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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26544 | Main Profile
At A Glance
C C Winn High School
C C Winn High School is a coeducational public school for students in grades 9 through 12.
Education Quality
Cost Of Living
Institution Type: Public Setting: Rural
C C Winn High School's Full Profile
79% of students graduate from C C Winn High School
Adequate Yearly Progress
AYP was Met Overall for the year 2012.
Students and Faculty
Students and Faculty
Enrollment Data
Total Enrollment 2,036
Enrollment By Grade
Grade Number of Students
9 591
10 487
11 471
12 487
C C Winn High School's relatively even enrollment profile may offer insights into student retention rates, local population changes, real estate costs, and the accessibility of alternative educational options. to find out more about the specific factors influencing C C Winn High School's enrollment numbers.
Student Teacher Ratio 16 : 1
Gender 50% Male / 50% Female
Socioeconomic Diversity
0% of students qualify for a free or reduced price school lunch at C C Winn High School.
Student Diversity
Percentage of Student Body
White 1%
Hispanic/Latino 97%
Black or African American 0%
American Indian or Alaska Native 2%
Questions about C C Winn High School
Want more info about C C Winn High School? Get free advice from education experts and Noodle community members. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26570 | August 17th, 2008 by Lincoln Baxter III
Hibernate: Use a Base Class to Map Common Fields
Tutorial Chapter 2 – Easier Development and Maintenance
Tired of wiring in an id, version, and timestamp field into all of your Hibernate objects? There’s an easy way to solve this pain once and for all of your classes. Avoid code-repetition: today’s article focuses on using Hibernate Annotations to map common fields into one mapped superclass. If you have not done so already, and need to get a bare bones hibernate application up and running, this guide should get you up and running in a few minutes.
Basic Concepts:
You’re using Hibernate, or at least getting your feet wet at this point, so let’s assume that you’ve started to notice a pattern. You need in all of your objects:
• an id column
• a version column
• perhaps a timestamp column
Lets say that you are also aware of the hashcode() and equals() issues that come with using objects in collections, so you want to define some basic functionality to handle that situation as well. It would be pretty nice if we could do all this in one place, keeping updates quick and painless. Well, using the EJB-3/Hibernate @MappedSuperclass annotation, we can. Mapped superclass tells Hibernate that you want all mappings defined in the base class to apply and be included in all classes which extend from it.
Let’s take a look at an example base-class that will meet our above needs.
• Copy the following code examples into your HIbernate Annotations enabled project
import java.util.Date;
import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.GeneratedValue;
import javax.persistence.GenerationType;
import javax.persistence.Id;
import javax.persistence.MappedSuperclass;
import javax.persistence.Temporal;
import javax.persistence.TemporalType;
import javax.persistence.Version;
public abstract class PersistentObject implements Serializable
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
private Long id = null;
@Column(name = "version")
private int version = 0;
@Column(name = "last_update")
private Date lastUpdate;
protected void copy(final PersistentObject source)
{ =;
this.version = source.version;
this.lastUpdate = source.lastUpdate;
public boolean equals(final Object obj)
if (this == obj)
return true;
if (obj == null)
return false;
if (!(obj instanceof PersistentObject))
return false;
final PersistentObject other = (PersistentObject) obj;
if ( != null && != null)
if ( !=
return false;
return true;
protected static boolean getBooleanValue(final Boolean value)
return Boolean.valueOf(String.valueOf(value));
public Long getId()
private void setId(final Long id)
{ = id;
public int getVersion()
return this.version;
private void setVersion(final int version)
this.version = version;
public Date getLastUpdate()
return this.lastUpdate;
public void setLastUpdate(final Date lastUpdate)
this.lastUpdate = lastUpdate;
Extending the Base Class:
Using the MockObject class from Chapter 1, now extend PersistentObject. We can remove the fields that are now mapped in PersistentObject and add new fields to fit our business needs. Notice that MockObject does not define fields or methods for id, version, equals(), hashcode(), or timestamp; this behavior is now contained within our mapped superclass. From now on, all you need to do to incorporate this behavior into new classes is to extend PersistentObject.
import javax.persistence.Column;
import javax.persistence.Entity;
import javax.persistence.Table;
import javax.persistence.Transient;
@Table(name = "mock_objects")
public class MockObject extends PersistentObject
private static final long serialVersionUID = -3621010469526215357L;
private String textField;
private long numberField;
public String getTextField()
return textField;
public void setTextField(String textField)
this.textField = textField;
public long getNumberField()
return numberField;
public void setNumberField(long numberField)
this.numberField = numberField;
To prove it, we’ll re-run our demo application from the quick-start guide. Notice that the results are the same. I’ve added a little logic to show that our new columns work as well.
Our driver class does the following things:
• Get a handle to Hibernate Session
• Create and persist two new MockObjects
• Assign values into the textField of each object
• Print out the generated IDs and set fields
For referenced HibernateUtil,java, please see Chapter 1.
import org.hibernate.Transaction;
import org.hibernate.classic.Session;
public class HibernateDemo
public static void main(String[] args)
Session session = HibernateUtil.getSessionFactory().getCurrentSession();
Transaction transaction = session.beginTransaction();
MockObject object0 = new MockObject();
object0.setTextField("I am object 0");
MockObject object1 = new MockObject();
object1.setTextField("I am object 1");
System.out.println("Object 0");
System.out.println("Generated ID is: " + object0.getId());
System.out.println("Generated Version is: " + object0.getVersion());
System.out.println("Object 1");
System.out.println("Generated ID is: " + object1.getId());
System.out.println("Generated Version is: " + object1.getVersion());
Which results in the following output:
Object 0
I am object 0
Generated ID is: 1
Generated Version is: 0
Object 1
I am object 1
Generated ID is: 2
Generated Version is: 0
Considering the Forces:
It may be worth mentioning that using a base class for all of your objects can be a blessing and a curse. If you begin to reference objects using the more generic PersistentObject type, it is possible that you could find yourself constrained to the behavior of this one class. When this happens, consider defining PersistentObject as an Interface and then implement that interface with any number of @MappedSuperclass objects. There are benefits to referencing objects by their generic type, as well. One example, which we’ll take a look at this when we dive into the Dao pattern, makes it very easy to perform a wide array of operations on your Hibernate objects. Congratulations. You should now have a mapped superclass to contain your common functionality.
1. Hibernate’s Standard Tutorial
2. Hibernate Annotations Reference
This article is part of a series: Guide to Hibernate Annotations
Posted in Hibernate, Java
1. cherouvim says:
The hashcode and equals are broken.
You have to use a business key for that.
More info at
2. vpetreski says:
I am already using generic top level domain class with id, version etc, but with hbms, so I have to copy/paste hbm mappings for them. Is there any way to do the same thing in hbm, something like @MappedSuperclass?
3. James says:
I would favor composition over inheritance for this problem.
Also, for auditing, pl/sql is sometimes a better way of handling it if there are >1 data access path to the tables. pl/sql can still be used to get the user id with connection pooling.
Also, I don’t think your hash/equals are going to work very well in particular circumstances. If you disconnect and reconnect objects, or you have multiple new objects in a collection (set) without id’s.
4. ashish says:
I also tried using super class for annotations based hibernate POJOs. First problem i faced is that, if your child class uses different kind of primary key or that class is join class. How you can override your annotations defined in base class? I guess not
5. Lincoln says:
cherouvim >> I’m wondering… I don’t believe they are broken for the purposes of this example, but they will definitely need to be overridden for any class with a business key that is not the ‘id’ primary key. What do you think?
ashish >> I’ll try to get back to you on that, but I am pretty sure it is possible to override superclass annotations.
6. cherouvim says:
The problem with using id for hashcode/equals means that as soon as the pojo gets an id, then it’s a different pojo.
Also, if you use the version for this, the above will keep happening whenever you change anything on the pojo. You’ll not be able to merge() it as well.
Have a look at:
11.1.3. Considering object identity
7. Lincoln says:
Hey, how does the equals method look now?
8. neodarko says:
Suppose I have a status field in the superclass. And I have annotated it properly because I need the field to be persistent.
Now, in one of the the subclasses I feel that I would rather have that property as a Transient field – so I override the getters/setters and annotate it with @Transient.
The rest of the scenario is just as you have described.
Will this work ? I haven’t been able to do so. Am I missing something here ? Shouldn’t hibernate honor the annotation on the subclass-getter-method ?
9. Lincoln says:
I’m not sure you can completely remove a mapped field because that would seem to go against inheritance rules (See Liskov Substitution Principle” but I do think there’s something that may help. Try the @ AnnotationOverride property. This might help you convert that field into something at least more useful… It will still be there though…
Search for @ AttributeOverride
10. Florent says:
I also use a superclass to map commons fields between all my persistent objects. It seemed to work well until I faced the problem to change inheritance mapping strategy (table per concrete class, table per class hierarchy, table per subclass…) for a part of the hierarchy. The problem is that it seems to be impossible to mix inheritance strategies inside the same hierarchy. Since all objects are members of the same hierarchy it is impossible to change the strategy without changing all strategies.
Does anybody encountered this kind of problem?
11. Josh says:
I’m trying to find an answer to this problem. I want to do what you are doing in the code by having a Version and Timestamp of any updates to the object, however, we want to use xml mappings. This seems to be limited by the DTD which forces the xml mappings to have either a Version OR a Timestamp but not both.
On a side note (seems like as good a place as any to ask this question). I also want a Timestamp for the creation date. The column this is bound is described like the following:
But for this to work. I need to assign the current date upon execution of Insert on this object. Any suggestions? Thanks.
12. Derek says:
I know recently Lincoln used Spring’s interceptor to do something similiar with created on date. I’ll make sure he speaks to that since I don’t have many of the details.
But do you have to have the date set at insert compared to setting it using Java. i.e. bean.setCreatedOn(new Date());?
13. great and simple article.
14. PK says:
In my project I have a similar set up as in the example above, I am using a Super class for id.
@GeneratedValue(strategy = GenerationType.AUTO)
@Column(name = “id”, updatable = false, nullable = false)
public Long getId() {
All my domains extend from that class. Since some of the domains have there own sequences, I was expecting that
GenerationType.AUTO will pick up from the respective sequence for that domain.
I get this error, I know I dont have any sequence called as “hibernate_sequence”
Caused by: org.postgresql.util.PSQLException: ERROR: relation “hibernate_sequence” does not exist
Does anyone have any suggestion?
Thanks in advance
1. Gozzie says:
@PK, you need to specify the sequence name. use something like:
@SequenceGenerator(name=”YOUR_SEQ_GEN”,sequenceName=”YOUR_SEQ”, initialValue=10000,allocationSize=1)
private Long id;
15. Gozzie says:
Could anyone show how to do the mapping in .hbm.xml definitions instead of annotations. Our outsourced developer insists on using configuration over convention.
1. If you look at the hibernate documentation, there is a lot of information there that describes how to do this.
16. jordan says:
Why is PersistentObject class abstract? I don’t see any abstract methods. Is it for intent? i.e. you don’t want anyone to initialize it?
1. Don Hosek says:
Yes, that’s exactly it.
17. keith says:
I have tried something similar to the above, except my equivalent to PersistentObject is in a separate JAR| called xxxxx-common.jar and I still get the error about MyClass (super class) has no identifier.
So is there a way of getting this to work, when your abstract class is in a JAR rather than just classes folder?
1. Sounds like a bug. I would submit an issue on the issue tracker of your EE server (or with Hibernate or EclipseLink if you are using them standalone.)
18. techwanker says:
I would like to reverse engineer my schema for some tables to use mapped superclasses.
I did it many years ago,but I can’t figure out how to specify now.
Two days of googling and reading jboss and hibernate documentation and asking the question on stackoverflow and I am stuck.
Certainly I am not the only one reverse engineering this.
Reply to ioannis ntantis
[code lang="xml"][/code]
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26601 | Where Does the Bile Duct Lead to?
You might think of the bile duct as a tube acting as a connecting link between two organs of the body, but the underlying phenomenon isn’t that simple. You need more information about where does the bile duct leads to. Here’re brief facts about the beginning and ending points of the tract.
The term ‘bile duct’ suggests that it is something carrying bile. Also called gall, bile is a fluid that the liver secretes to aid in the digestion of lipids in the small intestine. Other than water, it contains bile salts, bilirubin, fats, and inorganic salts. From this information, you can infer that one end (or origin) of the bile duct lies somewhere in the liver.
Where Does the Bile Duct Begin?
While learning about where does the bile duct leads to, you will come across the similar terms like the hepatic duct, cystic tract, common bile duct, and common hepatic duct. Basic knowledge of all these terms is essential to understand the main concept.
Where Does the Bile Duct Lead to?
Fig. 1: Where Does the Bile Duct Lead to?
Hepatic and Common Hepatic Ducts:
The hepatic duct is a canal that collects the biliary secretions from different parts of the liver. It begins inside of the liver and ends at the point where the right and left hepatic ducts combine to form a common hepatic duct. The right hepatic duct is the tube that drains bile from the right side of the organ. On the other hand, the left hepatic duct is the tube that collects biliary fluid from the left functional lobe of the liver.
Cystic Duct:
The common hepatic duct also makes a connection with the gallbladder through a small tract of varying length, called the cystic duct. In other words, the cystic duct is the canal that connects the gallbladder with the common hepatic duct.
Common Bile Duct:
The common hepatic duct coming from the liver joins the cystic duct from the gallbladder to form the common bile duct. Normally measuring 8 mm in diameter, the duct varies in length from 55 mm to 150 mm. The length of the tract also varies across genders. In the female, it is usually shorter and may reach a length of up to 95 mm.
Where Does the Bile Duct Lead to?
The common bile duct continues downward from the point of its formation towards the end where it is to empty its contents into the duodenum. Moving towards its terminal point, the bile duct is also joined by another canal, called the pancreatic duct.
The two tracts join to form the ampulla of Vater. At the point of its connection with the duodenum, the ducts are surrounded by a muscular sphincter, called the sphincter of Oddi. This sphincter regulates the release of the bile into the small intestine.
Named after an Italian physiologist, Ruggero Oddi, the sphincter closes to push the bile into the gallbladder for temporary storage. The stored and concentrated biliary fluid in the gallbladder can then enter the duodenum as the sphincter relaxes and opens the entry into the intestine.
About the Author
Posted by: M. Isaac / Senior writer
Health Recent Articles
Copyrights Reserves 2013-2020 by OrgansOfTheBody.com |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26602 | 4. Determinants of competitiveness
The determinants of competitiveness are the most critical elements of the theoretical framework presented in Illustration 1, they are the factors which affect the performance of a territory in terms of the outcomes (final and intermediate) analysed in the previous sections. Additionally, whereas public policies cannot usually directly impact outcome indicators, it is still possible to reinforce the factors which underpin these outcomes.
The theoretical framework identifies three groups of determinants of competitiveness: those associated with firm performance, those associated with the structure of clusters and groupings of related activities in the economy, and those associated with the business environment in general. Although it would be possible to think of many potentially interesting elements in each one of these groups, the available information is normally limited for the European regions as a whole. The aim of this section is to focus the analysis on certain aspects which are particularly significant and for which there exist available data for regional comparison, accompany them with other analyses specific to the Basque Country without a regional comparison, and present an overview in order to learn how the Basque Country is positioned in comparison with these other regions.
1. Among the outcome indicators considered, disposable income per capita is in fact directly influenced by the effect of valuation and transfers. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26607 | Jekyll2019-12-13T15:55:53+00:00 Mobility ramblingsOSCC - Public website.Kim [email protected] the (SCCM) Castle2019-12-12T00:00:00+00:002019-12-12T00:00:00+00:00<p>With great power comes great responsibility !</p> <h2 id="intro">Intro</h2> <p>The following blog post is a summary of the lessons learned and offered, worldwide, in our <a href="">SCCM Vulnerability assessment offer</a>. If this is something that sounds of interest to you, and it should, don’t hesitate to contact us.</p> <p>If you need additional feedback on this offer, here is some of the feedback of speaking sessions we’ve done that mention a subset of what the Vulnerability assessment contains:</p> <ul> <li><strong>“Very interesting topics and demos. All SCCM admins should attend sessions like this.”</strong></li> <li><strong>“Best session of MMS…and no i didnt say that on all the evals. More security deep dives like this please!”</strong></li> <li><strong>“This session should be mandatory for all attendees. Great insights on how to handle security with config manager. Speakers were very passionate about their topic”</strong></li> <li><strong>“best session I’ve seen all week! not only entertaining, understandable examples, but simple mitigations that actually matter are very helpful. Thanks!”</strong></li> <li><strong>“Loved it and would love to have had the chance to send more of my staff to it. “</strong></li> </ul> <h2 id="setting-the-stage">Setting the stage</h2> <p>Every action taken by ConfigMgr is executed with the highest privileges.</p> <p>If your ConfigMgr environment gets compromised and executes malicious code, would you notice ? The extra (network) traffic it would generate will probably not stand out as it would look like regular ConfigMgr traffic.</p> <p>Even a <a href="">Windows Defender Application Control</a> implementation would probably not protect you, as chances are that you listed Configmgr as a “managed installer”, trusting everything it executes.</p> <p><strong>note:</strong> The above statement should not be used as an excuse not to implement application whitelisting! We still strongly believe that application whitelisting is one of the <a href="">best defences against malware</a>.</p> <p>The point really is that you should not take security of your ConfigMgr environment lightly, because it might be very difficult to detect abuse.</p> <p>We have already spent 2 (<a href="">1</a>,<a href="">2</a>) full sessions at MMSMOA 2019 on this topic and a “demo-only” session at MMS Jazz Edition. In Belgium we presented this at Lowlands Unite 2019.</p> <p>This blog post is meant as a summary for what we have shown before.</p> <h2 id="sql-security">SQL Security</h2> <p>Did you know that any local administrator of a server that hosts a SQL instance can become a SQL admin of that instance ? This process is actually <a href="">documented by Microsoft</a>. I must admit, this was a surprise to me the first time I learned about this “feature”</p> <p>And guess what… Once you have obtained SQL admin right , you can become a ConfigMgr Admin in no time too. To achieve that, you swap the SID from an account with admin rights in ConfigMgr, with your own SID. At that point, you can open the ConfigMgr console with your own account, however, the Admin-UI will still list the username of the person you hijacked the SID from. (And the hijacked person no longer has access to configMgr)</p> <p>We often come across environments where (some) users were granted permissions directly and through an AD security group. In that scenario, if someone hijacks the SID of one of those users, they suddenly both have access (he/she still would have access throught the AD group) and that would be very difficult to notice.</p> <p>So, Local Admin = SQL Admin = Configmgr Admin. Make sure that you trust those local admins on the SQL box that hosts the Configmgr database ;)</p> <p>There isn’t really a defense against this attack. Make sure to tightly control the local admins on your SQL server and to manage access to Configmgr only through either AD groups or direct membership, not both. Oh…and clean up those accounts of people who left the company a while ago :)</p> <p>You also might want to run the SQL query below. This should give no results…if it does, it means a discrepancy has been found between the SID of an admin and his actual AD SID.</p> <div class="language-sql highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="k">select</span> <span class="n">unique_user_name0</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="n">sid0</span><span class="p">,</span> <span class="n">SID_binary</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">sid0</span><span class="p">),</span><span class="n">adminsid</span><span class="p">,</span><span class="n">logonname</span> <span class="k">from</span> <span class="n">v_r_user</span> <span class="n">usr</span> <span class="k">join</span> <span class="n">rbac_admins</span> <span class="n">rbac</span> <span class="k">on</span> <span class="n">rbac</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">logonname</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="n">usr</span><span class="p">.</span><span class="n">unique_user_name0</span> <span class="k">where</span> <span class="n">SID_binary</span><span class="p">(</span><span class="n">sid0</span><span class="p">)</span> <span class="o"><></span> <span class="n">adminsid</span> </code></pre></div></div> <h2 id="status-filter-rules">Status Filter Rules</h2> <p>Status filter rules are so incredibly powerful ! A little bit to powerful at times ?</p> <p>During our sessions at MMSMOA 2019 we wanted to show a flaw with Status Filter Rules, however we were kindly requested by Microsoft to not reveal this flaw until they managed to fix it. The fix was introduced in ConfigMgr release 1906 (So upgrade your environments ASAP!) This serves as a great reminder, even if you don’t consider the new features in a build breathtaking, you should still upgrade. As with all other software that gets updated, buts and security issues are solved with each release. From a security perspective leaving your systems management platform unpatched is a really bad decission.</p> <p>This flaw deserves a post of it’s own ! Stay tuned.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h2 id="attacking-client-push">Attacking Client Push</h2> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>If there is one client installation method that sticks out like a sore thumb it must be Client Push! Not only does it require a ton of prerequisites before it actually works, but it can be abused in a man in the middle attack.</p> <p><strong>Note:</strong> One of those prerequisites is that the account used for client push has local admin privileges on your workstations</p> <p><a href="">Every admin should at least understand the basics of the man in the middle attack, however it seems a lot of people don’t.</a> To make it as comprehensible as possible, we did a little role-playing at MMS JE to explain a MITM attack with the great help of Arne Smeyers <a href="">@arnenysd</a>, one of our audience volunteers. The following explanation isn’t 100% technically accurate, the sketch is simplified to make grasping the mechanism of an NTLM/SMB relay MITM attack easier.</p> <p>Regular NTLM authentication is as follows :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <ul> <li>Computer A requests access to Computer B</li> <li>In order to grant access, Computer A must perform a calculation of a random challenge (presented by Computer B) with the hash of his password</li> <li>Computer B performs the same calculation and if the results match, access is granted</li> </ul> <p>A man in the middle attack could be explained like this :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <ul> <li>User A requests access to Computer B</li> <li>Our MITM machine C is in between this communication and intercepts this request <ul> <li>When receiving this request, the MITM machine requests access to Computer B</li> <li>Computer B sends a challenge to the MITM machine</li> </ul> </li> <li>the MITM machine forwards the challenge to User A</li> <li>User A calculates the result of the challenge by hashing it with the hash of his password and sends this to the MITM machine <ul> <li>The MITM machine forwards the results of those calculations to Computer B</li> <li>Computer B performs the same calculations, sees that it matches and grants access to the MITM machine</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Now, how does this relate to Client Push ? Well, for this to work, I have to convince a user, preferably a highly privileged one to connect to my machine.</p> <p>If an attacker could trick you into performing a client push to a machine he controls, he could use that machine as her MITM machine. Keep in mind that the client push account typically has local admin rights on all clients… As such she could redirect your client push to a device that she need local admin rights on.</p> <p>The good news is, there is an easy fix for this. This MITM attack relies on NTLM. If you still insist on keeping client push around, make sure that it uses only Kerberos authentication and that NTLM fallback is disabled.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h2 id="decyphering-the-network-access-account">Decyphering the Network Access Account</h2> <p>Next demo had us, representing some bad actors, decypher your Network Access Account. Re-enforcing the message that you should consider the NAA as an account to which everybody in the company, or with access to a single machine in your company has access.</p> <p>In this demo we were assisted by Dawn “<a href="">ConfigGirl</a>” Wertz <a href="">@wertzdm3</a>. She picked a child-safe password for us to decrypt. We promise that this password is as close a call we’ll ever have to having cat pictures in our presentations.</p> <p>Roger Zander was the first to publicly state this over 4 years ago in his blog <a href="">Network Access Accounts are Evil</a>.</p> <p>Kim hasn’t been a huge fan of the fix Roger suggested at the time though. His proposal is to make sure the account is as underprivileged as it can be. Meaning this should be a regular domain user with some additional limitations enforced as documented <a href="">here</a>.</p> <p>What the documentation doesn’t spell out is that you can “grant” this account all the other deny user rights on a distribution point, and all the deny user rights on all machines that aren’t acting as distribution points. To assist in making this configuration OSCC has <a href="">blogged</a> a CI in the past that doest exactly this for you.</p> <p>Now, Configuration Manager Current Branch evolves at speed. One of its more recent evolutions introduced <a href="">Enhanced HTTP</a>. One of the goals at introduction of this feature was to eliminate the need for the Network Access Account all-together. We, and the product team, believe this has been achieved in the more recent builds of Configuration Manager. We strongly suggest putting this on your todo list to test and remove the Network Access Account from your environment.</p> <h2 id="hiding-applications-in-your-admin-ui">Hiding applications in your Admin UI</h2> <p>Aaaah, this one is one of my favorites. Playing around with PowerSCCM (although it stricktly isn’t needed). A while ago, at one of the DefCon conferences there was a session around Configmgr. From a configmgr point of view, it wasn’t that spectacular, but it did show that the infosec community is showing interest in the product we so love!</p> <p>The infosec community did produce a powershell module called <a href="">PowerSCCM</a>. It is a mix of functions that allow you to gather information about an SCCM environment. Next to that, it allows you to create collections, applications, deployments…</p> <p>Nothing spectacular so far, right ? But it does have a few neat tricks up its sleeve.</p> <p>It can create hidden applications. These are just regular applications that are not visible within the Configmgr Admin UI. Under the hoods the module just sets a WMI property for that specific application.</p> <p>If you are suddenly worried about your own environment, you could run the following SQL Query. It will show you how many hidden applications you have :</p> <div class="language-sql highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="k">select</span> <span class="o">*</span> <span class="k">from</span> <span class="n">ci_configurationitems</span> <span class="k">where</span> <span class="n">ishidden</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">1</span> <span class="k">and</span> <span class="n">citype_id</span> <span class="o">=</span> <span class="mi">10</span> </code></pre></div></div> <p>If you did find some hidden applications, we’d be very interested in learning about this, as your environment is probably compromised.</p> <p>PowerSCCM can also deploy applications/payload without that content being on a DP. What this means is, it can hide payload in WMI. It can convert payload to Base64 encoding and just include it in the command line itself! That’s probably something most of us would never think of, but it makes one hell of a mix ! It makes the application execution file-less. Being able to execute things without writing to disk is a huge boon for InfoSec red-teamers. Adding my secret payload to a hidden application that gets executed on every device with local system privileges without writing to disk. Sounds like the red teamers holy grail. Good luck blue team detecting this at a client.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Finding applications without content is left as an exercise to the reader.</p> <h1 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h1> <p>A systems management tool is a powerfull tool for good, with this great power comes a certain level of risk though. As a systems management admin security best practices and knowledge should be top of mind. The system you manage is one avenue to full company compromise. We’ve started to give ConfigMgr based training, speaking sessions and security reviews of Microsoft’s systems management products and cloud services a while ago and will continue our path in 2020.</p> <p>Should you want to learn more about our SCCM Vulnerability assessment after reading this post, you can find more info <a href="">here</a>. Alternatively, just <a href="">contact us</a> and shoot any questions you have our way.</p>Tom [email protected] great power comes great responsibility !Intune - Security baselines (Preview)2019-03-11T00:00:00+00:002019-03-11T00:00:00+00:00<p>The modern alternative for security baseline GPO’s</p> <h1 id="intro">Intro</h1> <p>As a consultant, I haven’t come across a single company that doesn’t use any GPO’s. Actually, it seems more like most company’s have so many GPO’s that they are afraid to touch them because it might break something… sounds familiar ?<br /> If you are a cloud-only company with no on-premise infrastructure, it is pretty difficult to apply gpo-like settings only through Intune. Yes, you could create custom CSP’s or work with powershell scripts, but creating CSP’s isn’t the most straightforward thing to do and using powershell scripts to replace what GPO’s do feels a bit like re-inventing the wheel.</p> <p>With every feature-release of Windows 10 (latest iteration when this article is published is Windows 10-1809), Microsoft also releases a set of security baselines.</p> <h2 id="what-are-security-baselines">What are security baselines</h2> <p>Every organization faces security threats. However, the types of security threats that are of most concern to one organization can be completely different from another organization. For example, an e-commerce company may focus on protecting its Internet-facing web apps, while a hospital may focus on protecting confidential patient information. The one thing that all organizations have in common is a need to keep their apps and devices secure. These devices must be compliant with the security standards (or security baselines) defined by the organization. A security baseline is a group of Microsoft-recommended configuration settings that explains their security impact. These settings are based on feedback from Microsoft security engineering teams, product groups, partners, and customers.</p> <p><strong>note:</strong> The above information is taken from the <a href="">Microsoft documentation</a></p> <h2 id="why-are-security-baselines-needed">Why are security baselines needed</h2> <p>Security baselines are an essential benefit to customers because they bring together expert knowledge from Microsoft, partners, and customers. For example, there are over 3,000 Group Policy settings for Windows 10, which does not include over 1,800 Internet Explorer 11 settings. Of these 4,800 settings, only some are security-related. Although Microsoft provides extensive guidance on different security features, exploring each one can take a long time. You would have to determine the security impact of each setting on your own. Then, you would still need to determine the appropriate value for each setting. In modern organizations, the security threat landscape is constantly evolving, and IT pros and policy-makers must keep up with security threats and make required changes to Windows security settings to help mitigate these threats. To enable faster deployments and make managing Windows easier, Microsoft provides customers with security baselines that are available in consumable formats, such as Group Policy Objects backups.</p> <p><strong>note:</strong> The above information is taken from the <a href="">Microsoft documentation</a></p> <p>But, until recently, these security baselines were only available as GPO’s. However, with the release of Intune 1901, Microsoft has now provided us with the same functionality in Intune</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p><strong>note:</strong> The security baselines available through Intune do not match 100% with their GPO counterpart. There are more GPO settings available than there are Intune settings. I will try to cook up a different blogpost covering the differences.</p> <p>Apart from those differences, some of the settings available through Intune could use a bit more polishing in my option. Some section names, settings and descriptions are not as clear as they could be and could lead to some confusion. This blogpost is dedicated to try and take some of that confusion away :)</p> <h1 id="the-settings">The Settings</h1> <p>Upon clicking the Security Baseline (Preview) link in the Intune management UI, you can select the baselines for the October 2018 build of Windows 10 (Windows 10 - 1809)</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Selecting that allows you to create a profile and manage the settings. This blogpost won’t cover that in detail as there are plenty of blogs out there that will guide you through that scenario. Please be warned that these baselines are still a preview. If you want to start using them, make sure to test on a very small set of machines first so you fully understand the impact of the settings and be aware that those settings might change before they remove the “preview”-tag.</p> <p>As of now, we have about 30 sections available in the settings part of the profile. If we take a closer look at the first one</p> <h2 id="block-display-of-toast-notifications">Block Display of toast notifications</h2> <p>Intune : <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>GPO alternative :</p> <p><strong>Policy Setting name</strong> : Turn off toast notifications on the lock screen<br /> <strong>Setting</strong> : Enabled<br /> <strong>Help Text</strong> : “This policy setting turns off toast notifications on the lock screen.<br /> If you enable this policy setting, applications will not be able to raise toast notifications on the lock screen.<br /> If you disable or do not configure this policy setting, toast notifications on the lock screen are enabled and can be turned off by the administrator or user.<br /> No reboots or service restarts are required for this policy setting to take effect.”</p> <p>As you can see, the Intune team changed the name and help text for this particular setting. I assume the goal here is to make it more clear for the Intune administrators as to what this setting is about.<br /> I personally have no preference for the intune or the GPO version, so both are equally good I would say.</p> <p>Let’s take the next example</p> <h2 id="block-game-dvrdesktop-only">Block game DVR(desktop only)</h2> <p>Intune : <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>GPO alternative :</p> <p><strong>Policy Setting name</strong> : Enables or disables Windows Game Recording and Broadcasting<br /> <strong>Setting</strong> : Disabled<br /> <strong>Help Text</strong> : “Windows Game Recording and Broadcasting.<br /> This setting enables or disables the Windows Game Recording and Broadcasting features. If you disable this setting, Windows Game Recording will not be allowed.<br /> If the setting is enabled or not configured, then Recording and Broadcasting (streaming) will be allowed.”</p> <p>Now for me, the GPO is rather clear, I enable or disable game recording, the setting is set to Disabled and the help text also uses the words Enable and disable. The Intune alternative is a bit more confusing for me. Why is it desktop only ? There is no mention of this in the GPO. I assume here that “desktop only” doesn’t refer to the formfactor of you windows 10 device but rather that this is a Windows 10 only setting and not a mobile device setting. However, when you create a profile, the platform is set fixed to “Windows 10 and later”, so you wouldn’t be able to apply this setting to a mobile device.<br /> Finally, if you read the help text for Intune : Configures whether recording and broadcasting of games is allowed. and you see the setting “Yes” it seems to indicate that this setting does allow you to record games.</p> <p>My preference is the GPO in this case as it’s a lot more clear to what the setting is about.</p> <h2 id="bitlocker">Bitlocker</h2> <p>Intune : <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>GPO alternative :</p> <p>I won’t copy over all the GPO settings that cover bitlocker as there way to many settings. That being said, I prefer the Intune approach here. They only provide a small set of bitlocker settings versus all the GPO ones that are, in my opinion , way to difficult to handle unless you are really deep into bitlocker security</p> <p>GPO example :<br /> <strong>Policy Setting name</strong> : Use enhanced Boot Configuration Data validation profile<br /> <strong>Setting</strong> : no default<br /> <strong>Help Text</strong> : “This policy setting allows you to choose specific Boot Configuration Data (BCD) settings to verify during platform validation.<br /> If you enable this policy setting, you will be able to add additional settings, remove the default settings, or both.<br /> If you disable this policy setting, the computer will revert to a BCD profile similar to the default BCD profile used by Windows 7.<br /> If you do not configure this policy setting, the computer will verify the default Windows BCD settings. <br /> Note: When BitLocker is using Secure Boot for platform and Boot Configuration Data (BCD) integrity validation, as defined by the ““Allow Secure Boot for integrity validation”” group policy, the ““Use enhanced Boot Configuration Data validation profile”” group policy is ignored.<br /> The setting that controls boot debugging (0x16000010) will always be validated and will have no effect if it is included in the provided fields.”</p> <p>For me it’s clear, less is more :)</p> <h2 id="browser">Browser</h2> <p>Intune : <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>In this case, it’s not really the comparison with the GPO that is confusing, rather the help text in Intune itself.</p> <p>Require SmartScreen for Microsoft Edge : Yes</p> <p>For me, this is clear, I enable smartscreen for Edge… However if we read the helptext :<br /> Microsoft Edge uses Windows Defender SmartScreen (turned on) to protect users from potential phishing scams and malicious software by default. Also, by default, users cannot disable (turn off) Windows Defender SmartScreen. Enabling this policy turns off Windows Defender SmartScreen and prevent users from turning it on. Don’t configure this policy to let users choose to turn Windows defender SmartScreen on or off.</p> <p>This seems to indicate that if you enable this setting, you prevent users from turning on smartscreen.</p> <p>The corresponding GPO is a bit more clear</p> <p><strong>Policy Setting name</strong> : Configure Windows Defender SmartScreen<br /> <strong>Setting</strong> : Enable<br /> <strong>Help Text</strong> : “This policy setting lets you configure whether to turn on Windows Defender SmartScreen. Windows Defender SmartScreen provides warning messages to help protect your employees from potential phishing scams and malicious software. By default, Windows Defender SmartScreen is turned on. If you enable this setting, Windows Defender SmartScreen is turned on and employees can’t turn it off. If you disable this setting, Windows Defender SmartScreen is turned off and employees can’t turn it on. If you don’t configure this setting, employees can choose whether to use Windows Defender SmartScreen.”</p> <h2 id="device-guard">Device Guard</h2> <p>Intune : <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Apart from the section called Device guard and the settings covering credential guard, this is rather clear. The GPO counterpart covers both setting in 1 gpo, but I think the Intune version is a lot clearer ! (the GPO also lists this setting under device guard)</p> <p>The system guard setting seems to be lacking some help text, but the GPO alternative is even worse as there is no “System Guard” setting. If you dig into the details, the Virtualization based security GPO does set some systemguard registry keys, but this is not clear from the help text or policy settings name</p> <h2 id="device-lock">Device Lock</h2> <p>Intune : <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>The contradiction here is in the “Password minimum character set count” with a value of 3. For me, this seems to indicate that you need at least 3 characters in your password. However, the help text indicates that the numbers 1 through 4 define the complexity if your password.</p> <p>I assume that the help text is correct for “Password minimum character set count” as a few lines below there is “Minimum password length” with a value of 8. there the help text matches the setting properly.</p> <h2 id="event-log-service">Event log service</h2> <p>Intune : <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Another “Less is more” approach that I like. It clearly states what the setting is about and leaves all the non essential settings out of the picture</p> <h2 id="experience">Experience</h2> <p>Intune : <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>This one is also interesting as the Intune team here proposes you to block the Windows Spotlight feature, where the GPO team has no default configuration for these settings. Again, I prefer the Intune approach here.</p> <h2 id="internet-explorer">Internet Explorer</h2> <p>We’ve got a lot of settings here. Depending how deep you are into Internet explorer security, it could be interesting to go over all of them. While I was digging into these settings and comparing them to the security GPO’s, I thought I found differences between what the Intune team sets as default and what the GPO team did. However, then I noticed that the Intune settings were not grouped by zones like the GPO’s :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>This makes it very difficult to compare both configurations unfortunately. I counted both the configured security GPO’s and the Intune settings for Internet explorer (116 !) and my conclusion is that the Intune team included all GPO’s that had a default value configured (I took some samples that seem to confirm this)</p> <p>There are in total 836 GPO’s related to internet explorer settings, so I think the Intune team made the right choice here by only exposing the ones that seem to matter most. However I would very much like that they grouped them more together based on the function of the setting.</p> <h2 id="local-policies-security-options">Local Policies Security Options</h2> <h3 id="restrict-anonymous-access-to-named-pipes-and-shares">Restrict anonymous access to named pipes and shares</h3> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>If you don’t read the help text, the intention of this setting is clear to me, but when you do read the help text, it gets confusing again as they refer to “Enabled” but the setting allows you to set “Yes” or “Not Configured”.</p> <h3 id="require-client-to-always-digitally-sign-communications">Require client to always digitally sign communications</h3> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>At the end of the help text, there is a reference to 2 other policies when this setting is disabled. From the Intune side, you have no option to disable this policy as you can only “Enable” it (configure it to YES) or “Not Configured”. Both policies are also not configurable from the Intune side.</p> <p>They do exist at a GPO level and are enabled by default :</p> <ul> <li>Domain member: Digitally encrypt secure channel data (when possible)</li> <li>Domain member: Digitally sign secure channel data (when possible)</li> </ul> <h3 id="prevent-clients-from-sending-unencrypted-passwords-to-third-party-smb-servers">Prevent clients from sending unencrypted passwords to third party SMB servers</h3> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>We are starting to see a pattern here. The settings is clear, if you select “Yes”, clients won’t be able to send unencrypted passwords to 3rd party SMB servers. However, the help text seems to indicate that if you Enable this policy , you DO allow unencrypted passwords to be sent to 3rd party SMB servers.</p> <h3 id="require-admin-approval-mode-for-administrators">Require admin approval mode for administrators</h3> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Interestingly enough, here we have references to “Not Configured” in the help text and not Enable/Disable anymore.</p> <h3 id="allow-remote-calls-to-security-accounts-manager">Allow remote calls to security accounts manager</h3> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>The confusion here is the format you have to use to restrict RPC connections to SAM. The GPO reference is identical to the Intune one and both have no explanation on the format in use. If you are interested, it is <a href="">SDDL (Security Descriptor Definition Language)</a></p> <h2 id="ms-security-guide">MS Security Guide</h2> <p>None of the settings have any explanation on what they actually do. Even the “learn more” link doesn’t help that much. I’ll include the GPO help text here for your reference as it might help clear things up a bit</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h3 id="apply-uac-restrictions-to-local-accounts-on-network-logon">Apply UAC restrictions to local accounts on network logon</h3> <p>“This setting controls whether local accounts can be used for remote administration via network logon (e.g., NET USE, connecting to C$, etc.). Local accounts are at high risk for credential theft when the same account and password is configured on multiple systems. Enabling this policy significantly reduces that risk. Enabled (recommended): Applies UAC token-filtering to local accounts on network logons. Membership in powerful group such as Administrators is disabled and powerful privileges are removed from the resulting access token. This configures the LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy registry value to 0. This is the default behavior for Windows. Disabled: Allows local accounts to have full administrative rights when authenticating via network logon, by configuring the LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy registry value to 1. For more information about local accounts and credential theft, see ““Mitigating Pass-the-Hash (PtH) Attacks and Other Credential Theft Techniques””: For more information about LocalAccountTokenFilterPolicy, see”</p> <h3 id="smb-v1-client-driver-start-configuration">SMB v1 client driver start configuration</h3> <p>“Configures the SMB v1 client driver’s start type.<br /> To disable client-side processing of the SMBv1 protocol, select the ““Enabled”” radio button, then select ““Disable driver”” from the dropdown. WARNING: DO NOT SELECT THE ““DISABLED”” RADIO BUTTON UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES! For Windows 7 and Servers 2008, 2008R2, and 2012, you must also configure the ““Configure SMB v1 client (extra setting needed for pre-Win8.1/2012R2)”” setting. To restore default SMBv1 client-side behavior, select ““Enabled”” and choose the correct default from the dropdown:</p> <ul> <li>"”Manual start”” for Windows 7 and Windows Servers 2008, 2008R2, and 2012;</li> <li>"”Automatic start”” for Windows 8.1 and Windows Server 2012R2 and newer. Changes to this setting require a reboot to take effect. For more information, see”</li> </ul> <h3 id="smb-v1-server">SMB v1 server</h3> <p>“Disabling this setting disables server-side processing of the SMBv1 protocol. (Recommended.) Enabling this setting enables server-side processing of the SMBv1 protocol. (Default.) Changes to this setting require a reboot to take effect. For more information, see”</p> <h3 id="digest-authentication">Digest authentication</h3> <p>“When WDigest authentication is enabled, Lsass.exe retains a copy of the user’s plaintext password in memory, where it can be at risk of theft. Microsoft recommends disabling WDigest authentication unless it is needed. If this setting is not configured, WDigest authentication is disabled in Windows 8.1 and in Windows Server 2012 R2; it is enabled by default in earlier versions of Windows and Windows Server. Update KB2871997 must first be installed to disable WDigest authentication using this setting in Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows Server 2012. Enabled: Enables WDigest authentication. Disabled (recommended): Disables WDigest authentication. For this setting to work on Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows Server 2008 R2 or Windows Server 2012, KB2871997 must first be installed. For more information, see and .”</p> <h3 id="structured-exception-handling-overwrite">Structured exception handling overwrite</h3> <p>“If this setting is enabled, SEHOP is enforced. For more information, see If this setting is disabled or not configured, SEHOP is not enforced for 32-bit processes.”</p> <h2 id="mss-legacy">MSS Legacy</h2> <p>Same as with MS Security Guide, we have no details on the settings. I’ll include the GPO details, however unlike with the MS Security guide, the GPO help text doesn’t contain that much more details.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h3 id="network-ip-source-routing-protection-level">Network IP source routing protection level</h3> <p>MSS: (DisableIPSourceRouting) IP source routing protection level (protects against packet spoofing)</p> <h3 id="network-ignore-netbios-name-release-requests-except-from-wins-servers">Network ignore NetBIOS name release requests except from WINS servers</h3> <p>MSS: (NoNameReleaseOnDemand) Allow the computer to ignore NetBIOS name release requests except from WINS servers</p> <h3 id="network-ipv6-source-routing-protection-level">Network IPv6 source routing protection level</h3> <p>MSS: (DisableIPSourceRouting IPv6) IP source routing protection level (protects against packet spoofing)</p> <h3 id="network-icmp-redirects-override-ospf-generated-routes">Network ICMP redirects override OSPF generated routes</h3> <p>MSS: (EnableICMPRedirect) Allow ICMP redirects to override OSPF generated routes</p> <h2 id="power">Power</h2> <p>There is nothing wrong with the settings , help text and values. However, it lacks consistency again with the other settings. Most settings are configurable with “Yes” or “Not Configured”, but here we got drop down boxes again with “Enabled”, “Disabled” and “Not configured”. For now, I prefer this way as at least the help text matches the values better</p> <h2 id="remote-management">Remote Management</h2> <p>the Intune settings as such are not confusing, but it does show that Microsoft is constantly tweaking the settings text and help text. Some time ago, “Block Storing run as credentials” had no clear description, but now it does. However, the Microsoft documentation hasn’t been updated yet and still shows no real details on this setting</p> <p>Intune :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>MS Docs :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h2 id="smart-screen">Smart Screen</h2> <p>Require SmartScreen for apps and files</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>The corresponding GPO allows more control than just Enabling or “not configuring” the setting. I haven’t validated yet if the Intune and GPO set the same registry value (that is what I would expect), but then there are just some options missing in the Intune version it seems.</p> <p>GPO help text :</p> <p>“This policy allows you to turn Windows Defender SmartScreen on or off. SmartScreen helps protect PCs by warning users before running potentially malicious programs downloaded from the Internet. This warning is presented as an interstitial dialog shown before running an app that has been downloaded from the Internet and is unrecognized or known to be malicious. No dialog is shown for apps that do not appear to be suspicious. Some information is sent to Microsoft about files and programs run on PCs with this feature enabled. If you enable this policy, SmartScreen will be turned on for all users. Its behavior can be controlled by the following options:</p> <ul> <li>Warn and prevent bypass</li> <li>Warn<br /> If you enable this policy with the ““Warn and prevent bypass”” option, SmartScreen’s dialogs will not present the user with the option to disregard the warning and run the app. SmartScreen will continue to show the warning on subsequent attempts to run the app. If you enable this policy with the ““Warn”” option, SmartScreen’s dialogs will warn the user that the app appears suspicious, but will permit the user to disregard the warning and run the app anyway. SmartScreen will not warn the user again for that app if the user tells SmartScreen to run the app. If you disable this policy, SmartScreen will be turned off for all users. Users will not be warned if they try to run suspicious apps from the Internet. If you do not configure this policy, SmartScreen will be enabled by default, but users may change their settings.”</li> </ul> <h2 id="windows-defender">Windows Defender</h2> <p>Although the section header seems to indicate that these settings are all about windows Defender, I found settings related to <a href="">Attack surface reduction rules</a> :</p> <ul> <li>Office apps launch child process type</li> <li>Script downloaded payload execution type</li> <li>Email content execution type</li> <li>Script obfuscated macro code type</li> <li>Office apps other process injection type</li> <li>Office macro code allow Win32 imports type</li> <li>Office apps executable content creation or launch type</li> </ul> <p>It also contains settings for Exploit Guard :</p> <ul> <li>Network protection type</li> </ul> <p>And , personally , the most confusing one is this reference to Credential guard :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>We already have a section on credential guard that seems to configure the same setting, but with a slightly different option.</p> <h1 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h1> <p>It seems that the Intune team wants to align the values to configure security baseline policies with the other settings in the Intune UI (Yes vs Enabled), but the help text to properly explain all the settings mostly still contain references to Enable or Disable. This is not the case everywhere as there are some good settings with good help texts.</p> <p>On the other hand, this is still a preview and I have noticed that the setting or text is being changed/tweaked without notice. So chances are that these “issues” are still being fixed before they take away the “preview” tag.</p> <p>The way Intune approaches the security baselines makes it easier for most admins to go through the settings and understand what they are about compared to what you need to do for the GPO security baselines. In some examples we even have a much cleared description than the GPO counterpart and the “less is more” approach is something that I also appreciate.</p> <p>If this appraoch allows you to enable most/all of these security settings in your company versus the overwhelming GPO approach, then this is most certainly a step in the right direction.</p>Tom [email protected] modern alternative for security baseline GPO’s(Mini) MVP summit and MMS Desert edition (2018)2018-12-20T00:00:00+00:002018-12-20T00:00:00+00:00<p>A recap of the 2018 Mini-MVP summit and MMS Desert Edition</p> <h1 id="2018-mini-mvp-summit">2018 Mini-MVP summit</h1> <p>For the second time now, the Configmgr & Intune product group organised a “mini-MVP” summit, outside the regular MVP summit schedule.<br /> The week started on Monday morning November 26th and ended with hackaton demonstrations on Friday November 30th and had roughly 30 attendees.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Monday morning consisted mainly of introductions & roadmaps from both the Intune & Configmgr team. It also included a list of hackaton ideas that we could participate in. Like last year, all of the sessions were optional and if you wanted to, you could go and sit with the engineers to work on your hackaton project.</p> <p>For myself, being the second time in Redmond and walking around the Microsoft Campus still is amazing. The sheer size of the campus alone is unbelievable. It literally is a mini-city with all possible facilities.<br /> We were equally given the opportunity to visit the <a href="">Azure Cloud Collaboration Center</a> and it felt like being dropped onto a movie set of the latest Mission Impossible movie and Tom Cruise could drop out of the ceiling, suspended by wires :)</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Some of the sessions we were presented with, were program managers explaining new developments on the features they were working on, but we equally had sessions where a program manager would walk in and pitch some idea’s that they were thinking about implementing, but wanted the honest feedback of the MVP’s if it was a good idea or not.</p> <p>I really appreciated the fact that we were given the opportunity to help steer the product (or some features) or that you can have a bit of influence on how a feature is developped.<br /> At one point, the roles got switched and some of us delivered a session to the Microsoft Devs/Program managers to show them what the community came up with as addon’s or workarounds to the product. This could very well influence the features that are going to be updated in any of the next version (think about “modern” driver management or features that are available in the Powershell App Deployment Toolkit)</p> <p>David James held a small “Never have I ever”-quiz on Configmgr mistakes and/or Configmgr milestones. Think “Who has ever deployed a task sequence to all systems”, or “Who has ever installed tech-preview). The <a href="">last person standing</a> could ship SCCM CB 1810.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Wednesday evening, the attendees collaborated with the Product team on a <a href="">Reddit AMA</a>. Some snacks were provided to keep the creative juices flowing :)</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Kim & I left dark and rainy Seattle on Thursday with the hope to catch some sunshine in Phoenix… (only to see our plane landing in pouring rain). Luckily for us (and the attendees of MMSDE) weather the next few days was a lot better !</p> <p>I want to give a special thanks to <a href="">Brad Anderson</a>, <a href="">David James</a> and <a href="">Cathy Moya</a> for making this all possible</p> <h1 id="2018-mms-desert-edition">2018 MMS Desert Edition</h1> <p>Take all the good things about <a href="">Midwest Management Summit</a> and mix it with a beautiful resort in sunny Phoenix and you get <a href="">MMS Desert Edition</a>.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>It was the 4th time that I was attending/speaking and was still as mind blown now as I was the first time. The amount of community brain power that is present at any MMS is unbelievable. Again, the greatest and most respected community members as well as a large portion of the Configmgr product group were present this time.<br /> For me, coming to MMS is a bit like coming home to a group of friends. A lot of the attendees and speakers show up for every edition and it’s wonderfull to talk to them and catch up.</p> <p>For those of you who have never attended the Midwest Management Summit (MMSMOA), it is one of the best conferences out there with a strong focus on Microsoft Systems Management.<br /> This obviously includes a lot of Configmgr and Intune,but Windows 10 and Azure also get their share of attention.</p> <p>Sessions are always 2+ speakers and last about 1h45 minutes! That’s roughly 1hour of presentation/demo’s and 45 minutes of Q&A. This presents a great opportunity to ask any questions that you might have on the topic you just heard about.</p> <p>A regular edition of MMS is capped at around 750 attendees. This is rather small compared to some of the HUGE events that are out there. As such, there is a lot of opportunity for networking and connecting with speakers or the product group.<br /> In Minnesota, the product group was always camping just outside the large conference rooms and you could just walk up to David James (Director of Software Engineering @ Microsoft) and discuss your SCCM issues :)</p> <p>This Desert edition was even smaller and had 180 people, speakers, sponsors…</p> <p>To make things more “causal”, there are the informal beer-session. Monday evening ended with a beer-session called “CM Product team - Drinking & Thinking” and allowed the attendees to ask questions to the product team. (spoiler alert : SCCM is NOT DEAD)</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /> <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Tuesday evening as well, ended with a beer-session, but this time all of the attendees were given an opportunity to win a top of the line Surface Book 2! All they had to do is walk up to the stage, present a neat trick that they knew in maximum 3 minutes and roll the lucky dice. For me, this was one of the most surprising sessions of this edition and I truly learned some fun new tricks in both Windows & Configmgr</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /> <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Another thing that was different in this desert edition were the Cabana and U&I sessions. The Cabana sessions allowed attendees to book a 20 minute timeslot with any of the speakers (grouped together with 2 or 3 speakers) in a cabana and basically discuss any topic they wanted. Depending on who you talked to, this was very much the equivalent of $500+ of consultancy :)</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>The U&I sessions gave you the opportunity to talk to <a href="">Chris Sires</a>, a Configmgr Dev, on any SCCM Admin-UI bug or issues you had. If he could code/fix it in 15 minutes, it might make it in the next release of Configmgr. Speaking of that, one of the <a href="">requested features</a> was already merged into the 1812 tech preview. That’s the power of MMS :)</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>A special shout out to all the amazing people (eg <a href="">Brian Mason</a>, <a href="">Greg Ramsey</a>, <a href="">April Cook</a>) that made this happen! Each time, the crew behind MMS does an outstanding job of creating this community feeling and providing the opportunity to learn from the best people in the field.</p> <p>If you feel like attending the next edition of <a href="">MMS (May 2018)</a>, make sure to register ASAP as they are already 50% sold out. An additional heads-up… you might want to start brushing up on your “Curling-Skills”…</p> <iframe src="" width="480" height="267" frameborder="0" class="giphy-embed" allowfullscreen=""></iframe> <p><a href="">via GIPHY</a></p> <p>Disclaimer : Not all pictures used in this blog are mine, most come from a public twitter feed.</p>Tom [email protected] recap of the 2018 Mini-MVP summit and MMS Desert EditionConfigure the new cloud management gateway in HTTP mode2018-12-11T00:00:00+00:002018-12-11T00:00:00+00:00<p>How to configure a cloud management gateway (CMG) in HTTP modus…(thus without a PKI infrastructure… sort of)</p> <h1 id="intro">Intro</h1> <p>So Tom, yet another CMG blog ? Aren’t there enough blogs on this topic already ??</p> <p>Well… I’ve done a few CMG setups now and altough there are some great blogs out there, I got the feeling that not all topics were properly covered. In my 5 parts series on setting up Co management, I started off with setting up the <a href="">CMG</a>.<br /> At this point in time it was a CMG “gen1” and required considerably more effort to get it working. In the meantime, Microsoft released a “gen2” CMG that is a lot easier to set up and best of all, doesn’t require your clients to connect over HTTPS</p> <h1 id="cmg-functionality">CMG Functionality</h1> <p>The ability to manage your clients over the internet is such an amazing thing! It will help keep your clients more secure than ever, especially those road warriors that hardly ever come into the office. All of that without opening up firewall ports that will expose your on-premise infrastructure to the internet. With the rapid release cycles of SCCM current branch, new functionality is added to the CMG with every iteration of SCCM. <a href="">See here for more details</a></p> <p>Some of the latest additions related to CMG are :</p> <ul> <li>User-targeted software distribution</li> <li>Windows 10 in-place upgrade task sequences</li> <li>CMPivot for real-time interaction with your clients</li> </ul> <p>(On top of that, the realtime scripts feature works over the CMG but that was added in a previous release already)</p> <p>As of SCCM 1806, the CMG also supports the “cloud distribution point” functionality. This means that you don’t have to configure a separate CDP to enjoy the full functionality of the cloud management gateway. The good thing is, Internet-based clients don’t rely on boundary groups. They only use internet-facing distribution points or cloud distribution points. If you’re only using cloud distribution points to service these types of clients, then you don’t need to include them in boundary groups.</p> <h1 id="requirements">Requirements</h1> <p>When you configure a cloud management gateway, the goal is to manage clients over the internet. That’s fairly logical. When a client is not connected to the corporate network, there is no domain controller available to confirm your identity. Since we only want to manage our “own” machines, we must have a way to prove our identity to the CMG. This can be done in 2 ways.</p> <ol> <li>with a computer certificate… But then we are back to the HTTPS mode that we want to avoid.</li> <li>with Azure AD.</li> </ol> <p>So a requirement is that your machines are Azure AD joined ! I won’t cover that specific topic in this blog as that’s beyond the scope, but an easy way to verify if your machines are Azure AD Joined is running the following command from an admin command prompt : DSREGCMD /Status</p> <p>That should show a similar result to this : <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>If you notice issues with being Azure AD joined, make sure to check the “workplace join” eventlog, or use your favorite search-engine and search for DSRegCMD troubleshooting. That should set you in the right direction.</p> <p>Another requirement obviously is an Azure subscription that can “host” our CMG. (a “pay as you go” subscription will do)</p> <p>And finally, we still need to talk certificates… Just like our clients need to “prove” their identity, the CMG endpoint needs to do the same so your clients know they are talking to a trusted resource. That can be solved in 2 ways :</p> <ol> <li>You use a public certificate that you purchased</li> <li>You create 1 certificate from your PKI that you will use to secure your CMG URL.</li> </ol> <p>Given that I have a PKI in my lab, I will use option 2 since that’s the only thing we need to do, but I’ll provide the instructions for 1 as well so you can install and configure your CMG without any self-created certificate.</p> <h1 id="preparations">Preparations</h1> <h2 id="the-certificate-requirements---internal-pki">The Certificate requirements - Internal PKI</h2> <p>Although we won’t need a certificate until further down this blog, I want to tackle this now so you can finish the rest of the blog without issues. As I’ve said before, you either need a public certificate or a private one.</p> <p>Before going down either route, we’ll need to verify that our FQDN is still available. Logon to your Azure portal and search all services for “Cloud Services (classic)”. Click ADD and type the DNS name that you want to use. In my case it will be (yes, it always has to end on If the name you chose is still available, a green tick will show up, if it’s a red exclamation mark it means it’s already in use and you will have to find another one.