driver of success regardless of industry, size of business and any other factor. Why? Because it strays away from making decisions in the dark. Data-inclusive decisions analyse pattern and behaviour so (almost) every decision is calculated with varying margins of success. However, there is a distinction between being data-driven and being data-informed. Most, if not all organisations have access to some form of data. But there’s more to data than gathering and collating it.
The true value of data lays in what we do with it. How do we analyse the numbers to make sense of decisions we want to make? How do we categorise data into formats that drive growth? These all come down to the analytics of data. Aside from the analytics, however, is your company focusing on data-driven decisions or data-informed decisions? Before you go any further, yes, there is a difference and it’s significant enough to warrant a look into how your organisation categorises data and how it consumes it. This can greatly impact the way in which you see your data and the success in the implementation of decisions derived from understanding your data.
What are data-driven decisions?
Data-driven decisions focus just on the data. Decisions are derived purely from the numbers and whichever manner your analysts choose to see them. Companies relying solely on this strategy to make decisions risk diving into a very dangerous zone. Why? Because this form of decision making eliminates any qualitative understandings you may have of your data sources.
Then, what are data-informed decisions?
Data-informed decisions include data but also merge human behaviour elements into it. This type of decision making balances the information received from analysing data alongside what one knows about the data in a qualitative aspect. For instance, if you are looking at audience-based data, decisions you make on a marketing campaign will be the result of making sense of the data and past experience, intuitive judgement and other qualitative factors that help analyse your audience.
Finding the middle ground: Informed vs driven
Businesses that employ both data-driven and data-informed decisions find the most success. So, how do you find that middle ground and when do you know if you should incorporate a human element to it, as well?
The key is to evaluate if what you’re doing requires human dynamic elements incorporated into it. Most often than not, the answer is going to be yes. That means, almost all decisions will require you to carefully look into qualitative aspects of the data sources. If you are a B2C, making more data-informed decisions is vital than a B2B.
Making the right decisions every time: Data analytics consulting services Singapore
If the whole data-driven and data-informed discussion is going over your head, don’t sweat it. Data can be overwhelming, but it doesn’t have to be. Hire the expert help of Digital Squad, a leading digital marketing agency Singapore to make sense of the data and what you can do with it. We take the hard work out so you can focus on what really matters: creating meaningful relationships with honest strategies to realise business success. Digital analytics Singapore services from Digital Squad will be the best decision, both informed and driven.
data analytics data driven decisions digital marketing
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The University of Saskatchewan’s main campus is situated on Treaty 6 Territory and the Homeland of the Métis.
SGM – 2019
[W] Women’s Soccer vs Manitoba
August 26, 2018 @ 6:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Field 7 in Nutrien Park
W 3-1 : M. Ripplinger (1), P. Izsak (1), M. Gabruch (1)
https://huskies.usask.ca/calendar.aspx?id=1858
7:30 pm Mental Health Support Group @ 105 Memorial Union Building
Mental Health Support Group @ 105 Memorial Union Building
8:00 pm Toonie Tuesday ($2 Beer!) @ Louis
Toonie Tuesday ($2 Beer!) @ Louis
9:00 pm Capitol Open Stage @ The Capitol Music Club
Capitol Open Stage @ The Capitol Music Club
6:30 pm Queer Night @ USSU Pride Centre
Queer Night @ USSU Pride Centre
7:30 pm Comedy Lab @ Crazy Cactus
Comedy Lab @ Crazy Cactus
9:00 pm Karaoke Thursday @ Amigos
Karaoke Thursday @ Amigos
Sheaf on Camera
Sheaf Hiring
Student council bylaw amendments
At the University Students’ Council meeting on Nov. 2 in the Roy Romanow Council Chambers, the USC discussed the proposed amendments to the bylaws. These amendments will be voted on during the University of Saskatchewan Students’ Union annual general meeting at 6 p.m. on Nov. 23 in Room 146 of the Arts Building. The proposed amendments are as follows:
• to allow 10 more days before members of Students’ Council need to submit proposed bylaw amendments in advance of meetings
• to remove the requirement of USSU executives to register in classes during the regular academic year
• to change the date by which the USSU is required to hold by-elections for vacant executive or MSC positions to Oct. 31 rather than Dec. 1
• to remove the requirement to immediately hold a runoff election before Mar. 31 if a candidate fails to get elected by a majority vote, resulting in a vacancy
Wildlife on campus: On Sept. 19, Protective Services received a call regarding a moose walking through
the crop science field laboratory. The Saskatoon Police Service and a conservation officer were able to transport the moose safely out of city limits without incident.
Suspicious activity: On Sept. 22, a caller in Place
Riel reported that three males tried to sell him drugs. Protective Services officers searched their bags, and no drugs were found. The individuals left campus.
Bike thief apprehended: On the evening of Oct. 2, Protective Services were alerted about a possible stolen bicycle near the Education Building. Upon arrival, officers observed a male matching the description of the suspect on a bicycle. The suspect was eventually apprehended and found to be in possession of stolen property and a prohibited weapon.
Trespassing in Murray Library: On Oct. 5, Protective Services received a call reporting a panhandler in Murray Library. The individual was given a verbal warning and left campus.
Bike theft at Royal University Hospital: On Oct. 11, Protective Services received a call from Royal University Hospital security reporting that they witnessed an attempted bicycle theft near RUH. RUH security apprehended the male and awaited the arrival of Protective Services officers. The male was then placed under arrest without incident.
Attempted robbery on the Meewasin Trail: On Oct. 15, a student was approached by an unknown male
and female on the Meewasin Trail, just off campus near the university’s Education fields. The victim had her backpack pulled from her and was struck during the struggle. The suspects, one armed with a knife, did not take any of her belongings and fled on foot, southbound on the trail. This incident occurred off campus and was handled by the Saskatoon Police Service.
Safewalk reminder: Safewalk volunteers walk people safely to their destinations on or near campus, Sunday to Thursday from 8:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m. Outside of these hours, Protective Services provides free walking escorts to students, staff, faculty and campus visitors and can be reached at (306) 966-5555.
*Briefs provided by Protective Services
Campus Briefs
By Tanner Bayne
Spotlight on tuition increases at the U of S
On April 4, the University of Saskatchewan Board of Governors announced the tuition rates for the 2018-19 academic year. On average, students at the U of S will be paying 4.8 per cent more than they did in the 2017-18 academic year.
At the U of S, tuition is set based on three considerations: comparisons to the tuition levels of other U15 universities, the perceived quality of education, and affordability and accessibility. With the tuition announcement, the Board of Governors released an information document outlining the tuition increases by college. The tuition hikes for direct-entry colleges are as follows:
Agriculture and Bioresources
4.8 per cent increase, from $6,119 to $6,413.
In a media release following the Board of Governors’ tuition announcement, 2017-18 USSU vice-president operations and finance Deena Kapacila stated that the USSU is pleased with the tuition dialogue between the U of S administration and the USSU. However, Kapacila doesn’t believe that the hikes reflect the economic realities of students, and in her statement, she called on the provincial government for increased financial assistance.
“With the understanding that the cost associated with post-secondary education is a shared responsibility, we are asking the province of Saskatchewan to adequately fund our post-secondary institutions and work with the U of S to combat the declining student experience referenced in the Maclean’s U15 rankings,” Kapacila said. “Even if a student is lucky enough to find a well-paying job, working all summer barely covers the cost of one term.”
Tanner Bayne / News Editor
Graphic: Jaymie Stachyruk / Graphics Editor
Recipe: Homemade turkey meatballs and spaghetti
Hope N.S. Jeffery
Recipe from hellofresh.ca
250 g minced turkey
2 tbsp. Italian bread crumbs
1½ tsp. parsley
1 small shallot
Two servings worth of spaghetti
1¾ tbsp. crushed tomatoes
2½ tsp. chicken bouillon
2 tbsp. oil
First, preheat your oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit. In a large pot, add 12 cups of water and two tsp. salt. Cover and bring to boil over high heat. Meanwhile, peel and then mince garlic. Finely chop parsley, and peel and cut the shallot into small pieces.
Next, in a large bowl, combine turkey, parmesan, bread crumbs, half of the garlic, ½ tbsp. Italian seasoning and ½ tsp. salt. Season with pepper. Roll the turkey mixture into one-inch-wide meatballs, and set aside. Break spaghetti in half, and add it to the boiling water. Cook, stirring occasionally, until tender — roughly 10 minutes.
Meanwhile, heat a large non-stick pan over mediumhigh heat. When the pan is hot, add one tbsp. oil and then the meatballs, searing them and turning often until golden brown — around 3 minutes. Remove pan from heat. Transfer meatballs to a foil-lined baking sheet. Put the baking sheet on the middle rack of the oven until cooked through.
Heat the same pan over medium-high heat. When the pan is hot, add one tbsp. oil, shallots, remaining garlic and Italian seasoning, stirring often until shallots soften. The spaghetti should be tender by now. Reserve 2/3 cup of pasta water, and drain the rest. Add tomato paste, crushed tomatoes and broth concentrate.
Reduce heat to medium-low. Season with salt and pepper. Cook, stirring occasionally, until sauce slightly thickens. Add meatballs, pasta, reserved pasta water and remaining parsley.
Nutrition Spotlight: Fish-oil supplements
By Jenna Leung
Fish-oil pills are multivitamin supplements composed of two kinds of omega-3 fatty acids: eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) and docosahexaenoic acid (DHA). These fatty acids are complementary to your diet and can improve your immune system.
Omega-3 fatty acids are not produced by the human body. Therefore, they need to be derived from the foods that we eat. Fish oils are one such source.
Because of how important essential fatty acids are for nutrition, they are linked to many health benefits. Fish-oil supplements can help relieve pain, combating muscle stiffness and aches. Some people have found that this may alleviate the delayed-onset muscle soreness experienced after a workout.
People also take fish oil to treat high blood pressure. Moreover, studies have shown that the EPA present in fish oils can reduce fat levels in people with high amounts of triglycerides — the major form of fat in the body.
Mercury levels in these pills are generally low, as they go through a refinement process. As a general rule of thumb, fish-oil pills sourced from non-predatory cold-water fish are the safest in terms of low mercury content. Finding a Natural Product Number on the package specifies that the product was tested for heavy metals, pesticides and toxins.
As for how much you should consume, Health Canada recommends no more than 3 grams of total fish oil per day — meaning EPA plus DHA. As always, consult a doctor or health professional to find out what considerations may apply to your personal health.
Jenna Leung
The Sheaf Workouts
By Jack Thompson
Running away from the rundown
It’s finals season, baby, and you know what that means — review classes, sessions and group meet ups. But you don’t need these because you’ve collected perfect notes, aced all the assignments and feel completely prepared for the exam. Instead, take this time to run away from all of that reviewing to prevent yourself from feeling run down — or run away from the stress of not being prepared at all.
1. Sprint home from that review
2. Shoulder press your textbook (20 repetitions per side)
3. Jog to your favourite study spot
4. Realize you don’t want to study at all and run away into the woods
Jack Thompson / Sports & Health Editor
Graphics: Jaymie Stachyruk / Graphics Editor
Wilder Mind by Mumford and Sons
From fast-paced banjo and iconic lyrics of “And I will wait, I will wait for you,” Mumford and Sons jar listeners with their new album Wilder Mild.
The first strike of the electric guitar from the opening song “Tompkins Square Park” shows that the band has evolved. They walked away from their banjos and mandolins to embrace a more indie rock sound.
“The Wolf” and “Wilder Mind” carries an upbeat count that makes you want to dance, only to carry you down to a softer sway with “Cold Arms” and “Monster.” Triggering the listener’s youthful nostalgia, the album ends with “Hot Gates,” an echoing song beckoning you to replay the track one last time.
The band’s transition to a new sound did not cheapen them — the metamorphosis made them greater than before.
J.C. Balicanta Narag / Copy Editor
Album cover supplied by Island Records
Sheaf Crossword – Holiday Edition
The Forbidden City in Beijing. / Wardah Anwar
Sheaf Griefs – Week of Nov 2, 2017
“I have been struggling with homesickness since arriving at university. Help?”
Make time to familiarize yourself with your surroundings! Explore the city — you’ll begin to find your favourite spots, like a cute café or a nice walking trail. Doing this will make you more comfortable in your surroundings, and your new environment will begin to feel like home.
Keep in contact with friends and family at home, too. Reminiscing about shared experiences can help you feel more connected to the people you miss. Sending friends a new music discovery or sharing a new recipe with family can help you feel closer to your loved ones.
“I recently kissed a girl at a house party, and I now have feelings for her. What is your advice for someone who is really scared to come out?”
I’m sorry to hear that you’re feeling so scared to tell people about the awesome experience you had! Coming out is hard, because it’s a constant process. From the people closest to you to weird men in bars who hit on you, you will frequently find yourself explaining your sexuality to people.
Bottom line? You don’t have to come out unless you feel fully comfortable and safe to do so, and you can be selective of your audiences. Don’t be afraid to speak to the Student Wellness Centre if your feelings about your sexuality are taking a toll on your well-being.
“I currently share a room with someone, and I am so frustrated with the living situation. How do you deal with a nightmare roommate?”
Problem roommates can be debilitating to your mental health and can seriously affect your university experience. Definitely avoid hanging passive-aggressive notes — that’s just another level of petty — but do not suffer in silence.
There are many types of annoying roommates — maybe they’re really messy or they blast their favourite Rihanna song at ridiculous o’clock. It might seem like you live with Satan incarnate, but if you don’t say anything, then you can’t expect them to change their ways. Confrontation is daunting, but you shouldn’t waste your time pussyfooting around a jerk.
To help you get started, the University of Saskatchewan has a step-by-step guide to dealing with roommate conflicts at www.students.usask.ca/articles/healthy-living-with-roommates.
*Our advice columnists are not technically qualified doctors, but they care about you. If you’re struggling with something, email opinions@thesheaf.com.
Students of Usask – Edition 9: The community love bug
Victoria Becker
\ Distractions
Community building is one of Lauren Klassen’s passions.
Lauren Klassen, second-year education
If I were to ask you the basic question “Who are you?” how would you respond in the simplest manner?
“Well, community, volunteering and service are big parts of my life. So, it would be one of my passions and something that’s really influenced my character. Taking after mentors and role models has probably formed who I am, too.”
What are you passionate about and why?
“I am definitely passionate about community [and] very passionate about people. I’m passionate about community because it’s a way [that] all people are connected and how people in a certain community can thrive and experience life together.
“I love bonding with different people that you might not have the chance to meet otherwise. [Community] gives you the opportunity to meet different people that may have different interests than you, … but you’re still connected through that community. It gives you a sense of belonging — I think community is really special.”
Do you have any dreams or projects you’d like to develop in our community?
“I love art and film — and very recently, a new passion I have is food sovereignty, after taking a course. I would love, love, love to create some kind of film activism for food sovereignty or food security, but I still need to talk to my friends about that and figure out the steps.”
“Lots of things. Sunshine, cats, listening and having long conversations with friends, family and strangers. Actually, making crafts really makes me happy — it’s a big stress reliever for me. More specifically, I love photography, and I really like to draw and paint just for fun. I also love to bake.”
What was the best day of your life?
“When we hiked the Cinque Terre trail in Italy for my grade 12 Easter trip — that was really good. That trail, holy shit. None of us had mentally or physically prepared ourselves for it — we were like, ‘Oh, it’s a hiking trip — hiking isn’t that hard.’
“We climbed a mountain. There were 50 of us in a line, so if one of us fell, we were all going over. It hurt, it was hot, but once we got to the top of the mountain and looked around, oh my god, it was so beautiful.”
Victoria Becker / Outreach Director
Photo: Zac Walters
Ask an Agro – Week of March 8/2018
Are there antibiotics in the milk we drink?
Just like humans, cows can get sick. Sometimes, antibiotics are used to treat illnesses in individual cows. In congruence with Canadian dairy practices, when this happens, the cow’s milk is collected separately and discarded until the antibiotics have cleared her system.
In Canada, there is zero tolerance for antibiotics in milk, whether conventional or organic, and producers can face heavy penalties. Every time milk is picked up from producers, samples are sent to an independent lab for tests, including somatic cell counts and antibiotic residues. If antibiotics are found in the milk, the entire truckload is discarded.
If there were antibiotics in milk, we wouldn’t have delicious products like cheese and yogurt, as antibiotics disrupt the fermentation processes essential to make these products.
Dairy systems use somatic cell count tests internationally to detect the cellular content of milk. In the context of cows, a somatic cell is any live cell found in the udder. The maximum allowed SCC limit in Canada is 400,000 cells per millilitre.
From July to December 2017, the Canadian farm average was about 209,000 cells per milliliter — just over half the maximum allowable limit — although this data excludes the provinces of Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and Labrador. To put this in perspective, one cubic millimetre of human blood contains four to six million red blood cells.
Does milk contain pus?
We’ve all heard claims that there is pus in milk. However, this too is a myth. The cells found in normal milk through SCC tests are primarily live cells in the mammary gland. Pus, on the other hand, is a collection of dead white blood cells, dead skin cells and bacteria, and its presence in milk would not pass quality testing. Any harmful bacteria in milk are destroyed by pasteurization.
Canadian Quality Milk is an on-farm monitoring program run by Dairy Farmers of Canada that ensures food safety and overall best management practices across the nation. The program tracks the testing and storage of milk, animal transport and the use of on-farm medication. Dairy Farmers of Canada also conducts on-farm welfare assessments to ensure that each farm meets a high standard of animal health and care.
If you’re curious to learn more, visit the Rayner Dairy Research and Teaching Facility on campus or go to www.farmfood360.ca for virtual tours of dairy barns across Canada.
Ask an Agro is a monthly column where students from the College of Agriculture and Bioreserouces answer queries about the Canadian food system. You can send questions to opinions@thesheaf.com or askanagro@gmail.com.
Jessica Jackson, Janelle Smith and Ashly Dyck
24 Hour Safe Study
By Emily Migchels
The University of Saskatchewan offers round-the-clock, monitored study spaces for students during finals season — 24 Hour Safe Study is a collaboration between the Murray Library and the U of S Students’ Union that aims to provide a safe space for late-night labours.
Operating on the ground floor of the Murray Library, 24 Hour Safe Study began on Nov. 28 and runs until 8:00 a.m. on Dec. 22. That’s right — free rent for nearly a month, if you’re thrifty.
The space is monitored by USSU Student Crew employees, and students utilizing 24 Hour Safe Study are technically required to present their student card — an item that I lost three months ago and have not since replaced — upon entering the space after regular library operating hours. Thankfully, no one has ever asked to see mine.
Take a look beyond the bookshelves at 3 a.m., and you’ll see that, despite its best intentions, the program is endorsing and facilitating fundamentally unhealthy behaviours in students.
We know that looking at our computer screens for hours on end, sleep deprivation and poor eating habits are bad for us, but it’s hard to reconcile making healthy lifestyle changes with the obligation to utilize every minute of every day because the library enables you to.
On the other hand, 24 Hour Safe Study does provide students with a unique opportunity for collaborative learning. Additionally, I’ve found that reserving a space specifically for one activity — me getting my school work done — has been beneficial to my learning and productivity throughout the term. I’m glad to have the opportunity to use the space whenever I want, but I wish I didn’t have to.
What do students need most during peak times of stress? Is a non-stop, collective learning space more valuable than mental supports? Is it the role of the university to structure student lives in a healthier way, or is that the individual’s responsibility?
What do you think? Tweet with the hashtag #sheafhottakes, and let’s talk.
Emily Migchels / Opinions Editor
Photo: Kate Locsin
Response to “Lawsuit against university comes to an end, public shares concerns,” published Sept. 12
Letter to the Editor: Response to “Lawsuit against university comes to an end, public shares concerns,” published Sept. 12
Letter to the Editor: A new piano would be appreciated
Letter to the editor: Response to “Smart drug policies can save lives,” published March 25
Letter to the editor: Response to “AES assimilation model distracts from transformative change,” published Aug. 30
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Danny Boy on Here are five people who made waves in the oceans of 2019: “There are multiple errors all over this article. Seriously, fact check your work. Where is the editor?”
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San Diego County sues US over asylum-seeking family releases
SAN DIEGO (AP) — San Diego County sued Wednesday to overturn the Trump administration's cancellation of an immigration program because the move has led to the quick release of families after they cross the border without allowing time for travel arrangements. The county on the Mexican border said...
Immigrants from Central America seeking asylum board a bus, Tuesday, April 2, 2019, in downtown San Antonio. The surge of migrants arriving at the southern border has led the Trump administration to dramatically expand a practice it has long mocked as "catch and release." (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
US expands 'catch and release' amid surge in migrants
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — The surge of migrant families arriving at the southern border has led the Trump administration to dramatically expand a practice President Donald Trump has long mocked as "catch and release." With immigrant processing and holding centers overwhelmed, the administration is...
Former Housing and Urban Development Secretary and Democratic presidential candidate Julian Castro speaks during the We the People Membership Summit, featuring the 2020 Democratic presidential candidates, at the Warner Theater, in Washington, Monday, April 1, 2019. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
April 02, 2019 - 9:54 am
Castro spotlights immigration as Trump renews border threats
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Julián Castro is calling to end criminalizing illegal border crossings as part of an immigration plan that's the first policy blueprint of his 2020 bid. The former San Antonio mayor unveiled his proposals Tuesday at a time when President Donald...
President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump walk along the South Lawn of the White House in Washington, Sunday, March 31, 2019, as they return from Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)
AP sources: Trump considers adding 'immigration czar'
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he threatens to shut down the southern border, President Donald Trump is considering bringing on a "border" or "immigration czar" to coordinate immigration policy across various federal agencies, according to four people familiar with the discussions. Trump is weighing at least...
Central American migrants wait for food in El Paso, Texas, Wednesday, March 27, 2019, in a pen erected by U.S. Customs and Border Protection to process a surge of migrant families and unaccompanied minors. Earlier, Customs and Border Protection Commissioner Kevin McAleenan, center, announced the the Trump administration will temporarily reassign several hundred border inspectors, during a news conference at the border in El Paso. (AP Photo/Cedar Attanasio)
Border Patrol orders quick releases of families
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of migrant families and children entering the U.S. from Mexico is so high that Border Patrol is immediately releasing them instead of transferring them to the agency responsible for their release, forcing local governments to help coordinate their housing, meals and...
FILE - In this July 17, 2015 file photo, flowers and a portrait of Kate Steinle remain at a memorial site on Pier 14 in San Francisco. A federal appeals court refused to reinstate a lawsuit the parents of Kate Steinle filed against San Francisco for refusing to cooperate with federal immigration authorities seeking to deport a man later charged with killing Steinle. A three judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously ruled Monday, March 25, 2019, that the city's non-cooperation policy with federal immigration officials broke no federal, state or local laws. (Paul Chinn/San Francisco Chronicle via AP, File)
Court: San Francisco can't be sued over immigrant shooting
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The parents of a woman killed by an immigrant who was released from custody despite a federal request that he be held cannot sue San Francisco for negligence over the death that touched off a fierce national debate, a U.S. appeals court ruled. A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S...
FILE - In this March 10, 2019, file photo, Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., addresses a rally during a campaign stop in Concord, N.H. “Medicare for All” legislation has two provisions that could make it even more politically divisive for 2020 Democratic presidential candidates: It lifts curbs on government health insurance for people in the country illegally and revokes longstanding restrictions on taxpayer-funded abortions. Embracing these will give Democratic candidates a boost with the party’s liberal base in the primaries. But that could complicate things for an eventual nominee seeking support from voters in the middle (AP Photo/Steven Senne, File)
Medicare for all legislation has thorny issues
WASHINGTON (AP) — The "Medicare for All" legislation that's become a clarion call for progressives has two little-noticed provisions that could make it even more politically perilous for 2020 Democratic presidential candidates. The legislation from White House hopeful Sen. Bernie Sanders, along...
In this Thursday, March 14, 2019, photo, William Josue Gonzales Garcia, 2, who was traveling with his parents, waits with other families who crossed the nearby U.S.-Mexico border near McAllen, Texas. They are waiting for Border Patrol agents to check names and documents. Immigration authorities say they expect the ongoing surge of Central American families crossing the border to multiply in the coming months. (AP Photo/Eric Gay)
Cradling children, migrant families cross border in waves
MCALLEN, Texas (AP) — A mother cradled a crying toddler as she waited in line with 20 other women to shower. Dozens of fathers quietly held their children's hands in an enclosure made of chain-link fencing. While these families were held at an overcrowded Border Patrol processing center, a fresh...
President Donald Trump walks with visiting Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro along the Colonnade of the White House, Tuesday, March 19, 2019, in Washington. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)
'Trump of the Tropics' Bolsonaro visits the White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said on Tuesday that he will work to designate Brazil a "major non-NATO ally" — and maybe even full NATO membership —as he welcomed the country's new Trump-friendly far-right leader to the White House. That's despite the fact that Brazil doesn't quality to...
Two men, both of Honduras, walk with attorneys as they cross into the United States to begin their asylum cases, Tuesday, March 19, 2019, in Tijuana, Mexico. A group of about five men were on their way to report for their first hearing under a new policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their case winds through U.S. immigration court. (AP Photo/Gregory Bull)
Asylum seekers waiting in Mexico arrive for hearings in US
SAN DIEGO (AP) — The first scheduled hearings under a new Trump administration policy to make asylum seekers wait in Mexico while their cases wind through U.S. immigration courts will be held Tuesday in San Diego. The initial appearances come three days before a federal judge in San Francisco hears...
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Record Report: 'War & Leisure', Miguel (Album Review)
From the Issue, Reviews
Lamar Odom’s Health Is “Out of Control” Post L.A. Collapse
sourcestaff
Digital Entertainment, Source Sports | News, Highlights and Interviews
Words by Ime Ekpo
The state of Lamar Odom’s health is reportedly regressing after his collapse at his VIP booth at a Los Angeles nightclub in the wee hours of Sunday (Nov. 5) morning.
TMZ managed to catch clear cut footage of Odom’s collapse which occurred at Bootsy Bellows located on the Sunset Strip of L.A.. Around 2 am, Odom was seen falling to the ground by club workers and reportedly had several drinks prior to the episode.
According to Odom’s rep, the former NBA star was involved in an intense workout and was not equip with a sufficient amount of fluids in his system, which caused him to collapse from dehydration, later on at the club. “Lamar is doing well. He was dehydrated and had been in an intense workout earlier in the day. It was also very hot in the club.”
There are individuals who tend to think and believe, otherwise about the collapse. A source that is reportedly close to Odom told PEOPLE, “Lamar is spiraling again. He’s out of control.” The source proceeds to add, “He was better this spring but things got worse over the summer and everyone is worried things are going to get even worse and they’re scared for him.”
Ever since his near-death experience in 2015 for going into a coma after being discovered at a brothel in Crystal, Nevada, despite a well progressive recovery, spotting Odom in the club setting became rather, worrisome.
Last year, Odom’s 18-year-old daughter Destiny made it known to PEOPLE, “I basically gave him the ultimatum that it was rehab or me not speaking to him anymore. I think it hit him hard.” She continued on, “He’s just a lot clear and in the moment and he’s more apologetic. He’s able to see more the pain that he’s caused when he’s clean.”
SOURCE SPORTS: Fan Throws Object at Bronny James During Nationally Televised Game
SOURCE SPORTS: Kansas City Chiefs and San Francisco 49ers to Meet in Super Bowl 54
Aaron Hernandez Former Fiancee is Asking For Privacy After Netflix Documentary Airs
Symone Daniels
Aaron Hernandez’s Lawyer Slams Documentary: ‘These Producers Lied Directly to My Face’
Connor McGregor Beats the Breaks Off of Donald “Cowboy” Cerrone in a 40-Second Fight at UFC 246
Dylan Kemp
Roddy Ricch Has Pop Stars Pressed for the No.1 Spot
Madden NFL 20 Offers Migos, Joey Bada$$ as Playable Characters
SOURCE SPORTS: Ja Morant Has Made His Decision on Participating in the NBA Dunk Contest
DJ Envy Checks Angela Yee for Saying The Re”N” Word… But is She Really in Trouble?
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Redman is Back in the Director’s Chair for “Slap Da Sh*t Oucha” Video
SOURCE SPORTS: UFC Fighter Jorge Masvidal to Meet President Trump At White House
Rhett Butler
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Exclusives, From the Issue
Taylor Swift Lashes Out at Kanye West & Justin Bieber’s Manager Who Purchased Big Machine Label Group and Acquired Her Discography
To kick off July, Taylor Swift called out celebrity manager Scooter Braun after he acquired her discography. Hitting Tumblr, Swift stated she was “sad and grossed out” at the fact that her albums are now owned by the man who provided her with “incessant, manipulative bullying” over the years.
The acquisition by Braun was one of the major pieces of news online over the weekend. Braun purchased Big Machine Label Group LLC, which would now make him the owner of Swift’s catalog, in addition to Reba McEntire, Sheryl Crow, Florida Georgia Line, Lady Antebellum and more.
“For years I asked, pleaded for a chance to own my work,” Swift began. “Instead I was given an opportunity to sign back up to Big Machine Records and ‘earn’ one album back at a time, one for every new one I turned in. I walked away because I knew once I signed that contract, Scott Borchetta would sell the label, thereby selling me and my future. I had to make the excruciating choice to leave behind my past. Music I wrote on my bedroom floor and videos I dreamed up and paid for from the money I earned playing in bars, then clubs, then arenas, then stadiums.”
Swift states she has been bullied by Braun throughout the years and would call back incidents with other celebrities to compare the level of bullying Braun issued her.
“Like when Kim Kardashian orchestrated an illegally recorded snippet of a phone call to be leaked and then Scooter got his two clients together to bully me online about it. Or when his client, Kanye West, organized a revenge porn music video which strips my body naked. Now Scooter has stripped me of my life’s work, that I wasn’t given an opportunity to buy. Essentially, my musical legacy is about to lie in the hands of someone who tried to dismantle it.”
Braun represents both Kanye West and Justin Bieber.
“This is what happens when you sign a deal at fifteen to someone for whom the term ‘loyalty’ is clearly just a contractual concept,” she wrote. “And when that man says ‘Music has value,’ he means its value is beholden to men who had no part in creating it.”
Controversial in her own right, Iggy Azalea issued some thoughts regarding why she decided to make sure she owned her masters.
And this is why I’m so happy to own my master for this new album, they really do ppl crazy dirty on ownership of their intellectual property in the biz. https://t.co/RtyN37yEvQ
— IGGY AZALEA (@IGGYAZALEA) June 30, 2019
In reference to the above Instagram post, Bieber would apologize for the moment that Swift feels like is bullying but then let her know how he felt about her attempt to paint Braun as a villain.
I have to be honest though it was my caption and post that I screenshoted of scooter and Kanye that said ‘taylor swift what up’ he didnt have anything to do with it and it wasnt even a part of the conversation in all actuality he was the person who told me not to joke like that.”
From there, Bieber let his true feelings out out:
“As the years have passed we haven’t crossed paths and gotten to communicate our differences, hurts or frustrations. So for you to take it to social media and get people to hate on scooter isn’t fair. What were you trying to accomplish by posting that blog? seems to me like it was to get sympathy u also knew that in posting that your fans would go and bully scooter.”
The Blast details Bieber isn’t the only one to protect Braun, his wife, Yael Cohen Braun, also spoke against the issues Swift brought toward Scooter.
@taylorswift, I’m here to talk privately anytime.
A post shared by Yael Cohen Braun (@yael) on Jun 30, 2019 at 3:53pm PDT
Meanwhile, Scott Borchetta, head of Big Machine, revealed that Swift did know about the sale, posting a contract that Taylor signed, which also showcased the opportunity she had to receive all of her music.
kanye westkim kardashianscooter brauntaylor swift
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TFC forward Boyd would like to see certain things happen on Tuesday night at BMO Field, starting with a victory
Steve BufferyMore from Steve Buffery
Updated: February 22, 2019 5:55 PM EST
Leafs all time roster batting a thousand
Terrence Boyd has a message for the fans of Toronto FC ahead of the second game of the CONCACAF Champions League series on Tuesday night at BMO Field.
And, as usual, he doesn’t mix words delivering it
“We want to show (the fans) that, ‘Hey man, that (first game) was a big-ass mistake. But when we come back home, and we’re playing not on turf, not playing in a f***ing tropical climate, hopefully they freeze their balls off and we f***ing kill them.”
No beating around the bush there.
One thing we’ve learned about Boyd in the two weeks he has been with TFC, he’s not afraid to speak his mind.
In last Tuesday night’s loss to Panamanian champions Independiente La Chorrera, Boyd missed a penalty kick with the Reds’ trailing 1-0. The German-born American international clanked the ball off the bar and Independiente rolled to a 4-0 victory, with the second leg of the series on Tuesday in Toronto where the game-time temperature is expected to be around minus-7C.
After the loss, Boyd went on Twitter and put the blame for the loss entirely on his own shoulders, even though his teammates have brushed that aside, insisting that it was a true collective loss with almost the entire starting 11 stinking the joint out.
Boyd said he understands that sentiment and appreciates it, but, in the end, he still blames himself — if not for the loss, at least for not scoring a very important away goal.
“In easy words, just f***ing score the PK,” he said.
Give the man credit. He insists on taking responsibility. Missing a penalty kick at that point of the match was certainly a turning point in the game, especially when you have a chance to score an all-important away goal.
But clearly, Tuesday’s loss was on everyone’s shoulders, something head coach Greg Vanney reiterated that following a workout at the team’s training centre on Friday.
“In terms of the team performance, it has nothing to do with Terrence,” Vanney said. “We didn’t arrive at the game with enough intensity, on the emotional side and the competitive side. That’s first and foremost before anything else.”
With the intensity not there, Vanney said everything else started breaking down in the match, particularly in dealing with the transition game the Panamanian champions played.
“We weren’t organized or prepared for the transition. So then it became a lot of putting out fires,” the coach said. “We did not stop them in the transition which means that they really only had to commit four guys to their attack and six guys could sit back and just wait for us defensively. We did not do a good job of stopping their forward progress and forward momentum in order to defend.”
“Anything I say … is going to sound like an excuse,” Vanney added when asked to break down the game. “I’ll say we weren’t prepared with the right mindset. Maybe we thought the game was going to be easier. The field (artificial turf) is very slow and I think when the game is slow like that I feel like that we just never got going with any kind of speed.”
Vanney acknowledged a number of other reasons for the loss: While Tuesday’s game marked the first competitive match for TFC this season, Independiente already had a 3-4 in the books. The artificial turf was slow, it was hot and humid, the Reds are implementing a new 4-3-3 formation that they’re still getting used to and they’re missing a number of key players, including forward Jozy Altidore.
GM Ali Curtis was in Europe last week trying to secure the transfer of Belgium league star Alejandro Pozuelo. According to reports, the two sides will meet again on Monday. But the bottom line is, they just have to play better.
“It’s a personal thing when you lose 4-0,” Boyd said. “You have take (the second game) one goal at a time. But you want revenge.”
CAVALRY ARRIVING
TFC coach Greg Vanney expects to have a few more weapons at his disposal when the Reds face Independiente La Chorrera in the second leg of the Champions League on Tuesday night at BMO Field.
Just prior to the opening game in Panama on Tuesday, Vanney had to scratch starting midfielder Nick DeLeon because of a sore back and was unable to play star striker Jozy Altidore, who is coming back from ankle surgery.
The coach said DeLeon will be back to full training on Saturday and could play Tuesday. Defenders Drew Moor and Eriq Zavaleta are also close. Last week Vanney expressed hope that Altidore might be ready to play some minutes in the second leg of the series, but backtracked on that Friday.
He said Altidore has experienced some soreness in training (not the ankle) and they’ve had to dial him back a bit.
“It’s tough to say,” said Vanney, when asked if Altidore could play Tuesday. “It’s possible, but I’m not counting on it. We want to get him to a position where we can really move forward with it.”
The Reds begin MLS play next Saturday in Philadelphia and Vanney wants a healthy side for that game.
TRAIKOS: Late-bloomer Dominik Kubalik has Calder Trophy potential
Oh, brother! Coaching LaFleurs on opposite sides in NFC title game
NFL notebook: Luke Kuechly announces retirement
VAN DIEST: Iceland set good example for Canadian men's national team
Bradley needs surgery, and Altidore's not happy about it
'Will he, won't he play? questions will end on Sunday for Altidore'
Altidore says it will take 'miracle' to play in MLS Cup
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Wildlife Management in South Texas
Wildlife District
Urban Wildlife Management
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Trans Pecos
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Post Oak Savannah
Oak Prairie
Wildlife Division District Map
South Texas Wildlife Management
The native rangelands of south Texas have long been noted for its cattle industry and abundant wildlife, especially the trophy white-tailed deer. South Texas contains some of the states premium deer habitat providing excellent amounts of food and cover. However, the vegetative diversity and wildlife abundance has not always been what you see today. History of the settlement and changes in the natural landscape that took place in the Rio Grande plains can be broken down into three time periods: Spanish exploration from 1600-1700's, Colonization of Texas from 1821-1863, and Cattle Empire from 1860- the early 1900's.
Spanish Colonization 1600-1700's
Early Spanish explorers had very diverse descriptions of the region with some claiming poor grazing areas while others reported rich fertile pastureland. These discrepancies were due in part to season of travel, amount of rainfall, and route of travel. Tall grass prairies covered with little bluestem, switchgrass, and other native grasses sprawled across the eastern half of the region by some accounts, while the western portion of south Texas in a much drier climate was described as a short grass prairie. The general consensus among early Spanish explorers was that the south Texas plains were predominately a prairie interspersed with mesquite, prickly pear and other woody vegetation. Much of the dense brush was limited to rivers, creeks, drainages, and in small mottes on the prairie. Natural fires were a frequent occurrence and kept much of the brush from infesting the prairie. South Texas was much less brushy 400 years ago than today.
Except for a few buffalo, antelope, and deer, there was very little natural grazing pressure during this period. Various observers reported deer in all types of habitat from open prairies, the coastal sand plains with limited brush, into the dense chaparral and trees. In the Teran expedition of 1691, Manzanet observed great numbers of buffalo and deer in a "level region without trees" in northern Medina County. Juan Antonio de la Pena's diary of the Aguayo expedition of 1722 reported from an area near the Medina/Atascosa County line, "During the remainder of the day we passed through a flat country and found a great many deer. We saw around us, almost at the same time, as many as three or four hundred of these animals."
Colonization of Texas 1821-1863
The American travelers and explorers during the nineteenth century appeared to show a greater interest in the wildlife of south Texas than the earlier Spanish explorers. Apparently, these travelers were more dependent on the natural resources for survival than the well-financed Spaniards who tended to take livestock with them. During this time there was very little grazing pressure. Wild horses that were left or escaped from Spanish were common which added to the native wildlife. As settlement of south Texas increased, livestock steadily began coming into the region and allowed to range freely. There were no fences at this time and animals were moved when necessary to better forage. Deer were plentiful during this period and used for food and hide. Sanchez reported in 1828 as he approached the Nueces River in southern LaSalle County near the San Antonio-Laredo road, "herds of deer on fertile plains". In western LaSalle County between the Frio and Nueces rivers, Bollaert saw "deer in cords" in 1843. He also saw deer and antelope together as he traveled over "mesquite prairies with brushy spots" through northwestern Frio and southwestern Zavala counties. He reported seeing deer or deer sign in McMullen, LaSalle, Frio and Live Oak counties in thick dense chaparral. In 1844, Kirby-Smith reported in Nueces County "more deer than I supposed existed in America".
In 1849, Whitigs' hunters brought many deer to his camp located in western Kinney County. He also reported an abundance of fat and tender venison in some of the finest mesquite land he had ever seen between Brackettville and the Nueces River in Uvalde County. In 1853, Bartlett reported deer and antelope in great numbers in Brooks County that was on a rolling prairie without trees. Continuing on toward Kingsville, he reported that his party could see miles and saw "large numbers" of deer and antelope. As he traveled on towards Corpus Christi where "not a bush or tree was to be seen", his party saw thousands of deer and antelope and stated that never before had they seen them in such great numbers. Jack Inglis suggested in "A History of Vegetation in the Rio Grande Plains" that these great numbers might have resulted from the drift of animals before a prairie fire they encountered later on. Historical observations of deer in the thick bottomlands were limited, probably due more to the thick vegetation and lack of visibility instead of the lack of animals.
The Ranching Empire 1860 - early 1900's
Early ranchers thought the grass would last forever in Texas. As a result, livestock pressure increased with cattle, sheep and goats, and fencing confined them. Settlement also decreased natural fires. From the late 1860's through the 1890's many south Texas counties had more sheep than cattle. Beginning in 1867, 1/2 million sheep were grazed for 3 decades. In 1880, sheep in south Texas represented 45% of Texas' sheep population. In 1889 in the Rio Grande Plains had the four leading sheep producing counties in the state and 10 of the top 15 were in south Texas. The peak decade was from 1880-1890 at times exceeding 2 million head. Sheep were an important ecological factor in changing the landscape, and literally grazed themselves out of south Texas.
The main factors for change in vegetation in south Texas included overgrazing by livestock, diminished occurrence of natural fire, relatively poor soil (water penetration, nutritive value, aeration, crusting, etc.), climate and precipitation fluctuations, and plenty of brush for seed stock. In the past these factors caused the few natural grazers to rotate to different grazing areas. This region has an overall poor ability for the land to recover due to climate and soil types. As vegetation changed and brush increased, deer numbers subsequently increased.
As settlement of south Texas increased, deer harvest increased and quality habitat decreased. Deer that had survived historically in the open rangelands could no longer survive there. They were forced into the thicker areas. Besides food deer were hunted for their hides. Until 1900 market hunting was common throughout southwest and eastern Texas and even as late as 1925. Sale of deer hides was an important item of trade before 1900 and many were professionally killed for hides only. Market hunting occurred in south Texas, but the extent is unknown. The majority of the hunting from the 1890's through the early 1900's hunting was from ranchers with a few outside hunters.
From 1900 through the 1930's, deer hunting was for meat with little regard for age or sex. During this time there were lots of good bucks, very few hunters, large tracts of land, very little access (no roads), few vehicles, and hunting was hard. Most hunters could trespass for free just by asking. The increase in brush density was considered the worst thing to happen to the range and in the late 1930's intensive brush control began that would impact wildlife in Texas for generations.
Attitudes changed in the 1940's-1950's when hunters began looking for trophy bucks. Access to hunting areas became easier with more roads and vehicles. The oil industry precipitated this change to a large extent. Brush control types and techniques continued and advanced. Landowners found economic incentives through leasing to begin protecting the deer herd and they began protecting females. The hunting lease system was in total operation by the 1950 and 1960's and accessibility increased, as did more vehicles.
In the late 1950's, Texas Game and Fish Commission initiated the South Central Game Management Survey and began wildlife inventories and research in south Texas. By the 1950's extensive brush control and eradication was in full operation. By the late 1960's wildlife managers became concerned about the effect of brush control on habitat and wildlife. While deer in south Texas have been plentiful throughout recent history, the numbers of trophy bucks were reportedly decreasing. By the 1970's deer were an economically important commodity and management began in earnest!
The history of south Texas from early Spanish exploration, through settlement and colonization, into the present shows us that managing the habitat and its resources is the most important and critical aspect of maintaining quality wildlife populations.
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grenade attack
One killed, 35 injured in grenade attack in Srinagar
A civilian was killed and 15 others were injured as terrorists lobbed a grenade in a busy market area in Srinagar on Monday, police said. The attack took place at 1:20 pm in Hari Singh High Street market area on a SSB patrolling party in a busy market. Two civilians are reportedly in serious condition.
20 civilians injured in grenade attack by terrorists in J&K's Sopore
Fifteen civilians were injured on Monday when terrorists lobbed a grenade at a bus stand in Jammu and Kashmir's Sopore town. 6 injured have been referred to a hospital in Srinagar. Security forces cordoned off the area and launched an operation to nab the attackers. The attack comes a day before a delegation of European Union MPs is visiting the valley.
6 CRPF personnel injured as terrorists hurl grenade in Srinagar
Terrorists hurled a grenade at a Central Reserve Police Force team, injuring six personnel, in the Karan Nagar area of Srinagar on Saturday. The CRPF team was manning a checkpoint when the grenade attack took place. The security forces fired some shots in the air in retaliation.
Seven injured in grenade attack in Srinagar
Seven people were injured in a grenade attack by suspected militants in a market area in Jammu and Kashmir's summer capital Srinagar on Saturday, police said. Militants hurled a grenade in Hari Singh High Street market area -- a few hundred metres from the city centre Lal Chowk -- this afternoon, a police official said. The wounded were rushed to a hospital.
Teenager injured in Srinagar grenade attack
Pak-based terror outfits planning to target forces, government installations in J&K: Intel inputs
According to intelligence inputs, terrorists are likely to target installations of the security forces and government offices in Srinagar with an aim to create a prolonged hostage-like situation to draw international attention, officials said. According to the inputs, one of the airfields - Awantipora, Srinagar or Rangreth in Kashmir - could be targets of possible attacks by some foreign terrorists.
Six CRPF men hurt in Srinagar grenade attack
Six CRPF personnel were injured on Saturday evening when terrorists threw a hand grenade at a CRPF post opposite the Karan Nagar police station, near SMHS Hospital in Srinagar. The grenade explosion created panic among patients in the nearby hospital. All six men were reported stable, the CRPF said. Ground reports suggested that gunshots followed the explosion.
J&K: Terrorists wanted to spread fear among people, says DIG on grenade attack
2 killed in grenade attack in Anantnag
Government officer, sarpanch killed, 6 others injured in two J&K terror attacks
A government official and a sarpanch were on Tuesday killed in a grenade attack by suspected terrorists on a crowd that had gathered for the newly created Union territory administration's first rural outreach programme at Hakoora in Anantnag district. It was the day's second terror strike after a low-intensity blast outside the Kashmir University campus in Srinagar's Hazratbal.
MP: Hand grenade collected from firing range goes off; boy killed
The incident took place in Barwaha town when the duo was trying to take out metal pieces from the unexploded hand grenade for selling them in scrap market, they said.
Several injured as terrorists lob grenade near Kashmir University
Suspected terrorists lobbed a grenade near Kashmir University in Hazratbal area of Srinagar on Tuesday, injuring a number of people, the police said. The grenade was lobbed near Sir Syed gate of the university this noon, a police official said.
2 people killed, seven injured in blasts in J&K's Anantnag and Srinagar
In south Kashmir's Anantnag, militants lobbed a grenade in Wagoora area when government function -- 'Back to Village programme' -- was taking place, killing two people and injuring four others, a police official said. In Srinagar city, an explosion took place in the market near Sir Syed gate of Kashmir University in Hazratbal area this afternoon, the official said.
Sopore: At least 20 injured in grenade attack by terrorists
Srinagar: 5 CRPF jawans injured in grenade attack
Nagpur: Last-minute change in standards for making latest grenades raises questions
A last-minute change in standards for making the latest multimodal hand grenades that are set to replace the World War II era M36 grenades used by the Indian Army has raised questions. The new grenades will be made by Ordnance Factory Khamaria (OFK) and a private sector entity from Nagpur.
Srinagar: At least 6 injured in grenade attack
One dead, 32 injured in grenade attack at bus stand in Jammu
A teenager was killed and 32 others were injured on Thursday in a grenade attack by suspected terrorists in the crowded general bus stand area in the heart of the city, officials said. The condition of four more injured people was "critical" and two of them had to be operated upon by doctors, they said.
Local terrorist tasked with throwing grenades at busy markets, arrested in Sopore
10 shops gutted in Srinagar market
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Dolly meets Big Blue
Texas Military Forces by CPT J. Michel Spraggins, Texas State Guard, Texas Military Forces Public Affairs
Big Blue sets up H- E-B parking lot in Weslaco Texas in response to hurricane Dolly.Photo by Photo by CPT.J. Michael Spraggins Texas State Guard, Texas Military Forces PAO
WESLACO, Texas (July 21, 2008) - The Weatherman on TV first talked about the tropical depression, then the tropical storm and finally about the full blown hurricane named Dolly off the coast of Mexico, rushing towards Texas.
Big Blue was standing by ready to meet Dolly if she made landfall anywhere in south Texas.
Big Blue is a highly sophisticated state of the art, mobile, self-powered, go-anywhere, set-up anywhere, totally-self contained, command center used to providing instant communications among the State Operations Center, shelter sites and first responders in times of state emergencies.
Blue is manned by Texas State Guardsmen, Chief Master Sergeant James Short of the 436th Air Support Group of the Texas State Guard; the NCOIC of the unit manning Blue stated that “the guardsmen had been training for just such an event.”
Texas State Guardsmen man the communications equipment in Big Blue, to support the Texas Military Forces helping with recovery in the Rio Grand Valley area.Photo by Photo by CPT.J. Michael Spraggins Texas State Guard, Texas Military Forces PAO
The Texas State Guard has been doing intense training to be ready to provide Defense Support to Civilian Authorities (DSCA) in providing communications support, evacuation shelter management, Points of Distribution (POD), medical and chaplain assistance for when Mother Nature unleashes her wrath, in this case in the form of hurricane Dolly.
Airmen of the 436th Air Support Group, 4th Air Wing of the Texas State Guard part of the Texas Military Forces, raise the antenna.Photo by Photo by CPT.J. Michael Spraggins Texas State Guard, Texas Military Forces PAO
The Texas State Guard is the oldest of the three branches of the Texas Military Forces, with the other two being the Army and Air Guard and can trace its history to serving Texas to before the Alamo. The State Guard is made up of 6 Army Regiments, 2 Air Wings, Medical Brigade and Maritime Regiment. The State Guard can only be deployed outside of Texas only under the direct authority of the Governor.
Operation Dolly is the Texas Military Forces DSCA in form of manning evacuation shelters and PODs and Big Blue was there when Dolly arrived in Brownsville, Harlingen and the surrounding counties. The Chief said “reliable communications is absolutely critical in times of emergencies and Blue and its team met the challenge”
Thursday, July 31, 2008 1:49:00 PM Categories: Texas State Guard
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In the newsGrenfell Tower fire mental health treatment ‘to cost £10m’
Grenfell Tower fire mental health treatment ‘to cost £10m’
by Sawan Kumar June 12, 2018
The Grenfell Health and Wellbeing Service spoke at St Charles hospital a mile away from the west London tower block. The doctor in charge said that the demand for services had been gigantic.
“There are many, many people that are in a great deal of distress in the local community – adults and children,” – said Dr. Alastair Bailey.
The first priority is provided to the residents of the cordon and the tower block. Yet one cannot deny service to the victims on the basis of residence or any such cause. Dr. Bailey said that the majority of the injured are seeking help from the trauma trigger such as the ongoing public injury.
Most commonly the survivors of the fire suffered from PTSD while others have experienced depression and anxiety. Out of sorts, some people have also lost their loved ones as per the figures issued by the NHS.
“Obviously grief is a very normal reaction following the loss of a loved one, but the circumstances surrounding Grenfell fire are anything but normal,” – he said.
Later he added that apart of offering a psychological therapy one can offer support for enhancing people’s housing situation that would enhance the well-being of the grief-stricken.
“For some people, it’s taken a long time to get past a barrier around feelings of shame, or stigma, or other concerns that they have about coming forward and accessing help,” – said Bailey.
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Nihad's Great North Run for Caoimhe Mary Harris
CAOIMHE'S STORY:
As a Fundraiser for the NSPCC I meet inspirational people on a daily basis.
I first met Paul Harris in January 2015. Paul is a Deputy Headteacher at a Primary School in Gateshead who - for the last 4 years - has raised over £50,000 through personal challenges and through inspiring others to raise money for the NSPCC.
Paul has worked tirelessly to raise money in memory of his two year old daughter, Caoimhe Harris, who sadly passed away suddenly on the 10th February 2011.
Although I had never met Caoimhe I felt like I knew her
Although I had never met Caoimhe I felt like I knew her from the stories Paul told me. Her life was a blessing for Paul and so many others. The effort he has put into fundraising for the NSPCC has helped to keep her memory alive and it has helped the NSPCC to reach thousands of children at risk of abuse in the North East.
After meeting Paul I knew that I had to do the Great North Run. I knew that I had to do the Great North Run in Caoimhe's name.
I will be doing the run in Fancy Dress in the ridiculous MONKEY COSTUME you see above which was randomly picked from my sponsors suggestions in June. Yes, I really will be running the Great North Run in that!
Thank you for taking the time to read this, I really appreciate it.
Any support you can give, big or smal, will be gratefully received. Please click to the left if you'd like to
leave a donation. 100% of the money will go to the NSPCC.
Yours gratefully,
Nihad xxx
Miss Tessa OCallaghan £10.00 15/09/2015
Nice one Nihad! Loving the outfit :) Tess
I’ll make it even for you. Well done!
Good Luck Nihad! I hope it all goes really well-sorry I can’t be there to chivvy you on! Sophie x
Mrs Barbara Cook £20.00 07/09/2015
Go Nihad, Go, but I think all this monkey business may well increase your finish time. Last nights run was a fantastic time, just keep focused, you can do it. You ran at a much quicker pace than Steve and I cycled last night!!! We will be cheering you on come Sunday. Good Luck xxx
Miss Nejra Cehic £36.00 27/06/2015
Good luck!! I would like you to wear a tortoise outfit with a sign saying ’Slow and Steady Wins the Race’ Green tortoise = NSPCC colour enjoy! xxx
£419.16 25/06/2015
Thank you from the NSPCC
£10.00 15/05/2015
Caoimhe Mary Harris
Paul and Little Caoimhe
Paul and Caoimhe
Caoimhe Enjoying an Ice Cream
Paul Fundraising for Caoimhe
My outfit! Like I'm being carried by a tiny Gorilla!
There aren't any diary entries yet
Fund owners can add diary entries in the Manage Account section of the site
Donate to Nihad's Great North Run for Caoimhe Mary Harris
In memory of: Caoimhe Harris
With Gift Aid: £903.37
Run by: Nihad Cehic
Target: £800.00
Show all Light a Lanternfor the Nihad's Great North Run for Caoimhe Mary Harris
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Patent Law Primer
Submit a Demand
By Patent
By Sender
By Law Firm
Patent #US8209389
Patent Title:
System and method for verifying delivery and integrity of electronic messages
Patent Abstract:
In order to provide third party verification of the content and delivery of an electronic message such as an e-snail, a server receives the e-mail intended to be sent or forwarded to a specified addressee, and “tags” the message to indicate that it is “registered” with the provider of the service. The server then establishes a direct telnet connection with the addressee's Mail User Agent (MUA), and transmits the tagged email to the addressee's MUA, as well as to the MUA's of any other addressees. After receiving responses from the receiving MUA's that the message was successfully received, the server then creates and forwards to the message originator an electronic receipt. The receipt includes one or more, and preferably all of, the following: the original message including any original attachments; a delivery success/failure table listing which addressee's MUA's successfully received the message and at what time, and for which MUA's there was a delivery failure; and a digital signature corresponding to the message and attachments. By receiving the receipt at a later date and verifying that the digital signature matches the message and related information, the operators of the system can provide independent third party verification that the receipt is a genuine product of their system and that the information pertaining to content and delivery of the message is accurate, without the need to archive either the original message or the receipt.
Google Patents page
Find prior art on Google Patents
Stack Exchange page
USPTO Assignment page
USPTO Patents page
Related Demand Letters
RPost 2013-07-05
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Northern Standard (Darwin, NT : 1921 - 1955)
TEST ISAACS APPOINTMENT
The combined Empire Societies which obtained legal opinions recently as to the validity of the method of appointing Sir Isaac
Tue 17 Feb 1931 - Northern Standard (Darwin, NT : 1921 - 1955)
Page 4 - TEST ISAACS APPOINTMENT
The combined Empire Societies
which obtained legal opinions re-
cently as to the validity of thc
method of appointing Sir Isaac
Isaacs to the Governor-Generalship
intend to take further action.
London, January 20.—Lord Beau-
champ, on meeting dozens of friends
in Parliament this afternoon, spoke
glowingly about Australia. "I met
many old and new friends," he said,
"and received nothing but the most
wonderful hospitality." Discussing
with a newspaper interviewer, the
Australian born Governor-General
appointment, Lord Beauchamp was
surprised it had aroused such a
controversy. "I repeat, I approve of
it," he said. He added that returning
to Australia after 30 years' absence,
he found the people not the slight-
est degree less loyal to the throne,
than when he left. "They took a
great pride in an Australian born
having the highest position in the
land. The question, apparently was
misunderstood here. When I speak
at the National Liberal Club on
January 28 I intend to deal with
this matter."
TEST ISAACS APPOINTMENT (1931, February 17). Northern Standard (Darwin, NT : 1921 - 1955), p. 4. Retrieved January 22, 2020, from http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48057173
"TEST ISAACS APPOINTMENT" Northern Standard (Darwin, NT : 1921 - 1955) 17 February 1931: 4. Web. 22 Jan 2020 <http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48057173>.
1931 'TEST ISAACS APPOINTMENT', Northern Standard (Darwin, NT : 1921 - 1955), 17 February, p. 4. , viewed 22 Jan 2020, http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48057173
{{cite news |url=http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article48057173 |title=TEST ISAACS APPOINTMENT |newspaper=[[Northern Standard]] |location=Northern Territory, Australia |date=17 February 1931 |access-date=22 January 2020 |page=4 |via=Trove }}
Northern Standard (Darwin, NT : 1921 - 1955), Tue 17 Feb 1931, Page 4 - TEST ISAACS APPOINTMENT
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Imago 21.2
Posted on April 13, 2013 by wildbow
Atlas started to falter. Compared to humans and other animals, bugs didn’t quite have the same ability to push themselves past the breaking point. Most bugs were small, and their bodies were hyperefficient, condensed down to the essential elements. If a bug needed to be able to leap, to lunge or to fly, it maintained a certain capacity and it didn’t generally go beyond that. It wasn’t absolute, but I’d found it was a definite trend.
In brief, there wasn’t really a hundred-and-ten-percent. When Atlas started demonstrating fatigue and difficulty in carrying me, I wasted no time in setting him down on the ground.
I ran my hand along the giant beetle’s shell while Tattletale and Rachel caught up.
“Problem?” Tattletale asked.
“No,” I said. “Yes. Can I catch a ride on a dog?”
“Yeah,” Rachel said. She whistled, loud and sharp enough that I flinched, and swept her finger in my direction. One of her dogs took the cue and approached me.
“What’s wrong with Atlas?” Tattletale asked.
“He’s wearing out,” I said. My voice sounded flat. “During the Echidna fight, I saw how quickly he was getting tired, and I chalked it up to the fact that he hadn’t eaten properly while separated from me… but I’ve been realizing that it’s more than that. I haven’t figured out the perfect diet to give him absolutely everything he needs, and I’m only barely managing to maintain an equilibrium. Every time he gets hurt, every time he gets tired, there’s general wear and tear I can’t compensate for.”
“I’m sorry,” Tattletale said.
“That’s the way things go, isn’t it? Nothing works a hundred percent right.”
“I suppose you’re right,” she said. “I have to wonder, when you named him, what was the idea behind calling him Atlas?”
