#6 Month Calendar September October November December 2018 January February 2019

[technofantasia]

Rise of the TMNT Timeline

Alright, by piecing together some clues from the show and making some educated guesses, I’ve put together a tentative chronology for Rise!

(Note: not all episodes are included, just a couple that either have timeline evidence or are somehow plot notable. This is assuming the canonical episode order is also chronological order.)

[EDIT] Added some more information (namely Splinter’s birthday month).

1600s-ish: The Shredder was created and sealed away September 1960: Splinter was born 1966: Splinter’s mother left (Finale part 1 flashback) 1979: Splinter left for America (Finale part 1 flashback) 1980-1984: Splinter became an action film star, dated around 1984: Splinter started dating Big Mama 1987: Splinter’s “Hot Soup: the Game” was released 1989: Splinter proposed to Big Mama, was imprisoned in Battle Nexus November 2002: April was born April-August 2003: (Presumably) Raph was born April-August 2004: (Presumably) Leo and Donnie were born April-August 2005: (Presumably) Mikey was born October 2005: Splinter and the Turtles were mutated February 2014: The first Lair Games was held 2014-2016: Donnie made his first battleshell, goggles, and tech bracer Early 2018: Piebald was flushed August 2018: Mystic Mayhem (the series begins), Down with the Sickness September 2018: The Turtle Tank was created (The Fast and the Furriest), Bug Busters, Hypno part Deux October 2018: Bullhop,  Evil League of Mutants, Shelldon was first created (Smart Lair), Shadow of Evil November 2018: April’s 16th Birthday (Warren and Hypno), April meets Sunita (Operation: Normal) December 2018: Snow Day January 2019: S1 Finale February 2019: The sixth Lair Games was held (Lair Games), Repairin’ the Baron March 2019: Air Turtle April-May 2019: S2 Finale

(Reasoning below the cut!)

So. Assuming that the episodes occur in chronological order, we can reasonably assume that the course of the show proper takes around or slightly less than a year.

In Hypno Part Deux, April is going to a homecoming dance; homecoming dances happen usually around the beginning of the school year, in late September or early October. Since she is canonically 15 at the time (she says she’s 16 in Always Be Brownies, which happens after her birthday) and has a birthday that comes after homecoming, that would likely make her a high school junior! That’s not important, just a fun fact. Placing the beginning of the series around August makes sense, then, since it’d be before April started school and during flu season, giving Splinter a good reason for catching the rat flu in Down with the Sickness.

The other solid time marker we have is Snow Day, which obviously takes place during snow season in New York (which is usually December to March). It’d likely be closer to December, since I’d like to imagine that they would have gone out to have fun in the snow as soon as they could have, potentially even at first snow. Since Lair Games comes chronologically after Snow Day and confirms the year as being 2019, we can assume that most episodes that happen before Snow Day happened in 2018 while those after happened in 2019.

Another, slightly more tenuous time marker is Bullhop, where a calendar is shown that says the 21st of the month was on a Sunday; by our previous assumption, this is 2018, so a calendar shows this must have been during the month of October, which falls in line with the rest of our timeline here! Neat. The 2018-2019 NBA season went from October 6 to April 10, so, since Air Turtle presumably showed a late season game with potential for turnaround, early March seems like a fair bet. All of those episodes combined give a pretty good sense of time throughout the series, spanning from probably around August 2018 to Mid-2019. The finale could have happened any time after March and before June (when high school would end, meaning Sloppy Joe wouldn’t have had to be working Draxum’s kitchen). Because there were quite a few episodes that should have happened before the finale, though, I’ll split the difference and say the S2 finale happened in or around May.

Fun detail: by this timeline, April’s birthday is sometime between October and December/January, likely November (seeing as it comes after Bullhop but before Snow Day, and judging by the fall colors of the foliage in Operation Normal which comes directly after her birthday episode.)