</p> <p>Also, <strong>make sure it is between 3 and 24 characters long and contains only alphanumeric characters.</strong> This DNS name will allow you to use hyphens (-) and other non-alphanumeric characters, but the CMG itself doesn’t support i!</p> <p><strong>note : DON’T create the cloud service as we don’t need it here! This step is just to verify that the DNS entry that we want to use is not taken.</strong></p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>To use a PKI-certificate, we need one with an exportable private key that supports server authentication, so let’s create that template first. Log on to your issuing Certificate authority and open the “Certificate Authority” snap-in from MMC.</p> <p>Find the “Certificate Templates” entry and right-click to select “Manage”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Find the Web Server template and duplicate it.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Give it a proper name on the General Tab so you can easily recognize it (eg, Cloud Mgmt Gateway), Make sure that your domain computers can enroll on the Security tab and mark the private key to be exportable on the Request handling tab</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Once that is done, close the templates console and in the Certification Authority console again, right-Click Certificate templates again and select New / Certificate template to issue and select your newly created Cloud Mgmt Gateway template.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Now that we have the template waiting for us, we need to generate the certificates we need. From any machine in your domain, start the MMC Certificates console for the local computer.</p> <p>Open the Personal / Certificates node, Right-click and select All tasks / Request new Certificate.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Select the template that you previously created and click the link that warns you that more information is needed.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>On the Subject Tab, Set the Subject name type to “Common name” and provide the name we verified in the previous step (in my case Click Add. This certificate will allow your CMG to prove its identity and your clients will trust it since it is provided by a an authority your clients trust. Click OK and Enroll.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Once Enrolled, Select the Certificate you just created, right-click it , select “All Tasks”, then Export. Follow the wizard but make sure you select “Yes, export the private key”. Leave the rest of the defaults and specify a password to protect your certificate.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>That’s it, that’s all we need from a certificate point of view with an internal PKI setup.</p> <h2 id="the-certificate-requirements---public-issues-certificate">The Certificate requirements - Public issues certificate</h2> <p>If you don’t have an internal PKI you can always purchase a “Server Authentication” certificate from any of the registered certificate authorities (GoDaddy, Verisign, …) However, you won’t be able to get them to issue you a certificate for “” since you don’t own However, you should be able to purchase something like “CMG.Yourdomain.Com”. But as I’ve stated before, internally our CMG is known as, for me, “”. To resolve that “issue”, you need to create a CName record with your public DNS provider that will translate “CMG.Yourdomain.Com” to “”.</p> <h2 id="enhanced-http-site-systems">Enhanced HTTP site systems</h2> <p>Next, we need to enable a pre-release featured called “<a href="">Enhanced HTTP Site System</a>”.</p> <p>In order to do that, navigate to the Administration workspace / Updates and Servicing node / Features. You’ll be presented with a list of features that you can enable for additional functionality in your environment.</p> <p><strong>note :</strong> Pre-release features are features that are in the current branch for early testing in a production environment. These features are fully supported, but still in active development. They might receive changes until they move out of the pre-release category</p> <p>Locate the “Enhanced HTTP Site System” feature and turn it On from the ribbon, or right-click it and select “Turn On” : <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>As the popup indicates, you need to close your Admin-ui and re-open it before you can use the feature.</p> <p>If the “Turn on” button is greyed-out, it most likely means that you haven’t given consent to enable pre-release features. To give consent, follow this procedure :</p> <ol> <li>go to the Administration workspace, expand Site Configuration, and select the Sites node.</li> <li>Click Hierarchy Settings in the ribbon.</li> <li>On the General tab of Hierarchy Settings Properties, enable the option to Consent to use pre-release features. Click OK.</li> </ol> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Once the feature is enabled in your environment and you restart your Configmgr Admin-ui, we can continue “configuring” it.</p> <p>go to the Administration workspace, expand Site Configuration, and select the Sites node. Select your Primary site and click Properties from the ribbon. On the Client Computer Communication tab, tick the box next to “Use Configuration Manager-generated certificates for HTTP site systems.</p> <p>If your environment is properly configured and you publish your certificate revocation list online, leave CRL checking enabled. However, if for some reason this is not the case, it might be necessary to disable CRL checking for your clients. In my lab environment (as it is a LAB environment), I’m going to turn off CRL checking. If you are deploying the CMG in a production environment, be sure to check with the security department on how to handle CRL-checking.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h2 id="cloud-services">Cloud Services</h2> <p>With the preparations taken care off, we can move on and configure the Azure related services. Navigate to the Administration workspace, expand Cloud services and select the Azure Services node. From the ribbon, select Configure Azure Services.</p> <p>Select “Cloud Management” and specify a name to your liking and click Next.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>If you haven’t configured any cloud related services before, you will be presented with an empty web and native client app. Click the Browse button for the Web app to create a new one :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Click the Create button and provide an application name : CMG Web App (or any other name that you like)<br /> Click the “Sign in” button and provide Azure AD Admin credentials for your environment.<br /> If you provided the correct credentials, your Azure AD Tenant Name will be filled-in</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Repeat the process for the Native Client app (click Browse, then Create)</p> <p>Provide the Application Name : CMG Native Client App (or any other name that you like) and again provide your Azure AD admin credentials.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>The end-result should look something like this :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Now you are ready to click Next to advance in the Azure Service Wizard.</p> <p>Select if you want to enable Azure AD User Discovery. This isn’t a hard requirement for the Cloud Management Gateway as such, but if you want to target users over your CMG, you need to deploy to Azure AD users. Chose if you want to enable Azure AD User Discovery. (you can always change this later if required!)</p> <p>Click Next twice to finish the wizard.</p> <p>The result of what we did here can be seen in Azure. Login to the Azure portal and open “App registrations” and you should find the 2 web apps we created just before :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h2 id="creating-the-cloud-management-gateway">Creating the Cloud Management Gateway</h2> <p>Finally ! We are ready to create a Cloud Management Gateway. Believe it or not the hardest part is over :)</p> <p>Navigate to the Administration workspace, expand Cloud services and select the Cloud Management Gateway. From the Ribbon, select “Create Cloud Management Gateway”</p> <p>Starting in ConfigMgr 1802, you can create the CMG using an Azure Resource Manager deployment. Azure Resource Manager is a modern platform for managing all solution resources as a single entity, called a resource group. When deploying CMG with Azure Resource Manager, the site uses Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to authenticate and create the necessary cloud resources. This modernized deployment doesn’t require the classic Azure management certificate.</p> <p>We’ll continue this blog using the ARM way, as the classic way got depricated with SCCM 1810.</p> <p>Again, sign in with an AAD account that has sufficient rights to access your Azure subscription. Once you’ve done that, the rest of the details will be filled out automatically</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Click next to access the next part of the wizard.</p> <p>Let’s start with the certificate again (either a public or a private one that we created before) and click the Browse button. Browse to your PFX file, provide the certificate password and click OK. The result should be that your Service name and service FQDN should be filled out now.</p> <p>Select the region that is appropriate for you and either add it to an already existing resource group or just create a new one with a name that you like. Notice that you can already spin up more than 1 CMG for load balancing if needed,up to 16. <strong>Note : Again, depending on how well your internal PKI is set up, it might be necessary to uncheck the box next to “Verify Client Certificate Revocation”</strong></p> <p>Last, but not least, you can choose to enable Cloud DP functionality for your CMG. I would strongly recommend you enable it as this will greatly improve the functionality of your CMG. If all is well, your screen should look similar to mine :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Click Next to continue the wizard. Initially, accept the default settings for Alerts. Once your CMG is in use and up and running, you can monitor those values and adjust the alerts to more appropriate values for your environment. Finish the rest of the wizard.</p> <p>At this point, SCCM will reach out to azure and create your CMG and storage account. This will take a while to complete and I always wait for this part to be complete (but you don’t have to…)<br /> Your status should show that provisioning started :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>You can monitor CloudMGR.Log for progress if you like logs :)</p> <p>Once done (it took about 5-10 minutes in my lab), it will show provisioning completed :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>If you would check Azure now, you’ll find a resource group with the name you selected and 2 items in there. A classic Cloud service and a storage account. Check the <strong>Side-Track</strong> in my <a href="">older post on the CMG</a> if you want to enable RDP access to your CMG (for troubleshooting).</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h1 id="wrapping-things-up">Wrapping things up</h1> <h2 id="cloud-management-gateway-connection-point">Cloud management gateway connection point</h2> <p>We need to add a Cloud management gateway connection point. In your Admin-UI, navigate to the administration pane / Site Configuration / Servers and site system roles and right-click your primary site. Select “Add site system Role” and select the box next to “Cloud management gateway connection point”.</p> <p>The log file for this specific role is called “SMS_Cloud_Proxyconnector.Log”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Just complete the wizard. All details should be pre-filled out.</p> <p>Notice that a new Site System was created in the meantime if you enabled the cloud distribution point for your CMG. Also, don’t forget to add that Cloud DP to any of your distribution point groups!</p> <h2 id="enabling-cmg-traffic">Enabling CMG traffic</h2> <p>In the Site System roles pane find the Management point role and Enable the checkbox for Allow Configuration Manager cloud management gateway traffic.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Repeat this process for the Software Update Point (if wanted/needed).</p> <h2 id="client-settings">Client Settings</h2> <p>Make sure that all our hard work pays off and verify that your clients are allowed to access the CMG :) Check your client settings / Cloud Services and enable access to both the CMG and Distribution point</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>From an SCCM point of view, we are done ! Now let’s see if we can actually connect</p> <h1 id="validation">Validation</h1> <p>If you would check your CMG now and click on the tabs “Connection Points” and “Role Endpoints”. It could very well be that you don’t see anything listed there yet. Don’t despair just yet, those endpoints are only created after your first client tries to reach out to the CMG !</p> <p>The same is true for the SMS_CLOUD_PROXYCONNECTOR.Log.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h2 id="windows-10-client">Windows 10 Client</h2> <p>Remember, as with anything client related in ConfigMgr, a policy needs to make its way down to your client before it is actually aware that there is such a thing as a cloud management gateway. So, logon to your Windows 10 device that is still on your local lan and do a machine policy refresh.</p> <p>You can verify that your client is aware about the existence of the CMG by running the following PowerShell command from a client :</p> <div class="language-posh highlighter-rouge"><div class="highlight"><pre class="highlight"><code><span class="nf">gwmi</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">-namespace</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nx">root\ccm\locationservices</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">-class</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nx">SMS_ActiveMPCandidate</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="o">|</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nf">Select-Object</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nt">-Property</span><span class="w"> </span><span class="nx">MP</span><span class="w"> </span></code></pre></div></div> <p>The output should show you all available management points including the CMG</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Once you verified that your client has the necessary policies, switch it to a non-corpnet environment and verify that it is indeed on the Internet from the Configuration Manager applet :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Now, go ahead and try to install anything from software center. If all steps were followed correctly, your client should download and install what you selected.</p> <h1 id="beyond-the-scope">Beyond the scope</h1> <p>The above steps should be sufficient to get you started, but there were a few other points I wanted to touch on lightly</p> <h2 id="cost">Cost</h2> <p>When you bring up the Cloud Management Gateway, the question of the variable cost comes up sooner rather than later :) It’s becoming a running joke but chances are that you are paying more for regular stamps in your office than you will for the cloud management gateway.</p> <p>Your CMG cost will be made up out of these 3 components :</p> <ul> <li>The CMG Virtual machine</li> <li>The Azure blog storage cost for the Cloud DP</li> <li>The Egress data <ul> <li>Either clients requesting policy</li> <li>or content being transferred from the cloud DP to your clients</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p>Let’s check that with the <a href=";rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwjA4YTlhpXfAhXMblAKHUy_AlYQFjAAegQICRAB&;usg=AOvVaw1SlHyRjtrV0ORXM4OMf0SX">Azure pricing calculator</a></p> <p>Add the “Virtual Machines”, “Storage” and “Bandwidth” views to your calculator if you want to simulate your own cost.</p> <p>For the Virtual machine, the CMG uses a standard A2 v2 virtual machine. According to the calculator, this breaks down into $99,28 / month</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>For the storage, The Cloud DP uses General purpose Blob storage with LRS redundancy. If I take a capacity of 1TB, it comes down to $22,44. Again, make sure to adjust the numbers to your own needs, but as you can see, storage is not hugely expensive</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>And finally Egress data, the bandwidth cost for all data leaving the Azure datacenter to your clients.</p> <p>Let’s make the following assumption, if a client is connected to the CMG 24hours a day, 7 days a week, for a full month, on average it will consume 350mb of egress data just requesting policy every hour. Obviously if you start downloading content for applications, that number will go up. Then again, most clients will not be connected 24/7 to the internet/cmg.</p> <p>For this excercise, I’ll callculate 1 TB of egress data, or roughly 2800 clients that are constantly connected to the internet requesting policy. Or you can average 1GB/client/month if we add some content transfer to the mix and we can still support 1000 clients before we hit 1TB of egress data. This cost will probably be the most difficult to “predict” but in my example, this will accumulate to $88,65</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>So there we have it, if we calculate the total, we come down to $210 for 1 month of CMG usage.<br /> And, according to me, some rather high assumptions for storage and egress.<br /> Make sure to run the numbers for your own company but my advise is, just install the CMG/CDP and let it run for a few months. Chances are indeed that the time you spend on researching the CMG cost and the cost of mail stamps exceed that of the actual CMG cost in the end.</p> <p>If at the end of the day, the cost is indeed to high for the value you get out of it, you can always uninstall/remove the CMG again, but my bet is that won’t be the case.</p> <h2 id="troubleshooting">Troubleshooting</h2> <p>I won’t go into to much detail on troubleshooting but there is a variety of logs that can help you with troubleshooting.</p> <p>Server Side Logs :</p> <ul> <li>CloudMgr.log & CMGSetup.log (deployment issues)</li> <li>CMGService.log & SMS_Cloud_ProxyConnector.log (service health issues)</li> <li>CMGHttpHandler.log, CMGService.Log, SMS_Cloud_ProxyConnector.log (client traffic issues)</li> </ul> <p>Client Side Logs :</p> <ul> <li>ADALOperationProvider.log (AAD token issues)</li> </ul> <p>And don’t forget that the Cloud Management Gateway Connector Analyzer exists to help you troubleshoot issues between your site server and the CMG. Anoop has a nice blog on SCCM CMG troubleshooting <a href="">here</a></p> <p>That’s it folks ! Hope you enjoyed reading this blog and feel free to comment if something is not clear.</p>Tom [email protected] to configure a cloud management gateway (CMG) in HTTP modus…(thus without a PKI infrastructure… sort of)Getting alerts on Inbox backlogs2018-05-29T00:00:00+00:002018-05-29T00:00:00+00:00<p>Receiving alerts on Inbox backlogs</p> <h1 id="intro">Intro</h1> <p>During our <a href="">MMSMOA session on Inboxes A-Z</a>, I quickly demonstrated how you can use performance monitor (perfmon) to trigger a scheduled task when an inbox goes over a specified threshold.<br /> Kim was kind enough to announce that I would blog the entire setup, so here we are :-)</p> <h1 id="background">Background</h1> <p>As we explained during our presentation, most Inboxes should be (nearly) empty or at least clearing up backlog constantly, but the seasoned ConfigMGr admin knows that this is not always the case and that from time to time not all files are processed. Depending on the inbox this is happening on, it could cause issues in your environment like delayed deployment statuses , clients not receiving policy, no up to date hardware inventory, …</p> <p>There is the inbox monitor log (inboxmon.log) but apart from showing you the file-count in the “monitored” inboxes, it doesn’t generate any alert at all. Besides that, it probably doesn’t monitor all the inbox that you are interested in, so it sounds a bit useless. However the inbox monitor is responsible for creating the performance counters that we are going to rely on for receiving alerts. Let’s dig deeper !</p> <h1 id="inbox-monitor">Inbox Monitor</h1> <p>So, the first part of the puzzle is the inbox monitor, it “counts” the number of files on a 15 minute (900 seconds) cycle and reports those numbers in the inboxmon.log<br /> <strong>note :</strong> The 15 minute interval is defined in the “site control file”. We updated the frequency in our lab for testing purposes but in a regular environment, the default value should be good enough.</p> <p>Now, if you take a look at the inboxmon.log, you’ll notice that it doesn’t necessarily monitor all the inboxes you could be interested in. There’s an easy fix for that. On your site-server, open up the registry and navigate to HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\Inbox Sources\Inbox Instances<br /> You’ll notice a list of keys ranging from 0 to 80, representing most “important” inboxes. I’m going to focus on the policy provider in this blog as an example. A backlog of files in there can have some serious impact on your clients (not) receiving their policies, but… it’s not monitored by default.</p> <p>In the registry, if we navigate to the subkey 71 (HKLM\Software\Microsoft\SMS\Inbox Sources\Inbox Instances\71), you’ll notice a Dword value “Monitoring Enabled” that is set to 0</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>If we flip that value to 1, our inbox becomes monitored. Once the 15 minute monitoring cycle is triggered again, you should see the file count for policypv in the log. In addition, you’ll also notice that a new performance monitor is created. That’s another part of our puzzle.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p><strong>note :</strong> The easiest way to locate the correct subkey is simply to start a search at the “Inbox Instances” key for the name of the inbox you want to monitor, in my case that was “Policypv.Box”. Do notice that some subfolders of inbox can have their own registry key. Eg, Policytargeteval is a subfolder of policypv.Box and has key 70 assigned to it, so double-check that you monitor the correct key.</p> <h1 id="scheduled-tasks">Scheduled Tasks</h1> <p>Yes… good old scheduled tasks :-) Our inbox monitoring solution relies on scheduled tasks. Fire up Task Scheduler and create a new task.<br /> Give it a meaningful name (you’ll need it later), set it to run whether user is logged on or not and make sure it is allowed to run with the highest privileges</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>No need to define any triggers as we will use perfmon for that.<br /> On the Actions Tab, define a new action that will be executed when the task is triggered.<br /> I opted to run a simple PowerShell script that sends me a notification email(<a href="">Source</a>) , but the possibilities are only limited by your imagination (and scripting skills maybe)</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>As you can see, I trigger the program “C:\Windows\System32\WindowsPowerShell\v1.0\Powershell.exe” with an argument of “-File “C:\Script\SendMail.PS1”</p> <p>With that in place, we can move over the the last part of solution</p> <h1 id="performance-monitor">Performance Monitor</h1> <p>Open Performance monitor and browse down to “Data Collector Sets \ User Defined”. Right-click on “User Defined” and select “New \ Data collector Set”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Again, provide a meaningful name and “create manually (Advanced)”. Click Next</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Select “Performance Counter Alert”, Click Next</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Click the “Add…” button to add new performance counters.<br /> Browse down to “SMS Inbox” and select the counter(s) you want to use. In my case,<br /> Select “All instances” and click “Add »”.<br /> If you are satisfied with your selection. Click OK.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Select the alerting limit and select “Finish”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>It’s hard to provide guidance on what limit should be used as it is really something that is environment specific. It could very well be that files in the inboxes are processed at different speeds, depending on the time of day or what the site-server is currently processing at that moment in time. You can always go back and tweak the limits if alerts come in to fast (or to slow) at any given time.</p> <p>Once you clicked Finish, select your newly created data collector set in the left-hand pane so that the actual data collector becomes visible</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Take the properties of your data collector (in my case called DataCollector01) and update the sample interval. Make sure to match it to the interval cycle of your inbox monitor (15 minutes if you haven’t changed it).<br /> The values of the performance counters are only updated each time the inbox monitor starts a new cycle. If your sample interval is faster, you will get multiple alerts for the same “issue” and that doesn’t make sense.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>On the “Alert Task”-Tab, enter the name of the scheduled task you created in the previous step (Copy/Paste to avoid typo’s) and Click OK.<br /> <strong>note :</strong> You can provide arguments such as the counter that triggered the alert. They could be useful to create a more tailored email.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Last, but not least, also take the properties of your data collector set itself.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>check the “Stop Condition”-tab to make sure that your data collector doesn’t automatically turn itself off. You most likely want continuous monitoring of your inboxes.<br /> Finally, on the “Task”-tab you can add the name of another scheduled task that will run when your data collector set is stopped (for whatever reason). This would allow for some basic monitoring of the performance monitor itself.</p> <p>All that is left to do, is to start the actual performance monitor and test it.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>I created a few text-files in my, waited for the cycle to run and got my notification email…</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p><strong>note :</strong> If your scheduled task doesn’t seem to get triggered, it could very well be that your performance monitor hasn’t started it’s sample interval. If you set it to 15 minutes as I suggested, it does not necessarily run immediately after your inbox monitor’s schedule, but it could be anywhere between 1 second and 15 minutes after that, depending on when you started the monitor.</p> <h1 id="conclusion">Conclusion</h1> <p>With these simple steps it becomes a bit easier to keep an eye on the critical inbox component of ConfigMgr. It is up to you to start benchmarking your environment and enable monitoring on those inboxes that you had trouble with in the past. You’ll notice that some of those inboxes are not monitored by default at all, but the fix is easy :-)</p> <p>Enjoy and let me know what you managed to cook up!</p>Tom [email protected] alerts on Inbox backlogsPowershell App Deployment Tookit - GUI (Updated version 1.3)2018-02-06T00:00:00+00:002018-02-06T00:00:00+00:00<p>GUI for creating applications using the Powershell App Deployment Toolkit, including creating Software ID Tags for easier License Management.</p> <h1 id="intro">Intro</h1> <p>If you are working with ConfigMgr, you will probably create Applications once in a while to deploy to end-users machines :)</p> <p>Although the current Application model is great and allows for much greater flexibility than we had with Packages/Programs , there are still situations where the Application model isn’t sufficient.</p> <p>A lot of the things that are not possible with the App model, are probably fixed in your own environment by writing custom scripts.</p> <p>A very good alternative is to start using the <a href="">Powershell App Deployment Toolkit</a>.</p> <p>It is basically a (free) solution that allows you to standardize the way you deploy applications (and packages if you want to). It offers great flexibility and takes away most of the gaps that are left in the app-model.</p> <p>Some of it features are :</p> <ul> <li>An interface to prompt the user to close specified applications that are open prior to starting the application deployment</li> <li>The ability to allow the user to defer an installation X number of times, X number of days or until a deadline date is reached</li> <li>The ability to prevent the user from launching the applications that need to be closed while the application installation is in progress</li> <li>Balloon tip notifications to indicate the beginning and end of an installation and the success or failure of an installation.</li> <li>and many more</li> </ul> <p>However, if you have never used it before, it could be a bit overwhelming at first since there are so many different options available.</p> <h1 id="the-gui">The GUI</h1> <p>One of the issues I ran into when using the toolkit for the first times, besides finding out what option I needed, were typo’s…if you forget a quote, the script won’t run. Additionally, editing the Deploy-Application.PS1 file takes time as you have to scroll a lot to the correct location to perform the functions that you want/need.</p> <p>To prevent this, I started this project to create a GUI that does most of the legwork for you.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>At this moment the functionality is still limited but it should cover the basics to deploy an MSI or Script (setup.exe). The goal is to extend the GUI so that most of the functionality offered by the toolkit is present in the GUI, but that will take time ;-)</p> <p>For now, see it as a tool to merge your source-binaries together with the toolkit and generate the “basic” Deploy-Application.PS1. Once that is done, nothing is stopping your from editing that file to embed more complex stuff. Also, feel free to update the AppDeployToolkitBanner.png in the Toolkit subfolder with your own company logo !</p> <p>The functionality at this point in time is (Version 1.2) :</p> <ul> <li>Fully unattended generation of the Deploy-Application.PS1 file</li> <li>Merging of your source binaries with the PS App toolkit on a destination Share (must be UNC)</li> <li>Creating the SCCM Application + Deployment Type</li> <li>Adding a Software ID tag and using this as a detection mechanism (with experimental lookup function).</li> <li>Caching of previously looked up Reg-ID’s and previously used source & destination paths</li> <li>Enumerating all DP & DP-Groups and distribute content to them</li> <li>Generate Install & Uninstall collections based on the Application’s Name</li> </ul> <p>Added functionality in Version 1.3 :</p> <ul> <li>If enabled, the tool can now automatically connect to your SCCM environment, create the application, collections and distribute the content (saving you clicks and time)</li> <li>If the PoSh AD module is available, the tool can now create the AD security groups and link them to your collection</li> <li>A text message can be shown at the end of an installation</li> <li>Bugfix where uninstallation wouldn’t delete the RegID file.</li> </ul> <h1 id="pre-requisites">Pre-requisites</h1> <p><strong>Disclaimer :</strong> As this is the first (beta) version of the GUI (don’t let the version number fool you), not everything is error-handled. Also, this is my first attempt at such a project and I’m not the best PowerShell coder out there anyway ;-) So it’s a “learn as you go” project.</p> <p>For now, I assume that the account that launches the GUI has access to the folder that holds your source binaries (the files you want to install) and to the UNC path where we will copy the merged application to (explained below).</p> <p>If you want to use the GUI to create the SCCM Application as well, you’ll also need the appropriate rights in Configmgr and the GUI must run on your primary site server.</p> <p>Logging is included in the GUI and if you have PowerShell 5 (or greater), it will try to install <a href="">Kim’s Logging module</a> so that logging is done in the CMtrace format. If that fails, logging will be done to a regular text file.</p> <p>The location of the logs for now is c:\temp\PSAPPgui</p> <h1 id="using-the-gui">Using the GUI</h1> <p>First things first, Copy the entire content of the GUI, for now, to your SCCM Primary site. That should include the following files/Folders :</p> <ul> <li>Toolkit (subfolder - holds the full PS App deployment toolkit)</li> <li>Deploy-Application.PS1 (The template I build upon)</li> <li>MainWindow.XAML (My GUI file)</li> <li>OSCCLogo.jpg (needs no further explanation)</li> <li>Prefs.XML (caching of regid’s and other settings)</li> <li>PSAPP_GUI.PS1 (The file you need to run !)</li> </ul> <p>When you start the GUI (by launching PSAPP_GUI.PS1 from a PowerShell cmd prompt) you should see the interface that allows you to create a new application. (Run as administrator the first time to allow the logging module to be downloaded/installed. This is not required for the GUI functionality)</p> <p>There are a few required fields :</p> <ul> <li>Application Vendor</li> <li>Application Name</li> <li>Application Version</li> <li>Application Architecture</li> <li>Software ID Tag</li> <li>Source Path</li> <li>Destination Path</li> </ul> <p>The first 4 should be self-explanatory and are all related to the application you want to “package” and deploy with SCCM. I’ll cover the Software ID tag later in this blogpost. (See the animated gif in the beginning of the blogpost for a demo)</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>On the Installation section, there is a dropdown box to allow you to switch between MSI or Script.</p> <h2 id="installation">Installation</h2> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h3 id="msi">MSI</h3> <p>Enter the full filename of the MSI you want to install, eg 7zip.Msi and in the parameters box the MSI parameters you want to apply, eg /passive or /qn.</p> <h3 id="script">Script</h3> <p>for Scripts (or .exe based installs) the process is similar. Provide the filename that you want to run, eg setup.exe and the parameters to have it unattended (eg, /S).</p> <h2 id="uninstallation">Uninstallation</h2> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h3 id="addremove-programs">Add/Remove Programs</h3> <p>In the Uninstall section, provide the name for the application as you see it in Add/Remove Programs, eg “Adobe Reader X”. The App deployment toolkit will do a search for that name and perform the uninstallation.</p> <h3 id="command-line">Command Line</h3> <p>If needed, provide the full uninstall command line, eg “Setup.exe /uninstall”.</p> <h2 id="source--destination">Source & Destination</h2> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>In the Package binaries path, provide the full path to where your source binaries that include the setup file you provided earlier are stored. This can be a local or network path.</p> <p>The destination package path must be a network path (\server\share). The GUI will create a subfolder there with the name of the Vendor and a subfolder in there with the name of the Application + Version</p> <p>In my screenshot the result would be \SCCM_Server\SCCM_Files\Applications\Vendor\Applicationname_Version_Bitness</p> <p><strong>Note :</strong> Bitness = Application Architecture = X86 or X64</p> <p>The actual toolkit will be copied into that final subfolder and your application binaries in the “Files” subfolder of the Toolkit</p> <h2 id="the-buttons">The Buttons</h2> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>If you provide the URL of your vendor’s website, eg and click the lookup button, the GUI will try to detect when that website was registered and pre-fill the RegID information.</p> <p>Only Com,Org,Edu & Net domains are supported. (Proxy-support is not built-in at this moment)</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Clicking the “Generate Package” button will first “validate” all the fields and highlight in Green what is Ok and in Red what is not OK.</p> <p>Nothing will happen until all required fields are filled out properly.</p> <p>Once that is done, the GUI will create the subfolders as explained above and merge the files and finally it will generate the Deploy-Application.PS1 file that will contain the installation logic.</p> <p>After that, the 2nd tab becomes available for you to continue the SCCM-Part.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Click “Connect to SCCM” to automatically connect to the detected SCCM Environment. Once that succeeds, all DP’s (and groups) will be enumerated and you will be able to progress with the import.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>“Import into SCCM” will then create the application + deployment type using the information provided in the GUI.</p> <p>As a detection method, we check for the presence of the SWID-Tag file. Since it’s generated after a successful installation, and removed again on uninstallation, it’s safe to use this and removes all complexity on finding an appropriate detection method.</p> <p>The list of DP’s and DP-Groups is multi-selectable, so just hold CTRL and select the DP and/or DP-groups you want to start the distribution to and click “Distribute Content”</p> <p>Finally, you can generate 2 collections based on the Application-Name with the suffixes “-Install” & “-Uninstall”. They can be further customized with a pre & suffix of your choice.</p> <h1 id="software-id-tags">Software ID Tags</h1> <p>A software identification tag is an XML file that’s installed alongside software, and which uniquely identifies the software, providing data for software inventory and asset management. With the introduction of industry-standard software identification tags, it becomes possible to automate the processes of gathering software inventory data for use in reporting and in other initiatives such as managing software entitlement compliance.</p> <p>Software identification tags are stored on the computers on which software is installed. The standard allows for operating system vendors to specify where software identification tags are located. On Windows Vista machines and later, SWID Tags are stored under %Programdata%\</p> <p>One of the key-elements of the software ID tag is the “RegID-File”. The file is generated based on when the domain name from the vendor of the application was first registered. Eg, if we lookup “” on <a href=""></a>, we can see that it was first registered/created on November 1986.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>The SWID-Tag will be stored in a subfolder under %programdata%. This subfolder for Adobe will be : Regid.1986-11.Com.Adobe</p> <p>This will always be the structure. It starts with the word “RegID” followed by a dot “.”, then the year when the domainname was first registered, a dash “-“ and the month when the domainname was registered. Then another dot “.” and finally the domainname in reversed order. If we take www.Oscc.Be as an example, the subfolder would be : Regid.2008-03.Be.Oscc</p> <p>The key here is obviously to look this information up properly so that all applications from a specific vendor will always end up in the same subfolder.</p> <p>In that subfolder, the actual SWID-Tag will be created. The file starts with the same string as the subfolder, followed by and Underscore, the Applicationname, another underscore and the application version. The extension of the file is .swidtag</p> <p>Basically this is just an XML file that contains a few details on your application. SCCM Will automatically pick up these SWID tags if you enable them in the Asset Intelligence node.</p> <p>Enable the inventory class “SMS_SoftwareTag” and once the data is collected you can run reports 14A, 14B & 14C that are specifically created to handle SWID-tags.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Back to the GUI. With all the information it should be clear what needs to be filled out in the Software ID Tag fields. Look up the domainname for your vendor, enter the year, month and domainname in reverse order.</p> <p>When you select “License Required : No”, a flag will be set to “False” indicating that this is software that is free to use. If you select “Yes”, the SWID-tag will be created with Entitlement Required = True, indicating that a license is needed.</p> <p>By default, the powershell App deployment toolkit doesn’t support the creation of SWID-tags, but Kim wrote an extension (that’s included with the GUI) to enable this functionality.</p> <p>That should be all there is to it ! Again, for now it only supports basic functionality but once you have your destination package generated, nothing is stopping you from opening up that freshly generated Deploy-Application.PS1 file and making the adjustments you want/need.</p> <h1 id="roadmap">Roadmap</h1> <p>Currently on my roadmap for future versions (not necessarily in this order)</p> <ul> <li>Create Deployments</li> <li>Create AD-Groups and link to Collections (done in 1.3)</li> <li>Saved settings such as target folder, selected DP’s, … (done in 1.3)</li> <li>Browse buttons</li> <li>More Built-in Toolkit actions</li> <li>Multi-threaded GUI</li> </ul> <h1 id="bugs">Bugs</h1> <ul> <li>The Collection “preview” is missing an “underscore” between the application vendor and application name. However they are created correctly</li> <li>The GUI can become unresponsive when copying large files or importing into SCCM. Be patient as the process is running in the background in single-threaded mode.</li> </ul> <h1 id="download">Download</h1> <p>Current Version : 1.3</p> <p><a href="/Files/">Download here</a></p> <p>MD5 Checksum : 0961C98E2CBEDB4F396AC038C9DAA0B3</p> <p>Feel free to add ideas for features that you feel are missing badly and let me know if you run into issues using the GUI.</p> <p>That’s it ! Enjoy …</p>Tom [email protected] for creating applications using the Powershell App Deployment Toolkit, including creating Software ID Tags for easier License Management.Collection based on pending reboot2017-12-13T00:00:00+00:002017-12-13T00:00:00+00:00<p>So Ryan asked on twitter whether you coud build a collection out of the Shiny new Pending Reboot column added in SCCM 1710.</p> <h1 id="twitter-question">Twitter question</h1> <blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-conversation="none" data-lang="en"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">Can a collection be populated based on the pending reboot status?</p>— Ryan Engstrom (@ryandengstrom) <a href="">December 13, 2017</a></blockquote> <script async="" src="" charset="utf-8"></script> <p>When @jarwidmark forwarded me the tweet I figured it would make an easy enough blogpost to answer, so here it goes:</p> <p>Yes.</p> <p>select SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceID,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceType,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Name,SMS_R_SYSTEM.SMSUniqueIdentifier,SMS_R_SYSTEM.ResourceDomainORWorkgroup,SMS_R_SYSTEM.Client from SMS_R_System join sms_combineddeviceresources comb on comb.resourceid = sms_r_system.resourceid where comb.clientstate <> 0</p> <p>Is a collection query that picks up any machine with a pending restart. 0 means no reboot required, any non-o value means the machine has reported to SCCM that a pending reboot is waiting.</p> <p>Other possible values are:</p> <ul> <li>1 = Configuration Manager initiated reboot (Pkg/App install that triggers reboot etc…)</li> <li>2 = Pending file rename (The classical reason for pending reboots, file in use while needing an update)</li> <li>4 Windows Update (Reboot needed after install of software updates, wua agent initiated)</li> <li>8 Windows Feature (You’ve added a Windows feature that needed a reboot).</li> </ul> <p>That being said, the above values are bit flags, so a mixture of these can occur as well. Figuring out what the values 6, 9 and 3 mean are left as an educational excercise. :)</p>Tom [email protected] Ryan asked on twitter whether you coud build a collection out of the Shiny new Pending Reboot column added in SCCM 1710.An interesting use-case for Intune and SCCM Co-Management - Part 52017-12-11T00:00:00+00:002017-12-11T00:00:00+00:00<p>Real-World scenario on where Intune and SCCM Co-management could come in handy. Configuring compliance and Conditional Access.</p> <h1 id="intro">Intro</h1> <p><a href="">Part 1 - Cloud management Gateway</a><br /> <a href="">Part 2 - AAD Discovery</a><br /> <a href="">Part 3 - Co management</a><br /> <a href="">Part 4 - Deploying the ConfigMgr Agent through Intune</a></p> <p>Let’s bring these Co-Management blog series to an end and tie it all together with conditional access. As you could see in Part 3, we have configured “Compliance policies” as our first (and only) workload to pilot.</p> <p>There is actually a specific reason for choosing Compliance Policies. If you have enabled the pre-release feature called “Conditional access for managed PC’s” , you can actually create Compliance policies for Configuration Manager managed Pc’s.<br /> However, if you compare the list of available policies to the list of policies that we have in Intune, there is a rather large gap.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>The list above are the 5 rules available for Configmgr managed pc’s.</p> <p>If we compare that to what’s available in Intune :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /> <img src="" alt="alt" /> <img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>As you can judge for yourself, a rather large gap !</p> <p>As an alternative, you could go to “Hybrid” mode and have your windows 10 machines managed by Intune, but managed through the Configmgr Admin UI.<br /> Yes, you get the single pane of glass, but in the end the machine is managed by Intune (and only Intune). This means, no deployment of classic apps (win32), no custom hardware inventory, no OSD, …</p> <p>In the Co-Management scenario that we have been working on the past few blogposts, we can have a PC managed by <strong>Intune AND ConfigMgr</strong>, making the best of both worlds available to us.<br /> In this particular case, it is rather obvious that Intune excels in the amount of compliance policies available, so it makes a lot of sense to have Intune manage that part and use ConfigMgr for the other workloads.</p> <p>We will be using the Configmgr reporting website as the resource we want to protect using Conditional Access.<br /> In my scenario, my Reporting point is co-located on my primary site and as such only available on-premise. However, the Azure AD Application proxy can be used to make on-premise resources available through “the cloud”, and as an additional benefit, we can apply conditional access rules on it. Setting up the Azure AD Application proxy is not part of this blogpost, but I used <a href="">this</a> blog to guide me through.</p> <h2 id="preparing-for-conditional-access">Preparing for Conditional Access</h2> <p>Before we move on, make sure that the Windows 10 machine you are testing with (and that should be in a Co-Managed state) is part of that Pilot collection we used in Part 3. That way, we make sure that compliance policies are managed through Intune for that machine.</p> <h1 id="setting-up-compliance-policies">Setting up Compliance Policies</h1> <p>Logon to your Azure Portal and navigate to Intune. Select “Device Compliance”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>In the Device Compliance node, select “Policies” and create a new Policy</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Provide a meaningful name and description and select “Windows 10 and Later” as the platform.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>On the “Settings” part, click “Configure”.<br /> The 3 subparts available here contain the set of compliance rules I posted in the Intro part.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Create a compliance policy to fit with what you need. For my blog I’ll go with the following :</p> <ul> <li>Device Health <ul> <li>N/A</li> </ul> </li> <li>Device Properties <ul> <li>Minimum OS version (10.0.16299)</li> </ul> </li> <li>System Security <ul> <li>Encryption of data storage on device (Require)</li> </ul> </li> </ul> <p><strong>Note :</strong> for OS version checks, make sure that you use whatever “Winver” returns as an OS Version.<br /> For Windows 10, this would be, “10.0.” + the buildnumber, so for Windows 10 - 1709 this translates into : 10.0.16299.</p> <p>The result looks like this</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Click “Create” to actually save your policy. Once you have done that, you end up in a new window.<br /> On the Properties menu, you can adjust the rules we just set, but at this point we are more interested in assigning this Policy.<br /> Click the ‘Assignment’ button.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>If you have pre-created user-groups, you can assign them here, but in my test-environment I’ll assign this policy to ‘All Users’.<br /> Make sure to Save your assignment.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Important to notice here is that, once these rules are validated by the client, the machine ends up in either the “Compliant” state or the “Not Compliant” state. This is important as we go forward !</p> <h2 id="validating-our-compliancy">Validating our Compliancy</h2> <p>Let’s for a moment check on our client what the effects are of these new compliance rules. Logon to your test machine and force an Intune policy sync to make sure that our compliance policy is applied to this client. (see part 4 on how to do that).<br /> Given that we are “Co-Managed”, we can actually verify our compliancy state from the client itself. Open up your software center and click the “Device Compliance” tab.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>As we can see, we are not compliant because we are lacking disk encryption. I’m not going to remediate it at this point yet as we want to validate conditional access first.</p> <p>On the Intune portal, we can equally see that our test-device isn’t compliant.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <h1 id="setting-up-conditional-access">Setting up Conditional Access</h1> <p>Conditional access, as the name implies, allows you to access a certain resource if you meet all of the required conditions. One of those conditions can be that you need to be marked as “Compliant” (see previous steps).<br /> It basically prevents access to your company resources if you do not meet a set of required conditions and that is a bit of a paradigm shift in how IT works.</p> <p>We used to have this method of trying to protect the device as much as we can (anti-virus, anti-theft, …) but with conditional access we shift that away from the device and to the data.</p> <p>This makes a lot more sense as users are now able to access corporate data from a lot more devices than in a “traditional” world and we might not have full control over all those devices anymore.<br /> With conditional access in play, we don’t need to have full control. We just lay out some ground rules, and if those are met, we trust the device is secure enough to access the corporate data. If not, users won’t have access to their mail, files, … or whatever you decided to protect.</p> <p>Let’s enable this fantastic feature !</p> <p>Back in the Intune main-page, select “Conditional Access”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>In the new windows, create a new policy</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Provide a meaningful name for the policy you are creating (you can create different policies for different resources). Select the users you want to assign it to (it makes sense to at least target the same users you target with the compliance policy) and select the cloud apps you want to protect.<br /> In my case, that would be the Configmgr Reporting website I have published through the Azure AD application proxy.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>For the conditions, you can specify additional requirements that you want to test for such as</p> <ul> <li>Sign in Risk</li> <li>Device Platforms</li> <li>Locations</li> <li>Client Apps</li> </ul> <p>If you feel this is needed in your environment, feel free to enable any of these settings, but for this blog we will focus on being “Compliant” with our compliance policy we created before.</p> <p>Under the Access controls menu, Select “Grant”.<br /> Grant access once the device is marked as Compliant.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Finally, Enable the policy and Create it.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>That should be all there is to it. Let’s verify if indeed this has the wanted effect on our test-client.</p> <p><strong>Note :</strong> Just like with Configmgr not being a real-time product, it seems that the cloud-world isn’t all that different. Every policy you create in the portal takes time to apply. In a real-world scenario, this isn’t a huge deal but when you are validating things in a small lab, take into account that there is some delay between you enabling/enforcing a policy and your client being “aware” of it.</p> <h1 id="the-results">The results</h1> <p>We verified before that our test-machine isn’t compliant, so the result should be that we don’t have access to our reporting if we access it through the cloud. When I browse to “Myapps.Microsoft.Com”, I see the list of “enterprise applications” that are made available to me, and CM Reporting is one of them. (A nice touch is that I get single-sign-on to this website because my device is Azure Ad joined)</p> <p>Upon selecting my CM Reporting app from the “MyApps” portal, I am notified that my device isn’t able to access this resource.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>As you can see from the screenshot above, I’m not allowed to access my “CM Reporting” app because I’m not compliant.<br /> <strong>Note :</strong> Clicking the “Device management portal” link actually opens up the ConfigMgr Software center on the Device compliance tab for more details.</p> <p>In order to become compliant again, I have enabled bitlocker on my device. Once encryption is complete, we can validate from that same software center that we are now compliant !</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>The same note from before applies. If you immediately check compliance after remediating, it could very well be that you are still being marked as non-compliant. Give it a bit more time to process all the changes.</p> <p>And as my final result… I have now access to my Configmgr Reporting !!</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>That’s it folks !</p> <p>I tried to cover an end-to-end scenario where co-management could be useful for you. I hope you enjoyed reading the series as much as I had writing them. Let me know if you run into any issues or if you were able to replicate the setup in your own environment.</p> <p>Take care !</p>Tom [email protected] scenario on where Intune and SCCM Co-management could come in handy. Configuring compliance and Conditional Access.An interesting use-case for Intune and SCCM Co-Management - Part 42017-12-07T00:00:00+00:002017-12-07T00:00:00+00:00<p>Real-World scenario on where Intune and SCCM Co-management could come in handy. Deploying the Configmgr Agent through Intune.</p> <h1 id="intro">Intro</h1> <p><a href="">Part 1 - Cloud management Gateway</a><br /> <a href="">Part 2 - AAD Discovery</a><br /> <a href="">Part 3 - Co management</a></p> <p>So, in the previous blogposts we always started off with a machine that already had a ConfigMgr agent on it and enrolled it that way into Intune. Now we are going to reverse that process.</p> <p>I’ve prepared a windows 10 - 1709 machine that is just domain joined and has no ConfigMgr Client on it. After the domain join, I manually enrolled it into Intune. (We are planning on a blogpost where domain joining isn’t necessary, but that has some other requirements that we’ll explain in more detail at that time.)</p> <p>Once that part is done, an Intune app (containing the bootstrapper for the ConfigMgr client) will be deployed to our machine and once the ConfigMgr client is properly installed, our device should register in Configmgr and be in a co-managed state.</p> <h1 id="creating-the-configmgr-agent-installation-in-intune">Creating the Configmgr agent installation in Intune</h1> <p>1) Logon to Http://Portal.Azure.Com with your admin account and in the Portal select “More Services” and search for Intune and select it.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>2) Select “Add an App” from the Quick Tasks.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>3) In the new window, select “Add” from the top menu bar</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>4) Select “Line-of-Business App” as the app type and click on Select File. In the new pane browse for “CCMSETUP.MSI”. Click OK at the bottom of the window to confirm your selection.</p> <p><strong>note :</strong> The CCMSETUP.MSI file can be found in your ConfigMgr installation folder in the subfolder “\Bin\I386”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>5) To fill in additional App information, click “Configure”</p> <p>Set Description and publisher to your liking, “Computer Management” seems a pretty good match for a category.</p> <p>The key part here is the “Command-line Arguments”. Copy the command line field you were provided earlier when configuring Co-Management in this field.</p> <p>Click OK to confirm the details added to the App.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>6) Finally click “Add” to Save and configure the App in Intune.</p> <p>Now that the app has ben created, we can deploy it to our users.<br /> 7) Click the “Assignments” Button and then “Select Groups”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Select a group that holds the users you want to target for Configmgr Client installation and make it a required install.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>8) Save your “deployment” or assignment as Intune calls them.</p> <h1 id="results-on-the-client">Results on the client</h1> <p>9) Back on your Intune-enrolled client, wait for policy sync to happen from Intune, or trigger it manually by going to the “modern” settings page and selecting “Accounts”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>10) Go to Access work or school and select your Intune connection (the one labeled “work or school account”)</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>11) Click the “Info” button</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>12) Here, click on the “Sync” button to force a policy-sync from Intune</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>The result of those actions should be that the application we created before is getting installed.</p> <p><strong>Note :</strong> As you might have noticed during the creation of our Intune app, we only provided a simple MSI to do the installation. Configmgr needs a lot more files to fully install/configure the agent.<br /> There are a few ways to handle this and one way could be by installing a cloud-distribution point.<br /> However, if you are familiar with deploying the ConfigMgr client, you probably know that the “/MP:…” switch (that is included in our Intune app) means : “Go download the remaining client binaries from that specific management point”.<br /> That’s the way I wanted to get this working here as well.<br /> Good news, it does work that way ! Bad news, it requires you to be patient ;-)</p> <p>Once the client installation is started by our Intune app, we can go and explore the “CCMSetup.log” (By checking c:\windows\ccmsetup\logs).<br /> As we can see from this log file, it fails to find a distribution point that contains the client binaries.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>This is where the patience part comes in play. The setup will retry every 30 minutes for a total of 8 times before it will download the content from your management point.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>As you can see in the screenshot, we eventually fall back to our MP and download the ccmsetup.Cab.<br /> Once that is done, client installation continues as normal.</p> <h1 id="final-notes">Final Notes</h1> <p>Once your client becomes active and registered with your ConfigMgr primary site, it will depend on how you’ve setup your Co-Management policies whether the device will end up in a Co-Managed state or not. In my scenario, I’m still working with a Pilot collection. My new machine will have to be added to the staging collection for co-management, before it will end up in the Co-managed state.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Ideally, we need a query to identify these type of devices and add them automatically to the proper collection. However, I’ve not been able to create such a query at this point in time. Once I do find a way of getting this done, I’ll update this blogpost with the new information.</p>Tom [email protected] scenario on where Intune and SCCM Co-management could come in handy. Deploying the Configmgr Agent through Intune.An interesting use-case for Intune and SCCM Co-Management - Part 32017-11-27T00:00:00+00:002017-11-27T00:00:00+00:00<p>Real-World scenario on where Intune and SCCM Co-management could come in handy. Enabling the Co-management feature</p> <h1 id="intro">Intro</h1> <p>So we’ve had <a href="">Part 1</a> for the Cloud Management Gateway. And <a href="">Part 2</a> for getting Azure AD Discovery up and running, now let’s focus on configuring Co-Management itself !</p> <h2 id="setting-up-co-management-between-configmgr-and-intune">Setting up Co-management between Configmgr and Intune</h2> <p>In your ConfigMgr Admin-UI, navigate to the Administration pane / Cloud Services / Co-Management and select “Configure Co-Management” from the quick access toolbar.</p> <p>Sign in with your Intune Admin account and click next.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Select if you want to automatically enroll into Intune. If you enable this feature, all devices that are already managed by your on-premise ConfigMgr setup will automatically be enrolled into Intune.</p> <p>Given that we are setting up Co-Management, the end-result would be that the device is both accessible for Intune & ConfigMgr. For the sake of this blog, let’s put it on ‘All’. However, keep in mind that a few pre-requisites on the client side need to be in place for this to work.</p> <p>Those pre-requisites are :</p> <ul> <li>A windows 10 - 1709 (Fall creators update) machine</li> <li>The Configmgr agent updated to 1710 (5.00.8577.1003 or higher)</li> <li>a Valid Intune license</li> <li>Multi Factor Authentication (eg Hello 4 Business)</li> </ul> <p>We’ll cover de technical details of these options later in this blog when we check out the result on an actual client.</p> <p>Also, while you are on this screen, make sure to copy (and save!) the Command line you need later on if you want to install the Configmgr agent using Intune.<br /> If, for some reason, you don’t see this command line and are greeted by a “Requirements not met” window, it probably means you missed something that we configured in Part 1 or 2.</p> <p>Make sure to check back and verify each step.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>For each of the 3 available workloads, configure if you want them managed by ConfigMgr, Intune, or start a pilot for Intune. Later on you can define a “Pilot” Collection.</p> <p>Important to notice here is that there will be only 1 pilot collection available. This collection will be used for each workload you select on this screen and configured for Pilot.<br /> This Pilot collection will equally be used in the previous step if you chose “Pilot” instead of all for the automatic Intune enrollment.</p> <p>Unless you are very familiar with each workload and how management difference between Intune and Configmgr, I would advise to start 1 workload at a time in Pilot. This allows you to evaluate each and every workload separately and doesn’t overly complicates troubleshooting (if needed).</p> <p>In my particular case I will start with “Compliance Policies” in Pilot.<br /> In the follow-up blog posts we will continue with “Conditional Access” and that will explain more in depth why we started with the “Compliance Policies” workload here.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Select the Intune Pilot collection you are planning to use and click Next to continue the wizard.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Review your summary and finish the Wizard.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>If, for some reason, you want to modify what entity manages what workload or, get that install Command line again or, change your pilot collection.<br /> Select “Properties” from the Quick access toolbar while you have your Co-management entry selected.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>That’s it from a ConfigMgr point of view !</p> <h2 id="an-additional-pre-requisite">An Additional pre-requisite</h2> <p>For Multi Factor Authentication (MFA). The <a href="">Microsoft docs</a> mention it as “recommended” but they don’t list it as required.</p> <p>However, from my own tests, I can conclude that without any form of MFA, I wasn’t able to get auto-enrollment working at all.<br /> I would even get an error-message in the eventlog that specified “MFA Required”.</p> <p>For my specific tests, I setup a Hello for Business profile from within Configmgr and deployed that to my test-machine and enrolled in Hello for Business. It’s beyond the scope of this blog to go into the details of setting up hello for business. But this, or any other form of MFA should be sufficient.</p> <h2 id="verifying-the-results-on-a-windows-10---1709-machine">Verifying the results on a Windows 10 - 1709 Machine</h2> <p>Let’s first verify that the Client Requirements are met.</p> <p>Logon to your Windows 10 - 1709 client and make sure that it is Azure AD Registered.<br /> Do this by opening and Admin Command prompt and typing the following command : “DSREGCMD /Status”.<br /> You should see something similar to this</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Obviously, also make sure that your ConfigMgr client agent is up to the latest version (in production, it would need to be Configmgr 1710 or later)</p> <p>If all of the pre-requisites are good, we can check if our enrollment in Intune has succeeded.<br /> There are a few places to check, but I found the CoManagementHandler.Log (under c:\windows\ccm\logs) to be the easiest.</p> <p><strong>Note:</strong><br /> A few things I noticed about auto-enrollment is that once the policy is received by the client, it will not automatically start the enrollment process. There is some delay built-in to the mechanism that seems to randomize this from a few minutes to a few hours.</p> <p>If enrollment fails (because not all requirements are met), it will retry 3 times with a 15 minute interval. If after that it still didn’t succeed in enrolling, it will not try again until the computer is rebooted (or the sms agent host got restarted).</p> <p>If, like me, you are a very patient person, you can sit out the time for the auto-enrollment to kick-in.<br /> However, if you want to speed things up, for the sake of testing, you can always trigger the enrollment yourself.<br /> The proper way to do this would be to open admin command-prompt (admin needs to be the same user that enrolled the device in Azure AD) and navigating to c:\windows\System32</p> <p>Then run : “DeviceEnrollment /c /AutoEnrollMDM”</p> <p>The command itself won’t give any feedback but you should see some results in the Eventlog (Microsoft / Windows / DeviceManagement-Enterprise- Diagnostics-Provider / Admin).<br /> Look for EventID “75 - Auto MDM Enroll: Succeeded”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>If all goes well, your device should now be registered in Intune and still managed by ConfigMGr. The easiest to verify this is by logging into Intune and going to your devices node.</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>Click “All Devices” and you should see all registered devices in Intune. The device that just enrolled should be there and in the “Managed By” column, it should be marked as “MDM/ConfigMGr Agent”</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>The CoManagementHandler.Log should show something similar to this :</p> <p><img src="" alt="alt" /></p> <p>That’s it for today ! Enjoy Reading.</p>Tom [email protected] scenario on where Intune and SCCM Co-management could come in handy. Enabling the Co-management feature |
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26655 | Out-Law / Your Daily Need-To-Know
'Welcome and robust' backing for summary judgment by Privy Council
Out-Law News | 22 May 2018 | 5:11 pm | 4 min. read
The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council has restored the summary judgment of a court in Jamaica in favour of a Jamaican bank in a case involving an unpaid debt.
The judgment had been overturned by the Court of Appeal of Jamaica, which ruled last year that debtor Marvalyn Taylor-Wright was entitled to full trial in which to plead her case. However, the London-based Privy Council board found that the facts argued by Taylor-Wright, although at odds with those put forward by Sagicor Bank Jamaica Ltd, would still have led to the same result.
Commercial litigation expert Craig Connal QC of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said that the judgment was a "welcome and robust" one, "in a world where the cost of full-blown litigation can deter or lead to settlement of many perfectly good claims".
"The Judicial Committee of the Privy Council's decisions remain a sometimes neglected source of useful material," he said.
"As is often the case, a variety of disputes arose here, but the real question was whether any of these even if they were hotly contested meant that summary judgment was excluded. In modern times, the court's comments about saving expense are interesting. The court also went on to remind parties that a summary judgment application can look wider than the pleadings – which may sometimes obscure rather than focus," he said.
"The judges went on to describe some of arguments as having 'an air of unreality' about them, or as being 'hopeless'. This led them to conclude that the case was one in which a trial 'would have amounted to no more than a serious waste of time and expense for the parties', and where summary judgment was 'the appropriate relief'. They went on to decide that there was no injustice to Ms Taylor-Wright as a result of the decision to grant summary judgment," he said.
Summary judgment is a procedure which allows the court to grant the relief sought by one of the parties to a case without the need for a full trial. Part 15 of Jamaica's Civil Procedure Rules (CPRs) allows one or the other of the parties to ask the court to decide whether summary judgment is the most appropriate means of deciding a case, and sets out the criteria which a court should refer to when deciding whether a full trial is necessary. The rules are very similar to those set out in the CPRs for England and Wales.
Taylor-Wright had agreed to borrow some J$21 million (€140,000) from RBTT Bank Jamaica Ltd, which is now part of Sagicor, in July 2007. Taylor-Wright provided a promissory note and two mortgages as collateral on the loan. Sagicor sued Taylor-Wright for recovery of the money in March 2011, claiming that she had not made any repayments since December 2009. Taylor-Wright argued that the promissory note held by Sagicor is a forgery. She provided a copy of what she claimed is the genuine promissory note, in precisely the same terms, to the court.