“My mom raised me as a reader,” I said. “He’s a giant-sized Hercules beetle, and the only name-upgrade I could think of from Hercules was the titan Atlas.”
“The titan who bears the weight of the world on his shoulders. Apropos.”
“And like his master, he’s having trouble with his burden?”
“I’m really not in the mood for the Tattletale psychoanalysis.” I climbed onto the dog’s back. It wasn’t one I knew well, and moved away from me as I climbed up its side, making the process more awkward. Rachel made sound that was almost a bark, almost an ‘ah!’, and the animal went still.
“Maybe it’s not exactly what you want, but what if it can help?” Tattletale asked.
“My issues aren’t ones that can be fixed with words,” I said. “Unless you have any insights to offer about Tagg, a way to make this world suddenly make sense, or a way to make people stop being such assholes, such morons, then I’m not sure I want to hear it.”
“He got to you.”
“No,” I said, shaking my head. “Nothing he said-”
“But he got to you, even if you ignore everything he said.”
“Armsmaster,” I said. “Kaiser. Purity. Miss Militia. Piggot. Dragon… a bunch of others I can’t even be bothered to think of. Why is it so hard to find someone who’s willing to cooperate? To find someone that’s on the same page as me? They keep making these calls I just can’t understand, sometimes unfathomable, stupid calls, and things keep falling apart.”
“They probably look at you and wonder why you can’t fall in line with their perception of the way things should go.”
I shook my head. “It’s not like that.”
Tattletale didn’t interject or argue.
I struggled to find the words. “…What I’m talking about, ideas like keeping the peace, keeping people safe, making sure that everyone’s safe, it’s… they’re not complicated. This is basic stuff. If we can’t get the fundamentals right, then how are we supposed to handle the more complicated stuff, like keeping this city running, or stopping war from breaking out?”
“If we could all handle the fundamental stuff, the larger issues wouldn’t exist.”
“No, he… there’s no way it makes any sense, whether you’re talking fundamentals or larger scale. He attacked a school to, how did he say it, to give me a bloody nose?”
“It’s probably more complicated than that. You know as well as anyone that we put on a mask and play a role when dealing with our enemies. He was playing up a certain attitude because he knew it was the only way to get to you.”
“Why did he have to ‘get to me’?”
“You attacked him.”
“I mean, why did it even have to get to that point? They weren’t as aggressive with Kaiser and Purity, when unpowered members of Empire Eighty-Eight were dragging people from their homes. They didn’t act on this scale when the ABB was dealing in hard drugs and ambushing people on the street to tell them that because of where their parents were born, that they had to be soldiers, prostitutes or pay money every month in tribute. They were doing that to middle schoolers.”
“You took over a city.”
“How is that worse? How does that even compare to those other guys?”
“It doesn’t compare,” Tattletale said. She hopped down from Bentley’s back. She paced between Rachel and I, thumbs hooked into her belt. Rachel stared at me, her expression unreadable, her mask dangling around her neck by a strap. Tattletale continued, “Not really. But it means a world of difference to them. They have to care about appearances.”
“Maintaining appearances is so important that they have to attack a school? Break the unwritten rules?”
“I could go on a whole spiel about the unwritten rules. But that’s not important. For people like Tagg and Piggot, it’s cape business, and they’re not quite part of that. And yeah, appearances are worth putting kids at risk, for what they’re facing. Things are just calming down here-”
Rachel snorted.
“-But they’re only picking up for the PRT. They’re running scared, hemorrhaging members. They’re falling apart, and they’re big enough in the grand scheme of things that we don’t even know the repercussions if this keeps going on. Every team that fights the Endbringers relies on the Protectorate for information, for backup, equipment and even periodic training. But even beyond that, beyond the capes, there are hundreds of millions of people around the world who are watching the Protectorate, looking to them for reassurance. Our perspectives and feelings are barely a factor in the face of those hundreds of millions of watching eyes.”
“Barely a factor.”
Tattletale shrugged. “They put on a brave face, they put a tenacious fucker in office here, and they gear up to take a bite out of us. They don’t want to win. Not completely, not all at once. They need us, because they don’t have the capes to dedicate to protecting this territory, not even with the possibility that the portal becomes something big. They aim to take you out, destabilize us, and maybe then they hope to focus on the other bad guys. The Teeth, the Fallen, anyone else who shows up and doesn’t play by the rules. They do something to assure the world that they’re still relevant, and they keep the balance, all with a minimum of resources expended.”
“And in doing that, they fuck with the rules, and they attack a high school.”
“Are you really surprised that they broke the rules? We have, Piggot did, when she wanted to drop bombs on us while letting us act as decoys for bigger threats. The rules are only useful so long as they protect the status quo, and Brockton Bay bent the status quo over backwards and fucked it a long time ago.”
“And the school?”
“Dinah,” she said. “They had some basic, hard numbers saying that you wouldn’t do something disastrous, and they have PR to clean up the mess afterwards. I suspect there’ll be something in the news early tomorrow. They’ll say you were an undeniable threat, they’ll twist things around, fudge the truth or outright lie, and they’ll suppress anything that contradicts that line. After that, they’ll have Tagg and the local heroes keep looking to take a bite out of us, do some damage they can put on camera, for the benefit of the hundreds of millions of watching eyes, and they’ll keep at us until they do. He was being honest about that much.”
I clenched my fist. I didn’t want to think about Dinah.
“Sorry,” she said. “But it’s better you know this in advance, so it doesn’t blindside you when the news-”
“Rachel,” I interrupted Tattletale.
“What?” Rachel asked. Her eyes hadn’t left me.
“Can I borrow this dog? I’ll look after him.”
“He needs to eat. Can you get him back to me by tomorrow morning?”
“I asked Tattletale to ship dog food to every headquarters, the same kinds you feed your dogs, just in case,” I said. “Not tomorrow morning, but I’ll make sure he eats.”
Tattletale frowned, “Skitter, we need to talk about-”
“I got the gist of it,” I said. “Did you ship the food?”
I looked to Rachel, “I’ll walk him, make sure he has food and water.”
“No need for a walk,” Rachel said. “Boston terriers don’t need more than one a day.”
“I’ll come for him tomorrow afternoon,” she said. As an afterthought, she said, “His name is Radley.”
“Thank you,” I said.
No questions, no pressure, no explanations. It was just Rachel, stepping outside of her comfort zone and trusting one of her dogs to someone. It helped more than everything Tattletale had said put together.
Not that that was saying much.
“Let’s go, Radley.”
Radley hesitated to obey. I half-expected Rachel to urge him forward, but she didn’t say a thing, apparently content to let me take charge.
I was glad when he started running, glad on so many levels.
Moving felt good. It wasn’t me running, my feet pounding on the ground, but feeling Radley’s muscles shift beneath me, feeling the impacts of his feet on the ground, jolting through my body to the point that I had to clench my teeth to keep from biting my tongue, it was good.
I’d always liked the sensation of the wind in my hair. It was cleansing, soothing, if not relaxing. It was cool, when the air around me was warm and humid.
I shifted position, holding on with only one hand, and pulled off my mask with the other. The world was blurry, I didn’t have the extra hand to don my glasses, but I could feel the wind in my face now. I shut my eyes, trusting to Radley and my swarm-sense to navigate the streets.
But where was I supposed to go?
I wanted to see Dinah, knew it was the last place I should go. I already knew the answers, already knew that the conclusion was a foregone one. Didn’t want to think about it, just like I didn’t want to think about those two pieces of paper she’d left in the car before we’d parted ways. I was actively trying not to think about them, as a matter of fact.
Dinah had left me two messages, and I had little doubt that she’d done it that way for a reason. To meet her now, it would go against that, it would put me in the heroes’ sights, and it would crystallize things I didn’t even want to think about into a single discussion.
My dad? No. There was nothing to say, no signal that would work. If he was even there, I wasn’t sure I wanted to see the media around his place, or the Protectorate, the reminder that I hadn’t just abandoned him, but that my very existence was inconveniencing him.
I steered Radley around a corner, hauling on one of the chains. I wasn’t really strong enough to make him turn his head, but Rachel had trained him to respond to slight cues, and it seemed his personality was more cooperative than not. If he’d been stubborn, he could have chosen to run up until Bitch’s power wore off. Not that I really minded.
“Good boy,” I said.
What was I supposed to do? I didn’t have any hobbies. For one and a half years, I’d just been trying to get by, managing with school, reading, surfing the web aimlessly. Once my powers had manifested, my hobby had been preparing for the idea that I’d go out as a superhero. I’d had only this and my day-to-day life as Taylor since then, and only one of those things had survived the day.
We ran with no destination, until Radley had foam flecking the corner of his mouth, and the meat of his back started shifting position in a way that suggested he was shrinking.
At my instruction, Radley slowed to a walk, then a complete stop. I slid off his back. Holding the chain, I led him in a walk. It served to help me work the kinks out of my arms and legs, and it let Radley cool down after the run, flesh sloughing away around him. Atlas followed, flying above us.
I wanted to see Brian, didn’t want to continue our discussion from earlier.
I itched to deal with one of my enemies, to ride off to battle and do something about the Teeth or the Fallen, but I didn’t trust that I’d be focused enough to tackle the situation and fight at my best.
I couldn’t imagine I’d be focused after a good night’s sleep, either.
Radley couldn’t walk any more, and I waited while the last of his body sloughed away, gathering up the chains. It made for a surprising amount of weight, especially when it was all coiled up into a single length.
One chain had a collar on it. I found Radley’s real body in the fluid-filled sac that encased him, and punctured it to get my hands on him. I managed to attach the collar, and clipped one end of a chain to it. I gave Atlas some of the chain, and lifted the remainder over my head, shouldering the burden.
Without Atlas or Radley to carry me, I faced a long walk, even if I wasn’t sure where I wanted to go.
Time to think, without any outside forces to interject.
Damn Tagg. I hated that my conversation with him was among the most recent, the one that I couldn’t help but dwell on.
Where the hell had Radley and I even gone? What was even close by, here? Captain’s hill? The woods? The upper end of Grue’s territory? What would even motivate me to come this way?
I kept walking. Part of it was that I couldn’t bring myself to go back to my territory, to answer the questions of my underlings. Another part of it was that I knew I’d wake up after a fitful night’s sleep, and I would resume being Skitter. I would be Skitter with anyone and everyone I interacted with for a long time.
My confused thoughts crystallized into a realization when I found a short stone wall topped by an iron grille railing, sharp points spearing toward the sky, protecting the inhabitants of the property.
I scooped up Radley with one arm and scaled the wall.
The ground was soft, thick with bugs. The area was dense with trees, once young, now overgrown. The air was cooler here, thanks to the shade the trees had offered during the day and the wind that blew down from the surrounding hills.
I took a seat on the grass.
“Oh boy,” I said, “Where do I even begin?”
Radley seemed to think I was talking to him. He approached and nudged me with his nose. I scratched behind his ears, gently. I’d altered the armor of my gloves, and they ended more in points. Radley seemed to like it, pushing against my fingertips, his eyes half-closing.
“I guess I should say I’m sorry it’s been so long, mom,” I said, still scratching Radley.
The headstone, naturally, didn’t respond. There were only the words:
Annette Rose Hebert
She taught something precious to each of us.
“It’s… it’s sort of humiliating, to think about everything in context. I get this knot in my chest, right up near my collarbone, when I think about getting into everything, about filling you in and catching you up on the past few months. It’s almost harder than it’d be to explain to dad, and I never even managed to do that.”
Silence lingered. We were remote enough that there weren’t even the sounds of the city. Oblivion, as clean as it might be in Grue’s darkness.
“I guess things have kind of turned upside down. That whole superhero thing I told you about, before? It… really didn’t work out.”
I laughed a little, a small sound, humorless.
Radley climbed into my lap and turned around until he was nestled in place.
“And it’s like… if I even started to tell you everything that went on, all of the stuff that dad’s probably finding out about? Stuff maybe worse than what I was saying to intimidate Dragon and Defiant, on the cell phone videos that made it to the news? I don’t think I could manage it. It’s- how did I even get to this point? I did horrible things, stuff that makes me feel three feet tall when I just imagine telling you or dad about it, and the stupid thing is I’m not sure what I would’ve done different if I had to do it all over again.
“So where do I begin? How do I even frame it all? Everything’s flipped around. I’m not alone anymore. I have maybe a hundred and fifty people working for me, some people who trust me with their lives, others who owe me their lives. I’ve got Lisa and Brian. Rachel. There’s Alec and Aisha too, but I’m not as close to them. We’ve, uh, we’ve been through a lot. Life and death stuff. On television, in the movies and in books, you sort of get the impression that you make it past the one big hurdle, and you’re bound together by circumstance. It happened a lot in the books you read to me at night. Not so much in reality.
“Except getting through the crisis doesn’t mean we’re all together forever, without our issues. We’re close. We’re closer, in the aftermath of it all, but I’m not sure where Brian and I stand. Right now, when I’m maybe feeling lower than I have in forever, I don’t even feel like I can talk to them.”
My swarm detected someone traveling the grounds. I glanced over in that direction, saw the dim glow of a flashlight. It didn’t turn my way, and in a minute, he was gone. A caretaker of the grounds. Groundskeeper? Whichever.
“Brian wants to address the problem, Lisa wants to understand it. I’d go to Rachel, will probably go to Rachel, but I don’t know that I can really talk about any of this with her. I don’t know if she has any real conception of what I lost, today. I don’t want to suggest you’re the last person I’d turn to, but I think the real reason I came here was because I wasn’t sure where else to go, to have someone to listen.”
I sighed. Radley echoed me, doing the same, supine in my lap, eyes closed.
“Um. I’ve gone from an insignificant nobody to someone that’s being talked about all over the world. I didn’t even really mean to, but I kind of wound up taking over a city. It needed doing, so I did it, and we can’t give up the job because others would step in to take over, and they wouldn’t be as fair to the locals, I don’t think. Tattle- Lisa was saying she thinks the authorities are holding back because they need us here. They don’t like us, they don’t like me, but we’re a fixture, now. So here I am, and governments on the other side of the planet are probably discussing contingency scenarios and the possibility of bad guys taking over their towns. I’m on the news, and I’m all over the internet, and I guess even your name’s come up. Dad’s too.”
I pulled my mask from where I’d tucked it into my belt and turned it over. I held it up so it was facing the headstone.
“I guess I should get around to saying it outright. I’m a supervillain. Crime lord of Brockton Bay. It’s not as bad as it sounds. Or maybe it’s worse. I’ve saved lives. Fought Leviathan, fought the Slaughterhouse Nine and Echidna. I’ve also taken a life. Fought the heroes, and hurt people who probably didn’t deserve it, just to make a point.”
I had to stop there. I sighed, then turned to stare out over the unlit graveyard and the city beyond the short walls.
“This whole thing, I didn’t really ask for any of it. I made myself into this… entity, just to get by. I’ll probably have to keep doing it. I tried to avoid hurting people out of anger, but that sounds pretty feeble when I look at what I’ve done. A little while back, there was this guy who was dying. One of the Merchants. The man had taken a boy away from his sister and did some shitty stuff in general. Hurt people. I left him there to die, and part of the reason I did it was because I knew I needed to be harder, to reassure myself that I could kill another man when the time came. Which I did.
“I told myself I was doing that to save a little girl. I don’t even know why I made it as big a deal as I did. Saving Dinah. Some of it might have been because I was trying to do what was right, and because I wasn’t sure anyone else would be able to do anything about it. But the more I think on it, the more I think I was trying to make up for the bad stuff I’d already done.”
There were a fresh set of flowers in the small, narrow vase at the base of the headstone. I picked it up and studied it. Had my dad paid a visit earlier in the evening?
“She turned on me, you know,” I said. “The girl I saved. And I think I sort of know why she did it. I understand the rationale. I don’t even blame her.”
I fished the two little notes from my belt. I’d crumpled and flattened them out so many times they were little better than tissue paper. I hadn’t wanted to read them, but I hadn’t been able to throw them away, either.
“Shit,” I muttered. “What gets me, more than anything, is the injustice of it all. There’s no karmic retribution, no reward for good deeds or punishments for the bad. It’s almost the opposite. It might explain why the Protectorate’s in such rough shape.
“I do horrible things, kill a man, and I can’t even bring myself to feel bad about it. I scared innocents, did property damage, attacked good heroes who were trying to protect the city and the shitty heroes who were doing the job for selfish reasons, and I get rewarded. Power, prestige, respect.”
I straightened out the notes so they were each flat, being careful not to tear them.
“And I save a girl from the clutches of an evil, scheming crime lord, and this is my reward.”
I held out the papers for the tombstone. Two squares of paper. Each had a number in the upper left corner, circled, to indicate the order the notes should be read in. Two words for the first note, two and a half for the second.
1. Cut ties.
2. I’m sorry.
“Let me tell you, mom. If there are two and a half words you don’t want to hear from a person who can see the future, those words are ‘I’m sorry’. It’s terrifying. She gave me instructions, and I didn’t follow them. I knew, I almost did it, several times over, but I didn’t make the call. I didn’t leave dad. So maybe that’s why she forced my hand by going to the authorities and telling them to out me.”
I took my time folding up the notes, tucking them into my belt.
“I guess this next bit must be important, if she was willing to do this to me after everything I did for her. Maybe it’s for the greater good. Maybe it gives me the greatest chance at surviving what comes next.”
I tensed as the groundskeeper with the flashlight appeared again. The flashlight turned my way, but he didn’t seem to notice me.
“She says she’s sorry, and it’s like… I’m not mad at her. I don’t blame her, because she’s just one piece of a bigger picture, and she’s a pawn in it all, just like me. It’s everything that’s fucked up, isn’t it? The whole dynamic where wrongs get rewarded and right gets punished, some of the good guys turning out to be worse than the worst of the bad, the sheer lack of cooperation, when there’s not just one apocalypse coming, but two. The Endbringers and this thing with Jack Slash.”
I sighed.
“I’ve spent far too much time looking at these notes, wondering why she wrote them, interpreting them, and considering the worst case scenarios. I’ve thought about it until I started thinking in circles. I keep coming back to different facets of the same idea.”
I could imagine her there. My mom, standing in front of me, a physical presence. All of her gentleness and warmth. Her silent, quiet disapproval. Her brilliance, which she couldn’t share with me right now.
I felt a sort of relief. Being able to talk it out, it helped clarify my thoughts where I’d felt so lost, before. I was feeling more direction, now. I could see a goal, something to aim for. I didn’t like it, but I’d known from the moment I read Dinah’s notes that I wouldn’t like the outcome.
“I’ve got to be heartless, I think,” I said, and my voice was barely above a whisper. I was aware of the groundskeeper approaching, but I didn’t move. “I know you and dad won’t approve of this, but Dinah seems to think I have a bigger role to play in what comes next, and maybe I won’t be in the right position, in the right place at the right time, if I don’t do it.”
Radley stirred, reacting to the noise of the groundskeeper’s footsteps. I held his collar to keep him from attacking.
I moved Radley, stood and faced the groundskeeper. I could see the whites of his eyes in the gloom, even through the glare of the flashlight. He was older, round-faced, with a potbelly, his hair a bit too long.
His look was wary. The girl in a black body suit complete with gray body armor, in the company of a small dog, sitting by a grave.
“I’m sorry to intrude,” I said. “I’ll leave.”
He peered at me, then glanced at my mom’s headstone. “You’re visiting?”
“My mother.”
“Not causing any trouble?”
“I won’t begrudge you that, so long as you don’t cause any trouble or leave any mess. You clean up after that dog.”
I nodded again, silent. I didn’t have bags, but I had bugs.
His expression softened a touch. “You need anything? I’ll be making some tea before I get another walk in later tonight, but I could brew a spot of coffee if you think you’ll be sitting out here for a bit.”
I felt tears in the corners of my eyes. Odd, that they hadn’t appeared earlier.
“Tea would be…” I struggled to find the word. I almost said lovely, but it sounded wrong. “Tea, please, if it’s no trouble.”
“I’ll bring out a cup.”
“And paper?” I blurted out the words.
“I only have printer paper, I think.”
“How many pages?”
I opened my mouth to say, but I had no idea.
Again, a gentle expression that I didn’t deserve crossed his face. “I’ll bring you a good amount. You bring the leftover back to my office when you return the teacup.”
“Thank you,” I told him.
It was a little while before he arrived with the tea, the paper and a pen. I didn’t speak to my mother’s headstone in the meantime, and even after the groundskeeper stopped by, I couldn’t find anything to say.
I wrote; twelve pages, front and back. It wasn’t a fast process. Two hours passed before the groundskeeper did another patrol of the grounds. I wasn’t sure if it was his job or a thing he did because he had nothing else to do, but he finished up and retired in a little house a little ways up the hill, turning in for the night.
My hand was cramping and I had a stitch in my neck by the time I’d decided I was finished. Too many hours spent writing with the paper pressed against the armor on my leg, considering how to phrase things, knowing that there was no perfect way to say it.
I penned the final words:
I love you, dad. I’m sorry
-Taylor
I removed the flower from the vase, and laid it at the foot of the headstone. I rolled up the paper and slid it into the vase, then placed it upside-down so the rain wouldn’t filter inside. My dad would be the only one to see it. If someone like the groundskeeper investigated, I didn’t particularly mind.
I stood, stretching. Radley wagged his tail at me, excited to be moving again. He was a happy, easygoing little guy. Had Rachel sent him with me with his personality in mind?
I thought about saying something more to my mom, but the illusion had been shattered. I’d made a decision, and it wasn’t one I’d been prepared to make when I’d left the PRT headquarters. Talking had helped to clarify my thoughts. I didn’t feel as lost as I had, nor as frustrated. I’d been able to pen out an explanation for my dad. Not as long or as in-depth as he deserved, perhaps, but an explanation.
“Thanks for hearing me out,” I said, acutely aware that she wasn’t there, that she wasn’t listening. “I’m going to be busy, so it’ll probably be a while before I drop by again. Sorry.”
I walked away with a lump in my throat, my head held high, and a direction in mind.
This entry was posted in 21.02 and tagged Atlas, Bentley, Rachel, Tattletale, Taylor, Taylor's Mom by wildbow. Bookmark the permalink.
369 thoughts on “Imago 21.2”
wildbow on April 13, 2013 at 00:01 said:
Was very nearly late, and it would’ve been my fault. Forgot to schedule it for 00:01am, so it would’ve gone up at 8:37am instead. The horror.
Hope you enjoy. If you’re up to it, a vote on topwebfiction would be excellent.
Have a good weekend, guys. Three updates next week (thoughts on the Thurs update being a regular chapter?)
Adam on April 13, 2013 at 00:13 said:
I am always in favor of more of the regular storyline, if you are up to them.
Also: Damn good chapter. Though I was surprised the groundskeeper didn’t recognize her–must not watch TV much.
Who says he didn’t?
inventorfrog on December 1, 2015 at 17:19 said:
OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooooooh………
Luciepat on July 19, 2018 at 07:46 said:
I assumed that he did and was just one of the many people affected for the better
Watercolorheart on April 22, 2019 at 17:08 said:
He’s in Grue’s territory which is right next to Skitter’s.
Pandemonious Ivy on April 13, 2013 at 00:22 said:
I second this. Unless you have a special/particularly fantastic Interlude for us, I definitely would prefer seeing where Taylor’s story is going right now. Seeing her so unhinged (it’s even more obvious since I’m reading the latest entries alongside former entries) is extremely peculiar, heartbreaking, and overall, intruiging.
I especially loved Rachel’s amazing show of trust. It seems like those two get closer every day.
Also, the groundskeeper most likely knew who she was but also could tell she was someone who lost a loved one, like most other people. Good man.
OI, WILDBOW, Can we name the groundskeeper?
No One in Particular on April 13, 2013 at 00:27 said:
Same for me. I’m always in a hurry to see what’s happening next!
If its okay with wildbow to name him, my suggestion is frank. A reference to the groundskeeper that appears n the first chapter of harry potter, book 4. And he seems like a frank, kind man. It fits him.
It’s ok with me to name him.
Frank the Groundskeeper, honorary Undersider. I like this.
Named a character! Childish fan glee! 😀
Psycho Gecko on April 13, 2013 at 07:59 said:
Frank. Good name. I wouldn’t be surprised if his middle name was Earnest.
Rika Covenant on April 13, 2013 at 10:59 said:
Is his last name Worrell?
It seems Frank knows the importance of being earnest.
Cultist on October 20, 2013 at 23:20 said:
jueueuergen on March 2, 2015 at 17:56 said:
In my mind he always was Frank, I made the connection instantly (for the same reason). I’m glad and not surprised that you chose that name 🙂
Packbat on April 13, 2013 at 00:23 said:
Plus, if he’s a groundskeeper at a graveyard, he probably knows what a heartbroken kid visiting a mother’s grave looks like.
Trusting on April 13, 2013 at 00:45 said:
now im picturing him as TV’s Frank from mystery science theater 3000
endgame on April 13, 2013 at 00:52 said:
So /that’s/ what happened to him!
… So, does that mean MST3K takes place in the Wormverse, or did the Simurgh dimension-hop him there?
seras on April 13, 2013 at 00:43 said:
Are you ever going to do like an e book of this maybe with some fanart or something?
Eventually.
Only hurdles are getting a good edit, finding the time to rewrite sections and finding the time to navigate the various hurdles of getting it out and on digital bookshelves.
T on January 3, 2014 at 18:31 said:
FWIW, I’d buy this as a paper book. I will not buy eBooks, because the editing is usually crappy, the author makes less, and they charge *more* for most of them than the paper editions. The reading experience is usually pretty crappy for eBooks as well, and I say this as someone who worked on creating the iPad and several Android based book readers.
I probably understand if you didn’t want to go that route, since it requires you to edit the story line to climactic boundaries that correspond to book endings. The typical requirements by a publisher for a first time author of a novel are 110,000 words; you might get away with less for a TOR book, if they published it instead.
Baron on August 20, 2016 at 12:24 said:
I’ve been reading this non-stop for a couple weeks. I really really really really hope this gets published. As a “real” book. Heck, I’d even buy a hard cover.
If you’re still checking the comments I’d love to hear if you’ve made any progress on that front.
Kendall on December 15, 2016 at 07:14 said:
I’m in the same boat as Baron, just a few months later.
Champtain on January 8, 2017 at 23:52 said:
And here I am, yet another month later. Going strong.
Every time it’s mentioned on reddit there’s always a call for a book release, too. A huge part of why I started reading it to begin with.
Goju_Ryu on January 19, 2017 at 10:41 said:
Me too. I have read a lot of books, but worm is better than anything i have ever read before. It is simply amazing!
izoughe on April 11, 2017 at 13:21 said:
I also got here from Reddit, and I think Worm is the most engaging, most entertaining piece of fiction I’ve ever read. I only recently read Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality, and I thought it would be a long time before I found something else that measured up to that same standard, but I think Worm takes the cake.
The observer on April 20, 2017 at 23:07 said:
Agreed this is the greatest story I’ve read so far. I would love to be able to support Wildbow and get him the regcontion he deserves. Also I know it will never happen but I would love to see Worm adapted to a tv show or comic book. If it was done with real effort and talent put into it and respect for the source material I think it would be amazing.
Dread Pirate on July 16, 2017 at 00:04 said:
I won’t say Worm is the best story I’ve ever read, but it is definitely on the same level as the best. (My other favorites include the Dresden Files, The Tower of God (a webtoon), and pretty much any book by Brandon Sanderson). Worm is one of the greats. So glad I found it.
Is there an archive of these pages in a ZIP anywhere, comments included?
Camo005 on April 13, 2013 at 01:39 said:
I’d prefer a regular chapter to an interlude at the moment. Taylor’s situation is really interesting to me right now. Of course if the interlude featured the Ward’s reactions to Taylor’s being outted that would be awesome.
Patrick Reitz (@dreamfarer) on April 13, 2013 at 07:10 said:
Seems like there’s a consensus on interest being keen on following Taylor. We just can’t wait to see what happens next with her.
So you know what that means of course?
Interlude us!
Yeah, the mid-chapter interludes bug me a bit. They interrupt the flow of the story.
The interludes are all interesting in their own rights, even the Witness one, but it’s a bit annoying when they come after a…section? page? which bordered a high-intensity moment.
Butagami on October 20, 2017 at 19:44 said:
Years later, here I am crossing this point in what will probably be the first of many re-reads, and I have one small (?) request. I would really like it to read Taylor’s letter to her dad. I’d like to read how she explains, justifies and owns up to her actions towards her dad, who she has felt guilty of lying to since arc 1.
I hope I’m not the only one who thinks this, but with the readership you’ve justifiably built up over the years, I don’t expect I am either.
I can’t wait for the sequel, and for the eventual book release(s)
Godspeed, Wildbow, godspeed
First, or second. Whatever. AWESOME CHAPTER WILDBOW.
…I feel like a douche. *actually goes to read it*
RazorSmile on April 13, 2013 at 00:08 said:
Third! And now to read.
throwaawy on April 13, 2013 at 00:13 said:
and now we move on from “what’s on dinah’s notes?” to “what’s in the letters!”
still kinda bummed she felt she couldn’t accept any help from her friends, but at least she managed to vent somehow. yay?
Chances are it’s the story of how she ended up “Skitter, Leader of the Undersiders and Crime Lord of Brockton Bay”. She couldn’t tell him in person nor could she bring herself to speak it out loud to her mother, but she decided to write it out as a way of explaining that it wasn’t Danny’s fault.
In my mind the letters are just a printed version of Worm, exactly as written by Wildbow (I think Literary Agent Hypothesis is the trope for this?).
Yes I know there is no way that could fit on 24 pages, or even 240 pages.
I don’t think we need to see the letters — it’s probably just elaborating on the things that she admitted to doing as Skitter so Danny could understand them in context.
It felt right that she couldn’t accept help from her friends. It was Taylor that was wounded, not Skitter, and Taylor’s connections were to her mother and father.
Additionally, the difference between twelve pages of recap and four and a half sentences of accurate predictions is that no one wants to see the former, and the ltter is worth it’s weight in gold.
Four and a half words.
But yes, that’s understandable.
True, but even so…I’m glad about anything that (even if artificially) stretches the story. As long as it is related to the main story, nothing you could ever write will make me skip chapters let alone stop reading at all. Keep in mind that once you’ve established something like the Worm universe, there is little you can do to permanently drive readers away.
you know cut ties could easily mean to cut ties to the undersiders as well , maybe she gives herself up . I mean Tattletale did mention the PRT would likely pull back from harrassing the undersiders if they were able to take out skitter and how valuable the PRT is for things like training and such for end bringer attacks …..plus we keep seeing the bird cage popping up .
and it would be amusing to me if the PRT couldn’t take her down or capture her but one day she just wanders over and gives herself up .
I actually thought the cut ties line meant to them as well. But it just doesn’t vibe as well unless it is a “staying with them will lead to your downfall” type deal.
adding on to that you know dinahs earlier prediction of the PRT capturing Taylor if they did certain things like reveal her identity in a public place could still come true if taylor suddenly gave herself up because her secret ID is gone , she’s a bit unbalanced at the moment , the note says to cut ties and Tattletale mentioning how the PRT is falling apart due to the undersiders and how vital the PRT is .
Dinah knew what Taylor would think it meant when reading them, understand the truth of it, even if she didn’t give a more detailed explanation. If she meant the Undersiders, she would have mentioned them- Not her father, who she knew Taylor couldn’t separate herself from normally.
Is there any possibility the messages were for Triumph? (or whichever hero it was that read them)
I could picture that. We haven’t seen Dinah as a genius mastermind yet, but her power could fill in for that in this case, advancing an agenda in multiple ways based on who would eventually see the notes.
ohhh thats a intresting thought too
The problem with predictions is that you don’t always know what they mean until the time has come for them. We all think we know why she put I’m Sorry, and may be correct.
But maybe the time of prophecy is not yet upon us. Wait, why’d these robes show up on me, and what’s this beard doing here?…Must come standard with that sentence.
I think it’s unlikely — remember, she doesn’t see the future so much as play Twenty Questions with it. I doubt she even knew that Triumph (it was him) would see them.
His seeing or not seeing could have affected the notes getting discarded, and thus Taylor seeing.
im not understanding or maybe im misunderstanding but I thought the notes were super vauge and didn’t specifficly mention her father .
No, they were. Taylor — and many of us — are assuming that it doesn’t refer to splitting from the Undersiders, but it’s possible we’re mistaken.
thanks Packbat !
ThePagemaster on April 13, 2013 at 00:14 said:
I liked it. I thought the last installment felt a little off, but the tone there made this chapter better.
Thanks for saying so.
I wasn’t fantastically happy with that chapter either, I’m glad I’ve sorta-kinda made up for it.
That was really, really good. Not higher than third place in my favorite-Worm-chapters list, but it was special — and it gives me hope for Skitter, because it gives her closure for her life as Taylor.
The chrysalis is shed, and the exoskeleton of the imago is hardening. Enemies of the Undersiders, tremble!
(p.s. I see that I was totally wrong about Dinah’s notes, that I was probably wrong about Dinah being coerced, and that the people who said Dinah was lying about her predictions were right — I’m guessing she was giving odds on Skitter shedding her identity as Taylor rather than Skitter being captured.)
If you don’t mind me asking, what chapters deserve first and second place?
Chrysalis 20.5 and Interlude 15 (Donation Bonus #2).
What is it about those chapters you liked so much?
The feels. All the feels.
Okay, no, seriously: there’s an emotional depth to them, and resolution of something hanging overhead, that means a lot to me. Taylor put on her costume to help people, and spent months going farther and farther into the heart of the supervillain world … and in 20.5, she wins because that thing that she wanted from the start, that emotional core to her reasoning, shone through in everything she did. And Brian went through one of the most horrible experiences that any human being could, an experience he had no real way to handle, to work through … and once again, Taylor’s centeredness, her compassion, her capacity to help came through to make things better.
Like Razorsmile said, I’m not a fan of ultra-violence. I cheer when Skitter wins a fight because of what she fights for. And if she can win big without fighting, I cheer the harder for it, because victory isn’t in the monsters being beaten down and dying, but in decent people standing up and thriving.
Those are your favorites? You’re really not big on action and ultra-violence, are you? :p
Not that there’s anything wrong with that; those are definitely two of the most emotionally moving chapters in the entire series.
I hate violence, actually. If I could snap my fingers and stop anyone from being broken — physically or mentally — ever again, I would. Characters like DIrector Tagg, Glory Girl, Emma, who revel in the destruction of their opponents, I find completely unsympathetic and wrong-headed, because like I said to Rika Covenant, victory is in good people thriving, not baddies dying.
So when it comes to fights, my favorites are Skitter driving off Mannequin to protect her people in 12.6 and 12.7, defeating Coil’s ambushes in 16.11-12, and breaking Echidna in half in 19.6 — in a large part because in all three cases her motives were inherently noble — but all three of those fall behind Skitter in 12.5 warning hundreds of people that Shatterbird’s song was coming while en route to her dad’s house. And despite the relative weakness of the writing in those chapters in Hive, in spite of the fact that she was a lot weaker as a fighter and less badass as a person, I rate the fights against Oni Lee and Lung there above her curb-stomping of Prism and Triumph and intimidation of Mayor Christner in Colony — because in the one she was trying to stop two murderers from racking up their body counts, and in the other she was terrifying a relatively-innocent man into submission.
Brian on April 13, 2013 at 00:36 said:
I don’t know that we need to assume Dinah was lying.
We’ve already seen one instance (the first time we saw Dinah) in which Dinah’s original prediction was invalidated because the fact that she made the prediction itself introduced another variable (Taylor’s awareness of her condition).
My guess would be that the odds of Skitter being captured were based on a substantial probability that she would choose not to fight. However, once she learned that the PRT was using Dinah, that possibility disappeared.
How far you down to on the TVTropes related stuff, Packbat?
I was working nearer the bottom, but there were some that required their own Web Original pages that I didn’t bother with.
You mean adding Worm to the pages for its tropes? I’ve only just done the A’s — I might be able to do the B’s today, but my weekends are often heavily booked.
Ah, ok. Well, don’t have to worry about S-Z and little of M-R.
Cool. I’ll go B today, and maybe C-F Monday, so if anyone wants to G-L, that’ll finish the page.
Then we just have the character sheets!
*eyetwitch*
I know. It’s about time a certain someone was added to the Character page again…mwahahaha.
rook on April 13, 2013 at 00:19 said:
I usually just lurk around through the comments but I had to come out of the shadows to just say how beautifully this chapter just tied everything up. Two months ago, I discovered Worm and read through the backlog voraciously. Now, I wait up until midnight on update days for the next segment. Wildbow, I appreciate all the work you do. It’s amazing.
Welcome to the comments. And I wholeheartedly second everything you said.
Thank you kindly, Rook.
Out of curiosity (and this is an open question to any recent commentators): where did you come from, if you recall?
Apologies if I already wrote this, but I hail from tvtropes (though I don’t have an account). And this was before the page got revamped, so I can’t imagine how many hits you must be getting from it now. Anyway, just a word of warning: you do realize what happens when you leave your first review on this site, right?
I discovered this story by way of The Fanfiction Forum.
The way I discovered Worm is probably an odd one. One of the players in a forum game I’ve been running on Giant in the Playground posted a link to it in the out-of-character thread a couple months ago, mentioning that he was thinking about running a game set in a similar world. I think everyone in that game ended up reading through the archives pretty soon thereafter.
Forum Explorer on April 13, 2013 at 02:52 said:
Same here. I think. The game he was thinking of is just starting in fact.
I keep recognizing names from those forums in the comments. You, Lost Demiurge, a couple others. And I know Thel lurks in the comments because he sent me a PM when I posted my first “Done archive binging, and damn this is good” comment.
underwhelmingforce on April 13, 2013 at 18:34 said:
Me as well. (You would recognize me as Nyrt).
Or I could recognize you as my younger brother (though to be fair I think you may have meant to reply to Forum Explorer).
johnwedd on April 13, 2013 at 01:01 said:
I tripped and fell into the wormverse via LoN and Google. I like super hero literature, and comic books/graphic novels are much to short.
Don’t know if I ever said, but it was via word of mouth — a member of my D&D group. (Amusingly, the guy who told him found it via TV Tropes.)
Squivler on April 13, 2013 at 01:32 said:
LoN by way of a comment by PG.
I found out about Worm via
http://www.fanfiction.net/forum/The-Mechanics-of-In-Flight/88086/
Gnarker on April 13, 2013 at 01:54 said:
Tvtropes, on the Fanfic Recs for Web Originals, though if recollection serves I saw it shortly before on ‘Bad Powers, Good People’.
I’ve said quite a few times before I got here from Legion of Nothing.
Crap, recent. …ah well, just plugging Legion of Nothing then, obviously. In no way am I a horrible liar who didn’t fully read that before replying.
Primemountain on April 13, 2013 at 03:22 said:
From a friend. He probably got it from TV tropes. Once i started reading i caught up in about 36h. I am a fast reader and if i pick up a book i tend to let go when it is done.
Mishie on April 13, 2013 at 03:59 said:
I originally found out about Worm on the thread about it on DLP, but I thought it didn’t look interesting. I then made the mistake of mentioning that on the DLP IRC channel and I was then convinced to come here and read this.
2 days later I woke up and remembered that I had to go do things outside of reading awesome.
Naeblis on April 13, 2013 at 09:10 said:
What Mishie said. We also have a #parahumans on DLP’s IRC network where we talk all day about Worm. 😀
Samuel Strong Storm on April 13, 2013 at 10:16 said:
I’ll go ahead and back them up here. I’m channel founder of #parahumans and we’re all parahumans there 🙂 I came into the story late in the game, everyone else had already finished it and I decided to read. There have been some slow points where I just wanted to skip it, but never did. I’ve read every word and I have enjoyed it. I’m hard to impress, but you have done a great job doing so. By concensus, I would like to extend to you an invitation to #parahumans, anyone that wants to join. DLP is a fantastic site and the community at large is well developed and intelligent and down for discussion. Wildbow, in particular, we’re a community of artists and writers and value quality above all.
:O I think I’ll be joining that IRC, if you don’t mind?
@Rika, irc.darklordpotter.net. Right now, we’re only about 8-10 regular people over in #parahumans. You can also register on the boards, forums.darklordpotter.net. 🙂
Saintsant on April 13, 2013 at 15:36 said:
I came here by way of an advert I saw in conjunction with a webcomic I had been trying to read at the time; long story short, I was looking for something to read and… I found it! Just not the thing I was expecting but this has been a FAR better read than anything I could have found on my own.
The Sandman on April 13, 2013 at 07:27 said:
Finished reading Shadowjack’s “Where I Watch” of Sailor Moon over at the RPG.net forums, started looking around in to see if there was anything else in the “Other Media” section to read, stumbled into the thread on Worm out of idle curiosity. Spent the rest of that weekend reading through the archives. This was back in late February; I think 19.4 went up during my archive binge.
soulpelt on April 13, 2013 at 08:26 said:
TVtropes after avoiding it. The name Worm threw me off. IT was on the Web Originals page I believe. Not exactly sure.
I was an idiot. I’ve made up for though by wanting to get a major news station to recognize you! I’LL DO IT SOMEHOW!
Not Fox. I know they have most of the viewers, but not Fox.
Don’t worry Gex, soul specified major -news- station. Faux news doesn’t count.
John Galt on April 15, 2013 at 11:35 said:
Gecko, I know you delight in breaking convention as much as possible. But seriously, can we please avoid politics? Not what I come here for.
Politics has nothing to do with it. They just aren’t a real news station. Any organizational entity that resorts to scaremongering and blunt force conversation to push views towards the view they want (Exhibit A: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKzF173GqTU ), you are no longer a news outlet, you’re a propaganda machine (which, once again, doesn’t necessarily have anything to do with politics). The fact that you immediately reacted as if it was a political thing speaks more for yourself than anything else, Mr. John Galt.
Given the pulling data showing their viewers to be misinformed, I do not think highly of that outlet. If you would like to stick a penny in it, go right ahead.
polling*
Well, unless they’re just jerking their viewers around. Then we can stick with pulling.
I don’t care which one would do it! I just want Wildbow to be a national sensation!
I found a mention of it on the ‘What You Are in the Dark’ page. Specifically, the bit about Taylor stopping Leviathan from hurting the civilians in the bunker despite no one else noticing.
Actually, people DID notice… but they referred to the instance as “A hero saved us”. Which I think is quite prophetic. Skitter is becoming a fine anti-hero. To sorta-quote Batman, ‘She’s the hero Brockton Bay needs, and the one it deserves’.
Pinkhair on April 15, 2013 at 08:38 said:
Apparently, some people know it was Skitter- the kids in 20.5 mention it.
Yeah, but the general public via media only knows it as “a hero”. PR damage control and all that, I assume.
@Rika Covenant: I don’t think “the general public via media” knows anything — they stopped doing big speeches about the individual heroism of those involved in Endbringer-fights a while ago because of the whole “are we seriously going to praise Stalin for fighting Hitler” aspect and the whole “are we seriously going to just not mention that Stalin helped fight Hitler” aspect, and I could imagine that the same effect put a damper on news-channel discussion of the matter.
I’m guessing someone in the shelter saw that it was Skitter, and that’s where the kid from the cafeteria heard, but the fact never made it onto Parahumans Online.
Hmm, I remember it being mentioned that it was known in general that it was a hero that saved them, in the reports that that news bastard was getting from the kids… I’ll have to re-read the chapter.
@Rika Covenant: Did a search for “shelter” — six pages of hits, but only four relevant chapters:
Extermination 8.5: where the deed was done.
Prey 14.7: Tattletale mentions having heard the story, attributed to Skitter.
Interlude 19 (Donation Bonus #2): White Fairy, one of the major Parahumans Online forumites providing on-the-ground reports on conditions in Brockton Bay and helping people in the city, was in the shelter with her boyfriend — says “One of the heroes” bailed them out.
Chrysalis 20.5: One of the kids who helped Taylor escape from Dragon and Defiant heard that she was the one at the shelter.
DasNiveau on April 13, 2013 at 13:16 said:
Throuh deviantart and your amazing fanart
fist bumps for DasNiveau 🙂 I knew we’d get some bites from Deviant Art if we kept tosssing out shiney lures of fan artyness !
peter o on April 15, 2013 at 01:20 said:
I think it was also related to that. It was around the tome you first posted the chibis, or maybe drunkfu’s running skitter picture.
Or possibly a Baader-Meinhof complex type ofa thing. So i may be a tvtropes or even a couple of other sites i was on at the time that i finally clicked through.
Well fist bumps for you too Peter o 🙂 I like to think is some small way, goofy fan art helps draw in a new reader or two (I tried editing and adding to TV tropes but its so boring to me ) so i think i’ll stick with drawing goofy fan art with links to the stories as my way of helping to spread the word 🙂
I came this way after seeing Worm mentioned on both “Bad Powers, Good People” and “Worm That Walks”. Opened the page for Worm then was hooked ever since.
Ferdiad on April 13, 2013 at 20:19 said:
I saw the thread on DLP and It convinced me.
Veloren on April 13, 2013 at 21:07 said:
TVTropes. The most ruinous o’ gateway drugs…
Don’t you mean drug gateways?
That too!
I came to it via the Spacebattles thread which, amusingly, was started by Wildbow 😀
alexanderthesoso on April 14, 2013 at 22:03 said:
Finally got around to reading your work after talking on Top Web Fiction forums, but I’ve seen you mentioned places for over a year.
Top Web Fiction
Darkciel on April 15, 2013 at 12:36 said:
You were recommended quite a few times in the ‘Mechanics of In Flight forum’ in the recommended stories thread. I remember you posting there as well. I wasn’t particularly interested when it was brought up, but now that exams started, I delved right into it in the past two days. Great stuff!
comickry on April 16, 2013 at 03:48 said:
tvtropes. I think I was browsing quotes or something, and then I was curious…
Edward the Odd on May 6, 2013 at 06:29 said:
Rather crabwise (Is that really a word? So awesome!).
The author of http://www.grrlpowercomic.com/
asked about good superhero-stories in a facebook-post, and someone linked him to Worm. I had thad post open in a Firefox-tab for quite some time until I decided to take a closer look at all the suggestions. Worm was the fist of those I checked out, and I fear the rest won’t be nearly as good 🙂
lightdefender on January 17, 2014 at 20:59 said:
A few months later, I came from two places. First, a link was posted on a small forum I frequent. There’s a couple other people here from there as well. I also saw the author of Harry Potter and the Methods of Rationality recommend it.
And then I was bored one day and looking for something to read. It’s sucked up way too much of my life since.
Kishmond on February 20, 2015 at 17:25 said:
And much much later… I honestly don’t remember. I think it had something to do with the mspaintadventures forums. Maybe in the thread comparing Homestuck’s length to other works. I didn’t start reading it right away and actually looked through the spoiler-containing timeline because I was certain I would never read it due to its intimidating length. Luckily I did eventually decide to start reading and also luckily I forgot almost everything on the timeline.
the Gecko shall be along shortly to to perform the rite of initiation to the comments.
Clarvel on April 13, 2013 at 01:13 said:
I like how PG is our de-facto introducer of new commentators.
me too, psychopaths are much more entertaining than your typical wal-mart greeter.
*Comes out in a big white suit to the tune of “Minnie the Moocher”*
Folks, here’s a story bout Rook the Reader,
He’s come out to declare he’s a big Worm eater,
He thinks it’s truly amazing,
Now its praises he’ll sing,
Hidey hidey hidey hi!
Whoooooooooooooaaaaa!
Heedy heedy heedy hee!
Whoooooaaaaaaaaa!
He messed around with a girl named Skitter,
He loved her, but she was bitter,
She took him down to Chinatown,
She showed him how to kick some ass around,
Whoooaaaoooaaaoooaaaoooaaa!
Whooooaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!
He had a comment praising Wildbow,
And the start of his readership WB wanted to know,
To give Wildbow what’s deserved, we’d gladly steal,
Like a diamond car with a platinum wheel.
Hidyhidyhidyhidyhi!
Hodyhodyhodyhodyho!
Skittleybittleybooblyboobup!
Lody lody lody loy!
He was welcomed as usual by Psycho Gecko,
Who caused the headaches driving WB loco,
“Welcome to the comments,” Gecko said,
“Now try to keep from losing your head.
Hidy hidy hidy hi!
Whooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Heeeeeyeeeeeeyeeeeeyeeey!
Whooaaooaa!
Poor Rook, poor Rook, poor Rook
*throws man-panties at Gecko*
…Banana hammock? ❤
You’ve outdone yourself, gecko.
Brilliant! I feel as if I’ve been properly initiated now. I’ve been following the grand epics of PG as well in the comments. I had never dreamt that I could be immortalized in such fashion as well!
Someguy on April 13, 2013 at 00:23 said:
Since appearances matter so much to the Protectorate & the PRT as institutions, maybe the new S.O.P for the Undersiders is to defeat hostile capes and publicly (live news crews and all) handing them over to the PRT HQ to break public perception of any competency within government institutions?
…you have me imagining Skitter doing a Spiderman and leaving villains cocooned on the police station doorstep. Well-played, sir.
skitter and her amazing friends …im looking forward to regent , imp and tattletale giving public service announcements at the end of every episode.
In: Boards ► Places ► America ►Brockton Bay Discussion (Public Board)
Tattletale (Original Poster) (Verified Cape) (Undersiders)
Posted on July 4th:
This is a Brockton Bay Public Service Announcement:-
One of the more common causes of death in Brockton Bay is Suicide (suicide with a capital S), this definition includes not only self-initiated suicides but also those actions that are guaranteed beyond a doubt to result in another being killing the suicidal person in question.
Methods of committing Suicide:
1. Shouting “Come and get some!” in the middle of a Capefight, whilst wearing costume without powers, counts as Suicide.
2. Running a dog fighting ring will bring about a fairly quick Suicide.
3. Running a puppy mill will render Suicide slow.
4. Walking into the Boardwalk and announcing that you are not an arachnophobe or some-other-such-nonsense works every time.
5. Going up to a girl-cape, leering and proclaiming; “I likes a girl with spirit!” is extremely ill-advised, even if, strictly speaking, you’re left alive afterwards to ponder the wisdom of your actions, having just slid down the learning curve…
6. Attempting to apply the Marquis of Fantailler rules of pugilism in an actual fight with a Ground Zero Survivor, is a very effective method of Suicide.
7. Swimming in the Boat Graveyard is Suicide.
8. Attempting to swindle, cheat, rob, or otherwise deceive or harm anyone in Brockton Bay is a Suicide. Those who survive are best advised to not complain…
9. There are many laws in Brockton bay but only One Rule “Don’t Fuck with the Undersiders.” Attempting otherwise is Suicide.
-Walking into the Mended Drum and announcing that your name is ‘Vincent the Invulnerable’ or some-other-such-nonsense works every time.
-Calling a Nac Mac Feegle ‘a fairy’ will bring about a fairly quick Suicide.
-Shouting “All Gods are bastards!” in the middle of a thunderstorm, whilst wearing copper armour, counts as Suicide.
-Going up to a Witch, werewolf, vampire or Susan Sto Helit, leering, and proclaiming; “I likes a girl with spirit!” is extremely ill-advised, even if, strictly speaking, you’re left alive afterwards to ponder the wisdom of your actions, having just slid down the learning curve…
-Unlicensed theft is Suicide. So too is unlicensed assassination, unlicensed fooling and unlicensed ‘needlework’.
-Attempting to apply the Marquis of Fantailler rules of pugilism in an actual fight, is a very effective method of Suicide.
-Standing between the parades on Battle of Koom Valley Day/Troll New Year is Suicide, (unless you happen to be Capt. Carrot Ironfoundersson of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch.)
-Swimming in the River Ankh is suicide.
-Fishing in the River Ankh is also suicide. If Harry King doesn’t get you for violating his sole right to “waterborne salvage”, your catch will be ornery enough to express an opinion about it.
-Calling a dwarf “short stuff,” will either result in Suicide, or a sudden lack of leg below the knees.
-Referring to trolls as “stupid rocks” is also a sure-fire way to commit Suicide, as is looking elvish in the presence of dwarves or trolls.
-Becoming the Director of the PRT in Brockton Bay will for the moment, be called Suicide… until a proper name can be invented.
-Kidnapping Dinah is Suicide. She can even tell you how.
-Saying “Meh, I could take her” about Skitter is Suicide unless you are an Endbringer
-Sending a dragon after Skitter is Suicide. As is being a dragon after Skitter.
-Trying to push more drugs on Imp is Suicide. It’ll even look like it.
-Wearing an Orkin man suit in Brockton Bay is unfashionable Suicide and you will be unfashionably late.
-Using a series of strings to make a department store mannequin appear to attack someone in Skitter’s territory should only be attempted by the Suicidally depressed
-Dropping a mountain of kittens on Bitch is very funny and Suicide unless you are Psycho Gecko
-Making fun of Skitter for being a bullied teen girl is Suicide and we eagerly await it.
-Making fun of Skitter in high school is also Suicide, we wish.
-Maliciously making fun of Wildbow may prompt a large number of people to attempt your Suicide.
Ted (BoSPaladin) on April 13, 2013 at 00:27 said:
Very quiet, very nice. relaxed almost, its very good it feels like she is being Taylor for a little while. This chapter serves as a really good breather after the last one. The last one felt haphazard, chaotic, like taylor was being pushed over the edge, she was fully Skitter in the last chapter.
Thank you for this chapter wildbow it reads well and illustrates the contrast between taylor and skitter, especially the end where she says it will be a while before she drops by again. That seems to me to be a very oblique/subtle reference to how she will be Skitter full time for a while.
Also are you foreshadowing? Is the next time Skitter visits her mom going to be on a more permanent basis?
I came from tvtropes.
Cool! Remember which trope?
Erm oh gosh, lemme think……. I think I was just browsing recommendations on web originals…. maybe…
Fanfic Rec/Web Originals, I believe he means.
Erm it might have been HeartIsAnAwesomePower or maybe LethalHarmlessPowers ….. the tropes tend to run together Click… click…. click….
or was it gadgeteergenius… thats kind of useless if you lock someone in a room with nothing…. Not sure exactly where I found worm but I’m glad I did 🙂
Dun dun dunnnnn.
J/k.
Have to say, I love how the feel of the chapters seems to reflect on skitter’s emotional state.
acediamonds on April 13, 2013 at 00:31 said:
Oh wow. This is probably one of the most emotional updates we’ve had. I’ve always been a sucker for someone talking to a person’s grave.
I went through a surprising number of drafts in writing this chapter, to the point that I was biting my nails at the 6pm mark, with the chapter less than half-done. For reference, I usually try to have 1k words done in advance, writing the rest from 12pm-10pm, or I write from 9am-11pm. Usually wind up with 4-8k words.
When you’re that far behind it takes some courage/madness to take a break. But I went for a dog walk, made some food, and came back with the idea in mind. Just needed to step away and get more focused on Taylor’s headspace than on the needs of the story.
And then, I’ll admit, while facing one of my more perilous time crunches, I wound up suddenly being unable to see the words because I was tearing up some, cussing out loud.
I vote this goes under CM of Heartwarming, meta section. *wipes tear*
Random Lurker on April 13, 2013 at 00:45 said:
You know, Wildbow, it almost sounds like you did exactly what Taylor did: go for a walk and do mindless tasks to get into the right mindset for what you had to do. Just wondering, how much of Taylor’s personality or life comes from you or your experiences? How about other characters? Do you identify with any one of them personally?
Sorry for the “interview-y” questions. Just a curious mind wanting to know your process.
Taylor’s experiences with school mirror my own in some ways. More than those family members who read tend to think, I suspect. The bullying I faced wasn’t nearly so brutal, but I faced an additional hurdle in that I was a physically disabled kid. At one point in grade ten I realized over a month had passed with me not even opening my mouth in school. Not to answer questions (no teachers asked), not to talk to anyone (nobody to talk to), none of that. My primary/middle school was right next door to the high school, so there were quite a few students who were in virtually every class I had from kindergarten to grade ten, and they were the same kids who, when a girl tried to open a conversation with me in a typing class, told her not to talk to me or she’d automatically get stuck with the ‘freak’ label by association. That was more of the sort of bullying I dealt with while attending school, very persistent and subtle enough that I wasn’t even fully aware of what had been gong on until years had passed and I looked on it in retrospect. It’s not something that would translate well to a story, but I took the ‘write what you know’ idea forward, and I was struggling to find a starting point for Taylor’s story, and that’s what I drew on.
To elaborate on my experience, I didn’t see the point in going to school, so I stopped going partway through grade ten. Nobody caught on, there were maybe one or two phone calls home, I deleted the messages. Report cards came out, I got caught. Attended a few weeks in grade eleven, stopped going, got caught at the end of that. The scene where Danny confronts Taylor by locking her in the kitchen was inspired by a book on dealing with out of control teens that my mother bought & I read, she didn’t. (I wasn’t out of control in the conventional sense – when I skipped school, I didn’t do much more than watch TV, read and write). The idea of that scene was a vivid one from early on.
There’s a lot of me in Taylor, but I think that’s inevitable, with a work of this length and this depth (not to sound smug and say it’s deep, only the amount that went into it). But she’s a very different, distinct person. I think the other Undersiders have definite fragments of me in them as well, parts of my psyche taken as standalone things and turned into central pillars of each character’s personality.
I’ll also add that I find it amusing how Taylor’s rise to prominence/getting recognition sort of mirrored my own. There’ve been a few lesser parallels between the story and my own experience, there.
…I don’t follow. Am I missing something? I don’t think that you’ve been descending any slippery slope as you gained power, for instance, unless you count how you have made Brockton Bay consistently a crappier place to be from Leviathan to Echidna.
Eh, we fink u freeky and we like you a lot.
*Hug* The feels. ;_; I know the pain. just know we all love you for who you are. ❤
Yes, to put it another way…”Oh dear, someone might think we are freaks! Hold up, let me find my give a damn…oh no, it’s up my ass! I can’t give a damn!”
Like Rika said we all love you Wildbow. You’ve given the world a great piece of literature. I wish I could get a major news station to look at your story. FOX, CNN whoever.
High school is a bad place, and I could rant for forever and a day on the many reasons why, as I’m sure many others here could, too.. I’m sorry you had to go through that, but I hope you like your life more now.
UnlikelyLass on April 14, 2013 at 11:17 said:
It’s fascinating to me that you mention being physically disabled.
My partner is disabled, and I have both crippling mental health issues and am a transgender woman. It’s been an eye opening experience to see the overlaps in discrimination that these groups all experience, partly first hand and partly through the lens of my relationship.
I suspect that part of why your writing resonates with me is your grasp of what being on the wrong end of society’s stick feels like.
I got a similar vibe — with a very different tone — out of Seanan Mcguire’s Velveteen stories.
Anyway. Thank you — again — for sharing your writing with us. This chapter felt really grounded in Taylor’s character, and was a welcome calm in the ever-strengthening storm that is Brockton Bay.
Feam T on September 6, 2017 at 09:43 said:
Thank you for sharing that. I know I’m still a few years later on reading this story, and learning about all of the enlightening and inspiring behind-the-scene details you provide in the comments, but reading this really meant a lot to me on a personal level too.