As for the brothers, we can assume that they might have different birthdays judging by how in Lair Games, Mikey says that one of his favorite days is “my birthday”; if they all shared a birthday, he might have been more likely to say “our birthday”. They were mutated sometime close to October, but since they didn’t seem to see the date of their mutation as anything special in ELoM, we can assume they don’t celebrate it as their birthday. We know that at the beginning of the show, Mikey is 13, Leo and Donnie are 14, and Raph is 15; at no point during the show do any of them have a birthday, which leads me to assume that they are the same ages by the S2 finale. They COULD have had a birthday offscreen, but since birthdays are a pretty big thing for teenagers, I’d think that if one of them had a birthday it would be pretty noteworthy. I’ll just guess and say they didn’t have one. If that’s the case, then all of their birthdays would be some time between April-ish and August-ish. By the time the show starts, then, they would have already had their birthdays, confirming for us their (probably only guessed anyway but whatever) birth years as 2003, 2004, and 2005. Realistically, Splinter probably didn’t know how much older Raph was from any of the others or anything like that, but the years are still somewhat important for age calculation purposes. I could try to guess their birthday months by saying they might all have wanted a unique birthday month, but that would be complete conjecture on my part (as compared to the rest of this which is just mostly conjecture), and would honestly be more headcanon territory than an educated guess? So for the timeline I’ll just say that their birthdays are between April and August.

Now, reaching further backwards to figure out Splinter’s life timeline!

In Splinter’s memories in E-turtle Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, we see a clip of a teenage Splinter. Said “teenage splinter” looks to be on the older side of teenager, as he seems to have his own apartment and just looks older besides, so I’d place him at either 18 or 19 (leaning towards 19). Additionally, taking a look around his room, it looks like he might be using a Sony Walkman (first made in 1979), and has what looks to be a Star Wars poster on his wall (1977). Additionally, he has a TV in his room that looks to be a Toshiba Blackstripe model that was popular in the mid-to-late 70s. While I can’t tell if he does actually have a walkman or not, I’d probably place this scene as being 1978 or 1979 anyway, so let’s just say it’s 1979. If he was 19 in 1979, that would place Splinter’s birth year as 1960, which is nice and even so I’m keeping it. That would make Splinter 58-59 during the course of the show, which seems to track! He has a birthday in Mascot Melee (the turtles are buying him a new robe as a birthday present), which, according to my episode timeline, puts his birthday around early September.

The flashback of Splinter as a kid is a little bit tricky, since he looks to be about five or six judging by how he acts in the scene? But he’s also holding a Kamen Rider doll, and that show didn’t exist until 1971. I nonetheless place the scene in 1966, since this is a cartoon and hey, maybe the Kamen Rider equivalent came out a few years earlier in this world, who cares. The bottle flip challenge already apparently happened in 2014 here, why not move some other stuff around? This exercise has already had me comparing calendar days, I will not be deterred

In Many Unhappy Returns, the clapperboard for the film “Crouching Shrimp, Hidden Tiger Prawn” in Splinter’s flashback shows that it was 1984 when he first met Big Mama, meaning that he was not only Lou Jitsu by then (at just 24 years old!), but that he had been making movies for at least a few years. After all, he and Big Mama were supposedly inseparable after meeting, and in The Shadow of Evil, it’s shown that Splinter did date around a bit as a star. Assuming that rat dad isn’t the cheating type, that would have had to be before meeting Big Mama. In Fists of Furry, Splinter mentions that he hasn’t seen any of his dojos in thirty years; while he may not have meant literally thirty years on the dot, assuming he’s at least close, that would mean that he was first abducted around 1989 (age 29). At that point, he and Big Mama would have been dating for around 5 years, which seems like a reasonable amount of time for him to wait before proposing. He also would have had time to build up quite a bit of fame as a movie star; the game he had of him looks to be on a system similar to the Atari 2600 and in fact looks pretty similar to the real life game “Kung Fu Master” that came out on Atari in 1987, a year which would have been the prime of his career. Sure, that date works as well as any. After that point, we know he was imprisoned in the Battle Nexus until Baron Draxum kidnapped him in order to use his DNA to mutate the turtles 13 years before The Evil League of Mutants. That would have placed his kidnapping and their mutations at around October of 2005, judging by the monthly timeline of the show. So, Splinter would have been around 45 when he adopted the turtles, after having been imprisoned and forced to fight for ~16 straight years. Dang.

