The full dataset viewer is not available (click to read why). Only showing a preview of the rows.
Job manager crashed while running this job (missing heartbeats).
Error code: JobManagerCrashedError
Need help to make the dataset viewer work? Make sure to review how to configure the dataset viewer, and open a discussion for direct support.
pred_label
string | pred_label_prob
float64 | wiki_prob
float64 | text
string | source
string |
|---|---|---|---|---|
__label__cc
| 0.538029
| 0.461971
|
Home » Electronic Games » Heroes & Generals – Preview
Posted on Jun 20, 2012 in Electronic Games
Heroes & Generals – Preview
By Kyle Stegerwald
I’m sure that most people who play strategic wargames and shooters have at some point thought about what a merging of the two genres would look like. What that nexus looks like is Heroes & Generals, a free-to-play shooter where nothing you can spend money on gives you an absolute advantage; a team-based shooter that actually promotes teamwork; a game about the Second World War that has a fresh approach to the subject; a browser game in which you can select where you are going to fight combined with first-person action reminiscent of Battlefield 1942.
Heroes & Generals combines strategic wargaming with first-person-shooter views like this one.
You play Heroes & Generals by logging into a Website with your player name and password, and then joining a campaign within the contest between the US and Germany that sprawls over Western Europe. After you’ve picked a soldier from one of several classes (pilot, machine gunner, anti-tank, sniper, regular grunt, etc.), you pick from any one of the battles that are going on, join the server, and blast away at the enemy.
The normal way to play a multiplayer shooter is to jump from one server to another, and the battles raging on each server are completely self-contained. If the terrorists win one match on one 24-hour dust2 server, for instance, that has no effect on any other games being played anywhere else. But in Heroes & Generals, what goes on in individual battles decides who "owns" the town, factory, airfield or chunk of land being contested. And ownership of these locations secures supply lines, resources, and production sites that are crucial to winning the war.
Logistics are all-important in H&G. As in a game like Battlefield 1942, each side begins a particular battle with a finite number of spawn tickets and must capture (or defend) points on a map sequentially to win. In Heroes & Generals spawn tickets are provided by assault teams, which are owned by players and represented on the overall strategic map by NATO symbols. Players can buy these teams (teams of airplanes, infantry, armor and so on) and move them from one map location to another. If the location they’re in borders an enemy location they can attack. When one player moves his assault team into an enemy location, the game spawns a new battle for everyone to join at that same place. Whatever is in the assault team the player initially attacked with (a platoon of tanks or a bunch of regular infantry, for instance) is what the people who join the game have to work with. So, if you send your assault team of two fighter planes to attack an enemy village, anyone joining that server can only spawn as a pilot, and only two people can spawn at all.
Typically, most battles involve several assault teams on each side. You can have a panzer assault team, a paratrooper assault team, two regular infantry teams, a recon (sniper) team, and the odd antitank team, all on the same map. When a team’s tickets are depleted they can no longer participate in the battle and must be reinforced before they can be used again. So it becomes important to constantly shove fresh resources into a battle if your own are getting worn down quicker than your enemy’s are.
Of course your enemy is constantly facing a similar resource squeeze, and on top of that, strategic moves can cut him (or you) off completely. If you’re defending Hamburg, for example, and in the middle of the battle the enemy secures all the towns with roads leading into Hamburg, then no new assault teams can join your battle, and you either have to stave off the enemy solely with the rapidly dwindling supply of tickets you posses, or ask your comrades to organize a strike on a nearby town so that it can be retaken and new assault teams can join the defense.
The shooting is very good. It’s somewhat realistic in that there is bullet drop, your stamina runs out quickly, most hits are lethal, and health regeneration is minimal (you regenerate only up to a certain percentage, based on how hard you were hit, and you have to go somewhere and find a medic kit to heal back up to full). There are very few maps right now (you’ll see a lot of one map in particular, the town-with-rivers map) but those that are in the game are very good. The town on the town-with-rivers map seems like an actual town, with all kinds of alleyways, rooftops, windows, doors, ledges, church towers and trees to get killed from. Even forests are exciting, with their huge trees, thick undergrowth and deep shadows. Add to all of this the day and night lighting system, and the three or four maps they’ve actually designed feel more like ten or twelve.
Vehicles in the game are multi-seat (you can have someone driving, someone riding and another firing a machine gun in the same jeep) and control pretty smoothly. The flight model for planes is not that complicated, and it’s possible to have some cool dogfights and anti-air duels with flak guns and quad .50-cal emplacements. You are advised, however, to leave the pilot slots to others if your flight skills aren’t up to par. People are extra sensitive about new players wasting resources, considering the wider effects that losing a bunch of planes can have on the war effort as a whole.
The game will be free-to-play and supported by a cash shop. What’s interesting (and encouraging) about this is that the things players can buy in the cash shop don’t appear to confer absolute advantages. You can buy a wide array of upgrades for every gun in the game, ranging from heavy barrels to match triggers and cut bullets. No upgrade is supposed to be better than any other, just different. Buying the upgrade that increases your damage with a particular gun by 5, for example, also increases your recoil by the same amount, making your shots more potent but making repeat hits on the same target more difficult. Veterans will have an obvious advantage in that their guns will be more tailored to their playstyle, but it isn’t the case (as it is in other games) that you’ll be able to buy an upgrade that will give you an unfair advantage. At least that’s the way it is now.
The usual disclaimers about bugs and glitches in preview or beta code apply to Heroes & Generals as well, probably more so than usual given the novelty of the engine and the framework. It was only a few weeks ago that the action side of the game and the strategic side were actually linked up for the first time, and my preview was delayed by days-long stretches where I would either be unable to connect at all or would log in only to find that the server had been taken down after some unexpected bug had crashed it. I still get the dreaded "cannot communicate with server" bug (one in every ten or so attempts to connect goes through), but the developers have been nothing if not responsive: they’ve organized special sessions explicitly to test the bug, they solicit detailed data on the hardware and connections of those affected, and so on. Patches come out constantly and it’s rare to not see a developer hanging out in the global chat channel answering questions, taking bug reports, or updating people on the state of the game.
Graphics and sound aren’t yet in their final state, and in the future, the developers have indicated that they plan to make the game even more stable and to add new maps, vehicles, weapons and also alternate game types. Right now there are skirmishes (smaller matches with two or three capture points) and attack/defend battles (large engagements over large maps with several capture points and many more people). The developers would like to add supply raiding, assassination (most of the developers previously worked on the Hitman series), and others. It will be exciting to see what comes next.
Kyle Stegerwald is a student and a wargamer living in the Wild, Wild West. He’s been playing games since the Macintosh II and reviewing them for Websites including Wargamer and Armchair General for about a decade now.
Intelligence Bulletin Vol 2 * No 22 | Heroes & Generals HQ - [...] Gaming Portugal True PC Gaming Armchair General [...]
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line3
|
__label__cc
| 0.730013
| 0.269987
|
Re: CGI, semicolons, and so on...
Robert S. Thau (rst@ai.mit.edu)
Wed, 29 Dec 93 18:59:14 EST
Next message: Tony Sanders: "Re: CGI and typing files by suffix"
Previous message: Robert S. Thau: "Re: CGI, semicolons, and so on..."
a) it was trying to run the script, and not the coversheet.
(After all, it makes no sense to try to run the coversheet).
b) It tried and failed to run the script. Therfore, the script is
somehow broken, even though it seems to work just fine
when tested from the command line.
This is the setup for a major wild goose chase.
Better error messages might ameliorate the problem --- but it would be
better if it weren't so easy to make this error in the first place. It's
easy to slip up with chmod without knowing it, and when that makes things
break (as when 'chmod * 664' snags a directory by mistake), it can be
pretty tricky to figure out what's gone wrong. ('ls' works, but nothing
else does). But accidentally renaming foo.html to foo.doit --- that's
tough.
In fact, suffix-based naming conventions are all over Unix, and many other
widely used operating systems, in part because on many of these systems, a
file's name is one of the few unique attributes the thing has got. I don't
think it's "inelegant" that the C compiler treats files whose names end in
'.c' different from those whose names end in '.o', and I've never found it
to be bothersome. Perhaps it's a matter of taste --- but like I said,
arguments over those will never be resolved.
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line4
|
__label__cc
| 0.598982
| 0.401018
|
Home / News / Swartdogs encounter setbacks at FIRST international contest
Swartdogs encounter setbacks at FIRST international contest
The robotics team, known as the Swartdogs or team 525, finished with a 3-7 overall record in their group and could not make it into the elimination rounds in St. Louis last week at the world finals where over 400 teams qualified. The Swartdogs were placed into one of the most difficult groups at the competition and knew it would be tough.
“I feel like we gave it our best shot. Our robot performed as well as we had hoped,” sophomore team member Jason Cheng said. “Luck just didn’t go our way, I suppose.”
The game this year is called Aerial Assist. The premise of the game is that two alliances of three robots each try to outscore the opposing team in the number of yoga-ball sized balls into goals at the opposing ends of the 25×54 foot field. The more balls each team gets into the goal during the two minute and 30 second match, and the more each team works together to do it, the more points each alliance will receive. Each alliance is made up of robots from three teams, and each team must work together to get points for their alliance.
The Swartdogs competed in two other competitions, or regionals, before competing in the world finals. Team 525 first went to Pekin, Ill., for the Central Illinois Regional, where the team won a host of awards including being part of the winning allegiance, thus winning the regional. In addition to that, the Swartdogs won the Innovation in Control award, which is given to the robot that has the most innovative design. Perhaps the most prestigious award that the Swartdogs earned is the Woodie Flowers Award, which is presented to the best mentor at the regional. Mentors are adults on the team who look over and guide the team in the right direction. Mentor Jan Newendorp won the coveted award.
“Receiving this award at the FRC Central Illinois Regional was even more special since Dr. Flowers came to Illinois and gave it to me. While talking with him afterwards it became clear why the award is named after him. He is very gracious. I am honored that our students nominated me,” Newendorp said.
A few weeks after Pekin, the team travelled to Cincinnati for the Queen City Regional. There, the Swartdogs posted similar results winning the Innovation in Control Award. Unfortunately, the Swartdogs were knocked out in the quarter-finals in Cincinnati.
Physics teacher Kenton Swartley is the “coach” of the team, and he said that the season as a whole went very well.
“We had some great successes mixed with some challenges. The goal of the robotics team is to provide students with learning opportunities related to engineering. There were many great opportunities for learning, and students did a tremendous job throughout our design, construction and programming of the robot,” Swartley said.
Related Itemsjason chengroboticsSWARTdogsswartleyteam 525
← Previous Story Final music concerts lined up for May
Next Story → Students make their own prom dresses
Swartdogs focusing on diversity, equity training
Robotics team gearing up for next season
Can drives adding to robotics team opportunities
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line16
|
__label__cc
| 0.602507
| 0.397493
|
ISTP, 8025 Lamon Ave. Skokie, Il 60077
Choose ISTP
Vision & Master Plan
Northwestern Connection
International Connections
Suites – Build to Suit
Space Available Now
Getting To ISTP
Lab Space
Cour Pharma Expands at ISTP
To meet the increasing demand for medical research space in the Chicagoland area, Cour Pharmaceuticals’ life science and emerging biotechnology footprint is expanding within the Illinois Science and Technology Park in Skokie, Ill. With the addition, Cour Pharmaceuticals now leases around 25,000 sq. ft. in the park.
COUR Pharmaceuticals is developing first-in-class therapies designed to reprogram the immune system to achieve antigen-specific tolerance for immune-mediated disease. COUR’s platform of immune-modifying nanoparticles treats the root cause of immune disease, unlike traditional approaches, which only minimize symptoms using toxic immune suppression.
“Continued rapid growth for high-potential life science startups are emerging in Chicago and in addition to talent, life sciences companies like COUR will continue to need access to more specialized wet and dry lab space along with capital,” said COUR Pharmaceuticals CEO John Puisis.
December 13, 2021 Comments Off on Cour Pharma Expands at ISTP Blog, News Like
NU Record Research Funding
Northwestern Research Funding- Record $893M. Northwestern University’s research enterprise once again demonstrated strong performance, with annual sponsored funds reaching a new record high of $893.4 million for the fiscal year that closed Aug. 31. This represents an increase of 1% from last year’s total and continues a decade-long trend that has positioned Northwestern among the nation’s most prestigious research institutions. Since 2011, the University’s research funding has increased more than 74% as Northwestern approaches $1 billion in sponsored support, a feat achieved by only its top academic peers.
“The remarkable depth and breadth of Northwestern research continues to make a huge positive impact, transforming entire fields and strengthening society,” Milan Mrksich, vice president for research. said. “As we continue to go from strength to strength — including important investments in our entrepreneurial and innovation ecosystem to increase translation — we will enhance our already superb research enterprise to keep elevating Northwestern’s reputation as a premier destination for the best scholars, scientists and students in the world.”
“Our research portfolio now includes a higher percentage of larger, complex awards, reflecting the collaborative approach to research that Northwestern fosters,” said Shandra White, executive director of Sponsored Research. “Having diverse projects within Northwestern’s research landscape is vital, along with the robust infrastructure to support the complexity of those high-impact investigations.”
For more about NU, click here.
September 27, 2021 Comments Off on NU Record Research Funding Blog, News Like
CMO Leadership Awards
Vetter was granted the 2021 CMO Leadership Awards in five core categories – quality, expertise, compatibility, capabilities, and service. Winning five core categories reaffirms Vetter as a trusted solution provider, particularly during globally challenging times.
“Yet again, Vetter is honored to be a winner of the CMO Leadership Awards as determined by our most important judges – our global customers,” said Vetter Managing Director Peter Soelkner. “This recognition is of particular importance given the challenging and turbulent times we are all experiencing with the global Covid-19 pandemic.” Carsten Press, Vetter’s Senior Vice President Key Account Management/Supply Chain Management/Marketing added, “Winning this award in five key categories is a direct reflection of what we strive to project to our customers. It further demonstrates our stable performance for them and especially their patients.”
Unlike other awards where an application process takes place, winners of the CMO Leadership Awards are chosen according to a customer ranking system. The basis for this is their hands-on experience with the service providers they have actually worked with. Using this method of validation means results are not able to be influenced in any manner. As such, the awards honor true customer performance and signify that winning companies have distinguished themselves through a leading level of support for the needs of their pharma and biotech customers.
To read the entire release, click here
August 3, 2021 Comments Off on CMO Leadership Awards Blog, News Like
Demand for Lab Space
A surge in life sciences funding has spiked the demand for lab space. While the pandemic and the race for a vaccine certainly accelerated investor interest, it was already ignited by ongoing breakthroughs in immuno-oncology, neonatology and other technological advances. What’s more, investment in the sector has translated into commercial real estate leasing in a clear and direct way.
This has impacted leasing. In the major U.S. life sciences markets, total vacancy has decreased by 250 basis points between 2015 and 2020, from 9.8 percent to 7.3 percent. The pandemic is a major driver of the increased government funding. In the U.S., Project Warp Speed sent billions toward COVID-19 research and biomanufacturing with the intent of bringing a vaccine to market.
These transactions bring with them a plethora of life sciences jobs, which can also spur development of housing, retail and other urban amenities that serve the people who live and work in the knowledge center.
“Every time there is a funding round, it’s only a matter of months before these companies are looking for new space,” says Travis McCready, Executive Director, US Life Sciences Markets, JLL. “When companies get VC money, they need lab space in order to deliver as soon as humanly possible. Life sciences have an outsized impact on development in the surrounding area when compared to other sectors,” McCready says. “In a sense, increased investment in life sciences is the tide that lifts all ships” To learn more from JLL, click here.
August 3, 2021 Comments Off on Demand for Lab Space Blog Like
8-Story Hotel In Downtown Skokie
The 142-room Homewood Suites by Hilton is planned for the northeast corner of Oakton Street and Niles Avenue. The deal calls for the developer to present proof that a hotel at least as prestigious as a Homewood Suites plans to operate at the site for at least 15 years.
Downtown Skokie Hotel
Downtown Skokie Master Plan
The hotel is set to include 30,000 square feet of retail space on its ground floor and rooftop and about 10,000 square feet of banquet and event space.
Corporation Counsel Michael Lorge said the project will be a positive addition to the under-construction 8000 North development about 1,000 feet to the west on Oakton Avenue. “The addition of a hotel to the downtown area is an important and a commanding addition to the economic development already going on in downtown Skokie, and it provides great resources for the surrounding corridor,” Lorge said ahead of the project’s approval at the Dec. 7 village board meeting. “It is also an important addition to the Illinois Science and Technology Park, which needs hotel accommodations for its tenants.”
For more on this new hotel, click here.
July 29, 2021 Comments Off on 8-Story Hotel In Downtown Skokie Blog, News Like
ISTP Ownership Changes
Archives Select Month December 2021 November 2021 September 2021 August 2021 July 2021 March 2021 January 2021 August 2020 April 2020 January 2020 November 2019 October 2019 August 2019 July 2019 May 2019 April 2019 March 2019 February 2019 January 2019 November 2018 October 2018 September 2018 July 2018
Receive updates on the tenants, community and science. Click here to subscribe.
8025 Lamon Ave.
Terms of Use -- Copyright 2021 Illinois Science + Technology Park
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line18
|
__label__cc
| 0.695401
| 0.304599
|
RAF and RAAF ORBs available on the Web (new version)
Laurent Rizzotti
The last list seemed to interest people and is now a bit outdated. I checked all links below, modified some and added those listed in the comments and some others.
Any comment and addition welcome, off course.
Ruy, maybe you can un-anchor the old thread and replace it by this one ?