Worm in general means a lot more to me than I ever thought it would, more than I have the words to properly describe, and I’m still only ~70% through it!
This chapter’s going to be hell on my dreams when I go to sleep. Not because of scary, creepy stuff. The emotion is just so raw, so thick; we probably just got a new Tearjerker entry on Tvtropes here. We finally see what Dinah wrote, and it only makes things worse. Everything Taylor says here, everything she thinks, mirrors what we readers have been thinking ourselves. It magnifies just how bad things have gotten.
Honestly, this is perhaps the chapter that best defines the themes and tones of Worm as a whole. While it is only the second chapter of an arc, it probably could fit as an ending of one; I don’t know how well the story could mood shift into the next scene, presumably a fight, without some mood whiplash. But I’m not Wildbow, who’s much more talented and insightful than I; we’ll see how things go next Tuesday.
TheAnt on April 13, 2013 at 01:07 said:
It’s a sad world. Even when she wins, she still loses.
Fuck fate.
She’s already beaten the odds of rescuing Dinah and of escaping Dragon and Defiant.
If something she does winds up with her dead, then it proves Dinah can be wrong about the end of the world. If it doesn’t, then it proves she doesn’t need to do what Dinah thinks she should in order to get there or be prepared for it.
And if she’s going to be dragged down that particular path anyway, there’s no reason she can’t fight it for her own satisfaction.
Fake Name on April 13, 2013 at 00:33 said:
I’m fine with a regular chapter on Thursday. I don’t think anyone would mind.
This was a nice chapter. Nice to have a little closure, especially the letter she wrote to Danny.
Now that I know what the notes are, I don’t think there’s much reason not to have included them at the end of the Echidna arc.
It would have wiser us up to that something big was abut to happen. This way, it came it of nowhere.
As previously stated, I tried it and found it distracting/messy at a point when a lot of other stuff was happening.
I think that’s reason aplenty.
I think this was the perfect time to reveal them, as the papers were obviously important, but we didn’t know what they meant or who they would influence. Now we know, and there isn’t any comfort as the time where they would have been important to know what they said has passed. And they are still vague enough that we don’t know dinah’s true intentions.
Agreed. I think it was a perfect reveal timing.
The reveal of the notes was perfect here. Their shortness contributed to the poignancy, too. I just think that this chapter, along with the attack on PRT headquarters, may have been better at the end of Chrysalis, as I mentioned before. However, I don’t know what future scenes will come, so I could be wrong. Trust in the author, then.
There is too much conclusiveness in this chapter, too much shedding the chrysalis, for it to be an appropriate chapter for there. this is truly Taylor breaking free of her self-imposed shell and growing as a person- Having been forced to, yes, but still.
Didn’t really think of Tattletale’s angle that the PRT need them. They are too shorthanded and the city is probably better off with the Undersiders in charge as opposed to another group without their rules of engagement. So Dinah might have done what she did to improve the chances of saving the world at the cost of Skitter becoming hardened for lack of a better word. She is choosing to be ruthless, which is kind of scary if you think about what she could theoretically do. I keep thinking about how the PRT didn’t realize how dangerous the Skitter clones were and how much Taylor does hold back. The merchants also didn’t realize who they were dealing with, and I am looking forward to seeing what dark age anti-hero Skitter can do. Because the list of the Teeth’s powers don’t really work as a counter to a giant swarm of bugs, and the fallen never realized how easily she could have dealt with them. I’m hoping for a new name for herself as part of her new identity. I can see Dinah looking at the numbers and seeing them change drastically after she leaves the grave.
I …. don’t quite know what to say about this one. On the one hand, we see Taylor’s thoughts on all this. On the other hand, she seems to be lubing the slippery slope again.
fnich on April 13, 2013 at 00:51 said:
Fuck the slippery slope! Kill Tagg, kill Cauldron! Turn their heads into goddamn pancakes!
That is if its okay with daddy, Ill have to see how Danny reacts before I get on board with Skitter becoming a homicidal maniac.
There’s a lot she can do given the knowledge that she WILL be at Armageddon.
Think of it like the movie Big Fish. In the guy’s story, he knows how he dies, so he knows that nothing in between that he might do is going to kill him. In his case, he goes on to do heroic and exciting things.
I can’t wait to see what she intends to do. She wants to send a message of power, and maybe one of morality. She can take down the Fallen/The Teeth, break out some capes from the asylum, release some secrets of the PRT, and maybe go show she is someone not to be fucked with.
There are no guarentees. Remember that she looked into the future where they gave Noelle to Crawler. They ALL terminated. Just because she sees one future at one time doesn’t mean it stays relevant. Choicesare made, changes in the world over just a few minutes and an hour later asking the exact same question can lead to completely different results- As we saw with Skitter getting out of the school unmolested.
Well, one reason why there may be no guarantees is we don’t know if alternate earths factor into Dinah’s predictions. Maybe she knew they would try a portal, but perhaps not about the worlds it would link to, or outside interference from other dimensions like Cauldron can provide.
Her power, from what we saw of it, seemed to be looking at possible future earths without seeing the futures of alternate earths that may possibly interact with this one. For all we know, the portal creates a huge blind spot for her.
Or, to give an explicit example where we know there were no shenanigans in play. Buzz 7.11, when there was an abrupt thirty-percent drop in the probabilities in a matter of minutes.
chaos985 on April 13, 2013 at 13:40 said:
I get the impression that any time she states potential numbers she changes the possibilities of the future.
you know there is a 94% chance of getting caught.
you also know that 99% if you fight.
you now know the best option is a non-violent solution.
its also been stated that thinkers and precogs powers interfere with each other. So other precogs working their influence can negatively impact the accuracy of predictions.
finally i will offer that all of the endbringers are a blind spot for precogs. otherwise pretty much every precog ever would be focused on trying to predict where the endbringers attack next, and what the best possible attack pattern would be.
Actually, they’ve been able to predict where an Endbringer will show up loosely just by looking at strife hotspots, and they do have advance warning- Just not days in advance. That’s the main problem with the Endbringers- they come to the locations of the greatest strife.
….Wait a sec. If they go to the location of greatest strife, then maybe, just maybe, they’re just trying to end fighting and war as we know it; Once things escalate to a certain point, they deem it impossible to resolve and step in to stop it. Since most conflicts occur when parahumans are involved… They could also be something along the line of Earth’s antibodies, excising a gangrenous wound; It could even go as far as seeng the deaths of Cauldron parahumans as a good thing because it frees the captive passengers as well. Where did the concept that passengers being drawn to those in a trigger event situation come from, anyways? It could just as well be that the passenger tries to heal the mental anguish, and the wounded mind traps it….
So much wild guessing above. x3 I love it.
eduardo on April 13, 2013 at 20:07 said:
The blond guy is Tagg:
http://www.darkicon.com/Library/JustDamn/index.php?image=5
Ajoxer on April 13, 2013 at 00:37 said:
We’re all in this together; An essay on the similarities between Skitter and Harry Tuttle.
Brazil, and a world gone mad with apathy.
I don’t know if you’ve seen Brazil. Chances are fairly bad- It’s not exactly an incredibly well known movie, but it’s one of the most strikingly dark things I’ve ever watched. Appropriately enough, it was released in 1985. Imagine 1984, but with nobody willing to take responsibility. British Bureaucracy, gone to the darkest possible places. And yet, there are moments of beauty and heroism.
Harry Tuttle. Motive force of the plot, terrorist first class. Rogue pipe repairman. He first appears in the movie by aiding the hero, fixing his pipes quickly, efficiently, armed with a gun, sneaking in under cover of night, hiding from Central Service’s pipe repairmen, who are more interested in rooting out corruption and scabs than in doing work.
The main character saves Tuttle from them with some quick bureaucratic paper-slinging, and is thanked by Harry, who proceeds to prepare to leave, remarking ‘We’re all in this together’, before leaving on a zipline, with an inspiring operatic horn number.
Harry Tuttle does some questionable stuff, even outside of the trippier sequences near the end. And there’s not a happy ending in it for our hero, though that’s not Tuttle’s fault. But the movie’s plot is started off when the wrong person is brought in, due to an insect falling into a typewriter and causing the wrong person to be brought in. It’s nobody’s fault directly, but there were many, many bureaucrats who could’ve taken the time to realize something was wrong. And that is the theme of Brazil. That when people do not do bad things, but allow bad things to happen, it is a more monstrous system than any number of bad people could make.
The connection to Worm.
There is a similar feeling, in many ways, in Worm. When the institution becomes more important than the Ideal, things fall to pieces. Those who would seek to do good become the criminals, because they don’t submit to the bureaucracy. Those who try to do good within the system all-too-often find themselves becoming dependent upon the system, becoming attached, becoming enslaved by it. And so, they become a part of the continuing cycle of disgust.
Worm could say it herself. ‘We’re all in this together.’ Every human being who wants to see the human race keep going, whether they’re powered, or not. They’re all in this together. Even the criminals, even the murderers, even the gigantic assholes, because they don’t want things to stop, because at worst, they’re parasites, and they depend on the continued health of the civilization to keep going. The Slaughterhouse Nine, the Endbringers, all the creatures that are content to see humanity end, they’re the enemy to every living creature.
The truce is a farce. The truce lasts only as long as a given endbringer attack; But what is the point of that? The war isn’t /won/ after the Endbringers are driven off. It’s not a truce, an armistice, it’s barely even a ceasefire, it’s just a preparation to attack again. The Endbringers aren’t going to stop, and they need to be stopped. But everyone treats it as a temporary event, and jumps back into the cops and robbers state of mind, not considering that the villain they send to the birdcage might save their life the next time an Endbringer comes around.
Trigger Events and Depression
Why do people who have trigger events become villains? It’s not just because they’ve gone through a deeply traumatic event. That doesn’t explain their rage against the world. Think about what a trigger event usually has to be. A sense of supreme helplessness. This is the feeling that has reigned in every trigger event that one could care to think of, there being something /wrong/ that they can’t do /anything to fix/.
Take a personality like that, suddenly given great power. And then tell them that the law is watching them, and that the moment they screw up, they’re going to the Birdcage. Look at the innocent people who want to do good, who actually do good, like Canary, and Amy, and what happened to them. They were given no chance. The reason that people who trigger naturally become villains is because Cauldron doesn’t trust them.
Helplessness is a deep element of depression. The Pit of Despair, Learned Helplessness, famous psychological experiments involving doing deeply unpleasant things to animals, they show us that when you can’t do anything, you become depressed. Clinical depression is a serious thing- and what’s terrifying is that human beings and other social animals are naturally predisposed to attacking and lashing out at those who show signs of depression, furthering that. It’s natural human results. But we’re all in this together.
So, what do the ones who are depressed but functional enough to do something about it do? They use their power. And because the law makes no place for them; Because the law only increases the feelings of depressed despair; they go outside the law.
This is the great beauty of human nature. Depression breeds a certain strength in some people, because someone who can survive through helplessness, through the mind itself turning against you and torturing you mercilessly, can become terrifyingly effective. I wouldn’t be surprised if a number of villains show certain signs of bipolar or borderline personality disorders; The kind of depressive state that would create a sense of helplessness, and the kind of manic phases that would result in flurries of activity and focus. But again, the beauty. When a society becomes stagnant, with a powerful force in control in this way, it breeds people with the wounded strength to fight this system. Each person who stands up and fights inspires those who see them. It doesn’t matter if they fail, because they were just one person; And enough people will be inspired that it tends to grow. The more oppressive a situation is, the more revolt there will be, and as it grows, it becomes powerful enough to spark a revolution. Worst comes to worst, meet the new boss, same as the old boss. But sometimes, the people at the lead of the revolution are Good Enough. And they do something magnificent. They change the world.
Maybe the world is going to end. But maybe what replaces it won’t be so bad. Maybe we’ll lose the war but win in the long term. There’s nothing saying the world isn’t going to have a lot of deaths. But maybe, just maybe, those deaths will mean something. Maybe it won’t be the end.
And you know who can survive? The ones who have spent every day of their lives tortured as bad as that. The ones who know what despair feels like, and who can soldier on through it anyway. The villains. The helpless ones. The ones who know that just because you feel helpless, doesn’t mean you truly are.
They maybe villains, but sometimes, villains are exactly what you need.
The nice ones aren’t going to take out the dicks causing all the problems, now are they?
In response to the post just below;
Indeed. Silly me for writing that one in Word, rather than pure stream of consciousness! Posting it again would frankly be way too space-consuming; So instead, here’s a pastebin with the thing properly formatted. http://pastebin.com/Ea3v0NGt
It’s something I’ve had to deal with before on here too. Because of how the comment box works, I find it is easier for editing to write in Word. Your posts basically look like my serious, in-depth ones, but still quite a bit bigger. Heck, even a humorous one of mine got someone refusing to read it because the spaces were all messed up, so I figured I’d say a little something.
Wouldn’t be surprised if you’re one of those writing college papers on the story.
I’ve always enjoyed writing essays and small research papers. Hell, i went so far as to develop my own country on paper to make a point to my poli-sci teacher. had a constitution and everything. even a writ of declaration of identity.
I no longer do it because there is very little use for essays and research papers in practical application.
Slight tip, not sure if you type these up in Word, but WordPress doesn’t react to any doublespace formatting.
It may increase the size even more, but making sure the appropriate spaces are there will make these essays more easily digestible on our end.
peteromeara14 on April 13, 2013 at 04:06 said:
My favorite part, your last paragraph /conclusion could be describing Brockton Bay.
God. I really do hope we see Danny again, so we can see his reaction at the very least. According to normal narrative “rules” this should be the last we see him mentioned, but we all know thar normal narrative rules don’t mean shit in Worm.
Funny how Dinah doesn’t specify who she could cut ties with, but I hope it doesn’t matter and my “precogs don’t know jack” attitude is vindicated.
Hey, I wonder how far Taggs dehumanization tactics would get if this found its way into papers.
Individuo on April 13, 2013 at 00:46 said:
No grammar nazi Today? Kinda weird
Awesome chapter as always
I made a vow not to post any typo correction comments after the acres of such starting the comments section of last chapter. A vow which proved meaningless when I didn’t see any typos in this one. 😉
Good chapter. I like it.
Reading her outburst at Lisa, I can’t help but wonder: Masters usually are somewhat altered mentally by their trigger event. Could it be that Taylor is compelled to see humanity akin to an insect state? That, even though she rationally knows it’s different, she feels humans really should get along, beyond even what a normal idealistic person would think; subconsciously expects humans to cooperate, and that that compounds the feeling of, let’s call it overstated ‘betrayal’, by humanity? Or is that ‘only’ the last remains of the idealism of a heartbroken teenager shattering against the world?
Ok, some more thoughts:
Poor Taylor. Just as she thought she had escaped all that high-school-image-pecking-order-bullshit, there it is again.
Also, parts of this chapter kind of remind me of a song. The frst line goes like this:
“Any dolt with half a brain can see that humankind has gone insane.”
And despite all her rage she is still just a rat in a cage.
Scrambles on April 13, 2013 at 03:48 said:
i wanna be sedated
Doesn’t work. Some insects are eusocial, sure, like ants and bees. But there are also solitary hunters, like dragonflies and mantises.
And the list of lifestyles gets even broader when you consider that at minimum she has control over anything in Arthropoda and Annelida.
I’m pretty sure it’s anything within the Protostome Clade at the very least. She’s been shown to control Ecdysozoa and Platyzoa; we know the latter because she detected the heartworms in one of Bitch’s dogs, and the former from her control over various arthropods. The only one that I can’t think of a strict definite example would be Lophotrochozoa, which is odd considering the surplus of worms of various kinds in the phylum; Mostly it’s members of Arthropoda that make a big appearance in one form or another. Just going by the name of the web serial, however, one can assume that annelids and their cousins in Lophotrochozoa would also count, but just haven’t really had a chance to shine due to their nature.
Yes, but humans, seen through a skewed perspective fixated on insects/arthropods/protostomes, would resemble eusocial insects more closely than any of the solitary ones. Thus a mind fixated on insects/… would try to apply eusocial behavior to humans, not solitary one.
April on December 14, 2017 at 13:03 said:
It’s like when she walked out of her school with the not-hostages and noted that they were sorta acting collectively, but not in synch or efficiently.
Taylor realizes she’s racing down the slippery slope, and she realizes she needs to, and she’s going to. She’s really grown up. I’m impressed.
So we finally see the note. Glad we got Taylor’s opinon, because I’m notnsureni could have realized myself how terrifying it would be to. Just got through a disaster, and receives instructions to leave behind what grounds her, and receives an ominous warning. She wasn’t kidding about that karma is weird thing. And also, don’t want to repeat myself, but once again, this strikes eerie parallels to wicked, because the main character sings a song basically saying that no matter what good deeds she does, they’re always punished, so to hell with it. If you don’t mind me asking, have you ever seen the show or read it, wildbow?
Overall, a very soothing chapter. After the action packed, and then high drama past few arks, this is a chance to look back and try to find where to go. I really enjoyed it. And also, considering the poor woman was fated to never appear from the start, glad at least her grave got some screen time. 🙂 …okay, that came out more morbid than I intended. Actually, a few parts I found some kind of dark humor in, too, like telling her mother,” I didn’t even really mean to, but I kind of wound up taking over a city”, or “I’m a supervillain. Crime lord of Brockton Bay. It’s not as bad as it sounds”. Does she even realize how ridiculous that probably sound? Anyway, thanks for the wonderful chapter, as usual, and looking forward to Tuesday, as usual.
SadCat on April 13, 2013 at 01:02 said:
Mr Hebert this is Frank. Can you stop by the office next time you drop off flowers please. I would like to talk to you for jest a moment.
Director Tagg, you were right. We got a hit on that bug we disguised as a vase on her mother’s grave. There’s a wealth of information there we can exploit. We’re getting to her, sir.
“Good…goooooood!”
A competent PRT that makes excellent tactical choices, a good use of resources, and shows restraint? Get real, you have a better chance of Sophia becoming a good guy. I was going to say when pigs fly, but I cant be sure if Blasto or another cape did that for laugh.
He should’ve been petting a cat. So i’ll just leave this here…..
Douchetagg said as he laughed evilly and stroked his pet cat, Gertrude.
Matthew on April 13, 2013 at 11:17 said:
That’s actually something that real life law enforcement agencies have been known to do. Though it’s usually for unsolved crimes. In this case I can’t see the point. They hardly need more evidence.
Dinah’s Betrayal
Dinah is in a unique position of awareness. She knows the probabilities of actions, and she knows what’s likely to happen in response to those.
What if the reason Dinah suggested this wasn’t because it was the best way to capture Skitter, but because it was the best way for her to help Taylor let go of herself? It’s painful to change yourself, especially in such a powerful way, but by removing her secret from her father, from the world, Dinah’s torn the bandage off. One of Taylor’s primary psychological weaknesses has now been uncovered… And at a time when things are about as stable as they’re likely to be for a /long/ time. Taylor is centered, no longer suicidal, is growing more confident as a leader, there are no major S-class threats out for their heads for the first goddamn time in months, and the city’s heroes are in a desperately unstable position.
Dinah knows how valuable she is. She knows Taylor knows how valuable she is. And Taylor was willing to give her back to her parents, to turn her back on that information. She did not do something that could be justified as ‘for the greater good’. But that means that Dinah can be free to make her own decisions, and make them effectively, since she can see the future shift as she makes her plans.
I think what she was doing here is something that needed to be done, that hurts Taylor in the short-term, at the time when she can most afford to get hurt, and when she can learn the most from this.
That makes a lot of sense to me. I hadn’t thought about it, but the timing is good for that.
If that’s true, then Dinah qualifies for the Omniscient Morality License trope. Too bad, though, since I can see a future scene where Taylor meets Dinah, and Taylor says that, while she understands what happened, she still hates Dinah for what she did, almost like a reverse of that scene with Parian when she joined.
I think that Taylor is more soft-hearted than that. Has she ever come across as truly hating someone? That’s a really strong emotion.
Betrayed is a better word for it, particularly because you can rebuild trust that has been betrayed. I doubt Dinah was happy about doing it, either. And remember that Dinah is all about percentages. She can’t do the OM License thing, because she’s not omniscient- She knows the percentage of likelihood of a certain answer, so she can skew the odds, but she can’t guarantee you that so-and-so will do such-and-such; merely how to maximize the likelihood that they do. This makes her somewhat more untrustworthy, since she can be- not quite wrong, but misleading- and it means that I think Taylor can find it in her to forgive her, because it means that in all likelihood, this was a difficult decision for Dinah; to take such a chance. And she didn’t make it because she had a guarantee of the outcome.
Reveen on April 13, 2013 at 13:00 said:
I hope Dinah realizes that allowing chance and odds to dictate your actions is exactly what Coil did and what the PRT would do. That methodology leads to stagnation, moral compromise, and cowardice.
I really hope Taylor says “fuck that shit” to the suggestion to cut ties. I don’t think Danny would let a chance of something horrible happening stop him from trying to pull his family back together.
I’m sure she does. She can give the best advice she can, but let’s face it; The nature of a hero- a true hero, the sort of person who accomplishes great things which Taylor IS- is to be someone who defies odds. Who does what others would deem, at the least, highly improbable. Perhaps Taylor is being told to cut ties because they will hurt to lose, but perhaps the fact that they would hurt to lose will keep her from losing them. Maybe the advice to cut ties will make her cling all the more tightly to them. We can’t trust what Dinah says, necessarily; we can only trust in the hope that she’s trying to do the best she can for the one person in the world who was willing to help her, and treat her as an ends, not a means.
We don’t know much about Dinah. We have no confirmation of why she did what she did. That’s the thing about a precog- their advice often only makes sense in retrospect, or at best, at the very moment you need it to make sense.
Here’s the thing about Dinah’s powers: she’s playing the odds.
I mean, sure, she can see all the outcomes, not just the likely ones, but the people she’s giving her predictions to are working on the *most likely outcomes*.
Taylor wasn’t captured by the PRT, even though it was most likely she would be.
Can Dinah see the actual future or “just” probabilities? Did she know Taylor would escape, even though it was unlikely? Or did she just know it was likely she would be caught? Did she know what Taylor escaping would cause to happen, even if it was really unlikely?
This is actually kind of important.
Regardless of how exactly Dinah’s powers work, Taylor has beat the odds at least that one time. Maybe she can do it again, and avert the almost, but not entirely, inevitable destruction of the world.
You know what they say — million to one chances work out, nine times out of ten. (Or something like that — been too long since I brushed up on my Pratchett)
Indigo on April 13, 2013 at 01:17 said:
Precogs always make things more painful.
Sage on April 13, 2013 at 01:48 said:
I’m not an especially emotional person, not in response to writing or to film–I didn’t cry for Bambi’s mom, Mufasa, or Fred Weasley–and yet, even though I don’t know what precisely was said in the letter to her dad, my eyes are much wetter than I recall them being a few minutes earlier.
Dammit Wildbow.
Awww, why don’t we go watch a nice movie to cheer you up. How about “Old Yeller”?
Sad but didn’t make me cry. When I saw toy story 3, I think everyone was crying during the inferno scene.
Haven’t seen Toy Story 3, but neither Yeller nor this chapter made me cry.
I didn’t -cry,- my eyes watered. But then, my dad was a total fuckhead, so that might explain a lot.
Everybody has tears.
I doubt anyone blames you for your eyes watering due to this chapter. And anyone who would pick on a crying person deserves to have a fist with barbed wire wrapped around it shoved into their sphincter, then to be lifted up and rotated 63 degrees along a random axis, then dropped.
If I sound a little dry, it’s because I’ve been interacting with Legion and EDI some in Mass Effect.
Wageslave on April 13, 2013 at 02:33 said:
P.G.: That *might* not be a good idea. Sometimes, things should be let alone.
That being said, I missed the date of your ascension to official comment-welcomer, so if you could link that for posterity?
I don’t remember either. Wish I’d been doing it sooner. While it can be a little on the frustrating side to welcome one person and have another 5 announce they just caught up, it’s also been good practice. Since I’ve “officially” been welcoming people, no two have been the same I don’t think.
I believe I more or less officially instated you in that position with your welcome of me, and remarking that I got welcomed by you, and people then taking that as a cue to start provoking you for introductions more. o.o
It seems like it’s been longer than that. Seeing as people may pop up for a time or two and then go silent, I tend to wait until the person says it is their first time commenting. I’m better about remembering names when they’re something like “Mazzon” or “Rika Covenant” or “Pinkhair” or “Frozen Chicken” to name a few, but eventually the numbers overwhelm.
At least the whole lot of you aren’t running around here as “Tom” or “Dick” or “Harry”.
You most certainly were doing it before me, but it was around when I joined that I noticed a surge in the number of commenters and thus your services as comments-section welcomer.
Yeah, running around as a Dick is your job.
I did the same thing Sage. If Worm was a TV series or a movie this is the part where people would tear up.
Amazing chapter. It was nice to have something peaceful after all the chaos going on. And honestly I’m now really waiting for Dinah to show up again. I’m still unsure of that girl’s though processes, but then again she would still be recovering from those drugs Coil had her on. What do you guys think about Dinah’s predictions and her motives behind them? Because i dont have a clue.
I think Dinah wants to save the world. She saw that Skitter WILL be there, and she wants to do whatever she can to give her the best chance. Thus she her identity is outed, she is hardened, and decides to be heartless in her efforts. I think she cares very deeply for Taylor. Taylor saved her, comforted her, and reunited her instead of using her. Hence why she takes the time to I’m sorry to her. For the next interlude, I kind of want a bunch of mini-interludes that describe how the other characters see Skitter. Clockblocker seems to feel strongly about her, Flechette seemed scared of her, and who knows about Danny.
If we get an actual interlude on Thursday rather than another regular chapter, I definitely want to see that- the everyone’s-reaction-to-this, to sort out where everyone stands more or less, and how they feel. Especially Emma’s reaction.
So our reaction to this chapter is we want to see the in universe’s reaction to this chapter.
Emma is probably locked in her bedrrom with the strondger anti bug spray that she couls find in hand and terrified of any new noise in the house.
And she should really, really leave Brokton Bay as fast as possible.
I really want a follow-up on Emma and her dad now. I mean, we were denied all the sweet and juicy revenge.
I had a thought, earlier tonight, about the situation where bad people should get what’s coming to them but the good people being too good to do so.
Emma, your enemies are too much better than you to give you what you deserve.
Luckily, karma’s not above employing someone from the dark side on occasion. I don’t think that’ll happen here, but a guy can dream.
A guy can dream.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz
Nope, I was a vampire trying to stop ghosts from bringing the Ghostbusters back to life to slay us vampires. And then I fought them with a flaming sword while taunting them with the song “Hellfire” from Hunchback of Notre Dame (real dream I’ve had). Better luck next time.
Catastronaut on April 13, 2013 at 02:17 said:
I want to take this moment to say how much I appreciate wildbow’s writing. Don’t get me wrong, I love the story and the character and the worldbuilding, and all of that is part of the writing in a way that can’t be meaningfully disentangled. But I’m going to try anyway. The writing, the actual choosing of words and putting them down to paper seems to be blessed with the sort of craftsmanship that I aspire to.
I’ve said before how much I enjoy the feeling of immediacy there is in the connection between Taylor’s emotional state and story events. Or perhaps, to render the phrase more complex; her emotional state, events in the world, her perception of these events, her responses, and their consequences. When I read, I feel like I get to see that all happening in real time. (I don’t, but that illusion is something I value tremendously.)
And a big part of what makes that happen for me is in the way you use your words. When she lands Atlas at the beginning of the chapter, she “wasted no time in setting him down on the ground”. There is so much conveyed here. She *sets him down*, as one might set a teacup down on a table (or a headstone). It doesn’t say she lands Atlas, as I did, she doesn’t speak of steering or maneuvering. Moreover, she doesn’t talk about herself. She’s bringing herself to the ground, as well as Atlas, that’s very clear, but the words on the page don’t ever acknowledge that directly.
So when she’s thinking (and not even thinking very directly) about the logistics of transportation and movement, her awareness is larger than human; there is a space that she is aware of and she puts things in their places within that space as she can. She’s moving pieces on a board and her particular position in it is only a part of the information about that configuration. In the case of Atlas’ exhaustion, her own position is not even the most immediately relevant piece of information.
If you wanted to sit us down and explain this oddness in her perception to us, I’d probably be interested but only because I’m already invested in the story (and because I’m a huge geek when it comes to the nuts-and-bolts mechanics of fictional worlds and fictional minds). So instead, you convey this information by having her think of *setting Atlas down*.
And maybe I’m reading too much into a choice of words here. I doubt it. Maybe you aren’t aware you’re doing it. I doubt that too. But whether it’s instinct or an obsessive attention to detail or some linear combination of the two, this sort of passive, implicit consistency and narrative density in your writing is *all over the place*.
The example I chose to harp on here happened seven sentences into this chapter. I can’t go more than seven sentences through any of the volumes you’ve written without finding another vein to mine somewhere in your writing. I know this is a long comment, but I’m not going to apologize until I exceed one Mr. Gecko’s verbosity.
I love your story, and I love your writing, and I hope you derive at least as much pleasure from it as I do. You deserve that and more.
Well written description of what I was talking about when I spoke of the writing actually taking me into the character, not just reading their story in my review! Thank you for putting to words that nebulous sort of feeling that I could never quite express properly.
anjodu on April 13, 2013 at 02:57 said:
I find myself in the same boat as Rook. In fact, I made a profile just so I could post this reply.
I stumbled upon Worm on tvtropes this past November (particularly, The Fettered page), and I have been hooked ever since. I love the story, how intense and emotional it gets. The world of Worm is so crazy and fantastical, but at the same time, it’s so REAL. It’s something that’s kept me coming back for every update, these characters aren’t your run of the mill ‘heroes’ and ‘villains’, they’re PEOPLE. Great in some ways, but massively screwed up in many others. All very relate-able and understandable.
This chapter though……this was beautiful.
I’ve done some work in story writing, and considering it’s the focal point of career I’m getting into, I’ll be doing it for quite some time. Worm has become a great inspiration to further my own projects.
Hell, maybe I’ll eventually put up some of my own work eventually.
Thanks for the great story.
Welcome to the comments, where we all adore the Wormverse.
Paging Dr. Gex, paging Dr. Gex! We’ve got a new patient in the asylum!
Weeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeelcome, Anjodu, to the Worm comments section, your place for all things slimy and wriggly. Here’s your seat right here in the dark, mind the nightcrawlers. Now that we’re at an intermission, feel free to head up to the concession stand for some Wormfood and bugjuice. They carry plenty of butterfly for your popcorn. If you need to take any pillbugs, now’s the time. Sorry, no seafood, so you’ll have to go elsewhere for silverfish.
Hold up a tick, you mite want to examine your zipper because your dragonfly is down. Don’t want there to bee a scene if you head out around the ladybugs, who are all here with their ants. Most of them are rather prudish WASPs, though the army ants got in with a discount. Of course, late at night it gets so quiet around here you can hear crickets, but they don’t mind you passing the time with a little grasshopper.
Sorry to bug you, just my way of bringing people into the fold.
Yup, I knew it was coming.
No ones treads upon the comments without the good Dr. Gex, getting a up close and personal with his rubber gloves.
*starts putting on gloves* Reminds me of an old N64 title… Gex: Enter the Gecko *snap!*
“…The rules are only useful so long as they protect the status quo, and Brockton Bay bent the status quo over backwards and fucked it a long time ago.”
New favourite quote.
I had another dream about Worm last night.
Instead of a regular update, wildbow had used all of the donation money so far to fund a feature film of the entire next arc. From what I remember, it was pretty sweet. Taylor’s voice was a little higher than I would have thought, though.
I feel like the story is about to get darker again. Pretty soon, it’ll be darker than black.
I’m leery of a movie adaptation. It seems as though PRT personnel are responsible for such, based on their faithfulness to the source material. World War Z and Wanted come to mind.
I can only assume it is malicious, because taking a popular work and then changing it to make it resonate with a lot of people makes no sense. If it needed to be made popular, it wouldn’t need to be made a movie.
Folks interested in nourishing their film-adaptation-related cynicism may enjoy this account by one of the writers of the 1994 adaptation of The Puppet Masters.
So that’s how someone could spit out a piece of crap like movie versions of Wanted and World War Z.
I mean, hell, World War Z writes itself. The movie would just cut between the interviewer doing his interviews with different subjects in their different areas. Use the narration that talks about the setting to lead into a new interview if it has it. A lot of different main characters, so it could even be ensemble if they had that bug up their asses. But either way, the interviews become flashbacks narrated by the subject.
Nope, gotta make it all about Brad Pitt with fast zombies for some damn reason.
As for Wanted, get the guy who did Dredd.
As for Wanted, get the guy who brought it up as an adaptation and throw him out the window for suggesting that they legitimatize that piece of fuck comic with a mainstream acknowledgement.
I’d say that I’d prefer a comic adaptation, but then I have an image of what Mark “Rape n’ Thai ladyboys” Millar would do to the story and I’m compelled to pour bleach in my eyes.
I seriously /just/ had a discussion over the WWZ trailer and how disgusted I am with the inability of people to stick with a faithful book-to-movie adaptation. If Worm gets made into a movie (series of movies) the director better be veeeery anal about how exact the details are.
Anzer'ke on April 14, 2013 at 17:49 said:
I figure a tv serial adaptation would work far better.
Not least because it would preserve the constant cliffhangers
Irrevenant on May 21, 2014 at 02:03 said:
Seconded. Trying to squeeze Worm into movie format would do it a major disservice.
But will it be darker than Darker Than Black?
MY feels! You’ve killed them Wildbow! 😥 Man Poor Taylor…..to save herself she would need to cut herself off from all her friends and family! Her going to her moms grave was so sad……in a movie I could totally she her mom’s ‘ghost’ standing behind her and putting a hand on Taylor’s shoulder.
I would next want to see her talking to her dad about this. THAT would be a major tearjerker. Cutting all ties with him would make even the most stoic Worm Reader weep. Or as other have said, several mini-interludes showing how people look at and think of Taylor.
All in all this will be one of my favorite chapters, Wildbow. Almost wish Taylor had the power to talk to the dead……wait….could Taylors mom still be alive in the Travelers original universe? I’m really curious about that all of a sudden. o.o
Yeah, about her mom’s ghost…Taylor’s Mom is tagged.
Wha…..*looks at the tags* Well I’ll be damned. Still want to know if Taylors mom could possibly still be alive in the Travelers universe.
Plot twist: The groundskeeper is Taylor’s mom!
Dun dun dun!!!
Nah. The gravestone is her mom. She triggered during the car accident and turned into a rock. They added on the name, dates and epitaph by applying layers of plaster and then carving into that.
No but see, the groundskeeper isnt tagged, but taylor’s mom is!
Taylor’s Mom triggered, gaining shapeshifting powers at the time of her death. Her body was hurt but instinctively kept herself alive but with low vitals and a mangled body. She was buried after the crash, where she regained consciousness, having healed herself with her powers. She clawed her way up from the grave, frightening an old groundskeeper to death. She placed his body in the coffin and took over his lonely life of watching over the graves. Due to the brain damage and her moving parts and pieces around, it took her a long time to regain her memory, so long that the world had moved on and it seemed like coming into her family’s life again would cause more harm than good.
So she watched from afar, occasionally throwing the odds a little more into Taylor’s favor.
Matthew K on April 13, 2013 at 08:24 said:
Here it comes, the sound of drums. Can’t wait to see Taylor to go full villain. Dance right over that moral event horizon, sweet thang.
Nah, more like full Batman.
The hero Brockton needs, not the one it deserves.
…well, okay, probably the one it deserves too.
Wait, Batman’s not a villain? The billionaire who beats up poor people to assuage his parental abandonment issues? I’m confuzzled.
The guy who leaves mass murderers alive out of some really stupid idea that they might be redeemed, despite them constantly escaping and showing not even the slightest remorse? For the greater good my ass.
Honestly, I think this aspect is unfairly laid at Batman’s feet. It’s completely appropriate that someone who wears the mantle of hero not act as judge, jury and executioner.
IMO, the real blame lies upon the justice system that keeps letting these people escape.
It’s not appropriate for Batman to shoot the Joker dead. It would be entirely reasonable for Gotham to put him to death once he’s caught (although I am not personally a fan of the death penalty IRL).
At the very least, put him somewhere he doesn’t escape every twenty minutes!
I sometimes wonder if Bruce might have a bigger effect on crime by having Wayne Industries take over the prison contract for the city and actually doing the job *properly*.
Here come the drums.
I was waiting for someone to reference that 😀
sarah penguin on April 13, 2013 at 10:32 said:
Poor Taylor.
Lost Demiurge on April 13, 2013 at 11:02 said:
Ha, called it! She found a way to center herself, and a goal. Still be a while before she’s 100% again, but that’s fine. The next update should reveal much…
Alathon on April 13, 2013 at 11:12 said:
For all that the tone and content of this chapter is a massive downer, it leaves me optimistic. Taylor needed this, not just some sort of closure with the tatters of her old life, but a frank admission to herself that not only has she done a heel turn but she did it a long time back and has since gone balls deep in villainy. So to speak.
In a better world, Taylor wouldn’t have missed the good options to try to fix things from within the system.. but then, in a better world, Taylor would have been faced with problems that could credibly be fixed from within the system before Armageddon.
So the system wants a fight, huh? Has big words about how it’s just the way things are, and history will grind away all that opposes it? Well, there’s an answer for that too. You’ve got a glass jaw, Uncle Sam, and you wheeze like a dying smoker. You want to trade body blows? You’re rotten on the inside, you’ll fold first.
What’s the common wisdom on villainmoot truces anyways, over as soon as everyone leaves the premises? Over at the dawn of the next day? If Taylor acts fast she could kill some of the Teeth in their sleep. Or perhaps capture them.. crucify them against the hull of a boat in the graveyard or some such. Gotta speak their language, use them to communicate to the rest of the subhuman trash that uncivilized conduct is no longer accepted in Brockton Bay.
“communicate to the rest of the subhuman trash that uncivilized conduct is no longer accepted in Brockton Bay.”
Not sure how uncivil conduct is meant to communicate this.
I’d like to extend a massive thank-you to everyone who’s rated Worm on Webfictionguide. Worm is now the most popular (not 100% sure what that means: I think it’s an amalgym of # & value of ratings) and the highest rated story on the site. It blows my mind, and I’m really grateful you guys have gone the extra mile to sign up to the site & rate (and especially grateful to those who reviewed).
While you wait for the next chapter, perhaps check out other great serials that are listed there; I think webfiction has a lot of promise, and I kind of hope to see it get more traction in general. 😀
I’ve finally managed to make an account on WFG. Looking at all the other reviews for Worm, I realize I don’t have anything to say about it that hasn’t been said already. I’ll work on coming up with something, and hopefully post it within a few days.
Also, it must be pretty cool to have a bunch of readers who are helpful enough that you can just say “Hey guys, I’d love it if some of you did this.” and we run off and do it. If only you could drop off some of your day to day tasks on us, so you can get more free time (to write). If you requested someone’s home address so you could mail them your dirty dishes and laundry, I bet someone would do it. No guarantee they wouldn’t keep some of it to sell on Ebay in case you get famous though.
*channels a little PG* Mmmm, Wildbow’s banana hammock…. *sniiiiiiiiiiiiff*
No, you have to give that one back. It’s the only thing he wears when he’s writing.
…I now have a mental image of Wildbow taking his dog for a walk, earbuds in and head bobbing to the tune even while waving at people on the other side of the street, coming home, making a meal (I’m thinking something simple… Boiled potatoes- possibly mashed- and gravy, with steamed broccoli and cauliflower with a light cheese sauce, accompanied by a medium-rare porkchop or two, perhaps?) then sat down and starting to write away with a fresh mindset… all while wearing only a banana hammock. A black one, specifically, because it’s sleek and stylish. X3 Thank you, Scrambles.
Scarfgirl, are you reading this? We need chibi fanart of wildbow in a banana hammock.
hahaha thats funny but yeah not going to do that ever unless Wildbow explicitly asked for something like that 😛
Oh, come on, pleeeeeease? You could do the whole cast in like, beach/swimsuit attire. with a chibi Wildbow in the corner, wearing a black banana hammock, iPod, and walking a dog while whistling, on the beach. 😀
– I see what you did there with the Atlas metaphor, by the way :p
– groundskeeper anyone special? Probably not, just a friendly bystander.
– shit is about to get real, for real.
If I were a little classier, I’d just leave those references up for other people to get and notice on their own. Except I get impatient when they don’t, and point them out myself.
It honestly hadn’t occurred to me to mention the allusion in comments. I thought it was a neat detail, but too obvious to be worth talking about. I have a bad habit of forgetting that all the junk that litters my mind isn’t shared by everybody else.
Hobbes on April 13, 2013 at 22:19 said:
It hadn’t occurred to me either, for much the same reason. Of course, now I feel as though I’ve been talked down to a bit. Isn’t it a little insecure to ensure every single one of your readers gets a reference?
Meant to respond to Wildbow. Now it looks like I’m inducting Castronaut into some secret society of snobs. “Wasn’t it silly of Wildbow to explain that to the plebs, chap?”
It didn’t feel like talking down to me. Granted, the explanation for Atlas’s name could have been better, such as Skitter just going through her thought processes the day of the naming. But that’s just my opinion.
We never got around to doing a readership demographics poll, but judging by the comments, readers are likely to at least have a cursory education in literature and writing. Or just a knowledge of trivia via TvTropes. Either way, we’ll probably get a lot of the references; we just may not mention them much here.
I don’t particularly feel talked down to… For one thing, the way the subject was brought up in-story is perfectly reasonable, and actually a pretty neat way to peek at the Lisa-Taylor interactions. It’s hard to doubt that both of them are fully aware of the allusion.
Moreover, I’d liken it a bit to Shakespeare, or Pixar, or really any number of talented storytellers; it’s a passage that is functional and has the ability to entertain across different levels of education. That sort of making sure that people get references is especially useful any time you want something to be accessible to a broad audience.
Which isn’t to say that it’s impossible to talk down to people while trying to make things accessible. I just don’t think that’s really what Wildbow has done here.
One day, Atlas needs to shrug. 😉
Sure hope nobody important is riding him at the time…
Er… Am I alone in remembering that this was mentioned directly when Atlas was first named? “My beetle needed a name. Had to have a better way of referring to it. A hercules beetle, but bigger, a giant. I thought about Hercules, about the myth; Hercules had borrowed the burden of the giant who carried the world. Atlas.”
That spelt it out right there… I’d be more curious why you brought it up like that again, but this time it was Lisa asking, and she might not have made the connection immediately. After all, we see Atlas far more than she does, and we are privy to Skitter’s thoughts, outside a hot zone. It’s only understandable that when it’s brought up originally, a quick nod to the name, but the underlying reason is left unquestioned, until a calmer time, as noted here;
“…I shook my head and glanced over to where the clouds was glowing orange with the reflected flames. ‘Nothing I could do. Too much fire, it cancels out my power, and it’s dangerous for Atlas.’
‘Atlas. I like that.’ …” quoted from the same section of Prey, 14.6, a few paragraphs down.
Trust me, we notice. We just don’t comment all the time on the things that make us smile as we get the reference. 😉
I think the Atlas Shrugs joke was even made in the comments section when he was introduced and named.
Bobby on April 14, 2013 at 08:31 said:
Well, speaking as the dumb one in attendance, I hadn’t actually caught the reference about him being a Hercules beetle. I just thought mount -> heavy burden -> Atlas, plus the general theme of strength. So I’m happy you spelled it out here. 😛
salbazier on April 17, 2013 at 01:25 said:
Just curious, do you aware there is actually a beetle species called Atlas?
Spent the last three data reading this. Fantastic stuff!
TinkerTailor on April 14, 2013 at 04:57 said:
Welp, looks like I finally caught up. I’ve been devoting my evenings, lunch breaks and train rides to this for several solid weeks. I’ve commented a few times since then, I think, but I’ll just repeat that Worm is just fantastic, definitely in my personal top 10 bits of fiction. For what it’s worth, I found it via word-of-mouth from my sister, who found it via Tvtropes wiki-walk.
I was glad to read that Wildbow is OK with fanfiction, because I’ve had a growing temptation to write some. I have to admit that I’ve spent a fair bit of free time thinking up my own capes, teams and plotlines, and/or worrying that my stuff doesn’t mesh/ compare with Wildbow’s brilliant worldbuilding.
Anyway, time to come down from my binge and settle in for the wait. This is going to be like Girl Genius all over again, isn’t it? 😛
Yup. ;_;
And gunnerkrigg court, and giantitp, and dresden codak, and this is why I’m glad for rss feeds.
Skitter vs Vord Queen.
It depend son the vord queen’s intentions. Imagine the queen giving skitter spiders as a gift!
As the Vord are insects in all but name, I think she’d be able to control them. In a direct confrontation though, the Vord Queen would otherwise tear Skitter apart since she has that freakishly fast speed going for her, and overall is just so much stronger physically as well. I think turning her own horde against her would put the Vord Queen into a state of utter confusion though, so depending on whether Skitter can make use of that to perform an opening surprise move and get checkmate in the first few moves, I think the Vord Queen would, sadly, win… Unless the Vord Queen herself is vulnerable to being co-opted, in which case… No more need for bug breeding programs, is there? :3
Taylor is completely outclassed by the Void queen with no chance of survival. So of COURSE she’d win. 😛
kgy121 on October 23, 2015 at 00:56 said:
And then through the Queen, she could use MAGIC.
TinkerTailor…..where’s the SoldierSpy at?
He would be in my username too, but it looked too long and clunky.
I can’t be the only one who immediately thought of that book/movie when they read Weld’s classification rhyme.
That, or “Mover, shaker, candlestick maker” =P
Ah, I missed your catching up. Time for you to get welcomed. Oh yeah, I’m gonna welcome you so hard, your grandkids are going to feel happy about it! They’re going to call you up and go “Dear grandpa/grandma…I feel so happy all of a sudden. And yet, I have this sudden desire to scrub my brain out. Does this have anything to do with the time you read that awesome web serial written by former Prime Minister Wildbow?”
And you’ll go “Well, little Timantha and Samothy, it does indeed. I was just a sprout myself, at least in my picture, when I caught all the way up. And back in those days, Wildbow’s comments were overrun by an evil but incredibly handsome supervillain from another dimension. We learned much from him, including the art of cheese-related warfare, and that pink goes well with giant homicidal, chainsaw-wielding robots. Truly, it was a utopia. He had taken it upon himself to greet people who got caught up. Alas, they say we fell out of contact after the great Dildoing in 2053. We were all taken aback at the news.”
Might as well get to some fanfiction. At this point in the story, even without knowing about the apocalypse’s resolution, we know enough that you should be able to get something put together without having it invalidated by later revelations. Hopefully.
Welcome to the commetns, TinkerTailor
Thanks for taking on the onerous task of welcoming me, PG =P
And yeah, any hypothetical fanfic I wrote would steer clear of the overarching apocalypse/cauldron/passengers/multiverse plotlines. It would feel weird writing about that, to say the least, especially since Wildbow is basically One Of Us as opposed to some largely distant author/studio.
Yeah. Plus, sometimes you and Wildbow inadvertently run across the same ideas.
I know that after Mannequin, I can’t really use what I originally envisioned as Man-Opener as a Wormverse fic character without making some changes to him. Mine was a large suit, like a small mech, with solid white armor, no head, digitigrade legs, and arms that ended in Fallout 3-style auto axes, with the pilot being held low in the torso. His arms would be outside the armor proper, but he’d be wearing a jumpsuit kind of outfit with light armoring on them, so he could potentially hold a gun, or type, or grab something.
Originally he was going to be a scientist who was making headway on stronger materials through regular science before some catastrophe happened where heroes either couldn’t or didn’t respond fast enough to save his wife, prompting his trigger event into a tinker who was even better in his field of study. The same event would also cost him the use of his legs, thus a friend of his who was a medical doctor would reluctantly keep his secret as sought out heroes who crossed lines or didn’t do enough to help people as he felt they should.
Can’t use him like that. There’s been a few times like that with Wildbow where I’ve been like “Well, there goes that idea without looking like I’m copying.” Despite the fact that Wildbow’s got a Blue and Orange Sense of Humor as far as I’m concerned, our thoughts are eerily similar at times.
Hey Wildbow, I’ve been meaning to ask how well known Atlas is to civilians in brockton bay. Seems like civies might not realize skitter has an atlas to ride on.
Truly skitter rides on the shoulders of giants.
Thank you to Andrew and Richard for the donations. You guys are great. 😀
And James as well. Thank you James.
Thank you Andrew, Richard, and James!
and now I’m finally up to date. Took me eight days (started on 6th, finished yesterday) to read all the story parts. Didn’t venture into the comments though.
Granted, it was and is a ride. The last time I had such a reading spree (or felt the need to keep reading because of the suspense) was on Homestuck, and that was tentatively close on the same time scale.
Now I only need to disentangle from the depressing headspace Worm put me in. Drowning in chocolate ice cream with sprinkles might help. Incidentally, never read that phrase (headspace) before, but it is apt.
On a side note, wildbow, you don’t have a flattr, do you? Reading such an expansive universe, enjoying it, makes me want to pay the author back in some way, and donating feels wrong. I could go on a spiel about flattr, but… no, one ought to make up their mind on their own. I like the idea.
Be that as it may, I liked what I read. Though lengthy (700k+ words?) it is very engaging and subversive, in a sense. One point of critique: the anniversary bonus after the Infestation arc was… well… exhausting? It’s hard to put, because I didn’t look at the table of contents except for getting a guess at the length of an arc, how many chapters it contained, and thusly when current storyline threads might be finished somewhat, but the Infestation interludes made me feel anxious about when the regular chapters would continue. Mind, this is not meant as a put down in regards to the interludes, but rather the pacing, I guess? Taking such a long time (in regards to reading material) for the next story chapter, especially since I knew there’d be a lot of other stuff still coming, created a kind of anxiety for when it finally would continue.
Mayhaps this wasn’t the case for those reading regularly at the time, but this was what it felt like for me after the fact. It would have felt more natural to intersperse the Interludes with the regular chapters, though that would have been countering their descriptor of “interlude” between arcs.
*walks out in a pink dress with a blonde pigtail wig on, huge lollipop in hand*
More than a million words, actually. Yes, that means you just read something longer than War and Peace.
Welcome to the comments, comickry. Your long Worm nightmare is at an end. At least until the next chapter, which should be horribly, soul-crushingly dark. I think that’s how it goes. Every cathartic chapter followed soon after by one that makes people die a little bit inside.
Probably no more harmful than a serving of fried chicken in terms of how much inside it makes you die.
The difference is that you can inhale all of Worm in 8 days, but to inhale 8 days straight of fried chicken would leave you sweating grease. So yeah, better idea to stick with that ice cream. Might I suggest a chocolate milkshake with Nutter Butter broken up and mixed in? Like Regent’s new DVD series, it’s barely legal.
The comments tend to help with the headspace, by the way. Give us enough time and you’ll manage Max headspace.
*curtsies, avoiding the 21 thrown pie salute tossed over his head at you*
I have to say that reading through the archives as I did I felt some of the same anxiety, though greatly dampened because any materiel I read on the Wormverse is something to slake my thirst for more great literary art upon.
This is why I have suggested that when it comes time to turn Worm into a book series that the interludes get their own anthology novel or novels, so as to keep the small snippets separated from the main story arcs. Multiple novels would allow for them to be released as encyclopediac additions to each book, most likely as a cheaper paperback sold as a pair deal (say 50% off the price of the second if you buy them together, sort of concept) in an initial printing run.
I don’t have a flattr, I’m afraid.
On the topic of the interlude week(s), I did let people know in the comments, well ahead of time. For people who were following along at the time, it was an update every day for a week, while regular chapters were/are being released on a 2-3 a week schedule (depending on donations). Chronologically, I don’t feel it was a problem. Pacing-wise? Very possible there was some issue there.
Pacing’s a very very hard thing to get right in a serial, when you’re managing two entirely different groups: the people who are reading all at once and the people who are reading as the chapters are released.
It was completely a pacing issue in my eyes, as minor as it was, but even then it was more because I wanted to know more about the main story NOW (at the time). x3 I think I’d feel the same way regardless of consuming it in an archive binge vs. in a day-to-day situation, simply because the story is so engrossing you just want MORE. I know I felt the same way when I tried to read the short stories anthology for the Dresden Files, as well as the small number of Ciaphas Cain short stories, between volumes- I just itched to get back to reading the novel I was reading prior, or to grab the next volume if I was just recently done and continue reading the main characters’ exploits.
Chronologically, that was a great placement for it, and I really like how it lead into where we really did need to know more about Noelle and the rest of the Travellers, so we could sympathise and understand their motivations beyond just being this mysterious group of villains with hearts- Which worked because they were not the main focus of the story in any way until then.
No flattr is a pity
@ Gecko, thanks for the pies! They tasted delicious and well rounded. One for each arc, I presume?
Anyway, I was wondering in regards to the Earth Aleph and Bet, the latter compared favourable and unfavourably in certain aspects. Two curious points struck me:
One, how Bet is supposed to be more intense, with higher mountains and deeper rifts. I’m wondering if that was meant physical or metaphorical. The former seems less likely, since the deviation point is supposed to be in the range of 3+ decades past and differences being mostly attributed to the higher percentage of capes and subsequent changes in durability of of building, politics and general outlook on life. It’s probably an amalgam of both physical and metaphorical, I think.
Two, the action almost exclusively takes place in Bet. Predisposition in naming conventions in general leads me to believe Haywire, the cape responsible for that (permanent?) dimensional portal originates from Aleph. The casual mention of it during conversation on both universes implies, well… I don’t know, really. He was mentioned, without need for clarification, so he’s probably unique (as most past deviation capes with the possible exception of Scion are), but it somehow bugs me. The naming thing makes me think he’s an Aleph cape. But the way he(she?) comes up in conversation on Bet makes me think he’s a Bet cape. So… what is it, actually? Aleph, Bet, Both, perhaps another one (Omega)?
And lastly a minor nitpick: It’s the fault of the media “Scion” caught on as the name, right? Because if a Russian question is answered with a word, what makes them think that’s his name? They assumed he answered the question in English? That’s honestly odd. I can see the media jump to that conclusion, because the cape naming convention seems to be locked to an actual word, not a name, especially since I assume he said that word after there were other capes roaming the planet. Still odd, though.
Fuddlebob on April 15, 2013 at 09:43 said:
Oops, accidentally posted on the second latest post…
Hm. So, at the suggestion of a friend (who seems to be quite active in the comments down here), I’ve just spent the last week and a half reading through the entire archives. Now here I was, cruising through the story and I appear to have hit the end with all the grace of a car smashing into a brick wall. I’m going to refrain from commenting on the storyline for now (and this’ll probably one of the few times you’ll actually hear from me), but I just wanted to say… I like it. Good job.
Just chalk this up to one more fan, I guess.
Deleted that other one for you.
Welcome, Fuddlebob. Glad you like it.
I can’t promise I’ll be amongst your closest followers, but I’ll keep reading. You done write good.
Wildbow certainly has ‘done write’ by us so far! x3
Badum-tsh
> So, at the suggestion of a friend (who seems to be quite active in the comments down here), I’ve just spent the last week and a half reading through the entire archives.
Are any of the other active commenters scouring their brains trying to remember if there was anyone they pointed at Worm a week and a half ago? 😉
Glad you’re enjoying it.
Well, it was more of over a month ago, and I’ve only just gotten around to it recently. And trust me, the person who referred me will definitely recognise me. I just feel like being suspenseful and keeping you all in the dark until they decide to get around to replying.
I can’t tell you what it means to me that you aren’t sure – I love that people are spreading the word. Thanks people/Packbat.
FUDDLE!
Took you long enough >.>
It irks me how often people are all “Yeah, it’s awesome, gotcha. I’ll get around to it…at some point.” Totally worth it, like I said.
Glad you caught up, now I will perpetually annoy you with my Worm fangirling since you know what the hell I’m talking about now. ^_^
Oh, via word of mouth, we should have like a couple dozen more people heading here from me. Eventually…. the pussies.
I recommend manga, fanfiction, web comics, Worm…I can count on a few fingers the number of time it has worked. I may have just convinced someone to read it, but they don’t seem that enthusiastic, as it required bribing/striking a deal. Hopefully, we’ll see them in a month or so, and they can revel in the glory that is being a Worm fan and welcomed by PG.
It’s frustrating as an author, as well. You have friends and family who express interest, who act excited for your sake, but for every ten that ask for the URL, only one will comment at all on the subject.
And when it’s a fairly big part of your life – thirty to forty five hours a week you’re dedicating to something, not counting time spent dwelling on storylines – that gets frustrating. I’ve heard of authors who have wives that don’t even read their stuff.
Sometimes it may be for the best, considering the dark content. Perhaps it is better that your wife does not see all your internal devils.
I faced the same problem with a few of my own texts and got to this conclusion.
Well, nobody around here speak enough English to have fun reading such a lengthy text, so, from my part you will get few new readers.
I can definitely understand that. But, even though I don’t even write this, when I read through the comments and see someone mention how much they enjoy/relate to the writing, I tend to take a more “well, their loss” type of mindset. As long as one person can enjoy the world that you’ve made, I think that makes up for the dozens who are too preoccupied to care.
I am recommending it to everyone i can.
one person has already read the whole thing.
another has shown interest, but i think you may actually put out content faster than they read(this isnt a bad thing).
and a few others.
I recommended it to a friend but had to stop due to how dark the beginning was. She just wouldn’t continue, but she did try it first.
I’ve recommended it to people. They don’t bother, which makes me a saaaaad Gecko.
I think the only person I’ve recommended it to who hasn’t gone on to read it has been my roommate. There’ve been four or five other people that I can remember who actually did read through it at my suggestion, though, so I’m not too annoyed by my roomie’s lack of taste.
On a more relevant note, I’ve actually always found it weird when my friends and family start becoming fans of my writing. Maybe it’s just me, but I feel like I can write deeper and more personal stuff when it’s only being read by people who don’t know me well. There’s a comforting shield in anonymity, there, even if they know your name and basically everything else about you.
Admittedly, the whole “friend turning into a fan” thing only happened once, so I may be blowing it out of proportion. All my other friends still know I’m a talentless hack.
I suppose if I were just a regular guy in a regular world, I wouldn’t let my family read the stuff I write. Especially if I lived in a slightly-rural part of the South, smack dab in the Bible Belt. That’s why I would always keep a hungry cat and a quill pen around. Nom da plume, as they say.
i’ve suggested it to two people. the first, my sister, has an enormous backlog of other fics i’ve recommended to her and she hasn’t even gotten through those yet…
the other wants me to try again later and remind him whenever worm finishes. he absolutely hates incomplete works ^^;;
I have to admit, I was kinda like that at first. My sister recommended Worm to me, and I basically said “Oh, sounds cool, I might read it later”… and then didn’t bother for a few weeks.