Finally, I figured that the whole deal with Shredder and Karai would have happened at some point in the 1600s as it was 18 generations ago, judging by the number of “greats” in Karai’s grandma title, and if you average out a generation to be about 20-25 years, that lands you in the range of the 15th century. That works especially because Ninja apparently first started becoming a thing in the 15th century, so the timing checks out well enough.

(and, just as an extra fun note for the timeline, the lair games was said to have been going on for 6 years as of early 2019, meaning it must have started in 2014. We see that, in 2014 (year 1 of the Lair Games), Donnie doesn’t have his goggles or battleshell and is instead wearing glasses. In 2016 (year 3), though, he looks about the same as he does in the present, meaning he must have created all his tech that he wears on him (battleshell, goggles, tech bracer) between 2014 and 2016.)

So, the above timeline is a guesstimated and shoved around compilation of all this totally meaningless investigation, typed in a form that makes some kind of chronological sense! I hope that someone finds it useful, or just fun to think about :D

[thez1337]

Happy Star Wars Month!

Happy Star Wars Month! Compiled here is a chronology of what the Kylux fandom has been through so far. This is by no means complete, and is specifically tailored for events in the USA, so it’s being provided as an open source document to share and distribute because each fan’s experience is different. We should all be so proud of our accomplishments, from art to fics to comics to toys and so much more!

I want to thank everybody who helped compile this list; it was truly a group effort. The link is below, though I’ve included the entire list under the cut.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1B9nAz3lDbXfBVYjZi3OtpHhXnjrIAyAc63Qly1BJvTo/edit?usp=sharing

2015

Domhnall Gleeson spoils the name of Starkiller Base - July 10, 2015

Domhnall Gleeson, Gwendoline Christie and Adam Driver are interviewed for Star Wars E7 at San Diego Comic Con - July 11, 2015

Snickers comes out with wrappers that have sayings such as "hot mess" and "whiny" - September 22, 2015

The Force Awakens Trailer released - October 19, 2015

First Explicit Kylux Fic posted on AO3 titled "broken wishbones under your bed" by wolfhalls - November 27, 2015

The Force Awakens Red Carpet Premiere - December 14, 2015

Domhnall Gleeson goes on The Late Show with James Corden - December 16, 2015

The Force Awakens - December 18, 2015

General Hux TFA 2015 Collection Action figure released - 2015

2016

Kiss a Ginger Day - January 12, 2016

Star Wars Undercover Boss - Starkiller Base – SNL, aka when we meet Matt the Radar Technician - January 17, 2016

First #Huxlive tweet - February 5, 2016

Millicent mentioned by Lucasfilms Creative Executive Pablo Hidalgo in tweets - February 6, 2016

"Friction" by Imagine Dragons becomes the national Kylux Anthem because of a video made by Studio Sagittarius - February 21, 2016

Kylux Bingo Card, 1st fan edition released - February 19, 2016

This Is Madness Tournament where Hux got 40% against Boba Fett's 60% - March 2016

The term "Blue milkshake" is entered in to the fandom vocabulary because of a fic on AO3 with that title by Ilyn - April 23, 2016

Kylux Exchange May 2016 - May 2016

General Armitage Hux Day (Domhnall's Birthday) - May 12, 2016

General Hux is entered in to Urban Dictionary as "A ginger-headed individual with daddy issues set on ruling the entire galaxy with his fan club, alongside his terrifying baby-faced boyfriend who goes by the name of Kylo Ren" - May 31, 2016

National Donut Day - June 1, 2016 

First Kylux Positivity Week - June 8, 2016

My Journey From Marine to Actor, Adam Driver's Ted Talk - June 21, 2016

"I Fucken Hate Kylux" is first uttered on Anon to several Kyluxers - June 2016

Lego Star Wars The Force Awakens game released with an Aerobics Hux clad in yellow who also eats pink ice cream - June 28 2016

