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Women in Law
Justitia Awards online
Patronage 2020
Women in Law 2021 & Justitia Awards
Justitia Awards 2020
Justitia Awards
The Women in Law Initiative will present the Justitia Awards to outstanding national and international female legal experts online on 19 November 2020. The Justitia Awards Celebration will premier online on our YouTube channel on November 19, 2020, at 7 pm (CET).
The Justitia Awards will honor outstanding female laureates of the legal professions in one of three categories. Nominations are open to women in law in all legal professions: lawyers, notaries public, in-house counsel, judges, researchers and scientists, civil servants, etc. The ceremony takes place on 19 November 2020 at 19:00.
Nominations for the Justitia Awards 2020 are closed. The Laureats’ Selection Committee will review the many interesting nominations we have received in the next few weeks.
Justizpalast, the Palace of Justice, in Vienna taken from wikimedia [Public domain]
On 19 November, the winner of the Justitia Awards 2020 will be revealed. Women in law, who have not only achieved outstanding professional achievements both nationally and internationally but who have also been pioneers and role models for women in the legal profession, will be honored in three categories. The special prize for organizations goes to the European Women Lawyers’ Association (EWLA), which was founded 20 years ago by the British lawyer Cherie Blair together with fellow women lawyers from 15 European countries and is still one of the most important European platforms for women lawyers today.
Those nominees who made it onto the shortlist will be featured individually by The Women in Law Initiative in the coming weeks. The winners will be announced at the award ceremony on 19 November 2020.
taken from pixabay
International Leaders / Lifetime Award
This category celebrates the most talented and impactful women in the legal professions, recognizes their achievements and contribution to the society. The nominee is “the” outstanding woman of the year, demonstrating excellence, as the most innovative and groundbreaking lifetime achiever.
The nominee should have made significant impact, delivered qualitatively and/or quantitatively measurable tangible results relative to the invested resources and influenced demonstrable changes in: attitudes, beliefs, and practices towards gender equality in legal professions.
Young Achievers / Game Changers / Pioneers
The nominee is a game changer, who has made an impact in the promotion of innovative approaches resulting in opportunities for women in law or a young legal professional, who has shattered the glass ceiling in her field. This includes new ways of working where “business as usual” has failed and innovative “out-of-the-box” solutions have succeeded. She has demonstrated innovation in terms of: the themes covered; the methodology employed; the channels used to create opportunities; and/or other aspects.
1. International leaders / Lifetime Award: Brigitte Bierlein, Christina Blacklaws, Hlaleleni Kathleen Dlepu, Rehana Khan Parker, Silva de la Puerta Rosario
2. Academia: J. Jarpa Dawuni, Ivana Krstic, Antonija Petričušić, Ilse Reiter-Zatloukal
3. Young achievers / Game changers / Pioneers: Christina Blacklaws, Michaela Clicque, Omnia Gadalla, Petra Smutny, Carmen Thornton
Deadline of Nominations: March 15, 2020. Please use the form provided. Only materials received prior to the deadline will be considered by the selection committee.
The Justitia Award is an honorary award with no monetary payments. The selection of laureates falls under the sole discretion of the Justitia Laureates’ Selection Committee. The Committee further reserves the right to grant special awards beyond the categories. Any recourse is excluded.
Jasmin Malekpour-Augustin
info@womeninlaw.info
Conference & Awards Sponsoring:
Sponsoring – platin
Sponsoring – gold
Sponsoring – silver
Sponsoring – bronze
Under the patronage of:
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Dantevilles – ‘Welcome to the Theatre’ | EP Review
Alex Wise September 5, 2019 May 8, 2020
Dantevilles Release Second EP ‘Welcome to the Theatre’
Only a year since the self-titled debut EP, Dantevilles have released their second EP ‘Welcome to the Theatre’. We recently covered their latest track ‘Confessions‘, which gave us a small taste of the release of the EP.
Welcome to the Theatre has a strong dark-pop theme which shadows over the three-track EP, and it shows their best. The opening track ‘Soundscape’ has a catchy hook with a massive, punchy riff which is the shining light of the track.
The piercing guitars are a key feature for the EP, as it once again beams through on quick-hitter ‘Save Me a Dance’. This wins track of the EP for me. It all ends with ‘Confessions’ which we already knew packed a punch, but with these other songs by its side it definitely has good company.
The EP is another good outing for the band, as it will pepper up the set list and keep their fans thirsty for more. With two EP’s in the bank, what do the band plan on next?
Alex Wise
Editor of Words For Music. Love music and support each other.
Sam Fender – ‘The Borders’ | New Music
Pizzagirl – ‘Dennis’ | New Music
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Powerhouse Pianists
Genom American Modern Ensemble
Powerhouse Pianists is the American Modern Ensemble's first recording on the AMR label and highlights two of it's members, pianists Blair McMillen and Stephen Gosling. Hailed by critics as 'Brilliant young stars...The dynamic duo of contemporary pianists' (The New York Times), this recording contains a selection of contemporary masterpieces by a few of America's greatest composers. Of special note on this recording is a work by Annie Gosfield in which Mr. McMillen plays the piano with a baseball mitt and baseballs. REVIEW FROM THE JUILLIARD JOURNAL: An eclectic program... McMillen offers a rarity right off the bat, with Chester Biscardi's softly glittering Piano Sonata, then completely changes direction with Lee Hyla's stark Basic Training and Eric Moe's Where Branched Thoughts Murmur in the Wind, a brief, delicate essay. He ends with Brooklyn, October 5, 1941, Annie Gosfield's striking tribute to the Brooklyn Dodgers (played with baseballs and a mitt), in an unusual set delivered with tautness and finesse. Gosling begins with George Tsontakis's enigmatic Bagatelle, which at one point hovers over some very Brahmsian chords, followed by the darkly mysterious Episodes for Piano by Perry Townsend. Then Conlon Nancarrow bubbles into the mix with Tango?, brimming with wit. The cascade of notes continues with Joan Tower's Or Like a... an Engine, it's stammering title from a John Ashbery poem, and Gosling really floors the gas pedal for E-Machines, a hyperactive jolt by David Rakowski. Finally comes Five Études for Piano by Mischa Zupko, clearly influenced by Ligeti, and Gosling gives them a scientific accuracy, as if surveying their intricacies with a microscope. Engineer John Yannelli, capturing both pianists in the hall at Sarah Lawrence College, has given these dynamic artists a clear soundstage against which even the minutest details register in sharp focus. ••• The American Modern Ensemble (AME) is based in New York City and was formed in 2005 with the goal of premiering, performing and recording and commissioning the widest possible repertoire written by American composers. The focus is to celebrate and showcase American music and especially works written by living composers. Each season, we choose one American composer to feature on a program devoted to his or her music. AME is also dedicated to education and outreach programs that expose communities to American music, and particularly to new music written by living composers.
Konstnären: American Modern Ensemble
Titel: Powerhouse Pianists
American Modern Ensemble
1 Piano Sonata - Chester Biscardi (Blair McMillen)
2 Basic Training - Lee Hyla (Blair McMillen)
3 Where Branched Thoughts Murmur in the Wind - Eric Moe (Blair McMillen)
4 Brooklyn, October 5, 1941 - Annie Gosfield (Blair McMillen)
5 Bagatelle - George Tsontakis (Stephen Gosling)
6 Episodes for Piano - Perry Townsend (Stephen Gosling)
7 Tango? - Conlon Nancarrow (Stephen Gosling)
8 Or Like... a An Engine - Joan Tower (Stephen Gosling)
9 E-Machines - David Rakowski (Stephen Gosling)
10 Five Etudes for Piano: I. Les Innocence - Mischa Zupko (Stephen Gosling)
11 Five Etudes for Piano: II. Rain - Mischa Zupko (Stephen Gosling)
12 Five Etudes for Piano: III. Melt - Mischa Zupko (Stephen Gosling)
13 Five Etudes for Piano: IV. Papillons - Mischa Zupko (Stephen Gosling)
14 Five Etudes for Piano: V. Schizophrene - Mischa Zupko (Stephen Gosling)
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Gov. Scott Walker was joined by Republican leaders and Milwaukee officials during his announcement of the arena deal Thursday.
Shawn Johnson/WPR
Bucks Arena Deal Unveiled By Walker, Project Stakeholders
Plan Calls For $250M Public Investment
By Shawn Johnson
Thursday, June 4, 2015, 4:25pm
Key stakeholders say they've agreed to a deal to build a new stadium for the Milwaukee Bucks, though it remains to be seen whether the Legislature will agree with them.
The arena deal would call for an up-front public investment of $250 million before interest costs get figured in. Part of that would include $55 million in bonding from the state.
Milwaukee County would contribute its share through uncollected debt. The City of Milwaukee would pay its share by building a $47 million parking structure.
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Stay informed with WPR's email newsletter.
AM Headlines
PM Headlines
Walker told reporters at a state Capitol news conference that it was cheaper to keep the Bucks, and that if the team leaves, it would take tax revenue along with it.
"For lawmakers anywhere in the state, Republican and Democrat alike, the fact is if we do nothing, that revenue goes away and we have a huge hole," said Walker.
While key principals have now signed on to the deal, it still has to pass the Legislature. Its passage is far from a sure thing, with many rank-and-file lawmakers uneasy about subsidizing a professional sports stadium.
Top Wisconsin Election Official Defends Voting Events Criticized By GOP
Wisconsin Completes Partial Presidential Recount, Biden Gains 193 Votes
Milwaukee County Wraps Up Presidential Recount With Biden Adding To His Winning Margin
Wisconsin's Presidential Recount Continues With Only Small Changes To Vote Totals
County Clerks' Guidance On Voter ID Law Amid Pandemic Irks Wisconsin GOP
Expected Protests In Madison Fizzle 2 Days In A Row
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March 3, 2019 paperbacklou Players 4
There are only ten third basemen in the baseball Hall of Fame, by far the least of any position. There are guys in there like Freddie Lindstrom and Pie Traynor and George Kell, and well-known greats like Frank “Home Run” Baker, Brooks Robinson, Eddie Mathews, George Brett, and Mike Schmidt. Graig Nettles is clearly in the company of the players there. Who would you rather have on your team — Freddie “Who?” Lindstrom or Graig Nettles? Like Brooks Robinson, Nettles was one of the great defensive third basemen of all time. Incredibly, he only won two gold gloves (the same amount that Wade Boggs won as a Yankee) — they used to give it to Buddy Bell every year in the late seventies and early eighties even though Nettles was at least his equal.
Like Robinson, Nettles won a World Series with his defense, although to much less fanfare. Robinson became a household name in 1970 for his defensive heroics in the World Series. Nettles’ heroics came in 1978, when he speared line drive after line drive with acrobatic, ballet dives to his left, or behind him to his right down the third base line, and then would come the perfect lob throw to first to always just nab the runner.
You always felt that Nettles could gun the ball to first to beat any runner by a mile, but was so good he’d toy with everyone — runners, fans, and George Steinbrenner alike — in casually launching his semi-arc to first, perfectly timed to just beat the runner by a stride, every time.
At the plate, Nettles had league leading power — he led the league once in homers (32 in ’76) and just missed once (37 in ’77), and perennially was amongst the top 5 to 7 in the league in homers, even though that number was generally in the twenties. His average was usually around .250. Now before you dismiss those numbers, remember that the ball was dead — D E A D — dead in the seventies. It was so dead, they invented the designated hitter. It was so dead, they seriously thought about introducing orange baseballs at night games so the hitters could see the ball. So Nettles’ .250 would probably be a .280 average in the 1990s thru 2000’s. And his 20-something homeruns would be 40-something every year today (with the lively baseball that is causing lots of homers and lots of strikeouts). And if he did that, how many career home runs would he have hit? As it was, he approached 400, finishing with 390. That’s a lot of homeruns for a player who played in the dead-ball 70’s.
Nettles Holds Record for Homeruns by 3rd Baseman in AL
There are only three third basemen in history who finished with more homeruns than Nettles — Mike Schmidt, Eddie Mathews, and most recently, Adrian Beltre. Nettles holds the American League record for homeruns by a third baseman (319)! He’s also currently 24th all-time in games played with 2700. Think about that — of all the players to ever play major league baseball, only 23 have played more games than Nettles — and he played most of them at freakin’ third base, the hot corner, playing great defense there to boot.
What About Bobby Murcer?
Which brings us to Bobby Murcer… if Graig Nettles belongs in the hall of fame, as I’ve surely proven, what do you do with Bobby Murcer? Murcer was the star of the Yankees throughout the early seventies — not Nettles. Murcer was the straw that stirred the Yankees’ fourth-place drink; Munson was number 2 star, and Nettles was number 3. Murcer was the next Mickey Mantle, the hope of the future for a baseball franchise that was mired in mediocrity and was being mismanaged by middle management at CBS. None other then Ted Williams described Murcer in 1972 as baseball’s best chance for a triple crown (leading the league in homers, rbis, and average).
Murcer vs Bernie Williams vs Joe DiMaggio
In the 1990’s and early 2000’s, people talked about Bernie Williams as the consummate star; the Joe DiMaggio of his day, combining centerfield defense with hitting for average with hitting for power. The comparison wasn’t far off — remember, DiMaggio played in the lively-ball 30’s and 40’s, so Williams lively-ball-90’s statistics compared well to DiMaggio’s. Williams won the batting title in 1998, hitting .334 with 26 homers and 96 RBI, one of his best overall seasons. Ironically, those were almost identical numbers to Murcer’s 1971 campaign, when he hit .331 with 25 homers and 94 RBI. But those were the dead-ball 70’s remember. Murcer nearly led the league in all categories, sparking Ted Williams‘ comments. Those numbers projected in today’s lively- ball era might equate to like 45-50 homers and 140 RBI and a .355 batting average. Do you think a Yankee centerfielder putting up those numbers today would be the talk of baseball?
Murcer has been quoted as saying if he hadn’t been traded by the Yankees, and played his whole career at Yankee Stadium, he would have made the Hall of Fame. Sounds insane, but you know what, he’s not far off, especially if he didn’t play ball in the dead-ball ’70’s. Still, those are big ‘ifs’. Murcer was traded, a bunch of times. He didn’t play in the ’90’s. He finished with 252 homers and a .277 lifetime average. Tough luck Bobby.
Graig Nettles vs Tony Perez
In 2000, Tony Perez was inducted into the Hall of Fame. That should have opened up the door for Nettles. Perez was not better than Murcer; you would not have found a GM in baseball in the 1970’s who would have traded Murcer for Perez. And no way was Perez better or more valuable than Nettles. Tony Perez was a star first baseman. His job was to hit. He hit 379 homeruns to Nettles’ 390. Perez was mostly known as a big RBI man. He drove in 1,652 RBI on the big Red machine; Nettles 1,314. Perez hit .279 lifetime; Nettles .248. But Nettles played third, an important defensive position, and played it with style. No contest.
In the early 2000’s, the Yankees organization announced their greatest team with best players at every position; they named Graig Nettles as their 3rd baseman. It can be argued that is still the case, even with Alex Rodriguez having played 3rd for the Yanks for 10 years, winning two MVP’s and the 2009 World Series! As we found out later, ARod had a little “help”. Nettles was once asked about steroids, and — always a man of honesty — said he would have certainly taken them if they were available in the 70’s. Imagine his numbers if he did!!
The Readers Respond
Wow, came across this blog by chance and it meant a great deal to me. I loved both Murcer and Nettles. I cried when my father told me Murcer got traded and Nettles is my all time favorite Yankee. Growing up in the 1970s was filled with both these guys. I have always hoped Nettles would get into the Hall.
— William Krebs
Valhalla, NY, USA
Did you know that Graig Nettles is going to be the guest retired Yankee at the Mickey Mantle Classic in April (2012) which is held behind the high school Mickey went to in Commerce, OK? The Classic is a baseball tournament of high school teams where they use only wood bats. The bats come from Hoosier Bat Company in Valparaiso, Indiana. Many major league players have used the Hoosier wooden bats. Like Sammy Sosa in his home-run race against McGuire. Sammy hit #62-63 and 64 with it as I recall.
Graig will be on hand to meet fans and sign autographs plus he will be at the awards banquet on Saturday night. I know I will be going and you should check out the Classic on the Mickey Mantle Classic website at www.mickeymantleclassic.com.
— Lance Burris
Plainfield, Indiana
I loved this article! I thought Bobby Murcer was a class act as a player and a broadcaster! I have met many Yankees and ball players but I never met Bobby Murcer in person. I wish I would have met him! 🙁 It was very sad to see him pass so young.
— Jerry Grimes
I have been on this crusade for years . If you think about some of the guys that got in , and some rather easily like Ozzie Smith it can make you sick. Smith got in for his defense . Nettles is one of the greatest of all time fielding his position but put up superior stats to some of the guys already in. He belongs in and we need to do something about it. Nettles HOF ! What do we need to do to help ?
— Mark Willey
Milford, Connecticut
I loved your site. I grew up a Yankees fan in Virginia and loved Murcer and Nettles. Nettles clearly belongs in the Hall of Fame. I think his antics involving reporters over the years resulted in him not getting votes for the Hall of Fame. Hopefully, the veterans committee will correct this oversight.
— Woody Anderson
As a kid growing up in central NJ I wore # 9 for one reason and one reason only: Graig Nettles. I idolized the man; the way he played the hot corner and handled pitchers was a thing of beauty; he was a magnet at the bag — nothing got by him. So I wore # 9 and played 3rd base all through high school & my men’s league. He should be in the Hall of Fame as much as anyone; case closed.
LP Smith
Bangor, Pennsylvania
Graig is my favorite player of all time. He should be in the Hall of Fame without a doubt, and his number is not retired by the Yankees but for Roger Maris when it should be for both.
I like the article, and I really appreciated Greg Nettles! Man he played on the dream team with Reggie Jackson! To me regardless that was the best Yankee team ever! Yes, put Greg in the Hall of Fame — Please do!!!!!
— Monte Petersen
Greenwich, CT USA
Bobby Murcer was the reason I loved baseball so much. I lived in DC, but would visit Yankee Stadium with my grandfather (who lived in Manhattan). And in the early 70’s, when I was between 10-14, nobody was better than Bobby Murcer.
And I remember being so annoyed when he barely lost out to Tony Oliva for the batting title.
RIP Bobby.
— Andrew Kennedy
I understand your feelings about Graig Nettles and I think a better argument can be made that he is better than Bill Mazerowski who is in the Hall. Don’t get me wrong, we loved Bobby Murcer (my wife’s favorite player ever) and think he was not only an outstanding ball player but a terrific human being. However, Bobby doesn’t merit consideration for the Hall of Fame and was not better than Tony Perez. Don Mattingly‘s #s are very much similar to Kirby Puckett‘s and he and Thurman deserve consideration.
Chuck and Randi McGivney
My name is Charles P. Nettles and I can remember my dad telling me when I was a kid that we had a cousin that played M.L.B. I asked him ‘well, who is he’ and my dad said Graig Nettles. I might have responded something like ‘well I would like to meet him at a family reunion’. My dad said that he didn’t know where he was. Graig looks like one of my grandfather’s brothers. I would like to find out
what side of the Nettles he is from? My dad was a vet in St.Tammany Parish for 28 years and was born in McComb, Ms. and his uncles where from Auburn, Ms. and Summit, Ms. plus all over the state of Mississippi. If you know who John “Webb” Nettles is or Dr. C.P. Nettles D.V.M. please email me [see editor’s note]. I would like to hear from you so if you are not too busy please drop me a line or two.
— Charles Nettles
Folsom, Louisiana
Editor’s Note: We have published this letter so that, in the event Graig Nettles reads it, he can get in contact with Charles. We do not post email addresses on this board, but if Graig Nettles would like to contact Charles, we will facilitate through the Contact Us form.
BOBBY MURCER — A BALLPLAYER’S BALLPLAYER.
— Kenny Naughton
Northport, New York
NICE WORDS ABOUT MURCER, A CLASS GUY.
— LARRY G./ L.B., N.Y.
Great article. I came across your website after Googling “Nettles hall of fame.” I was talking about this at work yesterday. Nettles absolutely deserves to be there. Why is defense always overlooked? It bothers me that Reggie Jackson, a one-dimensional player, was a shoe-in and Nettles always gets overlooked. (Jackson was a great HR hitter, but was a defensive liability.) Ask any player or coach from the 70’s Yankees who they would rather have on their team (Nettles and Jackson), I bet 100% would pick Graig.
Frank Notaro
I am not really old enough to remember Bobby in his playing days. I am a Chicago Cubs fan and I was about 4 years old when he was there. I do remember pretending to be him when I was young. Everything I owned had to have his number 7. Best wishes to Bobby for a speedy recovery.
— John Ward
Chicago, Illinois.
He was my first baseball hero…Remember the year he came in second to Dick Allen in homers and had just a great year, an MVP type of year..I still can’t stand Elliott Maddux because he took Bobby’s place in center field. Between Maddux having 1 good year and the move to Shea, it was a heartbreak. Had to stay home from school the day Murcer was traded for Bobby Bonds (the first trade in sports of 2 $100,000 a year players). Heres hoping that he gets back to the mike real soon.
— Mike; Derby , KS now, formerly of Massena NY
Dear Mr Murcer,
I grew up a Big New York Yankees fan and, an even Bigger Bobby Murcer fan. I loved watching you and my Yankees during the 70’s and especially upon your return in 1979. Watching you club a home run and single in the bottom of the 9th inning on the day your best pal Thurman Munson was buried, was such an emotional day for everyone.
My family and I are wishing you a speedy recovery Bobby. We love you and wish you and your family all the best. You can do it Bobby.
— Tony Cavone, Glendale, Arizona
Tony Cavone and family
I ran across your site while looking for Bobby Murcer info. Great site! Enjoyed “Willie” and being on the fence!
I specially enjoyed the Oldsmobile article as the marquee has many fond memories for me. The first car I drove was a ’48 Olds convert with three on the tree. I took my driver’s test with a ’56 and the first car I ever got it on with a fem was in (ample interior room) an Olds.
Oh yeah….the Bobby Murcer and Graig Nettles stuff was good too. Remember when he cut his hand doing some gardening? Martin (?) told him he made enough to hire a landscaper!
— JZ
Longwood, FL (lifelong NYer)
I grew up a Graig Nettles fan. To me there was no one better. He was a hard ass. Tough for fans to get to. Even myself as a fan of 10 years old. I finally got him to sign my copy of Balls just 3 years ago. I was so happy I could not even speak to him. My greatest Yankee ever. I am now 40. What a glove.
Clicked on BobbyMurcer.com to see how he is doing; your site came up..
Anyone who watched the Yankees knows Murcer and Nettles should be in the Hall of Fame!!!!!! Bless both of them as they blessed us as Yanks!!!!
— J George
Great website. There are more Murcer fans than people realize. He was my boyhood hero, and off the field, a class act.
— Super Tizzy
After The Mick limped off into the sunset in March of ’69, Bobby Ray became my ( and my buddy Chuck’s) center of affection on River Ave. The Yanks couldn’t draw flies in the early 70’s, but we were there 35-50 games a year as teenagers.
In those days, players were still accessible and still working class heroes. I hung out many a time after another Yankee loss watching Rusty Torres drive out of the players’ lot in his jacked-up Plymouth or “Rocky” Swoboda tool away in his beat-up white VW Beetle.
Yet it was Murcer, although an All-Star and true star nationally, who always had time to talk to us and give out an autograph (not for E-Bay purposes, but as a prized FAN possession). I was there against the Rangers when he hit for the cycle the first game of a doubleheader, and a single and a homer in the nightcap, and when he hit 3 homers against KC. I witnessed him swing and miss pitifully against his nemisis, lefty Norm Angelini. When I was given a game-used bat in ’74 (complete with pinetar) he graciously signed it and is my most prized Yankee artifact. At this moment waiting for news on his neurosurgery, we can only hope that Bobby has a full recovery allowing us to continue to acknowledge his genuine humanity as a person, not secondary to the wonderful memories he has provided to millions of Yankee fans over the decades.
— David Zimmerman
–LouV
70's Yanks
murcer
Mel Stottlemyre
2019 Yankee Season Look Out — and Prediction
June 8, 2019 paperbacklou 0
April 27, 2019 paperbacklou 0
Mike Lindstrom
My grandad is Freddie (who?) Lindstrom. He is the youngest player ever in the World Series (18). Started the 1924 World Series at 3rd after less than half a year in the minors. He has a lifetime BA of .311 with seven years in a row of .300 or better. On the ballet three times for MLB MVP. John McGraw picked him 9th best to ever play the game. No disrespect for your favorites here, but having him among the elite you compare to should be an inspiration instead of a dig.
paperbacklou
Hey sorry about that. No doubt he was a great player — as he is in the Hall of Fame. Someone to be very proud of. Thank you for the feedback and the info.
I can still hear Shepherd’s voice playing center field for the Yankees wearing number one batting cleanup, Bobby Mercer Mercer
That is a great memory. We just posted an article with a picture of Bobby Murcer wearing #1, that my dad took back in 1973 when we were at the game. It is here:
https://www.yankee.blue/analysis/11-yankees-who-have-led-league-in-total-bases/
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Glory Road (2006) Soundtrack
13 Jan 2006(57 Songs)
Sweet Music (One Of These Days)
Uptight (Everything's Alright)
Stevie Wonder - At the Close of a Century
Woo-Hoo
The Rock-A-Teens - Totally Cool '60s: Lost Hits & Misses
Rave On!
Buddy Holly - The Buddy Holly Collection
Rave On
Buddy Holly - Greatest Hits
Kaw-Liga
Hank Williams - Alone With His Guitar
Hank Williams - 20 of Hank Williams' Greatest Hits
If We Never Needed the Lord Before (We Sure Do Need Him Now)
Mahalia Jackson - Gospels, Spirituals, & Hymns
I Can't Get Next to You
The Temptations - Number 1's: Motown, Vol. 2
I'm Blue (The Gong Gong Song)
The Ikettes - Hairspray (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
The Mar-Keys - Soulsville U.S.A.: A Celebration of Stax
Twist & Shout
The Isley Brothers - Bang: The Bert Berns Story (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack)
Shake It Up Baby (Twist and Shout)
The Isley Brothers - Glory Road (Original Soundtrack)
Mary Wells - The Motown Story, Vol. 1 - The 1960s
Function At the Junction
Shorty Long - Lee Daniels’ the Butler Original Motion Picture Soundtrack
My Home Is In the Delta
Muddy Waters - The Anthology 1947-1972
I Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch)
Four Tops - The Motown Story, Vol. 1 - The 1960s
Can You Do it (Single)
The Contours - 20th Century Masters - The Millennium Collection: Best of the Contours
Can You Do It
The Contours - Glory Road (Original Soundtrack)
Burnt Biscuits
Triumphs - Stax/Volt - The Complete Singles 1959-1968 - Volume 1
I'm On My Way to Canaan
Mahalia Jackson - Glory Road (Original Soundtrack)
The Supremes - Number 1's: Motown, Vol. 2
Shirley Caesar - Harvest Collection: Shirley Caesar
Texas Fight
The University of Texas Longhorn Band - Gameday Faves: Texas Longhorns Classics
Booker T. & The M.G.'s - The Vietnam War (The Soundtrack)
I've Been Loving You Too Long - To Stop Now
Otis Redding - Stax-Volt: The Complete Singles 1959-1968
I've Been Loving You Too Long (To Stop Now)
Otis Redding - Otis Blue: Otis Redding Sings Soul
Ain't That Good News
The Meditation Singers - Glory Road (Original Soundtrack)
Marty Robbins - The Essential Marty Robbins (1951-1982)
Going to a Go-Go
Smokey Robinson & The Miracles - Motown Classics Gold
Jr. Walker & The All Stars - Malcolm X (Music from the Motion Picture Soundtrack)
You're a Wonderful One
Marvin Gaye - Gold: Marvin Gaye
The Temptations - 202 Motown Songs: The Complete No. 1s
Ain't That Peculiar - Single Version
Marvin Gaye - Moods Of Marvin Gaye
Marvin Gaye - 202 Motown Songs: The Complete No. 1s
Down In the Boondocks
Billy Joe Royal - Riding In Cars With Boys (Music from the Motion Picture)
The Ballad of the Green Berets
SSgt. Barry Sadler - Nipper's Greatest Hits 60's, Vol. 2
(I'm a) Road Runner
Junior Walker & The All Stars - Jr. Walker & the All Stars: The Definitive Collection
Jr. Walker & The All Stars - Jr. Walker & the All Stars: The Definitive Collection
Martha Reeves & The Vandellas - The Motown Story, Vol. 1 - The 1960s
Otis Redding - Pirate Radio (Motion Picture Soundtrack) [Deluxe Version]
People Get Ready - Single Version
The Impressions - 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: Best Of Curtis Mayfield And The Impressions
The Impressions - Smash Hits of the '60s
Up All Night Blues
The Raven Shadows
The Eyes of Texas
On, On, U. of K. – University of Kentucky
Florida State University Marching Band - The Best of College Football Fight Songs
People Get Ready - Original Version
Alicia Keys and Lyfe Jennings - Glory Road
Lyfe Jennings & Alicia Keys - Glory Road (Original Soundtrack)
I Will Make The Darkness Light - Original Version
Alicia Keys - Glory Road
I Will Make the Darkness Light
Alicia Keys - Glory Road (Original Soundtrack)
Dixie (by Daniel Decatur Emmett)
Traditional - Kids Christmas
God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen
Traditional - Volume II
Glory Road - Score
Trevor Rabin, Alicia Keys - Glory Road
Trevor Rabin - Glory Road (Original Soundtrack)
Trevor Rabin - Glory Road
« Blood Diamond Money Monster »
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Women Organizing for Fair Trade
Trading Our Way Up - The story of a women's economic empowerment project in fair trade
An action research project examined the experiences of women producers in collective enterprises in seven countries between 2009–2011. The study highlighted the economic and social benefits of engaging in groups with links to Fair Trade.
Findings and case studies are detailed in the publication Trading Our Way Up: Women Organizing for Fair Trade.
The group has enabled me to face the challenges as I feel more self-confident ... when you are in the team you learn from others and are inspired to do better. I appeal to women to come out of the shell and become bold ... Joining the group will consolidate their efforts to fight poverty.
- Mpaji Ali Nahoda, Tusife Moyo, Tanzania
Country Fact Sheets and Partner Organizations Shared Challenges and Moving Forward
The women who produce goods for Fair Trade markets face multiple threats. The global economic recession had a massive impact on poor producers. Downturns in global markets reduced the demand from Fair Trade buyers, some of whom went out of business. At the same time, climate change has brought devastating natural disasters like droughts and floods, which impact the poor more severely.
The Women Organizing for Fair Trade action-research project involved women producers and their organizations in India, Nepal, Nicaragua, Mexico, Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Led by WIEGO's Global Trade Programme, the project demonstrated that when women organize in groups for market access, they are more effective in achieving positive change in their economic and social situation. It also revealed a need to help women develop the skills to assume leadership positions. Women producers were involved in all stages of the project.
Case studies examined different organizational forms of producer groups and fair trade associations. They highlight key success factors in the strategies adopted to engage with fair trade markets, and consider what support producer organizations receive from their affiliation with associations and country networks. Case studies were collected through a process in which informal workers told their stories through photo journals, murals, film, songs, embroidery and words. This is particularly important due to low literacy levels.
Many of the local facilitators were given digital cameras to capture the reality of the women at work and as they participated in their organizations and in project activities.
In some countries, groups commissioned professional documentaries. Others developed songs, murals and basketry to tell the women’s stories.
Watch videos from the project
The case studies show that informal workers have organized themselves for production and trade, learned new skills, understood quality requirements, developed new products, and exported to international markets. Through involvement in their associations and cooperatives, women have been successful in accessing markets and having opportunities to solve problems, learn from each other and provide mutual support and protection during difficult times. They grow in confidence, earn incomes to help meet their families’ needs, win the respect of husbands and men in their communities, and begin to participate in community decision-making.
Documentation and dissemination are helping to share good practice examples of fair trade across regions. Lessons learned were documented for future sharing with other women collectives, as well as with donors and partners.
At the project’s initiation workshop, participating groups determined that sharing their case studies more widely and demonstrating the positive impact for women of working collectively may prove to be an added incentive to Fair Trade buyers.
Sharing of information was particularly important in helping women see similarities across countries and share fair trade strategies. Learning and dissemination workshops were held in Mexico and Nicaragua, and in Kenya in May 2011 with representatives from partners in India, Kenya, Nepal, Tanzania and Uganda.
The Mombasa workshop was held on the eve of the biennial global conference of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO). At the conference, WIEGO organizers presented on the project and ran two workshops. Documentaries made as part of the project in India were played (these had previously been screened in India and Central America). The films stimulated discussion about the project and questions about the lives of poor women workers and the role of fair trade. Significantly, the involvement of the partners in Women Organizing for Fair Trade led, for the first time, to the WFTO's inclusion of gender on its agenda.
This created the impetus to develop a gender strategy for WFTO. Elaine Jones, Director of WIEGO's Global Trade Programme, was asked to chair a working group to craft this strategy and redraft Fair Trade Principle 6 (on gender discrimination). She worked with partners from Women Organizing for Fair Trade project, many of whom partnered with WIEGO in the Securing Economic Rights Fair Trade project.
The gender strategy was approved as a new principle at the WFTO biennial conference in May 2013.
Countries of Activity and Partner Organizations
Fact Sheets on Fair Trade
Fair Trade for Women Producers
India Fair Trade Forum
Kenya Kenya Federation for Alternative Trade (KEFAT)
Mexico Ya ’Muntsi Behña
Nepal Fair Trade Group
Nicaragua Promotora de Desarrollo Cooperativo de Las Segovias SA (PRODECOOP)
Tanzania Tanzania Fair Trade Network (TAFAT)
National Association of Women’s Organizations of Uganda (NAWOU)
WIEGO worked with lead organizations to identify the appropriate grassroots self-organizing women's groups, and select and train local facilitators. An initiation workshop was held in Kathmandu, Nepal in 2009 with participants from Nepal, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Cambodia. Selected women’s groups worked with the local facilitators through the development of case studies and a photographic journal. All groups held workshops to agree on their in-country methodologies and introduce the project to producers at the village level. An estimated 4,000 women were involved in the project through the country partners. Training workshops, based on needs assessments in each country, aimed to improve the skills of the groups and strengthening the organizations.
Shared Challenges
Across all countries, similar challenges emerged. Many of the women producers are subsistence farmers, but the income from their crafts sales are an essential or even the primary source of income. Yet handicraft production is often not recognized as work and goes undocumented in statistics.
Because of the global economic recession, many producers have suffered a reduction in demand for their goods.
The drop in demand for handicrafts in many Northern countries poses a serious challenge to the sustainability of the sector; dependency on key relationships is often a weakness in the Fair Trade system. Where government support programmes exist, they are often directed at formal enterprises, excluding a large percentage of the working population. However, it appears being organized in groups gives producers a better chance of weathering crisis as they often have credit and savings schemes to fall back on.
Producer organizations need continuous support to innovate in product development, diversify markets, upgrade their skills, learn business skills and access fair finance. The specific work plans of each group include training to informal producers and their leaders so they can share their learning with the wider group and beyond.
The training provided to informal women producers – and the skills and knowledge acquired by field assistants in implementing this project – have become part of the community assets, ensuring dividends will accrue into the future.
Getting gender onto the WFTO agenda in 2011 and subsequently developing a gender strategy for the WFTO, approved in May 2013, could have wide-reaching positive outcomes for women. The Gender Working Group will continue to work with the WFTO regions to support them in the implementation of the Gender Policy.
See the project Fact Sheet: Fair Trade for Women Producers.
Street vending in times of COVID-19 (English)
WIEGO, Social Design Collaborative
Street vending in times of COVID-19 (Hindi)
Waste pickers’ cooperatives and social and solidarity economy organizations
International Labour Organization (ILO)
Worker Rights in Informal Economies
Sally Roever
Social Dialogue for the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy
Violaciones a los derechos humanos de recicladores en Latinoamérica señalan urgencia de mejorar sus condiciones de trabajo
Federico Parra, Tania Espinosa Sánchez
Plaidoyer pour un travail décent : Les récupératrice·eur·s de matériaux en Amérique latine documentent des violations des droits humains
Les travailleuse·eur·s de l’informel prévoient un long chemin vers la reprise – à moins que les gouvernements passent à l’action –
Sally Roever, Mike Rogan
Trabajadoras y trabajadores en empleo informal ven un largo camino hacia la recuperación, a menos que los gobiernos actúen
Sally Roever, Michael Rogan
Informal Workers See a Long Road to Recovery Ahead — Unless Governments Act
Visit the WIEGO Blog
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Complimentary Gift Wrapping and Worldwide Delivery
Luxury + Sustainability
Act Fast, Support Slow this Christmas
by Raakhee Tailor September 27, 2020
We are thrilled to have teamed up with marine conservation charity Project Seagrass, to create a pair of ‘Sea Tails’ cashmere lounge socks for the ultimate Christmas gift.
Something that is exquisite with the purpose of being ethical and responsible too.
All profits will go to the charity and each pair of socks sold will allow Project Seagrass to collect, process, and plant one hundred seagrass seeds covering one square meter.
The ‘Sea Tails’ socks are available as a limited edition, preorder product from now until the end of Nov, delivered for December. All items come gift wrapped and can only be ordered from www.wildsaint.co.uk for £60.
Project Seagrass is a marine conservation charity based in Cardiff, and was co-founded by Dr Richard Unsworth who is also a lecturer at Swansea University.
“When we came across Richard and the Project Seagrass team, we were inspired by the conservation work they were undertaking and how much they had achieved on a voluntary basis. They are driven by passion for what they do and an expertise in their field of marine life. Part of our ongoing sustainability agenda at Wild Saint London is to make a positive contribution to people and planet, to be fashion with purpose, making this a pairing of like minded values.
This is such an exciting product to be launching. These socks are a rich blue like you find along the coastlines, finished with the playful design of a dugong tail, that will bring joy and exceptional luxury to your feet.
The ‘Sea Tails’ socks combine our passions of sumptuous fabrics and local artisan craftsmanship. This timeless design will delight year after year, whilst making a difference to global sea life, biodiversity, and climate change.
People are looking to buy better, to buy more meaningful products. By creating a not for profit, limited edition, pre-order only product, we address overstocks and waste issues and allow shoppers to make more responsible positive choices.
Made in the UK in a small family owned manufacturer in Wales, these socks are supporting local artisan craft and communities.”
ABOUT SEAGRASS
Seagrasses are flowering plants that live in shallow sheltered areas along coastlines and thousands of species including shellfish, seahorses’ dugongs and sea turtles depend on seagrass meadows for food and shelter. Seagrass meadows were once common around the UK coasts but over 90% have been lost since in the last century and every hour 2 football fields worth are lost a result of pollution, fertilizer runoff, anchor damage, port and marina building. Seagrass stores carbon 35 times faster than tropical rainforests and replanting these can make a dramatic difference to biodiversity and climate change.
Like the coral reefs and rainforest’s of the tropics, these underwater gardens are full of life, hosting many animals of different shapes, colours and sizes. A seabed with seagrass harbours up to 40 times more biodiversity than one without.
Like rainforest’s and coral reefs, these incredible underwater gardens are threatened. Seagrass meadows provide food and habitat for thousands of species such as shellfish, seahorses, dugongs, manatees, and sea turtles.
Over 30 times more animals live within seagrass compared to adjacent sandy habitats. Seagrasses occupy 0.2% of the sea floor yet are responsible for 10% of the organic carbon buried in the ocean. Seagrass meadows, mangroves and coastal wetlands capture carbon at a rate greater than that of tropical forests and restoring these will help in the fight against climate change.
All profits from the sale of the ‘Sea Tails’ socks will go to Project Seagrass, meaning that Wild Saint London does not make any deductions for time or design work, allowing for maximum funds to go to the charity. “We are delighted to be able to volunteer our time and skills as part of our commitment towards our sustainability agenda.”
Fabric and Production
All our cashmere is CCMI certified for the authentication of the finest grade of Mongolian cashmere, and high animal and land welfare.
Our socks are crafted, and hand finished in Wales in a family owned manufacturer. All workers have safe working standards and are paid at a living wage or above.
All our items come gift wrapped.
Our note card is 100% recyclable
Our gift box is made from 40% recycled content and is recyclable
All items will be posted in out in a plant based biodegradable postal bag
Our velvet ribbon is not currently recyclable or recycled, however we hope you are able to reuse it
The ‘Sea Tails’ cashmere lounge socks are available to preorder now until the 30th Nov, for delivery before Christmas costing £60. This includes gift wrapping, a personal note and delivery; plus each pair sold allows Project Seagrass to collect, process, and plant one hundred seagrass seeds covering one square meter.
As this is a limited-edition product, we cannot accept any orders for this product after 30th Nov 2020, but you can continue to purchase other Wild Saint London products on our website.
www.projectseagrass.org
Instagran: ProjectSeagrass
You can also donate directly to Project Seagrass to support their work at www.projectseagrass.org/donate
© 2021, Wild Saint London Powered by Shopify
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Saturday, 30 May 2020 02:52
COVID-19: 10 dangerous Nigerian States you must avoid travelling to
By Kazeem Ugbodaga
With the deadly Coronavirus still sweeping massively across the nation, Nigerians must be extremely careful where they travel to or else, they will be brought down by the pandemic.
Currently, Nigeria has raked in 8,915 confirmed cases of Coronavirus since February. It has been able to discharge 2,592 patients who survived the pandemic, with 259 people who died from the pandemic. Nigeria has 6,064 active cases of the virus to deal with as at Thursday, May 28.
Of this skyrocketing figures, 10 states in Nigeria play major roles in ramping up the virus. These states are dangerous to travel to right now. Some people who travelled to them in recent time came back with the virus.
The states are:
1. Lagos
A troubled Lagos State Governor, Babajide Sanwo-Olu
Lagos is simply the epicentre of Coronavirus in Nigeria. It contributed to almost half of the coronavirus infections in Nigeria. As at Thursday, 28 May, Lagos has raked in 4,123 confirmed coronavirus cases, discharging 745 patients who survived the virus and ramping up 47 deaths.
The State’s active coronavirus cases stand at 3,331. Right now, the state is not a desire destination for tourists and Nigerians except those who can take the risk. Some have done so and came back with the virus. Lagos is experiencing serious community infections. It is simply the New York of Africa in terms of Coronavirus infections.
2. Kano
Ganduje, Kano State Governor
Kano is certainly not a place to visit right now, as the deadly coronavirus is sweeping through the land. Currently, Kano has ramp up 939 cases of the virus, discharged 139 survivors and lost 41 people to the pandemic, leaving 759 active cases for the state to manage. Those still insisting that they must travel to Kano must be extremely careful or they find themselves in isolation centres.
3. FCT
FCT Minister Mohammed Musa Bello
The Federal Capital Territory, FCT, Abuja is another dangerous place to travel to right now as the virus has ravaged the nation’s capital. Abuja has so far recorded 535 confirmed cases of the virus, with 158 discharges and 14 deaths, leaving 296 active cases to manage.
4. Katsina
Gov. Aminu Masari of Katsina State
Katsina has ramp up 358 coronavirus infections, 51 discharges and 14 deaths, with 293 active cases of the virus to manage. The state is now a danger zone as it has been infested with the deadly virus, couple with the fact that more tests are not being conducted.
5. Oyo
Gov. Seyi Makinde of Oyo State
Ever since its governor, Seyi Makinde contracted Coronavirus and later recovered, Oyo State has not looked back. The state has been raking in cases of the virus. It now has 260 confirmed cases, 88 discharges and six deaths, with 166 active cases left to manage. Oyo is a danger zone for travellers because you don’t know who has the virus.
6. Borno
Gov. Babagana Zulum of Borno State
The Northeast state has so far garnered 258 coronavirus infections, with 160 discharges and 25 deaths. The State is another area to look out for by travellers. It is risky travelling there.
7. Ogun
Gov. Dapo Abiodun of Ogun State
Ogun State recorded the first case of Coronavirus in Nigeria, with the visit of the index case, an Italian. Since then, the state has ramp up 246 infections, 128 discharges and nine deaths, with 109 active cases. Ogun is currently, like others, experiencing community transmission of the virus, making visitors at risk, especially as the state shares border with Lagos, the epicentre of the virus.
8. Jigawa
Governor of Jigawa Muhammad Badaru
Jigawa State is fast gaining notoriety in coronavirus infections. The state has recorded 241 confirmed cases of Coronavirus and 78 discharges, with four deaths. It has 159 active cases still to manage. Travellers to Jigawa must be extremely cautious.
9. Edo
Gov. Godwin Obaseki of Edo State
Edo State has recorded 240 cases of Coronavirus. It has also discharged 69 patients and recorded 13 deaths, leaving 158 active cases of the virus to manage. Edo is another risky area for travellers. They must exercise extreme cautiousness if they must travel.
10. Bauchi
Bala Mohammed
Bauchi has recorded 234 cases of Coronavirus. The state has discharged 205 survivors and recorded seven deaths. It now has 22 active cases to manage. The state has achieved great results, but travellers must be careful as there is still community transmission.
Akinwumi Adesina: Why the US is targeting a flamboyant Nigerian banker
The US and the African Development Bank have fallen out over allegations of corruption against the bank's Nigerian head, writes former BBC Africa Business editor Larry Madowo.
Akinwumi Adesina is a sharp dresser known for his expensive tailored suits, immaculate white shirts and an endless supply of colourful bow ties.
But the clean public persona of the 60-year-old president of the African Development Bank (AfDB) is now being questioned after a string of corruption and abuse of office allegations from his own staff spilled into the open. Mr Adesina has denied all the allegations.
The board of governors of the 55-year-old institution met on Tuesday to discuss whether to bring in an outside investigator into the allegations concerning the Nigerian's conduct just days after the US rejected an initial inquiry that cleared him.
The prospects of an independent probe comes only three months before he was expected to be re-elected unopposed at its annual general meeting in August.
US at odds with Africa
The 20-point allegations of "impunity and bad governance" from unnamed employees have exposed a rift between Mr Adesina and ordinary staff.
The "Group of Concerned Staff Members of the AfDB" claimed that Mr Adesina has used the bank's resources for self-promotion and personal gain while also paying out huge but undeserved severance packages to staff who resigned mysteriously, and favouring his fellow Nigerians.
US Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin personally signed a letter to the board rejecting an internal investigation that cleared Mr Adesina.
"Mnuchin's move is significant because it has now cast a limelight on governance issues and on [the] importance of an independent investigation to uphold the integrity of the AfDB," said Barbara Barungi, the bank's former lead economist on Nigeria. "There are very few people that were willing to stick their necks out."
Besides the core 54 African countries, the US is one of the 27 non-regional members of the AfDB and its second largest shareholder.
AfDB's 10 biggest shareholders:
Nigeria: 9.1%; US: 6.5%; Egypt: 5.5%; Japan:5.4%;
South Africa: 4.9% Algeria: 4.1%; Germany: 4%;
Canada: 3.8%; Ivory Coast: 3.7%; France: 3.6%
"I think AfDB is Africa's most valuable institution," said one insider who spoke on condition of anonymity.
"But what you have now is the biggest paymaster, the US, in a stand-off against the Africans. If you read Mnuchin's letter carefully, it has put the bank on notice."
The BBC has obtained the original whistleblowers' email from January 2020, sent to two executive directors of the bank, Yano Takuji (Japanese) and Steven Dowd (American), and the British director for its Integrity and Anti-Corruption Department Alan Bacarese.
In an April update circulated to a wider pool of senior managers, the whistleblowers said the Ethics Committee headed by Mr Takuji failed to examine their concerns.
The committee later carried out an investigation and declared that Mr Adesina was "totally exonerated of all allegations made against him" and recommended that the board of governors adopt its conclusions.
In early May, the board's chair - Ivorian Planning Minister Nialé Kaba - wrote to shareholders that the African finance ministers who supervise the bank's management intended to clear Mr Adesina.
"We fear that the wholesale dismissal of all allegations without appropriate investigation will tarnish the reputation of this institution as one that does not uphold high standards of ethics and governance," Mr Mnuchin wrote back.
"Therefore, the United States cannot support dismissing the allegations at this stage," he added.
Mr Kaba said in a statement that a decision had not been made about Mr Adesina and he remained in office.
"The bureau, which I chair, wishes to reassure the public that it is seized with the matter and it is treating it with the utmost seriousness that it deserves," he said.
'Trumped up allegations'
The whistleblowers have accused Mr Adesina of major conflicts of interest in his dealings with current and former employees, unethical conduct and preferential treatment.
Eight things about Akinwumi Adesina:
First Nigerian to lead AfDB
Elected for five-year term in September 2015
Was Nigeria's agriculture minister from 2011 until his move
Named Forbes Africa Person of the Year in 2013 for his "bold reforms" in farming sector
Was told by an academic in Nigeria he would never get into Purdue University as his maths was poor
Proved him wrong by getting into the prestigious US institution
Cancelled his admission to UK's respected Cambridge University
Got his PhD in agricultural economics in 2008
Sources: AfDB; Forbes magazine
Mr Adesina, who holds a PhD in agricultural economics from Purdue University in the US, did not respond to BBC requests for comment but released a statement.
"In spite of unprecedented attempts by some to tarnish my reputation and prejudice the bank's governance procedures, I maintain my innocence with regard to trumped up allegations that unjustly seek to impugn my honour and integrity," he wrote.
"I am confident that fair, transparent and just processes that respect the rules, procedures and governance systems of the Bank, and rule of law, will ultimately prove that I have not violated the Code of Ethics of this extraordinary institution."
The AfDB board meeting is said to have agreed to an independent investigation into the allegations concerning Mr Adesina's conduct after Denmark, Sweden, Norway and Finland supported the US position, Bloomberg news agency first reported.
"Should it surprise the world that we're getting a second investigation backed by no African country? What does that say about the other countries that have lined up behind the US?" wonders Debisi Araba, a friend of Mr Adesina's.
"He's due to run unopposed but you want to muddy the waters with this stain of corruption. I believe he will be vindicated."
Mr Araba worked for Mr Adesina in the Nigerian government and was also an intern at the bank while doing his PhD in 2009.
He says the bank has always had a culture of salacious rumour and gossip but faults the US for formalizing the "crass, bargain basement reasoning" into a complaint.
This was denied by a US Treasury spokesperson, who told the BBC: "The United States continues to value the AfDB and its efforts to promote development, reduce poverty, and address the current health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on the African continent."
Chinese 'shopping spree in Africa'
Some policy analysts at think-tanks in Washington, DC, worry about the timing of the American pushback and its longer-term consequences in Africa.
"A prolonged battle will be a distraction for the AfDB when its resources are more desperately needed than ever for its borrowers," Nancy Birdsall, a Senior Fellow at the Center for Global Development told the BBC.
She said it was not good for the AfDB if Mr Mnuchin was unhappy and suggested that "the US Treasury should look for some form of quiet compromise in which no-one loses face".
Ms Birdsall also reiterated a recommendation she made in a 2018 paper for the leadership of the AfDB to open up its shareholding, including to China and oil-rich economies.
Image copyrightAFP
Image captionChina has played a key role in improving infrastructure in Africa
But Daniel F Runde, senior vice-president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, disagreed.
He said the Abidjan-based bank that lends exclusively to African governments represented one of the few non-China-led and western-funded approaches to development on the continent.
"If Adesina is cleared, the US may need to mend fences with the management because China will probably go on a shopping spree in Africa after Covid-19, and we will need every non-Chinese tool to respond," he said.
Mr Runde saw Mr Mnuchin's letter as "disruption" and called it a good tactic but a poor strategy.
"Now that the Trump administration has caused disruption and perhaps made a point, they have to decide when this plays out," he said.
Last October, the 81 shareholders of the bank pledged extra funds to more than double its capital to $208bn (£170bn).
Missouri Congressman Emmanuel Cleaver, who sponsored a bill backing the capital increase in the US House of Representatives, came out in support of the new inquiry.
"Independent accountability measures strengthen institutions and reinforce their legitimacy - both domestically and internationally. I am pleased the African Development Bank's Board agreed to take this important step," the Democrat told the BBC in a statement.
Mr Adesina is an eloquent advocate for Africa and the bank and a good fundraiser, but his detractors say he promises more than he delivers.
"His administration hasn't always been fantastic and perhaps he has run roughshod over some people. Maybe the practices haven't always been what they should be, and the feeling is that the board just whitewashed the investigation," the insider said.
Accused of favouring Nigerians
The whistleblowers also accused Mr Adesina of preferential treatment for Nigeria and Nigerians.
"I don't think we should trivialise the issues and reduce them to anti-Nigerian sentiment," said Ms Barungi, the Ugandan-born, Lagos-based former bank employee.
"It's really more about governance concerns that require attention and the investigation to help clear the air," she added.
Mr Araba, a Nigerian, said talk of the "Nigerianisation of the bank" was false as the country was under-represented in employee numbers despite being the largest shareholder.
As the crisis at the bank escalates, employees, consultants and government officials in African capitals, as well as American foreign policy nerds, wonder how this impasse will end.
But at the Treasury building right next to the White House, Mr Mnuchin and his advisors are doubling down.
"Undertaking an independent evaluation of facts is not at odds with a presumption of innocence, and by promoting transparency and good governance, it can only strengthen the AfDB's capacity to deliver results to people across Africa," the spokesman told the BBC.
Mr Adesina's carefully curated career could crumble if a new investigation criticises his reign at the AfDB. His style is solid, but the substance is now under scrutiny.
Thursday, 28 May 2020 12:38
Process to reopen schools, worship centres begins
Safety key to reopening
PTF, religious leaders meet in Abuja
No date yet for classes to start
Frank Ikpefan, Abuja/ The Nation
THE process to reopen schools and worship centres in the country has begun.
The Presidential Task Force (PTF) on COVID-19 has met with Christian and Islamic leaders to fine-tune the conditions for reopening churches and mosques, it was learnt.
Also on Wednesday, the PTF urged states, local governments and private proprietors to begin to take steps towards the return of pupils and students.
Ensuring the kids go to school safe is the critical issue before the reopening, Minister of State, Education, Emeka Nwajiuba, said at the daily briefing by the PTF in Abuja.
Schools, from primary to tertiary were closed nationwide by the government in March at the onset of the Coronavirus pandemic spread.
Since then, pupils and students have been at home. Some schools have been organising virtual lessons and lectures.
PTF Chairman Boss Mustapha using the advantage of the Children’s Day celebration, assured “them and their parents that all hands are on deck to reopen schools at a safe time.”
Listing some of the conditions, the minister, who denied that the government had given a June 8 date, said: “Those who are listening to us here should begin to listen to these plans. We don’t want to keep saying we are not ready. It is a forewarning to private and state governments that the only condition for which we are going to be reopening anywhere is that these places become ready to receive students and bring them home safely.”
The minister added that the reopening of schools may be staggered between students in junior and secondary levels to allow for social and physical distancing.
He said the government would consider introducing afternoon classes to ease crowdedness.
“We will do the same thing for primary school children where we may limit the number of children per class.
“What this may mean also is that we may have classes in the mornings, and then, have classes in the afternoons. So, whichever is convenient for you will now be divided. So that the whole of the infrastructure we have provided can serve us at different times.
“I am not sure whether there will be classes at night. We can do with morning and afternoon at the moment.”
The minister said that the ministry would also look at the sanitary condition of the schools before reopening, noting that schools must be ready to display manually-made hand sanitisers’ machine and be ready to receive the students by providing all the needed materials to stop the spread of COVID-19.
Nwajiuba explained that for tertiary institutions, there would be need to have a semester within a semester for the students.
He added that while some courses would do their semester first, others would follow suit in a bid to maintain social distancing measure.
He urged lecturers in tertiary institutions to use the period to upgrade themselves.
“Period like this should not be wasted and tertiary institutions must be functioning.’’
For secondary school students, the minister said that those in senior secondary might resume before their junior counterparts.
He said the plan was that the children should resume by the time schools had achieved the physical distancing measure.
He said: “For our secondary schools, we expect those who run them; our school based management committee (SBMC) should be able to look at what they need to do to manage them (schools) so that when we say that we are ready, there will be some readiness alongside everybody.
“We are going to publish a specification as to what we expect Covid -19 or post-covid-19 to look like. We are not talking about coping with COVID -19. There is a difference. We have come to understand that Covid -19 May not necessarily go away. So, we expect that we will adapt in the presence of Covid-19 what to do not in the absence of it. This is in spite of Covid-19 we will still have to work.
Why I don’t regret supporting Cynthia Morgan – Actor Uche Maduagwu
Controversial Nollywood actor, Uche Maduagwu, has stated that he does not regret supporting singer, Cynthia Morgan, because she is born to win like ex-Big Brother Naija star, Tacha.
Cynthia Morgan in an Instagram live video, with Ex-Miss Globe Nigeria, CASSANDRA, had revealed why she disappeared from the music scene despite becoming a household name.
Cynthia Morgan had alleged that Jude Okoye seized her accounts, made her stop using her name as well, and not promote her and does not own rights to the music she produced while still under Northside Inc, losing virtually everything.
However, Cynthia Morgan was dragged on social media after Jude Okoye released copies of the contract between the singer and his record label, Northside Entertainment.
The contract between her and Jude Okoye revealed that she lied about the content of the contract.
Uche Maduagwu, while reacting to the new development stated this in a post he shared on Instagram on Wednesday.
“I dont regret supporting #Madrina, shes born to win like Tacha. It has never been about the contract she signed in the past and this is where a lot of people are getting it wrong, its about her survival as a woman in a male-dominated #music industry…,” the caption read.
Cynthia Morgan, now Madrina, later wrote an open letter of apology to her former record label boss, Jude Okoye and former manager, Joy Tongo, for blaming her career challenges on them.
She wrote, “I Cynthia Morgan, would like to use this platform to appreciate all the love, well wishes and support from everyone… My heartfelt appreciation once again goes to Jude and Joy. It is the pain speaking, not Cynthia. Thanks for giving me the platform to grow the Cynthia Morgan brand.”
Lagos to replace Okada, tricycle from July •Govt inaugurates 37 roads
Oziegbe Okoeki/ The Nation
LAGOS State Government will from July introduce what it describes as First Mile and Last Mile (FMLM) mobility solution to replace banned Okada and tricycle.
Transportation Commissioner Frederick Oladeinde, speaking yesterday at the 2020 ministerial press briefing at the JJT Park, Alausa, Ikeja, said: “Following the restriction of motorcycles and tricycles for commuter operations in some areas in the metropolis, the government is working on implementing a First Mile and Last Mile (FMLM) mobility solution.”
He explained that Okada and tricycle are not part of the state’s transport architecture, adding that they are constituting nuisance on the roads and responsible for the high rate of accidents and crimes.
“We have identified 285 last mile routes within the seven bus reform initiative zones across Lagos. We have developed bus specifications and shared same with potential bus manufacturers. We expect these to be rolled out in the next two months,” Oladeinde said.’
Lagos State Government has inaugurated 37 roads and carried out repairs and rehabilitation of more than 354 others.
It said that ongoing and uncompleted projects inherited from past administrations would be completed to improve the living standard of Lagosians.
The Special Adviser to the Governor on Works and Infrastructures, Aramide Adeyoye, who spoke yesterday at the 2020 ministerial press briefing at the JJT Park, Alausa, Ikeja said that one of the major projects inherited by the administration, which would be completed, was the Agege Pen Cinema flyover bridge designed to reduce travel time for residents of Ifako-Ijaiye, Agege and Alimosho local governments.
She said the Governor Babajide Sanwo-Olu administration will make the 4th Mainland Bridge a reality, adding that the administration plans to expand the Agege-Berger Road to reduce travel time.
Gospel singer Jonathan Steingard no longer believes in God
By Nimot Sulaimon/ PM News
Canadian gospel singer, Jonathan Steingard has said that he no longer believed in God.
Steingard, in a lengthy Instagram post, admitted that after a lifetime as a Christian, he no longer believed in God and would be leaving the band.
He goes further to explain the reasons why he came to such a conclusion.
‘‘I still find myself wanting to soften that statement by wording it differently or less specifically – but it wouldn’t be as true”, he said.
Read his post below:
The 36-year-old Canadian musician went on to write that losing his religion occurred over several years.
His former band ”Hawk Nelson” released a statement on Wednesday, supporting his choice to leave the band.
PM News
Obaseki’s nightmare as Ize Iyamu emerges Edo APC candidate
Governor Godwin Obaseki has a big obstacle to overcome to clinch a second term ticket of the All Progressives Congress as the party’s big guns backed another candidate.
He is Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu, from Obaseki’s constituency.
In a major move on Tuesday night, the faction that has been fighting Obaseki picked Ize-Iyamu as its consensus governorship candidate.
The faction is loyal to National Chairman of the party, Comrade Adams Oshiomhole, Obaseki’s former godfather now his biggest political foe.
Obaseki and Ize-Iyamu
Ize-Iyamu, was a former Secretary to Edo State Government (SSG) and rejoined the APC from PDP last year. He lost the governorship to Obaseki in the 2016 election.
He is expected to slug it out with Governor Godwin Obaseki for the direct primary of the party slated for June 22.
He was presented by chairman of the screening committee, Senator Francis Alimikhena, the representative of Edo North Senatorial District.
The screening committee has as members a former Edo Deputy Governor Lucky Imasuen; Gen. Cecil Esekhaigbe; ex-Edo Speaker Thomas Okosun.
Others are former Minority Whip of the House of Representatives Samson Osagie; ex-member of the House of Representatives Patrick Obahiagbon and Deputy Leader of the House of Representatives, Peter Akpatason.
Edo governorship: No man can stop me, Obaseki boasts
Edo State Governor, Godwin Obaseki on Wednesday said no man can stop him from being governor for a second term in the state.
Obaseki is having a running battle with his godfather and National Chairman of the All Progressives Congress, APC, Adams Oshiomhole.
Oshiomhole’s faction of the party, had on Tuesday night endorsed the candidacy of Pastor Osagie Ize-Iyamu as the consensus candidate of the party for the Edo poll.
But Obaseki, in an interview on Channels TV, said he was confident of returning to power as first man of the state because “power comes from God.”
The governor said he is a man of peace and not a violent person.
“I am not a violent person. But I am confident that the way I got into power is the same way I will return.
“God gave me power. If he wants me to return I will continue. No man can stop me. Power comes from God,” he said.
He said he had always canvassed for peace and believed election should not lead to bloodshed.
On the rift within his party, Obaseki said that he was not distracted, adding that his focus was on developing Edo State.
“We have always canvassed for peace. What are the issues in Edo and what are the issues that cannot be resolved in a democracy. Our concern is to use the resources of the people to develop the state.
“This shouldn’t lead to bloodshed. We will not accept to be cowed and intimidated because some people think that they can manipulate rules and cut corners,” he stated.
When asked if it’s not the resources of the people of Edo State that was used for him to become the governor, Obaseki said, “I have friends with resources. I worked for eight years behind the scene before I became governor.
“So all that insinuations about using somebody’s resources…I became Governor on the platform of the party and I am grateful for it.”
Nigeria’s GDP grew by 1.87 per cent in Q1
John Ofikhenua, Abuja/ The Nation
Nigeria’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew by 1.87 per cent (year-on-year) in the first quarter of this year, the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has said.
In a posting on its website on Monday accessed by The Nation, NBS said the performance was recorded against the backdrop of significant global disruptions, resulting in sharp fall in prices and restricted international trade arising from the COVID-19 public health crisis.
It said the Q1 2020 performance represented a -0.23 per cent point drop when compared with Q1 2019, and 0.68 per cent point dip relative to Q4 2019, adding that this was a reflection of the earliest effects of disruption, particularly on the non-oil economy. In the review period, the NBS report indicated that quarter-on-quarter, real GDP growth was -14.42 per cent compared to 5.59 per cent recorded in the preceding quarter.
Also in Q1 2020, aggregate GDP stood at N35,647,406.08 million in nominal terms, NBS said, pointing out that this performance was higher when compared to first quarter of 2019, which recorded N31,824,349.67 million, with a nominal growth rate 12.01 per cent year-on-year.
The report indicated that relative to Q1 2019, the nominal growth rate was higher by 0.11 per cent points but lower than the preceding quarter by -0.32 per cent points.
NBS said in the review period, an average daily oil production of 2.07 million barrels per day was recorded, stating that the production level was higher than the 1.99 million barrel per day recorded in the same quarter of 2019 by 0.08mbpd and the fourth quarter of 2019 by 0.06 million barrels per day (mbpd).
The report indicated that non-oil sector grew by 1.55 per cent in real terms during Q1 2020, saying this was lower by -093 per cent points compared to the rate recorded during the same quarter of 2019, and -0.72 per cent point slower than the corresponding period of last year.
It said the non-oil sector was driven mainly by Information and Communication, Financial and Insurance, Agriculture and Mining.
It said in real term, the Non-Oil sector contributed 90.50 per cent to the nation’s GDP in the review period, which was less than its share in the first quarter of 2019 put at 90.78 per cent and the forth quarter of 2019 which contribution was put at 92.68 per cent.
The NBS report listed activities that witnessed weaker performance relative to Q1 2019, including quarrying, road transport, accommodation, food, services, as well as real estate.
Ex-broadcaster Okere says ‘wife is sleeping’ after stabbing her to death
A former director-general of the Imo Broadcasting Corporation (IBC), Mr Theophilus Okere, stabbed his wife to death early on Monday and he did not seem to know he had committed murder.
When asked about his wife after the murder, he replied: ‘My wife is sleeping”.
The murder happened at Imerinwe community in the Ngor-Okpala Local Government Area.
According to reports, the police have arrested the man.
Okere’s wife, Beatrice was described as a retiree of the Imo State Polytechnic, Umuagwo.
The couple had been married for 50 years. She was in her 70s.
Some reports said Okere ran away from home after the killing.
But the police arrested him following a tip off.
A source in Imerienwe said the 85-year-old former IBC boss had been suffering from dementia.
According to the source, Okere most times is not aware of his actions.
The source disclosed that the family had been managing Okere’s dementia for some time.
”Okere has been down with dementia and the family has been managing the problem.
”Even today that he stabbed his wife to death, when he was asked why he did it, he responded that his wife was still sleeping.
”The other Sunday, Okere went to church and said that his car was missing when in fact the car was parked in his compound,” the source said.
The spokesman of the Imo State Police Command, Mr Orlando Ikeokwu, who confirmed the incident, told NAN that the police had commenced investigation into the matter.
“It is true that the former director-general of the state-owned broadcasting corporation, Mr T.C. Okere, about 85-years, allegedly stabbed his wife to death this morning.
”The command has commenced investigation into the matter,” Ikeokwu said.
Imo state Commissioner of Police Isaac Akinmoyede also said investigation is ongoing to ascertain if the man committed the heinous crime.
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An evaluation of the Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) Demonstration
4.5 Issues and lessons identified by stakeholders
Page last updated: August 2008
The success of a public access defoliation programs rests on access by any member of the public to an AED. Stakeholders stated that the Australian community were generally unaware of AEDs and their benefits. Implementation of community awareness campaigns was strongly advocated by stakeholders as an option the government should consider. It was also noted that any information campaign to improve awareness needed to emphasise not just the benefits of having the AEDs available in public settings, but also the actions people should take in the event of a cardiac arrest and the safety of using AEDs.
It is giving people permission to use these things … that’s the scary part, that they don’t feel that they have permission to use the AED. (Stakeholder)
The private sector's fear of litigation was viewed as a major stumbling block to the expansion of early access defibrillation. However, stakeholders felt this block could also be turned around by an informed communication campaign targeted at the private sector.
It is a matter of 'tweaking the message'. Turning the concept of AEDs into a more positive concept, that having an AED installed on site can save a life, rather than 'using an AED will open an organisation up to liability and litigation'. (Stakeholder)
Stakeholders identified a need to increase awareness amongst the private sector that an AED is a crucial piece of emergency equipment, and not a great expense when the cost-benefits are considered. The infrequency of cardiac arrest events was acknowledged as a likely deterrent for private businesses making the investment in AEDs. However, one stakeholder used a comparison of AEDs to fire extinguishes to emphasise the importance of AEDs as a life saving device for infrequently occurring emergencies.
If you have that approach 'where it won't happen very often so why bother' you would have to take out the fire extinguisher and stop your insurance for damage from floods etc. (Stakeholder)
It was strongly suggested that government could take a more active role in spreading the message that AEDs should be installed as a standard duty of care in (particularly in larger organisations). Stakeholders believed an active communication campaign was needed for AEDs to become the standard of care for public liability and workplace safety.
Stakeholders acknowledged that regulation was another option that could be explored to increase the installation of AEDs, and shift the financial onus from government to the private sector. However, they warned that regulation alone would not act as an incentive for organisations to install AEDs.
More inclined to say – here is an incentive program, but there is a strong requirement that if your organisation is a public place, that it is a duty of care that a level of safety is provided. Any kind of stadium has to provide first aid cover, have to be able to provide basic level of medical care. Why can't AEDs form part of that requirement? (Stakeholder)
Legislation will just mean that people could install them, but not necessarily comply. (Stakeholder)
Other factors suggested by stakeholders to be taken into account when considering the future of the PAD Demonstration included:
The possibility of stronger role for state governments in regulating and funding early access defibrillation:
The states can play an enormous role. They provide healthcare at a state-based level, and they are responsible for delivery of adequate healthcare and public safety. (Stakeholder)
I think things are better when they are jointly done between the various parties ... and a hybrid model between states and federal is a nice incentive program. (Stakeholder)
That ambulance services would be best placed to take over the governance of the program, and to oversee performance monitoring:
The agency that has the most influence in public access defibrillation is the ambulance services. Ideal would be for ambulance services to be responsible for first aid governance, for the implementation of PAD and monitoring. (Stakeholder)
Lack of awareness of the benefits of AEDs amongst private business and the general public, together with misplaced fear of litigation, were key issues identified by stakeholders as affecting the ability of the PAD Demonstration Program to expand beyond its current role.
Future considerations
1.1 Background to the PAD Demonstration
1.2 The PAD Demonstration evaluation
1.3 Methodology
1.4 Reading this report
2. Overview of key findings
3. Literature review and desktop research
3.1 The evidence for PAD
3.2 PAD locations
3.3 Implementation: recruitment, training and implementation issues
3.4 Risks
3.5 Cost benefits
3.6 Other models in other countries
3.7 Desktop research - cost analysis
4. Stakeholder consultations
4.1 St John as the program's community partner
4.2 Appropriateness of the current model of PAD
4.3 Effectiveness of the PAD Demonstration
4.4 Efficiency of the PAD Demonstration
5. Qualitative consultations
5.1 Experiences under the current PAD Demonstration
5.2 Commitment of host organisations to PAD
5.3 Outcomes and lessons for host organisations
6. Quantitative CATI survey
6.1 Findings from the CATI quantitative survey
6.2 Selection of participating host organisations
6.3 Training of personnel in the use of the AED
6.4 Capability of staff within the organisation to follow procedures
6.5 Appropriateness of response procedures in organisations
6.6 Procedures for the sustainability of the arrangements
6.7 Lay person use of the AED
6.8 Support for the Pad Demonstration
6.9 Drivers for self-funding AED(s)
6.10 Suggested improvements to the Pad Demonstration
6.11 Summary table of responses for overall opinion of the Pad Demonstration
Appendix A: Table of US PAD legislation and funding arrangements
Appendix B: List of research participants
Appendix C: Research instruments
Discussion guide for stakeholder consultations
Qualitative consultations with managers
CATI questionnaire
Appendix D: Profile of CATI survey organisations
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Gull Lake Band of Chippewa Indians
United States Indigenous Peoples of the US Minnesota, United States Genealogy Indigenous Peoples of Minnesota Gull Lake Band of Chippewa Indians
1 Tribal Headquarters
2.1 Brief Timeline
2.2 Brief History
2.3 Reservations
2.4 Additional References to the History of the Tribe
3.1 Treaties
4 Important Websites
Tribal Headquarters[edit | edit source]
Historically, the Gull Lake Chippewas have lived in the Gull Lake region of Minnesota, since at least the early 16th century. Prophecy played an important role in their daily affairs. They combated the Dakota People who may have lived in that region before them. Dakota People did not cooperate with the prophecy weary Chippewas and eagerly formed an alliance with both the English and French who supplied them with guns. Those guns were why the Dakota People were capable of preventing the Chippewas from completely subjugating them. After the whites reached treaty agreements with the Gull Lake Chippewas, who are really the Pillager Chippewas and Pembina Chippewas, land cessions followed and a large Reservation was set aside for both the Otter Tail Lake Chippewas and Gull Lake Chippewas.
Below is a map of the Otter Tail Lake Chippewa Reservation and the Gull Lake Chippewa Reservation. The Otter Tail Lake Chippewa Reservation has the number 269, while the Gull Lake Chippewa Reservation has the number 268. After the United States broke treaty promises, a new Gull Lake Chippewa Reservation was created. You'll notice it borders the old Gull Lake Reservation on the north. The Chippewa Otter Tail Lake Reservation has never been resolved. According to white historians, no Indians either lived at or relocated to the Otter Tail Lake Reservation. However, it is well known that the Otter Tail Lake Chippewas were living around Otter Tail Lake well into the 1870s. Look at the map carefully. Otter Tail Lake is within the northwestern part of the Chippewa Otter Tail Lake Reservation.
Brief Timeline[edit | edit source]
October 13, 1846: A treaty was signed with the Gull Lake Chippewas who are also known as the Winnebago. A large Reservation was created for them in Minnesota. Gull Lake Chippewa Reservation is situated on the northeastern border of that Reservation. They relocated to the north from the Chippewas Iowa Reservations.
February 22, 1855: A new Reservation was created for the Gull Lake Chippewas which bordered their old Reservation to the south. More about that is below.
February 27, 1855: Chippewa leaders supposedly ceded the large Reservation they shared with the Otter Tail Lake Chippewas who are also known as the Menominee. Most relocated to the Chippewas Gull Lake Reservation which bordered the old Reservation. Another Reservation was set aside for them further south. It is known as the Blue Earth Reservation of Minnesota.
February 21, 1863: Another treaty ceded the Blue Earth Reservation and created a new Chippewa Reservation in South Dakota. Today, it is known as the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Reservations.
March 8, 1865: Chippewa leaders supposedly ceded their Reservation in South Dakota where the Crow Creek and Lower Brule Reservations are located. They were set aside land in Nebraska. They were set aside the northern portion of the Omaha Reservation.
1899: It was reported in the press, that many Gull Lake Chippewas who continued to live around Gull Lake and the other lakes near Gull Lake, refused to follow Minnesota game hunting laws. They warned the whites they would fight, if they tried to stop them from fishing and hunting. They either participated in the 1898 Leech Lake Rebellion or were influenced by it.
1906: A census for that year at White Earth Reservation, reported that the Gull Lake Chippewas made up 348 of the White Earth Reservation population of 5,122.
1927: It was reported by white residents of Nisswa, that some Gull Lake Chippewas continued to live near Gull Lake, very near Round Lake Trading Post.
Brief History[edit | edit source]
Gull Lake Chippewas are a mixture of Chippewas who lived in the Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Wisconsin region, and also Minnesota. Through war and migrations caused by prophecy, large numbers of Chippewas relocated to the Iowa, Minnesota, and Missouri region. Large Reservations were set aside for them in Iowa, with small areas of those Reservations located in extreme southern Minnesota and northwestern Missouri.
On June 5, 1846, the United States broke treaty promises and eradicated the 5 million acre Chippewa Reservation located primarily in Iowa. Later that same year, the United States tried to halt the prophecy weary Chippewas from migrating west. A treaty was signed on October 13, 1846 which promised the Winnebago (they are also known as the Winnibigoshish) Chippewas, an 800,000 acre Reservation in central Minnesota. It is the Gull Lake Chippewa Reservation with the number 268. That promise only lasted a few years
These Chippewas participated in the 1862 Minnesota Indian War. After the war, they were relocated to their South Dakota Reservation. Most, however, moved north to the Gull Lake Reservation which is a part of White Earth Reservation, then to Leech Lake Reservation where they are known as the Winnibigoshish. And the Otter Tail Lake Chippewas also moved to the White Earth Reservation which is 40 miles north of Otter Tail Lake.
Reservations[edit | edit source]
Crow Creek Reservation of South Dakota
Leech Lake Reservation of Minnesota
Lower Brule Reservation of South Dakota
White Earth Reservation of Minnesota
Winnebago Reservation of Nebraska
Additional References to the History of the Tribe[edit | edit source]
Records[edit | edit source]
The majority of records of individuals were those created by the agencies. Some records may be available to tribal members through the tribal headquarters.They were (and are) the local office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and were charged with maintaining records of the activities of those under their responsibility. Among these records are:
Allotment records
Annuity rolls
School census and records
Treaties[edit | edit source]
October 13, 1846 Treaty
February 22, 1855 Treaty
March 8, 1865 Treaty
Important Websites[edit | edit source]
Guide to Federal Records in the National Archives; Record Group 75, Records of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
Hodge, Frederick Webb. Handbook of American Indians North of Mexico. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1906 Available online.
Klein, Barry T., ed. Reference Encyclopedia of the American Indian. Nyack, New York: Todd Publications, 2009. 10th ed. WorldCat 317923332; FHL book 970.1 R259e.
Malinowski, Sharon and Sheets, Anna, eds. The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. Detroit: Gale Publishing, 1998. 4 volumes. Includes: Lists of Federally Recognized Tribes for U.S., Alaska, and Canada – pp. 513-529 Alphabetical Listing of Tribes, with reference to volume and page in this series Map of “Historic Locations of U.S. Native Groups” Map of “Historic Locations of Canadian Native Groups” Map of “Historic Locations of Mexican, Hawaiian and Caribbean Native Groups” Maps of “State and Federally Recognized U.S. Indian Reservations. WorldCat 37475188; FHL book 970.1 G131g.
Vol. 1 -- Northeast, Southeast, Caribbean
Vol. 2 -- Great Basin, Southwest, Middle America
Vol. 3 -- Arctic, Subarctic, Great Plains, Plateau
Vol. 4 -- California, Pacific Northwest, Pacific Islands
Sturtevant, William C. Handbook of North American Indians. 20 vols., some not yet published. Washington, DC: Smithsonian Institution, 1978– .
Volume 1 -- Not yet published
Volume 2 -- Indians in Contemporary Society (pub. 2008) -- WorldCat 234303751
Volume 3 -- Environment, Origins, and Population (pub. 2006) -- WorldCat 255572371
Volume 4 -- History of Indian-White Relations (pub. 1988) -- WorldCat 19331914; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.4.
Volume 5 -- Arctic (pub. 1984) -- WorldCat 299653808; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.5.
Volume 6 -- Subarctic (pub. 1981) -- WorldCat 247493742; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.6.
Volume 7 -- Northwest Coast (pub. 1990) -- WorldCat 247493311
Volume 8 -- California (pub. 1978) -- WorldCat 13240086; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.8.
Volume 9 -- Southwest (pub. 1979) -- WorldCat 26140053; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.9.
Volume 10 -- Southwest (pub. 1983) -- WorldCat 301504096; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.10.
Volume 11 -- Great Basin (pub. 1986) -- WorldCat 256516416; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.11.
Volume 12 -- Plateau (pub. 1998) -- WorldCat 39401371; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.12.
Volume 13 -- Plains, 2 vols. (pub. 2001) -- WorldCat 48209643
Volume 14 -- Southeast (pub. 2004) -- WorldCat 254277176
Volume 15 -- Northwest (pub. 1978) -- WorldCat 356517503; FHL book 970.1 H191h v.15.
Volume 16 -- Not yet published
Volume 17 -- Languages (pub. 1996) -- WorldCat 43957746
Swanton John R. The Indian Tribes of North America. Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin #145 Available online.
Waldman, Carl. Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes. New York, New York: Facts on File, 2006. 3rd ed. WorldCat 14718193; FHL book 970.1 W146e 2006.
Retrieved from "https://wwwp.familysearch.org/wiki/en/index.php?title=Gull_Lake_Band_of_Chippewa_Indians&oldid=4080936"
Indigenous Tribes of the United States
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Redeeming a Firstborn Donkey!
The Mitzvah of redeeming the first born Donkey - a long lost Halacha or a practical law for Donkey owners and riders in today's times ??
Beit Midrash Torah Portion and Tanach Terumah
Rabbi Stewart Weiss
203visibility
Without a doubt, the Aron Kodesh, the Holy Ark, was one of the most amazing & important items in the Mishkan & later in the Bet HaMikdash, not only because it held the 10 Commandments, but because of its own intrinsic beauty & meaning. Much has been written about the Aron (as well as at least one famous movie made about it!).
It intrigued me to learn that the Aron was actually three separate "boxes," each inside the other. The outer two were made of gold, the inner one of wood. At first it seemed to me that the Aron was somewhat deceptive, only appearing as if it was all pure gold, while in actuality having a wooden middle.
But then it was pointed out to me that G-d in his mercy took pity on those who would carry the Aron, & so He ordered that it not be made completely out of gold, which would make it tremendously heavy (gold is among the very heaviest of metals, 20 times heavier than water!).
The lesson to be learned here: Hashem never gives us a task too heavy to bear.
The Talmud (Yoma 72) has another spin on the multi-boxed construction: It learns from the Aron’s inner & outer layers of gold that a pious Jew should be "tocho k’boro", pure both inside & out. That is, his external persona, the one that the public sees, should be equally matched by his inner, private self; both should be "golden." Too often, we are mesmerized by someone’s superficiality, by his externals, & we fail to realize that a very different kind of person may lurk just beneath the surface.
In younger days, I attended many lectures by Isaac Bashevis Singer, the celebrated Yiddish author & Nobel Prize winner. I must tell you, he was a great inspiration to me; once he even took the time to share some of his insights into writing with me, urging me to first & foremost "tell the story" & let that - rather than fancy verbiage - always be at the heart of my work. I credited his influence in the forward to Shammas, the book of short stories I was privileged to write some years ago.
But later, I learned, sadly, that Singer was a pretty unsavory character, who had abandoned his first wife & son – who never forgave him – as well as the Orthodox lifestyle in which he was raised. The inner soul of the man, alas, was not nearly as golden as the genius without.
And if one has to choose between the inner & outer self? That’s a no-brainer. Clearly, what matters most is who we are on the inside. This we can learn from G-d’s famous directive in our Sedra, as we are charged to build His house: V’asu li Mikdash, v’shachanti b’tocham – Make me a holy place & I will dwell within you!"
At the end of the day it’s what’s inside that counts.
Was ordained at the Hebrew Theological College in Skokie, Illinois, and led congregations in Chicago and Dallas prior to making Aliyah in 1992. He directs the Jewish Outreach Center in Ra'anana, helping to facilitate the spiritual absorption of new olim.
The Reluctant Hero Shvat 1 5781
What Exactly Was Moshe's Speech Impediment? Shvat 1 5781
Va'eraPath to Leadership
One People, One Voice Tevet 23 5781
More on the topic of Terumah
What is Special About the Aron? (part I)
Rabbi Yossef Carmel, Adar 1 5778
Why we value what we make
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Adar 4 5778
MUSING ABOUT MOSHE
Rabbi Stewart Weiss, Adar 1 5778
Salting on Shabbos
Rabbi Yirmiyohu Kaganoff, Adar 4 5778
A Portable Home
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Adar I 1 5779
Rabbi Stewart Weiss, Adar I 3 5779
Shlomo’s Wisdom and the Wisdom of His Gentile Friends
Rabbi Yossef Carmel, Adar I 3 5779
What do we Receive when we Give?
Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Shvat 28 5780
Is It Time To Rebuild The Temple?
Baruch Gordon, Adar 3 5780
Teruma: What is True?
38 Additional lessons on this Topic Terumah
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A Windsor Township resident whose neighbors are upset over her amateur radio tower is within her rights to have the antenna on her property, township officials confirmed Monday.
An engineer went out to the site in the 400 block of White Rose Lane to inspect the 40-foot tower and ensure it didn't pose a safety threat to neighbors, township engineer Chris Kraft told the board of supervisors at a meeting Monday.
"Based on that review, we feel the tower is structurally safe," he said.
Lindsey Fowler is the homeowner who built the tower on her property last September. Fowler is a licensed amateur radio operator, according to Federal Communications Commission records, and her license is valid through December 2021.
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Amateur radio, also known as ham radio, licenses are available to individuals for personal use without monetary gain, according to the FCC.
Marc McClure, one of the neighbors who lives near Fowler, told the board in October that he and several other neighbors were opposed to the tower and said it should be removed, according to minutes from the Oct. 21 board meeting.
McClure said the tower was an eyesore in the neighborhood and that he and others were concerned about the structural safety of the tower were it to fall, as well as the potential unknown health hazards from exposure to radio frequencies.
The neighbors were also worried about a decrease in their property values, McClure said.
In Pennsylvania, amateur radio operators' rights are protected by state statute, and municipalities are not allowed to unreasonably restrict the installation of towers less than 65 feet high.
And now that the township has confirmed there's no safety risk to Fowler's neighbors, township officials said the dispute is outside their purview.
As a hobby, amateur radio allows operators to communicate on the airwaves after passing a licensing test and being assigned a designated call sign from the FCC.
In more practical applications, amateur operators can provide vital information to their communities or to first responders in the event of an emergency that knocks out phone service and other standard modes of communication.
Fowler first approached the township about the tower in August and began building it in September, said township manager Jennifer L. Gunnet.
There was some confusion about the size of Fowler's tower when it was first installed.
The neighbors believed it was a 60-foot tower, and township officials said Fowler had asked at one point to build a 70-foot tower.
But the tower's current height is 40 feet, Gunnet said Monday. Fowler has two 10-foot additions that have not been installed.
There's a similar tower installed at a house on Starview Drive, just a few houses down from Fowler.
At the October supervisors' meeting, McClure said Fowler approached several neighbors before installing the tower to ask if they'd oppose it. She pointed to the Starview Drive tower as an example of what it would look like, he said.
McClure said he told Fowler he'd never noticed the Starview Drive tower and he wasn't opposed to her installing something similar, but he told the supervisors he didn't realize how large Fowler's tower would be.
Neither Fowler nor her neighbors could be reached for comment.
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Home > Toxic Torts / Environmental Lawyers > BPA Leaching from Baby Bottles
BPA Leaching from Baby Bottles
Baby Bottles Exposed Infants To BPA. Plastic baby bottles could be exposing millions of infants to bisphenol-A, a potentially dangerous chemical. A group of North American environmental and health groups released a paper Thursday revealing that many major-brand baby bottles leach bisphenol A—BPA—and is now calling for a moratorium on its use. BPA is a fairly ubiquitous chemical used in polycarbonate plastic products, including baby bottles and metal can coatings, intended to protect the food inside from the can. According to the Food & Drug Administration (FDA) and the infant formula industry—which adheres to federal packaging guidelines—BPA is legal and safe. Critics say that BPA, which mimics the hormone estrogen, causes hormonal, neurological, and behavioral problems.
Researchers tested 19 baby bottles purchased in nine U.S. states and Canada including Avent, Dr. Brown, Evenflo, Disney, Gerber, and Playtex. When the bottles were heated to 175 degrees F (80 degrees C), they all leached BPA at about five to seven parts per billion. They also found that because of the BPA’s chemical makeup, it may leach more in fatty or acidic liquids, such as milk or apple juice, than in water.
U.S. and European Union (EU) health and environment authorities still maintain polycarbonate plastic is not harmful, putting the safe level of daily BPA exposure at more than 25 times the levels found in baby bottles. Meanwhile, Health Canada, is reviewing its BPA policy; conclusions are due this spring.
BPA Has Been Linked To Variety Of Diseases
BPA opponents say official safety figures are too high. In the lab, low levels have been linked to a variety of sex-hormone-imbalances, including breast and prostate cancer, early puberty, miscarriage, low sperm count, and immune-system changes. Critics also claim that in developing infants, these effects may occur at exposure levels far below what health authorities deemed safe for adults. “The reproductive system is developing, the brain is developing, the immune system is developing,” David Carpenter, director of the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany, said Thursday on behalf of the environmental agencies. Knowing that, he said, it is “absolutely obscene” to expose infants to BPA. The National Toxicology Program’s Center for the Evaluation of Risks to Human Reproduction convened an expert panel to determine if BPA is a hazard to humans, including more sensitive developing babies. The panel concluded there’s some risk as BPA exposure causes neural and behavioral effects in children. The American Academy of Pediatrics has no formal position on BPA.
In a 2006 summary explaining its review of BPA safety, the European Food Safety Authority argued that animal trials of the chemical don’t tell much about humans. Apparently, when humans ingest BPA, it’s quickly excreted through urine; when rats and mice eat it, it’s released into the bloodstream and remains in the body longer. Human data on BPA have been “really inconclusive,” says Antonia Calafat, research chemist at the CDC; however Calafat’s recent findings indicated among roughly 2,500 Americans tested in 2003 and 2004, over 95% had traces of BPA in their urine.
Legislation has been proposed in several U.S. states to limit or ban BPA use and some stores have pulled polycarbonate bottles. But, U.S. and E.U. health and environment authorities believe the evidence supports continued use of regular polycarbonate baby bottles and formula makers and the FDA say the amount of BPA in baby formula cans is not dangerous.
Need Legal Help Regarding Baby Bottles?
Tagged With: Baby Bottles, BPA, Exposed, infants
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Home NEWS Reopening of Schools, Federal Government Gives Update.
Reopening of Schools, Federal Government Gives Update.
Reopening of Schools, Federal Government Gives Update
The Federal Government has said, it has not come to a point where it is convinced. That schools should be reopened, for academic exercise after their closure due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
The Minister of State for Education, Chukwuemeka Nwajiuba. Disclosed this on Thursday in Abuja at a meeting of the Presidential Task Force, (PTF) on COVID-19. With the Northern Traditional Leaders Committee (NTLC) on National Primary Health.
Minister of Information, and Culture presided the meeting. On behalf of the Chairman of PTF, and Secretary to the Government of the Federation, Boss Mustapha, NAN reports.
The meeting was to seek the support of the traditional rulers towards preventing community spread of COVID-19.
Responding to a question from Sultan of Sokoto, His Eminence Sa’ad Abubakar, on school reopening. Nwajiuba said the federal government is still evaluating the situation.
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“At the moment, we have not come to the point where we can say we are convinced. That schools can manage themselves and reopen comfortably.
“Our teams have gone out, and we will use the whole of this week and next week to do a proper evaluation.
“We are going round to see the level of compliance, but most importantly, we are waiting to get an update on all the facilities in every part of Nigeria.
he said.“So, it is a work in progress.”
The minister said the government strongly believes in the opinion of experts that 15 percent of transmission of the pandemic is from the school environment.
“particularly on guidelines, we believe expert opinion that a school system is a suspect place for transmission, and that is why we are working with them.
“We suggest that classes will be remodelled if there are not enough classrooms for social distancing,
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“Reopening of schools, we can do this system where some can come in the morning, maybe the junior classes and the senior classes can come in the afternoon.
“We are also working out guidelines such as the washing of hands because the school must go on at one point,” he said.
The minister said they experimented with the system in the past weeks during the West African School Certificate Examinations and the Joint Admission Matriculation Examination.
“We are lucky thus far because we only recorded an incident in Gombe where a child contacted COVID-19. Reopening of Schools
“We quickly isolated him, and he recovered in time to join the class back.
“He said, But that showed that these places are sources of spread.”
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Top NBA Draft Prospects in the AAC, Part Two: Prospects #6-10
Derek Bodner
@DerekBodnerNBA
Jacob Eisenberg
@eisenberg43
Josh Riddell
@Joshua_Riddell
We conclude our coverage on the top NBA draft prospects in the AAC with part two, players ranked 6-10: Dedric Lawson, Steve Enoch, Adonys Henriquez, B.J. Tyson and Shaquille Harrison.
More DX Conference Preseason Previews:
-The Top 20 NBA Draft Prospects in the Pac-12
-The Top 20 NBA Draft Prospects in the Big East
-The Top 15 NBA Draft Prospects in the Big 12
-The Top 20 NBA Draft Prospects in the SEC
Top NBA Draft Prospects in the AAC, Part One
(#1) Amida Brimah
(#2) Jalen Adams
(#3) Troy Caupain
(#4) Daniel Hamilton
(#5) Octavius Ellis
#6, Dedric Lawson, 6-8, SF/PF, Freshman, Memphis
Without the benefit of extensive high school footage, we prefer to wait and see how Lawson performs as a freshman before adding to his DraftExpress profile.
#7, Steve Enoch, 6-10, PF/C, Freshman, UConn
Without the benefit of extensive high school footage, we prefer to wait and see how Enoch performs as a freshman before adding to his DraftExpress profile.
#8, Adonys Henriquez, 6'7, Sophomore, SG/SF, UCF
Adonys Henriquez established himself early on for UCF, starting from day one of his freshman seasonlikely part of the reason he decided to commit to the hometown team to begin with. While Henriquez struggled with consistency throughout the year, he established himself as one of the best shooters in the conference, connecting on 39.4% of his 165 three point attempts during his freshman season.
That perimeter shot is the basis of standing as a prospect, and it's a very legitimate weapon in his arsenal. Henriquez is particularly proficient off the catch, where he connected on 42.2% of his catch and shoot opportunities. He was able to generate 1.243 points per possession in these situations, which ranked in the top 15% of college basketball, according to Synergy Sports Technology. This was particularly impressive because Henriquez rarely got a ton of space on the perimeter, as UCF was overmatched offensively on most nights and lacked high-level shot creators to generate open looks.
Henriquez has picture-perfect form on his jumper, with a short, compact shooting motion, excellent follow through, and minimal extra motion. Most importantly, Henriquez can repeat his mechanics to a T attempt after attempt, yielding impressively consistent results. Henriquez also gets excellent elevation on his shot, and possesses NBA three point range right now. Shot Analytics logged 50 attempts for Henriquez last season that were at least 25 feet in length, and he connected on an impressive 42% of those attempts.
Henriquez has similarly excellent form and footwork when shooting off screens, although he didn't do this with nearly the same frequency that he did when stationed in the corner. Still, this is an area of his game that you expect he could utilize more down the line, and something that could become a real staple of his game down the road.
Henriquez also shows some ability to shoot off the pick and roll, although bouts of inconsistency can creep up here and there. If anything, he's likely held back here by his limited threat as a slasher, as defenders can overplay his shot and limit his opportunities. Henriquez's ball handling is underdeveloped at this stage of his career, and he doesn't possess an incredible burst when turning the corner.
The same limitations come into play when Henriquez attempts to create off the dribble in isolation situations, as he doesn't have the first step to blow by his man with regularity, and lacks the advanced ball handling moves to counter that with pure creativity and misdirection. At this point, the majority of his attempts at the rim come off cuts to the basket or when attacking closeouts. When Henriquez does get into the paint, he has pretty good body control and touch around the rim, but he's held back by average explosive ability around the hoop, and doesn't look to have full confidence finishing with his off hand.
On the defensive side of the court, Henriquez has good length for his position, measured at 6'7 (although listed at 6'6 by UCF) in shoes and with a 6'9 wingspan. He moves his feet relatively well on the perimeter, although he can get caught upright and off balance at times. He also tends to close out a little bit too aggressively, giving his man a clear lane to the basket.
Henriquez doesn't tend to make much of an impact in other areas, as he averaged only 2.8 rebounds, 0.7 assists, and 0.2 blocks per 40 minutes, pace adjusted. In all, while Henriquez has some tools to develop into a passable defender, he's not yet realized that potential with consistent production on that end of the court.
Adonys Henriquez has a very legitimate NBA skill in his three point shot, with a quick release and deep NBA three point range which has a definite impact on spreading out a defense. Without elite level athleticism, Henriquez is going to have to live in the margins and round out the rest of his game to really make the most of his ability, as right now he struggles to make an impact when his shot isn't falling. If Henriquez can improve in some of these areas, such as improving his ball handling and becoming a better, more consistent defender, he could garner serious attention from pro scouts down the line.
#9, B.J. Tyson, 6-3, PG/SG, Sophomore, East Carolina
After moving from Conference USA to the AAC in 2014, the East Carolina Pirates struggled with the jump in competition. One bright spot in an otherwise forgettable 14-19 campaign came in the form of freshman combo guard B.J. Tyson, who led the team in points, field goal percentage and free throw attempts.
Offensively, Tyson is a gifted scorer. Despite not starting a single game as a freshman, Tyson led his team in total points (12.5 per game) and carried the Pirates with an impressive 19.9 points per 40 minutes, which ranked sixth best among all freshman prospects. Tyson is a deceptive lefty with advanced ball handling skills and phenomenal footwork, both of which enable him to get to the rim at ease.
Tyson has a quick first step and shows dexterity with both hands around the basket. In general, he's at his best when he puts the ball on the ground and drives to the hoop. Tyson averaged 7.7 free throws per 40 minutes as a freshman, third best among all freshman prospects, and converted on 71.4% of his attempts once there.
While Tyson gets into the paint frequently whether off the dribble or playing off ball he's not the most efficient scorer once he's there. Per Synergy Sports Technology, Tyson converted on 55-of-128 (42.9%) of his shots inside the paint as a freshman. His ability to get to the free throw line nullifies this concern somewhat, but that won't be easy to do against higher level competition, so improving his finishing ability will be something scouts want to see him do as he matures and gains experience.
Outside of the paint, Tyson's offense is somewhat limited. He is a work-in-progress from the perimeter, hitting on just 19-of-59 (32.2%) of his three pointers as a freshman. When defenders are near, his slow release forces him to rush and release low-arcing line drives. Tyson also has a bad habit of attempting jump shots from just within the three-point line, which are generally not very efficient looks even for the most gifted of scorers. With time and space, however, Tyson has a nice arc on his shot and actually looks capable of becoming a consistent floor spacer if he can ever speed up his release (Tyson hit 40% of his 15 unguarded catch-and-shoot jump shot attempts last season). He also shows promise as an off the dribble shooter, which is something that can be honed into a more polished weapon as he continues to see more offense playing on the ball.
For that to happen, Tyson's court awareness will need to improve, especially since right now he's essentially a combo guard trapped in a point guard's body. He averaged just 2.3 assists per 40 minutes, and posted a -2.71 pure point ratio as a freshman. While he's a bullet in the open floor and converted on a strong 64.8% (46-of-71) of his transition opportunities, he showed tunnel vision on the break and would surely benefit from developing his instincts as a floor general.
It's somewhat difficult to evaluate Tyson's defense at this point, considering East Carolina's dedication to the zone. To his credit, Tyson does have an active crouch when he is tasked with defending on ball and has the speed and quickness to stay in front of his opponent. Tyson's closeout speed on shooters is adequate, but he did appear confused or lost with where his responsibilities lied within the zone at times, and he did not force a huge amount of turnovers either at just 1.1 steals per-40.
Tyson will catch NBA teams' radars because his scoring instincts and ability to get to the free throw line. He still has a lot of work to do to improve his all-around offensive game. As a sophomore, he'll need to demonstrate a better court awareness by increasing his assists while lowering his turnovers. Most importantly, however, Tyson has to show improvements with his perimeter shot. Regardless, with a year of experience under his belt, he should take a big leap as a sophomore.
#10, Shaquille Harrison, 6-4, Senior, PG/SG, Tulsa
A three year starter at Tulsa despite being an unheralded recruit coming out of high school, Shaquille Harrison has been an integral part of a Hurricanes squad that has made a postseason tournament in all three of his seasons. Now a senior, Harrison will look to lead the team back to the NCAA tournament, while raising his NBA draft stock in the process.
Harrison was a high-usage player, using 28% of his team's possessions in conference play, but was just average from an efficiency standpoint with a true shooting percentage of 50%. He's a productive player at 16.5 points, 6.5 rebounds and 4.7 assists per 40 minutes pace adjusted as he is asked to do a lot of things on the floor for his team.
At 6'4, Harrison has nice size for a combo guard, although his overall package of athletic tools aren't overwhelmingly impressive. He has long arms, but a very skinny frame at around 190 pounds. He will need to improve his overall strength level to compete with NBA players and hold up over an 82 game season. He has above average speed and explosiveness that allows him to make nice plays in transition or above the rim at times, but doesn't dominate opponents in the AAC athletically.
The majority of his possessions come out of pick and rolls, and if he can improve as a facilitator, NBA teams will get a clearer picture of how he fits into their offense. He is a crafty slasher who can turn the corner off the screen and get to the rim with nice timing and footwork, but doesn't always have the quickness or advanced ball-handling skills needed to shed his defender, which leads to contested shots in the paint. This is true of isolation situations as well, as he just doesn't have the dribbling skills at this point to navigate through traffic for a clean look. Harrison took the 17th most shots of any players in college basketball at the rim, according to Synergy Sports Technology, but made just 48.6% of these attempts. With his smaller frame, he will have to develop better touch on his floater to score consistently over the defense once he gets into the paint.
Harrison isn't yet a great creator out of ball screens, and while he displays vision to find his open teammates, he doesn't deliver accurate passes to put them in position to score. This leads to a pure point rating of 0.18, one of the lowest among AAC point guards last season. In such a high usage role, his shot selection can suffer as much of the offensive burden is placed on him, so if he can improve as a distributor, it will help both Tulsa's offense and his draft stock.
Harrison can also play off the ball, as he can run off screens and drive at open space after ball movement, but the fact that he isn't a great shooter and doesn't have great size limits his potential to play alongside another point guard. He has shot just 22.5% on three point attempts for his career, and while his form isn't completely broken, he will need a major overhaul and a confidence injection to become a more consistent shooter. At this point in his career, he is more comfortable with the ball in his hands, but will need to show better potential as a playmaker to be trusted to run a NBA offense.
On the defensive side, Harrison has some potential to be a pest, but may struggle to be a lockdown defender. He moves well laterally to stay in front of dribble penetration and harasses the ball handler. This combined with his wingspan and ability to jump passing lanes leads to an impressive 2.5 steals per 40 minutes pace adjusted.
He does need to improve on some defensive principles, as he struggles with tunnel vision when guarding the ball, which causes him to run into screens, taking him out of the play. He gambles a little too much for steals, finding himself out of position on his own man or to rotate to help his teammates and doesn't appear to have a high basketball IQ.
Harrison has some potential to be a microwave scorer off the bench but will need to show some improvements in his senior season to be recognized as a viable draft prospect. On a veteran Tulsa team, with the top seven contributors entering their senior season, Harrison will have to show he can run the offense efficiently and balance his own scoring while getting his teammates involved. Harrison will be one of the best scorers in the AAC and rounding out his playmaking skills and perimeter shooting ability could help put him on the NBA map.
Comparing and Contrasting the Prospects of Tatum, Jackson and Isaac
In a draft class lauded for its guards, three exceptionally talented, and wildly different, forward prospects sit in the top six of our mock draft, each taking a very different path to the top, and demonstrating wildly contrasting strengths and weaknesses. So who is the best prospect among the three?
De'Aaron Fox Catalyst Sports Pro Day Workout
Video from the De'Aaron Fox Catalyst Sports Pro Day Workout in Los Angeles. Video produced by Matt McGann.
Dedric Lawson PF
Steve Enoch C
Adonys Henriquez SG
B.J. Tyson PG/SG
Shaquille Harrison PG/SG
8.3 PER
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Anheuser-Busch’s “Victory Fridge” Will Dispense Free Bud Light When Cleveland Browns Win First Game Of The 2018 Season
August 15, 2018 by Dow Scoggins
NEW YORK , NY— A Cleveland Browns victory is about to taste even sweeter.
Bud Light and the Cleveland Browns today announced the creation of the Bud Light Cleveland Browns “Victory Fridge,” a smart-technology refrigerator that will automatically unlock after the Browns capture their first regular-season victory of the 2018 NFL season.
Beginning today, Bud Light and Ohio-based wholesaler House of LaRose will install the Bud Light Cleveland Browns “Victory Fridges” at bars that have purchased the fridges in Cleveland, inviting fans to gather at their favorite watering holes for a chance to be a part of the well-deserved victory celebration. At the very moment the Browns achieve that long-awaited victory, the Bud Light Browns Victory Fridges will simultaneously unlock, giving fans 21 and over the chance to enjoy the sweet taste of victory together. Victory fridges will also be placed at Cleveland’s FirstEnergy Stadium and Bud Light will be there to help fans celebrate when the Browns bring home that first win.
“The Bud Light Browns ‘Victory Fridge’ is a fun way to celebrate and reward a fanbase that has never wavered in enthusiasm or dedication for their team no matter what happens,” said Andy Goeler, Vice-President of Marketing, Bud Light. “We’re proud to show our support for Cleveland, and we’re always looking to bring NFL fans and friends together for memorable experiences. It’s going to be fun to be part of the celebration when the team earns their first victory of the season.”
Powered by Bud-E Fridge smart technology, the Bud Light Browns Victory Fridge is the brand’s latest innovative technology to help create unique experiences for NFL fans.
“Our top priorities are to build a consistently winning team and to create unique experiences for Browns fans, and the Bud Light Cleveland Browns Victory Fridges will give our fans a special opportunity to celebrate our first win of the 2018 season,” said Executive Vice President/Chief Operating Officer Dave Jenkins. “We have the most passionate, loyal fans in sports, and we are excited to partner with Bud Light on this promotion that they created specifically for Northeast Ohio due to Browns fans’ unmatched support of our team.”
To get all the latest information on the Bud Light Cleveland Browns “Victory Fridge” and other exciting programs, follow Bud Light on Facebook at Facebook.com/BudLight, on Twitter at @BudLight and on Instagram at @BudLight.
About Bud Light
Introduced in 1982, Bud Light is a premium light lager with a superior drinkability that has made it the best-selling and most popular beer in the United States. Bud Light is brewed using a blend of premium aroma hop varieties, both American-grown and imported, and a combination of barley malts and rice. The light-bodied beer features a fresh, clean and subtle hop aroma, delicate malt sweetness and a crisp finish that delivers the ultimate refreshment. For more information, visit www.BudLight.com.
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Coronado Brewing and Pizza Port Brewing Release Two-Part Collaboration Series
January 14, 2020 by Andrew Innes
SAN DIEGO – Coronado Brewing Company and Pizza Port Brewing Company are two of San Diego’s pioneering breweries, and over the years the two have forged a deep and lasting friendship.
“I’ve known Gina, Vince, and the Pizza Port crew since back in the early days of the San Diego beer scene,” says Rick Chapman, Co-founder, Coronado Brewing Company. “Recently we got to talking and we realized we’ve never brewed together. We laughed and immediately got to work on this collaboration. Both of our brands have a lot of similarities—we’re both laid back, love our coastal lifestyle, and don’t take ourselves too seriously. It seemed like a home run to partner up.”
Gina Marsaglia, Co-Founder, Pizza Port Brewing Co., says, “We are so fortunate to have known Rick and the Coronado crew over the years and when the mere mention of a collaboration opportunity came up we immediately started the creative process. Seeing it come to fruition has been the best way to celebrate the amazing relationship we have built throughout time. Cheers!”
The concept for the two-part collaboration series centered on the theme “beers between piers”—a fun play on words as the two breweries are both peers in the craft industry, and the physical breweries are located to the north and south between beach piers. From there, the concept evolved to have Coronado Brewing releasing the first beer in the series: South of the Pier IPA, and Pizza Port releasing the second installment of the series, North of the Pier IPA.
“When we first met with the Pizza Port crew, we immediately knew we wanted to brew two different takes on IPAs. Both of our breweries are known for brewing IPAs, so we thought we’d have fun playing on the idea of North and South with the hop profiles,” says Mark Theisen, Head Brewer, Coronado Brewing Company.
Coronado’s take on the collab, South of the Pier IPA, is a classic west coast IPA brewed with Mosaic, Amarillo and southern hemisphere Waimea and Motueka hops. The beer is dry-hopped with two pounds of hops per barrel for a bright, tropical aroma with lingering sweet orange citrus notes.
“What I really love about this IPA is the huge fruit-forward aroma and flavor with a crisp, dry finish,” says Theisen. “We kept the malt bill simple to really let the hops shine and keep in line with that classic west coast profile.” Pizza Port’s take on the west coast IPA will feature northern hemisphere hops to play off the North of the Pier name. “We wanted our version to showcase Pacific Northwest and newer European hops to have a slightly different take on what we brewed with Coronado’s version. It was fun to showcase the difference in northern and southern hop profiles with our two beers,” says Sean Farrell, Director of Brewery Operations, Pizza Port (and former head brewer for Coronado Brewing Company).
South of the Pier IPA debuts at Coronado’s three locations and select Pizza Port locations on Friday, January 17. The beer will be available in 16oz can 4-packs and on draft, throughout Coronado’s distribution network. Pizza Port’s version of the collab, North of the Pier IPA, will release in May 2020, available in 16oz six-packs at its pub locations and wherever Pizza Port beer is sold. For more information about South of the Pier IPA, visit www.coronadobrewing.com. Stay Coastal. Cheers.
Beer Label Copy
Coronado Brewing and Pizza Port go way back. This collaboration celebrates the decades of friendship spent paving the way for craft beer in San Diego. The first release, South of the Pier IPA, is Coronado’s take on a West Coast IPA; brewed with a hefty dose of Southern Hemisphere hops for a bright, tropical aroma and crisp, dry finish. So, let’s raise a pint to good times, great friends, and Beers Between Piers (and peers)!
About Coronado Brewing Company
In 1996, when craft beer was still a foreign term and San Diego County was home to only a handful of breweries, the Chapman brothers Ron and Rick opened a brewpub in their hometown of Coronado. Today CBC stays true to its San Diego roots, brewing abundantly hoppy West Coast-style ales, which are available today in 14 US states and 12 countries. In addition to the long-established pub in Coronado, the company opened a tasting room inside its San Diego production facility in 2013, and a tasting room and restaurant in Imperial Beach, California in 2014. Coronado Brewing Company was honored in 2014 with one of the brewing industry’s most prestigious awards—World Beer Cup Champion Brewery and Brewmaster for a Mid-Size Brewing Company, and more recently, a bronze medal at the 2019 Great American Beer Festival for its Weekend Vibes IPA (American IPA category, 362 entries) and silver medal for its Freebooter Barleywine (Barley Wine-Style Ale category).
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Auto Racing Memories | Vintage Race Cars > Auto Racing Memories > The Checkered Flag
In Remembrance of Carroll Shelby
The Checkered Flag This is where we say goodbye to drivers, car owners, promoters, race tracks and other memorable auto racing fixtures that have passed away.