In the end, she sent me a chapter on its own, saying “hey, check out this cool monster description” (this was the interlude where Mannequin attacked Armsmaster). I read it without context and thought it was good, which piqued my interest enough that next time I had a train ride I loaded up a few chapters to read. I was pretty much hooked after the first chapter, so… that’ll teach me not to ignore recommendations, I guess.
Chiro on April 16, 2013 at 04:39 said:
That’ll teach you to ignore recommendations from your dear sister with impeccable taste.
I have, myself, full confidence that if all keep promoting, if no grouping of people is neglected, and if the best writing is made, as it is being made, we shall prove ourselves even more able to grow our readership and commentatoriat, to ride out the storm of the upcoming Apocalypse, and to outlive the original run of the story as a community, if necessary for years, if necessary with our current numbers. At any rate, that is what we are going to try to do. That is the resolve of His Wildbow’s Government-every Wormling of them. That is the will of the Comments and the forums. The Worm and Comments, linked together in their cause and in their need, will defend to the death their native soil, aiding each other like good comrades to the utmost of their strength. Even though large tracts of the Internet and many old and famous memes have fall or may fall into the grip of oblivion and all the odious fickleness of people, we shall not flag or fail. We shall go on to the end, we shall fight in the forums, we shall fight on Webfiction and Top Web Fiction, we shall promote with growing confidence and growing strength in the air, we shall promote our story, whatever the cost may be, we shall fight on the Cheezburgers, and on the Newgrounds, we shall fight off the spam and the bots, we shall fight off the trolls; we shall never surrender, and even if, which I do not for a moment believe, this serial or a large part of it were subjugated and deleted, then our influence beyond the seas, armed and guarded by the Maggot fleet, would carry on the struggle, until, in Wildbow’s good time, the Real World, with all its publishing might, steps forth to the rescue and liberation of the old.
Welcome to the crew, Fuddlebob
Hydrargentium on April 15, 2013 at 18:26 said:
Well, Wildbow, thanks for making me cry. Having the loss of someone as close to me as Taylor’s Mom would be to her still fresh in my heart, the tiny little part in there about the tears when the groundskeeper offered kindness unbidden set me off in a way that very little else can. It’s those small kindnesses when you least expect it that touch you the most after a loss.
And great chapter overall. I haven’t read the comments at all, but if ANYONE complains that this was all talk and introspection and no action, please tell ’em to go play with some of Psycho Gecko’s toys. Over and over, you never cease to amaze me, Wildbow.
Blakagant on April 15, 2013 at 23:06 said:
i have just realized that I have lost a week reading this story after finding it. How have I lived without it all my life.
Came in at the last minute, didn’t you? I think I’m going to have to welcome you after the update in a few minutes.
This was…nice. Touching. Sad.
It’s nice to have a break from the insanity of the past several chapters…well, a break from pretty much everything since Leviathan, inclusive. The conversation with Taylor’s mother was touching, though sad. The realization of what’s ahead? Sad. Frank being so kind to the infamed supervillain visiting her dead mother? Nice and touching.
I approve of this chapter, this idea.
You’d think the Protectorate would have sent in a full sized attack team to capture all the Undersiders by now. A shame Weld isn’t with them any more, he could take on the entire group by himself.
I’m finally losing sympathy for our protagonist (whether this spells the beginning of the end of my interest in the story remains to be seen, but the lack of nice things happening doesn’t help). I’m thinking Taylor should either turn herself in or put her team under the Protectorate. It’s better for all concerned and if Taylor was still good it’s what she’d do.
I’m also curious how the government of the Bay works now. Do the Undersiders have control of the police? Are they trying to be the police? What does it really mean to say someone has taken over a city apart from the statement about people’s perceptions?
Max on October 16, 2014 at 21:59 said:
Awww therapy dog! Way to go Rachel! Smart move indeed. Dogs fix everything 🙂
I love the comment that they took over the city because “it needed doing.” That’s totally right but it’s simply hilarious thinking about a group of teenagers looking at something and basically just saying “nope, that’s gotta go.”
This chapter was incredibly heartbreaking by the way. Atlas is essentially dying. Taylor is dead inside. The PRT are complete dicks. Her friends really can’t help. She’s sitting alone in a cold dark cemetery. Heartbreaking.
The groundskeeper was awesome though. I love seeing kind people like this pop up in stories every once in a while.
Axle on September 12, 2015 at 15:27 said:
I can’t even describe the emotions going through me right now. Jesus christ, everything about her situation feels so real, these characters a so fleshed out.
Ademonsdream on November 21, 2015 at 14:59 said:
Ieusus Christos the part at the end is the closest I’ve come to crying for a story in a VERY long time
Syash on December 23, 2015 at 07:47 said:
MY HEART WAS GLUED AGAIN
Seriously, I could relate to Taylor too much. Too much. Her situation is quite similar with mine, with a few changes here and there. But not saying that I’ll do what Taylor do. She’s braver, and above all has The Undersiders. I don’t have anything like The Undersiders, so maybe that’s why I’m still stuck at the same place. More trouble but nothing resolved, Morevoer I had no goal, but my thoughts kept circling in disarray.
I am very glad I started reading Worm. It’s what I’m looking for. I want to give a big gift for wildbow but I could only manage a virtual, big, bear hug for now.
And I’m quite satisfied that I’m able to rant. Hell yeah.
Gary on March 30, 2016 at 20:49 said:
This is a little pedantic but it distracted me for the rest of the chapter, I noticed that “I’m sorry” is explained as being two and a half words? What? Its non-contracted form “I am sorry” would be three words but “I’m sorry” is two, no? I might forgive a 16 year old for making that mistake but not if their mom was an English professor.
Hexa on August 1, 2016 at 21:52 said:
Well this was disconcerting. I’m not quite sure why, but the following section had me checking whether it was a Gecko re-write:
“” every time he gets tired, there’s general wear and tear I can’t compensate for.”
I struggled to find the words. “…What I’m talking about””.
Revelation on April 21, 2017 at 22:20 said:
This was… moving. I’m not ashamed to say I teared up. I am so emotionally connected to the characters in this wonderful story, and I felt heartbroken right alongside Taylor.
I haven’t commented more than once if I can recall, but I wanted to take the time to commend you on your work. This story is not one I will soon forget! If you’re curious, I stumbled across Worm through my older brother and have been hooked since. I recommend it to friends at every opportunity because I love supporting great artists. I’m dreading the point when I read the last word, but I’ll be sudre to check out your other work!
jmdlugosz on April 24, 2017 at 19:43 said:
«She paced between Rachel and I» “between” is a preposition. Use “me”, not “I”, for objects.
Andrew Lynn on July 28, 2017 at 11:18 said:
On my third re-read, still an amazing story. Are we any closer to a physical book or are we just fucked
Bea on October 13, 2017 at 08:38 said:
Goddammit. It’s been forever since I’ve last cried over a story, I don’t even remember the last time I cried over a *written* one, and this made me cry.
Fucking Wildbow.
Thanks for the chapter and story, this has been a really enjoyable ride so far. Your writing has a rare, powerful grip to it, making it very hard to stop at all. (fuck you for that btw, making me fucking addicted to this.)
Also, goddamit @ Tattletale – and Parian – being straight. I have the biggest crush on TT, and then you go and RUIN IT AND CRUSH ALL MY DREAMS!!!!!1!11!eleven
fuk u widlbow, playing with our hearts 😦
Dread Pirate on March 1, 2018 at 13:28 said:
I had just finished reading the chapter, and this song came on on my playlist. Seems so perfect. Contact (Final Transmission).
aaronryuchi on June 17, 2018 at 20:16 said:
I absolutely adore characters like that groundskeeper who are Good People in that smallest of ways when it matters so much. Also my little cold heart just snapped at this chapter if it’s possible to snap even more from this serial. Is that wildbow’s power now
Lokesh Chandak on September 1, 2018 at 11:57 said:
All my respect goes to Groundskeeper Frank K. Earnest. (K for Kind, maybe?) Anyway, did anyone notice that the most epic part of this chapter was:
“I didn’t have bags, but I had bugs.”
heystranger111 on September 21, 2018 at 14:33 said:
What about the teacup?
Riniko on November 15, 2018 at 18:23 said:
Really I’m surprised that Lisa hadn’t thought of this, getting samples of Atlas’ waste and having it checked for what he needs, it may not be perfect but it would be better than what he has been getting to eat.
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EP3229495A1 - Multiple transmission network - Google Patents
Multiple transmission network Download PDF
Bjarne Klemmensen
Peter Søren Kirk Hansen
Oticon AS
2016-04-08 Priority to EP16164535 priority Critical
2017-03-31 Application filed by Oticon AS filed Critical Oticon AS
230000013707 sensory perception of sound Effects 0 claims description 61
206010019245 Hearing impaired Diseases 0 description 5
210000000613 Ear Canal Anatomy 0 description 2
239000005062 Polybutadiene Substances 0 description 2
210000003625 Skull Anatomy 0 description 2
210000003926 Auditory Cortex Anatomy 0 description 1
210000000860 Cochlear Nerve Anatomy 0 description 1
210000000883 Ear, External Anatomy 0 description 1
210000003027 Ear, Inner Anatomy 0 description 1
210000000959 Ear, Middle Anatomy 0 description 1
210000003128 Head Anatomy 0 description 1
241001463913 Pinna Species 0 description 1
230000002730 additional Effects 0 description 1
239000010911 seed Substances 0 description 1
230000001755 vocal Effects 0 description 1
H04W72/044—Wireless resource allocation where an allocation plan is defined based on the type of the allocated resource
H04W72/0446—Wireless resource allocation where an allocation plan is defined based on the type of the allocated resource the resource being a slot, sub-slot or frame
H04R—LOUDSPEAKERS, MICROPHONES, GRAMOPHONE PICK-UPS OR LIKE ACOUSTIC ELECTROMECHANICAL TRANSDUCERS; DEAF-AID SETS; PUBLIC ADDRESS SYSTEMS
H04R25/00—Deaf-aid sets, i.e. electro-acoustic or electro-mechanical hearing aids; Electric tinnitus maskers providing an auditory perception
H04R25/55—Deaf-aid sets, i.e. electro-acoustic or electro-mechanical hearing aids; Electric tinnitus maskers providing an auditory perception using an external connection, either wireless or wired
H04R25/554—Deaf-aid sets, i.e. electro-acoustic or electro-mechanical hearing aids; Electric tinnitus maskers providing an auditory perception using an external connection, either wireless or wired using a wireless connection, e.g. between microphone and amplifier or using Tcoils
H04W4/06—Selective distribution of broadcast services, e.g. multimedia broadcast multicast service [MBMS]; Services to user groups; One-way selective calling services
H04W4/08—User group management
H04W76/11—Allocation or use of connection identifiers
H04W76/15—Setup of multiple wireless link connections
H04R2225/00—Details of deaf aids covered by H04R25/00, not provided for in any of its subgroups
H04R2225/55—Communication between hearing aids and external devices via a network for data exchange
H04R2227/00—Details of public address [PA] systems covered by H04R27/00 but not provided for in any of its subgroups
H04R2227/003—Digital PA systems using, e.g. LAN or internet
H04R25/43—Electronic input selection or mixing based on input signal analysis, e.g. mixing or selection between microphone and telecoil or between microphones with different directivity characteristics
H04R27/00—Public address systems
H04R27/02—Amplifying systems for the deaf
H04W84/18—Self-organising networks, e.g. ad-hoc networks or sensor networks
H04W84/20—Master-slave selection or change arrangements
A wireless communication method and a system comprising a first audio source unit and at least a second audio source unit each comprising; a connection management interface for connecting to a network topology, a protocol management interface, a management link and a communication link, and during a configuration period the first audio source unit may be configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link, and, based on a first criteria, the first audio source unit may be configured to establish, via the protocol management interface, a communication group and a respective communication frame. Furthermore, where the first audio source unit may be a coordinator of the communication group, the coordinator may then be configured to establish notification packets in the communication frame, and the notification packets may then be transmitted via the management link assigned to a first time interval in the communication frame. During the configuration period, the second audio source unit may be configured to listen for a notification packet received? via the management link of the second audio source unit, the second audio source unit receives at least the notification packet and may be configured to extract, via a protocol management interface link, information of the management link of the coordinator from the received notification packet, and the second audio source unit may then be configured to transmit an ID information via the management link of the coordinator of the communication group, and where the coordinator may be configured to assign a second time interval for a communication link of the second audio source unit in the communication frame, the second audio source unit may then be configured to become an audio source member of that communication group. During a data communication period the second audio source member may be configured to communicate via the communication link of the audio source member at the second time interval in the communication frame to a sink unit.
The disclosure relates to a short-range, multiple transmission network including a coordinator for controlling the communication between audio sources and sink units.
Currently, it is known that wireless short-range communication is possible between two audio devices or between an audio device and multiple sink units (i.e. receivers), and furthermore, is known that for coordinating communications between multiple audio sources in a wireless short-range communication network n intermediate control device is needed.
Furthermore, modem hearing assistance devices, such as hearing aids, typically include digital electronics to enhance the wearer's listening experience. However, in situations where multiple people speak simultaneously, e.g. at a conference or lectures, a hearing impaired will be limited in his or her participation to the discussion since today's hearing aids are only configured to receive one audio stream at a time. Therefore, in order to improve the listening experience for a hearing impaired, a simple system for allowing multiple audio sources to communicate to at least a hearing device, i.e. a sink unit, simultaneously or mixed is needed.
An object of the present disclosure is to provide a wireless communication system which is configured to coordinate multiple transmissions from a plurality of audio source units to one or more sink units. The present disclosure provides a simple way to achieve this by utilizing the link structure of a wireless short range communication protocol, such as Bluetooth low energy, digital enhanced cordless telecommunications (DECT), WIFI etc.
The advantage of coordinating the multiple transmissions between the audio source units and a sink unit is that the sink unit is able to receive simultaneously or in parallel communication from the plurality of the audio source units.
The advantage of utilizing the link layer of a communication frame in order to establish communication between a plurality of audio source members and at least a sink unit via the communication frame of the coordinator is that the establishment is less complexed compared to known solution within this area.
Objects and advantages of the present disclosure are achieved by the present disclosure and drawings, and by the accompanying claims.
The present disclosure further at least provides an alternative to the known systems.
An object of the present disclosure is achieved by a wireless communication system comprising a first audio source unit and at least a second audio source unit each comprising; a connection management interface for connecting to a network topology, a protocol management interface, a management link and a communication link, and during a configuration period the first audio source unit may be configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link, and, based on a first criteria, the first audio source unit may be configured to establish, via the protocol management interface, a communication group and a respective communication frame. Furthermore, where the first audio source unit may be a coordinator of the communication group, the coordinator may then be configured to establish notification packets in the communication frame, and the notification packets may then be transmitted via the management link assigned to a first time interval in the communication frame. During the configuration period, the second audio source unit may be configured to listen for a notification packet received? via the management link of the second audio source unit, the second audio source unit receives at least the notification packet and may be configured to extract, via a protocol management interface link, information of the management link of the coordinator from the received notification packet, and the second audio source unit may then be configured to transmit an ID information via the management link of the coordinator of the communication group, and where the coordinator may be configured to assign a second time interval for a communication link of the second audio source unit in the communication frame, the second audio source unit may then be configured to become an audio source member of that communication group. During a data communication period the second audio source member may be configured to communicate via the communication link of the audio source member at the second time interval in the communication frame to a sink unit.
A further object of the present disclosure is achieved by a wireless communication system comprising a first audio source unit and at least a second audio source unit each comprising; a connection management interface for connecting to a network topology, a protocol management interface, a management link and multiple communication links, and during a configuration period the first audio source unit may be configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link, and based on a first criteria, the first audio source unit may be configured to establish via the protocol management interface a communication group and a respective communication frame. Furthermore, where the first audio source unit may be a coordinator of the communication group, the coordinator may then be configured to establish notification packets in the communication frame, and the notification packets may be transmitted via the management link assigned to a first time interval in the communication frame. During the configuration period, the second audio source unit may be configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link of the second audio source unit, the second audio source unit may receive at least the notification packet and may extract, via a protocol management interface link, information of the management link of the coordinator from the received notification packet, and the second audio source unit may then be configured to transmit an ID information via the management link of the coordinator of the communication group, and where the coordinator assigns multiple other time interval for the communication links of the second audio source unit in the communication frame, the second audio source unit may become an audio source member of that communication group. During a data communication period the second audio source member may be configured to communicate via the multiple communication links of the audio source member at the given time intervals in the communication frame to a sink unit.
The maximum number of communication links assigned to one audio source member may be between 2 and 5, 2 and 10, 2 and 20, or 2 and 40.
Throughout the present disclosure it will be understood that the communication links and the management links may be based on a wireless link, such as Bluetooth low energy, customized Bluetooth low energy or any kind of a Bluetooth link.
It is an advantage that a sink unit may be configured to communicate with multiple audio source units since the sink unit, e.g. a hearing device, is able to receive multiple audio streams from multiple audio source units. For example, the hearing device may for example receive audio streams from one or more intermediate streaming devices for a communication device, and/or one or more wireless microphones, and/or one or more intermediate devices for a television.
It is an advantage that the wireless communication system according to the present disclosure allows multiple audio source units to communicate with at least a sink unit, so that the sink unit may receive multiple audio streams or embedded data from the multiple audio source units simultaneously or mixed with a short time delay between the audio streams. For example, the sink unit, e.g. being a hearing device, may receive audio streams from one or more intermediate streaming device configured to stream an audio signal between a second streaming device/a communication device and a hearing device, and/or one or more wireless microphones, and/or one or more intermediate streaming device configured to stream an audio signal between a television and a hearing device. Furthermore, the intermediate streaming device may be used for controlling program shifts and volume of the hearing device.
Furthermore, the wireless communication system according to the present disclosure allows for example a hearing device to adapt to several different audio streaming environments without requiring any interaction from the user of the hearing device. Examples on how a typical user would organize a set of audio source units in different audio streaming environments is outlined below.
Stationary audio source units, such as streaming devices streaming sound from a television, should have the highest prioritization level such that such a stationary, intermediate device always act as a coordinator. If more than one TV, having such a streaming device, is turned on, the user may select the desired one via an interface in the hearing device or in an external device, such as a remote control or a mobile phone. The intermediate streaming device may optionally be built into the TV directly or be a device connected externally to the TV, either wired or wirelessly.
Mobile audio source units, such as wireless microphones (e.g. partner or table), should be on the second highest prioritization level because these are battery powered and paired with a communication group coordinated by an intermediate device connected to a TV, meaning that they will join the communication group as audio source members to when a TV is on and designated as the coordinator of that communication group - otherwise they will launch their own network with one microphone as the coordinator. If a TV is discovered afterwards (background scanning), the communication group coordinated by one of the wireless microphones will be teardown by the intermediate device for a TV and the intermediate device establish a new communication group which it becomes the coordinator of and inform the audio source members to join (the wireless microphones).
Personal single audio source unit, such as the intermediate streaming device for a communication device, should be on the lowest prioritization level and paired with both the stationary and mobile audio source units in the same communication group coordinated by a an intermediate device for a TV. Thus, if the phone rings while the user is listening to the TV and at the same time conversing with his or her spouse via a wireless microphone, then the intermediate streaming device for the phone, e.g. a smartphone, will just join the communication group and the communication frame established by the coordinator (The intermediate device for the TV in this specific situation), and await that the user accept the call. When the user has accepted the call, the audio streaming received via the intermediate streaming device for a communication device may be streamed to the hearing device or other sink units while the audio streams from the other audio source members (the mobile audio source units and/or the stationary audio source units) are muted.
An audio source unit, e.g. the first audio source unit or the second audio source unit, may be an audio streaming device configured to stream audio and/or embedded data via a wireless interface to one or more another units, for example, a hearing device. The audio source unit may be a wireless microphone, a mobile phone, an intermediate device for streaming audio from mobile phone to a hearing device, an intermediate device for streaming audio from for streaming audio to a hearing device or other suitable audio sources streaming audio and/or embedded data.
A sink unit may for example be a device which is able to decode audio streams or embedded data into an acoustic signal and provide the acoustic signal into an ear of a user of the sink unit. In the context of the present disclosure, the sink unit may preferably be a hearing device, such as a hearing aid or a headset.
The role of the coordinator may be to coordinate the communication of audio streams and/or embedded data between multiple audio source members and one or more sink units. By coordinating the communication from the audio source members to the sink units, each sinks unit may receive multiple audio streams or embedded data from multiple audio source members resulting in that the user of the sink unit may listen to the multiple audio streams simultaneously or mixed, e.g. at individual or fixed mixing levels.
The coordinator may communicate with the one or more sink units by transmitting audio streams and/or data. Additionally or alternatively, the coordinator may forward audio streams and/or embedded data from one or more audio source members to one or more sink units.
The coordinator may receive ID information from an audio source unit that wish to be a member of the communication group, and the coordinator is configured to assign the respective audio source unit to a respective time interval, different from the time interval of the management link (and of the notification packet) of the communication frame, and the audio source unit then becomes a member of that communication group. The communication frame established by the coordinator may be a MAC frame.
The communication frame may comprise time intervals, or time slots, for one or more communication links of each audio source member and/or a coordinator. Furthermore, the communication frame may comprise management links of each audio source member and a coordinator. For example, the properties of the communication frame may be arranged such that the first event in the communication frame may be a management link. Thus, once an audio source unit detects a notification packet received via the management link of the audio source unit, it may then be possible for the audio source unit to establish communication frame synchronization and listen to a management link of a coordinator of the communication group.
Furthermore, the communication frame comprises communication links of audio source members of the respective communication group and/or the coordinator of the respective communication group. The communication links may be used for communicating audio streams and/or data. The number of communication links in the communication frame may be extracted from the notification packet transmitted by the coordinator.
When an audio source unit has detected a notification packet and the respective coordinator assigns the audio source unit to a time interval in the communication frame, the audio source unit becomes an audio source member of that respective communication group coordinated by the coordinator, a pairing between the coordinator and an audio source member may then be initialized. From the pairing, the audio source member may receive static setup information which reveals the event layout of the entire communication frame, i.e. the anchor point of the remaining events (i.e. the timing of the communication links of the coordinator and other audio source members of that respective communication group) in the communication frame are offset from the already established anchor point of the management link.
The audio source member may have multiple communication links. By having two communication links the audio source member may be configured to stream audio in stereo and/or embedded data in parallel to one or more sink units.
The management link provides several management tasks such as:
A potential audio source member may request usage of one or more available time intervals inside the communication frame to one or more communication links, and which may be granted via for example a management packet transmitted to the audio source member via the management link of both the audio source member and the coordinator.
An audio source member may occasionally return information about reception quality (bad frequency channels) to the coordinator.
The coordinator may decide to leave the communication group and handover the management link to an audio source member of that communication group. This may require duplex communication between the two devices.
The management link may provide a return link where one or more audio source members may communicate to the coordinator.
By having a single communication link, the communication frame may include a connection event for the communication link which comprises, for example at least three packets. The time duration of the connection event may be equal or below 1000 us pr. time interval, but the connection event may span several time intervals wherein the event may comprise several packets, such as 1 to 5 packets, or 1 to 10 packets or above 10 packets. The first packet in the connection event, e.g. the management link, may be a time synchronization point, used for indication of synchronization status between for example two communication links of an audio source member. A global frequency hopping may be between connection event to connection event of the communication link, and a local frequency hopping may be between packet to packet within the connection event.
The notification packet may be located between connection events and points to the next coming connection event, i.e. the notification packet may comprise: the link information to the management link of the coordinator, three time variant parameters: a current value of the event counter, a time interval offset to the next communication link, and a state of the global frequency hopping.
The audio source member, or the coordinator, may have two communication links for communicating audio streams and/or data. The communication frame may be similar to the communication frame comprising a single communication link for each audio source member but with additional properties, such as;
The communication frame may comprise two connection events for each audio source member,
Both connection events may comprise a first packet used for synchronization point. The second synchronization point may be needed if only the second communication link is received,
Both communication links may have identical setup parameters, such as number of retransmissions, packet interval, etc.,
Both communication links may be advertised in the same notification packet. This requires the three time variant parameters to be linked as:
▪ Same connection event counter value for both communication links in the same communication frame,
▪ A time offset in between the two connection events may be an integer number of 1000 us time interval,
▪ The global frequency hopping may be chained together, i.e. the state of the global frequency hopping is partially based on the same seed values (event counter and ID information) such that only one set of values needs to be published in the notification packet in order to find both communication links.
▪ Thus, the time and frequency of the first synchronization point must be adjusted by the time interval offset and frequency hopping offset published in the notification packet.
An audio source member may only be member of one communication group. The audio source member may be informed by the notification packet the addresses of all the other audio source members in the communication group. However, the audio source member can be paired with several devices to join different communication groups in different streaming sessions.
An audio source member may not be aware of audio source units that are not part of the communication group. However, these other audio source units can still participate in the communication frame if they are paired with the communication group by transmitting theirs ID information via a management link to the coordinator of that communication group.
The communication groups may be divided into prioritization levels going from high to low. One communication group at a lower level can be paired with another group at a higher level, i.e. all the audio source members of the communication group at a lower level are aware of the ID information of the other audio source members of the other communication group with a higher prioritization level, but not opposite.
If an audio source member of a low level communication group finds an active higher level communication group via its management interface and its protocol management interface, then the audio source member will join the communication group with a higher level instead of starting its own communication group.
An audio source member of a lower level communication group will look for other communication groups in the background via the management link and the protocol management interface. If a higher level communication group may be detected, then the audio source member may inform the coordinator of the low level communication group to join the high level communication group. This may require a confirmation from the coordinator of the high level communication group (e.g. by assigning the audio source member a time interval in a communication frame established by the coordinator of the high level communication group) and/or a confirmation that all audio source members of the lower level communication group can see the coordinator of the higher level communication group.
The concept of pairing is just to make one audio source device unit aware of the ID information of another audio source unit. The following three pairing scenarios may occur:
Pairing between two audio source members and/or between an audio source member and a coordinator, where the pairing information of the audio source member may be transferred to the other audio source member via the management link of both members or to the coordinator via the management link of both the member and the coordinator.
Pairing a new audio source member with audio source members of an already established communication group may be done by all audio source members transferring simultaneously, or with a short delay, their ID information to the new audio source member. Thus, any audio source member must be able to deliver the needed pairing information. In this pairing scenario there is a need to deal further with the new audio source member or members after pairing. One solution could be to update a group status parameter that afterwards may be published by the coordinator, e.g. via the management link, such that paired devices can request the latest pairing information if they are out of date.
Pairing between a higher level communication group and a lower level communication group, both communication groups comprising a plurality of audio source members, without the need to do pairing individually for each audio source member of the lower level communication group. This may be accomplished when one audio source member from each communication group interexchange all pairing information of the remaining audio source members of the respective communication group, and the audio source member receiving the pairing information distributes the pairing information to the other audio source members of the respective communication group.
The coordinator may utilize the management link for creating communication group and announce the communication group to other audio source units. When an audio source unit requests to join the communication group as member, then the audio source unit shall connect to the coordinator via the management link and announce its identity by transferring its ID information. The coordinator will assign the audio source member a time interval in the communication frame and a dynamic address which may used for future link management purposes.
The coordinator shall on regular basis publish the identity (pairing information) of connected audio source members, via notification packets transmitted via the management link, to sink units informing the availability of the audio source members. When theses audio source members show up in the sink unit's source option, then they should be paired and the communication between the audio source members and the sink unit may begin.
The configuration period may be defined as being the period where an audio source unit requests an available communication group by listening for a notification packet. The configuration period may be set to a time value.
The coordinator may assign a time interval for a second communication link which may be for the coordinator or another audio source member.
The coordinator may have a communication link, and the coordinator may be configured to transmit and or receive audio streams and data.
The coordinator may be configured to coordinate via the communication frame the communication between a plurality of audio source members of the communication group and at least a sink unit such that the at least one sink unit may be configured to receive communications from the plurality of audio source members. The user of the sink unit may experience a mix of audio streams.
The first criteria may be that the first audio source unit does not receive a notification packet within the configuration period, or the first criteria may be that the first audio source unit receives a notification packet from a coordinator, the notification packet may be prioritized by the first audio source unit according to a prioritization scheme, and the first audio source unit may then be configured to reject the notification packet if the prioritization of the notification packet is not acceptable of the first audio source unit.
The prioritization may be based on the type of coordinator, e.g. is it an intermediate device for a TV, a wireless microphone, a mobile phone, an intermediate streaming device for a communication device, or the mobility of the coordinator etc. Additionally, the prioritization may be based on the signal quality (e.g. RSSI) of the coordinator, the number of audio source member in the respective communication group, number of sink units connected to the communication group etc. These information may be available via the notification packet.
The first audio source unit and the second audio source unit, i.e. an audio source unit, may each comprise a data interface configured to generate audio streams and/or embedded data for being communicated to the sink unit via the communication link.
Furthermore, the data interface may also be configured to receive and forward wireless audio streams and/or embedded data via the communication link to sink units or the coordinator.
The coordinator may be configured to merge the communication group with a second communication group when at least an audio source member of the communication group detects a second coordinator of the second communication group via the management link and the protocol management interface. When the audio source member has informed the coordinator about the second communication group, the coordinator may be configured to command the audio source member to transfer to the second communication group via the management link by forwarding the ID information of the audio source member to the second coordinator. Alternatively, when the audio source member has informed the coordinator about the second communication group the coordinator may be configured to command the audio source member to transfer to the second communication group via the management link by forwarding the ID information of the audio source member to the second coordinator when the coordinator has communicated a merging request to the second coordinator via the management link and receives an accept on the merging signal from the second coordinator. Alternatively, when the audio source member has informed the coordinator about the second communication group the coordinator may be configured to command the audio source member to transfer to the second communication group, and the audio source member may be configured to transfer its ID information to the second coordinator.
A further aspect of the present disclosure relates to a coordinator of a communication group configured to coordinate communication between a plurality of audio source members of a communication group and at least a sink unit in a network topology. The coordinator may comprise; a connection management interface, a protocol management interface, a management link, provided in a communication frame established by the coordinator, and where the coordinator may be connected to the network topology via the connection management interface. During a configuration period the coordinator may be configured to establish notification packets including link information of the management link via the protocol management interface and to transmit the notification packets via the management link assigned to a first time interval in the communication frame, and if receiving ID information from at least one audio source unit via the management link in response to one or more of the notification packets, the coordinator may be configured to assign a second time interval for the communication link of the audio source unit in the communication frame, wherein the audio source unit is an audio source member of the communication group.
An additional object of the present disclosure is achieved by a coordinator of a communication group configured to coordinate communication between a plurality of audio source members of a communication group and at least a sink unit in a network topology. The coordinator may comprise; a connection management interface, a protocol management interface, a management link provided in a communication frame established by the coordinator, and where the coordinator may be connected to the network topology via the connection management interface. During a configuration period the coordinator may be configured to establish notification packets including link information of the management link via the protocol management interface and transmit the notification packets via the management link assigned to a first time interval, and if receiving ID information from at least one audio source unit, via the management link, in response to one or more of the notification packets, the coordinator may be configured to assign respective time intervals for respective communication links of the audio source unit in the communication frame, wherein the audio source unit is an audio source member of the communication group.
In general, the notification packets may be transmitted periodically or randomly, i.e. the coordinator may assign the notification packets to the communication frame periodically or randomly.
Additionally, during a data communication period the second audio source member may be configured to communicate via the communication link(s) at the given time interval(s) in the communication frame to the sink unit.
The coordinator may have one or more communication links for communicating audio streams and/or embedded data to a sink unit.
The coordinator may receive a notification packet from a second coordinator of a second communication group via the management link, and according to a prioritization scheme, the coordinator may be configured to leave the communication group and join the second communication group as an audio source member of the second communication group when transmitting an ID information via the management link to the second coordinator, and the second coordinator confirms by assigns the coordinator a time interval in a communication frame established by the second coordinator.
The coordinator may be configured to transmit a coordinator request to an audio source member of the communication group via the management link, and if the coordinator receives an accept from the audio source member in response to the coordinator request, the audio source member may then be appointed as the coordinator of the communication group.
A further object of the present disclosure is achieved by an audio source member of a communication group coordinated by a coordinator, and where the audio source member may be configured to communicate to at least a sink unit. The audio source member comprises; a connection management interface, a protocol management interface, a management link and at least one communication link, provided in a communication frame generated by the coordinator, and where the audio source member may be connected to the network topology via the connection management interface. During a configuration period the audio source member may be configured to receive a notification packet via the management link and extracts via the protocol management interface link information of the management link of the coordinator of a communication group from the received notification packet. The audio source member may then be configured to transmit its ID information in response to the received notification packet via the management link, and the at least one communication link of the audio source member may be assigned by the coordinator to a time interval in the communication frame, and during a data communication period the audio source member may be configured to communicate to the at least sink unit via the at least one communication link.
An additional object of the present disclosure is achieved by an audio source member of a communication group coordinated by a coordinator, and where the audio source member may be configured to communicate to at least a sink unit. The audio source member may comprise; a connection management interface, a protocol management interface, a management link and multiple communication links, provided in a communication frame generated by the coordinator, and where the audio source member may be connected to the network topology via the connection management interface. During a configuration period the audio source member may be configured to receive a notification packet via the management link and extract via the protocol management interface link information of the management link of the coordinator of a communication group from the received notification packet. The audio source member may then be configured to transmit its ID information in response to the received notification packet via the management link, and each of the multiple communication links of the audio source member may be assigned by the coordinator to a time interval in the communication frame, and during a data communication period the audio source member may be configured to communicate to the at least sink unit via the multiple communication link.
The audio source member may communicate to the sink unit mixed or simultaneously with other audio source members of the same communication group.
The audio source member may comprise a data interface configured to generate audio streams and/or embedded data for being communicated to the at least sink unit via the communication link(s).
The communication link may be based on Bluetooth low energy communication protocol, Bluetooth communication protocol, or a customized Bluetooth (low energy) communication protocol.
The management link may be based on Bluetooth low energy communication protocol, Bluetooth communication protocol, or a customized Bluetooth (low energy) communication protocol.
A plurality of audio source members may be configured to communicate to the at least one sink unit where the audio streams and/or data are streamed simultaneously or with a time delay between each audio streams/data of each audio source member. The user of the sink unit, being for example a hearing device, is then able to hear all the users of the audio source members at the same. This is ideal in a conference situation where the user will like to be part of a discussion between the talkers (e.g. a talker using a wireless microphone being a member of a communication group established by one of the talkers) at the conference.
The audio source member may be a combination of a sink unit and an audio source unit, the audio source member may then be configured to communicate/transmit and receive audio streams. The audio source member may be; an intermediate streaming device, such as a router, transponder, relay etc. or a hearing device.
The audio source member may be configured to be a coordinator of the communication group when accepting a coordinator request transmitted by the coordinator of the communication group via the management link.
A further object of the present disclosure is achieved by a method for coordinating communication between a plurality of audio source members of a communication group and at least a sink unit in a network topology, during a configuration period a first audio source unit may be configured to:
connecting to a network topology via a connection management interface,
listening for a notification packet via a management link,
establishing a communication group based on a first criteria, and the first audio source unit is a coordinator of the communication group,
establishing notification packets via a protocol management interface and transmitting the notification packets via the management link assigned a first time interval in a communication frame established by the coordinator, and
during the configuration period a second audio source unit may be configured to:
receiving the notification packet via the management link including link information to the management link of the coordinator of the communication group in the communication frame,
transmitting ID information via the management link to the coordinator, and
during the configuration period the coordinator may be configured to:
assigning a second time interval for a communication link of the second audio source member in the communication frame, and the second audio source unit is becoming a second audio source member of the communication group, and
during a data communication period the second audio source member may be configured to:
communicating via the communication link to one or more sink units.
An additionally object of the present disclosure is achieved by a method for coordinating communication between a plurality of audio source members of a communication group and at least a sink unit in a network topology, during a configuration period a first audio source unit may be configured to:
establishing notification packets via a protocol management interface and transmitting the notification packets via the management link in a communication frame established by the coordinator, and
assigning a time interval for each multiple communication links of the second audio source member in the communication frame, and the second audio source unit is becoming a second audio source member of the communication group, and
communicating via the communication links to one or more sink units.
Additionally, or alternatively, the coordinator may assign a time interval for a communication link to itself, i.e. the communication link is for the coordinator.
The communication link and/or the management link may be based on a short range wireless network technology, e.g. Bluetooth low energy, Bluetooth Basic Rate/Enhance Data Rate (BR/EDR), or WIFI.
The network topology may be based on a short range wireless network technology, e.g. Bluetooth low energy, Bluetooth Basic Rate/Enhance Data Rate (BR/EDR), or WIFI.
If the audio source unit (an audio source member or a coordinator) has multiple communication links, each link may be based on different short range wireless network technologies.
Each audio source member of the communication group may be ranked by the coordinator of the communication group, and if the coordinator leaves the communication group the audio source member having the highest ranking may be designated the coordinator of the communication group.
The coordinator may be configured to dynamically vary the data capacity of the respective time interval based on the size of an audio streams packet and/or embedded data packet transmitted by the audio source member.
The coordinator may be configured to assign a time interval for each communication link of a plurality of communication links for an audio source member.
The audio source member may be an audio source unit in the form of:
a wireless microphone,
an audio streamer comprising Bluetooth or Bluetooth low energy interface
an intermediate device for a TV, wherein the intermediate device comprises a Bluetooth low energy interface,
a hearing device, or
any devices which are configured to communicate audio streams to one or more sink units.
A coordinator of a communication group is configured to coordinate communication between a plurality of audio source members of the same communication group and at least a sink unit in a network topology, the coordinator may comprise;
a connection management interface,
a protocol management interface,
a management link provided in a communication frame established by the coordinator, and
where the coordinator may be connected to the network topology via the connection management interface, and during a configuration period the coordinator may be configured to establish notification packets including link information of the management link via the protocol management interface and to transmit the notification packets via the management link, and if receiving ID information from at least one audio source unit via the management link in response to one or more of the notification packets, the coordinator may be configured to assign a time interval for a communication link of the audio source unit in the communication frame, and the coordinator may be configured to publish ID information of one or more audio source member of the communication group, via the management link, to one or more sink units, and the notification packet includes link information of the management link.
A sink unit may be configured to wirelessly communicate with a plurality of audio source members of a communication group, wherein the sink unit may comprise;
a management link and a communication link, and
where when the sink unit is connected to the network topology via the connection management interface the sink unit may then be configured to receive a notification packet via the management link and extract via the protocol management interface link information of the management link of the coordinator of a communication group, the sink unit may then be configured to receive ID information, via the management link, of one or more audio source members of the communication group, and the sink unit may then be configured to communicate with plurality of audio source members of the communication group.
The ID information may comprise pairing information of a respective audio source member and/or a respective coordinator.
The sink unit may be configured to select one or more audio source members either manually or automatically via a user interface of an external device, e.g. a mobile phone.
In any embodiments, the coordinator may assign multiple communication links to itself and/or multiple communication links to one or more audio source members.
By for example having two communication links it may be possible to stream a stereo signal to the receiver, i.e. the sink unit.
A further object of the present disclosure is achieved by a method for coordinating communication in a wireless network topology, where the communication in the wireless network topology includes communication between a plurality of audio source members of a communication group and at least a sink unit, wherein the plurality of audio source members includes a first audio source unit and a second audio source unit, the first audio source unit may be configured to communicate via a first communication frame, and during a configuration period the first audio source unit may be configured to:
connecting to the wireless network topology via a connection management interface in the first communication frame,
listening for a notification packet in the wireless network topology via a management link in a link layer of the first communication frame, and wherein the management link may be linked to the connection management interface,
establishing a communication group in the wireless network topology based on a first criteria, wherein the first criteria may be based on that the first audio source unit does not receive a notification packet within the configuration period, and the first audio source unit is a coordinator of the communication group,
establishing notification packets via a protocol management interface in the first communication frame and transmitting the notification packets via the management link assigned to a first time interval in the first communication frame.
The second audio source unit may be configured to communicate via a second communication frame, and during the configuration period the second audio source unit may be configured to:
connecting to the wireless network topology via a connection management interface in the second communication frame,
listening for a notification packet via a management link in a link layer of the second communication frame, wherein the management link may be linked to the connection management interface and to the management link of the first audio source unit,
receiving the notification packet transmitted by the coordinator via the management link, and the notification packet includes link information to the management link of the coordinator of the communication group in the first communication frame,
transmitting an ID information via the management link to the coordinator by using the link information
During the configuration period the coordinator may be configured to assigning the second audio source unit to a communication link in a second time interval of the first communication frame by using the ID information of the second audio source unit, and the second audio source unit is a second audio source member of the communication group, and during a data communication period the second audio source member may be configured to communicating via the communication link to at least a sink unit.
The advantage of the coordinating of the communication in the wireless network topology includes communication between the plurality of audio source members of a communication group and at least a sink unit, is that the at least sink unit is able to receive multiple communications simultaneously, in parallel or mixed from the audio source members. Thereby, the user of the sink unit is able to receive vocal sounds recorded by the audio source members in a conference manner, i.e. the user of the sink unit is able to listen to a discussion between the users of the audio source members.
An even further object of the present disclosure is achieved by a wireless communication system configured to establish a communication between a plurality of audio source members of a communication group and at least a sink unit in a wireless network topology, wherein the plurality of audio source members includes a first audio source unit and a second audio source unit, wherein the first audio source unit comprises:
a connection management interface in a first communication frame configured to connect the first audio source unit to the wireless network topology,
a management link in a link layer of the first communication frame, wherein the management link may be linked to the connection management interface, and wherein the first audio source unit may be configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link during a configuration period, and wherein
the first audio source unit may be configured to establish a communication group in the wireless network topology based on a first criteria, wherein the first criteria may be based on that the first audio source unit does not receive a notification packet within the configuration period, and the first audio source unit may be a coordinator of the communication group, and wherein the coordinator may be configured to establish notification packets via a protocol management interface in the first communication frame and transmitting the notification packets via the management link assigned to a first time interval in the first communication frame. The second audio source unit comprises:
a connection management interface in a second communication frame configured to connect the second audio source unit to the wireless network topology,
a management link in a link layer of the second communication frame, wherein the management link may be linked to the connection management interface and to the management link of the first audio source unit, and wherein the second audio source unit may be configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link during the configuration period, and wherein
the second audio source unit is configured to receive the notification packet, transmitted by the coordinator, via the management link during the configuration period, and the notification packet includes link information to the management link of the coordinator of the communication group in the first communication frame, and the second audio source unit is configured to transmit an ID information via the management link to the coordinator by using the link information, and during the configuration period the coordinator is configured to assign the second audio source unit to a communication link in a second time interval of the first communication frame by using the ID information of the second audio source unit, and during a data communication period the second audio source member is configured to communicate via the communication link to at least a sink unit.
The first audio source unit and the second audio source unit each comprises a data interface in the first communication frame and the second communication frame, respectively, wherein the data interface is configured to generate audio streams and/or embedded data for being communicated to the sink unit via the communication link for the second audio source member and via a second communication link assigned to a third time interval in the first communication frame for the coordinator.
The first criteria is alternatively based on that the first audio source unit receives a notification packet from a coordinator, the notification packet is prioritized by the first audio source unit according to a prioritization scheme, and the first audio source unit is then configured to reject the notification packet if the prioritization of the notification packet is not acceptable of the first audio source unit.
The coordinator may be configured to merge the communication group with a second communication group when at least an audio source member of the communication group receives another link information from a second coordinator of the second communication group via the management link, and when the audio source member has transmitted the another link information to the coordinator via the management link;
the coordinator may be further configured to command the audio source member to transfer to the second communication group by forwarding the ID information of the audio source members of the communication group to the second coordinator via the management link by using the another link information, or
when the coordinator has communicated a merging request to the second coordinator via the management link and receives an accept on the merging request from the second coordinator, the coordinator may be further configured to command the audio source member to transfer to the second communication group via the management link by forwarding the ID information of the audio source member to the second coordinator by using the another link information, or
the coordinator may be further configured to command the audio source member to transfer to the second communication group, and the audio source member is configured to transfer its ID information to the second coordinator by using the another link information.
The coordinator may be configured to coordinate via the first communication frame the communication between a plurality of audio source members of the communication group and at least a sink unit by assigning a communication link to each of the audio source members in the first communication frame, the at least sink unit may be configured to receive communications from the plurality of audio source members via the communication links in the first communication frame.
The coordinator may be configured to coordinate communication between a plurality of audio source members of the communication group and at least a sink unit in a network topology, the coordinator comprises;
a connection management interface in a first communication frame configured to connect the coordinator to the wireless network topology, a management link in a link layer of the first communication frame, wherein the management link is linked to the connection management interface, and wherein the coordinator is configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link during a configuration period,
and during the configuration period the coordinator is configured to establish notification packets including link information of the management link via the protocol management interface and transmit the notification packets via the management link assigned to a first time interval in the communication frame, and if receiving ID information from at least one audio source unit via the management link in response to the transmitted notification packets, the coordinator is configured to assign a second time interval for a communication link of at least the audio source unit in the communication frame, and the at least audio source unit is an audio source member of the communication group.
The coordinator may receive a notification packet from a second coordinator of a second communication group via the management link, and according to a prioritization scheme, the coordinator may be configured to leave the communication group and join the second communication group as an audio source member of the second communication group when transmitting an ID information via the management link to the second coordinator, and the second coordinator confirms by assigning the coordinator a time interval in a communication frame established by the second coordinator.
The prioritization scheme may be related to how an audio source unit/member or a coordinator prioritize a communication group. If for example the communication group comprises a plurality of audio source members being a mix of audio television streamers, smartphones and microphones, and a second communication group may comprise a plurality of audio source members being smartphones only, and if the coordinator or the audio source unit/member will only be part of a communication group comprising only smartphones may prioritize the second communication group higher than the first communication group. In this example, if the audio source unit/member or the coordinator receives notification packets from the coordinators of the two communication groups then the receiver will decide to join the second communication group due to the prioritization.
The coordinator may be configured to transmit a coordinator request to an audio source member of the communication group via the management link, and if the coordinator receives an accept from the audio source member in response to the coordinator request, the audio source member is then appointed as the coordinator of the communication group.
A plurality of audio source members of the communication group may be configured to communicate to the at least sink unit simultaneously or in parallel.
An additional object of the present disclosure is achieved by an audio source member of a communication group coordinated by a coordinator in a wireless network topology, and where the audio source member may be configured to communicate to at least a sink unit, the audio source member comprises;
a connection management interface in a communication frame configured to connect the audio source unit to the wireless network topology,
a management link in a link layer of the communication frame, wherein the management link may be linked to the connection management interface and to a management link of another audio source unit or the coordinator, and wherein the audio source unit may be configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link during a configuration period, and wherein
the audio source unit may be configured to receive the notification packet transmitted by a coordinator via the management link during the configuration period, and the notification packet includes link information to the management link in a communication frame of the coordinator, and the audio source unit may be configured to transmit an ID information via the management link to the coordinator by using the link information, and during the configuration period the audio source unit may be an audio source member of the communication group when the coordinator assigns the audio source unit to a communication link in a second time interval of the communication frame of the coordinator by using the ID information of the audio source unit, and the audio source unit is an audio source member of the communication group, and during a data communication period the audio source member is configured to communicate via the communication link to at least a sink unit.
The audio source member may comprise a data interface configured to generate audio streams and/or embedded data for being communicated to the at least sink unit via the communication link.
The communication link may be based on Bluetooth low energy communication protocol.
The audio source member is a combination of a sink unit and an audio source unit, the audio source member is then configured to communicate and receive audio streams, the audio source member is;
an intermediate streaming device, such as a router, transponder, relay etc.,
a hearing device.
The aspects of the disclosure may be best understood from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying figures. The figures are schematic and simplified for clarity, and they just show details to improve the understanding of the claims, while other details are left out. Throughout the description and figures the same reference numerals are used for identical or corresponding parts. The individual features of each aspect may each be combined with any or all features of the other aspects. These and other aspects, features and/or technical effect will be apparent from and elucidated with reference to the illustrations described hereinafter in which:
Fig. 1, illustrates a flow diagram of a method for coordinating communication between a plurality of audio source members of a communication group,
Figs. 2A - 2B, illustrates an example of a coordinator,
Figs. 3A - 3B, illustrates an example of an audio source member and a sink unit, respectively,
Fig. 4, illustrates an example of a wireless communication system,
Fig. 5 illustrates an example of a wireless communication system,
Fig. 6 illustrates a situation including an audio source unit becoming a coordinator,
Figs. 7A and 7B illustrates a situation where a sink unit receives audio streams and (or embedded data directly or indirectly from multiple audio source members,
Fig. 8 illustrates a specific situation including multiple coordinators,
Fig. 9 illustrates a situation including multiple communication groups and sink units,
Fig. 10 illustrates a situation with multiple coordinators and the ability of the coordinator to coordinate and control a communication group.
The detailed description set forth below in connection with the appended drawings is intended as a description of various configurations. The detailed description includes specific details for the purpose of providing a thorough understanding of various concepts. However, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that these concepts may be practiced without these specific details. Several aspects of the apparatus and methods are described by various blocks, functional units, modules, components, circuits, steps, processes, algorithms, etc. (collectively referred to as "elements"). Depending upon particular application, design constraints or other reasons, these elements may be implemented using electronic hardware, computer program, or any combination thereof.
The electronic hardware may include microprocessors, microcontrollers, digital signal processors (DSPs), field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs), programmable logic devices (PLDs), gated logic, discrete hardware circuits, and other suitable hardware configured to perform the various functionality described throughout this disclosure. Computer program shall be construed broadly to mean instructions, instruction sets, code, code segments, program code, programs, subprograms, software modules, applications, software applications, software packages, routines, subroutines, objects, executables, threads of execution, procedures, functions, etc., whether referred to as software, firmware, middleware, microcode, hardware description language, or otherwise.
In the present context, a hearing device is conceived as a hearing aid that is adapted to improve or augment the hearing capability of a user by receiving an acoustic signal from a user's surroundings, generating a corresponding audio signal, possibly modifying the audio signal and providing the possibly modified audio signal as an audible signal to at least one of the user's ears. The "hearing device" may further refer to a device such as an earphone or a headset adapted to receive an audio signal electronically, possibly modifying the audio signal and providing the possibly modified audio signals as an audible signal to at least one of the user's ears. Such audible signals may be provided in the form of an acoustic signal radiated into the user's outer ear, or an acoustic signal transferred as mechanical vibrations to the user's inner ears through bone structure of the user's head and/or through parts of middle ear of the user or electric signals transferred directly or indirectly to cochlear nerve and/or to auditory cortex of the user.
The hearing device is adapted to be worn in any known way. This may include i) arranging a unit of the hearing device behind the ear with a tube leading air-borne acoustic signals or with a receiver/ loudspeaker arranged close to or in the ear canal such as in a Behind-the-Ear type hearing aid or a Receiver-in-the Ear type hearing aid, and/ or ii) arranging the hearing device entirely or partly in the pinna and/ or in the ear canal of the user such as in an In-the-Ear type hearing aid or In-the-Canal/ Completely-in-Canal type hearing aid, or iii) arranging a unit of the hearing device attached to a fixture implanted into the skull bone such as in Bone Anchored Hearing Aid or Cochlear Implant, or iv) arranging a unit of the hearing device as an entirely or partly implanted unit such as in Bone Anchored Hearing Aid or Cochlear Implant.
A hearing device may be part of a "hearing system", which refers to a system comprising one or two hearing devices, disclosed in present description, and a "binaural hearing system" refers to a system comprising two hearing devices where the devices are adapted to cooperatively provide audible signals to both of the user's ears. The hearing system or binaural hearing system may further include auxiliary device(s) that communicates with at least one hearing device, the auxiliary device affecting the operation of the hearing devices and/or benefitting from the functioning of the hearing devices. A wired or wireless communication link between the at least one hearing device and the auxiliary device is established that allows for exchanging information (e.g. control and status signals, possibly audio signals) between the at least one hearing device and the auxiliary device. Such auxiliary devices may include at least one of remote controls, remote microphones, audio gateway devices, mobile phones, public-address systems, car audio systems or music players or a combination thereof. The audio gateway is adapted to receive a multitude of audio signals such as from an entertainment device like a TV or a music player, a telephone apparatus like a mobile telephone or a computer, a PC. The audio gateway is further adapted to select and/or combine an appropriate one of the received audio signals (or combination of signals) for transmission to the at least one hearing device. The remote control is adapted to control functionality and operation of the at least one hearing devices. The function of the remote control may be implemented in a smart phone or other electronic device, the smart phone/ electronic device possibly may run an application that controls functionality of the at least one hearing device.
In general, a hearing device includes i) an input unit such as a microphone for receiving an acoustic signal from a user's surroundings and providing a corresponding input audio signal, and/or ii) a receiving unit for electronically receiving an input audio signal. The hearing device further includes a signal processing unit for processing the input audio signal and an output unit for providing an audible signal to the user in dependence on the processed audio signal.
The input unit may include multiple input microphones, e.g. for providing direction-dependent audio signal processing. Such directional microphone system is adapted to enhance a target acoustic source among a multitude of acoustic sources in the user's environment. In one aspect, the directional system is adapted to detect (such as adaptively detect) from which direction a particular part of the microphone signal originates. This may be achieved by using conventionally known methods. The signal processing unit may include amplifier that is adapted to apply a frequency dependent gain to the input audio signal. The signal processing unit may further be adapted to provide other relevant functionality such as compression, noise reduction, etc. The output unit may include an output transducer such as a loudspeaker/ receiver for providing an air-borne acoustic signal transcutaneously or percutaneously to the skull bone or a vibrator for providing a structure-borne or liquid-borne acoustic signal. In some hearing devices, the output unit may include one or more output electrodes for providing the electric signals such as in a Cochlear Implant.
It should be appreciated that reference throughout this specification to "one embodiment" or "an embodiment" or "an aspect" or features included as "may" means that a particular feature, structure or characteristic described in connection with the embodiment is included in at least one embodiment of the disclosure. Furthermore, the particular features, structures or characteristics may be combined as suitable in one or more embodiments of the disclosure. The previous description is provided to enable any person skilled in the art to practice the various aspects described herein. Various modifications to these aspects will be readily apparent to those skilled in the art, and the generic principles defined herein may be applied to other aspects.
The claims are not intended to be limited to the aspects shown herein, but is to be accorded the full scope consistent with the language of the claims, wherein reference to an element in the singular is not intended to mean "one and only one" unless specifically so stated, but rather "one or more." Unless specifically stated otherwise, the term "some" refers to one or more.
Accordingly, the scope should be judged in terms of the claims that follow.
Fig. 1 illustrates a flow diagram of a method for coordinating communication between a plurality of audio source members organized in a communication group and at least one sink unit in a network topology. During a configuration period a first audio source unit may be configured to connecting to a network topology via a connection management interface (10A), listening for a notification packet via a management link (10B), establishing a communication group based on a first criteria (10C), and the first audio source unit is a coordinator of the communication group (10D), establishing notification packets via a protocol management interface and transmitting the notification packets via the management link assigned a first time interval in a communication frame established by the coordinator (10E). Furthermore, during the configuration period (10F) a second audio source unit may be configured to connecting to a network topology via a connection management interface (10G), listening for a notification packet via a management link (10H), receiving the notification packet via the management link including link information to the management link of the coordinator of the communication group in the communication frame (10I), transmitting ID information via the management link to the coordinator (10J). Additionally, during the configuration period (10K) the coordinator may be configured to assigning a second time interval for a communication link of the second audio source member in the communication frame (10L), and the second audio source unit is becoming a second audio source member of the communication group (10M). Furthermore, during a data communication period (10N) the second audio source member may be configured to communicating via the communication link to one or more sink units (10O).
Fig. 2A and 2B show a coordinator 20 of a communication group configured to coordinate communication between a plurality of audio source members of a communication group and at least a sink unit in a network topology via a communication frame 30 generated by the coordinator 20. In this particular example, the coordinator 20 comprises a connection management interface 21 and a protocol management interface 22. Furthermore, the coordinator 20 comprises a management link 23 provided in the communication frame 30, where the coordinator 20 is connected to the network topology (not shown in Fig. 2A) via the connection management interface 21.
In Fig. 2A, it is seen in the communication frame 30 that the connection management interface 21 is in one example configured to request the protocol management interface 22 via the request input 26 to launch a wireless communication, e.g. a Bluetooth stream setup or a Bluetooth low energy stream setup. The protocol management interface 22 is configured to establish notification packets and forwarding 29 the notification packets to the management link 23 which is assigned by the protocol management interface 22 to a time interval in the communication frame 30. The contain of the notification packets may for example be an event count for the next coming communication link of an audio source member and link information for the management link 23 of the coordinator.
In Fig. 2B, the coordinator 20 is further configured to transmit audio stream and/or embedded data via a data interface 25 which is configured to transfer the audio stream 27 and/or the embedded data 28 to the protocol management interface 22. The protocol management interface 22 attaches then a Bluetooth protocol entity (e.g. an audio stream socket) to an audio port 33 and a data port 34 of the communication link 24 reshaping a payload of the Bluetooth audio stream protocol so that the payload comprises both the audio stream and/or the embedded data. In another example the payload may only comprise the audio stream.
In Fig. 2B the communication frame has been divided into an upper layer 31 and a link layer 32, wherein the upper layer 31 comprises the connection management interface 21 and the protocol management interface 22, and alternatively, the data interface 25. The link layer comprises the management link 23 and the communication link 24.
In Figs. 2A and 2B, during a configuration period the coordinator may receive ID information from at least one audio source unit, via the management link 23, in response to a notification packet transmitted by the coordinator via the management link 23. Via the protocol management interface 22 the coordinator assigns a communication link of the audio source unit within the communication frame to a time interval different from the time interval of the notification packet, and the audio source unit becomes an audio source member of the communication group.
In other examples the notification packet may be transmitted to the audio source unit via a notification link which is assigned to another timer interval different from the time interval of the management link.
The implementation of the data interface 25 is an alternatively.
Fig. 3A shows an example of an audio source unit 11 being able to communicate to at least a sink unit and a coordinator. In the audio source member 11 the protocol management interface 22B may receive a notification packet via the management link 23 and in responds to the received notification packet the protocol management interface 22B is configured to transmit an ID information to the respective coordinator of the respective notification packet via the management link 23. The coordinator 20 updates the notification packet including one or more assigned time interval(s) to one or more communication links 24 of the audio source unit 11. The audio source unit 11 is now a member of the communication group established by the coordinator, i.e. the audio source unit is now an audio source member 11.
The audio source unit or the audio source member is further configured to establish a communication group if not receiving a notification packet or if the notification packet represent a communication group with a prioritization level that is lower than the prioritization level of the audio source member or with a prioritization level which the audio source unit or member 11 does not accept.
The audio source member 11 is further configured to transmit audio stream and/or embedded data via a data interface 25 which is configured to transfer the audio stream 27 and/or the embedded data 28 to the protocol management interface 22B. The protocol management interface 22B attaches then a Bluetooth protocol entity (e.g. an audio stream socket) to an audio port 33 and a data port 34 of the communication link 24 reshaping a payload of the Bluetooth audio stream protocol so that the payload comprises both the audio stream and/or the embedded data.