RAF and RAAF ORBs available on the Web (on 9 November 2009):
Note: for all ORB in Australian archives (starting with http://naa12.naa.gov.au), the direct link listed below won't work. You have first to connect to them. Go to the page http://naa12.naa.gov.au/ and click on Guest, that will open a connexion for you, then all links listed below will show you the right document (to see i treally you have then to click on the "View digital copy" button)
8 Sqn
2-3 May 1944 (chase of U-852): http://8squadron.co.uk/history_540-1.php
May-October 1945: http://8squadron.co.uk/No8SEACbrkrev2.pdf
12 Sqn
1 May – 13 july 1943: http://www.aujs06.dsl.pipex.com/12sq...ml/records.htm
October 1940: http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/f5400291.html and next pages
May 1941: http://home.freeuk.net/johndillon/raf.htm#33Sqn
5 August 1941: http://www.clham.org/images11/T%20V-1-52.bmp
June 1942 to August 1945: http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Item...?M=0&B=1129276
93 Sqn - 420 Flt:
http://www.rafjever.org/93squadchronology.htm
http://www.97squadronassociation.co.uk/flightops.html
112 Sqn
26 October 1942 to 17 December 1942: http://raf-112-squadron.org/RAF-112-...bhd1a/ORB.html
July 1940: http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/f5401411.html and next page
151 Sqn (Not a full copy of the ORB, but enough details to be close, probably listing all actions recorded in Form 540)
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/kelsey....20War%20II.htm
http://www.156squadron.com/default.htm
January 1944: http://www.rquirk.com/159opps.html
ORB « C » Flight (« Special operations »): http://www.rquirk.com/splflt/draft.pdf
January 1943 to March 1944: http://www.rquirk.com/160opps.html
1944: http://www.rquirk.com/160oper/160Sqn1944.pdf
1942-1943: http://www.tempsford-squadrons.info/
11 April 1945-10 May 1945: http://www.184squadron.com/memories.htm
200 Sqn (March 1944-April 1945)
http://8squadron.co.uk/200sqnseacrev2a.pdf
20-21 March 1943: http://www.castlearchdale.net/id31.html
215 Sqn (July 1944-April 1945)
http://www.rquirk.com/215opps.html
6 July 1944: http://pagesperso-orange.fr/yves.bro...erso702gb.html
http://homepage.ntlworld.com/laurieburley/jeff/orb.html
269 Sqn (not an ORB but very detailled history)
http://www.oca.269squadron.btinterne..._narrative.pdf
ORB 1-6 October 1944: http://www.littlefriends.co.uk/ramrod-app-d.php
300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 305, 306, 307, 308, 309, 315, 316, 317, 318, 663 Sqn
http://orb.polishaf.pl/
August-September 1940: http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/f5403031.html and next pages
http://www.322squadron.com/
330, 331, 332, 333 Sqn
http://mediabase1.uib.no/pls/apex/f?...52462107::NO:2
Incomplete diary: http://home.pi.be/~braf/350Sqn/350diary.htm
Some special dates: http://home.pi.be/~braf/350Sqn/350campaign.htm
http://www.rquirk.com/354oper/354history.pdf
357 Sqn (1944)
http://www.rquirk.com/357oper/357Sqdn1944.pdf
http://www.404squadron.com/formation.html
http://www.castlearchdale.net/id31.html
4-7 June 1944: http://www.junobeach.org/e/4/can-tac-air-fig-438-e.htm
http://www.rcaf.com/439squadron/Thisday.htm
April-May 1945: http://www.rquirk.com/442.html
1-6 October 1944: http://www.junobeach.org/e/4/can-tac-air-fig-443-e.htm
http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Item...?M=0&B=1359188
May 1941-February 1942: http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Item...?M=0&B=1359053
June 1942-January 1946: http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Item...?M=0&B=1359195
October 1941-December 1943: http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Item...?M=0&B=1359211
January 1944-October 1945: http://naa12.naa.gov.au/scripts/Item...?M=0&B=1359212
http://www.467463raafsquadrons.com/L...bsTimeLine.htm
18-20 March 1945: http://www.rafjever.org/118sqnper001.htm
Some noticeable days: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/609photos...20Archives.htm
August 1940: http://www.raf.mod.uk/bob1940/f5406101.html
http://www.dambusters.org.uk/docs/recordbook.pdf
420 Flt - 93 Sqn:
57 OTU
January-June 1941: http://www.rafcommands.com/57OTU/57%...une%201941.htm
__________________________________________________ __________
RAAF
RAAF Unit History sheets (Form A50) Number xxx Squadron
1 Sqn RAAF
10 Sqn RAAF
18 (NEI) Sqn RAAF
80 Sqn RAAF (concise ORB)
82 Sqn RAAF (ORB scanned in inverse order...)
87 Sqn (1 PRU) RAAF
100 Sqn RAAF
200 & 201 Flight RAAF
Air Sea Rescue Flights RAAF
No digital copy yet in Australian archives: 34, 60, 83, 92 Sqn RAAF
__________________________________________________ ___________________
2 Sqn SAAF
Mareth Line battle: http://en.wordpress.com/tag/second-w...-north-africa/
Lost - no more online:
RAF Station Tarrant Rushton ORB
http://www.tarrant-rushton.ndirect.c...ationDiary.htm
Send a private message to Laurent Rizzotti
Find all posts by Laurent Rizzotti
Re: RAF and RAAF ORBs available on the Web (new version)
Addition:
201 Sqn 1939-1940: http://www.rafcommands.com/wardiary/201/201WD.html
101 Sqn RAF (apparently whole war is planned, currently available September 1939 to June 1941):
http://www.156squadron.com/101default.htm
erwin.zeez
Originally Posted by Laurent Rizzotti
thanks Laurent Rizzott for all of these
thankssssssss
cisco certification and more about cisco exams and cisco exam questions
Send a private message to erwin.zeez
Find all posts by erwin.zeez
Any ideas about the ORB for 20 OTU?
Send a private message to hecate
Find all posts by hecate
21st April 2010, 21:51
phasselgren
Location: Karlskrona, Sweden
Just wants to add that the complete ORB of 184 Sqn is now available at www.184squadron.com (mentioned above). Great site by Dave Russell Smith.
Send a private message to phasselgren
Find all posts by phasselgren
7th June 2010, 07:16
Hi from a Newbie, I am tring to obtain the ORBs for 38 298
and 644 sqadrons, the url shown for 298 and 644 to obtain the ORB's does not work for me in OZ. 38 was sort of mixed up with both the previous. Any ideas would be welcome
Thanks Peter Holme
Send a private message to Pete2007
Find all posts by Pete2007
JohnE
72 Sq. ORB during Battle of Britain:
http://www.battleofbritain.tv/72_Squadron_ORB.html
Send a private message to JohnE
Find all posts by JohnE
Location: Poole,Dorset U.K.
Yet another "Newbie" I am afraid! - Has anyone by chance the ORB for 122 Squadron & 613 Squadron by chance?
Send a private message to smokie
Find all posts by smokie
Saw a recommendation for http://www.oldrafrecords.com/about.php by Robin Barnes on RAF Commands Forum. Includes 43, 54, 56, 79, 141 and 145 Sqns. From WW1 to 1941. Robin Barnes plans to add much more later. A great initiative.
RAF losses 5./6. March 1945 JanZ Allied and Soviet Air Forces 13 25th February 2012 13:40
RAF raid on Gdynia, 18/19 Dec 1944 alkali Allied and Soviet Air Forces 9 5th January 2012 08:06
Operation Jubilee aircrew list Steve49 Allied and Soviet Air Forces 39 12th December 2010 23:00
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line22
|
__label__cc
| 0.664378
| 0.335622
|
Simple Strategy for Binary Options - 100% Free. Try Now!
Easy binary options strategy - conversica.com
5 Minute Binary Options Strategy
“Simple as ABC” Trading Strategy - BinaryOptions.net
Binary Options Online Trading EasyBinaryOption.com
Liked on YouTube: binary day trading - never loss - candle pattern analysis simple and easy binary options strategy
Binary Options Strategy - Easy way to trade #binaryoptions
submitted by ultimatefxtools to u/ultimatefxtools [link] [comments]
Binary Options Strategy - Easy way to trade
Binary Options Trading: Is It Easy To Become A Millionaire? Check Our Strategy Tips
submitted by Muyibusiness to binary_options [link] [comments]
Wasteland 3 - Review Thread
Game Title: Wasteland 3
PlayStation 4 (Aug 28, 2020)
PC (Aug 28, 2020)
Xbox One (Aug 28, 2020)
Trailers:
Wasteland 3 – "1987" Official X019 Trailer
Wasteland 3 – Patriarch of Colorado Gamescom Trailer
Wasteland 3 - E3 2019 Official Trailer
Wasteland 3 - The Patriarch's Call
Wasteland 3 - A Frosty Reception
Developer: inXile Entertainment
Review Aggregator:
OpenCritic - 84 average - 97% recommended - 39 reviews
33bits - Juanma F. Padilla - Spanish - 95 / 100
After the excellent Wasteland 2, we were excited to get our hands on the new installment, and we can say without fear that it has met expectations. Wasteland 3 is a sign of the love that InXile has for his work and Brian Fargo for the genre that has created a name for him. If you are a lover of the saga or the genre, do not hesitate to enjoy it.
ACG - Jeremy Penter - Buy
Video Review - Quote not available
Attack of the Fanboy - Diego Perez - 4.5 / 5 stars
Wasteland 3 is one of the best RPGs I've played in years, and it's one you absolutely should not skip.
CGMagazine - Lane Martin - 9 / 10
Wasteland 3 is a lovely return to the post nuclear apocalypse with fun gameplay and interesting choices at its forefront, though at times it can be a bit clumsy in its implementation.
COGconnected - Tony Bae - 90 / 100
Wasteland 3 doesn’t pull any punches with its subject matter in sexuality, violence, and language. But if you are fine with that, I would highly recommend you give Wasteland 3 a shot, especially if you were (or still are) a Fallout fan.
Cerealkillerz - Julian Bieder - German - 8.8 / 10
On Paper Wasteland 3 sounds like the perfect RPG-Dream but the execution leaves much to be desired. Bugs, Glitches and graphics that doesn't really represent a game that releases and the end of this console generation are a bit of a letdown. Everything else from the great story, entertaining NPCs, solid battle system, clever leveldesign over to the love for details is amazing, besides some flaws that should soon be fixed, as inXile and Brian Fargo promise. Everyone that wasn't happy with the latest Fallout Games will surely love Wasteland 3.
Chicas Gamers - Adrián de Francisco - Spanish - Unscored
Wasteland 3 is a old-school role-playing game, with a compelling story, a combat system that promises but is not groundbreaking and some funny moments and black mood, which always remind us that we are in a post apocalyptic world, but with a smile. Don't forget the powerful character editor, rhythm voices, and the beautiful scenery that puts you in that atmosphere of cold and snowy Colorado.
Cram-Gaming - Robert Cram - 8.5 / 10
Wasteland 3 can be a bit of slog if you're gunning for marathon gaming sessions with it at the helm. Combat, whilst exciting initially can fall into the traps of repetition. A little more variety could have negated some of the repeated player actions. That said, the story is compelling and the characters an interesting assortment of misfit survivors, although perhaps fitting post-apocalyptic stereotypes. It's a fun, easy to play game overall though that should well-please fans of the series and keep players entertained for quite some time with its high replay-value. However, aside from some bugs here and there, the impressive amount of voice-work on offer, the character building is the best part of the experience where you can really nurture your ranger squad in this snowy post-apocalyptic world.
Digital Trends - Tom Caswell - 4 / 5 stars
Wasteland 3 is a rewarding game that offers unprecedented choice and is a great jumping on point for new players.
DualShockers - Kris Cornelisse - 9 / 10
Improving on its predecessor in almost every way, Wasteland 3 is one of the best and most reactive RPGs I've played in a long time.
EGM - Mollie L Patterson - Unscored
At least in my time with it, Wasteland 3 has been a fascinating experience. I’ve come to appreciate its depth of gameplay, character, building, and exploration, even if some of its pieces and parts still feel very foreign to me.
Entertainium - Eduardo Rebouças - Unscored
I will be even happier with Wasteland 3 once it’s patched and most of the bugs that bit me end up getting squashed. Even in its current state I’m having a grand ol’ time bringing some justice to the cold depths where no Ranger has dared to before. But for as much of a blast as I’m having out northeast in the cold, I hope I can make it back to sunny Arizona in time to save my fellow lawmen!
Eurogamer - Wesley Yin-Poole - Recommended
inXile's old-school RPG is the Fallout game we've been craving.
Fextralife - Castielle - 8.3 / 10
Wasteland 3 is a throwback to the old School RPGs of yesteryear, while providing a new combat experience and a bigger world. Players that liked previous Fallout Games, or games like Wasteland 2 or Baldur's Gate will feel right at home with this title, and will have the opportunity to try X-Com like combat. For the amount of content provided, 60 USD is a very good price, and fans of the genre should get more than their money's worth.
GAMES.CH - Nedžad Hurabašić - German - 83 / 100
Wasteland 3 is absolutely worth the money - the RPG brings dozens of hours of fun gameplay to the table. A must-buy for roleplayers.
Game Revolution - Jason Faulkner - 4 / 5 stars
Wasteland 3 is a marvel of a game, especially from a small studio like inExile. It’s not without its flaws, but the excellent writing and enthralling world overshadow those.
GameSkinny - Daniel Hollis - 9 / 10 stars
Wasteland 3 invokes feelings of classic RPGs such as Fallout and manages to nail the feel and tone perfectly in a modernized setting.
GameWatcher - Marcello Perricone - 8.5 / 10
A fantastic RPG that superbly mixes player choice and great combat to something bigger than the sum of its parts.
GamesRadar+ - Andrew King - 4 / 5 stars
Wasteland 3 doesn't bring much new to the table, both as a CRPG and as a piece of post-apocalyptic fiction. But, it's a terrifically executed role-playing game that rewards player investment from beginning to end.
GamingBolt - Ravi Sinha - 9 / 10
Wasteland 3 is a heady crescendo of post-apocalyptic story-telling. Its combat is compelling and fun while its characters and overall plot are engrossing, even when it goes to some dark places. A must-play for tactical RPG fans.
Gert Lush Gaming - Jim Smale - 9 / 10
Wasteland 3 is the defacto strategy experience and one that every gamer owes themself the pleasure of playing.
God is a Geek - Mick Fraser - 9.5 / 10
Wasteland 3 is a huge undertaking, marrying deep, choice-driven role play with fast-paced tactical combat and vast areas to explore.
IGN Spain - Álex Pareja - Spanish - 8 / 10
Wasteland 3 knows how to open to new players keeping the old school essence. It's not a revolution on the genre or in the post apocaliptic proposal, but it won't matter to the franchise lovers.
Niche Gamer - Cwb - 3.5 / 10
We’ll update this review if the game is fixed, and the issues outlined are fixed or at least addressed; and then I’ll pick it back up. As it stands now, I’ll be playing something else that isn’t as apt to crash. Buyer beware.
PC Gamer - Jody Macgregor - 84 / 100
A wilfully strange setting explored through a predictable but enjoyable old school RPG thats been streamlined just enough.
PC Invasion - Jason Rodriguez - 8.5 / 10
There are a few misgivings related to Wasteland 3's technical aspects, mechanics, and overall challenge. However, its cast of characters (both old and new), the switch to a traditional turn-based combat system, and branching paths filled with decisions and dire consequences make for a superb journey with the Desert Rangers.
PCGamesN - Gina Lees - 9 / 10
Lurid characters, a deep RPG system, and captivating combat set in an unhinged apocalypse - inXile Entertainment's latest shouldn't be missed.
Player2.net.au - Matt Hewson - A or higher
With a focus on freedom of choice that is second-to-none, Wasteland 3 has set the benchmark for CRPG narratives, all the while being supported by wonderfully engaging gameplay and roleplaying mechanics.
PowerUp! - Leo Stevenson - 9.7 / 10
If you’re an RPG fan, a Fallout fan or even just a videogame fan, do yourself a favour and play one of this year’s very best games; Wasteland 3.
Saving Content - Scott Ellison II - 5 / 5 stars
It took me a while to realize how much these interactions, whether it be the interpersonal conversation or combat encounters themselves, stuck with me. Wasteland 3 has rules, but they only exist for you to bend them. With limitless character creation combinations, branching dialogue choices that affect what quests you do or don’t experience, and multiple endings, Wasteland 3 is an expanse of content and opportunity. The change in locale does wonders, no longer relying on a tired post-apocalyptic biome. Wasteland 3 has a wonderful backdrop in Colorado’s frozen wastes, making it the perfect place to spend a nuclear winter.
Screen Rant - Christopher Teuton - 4 / 5 stars
Wasteland 3 takes players to a new location and presents them with equally unfamiliar challenges, yet still perfectly demonstrates all of the reasons why this series has had die-hard fans for over three decades, and is absolutely worth playing for anyone looking for their next post-apocalyptic fix.
Shacknews - Josh Hawkins - 9 / 10
If you’re a big fan of the original Wasteland games, or just an RPG fan in general, then I highly recommend picking up Wasteland 3 and giving it a try.
Spaziogames - Paolo Sirio - Italian - 8.3 / 10
Wasteland 3 doesn't change its predecessor's successful formula but, outside of certain design limitations, it perfects and modernizes it. It's easily the best game in the franchise, in terms of pure technique, and one that clearly gives you an idea of what inXile is able to achieve.
The Games Machine - Danilo Dellafrana - Italian - 8.7 / 10
Wasteland 3 is a good role-playing game, technically passable but enriched by a dense network of intriguing subplots that will push the most dedicated to play it several times. Watch out for the ever-present release bugs, though – best to wait a couple patches if you want to avoid unnecessary hurdles.
TrustedReviews - Alastair Stevenson - 4 / 5 stars
Wasteland 3 is a solid tactical RPG that will keep fans of the genre entertained for hours upon hours. But it doesn't do enough to bring the genre forward to a mainstream audience.
WayTooManyGames - Thomas Medina - 9 / 10
All in all, this is the game I wanted so badly for Wasteland 2 to be. It doesn’t just repeat what came before, but expands upon it all. Not just mechanically, but story wise as well.
Wccftech - Francesco De Meo - 9 / 10
Wasteland 3 features everything only the best role-playing games do: an engaging story powered by excellent writing, compelling characters, tons of customization options, and a deep tactical combat system that feels fresh even after dozens of hours. But, most of all, it features a living world that reacts to what the player does, and changes depending on how the player decides to deal with the troubles ahead, providing a role-playing experience of the highest degree, one that very few games can boast of.
Windows Central - Jez Corden - 5 / 5 stars
Wasteland 3 is a testament to the power of the branching narrative, taking it far beyond binary choices and into a grand canopy of cause and effect. It gives the wintry climbs of Colorado a lifelike quality that must have been painstaking to build. The most impressive RPG in years, Wasteland 3 is a masterpiece.
XboxEra - Jesse Norris - 9.7 / 10
Wasteland 3 shines with clear dedication to crafting the best game its genre has ever seen. Excellent visuals are matched by top notch voice work and some of the best and most natural writing I have seen in a video game not made by Naughty Dog. The combat is a brutal dance where one wrong move can spell disaster, but victory is an exhilarating rush that never becomes old. Wasteland 3 cements inXile as one of the best in the business in the RPG genre and affirms that Xbox has something truly special on their hands.
submitted by diogenesl to Games [link] [comments]
Greed is Subtle
The morning alarm woke up Ghen. With an annoyed sigh, he stretched out his arm and silenced the foul-sounding chirps. Slowly sitting up in bed, he let out a deep yawn and got to his feet.
Running a couple of chitinous fingers along his antennae to stimulate them to life, he made his bed and then went to his closet. Today was a work day, so he needed his suit. Once the pants were on, he stretched out his wings so that he could button up the shirt, then relaxing them once all the buttons were secured.
Dressing for the day was done, now for the morning meal. Entering his kitchen, he took out the chilled leftovers of the evening meal last night and popped it into the radiator, first defrosting and then slightly cooking it.