The first anti-Kylux post by waluigitheanti on Tumblr - July 5, 2016

Armitage Day, the day Armitage’s first name is revealed through leaks and/or previews - July 9, 2016

Chuck Wendig's Life Debt: Aftermath trilogy comes out with Armitage’s official first name - July 11, 2016

Lucasfilms Creative Executive Pablo Hidalgo mentions that Kylo and Hux have been working together for around the past 5 years - August 6, 2016

Kylux 33 Days of Guro - August 2016

AO3 Ship Stats 2016 Overall Top 100 list where Kylux made it to #7 - August 4, 2016

Kylux Big Bang 2016 - September 2016

Pablo Hidalgo tweets that there was no reason why Hux had not seen Kylo’s face before – September 22, 2016

General Hux is given a second entry in to Urban Dictionary as "The act of cumming on your partner's face while you yell 'DEATH TO THE RESISTANCE' (while rolling the R) and pretending your cum is a giant laser beam and your partners face is a star system home to billions of lives who will soon be extinguished. Bonus points if you are choking them and they are crying for totally unrelated reasons." - September 24, 2016

Huxloween 2016 - October 1, 2016

Kylux Holiday Cards Exchange - November 22, 2016

Children Wake Up Series by Hollycomb had, and possible still does have, the most hits, kudos, and comments in the Kylux tag on AO3 - 12/31/2016

General Hux First Order Black Series 6" #13 2016 Action figure - 2016

 2017

Star Wars Kylo Ren and General Hux Cat Mice Toy - Early 2017

Kylux Bingo Card, 2nd fan edition created - January 3rd, 2017

Kiss a Ginger Day - January 12, 2017 

Kylux Eggstravaganza - May 1, 2017

"Darth Tantrum And His Evil Space Ginger" is first coined in an AO3 fic titled “The Art of Being Torn Apart” by Cynical Pudding and DailyAl - May 2, 2017

General Armitage Hux Day (Domhnall's Birthday) - May 12, 2017

Vanity Fair publishes "See the Cast of Star Wars: The Last Jedi on Four Exclusive Covers," one of which has Captain Phasma, Kylo Ren, and General Hux - May 23, 2017

National Donut Day - June 1, 2017 

AO3 Ship Stats 2017 Overall Top 100 list where Kylux made it to #37 - August 3, 2017

Adam Driver interviewed on Today - August 20, 2017

Kylux Big Bang 2017 - September 2017

Hux's pleated black robe and ice-blue sofa are mentioned in the Phasma Novel by Delilah S. Dawson - September 1, 2017

Domhnall Gleeson shows up to the premiere of Mother! with a mustache – September 6, 2017

Domhnall Gleeson gives interview to Hollywood XYZ and shows up without mustache - September 17, 2017

Huxloween 2017 - October 1, 2017

The Last Jedi Trailer released - October 9, 2017

Screen Rat Adam Driver Interview - December 6, 2017

The Last Jedi Red Carpet Premiere - December 9, 2017

Secret Santa Interview where Domhnall said he would give Ren a grenade, and Adam said he would give Hux socks every year - December 11, 2017

Adam Driver goes on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert and is surprised by the red soles of the shoes they made him wear - December 14, 2017

The Last Jedi - December 15, 2017

The Last Jedi Visual Dictionary released with a picture of Kylo Ren's bedroom - December 15, 2017

Star Wars: The Last Jedi: Domhnall Gleeson "General Hux" Behind the Scenes Official Movie Interview, aka a tastefully disheveled Hux talks with reporter in a casual setting - December 17, 2017

Compliment Battle with the Cast of Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Funny Moments with Daisy Ridley & Domhnall Gleeson - December 19, 2017

General Hux With Mouse Droid TLJ Collection Action figure 2016 - 2017

 2018

Kiss a Ginger Day - January 12, 2018

Delilah S. Dawson, author of the Phasma novel, came out as a Kylucc - January 26, 2018