The audio source member 11 may receive a notification packet via the management link 23, and the protocol management interface 22B is configured to synchronize the Bluetooth protocol entity of the audio source member 11 to the assigned time interval(s) of one or more communication links.
Fig. 3B shows an example of a sink unit 40 where a protocol management interface 22C is configured to receive a notification packet via the management link 24 and determine the timing of a communication link of an audio source member within a communication frame established by the coordinator transmitting the notification packet. By determining the timing of the communication link of the audio source member, the sink unit may then be synchronized to receive a Bluetooth audio stream protocol from the audio source member and decode the audio stream from the Bluetooth audio stream protocol via the data interface 25.
The sink unit may receive multiple notification packets which then leads the sink unit to be synchronized to multiple communication links of multiple audio source members. The sink unit may then be able to listen to multiple audio source members simultaneously or mixed.
Fig. 4 shows a wireless communication system 1 including a coordinator 20 and an audio source member 11. In this particular example both the coordinator 20 and the audio source member 11 are communicating via a management link 23 and/or a communication link 24.
The streaming of audio stream and/or embedded data to a sink unit is provided via one or more communication links 14.
Both the coordinator 20 and the audio source member 11 may have multiple communication links. By having multiple communication links transferring of stereo signal or high capacitive audio signal from the coordinator or the audio source member is possible. This example is not shown in Fig. 4.
In another example the coordinator 20 may be an intermediate device for a television and the audio source member 11 may be a mobile phone or a phone streamer device configured to stream a signal from a mobile phone to a hearing device. The coordinator may have assigned at least two communication links to itself for streaming a stereo signal to a sink unit (e.g. a hearing aid device). The stereo signal needs two communication links.
Fig. 5 shows a wireless communication system 1 including a coordinator 20, an audio source member 11 and a sink unit 40. In this particular example the coordinator may be a first microphone used by a first school teacher, the audio source member may be a second microphone used by a second school teacher and the sink unit may be a single hearing aid used by a hearing impaired person.
The sink unit could be replaced with two sink units, and the two sink units could be for example a binaural hearing aid system used by a hearing impaired.
In the example shown in Fig. 5, the coordinator 20 transmit a notification packet via the management link and the audio source unit 11 receives the notification packet via the management link and analyses the notification packet via the protocol management interface 22B for available communication links in the communication frame 30 and the type of the communication group generated by the coordinator. If the type is acceptable to the audio source unit 11 and at least one communication link is available the audio source unit 11 transmit its ID information to the coordinator via the management link and a request on a number of communication links for use in communicating with the sink unit 40 and the coordinator 20. The coordinator 20 receives the ID information and assigns the requested number of communication links 24 in the communication frame 30 to the audio source unit 11. The audio source unit 30 becomes an audio source member 11 of the communication group.
The notification packet transmitted by the coordinator is received by the sink unit. The sink unit analysis via the protocol management interface 22C the notification packet to see whether the type of the communication group is acceptable and to see whether there are any communication links occupied by at least the coordinator 20 and/or the audio source member 11. If the type is acceptable and at least one communications link is occupied the sink unit starts to receive the audio stream and/or embedded data from the respective communication link(s) in the communication frame of the coordinator. The sink unit decodes the received audio streams, and for example a hearing impaired using a hearing aid device is able to listen what the first teacher and the second teacher are saying.
Fig. 6 shows an audio source unit 11 searching for a notification packet. The audio source unit does create a communication group 13 of which it becomes a coordinator 20 of since it did not receive any notification packet or since it received a notification packet from a coordinator but the notification packet did not have the correct prioritization according to a prioritization scheme of the audio source unit 11.
The coordinator is now able to communicate via a communication link 24 to the sink unit 40.
Fig. 7A shows a communication group 13 established by the coordinator 20, and the communication group 13 comprises two audio source members 11A and 11B. The coordinator and the two audio source members communicate with a sink unit 40 via respective communication links (24A - 24C).
Fig. 7B shows a communication group established by the coordinator 20, and the communication group 13 comprises two audio source members 11A and 11B communicating via the coordinator to the sink unit 40. In this example, the coordinator 20 receives audio streams and/or embedded data from the respective audio source members (11A, 11B) via communication links (24A and 24B) assigned by the coordinator, and the coordinator assigns one or more communication links 24C to itself, i.e. the coordinator, and the sink unit is able to receive the audio streams and/or embedded data via the communication links 24C.
In this particular example, the coordinator could be a router configured to receive and forward the audio streams and/or embedded data from audio source members to one or more sink units.
Fig. 8 illustrates a situation where an audio source unit 11 receives multiple notification packets via a management link 23, but none of the notification packets did come from a communication group with the wanted priority and/or none of the notification packets did have an available communication link. Therefore, the audio source unit creates a communication group of which it becomes a coordinator 20D of.
Fig. 9 illustrate a situation where the coordinator 20A is coordinating via the communication frame 30 the communication between a plurality of audio source members (11A, 11B) of the communication group 13A and at least a sink unit (40A, 40b, 40D) such that the at least sink unit (40A, 40b, 40D) is configured to receive communications from the plurality of audio source members simultaneously or mixed.
A second communication group 13B is coordinated via a second coordinator 20B, and within the second communication group the audio source members (11C, 11D) are configured to communicate and receive audio streams via communication links. In this particular example, the audio source member may be an intermediate streaming device, such as a router, transponder, relay etc., or a hearing device.
Fig. 10 illustrates a situation with three communication groups (13A, 13B, 13C). Each communication group has a coordinator (20A, 20B, 20C) and at least two audio source members (11A - 11F). Each communication group has a priority which is different from the other communication groups.
Fig.10 illustrates a situation wherein the coordinator 20C merges the communication group 13C with a second communication group 13B since at least an audio source member 11E of the communication group 13C has detected a second coordinator 20C of the second communication group 13B via the management link 23, and alternatively, with the protocol management interface. The audio source member 11E informs the coordinator 20C about the second communication group 13B and the coordinator 20C commands the audio source member 11E to transfer to the second communication group 13B via the management link 23 by forwarding the ID information of the audio source member 11E to the second coordinator 20B. In another example, the coordinator 20C may command the audio source member 11E to transfer to the second communication group 13B via the management link 23 by forwarding the ID information of the audio source member 11E to the second coordinator 20B when the coordinator 20C has communicated a merging request to the second coordinator 20C via the management link 23 and receives an accept on the merging signal from the second coordinator 20B. Alternatively, the coordinator 20C may command the audio source member 11E to transfer to the second communication group 13B, and the audio source member 11E may then transfer its ID information to the second coordinator 20B.
Fig. 10 illustrates another example, where the coordinator 20A receives a notification packet from a second coordinator 20C of a second communication group 13C via the management link 23, and according to a prioritization scheme the coordinator 20A is configured to leave the communication group 13A and join the second communication group 13C as an audio source member 11G of the second communication group 13C when transmitting an ID information via the management link 23 to the second coordinator 20C, and the second coordinator 20C confirms by assigning the coordinator 20A(11G) a time interval in a communication frame established by the second coordinator 20C.
Fig. 11 illustrates another example, the coordinator 20A transmits a coordinator request to an audio source member 11A of the communication group via the management link 23, and the coordinator 20A receives an accept from the audio source member 11A in response to the coordinator request, the audio source member 11A is then appointed as a new coordinator 20D of the communication group 13A.
A method for coordinating communication in a wireless network topology, where the communication in the wireless network topology includes communication between a plurality of audio source members of a communication group and at least a sink unit, wherein the plurality of audio source members includes a first audio source unit and a second audio source unit, the first audio source unit is configured to communicate via a first communication frame, and during a configuration period the first audio source unit is configured to:
- connecting to the wireless network topology via a connection management interface in the first communication frame,
- listening for a notification packet in the wireless network topology via a management link in a link layer of the first communication frame, and wherein the management link is linked to the connection management interface,
- establishing a communication group in the wireless network topology based on a first criteria, wherein the first criteria is based on that the first audio source unit does not receive a notification packet within the configuration period, and the first audio source unit is a coordinator of the communication group,
- establishing notification packets via a protocol management interface in the first communication frame and transmitting the notification packets via the management link assigned to a first time interval in the first communication frame, and
the second audio source unit is configured to communicate via a second communication frame, and during the configuration period the second audio source unit is configured to:
- connecting to the wireless network topology via a connection management interface in the second communication frame,
- listening for a notification packet via a management link in a link layer of the second communication frame, wherein the management link is linked to the connection management interface and to the management link of the first audio source unit,
- receiving the notification packet transmitted by the coordinator via the management link, and the notification packet includes link information to the management link of the coordinator of the communication group in the first communication frame,
- transmitting an ID information via the management link to the coordinator by using the link information, and
during the configuration period the coordinator is configured to:
- assigning the second audio source unit to a communication link in a second time interval of the first communication frame by using the ID information of the second audio source unit, and the second audio source unit is a second audio source member of the communication group, and
during a data communication period the second audio source member is configured to:
- communicating via the communication link to at least a sink unit.
A wireless communication system configured to establish a communication between a plurality of audio source members of a communication group and at least a sink unit in a wireless network topology, wherein the plurality of audio source members includes a first audio source unit and a second audio source unit, wherein the first audio source unit comprises:
• a connection management interface in a first communication frame configured to connect the first audio source unit to the wireless network topology,
• a management link in a link layer of the first communication frame, wherein the management link is linked to the connection management interface, and wherein the first audio source unit is configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link during a configuration period, and wherein
the first audio source unit is configured to establish a communication group in the wireless network topology based on a first criteria, wherein the first criteria is based on that the first audio source unit does not receive a notification packet within the configuration period, and the first audio source unit is a coordinator of the communication group, and wherein the coordinator is configured to establish notification packets via a protocol management interface in the first communication frame and transmitting the notification packets via the management link assigned to a first time interval in the first communication frame, and wherein the second audio source unit comprises:
• a connection management interface in a second communication frame configured to connect the second audio source unit to the wireless network topology,
• a management link in a link layer of the second communication frame, wherein the management link is linked to the connection management interface and to the management link of the first audio source unit, and wherein the second audio source unit is configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link during the configuration period, and wherein
The wireless communication system according to claim 2, wherein the first audio source unit and the second audio source unit each comprises a data interface in the first communication frame and the second communication frame, respectively, wherein the data interface is configured to generate audio streams and/or embedded data for being communicated to the sink unit via the communication link for the second audio source member and via a second communication link assigned to a third time interval in the first communication frame for the coordinator.
The wireless communication system according to any of the claims 2 or 3, wherein the first criteria is alternatively based on that the first audio source unit receives a notification packet from a coordinator, the notification packet is prioritized by the first audio source unit according to a prioritization scheme, and the first audio source unit is then configured to reject the notification packet if the prioritization of the notification packet is not acceptable of the first audio source unit.
The wireless communication system according to any of the claims 2 to 4, wherein the coordinator is configured to merge the communication group with a second communication group when at least an audio source member of the communication group receives another link information from a second coordinator of the second communication group via the management link, and when the audio source member has transmitted the another link information to the coordinator via the management link;
- the coordinator is configured to command the audio source member to transfer to the second communication group by forwarding the ID information of the audio source members of the communication group to the second coordinator via the management link by using the another link information, or
- when the coordinator has communicated a merging request to the second coordinator via the management link and receives an accept on the merging request from the second coordinator, the coordinator is configured to command the audio source member to transfer to the second communication group via the management link by forwarding the ID information of the audio source member to the second coordinator by using the another link information, or
- the coordinator is configured to command the audio source member to transfer to the second communication group, and the audio source member is configured to transfer its ID information to the second coordinator by using the another link information.
The wireless communication system according to any of the claims 2 to 5, wherein the coordinator is configured to coordinate via the first communication frame the communication between a plurality of audio source members of the communication group and at least a sink unit by assigning a communication link to each of the audio source members in the first communication frame, the at least sink unit is configured to receive communications from the plurality of audio source members via the communication links in the first communication frame.
A coordinator of a communication group in a wireless network topology, wherein the coordinator is configured to coordinate communication between a plurality of audio source members of the communication group and at least a sink unit in a network topology, the coordinator comprises;
• a connection management interface in a first communication frame configured to connect the coordinator to the wireless network topology,
a management link in a link layer of the first communication frame, wherein the management link is linked to the connection management interface, and wherein the coordinator is configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link during a configuration period,
The coordinator according to claim 7, wherein the coordinator receives a notification packet from a second coordinator of a second communication group via the management link, and according to a prioritization scheme, the coordinator is configured to leave the communication group and join the second communication group as an audio source member of the second communication group when transmitting an ID information via the management link to the second coordinator, and the second coordinator confirms by assigning the coordinator a time interval in a communication frame established by the second coordinator.
The coordinator according to any of the claims 7 or 8, the coordinator is configured to transmit a coordinator request to an audio source member of the communication group via the management link, and if the coordinator receives an accept from the audio source member in response to the coordinator request, the audio source member is then appointed as the coordinator of the communication group.
The coordinator according to any of the claims 7 to 9, wherein a plurality of audio source members of the communication group is configured to communicate to the at least sink unit simultaneously or in parallel.
An audio source member of a communication group coordinated by a coordinator in a wireless network topology, and where the audio source member is configured to communicate to at least a sink unit, the audio source member comprises;
• a connection management interface in a communication frame configured to connect the audio source unit to the wireless network topology,
• a management link in a link layer of the communication frame, wherein the management link is linked to the connection management interface and to a management link of another audio source unit or the coordinator, and wherein the audio source unit is configured to listen for a notification packet via the management link during a configuration period, and wherein
the audio source unit is configured to receive the notification packet transmitted by a coordinator via the management link during the configuration period, and the notification packet includes link information to the management link in a communication frame of the coordinator, and the audio source unit is configured to transmit an ID information via the management link to the coordinator by using the link information, and during the configuration period the audio source unit is an audio source member of the communication group when the coordinator assigns the audio source unit to a communication link in a second time interval of the communication frame of the coordinator by using the ID information of the audio source unit, and the audio source unit is an audio source member of the communication group, and during a data communication period the audio source member is configured to communicate via the communication link to at least a sink unit.
The audio source member according to claim 11, comprises a data interface configured to generate audio streams and/or embedded data for being communicated to the at least sink unit via the communication link.
The audio source member according to any of the claims 11 or 12, wherein the communication link is based on Bluetooth low energy communication protocol.
The audio source member according to any of the claims 11 to 13, wherein the audio source member is a combination of a sink unit and an audio source unit, the audio source member is then configured to communicate and receive audio streams, the audio source member is;
- an intermediate streaming device, such as a router, transponder, relay etc.,
- a hearing device.
The audio source member according to any of the claims 11 to 14, the audio source member is configured to be a coordinator of the communication group when accepting a coordinator request transmitted by the coordinator of the communication group via the management link.
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JP4918496B2 - Service discovery aggregation method in local area network and apparatus for implementing the method - Google Patents
Service discovery aggregation method in local area network and apparatus for implementing the method Download PDF
JP4918496B2
JP4918496B2 JP2007544927A JP2007544927A JP4918496B2 JP 4918496 B2 JP4918496 B2 JP 4918496B2 JP 2007544927 A JP2007544927 A JP 2007544927A JP 2007544927 A JP2007544927 A JP 2007544927A JP 4918496 B2 JP4918496 B2 JP 4918496B2
JP2008523674A (en
アンリ，ジャン−バティスト
シャンペル，マリー−リュック
フルリー，ジャン−フランソワ
トムソン ライセンシングＴｈｏｍｓｏｎ Ｌｉｃｅｎｓｉｎｇ
2004-12-09 Priority to FR0413157 priority Critical
2004-12-09 Priority to FR0413157A priority patent/FR2879385A1/en
2005-12-09 Application filed by トムソン ライセンシングＴｈｏｍｓｏｎ Ｌｉｃｅｎｓｉｎｇ filed Critical トムソン ライセンシングＴｈｏｍｓｏｎ Ｌｉｃｅｎｓｉｎｇ
2005-12-09 Priority to PCT/EP2005/056657 priority patent/WO2006061434A1/en
2008-07-03 Publication of JP2008523674A publication Critical patent/JP2008523674A/en
2012-04-18 Publication of JP4918496B2 publication Critical patent/JP4918496B2/en
H04L29/02—Communication control; Communication processing
H04L29/06—Communication control; Communication processing characterised by a protocol
H04L29/08—Transmission control procedure, e.g. data link level control procedure
H04L29/08009—Open systems interconnection [OSI] architecture, e.g. layering, entities, standards; Interface between layers; Software aspects
H04L29/08072—Application layer, i.e. layer seven
H04L12/00—Data switching networks
H04L12/28—Data switching networks characterised by path configuration, e.g. local area networks [LAN], wide area networks [WAN]
H04L12/2803—Home automation networks
H04L12/2805—Home Audio Video Interoperability [HAVI] networks
H04L67/00—Network-specific arrangements or communication protocols supporting networked applications
H04L67/16—Service discovery or service management, e.g. service location protocol [SLP] or Web services
H04L69/00—Application independent communication protocol aspects or techniques in packet data networks
H04L69/30—Definitions, standards or architectural aspects of layered protocol stacks
H04L69/32—High level architectural aspects of 7-layer open systems interconnection [OSI] type protocol stacks
H04L69/322—Aspects of intra-layer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions
H04L69/329—Aspects of intra-layer communication protocols among peer entities or protocol data unit [PDU] definitions in the application layer, i.e. layer seven
The present invention relates to the delivery of digital services over an IP network to local clients, and more particularly to the step of discovering services provided to clients connected to a service delivery network via a local area or home network.
The transmission of digital services (especially audiovisual services) over IP networks is the theme of standardization work within the DVB ("Digital Video Broadcasting") group. The result of this work is in the document “ETSI TS 102 034 v1.1.1 (2004-06) Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Transport of MPEG-2 Based DVB Services over IP Based Networks”. At this stage, this document is considered for a client (called HNED (“Home Network End Device”) by default) that is directly connected to the service distribution network via the transparent gateway shown in FIG. . Thus, in this figure, the client belongs to the distribution network and in particular shares its IP address space and domain name.
In particular, this standard describes the discovery of services in such networks. This specifies the mechanism used to discover services, select services, and publish service discovery information.
The first problem to be addressed is the mechanism used to identify service providers and services. A service provider is uniquely identified by a domain name that is registered and controlled.
The various steps in the discovery process are as follows: First, the service information entry point must be determined. Such an entry point corresponds to the IP address of a server that provides access to information describing the service provided. This description information is described in the form of an XML file describing a list of services, and for each service, specific information having an address to which this service is transmitted is provided.
Thus, the first problem solved by the standard is how to find service discovery entry points. The standard specifies a process for finding this entry point, which consists of five different methods provided to the client. The client must try these five methods in turn and stop at the first one that provides at least one valid entry point to service discovery.
This standard should be considered with respect to clients being connected transparently to the transmission network. The client is a member of this network. This requirement is rigorous because it is common to actually connect a digital service client to a local area network, which may be a home network or a corporate network. Usually, in this case, the local area network is externally connected to an external network (such as a service distribution network) via a non-transparent gateway. The local area network has its own address space different from the transmission network, and a known address translation mechanism is implemented in this gateway.
The present invention is discussed with respect to clients connected to such a local area network different from the distribution network. Other clients are connected to the local area network (for example, home network), and a device operating as a digital service server can be connected. An example that may be provided is a gateway that connects to audiovisual services transmitted by satellite or cable and retransmits them in the form of DVB services over an IP network. Another example that may be mentioned is a local media server with stored services that can be transmitted over a local area network. Thus, any kind of device operating as a DVB service server in an IP network can be connected to a local area network.
The problem of discovering services provided to clients connected to such a network arises. Clients according to the above standards only discover services provided by external networks. Unable to discover services provided by servers local to the network.
The present invention allows standard clients according to the DVB-IPI phase 1 standard connected in a local area network interconnected with a service delivery network via a non-transparent gateway to external delivery. It makes it possible to discover all services provided by both the network and its local area network servers. The present invention is mainly based on a service discovery aggregation function called “SD & S Proxy” implemented in any one of the devices connected to the local area network operating with the ad hoc configuration of the gateway.
The present invention relates to a method for providing information about a digital service provided to a client of a local area network, the local area network being connected to a digital service distribution network via a gateway,
-An internal discovery step for services that provide digital services within the local area network;
-An external discovery step of the service providing the service in the distribution network;
-Summing up the information collected in the internal and external discovery steps;
Providing this information about the local area network.
According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the internal discovery step is performed according to a standard discovery protocol for devices in the local area network.
According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the standard discovery protocol for devices in a local area network is UPnP.
According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the internal discovery step is performed by manually configuring the address of this server.
According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the external discovery and / or provisioning step is performed according to the DVB-IPI phase 1 standard.
The invention also relates to a device intended to provide at least information about a digital service provided to a client of a local area network connectable to the local area network, the local area network being connected via a gateway to the digital service. Connected to the distribution network,
-An internal discovery means for services that provide digital services within the local area network;
-External discovery means for services that provide services in the distribution network;
-Means to aggregate the information collected in the internal and external discovery steps;
-Means for providing this information about the local area network.
The invention also relates to a system for providing information about a digital service provided to a client of a local area network, the local area network being connected to a digital service distribution network via a gateway, the gateway being connected to the digital service It is adapted to respond to requests intended to obtain the address of the server providing the information.
According to a particular embodiment of the invention, the provisioning device and the gateway are identical devices.
Upon reading the following description, it will be appreciated that the invention is well understood and other features and advantages will be apparent. The following description refers to the accompanying drawings.
The document "" ETSI TS 102 034 v1.1.1 (2004-06) Digital Video Broadcasting (DVB); Transport of MPEG-2 Based DVB Services over IP Based Networks "is about the first DVB service deployment in bidirectional IP networks Provide a first set of standard specifications.
In this document, the following terms are used.
-Content provider means the entity that owns the content or the entity authorized to sell the content.
Service provider means an entity that acquires or licenses content from a content provider and packages this content into a service format.
Distribution network means a network that connects a service provider to a gateway of the distribution network.
Distribution network gateway (or simply gateway) means a device that connects one or more distribution networks to one or more home network segments.
-DVB-IP service means DVB service distributed over an IP network or content on demand over IP.
-DVB service means a service defined by DVB as a sequence of programs controlled by a broadcasting station that can be transmitted within a program schedule.
-Content on Demand means a program that is supplied at the end user's request for immediate consumption or storage.
-Client or HNED (Home Network End Device) means a device connected to a home network and terminating an IP type information stream.
-Home network segment refers to a layered technology on a single link that provides Layer 2 connectivity between HNED and the connection components.
Connection component means a component used to interconnect components at the link layer level.
FIG. 1 shows the network architecture handled by the current standard. This shows the HNED (shown at 1.1) connected to the home network (shown at 1.2). The home network is connected to a distribution network (shown as 1.4) via a gateway (shown as 1.3). The distribution network hosts services that can provide DVB-IP services. The provision of services available within the distribution network is available in the form of an SD & S (“Service Discovery and Selection”) server (shown at 1.5). This server, its operation, and the format of service information to be provided are described in the DVB-IPI document. This document provides a description in XML (“eXtensible Markup Language”) file format of information describing a service. These files can be accessed by HTTP (“HyperText Transfer Protocol”) requests. Gateway 1.3 has the property of being transparent. That is, it does not indicate a boundary between two different networks. In particular, address translation is not implemented. Thus, a home network or local area network 1.2 device such as the HNED client 1.1 is in the address space of the distribution network 1.4. In particular, provisioning is performed in order to acquire an IP address and network configuration information via a well-known DHCP (“Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol”) when a client connects to a network. For connecting clients, this protocol has to send its MAC address in the form of a broadcast request at the MAC layer level. This request is recognized by the DHCP server, and in exchange, the DHCP server provides an IP address that needs to be obtained and a plurality of network parameters (such as the address of any gateway, network mask, etc.). Accordingly, provisioning is performed to enable configuration when the distribution network hosts such a DHCP server and clients connect. The arrow indicated by 1.6 represents the entry point of the SD & S service of the client indicating the SD & S server 1.5.
Once connected and configured, the client needs to be able to find the service discovery and selection (SD & S) service entry point. Therefore, this entry point is the address of the SD & S server hosted by the distribution network. The process that the client must implement according to the standard to find this entry point consists of five different ways that allow the client to find this entry point. These five methods must be tried in order and stop when one of these methods allows the client to find at least one SD & S service entry point.
The first of these methods is to use an optional mechanism described in the network provisioning information literature. This mechanism is in defining HTTP GET and POST requests and allows clients to exchange standard information with the network. When implemented, clients launched using the DHCP (“Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol”) protocol can use the HTTP protocol's “siaddr” parameter to specify the next server address. Get the address used for the request. Thus, the client can use an HTTP GET request to obtain a configuration file that may have the required entry point. If this network provisioning, a standard optional mechanism, is not implemented, the HDCP “siaddr” field must be set to 0 when the client is started.
The second method is to use the domain name of the network. This domain name is obtained by DHCP at startup. The client binds the service name “_dvbservdsc”, protocol name “_tcp” or “_udp” to this domain name, and obtains the address of the entry point according to the service location mechanism specified in RFC (“Request For Comment”) document number 2782 To do. Name servers compatible with this RFC document can respond to name resolution requests built on this model by providing the address of the entry point.
The third method is the same as the second method, but uses the standard domain name “services.dvb.org”. In fact, DVB ensures that information about services provided by a registered service provider is maintained at this address.
The fourth method is to subscribe to a multicast address defined by IANA (“Internet Assigned Number Authority”). In fact, the multicast address “224.0.23.14” is dedicated to this use and is registered with this requirement at this agency.
The fifth method is that the client manually inputs the value of the client entry point when providing the facility to the user.
Therefore, a client compliant with DVB-IPI phase 1 must implement these five methods in order until it finds an entry point that allows it to obtain information describing the services provided.
FIG. 2 illustrates the problems that arise from deviating from the strict framework imposed by Standard Stage 1. The described assumptions reflect the diagram shown in FIG. 1, but the gateway format is changed. In practice, it is common for the home network to form an independent network with its own address space. In this case, the gateway (shown as 2.7) is not transparent and becomes a true router. In this case, it is common to implement an address translation technique to hide the internal address of the home network from the external network (in this case, the distribution network). FIG. 2 also shows the case where multiple clients are hosted by the home network (indicated by 2.1 and 2.6). The home network may also host a local DVB-IPI service server (shown as 2.8) whose service description is provided by a local SD & S server (shown as 2.9). A typical example of such a local DVB-IPI service server may be a tuner gateway that redistributes a DVB service received on an IP network for a service transmitted by a satellite, and services belonging to a user (these services may be It may be a multimedia server that stores (registered or purchased by the user). Arrows 2.10 and 2.11 represent SD & S service entry points indicating clients that comply with the DVB-IPI Stage 1 standard obtain such a configuration and indicate the SD & S server of the distribution network.
In fact, the application of the five standard methods of obtaining this entry point that applies to the described network must provide the client with the address of the SD & S server 2.5 of the distribution network. This is evident with the described methods 2, 3 and 4. Method 1 using the network provisioning mechanism defined by the standard requires some explanation. This mechanism relies on the provisioning of an address by a DHCP server via the “siaddr” field, which the client interacts with in HTTP mode to obtain additional configuration information (including the entry point of the SD & S service to access). Indicates a possible server. In the case shown in FIG. 1 where the gateway is transparent and the DHCP server is used as the basis for current standards hosted and controlled by the distribution network, the service provider managing this distribution network implements network provisioning options Although it can be easily imagined, in the case of a home local area network independent of the distribution network, it seems inappropriate to imagine such a service implemented in the local area network. The client is typically hosted on a gateway, but in some cases implemented on any device hosted on a local area network (and thus managed by the user, not the service provider) , Get its launch configuration. Thus, in this regard, implementing an optional network provisioning option cannot be included in the assumption, and the “siaddr” field supplied by the home network DHCP server will be zero. Therefore, the first method implemented by the standard process of retrieving the client SD & S service entry point always fails.
Methods 2 and 3 rely on DNS ("Domain Name Server") name resolution requests, so they are relayed to the distribution network's name server, so that the client is directly connected in the distribution network. Serviced to.
Method 4, which relies on receiving a well-known multicast address, works in a similar manner. In fact, multicast “transverses” the network transparently. A client in the local area network receives some data stream sent to this address by the SD & S server in the distribution network.
Since method 5 is user dependent, the latter notified by the service provider can enter the SD & S server address of this provider as needed.
Thus, assuming an independent home local area network, it can be seen that the client necessarily shows the SD & S service of that service provider. Thus, the problem that arises is how it can access any local service server. In fact, these servers are unknown to the service provider and are inevitably ignored by the access provider's SD & S service. Therefore, the client has no way to access them. A complete description of the services that a standard client according to the aforementioned DVB-IPI Phase 1 standard can access externally via a service provider and internally via a local server in the home local area network In order to be able to access the SD & S service that provides the service, we will explain how to deal with this problem.
FIG. 3 illustrates an exemplary embodiment of the present invention and defines a local service called SD & S Proxy 3.1. The SD & S proxy 3.1 can be hosted on any device of the user's home local area network 3.2 (especially the gateway 3.7 connected to the distribution network). The operation of this SD & S proxy 3.1 depends on several functions. First, information about services available on the home network must be collected. This stage is called the internal discovery stage. Next, information about services provided by the external distribution network must be collected. This stage is called the external discovery stage. Once information about all services (internal and external) is collected, SD & S Proxy 3.1 provides this information by acting as a standard SD & S server. Thus, the home network 3.2 has a local SD & S server with information on all services available to clients (user terminals 3.6 and 3.3) in the local area network in the form of SD & S proxy 3.1. Thus, to be complete, the exemplary embodiment of the present invention also provides for the standard DVB-IPI client to search for the SD & S service entry point already described during the process of retrieving the SD & S service entry point of the distribution network 3.4. Also describes how to ensure that you get the address of this SD & S proxy 3.1 instead of the address of. Arrows 3.22 and 3.23 represent the entry points of user terminals 3.6 and 3.3, respectively, to the SD & S proxy 3.1. The arrow 3.20 represents the entry point of the SD & S proxy 3.1 to the SD & S server 3.5.
There are a number of ways to implement the internal phase of discovering available services within the home network. Some of these are described. One smart method, which is the preferred method of the embodiment, relies on UPnP (“Universal Plug and Play”), which standardizes the interaction and mutual discovery between devices in an IP-type local area network. Reference to UPnP can be found in the document “UPnP ™ Device Architecture 1.0”. UPnP provides that each device notifies itself to the network by providing its own information. In particular, since the field defines the device type, if the device meets the UPnP standard, it is possible to collect the addresses of all devices that define themselves as DVB service server 3.8 or SD & S server 3.9 in the local area network. become. Alternatively, it can be provided to manually configure the device hosting the SD & S proxy function by the user entering the address of these local devices providing the DVB service. Other protocols for discovering devices available in a local area network are also available without departing from the framework of the present invention, each used here to implement this internal discovery phase as the case may be. Arrow 3.21 represents the entry point of SD & S Proxy 3.1 to SD & S Server 3.9.
Thus, the external discovery stage consists in the device hosting the SD & S proxy function discovering services provided by the distribution network. You can see how this discovery does not cause problems for standard clients in the home network. In fact, because of its standard behavior, this service may be queried to obtain the entry point of the SD & S service for the distribution network, and thus to obtain service information describing the offers available on this distribution network. Is possible. Therefore, what is needed is to provide fully standard operation at this point of the device hosting the SD & S proxy function to implement the external discovery phase.
Similarly, because the internal and external discovery phases are defined, the proxy acts as a fully standard SD & S server for providing this information about the home local area network. Accordingly, those skilled in the art will refer to the cited literature and find details of the notation and organization of the XML file that provides this information.
As already mentioned, the standard client according to the DVB-IPI Phase 1 standard is required to obtain an entry point that indicates a legitimately defined proxy instead of the entry point of the SD & S server in the distribution network. Need to explain. These adaptations must be made at the gateway separating the home local area network and the distribution network. For each method of processing for obtaining entry points, the proper operation of the exemplary embodiment of the present invention is described.
For Method 1, it can be seen that this method is not implemented in the home local area network. Therefore this method always fails. Therefore, the client automatically moves to method 2.
It can be seen that Method 2 includes initiating a DNS request with the name “_dvbservdsc._tcp.domain”. However, “domain” is the domain name of the distribution network, and the name server of this network responds to this request by providing the address of the SD & S server of this network. Therefore, a standard client does not construct a name written in the domain name of the home local area network. This domain name is usually the same as the domain name of the distribution network, but can also be defined locally. In either case, this DNS request must not be handled as before and must be relayed to the distribution network. For this reason, the gateway requests any DNS request with a name starting with “_dvbservdsc._tcp”, at least a local domain name, a domain name for the distribution network or a “domain” corresponding to the domain name “services.dvb.org” It is configured to block “_dvbservdsc._tcp.domain” and responds itself by providing the address of the local SD & S proxy. This form of adaptation is usually provided to gateways that host local DNS servers that are used to define local associations.
Therefore, this adaptation also solves the problem of Method 3 which involves sending a DNS request to the address “_dvbservdsc._tcp.services.dvb.org”.
If methods 2 and 3 fail (eg, if the gateway has an incorrect address for the SD & S proxy), the client attempts method 4 which includes receiving the well-known multicast address 224.0.23.14. Again, gateway adaptation must be done to ensure that the client does not subscribe to transmissions to this address made in the distribution network. To join a multicast address, IGMP ("Internet Group Management Protocol") is a protocol used by routers to send a request to join a transmission on the network and relay the packet of this transmission from the server to the client in exchange. Is done through. In particular, the client sends an IGMP request called “join” with a broadcast address for subscription. Therefore, since it is sufficient to block this request at the gateway, the current transmission on the distribution network is not directed to the home network. However, since the “join” request is broadcast on the local area network, the SD & S proxy receives it and sends its service information to this address, just like any standard SD & S server. Thus, in this way, the local client receives service information from the SD & S proxy instead of from the distribution network at the well-known multicast address “224.0.23.14”.
It can be seen that these adaptations made at the gateway level also block the SD & S proxy service in the external discovery phase. In fact, the latter is based on applying standard processing to obtain the entry point of the SD & S server of the distribution network. There are several ways to solve this problem. The first way to do this is to implement an SD & S proxy on the gateway itself. In this way, DNS or IGMP requests issued by the proxy at the gateway are not blocked by the latter. If the proxy is implemented on a separate device from the gateway in the home local area network, the gateway can be configured so that requests from the device hosting the proxy are handled conventionally without being blocked.
For method 5, the user can enter his / her SD & S proxy address instead of the address supplied by the service provider.
Thus, at the cost of configuring DNS and blocking IGMP requests to well-known addresses, it can be seen that a standard client actually shows a local SD & S proxy and no longer shows the SD & S service of the distribution network.
The exemplary embodiments described herein are in fact direct examples and can be adapted by one skilled in the art. In particular, the adaptations made to the gateway to block DNS or IGMP requests may be implemented differently according to the exact device type used and their characteristics. The exemplary embodiments of the present invention are described for services according to the DVB standard, but can be extended to all types of digital services by other standards and other networks.
Network architecture handled by current standards Network architecture related to the present invention but without the latter implementation Network architecture and the present invention
A method for discovering the provision of a digital service provided to a client of a local area network, the local area network being connected to a digital service distribution network through a gateway, comprising:
The method is implemented in a service discovery and selection proxy hosted by any of the clients of the local area network,
-An internal discovery step of information about services available in the local area network;
-External discovery of information about services provided by the digital service distribution network;
Providing the aggregated information to the clients of the local area network.
The method of claim 1, wherein the internal discovery step is performed according to a standard discovery protocol for devices in a local area network.
The method of claim 2, wherein the standard discovery protocol for devices in a local area network is UPnP.
The method of claim 1, wherein the internal discovery step is performed by manually configuring a server address.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 4, wherein the external discovery step is performed in accordance with a DVB-IPI stage 1 standard.
The method according to any one of claims 1 to 5, wherein the step of providing information is performed according to a DVB-IPI stage 1 standard.
A service discovery and selection proxy device for discovering the provision of a digital service provided to a client of a local area network connectable to a local area network, the local area network being connected to a digital service distribution network via a gateway A service discovery and selection proxy device,
-An internal discovery means for information about services available in the local area network;
-Means for external discovery of information about services provided by the digital service distribution network;
-Means for aggregating information collected by said internal and external discovery means ;
-A service discovery and selection proxy device comprising: means for providing the aggregated information to the clients of the local area network.
8. A service discovery and selection proxy according to claim 7, wherein the system provides information about a digital service provided to a client of a local area network, the local area network being connected to a digital service distribution network via a gateway. A system comprising a device,
The gateway is adapted to respond to a request intended to obtain an address of a server providing information about a digital service provided to a service discovery and selection proxy device according to claim 7. Feature system.
The system of claim 8, wherein the service discovery and selection proxy device and the gateway are the same device.
JP2007544927A 2004-12-09 2005-12-09 Service discovery aggregation method in local area network and apparatus for implementing the method Active JP4918496B2 (en)
FR0413157A FR2879385A1 (en) 2004-12-09 2004-12-09 Service discovery aggregation method in a local network and apparatus implementing the method
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JP2008523674A JP2008523674A (en) 2008-07-03
JP4918496B2 true JP4918496B2 (en) 2012-04-18
JP2007544927A Active JP4918496B2 (en) 2004-12-09 2005-12-09 Service discovery aggregation method in local area network and apparatus for implementing the method
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US7489902B2 - Systems and methods for facilitating simultaneous communication over multiple wired and wireless networks - Google Patents
Systems and methods for facilitating simultaneous communication over multiple wired and wireless networks Download PDF
Majid Amani
Murat Dymov
Robert D. Heon
Michael L. Lamontagne
Michel A. Zinni, Jr.
Jeffrey Shlayen
ZIH Corp
2005-09-27 Application filed by ZIH Corp filed Critical ZIH Corp
2005-12-05 Assigned to ZIH CORP. reassignment ZIH CORP. ASSIGNMENT OF ASSIGNORS INTEREST (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: AMANI, MAJID, DYMOV, MURAT, HEON, ROBERT D., LAMONTAGNE, MICHAEL L., SHLAYEN, JEFFREY, ZINNI, MICHAEL A., JR.
2014-10-31 Assigned to MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC. AS THE COLLATERAL AGENT reassignment MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC. AS THE COLLATERAL AGENT SECURITY AGREEMENT Assignors: LASER BAND, LLC, SYMBOL TECHNOLOGIES, INC., ZEBRA ENTERPRISE SOLUTIONS CORP., ZIH CORP.
2017-10-25 Assigned to JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS THE SUCCESSOR AGENT reassignment JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS THE SUCCESSOR AGENT PATENT SECURITY INTEREST ASSIGNMENT AGREEMENT Assignors: MORGAN STANLEY SENIOR FUNDING, INC., AS THE EXISTING AGENT
2019-03-29 Assigned to ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION reassignment ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION MERGER (SEE DOCUMENT FOR DETAILS). Assignors: ZIH CORP.
2019-07-03 Assigned to JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT reassignment JPMORGAN CHASE BANK, N.A., AS COLLATERAL AGENT NOTICE OF TRANSFER OF SECURITY INTEREST IN PATENTS Assignors: ZEBRA TECHNOLOGIES CORPORATION
238000004891 communication Methods 0 abstract claims description title 149
239000000872 buffers Substances 0 abstract claims description 47
239000011162 core materials Substances 0 claims description 7
230000003405 preventing Effects 0 abstract description 6
H04W28/00—Network traffic or resource management
H04W28/02—Traffic management, e.g. flow control or congestion control
H04W28/08—Load balancing or load distribution
G06F3/12—Digital output to print unit, e.g. line printer, chain printer
G06F3/1201—Dedicated interfaces to print systems
G06F3/1202—Dedicated interfaces to print systems specifically adapted to achieve a particular effect
G06F3/1203—Improving or facilitating administration, e.g. print management
G06F3/1223—Dedicated interfaces to print systems specifically adapted to use a particular technique
G06F3/1236—Connection management
G06F3/1278—Dedicated interfaces to print systems specifically adapted to adopt a particular infrastructure
G06F3/1285—Remote printer device, e.g. being remote from client or server
G06F3/1292—Mobile client, e.g. wireless printing
H04B—TRANSMISSION
H04B1/00—Details of transmission systems, not covered by a single one of groups H04B3/00 - H04B13/00; Details of transmission systems not characterised by the medium used for transmission
H04B1/38—Transceivers, i.e. devices in which transmitter and receiver form a structural unit and in which at least one part is used for functions of transmitting and receiving
H04B1/40—Circuits
H04B1/403—Circuits using the same oscillator for generating both the transmitter frequency and the receiver local oscillator frequency
H04B1/406—Circuits using the same oscillator for generating both the transmitter frequency and the receiver local oscillator frequency with more than one transmission mode, e.g. analog and digital modes
H04W16/00—Network planning, e.g. coverage or traffic planning tools; Network deployment, e.g. resource partitioning or cells structures
H04W16/14—Spectrum sharing arrangements between different networks
H04W28/10—Flow control between communication endpoints
H04W28/14—Flow control between communication endpoints using intermediate storage
H04W74/04—Scheduled or contention-free access
H04W74/06—Scheduled or contention-free access using polling
H04W88/02—Terminal devices
H04W88/06—Terminal devices adapted for operation in multiple networks or having at least two operational modes, e.g. multi-mode terminals
A device is provided that is capable of simultaneous communication over multiple wired and wireless networks. The device is capable of processing data received simultaneously over multiple networks by storing the data in data buffers and using a polling routine to retrieve the data from the data buffers. The device is capable of preventing interference when communicating over multiple wireless networks in the same frequency band by monitoring the frequency channel used by one of the wireless networks and controlling the frequency channels used by the other wireless networks.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/616,573, filed Oct. 6, 2004, which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The present invention relates generally to devices capable of communicating over networks, and more particularly, to devices that are capable of communicating simultaneously over multiple networks, both wired and wireless.
Devices communicate or exchange data with other devices using a number of different communication interfaces. Hard-wired communication interfaces include serial and universal serial bus (USB). Wireless communication interfaces include Bluetooth, wireless Ethernet (also called WiFi or 802.11b), and general packet radio service (GPRS) to name a few.
Bluetooth is a low power wireless personal area network (PAN) intended for short distance communications and intended to be used as a cable replacement. Bluetooth is commonly used for applications such as wireless headsets, wireless synchronization of personal digital assistants (PDAs) with computers, and wireless printers and keyboards.
WiFi is wireless Ethernet local area network (LAN) based on IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) standard 802.11b. Both WiFi and Bluetooth operate in the 2.4 gigahertz (GHz) band. This band is 83.5 megahertz (MHz) wide, beginning at 2.4 GHz and ending at 2.4835 GHz. WiFi only occupies about a quarter of the 83.5 MHz bandwidth that is available in the 2.4 GHz band. 802.11b defines eleven possible channels in the 2.4 GHz band.
In contrast to WiFi, the Bluetooth channel does not utilize a fixed frequency but rather employs frequency hopping. Bluetooth devices hop among seventy-nine defined frequency channels in the 2.4 GHz band. In this way, Bluetooth occupies the entire 2.4 GHz band but, at any instant in time, only occupies a small portion of the band. Bluetooth hops to a new channel in the 2.4 GHz band about 1,600 times a second.
GPRS is a packet-based wireless communication service which operates on cellular telephone networks.
Some devices use only one communication interface. This one interface may be one of the hard-wired interfaces listed above or may be one of the wireless interfaces listed above. Devices that use only one communication interface can therefore only communicate with other devices using that same interface. As the number of communications interfaces increases, it is less likely that a device with only one communication interface will be able to communicate with other devices.
To address the problems associated with devices having only one communication interface, some devices now include two or more communication interfaces. While these devices with two or more communication interfaces are able to communicate with a larger number of other devices, the existence of multiple communication interfaces in the same device creates other problems. A device with two or more communication interfaces may receive data through more than one interface simultaneously and must be able to process any data that is simultaneously received through more than one interface.
Additionally, the close proximity of transmitters for the multiple wireless communication interfaces can cause interference when two or more transmitters are transmitting simultaneously. This interference problem is especially acute when the multiple wireless communication interfaces utilize the same communication frequency band. For example, as discussed above, Bluetooth and WiFi both communicate in the 2.4 GHz band. If a device is sending data via a WiFi interface at a certain frequency in the 2.4 GHz band and the device also attempts to simultaneously send data via a Bluetooth interface, it is possible the Bluetooth interface may hop to the same frequency that the WiFi interface is using and transmit at that frequency. This resulting interference will cause the WiFi interface to abort sending its data. After aborting its attempt to send data, the WiFi interface will then reattempt sending its data at a lower data rate. As a result, communication speeds decrease and network performance is degraded.
Bluetooth version 1.2 addresses the issue of interference with WiFi using a technique called adaptive frequency hopping. Adaptive frequency hopping changes the channel map used by Bluetooth when it senses data collisions. However, this method does not prevent collisions but rather responds to collisions. Therefore this technique also results in decreased communication speeds.
As such, there is a need for a device that is capable of simultaneous communication over multiple wired and wireless networks, such that the device is capable of processing data received simultaneously over multiple networks and such that the device is capable of preventing interference when communicating over multiple wireless networks in the same frequency band.
A device is therefore provided that is capable of simultaneous communication over multiple wired and wireless networks, such that the device is capable of processing data received simultaneously over multiple networks and such that the device is capable of preventing interference when communicating over multiple wireless networks in the same frequency band.
According to one embodiment of the present invention, the device has a combination of wired and wireless communication interfaces. Each communication interface has a respective software driver to transmit and receive data over each respective communication interface. Each software driver is interrupt driven such that it will immediately receive data that comes in over each respective communication interface. Each software driver has a software data buffer such that it temporarily stores the data it receives over the communication interface. Through the use of these independent software drivers the device is capable of receiving data simultaneously over multiple communication interfaces.
The device has a main processor that retrieves the data from each of the software data buffers such that the data can be processed further. For example, in one embodiment of the invention the device is a portable printer. When the data that has been received over the communication interfaces has been retrieved by the main processor, the main processor then formats the data for printing and outputs the data to the printer's printing mechanism.
The main processor retrieves the data from the software data buffers by using a polling routine. The main processor polls each software data buffer one at a time in a round-robin manner. Any data that is temporarily stored in the software data buffers is thereby retrieved by the main processor, one data buffer at a time, thereby allowing the main processor to effectively process the data.
It should be appreciated that the device may have two or more communication interfaces and that these communication interfaces may be wired, wireless, or any combination of wired and wireless. The communication interfaces may be selected from the group comprising serial, USB, Bluetooth, WiFi, and GPRS. This group of communication interfaces is intended to be illustrative and is not intended to be limiting. It should be appreciated that this device may have any type of communication interface known, and in any combination.
According to another embodiment of the present invention, the device has two wireless communication interfaces each operating at various frequency channels in the same frequency band. These various frequency channels utilized by each communication interface are collectively referred to as a channel map, with each communication interface having a respective channel map. Each of the wireless communication interfaces has a software driver to transmit and receive data over each respective wireless communication interface, using any of the channels in its respective channel map. In addition to the drivers for each communication interface, there is a master driver, called a ringleader, which communicates with and exercises control over the other drivers. The ringleader periodically determines which frequency channel the first communication interface is using and temporarily removes that channel from the channel map of the second communication interface, thereby preventing the two communication interfaces from using the same frequency channel and preventing interference. The periodic determination by the ringleader of which frequency channel is being used by the first communication interface is performed frequently, for example every twenty milliseconds. Each time this periodic determination is made, the ringleader adjusts the channel map of the second communication interface to exclude the channel being used by the first communication interface.
In an example of this embodiment, the first communication interface is a WiFi interface and the second communication interface is a Bluetooth interface. It should be appreciated that this device is not limited to devices with Bluetooth and WiFi communication interfaces, nor is it limited to only two wireless communication interfaces, but may have any two or more communication interfaces that utilize the same frequency band.
The present invention provides a device that is capable of simultaneous communication over multiple wired and wireless networks. The device is capable of processing data received simultaneously over multiple networks. The device is also capable of eliminating interference when communicating over multiple wireless networks in the same frequency band.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWING(S)
Having thus described the invention in general terms, reference will now be made to the accompanying drawings, which are not necessarily drawn to scale, and wherein:
FIG. 1 is a schematic of a main circuit board of one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a flow chart of operation of the interrupt mechanism of the driver of one of the communication interfaces;
FIG. 3 is a flow chart of operation of the polling mechanism by which the main processor retrieves data from the software data buffers;
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of operation of the ringleader by which is controls the frequency channels to avoid interference;
FIG. 5 is a perspective view of one embodiment of the present invention, wherein the device is a portable printer;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the contents of a base portion of the printer of FIG. 5; and
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the contents of a base portion of the printer of FIG. 5 illustrating the modular circuit board.
The present inventions now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, in which some, but not all embodiments of the inventions are shown. Indeed, these inventions may be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided so that this disclosure will satisfy applicable legal requirements. Like numbers refer to like elements throughout.
Embodiments of the present invention described herein provide for the device to be a portable printer. However, it should be appreciated that other embodiments of the present invention may be utilized in conjunction with alternative devices that communicate over wired and/or wireless networks, such as desktop computers, laptop computers, mobile computers, personal digital assistants, and card readers. Accordingly, the present invention is not limited to portable printers, but rather includes any device that communicates over wired and/or wireless networks.
The portable printer of one embodiment of the present invention may have any combination of wireless and hardwired communication interfaces. The printer may communicate with any device capable of communicating over a wireless or hardwired network. For example, the printer may receive data from a desktop computer via a USB interface, it may receive data from a mobile computer via a WiFi interface, and it may receive data from a PDA via a Bluetooth interface. The printer may also respond to the aforementioned devices over the same interfaces, or it may relay data to other devices, such as other printers, over the same interfaces or other interfaces.
FIG. 1 depicts a schematic of a main circuit board of a portable printer according to one embodiment of the present invention. In this embodiment, the main circuit board 124 has three wireless communication interfaces 100, 104, and 106. Wireless communication interface 100 is a WiFi receiver to receive signals from a wireless Ethernet LAN. Wireless communication interface 104 is a Bluetooth receiver to receive signals from a wireless PAN. Wireless communication interface 108 is a GPRS receiver to receive signals from a cellular telephone network. In addition to the wireless communication interfaces, main circuit board 124 has two hard wired communication interfaces 112 and 116. Hard wired communication interface 112 is a serial connection, and hard wired communication interface 116 is a USB connection. Data received by each of the communication interfaces 100, 104, 108, 112, and 116 is controlled by a corresponding driver 102, 106, 110, 114, and 118. Each of the drivers includes a software data buffer as shown in FIG. 1. As each driver receives data from its respective communication interface, the data is stored in each driver's data buffer until the data is retrieved from the buffers by the main processor 120. The main processor 120 then formats the data for printing and outputs the data to the printing mechanism 122 to print the data.
FIG. 2 depicts a flow chart of the operation of the interrupt mechanism of the drivers 102, 106, 110, 114 and 118 from FIG. 1. The drivers are interrupt driven, meaning that as soon as data is present at any one of the communication interfaces, as determined at step 200, the corresponding driver retrieves the information and temporarily stores it in a software data buffer, as indicated in step 202. The data remains in one of the data buffers until it is retrieved by the main processor using the method illustrated in FIG. 3.
FIG. 3 is a flow chart of the operation of the polling mechanism by which the main processor retrieves data from the software data buffers. As discussed above, the data received by the communication interfaces is temporarily stored in data buffers. The main processor polls each software data buffer one at a time in a round-robin manner. In one embodiment of the invention illustrated in FIG. 3, the main processor first checks the WiFi data buffer and reads any data stored in that buffer, as indicated in step 300. The main processor then checks the Bluetooth data buffer in step 302, the GPRS data buffer in step 304, the serial data buffer in step 306, and the USB data buffer in step 308. Once the main processor has polled all the data buffers and retrieved all the data, the main processor then feeds the data to the printing mechanism to be printed, as indicated in step 310.
FIG. 4 is a flow chart of the operation of the ringleader by which it controls the frequency channels to avoid interference. As discussed above, the ringleader is a master driver which communicates with and controls other drivers. In one embodiment of the invention, the portable printer has both Bluetooth and WiFi wireless communication interfaces. In this embodiment, the ringleader communicates with the WiFi driver to determine on which frequency channel the WiFi communication interface is communicating, as indicated in step 400. The ringleader compares this frequency channel to the WiFi frequency channel previously read and stored by the ringleader, as indicated in step 402. In step 404, the ringleader determines if the WiFi frequency channel has changed from the previously read channel. If the WiFi frequency channel has changed, the ringleader communicates with the Bluetooth driver and changes the Bluetooth channel map to exclude the current WiFi channel, as indicated in step 406. In this embodiment, the Bluetooth driver may be version 1.2 which allows the Bluetooth channel map to be changed. By excluding the current WiFi channel from the Bluetooth frequency map, this prevents the Bluetooth communication interface from using the same channel, thereby preventing interference. Whether or not the Bluetooth channel map is changed, the ringleader repeats this process frequently, every twenty milliseconds in this embodiment as shown in step 408.
FIGS. 5-7 depict a portable printer of another embodiment of the present invention. This printer includes a core printer assembly which includes a modular assembly of additional electronic devices that supplement the core printer operation, such as different communication interfaces. In particular, the core printer includes a main circuit board that is configured to connect to, and communicate with, a modular circuit board that is configured to support the additional communication interfaces. In this manner, multiple types of modular circuit boards, each supporting a different number and combination of communication interfaces, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, GPRS, serial, and USB, can all be employed on the same printer. For example, one modular circuit board may have WiFi and Bluetooth interfaces. Another modular circuit board may have WiFi, Bluetooth, and USB interfaces. Another modular circuit board may have WiFi, Bluetooth, GPRS, serial, and USB interfaces. By use of the modular circuit board, the numbers and types of communication interfaces on a portable printer can be easily customized.
Various aspects of the printer illustrated in FIGS. 5-7 are described in greater detail in the following patent application which is hereby incorporated herein in its entirety by reference: U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/592,110 to Klein, et al., filed on Jul. 29, 2004 and entitled INTERCHANGEABLE MODULE FOR A PORTABLE PRINTER AND SYSTEM FOR OPERATING THE SAME.
A handheld printer 10 of one embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 5-7. Generally, the printer includes a rounded, rectangular housing 11 that can be supported within a cradle 12, as shown in FIG. 5. The housing has three main sub-portions, including a base 13, a modular component cover 14 and a media supply lid or cover 15.
Referring now to FIG. 6, the base 13 of the housing 11 supports a main circuit board 35, a print head assembly 43, a drive assembly 44, and a media support assembly 45. The print head assembly 43, the drive assembly 44, and the media support assembly 45 are each mounted on a frame 50. In this embodiment, the printer main processor would be mounted on the main circuit board 35, but the various communication interfaces would not.
Referring now to FIG. 7, the modular circuit board 34 is shown in the modular component cover 14 of the printer housing. The modular circuit board 34 is connected to the main circuit board 35 via ribbon connectors 39. In this embodiment and as discussed above, various communication interfaces, such as WiFi, Bluetooth, GPRS, serial, and USB, may be incorporated into the modular circuit board 34. The portable printer may be customized by selecting a modular circuit board 34 which incorporates the number and type of communication interfaces desired.
Many modifications and other embodiments of the inventions set forth herein will come to mind to one skilled in the art to which these inventions pertain having the benefit of the teachings presented in the foregoing descriptions and the associated drawings. Therefore, it is to be understood that the inventions are not to be limited to the specific embodiments disclosed and that modifications and other embodiments are intended to be included within the scope of the appended claims. Although specific terms are employed herein, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation.
1. A device for communicating over at least two wireless communication interfaces comprising:
a first communication interface configured to operate at one of a plurality of frequency channels within a frequency band;
a second communication interface configured to operate at one of the plurality of frequency channels within the frequency band; and
a communication controller configured to determine at which one of the plurality of frequency channels the first communication interface is configured to operate, exclude the frequency channel at which the first communication interface is configured to operate from the frequency channels of the frequency band that are available at which the second communication interface is to be configured to operate, and direct the second communication interface to operate at a different one of the frequency channels of the frequency band other than the frequency channel of the frequency band at which the first communication interface is configured to operate.
2. The device of claim 1 wherein the first communication interface and the second communication interface are chosen from the group comprising wireless Ethernet, Bluetooth, and general packet radio service.
3. The device of claim 1 wherein the first communication interface is wireless Ethernet and the second communication interface is Bluetooth.
4. The device of claim 1 wherein the frequency band is 2.4 GHz.
5. The device of claim 1 wherein the device is a portable printer.
6. The device of claim 1, wherein the communication controller performs the step of excluding the one of the plurality of frequency channels at which the first communication interface is configured to operate from the frequency channels available to the second communication interface for only so long as the first communication interface is operating at the one of the plurality of frequency channels.
7. A device for communicating over at least two communication interfaces comprising:
a first communication interface having a first communication driver and a first data buffer such that the first communication driver is configured to retrieve first data from the first communication interface and store the first data in the first data buffer;
a second communication interface having a second communication driver and a second data buffer such that the second communication driver is configured to retrieve second data from the second communication interface and store the second data in the second data buffer; and
a main processor configured to retrieve data by polling the first and second data buffers and process the data, such that the main processor is configured to retrieve first data from the first data buffer, then retrieve second data from the second data buffer, and then process the first and second data.
8. The device of claim 7 wherein the first communication interface and the second communication interface are chosen from the group comprising wireless Ethernet, Bluetooth, general packet radio service, serial, and universal serial bus.
10. The device of claim 7, wherein the first communication driver and the second communication driver are each interrupt driven.
11. The device of claim 7, wherein the first communication driver immediately retrieves the first data upon receipt at the first communication interface and stores the first data in the first data buffer and wherein the second communication driver immediately retrieves the second data upon receipt at the second communication interface and stores the second data in the second data buffer.
12. A printer comprising:
a housing including a core printer assembly wherein the core printer assembly includes a media support assembly, a drive assembly, and a print head assembly; and
a communication interface, wherein the communication interface is configured to provide functional support for a plurality of wireless communication devices selected from the group consisting of a wireless Ethernet device, a Bluetooth device, and a general packet radio service device,
wherein the plurality of wireless communication devices comprises a first wireless communication device and a second wireless communication device, and wherein the printer further comprises a first communication driver and a first data buffer such that the first communication driver is configured to retrieve first data from the first wireless communication device and store the first data in the first data buffer, and wherein the printer further comprises a second communication driver and a second data buffer such that the second communication driver is configured to retrieve second data from the second wireless communication device and store the second data in the second data buffer, and wherein the printer further comprises a main processor configured to retrieve data by polling the first and second data buffers and process the data, such that the main processor is configured to retrieve first data from the first data buffer, then retrieve second data from the second data buffer, and then process the first and second data.
wherein the plurality of wireless communication devices comprises a first wireless communication device and a second wireless communication device, and wherein the printer further comprises a communication controller configured to determine which one of a plurality of frequency channels within a frequency band the first wireless communication device is configured to operate, exclude the frequency channel at which the first wireless communication device is configured to operate from the frequency channels of the frequency band that are available at which the second wireless communication device is to be configured to operate, and direct the second wireless communication device to operate at a different one of the frequency channels within the frequency band other than the frequency channel of the frequency band at which the first wireless communication device is configured to operate.