During that process, he also fished out a ceramic cup and placed it in his brewer, serving himself some synthesized caffeine. His idle thought led him to being amused that, when eaten directly off a plant, it has a concentration that could kill him three times over. But after going through some refinement and roasting, all it does is make him hyper.
Once the meal was put together, his plate of heated leftovers and a cup of almost-piping-hot cup of Xia's, he took his time to enjoy it. His communicator vibrated. When he looked, he found it was from his boss.
"Hello?" Ghen answered.
"Ghen, the meeting's been moved up to a few minutes from now." His boss, Xkik, announced. "Apparently higher up has something important they want to say. We have a terminal ready for you, I'll message the login details."
"Wha-, what's so important?" Ghen asked in bewilderment. "Did a water line rupture or something?"
"No, nothing like that." Xkik replied with a slight chuckle. "It's actually about the rumors we've been hearing. That human corporation wanting to acquire us? That's what they're talking about."
Ghen could feel everything inside his thorax drop to the floor. "That must mean it's true then, right? Did we get sold off by the Queen to this company then?"
"Show up to the meeting and you'll get your answer." Xkik said simply. When he finished, Ghen got the notification on his communicator. There's the login details, allowing him to remotely attend the meeting. "They're about to start, hurry up."
Once Xkik disconnected, Ghen worked fast to login and set up the remote viewing. Once everything was done, his screen started transmitting the meeting room. It was already packed. And off by the main board, he saw his answer. There was a human, resting against the wall on his two legs. Standing right in the center of everyone's view was the coordinator, Tizx, watching the clock periodically.
As soon as the meeting's start time was reached, the coordinator began. "Alright everyone. I realize that this was rather short notice, so I want to say how appreciative I am that you made it. Now then, let's just get right to it. For some time now, many of you have been hearing rumors that a human corporation has been interested in us. Why? We never really knew. We're just an organization responsible for finding, extracting and providing water to the colony here all under the direction of the Queen herself. Well, as of now, I have the answer for you. Why don't I let Ryan say that?"
Stepping back, Tizx motioned for the human, Ryan, to take over. With a nod, Ryan practically bounced over and then took the position. "Good morning to you all. I hope my Zazk is passable, heh. Anyways, the answer to those rumors, is yes. Terran Galactic Company is indeed interested in you all. Which now leads to me. I'm here to announce that, effective yesterday evening, this water company is now a subsidiary of Terran Galactic Company, under the name of Zilia Water Delivery."
Many other sub-coordinators broke into hushed conversation, no doubt speaking their thoughts with each other about this move. Ghen could only wonder if this was even a good thing. What will the humans do? Will he still have his job? Will he have to learn how to deal with the ruthless humans?
"Now, I am well aware this is quite the...uh, change." Ryan continued. "That's why I'm happy to inform you that, no, nothing negative or detrimental will happen to you. You just have new people to answer to. Operations will continue as normal, everybody here will still keep their jobs. The only real change any of you will personally experience is that Coordinator Tizx here will now report to someone else. On behalf of the Terran Galactic Company, we are extremely excited and are looking forward to working with you all. Thank you for your time."
A week later.
At least Ryan wasn't lying. After the initial shock wore off, things went back as they normally did. There were no terminations, no reductions in annual pay or anything. Nothing really changed. At least until this new meeting was called. Ghen was at the worksite this time, so he took his seat and watched as, once again, Ryan led the meeting.
"Hello again, everyone!" He said cheerfully, his Zazk noticeably improved. "I hope I didn't end up looking like a liar, right? Everything's still normal, all that?"
All the zazk in the room confirmed, providing comments to their pleasant surprise as well as lingering thoughts.
"Awesome! Awesome." Ryan said jubilantly, his fleshy mouth revealing his bone-white teeth. "Now then, you're probably wondering why I'm here again, right? Well, I got another fantastic piece of news for you all! Two, actually. I'll start with the first: Zilia Water Delivery has just completed its IPO. The company is now publicly traded!"
Ghen and the others voiced their confusion, having no idea what in the name of the Queen Ryan was talking about. What was Ryan talking about? What's an IPO? And why exactly is being publicly traded such a significant thing?
"Oh, you guys don't know any of that?" Ryan asked in surprised confusion. After everybody confirmed, he let out a quick huff as he began his explanation. "Well, to begin, IPO is short for Initial Public Offering. Basically what that means is that, before today, Zilia was privately held. Only certain individuals could buy and sell shares here. But now that we're public? Literally anyone can buy and sell shares in the company, hence us being publicly traded."
"Uh, what's a share?" Ghen asked, still completely lost.
"Oh, boy..." Ryan muttered under his breath before returning to his peppy image. "To simply put it, a share is short for having a share of ownership in a company. When you buy a share, you're buying a piece of ownership, and when you sell, you're selling that amount."
"So wait...if someone buys a share, they're a co-owner then?" One of the other team coordinators asked.
"If they get enough, yeah." Ryan nodded. "You need a lot though, and that really depends on the company. If I had to give an answer though? I'd say usually you need to have a lot more shares than a lot of people combined to be officially a co-owner, but we call that being a majority shareholder."
"And how do we do that?" Ghen asked, now growing curious but still not understanding why such a concept exists.
"Simple. Buy shares." Ryan said simply. "And that leads into the second piece of awesome news. Zilia's corporate has a product in mind, a premium-package of water delivery. Instead of the usual water that you pump out, filter and ensure its potable before delivery, with the premium package, not only will you get that, but you'll also get all of the required nutrients and vitamins the zazk body requires! And they feel you guys have the best expertise and understanding to pull it off! So, here's what we're offering as a good-faith bonus: A 25% increase to your annual salary as well as being given stock options."
Ghen wasn't sure about the second part, but the salary definitely got his attention, as well as everyone else's. Although his job was considered to have a good pay, Ghen isn't going to say no to a higher salary. In fact, he's been focusing his work on getting a promotion so he can come home with even more credits in pocket.
"What do you mean by stock options?" Ghen asked after some time.
Ryan let out that smile again, the one that revealed his teeth. "If you choose to transfer over to the new group, you'll be provided 50,000 shares in Zilia itself. Why's that awesome? Let me walk you through it. Right now, our last closing price per share was 3.02 credits. And if you have 50,000 shares during that time, you're sitting on 151,000 credits, if you cash it out immediately."
"And why shouldn't we?" One of the coordinators demanded in an ambiguous tone.
"Because the price per share changes a lot." Ryan explained promptly. "When we got done with the IPO? It closed at 2.73 a share. Right now? My money's on the closing price being 2.99 a share. However, we are extremely confident in this premium package being successful. If it does? Well, my bet is that the share price will skyrocket to 3.12 a share. If you hold those shares and the price gets to what my bet was? You'll instead get 156,000 credits. Just by holding onto them, you just made an additional 5,000 credits!"
"And what if we have more shares?" Ghen questioned, now getting excited at the prospect of free money.
"Even more money!" Ryan laughed a bit. "And don't forget about dividends, but that's for another time. The premium group is gearing up right now, we just need the workforce. If any of you wants in, I'll be back tomorrow with all the forms needed to make it official. Take the day and tonight to think it over, yeah?"
Everything else melted into a blur. Ghen was practically on autopilot that whole day. Was this the secret to the humans' incredibly massive economy? How so many of them have amassed so much money out of nowhere? All you had to do was just buy this share out of a company and you get more money without even working?
As soon as he got home, Ghen knew what he was going to do during the night. After feverishly looking through the galnet, now having the human race connected to it, he looked and gathered up as many books that were translated into zazk as he could find, all talking about the human economic system. The last time he undertook such an intensive study was during his primary education phase.
And during his search, he even found forums on the galnet that were completely dedicated to the human's economy. All of them talking about strategies on what company, or stock, to pick. How to analyze a company's performance to determine if it was worth the money, or it had potential to grow over time. And that was when he discovered the humans found another method to the extremely simple buying and selling process. There were humans and some other immigrated aliens who made five times what Ghen could receive over a simple month just by watching the share prices during trading hours, and then buying and selling them at the proper times.
Ghen's mind was just absolutely flabbergasted. He thought it was just some strange concept only aliens could make, but no, not with the humans. They've practically made their economy into an art or a science. No, not even their economy. Everything. If humans can see a way to make money off of it, they'll do it. And if there isn't, they'll look for a way.
Healthcare was monetized. Galnet services, transportation, shopping at the store, they even made all of their utilities into profit-oriented companies.
And it was there that Ghen paused, the realization slamming into him. Everything was monetized. Which means, if you don't have the money for it, you're not getting it. Right? Are the humans truly that ruthless? So obsessed with making money? To the point that they're willing to deprive their own people of the absolute necessities if it's a source of credits?
Ghen let out a scoff. There's no way. Nobody is that cruel and callous. He's never been to the United Nations. He can't rely on what a bunch of random people on the galnet says. He decided that from here on out, he'll only go as far as saying that humans are a little obsessed with credits, nothing more.
There he was. Ryan, sitting in the office provided to him. And there was a rather large line leading to him. Looks like word got around. Although, the line wasn't as large as he expected it to be. Maybe the others thought it was just a ruse? That there's no such thing as making free money by spending it on such a made-up concept?
Ghen only knows that, if it is a ruse, it's an extremely elaborate one, where all of the humans are in on it. And he believes that's just extremely ridiculous. At the end, if he's unsure, he'll just take the transfer for the very real increase in his very real salary. And although he spent a very good chunk of the night reading up on how humans do things, he's still going to play it smart. He'll leave his 50,000 shares alone and see where it goes from there.
"Good morning sir." Ryan greeted warmly once Ghen took his seat. "Now, name please?"
"Ghen." He answered, barely keeping his nerves down.
"Alright...and what's your position at this location?" Ryan questioned after scribbling on his form.
"I monitor the pumping stations near the extraction sites." Ghen explained, staying on point. "To be more specific, I check to see if they're in need of maintenance, as well as reading the flow rate that's determined by the calculators installed there. If there's too little for what's needed, I pump out more. And if there's too much, I pull it back a little."
"Nice...and how long have you been doing it for?" Ryan complimented with a nod.
"As of tomorrow, ten years." Ghen replied, voice quickly changing to minor awe once he realized that fact.
"Excellent. Do you have anyone in mind you'd like to replace you here?" Ryan questioned after another scribble. "If you don't have anyone, you're free to say so."
Ghen took a moment to think it over. A bunch of names went through his mind, but one stuck with him. "Tilik. He's just been accepted here, but he's learned quickly. Very attentive and he always catches something subtle. I think he'll do really well in my position, even better actually."
"Tilik, really?" Ryan questioned with a little shock, going through his completed forms. Ghen felt a short sense of panic in him. Did something happen, or was Tilik actually transferring? His answer didn't take long to reveal itself. "Right, Tilik was actually one of the first people to want to transfer here. He's actually requested to be part of the testing teams specifically. Do you have a second choice?"
"Um...no, actually." Ghen replied, feeling a little ashamed. "Tilik was my only choice, to be honest."
"Hey, don't worry." Ryan said assuringly with his hands raised. "Nothing wrong with that. Sometimes, there's just nobody up to snuff, right? 'Kay, so, last question. Is there anything specific you'd like to do when given the transfer?"
"If you need someone monitoring new pumps, I'd be happy to do that." Ghen stated.
"So basically same job but with better payoff, am I right?" Ryan grinned. "I hear you. Sometimes, we're just not paid enough for what we're doing. I know I think that sometimes. Uh, our secret, yeah?"
"Yeah, our secret." Ghen nodded, thinking it'd be better to have friendly relations with the human, just in case.
"Awesome. Back on topic, that's it." Ryan announced, placing the form on his pile. "We'll give you a call when you're accepted."
"Oh, uh, that's it?" Ghen questioned with a shrug in shocked surprise.
"What, expecting a question like, why do you want to transfer?" Ryan chuckled a bit as he leaned in his seat. "You can bullshit all you want, but we both know the answer. Sweet money and stock options. Not saying that's a bad answer of course, just that it's pretty obvious."
"I suppose it is." Ghen commented, realizing the point. "Also, you mentioned this...dividend? Is that for Zilia shares?"
Ryan laughed a little bit before nodding. "Yep, announced before I came here. About 0.43 per share. Want to know why that's awesome? Instead of waiting for the proper price to cash out your shares, now? The company pays you for each share you hold."
"A...Are you serious?" Ghen demanded, flabbergasted.
Ryan nodded with his now-trademark grin. "Dead serious. If you get the transfer, and get those 50,000 shares? A little head math...right, if you hold onto those, in addition to your salary, you'll now annually be paid 21,500 credits, if you keep it at 50,000 shares. Only you can decide to sell or buy shares."
Ghen just stood there silent and motionless, no idea of whether to believe it or not, to which Ryan just laughed. Once he walked out of the room, he managed to snap back to reality. Again, just focus on the very real pay-raise. He'll deal with the other parts later.
After he returned to his spot, he spotted Tizx approaching by his desk. The coordinator seems to be as casual as always.
"I saw you in that line a bit ago, Ghen." He said as he leaned on the desk. "Guess you're really taking that human's word?"
"I mean, I don't know about all this share business or what not." Ghen began with a shrug, his tone sounding a little defensive. "But I mean, having a bigger salary? Course I'm going for it when I can. And if all this magic credits turn out to be real? You realize we can live like the royal servants, right? Get the best cars, the nicest food and all that?"
"I'd be very careful, Ghen." Tizx warned in a sudden shift in tone. "Don't trust those humans. The way they just...obsess over money? Come up with more and more insane ways of getting credits? I don't know, it just makes my wings twitch."
"You think this is a bad idea?" Ghen asked with a little surprise at the change-in-demeanor.
"I think you should be careful, with the humans, and with what you're saying." Tizx replied, straightening his posture. "I wouldn't put it past those Earthmen to backstab you if it gets them a few more credits. And we all know how the royal servants get if any of us lowly commoners start thinking we can break into their circle."
"I hear you, I'll be on my guard, promise." Ghen stated with a nod. With a confirming nod of his own, Tizx returned back to his duty, walking past Ghen's desk.
Several weeks later.
Everything became so much better. Ghen got the transfer. He didn't need to relocate to a new residence either. And after he was walked through into learning how to manage his stock account, and seeing that new form of payment in his hands, he already felt as though he made the best decision. But it was only when he decided to take those shares more seriously that he became privy to what he was given. After receiving the dividend payment, and actually seeing it was real, valid credits after transferring it to his main bank account, all he could describe was the most powerful high he ever felt.
While his first thoughts were to buy himself a royalty-class car, some nicer furnishings for his home, or even a better home entirely, he ended up going the smarter route.
After going back to his stock account, he discovered that Zilia's shares rose to about 3.22 credits in price. Knowing that this was the easiest money he could ever make, he took all of his dividend earnings and bought more shares in Zilia, bringing him to owning 56,891.
And from his new regional coordinator, a human named Dylan, tomorrow is the grand release of the premium package. For just a monthly rate of 14.99 credits, the tap water will now include a sizeable portion of all nutrients and vitamins required in the zazk physiology. Still, Ghen has to admit. He's not entirely sure why anybody would want such a thing, if they'd even go for it. But, as long as he's practically swimming in easy credits, he won't pay much attention to it.
And just like when he was intensively studying the basics of how the human economy worked, he barely got any sleep. His mind was constantly thinking about the things he would buy. Or rather, what other stocks to put his credits into. Even now he can still hardly believe it. Just spend your money on some, make-believe thing and, if you wait long enough and picked the right stock, you'll get more than you spent back?
His mind even wandered onto what human colonies, or even their homeworld, Earth, was like. If everybody was making so much money, what kind of things would they offer? What kind of ridiculous service or product or item can you get? He's even debating on joining some forum and just asking around. Explain how he's new to how humans do things and was wondering what he should expect if he's successful.
By the time he felt like he can go to sleep, the binary-stars of the system were rising from the horizon. After getting out of his bed and changing to clean clothes, his mind returned onto what-ifs.
What if he bought better clothes? He's had his eye on that human brand of luxury clothes, Tessuti di Venezia, that's been all the rage amongst the royal servants. Or maybe he can go on vacation and just check out Earth for real?
It was a short ride to his workplace from his home. After getting stuff his stuff and preparing to walk through the doors, he heard the roar of a car grow louder. When he looked, he saw the sleekest and quite possibly the coolest looking car he's ever seen. Each time the engine revved it would startle him, both from how harsh it sounded as well as just how intense it sounded. And after it parked, he saw the doors pop out and then slide along the body back. And there, he saw Tilik, the seat literally turning and extending out a bit before he got off.
As soon as he saw Ghen staring, he struck a rather prideful pose after putting on his lab coat and then sauntered over to Ghen.
"What do you think?" Tilik said, without any doubt inviting praise or compliments.
"D...Did you actually buy that?" Ghen asked, unable to tear his eyes away from the car.
"You're Queens-damn right I did!" Tilik laughed happily. "Thing takes off like a starship, has temperature-controlled seating, all-in-one center console, barely any bouncing on rough roads. Hoof, best decision I've ever made!"
"How much did that thing cost?" Ghen asked after letting out an incredulous laugh.
"Five million credits." Tilik replied, earning an absolutely shocked stare from Ghen. "And thanks to the incredible salary I have, in addition to all these shares and dividends, I'll pay back the credits I borrowed in no time!"
Ghen needed a few moments before he could speak again. "All I've been doing is buying more shares."
Tilik laughed and then patted the now-envious monitor's back. "Smart man. I got a little carried away, yeah, but not anymore. Any spending credits I got, going right back to investing. That's what it's called right, investing?"
"Yeah, it is." Ghen nodded, feeling a fire light up in his thorax. "And also? Today's the day that the premium water thing is being released. Here's hoping it starts out well, right?"
"Oh it will, trust me." Tilik chuckled as they both began making their way inside the workplace. "Lots of research, lots of study. By the Queen, so much of it...it'll make your head spin."
And after hearing that, Ghen had a moment of realization. "Hey, Tilik? How did you get such a nice position anyways? Weren't you just studying under me before the humans came along?"
Tilik let out a sigh after opening the door. "I'll be honest, I never wanted your job. Not because it's boring or terrible, just...I didn't suffer so many sleepless nights in the science academy just to be a glorified button pusher. This is what I've always wanted. Doing science, solving problems rather than just applying the solution, you know?"
"Wait, you got an academic certificate?" Ghen questioned, completely floored. "How did you end up beneath me then? I should've been answering to you!"
"Simple." Tilik gave a heavier sigh. "A royal servant was asking for the same job I was. Take a guess at who got it."
"Ouch. Good thing the humans came along when they did, yeah?" Ghen was taken aback. He never heard anything about a servant taking a job at his place. "Looks like you're proving yourself to be well suited."