Freck's Auto Art would like to say goodbye to racing great Carroll Shelby with a few words :
Carroll Hall Shelby (January 11, 1923- May 10, 2012)
What more can you say than Shelby was a racing legend and an American icon as an automobile designer. He was known for the Shelby American Cobra and the Ford Mustang Cobras. In 1959 with teammate Roy Salvadori, Shelby won the 24 Hours of Le Mans driving for Aston Martin. The Cobra inspired the song "Hey Little Cobra" by The Rip Chords, a classic song that will never die.
Freck's Auto Art is extremely sad about losing a business compatriot like Carroll. Mr. Shelby autographed our tribute print to him titled "Shelby Revs It Up." Freck's Auto Art was directly involved with the signing through the good people at the Carroll Shelby Foundation. Shelby, the man and the legend, will be missed and mourned by millions worldwide. The folks at Sports Car Digest wrote a wonderful and comprehensive tribute to Mr. Shelby as well if anyone is interested.
These are some of our Shelby offerings, which are selling quickly:
Shelby Revs It Up- by Simon Ward, Autographed by Carroll Shelby and Simon Ward $ 199.95- includes Certificate of Authenticity. While they last.
The Cobra Strikes- by Nicholas Watts, Autographed by Carroll Shelby and Nicholas Watts- includes a photo of Shelby signing the print (see below) and a Certificate of Authenticity- $379.95, while they last.
Aston Martin Victorious- by Nicholas Watts, Autographed by Carroll Shelby, Phil Hill, Roy Salvadori, Maurice Trintignant $499.95, only a few of these remain worldwide. Includes Certificate of Authenticity
Formation Finish- by Nicholas Watts, Autographed by Carroll Shelby and Chris Amon $383.95, while they last. Includes COA and signing photo.
For serious collectors, we have available the original painting "Shelby Revs It Up" by Simon Ward. The dimensions are 24" X 30", it is an acrylic painting on canvas. Be the first and only one to own this piece of racing history featuring Shelby and Salvadori winning the 1959 Le Mans 24 Hour Race in the #5 Aston Martin DBR1- $2,700.00.
carroll shelby, ford mustang cobra, freck's auto art, nicholas watts, shelby, shelby american cobra, simon ward
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Subject: ADD: Je Reviens de la Guerre
Je Reviens de la Guerre
Je reviens de la guerre, o ma chere, o ma chere.
Soldat, soldat, qu'emporteras-tu?
Une bouteille pleine o ma chere, o ma chere, o ma chere,
Une bouteille pleine, o ma chere petite enfant.
Soldat, soldat, que me donneras-tu?
Je t'en donnerai pleine un verre, o ma chere, o ma chere, o ma chere,
Je t'en donnerai pleine un verre, o ma chere infant.
Soldat, soldat, mon verre est bu.
Encore la moitie du verre, o ma chere, o ma chere, o ma chere
Encore la moitie du verre, o ma chere enfant.
Soldat, soldat, la moitie du verre est bu.
Encore le quart du verre, o ma chere, o ma chere, o ma chere,
Encore le quart du verre, oh ma chere.
Soldat, soldat, le quart du verre est bu.
Encore la queue du verre, o ma chere, o ma chere, o ma chere,
Encore la queue du verre, o ma chere enfant.
Soldat, soldat, la queue du verre est bu.
Encore le robinet, o ma chere, o ma chere, o ma chere,
Encore le robinet, o ma chere enfant.
Soldat, soldat, le robinet est bu.
Soldat, soldat, le robinet est bu. I return from the war, oh my dear, oh my dear.
Soldier, soldier, what are you carrying?
A full bottle, oh my dear, oh my dear, oh my dear,
A full bottle oh, my dear little child.
Soldier, soldier, what are you going to give
I am going to give you a full glass, oh my dear, oh my dear,
Oh my dear, I am going to give you a full glass, oh my dear child.
Soldier, soldier, my glass is drank.
There is still half a glass, oh my dear, oh my dear, oh my dear,
There is still a half a glass, oh my dear child.
Soldier, soldier, the half a glass is drank.
There is still a quarter of a glass, oh my dear, oh my dear, oh my dear,
There is still a quarter of a glass, oh my dear child.
Soldier, soldier, the quarter of a glass is drank.
There is still the tail of the glass, oh my dear, oh my dear, oh my dear,
There is still the tail of the glass, oh my dear child.
Soldier, the tail of the glass is drank.
There is still the spigot, oh my dear, oh my dear, oh my dear,
There is still the spigot, oh my dear child.
Soldier, soldier, the spigot is drank.
The textual and thematic similarities among Louisiana Mardi Gras songs and drinkmg songs are striking. For example, Mardi Gras singers state that they come from l'Angleterre (England). Post (1936) suggested that because the Mardi Gras wished to convey an image as potential troublemakers they used England as a place of origin because of that country's responsibility for deporting the Acadians from Canada. However, it is far more likely that the textual transformation occurred because de l'Angletetre (from England) sounds like de la guerre (from the war) and it conveys the notion that the Mardi Gras have come from a long distance - an important theme of Louisiana Mardi Gras in other songs. The phrase, du fond du verre (from the bottom of the glass) from drinking songs slips easily into le fond d'hiver, (the bottom of winter), and although some Mardi Gras participants insist that dufond du verre is the correct line, others propose that le fond d'hiver is more appropriate because of the season in which Mardi Gras occurs. However, given the obvious connection to drinking songs and the reference to the bottle, glass, etc., lefond du verre seems more likely to be the original line.
Some minor transformation of Mardi Gras song verses across the Tee Mamou and Grand Marais songs, and in relation to other versions such as Post's, is attributable to the nature of the French language in Louisiana. Because most French speakers were not literate in the language, songs were transmitted orally, hence the potential for changes in wording across generations, a universal feature of folk songs. Changes may also be attributed to the preference of a particular captain or even individual singers even though they may not be shared by the entire community. A good example of this is the perspective of a former Grand Marais captain who stated that dufond du verre is the proper line, whereas his wife stated that she always thought that the verse was du fond d'hiver.
Major differences in the Mardi Gras song texts must also be considered. The phrase "Mardi Gras what do you carry" in the Tee Mamou and Post variants differ considerably from the statement "Mardi Gras behave yourself' in the Grand Marais song. The former Grand Marais capitaine is the most adamant in proposing that this is the proper line rather than "What do you carry?" He interprets "behave yourself' as indicating that the soldiers must form a neat circle and perform the song in an orderly manner as part of each visit. This perhaps reflects his responsibility for maintaining order in the group. It seems clear, however, that at one time the Grand Marais song, or at least the song from which it derived, actually included the question "Mardi Gras what do you carry?" Considering that the next line carries the same response as the Tee Mamou variant and drinking songs: "I/we carry a bottle."
The Tee Mamou and Grand Marais songs differ most in their endings. The final lines of the Tee Mamou song make reference to the eldest daughter of the household. This verse is almost identical to portions of the Guignolee song, especially variants from the upper Mississippi Valley and Quebec. For example, the Guignolee song currently performed in Prairie du Rocher, Illinois, includes lines, which apart from differences in dialect, convey the same image as the end of the Tee Mamou Mardi Gras song:
Nous vou demandons seulement
La fille ainee.
Nous lui ferons faire bonne chere,
Et nous lui ferons chauffer les pieds. We only ask of you,
The eldest daughter.
We will make her be a good girl,
And we are going to warm her feet
The song used in the now-disbanded Lejeune Cove Cajun Mardi Gras near Tee Mamou had additional lines that are nearly identical to Guignolee songs. There, the greeting to the hosts and household: Bonsoir le maitre and la maitresse, Et tout le monde du logis (good evening to the master and mistress, and everyone in the household) precedes the request for the eldest daughter (Brassieur 1999).
It has been suggested, although certainly not substantiated and indeed over fanciful, that the request for the eldest daughter is in reference to pre-Christian customs of human sacrifice. Supposedly, within the context of Christianity, the reference was transformed into a request for a dancing partner (Gagnon 1955). However, it is more likely that this request originated because the singers wished access to the eldest (and hence most eligible) daughter for dancing and courtship. The similarity between the Guignolee song and the Tee Mamou Mardi Gras songs suggests a direct integration of begging song themes into drinking songs. Unfortunately, the specific process of textual borrowing can probably never be satisfactorily documented and, hence, only possible linkages can be proposed. Portions of the Guignolee song could have been introduced to Louisiana in the course of 18th-century contact between the French settlements of the upper and lower Mississippi valley. In fact, some contemporary Louisiana French families can trace their ancestry to settlers who migrated from upper Mississippi valley communities where Guignolee was celebrated. Or, equally plausible, these verses could have been introduced as a song fragment by a later settler from an area of France or Canada where Guignolee songs were common (Brassieur 1999). The mystery remains, however, as to why only this line from the Guignolee song was incorporated into the Tee Mamou song, although as will be discussed shortly, the conscious desire to selectively borrow fragments from other songs may be a flictor.
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Vol. VIII | Issue No. 7 | December 2020
About the Review
Word from the Streets
Jesse Tamayo / December, 2020 / Leave a comment / Fiction, Short Fiction
A dozen donuts popped and sizzled in the deep fryer. As they floated into one another, Cosmo took out a pink box from under the light display, now empty of donuts, and with a pair of metal tongs plucked out each of the dense cakes, placing them side by side in the box.
Cosmo ran around the shop, closing cabinets, draining the center sink, sweeping the powdered sugar off the floor, turning off all the lights.
He grabbed his box of donuts and left for his beat up Toyota, where the tires didn’t hold air and the dents spread like polka-dots over the doors. Sitting in his car he stared at his shop. Holy Donuts was sandwiched between a hair salon and a Taco store. The sign looked back at him, a different colored frosting dripped off each of the Os in the name.
Cosmo smiled.
But his smile turned in to a sigh of discontent as he noticed smudges of flour dotting his baggy jeans and the smashed sprinkles staining his white shirt. It may have been a Saturday, but he wouldn’t be driving home to change. And he wouldn’t walk into his house and smell the fresh tortillas browning on the stovetop, or feel Maria and Manny, his two little ones, charge into his thighs after he walked through the front door, and he wouldn’t have the opportunity to lay out Manny’s white pajamas with faded green and purple dinosaurs as Manny bathed, or throw popcorn into Maria’s mouth during the movies they watched on Saturdays, if he was home, which meant he couldn’t cuddle Alejandra, his wife.
Cosmo, instead, had to hunt dogs.
And he wasn’t the only one.
He had first heard of dog hunting right after high school, when he was deciding whether or not to go into debt by attending college or pursuing his dream. He was washing dishes at the local Chipotle when, during one of the idle moments in service, Trey, his co-worker, mentioned working sixteen-hour days.
“They make you work that much OT?” Cosmo asked.
“Nah. I headhunt dogs after this. Brings in some extra cash. I use it to get some more food in the apartment.”
Cosmo never wanted to be in Trey’s position, which was why he chose to open Holy Donuts. Owning his own store meant endless amounts of money coming in, but what they failed to mention about dreams was that they don’t pay well.
Bounty hunting people was made illegal for civilians, leaving cops to do the work, which was okay with him, for he didn’t know if he had the capacity to hunt another human. But what he didn’t like was hunting dogs all afternoon. Sometimes all night.
He hoped today wasn’t that long.
Most times he was retrieving dogs that people reported lost on Bounty, the app where all the dogs were posted, returning them directly to their owners. Other times he was hunting Wanted Dogs which had nothing to do with local animal shelters seeking to get dogs off the street as one might expect, those were High Alert Dogs, but rather dogs wanted by owners, usually breeders or influencers.
Cosmo hated the Wanted Dogs. Too much unexpectedness mixed with a chance of getting hurt, so he kept to the High Alerts or missing, but after a negative month at the shop, he needed the extra cash. Rent was paid, but food was low, and his family had been using the same Brita for the past half a year and he was sure they had some sort of rust flakes floating through their bodies at this point.
There was a Wanted Pit bull he had seen on Bounty. The velvet hippo was rare these days. They had been banned not by the state, but by the people, as many shamed others for owning such a dog, with the breed’s inherent violent tendencies and all, people felt it better if no one was allowed to own a pit. Cosmo believed the people in charge of the social media algorithms were running a test to see how feeds influenced opinions, and it just happened they wanted to start small. A continuous feed of hate and fear toward the pit bull created community bubbles for people to police others. It made no difference in public opinion when the old leaders who hated pit bulls retired or died off. Citizens had written their own unspoken restrictions to prohibit the ownership of pit bulls and with the wealth of information that flooded people’s screens in a day, nobody did anything about those laws, they just accepted the new normal. In fact, the only people who owned velvet hippos anymore were social media influencers, as it farmed a certain nostalgia in people about the animal. They, the influencers, were the type of people to not face backlash for owning a pit. Well, they did, but paying the fines was nothing to them, and police had no problem acting like they didn’t see the post, which kept the breeding of pit bulls alive, despite not everyone being able to enjoy their soft skin, floppy ears, and soulful eyes that contained a universe of life.
Cosmo pulled into the dog park. It was always the first place he looked before he drove up and down the roads. The people at the park recognized him either from his consistent appearances, despite not being able to afford a park pass, let alone a dog, or from Holy Donuts.
“What you trying to find?” Hannah asked as he approached. She recognized him from the shop.
“Let me show you,” Cosmo said. She was on sitting a blue cooler with a white top, a cracked beer in one hand, watching the dogs play through her Ray Bans. “This.”
He showed her the screen.
He watched her welcoming smile turn into a mouth of concern.
“Here, have a beer and a seat,” she said, standing up and plucking a beer from the cooler. She closed the lid and made room for him. “Why would you want to find one of those?”
He took the beer and the seat. She was wearing a muscle shirt and her squishy, sweaty arm rested against his average bicep.
“It’ a whale,” he said.
“A shark, actually. You’re gonna get hurt trying to find a dog like that.”
He ran his finger around the aluminum top, avoiding the tab as he stared out to the open field where dogs ran around the large fenced in structure. Bright green trees stood tall and waved in the background. Owners tossed saliva saturated tennis balls and punctured frisbees while some picked up steaming piles of shit into black bags. Cream-colored labradoodles, golden labs, white and grey huskies, and dalmatians played without the need for toys as entertainment.
“It’ll be fine,” he said. He snapped the tab open and took a sip. “I highly doubt I’ll even run into the pit.” He was more concerned about whether or not Manny and Maria believed he was enough for them. This past month especially.
Cosmo remembered how he thought his dad never cared because of his lack of presence. And when his dad was in the house, he sat in his recliner, responding with nothing more than a grunt when someone asked him a question. It would have been better if he wasn’t there at all. The only way to get more out of him was if Cosmo took a shower before his dad did. This resulted in his dad yelling and screaming about what an ungrateful child he was. Cosmo froze in his tracks, unsure about whether or not to move further up the stairs. His mom sat there, not doing much of anything. “Just go,” his dad would say, waving his hand, watching the TV as his tirade fell to mutters, and the older Cosmo got, the more he understood his dad’s outburst. If his dad was yelling at him for taking a shower, he couldn’t comprehend what his Grandpa yelled at his dad for when he was a child. He was lessening the severance of abuse one generation at a time. Plus, his dad was probably exhausted, carrying the tiredness with him after a long day of packing semi’s at FedEx, and letting Cosmo take his shower before him was, in his own weird way, an act to show how much he had cared.
Cosmo just hoped that his two little ones forgave him for his absences when they were older.
“So you haven’t seen anything?”
“You really trying to find it, huh?”
“I need to.” Standing up, Cosmo finished his beer and handed the empty can back to her. “Which way should I head?”
“I don’t care. Just be safe. Oh, and here.” Hannah dug out a couple of dollar bills from her camo cargo shorts. “Buy yourself some candy.”
“Thanks, but I have donuts in the car.” Hannah jammed the bills close to him. Sighing, he took them. He let a smile out.
Bruce, Hannah’s mixed mutt, ran between Cosmo’s legs with such force that he fell on his ass. He laughed, laying out and holding his bald head. Hannah helped him up. They hugged and after giving Bruce a few good pets, Cosmo was off.
Dusk came on quick, like a wine hangover, and Cosmo still hadn’t found shit. Countless parks were patrolled, neighborhoods of apartment complexes and houses, usually ranch style, he didn’t have access to the larger communities, were scanned, and parking lots turned up what you’d expect.
The pink box of donuts he had taken with him as bait was running low, due to Cosmo’s inability for self-control, and not as a result of hunger.
Potholes covered most of the roads resulting in Cosmo having to pull into the Shell next to the highway to use their free air. And there he was, squatting down with the metal device pushed into the tires valve when Zack, another Hunter, pulled his lifted grey Chevy into pump number five.
Zack was an asshole. Dressed like one, too.
He wore all black: a branded tee shirt and symbol stenciled basketball shorts, shoes, and calf high socks. Oakley’s were suctioned so tight around his eyes and the side of his head that Cosmo, and he knew he shouldn’t be thinking this but just had the feeling it was true, believed that if they were to be removed, the sunglasses, what little dust Zack had stored behind them would spill out and never be replaced.
Cosmo watched Zack pump gas and was taken out of his staring by the beep that came from the machine, letting him know that his tire was at 36 PSI. Muttering to himself, he capped the valve and got into his car without making eye contact.
As he drove under the freeway, he reached for another donut, realized that there were only two left, and decided against it. This only made him more angry. After drowning out the synthetic pop voices from songs, Cosmo flipped to talk radio just to keep himself awake, but the preaching almost put him to sleep, resulting in multiple wheel jerks to get back into his lane, scaring, he was sure of it, the one unlucky car behind him. That left the wide-open window to keep him awake. Sometimes he made up his own songs, dancing his fingertips on the worn leather wheel as he sang out of tune and shuffled his shoulders.
But loneliness always set in if he searched for too long.
And today was too long.
With the radio off and the impromptu songs over, the only thoughts now being self-deprecating, Cosmo was numb. How long had he been driving this road? It felt like hours, maybe even days at this point… stuck on the same road, patrolling neighborhoods and forest preserves because that was when he had last saw a stray. Cosmo allowed himself to feel pathetic and defeated and all the stress of having lost when he couldn’t afford to lose.
How much longer? How much more will he need to keep doing this—this job? It was running him down and he wanted to act on his anger, show his frustration, but he knew people would never understand. He had his own business and a loving family, yes, but there always seemed to be forces working against him. He was raised to believe that he needed to work twice as hard as everyone else just be where they were if they didn’t try at all. And look where that’s put him: in a state of merely surviving, never really living, and someone of his status and complexion was to be grateful for being given that.
Fuck that, was what Cosmo thought, and as he pulled a U-turn at an intersection for the hundredth time this night, he saw it. The pit bull. The velvet hippo. It was in front of a thin line of trees that shaded a neighborhood. He swerved toward the dog with such intensity that the pink box jumped from the center council to his lap, spilling the last two donuts on him.
The pit moseyed along the tree’s edge, sniffing the ground. Cosmo parked on the road before he entered the neighborhood, along the side of the three rows of trees so that he could cut back if he needed to. He evaluated the situation. Peeking his head around the tree line, Cosmo saw the dog. Still huffing as they searched the ground for something to eat. Their hair was pitch black, and they had a pretty good amount of weight on them.
Looking around to the neighborhood to see where the pit may potentially run, Cosmo saw the first house. Typical starter home. You know the kind: a maroon wooden porch with chipped floor boards, bird feeders, mini windmills, a weedy garden section, no fence, and brown patches of grass, either from a dog using the spot same over and over to relieve themselves, or from the kids paying in the area.
And who should be here but Zack. His truck was parked in front of the house.
Cosmo parted from the tree he was hiding behind and came along the road, sticking to the curb. The pit was growling as they looked into the trees. He took out his hog snare from his belt, unfolding it.
The pit snapped its neck around and looked at a frozen Cosmo. It began to growl, a staccato bark dispersed in between the low tumbling. They took a step toward him. Cosmo noticed that the pit’s eyes were locked on his belt. He took a peak down and what do you know, a donut hung from the tail of his belt. Must’ve happened when he took that turn, now the circular delight hung there like some sort of mistletoe.
The pit stalked closer.
A branch broke.
The pit stopped and turned its entire body to the tree line.
There stood a frozen Zack, custom gold hog snare and all.
The pit killed its growl. There was no warning. It took off to his left, Zack’s right, in full stride. Cosmo watched as a whole ass paycheck ran away.
And there they stood, staring at one another. Cosmo with his back to the road, holding a cheap snare, a donut dangling off his belt. Zack opposite of him with a golden snare and what looked like Batman’s utility belt: pepper spray, cuffs for some reason, a bag of treats, cellphone, rings that he didn’t recognize.
It was a hard stare down for about ten seconds.
“How long have you been on its tail?” Zack asked.
“The past five days. Couldn’t seem to find them.” The only thing that moved was Cosmo’s lips.
“Huh. I happened to stumble on to it.” Zack tilted his head to the left. A crack rang out. “My daughter’s purity ball is soon, and I thought this would be nice to show off. Hell, maybe I’d even sell it for something better or let her keep it.”
“Neither of us will have it if we keep standing here and talking.”
They squinted at one another before craning their necks in the direction the pit bull took off in, and saw that they were just within eyesight.
The two refocused on each other.
It was like an imaginary timer was above them, for they both took off toward the dog. Cosmo’s donut hung in the air for a few seconds before falling to the ground.
Most of the sprint they were apart, with Zack ahead, but the more ground they gained, the more parallel Cosmo made the race. Each foot fell heel to toe, left to right, like they were in a military cadence.
Sweat beads formed on Cosmo’s head. He felt both his shins tighten, his hamstrings stretched to their limits, and when he looked to his left, Zack was no longer by his side. He looked back to find that he was seven or so paces ahead.
Cosmo put his attention back to the pit and, with a smile on his face, began to expand his snare. The pit wasn’t even aware that it was being pursued.
That’s when he felt the cold clasp around his ankles. And before he could look down, he slammed against the ground. Around his ankle was a ring attached to a thin rope. Cosmo scrambled to get rid of it, but the emptiness in his lungs overtook him and he fell back, wheezing as he grabbed his chest.
Zack jogged pass him, struggling for breath in the same capacity, if not more than Cosmo, who watched him take out another ring and launch it to the left of the pit. Unsheathing his snare from his back, Zack had the upper hand and directed them toward the contraption. There was a click, and Cosmo saw the poor pit’s leg was snatched up like his.
Yelps screeched into the air.
Cosmo let his head drop. All he could focus on was his breathing, trying to calm himself. He tried to keep an even count in his head, which was soon changed because in situations like these, failure associated themes took up in his brain and stayed there for days, sometimes weeks.
He came to and looked up. The pit was gone and so was Zack, and as Cosmo flattened back out, he let the cold ground cool his throbbing head.
Coming through the garage door, Cosmo slid out of his shoes and placed them on the mat next to Maria’s knockoff light up Nikes. He smiled as he looked down the line at Manny’s slides and Alejandra’s flats.
In the kitchen he found a piece of paper and a pen. He took out the candy bars from his pocket. Writing the names of his two little ones, he placed their treats in their respective seats at the small round table in the corner, and went to wash his face before bed.
Photo by Greg Bondar from Pexels
About Jesse Tamayo
Jesse Tamayo graduated from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign in 2018, where he received his bachelors in English. This is his first published story. He currently resides in Chicago.
← The Grief Collection
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Journal Club: Carbon payments could prove more profitable than mining or logging for some nations
Posted on March 15, 2019 by Amy McDermott
A recent study suggests Guyana is among the countries that could profit from a carbon payment program that spares its forests from unchecked mining and logging. Image credit: Shutterstock/ Kid Dog Travel
Logging, mining, and other activities plow through the tropical forests of developing countries, releasing 10 to 18 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that drive climate change. One proposed solution is for wealthy countries to pay developing nations to keep their forests intact. A new study in World Development suggests the approach could make financial sense for the governments of tropical nations. In Guyana, the research showed, carbon payments could offer the government much more money than extractive industries such as gold mining and logging.
Looking to pay countries to protect their forests, the United Nations conceived a program about 10 years ago, now called REDD+ (Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation, plus sustainable management and forest conservation). Now in its early demonstration phase, REDD+ invites developing nations to document their annual carbon footprint from deforestation and damage without clear-cutting. If that footprint shrinks the following year, the country is compensated with a carbon payment from a developed partner country. Early this year, the UN Green Climate Fund accepted the first proposal for a forest mitigation results-based payment, which will pay Brazil $96 million. “That shows the wheels are moving,” says economist Jonah Busch of the Earth Innovation Institute.
Previous studies found that land users would make more money per hectare from some destructive industries than from REDD+ payments, giving them little incentive to stop cutting trees. While those findings were discouraging, United Nations REDD+ payments are bestowed upon governments, not private individuals, and past papers didn’t scale up their findings to ask how much revenue was captured by the state.
What makes the paper new, Busch says, is that it tries to “compare government income from carbon versus government income from destructive industries.” He adds that the novelty stems from “running those calculations for a national government.”
The study’s lead author, Han Overman, pored over Guyana’s national reports and documents it provided to the UN to find government income from the country’s major extractive industries, gold mining, diamond mining, and logging. The documents also reported the extent of Guyana’s deforestation in hectares, and the amount of wood passing through customs, in cubic meters. Overman used the information in those reports and documents to estimate how much money the government made per hectare deforested; he also calculated Guyana’s annual emissions from logging.
At the baseline price of $5 per ton of carbon, Overman estimated that Guyana could make as much as $231.5 million a year in carbon payments through REDD+, compared to about $24 million from timber, gold, and diamonds. Mining and logging are legal, privatized, and taxable industries in Guyana. To get around the taxes, private industries smuggle gold and wood out of the country illegally, especially in rural areas where law enforcement is weakest, Overman says. One way that Guyana and other developing nations might use future REDD+ payments, he says, is to strengthen law enforcement to reduce illegal activity.
While the potential of REDD+ is an order of magnitude higher than Guyana’s leading extractive industries, it’s not clear which partner developed countries would pay that much, Busch says. And from a developing nation’s perspective, not all money is the same. “Logging and gold are cash in hand,” Busch explains, while carbon payments are promised but generally take years to transfer. Norway set aside $250 million for Guyana beginning in 2009, as a trial run of the REDD+ program. Guyana kept their deforestation low, and Norway paid. But Guyana has had a hard time “getting the money transferred and spent on useful projects,” Busch says. “A dollar from timber isn’t necessarily the same as a dollar from carbon, if one you put straight into the bank, and the other takes a decade to get moving.”
Guyana is also special case. It still has a lot of intact forest, its trees are unusually dense in carbon, and the country has a low rate of deforestation compared to most developing forested countries. In principle, the country shouldn’t have much interest in REDD+ because Guyana doesn’t have high levels of emissions they could be compensated for. But the country borders Brazil, where deforestation is a much bigger problem. If Brazil reined in its deforestation, logging companies might move into Guyana. Donor countries interested in REDD+ pay the country generously in hopes of holding steady their current emissions rate. “Basically that money is to ensure Guyana is not welcoming logging companies to come to their country,” Overman says.
Guyana’s potential to earn hundreds of millions a year reflects their unusual standing, says Frances Seymour, who specializes in tropical forests and climate change at the World Resources Institute, and co-wrote a book with Busch in 2016. “I’d caution against assuming that’s equally applicable to most forest countries,” she says. The new paper is a welcome addition to the field, Seymour adds, that highlights just how little governments earn from the industries that destroy their forests
Busch, who helped with the Norway-Guyana agreement in 2009 while working at Conservation International, says the possibility that REDD+ could compete with destructive industries is encouraging. “The hope was the Norway money would be the tip of the iceberg and a lot of other countries will follow,” he says while adding that the “experience so far has been that the reality has been much lower than the potential.”
Categories: Climate science | Environmental Sciences | Journal Club | Sustainability Science and tagged carbon offset | carbon payment | deforestation | Guyana | logging | mining | rainforest | REDD+
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BROTHER BEAR PRODUCTIONS - A New Age in Media Management
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Brad Fritcher + trois
ArtPrize 2013 Jazz Music WINNERS!
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Harmonic Integrity x Architectural Properties + Passion = artistic vision beyond the strict confines of the jazz genre’s tradition.
The Brad Fritcher + trois project consists of four eager musicians who are expanding their artistic vision beyond the strict confines of the jazz genre’s tradition. After the first rehearsal on GVSU’s campus, the trio of Brad Fritcher (trumpet), Dutcher Snedeker (piano) and Christian VanDuinen (drums) knew immediately that they were working with something valuable. Shortly thereafter, Ryan Wallace drifted into the bass position and into the studio at Blue Lake Public Radio they went. The album that came forth is one that conveys each member’s ability to communicate intellectually and musically to themselves, each other and the listener. After the release of the album, Blue Lake Studio Sessions, the Brad Fritcher + trois continues to tether audiences to their concepts and their sound with live and intimate performances.
In addition, they went live on Jazz From Blue Lake with Lazaro Vega on May 13. Their debut album Blue Lake Studio Sessions was released on June 11. Their distribution includes, but is not limited to, (iTunes, Amazon MP3, Spotify, Last.fm, Rhapsody, emusic, & Google Play). They debuted in eastern Michigan at Detroit’s best kept secret, Jazz Cafe at Music Hall.
Brad Fritcher (trumpet):
You can call him Brad, just don’t call him conventional. Trumpeter and musical chameleon, Brad Fritcher has been making unique music for most of his life, blending jazz, punk, hip-hop, and other influences into a musical tapestry. Whether he’s been sitting in with friends, playing professionally, laying down studio tracks or teaching, Fritcher has always put his heart and soul into his music. In 2010, after studying at Mott College under a full scholarship, Fritcher went “into the woodshed,” isolating himself and making a disciplined effort to turn the music that he had in his head for years into something tangible. The effort paid off. The result is a eclectic modern jazz idiom that puts Fritcher’s divergent influences into the forefront. 2013 has proven to a productive year already; with studio work at Blue Lake Studios, releasing a full length LP digitally, gigging weekly, studying at GVSU, and being voted ArtPrize 2013 & St. Cecilia Music Center’s winner of the Jazz Category in the annual competition. Fritcher is a true artist; his artistic interests, spirituality and aspirations go well beyond music. Music is used to paint a portrait of himself. He pays a musical tribute to artists such as Flying Lotus, Terence Blanchard, Robert Glasper, Nirvana, John Coltrane and The Mars Volta. Fritcher’s music will challenge listeners’ perception of jazz and it’s tradition, along with helping fans gain a better understanding of who Brad Fritcher is; not just as a musician, but as an artist and a person.
Dutcher Wright Snedeker (piano):
Dutcher Snedeker is a Grand Rapids pianist with a long history of performance. Coming from a musical family filled with parents, 3 uncles, and grandparents who have all made a path in music, he has grown surrounded by a variety of music styles. A current sophomore at GVSU, his classical training of 13 years, combined with 6 years of performing jazz, all meet with a desire to blend styles from metal to Jazz to R&B. Taking in the teachings of local pianists like Giuseppe Lupis, Steve Talaga, and Kurt Ellenburger, the balance between the Classical and Jazz world became easier to bridge and opportunities started to come forward. From gigging in Jazz combos and Rock groups, to accompanying saxophonists and Jazz artists like Downie, joining Brad Fitcher in his pursuit of creating live, personal music that blends styles and gets others to groove and connect with one another feels like the next natural step.
Dutcher has been a musician for his entire life in Grand Rapids, in urban ministries, in a Gospel/Contemporary Christian worship settings, at local music festivals, and for weddings and special events. With the support of the music community, it is now time to make his statement in the music scene across Michigan with Brad Fritcher + trois.
Christian VanDuinen (drums):
At the age of eight, Christian VanDuinen became interested in drums and started to take lessons from various local drum kit teachers. Christian graduated from an excellent music program at Northview High School; where he played in Jazz Ensemble, Combo and also sang in the Honor’s Choir; Varsity Voices. He has performed at the Grand Rapids Festival of the Arts, The Irish on Ionia Festival, the Detroit Jazz Festival and numerous others. Merit winner in the category of ‘Contemporary Instrumental Ensemble’ for the National Fine Arts of the Assemblies of God churches. Christian is currently studying Music Education and Composition at Grand Rapids Community College. He plays in several groups in Grand Rapids, including the Billies Irish Band, Grand River Winds and Brad Fritcher + trois. Christian plans to finish his Associates of the Arts at GRCC and attend Western Michigan University to study further in his chosen path.
Ryan Wallace (upright bass):
From concert halls, to jazz clubs, to punk houses, Ryan has been performing all of his life. Experimenting in many genres has given him the ability to find the groove and keep his sound interesting. He is always looking to expand his abilities, and is always ready for the next adventure.
Brad Fritcher + trois - Smooth Silk - Royce Auditorium (ArtPrize 2013)
Brad Fritcher + trois - A Night In Tunisia (The Book Nook 8/17/13)
Brad Fritcher + trois - Cantaloupe Island (The Book Nook 8/17/13)
Brad Fritcher + trois - "Heart-Shaped Box" (The Book Nook 8/17/13)
Brad Fritcher + trois - Montague Band Shell 8/13/13 Set 1
Brad Fritcher + trois - Sunrise East into Silky Smooth - Skeetown Tavern
Brad Fritcher + trois - Jaga Jammin' into Stella by Starlight
Brad Fritcher + trois - Heart-Shaped Box
Brad Fritcher + trois - Working Title
Brad Fritcher + trois - Night Dreamer by Wayne Shorter
Brad Fritcher + trois So What by Miles Davis
Brad Fritcher + trois - The Night Has A Thousand Eyes
Brad Fritcher + trois - "Señor Blues" by Horace Silver
The Architect - Snake Den
Brad Fritcher + trois - an original piece
The Architect - Hide and Seek
BBP - Graphic Design
Brian Oberlin - Mandolin Troubadour
Brian Oberlin, Grasshoppah
Journeymen EP
Brian Oberlin, Journeymen
GLQEP
GLQ (Great Lakes Quartet), The Architect
MKK (Mario Kong Kingdom), The Architect
seven a.m.
Lato Modi (Sideways), The Architect, The Wierenga Reprise
The Beginning of a Story
Pictorial Jackson, The Architect
Grand Central Harlem
The Architect, The Dharma Bums Collective
E.F.C.Q.
Eli Flint’s Chakra Quintet, The Architect
Brother Bear Productions © 2004-2018
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CaptainHowdy.com The #1 Exorcist Fansite Since 1999
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Words from William Peter Blatty to CaptainHowdy.com visitors
William Peter Blatty himself recently sent me a communication regarding CaptainHowdy.com’s recent post about the untimely passing of his son. His words are pasted below: “I am writing to ask that you kindly transmit to the site the thanks of all my family for the kind expressions of condolence posted …
Happy Birthday THE EXORCIST film – 33 years old today
It can sometimes be hard to fathom that the film we all love and enjoy is older than the majority of people visiting this site. Today, The Exorcist film “ based on the superb novel by William Peter Blatty and Directed by William Friedkin – is 33 years old. A …
CaptainHowdy.com Site Update & Seasons Greetings
Thank you to all who have frequently visited CaptainHowdy.com during 2006 and helped make The Exorcist Fansite return successful! I am about to move house over the Christmas/New Year period and start a new, exciting job – so the site will be stagnant until early January. 2007 will see the …
William Peter Blatty’s son PETER passed away 7 November 2006
False rumors started kicking around the internet during November that William Peter Blatty (author of The Exorcist) had passed away. Out of respect I did not post these rumors as I discovered they were proven false “ it was a different male named Peter Blatty who had passed. However, it …
Rare video of Mark Kermode speaking about The Exorcist
Another rare video clip for Exorcist fans to enjoy! When The Exorcist finally appeared on British television for the first time in March 2001, writer Mark Kermode was called upon to appear in a short introduction that would go to air before the film was beamed into nation’s TV tubes …
Call to readers: Literary criticism on the works of William Peter Blatty
We don’t hear much from the man who wrote the book that inspired the film we love these days. Mr. William Peter Blatty keeps to himself, out of the media’s eye, and hasn’t developed any new projects for a number of years. Before he struck literacy gold with what is …
A video tribute to Damien Karras
CaptainHowdy.com forum member SLASHerMan recently put together this fan video reflecting on Jason Miller‘s performance of Father Karras in The Exorcist. It’s actually a well-compiled piece (unlike some fan videos out there), and, when you consider the passing of Jason Miller in 2001, it becomes extra moving as you reflect …
Fangoria #197
Issue #197 of Fangoria was a classic. A special focus on The Exorcist featured interviews with Friedkin and Blatty put some juice back into reading about the greatest horror film of all-time. CaptainHowdy.com contributor and life-member Justin recently put his scanner to work to provide article scans online, and now …
Did you ever notice the PIGS in Karras’ death?
Matt Brumley wrote: I have a question regarding the ending of the original film. After Damien hurls himself through the window, Kinderman looks out the window to observe Karras’ body. On the left side of the screen appears the word “PIG” in red graffiti ink. Does the insertion of this …
Back in the day with Linda Blair; her television work before The Exorcist
œI used to wear false teeth (laughs), because¦ a child actor is supposed to be perfect Linda Blair blushes during the Fear of God documentary. She was talking about being able to easily wear the demon tongue while filming The Exorcist as a result of wearing false teeth as a …
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Imprimis: Links and Tidbits, 20 May 2011
Posted by: Cass at 10:15 AM
This week's Imprimis features several articles on non-traditional approaches to getting students to enjoy Shakespeare, as well as some thoughts on the enduring place of Shakespeare in modern culture.
This blog post examines different versions of Hamlet (Q1, Q2, and F1) through Wordles.
A new play uses Shakespeare to talk about issues of teen bullying. In "Cruel to Be Kind," rehearsals of As You Like It are disrupted by harassment, and it's up to Shakespeare to set things straight.
The BBC is running a new recitation and performance competition for secondary schools: "Off By Heart Shakespeare," through which they hope to show that "the best way to get to know and love Shakespeare is by performing his words."
"How do you get kids into Shakespeare? Get to them before they know it's supposed to be tough" -- a lovely article on teaching Shakespeare through performance. Cass says: This is exactly my philosophy, and it's why we're so enthusiastic at the ASC about our summer programs for teenagers and pre-teens.
Then, check out 7 Quirky Ways Students Learn Shakespeare for some more exciting, performance-based approaches that teachers and students are exploring around the country.
An article from The Huffington Post about the new Shakespeare High documentary also suggests that bare-bones Shakespeare, without elaborate costumes, sets, or lighting designs (rather like how the ASC performs...), could be the answer to keeping theatre and the arts alive in our current era of budget-slashing (when the arts are too often the first thing on the chopping block).
This blog post relates current technology-induced changes in the English language to the revolution of vocabulary during the early modern period. Cass says: Interesting premise, but I'm not quite sure that netspeak is as ultimately beneficial as Shakespeare's creative inventions.
Finally, the Staunton Newsleader has given Shakespeare his own page. This aggregate collects Shakespeare-related news within Staunton, from the ASC, and from around the world.
Tags: imprimis: links and tidbits, teaching shakespeare
The gift of the Magi(c)
Posted by: Sarah Enloe at 11:19 AM
I distinctly remember the first time I read O’Henry’s Gift of the Magi as an adolescent. The bittersweet irony contained in the tale of two lovers sacrificing treasured possessions in order to purchase one another Christmas presents colored my view of relationships and of gift-giving ever since. As a girl, I loved receiving tangible gifts, but opening the packages, like in the O'Henry story, never lived up to the imagined expectation … until this past week.
The story begins last fall, when two women from UVA’s Health Science Center contacted me with an idea. Kate and Laurie work for the university in positions as American Sign Language interpreters for a Deaf UVA professor, his students, and others as the community has a need. They wanted to offer the professor a chance to take advantage of his proximity to the American Shakespeare Center, and, since they would already be doing the hours and hours of preparation demanded to execute a translation for him, they offered their time to interpret for the students of the Virginia School for the Deaf and Blind, located in Staunton, as well. This gift of talent and time taught me a tremendous amount as I conferred with them and others about approaches to bringing Shakespeare to Deaf and blind audience members.
Within a short time of their contacting me, I was able to find grant funding through the National Endowment for the Arts Shakespeare in American Communities Grant that the ASC won for 2010-11, which not only allowed me to offer the students the opportunity to attend Macbeth for free but also provided enough support for ASC actors and Education artists to go to the school to prepare the students to see the play.
At ASC Education, we firmly believe that students need little help to understand Shakespeare. We, and the teachers who bring students to our shows, have found that if people have the opportunity to see good productions of early modern plays, they find the plays not only easy but also entertaining. We think that almost two century’s practice of removing Shakespeare from the context of the Playhouse for which he wrote his plays and placing his words in literature books and classrooms has created an atmosphere in which students think the plays have little to offer them and fear Shakespeare. We think that these symptoms are the result of a curriculum more concerned with his amazing (and it does amaze) poetry than with the fact that he was writing plays as entertainment, and, if we could, ASC Education would love to wake up a world in which every teacher teaches Shakespeare as a playwright, and--perhaps more importantly--gives every schoolchild the opportunity to experience his plays produced well by good actors and artists in playhouses like ours. But the students at VSDB challenged these firmly held beliefs and that challenge turns out to be a lovely gift.
Ralph has taught Cass and me to lead workshops and lectures that are all about seeing the stage and hearing what the text can offer actors and audience alike. We work with our colleagues in teacher seminars, at No Kidding Shakespeare Camp, and at conferences to help their students see the stage when they read the page. We emphasize, with word-for-word paraphrase exercises and rhetorical study, how wonderfully the sounds of the words make audience members think on multiple levels, and how the actor interacting with both his fellow cast mates and with audience members sharing the same light creates a multifaceted prism experience in a theatre. Did you notice how many sensory words I used in that description? As we prepared for the work ahead of us, each contributing member became more and more aware of how many words we use by course that do not fit with the experience our students would be having.
An O’Henry gift I had already received from our ASC intern David Techman made the trepidation around word choice much less prevalent. David is legally blind and, when he and the ASC on Tour actors -- Kelley McKinnon, Johnathon Holzman, and Chad Bradford -- were preparing a tour workshop, we all learned from David for the first time that there was a “language barrier.” Having never seen--or, rather, experienced-- a play the way David does, I didn’t know the best way to phrase questions to get at his experience and to consider the best approach for the workshop. We muddled through and eventually discovered a workable language that relied on discussions of when stage action works--in short, it must be big enough to be clear, but specific enough to be believable. Interestingly enough, we discovered in our conversations that textually based information is often more effective than a director’s invention. For instance, David attended a Titus Andronicus at Shakespeare’s Globe in which Lavinia was raped with a dagger at the end, rather than just stabbed. This choice has no textual basis and it did not read at all to David, he found out the gist of the action only after the play’s end when his colleagues discussed it and he had an "a-ha" (though not an "uh-huh") moment. Learning how to talk about “good fights” or good “moments” for David, helped us to figure out how to approach the workshop. When we finally met with the students, their enthusiasm and joy immediately pushed away any lingering doubt as they swash-buckled and died with gusto. Watching them enjoy the play a few days later was all the more vibrant for having seen them experience for themselves what the moments onstage felt like for the actors.
The day after sword-fighting with the visually-impaired, Cass and I returned to the school with our adviser and interpreter, Mike Ernst. Mike came to our rescue when we hosted our 2009 conference at the Blackfriars, and one of our scholars was Deaf. He bravely stepped in to interpret hours and hours of papers and shows -- I never realized just how brave and kind he had been until the tables were turned at VSDB. American Sign Language is its own language, and, as such, our regular approaches to dwelling in Shakespeare’s words for workshops were not going to fly at VSDB. For one thing, as Mike, Kate, and Laurie patiently explained to Ralph and me, the play that the students and our other Deaf audience members would see was a translation. The action was all there, but the words and their arrangement were going to be different.
I, foolishly, had thought: “Well, the kids are reading the play, also we can still approach it in the same way we always would--use the text to stage a scene.” I thought we’d have a lot of fun with the banquet scene -- the murderer, the ghost, the seeing and not-seeing. I thought we’d look at the text to find all of this out. When I arrived, I quickly found that the kids couldn’t look at the text and “listen” to me at the same time, so we adjusted. Rather than play the entire scene, we went for just the first 20 lines. 20 lines in a scene of Shakespeare is about one minute of playing time -- and this is an exercise that we use often in our graduate program, as a great way to consider the infinite choices theatre offers.
And, boy, did we get some wonderful choices, but, boy, did we over plan for the time we had. The students eagerly jumped in as one of the VSDB interpreters, Rene, gamely balanced the room by placing himself opposite Mike so that a student in any position could visually link up with an interpreter, and so that we could work in “thrust.” Some of the choices they made were completely instructive -- our Lady M in the second workshop busily gave instructions to the attendant so Macbeth would have impetus to speak “our hostess keeps her state.” Continuously, the kids came up with amazing solutions, though, sometimes, a little too amazing. In one instance of playwrighting, for example, that occurred in our first class --“ We can just have the murderer say....” Cass and I had to draw the line, citing meter, and authority of the text, but loving the heart behind it. That first group did add some action that, while not in the text, could have worked -- the blood-thirsty murderer in that group, not satisfied with killing just Banquo and the other two villians in the previous scenes, upon his first entrance, also slashed the throat of the nearest servant and replaced him at the door. Surprising, dramatic, creative.
Then, they came to see it. They talked afterward about the choices the actors made versus the ones they figured out. They spoke with authority and passion about, yes, Shakespeare and the magic of Theatre. They inspired us with their passion and creativity and made us eager for the next opportunity to explore theatre with them. You can hear our actor’s responses to playing for them in our Macbeth podcast, you can chat with me anytime about my hopes to keep this relationship going--and the funding that will require. Meanwhile, I will relish remembering what a wonderful array of gifts we received. The generosity of Kate, Laurie, Mike, Kelley, Chad, Johnathon, Rene , and those wonderful students, all made our mission achievable for a new audience.
The American Shakespeare Center recovers the joy and accessibility of Shakespeare's theatre, language, and humanity by exploring the English Renaissance stage and its practices through performance and education.
Tags: ASL, shakespeare's staging conditions
“In the Force of his Will” : Shakespeare and Star Wars
Posted by: Stina at 1:13 PM
Today is Star Wars Day (May the Fourth be with you all), and, in honor, I would like to take a look at some of the Shakespearean inspiration that George Lucas used when creating the Space Western we all know and love. The ASC’s Actors’ Renaissance Season dramaturgy intern for Henry VI, part 3, Paul Rycik, has already explored the parallels between Episodes 1-3 of the Star Wars saga and the Henry VI trilogy, but this only scratches the surface of the potential Shakespeare/Star Wars connections. Lucas’s memorable characters, epic plot, and quotable scripts share traits with many of Shakespeare’s plays, and knowledge of their synchronicity only adds enjoyment to the experience of either.
So basically -- and just go with me here -- the Star Wars Saga (if retold using Shakespeare characters) goes a little something like this:
Episode 1: The Phantom Menace – For Anakin Skywalker’s side of things, the story plays out like the last half of The Winter’s Tale. Camillo (Qui-Gon Jinn), Polixenes (Obi-Wan Kenobi), and Florizel (Padme Amidala) find Perdita (Anakin Skywalker) in Bohemia (Tatooine). Camillo realizes that there is something special about Perdita and takes her with him back to Sicilia (Coruscant). On the political side, the story follows Richard II with the overthrow of Richard II (the Galactic Federation’s Supreme Chancellor) by Henry Bolingbroke (Senator Palpatine), who becomes King Henry IV (Supreme Chancellor).
Episode 2: Attack of the Clones – Anakin’s older now, so for Episode 2, he’s mostly Hamlet with a little Romeo at the end. Hamlet (Anakin) is awkwardly in love with Ophelia (Padme) but has some personal, mother-related issues to work out first. So, he goes home to Denmark (Tatooine), where his mother dies. In a fit of anger, he kills quite a few people over it (but not himself, and there’s no Osric, which is really a shame). At the end of the film, Anakin (now Romeo) and Padme (now Juliet) are married in secret on Naboo (in fair Verona), but instead of Friar Lawrence, they have C-3PO and R2-D2 as witnesses. Politically, this episode is when things start getting Henry VI-ish. Richard, Duke of York (Chancellor Palpatine) convinces the Earl of Warwick (Darth Sidious) to work for him instead of against him. Further, Jack Cade (Count Dooku) leads a Separatist faction that gives Richard, Duke of York (Chancellor Palpatine) the excuse he needs to put together a powerful army.
Episode 3: Revenge of the Sith – Here is where Anakin Skywalker joins the Henry VI plotline, but he has a little Macbeth in him, too. Like Macbeth, Anakin has let supernatural consideration (witches' prophecy for Macbeth, the Force for Anakin) color his thinking, but within the politics of the story, he enters Episode 3 as Richard Plantagenet, with the decapitated head of Somerset (Count Dooku) in hand. Richard, Duke of York (Chancellor Palpatine) has taken over for Obi-Wan Kenobi as his father figure, and Anakin is quickly on his way to a white rose (or a black helmet). Richard Plantagenet (Anakin) revenges Clifford’s (Mace Windu) attack on Richard, Duke of York (Chancellor Palpatine) and, by submitting fully to the Dark Side becomes a Darth Vader who “can smile, and murder while I smile.”
Episode 4: A New Hope – Again, the story starts like The Winter’s Tale and Tatooine is still Bohemia (at least Tatooine has the climate and topographical features it's reputed to, which is more than can be said for Bohemia). This time, though, a different Camillo (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Polixenes (C-3PO), and Florizel (R2-D2) find a different Perdita (Luke Skywalker) and realize that she has got something special about her. At this point, Luke Skywalker transforms into a sort of Prince Hal, unprepared for his filial future. So, they go to The Boar’s Head (Mos Eisley) and meet Pistol (Han Solo) and Nym (Chewbacca). Luke, like Hal, is intimately related to, but outside of the rebellions against the government that his father runs. We will not discuss the Luke/Leia business, however, because that all gets a little too much like John Ford’s ‘Tis Pity She’s a Whore.
Episode 5: The Empire Strikes Back – In both Henry IV and in The Empire Strikes Back, rebellions rage. However, the most important parallel I want to draw is between Yoda and Owen Glendower - both are vital to the rebellions of which they are a part, both are thought of as magical (or Force-ful), and both speak with funny accents. I think I’ve made my point. That said, Prince Hal (Luke Skywalker) must come to terms with the future in store for him and make the choice about what sort of power he will choose to yield, thus approaching the turning point in his story. Meanwhile, Beatrice (Princess Leia) and Benedick (Han Solo) enact their merry war of words – Leia’s “I'd just as soon kiss a Wookiee” versus Beatrice’s “I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow” and Han’s “Your worshipfulness” versus Benedick’s “Dear Lady Disdain.” Just as Benedick agrees to fight Claudio for Beatrice, Han joins the Rebellion, not out of strong political beliefs, but because he wants to satisfy the woman he loves.
Episode 6: Return of the Jedi – Little known fact, there are no Ewoks in Shakespeare. However, here is where Hal, now Henry V (still Luke Skywalker) becomes a strong leader. The final battles are fought and England (the galaxy) finds peace. Also, Leia does as Rosalind, Imogen, and Viola do and disguises herself as a man in order to take care of herself and the people she loves.
As a culture, we love an epic, the rise of the weak against the strong, the fruition of forbidden love, and the fall of the over-ambitious; both Shakespeare’s canon and the Star Wars Saga provide these oh-so-satisfying tropes in spades. The influence of Shakespeare (along with samurai history, Frank Herbert’s Dune, mid-twentieth century spaghetti westerns, and so much more) pervades the very fabric of the Stars Wars Universe. In my imagination, Shakespeare reached out his gloved hand (he was a glovemaker’s son, after all) to George in a dream and spoke these fateful words, “Lucas, I am your father.”
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Book Review: The Great Night, by Chris Adrian
The Great Night is a modernized retelling of Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, set in Buena Vista Park in San Francisco in 2008. A group of humans stumble into a disaster implemented by the Faery Queen, Titania, who is in the throes of deep sorrow. Following the death of their latest changeling child, Titania and Oberon had one of their marital spats -- but this time, Oberon doesn't seem to be coming back. Desperate to get the King to show himself and so absorbed with her grief that she loses all sensibility, Titania lifts the controlling enchantment off of Puck, also known as the Beast, freeing him to wreak havoc in the park. (The greater world is protected by walls of air -- nothing, mundane or fantastical, gets in our out of the park while those walls, presumably conjured by Oberon, are up). The mortals trapped within are: Molly, recovering from the suicide of her boyfriend; Will, in love with a strange woman who dumped him a year ago; Henry, who can't remember any of his life before the age of thirteen, and whose obsessive-compulsive habits drove away his boyfriend; and a group of homeless people rehearsing for a musical version of Soylent Green, led by Huff, who believes the Mayor of San Francisco is feeding the indigent population to each other in the soup kitchens. These mortals get wound up in the actions of the faeries, who are either giving over to sensual indulgence in what they presume to be their last hours, or who are seeking ways to put the Beast back under control.
There are things about this book which are really great. It's definitely at its best when the faeries are the main focus. Titania and Oberon are sweeping, dramatic figures, and Adrian describes the lesser faeries in a way that balances nicely between whimsical and grotesque. The flashback section where Titania and Oberon have to watch their changeling child die is the strongest portion of the book. Because their magic cannot work on anything they care for, they have to turn to human medicine to try and save the Boy. They're also struggling to deal with the emotional consequences of actually caring for a mortal child, as their self-absorption usually prevents such deep attachments to their changelings. Adrian does a great job showing how mortals perceive the faeries when they enter the mundane world, how the little magics affect them. He also -- through his own background as a pediatrician -- is able to evoke the tormented feelings of parents watching a child die with great sympathy and precision. The emotionality of this section is strong and compelling, and it paints a very clear picture.
As for the humans, their stories generally start off well enough -- Molly, Will, and Henry, at least, inhabit complex emotional and psychological worlds. Huff and his tribe I could have done without. They seemed extraneous, none of them besides Huff developed any real personality, and I can't figure out the purpose of the Soylent Green trope. Not having enough of a familiarity with that source material, I don't know if there's some larger theme at work there, or if the fixation is just a way to demonstrate the extent of Huff's delusions. Regardless, it seems like that subplot only exists as a tacked-on way to have an analog for the Mechanicals, so that Titania has a fool to dote on when the Beast places her under an enchantment. But the lover-analogs are fascinating, if not wholly likeable. They all enter the story in liminal states, hedging between decisions, scared to take decisive action in controlling their lives, hesitant and varying degrees of pathetic. In this way, they're precisely the opposite of Shakespeare's lovers, who take to the woods for very specific reasons, but their ambiguity serves the opening of the story, because it makes them vulnerable to ethereal interference.
The second half of the book degrades into confused chaos, though. As the humans fall deeper under the faeries' spell, the narrative quickly becomes jumbled and hazy. Molly and Will, whose stories had been compelling, get lost entirely in the enchanted shuffle. Henry's experience is only somewhat clearer. The reader does learn some more pieces of the backstory, some threads that tie these seemingly unrelated people together, but there's no real sense of a greater point to it, no driving force behind what's happening, and no ultimate goal for them to work towards.
And perhaps that's all to the author's purpose. Perhaps that chaos is precisely what Adrian is aiming for, to portray the senselessness of the whirlwind the Beast creates. Which is why I say, if that's the case, then it's extremely well-done. But even well-done, it interfered with my ability to enjoy the book. I like a good, solid story, some sense of cohesion, which The Great Night lacks. As the mortals falls deeper into the madness of the night, their experiences become clogged with symbolism. Adrian takes it a step too far, I think, laying the metaphors on a bit too thick, and the story loses both coherence and emotional engagement as a result.
The ending of the book is a problem. Abrupt and anticlimactic, it circumvents any kind of resolution for the characters. The mortals' stories, set up so well at the beginning, reach no conclusion. They don't even move along -- we don't see any indication that they've been changed by their time in the woods, that they'll go back to real life different than before, because we don't see them at the end. There's no sense of alteration or growth. No one has a dramatic arc except Titania, perhaps, and even her story ends ambiguously, with no denouement. Adrian throws the reader into a maelstrom and then never calms the seas. Again, this confusion might be intentional, but it's unsatisfying.
Ultimately, I'm glad I read this book. I always enjoy seeing how other writers interpret Shakespearean themes, and sections of The Great Night are quite strong and worth reading. The story as a whole, however, just doesn't hang together. The disparate threads never reconnect, too many characters never reach resolution, and too much seems extraneous. The Great Night is an interesting experiment, but the book would have profited from more tightening and precision.
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Yugioh: The Divine Conspiracy - Anime Outsiders
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Yugioh: The Divine Conspiracy
GorillaGamer
Location: Adelaide: South Australia
Post by GorillaGamer » Sat Aug 11, 2018 12:04 am
A little story before I begin; I’ve been watching Yugioh Vrains recently, and it’s arguably one of the best instalments of the Yugioh anime. Following the completion of that horrendous Smash fic I mocked, I’ve been looking for some new material to mock so I figured “Why not go for a Yugioh fic? You’ve had plenty of experience with that subject before.”
So I decided to search for a Yugioh fic on Fanfiction.net, starting off with Vrains. However nothing there caught my eye, so I decided to browse the sections for the earlier instalments of the anime; no such luck was there as well. I then pondered on mocking the sequel to that Equestria Girls fic that Dashguy mocked, but as he aptly put it himself “If you’ve seen one, you’ve seen them all.”
Putting that aside, I decided to browse the crossover section for Yugioh, which was how I found this thing…
What have I gotten myself into?
This Yugioh: The Divine Conspiracy by Rider of Black 00
Hello there everyone, this is Rider of Black 00 and I’m here with an idea for a new fic, and it will be the best fic I’ve wrote so far! It’s gonna have Pokémon fangames, Yu-Gi-Oh and everyone’s favourite crossdresser, Astolfo. However the main protagonist will be Roland from Fate/Grand Order, as he’s Astolfo’s cousin in that franchise.
One paragraph in and already I’m regretting my choice. It’s bad enough that you’ve thrown in a Fate character into Yugioh, simply because you like him as proven by your penname, but you threw in Pokémon fangames as well?!
As for the villains well I have a great idea on who the villainous faction will be; it’s just that they’ll remain a mystery until the second chapter. Anyway, what to look out for in this fic? Oh yeah, there will be plenty of lemons. Nice, tangy lemons for those of us who like Pokémon fangame characters/Roland. Honestly I’m surprised there hasn’t been more lemons/erotic fan art involving Pokémon fangames but that could change in the future.
Who on earth is asking for Pokémon/Fate crossover lemons?! I know there’s a sizable portion of the Reborn fanbase who likes writing things about the characters, but I doubt they’re as horny as this author.
You raise a point about the lack of erotic fan art though.
That seems to be it for the notes. Now let me kick start my newest fic Yu-Gi-Oh: The Divine Conspiracy.
Disclaimer: I don’t own any of the characters in this fic. They’re the property of their respective creators.
Good. Who knows what madness you’d concoct if that were the case.
Prologue: Card Games and Fan Games
Outskirts of Tokyo: Japan
Today was a most marvellous day for Astolfo; not only had he finished his deck, but his favourite cousin Roland was visiting him from England for a few weeks. The pinkette had spent a while fine tuning his Dark World deck, making sure it’s as powerful as can be.
Because an optimistic, bubbly person like Astolfo is perfectly suited for running a deck based on an army of tyrannical fiends.
Despite the deck’s initial lack of Extra Deck monsters, Astolfo splashed in a couple of cards to fix that little problem. However, Roland didn’t have a lot of powerful cards, with Astolfo promising him that he’d help with that.
If you know what I mean, eh, EH?
Astolfo soon got dressed in his favourite casual attire, which consisted of a purple and white striped shirt, covered with a purple jacket. He also wore a black pleated skirt and matching leggings. The pinkette then proceeded to do up his long hair into a single braid at the back, picked up his deck and exited his room. The house Astolfo lived in was a simple, two-storey house on the outskirts of Japan that he shared with three other people; his best friend Chevalier D’eon, Chevalier’s sweetheart, Blair, and Micaiah, the famous Maiden of Dawn and another friend of Astolfo.
Micaiah?! The legendary Maiden of Dawn and the main heroine of Fire Emblem: Radiant Dawn? What the fuck is she doing here?!
Sothe, a close friend of Micaiah was also living in the house to ensure nobody attempts to assassinate her, though whether he’s her bodyguard, sibling or lover is a total mystery.
Depending on who you ask, they’re either siblings or lovers. A hotly debated topic in the Fire Emblem community to this day.
Recently Astolfo and Micaiah had started dating one another, but they haven’t made anything public yet.
Both Micaiah and Sothe were going over the cards that Astolfo gifted the former a few days ago. Micaiah was an extraordinarily beautiful young lady with long silver hair, bright golden eyes, and a slender figure. Her attire consisted of a crimson red, sleeveless dress that had side slits, black leggings, fingerless gloves that reached her elbows, a blue scarf and a pair of boots. There was a small bird resting on Micaiah’s left shoulder named Yune, who was the Goddess of Chaos.
Between this lavish description, and that bit about Micaiah and Astolfo dating, she could only be here for one reason.
Sothe was a fairly handsome man who had short green hair and yellow eyes. His outfit consisted of a green vest and black sleeveless undershirt that showed off his midriff, leather pants that were held up with a belt, a pair of boots and a long grey scarf. He was the first one to notice Astolfo rushing down the stairs.
“So you’re awake…” Sothe commented, not averting his gaze from the cards.
The Gagaga Magician Girl was intriguing to the young man…and arousing as well.
“Can you blame me? My cousin’s coming over today!” Astolfo beamed. “We’re gonna have so much fun together, playing card games, hanging out like in the old days…”
“You seem rather fond of your cousin.” Micaiah noted, a small smile on her face as she continued to study the cards. “I must say, these cards are rather interesting; there wasn’t anything like this in Daein when I was growing up.”
Maybe it has to do with the fact that you’re from an entirely different universe.
“I figured you’d like that Prophecy/Spellbook deck, considering your magical prowess.” Astolfo commented. It was then that the doorbell rang, as the pinkette bolted towards the door and eagerly opened it, an ecstatic look on his face. Standing outside was a rather handsome man with short blonde hair and blue eyes and was taller than Astolfo. His outfit consisted of a navy blue shirt with long sleeves, a pair of black cargo pants, brown boots and a pair of brown gloves. This young man was Roland, Astolfo’s cousin and a bit of a pervert.
Oh joy, I can smell the ANIMU HIJINKS from here…
“Roland!” Astolfo beamed, hugging the blonde tightly. “It’s been too long since I last saw you!”
“Yeah, it has been a while. Sorry about that.” Roland apologised, as he broke off the hug and entered the house along Astolfo. Almost immediately, he spotted Micaiah and Sothe and was awestruck at the sight of the former. “Woah, who is that cutie?”
“Oh, that’s Micaiah, and the guy sitting beside her is Sothe.” Astolfo introduced the duo to Roland, who waved politely at him in response.
“Nice to meet you two.” Roland greeted them, before taking something out of his bag. “So champ, ready to get decked by yours truly?” he challenged Astolfo to a duel.
Huh, I get to see actual duels in this story. That’s half a point I guess.
“I was waiting for this Roly!” Astolfo referred to his cousin via nickname, as the pinkette whipped out his own deck. “Time for me to teach you a lesson in duelling!”
The duo walked over to the dining room table, where they sat opposite of each other. Both Micaiah and Sothe shifted their gear and opted to watch the duel, since it could give them valuable insight into the world of Yu-Gi-Oh.
“Duel!” both contestants called out, placing their decks on the table and drew five cards.
I’m gonna be honest here, it’s been a long time since I dueled so my critiquing skills may be a bit off. So if I don’t see a misplay or something, then please let me know so I could edit the counter I have planned.
Astolfo: 4000
Roland: 4000
“I’ll go first! I set a monster and end my turn by setting a card facedown.” Astolfo declared, setting his cards. A fairly basic move, but it could prove to be dangerous to the unprepared, and the arrogant.
Basic and boring. You seriously couldn’t start with a Dark World Dealings or something?
“Too easy, I draw!” Roland initiated his turn. “I activate the spell card Foolish Burial, allowing me to send my Phantom Beast Cross-Wing to the Graveyard. Now I’ll summon Phantom Beast Wild-Horn in Attack Mode!” the blonde man summoned his powerful monster, as the muscular mooseman gained additional power due to Cross-Wing’s effect.
Phantom Beasts; an underwhelming beat down deck that barely qualifies as an archetype. How will the notoriously powerful Dark World deck deal with such a powerhouse?
ATK: (1700-2000)
“Now crush his face down Wild-Horn!” Roland cried out, with the beast-warrior charging at Astolfo’s monster, only to be surprised when it was revealed to be Renge, Gatekeeper of Dark World.
Roland: 4000-3900
“Teehee, how’d you like that?” Astolfo teased, annoying the brave knight.
I’m sure there’s that ONE Dark Wold player who thinks that setting Renge face down is a viable defense. I’m also sure that same player would main Zure as his ace card instead of the more useful Grapha.
“Hmpf, I set a card facedown and end my turn.” Roland replied. The young man was slightly concerned about what strategies Astolfo has hiding up his sleeves; after all, Dark World decks have remained quite powerful despite being a fairly old archetype.
“Now it’s my turn; time to crank that dial up a few notches!” Astolfo cried out, drawing his next card. “Wonderful, I activate the spell card, Dark World Dealings! A little gift from yours truly.” The pinkette smirked, as each player drew a card, before discarding it to the graveyard.
Oh, there’s the Dealings I was looking for.
“Now I activate the effect of Gren, Tactician of Dark World. Say bye-bye to your facedown card.”
“Not so fast! I activate my facedown card, Threatening Roar!” Roland retaliated, as Wild-Horn let out an almighty bellow, sending chills down Renge’s spine and preventing Astolfo from attacking.
“Beh, I don’t need to attack this turn.” Astolfo snorted, clearly upset by Roland’s clever trick. I set another monster facedown and end my turn.”
This duel is making me want to lie on my bed face down!
“Hehehe, I draw!” Roland announced the beginning of his turn. “I’ll tribute my Wild-Horn to summon Phantom Beast Rock-Lizard in Attack Mode!” The mooseman disappeared into a beam of light, as a hulking lizard emerged from the light and let out a frightening shriek, gaining power from Cross-Wing’s effect.
ATK (2200-2500)
“Hold up, don’t you need two tributes to summon a level seven monster?” Sothe interjected, taken aback by what he just saw.
“True, but Rock-Lizard’s effect makes summoning it a lot easier.” Roland replied, before turning to face Astolfo. “Now Rock-Lizard, destroy his facedown monster!” The hulking lizard barrelled towards Astolfo’s facedown monster, and effortlessly crushed it with it’s large fists, with the pinkette flinching as he took damage from Rock-Lizard’s effect.
Astolfo: 4000-3500
“Scarr’s effect activates, I get to add a Dark World monster from my deck to my hand!” Astolfo commented, retrieving a card from his deck.
“In that case, I’ll set two cards facedown and end my turn!” Roland replied, setting his cards.
“Alright then, I draw!” Astolfo called out, and grinned at what he saw. “Time for the head honcho of my deck to make an appearance, I summon Brron, Mad King of Dark World in Attack Mode!” The twisted ruler made an appearance on the battlefield, his arms chained up for some reason.
Bondage is pretty big back in Dark World.
“And what’s that guy gonna do against my Rock-Lizard, go on a long tangent about the duality of man?” Roland taunted. “Please, it’s time for stuffy monarchs like him to bite the dust!”
“M-Mad King…you mean like Ashnard?” Sothe commented, as disturbing memories of the former ruler of Daein returned to his mind.
His entire platoon was slaughtered by the Daein-cong. Now he serves one of Daein’s most famous citizens as her bodyguard/brother/lover. Funny how life works.
“I’m sure it’s nothing to worry about, after all he looks more goofy than menacing.” Micaiah attempted to ease her companion’s worries.
“Oh, he’s quite menacing alright.” Astolfo grinned, activating his facedown. “Especially when he has Metalmorph backing him up!”
Metalmorph, a card that was bizarrely powerful back when it was first released in the TCG. Why have it in a Dark World deck when cards such as Compulsory Evacuation Device and Dark Core would be more useful?
“Now Brron, put that lizard out of it’s misery!” Astolfo grinned, as the Mad King broke free of his chains and drew his sword, his body glowing a metallic sheen as he gained a power boost and eviscerated Rock-Lizard.
“Well look at that, another monster sent to the Dark World. I sure hope he sends me a postcard, kyeheheheheheheheh!” Brron cackled to himself while cleaning his sword, as everyone in the room was surprised to see his duel spirit.
*Sigh*…really? You’re giving Astolfo a Duel Spirit? Are you that creatively bankrupt Rider of Black?!
At least it’s not a waifu monster for the author to jizz over.
“Woah, a duel spirit?! Talk about a lucky break!” Roland exclaimed, while Micaiah and Sothe had confused looks on their faces.
“Oh yeah, he’s been hanging around me for a while. I’ll be sure to explain the deets to you all after this duel.” Astolfo replied offhandedly. “Anyway, since Brron dealt battle damage to you, I get to discard a card, and it looks like he’s getting some reinforcements.” The pinkette chimed, as he activated the effect of Beiige, Vanguard of Dark World, who bowed in the presence of his king. Beiige proceeded to charge at Roland and landed a direct attack on the blonde man.
“And with that, I end my turn!” Astolfo grinned, as he gained the upper hand. However Roland didn’t seem fazed at all. It was as if he was planning something that could turn the tide of this duel.
“Heh, I draw!” Roland called out. “I activate my facedown card, Call of the Haunted. Welcome back Rock-Lizard!” he beamed as the massive lizard returned from the grave and let out an almighty roar.
“Oh now that’s just plain wrong, I already killed that thing!” Brron complained. “I guess it didn’t enjoy its vacation.”
Turns out that Rock-Lizard wasn’t into bondage. Tough luck, Brron.
“But that’s not all, I activate my other facedown, Horn of the Phantom Beast!” Roland added, as a pair of amber elk horns were attached to Rock-Lizard’s head.
“Now Rock-Lizard, dethrone that Mad King once and for all!” the blonde man declared, as the mighty lizard charged directly at Brron and walloped him with a powerful punch.
“Oh nooooooooooooo!” Brron cried out, as he was flung back and was destroyed, with Astolfo taking a decent hit to his life points.
“Don’t forget about Rock-Lizard’s effect.” Roland grinned.
“Yeah, yeah. I know.” Astolfo replied, irritated that one of his key players got decked hard.
“I’ll end my turn.” Roland replied. “Now let’s see if you can make a comeback after that.”
You forgot to draw a card, as per Horn of the Phantom Beasts’ effect. Oh well, I can break the counter out now.
Dueling Dipshit: 1
Yeah, the name’s kinda cheesy.
“Alright then, let’s see what I draw this turn.” Astolfo said, as he drew his card and gazed at it, before coming up with a plan.
“From my hand, I activate Mystical Space Typhoon and destroy your Call of the Haunted.” Astolfo called out.
“N-no!” Roland gasped, as his Rock-Lizard was destroyed upon the destruction of Call of the Haunted.”
“It gets better from here, by tributing Renge and Beiige, I get to summon my most powerful monster. Please give a warm welcome to Grapha, Dragon Lord of Dark World!” Astolfo introduced his ace monster, with Grapha letting out a roar that was even louder than Rock-Lizard’s. “Now attack him directly Grapha!” The pinkette called out, as Grapha fired a large beam of dark energy at Roland that wiped out the rest of his life points.
Roland: 0
Winner: Astolfo
“And that’s game!” Astolfo grinned, with Roland sighing and scooping up his cards.
Whatever you say Jaden—I mean Astolfo.
Honestly, while my commentary was a bit lacking, the duel’s just as lacking. I’ll give the author credit in that he isn’t as incompetent as that Blue-Eyes obsessed dipshit who wrote that Equestria Girls Yugioh fic, but the duel still sucked. Astolfo made very little use of Dark World’s powerful discard engine, and Roland was solely focusing on beating down the opponent, which is what Phantom Beasts are meant to do so I’ll cut him a little slack.
“Damn, you got me good that time. But once I build a better deck, it’s going to be a different story cousin.” Roland promised.
“That was some excellent strategies you utilised Astolfo.” Micaiah praised the young man, clapping her hands together. “Now I really want to try my deck out.”
What was her deck again? Oh yeah, Spellbooks; only one of the more powerful decks from the Arc-V era, which gave us Spellbook of Judgment, one of the most overpowered spells in the game.
Can’t wait to see how the author fucks that up.
“Yeah, it looks rather fun if I say so myself.” Sothe added. “I might show it off to Ike and his gang if I get the chance.”
“I knew you were gonna say that…” Micaiah sighed, resting her head on her hands. “If you love Ike that much, why don’t you move in with him and father his children?”
A thing I should point out; in Radiant Dawn, Micaiah got tired of Sothe’s constant praising over Ike, the main protagonist from Path of Radiance and refers to him as the father of Ike’s children in a cutscene.
“I-I-it’s not like that Micaiah!” Sothe stammered, a blush appearing on his face with everybody else giggling in response. It was then that the doorbell rang a second time, with Astolfo making his way to see who it was. He opened the door and saw a pair of familiar faces, his best friend Chevalier, and his partner Blair. Chevalier had long flowing blonde hair, bright blue eyes and a petite frame. His outfit was a blue and white maid’s uniform that had white thigh-high socks and was topped off with a blue headband that had a lily on it. Blair was around a year or so younger than Chevalier and had long blue hair and bright red eyes. Her outfit consisted of a red jacket, yellow t-shirt, black shorts that were held up by a belt and a pair of white sneakers.
Oh, so Blair managed to find a lover after all and it’s another character from Fate, Chevalier D’eon to be precise. Don’t ask me why the author thought they would make the perfect pair.
“Oh hey Chevvie, our special guest has already arrived.” Astolfo beamed.
“Roland’s here?!” Chevalier exclaimed, as he bolted into the house, leaving Blair a little confused.
“I take it that they haven’t seen each other in a long time.” Blair deduced, with Astolfo nodding in confirmation as he gestured for her to step inside. The duo soon walked back to the dining room table, where they were greeted with the sight of Chevalier embracing Roland rather tightly.
“It’s been way too long Roly!” Chevalier said.
“Uh yeah, it has been a while.” Roland replied sheepishly, as the duo then broke it off. “H-Hey, who’s the cutie by your side Astolfo?”
“I’m Blair, and you’re looking at the next Tokyo Duel Monsters champion!” she introduced herself, pointing a finger up in the air.
Based on the cards you used in the anime, it’ll be a miracle if you manage to qualify.
“Looks like I got some competition then.” Roland smirked, crossing his arms.
“Oh really? Because from what I saw, Astolfo wiped the floor with you.” Micaiah retorted, with Roland stepping back a few feet in shock.
“Oh come on, not in front of my cousin!” Roland whined, with everyone else giggling in response. A few seconds later, Chevalier broke the ice with a news update.
“By the way, did you know that the Pokémon Fangame Rally is in a couple hours?” Chevalier reported.
No, I did not know that, nor do I care.
“R-Really?!” Astolfo exclaimed, before a big grin appeared on his face. “Alright, that’s what we’re gonna do today!”
“Pokémon fangames? What’s that about?” Sothe inquired, curious about what he heard.
“You don’t know about it?!” Roland replied, shocked at Sothe’s comment, with the latter shrugging his shoulders in response. “Let me explain; it started a few years ago when a group of people got together and developed a game known as Pokémon Reborn. Once it was released, it received near-universal reclaim. Additionally, it inspired several other developers to make their own games, which led to us getting Rejuvenation, Desolation, Uranium, Insurgence, Sage, Clover, Phoenix Rising, Solar-Light/Lunar-Dark, Full Moon, and many other amazing games.”
And the author listed off his favorite games/waifu hunting grounds. Doesn’t help that some of those games are hot ass.
“Pokemon Reborn…I’ve never been a fan of video games, but I know the rest of the Dawn Brigade can’t get enough of them, especially Reborn.” Micaiah inserted her two cents into the conversation.
“Hey, why didn’t anybody tell be about it?” Sothe whined.
“I figured Ike would’ve told you about them.” Micaiah retorted.
“Anyway, the Rally will be in Akihabara; I’ve been tasked with helping set up the rally by the head organiser, Ame.” Chevalier added, as Blair and him finished packing their bags. “Sorry about dashing out of here, but I gotta get their quick. See you later!”
Ame happens to be the regional professor in Reborn, but in this fic she's the head organizer/developer for the game. Don’t ask me what she’s doing making the game she’s a part of.
“No need to worry about that, we’re coming with you if that’s alright.” Astolfo replied, as he and the rest of them finished packing their stuff as well. They then proceeded to leave the house and hop into Chevalier’s SUV, with its owner putting the keys in the ignition and started the engine. As the car roared into life and Chevalier began driving, they each thought about what a great day it would be, unaware that something would go horribly wrong.
A series of monitors lit up the otherwise dark room; showing information regarding the Pokémon Fangame Rally. Three figures were analysing the information, and were discussing among themselves what to do with it.
Oh boy; vague, shadowy antagonists. My favorite…
“It seems that despite our best efforts, the fangames are still getting released. This isn’t how I hoped things would turn out.” The first figure commented, his voice soothing with a hint of conniving in it.
“Humans have always been easily led astray, and these fangames are proof of it.” The second figure chimed in, his voice deep and philosophical. “Any thoughts about it?” He inquired the third figure, whom chuckled softly in response.
“These games are but an obstacle to the path of salvation. It’s up to us to guide humanity on the right path by disposing of these games.” The third figure proclaimed, his voice being strikingly bewitching.
I’m sorry what? How the hell are fangames leading humanity on the wrong path?!
How’s that for an introduction chapter, did it get you hooked in? Tune in next time, for the Pokémon Fangame Rally and the debut of this fic’s villainous faction.
Well this fic hooked me in, but for all the wrong reasons. I wanna see just how badly this thing turns out in the later chapters.
What a way to get back into the game, am I right?
Jesus man what is up with you and all of those waifus! Are you secretly the "Ultimate Pimp"?
A quote from Project AFTER
Gorillagram only gets sexual stimulation from playing Pokemon Reborn and its derivatives.
A quote from Andrew himself
Dashguy
Re: Yugioh: The Divine Conspiracy
Post by Dashguy » Mon Aug 13, 2018 9:58 am
A mishmash of characters from different franchises get to play Duel Monsters and fawn over a Pokémon fangame while a shadowy organization seeks to destroy said fangames. Is SovietRussiaMan back? Did one of his "acolytes" pick up his work? Because this reads exactly like his shit.
And, as you pointed out, what's the point of playing Dark World if you're not going to, you know, play them like Dark World?
Starting with five cards, play Terraforming to fetch The Gates of Dark World from your deck and activate it. Next, play Foolish Burial to send Grapha to the GY from the deck and follow with Dark World Dealings, discarding Broww, Huntsman of Dark World to draw one plus a second one thanks to Broww's effect. Your hand is now at three cards. Activate the effect of The Gates of Dark World banishing Broww in your GY and discarding Beiige, Vanguard of the Dark World to draw one card. Special summon Beiige. Return Beiige to the hand to call Grapha from the GY. Wham, you've got a monster with 3000 ATK and four cards in your hand, all in the first turn.
Last edited by Dashguy on Mon Aug 13, 2018 4:53 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Post by GorillaGamer » Mon Aug 13, 2018 11:55 am
Dashguy wrote: ↑
Is SovietRussiaMan back? Did one of his "acolytes" pick up his work? Because this reads exactly like his shit.
I had noticed that as well. After I made the initial post, I caught up with him on a chat he frequents, and asked if he was writing anything. He denied it, leading me to believe that either a former co-writer wrote this fic, or we're dealing with an entirely different crazy. Given the quality of fics that are present on Fanfiction.net, I'm inclined to lean towards the latter.
StabbyKobold
Contact StabbyKobold
Post by StabbyKobold » Mon Aug 13, 2018 3:50 pm
I must preface my comment by saying I know next to nothing about Fire Emblem and even less about Yugioh.
That said, it's not like the author managed to utilize either to any interesting effect. All I got from this chapter was that there is a bunch of people with a shared interest in card games and Pokémon fangames. The only reason I was even convinced there was a plot connected to all this, was due to the sudden shadowy cabal tagged on at the end. Speaking of which, we've got a trio of typography divided villains all speaking in what might as well be the same superficially described voice. And they're treating Pokémon fangames like Dungeons & Dragons during the satanic panic.
I'm intrigued at what angle this story is attempting to spin. Crazy is expected, but it might just be more.
All of my mocks can be found on my WordPress page. Just click this link.
Post by GorillaGamer » Tue Aug 14, 2018 10:40 pm
StabbyKobold@ Oh you’ll get crazy in this chapter, more than you’d expect.
Well I’m back with the second chapter of this story and so far the story’s plodding along like a shroom-eating tortoise. The one thing I’ll give this installment is that we finally learn who the mysterious villains are, but it’s so out of left field that my lungs still haven’t recovered from all the laughing I did.
Hey there everyone, I’m back with the next instalment of Yu-Gi-Oh: The Divine Conspiracy. I’ve been coming up with a few ideas on what decks I should give the main protagonists; I’ve already got Astolfo and Micaiah covered, and I have a few ideas on what to give the others. I’ll have a think about it while I write up this chapter.
Chapter 1: Divine Intervention
Akihabara: Pokémon Fangame Headquarters: 2 ½ hours before rally
The interior of the building was decorated in a vast variety of posters and banners advertising various fangames and related merchandise.
Of course they found it weird that there were advertisements for Sonic fangames, in a rally dedicated to Pokémon fangames.
All around the place there were workers cleaning up the place and generally making the place look neat and tidy.
“Wow, the place looks rather spiffy.” Astolfo pointed out, taking in all the appealing sights.
“If you think it looks good now, wait until it’s completed.” Chevalier added, as his eyes soon focused on the person in the center of the room, who was directing everyone on what to do. “There’s Ame, I gotta report to her.”
The group soon made their way to the one Chevalier referred to as Ame. Ame was a beautiful young lady, wearing a black and white sleeveless top and black jeans as well as a pair of black boots and a black scarf. She had gorgeous, shoulder length white hair and bright blue eyes. Roland was taken aback by her gracefulness.
“Woah…you looks amazing.” Roland complimented Ame, his eyes locking onto her.
I see that Roland’s a stand in for the author’s penis.
“Uh, thank you…” Ame replied, a little creeped out by Roland’s forwardness. Both Blair and Astolfo proceeded to drag Roland away, much to the latter’s chagrin.
“Sorry about that miss.” Chevalier apologised. “Roland’s been lonely for quite some time now, and he can get desperate at times.”
How fitting that he gets dragged away like Brock in the Pokémon anime; I wonder if this was how Roland actually acted in Fate/Stay night.
“It’s alright, after all I’ve dealt with worse.” Ame replied, before she noticed Micaiah and Sothe. “Is that the legendary Priestess of Dawn?!”
“Uh yeah, or at least I was a while ago.” Micaiah replied, flicking her hand through her hair. “It’s a pleasure to meet you Ame; I’m fairly interested in learning more about you and your games.”
“Same here!” Sothe quickly replied, bringing out a small notebook and a pen. “May I have your autograph?”
“I’m totally not going to sell it to Edward for an exorbitant price.”
“Sure.” Ame smiled, taking Sothe’s pen and notebook and writing her signature in it before returning the items to him. “Here you go.”
“Thank you Ame, I’ll always treasure this!” Sothe grinned, hugging the notebook tightly.
“Heheheh, I guess he finally found someone he admires over Ike.” Micaiah giggled lightly, as Blair, Astolfo and Roland returned after the latter had cooled down from his previous outburst.
Masturbation tends to let off some steam.
“Sorry we’re late, we had to teach Roland an important lesson, didn’t we?” Blair commented, before turning to stare at Roland and expected a response.
“Uh yeah, I learnt something important today.” Roland replied sheepishly, scratching the back of his head. “So what do you want us to do?”
“To be honest, there’s nothing we need help with right now. Why don’t I introduce you to the representatives?” Ame suggested.
“Representatives?” Astolfo inquired.
“We’ve flown in four representatives to help advertise the games. One from Reborn, one from Rejuvenation, one from Desolation, and another one to represent the rest of the games.” Ame explained, as she made her way to the back room, with the rest of the group following suite.
Translation: the author wanted to insert his waifus into the story as quickly as possible.
The back room was notably smaller, yet more professional looking than the main lobby room. There was a large mahogany wood desk at the opposite of the room, with a shelf behind it that housed several diplomas and trophies. There were four other occupants in this room, two men and two women, who were sitting near the sidewalls of the room.
The first woman was fairly tall and had short red hair that reached the bottom of her shoulders and matching red eyes. Her outfit consisted of a white sleeveless shirt that showed off her navel, a pair of red jeans with a metal belt attached to it, and a pair of grey shoes. She also had some sort of gauntlet on her left arm, made out of reinforced steel. This was Titania; the Steel type Gym Leader of Reborn and her regions representative.
Oh boy, Titania. Been ages since I last saw here in a fic.
The second woman was a very beautiful young lady with short blonde hair, with a red ribbon on the left side, as well as bright blue eyes. Her outfit consists of a black long-sleeved shirt, with a white undershirt, and a black skirt. She also has a black boots with thigh-high socks, and a red scarf. This was Melia, one of the Aevium regions greatest trainers and the representative for Rejuvenation.
She was also responsible for decreasing the value of shiny Pokémon by 1000%
The first man was handsome in a rather gruffly way. He had short black hair and striking red eyes. His outfit consisted of a black jacket that was made of fake fur, a black t-shirt and matching black pants. This was Shiv, a talented yet mysterious trainer from Ayrith who was the representative for Desolation.
Oh, this is new. Hi Shiv, had any encounters with sharp objects again?
The second man was a rather cute teenage man with short white hair and green eyes. His outfit consisted of a white t-shirt, a green jumper and brown trousers. The most notable aspect of his outfit was the red scarf that looked a lot like the red flower Shaymin has. This was Damien, a fairly shy kid who managed to impress Ame enough to be the representative of the independent games.
It’s kinda telling that Reborn and its sister games were able to bring in their own representative, yet the other games had to pool all their resources and were only able to bring in this kid.
“Ame, what’s with the groupies following you?” Titania inquired, pointing at Astolfo and his friends.
“Oh, they’re some of Chevalier’s friends.” Ame replied, before turning to face them. “Everyone, these are the representatives. From left to right; there’s Titania, Melia, Shiv and Damien.”
“Charmed.” Titania greeted somewhat bluntly.
“It’s nice to meet you.” Melia replied sweetly, causing Roland’s heart to flutter.
Methinks we found the authors favorite waifu of them all. Asides from Micaiah, that is.
“Heh, I’ve heard some interesting things about you Astolfo.” Shiv smirked, crossing his hands. “I’ll be looking forward to see where this goes.”
“Uh…h-h-h-hi…” Damian waved at them nervously.
“Nice to meet you all!” Astolfo grinned. “I gotta say you’re doing a really good job with the rally.”
“Considering the amount of time and money went into this shindig, I hope it looks good.” Titania commented, as she soon noticed Micaiah. “Hey, aren’t you that Priestess of Dawn Amy and her friends keeps going about?”
“I can’t say I’ve heard of your friend Amy, but I am the Priestess of Dawn, or at least I was.” Micaiah confirmed Titania’s suspicions.
“I mean, this is the first time I’ve stepped into your universe, but everyone’s already heard of me.”
“How can we be ignorant of you? You were the brains behind the Fire Emblem franchise.”
“Wow, I can’t believe I’m meeting Micaiah!” Melia gushed. “I can’t wait to tell my friends about this!”
“First Astolfo, and now Micaiah? Today’s turning out to be an excellent day.” Shiv smiled to himself.
“Ummmm, it’s nice to meet you Miss Micaiah.” Damien greeted nervously.
“It’s nice to meet you as well sweetie.” Micaiah replied politely, causing Damian to start blushing like crazy as Sothe walked up to him with his pen and notebook in tow.
Sothe about to shank a bitch for trying to woo his sister/lover.
“Hey there, can I get an autograph from you and your friends?” Sothe requested.
“S-s-s-sure.” Damian stuttered, as he took the pen and notebook and jotted down his autograph, before passing it on to the others who promptly signed it as well, with Titania handing it back to Sothe.
“Thank you all so much.” He smiled, hugging the notebook tightly.
“So how’s the speech going to go?” Blair inquired
“Well for one thing my speaking role isn’t that big, which is perfectly fine in my book.” Titania answered. “I know Ame’s got the majority of the speech, but I don’t know about the others, though I assume it’s roughly the same size as my part.”
“I see.” Blair replied. “So what got you all into making these fangames?”
“Money. Well we’d be rich if it weren’t for those damn copyright laws!”
“It’s simple really, we were playing around with several what-if scenarios, and our regional champions figured it would be a great idea if we made some games around these scenarios. A lot of these scenarios are rather off-kilter; take Rejuvenation for instance, that game had me attracting shiny Pokémon by the bucket load.” Melia explained. “The games can get a bit morbid at times, but they were intended for an older audience.”
“Oh Melia, just saying your name out loud sends shivers down my spine!” Roland kneeled before her. “I’d be honoured if we could hang out after the rally at—“he continued before Chevalier dragged him away once more.
“Sorry about that, it seems he’s a slow learner.” Chevalier apologised, glaring at Roland whom gulped nervously in response.
And the author’s an idiot who thinks repeating the same joke makes it twice as funny.
“It’s alright. I mean I’m honoured that I’ve got devoted fans, but some of them can get a bit creepy at times.” Melia chuckled, as a worker entered the room and walked up to Ame.
“Ma’am, the rally’s ready to go. The audience is being seated as we speak.” The worker reported.
“Thank you for the update.” Ame replied, before turning to the rest of the occupants. “Alright everyone, the show’s about to start! As for you Chevalier, I’ve reserved some front row seats for you and your friends.”
“Consider it a gift for not cutting yourself while reading the script.”
“Thank you Miss Ame. I’m sure the show will turn out well.” Chevalier thanked her, as everyone left the room and proceeded to head to their seats.
The room was filled to the brim with audience members, who were all eagerly awaiting the presentation. Astolfo turned around and saw several audience members cosplaying as their favorite characters, while holding up banners that featured drawings of the various characters. On the stage, the representatives were seated on their chairs as Ame made her way to the podium.
“Thank you all for coming here today.” Ame kicked off the speech. “As you all know, we’ve spent years developing our games, and have dealt with problem after problem. But today’s not that day! We’ve managed to gather enough sponsors to have our games receive official publication.
I’m curious as to who these oddly generous sponsors are as well as why they would fund these games to begin with.
These games will be getting an official release today, and we all couldn’t be happier, as these games were built with our blood, sweat and tears and it’s a refreshing feeling to see our hard work not go to waste!” The crowd applauded wildly in response to the beginning speech.
“WWWWWHHHHHOOOOOAAAAARRRRRHHHHH!!!!” A portion of the crowd clapped wildly.
“That’s our Ame!” A few more people cried out.
“Why don’t I start things off by having our representative from the game that started it all? Please give a warm welcome for Reborn’s representative, Titania!” Ame called out, as she handed the microphone to Titania with the latter being applauded like crazy.
Wouldn’t the Gameboy Advance ROMs like Light Platinum get a special mention, since they came out before Reborn? Oh wait, those games don’t have anyone the author jerks off to in them. My mistake.
“Ok, I’m not a big fan of speeches but I guess I’ll say my thoughts on it. Everyone, I have to say that I never expected our games to get this large a following. Originally they were passion projects that we made in order to experience a more challenging Pokémon game, but when you all played them, you enjoyed them thoroughly and wanted more. And when there were a few design errors in the game, you were quick to point them out which helped us to deal with them effortlessly. To this day, I will always be grateful that you helped spread the word about our game, giving it all the attention that it has.” Titania spoke into the microphone, with everyone applauding wildly as the redhead handed the microphone to Melia before sitting back down on her chair.
“What an inspiring speech.” Melia commented, before raising the microphone to her face. “When I was making Rejuvenation, my teammates and I were told that what we were doing was illegal and how we’ll get sued by Nintendo and Gamefreak.
They’re not wrong, and this rally would only alert them to what you’re doing. Enjoy your extensive lawsuits.
And while I appreciated their concerns, we still soldiered on and didn’t let adversity getting our way. And we were stacked against the odds; asides from the people decrying our actions as illegal, there were those who felt that the official games are perfect and there’s no need for fangames to be made. Then there were the ones that decried our games as ‘edgy’ and ‘tryhard’, simply because our games tackled more mature issues than the official games. And then there were the ones that cried about our games being ‘SJW propaganda’; I’d talk about them but that’ll be giving them more attention than they deserve. So to all those that told us we weren’t gonna make it; well here we are!” The crowd applauded wildly once more.
Translation: “Everyone who criticized our games are stupid and mean and their breath smells like poo.”
I think that’s as accurate as I’m gonna get.
“WOOOOOOO! Go Melia!” Roland called out, giving her a standing ovation. Melia bowed politely, before making her way to her chair and handing the microphone over to Shiv.
“Thank you for the reaction, now allow me to say a few words.” Shiv began his speech, clearing his throat. “I’ll admit that my crew and I got into the game later than the other big players, but that doesn’t mean we weren’t dedicated to it. When we were making Desolation, we wanted to make our game stand out from the crowd so we decided to take a few risks. The first one were the ranger quests that added some replayability to the game. The testers loved the idea; praising the humor and the challenge of the quests and offered additional ideas for quests. The second and the most notable risk was the relationship mechanic, where you can earn relationship points with various characters in the game, with storyline changes depending on your status with certain characters.
That’s an actual thing in the game, as I pointed out in that review I did a few months ago. Who would’ve thought that Pokémon would be the background to a harem dating simulator?
There were several romantic scenes that happened if you earnt enough points with the characters, enabling players to bond with the characters even further. This mechanic was ridiculously popular with the players; heck I remembered one of our testers jumping for joy when he managed to pair himself up with Scarlett.
Faceless tester has excellent taste I see. Faceless tester better get his greasy mitts off of Scarlett since she’s mine.
What I’m getting at here is that you shouldn’t be afraid to take risks as it can be very rewarding in the end.” Yet again, the crowd applauded wildly with a few people giving him a standing ovation. Shiv handed Damian the microphone, with the young boy gulping nervously. Ame decided to help out Damian and walk him to the podium, however the room grew dark all of a sudden.
“Wha—what’s happening?!” Ame called out, as the crowd began murmuring among themselves.
“I’m sorry to interrupt your little speech, but we’ve got a few things to talk about.” An alluring voice called out to the crowd. A few seconds later, the lights flickered on and everyone soon noticed the three newcomers on the stage, surprised Ame and the representatives.
Seems to me they’ve taken a page out of Kanye West’s book on how to interrupt speeches.
The figure on the right was what looked like a tall statue of a rotund man wearing a pink dress, who was clasping his hands in prayer. The figure on the left was a tall man wearing gold and purple armor and was adorned with a blue cape. He wielded a rather imposing spear and had a four-eyed crow resting on his left hand. The most notable feature was the purple flame coming out of his left eye socket, as if it were an eyepatch. The final figure in the center was a strikingly attractive man of Indian heritage, who had short teal-green hair. His outfit consisted of a red, button-up long-sleeve shirt with a green dinner jacket over it, as well as tan colored shorts and matching colored boots. He also wore a green fedora that had a peacock feather attacked to it, and held an ornate flute in his right hand.
“Allow me to introduce ourselves; my name’s Krishna and the lovely gentlemen beside me are Odin and Maitreya. Together we form the Divine Powers.” The figure in the center introduced himself and his compatriots.
You know, I was honestly expecting the author to have Team Meteor of some other villainous faction from the fangames to play the role as this fics villains. Maybe the author would’ve thrown in a few antagonistic Servants from Fate since Astolfo is a major character in the story. Or even a few representatives from Nintendo and Gamefreak who heard about the rally and want to sue Ame and co. for copyright infringement.
What I didn’t expect was for the Divine Powers from Shin Megami Tensai IV: Apocalypse to storm the stage like they’re the fucking Spanish Inquisition and take a stand as the villains of this fic. I have so many questions in my head right now, but I’ll bring up the most pressing of them all. Why would a faction of omniscient deities get worked up over video games?
“W-w-w-w-what do you want with us?” Damian asked, visibly frightened by the newcomers.
“We seek to guide humanity on the path to salvation, eliminating any obstacles in our way.” Odin answered, his crow squawking harshly at the teenage man. “These games you made are one such obstacle.”
“But how are these games opposing your goals?!” Ame called out. “We’ve done nothing to upset you lot.”
”The fangames go against our ideas for a new universe, and encourage humanity to cling onto them, denying them the chance to attain true salvation.” Maitreya answered. “These games are a complete mockery and need to be eliminated.”
Because Pokémon games with edgy stories is the one thing preventing you from creating a new universe and lording over it.
“Look, I don’t know what we did to offend you, but we’re sorry.” Melia apologised, only for Krishna to raise his hand at her in response.
“Offended us? You got it all wrong.” Krishna chuckled lightly. “We find nothing in the games that offended us personally. However, the characters in the game are often praised as messiahs, and have won the hearts of its target audience.”
Messiahs? Please point me to the review of Reborn where the player character was referred to as a messiah.
“False messiahs often lead the masses on the wrong path; leading them into eternal damnation and making them forgot the old gods.” Odin continued, before proceeding to pint his spear, Gungnir, at Melia. “You of all people should know about the false messiahs.”
“Me?!?!” Melia exclaimed, taking a few steps back. “How am I a false messiah?”
“You took the spotlight at several critical points in your game, managed to get everyone to sing your praises, and even got the masses to buy pillows with sexualised images of you.” Maitreya explained. “Such sinful behavior prevents humanity from attaining enlightenment.”
I know the author is desperately looking for a dakimakura with Melia on it, but would it kill him to have his deity strawmen act logically?
“What a load of shit! Do you three seriously believe what you’re saying?!” Titania retorted, standing up straight and not backing down and inch. “Next you’ll be telling us that Hyperdimension Neptunia is preventing us from attaining salvation.”
A franchise that revolves around humanised depictions of video game consoles? Playing that shit would automatically brand you as an Unclean One.
“Why thank you for informing us about another obstacle in our path.” Krishna thanked the redhead, whom scowled in response.
“You three have gone on in circles about this salvation, and how our games are opposing your plans. Can you three get to the damn point already?!” Shiv demanded, irritated by the interruption.
Hey, Shiv raised a fair point. Good on you mate!
“Silence! You have no right to order us around, especially given the magnitude of your impudence.” Odin barked at the young man.
“Your response tells me that you have nothing to back your claims then.” Shiv replied smugly, crossing his arms.
“Nothing to back our claims up?” Odin replied, before glancing at the audience members for a moment, and turning to face Shiv again. “The amount of followers you have here is proof enough that your games are a danger to humanity.”
“That’s enough! How dare you barge in here and spit on the end result of their years of hard work.” Astolfo snapped at the deities, standing up on his chair. “You must be the losers Melia briefly mentioned at the end of her speech!”
Because I can totally see Krishna and co. working at Nintendo to stamp out the fangames.
“Yeah, I’d like to see you do better than them!” Blair joined in. “I bet you lot don’t even know how to play Pac-Man!”
“I expected better from a trio who prides themselves on being powerful deities.” Micaiah added.
“You will all pay for ruining Melia’s big day!” Roland growled at them, drawing his sword and pointing the tip at them.
“Well isn’t that cute, the followers are scrambling to defend their cult.” Maitreya chuckled. “None of you are even a remote match to the Divine Powers, so I’d recommend that you back down now.”
“Ha! For a group labelling themselves as the “Divine Powers” you’re grossly outnumbered.” Titania pointed out. “It must be a really special organisation if its member list consists of nobody but Fatso, One-Eye, and Flute Boy.”
Woah there Titania! Do you kiss your mother with that mouth?
The audience started laughing at Titania’s last comment; Maitreya was flabbergasted at Titania’s comment while Odin was incredibly livid, and was ready to strike her down. However Krishna wasn’t fazed in the slightest, instead he chuckled at her.
“Do you really think we’re the entirety of the Divine Powers? Allow me to show you the error of your ways.” He replied, before proceeding to play a few notes with his flute. The tune was quite enchanting and managed to soothe the rage of everybody in the room, however a portal soon appeared in the back of the room. From the portal, a large army of angels, demons, gods and humans who all supported the Divine Powers emerged from it and stared at the audience members, waiting for them to make a move.
How nice of the enemy army to show up on cue without a single person noticing their presence.
“Oh my, that’s one heck of an army.” Chevalier commented. “I think I might sit this one out…”
“What in the goddamn, that army makes the Begnion Army look like a disorganised militia!” Sothe exclaimed in shock. “What are we gonna do Micaiah?!”
“We have no option but to stay put and hope they don’t massacre the innocent civilians.” Micaiah told Sothe, an uneasy look on her face.
“Oh Micaiah, did the suffering caused by the Begnion Occupational Army cloud your judgement? Fear not, for I am a merciful god. I won’t harm a single hair on the civilians.” Krishna told her, before turning to the crowd. “Everyone, it is not too late to save your souls. Those of you who wish to seek salvation can make a pilgrimage to our headquarters in Tsukiji Konganji.”
“We’ve got plenty of Shin Megami fangames for you to enjoy; I’m sure the writing would hook you in.”
“T-Tsukiji Konganji?” Ame inquired.
“Correct. The massive temple in Tsukiji Konganji is the main headquarters of the Divine Powers. Don’t even think about infiltrating it; our guards would smite you in an instant.” Odin replied.
“We’ve already reached out to several former gods who have been betrayed and humiliated by the Creator God, and we expect more to join our ranks soon.” Maitreya added.
“That concludes our speech for today everyone. I hope to see you all at the entrance hall in Tsukiji Konganji, as it’s where the new recruits get initiated.” Krishna farewelled the crowd, before turning to face Damian. “Especially you, young Damian. I sense great potential within your soul.”
Calling it here; Damian is going to be his Godslayer. That scarf of his must be the source of his power.
“Uuhhh…” Damian replied nervously, as the room was blanketed in darkness momentarily. When the light came back, everyone noticed that the Divine Powers and their massive army had disappeared.
“Well, if you're wondering what's happened, so am I.” Ame broke the ice.
“The whole thing’s been ruined, thanks to those clowns.” Titania commented bitterly. “There’s no way I’m letting them prevent us from releasing our games.”
Well when your opponents consist of a faction of angry deities, maybe it’s best you take their advice to heart.
“And you won’t have to worry about it; I will help you!” Astolfo declared, with his friends showing their support as well.
“Look kid, we really appreciate the offer, but you aren’t involved in this.” Titania replied. “The last thing I want to happen is other people getting killed over things that don’t involve them.”
“True, we had no role in the creation of your fangames. But I won’t stand idly by while innocent people are getting terrorised.” Micaiah declared.
I’m sure the crowd were so terrorised, they disappeared from existence.
“Heh, I wouldn’t say no to some reinforcements, especially if Micaiah’s leading the charge.” Shiv commented.
“It’ll be a real honor to fight alongside you all.” Melia smiled.
“And it’ll be a real honor for me to fight by your side!” Roland cried out, kneeling before her. “I’ll gladly give up my life for you, Melia.”
“That’s nice and all, but keep it in your pants mister.” Blair reminded the blonde, as Chevalier and her dragged Roland away, to his chagrin.
That joke was so funny it was worth putting it in three times. Oh wait, it wasn’t funny at all!
“Well since you’re gonna be fighting with us, how about we discuss the situation in the Pokémon Fangame Headquarters? It’s only half a mile from here.” Ame informed the group. Astolfo and his gang agreed to the proposition and proceeded to stay behind and follow them once the rally was over.
Tsukiji Konganji: Main Shrine room.
The shrine room lived up to what you’d expect from a massive temple; it was lavishly decorated in precious metals and jewels and had several large statues of various deities for the followers of the Divine Powers to pray to. The three heads of the organisation soon materialised in the room to discuss the events of the day.
“Well I’d say today went adequately I suppose, though that depends on whether the followers of that cult seek salvation or not.” Maitreya commented.
“I’d expected them to defend their blasphemous games, but they disappointed me.” Odin added. “That woman though; she had the audacity to insult us when she knows we could obliterate her in an instant.”
If that was all it took to upset you Odin, then I have bad news for you…
“I wouldn’t concern myself over her, or any of them in general.” Krishna mused. “Not only do we have our secret weapon, but I’ve received news that some of their friends wish to betray them. I’m very interested to see how this will turn out...”
And that’s it for this chapter, and boy was it a thrill. As for why I made the Divine Powers the main antagonists of the fic, I figured it would be slightly amusing to see them attempt to destroy the fangames so that humanity can attain salvation.
That has to be the weakest justification I’ve seen for a characters sudden appearence; destroying fangames to have humanity attain salvation, what the fuck is that shit?! You may as well make them allegories for the Jack Thompson-esque, since it’ll be less of a disservice to their characters!
What started out as a Yugioh/Pokemon fangame crossover with characters from Fire Emblem and Fate/Stay night ends up dabbling into Shin Megami territory, simple because Rider of Black thought it would be hilarious to read about angry deities trying to destroy fangames. Who knows how the later chapters would play out.
Post by GorillaGamer » Sun Aug 19, 2018 11:58 pm
Well when we last left off, the Divine Powers declared war on fangames because MUH SALVATION. Here we see why it’s fucking stupid to feature them as the villains of your fangame fapfic.
Last time, Astolfo and his friends attended the Pokémon Fangame Rally, where they met Ame and a few of her friends. However the rally was interrupted by the arrival of the Divine Powers, who spoke of their intentions to destroy the fangames.
Before I begin, there’s a couple things I want to get off my chest. The first is that this takes place before the events of Shin Megami Tensai IV: Apocalypse. The second is that Nino got a new alt in Fire Emblem Heroes and it’s the cutest little thing of all time. And with that off my chest, we can now begin.
Why don’t you try offering your soul to Krishna in return for unlimited orbs? You’d be able to get as many Ninos as you want.
Chapter 2: There’s treachery afoot
Pokémon Fangame Headquarters
The group had arrived at the fangame headquarters in order to discuss the events of the rally, most notably the Divine Powers and their master plan. They had entered the lobby, with Astolfo and his group picking up a brochure from the front desk, when they were soon halted by a man guarding the nearby elevator. He was a fairly tall man of African-American descent and had short white hair and brown eyes. His outfit consisted of a tan long-sleeve jacket and matching pants, with a dark blue undershirt and a pair of boots. He also wore a brown wide-brimmed hat that had the logo for the Cellian Police Force. Shiv immediately recognised the man and gave him a friendly bro-hug.
“Garret, long time no see!” Shiv greeted, as the two broke off the hug. “How have things been going?”
“Could be better, but nothing worth complaining about.” Garret replied, a grin on his face.
“Some deity stormed into my room and complained about how my hat is opposing their salvation. What was that about?”
“Sorry I was late but I got caught up in some official business. How did the rally go?”
“That’s why we’re here, we need to get to the meeting room as soon as possible!” Shiv blurted, as he made his way to the elevator and quickly pressed the button a few times. A few seconds later and everyone entered the elevator and they soon made their way up. Once they arrived at the top floor, Shiv bolted out of the elevator and made his way to the meeting room.
“Damn, shit must’ve hit the fan if Shiv’s this worried about it.” Garret commented, as the rest of the group entered the meeting room. Asides from Shiv, there were four other people in the room, three women and one male. The male was a young man with a dark shade of purple and his eyes were brown. His choice of attire was rather unique, with a black, fishnet shirt cover by a dark purple jacket as well as a pair of matching coloured pants. He also had purple boots and wore black eyeshadow. This was Cain, the reserve Poison-type Gym Leader of Reborn and the Minister of Tourism for the region.
Ame loves handing out powerful positions to her friends, as if Reborn’s meant to make a commentary about the benefits of nepotism. Also, hi Cain.
The first woman had luscious navy blue hair that reached her back, and matching blue eyes. Her outfit consisted of a short sleeved blue shirt that showed off her naval, and a pair of blue shorts, with a rope belt around the helm that held two small pouches. She also wore blue boots, which matched her outfit. This was Valerie, the Water-type Gym Leader of Aevium.
And another familiar character from the LoA mock makes an appearance; oh man, the memories I have from that fic were wild.
The second woman was very pretty; with her long green hair and bright blue eyes. Her outfit consisted of a green short-sleeved shirt, a blue pleated skirt, thigh-high socks and light green sneakers. This was Nora, one of the Torren regions most talented trainers and a close friend of Damian.
The third and final woman was a gorgeous young woman with her long pink hair done up in ponytails, with matching pink eyes. She wore what appeared to be a short-sleeved, red button up shirt, a matching red skirt, as well as red gloves and boots that reached the bottom of her knees. This was Rosetta, the mayor of Cellia City and the Fairy-type Gym Leader. She and Garret are acquaintances despite some tense moments in the past.
At this point, you can tell who the author insert is gonna fuck based on whether they have ‘beautiful’ or ‘pretty’ in their descriptions. There are a couple exceptions to this rule, but I digress.
“H-hey Shiv, what’s the rush about?” Rosetta inquired, curious about his attitude.
“The entire rally got screwed up thanks to those asshats!” Shiv complained, slumping down on an empty seat.
“Screwed up, by who?” Rosetta turned to Ame for answers.
“This group appeared out of nowhere and called themselves the Divine Powers, before going on a tangent about how our games are denying humanity the opportunity of salvation.” Ame explained, sighing to herself. “I honestly don’t know what they were going on about.”
Don’t worry, neither do the Shin Megami fans that are reading this.
“T-t-that head honcho of theirs said that I had great potential to me, as if I was important to his plans.” Damian mentioned.
“I wouldn’t pay too much credence to it.” Nora attempted to ease his worries. “It’s probably nothing but an attempt to get a reaction.”
“Y-Yeah, you’re right.” Damian replied,
She essentially said that you suck Damian. Way to depreciate yourself man.
as Astolfo was taken aback by Cain.
“Wow-wee! You look amazing!” the pinkette grinned like crazy. “What’s your name?”