The trial judge in the case granted summary judgment in favour of Sagicor, finding that the bank's entitlement to the money "did not depend upon any issue which required a trial". Taylor-Wright had admitted that she borrowed the money, and the question of whether or not the note was a forgery was irrelevant. The Court of Appeal overturned his judgment, finding that the bank's case was based entirely on the note and that the forgery issue could not be resolved without a trial.
Lord Briggs, giving the judgment of the Privy Council, reviewed the role and effect of summary judgment against the background of the courts' "overriding objective", as set out in the CPRs. This overriding objective "encourage[s] the saving of expense, the dealing with a case in a proportionate manner, expeditiously and fairly, and allotting to it an appropriate share of the court's resources", he said.
"There will in almost all cases be disputes about the underlying facts, some of which may only be capable of resolution at trial, by the forensic processes of the examination and cross-examination of witnesses, and oral argument thereon," he said. "But a trial of those issues is only necessary if their outcome affects the claimant's entitlement to the relief sought. If it does not, then a trial of those issues will generally be nothing more than an unnecessary waste of time and expense."
"The Board considers it axiomatic that, if a pleaded claim is met with a defence (whether pleaded or deployed in evidence) on a summary judgment application which, if true, would still entitle the claimant to the relief sought, then generally there cannot be a need for a trial. If the pleaded claim justifies granting the relief sought then, if the claimant proves that claim, it will succeed. If the alleged defence also justified the relief sought, then the claimant will succeed even though the defendant proves the facts alleged in her defence. In either case, the defendant will have no real prospect of successfully defending the claim, within the meaning of [the relevant CPR]," he said.
In the present case, Taylor-Wright's defence was one which "if true, simply demonstrated the claimant's entitlement to the relief sought by the claim", the judge said.
"It was therefore a case in which a trial would have amounted to no more than a serious waste of time and expense for the parties, where the defendant's case disclosed no real prospect of her successfully resisting the bank's claim and where the grant of summary judgment was the appropriate relief for the judge to grant to bank, on the hearing of the parties' cross-applications," he said. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26661 | Projects without a site
The Demonstration Housing ‘without a site’ stream is for proponents who do not own a site however have a demonstration housing concept they want to deliver. The Demonstration Housing team are currently working to identify suitable Territory-owned land which is suitable for each proposal. The land will be sold to proponents at market value.
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Developer Urban village
Developer Build to rent development model
Organisation Co-housing
Organisation Co-housing
Architect Sustainable units with affordable dwellings |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26662 | Amendment C115
Frankston Planning Scheme
Amendment status
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Environmental Effects Statement (EES)
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Minister for Planning
Level 16 8 Nicholson Street East Melbourne VIC 3002 Australia
Tel: (03) 8683 0964
Amends Schedule 2 to Clause 44.01 (Erosion Management Overlay) of the Frankston Planning Scheme by amending Section 1| Permit requirement and including a new Section 2| Exemptions from permit requirements and amends Planning Scheme Maps 4EMO and 7EMO.
Amendment stages |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26675 |
Update:Pokemon Escape Sun v1.01
Pokemon Gelb++ v0.1.5.7
Pokemon Spirit Crystal v0.1.7.3
Pokemon Sword v1.1.0 + Expansion Pass Pack 1 and 2
Pokemon Adventure Red Chapter Vol.1 Beta 15.4
Pokemon Omega Paradox
Pokemon Omega Paradox
Name: Pokemon Omega Paradox
Remake From: Pokemon White
Remake by: XxAsterxX
Source – credit: pokecommunity.com/showthread.php?t=398877
Story: Its been one month since the Masked Man attack many have been killed some have been severely injured. Many people are fleeing Unova while some have come to save it…..After the attack many elite clans have formed in Unova composed of strong team Rocket and Plasma grunts and Team Aqua has reformed in Unova to liberate Pokemon and has allied with the Masked Man.
You have survived the Masked man attack and your friends Cynthia and Drake have returned to Unova to see you pick your first Pokemon. You as one of the few people who can Omega-Evolve Pokemon has been given the chance to get a starter Pokemon and stop the Masked Man.
The Masked Man leaves a scar on all of his victims, seen by the blacked out faces of all the victims, you are destined to stop him.
Features :
~New Gym Leaders: Many gym leaders are dead some have been replaced or demoted
~New Elite Four and Champion
~New Trainer Classes
~New Rivals
Eevee-Hard Mode
Zorua-Medium Mode
~New Music–>Music from Pokemon Hoenn White created by King Drapion composed by PkmnSoundFontRemix
—->I was going to ask permission to use his music but he seems to inactive online
~New Starters
~Text Edits
~New Move-Sets and Stats for certain Pokemon
~Many other features thanks to Drayano–> I was going to ask permission but he seems to inactive online also
~Mega Evolution (outside of battle): Only two Pokemon can Mega-Evolve
-Camerupt and Slowbro
-Some Female Pokemon Sprites are messed up
-Some peoples overworlds have dots over them due to Changed sprites
-This is the only version of Pokemon Omega Paradox no beta or alpha exists-
-Legendaries remain same as Drayano’s location, plus P2 Laboratory and Abundant shrine, are where two new legendaries are located
-Geodude as a starter is changed and is a fire type who evolves straight to Golem at level 25
-Megas and Final form Omegas can not be caught, don’t bother trying since they should not show up in the first place
-The final oppenent is Ash waiting in Undella Town
-I may have said professor Drake at times since I was typing fast while changing the text
-Not all names are changed if you encounter a name you want me to fix pm me on Reddit (Xx-Aster-xX) once I get enough names fixed I can release a fully name changed version
-Team Aqua is under-levelled some times
-TM and HM compatibility’s are unchanged
Important Pokemon Changes:
Geodude skips Graveler evolution since he was changed
Eevee can Omega-Evolve (New Eeveelution)
Spinark and Dewpider evolve into Araquanid
If you see a non-alolan Pokemon who is a new type it may Omega-evolve
Lycanroc Day form has a terrible back sprite and has levitate
Craindos is not Tyrantum in any way
Omega Pokemon Guide:
Spoiler: Hide
Grimer:Route 5->Omega->Fire Type lava Muk
Ponyta:Route 7->Omega->Dark Type Rapidash
Zekrom->Omega Stone->Slifer->Mega Stone->Zekrom
I will continue to update this
New Pokemon Locations:
Spoiler: Hide
Dark Magican-> Twist mountain and Victory Road
Gaia->Moor of Irricus, Victory Road and Dragonspiral Tower Floor one
Mimikyu->Dream Yard and Pinwheel Forest
Rockruff->Route 1
Camerupt and Slowbro->Victory Road
Dewpider->Dream Yard
I will continue to update this
Version 2.0:Fixed some trainer levels that occur in chargestone cave, fixed Ponyta’s Omega-Evolution and updated the wild pokemon in some areas
Pokemon Omega Paradox
Download Pokemon Omega Paradox Completed Version 2
Posted by Pokemoner.com
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26689 | Stewart Copeland, the drummer for rock superstars The Police, talks to Kurt about being the son of a CIA spy growing up in Beirut, and describes his tense relationship with Sting. David Maisel explains his photography exhibit "Library of Dust," in which he shows thousands of canisters containing human remains. And Hollywood just can't get the Boston accent right, no matter how many times it tries. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26698 | David Knight - 19th Aug 2011
New Academy signing Nicholas Bentley's first promo at his new home is Ghost Poet's Liiines - yes, with three i's - runs a gamut of visual ideas exploring the agonies involved with the creative process. It's really good.
David Knight - 19th Aug 2011
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26711 | ET6 Top View
myCNC-ET6 controller specifications:
Number of motor outputs
Motor driver outputs
differential line driver outputs compatible with EIA RS-422 Standard
Maximum pulse frequency
3 MHz
Binary inputs
8x galvanic isolation,
PNP/NPN sensor compatible
Binary outputs
2 relay outputs
2 open collector outputs
PWM outputs
3x - open collector
1x RS485 with Modbus ASCII/RTU implementation
Computer connections
Ethernet (PC/ARM, Linux, MS Windows)
Power supply connection
24V DC is used to supply myCNC-ET6 control board. Power consumption depends on the external peripherals you have connected to the open collector outputs and +12V/+5V outputs. Normally. the 24V/2A power supply should be enough to power up the controller based kit with single board computer and 15'6" TFT screen. However, step-down converters on the ET6 board consume start current of about 1.5A and the 24V/1A power supply might be not enough to supply a single ET6 board.
Pulse-Dir outputs
ET6 has 6 channel pulse/dir outputs, with a max pulse frequency of 3MHz.
ET6 pulse-dir outputs conform to the RS422 standard and are compatible with most of the servo and stepper drivers (line driver with paraphase signals of positive and negative polarity). Internal schematic for pulse-dir is shown in the picture below:
The pulse-dir connectors pinout is shown below:
ET6 Output pins
ET6 board contains 7 output pins:
• 2 relay outputs (OUT#0, OUT#1)
• 2 open collector outputs (OUT#2, OUT#3)
WARNING: ET6 board rev.1 has Output pin names printed on the Bottom side of the board.
These names are NOT correct and differ from actual output addresses.
Please check the table below to find out actual output addresses.
SILK prin Actual Output Pin Address
P2A OUT0 (A)
P2B OUT0 (B)
P2C OUT0 (C)
P1A OUT1 (A)
P1B OUT1 (B)
P1C OUT1 (C)
A schematic for the ET6 outputs is shown below:
Connector pinouts for ET6 output pins are shown in the picture below:
Galvanic isolated inputs
ET6 control board has 8 galvanic isolated binary inputs, 2 groups of 4 inputs each. Each group has separate power supply pins so inputs can be powered from different power sources. Using PNP and NPN sensors simultaneously if possible too.
Schematic for ET6 inputs is shown below:
Connector pinouts for the ET6 galvanic isolated inputs are shown in the picture below:
RS422/RS485 Bus
myCNC-ET6 control board has a RS485 bus connector. Modbus ASCII/RTU and Hypertherm Serial communication interfaces are implemented in myCNC-ET6 control board.
RS485 bus schematic is shown below:
RS485 connector pinout shown below:
DAC output
myCNC-ET6 control board has DAC output for spindle speed control. DAC output range is 1 to 15V. The actual Max DAC voltage (ie 10V, 5V, 6V) can be set up in the myCNC control software.
Schematic design for the DAC output is shown below:
Connector pinout for the DAC output:
Connection Examples
3-wire NPN sensor connection example (external power supply)
3-wire PNP sensor connection example (external power supply)
3-wire NPN sensor connection example (internal power supply)
3-wire PNP sensor connection example (internal power supply)
Depending on the particular sensor, power can be supplied through any of the power input connections (5V, 12V, 24V). 24V was chosen in these examples as it is the industry standard.
Spindle speed control through DAC (0-10V)
Switch connection example (external power supply) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26760 | XML Sitemap
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26775 | Chalk Bass: A Caribbean Jewel Custom Made for Marine Aquariums
Chalk Bass (Serranus tortugarum) are a hardy species that can be kept in groups
Anyone who has visited Saltwater Smarts on a regular basis knows that Chris has a bizarre fixation on Caribbean species. No livestock—fish or invertebrate—originating outside the Caribbean/tropical Western Atlantic is allowed in his tank. If he could, he’d probably go so far as to encase his entire fish room in a plastic bubble and pump Caribbean air into it to prevent non-Caribbean airborne microbes from settling in his tank. It’s a disease, really, and he should probably seek treatment for it.
Nonetheless, in some cases, Chris’s compulsion is well justified. Take, for example, the chalk bass (Serranus tortugarum) that grace his tank. These little Caribbean jewels are gorgeous, peaceful, hardy, easy to feed, beginner friendly, and well-suited to modest-sized marine systems. Oh, and did I mention they can be kept in groups? What more could you ask for in a marine fish?
Physical traits
S. tortugarum has a torpedo-shaped body and sports alternating vertical bands of orange and light blue. Also, along each flank, originating approximately at the lateral line and extending downward, is a stunning opalescent sheen that really pops under certain lighting schemes. The maximum length for the chalk bass is only about 3 inches.
This Serranid (family Serranidae) is a zooplanktivore that will usually learn to accept a wide variety of small meaty food items, such as mysid shrimp, chopped mollusk and crustacean flesh, frozen formulations for small carnivores, as well as dry pellets/flakes.
As I mentioned above, S. tortugarum is a terrific candidate for modest-sized systems. I would consider a standard 29-gallon tank to be minimum housing for this species, though if you want to keep a small group—say, five specimens or so—you might want to go larger. Also, chalk bass can be shy when first introduced, so the rockwork should be arranged to provide ample hiding places. A cover to prevent jumping is essential as well.
S. tortugarum is typically peaceful and inoffensive toward other species, so any relatively small, non-aggressive fishes will make suitable tankmates. Of course, any piscivorous species capable of swallowing a chalk bass, such as lionfish and groupers, should be excluded. (Sorry, Chris! You’ll just have to forego that goliath grouper you’ve had your eye on!) If you plan to keep a group, be sure to add all the specimens at the same time.
With respect to reef-safeness, you can’t do much better than S. tortugarum. This little Serranid is completely harmless to sessile invertebrates and to all but the very smallest motile invertebrates.
Photo credit: Kevin Bryant
About Jeff Kurtz
1. Matt Bowers (Muttley000) says
When obtaining a group of this species is it important to maintain a specific ratio of males to females?
• Jeff Kurtz says
Thanks for your question, Matt! Chalk bass are synchronous hermaphrodites, meaning they have both male and female reproductive organs at the same time, so you don’t have to worry about selecting for a particular gender ratio.
Speak Your Mind |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26821 | HomeTagsPosts tagged with "first love"
first love
Testosterone and oestrogen are also released and we feel lust.
I was seventeen the first time I fell in love.
It was with one of my childhood friends and we had what I now know was chemistry (at the time he was just constantly getting under my skin).
But when we started going out, everything clicked into place.
We fell into an all-consuming type of love, the only type you can have when you're 17.
It was the messaging under the covers at night/hungry kisses in my hall on a school night/naive and hormone-fuelled kinda thing.
Related image
Being a teenager in general, your world is small and that means that everything is heightened.
This person is suddenly your whole life and because it's the first time you're having these feelings…it's intense.
Things like jealousy rear their ugly head for the first time and this can cause dizzying heights and crashing lows.
When the inevitable heartbreak came, we were nineteen.
My whole world blurred and temporarily nothing seemed to make sense.
Being with your first love is a magical time and one that many of us just can't seem to let go of – but why?
Image result for the notebook gifs
Why do we have this bond?
So, this is the science bit.
When two people first meet, their bodies release a stress hormone called norepinephrine.
This is what makes you have the butterflies in your stomach, heart pounding away in your chest, the whole works.
Researchers at Arizona State University College also found this cool thing – the hormone makes events burn into your memory.
You know the way you can remember specific kisses or conversations you had but what happened the day before is a blur?
Related image
They discovered a link that causes these strong emotions to form a specific sensory experience.
In other words, when you get around that person again, their presence causes those old memories and initial feelings to come flooding back.
It's not that you don't forget about them; when you see them again, those old feelings of first love can return.
Related image
So it looks like first love is the deepest – in a literal sense as it's carved out what you think love should look like.
We never learn as much from a relationship as we do from our first serious one and because of that, they will never fully leave us.
In the words of writer Daphne du Maurier, ''I am glad it cannot happen twice, the fever of first love. For it is a fever, and a burden, too, whatever the poets may say." |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26826 | Here is Everything You Need To Know About Typhoid Fever
July 15, 2019 | Abigail Mckay
Here is Everything You Need To Know About Typhoid Fever
اردو میں پڑھیں
Typhoid fever, a rising issue in many middle eastern nations, is a disease spread by contaminated food. The main contributing bacteria causing typhoid fever is Salmonella Typhi, which is excreted through feces and then transmitted to food from unwashed hands. It can also be transmitted through contaminated water. For instance, if food is washed in contaminated water, the chances of infection are high.
Typhoid fever has distinct symptoms, which include a high, consistent fever, abdominal pain, weakness, headache, and loss of appetite. Diarrhea or constipation can also be present, and in some cases, a rash may develop. Quick action is necessary to prevent long term consequences from the infection. Antibiotics are the first-line treatment, but some cases are antibiotic resistant, meaning the bacteria does not respond to certain antibiotics. If this is indeed the case, a few antibiotics will need to be utilized until proven successful.
It is essential to remember that even after typhoid fever symptoms cease, the bacteria may still be present in your body. Until confirmed by a physician, you are still contagious and can pass the bacteria to others. Do not return to work or stop taking the antibiotics until indicated by a doctor. Taking the full course of antibiotics, even after symptoms are gone, help to rid the body of the bacteria. To learn about prevention techniques, come back tomorrow to further your knowledge of this growing epidemic. To get tested for typhoid, order typhoid test at home and get tested from top labs of Pakistan.
Recommended Packages
Abigail Mckay
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26844 | How can I receive Extra Help from Medicare?
The Medicare Extra Help program is designed to help people who may not be able to afford prescription drug coverage by assisting with the costs of a Part D plan. This may include premiums, deductibles and/or coinsurance.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26863 | Download iOS firmware file for iPhone
Now Down here are the direct links for the iPhone 6 iOS 11.4 firmware updates that have been released by Apple.
If you’re not sure which firmware file to download for your iPhone, then first confirm your iPhone’s model by this method. See your IPhone's back and google the code like a1303.
Now you need to download iPhone_4.7_11.4_15F79_Restore.ipsw file for your Apple Device.
Image result for IOS 11
Now when you have downloaded IPSW file you should install it by the following method.
Shut down your apple device by holding power button. Open I Tunes Now connect your Apple Device to your Computer or Mac book by holding Home button it should connects in recovery mode.
When your Apple device is connected it prompt for restore or update.
Press and hold the Shift key (Windows) or Alt key (Mac) and then hit the Restore iPhone button. iTunes will ask you to select the IPSW firmware file for your device.
Select the appropriate iOS 11.4 IPSW file you downloaded earlier and follow the on screen instructions to complete the installation setup.
Wait until the installation completes and then your device should automatically reboot into to the Home or Hello screen in iOS 11.4.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26872 | Prepare for the Windows Server 2008 end-of-support switch off
With support for Windows Server 2008 ending soon, now’s the time for your organisation to consider modernising its infrastructure
Windows Server 2008/2008 R2 support is ending on January 14 2020
After this date, Microsoft will no longer release security updates, which may expose you to security attacks or put you at risk of non-compliance with industry regulations (including GDPR). Avoid business disruptions and take the opportunity to modernize your IT infrastructure by moving it to the Microsoft cloud.
Unlock your workshop
48% of small businesses say new technology will influence growth over the next three years
Benefits of migrating to the Microsoft cloud
Along with optimizing costs, reducing security threats, and increasing consistency across your infrastructure, migrating to the Microsoft cloud increases scalability and gives your business increased scalability and flexibility. This makes it especially useful if your business is growing or has fluctuating capacity needs. In addition, your security updates are extended during migration, meaning you get to protect your business data – and your brand reputation.
Unlock your workshop
Begin your migration to the Microsoft Cloud
To begin your migration to the Microsoft cloud, unlock your workshop to take part in Softcat’s Cloud Assessment. Our service uses industry-leading tools to analyse your existing IT environment, resulting in a tailored inventory review, including cost insights and suitability for life on the public cloud.
You will be involved at every step of the discovery and assessment journey. Following this you’ll receive a written report summarising our findings, supported with a follow-up a call with one of Softcat’s Public Cloud Specialists to discuss your next steps.
Unlock your workshop
Unlock your workshop
Enter your details below and we'll be in touch to discuss your Cloud assesment discovery workshop with Softcat. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26886 | Skip to main content
Mars Rover Opportunity Nears Nebulous Off-Planet Driving Record
Mars Rovers Celebrate 10 Years on Red Planet
(Image: © NASA/JPL)
NASA's Opportunity Mars rover is poised to break the distance record for off-planet driving, but any celebration of this exploration milestone will have to wait until scientists figure out exactly what the record is.
The all-time mark is held by the Soviet Union's remote-controlled Lunokhod 2 rover, which traveled about 23 miles (37 kilometers) on the moon back in 1973. Opportunity is breathing down Lunokhod 2's neck, having racked up 22.75 miles (36.61 km) on Mars since touching down in January 2004.
But it's unclear exactly how much farther Opportunity needs to go, because the old moon rover's mark is imprecise, scientists say. [Distances Driven on Other Worlds (Infographic)]
"They didn't really have any good orbital images in which to operate [Lunokhod 2], so their estimate, which has been published for many years, of 37 kilometers is highly uncertain," Opportunity principal investigator Steve Squyres of Cornell University told reporters today (June 7).
"We have enormous respect for what the Soviets managed to accomplish in 1973 with the technology of that day," Squyres added. "And so we would not want to claim to have beaten the record until we're really sure that we did it."
Scientists now have high-quality images of the moon taken by spacecraft such as NASA's Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, and some of these photos even show Lunokhod 2's tracks. So researchers could nail down the longstanding off-planet driving record if they wanted to, Squyres said.
A stereo pair of images from taken from Mars orbit were used to generate a digital elevation model that is the basis for this simulated perspective view of "Cape York," "Botany Bay," and "Solander Point" on the western rim of Endeavour Crater. The view is from the crater interior looking toward the southwest, and the vertical exaggeration is fivefold. (Image credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/UA/OSU)
But he and his fellow Opportunity team members have no plans to do this work themselves.
"We are just going to patiently wait until somebody, either in Russia or in the United States, comes up with a really well-calibrated number for how far Lunokhod actually drove, and then we'll see," Squyres said.
The Opportunity rover has been exploring the rim of 14-mile-wide (22 km) Endeavour Crater since August 2011. Last month, the robot departed from a site called Cape York, where it found evidence of a possibly habitable ancient environment, to head toward Solander Point, which lies 1.4 miles (2.2 km) away.
Mission scientists want Opportunity to investigate Solander's many layers of exposed geological material. The area also has a north-facing slope, which will allow Opportunity to point its electricity-generating solar panels toward the sun during the coming southern-hemisphere Martian winter, which peaks in February 2014.
Opportunity already holds the American record for off-planet driving, wresting it away last month from the Apollo 17 moon buggy, which NASA astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt drove 22.21 miles (35.74 km) across the lunar surface in December 1972.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26891 | WebEA | Enterprise Architect User Guide
Prev Next
Sparx System's WebEA is an application designed to display the data from Enterprise Architect models in a web browser, which means users can review and comment on a model in real time, on a range of mobile devices or a remote work station, without needing to install Enterprise Architect.
WebEA is a component of the Sparx Systems Pro Cloud Server, which is a separately-installed and licensed product, to complement Enterprise Architect. WebEA makes use of the PHP, HTML, CSS3 and javascript technologies and requires a web server (such as Apache or IIS) to host it. The topics of this chapter explain how to install and configure WebEA in detail, but if you are interested in getting started quickly see one of the WebEA Quick Start Guides for the necessary steps.
• Users of WebEA require a HTML5 / CSS3 compatible web browser
• The WebEA interface requires JavaScript to be enabled in the web browser
• A client's device will require network connectivity to the web server hosting WebEA
• Users of WebEA will require this information in order to connect to and log into a WebEA model:
- The complete URL; that is, machine name/IP number and optionally the port number and/or the
path to the WebEA files, depending on how the web server has been configured
- The name of the model to access
- (Optional) an access code necessary to open a model, if one has been configured
- (Optional) the user ID and password required to open a model, if user security has been applied
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26920 | IELTS General Training Writing Task Tips
IELTS has become the buzz words for students recently graduating. The abundance of opportunities available abroad has turned the education sector to almost a 360 degree. While there are ample numbers of institutes preparing students for the IELTS exam, it all reduces to how well a student can devote time to self study so as to ace the exam.
In this article, we shall tell you about some useful IELTS General Training Writing Task tips. Make sure you take a close look at the blog since these tips have been suggested by some of the well known experts in the field.
Before we begin, let us know about the pattern of the writing section.
There are 2 questions divided into 2 tasks which have to be completed within a time frame of 60 minutes.
In the first task, the test takers are required to respond to a particular situation by say, writing a letter or requesting information. In the second task, examinees are required to write an essay with respect to an argument or problem.
The tasks are marked on the basis of coherence, grammatical accuracy and overall comprehension of the question.
ielts writing tips
So here is the much awaited IELTS General Training Writing Task Tips:
1. Be precise in your approach:
Often, students get swayed with the question and tend to write much more than required. One of the keys to ace the IELTS writing section is to ensure brevity of thought and clarity in writing. This ensures that the examiner reads only what is relevant. This is being said with respect to the letter that is to be written in the first task. Make sure that you use bullets to explain your argument or situation. In the first paragraph, describe your situation. In the second paragraph, explain the kind of problems or issues that the question suggests and in the final paragraph, jot down the kind of solutions that you desire or wish to be offered. Your approach towards the question should be free from unnecessary arguments.
1. Formal or informal:
One of the biggest problem test takers face is deciding whether the letter to be written is formal or informal. Well, here is the tip if the question mentions the word ‘friend’, the letter is surely going to be informal. If the question asks you to write to any other person, it is a formal letter. This is the best way to decide the kind of letter that you are going to write. Remember, there is no third type of letter except these two. Follow this simple advice and you will never go wrong.
1. Salutations:
In order to write a good letter, apart from writing a good body, you also need to focus on salutations. There are a few set phrases that you can use in an informal letter. These are easily available in training manuals. Use them to enhance the structure of your letter. At the end, do not forget to write ‘Yours Sincerely’ or ‘Yours Faithfully’. Relevant details look all the more appealing along with the right kind of salutations. You may skip such formal salutations while writing an informal letter.
1. Word limit:
It is advisable that you write a minimum of 150 words in your letter. Writing less than this word limit can entail subtraction of marks. 150 words might sound a herculean job for those beginning with the test prep but as you progress, it will seem a small number to you. Here is another useful IELTS General Training Writing Task Tip- you will not lose marks if you write more, however, you need to gauge the time constraint and then formulate your decision accordingly.
1. Formulate your argument:
Talking about the second task of the IELTS exam, one great IELTS General Training Writing Task Tip is to formulate your argument before you start writing. Remember, perspectives may differ. There is never a correct stance; it is only how you conceive it is what defines your score. If you feel that a particular line of thought might fetch you better arguments, go ahead and write them down. Avoid detracting from the decided stance in the middle of the essay.
1. Use illustrations:
Illustrations are the best way to ensure that the paper checker stays hooked to your written piece. To give examples is not rocket science, given the type of topics on which you are supposed to write an essay. For instance, if the essay is about the use of smart phones, quote examples from your daily life such as the use of maps, sending emails or maybe sending texts to your loved ones at the click of a button. Examples should be short and precise. Don’t write long paragraphs containing mere examples. Well, use illustrations to only SUPPORT your argument.
1. Conclusions:
Conclusions shouldn’t be more than a couple of sentences long. Don’t spend too much time concluding your argument. Only alter keywords from the body of your essay rewrite it with a different style to form a conclusion. Reiterate your stance in the concluding lines to that the paper checker has a fair idea of how you maintained your stance on a particular topic.
1. Grammatical range and accuracy:
Here is the most important IELTS General Training Writing Task Tip- Use grammar wisely and use it with utmost care. Your grammar is what is going to make you win the game. In fact, grammar is one of the key criteria that are used to determine your test score. It is all about using the right kind of English. Invest in a good grammar book and read it often. The more you practice writing, the better you are going to be over time. In addition, we also suggest that you first write short and simple sentences before moving to long and complex ones.
1. Vocabulary:
Well, we are sure you must be tired of reading this tip probably all over the internet. Even though it sounds trite, a good vocabulary is always a savior. Avoid using the same words again and again in your writing. Use synonyms instead. In addition, we advise you to buy a thesaurus since it is an extremely handy tool to improve your vocabulary. For instance, use ‘decline’ instead of ‘falling’, ‘examine’ instead of ‘checking’, etc. a good writer always uses terms that beautify the presence of any written piece.
1. Revise your paper:
Isn’t it something you have been hearing since you started school? Isn’t it the best way to ensure success in an exam? It surely is! The best way to present an error free paper is to scan its contents once you have finished writing. You might find spelling errors or tense errors in the simplest of sentences. It occurs with all of us due to exam pressure. Correct these in time so you don’t lose precious marks.
Well, this was all about the best IELTS General Training Writing Task Tips. If you have any query or wish to share more such tips, feel free to contact the Studydekho team. We will be more than happy to accommodate your opinion. You can also take a tour of our website to grab useful tips about other courses as well.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26957 | Resource thumbnail
Published: 10/07/2017
KS4 | French | Grammar
13 pages
Using the present participle
A PowerPoint to introduce the meaning and formation of the present participle and worksheet with differentiated writing tasks on the topic of work experience. There is also a trapdoor speaking activity to embed the use of the past participle.
See other resources: Verbs and tenses | Work and future plans
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26969 | Tenafly Pediatrics
Symptom Definition
• Pain or discomfort of the scalp or forehead areas
• The face and ears are excluded
• Main cause: muscle tension headache or headache from fever
See More Appropriate Topic
Call 911 Now (your child may need an ambulance)
• Difficult to awaken
Call Your Doctor Now (night or day) If
• Your child looks or acts very sick
• Confused thinking or slurred speech
• Blurred or double vision
• Weakness or unsteady walking
• Stiff neck
• Severe headache with fever or vomiting
• You think your child needs to be seen
• Sore throat present > 24 hours
• Sinus pain or pressure of forehead
Call Your Doctor During Weekday Office Hours If
• You have other questions or concerns
• Headache present > 24 hours
• Headaches are a recurrent problem
Parent Care at Home If
• Mild headache and you don’t think your child needs to be seen
Home Care Advice for Mild Headaches
2. Food: Give fruit juice or food if your child is hungry or hasn’t eaten in > 4 hours.(Reason: skipping a meal can cause a headache in many children).
5. Stretching: Stretch and massage any tight neck muscles.
6. Call Your Doctor If
• Headache lasts > 24 hours despite using a pain medicine |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26978 | How to Overcome a Fear of Sales
It doesn't matter if you've been in sales for 20 years or 20 minutes, fear is a part of nearly every sales professional's career. While having a fear of sales may seem like a guaranteed way to fail in sales, many of the most successful in sales had the same fears that rookie sales reps and struggling professionals have. The only difference is that the top sales professionals have developed strategies to get beyond their fears.
Realize That You are Not Alone
Believing that you are the only one in a sales position, or even on your sales team, that is dealing with a fear of sales, is the same as believing that you are the only one who requires oxygen. Everyone in sales has varying degrees of fear associated with their job. For some, their fears revolve around not being good enough to close enough sales to reach their quotas. For others, their fears may surround how their customers may treat them. Still, others may be trying to overcome their fear of delivering presentations in front of people.
Be Honest About Your Fear
Psychologists will tell you that the first step in overcoming a challenge is to accept that the challenge exists. Denying that you have a fear about some part of your sales job is a great way to make sure that you either never overcome the fear or to create a long delay in your mastery of your fear.
Being honest with your clients is a key element of long-term success in sales and being honest with yourself is a key element of long-term self-fulfillment.
Admitting that you have fears does require putting your ego on the back burner. Being honest about the fact that you have fears may itself reveal to you how to overcome your fear.
Pick Your Fear Apart
There is a funny thing about fears: they usually appear much larger than they are. Most of us tend to over-inflate our fears to the point that we feel that we can never overcome them.
If you take the time to pick your fears apart, you'll most likely begin to see that your fear that at one time seemed too intense to overcome, is much smaller than you thought.
Many times, your "base fear" has a host of "associated fears" that exist in your mind only because of the "base fear." These associated fears were created over time and usually serve to justify your base fear to yourself. If you start to take an honest look at these associated fears, you probably will begin to feel that these aren't areas of fear for you.
Strip away enough of these associated fears, and the base fear won't seem as intimidating anymore.
Do What You Fear
This cliche is based on a fundamental truth: when you do something that you are afraid of doing, you prove to yourself that you can overcome something and that your fear is, most likely, a thing totally in your mind.
The two most commonly faced fears in sales are the fear of rejection and the fear of public speaking. In sales, rejection is extraordinarily rare. You may question this statement considering that many sales cycles end in a lost sale. To many, not closing a sale means rejection. The truth is that losing a sale means that the customer chose a different solution but losing a sale does not mean that they did not choose you. Furthermore, not getting an appointment, a sale, a referral or even a promotion, seldom means you were rejected: it only means that you weren't chosen. The difference is tremendous.
As for public speaking, there are hundreds of resources to help you overcome your fear. The best approach is taking the "baby step" approach. It means to deliberately put yourself in a situation where you know you will have to speak in front of others. However, set up your presentations with slowly growing audiences. Start with 2 or 3 and, when you feel comfortable, expand your audience to 5 or 6. Before long, you'll be comfortable presenting in front of an auditorium full of customers who will never reject you! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/26992 | Words containing glbr
Found 1 words containing glbr. Browse our Scrabble Word Finder, Words With Friends cheat dictionary, and WordHub word solver to find words that contain glbr. Or use our Unscramble word solver to find your best possible play! Related: Words that start with glbr
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27021 | The Night in My Hair: Henna, Syria, and the Muslim Ban
Arts & Culture
The first time my mother spread a warm, moss-colored pudding of henna on my hair, it was because my father had some left over from dying his own. Henna, a powdered herb that comes from the plant Lawsonia inermis, has been used in the Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia to color and condition hair for thousands of years. Many religious groups—including Muslims, Jews, Sikhs, Christians, Hindus, and Zoroastrians—also use henna for body art, particularly for weddings, in regions where henna is traditionally grown. Muslims decorate their hands and feet with henna for Eid and other celebrations. Henna leaves a reddish tint to skin and to dark hair like mine, imparting subtle red highlights mostly visible only in the sun. Henna stains lighter hair a fiery orange red.
Indigo, on the other hand, produces a blue-green dye you’re familiar with if you’ve ever washed a cheap pair of dark jeans and hung them to drip-dry over a shower rod. Indigo requires henna’s orange-red dye molecules, called lawsone, to bind to the hair shaft. When henna is followed by indigo in a two-step process, the hair is dyed dark and glossy, the color ranging from a rich chocolate to a deep, warm black.
My father had black hair in all except one spot—a long cleft of white hair, as though carved by a knife. For as long as I can remember, my father used henna and indigo to cover his grays, but even henna couldn’t cover this white streak. When I was a kid, that streak was the stuff of legend. It was said that my dad had acquired it when his father passed away. He was barely twelve years old then. My grandmother Zeynab struggled to support my father and his siblings after her husband’s death. The family stories about her are fabled, too: that she once sat on a governor’s lawn until he granted her her late husband’s pension, that she rented out part of her house sixty years before Airbnb, that she owned a profitable fleet of carriages to support herself and her children. I love the stories too much to care whether they’ve been embellished over the years, though knowing what I know about my grandmother Zeynab, I wouldn’t be surprised if they were all true.
As a child, my father worked after school painting murals on the sides of movie theaters. He was a talented painter. There’s a photo of him leaning against the side of one of the theaters he painted, arms crossed, a twenty-foot-tall James Dean and his pompadour behind him, the side of my father’s face turned away from the camera so that his white streak isn’t visible. In postcolonial Syria, where learning French was mandatory in schools and Western fashions were already glorified as expressions of urbanity and culture, American culture had begun to export itself as well.
My father came to New York City to work in publishing when he’d completed his art degree in Rome. Long before I was born, he ran an art gallery out of his apartment on the Upper East Side.
My father, an accomplished painter by then, fit all the deeply flawed but pervasive American immigrant narratives. He worked hard, pulled himself up by his bootstraps, and struggled through immense difficulty to give his children a better life than he’d had. I know he was proud of that.
Yet as I massage my scalp under the faucet in the bathtub, I am aware that I was born a citizen of the country in which my father became a citizen, that I am less than three hundred miles from the spot where his casket lies buried in Connecticut, and that my country has enacted a ban on immigrants and refugees from Syria. I am rinsing henna and indigo out of my hair in the country that just launched fifty Tomahawk missiles toward the country where my father’s hair turned white, the country where children who look like me are dying while America refuses to take them in.
On the news, a white reporter describes the size of a Tomahawk missile, and her voice rises as she speaks. She likens the missiles to flying telephone poles, powerful and erect, and tells the audience it will take just a half hour for the missiles to reach the air base in Syria. It all sounds very phallic to me. Her jeweled earrings dance and dangle when she nods her head. The news cuts to video of the missiles streaking orange through the night sky, the clouds blistering in their wake.
This is the American response many have prayed for in the last few years, and still, this is war pornography.
It’s only three or four in the morning in Syria now. The Pennsylvania dark outside my apartment window conjures the faces of my sleeping cousins.
You will ask me what the United States should have done differently. I am not a politician. I am a writer. Some people will say that these are targeted strikes, and yet US-led airstrikes have killed hundreds of civilians in Syria over the last few years. Others will say that our government is shutting out only those who are dangerous, and yet I know that in this country where I was born, people who look like me are always presumed dangerous.
In several weeks, I will be able to tell you that the air strikes accomplished very little. For now, the reporter laments the suffering of Syrian children, and I cannot help but remember the way those same children, because they are Muslim, are painted as potential terrorists and denied entry to this country. Months from now, I will remember my ex-father-in-law justifying this, saying that people like me can never truly “assimilate,” as though becoming like him—white, male, Christian, affluent—were the single definition of what it meant to be American.
With my head in my hands, everything takes on the smell of henna, slightly grassy, like the spilled contents of a green tea bag. I steady my breathing and ground myself in the scent of my childhood, and I remember the gloss of sunlight across my father’s black hair.
I dyed my hair red between college and grad school. My hair was too dark to turn bright red with henna, so I used a box of chemical dye I bought from the Rite Aid where I worked at the time. I figured I wasn’t white-passing enough to pick a red-red, so I went with more of an auburn color.
I lived in a tiny apartment above a real-estate office then, and I’d never used an artificial dye. I was used to a musky preparation of herbs and warm water that smelled like frozen peas rather than bleach, one you could rinse off porcelain without leaving a stain. The way the chemical dye threatened to spatter the bathtub with blood terrified me.
I told myself my red dye job was my way of being different, but in hindsight I was making myself different in a way my white friends would understand, trying to separate myself from my brownness. The cheap dye, supposedly meant to condition my hair, left it like straw instead. For months my damaged curls turned frizzy; the ends snapped and split. Knots of reddish hair fell out in the shower. I exchanged one bad relationship for another; I started grad school to pursue a profession I would enthusiastically leave six years later; I moved into a garret apartment in a new city, alone with my cat. I looked whiter with my auburn hair, but my curls—and my heart—were the most wounded they’d ever been.
My mom used to tell me this story about how my dad once went swimming in a pool after treating his hair with henna and indigo. His hair turned green. Pool chemicals have been known to strip henna from the hair shaft and leave behind just the blue-green indigo molecules, which don’t let go as easily. My mom used to say my dad had to go back to the apartment and hide. I understood without being able to put it into words that his hair had outed him. Henna and indigo marked him as an immigrant who used traditional herbs. For better or worse, I understood: henna and indigo marked my father as brown.
I hated my auburn hair as soon as I dyed it. I looked like a watered-down version of myself. When the summer was over, when the sun and chlorine started to fade the color, I dyed my hair dark again with semipermanent black hair dye. Ppd, a toxic chemical sometimes found in false “black henna,” was a quicker fix than the henna and indigo of my childhood. Over the next couple months, the stark jet chemical dye softened to my natural warm brown black. It was a relief to see myself in the mirror again.
My sister had experimented with dye jobs of her own throughout high school: streaks of red. Ash blonde. Platinum. Unlike me, hair dye never helped my sister pass for white. The half shade of difference in our skin tones in the winter was enough for our 92 percent white Gold Coast suburb to presume we had different fathers. They discriminated accordingly.
Still, even my seasonal passing was fleeting. The minute I pronounced my name, brows would furrow: What kind of last name is that? Where are you from? Where are you from from? New York wasn’t the answer they wanted to hear, and I knew it, but if they wanted to know where my father was born, they were going to have to hear themselves ask.
I never used chemical dyes again. My sister now leaves her hair dark, too. These days, with both our hair back to its natural near black and our medium-olive skin, there are times I look at my sister’s selfies and wonder what it was white people saw in us that made us look so different from each other. Often I think to myself: we could be twins.
Some of the best quality henna grows in India and Pakistan. I like to imagine I can smell the earth it was grown in when I slit open the clear plastic bags, a musty scent like turned topsoil after a soaking rain. My childhood was very difficult, but the smell brings me back to the few good parts. My mom would gloss my sister’s hair and mine with my dad’s leftover henna, and it would leave our hair shiny and smooth, even my stubborn curls and ringlets.
I love the way henna forces me to sit and relax with a cup of tea for a few hours, my hair piled on top of my head and bound with plastic wrap. I love that first rinse under the faucet when the rust-red henna blooms in the tub like river mud. I love that final quick mix of the indigo that oxidizes from emerald to night blue, the slip of the deep conditioner during that last rinse, the twilit indigo running down the backs of my legs under the shower.
Treating my hair reconnects me with my body and with my ancestors even as the country in which my father is buried hurtles fifty streaks of orange-red flame toward his homeland. The country in which I was born refuses to welcome children from the country that bore him, children with the same dark hair as mine. How unwelcome does that make me?
The day my father died, his black hair had gone gray and thin. Chemotherapy had hollowed him out. He’d been almost fifty when my mother had me, and he was fifty-six when he died, but he looked eighty. I have his eyes and his chin. I also have his hair, thick and dark.
In the days following the election, I passed countless white people in my rural Pennsylvania town who saw my dark hair, dark eyes, and olive skin and glared hatred at me. As I write this, it has been five months since the missiles were launched. A Supreme Court judge has upheld the ban on travelers to the U.S. from six Muslim majority nations including Syria. As I write this, I am in the midst of a divorce, but the rejection I’ve endured from my country stings far more. The stress of grief has thinned my curls; over the last few months, my hair has fallen out in clumps.
The Arabs I know readily locate sadness in the body. We Arabs know the ways that grief and exile manifest themselves in our chests and our bellies and our mouths.
Over the course of this year, my hair has become so damaged that I will chop most of it off. I will keep the healthy growth of my new life and sport a pixie cut again, the first time I will have done so since I came out of the closet my senior year of high school. But before the big chop, my last ditch effort to save my hair will be henna and indigo, followed by massaging coconut oil and jasmine into my locks. And the henna and indigo will stop my hair from falling out. Though it is impossible to hide the effects of grief, they will make it thicker and shinier. It is the first time I’ve treated my hair since that night that one of my countries bombed the other. This time I am doing it in another apartment, another town, another state. I am doing it alone.
But I am not alone. I think of my father and my grandmother and my cousins. Despite what is happening in my country, despite the white people who claimed to love me and yet told me to my face that people like me—Syrian, Arab, Muslim—can never be American, I am here. Grief and exile and oppression: these are things communities of color, particularly black and indigenous communities, have survived in this country since its inception. They are things my ancestors survived, too. Halfway across the world, there are people I love and who love me, people whose hair and eyes I share, people whose faces are in mine. We know how to survive, how to massage green earth into our hair, how to honor our ancestors in ourselves. No matter how many times America refuses to open its borders, my loved ones are with me. Syria is with me. I need only touch the night in my hair and remember.
Jennifer Zeynab Joukhadar is the author of the forthcoming novel The Map of Salt and Stars (May 2018). Her work has appeared in The Kenyon Review, The Saturday Evening Post, PANK Magazine, and elsewhere. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27039 | Stránka:book 1913.djvu/430
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4o8 The Book of Woodcraft bugle, a bird's nest, a spring bonnet or an Indian club, is likely to be wholesome, we may follow the suggestions of the authors already cited (p. xxxii), as follows: "There is but one way to determine the edibility of a species. If it looks and smells inviting, and its species can- not be determined, taste a very small piece. Do not swal- low it. Note the eflect on the tongue and mouth. But many species, delicious when cooked, are not inviting raw. Cook a small piece; do not season it. Taste again; if agreeable eat it (unless it is an Amanita). After several hours, no unpleasant effect arising, cook a larger piece, and increase the quantity until fully satisfied as to its qualities. Never vary from this system, no matter how much tempted. No possible danger can arise from adher- ing firmly to It." Safety lies in the strict observance of two rules : "Never eat a toadstool found in the woods or shady places, believing it to be the common mushroom : Never eat a white — or yellow-glUed toadstool In the same be- lief. The common mushroom does not grow in the woods, and its gills are at first pink, then purplish brown, or black." Also there are many mushrooms of the Genus Boletus that are like ordinary mushrooms of various pale and bright colors, but instead of gills they have tubes under- neath. Some are eatable, some are dangerous. Avoid all that change color as being wounded or that have red- mouthed tubes or that taste peppery or acrid. "There is no general rule by which one may know an edible species from a poisonous species. One must learn to know each kind by its appearance, and the edibility of each kind by experiment," says Nina L. Marshall in the "Mushroom Book" (page 151), and gives the following: |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27045 | Azure Stack
May 2018
Cloud computing brings significant benefits over self-hosted virtualized solutions but sometimes data simply cannot leave an organization’s premises, usually for latency or regulatory reasons. For European companies, the current political climate also raises more concerns about placing data in the hands of US-based entities. With Azure Stack, Microsoft adds an interesting offering as a middle ground between full-featured public clouds and simple on-premises virtualization: a slimmed-down version of the software that runs Microsoft’s Azure Global cloud is combined with a rack of preconfigured commodity hardware from the usual suspects like HP and Lenovo, providing an organization with the core Azure experience on premises. By default, support is split between Microsoft and the hardware vendors (and they promise to cooperate), but system integrators can offer complete Azure Stack solutions, too. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27054 | RED Brick Software Infrastructure
In the past we only wrote about the hardware of the RED Brick. Today we want to discuss the software infrastructure of the RED Brick.
Attention: This article discusses the technical details of the software of the RED Brick. This detailed background knowledge is not necessary to use the RED Brick in its final stage!
The following graphical overview shows the currently planned software infrastructure. This infrastructure will be explained in this blog post.
The colors in the graphic have the following meaning:
• Blue: Tinkerforge software components
• Green: Tinkerforge hardware in the Stack of the RED Brick
• Purple: Tinkerforge hardware externally connected
• Orange: External software components
The stack, as well as Mini USB and USB A, are shown as the interface between the RED Brick and the environment in the graphic.
The Mini USB connection is used to provide a composite USB gadget driver with two USB classes: The first class is a serial port. It can be used to get easy shell access to the RED Brick. The second class is the Brick API. A PC will see a RED Brick that is connected through USB the same way as any other Brick. The RED Brick has an API like other Bricks and Bricklets. With this API the RED Brick can be configured. The configuration consists of the transfer of the user program, configurations for the program execution (programm is started once, every hour, on startup, etc.), as well as other configurations. Thus the RED Brick can be seen as a black box that controls Bricks and Bricklets with high level languages.
Over the stack connectors it is possible to use all Bricks as well as the Ethernet Extension and RS485 Extension with the RED Brick. For the Ethernet Extension we have to write a driver. This driver will show the Ethernet Extension as a normal Ethernet interface in the linux system (eth0).
With the USB A connector you can use any USB devices (mouse, keyboard, WIFI stick) and of course also other Tinkerforge hardware.
All of these connections can be used at the same time. A RED Brick stack that is connected to a PC via Mini USB, uses Bricks and Bricklets, uses more Bricks and Bricklets through the RS485 Extension, is connected to the Internet through the Ethernet Extension and has other devices connected over USB A is possible without problems.
In the following we will introduce the components that are necessary for this system:
Linux distribution
The Linux distribution of the RED Brick is based on Debian. It is already making very good progress. The Linux kernel configurations that are necessary for the components (RAM, power supply) and the interfaces (USB Mini/A, HDMI, SD card, SPI/I2C/UART in the stack, GPIO, LEDs, etc.) are done. All of the Tinkerforge Bindings and the necessary compilers and interpreters are preinstalled in the distribution. Additionally the most important libraries for all of the supported languages are preinstalled, this allows the development of more complex applications.
Further more it possible to create two images:
• Full image: This image makes all possible functions of the RED Brick available, including the graphics driver for OpenGL and graphical output via HDMI.
• Fast image: This image is designed for maximum speed. For example the GPU is turned off in this image, which reduces the boot time significantly.
With the full image the RED Brick acts as a PC replacement. With the fast image the RED Brick is more of a substitute for the Master Brick that has an OnDevice API for C/C++, C#, Delphi/Lazarus, Java, JavaScript, MATLAB/Octave, Perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, Shell and Visual Basic .NET.
Status: 100%
SPI stack communication
The communication between Bricks in the stack is done over SPI. The currently used protocol, which is used between Bricks, is made for the SAM3S4 processor that is used by the Bricks. This protocol is very efficient, but it would bring the Linux system on the RED Brick to its knees. The solution for this problem is to use DMA, the processor is not burdened by the communication if DMA is used. The protocol that is currently used is not compatible to DMA. Thus we have to design a new SPI protocol that is compatible to the DMA controller of the SAM3S4 processor as well as the A10S processor that is used on the RED Brick. This protocol then has to be implemented on the RED Brick as well as all of the other Bricks.
Status: 25%
The new protocol is completely laid out and the implementation for the SPI slaves is finished. Currently we are implementing the SPI master driver for the RED Brick. It looks like we will be able to use /dev/spidev, which simplifies the development since it can be done completely in the Brick Daemon. If we get performance problems we can easily transfer the relevant parts directly into the Linux kernel.
RED Brick API Daemon
The RED Brick API Daemon is a daemon that implements the API of the RED Brick. That means it implements the configuration that can be done over Mini USB.
Status: 25%
The most important components of the API are laid out and the necessary infrastructure (communication with Brick Daemon etc) is implemented.
Composite USB Gadget Driver
The composite USB gadget driver makes two interfaces available over Mini USB. Through this driver the RED Brick is seen as a “normal Brick” on the PC. It is however possible to get shell access to the Linux on the RED Brick at the same time.
Status: 100%
The driver is ready and functional.
User Interface
The goal is to be able to configure the RED Brick with the Brick Viewer. The API of the RED Brick only needs to be used by “power users”. The “normal user” can use the Brick Viewer to transfer his program to the RED Brick.
Status: 0%
The implementation of the user interface has not yet started.
Ethernet driver (W5200)
The Ethernet Extension uses the WIZnet W5200 IC for Ethernet communication. There is unfortunately currently no Linux kernel driver available for this IC. But there are drivers available for the very similar W5100 and W5300, which will simplify the implementation of the driver greatly.
Status: 0%
The implementation of the Ethernet driver has not yet started.
RS485 Extension support
Support for the RS485 Extension has currently a low priority. We will start with the implementation after the RED Brick is officially released. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27090 | Man'yōshū
Thu . 20 Jan 2020
TR | RU | UK | KK | BE |
man'yōshū, man'yōshū and kaifūsō
The Man'yōshū 万葉集, literally "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves", but see Name below is the oldest existing collection of Japanese poetry, compiled sometime after 759 AD during the Nara period The anthology is one of the most revered of Japan's poetic compilations The compiler, or the last in a series of compilers, is today widely believed to be Ōtomo no Yakamochi, although numerous other theories have been proposed The last datable poem in the collection is from AD 759 #45161 It contains many poems from much earlier, many of them anonymous or misattributed usually to well-known poets, but the bulk of the collection represents the period between AD 600 and 759 The precise significance of the title is not known with certainty
The collection is divided into twenty parts or books; this number was followed in most later collections The collection contains 265 chōka long poems, 4,207 tanka short poems, one tan-renga short connecting poem, one bussokusekika poems on the Buddha's footprints at Yakushi-ji in Nara, four kanshi Chinese poems, and 22 Chinese prose passages Unlike later collections, such as the Kokin Wakashū, there is no preface
The Man'yōshū is widely regarded as being a particularly unique Japanese work This does not mean that the poems and passages of the collection differed starkly from the scholarly standard in Yakamochi's time of Chinese literature and poetics Certainly many entries of the Man'yōshū have a continental tone, earlier poems having Confucian or Taoist themes and later poems reflecting on Buddhist teachings Yet, the Man'yōshū is singular, even in comparison with later works, in choosing primarily Ancient Japanese themes, extolling Shintō virtues of forthrightness 真, makoto and virility masuraoburi In addition, the language of many entries of the Man'yōshū exerts a powerful sentimental appeal to readers:
This early collection has something of the freshness of dawn There are irregularities not tolerated later, such as hypometric lines; there are evocative place names and makurakotoba; and there are evocative exclamations such as kamo, whose appeal is genuine even if incommunicable In other words, the collection contains the appeal of an art at its pristine source with a romantic sense of venerable age and therefore of an ideal order since lost2
• 1 Name
• 2 Periodization
• 3 Linguistic significance
• 4 Translations
• 5 Mokkan
• 6 Others
• 7 See also
• 8 References
• 9 Bibliography and further reading
• 10 External links
Although the name Man'yōshū literally means "Collection of Ten Thousand Leaves" or "Collection of Myriad Leaves", it has been interpreted variously by scholars3 Sengaku, Kamo no Mabuchi and Kada no Azumamaro considered the character 葉 yō to represent koto no ha words, and so give the meaning of the title as "collection of countless words" Keichū and Kamochi Masazumi 鹿持雅澄 took the middle character to refer to an "era", thus giving "a collection to last ten thousand ages" The kanbun scholar Okada Masayuki 岡田正之 considered 葉 yō to be a metaphor comparing the massive collection of poems to the leaves on a tree Another theory is that the name refers to the large number of pages used in the collection
The collection is customarily divided into four periods The earliest dates to prehistoric or legendary pasts, from the time of Emperor Yūryaku r456–479 to those of the little documented Emperor Yōmei r585–587, Saimei r594–661, and finally Tenji r668–671 during the Taika Reforms and the time of Fujiwara no Kamatari 614–669 The second period covers the end of the seventh century, coinciding with the popularity of Kakinomoto no Hitomaro, one of Japan's greatest poets The third period spans 700–c730 and covers the works of such poets as Yamabe no Akahito, Ōtomo no Tabito and Yamanoue no Okura The fourth period spans 730–760 and includes the work of the last great poet of this collection, the compiler Ōtomo no Yakamochi himself, who not only wrote many original poems but also edited, updated and refashioned an unknown number of ancient poems
Linguistic significanceedit
In addition to its artistic merits the Man'yōshū is important for using one of the earliest Japanese writing systems, the cumbersome man'yōgana Though it was not the first use of this writing system, which was also used in the earlier Kojiki 712, it was influential enough to give the writing system its name: "the kana of the Man'yōshū" This system uses Chinese characters in a variety of functions: their usual logographic sense; to represent Japanese syllables phonetically; and sometimes in a combination of these functions The use of Chinese characters to represent Japanese syllables was in fact the genesis of the modern syllabic kana writing systems, being simplified forms hiragana or fragments katakana of the man'yōgana
Julius Klaproth produced some early, severely flawed translations of Man'yōshū poetry Donald Keene explained in a preface to the Nihon Gakujutsu Shinkō Kai edition of the Man'yōshū:
"One 'envoy' hanka to a long poem was translated as early as 1834 by the celebrated German orientalist Heinrich Julius Klaproth 1783–1835 Klaproth, having journeyed to Siberia in pursuit of strange languages, encountered some Japanese castaways, fisherman, hardly ideal mentors for the study of 8th century poetry Not surprisingly, his translation was anything but accurate"6
A total of three wooden fragments known as mokkan 木簡 containing text from the Man'yōshū have been excavated:891011
• From the archaeological site in Kizugawa, Kyoto A 234 cm long, 24 cm wide, 12 cm deep fragment Dated between 750 and 780, it contains the first eleven characters of poem #2205 volume 10 written in Man'yōgana Inspection with an infrared camera indicates other characters suggesting that it was used for writing practice
• From the Miyamachi archaeological site in Kōka, Shiga A 2 cm wide, 1 mm deep fragment was discovered in 1997 and is dated to mid 8th century It contains poem #3807 volume 16
• From the Ishigami archaeological site in Asuka, Nara A 91 cm long, 55 cm wide, 6 mm deep fragment was found Dated to the late 7th century, it is the oldest of the known Man'yōshū fragments It contains the first 14 characters of poem #1391 volume 7 written in Man'yōgana
More than 150 species of grasses and trees are included in 1500 entries of Man'yōshū More than 30 of the species are found at the Man'yō Botanical Garden 万葉植物園, Manyō shokubutsu-en in Japan, collectively placing them with the name and associated tanka for visitors to read and observe, reminding them of the ancient time in which the references were made The first Manyo shokubutsu-en opened in Kasuga Shrine in 19321213
See alsoedit
• Kotodama
• Umi Yukaba
1. ^ Satake 2004: 555
2. ^ Earl Miner; Hiroko Odagiri; Robert E Morrell 1985 The Princeton Companion to Classical Japanese Literature Princeton University Press pp 170–171 ISBN 0-691-06599-3
3. ^ Uemura, Etsuko 1981 24th edition, 2010 Man'yōshū-nyūmon p17 Tokyo: Kōdansha Gakujutsu Bunko
4. ^ Uemura 1981:17
5. ^ Uemura 1981:25–26
6. ^ Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkōkai 1965 The Man'yōshū, p iii
7. ^ Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkōkai, p ii
8. ^ "７世紀の木簡に万葉の歌 奈良・石神遺跡、６０年更新" Asahi 2008-10-17 Archived from the original on October 20, 2008 Retrieved 2008-10-31
9. ^ "万葉集：３例目、万葉歌木簡 編さん期と一致－－京都の遺跡・８世紀後半" Mainichi 2008-10-23 Retrieved 2008-10-31 dead link
10. ^ "万葉集：万葉歌、最古の木簡 ７世紀後半－－奈良・石神遺跡" Mainichi 2008-10-18 Archived from the original on October 20, 2008 Retrieved 2008-10-31
11. ^ "万葉集：和歌刻んだ最古の木簡出土 奈良・明日香" Asahi 2008-10-17 Retrieved 2008-10-31 dead link
12. ^ "Manyo Shokubutsu-en萬葉集に詠まれた植物を植栽する植物園" in Japanese Nara: Kasuga Shrine Archived from the original on 2009-08-05 Retrieved 2009-08-05
13. ^ "Man'y Botanical garden萬葉植物園" PDF in Japanese Nara: Kasuga Shrine Archived from the original PDF on 2009-08-05 Retrieved 2009-08-05
Bibliography and further readingedit
texts and translations
• "Online edition of the Man'yōshū" in Japanese University of Virginia Library Japanese Text Initiative Retrieved 2006-07-10 External link in |publisher= help
• Cranston, Edwin A 1993 A Waka Anthology: Volume One: The Gem-Glistening Cup Stanford University Press ISBN 0-8047-3157-8
• Kodansha 1983 "Man'yoshu" Kodansha Encyclopedia of Japan Kodansha
• Honda, H H tr 1967 The Manyoshu: A New and Complete Translation The Hokuseido Press, Tokyo
• Levy, Ian Hideo 1987 The Ten Thousand Leaves: A Translation of the Man'yoshu Japan's Premier Anthology of Classical Poetry, Volume One Princeton University Press ISBN 0-691-00029-8
• Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai 2005 1000 Poems From The Manyoshu: The Complete Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai Translation Dover Publications ISBN 0-486-43959-3
• Suga, Teruo 1991 The Man'yo-shu : a complete English translation in 5–7 rhythm Japan's Premier Anthology of Classical Poetry, Volume One Tokyo: Kanda Educational Foundation, Kanda Institute of Foreign Languages ISBN 4-483-00140-X , Kanda University of International Studies, Chiba City
• Nakanishi, Susumu 1985 Man'yōshū Jiten in Japanese Tōkyō: Kōdansha ISBN 4-06-183651-X
• Satake, Akihiro; Hideo Yamada; Rikio Kudō; Masao Ōtani; Yoshiyuki Yamazaki 2004 Shin Nihon Koten Bungaku Taikei, Bekkan: Man'yōshū Sakuin in Japanese Tōkyō: Iwanami Shoten ISBN 4-00-240105-7
External linksedit
• Man'yōshū – from the University of Virginia Japanese Text Initiative website
• Manuscript scans at Waseda University Library: 1709, 1858, unknown
• Man'yoshu - Columbia University Press, Nippon Gakujutsu Shinkokai translation 1940, 1965
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27133 | Flood Insurance in Massachusetts: How Much it Costs and When You Need Coverage
Find Cheap Homeowners Insurance Quotes in Your Area
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In Massachusetts, the average flood insurance premium is $1,251 per year. This average accounts for all federally-sponsored flood insurance policies active in the Bay State. If your house is located in one of the Special Flood Hazard Areas identified by the Federal Emergency Management Agency's (FEMA) flood mapping system, then your mortgage lender may require you to purchase flood insurance coverage.