"By the Queen, of course I am." Tilik nodded. "Like I said, I nearly broke my wings through so many nights, got certified top of my class, all just to get pushed to the dirt because someone who was born into a particular family wanted the same thing I did? I know I'm smarter than any of those empty-skull servants back in the Center. I know that, whatever, uh...corporate? Yeah, whatever corporate wants out of science, I will xeek give it to them."
"Well, let me know how things go in the lab." Ghen said, admiring his drive as they neared the main office floor. "Because this is where the button pusher needs to go."
Tilik let out a laugh as he nodded. "Hey, how about we meet up at Queen's Fine Eatery tonight. I'll pay, yeah?"
Ghen, at first, wanted to admonish him for choosing such an outrageously expensive place to go. But he quickly realized that, he truly is good for it, thanks to the humans. "Well, hey, if you're paying for it."
It was a fantastic opening. After being told what news sites to keep in mind for stocks, he first heard it from Dylan, and then got more detail on Business Today. There was such a massive demand right from the start that Zilia needs to increase extraction just to meet it. But what really got his attention was the effect it had. Zilia Water Delivery's share price just blasted off. After seemingly holding steady at about 3.15, by the time he got home and logged onto his account, it already reached 7.04 a share. The calculator on his account told him that he got a value-gain of 54.26%.
Never in his entire life had he felt such...joy. With all of the shares he currently has? He's sitting at 400,512.64 credits. He knows that it is woefully pathetic compared to what the royal servants have just in their pockets, but the fact that he has such money, just by owning some intangible concept? Why even work at Zilia? Why doesn't he just sit at home, figure out what companies to invest in and make his money that way?
What's even the point in working a real job, getting a pathetic pay when you can just take the money you have, determine where to spend it, and get triple back? All just sitting on your wings at home, researching?
He was so wrapped up in his excited high that he completely forgot he was going to meet Tilik at Queen's. After quickly and haphazardly putting on his nicer clothes, he got to the place only a few minutes late.
Tilik was there by the guide, no doubt having been waiting for him. As soon as he strode up, Tilik's wings stiffned out some. No doubt he must've seen the numbers as well.
"I can see your wings, Ghen." Tilik began with an excited chuckle. "Made some serious credits?"
Ghen let out an incredulous scoff, struggling to find the words for a moment. "Incredible. All I'm going to say."
"Likewise." Tilik chortled some before nodding to the table guide. "All here. Table please?"
"Right this way, sir." The guide said politely. It was a short walk, travelling between round tables. The vast majority were populated by zazk, but Ghen was surprised at seeing a few humans here as well. No doubt corporate workers checking out the local food. He did spot them having bowls filled with some kind of mass. Some were brown, others white with what looks to be black specks on them.
They arrived at their table. A rather nice one, affording a view out the windows into the busy colony streets. Once Tilik and Ghen settled in, the guide handed out the menus.
"May I suggest our rather popular option for tonight?" The guide began. "Human ice-cream. Ingredients sourced from Earth itself. Very cold, but incredibly sweet, and coming in many flavors. The most popular amongst us is called vanilla-bean. The vanilla itself soaks in the cream for much of the process, and then the innards sprinkled on top of it near the end. Rumor has it that the Queen herself has demanded personal shipments of such a treat straight from the home of vanilla, an island on Earth named Madagascar."
Ghen didn't even spare a single thought. "Vanilla bean ice cream then, please."
"Same." Tilik seconded when the guide glanced to him. With a slight bow, the guide proceeded to ferry their orders to the kitchen. Thankfully it was just a short wait before the guide returned, carrying a large plate containing bowls of ice cream. Ghen could feel the saliva on his mandibles as the bowl was placed before them. He could just feel the cold air around that glistening mass of sugary goodness. The white snow decorated with the black dots of vanilla bean.
Once the guide left them, Tilik and Ghen both dived in at the same time. As soon as the ice cream entered his mouth, touched his tongue, he exploded in incomprehensible bliss. The sweetness, the smooth and creamy mass, even the taste of vanilla he wasn't sure about was just absolutely delightful. It was so overwhelming that his entire body limped, slumping in his seat as he was forced to ride on the surging tide of joy and happiness sweeping over him.
Tilik was no different. He too was taken completely by the effects of the ice cream, his wings fluttering some against the seat. Ghen could hear some noise. It was the humans they passed by. They were chuckling, grinning, and glancing over at them discreetly. Unlike the two zazk, the humans seemingly just enjoyed the ice cream as if it was just another nice dessert to them. Or perhaps they couldn't allow themselves to succumb to the high?
And as soon as the wave of indescribable bliss and happiness subsided, Ghen knew. He just knew. This was the life. He wanted this. The ice cream was just the beginning. So many things denied because he didn't have the credits, or worse, not the blood. Because he was just a drone in the great Collective, even if he had the credits, he wasn't allowed because of what caste he was born in. That fire that sparked in him when he saw Tilik's new car? It exploded into a raging firestorm.
And when looking into Tilik's eyes, Ghen could see the same. He was on the same page as Ghen was. Both of them were sold. They have the credits. And the humans? If you can pay for it, they'll never discriminate. All they cared about is if you have the money.
And by the Queen, Ghen and Tilik will endeavor to amass as much credits as physically possible.
The rest of the night faded into a blur. A blur that evokes only one thing. Bliss. It was only when he walked through the door of his pathetic hut that Ghen's mind snapped back to focus. His mandibles felt sticky. And he felt a weight in his stomach. How much ice cream did he eat? Whatever it was, he ate such volume that the lower-section of his throax extended and rounded out, visible even under his shirt. He felt something odd in his pocket. It was a receipt. 43,000 credits for ten bowls of vanilla bean ice cream. Was that ten bowls for both of them? Or individually? Ghen didn't care. He's good for it.
Returning back to his calculator, he acted upon the decision that he had made at that eatery. He's acquiring as many books about investing and stock trading as he could find, frequent and study all the discussions and arguments presented by other like-minded individuals such as he, all to ensure he can live the good life. And he had a very good feeling Tilik was doing the exact same thing.
Well, first, the gurgling in his stomach, as well as the feeling of something rising demanded his attention. Looks like he'll need to take the night off to let his stomach get back to normal.
Three Years Later.
Ghen looked out beyond the horizon, seeing the colony that he grew up in. On the far side was where his old house was. With only a simple robe on, made from the finest silk from Earth's nation-state of China, he relaxed in his seat.
It was a long road. Stockpiling credits from pre-existing investments and from subsequent pays, he and Tilik made it. From having only half a million in assets and cash, now transformed to over eight-hundred million. And now, his call contracts on American Interstellar? They've just announced a breakthrough in their next generation of warp drives, reducing the speed coefficient even further, resulting in far faster travel. And with that, their stock price climbed sharply.
Another hundred million credits in the bank. Soon, very soon, he and Tilik are about to become the galaxy's first zazk billionares. But that's not enough. There are many humans who are billionares. Only those he can count on one hand are considered trillionares. He's going to break into that circle. He and Tilik.
Looking beyond the colony, he saw the abandoned building of the workplace he transferred to when the humans arrived. Turns out, the reason for such a high demand was that the humans also slipped in sugar to the tap water. As soon as that broke, many influential royal servants demanded investigations and outright banning of Terran Galactic Company's influence over the former government division. Zilia's stock price plummeted. But thanks to an advance tip from his human coordinator, Dylan, he and Tilik made a put contract. And that's where they struck gold, as the human saying goes.
Dylan warned that if they were citizens of the United Nations, they'd be investigated and convicted for insider trading. But, since they weren't, and the Collective were only just introduced to capitalism, there's no risk at all. Now the colony is going through a withdrawal phase, Zilia has been dissolved and reformed back as a government division and are currently at work re-establishing the standard, plain water delivery.
"Well, shit." Tilik muttered as he walked up to Ghen's side, taking well to human speech. "Looks like you win. American Interstellar's announcement really was a good thing. There goes a million credits. Ah well, the Royal Shipyards will make it back for me soon."
"Oh? Did they just go corporate?" Ghen asked curiously, glancing to Tilik.
"Hell yeah they did." Tilik chuckled, sitting down. "Queen and her retard servants fought it hard, but Royal Shipyards is now officially a human-style corporation. And, to a surprise to all the xenophobes in the galaxy, they're already being offered contracts for ship production. That'll raise the stock price pretty good."
"What's that human word...?" Ghen muttered, already having a reply in mind. "Dick? Yeah, calls or suck my dick, Tilik."
Tilik roared in laughter. "Already made them. Forty credits a share by this day next month."
"I have half a mind to go thirty." Ghen chuckled. "Either way, until then, I heard from Dylan that he knows a guy who knows several prime human women who happen to be into zazk."
"You're interested in women?" Tilik said as his wings fluttered. "With how often you tell me to suck you off, I'd have thought differently."
"Oh, I always thought it was you who was into men." Ghen responded dryly. "Just wanted to be a good friend, you know? Considering how you never seem to make it past, Hey sweet thing, I'm rich you know."
"Oh, go fuck yourself." Tilik countered with a little laugh. After he stopped, wings stiffened, he looked to Ghen. "So, know any royal servants we can put the squeeze on for more revenue streams?"
"I got just the one." Ghen nodded, sitting up. "Fzik. He's been fighting to control the ice cream trade. Worried it's a corrupting influence. Got done talking with the human CEO of Nestle earlier. If we clear the way, he'll know how to squeeze a little more gains in stock price when he makes the announcement."
Tilik's wings stiffened even more, signaling his approval. "Alright, time to throw some credits around, yeah?"
AN: Sorry for the period of no updates. College is starting up, lots of stuff to clear and work out. Not sure why but I just got a bug up my butt about incorporating money and the stock market into a short. Here it is. Sorry if it seems abrupt, character limit fast approaching. Let me know how you guys think about it!
submitted by SynthoStellar to HFY [link] [comments]
WotV PvP Tactics & Mentality - Six Months of Mediena Bombs & how the Meta Evolves in PvP
*** Registration is Now Open until 9/15 for the latest Live PvP tournament, organized by u/LongTimeGaming. There is no entry fee and everyone is guaranteed at least five rounds of combat! Please PM him or myself for details on how to register! ***
For today's entry I want to discuss one of the stronger live PvP strategies currently floating around the meta, particularly at the higher player ranks or with whales smurfing at lower ranks: The Medi (Mediena) Bomb.
What is a Medi Bomb?
Let's start with an example formation:
The non-Medi options are pretty flexible. One of the Mag VCs should be on Medi not House B for extra mag power.
And some idea of what AGI you should be able to see (90+) and other stats:
My medi isn't close to tip top shape - I never use her in live PvP!
Mediena's LB, Cosmo Plume, is well known throughout the community for its power, wide AoE range, and immediate availability. Coupled with Shukuchi Medi has a threat range of NINE squares (movement of 4 plus maximum effective range of 5) and so a forward deployed Medi can reach all possible starting locations except for two on the current PvP map:
Initial Deployment - Medi forward and centered.
From forward center Plume Medi can hit all possible squares except the back two corners - Cid and Mont are about to have a bad day!
Once properly setup the execution of this strategy is as brutal as it is simple: Medi runs forward and tries to OHKO as many of the enemy team as possible. The remaining units in the Medi Bomb formation exist to provide clean-up in the event that enough of the enemy team survives to take out Medi.
Medi Bomb Breakdown - Synergies
The Medi bomb, as it currently exists, comprises three major components: a Shukuchi Mediena, Agility, and as much Magic/Magic Attack equipment and VCs as can be mustered together. If you take away any of these components the win probability of the strategy plummets. Let's examine each in turn:
Shukuchi (and forward deployment) - Without Shukuchi and pushing Medi as far forward as you can you leave a lot of squares open where the enemy team can be hiding. No highly competitive team in live PvP is sticking to the default 'three across' formation!
Agility - Medi's main weakness is her fragility. If Medi doesn't go first there's the chance that the opponent will have a high speed unit in place to OHKO Medi (i.e., Frederika) or will at least be able to reposition their faster units out of Medi's threat range. Shadow Runner on a Medi is a must of course, but VCs that yield AGI are crucial as well.
Magic Attack - Being able to OHKO at least one enemy unit is essential - a unit with 1 HP is as dangerous as a unit with 4000 HP. A Platinum Rod +5, and a high level Trousseau are the most important elements. Mag from Ramuh is useful. You won't have Medi's own mag passive available due to needing Speed + Movement.
Responses to the Medi Bomb - Sample Formations
So here are some sample formations I whipped up - note the screenshots are composites from my main account so levels and etc. are not going to be optimal. There are many variations possible, these are just starting points!
Option 1 - Go Faster than Medi
Gunner Girls that are faster than a Medi Bomb are close to a guaranteed win!
The hardest counter to Medi bomb is a Fred that's faster than her - A properly kitted Fred can OHKO a Medi with sharpshoot off the bat without any external buffs. Because Medi + AGI VC is always faster then a Fred without, you will need to put AGI cards of your own on top of your Fred to ensure you go before the enemy Medi does.
Option 2 - Be able to survive the Plume
This is the second picture here - the first one had an impossible setup for Rain due to my photoshopping (I don't own Rain).
There are of course characters that can survive a plume, even a plume from a super whaled out Medi. Rain is one of these - he's a magic tank off the bat and he has elemental advantage to Medi. Ayaka can stand your viktora back up post plume while Rain can OHKO the Medi.
Option 3 - Be able to Evade the Plume
Miranda is a super useful utility placeholder for these formations
Vinera is pretty popular in live pvp these days due to her combination of speed, power, and high evade. She is essentially unhittable to teams that haven't geared with guaranteed hit options or stacked as much ACC as they can. I don't have a leveled up Vinera to test the above combination for exact hit percentages but an unbuffed Vinera should have about 150-200 evade depending on cards. Not exactly easy to hit with a plume!
A Brief History of the Medi Bomb
Finally, the changes in popularity to the Medi Bomb through time exemplifies the essential elements that define the 'meta' in live PvP: the outcome to nearly every match is a binary win or loss. Any team that is slightly better than another will win almost all the time holding all over elements equal. Medi's evolution in live pvp shows this perfectly.
In the first weeks of WotV, Medi bombs were one of the most common formations available. Medi was I think the fastest launch character and once she hit level 40 she could OHKO most other units common at the time that were also at level 40 (Mont, Sterne, etc.). This meant that Medi could just run up and drop the other team. Lots and lots of Medi v Medi engagements were happening and Medi's dominance in PvE and PvP was often remarked on by jokes or commentary here and elsewhere.
Flash forward to the FFT event or so and Medi bombs disappeared from competitive play. Two things happened: Frederika and increasing toughness of teams. Fred, as I said before, is a hard counter to Medi as long as she goes first and at this stage in the game almost no one had high AGI VCs so Freds melted Medis off the live PvP scene. A secondary effect was that everyone was getting to level 99 on their mains and starting to amass TMRs - Medi stopped being able to OHKO units.
Medi Bombs stayed quiet for the months following FFT until Platinum Rod came out, then whales with +15% AGI off the House Beolve card could go first in most engagements and do enough damage to OHKO broad swaths of units. Now with FFT2 almost done plenty of dolphins or even minnows/f2p willing to proc 5-6 whimseys per day can have their 15% AGI cards so Medi bombs are more accessible.
Essentially, the meta is an unstable equilibrium defined by a complex set of inputs and that binary output of winning/losing. As soon as Medi is one AGI slower then her hard counter *and that hard counter is common* she becomes worthless. Same with the tipping point between OHKO and survival. Right now medi bombs are fast and powerful - therefore viable against many team comps.
Well that wraps up today's post - this one turned out to be longer than I was expecting. Let me know if its too long in the comments and if you have any suggestions for future topics that you'd like a detailed breakdown on please let me know!
WotV PvP Tactics & Mentality is an irregularly updated series of posts about the most neglected aspect of WotV: Live PvP If you liked this post, feel read to my previous entries in the series:
1. WotV PvP Tactics & Mentality: Playing Ahead vs Playing from Behind
2. WotV PvP Tactics & Mentality: Getting the most out of the GUI and the OODA Loop
submitted by RedKnightRG to wotv_ffbe [link] [comments]
[Review] Ranking all the Switch shmups Ep26 – Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade
We’ve all had a game that is a gateway to a specific genre. That one game which made us pay attention to a style of games and allowed us to fully experience the genre. It might not have been the first one we play, but it is definitely one that stays closer to our hearts. For me, this game was Darius.
I’ve mentioned this in the past, but I will say it again: Darius is the shmup that is closest to my heart. I loved the horizontal gameplay, I loved the Silver Hawk, I loved all the huge bosses that looked like fishes. The gameplay also hit bunch of chords that resonate with what I love about shmups. I’ve been waiting so long for this, so alas, I present to you: Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade!
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Tate: Built-in
Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade is a collection of the Darius games released on the arcades. This wasn’t your typical cabinet, as one of its main features was the usage of multiple screens. Darius used 3 screens, while Darius II/SAGAIA used 2 screens. M2 really went out of their way to bring the most authentic arcade experience! The result is impressive to say the least!
This collections includes 4 games:
Darius II
Darius Gaiden
Darius and SAGAIA include 3 and 2 different versions respectively, bringing it to a total of 7 playable games.
ARCADE GLORY
As hard as this might be to believe, I have never played an arcade Darius game before. I always mentioned Darius as my favorite shmup, but the truth is that I began with the SNES games. I had heard on the street that the arcade versions were superior so I was very excited.
When I booted the original version, I couldn’t help but feel like I was standing next to an actual arcade cabinet. The game greeted me with 3 screens places next to each other on the center of the screen. I was excited to play, so I pressed the coin button. I was not prepared for what I was about to experience…
As soon as I inserted the coin, a typical fanfare played along as my credit counter increased by one. But there was something else. The controller started vibrating to the tune of the music. I just can’t make justice to this effect with words. It felt like being inside an actual arcade cabinet. Vibrations and sound made the experience feel authentic. It made me think about the arcade days where you would hear cabinets everywhere and just feel the energy of the place.
As soon as I started to play, the screen changed and the empty spaces were replaced by arcade artwork. This artwork was exactly the kind you would see pasted near the controllers to show you how to play and other general information. Everything about the game was designed to make you feel like on the arcade. This is the kind of presentation that every other arcade port should try to achieve.
FISH GRAVY
What truly sets apart the Darius Cozmic Collection from any other collection is the amount of features and arcade fidelity that M2 added to the game. Every single aspect, every single menu and every single feature was lovingly added to create a masterpiece.
From the get go, you will be presented with the very familiar “A boss is approaching” message featuring King Fossil. The message just says that your game data is approaching fast. It really is only a fancy way of saying the game is loading, but it sets the tone to the orgasmic experience that you are about to have with the game.
After going through the intro scene, you will be greeted with the main menu which contains all 7 playable titles in this collection. You also have a replay, manual and staff options. If you are wondering where the options are, they are specific for each game, so they must be adjusted from within each game. My only complaint here is that the manual is in japanese. There isn’t much to learn from a manual though. The only thing was the Darius Gaiden capture mechanic, so I picked that one up from the internet.