“The name’s Cain sweetie.” Cain replied, a soft smile on his face. “You look stunning as well.”
I’m not surprised that the flirtatious Poison-type trainer from Reborn is eyeing up the most infamous crossdresser/trap in anime. Heck, I’m sure there’s porn of it somewhere on the internet.
“Aw shucks.” Astolfo blushed, as Sothe whipped out his pen and notebook.
“Cain! I’ve heard about you. Would it be a hassle if I got an autograph from you and your friends?” Sothe requested.
“Not at all handsome.” Cain replied, as he took the pen and notebook and wrote his autograph in it before passing it onto the others who proceeded to do the same. Once they had all finished, Garret handed the pen and notebook back to Sothe.
Sothe’s sitting on a potential goldmine, with all the signatures he’s collecting.
“Thank you all so much!” Sothe thanked them all, as Valerie noticed the troubled look on Melia’s face.
“Is something the matter?” She asked.
“Yeah. That Maitreya fellow said something about people buying dakimakuras with images of me on them, yet I don’t recall anyone of us making those.” Melia commented.
And I certainly don’t recall Pokémon Reborn dakimakuras being a thing at all. Forget the signatures, there’s a potential market for those things.
“You think Ren could’ve been behind it?” Valerie asked.
“I swear if he did make those pillows, I’ll never talk to him again!” Melia threatened, crossing her arms.
“Anyway, back to business. Does anyone here know anything about this Divine Powers?” Titania asked out loud.
They have some sort of Divine Power over the masses?
“No unfortunately, this is the first time I’ve even heard of them.” Rosetta replied.
“Well there is something I heard that may be of use to us.” Nora chimed in, with everyone turning to face her. “I overheard Jaern mentioning something about meeting up with this guy with a flute and a fedora.”
“Sounds a lot like that Krishna fellow who stole the stage.” Ame replied, before pausing for a moment. “You think Jaern’s planning in defecting to the Divine Powers?”
And what would the Second Auger of Torren gain from allying with the group that theoretically, wants him dead?
“Oh he can try, but I’ll break his legs if he goes through with it.” Titania added, stretching her arms.
“Perhaps I could be of assistance?” a feminine voice called out from outside the room, as two more figures entered the meeting room, one female and one male. The female was of average height and had long red hair, matching red eyes and tanned skin. Her outfit consisted of a simple black dress. The male beside her was a teenage male around Cain’s age and had short, messy brown hair and blue eyes. His outfit consisted of a black jacket, grey undershirt, black tracksuit pants with a white stripe running down the sides.
“Amelia…what brings you here today?” Garret inquired, facing the woman.
“I came here to propose a little deal with you. If we help weed out those potential traitors, you dispose of our criminal records. Sound fair?” Amelia bargained, with Hardy waving politely to everyone else in the room.
More characters being dumped into our laps. This is the fucking Smash Bros fic all over again!
“That’s an unaccep—“Rosetta began speaking.
“Now hold on there, I’m willing to hear them out.” Garret interrupted her, causing Rosetta to huff in response.
“I’m glad to see you’re willing to listen to reason.” Amelia replied, before Sothe made his way to the duo.
“May I have your autograph please?” Sothe requested.
“Sure, if it keeps you out of my hair.” Amelia replied, as she and Hardy proceeded to write their signature in his notebook before handing it back to him.
Go Sothe, do what no man has done before and complete your Reborn signature collection!
“Thank you both so much!” Sothe replied.
“Eh, no big hassle.” Hardy replied, shrugging his shoulders. “Anyway, I’m down for this infiltration mission. My younger brother had just come out of surgery and is able to care for himself now.”
“I can’t say I’m too thrilled about this idea, but it’s not like we have any other choice.” Rosetta admitted, resting her chin on her hand. “Very well, we accept the terms of your deal. But you better get some results.”
“Oh don’t you worry your pretty little head about it, the Black Foxes always get results. Amelia retorted coolly, before turning to Hardy. “You can handle this Hardy.”
I’m sure he handles his “Hardy” every night.
“Alright then, I promise not to disappoint you all.” Hardy pledged, with Garret placing a duffle bag on the table.
“Now then, you’ll be wearing a wire over your chest so that we’ll be able to record their conversation. Additionally you’ll be wearing this bowler hat sine it had a concealed camera in it.” Garret explained as he unpacked the mentioned items from the duffle bag. “I’ll need you to remove your shirt and jacket so I can attach the wire and fine tune it.”
A bowler hat isn’t going to do much against a fedora, Garret.
“Alright then, but be quick about it.” Hardy replied quickly, removing his shirt and jacket and turning away from Garret who proceeded to attach the wire.
“It if makes you feel just a bit better, you appear quite healthy for someone your age and stature.” Micaiah commented.
Seems that Micaiah’s liking what she sees. Wonder how Sothe feels about that.
“Uhh, thanks for the comment miss…” Hardy replied somewhat awkwardly, a faint blush on his face. A few minutes later, Garret had finished attaching fine-tuning the wire with Hardy putting his clothes back on.
“Now then, you know where the meeting is?” Garret inquired.
“The entrance hall of the temple in Tsukiji Kongangi. Jaern’s probably already there alongside anybody else who wishes to join the Divine Powers.” Hardy deduced. “Any way, I gotta get going. Wish me luck!” he called out as he exited the room.
Tsukiji Konganji: Entrance hall
Befitting the large temple, the entrance hall was lavishly decorated in precious metals and jewles. Additionally there were several priceless artefacts on display, guarded by highly durable glass containers. As Hardy entered the hall, he soon spotted several figures wearing hooded cloaks being guided by Jaern, whose hood was down. Jaern had short blonde hair and had a ponytail hanging off the back of his head. He soon noticed Hardy and went up to him.
Because every villainous group needs a bunch of mooks in hooded cloaks. It’s Villainy 101.
“S-s-so you came Hardy?” Jaern said, his voice being rather high-pitched. “Got sick of Amelia ordering you around?”
“Nah, I needed some money for my brother’s surgery.” Hardy lied, hoping Jaern would by it.
“Makes sense, though I wish you contacted me earlier so you would’ve gotten your own cloak.” Jaern replied.
“Ah I’ll be fine without it.” Hardy brushed off the statement. It was then that a rather tall man entered the room. He had bright red skin, a bushy beard and clothing that originated from Ancient China. This was Zhong Kui, a rather friendly agent of the Divine Powers.
“Hey there, you must be the new recruits Lord Krishna told me about.” Zhong Kui said out loud in a polite tone of voice. “The name’s Zhong Kui and I’ll be leading you to the initiation room.”
And who better to introduce the recruits than a miniboss the player battles before their scripted defeat against Odin?
“Alright then, lead the way.” Jaern replied, as the group proceeded to follow the agent for a while. Eventually they reached the initiation room, where the leaders of the Divine Powers were waiting.
“Lord Krishna, I brought the recruits you mentioned.” Zhong Kui replied, bowing before his master.
“Well done. We can handle it from here, you return to your post” Krishna replied.
“Here, have a cookie on the house. Most deities would kill for one of my Salvation Cookies.”
“As you wish.” Zhong Kui replied, as he exited the room and shut the door. The traitors took their place in the middle of the room alongside several other humans, demons and gods, while the three deities looked them over.
“Welcome to Tsukiji Kongani, I am Krishna of the Divine Powers and the lovely gentlemen beside me are Odin and Maitreya. Thank you all for coming here today.” Krishna introduced himself and his compatriots.
“Our mission is simple; to eradicate all those who stand in our way. We do this in order for humanity to obtain salvation.” Odin commented.
“The Pokémon fangames are one such obstacle; though I detect several people who worked on these fangames in here.” Maitreya added.
Either Maitreya is omniscient to the point where he knows who the traitors used to work for, or he read the script for this chapter ahead of the others.
“C-Correct. We wish to rebel against our former friends, having realised the poor quality of the games.” Jaern replied.
You were part of the development team in this fic Jaern. Couldn’t you have done something to make the games suck less?!
“Oh? You must be the newcomers then. Everyone else already introduced themselves, so why don’t you take off those hoods and introduce yourselves.” Maitreya suggested, with the traitors, sans Hardy doing so.
“Jaern, Second Augur of Torren and head of the Sky Cult.” He bowed.
“Zenith, head of the Infernal Cult.” He bowed.
“Professor Maple, head scientist of the Holon Delta Pokémon Laboratory.” He bowed.
“Lin, leader of Team Meteor.” She bowed.
“Sirius, long time commander of Team Meteor.” He bowed.
“Blake, hired agent for Team Meteor.” He bowed.
“Cal, Blake’s brother and long-time rival.” He bowed, with the two brothers staring down each other.
“Fern, reserve Grass-type Gym Leader of Reborn and the greatest trainer of all time.” He bowed, smirking to himself.
“Madame X, founder of Team Xen and the wielder of Senketsuken.” She bowed.
“Nastasia, second-in-command of Team Xen.” She bowed.
“Madelis, head of Team Xen’s Shadow Pokémon Program.” She bowed.
“Neved, prison warden of Blacksteeple Castle.” He bowed.
“Geara, commander of Team Xen’s spec. op forces.” He bowed.
“Ren, former lab assistant of Professor Jenner.” He bowed.
“Professor Larkspur, talented researcher from the Tandor region.” He bowed.
“Rick, future champion of the Rikoto region.” He bowed.
“Professor Gobline, renegade professor from the Everia/Rathio region.” He bowed.
“Radius, former leader of Team Lightning.” He bowed.
“Redi, Radius’ son and admin of Team Lightning.” He bowed.
“Sam, field commander of Team Lightning.” She bowed.
“Elia, spec. ops commander of Team Lightning.” He bowed.
“Lavius, one of the true leaders of Team Lightning.” He bowed.
“Lavia, Lavius’ sister and the other true leader of Team Lightning.” She bowed.
“Baron, second-in-command of Team Crescent.” He bowed.
“H-Hardy, renegade agent of the Black Foxes.” He replied slightly hesitant, before bowed like the others.
I don’t know what to say here. These villain introductions were so bland and one-note, it may as well have been Krishna reading his grocery receipt to everyone present.
“Well now that we know who the traitors are, we can arrest them and charge them with treason.” Rosetta commented.
“I figured Fern would betray us, like the slimy vermin that he is.” Titania scoffed to herself, crossing her arms.
“Huh, that Krishna fellow’s rocking a nice outfit.” Garret admitted. “That flute’s a nice touch.”
Say what you will about the Divine Powers, but they have great taste in apparel.
“Now’s not the time to be admiring the enemy’s outfit.” Shiv reminded his friend.
“It’s a pleasure to meet you all.” Krishna replied to the traitors. “Now onto the main topic at hand; we’ve already secured a minor victory for the Divine Powers by disrupting their rally over at Akihabara, but we’ve still got plenty of things to deal with.”
“For instance, the fangames have been distributed all over the world via the internet. That is why we need to spread our influence to contain this virtual plague.” Odin stated. “Doing this will decrease the amount of followers these games draw in.”
“Speaking of followers, you also need to find a way to shrink the player base. Converting them, disposing of them, we don’t care what you do to them. If anything, killing them would free their souls from the corrupted prison of flesh the Creator God bestowed upon humans.” Maitreya added.
“Then there’s the merchandise they peddle to their followers; fan art, manga, dakimakuras. There’s no level they wouldn’t stoop to in order to profit off of children.” Odin added as well.
Again with the dakimakuras. Wait, is that why Krishna’s upset at the fangames; he didn’t get the dakimakura he wanted?
“Uh…about the dakimakuras. I-I-I-I was forced to help make them!” Ren admitted, lying through his teeth. “They told me that if I didn’t make those Melia dakimakuras, they’ll break my kneecaps.” He blubbered, as he began crying crocodile tears, with Redi “comforting” the young man.
“What a lying sack of shit!” Amelia scoffed at Ren. “I always knew he would try to weasel his way out of responsibility.”
“I swear if he put me or Amy on any of those godforsaken pillows, I’ll break him in half!” Titania growled, clenching her fists tightly.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but a pillow featuring both you and Amaria would sell like hotcakes. That’s just how the fandom goes.
“It seems that they have no problem mistreating their own workers in order to push their agenda.” Krishna mused to himself. “However, we also need to look out for this Hyperdimension Neptunia thing the fangame creators mentioned during their rally.”
“It could be a red herring planted by the fangame creators in order to protect their sorry hides.” Odin interjected.
“True, though it’s worth investigating, just in case it’s a legitimate obstacle to our cause.” Maitreya replied.
“That is all for now. You may leave.” Krishna called out, as the recruits began to exit the room. “Oh and one more thing?” he added, with Odin snatching Hardy and tying him to a chair.
”W-W-What’s going on?!” Hardy cried out, as Odin backhanded him hard, with Krishna walking up to him.
Getting slapped by Odin would do more than bruise this kid, it’ll send his head flying like a fucking baseball!
“Did you really think you were gonna get away with it? I knew all along you were a spy for the enemy.” He smirked, sending shivers down the young man’s back.
“How did you know that?!” Hardy demanded an answer.
“As it turns out, somebody else decided to betray the fangame creators. Somebody who knew about your plan.” Odin informed the young man.
“As a matter of fact, here he comes now.” Maitreya commented, as another person entered the room, with Hardy glaring at him intensely.
“Greetings. My name is Connor, and I’m the Fire-type Gym Leader of the Ayrith region.” He bowed.
How convenient that a late comer would just so happen to have overheard that Hardy was a mole, right before defecting to the Divine Powers.
“I thank you for finding out about the mole they planted.” Krishna thanked the bespectacled redhead.
“No problem. After all it gets rid of another obstacle in my path.” Connor smirked.
“Oh, seems like you have an agenda of your own. May I ask what your goal is?” Odin inquired.
”I wanna hook up with Scarlett, however she already has her eye on someone, and it happens to be Rosetta’s wimpy scrub of a son.” Connor scoffed.
H-Hey! You get your greasy mitts off of Scarlett as well!
What do you mean she’s already taken?!
“Heh, seems I’m not the only one looking for some action.” Blake smirked.
”How about splitting some of the tail once we beat them?” Fern suggested.
“Sounds fair, but I get first choice.” Blake agreed.
How about you two shut the fuck up and give me first choice?! Of course, there won’t be much left for you two, but I digress.
“You can all kiss my ass you gutless traitors!” Hardy snapped at the traitors, as he attempted to break free.
“Wiggle all you like, but your fate is sealed.” Maitreya informed him ominously. “How do you suppose we deal with him Lord Krishna?”
“Yeah what are you gonna do, play some flute song that kills me?” Hardy taunted, with Krishna shaking his head in response.
Wha, were you expecting him to play Despacito with a flute?
“No, I’ve got a more fitting fate for you. One that I hope your allies can see through their camera, so I could teach them the consequences for opposing me.” Krishna replied, before turning to an open door on the other side of the room. “Oh Shesha, I’ve got a surprise for you!”
“Shesha?” Hardy inquired. The room started to shake mildly as the sound of something slithering on the floor drew closer and closer. From the open door emerged a colossal emerald green cobra with the arms and torso of a well-built man. There were several red eyes on the creatures head, and a large mouth filled to the brim with sharp fangs.
Yep, you read that right. The author is having his fangame heroes go up against Shesha, one of the most powerful deities in the Shin Megami franchise and Krishna’s trump card. I wanna see how the author writes them out of this corner.
“You called masssssster…?” the massive serpent hissed in a raspy tone, bowing before Krishna.
“You see that young man tied to the chair? Why don’t you free his soul from his prison?” Krishna requested, with Shesha knowing what he meant. The serpent eyed up Hardy for a while, as the young man was shivering in terror.
“Certainly, he looksssssssss quite tantalisssssssing.” Shesha hissed, snatching the boy up and crushing the chair in its massive hand. Hardy let out a blood-curdling, ear-piercing scream as Shesha shovelled him into its mouth and began chewing him alive. The other traitors looked on in morbid curiosity as chunks of muscle and tissue were sprayed onto the floor alongside a bucket’s worth of blood. Shesha soon swallowed the mangled remains of the boy and lightly petting its stomach.
“Mmmmmmmm, ssssssscrumptiousssssss!” it hissed.
Evidently, you were never taught proper etiquette when eating your food.
“I hope you all learnt a lesson on what happens to those who cross the Divine Powers.” Krishna told the traitors in a friendly tone, as they all bolted out of the room. “You’ll get your first assignments tomorrow.”
The recording and video feed had ended upon Hardy’s grisly demise. The atmosphere in the room was a mixture of shock, anger, and utter horror at what they say. Amelia in particular was both livid and saddened over the loss of a trusted comrade and friend.
”What the fuck was that thing?!” Garret broke the ice. “How are we expected to defeat that monstrosity?!”
With card games. What, didn’t you read the title?
“Oh god!” Damian cried out, as he began sobbing into Nora’s shoulder. “I don’t wanna get eaten by that thing!”
“Hey there, it’ll be alright.” Nora attempted to comfort him, gently petting his back.
“Well now that we know who the traitors are, how do you suggest we deal with them?” Ame suggested.
“Who cares about the traitors, they’ve got a giant snake on their side!” Sothe exclaimed. “I’ve dealt with some shit, but this takes the cake.”
On the flip side, you’ll be the proud owner of so many snakeskin boots.
“Look, we’re not gonna get anywhere if we keep freaking out. Why don’t we take a break to compose our thoughts?” Micaiah suggested.
“Now that sounds like a good idea.” Valerie agreed to it.
”In that case, we’ll all meet back here in half an hour.” Ame informed everyone, as they all went their separate ways temporarily.
And there we go everyone; giant snakes are on the loose and eating people. I’m sure the only reason that the author isn’t sobbing right now is that his waifus are perfectly safe and sound. After all he wouldn’t kill them off before he blew his load in them, right?
Now that chapter was intense. Not only did we find out who betrayed Ame and the fangame community, but we learnt about the Divine Power’s trump card. The next chapter will have a duel in it and I’ve got a good idea how it’s gonna go down.
I’ll also be putting down a list of the heroes and villains so that it’s easy to keep track of the characters. See you next time everyone.
Astolfo’s group:
Astolfo
Chevalier D’eon
Blair Flannigan
Micaiah
Sothe
Pokemon Fangame Community:
Hardy (K.I.A)
The Divine Powers:
Shesha
Zhong Kui
The Traitors:
Jaern
Professor Maple
Nastasia
Madelis
Geara
Professor Larkspur
Professor Gobline
Lavius
ConcernedGamer
Contact ConcernedGamer
Post by ConcernedGamer » Mon Aug 20, 2018 11:45 am
This fanfic is really giving me League of Angels: The Devils Gambit flashbacks. The phrasing, the pace, the character choice, introductions, fangame themes, crossover-cavalcade, etc.
And its looking to be just as bad. Chapter 2 was useless. The self-revealing villain roster revealed itself a bit more, while a character whose only presence now was obviously to die to make the villains seem evulz did so. No wonder, since all they had managed to do before that was to show up to announce their ploy, told the protagonists exactly where they were and what to do to learn more about them, and then fucked off. Their presence had less impact than a bomb threat, not that responding authorities or armies ever exist in these pseudo realities, where both games and their characters coincide in the same universe.
These villains are just fangame-detractor strawmen that the author thinks he can get a blast out of altering motivation and goals for, before he has them defeated in a rigged card game.
And the betrayal was a joke. There's more to betraying characters than non-villain characters, whom the author merely doesn't like so much and are only showing up upon their turn to evil, by putting on a whiplash mustache and behaving pathetically. That's not betrayal. That's just revealing more random antagonists, which in essence was the same way Chapter 1 went. The trope of Ron the Deatheater is more genuine in betrayal, because with that you actually know a character had performed in the universe in a non-antagonistic manner.
Seriously, everything about this fanfic screams League of Angels: The Devils Gambit school of writing.
Want to read more of my mocks? Follow this link to my webpage.
Post by StabbyKobold » Tue Aug 21, 2018 6:04 pm
I have so many problems with this story already. If this keeps up, I could write a novel on the author's incompetence.
As ConcernedGamer mentioned, this reeks of League of Angels: The Devils Gambit. Especially the disjointed world-building and handling of characters. Excuse my ranting, but I've a lot to cover.
Firstly, the Pokémon fangame thing. We were made aware of the Pokémon fangames previously, namely that they were games that people play. Now we're told that said fangames were made by the characters appearing in said games, and basically present them as "what if" alternate reality interactive fiction. Does that mean the events of those games actually took place, or is there a complete disconnect between the games and "reality"? Do Pokémon even exist in this world, and if so, does Nintendo and Gamefreak own them, since they can sue for copyright? Why is the Pokémon Fangame Headquarters outfitted to function as a base of operation for the coming conflict, when really it should be a game development studio?
Secondly, the villains. They appear out of nowhere and no one knows who they are, yet they somehow have a temple located nearby, somewhere, and no one apparently considered what it was for. They act threateningly, yet provide no meaningful demonstration outside of summoning an army that somehow fit into the back of the room. They proclaim that they target Pokémon fangames, as they stand in the way of humanity's salvation, yet we get no explanation of what salvation entails or why Pokémon fangames are a threat to it outside of "humanity clinging to them". By that logic, they would need to target every other piece of escapist fiction - but only the things the author likes are under fire, of course, since these villains are nothing but stand-ins for critics and cooperate lawmakers.
Lastly, the plot. The bad guys want to take over the world, remake it in their image, bring humanity salvation, whatever. And the only way they can achieve their goals is to eradicate a harmless media, which the author obviously enjoys. Much like how the erasure of fanfiction was the crux of League of Angels: the Devils Gambit, how can anyone take this seriously?! This is like Voldemort deciding that Quidditch is what's preventing him from achieving his goals, and Harry Potter must then rise to defend and champion the spirit of wizard sports.
I could go on, but I'm afraid I wouldn't be able to stop.
Post by GorillaGamer » Sun Aug 26, 2018 6:34 am
@ConcernedGamer: Now that you say that, I’m experiencing similar flashbacks as well. I still stand by my theory that this was written by someone who genuinely liked that fic for some reason, but I wouldn’t be surprised if one of SRM’s former co-author’s was behind this tripe. There is one other comment I’ll respond to.
There's more to betraying characters than non-villain characters, whom the author merely doesn't like so much and are only showing up upon their turn to evil, by putting on a whiplash mustache and behaving pathetically.
Most, if not all the characters on the traitor list are either villains, or at the very least acted hostile to the main character in the fangames they’re from.
@StabbyKobold:
They proclaim that they target Pokémon fangames, as they stand in the way of humanity's salvation, yet we get no explanation of what salvation entails or why Pokémon fangames are a threat to it outside of "humanity clinging to them".
I doubt we’ll ever get an acceptable explanation for why the fangames are a threat, given that the author has thoroughly botched their original goals.
Well after watching someone become snake chow, it’s time to mock another chapter of this tripe, though luckily it has a duel to spice things up.
What’s up everyone? I’ve got a new chapter for you all to enjoy. It’s got a thrilling duel featuring Blair herself, with a new deck she’s gonna try out. This chapter would also give her a special friend, and I’m confident all the Shin Megami fans reading this would know who I’m talking about.
You mean Hallelujah’s gonna be in this fic?! Sweet, I love that guy!
Oh and if anyone has any info on where I can find some Pokémon Reborn fanart where the characters are relaxing on a beach, that’ll be sweet.
Wow, you really aren’t subtle about why the fangame characters are in this fic; you just wanna see the ladies in swimsuits. Either search it up yourself, or pay an artist for a commission or two.
Then again, I can’t exactly fault you for having good taste.
Chapter 3: Inzektor Invasion!
Everyone had returned to the meeting room after the quick rest break, the atmosphere still as tense as it was before. It was evident that everyone was still worked up over Hardy’s grisly demise.
“Well we’re in a bit of a jam; just how are we gonna combat the Divine Powers?” Garret inquired.
Hold on, if Pokémon and Shin Megami are in the same universe, then would Pokéballs work on demons? In that case, why not throw a Master Ball at Shesha and seal the fucker in an impenetrable iron box. Heck, why not do that to the rest of the Divine Powers as well!
“Combat them? While they have that giant snake with them?!” Valerie retorted. “We’re not combating anything while that thing is still alive and kicking!”
“Oh my, that creature was rather lively. Just like that guy I brought home a week ago.” Cain smiled to himself, with everyone turning to face him. “What?”
The joke is that Cain’s talking about his penis.
“Putting aside what Cain does in his spare time, does anyone here have any ideas?” Ame called out, with Blair raising her hand to answer.
“Well I know we can’t face them head on in battle, since they’ll crush us instantly. But what happens if we challenge them to a duel? Deities are honor-bound to accept a challenge from anyone who requests one.” She suggested.
“By duelling, I assume you’re talking about those cards you lug around everywhere?” Titania asked.
“Yep! And I’ll have you know I’m quite talented.” Blair commented, proudly puffing her chest.
Oh boy, Card Games on Demons. Can’t wait to see that in the next series of the anime.
“There’s one little problem with your plan; we don’t have any of those cards.” Titania replied, pointing to her wrist.
“We could use our Pokémon to battle them instead of duelling.” Nora suggested.
“A fair point, especially since the traitors have their own Pokémon.” Shiv added, cracking his knuckles. “Oh what I wouldn’t give to crush that bastard Connor in a battle.”
“Get in line; it’s thanks to him that Hardy’s dead.” Amelia reminded him.
Pokémon battles, and Yugioh duels? It’s a two-for-one deal that I never wanted.
“Well we have out attack plan sorted out, now we just need to figure out where they’re gonna strike. And I think I have a few ideas.” Micaiah commented, unfurling a map of Tokyo onto the table. “First of all, an assault on Tsukiji Konganji is out of the question. Even without Shesha’s presence, the city’s guarded by their strongest agents. Ginza and the Tokyo Bay area would also be out-of-bounds by my train of thought. And given their interruption at the rally, it’s a safe bet that they’re mobilising on the Akihabara district as soon as possible.”
“So where do you suggest we make our first move?” Ame inquired.
“The Shinjuku region; given that it’s home to the busiest train station in the world, it would provide an ample recruiting ground for the Divine Powers, which is why we can’t let them control the area.” Micaiah suggested.
‘Ample recruiting ground’? What, are they going to be handing out flyers pointing out the benefits of becoming snake food?
“A reasonable plan.” Astolfo admitted. “Any volunteers?”
“Oh! Can I go? I’ve finished fine-tuning my deck.” Blair volunteered. “I can handle anything they throw at me!”
“Well the kids’ got spunk, that I won’t deny.” Garret admitted. “Alright then, you can go. But be careful, the last thing I want to happen is see you get eaten by that monstrosity.”
“But I jest; it’ll give me a great opportunity to blow this joint!”
“As for us, it’s best we update our other friends on the situation. Therefore we’ll be out for a day or too.” Ame informed Astolfo’s group. “Best of luck to you all.”
“Same.” Astolfo replied, with the two groups going their own way. The group of six hopped back into Chevalier’s SUV and engaged in some small talk with each other as the car began the journey to the Shinjuku train station.
“So any thoughts on what we discussed today?” Micaiah inquired.
“I’ve got no complaints on my end, though I’ll have to start considering what deck I’ll be using.” Sothe replied. “Speaking of which, what deck will you be using Blair?”
“Considering how the latest booster packs gave them some support, I figured I might give my Vampire deck a twirl.” Blair answered.
Vampires? Considering that a whole bunch of support was released recently, that changed the game plan of the archetype, this’ll be interesting to see.
“Huh, that’s interesting.” Roland replied. “By the way, did anyone notice all the cute girls there?! My favorite would have to be Melia.”
“I figured you’d notice them, given how you were salivating like a lobotomised chimp.” Chevalier replied dryly.
Much like the author while fantasizing about his Reborn bikini pictures.
Around twenty minutes later, the GPS began beeping, indicating they had arrived at their destination. “Well we’re here everyone.”
“In that case, I better get going.” Blair called out, unbuckling her seat and hopping out of the car. “I’d say wish me luck, but I think we all know how it’s gonna go down.”
“True, but I’ll still wish you luck just in case.” Chevalier commented, hopping out of the car to give her a proper farewell. “Please be careful out there, I can’t imagine what would happen if you don’t make it.”
You’ll mope about it for around a week, before the author gifted you a new girlfriend?
“Don’t get too worked up over it, I’m gonna be just fine.” Blair replied, before hugging the blonde tightly. “Thanks for the concern though.”
“I-In that case, I guess I shouldn’t hold you up.” Chevalier replied, as the duo broke off the hug. “Teach them what it’s like to mess with the wrong community!”
“I’ll be sure to emerge victorious!” Blair cried out as she began running towards the train station.
Shinjuku Train Station
Blair was wandering aimlessly around the area, hoping to find an agent of the Divine Powers or one of the traitors. The other civilians were too wrapped up in their newspapers and phones to pay much attention to the young lady. However there were a pair of men talking about something unusual.
“It was the oddest thing; this sudden blast of cold air blew in my face.” The first man began. “It was like I was on top of Mt. Fuji!”
Ice cream farts are no laughing matter; one nearly made my nose fall off.
“Don’t be daft, it’s not that cold today.” The second man knocked it back.
“I swear I’m telling the truth; why else would I lie about it?” The first man stood by his statement, when the duo soon noticed Blair walking up to them
”Excuse me, but where was this blast of cold air?” She inquired.
“If I remember correctly, it was near the disused ticket booth to the south of here.” The first man answered.
“Gotcha, thank you mister!” Blair quickly replied, running towards the location as the men looked at her in confusion.
Can’t blame them; why would she focus on what could be a trick, as opposed to her mission?
“Wonder what’s up with her.” The second man inquired.
Blair had arrived at the disused ticket booth and it was as she expected it to be. The entire area was dirty and had trash strewn about, with the booth window shattered into thousands of tiny pieces. A cardboard box beside the booth began shaking wildly, as a small figure burst out of the box and landed before Blair’s feet. The figure was an adorable little snowman, with a round body, two large black eyes and a mischievous grin that showed off his two fangs. He wore a purple cap with a yellow smiley-face on it, a purple jester’s neck-frill and a pair of purple boots. He was about as tall as Blair’s legs and was surprised to see her
Oh, it’s Jack Frost. Glad to me-hee-t you I guess…
“Hee-ho-ho! How’d you find me, hee-ho?” The snowman inquired, looking up at her.
“Awww, you’re so adorable.” Blair commented, crouching down to his level. “What’s your name?”
“The name’s Jack Frost, hee-ho. I love all things could and chilly.” He introduced himself.
“The name’s Blair, and it’s a pleasure to meet you.” She greeted back. “Wat are you doing out here on your own?”
“Hee-ho you know, searching for that treasure those folks wanted.” Jack Frost answered. “It might be powerful enough to make me taller, hee-ho.”
“Treasure? What kind of treasure are we talking about?” Blair inquired. “And who was it that sent you here in the first place?”
“Well I don’t hee-know what I’m looking for, but I do know that I was sent here by them Divine Powers folk ho.” Jack Frost answered, confirming Blair’s suspicions.
Well considering how in Apocalypse, Jack Frost was tricked by the Divine Powers to hunt for a treasure in the Fairy Forest, I can understand why you’d be suspicious Blair. Wonder if the author would add more shit from the game to the fic.
“Now this is a surprise; I didn’t expect to find such a cute prize here.” A woman’s voice echoed throughout the area, attracting Blair’s attention. The newcomer was a taller than average teenage woman with long cherry-red hair, amber-colored eyes, and a curvaceous figure. Her outfit consisted of an emerald green jacket on top of a white t-shirt and a pair of jeans. She was beautiful but deadly, and had a small platoon of high-school students following her. “Well if it isn’t Bland Flannigan; what are you doing here?” she taunted.
“I could ask you the same question Missy!” Blair retorted, with Jack Frost stepping a few feet back so he can watch the fight.
That was one of the weakest insults I’ve ever heard, and this came right after that salvo Titania fired off in chapter 2. Also, who the hell is Missy?! Did that random OC from Greek Duelist that Sean punched come back with a vengeance?
“Easy, I was sent here to retrieve a valuable artefact Lord Krishna desires, but I see that he already has an agent out here.” Missy answered, eying up Jack Frost. “My, my. What a cute little demon. I’ll gladly keep him as my personal servant.”
“Hee-ho-ho…?” Jack Frost called out, a little nervous by the newcomer.
“That’s right little buddy, you’re gonna spend the rest of your life serving Zane and I.” Missy smirked, as the small demon ran behind Blair’s legs and started quaking in fear.
Is this normal Zane we’re talking about, or ‘Ow the edge!’ Zane? Cause the latter would most likely melt the little bugger just to win a duel.
“You have no right to terrify an innocent demon!” Blair called Missy out. “Besides, Zane’s still single from what Jaden told me.”
“Oh he may be now, but once I obtain the artefact and Lord Krishna destroys those awful fangames, Zane would fall head over heels for me.” Missy fantasied, imagining Zane sweeping her up off her feet and taking her away to his Cyber Mansion.
If Zane really had a Cyber Mansion, he’d be drowning in too much pussy to even care about you.
“I highly doubt he would fall for someone as twisted as you.” Blair snarked.
“And why wouldn’t he? I’m smarter than you, I’m stronger than you, I’m sexier than you. I’m the perfect package.” Missy bragged, with the platoon behind her showering her with praise. “At the very least Zane’s a lot better than that wimpy brother of his.”
Watch your tongue, wench! That’s Syrus “Pussy Destroyer” Truesdale you’re talking about.
“I’m sure he’d really appreciate hearing that from someone who’s interested in him.” Blair replied, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
“Oh don’t get worked up over matters that don’t involve you.” Missy replied, as a smirk grew on her face. “Then again I’d be jealous to if I was stuck with a complete wuss like that Chevalier punk.”
“Hey you take that back this instant!” Blair demanded.
Well to be fair, I don’t think they’re that high up in the list of Fate Servants a person would marry.
“What’s the matter, did I hurt your feelings?” Missy crooned, leaning in towards Blair. “If I were you I’d ditch that crossdressing freak.”
“That’s it!” Blair snapped, activating her duel disk. “I’m gonna deck you hard for that last remark. And I’ll let you know I’ve improved greatly since I left Duel Academy.”
Translation: “You hurt my friends raaaarrrgagaggagaag!”
“Heheheh, you’re not the only one who’s improved.” Missy remarked, activating her own duel disk.
“Let’s duel!” They both declared while drawing their cards.
Yay, another duel everyone. Let’s see how this one goes.
Blair: 4000
Missy: 4000
“I’ll take the first move.” Missy stated. “I play the spell Allure of Darkness to start things off.” She drew her cards and banished a monster from her hand. “I set two cards face down and summon Inzektor Centipede in Attack Mode, and end my turn.”
Blair eyed up her opponents field cautiously. Inzektors were a powerful archetype that gave many trouble due to their quick swarming and the numerous gains they made by destroying their own resources. It got to the point that Inzektor Hornet and Dragonfly got put on the limited list to nerf the deck. Regardless, Blair wouldn’t back down in the face of such a powerful adversary.
Inzektors? Having tested them out in Duel Links, they’re a nifty archetype that can ruin your opponents’ day by destroying their own shit. Having said that, I doubt we’ll be seeing any of that in this duel, especially if the idiot summoned Centipede without equipping Hornet or Earwig to it.
“Alright then, it’s my turn!” Blair called out, drawing her first card. “I play the spell Foolish Burial to send Vampire Sorcerer to the graveyard. And since he’s in my graveyard I can activate his effect; by banishing him I get to summon a Vampire monster without tributing a monster. And I think I’ll chose Vampire Red Baron in Attack Mode!” she grinned, as the powerful monster stormed onto the field.
“Eurgh! What a hideous monster!” Missy shrieked.
“Oh I’m sorry it’s not to your liking.” Blair teased. “Now Red Baron, flatten that lowly bug on her field!” the vampiric baron’s horse let out a loud whinny as it charged towards the hostile warrior.
“Sucked in Blair, I activate Negate Attack!” Missy retorted, as the horse was halted in its tracks and trotted back to Blair’s field.
“Tch, I set two cards face down and end my turn.” Blair said.
Such an intense match of Rock-Em Sock-Em—I mean Duel Monsters.
“Is that all? My turn then.” Missy started her turn. “I’ll summon Inzektor Dragonfly in Attack Mode, and activate it’s effect to equip Inzektor Giga-Mantis to it, bolstering its attack to 2400!” The warrior let out an almighty battle cry as he gained great power from his comrade.
“Ahahahahahaha! Now Dragonfly, eliminate that decrepit old man!” Missy ordered, as the souped-up warrior charged at Red Baron who proceeded to defend himself. Eventually the two monsters clashed with each other, creating a large explosion that destroyed the both of them. “Dragonfly’s effect activates. When a card that’s equipped to him is sent to the graveyard, I get to special summon another Inzektor from my deck, and I’ll chose Inzektor Hopper in Attack Mode!”
Another mighty warrior materialized from her deck, this one wearing a light green set of armor. Blair scowled at her opponents; Missy was taking full advantage of the Inzektors powerful swarming capabilities.
“Now Centipede, attack her life points directly!” Missy called out, with the stocky warrior barrelling towards his opponent.
“Perfect. Now I’ll activate Vampire Fraulein’s effect to special summon her from my hand in Defense Position!” Blair countered, as a cute girl in a black dress appeared on her field and blocked the incoming attack with her parasol.
Parasols; the one weakness of the Kamen Rider knock-offs.
“Urk, seriously?!” Missy whined, as she lost some lifepoints.
“Tch, I end my turn.” She hissed.
“Excellent! It’s my turn.” Blair drew her card. “Now I’ll activate my facedown card, Vampire Takeover! I’m sure you know what this baby does.”
“I do…” Missy replied through gritted teeth, as Blair’s field transformed into a medieval village with an ominous castle overlooking the area from atop the hill. Additionally Vampire Red Baron arose from the dead and stared down Missy’s monsters.
“I’ll have Red Baron attack your Hopper!” Blair called out as the large monster charged at its foe once again, this time obliterating the warrior, causing Missy to growl as she lost lifepoints.
“I’ll end my turn here.” Blair replied smugly, infuriating her opponent.
“I’ll show you, my turn!” Missy snapped, drawing her card before gazing at it, her anger being replaced with a sinister grin. “I’ll start things off by activating Centipede’s effect to equip Giga-Mantis to it. Arise once more my monster!” Inzektor Centipede let out a battle cry as his body was filled with an awesome power.
“And I’ll also activate my facedown card, Variable Form to Special Summon Giga-Mantis in Attack Mode.” She continued, with Centipede losing the power it had recently gained.
A bit sad once you think about it; you finally get to beat over that troublesome Goblin Attack Force, only for your power to get replaced by that asshole who ruins your coffee at work every morning and—I HATE YOU JERRY, YOU BASTARD!!
“Now I’ll summon Inzektor Hornet in Attack Mode, and equip Centipede to him in order to bolster his level.” Missy added, before she began laughing like crazy. “Now I’ll overlay Inzektor Giga-Mantis and Hornet to XYZ summon a monster of extreme power; Inzektor Exa-Beetle!”
The two monsters turned into balls of light and dove into the miniature galaxy, causing a bright flash to illuminate the area. Everyone present except the duelists shielded their eyes from the bright flash, only for is to dissipate a few seconds later. In the monsters place was a gigantic warrior wielding a set of glorious golden armor, and was equipped with a massive spear.
“Exa-Beetle’s effect activates. When he’s special summoned, I can equip him with a monster from my graveyard, and he gains Attack and Defense equal to that monsters Attack and Defense.” Missy pointed out, as the hulking warrior snatched Hopper from the graveyard and rested him on his shoulders, with Hopper providing a potent power boost to his leader.
DEF (1000-2400)
Exa-Beetle only gains ATK and DEF equal to HALF the stats of the monster equipped to it, something that even Mykan got right in his Yugioh/MLP fic.
I gotta get a better name for that counter.
“Now by detaching an XYZ material from Exa-Beetle, I get to pop a face-up card on both sides of the field. So say goodbye to your Red Baron again!” Missy taunted, as Red Baron and Variable Form were destroyed by Exa-Beetle’s mighty lance. “Oh and I’ll use Enemy Controller to change Fraulein’s position, just to make things that little bit worse for you.”
And speaking of Duel Links, the bane of everyone’s existence makes an appearance…
“N-No!” Blair cried out, as the situation took a turn for the worse.
“AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! Exa-Beetle, destroy that slut with Inzektor Pierce!” Missy cackled, as the massive warrior thrusted its lance into the poor girl, destroying her instantly. Blair screamed in pain as her lifepoints took a huge hit.
You say that, when as a matter of fact, Fraulein’s wearing a more modest outfit than you.
“Just give up already; I’m sure Krishna would show you mercy if you yield.” Missy offered.
“Except inside the bedroom; you don’t wanna know what goes on in there.”
“I…I refuse to give up!” Blair declared, her body covered in dirt and scratches. “You may save sold your soul to the Divine Powers, but that is what will cost you the game.”
“Ha! Save your breath. I’ll let you start your last turn.” Missy scoffed.
“With pleasure.” Blair replied while drawing her card and looking at it. On its own it won’t be able to do much, but with a bit of thinking, it could lead to her victory.
“I place a monster in facedown Defense Position and end my turn.” Blair declared.
“What a waste of a turn…” Missy muttered, drawing her card. “Exa-Beetle, crush that facedown monster!” The large warrior charged at the facedown monster and obliterating it, causing Blair to smirk at her opponent.
“Why thank you for doing that. By destroying my Pyramid Turtle, I get to special summon a Zombie-type monster with 2000 DEF or less, and I’ll chose my Vampire Vamp!” Blair replied, as the seductive monster appeared form the deck and winked lovingly at Exa-Beetle.
No thank you, I’m not interested in reading about succubus on beetle action, thank you very much.
“So what, I can just activate Exa-Beetle’s effect to—“Missy began.
“No so fast! I activate Vampire Domination to negate your Exa-Beetle’s effect and destroy it. Furthermore, since it was a monster card I destroyed, I gain lifepoints equal to its original attack.” Blair grinned.
“N-No!” Missy growled as her ace monster was swarmed by vampire bats and got destroyed, while Blair was struck by a blood red beam of healing energy.
“I end my turn…” Missy huffed.
“Alright then, I draw!” Blair called out. “Now I’ll summon Vampire Lady in Attack Mode.”
“W-W-Wait a minute!” Missy began to panic.
“I see you know how things are gonna go down. I won’t keep you waiting then; Vampire Lady, Vampire Vamp, drain the rest of her lifepoints!” Blair declared, as the two vampires lunged at Missy and attacked her, causing her to scream as her lifepoints were gone in the blink of an eye.
Missy: 0
Winner: Blair
“I-I can’t believe I lost…” Missy complained, slumping down to the ground.
This is what happens when you play like an idiot Missy.
I dare say this duel is even worse than the one in chapter 1. As bad as it was, there was a partial attempt at replicating Dark World’s game plan in that chapter. The original incarnation of the Vampire archetype revolved around milling your opponents deck, but the newer support pushed them to a new direction based on control effects via paying lifepoints. We didn’t see any of that shit in the duel. But the worst offender would go to the Inzektor duelist. Where the hell were the explosive combos that were so powerful that a few key cards got put on the banlist, something that was even mentioned at the start of the fucking duel!!
“Hee-ho-ho! That’s what you get for messin’ with the wrong lady, hee-ho!” Jack Frost taunted, pointing at her.
“You were supposed to be mine!” Missy cried out, when her duel disk started glowing harshly. “No…NOOOOOOO!! Please don’t do this to me!”
“W-what’s happening?” Blair inquired, as a holographic arm emerged from the duel disk and plunged its hand into Missy’s chest and snatched her soul. The hand soon dove back into the disk as Missy’s body slumped onto the ground, before dissipating into thousands of bright lights. The platoon of Divine Powers Supporters that followed her all ran off in fear.
Oh boy, now we’re playing this bargain-bin Shadow Game are we; play a card game where the loser gets their soul sucked out by some holographic hand. Did Bakura/Marik join the Divine Powers on a whim?
“Hee-ho-ho…?” Jack Frost eyed the scene curiously, with Blair picking him up.
“Come with me, cute-stuff. I’ve got the perfect room for you.” Blair proposed.
“Yes sir-ee!” Jack Frost agreed to the idea, as their duo left the train-station and proceeded to head back to the designated meeting location.
Tsukiji Kongangi: Leader’s Quarters
“Now that was…disappointing to say the least.” Krishna sighed upon hearing the news about Missy’s defeat. “At the very least her soul would help out plans by having Shesha feast on it.”
So in other words, they’re using the card game to supply Shesha with a steady source of souls. A clever plan, were it not for the fact they could just dump the snake in a heavily-populated city and tell it to go wild.
“Using these cards to extract enough souls for Shesha to become the Cosmic Egg is a clever trick. It’s just that we need more competent duelists.” Odin commented.
“As we speak, out subordinates are teaching the foot soldiers how to play this game.” Maitreya added. “Perhaps we should try it ourselves.”
“If that’s the best plan you lot have, then I have bad news for you.” A gruff, Scottish voice echoed throughout the room. Within an instant a new figure materialized into the room, this one was around as tall as Odin and was clad in a set of dark-green and black armor and having reddish-orange hair and a matching color beard.
“Hmph, so you finally decided to show up Dagda.” Odin greeted the newcomer. “State your business.”
Oh for fucks sake, Dagda’s in this thing as well?! Why is he here? What are his goals? Is he going to join the Divine Powers? Is he planning on finding his Godslayer amongst the traitors? Who the fuck thought that writing this shit was a good idea?!
“I was wondering if you were still pursuing that salvation you seek, and I see that you’ve all degraded to nothing but a trio of imbeciles.” Dagda dryly retorted.
“The salvation we seek is a most noble goal indeed; it’s a lot more logical than whatever dollar-store plan you have!” Maitreya hastily retorted.
“It’s not that I’ve given up on it, far from it. It’s just that I need the right pawn for my Godslayer.” Dadga replied, crossing his arms. “At the very least it’s less humiliating than waging war over video games.”
Evidently he’s going to be the voice of reason in this fic.
“I’ll have you know that those games are a major obstacle in our path! It’s important that we do whatever we can to dispose of them for good.” Krishna retorted.
“Whatever; I’ll study these games to see if they really are an obstacle to your salvation, though I highly doubt that’ll be the case.” Dagda stated, before disappearing back to where he came from.
“Heheheh, now that you’ve joined the game Dagda, things are going to get interesting soon…” Krishna chuckled ominously to himself.
What an amazing chapter we have here. Not only did Blair befriend the lovable Jack Frost, but Dagda has entered the fray. Whether he’ll assist the Divine Powers or not is a complete mystery.
By the way, I was lucky enough to pull Summer!Tana on the latest Banner in Fire Emblem: Heroes and she looks really pretty. Her kit’s looking mighty powerful, so she could be a really strong hero in Arena battles. That’s all for now everyone, catch you later.
That was the complete opposite of an amazing chapter; the fangame stuff was pointless, the duel was horseshit, and that bit at the end came right the fuck out of nowhere! And I couldn’t care less what waifu you got in Fire Emblem Heroes, nor do the rest of the people reading this fic.
This is starting to become an absolute joke; Blair picks up a demon for no reason other than “MUH FANSERVICE”, and Dagda shows up because the author want’s to maintain his iron-grip on his Shin Megami crossover. What’s next, are Lucifer and Merkabah going to be fighting each other using card games?!
Dagda (?)
Missy (Defeated)
Post by GorillaGamer » Fri Aug 31, 2018 10:27 pm
A little earlier than usual, but this chapter isn’t as long as the previous ones so that should make up for it.
Welcome back to Yugioh: The Divine Conspiracy. In this chapter, Roland will start building his deck up to be a terrifyingly force of power. Meanwhile, some of the traitors will begin conjuring up a scheme to further their twisted goals.
Ah, this must be the chapter where the other heroes get their own decks. This’ll be interesting to say the least.
I was searching for some more Reborn fanart, when a rather lovely thought popped up in my mind. I was imagining several of the female characters wearing a variety of gorgeous outfits, with my personal favorite being some bunnysuits. *drools* -er, sorry about that. Onto the next chapter!
Classy, absolutely classy. Not only are you salivating over the prospect of the females wearing bikinis, but you’ve now fantasized about them wearing Playboy bunnysuits. And to think that I thought you wrote this fic with both hands author, for shame.
Note: Any made-up cards will be underlined, and will get their effects explained in their introductory chapters.
Chapter 4: Deck-building time!
Shinjuku Apartment Complex:
Blair had made her way to the apartment complex that Astolfo and co were staying at while they were conducting business in Shinjuku, and entered the elevator to the penthouse suite. She sighed to herself and slumped down while the elevator began its ascent, still exhausted from the duel with Missy. At the very least, she knew about the Divine Power’s latest scheme. Soon the elevator reached the top floor, with Blair hopping out of the elevator with Jack Frost following behind her. The duo eventually reached the penthouse suite that her friends had rented out temporarily and it was a sight to behold.
Aside from having an amazing view of the area, the room was filled to the bring with expensive luxuries, including a widescreen tv, a Jacuzzi in the bathroom, the latest in kitchen appliances and enough bedrooms for all the occupants.
Years of playing card games has earnt Astolfo enough money to make Bill Gates look like a beggar in comparison.
Blair spotted her friends sitting at a table, with Chevalier, Roland and Sothe eyeing up a trio of small suitcases on the table.
“Hey guys, I’m back!” Blair called out, with the group turning to face her.
“it’s good to see you’re alright—wait, who’s that with you?” Chevalier began, before being alerted by Jack Frost’s presence.
“Oh that’s Jack Frost. He was tricked by the Divine Powers into finding some treasure at the train station.” Blair answered. “Why don’t you go saw hi to them—“she turned to ask Jack Frost, but was caught off guard by the snowman opening the freezer door.
“I’m gonna go to bed hee-ho. Nighty night!” Jack Frost waved at her, before hopping into the freezer and closing the door.
Evidently, he doesn’t give a shit about this fanfic. Can’t say I blame him.
“He seems like a nice fellow.” Micaiah commented. “Anyway, what else happened there?”
“I reunited with this girl from Duel Academy; you remember Missy, Chevvie?” Blair answered, turning to Chevalier.
“Y-Yeah, she was always mean to me for some reason.” Chevalier winced, recalling the painful memories at Duel Academy where she harassed him due to the fact he was a crossdresser.
Well to be fair, you do look like a prime target for bullying, regardless of what you’re wearing.
“Well you won’t have to worry about her anymore, I decked her in a duel!” Blair grinned briefly, before a grim look overtook her face. “And I’m being serious about her never bothering you again…”
“Huh, what do you mean by that?” Sothe inquired.
“When I defeated her in the duel, some holographic arm emerged from her duel disk and snatched her soul. And when I think about it, there’s only one culprit who could’ve done such a thing…Shesha.” Blair continued in a serious tone.
“Shesha?!” Everybody else cried out.
“Yes, I believe Krishna’s using Duel Monsters to siphon people’s souls and have Shesha feast on them, but for what purpose I have no clue.” Blair continued, with everyone mulling over the purpose of Krishna’s diabolical scheme.
“I mean it sounds ridiculous when you factor in that Shesha can just consume our souls without the need for card games.”
“I guess it’s something we’ll find out later. But first, we’ve got some loot crates to open!” Astolfo grinned, eyeing up the suitcases.
“I noticed the lot of you starting at those cases when I came back; what are they for exactly?” Blair inquired.
“While you were out, we managed to win these three loot crates at a Duel Monsters exhibition.” Micaiah informed her. “We decided to give them to Roland, Sothe and Chevalier since neither of them have a proper deck yet.”
How convenient…I’m surprised you haven’t donated one of these asspull crates to your favorite waifus.
”And guess who’s gonna be the first one to score?” Sothe grinned, taking one of the suitcases for himself and eagerly opening the case. Inside was a few stacks of cards neatly packed into the case, with Sothe picking up one of the stacks and taking a closer look at the card on top. “Blackwing Armor Master? Looks interesting.”
“Wow, talk about hitting the jackpot! Blackwings are awesome; they may not be that strong but with how easy it is to swarm the field and disrupt your opponent’s plays, you can churn out some Link, XYZ and Synchro monsters easily.” Astolfo explained.
Oh, so not only do they get every card they need to make their gifted archetype work, but said archetype just so happens to be one of the most potent swarm decks, enabling them to special summon several extra deck monsters a turn. This is just the author shoehorning his favorite cards onto his chosen protagonists.
“Alright! I’m gonna go make my deck now; shouldn’t be gone for long.” Sothe commented as he took the case and began going through his cards.
“I guess it’s my turn then.” Chevalier said, taking the middle suitcase and opening it. He was taken aback by what he saw and picked up a majestic white dragon he was all too familiar with. “Seems like I’ve got a Lightsworn deck to play with.”
“Woah, talk about a neat coincidence!” Blair grinned.
“Come again?” Roland asked.
“Chevalier didn’t have a deck when he attended Duel Academy, so I help set him up with one using some rental cards from the shop. We ended up creating a Lightsworn deck that decimated the opposition with ease, at least until Chaos Emperor Dragon was banned.” Blair explained.
No wonder Missy hated you, if you made her look bad in front of Coldsteel Truesdale.
“To be fair, Chaos Emperor Dragon was a ridiculously powerful card, especially when paired up with Yata-Garasu.” Astolfo chimed in. “Regardless, Lightsworns are still a powerful set of monsters and are not to be underestimated.”
Lightsworns eh, the archetype that popularized the infamous “Chaos” decks, which propelled the price of Dark Armed Dragon to exorbitant levels.
“Cool. I’m gonna start sorting through my cards then.” Chevalier replied as he began to sort through his cards like Sothe is currently doing.
“Well I guess that leaves me with this case.” Roland said, taking the last case for himself and eagerly opening it, only to stare at the contents with a confused look on his face. “Huh…?”
“What seems to be the matter?” Astolfo inquired, peeking into the case and was taken aback as well. “D/D/D’s?! This is gonna be tricky.”
“What exactly makes them tricky?” Micaiah inquired.
“D/D/D’s are a series of powerful monsters that can churn out Fusion, Synchro and XYZ monsters easily. They go well with D/D monsters and the various Dark Contract Spells/Traps, both of which seem to be in the case as well.” Astolfo began, before his eye’s locked onto a rather peculiar card. “Is that a D/D/D Link Monster I see?!”
Aw man, why’d you have to throw D/D/D’s in this fic as well? I love those guys; ARC-V made them fun as shit to play—Hold the phone, what the fuck is this about a Link Monster?!
“Nice!” Roland cheered, leaping out of his chair. “How strong is it?”
“I don’t know, but apparently the card’s called D/D/D Regal Chairman Napoleon.” Astolfo replied. “At the very least it should enable you to summon multiple monsters from the Extra Deck.”
“Just you wait Astolfo, I’ll make a deck that would utterly annihilate you!” Roland promised, with Astolfo handing him the Link Monster back as the former proceeded to start creating his new deck.
Yep, you read that right. The author is making his own made-up cards to give his heroes an edge over the competition.
Because that works out well every time it happens…
“So are you two going to be updating your deck? I’ve still got a few things to sort out with my deck.” Micaiah asked Astolfo and Blair.
“Nah, my deck’s fine the way it is.” Blair replied.
“Agreed, but it wouldn’t hurt for me to add a few Counter Traps to combat my opponent’s plays.” Astolfo admitted.
“The fact that you went this long without using Counter Traps, kinda says something about your skills.” Blair snarked, causing Astolfo to chuckle in embarrassment. “Anyway, I’m gonna take Jack’s advice and hit the hay.”
Hey, looks like Blair has some good advice for us all. I’ll take her up on it.
“Alright then, nighty-night.” Astolfo chimed as Blair made her way to her bedroom.
Meanwhile in Toyosu
A few of the traitors decided to organise a meeting in an abandoned shelter in the Toyosu district; namely Jaern, Fern, Madelis, Professor Gobline, Connor and the latest member of the traitors; the reserve Fighting-type leader of Aevium, Texan.
Another late-comer for the traitors; now who’s gonna become snake chow?
“Yo, this whole shindig is lookin’ pretty rad!” Texan grinned. “I hope we can pick up some hot babes later.”
“N-N-N-Not right now; we’ve got to come up with a plan to deal with those losers.” Jaern replied.
“Why don’t we infect their games with a virus that renders them unplayable? Nobody would defend such buggy garbage.” Madelis suggested.
I don’t know, have you seen the Sonic 06 fandom.
“I was just about to say that actually; what a magnificent plan I came up with.” Fern bragged, with Madelis huffing in response.
“The problem with that is that the games have already been released to the public.” Professor Gobline interjected. “Theoretically we could infiltrate the bug into these games whenever the next update gets released, but the security would most definitely be tight.”
“Weaksauce, my idea’s much better; we expose these games as poorly-made, unsubtle feminist propaganda, which these games are to be fair.” Texan suggested.
Because we can’t have an antagonist who acts reasonable while providing a compelling argument; no, they have to be brain dead ninnies who screech like howler monkeys at the thought of diversity. Are you for real author?!
“Not this shit again…” Jaern sighed.
“How are you morons this blind to their agenda?! Take Reborn for instance; not only are the four jewellery wearers girls, but a lot of the most prominent characters are women as well. And don’t get me started on how all the men are depicted as cartoonishly evil villains!” Texan ranted. “This is an example of their evil progressive agenda!”
Well Cain’s a protagonist, and he’s a guy, so there’s your argument shot down in an instant. As for the jewelry girls? I’ll explain that when the time comes.
“Why don’t you go cry to your mommy about it? Oh right, she abandoned your ass once she learnt what kind of person you’ll grow up to be.” Fern taunted, with Madelis chuckling lightly in response.
“Shut the fuck up, fuckboi! You’re lucky we’re on the same side, otherwise I would beat the shit out of you!” Texan snarled.
“Oh shut up you!” Madelis snapped, smacking the back of Texan’s head. “Now onto the main topic, why not go back to that controversy about Pokémon encouraging kids to dabble in Satanic rituals?”
“That old chestnut? Even the noobiest of gamers know that theory is bullshit.” Connor argued. “Besides, Satanic Panic has been dead for several decades; the real hot-topic now is representation.”
Hey Stabby, there’s that Satanic Panic you brought up a while ago. Talk about a neat coincidence.
“Hey, I just got an idea; why don’t we protest the lack of People of Color represented in these games?” Jaern suggested.
“That argument wouldn’t work against Sage; given its focus on South American culture.” Professor Gobline argued. “I could see it being used against the other games though.”
That whole issue on representation is mired in so much controversy, that it never ends well whenever it’s brought up. At least you’re more reasonable about it than Texan.
“Oh come on, are you seriously vouching for more representation?!” Texan interjected. “What fucking loser cries about MUH REPRESENTATION?!”
Well let’s see here: All of Tumblr, a majority of Twitter, All of ResetERA, Reddit, Something Awful, One Angry Gamer…
Shit, that’s a bigger list than I anticipated.
“The one I’m looking at right now.” Fern retorted, staring smugly at Texan, who gritted his teeth in response.
“I’ve got it! Why don’t we make a few alliances with the renegade members of Metal Slug Attack?” Connor suggested.
“I’ve heard about the Metal Slug Civil War, but I can’t say I know everything about it.” Madelis admitted.
“From what I’ve heard, the Metal Slug Attack fandom is up in arms about how many waifus get dumped into the game for the sake of drawing in horny nerd dollars. There are two sides to the war; the ones who refuse to accept the waifus as Metal Slug characters save for a choice few, and the ones who love the waifus and want there to be more of them. If we side with the waifu side, we can take out two birds with one stone and receive a bonus from Lord Krishna.” Professor Gobline explained.
Ok, back the fuck up here. What the fuck does Metal Slug have to do with any of this shit?! Better check out this shit out, give me a minute or so.
*intense research action*
Alright, story time. SNK released this IOS game based on the Metal Slug franchise, titled Metal Slug Attack. Initially the game had what Metal Slug fans craved; awesome war machines. Sometime later, SNK created a few female OC’s to compliment the cast. The playerbase didn’t have a problem with it at first, since the females were modestly dressed, and added to the Metal Slug lore. But following record profits in Japan, as well as a survey that requested more female characters, SNK started creating more and more females, wearing provocative outfits to cater to their newest fans. This has angered the old guard greatly, as they felt that SNK is sacrificing what made Metal Slug great, in favor of cashing in on horny weeaboos. However, it seems that with the recent addition of male OC’s and new war machines, the old guard is sated for now.
That being said, it seems that the author is on the side of the old guard. Though I suspect the characters from that game he likes is going to appear sooner or later in this fic.
“A bonus you say? Oh how I love bonuses.” Madelis grinned.
“What an excellent plan; courtesy of yours truly.” Fern bragged. “But I have an utterly amazing plan, and it involves something Texan knows all too well about.”
“What are you—“Texan began, before it dawned on him. “Oh yeah, my stash. Good thinking bro.”
“What stash?” Madelis inquired.
“I managed to score this cache of realistic, Fire Emblem porn. We can use it to brainwash the masses so they can willingly give their souls to that giant snake thing.” Texan explained.
I could go on a tangent on how the hell Fire Emblem porn would brainwash people to sacrifice themselves to a hungry snake, but I highly doubt the author has an answer for that himself.
“Speaking of which, it’s been a while since I last masturbated. I’ll be back in a few minutes.”
“Charmed…” Professor Gobline commented as Texan ducked into one of the rooms nearby. “Anybody else got an idea?”
“Nope.” Connor replied. “I’m gonna suggest we go for the Metal Slug plan first.”
“Sounds like a plan then!” Jaern exclaimed, as Texan exited the room and reunited with the group.
“Couldn’t last a single pump, chump?” Fern taunted.
“Fuck off! I couldn’t get a signal down here.” Texan snapped.
I know Texan was a major asshole in Rejuvenation, but he had more class than this angry chimp with a nametag.
“Regardless, we have our game plan. Now we should report the situation to Lord Krishna.” Madelis suggested.
“I already informed him of the plan.” A mysterious voice called out, as a seventh figure emerged from thin air.
“Madame X?! I can explain…” Madelis began to defend herself, concerned for her personal safety.
“Don’t start crying now; you’ve done nothing wrong, yet.” Madame X replied coldly. “That Metal Slug plan was something I thought of a while ago, and suggested it to Lord Krishna while you lot were out.”
“Naturally, he said it was the stupidest thing he’d ever heard in his life.”
“And a good idea it was! Your intelligence always manages to amaze me great leader.” Madelis quickly replied.
“Tch, praise shouldn’t come out of your mouth, unless you aspire to be some politician’s bootlicker. Regardless, it is a reasonable idea I’ll admit that much.” Madame X retorted.
“A-Any way my lady, is there anything else we need to know?” Professor Gobline inquired.
“One thing; Krishna has established communications with the leader of the *groans* MS Waifu Army.” Madame X answered, groaning in disgust upon mentioning the name of the allied army. “All of you will need to be at the airport within the next 12 hours, where you will be taking the next flight to San Francisco to meet up with the leaders of the army.”
Look, I have no idea where Metal Slug Attack takes place, but wouldn’t San Francisco be a bigger shithole than it already is, if we’re in the Shin Megami universe?
“Sounds like a plan then!” Jaren agreed, before turning to the others. “You heard her, get your stuff dealt with and meet me at the airport, pronto!” The group of six proceeded to leave the shelter, leaving Madame X by herself.
“Excellent, everything’s going according to plan. Now to update Krishna on the situation.” She chuckled sinisterly to herself, before teleporting out of the room.
Pokémon Fangame Headquarters: Reborn Wing: Billiard room
The Fangame headquarters was branched off into several wings to accommodate the VIPs, with every wing containing the same luxuries and living necessities. In the Billiard room for the Reborn league, Titania was busy setting up a match with her lover Amaria. Amaria was a beautiful young lady with her long luscious teal hair, and bright green eyes. Her outfit consisted of a dark blue, short-sleeve shirt, and matching dark blue pants. She also wore blue boots and what appeared to be some sort of small blue cape around her waist, with a wave pattern on it. Additionally, she wore a gold bracelet that had a sapphire set in it. Asides from those two, there were a few other people in the room minding their own business.
And the last LoA veteran makes her appearance; Amaria, with a peculiar shout-out to her Sapphire Bracelet.
“So how did the rally go?” Amaria inquired, having finished setting up the match.
“It went to shit; in fact the whole day went to shit! First some asshat and his cronies stormed on the stage and proclaimed some nonsense about how our games needed to be destroyed so that humanity can achieve salvation. Then we find out some of our friends stabbed us in the back, including that slimy weasel Florinia has for a brother. And to top things off, Hardy gets ousted as a mole by that bastard Connor, and promptly gets eaten by a giant fucking snake demon!” Titania ranted, striking the white ball and knocking a couple balls into the pockets. “So yeah, that’s how my day was.”
You thought your day was bad, check this out. I had to walk uphill, both ways in the snow to get to work, without shoes on. Then I had to work my hands to the bone sorting boxes, while the other workers called me names. Then when I got home, I made myself dinner, which was a few pieces of cardboard from a pizza box, while huddling up inside a shoebox for warmth. And to top it off, I have to mock some shitty fanfic made by an asshole who jerks of to Pokémon Reborn characters wearing fucking bunnysuits!
So yeah, that’s how my day went.
“Tania, it’s good that you’re letting your stress out as opposed to letting it build up inside, lest we get a repeat of what happened that time.” Amaria replied, firing a shot and managed to sink a ball in. “But part of me thinks that you’re still holding onto some stress you picked up during the last few months of game development. Maybe we can take a nice trip into town tomorrow.”
“Can I come along? I wanna get my hands on some firecrackers and light the night sky with my boomies!” Julia cheered, lounging on a beanbag while drinking a cup of coffee. Julia was a cute girl in her early 20s who had long, green hair in a ponytail, with matching coloured eyes. She wore what appeared to be a cheerleader’s uniform coloured yellow as well as a pair of yellow boots.
Oh joy, Julia’s here. Well let’s hope she sets of an explosion that kills everyone in this damn fic.
“Well I guess I could use a break after all I’ve been through these last few months.” Titania mulled the proposition in her head before coming to a conclusion. “Alright then, I’ll go with you. And yes Julia, you can come along as well.”
“Really?! Hooray, this is gonna be awesome!” Julia grinned wildly. “I just wish Rini was able to come with us as well…”
“I do as well, but she needs some time to herself after what happened regarding Fern.” Amaria replied.
Can’t say I blame her; I‘d be depressed if some drugged up alien started masquerading as my brother.
“What’s this about Fern I’m hearing?” a man’s voice called out as two people entered the room. The first person was a teenage male with shoulder length red hair, and rocked a simple black t-shirt and a pair of jeans. He also had an electric guitar slung around his shoulders. This was Hardy, the Rock-type Gym Leader of Reborn and Titania’s younger brother. (Note: he has nothing to do with Hardy from Pokémon Desolation).
Thanks for the help, Captain Obvious. Though it does bring up the questionable idea of having two characters with the same name in a fic; just how will you differentiate the two?
The female beside him was a very pretty young lady with long purple hair and matching color eyes. Her outfit consisted of a black t-shirt that had white trims at the end of the sleeves and collar as well as a purple stripe at the bottom of the shirt, a white pleated skirt with a purple stripe at the bottom as well and had a metal chain looped at the helm, grey thigh-high socks and a pair of black loafers. She also had a gold hairpin that had a large pearl set in it. This was Aya, the reverse Poison-type gym leader of Reborn and Cain’s older sister. Hardy and Aya started dating each other recently and it’s been working out rather well.
Ah, Aya. Powerful Poison-type trainer and Cain’s yummylicious sister. A shame that she’s gonna become one of the author’s chosen cum-socks—wait a second, what’s this about a hairpin I’m reading? She didn’t have that in the game.
“To put it simply, he stabbed us in the back and is plotting against us.” Titania summed it up.
“I figured he’d do something like this; the gutless coward…” Hardy muttered. “Anyway, you got any plans for tomorrow?”
“Amy and Tania are gonna go out, and I’m coming along as well, and I’ll buy so many boomies, and it’s gonna be fun and…” Julia started to ramble.
“How interesting...” Aya replied. “Anything else we need to know.”
“Well we did make contact with this young man named Astolfo or something, he and his friends seem like interesting characters.” Titania added. “At the very least, they’re working to defeat our enemy.”
Via card games; the one weakness of anti-Reborn deities.
“That’s good to here.” Amaria replied. A few minutes later, the game had ended with Titania winning the match.
“Anyway, I better head off to bed. Don’t stay up late shorty.” Titania commented, heading off towards her room with Amaria and Julia following suit.
“Sure thing sis.” Hardy replied, as he and Aya sat down on the couch to watch some television.
A little slower than the previous chapters, but the next chapter would pick things up. It will have Roland make his debut duel with his next deck, and maybe a lemon if I’m feeling up to it.
By YHVH’s name; there’s a duel next chapter, and it’s topped off with a LEMON?! This is gonna be more painful than usual. Oh well, guess I better prepare myself mentally for it.
Catch you all next time everyone!
Hardy (Reborn)
Amaria
Hardy (Desolation) (K.I.A)
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Home All Maps Canal Maps of the 19th Century
This CD is in three parts:-
1. Three maps produced by George Bradshaw of Railway Timetable fame. The maps were produced in 1830. They show most of England and Wales at a scale of ½ inch to one mile. They show the canal and railway network as it was then. They show the canal level above sea level and the entry widths of the locks.
2. The Walker Nichols and Priestly canal map of Great Britain. This map also produced in 1830 is at a scale of 5.6 inches to one mile. This map also shows the canals but in addition it shows the location of mineral deposits that would be transported on the canals.
3. The Joseph Priestly Book detailing and describing each of the canal layouts. The is an 800 page reference work.
Joseph Adshead’s map...
Hennet’s Map of Lanc...
Flintshire & Denbighshire OS – 6inch 1st Ed – 1869/75
Ordnance Survey 6-inch first edition 1869 – 1875
Maps of Flintshire & Denbighshire
This DVD contains all of the first edition 6-inch maps of Flintshire & Denbighshire. Also included are the first edition 25-inch maps of the towns and larger villages.
SKU: Flint_6inch.
Categories: Flintshire & Denbighshire, All Maps.
Ordnance Survey 6-in...
This CD contains images of the Ordnance Survey second edition 25-inch maps of Derbyshire which were produced between 1896 and 1900. The scale is 1 to 2500 or 25.344 inches to the mile.
SKU: Derbyshire_25inch.
Categories: Derbyshire, All Maps.
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Band:ARTHUR LEE AND LOVE
Album:COMING THROUGH TO YOU BOX SET
Label:ROCK BEAT
Format:4 CD BOX SET
Genre:Psych/Garage Reissues
FOUR CD BOX SET - 61 UNRELEASED LIVE TRACKS FROM 1970- 2004.
Arthur Lee (1945-2006) was a founding member of the legendary Los Angeles rock band Love (1965-1971). Post the band’s break up, Arthur released a number of solo albums and in his later years, created a band called Love, revisited which toured the world. Love’s “Forever Changes” album regularly ranks in the top tier of Best Albums of All Time lists. Rolling Stone’s survey of the Top 500 albums of all time from 2003 ranked the album at #40.
"Coming Through To You" features 61 tracks over four CD'S worth of unreleased material recorded between 1970-2004.The package features many photos from Arthur’s personal collection, many never seen before. Liner notes by Rolling Stone Senior Editor David Fricke. The package also features a forward by Door’s guitarist Robby Krieger. Released with the full support of Arthur’s estate.
Band:ZOLTAN
Album:PHANTASM/TANZ DER VAMPIRE
Label:CINEPLOIT
Format:10 INCH VINYL
Genre:Cinematic Music
Zoltan return with a Tribute for two very influential movies – Phantasm and Dance of the Vampires. This 10“ MLP will have 3 tracks of each movie, on the A-side a fantastic interpretation in the typical Zoltan style of the original Phantasm score originally by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave. The B-Side features 3 tracks of „Tanz der Vampire“ (Dance of the Vampires) originally scored by Krzysztof Komeda for the entertaining Roman Polanski flick. As usual all music played and recorded completely analog in the allready known true Zoltan style – Cinematic Synth Prog at it´s best!
Limited Edition of 350 copies / Vinyl only – collectors item! / High quality sleeve, 2 Colour Mix Vinyl / Highly interesting for any Cinematic Listener or Phantasm and Dance of the Vampires enthusiast / No CD release!
Band:VIDEOGRAM
Album:PRE-CERT
Pre-Cert, short for pre-certification video, is a UK phrase that refers to a VHS tape released prior to the introduction of the 1984 Video Recordings Act. As the then new VHS market was completely unregulated, these editions were not required to be submitted to the BBFC, meaning the releases were completely uncensored - soon leading to the "video nasties" outrage. Today these tapes are sought after items on the collector's market. With his Cineploit debut, Magnus Sellergren set out to further and improve on the concept of Videogram's previous "S/T" 2014 album. Inspiration was drawn from the same sources as the previous full length effort, with the key words being bigger, better, and more produced. The result is an album created during a six-month period, between January and June 2015, starting with a total of thirty-some tracks that were written, then re-written - in some cases even completely rearranged - polished, and finally whittled down to a thirteen-track, 40+ minute full length LP/CD. Starting off with the now-familiar Videogram idents, Pre-Cert covers an assortment of classic genre-influenced sounds; from occult horror, 1980s Cannon action, thrillers and post-apocalyptics to "cannibal freakouts" (as he affectionately calls them), Italian-produced erotica, 1970s Spanish horror, the iconic Friday the 13th series and climaxing with a mammoth five-part, 13- minute tribute to John Carpenter's sci-fi horror classic "The Thing". The journey Videogram started in 2014 is now taking a huge step forward, offering the same amount of affection for the VHS format and genres as his previous efforts, but more focused, polished and well executed! CD LTD TO X 500.
Album:PRE-CERT LP
Pre-Cert, short for pre-certification video, is a UK phrase that refers to a VHS tape released prior to the introduction of the 1984 Video Recordings Act. As the then new VHS market was completely unregulated, these editions were not required to be submitted to the BBFC, meaning the releases were completely uncensored - soon leading to the "video nasties" outrage. Today these tapes are sought after items on the collector's market. With his Cineploit debut, Magnus Sellergren set out to further and improve on the concept of Videogram's previous "S/T" 2014 album. Inspiration was drawn from the same sources as the previous full length effort, with the key words being bigger, better, and more produced. The result is an album created during a six-month period, between January and June 2015, starting with a total of thirty-some tracks that were written, then re-written - in some cases even completely rearranged - polished, and finally whittled down to a thirteen-track, 40+ minute full length LP/CD. Starting off with the now-familiar Videogram idents, Pre-Cert covers an assortment of classic genre-influenced sounds; from occult horror, 1980s Cannon action, thrillers and post-apocalyptics to "cannibal freakouts" (as he affectionately calls them), Italian-produced erotica, 1970s Spanish horror, the iconic Friday the 13th series and climaxing with a mammoth five-part, 13- minute tribute to John Carpenter's sci-fi horror classic "The Thing". The journey Videogram started in 2014 is now taking a huge step forward, offering the same amount of affection for the VHS format and genres as his previous efforts, but more focused, polished and well executed! GATEFOLD LP W/CD - LTD TO JUST X 250 !
Album:CAMP BLOOD
Format:VINYL 10 INCH
A Tribute to the Iconic Friday the 13th franchise especially Harry Manfredini´s „Friday the 13th Part 3“ Disco Theme, this EP offers 2 tracks of the „Pre-Cert“ LP with 3 additional Bonus Tracks. „Camp Voorhees“ is a mash-up of the two album tracks, a down and dirty stomper that offers a pounding rythm and eerie synths, „Ki-Ki-Mah“ is a humorous take on the iconic whispering sounds prevalent in all of the franchise installments – done retro disco style, and the final track is an extended version of „Voorhees Stomp“, showcasing Magnus mixing skills and features a guest apperance by Australian musician Jamie Coghill aka The Jimmy C, providing some phaser-heavy Roto Toms. A fun and creative release the „Camp Blood“ 10“ EP is both a reverent and tongue-in-cheek tribute to the Friday the 13th franchise, a loving tribute to this iconic Horror Series.
Limited Edition of 350 copies - Vinyl only – collectors item! - For Fans of soundtracks especially the Friday the 13th Franchise and Retro Disco - Outstanding Friday the 13th- themed artwork by German Artist Andy Grail and Cursed
Band:THELEMA
Album:BEYOND THE TRUTH - NETWORK TRIBUTE
Thelema return with a wonderful Tribute to Sydney Lumet´s visionary movie Network called „Beyond the Truth“. The music for this MLP with a running time of 25 minutes captures perfect in one long track over both sides the mood of this fantastic flick. Get ready for the truth, get beyond the truth!
Limited Edition of 350 copies - High quality sleeve, purple/blue/white splatter Vinyl - Highly interesting for any Cinematic and Sydney Lumet and Network Enthusiast.
Band:JESS AND THE ANCIENT ONES
Album:SECOND PSYCHEDELIC COMING
Genre:Psychedelic Rock
Since their inception in 2010, the ascent of Jess and her Ancient Ones has been astounding. With a chart-toppingly successful debut album in 2011 and the occult surf metal EP Astral Sabbat (2013) under their collective belt, the group won over many new followers on their North American tour with King Diamond last winter. Since then the collective have thinned their herd from seven to six, and spent months with minds locked inwards together, perfecting their craft and cultivating what was to become their second album. This autumn equinox it was signalled that the hour of the Second Psychedelic Coming had come at last and work on the album complete. And what rough beast it is! Second Psychedelic Coming: The Aquarius Tapes will be released on CD, double LP and digital formats on December 4th. First single cut off the album is the ode to Albert Hoffmann, In Levitating Secret Dreams, to which there will also be a suitably mindbending music video by Romanian artist Costin Chioreanu. This dark keyboard-driven occult garage rocker will also be available on a limited vinyl 7" on November 6th.
"The album title can be seen as a bridge between the past and now. Some thoughts, words, and poems from the Aquarian age are bound to everlast and inspire generations to come. Their core always being essentially the same. Love and freedom", continues Thomas Corpse, "Often in history that message has traveled from characters that society has announced to be ill, corruptive, and dangerous to common good. Of course the rich in their ivory towers want to silence all of these poets and warriors, but luckily they never succeed. Here be nine songs with that same old message. Feed your minds."
Album:SECOND PSYCHEDELIC COMING - LP
"The album title can be seen as a bridge between the past and now. Some thoughts, words, and poems from the Aquarian age are bound to everlast and inspire generations to come. Their core always being essentially the same. Love and freedom", continues Thomas Corpse, "Often in history that message has traveled from characters that society has announced to be ill, corruptive, and dangerous to common good. Of course the rich in their ivory towers want to silence all of these poets and warriors, but luckily they never succeed. Here be nine songs with that same old message. Feed your minds." Vinyl LP Format.
Band:NIGHT VIPER
Album:NIGHT VIPER
Genre:Metal
Night Viper are a hot-rockin' heavy metal band from Gothenburg, Sweden. The first two ingredients in the Viper pie were Sofie Lee Johansson and Tom Sutton (Horisont, The Order Of Israfel, ex-Church Of Misery). As soon as they met, the chemistry started flying and some pure fist-banging heavy metal demos were thrown down. They were joined briefly by Sven Nilsson from Antichrist on drums as well as a few others on guitar and bass, but it was once swing master Jonna Karlsson was behind the kit that things started really moving. The folk-tastic stylings of Emil Ridderstolpe on guitar and the fast fingers of Ruben Åhlander Persson (Miasmal) on bass completed the lineup.
"We love it," says guitarist Tom Sutton of Night Viper. "We recorded all the basic tracks live together, and I think you can really hear the excitement in the room. It's very organic-sounding, and will remind people of the heavy metal classics they love, while still being very current and very unique. It's not a tribute to any era in any way. There's elements of Kill 'em All-era Metallica, Judas Priest, Entombed, and the more metal side of Motörhead, along with some Pentagram or Coven-type spookiness. "
Album:NIGHT VIPER - LP
"We love it," says guitarist Tom Sutton of Night Viper. "We recorded all the basic tracks live together, and I think you can really hear the excitement in the room. It's very organic-sounding, and will remind people of the heavy metal classics they love, while still being very current and very unique. It's not a tribute to any era in any way. There's elements of Kill 'em All-era Metallica, Judas Priest, Entombed, and the more metal side of Motörhead, along with some Pentagram or Coven-type spookiness. " VINYL LP FORMAT.
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Civilization 5 gods and kings maps
By Doll inDEFAULT
Jun 18, · Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings is the first expansion pack for Civilization V - the critically acclaimed PC Game of the Year. This robust expansion covers the entire scope of time from founding your first Pantheon of the Gods and spreading religion across the world, to deploying your spies in enemy cities in order to steal /5(). Play The World Extended (Gods and Kings Edition) You should at least have 4 GB of RAM and a quadcore to play this map! If you own both Gods and Kings and Brave New World, If you own Gods and Kings, BNW and all Civilization based DLCs and want another, better experience, the Enhanced Map Pack allows you to play with all Steam Workshop: Sid Meier's Civilization V. I initially modified Dale's big Europe map for private use only, but decided to share it with you (for those who rather want to download maps than create them themselves). There are true start locatio STORE COMMUNITY Play Europe (Gods and Kings Edition).
[Play The World Extended (Gods and Kings Edition) You should at least have 4 GB of RAM and a quadcore to play this map! If you own both Gods and Kings and Brave New World, If you own Gods and Kings, BNW and all Civilization based DLCs and want another, better experience, the Enhanced Map Pack allows you to play with all Oct 05, · To install the map, unzip the archived file and then place the file into the extension; My Documents > My Games > Sid Meier's Civilization 5 > Maps (Windows 7, other OS may vary) Playing a lot of the Earth map I found that the Earth map provided in Gods and Kings updated the resources to the map, but not placing the new Natural Wonders onto it.4/4(3). Jun 18, · Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings is the first expansion pack for Civilization V - the critically acclaimed PC Game of the Year. This robust expansion covers the entire scope of time from founding your first Pantheon of the Gods and spreading religion across the world, to deploying your spies in enemy cities in order to steal /5(). Steam Workshop: Sid Meier's Civilization V. I initially modified Dale's big Europe map for private use only, but decided to share it with you (for those who rather want to download maps than create them themselves). There are true start locatio STORE COMMUNITY Play Europe (Gods and Kings Edition). | The map is the world on which a game of Civilization V takes place. Most scenarios use premade maps, but other types of games allow players to choose their. Civ5Map file placing all 12 real Natural Wonders on the huge Earth map provided by Civilization V. The map also uses the Atoll terrain feature on the largest. Steam Workshop: Sid Meier's Civilization V. Sub-category of maps, & scenarios. Steam Workshop: Sid Meier's Civilization V. This map is based on the well known Yet Another Giant Earth Map from Gedemon in x94 and. Steam Workshop: Sid Meier's Civilization V. I initially modified Dale's big Europe map for private use only, but decided to share it with you (for. Especially the 'plus' maps ('plus' type maps push city states to the fringes . These are all generated using the Civ V SDK at Standard Size. The good news is, thanks to the slick world editor, making maps in Civilization V is surprisingly easy as well. You don't need to know how to.] Civilization 5 gods and kings maps Steam Workshop: Sid Meier's Civilization V. This map is based on the well known Yet Another Giant Earth Map from Gedemon in x94 and wouldn't have been possible without his hard work in converting Genghis Kai's GEM for Civ5. Back to Civilization V Sid Meier's Civilization® V: Gods & Kings is the first expansion pack released for Civilization V. It was released June 19, in North America and June 22, worldwide. As the name shows, the expansion focuses on a brand new feature - Religion, which adds a whole new. To install the map, unzip the archived file and then place the file into the extension; My Documents > My Games > Sid Meier's Civilization 5 > Maps (Windows 7, other OS may vary) Playing a lot of the Earth map I found that the Earth map provided in Gods and Kings updated the resources to the map, but not placing the new Natural Wonders onto it. Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings is the first expansion pack for Civilization V - the critically acclaimed PC Game of the Year. This robust expansion covers the entire scope of time from founding your first Pantheon of the Gods and spreading religion across the world, to deploying your spies in enemy cities in order to steal. Steam Workshop: Sid Meier's Civilization V. I initially modified Dale's big Europe map for private use only, but decided to share it with you (for those who rather want to download maps than create them themselves). Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings is a game by 2K Games Entire Game of Thrones Map/World Detailed - Duration: whycreate 1,, views. Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings is the first official expansion pack for the Turn-Based Strategy game, Sid Meier's Civilization V.* It features the introduction of religion as a major gameplay component to the game, through a faith-based mechanism. It also adds additional diplomatic abilities to those found in the base game. Civilization V: Gods and Kings will also include nine new civilizations, nine new wonders, three original scenarios, and dozens of new units, buildings, and techs that will offer even more ways for players to expand their empire and dominate the world. Key Features. The Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings expansion pack also improves on the base game's use of diplomacy, especially in the area of confessium.com spies players can do a wide range of things, including steal technologies, provide intelligence, rig elections, and even counter the actions of foreign spies planted domestically in their own cities. Sid Meier's Civilization V - Gods & Kings Game Guide Gods help us all! The Gods & Kings expansion pack to Civilization V enriches the gameplay with completely new elements which additionally complete the measures you can use to control your empire. Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods & Kings is the first official expansion pack for the turn-based strategy video game Civilization V. It was released on June 19, in North America, and on June 22, in the rest of the world. It adds both religion and espionage mechanics to the game as well as reworking the combat and diplomacy features. «Sid Meier's Civilization V: Gods and Kings» Civilization V: Explorer's Map Pack Civilization V - Wonders of the Ancient World Scenario Pack kaufen Civilization V - Civilization and. Good news, everyone! Civilization 5: Gods & Kings isn't that good. Like a despicable ex-girlfriend, Civ 5 has actually aged very well. Its pan-historical plotting is as addictive as ever, meaning. The reason why i play in Earth is because earth is standardized, so it's much easier to explain here. Plus, Earth map has TWO locations concentrated with luxury items. Choosing your civilization leader This may be the hardest part for some player, because we all seeks that perfect civilization leader. use the following search parameters to narrow your results: subreddit:subreddit find submissions in "subreddit" author:username find submissions by "username" site:confessium.com Sid Meier's Civilization® V is the fifth offering in the multi-award winning Civilization strategy game series featuring the famous “just one more turn” addictive gameplay that has made it one of the greatest game series of all time. Gaming & Culture — Review: Gods & Kings is an essential Civilization expansion AI improvements, new gameplay systems round out the base Civ V game.. Rowan Kaiser - Jun 19, pm UTC.
CIV 5 MAP N' MOD CREATION Part #1 Creating terrain
James labrie impermanent resonance, soal uka guru penjas sdc, abc files lotro happy, visual foxpro 9.0 sp2, siehst du das genauso music, whatever you like anya marina, windows 8.1 32 bit kickass
Malakora
Arajin Posted on20:52 - 01.07.2020
Woooow Great Work Uploader !! ... Amazing Version :)
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Net Feasa have chosen to use crowd funding to get to the next stage with their IoTPass solution. Crowd funding is , of course, nothing new, but is not that common in the B2B space. It does offer a number of advantages as your backers are more than just "professional...
#FodboldtrøjeFredag
Today is Football Shirt Friday (as the hashtag says in Danish). It is an awareness and collection campaign in support of Børnecancerfonden (the children's cancer foundation) that e-thomsen is proud to upport every year. This year, in order to cut through the amount of...
Teaming up with IQinAbox
Together with Jakob Grane, I have joined IQinAbox's newly established Advisory Board. IQinAbox is a startup with state-of-the-art technology, including sensors and advanced statistical modelling to support pig-farmers in significantly improving costs and not least CO2...
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Kontainers in the media and new logo revealed
The new logo for Kontainers has been revealed, as the media have been commenting on the acquisition. The coverage has ranged from the usual industry sources as well as the more general media, such as The Chronicle Live. Most have been using the press release sent out,...
Descartes acquires Kontainers
It has just been announced that Descartes has acquired Kontainers. The press release gives the obvious reasons, but I know that the two founders, Graham and Charlie, set out to change the industry, and I honestly don't think there is a better place for Kontainers at...
Good news/bad news for freight-tech
CB Insights has done an analysis of the impact of the outbreak of Covid-19 private funding, which in particular impacts startups. The bad news Unsurprisingly, the bad news is that it is going to go down, and based on experience from previous outbreaks, especially Asia...
Covid-19 provides and opportunity to rethink
Every crisis forces you to rethink how you have historically done things and the outbreak of Covid-19 is from that perspective no different. Stop the bleeding The immediate concern is, of course, to eliminate, or as a minimum reduce, the threat to a manageable level....
WiseTech forcing a reality check for FreightTech
FreightTech has seen a continuous rise over the last 18-24 months beyond what others, e.g. FinTech, have experienced. The front runners have been Flexport (although more forwarder than a pure technology company) and WiseTech. I have discussed their valuations more...
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-- Earthling News --
Editor: Peter Stallinga
where the 'teh' is the 'the'
2020 / December / 05
(go to main page)
Some years ago, mentioning The Great Reset (a plan of the global cabal to reform the global economy) Would make you look like a conspiracy thinker. Just like decades ago mentioning the Bilderberg Group was. Those now even have their own website, and international media herald them a heroic status, that such important people are willing to lend a helping hand with society. The same inversion of the narrative is now also taking place for the Great Reset. Since Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum started mentioning his plan for a global reformation (we have reported on it here at Earthling News), more and more international leaders openly swear allegiance to the plan. Last week Justin Trudeau, prime minister of Canada referred to it, with the message "you will have nothing, but you will be happy". This week, the Swamp's favorite industrial elitist (married to the owner of the Heinz conglomerate) John Kerry, Joe Biden's new collaborator, mentioned it would be a very good plan indeed.
Just to remind you, The Great Reset is a plan to introduce world communism. Or, as The Hill writes, "The plan involves dramatically increasing the power of government through expansive new social programs like the Green New Deal and using vast regulatory schemes and government programs to coerce corporations into supporting left-wing causes."
"John Kerry reveals Biden's devotion to radical 'Great Reset' movement" (The Hill)
That now makes it sort of unavoidable. Trump has done his best to prevent it. The Swamp has been five years making him look like a buffoon. And it worked. Many people have been easily misled by The Swamp and actually voted for a proven criminal cabal member (Joe Biden, viz. his actions in Ukraine and China).
Chinese journalists themselves mentioned how Joe Biden is an instrument of teh Chinese Communist Party. See here the short video of The Epoch Times:
"Senate Report Reconfirms Biden Family Deal with the CCP" (Epoch Times)
The step from CCP to CNN is very small. Project Veritas unveiled how CNN is basically full fake news and no longer in any way a journalism organization. They had and have a personal vendetta against Trump, probably because he is a stay in the way against the above mentioned communist power grab. See here the video of Liberal Hivemind that explains it to you, CNN is busted:
"Basic Fact SHOCKS CNN As They Finally Start Telling The Truth AFTER Election. CNN Is TOAST." (Liberal Hivemind)
Or watch it on Fox News (of course, they are gloating over it, that the competition is exposed as fraud):
"Busted! Project Veritas releases first wave of CNN editorial call ... " (Fox News)
That all while the CIA already mentioned another member of teh cabal, Barrack Obama, as an asset to the military industrial complex. The natural charisma of Obama was to be used in Europe to sway European public and politicians to support the ongoing war(s). Watch the video of Jimmy Dore (ex standup comedian and after seeing the light, one of the best political commentators out there; well, maybe it is better to all laugh about it, as they tear down the world). Wikileaks revealed CIA Red Cell memorandum: How to keep the wars going. "Counting on apathy might not be enough":
"CIA Documents Reveal War Machine Wanted Obama As President!" (The Jimmy Dore Show)
Yes, Krieg muss sein (war must be). In The Netherlands, it was revealed that Dutch Government actually sponsored terrorists in Syria to help remove Assad from power (evil as he is, allegedly attacking his own people. That while attacking Syrian people is the prerogative of the Dutch government, as we we all know!). If a politician sponsors terrorists, it makes him a terrorist. If you vote for a politician that sponsors terrorists, and you know it, it makes you a terrorist. Now, on top of this scandal, it was recently revealed that the Dutch Prime Minister, Mark Rutte, tried to intimidate people into not allowing for an inquiry into the shady dealings of the Dutch government. That is a crime upon a crime.
Of course, he will be reelected with a landslide victory. Somehow, the entire population has lost its moral compass. More immoral than Mark Rutte in power is technically not possible. Maybe if they start gassing some ethnic groups people will wake up, but even that is dubious, as history has shown.
And now that we are talking about terrorism and international news: This week a leading Iranian nuclear scientist was assassinated. The prime suspects for the crime are Israeli Mossad agents, for the simple reasons that 1) They have done it before, 2) They have the means, 3) They have the motivation. And the basic technique for identifying a suspect of a crime is MOM: means, opportunity and motivation. Israel has all, while Earthling News does not see any other possible suspect, if not Zionist leaders in Washington acting in the interest of Israel, which would then be Israel by proxy.
Needless to say, Earthling News condemns this act of terrorism. EN seems to be the only Western news outlet to do so, though.
--/=/--
Mainstream media continue to call Joe Biden the President Elect. It is presented as if Donald Trump has lost all his legal actions to question the results of the elections and already starts sort of accepting his defeat. However, nothing could be further from the truth. To give two examples, here is proven election fraud in Georgia:
<br> <br
"Republicans tender new CCTV footage to Georgia Senate Judiciary Subcommittee"
and here is the lawsuit filed by Sidney Powell in Arizona:
"Sidney Powell files new lawsuit in Arizona; Dominion contractor: 'My life has been destroyed'"
As the saying goes. "The show ain't over until the fat lady sings". The singing is scheduled for the end of January 2021.
CoFlu19
It is becoming ever more clear that the lockdowns actually are killing. Watch the Corbett Report on this:
"What NO ONE is Saying About The Lockdowns" (Corbett Report)
therefore, they do not serve the purpose of preventing the people from serious harm. They serve the purpose of enabling the Great Reset, as mentioned in the section on international news. In the video above, even the World Health Organization says that it "does not recommend lockdowns as a primary means of controlling the virus" (watch the video at 2m03s). "We may well have a doubling of world poverty by next year [...] a doubling of child malnutrition [...] This is a terrible ghastly world catastrophe. We really do appeal to all world leaders: stop using lockdowns as your primary control method". "Lockdowns make poor people an awful lot poorer"
The entire PCR testing idea is complete nonsense. It is based on a non-peer-reviewed paper published in 48 hours that has no scientific quality whatsoever, and has links to the pharmaceutical industry that then benefited from selling the test kits. (Video in Dutch):
"BREAKING: De PCR Test van de baan2!"
Nothing to report this week. But here is some interesting effect. Nothing changes. Click on the image to see the video:
Maybe even nicer shown in this animated gif:
Sport & Arts
This week Diego Maradona, one of the best football players ever, died after brain surgery. Earthling News likes to commemorate the (football) brilliance of Diego with this video, in which he shows how he is breathing football, living it 24/7:
(Political) cartoon:
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LassoSoft Inc. > Home
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[FMPro] [ANN] Troi Text Plug-in 4.1 for FileMaker Cloud
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Troi Announce Mailing list [FMPro] [ANN] Troi Text Plug-in 4.1 for FileMaker Cloud
Oct 27, 2016; 18:03
Troi Announce Mailing list
Enter your response below
Troi Automatisering releases first plug-in for FileMaker Cloud: Troi Text Plug-in 4.1
Updated text manipulation plug-in for FileMaker Pro 15 adds compatibility with FileMaker Cloud.
Alphen aan den Rijn, Netherlands, October 27, 2016--Troi Automatisering today announced the availability of Troi Text Plug-in 4.1 for FileMaker Cloud.
First plug-in for FileMaker Cloud
Troi Text Plug-in 4.1 is the first public plug-in that can run in FileMaker Cloud, the cloud-based platform for managing and running custom apps of FileMaker Inc. Troi Text Plug-in can easily be installed with a script to FileMaker Cloud, providing easy acces to the power of its text manipulation functions to developers and organizations.
Peter Baanen, company president, states: "We are very excited to be able to add a new platform that our plug-ins can run on. We are working hard on new FileMaker Cloud compatible versions for our other plug-ins too."
What is Troi Text Plug-in?
Troi Text Plug-in is a powerful tool for for dealing efficiently with text in your FileMaker Pro database. It adds the following functions to FileMaker Pro and FileMaker Cloud:
- Parse XML text into fields
- Combine sets from 2 text fields:
- get all lines that are the same
- get all lines that differ
- and other combinations
- Get (unique) lines and sort words and lines
- Customize spell checking*
* currently not available on FileMaker Cloud
What is new in version 4.1?
Version 4.1 is compatible with FileMaker Cloud: you can now install Troi Text Plug-in on FileMaker Cloud and run its functions on the FileMaker Cloud server. We have created a new example file, which demonstrates how to perform the functions of the plug-in on FileMaker Cloud.
Testing in the cloud
The plug-in is fully functional in demo mode, but will stop working after two hours. We added a new switch to the TrText_Version function, which allows you to test the plug-in for two hours more, after the initial two hour period. After 12 hours the demo time is automatically reset, and you can continue testing the plug-in.
To register the plug-in on FileMaker Cloud you need a Server/Web license.
More detailed information on all changes and improvements implemented in Troi Text Plug-in 4.1 and earlier can be found at: http://www.troi.com/software/texthistory.html
More information on Troi plug-ins for FileMaker Cloud can be found at: http://www.troi.com/filemaker_cloud.html
Pricing & upgrade information
A fully functional demo version of Troi Text Plug-in 4.1 is available for downloading at Troi's web site at: http://www.troi.com/software/textplugin.html.
Licenses cost US$ 49 per user. Details on other licenses and multi-user discounts can be found on our web site. You can order licenses from our web site.
Upgrading to version 4.1 is free for all users of version 4.0.x: version 4.1 works with the same registration as the 4.0.x version. Product updates from earlier versions, bought on or after August 7, 2015, are free too: eligible users have been emailed a new 4.0 registration string. Contact us if you have not received yours.
Upgrades from licenses bought before August 7, 2015, are available from US$ 29 per user. Upgrade prices for other licenses can be found on our web site. You can order upgrades from our web site.
About Troi Automatisering
Troi Automatisering has over 15 years experience in developing high quality cross platform plug-ins for FileMaker Pro and is winner of the FileMaker Pro Excellence Award. For more information, visit our web site at:
http://www.troi.com
D. Budding
Troi Automatisering
Newsroom: http://www.troi.com/news/
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DQF Survey
The case for and against gender quotas on corporate boards
Posted on 2 months ago by ndy
In Europe, gender quotas are old news.
In 2003, Norway became the first country in the world to institute a gender quota for boards of directors, requiring listed companies to add female members to make up at least 40% of overall board representation. Other countries followed suit, including Belgium, France and Italy.
But in the United States, companies are loathe to institute gender and diversity requirements for membership, even as representation numbers continue to lag.
Margarethe Wiersema, professor of management at the University of California-Irvine, says the reason behind the hesitancy is very simple: Americans don’t like being told what to do.
“Europe is so far ahead of us. It’s like we’re in the Dark Ages on this,” she says. “I think it has to do with the mentality.”
Stalled progress
A bill making its way through the California legislature could make the Golden State the first in the country to mandate gender quotas on corporate boards. If Governor Jerry Brown signs it into law, publicly-traded companies headquartered in California would have to place at least one woman on their board by the end of next year, or face a penalty.
“Unfortunately, they do need this pushing and prodding because apparently, it was necessary,” says Paula Loop, assurance partner and leader at PwC’s governance insights center. “You need to push and nudge these folks to get there, but there’s an overwhelmingly positive result once they’re there.”
In Norway, the country judges its law to have been a success. With female members now making up 40% of board seats, overall diversity has increased as the disparity in board members’ pay decreased.
As for the effects on financial performance and other measures of success, some experts say more time is needed to assess.
In the United States, however, the stats are clear: while a majority of companies in the S&P 500 have at least one woman on their boards, only 25% have more than two, according to a study from PwC.
“I think we’re way out of step with the rest of the world and it would be great if we could make more progress on it,” Wiersema says. “Having spoken to a lot of female CEOs, they just can’t believe how little traction there is. This is not acceptable in their eyes, that we’re at this level. Especially when you look at other countries. It’s no longer just Scandinavia, it’s Spain, it’s Italy. It’s countries the US thinks we’re better than, and we’re not.”
Progress still to come
Opponents fear pressure from quotas will promote unqualified female members to prestigious seats, or even potentially discriminate against male candidates.
But there is no precedent for that, according to Ariane Hegewisch, program director for employment and earnings at the Institute for Women’s Policy Research.
“That definitely has not happened,” she says. “There’s no indication that that has happened and that it has in any way made governance worse … [but] there is research to show that companies with no women on their boards do not perform as well.”
Appointing merely one woman to the board isn’t enough to create progress, however, according to Alison M. Konrad, author of a 2006 study “Critical Mass on Boards.” Without female representation already in place on a board, some women are hesitant to be the first, she said.
“They didn’t want to go through the stigma of being the symbol,” Konrad says. “They wanted to be adding to the board because of their ability to contribute. From their experiences, the stigmatizing dynamic does occur. It’s hard enough to just be the first woman, without being the first woman who is slapped with a label that you’re there as a symbol.”
CNNMoney (New York) First published September 7, 2018: 11:42 AM ET
View all posts byndy
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Deacon Blue : The Hipsters
Mojo October 2012
It's the return of the Real Gone Kids
The title is deliberately ironic, Deacon Blue are not hip, never were. Ricky Ross and his other half, backing singer Lorraine Mcintosh, consider themselves among the great uncool, For a decade they proved unstoppable providers of chart records that ranged from charm-filled to harmless. Now they are back with their first album since 2001's Homesick and, amid the sparse opening track Here I Am In London, Ross recalls how it all began for the band and muses about what the immediate future holds. Judging by the content of this album, which contains such portions of well-bred pop as Stars and the harmony-laden Turn, there's enough creativity left to ensure that few hearing these songs for the first time on the band’s imminent 25th Anniversary Tour will be disappointed. Fred Dellar
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About: Simon
Simon is a Registered Renewable Energy Installer with SEAI and a Chartered Energy Manager. He has over 10 years experience working with solar panels and is passionate about making it as easy and affordable as possible to install solar panels in homes and businesses across Ireland. You can contact him on simon@glenergy.ie
Recent Posts by Simon
Solar Panels in the Programme for Government
Solar Panels and Community Ownership. Solar panels and community energy are featured strongly in the new partnership for government published this week. Community energy is where people living in the community own or co-own renewable energy generators. These generators can be solar panels, wind turbines, CHP units, water turbines etc.. The idea is that these…
Solar Panels and Heat Pumps
Solar Panels and Heat Pumps Solar Panels go hand in hand with other renewable energy technologies. Many ask the question about which renewable energy is best but the real question is what is the best combination of technologies to suit a particular situation. Solar Panels either for heating water (Solar Thermal) or producing electricity (Solar PV panels)…
Solar Panels – 2016 predictions
Solar Panels - what's in store for 2016. Well it's nearly Christmas and 2016 is around the corner. We thought we would take this opportunity to have a look at what happened in 2015 and what is in store for Ireland and solar panels in the coming year. 2015 and the grant for solar panels…
Solar Panels – Solar PV Feed in Tariff
Solar Panels - Feed in Tarriff (FIT) in the UK The UK government has recently cut the Feed in Tariff rate payable for installing solar panels for electricity production installed in the UK. What does this mean for Ireland? Well with a decision on the introduction of a FIT for solar panels looming here there…
Recent Comments by Simon
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The Proof or Reason for the Creator's Justice
1. Goodness and Evil
We have learned and it seems that this issue is necessary that our intellect distinguish between good and evil to a certain extent. (This is that very thing which scholars speak about in ethical terms as 'goodness' and 'evil'.
For instance, we know that justice and goodness are good and oppression and stinginess are evil. Before religion even mentions these things, it was clear to us. However, there are other issues which exist which our intelligence is not sufficient to understand and we must seek guidance from Divine leaders and the prophets.
Thus, if a group of Muslims in the name of the Asharites deny intellectual goodness and evil and the way of distinguishing between 'good' and 'evil', to think that only religion brought the issue of justice and oppression, and things like this, is completely wrong.
Because if our intellect does not have the ability to choose between good and evil, how should we know whether or not God would send His message through false prophets? But the moment we say that lying is wrong and evil, and that it is impossible that God would lie, we know that God's Promises are always true and that He is always truthful, we would never encourage deceit and never give miracles into the hands of a deceitful person.
It is here that we can rely upon what religion and the Divine Law says.
Thus, we can conclude that the belief in intellectual good and evil is from religion. (Note this with care).
Now, let us return to the proof of Divine Justice. In order to understand this, we must know.
2. What is the source of oppression?
The source of oppression is one of the following things:
A- Ignorance: It sometimes happens that an oppressive person does not, in truth, know what he is doing. He does not know that he is destroying someone's rights and he is not aware of what he is doing.
B- Need: Sometimes a person is tempted to undertake a satanic act in order to attain something that another has whereas if he were self-sufficient, in such a situation, he would have no need to commit oppression.
C- Inability: Sometimes a person is not willing to have the rights of another curtailed but he does not have the power or ability to do anything about it, and without willingness, he commits oppression.
D- Selfishness, bearing grudges and seeking revenge: Sometimes none of these qualities exist but selfishness causes one to aggress against others or the sense of seeking revenge or bearing a grudge makes that person commit oppression or the spirit of 'exclusiveness' and 'monopolization' causes injustice to others.
But noting that none of these ugly qualities and deficiencies exist in God, because He is the Knower of all things, Needless of all things, has Power over all things and is kind to all, it makes no sense for Him to commit oppression.
He is a Being Who is Endless, Perfect and Unlimited. Only Goodness, Justice and Mercy can stem from such a Being.
If He punishes those who commit evil, in reality, it is the result of their deeds which causes this, just like a person who, as a result of the use of narcotics or alcohol, is afflicted with an incurable disease. The Holy Quran says:
هَلْ تُجْزَوْنَ إِلَّا بِمَا كُنْتُمْ تَكْسِبُونَ
"You receive but the recompense of what you have earned.”(1)
3. The Quran and the Justice of the Creator
It is important to note that the Holy Quran greatly emphasizes this point:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَظْلِمُ النَّاسَ شَيْئًا وَلَٰكِنَّ النَّاسَ أَنْفُسَهُمْ يَظْلِمُونَ.
"Verily God will not deal unjustly with man in aught: it is man that wrongs his own soul.”(2)
And in another place, it says:
إِنَّ اللَّهَ لَا يَظْلِمُ مِثْقَالَ ذَرَّةٍ ۖ وَإِنْ تَكُ حَسَنَةً يُضَاعِفْهَا وَيُؤْتِ مِنْ لَدُنْهُ أَجْرًا عَظِيمًا.
"God is never unjust in the least degree.(3)"
وَنَضَعُ الْمَوَازِينَ الْقِسْطَ لِيَوْمِ الْقِيَامَةِ فَلَا تُظْلَمُ نَفْسٌ شَيْئًا وَإِنْ كَانَ مِثْقَالَ حَبَّةٍ مِنْ خَرْدَلٍ أَتَيْنَا بِهَا وَكَفَىٰ بِنَا حَاسِبِينَ.
"We shall set up scales of justice for the Day of Judgment so that not a soul will be dealt with unjustly in the least."(4)
Thus, note that what is meant here by 'balance' is the method of weighing good and evil, not like scales of this world.
4. Invitation to Justice and oppression
We have said that the qualities of the human being must be like a ray of God's Qualities and in human society, God's Qualities are widespread. According to this principle, to the same extent that the Holy Quran stresses the Justice of the Creator, He has also stressed justice and equity in human society and the individuality of individuals. The Holy Quran says that oppression and injustice will destroy society and that the fate of oppressors is of the most painful kind.
The Holy Quran, in addition to mentioning the fate of past tribes, has often repeated this truth for people to see the result of oppression and corruption and what punishment will be given, fear that you not suffer such a fate.
إِنَّ اللَّهَ يَأْمُرُ بِالْعَدْلِ وَالْإِحْسَانِ وَإِيتَاءِ ذِي الْقُرْبَىٰ وَيَنْهَىٰ عَنِ الْفَحْشَاءِ وَالْمُنْكَرِ وَالْبَغْيِ يَعِظُكُمْ لَعَلَّكُمْ تَذَكَّرُونَ.
"God commands justice, the doing of good and liberality to family members and He forbids all shameful deeds and injustice and rebellion …"(5)
It should be noted that committing oppression is an ugly act, to accept oppression and suffer suppression is also wrong according to Islam and the Holy Quran,
فَإِنْ لَمْ تَفْعَلُوا فَأْذَنُوا بِحَرْبٍ مِنَ اللَّهِ وَرَسُولِهِ وَإِنْ تُبْتُمْ فَلَكُمْ رُءُوسُ أَمْوَالِكُمْ لَا تَظْلِمُونَ وَلَا تُظْلَمُونَ.
"Deal not unjustly and you shall not be dealt with unjustly."(6)
In general, submission to inequity encourages oppression, increases suppression and aids oppressors.
1. The Quran 10:52
3. The Quran 4:40
6. The Quran 2:279
Creation- Justice- Oppression- Equality
We Have Seen the Resurrection Many Times in This World
The Resurrection and the Scales of Justice
The Philosophy of Signs and Catastrophes 3
What Is Justice?
Law of Retaliation 1
How I find that Islam does not Oppress Women?
The Rights Islam Offers to Women
The Philosophy of Fasting
Islam Doctrines on Equality, Realism, Wisdom and Mysticism (6)
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Language engineering for great justice
Whole-systems engineering, when you get good at it, goes beyond being entirely or even mostly about technical optimizations. Every artifact we make is situated in a context of human action that widens out to the economics of its use, the sociology of its users, and the entirety of what Austrian economists call “praxeology”, the science of purposeful human behavior in its widest scope.
This isn’t just abstract theory for me. When I wrote my papers on open-source development, they were exactly praxeology – they weren’t about any specific software technology or objective but about the context of human action within which technology is worked. An increase in praxeological understanding of technology can reframe it, leading to tremendous increases in human productivity and satisfaction, not so much because of changes in our tools but because of changes in the way we grasp them.