14. The printer of claim 13, wherein the first wireless communication device is a wireless Ethernet device and the second wireless communication device is a Bluetooth device.
15. The printer of claim 13, wherein the frequency band is 2.4 GHz.
16. The printer of claim 13, wherein the communication interface is further configured to provide functional support for a plurality of wired communication devices selected from the group consisting of a serial device and a universal serial bus device.
17. A device comprising:
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Grassroots Commentary
Old Koskoosh and the Duty to Die
Cameron S. Schaeffer · Jan. 13, 2014
The writer Jack London travelled extensively in the Klondike over one hundred years ago, inspiring a great body of work. He wrote in the time of social Darwinism, and his work exudes “survival of the fittest.” Personally, he embraced socialism, as he came up hard and exploited. After all, it was an era when a man could be fired after getting his hand cut off in a machine for the mere reason that, without his hand, he could no longer work. But London was really a capitalist; he loved freedom and he created value and wealth from the ethers with his pen and his mind.
In his short story “The Law of Life,” London creates Koskoosh, an old man who has been abandoned by his nomadic tribe because he has become a burden. Sitting and reflecting in the snow, Koskoosh recalls, as a boy, watching an old moose succumb to a pack of wolves. As his small fire and his life fade, the old man perceives a howl and then, moments later, a ring of sidling, grey shapes and the thrust of a cold, wet muzzle.
The liberal press from Fairbanks to Yellowknife would have called members of a tribe that sheds its dead weight to survive “Republicans.” Actually, leaving a burdensome old man in the snow affirms the socialist notion that resources belong to the tribe, ladled out and rationed by the tribal experts. That sounds like modern Democrats. The moose is a compelling parallel, but moose do not love one another.
In pre-war Germany, the phrase “lebensunwertes Leben” emerged- “life unworthy of life.” Prodded by party experts, doctors began a program of medical killing to rid society of those who, like old Koskoosh, had become a burden. Crippled children, the mentally ill, criminals, and invalids were secretly put to death. This program of medical killing accelerated as war approached and resources dwindled, ensnaring more categories of “patients” and finally morphing into the Holocaust. That word makes some eyes roll, but facts are facts.
Several years ago, Governor Richard Lamm of Colorado, while reflecting on the entitlement state, made the comment that old people have a “duty to die.” His political career died, but he yet lives. He got his Medicare card thirteen years ago.
Lamm’s intellectual successor is Doctor Ezekiel Emanuel, the brain behind Obamacare. He once outlined a system for distributing medical resources based on patient age and societal value, an idea apparently plagiarized from the primitive tribes of the Yukon. To summarize, because few societal resources have been invested in babies, they are not worth much. Since old people no longer work, they are not worth much either. Those in between deserve the best care. Only the experts determine human worth. Medical resources, in the discerning mind of Dr. Emanuel, should primarily be channeled to those who can hunt caribou.
President Obama did not talk much about his namesake legislation before he was reelected. Other than calling for a repeal, Mitt Romney did not talk about it much either. After all, it was his idea first. Had he apologized for Romneycare and explained how the American Revolution ended in the state where it began, he would now be President.
The lesson is to pay attention to the unsaid. Under the planks, the unspeakable, beating, telltale heart of the Affordable Care Act is the Independent Payment Advisory Board. The IPAB, or “death panel” to some, is empowered to set Medicare reimbursements for medical services if costs become uncontrollable. If the reimbursement for a medical service is set below costs, the service will disappear, unless you can find a doctor or a hospital that will work for free.
Under the ACA, the President is enjoined to appoint fifteen bureaucrats to the IPAB, none of whom can be practicing physicians. Nominations for the IPAB, which now only require the assent of fifty one Senators, should now be completed. But nominations trigger public hearings, scrutiny, and the attention of the rare journalist who is still awake.
Samuel Adams used the press to set brushfires for liberty. Today, the press is like the dying embers of old Koskoosh’s fire- not enough to keep the wolves in grey suits at bay.
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Der Blog von, mit und über die Initiative junger Transatlantiker.
Was es hier gibt
#nopolitics
From The Headlines
Introduction To…
Judged By Your Peers
Totally Asked For
Aspen Institute Blog
German Marshall Fund Perspectives
Arian Aghashahi
Robin Arens
Christian Becker
Corinna Pfeiffer
Daniel Konzelmann
David Stellmacher
Fabio Crynen
Hannah Stellmacher
Imre Bartal
Kristina Oganesyan
Martin Kümmell
Mirko Vossen
Moritz Asbrand
Nina Klinkel
onnowinters
Philipp Wilisch
David Kirsch
Oliver Scheele
Stefan Ruger
Felix Stossmeister
Tim Benkner
Robin Voss
Wunderbar together!
Germans favour greater cooperation with Russia and China. Why Americas love still gets rebuffed.
von Imre Bartal
This is Part II of a two-part series on challenges of the transatlantic partnership.
Read Part I here.
The same Körber Foundation survey discussed in Part I showed that a majority of Germans favour greater cooperation with the two major powers of the East, Russia and China. The numbers however tell us nothing about the kind of cooperation of which Germans would like to see more. Economic? Security? Political? None of these categories can be separated entirely from one another and no one would dispute that some of each is essential to promote and defend both German and European interests. Despite this, there are plenty of reasons to oppose a fundamental realignment of German foreign policy towards the East.
Germany looks to the East…
Let’s deal with China first. As Germany’s largest source-country for imports and third largest export destination, the People’s Republic has been an essential aspect of the success and growth of the German economy. There is no reason not to maintain the close links that have been established between the two economies, but there is equally a need not to overestimate the economic opportunities offered by China or to depict it as the new bastion of free trade in times of “Neo-Protectionism” practiced by the U.S. For one, Germany still exports more to the U.S. than China and despite President Trump’s rhetoric, EU trade with the States has remained more or less stable. In addition, already in 2011, German business leaders and firms were expressing concern about widespread theft of technology and the difficulty of enforcing patents in China. Although Artur Fischer, one of the heads of the Berlin stock exchange, said that no company can afford to ignore China, firms will inevitably lose knowledge and investments, which would have to be calculated into their prices. Meaning that doing business with China will not come cheaply.
There is also the matter of the South China Sea, a concrete example of economic considerations becoming intertwined with political and security concerns. China essentially claims most of the sea as its own maritime territory on the basis of the Nine-Dash line, and the Communist Party has been pursuing an aggressive policy of island building and increasing its military presence in the Spratly Islands region near the Philippines. In pursuing it claims, China has been flouting the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea by ignoring the binding ruling of a tribunal set up under the convention. The question of who controls these waters is of immense importance to Germany and Europeans. European prosperity depends on trade and investment with Asia, while the dispute could threaten to break into into broader conflict and jeopardise the international rules-based order (ECFR). It is therefore in the German and European interest to uphold the agreed upon maritime laws and where necessary support U.S. freedom of navigation operations. In short, the conflict shows not only the opportunities, but also the threats posed by current Chinese policy to European interests.
…to back away from the West
We turn to Russia. The annexation of Crimea in 2014 by the Russian Federation, the widespread reports of Russian attempts at election interference in Europe and the U.S. and the flagrant violations of the now-defunct INF Treaty have in the last few years given the clear impression that Putin’s regime is not keen on constructive cooperation with the Euro-Atlantic nations for mutual prosperity and security. The many facets and diverse issues of European security are far too numerous to be treated in detail within this commentary. It needs to be however emphasised that the security of the European continent is not a clear black-and-white problem, one side entirely bad (Russia) and the the other (US-EU) entirely good. Instead, a crucial argument of those favouring closer cooperation requires analysis, namely that Euro-Atlantic security policy needs to be more accommodating towards Russian interests.
This argument is especially significant in light of the often informally put argument (heard reiterated quite a few times by the author) that Europe is beholden to American interests. Those who think Russia will not try to impose its will on Europe in the pursuit of its own interests are suffering from a case of chronic delusion. In security and political terms, this could mean surrendering countries like Ukraine and Georgia to a Russian sphere of influence, irrespective of the popular will of Ukrainians and Georgians. On the eve of NATO expansion, the same argument was made about Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic. In economic terms, Russia has been trying to exploit its influence in Europe to skirt European sanctions in response to the annexation of Crimea, as prominent German businessmen with investments in Russia were vocally opposing sanctions against Putin. If Europe cannot implement sanctions in an effective manner and present a united political front, it sends Russia the message that they can ignore international law and there won’t be any consequences. If there was to be more cooperation, what would the incentive be to follow through on agreements if Putin knows there won’t be consequences?
In the end, the German and European approach to China and Russia should also be a matter of values. One cannot claim to be an advocate of democracy and human rights and then ignore the blatant abuses of the latter and the effective absence of the former in these countries. In Russia, online censorship and state control of domestic media are widespread, propaganda is ubiquitous abroad, corruption is a pervasive fact of life and international institutions such as interpol are abused to chase regime critics. China is currently implementing its social credit system, an eerie euphemism for an essentially Orwellian system on control in which not one’s life chances, but even mundane things as booking train tickets will depend on obedience and submission to the Communist Party’s will. In the same vein, China monitors its students abroad to stifle criticism and ensure the promotion of a pro-Chinese agenda. Are these really the kinds of political systems and ideologies with which we not only want closer cooperation but in the end allow to intrude our political systems in the West?
Deeper cooperation with Russia and China will come at a steep price. The Germans should be careful what they wish for.
Image Source: German, U.S., and E.C. Flags Adorn Berlin Meeting Table.
U.S. State Department. Public Domain.
SchlagwörterChina • East • Featured • Germans • Russia • USA
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Das bisschen Frankreich in Kanada
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1 Catullus
Catullus /kəˈtʌləs/
(stor. letter.) Catullo.
English-Italian dictionary > Catullus
Catullus pr n Catulle.
Big English-French dictionary > Catullus
Catullus [kə'tʌləs]
Catulle
Un panorama unique de l'anglais et du français > Catullus
[kǝ'tʌlǝs]
N Catulo
English-spanish dictionary > Catullus
[kətʌləs]
Katul
English-Slovenian dictionary > Catullus
6 Catullus n
[kə'tʌləs]
English-Italian dictionary > Catullus n
Catulo.
Nuevo Diccionario Inglés-Español > Catullus
Catullus 2 — is a renowned poem by the Roman poet Gaius Valerius Catullus ( c . 84 ndash; c . 54 BC) that describes the affectionate relationship between Catullus lover, Lesbia, and her pet sparrow. As scholar and poet John Swinnerton Phillimore has noted,… … Wikipedia
Catullus 16 — is famous among Catullus s Carmina because it is so sexually explicit that a full English translation was not openly published until the late twentieth century [cite web|url=http://digitalcommons.unl.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1001… … Wikipedia
Catullus 1 — is traditionally arranged first among the poems of the Roman poet Catullus, though it was not necessarily the first poem that he wrote. It is dedicated to Cornelius Nepos, a historian and minor poet, though some consider Catullus praise of… … Wikipedia
Catullus 85 — is a poem by the Roman poet Catullus for his mistress Lesbia. Its declaration of conflicting feelings I hate and I love (in Latin, Odi et amo) is renowned for its force and brevity. The meter of the poem is the elegiac couplet. Contents 1 Text 2… … Wikipedia
Catullus 4 — is a poem by the ancient Roman writer Catullus. The poem concerns the retirement of a well traveled ship; Catullus draws a strong analogy with human aging, rendering the boat as a person that flies and speaks, with palms (the oars) and purpose.… … Wikipedia
Catullus 5 — is a passionate and perhaps the most famous poem by Catullus. The poem encourages lovers to scorn the snide comments of others, and to live only for each other, since life is all too brief and death brings on a night of perpetual sleep. Over the… … Wikipedia
Catullus 12 — is a poem by the Roman poet Catullus. In it, he chides Asinius Marrucinus for stealing one of his napkins, calling it uncouth and noting the disapproval of his brother, Pollio. Note the reversal of the praenomen and nomen in the first line. While … Wikipedia
Catullus 2 — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Catullus 2 es un poema del poeta romano Cayo Valerio Catulo (87 a. C. – 54 a. C) que describe la relación afectuosa entre la amante de Catulo, Lesbia, y su gorrión mascota. La métrica de este poema es de… … Wikipedia Español
Catullus 64 — is an epyllion or little epic poem written by Catullus. Catullus longest poem, it retains his famed linguistic witticisms while expressing an appropriately epic tone.Though ostensibly concerning itself with the marriage of Peleus and the sea… … Wikipedia
Catullus — Catullus, Cajus Valerius, römischer Dichter, geb. 86 v. Chr. zu Verona, lebte in Rom, wo er bald angesehene Freunde, z.B. Cicero, sich erwarb, u. auf seiner Villa auf der Halbinsel Sirmio am Gardasee; er war ein Gegner der Machthaber der… … Pierer's Universal-Lexikon
Catullus — Catullus, Gajus Valerius, röm. Dichter, um 84–54 v. Chr., geb. in Verona, aus begüterter Familie, kam jung nach Rom und lebte hier im Verkehr mit angesehenen Männern, wie Hortensius, Cornelius Nepos, Cicero u. a. Das Unglück seines Lebens war die … Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon
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Tag: Building Entertainment
Beasterly’s mostly chronological weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio
Movies99 Comments
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Great Mouse Detective
January 30, 2018 October 12, 2019 beasterly
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Great Mouse Detective
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Black Cauldron
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Black Cauldron
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Fox and the Hound
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Fox and the Hound
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Rescuers
January 9, 2018 October 12, 2019 beasterly
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Rescuers
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Many Adventures of Winnie-The Pooh
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Many Adventures of Winnie-The Pooh
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. (Special Edition) Mickey’s Christmas Carol
December 26, 2017 October 12, 2019 beasterly
Happy holidays, everyone. Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. (Special Edition) Mickey’s Christmas Carol
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Robin Hood
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Robin Hood
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Aristocats
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Aristocats
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Jungle Book
December 5, 2017 May 21, 2018 beasterly
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Jungle Book
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Sword and the Stone
November 28, 2017 May 21, 2018 beasterly
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. The Sword and the Stone
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. One Hundred and One Dalmatians
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. One Hundred and One Dalmatians
Movies138 Comments
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Sleeping Beauty
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Sleeping Beauty
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Lady and the Tramp
November 7, 2017 May 21, 2018 beasterly
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Lady and the Tramp
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Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Peter Pan
October 31, 2017 May 21, 2018 beasterly
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Peter Pan
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Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Alice in Wonderland
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Alice in Wonderland
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Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Fun and Fancy Free, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Fun and Fancy Free, and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Make Mine Music and Melody Time
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Make Mine Music and Melody Time
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Saludos Amigos and The Three Caballeros
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Bambi.
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Bambi.
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Dumbo
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Dumbo
Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Fantasia
Welcome to my weekly discussion of the animated films of the Walt Disney Studio. I’m proceeding mostly chronologically. The title comes from a quote from Walt, “I never called my work an ‘art’ It’s part of show business, the business … Continue reading Building Entertainment: The Animated Films of the Walt Disney Studio. Fantasia
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Because reading Greenwald often leads to sadness...
...I have decided to make it your problem, too.
Glenn Greenwald trying hard not to take an Irish hammer to our knees:
"...As Katyal noted, Kagan relied upon the warning from Alexander Hamilton about a "feeble executive" that was beloved by Bush/Cheney legal theorists, and she hailed "strong, executive vigor." On the legal spectrum, Kagan clearly sits on the end of strong assertions of executive authority -- perhaps on the far end, almost certainly much further than where Stevens falls. It's perhaps unsurprising that a President -- such as Barack Obama -- would want someone on the Supreme Court who is quite deferential to executive authority. But given that so many of the most important legal and Constitutional disputes center on the proper limits of executive power (including ones that remain to be decided from the Bush era), and that Kagan and her rulings will likely long outlast an Obama presidency (i.e., any pro-executive-power decisions she issues will apply to future George Bushes and Dick Cheneys), shouldn't these pro-executive-power views, by themselves, prompt serious reservations (if not outright opposition) among progressives?"
I guess, for me, the problem finds a simple equilibrium, when seen outside its own conditions (echoing Art Silber): anyone interested in attaining the office of the Presidency probably has a lot of bad habits, up to and exceeding the desire to write his name in blood all over the lives of millions make an historical splash of himself. Furthermore, anyone so inclined to claw his way to the top of this corporate-political heap probably has a number of hungry sponsors, in various boardrooms and chains of command.
En bref, the likelihood that we can discover a really bad motherfucker behind the veneer of civility worn by graspers after power approaches 1.
Can we expect much better from those they appoint to shore up the legitimacy of their choices?
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Home News Nigerians will suffer if NASS pass the Social Media Bill, Hate Speech Bill – Fani-Kayode
Nigerians will suffer if NASS pass the Social Media Bill, Hate Speech Bill – Fani-Kayode
by Our Reporter November 22, 2019
written by Our Reporter November 22, 2019
Former Aviation Minister, Femi Fani-Kayode has said Nigerians will suffer greatly if it allows the Social Media bill championed by the Minister of Information and Culture, Lai Muhammed and the Hate Speech Bill introduced by Senate Deputy Chief Whip, Sabi Abdullahi,
The bill is openly supported by the controversial Senator involved in the Abuja sex-toy fracas, Elisha Abbo and Former Minister of Interior, Senator Abba Morro, who supervise the deadly Immigration recruitment scandal that led to the death of 15 Nigerians in 2014.
According to Fani-Kayode, the Social Media Bill and the Hate Speech Bill are the greatest threats to democracy and freedom of expression in the history of Nigeria.
He said, “The Social Media Bill and the Hate Speech Bill are the greatest threats to democracy and freedom of expression in the history of Nigeria.”
“If the National Assembly makes the mistake of passing either or both of these two Bills Nigerians will suffer the consequences for many generations to come and human rights, liberty and freedom will be a thing of the past in our country.”
“I would urge Nigerians not to view this matter with their usual indifference, complacency, docility, stoicism and lily-livered cowardice because the whole thing is an insidious attempt to silence their tongues, cage their spirits, capture their souls, break their ability to resist tyranny and evil and finally turn them into a nation of pliant little quislings, slaves and errand boys.”
What we are witnessing is the final and greatest manifestation of the fascistic, totalitarian and authoritarian state which, like Hitler’s Germany, is creeping up and hiding under the guise of democracy Buhari and his friends want Nigeria to be like Stalin’s Soviet Union or, better still, like today’s North Korea and Saudi Arabia where dissent, oppositon to Government, plurality of views, variety of opinion, individual rights and criticism of Government policy and the maximum dictator is forbidden & where total power is concentrated in the hands of just one man. This is the classic Orwellian nightmare & it is unfolding before our very eyes.
If they get away with it and achieve their objectives Nigeria is finished and within a matter of years we will become the blight of Africa,the pariah of the Third World,
the laughing stock of the international community & the worlds largest prison.
What a terrible fate for a people that are so compliant,so trusting,so innovative, so resourceful,so resilient &so blessed.
Femi Fani-KayodeLAi MohammedSabi Abdullahi
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Black Businesses
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SF District 7
Situated on the east-west ridge that rises steeply to almost 400 feet above sea level from the Marina district and stretches to the Presidio on the north and west, Pacific Heights and Presidio Heights are truly the crown jewels of San Francisco. These neighborhoods were first developed in the mid 1800’s and further improved around the turn of the century, after the 1906 earthquake. Located in a temperate micro-climate, The Heights enjoy more sunshine and less fog than many other neighborhoods in the misty city.
This is the cream of the crop for SF residential neighborhoods; good for singles or families, young or old. They represent the priciest neighborhoods in the bay area. With a mix of large vintage architecturally significant homes, condos and co-ops, some of the most interesting San Francisco residents call this neighborhood home. Old money, start up founders, financiers, city leaders, philanthropists and everything in between.
The most scenic streets, Washington, Jackson, Pacific and Broadway along the crest, boast spectacular views of the Golden Gate Bridge, the Marin Headlands, Angel, Alcatraz and Treasure Islands. Lafayette Park and Alta Plaza are the two main open areas in Pacific Heights, with Presidio National Park is the western boundary. The Heights boasts many of the major residences in the city. The hill is populated by lovely multicolored painted Victorians, Mansions and Châteaux. Many countries locate their consulates in the Heights including England, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Korea, France, Indonesia and Egypt.
There are several nice neighborhood commercial streets:
Union Street, with higher end shops and boutiques such as Ralph Lauren, Marc Jacobs and Armani
Upper Fillmore Street has great neighborhood services and shops
Outer Sacramento Street which is less commercial, but has many physicians plus some designers and lovely restaurants.
California Street and Laurel Village shopping center.
There are also exquisite parks, Alta Plaza and the newly rebuilt Lafayette Park as well as Presidio National Park & Golf Course plus many playgrounds such as Julius Kahn with its tennis courts. With these kinds of outdoor facilities as well as a significant café crowd, the buzz is lively and stimulating.
This affluent neighborhood has several private schools including SF University High School, Drew, Hamlin, Sacred Heart, Town, Convent and Stuart Hall Schools.
Included areas: Pacific Heights
/ 39 Properties
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2799 Broadway Street
6 Bed | 9 Bath | 11,635 SQFT
2698 Pacific Avenue
2000 Washington Street 7
4 Bed | 4 Bath | - SQFT
4 Bed | 3.5 Bath | 5,400 SQFT
8 Bed | 8 Bath | 8,335 SQFT
2973-2975 Jackson Street
2741 Vallejo Street
2106-2108 Broadway Street
2100 Pacific Avenue PH
2500 Steiner Street 3
1910 California Street
3103 Clay Street
1960 Broadway 5
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Varun Shetty
ESPN author index
April 21, 2019|In Cricket, Reports/News|8 Minutes
No complaints from Andre Russell about batting position - Karthik
By Varun Shetty
Varun Shetty in Hyderabad (April 21, 2019)
A stoic Dinesh Karthik said it was unfair to say Kolkata Knight Riders are over-dependent on Andre Russell after his side lost their fifth straight game, effectively making all of their last four games must-wins if they want to qualify for the playoffs.
Knight Riders were 124 for 5 against Sunrisers Hyderabad when Russell joined Chris Lynn with 4.3 overs left in the innings. But, Lynn fell next over, leaving Russell in the company of the lower order. Although he’s done that task many times for Knight Riders, including specifically lifting them from being five down for much lower scores, Russell couldn’t keep his golden form running into Sunday and fell for a nine-ball 15.
“I think that’s unfair to say,” Karthik said after the match. “Today I think 160 was par if we’d bowled well. Even though Andre only got 15 runs today, the rest of them batted really well and brought us to a score that was defendable. But the fact that we didn’t bowl as well, and the wicket got better under lights, and two good players came out all guns blazing made things look very easy.”
On Friday, Russell had brought Knight Riders miraculously close to a win against Royal Challengers Bangalore after coming in with the asking rate at 16.53 and just over eight overs to go. His 65 off 25 had brought Knight Riders “two hits away” from victory – Russell’s words and they came ahead of a cheeky little suggestion.
“I believe that [I should bat higher up the order],” Russell had said as he put a finger to his lips. “Honestly, you have to sometimes be flexible as a team. When you look at the make-up of our team, I don’t mind going to bat at No. 4.”
ESPNcricinfo Ltd
Arguably this season’s most impactful player, Russell has come in with an average of 42 balls remaining every innings. Comparable to this are Hardik Pandya and Kieron Pollard’s entry points – an average of 33 and 38 balls remaining respectively. But the fact that Pandya and Pollard play for the same team means Mumbai Indians can hedge their bets on their batting positions. Knight Riders, on the other hand, have often relied on brisk innings around Russell as he singlehandedly pulverises bowling attacks.
Karthik alluded to Russell’s comments while saying the West Indian has made no complaints about his batting position. “He had about five overs to face. When he came in, there were 27 balls and we’re looking to play him at a kind of slot where…I think he’s the kind of player even if he had played 10 balls, he’d have made an impact. The key is that we play that well at the top of the order that we set it up for him. There’s been no complaints from his side about the batting part of it. I think he’s been happy with the place where he’s going and he has a clear role in the team which he’s trying to achieve every time he goes out to bat. ”
Knight Riders are currently placed sixth and in the middle of a losing streak that forced them to drop franchise stalwarts such as Kuldeep Yadav and Robin Uthappa. Those big calls were made, Karthik said, because neither player had performed to the standards they had set themselves. But with four matches to go, and three of them against teams currently placed higher than them, they might just return to the XI in the next game.
“It’s always part of the IPL,” Karthik said. “Once you get on a run where you’ve lost a match it puts pressure on the next match. When you win, you can always find ways to win and when you lose, you sometimes find ways to lose. I think these are all the challenges a team always faces in a tournament like this.
“We’ve sat together and regrouped and things haven’t gone exactly to plan. Having said that, I have faith in the players I have. I believe there are genuine match winners out there and we need to find ways to find a spark for ourselves and do something special for us. ”
Source: No complaints from Andre Russell about batting position – Karthik | ESPNcricinfo.com
Captain Karthik, and the new KKR
Taking over from Gautam Gambhir, Dinesh Karthik has reshaped the team in his first year in charge, tuning it to fit the change in resources
Virat Kohli backs Ambati Rayudu for the No. 4 spot
The India captain says that giving Rayudu enough game-time between now and the World Cup will sort the No. 4 conundrum
A fingerspinner has to turn the ball to get wickets - Shakib
Jonny Bairstow relishes his fabulous Indian summer
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Buy me a coffee or make a donation to Voice of Stray Dogs
© 2020 Varun Shetty. All rights reserved
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Amoros believes winning mentality is key for Spurs
Sportsbeat
Tottenham Hotspur managers Juan Amoros and Karen Hills Action Images via Reuters/Matthew Childs
Anything less than three points is just not an option at Tottenham Hotspur – that’s according to women’s head coach Juan Amoros, writes Ella Jerman.
It’s a bold statement from a club who are just twelve games into their first-ever season in the professional Barclays FA Women’s Super League, and while Amoros’ side are still a way off their lofty ambitions, their fifth-placed position is quite the statement of intent.
They may have only won five of their fixtures so far but if dropping points is not in their nature Spurs certainly showed it on Sunday, Rianna Dean scoring a stoppage-time winner to cancel out Kenza Dali’s 90th minute equaliser in their 2-1 win over West Ham United at the Hive.
And while he would have preferred a bigger scoreline, the determination of Dean in finding the winner is exactly what Amoros wants to see across the board.
“We always go out to win, it’s in our club philosophy,” said Amoros, who oversees the first team alongside Karen Hills. “We are Tottenham Hotspur. We know we need to go and win games.
“We always say the same thing to the players. We want them to treat every game like a final and try to win it. Whatever happens in every game, we always analyse it in order to get better.
“We all love this game because of the passion that it brings with it. The girls are in a very good frame of mind when they come into work every day and I think that shows.”
Up next 👉 @ManUtdWomen (A)
📅 Sun 19 Jan
⏱ 12pm (UK)
🏟 Leigh Sports Village #SpurHerOn ⚪️ #COYS pic.twitter.com/cOf9MhXuP0
— Tottenham Hotspur Women (@SpursWomen) January 16, 2020
Tottenham, who were promoted to the WSL after finishing second in the Championship last year, were boosted at the turn of the New Year by the loan signing of Emma Mitchell from Arsenal.
The Scottish international showed her worth almost instantly, scoring the opener against the Hammers on her first start since making the move across North London and Amoros believes her quality will be vital in Spurs’ push towards the top.
“She’s a great character to have around,” he said. "She is bringing so much experience and quality at the back.
“We have values here, so whenever anybody comes into the club we want to make them feel at home here from the beginning.
“We want her to enjoy her football and I think she’s showing she is already with a goal on her first start.”
Spurs’ next game is at Manchester United on Sunday January 19.
To follow the action, buy tickets and sign-up for The FA Player’s live Barclays FA Women’s Super League coverage visit womenscompetitions.thefa.com
#west-ham-united-f.c.
#tottenham-hotspur-f.c.
#super-league
#rianna-dean
Julian Fellowes confirms return to 'Downton Abbey'
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London to New York Flights
Cheap Flights from London to New York
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← Are councillors in Somerset ignoring the wisdom of their auditors?
DWP fraud and mistakes cost an estimated £3.2bn – despite new HMRC data links →
FOI hearing today on DWP’s refusal to publish Universal Credit reports
External lawyers acting for the Department for Work and Pensions are due to appear before an FOI Upper Tribunal judge in London today to argue why four reports on Universal Credit should not be published.
It’s the latest step in a costly legal battle that has lasted two years so far.
A first-tier FOI tribunal judge in 2014 ordered the four reports to be published. The DWP asked for permission to appeal that decision and lost its case. The DWP then asked an Upper Tribunal for permission to appeal and lost that case as well.
Then it asked a different Upper Tribunal judge for permission to appeal . As a result, a 1 day hearing is taking place today.
The case takes in evidence from the DWP, the Information Commissioner, John Slater who requested 3 of the reports in question and me. Slater requested in 2012 a Universal Credit risks register, milestone schedule and issues register (which set out problems that had materialised with the Universal Credit programme). I requested a project assessment review carried out in 2011 on the Universal Credit programme by the Cabinet Office’s Major Projects Authority.
The DWP has refused to publish the four reports – and millions of pounds worth of other similar reports.
Today the DWP will argue that the judge in an earlier Upper FOI Tribunal did not fully consider the “chilling effect” that disclosure of the reports would have on the behaviours of civil servants or consultants who helped to write the reports in question.
In essence the DWP’s lawyers are asking the judge to accept the arguments put forward against disclosure by Sarah Cox, the DWP’s main witness in the case. Cox is a former programme assurance director for Universal Credit.
Cox submitted 49 pages of evidence – plus secret evidence during a closed hearing – on why the UC reports should not be published. She said that civil servants must be able to think the unthinkable and record the outcome of these thoughts without hesitation or fear of disclosure.
If contributors feared the reports would be routinely disclosed the documents could become “bland records” prepared with half an eye to how they would be received in the public domain.
She said the danger of damage to the public interest cannot be overstated.
Disclosure could adversely affect management of the Universal Credit programme – and “failure of proper programme management may be catastrophic”.
Emphasising the importance of effective management of risk, she referred to the banking system prior to the credit crunch and the stability of the Bank of England in that period.
“Inappropriate or premature disclosure of the information in the risk registers or the issues registers could lead to those failures occurring in government risk management with broader parallels for other project management tools.”
She then referred to “disaster myopia” – a phenomenon she said was well established in cognitive psychology. It referred to “an underestimation of the likelihood of low frequency but high risk damage risks”.
She added: “This can result in a lack of appropriate mitigating actions, increasing the likelihood of the risk becoming an issue. In this case fear of disclosure and misinterpretation can exacerbate this myopia, leading to the toning down of the direct and forceful language used to describe risks, or worse, risks not being identified at all”.
If civil servants or consultants writing reports on projects were to downplay the risks because of a fear of disclosure, problems may be overlooked, solutions not found, or not found promptly. “Such an outcome would be seriously detrimental to the delivery of major projects.”
Cox’s evidence could appear to some to suggest the DWP was preoccupied with its image, and the image of the Universal Credit programme, in the media, and among MPs and the public. She said routine disclosure of such reports as those in question “will distract civil servants from their tasks at a crucial point in the process of programme management.
“Instead of concentrating on implementing the changes, they will be required to address stakeholder, press or wider public concerns which have been provoked by the premature disclosure of material.”
It would be unhelpful if “attention is focused on clarifying positions with stakeholders and addressing the concerns of media, opposition and interest groups in order to correct the often misleading impression created by premature disclosure”.
This issue is “magnified in a programme with as many delivery partners as Universal Credit, covering both central and local government, with implications for all territories in the UK”.
That is because of the “implications of issues for different partners are often slightly different, so that each partner may need to be given a slightly different, and tailored, response”.
This concern should not be understated, she said.
“From my experience of high profile matters which emerge with little warning, I can say that ministers and senior officials are likely to be forced to clear their diaries, cancelling planned meetings, events and other important engagements, to attend rapidly-convened meetings to discuss the handling of the premature disclosure.
“Officials in the relevant policy areas (and lawyers as appropriate) would need to set aside other essential and pressing work to prepare briefings on the likely impact of disclosure and options for next steps. ‘Lines to take’ and a stakeholder and media-handling strategy would need to be discussed, agreed and signed off by ministers.
“Ministers could also be called to respond to urgent questions tabled in Parliament, especially where the disclosure is made in respect of a high-profile policy area. The media might press for interviews with ministers and/or senior officials, which require careful preparation…”
But, as the Information Commissioner has pointed out, disclosure of the documents under FOI is not the same as a leak to the media.
And the reports in question are now four years old and so massive media interest is unlikely. Any media interest could be managed by DWP press officers without distracting project managers.
Cox said disclosure could harm rather than assist public debate.
“Material that requires civil servants to think the unthinkable, or to consider unusual or highly unlikely events, using intentionally vivid and forceful language, at a single point in time, potentially pre-dating attempts to mitigate the position could easily distort the public perception of the real or likely situation and encourage sensationalist rather than responsible and balanced reporting.”
She said that officials may have to release further information to counteract any misunderstandings (from a misreading of the disclosed reports). But the “world of media” may ignore this further information.
Lawyers for the Information Commissioner, in their submission to today’s hearing, will argue that an earlier tribunal had not found any existence of a “chilling effect” in this case. The tribunal had not been persuaded by what the DWP had said.
The earlier tribunal had not dismissed all of the DWP’s concerns as entirely without merit. It accepted that disclosure of the documents in question “may not be a painless process for the DWP” and that there “may be some prejudice to the conduct of government of one or more of the kinds asserted by the DWP”. The tribunal was simply unpersuaded by the extent of those prejudices.
The Commissioner’s lawyers will say the earlier tribunal gave due weight to the evidence of Ms Cox but it was not obliged to agree with her.
There was no observable chilling effect from disclosures in the past where a chilling effect had been envisaged. The DWP had not provided any evidence that a chilling effect existed.
Indeed a Starting Gate Review on the Universal Credit project had been published (by Campaign4Change) after the DWP refused to release the document under FOI. The DWP had refused to publish the Starting Gate Review because of the chilling effect it would have on the contributors to such reports.
But there was no chilling effect in consequence of publication of the Starting Gate review, say the Information Commissioner’s lawyers.
The incident “illustrates that it is perfectly within the bounds of reason to be sceptical about the DWP’s assertions about the chilling effect and the like,” says the Information Commissioner’s submission to today’s hearing.
On Ms Cox’s point that disclosure of the reports in question would change behaviours of civil servants and consultants compiling the documents, the earlier tribunal had concluded that the public was entitled to expect from senior officials – and no doubt generally gets – a large measure of courage, frankness and independence in their assessments of risk and provision of advice.
The Information Commissioner’s lawyers will today ask the judge to dismiss the DWP’s appeal.
The DWP’s evidence suggests that the reports in question today are critical to the effective delivery of Universal Credit. The reality is that excessive secrecy can make bureaucracies complacent and, in the the DWP’s case, somewhat chaotic.
When Campaign4Change asked the DWP under FOI for two Universal Credit reports – an end to end technical review carried out by IBM at a cost of £49,240 and a “delivery model assessment phases one and two” carried by McKinsey and Partners at a cost of £350,000 – the DWP mistakenly denied that the reports existed.
When we provided evidence the reports did exist the DWP said eventually that it had found them. The DWP said in essence that the documents had been held so securely nobody knew until searching for them that they existed.
So much for the DWP’s argument that such reports are critical to the effective management of major projects.
And when Campaign4Change asked the DWP, under FOI, to supply a project assessment review report on the Universal Credit programme, officials mistakenly supplied an incorrect version of the report (a draft) to an FOI tribunal. Officials later apologised for their mistake.
National Audit Office reports on Universal Credit do little to portray the DWP as a professional, competent and well-managed organisation.
Which all suggests that excessive secrecy within the DWP has made officials complacent and disorganised.
Continued excessive secrecy within the department could reinforce a suspicion, justified or not, that the department may not be in a strong position to run a programme as large and complex as Universal Credit.
This entry was posted in change management, consultants, contractors, DWP, excessive secrecy, Freedom of Information, Gateway reviews, Government IT, HMRC, Major Projects Authority, National Audit Office, procurement, project management, public sector, Real-Time Information, Universal Credit and tagged agile, Cabinet Office, government IT. Bookmark the permalink.
7 responses to “FOI hearing today on DWP’s refusal to publish Universal Credit reports”
Tim Blackwell | July 16, 2015 at 11:41 | Reply
“removing absurdly high marginal tax rates (65%+) for people returning to work from benefit support (a purpose most people support).”
Universal credit does no such thing. Typically, universal credit claimants who earn enough to pay income tax and claim means-tested council tax reductions will have a marginal tax rate of 81% (32% from tax/NI, 44.2% from UC (ie 0.68*0.65) and the rest via council tax reduction tapering.
David Orr | July 16, 2015 at 11:45 | Reply
Tim – Thanks for the clarification (for my 65%+) and exact and shocking figures (given the urging to drop to 45% tax rate back to 40%).
A6er | July 15, 2015 at 22:20 | Reply
Reblogged this on Britain Isn't Eating.
Editor | July 15, 2015 at 20:40 | Reply
olivierd001 | July 15, 2015 at 10:24 | Reply
Reblogged this on olivierd001.
This is a pivotal case with repercussions right across the whole of public sector, including the NHS and local councils.
Local Government and councils will be watching with great interest to see if the “chilling effect” can be used to avoid publishing Risk Logs and if the Risk has “blown up” already, avoid disclosing the Issue Logs as to how that “blown up” Risk is being managed.
Here in Somerset, the controversial contract with IBM for South West One is due to end in November 2017.
Somerset county Council has become a so called “commissioning council” (or should I say “Daesh”).
Their first act is to surround all of the South West One “re-commissioning” project with excessive secrecy, as Tony has already reported:
“Excessive secrecy?
Orr also makes the point that councillors who take part in discussions on succession planning will be legally bound to secrecy.
But would excessive secrecy give a licence to a small group of officers and councillors to act almost as they want, incompetently, or in ignorance of the full facts?
Somerset County Council concedes that the 3,000-page Southwest One contract, which was signed in 2007, and was replete with literals because it was signed in a rush, has proved difficult to implement.
Will the same mistakes be made again, even though the council has produced several “lessons learned” reports?
The forthcoming discussions will involve IBM so secrecy will be a dominant issue.
But some of the discussions are deemed so secret that officers need not consult councillors on every important matter – which means that even those councillors who are bound by legal non-disclosure agreements may be excluded from some decisions.
Officers will tell councillors what’s happening only when officers decide that councillors should be consulted. Officers say they’ll consult councillors “when required”. It will be up to officers to decide what “when required” means.
In discussions with possible outsourcers what if one council officer favours a company for reasons that aren’t clear? Who among the lay councillors will stop mistakes being made if they don’t know everything that’s going on?”
The DWP should now have an FOI to ask how much of taxpayers money has been used to effectively “win” by delaying publication.
Politically, have the senior the civil servants involved colluded in pushing potential bad news on Universal Credit beyond the last election, as the Minister was no doubt anxious to do?
Universal Credit principles are in many places worthy & laudable, in terms of making work pay and removing absurdly high marginal tax rates (65%+) for people returning to work from benefit support (a purpose most people support).
Universal credit should over time allow those high marginal tax rates to be progressively reduced as the £9 minimum wage comes in.
The IT to enable this is therefore of massive national, social and economic significance to the UK.
As a campaigner for openness and accountability when taxpayers money is being spent, I applaud Tony’s stance on the DWP excessive secrecy.
It is my experience that as soon as “managing the news” in major projects, overtakes the actual work going on, then you have a recipe for disaster (see NHS IT, Regional Fire Centres etc).
Discomfort to the Officers, Civil Servants, the Executive and the politicians in charge, is a small price to pay for knowing the truth and the power that has in a functioning democracy with a free press – a “warming effect”.
Excessive secrecy allows failing projects to drift on accumulating ever more costs, while benign press releases cover the sins. Better to have the bad news out and terminate failing projects, than carry on throwing good taxpayers money after bad,
Final thought: Mr Gove already has the FOI Act in his sights and will a Conservative majority Government react to losing this case by amending (water down) the FOI Act?
In which case, will we in England who think the FOI Act was one of Tony Blair’s better bits of legislation (he didn’t in his memoirs), need to rely upon the SNP to ride to the rescue and “shoot the Government fox”?
ukcampaign4change | July 15, 2015 at 09:33 | Reply
Thanks for the commments Dave
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Talk Around Town
Public losing trust in health workers
Workers of the hospital's Microbiology Department cut thousands of HIV and Hepatitis B test strips in half in order to use them for two people instead of one.
Thu Hằng
In Việt Nam, there is a saying that goes 'lương y như từ mẫu', meaning that good doctors are like loving mothers.
I agree and I respect doctors for their important role in society as well as the demanding nature of their job.
When we are sick, we completely count on our doctors.
But recent medical mistakes and fraud in the healthcare sector have caused a great deal of public concern and left many of us wondering who to trust.
The recent case where medical workers were alleged to have cut HIV testing strips at Hà Nội's Saint Paul Hospital, the largest hospital under the management of Hà Nội, created widespread panic.
Many people have asked whether other establishments were doing similar things. Are all test results to be trusted or not?
VTV24 reported on Monday that the workers of the hospital's Microbiology Department cut thousands of HIV and Hepatitis B test strips in half in order to use them for two people instead of one, ignoring directions given by its manufacturer.
The hospital has denied the report.
Nguyễn Đình Hưng, the hospital director said on Tuesday that only 40 such strips had been cut in half and tested on a trial basis on 80 blood samples.
The HIV test strips that were cut were provided by private medical supplier Lục Tỉnh Company free of charge. They were used as an experiment that hospital leaders were reportedly unaware of.
They were not the test strips provided by the hospital for its patients, he said.
In an urgent meeting with hospital leaders, medical staff involved in the incident admitted that from September to November, 2019, the Microbiology Department cut 40 HIV testing strips in half and used them to test 80 blood samples.
The hospital suspended three staff of the Microbiology Department, including the department's deputy head, its head technician and the technician involved in the misconduct.
According to medical experts, this action was unacceptable because it could lead to false results.
It was a serious issue because an HIV-positive person could be informed they had tested negative, they said.
Trần Thị Nhị Hà, deputy director of Hà Nội Department of Health, said whether the test strips in question had been used as an experiment was irrelevant; it was still a violation.
"Cutting the strips in half will definitely not guarantee an accurate result," Hà said.
"This behaviour is completely against the procedures for medical examination and testing."
The Department of Health has asked Saint Paul's Hospital to formally explain the incident to the Ministry of Health, the Hà Nội People's Committee and the city Department of Health.
Hà also said that for any violation, the people involved would be held to account, individually and collectively, and face disciplinary action.
A representative of Lục Tỉnh Company told Lao Động (Labour) newspaper that altering the test strips was completely wrong.
"All testing strips used for patients or experiments are never allowed to be cut because it will certainly affect the test results, " the officer insisted.
The behaviour of these medical workers is not in compliance with professional ethics in healthcare and calls into question why the did it.
Many have asked what will the remaining test strips in Microbiology Department be used for?
Each quick HIV test kit which consists of 100 testing strips costs VNĐ3 million (US$130).
"For 40 years in my career, I have never heard of cutting HIV test strips. I have not taught anyone to do it. This is the first time I have heard of such an incident, " said Dr Nguyễn Nghiêm Luật, former head of Hà Nội Medical University's Biochemistry Department
"This action is unacceptable."
To get accurate results, technicians must comply with the manufacturer's regulations, he said.
According to lawyers, the cutting of the test strips may have violated Article 356 of the Criminal Code, and a police investigation and legal proceedings are warranted if there is sufficient evidence.
Lawyer Nguyễn Anh Thơm from the Hà Nội Bar Association said to have a clear answer and avoid causing public panic, investigation agencies need to get involved to clarify the violations as well as the motives for any crimes that were committed.
Referring to Article 356 of the Criminal Code, Thơm said the medical staff's behaviour could be criminally punished if causing consequences and damages.
"I recently went to Hà Nội's Thanh Nhàn Hospital for a health check-up and I found that the healthcare services and attitude of the medical staff here have improved markedly and I am very happy about that", said Nguyễn Đức Hùng, a man living in Hà Nội's Hoàng Mai District.
"I was really shocked to hear this news. I do not know who patients can trust when they go to the hospital.
"Are there any other health facilities that do the same?" he asked.
The public is still shocked at the case of Việt Nam Pharma Joint Stock Company selling fake medicine for cancer treatment.
All those involved the case were sentenced years in prison by a court in HCM City in October, but it seems the punishment wasn't strong enough to deter fraud.
The case of cutting HIV testing strips is under investigation.
Hopefully, those who caused this will be properly punished to create trust with patients, as it's vitally important that patients feel they can trust their doctors. — VNS
HIV testing strip
medical mistake
The joy and hope of Tết (January, 19 2020)
High time we made the effort to understand children (January, 15 2020)
Women go under the knife for perfect tummy (January, 12 2020)
Are vloggers' click-bait YouTube videos fair to viewers? (January, 05 2020)
Tết bonus: workers prefer cash (December, 25 2019)
Return looted artworks to the Vietnamese people (December, 22 2019)
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VGX
Games Media For Everyone (We are under construction!)
Author: rodrigoleon
Microsoft Officially Kills off Project Spark
Microsoft and developer Team Dakota are effectively shutting down Project Spark as it will no longer be available for download via the Xbox Store or its Windows counterpart today, May 13th.
Online services will still be supported until August 12th. This means players will still be able to download and upload user-generated content.
“This was an extremely difficult decision for our team that we do not take lightly,” Team Dakota community manager Thomas Gratz said in a statement. “When Project Spark transitioned away from active development last fall, many of our team members moved to other projects within Microsoft Studios. While this means there have been no layoffs at Microsoft, it also means it’s simply no longer feasible to continue the behind-the-scenes work involved with keeping Project Spark up and running with meaningful updates and bug fixes, so we have come to this hard decision.”
Microsoft will offer Xbox or Windows Store credits to players who purchased a retail copy of the game. Nothing has been said about the downloaded copies.
Announced back in 2013, Project Spark was Microsoft’s answer to the Play Create Share games trend start by PlayStation’s LittleBigPlan. Project Spark was a more robust, ambitious take on the create/share aspect of it.
Source: Polygon
Nintendo NX Predictions
The highly anticipated console for Nintendo entitled Nintendo NX will be officially released sometime in March 2017. Little information is known about Nintendo NX despite the fact that we have only a year left before it is released. Nintendo has even decided not to reveal any information regarding the Nintendo NX for this upcoming E3. There have been numerous speculations as to the direction Nintendo NX will take from cloud-based gaming to a hybrid home/handheld console. One thing for sure is that Nintendo will once again introduce a brand new concept for gaming which shouldn’t be a surprise to anyone. The Nintendo Wii decided to integrate motion sensors with the Wii remote and nunchuk back in 2006 while the Nintendo WiiU decided to tackle the tablet scene with its tablet-inspired controller in 2012. For better or for worse, Nintendo is definitely not a stranger when it comes to going against the norm.
However, the overall success of Nintendo has declined over the years, more specifically with the last couple of years with the Nintendo WiiU. Despite the enormous success with the Wii, the WiiU is considered a disappointment in sales by comparison. One of the major reasons for this was due to consumer confusion caused by the marketing of the WiiU prior to its release. Many thought that the WiiU was simply a new controller that somehow connected with the existing Wii console as opposed to a new home console. Hopefully Nintendo learns from this and markets the Nintendo NX appropriately, the last thing Nintendo needs is more marketing mishaps.
In all honestly, I don’t really have an opinion on this matter simply due to lack of information. Like I previously stated, we have a year left until the release of the Nintendo NX and we still have little to no information. However, Nintendo did state that they will reveal more information later on this year but no specific date has been announced. This does fuel concern and uncertainty since this may be pushing too close to the deadline. The consumers will need some time to process everything. The combination of well-informed consumers and appropriate marketing will definitely be a key factor to the success of the Nintendo NX which is why I briefly mentioned the marketing mishap of the Nintendo WiiU. All that’s left is to look forward towards the second half of this year for further information.
Pre-Series Analysis: FW VS SKT
The bracket stage is upon us now as 4 teams vie for title of 2016 MSI Champions. There were many surprises during group stage with CLG over performing to a 2nd seed standing. It was predicted for CLG to be the number 5 seed with FW as a number 3. There were almost no expectations for NA’s storied franchise to win any games except for those with Turkey.
Gut Prediction: CLG wins 3 games to 1
Why? CLG has swept FW on both games against each other. It is clear FW doesn’t respect CLG even after being routed 0-2 so far and that can only spell disaster to a team like CLG that never says never. CLG is very hot right now too. Coming off a high as the only team to defeat RNG during group stages is nothing to scoff at even for a Bo1.
Why people may disagree: Mandatory “It was Bo1 not a Bo5”. The games were close. RNG’s game was a fluke. They lost to Turkey.CLG chokes at big events.
Blueprints for success: FW
Caitlyn ban is not worth it. Picking could be worth it. Ban Kalista
Both Huhi and Darshan try very hard to make plays and sometimes get caught out stupidly because of this. Try to get Huhi and Darshan on low impact champions.
Darshan has been stellar on poppy. Let him use maokai if you value ekko and try to win sub30.
Standard lanes. CLG has been one of the best in lane swap scenarios.
Pick up alistar if they do not ban it.
The best player to try to exploit is Huhi. He has a lot more mental and mechanical miscues. Teams have tried to pick on botlane and toplane with no success.
PlayStation Tops NPD Sales for the Month of April
The numbers are out and we have a winner! According to the NPD Group, the PlayStation 4 was the top-selling console in the United States last month.
The PlayStation 4 beat out both Xbox One and Wii U in sales for not only the month of April but also the for March and February.
NPD Group’s Liam Callahan reported that hardware sales have dropped when compared to April of last year. This was primarily caused by a 19 percentage decline of $30.4 million in console sales. Current generation console spending also dropped by 15 percent and last-gen hardware has declined over 70 percent.
With the talks of Sony releasing an upgraded PlayStation, Microsoft prototyping new ideas for the their console and NX said to launch in 2017, NPD console sale numbers may spike up again if new upgraded hardware is introduced later this year.
Source: IGN
Pre-Series Analysis: RNG VS SKT
The bracket stage is upon us now as 4 teams vie for title of 2016 MSI Champions. There were many surprises during group stage casting doubt upon SKT as the now number 4 seed going against RNG the number 1 seed in the tournament. It was predicted for SKT to be the number 1 seed with RNG as a close number 2 and for these two juggernauts to battle it out in the finals. These two teams have split their games one apiece with each other during the group stage, but, as many people point out, Best of 1’s are vastly different from Best of 5.
Gut Prediction: RNG wins 3 games to 2
Why? RNG has been playing their games in dominating fashion. Mata, RNG’s superstar support, has been on fire lately. The second game is the only reason to give me pause and say that SKT can take 2 games instead of just 1. SKT may have a better overall history, but Mata and Looper are also proven championship winners. Expect to see SKT target ban Mata and leave more power picks open for RNG.
Why people may disagree: SKT is the most winningest organization. History has shown they have flourished under pressure and best of 5’s. Best of 1’s are no indicator of skill.
Blueprints for success: SKT
SKT should try to target ban Mata’s pool ( Alistar and/or Bard) and MLXG’s nidalee. These are first two pick emphasis for RNG. LB is also something to worry about.
Do not ban twitch and save it to bait RNG into picking it if they lose 1-2 games to you. Prepare for a twitch pick/comp if you are up 1-2 games.
RNG will most likely target Kindred, Trundle and Ryze. Try to pick up Graves if Nidalee and Kindred are gone. This will make MLXG pick Lee Sin.
Use Zilean for Game 1. This will create the series tempo and uncertainty. It will most likely draw bans or influence the rest series’ pick/ban.
If Trundle is free, let Alistar slide in and ban bard last.
League of Legends: Mid Season Invitational Day 1 Reaction
Day 1 of the 2016 Mid-Season Invitational in Shanghai is now in the books and we are only 3 hours away from the next round of Day 2. The matches lived up to our high expectations for an action packed day at Shanghai.
For those not familiar or new with the scene, MSI is a League of Legends tournament hosted by Riot Games. The teams that qualify are number one in their respective League, or region, by the end of the first half of the season. In general, each region’s League season has two sections which referred to as “Splits”. The first split, “Spring Split”, and the second split, “Summer Split”, are both counted almost as their own season with their own playoff within their respective region. MSI takes the winner of the Spring Split playoffs of every region and puts them in a round robin group stage where the top 4 teams (by record) get put into a best of five single elimination bracket stage.
The regions participating are the North American League “NA” (NA LCS), European League “EU” (EU LCS), Korean League “KR” (LCK), China League “CN” (LPL), South-East Asia League “TW/HK/MO” (LMS), and Wildcard Region which is a culmination of smaller regions that compete in a WildCard Invitational tournament. Every organization will represent their region since the MSI tournament will determine which regions will earn top four seeds in the 2016 World Championship.
Represented by CLG (Counter Logic Gaming), bolsters a squad with a chip on their shoulder. CLG is an organization that has been there since the beginning and is considered one of the forefathers of League organizations. Even though they are a storied franchise, they have struggled since the heyday of their original roster. Many people write them off and write off NA as a whole when it comes to the big 5 regions as they are known to choke at the international stage. There is intense rivalry and bragging rights when it comes to NA and EU.
Represented by G2, which is a brand new team of decent mechanical players. They have exceeded expectations within their season and have played with convincing dominance. Many people have attributed them as inconsistent at times, much like how the LPL is seen as. When they are on point, they look absolutely brilliant — but when they do tend to make the occasional odd decisions. They are considered the ‘Wild Card’ team of the tournament in the fact that it would not be surprising if they grabbed top 3.
Represented by SKT1, this region and organization is considered the overlords. They always show a dominant showing and the region as a whole is always expected to take number 1. SKT1 is the only organization to be a two-time World Champion, among other accolades. Everyone on the organization is a new face except their star midlaner Faker. Who many have called the Michael Jordan of League.
Represented by RNG (Royal Never Give Up), is the one organization that could give SKT1 a run for their money. RNG has always shown great performances at the international stage. LPL known for their over-aggression fields Korean imports and former World Champions Mata (Support) and Looper (Toplane) to help make their aggression more calculated.
Represented by FW (Yoe Flash Wolves), is emerging as a respectable region overtaking NA and quite possibly EU in international ranking. Much like LPL, the LMS region is known for looking for fights with aggression. They are considered to be top 4 on the international stage with LMS and EU being interchangeable at the 3 and 4 rank.
Represented by SUP (SuperMassive), is an organization from Turkey that really has no expectations to do anything but gain international experience. It is common for Wildcards to be just fodder at these tournaments due to their smaller region/infrastructure and limited exposure to the international stage. No one expects them to do better than 6th place.
What to Watch Out For
Everyone has the usual power rankings of (1)SKT1, (2)RNG, (3)FW, (4)G2, (5)CLG, (6) SUP with #3 and #4 being interchangeable. After Day 1, however, it looks like CLG (1-1) is on the uptrend as they had strong showings against RNG and FW. Their loss to RNG was a very close loss and CLG looked very strong considering them throwing out an unexpected and untested pick. G2 (0-2) seems to be struggling and have been joked about being the true “Wildcards” since SUP (0-2) despite being the same record showed better efforts in their loss. Besides that, SKT1 and RNG are to be expected at a dominant 2-0 record. They are poised to play each other in a few hours which will, as some people will expect to be a preview of the MSI Finals.
The Tilt/Prediction
CLG will make top 4 instead of G2. It will not be surprising to see CLG make it to 2nd or 3rd.
Don’t Starve Shipwrecked DLC Review
The new highly anticipated DLC for Don’t Starve entitled Shipwrecked was released for beta on December 1st and officially released on March 31st. The new expansion pack strays away from it’s predecessors where we are presented with a tropical setting. This will be a relatively short review as well and I shall point out the major aspects of the DLC.
One of the major aspects of the DLC is water. Don’t Starve Shipwrecked heavily emphasizes water-based game mechanics that affects and is affected by the weather, biomes, creatures, and so forth. From existing games mechanics such as rainfall and wetness meter to new games mechanics such as waves and flooding, there are more status and environmental effects that provides a new gameplay experience.
Waves are a new game mechanic that functions as obstacles if the player is hit with them or functions as a speed boost by traveling in the same direction. Waves also come in two tiers: small and large. Flooding is another new game mechanic where the ground will eventually become flooded with water with continuous rainfall. If left unattended, non-elevated structures may be unable to function such as research stations. It is recommended that players take extra precautionary steps to prepare for flooding so that non-elevated structures remain intact for use.
Since Don’t Starve Shipwrecked is an expansion pack for a continuous game, there are still aspects of the game I have yet to encounter due to the scale of the game. The time elapsed in-game can range from a few days to hundreds. Despite that, Don’t Starve Shipwrecked is an overall great expansion pack that provide hours of gameplay with new content. Those who enjoyed Don’t Starve Reign of Giants will enjoy Don’t Starve Shipwrecked as well, especially those who love tropical settings. All that’s left is to look forward to the new expansion pack Klei Entertainment comes out with.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft Review
Better late than never they say!
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft never stood a chance. Or so I though because my natural instinct was to side with the one trading card game (TCG) I’ve known for years. But the more I heard of this game, the more I wanted to play. Days later, I downloaded my free copy.
I quickly learned that Hearthstone is the most natural free-to-play games out there, and not to spoil the end of this review, but I love it.
It is just absurd how fun this game is. Hearthstone’s presentation is very colorful, it gives the game that World of Warcraft look that some players can relate to, but it isn’t for everyone. The cute houses and the pretty waterfalls that decorate the perimeter of the battlefield (or board) can make Hearthstone look like a child’s book. Granted, this is done to achieve that WoW look and feel, but some gamers may avoid it like a plague.
If you look pass Hearthstone’s style, you begin to understand why the developers chose it instead Blizzard’s other games like StarCraft or Diablo. This is a friendly, approachable game that everyone can come into and have fun. The game doesn’t even take itself seriously. At one point, it will be making fun of its own shenanigans. It’s quite funny, actually.
When you first start the game, you’re dropped into a rather lengthy tutorial, but it feels nothing like one. The guys at Blizzard have done an amazing job at teaching you the rules of the game without holding your hand every step of the way.
By playing the tutorial you’ll begin to appreciate the simplicity of Hearthstone’s gameplay. The fast-paced commotion going on all over you as cards take effect gives you a thrilling, twitchy feeling that can’t be matched by other TCG video games. This game is fast, simple, but strategy is at its core, and you can certainly make a comeback with a few well-placed strategic moves.