AN ENTIRE LEGACY
Speaking of the games, 7 different titles can be quite intimidating. If you are anything like me, then chances are you don’t know what’s “new ver” or “extra ver”. Thankfully, each game features a sort of museum display that features a screenshot of the menu, the title, the launch date and a very thorough description of the game. The text will navigate you through each version of the games and specifically highlight why it is different from its predecessor or what was changed when going to western markets.
Each game includes a training mode for those who wish to challenge specific parts of the game. Training mode will let you choose to play any stage and customize a variety of settings such as the strength of your Silver Hawk and the game rank, which is the in-game difficulty. The obvious use for this mode is to practice your piloting skills and go for the 1CC. Even casual players can view this as a pseudo level select cheat code for maximum enjoyment!
Perhaps one of the most amazing inclusions of the collection is the replay mode. For every one of your play throughs, there is an option to save a replay of your play session. What differs from regular replays, is that they pack an incredibly robust set of features. Other than being able to watch a recording of yourself, you can see your inputs and control the playback of the replay. You can rewind, fast forward, go back, increase the speed or even go full slow-mo to analyze your gameplay.
KING OF THE ARCADE
Challenging oneself is one thing, but going after the world is the true spirit or arcade shmups. Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade features online rankings which are separated into 2 categories: “Arcade” and “All-mix”. Arcade is played with every setting on default and using only one credit. If you are playing and choose to spend an additional credit to continue, then your scoring is changed to “All-mix”. All-mix is a catch-all for every other style, from easy difficulty to hard or even static rank modes.
If you ever wondered what’s it like to play like the king of the leaderboards, then you’ll be glad to know you can download leaderboard replays! This allows you to watch the entire play throughs of top players, along with their inputs and the previously mentioned playback features of a replay. A must have for those willing to go for the record or even those curious about what it means to be a champion.
YOUR PERFECT CABINET
The in-game menu for each game will further let you customize your gameplay experience. The amount of options is truly staggering, so suffice to know that you can change in-game setting as difficulty and score for an extend, screen quality adjustments like scan lines and gadgets, and the controllers.
One menu I really want to highlight is the gadgets menu. Gadgets are responsible for making the gameplay experience truly stand out. They track all sorts of data from yourself and the enemies. From a friendly side, you can see your current level of power, the number of hits your arm can take and the information related to the current zone. From a less friendly side, you have all sorts of analyzers that display the current boss, their weakness and detailed HP for each of their parts. There’s even a life gauge that appears at the bottom of the screen for easy viewing when fighting bosses!
Although I could see an argument against being way too much information, I’m personally thankful because I’m a data nerd and I love knowing all this information. If it is too much for you, then you can always turn off the gadgets and customize the screen to your liking. The real beauty comes from creating your perfect cabinet.
THE EMULATOR ADVANTAGE
One of the main selling points of emulators has been the ability to use save states. Darius Cozmic Collection is no slouch and features save states of its own! These save states will let you cheese the game as much as you want, but they also let you replay specific sections and master them for your future arcade runs. I won’t judge you, so have fun with save states! The only caveat is that using save states will not record your score. Unfortunately, replays will only record from the last time you loaded the save state onwards. So there’s no chance of creating tool-assisted runs.
Oh yeah, I forgot to mention that bringing up the in-game menu will completely pause the game and show you a fully-fledged map of the game, complete with boss encounters for each zone and the amount of power-ups featured in said zone. It really is great for strategy purposes to know which stage will allow you to upgrade your Silver Hawk! Resuming a game will also give you a 3 second count down with a jumping robot animation to ensure you are ready for action. This detail wasn’t really needed, but it is one of the many ways in which M2 shows appreciation for Darius and the player.
Out of all this nitty gritty details, I have to say the song name is one of my favorites. In the bottom right corner of the screen there is a pop-up that appears when the song changes and displays the song name. I just think it looks really cool. By the way, don’t forget to check “Olga Breeze”, my favorite song!
DARIUS, THE OG
Darius, the game that started it all. Featuring 3 screens, this is the biggest Darius game featured in this collection (ha!). If I may add, I also think this is the game that highlights all the love M2 poured into bringing arcade experiences to your living room. With features such as the cabinet art and the body sonic vibration, it really brings home the arcade feeling.
As you can expect, playing the first game on the series is both, a nostalgic and a painful experience. Playing on 3 screens is truly magical, but at the same time, it is a victim to the older design choices. Not much that can be done here, after all, it is a decades old game. Just a small detail to keep in mind.
Darius helps establish the foundations of the franchise from the very first game. One of the Darius staples is the upgrade system for the Silver Hawk. Throughout the game, you can encounter 3 different orbs which are dropped by different colored enemies. The orbs can be red, green or blue.
SILVER HAWK
Red orbs will upgrade your primary fire. Each orb increases your power, but collecting 7 will upgrade your shot to the laser, and then the wave. Green orbs will upgrade your bomb, which is your secondary fire. Bombs also get stronger with more orbs and also upgrade when you reach 7. Blue orbs will give you a shield called arm. The initial shield blocks 3 hits and any additional orb will add 1 more hit. Just like red and green, you can upgrade after 7 orbs which will make it so that additional orbs give you 2 hits and then 3.
The downside to the upgrade system is that, upon death, you will lose every orb you collected in your current tier. The good news is that if you, for instance, managed to upgrade to the laser, then your shot can never fall below that. The bad news is that the number of orbs is limited per stage, which means it is almost impossible to upgrade within a stage the same stage where you died. The exception is a single stage that has 7 blue orbs in the old version and one with 7 green in the extra version.
The most distinguishable characteristic of the franchise is definitely the marine bosses. The stages are all over the place with a very diverse space settings, but the bosses are always one thing: fish. Actually, I’d say it is marine biology, but fish is an overly simplistic way to describe it. Darius also has one peculiarity which is that every set of stages has the same boss. For example, the 4th stage boss will always be Fatty Glutton in a different version depending on which zone you chose.
The other defining feature of Darius is being able to choose your adventure. After each boss, you can choose to go to one of 2 different zones. This choice is made by either being on the top or bottom half of the screen, as the stage actually splits after beating the boss. It certainly took me off guard the first time as I crashed into the divider. Despite having the same boss, the zones are drastically different and carry the strategic choice of having a different number of orbs. Your path will be determined by which aspect of your Silver Hawk you want to improve.
THE COINS
What struck me the most about Darius is how unforgiving it is. This is expressed in the descriptions of the newer versions. The thing about Darius, is that the game is next to impossible to beat if you didn’t fully upgrade. Later enemies are merciless and if you don’t have sufficient firepower, then you probably won’t stand a chance. This ruthlessness is exacerbated by the death system, as death will set you considerably behind. Because upgrades are usually a 2-stage effort, getting shot will set you back 2 levels worth of progress.
A fun aspect I found on Darius is the dynamic created by having 3 screens. This is probably the widest game I have played, and it brings new challenges to the table. The first one is that you need to gain screen position to succeed. Being at the front is usually better, with moving back feeling like losing real estate. The reason behind this is that you are able to shoot down enemies before they become a threat with their numbers. The other less obvious reason is the number of bullets allowed on screen. That number is limited, so it is in your best interest that those bullets expire fast so you can fire new ones. Being back equals more time before they reach the end of the screen, which is undesirable.
Overall, the game poses a unique challenge, but I’m not going to lie, it is actually really fun to play. Achieving an upgraded Silver Hawk is a hard endeavor, but that makes it even more rewarding when you pull it off!
DARIUS II/SAGAIA, THE PROOF US WESTERNERS HAVE SHORT ATTENTION SPANS
Darius II came in and simplified the game in some interesting ways. First of all it reduced the upgrade system so that it is now only a single stage that can be maxed out. The number of orbs was reduced to compensate. Another simplification comes courtesy of the screens themselves. The number of screens was reduced from 3 to 2 in order to be installed in other dual screen cabinets such as The Ninja Warriors.
Unfortunately, the single stage of upgrades means that the game is even more savage when you die. This time around, you actually lose all of your progress in terms of firepower. There will be special rainbow orbs which help you catch up a little, but even then they might be a little too late. As a result, my 1CC had to be done by never dying.
I ALWAYS WANTED A THING CALLED A TUNA SASHIMI
One thing I want to mention, is that Darius II has my absolute favorite intro sequence of any Darius game in this collection. From the music that goes ramping up to the main theme, to the voice lines calling out the launching sequence:
“Main engine energy level, 20% increase !”
“I always wanted a thing called tuna sashimi”
It all creates an unbelievable sense of excitement!
A very fun piece of trivia is the existence of SAGAIA. It exists to be a compact version of Darius II to be sold on western markets. Then there’s actually 2 versions of it which feel like 2 pieces of the same game. If SAGAIA trimmed certain pieces of the game, then version 2 came to use those trimmed pieces and created another entry. It’s actually quite funny.
DARIUS GAIDEN, THE KING
Darius Gaiden is definitely the reason you will keep playing the arcade collection. Quality in older games under a modern eye is usually a product of nostalgia and design elements that still hold on in today’s gaming landscape. Contrasting with that, Darius Gaiden IS a fantastic game that I wouldn’t hesitate to purchase if it was released today.
For Darius Gaiden, less is more, as this time around the game was played on a single screen arcade cabinet. The game does seem to lack some of the ambient goodies such as the rumble effects, but it makes up for it in gameplay experiences.
One aspect that is radically different from its predecessor is the upgrade system. Whereas Darius II simplified the Silver Hawk upgrade system, Darius Gaiden took it back to its original Darius roots. This means that, once again, we have multiple upgrade points. Upgrades take considerably less red power-ups to achieve, which actually makes it possible to upgrade multiple times during the same stage.
Death penalties are lower as well with death only losing you a level of power. Because there are more power levels, it is more forgiving and doesn’t set you completely behind like the previous entries. Perhaps the best of all is that neither arm nor bombs have any penalty whatsoever. What’s more, you don’t even lose your arm or bomb level when losing a credit. I can say with 100% certainty that this game is actually possible to complete within a reasonable number of credits if you die on the later zones.
I would take it one step ahead and say this game has a little of the Contra syndrome. The original Contra is a game that was considered hard, but was significantly easier if you could maintain the spread shot. In the same vein, getting the earliest upgrades makes Darius Gaiden a breeze. A well deserved victory, if you ask me.
YOU’RE MINE NOW!
New to Darius Gaiden is the ability to capture mid bosses. Half-way through a stage, you will encounter a medium sized boss with a purple orb somewhere in its back. If you manage to take down the orb without killing the enemy, it will detach and slowly drift away. If you capture this orb, then the mid boss will fight alongside you until its timer expires. I gotta say that having a huge fish on your side is surprisingly satisfying!
Having a single screen makes the experience much more familiar for shmup enthusiasts. While it does lose some of the charm of the ultra wide field of view, it also rids itself of nuances such as your horizontal movement being low in terms of total horizontal space or the limit on on-screen bullets.
A combination of those factors I mentioned contribute to making Darius Gaiden a much better experience. It’s simple to play and forgiving when you lose. Every stage is unique and makes every new play through a completely different experience, not just in a different-ish way, but rather full blown new content!
A LEGENDARY PACKAGE OF NOSTALGIA
There’s one thing that you might be thinking, and that’s that I might be biased because it is Darius. It is true that I openly admit everywhere that Darius is my favorite. However, in this particular case my work was cut out for me, I don’t need to be biased because this is truly a wonderfully crafted collection that deserves to be on everyone’s Switch.
It contains every possible version of Darius you might have encountered on the arcades and then sprinkled some top notch features that make it stand on a class of its own when it comes to ports. It also helps that the Darius games remain to be as fun as they always have been, even with their caveats. I took 3-4 times more time to play this collection, not because it had a lot of content, but because I loved playing every second of it and wanted to try it all. Wanted to 1CC every version, wanted to traverse every possible stage, wanted to created masterful replays.
The only possible downside I can see to this collection is the price. $44.99 is a very high price compared to other shmups on the market. In terms of features and overall content (because remember, every game has more than an alphabets worth of different zones) it does warrant its price. Although I can see people double guess their decision, with this game being close to the cost of a first party title and significantly higher than other shmups.
My tentative placement for Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade was on the top 3 spots. I really had a hard time deciding where to put it, so I went back and revisited both Ikaruga and Psyvariar Delta. After finishing my Ikaruga play through, I was reminded of the magic that is Ikaruga and how special it is. Psyvariar Delta also reminded me of the buzz system and how the refined gameplay and level ups work towards creating an experience that I can’t quite put into words.
The main defining factor, however, was that I don’t think any of the Darius games in the collection beats the top 2 contenders. The 7 games as an aggregate, are certainly a force to be reckoned with thanks to the superb M2 porting labour. With that being said, I will award it a 3rd spot because the gameplay experience is incredible, but a little held back by the age of the games and the hefty price tag.
Still, Darius will always be #1 in my heart.
THE RANKING SO FAR:
Ikaruga
Psyvariar Delta
Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade
Devil Engine
Rolling Gunner
Jamestown+
Tengai
Steredenn: Binary Stars
Stardust Galaxy Warriors: Stellar Climax
Sky Force: Reloaded
Strikers 1945
Black Paradox
R-Type Dimensions EX
Sine Mora EX
Shikhondo – Soul Eater
Ghost Blade HD
AngerForce: Reloaded
Aero Fighters 2 (ACA Neogeo)
Q-YO Blaster
Lightening Force: Quest for the darkstar (Sega Ages)
Pawarumi
Red Death
Task Force Kampas
Switch ‘N’ Shoot
Last Resort (ACA Neogeo)
submitted by AzorMX to NintendoSwitch [link] [comments]
Guide to 6 Battlecast - Breaking out of the Big 3
It's no secret that the meta is rather stale with most people going for Vayne, Jinx, and Riven comps. In almost every game I play, I don't have a lot of success playing meta and usually prefer to find weird anti-meta/off-meta picks. I got really tired of playing one of the big three so started playing Mech to limited success. Then I started 6 Battlecast and climbed from ~70 LP Masters to now 320 LP (though I played other comps too in this climb). Here are my Battlecast stats below from about 11 games played.
https://imgur.com/a/nMYgpBt
https://lolchess.gg/profile/na/sakuchan39
This is my first guide written so let me know if there is anything I can improve on.
Why play 6 Battlecast
I think its a decently strong comp for climbing purposes only. As you can see, I have a really high top rate but really low win rate with this comp. To be honest, it is a bit player diff since this set I have had a low win rate in general. I think the comp is rather fun to play to see all of the battlecast procs, and is also easy due to how straightforward 6 trait comps are in general.
Strong for climbing. This is because of people usually contesting one of the Big 3. Battlecast spikes early at level 6 and you will winstreak hard and do big damage to low rollers. In non high elo (GM+) lobbies, there is usually a skill gap in lobbies and people will not know how to play from behind, allowing you to at least top 6 almost any lobby through developing a large health and gold lead.
Generally uncontested. It is very easy to upgrade the units you need. Kogmaw can be contested early from Jinx players, but otherwise, Illaoi, Nocturne, Cass, are all uncontested and can be upgraded easily.
Strong matchups into Big 3 before their endgame. Nocturne jumping and getting fear on Vayne/Jinx is really good. Urgot eating Riven can quickly turn fights in late game against sorcs.
Really bad scaling. Once you do go to end game, you will probably go on a large lose streak. The purpose of this game is to win through attrition; from the large health lead you've gained through winstreaking in the mid-game, hopefully you will top 4 from everyone's end game comp beating up on each other.
Reliance on a legendary unit/spat. 6 battlecast is absolutely necessary to survive the terrible endgame. If you can't hit, you will suffer large losses and lose your win condition of barely scraping into the top 4.
Weak in stronger lobbies. I end up occasionally in GM/Chally lobbies but I cannot conclude the strength of this comp in these lobbies. I believe that it is weaker in general due to the lobby being closer in strength making it difficult to generate a high health lead (even if you win they will probably get good losses) and people knowing how to play better from behind.
The general indicators to play 6 battlecast are early upgrades to Illaoi, Nocturne, and components for Kogmaw. Kogmaw absolute core item is Red Buff and needs one of Shiv or Runaan's Hurricane. I prio Bow on first carousel because it can be either RH or Shiv, but I've seen ideas of Vest prio for Red Buff. If you get good items, but no upgrades, it may be worth it to lose streak early for carousel priority, and to stay lower level to complete Illaoi and Nocturne upgrades. Here are some early game boards.
Early Kog
Infil Open
In Early Kog opener, Lucian is replaceable to hold Kog items, or if early Ezreal then Graves can hold Kog items. Blitz can replace Malphite. Play what makes sense in the context of your game.
The biggest spike is at level 6 and getting 4 battlecast, 2 chrono, 2 blaster with one core item on Kogmaw. Until you get there, just play whatever you have that is strongest. Again, the purpose of this comp is to win streak. As soon as I can put in 4 battlecast, I level to 6. I avoid aggressively leveling to 7 as I like to stay at 6 for increased chances of upgrading Kogmaw. Stage 4-1 is always a level 7 and then roll an appropriate amount of gold to maintain econ while upgrading your board. Since this board is pretty self-explanatory, look to snipe carries with Blitz/Noc to cheese out wins. If you can't hit these units, or have bad items at this stage, look to pivot out. I pivot to Bang Bros (shares Runaans as core item), Jinx (if high roll early Jinx), or even once Mech (had really bad items). In the mid-game, you should also look to start building Urgot items (GA and mana items) as well has hopefully completing an Ionic Spark for Illaoi. GA is really good on Urgot to trade 1 for 1 in the endgame (saving health) as well as stalling for tie breakers.
Mid-game Board
End-game
Ideally, by the time it is time to level to 8 (between stage 4-3 to 5-1), you'll have generated a 50 health lead over the 7th and 8th place people. Now, the goal is to complete the trait with Viktor and Urgot to try and survive to 9. Until you hit these units, splashing traits like Mystic (Karma/Soraka/Lulu) or Infil (Fizz/Ekko) or front line (Gnar) are great to help you survive and can hold Urgot items. Similar to mid-game, you are looking to cheese out wins with Blitz/Infil/Urgot. Urgot targets the furthest unit in his range which is 3 hexes. Once you have hit 6 Battlecast, look to go 9 to add in Mystic/Asol/Ekko/any other broken unit. Battlecast matches up really bad against Sorcs so Mystic is usually my go to since it helps against Mech and Jinx.
End-game Board
Urgot targeting is getting changed to the farthest unit but can be blocked. This makes it difficult to snipe back row carries. He also doesn't eat through GA anymore making it difficult to fight Riven Sorcs.