In this, the third of my unplanned series of posts about the twilight of C and the huge changes coming as we actually begin to see forward into a new era of systems programming, I’m going to try to cash that general insight out into some more specific and generative ideas about the design of computer languages, why they succeed, and why they fail.
In my last post I noted that every computer language is an embodiment of a relative-value claim, an assertion about the optimal tradeoff between spending machine resources and spending programmer time, all of this in a context where the cost of computing power steadily falls over time while programmer-time costs remain relatively stable or may even rise. I also highlighted the additional role of transition costs in pinning old tradeoff assertions into place. I described what language designers do as seeking a new optimum for present and near-future conditions.
Now I’m going to focus on that last concept. A language designer has lots of possible moves in language-design space from where the state of the art is now. What kind of type system? GC or manual allocation? What mix of imperative, functional, or OO approaches? But in praxeological terms his choice is, I think, usually much simpler: attack a near problem or a far problem?
“Near” and “far” are measured along the curves of falling hardware costs, rising software complexity, and increasing transition costs from existing languages. A near problem is one the designer can see right in front of him; a far problem is a set of conditions that can be seen coming but won’t necessarily arrive for some time. A near solution can be deployed immediately, to great practical effect, but may age badly as conditions change. A far solution is a bold bet that may smother under the weight of its own overhead before its future arrives, or never be adopted at all because moving to it is too expensive.
Back at the dawn of computing, FORTRAN was a near-problem design, LISP a far-problem one. Assemblers are near solutions. Illustrating that the categories apply to non-general-purpose languages, also roff markup. Later in the game, PHP and Javascript. Far solutions? Oberon. Ocaml. ML. XML-Docbook. Academic languages tend to be far because the incentive structure around them rewards originality and intellectual boldness (note that this is a praxeological cause, not a technical one!). The failure mode of academic languages is predictable; high inward transition costs, nobody goes there, failure to achieve community critical mass sufficient for mainstream adoption, isolation, and stagnation. (That’s a potted history of LISP in one sentence, and I say that as an old LISP-head with a deep love for the language…)
The failure modes of near designs are uglier. The best outcome to hope for is a graceful death and transition to a newer design. If they hang on (most likely to happen when transition costs out are high) features often get piled on them to keep them relevant, increasing complexity until they become teetering piles of cruft. Yes, C++, I’m looking at you. You too, Javascript. And (alas) Perl, though Larry Wall’s good taste mitigated the problem for many years – but that same good taste eventually moved him to blow up the whole thing for Perl 6.
This way of thinking about language design encourages reframing the designer’s task in terms of two objectives. (1) Picking a sweet spot on the near-far axis away from you into the projected future; and (2) Minimizing inward transition costs from one or more existing languages so you co-opt their userbases. And now let’s talk about about how C took over the world.
There is no more more breathtaking example than C than of nailing the near-far sweet spot in the entire history of computing. All I need to do to prove this is point at its extreme longevity as a practical, mainstream language that successfully saw off many competitors for its roles over much of its range. That timespan has now passed about 35 years (counting from when it swamped its early competitors) and is not yet with certainty ended.
OK, you can attribute some of C’s persistence to inertia if you want, but what are you really adding to the explanation if you use the word “inertia”? What it means is exactly that nobody made an offer that actually covered the transition costs out of the language!
Conversely, an underappreciated strength of the language was the low inward transition costs. C is an almost uniquely protean tool that, even at the beginning of its long reign, could readily accommodate programming habits acquired from languages as diverse as FORTRAN, Pascal, assemblers and LISP. I noticed back in the 1980s that I could often spot a new C programmer’s last language by his coding style, which was just the flip side of saying that C was damn good at gathering all those tribes unto itself.
C++ also benefited from having low transition costs in. Later, most new languages at least partly copied C syntax in order to minimize them.Notice what this does to the context of future language designs: it raises the value of being a C-like as possible in order to minimize inward transition costs from anywhere.
Another way to minimize inward transition costs is to simply be ridiculously easy to learn, even to people with no prior programming experience. This, however, is remarkably hard to pull off. I evaluate that only one language – Python – has made the major leagues by relying on this quality. I mention it only in passing because it’s not a strategy I expect to see a systems language execute successfully, though I’d be delighted to be wrong about that.
So here we are in late 2017, and…the next part is going to sound to some easily-annoyed people like Go advocacy, but it isn’t. Go, itself, could turn out to fail in several easily imaginable ways. It’s troubling that the Go team is so impervious to some changes their user community is near-unanimously and rightly (I think) insisting it needs. Worst-case GC latency, or the throughput sacrifices made to lower it, could still turn out to drastically narrow the language’s application range.
That said, there is a grand strategy expressed in the Go design that I think is right. To understand it, we need to review what the near problem for a C replacement is. As I noted in the prequels, it is rising defect rates as systems projects scale up – and specifically memory-management bugs because that category so dominates crash bugs and security exploits.
We’ve now identified two really powerful imperatives for a C replacement: (1) solve the memory-management problem, and (2) minimize inward-transition costs from C. And the history – the praxeological context – of programming languages tells us that if a C successor candidate don’t address the transition-cost problem effectively enough, it almost doesn’t matter how good a job it does on anything else. Conversely, a C successor that does address transition costs well buys itself a lot of slack for not being perfect in other ways.
This is what Go does. It’s not a theoretical jewel; it has annoying limitations; GC latency presently limits how far down the stack it can be pushed. But what it is doing is replicating the Unix/C infective strategy of being easy-entry and good enough to propagate faster than alternatives that, if it didn’t exist, would look like better far bets.
Of course, the proboscid in the room when I say that is Rust. Which is, in fact, positioning itself as the better far bet. I’ve explained in previous installments why I don’t think it’s really ready to compete yet. The TIOBE and PYPL indices agree; it’s never made the TIOBE top 20 and on both indices does quite poorly against Go.
Where Rust will be in five years is a different question, of course. My advice to the Rust community, if they care, is to pay some serious attention to the transition-cost problem. My personal experience says the C to Rust energy barrier is nasty. Code-lifting tools like Corrode won’t solve it if all they do is map C to unsafe Rust, and if there were an easy way to automate ownership/lifetime annotations they wouldn’t be needed at all – the compiler would just do that for you. I don’t know what a solution would look like, here, but I think they better find one.
I will finally note that Ken Thompson has a history of designs that look like minimal solutions to near problems but turn out to have an amazing quality of openness to the future, the capability to be improved. Unix is like this, of course. It makes me very cautious about supposing that any of the obvious annoyances in Go that look like future-blockers to me (like, say, the lack of generics) actually are. Because for that to be true, I’d have to be smarter than Ken, which is not an easy thing to believe.
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199 thoughts on “Language engineering for great justice”
… the capability to be improved.
And, of course, the will of the language designer to use that capability correctly.
I remember when I transitioned to C. I was using Modula-2, which at one point was a much better language for my needs. But then a couple of things happened: (1) C got ANSI-fied with things like type declarations in the headers; and (2) the C compilers got better at diagnostic warnings. Did you really mean to write “if c=1” ???
The necessity to reduce inward transition costs means that a successful language is likely to be a creole. Just as English is good enough for commercial transactions, science papers, air traffic control, etc., C quickly became good enough to kill contenders like Modula-2.
But creoles don’t look designed; they aren’t always aesthetically pleasing. Hence, many language designers’ egos will be driving them to act like the French Academy, in dictating stuff, removing stuff, and occasionally, adding other stuff that nobody will use, simply in the name of orthogonality.
Perl will probably never recover from its fiascoes. Python is mostly healing from the 2-to-3 rift, but that wasn’t possible until 3.3, when enough stuff from 2 had been added back in to reduce inward transition costs for actual practicing Python programmers.
Finally, there are a couple of truths that are so obvious to you that you didn’t even bother to mention them: (1) a new language without a solid opensource compiler is a non-starter; and (2) that opensource compile damn well better at least appear to be portable (e.g. well enough to attract the labor that will actually eventually make it portable).
(That last point, of course, can be fully addressed with solid, working LLVM and GCC frontends.)
>Finally, there are a couple of truths that are so obvious to you that you didn’t even bother to mention them: (1) a new language without a solid opensource compiler is a non-starter; and (2) that opensource compile damn well better at least appear to be portable (e.g. well enough to attract the labor that will actually eventually make it portable).
I’ve actually been meaning for years to write a post about the trend towards single-implementation languages. That is, there’s just one open-source C engine you port around everywhere, guaranteeing that everything except maybe the effects of platform-specific API quirks are identical.
Of course this in turn is only possible because of how much we can now take for granted about the C infrastructure used to build these.
tz on 2017-11-18 at 19:17:01 said:
if ( 1 = c )…
There are some reactionary coding habits you might not like, but learn until you just don’t notice you are defensively coding.
I never do that. I mean, I understand the sentiment, but I’m not actually checking to see if the universe has redefined the value of “1” to be the same as my variable “c”, so I just don’t do it.
In any case, my point wasn’t that C got good enough for me. It was that it got good enough to kill Modula-2 — good enough in a global sense, for a lot of different programmers with different use-cases, or as esr says, “tribes.”
You don’t use Yoda conditionals?! Burn the heretic! His blasphemy will be the doom of us all!
Surely, you mean:
“The doom of us all, his blasphemy will be!”
Shirley calling me stop you must.
And here I was thinking the problem was if ( 1 == c) …
Yeah, that could be a huge problem if that code were run in superuser mode on a computer powerful enough to change the universe.
Could make getting around a lot easier, but it would make it hard to see anything.
DocMerlin on 2017-11-19 at 22:07:10 said:
Nah, actually that’s called “Natural Units” and physicists use them all the time. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Natural_units#Summary_table
I learned a long time ago to defensively parenthesize, not just in conditionals, but in the kind of pointer referencing chains that happen deep in the bowels of embedded code.
It would have been really nice if C had a sane operator precedence.
A very long time ago, I was programming in pop-11 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/POP-11) which was at the time used to implement Prolog. It was quite a handy language that could do some remarkably useful things.
I stopped using it after a very, very long search for a bug that kept baffling me. It proved that I had accidentally redefined the ==-operator in my program (or the =-operator, I am not sure) and there was no warning. Except, of course, that the rest of the program did not work anymore. Mind you, that happened due to a very simple typo.
After that incident, I considered my time too valuable to waste on this type of stuff.
Gregory Gelfond on 2017-11-19 at 16:49:24 said:
One thing I miss from Modula-2 and Oberon that I have yet to see a more modern programming language is an analogue to the module system. Namespaces and Packages in the C++/Java sense don’t have the same semantics, and I’m not knowledgeable enough with Go to tell if it does or not.
Go packages are rather nice.
Michael Aaron Murphy on 2017-11-20 at 10:10:48 said:
Not really. Package management in Go is abysmal. You don’t have a project configuration file to list dependencies, their versions, and their features to optionally enable, in addition to conditionally pulling dependencies according to conditional compilation rules. You also don’t have a project lock file that provides hashes, commits, and specific versions to ensure reproducible builds by any downstream user compiling the project. Nor do packages in Go adhere to semantic versioning rules. This is another area where Rust majorly exceeds Go’s design.
You are right that package /management/ in go is terrible, but the package system / namespacing itself is very good.
One thing I don’t see is any split between the language itself, and the libraries which accompany it.
This is what C (and Python) gets right. C itself is very simple. It is like having letters instead of pictograms – latin v.s Chinese writing. And the libraries are reasonably done and flexible.
I’ll add Python, since there is now CircuitPython for embedded devices.
Is GC part of the language or the library? It really matters.
I’ve used C extensively for embedded systems. It works as a universal assembler so I can turn a LED on by doing *(* uchar)(0x4006) |= 3. I can also use libraries with GC or even access massive databases.
You have things intrinsic to the language like the above so a device with 2k of flash and 256 bytes of ram can be coded efficiently and use no libraries (unless the processor doesn’t do multiplicaiton or divisions).
A corrollary of Moore’s laws is that simpler processors become cheaper. Many are under $1 now, but they are very limited in flash/ram/eeprom/etc. And if you had to use a $2 processor to use Go that you could use a $0.25 processor and use C? Think “dollar store”.
What if there was a library that could be added to C to replace malloc/free with GC? There is NO reason it couldn’t be done.
I should also add that there is the language itself, and layers of libraries. The language might not have simple math routines, but the inner ring library will. An outer ring library might handle HTML, with the network stack one ring in. That is what needs to be gotten right.
>What if there was a library that could be added to C to replace malloc/free with GC? There is NO reason it couldn’t be done.
Alas, schemes like that interact badly with having bare pointer in the language. It has been tried – Look up the Boehm GC – but has practical limitations. One is that GC has to be invoked explicitly; that means you either have to maintain enough extra state about your heap to know when you need to do it or pay for a lot of GC calls you don’t really need.
Another is that it’s frickin’ impossible to implement something like Boehm as a precise GC because without type annotations at runtime, there’s no way of knowing whether any arbitrary machine word is a pointer, integer, float, etc.
But the compiler knows which words are pointers! All the more reason for a C successor to handle object lifetimes at compile time à la C++ or Rust.
Galen on 2019-02-16 at 04:57:32 said:
I have found the talloc library to be very useful in easing the heap memory management issues in C.
Unless I need the speed or am working in a very resource constrained environment I won’t touch C. I find that I use Python when speed is that least of my worries. Ocaml gets me close to C speed without the headaches. I like many of the libraries Jane Street has made public for Ocaml.
When I started programming in the seventies with the home computers of the time (TRS-80 and Apple II) 4K was typical memory a nd the really fortunate had 16K or 32K. BASIC or assembly was all we had and having C which is assembly language on steriods was considered a huge improvement in the eighties.
FrancisT on 2017-11-19 at 22:36:00 said:
Yes. But even complex devices with pretty generous resources are also getting to the ridiculously cheap price. Bear in mind that with the Raspberry Pi zero (and other similar boards) you are getting enormous amounts of memory and a 32 bit CPU for ~$5 retail. And yes you can run go (and even node.js javascript) on a pizero
I suspect a pizero optimized for a particular app with built in flash instead of a MicroSD and removing extra USB ports, HDMI etc. that it wouldn’t need would easily be available in bulk at $1 a board. Compared to a resource limited $0.25 board the $1 pizero board will be far easier to actually develop for and that means time to market will be quicker and development costs will be lower. E.g. If it costs $1million to develop on the $0.25 board and $100,000 to do so on the $1 board you’ll need to ship around a million devices to start seeing a greater profit from the cheaper hardware. At this point the reasons to choose to use a $0.25 resource limited processor instead of a rather more powerful $1 one probably come down to other things than price – power consumption being the most obvious.
DMcCunney on 2017-11-18 at 21:18:33 said:
@esr: I mostly agree with your analysis, but will bring up a few points.
I agree entirely about transition costs. Those are the reason so many millions of line of Fortran and COBOL are still in production (along with the languages being good fits for the problems they were designed to address.) C may go away, but the legacy code base won’t. New stuff that might have been written in C might be written in something else, but the same transition costs mean the old stuff already in C will still be in production. It works, and would simply cost too much to replace. The same holds true for C++ (though I think of that as an entirely new language with roots in C.)
The question of “easy to learn” is a difficult one. What makes a language easy to learn? I suspect there are actually two different answers to that, depending upon whether you are talking about someone for whom Python will be a first language, or whether they will learn it after programming in something else.
For the latter folks, I think ease of learning will depend upon what they used before. Someone coming to Python from C should find enough similarities that they can build upon what they already know, and simply learn how Python is different. The same is true for any other language. How hard it will be to learn will depend upon what you already know and can build upon. Someone with a background coding in imperative languages will be far more challenged by learning a functional language like Haskell than by learning yet another imperative language.
I sympathize with your comments on C++, JavaScript, and Perl.
But I will note that JavaScript author Brendan Eich commented “If it hadn’t been JavaScript, you would have gotten something much worse later.” I think he’s exactly right, and part of the issues I’ve seen with JavaScript revolve around turning it into a (ECMA) standard rather before it was mature enough to be standardized. The development has been fascinating to watch. The weakness of JavaScript is that it’s a “batteries not included language, and you need to use libraries to do anything. The process of developing libraries has been a sort of Darwinian evolution, as some gain traction and get adopted, and others fall by the wayside, so things like node.js and jquery are hugely popular. There may well be better solutions for the problems those solve, but they failed to gain mind share. Meanwhile, JavaScript is everywhere and not going away. The transition costs are again too high, even if there was a contender in the wings. (And I’m grimly amused that we now have languages that compile to JavaScript, the way the original cfront C++ compiler generated standard C.)
I think Perl is a victim of insufficient time spent defining the problem to solve. Its syntax shows roots in all sorts of things, and its mantra is “There’s more then one way to do it!” That’s arguably a bug rather than a feature. There a joke compilation of language comparisons where you compare languages based on how you shoot yourself in the foot. For Perl, the answer is “You shoot yourself in the foot, but nobody else can figure out how you did it. Six weeks later, neither can you!”
>Dennis
People look at me funny when I tell them I like Lisp. One of my standard responses to this is to tell people that Eich almost embedded Scheme in the browser! It was the higher-ups and marketroids at Netscape that nixed this and doomed us all to two decades and counting of JavaScript. A few Scheme goodies still found their way into the language, like first-class functions which Java, at the time, lacked.
Who are you and what have you done with Jeff Read?
IMO Perl is a domain specific language suffering from dunning-krueger.
As a glue/tool language–reshaping data, moving it from one program to another etc. it’s really, really awesome–and I say that as some who DOESN’T like it and generally refers to it as a write once language.
You can get stuff done **FAST**. A little discipline and some commenting and you can figure out how you did it. It has saved my butt (or my customers butts) several times.
When your primary task is to take the output of several other calls (for example examining the contents of a SVN repo where stuff is stored with \r\n and a linux filesystem where the \r goes away, and SVN updated the tags so you have some borderline kinky things with diff to sort it all out) well, Python *can* do that, but it’s rather more overhead.
What it is not, IMNSHO, is a general purpose application language. Yeah, it can do that. And you can take the princess to the ball in a 1975 Ford F150 farm truck, after you wash out the cab with betadine and put a new seatcover on. But it’s not the best choice. Unless you’re in Kansas. But we’re not in Kansas any more.
“you can take the princess to the ball in a 1975 Ford F150 farm truck”
Well, you can try. You’ll get most of the way there, and the transmission will disintegrate into a zillion pieces which, together, don’t actually transmit power from the engine to the wheels. It’s a Ford, after all.
/me walks off muttering darkly about fucking Ford products…
If you keep feeding me these straight lines I’m going to get in trouble for sexual harassment or something.
“You can get stuff done **FAST**. A little discipline and some commenting and you can figure out how you did it.”
Indeed. Most of the time my problems were solved with Perl programs that had regular expressions on every other line. =~ with magical bindings saves soo much work. Every time I have had to use regex in Python, I have yearned for Perl.
But indeed, when having to do other work, Perl becomes unwieldy very fast. “OO” and pointer work are all but incomprehensible.
Jacob Hallén on 2017-12-15 at 16:55:38 said:
One morning about 20 years ago I wrote my first Perl program. It was real production code, processing a table of interlibrary loan statistics between different academic libraries in Sweden. The output determined how much each library would be compensated for provining the ILL service. I wrote it under the explicit promise that I wouldn’t have to maintain the code. At any rate, Perl is a very expressive language and including all the lookup I had to do in the O’Reilly Perl books, it took me a little over half a day to finish it. It ended up being something like 500 lines of code.
It is still in production, and has been maintained by others.
John Moore on 2017-11-20 at 10:17:24 said:
What I find frustrating with JavaScript libraries is that they are used to redefine the language syntax – sort of like FORTH. The result is that programs look as if they were written in a significantly variant dialect of the main language. I got some good mileage from FORTH back in the ’70s, and the resemblance is eerie.
C doesn’t do this, which is a weakness and a strength.
Doctor Locketopus on 2017-11-22 at 01:33:00 said:
Lisp is even more apropos as a comparison than FORTH, I think.
> And I’m grimly amused that we now have languages that compile to JavaScript, the way the original cfront C++ compiler generated standard C.
There’s really nothing to be surprised by there, IMO. Zillions of dollars and programmer-hours have been spent on making JavaScript fast. It’s not going anywhere for the same reason the Intel and ARM architectures aren’t going anywhere.
Luca Barbato on 2017-11-18 at 22:51:36 said:
My experience with Go and Rust is pretty much the opposite.
Maybe I tried them in different times or maybe my tendency to learn by reading other people code first and then make variations of solutions I know quite well (multimedia in my case, so not much networking needs :)) got me in a different situation.
There is plenty of really well written rust (since the compiler tends to prevent you from writing shoddy code) and the Go code I read was pretty gory; plus the toolchain being much nicer to use for Rust.
The Rust core team seems even too nice in replying to requests and feedbacks, so hopefully they will deliver the missing bits you needed.
I believe that’s part of esr’s point about language maturity. When the answer to “How do I do this?” changes from “Oooohh, right, we didn’t think about that.” to “Like this…” then the language is mature. Of course, if “Like this…” is followed up with reams of insanely cryptic code, the language, though mature, might very well still be unusable.
In my experience with rust the answer on “how I do this” is most of the time “we have it in nightly, help us out getting it right for stable by using it” and “there is $crate that does that for you, needs nightly because of $reasons”.
In Go what is saw from the sidelines seems to be a “lol, no” way too often.
I wonder if somebody tried kotlin already, it seems another interesting language striving to replace a big incumbent or two.
This has more to do with who you ask, than the language itself. I’ve yet to come across a scenario that cannot be solved succinctly in Rust.
> I’ve yet to come across a scenario that cannot be solved succinctly in Rust.
Really. So what’s the one-line operator for concatenating two arbitrary strings, as found in every other modern language?
> Really. So what’s the one-line operator for concatenating two arbitrary strings, as found in every other modern language?
Are you serious? Strings have never been an issue with Rust. The ease of managing strings are one of the best feature’s in Rust.
1) old_string + &other_string;
2) concat!(&old_string, &other_string);
3) [&old_string, &other_string].concat();
4) old_string += &other_string;
http://esr.ibiblio.org/?p=7294#comment-1798235
“Except when it doesn’t.”
Mike Swanson on 2017-11-19 at 21:03:24 said:
I also have a feeling of being able to grasp Rust pretty well whereas I struggle more with Go.
Also, the tendancy for current languages to bake in a package manager and statically link everything does kind of annoy me… what’s supposed to happen when crates.io or Go’s packaging go kaputs? or you just want to do some offline development?
With C and Linux distribution packages those are both non-issues. You could just have the entire Debian archive on a couple Blu-ray disks and access all of it without any internet connection. Rust at least seems a bit suited to offline work, but Go seems nearly a non-started.
Cargo does not rely upon Crates.io anymore. You may, in fact, host your own crate repository and pull from that instead. Tools exist to get you up and running with your own crate repository, and is continuing to be developed to make it more user-friendly.
You also don’t have to rely upon it for building software offline. It’s possible to copy crate archives from one machine to another, and build from that, for example.
CalculusKing on 2017-11-18 at 23:35:47 said:
As a math major still learning programming on my own time, this discussion of how new programming languages get adopted (and which ones seem to be on the up and up) is quite helpful. Your endorsement of Go as an eventual C replacement has led me to start practicing that language (I’ve primarily practiced programming in C and Java up till now) – and it is proving to have a lot less time overhead in debugging.
I was wondering if you have any opinion regarding the rather new Julia programming language? Its niche is scientific programming, and it is trying supplant Python in that field by (1) being only a few times slower than C, (2) having pythonesque syntax, and (3) being able to call code from C, Python, and FORTRAN with minimal overhead.
It would appear to be trying to ‘cheat’ and use both near and far perspectives at once. It appeases the near perspective by allowing scientific programmers to use their existing code (almost exclusively in one of those three languages) and by stealing the vast scientific libraries around those three languages. It also has some interesting far perspective possibilities, such as becoming compatible with other languages or becoming very close to C in speed by improving its JIT compiler.
Your post would suggest that the main pitfalls Julia must avoid, as an academic language being developed at MIT, are low userbase and difficult transition costs. The transition costs seem to me mitigated by its pythonesque syntax and ability to steal other languages’ libraries. The userbase problem would appear much more serious: it doesn’t have a big corporate sponsor making wide use of it and, as far as I can tell, travels primarily by academic word of mouth. And a low userbase makes developing the language and its libraries harder.
As far as I can tell, it seems very promising and has a very novel near-term strategy, but its ability to get the kind of support it needs to mature is questionable. What would your take be?
>As far as I can tell, it seems very promising and has a very novel near-term strategy, but its ability to get the kind of support it needs to mature is questionable.
Read Giving Up on Julia before you commit a lot of effort. I have no direct experience of the language, but I’d want to be sure those problems are being addressed before getting involved.
Troutwaxer on 2017-11-19 at 01:43:32 said:
I notice that “Giving Up on Julia” was written about two years ago when Julia was on version 0.4. I haven’t used the language, (though I may give it a try if I can find the time) but Julia is currently on 0.6 (with 0.7 on the horizon) so the author was using a very early version and those issues might have been addressed in subsequent releases. Some of the comments are worth reading as well.
I’m neither friend nor foe of Julia, but I can’t help noting that when the article was written has some implications.
>I notice that “Giving Up on Julia” was written about two years ago
In the index on his home page the article entry is dated 13 May 2016.
Some of the comments are two years old, which would put them back to November of 2015 or so. (I wish people would do a better job of dating stuff.)
jim on 2017-11-19 at 04:57:35 said:
C++11 supports safe code. Trouble is that the natural and easy way to write C++ is to write C – bare naked pointers everywhere. Writing safe C++11 is hard.
Rust is C++11 with guard rails to help you use safe C++11 everywhere, and all the dangerous idioms disabled by default.
I think Rust will win. Lot of rust code is appearing. Needs a good RustWxWidgets system and development environment.
Which makes me wonder if Go will displace C while Rust displaces C++, and they’re not particularly in competition.
guest on 2017-11-19 at 21:24:31 said:
ISTM that in the medium/long run, Go has a good chance at displacing Java and C# in quite a few domains, at least for new/greenfield projects. (This is not a very outlandish claim if you know your PL history, either – Go is essentially a remake of two languages associated with Plan9, Alef and Limbo, which were in fact quite Java-like.)
I have more trouble making sense of the claim that Go will replace C; on the contrary, I think that other languages, like Haskell and Erlang, will also be competing quite vigorously for Go’s actual, core niche. The closest competitor to real, actual C (as opposed to C++) will likely be Rust with #[no_std] pragma on and unsafe{} blocks liberally scattered throughout.
I wouldn’t say liberally. Even with #[no_std], you have access to the alloc crate to get all your collection types, and you have the Iterator trait, among Option and Result. Most tasks can be accomplished without unsafe.
How do you figure that Go will displace C? Go is not a replacement for C, or C++, but a replacement for Python, and even that’s a bit iffy because Rust is more concise and readable; and therefore more maintainable than Go.
C is used where performance matters a lot, and where you need to export a C ABI. Rust is being used for the same purposes, as it has a zero-cost C FFI and C-like performance. Hence, Rust is often compared directly to C when it is being benchmarked; and it is being used in areas where C used to have exclusive access. Go does not have any such capabilities. It is costly to export and import through the C FFI, and performance is always a magnitude below Rust.
More like C++17 and beyond, because C++11 (and even C++17) has no parallel to sum types, pattern matching, tuples, traits, trait generics, iterator adapters, etc.
> Needs a good RustWxWidgets system and development environment.
GTK app development in Rust is absolutely stellar. I’m currently writing a comprehensive GTK Rust tutorial at the moment, which is in it’s early stages. I’ve only worked on it for one day[1], but this is what I have published onto GitHub Page so far (generated via the official mdBook utility that’s written in Rust, and hosts many of Rust’s markdown-based books). I may have the second chapter published later today.
[1] https://mmstick.github.io/gtkrs-tutorials/
Paul R on 2017-11-20 at 11:23:10 said:
Excepting ambiguity your first paragraph is incorrect on every point.
Show me how C++ can do this:
match function(input) {
Ok(Action::This(x, y, z)) if y == m => { … }
Ok(Action::This(x, y, z)) => { … }
Ok(Action::That(a)) => { … }
Ok(Action::OrThis(b)) => { … }
Err(why) => eprintln!(“{}”, why),
let cap = file.metadata().map_or(0, |x| x.len());
Because if it can’t it doesn’t have sum types and pattern matching.
custom_structure.iter()
.map(function)
.filter(function)
.zip(other_structure.iter().map(function))
.for_each(|(x, y)| {
If it can’t do that, then you don’t have iterator traits and iterator adaptors.
So incorrect? More like you have no idea what Rust is capable of.
So the words you use don’t mean what everybody else understands them to mean.
And then you provide examples of Rust that don’t compile and don’t support your initial claim.
For example, this C++ fragment compiles,
vector lst;
generate_n(back_inserter(lst), 26, mt19937(99));
sort(begin(lst), end(lst));
Shows an iterator adaptor.
This C++ doesn’t compile,
list lst;
Because sort requires random access iterators, so showing iterator traits.
Have a play
https://godbolt.org/g/mH4J5G
You can do Rust and Go too.
My terms are well-defined. You are the only person in the world who has issue with them. Any rudimentary search of those terms will educate you on those topics. That you have let your programming knowledge slip is your own fault.
> And then you provide examples of Rust that don’t compile and don’t support your initial claim.
All of the examples I provided compile when you actually build an application with them. Please don’t go full stupid, because I don’t want to have to reply to an idiot.
> vector lst;
> generate_n(back_inserter(lst), 26, mt19937(99));
> sort(begin(lst), end(lst));
This is not a demonstration of an iterator, and this syntax is incredibly awkward. Your second code example is not an example of traits. It’s a great example of a lack of traits and trait-based generics.
pub structure { … };
impl Iterator for Structure {
type Item = T;
fn next(&mut self) -> Option { }
The above is an example how to implement the Iterator trait on a custom data structure. Once implemented, it then has access to the complete list of iterator adapters[1], which can further be expanded with this crate[2].
fn test_function<I: Iterator<Item = T>>(iter: I) { };
And this is an example of trait-based generics with the Iterator type. Any iterator type whose Iterator implementation has Item specified as T can be used an in input, interchangeably.
[1] https://doc.rust-lang.org/stable/std/iter/trait.Iterator.html
[2] https://docs.rs/itertools/0.7.2/itertools/trait.Itertools.html
+1 Paul R on 2017-11-22 at 07:32:55 said:
I had thought you might actually be serious about software, and you had previously claimed C++ knowledge. Apparently I was incorrect on both fronts.
You might want to pay attention to the Rust CoC of which you appear to be in breach.
Duncan Smith on 2017-11-19 at 06:26:11 said:
I’ve been bothered by a similar problem for a long time, this is what I came up with: https://github.com/notduncansmith/factfold (Clojure implementation of the universal interpreter).
I see one problem, which your point on poiinters and GC shows.
C and its standard libraries are written in C. Except for some occasional special processor instruction like a locked RMW or memory fence that requires inline assembler, you can write anything in C.
What is Python written in, including many modules?
What are other languages written in?
Can you write Go’s garbage collector in Go itself?
I see one other unexpected danger from the social side. What happened to Django and Node.js – there is one of those “Codes of Conduct” for Rust with the usual, “if anyone make you feel uncomfortable, report it and they will be expelled”. Go comes from Google, Since they’ve abandoned meritocracy, they are likely to be SJW converged if it isn’t already in progress.
Do I really want languages being developed and maintained by SJWs?
We may not have much of a choice in the future. It would seem that the kinds of academic elites being held up as shining examples of who we should bow down to as the Right People to design languages are all going to be SJWs, or cowed by them.
Still…I suspect you could write Go’s garbage collector in Go. Whether you’d want to for performance reasons is another question entirely.
Maybe I’m missing something, but some time ago the effort was made to rewrite Go in Go. AFAICT that was done as of Go 1.5 released in 08/15 and now is at Go 1.9. Is the GC an exception?
You are correct, though I haven’t found the GC in Go code, but I haven’t looked hard enough.
Rust also looks like it is produced by rust.
Jeremy Bowers on 2017-11-20 at 09:07:34 said:
The Go compiler is written in Go, as others point out, but GC is presented as a run time layer. So, from within a Go program, no, you can’t replace the GC, in much the same way as within a C program, you can’t replace the way the dynamic linking works at startup time, because it’s the foundation your code rests on.
(Yes, once a C program is loaded and running you may do something other than dynamic linking to load more code, if one is foolhardy enough. I’m specifically referring to how you can’t replace in C the stuff that occurs before your “main” is even called, in the C program itself. There’s things you can do with environment variables and a lot of exciting flags you can pass the compiler, but as far as I know there’s no C-language-level support for most of those.)
https://golang.org/src/runtime/mgc.go
Go provides primitives in its standard library for handling unmanaged chunks of memory. Using those it’s possible to do system-level bit and pointer munging in Go, but you haven’t much of a real advantage over C.
I believe it is written in Go.
Oh, don’t get your TRON suit in a bunch. Node has already been forked because despite adopting a CoC, leadership in the Node community wasn’t enforcing it to some people’s tastes. Last I heard the fork isn’t doing too well.
“Being cowed by SJWs” now looks a lot more like adding “don’t be a dick” to README.md, checking it in, and saying “there, you happy? Can we get back to hacking now, please?” than it does some nightmare scenario of allowing the Junior Anti-Sex League free rein to point fingers at those who should be shunned from the community.
> does some nightmare scenario of allowing the Junior Anti-Sex League free rein to point fingers at those who should be shunned from the community.
Which is more or less *exactly* what they did. Or tried to do. From what I understand, the sequence went something like this:
1) SJWs tried to get a long-term contributor (an Evil White Male, of course) ejected from the project for CrimeThink (i.e., linking to an anti-COC blog post).
2) In retaliation, someone else filed a CoC complaint against one of those self-same SJWs, citing behavior far more egregious (e.g., “Kill all men”).
3) The powers that be appear to have just trash-binned both complaints, hoping that it will all go away. That’s probably the best outcome for them, from a legal standpoint, but it more or less reduces the CoC to a useless encumbrance. I mean, if “Kill all (members of a protected class)” doesn’t get you sanctioned, what does?
> if “Kill all (members of a protected class)” doesn’t get you sanctioned, what does?
Ah, but “men” does not constitute a protected class, which is why SJWs can write such things.
Actually, men are a protected class, under all the relevant legislation.
That’s not what a lawyer told me when I was terminated from a job. A woman, black, Hispanic, gay, or even someone of a less-common religion could have a claim to make, but not a White Heterosexual Anglophone Christian Male.
Your lawyer told you wrong.
If you were terminated *because* you were white, heterosexual, anglophone, Christian, or male, the relevant laws absolutely apply to you.
This could be another problem. The designers of C, C++, Java, and Perl at least were one person, or the one person with a vision, and many are/were not SJWs.
That is why SJW convergence is such a threat, as the leaders and visionaries, and the main workers are usually the ones targeted first and expelled just to prove the unwisely adopted CoC is enforced.
The main problem of code of conducts is enforcing it while making sure nobody plays with it as a weapon to backstab whoever they dislike.
As long the enforcers aren’t amicable/colluded with the accusers the CoC itself backfires and leads to a cleanse of those poisonous people.
Having a more verbose version of “behave nicely with everybody” around as guide shouldn’t cause major issues in getting great code written.
> nobody plays with it as a weapon to backstab whoever they dislike.
Are you kidding? That’s exactly why these CoCs are created. Exactly. It is their sole purpose.
The part about making everybody play nice is just window-dressing for the rubes, to persuade them to hand over power to the power-hungry.
Stationary Feast on 2017-11-19 at 15:50:27 said:
Happily, the Go code of conduct has backed away from some of its least defensible parts. You can see its entire history and, in particular, where following it is merely encouraged while you’re doing Go-ecosystem things, and is only enforced in Official Go Spaces (official github projects, Go-itself code reviews, etc.).
– um, it is actually written in Go.
For Redox OS, we are actually writing our C standard library in Rust, with much success. All one simply has to do is to enact the `#[no_std]` on a project, and voila, you are restricted to using only core language features, and can therefore write a standard library from scratch with much more finesse than what you could do with C in similar situations.
Curtis Pew on 2017-11-19 at 11:32:07 said:
I’m curious what your take on Swift is. I know you’re no fan of Apple, but Swift is open source and being ported to other platforms, and the transition costs from Objective-C don’t appear to be very high. (I don’t know Swift and have no idea how suitable it might be for systems tasks.)
>I’m curious what your take on Swift is
Don’t know enough about it to have an opinion yet.
Google is making noises about supporting Swift in their Fuchsia OS project.
http://appleinsider.com/articles/17/11/21/googles-upcoming-fuchsia-os-to-support-apples-swift-language
In my (limited) experience, Swift is quite a pleasant language to use.
Eugene on 2017-11-19 at 16:36:05 said:
A lot of analysis of Go vs. Rust has been on writing memory-safe code using different approaches (GC vs. special syntax). And there are some good arguments that, as processing power increases across the board, while GC performance gets better, we may reach a point where GC is an acceptable mechanism even for most systems programming. Implying that Rust would be relegated to things like kernels and firmware, while everything else can use Go.
But, paradoxially enough, I don’t think lack of GC is a big deal at all about Rust. Rust shouldn’t be seen as the “GC-free” language. GC is a red herring. Really. If that’s all that Rust’s memory model offered, there would not be a lot of reasons to choose the language.
The real advantage of Rust’s memory model is the guaranteed lack of data races in parallel algorithms. And this means it’s possible to write highly parallelized applications without the insane overhead in complexity required to write sound and safe parallel algorithms. Rust’s latest blog post, https://blog.rust-lang.org/2017/11/14/Fearless-Concurrency-In-Firefox-Quantum.html , is a showcase of using Rust to deliver a parallel CSS renderer which doubled the overall performance of Firefox, with later improvements in the works, such as GPU rendering, which, of course, requires massive parallelization.
Garbage collection doesn’t help with preventing data races whatsoever. Since data races are arguably the most complex issue one needs to deal with when writing parallelized code, Rust offers an inherent advantage which no other languages, garbage collected or not, offer. And for a language that didn’t enforce such strict guarantees from the get-go (e.g. Go), it might not be possible to introduce later without backwards compatibility problems.
This implies the sphere of Rust is far more than kernels and microcode. Anything that requires performant parallelized code may find Rust the language of choice – from video game engines, to web servers, to distributed compute clusters, to military avionics (Rust’s overall emphasis on safety might make it compete with Ada when technology becomes so resource-hungry that parallelism becomes required).
I’m not not trying to be an “evangelist” and I’m fully aware of Rust’s high barrier of entry and high transition cost. These are all very valid points and definitely hinder Rust’s ability to compete with the average developer who values ease-of-use and productivity very highly. Rust has some “ergonomics initiatives”, but I don’t think they go far enough. I hope, for Rust’s future, that it will be able to bridge the gap at least somewhat in that sense.
But in conclusion, as the overall selling proposition, I think Rust should de-emphasize “no garbage collection” (which isn’t a game changer) to “parallel programming without data races” (which, I think, is.)
>The real advantage of Rust’s memory model is the guaranteed lack of data races in parallel algorithms
An interesting and (I think) quite defensible position.
Go’s answer to this is thread-safe goroutines and channels – You can’t have races if your goroutines don’t modify global state in any way other than channel operations. There’s a raciness detector that checks for this.
While it’s probably not as general as Rust’s provable lock-freeness, Go’s CSP model does have one other thing going for it – channel code is much prettier and much easier to reason about than a convential mutex/mailbox approach.
> Go’s CSP model does have one other thing going for it – channel code is much prettier and much easier to reason about than a convential mutex/mailbox approach.
I agree, for most use cases. Although Rust is working on introducing coroutine-based generators and async/await syntax, and I wonder if channels can be built as a library on top of that.
Worth noting, that true to Rust’s zero-overhead principle, they use “stackless coroutines” (reduce to a state machine, run everything on the host’s stack) rather than “stackful coroutines” that Go uses (green threading, each with own stack). This emphasizes micro-optimization, but may hinder scalability due to stronger coupling and being more difficult to debug – e.g. no independent stack traces per coroutine).
Sriram Srinivasan on 2017-11-20 at 07:24:29 said:
Go’s answer to this is thread-safe goroutines and channels – You can’t have races if your goroutines don’t modify global state in any way other than channel operations.
This is true, if it was always possible or desirable. There is a reason they have the sync package. I have encountered a few too many occasions where shared data structures are much faster and less verbose; contrast writing a memcached server as entered around a goroutine that encapsulates a private hashmap, instead of a shared hash map implemented using lock-free structures. The performance difference is about an order of magnitude. This muddies the architectural waters
Second, communicating with channels is safe only if you are communicating values. If you send pointers or array slices on channels, all bets are off. This is what Rust clamps down with its “Send” typeclass.
For my money, Go is convenient and very easy to make progress, and their tooling is excellent. But safety and raw compute performance aren’t really its hallmarks. I’d much prefer to use Nim over Go, but that isn’t going to happen.
“There’s a raciness detector”
What, it rejects your code if you reference Debbie Does Dallas in a comment?
“Debbie Does Dallas”
For young readers, this reference is not like “Irma does Houston”. Not at all.
Yeah, Debbie sucked, but Irma blew and blew and blew.
I ACK the joke, but to be specific, what the language calls a race detector is probably better called a raciness detector because while it can positively identify race conditions and never emits false positives, it can and does have false negatives. Useful tool, but running your program with the race detector and seeing no reports doesn’t mean that you’re clean, so it’s not really a “race condition detector”.
lliamander on 2017-11-20 at 15:28:01 said:
The Pony language is able to achieve data-race freedom using the Actor model as a programming model (similar to Go) but with the underlying memory semantics similar to Rust so that data isn’t copied between heaps (just pointer swaps).
I also find Pony interesting because it’s garbage collected, but it’s GC is similar to Erlang’s, which means no global stop-the-world GC (and low tail latencies).
It’s obviously less mature than either Rust or Go, and there’s still a question as to whether it would ever be able to cross the ease-of-use threshold to becoming anything more than a benighted niche language, but it seems pretty interesting to me as an Erlanger. I find the message-passing concurrency much easier to reason about, especially for complex, event-driven systems.
@Jeff Read: People look at me funny when I tell them I like Lisp. One of my standard responses to this is to tell people that Eich almost embedded Scheme in the browser! It was the higher-ups and marketroids at Netscape that nixed this and doomed us all to two decades and counting of JavaScript.
In this case, I think the higher-ups and marketriods were right. Embedding a dialect of Lisp as the script language would have presented a non-trivial challenge for the folks assumed to actually write scripts in it. The resemblance in JavaScript to imperative languages like C was a feature.
My ire is reserved for whoever at Netscape decided that instead of being called LiveScript as Eich intended, it should be called JavaScript to capitalize on the popularity of the then new Java language. I’ve quite lost track of how many times I’ve had to explain that Java and JavaScript are completely different languages whose only similarity is Java in the name. In some cases, I’ve been surprised at the folks who didn’t know that.
But I wouldn’t say we were doomed to two decades of JavaScript. It’s been implemented in all manner of places. The biggest example up till Firefox 57 was Firefox itself, with the look-and-feel provided by XUL, CSS, and widgets, and JavaScript actually performing the action when you clicked on something. The browser was simply another instance of something the Gecko engine rendered. (It would have been possible to implement a complete desktop in XUL, CSS, widgets and JavaScript. I’m sorry no one tried to.)
I don’t think JavaScript has more warts than any other popular language, and I’ve seen all manner of interesting stuff done in it.
Sean C. on 2017-11-19 at 17:04:07 said:
Rich Hickey’s talk on Situated Programs also has worthwhile ideas on this topic:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2V1FtfBDsLU
I liked this talk. Definitely targeting a different audience, but I think he makes some sound points.
For better or worse, it seems that the bulk of the development jobs out there are focused around what Rich describes as “Information Processing”. As someone who is working on information processing systems, but has worked on other types of systems, the infosys stuff can definitely feel like drudgery.
The primary source of this feeling of drudgery is, of course, the “Two for Tuesdays” – the deluge of seemingly arbitrary requirements inherent to software so thoroughly enmeshed in chaotic human social and economic systems.
(Compilers, and other systems software, are also deeply embedded in social and economic systems, but those human systems are arguably far less chaotic. A by-product of the people who inhabit those systems.)
The antidote to the problem of chaotic human systems is to develop a deep enough understanding of them that you can bring order to those systems first. Once you bring order to the human systems, developing a software system to work in the social and economic context becomes much more tractable.
But even then, I agree with Rich that the primary languages we use to design information processing systems (Java, C#) really aren’t well suited to building those kinds of systems.
Jon Forrest on 2017-11-19 at 19:32:45 said:
Two trivial typos:
“language-design apace” -> “language-design space”
“likem, say, the lack of generics” -> “like, say, the lack of generics”
A.D.Corlan on 2017-11-19 at 21:16:45 said:
How are failed the languages you mentioned ‘failed’?
https://sources.debian.net/stats/
I see 17 million lines of lisp and almost 400 million of C++. This is software that somebody cares for enough to make a debian package out of it and perhaps maintain it.
>How are failed the languages you mentioned ‘failed’?
C++: downstream defect rates are unacceptable at large scale, and it’s going to get worse rather than better.
Lisp: inward transition costs are too high. (I say this as a person who loves the language and can think in it). It’ll probably never go truly mainstream – if it were ever going to that would have happened before Python. I hate this, but reality it is what it is.
Thank you. Now I need to understand what exactly do you mean by ‘mainstream’? Is there going to be, ultimately, one language, or a couple of languages in which all code is written (and into which, eventually, all software in existance is translated)? By humans? Or are we evolving towards a world with many more languages that are each specific to particular problems _and_ to particular human cultures (for example: beginners, mathematicians, embedded developers on small controllers etc). Some of these languages are better done, some less so, but once we are stuck with millions of lines of code in any of them, code that is in common use, it seems still easier to fix and adapt the existing code than to translate everything in a new language.
Is it possible to make a ‘unification’ of a field in a specific language, not to speak about a grand final unification of all software? I think I heared of a few historic attempts: PL/I in the seventies, Ada in the eighties and nineties, Common Lisp for lisps in the eighties and nineties; all succeeded to some extent, some minor dialects were indeed obliterated, we have largish repositories in each of these languages now, but it was at most a temporary and localised success wasn’t it?. Still, each is kind of mainstream and perhaps currently irreplaceable in its local little world now, although perhaps few would call them generally mainstream and many younger programmers may have never heared about them.
Do you anticipate some general unification, sometimes in the future? Or are we going to have more and more streams?
>Thank you. Now I need to understand what exactly do you mean by ‘mainstream’?
You are a project lead or product manager. You propose “We will implement in X” to people who write checks big enough to fund multi-year development. If you’re not betting your job that nobody’s reaction will be “What the fuck was he thinking?”, X is mainstream.
I would say Clojure is the best shot for Lisp becoming mainstream. I say this as someone who hates Clojure. I’m allerjic to it and some of its language-design choices make me crinje. Nevertheless, I think it’s trying to solve a problem I don’t have: dragging Java programmers kicking and screaming the rest of the way toward Lisp.
As for myself, coming from Lisp, I see that there are several good Scheme implementations (and at least one of Common Lisp) on the JVM, with excellent foreign-function interfaces to Java libraries, and would be much more inclined to use one of those.
Curious if you’ve looked at HyLang. I know nothing about it, except it uses an AST manipulator that I help develop…
saolof on 2017-11-23 at 22:39:07 said:
I’d also mention Julia as a modern Lisp.
It doesn’t have the parentheses, but it does have syntax tree macros which are used extensively to implement language features, it’s highly dynamic, and it has multimethods. It’s fairly close to Common Lisp or Dylan in spirit.
Also, it beats Go in most speed benchmarks that I’ve seen.
I think this is a sound definition, that we could rely on towards making a list of mainstream vs non-mainstream languages.
A class of languages that fit into your definition are those that are already in broad use inside the product manager’s organisation. There should already be many programmers, tools and experience there versed in that language and for this single reason one proposing that language would not be considered nuts.
This suggests that ‘Matthew’s effect’ should apply: languages that are mainstream (again, in any sufficiently large organisation, not necessarily worldwide) tend to become even more mainstream, others tend to be rejected.
Now, the list. C and C++, java, python obviously qualify. So does cobol, fortran, pl/i and rexx (for IBM), ada (for embedded systems), lisp (for autocad, ibm and other developers).
The free software equivalent of the big check could be that sufficient people use software in a language for volunteers to contribute (to invest) into maintaining a largish body of such software.
Here: https://sources.debian.net/stats/ we can see matthew’s effect in action, that is the size of the code in each language follows a more or less Pareto distribution. C and C++ hold about 2/3 of the latest debian repository, about half a billion lines of code each. The others are spread between 100 and 2 million. There almost no significant entries unde 2 million, they are either very small (a few thousand lines) or very specialised languages (sed, vhdl etc) or both. The Matthew effect is likely create such an apparent cut between haves and have nots.
So, for free software, one probably could say: it is mainstream
if it has more than 1 mil lines in the debian distribution.
Once mainstream, it remains mainstream (we can also see that in the history of languages in debian). There would be sufficient people how would say one is not nuts to start a new project in one such language.
> that is the size of the code in each language follows a more or less Pareto distribution.
Yes, this is exactly what I would have expected.
BTW, I’m nothing more than an amateur programmer, but the last three articles on the replacement of C have been very stimulating. Thanks.
John Barker on 2017-11-20 at 03:42:44 said:
I’m new to programming and your articles are helping me a lot to understand what programming actually means. Keep posting articles like these it will help a lot of new beginners.
Theoretically you could design for the far problem and then offer a subset for the near problem. Why can’t a LISP implementation just give people a bunch of standard macros that create a simple syntax that any “Mort” (https://blogs.msdn.microsoft.com/ericwhite/2006/05/11/who-are-mort-elvis-and-einstein/) use pretty much as a replacement for Visual Basic, and then those who are ready, when they are ready, can explore the underlying, actually correctly designed structure further? A “far” language with training wheels. Yes, I know, the training wheels will be de facto standardized as a “business app language” by all the Morts, but that sort of thing will happen anyway, so it should better happen on top of a good framework. So once a large company realizes they have a big ball mud written by all the Morts and better hire programmers to rewrite it, they don’t have to scrap the whole thing in one go, they can just rewrite it piecemeal out of the training wheel subset into the larger framework. You know. Transition costs. Not only they must be low, they also must be smooth. Pilot projects etc.
I’ve known Morts, I’ve worked with Morts. You can bundle up common programming idioms (a while loop, for instance, which Scheme doesn’t come with out of the box) into a library and ship it (in scheme’s case, even easier with R7RS), but you cannot bundle good style into a library and expect Morts to exhibit good style. Some of them have trouble with the notion that you can bundle up common, repeated functionality into a named procedure or function and call that, so they keep writing the same boilerplate code over and over…
Using Lisp alone won’t turn a bad coder into a good coder, though long-term exposure to Lisp and its idioms and culture might. If your audience is bad coders, perhaps they really are better off with VBA.
That said, millennial Morts are far more likely to have grown up with JavaScript and so will be better equipped to, for example, internalize that (lambda () ...) is just funny talk for function() { ... }. Plus functional programming is all the rage in JavaScript nowadays.
Deep Lurker on 2017-11-21 at 00:55:46 said:
For at least some of us “Morts” it’s not that we don’t understand named procedures and functions, but that we’re not nearly as enthusiastic about them as the Elvii and Einsteins. From our point of view they’re generally premature optimizations that obscure the code and attract more bugs than they swat. Especially when the “common” code needs to deal with a maze of twisty little cases, all slightly different.
Especially when the “common” code needs to deal with a maze of twisty little cases, all slightly different.
That’s just when you most should bundle it into a separate function, so that when the damn thing breaks, whoever is called on to fix it doesn’t have to find and fix the same obscure bug in fifteen different places!
Yes, this is the standard Elvis/Einstein argument, and it has a point when the fifteen different places that call the function are all clone-identical. But from the Mort’s POV, fixing the same obscure bug in fifteen different places is possibly more tedious but certainly less aggravating than dealing with the #$%@ bugs in the extra code needed so that the function can sort out the little differences wanted by each of the fifteen places that call it.
You Elvii and Einsteins are quicker to optimize away from tedium (boilerplate, manularity), in ways us Morts find premature.
Zygo on 2017-11-21 at 15:07:48 said:
That approach relies on your bugs having common causes, and it also helps if you can test all the code afterwards.
The “ten functions that do almost the same thing” case comes up a lot when each test run costs non-trivial amounts of money, or when some of the test environments are unavailable to developers.
Yes, this is awful software development process, but not everyone can afford good software.
If you can’t afford good software, but you CAN afford bad software?
By the way, Lisp itself is perfectly usable by Morts who are compelled to get work done with it by circumstance. For example, Autolisp — long the extension language of AutoCAD — has a community that’s still pretty strong despite being really rough as far as Lisps go. Autodesk has been trying to get it deprecated for years, in favor of VBA and ActiveX, but there’s so much stuff available for Autolisp that they have to keep supporting it.
Another example is that there are reports of secretaries learning and using Emacs Lisp under Multics Emacs in the 1970s to extend the editor to get their work done. So there is nothing inherent to Lisp itself that prevents ooccasional programmers from learning it and being competent in it. What’s changed between the 1970s and 1980s and now is the fact that Windows and Macintosh have infantilized the user base to the point where you don’t get any traction if you’re anywhere outside the comfort zone of a typical Windows/Mac user. It’s getting hard, for instance, for professional developers to learn and use Emacs; they would rather just use whatever IDE has been fitted to their language of choice.
They haven’t “infantilized” the user base, they’ve expanded it to include people who wouldn’t have been computer users in 1970.
When your 1970s Mulitcs Emacs secretary was hacking mail merges (I presume) in LISP the vast majority of secretaries were using IBM Selectrics where the most technically complicated bits they were expected to do was set the tabs, or know when to replace the ball.
You had C and D level folks who could barely type who would either write stuff out long hand, or dictate it.
As late as 1982 shorthand was still taught in highschools, and being a secretary/typist was considered a reasonably good job for a woman.
Now we have Manglers/Directors/C* folks typing their own memos into Word or Outlook, and “secretaries” hardly exist.
Not everyone is capable of the sort of mental modeling required to write even simple scripts. As you indicated in the comment about “morts”, some of them don’t get loops or procedures/functions.
The thing about emacs as a tool for professional developers is that unless you’re a Unix dev, the interface is (at least initially) unnatural.
Heck, I’m a ~25 year vi/Vim guy and I can barely function in GVIM under windows or MacOS. I just pop open a Cygwin/iTerm2 window and use it there. It requires too much of a headspace jump to move back and forth (oddly enough moving in and out of the shell is no problem *unless* I’m trying to cut and paste. And then the difference between “highlight right-click” and c-x/c-v drive me madder.).
So yeah, it’s not surprising that folks who have spent their entire *lives* on Windows, or Windows/Mac as a desktop might prefer Eclipse or whatever to EMACS.
John D. Bell on 2017-11-21 at 10:12:46 said:
@William O. B’Livion –
> Heck, I’m a ~25 year vi/Vim guy and I can barely function in GVIM under windows or MacOS.
I, too, “worship at the altar of Bill Joy“, and I have no problems with GViM under Windows. The secret is to open the tool and ignore the fscking menus and tool bar! Just treat it as ViM inside of a nicely resizable “xterm”-ish window, and use nothing but your usual keystroke commands.
Two hints that might help improve the interface to the environment – use :browse r (or w, e, etc.) to get a standard Windoze file dialog box for I/O (if you want it). And the “named” buffer * ends up being the Clipboard for cut’n’paste. (E.g., “*d3w cuts the next 3 words to the clipboard.)
(Interestingly enough, this also works under Linux for the browsers’ cut buffer.)
Tried that.
It’s not technical, it’s psychological.
> As you indicated in the comment about “morts”, some of them don’t get loops or procedures/functions.
I’ve found this true of my sysadmin co-workers, who would not hesitate to write a batch/shell script of repeated nearly-identical commands that I’d write as a loop of one kind or another. They’d rather maintain the long list of concrete commands that they can see do what they expect than try to do anything with a loop.
Eric, there is another axis that attracts people to a language and helps it stick for a while — of being fun to program in. Ruby and Python have capitalised on this the most, and now Go to some extent. What’s your take on this?
On a lark, I measured what I call the “shift ratio” of various languages — the fraction of characters in a program for which I have to press the shift key (for a given keyboard, US in my case). The more shifts, the more painful it is to type. Nim, Python and Go come in around the mid-thirties, and Perl/Rust/C++ in the mid-forties. I personally seem to have a lot more fun with languages that have a low shift ratio!
That sounds like typing a list of short first names – Lee, Ash, Don, Rob, Ann. All begin with a shift yet that list is quickly typed in. I really hope programmers spend more time thinking than trying to break the speed record of the old-timey touch-typist competitions.
>What’s your take on this?
Interesting. I think I get what you’re driving at – sort of a combination of expressiveness and low process friction. An expressive language that’s hard to write isn’t fun; an easy language that can’t do much isn’t fun either.
Yes, Python makes the fun-meter jump higher than anything else I know. For limited domains Emacs Lisp is almost as fun, but in general Lisp’s fun-ness is limited by weak libraries. Perl is very fun provided you are writing less than 20 lines of it
Yeah, Go is…hm. Not usually as fun as Python. Much more fun than C. Go becomes huge fun on a problem CSP is a good fit for because the channel/goroutine combination is so expressive.
>I personally seem to have a lot more fun with languages that have a low shift ratio!
Yup. I don’t think it’s lower typing effort that drives this, but rather lower parsing effort.
I interpret this as “parsing effort on the part of a human” — the stream of relatively more words per line perhaps makes the language readable. It isn’t the typing effort.
>I interpret this as “parsing effort on the part of a human”
That was my intention, yes.
> Whole-systems engineering, when you get good at it, goes beyond being entirely or even mostly about technical optimizations. Every artifact we make is situated in a context of human action that widens out to the economics of its use, the sociology of its users, and the entirety of what Austrian economists call “praxeology”, the science of purposeful human behavior in its widest scope.
So, when are you planning on writing the Summa Praxeologica? :)
In all seriousness, I would be interested to see a more consolidated view of your ideas on systems engineering (though I have found CatB useful in this regard) or at least an Appendix N of the sources you found most influential.
It is interesting to me that, on the same day this post aired talking about the possibility that we are nigh approaching a replacement for C (the bedrock of our computing infrastructure) Uncle Bob prognosticating that we are cusp of a plateau in programming language evolution (http://blog.cleancoder.com/uncle-bob/2017/11/18/OnThePlateau.html).
His argument is essentially that:
1) Hardware has evolved enough that hardware processing power has evolved enough that the dynamic and expressive languages we have are cost effective enough for most applications
2) We are fast approaching the physical limits with regard to processor core density, and that at the limits we are currently facing a complete re-envisioning of our concurrency models is not needed (i.e. most people do not, and will not, have to program against 1024 cores).
His conclusion is that software engineering will stabilize, and the focus will shift towards becoming more professional practice using a relatively small set of “good-enough” languages.
On the one hand, this seems appealing to me, because even though I am fairly young and I enjoy learning new things, it also means that my knowledge will have a longer half-life.
At the same time, it seems to me that there are obvious improvements in language design to help us better manage complexity, and I wouldn’t want us to stop just yet.
In my world C faded away in 94 or so, C++ ruled from then. I never transitioned to C# or Java in any serious way just because the stuff I was doing didn’t particularly fit.
I think a change in perspective can be illuminating. A modern CPU core spends about 50% of its cycles waiting for the outside world. The win from making it more efficient reduces accordingly. It doesn’t matter much how much effort you put into JIT if the algorithm being expressed in the programmer friendly language chases accesses all over the working set. The same obviously applies to harder core languages.
I think Rust or Go are simply side-shows. Anything built on LLVM or the GNU back end is constrained in the limit by that back end. The next big thing will be AI compilers that take high level descriptions, interactively clarify the ambiguity and then generate optimum low level code.
And in the limit the performance matters, every wasted cycle is wasted heat, and that has a quantifiable cost. In the future PHP, assuming nobody with taste is able to kill it beforehand, simply won’t be affordable.
I think that Rust is different from the rest for the time being, until a different programming paradigm arrives on the scene. It is not just a performance play. It is performance + certainty. By taking control over aliasing, it attacks several problems at the same time: memory management without runtime overhead, uncertainty over dangling pointers, and allows you to confidently mutate shared data structures in a concurrent setting without low-level data races. Now, one can legitimately argue that these are not problems in most application or framework code, just as the non-typed people say about type systems (“that’s not where the real problems are”).
assuming nobody with taste is able to kill it beforehand
From Uncle Bob
“If Moore’s law was the driver of our language evolution, what will drive it now?”
You already see two movements:
1) Special purpose hardware can speed up work by orders of magnitude. See GPUs and Google’s TPU
2) More efficient software, e.g., optimizing compilers to drive special purpose hardware and their associated languages (tensorflow?)
It could even be that C will have a comeback to extract maximum performance from hardware.
GL1zdA on 2017-11-21 at 06:29:09 said:
Have you looked at Kotlin Native? https://kotlinlang.org/docs/reference/native-overview.html
At this time they’re focusing on cross-platform mobile development, but they’re also mentioning embedded. The syntax is still C “inspired”.
This crosssed my radar this morning. You might be interested to learn that Google is using Go in an embedded project that aims to replace x86 firmware. Seems to me that’s an area that would previously be considered to be the province of C and assembly.
Better Go than Rust.
You don’t want Rust in your hardware, you want it to Go.
Good thing to do give that this is just the most recent ME vuln reported this year
https://arstechnica.com/information-technology/2017/11/intel-warns-of-widespread-vulnerability-in-pc-server-device-firmware/
Clay on 2017-11-21 at 16:15:17 said:
I keep looking for Ruby to make an appearance in these discussions since it usually gets mentioned in the same breath as Python and Go, but then nothing. Crickets…
How does the community think Ruby fits into this discussion?
I suspect that the people who actually use Ruby and the people who comment at this blog are disjoint sets (though I could be wrong). Hence no one jas enough knowledge to comment. From my limited knowledge of Ruby I’d say it’s become a niche version of Python and that it can be treated as such.
>From my limited knowledge of Ruby I’d say it’s become a niche version of Python and that it can be treated as such.
Pretty much. Same use cases, similar features, similar performance,
And yet I, personally, find writing Ruby code to be “fun” (as discussed above) and Python to be…well…not.
I suspect, but do not want to formally justify at this point, that (again, for me) lispyness and “fun to use” are quite highly correlated. Ruby is way more lispy than Python.
From what little I’ve seen of it, Rust would be about as non-fun for me as it is possible for a language to be.
>I suspect, but do not want to formally justify at this point, that (again, for me) lispyness and “fun to use” are quite highly correlated. Ruby is way more lispy than Python.
Maybe not. Have you seen Peter Norvig’s Python for Lisp Programmers. Python is pretty Lispy if you ignore the surface syntax.
On HackerNews, Norvig also commented “Peter Norvig here. I came to Python not because I thought it was a better/acceptable/pragmatic Lisp, but because it was better pseudocode.” [[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1803815]]
Moreover, the preset recursion limit of 1000 that Python defaults into is significantly anti-Lisp. Yes, you can change the limit, but the fact that recursion is set to break at all runs against the Lisp grain. Broken recursion is far from surface syntax–that’s core.
Guido is on record as saying his inspiration was ABC–a Pascal kind of language that he worked on before Python; whereas, Matz is on record as saying he was going for a Lisp that had the object system of Smalltalk and the scripting power of Perl. [[http://blade.nagaokaut.ac.jp/cgi-bin/scat.rb/ruby/ruby-talk/179642]]
Had not seen that… will take a look.
I’m not comfortable calling something “lispy” unless it implements anonymous functions way better than Python’s implementation, though.
>I’m not comfortable calling something “lispy” unless it implements anonymous functions way better than Python’s implementation, though.
A fair point.
I primarily develop in Ruby. In the commercial web dev world, it (together with Rails) is the language of “get shit done”. Mostly by gluing together shit done by people before you.
Ruby’s not a high performance language, it’s doesn’t have nearly as much math and science stuff as Python, many developers scoff at it, yada yada yada. But it’s very expressive, readable, has a huge amount of productivity-oriented libraries and tooling, just about any function you’d expect on a website you can install off-the-shelf. Rails is heavyweight, sure, but it’s a “batteries-included” framework, and for rapid prototyping or “test the waters” development it’s great. It also built a community of 3rd party tools and services to ramp up sites fast, such as build and production deploy services.
Once traffic or data volume reaches higher volumes, unfortunately, a slow interpreter, almost non-existent concurrency story, and weak support for async/stream IO, drive web devs to more modern languages like Node or Go.
But for “we don’t even have a single customer, we need to get this out there pronto on a shoestring budget, but it also needs to last for a few years afterwards as we grow without becoming a dumpster fire of technical debt”, I find Ruby/Rails second to none. The second clause, notably, excludes PHP.
But for “we don’t even have a single customer, we need to get this out there pronto on a shoestring budget,
For this part you’re right.
but it also needs to last for a few years afterwards as we grow without becoming a dumpster fire of technical debt”, I find Ruby/Rails second to none.
This part? I haven’t seen a Fails app yet that didn’t rapidly converge on “dumpster fire of technical debt”.
Where I’m orking now “technical debt” is code for for “it’s not SQL development, we don’t want to do it”.
Oh, and “Sorry–I was multitasking” is code for “I don’t think what you’re saying is important, so I was doing something else”.
How much of that is selection bias? As a very easy language to get something started in, it also attracts less-experienced people who otherwise might not be developing at all.
Ruby’s extreme flexibility and composability makes it actually pretty easy to keep modularized, well-factored, and well-tested. Unlike PHP, the language and frameworks do provide good patterns to do so. Of course, the developers still need to use them (and the same people who complain about Rails being “too opinionated” are the ones who make a total mess when Rails doesn’t stop them).
One interesting thing that no one has mentioned is the language used by malware. Malware is a significant sector of software development (of IT in general in fact since there is a whole infrastructure around it).
I mention this mostly because of how the good guys work at figuring out the malware (e.g. see http://blog.ret2.io/2017/11/16/dangers-of-the-decompiler/ ) is heavily dependent on the language and compiler used. Right now a lot of malware is either a scripted language (javascript, powershell…) or C/C++ with occasional jumps into actual assembler to obtain specific results. It will be very telling to find successful malware written in a more modern language like Rust or Go – I suspect Go will be used first because it seems to be more popular at present – and it would be utterly fascinating to find malware that used something more esoteric.
@Doctor Locketopus: There’s really nothing to be surprised by there, IMO.
I never said I was surprised. I’m not. I said I was amused.
Yes, there has been enormous effort invested in making JavaScript fast. After the interpreter was tuned as well as anyone could, the next step was JIT compilation to native machine code. I watched Mozilla get bit by that in Firefox at one point. They were doing JIT compilation, and yes, that code was faster. But overall performance still had issues. The blocker was that there were cases where it was faster overall to just interpret the code, instead of adding the overhead of compilation, but the JS engine they were using wasn’t smart enough about which things should just be interpreted instead of compiled. The created a newer JS engine and things got better.
I’m seeing wrappers like TypeScript and CoffeeScript that compile to standard JS, and exist to add things like strict typing to the language. (MS created TypeScript, and uses it in their Visual Studio Code IDE, where TypeScript is a supported language.)
I hardly expect JavaScript to go away. It’s in use in too many places, and embedded in too many things, and has a very large base of developers who write in it. It’s a mainstream language.
The question I would have is would any language targeted at that particular audience be *better*, or would it suck just as bad in mostly the same ways?
I personally expect JavaScript (or some JS descendant, such as asm.js or WebAssembly) to be the back end for essentially *everything* within 20 years.
Yeah, it has its design issues, but ubiquity can cover a multitude of sins.
Remember the x86 segment registers, and the other baboon butt ugly misfeatures of the early Intel chips? They took over the world nonetheless. Even Apple gave in eventually.
@William O. B’Livion: would any language targeted at that particular audience be *better*
Who do you consider “that particular audience” to be?
People who want to build anything from interactive/dynamic webpages to browser based applications.
About what I thought. The problem is, that’s a subset of the total JS market, and JS is appearing in all manner of places that are neither.
I’ve been skimming the ECMAScript 2015 specs, and one of the goals for that revision was to better position JS to be the target for compilation from other languages, with the JS being what eventually gets translated to native machine code.
What you might use instead of JS given the variety of things it is used for now is a fascinating can of worms I’ll pass on opening. (But I’d expect whatever it was to have warts of its own.)
When you take a reasonably good tool like a crescent wrench and use it for a hammer, or use a screwdriver as a prybar then you get what you deserve.
@Doctor Locktopus: Remember the x86 segment registers, and the other baboon butt ugly misfeatures of the early Intel chips? They took over the world nonetheless. Even Apple gave in eventually.
My memory goes back the the Elder Days. A chap I knew online in the days when “online” usually meant “calling a PC based BBS with a dial up modem” posted about the issue. He wrote device drivers, and was trying to explain Intel segmented architecture to folks coming from a DEC LSI-11 environment. He described the look of horrified wonder when they understood what he was saying and tried to wrap their minds around why Intel went that way.
The ultimate drivers in decisions like that weren’t technical, they were financial. The 8088 used in the original IBM PC was “design to cost”, and got the nod in part because IBM already used the 8086 in things like the Displaywriter dedicated word processor, and a tool chain and understanding of the architecture existed. The MC680X0 architecture might have been better in a technical sense, but would likely have cost a lot more.
When we got the 80386 where a segment was 4GB, many barriers fell. There are still outliers with niche markets, but these days the choice of architecture tends to be Intel or ARM.
I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right abut some variant of JS becoming the back end for everything down the road. It has design issues, but what doesn’t? Being “batteries not included” likely helps. It has the underlying primitives, and various things now are syntactic sugar wrappers intended to compile to a JS subset that avoids the worst of the potential problems.
So we may reach a state where $LANGUAGE compiles to JS, and that gets compiled to machine code.
I don’t remember the Elder Days, and frankly, I don’t get the visceral horror that 8086 segmentation seems to inspire in most people (even though I didn’t know much of anything about instruction sets or MMUs before I started using Linux, which would tend to predict that I would be well indoctrinated in the way of Unix, and would shudder at the thought of anything that wasn’t a flat address space).
Any system is going to need to resort to ugly hacks if programs have to deal with more data than will fit in the directly available address space, and 8086 segmentation was relatively elegant for that purpose: witness the various 6502/8080/z80 based home micros with arbitrary bank switching schemes implemented in the motherboard chipset, or the EMS kludge developed for the PC once a 20-bit segmented address space ceased to be enough. And it was even helpful for systems with 64k or less of RAM: You needed to relink AppleDOS if you upgraded the memory on your Apple II or you wouldn’t be able to take advantage of the extra RAM, and a copy of AppleDOS built for a bigger machine wouldn’t work at all on a smaller one. With the PC architecture, on the other hand, DOS just sat at the low end of memory and loaded programs into the lowest free segment. DOS didn’t need to be relinked for different memory sizes, programs that used a tiny or small memory model didn’t need to know their load address or be relocated if the size of DOS changed or the user had an extra TSR loaded.
And really, the PDP-11 MMU wasn’t all that different from the 8086/286. The big difference with the x86 in general was that there were 8 segment registers per address space, rather than one (sure, they were called “Page Address Registers”, but it was a segmented, not a paged memory model). The big difference with the 8086 specifically was that there were memory protection features, which the 286 also had, though implemented differently. But ignoring the features controlled by the PDRs, the view of the address space that a kernel programmer had on the PDP-11 was not all that different from that seen in x86 real mode (you plug a 16 bit segment number into a PAR/segment register, it gets shifted by 6 bits / 4 bits, and the result gets added to all memory accesses to the (section of the) 16-bit address space corresponding to the PAR/segment register in question). I’ll note that the “small model” corresponds directly to PDP-11 “Separate I and D space”. Now, your friend was likely speaking to application programmers, who would likely be working in user-mode and neatly insulated from the details of the PDP-11 MMU, but I know that there were PDP-11 operating systems that provided overlay mechanisms for application programmers that needed more memory. Specifically, while poking around the web to refresh my memory on the details of the PDP-11 MMU, I ran across this description of a Modula-2 implementation that seems to have done incestuous things with RT-11 in order to implement something that would correspond the the Intel medium/large/huge models for Modula application programmers.
But then again, having implemented my own banking schemes (including developing external hardware and writing my own linkers) for Z80s and later for 16 bit DSPs, (a) I understood the problem domain implicitly; and (b) it was a breath of fresh air to have all the banking hardware wrapped up in the CPU, and have multiple competing toolchains directly support the standardized banking system.
There’s no question that flat is easier to work with, and Intel/AMD eventually got to flat, and managed to do that with a massive amount of backward-compatibility.
> I don’t get the visceral horror that 8086 segmentation seems to inspire in most people
For me it just seemed repellant on a very deep and fundamental level that more than one segmented address could map to the same physical address. That may not be such a chore with a modern debugger, or if you have a compiler to handle the bookkeeping, but when you had to calculate those bastards by hand while writing asm it was no fun, believe me.
But that actually had some utility — you didn’t need to waste bytes simply because they were at the end of a segment.
anon2 on 2017-11-23 at 16:19:42 said:
If praxeology is about using purely logical deduction to predict what people will do, how does that square with the Surprise Exam paradox [1], which is an example of how deductive reasoning can lead to wrong conclusions about human actions?
[1] – (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unexpected_hanging_paradox)
>If praxeology is about using purely logical deduction to predict what people will do, how does that square with the Surprise Exam paradox
It is always possible for one’s premises to be wrong.
Arguably, the premises in the Unexpected Hanging Paradox are all true; it’s actually the deductive machinery that’s at fault. That’s what makes it an interesting paradox.
Given that fact, how do praxeologists like you know if you can even *use* deduction given your premises? Do you actually have a formal mathematical model? Because the paradox above suggests that if you don’t have a foundation in formal logic, then your conclusions might actually be wrong. And let’s say you don’t have such a model, do you have any ways of experimentally proving that your theories work better than competing theories?
>Given that fact, how do praxeologists like you know if you can even *use* deduction given your premises?
The same way anyone else does in any domain at all. By observing the predictive consequences of doing so.
You mean data that proves your theory right and other theories wrong. Where’s that data and the surrounding argument?
>You mean data that proves your theory right and other theories wrong. Where’s that data and the surrounding argument?
If you get more specific about what theory you mean, I might be able to answer.
I’ve heard about praxeology in the context of Austrian economics. Where’s the proof of Austrian economics?
There is no proof of Austrian economics, because Austrian economics is anti-empirical by design.
In fact “praxeology” is Austrian-school speak for “theories about human behavior which cannot be tested by experiment, so don’t bother trying”. Because it would kind of undermine the axioms of free-market economics to admit the empirical evidence that humans routinely engage in anti-rational behavior.
>I’ve heard about praxeology in the context of Austrian economics
Austrians use the term, but it’s not exclusive to them and predates them. If you think of it as the application of economic principles like supply-demand equilibrium to exchanges that aren’t monetized but have scarcity constraints, you’ll be on the right track.
Some Austrians think of praxeological rules as a priori, like mathematics. This, of course, is a mistake (it’s a mistake about mathematics, too). You confirm them the same way you confirm any other claim about human behavior, by checking to see where and when they predict it correctly.
> When we got the 80386 where a segment was 4GB, many barriers fell.
Yes. I certainly don’t miss having to deal with choosing a “memory model” at compilation time.
> So we may reach a state where $LANGUAGE compiles to JS, and that gets compiled to machine code.
That’s what my gut tells me. If you have a fast JS*-to-machine code compiler/interpreter/JITer (which, to a first approximation, everyone does, with vast amounts of paid resources going to making those still better) the temptation for the designer of a new language to just punt and target JS* code for compiler output is going to be very high. Most of the non-fun, messy bits of bringing up a new language have to do with getting the back-end running on different machines. Avoiding that altogether is a powerful incentive.
(and yeah, you have other things developing along that line, such as LLVM, but I don’t think any of them are getting the amount of sustained, paid effort that’s being poured into optimizing JS* stuff)
* Where “JS” stands for “some JS-derived technology stack”
@Doctor Locktopus: Yes. I certainly don’t miss having to deal with choosing a “memory model” at compilation time.
I remember at least six, and may be blanking on a few. I doubt you miss the hoops you had to jump through when code and/or data needed to reside outside the 64K segment, either…
That’s what my gut tells me. If you have a fast JS*-to-machine code compiler/interpreter/JITer (which, to a first approximation, everyone does, with vast amounts of paid resources going to making those still better) the temptation for the designer of a new language to just punt and target JS* code for compiler output is going to be very high.
Again, I suspect the drivers will be financial, not technical. If you can just compile to JS instead of outputting machine code, solutions exist to turn JS into machine code. Your costs and time-to-market drop substantially.
Most of the non-fun, messy bits of bringing up a new language have to do with getting the back-end running on different machines. Avoiding that altogether is a powerful incentive.
*cough* GCC *cough*
The good part about GCC was separating the front end that parsed the source from the back end would turn into machine code. The bad part was successfully creating and maintaining the back end for $TARGET. How many folks working on GCC knew enough about the GCC code and the internals of the Intel architecture to upgrade the GCC back end to emit optimized machine code for newer generations of Intel chips that added new instructions?
And despite the popularity of having an open source compiler, there are still valid reasons for folks developing for Windows on Intel architecture to use Microsoft or Intel compilers, because those back ends get more attention and may generate better code. Engineers get paid to pay that attention.
For that matter, there appear to be plenty of tool chains in the embedded space targeting things like micro-controllers that use a compiler supplied by the vendor of the part. There might not be a GCC back end for those targets. The tool chain may be free, but not open source. If you’re a developer writing code for those devices, you don’t care. You use the tool that works.
Agreed, with the keyword being paid. Who pays engineers to hack on LLVM?
Ultimately, I’m struck by a feeling of “What’s old is new again.”
I still have my first Unix machine – an AT&T 3B1. It came with the cc C compiler. Cc compiled to Assembler, which was assembled by as, and linked by ld into a running binary. You could interrupt the process at the assembler stage, and go in and hand optimize the assembly code before assembling and linking. C compilers that compiled directly to machine code were the next step.
Now we’re seeing something like that, but with JS instead of Assembler as the intermediate language, and I suspect there’s a fair bit of work being done on tools to optimize the JS before turning that into native code.
I think you gut feeling about where this will end up is spot on.
The good part about GCC was separating the front end that parsed the source from the back end would turn into machine code.
The ‘portable C compiler from 1978ish up till the full gcc takeover in the early 90s with the arrival of Linux and the various 386 BSDs, was logically structured into a front and back, followed by an assembler. The portable F77 compiler from Bell Labs apparently could drive the second passes of either pcc or the original cc.
Interestingly Microsoft support using a clang front end with an MS back end. Which implies some quite interesting stuff about the meeting point.
Google, for example. And there are some really interesting side projects from clang, which go some way towards voiding the need for a replacement for ‘C’, IMO, especially when you already have an investment.
There’s probably a whole other article for Eric here but ISTM that ‘Open Source’ is moving away from the noble savage, group of hackers against the suits and into massive corporations putting huge resources into software that is now ‘Open Source’. A good example might be the editor in Matt Godbolt’s ‘Compiler Explorer’ (which is an awesome resource, for D, Rust, Go, ispc, Haskell, Swift and Pascal as well as the important one….) anyway the editor is Monaco from Microsoft. Open source JavaScript. From Microsoft.
‘Open Source’ is moving away from the noble savage, group of hackers against the suits and into massive corporations putting huge resources into software that is now ‘Open Source’.
I think a rigorous study would show that, in one sense, corporations have always borne the brunt of the cost of open source development. Sure, a lot of development has been done, and is still done, on what is the employees’ “own” time, but by creative, productive, engaged employees who were taking work home anyway. Figuring out how to structure the work so that they were helping others besides their direct employer (and, simultaneously and not coincidentally, increasing their own value to, not only their current employer, but also potential future employers) is certainly something that more and more employees are doing, and that doesn’t need to be hidden from the suits in nearly as many environs as before.
One big story, of course, is the learning curve of the corporations that “coopetition” could be a win, even if it involved collaboration on (and giving away) things where the corporation has core in-house world-class competency.
It may be that the GPL helped here, by convincing employees that at least some of their efforts could help the rest of the world (and be usable by them in future endeavors away from their employees), and by showing employers that employee effort spent on collaborative code could, in some cases, be significantly multiplied by a wider community.
But the lesson is ingrained now. Whether the GPL helped or hurt, it was, at best, a set of training wheels about a collaboration mindset, and a lot of (most?) projects don’t need these any more, and they can actively hinder some development and investment. The problem with these training wheels is they are very difficult to take off, by design. And, of course, the safety conscious crowd thinks everybody should have them, and it’s unethical to ride a bike without them. Oh, you can’t whizz around the corners with them on? You shouldn’t be doing that anyway; it’s very dangerous.
I would guess that the majority of stuff I use nowadays (other than a few very basic tools like compilers, etc.) is either MIT or Apache licensed, rather than GPL. Some of it is dual-licensed.
I saw on HN today that Rust now enables the WebAssembly backend by default.
https://www.hellorust.com/news/native-wasm-target.html
I guess the Rust people will continue sneering at JS(ish) stuff, even as they use it. :-)
Apple. Only the most powerful and successful technology company in the world.
Hey, a helicopter from IBM just landed out back, and there’s a guy in a navy blue Spectra suit would like a…word with you.
Popular is not powerful. Popular just means a large market cap as long as you can *stay* popular.
Apple sells cellphones and lapdogs. IBM sells hardware AND software AND services. And it no longer cares about “popular”.
I’ve been in places like >coughcough> and and while the little hipster bois like their sticker covered macbooks[1] while they’re sitting on the couch in the office “hacking” something or other you won’t find an Apple branded product in the building. No, not even iPads, lapdogs or cellphones. Because you won’t find *any* cellphones in the building. Or iPads. And damn few laptops. You will find IBM. Likely an IBM *employee* too.
Because services go on after the money from the hardware sale has been spent.
Right now the two most powerful technical companies are Amazon and Google. Mostly because Google is reading about half the mail on the internet. I’d put IBM right behind them, simply because they power the sorts of banks that won’t talk to the likes of me and you, and they have all sorts of contracts with the government.
This isn’t to knock Apple in the technology department, they’re *good* at UI. Or they were. Now they’re sort of ok at it. Better than most, but that’s like being the fast runner at the Special Olympics. But “powerful”? No. not in terms of real power.
That said, IBM has been interested in/working on LLVM since 2013.
[1] If APPL hadn’t gone FULL ON STUPID in the SJW department I’d be buying a macbook soon. Hell, I’m *still* lusting after one. They’re REALLY nice lapdogs. But it’ll be a long, long time before APPL sees a dime from me.
> Apple sells cellphones and lapdogs. IBM sells hardware AND software AND services. And it no longer cares about “popular”.
And Apple has a market cap approaching one trillion dollars (with a “t”), while IBM has a market cap of a measly $140 billion.
Chris doesn’t work for Apple any more.
@anon2: I’ve heard about praxeology in the context of Austrian economics. Where’s the proof of Austrian economics?
Ever read any work by Austrian economists? (I suspect not, or you wouldn’t be asking the question. Economists of any strain take pains to prove their notions.)
Ludwig von Mises “Human Action” is a good place to start: https://mises.org/library/human-action-0
@Jeff Read: Because it would kind of undermine the axioms of free-market economics to admit the empirical evidence that humans routinely engage in anti-rational behavior.
Er, why? Markets are composed of actors making economic decisions. Whether those decisions are “rational” is irrelevant. The market still exists.
“Free market” normally means “actors are free to make economic decisions and carry out transactions, without a central authority trying to control them.” It may be a mistake, but the actor is free to make it.
I’m not aware of anything about free markets that assumes or requires economic decisions to be rational.
s/economic decisions/individual economic decisions/
Individual actors may be irrational, but the market as a whole will behave rationally.
>Individual actors may be irrational, but the market as a whole will behave rationally.
Not quite true. The market will reward rationality and select for rationality, but that’s not a guarantee that any subset of investors will behave rationally at any given time. At best it tells us to expect the length and severity of irrational excursions to be sharply bounded.
See also “tulip mania”.
Speaking of which, do you have a public opinion on Bitcoin?
>Speaking of which, do you have a public opinion on Bitcoin?
I do not. Haven’t done the research.
Maybe it is good to know that one of the reasons Bitcoin is popular is that rich Chinese (and Russians) use it to funnel money out of the country.
https://www.theepochtimes.com/how-chinese-use-bitcoin-to-funnel-money-out-of-the-country_1891021.html
@esr: >Speaking of which, do you have a public opinion on Bitcoin?
I’ve been skimming in the background. Bitcoin is the tip of the iceberg called blockchain, and that looks like it will have all manner of uses.
Bitcoin is cryptocurrency, like Litecoin or Ethereum. It’s misunderstood, because of a mistaken notion that it allows anonymity. In fact, one of the things that makes Bitcoin of interest is that it establishes guaranteed transactions between known actors. If you want to pay for something anonymously, you need to launder your transaction through a third party.
Bitcoin is getting interest because it can eliminate the need for intermediaries like banks to conduct transactions.
And a point that seems to escape more commentators is that Bitcoin, by nature, is a finite resource. Bitcoin can be produced by mining, but the rate of increase is dead slow.
Currency has historically derived value from scarcity. The currency itself might have been paper, but the paper represented an amount of an underlying precious material, like gold or silver, and you culd get the specified anmount of the underlying material in exchange for your paper. When currency shifted to fiat currency, not tied to a scarce and finite resource, a variety of undesirebale side effects came along for the ride. Bitcoin restores scarcity as a component of value.
The question with Bitcoin is whether it will gain enough mindshare. How do you accumulate it? How do you pay for things with it? Will other actors accept it as payment? If not, can you convert Bitcoin to a currency they will accept? If you do, what will the exchange rate be?
The answers to all of those questions are becoming known, and Bitcoin is already viable currency in a lot of places. The next question is whether it will become popular enough to displace traditional currencies entirely. Right now, you probably can’t use just Bitcoin to buy all the goods and services you need. Down the road, you may be able to.
From the social consequences point of view, people who criticize Bitcoin bring up things like money laundering or funding crime, but I don’t think that’s the biggest issue (in fact, not an issue at all, someone with money will always find a way to pay for what they want).
The real issue, the elephant in the room, is that Bitcoin is deflationary. There is an asymptotically capped amount of it, and as human economy grows, the value of a given quantity of Bitcoins increases relative to the total size of goods and services that can interact with it.
I’m not talking about tactical issues like transaction costs or inconvenience of dealing with increasingly small fractions. I’m talking about the fundamental problem of deflationary currencies – negative spending stimulus, aka hoarding. If Bitcoin (or a similar deflationary currency) becomes the currency of choice, people will hoard Bitcoins, knowing that its value will keep increasing. This will send the economy into a deflationary spiral, reduce spending for both the poor and the rich (the rich will hoard, and the poor will have no Bitcoin or opportunity to gain it since it’s being hoarded). The secondary goal of inflationary currencies (beyond spending stimulus) is a de-facto income redistribution mechanism, which (as long as kept to reasonable levels) is much less resisted than direct taxation.
Previous deflationary spirals during the Gold Standard era in the USA (late 19th century) have sent economies into long recessions, and eventually were the primary reason while the Gold Standard was replaced with Federal Reserve in the USA, and similar fiat currencies elsewhere. There is plenty of criticism of fiat currency, some for good reason, but most economists (even of stances like the Austrian school) do not advocate a return to the Gold Standard, conceding that this approach is unworkable in an industrialized society, and that the consequences of a modern inflationary economy becoming backed by deflationary currency would be a disaster, leading to massive economic crises and social unrest.
Do advocates of using Bitcoin for national currency have an answer or acknowledgement of the above concern? Or do they reject it as a concept, and actually claim that a return to essentially a gold standard economy will be good for society?
@Eugene
“Bitcoin is deflationary”
That is the way it was designed. Obviously by people who could not see past the current problem (inflation) to the long term issue that the amount of money must match the production of the economy. And a growing economy must have a growing money supply.
On the other hand, Bitcoin is a data structure and an algorithm. Both can be changed to fit the needs of the community. Hence all the forks currently going on.
In the end, I think the money aspect of Bitcoin will be unimportant. It is the blockchain, a distributed ledger, that already is changing the financial world.
And the Proof of Work will change or go away and be replaced by something more efficient. Having petaflops creating heat just to validate bitcoin transactions is too expensive. The current energy consumption per transaction is 294 kW. That is what a US household spends in a Week. World wide bitcoin mining could power 2.7 million US homes. And it will only grow.
https://digiconomist.net/bitcoin-energy-consumption
The secondary goal of inflationary currencies (beyond spending stimulus) is a de-facto income redistribution mechanism
Yes, from the poor to the rich (or more specifically from everyone else, mostly poorer, to already rich financial institutions).
which (as long as kept to reasonable levels) is much less resisted than direct taxation
Yes, that’s why the rich financial institutions prefer it.
Michael Brazier on 2017-11-27 at 10:40:33 said:
In fact, currency does not derive value from scarcity, so the hard limit on the number of Bitcoins has nothing to do with their viability as a currency. A commodity becomes a currency if, and only if, people use it as a medium of exchange, meaning that they accept it because they think other people will accept it later.
The advantage of gold or silver standards over fiat money is that gold and silver are valuable for reasons other than their use as currency; that original market is an anchor, restricting the currency’s price and stabilizing the market system. Bitcoins lack this advantage; there’s nothing you can do with a Bitcoin except trade it to someone else, just like a US dollar bill. Thus Bitcoin prices are inherently volatile; they have no anchor in reality.
I regard any cryptocurrency in which the tokens don’t represent a legal claim on property as a collective delusion, not a financial tool to depend on. Certainly one could build a currency system on the basis of blockchain technology, but a store of value would be needed as well, and Bitcoins don’t have anything backing them up.
I regard any cryptocurrency in which the tokens don’t represent a legal claim on property
The point of a cryptocurrency is that the possession of the tokens is protected by claims stronger than legal claims.
That whooshing sound was the point going over your head.
The problem isn’t proving who owns the tokens; it’s that the tokens themselves have no stable value, because they have no use and aren’t symbols of things that have a use. It’s a bit like the old joke about people stranded on a deserted island who made themselves rich by trading hats with each other.
You mean like gigantic stone wheels?
Or little pieces of paper with green ink on them.
And no, I’m not a gold bug either.
IMHO, the biggest challenge for Bitcoin, et al is that there are no trusted institutions for transactions or parking. Seemingly every day my news feed is about another Bitcoin exchange going dark, losing a bunch of coins, stealing a bunch of coins, etc. So it will have no wide credibility until those same banks are the ones handling it (or something like a bank).
“IMHO, the biggest challenge for Bitcoin, et al is that there are no trusted institutions for transactions or parking.”
That is currently what is occupying the minds of the central banks. It is only a matter of time before one or more National Banks will start to regulate crypto currencies to achieve just that. Someone will work out something just trying to become the new bitcoin hub. My bet is on Russia and/or China.
That is currently what is occupying the minds of the central banks. It is only a matter of time before one or more National Banks will start to regulate crypto currencies
I frequently hear the banks want in on the action. That would be a positive development for credibility, though I suspect a lot of the current BitCoin advocates would not agree. I have doubts it could be done under onerous U.S. banking laws without considerable changes.
My bet is on Russia and/or China.
Not sure either of those would do much for comfort & credibility. But maybe the “me too” factor would spur others to action.
“Not sure either of those would do much for comfort & credibility.”
But that won’t stop them trying. But we know the Swiss will step in too by that time.
Worth noting that while Rust is a far problem design if your goal is “successor to C”, the Rust developers were not trying to develop a successor to C. That’s a solved problem: C++. As early as the early 90s, inside Bell Labs C++ was called C and C was called “old C”.
The Rust developers are trying to come up with a worthy successor to C++. In that they have by and large succeeded, but if you are trying to make the leap from C to Rust, you are in for some trouble. In fact, when attempting to learn Rust, prior C knowledge can actively work against you.
But that’s not as serious a concern as you might think, because of Thomas Kuhn: in ten to twenty years, the developers who are entrenched in C land will die or retire anyway, and be replaced with newer, younger developers who only know how to code safely.
People may get a kick out of this go bug – https://marcan.st/2017/12/debugging-an-evil-go-runtime-bug/
Vic on 2020-04-27 at 20:35:44 said:
What about Ada programming language, why doesn’t that get more used?
Is the main reason over-verbosity?
If yes, why doesn’t someone create a language with same semantics as Ada, but much less verbose?
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« Reply #10485 on: March 07, 2012, 08:20:04 PM »
Quote from: MartyS (Gromit) on March 07, 2012, 06:44:42 PM
It looks pretty darn good on Blu-Ray, the filth really looks filthy. I was surprised how much the sound is improved on BD.
Most of the extras from the ultimate definitive final special edition DVD are on the BD, but not all of them. There are some new extras, some new out takes and extended scenes I hadn't seen before, and they found some unused animations that have been put back together and they made up a soundtrack for them.
So, looks like you can't throw you're DVD away if you get the BD, if you want all the possible extras.
That seems weird, the prime reason I upgraded to BD was for the extras
Scottotd on Instagram
"A thing I like that there was no chance would ever continue until recently is now continuing but it doesn't meet my exact personal specifications so fuck this"
- how I read any complaint about MST3k (or Star Wars or Ghostbusters)
MartyS (Gromit)
Disembaudio's Squadio
Weirdies!
Quote from: @ScottOTD on March 07, 2012, 08:20:04 PM
One little peeve, some of the extras are only available if you use second screen, and they only have the second screen app available on the iPad, not the iPod or android, so somewhat of an FU about that...
I'm not sure what those extras are, but from the description it sounds like similar stuff to the "killer bunny" feature on the DVD.
The menus are not even funny like on the DVD. And there's stupid pop up ads for other discs.
The outtakes, extra scenes, and lost animations are pretty cool (the full version of the 3 headed knight scene is very different). And the intros to both are very funny. But it seems like Sony was not really interested in doing anything really special for the Blu-Ray.
Lost Skeleton of Cadavra
Just OK. When it's on, it is dead on with it's humour and stylization of 50's b-movies, but there is also a lot of clunker humour and boring spots. It occurs to me, that it might work better as a stage play with some retooling, although I wonder if it wouldn't work so well if the cast had to pause for laugh lines. When it works, it's because it isn't winking in any way.
On a related note, please look at my signature.
Prince of Space 5049
Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha
Because of a post by "Doctor John Smith" quite a while ago, I rented Network.
OMFG What a fantastic movie. Once again I saw it when I was like, seventeen, but in no way could comprehend it's impact back then. It was fantastic, and scary.
, Smith Dr John Smith and Kete like this
All joking a salad.
Quote from: Prince of Space 5049 on March 08, 2012, 02:00:38 PM
I love that show. It's shocking how relevant it is today.
Nominations for 100 movies you have to see.
Smith Dr John Smith
I say what a wonderful butler,He's so violent!
Glad I could help. It is amazing piece of work. I think it is out on Blu Ray.
Fave Rifftrax:The Room Fave MST3K:Manos
Fave DW story of last year:TAP/TRF. Fave classic series story:Inferno
Fave film of 2011:Tie The Muppets/Tintin
Fave iRiff group:One wall cinema
Fave movie:Citizen Kane.
Still stuck on dial up.
Ignore me or report me.
Mrs. Dick Courier
keeping an eye on the sammich since 1993
Just saw Captain America. I can see why Rifftrax did it, its ripe for riffing.
Didn't really care to see it too much, got it free at the library.
Was Stan Lee in it? I always look for him in the Marvel movies but didn't see him.
And now I am ready to see the Avengers. Oh yeah.
Opticians are easy on the eyes
I think he was Hitler.
and wurwolf like this
Worst...avatar...ever!
Well, I didn't get to technically FINISH ZaAt, but I thought I would still make mention of something...
Wow. Just wow. This movie does not deserve to look this nice. If all you've seen of it is the crap print used on MST3K, all you get is this red-tinged, drab looking film made in a guy's basement. The restored Blu-ray? It is almost night and day difference when it comes to brightness and color. The monster is incredibly fake-looking, but bright green with little red speckles, and even though it's filmed in a basement, that basement is filled with so many different colored light bulbs that it just looks sort of pleasant to look at. The outdoors are incredibly contrasting as well, with deep green grass and blue water. It does make the stock footage scenes stand out a bit more, since they're not cleaned up as nicely, but in all honesty, the movie's script and acting may suck, but there's a lot more that had been visually lost to time in low quality prints that gets represented really nicely here.
In summary, it's still stupid, but it looks really nice. However, if you like film grain, be warned...this thing has gotten the full noise reduction treatment, so up close you can see a sort of smeary, waxy look to everything, but very little in terms of print damage and other little issues.
Imrahil likes this
One Man Band Riffs. 18 riffs, over 600 served, since 2009.
doggans
w00tstock Photobomb is TEARING Zombie Wiseau APAHT
Quote from: Mrs. Dick Courier on March 09, 2012, 01:14:58 PM
I haven't seen it since the theater, but I seem to recall Stan saying something like "I thought he'd be taller" when Cap didn't show up for some award.
doggans.com, won't you?
Quote from: doggans on March 09, 2012, 01:49:48 PM
I remember that scene, I'll rewatch that to see.
Quote from: SJP on March 09, 2012, 01:44:06 PM
Ha! I actually finished this piece of dreck.
I always giggle when he's using the spray thing underwater. It is impossible to use a spray bottle underwater, when you let go of the handle it will just bring in water and mix with your solution.
Well, I guess that doesn't really matter in this case, since its mixing in the water anyway....
I watched Blood Simple... again. I just find that film to be endlessly fascinating.
Dawn of the Dead and Zombie at the rooftop cinema, an open air screen on the roof of a 6 story parking complex in the city for the arts festival.
MontyServo
Murder By Decree
Very good Sherlock Holmes film from the late '70s with excellent performances by Christopher Plummer as Holmes and James Mason as Watson. I never knew about this film's existence until seeing it while browsing through Netflix Watch Now. This story has Holmes tackling the case of Jack The Ripper. I liked this much more than the Downey Jr. Sherlock film (haven't seen the sequel to that one yet and am in no hurry to either.)
The Life Of Reilly
Another Netflix Watch Now find. This is the film version of Charles Nelson Reilly's autobiographical one man show. I was always a big fan of Match Game, but didn't really know too much about the man. Turns out he led a very interesting life and this show is at times funny and sad. I wish he would have spoke more about Match Game, but I can't complain too much as I was thoroughly entertained by his story.
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THERMO FISHER SCIENTIFIC INC.
tmoq309.htm
Quarterly Report Pursuant to Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 for the Quarter Ended September 26, 2009
Commission File Number 1-8002
(State of incorporation or organization)
81 Wyman Street
Waltham, Massachusetts
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant (1) has filed all reports required to be filed by Section 13 or 15(d) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 during the preceding 12 months and (2) has been subject to such filing requirements for the past 90 days. Yes x No o
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant has submitted electronically and posted on its corporate Web site, if any, every Interactive Data File required to be submitted and posted pursuant to Rule 405 of Regulation S-T during the preceding 12 months (or for such shorter period that the Registrant was required to submit and post such files).
Yes x No o
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a large accelerated filer, an accelerated filer, a non-accelerated filer or a smaller reporting company. See the definitions of “large accelerated filer,” “accelerated filer” and “smaller reporting company” in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act.
Large accelerated filer x Accelerated filer o Non-accelerated filer o Smaller reporting company o
Indicate by check mark whether the Registrant is a shell company (as defined in Rule 12b-2 of the Exchange Act). Yes o No x
Indicate the number of shares outstanding of each of the issuer’s classes of Common Stock, as of the latest practicable date.
Common Stock, $1.00 par value
PART 1 — FINANCIAL INFORMATION
Consolidated Balance Sheet
$ 1,745.7 $ 1,280.5
Short-term investments, at quoted market value (amortized cost of $11.4 and $8.5)
Accounts receivable, less allowances of $49.4 and $43.1
1,482.0 1,478.1
Inventories:
Deferred tax assets
Property, Plant and Equipment, at Cost
Less: Accumulated depreciation and amortization
(703.7 ) (579.5 )
Acquisition-related Intangible Assets, net of Accumulated Amortization of $1,902.3 and $1,433.2
$ 21,418.5 $ 21,090.0
Consolidated Balance Sheet (continued)
(In millions except share amounts)
Liabilities and Shareholders' Equity
Short-term obligations and current maturities of long-term obligations
$ 70.1 $ 14.8
Accrued payroll and employee benefits
Accrued income taxes
Other accrued expenses
Long-term Obligations
Incremental Convertible Debt Obligation
Preferred stock, $100 par value, 50,000 shares authorized; none issued
Common stock, $1 par value, 1,200,000,000 shares authorized; 422,829,078 and 421,791,009 shares issued
Capital in excess of par value
11,394.5 11,301.3
Treasury stock at cost, 14,514,448 and 3,825,245 shares
Accumulated other comprehensive items
78.8 (145.8 )
Consolidated Statement of Income
(In millions except per share amounts)
Product revenues
Service revenues
Costs and Operating Expenses:
Cost of product revenues
Cost of service revenues
Selling, general and administrative expenses
Research and development expenses
Restructuring and other costs, net
Other Expense, Net
(28.6 ) (27.7 )
Income from Continuing Operations Before Provision for Income Taxes
Gain on Disposal of Discontinued Operations (net of income tax provision of $1.8 in 2008)
Earnings per Share from Continuing Operations
$ .54 $ .51
Weighted Average Shares
(69.2 ) (145.0 )
Gain on disposal of discontinued operations
— (6.0 )
Adjustments to reconcile income from continuing operations to net cash provided by operating activities:
Change in deferred income taxes
Non-cash stock-based compensation
Non-cash interest expense on convertible debt
Tax benefits from stock-based compensation awards
(1.7 ) (20.1 )
Other non-cash expenses, net
Changes in assets and liabilities, excluding the effects of acquisitions and dispositions:
47.3 (73.2 )
Contributions to retirement plans
Net cash provided by continuing operations
1,121.5 961.0
Net cash used in discontinued operations
(0.9 ) (1.1 )
Purchase of property, plant and equipment
Proceeds from sale of property, plant and equipment
Purchase of available-for-sale investments
Proceeds from sale of available-for-sale investments
Proceeds from sale of businesses, net of cash divested
Increase in other assets
Net cash used in continuing operations
Net cash provided by discontinued operations
$ (276.8 ) $ (299.8 )
Consolidated Statement of Cash Flows (continued)
Decrease in short-term notes payable
$ (13.4 ) $ (19.3 )
Purchases of company common stock
Net proceeds from issuance of company common stock
Borrowings (redemption and repayment) of long-term obligations
3.7 (2.6 )
Net cash used in financing activities
(405.1 ) (22.1 )
Exchange Rate Effect on Cash of Continuing Operations
Increase in Cash and Cash Equivalents
Supplemental Cash Flow Information
Fair value of assets of acquired businesses
Cash paid for acquired businesses
Liabilities assumed of acquired businesses
Issuance of restricted stock
$ 1.1 $ 21.9
Issuance of stock upon vesting of restricted stock units
The interim consolidated financial statements presented herein have been prepared by Thermo Fisher Scientific Inc. (the company or Thermo Fisher), are unaudited and, in the opinion of management, reflect all adjustments of a normal recurring nature necessary for a fair statement of the financial position at September 26, 2009, the results of operations for the three- and nine-month periods ended September 26, 2009, and September 27, 2008, and the cash flows for the nine-month periods ended September 26, 2009, and September 27, 2008. The company has evaluated events and transactions occurring after the balance sheet date through October 30, 2009 for recognition or disclosure in the consolidated financial statements and notes. Interim results are not necessarily indicative of results for a full year.
The consolidated balance sheet presented as of December 31, 2008, has been derived from the audited consolidated financial statements as of that date, as adjusted for adoption of a new accounting pronouncement, discussed below. The consolidated financial statements and notes are presented as permitted by Form 10-Q and do not contain all of the information that is included in the annual financial statements and notes of the company. The consolidated financial statements and notes included in this report should be read in conjunction with the financial statements and notes included in the company’s Current Report on Form 8-K filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on July 9, 2009.
In May 2008, the FASB issued new rules on the accounting for convertible debt instruments that may be settled in cash upon conversion, including partial cash settlement of such debt instruments. The rules require the issuers of certain convertible debt instruments that may be settled in cash (or other assets) on conversion to separately account for the liability (debt) and equity (conversion option) components in a manner that reflects the issuer's nonconvertible debt borrowing rate when interest cost is recognized in subsequent periods. The new guidance was effective for the company beginning January 1, 2009. The rules required adjustment of prior periods to conform to current accounting. The company’s cash payments for interest have not been affected, but adoption increased the company’s reported interest expense for all periods presented in a manner that reflects interest rates of similar non-convertible debt.
The incremental effects of applying this convertible debt accounting on individual line items in the consolidated balance sheet at December 31, 2008, were as follows:
(Dollars in millions)
Effect of Adoption
As Adjusted
$ 1,978.0 $ 16.2 $ 1,994.2
2,043.5 (40.3 ) 2,003.2
— 24.2 24.2
11,273.2 28.1 11,301.3
When any of the convertible debt instruments are convertible at the balance sheet date, the excess of the amount of cash required to be paid to the holder upon conversion over the current carrying amount of the long-term obligation is classified on the balance sheet as temporary equity under the caption “incremental convertible debt obligation.”
1. General (continued)
The debt, temporary equity and equity components recognized for the company’s convertible debt are as follows:
Principal Amount of Convertible Debt
Unamortized Discount
Net Carrying Amount
Incremental Convertible Debt Obligation (Temporary Equity)
At September 26, 2009, the unamortized discount had a remaining weighted average recognition period of 1.2 years, to the respective first redemption dates of the convertible debt. The amount of interest expense on the convertible debt recognized in the accompanying statement of income is as follows:
Contractual Coupon Interest
$ 4.5 $ 5.9 $ 14.2 $ 19.3
Amortization of Discount on Convertible Debt
$ 10.3 $ 11.5 $ 31.3 $ 35.7
Effective Interest Rate
4.4% 5.0% 4.5% 5.2%
In June 2008, the FASB issued guidance on determining whether instruments granted in share-based payment transactions are participating securities. This guidance clarifies that share-based payment awards that entitle their holders to receive nonforfeitable dividends before vesting should be considered participating securities. The guidance was effective for the company beginning January 1, 2009. The rule required adjustment of prior periods to conform to current accounting. Adoption had a nominal effect on the numerator and, for diluted presentation, the denominator in the calculation of earnings per share for all periods presented.
The incremental effects of applying the convertible debt and participating security rules on individual line items in the consolidated statements of income for the three- and nine-month periods ended September 27, 2008, were as follows:
(Dollars in millions except per share amounts)
Three Months Ended September 27, 2008
$ 22.1 $ 5.6 $ 27.7
45.9 (2.2 ) 43.7
218.3 (3.4 ) 214.9
$ .52 $ (.01 ) $ .51
Diluted Weighted Average Shares
Nine Months Ended September 27, 2008
$ 57.6 $ 16.4 $ 74.0
698.0 (10.1 ) 687.9
$ 1.67 $ (.03 ) $ 1.64
2. Acquisitions
In December 2007, the FASB revised the accounting rules concerning business combinations. This revised guidance does the following: requires the acquiring entity in a business combination to recognize all (and only) the assets acquired and liabilities assumed in the transaction; establishes the acquisition-date fair value as the measurement objective for all assets acquired and liabilities assumed; and requires the acquirer to disclose certain information to enable users to understand the nature and financial effect of the business combination. The rules require that cash outflows such as transaction costs and post-acquisition restructuring be charged to expense instead of capitalized as a cost of the acquisition. Contingent purchase price will be recorded at its initial fair value and then re-measured as time passes through adjustments to net income. The revised guidance was effective for the company, on a prospective basis, beginning January 1, 2009. The company applied this revised accounting to the acquisitions discussed below. There was no material impact upon adoption; however, the rule changes may materially affect the accounting for any future business combinations.
2. Acquisitions (continued)
In April 2009, the Laboratory Products and Services segment acquired Biolab, an Australia-based provider of analytical instruments, life science consumables and laboratory equipment, for AUD 180 million (USD $132 million), net of cash acquired. The acquisition broadened the geographic reach of the company’s customer channels. Revenue of Biolab totaled AUD 178 million in its fiscal year ended May 2009. The purchase price exceeded the fair value of the acquired net assets and, accordingly, $62 million was allocated to goodwill, none of which is tax deductible.
In addition, in the first nine months of 2009, the Analytical Technologies segment acquired a culture media manufacturer and distributor in Malaysia and Singapore and the controlling interest in a Mexico-based manufacturer and distributor of bulk weighing products; and the Laboratory Products and Services segment acquired a Spain-based distributor of laboratory instrumentation and equipment and a Sweden-based distributor of clinical chemistry analysis instruments. The aggregate consideration for these acquisitions was $17 million.
The company paid contingent purchase price obligations of $10 million in the first nine months of 2009, for several acquisitions completed prior to 2009.
The company’s acquisitions have historically been made at prices above the fair value of the acquired assets, resulting in goodwill, due to expectations of synergies of combining the businesses. These synergies include elimination of redundant facilities, functions and staffing; use of the company’s existing commercial infrastructure to expand sales of the acquired businesses’ products; and use of the commercial infrastructure of the acquired businesses to cost effectively expand sales of company products.
Acquisitions have been accounted for using the purchase method of accounting, and the acquired companies’ results have been included in the accompanying financial statements from their respective dates of acquisition. Allocation of the purchase price for acquisitions was based on estimates of the fair value of the net assets acquired and, for acquisitions recently completed, is subject to adjustment upon finalization of the purchase price allocation. The company is not aware of any information that indicates the final purchase price allocations will differ materially from the preliminary estimates.