Domhnall goes on the late show with James Corden to talk about Peter Rabbit - February 6, 2018

Domhnall Gleeson of 'The Last Jedi' Pitches General Hux Spin Off Ideas, After Hours, MTV - February 6, 2018

Peter Rabbit comes out, confirming Armitage Hux's eyes as "sea foam green with a hint of battleship grey" - February 9, 2018

Domhnall's brother tells him about Kylux - February 10, 2018

Rian Johnson mentions claims by reports that anybody who likes Hux is actually a Russian Huxbot, in Anthony Wonke’s 90-minute documentary titled “The Director and the Jedi” - March 13 2018

Garry Whitta, artist of TLJ comic jokes about virgin Hux, and later Delilah S. Dawson tweeted about him not taking his gloves off while having sex - March 20, 2018

Star Wars The Last Jedi Outtakes + Bloopers Released with one single sneak peak of Hux - March 28, 2018

Kelly Marie Tran comes out as a Kylucc - March 29, 2018

General Armitage Hux Day (Domhnall's Birthday) - May 12, 2018

Kylux Prompt Bingo - May 22, 2018

National Donut Day - June 1, 20 18

First Kylux Summer Fest - June 29, 2018

Star Wars Episode IX Cast Announced - July 27, 2018

Kylux Big Bang 2018 - September 2018

Domhnall Gleeson interview: on Star Wars and playing Dr. Faraday in his new film, the Little Stranger photographed by Jonathan Dean with lighting that made it look like one could cut their fingers on how sharp Domhnall's cheekbones appear - September 16, 2018 

First post about Kylux Niche Kinks November - September 21, 2018

Kylux Secret Santa Fic Exchange 2018 - September 23 2018

Adam Driver's second time hosting SNL - September 28, 2018

Star War: The Last Jedi Graphic Novel Adaptation - September 25, 2018

Kylux Book club - October 1, 2018

Huxloween 2018 – October 2018

Kylux Holiday Cards Exchange - November 12, 2018

Kylux Titleception 2018 - December 1, 2018

Kylux Content Creator Document created on Google Docs - December 3, 2018

RIP Tumblr - December 17, 2018

Official Announcement of one year time skip between TLJ and TROS - December 22, 2018

 2019

Kiss a Ginger Day - January 12, 2019

Kylux Fluff Fest - January 22, 19

Kylux Calendar Project - January 24, 2019

Kylux Romance Week - February 10, 19

Kylux Titleception 2019 - February 15, 2019

Kylux Tarot Card Project - February 23, 2019

General Hux Appreciation Day - March 17, 2019

Star Wars Age of Resistance # 1 Hux comic announcement – April 2, 2019

The Rise of Skywalker teaser trailer released - April 12, 2019

Star Wars Age of Resistance # 1 Hux comic First Look at cover - April 13, 2019

#JFDKYLUX on Twitter - May 1, 2019

Kyluxception Kylux Adjacents Month 2019 - May 1, 2019

General Armitage Hux Day (Domhnall's Birthday) - May 12, 2019

Star Wars Instagram states "sending many birthday wishes (and hugs) to General Hux himself, Domhnall Gleeson!" with a saddened Hux looking down - May 12, 2019

Vanity Fair posts "Star Wars: The Knights of Ren Make Their Long Awaited Return" story and KOR photo - May 22, 2019

Vanity Fair posts "Star Wars: Richard E. Grant’s Villainous Character, Revealed" story and a photo of General Hux with General Pryde, whose name and the irony of it was not lost on the fandom - May 22, 2019

National Donut Day - June 1, 2019

Kylux Omegaverse Week - June 9, 2019

Kylux Daddy Fest 2019 - June 10, 2019

Kylux Summer Fest 2019 - July 1, 2019

Star War Instagram posts photo of Domhnall Gleeson posing as General Hux on the platform of Star Killer Base from The Force Awakens with Gwendoline Christie unhelmeted in the background as Captain Phasma - July 7, 2019