Requires flexible gaming. If you don't hit early and spike too late, you will die very quickly. Think about how the items you make can be flexed into other comps. I flex RH into Bang Bros for Yi and Spark flexes into every comp. When you play 6 Battlecast, try to have an out in mind if you can't make Red Buff, can't hit Kog, or are contested by someone high-rolling Battlecast units.
Extra AP items go on Cass/Viktor. I put them on I feel is stronger at the time. Viktor 1 is also stronger than Noc 1, but I prefer Noc 2 over Viktor 1 as my 4th battlecast in the mid-game. Use whatever is appropriate (Viktor can be strong against Sorc backlines and Jinx clumps, Noc strong against solo back line Vayne).
Who does Spat go on. I haven't really had a large enough sample to tell. I really like Asol not because it is strong but because Asol is just broken. He helps you beat Sorc comps. I've seen people say Gnar which is good as added front line in a very weak front line comp, but you end up stuck with 3/4 brawler since you may need Mystic/Asol in at 9. If you hit Gnar 2 though then obviously it is better. Spat Item generally is an Urgot replacement, then Urgot replaces Nocturne.
Galaxies. Battlecast is super strong in Littler and Binary Star. It is good in Treasure Trove (access to Spat, easy to high roll items), Reroll (can high roll upgrades early, potential 3 star though I don't usually go for Kog 3), and Star Cluster (same as reroll).
I haven't played that many games with Battlecast, but the results have been very positive so far. Hopefully, this will increase the flavor of your games in the last few days of this flavorless meta. Let me know if there's anything I can improve in my guide; I realize I don't go over general Econ strategies or flex options. I think there's lots of good information in high-elo streamers on economy vs aggressive leveling. I find my playstyle to try and balance both but leaning more towards econ is king. I'll answer as many questions as I can below.
submitted by EverythingOP to CompetitiveTFT [link] [comments]
Hi r/shmups! I'm currently on a project where I try to review every shmup on the Switch, so I thought I'd share my reviews here! Here's the 26th entry: Darius Cozmic Collection Arcade
submitted by AzorMX to shmups [link] [comments]
ASIC Regulation Thread - Regarding the proposed changes ( Australians effected the most )
I'm hopeless at formatting text, so if you think you can structure this post better take everything i write and put it into an easy to digest way. I'm just going to type out everything i know in text as fast as possible. I'm not a legal expert, I'm not somehow who understands every bit of information in the PDF's below, but i know I'm a retail trader that uses leverage to make profit which is why I'm posting this, in the hope that someone who can run a charge better than me, will.
Some of you are already aware of what might be happening, this is just a post to educate retail traders on changes that might be coming to certain brokers. This effects Australian Customers the most, but also effects those living in other countries that use Australian brokers, such as Pepperstone and others.
Last year in August 2019, ASIC ( Australian Securities and Investments Commission ) was concerned about retail traders going into Forex and Binary options without understanding these instruments properly and started sticking their noses in for tough regulation.
ASIC asked brokers and anyone with interest in the industry to write to them and explain what should and should not change from the changes they proposed, some of the proposed changes are very misguided and come from a lack of understanding exactly how OTC derivatives actually work.
I will provide the link to the paper further down so you can read it yourself and i will provide a link to all the submission made by all parties that sent submissions to ASIC, however the 2 main points of debate are:
1, To reduce the overall leverage available to retail traders to either 20:1 or 30:1. This means people who currently use leverage such as 100:1 to 500:1 and everything in between will be effected the most, even more so are those traders with relatively small accounts, meaning in order to get your foot in the door to trading you will need more capital for it to be viable.
^^ This point above is very important.
2, The removing of Binary options trading, which basically includes products like "Bet if gold will rise to this price in the next 30 seconds" This sort of stuff. So far from all the submissions from brokers and individuals nobody really cares if this changes as far as i know, though if you have concerns about this i would start voicing your disapproval. Though i would not waste your time here, all is pointing to this being eradicated completely with brokers also supporting the changes, I've never used such a product and know very little about them.
^^ This point above isn't very important and will probably be enforced in the future.
Still to this day i see retail traders not understanding leverage, they think of it as "dangerous and scary", it's not, position size is the real danger, not leverage. So ASIC is aiming to limit retail traders access to high leverage, they are claiming it is a way to protect traders who don't really understand what they are getting into by attacking leverage and not the real problem which is position size relative to your capital.
If it was truly about protecting retail traders from blowing up their accounts, they would look for ways to educate traders on "understanding position sizes and why it's important" rather than attacking leverage, but their goal is misguided or has an ulterior motive . I will give you a small example below.
EXAMPLE - We will use 2 demo accounts for demonstration purposes. If you don't understand my example, i suggest you try it for yourself. - Skip if not interested in examples.
Lets say we open 2 demo accounts with $1000 in both, one with 20:1 leverage and one with 500:1 leverage and we open an identical position on both accounts ( say a micro lot '0.01' on EURUSD ). You are safer on the 500:1 account as you don't need to put up as much margin as collateral as you would on the 20:1. If the trade we just opened goes against us and continues against us, the account with 20:1 leverage will run out of free margin a lot faster than the 500:1 account. In this simple example is shows you that leverage is not dangerous but safer and gives you a lot more breathing room. This trade was a small micro lot, so it would take hundreds of pips movements to get margin called and blow up that $1000 on each account. Lets now use a different position size to truly understand why retail traders blow up accounts and is the reason why trading can be dangerous.
This time instead of opening a micro lot of '0.01' on our $1000 dollar demo accounts, lets open a position size much larger, 5 lots. Remember we only have $1000 and we are about to open a position much larger relative to our capital ( which we should never do because we can't afford to do that ) the 20:1 probably wont even let you place that trade if you don't have enough margin as collateral or if you could open the position you would have a very tiny amount of free margin left over, meaning a small pip movement against you will instantly blow up your $1000 account. On the 500:1 account you wouldn't need to put up as much margin as collateral with more free margin if the trade goes bad, but again a small movement could blow up your account. In this example, both accounts were dangerous because the lack of understanding position sizes, opening a position you can't afford to open. This is what the true danger is, not the leverage.
Even in the second example, the higher leverage would "margin call" you out later. So i would go as far to say that lower leverage is more dangerous for you because it margin calls you out faster and just by having a lower leverage doesn't stop you from opening big positions that can blow you up in a 5 pip movement anymore, any leverage size is dangerous if you're opening positions you can't afford to open. This is also taking into consideration that no risk management is being used, with risk management higher leverage is even more powerful.
ASIC believes lowering leverage will stop people opening positions that they can't afford. When the reality is no matter how much capital you have $500, $1000, $5000, $50,000, $500,000, $5,000,000. You don't open position sizes that will blow that capital up completely with small movements. The same thing can happen on a 20:1 or 500:1 account.
Leverage is a tool, use it, if your on a lower leverage already such as 20:1, 30:1 it means your country has been regulated and you already have harder trading conditions. Just remember higher leverage allows you to open larger position sizes in total for the amount of money you own, but the issue is NOT that your using the higher leverage but because you are opening positions you can't afford, for what ever reason that is, the only fix for this is education and will not be fixed by simply lowing leverage, since you can just as easy blow up your account on low leverage just as fast or if not faster.
So what is going on?
There might ( get your tinfoil hats on ) be more that is involved here, deeper than you think, other agendas to try and stop small time retail traders from making money via OTC products, theories such as governments not wanting their citizens to be traders, rather would prefer you to get out there and work a 9 to 5 instead. Effective ways to do this would be making conditions harder with a much larger barrier of entry and the best way to increase the barrier of entry for retail traders is to limit leverage, lower leverage means you need to put up more money, less breathing room for trades, lower potential. They are limiting your upside potential and the downside stays the same, a blown account is a blow account.
Think of leverage as a weapon, a person wielding a butchers knife can probably destroy a person wielding a steak knife, but both knifes can prove fatal. They want to make sure your holding the butter knife then tell you to butcher a cow with it. 30:1 leverage is still workable and can still be profitable, but not as profitable as 500:1 accounts. This is why they are allowing professionals to use high leverage, this gives them another edge over successful retail traders who will still be trying to butcher a cow with a butter knife, while they are slaying limbs off the cow with machetes.
It's a way to hamstring you and keep you away rather than trying to "protect" you. The real danger is not leverage, they are barking up the wrong tree, how convenient to be barking up the very tree most retail traders don't fully understand ( leverage) , pass legislation to make trading conditions harder and at the same time push the narrative that trading is dangerous by making it even harder. A full circle strategy to make your trading conditions worse, so you don't succeed.
Listen carefully especially if you trade with any of the brokers that have provided their submissions to ASIC. Brokers want to seem like they are on your side and so far some of the submissions ( i haven't read them all ) have brokers willing to drop their leverage down to 30:1 because they know by dropping the leverage down it will start margin calling out their clients at a much faster rate, causing more blown up accounts / abandoned accounts with residual margin called funds, but they also know that if they make trading environments too hard less people will trade or even worse move their funds elsewhere offshore to unregulated brokers that offer higher leverage.
Right now it's all just a proposal, but as governments expand and continue to gain more control over it's citizens, it's just a matter of time till it's law, it's up to you to be vocal about it, let your broker know that if they drop their leverage, you're out, force them to fight for you.
If you have any more information related to this, or have anything to add, post below. I'm not an expert at this technical law talk, i know that i do well with 500:1 leverage and turn profits with it, it would be harder for me to do on a lower leverage, this is the reason for my post.
All related documents HERE
CP-322 ( Consultation paper 322 ) & Submissions from brokers and others.
https://asic.gov.au/regulatory-resources/find-a-document/consultation-papers/cp-322-product-intervention-otc-binary-options-and-cfds/
submitted by southpaw_destroyer to Forex [link] [comments]
5 Minute Binary Options Strategy. A quick look at the best types of strategies for one of binary option’s most popular expiry times: 5 minute. Strategies For Five Minute Option Expiry. There are a lot of ways to trade the 5 minute binary options expiry. This time frame is one of the most versatile in terms of the types of strategies you can ... Binary Options are a new and very simple financial product – easy to understand and easy to deal with. You can trade in the currency market, commodity market and stock market in just a couple of clicks and a few minutes because binary options are designed for simplicity. Undoubtedly, there is a vast financial activity going on in the binary options in recent years and traders searching to obtain some easy binary options strategy. Reason behind that is the simplicity in the trading operations and huge opportunities for making a higher percentage of investment returns. Plus the color-coded aspects of their tools make it very easy to read and distinguish moving average patterns, trends, price directions, and so on. As a reminder, if your new to trading binary options, we encourage you to test your skills with our trading strategies on a Demo Trading Account. This will help you familiarize yourself with online ... New and Easy Binary Options Strategy – The BOMS! ... I know that all this means the Binary Options Made Simple strategy is not so simple anymore. Well, yea, I agree, but if you are not a complete newb, looking at the highs/lows and gauging the overall direction of the market is not complicated stuff. On the other hand, if you are very new to ...
[index] [1870] [1504] [4058] [1948] [162] [2149] [5607] [99] [574] [4643]
Simple Binary Options Strategy That Works - YouTube
Pocket Option: https://pocketoption.com/smart/AzTgKs4IPVmDoB If you want to start to make money online on forex and binary options and you decided to change ... This channel Strategy trading tv discusses binary options trading which is very popular in many countries among its binary options trading in usa, delivery trading binary options strategies and ... Binary options trading strategy that works on any time frame. Get an edge with this buy sell signal indicator for binary options. Get FX Master Code signals:... Pocket Option: https://pocketoption.com/smart/AzTgKs4IPVmDoB If you want to start to make money online on forex and binary options and you decided to change ... Best Binary Options Strategy 2020 - 2 Minute Strategy LIVE TRAINING! - Duration: 43:42. ... 5 Minute Binary Strategy, Easy Chart Setup + Google Doc - Josh and Hanman (MoD) - Duration: 19:25.
binary options norge
thinkorswim forex trading
forex order book
forex daily chart
forex aggregator
forex software reviews
forex odds
forex prop trading firms
https://dubaibinaryoption.rumahpornos.eu
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line29
|
__label__cc
| 0.613401
| 0.386599
|
UNCHARTED, a Young Adult contemporary fantasy is now available from Page Street Publishing, distributed through Macmillan!
Add it to your shelf on Goodreads!
Seventeen-year-old Annabeth prefers the fantasy of her books and paintings to reality – because in reality, her mom is dead, and it was all her fault. When she accompanies her father to the funeral of some family friends who drowned, she’s surprised to find her grief reflected in the face of Griffin Bradford, the son of the couple who died. Griffin is nothing like the carefree boy she once knew. Now he’s irritable, removed, and he’s under police investigation for his parent’s deaths.
One night following the memorial service, Annabeth’s dad goes missing in the woods, and she suspects Griffin knows more about the disappearance than he’s letting on. He refuses to answer her questions, particularly those related to the mysterious “expedition” his parents took to Ireland, where they went missing for seven months.
Annabeth fears her father isn’t lost, but rather a victim of something sinister. She launches her own investigation, tracing clues that whisper of myth and legend and death, until she stumbles upon a secret. One that some would die to protect, others would kill to expose – and which twists Annabeth’s fantasy and reality together in deadly new ways.
Read an except here!
Praise for UNCHARTED:
A suspenseful page-turner that will keep teens up at night. Threads of Irish legends are interwoven through the narrative and encounters with mythical animals and faraway lands add another layer of complexity… The author’s rich descriptions of mystical creatures and beautiful settings will enchant readers… A must-have where fantastical thrillers are popular. ~ School Library Journal
Featuring a likable heroine and magical elements of North Atlantic myths, this otherwise conventional thriller offers hints of romance and some fight scenes with serious girl power. There is more than enough tension, of both dangerous and romantic persuasions, to keep readers engaged… (A) fast-paced, genre-blending mysteries. ~ Booklist
Cashman’s narratorial voice deftly balances Annabeth’s strength and fragility and her pacing keeps the reader entertained…Gripping. ~ Kirkus Reviews
A spellbinding tale that merges legend with history, and danger will longing … everything you could want in a story. ~ Lisa Maxwell, New York Times bestselling author of The Last Magician
Prepare to be swept away! An ancient secret that many have died to protect. Richly detailed mythology. A hero who is – literally – like no other. This thrilling and romantic adventure deftly navigates the blurred lines between legend and reality. Safe to say, Erin Cashman’s UNCHARTED plotted a course straight to my heart! ~ Pintip Dunn, New York Times bestselling author of YA fiction; The Forget Tomorrow series, The Darkest Lie, Girl on the Verge
Journey through the fog into the atmospheric world of UNCHARTED, a stunning new fantasy where legend and reality come together in the form of a deadly mystery, where every page simmers with danger, magic, myth, and romance. Readers are sure to fall in love with this dark, gripping story that brings ancient Ireland to life on the misty shores of modern-day Maine. ~ Sarah Glenn Marsh, author of the Reign of the Fallen series and Fear the Drowning Deep
Rich with mystery, Irish legends, and heart, Erin Cashman’s UNCHARTED takes the reader on a haunting adventure that had me so intrigued I was flipping pages well into the night! ~ Brenda Drake, New York Times bestselling author of The Library Jumper series, The Fated series, and Thunderstruck
A fantastic read! A perfect blend of thriller, mystery, romance, and contemporary, UNCHARTED features great characters, a marvelous setting, and a mythology so fabulous and complete that I couldn’t turn the pages fast enough. Readers who love Celtic legends, maps, and secret societies (and who doesn’t?) will want to put this on their TBR shelf ASAP. I can’t recommend it highly enough! ~ Martina Boone, award-winning author of the Heirs of Watson Island series and the Celtic Legends collection
Erin Cashman is a master storyteller… Erin finds portals in the seemingly ordinary world and leads us into uncharted territories of mystery, magic, and Irish mythology. I loved the solid mystery plotting combined with a paranormal twist, and the cast of fascinating characters… UNCHARTED is a page-turner and a refreshingly original tale! ~ Diana Renn, author of Tokyo Heist, Latitude Zero, Blue Voyage, and False Idols
A magical tale filled with mythology and romance, UNCHARTED will hook readers from the first page and take them on a heart-pounding adventure. Erin Cashman’s delightful prose and wonderful storytelling kept me enthralled to the very end! ~ Ellen Marie Wiseman, internationally bestselling author of The Plum Tree, What She Left Behind, The Life She Was Given, and Coal River
Click here to watch the official Uncharted trailer, designed by the wonderful Sarah Kershaw (The YA Book Traveler)!
I also have an Uncharted Pinterest board if you want to check it out here
cover: copyright © 2012 by Richard Tushman
THE EXCEPTIONALS (Holiday House)
Available now in Hardcover and Audiobook. Paperback and digital coming soon.
Amazon Barnes & Noble IndieBound
In a famous family of exceptionally talented people, fifteen-year-old Claire Walker is ordinary … or so she leads everyone to believe. Yet the minute she steps out of line, her parents transfer her to Cambial Academy; the prestigious boarding school that her great-grandparents founded for students with supernatural abilities, or “specials”. Although Claire can’t see ghosts or move objects with her mind like the other students, she does have a special she considers too lame to admit: she can hear the thoughts of animals.
Just as she is settling in, one by one the most talented students – The Exceptionals – go missing. In an attempt to find out what happened to them, Claire uncovers a dark prophecy involving a plot to destroy Cambial and a mysterious girl who can communicate with a hawk. Could she be that girl? Does the gorgeous but secretive boy she meets in the woods know more than he is letting on? After years of ignoring her special gift, Claire decides the time has come to embrace her ability … before it’s too late.
I am thrilled and honored that THE EXCEPTIONALS was named a Bank Street College of Education Best Children’s Book of the Year!
BANK STREET BEST CHILDREN’S BOOKS OF THE YEAR
Praise for The Exceptionals:
Debut novelist Cashman delivers an engaging, exciting twist on the school story, introducing readers to a whole new set of supernatural skills and adventures. With its varied and intriguing cast of characters, The Exceptionals will appeal to a wide range of readers, all of whom will be eager to see if there will be forthcoming adventures at Cambial Academy. ~ School Library Journal
Cashman knows how to craft natural dialogue and emphatic characters. ~ Publishers Weekly
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line31
|
__label__wiki
| 0.768119
| 0.768119
|
Agricultural Economics, Soybeans
Crop Report
STARKVILLE, Miss. -- Most soybeans in Mississippi are having a good year to date, with 82% of the crop appearing in good or excellent shape past the midway point in the season.
Prices also look good, with averages above those of recent years.
But Trent Irby, soybean specialist with the Mississippi State University Extension Service, said the state’s soybean scene this year really is a tale of two crops.
“Our full-season acres that weren’t impacted by flooding look really good right now for the most part,” Irby said. “We still have a lot of growing season left, but there are a lot of acres with great yield potential at this point.”
The remaining acres are not so easy to characterize. Irby said soybeans were still being planted in places as of mid-July. Most of these crops were replants forced by flooding.