Cash paid
$ 132.9 $ 14.3 $ 147.2
Debt assumed
— 0.9 0.9
Purchase price payable
Cash acquired
(1.3 ) (0.1 ) (1.4 )
Tradenames and other
Liabilities assumed
(25.8 ) (4.6 ) (30.4 )
The weighted-average amortization periods for intangible assets acquired in 2009 are 10 years for customer relationships, 8 years for product technology and 5 years for tradenames and other. The weighted average amortization period for all intangible assets in the above table is 9 years.
The company’s results for 2008 or 2009 would not have been materially different from its reported results had the company’s 2008 and 2009 acquisitions occurred at the beginning of 2008.
The company sold three small business units in the first nine months of 2009 and recorded gains aggregating $1.2 million, included in restructuring and other costs, net, in the accompanying statement of income. The net cash proceeds were $2.7 million. Operating results of the businesses were not material.
3. Business Segment Information
The company’s continuing operations fall into two business segments: Analytical Technologies and Laboratory Products and Services. During the first quarter of 2009, the company transferred management responsibility and the related financial reporting and monitoring for a small product line between segments. The company has historically moved a product line between segments when a shift in strategic focus of either the product line or a segment more closely aligns the product line with a segment different than that in which it had previously been reported. Prior period segment information has been reclassified to reflect these transfers.
3. Business Segment Information (continued)
Analytical Technologies
$ 1,018.6 $ 1,085.9 $ 2,960.7 $ 3,332.6
Laboratory Products and Services
1,631.3 1,610.4 4,653.6 4,836.1
Eliminations
(118.8 ) (108.2 ) (344.0 ) (317.0 )
Consolidated revenues
Segment Income
Analytical Technologies (a)
$ 202.7 $ 228.8 $ 577.6 $ 701.7
Laboratory Products and Services (a)
234.8 224.9 627.5 675.7
Subtotal reportable segments (a)
437.5 453.7 1,205.1 1,377.4
Cost of revenues charges
(1.0 ) — (1.9 ) (0.8 )
Selling, general and administrative (costs) income, net
0.3 — (1.0 ) —
Restructuring and other (costs) income, net
(13.1 ) (15.4 ) (37.0 ) (14.9 )
Amortization of acquisition-related intangible assets
Consolidated operating income
Other expense, net (b)
Consolidated depreciation
$ 47.3 $ 47.7 $ 139.5 $ 143.5
(a) Represents operating income before certain charges/credits to cost of revenues and selling, general and administrative expenses; restructuring and other costs, net and
amortization of acquisition-related intangibles.
(b)The company does not allocate other income and expense to its segments.
4. Other Expense, Net
As discussed in Note 1, although the company’s cash interest payments have not been affected, the adoption of the new convertible debt accounting guidance has increased the company’s reported interest expense in a manner that reflects interest rates of similar non-convertible debt. The rule required adjustment of prior periods to conform to current accounting.
The components of other expense, net, in the accompanying statement of income are as follows:
4. Other Expense, Net (continued)
$ 2.5 $ 14.9 $ 12.5 $ 40.1
(29.2 ) (39.7 ) (89.0 ) (117.5 )
Other Items, Net
(1.9 ) (2.9 ) (1.9 ) 3.4
$ (28.6 ) $ (27.7 ) $ (78.4 ) $ (74.0 )
5. Earnings per Share
Basic and diluted earnings per share were calculated as follows:
— 3.2 — 6.0
Income Allocable to Participating Securities
(0.1 ) (0.3 ) (0.4 ) (1.1 )
Net Income for Earnings per Share
Basic Weighted Average Shares
Effect of:
Convertible debentures
Stock options, restricted stock awards and warrants
Basic Earnings per Share:
Continuing operations
$ .54 $ .51 $ 1.39 $ 1.64
— .01 — .01
Diluted Earnings per Share:
5. Earnings per Share (continued)
Options to purchase 7.0 million, 0.1 million, 13.1 million and 1.6 million shares of common stock were not included in the computation of diluted earnings per share for the third quarter of 2009 and 2008 and the first nine months of 2009 and 2008, respectively, because their effect would have been antidilutive.
6. Comprehensive Income and Shareholders’ Equity
Comprehensive income combines net income and other comprehensive items. Other comprehensive items represent certain amounts that are reported as components of shareholders’ equity in the accompanying balance sheet, including currency translation adjustments; unrealized gains and losses, net of tax, on available-for-sale investments and hedging instruments; and pension and other postretirement benefit liability adjustments. During the third quarter of 2009 and 2008, the company had comprehensive income of $296 million and $3 million, respectively. During the first nine months of 2009 and 2008, the company had comprehensive income of $802 million and $594 million, respectively. The third quarter and first nine months of 2009 were favorably affected by an increase in the cumulative translation adjustment of $73 million and $224 million, respectively, due to movements in currency exchange rates, the effects of which are recorded in shareholders’ equity. The third quarter and first nine months of 2008 were unfavorably affected by a decrease in the cumulative translation adjustment of $213 million and $99 million, respectively.
7. Stock-based Compensation Expense
The components of pre-tax stock-based compensation are as follows:
Stock Option Awards
$ 13.5 $ 9.8 $ 36.9 $ 25.8
Restricted Share/Unit Awards
Total Stock-based Compensation Expense
Stock-based compensation expense is included in the accompanying statement of income as follows:
Cost of Revenues
$ 1.3 $ 1.0 $ 4.7 $ 3.0
No stock-based compensation expense has been capitalized in inventories due to immateriality.
7. Stock-based Compensation Expense (continued)
Unrecognized compensation cost related to unvested stock options and restricted stock totaled approximately $90.1 million and $31.9 million, respectively, as of September 26, 2009, and is expected to be recognized over weighted average periods of 2.3 years and 2.1 years, respectively.
During the first nine months of 2009, the company made equity compensation grants to employees consisting of 1.0 million restricted shares/units and options to purchase 6.5 million shares.
8. Defined Benefit Pension Plans
Employees of a number of the company’s non-U.S. and certain U.S. subsidiaries participate in defined benefit pension plans covering substantially all full-time employees at those subsidiaries. Some of the plans are unfunded, as permitted under the plans and applicable laws. The company also has a postretirement healthcare program in which certain employees are eligible to participate. The costs of the healthcare program are funded on a self-insured and insured-premium basis. Net periodic benefit costs for the company’s pension plans include the following components:
$ 2.7 $ 3.4 $ 7.7 $ 11.1
Interest Cost on Benefit Obligation
Amortization of Net Loss
Amortization of Prior Service Benefit
— — 0.1 —
Settlement/Curtailment Gain
— — (0.2 ) (18.5 )
— — 0.3 0.2
Net Periodic Benefit Cost (Income)
$ 2.6 $ 2.2 $ 8.1 $ (10.5 )
Net periodic benefit costs for the company's other postretirement benefit plans include the following components:
9. Fair Value Measurements
The company uses the market approach technique to value its financial instruments and there were no changes in valuation techniques during the nine months ended September 26, 2009. The company’s financial assets and liabilities carried at fair value are primarily comprised of investments in money market funds, mutual funds holding publicly
9. Fair Value Measurements (continued)
traded securities, derivative contracts used to hedge the company’s currency risk and other investments in unit trusts and insurance contracts held as assets to satisfy outstanding retirement liabilities.
The fair value accounting guidance requires that assets and liabilities carried at fair value be classified and disclosed in one of the following three categories:
Level 1: Quoted market prices in active markets for identical assets or liabilities that the company has the ability to access.
Level 2: Observable market based inputs or unobservable inputs that are corroborated by market data such as quoted prices, interest rates and yield curves.
Level 3: Inputs are unobservable data points that are not corroborated by market data.
The following table presents information about the company’s financial assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis as of September 26, 2009:
Quoted Prices
in Active
(Level 1)
Significant Unobservable Inputs
Cash equivalents
$ 1,066.1 $ 1,066.1 $ — $ —
Investments in mutual funds, unit trusts and other similar instruments
35.5 35.5 — —
Cash surrender value of life insurance
28.1 — 28.1 —
Auction rate securities
5.4 — — 5.4
Derivative contracts
3.3 — 3.3 —
$ 1,138.4 $ 1,101.6 $ 31.4 $ 5.4
$ 0.2 $ — $ 0.2 $ —
The following table presents information about the company’s financial assets and liabilities measured at fair value on a recurring basis as of December 31, 2008:
Observable Inputs
$ 560.8 $ 560.8 $ — $ —
Marketable equity securities
1.0 1.0 — —
$ 616.1 $ 585.8 $ 24.6 $ 5.7
The following table is a rollforward of the fair value, as determined by Level 3 inputs, of the company's auction rate securities, which are included in short-term investments on the consolidated balance sheet.
Beginning Balance
$ 6.0 $ 5.7
Total impairment losses included in earnings
Total unrealized losses included in other comprehensive income
(0.3 ) —
The company determines the fair value of the auction rate securities by obtaining indications of value from broker/dealers.
Fair Value of Other Financial Instruments
The carrying amount and fair value of the company’s notes receivable and debt obligations are as follows:
Debt Obligations:
Convertible obligations
945.8 1,479.8 928.8 1,227.7
Senior notes
Senior subordinated notes
The fair value of debt obligations was determined based on quoted market prices and on borrowing rates available to the company at the respective period ends.
10. Warranty Obligations
Product warranties are included in other accrued expenses in the accompanying balance sheet. The changes in the carrying amount of warranty obligations are as follows:
Provision charged to income
Acquisitions/divestitures
Adjustments to previously provided warranties, net
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Hubrisween 2020 :: K is for Killer Party (1986)
After fading in and finding ourselves lurking in a spooky cemetery, we then creep among the fallen leaves and fog-enshrouded headstones until we’re lured into a chapel, where we observe four mourners and the world’s most perkiest priest gathered around the coffin of the late Annabelle Koslow.
And once Father Flamboyant (Keurvorst) finishes off a litany of platitudes for those in mourning -- most of them highly inappropriate, given the circumstances, he escorts them out when the services come to an end. But Koslow’s daughter-in-law, Stephanie (Hanna), lingers behind, saying she’d like to say a few last words to dearest Annabelle in private.
However, it’s not a tearful goodbye she wishes to bestow, but a spiteful curse and a hope the vindictive old bat will now spend an eternity burning in hell. Always one to have the last word, the coffin suddenly bursts open and Annabelle’s corpse reaches out, seizes Stephanie, and pulls her inside. And as the lid slams shut, the coffin is suddenly lowered into the basement, where we discover this is not only a chapel but also a crematorium!
And as Stephanie continues to scream and struggle with the deceased, the dipstick in charge of this place can’t hear or notice this ruckus for reasons dumb enough to only make this scenario work as he pushes the coffin into the furnace, where he finally realizes too late that someone inside it was still alive!
Cut to a drive-in theater, where we quickly suss out that what we’ve seen thus far was just a movie tucked inside another movie as a girl named April (Kiraly) intently watches as all of this plays out on the big screen instead of reciprocating with her grab-fanny boyfriend, Stosh (Coppola), who wants to take things well past third base. Not quite ready to make that mad dash for home-plate just yet, April strategically withdraws to go for some popcorn but finds the snack-bar totally deserted. Everything appears normal enough but there’s an eerie sheen as she calls for service, and then helps herself to a free bucket of buttery goodness when no one answers.
Returning to the car, Stosh isn’t there, which is a bit of a relief at first. But as April resumes watching the movie and munches on some popcorn, her boyfriend suddenly looms into view outside the passenger side window, who raises a knife, grimaces, and starts drooling uncontrollably. And on closer inspection, Stosh really doesn’t appear to be normal anymore as he lunges for her.
Here, April manages to make her escape but starts running into more and more ghouls and zombies, who chase her around with murderous intent until they all suddenly … start … dancing?! And then a hair metal band appears and starts jamming out as the drive-in transforms into a post-apocalyptic wasteland. Wait. What?!
Ah, no, I see. Check this. Not only are we in a movie tucked inside another movie but it’s all been a framing device for a heavy metal music video! And we’re still not done peeling back those meta-layers just yet as White Sister wraps up “You’re No Fool” and we breach one last layer to see a girl named Phoebe (Wilkes) was watching this movie tucked inside another movie that was really a framing device for a music video on her TV this whole time.
Anyhoo, Phoebe is running a little behind when her two best friends, Jennifer and Vivia, show up but they eventually bike on over to the campus of Briggs College, where Hell Week is just about to wrap up for those pledging a fraternity or sorority, including our trio of gals, who hope to make the cut with Sigma Alpha Pi.
And while the bubbly Phoebe and the adorably nerdy Vivia (Willis-Burch) are eager to get in, a wary Jennifer (Johnson) is starting to have second thoughts -- mostly due to the fact the final initiation of Goat Night will take place in the long abandoned and dilapidated Pratt House, from which many a creepy campus urban legend has sprung over the two decades since it was last occupied and shuttered-up for reasons the film isn’t quite ready to reveal just yet.
Meantime, we learn the girls of Sigma Alpha Pi are currently in the middle of a holy war with the boys of Beta Tau -- a war the Betas are currently winning, who just pulled off a very elaborate prank on the Pis that involved a false delivery of champagne, stealing a door-knob, a jar of angry bees, a hot-tub full of naked sorority girls, and capturing the resulting mayhem on film. Realizing they’ve once more been had, Veronica (Fleer), the president of Sigma Alpha Pi, vows to take revenge on Albert Harrison (Brown) and his rowdy, beer-swilling Beta Tau brood.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Henshaw (Hyatt), the house-mother of Sigma Alpha Pi, who reluctantly agreed to allow Veronica to hold Goat Night at the Pratt House as one of her last acts before retiring, pays a visit on the old house -- more specifically, a memorial marker located in the backyard, where she apologizes to a boy named Alan, whom the stone commemorates, saying it’s been 20-years since “the accident” and to please leave Veronica and the others alone because it’s well past time to forgive and forget what happened here and, apparently, to him.
Well, someone disagrees with this assessment as the old woman moves inside the house, digs out a hammer and some nails, and sets about to make a few repairs -- not realizing she has been stalked around the grounds this whole time. And while Mrs. Henshaw seems to recognize whoever it was following her, when they finally make their presence known, she never expected them to promptly beat her to death with a Greek Paddle, setting the stage for the bloodbath yet to come -- well, eventually...
“Everyone thinks of me as a horror director -- exploitation, but it didn’t start out that way,” said writer, director, and producer William Fruet in an interview with David Grove for the June, 2002, issue of Fangoria Magazine. Born in Lethbridge, Alberta, in 1933, Fruet attended The National Theater School of Canada in Montreal and made his big-screen debut as an actor in Don Haldane’s Drylanders (1963), a “moving drama of pioneer courage in the Canadian west."
Then, Fruet shifted behind the scenes, starting as a screenwriter, which first begat Goin' Down the Road (1970), a coming of age cautionary tale, which he co-wrote with Donald Shebib, who also produced and directed, where two friends leave rural Nova Scotia for the big city only to find Toronto wasn’t all it was cracked up to be and start getting wistfully homesick. He teamed up with Shebib again for Rip-Off (1971), which was kind of in the same, navel-gazing vein, where four high school seniors face their last summer together after graduation and a future that will see them spread to the four winds. He also wrote Slipstream (1973) for David Acomba, where the DJ of a remote pirate radio station in the Canadian wilderness faces off against the wheels of progress.
Fruet made his directorial debut with Wedding in White (1972), which he adapted from his own stage-play. A loosely autobiographical period piece set in the small town where he grew up during World War II, the film revolves around a father (Donald Pleasance) who feels he must save his family’s reputation after his daughter (Carol Kane) is raped by a friend of her brother’s while on leave from the army and becomes pregnant. The film would go on to win Best Picture at the Canadian Film Awards. But as Fruet pointed out in that same interview, critical praise and awards doesn’t always equal box-office receipts and, well, I guy has got to eat.
Thus, Fruet’s career took an abrupt left turn into genre filmmaking, beginning with Death Weekend (1976). Released in the States as The House by the Lake, Fruet had actually written the script for this thriller several years prior, which was based on a road rage incident where the screenwriter was harassed by a car full of drunken hooligans who tried to run him off the road. He then combined this encounter with a true crime case involving a home invasion, where a dentist and his family were assaulted and robbed by a group of similar thugs he’d managed to piss off. “I’d written that script and thrown it in my drawer, because I thought it was garbage,” said Fruet.
But when Straw Dogs (1971) was released and became a hit, Fruet dug the script back out. Seeing this type of rape and revenge picture as distasteful but highly marketable, after sitting on it for several years as not to look like he was trying to cash-in, Fruet at last struck a deal with John Dunning and Cinepix for financing, who had just finished releasing David Cronenberg's Shivers (1975) -- a/k/a They Came from Within. They assigned Ivan Reitman to produce the picture, who would go on to produce Animal House (1978), and direct Meatballs (1979), Stripes (1981) and Ghostbusters (1984), and Cinepix would secure distribution in the States with Sam Arkoff through American International Pictures.
To his credit, Fruet weeds out most of the sleaziness and focuses on creating atmosphere and tension instead when an unscrupulous playboy connives to get a pretty model (Brenda Vacarro) all alone at his secluded lake house, only to draw the unwanted ire of a pack of degenerates (led by Don Stroud), who track them down at that house. What follows is a war of nerves as the girl is reduced to a sexual pawn to be used and abused until she finally takes matters into her own hands. The production ran into a bit of a snag when Vacarro was nominated for an Oscar for her role in Jacquelin Susan’s Once is Not Enough (1975) after she committed to this seedy exploitation film, and then tried very hard to back-out at the last minute. Once she got on board, though, she was fine and delivered a very memorable performance.
The House by the Lake proved a hit, Fruet had some traction, and followed it up with Search and Destroy (1979), a tale of a Vietnam veteran who is wrongfully accused of killing off his old squad and must clear his name before it's too late. Next came Funeral Home (1982), which was another in a long line of Canadian Tax Shelter-funded slasher movies -- Happy Birthday to Me (1981), My Bloody Valentine (1981). Shot in 1980, the film’s meager budget of $500,000 allowed for four murders, and so, Fruet went for a Hitchcockian vibe instead but these low-key thrills and a lack of visceral chills found his producers furious, who shelved the film for two years before finally releasing it.
In Baker County, USA (1982), a group of friends traveling the back-roads witness a redneck murdering his wife’s lover and go on the run before he catches up to them. Fruet also adapted Brent Monahan and Michael Mary’s novel, Death Bite, where a taipan, the world's deadliest snake, goes on a rampage, resulting in Spasms (1983), where Oliver Reed shares a psychic connection with a living snake god. And while it sported special make-up effects by the legendary Dick Smith, the production was plagued by a mechanical snake that didn’t want to cooperate. Neither did ticket-buyers.
And then, after directing the erotic thriller Bedroom Eyes (1984), Fruet was approached by producers Kenneth Kaufman and Michael Lepiner, who were mostly known for Made for TV Movies up to that point, who wanted him to direct a feature for them, The April Fools. Scripted by Barry Cohen, who had just finished up with Friday the 13th: The Final Chapter (1984), and who would go on to write the pilot Nick Knight (1988), concerning a vampire detective, which spun off into series as Forever Knight (1992-1997), the film would be financed by the stodgy MGM as they desperately tried to find their way into the youth market with films like Strange Brew (1983) and Once Bitten (1985).
And what Fruet and Cohen managed to concoct is a bit of an odd duck. One part boner comedy, one part murder mystery, one part serial slasher, it was already a bit over-loaded, and yet, surprise, their film has yet even more revelations tucked up its sleeve as it moves along in fits and spurts as it tries to be all of those things at once and, to their credit, almost succeeds. Almost.
Where it fails the most catastrophically are with any attempts to churn up some red herring during the build-up to all the blood-letting in the coming third act, starting with whoever is wearing a certain pair of ratty sneakers and apparently suffering from a bad case of athlete’s foot -- so we’ll be referring to them as Itchy Feet, who constantly keeps Phoebe, Vivia, and especially Jennifer under constant clandestine surveillance as Veronica and her sisters put the screws to them as part of the weeklong hazing ritual, requiring them to answer any query for the whole day with “I myself prefer a big fat cucumber” -- be it fellow student or faculty, leading to all kinds of double-entendre with their lit instructor, Professor Zito (Bartel), who is not amused and feels all Greek houses should be banned.
The trio is also required to break into the rival frat house to steal some Beta Tau branded t-shirts to wear during Goat Night. And if they fail, they face the prospect of going through the final initiation ritual wearing nothing at all. They run into some luck when the Beta house proves unlocked and apparently empty. But as they prowl around, Jennifer gets caught by a co-ed named Blake (Hewitt), quickly concocts a story that she’s there to get a kiss as part of a hazing ritual, providing the distraction the others needed to successfully complete their mission.
Later, when Jennifer is trailed all the way back to her apartment, it’s revealed that Itchy Feet was really the nebbish Martin (Seymour) all along, who always sat behind Jennifer in lit-class and finally got brave enough to try and ask her out on a date, where they can discuss the sexual politics of Madame Bovary.
Jennifer is very diplomatic when explaining she’s not interested and asks him to leave, saying she has somewhere to be. But turns out Martin knows all about the Pis holding Goat Night at the Pratt House. He then takes a massive plot-dump, revealing why the old fraternity house was shut down when a pledge was accidentally killed there during a hazing ritual. There’s even a rumor the victim was buried in the backyard and the marker is actually a tombstone. Then, rejected wholesale, before he leaves, Martin asks if Vivia is seeing anyone. And if not, he asks for her phone number before being shoved out the door.
Later that night, as the Pis and their three pledges gather at the Pratt House, the final initiation begins, with Phoebe, Vivia and Jennifer forced to eat “goat eyeballs” without retching, and then catch several egg yolks dropped into their mouths without spilling or swallowing anything -- which Jennifer fails, requiring a mass-spanking. (Hooray!) But between whacks, the lights suddenly start flickering and several doors start slamming shut.
Assuming it’s just the Betas pulling another prank, this notion quickly goes out the window when the poltergeist activity escalates as candles blow out, bottles shatter, and the furniture starts moving around. And then, when an angry voice calls out from the basement, warning them all to leave or else, they’d be happy to oblige but all the doors and windows prove locked.
Trapped, Vivia takes charge, calms everyone down, and then heads into the basement to get to the bottom of this. Others try to follow but the door slams shut behind her, then Vivia screams for help as she is attacked by something below as the door swings back open.
And when the others head down the steps to investigate, they find Vivia tied to a guillotine, who tries to warn the others to stay away too late as the rigged blade falls, decapitating her. And while the others scream, the loose head bounds down the steps and is picked up by whoever was down there, who turns out to be none other than … Vivia?! Let her explain:
See, this was all part of a very elaborate prank staged by Vivia, with some help from Phoebe and, I think, Jennifer, as a bit of revenge for all the shenanigans they were put through during Hell Week -- and the only thing to lose their head was a dummy made up to look like her.
Surprisingly, Veronica is not all that upset by these turn of events. No, quite the contrary. In fact, all three will be accepted into Sigma Alpha Pi -- only Veronica makes it perfectly clear to Vivia that the only reason she got in was because Veronica wants her to pull the exact same stunt on the Beta Taus next spring during the annual April Fool’s Day mixer, which is also scheduled to be held at the Pratt House.
Thus, time passes, rather clumsily, and we pick things up at a meeting of the Greek Council. In attendance among others are Veronica and Albert, representing their houses, and the meeting is presided over by Professor Zito, who has just taken over this role and promises a crackdown on all of the hazing and pranks. Seems he was a witness 20-years ago when Alan was killed, revealing he was accidentally decapitated by a guillotine as part of an April Fool’s Day gag gone terribly wrong, which was confiscated by the college at the time but has since gone missing -- I think we’re supposed to assume Vivia stole this to use in her prank, which is kinda vital to the plot to come, but the film is a little vague on that.
And this incident left such a bad impression on Zito, along with all the other strange occurrences that have happened at the Pratt House ever since, he was against reinstating the Greek system altogether when it was revived several years ago after being banned in the fallout of this tragedy. Once he’s done speechifying, the meeting then ends with a safety film on the Horrors of Hazing but Albert had someone sub-in a copy of the bee prank from earlier, drawing the wrath of Veronica, who once again swears vengeance is coming on him and all of his fellow frat-rats.
Thus, as April 1st draws near, Vivia, Phoebe and Jennifer head to the Pratt House to set-up the prank. Seems after her talk with Martin, Jennifer has been busy researching both the house and the pledge who died, saying he was into the occult and echoes Zito’s claims of strange and evil things happening here, even stories of people entering the house never to be heard from again! But Vivia scoffs at this, saying it’s just campus scuttlebutt and ghost stories to frighten freshmen with, no more, no less.
But as Vivia keeps tinkering with her equipment, Jennifer seems to come under some kind of spell as her eyes roll back and her body spasms only to quickly snap out of it when Vivia hears something and fears its rats. But it's only Blake, there to make sure the electricity is working. And it should be noted over the last few months Blake and Jennifer have been seeing each other -- again, at least the movie wants us to assume so, I think. Maybe. Whatever.
Once they’re done, they leave, though no one happens to notice the body of Mrs. Henshaw tucked away in the corner of the basement. (You’d think after five months the smell would be pretty atrocious.) But don’t worry, she won’t be lonely as Zito shows up after the others clear out. Suspicious of what those pesky kids were up to, he finds the guillotine and the electrical switches to make it work. Then, someone joins him in the basement. Again, Zito recognizes whoever this is before they stick a live-wire into his ear, electrocuting him instantly.
When the night of the big shindig arrives, Vivia sneaks in Martin, dressed in drag, into what turns out to be a masquerade party. (Seems these two have also become an item in the interim, though Martin is still clearly hung up on Jennifer.) Since the Pis are hosting this shindig, it falls onto their newest members to handle the menial tasks, with Phoebe sent to the kitchen, Jennifer on litter patrol, and Vivia is herded into the basement to make sure everything is ready for later.
Both Jennifer and Phoebe goof-off with Blake and Albert respectively, the latter getting caught by Veronica, who warns Phoebe to stay away from Albert because they are a thing, too? Maybe. C’mon, movie. Help a guy out a little, here?! Aw, screw it. It’s not gonna matter in about five minutes anyway.
Thus and so, as the party progresses -- one could argue degenerates, Veronica announces it’s time to vote for the King and Queen of the Masquerade. But then things go awry, just like before, as bottles break, doors slam shut and lock, and furniture starts moving on its own. A mass panic ensues, where they all discover they’re trapped inside the house. Then, Jennifer hears a demonic voice calling her name, before she is seized by some form of malevolent spirit, knocked to the ground, and then sucked into the basement with the door slamming shut right behind her.
As everyone freaks out upstairs, downstairs we see this was a new, and highly elaborate, wrinkle in Vivia’s prank -- though she has no idea what Jennifer is talking about when asked how she managed to pull that spooky voice off; not realizing Jennifer has once more come under some kind of spell. Meantime, upstairs, the panic has escalated to the point that it has come to blows between Blake and Albert, which escalates even further when Blake pulls a knife and stabs the other man to death.
Well, turns out this was all deliberately staged as the Beta Tau boys were several steps ahead of the Pis once again and hijacked their prank with one of their own. But as everyone gets back to their beers, or pairing off and snogging, Jennifer is starting to get a little freaked-out about the voices she’s been hearing all night, fearing they’ve stirred something up in this house and feels they all need to leave but she’s quickly shouted down by Phoebe and Vivia, who encourage her to find Blake and have some fun.
Meanwhile, upstairs, someone dressed-up in a deep-sea diver’s rig uses his trident to stab an unsuspecting Pi. And with that, the body count in this "alleged" body count flick at long last begins in earnest as the killer moves on and harpoons a couple of Taus, and then beats Veronica to death with a hammer.
Elsewhere, in his efforts to find Vivia, a drunken Martin notices the marker in the backyard has been broken in half. In the basement, Albert impatiently waits to meet up with Phoebe -- only the killer shows up instead, and he winds up stuck on the chopping block as the blade falls, decapitating him.
In the kitchen, Vivia, looking for a snack, makes a grisly discovery in the fridge, which is chock full of dismembered pieces of Martin. She then flees into the living room and runs into Phoebe, who doesn’t believe her at first until they slowly discover more bodies or body parts as they desperately look for Jennifer; only to realize everyone else who attended the party is now dead, including Blake; drowned in the bathtub; last seen with Jennifer, who had lured him into the bathroom.
Speaking of which, the other two finally find Jennifer, who reveals she was possessed by Alan this whole time and she was the one who killed all the others under his demonic influence.
And as the host rages, screaming for them to get out of this house, she flexes her psionic muscles by tearing the interior of the house apart and then scurries up the walls and along the ceiling as Vivia and Phoebe desperately search for a way out.
And whenever they seem to get the upper-hand on their pursuer, Jennifer reverts to normal and begs for their help.
But this is always a trick as the chase continues up to the roof, which the possessed Jennifer knocks Vivia off of, who plummets to the ground, shattering both of her legs.
Meanwhile, Phoebe manages to scramble down and tries to help her friend, but Jennifer jumps from the roof and lands unharmed in between them. Here, Phoebe takes up a piece of wood and uses it to beat Jennifer until she collapses.
Once more, Jennifer seemingly reverts to normal, but I believe it’s sincere this time when she begs her friend to finish her off before Alan once more takes control. With that, a tearful Phoebe plunges the splintered wood into Jennifer, killing the host and her best friend.
But just when we think it's finally over, it isn’t as Phoebe asks why Alan chose to possess Jennifer. Vivia isn’t sure. Maybe because their friend was the only one who didn’t want to be here in the first place. With that, something comes over Phoebe, something bad, just like Jennifer, as she starts chastising Vivia, saying this was all her fault for bringing the guillotine back to the house and awakening the spirit of Alan, who is now possessing Phoebe.
But before she can kill Vivia, the cops arrive, who then mistake them both for victims of some deranged killer, saving Vivia for the moment. Until she is strapped to a gurney and loaded into the back of an ambulance with Phoebe, despite her pleas not to be left alone with her, who smiles sinisterly as the doors are slammed shut and the vehicle speeds away.
I guess if you looked at it in the broadest of terms, you could kind of frame what Fruet and Cohen were shooting for as an all-out spoof with The April Fools, poking fun at a lot of well-established and by now well-worn Slasher Movie tropes: keeping a suspect’s identity a secret by only showing their shoes, but in this case they have athlete’s foot; taking the layers within layers opening of He Knows You’re Alone (1980) and adding several more layers on top of it; making the killer’s signature look somewhat ridiculous -- and also turning him into a Scooby-Doo villain, who sure looks like the Ghost of Captain Cutler to me; and keeping the killer’s signature kills completely off-screen. Yup. Except for Professor Zito, we don’t see a single person killed in this movie as the camera consistently and constantly cuts away from the carnage the exact moment “Alan” struck.
Of course, there weren’t a whole lot of deaths to begin with until that climactic bloodless-bath, where the film takes another abrupt left-turn, where it abandons its Boner Comedy and Slasher Movie set-up and jumps straight into what Joe Bob Briggs always referred to as a Spam in a Cabin flick, as we head into Evil Dead (1981) territory when Alan or a demon summoned by Alan possesses our heroine. A bold move, that I can respect -- though Briggs, apparently, did not.
It might’ve also been interesting to spread those kills around a bit, and maybe have Alan possessing a few more people to do his bidding to sow even more confusion. Of course, this would’ve short-circuited the film’s twist ending as they stuck another tired trope in the Slasher Movie’s ear by making the normal Final Girl the villain all along, and Alan jumping to Phoebe when his original host died would’ve been spoiled, so, we’ll call that a wash.
Well, whatever you want to call it or whatever they were thinking with all these subverted expectations, it wasn’t at all what MGM had wanted. “They had no idea what kind of movie we were making,” said Fruet. “When they found out, they dropped it like a hot potato … Basically MGM thought it was a comedy and when they found out it was horror, what with the guillotine scene and all, they just buried the film."
Shot in 1984 along Sorority Row in Toronto, The April Fools was shelved until 1986 by the studio, where it finally received a very limited theatrical release. But before it hit theaters, a title change was in order due to the subsequent release of Fred Walton’s April Fool’s Day (1986). And after it was advertised briefly as Fool’s Night the title was officially changed to Killer Party (1986) for its brief time in theaters before being sold off to home video and basic cable, where it soon became a staple on USA’s Up All Night, where I first became acquainted with the film and kinda fell in love with it -- mostly due to the likeable characters and its totally bonkers ending.
Star Joanna Johnson was about to embark on a ten year run on the daytime soap, The Bold and the Beautiful, and she’s pretty fearless as Jennifer and totally committed to the role when the shit hits the fan, when we all become very well acquainted with her tongue as she wags it around, drooling over everything. Hard to tell where her work ends and the stunt woman takes over, too, as she takes a lot of punishment. Sherry Willis-Burch only has two credits according to the IMDB, this and Final Exam (1981), a more traditional slasher, and I wish she had done more as she is completely adorable as the multi-talented, industrious, and no time for bullshit, Vivia.
I think the production’s “big get” was top-billed Martin Hewitt, who starred opposite Brooke Shields in the somewhat notorious, Endless Love (1981). Elaine Wilkes is a bit of a third wheel as Phoebe, but is plenty creepy once the big twist on the twist hits. Always fun to see Paul Bartel lurking around, too, who duels with Ralph Seymour as the film’s comedy relief. As for everyone else? Well, they’re just kinda there to be nothing more than cannon fodder when the film starts making up for lost time, and at ludicrous speed, too, which I guess could be considered yet another dig on Slasher Tropes because who these people are / were wasn’t important, just how they died.
But! It should be noted that mass slaughter pile-up at the end and the cutaway kills weren’t what they had originally intended. Seems when Killer Party was completed back in 1984 it got caught up in the MPAA’s backlash on horror films after the ruination of Christmas with the release of Silent Night, Deadly Night (1984), among others, who hammered the film, requiring many cuts to get the needed R-Rating, which also went a long way in getting it shelved.
Originally, the deaths were spaced out a little better and more elaborate -- at least according to the press materials, which showed a character skewered on the trident and a dismembered hand. But once they were all neutered, they decided to just re-edit the whole film and have them all happen en masse to clear the house for the climax.
As I said before, I kinda love this movie, but I also kinda want to really love this movie, too, but can’t. Not quite. I can respect what Fruet and Cohen pulled off, here, but they might’ve been a little too clever for their own good by saving almost everything for the last twenty minutes of Killer Party, where the film excels as something strange and truly unique in terms of genre. And they should thank their cast, too, because they’re the only real reason why anyone would even bother sticking around long enough to see what they had been holding up their sleeve this whole time.
Well, if you don't know what Hubrisween is by now, Boils and Ghouls, I don't think I can help you. Anyhoo, that's 11 films down with 15 yet to go. Up next, Beware the Booger!
Killer Party (1986) Marquis :: Polar Entertainment :: Telecom Entertainment :: Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)/ EP: Kenneth Kaufman / P: Michael Lepiner / AP: Grace Gilroy / CP: Marjorie Kalins / D: William Fruet / W: Barney Cohen / C: John Lindley / E: Eric Albertson / M: John Beal / S: Joanna Johnson, Sherry Willis-Burch, Elaine Wilkes, Martin Hewitt, Ralph Seymour, Alicia Fleer, Woody Brown, Pam Hyatt, Elizabeth Hanna, Derek Keurvorst, Danielle Kiraly, Scott Coppola, Paul Bartel
Posted by W.B. Kelso at 12:45 AM
Labels: 1980-1989, Barney Cohen, Film Review, Hubrisween 2020, Joanna Johnson, Killer Party, Psychos / Slashers, Sherry Willis-Burch, Slasher Movies, Supernatural / Ghosts, William Fruet
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What's This? Could It Be? Back from the Dead? Well...
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Lok Sabha Elections 2019: Jr NTR, Allu Arjun, Chiranjeevi cast their votes
April 11, 2019 April 11, 2019 ncrtribune
April 11, 2019 ncrtribune Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], April 11 : The first phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 commenced on Thursday morning amidst heightened security. Top stars from the Telugu film industry including renowned actors Allu Arjun, Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan Tej, Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Jr also known as Junior NTR and SS Rajamouli came out and cast their vote in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Allu Arjun arrived at the BSNL office, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad to cast his vote. The actor also urged his fans to exercise their franchise by…
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Hyderabad (Telangana) [India], April 11 (ANI): The first phase of Lok Sabha Elections 2019 commenced on Thursday morning amidst heightened security. Top stars from the Telugu film industry including renowned actors Allu Arjun, Chiranjeevi, Ram Charan Tej, Nandamuri Taraka Rama Rao Jr also known as Junior NTR and SS Rajamouli came out and cast their vote in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections. Allu Arjun arrived at the BSNL office, Jubilee Hills, Hyderabad to cast his vote. The actor also urged his fans to exercise their franchise by sharing a post…
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Newsnight Scotland
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Last Updated: Friday, 17 March 2006, 12:06 GMT
Pizza is better without cheese
By Peter Barron
Newsnight editor
NEWSNIGHT REVIEW
CLICK HERE TO READ YOUR COMMENTS
I was at a dinner the other night and met an interesting chap who'd just written a book about the history of the aphorism.
We had quite a lengthy conversation about what constitutes an aphorism, as opposed to a maxim, nostrum, proverb or cliché. As he explained, an aphorism is short pithy statement attributed to one person.
His favourite - coined by George Burns - was, "No snowflake in an avalanche ever feels responsible". Pretty good.
It made me think, wouldn't it be good to contribute an aphorism to the language, so here - virally - is my attempt:
Just because things are generally done one way ... doesn't mean it's the best way to do it - that's more or less the philosophy behind what we try to do on Newsnight
"Pizza is better without cheese." To my mind, it has - unlike the business about the snowflakes - the merit of being literally true and metaphorically valuable.
I love cheese. But I hate the greasy, molten scab you get on top of most pizzas. To my mind a pizza should be thin and crisp, with tomato, herbs, garlic and maybe a little dried chilli. But none of Britain's numerous pizza chains offer such an option.
So, I end up having to explain what it is I want to a waitress who looks at me as if I'm either a militant vegan or a sufferer of lactose intolerance. Then, quite often, the message doesn't get through to the chef and you're faced with the split-second choice of whether to accept the cheesy offering and try to eat it, or send it back and end up having your lunch alone when everyone else has finished, without cheese but possibly with the disgruntled waitress' saliva.
It's a dilemma with no right answer.
Cheese is an American affectation
This week I was introduced to Armando Iannucci, who was being shown round the BBC newsroom by the head of TV News to absorb material for his excellent series The Thick of It.
Armando Iannucci also favours pizza without cheese, apparently
I read somewhere that he too favours pizza without cheese, and he should know - his father used to run a pizza factory. "Cheese is an American affectation," he confirms.
Can we really be alone in this? Time, I think, for a national debate.
The metaphorical bit of my aphorism is simple. Just because things are generally done one way, and almost everyone accepts that's the way it's done, doesn't mean it's the best way to do it.
That's more or less the philosophy behind what we try to do on Newsnight. As a philosophy it's not a million miles away from "think outside the box".
The trouble with Edward de Bono's classic aphorism is that it has slipped into cliché, so remember the next time you reach for it there is an alternative.
Broccoli won't save the planet
It's amazing how quickly received wisdom can settle and congeal. Take our Ethical Man series. In the Guardian this week Natasha Walter, with reference to Justin Rowlatt's project scolded:
"All the organic broccoli in the world won't be enough to save the planet."
She assumed how Justin's project will proceed when in fact the point of what he's doing is precisely to identify the things that certainly won't save the planet and the things that might.
Journalism, like pizza chains, loves a formula. This week we've been debating those phrases used on news programmes which really grate. "The deadly H5N1 virus" came up. It is indisputably pretty deadly, or at least, as our science editor says, highly pathogenic, but very quickly the words start to wash over you in a meaningless way, like "the radical cleric Moqtada Sadr" or in an earlier time "mainly Muslim West Beirut".
My own pet hate is the phrase they use on BBC1 bulletins before the regional programmes, "now the news where you are", which always sounds to me like "wherever the hell you are". I'm told the problem is you can't use the form "across the country" because that alienates the Channel Islanders. But there must be a better way - perhaps you know it.
WHAT TV NEWS PHRASES DO YOU HATE? CLICK HERE TO TELL US
At the same dinner I met another interesting fellow who's a Newsnight devotee and subscriber to our e-mail service.
He had two questions. Why doesn't Jeremy Paxman write the daily e-mail like the other presenters? Answer: because Jeremy, contrary to the prevailing trend, thinks that the pre-eminent form of communication is still television and remains to be convinced otherwise.
And who is that irritating chap who's always writing about things like the Newsnight theme tune? Ah.
CLICK HERE TO READ PREVIOUS COLUMNS
NEWS CLICHÉS YOU HATE
PIZZA AND CHEESE
"Yes that shot was 'always' going over the bar/wide of the post." This phrase in football commentary really gets me. Of course it's "always" going over or wide because that's where it's going. I haven't seen a shot that's going wide then suddenly change direction in mid-air for no reason and go into the back of the net.
Ashley Patton, Derry, Northern Ireland
We always here now from politicians the phrase "Let's be absolutely clear about this", used as a punctuation in the interview which always comes across as "Okay, interviewer, you've backed me into a corner, I just have to take a breath while I remember the official line from my department which will seem even more inexplicable to the public but hopefully convince you, the interviewer, to start winding things up because, let's be clear about this, I'm going into neutral and I want my teddy."
James de la Rue, Nottingham
Every night I watch reports, followed by the studio newsreader saying "we are joined from the scene by our such and such correspondent for the latest update". Then follows a series of questions to the correspondent, who just gave us a full report, where we get the EXACT same information we have just heard. BBC - your viewers are not as stupid and forgetful as you obviously think we are.
Neil Stephen, Isle of Skye
More often heard in sports news, usually used several times by the footballer, manager or TV pundit - "at the end of the day..." makes my teeth go on edge.
Kevin Sands, Oxford
"Now, let's have a look at the time. It's quarter past six."
Julian Corner, Whitby
The word "currently". You are either going to do something, are doing something, or have done it. If you are currently doing something, it's tautology!
Tom McKay, London
On Channel 4 news, the main presenter will introduce, and thus utterly trump the second presenter's story. For example, "Two million pounds was stolen today - with more on that, over to whoever". Quit hogging the stories man! You've already got the main slot. It's like someone taking over your joke's punchline.
Dave Lynch, London
"The family made this emotional appeal." The fact that it's emotional is usually pretty obvious.
Seamus, Middlesex
Why was last week's snow a "weather event"?
Phil, Edinburgh
"All this and more - after the break." Could they for once not try to build up a break! If people actually like the show then they will be watching it anyway.
Calum Wiggle, Keswick
"Lessons have been learnt" is one of the most aggravating phrases ever, which is repeated every time something which should never have happened does. Nearly all the time, the same thing proceeds to happen right after "lessons being learnt". So are they ever actually learnt? I don't think so.
Ruben Arakelyan, Ruislip
"Starved of the oxygen of publicity" does it for me. But then I suppose that clichés are indeed the nuts and bolts of the language.
Dermot, London
This morning on Radio Four, I heard a warning of a "snow event".
Mr Kirk Elder, Peebles
"Shark infested waters" - why are the waters always "infested" with sharks? Also, there has been a "brutal murder" - do you know of any murders that are not brutal?
Hilary Bennett, Kingston upon Thames
"Don't go anywhere", just before a commercial break implies that the host of the television show I am watching has earned the right to tell me when I can and cannot leave my own living room. If I am planning to go out and miss the remainder of the programme then I shall. So there.
Jim Jones, London
"A touch of frost." Is there no other way to describe a light covering of tiny ice crystals on a cold surface? And why does every single footballer or manager from the winning side describe themselves as "delighted"? Painful.
Carlos A Fortin, Brighton
The most irritating expression has to be the one that late night ITV News bulletins would end with (I don't know whether they still do) - "That's it - more news later". Did viewers really need reassuring that there would be other newsworthy events in the future?
Kris Jones, London
The news phrase I hate is "This report from [our political correspondent etc]" or "This from..." It's so unnatural - I don't say to my wife "This statement from the bank" or "this shopping from Waitrose".
Maurice Waite, Appleton
"Top" - as used in inane television programmes to imply a guest is leader in their field: "top doctor", "top chef", "top expert", "top actor", etc.
Stuart Fotheringham, Ashford
My most hated TV News phrase has to be that, delivered by a presenter when wrapping up a two-way with a reporter, "Alright (name), thanks for that". Or, even worse, "Alright (name), for the moment - thanks for that." GGGRRRRRR!!
Michael Williams, London
My pet-hate TV phrase is "one of Islam's holiest shrines". When is the attack ever against "one of Islam's least holy shrines"?
Alison Broinowski, Sydney, Australia
It may be a grim task for a correspondent to fill the eerie silence left by the omission of the phrases "...grim task" and "...eerie silence, but banish them nonetheless.
Roo Johnstone, Phuket
The phrase "the news from where you are" raises a laugh in our house every night. For the next five minutes of hearing it we give updates of events in our lounge in the style of newsreaders. Sometimes it raises tears of laughter hearing such banal events spoken as if they were major news stories. You should give it a go. My son's "on the scene" live updates of visitors to the chip shop next door was particularly legendary.
Bob Dunning, Leeds
"Some atrocious weather on the way," repeated ad nauseum by bimbo weather presenters referring to that life blood of civilisation - rain.
Don Curtis, Brighton
The BBC comment I loathe most is when passing over to local news. To add insult to injury dear Huw says "Goodbye" at the end, which is ridiculous! Far better when Peter Sissons used to put it as "Now for news from across the United Kingdom" or words very much to that effect.
Sue W, Somerset
"And now the news wherever the hell you are" sounds pretty good to me, Mr Barron. I think you may be on to something.
Mrs Collette Dauphinais, Thunder Bay, Ont Canada
Frank Miles, Beckenham
"Fair and balanced."
Dale Penprase, Midland, MI US
"The jury is still out."
Russell Miller, West Wickham
"Massive Heart Attack." Really?
Angharad Jones, Berkeley, California (originally Ynyswen, Wales)
"Of course, it's far too early to speculate..." This phrase tends to precede several minutes of speculation.
Gareth Graham, Bristol
Whenever the adverb "clearly" is used by a politician one can be certain that the opinion that follows will be dubious at best.
Steve Langford, Seattle, Washington USA
The TV cliche I hate is "pulled from the rubble" when someone's rescued in any disaster, from avalanches to destruction by bombs.
Hilda Meers, Whitehills
As an Englishman living in America, I have become accustomed to the American habit of making everything bigger or more complicated. Americans don't move, they "relocate". A simple tavern will be called "The Inn on The Park in the Square". There used to be a car company here called "Ford" - now its known everywhere as "Your Quality-plus Ford Dealer and You". "The news where you are" sounds a bit like that. What's wrong with, "Now the local News"?
Jonathan Clifton, Riverton, New Jersey, USA
Personally, I get very irritated by some weather-forecasters' phrases - as for instance when they talk about "more organised rain". The other day, I heard the rather odd-sounding "There's some sunny pie coming your way" - but can't say I disliked that. Quirky, though.
Michael Simpson, Ticehurst, East Sussex
How about: "Now here's your local news"? Too simple?
Beth T, Corvallis, Oregon, USA
Least favourite phrase in the news broadcasts: "[Insert name/organisation] is expected to announce [insert report/paper etc]." It's not news yet!
J Smith, Eastleigh, Hampshire
The word MASSIVE before either stroke or heart attack - pure Partridge.
Tom Brooks-Pollock, London
Just before the "now the news where you are" remark we are invariably exposed to the equally irritating "I'll be back a little later with the latest on the day's headlines". There are two points to make about this: 1) Are the news headlines really going to change within the next three or four minutes? 2) Why should those of us who have just sat through half an hour of news have to hear the same headlines repeated yet again? Solution: end of national news - cut to "local" news (in inverted commas because I live in Cumbria yet have to sit through endless stories about Manchester and Liverpool) - cut to weather - cut to trailers/next programme. If you missed the headlines, tough luck. Switch on Ceefax or use your red button!
Chris Johnston, Ulverston, Cumbria
Excellent column Peter. I have a suggestion, borrowed from the late, great local on-air guy, Tom Cherington. "Here is YOUR news." There - simple, non-exclusive.
Patrick Moore, Hamilton, Canada
Most irritating on North West tonight is Gordon Burns' opening statement: "Welcome to North West tonight, I'm Gordon Burns." Why does he have to tell us his name every time?
Una Talbot, Wigan
When did the word "ongoing" become such common currency that it crops up in just about every news report? What happened to "continuing"?
Alan Knowles, Glasgow
I get irritated when the news reader or interviewer says, at the end of whatever, "Thank you very much indeed". Why "very much indeed"? Why not just "thank you"? Isn't it just gilding the lily? Thank you very much indeed.
Barbara MacArthur, Cardiff
The news phrase I hate is the one used to fool us into thinking that a reporter has an intimate (or at least chummy) relationship with a world leader, ie "Kofi Annan told me this morning..." The truth is Kofi Annan told a roomful of journalists amongst whom was our friend from the BBC. If there was a personal interview with someone important you can bet your last penny we would be told about it.
Mike Thomas, Swansea
Any time anarchism is mentioned it is done so with the meaning of lawlessness, violence and chaos. Anarchism means without rules or without government. It is a real bastardisation of the term and takes everything away from the beauty of a truly anarchic society.
Ben, London
I hate the gross over-use by news presenters of the word "indeed" when thanking someone for a contribution. They use it in nearly all instances, presumably to sound extra-friendly. Instead, it should be kept for use on the rare occasions when the thanks are much more than routine, eg when someone has reported breaking news of "the beginning of the end of the world". That really would deserve a "thank you very much indeed".
Prof Donald Read, Poulton
I hate it when it is announced that such and such a programme is on at 10 o'clock. No AM or PM.
David MacKinnon, Arrochar
The one that is most irritating when used by professional interviewers and presenters is "Welcome back". It applies mainly to those working in the commercial sector but the BBC is not immune. The problem with "welcome back" is WE HAVEN'T BEEN AWAY - you have. The viewer remained static - it's the guy on the TV who departed.
Brendan Balfe, Dublin
"Between you and I" or "they gave you and I" or other uses of "I" when it should be "me". It's an over-correction! Is it too late to stop, or can the BBC lead the way on this? Sorry to be a grammar cop, but it hurts the ears.
Katya, New York, New York
"And now on BBC2 Newsnight."
Richard Tew, Poole
"We're almost out of time, but tell us briefly" and "We'll see you later". (How will you see me?)
Bernard Mellor, Langley, BC, Canada
Why is practically every initiative on crime or immigration or pollution, to name a few, always described as "tough, new measures/legislation/policy"? Drives me bonkers and has gone on for years. There, I've said it: one less reason for me to shout at the radio and TV!
Tim, Brighton
Since you have opened the topic up, please can we take it on to the weather forecasters who appear at the end of the news? They persist in using "(insert verb as appropriate) ... its way" to describe the movement of weather; thus "easing its way", "drifting its way" etc. Note that they usually employ a verb that needs no additional phrase and they often make the verb out of a noun. I once heard "positioning its way". While we are at it can you stop them saying "as well", as well? When they have uttered a sentence with a dying fall, they just cannot leave it be - they just have to add two more pointless little words (as well).
Rupert Butler, Axminster Devon
"Well..." Don't feel too bad, though. Whereas in Britain presenters start their answers to questions asked with "Well...", over here in Holland they start their answers with "Uhhh" which is repeated after every other word they utter. So never mind, Newsnight is still my favourite programme. That is, well, uhhh, amongst other excellent BBC programmes. Greetings and please keep up your high standards!
Mrs WM de Gorter, Amstelveen, Holland
Who needs Jeremy Paxman to write the Newsnight column when we have such wit and observation in Peter Barron. For some of us overseas who would rather be in the UK the internet link with the BBC is a most welcome alternative to TV. Whilst we can watch quality BBC reports on our computers we are unfortunately, in North America, more used to watching 50" screen TVs with high definition digital broadcasts. My computer just can't compete with that. It takes more skill to put together the written word in my opinion. Keep up the good work Newsnight. Living abroad is made all the more bearable by your internet access.
Denise Hunt, Oakville, Canada (formerly UK)
"And now over to our correspondent" which more often than not launches into a conversation between the studio based presenter and the remote journalist rather than an uninterrupted fully formed report on the subject. I feel that it demeans the correspondent and makes it look like there were questions that only the presenter could imagine to which the correspondent has to give impromptu, possibly incomplete, answers.
Martin Dayman, Oxford
"Audacious robbery" used when a gang of armed violent criminals attack security guards and steal OUR money. Such criminals are merely dangerous thugs who should be incarcerated for an extremely long period of time. I would rather see the term "audacious" reserved for the truly brave and intrepid legal acts that are worthy of news coverage such as the rescue of Russian submariners trapped underwater.
Philip Barclay, Altrincham
The phrase Tim Henman (or Greg or Andrew) CRASHED OUT of Wimbledon (or whichever Open tournament). He lost a game!
George Prusinski, Loughborough, Leicestershire
"Newsnight's getting under way on BBC TWO now." Surely once in a while it could be rephrased? "If you want to watch Newsnight...
Malcolm Hooson, Cambridge
"From the word 'go'" - just when the hell is that? And, when they say things like "five million people a month pass through Waterloo" when I know ten of them must be me.
Gerry Bond, Reading
"Troops are on the ground." Can't they just "there" like everyone else?
Ross Bellette, Christchurch, New Zealand
The most annoying newsroom phrase is "And finally" because it never is! Even when we all thought it was finally finally, Sir Trevor showed up not five minutes later with another newsy programme. Maybe the term should be changed to "And penultimately".
Llewellyn, Somerton, Oxfordshire
Any phrase or sentence with word "engage" in it. Engage, as far as I'm concerned, should be restricted to gears in a car, a state of intending marriage and an occupied public convenience.
David K, Ilford
"Back in a little while" - implies something flexible and organic, rather than the necessary precision of returning at the exact same time, to the second, every night. "Back in a little while, with the latest headlines" - no, back with the same headlines of 25 minutes ago. "Bye for now" - would anyone dream of saying "bye" to someone they were going to meet again less than five minutes later? An alternative: "We'll now break for your local news before the closing headlines."
Andrew Brown, Leamington Spa
AND ON THE SUBJECT OF PIZZAS WITH CHEESE...
Why pizza without cheese? Italian "pizza Margherita", made with tomato and mozzarella cheese, is delicious and the most popular in Italy. Everybody loves it. And excuse, me it's not true that "Cheese is an American affectation". It's an Italian affectation, rather.
Paolo Di Mizio, Rome, Italy
Yes pizza is better without cheese, hence, I make my own.
Georgia Blackwood, Birmingham
You can keep the cheese off the dough but that still won't be a pizza. If you don't know it's a pizza - it isn't.
Peter Farrell, Croydon
Pizza without cheese? Never! I agree that thick, sticky, greasy cheese is anathema, but what about buffalo mozzarella? This is what pizza was invented for!
Brian, Europe
Absolutely a pizza should be thin and crisp, with tomato, herbs, garlic - a little dried chilli is a must and most definitely no cheese.
Kashmir Kaur, Bingley
I just come back from Shanghai, China. Over there, they have invented a pizza without cheese. It's getting popular.
Alice Shay, Calgary, Canada
Very strange. Armando Ianucci says that cheese on pizza is an "American affectation". Well, that settles it, then. Has it escaped everyone's attention that Mr Ianucci is, in fact, Scottish? This simple fact alone automatically disqualifies him from any discussion on food - he dislikes cheese on his pizza, presumably, for the simple reason that it slips off when he deep-fries it.
Steve, Clearwater, Florida
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NEWSNIGHT BLOGS
Economics: Paul Mason
Diplomacy: Mark Urban
Science: Susan Watts
Politics: Michael Crick
US: Peter Marshall
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Music and ethics
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What is the point of Jeremy Paxman?
Could you do better?
Smears, the Sun and squirrels
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Penn coach Jerome Allen fired – why the Allen era didn't work
January 23, 2016 March 7, 2015 by John Phillips
Jerome Allen ultimately couldn”t successfully come full circle as Penn”s head coach after a wildly successful run as a player for the Quakers.(usatoday.com)
As ESPN”s Jeff Goodman first reported, Jerome Allen has been fired from his post as Penn’s head coach, an inevitable, Shakespearean ending to a marriage that saw much more sickness than health over Allen”s tenure. The writing had been on the wall for seasons, and after he coaches on Saturday against Cornell and Tuesday against Princeton, Allen will relieve his post. The Daily Pennsylvanian reports that M. Grace Calhoun informed the coach that he had been relieved of his duties on Monday, following his squad”s third-straight weekend in which the Quakers were swept.
Allen’s time as Penn’s head coach was a tragedy indeed. For starters, on a personal level, anyone who knows Allen personally speaks to his high character, that he is a wonderful person who people trust. And Jerome Allen, the man – who came from a rough part of the Germantown neighborhood of Philadelphia, who has a family and kids – just lost his job after continually coming up short for years, which is never an easy thing to endure for anyone.
But now that the story of Jerome Allen, the coach, has come to its end, he deserves just as much sympathy as he does criticism.
One could make the argument that this arrangement was doomed from the start. Allen came into the post without even a year of collegiate coaching experience. Former athletic director Steve Bilsky made the choice based more on Allen’s legacy as one of the best players to don a Penn uniform than his coaching acumen, and in hindsight, he simply didn’t have what it took to coach at a Division I level.
Allen did his best to fit into the role well. He said all the right things. He saw the problems with his squad, and to his credit, he was always honest about them. He certainly knew basketball better than anyone else in the room. But, despite how well dressed he often was, Allen never did much more than look the part when it came to the product on the court.
His teams were consistently erratic. The defensive principles that Allen made a favorite part of his coach-speak were never enough to make up for stagnant offense, poor shot-selection, turnovers, and the inability to put together a cohesive 40-minute effort.
Allen struggled to get the best out of his players, due in large part to a difficulty in cultivating team culture. The list of incidents goes on and on during his tenure. From players suspended for violating the team’s substance abuse policy, to others suspended for arriving at practice later, or for throwing a punch, to the seemingly farcical tale of a freshman point guard who was caught stealing laptops from Penn dorms, the list goes on and on.
And because of this troubling team identity, Allen could never get the best out of his players. In a different universe, Julian Harrell and Henry Brooks would have been senior leaders on this year’s squad, who, along with juniors Tony Hicks and Darien Nelson-Henry, would have this Penn squad poised to be casino where Yale stands this weekend, on the precipice of reaching the NCAA tournament.
Instead, Hicks and Nelson-Henry are stuck in neutral, while Harrell and Brooks are no longer a part of the team, removed from the squad after Allen sat down the team following last season and attempted – one could say his last attempt – at developing the type of culture that he wanted to see from his players.
Following the dismissal of Harrell and Brooks after last season, a source close to the team insisted that, at a certain point, Allen can only do so much, and the impetus is on the players to become the best people that they can be.
That sentiment has always lingered in my memory. On the surface, the piece to take away from that comment is that the players that Allen had brought on to his squad needed to pull things together. But the underlying idea is that Allen was in over his head.
Both parties suffered as a part of this arrangement. Allen’s legacy is now tarnished, as his poor tenure as Penn’s head coach offsets his phenomenal time donning the Red and Blue as a player. And the Quakers basketball program is in much more dire straights now than it was when Allen took the post, if only because Allen didn’t provide the lift it needed as Harvard rose to national prominence. He may not have been any worse than Glen Miller, but the squad floundered under Allen’s watch.
It was easy to criticize Allen over the years, and from a basketball standpoint, Penn supporters should be glad that Allen is on his way out. The Daily Pennsylvanian reports that Penn will look for a coach with Division I experience as it tries to rebuild its once prominent program, a move that is essentially the administration admitting that Allen was not the right choice for the job half a decade ago.
But now that he is once again Allen, the man, and not Allen, the coach, and his story has been told in its entirety, it’s hard not to feel as though the deck was stacked against him from the start.
Categories Penn Tags Jerome Allen, Jerome Allen fired, penn 2 Comments Post navigation
Ivy Friday Roundup
One injury too many for Columbia
2 thoughts on “Penn coach Jerome Allen fired – why the Allen era didn't work”
The Ancient Quaker
Excellent, my man. Always loved the Man and the player, but not the coach. Well done.
Onward.
The AQ
Filippo2014
I just remember our shock at a Penn Columbia game at Levien about three years ago where in the middle of a timeout, Allen chewed out one of his front court players at mid court. It was shocking. There were the two figures, the coach incensed, literally screaming at the player, gesticulating — and the guilty player just standing there taking it. Never saw that. I have seen coaches yell at players plenty of times, but never isolated – just the two of them – in the center of the arena. From that point on, 3 years ago, the overall lack of success at Penn did not surprise me.
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Queer: March 2007 Archives
ACT UP party tonight
This t-shirt was designed by the legendary activist artist collective Gran Fury 17 years ago.
Today South Africa has national health care.
A lot of people still think they can do something to help drag our own country into the [twentieth] century. Some of them know they have to ACT UP to get there. But activists also know how to party, and sometimes a little cash is needed to help make a stink, so ACT UP is throwing a $20 celebration/benefit bash this evening, and everyone is welcome.
The doors of Manhattan's LGBT Center at 208 West 13th Street (just west of 7th Avenue) will open at 7 pm. The program will start at 8 or 8:30 and will feature readings/performances by Pulitzer-prize winning author Michael Cunningham, the notorious Church Ladies for Choice, Mark Hannay (formerly of the Hot Peaches), and fabulous downtown performance artist Penny Arcade. The evening ends with a dance party that goes until midnight.
[image via ACT UP]
March 31, 2007 10:47 AM | Permalink | Culture, Happy, NYC, Politics, Queer, War | Comments
ACT UP renewed, and transformed
across from the Stock Exchange yesterday
If yesterday's ACT UP twentieth-anniversary action demonstrated anything, it was the coalition's own renewal, and its transformation from an AIDS activist group once largely made up of young middle-class queer white males into one devoted to the this country's larger, evolving healthcare crisis and composed of a much broader community of people who have realized we are all directly affected by both AIDS and a medical system completely inadequate to address it or other health needs.
In New York yesterday every age group and every community in this hugely-diverse city appeared to be represented in the crowd which gathered in and around the Wall Street area. They hurled chants at a powerful corporate medical, insurance and political establishment, reached out in conversations to regular passersby, they brandished both printed and hand-lettered signs addressing an aloof, fortress-minded establishment, and they carried or dragged with them some 50 bulky black body-bag props as they wound through the narrow downtown streets in a band of roughly a thousand souls. At the site of the bull statue near Bowling Green some 30 people were arrested for civil disobedience while lying down in the street amongst those bags.
The NYTimes did not consider the event worthy of a single word or image. See See Andy Humm in Gay City News for the best account of the day.
The new ACT UP appears determined to be only the nucleus [or perhaps, this still being ACT UP, really only the trigger] for re-igniting an enormous popular movement, coinciding with the run-up to the 2008 election, directed toward finally securing this nation's adoption of a single-payer healthcare system after something like one hundred years of broken dreams and promises.
What follows are a few scenes from the struggle as renewed just yesterday.
March 30, 2007 2:21 PM | Permalink | Culture, NYC, Politics, Queer, War | Comments (1) | Comments
ACT UP back to the Wall, this time for single-payer healthcare
going back for more, 20 years later
Apparently as a nation we can accept throwing away something like half a trillion dollars (and counting), and very likely some 700,000 lives, on a remote elective war whose only accomplishment was a second term for the regime of the biggest Big Brother we've ever had, but we [or at least our media and our elected representatives] still think a single-payer healthcare system means handing over too much power to government.
ACT UP has always supported a single-payer health care system, and its members have always understood the role of war in thwarting its achievement. Tomorrow morning, Thursday, at 11:30 this remarkable and unfortunately still indispensable activist group of stalwarts will be marching on and in Wall Street to mark its twentieth anniversary and the beginning of its campaign to make access to healthcare for all, including single-payer insurance and drug price controls, a major issue throughout the 2008 election campaigns.
Anyone who is able to make it is welcome to join us as we gather for the march at 11 am. We will be stepping off from the Federal Building downtown, on the east side of Broadway at Worth Street, just above Chambers Street.
Twenty years on, the press will no longer be labelling us all "homosexuals", as did the NYTimes in its coverage of the first action, shown in the image above, although it was exactly that powerful picture and its caption which sucked me into the group. As far as tomorrow is concerned, while it should be assumed that only those who have decided to commit some form of civil disobedience could be arrested, there is less certainty about that than there ever was in our present terrifying, and terror-stuck, political climate.
I'm bringing my camera, for surveillance purposes.
An editorial in the current issue of The Nation is an excellent tribute* to the historic accomplishment of ACT UP and a reminder that neither the role nor the actors have yet disappeared. Excerpting the last three paragraphs of the editorial:
During the years that followed, ACT UP stormed the National Institutes of Health, the FDA and the Centers for Disease Control to protest their shortcomings. On the local level, Catholic dioceses and boards of education were targeted for blocking HIV information in public schools; city governments for failing to provide care and housing; jails and prisons for setting up segregation units. Some ACT UPers set up guerrilla needle-exchange programs; others staked out the entrances to junior highs to distribute condoms directly to students. Just as essentially, ACT UP members became self-taught experts in such arcane fields as virology and patent law and in so doing rewrote the patient-doctor relationship and helped put the idea of universal healthcare--now favored by a majority of Americans--on the political map.
Along the way, ACT UP borrowed strategies from other radical movements: antinuke protesters for techniques on civil disobedience, antiapartheid campaigners for bringing political funerals to the streets. Many of its tactics--videotaping demonstrations as protection against police brutality, coordinated but autonomous affinity group actions--have become standard fare in the global justice movement, as has ACT UP's deeply democratic tradition.
ACT UP is now a shadow of its former self, but its alums have gone on to found Health Gap, a driving force for global treatment access; the Treatment Action Group, which continues to push the AIDS research agenda; and Housing Works, which has won housing for thousands of New York City's HIV-positive homeless. And true to form, the organization will mark its twentieth anniversary with a march on Wall Street March 29 to demand single-payer healthcare for all.
including a candid apology for the progressive journal's own historic neglect: "Though barely noticed in the pages of this publication, ACT UP would revolutionize AIDS research and treatment, as well as inject new life into the gay movement and infuse the tactic of direct action with its own style of theatrical militancy."
[image from actupny]
March 28, 2007 11:24 AM | Permalink | Culture, NYC, Politics, Queer, War | Comments
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UN Calls for Peace During Olympics
Good luck with that. Really, it's just another meaningless resolution from a useless organization.
The UN General Assembly endorsed Wednesday the Olympic Truce, calling on all countries to respect it individually or collectively during the 29th Olympiad taken place in Beijing next year.
The resolution adopted by the assembly supported China's slogan "One world, one dream" for the Olympic Summer Games to be held August 8 to 24, and the Paralympic Games from September 6 to 17.
The adoption of the Olympic Truce, which has been a standard measure by the UN, came after China, the International Olympic Committee and many countries and organizations spoke in favour of the a time-honoured practice dating back to ancient Greece to stop all conflict during the Olympic sportive events.
Liu Qi, the president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the 29th Olympiad, asked the 192-nation assembly to continue the tradition.
"The UN and the Olympic Movement are natural allies," Liu said. "The Olympic ideal coincides with the UN purpose to promote peace."
Just make sure you remind the Islamists and assorted violent leftist groups before the games start.
Labels: Olympics, United Nations
Hate Crime of the Day at Columbia
Not in any way trying to diminish this most recent incident, but things are just getting stupid at Columbia, and honestly, nobody seems in any rush to solve any of these incidents, especially the purported noose hanging earlier this month.
Swastika found on professor's door at Columbia Teachers College
Police say a professor at Columbia University's Teachers College found a swastika painted on her office door, and the Police Department's hate crime unit is investigating.
Police were called to Teachers College on Wednesday morning after Professor Elizabeth Midlarsky, who is Jewish, discovered the swastika.
This is the second incident in less than a month involving a possible hate crime at Teachers College, Columbia University's graduate school of education.
Actually, it's at least the third, as Newsday failed to report this incident from last week.
More at NY1.
People around campus say they cannot believe yet another sign of hate was left at the school.
“I just couldn’t believe it was happening again,” said one Columbia University community member. “It’s like a bad dream, like the worst of Halloween. It’s just terrible, insensitive, hurtful beyond words.”
“We need to find out why this happening, why people would stoop to this level, really of juvenile, racist, anti-Semitic behavior,” said another. “We need to clean up our house. Something is obviously really wrong.”
UPDATE: LGF and Hot Air link. Thanks!
Labels: Columbia University
Downgrade Christmas, Says British Think-tank
Sure, this will go over well. A nice poke in the eye from a Labour Scrooge to get things started:
'We can no longer define ourselves as a Christian nation, nor an especially religious one in any sense.
'The empire is gone, church attendance is at historically low levels, and the Second World War is inexorably slipping from memory.'
Yes, maybe you ought to harken back to Churchill and figure out how to save a nation. Problem is, it may be too late.
Christmas should be downgraded in favour of festivals from other religions to improve race relations, says an explosive report.
Labour's favourite think-tank says that because it would be hard to 'expunge' Christmas from the national calendar, 'even-handedness' means public organisations must start giving other religions equal footing.
The leaked findings of its investigation into identity, citizenship and community cohesion also propose:
• 'Birth ceremonies', at which state and parents agree to 'work in partnership' to bring up children
• Action to 'ensure access' for ethnic minorities to 'largely white' countryside
• An overhaul of Britain's 'imperial' honours system
• Bishops being thrown out of the House of Lords
• An end to 'sectarian' religious education
• Flying flags other than the Union Jack.
Don Surber asks
“Birth ceremonies.” Didn’t they have one of those in “Rosemary’s Baby”?
Allahpundit is salivating over this choice cut.
What it’s calling for, in no uncertain terms, is social re-engineering on a broad scale to promote a “multicultural understanding of Britishness.”
Yup, it's over.
Labels: Christmas, Great Britain
Boo! Silky Unveils Cheesy Halloween Ad
Starring Rudy Giuliani as the bogeyman.
Invokes old staples Karl Rove and Ann Coulter for good measure.
This nightmare on Pennsylvania Avenue is not as remote as you might think—but you can keep it from coming true.
With just hours to go before our deadline for federal matching funds at midnight tonight, your contribution today will help John Edwards win the Democratic nomination—and scare off the Republicans in 2008!
Polls show that with candidates other than John Edwards at the top of the Democratic ticket, Democrats will have a tough time defending the blue states and winning the swing states we'll need to take the White House in 2008. We could even lose our majorities in Congress!
Seemingly every other day I get mail from Edwards urging recipients to quickly send money so they can make a deadline; conveniently, they always just make it in time.
Whatever the case, it's obvious he and other Democrats believe Giuliani will be the opponent next November and they clearly fear him.
They should.
Labels: John Edwards, Rudy Giuliani
World Toilet Summit Opens
Remarkably, neither George W. Bush or the United States has been blamed for the toilet crisis, though we'll give it time.
After all, the UN is involved in this.
A World Toilet Summit has opened in the Indian capital, Delhi, with more than 40 countries taking part.
The four-day meeting will examine solutions and technologies that can be used to provide a basic need for nearly half the world's population.
Wait until the Democrats get wind of this. They'll probably want to subsidize it and start rationing when you can take a dump.
The UN wants to remedy the situation by 2025.
But the problem is that it is quite expensive for most countries in the developing world to set up western-style toilets and sewage systems.
Western-style? Isn't that imposing our values on others?
Labels: World Toilet Summit
Keep Talking, Chuckie
Fifty-three weeks before the 2008 elections and this vile creature, the ugliest man in America, is talking some serious trash.
Bombing Iran, says Chuck Schumer, would be a big political loser for Republican candidates in 2008.
“It would change the landscape against them, big time,” Mr. Schumer, the chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, said about a scenario in which the Bush administration launches a military attack on Iran before leaving office. “I don’t think they are likely to do it, because they are so weak—not because they are chastened—but I also think it is very likely to be a negative political for them.”
Despite all the Bush administration’s saber rattling, the 56-year-old Brooklyn native believes the president’s political footing is too weak to build the case for another war, especially when the public is “far more skeptical of that the second time around.”
In an interview in his Third Avenue offices on Oct. 29, the top Democratic political tactician in Congress expressed unwavering optimism in his party’s chances to increase its majority in the Senate, even in the case of a traumatic event like war with Iran. He evinced similar confidence about the prospect of having the ostensibly polarizing Hillary Clinton at the top of the Democratic ticket, and about his Senate candidates having to campaign against the supposedly moderate Rudy Giuliani.
“The wind is at our backs as Democrats,” he said.
Forget about protecting America's vital interests, it's all about winning elections.
The thought of a nuclear Iran doesn't seem to concern him. Conservative Supreme Court justices, however, really frighten him.
He scares easily. No wonder he's so afraid of the Islamofascists.
And what of his fellow New Yorker, Rudolph Giuliani, whose Republican primary strategy is based on the notion that he’d be the party’s best performer in a general election?
Mr. Schumer thinks he’s simply too frightening.
“The idea of a campaign that just scares people, ‘We’re going to be attacked and I am the only one that can save you,’ is a very unappealing campaign,” said Mr. Schumer.
He added, “When Rudy Giuliani says that he is going to pick [Supreme Court] justices like [John] Roberts and [Samuel] Alito, I think it is very scary and it’s going to be politically harmful to him.”
It would please me to no end to see the smug look wiped off his face and watch his party returned to permanent minority status.
Labels: Charles Schumer
Was McCarthy Right?
Fifty years later, we're still debating it.
The Midnight Sun has a look at modern-day spying and says unequivocally that Tailgunner Joe was on the right side of history.
If you ever want to see an uninformed liberal twitch uncontrollably, remind them of the Kennedys and their history with McCarthy.
Labels: Joseph McCarthy
Good News: IDF is Using Elite Female Stripper Death Squads
Nothing quite opens the eyes like seeing strippers and death squads in the same headline.
Maybe it's too good to be true, but who cares?
The Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida carried a story this past week about IDF tactics that surpassed all previous accusations of supposed Israeli deviousness - poisoned candies, hormone-laced gum, poisoned wells, magnetized belts -in its bizarreness.
The Palestinian Authority newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida carried a story this week about IDF tactics that surpassed all previous accusations of supposed Israeli deviousness - poisoned candies, hormone-laced gum, poisoned wells, magnetized belts -in its bizarreness.
According to an Al-Hayat Al-Jadida front page report, the IDF has turned to using armed, female strippers in its war on upstanding Palestinian boys. The newspaper reports that when the Arab rock-throwing begins, IDF soldiers run for cover. Then, the story continues, after some time of hiding, an Israeli woman stands up on top of a barricade and begins to perform an alluring strip tease. Innocent Arab teenage boys, distracted from the business of rioting, are enticed to approach, when, according to the newspaper, the woman -- an IDF soldier -- shoots them with a pistol she had hidden in her underwear.
Ben Hur gets the hat tip for this one, although I'm really annoyed at myself for not having had the radar up for this one.
Update: More from Hot Air.
Labels: death squads, IDF, Palestinian Authority, strippers
Little Hitler Warns of "Quagmire"
Looks like the Democrat talking points are slow in getting to Lil' Mahmoud.
He should know that his buddies on the left aren't saying much of anything about Iraq lately because the news is all pretty good. And frankly, quagmire is soooo 2003.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran warned the United States on Wednesday it would find itself in a "quagmire deeper than Iraq" if it attacked the Islamic state, and Russia stepped up efforts for a diplomatic solution to Tehran's nuclear row with the West.
The warning by the head of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards, a target of new U.S. sanctions announced last week, added to angry rhetoric between the two old foes that has prompted speculation of possible U.S. military action.
U.S. President George W. Bush this month suggested a nuclear-armed Iran could lead to World War Three but the White House said on Tuesday it remained determined to resolve the stand-off peacefully.
"If the enemies show inexperience and want to invade Islamic Iran, they will receive a strong slap from Iran," Jafari said in comments carried by the semi-official Fars News Agency.
"The enemy knows that if it attacks Iran it, will be trapped in a quagmire deeper than Iraq and Afghanistan, and they will have to withdraw with defeat," he told a parade in north-central Iran, without mentioning the United States by name
These freaks have no idea how hard they're about to get slapped.
By the way, I notice Reuters cropped the above photo so you don't see the pipsqueak standing on the milk crate. Have to keep up appearances.
Labels: Iran, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
Kid Playing With Matches Started California Wildfire
OK, so it wasn't global warming, wasn't Iraq, and it wasn't Blackwater.
Officials: Boy with matches started fire
SANTA CLARITA, Calif. - Officials blamed a wildfire that consumed more than 38,000 acres and destroyed 21 homes last week on a boy playing with matches, and said they would ask a prosecutor to consider the case.
The boy, whose name and age were not released, admitted to sparking the fire on Oct. 21, Los Angeles County sheriff's Sgt. Diane Hecht said Tuesday. Ferocious winds helped it quickly spread.
"He admitted to playing with matches and accidentally starting the fire," Hecht said in a statement.
The unapologetic insane troika of Harry Reid, Barbara Boxer and Randi Rhodes were unavailable for comment.
By the way, isn't it curious how quickly the national drive-by media fled California?
Labels: Barbara Boxer, California fires, Harry Reid, Randi Rhodes, stupidity
Shhh! Economy Grows at 3.9%
More grim news for Democrats. Of course, once again, the experts were wrong.
How much you want to bet this isn't mentioned on the network news tonight?
Economy Logs Brisk 3.9 Percent Growth
WASHINGTON -- The economy picked up speed in the summer, growing at a brisk 3.9 percent pace, the fastest in 1 1/2 years and an impressive performance even as a credit crunch plunged the housing market deeper into turmoil.
The latest snapshot of the country's economic health, released by the Commerce Department on Wednesday, suggested that the economy is demonstrating much resilience and thus far holding up well to the strains in the housing and credit markets, which had intensified during the third quarter and rocked Wall Street. Individuals ratcheted up their spending. U.S. businesses sold more goods abroad and boosted some investment at home. Those were some of the main factors helping to push up overall economic activity in the July-to-September quarter.
The third quarter's growth rate was up slightly from a 3.8 percent pace logged in the second quarter. It marked the strongest showing since the first quarter of last year.
The increase in third quarter gross domestic product exceeded analysts' forecasts for a 3.1 percent growth rate for the period. Gross domestic product is the value of all goods and services produced within the United States and is considered the best barometer of the country's economic fitness.
Labels: U.S. economy
Melodramatic Sock Puppet Coming Unglued
Bush is a lawbreaker! Cheney's a criminal!
Now best-selling author and renowned constitutional attorney Sockety McSockpuppet is going after Jay Rockefeller.
Leading telecom advocate Fred Hiatt this morning turned over his Washington Post Op-Ed page today to leading telecom advocate Jay Rockefeller, the Democratic Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman, to explain why it is so "unfair and unwise" to allow telecoms to be sued for breaking the law. Just as all Bush followers do when they want to "justify" lawbreaking, Rockefeller's entire defense is principally based on one argument: 9/11, 9/11, 9/11.
The nutroots crackup is in full bloom.
Is it OK to have popcorn this early in the morning?
Labels: Glenn Greenwald, Jay Rockefeller, stupidity
Attacks, Casualties Plummet in Iraq; WaPo Yawns
Don Surber has the details.
The news is good, so why is this not on Page One?
It's only a matter of time before Dingy Harry takes credit.
Labels: Iraq, media bias
Shocker: Someone Finally Asks Pantsuit a Tough Question
What's it been, seven years in office and this woman hasn't had to answer a difficult question from the feckless media?
Well, actually, this is a no-brainer: Should illegals aliens get driver's licenses?
Obviously, the overwhelming majority of New Yorkers don't agree with Eliot Spitzer's insane plan.
Now Mrs. Clinton fumbles a routine question she should have been prepared for.
Hillary Rodham Clinton stumbled badly at last night's Democratic debate when she repeatedly refused to give a direct answer about whether she supports Gov. Spitzer's plan to give driver's licenses to illegal aliens - and got slammed by her opponents for evasive double-talk.
"I was confused on Sen. Clinton's answer," said Sen. Barack Obama, who backs the plan. "I can't tell whether she was for it or against it."
He added, "One of the things that we have to do in this country is be honest about the challenges that we face."
Of all people, the Sandwich King took her to task.
Sen. Chris Dodd of Connecticut said a driver's license was "a privilege, not a right," and that illegals shouldn't be allowed to get one.
Clinton shot back that "I did not say that it should be done," prompting Dodd to counter, "You said yes."
"No I didn't, Chris," Clinton insisted.
The Democratic front-runner said illegal immigrants are "driving on our roads. The possibility of them having an accident that harms themselves or others is just a matter of the odds."
But she did not clearly say whether or not she backs Spitzer's plan.
That prompted MSNBC moderator Tim Russert to ask, "Do you . . . support your governor's plan to give an illegal immigrant a driver's license?"
Again, Clinton wouldn't respond directly, saying, "We want people to come out of the shadows," and adding Spitzer is "making an honest effort to do it."
"Unless I'm missing something, Senator Clinton said two different things in about two minutes," said former Sen. John Edwards.
There she is, folks, your already-coronated Democrat nominee.
Good luck propping her up for another year.
Hot Air has video from last night.
Labels: Democrats, Hillary Clinton, illegal aliens
Lance Rebounds From One Square
Lance Armstrong has apparently gotten over Sheryl "One Square" Crow pretty quickly and has been spotted canoodling with stick-figure gazillionaire Ashley Olsen.
ODD couple alert: Ashley Olsen has a new, older man. The 21-year-old twin showed up to the Rose Bar at the Gramercy Park Hotel Monday night with Tory Burch's ex, Lance Armstrong, 36. Our bar spy said, "They came together with a group of friends. Ashley drank red wine, sat on his lap and they were making out all night. They left together around 2 a.m."
As a sign of commitment, she's now wearing a blue bracelet around her waist.
Labels: Ashley Olsen, Lance Armstrong, Sheryl Crow
Due to Rampant Violence, City of Peace and Love Cancels Halloween Bash
Maybe if these violent liberals just cleaned up their act and behaved like civilized human beings, everyone could enjoy Halloween.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - City officials want the hundreds of thousands of people who usually flock to an annual Halloween street party here to stay home or go elsewhere after several episodes of violence in recent years.
Officials have advised would-be revelers through fliers, public service announcements and juvenile probation officers that they won't find many treats in the Castro District, home in past years to the largest Halloween happening in the San Francisco Bay area.
What they will find are hundreds of extra police officers, shuttered restaurants, stepped up sobriety checks and no bus or train service after 8:30 p.m.
"This is really a public safety decision," said Supervisor Bevan Dufty, who represents the Castro and spent the better part of a year trying to arrange an alternative city-sanctioned gathering. "I'm disappointed my message is one of, 'Please don't come.'"
The festivities started decades ago as a homegrown celebration for San Francisco's gay and lesbian community, but has drawn a scarier element in recent years. In 2002, five people were stabbed. Three years ago, someone wandered the crowds wielding a chain saw.
Liberalism: A failure wherever it's tried.
Of course, I'm sure the vile Folsom Street Fair will always go on.
Labels: Halloween, San Francisco
Sockety McSockpuppet Meets Miss Ketel One
Gosh, I'm so sorry to have missed this epic.
UPDATE II: I'll be on the Randi Rhodes Show today at 4:30 p.m. Eastern to discuss the Boylan matter. Local listings are here and live audio feed is here.
A blithering idiot with multiple sock puppets (though he is a best-selling author and famed constitutional attorney) being interviewed by a delusional drunk.
Stimulating radio. Must have tripled her ratings to at least six people, including four of Greenwald's sock puppets.
How long does Sockety plan milking this trainwreck for?
More on this idiot at protein wisdom.
Labels: Glenn Greenwald, Randi Rhodes, sockpuppets
Giraffe Named After Red Sox
In just a few short months, he'll be able to hurl insults with the best of them.
To honor the Red Sox four-game World Series sweep of the Colorado Rockies, staff at the Franklin Park Zoo on Monday named a baby giraffe "Sox."
In a statement, Zoo New England President and Chief Executive Officer John Linehan said the staff chose the name because of the female calf's long, lanky legs.
Other names considered were "Red," "Fenway," "Champion," and "Boston."
I guess Churlish Blowhard was taken.
Labels: Boston Red Sox
Pelosi Unveils Democrat Agenda
Playing with toys, while the grown-ups do the heavy lifting.
How long until the Democrats toss her under the bus?
UPDATE: Don Surber links. Thanks!
The owner of the second most informative blog in the known universe is quite a fan of Mrs. Speaker.
Labels: Nancy Pelosi
Tin-Foil Kook Questions Bush's Sanity
The hero of the nutroots serves up the red meat.
Kucinich questions Bush's mental health
PHILADELPHIA - Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich questioned President Bush's mental health in light of comments he made about a nuclear Iran precipitating World War III.
"I seriously believe we have to start asking questions about his mental health," Kucinich, an Ohio congressman, said in an interview with The Philadelphia Inquirer's editorial board on Tuesday. "There's something wrong. He does not seem to understand his words have real impact."
Kucinich, known for his liberal views, trails far behind the leading candidates in most Democratic polls. He was in Philadelphia for a debate at Drexel University.
Bush made the remarks at a news conference earlier this month.
He said: "I've told people that if you're interested in avoiding World War III, it seems like you ought to be interested in preventing them (Iran) from having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon."
Kucinich said he doesn't believe his comments about the president's mental health are irresponsible, according to a story posted on the newspaper's Web site.
"You cannot be a president of the United States who's wanton in his expression of violence," Kucinich said. "There's a lot of people who need care. He might be one of them. If there isn't something wrong with him, then there's something wrong with us. This, to me, is a very serious question."
Labels: Dennis Kucinich, George W. Bush, Iran, moonbattery
Whatever Happened to Ari Fleischer?
At Pajamas Media, Webutante catches up with former White House Press Secretary Ari Fleischer.
Having kept a relatively low profile since leaving the White House, Fleischer has some plans for the future of the GOP and Jewish voters.
It was at that moment I saw Ari Fleischer in a totally new light: He was a modern day Moses leading his people out of slavery, into freedom. But rather than leading them out of the land of Egypt, he was taking them out of the bondage of the Democratic party.
Freedom and The Promise Land for Ari and his growing conservative Jewish contingent was now found in 100% strength from a strong military and no nonsense foreign and domestic policies that would no longer tolerate appeasement on any front. And yes, many of the new Jewish Republicans were still more socially liberal, but as far as he was concerned, all other issues facing this country today paled in comparison to the War on Terror, the War in Iraq, and having strong Homeland Security.
There's much more here.
Labels: Ari Fleischer
Possible Cure for Surgical Pain: Hot Sauce!
It's not recommended you try this at home, but why do I see certain people gashing themselves and pouring some hot sauce on the open wound?
Doctors test hot sauce for pain relief
WASHINGTON - Devil's Revenge. Spontaneous Combustion. Hot sauces have names like that for a reason. Now scientists are testing if the stuff that makes the sauces so savage can tame the pain of surgery.
Doctors are dripping the chemical that gives chili peppers their fire directly into open wounds during knee replacement and a few other highly painful operations.
Don't try this at home: These experiments use an ultra-purified version of capsaicin to avoid infection — and the volunteers are under anesthesia so they don't scream at the initial burn.
How could something searing possibly soothe? Bite a hot pepper, and after the burn your tongue goes numb. The hope is that bathing surgically exposed nerves in a high enough dose will numb them for weeks, so that patients suffer less pain and require fewer narcotic painkillers as they heal.
"We wanted to exploit this numbness," is how Dr. Eske Aasvang, a pain specialist in Denmark who is testing the substance, puts it.
Chili peppers have been part of folk remedy for centuries, and heat-inducing capsaicin creams are a drugstore staple for aching muscles. But today the spice is hot because of research showing capsaicin targets key pain-sensing cells in a unique way.
Labels: Eske Aasvang
Comedy Gold: DUmmies Waterboard Each Other
Allahpundit is most amused.
So am I. Though I imagine the satire defense will soon be sprung, if only to show how gullible the rightwing noise machine is.
On the other hand, this guy looks stupid enough.
I was thinking about the AG confirmation and how Mukasey isn't certain that waterboarding constitutes torture. And then I started thinking about how Rudy Giuliani doesn't believe waterboarding is torture either.
So I figured I'd find out for myself. I mean if it isn't torture, it can't be that bad, right?
Let me tell you this, it's not pleasant. And we were operating under circumstances where we absolutely knew that the other person wasn't going to kill us with the technique.
I was wiped out after four tries. My best time was 20 seconds, and I literally gritted it out. It took about all I had, so much so that right afterward on my last try I barely lasted 9 seconds.
My brother tried it a few more times than I did. He beat me on average times, but his highest was 18 seconds.
Mommy and daddy must be so proud, except for that flood in the basement.
Labels: idiocy
Burning Man Freakazoid Tries Torching SF Church
Remember this guy?
Seems to be more than just a merry prankster.
Alleged Burning Man arsonist accused of trying to burn Grace Cathedral
The man accused of setting the Burning Man on fire four days early has been arrested for allegedly planning to set Grace Cathedral ablaze, San Francisco police said today.
Paul David Addis, 35, was arrested on the cathedral steps at 11:40 p.m. Sunday by police who said they had been tipped that someone intended to set fire to the Episcopal church, police spokesman Sgt. Steve Mannina said.
Addis was wearing an old ammunition belt that carried small explosives, Mannina said. He was booked on suspicion of attempted arson, possession of an incendiary substance, possession of explosives and possession of explosives with intent to terrorize a church.
A bomb dog was brought in to search the area and found no other explosives at the California Street cathedral.
Deputy Chief Morris Tabak said Addis had only a small amount of explosives.
"Did he have the capability to do substantial damage? Absolutely not," Tabak said.
Tabak said police didn't know what Addis' alleged motive was. "He said something about it was his religious right," Tabak said.
Tabak said he expects a judge will order a psychiatric evaluation for Addis, who was being held on $488,000 bail.
Addis was arrested early Aug. 28 in Nevada and charged with felony arson for allegedly lighting the icon of the annual Burning Man festival on fire four days before its scheduled immolation. The fire was doused within half an hour, and the figure was rebuilt in time for the official burning at the festival's end in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.
It's probably more likely he was saying something about the religious right, rather than it being his religious right, but I'll leave that up to the men in white coats to figure out.
Whatever the case, this unstable man needs to be off the streets.
Also here.
Via Memeorandum.
UPDATE: More on this crackpot Addis here.
Addis is a spontaneous dude himself, and serious messaging aside, speaks, he said, "with tongue firmly in cheek." At 35 or 37 years old - he prefers 35, which is the age that Nevada police gave the media - he is a self-described "retired" intellectual-property lawyer who quit law in 2000 to pursue a career as an artist. He is currently touring as the star of his production of "Gonzo, a Brutal Chrysalis," a play about the life of another fire-lover, gonzo journalist Hunter S. Thompson. It played earlier this year in San Francisco and has dates scheduled this month in Seattle and in October in Los Angeles.
A lawyer. It figures.
Labels: Paul Addis
Bias Case at Columbia Goes Largely Ignored
For an incident that occured last Thursday, you think there would have been a bit more attention.
Considering the amount of coverage the purported noose hanging incident received at Columbia, it's curious why there's a virtual media blackout with this latest reported case.
Another Bias Incident Investigated At Columbia University
Police are looking into a new bias incident at Columbia University.
The provost of Teachers College told students Friday that two faculty members received an anti-Semitic cartoon and anti-Zionist letters. School officials have not released the names of the two professors.
Police say the hate crimes unit is aware of the incident.
Earlier this month, a noose was found hung on the office door of an African American faculty member at Teachers College. Anti-Semitic graffiti was also found in a bathroom stall in one of the university's buildings.
That's it. Four measly paragraphs.
No protests, no marches, no demands for special programs, raised awareness of anti-Semitism, or worldwide news coverage.
Whatever happened to that noose investigation, by the way?
The Columbia Spectator, which also devotes four paragraphs to the story, doesn't seem to want to know.
Didn't there used to be a journalism school of some repute at Columbia?
Belichick Kicks Them While They're Down
There's a difference between beating people and going out of your way to kick them when they are down. The Colts are beating people. The Patriots are kicking them when they are down. John Clayton of ESPN has an excellent article on Bill Belichick's low class act:
Running it up: Belichick, Pats take no prisoners
On Sunday, Belichick kicked a Hall of Fame coach while he was down, running up the score on Joe Gibbs' Redskins to 52-7. This comes a week after Belichick reinserted quarterback Tom Brady midway through the fourth quarter of a 49-28 win over the Dolphins.
What seemed cute three weeks when Brady threw an unnecessary last-minute touchdown pass to Kyle Eckel while whipping the Cowboys 48-27 has turned ugly.
So why is Belichick running it up on people?
He wore the black hoodie in the Week 1 spy incident and accepted his punishment. Now, he's making the league pay with blowouts
So Belichick is PO'd that he got caught cheating, and is taking it out on the league. Yesterday, he brought new meaning to low class:
That's why he …
• … kept Brady on the field for an 88-yard drive six minutes into the fourth quarter despite already leading 38-0. On that 14-play drive, the Patriots went for a fourth-and-1 at the Redskins' 7 and ordered a 35-yard bomb to Randy Moss.
• … went for a fourth-and-2 at the Redskins' 37 on the next possession while leading 45-0. Backup QB Matt Cassel hit Jabar Gaffney with a 21-yard pass. Two plays later, Cassel scrambled for a 15-yard touchdown run to open a 52-0 lead.
Asked why he would go for two fourth downs in a blowout, Belichick responded, "What do you want us to do, kick a field goal?"
What you don't do Bill, is get 40 points up on an injured and undermanned team and still have your All-pro QB throwing bombs, doing QB sneaks on 4th down to get 1st downs, faking spiking the ball and throwing into the endzone, blitzing the other team late in the game, and needlessly pounding the team into the ground.
I'm not knocking the players, they are doing what they are told on the field. But Belichick knew the 'Skins had only three healthy corners going into the game, one got hurt early, and he still went out of his way to pound on them.
Still, there's no doubt what he's really doing. Redskins veterans Phillip Daniels and Marcus Washington, who have 18 years combined NFL experience, both said they had never seen a team run up the score the way the Patriots are doing.
Face it, folks, Belichick plans to lay waste to the NFL. Commissioner Roger Goodell took away a first-rounder, so the Patriots will take away your firstborn. Belichick has assembled perhaps the most dominating team in NFL history, and he's intent on destroying all opponents in his path.
This is just plain stupidity by Belichick. He is needlessly risking injury to his better players just to stick it to the league. And remember, what goes around comes around.
Other teams are noticing how the Patriots kick people when they're down, and it does not sit well with them. One of these Sundays, injuries will catch up to the Pats, the ball will bounce the other way, and they will get down in a game. And when that happens, watch for some big time payback. And I don't want to hear a word from Belichick when it happens.
This will not end well for Patriots fans.
Posted by 3 wood at 11:14 AM 0 comments
Labels: Bill Belichick, New England Patriots, NFL, Roger Goodell, Washington Redskins
Crackpot Krugman: Islamofascism a "Figment of the Neocon Imagination"
The New York Times may want to reconsider the decision to allow everyone to see the nonsense coming from their esteemed stable of columnists, especially this kook.
He works in all the leftist buzzwords: neocons and fearmongering among them, accusing the right of paranoia and racism and basically calls everyone crazy if you don't think like him.
I wonder if he even sits back and reads what he's writing. In one breath, he labels Iran a fourth-rate military power, yet warns that attacking them will only make them stronger.
Yes, the Iranian regime is a nasty piece of work in many ways, and it would be a bad thing if that regime acquired nuclear weapons. But let’s have some perspective, please: we’re talking about a country with roughly the G.D.P. of Connecticut, and a government whose military budget is roughly the same as Sweden’s.
Meanwhile, the idea that bombing will bring the Iranian regime to its knees — and bombing is the only option, since we’ve run out of troops — is pure wishful thinking. Last year Israel tried to cripple Hezbollah with an air campaign, and ended up strengthening it instead. There’s every reason to believe that an attack on Iran would produce the same result, with the added effects of endangering U.S. forces in Iraq and driving oil prices well into triple digits.
This piece is so incoherent, he goes from claiming we have nothing to fear from Al Qaeda and Iran, but sums up that they're a real threat, but he's more afraid of paranoid, fearmongering, racist Republicans.
Just to be clear, Al Qaeda is a real threat, and so is the Iranian nuclear program. But neither of these threats frightens me as much as fear itself — the unreasoning fear that has taken over one of America’s two great political parties.
Labels: Iran, Islamofascism, Norman Podhoretz, Paul Krugman, stupidity
Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade Endorses Mrs. Clinton
This certainly comes as no surprise. Doesn't she look thrilled by the news?
The terror goons certainly have media access and know her husband pardoned terrorists in order to help her get elected in New York.
Her history with Marxist terrorists, of course, goes way back.
Expect much freaking out over this piece from Deroy Murdoch, but what you won't hear is any factual refutation.
Terrorists Prefer Hillary
Senator Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign is gaining fans, even on the West Bank.
“I hope Hillary is elected in order to have the occasion to carry out all the promises she is giving regarding Iraq,” said Ala Senakreh, West Bank chief of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, a Palestinian terror group. “I hope also she will maintain her husband’s policies regarding Palestine and even develop that policy. President Clinton wanted to give the Palestinians 98 percent of the West Bank territories. I hope Hillary will move a step forward and will give the Palestinians all their rights. She has the chance to save the American nation and the Americans’ life.”
Senakreh and other top Islamo-fascists want Hillary in the Oval Office. These mass murders also have “gone negative.” They want GOP contender Rudy Giuliani dead.
Isn't that special. Looks like this guy is in line for a Media Matters fellowship.
Islamic Jihad’s Abu Ayman felt “emboldened” by Clinton’s demands that America retreat from Iraq. He said: “It is clear that it is the resistance operations of the mujahideen that have brought about these calls for withdrawal.”
“All Americans must vote Democrat,” insisted Jihad Jaara, an exiled Al Aqsa agent who commanded 2002’s siege of Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity.
They obviously fear Rudy Giuliani, no friend of terrorists.
These terrorists’ love for Hillary mirrors their hatred for her leading GOP rival, Rudolph W. Giuliani.
“If I had the occasion to meet him I would hurt him,” said Ramadan Adassi, a West Bank Al Aqsa leader. “For the sake of the American people, Giuliani shouldn’t be elected. He is a disgusting guy, and I think Americans must think very hard about their future and their soldiers who will be killed when they come to elect their leaders.”
“Giuliani doesn’t deserve to live or even to be mentioned,” said Al Aqsa’s Ala Senakreh. “He hates Palestinians and we hate him.”
Al Aqsa’s Abu Hamed said Giuliani “can hate Arafat and the Palestinians, but he knows that nobody is hated in the world more than his leadership, his party, his president, and his Zionist friends.”
Why the hard feelings? Perhaps because Giuliani has snipped terrorists’ bomb wires for 31 years.
Labels: Abu Ayman, Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, Ala Senakreh, Hillary Clinton, Jihad Jaara, Rudy Giuliani, terrorists
Sure He's a Quack, but the Libs Love Him
Looks like the Brits are on to the buffoon Michael Moore.
Quack Michael Moore has mad view of the NHS
The fourth estate has always had a bad name, but it seems to be getting worse. Journalism should be an honest and useful trade, and often still is. But now that journalism has more power than ever before, it seems to have become ever more disreputable. In recent years it has been brought lower and lower by kiss-and-tell betrayals, by “reality” TV, by shockumentaries and by liars, fantasists, hucksters and geeks of every kind, crowing and denouncing and emoting in a hideous new version of Bunyan’s Vanity Fair.
Outstanding among these is Michael Moore, the American documentary maker. He specialises in searing indictments, such as Fahrenheit 9/11 and Bowling for Columbine, and has, without a doubt, a genius for it. Although his films are crude, manipulative and one-sided, he is idolised by millions of Americans and Europeans, widely seen as some sort of redneck Mr Valiant-for-truth.
Nothing could be further from the truth. His latest documentary, Sicko, was released in cinemas last week. Millions of people will see it and all too many of them will be misled.
Sicko, like all Moore’s films, is about an important and emotive subject – healthcare. He contrasts the harsh and exclusive system in the US with the European ideal of universal socialised medicine, equal and free for all, and tries to demonstrate that one is wrong and the other is right. So far, so good; there are cases to be made.
Unfortunately Sicko is a dishonest film. That is not only my opinion. It is the opinion of Professor Lord Robert Winston, the consultant and advocate of the NHS. When asked on BBC Radio 4 whether he recognised the NHS as portrayed in this film, Winston replied: “No, I didn’t. Most of it was filmed at my hospital [the Hammersmith in west London], which is a very good hospital but doesn’t represent what the NHS is like.”
Much more from Don Surber.
Liberalism is built upon a foundation of lies and misrepresentation, which is what Moore is all about.
What's pathetic is the left is too close-minded to be able to distinguish between fiction and fact.
Labels: Michael Moore
Sarkozy Walks Out on 60 Minutes
I knew there was something I liked about this guy.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy showed flashes of temper and abruptly terminated a television interview aimed at introducing him to US audiences.
In the 60 Minutes interview, broadcast in the US on Sunday, the French president sparred with the reporter, called his press secretary an imbecile, said he was too busy to make time for a "stupid" interview and ended the whole conversation abruptly when asked about the state of his marriage to Cecilia.
The Sarkozys' divorce was announced about two weeks later.
"If I had something to say about Cecilia, I would not do so here," he said before cutting off further questions.
Labels: 60 Minutes, Leslie Stahl, Nicolas Sarkozy
So Long, Farewell, Enjoy Your Money
It's all about A-Rod.
DLTDHYOTWO, you greedy SOB.
Not content to make outrageous sums of money and never produce in the post-season, he decides to try and steal a little thunder from the Red Sox.
What a jerk.
“I got a call from Alex tonight, and he is going to opt out," Scott Boras, Rodriguez's agent, told The Post last night during Game 4 of the World Series. “He was just too unsure with new ownership talking about a transition where the organization is going right now. He is not sure what is going to happen with [free agents] Mariano [Rivera] and [Jorge] Posada, and if Andy Pettitte is coming back. He needs more time to assess where the Yankees are going in the future."
Yes, well those three will likely show loyalty to the Yankees and re-sign shortly. As for Rodriguez, if it was all about winning, he'd never have gone to Texas in the first place.
BTW, congratulations are in order for the Boston Red Sox, who are now 8-2 in their last 10 World Series games.
Labels: Alex Rodriguez, Boston Red Sox, New York Yankees, Scott Boras
Muslim Killer Whines About Mistreatment
Not only does he claim prision guards have confiscated his Quran, but they (gasp!) allegedly took some stamps.
Oh, the horrors.
Now the Supreme Court is hearing the case.
A Muslim inmate says prisoners around the country are regularly mistreated by their jailers because of religious faith. The Supreme Court is considering his case Monday.
The issue in the inmate's lawsuit is whether he can sue prison officials for allegedly confiscating two copies of his Quran and his prayer rug.
Abdus-Shahid M.S. Ali, a convicted murderer, says the books and rug are among the personal items that have been missing since 2003, when he was moved from a federal penitentiary in Atlanta to a facility at Inez, Ky.
Muslim inmates have been subjected to "very hard times and bad treatment" at the hands of federal, state and local prison employees because of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Ali says in court papers.
Ali is serving a sentence of 20 years to life in prison for committing first-degree murder in the District of Columbia.
We could have avoided this if he was simply executed for his first-degree murder conviction.
In the Supreme Court, the question is whether federal prison officials qualify as law enforcement officers and are therefore exempt from suit under the Federal Tort Claims Act of 1946. The statute bars liability claims against law enforcement officers involved in detaining property. Two lower federal courts ruled against Ali.
Besides the two copies of the Quran and the prayer rug, Ali is missing stamps and other personal items worth $177 that he says weren't sent along to Big Sandy penitentiary in Kentucky.
Labels: Abdus-Shahid M.S. Ali
UK Muslim MP Seething After Airport Incident
Perhaps had his fellow Muslims not become such a nuisance by flying planes into buildings and murdering innocent people worldwide, this poor fellow wouldn't have to suffer through the humilating indignity of having his bags checked and waiting around for 40 minutes.
Plenty of flyers out there going through this. Get used to it.
Muslim minister detained at airport
Britain's first Muslim minister said he was "deeply disappointed" after being detained at an American airport where his hand luggage was analysed for traces of explosive materials.
Shahid Malik, MP for Dewsbury and International Development Minister, was returning to Heathrow after a series of meetings and talks on tackling terrorism, when he was stopped at Dulles Airport in Washington DC.
He was searched and detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) - the same department whose representatives he had been meeting on his visit to the country.
Mr Malik said: "After a few minutes a couple of other people were also taken to one side. We were all Muslims - the other two were black Muslims, both with Muslim names."
Mr Malik said he was particularly annoyed as a similar thing happened to him last year, when he was detained for an hour at JFK airport in New York by the DHS - despite the fact that he was a keynote speaker at an event organised by the department, alongside the FBI and Muslim organisations in New York.
The theme of that speech was tackling extremism and defeating terrorism.
Mr Malik said he received numerous apologies and assurances from the USA authorities after that incident.
After his detention, which lasted about 40 minutes, he said: "I am deeply disappointed.
I guess next time he comes to visit DHS, we just just let him through, no questions asked.
We just can't bother worrying about the risk of terrorism when the delicate feeling of Muslims are involved.
Labels: Department of Homeland Security, Shahid Malik
Dodd Stuck at Zero, But Has "Room to Grow"
This clown should have given it up months ago.
He's Ron Paul without the charm.
Democratic presidential hopeful Chris Dodd may be trailing in the polls, but he says don't count him out of the race just yet.
Dodd appeared Sunday on NBC's "Meet the Press" and was presented with poll results showing him last in the eight-person field, with 0 percent support.
The most recent AP-Ipsos polls showed Dodd at 1 percent.
"Well, we've got a lot of room to grow here, as we say," he said.
Then, turning serious, the Connecticut senator noted that John Kerry trailed Howard Dean at this stage of the Democratic race in 2003, but came back to win the Iowa caucuses and ultimately the presidential nomination.
"I feel very good about where we are today, and I've certainly been around this long enough to know whether or not there's room to grow, whether or not you've got an opportunity to win the nomination," Dodd said. "And I believe there'll be three or four tickets coming out of Iowa before you go to New Hampshire, and I think that's a very open question."
Maybe he ought to go back to making sandwiches.
Labels: Christopher Dodd, stupidity
Better Yet, Let's Ban John Edwards Ads
Is this guy for real?
CONCORD, N.H. - Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards says prescription drug companies should have to wait two years to begin advertising their new products to consumers.
Edwards on Sunday was outlining a plan to regulate what he views as a proliferation of misleading drug ads. In the decade since the government relaxed rules on advertising directly to consumers, spending on prescription drug ads has nearly quadrupled to more than $4 billion a year, he said in prepared remarks.
"With such aggressive and often misleading drug company marketing, it's too easy for advertising — instead of doctors or proven results — to influence families' health decisions," Edwards said in excerpts of his speech provided to The Associated Press. "But the (Food and Drug Administration) has been an ineffective watchdog, reviewing only a small fraction of ads.
"It's time to stand up to the drug companies and their lobbyists who have rigged the system. It's time to stand strong for families, patients and doctors," said Edwards, a former senator from North Carolina.
Besides the two-year delay on new-drug advertising, he would require drug companies to get FDA approval before launching major ad campaigns. He also would increase penalties for companies that violate truth-in-advertising laws and would require companies to disclose more information about a drug's side effects and effectiveness compared to placebos and alternative drugs.
Any time a slippery operator like the Silky Pony brings truth-in-advertising into the discussion, the BS meter goes off the charts.
Seriously though, is there any aspect of our lives the Democrats don't want to regulate?
Meanwhile, I see Silky visited Coulter Saturday.
I wonder is he cleared that with Ma Edwards first?
Labels: John Edwards
Happy Halloween: Minorities Hardest Hit
Good grief. Is there anything the media won't put a damper on?
Obviously, children and parents shold take precautions when venturing out on Halloween, but trying to make this into a race issue is just ridiculous.
Maybe we should just ban Halloween altogether so nobody is offended.
Minorities less likely to trick or treat
WASHINGTON - Two-thirds of parents say their children will trick-or-treat this Halloween, but fewer minorities will let their kids go door to door, with some citing safety worries, a poll shows.
The survey found that 73 percent of whites versus 56 percent of minorities said their children will trick-or-treat.
That disparity in the survey is similar to the difference in how people view the safety of their neighborhoods, according to the poll by The Associated Press and Ipsos. Lower-income people and minorities are more likely to worry that it might not be safe to send their children out on Halloween night.
Here's a novel suggestion: How about escorting the kids?
Overall, 86 percent of those questioned in the survey said their neighborhoods are safe for trick-or-treating. Ninety-one percent of whites, compared with 75 percent of minorities, said they felt their kids would be secure when they went out seeking candy in their area.
Similarly, 93 percent of people earning $50,000 or more said their communities are safe for trick-or-treating, compared with 76 percent of those making less than $25,000.
Then there are those who are simply offended by Halloween.
Of those adults whose children will not trick-or-treat this year, one-quarter cited safety worries and about one-half said they do not celebrate Halloween.
"It's demonic," said Donna Stitt, 37, a nursing aide from Barto, Pa., with four young children. "People are celebrating the dead. I'm not into that."
Labels: Halloween
We finally wound up above .500 in Week 7, coming in at 8-6 and bringing the 2007 slate to 39-56-7. Getting even for the season will be a monumental task, but we're nothing if not wildly optimistic. Extra added bonus for football fans this week: No Sunday night game means no going out of your way to avoid the oily and unctuous Keith Olbermann.