Average cost of flood insurance in Massachusetts
Bay Staters with flood insurance pay an average cost of $1,251 per year for about $260,000 in coverage. However,National Flood Insurance Program (NFIP) rates are based on whether your property is in a high-risk flood zone as defined by FEMA. This means that your NFIP flood insurance quote could be much higher or lower than the state's overall average.
As an example, consider the difference in average flood insurance premiums between Boston and Brockton. In both cities, the average coverage amount is close to $275,000. However, Bostonians pay an average annual cost that's less than half of what homeowners in Brockton must pay. This is due to insurers calculating a higher risk of flood damage in Brockton as opposed to Boston. The table below lists the differences in flood insurance costs and coverage limits in major Massachusetts cities.
CityPolicies in forceAverage coverage amountAverage premium
New Bedford280$322,835$1,436
Fall River92$313,011$2,297
Note that these numbers apply to NFIP-sponsored flood insurance. Federal law regulates the cost of flood insurance that's backed by the NFIP, which means that you'll see the same rates regardless of which insurer or agent is providing the quote. If you aren't satisfied with the cost of NFIP insurance or happen not to qualify for federally-backed coverage, you'll have to look for a private insurer that sponsors its own flood policies.
When is flood insurance required in Massachusetts?
Massachusetts state law doesn't require flood insurance coverage, but mortgage lenders often do so in order to limit their own risk. Flood insurance often becomes a mortgage borrower's required coverage if your property is located within a Special Flood Hazard Area (SFHA) as described on FEMA's flood insurance rate map for your neighborhood. SFHAs are more likely to flood due to low elevation or proximity to open water.
FEMA updates its rate maps as new data become available on a rolling basis, so even existing homeowners are sometimes placed into new SFHAs and required to buy flood insurance for the first time. If you believe that your property doesn't belong in a newly created SFHA, you and your mortgage lender can jointly file a Letter of Determination Review (LODR) with FEMA. The agency will take up to 45 days to decide whether your home has been zoned correctly.
Even if FEMA revises its zoning at your request, your mortgage lender may still exercise its right to require flood insurance as a condition of your loan.
Flood insurance companies in Massachusetts
Insurance companies offer flood insurance in two forms. Most of the time, they act as participants in the NFIP, which means that they sell and service federal flood insurance but do not set rates, profit from premiums, or pay claims from their own money. Less commonly, private insurers will sponsor and sell their own flood insurance policies. These private policies can sometimes cost less than an NFIP policy, particularly if you face special circumstances such as being recently re-zoned.
Most insurance companies and agents can help you get started in finding an NFIP flood insurance policy, but private coverage may be harder to find. One place to start looking is with surplus line insurance companies. These are companies that provide specialized coverage above and beyond what normal home insurance firms can provide. Below, we've provided a list of insurers licensed to sell surplus line insurance in Massachusetts.
• AIX Specialty Insurance
• Coverys Specialty Insurance
• Ironshore Specialty Insurance
• Lexington Insurance
• Liberty Surplus Insurance
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27208 | Type the phrase "In 2019, I'll ..." and let your smartphone's keyboard predict the rest. Depending on what else you've typed recently, you might end up with a result like one of these:
In 2019, I'll let it be a surprise to be honest.
In 2019, i'll be alone.
In 2019, I'll be in the memes of the moment.
In 2019, I’ll have to go to get the dog.
In 2019 I will rule over the seven kingdoms or my name is not Aegon Targareon [sic].
Many variants on the predictive text meme—which works for both Android and iOS—can be found on social media. Not interested in predicting your 2019? Try writing your villain origin story by following your phone's suggestions after typing "Foolish heroes! My true plan is …" Test the strength of your personal brand with "You should follow me on Twitter because …" Or launch your political career with "I am running for president with my running mate, @[3rd Twitter Suggestion], because we …"
Gretchen McCulloch is WIRED's resident linguist. She's the cocreator of Lingthusiasm, a podcast that's enthusiastic about linguistics, and her book Because Internet: Understanding the New Rules of Language is coming out in July 2019 from Penguin.
In eight years, we've gone from Damn You Autocorrect to treating the strip of three predicted words as a sort of wacky but charming oracle. But when we try to practice divination by algorithm, we're doing something more than killing a few minutes—we're exploring the limits of what our devices can and cannot do.
Your phone's keyboard comes with a basic list of words and sequences of words. That's what powers the basic language features: autocorrect, where a sequence like "rhe" changes to "the" after you type it, and the suggestion strip just above the letters, which contains both completions (if you type "keyb" it might suggest "keyboard") and next-word predictions (if you type "predictive" it might suggest "text," "value," and "analytics"). It's this predictions feature that we use to generate amusing and slightly nonsensical strings of text—a function that goes beyond its intended purpose of supplying us with a word or two before we go back to tapping them out letter by letter.
The basic reason we get different results is that, as you use your phone, words or sequences of words that you type get added to your personal word list. "For most users, the on-device dictionary ends up containing local place-names, songs they like, and so on," says Daan van Esch, a technical program manager of Gboard, Google's keyboard for Android. Or, in the case of the "Aegon Targareon" example, slightly misspelled Game of Thrones characters.
Another factor that helps us get unique results is a slight bias toward predicting less frequent words. "Suggesting a very common word like 'and' might be less helpful because it's short and easy to type," van Esch says. "So maybe showing a longer word is actually more useful, even if it's less frequent." Of course, a longer word is probably going to be more interesting as meme fodder.
Finally, phones seem to choose different paths from the very beginning. Why are some people getting "I'll be" while others get "I'll have" or "I'll let"? That part is probably not very exciting: The default Android keyboard presumably has slightly different predictions than the default iPhone keyboard, and third-party apps would also have slightly different predictions.
Whatever their provenance, the random juxtaposition of predictive text memes has become fodder for a growing genre of AI humor. Botnik Studios writes goofy songs using souped-up predictive keyboards and a lot of human tweaking. The blog AI Weirdness trains neural nets to do all sorts of ridiculous tasks, such as deciding whether a string of words is more likely to be a name from My Little Pony or a metal band. Darth Vader? 19 percent metal, 81 percent pony. Leia Organa? 96 percent metal, 4 percent pony. (I'm suddenly interpreting Star Wars in quite a new light.)
The combination of the customization and the randomness of the predictive text meme is compelling the way a BuzzFeed quiz or a horoscope is compelling—it gives you a tiny amount of insight into yourself to share, but not so much that you're baring your soul. It's also hard to get a truly terrible answer. In both cases, that's by design.
You know how when you get a new phone and you have to teach it that, no, you aren't trying to type "duck" and "ducking" all the time? Your keyboard deliberately errs on the conservative side. There are certain words that it just won't try to complete, even if you get really close. After all, it's better to accidentally send the word "public" when you meant "pubic" than the other way around.
This goes for sequences of words as well. Just because a sequence is common doesn't mean it's a good idea to predict it. "For a while, when you typed 'I'm going to my Grandma's,' GBoard would actually suggest 'funeral,'" van Esch says. "It's not wrong, per se. Maybe this is more common than 'my Grandma's rave party.' But at the same time, it's not something that you want to be reminded about. So it's better to be a bit careful."
Users seem to prefer this discretion. Keyboards get roundly criticized when a sexual, morbid, or otherwise disturbing phrase does get predicted. It's likely that a lot more filtering happens behind the scenes before we even notice it. Janelle Shane, the creator of AI Weirdness, experiences lapses in machine judgment all the time. "Whenever I produce an AI experiment, I'm definitely filtering out offensive content, even when the training data is as innocuous as My Little Pony names. There's no text-generating algorithm I would trust not to be offensive at some point."
The true goal of text prediction can't be as simple as anticipating what a user might want to type. After all, people often type things about sex or death—according to Google Ngrams, "job" is the most common noun after "blow," and "bucket" is very common after "kick the." But I experimentally typed these and similar taboo-but-common phrases into my phone's keyboard, and it never predicted them straightaway. It waited until I'd typed most of the letters of the final word, until I'd definitely committed to the taboo, rather than reminding me of weighty topics when I wasn't necessarily already thinking about them. With innocuous idioms (like "raining cats and"), the keyboard seemed more proactive about predicting them.
Instead, the goal of text prediction must be to anticipate what the user might want the machine to think they might want to type. For mundane topics, these two goals might seem identical, but their difference shows up as soon as a hint of controversy enters the picture. Predictive text needs to project an aspirational version of a user's thoughts, a version that avoids subjects like sex and death even though these might be the most important topics to human existence—quite literally the way we enter and leave the world.
We prefer the keyboard to balance raw statistics against our feelings. Sex Death Phone Keyboard is a pretty good name for my future metal band (and a very bad name for my future pony), but I can't say I'd actually buy a phone that reminds me of my own mortality when I'm composing a grocery list or suggests innuendos when I'm replying to a work email.
The predictive text meme is comforting in a social media world that often leaps from one dismal news cycle to the next. The customizations make us feel seen. The random quirks give our pattern-seeking brains delightful connections. The parts that don't make sense reassure us of human superiority—the machines can't be taking over yet if they can't even write me a decent horoscope! And the topic boundaries prevent the meme from reminding us of our human frailty. The result is a version of ourselves through the verbal equivalent of an Instagram filter, eminently shareable on social media.
More Great WIRED Stories |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27222 | Skip to content
from the December 2008 issue
Last night, before falling asleep, she had realized winter was almost over. "No more cold," she thought, stretching out between the sheets. As if from a limpid world, the clear sounds of the night reached her, restored to their original purity. The ticking of the clock, almost imperceptible during the day, filled the room with a nervous throb, causing her to imagine a clock in a land of giants. The steps on the pavement seemed to her like those of an assassin, or a madman escaped from an asylum, and her heart and pulse beat faster. The sound of a woodworm gnawing was surely the announcement of some imminent danger: perhaps the insistent pounding was a friendly ghost endeavoring to keep her awake and vigilant. With, not fear, but a sense of dread, she moved closer to Jaume and snuggled up to him. She felt protected, her mind free of thought.
The moonlight, blending with the glow of the street lamp, reached the foot of the bed, and every now and then a gust of fresh air, full of night perfume, brushed her face. She savored the caress and compared its freshness to the freshness of other spring breezes. The flowers will come, she thought, and blue days with long, pink sunsets and warm waves of sun and pale dresses. Overcrowded trains will carry people whose eyes will shine with the excitement of the big holidays. All the things that accompany fair weather will appear, to be taken away in the autumn by a strong wind and three heavy rainstorms.
She lay there awake in the middle of the night finding pleasure in the thought of leaving winter behind. She raised her arm and shook her hand: the metal jangle made her smile. She stretched voluptuously. The bracelet shone in the light of the arc lamp and the moon. It had been hers since that afternoon, and she watched it shining against her skin, as if it were part of her. She made it jangle again. She wanted three of them. All the same. Three chains to be worn together.
"Can't you sleep?"
"I will in a moment."
If he could know how much she loved him! For everything. Because he was so good, because he knew how to hold her tenderly as if he were afraid of breaking her, with more love in his heart than in his eyes, and she was one to know if there were love in his eyes. Because he lived only for her, the same way she had lived for her cat when she was little: anxiously. She had suffered because she was afraid her cat suffered. With troubled eyes she would anxiously look for her mother: "He finished the milk; he's still hungry . . . His neck's caught in the ball of yarn; he's going to choke . . . He's playing with the fringe on the curtain and when he hears someone he stops and pretends he doesn't notice, but he's so scared his heart's pounding . . . "
She felt like kissing him, not letting him sleep, pestering him until in the end he would want the kisses as much as she did. But the night was high, the air sweet, and the bracelet shiny . . . Little by little she lost consciousness and fell asleep. *
But now that it was morning, she was miserable. From the bathroom came the sound of running water. It was pouring into the sink. She recognized the unmistakable clink of his razor being placed on the glass shelf, then the bottle of cologne. Every unambiguous sound conveyed the precision of his actions.
She was uncomfortable lying facedown, her elbows propped on the bed, hands pressed against her cheeks. She was counting the arrondissements in a Paris guidebook. One, two, three . . . The sound of the water distracted her and she lost count. She could only find nineteen. Where did she go wrong? She started with Ile Saint-Louis and started around. Four, five, six . . . The tender colors calmed her anger. The blues, pinks, purples, the splashes of green from the parks, all of them reminded her of the end of summer when every tree turned gold or copper. On other days, the stream of water from the next room brought a rush? of summer happiness, evoking memories of wide rivers reflecting low-flying birds, of white coves with seaweed on the sand; but today the sound filled her with melancholy.
Of course, it was ridiculous to worry about a morning without kisses, and she deliberately chose the word "worry" to avoid a harsher one that would give rise to waves and waves of resentment. But she had always loved the first morning kisses… They tasted of sleep, as if discarded sleep returned through his lips and reached her closed eyes that wanted to sleep again. Those playful kisses were worth everything. One, two, three, four, five . . . Ile Saint-Louis, Châtelet, Rue Montyon . . . seventeen, eighteen . . .
Now the shower. It was as if she could see him under it, as the drizzle began, his eyes shut, groping for the towel he had left on the rim of the bathtub. When he found it, he would hold out his arm so it wouldn't get wet; then he would wait five minutes. Peculiar habits. Like eating candy while taking a bath: your body soaking, your mouth full of sweetness.
It's over, she thought. Love is ending. And this is how it ends, quietly. The more she imagined him calmly under the shower, the angrier she became. She would leave him. She could see herself packing her bags. And the details were so real, her imagination evoked them so vividly, that she could almost feel in her fingertips the folded, soft, silky clothes that with regret she placed in the suitcase that was now too small for all her things. Oh, yes, she would leave. She could see herself at the door. She would leave at daybreak. She would go down the stairs without making any noise, almost on tiptoe.
But he would hear her. He wouldn't have been woken by her light step, but rather by a mysterious feeling of loneliness. In a frenzy he would rush down the stairs after her and take her by the arm as she reached the first floor. The conversation would be brief, the silences more eloquent than the words.
"I'm leaving you," she would say in a low voice.
"What are you saying?" he would ask in amazement.
Could she leave so much tenderness? He would look at her with tremendous sadness: so many words, so many Paris streets, so many days drawing to a close at a time when they were just beginning to dream of their love. She wasn't counting now. She was looking at the map. In front of every important building he had told her: "I love you." He had said "I love you" while crossing the street, seated at an outdoor café, under every tree in the Tuileries. He would write "I love you" on a scrap of paper, roll it up and secretly slip it in her hand when she least expected it. He would write "I love you" on a little piece of wood that he tore off a matchbox or on the foggy window of a bus. That's how he would say "I love you": joyfully, not expecting anything in return, as if happiness was simply being able to say "I love you." Here, where her eyes now rested, at the tip of Ile Saint-Louis—the water and sky so blue, tenderly blue the horizon and the river—here he had also said "I love you." She could see Place de la Concorde on a rainy evening. Lights were reflected on the glistening pavement, and beneath each lamp was born a river of light. She could see an umbrella approaching, as if she were looking down from a roof. At the end of each rib of the tiny umbrella—between the ribs, too—there stood a drop of water. Paris: roofs, chimneys, ribbons of fog, deep streets, bridges over still water. The bad weather had kept inside all the women who knit in parks near their blond children and had left the lovers outside—together with the roses and tulips in gardens. It had left the two of them under the umbrella with their newly exchanged "I love you"s and their tremendous nostalgia for love.
While still on the landing of the first floor, she would tell him: "If we don't love each other anymore, why do you want me to stay?" She would make a point of using the plural, not because it was true, but so he would see that her decision was irrevocable and be forced to understand that there was no other solution. On the street she would encounter rain. Not the rain of lovers, but the rain of those made sad by life's repeated bitterness, the rain that brings mud and cold, dirty rain that makes the poor complain because it ruins their clothes and shoes and causes children with wet feet to catch cold on their way to school. She would board the train mechanically. A train with dirty windows, with thousands of drops of water trickling down the side. Then there would be the sound of wheels and the shrill whistle. The End.
A new life would begin. She would have to attack it without regret, with great willpower, saying: "Today life begins, behind me there is nothing." How would her sister receive her? And her brother-in-law?
She would find Gogol: fat, ungainly, dirty, his hair white, his lifeless eyes marked with red spots. Her brother-in-law had christened him at the time of his passion for Russian literature, a passion that was replaced by crossword puzzles. He had found him crouching on the side of the road like a pile of rubbish. Feeling sorry for him, he put him in his Ford and didn't realize he was blind until after he'd had him at home for a while. Marta had complained. A blind dog: what good was that? But it would have been too sad to throw him out… He walked slowly, head down, bumping into furniture. He would lie in the corner or the middle of the room, and if someone approached he would raise his head as if looking at the sky. They kept him, but it was depressing.
"Bon dia, Teresa," her sister would say when she saw her, "always the same, never letting us know you're coming. Pere, it's Teresa, put aside your crossword puzzle and come here." Then the rejoicing would begin. She would feel a terrible loneliness. The house on the outskirts of town would seem sordid to her: the covered entrance had no glass—not that the glass had broken, but rather it had never been put in. The walls were full of drawings Pere had made during his leisure time, abominable, surrealistic drawings that made her dizzy.
"What a surprise, sister-in-law!" Twenty years of bureaucracy hadn't taken away the liveliness from his voice, or the freshness of his laughter, but his eyes were sad and greedy. It was the look of someone suffocating, with no voice left to cry for help. *
Her eyes welled up. She could no longer see the tender colors on the map.
Not a sound came from the bathroom. He must be putting on his tie; he must be combing his hair. Soon he would be coming out. Quick, quick, she thought. If only the clock could be turned back, back to a previous moment. Back to the little house last year by the sea. The sky, water, palm trees, the fiery red of the sun reflected at sunset on the glass of the balcony. Blooming jasmine gripping the balcony. And the clouds, the waves, the wind that furiously blew the windows closed… It was all in her heart.
A burst of tears and sighs shook the bed. She cried in despair as if a river of tears were forcing itself out through her eyes. The more she tried to restrain herself, the sharper the pain. "What's the matter, Teresa?" He was by her side, surprised and hesitant. Oh, if the crying could only be stopped, controlled. But his voice brought on another flood of tears. He sat on the bed, very close to her, put his arm around her and kissed her hair. He didn't know what to say, nor did he understand. She had him once more. She had him by her side, even with all there was on the map, and more. Much more than could possibly be conveyed: the smell of water was the rain on the umbrella, on the still, frightened river; it was the iridescent drops on the tips of leaves, hidden drops on rose leaves. The roses didn't drink them, those iridescent, secret drops. They guarded them jealously, as she did the kisses.
Could she tell him the truth? Now that she had him beside her, his face full of anguish as he leaned toward her, giving himself fully to her, the drama that had arisen in half an hour melted like snow in fire. "Can't you tell me what's the matter?" He gently brushed the hair away from her wrists and kissed her. She couldn't say a word but felt at peace. He threw the map on the floor and hugged her as he would a child. He truly loved her, she thought, and would never have been able to think the absurd things she sometimes did. They had come so far together. They were one in the midst of so many people.
And the girl full of anger who wanted to catch the train, who wanted to flee, to slip down the stairs unexpectedly without being seen, began to dissolve. She was carried away like witches by the smoke. She went up an imaginary chimney and was swept away by the wind, and slowly picked apart until nothing was left. What remained, all curled up, was a girl without troubles, without agitation, a girl unaware that she was tyrannically imprisoned within four walls and a ceiling of tenderness.
Read more from the December 2008 issue |
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from the October 2003 issue
Homeland as Exile, Exile as Homeland
Iocasta: What is an exile's life? Is it great misery?
Polyneices: The greatest; worse in reality than in report.
Iocasta: Worse in what way? What chiefly galls an exile's heart?
Polyneices: The worst is this: right of free speech does not exist.
Iocasta: That's a slave's life—to be forbidden to speak one's mind.
(Euripides, The Phoenician Women; author's translation)
Writers in exile often face the question of why they left their countries, and whether this departure has not resulted in a loss of memory, a vagueness about those cherished places where they lived—whether it hasn't made their writing lose the heat and immediacy of those who are still living inside, made their positions lose the same degree of credibility. It would not be an exaggeration to say that from ancient times until now, there has not been a period in which this question has not been put to a writer or an artist without regard to his nationality or the motives for his departure. For how many artists are there who have been accused of being traitors because they left their homelands, from Dante to Joseph Conrad and Joyce, García Marquez and Gunther Grass and Vargas Llosa? And whatever the explanation that those posing the question—usually more interested in politics than they are in literature—claim to have arrived at, in the end they don't look at the writer by what he writes, but rather evaluate him by where he lives, or by the location of "the room" from which he writes, as the Peruvian writer Vargas Llosa noted in his commentary on the issue in one of his articles.
This narrow view drives some of those who cast a suspicious glance at the writer living outside of his country to end up with the naïve idea that it must be hard for writers in exile to write about their home countries: it must be too difficult for them to grasp the core of the historical events about which they would write, which need a period of intellectual and emotional maturation to be properly understood. For this and other superficial reasons, these people say it should satisfy writers to write about exile, even though some writers have spent close to twenty years in expatriation and their exile has itself begun to become part of history as well. Statements such as these only come out of ignorance. No one can impose on a writer his own personal problems related to his own fear of the idea of exile, of distance from the homeland, and ask writers to stop writing about their home countries and to write automatically about exile simply because they are outside of those countries. Naturally when I say this I don't mean those who talk about the subject idly or with bad intentions, but rather those serious journalists who ask the question when interviewing writers in exile.
It is every human being's right to go to any place he or she wishes, for any reason at all, but these people's minds are too narrow to see that. The most important question of all eludes them: Does going into exile necessarily mean the end of the writer's memory and imagination in writing about "over there," and must the writer now write only about exile? I answer simply and unabashedly: NO. First of all, because effective writing will be about the exiled person even if he or she is living in what can be called "the homeland," which is more a political term than a creative one. For in the end, the writer's homeland is the language in which he writes, and his house is the world which he constructs through his work, just as the homeland of the traveler is wherever his feet may fall. There is no powerful relationship between the place where I sit and write and the creative imagination, which knows no specific place or boundaries. For someone who believes in the value of literature, it is not the place where he writes that is important, but rather the nature of the creative work that he produces. For what is the value of work that doesn't breathe free air, that is not written in freedom but under the power of a dictator or of social taboos? Does such work serve anyone? Will it form a document for the culture of the country, or for all humanity? Vargas Llosa knows that he would not have been able to write The Time of the Hero or Conversation in the Cathedral or The Green House if he had not been living in exile in Paris at that time. It is the same with García Marquez, who declared not long ago that he would leave Colombia again because he didn't have the tranquility he needed-not only for writing, but even for "singing," for living with peace of mind: "exile" once again. And he is not the first to seek his country outside of it: before him, Joyce searched for Dublin, which he passionately hated, outside of Dublin. Did Joyce betray his country, as the fanatics accused him? And did the Iraqi Al-Jawahiri betray his country by leaving it as well? It is not important to answer the question here, since there is no doubt that these men served their countries precisely by leaving: they were then able to write what they were not able to write "on the inside." Furthermore the value comes from the text they created; we do not evaluate them on the basis of the place they were living when they wrote it. What is the use of an artist staying in what is called his or her "homeland" if he can't complete the text he wants to write? An artist leaves in order to write freely and to speak up with a louder and more effective voice than the "brave" underground writer, or the writer living with closed mouth and dry pen. The issue for the writer, therefore, is not geographic exile.
It is true that there are many writers and artists in geographic exile. I believe, however, that it would be more exact to say that they were in exile in "the homeland" ever since their first painful stirrings of consciousness in the countries where they were born and lived; or let's say since they first felt the headache and heartache that have accompanied them ever since they became aware of the injustice of the state, and their rejection of the societal oppression which gives state terror the legitimacy it needs to crush beauty. And when "mere survival" becomes the principal way of life in a given country, then the beauty of that country becomes pain, and the country itself becomes exile. Even that small band of writers who belong to a political "opposition" party feel estranged. To make it clear: Exile knows no borders, and emotional attachment is not measured by distance. It is internal and deadly. Estrangement and exile begin when a person realizes that he is alone and abandoned, when his feet go in search of earth that will support him and that earth flees from him. Estrangement begins when the heart begins its weeping. Exile is too big to be defined by borders; it is the heart that leaps from the ribcage. It tears down friendship with others and with the world. This is how exile can begin, starting with the person's consciousness of creativity, or consciousness of pain, not only when a person is exiled geographically.
When we talk about our own condition, it is no secret that some members of my generation and the one before it—even the one after it—always wanted to leave, even before the pursuits of the dictatorial powers got worse and people began to be arrested. They were not cowards, nor were they "traitors" (as some heroes like to shout to the wind)—they simply wanted to withdraw from the bloody scene without incurring calamitous losses.
As far as I know, not one of them took up an official post, nor did they write about the glorious battles of Qaadisiyya or Umm al-Ma'aarak. They were simply excluded from the "paradise" of the good graces of the regime and its allies. But despite that—I say—those paradises they constructed out of the small freedoms which they seized for themselves, in addition to the desire to free themselves from the grip of the suffocating, constricting cities in which they were no longer able to breathe pure air, were greater. Maybe their thinking about getting out was like the thinking of our forefathers the Sumerians, our original ancestors, who called the lands that extended outside their walls "paradise," showing that they looked at their cities essentially as suffocation, like prisoners look at their prisons. It is possible to say that some of us were looking for our paradise outside of "the homeland" (an ideological prison in which they wanted to incarcerate us), and that we felt there as though we were already "exiles" (this time those same people want to fence in our exile, ideologically!). Within this interpretation it's true to say that every piece of creative writing is in the end a creative performance of "exile," the eternal exile of man and his alienation both "here" and "there."
When I studied German literature at the University of Hamburg, I specialized in the beginning in "literature of exile," and I found that I could count the number of novels written about geographic "exile" on two hands. It is the same with novels written in other languages, or at least those novels which I can read now in the original (Spanish and German, and to a certain extent English). Most of the great works were written in exile (but not about "geographic" exile), and they talk about the idea of man's eternal sense of exile and alienation from his society. The great writer taps into the intangible, and his characters translate a human language that surpasses all borders and scorns narrow, nationalistic definitions. As the ages have passed, writers have known that where there is power there will be exile. The idea of exile is bound to our first father Adam and first mother Eve. All of the prophets and messengers were exiled, and all great literature came from exiles, though not necessarily written about lives in (geographic) exile. And the situation is not specific to literature but extends to other forms of artistic expression, so that the list includes musicians, artists—even Hollywood triumphs are based on the work of artists in exile . . . just as the artists who left Syria because of Ottoman oppression were the basis of theater and music and printing in Cairo at the beginning of the century. And need I still mention the American writers of the "lost generation" who chose of their own free will to go to Paris during the 1920s?
Many writers did not choose their banishment willingly, but were chased out of "their countries." I wonder if they would have added anything to humanity if they had sat down and written nothing but laments. Many of them felt that it was precisely their distance from their countries that broadened their outlook. For do we see the lofty towers, the lighthouses, the minarets, the mosque domes and church steeples, when we are sitting under them? Even a person who is not a specialist in literature will answer "Of course not—on the contrary, if we sit far away, we will see them much better and they will look more beautiful!"
In every situation it is preferable for a person to refuse to stay in the shadow of a government which does not allow him to express himself. That is what Euripides was talking about in The Phoenician Women, which I quoted at the opening of this article. On this basis, "exile"—in the sense meant by those more concerned about politics more than literature—is not necessarily a negative thing for an artist. On the contrary, it gives him more—purer—air, which keeps him from being a slave to both official and social prohibition (which includes self-denial as well). I say "artist" because not every writer in exile is necessarily a great artist, but every great artist is necessarily an exile, and therefore "beautiful writing is revolutionary writing," as García Marquez said (he who writes about exile, and who wrote his enduring work One Hundred Years of Solitude while in exile, who in fact wrote his first novel ever—No One Writes to the Colonel—in exile in Paris.)
García Marquez's novel and others like it are the works of great young artists who began their creative work on the "inside," then left when they felt a need to breathe fresher air, and finished their paths in "exile." I say in exile, because maybe that is the reason they were able to create out of their pain and suffering what they wanted to do when they were in the geographic homeland. In this way exile becomes the completion of the experience which the writer began "over there," for the artist is the one who feels at bottom that his experience is not complete and will never be complete, as the horizons of creativity are always open. Added to that are his feelings of being estranged from the "homeland" whether he is here or there. This temporal and spatial "here" and "there" are interchangeable according to the power of the artist's passion and perseverance in making his art, as well as his eternal alliance with the higher power that he recognizes and his refusal to bow down to temporary authority. Only those who leave their countries not to escape persecution or to rebel but for other reasons—the number of expatriates, for example, who maintain allegiances to a dictatorship or regime, who live outside their countries but write within the official sense of power—will be unable to accomplish any truly creative work. This is because they won't have thought about doing this work in the first place, even when they were there, due to the chauvinistic partisan upbringing which they received and according to whose deadly principles they developed—principles that don't allow for variety or newness in life. Those who don't experience injustice and oppression "over there" will find it difficult to escape their shadow and write with freedom "here," and they will occupy themselves with superficial issues that have no relationship to creativity. It is impossible for writing to have this background without getting embroiled in ridiculing the present, and it is only natural that the writer won't be bold enough to take on this adventure without a decent amount of freedom at his disposal—internal freedom before all else, which is a condition of creativity, and which knows no specific location: it knows no "inside" or "outside" or "homeland" or "exile," and any restriction on this freedom from outside the writer or within him will hinder his imagination and divert his creativity.
It is strange that most well-known writers who are celebrated worldwide were rejected and attacked in their own countries. I don't say this out of self-pity. Rather, what I want to say is that for a writer, thinking about an "inside" and an "outside" has no importance. What is more important is thinking about the necessary conditions for creativity. In the end, the artist is an exile even when he is in his own country, and writers in exile who write in Arabic (especially those from Iraq) are able to present their "homelands" through their creative accomplishments. It follows that the most beautiful homelands are not those determined by an ideological regime (as happened in Iraq, where the regime persisted in imposing itself through death and bullets and destruction and chemical weapons both inside and outside the country). Rather it is what we find in every beautiful novel and every beautiful poem and every beautiful song. And this applies to creative works from every place and time.
This is what the Gypsies learned, they tell me, for ever since they stole the nails intended to nail Christ to the cross—ever since that day when they were attacked and chased out, they have paid the price for keeping the nails and refusing to give them to anyone by wandering from one place to the next. One time, at a convention in Bucharest, I asked the president of the World Romany Congress the following question: "All minority groups, when they talk about their rights, aspire to belong to a bigger national group which speaks its own language in a neighboring country. What do the Gypsies aspire to?" He looked at me, smiled, and thumped his heart: "This is the nation we belong to." An answer not lacking in romanticism, but this is nothing strange, for there is no connotation of homeland or exile to the words "homeland" and "exile" in the gypsy language. Maybe this outlook is one of the sources of creativity; and maybe this enriches the arteries through which the blood of writing flows.
Read more from the October 2003 issue |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27265 | Language pack 1b uploaded!
Founder of
Staff member
Nov 6, 2010
Hi everyone,
Language pack 1b is up on the roms page now!
Changes including:
- Fixed the Chinese default welcome note in the Notes apk
- Fixed some Chinese text in the caller log (framework-res.apk plurals.xml)
- Added English string for Call notes as it was missing from the 1st pack
- Updated Chinese Bootanimation to English MIUI Android dev team styling. Thanks to GU5TAF for helping out!
<a href=""><img src="" alt="" title="bootanimation" width="480" height="800" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-565" /></a> |
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27283 | The Dead Sea Scrolls are one of the greatest archaeological discoveries in history because of their biblical as well as historical significance.
The Dead Sea Scrolls consist of scrolls and fragments which include all of the Old Testament books (except Ruth), as well as sectarian and apocryphal texts all dating to the second temple period. This discovery was vital for biblical scholars and historians alike, creating a new standard for biblical textual analysis. Before this discovery, biblical scholars relied upon the Masoretic text, dating to the 10th century A.D., as the earliest known Old Testament Hebrew manuscripts. The Dead Sea Scrolls date from 250 B.C. up to 70 A.D., providing scholars with a biblical text from almost a thousand years earlier. Almost 70 years after their discovery, the Dead Sea Scrolls is still one of the most highly debated topics within biblical studies, and a complete education on the subject would take a lifetime to learn.
What are the Dead Sea Scrolls?
The Dead Sea Scrolls are the scrolls and fragments of manuscripts that were found in the caves surrounding Qumran in the Judean wilderness, as well as a few manuscripts found at Masada. There are over 900 known scrolls and fragments in this collection, which is comprised of Old Testament books, sectarian texts, and apocryphal texts. The vast majority of the texts are written in Hebrew, however a small number of them are also written in Aramaic, Greek, and even a few in Nabatean. One interesting point is that among most of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the name of Yahweh is written in Paleo-Hebrew characters (the script used during the time of the Israelite united monarchy), showing the respect they had for preserving the name of God.
The Dead Sea Scrolls - PsalmsAbove -The Psalms Scroll (11Q5), one of the 981 texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls, with a partial Hebrew transcription.
The Old Testament texts include fragments from every book except Esther, and multiple copies of many books (36 copies of Psalms, 29 of Deuteronomy, and 21 of Isaiah) These texts give scholars a much earlier resource for studying how the Bible was transcribed over time, as well as the books that were used during the second temple period. The most famous scroll from the biblical texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls is the Isaiah Scroll, a complete, intact copy of the entire book, and it is one of the original seven scrolls from Cave 1.
The Caves at QumranThis collection also includes a number of sectarian texts, meaning the texts specifically relating to the Qumran community and their religious beliefs and practices. The most famous of these scrolls are the Community Rule, the War Scroll, the Temple Scroll, and the Damascus Document. The Community Rule describes the rules and regulations for the Qumran community, as well as their daily routine and religious practices. The War Scroll describes a battle between the “Sons of Light” led by the “Teacher of Righteousness” and the “Sons of Darkness.” Scholars continue to debate whether this scroll was meant as apocalyptic literature, plans for a future battle against the Romans, or a theological description of Israel’s past wars. In addition to these texts, there are also a number of Pesherim (meaning, “instructions”) which are theological commentaries on the Old Testament and relate the messages of the Bible to the Community’s current situation. They are a first century application of the Old Testament texts, which give us much information about the political situation of the period as well as the Community’s beliefs. The most famous of these texts is the Habakkuk Pesher. Another important text is the Copper Scroll, or commonly known as the “Treasure Scroll,” which is engraved on copper plating and is truly a treasure map. Although many have attempted to find the treasure described in this scroll somewhere in the Judean Wilderness, none have been successful.
The last set of texts is the apocryphal texts. We do not know the exact cannon that was used in the first century, and it is clear from the Dead Sea Scrolls, that many extrabiblical texts were valued and copied during this period. These texts include Jubilees, Ecclesiasticus (Ben Sira), Tobit, the Genesis Apocyrphon, 1 Enoch, and many others. They include a wide range of texts that represent the style of literature during the intertestamental period, and give us more insight into Jewish beliefs of the time.
The Dead Sea Scrolls are organized based on a catalog number from the cave in which the scroll was found. For example, the Habakkuk Pesher is known as 1QpHab (Cave 1 from Qumran, Pesher Habakkuk).
The Discovery
The first Dead Sea Scrolls were discovered by two Bedouin in 1946-1947 in a cave just east of the ancient site of Qumran. The scrolls were located in caves northwest of the Dead Sea in the arid Judean wilderness, many of which were found in large clay storage jars. The lack of moisture allowed the parchment and papyrus scrolls to survive for almost two thousand years. The Bedouin who discovered the original seven scrolls (The Isaiah Scroll, Community Rule, Habakkuk Pesher, the War Scroll, Thanksgiving Psalms, and the Genesis Apocryphon), sold them to an antiquities dealer in Bethlehem. After a long series of events, all of the original scrolls were purchased by the government of Israel. E.L. Sukenik, from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem was the first to verify the authenticity of these scrolls and begin translation. After this discovery, many more scrolls were found by Bedouin living in the Judean wilderness. In 1951, Father Roland DeVaux began excavating at the site of Qumran, unaware that these scrolls were hidden so close to his excavations. Even after catching the attention of scholars at an international level, and well into excavations and surveys nearby, Bedouin continued to discover new scrolls, while the archaeologists turned up empty. Between 1952 and 1962 more caves were discovered, with a total of 11 caves in the Qumran region yielding scrolls (although the majority of the scrolls originate from caves 1, 4, and 11). Even after all of the scrolls were discovered, the international scrolls team worked for almost 50 years, translating and researching, before they were completely published. Today, the majority of the scrolls are kept in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem.
The Historical Context of the Scrolls
Dead Sea Scroll – part of Isaiah ScrollThe Dead Sea Scrolls are not only useful for linguistics and textual analysis of the Old Testament, but are also very helpful for understanding the history of the second temple period in Judea. Under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah in 537 B.C., the Jews returned to the land from exile in Babylon and rebuilt the Temple in 515 B.C. The Jewish people, who had just redefined their identity as a people in the Babylonian exile, began to split into sects and factions after the conquests of Alexander the Great in 333 B.C. The rise of Hellenism in the land caused differing views about accepting this culture versus maintaining their Jewish identity. More factions split after the Hasmonean Revolt in the 2nd Century B.C., as a new priesthood developed, and Judaism became more divided about matters of state and practicing religion. The Dead Sea Scrolls date from 250 B.C. – 70 A.D., covering a range from the Seleucid rule, through the Hasmonean Revolt, the Roman conquest and rule, up until the First Jewish Revolt against Rome, ending with the conquest of Jerusalem in 70 A.D. Josephus tells us that during this time, there were at least three different sects within Judaism, the Pharisees, the Sadducees, and the Essenes. He also includes that there were various other groups with different traditions, as well as the Zealots, who fought against the Romans in the First Jewish Revolt. The sectarian texts of the Dead Sea Scrolls condemn the priesthood, and see themselves as the “sons of light,” who are truly faithful to God’s commandments. They clearly represent a Jewish sect during this period (although scholars debate if the views represented in the Dead Sea Scrolls can be identified as the Essenes or another group), many of which describe the political situation of the priesthood, temple, and the tensions with the Romans. The Dead Sea Scrolls reflect the political and religious situation during the time of Jesus, and some biblical scholars have even suggested that John the Baptist may have been a part of the Dead Sea Scroll sect. Regardless, the Dead Sea Scrolls are a window into the history of second temple period Judaism and the theology adopted by early Christianity in the first century.
Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?
The scrolls were discovered almost seventy years ago, yet scholars have still not come to any consensus about who wrote them. When visiting the site of Qumran, most tour guides will say that it was made up of a community of Essenes who transcribed the scrolls themselves. Although many scholars do support this idea, there are vastly differing opinions on the origins of the scrolls, and recently many new theories have surfaced. Both the textual and archaeological evidence can support multiple theories, causing the Dead Sea Scrolls to remain a great historical mystery. Although there are many sectarian texts, it is impossible to identify the Qumran community specifically as the Essenes mentioned by Josephus based on the limited knowledge we have of this sect. We can say that the Dead Sea Scrolls represent a wide range of ideologies and theological differences, demonstrating that these scrolls were a part of a large library for the community living at Qumran. Some scholars have suggested that this community was made up of early Christians who began with most of the same beliefs as Judaism. The community in these texts however, had many views that differ from Jesus’ teachings. Jesus is not mentioned in the scrolls, and His words to “…love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you” differ greatly from the language of the War Scroll, where the Sons of Light (the community themselves) prepare to fight against the Kittim (the Romans). This scroll reflects a more militant group which is set apart from mainstream Judaism. The emphasis on the priestly line and the temple cult in these texts also make it even more unlikely that this was a group of Christians. The scrolls seem to be describing a solitary Jewish sect rather than early Christians.
The site of Qumran is debated among scholars almost as much as the Dead Sea Scrolls themselves. The site is crucial to our understanding of the Scrolls, since it is located just beneath the caves where the scrolls were found (less than 1 kilometer from Cave 1). What exactly is Qumran? Scholars have suggested that it was a community center, fortress, villa, or perhaps even a factory. The archaeology of Qumran shows similarities with all of these different structures, and in its combination of these different aspects, is completely unique. The site was occupied from around 150 B.C., until it was destroyed by the Romans in 68 A.D. The site includes a building structure with three ink wells found inside, a complex water system, many ritual baths (mikva’ot), a cemetery, and a tower. Although the inkwells found inside may demonstrate that scrolls were produced there, there were no pieces of parchment found at the site. This may have been due to the Roman conquest in 68 A.D., when they burned the site. Since fire and parchment do not tend to mix well, we do not know exactly what was written at Qumran. We can however, see that the large number of ritual baths (mikva’ot) at Qumran fits well with the sectarian texts, which greatly focus on rules for ritual purity and cleanliness. Regardless of whether or not the scrolls were written at Qumran, it seems likely that they were hidden in the caves to protect them from the Romans in the First Jewish Revolt, where they remained hidden for the next two thousand years.
The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible
Since the Dead Sea Scrolls date much earlier than any other known manuscripts of the Hebrew Old Testament, they are extremely useful for understanding the original text. Scholars can now better understand problems in the text, and make better decisions when translating.
The Isaiah Scroll - Dead Sea ScrollsThe Isaiah Scroll
The Masoretic text (10th Century A.D.) was transcribed around a thousand years after the Dead Sea Scrolls, and in a time when Hebrew was extinct as a spoken language. Yet despite this, most of the texts are exactly identical to the version in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The differences between the texts are surprisingly small for this amount of time, and it is clear that the scribes copied the texts very carefully. The Dead Sea Scrolls are a great example of how God’s Word has stood the test of time, and remains unchanged throughout thousands of years.
Harrison Fausey
Jerusalem University College
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COMP0008 Written Java Coursework (2019/20)
NOTE: Your final Moodle submission will consist of a number of parts:
1. Three different versions of the “ConwaysGameOfLife.java” file after different
modifications called: “ConwaysGameOfLife_VERSION1.java”,
(Thus you should only modify this file and not create other Java files.)
2. A PDF file giving answers to the questions below (given with bold stars). You
can write this description using Word or Latex - as long as you submit a PDF
version in the end.
Getting going ...
Take your favourite Java IDE and install:
Conway’s Game of Life
From the github:
(You should be familiar with how to do this.)
This is quite a popular version of the game mentioned in a number of websites … but we
are going to analyse its faults and try to improve its structure … in particular focusing on
Build the system, run it and play around with the GUI to get a feel for how it works.
You should take copies of your Java files after each of these tasks to be submitted to
Moodle. [Also this will enable you to roll back to a previous working version if revisions all
go horribly wrong! Although ideally you would be using a revision control system like git.]
Task 1: To get you familiar with the code.
Choose the File > Options menu to set the rate of the game at 20 frames per second.
Choose the Game > Autofill menu item and select 40% random tiles to fill.
Now start the game running … and wait.
Eventually (after a number of minutes) … it will crash with:
Exception in thread "Thread-0" java.lang.StackOverflowError
at java.desktop/java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.(InvocationEvent.java:286)
at java.desktop/java.awt.event.InvocationEvent.(InvocationEvent.java:172)
at java.desktop/javax.swing.JComponent.repaint(JComponent.java:4836)
at java.desktop/java.awt.Component.repaint(Component.java:3352)
at ConwaysGameOfLife$GameBoard.run(ConwaysGameOfLife.java:311)
at ConwaysGameOfLife$GameBoard.run(ConwaysGameOfLife.java:314)
… and then it repeats this same line hundreds of times !!!
Now you might be tempted to post out a question to “StackOverflow” to resolve this
StackOverflowException! But avoid doing this since I think you can fix it yourself with only
3 line of code being changed!
Task 1 is to fix this bug and get familiar with how the code is working. You may not have
done any Java Swing programming before … so I’m going to describe how the system
generally works below but you may need to look up some further information describing
how Swing works.
But before reading below, have a look through the code and try to work out how it is
working (it is all in a single file “ConwaysGameOfLife.java”).
The system uses the Java Swing toolkit for the graphical elements. The “main” method
essentially sets up a “JFrame game = new ConwaysGameOfLife();” which is the main
public class in this file. A JFrame is the main graphical interface for the game. The main
method then sets up some settings before doing a “game.setVisible(true)” to make the GUI
The constructor of this class sets up all the graphical Swing components of the GUI
interface such as menu items, with “action listeners” referencing the class itself. The
“actionPerformed” method gets called when a menu item is selected. This looks up the
source of different events (such as “ae.getSource().equals(mi_game_play)” and then calls
the appropriate method “setGameBeingPlayed(true);”
This method then does:
public void setGameBeingPlayed(boolean isBeingPlayed) {
if (isBeingPlayed) {
game = new Thread(gb_gameBoard);
} else {
} }
The first lines enable and disable particular menu items (mi_game_start and
mi_game_stop menu items). But the key lines are the creation of a new “game” thread and
starting this. And also calling an interrupt on it to stop this game thread.
The thread is created from the gb_gameBoard which you will see is created at the end of
the constructor and then added into the JFrame. This is actually the graphical game board
itself which is added onto the JFrame and it gets repainted using its paint() method to draw
the current position of “live squares” on the board.
The GameBoard is a private class and it probably has too many responsibilities:
private class GameBoard extends JPanel implements ComponentListener,
MouseListener, MouseMotionListener, Runnable {
It extends JPanel which means it is a Swing graphical panel (i.e. draws the board). It also
implements different listeners which means it can respond to mouse events and it also
implements a Runnable which is the game thread itself. So the GUI event thread may be
running through this class, for instance clicking a mouse will cause the “mouseReleased()”
method to be called by the GUI event thread. Changing the interface may cause the GUI
thread to call the paintComponent() or componentResized() methods. In addition there is
the run() method which clearly implements another user threads in this class. Look through
this run() method to see what it is doing.
Now what could be causing the StackOverflowError above?
Identify the issue and restructure the code so that it no longer throws this error. This will
only require a few lines of code to be changed. Ensure the interrupt mechanism to stop the
game still works as well though.
After fixing this bug … you should be able to run the game for a long time without having a
StackOverflowError resulting.
*** QUESTION 1: Describe what caused this bug and how you fixed it.
*** Take a copy of your Java code and label it
Task 2: Getting into trouble with concurrency.
It should be clear now that there are two threads running through the GameBoard class. A
GUI thread which is painting the squares (and also changing them on mouse events)
together with changing other aspects of the boards (for instance when resizing the board).
Also there is a user thread that is calculating how squares change for the next step in the
game. It seems the GameBoard class is responsible for too much and it’s sure to end in
The GUI thread repaints the board by calling:
public void paintComponent(Graphics g) {
within the GameBoard class.
You may notice the lines:
try {
for (Point newPoint : point) {
// Draw new point
g.fillRect(BLOCK_SIZE + (BLOCK_SIZE*newPoint.x), BLOCK_SIZE +
} catch (ConcurrentModificationException cme) {}
The catching (and then ignoring) of the “ConcurrentModificationException” sort of indicates
that we have a concurrency issue here! Add a “System.out.println(“CONCURRENCY
ISSUE !!!”)” into the code to see if we ever get this exception actually being thrown:
} catch (ConcurrentModificationException cme) {System.out.println("CONCURRENCY
Running at 20 frames per second with 40% random squares … try changing the board by
clicking on it … or resizing the board … minimizing it and maximizing it (causing the
repaint method to be called). What you are trying to do is cause the “CONCURRENCY
EXCEPTION !!!” message to be displayed. It isn’t easy since it requires the GUI thread
and the game thread to collide in terms of accessing or modifying the game squares. But I
can produce multiple concurrency exceptions when drawing squares over the board with
the mouse button pressed while the game is running:
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.11.0-openjdk-amd64/bin/java -javaagent:/home/ucackxb/software/idea?IC-183.4588.61/lib/idea_rt.jar=39515:/home/ucackxb/software/idea-IC-183.4588.61/bin -
Dfile.encoding=UTF-8 -classpath /home/ucackxb/COURSES/COMP0008/Conway-s?Game-of-Life_version2/out/production/Conway-s-Game-of-Life ConwaysGameOfLife
But you can actually get worse than this. By very quickly decreasing the size of the board
while it is being recalculated … you can get the user thread crashing out with an
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.11.0-openjdk-amd64/bin/java -javaagent:/home/ucackxb/software/idea?IC-183.4588.61/lib/idea_rt.jar=46389:/home/ucackxb/software/idea-IC-183.4588.61/bin -
Exception in thread "Thread-0" java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException: 47
at ConwaysGameOfLife$GameBoard.run(ConwaysGameOfLife.java:285)
at java.base/java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:844)
(Make the board the size of the complete screen and start running it with 40% random
squares at 20 frames per second. Then press the icon to size it back to its default window
size … this almost guarantees it will throw this exception!)
Adjusting the graphics while it is running can also cause the GUI “AWT” thread to crash
out with a NullPointer exception which is most likely due to concurrency issues as well
(and then the GUI has crashed even though the rest of the program carries on running):
/usr/lib/jvm/java-1.11.0-openjdk-amd64/bin/java -javaagent:/home/ucackxb/software/idea?IC-183.4588.61/lib/idea_rt.jar=32797:/home/ucackxb/software/idea-IC-183.4588.61/bin -
Exception in thread "AWT-EventQueue-0" java.lang.NullPointerException
at java.desktop/javax.swing.Jcomponent.paint(JComponent.java:1074)
For something that looks like it “roughly works” … it’s amazing how fragile it really is due to
not considering concurrency issues properly! (In fact putting in code that ignores
concurrency issues!)
Your second task it to fix these concurrency issues! Actually it may seem daunting but it
really comes down to identifying the shared state that is being modified by both threads
and ensuring that it is being operated on safely.
It may be useful to understand how ConcurrentModificationExceptions arise. The Brian
Goetz book explains this in Section 5.1.2 on page 82 (although it would be worthwhile
reading from the start of Chapter 5 on page 79 to Section 5.3 Blocking Queues and the
producer-consumer pattern on page 87 to get context for this and also to understand the
CopyOnWriteArrayList in Section 5.2.3 which we will be using).
It may also be useful to read Chapter 9 GUI Applications (pages 189-202) of the Brian
Goetz book to get familiar with both Swing GUIs and how threads work in the GUI
Change the ArrayList used currently for the “state” of the GameBoard to using the
concurrent CopyOnWriteArrayList object. Can you now make the system crash by adding
points and resizing the window?
*** QUESTION 2: Explain what is the key difference in how the
CopyOnWriteArrayList behaves compared to a normal ArrayList which has probably
made all these concurrency issues disappear (be specific about how a particular
mechanism used in the code works differently with these two classes).
*** QUESTION 3: What could be a disadvantage of using CopyOnWriteArrayList here
instead of a normal Arraylist? (Assuming we weren’t worried about the concurrency
Task 3: Speed it up challenge!
This part is more challenging and the instructions are less detailed. So you will have to
work out how certain aspects need to be structured yourself and also worry about whether
your code is thread safe.
We first want to calculate the time it takes to do 100,000 cycles of the board without any
sleeping involved.
1. Comment out the sleep statement in the run() method so it runs at maximum speed.
2. Change the structure within the run() method so that it does 100,000 cycles of the board
and then finishes automatically.
3. Add “Date” objects (or similar) so that you can print out the time it takes to do the
100,000 cycles in milliseconds.
*** QUESTION 4: Do five runs and write down the different times your system takes
to do 100,000 cycles of the game of life (these will not all be shown on the screen
due to not having any sleep time in the code).
Now you probably have a multicore processor and the current system is only making use
of a single core since it is running a single thread for all the calculations.
We are going to restructure the code so that a number of threads each do the calculation
of one column of the shared board object. We will used the
Executors.newFixedThreadPool(4) to carry out the tasks (where we change the number of
threads in the pool to see how it affects the overall speed).
Create a FixedThreadPool executor at the top of the GameBoard class with initially 4
threads in the pool.
The restructuring will involve the current run() method creating a new Runnable object,
which you should call “BladeRunner”, for each “i” that it iterates over. Each “BladeRunner”
object will then do the calculation for that column of the boolean[][] gameBoard –
essentially doing the code within the central “i” loop of the current run() method. Each of
these “BladeRunner” objects will be queued on the thread pool so that it executes them.
But how to know when the current run() thread (within the GameBoard) can continue the
calculations for the next cycle of the board? Well … it should create a CountDownLatch
with the number set to the number of columns to calculate (i.e. the number of BladeRunner
objects created). This overall thread will then await on this latch before continuing the next
cycle. Each “BladeRunner” will then do a single countDown() on this latch at the end of its
run method to indicate it has finished. Thus the thread in the GameBoard will only continue
once all the columns have been calculated for the current board.
Your challenge is to work out the detail required to get this architecture to work and also to
worry about concurrency aspects – where might you need to add volatiles or
synchronization? You should be accurate in your analysis and not just add volatiles and
synchronization everywhere!
*** Take a copy of your Java code with 4 threads assigned to the thread pool. Label
the code: “ConwaysGameOfLife_VERSION3.java”
*** QUESTION 5: Experiment with different numbers of threads used in the thread
pool (for example try 1 thread, 2 threads, 4 threads, 6 threads, 8 threads, etc). Each
time record three (or better five) measurements of milliseconds for 100,000 cycles of
the board. Work out average / standard deviation of times and produce a table /
graph to show what might be the optimal number of threads for your system.