“Several areas around the state received big rain events during June that resulted in substantial flooding,” Irby said. “There were also areas impacted days later as rivers and creeks got out and flooded fields.”
Irby estimated most of the state’s soybean crop was planted in a normal window as early as late March through June after wheat harvest. Because of the devastating rains in late June, there are more late-planted soybeans than normal. Some of these fields were not planted until late July, and Irby said planting may continue.
“That leaves the question of how many soybean acres were planted in the state in 2021 still very open,” Irby said.
“The most recent report estimated Mississippi at 2.25 million acres of soybeans, but there were a lot of acres impacted by flooding during the time of that estimate,” he said. “Some of those flooded acres will not be replanted at all this year, and other acres originally planted to other crops may end up as soybean acres for the year.”
Other than flooding and replanting, the growing season has mostly seen typical challenges. Slugs were an early problem in some places, and fall armyworms are a major problem in other places. Irby said some nutrient deficiencies are showing up in places as well.
“The main focus moving forward will be continuing to scout for insect and disease issues, cleaning up weeds in late-planted fields and getting this crop moved toward the finish line,” Irby said. “We will hope for some great weather in the fall, particularly for these late-planted beans, to have a successful harvest.”
Price is another piece of the puzzle for growers. Will Maples, Extension agricultural economist, said soybean producers are facing a better price outlook than they have in recent years.
“New crop November soybean futures averaged $13.72 per bushel for the week ending July 23, which is 35% higher than this time last year,” Maples said. “In early June, the November contract reached as high as $14.6 per bushel.”
A strong export market for U.S. soybeans has primarily driven the rebounding prices. Maples said international demand for U.S. soybeans is expected to remain strong.
“At this time of year, the soybean market is trading on the weather. Any weather disruptions on yield could have a price effect,” he said.
Find up-to-date crop information, analysis and advice from MSU Extension experts online at https://www.mississippi-crops.com.
Contacts: Dr. Jon Trenton Irby, Dr. William Elliott Maples
Dr. William Elliott Maples
Dr. James Newton Barnes
Dr. Dominga Elizabeth Canales Medina
Dr. Alba J. Collart Dinarte
Horticultural Marketing
Dr. Joshua Gilchrist Maples
Dr. Ben Posadas
Seafood and specialty crops marketing; Marine and disaster economics
Soybeans Struggling After Heat, Drought
Future Lacks Promise For State's Soybeans
Asian Economic Woes Not Hurting State Ag
Soybean Variety Test Results Go On The Web
Good Insurance Can Lessen Crop Losses
http://extension.msstate.edu/news/crop-report/2021/divided-soybean-crop-has-good-price-prospect
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line32
|
__label__wiki
| 0.715365
| 0.715365
|
Boys’ Hoops Playoff Bound Thanks To Hitting Threes; Girls’ Back To Winning Ways
February 11, 2018 By Franklin B. Tucker 1 Comment
Photo: Danny Yardemain driving to the hoop against Winchester.
When Belmont High Basketball Head Coach Adam Pritchard heard his team threw in 13 three-pointers in its 79-73 home victory Friday, Feb. 9 against 13-win Winchester High, the long-time leader of the Marauders responded: “That few?”
“I’m not kidding when I think we can score more from [three-point range],” said Pritchard.
Not that the long ball has been the only reason Belmont has been on an impressive four-game winning streak defeating two playoff-bound teams (including a no-contest 85-57 beatdown of Woburn on the Tanners court) and clinching a spot in the postseason with its win over Lexington on Tuesday, at the Wenner.
Included with the three-pointers has been combining a sneaky quick fast break, a better than most threat in the offensive end (i.e., they hit more than just threes) and a bend-but-not-break defense that can make a game more interesting than Pritchard would like as what occurred against the Sachems Friday.
Belmont used its break in the first half to build an eight-point lead (22-14) led by the senior forward Tomas Donoyan. The Marauders defense was holding Winchester in check with the glaring exception of the Sachems’ Mario DiBenedetto who came in as Winchester’s third-leading scorer. While the guard is averaging 13 points a game, he matched that number midway through the second quarter rattling in 19 points by halftime, keeping his team close to Belmont, 41-34.
With Yardemian yet again garnering the attention of the other team – having senior guard Liam Fitzgerald on him like a cheap suit – Belmont relied on the dual deep threats of sophomore shooting guards Mac Annus and junior Ben Sseruwagi and veteran senior forward Will Ellet who took up the scoring load.
Belmont built up its lead to double digits, 54-43, on three free throws by Sseruwagi with 3:22 left in the quarter, only to see DiBenedetto once again cut the lead to seven and reaching 27 points. At 54-47, and as he was heading to the hoop, DiBenedetto stepped on a shoe and went down. He would return from the locker room on crutches. With its leading scorer on the bench, Belmont quickly built an 11 point lead.
But the Sachems would not go away, cutting the lead to 62-61 before an Ellet three, a Donoyan block and Ellet’s second three in the fourth quarter gave Belmont nine-point lead with 3:05 left. But on three consecutive trips down the court, Fitzgerald drained a three, and suddenly the comfortable Belmont margin evaporated with the game tied at 70.
But a Yardemian driving layup and an Ellet three gave the Marauders lead of five, 75-70. While Winchester’s Joe McCarron’s basket and one cut the lead to two with 65 seconds remaining, Belmont would seal the deal when Ellet faked a three and completed a behind the back pass to Annus to cooly knocked the corner three to effectively end the contest.
On Tuesday, Belmont did what they couldn’t a week earlier when they visited the Minuteman, hit the open shots. Revenging that loss, the Marauders took a workmanlike approach to the game, grabbing offensive rebounds while putting down 11 threes for the game to win going away, 86-75.
Despite having a defender in his face for most of the game, Yardemian led Belmont with 20 points followed by Ellet who drained four of the teams seven threes and Annus who both scored 19 points. Sseruwagi ended with a career-high 14 including 10 in the first half.
Close early, 15-13 at the end of the first quarter, Belmont put up 23 in the second to lead at the half, 38-29. Belmont would keep the margin in the 12 to 8 point range for the remainder of the game.
The win gave Belmont its 10th victory of the season and securing a place in the sectional playoffs.
“Every year getting into the playoffs is our goal for the season,” said Assistant Head Coach Tim Stratford. “This is a team that works hard and the past few games they really distributed the ball really well. When your leading scorer [Yardemian] leads the team with assists, that when things are working well.”
Belmont at 11-6 and ranked 21st in the Boston Herald’s Top 25 poll will be away against Reading on Tuesday as it prepares for Thursday’s big-time encounter with Middlesex League-leading Arlington (15-2) on Seniors Night. The SpyPonders, ranked 18th by the Boston Globe, have a Watertown Field Hockey-like 31 game league winning streak going back three years.
Girls Back On Track
After the gut punch by Woburn last week, the 58-55 loss on a three-point shot with eight seconds left in the game, Belmont got back to its winning ways defeating Lexington at home, 55-31, on Tuesday and Winchester away, 67-18, on Friday.
“The girls responded well. It was nice they were able to come back with that kind of intensity,” said Head Coach Melissa Hart after the Lexington game. The Marauders are 14-2, and 13-1 in Middlesex League play and ranked 5th in the Boston Herald and 12th in the Boston Globe polls.
Unlike the game a week previous where the Minutemen were able to keep the contest close for most of the game at Lexington, Belmont expanded on an early lead and steadily increased the margin, outscoring the Minutemen 18-6 and 17-7 in the first two quarters to lead 35-13 at the half. Juniors center Jess Giorgio and guard Meghan Tan each tallied 10 points with senior Jenny Call hitting a pair of treys to extend her Belmont career three-point scoring record.
Against Winchester, Hart was able to use her bench for most of the game with something of a record 12 Marauders scoring against the undermanned Sachems. Hart pointed to junior Ella Gagnon who hit for a career-high six points and grabbing seven rebounds. Senior co-captain Greta Propp had 11 points to lead the team while Kylie Rhone (7 points), Alex Keefe (downtown for 3 points), Breah Healey (2 points) and Audrey Christo (4 points) contributed to the victory.
Tuesday, Feb. 13, the Girls’ host Reading on Seniors Night. After playing Arlington on Thursday, Belmont heads directly to the Comcast Tournament on Saturday where they meet South Shore powerhouse, Bishop Feehan.
“With the postseason coming next week, it’s good to realize what we need to do to be successful. The captains spoke to the players that they need to up the intensity. The loss rejuvenated their desire.” said Hart
Filed Under: News, Sports Tagged With: Belmont, Belmont High School, Belmont High School Boys' Basketball, Belmont High School Girls' Basketball
Paula Christofori says
Games are Thursday 2/15, not Friday of this week!
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line37
|
__label__cc
| 0.575112
| 0.424888
|
Michael Pritchard's Blog – August 2015 Archive (15)
Henry Peach Robinson to be commemorated in Leamington
The Blue Plaques Group is unveiling a blue plaque to photographer Henry Peach Robinson on Wednesday, 23 September, 2015 at 2.30pm. The unveiling will take place at 60-64 Parade, Royal Leamington Spa, CV32 4DB and the plaque has been supported by The Royal Photographic…
Added by Michael Pritchard on August 31, 2015 at 11:05 — No Comments
Preview: The Spoken Image with Eamonn McCabe (Radio 4)
Not so long ago the idea of a radio programme devoted to discussing photographs might have seemed a bit odd. How effective could a presenter be in describing the images? In fact, the idea has worked well in the past. Earlier this year Radio 3 did a series of five programmes which discussed The Five Photographs That (You Didn’t Know) Changed Everything. With the right…
Added by Michael Pritchard on August 30, 2015 at 8:30 — No Comments
Publication: Julia Margaret Cameron: Photographs to electrify you with delight and startle the world
Julia Margaret Cameron (1815–79) was one of the most important and innovative photographers of the 19th century. Criticised in her lifetime for her unconventional techniques, she is now celebrated as a pioneering portraitist. 2015 marks the bicentenary of Cameron’s birth and the 150th anniversary of her first museum exhibition – the only one in her lifetime – held at the…
Exhibition: Qing Dynasty Peking, Thomas Child's Photography
This exhibition of the work of the British photographer Thomas Child (1841-1898) is curated by Stacey Lambrow and selected from the collection of Stephan Loewentheil. It runs from 10-15 November at China Exchange, Gerrard Street, London. A collector's talk will be held on 10 November at 5pm. Admission to both is free.
New stereoscopy from the London Stereoscopic Company
Our friends at the (new) London Stereoscopic Company have launched Victorian Gems a selection of high quality Victorian stereographs and viewer. It was shown at the National Stereoscopic Association convention last week so we've yet to see the set but based on the LSC's past products we're not going to be disappointed. The set includes: OWL’s nest containing an…
Talks: National Gallery does photography
London's National gallery has a series of six interactive lunchtime lectures around the subject of photography designed to investigate how photography has shaped both the Gallery and the history of Western European painting.
Find out more here: …
Exhibition: Stories Seen Through a Glass Plate - Photographs from the Edward Reeves archive
Edward Reeves took up photography c.1855. Today his great-grandson Tom is still running the business in the High Street in Lewes. The Edward Reeves Studio, situated at 159 High Street is believed to be the oldest continuously operated photographic studio in the world.
Today it houses an archive of over 100,000 photographic glass plates, the work of the first three…
Publication: The Photographs of Lewis Carroll. A catalogue raisonné
Renowned for Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was also one of the most important amateur photographers of the Victorian era and the period's finest photographer of children. This new book by Edward Wakeling, perhaps the world's leading Carroll scholar, presents almost 1000 of his photographs along with a supporting text. BPH…
Added by Michael Pritchard on August 24, 2015 at 7:00 — 1 Comment
Workshop: making negatives from digital files
The Royal Photographic Society's Archaeology and Heritage Group is holding a workshop on making negatives for printing by alternative processes or traditional methods from digital files. It is led by Peter Moseley.
This introductory workshop covers the essential steps in creating contact negatives to print your digital images using the cyanotype method (maximum…
Nordstrom appointed to St Andrews Special Collections role
Rachel Nordstrom has been appointed Photographic Collections Manager at the University of St Andrews Library’s Special Collections Division. She replaces Marc Boulay who returned to Canada earlier this year. She has taken on the leadership of the Photographic Collections team and will soon be recruiting for a new Photographic Cataloguer.
Rachel will continue to have…
Research help: Identify John Piper photographs
Thousands of pictures taken by British artist John Piper have been published by the Tate Archive. But while many of the locations were documented by Piper when Tate acquired the negatives in the 1980s, and research is ongoing, nearly 1,000…
Added by Michael Pritchard on August 12, 2015 at 18:00 — 2 Comments
Digitisation: Olive Edis Collection secures £81,000 HLF grant
Olive Edis photographed people from all walks of life, was the first to capture Canada in colour and gave an incredible insight into the First World War. Now a new project made possible by National Lottery players is turning the focus on her story.…
Publication: Photography for Eveyone: The Cultural Lives of Cameras and Consumers
With the summer holidays upon us it's time to catch up on some reading. This new publication which BPH came across by chance a few weeks ago and purchased is a much needed study of an overlooked subject, from a country which has done so much to influence photography.Highly recommended!
The Japanese passion for photography is almost a cliché, but how did it begin?…
Tempest Anderson: Pioneer of Volcano Photography
The Public Domain Review carries an interesting article on photographs from the collection of Tempest Anderson, the pioneering Victorian volcanologist. It is written by Pat Hadley, Sarah King and Stuart Ogilvy from The Yorkshire Museum (York Museums Trust) which holds a collection of 5000 lantern slides which have been digitised.
You can read the full article…
Added by Michael Pritchard on August 7, 2015 at 15:47 — No Comments
Exhibition: Bloom
Rare folios of cyanotypes by 19th century British naturalist and early photographer Anna Atkins, held in the Horniman Museum and Gardens’ collection, have inspired a new display by artist and academic Edward Chell.
Chell’s fascination with collecting and classification led him to these folios and in Bloom he responds to them with a series of detailed painted…
Research: Darkroom practice and conceptualisation
Online event: ‘Ladies shall be eligible’ / 8 March 2022
cfp: Photographic history without photographs / call deadline 12 February 2022
Online event: Challenging Antisemitism / 20 January 2022
Event: Reflections on William Hope and the Crewe circle spirit photographs / 27 January 2022
ICON Photographic Materials Group
Online event: The poet and the polymath in 3D / 29 January 2022
National Media Museum changes direction as collections move to V&A London
Obituary: Beryl Vosburgh née Roques (1932-2016) - UPDATED 2
Research: Who was Christina?
V&A announces new Curatorial Fellowship in Photography
Job: Research Assistant - William Henry Fox Talbot Catalogue Raisonne Project
Tate Modern appoints Yasufumi Nakamori as Senior Curator International Art (Photography)
Online: Colour Fever - Celebrating colour photography / 25 October-5 November 2021
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line50
|
__label__cc
| 0.714365
| 0.285635
|
Hundred Schools > Zhuang Zi >
BOOK XXIX. The Robber Kih
1. Confucius was on terms of friendship with Liû-hsîa Kî, who had a brother named Tâo Kih. This Tâo Kih had 9,000 followers, who marched at their will through the kingdom, assailing and oppressing the different princes. They dug through walls and broke into houses; they drove away people's cattle and horses; they carried off people's wives and daughters. In their greed to get, they forgot the claims of kinship, and paid no regard to their parents and brethren. They did not sacrifice to their ancestors. Wherever they passed through the country, in the larger states the people guarded their city walls, and in the smaller the people took to their strongholds. All were distressed by them.
Confucius spoke to Liû-hsiâ Kî, saying, 'Fathers should be able to lay down the law to their sons, and elder to instruct their younger brothers. If they are unable to do so, they do not fulfil the duties of the relationships which they sustain. You, Sir, are one of the most talented officers of the age, and your younger brother is this Robber Kih. He is a pest in the kingdom, and you are not able to instruct him better; I cannot but be ashamed of you, and I beg to go for you and give him counsel.' Liû-hsiâ Kî replied, 'You say, Sir, that fathers must be able to lay down the law to their sons, and elder to instruct their younger brothers, but if sons will not listen to the orders of their fathers, nor the younger receive the lessons of their elder brothers, though one may have your powers of persuasion, what is to be done? And, moreover, Kih is a man whose mind is like a gushing fountain, and his will like a whirlwind; he is strong enough to resist all enemies, and clever enough to gloss over his wrong-doings. If you agree with him, he is glad; if you oppose him, he is enraged; and he readily meets men with the language of abuse. You must not go to him.'
Confucius, however, did not attend to this advice. With Yen Hui as his charioteer, and Dze-kung seated on the right, he went to see Tâo Kih, whom he found with his followers halted on the south of Thâi-shan, and mincing men's livers, which he gave them to eat. Confucius alighted from his carriage, and went forward, till he saw the usher, to whom he said, 'I, Khung Khiû of Lû, have heard of the general's lofty righteousness,' bowing twice respectfully to the man as he said so. The usher went in and announced the visitor. But when Tâo Kih heard of the arrival, he flew into a great rage; his eyes became like blazing stars, and his hair rose up and touched his cap. 'Is not this fellow,' said he, 'Khung Khiû, that artful hypocrite of Lû? Tell him from me, "You invent speeches and babble away, appealing without ground to (the examples of) Wän and Wû. The ornaments on your cap are as many as the branches of a tree, and your girdle is (a piece of skin) from the ribs of a dead ox. The more you talk, the more nonsense you utter. You get your food without (the labour of) ploughing, and your clothes without (that of) weaving. You wag your lips and make your tongue a drum-stick. You arbitrarily decide what is right and what is wrong, thereby leading astray the princes throughout the kingdom, and making its learned scholars not occupy their thoughts with their proper business. You recklessly set up your filial piety and fraternal duty, and curry favour with the feudal princes, the wealthy and the noble. Your offence is great; your crime is very heavy. Take yourself off home at once. If you do not do so, I will take your liver, and add it to the provision for to-day's food."'