Giants -9.5 DOLPHINS: The NFL heads to London and Miami fans wish the Fish would stay there. This concludes the creampuff portion of the Giants schedule, with Dallas coming up after the bye. Giants 38-10
Browns -3 RAMS: Rams may actually be worse than Miami, and that's saying something. Browns 27-6
BEARS -5 Lions: Detroit never wins on the road and the Bears have a little payback in mind after giving up 34 in the fourth quarter a few weeks back. Midwest correspondent 3 wood weighs in: "The Bears can not cover the Lions receivers, but Griese should be able to make enough first downs to keep the Bears "D" off the field at least half the time." He says Bears by three, I say they cover. Bears 26-20
Colts -6.5 PANTHERS: Coming off short week, Colts could be tripped up looking ahead to showdown with New England, but not likely against banged-up Carolina. Colts 34-20
TITANS -7.5 Raiders: Tennessee was fortunate to escape miraculous rally by Houston last week, aided by a ridiculous eight field goals from Rob Bironas. This week they'll only need him for extra points. Titans 31-13
VIKINGS +1 Eagles: Adrian Peterson left, right, up the middle. Minnesota may seriously want to consider getting an NFL quarterback. Vikings 16-13
Steelers -3.5 BENGALS: Pittsburgh should be angry after losing at Denver and they never lose in Cincinnati. Bengals a week away from having all their criminals back, a Chris Henry is eligible to return next week.Steelers 31-27
Bills +3 JETS: Bills are alone in second place in the AFC East. They'll remain there the rest of the year. Bills 17-13
CHARGERS -10 Texans: Democrats saddened they can't exploit the California fires any longer, so look for them to make up some new lies this week. Chargers 42-17
BUCS -4 Jaguars: Speaking of fires, Jags were torched by the Colts and lost their starting QB, David Garrard. They're in deep trouble. Bucs 16-10
Saints -3 49ERS: The only thing getting lit up in Northern California this week will be the punchless 49ers. Saints 31-13
Redskins +16.5 PATRIOTS: At some point, the Patriots will fail to cover. Skins aren't that bad and should muster enough offense to keep this reasonable. Patriots 35-20
BRONCOS -3 Packers: Looks like Denver won't have to worry about World Series Game 5 causing traffic problems. Brett Favre and the Pack coming back to reality. Broncos may have salvaged their season last week and may start stringing some wins together. Broncos 28-17
Labels: NFL
Ford: Clinton a Sex Addict
Certainly this comes as no surprise to anyone who's ever seen Bill Clinton in action. Except maybe his adoring wife, who was shocked to find out he was being serviced by a fat intern, and blamed it on the Vast Right-Wing Conspiracy.
Gerald Ford was disturbed by Bill Clinton's skirt-chasing ways - and thought he should check into a sex addiction clinic.
A new book on the late 38th President reveals he had strong views about the Clintons: He thought Hillary wore the pants and that Bill couldn't keep his zipped.
"He's sick - he's got an addiction. He needs treatment," Ford told Daily News Washington Bureau Chief Thomas M. DeFrank, author of "Write It When I'm Gone: Remarkable Off-the-Record Conversations with Gerald R. Ford."
Of course, Clinton never got any treatment, and he and his wife continue merrily along, lying through their teeth each and every day.
"I'll tell you one thing: He didn't miss one good-looking skirt at any of the social occasions," Ford said later.
"He's got a wandering eye, I'll tell you that. Betty had the same impression; he isn't very subtle about his interest."
Nevertheless, when the Monica Lewinsky sex-and-perjury scandal erupted and barreled toward impeachment, Ford was willing to help Clinton - to a point.
After the House voted to impeach Clinton but before the Senate's decision on whether to convict him, the sitting President phoned the ex-President.
"He said he needed my help and wanted to know if I could help," Ford recalled not long after.
Ford had written two Op-Ed pieces in which he called for Clinton to admit he had lied to federal investigators in exchange for censure over impeachment.
He told Clinton that he would help him, if he agreed to such a deal.
"Bill I think you have to admit that you lied. If you do that, I think that will help - and I'll help you. If you'll admit to perjury, I'll do more," he said.
"I won't do that," Clinton told him. "I can't do that."
Ford was stunned by Clinton's lack of contrition. "It's a character flaw," he concluded.
Meanwhile, these two charlatans were up in Harlem Saturday campaigning at a church, which is always condemned when Republicans do it, but just fine for Democrats. Naturally, they kept up their habitual lying, something the both of them are addicted to.
Sen. Clinton - greeted with a standing ovation and a maroon-robed choir singing "Victory is Mine" when she took the pulpit - said it was time to return America "to the basics" of providing jobs and revitalizing the economy.
"Let's end the cronyism and the no-bid contracts," she said, as she attacked the Bush administration for marginalizing the middle class, children and other groups.
"This president is perfectly happy to give no-bid contracts to Halliburton while he vetoes health care for children in America," she said.
Of course, it was Bill Clinton who doled out no-bid contracts to Halliburton long before the current president did, but let's not let the facts get in the way.
Rather than perpetuating the myth of an Iraqi civil war, she might also want to read up on what is actuially happening there, not that she cares.
UPDATE: Gateway Pundit links. Thanks!
Labels: Bill Clinton, Gerald Ford, Hillary Clinton
Dude, Save the 'Shrooms!
What's the world coming to when people's right to hallucinate is infringed upon?
I imagine the UN will soon spring into action to resolve this international crisis.
Dutch protesters make bid to save "magic mushrooms"
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Protesters turned out on Amsterdam's central Dam Square on Saturday, hoping to stop the government from banning magic mushrooms and asking to "save the 'shrooms".
Carrying banners reading "When will they ban bread?" and "Boss of your own brain", more than 100 people, some wearing hats resembling the bright red cap of the popular fly agaric variety, protested to keep hallucinogenic mushrooms legal.
After several incidents involving tourists -- in March, a French teenager jumped to her death from a bridge after taking mushrooms -- the Dutch government plans to ban them.
Arno Adelaars, author of a book on magic mushrooms, said this would only drive users underground and what was needed instead was better information how to use mushrooms right.
"It's only foreigners who have this problem, the Dutch don't because they have good information," he said.
Labels: hallucinogens, magic mushrooms, The Netherlands
NY Times Faults Bush on Syrian Nuke Program
Just harken back to 2003 for a minute. Suppose George W. Bush called a press conference and told the world he had evidence Syria was building a covert nuclear facility and the United States was prepared to take action.
What do you suppose the reaction would have been from the media?
Well, now we know for sure they indeed were building such a facility and, thankfully, the Israelis took it out.
Yet here we now have the New York Times pointing the finger at the admiistration, taking them to task for not doing something.
Just imagine the reaction if we leveled the place four years ago.
Yet Another Photo of Site in Syria, Yet More Questions
To their credit, the Times manages to hold off until the second paragraph before taking Bush to task.
The mystery surrounding the construction of what might have been a nuclear reactor in Syria deepened yesterday, when a company released a satellite photo showing that the main building was well under way in September 2003 — four years before Israeli jets bombed it.
The long genesis is likely to raise questions about whether the Bush administration overlooked a nascent atomic threat in Syria while planning and executing a war in Iraq, which was later found to have no active nuclear program.
A senior American intelligence official said yesterday that American analysts had looked carefully at the site from its early days, but were unsure then whether it posed a nuclear threat.
In the time before the Iraq war, President Bush and his senior advisers sounded many alarms about Baghdad’s reconstituting its nuclear program. But they have never publicly discussed what many analysts say appears to have been a long-running nuclear effort next door.
If Bush came out on national television holding up satellite images of what he said was a Syrian nuke plant, the New York Times and the nutroots would have gone wild, accused him of doctoring photos.
You just cannot win with these people.
Of course, back in 2003, John Bolton raised the specter of Syria developing nukes, but was dismissed by some in the intelligence community.
Apparently, he was right all along.
The progress of the site in late 2003 also raises new questions about a disagreement at the time between intelligence analysts and John R. Bolton, then the State Department’s top arms control official.
In the summer of 2003, Mr. Bolton’s testimony on Capitol Hill was delayed after a dispute erupted in part over whether Syria was actively pursuing a nuclear weapon. Some intelligence officials said Mr. Bolton overstated the Syrian threat.
“There was disagreement about what Syria was interested in and how much we should be monitoring it,” Mr. Bolton said in an interview yesterday. “There was activity in Syria that I felt was evidence that they were trying to develop a nuclear program.”
I wonder who those intelligence officials are and whether they're man enough to step up and apologize to Bolton?
Labels: George W. Bush, John Bolton, Syria
Recipe for Disaster: Rice Seeks Mideast Advice from Carter, Clinton
All I can figure is Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has completely taken leave of her senses.
The absolute last people on the face of the earth she should be getting tips from are a guy who had his pants around his ankles for eight years and the worst president ever, an Israel-hating one at that.
Rice taps Clinton, Carter for Middle East advice
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Anxious not to repeat mistakes of past Middle East peace-making, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has turned to former presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter for tips ahead of her own conference this year.
OK, you want to avoid repeating mistakes, so you get advice from the clowns who made them?
Rice invited Carter, a vocal critic of Bush administration policies, to the State Department on Wednesday where the two discussed his Arab-Israeli peacemaking efforts in the 1970s, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said on Friday.
Their talks were "good and cordial," he said. They focused on the Middle East and not Carter's recent criticism of President George W. Bush's policies in Iraq and elsewhere.
A Soviet specialist, Rice also telephoned another former Democratic president, Bill Clinton, who tried, and ultimately failed, in his eight years in office to bring the Israelis and Palestinians together.
The mind boggles.
Rice has made clear she will devote all her energy in the Bush administration's final 14 months to get what others have failed to attain in the past -- a viable, independent Palestinian state living side by side with a secure Israel.
Give it up now. Only one side is interested in peace here, and it isn't the Palestinians.
Labels: Bill Clinton, Condoleezza Rice, Jimmy Carter
Don't Worry, Dems, We Get the Message
Your message is coming through loud and clear. It's why you're at 11% in the polls.
Feel free to change it, but we won't be listening.
Democrats are losing the battle for voters’ hearts because the party’s message lacks emotional appeal, according to a widely circulated critique of House Democratic communications strategy.
“Our message sounds like an audit report on defense logistics,” wrote Dave Helfert, a former Appropriations spokesman who now works for Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii). “Why are we defending [the State Children’s Health Insurance Program] instead of advocating a ‘Healthy Kids’ plan?”
Of course, they have a rational explanation for why the GOP gets their message through.
His memo is sharply critical of Republican policies but also suggests a neurological explanation for Republican message success: By using emotional appeals and warning of dire threats, Republicans can trigger neurons called “amygdalae” in the temporal lobe, which is the seat of the “fight or flight” response in the brain.
“Almost every Republican message contains a simple and direct moral imperative, a stark contrast between good and evil, right and wrong, common sense and fuzzy liberal thinking,” Helfert wrote. “Meanwhile, we’re trying to ignite passions with analyses of optimum pupil-teacher ratios.”
He's on to us.
UPDATE: Michelle Malkin can't contain the laughter.
Labels: Dave Helfert, Democrats, idiocy
Have Another Drink, Randi
Miss Ketel One really needs to sober up and seek treatment.
I started just doing Google searches to try and figure out. You know, arson, arson, it was like crazy trying to figure out why is that being downplayed? Why is that, you know, just a small part of the story? And you know, every time I look for it what comes up, believe it or not, is that Blackwater wants to move to San Diego and build this giant complex in San Diego right where most of the evacuations are taking place and you know.
You just know wherever there is fire, this administration will be out there doing what it does best and that is fanning the flames, you know. It just spooks me, I can’t explain to you how creepy this whole thing is that you know, you’ve got these fires. Some of them are thought to be the work of arsonists and in the same breath you’ve got a community that’s on fire that just recently protested Blackwater West. Just recently said no to Blackwater and apparently you don’t do that.
I mean, I don’t even know what to think. You know, nobody is saying Blackwater set the fires, that is nobody that doesn’t want their house burned down. Nobody is saying that, but it is all so bizarre that this is America and you have to sort of sit there and wonder … arson, same place Blackwater West wants to be, people protesting. And then you find out that some of the guys that used to work for Blackwater are now in Schwarzenegger’s administration.
It’s all so creepy.
She's either completely insane or in the death throes of wetbrain.
More from Dr. Rusty.
Labels: Air America, alcoholism, Randi Rhodes, stupidity, wetbrain
Matt Ryan Wins the Heisman
If you missed it last night, Boston College quarterback Matt Ryan all but wrapped up the Heisman Trophy with his remarkable performance in Blacksburg, rallying the Golden Eagles to a stunning 14-10 victory over Virginia Tech.
It was probably easy to miss, since Boston fans were otherwise occupied. If you get a chance, catch some video of his late game heroics. It was absolutely magnificent.
It will be difficult for anyone to beat Ryan out now, especially if surprising BC keeps winning.
For the first 56 minutes of last night's game at Virginia Tech, it appeared Boston College's dreams of dancing to Bourbon Street for a shot at the national championship were going to die.
Matt Ryan's hopes for the Heisman Trophy looked shot, too.
But, the Eagles persevered through a tough, rainy environment at Lane Stadium and got a little luck in what has become a magical season with an improbable 14-10 victory over the No. 8 Hokies.
Ryan threw for two touchdowns in the final 2:11, including a 24-yarder to running back Andre Callender with 11 seconds left, to silence the sellout crowd.
Ryan could probably start for at least a dozen NFL teams right now. He'll likely be doing so this time next year.
Labels: Boston College, college football, Heisman Trophy, Matt Ryan, Virginia Tech
I Wanna Go Home
A beautiful tribute from Karridine.
Pantsuit Turns 60, Greedy Minions Count the Ca$h
She doesn't look a day over 59.
Well, I used to like Elvis Costello. Now that he's groveling before this horrible woman, he won't be in the rotation much longer.
"Happy Birthday, Mrs. President," crooned Costello, echoing Marilyn Monroe's serenade of President Kennedy.
I think I'm going to puke.
Does she really think anyone believes she's a Yankee fan?
Apparently, mini-actor Billy Crystal is slurping that Koolaid.
Clinton, standing under three giant pictures of herself, took the stage with a dig at Rudy Giuliani, the Yankees fan who said last week that he's rooting for the Red Sox in the World Series.
"I have been a fan -- and I remain a fan -- of the Yankees, no changes, no looking to curry favor with anybody else," said Clinton, turning the tables on the mayor, who has derided her loyalty to the team as political pandering.
Crystal made repeated references to Giuliani's baseball flip-flop, saying it was like Ann Coulter declaring she's kosher.
Wow, what a yukfest. Maybe some day she'll actually show up at Yankee Stadium. Perhaps when they schedule Chinese Dishwasher Day.
Now what's birthday bash without trashing some people, especially those who've got your number?
The campaign's birthday celebration offered Clinton an opportunity to reach out to older women, a group that's proven surprisingly Hillary-phobic.
"Women over 60 are going to be a tough sell for her," said Hunter College politics professor Andrew Polsky. "This is a generation of women who came of age before the era of feminism, and a higher percentage of them spent their lives as housewives who didn't have a career. To them, she's had an untraditional life and an untraditional career and that makes them uncomfortable with her."
Perhaps her nanny-state socialism has something to do with that as well.
Crystal returned after the Wallflowers, performed, and joked, "Giuliani just retracted the Red Sox thing, so now he's gonna vote for Cleveland."
An upbeat director Ron Howard said as he exited the theater that Crystal "wasn't vicious," but that the crowd was "happy to have" the joke.
Bill Clinton said his wife is "still . . . beautiful" at 60 and quipped, "She was 23 when we first met - poor child didn't know any better."
The event - where tickets ranged from $250 to $2,300 - raised $1.5 million, aides said.
Crystal's comic apex was around 1978 when he played Jody on Soap. It's been all downhill since.
By the way, is it just me or does anyone else find it unseemly that people use their birthdays to shake down campaign contributors?
Speaking of Mrs. Clinton's greed, Suitably Flip has the latest on her criminal fundraiser, Norman Hsu.
Labels: Billy Crystal, Elvis Costello, Hillary Clinton, Ron Howard
Kos Kid: Let's All Convert to Islam
I'll assume this is some of that edgy satire we've grown accustomed to from the nutroots.
They again, we are dealing with a Kos Kid, so proceed with caution.
Sure, there are a few people here and there who take religion seriously, but they are in such a small minority that their protests can be easily ignored.
All in all, converting to Islam would be a small price to pay for an end to the killing and maiming of our sons and daughters, not to mention the billions of dollars we could put to better use than fighting this perpetual war.
So let’s do away with our religious pretences, adopt Islam as our new faith, add a few extra holidays to our calendar, and get down to the real business at hand: pumping oil.
Labels: Kos Kidz, stupidity
Ron Paul and Stormfront: Perfect Together
It's not as if anyone didn't know Ron Paul was attacting all sorts of weirdos.
Sure, maybe a bunch of misfits, outcasts and assorted harmless human debris.
But we cannot have anyone associated with the GOP accepting money from these devils.
Plenty here and here.
Why, it was just two weeks ago Dr. Paul snagged the elusive Stormfront endorsement. It's not as if he wasn't aware of these cretins.
Question: Who will be faster to denounce this--other GOP candidates or some opportunistic Democrats.
Labels: Ron Paul, Stormfront
Aging Lothario Sues for Sex
Someone needs to have a talk with Grandpa.
FLIRTY OLD MAN: German Playboy, 77, Sues for Sex
Aging German playboy Rolf Eden has rarely taken no for an answer. And he's not about to start. He has filed charges against a 19-year-old for refusing to sleep with him. The complaint? Ageism.
It's no secret that Germany has a problem with ageism. Workers here who lose their jobs after the age of 50 are virtually assured of spending the rest of their lives on the dole. A recent plan to up the retirement age to 67 was lampooned because most Germans of that age are no longer employed anyway.
But aging German playboy Rolf Eden seems to have developed a somewhat warped view of what age discrimination actually is. According to Bild Zeitung on Thursday, the 77-year-old Eden has filed suit against a 19-year-old Berlin woman for the following reason: Despite a night on the town with Eden, which ended back at his place, she refused to have sex with him, saying the he was too old for her.
"That was shattering. No woman has ever said that to me before," Eden told the tabloid. "I was crushed." He has filed charges with the prosecutors' office, he said. "After all, there are laws against discrimination."
Labels: Rolf Eden
Al-Qaida Goes Nutroots: Fatwa on Al-Jazeera!
This ought to be fun.
Reminds me of when the nutroots scold the networks for not being as insane as they are.
Al-Qaida anger at Jazeera on Laden tape
CAIRO, Egypt - Al-Qaida sympathizers have unleashed a torrent of anger against Al-Jazeera television, accusing it of misrepresenting Osama bin Laden's latest audiotape by airing excerpts in which he criticizes mistakes by insurgents in Iraq.
Users of a leading Islamic militant Web forum posted thousands of insults against the pan-Arab station for focusing on excerpts in which bin Laden criticizes insurgents, including his followers.
Analysts said the reaction highlighted militants' surprise at bin Laden's words, and their dismay at the deep divisions among al-Qaida and other Iraqi militants that he appeared to be trying to heal.
"It's not about Al-Jazeera, it's about their shock from bin Laden," said Diaa Rashwan, an Egyptian expert on Islamic militant groups. "For the first time, bin Laden, who used to be the spiritual leader who gives guidance, became a critic of al-Qaida and is confessing mistakes. This is unusual."
"God fight Al-Jazeera," railed one militant Web poster, calling the station a "collaborator with the Crusaders" for suggesting the tape showed weakness in al-Qaida and featuring discussions of how the tape reflected weaknesses and divisions among insurgents in Iraq.
The recording aired Monday contained unusually strong criticism of insurgents in Iraq from bin Laden, who urges them to admit mistakes and unify. Bin Laden even aknowledges [sic] that he advises himself not to be "fanatical" in his stances.
"Some of you have been lax in one duty, which is to unite your ranks," bin Laden said. "Beware of division ... Muslims are waiting for you to gather under a single banner to champion righteousness. Be keen to oblige with this duty."
"I advise myself, Muslims in general and brothers in al-Qaida everywhere to avoid extremism among men and groups," he said.
The tape was met with a cautiously positive response from at least one insurgent coalition that has been opposed to al-Qaida.
But the Al-Fajr Media Center, which usually posts al-Qaida video and audio tapes on the Web, accused Al-Jazeera of "counterfeiting the facts" by making the speech appear as exclusively critical of insurgents.
"Al-Jazeera directors have shamefully chosen to back the Crusaders' side, and the defenders of hypocrites and the thugs and traitors of Iraq," Al-Fajr said in a statement posted on several Islamic Web sites.
Another Web contributor even rattled off a five-stanza poem of rhymed couplets, comparing the station to a "miserable fly in the garbage" and concluding, "Your day will come, vile one. As long as we live, you won't be safe, Jazeera."
Meanwhile, did we have Osama in our sights a couple months ago?
UPDATE: More from Michelle Malkin, Jules Crittenden.
Labels: Ahmed Sheik, Al-Jazeera, Al-Qaida
Home Sales Hit New Low as Home Sales Rise 4.8%
Confusing, isn't it?
US home sales hit fresh lows as unsold properties flood market
WASHINGTON (AFP) - Sales of US homes and apartments tumbled a hefty eight percent in September extending one of the nation's worst housing slumps in decades, an industry group said Wednesday.
The National Association of Realtors said in a monthly snapshot that sales of existing homes and apartments fell to a seasonally adjusted rate of 5.04 million properties in September from 5.48 million in August.
The drop was much worse than expected. Most economists had only expected sales to decline to around 5.25 million. August sales were revised lower from an original tally of 5.50 million.
Grim news, huh?
So what about this?
September new homes sales rose 4.8 percent
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Sales of new single-family U.S. homes rose 4.8 percent in September while the inventory of homes fell and the median sales price rose, according to a government report on Thursday that delivered unexpectedly benign news for the battered housing sector.
New single-family home sales rose to an annual rate of 770,000 from a revised rate of 735,000 in August, the Commerce Department said. Analysts polled by Reuters were expecting September sales to fall to an annual rate of 780,000 from the August previously reported rate of 795,000.
Economics professors and housing experts, feel free to weigh in and interpret this news.
Labels: housing market, National Association of Realtors
Mongolia Joins American Empire
Yes, Mongolia.
Boy, did this U.S. expansion ever fly under the radar.
Wait until the left finds out.
You can already see the protest signs, but I'll fix the inevitable misspellings in advance:
U.S. Out of Mongolia Now!
The Midnight Sun reports:
Quick, what are Mongolia’s three geographic neighbors? There’s Russia to the North, China to the South—and then, of course, there is ... America?
In an odd geopolitical move, Mongolia has volunteered to join America’s global empire, designating the United States as its “third neighbor”—I am not making that up—and adopting English as its official second language, even though the nearest English-speaking nation is thousands of miles away.
THE US$285 million Millennium Challenge compact assistance program to reduce poverty through economic growth in Mongolia was signed on October 22. President N.Enkhbayar and President George W. Bush signed the five-year agreement in the Roosevelt Room of the White House in a sober ceremony marked with quiet but confident optimism. The Mongolian head of state began his US visit on Monday.
Speaking before the ceremony, Enkhbayar termed the approval of the agreement by the MCC Board of Directors as “one of the most significant events” for Mongolia this year. “All Mongolian people are excited about the agreement and its subsequent implementation,” he said.
Wait, what have we got here? Just as we suspected. A business interest.
Polo Resources Ltd said its Polo Resources LLC unit has acquired a 100 pct interest in a large coal exploration license in the South Gobi Coal Basin in Mongolia for 350,000 usd.
The natural resources investment and mining company said the project covers 550 square kilometres of Permian sediments known to host some of the region's better coal deposits.
There we go again. Cold, heartless Western capitalists raping another country's natural resources.
Mwuhahaha.
H/T Daphne.
UPDATE: The Mongolian Movement has gained traction at Instapundit.
Labels: Mongolia, United States
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"I Thought I Was Going to Die"
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Jason Kelly Golf | 07 June 2015 | 24 May 2015
Nordea Masters, The Memorial Tournament and Greater Dallas Open
Last week showed further encouragement. It was very close to being a nice pay day. Wiesberger went very close in Ireland at 80/1. He was up there the whole week and played solid on Sunday but holed very little on the greens. He made a big putt on 16 from off the green which was good enough to get into a playoff with Kjeldsen and Pepperell. Unfortunately a wayward drive on the first extra meant he couldn’t match Kjeldsen’s birdie. We won 15 points with the impressive Austrian.
Elsewhere players threatened but couldn’t consolidate. An was out of position after day 1 in Ireland but clawed his way back through the field before faltering a little on Sunday. He showed us his undoubted quality again though. Grillo played nicely on Thursday before slowly drifting back through the field as the week went on.
In the States it was like we had backed three players attached to elastic bands. Every time they would get near the lead the band would tighten and pull them back into mid division. Koepka is such a good player in full flow but, a little like McIlroy, he doesn’t have the short game to save the bad days. English, didn’t make the mistakes that Koepka did but couldn’t make the birdies to keep up. Wilcox truly outperformed his price of 200/1 and, like Koepka, saw himself briefly inside the top 5 on Sunday before slipping back. He is one to keep an eye on when he gets a start.
On to this week. We have two decent events to look at. Jack Nicklaus’ Memorial Tournament and the Nordea Masters from PGA Sweden National near Malmö. Lets look at The Memorial first.
A strong field has assembled in Dublin, Ohio. More out of respect to Nicklaus I would imagine rather than the honouring of Sir Nick Faldo. (They honour one or more figures from the game each year at this event.) Spieth once again heads the betting. He faltered when in contention last week to finish 35th and finished 19th here last year but there is still no doubt he is a worthy favourite. The two events he has just played in Texas came with separate pressures and distractions for the native Texan, here he can have a singular focus back. His game has no weakness at the moment. He has a great attitude and his iron play and statistics on and around the green are as good or better than anyone right now. Driving may be his ‘least strength’. Driving is not so important at Muirfield Village. It is lenient from the tee and although the par 5s are vital to take advantage of, Luke Donald has shown us in the past that you don’t need to drive it well to milk the par 5s. I expect him to go very well again, he ticks nearly all the boxes and even at a single figure price (8/1) is tempting.
Other players I like, in order, after Spieth, are Jason Day, Hideki Matsuyama, Justin Thomas, Matt Kuchar, Brooks Koepka, Kevin Na, Dustin Johnson, Shawn Stefani, Brendan Steele, Patrick Reed and Harris English.
Jason Day has been fairly quiet of late and also has poor form in this event. This is strange as it should suit him perfectly. Lenient from the tee, firm fast greens with an emphasis on touch around the tricky greens. It’s perfect for him. He is long but not straight, hits it higher than anyone and has great touch on and around the greens. He is available at 25/1 this week, 28/1 in a place. Whenever Day gets to that sort of price in any field he is worth a long look, when it is on a course that should suit he is worth backing, especially coming back off a break. The only concern is the fact he withdrew last week on the Wednesday due to dizziness. This may have just been a reason to get away from an event which was going to be badly effected by rain.
Hideki Matsuyama defends this week. We backed him for weeks leading up to this last year but failed to put him on the betting slip when he finally got off the mark. There’s plenty to like about him this year too. He has 7 top 10s already this season, ranks 9th in greens in regulation, 10th in scrambling and 3rd in bogey avoidance. The only real concern is a rank of 131st in putting. These are fast greens with plenty of swing, his putting rank this time last year was much higher. Having said this it is the greens in regulation guys that tend to do well here. Guys that get it on the correct side of the hole and avoid the horrible short game challenges this course can throw at you.
Look at the past winners, Matsuyama, Kuchar, Woods (5 times), Striker, Rose, Kenny Perry (3 times), Choi, Petterson, Bryant, Els, Furyk, Couples, Singh, Tom Watson, Norman, Lehman etc. These guys are all, perhaps with the exception of Stricker, notorious green finders. Kenny Perry’s three wins is the biggest key. He lead ball striking 6 out of the 10 years during the 2000’s on the PGA Tour. This year’s top 10 ball strikers are Jim Herman, McIlroy, Matsuyama, Wilcox, Stenson, Glover, Scott, Horschel, Simpson and Swafford.
Out of these Herman, Matsuayama, Glover, Horschel and Swafford are on display this week. Herman is an interesting one. He is 200/1 as ranks 132nd in putting and has nothing better than a 13th this season and only has four top 10s in his PGA Tour career. But he was born and went to College in Ohio, he is tempting as has similar stats to Matsuayama but a more attractive price. Matsuyama obviously has better form, pedigree and is defending champ but Herman may be worth a punt. Matsuyama fits the bill but 22/1 appears to be a little short in a quality line up. Glover is 300/1 but should be as he ranks last in putting. Horschel is 45/1 and looks to be getting close to his best again, he played well at Sawgrass a couple of weeks ago. Interestingly, the FedEx Champ, using the old style stats of greens and fairways etc looks like he has great stats but he ranks 115th in strokes gained tee to green. This is partly due to his scrambling rank of 109 and partly because when he does miss, he misses big. Not for me at the price. Swafford is 250/1 and has tidy all around stats, not spectacular but solid. His form is hit and miss too. 19 events played, one top 10, five top 25s and 9 missed cuts. Interestingly he finished 11th at Bay Hill and 12th at New Orleans which I don’t see too different from this, especially Bay Hill. He looks well worth a chance. So from this let’s add Herman and Swafford to our list of contenders.
Justin Thomas is young, long, confident and aggressive. I think there is a fair bit of value in the 60/1 available too. This is, again, a great fit for him. He makes a lot of birdies and has returned 5 top 10s in 20 starts this season. My main concern with Thomas is he has played a very easy schedule and it therefore is difficult to really get a grasp of what his stats equate to. There are some storms forecast, but Muirfield Village could play firm, fast and tough the first couple of days which may not be ideal. He has played his best golf when scoring has gone into the middle teens under par.
Matt Kuchar won here well in 2013. At that point he was the most consistent golfer in the world. He is not now. He is still putting and scrambling unbelievably well but he has to, his ball striking, by his standards, is appalling. 143rd in distance, 98th in accuracy and 117th in greens is not going to get much done. The fact he has a 2nd, a 3rd and an 8th in 15 starts is testament to his ability to grind, more than anything else. He will need to improve to win this and the leniency from the tee gives him a chance, but there are much better options around the 25/1 mark, like Day and Matsuyama.
We touched upon Brooks Koepka’s poor scrambling earlier. His raw talent and ball striking ability does neutralise this weakness, and actually leaves plenty left over for greatness too. We have already backed him to win the Money List and this could go some way towards that, but ultimately that will be decided during the next few months with the Majors and WGCs. But I like his chances this week. The end result from last week doesn’t show the whole story. He finished 16th but was in the top 5 before 2 late bogies. At The Players he shot 78, 67 to miss the cut but made back to back quads on 17 and 18 in round 1. This is his story the last few weeks. He is playing well enough but just lacking the consistency. Some of this is due to a weakish short game, some due to occasional erratic drives. His style of power hitting is always going to leave him vulnerable to the occasional big number, but all in I like his chances this week. The lenience from the tee helps, but the fact there have only been two first time winners in since 1976 is concerning. Roger Maltbie won the first Memorial and Matsuyama last year. Koepka won the WM Phoenix Open on debut earlier this year. I like him at 55/1 and he will be motivated by the Nicklaus connection, he appreciates golf’s history and traditions.
Kevin Na lost in a playoff to Matsuyama last year. His recent form, course form and stats give him a good chance. But I don’t like the amount of times he hasn’t been able to cross the winners line and I don’t like his claw putting action under pressure. 40/1 isn’t for me.
Dustin Johnson is statistically is very strong, if you remove his putting stats. He has three top 20s in his last three at Muirfield Village but these could have been so much better if he avoided a few big numbers. It was the same last week. Lots of very impressive golf marred by some big mistakes, like his triple on number 6 in the final round. I think he will go well, he certainly hits it well enough to go close, but at 12/1 there are still too many questions that need to be answered.
Shawn Stefani is 100/1 and well priced. He does so much so well but until he tightens up his short game he can’t be backed. He ranks 162nd in scrambling and has funky technique. Down the stretch, when he inevitably misses greens, it is going to be a horror show. He will be useful in matchbets but not one to be with on the outrights, yet.
Brendan Steele is another with a hugely impressively long game. He hits it big and finds a lot of greens in regulation. He finished second in the Humana this year (a notoriously easy test of resort courses in a pro am format), 8th in the Texas Open and 9th at the Wells Fargo. He has finished 51-62-MC-MC here and if you have a BET365 account you should take the 150/1, but at 100/1 general I think he is priced about correctly. (If you do have a BET365 account also consider taking Reed @ 10/11 to beat Kevin Kisner over 72 holes).
Hmmmm, my old friend Patrick Reed. He hasn’t rewarded us well so far and his form appears to have dived somewhat, but he keeps plugging away, he keeps playing. I like this 24 year old, 200 pounder, with a face out of the Wonder Years’ attitude. He’s a fighter that will always give you 100%. When you look at the bear bones of it you can see his weakness’ in the 196th in driving accuracy and 119th in greens in regulation. But one has to wonder how much the poor driving is linked to the greens number. I think it is fairly substantial. We see him hit loads of great irons when in position. He sometimes starts aiming a long way right but is aware of this fault and corrects it fairly quickly. He debuts here which, as mentioned, is not a good thing but 50/1, 60/1 with Coral, looks just about fair. A more interesting, well at least perhaps a better way, to get with Reed is in the first round leader market. Reed ranks 2nd in round 1 scoring compared to 106th in final round scoring. He is 50/1 to be first round leader. That’s a bet.
Harris English, as I mentioned last week, is very solid all around. He has always hit it great and his putting is heading in a very positive direction. 24th is a great ranking for him in this category. His form is ok, not spectacular but he does have a 2nd, a 3rd and another top 10 in 17 starts this season. He ranks 21st in driving distance, 29th in greens, 24th in putting, 11th in scoring, 14th in ball striking and 23rd in scrambling. This level of consistency makes the 100/1 look huge.
So to conclude. It is very difficult to separate Matsuyama and Day. I am going to go with the neither. If I had to pick one it would be Matsuyama purely as his recent and course form are better and he matches the profile of past winners (including himself) closer. His putting is a concern. I expect Day to go well too after a break but I don’t particularly want to back them win only with Spieth in the field. There is not enough place value to back either of them each way. Koepka and English are selected again and look a lot better than their prices suggest. Swafford and Herman are two players who should enjoy this set up at a big price, but one has to feel winning this is beyond them. They look good value to finish in the top 20, both at 8/1.
Fortunately I think the Nordea is perhaps an easier question to answer. Stenson should win at 5/1. He has had a couple of weeks off, finished 2 shots out of the playoff last year and should be able to enjoy fair conditions. The only question when you look at his European stats are his putting and scrambling, where he ranks 131st and 74th respectively, but look back at his more accurate and more recent US stats and 51st in scrambling and 16th in putting would see him comfortably get the job done here. He is easily the best player in the field and if he plays to form someone would have to get very hot to beat the world number four. Even at 5/1, the only thing I see stopping him is the weather, which isn’t forecast to be poor, just cold Thursday and Friday leading into a pleasant weekend.
Elsewhere I like Grillo again but think 25/1 is too short. I quite like Maximilian Kieffer too, but again, I think 40/1 is an overreaction to his performance last week in Ireland. I do like two at bigger prices though as a bit of value to play alongside Stenson. I think Tjaart Van Der Walt at 125/1 and Andrew McArthur at 150/1.
Van Der Walt has an 11th a 3rd and an 8th already this season. Admittedly these were all co-sanctioned events with his home Sunshine Tour. This will be his first event in Europe this season and I imagine he will be very keen to take advantage of it. He is worth a chancing.
McArthur is similar. He has played two main tour events this season finishing 34th and 13th. On the Challenge Tour he has finished 20-2-3. The second was in Denmark (Scandinavian form) and the third in the Czech Challenge last week. They are both long shots but worth keeping on side.
1 point each way Harris English @ 100/1
1 point each way Brooks Koepka @ 55/1
1 point Jim Herman to finish in the Top 20 @ 8/1
1 point Hudson Swafford to finish in the Top 20 @ 8/1
0.5 points each way Patrick Reed to be First Round Leader @ 50/1
(if you have a BET365 account you should take the 150/1 about Brandan Steele and also bet Patrick Reed @ 10/11 to beat Kevin Kisner over 72 holes)
Nordea Masters
5 points win Henrik Stenson @ 5/1
0.5 points each way Tjaart Van Der Walt @ 125/1
0.75 points each way Andrew McArthur @ 150/1
Greater Dallas Open
1 point each way Wes Roach @ 40/1
2015 running total = -43.61 points. This week’s investment 16.5 points. This weeks P&L = -16.5 points
(Already advised)
US Money List 2015
1.5 points each way Hideki Matsuyama @ 80/1
0.5 points each way Brooks Koepka @ 150/1
1.5 points each way Bubba Watson @ 40/1
My advice comes with a point system to rate the strength of a tip. A 1 point bet means placing your usual stake, so if you would consider your normal bet being £10 then a point signifies £10.
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Firms avoiding signing the Isda protocol will face challenges, say industry figures
@LukasBeckerRisk
Risk-free rates (RFRs)
With the cessation of US dollar Libor pushed back by 18 months, derivatives users may be tempted to delay the adoption of fallback language designed to smooth the transition to new benchmarks, or not sign them at all.
However, this week, senior industry figures said that would be a bad idea.
Speaking on Risk.net’s Libor telethon on December 8, Goldman Sachs’ Libor lead, Jason Granet, said signing the protocol was simply “good hygiene”. He pointed out that swap trades struck after January 25 will use the International Swaps and Derivatives Association’s new 2020 definitions, which include fallback language. If legacy positions remain without fallbacks, a basis will emerge between new and old positions.
But the protocol, released on October 23, has so far seen tepid take-up. Only 1,791 firms had signed up as of December 9. That compares to the roughly 25,000 firms that signed up to Isda’s 2018 US resolution stay protocol, and some big names such as BlackRock are still missing.
Some argue that it’s better to ignore the protocol and try to negotiate fallbacks bilaterally, in an attempt to squeeze out better terms. That might make sense if a firm only has a handful of trades, but some argue it might actually be counterproductive. Speaking on the same Risk.net telethon, Prudential’s derivatives trading head, Chris McAlister, said dealers may be more amendable to negotiating a few troublesome trades if a firm has already taken the majority of the risk off the table via the protocol.
There’s also an element of self-protection in signing the protocol. “To the extent that you don’t sign and you end up in litigation, I imagine the first question will be ‘if everyone else signed it, why didn’t you?’,” McAlister said.
Another potential tactic is to not sign the protocol and hope legislation will take care of the problem. Legislation proposed in the US would provide another path to move some contracts referencing US dollar Libor to the secured overnight financing rate, or SOFR, but it’s unclear when this might arrive.
In the UK, the FCA will be granted legislative powers to create new rates with the ‘Libor’ name that can be used in tough legacy contracts. But it’s unclear whether US dollar will be one of them, and regulators are unlikely to allow swaps to use them anyway.
A May 2020 tough legacy paper from the sterling risk-free rates working group noted that as derivatives have many routes to move off Libor, many will not be defined as tough legacy. But it also recognised that adoption of the protocol is voluntary, leaving open the possibility that some derivatives might sneak into the definition.
But that’s by no means certain. Goldman Sachs’ Granet said regulators should provide more clarity on what will be counted as tough legacy. Otherwise, derivatives users that opt to rely on tough legacy fixes may find themselves arguing the point in the courts.
That route could also incur the wrath of regulators: during a speech in August, the FCA’s market policy head Edwin Schooling Latter said UK-regulated firms with major derivatives exposures that do not sign up “will need to be ready for some serious questions from supervisors on how they will mitigate these risks”.
In any case, Schooling Latter said, the creation of these synthetic Libor rates may depend on strong levels of adoption of the Isda fallback protocol, as the regulator does not view the rate as a “suitable foundation for derivatives markets”.
With 2021 fast approaching, the buy side’s options appear to be shrinking.
Fallbacks
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Lucid Stead
December 2, 2013 | Monday
Photo by Steve King.
Inspired by the otherworldly landscape of Joshua Tree, California, artist Phillip K. Smith III turned a 70-year-old desert cabin into an awe-inspiring optical illusion.
With a series of mirrored panels and some LED lighting, Smith created "Lucid Stead" from an abandoned shack that stood on five acres he had purchased in 2004. The resulting play of light and reflections created a kind of fragmented phantom that appeared to be stuck between here and another dimension.
Unfortunately, the work was only temporary, but you can experience it through a series of images available at Royale Projects.
You can also watch Royale Projects' official video on the work, below.
Mail Online: House of Mirrors via ViralNova
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Scientific Software Days
Scientific Software Days 2008
The Texas Advanced Computing Center, the University of Texas Institute for Geophysics, and the University of Texas Bureau of Economic Geology are organizing the 2008 Scientific Software Days, where the scientific community can share experiences of developing software and learn about new developments in general scientific software.
8:30 AM registration, coffee and snacks
9:00 AM Supercomputing facilities at TACC (Karl Schulz, TACC)
9:30 AM Beginning and advanced visualization (Romy Schneider, TACC)
10:00 AM MyCluster system for Grid computing (Ed Walker, TACC)
10:30 AM break
10:45 AM SPSS, SAS and R (James Bryant, Biological Sciences, UT)
11:15 AM Custom Linear Algebra Libraries with FLAME (Robert van de Geijn, Computer Science, UT)
11:45 AM HPC Considered Harmful (Greg Wilson, University of Toronto)
Leveraging Python’s Dynamic Nature for Scientific Dataflow (Eric Jones, Enthought)
Data flow systems are common in a number of scientific disciplines from seismic processing to 3D visualization. In these systems, larger problems are described by the connections between inputs and outputs of simpler algorithmic building blocks. The information provided by the resulting graph of data/algorithm dependencies is useful for partial execution, parallel programming, debugging, etc. of the scientific tasks.
Software frameworks for describing and executing these graphs are often constructed on a special purpose “execution engine” complete with its own object hierarchy, specification for algorithmic blocks, etc. While such a framework can be built in Python, it turns out that the dynamic nature of Python along with its built-in code analysis tools provide much of the foundation for such a system. Using this foundation can minimize development effort, simplify interfacing with other libraries, increase flexibility, and improve execution speed. This talk will investigate the “Blocks and Context”, a library under development in Enthought’s open source tool set that is based on these ideas. It will also describe how, using these tools, the same scientific task in a variety of analysis needs including “what-if” scenarios, stochastic studies, and optimization.
Interactivity in Biological Simulation (Thomas Blom, Biochemistry, UT, and KinTec)
From Prototype to Patient Care: Clinical Trial Software Development (John Cook, M D Anderson Cancer Care Center)
Boundary value calculations of conformational transitions in proteins (Peter Majek, ICES, UT)
PIO: A Parallel I/O Library (Robert Jacob, Argonne National Laboratory)
LabView in Multi-Core and Parallel Environments (Darren Schmidt, National Instruments)
Reproducible Computational Experiments Using the Madagascar System (Sergey Fomel, Jackson School of Geosciences, UT)
Parallel Seismic Wave Simulations on Lonestar and Ranger (Chunlei Chu, Jackson School of Geosciences, UT)
Grid-Enabled Ensemble Kalman FIltering for Hydrocarbon Reservoir Management (Ravi Vadapalli, Texas Tech)
8:30 AM : registration, coffee and snacks
9:00 AM: IBM presents the Eclipse Development System (Beth Tibbits and Greg Watson)
12:30 PM: lunch
1:30 PM : Enthought Inc presents Scientific Python (Travis Oliphant)
Python has emerged as an excellent choice for scientific computing because of its simple syntax, ease of use, and elegant multi-dimensional array arithmetic. Its interpreted evaluation allows it to serve as both the development language and the command line environment in which to explore data. Python also excels as a “glue” — a common need in the scientific arena.
The first half of the tutorial introduces the Python programming language to scientists. The pace is fast and geared toward individuals already comfortable with a programming language such as Matlab, C, or Fortran. Attendees will learn the basic constructs of the language and how to do basic numerical analysis withPython. The 3rd section covers the SciPy library (www.scipy.org) that provides modules for linear algebra, signal processing, optimization, statistics, interpolation, ODE solvers, special functions, etc. We also cover scientific plotting with Python.
The second half of the tutorial covers advanced topics in scientific computing such as integrating Python with other languages and parallel programming. Wrapping Fortran, C, and C++ codes, either for optimized speed or for accessing legacy code bases is covered in the middle section. Tools such as SWIG, f2py, and weave are all discussed along with common pitfalls and good design practices.
Introduction to the Python Language — 1 hour
Array Arithmetic with Numeric — 3/4 hour
Scientific algorithms with SciPy — 1 hour
2D visualization and plotting — 1/4 hour
Introduction to Python as “glue” — 1/4 hour
Wrapping Fortran — 1/2 hour
Wrapping Legacy C/C++ — 3/4 hour
Email organizers
The Institute for Computational Engineering and Sciences
Scientific Software Days © SciSoftDays Organizing Committee 2015–2016
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Sermon: Disregard for GOD September 26th
Download "Sermon: Disregard for GOD September 26th"
1 September 26th 2008 I seek refuge in Allah from satan the rejected. In the name of Allah, the Most Gracious, the Most Merciful. The general meaning of disregard is as follows: lack of attention; neglect; to pay no attention to; to consider as of little or no importance. The general meaning of regard is as follows: to observe; to hold in respect; to consider; to heed, take into account. It also means a look; attention; reference; respect; esteem; (pl) good wishes, greetings. There are more verses in the Quran on "disregarding" than on "regarding." This is because GOD knows that the majority of human beings will disregard Him, the Hereafter, His scriptures, His messengers, His commandments, His revelations, His proofs, His miracles, and anything that He reveals for them. Accordingly, I have selected the subject of "disregard of human beings for GOD" with the entire subject in the Quran revolving around a few major and important topics, which constitutes the essence of ISLAM. Disregarding GOD 10:32 Such is GOD, your rightful Lord. What is there after the truth, except falsehood? How could you disregard all this? 10:33 This is what your Lord's decision does to those who choose to be wicked: they cannot believe. Revealed: The messenger s letters are 22 and 23, the diff. is 1. Revealed: The messenger s initials are 19 and 19 the Sacred Codes. Revealed: 10:32 The Allah letters are 19 to prove that Allah is the rightful Lord of the Universe. Disregarding the Hereafter 75:20-21 Indeed, you love this fleeting (brief & transient) life. While disregarding the Hereafter. Revealed: The Allah letters are 12 and messenger s letters are 13, the diff. is 1 Revealed: 75:20 The GV of Allah letters is 128 the messenger. Revealed: 75:20-21 The GV of Allah letters is 165 the Absoluteness, Subhan Allah. 76:27 These people are preoccupied with this fleeting life, while disregarding - just ahead of them - a heavy day. (See Verse 73:5 on heavy message) Revealed: The Allah letters are 14 the Seven Pairs. Disregarding Covenants 2:100 Is it not a fact that when they make a covenant and pledge to keep it, some of them always disregard it? In fact, most of them do not believe. Page 1 of 7
2 3:187 GOD took a covenant from those who received the scripture: "You shall proclaim it to the people, and never conceal it." But they disregarded it behind their backs, and traded it away for a cheap price. What a miserable trade. 5:14 Also from those who said, "We are Christian," we took their covenant. But they disregarded some of the commandments given to them. Consequently, we condemned them to animosity and hatred among themselves, until the Day of Resurrection. GOD will then inform them of everything they had done. Disregarding Covenants about Messengers 7:101 We narrate to you the history of those communities: their messengers went to them with clear proofs, but they were not to believe in what they had rejected before. GOD thus seals the hearts of the disbelievers. 7:102 We found that most of them disregard their covenant; we found most of them wicked. Disregarding the Messenger & Scripture 2:101 Now that a messenger from GOD has come to them, and even though he proves and confirms their own scripture, some followers of the scripture (Jews, Christians, and Muslims) disregard GOD's scripture behind their backs, as if they never had any scripture. Disregarding the Scripture 5:43 Why do they ask you to judge among them, when they have the Torah, containing GOD's law, and they chose to disregard it? They are not believers. 56:77-82 This is an honorable Quran. In a protected book. None can grasp it except the sincere. A revelation from the Lord of the universe. Are you disregarding this narration? Do you make it your business that you disbelieve? Disregarding Messengers and Prophecies 7:53 Are they waiting until all (prophecies) are fulfilled? The day such fulfillment comes to pass, those who disregarded it in the past will say, "The messengers of our Lord have brought the truth. Are there any intercessors to intercede on our behalf? Would you send us back, so that we change our behavior, and do better works than what we did?" They have lost their souls, and their own innovations have caused their doom. 46:26 We had established them in the same way as we established you, and provided them with hearing, eyes, and minds. But their hearing, eyes, and minds did not help them at all. This is because they decided to disregard GOD's revelations. Thus, the prophecies and warnings that they ridiculed have caused their doom. Page 2 of 7
3 Disregarding the Messenger 8:20 O you who believe, obey GOD and His messenger, and do not disregard him while you hear. 8:21 Do not be like those who say, "We hear," when they do not hear. Disregarding the Revelations 6:33 We know that you may be saddened by what they say. You should know that it is not you that they reject; it is GOD's revelations that the wicked disregard. 11:59 Such was `Aad - they disregarded the revelations of their Lord, disobeyed His messengers, and followed the ways of every stubborn tyrant. 11:60 Consequently, they incurred condemnation in this world, and on the Day of Resurrection. Indeed, `Aad rejected their Lord. Indeed, `Aad, the people of Hood, have perished. 15:80 The people of Al-Hijr disbelieved the messengers. 15:81 We gave them our revelations, but they disregarded them. 29:47 We have revealed to you this scripture, and those whom we blessed with the previous scripture will believe in it. Also, some of your people will believe in it. Indeed, those who disregard our revelations are the real disbelievers. 29:49 In fact, these revelations are clear in the chests of those who possess knowledge. Only the wicked will disregard our revelations. 32:22 Who is more evil than one who is reminded of these revelations of his Lord, then insists upon disregarding them? We will certainly punish the guilty. 7:9 As for those whose weights are light, they will be the ones who lost their souls as a consequence of disregarding our revelations, unjustly. Disregarding the Message 6:42 We have sent (messengers) to communities before you, and we put them to the test through adversity and hardship, that they may implore. 6:43 If only they implored when our test afflicted them! Instead, their hearts were hardened, and the devil adorned their works in their eyes. 6:44 When they thus disregard the message given to them, we open for them the gates of everything. Then, just as they rejoice in what was given to them, we punish them suddenly; they become utterly stunned. 20:99 We thus narrate to you some news from the past generations. We have revealed to you a message from us. 20:100 Those who disregard it will bear a load (of sins) on the Day of Resurrection. 20:124 "As for the one who disregards My message, he will have a miserable life, and we resurrect him, on the Day of Resurrection, blind." Page 3 of 7
4 43:36 Anyone who disregards the message of the Most Gracious, we appoint a devil to be his constant companion. 43:37 Such companions will divert them from the path, yet make them believe that they are guided. 58:19 The devil has possessed them, and has caused them to disregard GOD's message. These are the party of the devil. Absolutely, the party of the devil are the losers. 58:20 Surely, those who oppose GOD and His messenger will be with the lowliest. 58:21 GOD has decreed: "I and My messengers will most assuredly win." GOD is Powerful, Almighty. 72:17 We will surely test them all. As for him who disregards the message of his Lord, He will direct him to ever increasing retribution. 25:18 They will say, "Be You glorified, it was not right for us to set up any lords beside You. But You allowed them to enjoy, together with their parents. Consequently, they disregarded the message and thus became wicked people." 25:19 They have disbelieved in the message you have given them, and, consequently, you can neither protect them from the retribution they have incurred, nor can you help them in any way. Anyone among you who commits evil, we will commit him to severe retribution. 25:20 We did not send any messengers before you who did not eat food and walk in the markets. We thus test you by each other; will you steadfastly persevere? Your Lord is Seer. Disregarding the Commandments 5:13 It was a consequence of their violating the covenant that we condemned them, and we caused their hearts to become hardened. Consequently, they took the words out of context, and disregarded some of the commandments given to them. You will continue to witness betrayal from them, excepting a few of them. You shall pardon them, and disregard them. GOD loves those who are benevolent. 39:56 Lest a soul may say, "How sorry I am for disregarding GOD's commandments; I was certainly one of the mockers." Disregarding God s Proofs 6:157 Nor can you say, "If only a scripture could come down to us, we would be better guided than they." A proven scripture has now come to you from your Lord, and a beacon, and a mercy. Now, who is more evil than one who rejects these proofs from GOD, and disregards them? We will commit those who disregard our proofs to the worst retribution for their heedlessness. 7:175 Recite for them the news of one who was given our proofs, but chose to disregard them. Consequently, the devil pursued him, until he became a strayer. 18:57 Who are more evil than those who are reminded of their Lord's proofs, then disregard them, without realizing what they are doing. Consequently, we place shields on their hearts to Page 4 of 7
5 prevent them from understanding it (the Quran), and deafness in their ears. Thus, no matter what you do to guide them, they can never ever be guided. 36:46 No matter what kind of proof is given to them from their Lord, they consistently disregard it. Disregarding Messenger, Scripture, Proofs 23:66 My proofs have been presented to you, but you turned back on your heels. 23:67 You were too arrogant to accept them, and you defiantly disregarded them. 23:68 Why do they not reflect upon this scripture? Do they not realize that they have received something never attained by their ancestors? 23:69 Have they failed to recognize their messenger? Is this why they are disregarding him? 23:70 Have they decided that he is crazy? Indeed, he has brought the truth to them, but most of them hate the truth. 23:71 Indeed, if the truth conformed to their wishes, there would be chaos in the heavens and the earth; everything in them would be corrupted. We have given them their proof, but they are disregarding their proof. 23:72 Are you asking them for a wage? Your Lord's wage is far better. He is the best Provider. 23:73 Most assuredly, you are inviting them to a straight path. Disregarding God s Miracles 2:211 Ask the Children of Israel how many profound miracles have we shown them! For those who disregard the blessings bestowed upon them by GOD, GOD is most strict in retribution. After reciting some of the topics and the verses on them, which inform us that the majority of the people disregard GOD and violate their covenants made with Him, I now turn to the verses, which command the messengers to disregard certain people and their utterances when they fail to comply with the Quran. Command to the Messengers to disregard 6:70 You shall disregard those who take their religion in vain, as if it is a social function, and are totally absorbed in this worldly life. Remind with this (Quran), lest a soul may suffer the consequences of its evil earnings. It has none beside GOD as a Lord and Master, nor an intercessor. If it could offer any kind of ransom, it would not be accepted. They suffer the consequences of the evil works they earn; they have incurred hellish drinks, and a painful retribution because of their disbelief. 6:105 We thus explain the revelations, to prove that you have received knowledge, and to clarify them for people who know. 6:106 Follow what is revealed to you from your Lord, there is no god except He, and disregard the idol worshipers. 15:94 Therefore, carry out the orders given to you, and disregard the idol worshipers. Page 5 of 7
6 6:112 We have permitted the enemies of every prophet - human and jinn devils - to inspire in each other fancy words, in order to deceive. Had your Lord willed, they would not have done it. You shall disregard them and their fabrications. 6:113 This is to let the minds of those who do not believe in the Hereafter listen to such fabrications, and accept them, and thus expose their real convictions. 6:137 Thus were the idol worshipers duped by their idols, to the extent of killing their own children. In fact, their idols inflict great pain upon them, and confuse their religion for them. Had GOD willed, they would not have done it. You shall disregard them and their fabrications. 7:180 To GOD belongs the most beautiful names; call upon Him therewith, and disregard those who distort His names. They will be requited for their sins. 7:198 When you invite them to the guidance, they do not hear. And you see them looking at you, but they do not see. 7:199 You shall resort to pardon, advocate tolerance, and disregard the ignorant. 9:94 They apologize to you when you return to them. Say, "Do not apologize; we no longer trust you. GOD has informed us about you." GOD will see your works, and so will the messenger, then you will be returned to the Knower of all secrets and declarations, then He will inform you of everything you had done. 9:95 They will swear by GOD to you, when you return to them, that you may disregard them. Do disregard them. They are polluted, and their destiny is Hell, as a requital for the sins they have earned. 9:96 They swear to you, that you may pardon them. Even if you pardon them, GOD does not pardon such wicked people. 28:55 When they come across vain talk, they disregard it and say, "We are responsible for our deeds, and you are responsible for your deeds. Peace be upon you. We do not wish to behave like the ignorant ones." 32:29 Say, "The day such a victory comes, believing will not benefit those who did not believe before that, nor will they be given another chance." 32:30 Therefore, disregard them and wait, they too are waiting. 33:48 Do not obey the disbelievers and the hypocrites, disregard their insults, and put your trust in GOD; GOD suffices as an advocate. 37:178 Disregard them for awhile. 37:179 Watch them; they too will watch. 43:88 It will be proclaimed: "O my Lord, these people do not believe." 43:89 You shall disregard them and say, "Peace;" they will surely find out. 51:54 You may disregard them; you cannot be blamed. 51:55 And remind, for the reminder benefits the believers. Page 6 of 7
7 53:28 They had no knowledge about this; they only conjectured. Conjecture is no substitute for the truth. 53:29 You shall disregard those who turn away from our message, and become preoccupied with this worldly life. 53:30 This is the extent of their knowledge. Your Lord is fully aware of those who strayed away from His path, and He is fully aware of those who are guided. 73:10 And remain steadfast in the face of their utterances, and disregard them in a nice manner. 73:11 And let Me deal with the rejectors, who have been generously blessed; just give them a little time. 4:81 They pledge obedience, but as soon as they leave you, some of them harbor intentions contrary to what they say. GOD records their innermost intentions. You shall disregard them, and put your trust in GOD. GOD suffices as an advocate. 6:33 We know that you may be saddened by what they say. You should know that it is not you that they reject; it is GOD's revelations that the wicked disregard. Peace be upon the messengers PRAISE BE TO ALLAH, LORD OF THE UNIVERSE Page 7 of 7
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222 88. The chiefs of his people who were arrogant said, O Shuaib! We will surely drive you out and those who have believed with you from our city, or you must return to our religion. He said, Even if
Surah 9: The Repentance (v ) Part - 11
282 by it? As for those who believe, it has increased them in faith while they rejoice. then it has increased them believe those who As for (in) faith? (by) this 125. But as for those in whose hearts is
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82. Then, if they turn away, then only upon you is the clear conveyance (of the Message). 82 the clear. (is) the conveyance 382 upon you then only they turn away Then, if 83. They recognize the Favor of
SELECTED SUPPLICATIONS (PRAYERS)
an opportunity to express contrition before death and satisfaction at the moment of death, forgiveness and mercy after death and satisfaction at the moment of death, forgiveness and mercy after death,
Indeed, those who disbelieve, it is same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe.
3 - or whether you warn them to them (it) is same disbelieve[d], those who Indeed, 6. Indeed, those who disbelieve, it is same to them whether you warn them or do not warn them, they will not believe.
disbelievers. 98. Whoever is an enemy to Allah and His Angels, 98. and His Messengers, and Jibreel and Meekael, then indeed Allah is
19 - (will) remove him of what then indeed he what Whoever and Jibreel, And indeed except a covenant, 100 (is) All-Seer confirming 97 it But not And to Jibreel - (of) for the believers. and His Messengers,
oath. Indeed, We found him patient, an excellent slave. Indeed, he repeatedly turned (to Allah).
and the like of them along with them, a Mercy from Us, and a reminder for those who have understanding. And take a bunch (of grass) in your hand and strike with it and do not break your 44. oath. Indeed,
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in disquieting doubt.
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296 the earth. You do not have any authority for this (claim). Do you say about Allah what you do not know? Do you say for this. authority any you have Not the earth. 69. Say, Indeed, those who invent
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the islamic trilogy volume 3 a simple koran readable and understandable copyright 2006 cspi, llc isbn isbn
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61. And when it is said to them, Come to Surah 4: The women (v )
117 AllMighty, AllWise. the good deeds and did believe[d] And those who 56 AllWise. AllMighty, will abide the rivers, underneath it from flows (in) Gardens We will admit them and We will admit them pure,
76 - And (there is) no god. except Allah. And indeed, Allah is the All- Mighty, the All-Wise.
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346 responded to their Lord, is bliss. And for those who did not respond to Him, if they had all that is in the earth and the like of it with it, they would offer it for ransom. Those will have a terrible
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718 and may honor him and respect him (i.e., Prophet Muhammad [SAWS] and glorify Him (i.e., ) morning and evening. and evening. morning and glorify Him and respect him and (may) honor him Indeed, those
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confirming what Surah 2: The cow (v ) Part - 1
19 that he could be granted a life of a thousand years. But the grant of such life will not save him in the least from (due) punishment. And Allah is AllSeer of what they do. 97. Say, Whoever is an enemy
10 - so that you may. grateful. 54. And (recall) when. We gave Musa the Book (Taurat) and the Criterion (of right and wrong) that perhaps you
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For updates visit or O you who believe! Whoever among you turns back from his religion, then soon
54. O you believe! Whoever among you turns back his religion, then soon will bring a people m He loves and will love Him, humble towards the believers and stern towards the disbelievers; striving in the
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815 you send forth And whatever goodly. a loan Allah It Allah. with you will find it (of) Allah. And seek forgiveness (in) reward. and loan the zakah and give good, of for yourselves and greater (will
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by (offensive) nick names. Wretched is the name of disobedience after (having) faith. And whoever does not repent, then they are the wrongdoers.
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89 - receive mercy And hasten towards forgiveness from your Lord and a Garden as wide as the heavens and the earth, prepared for the pious.
89 - receive mercy. forgiveness to And hasten and the earth (is like that of) the heavens its width 132 and a Garden - receive mercy. your Lord from 133. And hasten towards forgiveness from your Lord and
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well-protected, - - 754 24. (As) a reward for what they used to do. do. they used to for what A reward 23 well-protected, 25. They will not hear therein vain talk or sinful speech, and not vain talk therein
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Those are the ones whose deeds have become worthless in this world and in the Hereafter. And for them there will be no helpers.
69 - people - give them tidings of a painful punishment. Those the world 21 in painful. of a punishment then give them tidings the people, their deeds became worthless (are) the ones who - 22. Those are
Allah (has) spoken the truth,
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681 your hands have earned. But He pardons much. And not besides 30 for you much. [from] and not But He pardons the earth, your hands. have earned in (can) escape you 31. And you cannot escape in the earth
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Key Finding #01
Learn more about UN75
Switzerland, World Economic Forum
Key Finding
Dialogue participants overwhelmingly called for the UN to be more inclusive of the diversity of actors in the 21st century
IN UN75 DIALOGUES MANY IDEAS WERE OFFERED ON HOW TO MAKE THE UNITED NATIONS MORE INCLUSIVE OF THE DIVERSITY OF ACTORS IN THE 21ST CENTURY
Involve more women, youth and vulnerable groups in decision-making (61 dialogues in seven regions)
Provide youth with a stronger voice and greater agency through creation of a youth forum/network (58 dialogues from all eight regions)
Work more with and listen to local authorities/communities, including rural and remote, to adopt bottom up approaches; adapt programmes to local settings, cultures and needs (55 dialogues in seven regions)
Increase opportunities for "We the Peoples" to be heard and foster dialogue with civil society/non-governmental organisations, through a people’s network or appointment of a civil society representative (47 dialogues from all eight regions)
Advocate for regional and global cooperation (40 dialogues from all eight regions)
Establish a multistakeholder coordination mechanism and involve a more diverse range of stakeholders (19 dialogues in seven regions)
Work with more diverse range of cultural, goodwill ambassadors who can foster cultural empathy/communication, and cultural considerations (12 dialogues in six regions)
Work more with business actors, including start-ups and entrepreneurs to develop more innovative policy solutions (10 dialogues in six regions)
The average age in parliament is 53 years old when almost half the global population is under 30 years of age, meaning young people are never at the center of political decision making. It is the UN’s duty to lower the ladder down to unheard voices, and it can do this by using young people’s greatest tool: technology.
Maisie Zheng, one of the winners of the UN75 essay competition “The Future We Want, the UN We Need”
We believe that the UN could act by making greater engagements with regional and local actors, investing in the future by providing means that foster the development of the autonomy of social actors operating at the sub-national level.
UN75 youth dialogue, Brazil
United Arab Emirates, Natalia Mroz
Dialogue participants also called for the UN to innovate, with stronger leadership and consistently exercising its moral authority.
View key finding #10
Uzbekistan, UNDP Uzbekistan
The immediate demand for post-COVID-19 recovery is improved access to basic services.
Cameroon, UN Cameroon
The second priority for COVID-19 recovery is international solidarity and increased support to those hard hit.
Kyrgyz Republic, UN Kyrgyz Republic
Respondents are hopeful about health improving, as well as education and women’s rights.
Looking to the future: the overwhelming concern is the climate crisis and our natural environment.
Vietnam, UN Vietnam
Other major priorities for the future: human rights, settling conflicts, tackling poverty and reducing corruption.
Suriname, UN Suriname
The young and those in developing countries are more optimistic about the future.
New York, UN Photo
87% of people believe global cooperation is vital to address global challenges.
Bolivia, UN Bolivia
6/10 respondents believe the UN has made the world a better place, though many see it as remote from their lives.
Dialogue participants called for the UN to be more inclusive of the diversity of actors in the 21st century.
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starsdiary.com
Olivia Jade Giannulli Faces Backlash for White Privilege Comments
21:50, June 01 109 0 usmagazine.com
Olivia Jade Giannulli received major pushback after posting about racism following the death of George Floyd — and protests that took place over the weekend as a part of the Black Lives Matter movement.
“As a person who was born into privilege based on my skin color & financial situation, i was not always aware that these issues were still so present,” the beauty influencer, 20, wrote via her Instagram Story on Sunday, May 31. “And that makes me feel awful. But that also fuels me.”
The California native added: “It makes me want to learn more and do more and be better for all my beautiful black friends and any other person who faces discrimination.”
Olivia Jade Giannulli at the Women’s Cancer Research Fund hosts An Unforgettable Evening in Los Angeles on February 28, 2019. Rob Latour/Shutterstock
The social media star, whose parents, Lori Loughlin and Mossimo Giannulli, were involved in the college admissions scandal and pled guilty to the charges last month, explained that now is the time to speak up in the face of racial injustice.
“I’m not racist and i never have been but i need to speak up about this because just not being racist isn’t enough,” Olivia Jade continued. “It outrages me. It makes me feel sick. It brings me to tears. THERE SHOULD NOT BE SUCH A GAP BETWEEN PEOPLE LIKE THIS. We need to support and stand up and speak and use our WHITE PRIVILEGE TO STOP THIS.”
Olivia Jade’s show of support for the black community, however, was met with backlash on Twitter from many who pointed out that her parents’ part in the college admissions scandal — the pair were accused of paying $500,000 to get Olivia Jade and her sister, Bella, into the University of Southern California as crew recruits — is the epitome of white privilege.
“Her white privileged got her out of trouble,” one user commented on the influencer’s social media account.
Another wrote, “The college admissions scandal contributes to the sense of outrage felt by many who take to the streets and violently protest systemic entitlement, privilege and discrimination, while sweet lil olivia jade drops make-up tutorials like nothing happened. dumb, clueless and tone deaf.”
“You really have no self awareness,” a different critic tweeted, after Olivia Jade talked about making a TikTok video with her sister one day prior. “You are embarrassingly tone deaf and need to legitimately pursue an education.”
Olivia Jade’s Instagram Story and tweets regarding the Black Lives Matter movement come days after she returned to social media — following a five-month break — on Thursday, May 28.
At the time, the star posted a beauty video on her Instagram, which is the first tutorial she’s shared with fans since December 2019. The Instagram video seemed to mark the beginning of Olivia Jade’s effort to resurrect her career as a beauty influencer on YouTube and Instagram.
“Olivia has the mindset that nothing lasts forever and while she knows it will be an uphill battle, she feels much more confident than she did six months ago,” a source told Us Weekly exclusively on Thursday, noting that the star is ready to work her way up to the top again. “[She] knows it’s a slow rebuild and that she’ll have to start from the ground up and be wary of her choices.”
The YouTube star’s rebranding efforts come after Loughlin, 55, and Mossimo, 56, pled guilty to wire and mail fraud charges on May 22. The two won’t be sentenced until August 21 but have already agreed to a plea deal.
The Full House alum will serve two months in prison and must complete 100 hours of community service while under a two-year supervised release. Mossimo, for his part, will serve five months in prison and complete 250 hours of community service. The two will also pay $150,000 and $250,000 fines, respectively.
Listen on Spotify to Us Weekly's Hot Hollywood as each week the editors of Us break down the hottest entertainment news stories!
'Eye watering': top police officer laments rate of stop and search on young black men
Facebook claims it does not conduct business in Australia in Cambridge Analytica appeal
UN countries challenge Australia's Indigenous incarceration record in human rights review
Rebels aim to insert genocide amendment in UK-China trade bill
Coroner's Covid findings stoke calls for inquiry into pandemic policy
Sámi reindeer herders file lawsuit against Norway windfarm
Shed parties and illegal races: UK police crack down on Covid rulebreakers
Other lives Andrew Williamson obituary
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World Championship 2017 France
21 goal win over Chile – Germany on the way to the eight final
Daniel Genings
After the surprising win over Belarus, Chile was not able to keep up with the European Champion. Germany missed a few chances at the beginning, but Chile was at no time in a position to follow the team from Dagur Sigurdsson. Germany won 35:17 and achieved the second win in the second match at this World Championship. Chile will focus on the matches against Hungary and Saudi-Arabia to reach the next round.
„It was not our aim to win against Germany“, Erwin Feuchtmann said after the match. „We will just focus on the match against Saudi-Arabia. Germany is better. We had no chance. We believe that we can do something against Saudi-Arabia, so our focus is on this match. That will be very important.“
His brother Emil also said that his team will reach the next round with a win against the Asian team. „That is why we spent not so much time in preparation on the match against Germany. We just got little information via video. We will put all of our energy into the matches against Hungary and Saudi-Arabia.“
In the first half one goal of Chile was followd by four from Germany, so that the Europeans was in the lead with 17:6 at half time. Germanys goalkeeper Wolff saved 63% in the first thirty minutes; at the end he had a fantastic rate of 53% saved shots. In the second half Germany played more concentrated and more efficient.
„That was not an easy walk as it seemed to be“, Julius Kühn, four goals, comment on the match. „The difficulty was to hold the concentration, so that nobody will get injured.“ But in the first half Paul Drux got injured. „I don’d know what is it, but I feel pain“, Drux comment after the match.
„We hope that it is not too bad for him“, Drux’ teammate Patrick Wiencek said. „I think we did it in a serious way. Chile beated Belarus, and Belarus had not such a bad squad. We played with 100 percent from the beginning on and got into the lead. At the end the match was a little bit like a chewing gum, but we played very well until the end.“
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News Community Sports E-edition Special Sections Obituaries Opinion Calendar Classifieds Marketplace
Insurance agency relocates to Oak Street
By Connor Linskey
State Farm Insurance recently moved its office in Walden to 78 Oak Street Suite 4A, opening on Aug. 3.
The business was previously located on 155 W Main Street in Walden, where it resided for 10 …
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The exterior of the new State Farm Insurance location at 78 Oak Street Suite 4A in Walden.
Dina Bryan
Posted Wednesday, September 9, 2020 10:53 am
The business was previously located on 155 W Main Street in Walden, where it resided for 10 years. Insurance Agent and Owner Dina Bryan decided to move the business to Oak Street for better parking, more foot traffic and easier access for customers. It is next to the Hannaford Supermarket and Thruway Ace Hardware, where many shoppers visit.
“We’re right where they do their daily shopping,” she said. “It’s more convenient for them.”
Bryan has been a fixture in Walden since 1994. Her office was originally located on Orange Avenue before she moved to W Main Street 10 years ago. Prior to becoming an insurance agent, she was a claim representative with State Farm.
It is Bryan’s hope that her business will be convenient to customers’ needs given the current health crisis. Some customers want State Farm to take care of their business virtually, while others prefer to purchase insurance face-to-face.
“We are all set up for COVID, as far as having the screen guards and things of that nature,” she said. “We are able to have those face-to-face conversations, as well as take care of them virtually.”
The new office space features new furnishing in addition to an open floor plan. Bryan has three full-time employees and one part-timer, all of whom are willing to work with customers in any capacity.
State Farm Insurance in Walden offers automobile, home, life, business and health insurance. They are open Monday through Friday from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Saturdays 9:30 a.m. to noon. Their office can be reached at (845) 778-7113.
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OC Partnership praises Schumer for advancing Route 17 project
The Orange County Partnership announced Thursday that the efforts by many business, economic development and political leaders in the region to expand Route 17 in Orange and Sullivan counties got a …
Ulster Legislators call for Trump resignation Fifteen members, mostly Democrat, of the Ulster County Legislature issued a letter condemning recent events at the U.S. Capitol and urged Congressman Antonio Delgado and Senators Kirsten Gillibrand …
Orange County Health Department warns of potential COVID-19 exposure at Middletown DMV The Orange County Health Department is advising residents that if they worked at or visited the Orange County Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), located at 12 King Street in Middletown on January …
Montgomery gathering recalls events at U.S. Capitol Members of the Montgomery community gathered at the Veterans Memorial Park in the Village of Montgomery on Friday morning to pay respects to those who died after supporters of President Donald Trump …
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Montgomery building police reform committee
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VC continues to promote social equity
At Monday night’s Valley Central School District Board of Education meeting, Gess LeBlanc gave a presentation on the district’s efforts to promote social and racial equality. LeBlanc …
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19/12/2019 - Tories attack worker and union rights
Transport Secretary Grant Shapps has prepared a Bill to force workers to ensure a minimum level of transport during strikes.
Under the proposed legislation, “minimum service agreements” will set out services to be provided during walkouts by railway workers.
Any strike would be unlawful unless a minimum service agreement is in place. And if it is not honoured, a strike would be unlawful and injunctions or damages would be sought against unions.
ASLEF general secretary Mick Whelan said: “This is nothing less than a declaration of war on transport workers. No trade unionist takes industrial action lightly, but we need that option to prevents bad employers from riding roughshod over our working conditions and safety. This shows that this right wing and authoritarian Tory government sees transport workers as the enemy. Not stakeholders.
“It’s funny how the Tory party are all in favour of deregulation, until it comes to unions, where they enforce ever more draconian laws to stop working people holding bad bosses to account. However, I can tell you that if the employers were to be honest, they won’t want this as it will cause more industrial unrest not less.
“Shapps tells us his law will force our members to provide a ‘bare-bones service’ during industrial action. Yet the number of passengers won’t go down. So we’ll end up with mass overcrowding on platforms and on board trains when our railway is already at capacity. Our members’ first duty is to keep passengers safe. They will not be a party to the dangerous running of services.
“Our members love our industry. ASLEF’s priority is to improve the lives of our members and ensure a successful, growing and reliable railway. We never want to disrupt passengers. But if the Transport Secretary and this nasty Tory government want to start a war with rail staff, our members are more than prepared to fight it and win.”
RMT general secretary Mick Cash said: “It hasn’t taken long for the true colours of this new Tory government to emerge. Banning strikes and denying workers the basic human right to withdraw their labour has been the hallmark of hard right, authoritarian regimes throughout history.
“Instead of attacking rail workers fighting to defend the safety and disabled access any responsible government would be tackling the scandal of private profiteering on Britain’s railways which have reduced services to chaos.
“RMT will fight any plans to deny out members their basic human rights.”
Unite assistant general secretary for transport Diana Holland said: “These proposals miss the fundamental point that workers only ever take industrial action as a last resort. This is about generating headlines rather than improving services to the general public.
“Commuters will know from bitter experience that Shapps’ idea of workers being forced to operate a ‘bare bones’ service could be worse than useless and potentially dangerous.
“Already workers who intend to take industrial action are required to jump through a huge number of legal hoops in order to be able to take legal action.
“There are already additional legal restrictions in place concerning London bus services which makes it even more difficult for those workers to take industrial action. So any further restrictions on the right to strike are entirely unnecessary.
“Industrial disputes occur for a variety of reasons, for example over safety which is equally about protecting the traveling public as it is about protecting the workers themselves.”
Patrick Harrington, general secretary of Solidarity, said: "These proposed restrictions on the right of transport workers to strike are ill-conceived and are an attempt to undermine effective industrial action. Let's remember that workers strike to improve their wages and conditions or to ensure their health and safety because their employer has failed to address their concerns. Once again the Tories are stacking the deck in favour of the employer and against the ordinary worker."
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No, overall talent is not the problem for Harbaugh’s Michigan
July 21, 2020 by ianaboyd 9 Comments
Bruce Feldman of the Athletic recently released his “freaks” list, which is always a fun read. No. 1 on the list is Michigan defensive end Kwity Paye, which I found striking particularly in light of how much talent has been passing through Ann Arbor since Jim Harbaugh took over.
I noted as much on Twitter:
Two Michigan players on this list. Also, about 6 Wolverines drafted per year since Harbaugh took over.
The notion that Michigan's problem is a lack of talent relative to Ohio State or anyone else just doesn't hold any water. https://t.co/lXo6LrFRz5
— Asst to the Minister of Culture (@Ian_A_Boyd) July 21, 2020
This drew some major push back, which you can find in the replies.
Amongst most of the college football commentariat, as well as a sizable chunk of the Michigan fanbase, the perception is that the Wolverines simply can’t keep up with Ohio State in recruiting and consequently can’t keep up with them on the scoreboard either. This doesn’t line up well to the other big standard in college football commentary today, which is that “blue chip ratio” is the threshold for championships and that beyond that other factors take hold.
Blue chip ratio means having a roster that is 50% or better former blue chip recruits (at least 4-stars). Michigan hit 60% last year, as did Penn State and Clemson, LSU was at 64%. Ohio State was at 81%. The obvious conclusion from these numbers is that the Buckeyes didn’t really draw that great of an advantage from being so much higher than everyone else. When they needed depth of talent most, it didn’t save them.
Clemson defeated them, they didn’t even reach LSU, and Penn State lost to Ohio State in a tough fought, 28-17 game while losing their quarterback to injury during the game. Michigan lost to Ohio State 56-27.
In the draft that followed, Michigan had 10 players selected.
Cesar Ruiz, center. 1st round
Josh Uche, outside backer, 2nd round
Ben Bredeson, guard, 4th round
Khaleke Hudson, safety/linebacker, 5th round
Mike Danna, defensive end, 5th round
Michael Onwenu, guard, 6th round
Donovan Peoples-Jones, wide receiver, 6th round
Jon Runyan, guard (tackle for Michigan), 6th round
Josh Metellus, safety, 7th round
Jordan Glasgow, linebacker, 7th round
Notice anything about that list? There’s a few notable missing components. One obvious one is Shea Patterson, who was signed as an undrafted free agent by Kansas City and has already been released. Another is that Josh Uche and Mike Danna, the star pass-rushers for Michigan, struggled to get on the field because of the team’s scheme up front and the presence of other star defensive ends like Aidan Hutchinson and the aforementioned Kwity Paye.
Finally, there’s the lack of cornerbacks or defensive tackles. Michigan had a talented infrastructure except at the positions of defensive tackle and quarterback, and lacked…a space force to match up against Ohio State. This has been the case for some time now.
Blue chip ratio champions
Hat tip to Bud Elliott who always compiles these lists and numbers and has been posting them on SB Nation, The Banner Society, and now at 247.
Blue chip ratio summary of the playoff era and Michigan-Ohio State rivalry.
Alabama and Ohio State have been hoarding talent for the entire decade, however their share of the national championships has been deeply cut into by Clemson in particular and now LSU as well.
As a reminder, the 2014 playoffs featured an Ohio State-Oregon final and the Oregon Ducks had a blue chip ratio of 41%. But the Oregon Ducks also had Marcus Mariota and some pro-spread dimensions to their offense.
The 2015 playoffs concluded with Alabama facing off against the Clemson Tigers. The Tigers’ blue chip ratio was 47%, just south of the supposed threshold for winning a title, but they beat Oklahoma and dropped 550 yards on Alabama before losing late 45-40.
In 2016 Clemson returned with a blue chip ratio of 52% and crushed Clemson 31-0 and then overcame Alabama en route to their first national title. For 2017 Clemson had Kelly Bryant, who couldn’t execute the pro-spread as well and they focused more on spread-option tactics, which could not overcome Alabama.
The Buckeyes were floundering with J.T. Barrett and their own spread-option offense and squandering their blue chip advantages. In 2018 Clemson boldly replaced Kelly Bryant with freshman Trevor Lawrence in order to get back to their pro-spread championship gear. They pounded both Notre Dame and Alabama as a result.
I was one of a very few that picked Clemson to beat Ohio State in the 2019 playoffs, because I knew Ohio State’s blue chip ratio advantage didn’t matter relative to Clemson’s superiority in the pro-spread passing game. Things got shaky when both of Clemson’s star receivers were hobbled by injury and struggling against a phenomenal Ohio State secondary, but the Tigers pulled it out thanks to their embrace of flyover defense and by their adjustment to throw to the star running back while Ohio State kept handing off.
Then they went down against LSU, who obviously had also embraced pro-spread passing to an even greater extent and had already extinguished Alabama’s light before the playoffs even started.
The story of the playoff era in college football is that top notch space forces punch above their weight in total recruiting. Overall across the game, what happens on the perimeter is having a greater impact than the trenches.
The story of “the game” is similar. Yes Ohio State has stockpiled more talent than Michigan over this period, but the Wolverines’ consistent defeats against Ohio State are not due to their inability to match Ohio State’s overall talent levels. That hasn’t stopped Clemson and other programs from consistently derailing the Buckeyes’ track to titles over this period.
Michigan’s space force in the Jim Harbaugh era
The story of Michigan’s time under Jim Harbaugh is well exemplified by the numbers on the 2019 team above, a squad stocked with a lot of overall talent but lacking both the pieces to win with infrastructure and the components to out punch their talent with an elite space force.
The 2015 Wolverines were solid at quarterback (Jake Rudock) and receiver with Amara Darboh and Jehu Chesson as well as space force dreadnought Jake Butt. But at tackle they had future center Mason Cole and future UDFA RT Erik Magnuson. The 2016 Wolverines brought back a similar core with Wilton Speight and a tackle tandem of future UDFA NFL guard Ben Braden and Magnuson again. In 2017 they played three different quarterbacks due to injury, lacked top receivers, and had a future NFL tackle in Grant Newsome but then he destroyed his knee and Mason Cole had to bump back outside.
The 2018 and 2019 Wolverines relied on future NFL guard Jon Runyan and a rotating cast of right tackles to protect Shea Patterson while he failed to maximize a number of talented receivers and tight ends.
Meanwhile on defense they brought in “Dr Blitz” Don Brown, who installed a number of man coverages and man blitzes that tended to overwhelm most of the Big 10 before hitting a wall against Ohio State’s offensive line and the inability of the Michigan defensive backs to cover the Buckeyes’ spread receivers in man coverage. Crossing routes in particular tortured Michigan in 2018 and 2019.
The 2018 debacle against Ohio State also included the Buckeyes’ cast of future NFL defensive ends destroyed Runyan and the Michigan pass protection. In 2019 the Wolverines had that figured out but were torched on the perimeter again and also inside where transfers and misses had left them lacking the defensive tackles to execute their normal schemes against Ohio State’s loaded interior O-line.
Michigan hasn’t had a strong or cohesive enough infrastructure to beat Ohio State in the trenches and they haven’t had the strategy, the quarterback play, nor the space force to move the game to the perimeter and try to defeat them there.
So the problem in Ann Arbor isn’t a lack of talent or inherent inability to field teams that can compete with the Buckeyes. The Wolverines have lacked an offensive system designed to make the most of their tight ends and skill players on the perimeter, steady quarterback play to execute it, and the necessary protection at left tackle. On defense they’ve tried to win games in the trenches where they don’t have advantages against the Buckeyes while deferring stress to the back end, which is how you give up 50+ points when a bad matchup snowballs on you.
Today’s focus in the media on recruiting rankings flattens multiple issues into overly simple analysis. Yes Ohio State recruits more overall talent than Michigan. They recruit more overall talent than anyone save for Alabama, but it hasn’t been the Tide that have stopped them from winning championships.
Michigan recruits better than the vast majority of college football and as well or better than other schools that have had better results against Ohio State and the nation’s other elite programs. There’s no reason Michigan can’t adjust their strategies (and they slowly are) to move from trying to bang their heads against the nut to the South but instead find the weak spot in the shell and pry it apart.
There are diminishing returns to trying to recruit the most talented team in college football and it’s not necessary in order to win. Michigan isn’t facing overwhelming disadvantages in talent, they’ve made the issue harder than it has to be by failing to recruit top talent at the most essential positions and failing to embrace the right strategy.
Read more on how spread tactics which have taken now over the game of college football evolved in the Big 12 conference in my book:
Posted in: Big 10 football, College football postseason, Theoretical ramblings Tagged: Clemson Tigers, College Football playoffs, Michigan Wolverines, Ohio State Buckeyes, Space force, Space force dreadnought
JEROME VALDEZ
Ian, love your commentary, as always. Will you do a deep dive comparison between Michigan and Texas? Lots of parallels; UM vs tOSU = UT vs OU. The “next big thing” coach, although admittedly Harbough has a better resume than Herman. Talented rosters failing to produce on the field.
ianaboyd
Same failures of strategy. Also, both had some bad ADs that didn’t help. Hard to get your strategy right without the right administration and leadership/accountability at the top.
Texas’ failure has been worse on a few levels. For one, the right strategy at Texas is much more obvious because you can see it at the local high schools on Friday nights. For another, they’ve sucked much harder than Michigan over the last decade.
Clayton Davis
You got it backwards. Clemson took their time in 2015 to finally race ahead in the second half against OU in that first round. In 2016, they destroyed Ohio State in the first round 31-0.
Ah shoot, you’re right of course.
Got the year wrong on the Newsome inury. It was 2016 and then they had to reshuffle mid season. QB cracked collarbone and played with it in Columbus and in the Bowl game. None of this makes your analysis wrong just more frustrating for M fans as that 2016 team really had a shot, very complete space force (look at the DBs), except the QB. Additionally, OSU still hadn’t adjusted.
Oops, I must have misread my roster notes.
What’s your take on how Clemson has dominated when they haven’t had elite tackle play? How do they compensate?
I’ll just make this a post.
Dabo’s space force – Concerning Sports
[…] to turn a series of Twitter arguments into a post about Michigan’s relative talent level. My argument was that Michgian’s overall talent level under Jim Harbaugh has actually been plen…, but they haven’t been strong enough in the box to win with the run game and their aggressive […]
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Landscape competition
Houses and gardens of Kyoto
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This is the most comprehensive look we have ever had of Escher's enigmatic life and his whole range of work. Throughout this superb volume we are shown, with the aid of sketches and diagrams, how the artist arrived at his most provocative creations. Perhaps no other contemporary artist so awakens our sense of wonder at the grand designs to be found in our world - even in the commonplace. To see an Escher print is to discover the infinite...
Restart new systems in graphic design
The authors suggest that graphic design today has entered a new period of experimentation, that often takes place outside the commercial realm and forces us to reconsider what we have taken as a given, and the resulting body of work is redefining the nature and scope of design. This book showcases 'the world's hottest 37 studios', and looks at the ways in which: 1) designers are becoming creative computer programmers; 2) designers work with...
It is an embodiment of the unique characteristics of local architecture and culture, as well as people's attitude of returning to nature. The book selects the latest projects of public square landscapes around the world, including memorial squares, transportation squares, educational squares, healthcare squares, commercial squares, corporate squares, distribution squares and recreational squares. The book devotes to fully reveal the design...
Introduces Chinese gardens in various cities from professional perspectives, demonstrating the exquisiteness of traditional gardens in an effort to present the skilful and elaborate designs.
Urbanization around the world is happening at unprecedented levels. Urban parks are a precious natural environment within our urban setting. Designing them well to accommodate both the life and development demands of the present while also looking forward to the needs of our future generations and landscapes, requires a comprehensive look at creating healthy ecosystems and prosperous mega cities and how the two can coexist in the twenty-first...
Urban park landscapes
This book included contents: - Zonal Parks - Municipal Parks - Comunity Parks
Pedestrian bridge design
This book is about Bridge design written in Chinese.
Imperial capital for more than a millennium, Kyoto has been the birthplace of most of what is now considered to be quintessential Japanese culture. Kyoto remains a rich, inexhaustible archive of Japanese cultural history. An exquisite photo album that celebrates a broad array of traditional houses from every period of its history.
Japanese gardens : Tranquility, simplicity, harmony
Photographs and text profile twenty-three traditional Japanese gardens that celebrate the essence of Japan, with descriptions of the techniques and elements that make Japanese gardens unique.
The art of Japanese garden
Winner of the 2006 American Horticultural Society Book Award! The Art of the Japanese Garden traces the development and blending of gardening traditions, as well as the inclusion of new features as gardening reached new heights of sophistication on Japanese soil. The book features a number of the most notable gardens in Japan, including graveled courtyards, early aristocratic gardens, esoteric and paradise gardens, Zen gardens, warrior...
HỌC LIỆU TRƯỜNG TIỂU HỌC - THCS - THPT HOA SEN
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Conquest of the Space Sea / The Galactic Breed
Author: Leigh Brackett
Robert Moore Williams
Conquest of the Space Sea
Beyond Pluto they faced a challenge no man could overcome.
The Galactic Breed
Outcast in space. Michael Trehearne had always been an outcast among his people on Earth. He knew he was different. He did not know how or why. Then one day, on the wind-swept coast of Brittany, a bewitchingly beautiful girl appeared & told him he had the look of the Vardda--those elite star travelers who alone could withstand the rigors of intergalactic flight.
Michael had to join them, had to find his place in the universe at last. But it would not be easy. For even when they allowed him to risk his life aboard their ship, to seal his fate upon their planet, even then, they viewed him as an outcast, a dangerous changeling who suddenly threatened them. He was a man who sooner or later would have to be destroyed!
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Uptown Notes
Last Thursday at EMU, there is was an alleged incident of racial intimidation. Glennisha Morgan said she answered her door to find someone in something that resembled Klan regalia. EMU is looking into the incident though it is unlikely anything concrete will come of it. The same issues of permissible “hate speech” will remain.
In other news about free speech. A professor at my boy Andrew Van Alstyne’s alma mater Saint Lawrence University. Bob Torres, an untenured Latino Sociology professor, at SLU has recently come under a lot of fire and national attention for the views he expressed on his personal website (blog). He expressed issues with the College Republicans and Bush. He has now become a national case example of free speech and alleged attempts at “intimidation.”Here is one of his responses to the allegations. Here is a recent Wall Street Journal Op-Ed piece on it- warning it’s written by a writer for the conservative National Review. Lastly, here is the statement that the Department of Sociology released. Okay, that was a lot of links for one story!
On the local tip, the Michigan Daily publishes an opinion in opposition to the proposed 1 fee to be levied to work on the Trotter House aka the Trotter Multicultural Center. The editors reason that the resolution is simply a “stop-gap.” What they fail to mention is that the U has been “discussing” improving the Trotter House for years, but has made no significant moves beyond a consultation on revisions (NO $ HAS BEEN PUT UP). The MSA resolution would first demonstrate that students are serious about the priority of the revision and could be the start of a matched campaign for the TH. This editorial really frustrates me because they clearly did not talk to the sponsors of the resolution. How do they propose to finally get the administration to action?
Everything was made for White kids…
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Yes Virginia, there is Black Male Privilege
“I’m for gay rights but…”
Dear Old Morehouse
On Swimming Pools, Harvard Arrests, and Flash Point Racism
The Possible and the Probable Part 2: Urban Education
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UptownNotes is written by Dr. L'Heureux Dumi Lewis-McCoy. To Learn more about my writing, speaking and research please visit professorlewismccoy.com.
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Uptown Notes by R. L'Heureux Lewis-McCoy - Dumi Eyi di yiye is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License.
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PLAYS-OF-THE-DAY-BY SPORT: NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAY-OF-THE-DAY PACKAGES
WE WON BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK-TO-BACK HOCKEY HANDICAPPING CONTESTS
(THAT'S 8 IN A ROW, FOLKS)!
ALL OF THEM SHOULD MAKE YOU GREAT PROFITS!
Over the years we’ve been in business, we’re proud to say that we've finished in first-place in more #1-categories in all hockey contests than any service ever - dead or alive. You'll find an updated total of those #1-titles in hockey further down this page.
We won the first contest they ever had for hockey for sports services in Las Vegas.
Quite an achievement. But you might say what so many people say all the time: "yeah, yeah - that's all ancient history. What have you done lately?" How about this: In April 2009, we finished #1 for the entire 7+ month NHL Regular-Season in the Best Win-Percentage, All Sides category of The Sports Monitor contest. That was the 7th-straight hockey contest where we had a #1-ranked finish. You heard right. #1 in 7 straight regular & post-season hockey contests at either The Sports Monitor or The Sports Eye. To compete against anywhere from dozens to hundreds of other services...to even lead for a single week against all that competition...then to win a 1/2-year-long contest...and then win 7 of those contests in a row...how much more consistent can you possibly be? And we followed that witn a #1-finish in the 2009 NHL PLayoffs at The Sports Monitor in the Best Bets, Best Win-Percentage (minimum: 10 plays) category.
So we’d also like to proudly tell everyone that we have done the unthinkable: we have won back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to-back-to back-to-back-to-back NHL handicapping contests. We've finished #1 in at least 1 category of 8 straight NHL contests
Now, is that a better criterion for joining a service than the guy who has a hot month and everyone is chasing his performance by living and dying (bankroll-wise) with each of his daily plays? Infinitely better. No one else on earth has ever done what we just did. No one. I'm positive. Except Bob Akmens Sports. You can live to be 100 and never see that again.
Maybe we’re proudest of the fact that we have the unique distinction of having won the very first handicapping contest ever for sports services in hockey in 1994 – taking a $10,000 bankroll and rolling it past $140,000 – and we won the very last contest in 2009 - with many titles in between!
We have hockey packages for everyone! Whether you like to bet all of our plays - or only plays-of-the-day - whether you like the longest regular-season in all of American sports, the NHL regular-season – or especially love the exciting Stanley Cup playoffs - or like all of these things - we guarantee you'll find what you're looking for at Bob Akmens Sports.
We’ll also indicate our most popular packages so you can make a quick decision if you'd like.
Our first hockey play in any given year is usually out at the start of October. And our last one is usually in the final game of the Stanley Cup playoffs which have run into mid-June in the past. That's 8 1/2 months of hockey! And in between, we'll have plenty of winners - so enjoy!
But let’s now take a look our National Hockey League play-of-the-day packages – each has many subscribers who come back to them year-after-year-after-year. And we hope you’ll be one of those folks!
Just please read the description of what's offered in the package carefully to help you choose the right one for you.
AN IMPORTANT NOTE - PLEASE READ:
We never "create" a play for the sake of having one. You’ll only get plays that we think are worth betting. This means some days we won't have a play in a given sport. We’ll inform you of that if you have a longer- term package - and naturally, if you buy a 1-day deal and we have nothing that day, you'll get the next available plays.
ALSO - PLEASE READ - WE HAVE A CUT-OFF TIME FOR PAYMENTS RECEIVED:
We'll try to get your plays to you as soon as is possible by email. If PayPal notifies us before 5 PM Eastern time on a weekday, or by 1 PM Eastern time on a weekend day, we'll try to get that day's plays to you before they start.
If payment notification gets to us after these times, your service will start with the next available plays.
IF YOU'RE LIKE MOST OF OUR CLIENTS, YOU'RE INTERESTED IN WINNING AT NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAYS-OF-THE-DAY.
SO, WE'LL START YOU OFF WITH OUR MOST-POPULAR NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE BEST-PLAY PACKAGE, YEAR-AFTER-YEAR:
HOCKEY PACKAGES: NAME & ITEM CODE PRICE DESCRIPTION
THE PLAY-OF-THE-DAY, NHL,
(BAS-NHL-POD-FULL-SEA)
RIGHT NOW RANKED #1 IN MLB FOR THE SEASON AT RUTH GLASGOW'S THE SPORTS MONITOR.
RIGHT NOW RANKED #1 IN NHL FOR THE SEASON AT RUTH GLASGOW'S THE SPORTS MONITOR.
RIGHT NOW RANKED #2 IN NBA FOR THE SEASON AT RUTH GLASGOW'S THE SPORTS MONITOR.
WE BEAT OUT 130 SERVICES IN THE LAS VEGAS MLB CONTEST
RANKED # IN ALL PLAYS, MOST NET PROFIT, FOR THE ENTIRE YEAR AT SPORTSWATCH MONITOR, BEATING OUT 200 SPORTS SERVICES
You will get your plays by an emailed report -
or you can call us
The BEST NHL play each day there's a game being played for the full season (with playoffs)
ON TOP OF 201 HANDICAPPERS AT THE SPORTS WATCH.
SAVE $4286 off the daily rate
THE BEST rate
SPOT-PLAYERS, GET READY! WE HAVE NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE BEST-PLAY PACKAGES THAT GIVE OUT JUST 1 BEST-PLAY EACH DAY.
LET'S TAKE A LOOK AT ALL OF OUR HOCKEY BEST-PLAY PACKAGES - WE'LL LIST THOSE THAT PRODUCE A SINGLE BEST-PLAY EACH DAY,
REGARDLESS WHETHER IT'S A SIDE OR A TOTAL - JUST ONE PLAY A DAY, MAXIMUM:
THE PLAY-OF-THE-DAY, NHL: 1-DAY
(BAS-NHL-POD-1)
$29 The BEST NHL play, side or total, any day there's a game being played
GOOD rate
THE PLAY-OF-THE-DAY, NHL, 7-DAYS
$149 The BEST NHL total, side or total, any day there's a game being played for a full week
SAVE $104 off the daily rate
BETTER rate
THE PLAY-OF-THE-DAY, NHL, 28-DAYS
(BAS-NHL-POD-28)
$399 The BEST NHL total, side or total, any day there's a game being played for 4 full week
EVEN BETTER rate
USE YOUR MOUSE TO SLAP THAT PUCK!
THAT DOES IT FOR OUR NATIONAL HOCKEY LEAGUE PLAY-OF-THE-DAY PACKAGES.
IF YOU'D LIKE SOMETHING MORE SPECIFIC AND SUITED TO YOUR OWN TASTES, PLEASE CHECK OUT ALL OF OUR OTHER HOCKEY PACKAGES –
WE'RE SURE YOU'LL FIND SOMETHING THAT YOU'LL LIKE! CLICK HERE TO VIEW ALL OF OUR OTHER HOCKEY PACKAGES
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NHL HOCKEY: TEAM VS. TOOL COMPARISON TOOL
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NHL HOCKEY: TEAM - OFFENSIVE STATS
NHL HOCKEY: TEAM REPORTS
NHL HOCKEY: GAME PREVIEWS
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NHL HOCKEY: TRENDS
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NHL HOCKEY: TRANSACTIONS
THE LATEST CONTEST WINS & THE GROWING #1-TITLES!
CONTEST-WATCH - OUR LATEST #1-FINISH IN A DOCUMENTED HANDICAPPING CONTEST:
We are the ONLY sports service in the history of ther world to finish with over 70% winners in BOTH college football (73.47%) and the NFL (70.7%) in the same year.
We have 321 #1 catgory finishes in documented sports service national handicapping contests - more than anyone has ever had.
WE FINISHED #1 IN THE 2013 MLB BASEBALL POST-SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE SPORTS EYE IN MOST NET PROFIT WON.
* WE FINISHED #1 IN THE 2012 NFL FOOTBALL REGULAR-SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP AT BOTH THE SPORTS MONITOR & THE SPORTS EYE IN MOST NET PROFIT WON AND WE WON 70.8%.
* WE FINISHED #1 IN THE 2012 COLLEGE FOOTBALL REGULAR-SEASON CHAMPIONSHIP AT BOTH THE SPORTS MONITOR & THE SPORTS EYE IN MULTIPLE CATEGORIES, WITH 73.47%:
#1 IN WIN PERCENTAGE (73.47%); #1 IN RETURN-ON-RISK WITH 43.14%; #1 IN MOST NET PROFIT WON; #1 IN TOTALS WITH AN AMAZING 24-4 RECORD, ETC.
* WE FINISHED #1 IN THE ULTIMATE CONTEST THERE IS FOR SPORTS SERVICES: THE 2012 COMBINED FOOTBALL CHAMPIONSHIP AT THE SPORTS MONITOR, WITH A REMARKABLE
9+% WIN OVER THE 2ND-PLACE SERVICE (AND THERE WERE 125 SERVICES IN THIS CONTEST!). WE HAVE A COMBO WIN % OF ABOUT 72%. IN 27 YEARS OF TSM, NO SERVICE
HAD EVER WON THIS CONTEST BY MORE THAN 4%. aND OVER THE LAST DECADE THE AVERAGE WIN WAS BY 0.9%. AND WE WON BY 9+%.
* WE ALSO BECAME THE VERY FIRST SERVICE EVER IN THE 27 YEARS OF THE SPORTS MONITOR (TSM) TO FINISH WITH OVER 70% IN THE SAME YEAR IN BOTH COLLEGE FOOTBALL (73.47%)
AND NFL FOOTBALL (70.8%). iN SPITE OF THE LYING THIEVES WHO CLAIM TO WIN 80% ALL THE TIME (AND ARE NEVER MONITORED IN A LEGITIMATE CONTEST), NO ONE HAD EVER DONE THIS.
We win the 2011 NFL-Ex Football Contest @ The Sports Monitor in 2 divisions: Most Bankroll Won, Totals & Most Net Winners, Totals.
We win BOTH the 2011 NHL Hockey Contest @ The Sports Monitor & the Titanium Award (our 14th) @ The Sports Eye. See our Award Notifications HERE.
We win the 2011 NFL Football Contest (Post-Season) Titanium Award (our 13th) @ The Sports Eye. See our Award Notification HERE.
We win the 2010 College Football Contest (Regular-Season-totals division) @ LVSM. See our Award Notification HERE.
We win the 2010 NFL-Ex Football Contest @ LVSM - back-to-back. See our Award Notification HERE.
We win several more Handicapper-of-the-Week Awards at the Las Vegas Sports Monitor. We have 40 of these. See our Award Certificates HERE.
We win the 2009-10 NBA Basketball Post-Season Titanium Award (our 12th) at The Sports Eye. See our Award Notification HERE.
We win the 2009-10 NBA Basketball Post-Season Contest - in every possible category - at LVSM.
We win 10 more Handicapper-of-the-Week Awards - all in a row - at the Las Vegas Sports Monitor. We have 33 of these. See our Award Certificates HERE.
We win May 2010, April 2010 & March 2010 Handicapper-of-the-Month Awards at the Las Vegas Sports Monitor. See our Award Certificates HERE.
We win the 2009-10 NBA Basketball Regular-Season (Top Win-%) at LVSM.
We win the 2009-10 College Basketball Post-Season Titanium Award (our 11th) at The Sports Eye. See our Award Notification HERE.
We win the 2009-10 College Basketball Post-Season Handicapping Championship at the Las Vegas Sports Monitor. See our Award Certificate HERE.
We win the 2009-10 College Basketball Regular-Season Handicapping Championship at the Las Vegas Sports Monitor. See our Award Certificate HERE.
We win the 2009 College Football Regular-Season Handicapping Championship at the Las Vegas Sports Monitor. See our Award Certificate HERE.
We win the 2009 NFL Pre-Season Handicapping Championship at the Las Vegas Sports Monitor. See our Award Certificate HERE.
We finish #1 in the NBA Playoffs Championship Contest at the Las Vegas Sports Monitor (category: Best Win-%, All Sides)
We finish #1 in the 2009 NHL Playoffs Championship Contest at The Sports Monitor (category: Best Win-% (minimum 10 plays), Best Bets)
We finish #1 in the 2009 NHL Regular-Season Championship Contest at The Sports Monitor (category: Best Win-%, All Sides)
We finish #1 in the 2009 NBA Regular-Season Championship Contest at the Las Vegas Sports Monitor (category: Best Win-%, All Sides)
We win the 2009 NFL Post-Season Handicapping Championship at the Las Vegas Sports Monitor. See our Award Certificate HERE.
321: WE HAVE THIS MANY #1-CATEGORY FINISHES IN DOCUMENTED HANDICAPPING CONTESTS
FOOTBALL WE HAVE THIS MANY #1-FINISHES IN THIS SPORT
BASKETBALL WE HAVE THIS MANY #1-FINISHES IN THIS SPORT
BASEBALL WE HAVE THIS MANY #1-FINISHES IN THIS SPORT
HOCKEY WE HAVE THIS MANY #1-FINISHES IN THIS SPORT
SOCCER WE HAVE THIS MANY #1-FINISHES IN THIS SPORT
WE HAVE THIS MANY #1-FINISHES IN THESE
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Beppi’s Book
Beppi’s Italian Restaurant - Traditional Italian Dining In The Heart Of Sydney
Beppi’s Italian Restaurant - Traditional Italian Dining In The Heart Of Sydney - Join us for Melbourne Cup Lunch
Welcome to Beppi’s Italian Restaurant Sydney
We have temporarily changed the restaurants operating to comply with the government directive.
If the electronic booking system cannot accommodate your booking request or for parties of 10 or more please call us on 02 93604558 so we can assist with your reservation
We would like to thank all our customers for their support and hope that you, your family & loved ones stay safe.
65 Years ago a young Italian named Beppi took a risk and opened a small eatery in Darlinghurst which came to be known as Beppi’s.
Back then TV did not exist, Robert Menzies was Prime Minister of Australia, Dwight D. Eisenhower was president of the USA, Elvis had his first chart hit with Heartbreak Hotel & Prince Rainier married Grace Kelly.
A lot has changed since then, however, Beppi’s has stood the test of time and flourished with over 65 years of service to our valued customers for which we express our sincere gratitude.
Sydney Morning Herald Good Food Icon review
"Beppi's - Beacon of care and attention to detail . I'll bet it's been a long time between anyone serving you with this much attention to detail, friendliness and comfort. "
Make A Reservation Now
Copyright © Beppi’s 2020
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The Winter Albion features a new editorial direction for us. After the Summer edition we had the idea for a rubric which would allow us to feature other manifestations of culture alongside the more traditional categories of art, books, and so on. Material Culture is the result, and we inaugurate it with Mary’s investigation of that much-maligned fabric, chintz, which, although it signified a certain kind of provincial isolation and tragedy in John Betjeman’s Death in Leamington, was in fact intricately bound up with the world-changing forces of imperialism, industrialisation, and early globalisation. I follow this with something far more parochial, a look at English vernacular furniture in all its regional variety as revealed in Christopher Gilbert’s glorious classic on the subject.
The eighteenth century figures prominently in the art section, in two very different genres: marine painting —which, in Paul’s review of a new book on the subject, reveals itself to be unexpectedly rich, full of technical experimentation and subtexts about England’s status as a naval nation— and at the other extreme the affectedness and politesse of the conversation piece. (There was, after all, not much scope aboard ship for the sort of genteel display that Mark entertainingly skewers in his review of a new book by Kate Retford on the latter). Mark also assesses the career of that difficult character, the artist and provocateur Wyndham Lewis, as depicted in a recent Imperial War Museum North exhibition, and Paul tackles an impressive new volume of art history scholarship by Elizabeth Prettejohn which breaks new ground, in particular with some brilliant research on the Pre-Raphaelites’ influences.
In books, Mark provides a characteristically hilarious and poignant take on an important new post-war cultural history, The Tiger in the Smoke by Lynda Nead, which seeks to investigate the “structure of feeling” of the 1950s. Neil gives an incisive and sympathetic account of two books by the controversial and misunderstood comedian Stewart Lee, best-known, perhaps, for his discombobulating columns in The Observer.
As usual, music is full of new releases reviewed by Em and James, some more mainstream and others quite obscure, but all of them intriguing. Aficionados of English music will find much to interest them.
We wish all our readers a belated Happy New Year 2018, and encourage you to keep your collective peckers up.--The Editor
Copyright © Isabel Taylor 2018.
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Data Quality for Measuring Political Protest and Government Change
How Good Do the Data Need to Be?
Charles Lewis Taylor
For analyzing protest and government change, data need to be both reliably measured and valid for the task at hand. Data fundamentalists insist that nothing less than total capture of every event that has taken place is sufficient for analysis. That scenario is, of course, an impossibility. Rather, methods to measure the statistical probability that a sample is appropriate for its targeted universe allow empirical analysis to proceed.
Keywords : event indicators, government change, political protest, Reliability, validity
Analyzing government change and political protest can contribute to understanding causes of conflict, which in turn may lead to its mitigation. For this analysis to be effective, however, reliable empirical data for testing theory are as important as the theoretical frameworks they are to test. Otherwise, we obtain only “grand theories firmly planted in mid-air,” as Karl W. Deutsch used to say. Assuring the quality of data, therefore, is itself a serious component of scholarship that raises the argument above the level of ideology. Measuring political phenomena is fraught with dangers derived from imprecise or false concepts as well as from clerical error. Assumptions and procedures in data coding affect analytical results and are therefore inherently theoretical in nature. Clear-headed thought in developing political measurements is thus required if progress is to be made in political understanding.
Data are judged by their validity and their reliability. Validity refers to cogency or soundness in reason. Are the procedures and rules for coding able to withstand counterarguments? Are they convincing? Do they work for the theoretical purpose at hand? Reliability refers to trustworthiness and accuracy. Are the data dependable? Can they be used with confidence? Are they sufficient for the questions being asked of them? Validity is one among several exercises in theory building. It requires speculative and theoretic contemplation. Reliability, on the other hand, is more a matter of meticulously disciplined work. It involves simply getting it right. If a dataset is to be effective for analysis, it must be constructed both with carefully designed concepts and closely controlled accounting.
1. How Good Do the Data Need to Be?
This question is meaningful only in terms of how the data are to be used. Are they suitable for the purpose to which they will be put? Considerably more detail will be needed for a fine-grained study than for an all-embracing comparison. Examining the exact sequence of conflict events during an eight-day riot will require far more complete data than investigating the differing levels of aggregate violence in a number of societies over a century. Data fundamentalists find this concept difficult to accept. They assume that sufficient diligence will produce absolute accuracy and believe that nothing less is acceptable for any analysis. Not only is there a truth out there, but it is a truth that can be determined with exactitude. Inevitably, personal perceptions of truth become the standard by which results are judged. This situation leads either to endless argument or to scholarly nihilism. The alternative that avoids this dilemma is to analyze human behavior in probabilistic terms. Working with partial knowledge and estimating the probable likelihood of error is usually the best we can expect. The development of the statistical approach to scientific analysis was based upon this understanding.