*** Please use the Moodle Forum to ask any questions about this coursework ***
*** Upload the three versions of your code and also your answers to Moodle ***
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27300 | Action Dyslexia logo
Neil MacKay
Dyslexia Friendly Strategies & Support
Articles Archive
Learning Styles
Article Category - Lets Talk
The theory of learning styles is bad science.
Does ADHD really exist?
Article Category - Lets Talk
My view on Professor Jerome Kagan's belief that ADHD doesn't exist.
Second Language Acquisition
Article Category - Lets Talk
An article looking at the issues of second language acquisition.
So you think your child may have ADHD
Article Category - Lets Talk
Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) manifests itself in the form of emotional and behavioural difficulties. The condition affects approximately 5-6% 0f the population and, according to many researchers, is caused by the failure of the brain to produce certain chemicals
So you think your child may have Asperger's Syndrome
Article Category - Lets Talk
Asperger's Syndrome is a disorder which is at the higher end of the autistic spectrum and a child with this condition is sometimes called a "higher functioning" autistic child.
So you think your child may have Dyslexia
Article Category - Lets Talk
Dyslexia is also known as a specific learning difficulty or SpLd. Children with Dyslexia have an "unexpected" difficulty in developing certain literacy and numeracy skills. This difficulty is unexpected because the child may develop some skills very easily- for example may be as good at thinking about Science or Technology as her/his friends but may have a lot more difficulty writing it down or reading about it.
So you think your child may have Dyspraxia
Article Category - Lets Talk
Children who suffer from dyspraxia find it difficult to learn how to coordinate their thoughts, motor skills and language. As a result, they can appear to be clumsy and to have difficulty in expressing themselves
So you think your child may have Visual Impairment
Article Category - Lets Talk
There are many different ways that a child's vision may be affected. Although visual impairments may influence a child's education, they need not necessarily have an effect on the way s/her learns
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27312 | Cryptopsy’s The Book of Suffering – Tome II is the embodiment of chaos! (Review)
23/10/2018 Reviews Share
Bring it on! Canadian death metal veterans Cryptopsy are about to release their new EP titled The Book of Suffering - Tome II. Therefore, we present to you our review of this nerve-wrecking release which is coming out on October 26th.
The opening chord of the first song, The Wretched Living is teasing us from the start, not knowing what will happen next. And then, the avalanche begins! Deep growl, followed by crushing riffs and gravity blasts is just a piece of sonic fury thrown upon the ears of the listeners. All Cryptopsy elements are there – dissonance, hammering bass sound, classic death metal riffage, Flo Mounier’s distinctive drumming… The song is not short of technical death metal elements embodied through the crazy riffage of Christian Donaldson (guitar) and Olivier Pinard (bass). And of course, Mat McGachy’s vocals mimic the sheer brutality of Cryptopsy’s music. The break that follows is just an overture to the chaos unleashed through a power chord assault followed by noisy guitar & bass punches. The next song on the list, Sire of Sin was already released as a single. This one features some tasty & catchy octave riffs. And then starts the sonic implosion! To some extent, this song has more of a simplistic nature when compared to the previous one (which is actually a pretty damn hilarious statement if we have in mind the overall technicality of this band!) with occasional all-over-the-fretboard guitar boost & a head-chopping breakdown whose sole purpose is (ha!) to relieve the band of the pain created by their over-the-top playing! Still, Sire of Sin is frantic, technical & noisy from beginning to the end and it will keep your heads banging!
Fear His Displeasure starts with a quirky black metal sounding intro riff and then proceeds with guitar whipping that evolves into a full head-on death metal madness. The song suddenly gets into thrashy mode. Delayed guitar effects which indicate a new calm before the storm embodied through some major grinding guitar chops! The second part of the song becomes less technical and then Mat McGachy gets into rampage mode! Goddamn CRYPTOPSY! The last tune on this release, The Laws of the Flesh starts with Olivier Pinard’s slow & innocent bass rattling and all a sudden, all hell breaks loose! Guitar & bass hammer-time is followed by a really distinctive & hypnotic repeating guitar pattern. And once again, classic melodic Cryptopsy riffs, followed by gravity blasts and Lord Worm-like vocals kick in. Still, Matt McGachy’s vocal approach differs quite a bit in this song when compared to the rest of the material from this EP. And yeah, Christian Donaldson delivered an eargasmic solo (the only solo on this release!). Gravity blasts and 20 seconds long growls are nice way to close the EP though!
Credits: Eric Sanchez Photography
It’s really a pity that we didn’t get a full length album, but still… If you’re up to some sophisticated, dissonant, technical death metal stuff, Cryptopsy’s Book of Suffering – Tome II is a flawless release worthy of your time (and money)! Canadan death metal masters have displayed their mastery to a full extent! And yeah, Montreal, Quebec seems to be what Tampa Florida was back in the glory days... Now the countdown for the new album may begin!
Rating: 8.6/10
P.S. Fear not The Unspoken King PT II!
Flo Mounier: Drums/Vocals
Chris Donaldson: Guitar
Matt McGachy: Lead Vocals
Olivier Pinard: Bass Guitar
Bandcamp Page :
my picture
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27317 | Sketch snowflakes. + Print. + Read. + Make
Sketch snowflakes. + Print. + Read. + Make + Read the story on hyphens.
Find a hyphen Murka and a napa chatay this word.
+ All letters decreased.
Lead round circle acquaintances.
SOUNDS AND LETTERS N, Y + Lead round contours a blue pencil.
Sketch snowflakes.
+ Print.
+ Read.
+ Make the analysis.
Miss, a nacher ti squares.
Find N: Nadia, to Andr sha, Anton, Marina, Nina.
+ Listen and find a mistake: The vase costs a table.
The cat jumped a chair.
The butterfly planted a flower.
. . . Читать полностью -->
I count that
I count that What was reaction child?
INSTRUCTION Instead of punishment Sharply express the feelings without nap dock on character.
I in rage of that my new saw left on the street to rust in the rain!
Formulate the expectations.
I count that after will take tools from me, will return them to me.
Show to the child how to make amends.
Now are necessary to a saw the small steel bast and hard physical activity.
Provide to the child a choice.
You can take my tools and a cart to rotate them.
. . . . . . Читать полностью -->
Anyway, whether
Anyway, whether Then everything changes somewhere at the age of , years, when the child for the first time lets know that needs in distsip tench.
From its party it looks almost like a prigla sheniye to dance.
Anyway, whether look, gesture, expression they as though speak: Well and as you How to stimulate good behavior you will react to it?
They want to involve you in game.
They need attention, support, rules and discipline.
At this stage fight should not be the intense: not intense of you and bor fight from them.
. . . . . . Читать полностью -->
Remind of need
Remind of need The child carries out a fungus the hand which is too bent in an elbow, poorly taking water a brush.
Remind of need to carry out a fungus the hand bent in an elbow.
By air the hand rushes straightened in lok tevy joint, and the brush of the first enters water.
In swimming on a back it is impossible to detain a hand at a hip after okoncha the niya of a grebk or to finish a fungus, pushing away water palm up.
In a game tse a grebk in swimming by a crawl on a back the brush carries out the movement down back under a hip.
. . . . . . Читать полностью -->
When two children
When two children mind the scientific research institute to egotrip and try to illustrate ef fictitiousness of such behavior own reaction not under The growing independence being given on aggression, keeping calm and without applying threats etc.
Effective discipline.
When two children do not agree in chemto, there comes the moment for discussions.
Even younger school students can understand importance and pluses of discussion and peaceful resolution of the conflicts.
Op the sled is lower than the technician of a resolution of conflicts especially of chorus sha for the conflicts between brothers or sisters see.
. . . . . . Читать полностью -->
• But there
• For I suffer
• Any healthy
• And in other
• Therefore
• In their
• Punishment
• In the same
• For the child
• As already |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27342 | Historical Outline
On April 24, 1852 the British Secretary of State wrote to the respective administrations in the Imperial Colonies to solicit the founding of an association similar to the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce, established in London. The then Governor of Malta, Sir William Reid, obliged by enlisting the collaboration of Baron C Azopardi and of others to form the first Management Committee of the Malta Society of Arts, Manufactures and Commerce.
During the 160 of active years the MSA organized competitions, exhibitions, participated in overseas expositions, and awarded medals. Many Maltese artists and craftsmen had been also aided to proceed abroad to further and complete their artistic studies. The MSA gained enough prestige to acquire official recognition and the Patronage of different Governors, successive Presidents and Archbishops of Malta.
The MSA was the first institution in Malta to set up a School of Lace, organized adult classes in arts, crafts and music., pioneered the Apprenticeship Schemes, Technical education, and represented in Malta the London College of Music (London) for nearly 80 years, with Palazzo de La Salle as the Malta Centre for these Examinations.
Maltese Governments helped the MSA over the years, through an annual financial grant and free concessions, including the lease of Palazzo de La Salle where the MSA conducts and carries out its activities. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27349 | You are here
Christine Carson to Present at Fall ACWA Conference
Christine Carson will be presenting and moderating a panel of experts on Assembly Bill 756 concerning perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, commonly called “PFAS.” The presentation is on December 3, 2019 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. in the Harbor Ballroom G (Second Level, Harbor Tower) at the Fall ACWA Conference located at Manchester Grand Hyatt, 1 Market Place, San Diego, CA 92101. For more information on the conference, see |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27371 | How to Install MongoDB on Ubuntu
Step 1 — Adding the MongoDB Repository
At first, navigate to and choose your Ubuntu version. The Ubuntu version name is at
Then navigate to, get the key from the version exist on both and MongoDB 3.4 is my choice.
Run the following command:
$ sudo apt-key adv --keyserver hkp:// --recv A15703C6
Create a list file for MongoDB:
$ echo "deb [ arch=amd64 ] xenial/mongodb-org/3.4 multiverse" | sudo tee /etc/apt/sources.list.d/mongodb-org-3.4.list
Update the package list:
$ sudo apt update
Step 2 — Installing and Verifying MongoDB
Run the following command:
$ sudo apt install -y mongodb-org
Check MongoDB service status:
$ service mongod status
Run MongoDB Community Edition
• Start:
$ sudo service mongod start
• Stop:
$ sudo service mongod stop
• Restart:
$ sudo service mongod restart
Uninstall MongoDB Community Edition
$ sudo service mongod stop
$ sudo apt purge mongodb-org*
$ sudo rm -r /var/log/mongodb
$ sudo rm -r /var/lib/mongodb
Read MongoDB manual - Installation here
1. It comes in two structures to be specific Windows VPS just as Linux VPS. A Windows VPS is unquestionably increasingly mainstream as it is perfect with heaps of programming and programs and consequently it fills changed needs for various prerequisites of organizations.
2. Customization of your server is also possible in case of Windows VPS or Cheap VPS. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27377 | EDIT 2: swfmill has actually been updated for the first time in about 3 years (wav support included)! An official Windows binary and source code available here. If you’re a Windows user you can skip the stuff about compiling swfmill.
EDIT: Windows swfmill that (apparently) supports wav files available here (thanks rideforever). Just skip straight to working with swfml if you’re using these builds.
Why mxmlc can’t import wav (or any other lossless audio format) files I will never know. Mp3s suffer from timing/looping issues that are easily resolved by using wav files so I’ve always found a way to get my wav files into my swfs. Usually it’s by using the Flash IDE, but I refuse to involve it in my development process anymore.
Other solutions involve parsing wav files, generating swfs on-the-fly, or using Flash 10’s sound api. None really satisfied what I was looking for, compiling them directly into my AS3 code.
I’ve recently discovered a very good solution. It involves compiling a custom version of swfmill with support for wav files then using it to generate swf files. Since any resource inside a swf can be embedded into other swf files using mxmlc, I can then actually import a wav file.
Compiling swfmill
EDIT 2: Like I mentioned above, if you’re a Windows user you can skip this section. Also, if your favorite package manager has swfmill 0.3.0, you can just use that version instead.
This process is intended for Ubuntu, but it’s probably similar to the OSX version if you do the some extra research yourself. As for Windows, you’re on your own, unless you find a way to do it with cygwin.
First, make sure necessary build tools and libraries are available to compile swfmill. On Ubuntu these will do the trick (I think, be sure to comment if you find something is missing):
$ sudo apt-get install build-essential
$ sudo apt-get build-dep swfmill
Next, download the fork of swfmill located here. There’s a download link above the description. It’s a little more advanced than the version available on swfmill.org, in paticular it has support for wav files. Use the latest version of swfmill available here. The lastest version of swfmill will do the trick now. Get it here. Extract it to a folder and compile it.
$ ./autogen.sh
$ make
If anything goes wrong you might be missing some libraries or tools. Use this new new swfmill binary (it’s in the src folder) to compile the upcoming swfml files. Now you can create swf files with wav files in them, but they’re not in your main swf yet.
Using swfmill
This sample swfml file will create a swf file with a single wav file embedded inside (I personally recommend only having one wav file per swf file). Not all wav files will work. only PCM wav files with a frequency of 44100 Hz and below are allowed. Replace “wav_file_to_import” with the location of your wav file and compile.
$ swfmill simple examplesound.swfml examplesound.swf
As an added bonus, it will also play the wav file if you open the swf. Now you can embed the wav file in this swf into your main swf using the embed tag.
static private const ExampleSound:Class;
public function playSound():void {
var sound:Sound = new ExampleSound() as Sound;
sound.play(0, 1);
Hope that helps somebody, it’s been a thorn in my side for a long time. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27395 | Wednesday, October 3, 2012
xkcd tree plot: part IV
I just posted my code for plotting xkcd style phylogenetic trees. The code uses tips from a discussion thread (initiated by my colleague Jarrett Byrnes), as well as a slightly modified version of an entire function posted by user295691.
The function is available on my phytools page (direct link to the code here).
**A few preliminary steps are required before the function will work!**
1. Install the package 'extrafont' and its dependencies.
2. Download and install the xkcd font, xkcd.ttf. The procedure for adding new fonts will depend on your operating system. For Windows 7, go Start → Control Panel → Appearance and Personalization → Fonts and then just drag & drop the .ttf file into this window.
3. At least in Windows, you will have to download and install Ghostscript. This allows you to embed the xkcd font into the PDF in which the tree is outputted.
The input arguments for xkcdTree are as follows: tree, your R "phylo" object; file, your filename for output (xkcdTree saves your plotted tree as a PDF); gsPath, the complete path to the Ghostscript binary (for a gs9.06 in Windows 7, the default should work); fsize, lwd, and color should be relatively self-explanatory; finally jitter is a scalar for the uncertainty to add (more is more wiggly), and waver is a vector with the horizontal and vertical relative 'wavelength' of the uncertainty (smaller numbers result in a shorter wavelength). Note that my previous example (here) has much more jitter than the default.
Let's try it:
> library(phytools)
Loading required package: ape
> source("xkcdTree.R")
> tree<-pbtree(n=40)
> xkcdTree(tree,"testTree.pdf",color="black",fsize=1.5)
Loading required package: extrafont
That's it!
1. There is also a small bug in this were the argument 'lwd' doesn't do anything. Link to fixed version here.
2. Hi Liam,
Sorry to bother you again but after I tried this I encontered
xkcdTree(tree,"testTree.pdf", gsPath="C:/Program Files/gs/gs9.06/bin/gswin32c.exe", color="black",fsize=1.5)
**** NOTE: use in Windows requires the installation of Ghostscript to**** embed 'xkcd' font in PDF plot
**** NOTE: an 'embed_fonts' error most likely means that Ghostscript
**** is not installed or that the path is incorrect
Warning messages:
1: In pdf(file, family = "xkcd", width = dim[1], height = dim[2]) :
unknown AFM entity encountered
unknown AFM entity encountered
unknown AFM entity encountered
unknown AFM entity encountered
I added the extrafont, the xkcd font and installed Ghostscript. Is there a way I could check if something else isn't working?
3. Hi Andres.
If it worked, it should have created your plot in a PDF. Did it? Those errors might not be an issue.
- Liam
4. Hi Liam,
OK. It just noticed it created a .pdf as expected. I thought something was wrong since the R Graphics device was just grey but that's a minor issue if the pdf was indeed created. Sorry for my confusion.
1. Great. As you know, Andres, 'phytools' is a work in progress - so there will be bugs. Nonetheless, I'm glad to hear that it works! Thanks for the report. - Liam
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27401 | 10 out Just how to date being a Christian. Dos and don’ts
Just how to date being a Christian. Dos and don’ts
When you've got certain philosophy, they could impose limits in your behavior. You might be told/controlled/want by yourself to dress, speak, act differently. In Christianity, according to the rigidness of certain kind of belief, individuals may think that it's inappropriate to put on quick skirts, clothes which do not close 95% of your skin, to kiss in public areas, to get hold of your love first, to hug in individuals… Even limitations for a person you’re dating with might be imposed – want it’s perhaps not cool if they just isn't of the faith. That’s everything you, being a Christian, need certainly to start thinking about once you shall begin dating with anybody. And that is exactly exactly what you, as non-Christian, need to start thinking about in the event that you want to begin dating with someone who’s Christian.
Today our company is considering just how to date as a Christian – whenever as it happens that a lady or child you are dating with is really a Christian (whilst you’re not) and Christianity impacts things they does in life. Let’s imagine you wanna date a girl. Just just What it ought to be like?
Bits of suggestions about how exactly to date being a Christian woman
1. Often be open and honest to her – say whether you share her opinions or otherwise not straight away, never confuse her with lies. In regards to up (and it'll show up), you will definitely lose her.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27403 | « Annotated KitschAri's Got A Blog »
Refuting Evolution by Jonathan Sarfati, Part IV
01:28:41 am, by Nimble , 1430 words
Categories: Books, Religion, Science
Refuting Evolution by Jonathan Sarfati, Part IV
[Other parts of the review]
It is not difficult to see why this would be a sticking point with creationists. Genesis has the animals paraded before Adam in Genesis 2:19-20 thusly:
(I can't help finding this story particularly odd, since it implies that Adam would have ended up with one of the beasts if he weren't so picky)
The "formed out of the ground" bit is key here. Creatures can't have evolved, certainly not from a common ancestor, if they were formed out of the ground.
Sarfati says:
If living things had really evolved from other kinds of creatures, then there would have been many intermediate or transitional forms, with halfway structures. However, if different kinds had been created separately, the fossil record should show creatures appearing abruptly and fully-formed.
This is a bit deceptive.
For one, if different kinds had been created separately, the fossil record should show creatures appearing abruptly either at the same time in geological terms, or, since young-earth creationists refuse the tenets of modern geology, they should appear actually sorted by the criteria that creationists have come up with before: density, how fast they could escape the flood, etc.
This is not what he is defending here, however. Essentially, he's claiming that any sort of spottiness in the fossil record supports creationism, and he ties this in by quoting Darwin:
Darwin's writing is often rhetorical objection followed by possible explanation. Here, as in many other creationist writings, only the rhetorical objection is quoted. The possible explanation in Darwin's work continues, "The explanation lies, as I believe, in the extreme imperfection of the geological record." and then proceeds paragraphs upon paragraphs of explanation. The entire chapter in Origin of Species is entitled "On the Imperfection of the Geological Record".
Lest we object that things have progressed since Darwin's time, he includes a snippet from a letter from Colin Patterson to, seemingly unbeknownst to him, a creationist:
I fully agree with your comments on the lack of direct illustration of evolutionary transitions in my book. If I knew of any, fossil or living, I would certainly have included them...I will lay it on the line - there is not one such fossil for which one could make a watertight argument.
Ah, the pesky ellipsis. It's a bit tough to find a transcription of the original letter, but the good old Wayback Machine makes it possible.
Here, you can see the context of the answers. In the part left out by the ellipsis, you have:
You suggest that an artist should be asked to visualize such transformations, but where would he get the information from? I could not, honestly, provide it, and if I were to leave it to artistic licence, would that not mislead the reader?
Why does he say this? Later in the letter makes this clear:
The reason is that statements about ancestry and descent are not applicable in the fossil record. Is Archeopteryx the ancestor of all birds? Perhaps yes, perhaps no: there is no way of answering the question.
It is clear that he means something very specific in his answer to Sunderland, in that you don't know that a particular fossil represents an actual ancestor, merely a cousin, or a descendant that branched off a while ago. Thus, you cannot provide a direct illustration of a transition.
It's pedantic, but true, and it's either ignorant or dishonest of Sarfati to portray this as supporting his position.
It's a fair trail of weird from this point.
He accuses the booklet of "avoiding" discussion of non-living matter and the first living cell (abiogenesis - how often must we scream it?) and single-celled to multi-celled transitions. What, if it's not in this pamphlet, then scientists don't know about it or have any research or comment?
Bats have always been bats, he says! Well, they've been 'bats' for quite a while, but we can identify extinct and extant species but there are no fossils of them prior to the Eocene layer. It would probably be unfair to show the bat fossil find from Wyoming that's earlier than the one they put in the book, Onychonycteris finneyi, which didn't have sonar, but like so many things creationists claim, do they really think the fossil record is going to support them in the long run?
After the comment:
However, evolutionists admit, "Intermediates between turtles and cotylosaurs, the primitive reptiles from which [evolutionists believe] turtles probably sprang, are entirely lacking"
...he follows up with some jaw-dropping sloppiness:
They can't plead an incomplete fossil record because "turtles leave more and better fossil remains than do other vertebrates"
Never mind that "more and better fossil remains" does not equal a complete fossil record. The bigger question here is why intermediates should leave the same sort of fossil record as a turtle... in particular when the cotylosaurs are basal enough on the 'tree of life' that they would also lead to the dinosaurs, reptiles and mammals!
On top of that... this appears to be coming from an Encyclopedia Britannica entry. It's referenced as 'Encyclopaedia Britannica Online, "Turtle - Origin and Evolution."' here.
The fuller reference is on Answers in Genesis here. It's from the 1992 online edition, but it appears to be identical to the quote in that entry as it was in 1976 (see C. Pope quote here).
Under the heading "Excuses", we have W. B. Provine, who you simply must be informed is an atheist, taking E. O. Wilson, who you must also be informed is an atheist, to task over something he wrote in a book:
[Wilson] claimed to have studied "nearly exact intermediates between solitary wasps and the highly social modern ants." ... [Provine] says that Wilson's "assertions are explicitly denied by the text... Wilson's comments are misleading at best.
This is used by Sarfati to cast doubt of the presence of transitional forms as propaganda.
You can read Wilson's original text here.
Now, as for Provine's rebuttal... what could we suppose the chances that Sarfati has given us honest context? Why don't we take a look and see?
You will have to go to the Wayback Machine for this one, but here's the paragraph in full:
A related issue is talk of "intermediates," and "missing links," including the example given by Edward O. Wilson (page 15), whose assertions are explicitly denied by the text. The idea is not to find intermediates between living forms, in this case solitary wasps and highly social ants, but to find common ancestors. Denying the existence of intermediates between modern organisms is the specialty of young-earth creationists. Despite his great eminence, Wilson's comments are misleading at best. Evolutionists must be careful about claiming anything more than "approximate missing links." Most of the time, the "intermediate link" was on a separate evolutionary path leading to extinction, but was perhaps more or less closely related to the common ancestor.
Provine has an exceptionally good point here: you're not looking for intermediates between modern forms when you look in the fossil record. Even Charles Darwin mentions this:
So, does this controversy show the failing of transitional forms? Far from it, and once again we have to wonder about Sarfati: ignorant or dishonest? Are there other options?
I'll continue with this chapter in part 5.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27406 | Ever puzzled how you can print that particular photo you took along with your smartphone? Apple experienced a slight downturn from the earlier vacation quarter as iPhone volumes reached seventy seven.three million units, a year-over-yr decline of 1.three{88cb467d5d926977afe28e8346fd5825ecd5ac052f85d8d42e26d5805ab8ad6a}. Volumes were nonetheless enough to push Apple past Samsung and back into first place in the smartphone market, largely because of iPhone eight, eight Plus, and iPhone X. Apple continues to prove that having quite a few fashions at numerous value points bodes properly for bringing smartphone homeowners to iOS.
With the specifications talked about, Droid runs Android 2.0 and is the quickest Smartphone, however is a bit thicker than iPhone 3G. This Smartphone presents a high-resolution 3.seventy five-inch show screen, flip-by-turn Google Maps navigation (at the very least in beta test), a slide-out keyboard, access to `s MP3 retailer and a 5 megapixel camera.
The telephone firm that was once recognized solely by geeks is about to return a lot more well-liked in the smartphone world, however OnePlus flagships are value a look for greater than their exclusivity. Feeling of dread, nervousness or panic in case you leave your smartphone at house, the battery runs down or the operating system crashes. The pending arrival of their next flagship, the Galaxy S9, might represent the brand’s finest likelihood of successful over each new and present clients in 2018.
MeeGo is an working system created from the supply code of Moblin (produced by Intel) and Maemo (produced by Nokia). If all you care about is battery life, this smartphone is unquestionably for you, however Lenovo have performed a very good job elsewhere, as properly, with a decent steel construct, great show, and stable UI design. Regardless, the Meizu Pro 7 Plus tends to circle round £488 and at that value, makes it among the best, and most intriguing, smartphones you can buy in 2017.
LOCK: If you end up finished adjusting every of those settings, ensure to faucet each one again to lock the settings in place. Processors and screens have easily been essentially the most quickly advancing facets of smartphone know-how. In case your smartphone or Internet use is affecting your partner directly, as with extreme use of Internet pornography or on-line affairs, marriage counseling can help you work through these challenging issues. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27409 | The First Interferences
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"Beginning is easy - Continuing is hard." The run begins on the Day of the Early Fox in the Month of the Bear in the eleventh Year of the Bear since the Third Treaty of Houses.
The run takes place mostly in the Hon'eth Arcade
Previous Run
A Set of Missions
The party is in the Steppes, where Mondo has just returned with Kuan-Xi's carriage and the three Talismans, but is asleep beyond waking at the moment.
Cai Wen finds a message from Chashui in his Duplicating Papers:
Honored Master Zhu, and others of the House:
Enquiries have begun to appear from those who wish enthusiastic interference performed on their behalf. Some are clearly inappropriate, or may be intended as entrapment against the monopolies of other Great Houses, and some I have been able to deal with; these are the requests which have been made in the past few days which have not obviously fallen into those categories.
Two enquiries that may be worth pursuing while you are in the North (and appropriate fees determined):
1. Grandmother Khoo wishes news of her son Iroh, who joined the Dragon Army some few months ago but has not been heard from since.
2. If the House of Exuberant Interference does intend to be in the “really really fast courier” business (some rumors to this effect have begun to circulate), then Yang Achu wishes Su Kaong to be delivered word that “the answer is yes”, as fast as is humanly possible. Su Kaong is part of the Arcade levies sent north.
Other enquiries that should probably be pursued once you return to the Arcade:
3. Hsu Verity and others in the Elemental Braid would like to consult with the House about “co-existent elements”.
4. Konoe Tadako would like to consult the House about an entanglement she finds suspicious.
5. Lady Liet would like to consult with “the particularly clever and sneaky” House members about a matter she was unwilling to discuss with me.
6. Cho Lin is curious whether, in addition to matchmaking services, the House provides anti-matchmaking services.
Merit wonders what "coexisting elements" are - probably something like ice chips of doom, which are both water and fire simultaneously. Hmm. Well, they can talk to Verity when they get there.
Next, Merit checks with his Divine Skein contacts in the Dragon Army to try to find Khoo Iroh, but has no luck. The military records aren't secret exactly, but they're not public, so the contact would need an excuse to look through them. However, he says that the new recruits from the Arcade would likely be in the Northeastern command, in the camp for the recent battle, or possibly in the Northern Arcade. The group asks around the camp in the Steppes, and finds some soldiers named Khoo, but none are Khoo Iroh, nor are they related. Su Kaong isn't here either, but Arcade levies would be in the Arcade.
The group heads to the army camps in the northern Arcade. There continues to be no sign of Khoo Iroh, but Su Kaong is in the medical tent. Rumor says that there was some kind of accidental friendly fire incident. Xiao Fa and Merit head into the medical tent, and Xiao Fa offers his assistance. There are a bunch of people in casts, but there's not a lot of blood. Merit delivers the message to Su Kuong - he's bewildered that the head of the house has arrived, but is happy to be told that the answer is yes, and tells Merit to send a return message that he is the happiest of men. So... what happened to him? He isn't supposed to talk about it, but he fell off the Wall. This is certainly suspicious, and Xiao Fa interrogates the other wounded. They all aren't supposed to talk about it, but Xiao Fa manages to extract that "the Dragon Army doesn’t like the Levies practicing on the Wall". They seem embarrassed and annoyed more than furious, though. Cai Wen sends the reply to Chashui via the duplicating paper, and that task gets checked off the list.
The group heads over to the Steppes Dragon Army camp — there's no sign of Khoo Iroh there either. They consider - maybe he told his mother he signed up, but ran away instead. Takanata Auspiciously Summons Mulan, who is in the area to report in about recruiting. They ask her about the Arcade guys getting thrown off the Wall, and her immediate reaction is that it's not their Wall, though it's not like they can't go up when there's a battle or there are joint training exercises with the Dragon Army. Mulan doesn't know Khoo Iroh or remember recruiting him, though. She did recruit a Li Iroh in the Strand, but that's probably not the same person, and he's probably in one of the Southern Commands now. Mulan notes that there should be a recruiting record in the city he signed up in, and a file in the command wherever he ended up, both in the main HQ and in the local theater.
The party heads to the Arcade and Daizhou, where Takanata statuses his way into the Records section. He offers, by way of explanation, that “Khoo Iroh’s grandmother is worried about him”, but then realizes that that's untrue. Oh, it's his mother, but (Merit thinks) there's probably something more to it than a simple mis-speak, or it wouldn't have set his I Ching off so much. Hmm. Takanata does find someone by the name of Khoo Iroh in the records, but he was a soldier who died about thirty years ago, so that probably isn't him either. The party considers whether this is all some mysterious pretense, like "Grandmother Khoo" is actually a mobster trying to find someone who owes her money, but Cai Wen doesn't think that "Grandmother Khoo" is a famous personage in the Arcade, at least.
The group asks around after scouts who have been over the Wall - are they severed from the chi of the Empire now? Xiao Fa goes out for drinks with some of them, and looks at their chi. It looks like they have been severed, but more gently than the party. Xiao Fa thinks they might notice if country names change (or have some dissonance and denial, the way people are in denial about the islands changing places). Those who have been over the Wall for longer times and farther scouting missions seem to be more detached.
Merit asks for a background check on Khoo Iroh - they'll see what they can find out. He asks if there's anything they need, and they say if he can find them some actual white lotus seeds, that would be keen.
Port of Propitious Voyage
Well, maybe they need to talk to Grandmother Khoo about more details. And check in with Chashui about the rest of them. As they head into the Port of Propitious Voyage, Li Merit spots Nozaki Maeko, the court flower arranger for the Beautiful Court (who Merit had a date with for the second Chapter End), and Cai Wen gets the feeling that there's a babe around somewhere. She's here to get some colder-weather flowers for the Island, and when Merit asks after white lotuses, she suggests the Strand or the Precincts, as it's a tropical water flower. Everyone heads to the tea house as Maeko and Merit chat.
Chashui goes into more detail about not stepping on the monopolies for other Great Houses, and notes that the House of Exuberant Interference could think about applying for a monopoly - but they won't get one on "meddling". Basically, the monopolies aren’t absolute, but they shouldn’t be making a big splash in someone else’s area. For example, if Deng was in the House, hiring him out to Interfere is fine, and bodyguarding people in the House is also fine, but hiring him out as an expensive bodyguard is starting to step on the toes of the House of Gainful Protection. Licensing fees are the usual way of getting around infringements, though those are mostly for individuals — Houses don’t usually license to each other. Merit gets a list of stuff to not buy or ship in bulk through the Arcade.
Hsu Verity and some of the other members of the Elemental Braid are in the back room, and the group chats about "coexisting elements". Yup, they mean ice chips of doom, or other things like that? Alas, the party has no more ice chips of doom, and suspects the GMs will not give them more. Petrified wood and pond scum are also potentially interesting, though not exciting, and they're interested in having Takanata tweak some of their shticks to change elements, to test things out. The party agrees to keep their eyes out for other similar items, and mention Ming I having a "water gate" that she uses with fire. Ooh, that's interesting. Cai Wen says he'll try to arrange a chat with her that doesn't involve going through the Alchemist first. Speaking of Ming I, does Verity have any ideas about the "Shen-Ji is cursed to make women particularly hate him?" She doesn't know much about Ming I, and thinks that Yuwen Fire-Eye was kind of legitimately annoyed about being drafted by the Dragon Army, but she does also think that Shen-Ji can be a little exasperating sometimes. They aren't entirely pleased by "By the way, I was talking to some southern gods about your project, and they think you need to become gods", and now they keep second guessing themselves about the City Spirit project.
Takanata draws a picture and then crumples and throws it away idly - Xiao Fa pounces on it. Hmm. Is that the orb of true seeing showing a coyote in place of a fox? But what about the poem? Why does it trail off? Why did Takanata throw it away?
Cai Wen detects another babe - or, an older woman of grace and dignity. She smiles at Master Zhou, who spots Cai Wen looking, and glares at the woman in puzzlement. She looks a little hurt, and continues on, to be immediately pursued by Xiao Fa.
"Pardon me, miss... Do you know..." -Xiao Fa, pointing at Master Zhou
"Apparently not!"
"I am Xiao Fa, a student of..."
"Of course you are."
"And he is at your service!" -Cai Wen
Xiao Fa explains that Master Zhou has had some mishaps and lost some memories. She’s appalled, but thinks maybe she shouldn't bother him. But the party isn't letting go of her now.
"That is his look of curiosity..." -Xiao Fa
She introduces herself as Lu Yian He, and Xiao Fa shepherds her back to the Cup of Five Virtues and asks Chashui to get some serious tea. Takanata checks the strongest relationship between the two of them, and it's "exes", but there's an overlaid foxy-sort of heart valentine, with one corner bent into "coyote". Interesting.
"Speak to me of how we knew each other." -Master Zhou
"<general laughter>"
"...speak to me of how we met?" -Master Zhou
She says that they lived in the same town in the Taiga when they were young. He was always into kung fu; she had hoped that it was a phase, or at least, that he would put other things in his priorities once he became a master, but he was married to his kung fu, so she moved on, got married herself, had kids... Anyway, she's travelling to the Aracade now, but she still lives in the Taiga. She's sad to hear that Master Zhou (who she calls Wei) has lost all his memories, and hasn't had anyone else to tell him about his life before that. What about his companions? These friends? He admits that they are from after the time when he went to the World Above and lost his memories. She’s concerned about him, but he says he originally wanted to get everything that he lost back, but he has let go of that. She wonders how he can know where he is going if he doesn't know where he is coming from, and is also concerned that he is lonely.
"I have more... um... people who are not my students..." -Master Zhou
"He means he has more friends than he had before." -Xiao Fa
"<grunt>" -Master Zhou
She invites him to visit, in Fragrant Vines in the Taiga (that's their home town), and asks more about what he has been doing. Defending against the South, the North, perfecting kung fu, that kind of stuff. Zhou considers sparring with her to learn about her, but decides that would be awkward. (He mentions sparring, and she thinks he might be flirting, and reminds him that she’s married.) “Kung fu is kind of like flirtation... the way you did it.” But she decides that maybe a little sparring is in order, kind of like going out for a drink with an old friend, and she does apparently have a few (possibly rusty) shticks in dodge and grab. Cai Wen looks out for a Flirtatious Throw shtick, and she doesn’t have that, but the forms she has are Tiger, and grabs can certainly be done flirtatiously. She's a Butterfly, though, not a Tiger, and Master Zhou kind of remembers the grab-and-hold-a-beat sparring, with muscle memory. Also, Master Zhou notes that she clearly learned the shticks from him.
"We have done this before..." -Zhou
"<blush> " -Lu Yian He
She should be going, though, and leave them to their defending against the North and South and the like. She kisses Zhou on the cheek as she goes, and stops for a moment to admonish Xiao Fa.
"He’s not that old. You’re letting him be old." -Yian He
Xiao Fa accepts his homework with a smile.
Daizhou again
The party takes stock of what they have left to do. There are the various enquiries that Chashui listed, but wasn't there some sort of plot about people falling off of the Wall? The group troops back to Daizhou, where Cai Wen manages to get a meeting with a Dragon Army logistics officer.
"I’ve heard there are problems with exercises on the Wall." -Cai Wen
"Who did you hear that from?"
"People who wouldn’t talk about it. I’m here to Exuberantly Interfere with the situation."
"Oh you’re those people."
Cai Wen admits to being those people, and refuses to rise to argument. The logistics officer mostly doesn't want them cruising in and getting credit for solving everything. Cai Wen asks how he can help without grabbing any credit. Suspicious, the officer says he can get a case of good brandy for them. Cai Wen agrees, and goes off shopping to return with a case of good brandy - more than an out of pocket expense for a soldier, but not too much for a new House of Meddling. The officer is a little taken aback at this gratuitious helpfulness, and ends up explaining the situation. There has always been tension between the Dragon Army and the levies; the new rules changes about going across the Wall have allowed for new tensions, since the Dragon Army can go scouting but nobody else can. It used to be that the Wall was a boundary for everyone; now it's a boundary for the levies but not the Army, so the "it's our Wall, not yours" issue has gotten worse. Anyway, some Arcade levies applied for permission to train on the Wall, and it was slow to get approved, so some of them went up and started running their own training, and the Army troops came over, and... then there was some escalation, and some people fell off the Wall. From the lieutenant's description, there was some escalation on both sides that got out of hand, and with some carefully arranged bonding over brandy between the mid-level officers and between the infantry, he hopes to smooth things back down. Well, that's probably mostly solved for the moment, then.
Master Zhou stops by the Clear Melting Sect to talk to Master Tien. She's a little more suspicious of him now than she used to be, as he asks for help sorting out the Horrible Frame against him. He explains his theory that killing someone with the Quivering Palm stolen from him would cause someone to be named "...murdered by Zhou Wei", but Master Tien doesn't think that holds water. If you steal someone’s sword and kill someone with it, you're the murderer, not them. He asks if she can check the other monks to see who killed them, in case the frame breaks down there. She says that she believes that the one who was called back was the one that they had the most personal effects on hand for, but they might be able to call someone else. It's something like encouraging a haunting long enough to question the ghost. Of course, if they think Zhou killed them, that’s a connection that could help encourage a haunting. Xiao Fa notes her suspicion, and tries to decide what she actually thinks. She's more giving Master Zhou a hearing than already believing he's guilty - she thinks he sounds sincere, but “Killed by Zhou Wei” carries a lot of weight with her, and she thinks his theories sound more like rationalizations. Could they have been killed by someone with the same name? Technically, yes, but that would be a rather unlikely coincidence...
"Actually, the hallmark of a Master Zhou combat is a lot of people killed by Deng Zhi-Hao." -Cai Wen
She also raises the issue of possession (since Zhou has hung out with ghosts in the past), or some sort of dark chi control, which might have caused him to kill people and not remember it. She wonders if there is any evidence that Zhou would accept rather than explain away - if not, then they shouldn't describe themselves as impartially investigating, but instead, as seeking a way to clear his name.
Xiao Fa begins to suspect that the country-renaming trap is bigger than just making people think that Master Zhou is guilty. If he is corrupting Bear Mountain in the greater sense, by refusing against all evidence to admit his guilt; Min Feng rules in his favor because she is a friend of his, not because of the evidence, so the system itself is corrupt. The group discusses this for a while, but does not find any obvious way to proceed.
Harbor of Fortunate Arrival
Next step, looking up Grandmother Khoo and Liet. As the group arrives in the Harbor of Fortunate Arrival, Takanata spots someone who looks sort of like Min Feng, and others recognize her as Song Ming Zhu, Min Feng's mother. Takanata walks quickly in the other direction, and Xiao Fa, Merit, and Cai Wen catch up to her. She's here to buy some silk, dyed in a new deep crimson color (she explains how not all pigments work as dyes because they aren't fast). Xiao Fa writes her a letter of introduction to the House of Quiet Concordance, and sends another letter via runner to Master Tranh letting him know. Kasumi briefly gets a feeling as if there's a ninja around, but doesn't see anyone.
Chashui has given the group Grandmother Khoo's address, so they head there. The old woman offers them tea, and is happy that they are finding her son. Cai Wen asks about Iroh as a distraction, and talks about army life in general, while Xiao Fa examines her chi - she does seem to have a lot of pieces missing, as if from age. Xiao Fa and Kasumi chat with the neighbors, who are startled and sad to hear that they have been hired to find Iroh. He died a long time ago, and she does forget sometimes, they say, but this is the first time she's hired someone over it. The neighbors advise saying he'll probably be back soon - there's no point in giving her fresh grief by telling her Iroh is dead. She'll remember soon enough - he's buried with the rest of the family - but it will be old grief then. The group confers - is there anything they should do to help? Xiao Fa could chi-heal her to help her memory for a time, but Cai Wen thinks leaving her in peace might be kinder. He goes through the dossier that Merit's guys have put together, telling her about Iroh's various commendations, and leaving out his death at the end. Merit negotiates a low fee, and Kasumi sneaks the same amount of money into her money box after the group leaves.
As the group is leaving, Xiao Fa spots Yanzi, looking a little harried, as she catches up to him. She has apparently been going back and forth to Daizhou trying to find them. Since Master Zhou left the White Pagoda, there have been... some weird occurrences. She is concerned that it is haunted. There are cold spots, strange moaning noises late at night...
"Is the moaning coherent, forming words?" -Zhou
"<mass laughter>"
Well, he can look into it next time he is there. He has been trained in dealing with ghosts.
"You can lay ghosts to rest, but you have to punch them first."
Xiao Fa wonders - could this be a side effect of the senchi chamber drifting in a weird direction because it's not attuned? Well, possibly, but it would have to be drifting in an odd sort of spooky direction, which would be unusual unless something was pushing it that way.
Cai Wen notices Squeaky noticing a woman with a fluffy white ferret on her shoulder, heading into a nearby inn. It's the one where the group was planning to book rooms anyway, so Cai Wen follows her in, and makes sure to get a room next to hers, with balconies that might be easily jumped between by a ferret.
Meanwhile, the others look up Liet. She says that they have to agree to keep the mission secret even if they don't do it, and they agree. Ting Fong Trinkets has discovered a deep crimson silk dye, that it plans to sell to the House of Resplendent Decorations. Myo is in charge of the negotiations for buying the dye, but Liet wants to make sure he impresses his father, so she wants the party to find out the secret of the dye so Myo can drop enough hints to drive the price down. But Myo is a little more honorable than Liet is, so it would be good if he just happened on the secret.
The party confers. Is this a job they want to do? It's kind of dishonorable and thwarts the little guy. They counter-offer: they'll put together a really good propaganda campaign for Deep Crimson afterwards, and get Kuan-Xi and/or Takanata to set a new fashion trend, so the color will be extra-profitable, and Myo will get credit for foresight. Or should Myo be the one who "hires" the propaganda campaign? Liet thinks it's better to have credit for being prescient than for hiring people to do stuff for you, so while she is disappointed, she takes the deal.
That night, Squeaky disappears for a while, and comes back looking pleased with himself. Kasumi wakes up with the idea that someone might have just looked in the window, but they're gone now. She considers ninja etiquette, and thinks that it's poor form to socialize while you're on a mission, so maybe that's what's going on.
In the morning, Ming Zhu shows up looking somewhat nervous; Takanata sends everyone away so that they can talk. They walk around the city, and Takanata manages to somewhat put her at ease by not getting into anything deep, but rather noodling around town, talking dye and fashion and embroidery. Takanata approves of her artistic tastes. They have lunch. His natural reserve and her shyness do not clash too badly, and it gets somewhat less awkward as things go along. Then she gets up her courage to ask how Takanata knew to send for Min Feng. Takanata replies that he didn’t; Dowager Song sent Min Feng to him. Ming Zhu is disappointed with this, but she’s had a lot of that.
Kasumi trolls around town for her ninja watcher. Up in the noble district, she notices a window that becomes un-closed between looks. Aha! What to leave as a calling card? She sneaks up to the window and leaves a little note inviting him to catch up with her at the House of Exuberant Interference.
Port of Propitious Voyage
After lunch, the party heads back to the Port, and calls on Cho Lin. She answers the door, and suggests a walk, as if she doesn't really want her husband to hear the discussion. Her daughter (Peng Ahlam) has married a man - they arranged it for business reasons (both husband and son-in-law are carpenters, now allied rather than competing) - but now she thinks that her daughter is unhappy, more so than the usual “not a great match and she’s unhappy”. She dances around the subject a bit, but he sounds abusive. But Cho Lin thinks her daughter won't just run away - she takes her duty seriously. The group takes the job, but is unclear what to do.
Takanata and the others go to Peng Yen-ti's shop, and arranges to buy some fancy wood for a pedestal. When Peng Ahlam comes to bring in tea, Takanata checks the connection between them, and it's clear that Yen-ti is Ahlam's abusive husband. The group retreats to the tea house to discuss. Merit and Xiao Fa think he's the traditional charming abuser type. Takanata could curse him, but that might make things worse in the longer run (he might switch to psychological abuse, or start abusing the kids instead...). After considering a lot of options, including having Kasumi just kill him, they decide to hire him for a six month private woodworking contract at Tahiti, and put Yanyu on breaking up the marriage in the meantime. Cai Wen briefs Izumi on the guy and authorizes her to do double damage to him if he lays a hand on anyone at the estate. Izumi is kind of appalled at the idea of deliberately hiring someone who might beat up the servants. Cai Wen explains the plan, and Izumi says she can think of easier solutions.
"That’s plan B." -Cai Wen
Finally, the group goes to find Kanoe Tadako, who tells everyone about her friend who has fallen for someone she thinks is weirdly inappropriate, and might be ensorcelled. The friend is an ex street rat; the girlfriend is a minor noble in the House of Benevolent Oversight. Investigation indicates that she's studying to become a judge, and is living at home and not supposed to go out at night. The friend is a clerk. All evidence suggests that they are in fact smitten with each other (and hold hands through the garden fence). The plot seems to have been stolen from Les Miserables, and the party has been hired by Eponine. It doesn't seem worth breaking this relationship up, so the group tells Tadako that it's not ensorcelment. Perhaps she should train with Master Zhou. She doesn't see the point, but then, she doesn't have anything better to do. Master Zhou notes that she's a level 2 Dog aspect, and that his sparring seems more likely to accidentally kill her than he would expect, like she has a vague sort of destiny to die soon. Hence, she doesn't have much potential left, but if she did, she wouldn't be living up to it yet. Also, she doesn't really remember why she decided that hiring detectives was a clever idea. What was she thinking? Hmm, that is sort of suspicious. Does her forgetting have something to do with the truncated poem? Xiao Fa examines her chi, and there is a minor blip in her chi, something that she forgot recently. Merit peeks at her with the Orb of True Seeing, and thinks that she's definitely archetypal in an Eponine-ish role, to the extent that something may have polished her that way. Like having theme music. Her I Ching confirms this.
Xiao Fa walks her through a guided meditation to try to remember when she decided to hire the House. It was after she picked up a few pork buns for dinner. She bought the pork buns, and then... after that, she was going to hire the house. She doesn't really remember eating the pork buns. The group heads over to the pork bun stand, but Takanata has already used his Visions of the Past shtick. So... does it count as failing the mission if she wanders off and gets shot by a sniper? And does that set a precedent? Yes, a little. It's not a guarantee that all the future clients will get shot by snipers, but it's symbolically important. Xiao Fa asks Dragon for advice, and Dragon points out that there have been three plots that didn't have clear happy solutions: the abusive husband, the forgetful grandmother, and this one. Cai Wen drops a persuasion hammer on her to convince her to go to Bear Mountain and learn kung fu with Master Zhou; that will at least get her away from her friend and his romance.
Takanata tweaks an entangle-vines shtick of one of the Elemental Braid sorcerers to entangle with vines of stone instead, so they can mess around with the petrified wood.
Xiao Fa uses Voice of the Dragon to let everyone chat with Dragon. They explain Master Zhou's framing problem, and Xiao Fa's worry that they're just playing into the hands of their enemies. How about if they publicly submit Master Zhou to Dragon's justice? Would that solve the plot? Dragon is not clear that the Steadfast Heart is really going to see a Dragon Spirit as such an obvious judge, and saying "I submit to the justice of this mechanic that I have chosen because I know it's going to turn out the way I want" is just continuing the problem instead of solving it. He also notes that Dragons are known for wisdom, but not omniscience, and his greatest failing was an act of injustice, so while he would aspire to justice, he is not necessarily the right archetype here. Also, if Takanata's divinations give answers that are obviously wrong here, it is possible that mortals will not be able to see through the frame, and Zhou will need to decide what to do in that case.
Takanata plays around with Connections some more, and does come up with a reading that is somewhat self-contradictory, though it continues to insist that Master Zhou was behind the attack. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27424 | So if you’re the weak guy in a class of bullies, can you still get lucky? Some males of the ant species Cardiocondyla obscurior say,
They have some advice for you.
In C. obscurior nests,
To avoid getting stomped on by the larger males and still mate with future queens, these Steve Urkles mimic the scent of fertile female ants.
Beefy bullies get all hot and bothered by their brothers dressed in drag, and instead of attacking these should-be rivals, they try to mate with them.
Meanwhile, our ant Ru Pauls are hooking up with the actual females.BHR_Transgender_Ants2_last_01
Not only are these wimps getting lucky; so are their offspring. Dressing in drag is one way scrawny guys push their genes into future generations. BHR_Transgender_Ants_last_01
Brad Maurer is a stream restoration engineer at The Nature Conservancy. He likes his job, but still regrets dropping out of art school. He’s currently working on a book of insect cartoon characters. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27425 | /* $OpenBSD: buffer.h,v 1.15 2015/06/24 10:05:14 jsing Exp $ */ /* Copyright (C) 1995-1998 Eric Young ([email protected]) * All rights reserved. * * This package is an SSL implementation written * by Eric Young ([email protected]). * The implementation was written so as to conform with Netscapes SSL. * * This library is free for commercial and non-commercial use as long as * the following conditions are aheared to. The following conditions * apply to all code found in this distribution, be it the RC4, RSA, * lhash, DES, etc., code; not just the SSL code. The SSL documentation * included with this distribution is covered by the same copyright terms * except that the holder is Tim Hudson ([email protected]). * * Copyright remains Eric Young's, and as such any Copyright notices in * the code are not to be removed. * If this package is used in a product, Eric Young should be given attribution * as the author of the parts of the library used. * This can be in the form of a textual message at program startup or * in documentation (online or textual) provided with the package. * * Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without * modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions * are met: * 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. * 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright * notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the * documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. * 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software * must display the following acknowledgement: * "This product includes cryptographic software written by * Eric Young ([email protected])" * The word 'cryptographic' can be left out if the rouines from the library * being used are not cryptographic related :-). * 4. If you include any Windows specific code (or a derivative thereof) from * the apps directory (application code) you must include an acknowledgement: * "This product includes software written by Tim Hudson ([email protected])" * * THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY ERIC YOUNG ``AS IS'' AND * ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE * IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE * ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHOR OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE * FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL * DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS * OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) * HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT * LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY * OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF * SUCH DAMAGE. * * The licence and distribution terms for any publically available version or * derivative of this code cannot be changed. i.e. this code cannot simply be * copied and put under another distribution licence * [including the GNU Public Licence.] */ #ifndef HEADER_BUFFER_H #define HEADER_BUFFER_H #if !defined(HAVE_ATTRIBUTE__BOUNDED__) && !defined(__OpenBSD__) #define __bounded__(x, y, z) #endif #include #ifdef __cplusplus extern "C" { #endif #include #include /* Already declared in ossl_typ.h */ /* typedef struct buf_mem_st BUF_MEM; */ struct buf_mem_st { size_t length; /* current number of bytes */ char *data; size_t max; /* size of buffer */ }; BUF_MEM *BUF_MEM_new(void); void BUF_MEM_free(BUF_MEM *a); int BUF_MEM_grow(BUF_MEM *str, size_t len); int BUF_MEM_grow_clean(BUF_MEM *str, size_t len); #ifndef LIBRESSL_INTERNAL char * BUF_strdup(const char *str); char * BUF_strndup(const char *str, size_t siz); void * BUF_memdup(const void *data, size_t siz); void BUF_reverse(unsigned char *out, const unsigned char *in, size_t siz); /* safe string functions */ size_t BUF_strlcpy(char *dst, const char *src, size_t siz) __attribute__ ((__bounded__(__string__,1,3))); size_t BUF_strlcat(char *dst, const char *src, size_t siz) __attribute__ ((__bounded__(__string__,1,3))); #endif /* BEGIN ERROR CODES */ /* The following lines are auto generated by the script mkerr.pl. Any changes * made after this point may be overwritten when the script is next run. */ void ERR_load_BUF_strings(void); /* Error codes for the BUF functions. */ /* Function codes. */ #define BUF_F_BUF_MEMDUP 103 #define BUF_F_BUF_MEM_GROW 100 #define BUF_F_BUF_MEM_GROW_CLEAN 105 #define BUF_F_BUF_MEM_NEW 101 #define BUF_F_BUF_STRDUP 102 #define BUF_F_BUF_STRNDUP 104 /* Reason codes. */ #ifdef __cplusplus } #endif #endif |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27431 | Sarkozy & Palin - Punked
Palin cracks me up. Listening to this is quite funny. She doesn't actually talk about anything. It seems like she is just flirting and doesn't know what to say to him. She talks about how his wife Carla Bruni has added alot of 'energy' to France and to 'give her a big hug'. The Masked Avengers make a good joke asking if Joe the Plumber is her husband. Like that one. She stays on the phone for about 7 minutes. The Globe and Mail published a transcript of the entire call.
Carla Bruni is hot.
Pass for Cash
Upper Class.
Social Class.
A cool class.
A school class.
You can pass,
if you got the cash.
2006 - Me.
Be Inspired
I sat in on a friends class a few years ago at University of Waterloo. I do not remember what she was taking as her major but I have always taken a liking to university classes no mater what genre. The class I attended this particular day was on focused on Shakespeare. It made me think "Shakespeare is fascinating, I want to be fascinating". I came up with two things inspired by the class. Often, when I am in class, especially when not a registered student, I am inspired by a variety in topics and unexpected ideas of interest.
acutely ironic
a bird writes a sonnet
sings the sonnet
out of tune
across the river
to a loon
Prof, English
speak prof speak
for what you say
is what you teach
teach prof teach
for i sit here
and yearn to learn
read prof read
for what you do
is how you lead
lead prof lead
for i sit here
and fight to write
I used to know someone who constantly surprised me by their lack of motivation to do anything. To go out, to work hard, have dreams, try, do, any of those type of things that involve stimulus or drive. Their lack of inspiration, inspired me, and for that, I am thankful. This is Lackluster.
dull and boring
uninspired & unmoved
bland and down
uninteresting & unconcerned
spiritless and square
for a matter of fact
that's just you
I look away for a second
The rush of the wave
Approaches my towel
Causing me to spring and move
Out of the way of the ocean
When I lived at the beach I wrote all the time. It was so inspiring and free to be there, I wrote this in 2004 the pic is from Aquabumps. They have the best shots from Bondi and other amazing beaches. I always miss it when I see them but i'm also reminded of how great it is.
Board, Go!
Breathe and surf
Take it in
Oceal pearl
Sandy feet
Salty skin
Running back and forth
Feel the sun
Burning down
Ride it in
Take Me out again!
Fond Memories...
its cold outside and i wanna stay warm
the wind is whipping at my windows
winding my thoughts around
whirlwind words spin
Me, Bondi Beach, Aus, 2004.
Over sand,
Over sea.
On my face,
On my feet.
Growing tall.
Eat your seeds.
Sunny day,
At the beach. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27440 | Ten Inch Mutant Ninja Turtles – The Cinema Snob
In preperation for the new Ninja Turtles movie, The Cinema Snob checks out this slightly more full frontal version of the characters.
About thecinemasnob
1. April O Neil is played by April O Neil? Is that her real name?
2. The costumes are still better than the third movie, weirdly enough.
3. But… turtles are reptiles – they don’t HAVE dicks (Ten inch or otherwise)! I expect better biological knowledge from XXX Parodies.
4. The Mysterious M
From that opening, I’m surprised he hasn’t done any of Vivid’s parodies yet
5. You’ve paid for this movie?
6. I’m usually not a Cinema Snob fan but I heard that this one is really really odd so I wanted to know what people meant without actually watching the porn itself. People really built it up. It’s not as odd as I thought it was going to be.
7. Honestly those costumes are surprisingly good. Actual official TMNT productions have had way worse-looking costumes than those.
8. Not only do turtles have penises, they have really, REALLY long ones. Like, half the length of their bodies. So human sized turtles being 10 inches is actually rather on the small side.
At least if “Scientifically accurate Ninja Turtles” is to be believed.