But Confucius sent in another message, saying, I enjoy the good will of (your brother) Kî, and I wish and hope to tread the ground beneath your tent.' When the usher had communicated this message, Tâo Kih said, 'Make him come forward.' On this Confucius hastened forwards. Declining to take a mat, he drew hastily back, and bowed twice to Tâo Kih, who in a great rage stretched his legs apart, laid his hand on his sword, and with glaring eyes and a voice like the growl of a nursing tigress, said, 'Come forwards, Khiû. If what you say be in accordance with my mind, you shall live; but, if it be contrary to it, you shall die.' Confucius replied, 'I have heard that everywhere under the sky there are three (most excellent) qualities. To be naturally tall and large, to be elegant and handsome without a peer, so that young and old, noble and mean, are pleased to look upon him;--this is the highest of those qualities. To comprehend both heaven and earth in his wisdom, and to be able to speak eloquently on all subjects;--this is the middle one of them. To be brave and courageous, resolute and daring, gathering the multitudes round him, and leading on his troops;--this is the lowest of them. Whoever possesses one of these qualities is fit to stand with his face to the south, and style himself a Prince. But you, General, unite in yourself all the three. Your person is eight cubits and two inches in height; there is a brightness about your face and a light in your eyes; your lips look as if stained with vermilion; your teeth are like rows of precious shells; your voice is attuned to the musical tubes, and yet you are named "The Robber Kih." I am ashamed of you, General, and cannot approve of you. If you are inclined to listen to me, I should like to go as your commissioner to Wû and Yüeh in the south; to Khî and Lû in the north; to Sung and Wei in the east; and to Zin and Khû in the west. I will get them to build for you a great city several hundred lî in size, to establish under it towns containing several hundred thousands of inhabitants, and honour you there as a feudal lord. The kingdom will see you begin your career afresh; you will cease from your wars and disband your soldiers; you will collect and nourish your brethren, and along with them offer the sacrifices to your ancestors:--this will be a course befitting a sage and an officer of ability, and will fulfil the wishes of the whole kingdom.'
'Come forward, Khiû,' said Tâo Kih, greatly enraged. 'Those who can be persuaded by considerations of gain, and to whom remonstrances may be addressed with success, are all ignorant, low, and ordinary people. That I am tall and large, elegant and handsome, so that all who see me are pleased with me;--this is an effect of the body left me by my parents. Though you were not to praise me for it, do I not know it myself? And I have heard that he who likes to praise men to their face will also like to speak ill of them behind their back. And when you tell me of a great wall and a multitudinous people, this is to try to persuade me by considerations of gain, and to cocker me as one of the ordinary people. But how could such advantages last for long? Of all great cities there is none so great as the whole kingdom, which was possessed by Yâo and Shun, while their descendants (now) have not so much territory as would admit an awl. Thang and Wû were both set up as the Sons of Heaven, but in after ages (their posterity) were cut off and extinguished;--was not this because the gain of their position was so great a prize?
'And moreover I have heard that anciently birds and beasts were numerous, and men were few, so that they lived in nests in order to avoid the animals. In the daytime they gathered acorns and chestnuts, and in the night they roosted on the trees; and on account of this they are called the people of the Nest-builder. Anciently the people did not know the use of clothes. In summer they collected great stores of faggots, and in winter kept themselves warm by means of them; and on account of this they are called the people who knew how to take care of their lives. In the age of Shän Näng, the people lay down in simple innocence, and rose up in quiet security. They knew their mothers, but did not know their fathers. They dwelt along with the elks and deer. They ploughed and ate; they wove and made clothes; they had no idea of injuring one another:--this was the grand time of Perfect virtue. Hwang-Tî, however, was not able to perpetuate this virtuous state. He fought with Khih-yû in the wild of Ko-lû till the blood flowed over a hundred lî. When Yâo and Shun arose, they instituted their crowd of ministers. Thang banished his lord. King Wû killed Kâu. Since that time the strong have oppressed the weak, and the many tyrannised over the few. From Thang and Wû downwards, (the rulers) have all been promoters of disorder and confusion. You yourself now cultivate and inculcate the ways of Wän and Wû; you handle whatever subjects are anywhere discussed for the instruction of future ages. With your peculiar robe and narrow girdle, with your deceitful speech and hypocritical conduct, you delude the lords of the different states, and are seeking for riches and honours. There is no greater robber than you are;--why does not all the world call you the Robber Khiû, instead of styling me the Robber Kih?
'You prevailed by your sweet speeches on Dze-lû, and made him your follower; you made him put away his high cap, lay aside his long sword, and receive your instructions, so that all the world said, "Khung Khiû is able to arrest violence and repress the wrong-doer;" but in the end, when Dze-lû wished to slay the ruler of Wei, and the affair proved unsuccessful, his body was exhibited in pickle over the eastern gate of the capital;--so did your teaching of him come to nothing.
'Do you call yourself a scholar of talent, a sage? Why, you were twice driven out of Lû; you had to run away from Wei; you were reduced to extremity in Khî; you were held in a state of siege between Khän and Zhâi; there is no resting-place for your person in the kingdom; your instructions brought Dze-lû to pickle. Such have been the misfortunes (attending your course). You have done no good either for yourself or for others;--how can your doctrines be worth being thought much of?
'There is no one whom the world exalts so much as it does Hwang-Tî, and still he was not able to perfect his virtue, but fought in the wilderness of Ko-lû, till the blood flowed over a hundred lî. Yâo was not kind to his son. Shun was not filial. Yü was paralysed on one side. Thang banished his sovereign. King Wû smote Kâu. King Wän was imprisoned in Yû-lî. These are the six men of whom the world thinks the most highly, yet when we accurately consider their history, we see that for the sake of gain they all disallowed their true (nature), and did violence to its proper qualities and tendencies:--their conduct cannot be thought of but with deep shame.
'Among those whom the world calls men of ability and virtue were (the brothers) Po-Î and Shû-khî. They declined the rule of Kû-kû, and died of starvation on the hill of Shâu-yang, leaving their bones and flesh unburied. Pâo Ziâo vaunted his conduct, and condemned the world, but he died with his arms round a tree. When Shän-thû Tî's remonstrances were not listened to, he fastened a stone on his back, and threw himself into the Ho, where he was eaten by the fishes and turtles. Kieh Dze-thui was the most devoted (of followers), and cut a piece from his thigh as food for duke Wän. But when the duke afterwards overlooked him (in his distribution of favours), he was angry, and went away, and was burned to death with a tree in his arms. Wei Shäng had made an appointment with a girl to meet him under a bridge; but when she did not come, and the water rose around him, he would not go away, and died with his arms round one of the pillars. (The deaths of) these four men were not different from those of the dog that is torn in pieces, the pig that is borne away by a current, or the beggar (drowned in a ditch) with his alms-gourd in his hand. They were all caught as in a net by their (desire for) fame, not caring to nourish their life to its end, as they were bound to do.
'Among those whom the world calls faithful ministers there have been none like the prince Pî-kan and Wû Dze-hsü. But Dze-hsü's (dead) body was cast into the Kiang, and the heart of Pî-kan was cut out. These two were what the world calls loyal ministers, but the end has been that everybody laughs at them. Looking at all the above cases, down to those of Dze-hsü and Pî-kan, there is not one worthy to be honoured; and as to the admonitions which you, Khiû, wish to impress on me, if you tell me about the state of the dead, I am unable to know anything about it; if you tell me about the things of men (alive), they are only such as I have stated, what I have heard and know all about. I will now tell you, Sir, my views about the condition of man. The eyes wish to look on beauty; the ears to hear music; the mouth to enjoy flavours; the will to be gratified. The greatest longevity man can reach is a hundred years; a medium longevity is eighty years; the lowest longevity is sixty. Take away sickness, pining, bereavement, mourning, anxieties, and calamities, the times when, in any of these, one can open his mouth and laugh, are only four or five days in a month. Heaven and earth have no limit of duration, but the death of man has its (appointed) time. Take the longest amount of a limited time, and compare it with what is unlimited, its brief existence is not different from the passing of a crevice by one of king Mû's horses. Those who cannot gratify their will and natural aims, and nourish their appointed longevity, are all unacquainted with the (right) Way (of life). I cast from me, Khiû, all that you say. Be quick and go. Hurry back and say not a word more. Your Way is only a wild recklessness, deceitful, artful, vain, and hypocritical. It is not available to complete the true (nature of man); it is not worth talking about!'
Confucius bowed twice, and hurried away. He went out at the door, and mounted his carriage. Thrice he missed the reins as he tried to take hold of them. His eyes were dazed, and he could not see; and his colour was that of slaked lime. He laid hold of the cross-bar, holding his head down, and unable to draw his breath. When he got back, outside the east gate of (the capital of) Lû, he encountered Liû-hsiâ Kî, who said to him, 'Here you are, right in the gate. For some days I have not seen you. Your carriage and horses are travel-stained;--have you not been to see Tâo Kih?' Confucius looked up to heaven, sighed, and said, 'Yes.' The other went on, 'And did he not set himself in opposition to all your views, as I said he would do?' 'He did. My case has been that of the man who cauterised himself without being ill. I rushed away, stroked the tiger's head, played with his whiskers, and narrowly escaped his mouth.'
2. Dze-kang asked Mân Kâu-the, saying, 'Why do you not pursue a (righteous) course? Without such a course you will not be believed in; unless you are believed in, you will not be employed in office; and if not employed in office, you will not acquire gain. Thus, if you look at the matter from the point of reputation, or estimate it from the point of gain, a righteous course is truly the right thing. If you discard the thought of reputation and gain, yet when you think over the thing in your own mind, you will see that the scholar should not be a single day without pursuing a (righteous) course.' Man Kau-teh said, 'He who has no shame becomes rich, and he in whom many believe becomes illustrious. Thus the greatest fame and gain would seem to spring from being without shame and being believed in. Therefore if you look at the matter from the point of reputation, or estimate it from the point of gain, to be believed in is the right thing. If you discard the thought of fame and gain, and think over the thing in your own mind, you will see that the scholar in the course which he pursues is (simply) holding fast his Heavenly (nature, and gaining nothing).'
Dze-kang said, 'Formerly Kieh and Kâu each enjoyed the honour of being the sovereign, and all the wealth of the kingdom was his; but if you now say to a (mere) money-grabber, "Your conduct is like that of Kieh or Kâu," he will look ashamed, and resent the imputation:--(these two sovereigns) are despised by the smallest men. Kung-nî and Mo Tî (on the other hand) were poor, and common men; but if you say to a Prime Minister that his conduct is like that of Kung-nî or Mo Tî, then he will be put out and change countenance, and protest that he is not worthy (to be so spoken of):--(these two philosophers) are held to be truly noble by (all) scholars. Thus it is that the position of sovereign does not necessarily connect with being thought noble, nor the condition of being poor and of common rank with being thought mean. The difference of being thought noble or mean arises from the conduct being good or bad.' Mân Kâu-teh replied, 'Small robbers are put in prison; a great robber becomes a feudal lord; and in the gate of the feudal lord your righteous scholars will be found. For instance, Hsiâo-po, the duke Hwan, killed his elder brother, and took his sister-in-law to himself, and yet Kwan Kung became his minister; and Thien Khang, styled Khäng-dze, killed his ruler, and usurped the state, and yet Confucius received a present of silks from him. In their discussions they would condemn the men, but in their conduct they abased themselves before them. In this way their words and actions must have been at war together in their breasts;--was it not a contradiction and perversity? As it is said in a book, "Who is bad? and who is good? The successful is regarded as the Head, and the unsuccessful as the Tail."
Dze-kang said, 'If you do not follow the usual course of what is held to be right, but observe no distinction between the near and remote degrees of kin, no difference between the noble and the mean, no order between the old and the young, then how shall a separation be made of the fivefold arrangement (of the virtues), and the six parties (in the social organisation)?' Mân Kâu-teh replied, 'Yâo killed his eldest son, and Shun banished his half-brother:--did they observe the rules about the different degrees of kin? Thang deposed Kieh; king Wän overthrew Kâu:--did they observe the righteousness that should obtain between the noble and the mean? King Kî took the place of his elder brother, and the duke of Kâu killed his:--did they observe the order that should obtain between the elder and the younger? The Literati make hypocritical speeches; the followers of Mo hold that all should be loved equally:--do we find in them the separation of the fivefold arrangement (of the virtues), and the six parties (in the social organisation)? And further, you, Sir, are all for reputation, and I am all for gain; but where the actual search for reputation and gain may not be in accordance with principle and will not bear to be examined in the light of the right way, let me and you refer the matter to-morrow to the decision of Wû-yo.'
(This Wû-yo) said, 'The small man pursues after wealth; the superior man pursues after reputation. The way in which they change their feelings and alter their nature is different; but if they were to cast away what they do, and replace it with doing nothing, they would be the same. Hence it is said, "Do not be a small man;--return and pursue after the Heavenly in you. Do not be a superior man;--follow the rule of the Heavenly in you. Be it crooked, be it straight, view the thing in the light of Heaven as revealed in you. Look all round on every side of it, and as the time indicates, cease your endeavours. Be it right, be it wrong, hold fast the ring in yourself in which all conditions converge. Alone by yourself, carry out your idea; ponder over the right way. Do not turn your course; do not try to complete your righteousness. You will fail in what you do. Do not haste to be rich; do not follow after your perfection. If you do, you will lose the heavenly in you."
'Pî-kan had his heart cut out; Dze-hsü had his eyes gouged out:--such were the evil consequences of their loyalty. The Upright Person bore witness against his father; Wei Shäng was drowned:--such were the misfortunes of good faith. Pao-dze stood till he was dried up; Shän-dze would not defend himself:--such were the injuries brought on by disinterestedness. Confucius did not see his mother; Khwang-dze did not see his father:--such were the failures of the righteous. These are instances handed down from former ages, and talked about in these later times. They show us how superior men, in their determination to be correct in their words and resolute in their conduct, paid the penalty of these misfortunes, and were involved in these distresses.'
3. Mr. Dissatisfied, asked Mr. Know-the-Mean, saying, 'There is no man after all who does not strive for reputation and pursue after gain. When men are rich, then others go to them. Going to them, they put themselves beneath them. In that position they do honour to them as nobler than themselves. But to see others taking that position and doing honour to us is the way to prolong life, and to secure the rest of the body and the satisfaction of the mind. You alone, Sir, however, have no idea of this. Is it that your knowledge is deficient? Is it that you have the knowledge, but want the strength to carry it into practice? Or is it that your mind is made up to do what you consider right, and never allow yourself to forget it?' Know-the-Mean replied, 'Here now is this man judging of us, his contemporaries, and living in the same neighbourhood as himself, that we consider ourselves scholars who have abjured all vulgar ways and risen above the world. He is entirely without the thought of submitting to the rule of what is right. He therefore studies ancient times and the present, and the differing questions about the right and wrong, and agrees with the vulgar ideas and influences of the age, abandoning what is most important and discarding what is most honourable, in order to be free to act as he does. But is he not wide of the mark when he thinks that this is the way to promote long life, and to secure the rest of the body and the satisfaction of the mind? He has his painful afflictions and his quiet repose, but he does not inquire how his body is so variously affected; he has his apprehensive terrors, and his happy joys, but he does not inquire how his mind has such different experiences. He knows how to pursue his course, but he does not know why he does so. Even if he had the dignity of the Son of Heaven, and all the wealth of the kingdom were his, he would not be beyond the reach of misfortunes and evils.' Dissatisfied rejoined, 'But riches are in every way advantageous to man. With them his attainment of the beautiful and mastery of every art become what the perfect man cannot obtain nor the sagely man reach to; his appropriation of the bravery and strength of others enables him to exercise a powerful sway; his availing himself of the wisdom and plans of others makes him be accounted intelligent and discriminating; his taking advantage of the virtues of others makes him be esteemed able and good. Though he may not be the holder of a state, he is looked to with awe as a ruler and father. Moreover, music, beauty, with the pleasures of the taste and of power, are appreciated by men's minds and rejoiced in without any previous learning of them; the body reposes in them without waiting for the example of others. Desire and dislike, avoidance and pursuit, do not require any master;--this is the nature of man. Though the world may condemn one's indulgence of them, who can refrain from it?' Know-the-Mean replied, 'The action of the wise is directed for the good of the people, but they do not go against the (proper) rule and degree. Therefore when they have enough, they do not strive (for more); they have no further object, and so they do not seek for one. When they have not enough, they will seek for it; they will strive for it in every quarter, and yet not think of themselves as greedy. If they have (already) a superfluity, they will decline (any more); they will decline the throne, and yet not think of themselves as disinterested:--the conditions of disinterestedness and greediness are (with them) not from the constraint of anything external. Through their exercise of introspection, their power may be that of the sovereign, but they will not in their nobility be arrogant to others; their wealth may be that of the whole kingdom, but they will not in their possession of it make a mock of others. They estimate the evils to which they are exposed, and are anxious about the reverses which they may experience. They think how their possessions may be injurious to their nature, and therefore they will decline and not accept them;--but not because they seek for reputation and praise.
'Yâo and Shun were the sovereigns, and harmony prevailed. It did so, not because of their benevolence towards the people;--they would not, for what was (deemed) admirable, injure their lives. Shan Küan and Hsü Yû might have been the sovereigns, but they would not receive the throne;--not that they declined it without purpose, but they would not by its occupancy injure themselves. These all followed after what was advantageous to them, and declined what was injurious, and all the world celebrates their superiority. Thus, though they enjoy the distinction, they did what they did, not for the sake of the reputation and praise.'
Dissatisfied (continued his argument), saying, 'In thus thinking it necessary for their reputation, they bitterly distressed their bodies, denied themselves what was pleasant, and restricted themselves to a bare sustenance in order to sustain their life; but so they had life-long distress, and long-continued pressure till their death arrived.' Know-the-Mean replied, 'Tranquil ease is happiness; a superfluity is injurious:--so it is with all things, and especially it is so, where the superfluity is of wealth. The ears of the rich are provided with the music of bells, drums, flageolets and flutes; and their mouths are stuffed with the flesh of fed beasts and with wine of the richest flavour; so are their desires satisfied, till they forget their proper business:--theirs may be pronounced a condition of disorder. Sunk deeply in their self-sufficiency, they resemble individuals ascending a height with a heavy burden on their backs:--their condition may be pronounced one of bitter suffering. They covet riches, thinking to derive comfort from them; they covet power, and would fain monopolise it; when quiet and retired, they are drowned in luxurious indulgence; their persons seem to shine, and they are full of boasting:--they may be said to be in a state of disease. In their desire to be rich and striving for gain, they fill their stores, and, deaf to all admonition, refuse to desist from their course. They are even more elated, and hold on their way:--their conduct may be pronounced disgraceful. When their wealth is amassed till they cannot use it, they clasp it to their breasts and will not part with it; when their hearts are distressed with their very fulness, they still seek for more and will not desist:--their condition may be said to be sad. In-doors they are apprehensive of pilfering and begging thieves, and out-of-doors they are afraid of being injured by plundering robbers; in-doors they have many chambers and partitions, and out-of-doors they do not dare to go alone:--they may be said to be in a state of (constant) alarm.
'These six conditions are the most deplorable in the world, but they forget them all, and have lost their faculty of judgment. When the evil comes, though they begged it with all the powers of their nature, and by the sacrifice of all their wealth, they could not bring back one day of untroubled peace. When they look for their reputation, it is not to be seen; when they seek for their wealth, it is not to be got. To task their thoughts, and destroy their bodies, striving for (such an end as) this;--is it not a case of great delusion?'
|
cc/2022-05/en_middle_0070.json.gz/line51
|
End of preview.