AO3 Ship Stats 2019 Overall Top 100 list where Kylux made it to #28 – July 24,2019

Kylux Adjacent Calendar/Schedule Planner Project Memorial Book for 2020 - July 31, 2019

Domhnall Gleeson goes on the Late Show With James Corden and talks about singing Happy Birthday as General Hux - August 6, 2019

Automattic buys Tumblr for $3 million - August 12, 2019

Hugo Award to AO3 and all fic writers - August 19, 2019

Star Wars Age of Resistance # 1 Hux comic spoiler released - August 22, 2019

The Rise of Skywalker D23 Special Look trailer - August 26, 2019

Star Wars Age of Resistance # 1 Hux comic comes out - August 28, 2019

Kylux Big Bang 2019 - September 1, 2019

Huxloween 2019 - October 1, 2019

AQUARIUS Star Wars Episode 9 The Rise of Skywalker Playing Cards with Hux included - November 20, 2019

Hux Topps trading card from the 2019 Star Wars Masterwork set - November 20, 2019

New Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker Posters with one tiny glimpse of Hux - November 21, 2019

Kylux Holiday Card Exchange - December 2, 2019

Adam Driver, “Dark Star Rising” interview in Rolling Stone Magazine - December 2, 2019

The Rise of Skywalker red carpet premiere - 

The Rise of Skywalker - December 19, 2019

What else is missing? Feel free to add your own!

When the video was released that Kylo walked in to the millennium falcon in TFA.

Domhnall mentions that he's "terribly irish in real life" in a Peter rabbit interview where he's wearing a navy blue button up

Kylux Day - Maybe June 6, 2016?

[calendarwow-blog]

September October November December 2018 January February 2019

September October November December 2018 January February 2019

Printable September October November December 2018 January February 2019

We provide the best calendar template through our blog. In this blog you will find calendars from January to December and we offer a variety of templates. These calendars will help you in many ways and you can easily set up your schedule using any calendar. It is very easy to print a calendar template and you can also add…

[dansnaturepictures]

My 10 Wildlife/Photography 2019 highlight blogs: Opening blog about another brilliant year of birds for me

People who have known me for a while may recall that in 2016, 2017 and 2018 I had sensational birding years by my standards and with what I achieved with the bank of species seen, fast starts to year lists and year list totals with each of these years overtaking everything else and being my highest ever year list they got better and better and 2018 seemed an impossible act to follow. Here I examine how well I did follow it, and tomorrow the post at around the same time is solely about experiences with some of my 28 favourite birds that I saw this year.

My 2019 followed 2018 perfectly, I have seen 195 species currently making it my second highest year list ever. Many of the species I have seen have been phenomenal again. The start definitely was what I will call fast again in that I saw a lot of birds in January, it was my second highest amount seen on New Year’s Day after 2016 where two woodpeckers Great Spotted and Green, two thrushes Redwing and Fieldfare and Siskin starred across a few locations. In the early days it was behind where 2017 and 2016 had been on those dates with how many birds I had seen, then all of a sudden when I had a week off it was the highest a year list of mine had ever been on on given dates. In mid-January when a year before my Scotland trip had happened in 2018 and all those year ticks 2018 was the highest on the given dates, but 2019 stayed closely behind it as the second highest my year list had been on on these dates which I was thrilled with. This continued in February and in March it even overtook where 2018 had been on certain dates. The same happened in April as I reached the milestone 150 birds a day earlier than I had in 2018, and it was neck in neck between the two going into May. In June and into July it even overtook what I had seen on 2018 on the dates, it fell behind again over the summer but pulled back level and began to overtake what my 2018 had been on on certain dates again in September and these two year lists were way ahead of every other year for me on those dates going into October too. Of course last year in this post I remarked how I was on amounts of birds seen in 2018 that I only reached two months later in 2017 and other years. So I just thought it was going to be more normal this year and I would notice how far 2018 was ahead. I have appreciated my high numbers of birds seen last year but also been right there with it on the dates this year which I am thrilled with. In November and into December now it has stayed neck in neck again but actually for a good while now I have been in a position where I have seen seen more birds on these days than I had a year ago. No matter what, to even stay as close to the exceptional year that was 2018 for me as it did with more modest places visited really and species ranges available was something I was so proud of.