9. for gods sake, the costumes in this stupid porn parody are actually some of the best I’ve ever seen from live action ninja turtles. I mean, they aren’t quite Jim Henson but they’re better than the Christmas special, the musical, the Next Mutation TV series, and for fucks sake, the Casey Jones and April characters are the best looking depictions of the characters I have ever seen in live action. It’s almost like they freaking gave a crap about this! Too bad they didn’t want to risk damaging those costumes with a turtle fuck scene because it could have been a sight to behold.
• I didn’t think Shredder was that real looking. The fight scene didn’t look like much, and I can see why they didn’t show it. Also if you look closely, the Turtle costumes didn’t make the Turtles out to be that strong, though it was textured nicely.
10. I’m sure Brad is just kidding as the Snob, but hey, you get to see a hot woman get boned and then live out the fantasy of at least 50 percent of the Turtle fanbase. What is there to complain about?
11. Was the moon vs days comment an Equestria Girls reference?
12. I bought this movie fully expecting to see mutant turtle splooze all over Spreader’s back no later than the 6 minute mark. I’m so pissed about it that I’m gonna go complain about it in the comments section of an internet critic’s movie review page.
*storms off*
13. To be fair the girl that played April O’Neil is really cool and quite nice. She also is pretty hot in her normal attire and doesn’t look at all like how you would think a Pornstar looks like, you know how Megan Fox does. April looks more like a hipster a cute hipster but a hipster none the less.
14. Snob, you talk about money in reference to this porn parody? Woodrocket put this clip on their website for free, according to research. So no money spent for this. And yes, the story is pointless and April O’Neil is nice. And the costumes and references are good. You can see, Lee Roy Myers actually takes care of the source material. They actually created real turnle costumes for this and put the movie available for free for everyone. This should give the credits to. And to be honest the look on April’s face when she feels sorry for us not to see the ninja action is pretty funny.
BTW you should check out the Back to the Future porn parodies there are. Lee Roy Myers had a similar porn movie like the TIMNT, called Fap to the future, with April O’Neil as Marty DickFly and some guy doing a horrible Christopher Lloyd impression. But here you see, they watched the movie. There is also “Backside To the Future” from 1986, which has a cool theme song, a real Delorean and something about time travel (no actual parodies or references to the original movie) and a british movie called “Back in Time”, which is closer to the movie then the 1986 spoof.
Maybe this is something for you.
15. Those costumes are better than they have any right to be.
16. What the heck is the audience for these ‘porn parodies’ anyway? They can’t be for masturbation material, they’re too stupid for that. And nobody with a shred of shame would want to watch it in company. It’s not even funny, and even if it were, the porn aspect would make it too embarassing to watch as a comedy. I wonder how these things get funded
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27458 | Kept at Arm's Length
November 28, 2016:
After a long day at the office, Dr. Jane Foster returns home to find that— for once— someone is waiting there for her.
Brooklyn, NYC
NPCs: None.
Mood Music: [*\# None.]
Fade In…
It's nearly two a.m., and Jane Foster has officially given up on the trains.
She manages a good fifteen minutes of waiting at a subway platform, fidgets and toes a bit a garbage down onto the tracks, and finally determines her time is of far more value of this, the night isn't that cold, and she may as well walk. It's graveyard-quiet when she re-emerges back up on the empty Brighton streets, peaceful and eery, and she re-considers just doubling back to her lab and sleeping there for the night. Jane exhales a foggy breath into the late November air. She can't take a third night's sleep on that terrible couch.
So the woman crams her hands into her coat pockets and makes an executive decision, and walks the rest of the way. The air is brisk and the sharp, sea-wet cold keeps her alert and her step quick, shivering as the humidity cuts something mean through all her layers. Still not used to this, not used to any of this, after those three pleasant years of dry, desert heat. The streets of Brooklyn are stunningly silent, a different, picturesque look at New York in a brief window so devoid of life, and that is something Jane finds herself appreciating her long stroll back. She misses the space and silence of New Mexico.
She looks up at the night sky. She misses the stars too.
Eventually, Jane returns home to her brownstone walk-up, old and brick and humblingly working class, and fusses for her keys, and nearly suffering a quiet heart attack because it would be her to forget them back at the lab. But, to her relief, she recovers them with a noisy jingle.
She jiggles the old lock four times until it unsticks, and lets herself in.
Locking it behind her, the woman shudders agreeably against the rush of warmth, stripping off her coat and tossing it down to a chair, her keys deposited unceremoniously on top. Scrubbing a hand through her hair, she doesn't even stop to turn on a light, toeing off her boots mid-stride and leaving them to the foyer, taking an immediate beeline to the galley kitchen. Jane moves past a row of darkened photos. In one she is younger, with braided hair, laughing as she holds up some medal and hugs a man who looks like her. In another she and him are wearing matching Christmas sweaters, sharing an identical lopsided smile. In the third, she's standing neatly in graduation robes, a different man standing next to her, older and blond-haired and proud. Jane is still smiling, but there is something different in her eyes, and the way they simply stare dead forward. Something changed.
Light finally slants into the tiny apartment. Jane opens the fridge and finds herself a carton of milk, humming something tonelessly as she tiptoes up, straining to reach a top-cabinet cereal box.
For days Jane Foster has gone about her routine, and for days she has, without noticing, grown an extra, disparate shadow. She was watched as she left her apartment in the mornings. She was watched as she worked. She was watched as she went home entirely too late at night. Her domicile was inspected from all angles while she slept, entries and exits noted.
Today they were used sometime in the hours between her departure and return.
Tonight she returns home to an apartment— plus one. Not that she would be aware, at first. Not a thing is misplaced, not a sheet of paper moved. No sound breathes through the empty rooms and narrow halls; no fleeting hints of movement tug at the corner of the eye. THe only thing that changed, in fact, between today and yesterday is the fact that one of those photos in the row— the one of her with that man who looks like her— is missing a bit of dust. A tiny patch of the glass is wiped clean in the shape of someone's curious, passing touch.
Not that she would notice. She rarely looks at those photos— she has been observed long enough for this behavior to be confirmed.
She is intent, as expected, only on one thing: unwinding after another long day of work. She usually enters the kitchen immediately; this, too, has been confirmed. Thus it is that as she enters a moment of distraction, her concentration locked on trying to open an overhead cabinet, a tiny sound that she herself did not make finally announces itself quietly in the dead air.
It is the smallest of sounds. One disparate little click, in between the notes of Jane's tuneless humming, that indicates the de-cocking lever of a SIG P220 being thumbed.
Wouldn't want an accidental trigger pull to scatter those much-needed brains.
Something has changed about the /feel/ of the space behind her. There is an anxious, electric certainty— that reptile-brain sixth sense— that she is no longer alone… and warning her, in abstract spatial ways, that there is something directly occupying the space at the back of her head.
Her hands pause, fingers left curled around the handles of her cabinet doors. Jane freezes up on her tip-toes. %bHer humming stops.
If it were not so quiet in her apartment, she might have missed the sound, but here, now, in the darkness and at this late hour — it carries. The sound echoes in the tight confines of her kitchen and it carries up every bone in her back, laddering Jane up and up to the sharp chill she feels at the back of her neck.
Her eyes stare forward, into the dark. One side of her face, lit by her left-open refrigerator, illuminates the flickering tension of her gritting jaw. She has never heard that sound before, that de-cocking click, and yet at the same time she seems to know viscerally what it is.
And she can feel it. She can feel it without even touching. She can feel the presence of another person, and just like that, Jane knows that locked inside her own home, she is not alone.
She stares forward. She doesn't move. There's somebody here, she thinks. There's somebody in here, and she's not safe.
Her heart picks up and begins to pound. She thinks about where she's left her phone. Front coat pocket. She thinks of how many steps to the front door. Ten? She thinks of Erik, and of the lab, and how tonight she's probably going to die. Her eyes flicker. Don't think that. Stay calm. Stay calm and don't get afraid.
Jane hears herself speak. She doesn't even feel the words leaving her lips. She feels numb. "Whatever you want," she whispers slowly, her voice low, strained, tight, "just take it."
Whatever you want, Jane whispers, just take it.
"I'm doing just that," a voice answers her, undeniably masculine. Wholly flat of affect, emotionless and cold, it contains none of the passion nor base greed that one would think should accompany such a declaration. "Turn around."
When she complies— as she must— the slow rotation of her turn will bring the barrel of a gun into view much in the same way the rotation of a planet brings the sun up in the morning. It is leveled squarely between her eyes, its stainless steel slide demanding all her attention with its cold, half-lit body.
It is hard to focus beyond it, but in the end it's not the tool in itself but the man wielding it that is more important. Her assailant is masked, shrouded in the shadow of her unlit apartment, but no amount of darkness can dampen the sharp gleam of his blue-eyed stare. He regards her as if she were a tool herself.
"You have tools here." It's not a question. It's a deduction, made after what is implied to be a long study. The indistinct shape of the man shifts, and a horrible sound groans from his left side. Metal screams against metal as machinery whirs wildly, and fails to properly catch. "I need repair."
The man takes one exact step back, opening that much room between them. The SIG P220 in her face recedes into a threat rather than an imperative.
That answer briefly closes Jane's eyes. Her stomach makes a nauseated flip. She struggles to breathe through the panic, the panic that wants to well up, take her mind, and make her feel nothing save for the fear. She swallows against a throat gone painfully dry, breathing in and out, walking on the edge of her own adrenaline to remain under control.
Turn around, instructs that voice at her back, and the woman hesitates. She doesn't want to. She doesn't want to see his face. If she doesn't see his face, he has no reason to kill her.
But just as terrified of angering him — the whoever in her home — Jane slowly lowers her arms and pivots her weight back down to her heels. Holding her breath, she complies, turning a slow circle that bears her to the little, slanted light from the refrigerator. Tiny, button-down plaid shirt, dark hair fallen in her face. Hands gripping the edge of the counter, her face remains turned and her eyes averted. She does not even notice her assailant is yet wearing a mask; the clever little thing avoids any direct looks up at his face. She doesn't want to give him any excuses. She doesn't want to die.
She breathes audibly through a little part in her lips, sucking in slow, deep breaths to keep her mind clear. The gun barrel in her periphery, staring down at her, keeps her cooperatively still. She's trying hard not to tremble, so very hard, but even the rigidity of her limbs cannot entirely hide it, and all of her little shivers around the edges.
He speaks of tools. Of repair. Her brow furrows with genuine confusion — unexpected question, and how does he know? How does he know that? — and she purses her lips. They part to speak —
— and Jane hears it. Strange and mechanical, groaning steel ringing so familarly she swears she can recognize the alloy: titanium? It's just so strange, so out-of-place, that curiousity flicks over her eyes, held low and searching the dark, trying to see what —
Her left-open fridge beeps and Jane jumps. She sobers out of her staring, and remembers her fear. "They're in the bedroom," she answers breathlessly, no questions of her own. "Please just take them." Jane pauses, and offers weakly, "I haven't seen you."
The sight of Jane Foster is not a novel thing to these eyes anymore, but this particular view of her is: fearful, slight, and casually dressed in light clothing pitifully not up to the task of stopping the kind of bullet that would fire out of his gun. Hell, at this range, .45 cal would blow whole pieces of someone as small as her away.
Normal people would feel pity, seeing the way she hopefully keeps her eyes averted so she doesn't give him any reason to silence her. Seeing the way she holds so rigid, save for tiny trembles around her edges. But the man facing her is not normal people. The muted whir of broken machinery, emanating somewhere from his left side, only reinforces that.
He demands repair. He knows she has tools. Misunderstanding him, she tells him where they are, tells him he can just have them, can just take them and go.
Her assailant is silent for a too-long interval. The blank eyes regarding her shine with the passing of some brief bleakness. A half-second awareness of irony comes and goes. "I can't," he finally admits. "I need an engineer."
Something dark reasserts itself in his eyes. He doesn't step back forward, but his presence seems to unfold again, pressing out that temporary reprieve with renewed oppression. "Take me to them. All of them."
He finally moves enough, with a groan of metal, to show her what he has come to make her fix. The fitful starlight glistens up the lines of the metal where his left arm should be, the sculpted prosthetic visibly damaged in the middle from some crushing blow. Its innards screech complaints with every motion. "You will need all of them."
The timbre of the man's voice seems to shift, but still he admits: He needs an engineer.
The words tighten Jane's jaw, her lips pursed as her overactive mind cycles a dozen simultaneous thought processes. He knows who she is, what she is — to a degree. This isn't a simple home invasion; this isn't a chance, unlucky robbery. Whoever he is, he's here for a reason: here for her specifically. She doesn't know how she's going to negotiate out of this. She just wants her phone. A way out the door. She should have slept at the lab. Should have locked herself in and never come out. Should have, could have, would have.
In the end, the intruder doesn't allow her much time or opportunity to think. That confessional moment ends, and behind the barrel of his gun, he orders her to her tools. To her bedroom.
Jane freezes again. She can't — she can't go in there with him. She can't allow herself to be confined in a room, with one way in, one way out. He gets her in there, and she's never leaving. Why did she say that? Why didn't she lie? Why does she keep her stupid back-up equipment in her apartment like a crazy person? Why does she repair sensors in bed? Why is she so pathetic?
"I don't…" Jane almost begs, panic and fustration crystallizing into a hard lump in her throat, choking her up briefly, making it hard to speak. She's afraid to tell him no, but she doesn't want to die. She doesn't want to go in there and never come out. She thinks about lying and saying she's not an engineer at all. She thinks about suggesting the light is better out there, or her lab — the lab, and she can call S.H.I.E.L.D, and —
He moves, not closer, but enough that the little light flares down plate after plate of banded steel. It catches Jane's eyes, and her mind goes blank. She stares, seeing it for the first time, metal moving not in the way it should, metal given life and reforged into a man's arm. "Holy shit," she blurts helplessly, "that's a corticospinal prosthesis!"
The intruder gives no reassurance one way or another as to whether there will be clemency for her if she does a good job. He simply stands there, silent except when it is absolutely necessary to speak… a typically passive individual unused to giving directions to others.
Or just unused to giving verbal directions, anyway. Jane freezes up, clearly unwilling to go into her bedroom with a /home invader with a gun/, and those blue eyes flare as his gun lifts and steadies, his entire body priming for violence out of its resting state. The message is clear: she will do what she is told. No objections. No hesitations.
But she does have one small sliver of leverage, that being that he clearly needs her. What he needs her for finally becomes obvious as he turns, showing her what has replaced his left arm.
For a long, frozen few moments, Jane stares down plate after plate of finely-engineered titanium alloy and steel, cut and fitted so cunningly that it moves indistinguishably from a living, flesh arm. The only things that betrays it are, of course, the inhuman shine of metal, the joints between plates, the brilliant star stamped on the shoulder… and the way it hums and whirs every time it's moved, the arm murmuring to itself like a live thing with a voice of its own.
That voice is pained, now. The injured prosthetic moans with every gesture.
Holy shit! exclaims Jane, the consummate scientist. A corticospinal prosthesis!
She might expect her attacker to at least know the nature of the thing grafted to his shoulder. But he stares just as blankly through this declaration as he has through most of her others. He seems more startled at her sudden lapse in fear. "I don't care what it is," he eventually decides, in a completely baffling indifference towards this literal part of his body. "I need it operational."
It's so impressive that Jane temporarily forgets her fear. Temporarily forgets there's a strange man in her apartment and a gun pointed at her head. Her dark eyes run the length of that metal arm, appraising it with the intensity of a medical scan, darting back-and-forth as she assesses and catalogues every detail. She's never seen technology like this; she'd think it absolutely impossible it'd actually be in her own kitchen, held just inches out of reach. Power suits are one thing, dime-a-dozen if you ask her, but this is something entirely different: some transcendent communion of person and machine. It's like witnessing the future of humanity.
Still holding a gun on her.
Jane is slapped out of her reverie by the gravelly return of the man's voice. What's even worse, he shrugs off her wonder as though it were just another circling gnat.
The arm is one thing. This blatant dismissal is another, and the woman reaches some stack overflow of disbelief, her eyes pulled up to steal her first, good look of her intruder and kidnapper's face. Jane stares up at him incredulously. Her brow twitches; he's wearing a mask.
She's not supposed to be looking at his face! Realizing her mistake, she looks away again, biting down on her bottom lip in a renewed rush of quiet horror. So he has a metal arm, one he can move like an actual limb, and it's broken, and he wants her to fix it.
Jane still doesn't want to retreat into a confined room with him. He'll have all the control and she'll have none. All she can think to do is stall. "I'm… I'm an astrophysicist," she stammers out. "This isn't really my field of expertise."
Even broken, it is a work of art. Most prosthetics these days are clumsy things, barely resembling the lost limb they are meant to replace, and certainly not capable of fine manipulation. This one, though… in construction and shape, it looks indistinguishable from its flesh-and-blood twin on the right.
Which is still pointing a gun directly at her. Right.
Worst of all, the actual owner of such a masterwork of an arm doesn't even seem all that impressed with it himself. Or even interested. Outrage and confusion over this is enough to get Jane to finally forget herself and look up into the face of her oppressor. Perhaps fortunately, there isn't much to see, beyond long straggling brown hair and fierce blank blue eyes; the rest is covered by a muzzle of a mask. It's a wonder he can even speak at all.
Remembering her predicament, Jane tries the only thing she can. She stalls. Unfortunately for her, this is about when his tolerance for her expires.
The muzzle of his weapon is pushed flat against her forehead before she can even react, cold metal giving her a macabre sort of kiss. It is not painful, but the pressure it applies is terribly insistent, and the direction it wants her to go is 'backing up towards the bedroom where she said her tools were.' "Patience is not my field of expertise," the man answers, the situation made all the more terrifying by the continuing lack of emotional affect in his voice even while voicing that threat. He sounds as bored and coldly assured as if this were a normal transaction in his life. Perhaps the only kind of transaction in his life.
"What /is/ my field of expertise is assessing other people. I have assessed your skills sufficient." He backs her straight into the room, fully blocking the door before he takes the gun from her face. "I will put it a different way. It would not be necessary for me to remove something of use. But it would be necessary for me to remove something of no use."
Jane tries to bargain. Jane tries to undercut herself. And Jane receives her punishment.
Her voice chokes out the instant the gun barrel stamps her forehead. Her eyes close and she goes very still. It's not a sensation people are meant to feel, that cold kiss of metal, and that terrible wrongness wrings all the air from her lungs. She feels her eyes sting with tears but the panic won't even let them well. Jane can't seem to think, but only remember things, old memories crackling forgotten synapses from the back of her brain, and she keeps seeing her father.
That voice again brings her back, the woman not even permitted the safety of her own mind, and the insistent pressure of the gun worsens until Jane retreats, stumbling backwards under the man's instruction. She moves slowly, haltingly through her darkened apartment, her forced, backwards march bumping her against the occasional corner or bit of furniture. But her attention does not pull; her slow step does not waver. He has her complete attention.
The man herds her into the room, his body filling its only doorway. Jane backs up, looking every bit a cornered animal, stepping backwards just to reclaim some vain sense of personal space, full well knowing she is trapped. The gun removed from her, she touches her forehead to rub away the sensory memory of that gun, then hugs herself, the gesture making her look even smaller.
There she stands, fixed to place, in the center of her bedroom. It's not especially large, like all things in New York, with just enough space for her small bed and a desk-with-chair whose surface is cluttered with a vast mess of mechanical bits and pieces, sheepdogged with an assortment of tools. The only personal effects seem to be a few framed photos, similar to the ones out front, and a necklace on her night table.
Jane is looking up at the man's masked face now. As if she figures now she has nothing left to lose. "All right," she concedes, her voice thin, like she's still struggling to stay calm. "I'll try. I'll cooperate. Can you just promise you won't hurt me?"
Unrelentingly, inexorably, the man backs Jane into her room. It only takes half the strength of one arm to force her before him, his steps patient, his progress through her apartment like the steady creep of ice forming over water.
That pressure only relents once they pass through the doors and the man looks over to see her work desk, cluttered with the tools with which he is so obsessed. The sight finally brings him to lower his weapon… and then, probably much to Jane's relief, to fully holster it, apparently seeing no more need for it for the immediate moment.
It is a promising sign. So Jane agrees to cooperate. She just wants him to promise not to hurt her.
The man's head turns towards her, from his blank inspection of her desk. "There will be no reason to if you cooperate," he reasons, with that same flatness that almost feels like he's reading from a script.
His gaze pulls inexorably back to the tools, as if tugged. A faint line forms between his brows as he stands there, stock still, now devoid of his weapon. Something about the sight of a repair space seems to trigger a moment of internal processing in his mind. Then, without preamble, he pulls out the chair and sits at her desk. With methodical matter-of-factness, he clears a small area on the work surface, and carefully rests his left arm atop it, positioning it for her easy access. The plates grate and move with audible complaint, apparently under his conscious control, fanning open to permit her to reach a seam where she could remove part of the outer shell and crack the entire thing open.
It is a sudden, startling transition. Seated, no longer with weapon in hand, and awaiting her to lean down and repair him, there is something oddly docile about him now.
Definitely to much of Jane's relief. Her sharp eyes track the movement of that weapon, and when holstered, she exhales, some of that fear dissipating, folding back into the tension currenting through her blood.
She makes no move to approach him, not yet, preferring to linger with the pretense of safety, arms wrapped around her chest protectively. Jane follows the masked man with her eyes. She cannot help but steal a glance at her bedroom door, assessing it, considering it, but ultimately deciding otherwise. She trusts many qualities in herself, and none of them are particularly her athletic prowess. How far would she even get? And how angry would he be when he caught her? The man with /metal/ for an arm.
Instead she watches and she thinks. She looks on, staring at the man as he stares down her desk and tools, before making a decision to appropriate himself among them. Just like that, somewhat mechanically, he helps himself to her chair, and clears a space in her organized mess to proffer his arm as top priority.
Some part of her would be silently outraged if Jane were not too busy staring. She doesn't miss that strange, light-switch-off change in demeanour, and when seated, he seems — not smaller. But a different man than a second ago.
Jane realizes what she needs to do. She may not be able to fight her way out. She may not be able to run and hope for escape. What is it they tell hostages to do? Humanize yourself? Farmers don't slaughter the lambs with names.
She exhales, and finally forces herself to move, walking nervously not to the door, but toward the man seated at her desk. Jane pauses, then carefully reaches to turn on her small desk lamp, knowing she'll need the light. It flares soft, yellowy light, and illuminates all her face for the first time, drawn and pale, with blinking eyes, and pulled-together lips. Rigid and distrustful.
Then the arm moves. Not as she's seen it move before, but in a new, wonderous way, and Jane freezes as she watches those plates unlock and open in a moving algorithm to expose its frame of steel and guts of circuits and wires. The caution slips momentarily off her face. It's beautiful.
She reaches without thinking, desperate to touch. Jane only realizes herself at the last moment, reminded by that man's lurking presence, and the now-lit, disturbing shape of his mask. "Do you have nociception?" she asks, not even thinking to layman out her language. Her eyes crease. "I don't want to hurt you."
Sitting down changes his entire demeanor. Not completely— it would be impossible to completely erase the lethal threat that still inheres in every fiber of his being— but it shifts it ninety degrees, turning him to an angle where he almost seems… docile. Passive. Compliant to her handling.
But he is still an intruder in her home, and a reminder of that comes clearly when he indifferently moves all her personal effect, clearing them out of the way to install his own arm as her new top priority. Jane has to choke back a flicker of anger, but more effective in quelling that momentary outrage than fear, is the utter curiosity and awe that wells up in her scientist's mind at seeing his arm. In full. Under lights.
And opening up.
The arm's plates spread and unfold. Damaged inner workings become visible, circuits and wires and delicate machinery exposed in all their intricacy. Amazed, Jane reaches to touch; the man waits patiently, no reaction to her reaching for him. He seems more surprised that in the end, she holds back and doesn't make contact.
Blue eyes flick up to her, confused. That confusion only doubles when she seems to express concern about causing him pain. He stares at her, clearly not comprehending this concept. "It does not feel," he eventually ventures, as if uncertain if this is the correct response for the inquiry. "It would not matter even if it did."
Those eyes, briefly confused in the way a dog's are when some unfamiliar stimulus is presented, form a startling contrast with the featureless inhuman mask below them. In the end he settles on simply repeating, "It needs repair."
"No sensory reception at all? Fine motor control? Proprioception?" Jane jackhammers question after question, losing some of her inhibition the more her mind switches from aimless fear to a legitimate task on hand. She doesn't forget her anxiety; but even she admits this has the capacity to feel a little less like a home invasion and a lot more like work.
And work is safe. Work is soothing.
In the end, she pushes down her own complicated emotions and repositions her attention. Jane needs to concentrate on actually doing this, doing what he wants her to. Doing an adequate-enough job, God help her, that he doesn't deem her completely worthless and put a bullet between her eyes. Pursing her lips in a compulsive, nervous habit, she pushes her dark hair behind her ears and gingerly leans closer to look down over the man's opened arm.
It's hard to think he doesn't feel. She supposes she'll find out for herself soon enough. "What do you mean it wouldn't matter? Of course it does."
Either way, she cannot contain her fascination for very long, and slowly, slow enough to allow him to map her movements, Jane reaches to touch her hands down on that smooth, cold metal. Her fingertips trace the plates, tactile touch fed up into the movement of her reading eyes. Calculating the algorithm in her head.
"I'm Jane, by the way," she ventures with a quick glance. The mask keeps putting her off, so she tries to focus on his eyes. They are blue, she thinks. People have blue eyes. He doesn't act like a person. "But you must already know that. You're lucky, I guess, that I'm somewhat studied up on all this. I switched from medical school. Been a while, but I'm remembering."
She bites her lip, and gets to it, turning slightly to get a better vantage to move her fingers among all those wires, manipulating them, sorting them, learning their source routes. She is gentle, so gentle, and her hands seem practised for this fine-detail work. They do not shake. "Does this hurt? What happened to your arm?"
Question after question hammers him. He looks more and more bewildered with each one. This is a familiar circumstance for him with decidedly unfamiliar stimuli injected into it. His brain wars between the imperative to ride along placidly in the usual passive grooves, and the constant way her questions try to pull him back out.
His programming is convinced that anyone in this situation with him, repairing him, should already know the answers to these questions. That she is asking them again anyway is putting a considerable strain on his conditioned mind.
Silence seems safest, so he remains silent. His blue eyes watch her as she works, though not with the incisiveness that would suggest that he was monitoring how good a job she was doing. It seems obvious by now that he bears a prosthetic he does not actually, himself, fully know the intricacies of. Something she says eventually catches his attention, though. Of course it matters if he's feeling pain.
His brows knit. He heard that idea somewhere else, recently. It surprised him then as much as it surprises him again now. Where did he hear it? He can't remember. Everything is so clouded…
His eyes lower back down. This time, they don't watch the arm. The man stares downwards at nothing, passive and permissive, a machine in sleep mode waiting for maintenance to complete. Yet when Jane looks up at him, it's to find that— this close— she can tell his eyes aren't pure blue. They're blue, shaded with grey, and ringed by lashes too long to seem real on a man. Beautiful, human eyes— for a man who doesn't even act like a human.
She's Jane, by the way— though he probably already knows. He's lucky she has some background in all this. Those lashes flicker as the programming that replaced his brain intakes and processes this information.
"I am aware," he says, of her semi-medical background. It would sound a lot more creepy if it weren't delivered so matter-of-fact. "If you did not, I would have passed."
Ah, but then the question of the hour. What happened to his arm?
An odd tic threatens the corners of his eyes. What did happen to his arm? He swears he didn't always have only one. He swears he had two real ones, once. What happened to it? What…
His head tilts slightly. A slight tremble runs through it, there and gone. His features smooth out. "No," is his only answer, as if her second question were erased from his mind, and he remembered— and replied— only the first.
"Oh," Jane says to that less-than-innocuous confirmation. That's about all she can say to someone admitting, matter-of-factly, to stalking her. Oh. "How long have you been watching me?" She thinks about her work, her lab, and the possibility of being forced to protect both. She doesn't really have anyone in her life, not even Erik, who could be caught in the literal crossfire. At least that's a positive. "Actually, I don't think I want to know."
Soon enough, the woman becomes her own lesson in duality, switching back and forth between fascination and caution. She feels the pull of that open arm, and the rabbit hole it opens to carry her down and down — to get lost in its unforeseen technology — only be repeatedly grounded when realizing she's helping a man who stalked her. Invaded her home. Put a gun against her head. When she fixes him, it's only logical he'll kill her. He would have no reason to keep her alive. Not unless she can give him one.
Jane feels like she's living in a slingshot. It doesn't help she knows he has blue eyes. Metal armed attacker with blue eyes. Blue-grey eyes.
She needs to talk to distract herself. She asks about the arm. What happened to it? Jane means the damage, the trauma, the recent incident to make it warrant repair. Necessary to know to make a good diagnosis.
But the man is thinking of something quite else. What happened? There was once two, and then there was one. He can't reach the thought —
He trembles. Jane freezes, afraid her fumbling has somehow hurt him. She's afraid hurting him with warrant her a gun back in her face or a bullet in her body. She's also afraid of doing accidental damage to so beautiful a limb. And she really doesn't want to hurt him; she doesn't want to hurt anyone.
No, is all he says.
She watches him steadily, bemused. Her brows furrow. Finally, Jane looks back down on that arm. "I don't see any structural damage," she announces eventually. "The frame is… solid. I need to replace some pieces of the joint, there's some dead wires. I think some of these are extraneous." At this point, she is talking to herself the longer her fingers sort through circuitry and gently, almost tenderly, run down the skeletal steel frame. "This is really an exceptional piece of engineering. I've never seen… there's been no papers on anything like this. Your entire nervous system has a biocomputational analogue. I can't even imagine — they used mean field theory, right? Of course. The base algorithm for the plate movement — it's being advanced, right? There's weak points. I think I can find three. Who did this? The possibilities — this is. Jesus Christ," Jane rambles. And rambles. And rambles.
It ends when she just blows out a long, near-winded breath. "I'm sorry. Will you tell me your name?"
Jane has so many questions. That's how people become scientists, really— they have questions, endless questions, and endlessly ask them in search of answers. Either this man is unwilling or unable to answer her questions, though, or perhaps both; each successive question gets more of that same silence from him, her invader suddenly inert. A puppet with his strings slackened.
How long has he been watching her? No answer.
What happened to his arm? He trembles slightly, but does not answer that either. Or at least, does not answer in the expected way— does not answer the expected question. Like a child, he decides on offering the lowest common denominator response to all this unwelcome input he does not comprehend. 'No.'
No is a safe answer.
Eventually she finally gives up, and starts to talk to herself again. He listens, the technical talk seeming to soothe him. This, he remembers hearing around him during these sessions. This is familiar. He is about as responsive as he was all the other times he was worked on and talked over, which is to say not at all. Not up until she finally asks him a question that is very dangerous. Will he tell her his name?
He finally looks up. Those blue eyes meet hers. "No," he says again. "Just finish. I need to leave." There is some distant awareness in him that knows he has already been here too long.
The woman looks like a deer-in-highlights, captured in a single glance of the man's blue eyes. Hers, brown and endlessly expressive, search his. Slingshotted again, Jane feels herself arrested, pulled from an almost-familiar moment and tossed back into very real danger. He needs to leave. When he does, he's going to kill her. Her stomach feels like lead.
"All right," she answers, far more lightly, swallowing back a painful surge of misery. For a moment, she almost thinks she's going to cry, just from the hopelessness of it all, but Jane stops herself short. It won't do her any good. Stay in control.
She retreats back to that opened arm, and her forced repair job, looking only away to sort through the mess on her desk. Jane pieces their her equipment and gathers an array of tools, all the while very aware of the man near her, and very careful not to look at him.
Jane begins carefully cutting wires, hunking in closer to get a better look at their connecting sensors. Her back is already beginning to ache something awful, and with a blown-out sigh, moves her mess again to help herself up onto the table top, sitting atop it to give her a better vantage point down.
She knows she needs to keep talking. He won't talk about himself, but she can talk about her. Try to engage him — if even that is possible. Jane's never been particularly much a people-person, and frankly feels like she's losing her mind in the crowds of New York, but even she feels bubbly next to this man. He doesn't act human. But he is one, isn't he?
"It's safe here," she reassures, as if she were the one consoling the man who's already threatened to kill her. "I live alone. You're actually my first ever guest. You don't need to worry about anything. You can relax. And I'm not going to rush this. I don't rush these things."
Jane begins soldering in a wire. She has only her shoulder to try to piece back an escaped lock of her hair, falling annoyingly between her eyes. "Probably not the best bedside manner. Dad thought I'd make the best physician too. Shows what he knows. He knew. 'There is grace in patience, Jane.' I'd get that a lot. And it's not really about impatience. It's just people are complicated. Unnecessarily complicated. And, I don't know, particle physics? At least you can make proofs from those variables. I think this is a motor pathway. Your hand might spasm, but only once."
Blue eyes meet brown. Jane Foster's eyes are endlessly expressive; those of the Winter Soldier look as if they might once have been. They are ringed by slight creases in all the right places for frequent laughter.
He is not laughing now, though. He looks as if he has not laughed in a very long time. He simply reminds her that he is on a timetable. And, Jane remembers with a pang of renewed horror, the end of his timetable might also mean the end of her life. How did things change so suddenly? Just one night, one decision by a single man, and she might not see tomorrow…
The Soldier continues to offer no reassurance. He simply sits, something disciplined and patient about his stance, his aspect. He waits without motion or comment as she works. His only motion comes when she repositions herself to relieve her back, sitting up on the table right beside him. More into his space. His flesh arm tenses, hand turning and curling its fingers into a loose fist, before slowly relaxing again. It is a motion not unlike the nervous flexing of claws.
It's safe, she assures, trying to continue along on that one hopeful path of humanizing herself enough to avoid death. He doesn't need to worry. He can relax. The Soldier's head draws back slightly, as if he actually found the comfort threatening. Perhaps he does. It's alien and therefore frightening.
Her anecdotes of her father elicit even less understanding than the basic reassurances. His brow furrows as if he is trying to comprehend something held up out of his reach. The thoughts are so distracting that he does not even notice the spasm when it runs through his hand. Metal fingers twitch and flex, and he does not blink.
"There's… not usually… this much talking," he finally says, his voice halting, as if this sort of situation is frequent, and is convinced it is supposed to go much more differently.
"Well, there is with me," is all Jane has to say about that, a polite 'tough titty' to the possibility of staying quiet. She can't imagine quiet right now. Quiet would give her more time to think. Think things like what does it feel like to get shot? Do you feel pain, for a split second, or longer? Does death hurt? Textbooks say it is a pleasant experience, usually physiologically euphoric. But what about fear? What about regret?
And what after?
Her long, careful fingers trace wire after wire. Every so often, her lips move, reciting the cervical nerve Jane is certain is the analogue. She catalogues as well as she can, learning as much as she is repairing, losing herself to momentary sanctuaries of knowledge she's never conceived possible — not in her lifetime. Practised by years of engineering work, her hands are a dance among the innards of his arm, snagging wires with her little fingers to allow reach for the rest of her hand to slide deeper to the frame. "Don't move," she entreats as she feels out the elbow joint, bringing her fingers inside gears that could mulch her bones.
The arm, she thinks, reminds her somewhat of a car. Parts designed deliberately to be weak to protect what is far more important inside. Sensible, Jane things, but incomplete. Incomplete design, and she could…
"I used to be pretty quiet, back in the day," she continues on, without invitation, without warning. "Pretty shy. Maybe not so much shy as never really having anything to say. No one understood me much. Actually, that hasn't changed. I guess, more afraid back then of having my fears confirmed out loud? About no one understanding me. I don't give a crap now. Too old, too cranky. Erik was the one who helped me a lot with that. He got me talking a lot, when I really needed to talk. He did it pretty much just like this. I screamed at him more than I talked, those first few months. He was making me crazy."
Jane shoulders back that errant piece of hair behind her ear only for it to escape again. She gives up and fumbles between three different screw drivers, holding the last in her mouth. The woman murmurs something around it, leaning in, forced into painful closeness to have to crane her head down to get into his joint. Her hair smells like salt from the sea, those cold Coney waters.
There is with me, Jane says firmly. This confuses him even more, and he goes silent in bemusement. He simply looks back down and watches as her fingers move among the innards of his arm. She rewires pathways he doesn't understand, and solders circuits whose function he does not know. She speaks the names of nerves which mean nothing to him.
In some distant part of his mind, it occurs to him that it is wrong to be so deficient.
The thought comes and goes like a dropped flower down the current of a stream. It occurs to him to regret its passing, but that too is ephemeral.
There is a slight startle when she resumes speaking, though he does not interrupt or try to silence her again. He merely listens as she rambles, giving no indication whether her desperate tactic to make him see her as a human is working. Nothing about her speech seems to touch or connect with him in any way. Nothing draws any particular response. He only shifts slightly in his seat, as if restless after so many minutes of sitting in one place, and all the leather of all his weapon holsters creak.
She can count his armaments if she dared aim her attention that way. Just on the side facing her, there are three guns visible: one the familiar SIG P220 she already made acquaintance with, and two other much smaller ones strapped to his thigh. The tip of what seems to be a knife sheath is visible too, at the small of his back.
If she reached quickly enough, got one of those weapons loose—
His gaze turns slowly to her as she leans in close to get better access to the joint of his arm. Her proximity brings the smell of the sea, salt from the ocean tickling his senses.
She smells like Coney Island in the fall, a voice tells him. When the water's getting cold enough that only the locals go anymore.
His features twitch a bit, a passing tic.
"Who is Erik?" he suddenly asks. The tone of his question does not sound threatening. He sounds almost as if he is not sure if he should know this.
The creak of leather reminds Jane of the man's guns. The man's guns, far too close than her liking; close enough to parse their shapes in her periphery. It's definitely the closest she's ever been to a gun. Never shot one. Never held one. Never touched one. No desire to. No need to.
Her hands fumble momentarily inside his metal arm. It's a thought. It's enough of a thought that lends her the brief visualization: she cuts all the sensorimotor wires in the arm, and reaches for one of those guns. He'll have only one arm to stop her. More than enough, but if she got a shot —
Jane's eyes crease. The thought turns so alien in her head that she has to stop it outright. Who is she kidding? Whoever he is, he is far more dangerous than she could ever be. There's a thousand ways he could stop her. A thousand more he would kill her, because he would. And that isn't her. She's not a killer.
So what does she do? Does she wait obediently for him to decide she's expended her use? Does she wait to die?
Jane doesn't reach for any gun. She continues on with her work, frowning mysteriously to herself.
She talks instead to exorcise the thoughts away. She prattles on between her careful repair work, removing joint brackets and examining their pieces. She searches among her mess, wishing aimlessly for her lab, and sure she's kept at home a handheld laser cutter. She only needs to make two needle-fine, surgical incisions to reshape the piece. Rehoming it brings her in fiercely close. Close enough that the sea is in her dark hair.
Focused on that incredible, wondrous arm, Jane misses the fissure breaking up, for a moment, the man's masked face. It's only his words what rouse her.
She starts, not dramatically, but shocked enough to hear him speak on his own — and ask her a question. Jane raises her head, realizing a second too late how close her face comes to his. Close enough she can count the colours in his blue-grey-very grey eyes.
The woman draws slightly back, her working hands stopped. Who is Erik? She pauses, not sure she wants to say, torn between obliging this curiousity and protecting her friend. Would he come to harm? No reason to? All this man seems to want of her is this — to fix, to repair.
"He's my friend," she admits slowly. "He was my dad's friend — his best friend. He's helped me." Jane pauses a moment. "He doesn't live here."
The weapons are tantalizingly close. Right there, within her reach, as she leans over their owner to perform repairs under duress. Briefly she thinks of cutting the connections in his metal arm and reaching for one of those guns. She could at least hold him with it, maybe ward him off, even if she weren't able to fire—
He shifts slightly under the pause in her ministering hands, as if sensing the reason for the hesitation. His movements are fluid and strong, even with one arm open and immobile and gutted. His current lack of access to it seems to present no hindrance to him at all. It would present no hindrance to him stopping her instantly if she went for one of his weapons.
Besides, that's not who she is. She's not like him. Not a killer.
She returns to her work instead, and the man relaxes again by an increment. He, in turn, just returns to puzzlement over her continuing prattle. People like her are the reason Hydra has to periodically refresh his conditioning, periodically wipe his mind again once exposure to the wider world causes it to fragment up to the point it might crack open and let out the man still locked beneath all the lies. They talk to the Winter Soldier, and here and there… it is James Barnes that listens instead.
Like now. With the smell of the sea in his senses, with her close enough to see the exact way blue blends with grey in his eyes, he knots his brows and asks a question. He's never allowed to ask questions. But he wants to. Who is Erik?
His programming expects a punishment for the question, and his body tenses immediately in something very like a cringe. But he doesn't get punished. He gets an answer. Erik is her friend. Was her father's best friend. Something about those words seems familiar. Friend. Best friend. If he could just think hard enough—
He suddenly shakes his head. Anger flares in his eyes. He's not supposed to get answers when he asks questions! Maybe this just means the punishment is delayed, and it's going to be worse. "Enough!" he growls. "Enough… about… this. How much longer."
No punishment comes. In fact, only the opposite.
Only the careful, gentle ministrations of small hands. Only the silence of an enclosed room, filled with nothing but an average woman's personal things and her curious passion, promising safety — the sense of a home. Only the searching, almost sad way her brown eyes keep watching him. None of it yields pain.
Just something far worse, far more confusing — far more frightening.
The man reacts. It's the most emotive he's been, even holding a gun to her head, and Jane jumps at his voice, tearing her hands away as if he were scalding. She braces, her hands held protectively close to her face, protecting herself feebly against her own threat of pain. Her heart pounds. She breathes shallowly, treading panic, waiting to be hit, or shot, or both, or worse.
But he doesn't follow through, and slowly, cautiously, she relents, turning her eyes away, holding her breath as, for a moment, they shine dangerously too-bright. But Jane gets herself under control, fidgeting her fingers to try to hide the way they're trembling. Enough about this. Sure, sure. She nods wordlessly. How much longer?
She looks down at that arm. It's not fair. It's not fair she only gets to discover something like this before she's going to die. Because she's going to. She's been convincing herself the opposite all night, but the evidence is staring her straight in the eye. She's not supposed to survive this.
Her lips part, probably to answer. To give him an obedient summary of all she needs to do: complete the joint, realign the plates.
Instead, Jane looks up. She meets those blue-grey eyes with her own, and does not look away. There is no anger in her eyes. No hate for him. Just weariness, acceptance, and realization that this minute she holds some sort of card. Possesses some sort of temporary power to force him to listen.
"If you're going to kill me afterwards, I only ask one thing," Jane says, her voice soft. "I don't want to die. I'm — not finished. But if I have to, then I won't have it this way. I don't mean alone; I'm not afraid to die by myself. But I don't want it to be inside. You have to let me see the stars."
This is precisely the reason why Hydra must continually reformat their prize weapon. Out in the wild, doing his violent work, the Winter Soldier will occasionally run into people who speak to him gently, who treat him as a human, who do not hurt and punish him. Who talk softly to him in situations where soft speech is not at all expected. Who do not do any of the prescribed things that he is programmed to expect people to do when they encounter him. Scream. Run. Die.
It puts fissures in his psyche like roots splitting pavement.
He hits a mental tipping point, unable to handle the kindness, the lack of expected pain and punishment, and in confusion lashes out. His sudden anger makes his earlier mood and demeanor seem like child's play in comparison, and even though he doesn't reach for any weapon, the threat in the air is temporarily thick enough to slice with a knife.
Eventually he subsides— in part because now Jane is looking at him. Not at his weapons, not at his arm, not at the vague idea of him— the threatening shape he is— but at him. He balks a little, because it has been years and years since someone looked him straight in his eyes and spoke to him. She has last requests. Last demands. She's not finished, but once she is, if he means to kill her… he must let her see the stars as she dies.
The stars. The stars. Stars, he thinks. What a strange thing to focus on.
His lips part to reply, but nothing comes out. His gaze unfocuses, his brow knitting again at some internal puzzle that has suddenly presented itself. He seems to argue briefly with himself, his gaze cast off to one side, lost in a thousand yard stare. His jaw works silently once, and then he finally seems to find his voice. If not a certain unity of mind.
"I… am not going-" I don't WANT "-to… kill you. You…" Reminded me of something important "…have been useful. It would be-" WRONG "-a waste to eliminate you prematurely."
Talent is always in demand. /That/… is a good, approved reason to not want to kill.
That temporary struggle of conditioning versus emotion finally resolves itself, as his programming finds a way to crawl those flickering memories and impulses, and transform them into something much more acceptable to think. The Winter Soldier settles back in his seat, expression smoothing back down to calm. "So," he concludes, as if the conclusion he just reached had been easy and not seemingly arduous, "just finish."
They are hard words to say: some of the hardest in all her life. Never has Jane considered she'd be bargaining the minutiae of her own murder.
They are so hard to say her voice nearly cracks, and it takes all her strength to keep her voice clear and strong, and hold back the fear and begging and tears that would not help her, would not help anything. But Jane manages it, just barely, with her hands shaking and her eyes burning bright. They mean that much to her: those stars.
The man seems to go still.
There's little of his face she can see, and even less she can parse, but Jane finds her kidnapper has strangely expressive eyes. Hers pinch slightly, confused, searching, as he reacts in a way she does not expect — in a way she cannot comprehend. She does not speak, or interrupt, or even move; she takes it in carefully, witnessing every beat of his brief, but telling, pause. His eyes look like they are searching for something. She's doubtful it exists in her bedroom.
Who is this man, with the should-not-be-possible metal arm, who stalked her and cornered her in her own home? Is he dangerous, or is he just desperate?
His words draw Jane out of her own head. She watches him steadily, waiting for this response, demanding with some flintiness to her brown eyes a response to her request. Even if he will not agree to her terms, he will at least acknowledge her, and give her the dignity of being treated more than some convenient tool.
Slowly, haltingly, he says he's not going to kill her. Her eyebrows slowly lift. Jane's expressive face floods with brief hope, at least before she can dam it, harden herself with sensible caution. He won't kill her because she's useful. And because she could be useful again.
It's something.
"I'm going to hold you to that," Jane replies. Hold him to his word, his honour.
Finally, her eyes let him go. He bids her to finish, and so she does. Looking down, a stray tear streaks from her right eye, and she uses her sleeve to rub it away. Without missing a beat, Jane reclaims her tools, and their familiar touch gentles the residual trembling from her hands. She does not speak now, not like before, perhaps trusting their morbid agreement enough not to keep rambling, and focuses completely on her repair. She bends back in close, daring not glance at that masked face, as she rebuilds the arm's broken joint, giving pause only to visually map its design.
She lacks the materials to completely replicate it. So instead Jane builds something of her own.
Satisfied with that, her attention turns finally on those opened plates, as she runs her fingers along smooth metal, feeling the catches and breaks in their locking algorithm. She loosens some, tightens others, and manipulates them into gradual realignment. Some wistful part of her pains the idea of never seeing this beautiful limb again.
No amount of tears or pleading or fear would, for a fact, help Jane at all. The Winter Soldier has heard six /decades/ of begging, and none of it ever moved him in the end. None of it ever stopped that fatal trigger pull or flash of a blade that ended both his victims' lives, and another of the Soldier's missions.
The thing was, they always begged using pleas that revolved around themselves, the things they valued, the sights they would miss. Unknowingly, Jane Foster makes an entreaty that contains a component which speaks to /him/; and, unbeknownst to her, at a very lucky point in time when the Soldier's conditioning has already grown weak.
The thought of stars seems to completely stymie him for a few critical seconds. In that time, she is front seat to a brief struggle between two entities: the Winter Soldier, and James Barnes.
Ultimately the Soldier reasserts himself, but not without cost. His programming, forced to adapt lest the pressure rip the mental conditioning apart entirely, concedes one thing: the right to kill Jane Foster this particular night. She could be of use. Perhaps to Hydra. Maybe it will be the name Jane Foster who is next on the list to be taken and made to serve. Maybe.
For now, she says she's going to hold him to that. Blue eyes glance up at her which once knew honor, but have lost it.
They inevitably harden again. Even the sight of that lone tear streaking from her eye cannot make it through the reinforced programming. Finish, he demands, and so she does. She works in silence, and that quiet allows his brain to recalcify around its programmed routines. As she repairs him, she would sense him returning back to the persona of that cold automaton which first entered her apartment what feels like a lifetime ago. His momentary lapses of earlier attain the quality of a fevered dream.
He does not react even to the caress of her hands along the smoothness of his arm's jointed plates, though assuredly he can perceive the touch.
It's an extra relish, and entirely unnecessary, but Jane cannot resist. Believing it the last time she'll ever be in such close contact with this kind of technology, she moves her fingers through those so-important wires and tries to codify them all to memory. Later, when she's sure she's not a corpse, or possibly having a panic attack, she's going to dig out her notebook and sketch her memory. Get as much of this down as possible.
But it's a double-edged sword. The more time she's afforded with this feat of engineering, the more she must share confined space with the lethal man connected to it — one who may not kill her now but acts like he's killed many others. Will leave and use her handiwork to kill even more.
Now that's a thought that will give Jane one or two good sleepless nights.
She finishes assembling and aligning the last of those smooth plates, and in a formal, declarative gesture, carefully sets her tools down. Her fingers curl, wanting to fidget when no longer in use, and she must bade them quiet.
Jane slips off the top of the table, looking briefly away, and then back again, remembering enough courage to meet the masked man back in his blue eyes. "I'm finished," she announces, low and wan, just like that. Her arms itch to want to hug herself. "I need a lab to do more… but I think I've repaired the worst of the damage. Test your arm. There might be more mobility in the elbow. I improved the rotation angle. I have so many questions about the design." But she does not ask them.
Instead, the woman lingers and waits. She watches the man carefully, cautiously, and not at his guns, his arm. Jane watches his eyes, in hers a nervous, but hopeful expectation — and an acceptance. He's seen that look before.
It's the same look she had in one of her photos, her graduation, missing the man who looked like her, missing a lost, integral piece that made her eyes smile. The eyes she had in the photo, she has on him right now, say one thing: everyone breaks their promises to me, and I am waiting for you to do it too.
Ah, but there's the rub. It is beautiful technology, unprecedented, highly advanced… but even Jane can't lie to herself about the reason and purpose for which it was grafted to this dead-eyed, heavily-armed man's body. Even Jane can't lie to herself as to what use this arm— and all the work she does on it— will see.
Wouldn't it be the height of irony if he used it to kill her, in the end?
Best not thought about. Best not thought about, Jane. She puts it from her mind and just finishes her work, ultimately setting her tools down in the universal signal of a job done. The clink of metal against desk surface seems to trigger something in him, some other shift of the tectonic plates of his mind. He looks down at his arm, inspecting it, turning it slowly and working the fingers… lifting it to look in at the delicate work. Then, as if to accept the job, all those plates abruptly snap back into place, metal closing back up into the seamless sleek shape of an arm.
Still seated, he looks up and meets her eyes as she stands nervously in front of him. She has so many questions, she says, and she made some improvements. But she doesn't voice them. Her eyes search his, the look in them the look of a woman who hopes— but does not expect— that this time things will be different. This time, promises will be kept.
On an exhale, the man stands up. He uses his newly-repaired arm to lever himself up, and the prosthetic hums with the movements in a much more agreeable key. No more metallic shrieking. With him seated, it was easier not to feel so intimidated by him— as much as one could NOT feel intimidated by him— but standing, all hope of that falls away.
He looks down at her, as if trying to work out a particularly annoying puzzle. There are several potential forks in the road he could take at this point, several different actions that his programming will all accept as valid. The simplest is to kill her. More complicated, but also easily justifiable, is to report back in to the nearest outpost about her. Bring her, screaming, into the fold.
There is something else floating around in his mind, however. Something rebellious that draws strength from Jane's own illogical behavior: to improve something she cannot be sure won't kill her at the end. "…You improved it," he finally remarks.
He looks down at it, pensive. "Interesting," he says, before he simply turns to leave.
The arm closes itself together in a dozen simultaneous movements, plates layering and interlocking until that apparent seam is lost to the eye.
But not to Jane's. She can't help but watch. Even terrified out of her mind, and adamant to reassume her personal space, she keeps her dark eyes fastened on the man's left metal arm. Her gaze tunnels down into thought. Sons of bitches used mean field theory. She knows it. She'd bet her favourite scarf. They modelled the sensory system. They /made a closed system/. How did they calculate the adjacency matrix? Direct Cayley graph?
Her eyebrows furrow. Her lips move, soundless words metered with the tap of her own fingertips against her thigh. Jane calculates eigenvalues in her head.
Then it ends, and her eyes focus, her mental calculations stalled as the masked man moves to stand. In just a push of his body, he unfolds and fills her tiny bedroom, brought back to his full height — which is significant compared to hers. Maybe it's his presence, but Jane feels backed a little against the wall. She holds there, cornered, balancing fear and bravery, her mind and body in argument toward which to commit.
But his arm moves without those groaning, broken sounds. The lenses of Jane's eyes mirror upside-down images of his flexing hand its metallic-plated fingers. Watching a device move like a man engrosses her.
He looks down. And, in response to that, Jane looks up. Her heart quickens, and anxiety rolls in her stomach, but she meets those blue eyes in her own level stare. She has the littlest idea what thoughts circle in a man like him, faceless to her, nameless, no more known to her than some shadow on the wall — but she can recognize that look in his eyes. It's that look her father would get, she would get, trying to sort out some improbable equation. Sorting through data and finding no connections.
She wonders if he's deciding whether he'll kill her. Or how. But she doesn't look at his guns. She doesn't glance back down on that arm. Her eyes search his, as if she were trying to find something in them — something she wants to be certain is there. She looks so deeply down into him —
You improved it, cuts his voice in the space between their bodies. Jane says nothing. She knows she did.
Interesting. He calls it interesting. Her head tilts. Her lips part as if she wishes so badly to speak… but, in the end, Jane does not, instead frozen into quiet surprise when her stalker, intruder, and kidnapper… simply steps back out.
Jane stays where she is, warring survival instincts against curiosity. Relief and hope flood in so fast they tremble her legs. He's giving her space. Is he leaving? She pauses, can't bear it, and takes three steps to hide on the side of her bedroom threshold, too nervous to follow, but determined to listen.
It is odd, ironic, and pretty sad that Jane— a stranger— knows far more about how his arm actually works than the actual owner… though arguably, in terms of actual use in the field, the Winter Soldier certainly will not come up short in mastery of this prosthetic. No complex thoughts of matrices or graphs dance in his singleminded head as he tests his repaired limb. To him it is a tool which is supposed to operate in a certain way, and his experimental gestures all test for those certain use cases he needs.
A lot of those use cases look violent. His metal fingers claw experimentally, form fists, wrap around invisible throats. The entire arm thrusts forward, with a responsive soft whir, in a strike that visibly carries behind it the force of several tons.
The final test: it dips and draws a weapon. Another of his far-too-many guns. Fingers test their renewed agility in a spin of the firearm… and then, too quickly for Jane to properly feel fear at the renewed appearance of a sidearm, they replace the weapon in its holster.
Seeming to conclude something, the man emits some vaguely approving noise and pushes back to his feet. His alien appearance in her familiar room exaggerates the scale of his presence, making it some monstrous thing that presses her back against a wall of her own domicile, waiting for… whatever he's going to do next.
He seems to think about that too, for a while. It is not hard to imagine that he is deliberating whether to kill her. The indifference in his eyes calls to mind a butcher handling yet another carcass, determining boredly the best spot to make his cut. But then he glances her way, more closely, and notices her looking at him. Really looking at him. Looking down into him for something she hopes or believes is there.
For whatever reason, it makes him uncomfortable.
Ultimately he decides something, for the first time in many years. Decides something for himself, in a way he would not have been able were he not so long out of the ice. And then, without preamble, he turns and walks right back out of her room. Presumably right back out of her life.
Jane stays where she is, too terrified to follow, but listening hopefully for any sound that will confirm he is gone. Unfortunately for her, the Winter Soldier is a wraith, able to leave in equal silence as he arrived, and it will take actually exiting her room and checking to fully be sure he truly is gone.
Gone— after making an autonomous decision for the first time in a decade.
That arm tests its newfound strength and mobility. It runs diagnostics through the man's deadly arsenal.
And Jane just watches, steadily and wordlessly, with a vague sense of surreality. She's never seen weapons like those with her own eyes. She's never witnessed anyone move like that, with speed that even her eyes have trouble tracking — it almost feels like a dream. A strange dream and not inside her bedroom.
But it is real, this is real, and every inch of that masked man who invaded her home and held her at gunpoint — he is real too. And the only defence Jane has left is to look him straight in the eye and meet this reality head-on. It is a display of bravery even on a bed of fear, and she is so very afraid — he can see it on her, sense it palpably off her — but the woman can control her fear enough to keep open her eyes and stare death directly in the face.