Don’t judge the game based on the first few stages of the tutorial because after it, the playground is opened wide and the level of strategic planning can get quite deep. Once in a while, though, it will come down to the luck of the draw. Drawing that one card you needed to turn the table at the very last second can completely change the match.
Once the tutorial ends, Hearthstone’s game modes open up. They are shallow, but since it’s a trading card game, I won’t hold it against it. Play mode has you duel with another person online on either ranked or unranked matches that earn you levels, in-game currency and sometimes you also get new card packs. Practice mode is basically your single player experience where you can hone your skills, earn a few levels and new cards along the way. Duel mode is the mode where you can challenge your friends within BattleNet.
Then there is Arena, Arena is Hearthstone’s very unique risk/reward mode where you have to pay with in-game money or real money in order to participate. The mode has you construct a deck from a random pile of cards and play with that deck for a series of duels. If you successfully accomplish this feat, you’ll earn gold, Arcane Dust, special cards, and golden heroes.
Arena showcases one of Hearthstone’s great uses of the free-to-play model. You can play Practice mode and Play mode for free as many times as you want, but you can buy new card packs and other items with in-game currency or real-world money. This is a smart and natural way to tackle the Free-to-Play model because in the real world, you would also buy extra card packs, decks, and so on. The only concern is that they keep things balanced between the new cards and your standard starting deck.
Hearthstone: Heroes of Warcraft is a solid TCG that triumphs over the competition by offering a fun, fast, simple, and progressively intricate experience. While there is not much to buy on the game’s store at this moment, Blizzard will most certainly support the game for years to come, giving us a vast variety of goodies. At the end of the day, Hearthstone will give you an endless fix to your TCG cravings.
The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth Review
The highly anticipated DLC for The Binding of Isaac Rebirth was released on October 30th which is appropriate since Halloween follows the next day. The overall expansion adds even more items, room layouts, bosses, and modes. This will be a relatively short review and I shall point out the major aspects of the DLC.
One of the major additions provided with the DLC are the items. Whether passive or active, the items add even more combinations and synergies that give a multitude of results. Some may benefit you while others may be your downfall, this definitely provokes more thought before picking up that new item. In regards to the items individually, there are a few that I can honestly do without. However, this all comes down to preference as each person will differ based on their gameplay style.
Another major addition provided with the DLC is Greed Mode. Prior to the DLC, we were only provided two modes which are Normal and Hard Mode. The player must clear 10 floors in order to reach mega greed which is a new boss introduced with Afterbirth. The player is presented with a normal room, treasure room, shop room, curse room, and a devil room (if you complete the entire floor) with each level until they reach the boss. After clearing one round, the player can immediately go to the next level if he or she chooses too. However, It is heavily encouraged to clear the floor entirely before moving onto the next floor to gain more powers and items. The level design of Greed Mode definitely strays away from Normal and Hard Mode. The player has more control in regards to the items they can gain and the number of monsters he or she takes on. Overall, the addition of Greed Mode provides new gameplay and an over experience in the event players get bored with Normal and Hard Mode.
The last major addition provided with the DLC is Lilith. Lilith is a new character where her power lies in her familiar. Since Lilith is blind, she relies on her familiar to attach in her place. Lilith also comes with her default item entitled “Box of Friends” which allows her to double the amount of familiars she currently has in her party so the more familiars she gains, the more powerful she becomes. Overall, the addition of Lilith provides more value to those who love to use familiars for their gameplay.
The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth is an overall great expansion pack that provide hours of gameplay with new content. Those who enjoyed The Binding of Isaac Rebirth will enjoy The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth by default. All that’s left is to look forward to the new expansion pack.
A new version of The Binding of Isaac Afterbirth will for Xbox One and PlayStation 4 will be released on May 10th.
Final Fantasy X HD Remaster – 70 Hours In
One month ago I did a retrospective on Final Fantasy X, one of my favorite games of all time. I felt that with the re-release of such an iconic game that it deserved attention and I, like many other fans of the game, could not wait to get my hands on this version and revisit the world of Spira that had taken so much of time over 10 years ago. Since then I have played the game a lot and shunned many other responsibilities and duties (have you noticed I haven’t been writing anything since then?). As of this moment I am at the 70+ hour mark in the game and am in the process of going through the checklist of completing every single side quest in the game, something that I accomplished on the PS2 version previously. Now that I have spent so much time with the game in its remastered HD form I feel that it is a good time to check back in, especially for those who have played FFX in the past are have decided that it would be silly to purchase a game that they have already played, mastered, and completed.
First, the obvious parts. Every reviewer of this game has talked up the same enhancements that Square Enix promoted: updated graphics, sound, and for those in North America, a different international version versus what we received. There then came the brief descriptions of what these improvements mean along with some nostalgic comment about Final Fantasy and why can’t the new games be as good as this. Okay, enough of that, now what is the game like after a significant time investment?
The music is amazing. Now I know, it’s the same music as the previous, so what is the difference. Well first the music has been rearranged and remastered and the difference is significant. One of the first things I noticed was how sharp the violin sections were, as if the producers really wanted to point out that aspect of the theme and have it stand out over the rest of the melody. Though many may think this is just a small detail, it truly builds on the presentation of the game and its settings. Having the right audio track with visual mediums adds to the overall experience, making it more memorable and assists in creating the tone that the director is attempting to create with each scene. I give high marks to musical arrangement of the game and put it right up there with any current game release.
Unfortunately, one issue I have found with the music is that the mixing between the audio dialogue and background music is now not balanced well. There have been numerous instances in the game where I was straining to hear what the character was saying, often at important plot points in the story. For a game whose story is the most important part of the experience, the mixing has done it a disservice. Yes the music is good, but I shouldn’t have to try and block it out mentally in an attempt to listen to what the characters are saying.
Final Fantasy Anthology suffered from long disc loading times, creating a disruptive gaming experience.
When Square first decided to remake their games for next generation consoles their first attempt was a release called Final Fantasy Anthology here in North America way back in 1999. It was a port of FFV and FFVI with additional cut scenes for the PS1 and it was plagued by an issue that made the game unplayable for me, disc loading times. For me to truly convey to you how frustrating the game was, FFVI is probably my all time favorite Final Fantasy title (#retrogaming), and the disc loading times caused me to never make it past the one hour point in gameplay. I just could not do it.
FFX suffers from some noticeable loading times but luckily nowhere near the afore mentioned Anthology title. There are times though where there can be a wait upwards of ten seconds for something to load, an issue that game developers have learned to disguise with transition scenes or other tactics to take your mind off the loading time, unfortunately this game does not have it. Does it ruin the experience, no. But for those who played the original you will notice it and wonder what is taking so long.
Now the gameplay. Here is where I have begun to really notice the difference between my original experience and I’m wondering if it has to do with the updated international version or am I just not as a good of a gamer as I once was.
This game is harder, and I don’t know why. I never remember having my party wiped out as often as I do in this game. I have found myself needing to grind for experience points or getting specific armor and weapons for areas that I remember being able to just power through with sheer force. I think part of this comes from the difference in the sphere grids. I am using the expert grid as opposed to the original sphere grid setup that was the only option we had in North America and it has changed my character development immensely. This is all a good thing, I often felt that FFX was a little on the easy side and didn’t give you any real challenge, but that has changed.
Developing your characters on the expert sphere grid is now an involved process where the sphere grid presents you with several options of where you can take their development. If you had not played the original, you wouldn’t know that Auron’s standard skills are the “break” attacks because there is an option almost immediately in the sphere grid to move onto the grids of Tidus or Wakka. This ability to customize your character and easily move between the standard grids of characters really presents something new to the game and I enjoy it. For those who do not have the knowledge of the abilities though it can be perilous, some of the abilities are vital in progressing through the game and a wrong move down the grid can set you up at a great disadvantage against normal enemy encounters, but again I like the challenge.
There are two other points of the game that I wish to address and this is specifically for those who have already played the game before and are working on the final side quests, so….
*semi-not plot related-spoiler alert*
Dark Shiva has 1.1 million HP. Hope you are ready.
The Dark Aeons are new to us in North America and I remember reading about them 10+ years ago and wishing that we got them on our version. Now that I have run into a few of them I am glad that I wasn’t put through the initial frustration. My first experience with one was in Besaid, I was going to get the Jecht sphere there by the temple and ran into Dark Valefor at the entrance to the town. I thought to myself, cool, I haven’t fought one of these before so let’s see how I do. I never hit him. He hit my party 3 times, each for 99,999hp. Thank god I had saved at the save sphere up the road.
I don’t really know at this point how I’m going to go about dealing with the Dark Aeons other than super grind to get to the level I’ll need to be at. I knew they were supposed to be strong but doing the max hp damage possible on a single hit is a little ridiculous. I’ve run into Dark Ixion, Dark Bahamut, and the Dark Magus Sisters as well and have either been able to run away or suffered a tremendous beating. I’m going to beat them someday, but it is not anytime soon.
“Hey Chocobo, I hate you.”
The other thing I’ve experienced that is new is the sheer difficulty of attaining the Celestial Weapons of Tidus and Lulu. On the PS2 version I got every weapon. On this version I don’t think it will be happening. Beating the chocobo race to get the sigil for Tidus has always been a combination of luck and skill, more so luck in my opinion and I’m close but I just don’t have as much free time as I did when I was a college student who never did homework. As for dodging lightning for Lulu, I can’t do it. I don’t recollect it being too difficult on the PS2 version. Yes it took me a while and I’m sure I would get up to like 180 dodges and then mess up, but this new version is impossible for me. I can’t get back a streak of 2. I don’t even know if 2 in a row is considered a streak but regardless of that I can’t do it. I don’t know what is different but something is. Maybe it’s my controller, maybe it’s my reaction time diminishing, maybe I am just too old to be mashing an X button, whatever it is I can’t do it. I would love to hear experiences from others regarding the lightning dodging.
Anyways, I’m 70 hours into the game and it has been fun. An enjoyable time spent playing a game that truly evolved what we think of as a modern RPG. Yes there are a few little issues with the game but there always will be. I still stick with my original statement that those who have played FFX in the past should pick this up, and for those new to Final Fantasy, this deserves to be on your shelf. For those wondering about FFX-2, sorry but I just don’t really care for that game and I have decided that I will be putting my time elsewhere. I haven’t even finished Lightning Returns yet and that holds a much higher priority than seeing Yuna be a pop star. This is my story.
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Tag: English countryside
People Watching in Purple
21st July 2019 23rd July 2019 Mary Tebje
Not just for old ladies, these fields of Chilterns lavender will delight almost everyone.
This, the northernmost town in the Chilterns, is probably the least well known of our market towns. In existence since at least the eighth century, Hitchin is one of the oldest towns in the county of Hertfordshire. Much sought after as a cure-all for anything from the plague to migraines, cultivation and production of lavender put Hitchin on the map. Successfully exploiting the crop since the 15th century, sadly only one business, Cadwell farm is still producing and selling lavender products.
The scene reminded me of tea pickers on the plantations in Sri Lanka.
The farm is open from June to October, peak season is July, when the 30 acres are in full bloom. Busy by the time I arrived, there is plenty of space to spread out and enjoy the spectacle. And what a spectacle it was! You have to tune your ear into the drone of countless bees working around your legs, otherwise drowned out by the giggles and squeals of delight.
A quintessential English experience
Some had barely got out of their cars and were already taking pictures. Once we had negotiated the oncoming cars and traffic cones to secure a brown paper bag and scissors to cut and curate our flowers, we could enjoy an English seasonal experience.
I wandered slowly up an empty aisle, keeping an eye out for the millions of painted lady butterflies that are supposed to be heading our way this summer. I spotted one. Perhaps this was the straggler and they had all been and gone? I disturbed three birds that shot out from the undergrowth, but apart from the bees, there was precious little wildlife or incidental wildflowers. It was all perfect and planned.
There was a wedding party, couples, pensioners, families with small children whooping their way up the slope, posing ladies in straw hats and white dresses, a coach-load of sunhat-wearing tourists equipped with enormous lenses, a sea of expansive selfie sticks and a fascinating array of selfie poses. I think many had done this before.
My friends are going to love this picture.
The aim is to walk up the slope, proclaim loudly your deftness at hill walking, before laying out your picnic and then returning, satisfied to your car. There are plenty of places where you can part with your money to buy lavender-themed or infused goodies, plus a small museum with interesting, if underwhelming displays about the farm and former industry.
It’s a fun thing to do, everyone in a holiday mood, enjoying themselves and no doubt Instagram will be awash with the days’ adventures. I wonder though, how many knew they were in the Chilterns?
It has to be perfect
Just as the production of watercress in the Chess Valley has been decimated, with only one producer remaining, Cadwell farm is keeping a Chilterns tradition alive by welcoming visitors to wander the 30 acres to pick flowers and take endless selfies.
Low-tech, quirky museums, often in intriguing buildings with windy stairs, dusty and dated interiors, are to be treasured. We have our fair share here in the Chilterns; most under the radar, unless you live on the same street, that is where they will probably remain. ‘One Master, Three Books & 300 Boys’ tells the understated story of English education in the British Schools museum in Hitchin.
For further Chilterns adventures and excitement, head over to VisitChilterns.co.uk
Common knapweed, ladies bedstraw and cornflowers border the lavender.
Posted in Chiltern Hills, sense of place, The Chilterns, Travel and Tourism, Travel blogging, Visit EnglandTagged A Year in the Chilterns, Cadwell Farm, Chilterns AONB, Chilterns countryside, chilterns market town, chilterns walks, cultivated flowers, england, English country garrden, English countryside, English heritage, english history, Explore England, Heritage crop, hertfordshire, Hitchin, Hitchin lavender, Hitchin market town, landscape, landscape design, landscape photography, natural, nature, pick your own, PYO, Rural, slow travel, The Chilterns, Travel, travel guide, travel photography, travel to england, travel to the chilterns, visit chilterns, wildflower
A Social Experiment
17th June 2019 25th June 2019 Mary Tebje
It was from a tweet shared by the Jordans Village Estate from HM Queen congratulating them on their centenary 1919 – 2019, that I knew I just had to visit.
There’s something about the Chilterns that over the centuries, attracted both political dissenters and religious non-conformers who met and worshiped in secret. Amongst the beech trees and woodland many would go on to make their mark on the nations history. This post is a celebration of the Chalfont Quakers, a community celebrating its centenary, but with a history going back to the early 17th century.
So English, so Chilterns!
You won’t come upon Jordans village, you have to set out to find it. Tucked away down higgledy-piggledy lanes east of the busy market town of Beaconsfield, Jordans village is everything its neighbour is not: compact, unexpected and peaceful, with neat cottages and terraces nestled around the village green. So English, so Chilterns!
This unassuming village is unique, with deep local roots and influence that still reaches far-off places. It owes this accolade to its Society of Friends Meeting House, one of the oldest in the country.
‘Jordans is the Quaker Westminster Abbey’.
Simon Jenkins author “England ’s Thousand Best Churches”
American connections
From the mid 17th century, Chalfont Quakers had been meeting in the woods and up the road in the nearby Jordans Farm, whose owner William Russell was himself a Quaker. Known today as Old Jordans, this collection of buildings is said to have been constructed with some of the beams and a cabin door of the Mayflower, the ship that took the Pilgrim Fathers to the shores of the future colony of Virginia in 1620. Old Jordans was also used during World War I as a training centre for the Friends’ Ambulance Unit and sold by the Quakers In 2006.
William Russel, (whose daughter was the first to be buried here), bought a piece of land in a clearing beside the Beaconsfield Road in 1671 because the Chalfont Quaker’s needed a burial site. Jordans Friends Meeting House was built in just three months by local craftsmen in 1688. This was shortly after the King James ll Declaration of Indulgence that allowed Quaker and other non-conformist groups to worship lawfully for the first time.
Looking today as it did then, this elegant Grade I listed William and Mary wisteria-clad redbrick house, would not have been an unfamiliar style across the American colonies.
It is also the burial place of William Penn (1645 – 1718), founder and first governor of Pennsylvania. His first wife Guilielma, his second wife Hannah, and nine of his children are buried close by. Other early Quakers who worshipped here and are buried in the grounds include Isaac Penington and his wife Mary Springett, Thomas Ellwood (poet and friend of John Bunyan and John Milton) and Joseph Rule. Despite William Penn leaving his name to a new American state that he wanted to call ‘Sylvania’, it was Charles II who ordered that the family name Penn (in honour of William’s late father) be added.
Important people. Simple headstones.
Beside his grave, pebbles are left by visitors from North America, two of whom had to be stopped from attempting to exhume his remains as they wished them to be reinterred in the state capital!
Nina introduces the group to the Meeting House story
The simple bare-walled meeting room retains most of its original uneven locally-fired bare brick floor, glass, dark wood panelling and some well-worn benches. It suffered a serious fire in 2005, when the modern extension was virtually destroyed and the roof of the original 17th-century meeting room severely damaged. The interior of the original meeting room escaped relatively unscathed, but suffered some water and smoke damage. A lucky escape! The viscous glass is removed and turned upside down each year, to retain an even thickness.
‘Some of the things that they would do included; not going to church, refusing to swear an oath, refusal to pay church rates, opening their shops on Sundays, travelling on Sundays and teaching without a Bishop’s license… the 1960’s had nothing on them!’
Mary Bellamy
Those attending the Meeting are listening to one another and to ‘the still small voice’ within. Anyone present may feel moved to speak from their own spiritual experience.
A mini henge
The burial ground reflects the Meeting House seating, where there is no formal service and people sit quietly and wait for inspiration and guidance, and from those gathered “heeding the love and truth in the heart”. 400 quakers are buried here, but few have headstones – they were deemed too flashy and worldly.
Arranged to reflect the meeting house seating, the headstones remind me of henge.
In 1916 a group of Quaker’s met in London to establish a community partnership and three years later, the first stone was laid. This social and industrial experiment, where land was owned communally and craftsmen’s work to be sold cooperatively, grew around the village green, with Fred Rowntree the architect. The homes are uniform in style, not grand or fussy with the village shop open since 1922. Whilst there is no permanent pub, a pop-up pub called the Jolly Quaker quenches the locals’ thirst.
The accommodation waiting list is long, and the village has seen its share of famous residents; King Zog of Albania who, with his legendary chests of gold, (he lived at St Katherine’s Parmoor during the World War II). With author Fredrick Forsyth and musicians Ozzie and Sharon Osborne goes to show you don’t need to be a Quaker to live here!
Waiting for the children to come out from school
This is a typical Chilterns story set in a place you’ve probably never heard of, about people and events you will most certainly have heard of, shaping and influencing events across the nation and across the pond!
Further Information & Inspiration
This walk was organised as part of the twice-yearly Chilterns Walking Festival that includes a spring and autumn programme of fabulous walks that take you to the places other walks just don’t reach.
Jordans Village and information on the community.
Jordans Quaker Meeting House and Centre offers Quaker meeting for worship every Sunday morning at 10.30, with a simultaneous children’s meeting – to which all are welcome.
Stay at the nearby Jordans self-catering YHA or stay with Norma and John, wonderful hosts at their comfortable guesthouse Sprindrift
Whilst in the area, explore the Chilterns in miniature at Bekonscott Model Village.
The Penn families are well connected with the Chilterns. Read more about what else they were up to.
Posted in Chiltern Hills, sense of place, The Chilterns, Travel and Tourism, Travel blogging, Visit EnglandTagged A Year in the Chilterns, American connections, Chalfont quakers, Chiltern Hills, chilterns, Chilterns AONB, chilterns cycling, Chilterns history, chilterns village, chilterns walks, church heritage, england, English country garrden, English countryside, English heritage, English village, Jordans, Jordans Meeting House, Jordans Quakers, Jordans Village, non-conformists, Pennsylvania, Pilgrim Fathers, slow travel, The Chilterns, the Mayflower, Travel, Travel blogging, travel guide, travel in England, travel photography, travel to england, travel to the chilterns, William Penn
25th May 2019 27th May 2019 Mary Tebje
I have written throughout this blog of the joy of discovering new places, weird place names, coming upon a vista opening up through the foliage, unexpected flavours and meeting new people happy to share their stories. In equal measure, the joy of of discovering yet more links that join together and add layers to the wonderful tapestry that is the story of A Year in the Chilterns.
Meeting the Makers
Towards Stoke Row
Goblins Glen, Deadman’s Lane, Rotmoor Shaw and Drunken Bottom are some of the place names that surround beautiful Nuffield, a small South Oxfordshire village, just over 4 miles east of the picturesque market town of Wallingford. A place rich in character and Chilterns history where we were to ‘Meet the Makers’ during the fifth Chilterns Walking Festival. We set off from Holy Trinity Church Nuffield on a circular walk to visit two business owners; master blacksmith David Gregory and cabinet maker Gordon Kent. Our guide once again, my good friend Annette, who had by good fortune, spent many happy years living nearby, with a field of sheep and shepherds hut in which to play.
Striking beech, a symbol of the Chilterns
The weather couldn’t have been better: jackets discarded, the coolness of a late spring that will soon give way to summer heat, but for the moment, the landscape is lush, full and fresh. The bluebells have left the stage, their place taken by path-hugging cow parsley, nettles, beech and oak boughs laden, blocking out the sunlight, keeping the path cool. In places, crunchy underfoot with last years beechnuts that the squirrels had overlooked. The smell of wild garlic absent from this woodland, but the bird song more than makes up for it. We cross a section of a Grims Ditch, impressive saw pits, evidence of earlier activity from those who harvested the wood to make furniture, amongst other items.
Shaken, not stirred
What Annette doesn’t know about this special place, frankly isn’t worth knowing; details of who owns what, who makes the best cheese, the friendliest pubs and why it’s important to have the services of four-wheel drive in winter. Annette spoke about the 2,300 acre Nettlebed Estate, consisting of woodland, farmland and common land stretching between Nuffield and Greys Court to the south. The Estate is owned and managed by descendents of Robert Fleming, a Scottish banker who bought the Estate in 1903. Fleming’s grandson was the renowned travel writer Peter Fleming whose younger brother was the celebrated spy novelist Ian Fleming, author of the James Bond books as well as the children’s classic, Chitty Chitty Bang Bang – with another Chilterns connection at Turville in the Hambleden Valley.
The family still manage the Estate, the rich milk from their organic herd used for the delicious Nettlebed Creamery cheeses that we sampled en route. Something Annette does well; sharing all manner of locally brewed, baked or bottled treats to sustain the walkers!
Fields of Gold: the view from Heycroft Shaw
The pasture around English Farm is ablaze with buttercups, which always makes a pretty picture. There is not much plant variation however, so butterflies in these fields were limited.
There has been pasture and farming at English Farm since the 12th century, and the longhorn cattle graze the organic pasture.
Prior to the industrial revolution, a village smithy was a staple of every town. Now, a rarity, a visit is a treat! “A problem is never too great that can’t be beaten out with a hammer” claims David Gregory, master blacksmith at Cobalt Blacksmiths at English Farm.
English Farm, Nuffield
“Blacksmiths are good problem solvers” he adds, “as we have the right tools.” David, Billy and Tom are working on amongst other commissions, a new stair rail for the Ashmolean museum, and a set of new gates for the Waddesdon Estate Treasury, a portal into what must undoubtably be a treasure trove.
The anvil chorus
David talks with great passion about the organic nature of his craft, of the fluidity of the metal, the skill needed to work with the materials to shape it as the commissions require; tools, weapons, decorative and functional pieces that I imagine will enhance the place they will be used. That’s the magic of this ancient craft, transforming nondescript organic materials into things of beauty.
The Master David, and his apprentices Billy and Tom.
Resin and vinegar
We continued our walk through the spring countryside to meet with Gordon Kent and his team of expert cabinet makers at tucked-away Homer Farm. Furniture-making is a Chilterns tradition with the popular Windsor chairs exported all over the world and Gordon Kent continues to make beautiful furniture. Just as David and his team, Gordon’s team read their materials, they speak with such knowledge and a passion borne of years of hard work and synergy with their craft. Resins, steel wool and vinegar combine to make a fine wood stainer for the beautiful pieces crafted in ‘catspaw’ oak, walnut, cherry, maple and ash in their workshop. Their attention to detail evident in the pieces they showed us in the workshop.
Ben, Gordon and Nick.
We giggled about the naked walkers they see passing through the farm in the winter months, to avoid contact with the stringing nettles I imagine!
The greatest pleasures are so often the re-discovery and interaction with what and who is around us. We had ventured out to make connections, meet new friends, enjoy new flavours and are thankful for where we live and how it makes us feel. Helped in large doses by the tea and delicious scones baked by Gordon’t mum. Thank you very much, we’ll be back!
Goblins Glen, Deadman’s Lane, Rotmoor Shaw, Drunken Bottom, Homer Green and English Farm – new place names in my Chilterns lexicon.
The Chilterns Walking Festival takes place in the spring and autumn at locations across the Chilterns. Find your walk here.
The Meet the Makers’ walks have one purpose; to share the experience of visiting some of our skilled craftspeople, who work in studios and locations that are often inaccessible to visitors, yet are keen to establish links to help us promote the Arts and Crafts produced in our region.
Getting to Jane’s studio meant being rained on by beechnuts as we set off from nearby Christmas Common to walk through the quiet autumnal beech woodland. Once full of the smell of charcoal burners, the sounds of wood cutters, the sight of wartime tent peg-makers and wood gathers from surrounding hamlets picking only what had fallen to the ground. Read about an earlier ‘Meet the Makers’ festival walk.
Lord Nuffield was buried at Holy Trinity Parish Church in the village, a plain, modest grave, much like the great name himself. Read his story here.
If you were asked to name the places that Ian Fleming is most closely associated, you might put Goldeneye, Fleming’s home in Jamaica where he wrote all the Bond books, on the top of your list. You might include his post-war office at Mitre Court, or you might include Nettlebed, neighbour to Nuffield. Take a tour around Ian Fleming’s Oxfordshire
Described on TripAdvisor as ‘fresh as paint’ I was interested to see the nearby restored Maharajah’s Well in Stoke Row and discover why a 19th century Maharajah felt compelled to make such an extraordinary gesture to ensure a free, clean water supply to a small Chilterns community.
Posted in Chiltern Hills, sense of place, The Chilterns, Travel and Tourism, Travel bloggingTagged 007, A Year in the Chilterns, blacksmiths, cabinet makers, Chiltern Hills, Chilterns AONB, Chilterns Conservation Board, Chilterns Walking Festival, Cobalt Blacksmiths, Countryside, countrywalk, English countryside, English heritage, english history, Fields of gold, Gordon Kent Furniture, Ian Fleming, James Bond, landscape photography, Literary connections, Seaons, Spring, The Chilterns, thechilterns, Travel, travel and leisure, Travel and Tourism, travel photography, travel to england, travel to the chilterns, Waddesdon, Walking Festival
A is for Amersham
All around are signs of past lives; graves in the shape of wool sacks, an 18th water pump (although ale was preferable), window openings at unhelpful heights and a red lion above a lintel where a pub used to be.
16th April 2019 5th May 2019 Mary Tebje
Amersham is a modern Chilterns market town once again under pressure from the onward march of progress and development.
Renowned for its Christian martyrs burned for their beliefs, successful black lace industry and perhaps on a more frivolous note, a perfumery, this is a town of two halves: the modern town on the hill and its medieval twin in the valley below.
The Misbourne Valley in the central Chilterns is a delight. Dotted with woodlands, pretty villages and market towns, this once quiet corner of the Roman Empire is now a busy Metroland corridor, linking London highways with Chilterns byways. A mere 25 minutes from London on the Met line, Amersham offers train-to-trail countryside escapes, and space to breath.
Served by the Metropolitan Railway, Metroland was the name given to the suburban areas that were built to the north-west of London.
Once the centre for black lace production, 16th century craftswomen specialised in fine silk veils and wide flounces of black lace that were used to decorate white dresses. In fact the industry continued late into the 19th century because almost everyone, from kings to babies at one time, wore lace on their clothing! Another industry synonymous with the town was the Goya perfume factory, that supplied large qualities of fragrances and perfumes to women after the Second World War. I wonder what the town smelt like?
“In the shallow of depression at a spot 100 yards left of this monument, seven Protestants were burned to death at the stake. They died for principles of religious liberty and for the right to worship God according to their consciences.”
The Amersham Martyrs were called Lollards, who demanded to read the bible in English.
In the face of protest
There are two parts to this pretty town; medieval Amersham with its unusually spacious high street, and the new town and railway station. This came about because the town fathers didn’t want a railway mucking up their medieval streets in the 1890’s, and insisted it be routed 20 minutes away up the hill. And now, 130 years later, the town is once again facing pressure and change from another huge railway project; this time from HS2, that will thunder right through this peaceful valley, changing it in ways we don’t yet know. I have written about it in another article called Evolving Landscapes.
Little Missenden
On the poor side of the street
Go with a guide! You simply turn up at the museum to join a tour at 2.30pm on a Sunday. As I waited, numbers grew to include a couple from London on a weekend break, the leader of the Amersham Band and a couple who were mysteriously ‘just passing through’. My companions on this town tour with Euan, volunteer guide and purveyor of intriguing Amersham insights and stories.
Dear HS2…
We began our tour in the museum garden, filled with herbs and plants our medieval ancestors would be familiar with, to help them get through life without a GP, or symptoms to Google. Being on the poor side of the high street, this garden would have been considered small. The houses to the other side of the high street in comparison, still have substantial plots. This garden is bordered on one side by typical knapped Chilterns flint and brick almshouses, and a discreet long-drop privy overhanging the river Misbourne.
The view from the museum garden
The museum itself is situated within a 15th century structure that has over the centuries, undergone many changes. It charts the towns story through the voices of past residents who lived and worked in the many industries and local trades, the great and the not-so, including those mentioned above. Thanks to a substantial restoration project, the beautiful medieval and Tudor floors and wobbly beams (made from green oak) are revealed. If I’d have had more time, I’d be trying on all those Tudor dresses!
A missing stream
A typical Chilterns chalk stream, the Misbourne (missing stream), meanders through the centre of town, behind houses, through a meadow and under a lot of bridges. The current low water level attests to the temperament of this stream, following as it does, the variations in the annual rainfall. It is still known to flood however, with memories fresh after the last sandbag event, despite the river being confined to a narrow channel.
The River Misbourne flows gently through the town
You may be familiar with the Kings Arms hotel, a former posting inn, made famous by the 1994 British romantic comedy ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’. It served as the place to change horses on the London to Oxford route, and perhaps give the weary travellers some respite after 25 bumpy miles from London, with quite possibly another 30 miles onwards to Oxford to endure. It looks quaint and olde-worlde, but the majority of the facade is in fact ‘Brewery Tudor’ added by the local brewery about 100 years ago to cover up an unsightly earlier facade. It seems there was a lot of this about with false frontages been added by successive owners to modernise their old fashioned structures. So common was the practice it’s difficult to know where medieval stops and Georgian begins.
Brewery Tudor
It is the equivalent today of stripping out the kitchen to make way for ‘open plan’ living.
There are several notable examples of grand houses built with a former industry in mind, but now repurposed for other lives. Many of them have tell-tale features and locations, and the guess-work is fun.
The houses of the most important people in town: the coopers house, and to the right, the brewery managers house.
The Market Hall, a Grade II listed building that was built in 1682 by Sir William Drake as a gift for the town, is not hard to miss. Commanding the most prominent spot on the high street, it was intended for the upper floor to be used for meetings for traders’ guilds, and the ground floor as a market and lock-up for miscreants.
The coldest room in the coldest corner of the market awaited those who fell foul of the law.
All around are signs of past lives; graves in the shape of wool sacks, despite this never being a wool town, St Mary’s resplendent in excavated flints from the new railway, an 18th water pump (although ale was preferable), window openings at varying unhelpful heights in the building that was the water mill, a red lion above a lintel, where a pub used to be, the maltings, a stable for the brewery dray horses and a parapet blocking out light to the servants’ rooms following some fashionable structural updates.
Wool sacks as gravestones in the local church
There is great hope in Amersham for facing down disruption and continued changes to their way of life. A thoroughly modern town doing things their way, which bodes well for residents and businesses to thrive and continue to be an example of how towns adapt, yet still retain their historical roots and proud Chilterns heritage.
Through the back gate and over the Misbourne
This article doesn’t do the town justice; visit and enjoy the independent shops, restaurants and pubs along the high street with not a chain store in sight. But do start with a browse around the exhibits at the wonderful Amersham Museum, join a town or martyrs walking tour available on Sunday afternoons from April to September.
Amersham has a number of Alms Houses that add to the great variety across the Chilterns. Not least of all the Drake Houses on the high street, originally built to house six local widows.
You will find the martyrs memorial either along a footpath leading from St. Mary’s Church, or from an overgrown footpath from Station Road.
You can explore the Misbourne Valley and the village of Little Missenden.
Discover more about Amersham, the surrounding countryside and other Chilterns market towns, take a look at VisitChilterns.co.uk
Posted in Chiltern Hills, sense of place, The Chilterns, Travel and Tourism, Travel bloggingTagged almshouses, amersham, Amersham martyrs, amersham musuem, Amersham society, chalk stream, Chiltern Hills, chilterns, chilterns cycling, Chilterns history, chilterns walks, English countryside, english history, heritage, high street, HS2, industrial heritage, London, market town, medieval tiles, Met line, metropolitan railway, Rural, rural tourism, slow travel, the lollards, Travel, Travel and Tourism, travel guide, travel in England, travel photography, travel to england, travel to the chilterns, Tube, Weller brewery
The castle that time forgot
1st March 2019 1st March 2019 Mary Tebje
Seen mostly from Chilterns commuter trains, I expect Berkhamsted castle is one of those landmarks that is no longer noticed. It has disappeared into the landscape.
My straw pole revealed a distant lack of awareness when asked when was the last time they visited Berkhamsted castle?
“Not for ages”
“Is that the one near the station..?”
“I can’t remember”
Winter shadows
Situated alongside the Grand Union Canal and railway in the busy market town of Berkhamsted in the northern Chilterns, the castle and its features seem only to remerge from the surrounding landscape if you look long and hard. The mound is covered in pretty flowers, harmless lumps and landscape bumps, the scene so benign. In spite of much now lost, damaged or repurposed, you can make out the elevated motte and keep, and if the badgers haven’t ripped up the turf looking for juicy earthworms, you could imagine the many wooden buildings inside a protective curtain of outer wall, or bailey, offering protection to the occupants. Earthworks and a moat surround the site including an extensive embankment upon which the West Midlands railway London to Birmingham service thunders, this place a microcosm of English history;
Anglo-Saxon backwater
Norman Invasion
Royal entitlement
Royal prison
Near destruction
Declared ancient monument
Forlorn visitor attraction
Ring of Steel
William the Conqueror received the submission of the English at Berkhamsted Castle after the Battle of Hastings in 1066 and it was his half-brother, Robert of Mortain, who built a timber castle here around 1070. Built in the classic Norman motte-and-bailey style, with defensive conical mound and oval bailey below, the castle formed part of the Conquerors ‘ring of steel’ around the capital (along with Wallingford and Windsor Castles to the west, and the White Tower to the east), controlling trading routes and successfully subjugating the locals.
The Motte and Bailey
The castle saw action in the Middle Ages, invasion by the French, civil war and in more settled times, the site of a royal residence. But the castle slid in a slow decline of unsuitability for royal use, and by default became unfashionable. Stone was taken from the castle and reused to build many houses and buildings in the nearby town.
The fortunes of Berkhamsted are closely linked to its castle; whose fortunes waxed and waned, and when it waned and fell into disuse in the 15th century, the town had to find a new way to survive this change in its fortunes, but they had to bide their time until the arrival of the inland waterways and railway in the 19th century.
The original Berkhampstead (sic) railway station as seen in 1838
Now a scheduled ancient monument, protected by law, the castle had a lucky escape. Victorian railway designers sought to build the London to Birmingham Railway directly through the site but was saved by local opposition. The Act of Parliament that authorised the construction of the railway also protected the castle, making it the first such property to be protected by law. We have not always been so proactive in protecting our heritage however, as landowners believed they had the absolute right to destroy their properties, and the notion the state could stop someone doing whatever they wanted to their own property was seen as ridiculous at the time. That Britain’s heritage was worth preserving was a belief held by weirdos, but thankfully for us, after witnessing decades of mindless destruction MP’s and heritage pioneers became determined to act.
I can’t help thinking of the new HS2 rail infrastructure project that will tear its way through ancient woodland and Chilterns countryside in the near future.
Irritating Tourists!
Incredible to even consider now the destruction of our heritage in the name of progress, or in the case of spite, from the infamous Reverend Francis Gastrell, owner of New Place, William Shakespeare’s final home in Stratford-upon-Avon. He bought the house in 1753 but “quickly got irritated with tourists wanting to see it”, says architectural historian Gavin Stamp. Gastrell was already in the town’s bad books after chopping down a mulberry tree planted by Shakespeare. But he hadn’t finished there: in an extraordinary fit of spite, he demolished the house in 1759. It was never rebuilt and only the foundations remain. Suffice to say he was kicked out of town!
Arial view of the site taken in the 1940’s. Image supplied by Britain from Above archive.
Rediscovering our Chilterns castles
Seen mostly from the commuter trains, I expect this castle is one of those landmarks that is no longer noticed. I think we need to rediscover our Chilterns’s castles, visit them, watch as they reflect the changing seasons; through the windows of your train or car. Take a picnic, take your family, take your dog and enjoy the space and possibilities on offer.
Reflections in the moat
The site is managed by English Heritage and is free to explore. For further information
To explore other Chilterns castles, including Someries in Luton, take a look at these pages. Suggestions needed for additional material here too.
Why should you visit the quintessential, uncrowded, rolling green English countryside of the Chilterns, with its impressive selection of pubs and restaurants? That question may well have all the answers you need. Find your Chilterns here
How a wild boy without a birth name, who was found in a German forest, was adopted by a English king and came to live in the #Chilterns, is an astonishing story.
The monastery and monks are long gone, buildings destroyed, treasures looted and the monks banished during the 16th century Dissolution of Monasteries on the orders of King Henry Vlll; read about the flourishing trade at nearby Ashridge.
Posted in Chiltern Hills, sense of place, The Chilterns, Travel and Tourism, Travel bloggingTagged Ancient monument, Berkhamsted, Berkhamsted castle, Bucks County museum, Castle, Chiltern castles, Chiltern Hills, Chilterns history, chilterns walks, Discover England, English countryside, English heritage, english history, Explore, Explore England, Grand Union Canal, hertfordshire, landscape, landscape photography, market town, National Trails, Rural, scheduled ancient monument, The Chilterns, Travel, Travel blogging, travel guide, travel in England, travel photography, visit britain, visit chilterns, Visit England, William the Conqueror
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Tag Archives: City of Stars
A LOVELY NIGHT IN THE SUN: LA LA LAND (2016) REVIEWED
January 27, 2017 Paul. Writer and Filmmaker 5 Comments
LA LA LAND (2016) FILM REVIEW
**SPOILER ALERT!**
In light of the FOURTEEN Oscar nominations from the Academy who am I to go against the tide of musical loveliness that is La La Land. Indeed, while I dislike all kinds of award ceremonies per se it does deserve most of the accolades coming its way. Because as the Trump puppet rears his huge, ugly head in the United States and Brexit looms large in the UK we all need something feel-good and nostalgic to lift us; especially amidst the bitter cold of winter.
Damian Chazelle, who wrote and directed the exceptional drama Whiplash (2014), has sculpted a sunny post-modern musical which soars throughout paying tribute to both Los Angeles and Hollywood. The movie stars Ryan Gosling as an uncompromising jazz pianist and Emma Stone as a sensitive, budding actress who meet in a contemporary yet somehow old-fashioned vision of LA; where magic and love are in the air and the potentialities of dreams are a palpable force.
Stone and Gosling are a stunning couple and while Chazelle’s leads may not have the strongest voices they serve the songs exceptionally well with an ordinary wonder. The chemistry between the two sparkles as the story entwines their characters within a “follow your dream” narrative. Arguably there could’ve been slightly more differences between the two than the “I hate jazz” tension; but as in the romantic comedy Crazy, Stupid, Love (2011), Stone and Gosling sail through the film with confidence and profound likeability.
Chazelle throws everything at the story employing jazz, 80s pop, old band numbers, R and B, and ballads. Moreover, all manner of parody, pastiche and cinematic devices are employed to echo the classic Hollywood musicals of yesteryear; the formidable work of Jacques Demy; plus the more modern pop promos of recent times. The opening Another Day of Sun traffic sequence is a real showstopper as Fame-like dancing and singing on motors in an LA highway jam brilliantly establishes the hyper-real and fantastical elements to come.
It seems obvious to say that the music in La La Land is to the fore, but Chazelle and the ultra-talented composer Justin Hurwitz commit a verve and soul to the songs and direction. Clearly the characters and lyrics reflect their own personal emotions, dreams and desire to escape everyday existence. While much of the film skims a stylish surface of colour and verve, numbers such as City of Stars and The Fools Who Dream really touch the heartstrings and draw out the internal emotions of the characters.
It’s hard to criticize such a funny, feel-good movie and as a musical it is probably a masterpiece, however, while the love story served the musical structure really well, I felt that, compared to say Funny Girl (1968), Grease (1977) and Half-A-Sixpence (1967) it arguably lacked a bit of dramatic tension. Indeed, the break-up itself was under-baked and latterly covered by a have-your-cake-and-eat-it “what could have been” fantasy flashback. Yet, this is a minor critique of an incredibly well realised escapist joy.
So, roll on the Oscars where the film will almost certainly win best film and direction, plus accolades, no doubt, for the musical and technical achievements. The wonderful Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone are certain to be in the fray too. However, while I have seen other more dramatically impactful films such as: Arrival (2016), Manchester by the Sea (2016) and Silence (2016) (not even nominated!!), this remains one terrific musical that will lift the spirits even on the darkest day.
artAwardsBlogcharactersCinemaCity of StarsDAMIAN CHEZELLEdirectorEMMA STONEescapeFANTASYFilmFilm ReviewFunnyFunny GirlHalf-a-SixpenceHollywoodhumourJazzjoyJustin HurwitzLa La LandlifeLos AngeleslovelyricsMovieMoviesmusicMusicalsOscarsPaul LaightpianopopreviewsRockryan goslingTVupliftingwonderful
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Tag: X-Men
X-Men: Dark Phoenix (2019) offers us the chance to dine on ashes while flipping us the bird.
To the surprise of literally nobody, rising with an entirely unmerited sense of entitlement from the ashes of “X-Men: Apocalypse”, writer/ director Simon Kinberg has only managed to conjure a turkey from the flames. In the 1990s, the X-Men are enjoying a golden age of public and governmental approval. The President even has a brand…
Does the success of #Venom and #Aquaman herald the beginning of the end for the Superhero movie boom?
With “Venom” grossing $855m worldwide and “Aquaman” taking over $1billion at the global box office, one thing is clear: the box office domination of the Superhero movie genre is coming to an end. How can this be you ask? When collectively the two most recent movies in the genre hovered up almost $2billion in ticket…
Deadpool 2 (2018) Review
Although I’m a little disappointed that they didn’t just stick with “Untitled Deadpool Sequel” as the official title, “Deadpool 2” brings the Merc with the mouth back, and he’s bolder than ever as he looks to avoid the pitfalls of the ‘difficult second album’. When Wade Wilson (Ryan Reynolds)’s cavalier attitude ends up costing him…
A Fox In The Mouse House
“You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!” That seems to sum up most people’s reaction to the status-quo-shattering acquisition of the entertainment assets of Twentieth Century Fox. It’s also, ironically, a quote which will become the property of the Walt Disney Corporation if the deal goes through. Both…
Much has been made of “Logan” being a hard-R superhero movie and it’s certainly in a hurry to prove its adult credentials, opening with a sequence which is almost custom designed to make a certain class of comic fans jizz their pants. There’s even an unnecessary shot of breasts within the first fifteen minutes. For…
Competition: Win The Limited Edition Steelbook Of Deadpool
Sold out limited edition Zavvi Exclusive Deadpool BluRay Steelbook! Sold out limited edition Zavvi Exclusive Deadpool BluRay Steelbook! Sold out limited edition Zavvi Exclusive Deadpool BluRay Steelbook! Hi, I’m The Craggus, Editor-In-Chief of What The Craggus Saw. Thanks to a purchasing error I am now currently overstocked on Sold Out Limited Edition Zavvi Exclusive Deadpool…
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Northwest: In 2015, we left everything behind and decided to dedicate our lives to music and art
Posted by Keira Brown | 15 June 2019 | Features, Music | 0
Northwest was formed in late 2015 when multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Ignacio Simón and visual artist, composer and singer Mariuca García-Lomas moved from Spain to the UK. They gained media attention with three home recorded singles (Reflection, Wind and Look At Me) which were released in early 2016 accompanied by three enigmatic music videos directed by themselves.
TF: A new single, how exciting, what has the reception been like to this track?
This is very special song for us. I (Mariuca) cried while I was recording it and some of my friends cried as well the first time they heard it, that for me it’s the biggest compliment of all.
TF: You’ve titled it London, what is it about London that influenced you to title it so?
In late 2015, we quit our jobs back in Spain, left everything behind and decided to dedicate our lifes to music and art. We moved to the UK and started Northwest. After spending a month in Cumbria we headed to London where we’ve been living since then. London for us was and still is more than a city. London represents our decision to risk, to believe in art and in ourselves, and to never give up on the life we want to live.
TF: And what are your plans for the remainder of 2019, an EP, an LP?
We’re starting an European tour in April (we’ll post the dates in the upcoming weeks on our website and FB) and we’re also going to make more videos, some collaborations with some of our favourite artists and a second LP.
TF: And can we expect to see you live soon, will you be performing in Scotland anytime son?
Actually, we’ve never played in Scotland but we would love to, so if anybody knows any booking agent, venue, festival or similar up there, please contact us! We’re preparing a European tour for April and like I said, we’ll be posting all the info about it on our website and FB as soon as we have everything confirmed.
TF: What has been your favourite gig to date?
It’s difficult to pick just one. We’ve had the chance to play in all sorts of different and weird and beautiful places from squat houses and our friend’s living room to experimental tethers and an art gallery. The one that comes to mind at the moment was the one we organised in London last year. We rented a whole church and decided to throw a free entrance arts festival. We invited some of our favourite artists from around the capital (which was awesome because we got to know a lot of them in person). It was a lot of work because we did it entirely by ourselves but the place was magical and we put our entire hearts and souls into it.
PreviousJosephine Foster: I am eager to discover the nature of his series and glad to be a part!
NextReview: Honeyblood
Keira Brown
Co-Founder, Editor and Writer at The Fountain. Contact me for information about submissions, pitches, and publicity at [email protected]
Scummy Mummies: Our show is a celebration of parenting failures
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The Fountain 2016
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InternationalPolitics
NEGATIVE NANCY: Pelosi in Hot Water After She Discounts Anti-Regime Protests in Iran
Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s thirst for power has been the root of her constant spreading lies and misinformation for decades. Finally, due to an appearance in which she discounts the protesters against the horrid Iranian regime, the Twitterverse has started calling her out for her constant dissemination of fake news.
After President Obama, and his administration, refused to support protests in Iran and instead decided to negotiate with the world’s leading sponsor of terror, no one should be surprised by Speaker Pelosi’s statement.
In this appearance, she states that the protests are mainly due to Iran mistakenly shooting down a commercial airliner. She goes on to say that there should be consequences for Iran for causing the loss of life due to the incident.
While the deaths that occurred due to the plane being shot down are horrible, Speaker Pelosi’s assertion that the protests are only in reaction to this is a lie. With this lie, Pelosi discounts the outrage at the estimated 1,500 people who were murdered by the regime from November-December of 2019.
Her dismissal of the reasons behind the protests only gives a murderous radical regime more soundbites to use in their national propaganda. The damage that Pelosi has caused by making such a stupid and uninformed statement, and making it as the leader of the Congress of the United States, is hard to calculate and is not reversible.
JARRETT: Pelosi’s Contempt for the Constitution Only Trumped by Her Thirst for Power
Robert L. Dow says:
Perhaps the process of delivery of the Impeachment Articles to the Senate could be hastened by the Speaker of the Senate by simply filing a Writ of Certiori with the Chief Judge of US Supreme Court to turn over the articles forthwith, failing which same would be sumarily dismissed. This could be done in a day!
Moreover, there would be nothing wrong with Senator McConnel conducting a Senate trial to hear testimony on the Biden debacle, plus whatever else he feels is relevant to the matter, including referal of the Biden’s video for criminal prosecution to the AG.
Great article, Gregg! What is wrong with Pelosi? I believe she & certain other Dems do know what they are doing is so wrong! I believe that is evil.
Dan Nichols says:
I hope President Trump and the “truthful media outlets play and post this day and night”!!! Along with her past miscalculated statements that completely contradict and prove that that Woman does and says “Nothing” that doesn’t make her feel like she is patronizing her base, it doesn’t matter if the statements shes making hold any truth to them whatsoever. It does not matter to what extent her statements will cause undue harm and stress to the People of this Great Nation, and it does not matter to “her”, BECAUSE SHES NEVER HELD ACCOUNTABLE!!! Her leadership, HAA!!!, that’s laughable, has reduced this Congress to feckless rumbling about how too avoid being any hope of being any part of the most productive Congress alongside what is turning out to be one of the most productive Presidencies if not “Thee Most” in Our History!!! What a bunch of raving idiots!!! They couldve All Had Their Names In History for all time, but instead, they reduce their effectiveness to this… Do we think they’ve learned, missed, think differently now, about anything? Insanity in an infinite sense…
Peter Graham says:
The left has always been like this. Scream at the Republican Government but have no policies of their own. try to bring down Republican officials, while defending their own miscreants I.E. Bill Clinton. identify as black, gay, trans, native American, anything other than what they really are. Liars.
Leslie Houser says:
I think she’s desperate, her son is involved in some bad things too, she’s scared that they are all fixing to fall like a house of cards, that’s why they have to get rid of the President.
Emil says:
I don’t know why this rickety, unstable jolopy is still on the road. It should have been sold for scrap a long time ago.
Stephen King says:
I cannot believe she is still allowed to be the Speaker of the House. The entire Democratic party has committed treason against the president not giving him any credit for what he has done over the past 3 years. The fake news media is unrelenting since the day he was elected into office. I cannot wait for the Sham to be over.
why havent they arested her yet for treason
Bob Vanderweel says:
I think that what we are seeing is the last gasp of a desperate Democrat party to get rid of Trump. They have nothing but it is all they have. When Trump wins in November and gains a Republican House majority as well, there will be nothing to stop him from draining the swamp. They are praying that the Republican never Trumpers in the Senate will allow them to re-open the impeachment for new witnesses and pray that it will somehow damage Trump enough for him to lose. Strange things happen in Washington…maybe the fix is already in.
Wyatt Earp says:
We need to pass another Constitution laws. One that give Senate the right to removed any House member who is helping the enemy of AMERICA. No matter which party involved. You against this country then you shall be removed and arrested for SEDITION AGAINST AMERICANS CITIZEN. Most of these Congress in the DEMONcrat HOUSE has turn their back on our military and country. Make you think during the founding fathers time how some people still support England. Not freedom and liberty! Today these DEMONcrat has been brain washed by Obama and his Muslim administration.
Tehran Nancy Pelosi. Her and the Democrats side with the enemy against America. What a bunch of feckless losers!
Jim Duncan says:
Has anyone ever stopped to consider that Nancy Pelosi is 3rd in line for the presidency under the constitution? All she has to do is take out the Prez and the VP and she’s in… Of course, hopefully if Trump WERE to be removed from office (which is highly unlikely!), Pence probably already has a VP in mind to name immediately…
What bugs me is this: Even though she “represents” California, as Speaker of the House I tend to think that she represent ALL of us in that role. At least ONE thing about her in her Speaker role: She definitely likes to SPEAK!!!
Diogenese says:
The dems and Pelosi will have their names go down in history as the most obstructive, biased house of reps ever.
This woman is sick
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Albertville City Site Hacked Again !!
January 22, 2011Mohit Kumar
The city website has been hacked again later Albertville last week.
City officials were informed of a burglary Saturday night and then he quickly rose to Team TSI, the company in charge of the website of the city, according to the mayor of Lyon, Albertville Lindsey.
"Right now we do not know who the individual may be, but I'm pretty sure ETI may propose measures to maintain the integrity of our website so you do not happen again," said Lyons.
The site was committed in March 2010, when someone managed to place explicit language on the site.
This time, the only substantive change city officials was found on the site where the usual message of welcome has been replaced by a Chinese flag and the flag was written "Hacked by BOZKURT_38."
Lyon said he had spent combing the site to make sure it was the only thing that has changed.
Lyons also said he was confident the team TSI provide adequate security for new attacks would not succeed.
From Tuesday the site is back to normal.
The last attack was traced to the IP in North Alabama, but Lyons said the attack probably came from outside the country.
"We're getting closer to deploy the new website and it is important that we do not have the hiccups when it's done," Lyons said.
Defacements, GENERAL NEWS, Hacker News, News
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#502: The Door Between (1937) by Ellery Queen
February 21, 2019 February 14, 2019 / JJ
Brad has threatened to drum me out of the GAD Club Members’ Bar for my lack of kow-towing to the work of Ellery Queen. In fairness, I really rather enjoyed Halfway House (1936), but here I am fighting for my rights. And I think he’s timed this deliberately, being well aware that The Door Between (1937) was up next for me, because Gordon’s beer is Eva MacClure, the heroine who finds herself at the centre of an impossible murder plot, one of the most frustrating perspective characters I’ve yet encountered. Goodness, she makes one positively ache for the company of Noel Wells from The Saltmarsh Murders (1932) by Gladys Mitchell.
But, well, think positive. The plot honestly feels a little slim, but at least the situation is an interesting one: Eva’s stepmother-to-be, the reclusive author Karen Leith, is writing in her study while Eva waits for her in the sitting room next door. It is not possible to get to Karen without passing through the sitting room, yet when Eva goes to investigate a phone ringing unanswered she finds Karen with her throat slit. No-one went past Eva, no-one could get into the room by its other door — leading up to Karen’s private attic — since that was bolted shut and the bolt was too stiff to hoax, so, uhm, howdunnit? There’s an economy of setup here, coming, alas, after a lot of Eva flouncing around, thinking about her life with her dreamy, dull, doctor fiancé Richard ‘Dick’ Scott, and generally being an over-privileged pain.
We’re clearly in a new phase of Queenian writing, and not just because Ellery himself is far, far less of a prig here than he was in the Nationality Noun books. This seems to mark a move away from detection and into crime for the cousins — witness how for all the very entertaining developments that emerge once Ellery is finally a) brought up to speed and b) on the scene of the crime, not a single one was presented in advance for us to ruminate over. There’s nothing you see in advance that Dannay and Lee come back to and up-end your expectations over, you’re simply told “Here, look at this handwriting, this means X” and “Good heavens, because of this dump of backstory we can deduce Y”. It’s entertaining, and it’s smartly constructed, but the gamesmanship has gone (so has the Challenge to the Reader, because no way in hell do you have the information to solve this) and it feels rather rushed as a result.
The writing is very smooth, and it goes down easily in places, such as Eva’s father, the cancer specialist Dr. John MacClure, described early on as:
[A]n unkempt, absent man. No one could remember the time when he had not worn a certain ancient brown suit, unpressed, depilated, and edged with fuzz, which clung to his shoulders plaintively. He was a strong man, and a tired man, and while he did not look his age he nevertheless contrived to seem a hundred.
Character-wise, with the exception of Eva and Dick who you sort of feel deserve each other, we’re on pretty good ground. Sure, I don’t love the way the maid Geneva O’Mara is always referred to in terms of how stupid she appears, and the casual slurring of the Japanese people is disconcertingly front and centre, but the core cast of Ellery (on good form, seeming a far more interested and human presence now), John MacClure (juggling the death of his fiancée with the accusation of murder Richard Queen seems intent to pin on his daughter), and the P.I. Terry Ring (he starts out annoying — and a little misogynistic — but grows on you) make three sides of a very interesting square.
The fourth, alas, is Eva, and she the drippiest drip who ever dripped — content to do what she’s told, wander about in a daze thinking how terrible it will be if her fiancé disowns her (the phrase “She couldn’t imagine her life without Dick” crops up so much I started thinking either Dannay or Lee had a complex about something) and fall for anyone who shows even the slightest interest in her existence. This novel was serialised in Cosmopolitan magazine in 1936 and the focus on “a woman’s problems” was something Dannay and Lee felt would appeal to their new audience, but would anyone enjoy reading about the spoiled socialite and her First World Problems? She’s such an idiot (Ohmygod! Japanese people have tear ducts!) and such a child (all Dr. Dick has to do is buy her a chocolate ice cream soda and she’s forgotten any argument they might have had) that, were I part of Dannay and Lee’s intended new audience, I’d be insulted that this is what they thought I’d enjoy reading about.
In terms of solution…well, it’s…fine, though a clear case of Occam’s razor and relying on an act of happenstance so hilariously beyond the control of anyone that you almost want to admire the chutzpah it took to make it a core part of the puzzle. And, worst of all, Dannay and Lee have the gall to then present us with an additional ending that is nothing more than pure, unfiltered guess-work and imply that there’s even a smidgen of logic behind any of it. There’s a little fun to be had with the tropes of low-end locked room scenarios — a laugh was wrung from me when Ellery meets the appalled suggestion of a secret panel with the bon mot “Well, why not? … You don’t spit on your great-grandmother just because she’s hung around a long time” — but that would be a lot more compelling were their own answer one for the ages. It’s not. It’s really, really not.
Weirdly, then, this is a book that’s composed mainly of disappointing parts and yet one I blitzed through in no time at all and didn’t thoroughly hate in the process. It’s about as good as the more highly-regarded The Chinese Orange Mystery (1934), though constructed with half the care and a third of the skill, perhaps winning through on the simplicity and clarity with which everything ties together come the close (because, man, the solution to TCOM is anything but, right?). I’ll remember more about this in a year than I do of Chinese Orange now, though mainly because of how it under-delivers where it matters. The Queens and I may not always see eye-to-eye, but if this is what sees my bar privileges revoked, well, I wouldn’t want to be the member of a club that venerated it in the first place.
Puzzle Doctor @ In Search of the Classic Mystery Novel: Anyway, so far, so fine, but now we come to the big problem with the book – Eva Maclure herself. I’m not a violent man in any way, shape or form, but if I could have reached into the book, grabbed her by the shoulders and yelled at her to grow up, I would have done. She’s absolutely unbearable – moping, falling for the first man who shows her interest, falling for the second man who shows her interest… and with the book written mostly from a spot just behind her head, tuned into her deepest thoughts… well, it doesn’t help. I presume the book was, like Half-Way House, serialised in a magazine that wanted the romantic elements as well as the mystery, but it got on my nerves throughout the book.