Charles Brockett missed this vital point in his evaluation of event data reported in the World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators: Third Edition. He claimed to discover “gross and systematic errors” in the data because he found reports of some events that were not included. He asserted that analyses employing this source were flawed due to their use of “meaningless data” to measure mass political violence. Although he made these charges on the basis of very short-term observations (over scattered years in the 1970s) of one data series (political deaths) for a very small number of cases (five Central American countries), he reified his figures into a benchmark of real truth against which to measure the entire 30 years, 139 countries, and 18 event series of the World Handbook. “A prodigious undertaking, providing annual events data for 1948-77, it is not good enough,” he concluded.[1] Charles D. Brockett, “Measuring Political Violence and Land Inequality in Central America,” American Political Science Review 86 (1992): 169; Charles Lewis Taylor and David A. Jodice, World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators: Third Edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983). Good enough for what he did not address.
In addition to ignoring the fact that such a tiny, non-random sample is unrepresentative of the whole population of events, Brockett seems to have misunderstood the general nature of statistical analysis. In their devastating reply, Dixon, Muller, and Seligson made the point that
documented evidence of underreporting does not necessarily imply a precise accounting. Brockett’s investigation of deaths in Central America is a case in point. While he does supply convincing evidence of underreporting of deaths, he fails to provide enough detailed information to permit an accurate correction.[2] William J. Dixon, Edward N. Muller, and Mitchell A. Seligson, “Inequality and Political Violence Revisited: Response,” American Political Science Review 87 (1993): 990.
Dixon et al. used a censoring technique that identified moderate rather than the excessive levels of violence claimed by Brockett.[3] It would have been possible, they say, to eliminate cases plagued by documented irregularities, but this would have produced serious distortions since irregularities are located precisely in the times and places where disorder is known to be frequent. The optimal solution, of course, would have been to correct inaccuracies with better data, but that is easier said than done. Because underreported cases could be reasonably expected to rank above the threshold that they determined, they set the score for these cases equal to that threshold. This technique allowed observing how the underreported cases affected their analysis. When they compared the effects of the adjusted data to those of the unadjusted data in a model predicting violence from land inequality, the estimates changed slightly and the overall fit declined marginally, but the general pattern remained pretty much the same. Making allowances for error and employing the best data available did not overturn the results. Dixon, Muller, and Seligson noted that “blanket charges of inaccuracy without supporting evidence can do little to advance inquiry” and that evidence of significant underreporting “is better used as a remedy than an indictment.”[4] Dixon, Muller, and Seligson, “Inequality and Political Violence,” 990.
There are no methods by which to obtain a metric of everything that has happened. Historians have of course known this for centuries. There are no perfect scholars, and even if there were, no complete sources for political events exist. No scribe could ever record them all. Events happen more quickly and in more places than can be accommodated by available clerks. Hence, no dataset can be assured of containing every single event of conflict within its scope, whether it be a quantitative assessment for a couple of years of a country’s history taken from police blotters and local newspapers or a carefully compiled descriptive report drawn from several separate historical archives.
2. So What Do We Do?
A dataset needs to be characterized not so much by completeness as by comparability across time and space. Wooley points out that any dataset of political events is in reality a sample drawn from the universe of actual events that occurred, and that no absolute benchmark exists by which the quality of any particular sample can be judged.[5] John T. Wooley, “Using Media-Based Data in Studies of Politics, If we follow the logic of sampling theory, of course the more densely packed the dataset, the greater its likelihood of representing the actual patterns that exist in the total event population. Nevertheless, there is always the overwhelming probability that more events occurred than were reported, however large the sample.
The first requirement for probabilistic analysis is the reasonable assurance that the data sample is unbiased. A sample may or may not be random with regard to the various criteria that are important to the investigation at hand. Moreover, it will be drawn from an unknown population. A careful examination is required of the sources as well as the protocol by which the data are to be coded or otherwise manipulated. Analytical interest, of course, is in the patterns of events, the relationships among these patterns, and the connections between them and other relevant variables. Are the data a sufficient representation of the underlying population of events for testing probabilistic models that explain these patterns and relationships? The answer depends upon the requirements of the particular model. Dixon, Muller, and Seligson found no difference in relationship when they modified their data, but not all adjustments and retesting would allow statistical results to stand. It is the responsibility of the analyst to assess empirically the effects that data quality will have upon the analysis.
The questions of validity and reliability are of course related to the quality of the sources. How comprehensive is the source? What biases does it contain? Are events from reports recognized (whether by human coders or by automated coding) in terms relevant to theoretical concerns? Answering the last question requires developing base codes consistent with the theoretical framework: What needs to be measured and what is the logic for doing so? Finally, for large datasets that are most efficiently collected by automatically coding digital data, reliability has to do with the convergence of machine and human coders in assigning events to the proper event type and in identifying the associated attributes of these events.
Many of the early cross-national political event datasets were based upon print media. Crews of individual coders worked together to create and refine coding rules that could be applied to journalists’ reports of activities related to political protest and government change. The participants then checked inter-coder reliability by means of tests on sample material. Such a project was, of course, labor intensive and made even more so by the use of multiple sources, including sources in local languages. Adding to the required work, several scholars have sought local and international news sources. These, they argue, provide additional perspectives on political processes.[6] Henrik Sommer and James R. Scarritt, “The Utility of Reuters for Events Analysis in Area Studies: The Case of Zambia-Zimbabwe Interactions, 1982-1993,” International Interactions 25 (1999): 1-31; Christian Davenport and Patrick Ball, “Views to a Kill: Exploring the Implications of Source Selection in the Case of Guatemalan State Terror, 1977-1995,” The Journal of Conflict Resolution 46 (2002): 427-450. Multiple sources increase the problem of dealing with duplicate reports of the same event, however. Simply adding event reports wherever found does not alone solve the comparability problem, but sources containing more event reports do offer the opportunity of more comparable reporting. Althaus, Edy, and Phalen made the case for using wire services rather than newspapers. Newspapers, they said, have a “news hole” of a specific size and the events reported have to fit into this space. Wire services have no news hole. Their continuous coverage can more easily expand or contract to cover what is actually happening. Wire services therefore include far more news than newspapers can afford to print.[7] Scott L. Althaus, Jilly A. Edy, and Patricia F. Phalen, “Using Substitutes for Full-Text News Stories in Content Analysis: Which Text is Best?,” American Journal of Political Science 43 (2001): 707-724.
Reuters News Agency was singled out as a particularly good source that covers much that is missed by other news agencies.[8] Mark Irving Lichbach, “The International News About Governability: A Comparison of the New York Times and Six News Wires,” International Interactions 10 (1984): 311-340; Phillip A. Huxtable and Jon C. Pevehouse, “Potential Validity Problems in Event Data Collection,” International Studies Notes 21 (1996): 8-19; Sommer and Scarritt, “The Utility of Reuters.” Althaus et al. argued that the multiple sources available through Reuters Textline Service in Nexis-Lexis do reduce bias and generate more density. In a test, they found Reuters Textline dwarfed several putative benchmarks in Northern Ireland, Poland, and the United States in the number of protest events that it covered. They found that the Radio Free Europe chronology included only 31.2 per cent of the events found in the Reuters’ sources; Uncensored Poland News (Solidarity Newsletter) covered 3.7 per cent; the Bew and Gillespie Northern Ireland chronology covered 10.9 per cent; and the New York Times covered 11.4 per cent.[9] Althaus et al., “Which Text is Best?” Almeida and Lichbach found that internet sources provided much more complete coverage than the New York Times, Global Newsbank, and the Seattle Times.[10] Paul D. Almeida and Mark Irving Lichbach, “To the Internet, From the Internet: Sources of Data About Antiglobalization Protest,” Mobilization 8 (2003): 249-272.
Rucht and Ohlemacher rejected wire services on the basis of their then-inaccessibility and of the flood of information that would have to be screened, but over time, various schemes have been developed for machine-aided coding and eventually for direct computer coding.[11] Dieter Rucht and Thomas Ohlemacher, “Protest Event Data: Collection Uses and Perspectives,” in Issues in Contemporary Social Movement Research, eds. Ron Eyerman and Dario Diani (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1992), 76-106. Significant among these are systems developed by Philip Schrodt and by Virtual Research Associates (VRA).[12] Philip A. Schrodt, “CAMEO: Conflict and Mediation Event Observations: Event and Actor Codebook,” http://eventdata.psu.edu/data.dir/cameo.html; Virtual Research Associates, Integrated Data Events Analysis (IDEA), http://vranet.com/data.aspx. Eventually, agreement between human and machine coding has begun to approach 90 per cent, which is at a level about equal to the best results among trained human coders.
A major problem for human coders is the “black box” of the coder’s mind. It is difficult to account for exactly how and why any single individual may respond to an event report. Coding manuals, coder training, and inter-coder reliability checks reduce the problem of random reactions, but coding errors do occur and are difficult to identify. In contrast, automated coding is highly consistent and thereby transparent in terms of error patterns. It is also flexible in that once errors are identified, codes can be altered and data rerun, creating a new dataset. In effect, automation replaces numerous moderately and low-skilled human coders with a few highly skilled programmers and protocol developers.
The Virtual Research Associates Reader is one project involved in the automated coding approach that makes use of Reuters Business Briefs. Participants include Doug Bond, Joe Bond, and Charles Taylor. Current examination of the validity of these data as dynamic indicators of intrastate conflict processes is encouraging. To be sure, media selection and misrepresentation present difficulties for conflict analysis, and although the source of the data is imperfect, it does provide a valid trace of conflict events in the aggregate. The question is not whether international news sources literally describe all events that occur but whether indices drawn from them represent cross-national patterns. The VRA project presents the results of a random sampling approach to assessing coding reliability for 50 conflict event types anywhere in the world.
Given the limitation of resources in the real world, there is always a trade-off between intricate measurements of narrower scope that usually produce a larger number of event reports for any specific time and place, and broader studies that allow greater comparative analysis. The broader the scope in time or space, of course, the greater the possibility for overlooking events of interest because the resources that can be devoted to each detail are relatively fewer. New developments, however, continue to mitigate even this problem.
Barker-Plummer, B. “News as a Political Resource.” Critical Studies in Mass Communication 12 (1995): 306-324.
Barranco, J., and D. Wisler. “Validity and Systematicity of Newspaper Data in Event Analysis.” European Sociological Review 40 (1999): 170-192.
Beissinger, Mark R. Nationalist Mobilization and the Collapse of the Soviet State. London: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Boyd-Barrett, Oliver. The International News Agencies. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1980.
Boyd-Barrett, Oliver, and Daya Kishan Thussu. Contra-Flow in Global News: International and Regional News Exchange Mechanisms. London: John Libbey, 1992.
Boyd-Barrett, Oliver, and Terhi Rantanen, eds. The Globalization of News. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage, 1999.
Danzger, M. Herbert. “Validating Conflict Data.” American Sociological Review 40 (1975): 570-584.
Eisinger, P. “The Conditions of Protest in American Cities.” American Political Science Review 67 (1973): 11-23.
Franzosi, R. “The Press as a Source of Socio-Historical Data.” Historical Methods 20 (1987): 5-15.
Gans, H. Deciding What is News. New York: Pantheon, 1979.
Hocke, Peter. “Determining the Selection Bias in Local and National Newspaper Reports on Protest Events.” In Acts of Dissent, edited by Dieter Rucht, Ruud Koopmans, and Friedhelm Neidhardt, 131-163. Berlin: Edition Sigma Rainer Bohn Verlag, 1998.
Hug, Simon. “Selection Bias in Comparative Research: The Case of Incomplete Data Sets.” Political Analysis 11 (2003): 255-274.
Hug, Simon, and Dominique Wisler. “Correcting for Selection Bias in Social Movement Research.” Mobilization 3 (1998): 141-161.
Kielbowicz, R., and C. Scherer. “The Role of the Press in the Dynamics of Social Movements.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 9 (1986): 71-96.
King, Gary, and Will Lowe. “An Automated Information Extraction Tool for International Conflict Data with Performance as Good as Human Coders: A Rare Events Evaluation Design.” International Organization 57 (2003): 617-642.
Koopmans, Ruud. “The Use of Protest Event Data in Comparative Research: Cross-National Comparability, Sampling Methods and Robustness.” In Acts of Dissent: New Developments in the Study of Protest, edited by Dieter Rucht, Ruud Koopmans and Friedhelm Neidhardt. Berlin: Rainer Bohn Verlag, 1998.
Koopmans, Ruud, and Dieter Rucht. “Protest Event Analysis – Where to Now?” Mobilization 4 (1999): 123-130.
Leetaru, Kalev, and Philip A. Schrodt . “GDELT: Global Data on Events, Location and Tone, 1979-2012.” Paper presented at the International Studies Association Meeting, San Francisco, April 2013. http://eventdata.psu.edu/data.dir/GDELT.html
McCarthy, John D., Clark McPhail, and Jackie Smith. “Images of Protest.” American Sociological Review 61 (1996): 478-499.
McFarlane, Thomas, and Iain Hay. “The Battle for Seattle: Protest and Popular Geopolitics in The Australian Newspaper.” Political Geography 23 (2003): 211-232.
Mueller, Carol McClurg. “International Press Coverage of East German Protest Events, 1989.” American Sociological Review 62 (1997): 820-832.
Oliver, Pamela E., and Daniel J. Myers. “How Events Enter the Public Sphere: Conflict, Location, and Sponsorship in Local Newspaper Coverage of Public Events.” American Journal of Sociology 105 (1999): 38-87.
Oliver, Pamela E., and Gregory M. Maney. “Political Processes and Local Newspaper Coverage of Protest Events: From Selection Bias to Triadic Interactions.” American Journal of Sociology 106 (2000): 463-505.
Raleigh, Clionadh, Andrew Linke, Håvard Hegre, and Joakim Karlsen. “Introducing ACLED: An Armed Conflict Location and Event Dataset: Special Data Feature.” Journal of Peace Research 47 (2010): 651-660.
Rucht, Dieter, and Friedhelm Neidhardt. “Methodological Issues in Collecting Protest Event Data: Units of Analysis, Sources and Sampling, Coding Problems.” In Acts of Dissent: New Developments in the Study of Protest, edited by Dieter Rucht, Ruud Koopmans and Friedhelm Neidhardt. Berlin: Rainer Bohn Verlag, 1998.
Shapiro, Gilbert, and John Markoff. Revolutionary Demands: A Content Analysis of the Cahiers de Doléances of 1789. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1998.
Snyder, David, and William R. Kelly. “Conflict Intensity, Media Sensitivity and the Validity of Newspaper Data.” American Sociological Review 42 (1977): 1105-1117.
Swank, Eric. “In Newspapers We Trust: Assessing the Credibility of News Sources That Cover Protest Campaigns.” Research in Social Movements, Conflicts and Change 22 (2000): 27-52.
Tarrow, Sidney. Struggle, Politics and Reform: Collective Action, Social Movements, and Cycles of Protest. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1989.
White, R. “On Measuring Political Violence in Northern Ireland.” American Sociological Review 58 (1993): 75-85.
1. ↑ Charles D. Brockett, “Measuring Political Violence and Land Inequality in Central America,” American Political Science Review 86 (1992): 169; Charles Lewis Taylor and David A. Jodice, World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators: Third Edition (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983).
2. ↑ William J. Dixon, Edward N. Muller, and Mitchell A. Seligson, “Inequality and Political Violence Revisited: Response,” American Political Science Review 87 (1993): 990.
3. ↑ It would have been possible, they say, to eliminate cases plagued by documented irregularities, but this would have produced serious distortions since irregularities are located precisely in the times and places where disorder is known to be frequent. The optimal solution, of course, would have been to correct inaccuracies with better data, but that is easier said than done.
4. ↑ Dixon, Muller, and Seligson, “Inequality and Political Violence,” 990.
5. ↑ John T. Wooley, “Using Media-Based Data in Studies of Politics,
6. ↑ Henrik Sommer and James R. Scarritt, “The Utility of Reuters for Events Analysis in Area Studies: The Case of Zambia-Zimbabwe Interactions, 1982-1993,” International Interactions 25 (1999): 1-31; Christian Davenport and Patrick Ball, “Views to a Kill: Exploring the Implications of Source Selection in the Case of Guatemalan State Terror, 1977-1995,” The Journal of Conflict Resolution 46 (2002): 427-450.
7. ↑ Scott L. Althaus, Jilly A. Edy, and Patricia F. Phalen, “Using Substitutes for Full-Text News Stories in Content Analysis: Which Text is Best?,” American Journal of Political Science 43 (2001): 707-724.
8. ↑ Mark Irving Lichbach, “The International News About Governability: A Comparison of the New York Times and Six News Wires,” International Interactions 10 (1984): 311-340; Phillip A. Huxtable and Jon C. Pevehouse, “Potential Validity Problems in Event Data Collection,” International Studies Notes 21 (1996): 8-19; Sommer and Scarritt, “The Utility of Reuters.”
9. ↑ Althaus et al., “Which Text is Best?”
10. ↑ Paul D. Almeida and Mark Irving Lichbach, “To the Internet, From the Internet: Sources of Data About Antiglobalization Protest,” Mobilization 8 (2003): 249-272.
11. ↑ Dieter Rucht and Thomas Ohlemacher, “Protest Event Data: Collection Uses and Perspectives,” in Issues in Contemporary Social Movement Research, eds. Ron Eyerman and Dario Diani (Beverly Hills: Sage, 1992), 76-106.
12. ↑ Philip A. Schrodt, “CAMEO: Conflict and Mediation Event Observations: Event and Actor Codebook,” http://eventdata.psu.edu/data.dir/cameo.html; Virtual Research Associates, Integrated Data Events Analysis (IDEA), http://vranet.com/data.aspx.
Almeida, Paul D. and Mark Irving Lichbach. “To the Internet, From the Internet: Sources of Data About Antiglobalization Protest.” Mobilization 8 (2003): 249-272.
Althaus, Scott L., Jilly A. Edy, and Patricia F. Phalen. “Using Substitutes for Full-Text News Stories in Content Analysis: Which Text is Best?” American Journal of Political Science 43 (2001): 707-724.
Brockett, Charles D. “Measuring Political Violence and Land Inequality in Central America.” American Political Science Review 86 (1992): 169-176.
Davenport, Christian, and Patrick Ball. “Views to a Kill: Exploring the Implications of Source Selection in the Case of Guatemalan State Terror, 1977-1995.” The Journal of Conflict Resolution 46 (2002): 427-450.
Dixon, William J., Edward N. Muller, and Mitchell A. Seligson. “Inequality and Political Violence Revisited: Response.” American Political Science Review 87 (1993): 983-993.
Huxtable, Phillip A., and Jon C. Pevehouse. “Potential Validity Problems in Event Data Collection.” International Studies Notes 21 (1996): 8-19.
Jenkins, J. Craig, Charles Lewis Taylor, Marianne Abbott, Thomas V. Maher, and Lindsey Peterson. “Global Conflict Data: The World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators IV.” Mershon Center for International Security Studies. www.sociology.osu.edu/worldhandbook
Lichbach, Mark Irving. “The International News About Governability: A Comparison of the New York Times and Six News Wires.” International Interactions 10 (1984): 311-340.
Rucht, Dieter, and Thomas Ohlemacher. “Protest Event Data: Collection Uses and Perspectives.” In Issues in Contemporary Social Movement Research, edited by Ron Eyerman and Dario Diani, 76-106. Beverly Hills: Sage, 1992.
Schrodt, Philip A. “CAMEO: Conflict and Mediation Event Observations: Event and Actor Codebook.” http:// eventdata.psu.edu/data.dir/cameo.html
Sommer, Henrik, and James R. Scarritt. “The Utility of Reuters for Events Analysis in Area Studies: The Case of Zambia-Zimbabwe Interactions, 1982-1993.” International Interactions 25 (1999): 1-31.
Taylor, Charles Lewis, and David A. Jodice. World Handbook of Political and Social Indicators: Third Edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1983.
Virtual Research Associates. Integrated Data Events Analysis (IDEA), http://vranet.com/data.aspx.
Wooley, John T. “Using Media-Based Data in Studies of Politics.” American Journal of Political Science 44 (2000): 156-173.
Tags: event indicators government change political protest Reliability validity
A Guide to Event Data: Past, Present, and Future
A Pilot Study of Quantifying Turkey’s Foreign Affairs: Data Generation, Challenges, and Preliminary Analysis
An Empirical Assessment of the Role of Emotions and Behavior in Conflict Using Automatically Generated Data
Roundtable Discussion on Event Data
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Re: Manifest Science (was: RE: virus: Cow)
Brett Robertson (BrettMan35@webtv.net)
Sat, 29 May 1999 11:21:09 -0500 (EST)
[ Next ][ Previous ] In reply to: Brett Robertson Next in thread: Dan Plante
--WebTV-Mail-164188333-8872
What is wrong with the example provided by <medicine> (the technology for replicating "medicine" the idea) as this might be contrasted from "medicine" (the science of healing)? NOTE: The science re-defines the perspective by which health is dispensed but the *technology* is about the evolution of health (to which the science conforms-- but which is not open, itself, to modification)*.
Similarly, the technology of freedom is about emergent *order* (as in "freedom from chance"... sorry this use seems somehow contrary to your understanding of what the term freedom denotes). You are right, it is not a good example, too abstract (except that I had hoped that as an example it would help make an important point-- that a technology is not affected by the products of it).
*memetics as a force for replication (as exemplified by a particular idea, ie "medicine", and the technology for implementing this idea, ie the meme <medicine>) seems to necessitate that the meme may not be both available for modification and also replicable as a distinct entity (a such, we might also say that the technology of medicine necessitates replication).
Brett Lane Robertson
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From: Dan Plante <dplante@home.com>
Subject: Re: Manifest Science (was: RE: virus: Cow) In-Reply-To: <2719-374E4DB4-11003@postoffice-133.bryant.webtv.net> References: <Dan Plante <dplante@home.com> Mime-Version: 1.0
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At 03:03 AM 28/05/99 -0500, Brett wrote:
>How do you make a distinction between the "products" of technology and
>the driving force which creates the products?
By "the driving force which creates the products", is this just a phrase meaning "technology itself", or do you mean "science"? You lost me.
>Isn't freedom a technology (for example)?
Sorry, Brett. I haven't been able to parse your peculiar use of the word "freedom" in the past, and this question is no exception. You seem to be using it as describing some form of fundamental physical property, as in nuclear physics. If I was to interpret the word using its generally understood meaning, I would have to say that "freedom", if anything, is a _product_ of technology (freedom from drudgery, freedom from the selective pressures of the "natural" environment, etc.).
Remember the context of the phenomenon we discuss here. For example, we wouldn't use nuclear physics to describe these relationships. You _could_ do that, but you would find that, as your descriptions of atomic dynamics got more and more complex, you would be recapitulating (in the form of previous equations being reused repeatedly as components inside the next, more complex equation) all the levels of distinct emergent behaviour between atoms and memes anyway. Part way through this herculean task, you would resolve to replace all those of physics equations with shorter symbols. In the beginning, you would start out using the Greek letter "roh" for the smallest and simplest bits of repeated equations. As you progressed, you would notice that there were repeating chunks of identical equations that contained roh. So, to make things simpler, you would use the term "molecular dynamics" for those. Do you see where this is going? By the time you got to the cellular replicator emergent level, you would be using symbols like "AGCT" to represent repeating mountains of repeating piles of repeating chunks of repeating bits of nuclear physical dynamics. At this level, you would be using these symbols to describe phenomena in terms of storage (DNA), transcription (RNA), transmission (mRNA), and expression (protein). By the time you got to the human culture level of emergent phenomenon, you would be using "words". Language. English, French, etc. Now, I don't just mean that you would be _using_ language to _describe_ memetic dynamics, I mean that the description _of_ language encoding would describe memetics in the same way that the description of DNA encoding describes genetics. No two species contain the exact same complement of genes encoding the exact same complement of proteins, but all species use the same base-pair triplets to encode the same basic amino acids (no pun intended). By the same token, no two cultures contain the exact same complement of linguistic expression encoding the exact same complement of ideas, but all cultures use the same base conceptual constructs to encode the same basic communicable ideas, without exception.
In other words, while only some multicellular life forms may express cellulose, and some others may produce connectin, they both serve approximately the same function, and a lot of the proteins they produce _will_ be the same, and they both use the same encoding scheme (A, G, C, T in triplets) to produce the same building blocks (amino acids).
In a similar fashion, while only some cultures may express representative democracy, and some other cultures express facism, they both serve approximately the same function, and a lot of the cultural components they produce _will_ be the same, and they both use the same encoding scheme (verbs, nouns, adjectives in pairs) to produce the same building blocks (inquiries, declarative statements, directives) to do it.
Sorry, I overshot my point. The point is, the context of the discussion _must_ be from the point of view of the level of emergence that the thing under discussion is "imbedded" in. If it isn't, you get muddled ideas like "Gaia", or expressions about how "all distinctions are an illusion, everything is connected" and other such fuzzy-thinking post-modernist tripe. Sure, they're _true_, but only _partly_ true. They fail to acknowledge the distinctions drawn from the context of higher-order emergent systems (like minds and culture). As a matter of fact, you don't need to explicitly acknowledge _all_ points of view (levels of emergent systems) when describing something, just the highest level. All the subordinate points of view (perspectives, levels of analysis, whatever) are already implicit.
>What products does it create
>and how are these products "of a different sort"?
"Of a different sort" compared to what? I'm not sure what you're referring to.
>I could also ask: "Isn't medicine a technology?". Though, by the first
>example, I would like to make the point that while the technology of
>medicine MAY be defined by the products,
I would say that that the technology of medicine may be _inferred_ by the products. Are you dismissing the apparent causality in the sequence of events, or are you referring to some other relationship I'm not aware of?
>the example which freedom
>suggests may illustrate that a technology doesn't even HAVE to be
>product oriented
Probably not in the concrete sense of "product", but a "technology" will always have an _effect_, at least. By definition.
>(and from there we might further distinguish the
>product from the technology-- as in the medicine example [or the
>science example]... assuming that this distinction is meaningful at
>all).
No, not really (not to me, anyway), although your question _does_ infer the neccesity of drawing appropriate distinctions, which can only be done in the appropriate context if they're going to make sense (be meaningful at all).
Medicine, in the common use of the term, could just as easily refer to the science (knowledge of anatomy, for instance) or the technology (prescribed procedure for removing an appendix or the particular characteristics of the tools used to cut it out), so it's not a very good example. However, you _could_ be more explicit and say that medical science, as a "gene complex", when "transcribed" into surgical procedures and implements and pharmaceuticals and so forth, expresses the "trait" of medical technology. The "product" of medical technology would be healed people (unless there was a transcription error, in which case the "product" might be death, and "board de-certification" would be an "immune response" :-). Empirical evidence drawn from observing the efficacy of the application of medical science (i.e. the extent and nature of the healing) would feed back to progress and refine the science. This is kind of what I was driving at before. This is a _general_ dynamic that is evident within _every_ level of emergent complexity. Feedback and refinement.
--WebTV-Mail-164188333-8872--
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Brantley Gilbert Releases 4/20 Anthem with Colt Ford, Lukas Nelson and Willie Nelson
Get on That Laidback Vibe in “Welcome to Hazeville”
by Lauren Tingle 4/19/2019
Country music isn’t always about booze and heartaches by the number. A perennial theme in country music is roots, and sometimes those roots belong to marijuana plants.
This week, Brantley Gilbert released a new 4/20 anthem called “Welcome to Hazeville” featuring Colt Ford, Lukas Nelson and Willie Nelson.
Gilbert takes the lead and sings about hanging out with Willie “on that laidback vibe” and “blowing smoke like fire to a hay feed.”
It’s the perfect addition to Gilbert’s 2019 Not Like Us Tour. Michael Ray and Lindsay Ell will join Gilbert for the run launching June 20 in Cincinnati, Ohio. Fans can expect Gilbert to road-test new material from an upcoming collection and deliver signature songs that helped build and continue to define the BG Nation.
Gilbert’s current single with Ell, “What Happens in A Small Town,” is No. 24 on Billboard’s Country Airplay chart and climbing. The release of “Welcome to Hazeville” coincides with the announcement of Gilbert’s second annual Kick It in the Ship Cruise, which sets sail from Miami to Cozumel Nov. 4-8.
Alright y’all, it’s a #tbt to last year’s @bgcruise to announce some of your favorites are comin back!! We got @coltfordmusic, @briandavislive, @sixforty1 & @tylerboothmusic joining us for round two!! Sit tight, plenty more lineup announcements on the way…. brantleygilbertcruise.com has all the info on how to join us….. #kickitintheship #bgcruise
A post shared by Brantley Gilbert (@brantleygilbert) on Apr 18, 2019 at 12:29pm PDT
Lauren Tingle
Lauren Tingle is a Tennessean and storyteller who eats music for breakfast, lunch and dinner. When she’s not writing or rocking out, she enjoys yoga and getting lost in the great outdoors.
Tags: Brantley GilbertColt FordLukas NelsonWillie Nelson
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Ohio Schoolgirl Cosplayer Suspended After Attending School Fandom Costume Fundraiser Dressed as Light Yagami with Death Note Prop
I've seen some nonsensical school Death Note replica over-reactions in my time, but this one truly takes the biscuit. Or should that be the cookie? As needless to say, this is the USA.
An anime loving girl - aged 12-14 - has been given a three day suspension from Lakewood Middle School in Hebron, Licking County, Ohio, for turning up clutching a reproduction Death Note.
Inside were listed the names of some of her friends. Unlike many previous cases, this wasn't a lashing out silently at bullies situation. This was a bit of fun, attempting to freak out her buddies.
Because here's the rub: it was a 'spirit day'. A fund-raising event for the school, whereby pupils could don the costume of their favourite fandom character. She arrived cosplaying Light Yagami.
She'd spent the weekend creating the notebook as a prop. It was part of the outfit.
Half the friends listed in it admitted that they also owned replica Death Notes. They were fans too. Though reports have been careful to add that none of them had written each other's names in it.
The girl in question didn't anticipate any hassle. Probably because she saw no danger, only fun. On account of the fact that a shinigami's notebook of death is a fictitious thing; and anyway, she didn't own one. She'd crafted it herself in her bedroom. No Ryuk in attendance.
No-one was ever going to die.
The fund-raiser occurred on March 14th 2016. During the morning, the girl had misplaced her Death Note - which is described as little more than a booklet or pamphlet - and a teacher found it. Flicked through, discovered the names and raised the alarm. All they needed to do then was identify who owned the prop.
They evidently knew enough about Death Note to link the item with the student in Light Yagami cosplay.
She got in trouble over coming as Kira (well, as Kira WITH notebook) and was told not to mention the forthcoming discipline to anyone. However, being a pre-teen and probably chaffing under the absurdity of the situation, she 'vented' to a male schoolmate - whose name was also on the list.
He freaked out and phoned his parents, one of whom came to the school to 'voice their concerns'.
Next thing you know, a local sheriff had also arrived at the school - possibly called in by the parent - to investigate the threat. One report says she was charged with 'inducing panic'; another says no charges were filed at all.
Nevertheless a three day suspension from school it was, and the rest of the world rolls its eyes with utter incredulity.
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Welcome to the website of the Digital Media Law Project. The DMLP was a project of the Berkman Klein Center for Internet & Society from 2007 to 2014. Due to popular demand the Berkman Klein Center is keeping the website online, but please note that the website and its contents are no longer being updated. Please check any information you find here for accuracy and completeness.
Threats Database
Research & Response
Legal Resources for Digital Media
Punishing Corporate Copyright Abusers
Submitted by Dan Gillmor on Thu, 08/30/2007 - 14:19
Chris Knight says, "Viacom hits me with copyright infringement for posting on YouTube a video that Viacom made by infringing on my own copyright!
Viacom is claiming that I have violated their copyright by posting on YouTube a segment from it's VH1 show Web Junk 2.0... which VH1 produced -- without permission -- from a video that I had originally created. Viacom used my video without permission on their commercial television show, and now says that I am infringing on THEIR copyright for showing the clip of the work that Viacom made in violation of my own copyright!
This looks, if the facts are as Knight represents, like the standard, arrogant big-media goof in the copyright war -- issuing takedown notices that have been poorly researched. It seems reasonable to assume that Viacom will recognize this and back down, especially now that the case is going to get wide publicity. Then again, the entertainment industry is not exactly known for listening to reason.
And when the weight of big corporations is thrown against the little guy, the rule seems to be guilty until proved innocent. And the cost of proving innocence is high. This imbalance cries out for more effective countermeasures to abuse.
There are penalties in copyright law for using takedown notices frivolously (again, this may not be that specific situation). Perhaps this is the kind of case the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) might want to take up. The organization took Diebold, a maker of defective voting machines, to court several years ago for knowingly misrepresenting copyright infringement, and won a judgement against the company.
Slightly off-topic: Does Knight's use of Star Wars imagery in his video have any trademark implications?
Dan Gillmor's blog
Joe Helfrich
Submitted by Joe Helfrich on Thu, 08/30/2007 - 15:00
I suspect that the Star Wars imagery could be construed (thinly) as parody, which would protect him--though I'm not certain about rulings on parody and trademark. I also
suspect that Lucas could throw enough lawyers at him to not make it worth his while.
The sad thing though is that I believe Viacom is actually within its legal rights. All works are immediately copyrighted, even derivative works that are infringing on other people's copyright. You may not have the right to your source material, but the creator of that source material doesn't automatically have a right to what you've added to it.
Of course, Viacom is still being stupid here.
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DR. PHILIP BLAIR, MD
Vancouver Veteran PTSD Study
CB2 Oil
Cancer Protocol
Low-Fat Diets and Exercise are Pointless for Losing Weight, Warns Surgical Expert
Low fat diets and exercise are pointless for those wanting to lose weight and obese people should simply eat less, a former shadow health minister told the House of Lords yesterday. Lord McColl, emeritus professor of surgery at Guys Hospital in London, warned that current health advice to avoid fat was ‘false and misleading’ and was fuelling the obesity epidemic.
Speaking at a House of Lords debate, the former surgeon warned that exercising was useless against the huge levels of calories from carbohydrates and sugars that people are now consuming. He warned that the obesity epidemic was as bad for public health as the 1919 flu epidemic.
“In the UK the Department of Health and Nice (National Institute for Health and Care Excellence) maintains for many years that the obesity epidemic was due to lack of exercise,” he told peers.
“It’s a pity that the 500 people employed by Nice didn’t think to go into the gymnasium get on a machine and exercise to see how few calories you actually burn off. One can pedal away on one of those machines for half an hour and only two or three hundred calories are burned up. One has to run miles to take a pound of fat off.
“The whole subject has been bedevilled by all sorts of theories about the course of the obesity; genetics, epigenetic, psychological disturbances. None of them is the cause of the obesity epidemic. One fact remains. It is impossible to be obese unless one is eating too many calories.”
In May the National Obesity Forum and the Public Health Collaboration called for a major overhaul of dietary guidelines saying 30 years of urging people to adopt low-fat diets was having ‘disastrous health consequences.’
Their report claimed the low-fat and low-cholesterol message, which has been official policy in the UK since 1983, was based on “flawed science” and had resulted in an increased consumption of junk food and carbohydrates.
Lord McColl said eating fat was important because it kept people feeling fuller for longer, and advised overweight people to start adding fat into their diet.
“Fat enters the small intestine and greatly delays the emptying of the stomach,” he told peers.
“As the stomach emptying is delayed it gives the feeling that one has had enough to eat. Later when the fat has been absorbed the stomach then starts to empty again, It’s a beautifully balance mechanism which tends to prevent us from eating too much and prevents us from getting obese.”
Researchers at Imperial College recently found that Britons are on course to be the fattest in Europe within a decade, with almost four in 10 people predicted to be dangerously overweight by 2025. Earlier this week, Sir Simon Stevens the chief executive of the NHS said the obesity crisis was now costing more than the police and fire brigade combined.
“Obesity and its related illness is costing the country a fortune and it is not sustainable,” said Baroness Jenkin who called the debate in the Lords.
“If we don’t wake up to the extent of this crisis the NHS could end up bankrupt. Already enormous amounts of money are spent on disease which are entirely preventable
“The current dietary advice is confusing. The ‘Eat Well guide recommends potatoes, rice, pasta and other starchy carbs. Are we so sure that is good advice? We feed starchy crops to fatten animals so why would they not have the same effect on us?”
Health minister Baroness Chisholm said: “There is no point going to an exercise class or a gym then going around the corner for a fizzy drink a donut. It is this sort of culture that needs to change.
“Tackling obesity is an important issue. Obesity is a complex issue to which there is no single solution.
“I would like to underline that Public Health England bases it dietary guidelines on comprehensive reviews. They consultant with academics, health charities and public health professionals.”
Key conclusions | National Obesity Forum report
Eating fat does not make you fat
Evidence from multiple trials reveals that a higher-fat, lower carbohydrate diet is superior to a low-fat diet for weight loss and cardiovascular risk reduction
Stop counting calories
Calories from different foods have different metabolic effects on the body, so the cumulative calorie count is meaningless
You cannot outrun a bad diet
Obesity is a hormonal disorder leading to abnormal energy partitioning, which cannot be solely fixed by increasing exercise
Saturated fat does not cause heart disease and full-fat dairy is likely to be protective
New meta-analysis of the evidence available forty years ago does not support dietary fat restrictions
Avoid at all costs: “processed foods labelled “low fat”, “lite”, “low cholesterol” or “proven to lower cholesterol”
No single piece of evidence exists that demonstrates reducing dietary saturated fat reduces cardiovascular events and death
Snacking will make you fat
The increase in meal frequency plays an equal if not larger role in obesity and has largely been ignored.
Source: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/06/09/low-fat-diets-and-exercise-are-pointless-for-losing-weight-warns/
Insights and approaches to vexing problems.
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Graz Pub Quizzes
Quiz Home
What is a Pub Quiz?
The Quizmaster
The Office Pub Quiz
Where and how much?
Month & Season Scores
The Playoffs >
Playoffs Line-up 2014
Statistics & Archive
Trivia Night @ The Pub
How to get to The Pub
The Typing Pool circa 2005
January 4th throughout history:
46 BC – Julius Caesar defeats Titus Labienus in the Battle of Ruspina.
871 – Battle of Reading: Æthelred of Wessex fights, and is defeated by, a Danish army.
1649 – English Civil War: Charles I put on trial.
1847 – Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government.
1959 – Luna 1 becomes the first spacecraft to reach the vicinity of the Moon.
1999 – Former professional wrestler Jesse Ventura becomes governor of Minnesota.
2005 – The Pub Quiz takes place at The Office for the very first time.
Of course, as is typical with history, the longer ago it was, the less information is available about what happened. And the Quiz is no different. The first league season began in October 2005, ten months after the first ever quiz-night. The only thing that was recorded that season was the name of the final winning team. The same happened in the first Summer Leagues that followed and in fact, it wasn't until 2008 that scores were posted regularly online and are still available to see. All those records can be accessed here, while below you can see a summary of the all the Quiz seasons since 2005/06.
Pub Quiz Champions
Splittergruppe
Where Is My Mind?
Beezleboss
Chimney Sweeping Rocket Pigs
Johnny Longstand
Splittergruppe Champions 2008/09
Big Guns
Green Monster and the Chimney Sweeping Rocket Pigs save been the most successful teams in Pub Quiz history with a total of 2 Regular Season wins each since 2005. The Rocket Pigs edge it though having won more Summer League titles.
The Libertines have also won 3 times, but twice in the Summer Leagues and only once in the Regular Season, making them the next most successful team. Next are the Chimney Sweeping Rocket Pigs, Big Load and Where Is My Mind? who each have 2 wins - one Regular Season and one Summer Leagues. Maybe we should have a tie-breaker?
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Moore names Fiala ethicist in residence at Lyles Center
Home|ACADEMICS, PRESS RELEASES|Moore names Fiala ethicist in residence at Lyles Center
As his first official appointment as the interim executive director for the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship, Dr. Scott Moore named Dr. Andrew Fiala the first ethicist in residence at the Lyles Center for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.
Fiala, the chair of the Philosophy Department at Fresno State, will establish programming to engage the community in areas such as business and professional ethics, stewardship and citizenship.
In 2007, Fiala was named director of Fresno State’s Ethics Center. He holds degrees from the UCLA, Long Beach State and Vanderbilt. He is the author of a number of books and articles on ethics, war and peace, religion and political philosophy, including last year’s “The Peace of Nature and the Nature of Peace.” As the director of the Ethics Center, Fiala also writes a weekly column on religion and ethics for The Fresno Bee.
Fiala said he views this appointment as an opportunity to raise Fresno State’s stature as a focal point for ethics and leadership.
“Fresno State has a responsibility to teach students to be good citizens, productive contributors to the economy, good stewards of the ecosystem and ethical leaders,” Fiala said. “The Ethics Center has a commitment to research and teach about ethics. I hope that we can build a strong and ongoing relationship between the Ethics Center and the Lyles Center, which will benefit the campus and the Valley.”
Fiala will begin as ethicist in residence in the fall and will work to convey that responding to community needs, delivering valuable products and establishing a reliable presence in the community are important to the bottom line of a business.
“We are honored to have Dr. Fiala join our team,” Moore said. “His expertise will expand the education and insights our students have access to, equipping them to be more thoughtful and well-rounded entrepreneurs.”
For more information, contact Angelica Cano at acano@csufresno.edu or 559.278.3707.
By Eddie Hughes|April 27th, 2016|Categories: ACADEMICS, PRESS RELEASES|Tags: Andrew Fiala, ethics center, Fresno State, lyles center for innovation and entrepreneurship|0 Comments on "Moore names Fiala ethicist in residence at Lyles Center" 0 Comments
Dr. Saúl Jiménez-Sandoval proud to serve as interim president
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Turning Classical
Alternative Sounds
Tools&Goods
Fringe Magazine
Cinemalaya 2021 now accepting submissions for short film category
Bikol art group holds multimedia production for online learning webinar for teachers in Sorsogon
Room to Read announces new initiatives with its literacy program in Phl
Get to know Verdadism art style as a tool to teach diversity, inclusion
San Francisco painter Calvin Lai presents ‘Chroma’
11 Things that make oil paintings valuable
Winners of 1st Gawang Agustin Art Competition announced
MONO8 Video Space presents two video works of new media artist Luis Hidalgo
Do you even know what that ‘evil eye’ jewelry is for?
Understanding ‘virgin hair’
The complete guide on how to look great with glasses
12 Tips to embrace ethical fashion
CCP and Bench team up for TERNOCON
Six tips for running a business as an influencer
Nikon releases Z 6 II and Z 7 II full-frame mirrorless cameras
How to make the next birthday party so much better
Sony Electronics launches FX6 full-frame professional camera
Family dynamics highlighted via ‘Quing Lalam Ning Aldo’
Fantastical tale from the North about the ‘civilized’ versus the ‘barbarians’ in ‘Tokwifi’
First-person game-inspired self-help flick that is ‘Fatigued’
Beautifully-shot if somewhat passion-light ‘Pabasa Kan Pasyon’
Half-baked worthy story of ‘Ang Gasgas na Plaka ni Lolo Bert’
By Kiki Tan
There are countless reasons that oil paintings have this status and these are the top 11.
Oil paintings undeniably have a value assigned to them but the question comes down to this: why? When you visit here to take a look at oil painting reproductions or even visit a museum to take a look at the classics, what gives them such a high value?
1. Originality
If anything is going to drive up the price of an oil painting, it’s going to be how original that painting is. That’s why pieces like Last Supper and Mona Lisa are so highly valued – they’re technically proficient and, at the time they were released, like nothing the world had ever seen before. It’s also why an original painting is so much more valuable than a reproduction.
2. Authenticity
There is also a value assigned to specific artists who work with oil paints. Much like the originality of these paintings, the painting has to be genuine as well. While legitimate reproductions are often assigned a significant value, illegitimate reproductions are not and a fake painting is highly frowned upon.
3. Significance
Another thing that will impact the value of an oil painting is its significance, especially historically speaking. For instance, even a perfectly done piece of art created by someone today won’t have the same immediate value that’s assigned to a masterpiece like the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel because over time, historians realized the significance of Michaelangelo’s work.
READ: How fluent are you in Gen Z speak?
4. Provenance
Provenance refers to the history of ownership of an oil painting. In the end, high-profile owners lend credibility and value to an oil painting whereas less impactful owners do not. For example, if an oil painting came from a famous collector or was held in a museum, art historians would consider it much more valuable than a painting that doesn’t have this provenance.
5. Physical Condition
The physical condition of a painting also affects its value. If a painting is heavily damaged by the sun, water, or even more intensive damage such as a tear in the canvas, collectors and art historians won’t consider it anywhere near as valuable as a well-preserved painting. Much like almost anything else one can purchase, higher quality equals higher value.
6. Typicality
It makes sense that master artists like Monet and Da Vinci come at a higher value than a relatively unknown artist. It also helps if these paintings display techniques that the artist is typically associated with. Take Monet for example. His art that displays more instantly recognizable Impressionist techniques is more highly valued.
7. Subject
The subject of a painting can also change the interpreted value. While this can refer to the meaning behind the painting, there are subjects that generally rake in a higher monetary return. Paintings of women, as an example, typically sell for more than paintings of men. Yet, certain famous paintings break this mold while relatively unknown artists’ works tend to comply with these trends.
READ: Traditional Chinese Painter Liping Zheng holds special exhibit
8. Meaning and Subject Matter
As was just mentioned, the meaning behind a painting can also change its value. An oil painting with a traditionally “deeper” meaning often sells for a higher price than a painting that simply renders an image directly in front of the artist. This can mean a visual interpretation in the sense of a direct message or how the artist interprets a scene (like a landscape) that they’re seeing or picturing.
9. Artist Backstory
It actually isn’t just the fame of an artist or their reputation that can affect how lofty their name is signed on the bottom of a painting. Interestingly, the more engaging and, often by proxy, more tragic backstory. One of the best examples of this is Ride of the Valkyries by William T. Maud. It was one of his only oil paintings and he died young, making his life interesting to learn more about and increasing the value of his piece.
10. Rarity
Oil paintings are also often priced for their rarity which is another reason that originals are more valuable than reproductions both legitimate and otherwise. This is a reason why a masterpiece like Last Supper is highly valued – it’s not only technically proficient and deeply meaningful but also completely one of a kind.
11. Visual Power
While it may seem simplistic, there is a monetary value in how a piece of art looks when it’s on a wall. This goes beyond whether or not the artwork is visually pleasing, though. Does it draw the idle viewer in? Does it work simply as a statement piece or does it go further and evoke strong emotions from the viewer? The more impactful it is, the more valuable it’s considered.
READ: 'Hypervisual' exhibit ongoing at Gallery Nine of SM Megamall until Nov. 25
There are plenty of factors that play into how highly valued a piece of art is. From the way it looks on a wall to the artist behind it and even who’s already owned it, there are a myriad of things that collectors and art historians consider when they’re assessing the value of an oil painting.
Related Items:art, art exhibit, arts, artwork, artworks
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Lyndon Rivers – “It’s A Game”
Coherence has never been the guiding principle for this Australian based genre-gallivanting producer Lyndon Rivers. He take pop, house, techno, and other EDM styles and subjects them to rampant globalization. Rivers unloads the bass all over your face in his latest single “It’s A Game”. He goes into his bag of tricks and creates an enlightening, enchanting soundscape which features a soaring melodic female vocal. Probably one of the best vocal features Rivers has offered us yet. She sounds sultry and sexy, as she dishes out orgasmic ear candy. In fact it is strongly recommended that you hug and hold onto your speakers while listening to this track. Shit gets real on this track as the adrenaline bass drops will make your gut grow wings and fly.
Lyndon Rivers brings the bass power, energy, and hooks on this track from beginning to end. For the bass heads that have been going through withdrawal, this captivating composition can put you in a good mood on any day where you feel your music soul needs to be touched by something greater and deeper.
This deeply resonating cut is a must listen to, whether you want to maximize your music event experience or whether you’re just a lover of hearing the bass bump, where you lose yourself in your own imagination.
Lyndon Rivers brings an above-average effort on this track, through booming basslines fused with expanding synths, and shows us his impressive talent for mixing sounds and textures. Listen to this track over and over again during an all-night session with your friends until the coming of a new dawn.
You won’t get tired of this stimulating and pristine track. What Lyndon delivers is a journey through differing sonic landscapes, from high-octane to introspective, each section of this track is enchanting in its own way. We believe it to be a thing of creative brilliance.
The swell of the opening is nothing short of cinematic. At the same time it displays a melodic elegance. The ensuing bass drop churns with slow, deliberate growl; it quickly reminds us who we are dealing with. This song is a beautiful interplay of synths, throbbing basslines and powerful vocals.
Although wistful and affected, the beat stays buoyant, choppy and full of that nasty bass edge we love so much. Yes I know, I have mentioned the word “bass” numerous times, but that really is what this song is dominated by. That and the vocals of course. This beautiful, bumping and atmospheric brand of Lyndon Rivers is perfectly augmented by the singer’s soaring, angelic voice.
Chilling and visceral from the moment it starts, “It’s A Game” is another breath of fresh air, and another step up for Lyndon Rivers. The deep, driving bass line propels you forward through waves of spacey sound.
Songs like this showcase the creativity and intuition Lyndon has developed over time. This song is catchy, all-encompassing, but never overwhelming. Lyndon Rivers has managed to once again magically manipulate abrasive sounds into something beautiful and dynamic!
OFFICIAL LINKS: FACEBOOK – TWITTER – REVERBNATION – WEBSITE
tagsIt’s A Game Lyndon Rivers
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Reissue of Deep Space D-6 and New Mini-Expansion.
A project in New York, NY by Tony Go
The solitaire worker placement game of deep space survival returns.
Dates: May 22nd -> Jun 20th (29 days)
Project By: Tony Go
dicediceboard gameboard gamespacespacescience fictiondice gamedice game +Suggest
Last Updated: June 20 @ 16:30 -0400 GMT
[url=https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/tony-go/reissue-of-deep-space-d-6-and-new-mini-expansion/][img]https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/tony-go/reissue-of-deep-space-d-6-and-new-mini-expansion/minichart.png[/img][/url]
[View the latest stats for Reissue of Deep Space D-6 and New Mini-Expansion. on Kicktraq](https://www.kicktraq.com/projects/tony-go/reissue-of-deep-space-d-6-and-new-mini-expansion/)
DSD-6: The Long Way Home
Hey Backers, We're over $160k, 6000 backers, and over 800% funded! That's amazing. I've been working hard to create something special for the progress and I'm ready to preview it. Deep Space D-6: The Long Way HomeThe Long Way Home is a RPG-lite... (Read More)
We broke $100,000!!!
I just want to say thanks to everyone for their support in this project. 100k in funding is a milestone for anyone, let alone single person doing this in his spare time. Back in 2013, I put together a small game that barely made its funding goal in... (Read More)
1st printing vs. 2nd printing
May 27th - via: kickstarter.com
Many of you have been asking: what are the differences between the first printing (the only currently available printing) and the second printing (the one that will come from this Kickstarter). The following are the changes between the two version:... (Read More)
May 22nd - via: kickstarter.com
We funded in less than 7 hours! That's the fastest one of my game projects have ever reached 100%. It warms my heart to know people are enjoying my game and even more people will be able to enjoy it. It's funny. The thing that really made me... (Read More)
Additional content © Tony Go from the Reissue of Deep Space D-6 and New Mini-Expansion. project.
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Home News Today in Hawaii Former Portlock madam wants drug charges against her dismissed
Former Portlock madam wants drug charges against her dismissed
Malia Zimmerman
Malia Arciero
BY MALIA ZIMMERMAN – HONOLULU – The attorney for 33-year-old Malia Arciero, a madam who operated her business out of the elite Oahu neighborhood Portlock for about a decade, has filed a motion to drug possession and drug dealing charges against her dismissed.
Arciero, who said her elite escort business offered prostitution services to some of Hawaii’s most prominent law enforcement, politicians and entertainers, was arrested in April 2013, but on charges unrelated to her escort business.
Arciero admitted in an exclusive interview with Hawaii Reporter that she was a prostitute and madam.
As proof of her business operations, she provided two of her five “black books” to Hawaii Reporter, which listed clients’ names, phone numbers, emails and fetishes.
The black books, several inches thick, also included some financial records, hotel contacts and details of her near decade long operation.
Arciero claims she was falsely arrested for drug charges so that Ryan Faulkner, a Special Agent with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement division, could force her to work as his informant.
Arciero has filed a separate civil lawsuit against Faulkner, who she said she has known since childhood.
She accuses him of abusing his authority, taking money and drugs from drug and arms dealers that he arrested, and sexually assaulting her while she was handcuffed at ICE headquarters.
Portlock madam notes bizarre fetishes of her clients
Faulkner, a police officer with the Honolulu Police Department for 10 years before joining Homeland Security Investigations in 2007, told Hawaii Reporter in May that he cannot comment on the case.
A spokeswoman for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement based in California, said: “U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) doesn’t comment on pending litigation.”
She said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) places the highest priority on protecting the safety of those it serves. She maintained the agency has strict safeguards and protocols in place –governed by regulation and policy — to ensure the security of its special agents and officers, employees, crime victims, and individuals who come into the agency’s custody.
However, Homeland Security Investigations appears to be investigating Arciero’s claims. Her attorney, Gary Dubin, said she has been interviewed on two separate occasions by out of state investigators from Homeland Security Investigations about her allegations.
Arciero is currently being held in federal prison in Honolulu. Prison officials will not grant media access to her despite numerous requests from Hawaii Reporter.
Dubin said his law firm has filed a motion to dismiss the criminal complaint against Arciero based on “Outrageous Government Conduct and Entrapment, Coercing her confession, and seizing items without probable cause.”
Her evidentiary hearing is set for Oct. 23.
gary dubin
homeland security investigations
portlock madam
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Keb Hart September 19, 2014 at 11:38 am
Did they set a Bail amount for her? They held Roger Christy 3.5 yrs with bogus "charges" and no bail.
Anon September 23, 2014 at 9:11 am
Lets see all the pages in the book
guest September 26, 2014 at 5:56 am
Her elite business, my ass, she's a whore who does drugs and gets paid for it. She got busted because she does not know how to do business, she set her own self up, and her allegations are just that, another story to cover up her lies and deceit. Come on now, she's a lost cause, send her to the dogs, her own kind, finally! Hey Malia! Bow wow wow, yippee yo yippee yay! Somebody scream! Cheeehooooo!!! Who let dogs out?! Malia says, "Woof, woof! "
Lopaka September 27, 2014 at 11:42 pm
But if you read the allegations she has claimed in the civil suit.. Wow… She cant be making all of that up..It really gives some insight of the real goings on behind the curtain between the prosecutors office, law enforcement and the criminal underground.. reads like a screenplay for a seed film.
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/wp-content/uploads/…
Anon September 29, 2014 at 4:37 pm
I agree. Read the allegations. They are a public record. They are very well set out and there is a lot of information in there that can be verified to show see knows something about what she is talking about. Read it and weep – for the state of law enforcement if even half is true.
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Home / Resources / Audio and Video / Virtual Learning Hour Special Series: Centering Equity in the Response to COVID-19
Virtual Learning Hour Special Series: Centering Equity in the Response to COVID-19
Donald M. Berwick, MD, MPP, FRCP, President Emeritus and Senior Fellow, Institute for Healthcare Improvement (IHI)
Derek Feeley, President and CEO, IHI
David Ansell, MD, MPH, Michael E Kelly Presidential Professor of Internal Medicine and Senior Vice President/Associate Provost for Community Health Equity, Rush University Medical Center
Ronald L. Copeland, MD, FACS, Chief Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion Officer and Senior Vice President of National Diversity and Inclusion Strategy and Policy, Kaiser Permanente
Luella Toni Lewis, MD, Founder and President, Liberation Health Strategies
Moderated by: Madge Kaplan, Director of Communications, IHI
The impact of COVID-19 on communities of color in the US is dramatically and disproportionately affecting African Americans most of all.
The reasons are complex, with underlying health conditions (e.g., hypertension, diabetes) acting as one contributing factor. Yet, these health problems, public health experts say, largely reflect the history and ongoing realities of racism in the US that have created barriers to accessing quality health care and the conditions that can lead to better health.
What might it look like to embed and center equity in the response to the pandemic going forward? This Virtual Learning Hour:
Examines the latest data on the disproportionate COVID-19 death and infection rates among African Americans
Considers immediate actions to improve outcomes
Addresses inequities when it comes to testing, treatment, and prevention
Strategizes long-lasting solutions
Listeners also have the opportunity to share their questions, struggles, and bright spots they are seeing in this unprecedented time.
Virtual Learning Hour Slides
Virtual Learning Hour Chat
Virtual Learning Hour Summary of Chat Topics
Virtual Learning Hour Resources
(1 user)
by Olivia Walker 6/15/2020 9:11:06 PM Thank you for the Archives of these sessions! It is a privilege to pause, to listen, to think, and now to ACT! You are gathering a synergistic Mass of persons undergirded with powerfully courageous Resource-champions with like-minded passions for innovating and energizing the rebuilding of True Health Equity for humanity. It is inspirational for me! Thank you! The path seems more clear now! I look forward to gleaning more from the sessions to follow.
How to Safely Restart Elective Surgeries After a COVID Spike
The COVID-19 pandemic has affected surgical schedules and staff: some staff are fatigued and stressed, some may be out of practice, and there are large backlogs of procedures that were postponed. To keep surgical staff and patients safe during these difficult times, this article recommends that health systems should take four steps
A Guide to Promoting Health Care Workforce Well-Being During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
This guide provides ideas and lessons learned to improve the well-being of the health care workforce and includes actions that individuals, leaders, and organizations can take to combat health care workforce burnout, fatigue, and emotional distress during the COVID-19 pandemic and beyond.
Hospital Preparedness for a COVID-19 Surge: Assessment Tool
The purpose of this assessment tool is for hospitals to identify current organizational capabilities and gaps to improve their preparedness and response for another surge of COVID-19 patients.
Virtual Learning Hour Special Series: Understanding and Addressing Sources of Caregiver Anxiety
September 11, 2020 | Learn about methods to understand and address sources of anxiety among health care professionals during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Virtual Learning Hour Special Series: Psychological Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)
August 7, 2020 | Psychological PPE, "personal protective equipment" to promote health care workforce mental health and well-being, has become even more essential during the COVID-19 pandemic.
COVID-19 Guidance and Resources
IHI has cultivated a list of coronavirus (COVID-19) guidance and resources we hope will be helpful for hospital and health system leaders and health care providers.
Visit the COVID-19 Resources Page
The Institute for Healthcare Improvement gratefully acknowledges these organizations for their generous underwriting support of IHI’s COVID-19 resources.
Takeda Pharmaceuticals
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Home / Resources / Publications / A Framework for Improving Health Equity
A Framework for Improving Health Equity
Laderman M, Whittington J. A framework for improving health equity. Healthcare Executive. 2016 May;31(3):82-85.
While communitywide efforts and coalitions are key to achieving health equity, health care organizations and systems have tremendous potential to directly influence numerous underlying societal inequities that contribute to health disparities and poor health. This article presents an overview of a framework developed by IHI to help guide leaders in improving health equity by making it a system-level priority for their organizations.
[Note: The framework presented in this article is described in more detail in the IHI White Paper, Achieving Health Equiity: A Guide for Health Care Organizations.]
100 Million Healthier Lives Community Transformation Resources
This collection of resources, developed as part of the 100 Million Healthier Lives initiative (100MLives), helps communities accelerate progress toward ensuring they are healthy and equitable places for everyone who lives there.
100 Million Healthier Lives Health and Well-Being Measurement Approach and Assessment Tools
These tools and resources, developed as part of the 100 Million Healthier Lives initiative, help individuals, organizations, and communities measure what matters most to advance health, well-being, and equity at multiple levels and across topics.
100 Million Healthier Lives Engaging People with Lived Experience Tools
This collection of resources, developed as part of the 100 Million Healthier Lives initiative, provides key information and tools to support communities and organizations to authentically engage people with lived experience in co-design and implementation efforts.
100 Million Healthier Lives Advancing Equity Tools
These tools and resources, developed as part of the 100 Million Healthier Lives initiative, support communities' efforts to prioritize equity in an authentic and deep way and address racism as a determinant of health as they work toward achieving improvements in health and well-being.
Health Care Equity: From Fragmentation to Transformation
The authors describe a four-tier model that offers a practical framework to establish measurements that will advance equity for both patients and the staff of the health care provider organization.
How Can Providers Help Create Health Equity?
Dr. Don Berwick talks about where health providers can start in promoting health equity.
How Can Health Care Promote Health Equity?
Health disparities expert David R. Williams discusses the role of health care and other factors to create health equity.
Health disparities expert David Williams defines health equity and the impact of health disparities on people of color.
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> Page d'accueil > Triblex: base de données sur la jurisprudence > Par mots-clés du thésaurus > recevabilité de la requête
Organization: European Patent Organisation (EPO)
Judges: Douglas, Gentot, Pescatore
THE COMPLAINT AND THE APPLICATIONS TO INTERVENE ARE DISMISSED.
Because of the functions the Regulations confer on an appeals body, it is bound "to take a stand on many an issue that affects or may later affect its ownmembers as [employees of the organisation]. That is true of any court of administrative law, which may have to make rulings that affect its own members as individual citizens. The universal experience of the judiciary is that the duty of independence may be fully respected even in such circumstances."
internal appeals body; independence; staff member's interest; composition of the internal appeals body
"The appeal procedure set forth in the Service Regulations is, to quote Article 106, an individual appeals system. Such too is the basic feature of the system of appeal embodied in Article II of the Statute of the Tribunal, though it is subject to the provision in Article VII(2) setting a special time limit for appeal against any decision affecting a 'class of officials', which runs from the date of issue. So it is only by virtue of an individual contract of employment with the organisation that someone may lodge a complaint and the complainant may not alter the nature of the suit by declaring when he files the complaint that he is doing so as a staff union representative."
ILOAT reference: ARTICLE II AND ARTICLE VII(2) OF THE STATUTE
Organization rules reference: ARTICLE 106 OF THE EPO SERVICE REGULATIONS
complaint; general decision; locus standi; complainant; receivability of the complaint; internal appeal; tribunal; competence of tribunal; time limit; start of time limit; iloat statute; staff regulations and rules; staff representative; publication
"There will be misuse of authority where the administration exercises it for some purpose other than those prescribed by law or, to put it more broadly, those that the general interest requires. A staff member who pleads misuse of authority, and the Tribunal that allows the plea, must be able to identify the improper purposes for which the authority [...] has been exercised."
evidence; burden of proof; misuse of authority; definition
Whereas the right to a pension "is no doubt inviolable, a pension contribution is by its very nature subject to variation [...]. Far from infringing any acquired right a rise in contribution that is warranted for sound actuarial reasons [...] actually affords the best safeguard against the threat that lack of foresight may pose to the future value of pension benefits."
acquired right; pension; actuarial valuation; contributions; increase
The complainant objects to the actuarial method which the organisation used in a study of the pension fund's foreseeable costs. "Like any public authority, the EPO enjoys a presumption in its favour - especially when it is taking technical measures and it has done thorough preparatory work - that its choice of actuarial method is the most suitable and the fairest. [...] It is of course open to a staff member under a system of administrative law to challenge the organisation's choice, but he must be able to adduce evidence to show why the chosen method, when compared with others, may suffer from technical flaws that should have disqualified it."
organisation; right of appeal; evidence; burden of proof; reckoning; pension; actuarial valuation; contributions; judicial review; discretion; mistake of fact; increase
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Live Twitter wall launched to promote 'Bharat Ke Veer' portal
NEW DELHI - Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday launched a live Twitter wall for promoting 'Bharat Ke Veer portal' here on the eve of the 71st Independence Day. On this occasion, Ministers of State for Home Hansraj Gangaram Ahir and Kiren Rijiju contributed their one month salary for the portal. Launched by Rajnath Singh and actor Akshay Kumar on April 9, the portal aims to facilitate online donation directly to the families of...
paramilitary troopers who have sacrificed their lives for the country in line of duty from January 1, 2016. The Home Minister said that the security forces have made supreme sacrifices in the line of duty and the people need to stand by their families and support them. This social media awareness campaign will display all tweets with hashtag Bharat Ke Veer (#BharatKeVeer) at central Delhi's Connaught Place and south Delhi's CGO complex and Khan Market areas where huge LED display screens have been installed, a Home Ministry statement said. It also said that an emoji -- ideograms and smileys used in electronic messages -- has also been created for this hashtag.
Union Home Secretary Rajiv Mehrishi, Officer on Special Duty Rajiv Gauba and senior Home Ministry officers were also present on the occasion.
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deron-williams
NBA Report: Mavericks Would Trade Deron Williams to Cavaliers for This…
02.02.17 | No Comments | Shaina Auxilly
LeBron James said the Cleveland Cavaliers need a “playmaker” and that they’re very “top heavy.” He noted that he and Kyrie Irving play a ton of minutes because they have no other choice. All that spells out that they’re very much on the hunt for a backup point guard. They reportedly held workouts with Mario Chalmers, Lance Stephenson, Kirk Hinrich, and Jordan Farmar. Now they’re exploring trade options. The Dallas Mavericks are reportedly willing to part ways with Deron Williams, whom the Cavaliers are reportedly interested in, but would the Cavs be ok with this asking price?
(Video) NBA: Rick Carlisle Says Referee Baited Deron Williams Into Getting a Technical
03.10.16 | 1 Comment | Shaina Auxilly
Referees are supposed to keep order and diffuse a situation but coach Rick Carlisle accused referee David Jones of entering the Dallas Mavericks’ huddle during a timeout and baited Deron Williams into a technical foul.
(Video) NBA: Wow Did Rajon Rondo Try to Trip or Kick Deron Williams While Standing on the Sideline?
Rajon Rondo and the Dallas Mavericks had a pretty bitter divorce last season. He clashed with head coach Rick Carlisle, the team made up a nonexistent injury as the reason for ditching him in the middle of a playoff series, and he didn’t even get a share of the additional cash they received for making the postseason. In any event, Rondo is now with the Sacramento Kings and made his first trip back to Dallas on Tuesday night for their game against the Mavericks. Rondo couldn’t get revenge on his former team on the court as he sat out with back spasms so he tried to do what he could from the sideline.
NBA: Deron Williams on Time With Nets: ‘Made me question if I even wanted to play basketball’
Injuries and disappointment marred Deron Williams time with the Brooklyn Nets and he’s since moved on to a happier and healthier time with his hometown Dallas Mavericks. Williams says he’s enjoying the game of basketball again, something he hadn’t felt with the Nets. In fact, playing in Brooklyn made him question whether he even wanted to play anymore.
NBA: Report, Deron Williams Asked For Buyout Because Of Fight With Coach Earlier In The Season
Deron Williams just convinced the Nets to buy him out of his remaining contract with the team for about $25-30 million dollars. He will now sign with his hometown Dallas Mavericks for two years/$10 million dollars. He is getting out of NY with a lot of money for not doing much but according to reports, part of the reason he wants to go is because of a long standing feud with head coach, Lionel Hollins.
NBA: Report, Deron Williams Seeking Buyout From Nets So He Can Sign With The Mavs!
The Nets wanted out from under the contracts of Joe Johnson and Deron Williams this summer, but D-Will was always going to be the harder to deal. Williams is set to make $43 million over the next two years, which is a lot of money for an erratic 13 points and 6.6 assists per game (his per-game averages last year). So the Nets may just buy him out. Then he would go home and sign with the Dallas Mavericks, which is exactly what it seems he wants to do anyway.
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HomeVanderpump RulesBrittany Cartwright’s Mother Is In The ICU With Serious Complications Following Bladder Surgery!
Brittany Cartwright’s Mother Is In The ICU With Serious Complications Following Bladder Surgery!
Brittany Cartwright recently shared a photo of her mother Sherri Cartwright on her Instagram Story, writing: "Please keep my beautiful mom in your prayers." On Saturday, the Vanderpump Rules' rep revealed via a statement that Sherri was hospitalized and remains in an intensive care unit.
"Brittany's mother is currently in the ICU due to serious complications from bladder surgery," the rep told PEOPLE. "Brittany has been beside herself and asking for prayers. She is planning to go to Kentucky to be by her mother's bedside next week - it's been complicated having visitors at the hospital due to COVID-19 which has been very difficult for Brittany and her family."
Fans first learned of Sherri's hospitalization after their family's pastor shared the news on Facebook earlier this week.
"I would like to ask all my friends to please pray for my friend and church member Sherri Turner Cartwright. She had to have an emergency surgery after having a scheduled procedure that went bad. She’s in ICU and things are uncertain, so please join us in prayer for Sherri and believe God for her full recovery," he wrote on June 10.
In March, Sherri said she would be undergoing surgery on her bladder. "I'm having bladder surgery March 30 and off work for 8 weeks. So I'm flying to LA for recovery to stay with Jax [and] Brittany," she tweeted at the time. "Can’t wait to see them and my Vanderpump moms. Please keep me in your prayers."
Brittany Fogarty Health Pump Rules Pump Rules Season 8 Sherri Cartwright Vanderpump Rules
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Home Beginner Friendly Theros Block Farewell – What will and won’t we miss? by Liam...
Theros Block Farewell – What will and won’t we miss? by Liam Casserly
Liam Casserly
Goodbye Friends, Romans, and Countrymen. Theros Block Farewell by Liam Casserly
Oh boy, I do love this time of year. For some reason after the Summer I’m always ready for a little bit of Autumn. A lot of my favourite sports return and it always seems more socially acceptable for me to sit around for entire days playing board games. All this was true even before I discovered Magic, but now the changing of the season brings with it something else to be excited about: rotation.
Rotation brings with it hope. Hope that your favorite style of play might match up with what Wizards are trying to push for this Standard season. It also gives us that feeling of excitement. I like to joke that, as a community, we get Christmas 4 times a year. But the Autumn is special because of the sets that leave. It is both literally and figuratively a game changer. As of next year we will move to a twice yearly rotation but I’m not going to focus on that just yet as it only slightly affects what will happen once Battle for Zendikar is released.
The temptation during rotation is to look to the new set for direct replacements for either your favourite deck or the strongest deck of the time. When Blue and Black Devotions were a thing and Return to Ravnica was leaving Standard, some players were looking toward Khans of Tarkir to have cards to 1-for-1 replace the lost cards. Most of the time this just won’t be the case and it’s much more a “The King is dead! Long Live the King!” deal. What I mean by that is rotation kills decks. It’s what it’s there for. Can you imagine having Sphinx’s Revelation in every Standard? I think that would be a quick way to reduce the number of Magic players.
One of my favorite decks, which I have won a few FNMs with, is on its way out. I’ve really enjoyed Green/Red Devotion. It’s not just the case of some of the better tools for the deck leaving and getting replaced with lesser cards, which was the case with Blue and Black Devotions. No, this time the heart of the deck is leaving. Once Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx is gone, there is nothing left to be devoted to. Will there be a Red/Green Monsters deck in the next Standard? Probably at some point, but I doubt it will be there Week One.
Right, that’s enough looking forward, let’s look back. Let’s look at what was good and what was bad about Theros block.
Two things going on here: the flavour theme and the mechanical theme. I think this perfectly sums up the hits and misses for the Theros block. Way back when all we knew was the code names of individual expansions (Friends, Romans and Countrymen), the internet was rife with rumours. They tell us every time that the code names mean nothing and they are randomly selected, but people were convinced that this time they had double bluffed us and this was a Roman-themed set. I must say the thought of that got me excited and because I wanted it to be. I was prepared to believe those silly internet rumours.
After a while the rumours changed and the general consensus was it was ancient Greek and Roman themed. Ooooooh… that’s exciting! As a child I had grown up watching the Ray Harryhausen stop motion animations of all those great Greek stories. I was certainly up for fighting a reanimated skeleton army that grew straight out of the ground. When the official announcement came and told us it was 100% Greek-based set, I was a little sad but also wondered if they had kept a Roman-themed set for another time. I would love a plane where we get to experience the Roman legions conquering the Barbarians and establishing a Roman peace.
When the set was released flavour was as I expected it to be. Great. There were all the tropes I expected but not just that, there were stories I had never heard of from Greek myths that I learnt through cards. This, however, was a double-edged sword. For story reasons, they made cards legendary when they didn’t actually feel legendary. It’s a small gripe on the flavour of the set and probably much more to do with game play, which bring us on to…
The headline we were given was enchantments. Enchantments were the thing for Theros; it was an enchantment block. Anyone who played at Manchester GP last year will have enjoyed the puzzle that was Block Constructed, but they would have also noted that enchantment decks were not a thing. Sure, players had powerful and cool enchantment cards in their decks, but there wasn’t an outright deck built around them. Nope, for that we had to wait until Magic Origins was released and it was mediocre at the top tables. I haven’t seen much of it at FNM either.
The dediacated mechanic was called constellation. It was very similar to the landfall mechanic, but the problem was it only showed up in the last set, Journey into Nyx. Even in this set it was sparse. It was a hard thing to draft well and normally only ended up as sub theme. Eidolon of Blossoms was a great card, but even in the Enchantment deck it didn’t feel broken. I’m going to make an excuse for this being underwhelming. Wizards knew that landfall was coming back and I think they purposely avoided having too similar a gameplay environment. It doesn’t fully excuse the fact that it was bad, it does make some sense as to why they didn’t push it.
As I said before, devotion-based decks was a big hit in Blue and Black in the days after Theros rotated in. It took an unexpected Pro Tour win for Blue to make a splash, but a lot of players were looking at Gray Merchant of Asphodel from pre-release thinking this was going to be a card to break. It took two 50p rares to get there. Pack Rat and Nightveil Specter, the latter also featured in the Blue version thanks to hybrid mana.
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Green Devotion has been around for a while and, just as Theros/Tarkir Standard draws to a close, White Devotion has made a claim to be a real deck too. Leaving only Red not getting on the train, unless you count the two or three cards it helped out with in the Green deck.
Ah, Heroic… I think this mechanic is great. It was good in draft, but bad in Standard to begin with. Lots of FNM players tried to run it, but they all made the mistake of building a better draft deck, where all your heroic enablers were bestow creatures (we’ll deal with bestow later), but when the deck broke out it was just a bunch of regular auras that made it work. I had fun with the White/Blue Heroic deck and it was capable of some astonishing wins. Hitting for 24 damage was a regular way I was winning games.
What of the other mechanics in Theros? The ones whose names we can’t quite remember… what was going on with those? Like the one where your opponent chooses what you get: tribute. This sort of thing works well with cards like Fact or Fiction, where nearly always they have a difficult choice to make. This time around it felt a lot like playing Vexing Devil in Modern: if they let you keep it, they have removal. It just felt like a lot of the time you would get the half you didn’t want.
My son, who is a better player than me, made a deck with all the mono-Green tribute cards and Whip of Erebos. The way he explained it to me was that each turn you either play a tribute card or whip back and you force your opponent to make more decisions than they were expecting. They’re thinking about their cards and the lines they should take and then you keep harassing them with your cards and decisions. He told me they quickly start making mistakes. This is a legitimate strategy in chess and it worked for a while with this deck. After a while he found it was just easier and less fuss to build a cleaner ramp version of the deck to smash face with. And that was the problem with tribute. In the end there was nearly always a card that let you have the thing you want all the time – instead of some of the time.
Remember when they spoiled Pain Seer and everyone was like ‘Oooh, this could be the new Dark Confidant’? Wow, that was a crazy morning. In fact, remember when spoilers used to come out in the morning? Anyway, it seemed like it would work. I mean all you have to do is untap your creature and you get your bonus, and I’m always untapping creatures, like in nearly every game. How hard can it be to make this thing a Bob? Boy, did it take a lot of effort to do that. Just play a playset of Read the Bones and you’ll be better off. The Seer was slightly better in draft, but not a great deal.
Cards on the table first: I loved Theros, Theros, Theros draft. It was the Magic of big swingy matches and huge battlecruisers. Bestow worked really well in that first set, also there was enough variance that I could draft an Aggro deck one week and a Control deck the next. All the things in between were tried during the lifetime of triple Theros draft. I won a lot of my games in that period. so it is probably through that lens that I’m remembering the draft experience. As the block went on and the newer expansions joined the draft, I enjoyed it less and less. I think that my own feelings came into line with the overall feeling that Theros Block draft wasn’t that great.
Monstrosity (you thought I’d forgotten about this mechanic, didn’t you?) was a decent mana sink in Limited games. Not just if you had the good fortune to open one of the bomb rares that had a decent monstrous ability, but just the plain old common and uncommon monsters that you could play out in the midgame. And if they stuck around till the late game, they would be huge and smash up the place.
What felt fun and fresh in triple Theros grew tiresome and dull as Born of the Gods and Journey into Nyx came out. It didn’t help when Khans of Tarkir was released. That was an absolutely brilliant draft set and made you realise how joyless Theros had become. Saying that, I will probably grab a box of Theros boosters and stash it for a flashback draft.
The All Stars
No.1 on my list of Theros block all stars has to be Courser of Kruphix. This horsey lady has been in so many of my decks in Standard. When it was spoiled I recall a lot of unfavourable comparisons to Oracle of Mul Daya but times have changed, Magic has moved on. Courser has been a fine card. Will it stick around in Modern? Probably not, but it should go in your Cube for sure.
What else was good? Planeswalkers, they nearly all saw top level play. Some were more present than others. Poor old Ajani, Mentor of Heroes was the least of these. Elspeth, Sun’s Champion was everywhere. Xenagos, the Reveler, Kiora, the Crashing Wave and Ashiok, Nightmare Weaver did a great job in decks that wanted them. Once again though, these are probably EDH and Cube cards.
Was there any cards that made it into Modern and beyond? Well, there were some decent merfolk on Theros, Master of Waves being the foremost. Thassa, God of the Sea, whilst not a merfolk, has seen some play in Modern. Speaking of the gods, they were very popular and saw play in all sorts of decks, usually as a one-of though. Wizards really wanted them to be a thing and they kind of were, but their time was brief and in the end they weren’t as popular as their more efficient creature analogues. Keranos, God of Storms does see play as a hard-to-remove enchantment in Splinter Twin decks sideboard.
Oddities like Swan Song have made it into decks, not just in Modern but Legacy, too. It saw next to no play in Standardm but one might suspect that it was always designed to be that way. Anger of the Gods has a job to do in the sideboards of Modern for a while yet, but by far the biggest winner here is Eidolon of the Great Revel. I have played with this card in Standard, Modern and Legacy, and it is great in all of them. In fact, I tried to pick up a second playset because I was worried I would wear out the first.
Where does Theros leave us now that it is going? I remember some iconic cards rotating out from past sets and people were relieved they would never have to play against such oppressive cards and tactics again, but Theros doesn’t seem to generate that kind of emotion. It feels like when two lovers know the magic has gone and decide to go their separate ways.
So long Theros, it was fun for a while. We will always have Scry.
Community Question: What are you glad to see go or will miss the most after Theros rotates out?
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PTQ Sheffield 2014 Winners Tournament Report (Standard UWR Control) by Rob...
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Mr. Suave's Mod Mod World
What is Mod? Mr. Suave's Mod, Mod World is one of the web's original modcasts celebrating mod music, and mod-influenced music from past eras including soul, ska, garage, sixties R&B power pop, punk, britpop, acid jazz, lounge, easy listening and more.
What is Suave?
Mr. Suave's First Five Shows
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Modcast #392: What Is The Perfect Pop Song?
What is the perfect pop song? Good luck on getting an answer. Most of us can't agree on what a pop song is, let alone which ones are perfect. Or near to. But, Mary Queen of Cosmos had the guts, the chutzpah, the balls if you will, to take up Mr. Suave's challenge to figure out the modern day perfect pop song. It's a good show with quote, "a lot of good upstroking and downstroking", so you know you're going to enjoy it on some level. What do you think? What is the perfect pop song, if there is such a thing? Are any of these that? I'll be the judge. The jury. And the executioner. If the Queen of Cosmos is lucky she will while away the rest of her life in musical purgatory. But if she's very, very lucky (hint, hint, I'm the judge) she won't have to pay for all the vodka she wasted making all those cosmos to make this show listenable.
Nick Lowe -- Cruel To Be Kind (1979)
Sleigh Bells -- Rill Rill (2010)
Phoenix -- Girlfriend(2009)
Best Coast -- Feeling Okay (2015)
The Preatures -- How I Feel (2014)
The Beach Boys -- Good Vibrations (1966)
The Romantics -- What I Like About You (1980)
Green Day -- Basket Case (1994)
Devo -- Girl U Want (1980)
Sleater-Kinney -- Leave You Behind (2000)
The Postal Service -- Such Great Heights (2003)
The Rolling Stones -- Ruby Tuesday (1967)
The Cure -- Boys Don't Cry (1979)
Paul Weller -- Close To You (2004)
The Police -- Every Breath You Take (1983)
Why Is Modern Pop Music So Terrible?
Posted by Mr. Suave at 11:31 PM
Hey Mr. Suave, great show. I'd have to add a near perfect pop song. Simple Minds, Don't You (Forget About Me). Definately has all the pieces you mentioned.
When you and the co-host began mentioning perfect albums toward the end there I literally spoke "Quadrophenia" just as you did and I had to laugh. Even though you said you have some issues with it. I'd put that Who album as near perfect as you can get. And, I just got back from the LA show of Pete Townshend's Classic Quadrophenia and have to say that it is a near perfect if not totally perfect album (for me). Love to see if you have an upcoming show for (Near) Perfect Albums. Keep up the great work.
~Tanz
Dfactor said...
I love hot Bollywood music, music that makes me go zinga-zinga! And who can forget those Samali pop songs? Fuhgeddabout it!
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I don't believe in living in the past, but in using the past to enhance living for today.
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As COVID-19 spread rapidly in China, its government implemented extreme lockdown for Wuhan as the center of the epidemic as per January 23rd. The lockdown including road closures, suspension of any other transportation means, and orders for people to remain at home as a precaution against the spread the COVID-19. As many countries and business industries shiver in a face of the threat of COVID-19, some have come with a rapid course action alongside its own policy.
In dealing with the virus outbreak, Moores Rowland Indonesia has acted swiftly by issuing a work from home policy for its employees. For now, this period lasts until early April 2020, but the development of COVID-19 in Indonesia will be taken into account in formulating policy in the future. Moores Rowland Indonesia also continues to provide daily information about how to protect oneself from the virus, to ensure that all employees continue to maintain their health and hygiene in preventing the spread of the virus.
In dealing with COVID-19, the Indonesian government has said that lockdown is not yet necessary, but they advise citizens, especially in the red zone like Jakarta, to limit their activities outside the home and implement social distancing of one meter. Although there is no official ruling from the Indonesian government, the awareness of Jakarta residents to support the “di rumah aja” movement and conduct self-quarantine must be appreciated. While some people still need to go to work or use public transportation, it is noticeable that numbers are greatly reduced from normal. Public places are deserted, people go straight back home after work and only a handful of vehicles can be seen on the highway.
Regardless of their efforts, nobody truly knows for sure the exact time of the end of this pandemic. Based on the statement of BNPN (the National Disaster Management Agency), they stipulate the emergency period for COVID-19 in Indonesia until May 29, 2020, meaning Indonesia will spend one of its biggest holidays, Eid, in the midst of the emergency period. Will Indonesian citizens be ready to celebrate Eid in the midst of the pandemic? And will Indonesian citizens be ready to forego the tradition of returning home, instead being only able to greet their family through a simple text message or video call?
That situation is similar to the lockdown being enforced in Wuhan amidst the Lunar New Year holiday, the time period when usually most Chinese travel. Unexpected though it was, the limitations on travel domestically and internationally eventually helped reduce China’s pollution rate, which has always been a major issue and that has a fatal impact on Chinese public health. Photos taken by NASA’s satellites over the city of Wuhan showed a radical decline in the pollutants released by cars, industrial facilities, power plants, etc. since the implementation of the lockdown by the Chinese government. The reduced pollution could also mean an improvement in their quality of life, at least in the short-term.
Similarly to China, Northern Italy has also experienced a noticeable drop in pollution and greenhouse gas emission after the power-house of Italian industry ground to a halt as a result of a nationwide lockdown. Even Venice, jewel of tourism in the region has seen the benefits of self-confinement, which has changed the quality of water in the famed canals to yesteryear. Residents can again see clear water in the Venice canals, even fish have braved the Venice waterways, all due to the absence of the everyday tourist.
Yet these are brief bright spots in the darkness the pandemic has caused. Economic regression is hardly worth talking about compared to the pain, suffering and even death of some of those infected, but it is the price that all of us must pay. Some have already begun to pay with reduced access to medicines and food for the poor, but like the virus it will affect us all in different ways. If as Indonesians we can act with thought and feeling for others, for a start by cooperating by self-isolation where necessary and staying at home where at all possible we may escape the worst of dealing with the virus. We do not know what tomorrow may bring, but lessons learned in these dark days will affect our lives going forward. For the decisions we make right now will influence our lives forward.
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2 of 5 cities > City Breaks
Richard Green City breaks 27/06/2017 18027 views
Captain Hoffman stands on the bridge in naval uniform intently watching an approaching container vessel. But instead of barking orders for a change of course he takes up a microphone and announces in a kindly manner - from two 600-watt speakers - the tonnage, length and homeport of the oncoming ship. Then at the click of a mouse a lofty anthem booms out across the water.
Herr Hoffman welcomes arriving ships with an announcement and their national anthem. Photo My Bathroom Wall
“I have 153 national anthems here,” Herr Hoffman says proudly. “They used to be on vinyl, then cassette tapes, and now they are MP3’s. That one was from the Marshall Islands because that is where the ship is flagged.”
Before you think the German navy has completely lost the plot, we’re on dry land, Herr Hoffman is retired, and his ‘bridge’ is a small office on the side of the Schulauer Fährhaus restaurant. This bonkers little ceremony takes place at a narrow point in the Elbe River 22 kilometres west of Hamburg, conducted for all arriving and departing ships over 5,000 tons. It first began in 1952 – initiated by the restaurateur who was constantly being asked by customers where the ships were from.
A ship passing the Schulauer Fährhaus and so called 'Welcome Point'. Photo Schulauer Fährhaus
Hamburg is Germany’s richest city, the country’s media, design, and music capital, and Europe’s second biggest port. It feels more chilled than Munich, less swaggering than Berlin, and despite being 110 kilometres from the North Sea, the connection with seafaring is ever present.
You can’t miss the giant port that smothers one bank of the River Elbe. The city is clearly proud of it, and flaunts it with an historic riverfront that grandstands the dry-docked cruise liners here for refits, the banks of containers and rows of cranes.
And the love of shipping doesn’t stop there.
The splendidly shipping-themed lobby of the 25hour HafenCity Hotel. Photo 25hours Hotels
I stayed at the 25hour HafenCity Hotel, a funky new place where standard bedroom décor includes a rope ladder, a life size cartoon of a sailor in the bathroom, a globe and a faux antique Louis Vuitton travel trunk. I could however have chosen the Atlantic Kempinski, which was built for first class passengers travelling on the Hamburg-America line and has a lobby bar like a cruise liner’s; or the recently refurbished Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten, where older rooms have double doors with a space in between, formerly for the discreet delivery of luggage – just as posh old liners once insisted upon.
The Fairmont Hotel Vier Jahreszeiten. Photo Fairmont Hotels
The ‘Love Boat’ theme was playing when I entered the Fairmont bar, which is a cabin-like nook with wood panelling and a spiral staircase. The chap taking red wine and cheese at the bar immediately chatted: “This has been my ritual to escape the hustle of every day life for forty years now.” And with an air-twirl of his fork he added, “Did you know that Hamburg has 64 kilometres of docks and more bridges than Venice and Amsterdam put together?” I looked sceptical, but a short while later the white-coated barman returned and said he’d checked his mobile and it wasn’t correct. “Wikipedia says that there are 2,400 bridges in Hamburg, more than Venice, Amsterdam and London put together,” he beamed.
The almost seaside vibe at the Strandpearl bar/restaurant. Photo My Bathroom Wall
At the Strandpearl beach restaurant, I joined the tables of beautiful people on a rather grey beach and watched as the mammoth blue bulk of a container ship slide past. As I chomped through a bratwurst and beer, two mates in their 70s asked if the seats beside me were taken. Wolf excitedly told me that the blue container ship was the APL Sentosa – “Too big for the Panama Canal even, 70 meters longer than the Eiffel Tower and carrying up to 14,000 containers!” His friend Berndt rolled his eyes: “Oh, here we go again,” he bemoaned through a huge smile. “Wolf knows everything about ships.”
The views are fabulous from the open air section of the 'Clouds' Bar. Photo Clouds Bar
The hippest places for cocktails are ‘Clouds’ and the ‘20up Bar’, both topping tall buildings and angled for the best floor-to-ceiling harbour views. There are bars down on the river, too -- cheap eats on the ten Landsbrücken pontoons with a seaside-feeling medley of excitable children and excruciating postcards. Nearby I sat in a deckchair and felt the sand between my toes at the mellower Hamburg del Mar bar, then I had a drink on the floating Astra floating biergarten, and rounded off on the curvaceous wooden deck of a little red lighthouse ship.
The 'Hamburg del Mar' bar, even though the mar is 110 kilometres away. Photo My Bathroom Wall
On the U3 metro line I was startled when the train emerged from a tunnel to reveal fantastic views of Hamburg’s river. Between Landsbrücken and Baumwall stations, the train trundles over rails elevated on spindly iron stilts for views not unlike those heading in or out of Sydney’s Circular Quay Railways Station. Public transport ferries fuss along the Elbe and dozens of harbour cruise options vie for the tourist’s attention, and there’s an extraordinary river tunnel too, built in 1911 for workers to commute to the docks. Glass lifts for pedestrians, and older garage-sized ones that take two cars at a time, descend 75-meters to the tunnel floor.
The late afternoon sun drew me to stroll westwards along the riverbank on my last day in Hamburg. I passed U-434, a Russian submarine (now a museum) and an office block in the shape of a ship, and eventually reached a cute cluster of historic vessels at the Oevelgönne museum.
The welcoming wooden interior of the old ferry boat restaurant. Photo My Bathroom Wall
Inside the cosy dining room of a converted 1952 Hamburg ferry, I tasted the city’s speciality of Labskaus – once a common seamen’s dish - a delicious hash of beef, potato and onion topped with an egg. The young waitress bent beside the table like a First Class airhostess and after the meal suggested that I should get a ferry back to where I’d started - and that one was leaving in four minutes. “At night when I finish it feels like a village here,” she said, “all peaceful and quiet. I get the ferry back to the centre sitting on deck watching the lights of the docks cranes and ships, and I feel very lucky.”
Four minutes later, the tug-like ferry arrived and lowered its gantry. I hurried on and took her advice, sitting on deck to watch the eerily lit cargo ships, their containers stacked like toy bricks, and red lights pinpointing the toiling crane tips.
I felt very lucky too.
Sunset over the River Elbe. Photo Visit Hamburg
Hamburg makes a great city break. It's an intriguing place with lots to see, a buzzing atmosphere, and outstanding maritime heritage. It's easy to get to, yet noticably less touristy than other top tier European cities.
Hamburg Airport is 8.5 kilometres north of the city and handled 16m passengers in 2016. There are flights to many European cities, plus to Dubai with Emirates, and Tehran with Iran Air.
The best time to visit Hamburg is in summer from May to October. Temperatures rarely top the high 20s and there is the chance of showers at any time of the year. Winters are chilly to cold, but snow falls only a few times a year.
www.hamburg.com is the city’s website. Public transport day pass is €7.5 and the Hamburg Card is €9.5 a day, including discounted entry to museums and places of interest.
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Milibandite futures
David Miliband made a rational and cogent case for his decision to leave the Shadow Cabinet yesterday. Many Labour members will both understand and regret his decision. His argument that the (word of the week) "psychodrama" could dominate the next year if he had remained on the frontbench certainly looked stronger by last night than it had at the weekend.
David Miliband's dignity in such disappointing and narrow defeat on Saturday and his accomplished speech on Monday were rightly much praised. (Perhaps his acerbic aside to Harriet Harman over Iraq on Tuesday was a subconscious attempt to disrupt the beatification process which the Labour party tends to adopt for election losers. It was a newsworthy scoop, but the rolling maul of flashbulbs and cameras while Ed Miliband was speaking was demonstrated the astonishing level of visual scrutiny we apply - looking for a momentary frown or yawn which might become "the image", even "the story" - even as we loudly demand authenticity and a less buttoned-up politics).
It is good that David Miliband is staying in Parliament. He is clearly going to be very wary of the media, so obsessed with the "gotcha" interview , while his brother is leader. I hope he does find a way to ensure that the quest to find an iota of criticism of his brother will not excessively constrain or muzzle him from contributing to the party's debates long-term political and policy thinking mentioned in his statement.
There will be many ways he might do that: he will not be short of offers. It would not be surprising if David Miliband to go full circle link up in some way with Nick Pearce (director) and James Purnell (chair) at the ippr think-tank, to try to flesh out some important aspects of the pluralist liberal social democracy which is largely common ground between the Miliband brothers. Labour now needs a new political economy after the crash. We need a greener social democracy which provides a route map to making our living in a low carbon world. We are still floundering in the search for an effective and legitimate multilateralism without which power can not be held to account in the global age. Were the elder Miliband's brainpower and strategic thinking applied to these and similar challenges, it could do his party - not least his brother - a great deal of good.
There is one curious aspect of the Miliband v Miliband coverage, as the leadership contest phase finally ends. It is worth remembering that both Miliband brothers chose to run against their brother.
Much coverage seems to imply that Ed Miliband "challenged" his brother, as if the elder Miliband already held the post and was then deposed. There was a vacancy for the leadership: both Milibands chose to stand, aware that their sibling would be in the field. As David Miliband told the conference on Monday, this depended on both being ready to win or to lose.
It had been pretty clear for at least a year that both Milibands had very good chances to win the leadership election, and that any election in which they both stood would be very close.
Certainly, David Miliband was clearly considered the frontrunner in the election, anointed as favourite with the bookmakers and the newspapers. That this frame was consciously reinforced as a central aspect of both campaign strategies was surely a clue against simply taking it at face value. The Ed Miliband camp consciously adopted an "incumbent versus insurgent" frame, seeking to echo the dynamic between Hilary Clinton and Barack Obama, successfully offering a clear "change versus continuity" frame. The David Miliband camp eagerly accepted the frontrunner mantle, both from genuine confidence and in the hope that an "inevitability" strategy would become a self-fulfillling prophecy, as Labour MPs sought to back the most likely winner. The inevitability strategy would certainly have worked if it had deterred the strongest rival candidate from standing - for family rather than political reasons.
Either might have won the close race - but it was a good moment to own the mantle of "change".
So are elections better than pacts and deals or not?
It has become the orthodoxy that a contested election, not a Coronation, would have been much better for Labour in 2007, and indeed for Gordon Brown himself, since he would almost certainly have defeated any opponent in a Labour election contest at that moment. It is often suggested that the Granita pact was a mistake and, by some, that it might have been healthier for the party to have had a Blair-Brown contest in 1994. (GB and TB had become professional siblings, 1983-1994, but the younger brother had emerged as the favourite). It seems to me very difficult for anybody who holds these views to also argue that there should not have been a Miliband-Miliband contest, preferring a deal instead.
Is the orthodoxy now going to shift on Blair-Brown in 1994? Or has it become a "what if" journalistic trope that everybody tends to agree that the grass is always greener in the parallel political universes we never experience (even if those accounts of Blair-Brown and Miliband-Miliband contradict each other)?
When did a David Miliband leadership candidacy become likely?
The chances of David Miliband running against Gordon Brown in 2007 now tend to be exaggerated, influenced by later events. The opportunity was to run a gallant losing campaign to become "heir apparent" under a Brown premiership. There are so many reasons why David Miliband might have felt that was an offer he could refuse.
I don't recall any point when David Miliband seemed the most likely possible "not Gordon" candidate. Across 2004-2007, speculation focused on Alan Milburn and John Reid, before coalescing around Alan Johnson. (That all three represent three considerably different stripes of so-called "Blairite" to the not-very-Blairite elder Miliband again demonstrates the limitations of this outdated shorthand).
There was an assumption across Westminster after the 2005 general election that the next leadership contest but one would probably involve both David Miliband and Ed Balls. The rest of the field was never clear, and there was a broadly held fear of the inter-generational transmission of the Blair-Brown factions. Neither candidate wished to have their political future defined by those past relationships, yet it was also likely that the media would drag them back into that familiar frame.
However, David Miliband's 2010 bid was damaged by the leadership crises of 2008 and 2009. David Miliband has explained, many times, why he did not force Gordon Brown's resignation when James Purnell resigned in June 2009. His supporters still think it was a mistake. But if Gordon Brown had been deposed, it would have made considerably more sense then for Alan Johnson, not David Miliband, to replace him. There would simply have been no time to set out a Milibandite case in terms the public could understand, while AJ would have offered the clearest possible biographical contrast to David Cameron and the best chance of connecting to an increasingly anti-politics mood.
The earlier summer/Autumn 2008 crisis was less explicable, because it was self-induced. This was Miliband's own internal version of the Gordon Brown "election that never was", though he remained an electable (and very nearly elected) candidate this time.
David Miliband's candidacy was in effect confirmed when he rejected the job of European foreign minister, an offer made by PES chair Poul Nyrup Rasmussen in the green room of a Fabian "global change we need" conference in November 2009.
By then, there was already a strong public push for his brother to stand.
When did an Ed Miliband candidacy become likely?.
That explains why David Miliband told Channel 4 news last night that he had thought it likely, across 2009, that his brother would run for the leadership (also rejecting speculation that MiliE had, on the Brown-Blair model, promised his brother a free run later during the 2008 leadership crisis).
The idea of an Ed Miliband candidacy began to build momentum from his conference speech in Autumn 2008. I blogged that day about how it had lifted the conference mood, providing one of the better moments of a pretty dismal week.
It was partly the Cameronesque style of delivery that made the party sit up and notice. But there was also, bubbling under, an argument which distinguished Ed M from both Gordon Brown and David Miliband. As the conference swirled with media speculation about David Miliband's intentions, the content of a post-Brown "change" agenda remained almost entirely elusive. Meanwhile, Gordon Brown was expected to set out - as he had not the previous year - the mission of his premiership.
That was the context in which Ed Miliband argued for Labour to make its case as a social democratic party, committed to more equal life chances as part of the good society. Ed Miliband's speech was an ostensibly loyalist supportive intervention about how Labour could take its case public. Yet it expressed too the younger Miliband's frustration on two fronts: in the long-running argument within the Brown camp about whether social democracy could ever be put on the tin, and also at the lack of content in several calls from the right of the party for a "bold" agenda and "new narratives" without much sense of what they were.
A year later, this blog reported during conference 2009 that shares were again rising in the Ed Miliband, writing of the "swirl of speculation" around a possible future leadership candidacy, while also noting that the catch-all appeal of the Ed Milibandwagon could not survive once the time came for a public contest.
"Shares in Ed Miliband rose once again inside the Westminster-on-sea bubble following his rallying call to the Labour party yesterday ... he is not keen to encourage the swirl of speculation about his prospects in a future leadership contest sometime after the next General Election.
At last night's Fabian Question Time fringe, I noted that Ed Miliband is now reportedly the favoured candidate of both Derek Simpson and Peter Mandelson, which would make writing the campaign platform rather fun.
But the coalition turned out to be broader still. Tory blogger Iain Dale was keen to point out that he had been an early adopter, tipping Ed M for the top in his GQ profile of the Milibands [in the Autumn of 2008].
In November 2009, Jenni Russell's Guardian column made a significant intervention.
Two groups believed that, in the end, Ed Miliband would not run. The strongest supporters of David Miliband tended to significantly underestimate Ed Miliband's chances in an election, and so to conclude his candidacy would serve little purpose, while characterising him as too indecisive to go for it anyway. Both assumptions proved wrong. Yet Ed Miliband's keenest supporters also feared he would choose not to run in the end, for the sole reason that his brother would be in the field too.
This is captured in Russell's column, an (unauthorised) attempt by a close friend to keep an Ed Miliband candidacy alive, immediately after David Miliband's rejection of the European job.
I wrote on LabourList that this reflected that Ed Miliband would be close to 'joint favourite' 'with a run'
Is the wrong Milibandwagon now rolling fast? That is Jenni Russell's concern in her Guardian column, making the case for her friend Ed over his brother David ...
In the personality politics stakes, Ed Miliband had probably the best week of any frontbencher in Brighton, and has impressed many in the party in the run-up to Copenhagen. But Westminster wisdom sees him as the main loser from his brother's decision to turn down the role of EU foreign minister last week, which has been taken as surely confirming that David Miliband intends to be a candidate whenever Labour is next electing a party leader ...
Ed Miliband would be close to joint favourite, and among the leading two or three candidates 'with a run', but his brother's candidacy near the head of the field too would appear to present a significant roadblock to his own prospects ... this all remains very premature [but] when the time comes, the party should indeed want a fraternal and open debate, where it can choose between all of the leading contenders.
The difference between the two Miliband candidacies was primarily that almost nobody could say with any certainty at the time of the May 2010 election that Ed Miliband would run. Even those, like Russell, who were urging him to do so publicly and privately could not accurately predict which way he would jump. That was for the simple reason that he refused to discuss the issue, even in private with MPs seeking to press him to go for it, until after the general election.
Still, the scene had long been set for a likely two Miliband contest. Clearly, either could easily have ended up the victor after a closely-fought campaign. But the brothers were right to think that it was an argument best conducted and settled through the ballot box.
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OECD Home TaxMaking Dispute Resolution More Effective – MAP Peer Review Report, Luxembourg (Stage 2) - Inclusive Framework on BEPS: Action 14 - en
Making Dispute Resolution More Effective – MAP Peer Review Report, Luxembourg (Stage 2)
Inclusive Framework on BEPS: Action 14
Under Action 14, countries have committed to implement a minimum standard to strengthen the effectiveness and efficiency of the mutual agreement procedure (MAP). The MAP is included in Article 25 of the OECD Model Tax Convention and commits countries to endeavour to resolve disputes related to the interpretation and application of tax treaties. The Action 14 Minimum Standard has been translated into specific terms of reference and a methodology for the peer review and monitoring process. The minimum standard is complemented by a set of best practices. The peer review process is conducted in two stages. Stage 1 assesses countries against the terms of reference of the minimum standard according to an agreed schedule of review. Stage 2 focuses on monitoring the follow-up of any recommendations resulting from jurisdictions' stage 1 peer review report. This report reflects the outcome of the stage 2 peer monitoring of the implementation of the Action 14 Minimum Standard by Luxembourg, which is accompanied by a document addressing the implementation of best practices.
Published on April 09, 2020Also available in: French
In series:OECD/G20 Base Erosion and Profit Shifting Projectview more titles
The final report on BEPS Action 14 "Making Dispute Resolution Mechanisms More Effective" identified a number of best practices related to the three general objectives of the Action 14 Minimum Standard.
These best practices are not part of the minimum standard and whether or not a jurisdiction has implemented the best practices has not been peer reviewed or monitored, nor has it affected the assessment of the assessed jurisdiction. However, jurisdictions were free, to identify best practices they have adopted and to request feedback from peers on the adoption of these best practices.
Luxembourg - Best Practices
Action 14 develops solutions to address obstacles that prevent countries from solving treaty-related disputes under MAP, via a minimum standard in this area as well as a number of best practices. It also includes arbitration as an option for willing countries.
Find out more about the peer review and monitoring process of the BEPS Action 14 Miniumum Standard
Learn more about OECD work on Dispute Resolution
Contact us by e-mail: ctp.beps@oecd.org
Follow us on Twitter: @OECDtax
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Accueil > Découvrir les espèces et leurs habitats > Programmes de recherches > Teal research program
THE AIMS OF THIS STUDY
TO LEARN MORE ABOUT THIS...
THE AIMS OF THIS STUDY :
France is an important wintering area for Teal (Anas crecca), whose numbers in mid-January counts have been around 100,000 individuals during the last 15 years. Birds that winter in France have theoretically been split into two distinct subpopulations, North-western European and Mediterranean, between which exchanges of individuals are most likely.
Numbers in the North-western European subpopulation are thought to increase increase, while no trend can be detected in the Mediterranean subpopulation.
Teal is also an important quarry species, since the number of individals hunted during the 1998-99 hunting season were over 330,000 individuals, or 3-4 times the number counted in January. This apparent contradiction may be due to a high turnover of individuals in wintering Teal populations, as already shown in the Camargue, Southern France, and suggested for western France : birds would not spend the whole winter in one region, but the new arrival of migrants would gradually renew the birds killed by hunting. It remains, however, to determine the factors leading to this potential turnover, its importance in some wintering quarters, and the way these wintering quarters are connected. Despite the fact that Teal has already been studied quite a lot in Europe, new research was therefore necessary if one wants to adjust at best management decision and policy-making. For this purpose, ONCFS launched a new research program in 2002, under 3 main axes :
Analysis of historical ringing data from the Station Biologique de la Tour du Valat, in the Camargue. Teal were ringed there for more than 30 years (from the end of the 1940’s to the mid 1970’s), to get precise data concerning the biometry of the birds, their survival rates, the size of populations and turnover among these,
Launching of a new national ringing scheme, to get data comparable to the Camargue one at a 30 years interval, individual marking of the birds to ease the study of their behaviour and movements,
In future years, development of predictive population dynamics models for Teal, to help decision-making in the context of this species management and conservation policy.
HOW WE DO IT :
The analysis of the Tour du Valat historical ringing database is in process, and several papers are either in preparation, submitted or in press in international scientific journals. These articles will be made available on this website after publication. This databse represents information from 60,000 Teal ringed, leading to 20,000 recaptures of live birds and 10,000 recoveries of dead ones.
The current ringing scheme is conducted at the national scale, with a total of 14 ringing areas : the Marais du Vigueirat in Camargue, the Gironde wetlands, the hunting and wildlife reserve of the Massereau in the Loire estuary, The Duer Marsh reserve and other wetlands in Golfe du Morbihan, Saint Georges de Bohon Reserve and Beauguillot Nature Reserve in the Manche area, the hunting and wildlife reserve of la Grand-Mare in the Seine estuary, Puydarrieux lake in Hautes-Pyrénées, Outines lakes in the wet Champagne area, Forez and Yonne wetlands, and Dombes and Brenne former fish ponds.
Caught birds are all weighted, measured, ringed and realeased. Each bird is fitted with a metal ring from the National Museaum of Natural History (wearing « Mus. Paris » plus an individual identification number).
Some birds are also fitted with nasal saddles at capture, in order to ease subsequent observation and to study individual behaviour, like foraging, movement and pair formation.
On these saddles is written an individual code made of 2 characters (like A1, 1A, A=, etc…) that are identical on both sides of the bill, plus for some birds an additional third character on the front.
We use bright yellow nasal saddles for Camargue-ringed Teal, lime-green color for the other ringing sites. This method has been successfully used in Northern America and in some European countries for tens of years now.
CURRENT RESULTS :
Since the beginning of the program, 11,498 ducks (among which 6,939 were Teal) have been ringed, and 5,401 (2,713 Teal) subsequently recaptured and released again. These recaptures were 953 different individual Teal. The number of ducks ringed (all species together) decreased slightly in 2009/10 compared to 2008/09 (1,367 instead of 1,626), while the number of recaptures strongly decreased (322 in 2009/10 compared to 579 in 2008/09). Many sites had a poor capture year despite high capture effort, while a few sites caught relatively large numbers of Teal. A total of 762 Teal have now been recovered, i.e. either deliberately shot or found dead since the start, and reported. Recovery rate for Teal is therefore equal to 10.98% now, a value slightly above the 10.8% of the end of the previous ringing season.
In this program, nasal saddles made of soft plastic are fitted on some birds only, in agreement with CRBPO (at the National Museum of Natural History in Paris), and the other European bodies using this method. In total, 472 Teal have been fitted this way in 2009/10 (or 61.5% of ringed birds). These saddles have allowed a large number of resightings (575 in total for Teal in 2009/10, which is however only half of the 1,150 of the 2008/09 season). In 2009/10, 182 different marked Teal individuals have been resighted. Since the beginning of the program, 4,176 Teal have been fitted with a nasal saddle, leading to 6,962, among which 276 were in foreign countries – see the map of foreign recoveries.
• Arzel, C., Elmberg, J. & Guillemain, M. 2006. Ecology of spring migrating Anatidae : a review. Journal of Ornithology, 147 : 167-184.
• Arzel, C., Guillemain, M., Gurd, B., Elmberg, J., Fritz, H., Arnaud, A., Pin, C. & Bosca, F. 2007. Experimental functional response and inter-individual variation in the foraging efficiency of Teal (Anas crecca). Behavioural Processes 75(1) : 66-71.
• Arzel, C., Elmberg, J. & Guillemain, M. 2007. A flyway perspective of foraging activity in Eurasian Teal Anas crecca. Canadian Journal of Zoology 85 : 81-91.
● Arzel, C., Elmberg, J., Guillemain, M., Lepley, M., Bosca, F., Legagneux, P. & Nogues, J.B. 2009. A flyway perspective on food resource availability in a long-distance migrant, the Eurasian Teal (Anas crecca crecca). Journal of Ornithology, 150 : 61-73.
● Brochet, A.L., Guillemain, M., Gauthier-Clerc, M., Fritz, H. & Green, A.J. 2010. Endozoochory of Mediterranean aquatic plant seeds by teal after a period of desiccation : Determinants of seed survival and influence of retention time on germinability and viability. Aquatic Botany 93 : 99-106.
● Brochet, A.L., Guillemain, M., Fritz, H., Gauthier-Clerc, M. & Green, A.J. 2010. Seed dispersal by teal (Anas crecca) in the Camargue (southern France) : duck guts are more important than their feet. Freshwater Biology 55 : 1262-1273.
● Brochet, A.L., Gauthier-Clerc, M., Guillemain, M., Fritz, H., Waterkeyn, A., Baltanás, Á. & Green, A.J. 2010. Field evidence of dispersal of branchiopods, ostracods and bryozoans by teal (Anas crecca) in the Camargue (southern France). Hydrobiologia 637 : 255-261.