At first it is a silent face-off. Then, as the seconds count, and her could-be killer lingers, almost seeming to weigh her with his eyes, Jane's expression shifts, opens, and turns into something else. Her eyes crease, and their gaze goes sharp and discerning. It's not so much hope as it is some scientific inquest: searching for meaning in so much data. And certain she's found something —
And then the man speaks and he leaves. Just like that. So concisely that Jane reels where she stands, left behind, not sure if it's some cruel joke or — if this too is real, the equal surreality of her home invader leaving her behind without a glance back.
'Is that it?' a sputtery thought dares her to say. After all he's put her through? But Jane dares not say it. She's too busy hoping she may just survive this, and if he no longer needs her, no longer cares for what she can do for him — he might just go. He seemed in a hurry.
Fear wants to lock her in place and refuse even to breathe should that much change his mind, bring him back, and put that bullet in her brain. But Jane can't pretend inaction; she needs to know. She lingers at the doorway of her bedroom, holding the frame, and listening. She strains her ears for the sounds of movement or the terminating noise of her front door. She hear neither.
After two minutes, Jane shakily emerges. Her eyes scan darkness. Darkness and emptiness. "Hello?" she calls, just to be certain, just to be complicit, in case he's still here. No one replies. She checks the main room. She checks the kitchen. She toes open the door to the bathroom. She looks out the windows. She paws a hand through her hair. Empty. Empty and gone. That means —
She huffs and takes a dead run to the front door, nearly stumbling on the way, locking the front door in every way it can be, pulling on the deadbolt until her hands hurt. She grabs her coat, her stupid coat, off the chair and rips fumblingly through its pockets. Jane's shaking hands drop her phone.
Hurry. Hurry hurry hurry, runs through her head, and she drops to her knees to snatch it up, crouched on the floor, hitting the wrong buttons over and over because her hands won't stop trembling. The screen illuminates her face, and she furiously taps it on —
Jane's hands stop. She doesn't even have anyone she could call.
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27477 | Did Gaia birth Selene?
How did the Moon get here? Charles Darwin’s grandson, George, theorised that the Moon was spun off from the Earth, leaving a gaping hole we now know as the Pacific. Others theorised the Moon was captured from an independent orbit, or that the Earth and Moon somehow formed together.
Then in 1975, after Apollo and the first round of science results from studying Moon rocks, William Hartmann and colleagues proposed that the Moon was brutally bashed off the Earth by another planet. Since then this theory has come to dominate the debate, and has been refined, with the impactor being dubbed “Theia”. But there’s a problem. Theia had to impact the proto-Earth (call her “Gaia”) with almost no energy excess – in other words it didn’t ram the Earth, but merely fell into its gravity well.
Another puzzle is just how the various isotopic balances of the two, Earth and Moon, became so alike after such violent smashing together – according to the simulations the Moon accreted out of mantle material from Theia, not from Gaia. Yet the two are near identical. A sore puzzle indeed, implying they formed together at the same radial distance from the Sun.
Finally, for the two to form in the same region of space and for Theia to collide at such low energy, then she must have formed as a co-orbital of the other. In Gaia’s L4 or L5 point what become Theia formed, then the orbital arrangement destabilised when Theia’s mass exceeded about 1/24th of Gaia… but it had to accumulate something more like 1/10th of Gaia’s mass before the two collided. How did it survive an unstable orbital arrangement for so long?
How to reconcile the two? According to the work of Rob de Meijer, an ex-nuclear engineer now a nuclear geophysicist, and Wim van Westrenen, experimental geochemist, the solution comes from within Gaia. According to isotopic balances of various rare earth metals, the Core Mantle Boundary formed within 30 million years of Gaia forming. At this point in time natural radioactives – uranium 235 & 238, thorium 232, and plutonium 244, were present at much higher levels than the present day. A massive fast-breeder style runaway reaction occurred which vaporised a vast bubble of mantle material. This rose rapidly, as per Archimedes principle, and flung immense amounts of mantle rock and vapour into space, out to 100,000 kilometres. The debris mostly went into orbit and formed a heavy ring around the Earth which congealed into the Moon, with perhaps an extra Mini-Moon or two that eventually fell back. The theory is detailed in a Cosmos Magazine article from August 2008, but which has just gone online for all to discuss.
According to the study by de Meijer and van Westrenen the proto-Earth object had a spin of 2.3 hours, but once the Moon was expelled a large fraction of the angular momentum was transferred to it by tidal forces. This would have occurred pretty rapidly in the early stages as a semi-molten Earth would’ve allow a massive whole-body tidal response, rather than the much lower oceanic response that has dominated tidal dissipation to the present day. Once the Moon had moved out to ~200,000 km the response would’ve slowed and followed the more sedate tidal dissipation regime recorded in tidal rythmites through-out the Archean, Proterozoic and Phanerozoic geological record.
• Did Venus birth Mercury? Venus is somewhat enriched in actinides (i.e. uranium and thorium and kin) relative to Earth, so a “Big Bang” there would’ve been *BIG*.
• Was the bang given more *OOMPH* by variable speed of light, as per Louise Riofrio’s Variable-Cee cosmology? The Sun was potentially warmer due to higher c, so could the energy have been higher from uranium fission.
• Only time will tell.
Contrary to my opinion Venus isn’t enriched in Uranium & Thorium – data from Venera 8 showed enrichment, but this was anomalous compared to all the other landers that have since followed, Veneras and Vegas. Apparently Magellan’s SAR imaging data shows us that Venera 8 landed on a volcanic outflow rather different to all the other lander sites, so the observed enrichment is peculiar to that location, not Venus. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27480 | Saturday, May 21, 2011
John Berger – "Ways of Seeing" – Summary (2): ways of seeing in European art
John Berger - "Ways of Seeing" - summary and review
part 1 - 2 - 3
In "Ways of Seeing" John Berger analyzes nude depictions of woman in the European artistic tradition. The first depiction of a woman discussed by Berger is that of Eve from the story of the Garden of Eden. Berger holds that the consciousness or nakedness in the story of Adam and Eve was the result of different ways in which man and woman looked at each other following the eating of the fruit from the tree of knowledge, and the subsequent subordination of the woman to man's rule. Renaissance art stresses to moment of initial shame in which Adam and Eve cover themselves with fig leaves, but Berger notes how their shame is from a third observer, not from each other. Eve's embarrassment is retained in late secular art with the woman's awareness for the fact that she in being gazed at. And as Berger puts it: she is not naked for herself; she is naked as the viewer sees her.
Berger also notes the hypocrisy of using the mirror to represent women's vanity – first we paint a naked woman for our own pleasure of watching her, and then we place a mirror in her hand and criticize her for enjoying her own figure.
In the representations of Greek Mythology Paris the young man has to decide which of the gods is the prettier, and thus their appearance becomes a contest (the ancestor of the beauty pageant). Winning the contest means surrendering to the viewer's gaze. Berger notes that other cultures do not hold the same attitude towards female nudity.
In other words, ways of seeing are for Berger in fact ways of subjecting, and these differential ways of seeing/subjecting which distinguish a man's stance in the world for that of women's have a long history in western culture and are, at least partly, the cause of gender differences which persist even in the feminist era, because this is something much deeper than just formal equal rights.
Ways of Seeing: Based on the BBC Television Series
John Berger - "Ways of Seeing" - summary and review
part 1 - 2 - 3
Might also broad your horizons:
1 comment:
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27522 | Ruby >
To queue up a worker job in the cloud, just create a worker object and then use the queue method.
worker =
This will send the job off to the SimpleWorker cloud. It's that simple.
You can set local variables within the worker.
worker =
worker.user_id = user_id
As well as loop through and send off many workers at a time. (In this case, we do one username per worker but for simple actions, you may want to include a larger set so as to better amortize the worker setup time.)
usernames.each do |username|
worker.username = username
You can also queue up workers from within workers. (Make sure you use the merge_worker command so that the worker gets uploaded but cached separately.)
class TaskControlWorker < SimpleWorker::Base
merge_worker "task_worker", "Task_Worker"
def run
@users = User.find(:all)
@users.each do |user|
user_worker =
user_worker.user_id =
- priority: — Priority queue to run the job in (0, 1, 2). p0 is default.
- timeout: — Time in seconds after which to terminate the task.
Passing a priority of 1 or 2 will cause the job to move through the queue faster. Note that higher priorities cost more, see Pricing for details.
We recommend using higher priorities for tasks where you'd like an action performed or a response back that's time-critical as well as for test/development. For test/dev you can also use the run_local command especially during initial development/debugging of the worker.
By default, each job has 60 minutes (3600 seconds to complete) after which it is terminated. If you want to set a specific time less than 3600 seconds, pass in an explicit timeout value. In the example, below the task will terminate if it runs longer than 1800 seconds (30 minutes).
The maximum value for timeout is 3600 seconds. This is to ensure that lots of long running or stalled jobs do not overload the system affecting quality of service. We encourage you to break up long running tasks into separate workers and run them in parallel. Please let us know if you have a reason for a timeout of longer than 60 minutes.
Queuing Workers from a Different Application/System
This is useful in situations when you're worker does something that is entirely separate from your application. Let's say, for example, you want to do some image encoding or something equally as extensive and you don't want the gems, binary code, and other files as dependencies in your Rails app.
To do this, you first create your workers and get them working on SimpleWorker. After they are working and your code is ready to be run on SimpleWorker, you can queue it up from a different application by using the name and passing the correct data payload. For instance:
data[:attr_encoded] = Base64.encode64({'@name'=>'Travis'}.to_json)
data[:sw_config] = SimpleWorker.config.get_atts_to_send
SimpleWorker.service.queue('HelloWorker', data) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27523 | digraph M1196_7 { size = ""; { node[shape=plaintext,fontsize=10]; A21[label="2X1"]; A22[label="2X2"]; A34[label="3X4"]; A32[label="3X2"]; A33[label="3X3"]; A21->A22->A34->A32->A33 [arrowhead=none]; }
This graph displays Child-Parent information for class id 3X4 Model number M1196
|
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27528 | Eye Lid Surgery / Blepharoplasty
Click image to enlarge
• Wrinkles and deep lines in eyelid skin
• Puffiness in the upper or lower eyelids
• Excess skin folds in the upper eyelids
• Local anesthetic and sedation
• 1.5- 2.5 hrs
• In the upper eyelid, through an incision hidden within the upper lid fold, excess skin, stretched muscle, and protruding fat are removed
• In the lower eyelid, protruding fat is removed through an external incision placed just below the eyelashes. Sagging skin and muscle is trimmed and tightened to re-suspend and support the lower eyelid
• Swelling and bruising of the eyelids peak at 2 days after surgery and rapidly resolve over the next 2 weeks
• Temporary discomfort, tightness of the eyelids, burning and itching, excessive tearing and sensitivity to light are common in the first few weeks
• Patients are able to read or watch television after 2-3 days
• Return to work after 10 days, but no strenuous activity for 3 weeks
• Contact lenses cannot be worn for 2 weeks
• Subtle swelling may persist for up to 6 months
• Provides a smoothing of eyelid skin which lasts for years
• The fat removal is permanent
• Infection, hematoma, scarring
• Residual asymmetry in eyelid shape
• Visual disturbances, including blindness (extremely rare)
• Difficulty in closing the eyes completely (extremely rare and may require revisional surgery)
• Drying of the eyes or tearing |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27562 | User Guide >
Designing GL Voucher Number format generated from AR, AP and IC
You can use Designing Document Number Formats feature to design the GL Voucher Number generate from AR, AP and IC.
However, starting from ERPro 5.4, you can use the "SOURCE" keyword to specific that the GL Voucher Numbers are using the Source Document Number without another set of document number. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27567 | get cash today photo - 1
Where to get get cash today?
You can sell something unnecessary.
Thats probably all the options. In this article, we are talking only about legal schemes for getting get cash today.
Where to store get cash today?
The most common option for storing money is a bank.
Storing cash in investment instruments is also possible, but will not be a liquid option, since you cannot quickly turn your savings into get cash today.
You need to get used to the fact that get cash today will be unavailable, and all calculations will become non-cash. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27572 | Do you remember Bulk Rename Utility? I wrote that software about 16 years, and whilst the user interface was horrible it was a powerful piece of software and I still use it myself. It was a C++ learning curve for me, but it eventually became a bit of a monster to maintain.
Fast-forward to 2018, and I wanted to rewrite my software in a more friendly programming language and to provide much more flexibility for renaming files. And so File Rename Utility was born.
The same powerful renaming capabilities are still present, but the software is more flexible, the user interface is cleaner, and there is far more scope for enhancing the software to add more capabilities. I've added 90% of the useful features from Bulk Rename Utility into this new version - which is a 100% rewrite from scratch - but if there are features missing that you would like to see, just get in touch. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27587 | Howdy, Stranger!
Supported by
Mousetrap cursor visibility
In my experiment I use a mousetrap response item to collect responses. It is placed at some point within the sequence, after some sketchpades. For the purpose of my experiment I need the cursor to never be seen on the screen. To make this happen I add an inline script inside the sequence with this line of code:
Hide Mouse
ms = mouse()
During the sketchapes that preceed the mousetrap the cursor is correctly hidden but the problem is that it is still visible during the recording of responses with the mousetrap, so when the mouse trap item is running I guess.
How can I solve this?
Can anyone suggest me something?
Thank you very much!
• Hi Viola,
you cannot influence the visibility of the mouse cursor while mousetrap is running, as it is internally enforce that it is visible (as I could not think of a use case with an invisible cursor). However, I could provide you with a modified version for your purposes. Are you using the mousetrap_response or the mousetrap_form plugin?
• Hi Pascal,
thank you so much that would be wonderful!
I am using the mousetrap_response plugin.
Sorry for the trouble and thanks again
• Hi Viola,
please use the following to link to find an updated file for the mousetrap_response plugin that will set the mouse cursor to invisible while the mousetrap_response item is running. Note that this assumes that you are using the most recent development version of the mousetrap_response item.
You can install it in the following way:
1. Go to the following folder within the installation directory of OpenSesame:
2. Delete all files within that folder
3. Copy the new file linked above into the folder
4. Restart OpenSesame
Sign In or Register to comment. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27595 | Wednesday, April 09, 2008
The BBC and Climate Change
Last week, on April 3rd, Benny Peiser's CCNet mailing included a piece (the linked article is not the original version, as I make clear below) from the BBC's website, written by Richard Black, which begins:
But there was no response from Dr Svensmark in the piece, and Benny commented:
EDITOR'S NOTE: It would appear that Sloan's paper is so 'compelling' that the BBC didn't even bother to ask Svensmark for a response to the latest claims and findings. I'm afraid this is another example of poor journalistic standards that brings back to mind recent accusations of "institutional bias" within the BBC:
I emailed Richard Black, as follows:
Dear Mr Black,
I just received Benny Peiser's CCNet mailing, in which he comments: "It would appear that Sloan's paper is so 'compelling' that the BBC didn't even bother to ask Svensmark for a response to the latest claims and findings."
Is that so? Or did you contact Svensmark - something that would not have been exceptional journalistic practice?
I think this is a matter of public interest, so would like to publish this mail and your reply.
Peter Risdon.
On April 7th (after the weekend), Black replied, but I can't tell you what he wrote, because he said it was not for publication. He did give a reason for this which, though strictly correct was perhaps a little legalistic. Of course, I can't tell you what that was either. However, by that time the BBC website had been updated to include a response from Svensmark. As you'll see if you click through, this response is sandwiched between quotations from scientists hostile to Svensmark's ideas, rather than appended to the foot of the piece, as might have been more normal. Other elements of the article were also strengthened. For example, the phrase "But Lancaster University scientists found..." had been changed to "But UK scientists found...". UK scientists. All of them?
So Black issued the article before he had a response from Svensmark, then added Svensmark's response, but did so in a way that emphasised dissent from his view and at the same time strengthened some of the original language. That, to my mind, is the sort of approach an advocate would take, rather than a dispassionate reporter.
I have also had some correspondence with Nigel Calder, who is handling enquiries about this as Svensmark's co-author. I have his permission to quote the following line from one of Nigel's mails to me:
... if the headline had been "No CO2 link to climate change" it's pretty hard to imagine the BBC putting it out without giving several of their greenhouse-warming contacts adequate time to comment. The asymmetry is remarkable.
That seems fair to the point of understatement.
Obviously, the precise timing of communications between Black and Svensmark might be interesting but, for one reason or another, I can't comment on this at the moment. That situation might change and, if it does, you'll be the first to know.
Another aspect of this is the simmering controversy over the BBC's approach to "stealth editing". The date and time shown at the top of the modified, updated article is April 3rd, 13:04 GMT. The following screen shot was taken today, April 9th at 12:30pm BST:
Bishop Hill recently wrote about the BBC and stealth editing, quoting BBC policy as described by a BBC editor on his blog:
When we make a major change or revision to a story we republish it with a new timestamp, indicating it’s a new version of the story. If there’s been a change to a key point in the story we will often point this out in the later version (saying something like "earlier reports had said...").
But lesser changes - including minor factual errors, corrected spellings and reworded paragraphs - go through with no new timestamp because in substance the story has not actually progressed any further. This has led to accusations we are "stealth editing" - a sinister-sounding term that implies we are actively trying to hide what we are doing. We’re not. It’s just that continually updating the timestamp risks making it meaningless, and pages of notes about when and where minor revisions are made do not make for a riveting read.
It's a pleasure to be able to say that Google's cached version of the page, retrieved on 3 Apr 2008 at 21:33:46 GMT, included Svensmark's response, which suggests Black DID update the timestamp.
UPDATE: Date corrected - thanks to Mike in the comments.
Anonymous said...
Yes... the Harrabin change was just a minor revision... no need for a time-stamp change....
Zero credibility BBC....
Harrabin must go!!!!!
Anonymous said...
Hi Peter,
The paragraph directly above your screenshot reads:
The date and time shown at the top of the modified, updated article is JULY 3rd, 13:04 GMT. The following screen shot was taken today, April 9th at 12:30pm BST:
Shouldn't that July be April?
thruppennybit said...
I think Messrs Harabin and Black have given up all pretence of balance. I wrote to Richard Black last month when he reported on the climate change declarations of American Southern Baptists (
This was a week after the New York Climate Change Conference and the Manhattan Declaration, which the two "reporters" have completely ignored. The BBC is quite happy proselytising for the Church of Global Warming (Souther Baptist Branch) whilst ignoring the reasoned arguments of respected scientists plus the President of an EU State
thruppennybit said...
I should have said that, to be fair to Richard, he did reply promptly to my email, and pointed me in the direction of this:
We do not need consistently to ‘balance’ the reports of the IPCC." |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27598 | the Uncanny
In psychoanalysis the uncanny refers to that which is simultaneously familiar and foreign and which yields a feeling of disorientation. A source of attraction and acceptance but also repulsion and rejection, the uncanny cannot be neatly apprehended, classified, or categorized.
The uncanny is etymologically related to the German heimlich and unheimlich, both of which contain an element of the hidden, the secretive, and the invisible. The unheimlich, which corresponds to the uncanny in particular, is what becomes visible when it should remain hidden.
In reframing the familiar and producing new conditions of visibility, infrastructures can yield an uncanny effect. Whether in the naturalization of denatured landscapes or in the transference and telepathy engendered by print and digital photographs, infrastructures can complicate divisions between the natural, unnatural, preternatural, and supernatural and upset our expectations and our habituated senses of ease. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27608 | Does ginkgo biloba enhance memory? I forgot.
I recently saw an ad that claimed ginkgo biloba can treat the signs of dementia. A quick search on yielded hundreds of products, many claiming that gingko is a "brain sharpener" or that it "supports focus, memory, brain function and mental performance," or other similar claims.
Ginkgo biloba is a supplement made from the leaves of the gingko biloba tree, which is native to China. The supplements industry claims that gingko has been used for thousands of years to improve memory and stave off dementia. While that may be true (though I doubt it), the argument that a medical treatment was used by pre-scientific cultures is not exactly compelling. After all, people died very young in ancient times, and medical knowledge was little more than superstition, for the most part. I don't know about you, but when I'm looking for medicine, I want the latest stuff.
"But wait!" say ginkgo biloba's advocates: maybe those ancient folk doctors were onto something. Maybe so–and it didn't take me long to find multiple studies testing what those ancients supposedly believed about gingko biloba:
1. Here's a review from 2009 that looked at gingko biloba for dementia and milder cognitive impairment. It reported that "the evidence that Ginkgo biloba has clinically significant benefit for people with dementia or cognitive impairment is inconsistent and unreliable." Not exactly a ringing endorsement.
2. Here's another study, from 2012, looking at the effect of gingko biloba on memory in healthy individuals. Is it a "brain sharpener"? Well, no. This study found that gingko "had no ascertainable positive effects on a range of targeted cognitive functions in healthy individuals." In other words, a total dud.
3. And here's an even more recent study, from 2015. The result: "no convincing evidence ... that demonstrated Ginkgo biloba in late-life can prevent the development of dementia. Using it for this indication is not suggested."
Given that the science says this doesn't work, you might wonder how it is that hundreds of gingko biloba products are still on the market, all of them with claims about memory. Simple: it's a dietary supplement, not a drug, which means that it is essentially unregulated (in the U.S.). The FDA won't step in unless the marketing claims get so outrageous that they cross the line into medicine–and even then, the FDA rarely does more than send a sternly worded letter.
As I've written before, supplement marketing is like the wild west. You generally can't trust anything you read from the manufacturers, except perhaps the ingredients list. And even the ingredients are sometimes inaccurate and contaminated.
(By the way, I find it especially amusing when a pill that has no effect is advertised as "double strength," as Walgreens does for one of their gingko products, here.)
So be skeptical about the marketing claims for gingko biloba. Even NCCIH, the NIH institute whose mission is to promote "alternative" medicine, is remarkably clear about this, stating that:
• "There’s no conclusive evidence that ginkgo is helpful for any health condition.
• Ginkgo doesn’t help prevent or slow dementia or cognitive decline.
• There’s no strong evidence that ginkgo helps with memory enhancement in healthy people, blood pressure, intermittent claudication, tinnitus, age-related macular degeneration, the risk of having a heart attack or stroke, or with other conditions."
I must say, I'm feeling a bit better about NCCIH these days. They got this one right. The bottom line: don't waste your money on gingko biloba.
Why does anyone believe this works? The dangers of cupping.
Cupping therapy. If this looks painful and possibly damaging
to the skin, that's because it is.
People are easily fooled. Even smart people.
I'm not talking about voters in the U.S. and the UK, although both groups have recently demonstrated how easily they can be conned into voting against their own interests. You can read plenty of articles about that elsewhere.
No, I'm talking about the wide variety of health treatments that call themselves alternative medicine, integrative medicine, traditional Chinese medicine, energy medicine, and other names. These are all just marketing terms, but many people, including some physicians and scientists, seem captivated by them.
This week I'm going to look at "cupping," a rather bizarre treatment that, for reasons that escape me, seems to be growing in popularity.
I just returned from a scientific conference, where I happened to speak with an editor for a major scientific journal who also follows this blog. She remarked that she liked some of my articles, but she disagreed with me about cupping, which I wrote about during the 2016 Olympics, where swimmer Michael Phelps was observed to have the circular welts that are after-effects of cupping. This editor's argument boiled down to "it works for me," which left me somewhat flabbergasted.
And just two weeks ago, when I was at my physical therapist's office getting treatment for a shoulder injury, I heard her discussing cupping with another therapist. I then noticed a large box containing cupping equipment on one of the counters. Thankfully, my therapist didn't suggest cupping for me; I'm not sure how I would have replied.
What is cupping? It's a technique where you take glass cups, heat the air inside them, and then place them on the skin. Because hot air is less dense, it creates suction as it cools, which sucks your skin up into the glass. (Some cupping sets use pumps rather than heat to create this effect.) Imagine someone giving you a massive hickey, and then doing another dozen or so all over your back, or legs, or wherever the cupping therapist thinks you need it. If that sounds kind of gross, it is.
Quacktitioners Practitioners of cupping think that it somehow corrects your "qi," a mysterious life force that simply doesn't exist. When pressed, they often remark that it "improves blood flow," a catch-all explanation that has no scientific basis and that is more or less meaningless. What really happens, as the physician and blogger Orac noted, is this:
"The suction from cupping breaks capillaries, which is why not infrequently there are bruises left in the shape of the cups afterward.... If you repeatedly injure the same area of skin over time ... by placing the cups in exactly the same place over and over again, the skin there can actually die."
So maybe cupping isn't so good for you.
Cupping is ridiculous. There's no scientific or medical evidence that it provides any benefit, and it clearly carries some risk of harm. A recent review in a journal dedicated to alternative medicine–one of the friendliest possible venues for this kind of pseudoscience–concluded that
"No explicit recommendation for or against the use of cupping for athletes can be made. More studies are necessary."
Right. That's what proponents of pseudoscience always say when the evidence fails to support their bogus claims. Let us do more studies, they argue, and eventually we'll prove what we already believe. That's a recipe for bad science.
Even NCCIH, the arm of NIH dedicated to studying complementary and integrative nonsense medicine, can't bring itself to endorse cupping. Their summary states:
• There’s been some research on cupping, but most of it is of low quality.
• Cupping may help reduce pain, but the evidence for this isn’t very strong.
• There’s not enough high-quality research to allow conclusions to be reached about whether cupping is helpful for other conditions.
In other words, some bad scientists have conducted a few studies but haven't proven anything. But wait, it gets worse. NCCIH goes on to warn that:
• Cupping can cause side effects such as persistent skin discoloration, scars, burns, and infections, and may worsen eczema or psoriasis.
• Rare cases of severe side effects have been reported, such as bleeding inside the skull (after cupping on the scalp) and anemia from blood loss (after repeated wet cupping).
And still, otherwise intelligent people say "it works for me." I'm left speechless.
The bottom line: save your money and your skin. Don't let anyone suck it into those cups. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27637 | Degrees of Intervention
But would science advance this far while frequently attributing God-acts to natural causes? Would it be this successful if it was so often wrong? Maybe science’s naturalistic assumptions are correct after all.
Just because a God creates a universe does not mean that everything in this universe occurs supernaturally. And, if something occurs naturally, then the scientific method will work even in a God created universe. The best way to think about this question is to look at how we as human beings create things. People have, over the centuries, come up with all kinds of inventions and developed all kinds of devices. So we can draw some lessons about how a god might create the universe based on our own experience with the creative process.
There are several ways in which devices are built:
1. Assemble and Assist. Some devices are built to require continual effort on our part to work. A bicycle, for example, to take us from point A to point B, requires that we pedal constantly.
Similarly, there are different ways in which God could have created the universe. He could have, for example, made it such that He would need to constantly tinker with it for it to run properly. He would have to perform a miracle to cause rain, to cause the sun to rise and set each day, etc. (A). If all these things functioned on a supernatural basis, the scientific method would not have worked very well at all.
But there is no reason to assume that God would create the universe this way. If we can create devices that assemble and run themselves, why would we expect God to micromanage every minor aspect of creation and continuously intervene supernaturally to keep the universe running?
Therefore, because as theists we expect that a creator would put together a well-engineered universe that doesn’t need constant attention to work, we also expect that the naturalistic methodology of science will be effective in the majority of cases. We expect that any phenomenon occurring today is occurring naturally, and that even when it comes to creation, God put in place various natural mechanisms to at least partly help with that creation process. Unlike the atheist, however, we are not philosophically obligated to assume naturalism in all cases.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27641 | Pendulum Pilsner and Fake Käsekrainer
When I am not aspiring to be a fake Englishman, I aspire to be a fake Austrian. I am helped in this fantasy by Aldi’s expansion in the United States. Aldi primarily markets itself in the U.S. as a cheaper alternative to major grocery chains. However, because it is a German company, it imports a lot of European goods. This makes a Europhile like me giddy.
So let’s say that one day, I get a craving for a Käsekrainer. I’ve included a photo of one I ate earlier. It is a sausage stuffed with Emmentaler cheese that is widely found at Würstelstands around Vienna. Apparently, it is often referred to by locals as “Eitrige,” which roughly translates as “pus-filled.” This is because the cheese oozes out when the sausage is cut.
Anyway, if my craving hits during the Octoberfest or Christmas seasons, then the odds are good that Aldi will have stocked up on all sorts of German sausages, including a cheese-filled bratwurst. But what if it is the first weekend in June and I’ve already eaten the supply of cheese-filled bratwursts I had stashed in my freezer from Christmastime?
Then the first items on my Aldi shopping list are Emmentaler cheese and Kaiser rolls. If I’m lucky, it will also have Nathan’s hot dogs available. If not, I can head over to Costco and buy some Kirkland hot dogs, which have a similarly savory and spicy flavor. Rather than try to stuff the hot dogs with cheese, I grill them and chop them up. Then I serve them with chunks of Emmentaler, a lightly toasted Kaiser roll, and dollops of Dijon mustard and ketchup.
Okay, so it misses out in the oozing cheese area and lacks a lot of authenticity. But I am looking more for a simulation of reality here.
What to drink with this? Well, beer, obviously. If I were in Vienna, I would probably get an Ottakringer Helles. Helles is a Bavarian style lager popular in Austria. It is a bit sweeter, wheatier and maltier than a Pilsner.
It’s not easy to find Austrian beer in the U.S. As far as I can tell Stiegl is the only Austrian brewery that exports to the States, although that might just be because their grapefruit radler has turned out to be successful.
Instead, I will grab something from a local Maryland brewery. RavenBeer’s Pendulum Pilsner reminds me a lot of Helles-style lagers. It’s sweet and malty and light enough to hold up to all the fatty food I’m shoving down my gullet.
Also, it seems fitting to drink a beer named after “The Pit and the Pendulum” while eating a fake Käsekrainer. What cuts open a festering pus finger better than a pendulum? |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27657 | 2001 Update
M&O Working Group Update
Reprinted from InterRidge News 10.2 (Nov. 2001) by Javier Escartin and Ricardo Serrão Santos
The mandate of MOMAR (MOnitoring the Mid Atlantic Ridge) is to encourage multidisciplinary studies at the Mid-Atlantic Ridge, with the ultimate goal of developing observatory-type efforts on the Azores area, encompassing the Lucky Strike, Menez Gwen and Rainbow hydrothermal vents, to characterize this portion of the ridge and understand the integration of tectonic, volcanic, biological and hydrothermal systems in space and time. The chosen site is logistically favourable for repeated or permanent observations due to its close proximity to the Azores islands (Lucky Strike <200 nm from Faial island). Background information on the area of interest and on scientific goals of the MOMAR project may be found in the Scientific Report of the first MOMAR Workshop (Lisbon, Portugal, 1998): http://ofgs.ori.u-tokyo.ac.jp/~intridge/momar/report.htm
The immediate task is the organization of a II MOMAR Workshop, that will take place in May 2002 in Horta (Azores, Portugal), hosted by the University of the Azores, IMAR and the ISR - Associated Laboratory. This workshop intends to bring together scientists working on active mid-ocean ridge processes interested in long-term, in-situ observations in the MOMAR area. Due to the multidisciplinary nature of observatory studies, and the technological challenges posed, the Workshop will encompass all disciplines, including Biology, Fluid Chemistry, Geochemistry, Geology, Geophysics, Oceanography, and Engineering.
The Workshop should:
a) define the scientific objectives to be pursued in the next 5-10 years: integration of biological, volcanic, tectonic, hydrothermal and oceanographic processes in time and space
b) identify the technology and instrumentation available for observatory-related studies, and future developments required: AUVs, moorings, ROVs, submersibles, data collection/storage/transmission, etc.
c) define the type of experiments to carry out in the future and establish a realistic implementation plan based on the scientific goals, as well as technological and funding constrains
d) define the procedures for mana-gement and integration of scientific data
e) establish links with existing national and international observatory-related projects: data and connector standards, transfer of technology
f) discuss and evaluate management proposals of study sites, and aspects related with scientific interpretation and dissemination for the general public
g) discuss and evaluate possibilities and strategies for funding of the observatory
We plan to have two days of discussions among different working groups, with very few key talks, and one day to write the results. The working groups will be determined based on the number of attendants and their expertise. The precise format of the Workshop, details on the schedule, official announcement and registration will be announced at a later time, not later than January 2002. Visit the InterRidge home page for the latest information on the MOMAR workshop. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27663 | Tolkien Gateway
Forum:Valaquenta and "servants and helpers"
Tolkien Gateway > Forums > Valaquenta and "servants and helpers"
I made edits to the pages for sprites, sylphs, and mermaids and while I left comments for those edits I wanted to explain my reasoning at a bit more length since I changed several different pages. In all these pages I replaced a version of the followings
As the sprites and fays are not mentioned in later versions of the legendarium, it might be that Tolkien envisioned these creatures as the "servants and helpers" of the Maiar (mentioned in later versions of Elven chronicles) — lesser spirits that would have remained in Middle-earth (and would thus perhaps be equivalent to the Faeries). As Tolkien never cared to elaborate much on these "lesser Maiar" in the texts used by his son Christopher when preparing the published The Silmarillion, one could speculate on how much Tolkien would have retained or rejected of this earlier conception.
The chapter and section cited for this on all three pages was The Silmarillion, "Valaquenta: Of the Maiar". The However, the Valaquenta does not establish a class of "lesesr Maiar" (which is the reason Tolkien didn't discuss them elsewhere either). The text reads:
The second sentence here is not establishing three different classes of spirits, but it describing the Maiar as both "the people of the Valar" and "their servants and helpers". I replaced the above-quoted paragraph with a new version on each page mentioning the replacement of various early spirits (as well as the Children of the Valar with the Maiar (referred to in Morgoth's Ring, Annals of Aman, notes to Section 1):
I just wanted to leave a more complete explanation of my thought process here in case anyone had questions about my edits.Unsigned comment by Eldorion (talk • contribs).
Thanks for fixing this, Eldorion! I added it to those articles (when I created them) a long time ago. I have since felt that the concept of "lesser" maiar was based, as you say, on a misreading but haven't had the opportunity to clear it up.--Morgan 21:58, 1 June 2016 (UTC)
Glad to help! --Eldorion |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27666 | Hannah Weiner and the limit experience of language
“Speaking subjects interact with and speak the echoes or ghosts of language’s words and sentences and these ghosts in turn possess us with their incorporeal insistence.” Above: cover of ‘Hannah Weiner’s Open House,’ mirrored.
Hannah Weiner sees words. Hannah Weiner interacts with words. “The words in CAPITALS and underlines are words I see,”[1] she claims. Even though Weiner suffered from a unique form of schizophrenia that permitted her alphabetic hallucinations, I agree with Judith Goldman when she insists that we read Weiner’s “clairvoyance other than as a symptom of schizophrenia.”[2] Apart from this initial gesture towards Weiner’s psychological experience of the world, I will not belabor her schizophrenia, because I feel that a more interesting account of her experience of language is material and extreme, and develops an implicit theory of the limits of a living and lively language.
In “Mostly About the Sentence,” Weiner describes the gradual evolution of her experience of language: “When the words first began to appear in August 1972, they appeared singly. The first word, WRONG, appeared about an inch long, neatly printed at a 45 degree to my pant leg. Later words appeared in two word phrases some of which, as NO-ALONE, I did not understand” (122–23). This message that emanates from language and manifests on Weiner’s person confounds her because she feels that the message in totality has been edited, excised, or obscured. Weiner explains:
In my naïve (or natural form) desire for completion I would cry “where is my T — is it the phrases ‘not alone’ that is meant” and why cannot I or it or the spirits that I then sometimes thought it was, speak English. The phrase developed but remained a phrase right up through the Clairvoyant Journal […] In April sometime I think I got down on my knees and begged or prayed, please let me see a complete sentence. On April 15th I did see one, printed in small letters along the edge of my kitchen table that had come to me from Lenny Neufield via Jerry Rothenberg. It said, “YOU WONT BE ANY HAPPIER.” (123)
Like the game show Wheel of Fortune, Weiner occasionally wants to “buy a vowel” or, in this case, a consonant. However, the message that emanates from language is intriguing because it is not devoid of meaning: is a T “missing” thus rendering the intended message “not-alone”? Or is the T intentionally excised thereby rendering the proper word “no alone,” therefore indicating that Weiner’s reality is one in which the very concept of “alone” is no longer valid (because she lives alongside language itself)?; Should we read the first “no” as an exclamatory determiner — as in “no!” you are “alone”? Also, should Barthes’s thesis regarding the death of the author be extended to language itself when it appears to be language (as a subject) that is writing? Can we afford any degree of intentionality to language? Goldman analyzes this moment in Weiner in the following way: “The word’s ‘T’ is not merely not there, but not-there, missing — the word has a whole form of which she will receive only a part. Its loss migrates to become her loss, as Weiner turns the lack within the phrase on herself: she is the one who cannot read it.”[3] Weiner’s interaction with language becomes a unique instance of cross-cultural engagement with a type of being that is traditionally coded as remaining anterior to direct human experience.
Language’s purported immateriality — i.e., the notion that the signifier itself is immaterial — renders language as an outside of the outside; as a sort of extreme or ultimate outside that can never be fully incorporated within an inside. Speaking subjects interact with and speak the echoes or ghosts of language’s words and sentences and these ghosts in turn possess us with their incorporeal insistence. Weiner has, through her phenomenal experience, recoded the human relationship with language: she has psychically torn down the semiotic screen of signifier and referent and reached an ontic experience of reality in which language exists not as an invisible or processual field, but as consisting of directly apprehended, linguistic objects. I consider the things that Weiner writes with to be word-things, which is my term for the speculative entification of words that exist when words manifest agential and vital qualities.
Beginning with her experience of a three-week fast (recounted in The Fast from 1992), Weiner begins to describe the ontogeny of language: initially, a morphogenetic field sets the stage for the further emergence of objectified language;[4] this stage is followed by the respective emergence of images and colors,[5] and finally words.[6] Instead of a morphogenetic field, I would suggest that Weiner describes a directly logogenetic field that designates the initial conditions of an emergent notion of language: on the one hand, language reveals itself to Weiner as a clairvoyant medium, but, on the other, language simultaneously reveals an intrinsic object-ness that was always present. Weiner perceives the potentiality of the logogenetic and the morphogenetic and recognizes such potentiality as ontic.
The transition in Weiner’s work is one that expands through the logogenetic emergence of a living language and also accompanies a later transition from a strictly subjective experience of language to what could be called an “intersubjective” field of relationality between signification and the phenomenal. Put differently, the words instruct Weiner and train her. They act as mentors, teachers, and friends: “The words train me: DONT CHOOSE, DONT PRETEND, DONT COMPLAIN, DONT LIE, overcome emotions” (64). This evolution moves beyond a field of energy and creates a complex social order that includes Weiner and an ecosystem of language. The aspect of training or conditioning eventually transitions into a relationship of friendly complementarity in which Weiner works with language in order to produce poetry:
I am unusual, as far as I can discover, in having this extensive gift of SEEING language. I have met people who see words BACON occasionally. It has nitrate. It is more common to hear THANK YOU voices. What I see as words, others may experience as feeling cigarette or thought. The four years of this manuscript [The Fast] document my experiences and changes in perception I continue writing as a collaborator with WORDS I SEE. Sometimes I struggle as I do not[7] ENJOY all their interruptions. They edit the manuscript as well, and I have lately begun to edit them, for literary values. Their comment on this is Ok. (64)
Language becomes an active collaborator in poetic composition, with the words eventually commenting on their own appearance and on Weiner’s tendency to edit. When Weiner says, “[t]heir comment on this is Ok,” the ambiguity of the pronoun “this” raises the question of whether language thinks her edits are “okay,” or if her description of this process is “okay,” or even whether “Ok” means “okay.” From a strictly lettric perspective “okay” is also two letters “O” and “K,” but why is the “k” written in superscript? Why is the “k” lowercase as opposed to uppercase? What exactly is language attempting to present to the reader (or to Weiner or to language itself) with this particular “Ok”?
Perhaps language is punning on mathematics so that “Ok” is “O” raised to the power of “k.” But then what do “O” and “k” represent? If language is lively, then would “O” and “k” remain as mimetic markers in a more traditional signifying regime? Or, do “O” and “k” function as individual objects or as kinds of noumena, effectively existing as “in-themselves” only? I do not propose to answer any of these questions, but the questions are important, especially when taking Weiner’s perception of reality at face value. For the purposes of this paper, I consider Weiner’s experience of language as a perspective that promotes a linguistic realism in which words and letters and phonemes exist in-the-world as objects.
In his seminar on The Psychoses (1955–1956), Lacan theorizes psychotic experiences of language as being indelibly linked to “the real”: “we’re dealing with something that emerges in the external world and forces itself on one as a perception, a disorder, a rupture in the text of the real. In other words, the hallucination is located in the real.”[8] Of course, what Lacan means by “the real” is not the same as saying that the hallucination exists in “reality” (or that the hallucination is actual or present in-the-world). “Reality,” for Lacan, is a matrix produced through the complicated interactions of the imaginary and symbolic orders and has very little to do with a naïve realist approximation of reality.[9] However, the real, according to Lacan, is a register of the Borromean knot that human speaking-subjects do not have direct access to after infancy (or, their access is always mediated by the other orders).[10] Lacan claims that “[t]he real is absolutely without fissure,”[11] and “[t]here is no absence in the real.”[12] This originary state of “cohesion” is ruptured by the incursions of the symbolic order through which language and signification emerge into the speaking-subject’s world.
Maria Damon reads Weiner’s poetic project through a different kind of understanding of “reality” or “the real”: her approach focuses on the way that Weiner’s poetry promotes a “graphomaniacal excrescence”[13] that renders language as an organism. This notion of reality is less subjective and more closely related to a material understanding of the real — the real as traditional material.[14] “Graphomaniacal excrescence” situates language as an organism that produces waste — as all organisms do — and this waste registers as excretion. Indeed, Weiner’s psychic experience can be considered a form of graphomaniacal excrescence: in Little Books / Indians (1980), Weiner writes that “temporarily / I SEE WORDS / ONS MY TOWEL // hear & see / I AMS SURROOM / PRISED / me (early) this morning / stupid” (78). The words appear on Weiner’s towel and occasionally the words collide and collapse into each other as linguistic incarnations of a Lucretian clinamen: the word or phrase “SURROOM / PRISED” collapses “surprised” and “room” together while also suggesting “surround” so that Weiner is, in a sense, surrounded by the language that she interacts with and records.
Weiner’s clairvoyant relationship with language shares much in common with shamanistic and drug-induced experiences of language. Jay Stevens points out, in his introduction to Terence and Dennis McKenna’s The Invisible Landscape (1975), that: “They [the McKenna brothers] focused their work on the psychedelic dimethyltryptamine, or DMT. They were curious about DMT’s apparent stimulation of the language centers of the brain. Not only was glossolalia (speaking in tongues) common, but sometimes one encountered dancing molecular forms that seemed to be made out of visible language.”[15] Weiner’s poetry describes a world in which language is visible — it is a visible and active inhabitant of the world. Such a hallucinogenic reality is similar to both psychotic and narcotic experiences. Weiner describes her own experience with LSD as one in which a sort of telepathy occurred, but she remains unhappy that some level of poetic appropriation did not:
Telepathically we receive from each other the spoken sentence. In a house where everyone took a lot of LSD twice I heard people’s thoughts as if they had been spoken out loud. Both thoughts were silently directed to me. One woman thought, almost a shout, ‘get out of my kitchen’ and one man said something about helping me with a house if I bought it, and verified the thought out loud, asking me if I’d heard his thought. I heard their natural speaking voices. Differently, Mitch Highfill told me he once heard a whole conversation on LSD that he heard in reality later the next morning. I have never heard a ‘written’ line from someone — or anything they are reading or studying. I never heard any poetry lines I could steal! Only answers to thoughts. Once I saw two people have a silent conversation which they confirmed. (128)
The notion that, if you are attuned to language’s vital and agential nature, you could “steal” or appropriate the poetic lines of others is notable because in Weiner’s experience of linguistic realism there is a lack of theft; i.e., Weiner can hear comments and thoughts, but not poetry: the poetry that she produces is a type of ethnographic report on the lifestyles and habits of words and language. Lacan asks: “Who is speaking? Since there is a hallucination it’s reality that is speaking.”[16] The “reality” that speaks may not be noumena-in-themselves, but the (re)presentations of the noumena — which is to say, the symbolic order itself — which manifests acoustically or visually and “presents” itself to the hallucinating subject. Put differently, and extending beyond Lacan’s understanding of reality as a product of signification, the hallucinations produced by psychosis or psychedelic experiences achieve a peeling away of the German Idealist screen of real and representation so that — at least partially — noumena appear.
The symptom therefore speaks through the symbol; or the fanged or rainbow-colored noumena leak through the partially ripped partition of real and representation: something gets through and something is witnessed. This “something” is language itself — language made manifest or language temporarily made objectal as a thing made up of things. Lacan describes this moment as an experience of profound rupture: “this language that has suddenly been thrust into the foreground, that speaks all by itself, out loud, in its noise and furor, as well as in its neutrality? If the neurotic inhabits language, the psychotic is inhabited, possessed, by language.”[17] In terms of linguistic materialization, both experiences of neurosis and psychosis present to the analyst as presentations of language; however, the presentation of language is different in each case: on the one hand, the neurotic maintains a certain agency over language so that language remains somewhere on the outside of the subject, but on the other hand, in the experience of psychosis, language enters the subject like an interruptive poltergeist or spirit and displaces any remnant of the subject. In this psychoanalytical dynamic, the only way that the symptom materializes within the world is through language — whether this linguistic vector is constituted as exterior or interior effectively structures the symptom as being either “neurotic” or “psychotic.”
Charles Bernstein insists that Weiner “understood that if the heart of poetry were a radical foregrounding of the medium of writing, then this would also mean that the writing, and possibly the writer, became a medium.”[18] Writing as medium is recast through the now-dead author who has, in the face of her or his death, become a medium. Weiner’s poetic approach is not confined to traditional practices or definitions of authorship; her praxis is one in which she occupies a position that is closer to shamanism or clairvoyance — in other words, Hannah Weiner is a mystic (she herself calls her poetic method “clair-style” after “clairvoyance”).[19] Any form of literary mysticism should dramatically efface the poet or author: Damon argues that Weiner’s “gift is non-exploitable, monstrous in that it reduces people, herself included, into surfaces for writing — someone else’s writing. And what they write is not grand prophecy, nor even in the Yeatsian sense, ‘metaphors for poetry,’ though it is poetic; it’s the fragmented detritus of everyday conversation, memory, news reports, fantasy scenes involving friends.”[20] Damon is correct in her assessment of Weiner’s work because, as Goldman points out, “[f]rom the moment she took up writing, as Weiner related to Bernstein in a 1995 interview, it was never a matter of self-expression, but a means of displacing the self.”[21] Weiner’s purpose is then to displace the self in the service of liberating language and situating language in the position of author.
Damon describes Weiner’s project as “heroic autoethnography,” further asserting that:
Weiner is the historian specializing in the words of everyday life; no phoneme or letter is too insignificant to record as poetic. Her avant-gardism could be construed as the foresight (sight in to the avenir, voir avant la lettre) to preserve (garde) words for a future in which they are endangered. For words are not only phonemes and letters but bear inscribed in them, and function as, traces of history.[22]
Damon positions Weiner as the historian and preservationist of language so that language — as if it were an endangered species — could somehow be contained and protected for future poetries and future generations.
But what does language say? What is this language that Weiner is working so hard to record ethnographically, transmit, or elicit clairvoyantly? In Clairvoyant Journal (1978), language (via Weiner) writes that “NOTHING IS SURE OF ITSELF,” warning that “it calls it GO BREAKDOWN B R E A K D O W N” (72). If language is, in some ways, a logogenetic organism, then it must develop its own internal rules of entropy/negentropy or morphogenesis/eventual heat death: language would evolve and circulate around rules of grammar, syntax, semantics, and punctuation, but it would also devolve elsewhere through various avant-garde ruptures and linguistic breakdowns.
Apparently, language — seemingly mirroring the status of the barred subject in twentieth and now twenty-first century modernity — is also not “SURE OF ITSELF.” Elsewhere in the Journal we read: “YOU GET ANGRIER YOIU COULD BE ANGRY HAPPY YOU COULD BE APRIL” (73). An intriguing nonce word or neologism emerges here — YOIU — a word that appears to be a mixture of “I” and “YOU” or “I” and “U” which, in either sense, registers a psychoanalytical and phenomenological model of selves and others. The experience of consciousness and subjectivity resides inside the complicated relationship between “self” (as interior or “I”) and “you” (as exterior or the Other). Weiner’s (or language’s) nonce word captures this complicated dynamic within the collapsed portmanteau, effectively expressing linguistic and phenomenological complexity within a relatively simplistic poetic invention. At the very least, language (or Weiner’s language), appears to be playful and mischievous: “NOW ITS APOSTROPHE” (73), we read, suggesting that the time of apostrophe — as either punctuation mark or as rhetorical and poetic exclamation — is temporally “now.”
Apostrophe, as a rhetorical strategy dedicated to the personification of a person or thing, is extended to reflect Weiner’s larger project that can be considered an apostrophe of language itself. If Weiner’s clairvoyance is an apostrophic process, then language becomes a punning-machine, occasionally writing: “SHE’S A GENIUS STOMACH PUMP,” “YOU GET THIN C H I L D R E N,” or “SEE DANGER PRONOUN GET DRUNK it” (73), which are each an amusing moment selected from the same page. Pronouns are dangerous objects or things that can occasionally be consumed like liquid — you can drink a pronoun — and if you drink too many pronouns you can become, according to Weiner, drunk. If the reading-subject drinks too many pronouns, then she may need her stomach pumped. Another important neologistic moment from “Skies” is the invention or appearance of the word “andiquote” (98). “Andiquote” collapses “and,” “I,” and “quote” together while sonically referencing “antidote” so that every quotation becomes its own potential curative to a much larger graphomaniacal excess or infection.
The material act of placing words on a page delimits language’s apparent ontological dynamism and concretizes both textual agency and materiality so that a word is fixed as either portmanteau collision or as a more traditional or hegemonic “word.” In a sense, the act of fixing words on a page mirrors a Kantian model of noumena and phenomena: if language is a chaotic and nonlinear — perhaps virtual — object or organism, then human subjects have no (or very limited) access to it. Language’s ontology is therefore similar to theorizing the presence of noumena. The only access speaking-subjects have to language’s dynamism would be through its appearance (Vorstellung) or re-presentation on the page or within any medium — therefore the poem or text mimics the simulated “presence” of phenomena.[23]
The importance of engaging with Weiner’s poetic practice is that her work as an ethnographer or zoologist of language allows her to capture the words’ presence in a phenomenal presentation that apprehends the ontological flux and play of language-in-itself. To that extent, the silences or white spaces register as ontologically important as the printed letters or words because the totality of the presented text mirrors the uncertainty and nonlinearity of what could be called language’s being. This textuality mimics the German Idealist model of real and representation. Interpretations of textuality — assuming that language is Language or incarnational in any way — should consider the distancing procedures of the printed page (of its appearance as Vorstellungen) and of the vital and agential language that lies hidden at a “noumenal” realm beyond the printed medium.
1. Hannah Weiner, Hannah Weiner’s Open House, ed. Patrick F. Durgin (Berkeley, CA: Kenning Editions, 2007), 63. Every citation, even when I specify the source text, is taken from this excellent collection of Weiner’s poetry. Further references to Hannah Weiner’s Open House will be cited parenthetically in the text.
2. Judith Goldman, “Hannah=hannaH: Politics, Ethics, and Clairvoyance in the Work of Hannah Weiner,” differences: A Journal of Feminist Cultural Studies 12, no. 2 (2001): 121–68, 122.
3. Goldman, 134.
4. Weiner writes that: “The manuscript begins in the fall of 1970, describing a 3 week fast. The early material contains much information on the nature of the kundalini energy and electro magnetic sensitivity that I have never seen elsewhere. KNOWLEDGE. I was receiving FORCE / messages through FEELING energy at that time” (63).
5. Weiner continues: “Later pictures developed, and colors” (63).
6. Finally, Weiner concludes: “Then in Aug. 1972 words developed” (63).
7. OMIT appears above “I do not.”
8. Jacques Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book III: The Psychoses 1955–1956, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Russell Grigg (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), 136.
9. Dylan Evans, An Introductory Dictionary of Lacanian Psychoanalysis (London: Routledge, 1996), 161. It should also be mentioned that Lacan is not always strict in his use of his own terms and some slippage exists.
10. There are numerous definitions of the real and Lacan’s own definitions of the real repeatedly change throughout his career. However, the real is always, strictly speaking, separate from what folk phenomenologists would call “reality.” Lacan does argue that “the real is that which always comes back to the same place” in Jacques Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book XI: The Four Fundamental Concepts of Psychoanalysis, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Alan Sheridan (New York: Norton, 1998), 49. Lacan also insists that that “the real […] is what resists symbolization absolutely” in: Jacques Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book I: Freud’s Papers on Technique 1953–1954, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. John Forrester (New York: Norton, 1991), 66. The real is therefore forever apart from the cognizance of the barred subject. The real is unsymbolized and unintegrated by the symbolic order. The real achieves a unique position in Lacan’s Borromean schema because, in stricto sensu, it rejects any and all definitions. Part of the importance of the real for Lacan is that it cannot be symbolized (or defined). If the real is to exist apart from the symbolic order (in its insistent or ex-sistent totality), then it cannot ever be defined through language or sign systems. Lacan situates this same idea in the following way: “the real, whatever upheaval we subject it to, is always and in every case in its place; it carries its place stuck to the sole of its shoe, there being nothing that can exile it from it” from: Jacques Lacan, Écrits: The First Complete Edition in English, trans. Bruce Fink in collaboration with Héloïse Fink and Russell Grigg (New York: Norton, 2006), 17.
11. Jacques Lacan, The Seminar of Jacques Lacan, Book II: The Ego in Freud’s Theory and in the Technique of Psychoanalysis 1954–1955, ed. Jacques-Alain Miller, trans. Sylvana Tomaselli (New York: Norton, 1991), 97.
12. Lacan, The Ego, 313.
13. Maria Damon, “Hannah Weiner Beside Herself: Clairvoyance After Shock or The Nice Jewish Girl Who Knew Too Much,” East Village Web, March 5, 2004.
14. I mean “traditional” here in a pre-Socratic, atomist, and Aristotelian sense.
15. Jay Stevens, foreword to The Invisible Landscape: Mind, Hallucinogens, and the I Ching, by Terence McKenna and Dennis McKenna (New York: HarperOne, 1994), xii.
16. Lacan, The Psychoses, 50.
17. Lacan, The Psychoses, 250.
18. Charles Bernstein, “Hannah Weiner,” Jacket 12, July 2000.
19. Qtd. in Patrick F. Durgin, introduction to Hannah Weiner’s Open House, by Hannah Weiner (Berkeley, CA: Kenning Editions, 2007), 16.
20. Damon, “Hannah Weiner Beside Herself.”
21. Goldman, 124.
22. Damon, “Hannah Weiner Beside Herself.”
23. William Paulson in The Noise of Culture (1988) considers a poem or text as a concretization or presencing of chaotic processes: for example, Paulson considers the text “as a locus of self-organization from noise” (133), and this process is essential to considering “literature’s strangeness.” According to Paulson, the “text appears to us as a kind of singularity, as an object that undermines but does not abolish its own status as object” (139). See: William R. Paulson, The Noise of Culture: Literary Texts in a World of Information (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1988). |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27668 | Monday, May 22, 2006
The Women in Cages: Vilas Sarang's short stories
Several years ago, in one of my many horror-story anthologies, I came across a short story titled “An Interview with M Chakko”. It was in the form of a conversation and told of a strange island somewhere in the Indian Ocean where the protagonist, M Chakko, had once been shipwrecked. The women on this island only had half-bodies: the ones with only lower bodies were the “Ka” women while those with only upper bodies belonged to the “Lin” class. During the course of the story we learn of Chakko’s experiences living with a member of each class.
I won’t reveal anything about the ending except to say that it makes us question the veracity of M Chakko’s account, indeed his very sanity (though of course the more literalist readers would have been doing this from the outset!). The interviewer in the story appears to feel the same way, for he indulges in some pop psychology to try and understand this elaborate fantasy:
Interviewer: Perhaps you believed that women should always be imperfect and inferior. You didn’t like the idea of them being physically the same as men.
Chakko (after some thought): No, I don’t think it was that either.
Interviewer: What was the reason then?
Chakko: First I should admit that I’ve never given it much thought. But it seems to me that the half, the partial, gives something that the whole, or what appears whole, doesn’t.
Much of this talk has to do with the nature of the sexual arrangements on the island, and the story itself is built on Freud’s contention that “something in the nature of the sexual instinct itself is unfavourable to the realization of complete satisfaction”. But I also loved the delicate, poker-faced humour that ran through it – and the astonishing final act, which sneaks right up on the reader.
Much as I enjoyed the story, for some reason the author’s name never really registered in my mind; I persisted in thinking it was written by a Sri Lankan with a long and complicated name. Then, a few days ago, I sat down to read The Women in Cages, the collected stories of the bilingual (Marathi and English) writer Vilas Sarang, and discovered M Chakko’s strange tale afresh – along with a host of other delights.