Ellery Queen in Order, Reviews
Ellery Queen, Frederic Dannay, Genius Amateur, Impossible Crimes, Manfred B. Lee, OOP
← #501: Little Fictions – The Uncollected Paul Halter: ‘The Wolf of Fenrir’ (2014) and ‘The Scarecrow’s Revenge’ (2015) [trans. John Pugmire 2015/2016]
#503: The Men Who Explain Miracles – Episode 9.1: Laying Down the Laws – The Van Dine Twenty →
51 thoughts on “#502: The Door Between (1937) by Ellery Queen”
Well, you liked this more than I expected. Out of curiosity, is there any Queen which you’ll rate above three stars?
I read a large handful of Queen many years ago, but didn’t really keep track of titles and so my memory is hazy. I remember Greek Coffin, Four of Hearts, and possibly Dragon’s Teeth as being pretty darn good. Also enjoyed some of their longer short fiction. But then I lost touch with them and got into a Robert Crais/Harlan Coben vibe while at university and ended up making my way back to the classics after a while. So I’m convinced there’s good in them — oh, and Halfway House was very good, too — it’s just unfortunate that I’ve chosen to return to them at a time when they don’t seem to do what I’m after.
thegreencapsule
I didn’t realize that you’ve read Four of Hearts and Dragon’s Teeth. Four of Hearts has some nice bits, although three stars sounds just about right for it.
Oh, a long time ago — shortly after I discovered Christie, in fact, since someone mentioned they were contemporatries and if I liked her I’d like Queen. Which, upon reflection, makes no sense, but I was young and eager to learn, and so probably told myself I was having more fun than I really was.
Which, now I come to think about it, is the pattern of almost everything I’ve done in my life to date. Wow, I need to go away and give this some serious thought.
You need to do yourself a favour and read THE GREEK COFFIN MYSTERY and then THE SIAMESE TWIN MYSTERY, two of the absolute best from first period Queen.
Read GCM years back, very very (perhaps a little too…?) clever, and really enjoyed HH last time around. If Brad’s gonna commit to Paul Halter, I can’t bail on Queen 😂 I just require a little patience on behalf of my audience while I continue to get it so wrong…much like Brad and Halter 🤣
And don’t forget EGYPTIAN CROSS and, from period three, CAT OF MANY TAILS.
I think I’m already on record as finding Egyptian Cross dul for all but its third quarter. Perhaps I’m beyond salvation after all…
Who the heck is this pundit called Brad whose good opinion means so much to the community? This is a Period Two book, one of the better ones, but it still feels “less than” the best of Queen. In other words, not as strong as, say, The Siamese Twin Mystery. Has anyone ever recommended that one to you???
I read all of Queen many years ago and will admit in returning to him that his early style hasn’t aged well. But I won’t defend his considerable merits to you because you’re entitled to the reactions you have. You, who extol Crofts for the very tedium he inspires, and love all sorts of Unreadables, are entitled to your opinion. I will defend that to the death!!!
A (Rupert) penny for your thoughts?
Firstly, thanks for that update about your iPad.
Secondly — yeah, it’s weird, innit? I see how someone like Crofts bores people, but then I love the effort that has gone into the convolutions of his plots. I rated the last couple of Crofts books I read the same as this one, so let’s not pretend I’ve unquestioningly loved everything of his I’ve read (and, hey, there’s that one short story of his that I still don’t even understand…), but I cant deny that FWC seems to elicit more joy from me than Quees does, despite Queen being on the surface more my kind of books.
Someone like, say, Rupert Penny writes the sorts of books (to my eye) that fans of Queen seem to think Dannay and Lee wrote, and the handful of Rhode/Burtons I’ve read are equally largely reliant on some complex schemes and canny misdirection, so I’ll acknowledge that something gets lost in the translation with Queen…and I don’t know what that is!
But rest assured, Brad, I’m here for the long haul. I may not always lilke it, but I’ll not let you down.
SIAMESE is the one that should ring your thingamie then 😉
Ha. You’ll forgive me if I don’t get too excited at the prospect 🙂
Try it, then get back to me chum 🙂
Oh, of course. But, like, I’m holding on to a bit of reserve, you’ll understand.
nickfuller
“the phrase “She couldn’t imagine her life without Dick” crops up so much I started thinking either Dannay or Lee had a complex about something…”
Mr Queen, tell me about your sex life.
Well, that would be more the case if Dick had gone missing 😅
Ken B
Hammett once introduced Dannay at a lecture and asked “So please tell us about your famous character’s sex life.”
Well, given all the violence-as-suppression in Hammett’s work, are we really surprised? 🙂
I have only sketchy memories of this, although the ending stayed with me, which isn’t so surprising I suppose.
Anyway, without a reread, I can only talk in terms of impressions. I recall this as OK (your 3/5 rating makes sense to me) but a bit light and lacking some of the punch I’d been hoping for. Mind you, I think I read it at a time when I had a whole lot of other stuff vying for my attention so that may have colored my judgment to an extent.
Yeah, between your ropy memories and my recent ones we’re agreed here — doesn’t overreach itself, ends up being successful on the terms it sets, but the genre and the Queens had seen (and saw) far better, more ambitious books.
I noticed you mentioned in some of your replies that you remembered The Virgin Heiresses/The Dragon’s Teeth as being good. I think the general consensus, for what its worth, is that iit’s one of the weaker entries. I reread it maybe 12 months ago and found it fine, with one of those slightly irksome leads but rather fun overall. Sometimes that’s as much as I need, to be honest.
Huh, well, there you go. I mean, we’re going back to 1999-2000ish, so a lot of reading in the genre has been done since then, but I take your point on not needing everything to be brilliant (or even notable) in order to enjoy a book.
I’m making peace with not being on message over EQ, and I apologise to the wider GAD community for my lack of line-toeing, but in time I’ll have enough of an overview in recent memory to make some declarations on the subject, so holod onto your hats for that. It’ll be a way off, though, so don’t, like, anticipate it any time soon.
rinaldo302
I’m just delighted that there’s an expert around who feels as I do about EQ. I keep hoping for more from the next one I try on someone’s recommendation, and then it doesn’t happen. I’m all over the other GAD titles and authors, but it seems he and I were not made for each other.
I’m delighted to thear that there’s an expert out there who feels the same way; I was worried for a while it was just me.
Yikes, was I just called “an expert” after my first rude intrusion into this longstanding conversation? Be still, my heart! (Somehow I didn’t discover this and other similarly-themed blogs until this week. But I’ve been reading Christie, Carr, et al since the 1960s.)
It’s too long ago for me to remember details, but in 3 or 4 EQ titles that I tried, there was an obvious possibility or question that nobody was exploring, and I kept waiting for someone to bring it up, and then in the end it turned out to be the secret that revealed the solution, which left me disgruntled. (This never happens to me; I’m not someone who tries to guess the solution, I’m delighted to be passively surprised, but it happened repeatedly with EQ.) And then I bumped into THE LAST WOMAN IN HIS LIFE, which was enough for me to write EQ off for good. (In the end I didn’t, because I don’t live up to my own principles.)
Rinaldo – I’m not going to try to change your mind about Queen; we’ve both been reading him for about the same amount of time, and you are more than capable of choosing your own path! However, I just wanted to be clear: The Last Woman in His Life is an abomination, no matter how
much I like Queen! Do we are agreed!
@Brad — as I said, I do keep trying, from time to time. For my birthday in December, a longtime friend sent me the recently reprinted Chinese Orange Mystery, which I read, hoping for the best. Which didn’t happen, no point going into detail. But there are still titles I haven’t tried, maybe one will turn the tables for me. As GB Shaw said in another context, such reputations are not to be had for nothing.
And of course there’s no possible doubt that TLWIHL is an abomination. When I tell friends about it, they’re sure I must be making it up. (And quite aside from everything that makes it detestable, didn’t EQ return to that “dying word/action, the essential clue could we but interpret it” well a few too many times? I’ve noticed that even the TV series was over-reliant on it.)
I like dying messages as a rule, but they need to be an adjunct to a richer mystery (like in The Siamese Twin Mystery.) The problem here is two-fold: there’s the obvious one, where Dannay and Lee have embraced a vision of the killer that appalls every decent modern reader. I have to treat that the way I treat Christie’s casual anti-Semitism. I don’t have to like it, but I figure they didn’t know any better. The second problem is that the final page, where Queen deduces exactly why the victim uttered this particular word, is so ludicrous and laughable and ridiculous and stupid that you have to wonder at the gall of the writer for creating this situation. (The third problem is that the book is actually pretty boring.) In a way, I want JJ to read this book so that he can unleash his inner beast on it. But I’m trying to help JJ find some positive ground with EQ, so I am urging him to leave TLWihL alone for a very long time!
Brad, I will totally read TLWiHL. In, like, 2038.
(Brad said ” I have to treat that the way I treat Christie’s casual anti-Semitism. I don’t have to like it, but I figure they didn’t know any better.”) I guess I feel that in the case of TLWIHL, by 1970, they *should* have known better. I mean I read it only half a dozen years later, and it felt positively (and horrifyingly) prehistoric. Admittedly those had been years of great societal change, plus I had a personal stake in this one, so maybe my perception of the distinction isn’t to be trusted.
One thing I do recall for sure: in addition to the overall premise (didn’t they know ANYONE they could check this stuff with?), and that preposterous final page, there was a page earlier on, containing what we’d now call an info-dump: a blunt listing of the authors of the books in someone’s study (no, I’m not going to find a copy to recall the details), the composers of the recordings, probably the painters of the pictures. This was apparently intended to be where the subtle clue slides by the reader, only to be explained later — but there’s not another page in the book like this, and it’s so idiotically obvious (and, by the way, misinformed in a couple of cases) that I wanted to throw the book across the room right then. (I should have.)
Ah well — at least I don’t have to worry that masses of people have read it and been misinformed by it.
Do you think it at all possible that they were trying to “enlighten” the world on a topic to which most people hadn’t given a thought? To the average reader, this list wouldn’t have counted as a clue, and this is supported by the fact that they were left out in plain sight while that damned statue was hidden!!!
If they were, they did it too ineptly to get credit for it. And the list was so blatant (it took up the better part of a page, as I recall), all but yelling “I am a clue in the form of a list!”, even an uninformed reader would suspect that something was up. And might well know what the something was, as even at that date the word was getting around on many of those artists/authors/composers.
However. Ahem. I didn’t mean to derail this conversion, when the book in question isn’t even the topic of the page! I do sincerely apologize.
Apologise, nuthin’. You’re on topic, Brad’s clearly enjoying himself…talk about TLWiHL with my blessing.
(conversation.)
I don’t understand why you gave it three-stars. You pointed all the problems of the plot and should drummed on how truly awful the locked room-trick really was, but you gave still gave it a pretty average rating. Going by your review and track record, it should gotten one-star for the disappointing plot and an extra one for readability. And not hating it. So where did the third star come from? You’re trying to appease Brad, aren’t you?
Brad might not drum you out of the community for this review, but I can still stuff you in a gibbet cage and hang at a dirt crossroad in the countryside, where you can think about what you’ve done.
I second Sergio’s recommendations for The Greek Coffin Mystery and The Siamese Twin Mystery. Great early EQ mysteries.
Maaaaan, I can’t please anyone…. 😂
I think it’s a perfectly servicable book — it’s not trying to be too vast or too spectacular, and it succeeds in the minor puzzle it sets out. Sure, the “logical” epilogue is nonsense, but for crime novel reversals the middle section takes some beating…even if it loses some prestige by not enabling us to play along. I put it with Chinese Orange in quality because that posits far more and underdelivers, whereas this remains small and delivers pretty much what I’d expected.
But, well, you and I agreed on Cat’s Paw last week, so a schism was on the cards, I suppose…
I enjoyed Greek Coffin, will get to Siamese Twin at…some point. I think the “in order” might be about to go out of my “Ellery Queen in Order” undertaking, anyway.
I just want to say we shouldn’t hang JJ for not liking Queen.
It’s a moot point anyway since he should already have been gibbeted for preferring Crofts to Carr!
Hey, hey, hey, I’m yet to confirm that diagnosis — let’s not get ahead of ourselves and ruin my credibility just yet…
Thanks JJ for the review; how cruel of Brad to threaten to throw you out. 😅
Anyway, finally a Queen novel that manages to secure a passing mark out of 5 stars on your blog! 🤩 I’ve heard only rather middling comments about this title – even those who commend its puzzle nonetheless deplore the female lead. Looks like I definitely should read this before taking hold of “Halfway House” or “Four of Hearts”.
I read “Greek Coffin Mystery” late last year, and I confess I enjoyed it slightly less than I expected. I say “less” because it has a remarkable reputation, and although I concede the choice of culprit was quite staggering, the story stayed on longer than it was welcome. But I also say “slightly” because I’ve had depreciating enjoyment of Queen’s novels over the years. When I first started reading beyond Christie, Queen and Carr were natural choices. And while I liked Queen more at first, Carr caught up quickly, and has by now superseded Queen considerably.
Halfway House passed, more than readily. I guess it didn’t get a star rating on account of it not being a review, but that was easily a 4-star book.
I’m starting to suspect that my early enjoyment of Queen came largely from my not knowing quite what to expect from the earlier school of detective fiction when compared to the crime and thriller fiction I was reading at the time. Hey, look, it’s all stones on the road that brought me here, so I’m not going to whinge too much, but I’m with you in appreciating Carr above Christie and then a long gap to Queen into which we can cram more than a few others.
I’m fact, there may even be a few between Carr and Christie…
Just to clarify – I think I only spoke about Carr superseding Queen, and not Christie. 😅
Thank you, John! JJ ran with your comments . . . in the wrong direction.
Mea culpa, this is what comes from trying to do two things at once. Lesson learned!
I know I might get crucified for this but from what I’ve read, I think I’ll go Christie, then Queen, then Carr and so on………
To each their own — we’re a broad church here, Neil…!
I recall not being enamored of this one. When I was a Queen fan I very strongly preferred the early Country Object books and the short story adventures. I am finding EQ a struggle these days to read or reread. I did like Egyptian Cross the second time some years ago, but not Greek Coffin last year.
I have fond memories of some of the short stories, so perhaps a more catholic reading of those — rather than focussing on the impossibilities as I did last year — would yield more favourable results.
Impossibility and mechanical cleverness are not EQ’s strong suit. That is the close attention to detail in deductive sequences. (I suppose that’s a Crofts strength too, but EQ is imaginative.) That might be why I don’t enjoy him as much as I used to: I no longer have the patience to read 30 pages explaining why the note being in green ink rather than blue ink proves the murderer was left handed.
Yeah, that’s a perfect encapsulation of the difficulty this sector of GAD suffers with — the inductive reasoning is often very enjoyable in principle (“Here’s how the fact that six cats were all found with their tails shaved proves the murderer must be a six-foot, Saggitarian, horse-riding Communist”) but veers into characterlessness in its desire to be so clever-clever
Such a rich discussion, and all of it inspired by a so-so book! JJ, I’d say that your rating (3 stars out of 5) is about right, although I liked the book (as I like all of Queen) more than you do. My take: https://onlydetect.wordpress.com/2013/01/24/ellery-queen-the-door-between-1936/
Thanks for the link, Mike — you’re spot on (in my opinion) about the mixing of the types of story and the disappointment that results.
As much as this transitional period gave rise to a new syle of Queen novel, it’s interesting that Dannay and Lee themselves don’t seem entirely sure what they’re trying to turn into. As evolutionary steps go, this feels rather retrograde after the focus and invention of Halfway House. More like the Awkward Teenage Years than any conscious development of a plan.
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Rafiabad villagers hit roads, protest against PHE dept
By Press Desk on September 5, 2018
Baramulla: The residents of several villages of Rafiabad area of Baramulla district on Wednesday stated a protest demonstration against the non-availability of water for the last several days in the area.
Witnesses said that the residents of Makhipora Bala and Dangiwachi blocked the Baramulla-Rafiabad road and raised slogans against the district administration and Public Health Engineering Department for failing to address their water-related grievances.
“They warned the concerned authorities that if they fail to supply water to the residents, they will launch a massive protest,” the witness told The Kashmir Press.
Meanwhile, the witnesses said that, later, a police party reached the spot and ensured the protesting villagers that their concerns will be communicated to the concerned officials and their grievances shall be addressed at the earliest.
The protesters later dispersed and the traffic was restored on Baramulla-Rafiabad road.
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Tag Archives: Winona Ryder
Stranger Things, S3, Ep 5,6,7,8, Spoiler Review by Case Wright
Posted on July 11, 2019 by casewright
I am reviewing these four episodes as a block because only 25 minutes mattered combined. In fact, the show rapidly devolved into gross out scenes, cartoonish hijinks, cartoonish Russians, and a terrible song and dance number duo….really. The only way this season could get rave reviews is if the reviewer binged the show and was too tired to analyze it. I get it- you’re around your friend(s), your girlfriend is virtual, and you can barely afford your Brooklyn apartment on your blogger salary; however, that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t be critical of a show that really should just go away.
I’m adding on to my review here to discuss what makes Stranger Things so terrible now. This series was heavily influenced by Stephen King and likely Salem’s Lot because of the repeated Vampire monsters. More importantly, season 1 was great for the same reason that Stephen King’s stories are great- It’s not about the monster in the house; it’s about how the people are living in house with a monster. These are your neighbors and now have to deal with something beyond reality and that was exactly what Stranger Things Season 1 was about. There is one other theme that make Stephen King’s stories terrifying: it’s not Randall Flagg, the Werewolves, The Clowns; it’s about people who are supposed to be caring for you, but in fact do not. This theme is in nearly every Stephen King book and it was present in Stranger Things Season 1. El called Evil Modine “Papa” even though he was an abusive kidnapper who didn’t think anything more about El than a piece of lab equipment. The series now has left all those themes behind to become a husk.
The last four episodes broke discretely into three distinct and equally boring and poorly executed quests: 1) Joyce, Hop, Alexi, and Weirdo try to destroy the machine opening the gate. 2) Dustin, Erica, Steve, and Robin try to escape the bunker and annoy everyone. 3) The original gang drag El around so she can get her ass beat.
Episodes 4 – 7: Joyce and Hop go through town looking for answers and end up kidnapping a Russian engineer – Alexi. They take him to the creepy weird guy from last season and without any story arc Alexi is all in to help. He gives them schematics to infiltrate the Starcourt Mall underground bunker and how to destroy the machine. Why does Alexi do all this? Who knows? It’s a good thing Alexi is so detailed because he dies later and it doesn’t matter. But, we do get A LOT of corny banter and goofy car scenes:
Hop steals this car in the most corny and unrealistic way possible. It’s corny, but it makes up for it by being cartoonish and boring. There are A LOT of scenes where they are driving around and mostly Joyce yells a lot at Hop and Hop yells at Joyce for roughly 38 times. It’s really dull. They manage to infiltrate the base eventually try to destroy the machine. Do they make it? We have to get through many many pratfalls to find out .. wakka wakka wakka.
Dustin, Erica, Steve, and Robin infiltrate the base…..and Steve and Robin get caught right away. This could have been a great suspenseful plot point, but instead we get hijinks!!! A goofy Russian General who makes this face a lot:
This “torture” sequence goes on for a long long long while and really goes nowhere, which is especially disappointing because there were a couple of episodes that had real suspense. Instead now, we get this comic book torture guy:
It’s really goofy. It’s like the Duffer Brothers couldn’t figure out if this show was horror, comedy, or just paint by numbers garbage. Dustin manages to bust Robin and Steve out because that’s super believable after making Dustin the LEAST physical of the bunch for 2.8 seasons.
El and the gang start to battle with the least effective monster ever. For a Big Bad Vampire monster, it can’t see very well, it has a vague agenda, and it’s unclear what can actually kill it until the penultimate episode, which sets up Hop’s likely death. Yes, it looks gross:
BUT it’s REALLY REALLY bad at finding and killing things that matter.
They, of course, manage to kill off the big bad, but that was never really in doubt. What was amazing is how the writers derailed the story in favor of WACKINESS!
The “scary” general goofs around A LOT:
So funny how it derails the suspense. Sigh.
There is car driving wackiness:
Above: a not funny joke was made. They laughed for a very long time. The person on the right is Alexis. He dies and it doesn’t matter.
The big fight with the big bad where Hop gets sacrificed: the show ruined itself. It didn’t just go for wackiness; it stalled the epic last monster fight scene where everyone is about to die for a no kidding Song and Dance sequence- REALLY!
I remember when this song sequence started because I was young man with two newborns. When it ended, I was sending my girls off to college. The third picture? Yep, that’s a split screen singing moment. It …. just….kept… going. I was really rooting for the Monster.
Did the first four episodes give me hope? Yes, but that hope and good will was squandered by plain old corny scenes and cartoonish sequences. Maybe, we all entered the upside down because there is no way a third season like this should have made it to daylight without all laws of physics and reason being reversed.
Posted in Horror, science fiction, Stranger Things, TV, TV Review, TV Show, Uncategorized | Tagged Caleb McLaughlin, Cara Bouno, Charlie Heaton, David Harbour, Duffer Brothers, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Millie Bobby Brown, Natalia Dyer, Noah Schnapp, Priah Ferguson, Winona Ryder | 1 Comment
Stranger Things, S03,Ep4, Review By Case Wright
Episode 4 had a lot going on. It’s like the show doesn’t know how to maintain suspense from one episode to the next. The previous episode had nothin goin on and this one was like 10 pound sausage in a 5 pound bag. This is actually a pretty good season and the creators know that they peaked in the first season because of the incessant flashback clips to season 1.
We open with Heather and Mullet-Renfield setting up her parents to be disgustingly consumed/converted by the Monster Vampire- It’s Gross! Of course, after following the NXIVM case, maybe we should let the Vampire Monster win? Are we really that great that ya know we DESERVE to live.
This season is all about breaking up, reuniting, and moving on. Dustin is breaking away and making older friends. I’m pretty sure that Will is about to come out- Good for Him and good for the show!
Speaking of Dustin, he, Robin, and Steve are trying really hard to infiltrate the Russian mall area and they recruit Erica (Sister of Lucas) to do it. I gotta write that she was a scene stealer. It’s clear to me that she could be a huge star. Erica fits through the air vents, which are actually normal sized- Good work set department. When they enter the secret room, they hit a BAD button and they accidentally go DEEP underground.
Hop and Joyce are on the hunt for information and they get it by beating the snot out of a very smarmy Mayor (Carey Elwes) we learn that he was on the take with the Russians, the Russians own the mall, and they are buying up most of the town. Evil Mall, Evil Russians, Evil Food Court!
The kids get back together to do battle with Mullet-Renfield. They surmise that because the creature likes cold, they will lock Mullet-Renfield in the pool sauna. And…. it kinda works? They manage to activate Mullet-Guy into a vampire drone, but El, unlike previous seasons, gets her ass beat. It’s brutal. She does throw Mullet-guy through a wall, but why do this anyway? Did they really need to prove his guilt? They could’ve just followed him back to his evil lair and he wouldn’t have known they were on them. The problem they all took their stupid pills off camera. Kids yesterday?
It would seem that we have reached a major Arc Spin-around. It would make sense for all the heroes to lose a lot soon. Hop will probably lose his job, Mullet-Renfield has amassed an army for the Sticky Vampire Monster, The Russians are evilling, and Dustin, Robin, Erica and Steve are going down a mineshaft.
Side plot: Creeper and Nancy get fired from the paper by the converted Editor, but she will keep pursuing the story …. for some reason. Nancy, why not just go to community college? What are wasting your time for? Is this Barb guilt?
It’s looking grim, BUT this is a good thing. This season is actually keeping my interest and has real suspense even if the episodes themselves are uneven. I’m not sure the series deserves another season yet; so, I’m hoping they give some closure this season.
Posted in Horror, netflix, science fiction, Stranger Things, TV, TV Review, TV Show | Tagged Caleb McLaughlin, Cara Buono, Cary Elwes, Charlie Heaton, Dacre Montgomery, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Francesca Reale, Gaten Matarazzo, Maya Hawke, Michael Park, Millie Bobby Brown, Natalia Dyer, Noah Schnapp, Priah Ferguson, Sadie Sink, Winona Ryder | 1 Comment
Stranger Things S3 Ep2, The Mall Rats, Review by Case Wright
Posted on July 7, 2019 by casewright
I was right again!!! Stranger Things is a VAMPIRE show!!! No one else got that! Season 1- I proved that the show was a Vampire show. This season continues that theme with a Renfield! See my old review HERE!!!
Vampires especially Dracula uses a Renfield as a familiar. These are people who are quasi-vampires who do the bidding of the Vampire and bring them victims and assist them in their lives. This is seen in Dracula, Salem’s Lot, What We Do in The Shadows, and Stranger Things Season 3.
This episode is all about change and entropy. In the previous episode, Mullet-Guy was pulled down into the steel mill. In this episode, we learn that this was to make Mullet-guy into a familiar to the New Nosferatu!
If you’re not convinced that the new big bad is a Vampire:
Lives in a dark crypt. ✔
Kills small animals to live. ✔
Takes a familiar. ✔
Has familiar bring it a pretty victim. ✔
Familiar is hypnotized. ✔
Vampire moves from small animals to human victims. ✔
What we got here is a case of a Sci-Fi Nosferatu!!!
The big bad is feeding on rats and later has Mullet-Guy bring him a pretty victim to feed upon and likely enslave just like Lucy was enslaved by Dracula in Bram Stokers. The vampire story also explains the Winona Ryder casting because she was in the Bram Stoker Dracula film. Also, Mullet-guy is now dizzy and sick when he’s exposed to sunlight! HEARD IT HERE FIRST!!!! *Spikes Ball* *Touchdown Dance*
Mike takes Hops lecture seriously and he starts lying to El. Then, El and Mike break up. Big Whoop. Don’t Care. Lucas and his girlfriend are much more interesting characters anyway. They have wit and drama. Mike and El’s relationship is basically a one-note in dullsville.
Steve, Robin, and Dustin have decoded the Russian message sort of. I’m actually coming to the belief that neck breaking Russian guy is in the upside down and they are trying to get back to the real world. Also, that the melted Russians from the first episode are actually the Big Bad from Season 2 and Season 3. The experiment fused them and now they are a combined angry monster vampire.
The episode ends as said before with Mullet-Renfield bringing the Monster a pretty victim. Just like in Dracula!
Posted in Horror, netflix, Stranger Things, TV, TV Review, TV Show, Uncategorized | Tagged Caleb McLaughlin, Cara Buono, Charlie Heaton, Dacre Montgomery, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Joe Keery, Maya Hawke, Millie Bobby Brown, Natalia Dyer, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Winona Ryder | 2 Comments
Stranger Things, S3, Ep1, Suzie, Do you copy?, Review By Case Wright, (Dir. Matt and Ross Duffer)
And…..We’re Back!
This series is special to me. It’s the first I ever reviewed for this site. It was awesome- Read Here
I have watched every episode of this series. The first season was epic and even engendered a ride at Universal Studios. Season 2 was a show that was aired on Netflix with Sean Astin. This season has a new big bad who looks a lot like last years big bad. So….I hope it’s better than last year’s terribleness. This episode opened with a bit of meh, but better than Season Two’s sophomore slump. I’m guessing that it will be kinda of fun to watch. In any case, I write for an entertainment blog, so this is happening!
Cold Open: The Russians are trying to open the gate and they are EVIL! One guy goes full on Ivan Drago (Rocky IV) and lifts a guy by the neck and chokes hims to death! Their experiment apparently releases the smoke monster again and he’s pissed at Hawkins!
Our older heroes are really not doing well. Nancy is a gopher at a sexist newspaper. Jake Busey is one of the reporters. I’m not sure if Jake knew this was a role or if he thought, “I’ve always wanted to work at a newspaper in a dying town!” and just ran with it. Creeper has found his niche working as a creepy photographer for a creepy newspaper. We’re better off without elitist journalists anyway. All Hail The Bloggers!!!!
Steve is working at the mall at a terrible ice cream shop and striking out with every girl in Indiana. I suppose this is possible. He wears a dorky outfit, but he’s still Steve. I kinda doubted this whole constant rejection he’s getting. I think it’s the writers were thinking that the moment good looking people leave high school, they are nobody. This doesn’t make sense because IRL beautiful people make tons of money as actors and generally do pretty well getting dates. It takes me out of it a little.
The gang is all about their hormones. Mike and El are constantly making out and disrespecting Hop, which I really can’t stand. Hop is troubled by and turns to his unrequited love Joyce who tells him to get to get all kumbaya and I just can’t watch. This comes to a head at the end of the episode where Hop loses it and I’m hoping he smacks Mike around- in a nice way.
Dustin returned from science camp and he built a Radio Tower to speak with his girlfriend in Utah. Everyone keeps acting totally shocked that Dustin could have a girlfriend. This came across as mean and dickish to me. I mean Dustin isn’t Brad Pitt, but he’s smart and nice. Anywho, they erect the radio tower and Dustin can’t reach her, giving his girlfriend claim a “My girlfriend is in Canada” feel to it. To my Canadian readers, we down south have been claiming that you were our girlfriends for generations. I know this sounds weird, but here we are. He does pick up a signal from the Russians and they are trying to open their own gate to evil town.
Ok, Cara Buono is at the pool as is Mullet-guy. Mullet-guy is now the lifeguard and they going to have an affair. This all seems to be ready to go, but the smoke monster is taking up space in the abandoned Steel Mill and eats him or something. Why a Steel Mill? Well, the Smoke Monster is really into depressed real estate and factories can be converted into lofts for the hipster set. It’s really forward thinking on Smokey’s part.
I would say this episode is a bit clunky, but good. Is it the thrill ride of the first season? NO NO NO, but honestly what is?! Stranger Things season 1 was a television event up there with The Stand, Shogun, or It. In fact, it was never meant to be a recurring series until the last minute, but hey it’s better than watching re-runs of Parks and Rec.
See you soon for ep 2!!!
Posted in Horror, netflix, science fiction, sports, Stranger Things, TV, TV Review, TV Show | Tagged Caleb McLaughlin, Cara Buono, Charlie Heaton, Dacre Montgomery, David Harbour, Finn Wolfhard, Gaten Matarazzo, Joe Keery, Millie Bobby Brown, Natalia Dyer, Noah Schnapp, Sadie Sink, Winona Ryder | 2 Comments
Playing Catch-Up: Autumn in New York, Griffin & Phoenix, Harry & Son, The Life of David Gale
Posted on March 23, 2018 by Lisa Marie Bowman
So, this year I am making a sincere effort to review every film that I see. I know I say that every year but this time, I really mean it.
So, in an effort to catch up, here are four quick reviews of some of the movies that I watched over the past few weeks!
Directed by Joan Chen
Starring Richard Gere, Winona Ryder, Anthony LaPaglia, Elaine Stritch, Vera Farmiga, Sherry Stringfield, Jill Hennessy, J.K. Simmons, Sam Trammell, Mary Beth Hurt
Richard Gere is Will, a fabulously wealthy New Yorker, who has had many girlfriends but who has never been able to find the one. He owns a restaurant and appears on the cover of New York Magazine. He loves food because, according to him, “Food is the only beautiful thing that truly nourishes.”
Winona Ryder is Charlotte, a hat designer who is always happy and cheerful and full of life. She’s the type who dresses up like Emily Dickinson for Christmas and recites poetry to children, though you get the feeling that, if they ever somehow met in real life, Emily would probably get annoyed with Charlotte fairly quickly. Actually, Charlotte might soon get to meet Emily because she has one of those rare diseases that kills you in a year while still allowing you to look healthy and beautiful.
One night, Will and Charlotte meet and, together, they solve crimes!
No, actually, they fall in love. This is one of those films where a young woman teaches an old man how to live again but then promptly dies so it’s not like he actually has to make a huge commitment or anything. The film does, at least, acknowledge that Will is a lot older than Charlotte but it still doesn’t make it any less weird that Charlotte would want to spend her last year on Earth dealing with a self-centered, emotionally remote man who is old enough to be her father. (To be honest, when it was revealed that Charlotte was the daughter of a woman who Will had previously dated, I was briefly worried that Autumn in New York was going to take an even stranger turn….)
On the positive side, the films features some pretty shots of New York and there is actually a pretty nice subplot, in which Will tries to connect with the daughter (Vera Farmiga) that he never knew he had. Maybe if Farmiga and Ryder had switched roles, Autumn in New York would have worked out better.
Griffin & Phoenix
Directed by Ed Stone
Starring Dermot Mulroney, Amanda Peet, Blair Brown, and Sarah Paulson
His name is Henry Griffin (Dermot Mulroney).
Her name is Sarah Phoenix (Amanda Peet).
Because they both have highly symbolic last names, we know that they’re meant to be together.
They both have cancer. They’ve both been given a year to live. Of course, they don’t realize that when they first meet and fall in love. In fact, when Phoenix comes across several books that Griffin has purchased about dealing with being terminally ill, she assumes that Griffin bought them to try to fool her into falling in love with him. Once they realize that they only have a year to be together, Griffin and Phoenix set out to make every moment count…
It’s a sweet-natured and unabashedly sentimental movie but, unfortunately, Dermot Mulroney and Amanda Peet have little romantic chemistry and the film is never quite as successful at inspiring tears as it should be. When Mulroney finally allows himself to get mad and deals with his anger by vandalizing a bunch of cars, it’s not a cathartic moment. Instead, you just find yourself wondering how Mulroney could so easily get away with destroying a stranger’s windshield in broad daylight.
Harry & Son
Directed by Paul Newman
Starring Paul Newman, Robby Benson, Ellen Barkin, Wilford Brimley, Judith Ivey, Ossie Davis, Morgan Freeman, Katherine Borowitz, Maury Chaykin, Joanne Woodward
Morgan Freeman makes an early film appearance in Harry & Son, though his role is a tiny one. He plays a factory foreman named Siemanowski who, in quick order, gets angry with and then fires a new employee named Howard Keach (Robby Benson). Howard is the son in Harry & Son and he’s such an annoying character that you’re happy when Freeman shows up and starts yelling at the little twit. As I said, Freeman’s role is a small one. Freeman’s only on screen for a few minutes. But, in that time, he calls Howard an idiot and it’s hard not to feel that he has a point.
Of course, the problem is that we’re not supposed to view Howard as being an idiot. Instead, we’re supposed to be on Howard’s side. Howard has ambitions to be the next Ernest Hemingway. However, his blue-collar father, Harry (Paul Newman, who also directed), demands that Howard get a job. Maybe, like us, he realizes how silly Howard looks whenever he gets hunched over his typewriter. (Robby Benson tries to pull off these “deep thought” facial expressions that simply have to be seen to be believed.) There’s actually two problems with Howard. First off, we never believe that he could possibly come up with anything worth reading. Secondly, it’s impossible to believe that Paul Newman could ever be the father of such an annoying little creep.
Harry, of course, has problems of his own. He’s just lost his construction job. He’s having to deal with the fact that he’s getting older. Fortunately, his son introduces him to a nymphomaniac (Judith Ivey). Eventually, it all ends with moments of triumph and tragedy, as these things often do.
As always, Newman is believable as a blue-collar guy who believes in hard work and cold beer. The film actually gets off to a good start, with Newman using a wrecking ball to take down an old building. But then Robby Benson shows up, hunched over that typewriter, and the film just becomes unbearable. At least Morgan Freeman’s around to yell at the annoying little jerk.
Directed by Alan Parker
Starring Kevin Spacey, Kate Winslet, Laura Linney, Gabriel Mann, Rhona Mitra, Leon Rippy, Matt Craven, Jim Beaver, Melissa McCarthy
For the record, while I won’t shed any tears whenever Dzhokahr Tsarnaev is finally executed, I’m against the death penalty. I think that once we accept the idea that the state has the right to execute people, it becomes a lot easier to accept the idea that the state has the right to do a lot of other things. Plus, there’s always the danger of innocent people being sent to die. The Life of David Gale also claims to be against the death penalty but it’s so obnoxious and self-righteous that I doubt it changed anyone’s mind.
David Gale (Kevin Spacey) used to the head of the philosophy department at the University of Texas. He used to be a nationally renowned activist against the death penalty. But then he was arrested for and convicted of the murder of another activist, Constance Harraway (Laura Linney) and now David Gale is sitting on death row himself. With his execution approaching, journalist Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) is convinced that Gale was framed and she finds herself racing against time to prevent Texas from executing an innocent man…
There’s a lot of things wrong with The Life of David Gale. First off, it was made during the Bush administration, so the whole film is basically just a hate letter to the state of Texas. Never have I heard so many inauthentic accents in one film. Secondly, only in a truly bad movie, can someone have a name like Bitsey Bloom. Third, the whole film ends with this big twist that makes absolutely no sense and which nearly inspired me to throw a shoe at the TV.
Of course, the main problem with the film is that we’re asked to sympathize with a character played by Kevin Spacey. Even before Kevin Spacey was revealed to be a sleazy perv, he was never a particularly sympathetic or really even that versatile of an actor. (Both American Beauty and House of Cards tried to disguise this fact by surrounding him with cartoonish caricatures.) Spacey’s so snarky and condescending as Gale that, even if he is innocent of murder, it’s hard not to feel that maybe David Gale should be executed for crimes against likability.
Posted in Film, Film Review | Tagged Alan Parker, Amanda Peet, Anthony LaPaglia, Autumn in New York, Blair Brown, Dermot Mulroney, Ed Stone, Elaine Stritch, Ellen Barkin, Film, Gabriel Mann, Griffin & Phoenix, Harry & Son, Harry and Son, J.K. Simmons, Jill Hennessy, Jim Beaver, Joan Chen, Joanne Woodward, Judith Ivey, Kate Winslet, Katharine Borowitz, Kevin Spacey, Laura Linney, Leon Rippy, Lisa Marie Bowman, Mary Beth Hurt, Matt Craven, Maury Chaykin, Melissa McCarthy, Morgan Freeman, movie, Ossie Davis, Paul Newman, review, Rhona Mitra, Richard Gere, Robby Benson, Sam Trammell, Sarah Paulson, Sherry Stringfield, The Life of David Gale, Vera Farmiga, Wilford Brimley, Winona Ryder | 2 Comments
A Movie A Day #173: Great Balls of Fire! (1989, directed by Jim McBride)
Posted on June 30, 2017 by Jedadiah Leland
In the 1950s, Jerry Lee Lewis (Dennis Quaid) plays what his cousin, Jimmy Swaggart (Alec Baldwin), calls the devil’s music. After signing a contract with Sam Phillips (Trey Wilson), Jerry becomes a star with his wild man persona and crazed piano playing. When Elvis is drafted, it appears that Jerry is destined to take over as the new King of Rock and Roll. But, then, while touring England, the press discovers that Jerry is married to his 13 year-old cousin, Myra (Winona Ryder). When Jerry refuses to apologize for his private life, his career falls apart.
The real Jerry Lew Lewis has stated many times that he hates this musical biopic and that it has very little in common with his actual life. Jerry has a point. Great Balls of Fire is a highly stylized film, one that greatly sanitizes both the life of Jerry Lee Lewis and the early days of rock and roll. In the film, there’s no struggle or even hard work on the road to becoming a star. Jerry just drops off a recording of himself playing piano and viola! He’s a star! Soon, teenagers are dancing around his convertible, both civil rights protestors and white Southern cops start dancing whenever they see him driving down the street, the local radio DJ waves whenever he sees them, and Jerry’s sneaking into Mississippi so that he can marry his thirteen year-old cousin.
Great Balls of Fire! takes a superficially mater of fact approach to Jerry’s marriage to Myra, neither condemning nor excusing, though it does cheat by casting the 18 year-old Winona Ryder as the 13 year-old Myra. (If the film had cast an actress who was closer to Myra’s actual age, Great Balls of Fire! would never have been released.) Fortunately, history helped the movie out by making Jimmy Swaggart into Jerry’s main critic. Alec Baldwin’s performance as Jimmy Swaggart makes his interpretation of Donald Trump look subtle, nuanced, and award-worthy.
Dennis Quaid, at the height of his 80s stardom, is ideally cast as Jerry Lee Lewis, giving a good if broad performance and doing a convincing job lip-syncing to the music. Quaid has said that he was struggling with an addiction to cocaine while filming Great Balls of Fire! and that might have made him the perfect actor to play the always conflicted and always wild Jerry Lee Lewis. The best thing about the film is that Jerry Lee Lewis provided the music, re-recording his best known songs. While the movie may not tell the true story of Jerry Lee Lewis, it does feature enough of his music that it is obvious why Jerry Lee Lewis nearly became the king of rock and roll.
Posted in Film, Film Review | Tagged Alec Baldwin, David R. Ferguson, Dennis Quaid, Great Balls of Fire!, Jerry Lee Lewis, Jim McBride, Jimmie Vaughn, John Doe, Joshua Sheffield, Lisa Blount, Lisa Jane Persky, Michael St. Gerard, Mojo Nixon, Movie A Day, Peter Cook, Robert Lesser, Stephen Tobolowsky, Steve Allen, Trey Wilson, Winona Ryder | Leave a comment
The SAG Nominations are here and … Hello there, Captain Fantastic!
Posted on December 14, 2016 by Lisa Marie Bowman
Earlier the year, I choose not to see Captain Fantastic. Every bit of advertising that I saw for it led me to believe that Captain Fantastic was basically just Wes Anderson-lite and, as we all know, only Wes Anderson can successfully duplicate Wes Anderson.
Well, I think I may have made a mistake because Viggo Mortensen is definitely in the hunt for best actor. Though most of the precursor awards (so far) have gone to Casey Affleck for Manchester By The Sea, Mortensen still seems like a likely nominee.
Just consider this: he got a SAG nomination! And so did Captain Fantastic, itself! It was nominated for best ensemble, which is the SAG equivalent of best picture…
Actually, maybe you shouldn’t spend too much time fixating on that. People like me always talk about how the SAG awards are an obvious precursor for the Oscars. Our logic is that the Actor’s Branch is the largest voting bloc in the Academy and the members of the Actor’s Branch are among those who also vote for the SAG awards.
Of course, we always forget that the majority of SAG members are themselves not a part of the Academy. So, while enough members of SAG may have liked Captain Fantastic for it to get an unexpected ensemble nomination, that doesn’t necessarily mean that those voters are also members of the Academy.
I mean, let’s consider what happened last year. Beasts of No Nation picked up an ensemble nomination. So did Straight Outta Compton. So did Trumbo. None of those films proved to be an Oscar powerhouse. In fact, Beasts of No Nation received a grand total of zero Oscar nominations.
So, let’s put it like this — it’s a good sign for a film or a performer to get a SAG nomination. But there’s still no guarantee that it will translate into Oscar recognition. Captain Fantastic may have been nominated and La La Land was snubbed (for ensemble). But I imagine that the reverse will happen when the Oscar noms are announced in January.
With all that in mind, here are the SAG nominations!
Best Film Ensemble
Casey Affleck, “Manchester by the Sea”
Andrew Garfield, “Hacksaw Ridge”
Ryan Gosling, “La La Land”
Viggo Mortensen, “Captain Fantastic”
Denzel Washington, “Fences”
Amy Adams, “Arrival”
Emily Blunt, “The Girl on the Train”
Natalie Portman, “Jackie”
Emma Stone, “La La Land”
Meryl Streep, “Florence Foster Jenkins”
Mahershala Ali, “Moonlight”
Jeff Bridges, “Hell or High Water”
Hugh Grant, “Florence Foster Jenkins”
Lucas Hedges, “Manchester by the Sea”
Dev Patel, “Lion”
Viola Davis, “Fences”
Naomie Harris, “Moonlight”
Nicole Kidman, “Lion”
Octavia Spencer, “Hidden Figures
Michelle Williams, “Manchester by the Sea”
Best Stunt Ensemble
Best Comedy Ensemble
Best Comedy Actor
Titus Burgess, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”
Ty Burrell, “Modern Family”
William H. Macy, “Shameless”
Jeffrey Tambor, “Transparent”
Best Comedy Actress
Uzo Aduba, “Orange is the New Black”
Jane Fonda, “Grace & Frankie”
Ellie Kemper, “Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt”
Lily Tomlin, “Grace & Frankie”
Best Drama Ensemble
Best Drama Actor
John Lithgow, “The Crown”
Rami Malek, “Mr. Robot”
Kevin Spacey, “House of Cards”
Best Drama Actress
Millie Bobby Brown, “Stranger Things”
Claire Foy, “The Crown”
Thandie Newton, “Westworld”
Winona Ryder, “Stranger Things”
Best Movie/Miniseries Actor
Riz Ahmed, “The Night Of”
Sterling K. Brown, “The People v. O.J. Simpson”
Bryan Cranston, “All The Way”
John Turturro, “The Night Of”
Courtney B Vance, “The People v. O.J. Simpson”
Best Movie/Miniseries Actress
Bryce Dallas Howard, “Black Mirror”
Felicity Huffman, “American Crime”
Audra McDonald, “Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill”
Sarah Paulson, “The People v. O.J. Simpson”
Kerry Washington, “Confirmation”
Posted in Film, TV, TV Show | Tagged Academy Award, Academy Awards, All The Way, American Crime, Amy Adams, Andrew Garfield, Anthony Anderson, Arrival, Audra McDonald, award, awards, Black Mirror, Black-ish, Bryan Cranston, Bryce Dallas Howard, Captain America: Civil War, Captain Fantastic, Casey Affleck, Claire Foy, Confirmation, Courtney B. Vance, Daredevil, Denzel Washington, Dev Patel, Doctor Strange, Downton Abbey, Ellie Kemper, Emily Blunt, Emma Stone, Felicity Huffman, Fences, Film, Films, Florence Foster Jenkins, Game of Thrones, Grace & Frankie, Hacksaw Ridge, Hell or High Water, Hidden Figures, House of Cards, Hugh Grant, Jackie, Jane Fonda, Jason Bourne, Jeff Bridges, Jeffrey Tambor, John Lithgow, John Turturro, Julia Louis-Dreyfuss, Kerry Washington, Kevin Spacey, Lady Day At Emerson's Bar & Grill, Lily Tomlin, Lion, Lisa Marie Bowman, Lucas Hedges, Luke Cage, Mahershala Ali, Manchester By The Sea, Meryl Streep, Michelle Williams, Millie Bobby Brown, Modern Family, Moonlight, movie, Movies, Mr. Robot, Naomie Harris, Natalie Portman, Nicole Kidman, Nocturnal Animals, Octavia Spencer, Orange is The New Black, Oscar, Oscars, Peter Dinklage, Rami Malek, Riz Ahmed, Robin Wright, Ryan Gosling, SAG, SAG Awards, Sarah Paulson, Screen Actors Guild, Screen Actors Guild Awards, Shameless, show, Sterling K. Brown, Stranger Things, television, Thandie Newton, The Big Bang Theory, The Crown, The Girl On The Train, The Night of, The People v O.J. Simpson, The People Vs. OJ Simpson, The Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, The Walking Dead, This is Us, Titus Burgess, Transparent, tv, TV Show, Ty Burrell, Uzo Aduba, Veep, Viggo Mortensen, Viola Davis, Westworld, William H. Macy, Winona Ryder | Leave a comment
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Just Transitions: Explorations of Sustainability in an Unfair World
Mark Swilling and Eve Annecke
Harold and Margaret Sprout Award Runner-up prize 2013
Just Transitions does what few others even attempt—namely, redefine global environmental politics in a way commensurate with the nature of the problem, the speed and extent of current changes, and the urgency of transition.
Harold and Margaret Sprout Award Committee
Current economic growth strategies around the world are rapidly depleting the natural resources and eco-system services that we depend on. Just Transitions gives a comprehensive overview of these global challenges from a global South perspective. How do developing countries eradicate poverty via economic development, while at the same time encountering the consequences of global warming and dwindling levels of cheap oil, productive soils, metals, clean water supplies and forest products? How do they address widening inequalities in income as well as the need to rebuild eco-system services and natural resources?
This book considers the theme of a just transition, which reconciles the sustainable use of natural resources with a pervasive commitment to sufficiency (where over-consumers are satisfied with less so that under-consumers can secure enough). It explores the perplexing logics of a range of different literatures and synthesises them to illuminate new ways of thinking from a sustainability perspective. It rethinks development with special reference to the greening of the developmental state, explores the key role that cities could play in the transition to a more sustainably urbanized world, and highlights the neglect of soils in the global discussions around the potential of sustainable agriculture to feed the world. Case studies drawn from the African continent detail the challenges, but they are set in the context of global trends. The authors conclude with their experience of building a community that aspires to live sustainably.
‘It is great to read one of the rare books responding to the challenge of an unfair world not with moral reproach, but with a subtle strategy of turning apparent trouble into an advantage. Combining urbanism, material flows and democracy might indeed be a way out.’
—Marina Fischer-Kowalski, Director, Institute of Social Ecology, Alpen-Adria Universitaet, Vienna
‘The book provides material for understanding the science of sustainability and the practice of sustainable living. It X-rays, in a very lucid way, the complexity of transitions to sustainable economies.’
—Kevin Chika Urama, Executive Director, African Technology Policy Studies Network (ATPS), and President, African Society for Ecological Economics (ASEE)
‘A stimulating book that thinks critically and reflectively about how we can re-construct socially just transitions in a period marked by deep economic and ecological crises. But what makes this book distinctive is both its professional commitment to intellectual inquiry and the authors’ own personal commitment to experimenting and living with (more) just transitions in the Lynedoch EcoVillage. An inspiring thought-provoking read about how alternatives could be reconstructed.’
—Simon Marvin, Co-Director, Centre for Sustainable Urban and Regional Futures, University of Salford
‘For anyone interested in the necessary transition that awaits us all, this book is testimony to a thoughtful marriage of theory and practice.’
—Malcolm McIntosh, Director, Asia Pacific Centre for Sustainable Enterprise, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia and co-author of SEE Change: Making the Transition to the Sustainable Enterprise Economy
‘Just Transitions brings together powerful arguments and evidence that a fairer world is not only a moral imperative but an ecological and economic necessity.’
—Ashok Khosla, Chairman of Development Alternatives (India), President of IUCN and Co-president of the Club of Rome
‘We all know that the current model of global capitalism and its unjust settlement patterns are wrong, unsustainable, and yet, seemingly interminable. Just Transitions provides an excellent academic and activist resource to simultaneously conduct incisive critique and visionary proposition. It is indispensible reading for anyone with a desire to cast light on our bleak world bereft of ideas.’
—Edgar Pieterse, Director of the African Centre for Cities, University of Cape Town and author of City Futures
Mark Swilling is Professor in the School of Public Leadership, Division Head of the Sustainable Development Division and Programme Coordinator of the Master’s and Doctoral Programme in Sustainable Development at the University of Stellenbosch and a member of the International Resource Panel (convened by the United Nations Environement Programme). Eve Annecke is Director of the Sustainability Institute and has taught on leadership courses at the Warwick Business School (UK), Kennedy School of Government (Harvard) and various South African universities.
Complexity and Sustainability
What is so Unsustainable?
Crisis, Transitions and Sustainability
Greening the Developmental State
Rethinking Urbanism
Soils and the Ever-Green Revolution
Part III: Case Studies
Resource Wars: The Sudan Story
Sustainability and Macro-Economic Policy: The case of South Africa after Democratisation
Cape Town’s Contested Urbanisms
Pioneering Liveable Urbanism: Reflections on an Invisible Way
Sample Chapter (2.5 MB PDF)
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Wall Street’s 5 most accurate analysts share the stocks you should buy now for explosive returns in 2020
Home | Business | Wall Street’s 5 most accurate analysts share the stocks you should buy now for explosive returns in 2020
Sell-side analysts with expertise in specific sectors are extremely useful for identifying stocks that are likely to deliver the market’s biggest gains.
TipRanks, a fintech company that measures the performance of sell-side analysts, ranked the top experts of 2019 and shared a stock they each rate as a “buy” right now.
Click here for more BI Prime stories.
The stock market’s biggest gains are often found by striking gold in a few individual companies that widely outperform expectations.
For ideas on where to find these stocks, there’s no vaster resource than the analysts who track every move companies make and provide recommendations to buy, sell, or hold.
But the flood of sell-side research can be overwhelming at times, making it imperative to sort through the noise and identify who is worth listening to.
TipRanks, a fintech company that measures the performance of sell-side analysts, has done just that by ranking the individuals who were most on the money in 2019. The company also shared with Business Insider one current buy-rated stock from each analyst that you can run with in 2020.
TipRanks took two factors into consideration. The first was each analyst’s overall success rate for 2019, defined as …read more
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These 3 Chase cards are all you need to maximize how you earn rewards points
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Albanian Dog Names
Albania, officially the Republic of Albania, is a country located in Southeast Europe that is bordered by Montenegro to the northwest, Kosovo to the northeast, the Republic of Macedonia to the east and Greece to the south and southeast. The country offers a diverse landscape, to include snow-capped mountains and hot, sunny coasts. Albania has an upper-middle income economy and provides universal healthcare and free primary and secondary education to its citizens.
Albania has a lot to offer, including a myriad of possibilities for a name for your pup. Take a closer look and you may find a name that is just right for your canine pal.
Albanian Dog Names In Pop Culture
Featured Famous Albanian Dog
In December of 2017, Anita Hendrieka was scrolling through Facebook out of boredom when she came across a post that piqued her interest. A woman named Kornelia had posted a photo and information about a street dog living in Tirana. Hendrieka was immediately drawn to the picture of the dog, called Oreo, because her family has had Border Collies from the time she was born. From New Zealand, her father was a sheep farmer and he always relied on sheep dogs to help on the farm. Hendrieka admitted that both she and her father had a slight obsession with Border Collies who are known to be smart and loyal dogs.
The description that came with Oreo’s photo was that he was a sweet, energetic dog who was just looking for some love. Apparently Kornelia and her husband run a dog walking and coaching business in Tirana and stated that Oreo used to wait for them at the same corner each day and walk along with them. The pup was simply seeking the attention and love that any dog should enjoy. Hendrieka’s heart melted. After all, street dogs in Albania are not always treated with love.
Hendrieka immediately sent a message to Kornelia to seek more details about Oreo. She also checked in with a friend who lives full time in Albania. Her friend expressed that he would be happy to pick up Oreo and spend three months with him until Hendrieka returned to Albania. She felt that she could not turn her back on Oreo; the idea of him being on the street made her very sad and she could not stop thinking about the black and white pup.
Her friend wound up picking up Oreo on Christmas day. In March, Hendrieka arrived in Albania and had a hard time believing he had been a street dog. He did well on the lead and was in great condition. As her friend lived in Berat and she lived in Saranda, Hendrieka and Orea were quickly faced with a road trip. The journey was rough for Oreo, who turned out to be very car sick. Over the six hour journey they had the opportunity to bond, with Oreo spending much of his time in Hendrieka’s lap.
Oreo is now home in Saranda where he and Hendrieka live together. Hendrieka reports that Oreo is totally comfortable in his home and surroundings. The pup loves children and is confused by waves. Since a lot of Albanians are afraid of dogs (they have been brought up not to trust dogs), when Oreo is out for a walk he is often given a large amount of space by people trying to avoid him. Fortunately, he has his own best buddy to give him all of the attention he could desire!
Albanian Dog Name Considerations
If you can’t seem to settle on a name for your pup, rest assured that you are not alone. Plenty of people have a hard time choosing just the right name for their canine companion. Which makes sense; you will be calling that name for years to come so you certainly want to like it! So, don’t growl in frustration; instead, think of places that are interesting to you. It is likely that each interesting place will offer a variety of name possibilities, one of which may be just what you are looking for.
Take Albania; the country offers mountains and coastal areas, rivers, national parks, and interesting cities as well as its own unique cuisine. A virtual tour of the country will introduce you to much of what the region offers. Take what you come across that could make a potential name for your pooch; you might wind up with quite a list. Are you looking for a short and compact name? Consider Klos, after a town in eastern Albania. Do you want to honor a famous resident? Choose Hava as a tag for your pup in memory of Hava Rexha, Albania's oldest known resident, who died at the age of 123.
With a name from Albania, each time you call for your pup, you will be reminded of the country and what is within its confines. Peruse our list, you are certain to find the perfect Albania dog name!
Male Albanian Dog Names
The third largest city in Albania
A city and county in southwest Albania
Albania’s ninth most populated city
A city and municipality in central Albania
Sukth
A village in western Albania
A town in Fier County in Albania
Mamurras
A town located in northwestern Albania
A northern Albanian town located 91 kilometers from Tirana
A town and municipality in Elbasan County
An eastern Albanian town
For Shijak, located in west central Albania
A town in the north central part of Albania
A town and municipality in eastern Albania
A town in the northwestern tip of Albania
A town in southeastern Albania
Kurbnesh
A small town in north central Albania
Osum
For the Osum River in southern Albania, one of the source rivers of the Seman
For the Mat River, located in north central Albania
Erzen
For the Erzen River in central Albania which is 68 miles long
Drino
For the Drino River in southern Albania and northwestern Greece
For Gramos, a mountain range on the border of Albania and Greece
Tomorr
For Tomorr Mountain in southern Albania
Bujar
For Bujar Alimani, a filmmaker, screenwriter and actor
Pashtrik
For Pashtrik Mountain, located in Albania and Kosovo
For Ismail Kadare, an Albanian novelist and poet
For Luigj Gurakuqi, an Albanian writer and politician
For Briken Calja, an Albanian weightlifter
For Bujar Faik Nishani, an Albanian politician who has been Albania’s President
For Julian Deda, an Albanian comedian and actor
For Altin Lala, a former football player from Albania
Female Albanian Dog Names
Albania’s capital and most populated city
For Finiq, a mainly Greek inhabited settlement in southern Albania
For the Drin River, which flows through Albania, Kosovo and Macedonia
Devoll
For the Devoll River, located in southern Albania
For the Gashi River, a nature reserve in northern Albania
Jezerca
The second highest mountain peak in Albania
Radohima
A mountain within the Albania Alps
For Raja Mosit, a mountain on the border of Albania and Montenegro
Dajti
A mountain and national park in Albania
Masiela
For Masiela Lusha, an Albanian American actress
Gjallica
A limestone mountain in Albania
Valamara
For Valamara Mountain, located in the Central Mountain Range in southeastern Albania
Tromedja
A mountain in Albania’s Prokletije Range
Arapi
For Arapi Mountain, located in the Prokletije Range in northern Albania
Munella
For Munella Mountain in Albania
Ermira
For Ermira Gjata, an actress and screenwriter from Albania
Luljeta
For Luljeta Lleshanaku, a poet from Albania
Llogara
For Llogara Nationa Park in Albania
For Prespa National Park in Albania
For the Benja Thermal Baths, a year-round hot spring in Albania
Syri
For Syri I Kalter, which appears to be a bottomless deep blue spring
For Albanian photographer Mimoza Veliu
For Teuta Topi, a former first lady of Albania
For Hava Rexha who died at 123 and thought to be the oldest woman in Albania
Anjeza
For Anjeza Shahini, an Albanian singer
A town in northeastern Albania
A town in northwestern Albania
A town in the southern part of Albania
Peqin
A town located in central Albania
For Orikum, a town in southwestern Albania named after the ancient city of Oricum
Community Dogs With Albanian Names
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Written by an Australian Shepherd Lover
Ilyssa Bozza
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