● Brochet, A.L., Guillemain, M., Fritz, H., Gauthier-Clerc, M. & Green, A.J. 2009. The role of migratory ducks in the long-distance dispersal of native plants and the spread of exotic plants in Europe. Ecography 32 : 919-928.
● Brochet, A.L., Guillemain, M., Lebarbenchon, C., Simon, G., Fritz, H., Green, A., Renaud, F., Thomas, F. & Gauthier-Clerc, M. 2009. The potential distance of highly pathogenic avian influenza dispersal by Mallard, Teal and Pochard. Ecohealth 6 : 449-457.
● Calenge, C., Guillemain, M., Gauthier-Clerc, M. & Simon, G. A new exploratory approach to the study of the spatio-temporal distribution of ring recoveries - the example of Teal (Anas crecca) ringed in Camargue, Southern France. Journal of Ornithology, sous presse.
● Devineau, O., Guillemain, M., Johnson, A.D. & Lebreton, J-D. 2010. A comparison of green-winged teal Anas crecca survival and harvest between Europe and North America. Wildlife Biology 16 : 12-24.
• Dawson, R.D. & Clark, R.G. 2000. Effects of hatching date and egg size on growth, recruitment and adult size of lesser scaup. Condor 102 : 930-935.
• Deceuninck, B., Maillet, N., Mahéo, R., Kerautret, L. & Riols, C. 1997. Dénombrements d’Anatidés et de foulques hivernant en France - Janvier 1996. Rapport Wetlands International / Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux au Ministère de l’Environnement - Direction de la Nature et des Paysages.
• Deceuninck, B., Maillet, N., Kerautret, L., Riols, C. & Mahéo, R. 1998. Dénombrements d’Anatidés et de foulques hivernant en France - Janvier 1997. Rapport Wetlands International / Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux au Ministère de l’Environnement - Direction de la Nature et des Paysages.
• Deceuninck, B., Maillet, N., Kerautret, L., Riols, C. & Mahéo, R. 1999. Dénombrements d’Anatidés et de foulques hivernant en France à la mi-Janvier 1998. Rapport Wetlands International / Ligue pour la Protection des Oiseaux au Ministère de l’Environnement - Direction de la Nature et des Paysages.
• Delany, S., Reyes, C., Hubert, E., Pihl, S., Rees, E., Haanstra, L. & Van Strien, A. 1999. Results from the International Waterbird Census in the Wastern Palearctic and Southwest Asia 1995 and 1996. Wetlands International Publication 54. Wetlands International, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
• Fouque, C., Guillemain, M., Leray, G., Joyeux, E., Mondain-Monval, J.Y., & Schricke, V. 2005. Distribution des effectifs hivernaux de sarcelle d’hiver Anas crecca en France et tendances d’évolution sur les 16 derniers hivers. Faune sauvage 267 : 19-30.
● Fouque, C., Guillemain, M. & Schricke, V. 2009. Trends in the number of Coot Fulica atra and wildfowl Anatidae wintering in France, and their relationship with hunting activity at wetland sites. Wildfowl Special issue 2 : 42-59.
• Goss-Custard, J.D., Caldow, R.W.G., Clarke, R.T., Durell, S.E.A. le V. dit. & Sutherland, W.J. 1995. Deriving population parameters from individual variations in foraging behaviour. I. Empirical game-theory distribution model of oystercatchers Haematopus ostralegus feeding on mussels Mytilus edulis. Journal of Animal Ecology 64 : 277-289.
• Guillemain, M. 2000. Le fonctionnement du peuplement de canards des marais de l’Ouest : compromis entre compétition et vigilance dans les stratégies d’alimentation individuelles. Thèse de Doctorat, Université Paris VI.
• Guillemain, M., Caldow, R.W.G., Stillman, R.A. & Goss-Custard, J.D. 2002. Towards behaviour-based models of dabbling duck population dynamics. European Journal of Wildlife Research 48 Supplement : 1-6.
• Guillemain, M., Sadoul, N. & Simon, G. 2005. European flyway permeability and abmigration in Teal (Anas crecca), based on ringing recoveries. Ibis 147 : 688-696.
• Guillemain, M., Dehorter, O., Johnson, A.R. & Simon, G. 2005. A test of the wintering strategy hypothesis with teal (Anas crecca) ringed in the Camargue, southern France. Journal of Ornithology, 146(2) : 184-187.
• Guillemain, M., Mondain-Monval, J.Y., Johnson, A.R. & Simon, G. 2005. Long-term climatic trend and body size variation in Teal (Anas crecca). Wildlife Biology, 11 : 81-88.
• Guillemain, M., Arzel, C., Legagneux, P., Elmberg, J., Fritz, H., Lepley, M., Pin, C., Arnaud, A. & Massez, G. 2006. Risky foraging leads to cost-free mate guarding in male teal Anas crecca. Journal of Ornithology 148 : 251-254.
• Guillemain, M., Arzel, C., Mondain-Monval, J.Y., Schricke, V., Johnson, A.R. & Simon, G. 2006. Spring migration dates of Teal ringed in the Camargue, Southern France. Wildlife Biology 12(2) : 163-170.
• Guillemain, M., Devineau, O., Lebreton, J.D., Mondain-Monval, J.Y., Johnson, A.R. & Simon, G. 2007. Lead shot and Teal (Anas crecca) in the Camargue, Southern France : effects of embedded and ingested pellets on survival. Biological Conservation 137 : 567-576.
• Guillemain, M., Arzel, C., Legagneux, P., Elmberg, J., Fritz, H., Lepley, M., Pin, C., Arnaud, A. & Massez, G. 2007. Teal (Anas crecca) adjust foraging depth to predation risk : a flyway-level circum-annual approach. Animal Behaviour 73 : 845-854.
• Guillemain, M., Fritz, H., Johnson, A.R. & Simon, G. 2007. What type of lean ducks do hunters kill ? Weakest local ones rather than migrants. Wildlife Biology 13(1) : 102-107.
• Guillemain, M., Poisbleau, M., Denonfoux, L., Lepley, M., Moreau, C., Massez, G., Leray, G., Caizergues, A., Arzel, C., Rodrigues, D. & Fritz, H. 2007. Multiple tests of the effect of nasal saddles on dabbling ducks : combining field and aviary approaches. Bird Study 54 : 35-45.
• Guillemain, M., Lepley, M., Massez, G., Caizergues, A., Rodrigues, D. & Figueiredo, M. 2008. Addendum : Eurasian Teal Anas crecca nasal saddle loss in the Camargue, France. Bird Study 55 : 135-138.
• Guillemain, M., Elmberg, J., Arzel, C., Johnson, A.R. & Simon, G. 2008. The income-capital breeding dichotomy revisited : late winter body condition is related to breeding success in an income breeder. Ibis 150 : 172-176.
● Guillemain, M., Mondain-Monval, J.Y., Weissenbacher, E. & Brochet, A.L. 2008. Hunting bag and distance from the day-roost in Camargue ducks. Wildlife Biology, 14 : 379-385.
● Guillemain, M., Hearn, R., King, R., Gauthier-Clerc, M., Simon, G. & Caizergues, A. 2009. Comparing migration of Teal from two main wintering areas of Western Europe : a long term study from Essex, England, and Camargue, France. Ringing and Migration 24 : 273-276.
● Guillemain, M., Fuster, J., Lepley, M., Mouronval, J.B. & Massez, G. 2009. Winter site fidelity is higher than expected for Eurasian Teal Anas crecca in the Camargue, France Bird Study 56 : 272-275.
● Guillemain, M., Hearn, R., King, R., Gauthier-Clerc, M., Simon, G. & Caizergues, A. 2009. Differential migration of the sexes cannot be explained by the body size hypothesis in Teal. Journal of Ornithology 150 : 685-689.
● Guillemain, M., Bertout, J.M., Christensen, T.K., Pöysä, H., Väänänen, V.M., Triplet, P., Schricke, V. & Fox, A.D. 2010. How many juvenile Teal Anas crecca reach the wintering grounds ?Flyway-scale survival rate inferred from age-ratio during wing examination. Journal of Ornithology 151 : 51-60.
● Guillemain, M., Devineau, O., Brochet, A-L., Fuster, J., Fritz, H., Green, A.J. & Gauthier-Clerc, M. What is the spatial unit for a wintering Teal Anas crecca ? weekly day-roost fidelity inferred from nasal saddles in the Camargue, Southern France. Wildlife Biology, sous presse.
● Guillemain, M., Devineau, O., Gauthier-Clerc, M., Hearn, R., King, R., Simon, G. & Grantham, M. Changes in ring recovery rates over the last 50 years : shall we continue to ring ducks ? Journal of Ornithology, sous presse.
● Guillemain, M., Elmberg, J., Gauthier-Clerc, M., Massez, G., Hearn, R., Champagnon, J. & Simon, G. Wintering French Mallard and Teal are heavier and in better body condition than 30 years ago : effects of a changing environment ? Ambio, sous presse.
• Lokemoen, J.T. & Sharp, D.E. 1985. Assessment of nasal marker materials and design used on dabbling ducks. Wildlife Society Bulletin 13 : 53-56.
• Mondain-Monval, J.Y. & Girard, O. 2000. Le Canard Colvert, la Sarcelle d’Hiver et autres canards de surface. Enquête nationale sur les tableaux de chasse à tir saison 1998-1999. Cahiers Techniques - Faune Sauvage 251 : 124-139.
• Monval, J.Y. & Pirot, J.Y. 1989. Results of the IWRB International Waterfowl Census 1967-1986. IWRB Spec. Publ. 8, Slimbridge, UK.
• Pettifor, R.A., Caldow, R.W.G., Rowcliffe, J.M., Goss-Custard, J.D., Black, J.M., Hodder, K.H., Houston, A.I., Lang, A. & Webb, J. 2000. Spacially explicit, individual-based, behavioural models of the annual cycle of two migratory goose populations. Journal of Applied Ecology 37 (Suppl. 1) : 103-135.
• Pradel, R., Rioux, N., Tamisier, A. & Lebreton, J.D. 1997. Individual turnover among wintering Teal in Camargue : a mark-recapture study. Journal of Wildlife Management 61 : 816-821.
• Rodrigues, D., Fabiao, A. & Figueiredo, M.E.M.A. 2000. Monthly survival rates of a European resident mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) population during the shooting season. 2nd North American duck symposium, Saskatoon, Canada, 11-15 October 2000.
• Scott, D.A. & Rose, P.M. 1996. Atlas of Anatidae populations in Africa and Western Eurasia. Wetlands International Publ. 41, Wageningen, The Netherlands.
Literature on Teal
Last updated June 7th 2010
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Reported morbidity for esophageal dilation ranges from experienced our tadalafil only perforation using a Maloney dilator in the absence of fluoroscopy.
PDieplaoemeut of the uvula to the sound side is accounted for by the; major to the sphenopalatine gangiion, from which the de pMeading palatine branches proceed, only contract the muscles of the Begnrding the deviation of the tongue, we refer to what we have dy said wliile treating of apoplexy, as this symptom is of more j Ham chapter we have given a detailed with explanation of why the reflex I iBotion should be impossible in complete peripheml palsy of the facial, t jtroemlly becomes somewhat blunted, probably in consequence of ritive disorder of the region supplied by the affected nerve. Among the enemies there credulously unfounded tales; but who are neither obstinate in error, nor deaf to conviction; neither unc in an did nor illiberal: unfortunately The disease, if it may be called such, is slight and transitoiy. We have all conceded that the one thing to be dosage accomplished to get rid of this appalling loss of life is to get rid of the source of these preventable diseases, and we can get rid of the source of these diseases by putting in sanitary closets.
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The maternal office of suckling is always attended scarcely felt in other situations, and the suppression of the milk, on its last, indeed, sometimes attends the period of suckling, though the milk continues to flow, from causes buy that cannot be ascertained. We need a new legal definition of the practice of medicine: for.
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After a thorough, professional tooth cleaning, you know that your teeth look brighter and feel fresher. But tooth cleaning isn't just about appearances. It's the primary means of preventing and treating periodontal (gum) disease. Many studies have demonstrated a possible link between periodontal health and overall (systemic) health — which means regular tooth cleaning may benefit not just your mouth, but your whole body.
Why do teeth need special cleaning? Over time, dental plaque (a naturally occurring bacterial biofilm) and stains build up on tooth surfaces. Dental calculus (also called tartar), a harder deposit, can then form both above and below the gum line. A thorough dental cleaning removes these substances from the teeth, and helps keep disease-causing bacteria from proliferating.
Tooth cleaning is usually accomplished by the non-surgical technique of scaling, sometimes called “root debridement.” It's typically a relatively painless procedure in which small dental instruments are used to physically remove deposits from the surfaces of teeth. At one time, scaling was performed entirely with manual tools. But in the last several decades, the ultrasonic scaler has changed all that.
What Is An Ultrasonic Scaler?
There are different types of ultrasonic scalers, but all of them work in a similar fashion: electromagnetic forces in the unit's hand-held “wand” cause its tiny tip to vibrate rapidly. These vibrations, which occur at a rate faster than the speed of sound, effectively blast away plaque, calculus and stains from the tooth surfaces.
A small stream of water and/or antibacterial mouthwash, which emerges near the tip of the scaler, is called lavage. Lavage is used to cool the ultrasonic scaler's tip and flush away debris from the area being treated. The vibrating tip causes some of the water to break into millions of tiny bubbles, an effect called cavitation. This ruptures the walls of bacterial cells and helps create an environment that's less hospitable to harmful bacteria.
Ultrasonic Scaling vs. Hand Scaling
Studies show that a thorough ultrasonic cleaning takes about one-third less time as compared to hand scaling — which means you need less time in the chair. Many patients prefer ultrasonics to other types of scaling, possibly because it requires the clinician to use less force than a hand scaler to get the same effect. In ultrasonic scaling, only the tip of the tool touches the tooth surface, and only for a short time.
It's also possible to remove deposits of plaque and tartar from under the gum line by using an extremely small tip on an ultrasonic unit, which can cause less discomfort and result in a deeper and better cleaning. Sometimes an ultrasonic scaler is used first, and then any stubborn areas are scaled by hand.
The Experience of Ultrasonic Scaling
Anyone who has a substantial buildup of tartar or is prone to gum disease can benefit from ultrasonic scaling. It can also help to remove stains from coffee and cigarettes, for example. Yet, for all its power, most people experience little or no discomfort during the procedure.
If you have very sensitive teeth, it may be possible to alleviate some discomfort by using slimmer tips on the scaler. Alternatively, a topical anesthetic may be applied, or conscious sedation can be administered. The power range, the flow of lavage water and the frequency of tip vibration may also be adjusted for increased comfort.
Special tips are also available to clean composite or porcelain tooth restorations, titanium implants, or areas of demineralization (enamel loss) on your teeth. If you have a cardiac pacemaker, be sure to alert all dental professionals/personnel before ultrasonic scaling treatment, so precautions can be taken.
Dental Cleanings Using Ultrasonic Scalers Rapidly changing technology has revolutionized periodontal therapy with the integration of power scaling techniques resulting in improved clinical outcomes, patient comfort, and reduced time and physical demands on clinicians... Read Article
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LAVA Iris 450 COLOUR with 4.5-inch display, dual-core processor, Android 4.2 Jelly Bean launching soon in India
LAVA recently launched the second smartphone under its Iris Pro series, the LAVA Iris Pro 20. Now the Indian manufacturer is prepping to launch a new budget-friendly smartphone soon. Dubbed as LAVA Iris 450 COLOUR, the smartphone is found listed on company's official website. As the name suggests, the Iris 450 COLOUR comes in array of colours including Blue, Tan Brown, Raspberry Pink, Ivory White and Pro Black.
11:19 PM / by Aman Banka
On the specifications front, LAVA Iris 450 COLOUR comes with a 4.5-inch FWVGA IPS display, 1.3GHz dual-core processor, 512MB RAM and Android 4.2 Jelly Bean. The Iris 450 COLOUR is 10.5mm thick and weighs 136 grams and has dual-SIM support (WCDMA+GSM) with dual Standby feature.
Other specifications include a 5MP rear camera with LED flash, 0.3MP (VGA) front facing camera, 4GB internal memory with expandable up to 32GB using microSD card and 1,800 mAh battery. Connectivity series include Bluetooth 4.0, WiFi 802.11 b/g/n, USB 2.0, 3G and GPS.
There is no word on pricing or availability details yet. But the smartphone is expected to get launched in the coming weeks.
LAVA is also getting ready to launch a new Android smartphone in India dubbed as LAVA Iris 406Q. The smartphone is also listed on company's official website. The specifications of Iris 406Q is not yet revealed, but it will come with dual-SIM support, front snapper and 5MP rear snapper with LED flash.
India LAVA LAVA Iris 406Q LAVA Iris 450 COLOUR News
Aman Banka
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« Improving SOFIA
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Orion manager warns he’s “challenged” to make December 2017 launch
By Jeff Foust on 2014 August 13 at 11:13 am ET
In two separate public appearances last week, the manager of NASA’s Orion spacecraft warned that he is “challenged” to keep Orion on track for the first Space Launch System (SLS) mission in late 2017.
Mark Geyer spoke at the Mars Society’s annual conference in Houston on Saturday, one day after SLS program manager Todd May said his program had several months of schedule slack on its critical path to Exploration Mission 1 (EM-1) inaugural launch. Asked about how much slack he had on Orion towards EM-1, Geyer was more cautionary. “We’re going to be challenged to make December ’17,” he said. “By the end of this fall, we’ll be able to define that” date after working through preliminary design reviews for the program.
Geyer said the challenges were rooted in two key issues. One was the decision to incorporate a flight test, designated EFT-1, slated for launch on a Delta IV Heavy this December without adding funding to the overall program. “That did affect my ability to start EM-1 as early as I wanted to,” he said. The other was bringing the European Space Agency into the program as the supplier of the Orion service module. “They’re doing a terrific job, but they had some challenges,” he said.
“We felt it was more important to build a flight unit and fly it because we’re going to learn so much about what the risks are,” he added about the decision to do the EFT-1 mission. “To us, it was worth the potential impact on EM-1.”
Earlier last week, Geyer offered similar warnings about the Orion schedule at the AIAA Space 2014 conference in San Diego. “We’re struggling to make December 2017, and I have a lot of challenges to make that date,” Geyer told Space News. He cited potential schedule issues with ESA’s service module as a key factor in that overall schedule challenge.
Other reports have suggested a delay—perhaps as much as nine months—is already in the works for EM-1. An article last month by NASASpaceFlight.com, citing an internal NASA document, claimed the schedule for EM-1 had slipped to September 2018. However, the same document also had EM-2 moved up from 2021 to the very end of 2020: December 31.
133 comments to Orion manager warns he’s “challenged” to make December 2017 launch
August 13, 2014 at 12:07 pm · Reply
There has already been NASA publications that have a 2018 launch date listed. Stop with the games.
August 13, 2014 at 1:37 pm · Reply
Nothing wrong with a challenging job. If your team is working one shift, schedule two, if two the go around the clock. This is no time to back off. This is America’s next spaceraft we are talking about.
“If your team is working one shift, schedule two, if two the go around the clock. This is no time to back off.”
And, to the taxpayers, get out your wallets!! This is no time to keep your money!!
Over cost, behind schedule, underperforming … this is America’s next spacecraft we’re talking about.
Coastal Ron
amightywind said:
“This is America’s next spaceraft we are talking about.”
No, that would be the SpaceX Dragon V2, which is forecasted to flying it’s first flight with crew in 2015. That is a full 5-6 years before the Orion is scheduled to fly with crew.
And with an Orion unmanned flight date of 2018 being forecasted, after the SpaceX Dragon “America’s Next Spacecraft” would be the Boeing CST-100 and Sierra Nevada Dream Chaser, depending on funding.
The Orion is “America’s Furthest Behind Spacecraft”…
Makmesbury
The Orion for EM-2 will be different – structure, heat shield etc from EM-1 and EFT-1
It has to be – fully loaded with astronauts, life support systems etc it is 20+% overweight for the parachutes. This will all be fixed after EM-1, we are told.
So, astronauts will be sent up on the first flight of a very different configuration, full of new systems.
This is not a good idea. There is already a move within NASA to delay EM-1 until everything is fixed – this may be what is surfacing here.
Ben Russell-Gough
August 15, 2014 at 11:52 am · Reply
I’ve long argued for an EFT-2 proving flight of the actual all-up Orion in LEO and maybe even an EFT-3 if NASA assesses the risks to require EFT-2 to be uncrewed. The problem? It will cost extra $$$ and not just for the extra CMs and ESMs. As there are insufficient SSMEs and RSRM-Vs for two extra SLS units for the test phase, some alternate launch vehicle will be required. This will probably Delta-IVH (expensive) or Atlas-VH (politically iffy with all the furore around RD-180 at the moment).
“… this is America’s next spacecraft we’re talking about.”
One (or more) of the Comercial Crew vehicles will fly manned before EM-1.
Where will they fly to? Putin’s space station? Commercial Crew’s only mission is evaporating before our eyes. What’s the follow on? There is none. Let’s just hope the mission comes to an orderly end and Putin doesn’t strand our astronauts.
“Where will they fly to?”
To ISS
“Putin’s space station?”
Russia has a minority stake in ISS. The lions share of it is a US station.
August 14, 2014 at 7:22 am · Reply
Hmm. Russian cosmonauts occupy 3 of the 6 occupant positions. They are the only country left that can shuttle astronauts from the ground. They are launching new modules to attach to their existing ones. It flies in a useless orbit convenient only for them. Are you still in denial?
They are the only country left that can shuttle astronauts from the ground.
Until next year.
Their lastest module is years behind schedule and according to the russian web site it is suffering another setback.
Pathfinder_01
The ISS in theory has could have an crew of 7 but the limitation of Soyuz makes it 6. An Typical crew is 2 Russian and 4 NASA/ESA crew not 3 out of 6. One of the 4 is usually from ESA or Japan. When the commercial crew vehicles come online then the Russians plan to add an crew.
Actually the limitation isn’t Soyuz per se, but the lifeboat requirement itself. Drop that, and they could probably triple productivity on the station.
Three Russians, two Americans, and one “international”, which rotates among ESA, Japan, and Canada.
Jim Nobles
amightywind, it is SLS and Orion that are in real danger of evaporating. They cost way too much for what they are and it’s looking like they could be replaced with better systems for far less money. Sooner or later the people who run our country are going to take a serious look at the numbers and say, “Okay, we can get the same capabilities or better from the private sector for far less money. It’s time to shut this gravy-train down.” The politicians whose pork got cut will try to fight it, of course, but when it is truly over it will be over.
I don’t believe the Congress or Senate is likely to ever again vote to fund a major return to the Moon program or a mission to Mars program. In the real world there is simply no motivation for them to do so.
To me it looks like the real future of human space consists of Commercial with the space cadets at NASA funneling what resources they can into the private sector in areas where it would do the most good. To put it another way, I think most serious sober space cadets now realize that no government on Earth is going to fund the human expansion into space. We will have to do it. We being the private sector. The regular people. And the best method the ‘we’ have for allocating resources and moving them around is what we call ‘commercial’.
So, minus much detail, that’s what I think the future is going to be…
Andrew Swallow
Time for a Bigelow LEO spacestation. The Commercial Crew spacecraft can fly to that.
Lovely. I’d support it. It is 2014, there are no plans for it.
Reality Bits
The company’s business case hinges on the availability of domestic, commercially available launch and crew vehicles. Bigelow plans to buy these on margin from the winner of NASA’s commercial crew program, under which the agency is nurturing development of vehicles to ferry crews to and from the space station.
http://www.spacenews.com/article/civil-space/41194bigelow-aerospace-begins-hiring-round-by-adding-former-astronauts-ham-zamka
And CCtCap is scheduled to be awarded in Aug-Sep of 2014 …
Damn! Mr. Bigelow seems to be completely unperturbed by the potential of a RD-180 non-availability scenario. He doesn’t seem to be concerned that the Atlas 5 might go away. I’m glad to see this.
The Space News article also says, “NASA expects to select two concepts for full-scale development, including an initial paid crew flight, around the end of September.” which I’m glad to hear as I suspect that if NASA expected to get cut down to one they would be dropping hints about that.
Well, Bigelow certainly seems to remain bullish on the future of American commercial human space flight. That’s encouraging.
Bigelow did say he wanted domestic producers, I would imagine he was never comfortable with the russian engines.
Dick Eagleson
They’ll fly to and from one or more twin-BA330 Bigelow LEO space stations. Shortly after the unveiling ot the Dragon V2, Bob Bigelow announced he was shifting out of Park and into Drive with the goal of putting up a first manned LEO station in 2017. He intends to rotate 12-person crews four to six times a year. That level of crew launch and resupply business for even a single station would make ISS a minor sideshow.
But I imagine you regard Bigelow as even more mythical than you do SpaceX. SpaceX and Bigelow are pipedreams. SLS and Orion are real. Right.
Frank Glover
Where is Orion going?
An asteroid? Even you don’t favor that.
The Moon? Lunar orbit again is nice in a ‘better than nothing’ sort of way, but definitely not to the surface…
To do much else (especially Mars) requires yet more hardware that’s not even in development.
Where is Commercial Crew going?
ISS exists (like it or not). Bigelow products are well into development.
The other was bringing the European Space Agency into the program as the supplier of the Orion service module. “They’re doing a terrific job, but they had some challenges,” he said.”
Mr. Geyer is either being disingenuous or misleading about the service module and ESA.
If ESA hadn’t stepped up to fund the construction of the Service Module he (i.e. NASA) would have had to fund the service module out of the existing Orion budget – which means if he thinks he was set back by the EM-1 test, think of how much further his schedule would have been pushed back if he had to fund the service module too.
And per info on the NASASpaceFlight site ESA never committed to the 2017 date, as they told NASA it was not doable within the financial constraints ESA and NASA had.
In some ways the Orion is the polar opposite of the SLS, meaning the SLS is overpowered for any current needs whereas the Orion is “underpowered” for any real human exploration missions. However they both share the same financial traits, which is that they are far too expensive and unaffordable for NASA.
The Bush/Griffin plan was for the US to develop all core components of Constellation because of our bad ISS experience with other nations and schedule slip. ESA’s performance, or lack thereof, on Orion hangs around the necks of Obama and Bolden.
“The Bush/Griffin plan was for the US to develop all core components of Constellation because of our bad ISS experience with other nations and schedule slip”
By the end Constellation was slipping a month per month.
Incidentally ESA has a far better track record than NASA in actually delivering. This is helped by the fact that the stupid stuff gets killed much earlier in their process.
“ESA’s performance, or lack thereof, on Orion hangs around the necks of Obama and Bolden.”
Republican’s in Congress control the budget for Orion more than Obama or Bolden, and since NASA couldn’t build the Service Module itself within the timeframe Congress wanted (see the inaneness of Congress here) NASA had to ask ESA to build the Service Module for them.
And if you have to have a Service Module for a short-duration spacecraft (which is pretty useless by itself) then the ESA ATV platform is a proven system to build it on, so NASA is lucky to have their experience.
But all of this continues to highlight the lack of any real future for the Orion or the SLS, since there is not enough money to build them, and certainly not enough money from Republicans in Congress to use either of them.
The more I hear about this, the more I think it is the wiser heads in NASA want to put back EM-1 until they can fly an all-up vehicle – one that is identical to the one for the first manned mission (EM-2).
It would indeed be wise and the best use of limited resources but, as always, politics (obsessed as it is with gestures and appearances) may intervene.
Dark Blue Nine
Todd May on SLS Progress: Blah, blah, blah, blah , blah
Mark Geyer on Orion Progress: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah
Bolden on Obama’s commitment to NASA HSF: Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah..
Augustine III Committee to the new President: SLS and Orion/MPCV are unaffordable and can never meet any mission requirement. For details, see Augustine II Committee report on Constellation Program
New President: I’m cancelling SLS and Orion
James wrote:
New Congress: We’re replacing SLS and Orion with another government porkfest with an even more boring name. It will go to Mars! Europa! Vulcan! Soon! Cheap! Without a lot of money! Would we lie to you?!
Yes! Love repeating history! Such a fun game to play!
For the record, here’s what we’ve spent on Orion MPCV through 2014. All figures are prior-year actuals or enacted from NASA’s annual budget request:
Fiscal Millions of
Year Dollars
It’s hard to justify the dismal performance on the project to date with this kind of budget. Nearly $10 billion and eight years has blown on what is supposed to be America’s flagship human spacecraft. Yet Orion MPCV is grossly overweight, bedeviled by testing failures, hampered by partner performance, and slipping schedule.
And here’s what we’re projected to spend on Orion MPCV through the first crewed flight (EM-2), assuming it goes off in 2021. All figures are estimates from NASA’s 2015 budget request, except for FY 2020-2021, which are flat-line projections from FY 2019:
Total 7768.5
So despite the project’s lousy performance to date, we’re planning to flush at least another $8 billion down the Orion MPCV drain before it actually does what it’s supposed to do — fly astronauts. Over $17 billion for an oversized 1960s-era capsule before the first astronaut flies on it. (And that assumes that the project miraculously solves all of its current issues and experiences no more schedule slips.)
This is nuts. Terminate Orion MPCV.
That 17 billion would have paid for 120 launches of Falcon 9 and dragon V2. We could have put 840 astronauts into space. Instead we got 17 billion in vaporware.
It looks like Bolden’s performance has been abysmal. It is clearly evident from your figures from 2009 on. It looks like restructuring is in order. I have wondered why Obama is so tolerant of the incompetence he is surrounded with. It is no serving him well.
“It looks like Bolden’s performance has been abysmal. It is clearly evident from your figures from 2009 on.”
Comedy is not your strong suit. Nor apparently is interpretation of facts.
Per the recent GAO report on selected large-scale projects at NASA, average launch delay for non-JWST projects has been reduced from 11 months to 3 months under Bolden, and development and cost growth has been reduced from 12% to 3%. From a management perspective, which is what the NASA Administrator is supposed to be doing, Bolden has been doing an exceptional job compared to his predecessor.
As to the MPCV, it was Congress that told NASA to see if Michael Griffin’s “Apollo on steroids” design could waste another $8B in the fruitless attempt to create something useful. And so far the results are as expected.
For those of us that truly want to see human exploration beyond LEO again within our lifetime, we weep at the waste of time and money for the disposable & cramped MPCV when we should working on 21st century designs like the reusable Nautilus-X.
The sudden ramp in funding and the chaos introduced into the Constellation project and 2009 are correlated, that is to those of us who are not blindly political.
“The sudden ramp in funding and the chaos introduced into the Constellation project…”
The Constellation program was evaluated based on where Michael Griffin had taken it, which was grossly over budget and slipping further behind schedule every year. And you think such behavior should be rewarded?
Fortunately just about every Republican in the House that had major NASA facilities agreed that the Constellation program should be cancelled. Spin that any way you want but it still comes out the same – it was a bipartisan decision to cancel it.
As to Bolden vs Griffin, it’s pretty obvious that Bolden has been the better manager of the people’s money on programs, and that too is just a fact. Sorry.
“…that is to those of us who are not blindly political.”
If one does not open their eyes it’s impossible to determine if they are blind or not…
Nothing to be sorry about, lol. windy is just being his usual clueless/disingenuous/purposely obtuse self. take your pick.
How idiotic. Bolden’s first NASA budget was FY 2011, not FY 2009. Duh…
“It looks like restructuring is in order.”
A restructuring back to FY 2006-8 budget levels would be great. MPCV’s annual budget should be whacked by several hundred million as a wake-up call.
“It is no serving him well.”
And your grammar isn’t serving you well, either.
For reference, for $17B we could
1) man rate Delta 4
2) Restart F1A
3) fund all the CC vehicles.
3) fund giving all of them beyond LEO capability – a separate hab, heat shield etc.
4) fixed price on two of the proposed alternatives to SLS
We would be up to our armpits in space vehicles…
As long as Space X / commercial space has the lead w NASA in consultant/advisor role…..
This program started in 2005 and got over 10 billion in funding. Freaking unbelievable.
Very mild topic drift, but it’s worth your time to read this blog article from the Houston Press :
“Space Flight: Increasingly, Gifted Individuals are Opting for the Private Sector Over NASA”
The best article I’ve read detailing the difference in cultures between OldSpace and NewSpace.
Hoffman took him up on the offer, flying out to Los Angeles in the spring for a private tour. Driving up to the SpaceX headquarters, she was struck by how unassuming it was, how small compared to NASA, how plain on the outside and rather like a warehouse.
As she walked through the complex, she was also surprised to find open work areas where NASA would have had endless hallways, offices and desks. Hoffman described SpaceX as resembling a giant workshop, a hive of activity in which employees stood working on nitty-gritty mechanical and electrical engineering. Everything in the shop was bound for space or was related to space. No one sat around talking to friends in the morning, “another level from what you see at NASA,” she said. “They’re very purpose-driven. It looked like every project was getting the attention it deserved.”
Seeing SpaceX in production forced Hoffman to acknowledge NASA might not be the best fit for her. The tour reminded her of the many mentors who had gone into the commercial sector of the space industry in search of better pay and more say in the direction their employers take. She thought back to the attrition she saw firsthand at Johnson Space Center and how understaffed divisions struggled to maintain operations.
‘Sonja Alexander/JSC said (in response to the migration to commercial space, from NASA). Collaboration has been the NASA business model since the agency was created.”
True. And in the 60’s and 70’s, NASA’s role in that collaboration was that of leader, do’er, visionary…etc. A great role to attract young energetic talent.
However, today, NASA’s role in that Collaboration is follower, broker, funding source. Not a great role if one wishes to attract young talent.
NASA is kidding it self if it thinks its’ going to be a thriving Agency in the next 50 years, like it was for much of the first 30 years of it’s existence.
Thanks for the link. It stated a lot of what really needs to be said about Congress and how it moves NASA in all the wrong ways.
DougSpace
Jim Nobles wrote: “Sooner or later the people who run our country are going to take a serious look at the numbers and say, “Okay, we can get the same capabilities or better from the private sector for far less money”.
To what extent would the successful launch of the Falcon Heavy in early to mid-2015 be that turning point? And, to what extent is the FH actually capable of replacing the SLS considering 53 tonnes to LEO, the potential of “buddy tanking” = a second FH topping off the first FH, yet FH not having a cryogenic upper stage?
DougSpace said:
“To what extent would the successful launch of the Falcon Heavy in early to mid-2015 be that turning point? And, to what extent is the FH actually capable of replacing the SLS considering 53 tonnes to LEO…”
Unless a real customer for the SLS is found (the MPCV does not count because it is useless by itself), there is no need for the SLS at all. So from that perspective ANY launcher replaces the SLS, no matter how big or small.
We have to keep in mind that having a launch capability does not equal having a need. The predecessor to the SLS, the Ares V, was being designed for a specific stack of hardware to be lifted, but when Constellation was cancelled and Congress de-rated the Ares V to the SLS there was no defined or known need for sending that much mass to space at one time. And so far Congress has refused to fund any use for the SLS.
So since the SLS was being built as a jobs program, and not for known customer needs, the Falcon Heavy doesn’t really offer an alternative per se (i.e. there are no funded payloads bigger than 20mt), just a reminder of how pork politics can waste taxpayer money.
I do not believe it will be the Falcon Heavy. All it represents is a bigger rocket. Big rockets are not a real bell weather on proof of competence, in my opinion. The first human crewed flight will be the one. If SpaceX can launch people, anything else would be considered doable. With the raptor proceeding congressional members will have to acknowledge capability for whatever endervor they pursue.
yeah, but i think sls/orion funding will just evaporate. it won’t be redirected to new space projects. congress porkers would get nothing out of that.
If you expect SLS/Orion’s funding to be cut get new programs started so the committee members can transfer the money within NASA’s budget. The rest of Congress will want to transfer the money to their own pet agency.
Charles Lurio just tweeted that that the CCtCap award is likely on 22 or 29 Aug and that it will be “probably two “full” awards, no “half;” depending on $ avail.”
In a situation like that who is probably going to take it?
90% probable it’s Boeing and SpaceX, IMO.
Michael Kent said:
Insider scuttlebutt says otherwise. More like SpaceX and Sierra Nevada, and both fully funded.
I have no doubt that Boeing could build a safe vehicle, but the CST-100 doesn’t offer anything the Dragon does, and it actually has less capabilities and costs more. So from that standpoint it makes sense that NASA would prefer to have as a second vehicle one that provides something the other two can’t provide, and that is cross-range ability and low g-force landings. Only the Dream Chaser can do that, so if NASA does choose it you’ll know why.
Plus, if you look at the progress of all three teams, Boeing is the furthest behind in actual vehicle building and testing. They were cited in the CCiCap Selection Statement for providing the least amount of internal funding, so Boeing is not acting like they really want this program – certainly not as much as Sierra Nevada and SpaceX want it.
Hopefully we’ll know soon.
And it would look like NASA is supporting an international angle with the support Dream Chaser is getting from Europe. I always thought NASA would prefer the idea of a small shuttle for their astronauts. Dragon as the lifeboat and for supporting bigelow.
Do you have a source for that scuttlebutt? That’s going to set up one heckuva fight in Congress.
“the CST-100 doesn’t offer anything the Dragon does [not, I assume]”
1) Orbital reboost of ISS. 2) More importantly, it offers a much lower-risk solution.
Boeing makes its schedules. Even on large, complex programs they are usually no more than a few months behind on schedules laid out years before.
SpaceX does not. In 2005 SpaceX was saying Falcon 9 would fly EELV-class missions in 2007. Falcon 9 didn’t fly at all until 2010 and didn’t fly a payload fairing until 2013. Orbcomm OG2 flew four years late. Falcon Heavy was originally scheduled for 2012, then 2013, then 2014, and now mid-2015. The Dragon in-flight abort test is running almost a year behind schedule.
NASA can’t afford delays on Commercial Crew. Soyuz has a two-year lead time. If SpaceX pulls its usual “we’ll fly next year” and then has multi-year slips, as they did for Falcon 1, Falcon 9, Dragon, and Falcon Heavy, American astronauts are grounded for the duration, putting the Western side of the station in jeopardy.
And then there’s Sierra Nevada. Not only have they never built a manned spacecraft before, they’ve built almost no spacecraft whatsoever. Their most complex spacecraft design is the Orbcomm OG-2 spacecraft which only recently flew, and even those satellites used Boeing communications payloads. They are by far the smallest company in the competition, with the fewest financial and technical resources, set up to do by far the most complex design of the three, starting from several years behind Boeing and SpaceX.
I suppose it’s possible NASA could choose Sierra Nevada — it wouldn’t be the first time they’ve destroyed a program choosing the highest-risk contractor to do a job (Orion, Ares, X-33) — but it seems a real stretch.
“Boeing is the furthest behind in actual vehicle building and testing.”
They are the furthest along in the CCiCap contract. Per the latest schedule, Boeing is completing its CDR this month. The purpose of CCiCap was to advance the commercial crew vehicles to CDR. Boeing is doing this. SpaceX is months behind Boeing in this activity, and Sierra Nevada isn’t doing it at all.
The only hardware Sierra Nevada has demontrated is their Engineering Test Article used to test their landing system. It flew one time, skidded off the runway, rolled over, and was destroyed. Boeing demonstrated their landing system years ago. SpaceX has yet to do so, planning for their DragonFly tests at some point in the indefinite future.
Boeing has demonstrated their structure, their landing system, their abort engines, their avionics, their mission control, and their software. They’ve taken all of that and their launch pad mods through CDR. Sierra Nevada has demonstrated almost none of that. They haven’t even discussed pad requirements with ULA yet, let along worked the design.
SpaceX has much of that down through the cargo Dragon, but the Dragon 2 changes are as of yet untested. The Dragon 2 revealed in May was the Interior Structural Qualification Article, not the manned or even the unmanned orbital test article as was widely assumed. Since SpaceX has not been through CDR yet, any flight hardware built at this time would be built at risk and likely require substantial re-work before it can fly. That’s been their past MO (Falcon 9 pad test, COTS 2/3 Dragon, etc.).
It may not look like it to the fanboys, but to an aerospace engineer, Boeing is close to, if not beyond, SpaceX in the development cycle (it depends on how much rework SpaceX gets out of CDR and testing). And they are way, way, beyond Sierra Nevada.
This program is too important to leave to new-hires. If it fails, not only commercial manned space but also the ISS goes with it. That would leave the SLS/Orion as the only manned space program in the Western world. (Shudder.)
Both SpaceX and SNC have production facilities in which CCDev vehicles are actually being produced. SpaceX has its own facility and SNC has contracted for theirs, but composites are being laid up and metal is being bent and machined. Boeing, despite probably having more idle production space corporate-wide than SpaceX and SNC have active production space combined, has elected to rent a surplus building at KSC as one of its endless exercises in stroking local politicos. Nothing is yet installed there, nor will there ever be unless Boeing gets one of the CCtCap contracts. Having no factory at this late date doesn’t strike me as much of an indication of leadership, temporal or otherwise. It smacks of cheeseparing.
A number of your other assertions seem at least as iffy. For one, the Dream Chaser ETA was not “destroyed” in its landing mishap. It has been repaired and is set to make more drop tests later this year.
The slippage of the Falcon Heavy’s schedule has been mostly due to: (1) the decision to upgrade its base to the Falcon 9v1.1 core rather than the originally intended Falcon 9 v1.0 core, and (2) the decision to go with a crossfeed system between the propellant tankage of the center and side cores of the already-upgraded FH. The original conception of the FH could likely have been delivered by now, but the one that actually emerges in 2015 will be, in essence, a 3rd-generation version.
As has also been widely noted, SpaceX’s delays are hardly exceptional in the aerospace industry. The worst of them pale in comparison to the decade-plus delays in the F-35 project, for example, or the serial stumbling that accompanied the development of the 787. Boeing may be old, but it is far from always reliable. The “old pros” screw up at least as much as the brash upstarts. On the evidence to-date, more I’d say.
D.E. wrote:
“As has also been widely noted, SpaceX’s delays are hardly exceptional in the aerospace industry.”
Remind me again … How much do COTS and Commercial crew delays cost the American taxpayer versus the cost of delays for cost plus SLS/MPCV?
“Do you have a source for that scuttlebutt?”
I’m not at liberty to say, but they have had inside information before.
“That’s going to set up one heckuva fight in Congress.”
Oh no doubt Boeing supporters will be disappointed, but who specifically in Congress is going to raise a stink over this? And what are they going to do, change the negotiated appropriations bill?
I think the same thing is happen as did with the CCiCap awards where ATK lost, which is that NASA will come out with a Selection Statement that will highlight the logic of the choices they made, and that will grudgingly satisfy the critics.
No doubt, Boeing can build a vehicle that works. But I think what we’ll see is that they are now perceived to be much further from their first flight than SpaceX is, and that is really who they are competing with for the 1st position in Commercial Crew – the two capsules (i.e. low risk). Not only that SpaceX will be significantly less expensive, which is a factor too.
So if SpaceX wins the 1st position, then the 2nd one boils down to this – does NASA want the same capabilities in the 2nd vehicle, or would they want to take a chance on getting capabilities that are really desirable like low entry and landing g-forces and cross-range capability? I think that’s how they look at it, and that’s why Boeing loses.
“And then there’s Sierra Nevada. Not only have they never built a manned spacecraft before, they’ve built almost no spacecraft whatsoever.”
You are forgetting that Sierra Nevada contracted with Lockheed Martin to build their structural components for the Dream Chaser, and they have already demonstrated part of their flight envelope. They have been doing a good job doing risk reduction.
“It [Dream Chaser] flew one time, skidded off the runway, rolled over, and was destroyed.”
Well that’s just plain false. The vehicle was damaged slightly, but it has been repaired and will be flying again. Where do you get the idea that it was “destroyed”?
“This program is too important to leave to new-hires.”
Oh now you are being just downright condescending. When was the last time Boeing built a space vehicle? And are those same employees working on the CST-100? No, of course not. So your statement applies to Boeing just as it does to others.
And just a note – SpaceX is currently the only company in the running that has recent expertise in building human-rated/NASA-approved spacecraft. But quite honestly that really doesn’t matter, since our aerospace industry is so mature now that new entrants can hire the relevant experience they need. We’re not in the 60’s anymore, which means companies like Sierra Nevada can find what they need on the open market – and they apparently have done pretty well using that strategy.
The latest dates I’m hearing are either the 22nd or the 29th for the announcement.
“Oh no doubt Boeing supporters will be disappointed, but who specifically in Congress is going to raise a stink over this?”
In this instance a large portion of the Congress.
There wouldn’t even be a Commercial Crew program without Boeing. The House zeroed funding for it in 2010 until Boeing flew a team to Washington to brief House staffers on its plans for Commercial Crew. Most in Washington considered the whole idea of commercial manned space to be ridiculous until Boeing put its name on it.
More recently, the movement to make safety the prime criterion for the commercial crew award was a marker laid down to back Boeing’s bid. It is strongly felt in some circles (remember the hobby-rocket comments?) that manned space is too difficult for private enterprise. Only NASA, it is felt, and maybe Boeing could even do the job.
The effort to force a downselect to a single provider and the effort to force TINA compliance onto the Commercial Crew program should be seen in similar light.
I don’t agree with that sentiment — I think SpaceX can accomplish the task, just not on time — but that sentiment is strong in large segments of our government.
“the two capsules (i.e. low risk).”
It’s not just technical risk. It’s programmatic risk. Can the contractor do the job, reliably, and on time?
“You are forgetting that Sierra Nevada contracted with Lockheed Martin to build their structural components for the Dream Chaser”
Lockheed has never built a manned spacecraft before either. And judging by its progress on Orion, I’m not feeling a whole lot of confidence in that decision.
“They [Sierra Nevada] have been doing a good job doing risk reduction.”
Indeed they have. That’s where they’re at right now — ending risk reduction and beginning detail design. They just recently finished the trade study for their main engine. That’s a long ways away from where Boeing is, who just passed CDR.
“When was the last time Boeing built a space vehicle?”
The Space Shuttle orbiter, the X-37, most of the International Space Station…
“And just a note – SpaceX is currently the only company in the running that has recent expertise in building human-rated/NASA-approved spacecraft”
The cargo Dragon is not a manned vehicle. It’s an unmanned craft that has only to meet astronaut ingress requirements. Requirements, by the way, that they needed substantial help from Boeing to meet.
“Boeing makes its schedules.”
Um, the 787 was late by 3 years.
I guess that destroys that assertion, eh?
787 was a major screw-up for Boeing, that’s true. But that’s one program out of many. F/A-18 Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, C-17 Globemaster, CH-47F Chinook, AH-64 Apache Block III, JDAM, Small Diameter Bomb, WGS, TDRS, GOES, P-8 Poseidon, and KC-46 Pegasus are all on, or nearly on, schedule. That’s a far, far better track record than SpaceX or Lockheed Martin.
SpaceX could fly crew on the very next Dragon CRS flight, if NASA asked them to.
Dragon CRS does not have a life-support system, does not have internal controls, does not have a launch abort system, does not have a docking port, and doesn’t even have crew seats.
Couches and life support could be added quickly if it were important to do so. Abort, docking port and internal controls are nice to have but not absolutely necessary. You could get crew to ISS without them.
Rand Simberg is absolutely right in this instance.
You think SpaceX can design, develop, fabricate, assemble, test, certify, install, check-out, and qualify a life support system in three weeks? Really?
The cargo Dragon first flew in December 2010 and first berthed to the ISS in May 2012. A flight of the V2 Dragon in mid-2015 will have given over 4 years for the development and testing of the life support.
They could have a system that would work in that time, yes. It wouldn’t meet all of the NASA paperwork hoops, but it would do the job.
Dragon was designed to accommodate crew from the start.
The whole thing may not be ready to go but I can see no reason why it could not be done very quickly for such a short trip to ISS and back.
yes, because boeing’s performance in recent years inspires such confidence. what a great success their “dreamliner” has been! lmao
boeing is just another underperforming, over billing old space company that should be treated accordingly, i.e. given the boot.
This is untrue regardless whether Boeing are Oldspace or Newspace.
Boeing and S…NC
In some alternative reality, yes this could happen.
Oh I am sure you are part of the selecting committee. And your reasoning is based on something solid. So sorry.
Hoping for SpaceX and SNC.
It all depends how they will make their selection.
If they look at the more advanced vehicles in terms of development and the variety of technology it will be SpaceX and SNC.
If they want to ensure 2 competitors can make it then probably SNC and Boeing, since Boeing made the case they cannot develop CST-100 without government funding. SNC also has run their program very much like an old-school NASA program involving multiple companies, States.
SpaceX and SNC made the case they will go forward even without NASA funding.
SpaceX just laid off 200-400 employees (5 to 10% of total employees at SpaceX). Not exactly a sign they expect to win a government contract.
I think all the launch problems were getting sorted out with cutting the company deadwood. The performance review was right at the end of all those problems, there was also talk of money crunch. The court will probaly shine a little light on it.
It is what SpaceX wants of course to justify it, on deadwood. But the company is cutting 5% to 10% of its entire manpower because they are deadwood? Seems a little extreme to me.
Now, SpaceX has asked its employees to work hours and days overtime for years which may be okay for exempt employees but not for hourly employees. By law.
spacex actually is adding more jobs than they’re cutting. read the news.
Josh, I have supported SpaceX since when nobody knew about them and in many more ways that you can possibly imagine. Yet if they break the law they have to be held accountable. Otherwise they have no say and high-ground in how OldSpace makes their business. And the ULA blockbuy suddenly becomes moot.
If I were an investor I would be very very (did I say very?) unhappy if my investment were at risk for such reasons as not paying their employees.
As to the number of hires vs lay-offs I think you would be surprised how it works at SpaceX.
Nevertheless, a company expecting a government contract that will increase their production does not cut their manpower. Hiring is not everything. Training eats up a large share of your investment in human resources. And the human resources are not infinite. If you expect training to be expedited then it means overtime which in turns means paying your employees.
Supporter yes. Worshipper no.
let’s wait and see how this lawsuit turns out. at the moment these are just allegations.
and spacex has publicly stated that they’re still growing. they’re hiring more people than they recently let go.
Allegations? You don’t know SpaceX. The question is whether it was legal or illegal.
If SpaceX say they are still growing it means they actually are growing? Really? I think you need to approach this with a more critical eye.
SpaceX is doing and has done a lot of very good and smart things over the years but the way they approach labor is not one. See this for example http://www.businessinsider.com/what-its-like-to-work-for-elon-musk-2014-6
Allegations? You don’t know SpaceX.
I suspect that makes two of us. Despite your protestations of being a SpaceX supporter, you seem quite ready to believe anything said against them.
The question is whether it was legal or illegal.
That’s always the question in lawsuits isn’t it? I see no reason to, as many – including you – have done here and elsewhere, simply assume SpaceX is guilty as charged. I’ve done a bit of looking into the actual law on “mass layoffs” as the law refers to them. What SpaceX did doesn’t appear to fit within the legal definition of a “mass layoff” in California. The definition is 50 or more dismissals in a 30-day period for reasons of lack of money or of work. As SpaceX’s dismissals meet the first, but not the second of these conditions, it seems quite possible a court will rule that no “mass layoff” actually occurred, just, as SpaceX maintains, a lot of firings for cause over a short interval.
SpaceX is doing and has done a lot of very good and smart things over the years but the way they approach labor is not one.
And so we find, additionally, from the linked article, that Elon Musk is not Nicely Nicely Johnson from Guys and Dolls. One anonymous person says he was scary and not inspirational. Another, who doesn’t mind signing her name, says she personally witnessed what sounds a lot like an entrepreneurial version of the St. Crispin’s Day speech from Henry V. I completely believe that Mr. Anonymous didn’t find Elon inspiring. But it would seem he is in the decided minority in that respect. There are always people who simply don’t fit into a given corporate culture. I’ve had that experience myself and seen others having it at places I found much more personally agreeable.
Elon is an authentic genius and geniuses are often inclined to be short with people who can’t keep up with them. As that includes just about everyone, geniuses have deserved reputations for being unsparing taskmasters. I believe one of the other commenters here referred to Steve Jobs in this same context. I would additionally mention the late William Shockley, co-inventor of the transistor and founder of one of the pioneer companies that metastasized into what eventually became Silicon Valley. Compared to stories told about Shockley as an employer, Elon Musk sounds like a relative walk in the park.
As to the question of whether or not SpaceX is still hiring, this turns out to be one of the rare occasions on which I can actually contribute something from my personal experience that bears directly on the question at issue. I was contacted recently by a community college at which I got an Associates degree a couple years back. The guy on the phone said SpaceX was hiring and had asked for info on all their recent grads in certain fields. If SpaceX isn’t hiring, they’re doing a world-class job of faking it.
I see. I don’t know what protestations you are talking about. You have been on this forum what a few months now? Do you think you know all there is to know about other posters?
Now it’s up to you to believe or not what I am saying for all I care. But you may want to inquire, not with Elon but rather his employees.
Also please point to me where I said that SpaceX is guilty of any thing? Make sure you read for comprehension. I am saying they have a pathetic way of treating their people. Some accept it, some don’t.
“Elon Musk is not Nicely Nicely Johnson from Guys and Dolls” Clearly tinker bells are not only in support of SLS/MPCV. Did you work for Elon? What do you actually know about his methods?
Ah geniuses… Again what do you know about geniuses? Ever worked with geniuses yourself?
Anyway. Enough for now. Here is a suggestion. Go and apply to SpaceX and go work for your idol. Then come back and tell us all ignorant about what it is like after 1 week, 1 month and 1 year. If you can last that much.
The question is whether the lay-off was or not legal. It it were then it’ll be it. If not there are possible consequences for the company and its investors. Of course settlements are a great way to go.
I don’t know what protestations you are talking about.
Was this you or someone else using the same ID?
Josh, I have supported SpaceX since when nobody knew about them and in many more ways that you can possibly imagine.
Now, on to other matters.
You have been on this forum what a few months now?
To tell you the truth, in all this excitement, I kind of lost track. Was it five comments or was it six? But seeing as how…
Do you think you know all there is to know about other posters?
I know nothing for sure about you – not even your name. I infer things about you based on what you write, but I freely admit I could be wrong. That is simply the case with many Web-based interactions.
If you feel I have some sort of obligation to know all about you before making a reply to one of your comments when you reveal so little about yourself perhaps I should assume you are a woman.
Also please point to me where I said that SpaceX is guilty of any thing?
You never come right out and say it, you just keep up a steady drumbeat of “If I was an investor and they did X I’d be upset” and suchlike. The clear implication of your comments is that you believe SpaceX to be guilty of mistreating its employees and of labor law violations. Why not just say what you plainly believe to be true instead of weaseling around with tone and passive-aggressive implication?
Are you a woman?
But you may want to inquire, not with Elon but rather his employees.
I knew two of SpaceX’s employees casually through classes and extracurricular activities at that community college I mentioned attending a few comments back. Two people isn’t much of a statistical sample but, for whatever it may be worth, neither had a bad word to say about working conditions or anything else. One young guy was quite the SpaceX cheerleader. The other guy was in his 30’s, had worked other places and seemed to like SpaceX just fine but was more reserved.
Did you work for Elon? What do you actually know about his methods?
No,I have never worked at SpaceX and have no knowledge, except the little bit of conversation I had with the two SpaceX employees I met at college, about what SpaceX work life is like.
What is the basis for your claim of such knowledge?
Again what do you know about geniuses?
I know they’re a lot smarter than I am. I had the chance to find this out when I made the acquaintance of several while I was doing my first stint as an undergrad in the early 70’s.
Ever worked with geniuses yourself?
Never worked with any, exactly, but I hung out socially for a time with Eugene Volokh, who was a childhood math and computer software prodigy and is now a professor of constitutional law at UCLA and a very influential law blogger. He was in his mid to late teens at the time and I was in my early 30’s. Splendid company and spooky bright. Wish I’d kept in touch.
Does that help? I hate to drop names to no good purpose.
Here is a suggestion. Go and apply to SpaceX and go work for your idol. Then come back and tell us all ignorant about what it is like after 1 week, 1 month and 1 year. If you can last that much.
Ooooo! Touchy much?
Seriously, I’d be delighted to work for SpaceX but my current – I hope transient – medical decrepitude makes it impossible to work for anyone just now. Even if I were well, there are plenty of people in this area (I live about three miles from the SpaceX plant) who are younger than I and have years of aerospace experience I lack. The combination of Barack Obama in the White House and Jerry Brown in the statehouse has insured that Marx’s “reserve army of the unemployed” has never had more battalions than it does now in Southern California.
Understand, though, that even if SpaceX was the Dickensian horror show you believe it be, there are a lot of companies that are that bad or worse. I know. I’ve worked for more than a few of them. I’ve been abused plenty of times at jobs that in no way had any potential to change the world. So I’d have to rate even being abused at SpaceX a solid step up from my median employment experience.
The question is whether the lay-off was or not legal.
True. Based on my, admittedly layman’s, reading of the relevant law, I think SpaceX has a more than decent chance of prevailing in court, at least if the letter of the law still actually means anything in these solipsistic times.
And that returns us to where we started.
Are you asking me on a date?
Donald F. Robertson
Common Sense: Are you asking me on a date?
Much as I often agree with Dick’s posts, this is a great answer — and exactly what the comment deserved.
— Donald
No. I’m afraid I’m terminally married and the wife has granted me no “hall pass” privileges.
I was merely curious as your style of argumentation about SpaceX’s employment practices hinted at female psychology.
If you are indeed the only one who comments here under the “common sense” ID, then I regard our little dustup anent SpaceX as a bit of an anomaly. Like Donald’s comments, I generally agree with yours.
Hoping for SpaceX and SNC as well.
When the commercial space program was created by the Bush administration in 2005, the idea was to encourage the private sector to innovate by providing milestone awards that might mitigate any losses due to failure.
Of the three candidates, Dragon and Dream Chaser attempt to innovate a lot more than the Boeing CST-100. It’s hard to imagine Boeing behaving any differently than it’s behaved over the last several decades, threatening to lay off people and close plants unless it gets government money in compensation for any innovatoin.
A second company would help keep Boeing honest, but in my opinion Boeing wouldn’t change its behavior and instead would seek ways to disable its competition through block buys and political lobbying.
If NASA honors the original intent of the commercial space program, they should select SpaceX and Sierra Nevada.
The thing is that innovation is not necessarily what makes a winner. Right or wrong. Some times not even overall cost.
There are many more things to consider in the competition some of which are political.
“congressional members will have to acknowledge capability for whatever endervor they pursue.”
No, they will work to “preserve capability” – keep the jobs in their districts.
The space program is a political construct that is designed to allocate cool jobs to the districts of those who have the power. They vote for this, knowing that the “proper” companies will “support” them for re-election.
The space program is 95% jobs, 5% space stuff according to these people. Ask them and they will often tell you so. At the moment they are very frustrated that NASA can’t do the important stuff (the jobs) and deliver the space bit (the other 5%)
SpaceX, SNC and even the portion of Boeing that is doing CST-100 are bring rude – they seem to believe that they can get a chunk of the budget which has already been bought and paid for in political influence and contributions by others over decades. Merely doing the job 10x cheaper is insolence – don’t these people know their place?
The traditional way of dealing with this would be to cancel commercial crew and replace it with a program with a sole source to the “right” providers. The problem is that the “right” people aren’t in the running and time has run out.
Yes, that is true, the Porkonauts from the Space states will continue to try and protect those fiefdoms. I am refering to the broader Congress. As I have stated before, in three industries, communications, transportation, and energy they all have there supporters in congress and institutional support builds up for each type. Pony Express>telegraph>telephone>satellite communications. Each creates a vested interest for some districts and members of congress. Remember when Ma Bell was a government sanctioned monopoly? Each form has their supporters but the rest of the congress embraces the new paradigm and the pork gets voted on in the broader congress for someone’s new pork system.
This will happen with NASA they will all get their pork right up until they don’t anymore. It gets stripped out and moved elsewhere. Look what is happening with spaceports? New commercial ones are popping up, they are now getting the new pork from state/local/federal. NASA spaceports/launchpads are getting transitioned and losing funding. This will happen more and more. That recent article that Stephen linked to, shows it in a different area, people are not seeing NASA as the automatic “goto” place anymore if you are really serious about getting into space.
The transition is actually already taking place, I believe the real tipping point for the broader congress will be commercial human spaceflight.
I should add, when you hear congressional members like Senator Shelby call them “hobby rockets” it is because of no manned commercial flights. “Ony NASA can do it” is the clarion call. Hell DCSCA has been ringing that bell on here for years, “tick tick tick” no commercial human spaceflight. For a lot of other posters as well that is always the litmus test they throw at you. When members from space states try to use that same old tired meme in the near future, the bellweather, “only NASA can do it” will no longer work and a new paradigm will start in force.
now that you mention dcsca. is he dead or something?
” it is because of no manned commercial flights”
That is just the hook they hang their hats on. A fraction of a second after the first crew docks at ISS on a CC vehicle the song will change. To another reason why their spending must be protected.
Ron, The rest of Congress voted for the SLS even though there was, at the time, perhaps no payload requiring this capacity. My take is that they wanted to keep open the hardware option for missions beyond the Earth-Moon system or even back to the Moon if future political winds blew that direction.
So again my technical question:
In other words, would the successful launch of a FH be sufficient to make the case logically that the SLS is not necessary given the aspirational goals of missions BLEO?
It is my hope that as soon as Falcon Heavy is real the change toward a more reasonable priced BLEO human space program can begin to take shape. It will take some effort but the numbers, the logic, the common sense, and perhaps the angels will be on our side.
I would like to see plans and drawings and details of proposed missions based around the ~50 ton architecture. I would hope there would be many such proposals with the savings and new capabilities made glaringly obvious. I don’t expect these proposals to come from NASA. If anything I would suspect proposals to emerge in a manner similar to the way DIRECT came into being. Making good cases with sound logic and realistic numbers.
As long as it doesn’t lift 70 tons, the baseline in the Augustine committee and the benchmark that Congress keeps hammering on I do not believe 53 tons will do it, unless like you suggest, some plans are put forward that can utilize it.
There are a number of ways to get the Falcon Heavy’s lift capacity to LEO up to, and even well beyond, the 70 tonne mark. All involve building more powerful uper stages for the beast. None would very expensive to develop, certainly not by conventional NASA standards. If Congress thinks it can foil SpaceX participation in BEO projects by making 70 tonnes-to-LEO a non-negotiable magic number, they’re fooling themselves.
I’d like to see what people think could be done with a two FH mission, for example. Or one FH and one F9. Or multiple FHs.
Not necessarily looking to replace any program of record so much as beginning the exercise of educating people as to what is actually possible with the new equipment and the new costs.
I don’t expect everyone to just throw up their arms, shout, and throw away all existing programs when FH comes online but the numbers and logic are on the side of the new equipment and the new players. I wouldn’t by shy about driving that point home.
I also personally would not advertise FH as a SLS Killer (although it may be). I’d just brag about what the new equipment can do and the affordability of it. If we try to have the FH go head-to-head with SLS in some kind of cage match I don’t think it will be a good idea. The politicians would be the referees and they could always arrange the rules to suit their favorite.
I agree with you .. it really wouldn’t take a very high energy second stage, but Doug predicated his question on:
“To what extent would the successful launch of the Falcon Heavy in early to mid-2015 be that turning point? ”
The first successful launch. I would imagine they will not test the cross feed on the first flight so it would only be pushing about 43 tons. I do not think that will cause the tipping point to the general congress. You will still hear the same mantra’s from the Space State congressional members. I truely believe the real benchmark will be a human launch, once they have achieved that all other plans they have will seem doable to the general congressional membership, the porkonauts will not beable to pass that off.
43 / 70 = 0.614
Even the Mark 2 Falcon Heavy can only lift three quarters of the SLS’s payload. If they are ±50% price compatible they will viable options.
If they are not price compatible then the SLS people will have to start a project that does not embarrass NASA.
Andrew Swallow said:
“Even the Mark 2 Falcon Heavy can only lift three quarters of the SLS’s payload.”
Another way to look at it is that every version of the Falcon Heavy can lift all of the funded payloads for the SLS. In other words, since there are NO payloads for the SLS, then as far as NASA is concerned it really doesn’t matter what the capacity of the Falcon Heavy is.
Time to sell Congress some payloads. My first suggestion is a BA-330-DS spacestation to EML-2. Take the lead back in the space race.
Then NASA can get on with building lunar landers, lunar habitats, manned rovers and Mars Transfer Vehicles.
Using what for money?
NASA has a development budget. Currently being spent on developing SLS and Orion.
Precisely my point. The SLS-Orion partisans, both within NASA and in Congress, will fight tooth and nail to keep every penny of that money going where they want it to go – and more besides if they can get it. Until and unless SLS and Orion are killed, not a dime of that money is going to be spent on anything actually useful for furthering BEO space missions.
Coastal Ron: Another way to look at it is
A better way to look at it is, if you can launch (let’s be generous to the SLS and say) six of the most expensive version of the SLS for what Boeing charges for one stage, then a 25% difference in the payloads doesn’t matter. You can launch an awful lot of docking and assembly and refueling equipment in the five remaining Falcon Heavy launches after you’ve launched your necessarily lighter payload.
The price for the Falcon Heavy is 85 million for the 43 ton version without the cross feed. 125 million for 53 tons with the crossfeed.
The SLS estimates are 1.5 billion. Although Boeing charged NASA 1.4 billion per each core, which doesn’t include the SRB’s the second stage or the standing army at NASA to launch it.
It would not be 50% cheaper it would more like one magnitude or more cheaper.
K Lundermann
Actually, the lower limit that the Augustine report refers to is not 70 metric tons, 50 (Sec. 5.2.1, p. 65) or 40-60 (Sect. 6.5.3, p. 93).
Didn’t congress choose the 70 ton number to make sure existing rockets (Delta IV) couldn’t be upgraded to fit the requirement?
“Ron, The rest of Congress voted for the SLS even though there was, at the time, perhaps no payload requiring this capacity.”
The rest of Congress voted for a funding bill that contained many things in it, including the SLS. However there were just a handful of Senators that actually crafted the SLS legislation, so they are the ones we have to look at to interpret their motivations. Those senators were Hutchison, Nelson and Shelby.
“My take is that they wanted to keep open the hardware option for missions beyond the Earth-Moon system or even back to the Moon if future political winds blew that direction.”
We can imprint our own hopes and desires on the actions of others, but that ignores reality. Senator Nelson stated when the bill was signed that the SLS meant jobs would be saved, and none of the senators involved have talked about any grand plans – and certainly none of them have risked their political necks to craft and support any continuous need for the SLS. The only plan that has been proffered is the ARM, and that has been supported by Senator Nelson, but if you’ll notice no one else in Congress has backed it, and instead they have derided it. Not much evidence that anyone wants to do anything big with the SLS.
There are no funded plans that need an HLV today, and it’s unlikely any will show up by next year. So the flight of the Falcon Heavy will, at most, show that the private sector really is up to being relied upon for future space transportation, and that there is no reason not to cancel the SLS. But there won’t be anything for the Falcon Heavy to take over from the SLS, as I think the Orion/MPCV will be cancelled at the same time. Or at least I hope it will be… $16B for a upsized version of an Apollo capsule… how crazy is that?
Thanks everyone for responding to my question. That was a very helpful analysis. Especially Vladislaw your point about the first FH probably not using crossfeed is something that I hadn’t considered. Almost noone addressed the issue of the potential of “buddy tanking” meaning a second FH transferring propellant to an earlier-launched FH.
As for the upper stage, to me this seems like the greatest deficiency of the FH. SpaceX is committed to developing a methane engine. I believe that they have signed an agreement to be able to use Stennis facilities while they develop that. Does anyone know if that Raptor engine could / would be used as an upper stage on a FH and if so, what TLI / TMI payload we might expect?
Andrew, I personally hope that we don’t build an EML-2 station. That would be an obvious excuse to use the SLS indefinitely (crew rotations) and hence strain NASA’s budget indefinitely thereby hindering alternate paths such as facilitating ULA/Masten-types to develop a low-cost reusable lunar lander, harvest lunar ice, establish a Moon base, develop NTR, or whatever else any of us may wish for a more sustainable space program.
Finally, would it be conceivable for the government to purchase a FH launch and purchase a Centaur-derived upperstage for it so as to have significant TLI / TMI capability right away?
With Bigelow spacestations at both LEO and EML-2 an upper stage or reusable inspace vehicle will soon be available to move people between them.
Bigelow Aerospace had some unfunded SAA’s with NASA on that very topic. Here is an article that illustrates Robert Bigelow introducing several inspace vehicles.
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/02/affordable-habitats-more-buck-rogers-less-money-bigelow/
“Bigelow writes in the Gate 1 report that cost reduction of rocket technology has never been addressed by NASA and that the commercial sector can help in this respect.
“Until recently, the commercial sector has been locked out. All of the usual cost per lb. calculations everyone uses are all based on the wrong production metrics,” Bigelow noted.
“They are government costs in partnership with parochial contractors with no connection to the real world. Under the right leadership, the costs of habitable systems and transportation can be drastically reduced from what has been the usual American experience.””
That is the storm that is coming, realistic market pricing with open competition. Once a fierce cargo/fuel market starts in ernest cost for traveling 200 miles is going to start approaching terrestrial costs.
One of the alternative Falcon Heavy upper stage upgrade options would be a single-Raptor-powered unit. It would have both much more thrust and a higher Isp than the current unit shared with Falcon 9 and powered by a single Merlin 1-D Vacuum engine. Two other options would be stretched upper stages powered by either two or three Merlin 1-D Vacuum engines, though these would have lower performance than the Raptor-powered option.
Adapting a Centaur to FH doesn’t make a lot of sense. The stage has a higher Isp, but thrust counts for something too and Centaur’s RL-10 engine only puts out about 25,000 lbs. Raptor gives both a massive increase in thrust and higher Isp than Merlin 1-D without the very considerable complications of dealing with LH2.
I don’t know what the lift capacity to LEO or GEO or LTO or MTO of an FH with a Raptor-ized upper stage would be, but I’m confident the first of these would be well above the 70 tonnes claimed for the initial Block 1 version of SLS. It might even be as much or more than the 93 tonnes that SLS Block 1 with the quad-RL-10 Exploration Upper Stage is supposed to be able to manage.
As others have pointed out, none of these numbers is very significant with respect to actual programs going forward because NASA has had no budget for payloads for SLS so its alleged lift capacity is rather beside the point. With nothing to lift, it’s lift capacity is effectively zero. The only item on the horizon that would require more lift capacity than the Mk1 FH can provide is the Bigelow Olympus hab module. In my opinion, the requirement to launch this module will be the likeliest instigator of development of a Raptor-ized FH upper stage.
Good points, I recall the press confrence Elon Musk did at the National Press Club when he announced the new Falcon Heavy that was going to replace the Falcon 9 Heavy. (paraphrasing) He hinted to the fact that the Falcon Heavy, if the cross feed worked, would easily go past the 53 tonnes. I assumed it would be from an upgrade to the second stage, which would not be started until the FH was proven and some sales came in.
FWIW, If I were Elon Musk, I’d be talking to Mitsubishi about an MB-60-powered alternate high-energy upper stage specifically for cis-Lunar and BEO probe launches. Given the (multi-year, sometimes >1 decade) lead time for such missions, it wouldn’t be a significant schedule risk to have to develop, build, test and integrate such a stage from paper after contract award.
This report looks factual:
http://thetodayonline.com/when-spacex-falters-washington-looks-the-other-way-2014-08-16/
It would help if you did not let your cheering drown out your thinking.
This report is anything BUT factual. What a load of nonsense. A report by someone with conflict of interest. Said report has been removed from other publications precisely SINCE it was not factual.
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/08/spacex-hater-ar.html
What is it again with the space community, tinker bells, etc?
Yeah, funny how the few people believing in the paid shill Mr. Thompson seem to have forgotten there are libel and slander laws in this country.
From the last time this happened in 2011:
http://blogs.forbes.com/beltway/2011/06/03/spacex-loren-thompsons-deceit/
Rick Boozer
Yeah. Stewart Money had some interesting observations about Thompson’s article and why Forbes pulled it: http://innerspace.net/spacex/the-curious-case-of-spacex-and-forbes-thompson-takedown/
Isn’t there another shill, on the wallstreet journal I belive, Andy something?
Yep Vlad, Andy Pasztor.
It should be noted that SpaceX launches when the customer wants. The Obama administration added STS-135 in July 2011 to bring up enough supplies to last nearly a year until the May 2012 demo flight was ready. They didn’t launch in 2011 because the customer didn’t want them to launch in 2011.
You’ve been had, E.P.
An experienced shrill will have inserted the weasel words that make winning a libel case against him almost impossible.
Those upset with SpaceX do seem to be getting more upset with the day
Meanwhile, over at nasaspaceflight –
http://www.nasaspaceflight.com/2014/08/cctcapnasa-wont-abandon-commercial-crew-loser/
Interesting choice of picture in that article…
Those not liking SpaceX have even more to be mad about .. their valuation is going through the roof and 200 million more investment money came in.
http://www.businessinsider.com/spacex-valuation-approaches-10-billion-2014-8
“their valuation is going through the roof and 200 million more investment money came in.”
That’s their annual employee share sale I reckon – 2% of stock sounds about right.
The IP to Falcon 9, Falcon 1, Merlin, Kestrel, Draco, Super Draco, Dragon etc is worth that kind of number…. Let alone contracts to launch. So no surprise there, really.
And, as expected, SLS and MPCV are now officially slipping:
http://nasawatch.com/archives/2014/08/interesting-sls.html
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Texas is one of only seven states to select its judges in partisan political elections, and you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody defending the system as ideal. Read the article at the Austin American-Statesman
Should Texas judges be appointed instead of elected?
Huge political hurdles impede efforts to end judicial elections in Texas.
By Chuck Lindell, AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF
Texas is one of only seven states to select its judges in partisan political elections, and you'd be hard-pressed to find anybody defending the system as ideal.
Good-government groups are appalled that judges accept campaign contributions from lawyers and businesses that appear in their courts.
Judges complain about the indignity of asking for those contributions. Lawyers aren't happy about being pressured to give. And ordinary citizens, polls show, wonder if Texas justice is being sold to the highest bidder.
"I think that is an irrational system," said Wallace Jefferson, chief justice of the Texas Supreme Court, where campaigns can easily top $1 million. "It just doesn't make logical sense."
But don't expect quick results, or perhaps any results, this legislative session for a familiar idea: replacing judicial elections with a system of appointed judges.
Similar efforts have flared and died since at least the 1960s. Opposing sides are now so entrenched and the legal hurdles so high that credible experts doubt Texas can ever restructure its judicial election system.
One politician who has been trying for 16 years is Sen. Robert Duncan, R-Lubbock. In response to earlier criticism, Duncan scaled down this session's bill to create a system of appointed judges — and stirred up a new crop of detractors.
An exasperated Duncan lashed out at a recent hearing.
"We're never going to get this perfect, because there is no perfect solution, but at some point everyone has to lay down their own personal bias ... and say we have to make this work better," he said. "Doing nothing preserves what is the worst system in the country."
But changing the way Texans elect judges would require a constitutional amendment approved by two-thirds of the Senate and the House, magnifying the impact of interest groups that can scuttle change by stoking opposition from a small number of legislators.
Even if it clears that hurdle, an amendment must be approved by a majority of voters, which may prove to be the ultimate bar to an appointed judiciary. Voters have been electing Texas judges since the 1870s, and polls show about two-thirds of today's voters want that to continue, despite concerns about the influence of political contributions.
"Texans have a fondness for electing people to office," said Anthony Champagne, a University of Texas at Dallas political science professor and co-author of "Judicial Politics in Texas: Partisanship, Money, and Politics in State Courts."
Champagne said he can already imagine the ad blitz about how "they" are trying to take away Texans' right to vote. "That would kind of kill the issue right there," he said.
Debating 'who picks the pickers'
Chief Justice Jefferson kick-started the latest reform effort with a passionate February speech to the Legislature citing the drawbacks of judicial elections: Too often, party affiliation trumps a candidate's qualifications, and the influence of campaign money destroys public confidence in both justice and the judges who administer it.
Jefferson says he wants the state's judges to be appointed to their jobs, standing for election periodically so voters can decide to keep them or toss them from office. No party affiliation would appear on the ballot, and judges who lose election would be replaced by appointment.
Judges operating under similar "merit selection" systems in other states don't carry the baggage of party affiliation and need to raise far less campaign money than their Texas counterparts, said Jefferson, who leaves it to legislators to fill in the details.
Enter Duncan, who for years has hustled Senate votes to create a politically and geographically diverse commission that would vet judicial candidates for their legal skill and send a slate to the governor, who would make the final choice.
Opponents, however, have focused on the prospect that one side — Republicans or Democrats, business or consumers, plaintiff or defense lawyers — would gain the upper hand on the commission and skew the judiciary and their decisions.
"The debate is always over who picks the pickers," Duncan said.
This session, Duncan scrapped the commission idea. His latest proposal would have the governor appoint the state's 80 appellate court judges, nine Supreme Court justices and nine Court of Criminal Appeals judges. After serving their first term, appointees would:
• Stand for election as they do today — running in their party's primary, and if they win, facing the other parties' nominees in November.
• Remain on the bench for future terms by winning voter approval in nonpartisan retention elections.
Duncan said he sees this hybrid approach as a best-of-all-worlds solution. The first election answers criticism that qualified candidates could not seek office under an appointment system, and subsequent retentionelections would remove party labels and cost candidates far less money than partisan campaigns.
"Let's let judges be judges," Duncan said. "Let's not force them to be politicians, to raise money from folks who will be in their court and then criticize them for doing that."
'Better not to change'
But the new ideas brought a new round of critics.
Democrats were leery of ceding so many judicial appointments to governors in a predominantly Republican state. The Texas Trial Lawyers Association, a reliably Democratic interest group representing plaintiffs lawyers, wanted greater checks and balances on gubernatorial appointment power.
Texans for Public Justice, a liberal advocacy group and a proponent of merit selection, said Duncan's proposal does not ensure that judges would be chosen by merit and would not save candidates from having to raise campaign money or court special interests.
Added to this are the traditional voices against an appointed judiciary — the state's Republican and Democratic parties, as well as some lawyer groups and African American and Hispanic rights organizations, Champagne said.
"If I were to handicap it, I would say that you are not going to get change in Texas," said Champagne, who has been studying judicial elections for 25 years. "Often, the sense is it's better not to change than to go into an unknown situation where your interests might get hurt."
Rep. Todd Hunter, R-Corpus Christi, recently got an earful during a hearing on his bill to create retention elections for appellate judges. Hunter decided to work with the factions to craft an acceptable measure, but he downplayed chances of success this session, which has six weeks to go.
"There's not a lot of time," he said. "So I'm not going to hurry anything without good public input."
Though Duncan said he thinks most Texans agree with his premise — judges should focus on the law, not politics — he too is unsure of the prospects for his own bills.
"The external pressures haven't weighed in on this yet, and they will," he said.
Labels: News Clips, Texas Supreme Court
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चर्चामंच
"हो गया क्यों देश ऐसा" (चर्चा अंक-3952)
*काव्य-कल्पना*
तुम्हारी धुन पर नाचे आज मेरे गीत....
*गद्य-सर्जना*
आज फिर उदासी है तुम बिन
"*साहित्य प्रेमी संघ*" पर अपना बहुमूल्य योगदान देने के लिए ई- मेल करे..आपका स्वागत है...
contact@sahityapremisangh.com
"साहित्य प्रेमी संघ" की समग्रविषयक पत्रिका "सृजक"
काव्य संग्रह
"साहित्य प्रेमी संघ" के तत्वावधान में प्रकाशित काव्य संग्रह "टूटते सितारों की उड़ान"......(20 कवियों की काव्य माधुरियाँ) संपादकः-सत्यम शिवम
प्रेमांजली काव्य संग्रह
मृगतृष्णा
सृजक
शब्दों की चहलकदमी
कालजयी
भोर की ओर
पदमश्री पं.मुकुटधर पांडेय स्मृति शिविर रायगढ़ में "टूटते सितारों की उड़ान" का विमोचन वरिष्ठ साहित्यकारों द्वारा
"ह्रदय तारों का स्पंदन " प्रेमांजलि काब्य संग्रह का विमोचन शा .उ ,मा .वि .कोसीर स्कुल में खंड शिक्षा अधिकारी योगरम लहरे जी ने किया इस मौके पर प्राचार्य शिव प्रसाद भारती ,कोसीर सरपंच नंदराम लहरे एवं शाला परिवार उपस्थित रहे
साहित्य पुष्प खोजे
निचे के लिंक पर क्लिक कर बस कुछ पल में देखे इस संघ के किसी भी "रचनाकार" की कोई भी सुंदर "रचना":-
*रचना और रचनाकार*
यहाँ क्लिक कर अमर रचनाकारों की "अमर काव्य कृतियाँ" और उनकी संक्षिप्त जीवनी पढ़ेः-
*अमर काव्य कृतियाँ*
बचपन और हमारा पर्यावरण
नव साहित्य पुष्प
आप भी बने "*साहित्य प्रेमी संघ*" के प्रेमी,इस लोगो को अपने ब्लॉग पर लगाकर।
अपना ई-मेल देः
पल-पल! हरपल!!
पत्रिकाओं में.....
(गर्भनाल पत्रिका) के जनवरी अंक में साझे ब्लाग की चर्चा में "साहित्य प्रेमी संघ" की चर्चा सबसे पहले नम्बर पर......page 22-23
अखबारों में....
३१ मार्च को छतीसगढ़ से प्रकाशित अखबार "ईस्पात टाईम्स" में मेरे विषय में......... साथ ही आप देख सकते है..ई पेपर पर www.ispattimes.com
२३ मई को हरियाणा के "सिटी किंग" अखबार में मेरे बारे में प्रकाशित....... also available on e- पेपर .....www.citykingnews.com
7 जून को हरियाणा से प्रकाशित अखबार "सिटी किंग" में मेरा आलेख "वक्त ने मुझे बड़ा बना दिया-पापा"..साथ ही ई पेपर में www.thepressvarta.com
पदमश्री पं.मुकुटधर पांडेय स्मृति शिविर रायगढ़ में "टूटते सितारों की उड़ान" का विमोचन वरिष्ठ साहित्यकारों द्वारा.....छतीसगढ़ के अखबार देशबन्धु में छपी यह खबर.....।
रायगढ़ की स्थानीय अखबार जनकर्म में प्रकाशित पदमश्री पं.मुकुटधर पांडेय स्मृति शिविर में विमोचित हमारी काव्य-संग्रह "टूटते सितारों कि उड़ान" कि तस्वीरें और समाचार.. 9 जनवरी की अखबार में....
16.04.2012 को दैनिक हिन्दूस्तान में काव्य संग्रह "मेरे बाद" के लोकार्पण की जानकारी
16.04.2012 को राष्ट्रिय सहारा में काव्य संग्रह "मेरे बाद" के लोकार्पण की जानकारी
19.04.2012 के "सन्मार्ग" अखबार में "चम्पारण सत्याग्रह स्मृति समारोह" में मेरे काव्य पाठ की चर्चा
कोसीर (सारंगढ़ ) - काब्य संग्रह " हृदय तारों का स्पंदन " विमोचित - बिलासपुर कही अनकही अखबार की कतरन
प्रेम की जीवंत प्रतिमूर्ति.....(अमृता प्रीतम जी)
बहु को बेटी मानें....
कुछ सवाल : हिंदी ब्लॉग जगत से
परवरिश
"दर्द का पर्वत".....(मेरी एकमात्र कविता)
सुझाव : Blogging के बेहतर कल के लिए
"अमर काव्य कृतियाँ"-1
"बचाओ".......(महेन्द्र भीष्म की कहानी):-part-4
मैं नदी की धार
यकीनन वो प्यार नहीं था
कौन आया ?
पता नहीं क्यों
डायरी का हर पन्ना
जब देखा!!!!!
वस्तुतः.....(लक्ष्मीकांत त्रिपाठी की कहानी)
वो भोली गांवली
"बिखराव और कष्ट"........(वैष्णवी अवस्थी की कविताएँ)
झरना
"नारी" विनाशकारी या मंगलदायनी
तेरी चिट्ठी के दो पन्ने
स्वागतम्
Online Readers:
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PUBLIC LECTURES, INTERNATIONAL AND NATIONAL CONFERENCES, AND PARTICIPATION AT SYMPOSIA
“Spirituality and the Russian avant-garde”, keynote address, Sacred Silence in Literature and the Arts conference, ACU, Sydney, October 4, 2019
“The printmaking revival of the 1960s and 1970s and the prints of George Baldessin and Brett Whiteley”, keynote address, Australian Print Triennial, Mildura 2 November 2018
“Works of Faith: New research on the icons in the University of Sydney Art Collection” Nicholson Museum, University of Sydney 2 May 2018
“Paths of revelation through meditation on the iconography of Russian and Byzantine icons” (Keynote address) Awakening the Sacred conference, ACU, Sydney, 8 July 2017
“A catalogue raisonné of John Brack” paper, The art of attribution: The catalogue raisonné in the 21st century symposium, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, July 15, 2017
‘Constructing a history of Australian art’, Keynote lecture, Illuminating Australian Art, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 25 September 2016
'Colonial life and the art of S.T. Gill', with Virginia Hausseggar, 18 September 2016 podcast https://www.nla.gov.au/audio/the-life-and-art-of-st-gill
‘Antipodean creatures in the European Imagination’, public lecture, South Australian Museum, Adelaide, 23 November, 2016
‘Artists Books’ conducted weeklong workshop, Rare Books Week, 1-5 February 2016, State Library of New South Wales
‘Jessie Traill’, public forum, Geelong Art Gallery, 23 January 2016
‘ST Gill and his audiences’, public lecture, 6 February 2016, State Library of New South Wales
‘Sasha Grishin in conversation with Virginia Haussegger: The life and work of ST Gill’, public lecture, National Library of Australia, 18 September 2016 podcast https://www.nla.gov.au/audio/the-life-and-art-of-st-gill
‘I quadri metafisici di Giuseppe Modica’ academic address at ‘Giuseppe Modica: Atelier di luce e di memoria’, Istituto Italiano di Cultura di Sydney, 8 December, 2016
‘The lives of S.T. Gill’, paper, S.T. Gill and the Colonial World Conference, Australian Institute of Art History, University of Melbourne, 18 July 2015
‘The impact of Dr Ursula Hoff on the printmaking scene in Melbourne’, Academic address, Ursula Hoff Institute, Lyceum Club, Melbourne 4 May 2015
‘John Wolseley and the ‘anti-humanist’ tradition of art’, lecture National Gallery of Australia, Canberra 16 May 2015
‘John Wolseley and artist’s journals as a primary source’, Bendigo Writers Festival, 8 August 2015
‘Spirituality and art: The Russian icon’ The COSSAG 2015 Lecture, Brisbane, 13 August 2015
‘Hierarchies in Australian art’ paper, Independent Scholars Association of Australia, NLA, Canberra, 9 September 2015
‘Artists books’, Victoria and Albert Museum exhibition talk, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 9 April 2015
‘Catherine the Great’s legacy for Russian art’ public lecture, National Gallery of Victoria, 4 November 2015
ST Gill as eye witness: Art as historical evidence’ Monash University-SLV Making Public Histories seminar series, Melbourne, 29 September 2015
'The positioning of Indigenous art in Australian art practice', The Big Picture: Lives, landscapes, homelands in Australian and Chinese art, conference at Remin University of China, Beijing, 11 September, (also chaired session)
‘Writing a history of Australian art’, 2014 Dundas Memorial Lecture, Art Gallery of New South Wales, Sydney, 20 July
‘The impact of Christo on the development of Australian art’ paper and panel discussion, International Art Studies Conference, Sofia, Bulgaria, 15 May
‘ST Gill’s “Victoria: gold diggings and diggers as they are” (1852): Fact or Fiction?’, Rare Books Week, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 23 July
‘TASS propaganda posters’, public lecture, Australian War Memorial, Canberra, 29 July
‘Australian art: A history’, Melbourne Writers Festival, Ian Potter Centre, 23 August
‘Hacks and heroes’, Bendigo Writers Festival, Capital Theatre, Bendigo, 9 August,
‘Defining the National Art Collection’, paper and panel discussion, 19th National AAGGO Conference, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra, 2 May
‘Book artists in Canberra’, paper, Shaping Canberra: the lived experience of place, home and capital, conference, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra, September 18
‘ST Gill – the Makings of an exhibition’, paper, Melbourne Knowledge Week, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, October 30
‘Professionalization and Institutionalization of the Australian Art World’, paper, 10th International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, Montreal Canada, 15 June
‘”How anthropologists have hijacked Australian art history”. Art History/Anthropology in Bernard and beyond’, paper, 'The Legacies of Bernard Smith' symposium, University of Sydney, 9 November
‘The Book and the Hand: Canberra Books 1972-96’, inaugural Bolton Lecture, University of Melbourne, 14 November
‘Voices in artists books – the collaborative venture’, public lecture, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 8 Feb http://melbourneartnetwork.com.au/2012/01/30/lecture-sasha-grishin-voices-in-artists-books-the-collaborative-venture/
‘The impact of digital technologies on contemporary Australian printmaking’, paper, Impact 7 (International conference on printmaking), Monash University, Melbourne, 30 September
‘Contemporary Australian Printmaking: A common history, a common landscape’, invited public lecture, British Museum, London, 3 June
‘DH Lawrence in Australian art’, paper, The 2011 International Lawrence Conference, Sydney, June 30
‘The peculiarity of Australian printmaking: The dialectic between Indigenous and non-Indigenous printmaking’, keynote address, Print Matters at the Baillieu, University of Melbourne, 3 September
‘The anxious image: Printmaking and Artists Books in Melbourne 1999 – 2010’, invited public lecture, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 4 September (paper available on the SLV website)
‘Digital printmaking: Implications for Australian art’, public lecture, Tweed River Regional Art Gallery, New South Wales, 2 April
‘S.T. Gill and his public’, paper delivered for The Foundation, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 6 July
‘Digital sensibilities in contemporary printmaking’, keynote Tasmanian Printmaking Forum, Hobart, 11 September
“Reflections on John Brack”, Guest lecture, National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, 1 August 2009
“Digital intervention in recent Australian Printmaking” Paper delivered at South Australian Printmakers Forum, Adelaide, September 15, 2009
“The contemporary artists book: A question of identity” Paper delivered at South Australian Printmakers Forum, Adelaide, September 16, 2009
Public lecture “The impact of digital technologies on contemporary printmaking”, 2009 Rae Alexander Lecture, National Gallery of Victoria, 6 November 2009
Public lecture: “Dr Ursula Hoff and the collecting of Australian prints”, Annual Ursula Hoff Lecture 2009, National Gallery of Victoria, 26 November 2009
‘A New History of Australian Art: Dialectic between Indigenous and Non-Indigenous Art’, paper, The Sixth International Conference on New Directions in the Humanities, Fatih University, Istanbul, Turkey, 15-18 July
‘A Byzantine pilgrim: Bars’kyj’s manuscript and its real and imagined audiences’, paper, Imagination, books and community in medieval Europe conference, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne, 29-31 May
‘Both a picture and a thousand words’, keynote address, Artists Books Symposium, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne (paper published on SLV website http://www.slv.vic.gov.au/node/630)
‘Digital technology and printmaking in the perspective of globalization’, keynote address, Art and Art History in the perspective of globalization, Shanghai University/ Southeast University and Yun Nan Arts Institute, Shanghai, China
‘Australian National Gallery: A view from outside the academy’, paper, Independent voices, Independent Scholars of Australia Association, National Library of Australia, Canberra
‘Max Meldrum and Constable’, paper, Constable Symposium, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
‘Digital interventions in Australian printmaking’, paper, Forum RMIT. Melbourne
‘The original print in the age of digital reproduction’, keynote address, Print Symposium, Perth
‘A late Byzantine pilgrim as an antiquarian’, plenary paper, Australian Early Medieval Association conference, Canberra
‘Australians Abroad’, paper, Edwardians Symposium, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
‘Bars’kyj’s travels in Europe and the Orthodox East’, paper, National Europe Centre, Australian National University, Canberra
‘Shakespeare and Vrubel’, paper, Multi Shakespeare: Media Metamorphoses, Biennial ANZSA conference, Australian National University, Canberra
‘Bonnard and Australia’, paper, Pierre Bonnard: Observing Nature Seminar, National Gallery of Australia, Canberra
‘Implications of digital technologies for contemporary printmaking in Australia’, Inaugural presentation in the Art History and Art Theory Joint Research Seminars delivered at the Canberra School of Art, Canberra
‘Drawing conclusions’, keynote address, Works on paper seminar, Albury Regional Gallery, New South Wales
‘The gentle art of criticism’, paper, The Word Festival: Words and Art Symposium, Canberra Museum and Gallery, Canberra
‘Philosophies of landscape art’, paper, Fleurieu Symposium, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide
'John Olsen's and John Wolseley's Journals: Their private and public audiences', paper, Donald Friend Conference, National Library of Australia Canberra
‘John Brack: Inside and outside’, paper, John Brack Symposium, Queensland Art Gallery, Brisbane
‘Printmaking in the digital age’, paper, Art Association of Australia and New Zealand, Conference, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
‘Lucian Freud: Form, sight and heavy metal’, keynote paper, Art of Seeing and the seeing of art Conference, Centre for Visual Sciences and Research School of Biological Sciences, Australian National University, Canberra
‘Bars’kyj’s travels in the Byzantine world’, paper, 34th Spring Symposium of Byzantine Studies, University of Birmingham, England
‘Australian Aboriginal Art: A living tradition’ and ‘Aspects of contemporary Australian Aboriginal art at the Hermitage’, (two public lectures delivered in Russian), State Hermitage Museum, St Petersburg, Russia
‘Brack after Brack’, paper, Brack Symposium, University of Western Australia, Perth
‘Mathematics, perspective and art: Psychological implications of different perspectival paradigms’, invited refereed paper, First National Conference on Mathematics and Art, Bond University
‘John Wolseley: Collaborations with the environment’, paper, Australian Art Association conference, Adelaide
‘Açik Saray in Cappadocia and Byzantine travellers’, paper, Australian Association for Byzantine Studies conference, Canberra
'Was there a Golden Age in Australian Printmaking in the 1960s?' paper, Swingtime Symposium, Lawrence Wilson Art Gallery, University of Western Australia, Perth
'S.T. Gill in 1997', keynote address, S.T. Gill Symposium, State Library of Victoria, Melbourne
‘Natalia Goncharova's Peasants Dancing in the National Gallery in Canberra and its Russian literary and artistic sources’, paper, Fifty Years of Russian Studies in Australia Conference, University of Melbourne, Melbourne
‘Bars'kyj on Cyprus’, paper Third International Congress of Cypriot Studies, Nicosia, Cyprus
‘A Slav traveller to Cyprus in the early 18th century’, paper, Institute of Cypriot Studies, University of Albany, New York
‘The Pre-Iconoclast churches of Cappadocia: A re-examination of the evidence’, paper, Australian Association for Byzantine Studies Conference, Brisbane
‘Bars'kyj and Cyprus revisited’, paper, Institute of Cypriot Studies, University of Albany, New York
‘Conformity and non-conformity in Byzantine pilgrim literature’, paper, Australian Association for Byzantine Studies Conference, Armidale
‘Bars'kyj and Italy, paper, U.R.I., Research Seminar, University of Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
‘Bars'kyj as a source for art historians: Constructing a methodology’, paper, U.R.I., Research seminar, University of Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
‘Strange bedfellows: Psychiatry and Art’, Academic Address, Plenary Session, Royal Australian and New Zealand College of Psychiatrists' 28th Annual Conference - Canberra
‘S.T. Gill's Doyle Sketchbook in the Mitchell Library, Sydney’, paper, Art Association of Australia conference, Canberra
‘Vasyl' Hryhorovych-Bars'kyj and his audiences’, paper, U.R.I., Research seminar, University of Harvard, Cambridge, Massachusetts
‘S.T. Gill: British and Australian audiences for popular imagery’, paper, Art Association of Australia conference, Canberra
‘Bars'kyj's Stranstvovanija' and its audience’, paper, Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies XV conference, Dunedin, New Zealand
‘Bars'kyj's drawings as a source for the study of Byzantine art’, paper, Sixth Biennial Conference of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Sydney
‘Cultural transmissions in Byzantine art: Constantinople and Cappadocia in the Middle Byzantine period’, paper, Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference, Sydney
‘Vasyljiy Bars'kyj and the xozdenija tradition’, paper, Millennium of Christianity in Russia Conference, Melbourne University, Melbourne
‘St Barbara at Soğanlı dere’, paper, Fifth Biennial Conference of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Canberra
‘Byzantine eleventh century murals of Soğanlı dere and Göreme and their relationship with Constantinople’, paper, Art Association of Australia Conference, Melbourne
‘Byzantine Cappadocia: A Study of its ornament’, paper, XVII International Byzantine Conference, Washington, DC.
‘Constantinople and Cappadocia: Centre and periphery’, paper, XXVI International Congress for the History of Art, Washington DC.
‘Middle Byzantine Ornament and Cappadocian workshops’, paper, Art Association of Australia conference, Melbourne
‘The Aght'amar wall paintings: Some new observations’, paper, Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies conference, Auckland, New Zealand
‘The Aght'amar murals: Some observations and new material’, paper, Warburg Institute of Art, London
‘New material on a monumental depiction of Emperor Nicephoros II’, paper, Third Biennial Conference of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Melbourne
‘The Dormition or Koimesis: A Study in the dynamics of Byzantine iconography’, paper, Art Association of Australia Conference, Sydney
‘Some funerary programmes in Middle Byzantine art’, paper, Art Association of Australia Conference, Melbourne
‘Literary evidence for the dating of the Bachkovo ossuary frescoes’, paper, Second Biennial Conference of the Australian Association for Byzantine Studies, Canberra
‘The Stroganov Icons: Mannerism and the Iconic tradition’, paper, Mannerism Conference, Humanities Research Centre, Australian National University, Canberra
‘Winchester Psalter: New material on its iconography’, paper, Sixth Australian and New Zealand Association for Medieval and Renaissance Studies Conference, Monash University, Melbourne
Go to Canberra Times page
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The Cody Jones Foundation
2019 Annual Banquet
Banquet Donations
North Texas SCI Member’s First Safari
Oct 29, 2014 | Articles
by Marcus Cady | November 2009
I have been a member of the North Texas Chapter of Safari Club International several years. My Dad, Robert, has been a member much longer. We are attorneys, and I work with him in his practice. Obviously, my father has been a strong influence on my professional and outdoor career.
Since I was old enough to shoot a gun, he and I have spent quality time in the outdoors together. We have hunted deer, quail and dove together – including a fantastic trip to Argentina where Dad took a trophy stag and a water buffalo. But mostly, we hunt the Albany area northeast of Abilene, Texas.
From left to right: Marcus Cady, with trackers Smilee, and Desmond
We purchased this trip at the SCI North Texas Chapter banquet in March 2008. I immediately began arranging travel through Doug Gray, agent for Gracy Travel International. Doug was a huge help securing the best fares and working with us on dates. It did not take long for me to realize that an African safari entails much more preparation than a weekend deer hunting trip to west Texas. For example, the temporary import permit for firearms requires that forms be filled out with U.S. Customs and South Africa Police Service. Much of this was facilitated by riflepermits.com. When we landed in Johannesburg, Joe of riflepermits.com got us to the front of the line and the process was fairly painless.
This was my first safari, and I was after Plains Game. One nice aspect of this hunt was that the trophy fees for what most consider typical Plains Game were included. However, I did want to add a few more animals to round out my first safari experience. This was my father’s second Plains Game safari, and he wanted to fill out a few holes he had on his wall with some of the less common species.
Day 1-3 July 20 – July 22, 2009
We departed Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport for Washington Dulles Airport to connect with South African Airways Flight 208. Our flight was delayed at Dulles three hours due to mechanical problems, which caused us to miss our connection to Port Elizabeth. So we spent the night in Johannesburg. We left for Port Elizabeth and arrived there around 10:00 a.m. the following morning.
Marcus with one of his Springbok taken on Alvin’s property
The first leg of our African safari was spent hunting with Melody Safaris and owner Louis Lategan. Louis hunts the Alexandria area in the Eastern Cape Province of South Africa.
We spent the first afternoon hunting Blesbuck. For some reason, I could not hit anything with my rifle that day. Luckily, I eventually shot a nice Blesbuck after getting the rifle squared away. The Blesbuck was loaded into the back of the Land Cruiser, and we returned to the lodge for drinks and a great dinner.
I awoke around 4:30 a.m. We headed out around 6:00 to hunt an area about an hour and a half away, north of Grahamstown. The land owner was a gentleman named Alvin, who I could tell had been a rugby player from all of the surgical scars on his knees. We saw a nice Steenbuck, but he ran off before we could really judge him. While hunting Springbok, we spotted a very nice Mountain Reedbuck between 7 and 8 inches. Just as he was about to disappear into the brush, I shot that Reedbuck at 150 yards.
Marcus and Alvin, the property owner
Later, I shot a pair of Springbok at 200 to 250 yards. The first appeared to have gone down, so I proceeded to shoot the second. Unfortunately, the first Springbok got up and took off. I followed the trackers, Smilee and Desmond, to put the injured animal down. However, it was not as badly injured as we had hoped. We followed it for what seemed like miles through very rough country, often running. Because of all that exertion, I had difficulty holding my rifle steady to shoot while catching my breath. It is truly amazing how the trackers are in such good shape and can run for miles without rest, or even breathing heavily.
Finally, the Springbok hunkered down, and I was able to end the chase.
Later that afternoon, my father shot a very nice Red Hartebeest. A rough measurement put that Hartebeest at 28 inches, a trophy in all the record books. These are very strange, yet cool looking animals.
Robert’s trophy Red Hartebeast, from left to right: Robert Cady, Smilee, Marcus Case and Alvin
Upon returning to the Alexandria area, we hunted two specific Gemsbok on a certain property. Louis and I stalked to within 250 yards, and as soon as I got on the sticks, the Gemsbok ran for cover. We tried to track them, but they escaped into a valley as we were running out of daylight.
Louis and I hunted Bushbuck in the morning, but the wind picked up, which kept these wary animals in the brush. That Bushbuck terrain was extremely rugged and covered in thick foliage.
Marcus with a trophy Gemsbok
Later that day, I shot my second Blesbuck. That afternoon we returned to hunt Gemsbok.
We went to a few spots to glass in an effort to find the Gemsbok. As we were walking through the area, Louis spotted the tips of an animal’s horns, and we immediately got down.
He told me to shoot as it was a good trophy. I shot the Gemsbok in the shoulder from about 80 to 100 yards. It ran a few steps after my shot, and I put one more in the animal for insurance, putting it down for good.
Blue Duiker with Smilee (left), Marcus, and Desmond
That Gemsbok measured slightly over 40 inches. We recovered the bullet from the second shot, and the 270-grain soft point from the .375 Holland & Holland rifle showed nice expansion.
Marcus with outfitter-PH Louis Lategan
That evening, Louis and I hunted Bushbuck and Duiker. We decided to use a Sako .243 Louis owns to preserve as much of the meat and hide as possible on these smaller animals. I had trouble shooting with Louis’ scope – the cross hairs just disappeared, but eventually I was able to take a nice Duiker and a good Cape Bushbuck. Cape Bushbuck, for those who have not hunted them, are a very nice animal with beautiful skin. Although Bushbuck are usually larger further north, the darker skin of the animals where we hunted adds a lot of character, in my opinion.
Marcus and Robert Cady with a White Blesbuck
My father shot a nice White Blesbuck at about 100 yards, running. He really wanted to add a White Blesbuck to his collection, and he was able to get a nice, mature male.
We left for Port Elizabeth to head to Limpopo Province to hunt with Ntshonalanga Safaris. On the way to the airport, we stopped at a curio shop to buy gifts for friends and family back home.
The flight from Port Elizabeth to Johannesburg is about two hours. We ar r ived in Johannesburg about 3:00 in the afternoon and met our PH, Paul Brits of Ntshonalanga Safaris. It was getting late, so we stayed in a nice guest house in Pretoria. At dinner that evening, we met Ray and Ellie. Ray was on his 15th safari, this time for a darted rhino. At the conclusion of our hunt, we learned that Ray got his darted rhino, together with several nice Plains Game specimens.
We left the Pretoria guest house for Limpopo Province about 7:00 that morning, headed for a town called Thabazimbi. On the way, we met Dirk and John Faul, owners of Ntshonalanga, and we picked up Willy, our skinner/tracker. Willy has hunted for over 17 years, and his skills showed his experience. We finally reached our destination, the Badger Bush Lodge, owned by Jacques and Lori.
That afternoon we headed to a nearby property. We did not see any trophy quality animals there, but did spot a Caracal during the day (a very rare sighting), and a Roan Antelope, a rare species.
We stayed the entire day on a property hunting Zebra, Blue Wildebeest, Impala and Warthog.
Burchelle’s Zebra with Marcus and PH Paul Brits
We dropped my father and Willy off at a blind while we drove around. We saw many Zebra, but could not tell if they were stallions or mares due to the thick brush. Speaking of brush, the terrain in Limpopo, otherwise known as the bushveld, reminded me a lot of Texas. We attempted several stalks, but the wind switched on us each time and gave our position away.
The afternoon hunt was very slow, but about 5:30 we finally spotted a small herd of Zebra.
Paul indicated which Zebra to shoot, and I steadied myself. I shot and connected from about 180 yards. Although I hit the Zebra on the shoulder, double-lunging him, it still ran almost 100 yards.
This had to be the most boring day of the hunt. I sat in a blind, while inhaling burned Zebra dung to mask our scent. I think we got spoiled the first week by having so many great shooting opportunities, which resulted in Day 10’s boredom. However, the animals will do their own thing. Such is hunting.
We left for a property owned by a gentleman named Reneil, which was not far from the Botswana border. On Paul’s GPS, I was able to determine that we were only a few miles from the Limpopo River, the border between South Africa and Botswana. Early that morning, we spotted a herd of Impala grazing just outside the bush. I shot a nice Impala ram at 200 yards, and the Impala went down instantly.
After that Impala, Reneil and I did quite a bit of walking through the bush, hunting animals or driving them toward the rest of our party in the bakke. During one of those stalks, we ran up a lot of game, including a very nice Warthog that ran off before I could take a shot.
Marcus with an old Warthog
Then we saw a nice Blue Wildebeest 100 yards away. Without shooting sticks, I used Reneil’s left shoulder as a rest and let the lead fly. I hit the bull in the shoulder, but he still ran off. We tried to track that Wildebeest for a bit, but could not find a good trail. Wildebeest are notorious for taking a lot of punishment and leaving very little blood trail. Reneil decided we should eat lunch and resume tracking with the rest of our crew and a dog.
After lunch, Kenny, a PH from a neighboring property, found my bull about 250 yards from where I shot it. It is amazing how much tougher African animals are than North American game. Despite ideal shot placement to the vitals, African game don’t always drop instantly. I was able to recover my Trophy Bonded Bear Claw slug from that Wildebeest, and the bullet mushroomed perfectly.
Later in the day, my father shot a Zebra. Unfortunately, his shot was a little low and the Zebra ran quite a ways. We picked up the blood trail and followed it for about 35 yards until it stopped. After spreading out to find spoor crossing the road ahead, we discovered more blood. Approaching a dry creek, we fanned out to have a better chance of jumping my father’s wounded Zebra. Willy found the Zebra and it took off running, but the Jack Russell Terrier, Sofiel, was in hot pursuit.
Monster 38″ Eland with Paul, Robert and Willy
Kenny was able to get off a couple shots, and he finally put that Zebra down. We crossed to Reneil’s other property to pursue Kudu before the sun fell off the horizon. We didn’t see any trophy Kudu, but we did see some Cape Buffalo and some very nice Eland.
We hunted Waterbuck that morning, but were minutes shy of catching them before they headed for the bush. While Willy skinned trophies from Day 11, I had my chance to drive the bakke. It took me a little while to get used to a right-hand drive vehicle, but it was smooth sailing thereafter. The order of the gears is the same as we have in a left-hand drive vehicle, but you must shift with your other hand.
Marcus and Renell with a tough Blue Wildebeest
However, at least the pedals are also the same as American left-handed vehicles.
Our plan that afternoon was to let my father hunt with Paul, and Jacques would take me elsewhere to hunt Kudu. Unfortunately, only young bulls showed in our area. However, I shot a Warthog, not the biggest ever taken, but an old animal and definitely one on my wish list. I just had to return to Texas with one of those ugly, wicked looking porkers from South Africa!
Marcus with a nice representative Impala
Dad returned to Reneil’s for Eland where he shot a record-book Cape Eland measuring 38 inches. I was amazed to see that Eland’s size! Paul told me Eland will often outweigh a Cape Buffalo.
We hunted the same area for Waterbuck the next morning, but without any luck. That afternoon, Jacques took me to his “honey hole” for Kudu. Unfortunately, it was the same story as the previous afternoon – no mature bulls there. Since this was the last day of our hunt, I was upset not to have had an opportunity at a Kudu bull, one of the animals I truly wanted to bring back from Africa.
That evening, we cooked Eland steaks, fresh from my father’s trophy, on hot, cast iron tiles and ate outside by the fire. Paul, my PH, told me he wanted to take me out in the morning for one last shot at Kudu before we left for Johannesburg. Paul was being gracious because our hunt had already concluded. I think he wanted to make up for our poor luck on Kudu.
Day 14 August 2
We sat in a blind for about an hour in the morning, but no Kudu bulls ever showed. We had to hurry to leave the lodge and head to Johannesburg in order to catch our long flight home.
I left Africa without my Kudu, but it gives me a great reason to return.
At the last North Texas SCI banquet, my father purchased a bird and Plains Game hunt lined out for South Africa in August 2010, and I may go to settle the score with that Kudu bull.
Overall, I have to rate this trip as absolutely amazing. I would recommend either outfitter to anyone considering a South African safari. The professional hunters and staff were incredibly skilled; the accommodations and meals were excellent. Despite the long commute, I am planning and saving for my next African safari for Kudu.
© 2008-2018 North Texas Chapter of Safari Club International. All Rights Reserved.
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