Sarang’s short stories are simply written but very compelling and they cover a variety of themes and ideas, many of them with fantastical elements. "Barrel and Bombil" is about the mysterious communion between a whale-shark and a young deck-boy. In “The Odour of Immortality” a prostitute, with the help of a tantrik (and the blessings of Lord Indra), grows dozens of vaginas all over her body so she can service customers faster and make more money. (The connection between sex and worship is also made in another story where a man wakes up to find himself transformed into a giant phallus and is eventually mistaken by religious villagers to be the severed lingam of Lord Shiva.) In “A Revolt of the Gods”, clay statues of various deities come alive during a Ganesh festival and escape from their worshippers.
There are allusions to Kafka and Alice in Wonderland. Some of the stories have an indolent (or perhaps ailing) narrator who spends most of the day lying about in bed or reading. One such narrator hears the sound of airplanes roaring in the sky outside and wonders offhandedly if war has broken out, or if the sounds are in his own mind. Another maims flies on his bed with a folded newspaper and then reflects on the specifics of the act – when another fly lands next to a wounded one and circles it, what might be transpiring between the two creatures? Sarang takes unremarkable everyday scenarios like these and weaves gripping stories out of them.
But what I like best is the way he plays with the divide between the conscious and the sub-conscious, often moving indiscernibly from one to the other. In “An Evening at the Beach” for instance, there’s a passage where a character, Bajrang, joins a group of mourners at a woman's funeral pyre. Looking at the other people standing around, he starts to speculate that they might have killed the woman so they would have a bonfire to warm themselves with on this cold night. It’s the sort of morbid little fantasy that most of us (I hope – otherwise it’s just me!) have created in our minds at some solemn gathering or the other – especially when we are emotionally distanced from, and perhaps a little bored by, the proceedings. The difference is, Bajrang gets so involved with his little idea that he actually starts to play it out in his own actions: stretching his hands out in front of the fire, even turning around so he can warm his back. (Understandably, the other mourners are incensed.)
One reason why I enjoyed this aspect of Sarang’s stories is that they tell us a lot about the writing process, about the dual worlds that many writers simultaneously inhabit – the real world with its relatively mundane daily routines, and the embellished one, where the writer is constantly analysing the things that are happening around him, creating and fleshing out alternative scenarios. Some of Sarang’s characters are a little like that – like writers with ideas for the next novel perpetually floating around in their minds.
Guerilla prose
In his notes on writing, some of which are included in this collection, Sarang laments the repeated undervaluing of “the guerillas of prose fiction” (i.e. the great short-story writers) and also the lack of a sustained tradition of short-story writing in Indian fiction in English. “We do not have unitive collections which may serve as primers for budding writers – e.g. Borges’s Labyrinths and Nabokov’s Dozen,” he says. “Does Indian English literature hope to produce a War and Peace before it has attempted something like ‘How Much Land Does a Man Need?’ or ‘The Death of Ivan Ilyich’?” He observes that at its best the short-story form is capable of achieving the purity and perfection of the finest poetry – which is something the novel, however great, cannot achieve. “The strength of the novel is length…But this precludes the kind of intensity and concentration – the ‘critical pressure’ – that most art forms strive for.”
Many of Sarang’s own short stories have the pure intensity he speaks of, and so The Women in Cages comes with the highest recommendation. (My favourite stories in this collection, apart from the ones I’ve mentioned above: “An Afternoon Among the Rocks”, “Testimony of an Indian Vulture” and “An Excursion”.)
1. This movement from the mundane to the slightly fantastic is exactly the kind of thing I was talking about! Yippee!!
By the way, it wasn't very clear if these stories are originally written in English, or have been translated by the author? He appears to write in Marathi and English with equal felicity...
2. Sounds very intriguing.. thanks for the reco. (BTW, I owe you a BIG thank you for Patna Roughcut).
3. Space Bar: Some of them were written in English originally (e.g. the M Chakko one, which was originally published in The London Magazine), but some were written in Marathi and later translated by Sarang himself.
Karthik: you liked it? That’s such a relief! I usually get feedback where people can’t understand what I saw in such-and-such book and accuse me of being too kind to everything – guess that comes out of being over-inclusive :)
4. I nearly bought this yesterday.
*kicks self*
5. Jai Arjun,
You write really good reviews. I think I would have disregarded books like Patna RoughCut and Or the day seizes you, if not for your reviews. This is a late comment, but the interview with Rajosri was revealing.
Infact, Or the day seizes you is the fiction book of the year (so far) for me. Have you read “The Long Reverie of Partha Sarma” by C. Sriram. If yes, could you do a review?
Thanks and will keep coming back
6. Excellent review. I hadn't even heard of Vilas Sarang before reading this piece but his stories sound very, very interesting.
(By the way, The Electronic Zone experience was both interesting and fruitful. He was a little suspicious in the beginning- are there occasinal raids?- but when I mentioned "Jai Arjun Singh" he brought stacks of CDs down from the first floor. At least, you have influence somewhere.)
7. Jai: Interesting. Had only heard of Sarang as the person who edited this volume of Indian English poetry. Now to find a copy of the short stories in Philly.
Oh, and yes, as you said, interesting parallels with Keret. Yet another reminder that I don't spend enough time reading short fiction.
8. sounds very interesting, wud try to hunt this book on my next visit to the bookstore.
9. Sundhar: thanks. Haven’t read The Long Reverie... yet, though it’s been on my desk for a while. Will try to find time for it.
Anirudh: You joking, right? The Electronic Zone guy certainly doesn’t know my name. (I suspect the way it works is, if you say any name to him with a measure of confidence he’ll treat you with respect.) He has dozens of journos’ visiting cards on his table and like they say it’s an incestuous world…
he brought stacks of CDs down from the first floor
I hope you mean DVDs?
Falstaff: I’ve neglected short fiction myself, which is bizarre considering how much I moan about there not being enough time to read. Need to return to those 70 Penguin pocket books for starters...
10. I am also like sarang's stories. Let me know his email ID or any other contacting information. pl. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27684 | I hate git
… or at least I hate it for now.
apt-get source octave-foo
rm -r octave-foo-$version/debian
cd octave-foo
git clone git+ssh://git.debian.org/git/pkg-octave/octave-foo.git
# ...
# hack hack hack
# ...
# ...
# hack hack hack
# ...
“… you do have backups, don’t you?”
I blinked again.
I was aghast.
18 thoughts on “I hate git
git branch recovered
1. git deletes metadata remotely, which is a kind of data.
1. You’d be surprised at the kinds of things people want. Many people concerned about privacy have talked about having self-destruct mechanisms wired to their machines. (Naturally, I have no way of verifying whether or not they have done this. They didn’t exactly give their names or anything.)
I don’t remember anyone saying anything about an actual big red button, though.
1. Oh, hey. I was just going through my moderation queue and found this comment got lost in there.
I am not an idiot for disliking git. Neither are these people:
That git has an absolutely horrid CLI is a well-recognised fact. I was just one of the first ones to blog about it. :-)
6. i found this page while looking for co-commiserators after a data loss scenario of my own today. Few of my colleagues believe data loss is possible in git. i’ve lost more data in git than any other single piece of software (in over 30 years of using computers).
You might find “Fossil” to your liking:
(Disclosure: i’m one of the project’s code monkeys)
Fossil makes it _impossible_ to rewrite history (just to amend it with the equivalent of a sticky note), and in its 7 years of operation we’ve _never_ had a report of data loss.
Not incidentally, Fossil is the SCM used by sqlite, and was in fact started (by Richard Hipp, sqlite’s father) for that very purpose.
1. Mercurial is working towards this “impossibility” of rewriting history. This feature is called Mercurial Evolve. It’s very clever, changesets get rewritten and you get a meta-history of which cset replaces which one.
I applaud Fossil for its efforts, and I would have liked it to get more popular, but at the moment, the most popular alternative to git is hg, so that’s where I focus my efforts.
7. Git is really hard to use and mercurial is not only easier to use but it’s much better at tracking changes. By default, Git will forget branch histories leading to all sorts of weird graphs and logs. This is why Git people “clean” their history. You never have to worry about this using named branches in mercurial. Same with branches in bazaar. Both are better than Git and much easier to use.
See http://jhw.dreamwidth.org/2049.html and http://duckrowing.com/2013/12/26/bzr-init-a-bazaar-tutorial/
8. I find it absolutely fascinating the line drawn between version control people. The Mercurial people insist that Git is dangerous and difficult and that Git people are rude and unhelpful. Meanwhile, I have vast experience using both, and have spent countless hours in both #git and #mercurial. Git is actually much simpler than Mercurial. What’s difficult is the workflows that Git people often choose, and they choose those workflows because they’re superior. To accomplish those same workflows in Mercurial is much more difficult and much more dangerous than Git. It just so happens that Mercurial people tend to choose a more simple, sloppy, careless workflow. That same workflow would work flawlessly in Git without any difficult or dangerous commands.
In #git, I am welcomed with countless people trying to figure out how to solve a problem to my satisfaction (I am one of them when I have the chance), including all the necessary warnings and disclaimers. In #mercurial, I am chased away by loathing developers preaching about how what I’m trying to do is *wrong* and they don’t want to help me with it. That or I’m encouraged to use something that is dangerous and when it completely (not virtually) destroys my data either per design or bug the developers blame *me* for using that workflow. Git and Mercurial are nearly as capable as one another, but Git can do a few things more than Mercurial can, and it does everything much easier and more reliably.
Those “extensions” that Mercurial people love to brag about have corrupted my repository on numerous occasions. It’s not nearly correct to say that Mercurial is par for features with Git. My most recent experience was with core Mercurial developers in #mercurial instructing me to use the new Evolve extension, reassuring me that they had used it for months without any problems and it was basically safe and stable. Cue my angry tears a day later when it irrecoverably lost my history and corrupted my repository. All the devs could do is shrug. I doubt the Mercurial devs are even fluent in a workflow that would actually benefit (or disadvantage, as the case may be) from Evolve.
I am stuck using MQ instead to manage my history with Mercurial, which is like a knife with a blade at both ends. It takes a lot of practice to wield it without cutting yourself. Even with all of my years of experience with Mercurial I cannot match my productivity with Git.
Just this last week I recently got myself versed with Bazaar. I was outraged that a proponent had the nerve to wrote a blog post about how Git sucked, Mercurial was good, and Bazaar was best. What it tells me is that the people that prefer Mercurial cannot be trusted to hold a knife, and the people that prefer Bazaar should probably be using safety-scissors.
Or maybe you just need to spend a bit more time with Git, stop drinking the Mercurial kool-aid, and RTFM. If somebody on the Internet tells you to “rm -fR /” as root and you do without researching what the options mean then you have nobody to blame. Not everybody in #git is an expert. You are most likely not interacting with the Git developers themselves (unlike #mercurial, for what good that does you…). Take advice with a grain of sand, read the very good Git documentation before issuing a command that you aren’t familiar with (one of my biggest gripes with Mercurial is that the documentation is very poor), and make backups of your repositories before trying commands that you aren’t familiar with.
There is a learning curve with Git, but if you’re going to be using it for years or decades then the little bit of time invested in learning to wield it are well worth it. Or just limit yourself to the preferred Mercurial workflow and you can’t really hurt yourself.
The fact that Mercurial wants to push all branches by default is a major annoyance for me. Not all history is meant to be shared with every remote repository all of the time. That’s not a proper distributed workflow. You might as well go back to Subversion with that kind of workflow. Or Bazaar, which is basically as close to Subversion as you can get with a DVCS.
1. Wow, this is an angry response against Mercurial.
I’d be interested in hearing what happened with Evolve, though. Who told you it was stable? It is very definitely not, and whoever suggested it was made a grave mistake.
2. That workflows become more complicated when transforming them from Git to Mercurial is counter to my experience. When I adapted the “successful Git branching model”¹ to Mercurial, the workflow became much simpler² – simple enough that it boils down to just three basic rules:
(1) you do all the work on default – except for hotfixes.
(2) on stable you only do hotfixes, merges for release and tagging for release. Only maintainers touch stable.
(3) you can use arbitrary feature-branches, as long as you don’t call them default or stable. They always start at default (since you do all the work on default).
²: http://www.draketo.de/light/english/mercurial/complete-branching-strategy
9. The first time I used Mercurial unshelve, I had an conflict. Mercurial open vimdiff (I hate vimdiff) and I close it with :cq command.
I get the files list in conflict with the hg resolve -l command.
But I haven’t conflicts markers in the file in conflict, and the file.orig has the same content of the file.
I didn’t know the hg unshelve –abort command, So I lost my modifications.
When we don’t know our tool we do mistake.
You don’t know Git, so it’s natural you do mistakes.
Leave a Reply to Jordi Cancel reply
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27701 | What Are A number of the Most readily useful Online Game Sites?
Trading links 's been around for quite a while, but I would really like to indicate some actually helpful methods to assist you position larger browsing engines.First and foremost: Just trade hyperlinks with connected sites. Why? To begin with, an individual who's on a gaming site (for example) does not actually care much about a niche site that has home elevators gardening- generally speaking of course. The user came to the website to enjoy activities and they are most likely just planning to check out links which can be linked to gambling in some way.
Next: Personally change hyperlinks, if you are using pc software you will not quality links, Bing is capable of pinpointing link sites, if your website is in a lot of url sites your site may experience the "sandbox" effect. That happens when your site gets pretty much no traffic from research engines, to repair it try to prevent utilizing the sites, let power web sites url to you- this will provide a quality url change you and there parties.
Third: Page Position or PR is merely a little element, I found out that related content is the most crucial element to position large, yeah it's great to acquire a url from a page position 5 or 6 web site, but sometimes that won't happen until more individuals start to observe your website.
When I am on line searching boards I see persons searching for large PR web sites, which finally is fine, but I believe they also have to bear in mind that it is equally as 릴게임 종류 important to find sites with connected content. If all of your inbound hyperlinks are coming from something completely different than your nice then that improves suspicion to Bing and the visitors of one's site.You'll be astonished of exactly how many folks are ready to assist you, Many webmasters want to link related content, especially when your site is of price, only understand that if it be a one of the ways link or even a reciprocal url it still includes value.
Today I would like to talk a little bit about Alexa. Number Alexa isn't a girl (in that case). Alexa happens to be a really powerful and common web site estimator, it decides your international traffic rank and local traffic rank. As an example: Google is Number 1 Internationally and Regionally (USA). If you are website is prepared in British then your target purpose ought to be to possess over 807 of your visitors be of the language. Why? It has regarding the likelihood of your internet site being advised to others, if a consumer from another language happens they will have to work with a translating support to view your page, they possibly will not send your site but it will be more as a "onetime use" form of deal.
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27747 | Bristlecone Pine (could be 5K yrs. old)
Let me start by assuring you that I won't say that some supreme "being", i.e. "God", is doing this or that. There is no such being. There is "God", but not “A God”, there is no "being". A being is a created/manifested thing, God is the origin of created things, the Creator. There are no words which can define or describe God:
The first stanza of the Tao Te Ching says (approx):
The Tao (God) which can be named is not the real Tao.
In other words, if you can describe it, it's not the real thing because there are no words to describe God, not now, not ever. You can “see”/experience God but there are no words for it. Also, once you "see" God, then you know, beyond any doubt, that everything is One. There is no separation. No you - and the world. No "God AND Man", no "Science AND Religion" There is but One origin for everything. Everything is One. This is the greatest truth of all.
Modern thinking is "dualistic", everything is separate from everything else*, because no one "sees", experiences the Oneness. This modern world is about division and separation. Mankind is dividing and separating. Science is dividing and separating. Religion is dividing and separating. Politics is dividing and separating, even the family is dividing and separating. It’s a world that is all about dividing and separating. No one sees the Oneness. No one sees "God".
Jesus: His disciples said to him, "When will the kingdom come?" Jesus said, "It will not come by expectation. They will not say, See here, or See there; but the kingdom of the Father is spread upon the earth and men do not see it."
The Kingdom of Heaven, i.e. the presence of "God", is right in front of you, and all around, but you don't see it. "Seeing it" is what all religions are really about. Seeing with your own eyes that you are already living in the Kingdom of Heaven, is what Jesus was really teaching, what Christianity, what all religion, is about, although most have forgotten, or misunderstood the words in scripture. In Eastern religion the experience is called enlightenment, or satori. Christianity is about enlightenment, just like the Eastern religions. The biblical expression, and #1 goal of Christianity, "To Enter the Kingdom of Heaven", means to experience enlightenment, to remove the cloudy glasses and “see” the world around you as it really is, to "see" the Oneness.
Jesus said, "If your leaders say to you, 'Look, the (Father's) kingdom is in the sky,' then the BIRDS of the sky will precede you. If they say to you, 'It is in the sea,' then the FISH will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is within you and all around you. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27779 | Marketplace has added Help Haiti and Scramble to it’s list of Showcased apps. If you recall, Help Haiti (discussed here) is the freeware app from The Auri Group that lets you donate to help the relief efforts and gives you information to find people and provides other relief information. Scramble is Herm Software’s addictive word game which we previewed here. It’s like Boggle or Scrabble and is a really addictive word game which is a bargain at $1.
It’s always good to see our friends get the recognition they deserve. Of course, you can go to Marketplace to check out their apps and both apps are also available directly from the developers. Congrats! |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27795 | From TemeraireWiki
Revision as of 10:42, 8 January 2008 by Andrew (talk | contribs) (Speculative)
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Style Reminders
Hi whitehell,
Just a couple of reminders -- since our style is a historical one, we should write entries in past rather than present tense, as if we're writing an encyclopedia of events that have already happened. In that vein, we should also avoid speculation and personal pronouns ("I highly doubt it") in entries, because that isn't the sort of thing you'd read in an encyclopedia. Instead, choose a phrasing that reflects the lack of clarity, if something is unclear, but keep it as a historical rather than a literary uncertainty.
Thanks for your participation, and please ask if you have any questions.
- whitearrow
M'yeah okay sorry. ^^' -WhiteHell
Something doesn't add up in Celeritas' story. If Jeremy Rankin's grandfather was Celeritas' first handler, then he cannot have 200 years of experience. Novik herself has stated that one captain cannot account for more than 50 years of experience. Is it a mistake? Or maybe Celeritas was feral for the first 100 years of his life? :)
I suppose it's something we'd have to ask NN. The only explanation that I could come up with is that Celeritas could be using the term "grandfather" here to mean forefather. But I am making that up. Strangerface 12:50, 5 August 2007 (PDT)
Quote: "He was stationed at Loch Laggan where he was the training master. This was quite unusual, since dragons did not use to have commanding positions in Aerial Corps." - There's nothing in the text to indicate this is unusual within the Corps. It is definitely unknown outside, and Celeritas' position is not common knowledge outside the corps (hence secrecy and uneasy looks in HMD), but it may well be a common situation within. Andrew 02:42, 8 January 2008 (PST) |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27800 | World Library
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On the Significance of Science and Art
By Tolstoy, Leo
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Book Id: WPLBN0000139851
Format Type: PDF eBook
File Size: 0.5 MB
Reproduction Date: 2005
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Title: On the Significance of Science and Art
Author: Tolstoy, Leo
Language: English
Subject: Literature, Literature & thought, Writing.
Collections: Classic Literature Collection
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Publisher: World Ebook Library
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Graf, L. T. (n.d.). On the Significance of Science and Art. Retrieved from
CHAPTER I: {1} The justification of all persons who have freed themselves from toil is now founded on experimental, positive science. The scientific theory is as follows:- For the study of the laws of life of human societies, there exists but one indubitable method, the positive, experimental, critical method Only sociology, founded on biology, founded on all the positive sciences, can give us the laws of humanity. Humanity, or human communities, are the organisms already prepared, or still in process of formation, and which are subservient to all the laws of the evolution of organisms. One of the chief of these laws is the variation of destination among the portions of the organs. Some people command, others obey. If some have in superabundance, and others in want, this arises not from the will of God, not because the empire is a form of manifestation of personality, but because in societies, as in organisms, division of labor becomes indispensable for life as a whole. Some people perform the muscular labor in societies; others, the mental labor....
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27804 | 8th Amendment Lets IRS Deny Deductions for Legal Marijuana Business – But Some Judges Disagree
A fractured Tax Court rejected another constitutional challenge to the law that bars expense deductions for legal marijuana businesses. However, two judges embraced the taxpayer’s claim that IRC §280E could violate the 8th Amendment’s prohibition against excessive fines.
Does IRC §280E Violate the 8th Amendment?
Northern California Small Business Assistants, Inc., is a medical marijuana dispensary that operates legally under California law. The IRS denied its expense deductions, resulting in a $1.2 million deficiency plus a $250,000 penalty.
The IRS relied on IRC §280E, which prohibits all deductions and credits for amounts paid in carrying on a trade or business that consists of trafficking in controlled substances in violation of federal or applicable state law. Although medical and/or recreational marijuana is legal in many states, it remains a Schedule I controlled substance under federal law.
Tax Court Finds §280E Constitutional, Again
The taxpayer sought partial summary judgment that §280E is unconstitutional because it violates the 8th Amendment prohibition on excessive bail, excessive fines, and cruel and unusual punishment. The Tax Court unanimously denied summary judgment, but the judges split on their reasoning:
• Ten judges held that §280E did not violate the 8th Amendment because it doesn’t impose a penalty.
• Two judges did not express an opinion as to whether §280E imposes a fine, but agreed that the taxpayer had failed to show that any such fine was excessive.
• Two judges agreed that the taxpayer did not show that it was subject to an excessive fine, but they concluded that §280E does impose a fine and, thus, is at least potentially unconstitutional.
Majority Says No Fine = No Constitutional Violation
The majority held that 280E does not violate the 8th Amendment because it does not impose any fine at all, much less an excessive one. The court acknowledged that a penalty may be civil as well as criminal, and a financial burden may be a fine even if it is called something else. However, “disallowing a deduction from gross income is not a punishment.”
The court focused on two elements:
1. The 16th Amendment gives Congress the power to tax income.
2. Deductions, unlike punishments, do not take into account equitable considerations. Instead, they are a matter of legislative grace that Congress may expand or contract to achieve its policy objectives.
Congress enacted §280E as part of its policy to limit and deter trafficking. Since §280E is not intended to punish anyone, it is not a penalty. And, since it is not a penalty, it cannot violate the 8th Amendment.
Dissents: §280E Imposes a Fine That Potentially Violates the 8th Amendment
Two dissenting opinions would have found that the IRC §280E imposes a penalty that is subject to the 8th Amendment prohibition on excessive fines. The legislative history behind the statute clearly showed that Congress intended it to deter illegal conduct—drug trafficking—by punishing taxpayers who engage in it. The increased tax liability that results from the denied deductions is an effective penalty, even if it is not identified as such.
These judges recognized that other courts had held that §280E is not a penalty. However, they traced these precedents back to a finding that that §280E was a tax, rather than a penalty, for purposes of the Anti-Injunction Act. This narrow question of statutory construction was a very different analysis than the one that should be used for 8th Amendment issues.
And §280E Taxes More than Income
One of the dissenting judges also argued that the “deductions are a matter of legislative grace” rule does not apply to §280E. The judge reasoned as follows:
1. The 16th Amendment authorizes a tax on incomes.
2. Just as taxpayer’s gain on a disposition of property is gross receipts minus basis, a taxpayer’s business income is gross receipts minus necessary expenses.
3. By denying deductions for necessary expenses, §280E impermissibly taxes gross receipts rather than income.
The “legislative grace” analysis of deductions is fine for things that are not connected to the production of income, such as deductions for charitable contributions or for a predecessor’s losses. However, Congress cannot rely on its legislative powers to expand the income tax to receipts that are never reduced to income. In fact, even courts that have disallowed business expense and business loss deductions for legal marijuana businesses have also held that §280E does not disallow the “mandatory exclusion” of cost of goods sold from business income.
What’s Next for §280E Challenges?
Even §280E imposes a fine, all of the judges agreed that the taxpayer did not show that:
1. any such fine was excessive, or
2. the 8th Amendment applies to corporations.
These issues, along with the gross receipts vs. income arguments, are likely to reappear in future challenges to §280E.
By Kelley Wolf, JD, LLM
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27831 | Tricks of the Trade: Introduction and Round-Up
Editor’s Note: Welcome to Tricks of the Trade, Tom Dawson’s new column on all things good about Magic: The Gathering! To kick things off, Tom proposed one of our world-famous round-ups to lead into the unfathomably deep subject that is M:tG, and you can consider this a sort of backdoor pilot for Tom’s column. The questions posed were as follows:
Who got you into the game, and how?
What is it about the game that originally caught your interest?
Do you still play? If so, what sort of decks do you run?
Share a favourite story, anecdote, or even a random piece of trivia you enjoy
Well, the results are in, and hopefully our thoughts on the matter will spark some discussion, as well as whet your appetite for what’s to come with this exciting new feature on the Geek!
Tom Dawson:
Who got you into the game, and how?
For me this was my buddy Steve, who picked it up from a mutual friend. It began with what I now recognise as a typical cycle of events; one person discovers the game, and is roundly mocked by his or her friends, because we may be nerds but Magic is geeky even by our standards. After a while, this adopter persuades their friends to try the game. Those friends reluctantly agree, usually out of boredom, and that’s all it takes for the virus to pass onto a new host. At this point, the cycle begins again, with the cardboard crack laying claim to another disciple. In my case, it only took two games before Magic had its hooks directly into my heart.
What is it about the game that originally caught your interest?
I distinctly remember the moment that Magic took hold of me. My first game was a floundering affair, frequently punctuated by my “what happens if” or “how do I” queries and the resultant explanation. Suffice to say I lost, and lost hard. By the time we moved on to a second match I felt confident I had the basics down, and it was a slightly more even duel, albeit weighted by the decks in play. While Steve was playing his at-the-time prized (in hindsight of course, we are both in agreement that it was a fairly useless deck) mono-black deck, into which he had put both time and thought as well as the money he spent buying individual — and awesome — cards, I was using his spare deck, an Izzet red/blue number fresh from the Duel Deck and then bulked out with whatever extra cards he had lying around. The match itself had devolved into a slugfest, both of us scrambling for some way to batter past the other’s defences for a final strike. Steve found it first, dropping the terrifying looking Reaper from the Abyss onto a battlefield populated only by my comparably pathetic Goblin Electromancer, and suddenly all I could hear was the faint sound of a fat lady singing.
Despondently reviewing the cards in my hand, I had a lightbulb moment. What if instead of playing as I had been, trading blows and damage and creatures, I tried something new? It was the first time I looked at my cards and considered their potential beyond simplistic face-beating strategies, and at that moment the entire potential of Magic opened up for me. I could lay down another creature and swing for damage, but in two turns I’d be dead at the feet of the Reaper.
Hesitantly I tapped for mana, and dropped Tricks of the Trade onto Steve’s Reaper. He patiently explained that while I had the right idea about enchantments and auras, this particular card was not one that should be aimed at my opponent’s creatures unless I wanted to die a very quick death. “OK”, I responded, “but what if I also do…this?” and dropped Switcheroo to swap my little Electromancer for his newly buffed and completely unblockable Reaper.
A moment of silent tension. He looked from the me to the board, back to me again. The pause stretched. One again he returns to staring at the board. Finally, Steve cleared his throat, looked back to me, and with a terrible gravitas he spoke: “.…shit”
And that was how Magic spoke to me. The realisation that what I’d been thinking of a simplistic back-and-forth of attack and defence was something more akin to a madman’s game of chess, where the pieces on the board were only half of the game and crazy stunts were not only allowed but implicitly encouraged. Once my brain wrapped itself around the concept, I was itching to explore further; if I could win a game by stealing an opponent’s best weapon, what else was I able to do? By the time I left Steve’s house that night, I’d bought that red/blue deck from him and was eagerly studying my new cards and their abilities, searching for cool tricks to pull off. That excitement still impacts the way I look at cards today. I won’t simply look at a creature to see the cost, the strength — I’m also scanning the abilities or effects for ways to pair them with the abilities of other cards and make sparks fly in wholly unexpected directions.
At time of writing, I only run three decks, but they’re real doozies. I have a blue/black/white deck based around artifacts and the relentless exploitation thereof, a blue/green deck which focuses on taking ordinary creatures and buffing them to ridiculous levels to create an army of monsters, and a mono-red deck built almost exclusively around Goblins. They’re all wildly different to play with, but a common theme runs through them all — I like to combo cards off one another, assembling an engine that can be greater than the sum of its parts. In later columns, should anyone care to read them, I’ll likely dissect all three decks and discuss why they work and the various sneaky tricks each one has for winning games.
Hannah DuVoix:
Who got you into the game, and how?
My friend and colleague Aaron Gotzon. He had a few of those mini-decks from a promotion wherein you signed up for a free deck (apparently he did it a few times). It was there that I first realized that Blue is the true way.
What is it about the game that originally caught your interest?
I’ve always loved CCGs and the idea of deckbuilding. Magic, as it has one of the largest libraries of cards from which to draw, affords a lot of variety and options for doing so.
I rarely get any game (although I’ve taken to teaching the game to a friend to fix that), but when I do I run a Blue/Red Control Burn deck. It draws from many blocks (most of my cards are very old), but is legal for Modern Construction play. The design philosophy is simple: Be a bastard.
Share a favourite story, anecdote, or even a random piece of trivia you enjoy:
Previous builds of my deck (back before it was tournament legal) focused on Blue, and featured mainly flying creatures and control. My proudest victory with the old deck involved a combo of Rainbow Crow (which was dubbed “Pride Bird” among my playing group) and Jaded Response. That was a fun combo, and I would love to see it brought back.
Oscar Strik:
Who got you into the game, and how?
A classmate of mine when I was ten years old. His elder brother was into fantasy games at the time, and it spread from there. Six months later I played my first game of AD&D with them and a few other kids. He just brought it to class one day and figured I might be interested, as he was probably looking for more kids to play with. There was no Dutch translation of the game at the time, so the pool of kids who had both a potential interest in a nerdy game *and* enough English skills to read the rulebook was probably pretty small.
What is it about the game that originally caught your interest?
I think the imaginative power of representation the cards had. Every card depicted and expressed in game terms a creature, event, a power, with its own lore and atmosphere. A new world opened up through those cards, and it was the first piece of fantasy fiction that I voraciously consumed.
No, I haven’t played a game in years and am considering selling or even giving away my collection. Not that I think many people would be interested in a vintage pile of (mostly) useless cards.
There isn’t one specific event that stands out. When I started playing, it wasn’t very easy to acquire cards in my small town in the Netherlands, as the game was far from well-known. I got my first packs (Fourth Edition and Ice Age) from a cigar shop, who might have had their own kid who played the game. The always gave you extra cards for free, which was very cool.
I played most heavily between 1995 and 2000, and had my own little circle of nerd friends who were into stuff like that. It was the kind of friend group that’s often passive-aggressive and hostile to each other, but you were sort of stuck with each other anyway. We did have a lot of fun though.
Eventually, as we all went to different high schools, ties loosened, and the cost of keeping up with the game began to weigh heavier than the fun I got out of it, especially since I was getting more and more into AD&D and its various expansions. But that’s a whole nother story.
Looking back, I treasure most the first year or so, immersing myself into the new cards—particularly Ice Age captured my imagination—and finding out what had come before. Of course, I was bummed that the really good stuff (the original set, Arabian Night, Legends, etc.) was practically impossible to get for a kid like me, but that didn’t lessen the appeal of the history of the game.
Bill Coberly:
Who got you into the game and how?
I’d heard of the game and played the occasional round before, but it wasn’t until high school that I really dug into Magic. I had been homeschooled for the last two years of middle school, such that hopping back into the public school system at Northglenn High, student population 2500, was a little bit jarring. I didn’t know very many of the people there, and, weird kid that I was (heh, was), making friends was difficult.
An acquaintance-of-an-acquaintance ran massive, clumsy, many-player (five to twelve people) games of Magic at lunch in the enormous cafeteria, and I managed to wrangle myself an invite. The table was a motley assortment of enthusiastic teenage atheists, enthusiastic teenage Evangelicals, rebels, stoners, Juggalos, goths, skaters, and all-around weirdos. I won’t say they “welcomed me with open arms” so much as “allowed me to hang around and be weird,” but that was enough! I didn’t have any money, so I subsisted primarily on people giving away cards they didn’t want and the occasional booster pack, but I had a great time, and learned a ton about deck design from the guys who won every single game with ridiculous unwieldy combos that yielded things like infinite slivers (Sliver Queen, Heartstone, Ashnod’s Altar).
What is it about the game that originally caught your interest?
I wanted to be able to talk shop with the older kids (kids in Dimmu Borgir shirts with bright-red or jet-black hair, who called themselves things like “Dante”), and since I didn’t have any money for new cards or to go to tournaments, I started reading the Magic: The Gathering website like it was required. In a lot of ways it was the design of Magic and the ideas behind it that interested me more than playing the game itself. Mark Rosewater’s columns in particular appealed to me, and I learned a ton about game design from reading them. I began to understand rudimentary concepts like “balance” and “brokenness,” and how to appeal to different types of players (Timmy, Johnny and Spike). When I finally did get enough disposable income to start buying some cards online and assembling decks that were built rather than just sort of thrown together with whatever I had lying around, I did better than many of the other kids simply because I had read the design documents.
Do you still play?
No. I played in high school and then again off-and-on through college, but I gave away all my cards at the end of college because I realized I was going to have to either stop or take it up semi-professionally, and I didn’t really have the money or the time for the latter option. As an adult, I frequently find Magic frustrating whenever I do play a one-off with a friend’s deck or the Duels of the Planeswalkers games. Magic is an elegantly designed game, but with a lot of people it turns into a game of one-upsmanship and dirty tricks, and I don’t enjoy the table dynamics. I don’t mind aggressive one-on-one games, but Magic’s emphasis on control mechanics and denial make it intensely frustrating. I’m glad I played it as a kid, but as an adult I find that it does most of the things I don’t like in tabletop game design.
When I did play, I had four decks I was proud of.
1. A Red/Green (but mostly artifact) Megatog deck designed around staying alive for seven turns and then feeding an entire armory to the Megatog, who would then trample your foe to the ground.
2. A Black (well, technically everything) reanimator deck based around Entomb, which threw expensive creatures into my graveyard and let me reanimate them for pennies to crush my enemies. I never quite had enough money to make this work (Entomb was like $20 a copy at the time), but it was probably my best technical deck.
3. A pure Red goblin deck which either had five goblins by turn three or had a really terrible hand.
4. A Grip of Chaos deck, which I’ll talk more about below.
It’s more a collection of stories. My favorite deck was based around Grip of Chaos, a ridiculous enchantment from Scourge which took all targeted spells or abilities and retargeted them at random from all available targets. As you might imagine, this rendered the game entirely unplayable.
The rest of the deck was full of goofy stuff which interacted well with Grip of Chaos, like Confusion in the Ranks, which trades permanents with other permanents, now at random thanks to the Grip, or just plain-old Fireball, for tons of random damage to… something. There is nothing quite like charging up a 25-point Fireball and just throwing it in the air, with no idea where it will land.
The deck was most fun in the aforementioned massive games, and I only ever played it if everyone else was cool with it. It never won a game, of course, but that wasn’t the point — it turned the game from a hyper-serious competition, full of bruised egos and hypermasculine posturing into a farcical comedy of errors, where even the simplest actions became entirely unpredictable. |
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27833 | Badges for College Credit
CAISE Informal Science
Posted by Theresa Horstman
December 13, 2016
Project Spotlights
Co-authored with Carrie Tzou
The Badges for College Credit (BCC) project (NSF AISL DRL-1322512) is a four-year project that connects informal science learning with higher education by designing badge systems that recognize informal science learning in the form of college credit at the University of Washington Bothell (UWB). The project is a collaboration between the University of Washington Bothell’s OpenSTEM Research, the Pacific Science Center, the Future of Flight, the Seattle Aquarium, and iRemix. In this project, informal science institutions partner with UWB faculty to co-design a college course that is then run in the informal setting and awarded credit by the UWB faculty member. In the process, these design teams discuss and agree on important learning goals that are consistent with the informal program goals and with college-level work. The resulting badge systems reflect scientific and professional practices and reflect the culture and social activity of the programs.
Read the article… |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27860 | About Kickstarter project "Order Land! Translation Project"
We has launched a Kickstarter campaign.
This project is seeking support for translation costs to develop an English version of Order Land! which was released in Japan for Nintendo Switch.
In one word,"Order Land!” is "King simulation + Training Hero Adventure + Hero adventure RPG".
And, detailed information can be confirmed on the following site.
Kickstarter Project Page
Order Land! Translation Project
About "Order Land! Translation Project"
There are thousands of text to express these appropriately to make it English, so the translation expenses will become larger than usual for releasing this wonderful game other than Japanese.
We really would like everyone in the world to enjoy "Order Land!" so we would like to request for the assistance!
We have a compelling item that we can only get here. As reward, additional content limited to Kickstarter, original digital content, original goods etc are prepared.
We also have rewards that can involve game development, such as directing the Heroes and monsters that appear in the game.
Please check the project page by all means!
- KickStarterに関するお知らせ |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27864 | Applied sciences
Opto-Electronics Review
Opto-Electronics Review | vol. 25 | vol. 25 | vol. 25 |
Editorial office
Opto-Electronics Review - Editorial Board
Leszek Roman Jaroszewicz
Institute of Technical Physics, Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
Editorial Office
Managing and Language Editor
Jolanta Kulesza
Office Manager
Elzbieta Sadowska
Board of Co-Editors
Oleg V. Angielsky
Dept. of Correlation Optics, Chernivtsi National University
Arkadiusz Antonczak
Institute of Telecommunications, Wroclaw University of Technology
Tomasz Antosiewicz
Centre of New Technologies, Uniwersytet Warszawski
Tomasz Czyszanowski
Institute of Physics, Technical University of Lodz
Dominik Dorosz
Dept. of Materials Science and Ceramics, AGH University of Science & Technology
Teodor Gotszalk
Faculty of Microsystem Electronics and Photonics, Wroclaw University of Technology
Agnieszka Iwan
Military Institute of Engineer Technology
Adam Stefan Liebert
Nalecz Institute of Biocybernetics and Biomedical Engineering, Polish Academy of Sciences
Piotr Martyniuk
Institute of Technical Physics, Military University of Technology
Jan Muszalski
Photonic Dept., Institute of Electron Technology
Krassimir Panajotov
Apllyed Physics and Photonics, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB)
Mateusz Smietana
Institute of Microelectronics and Optoelectronics, Warsaw University of Technology
Jacek Swiderski
Institute of Optoelectronics, Military University of Technology
International Editorial Advisory Board
D. Bimberg
Institute of Solid State Physics, Technische Universität Berlin (TUB), Berlin, Germany
F. Capasso
Harvard School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA
A.I. Dirochka
Production Center ORION, State Scientific Center of Russian Federation, Moscow, Russian Federation
P.G. Eliseev
Center for High Technology Materials, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
P. Haring Bolivar
Faculty of Science and Technology, Dept. of Electrical Eng. and Computer Science, Universität Siegen, Siegen, Germany
M. Henini
School of Physics and Astronomy, Nottingham, Nottingham, England, UK
B. Jaskorzynska
Dept. of Electronics, Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Kista, Sweden
M. Kimata
Ritsumeikan University, Shiga, Japan
R. Klette
University of Auckland, Auckland, New Zealand
S. Krishna
University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico, USA
H.C. Liu
J. Misiewicz
Wroclaw University of Technology, Wroclaw, Poland
E. Ozbay
Nanotechnology Research Center, Bilkent University, Ankara, Turkey
M. Razeghi
Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, USA
A. Rogalski
Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
P. Russell
Max Planck Institut (MPI) für Physik, Erlangen, Germany
V. Ryzhii
University of Aizu, Aizu, Japan
C. Sibilia
Università di Roma "La Sapienza", Rome, Italy
A. Torricelli
Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy
T. Wolinski
Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
W. Wolinski
Warsaw University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
S.−T. Wu
Department of Philosophy, Cognitive Sciences Program, University of Central Florida, Orlando, Florida, USA
Y.P. Yakovlev
Ioffe Institute, St. Petersburg, Russian Federation
J. Zielinski
Military University of Technology, Warsaw, Poland
Military University of Technology,
Gen. Sylwestra Kaliskiego St. 2,
00 – 908 Warsaw, Poland
Instructions for authors
Open Access policy
Opto-Electronics Review is an open access journal with all content available with no charge in full text version. The journal content is available under the licencse CC BY-SA 4.0
Additional information
Opto-Electronics Review was established in 1992 for the publication of scientific papers concerning optoelectronics and photonics materials, system and signal processing. This journal covers the whole field of theory, experimental verification, techniques and instrumentation and brings together, within one journal, contributions from a wide range of disciplines. Papers covering novel topics extending the frontiers in optoelectronics and photonics are very encourage. The main goal of this magazine is promotion of papers presented by European scientific teams, especially those submitted by important team from Central and Eastern Europe. However, contributions from other parts of the world are by no means excluded.
Articles are published in O-ER in the following categories:
-invited reviews presenting the current state of the knowledge,
-specialized topics at the forefront of optoelectronics and photonics and their applications,
-refereed research contributions reporting on original scientific or technological achievements,
-conference papers printed in normal issues as invited or contributed papers.
Authors of review papers are encouraged to write articles of relevance to a wide readership including both those established in this field of research and non-specialists working in related areas. Papers considered as “letters” are not published in O-ER.
Opto-Electronics Review is published quarterly as a journal of the Association of Polish Electrical Engineers (SEP) and Polish Academy of Sciences (PAS) in cooperation with the Military University of Technology and under the auspices of the Polish Optoelectronics Committee of SEP.
Abstracting and Indexing:
Current Contents - Physical, Chemical & Earth Sciences
Current Contents - Engineering, Technology & Applied Sciences
Science Citation Index Expanded
Journal Citation Reports - Science Edition
Policies and ethics:
The editors of the journal place particular emphasis on compliance with the following principles:
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27924 | Monday, April 3, 2017
Inspect the DXA Localization object
Sometimes you just want to look under the hood and see what DXA is doing. Here is a tool to inspect the Localization object for DXA .NET. This also gives insight in all the published resources and configuration parameters. I use this when I have to use such a resource or configuration property in webapp code...
Wednesday, December 31, 2014
The year in numbers
A peek into the Broker database with the Content Delivery Web Service
The Content Delivery (CD) web service, aka OData service, can be used to inspect component presentations or other entities in the Content Delivery broker.
I sometimes see Tridion developers looking into the MS SQL or Oracle database if they want to check what is published. Most Tridion implementations use the CD web service and it is much easier and faster to look into this service. There are exceptions of course, if you want to inspect REL TCDL tags you still want to look into the database, the TCDL tags will get parsed by the Tridion stack when you retrieve content through the CD web service.
Here are a few simple steps to get started browsing though the OData endpoint of the CD web service.
1. Get the Content Delivery web service URL
You can find the URL of the CD web service in the Session Preview settings of the publication targets.
2. Browse the Content Delivery web service
Use Chrome. Firefox and IE try to parse the feed generated by the CD web service and do not show the Atom XML.
Browse to the URL, you will see this listing. Do not forget the tailing / in the URL or you will get the service’s WCF info page instead of the feed. In this example the base URL is
This page shows lists all entities available in the Content Delivery web service, ranging from BinaryVariants to Schemas.
3. Digg in into collections
Explore the collections of entities, for example the dynamic component presentations:
Each component presentation is vieved in a < entry > element. the element contains the full URL to this entry, for example,ComponentId=111,TemplateId=123)
4. Select an entity by id
Grab one specific entity, for example to check it is published correctly:,ComponentId=111,TemplateId=123)
The Content Delivery web service is aware of typical CD entities like pages and component presentations, but also the underlying items like schemas and components.
5. Get related entities
The feed is self-explanatory, the nodes show the URLs to dig in deeper into the feed. In the previous example you see the link elements which link to related entities and entity collections.
• Entity URL
• Component entity for this component presentation
• Component template for this component presentaiton
• Pages where this component presentation is used
6. Expand
Entities can be expanded to show more information in one go, for example you can show the full component entity in the component presentation entity.
For example get a component presentation and the linked component:
Note the < m:inline > element which contains the component entity.
7. Get a field
The OData protocol used for the CD web service also allows to select specific field or field value of an entity. For example the title of the component in the previous example.
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
SmartTarget tags: from template to page
I recently shared some SmartTarget Gists which show step by step how a SmartTarget region grows from a simple region tag in a Dreamweaver template layout TBB to the fully expanded SmartTarget controls or tags on an aspx or jsp page.
What follows is a number of code snippets from my Gist account. I shared some of this in a Tridion.Stackexchange answer.
Those code snippets all show one SmartTarget region which queries for SmartTarget promotions, the Experience Manager markup and three fallback component presentations.
Step 1: Template
The Dreamweaver template TBB contains a region tag.
The SmartTarget TBBs "Add SmartTarget Query", "Add Promotions" and "Apply SmartTarget Settings" (see manual) specify the region name and other settings and transform the region markup into TCDL tags. These are all default SmartTarget TBBs.
Step 2: TCDL
The TCDL tags form the instructions for the SmartTarget region in a platform neutral way. The Content Delivery deployer application transforms the TCDL tags into .NET Controls or JSP tags. For a REL target the deployer keeps the TCDL tags in the page content and DCP content and the TCDL tags are executed on runtime in the web application.
Step 3: controls and tags
The .NET controls, or JSP tags, or TCDL tags for a REL get the promotional content.
1. The Query control/tag constructs a SmartTarget query
2. The Promotions control/tag specifies what promotion region to query for, and how many results should be shown.
3. The ComponentPresentation control/tag gets the component presentation. Note that this is not a SmartTarget control/tag and uses variables for ComponentURI and TemplateURI from the SmartTarget query result and uses the core Tridion CD functionality to get the component presentation.
4. If the SmartTarget query does not return any promotions the contents of the FallbackContent tag are shown.
.NET source:
JSP source:
Step 4: HTML with XPM markup
The web application renders the HTML which is parsed by the browser. This example includes the Experience Manager markup which would only be visible on a staging target. Note the Experience Manager markup is added to annotate the SmartTarget region.
Tag demo
This tag demo in ASP.NET or JSP might come in handy to understand what each while troubleshooting SmartTarget promotions on your website.
Sunday, December 28, 2014
Random Weather: an sample ADF cartridge
What better way is there to explain ADF than by an easy to read example: the random Weather Cartridge. The SDL Tridion Ambient Data Framework (ADF) is used for SmartTarget, Experience Manager, and the context engine. Especially for SmartTarget it is common to create your own cartridge. A cartridge can put information about the web visitors context the ADF claim store which in turn can be used in SmartTarget triggers.
This example cartridge puts in a random temperature and weather type. A real cartridge would look up the weather at a third party service, much like the Quova Cartrdige does.
I have put the weather-cartridge project up on GitHub. You can read this to explore ADF, or use it as a basis for your next project. Have look at the readme in the project for more details and build instructions.
The Maven project contains the Jetty plugin and a test webapp to test the cartridge.
Eric Huiza described the ADF mechanism in more detail earlier.
Thursday, December 18, 2014
A handy documentation bookmarklet
The bookmarklet challenge on Tridion Stackexchange inspired me to try my JavaScript skills and write my first bookmarklet. This bookmarklet is very Tridion related, although not really enhancing the Tridion GUI
Is shared the compact bookmarklet on gist, and the whole thing on GitHub.
Almost daily I log in multiple times into the SDL documentation portal, aka LiveContent or "The Manual". Unfortunately the browser does not remember the password for this site. This bookmarklet for the challenge fixes this problem and the browser remembers the login.
This is how to use this:
1. Make a new bookmark
2. Paste this script in the Location field of the bookmark (full source).
3. Once on the LiveContent website just click the bookmarklet and the browser will offer to remember your credentials.
How this works
The browser does not try to remember the credentials for this site because the login form is not a proper HTML login form with a form tag and submit button. The bookmarklet hides the original login button and adds a new login button image, a form submit button and wraps the form in a form element. Clicking the new login button (just a clickable image) will set a series of events in motion. The new login button click triggers a click on the form submit button, the form submit triggers the browser to ask you to remember the credentials, the form submit action is to click the original login which sets some LiveContent mechanism in working.
I did not bother to study how the LiveContent login actually works and I think the beauty of this solution is that it leaves the original login page intact, it only adds and hides nodes in the dom document.
I could have made a bookmarklet which logs you in directly, without leveraging the browser form auto completion, that would be even faster to use, but I do not like the fact that the bookmarklet would store the credentials, even if the credentials are not that sensitive and secret.
Thursday, May 15, 2014
SmartTarget talk on TDS
Today I shared about SDL SmartTarget and the Ambient Framework in a talk on the very first Tridion Developer Summit in Amsterdam. Here are the slides and some links I mentioned.
If you got hold of one of the 6 month Tridion licenses on the SDL USB sticks: have fun and let me know what you built with SmartTarget and ADF!
Many thanks to Robert Curlette for organizing the event.
Update June 9, 2014
Recordings of some of the talks are available on Or straight to this talk
Thursday, March 13, 2014
Creating a user with the SDL Tridion Core Service
I was at a new project this week creating a Tridion user for a developer in the team while discovering that the CME could not list the domain users. This can happen when the MTSuser does not have access to the domain. A simple Core Service tool helped out once again. This command line application creates a user, without lookup in the active directory. I needed only one user so I just ran it from Visual Studio.
Other versions
This is for SDL Tridion 2013 SP1, for previous versions (Tridion 2011 and up) you might have to use another configuration name (basicHttp_2013 in this case) and replace the contents of the app.config with Tridion.ContentManager.CoreService.Client.dll.config. In the app.config you can update the url for the basicHttp_2013 endpoint to match the hostname of your Tridion Content Manager server.
Before using the Visual Studio solution I tried to create the user with the tridion-powershell-modules, I could not get that one to work due to some error but it is the best way to do this task: It supports all Tridion versions and no Visual Studio and bespoke command line applications needed.
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Publish a page from PowerShell
Today I fiddled around with PowerShell and found you can pretty easily publish a page in SDL Tridion. This can come in handy for administrative tasks where you typically want to automate in scripting, to avoid to setting up a .NET console project with a lot of code to maintain.
The Tridion PowerShell Modules project comes in handy to get you a CoreService client. It's just five steps to install this module on your machine.
1. Get the .psm1, .psd1 and DLL files from the project.
You can also copy the CoreService DLL from the %TRIDION_HOME%bin\client\CoreService folder on your own Content Manager server if you do not like to download the DLLs from the project.
2. Create a directory
3. Copy the .psm1, .psd1 and .dll files in that directory
4. Restart any open PowerShell consoles or run Import-Module Tridion-CoreService in the open PowerShell console.
Once you can use the PowerShell module, run a simple script to publish the page.
Also see
As an example administrative task, take this question. For unclear reasons we need to publish a page every hour or so. This is not a Tridion best practice, but easy to automate. Just have a Windows Scheduled Task which runs powershell -file "C:\publish-a-page.ps1". That will do the trick effectively.
For future optimization: you could extend the Tridion PowerShell Modules to help you to perform this simple publishing action without setting up the PublishInstruction and ReadOptions and all. |
global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27938 | The mystery of the 'bird of Atlantis', resolved
There is a bird that lives on an island in the South Atlantic. Up to here nothing out of the ordinary. But what if we told you that for a while it was thought that this little animal came from the legendary Atlantis ? Recently, a group of biologists has managed to solve the mystery of the bird of Atlantis.
The origin of the mystery
It all begins on a piece of land in the middle of the South Atlantic. An extinct volcano of 14 square kilometers acts as an island. Its location is such that it is known as Inaccessible Island. The nearest inhabited territory is the island of Tristán de Acuña, about 45 kilometers.
Evidently, given its geographical location, the Inaccessible Island has no permanent human population. , has a varied flora and fauna. We can find the wandering albatross ( Diomedea exulans ) or the thrush of Tristan da Cunha ( Turdus eremita i>).
But there is an illustrious and mysterious inhabitant: the bird of Atlantis ( Atlantisia rogersi ). This bird has been a puzzle for biologists and naturalists for years. Now, and thanks to biologists from the University of Lund (Sweden), the mystery has finally been solved.
Who is the bird of Atlantis?
First of all, we must know that we are talking about the smallest non-flying bird in the world . The rasconcillo measures about 17 centimeters and has an average weight of 30 grams. Its plumage is brown, and it has a dark, pointed beak, and intense red eyes.
Atlantisia rogersi
Source: http://novataxa.blogspot.com
This bird is endemic to Inaccessible Island and, having no natural predators, leads a prosperous and tranquil life on the island. It was sighted for the first time around 1923, thanks to the ornithologist Percy Roycroft Lowe. Being such a rare specimen, Lowe decided to classify it within a new genus of birds: the genre Atlantisia was born. And this name is not coincidence.
Lowe's theory was this: being a bird unable to fly, his arrival on the island had to be through the mainland. This animal crossed great extensions of earth that later would be buried in the oceanic depths.
From this last it is deduced that Lowe baptized this bird in memory of the Atlantis, the lost continent. But the scientific advances of recent years have been able to show that Lowe was not right.
Mystery solved
A group of researchers from the University of Lund has come up with the key: 1.5 million years ago, the ancestors of the bird of Atlantis flew from South America to Inaccessible Island.
Source: https://www.dutchbirding.nl
How do you know this? Well, using modern DNA sequencing techniques, researchers say that living relatives closest to the rasconcillo inhabit South America, can fly and are colonizers of remote areas. |
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global_01_local_0_shard_00002368_processed.jsonl/27982 | How are Hinduism and Buddhism similar?
Discussion in 'Buddhist Forum' started by Ignorant, Sep 10, 2015.
1. Ignorant
Ignorant New Member
Hinduism and Buddhism are similar in various and many types of terms. Both have originated in South East Asia, exactly in India, and both are very alike to each other. However, Hinduism is followed by more people around the world and Buddhism is relatively not that old, hence it doesn’t have that much followers.
But, today, in this article, we are going to discuss about what are the traits and tenets which are alike in both the religions. It is understood that Buddhism has taken various characteristics of Hinduism; and this can be seen with the help of the similarity list. For example; in Mahayana Buddhism, it is said that Buddha had taught all his followers about gods and prayers, just like Hinduism. And also, even Lord Buddha has taken many reincarnations, just like Hindu Gods and Goddesses.
So, by further not wasting time, let us look at the various aspects of each of these religions and decipher it. And, check out what is similar between the two.
Similarity Number 1: Both Hinduism and Buddhism have various path and roads of enlightenment
It has been noted that, both Hinduism and Buddhism have various paths of enlightenment. In fact, both the religion has beliefs that there are various ways by which one can get wisdom, knowledge and ultimately insight to life.
Similarity Number 2: Both the religions agrees there is reincarnation of life
Another very similar trait of the core believes of Hinduism and Buddhism is that; followers believe in rebirth. Also, in Hindu religion, followers are told that the deeds of their previous life will dictate how their new life would be.
Similarity Number 3: Both sets of religion explains that we get hurt by people and objects in the real world
Both Buddhism and Hinduism accept that sufferings can only be done by people and materialistic things in the physical and real world. That’s why; we should be careful in our endeavors.
Similarity number 4: Both religions accommodate meditation and various mind and soul relaxing aspects.
It is believed in both the religion that; you can relax your mind, body, soul and your life by doing meditation and various workouts like yoga. This will not only give you peace and longer life span, but will also make sure God resides inside you. And, remember; a free mind is the sharpest mind.
Similarity Number 5: Both religions understand that humans and all living souls will get liberation in the end
When we are talking about enlightenment and reincarnation, it is said that both Hinduism and Buddhism, and their high priests, understands a human soul can get liberation. And, this liberation can take amounts of incarnation, but it is bound to happen someday or other. This liberation can end all the problems and sufferings of a person. And, this liberation can be about achieving nirvana, and it is the most important path for both the religions.
Similarity Number 6: Both religions have various gods and deities
Yes, this fact is very unique to both Buddhism and Hinduism, both the followers of these religions can pray towards many gods and goddesses.
2. darkstar
darkstar New Member
Also both are tolerant. Neither a Buddhist nor a Hindu will try to force you into any religion, nor object to you peacefully practicing any religion.
3. garry420
garry420 Well-Known Member
I wouldn't call Hinduism as religion.
There is no concept of conversion in Hinduism.
4. Senthil
Senthil Active Member Staff Member
Yes there is. One can absolutely convert to Hinduism, and many have done it, Its not the same or dramatic as conversion to other religions, but it still is done. Basically a person just states practicing the tenets of Hinduism. This idea that you can't convert is propagated by non-Hindus who don't want to lose any members.
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"German" redirects here. For the language, see German language.
Nazi-Planet Episode Land.png
When Germany was briefly named 'Nazi-Planet-Episode Land' in the 23rd century [4ACV11]
LocationEurope, Earth
Member ofUnited Nations
First appearance"Where No Fan Has Gone Before"
Wikipedia has information unrelated to Futurama
Germany is still an Earthican country in the 31st century. It was renamed for a brief time in "Nazi-Planet-Episode Land" when Star Trek became a full blown religion in the 23rd century. [4ACV11]
Germany in Futurama
German people
See Category:German people.
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