The week off in January I had from work spent birdwatching was crucial to my start and whole year. It took me on my first of four trips away of the year so I was lucky with that, two nights in Gloucestershire so I could visit WWT Slimbridge on my birthday. On that magical day reserve specialities Bewick’s Swan (shown there in the 1st picture in this photoset), Common Crane, White-fronted and Barnacle Geese were star birds seen, alongside Peregrine Falcon, Water Rail (shown in the 2nd picture in this photoset that I took that day), Golden Plover and Ruff. When back from that week off I remember saying one morning at work I could tell you the highlight birds from that week but I would be here until lunch time. But so many amazing birds seen in home areas and on the way to our trip away that week included; Waxwing (as shown that day in the 3rd picture in this photoset at Totton the first major quality bird I saw this year and one of the biggest highlights in 2019), Jack Snipe, Red Kite, Bearded Tit, Marsh Harrier, Ring-necked Duck, Cattle Egret, Purple Sandpiper, Greenshank, Common Gull, Shag, Black-necked Grebe, Gannet, Guillemot, Fulmar, Great White Egret, Yellow-browed Warbler, Yellow-legged Gull and Goldeneye.

The theme of seeing top birds continued throughout the year, some of my other greatest birds I saw in 2019 included; Spotted Redshank, Eider Duck, Goosander, Barn Owl, Sanderling, Crossbill, Hawfinch, Bar-tailed Godwit, Scaup, Mediterranean Gull, Corn Bunting (shown in the 4th picture in this photoset at Martin Down in May), Red-legged Partridge, Lesser Yellowlegs, Bittern (shown at Blashford Lakes in the 5th picture I took in this photoset), Lesser Redpoll, Brambling, Hooded Crow, Little Owl, Spoonbill, Little Ringed Plover, Redstart, Glossy Ibis, Razorbill, Yellowhammer, Little Tern (shown at Lymington in the 6th  picture I took in this photoset), Common Sandpiper, Sand Martin, Dartford Warbler, Cuckoo, Sandwich Tern, Hobby, Sedge Warbler, Red-necked Phalarope, Lesser Whitethroat, Woodlark, Kittiwake, Puffin, Roseate Tern, Dipper, Spotted Flycatcher, Wood Sandpiper, Osprey, Black Tern, Whimbrel, Whinchat, Chough, Manx Shearwater, Common Scoter, Yellow Wagtail, Long-billed Dowitcher, Ring-necked Parakeet , Ring Ouzel, Garganey, Black Redstart, Long-tailed Duck, Semipalmated Sandpiper, Snow Bunting and three Short-eared Owls flying gloriously around us one of my standout moments this year on one of my standout birding days of 2019 with so much else seen at Portland Bill and isle that day. Twelve of the birds I saw this year I saw for only the second time in my life or it was only the second individual I’d seen of the species which really stood out as a unique point in my birding this year.

A big bird at Blashford Lakes in late April was the Bonaparte’s Gull and I was lucky enough to get a very distant view of it but watch it for quite a while. This was a fantastic species to see and made me so happy. It ended a longer wait compared to recent years as it was my first new bird of 2019. This took my life list to a bit of a milestone as it was bird 260 in my life.

My next life tick came in Northumberland in June with the Arctic Terns I saw on Coquet and Farne Islands, which l talk about more in my sixth of these posts about that holiday. During this week away we also dropped in on Druridge Pools and saw the very rare duck the Baikal Teal that was there my first ever, another beauty.

In July I saw a bird I hadn’t seen flying about in the wild before when I saw one of the White Storks on a day at Knepp. I got a beautiful view of this species and saw where they had attempted to nest so it felt very rewarding to see at this rewilding project at exciting times for these birds going forward now. Our timing was perfect in September when we had our holiday to Cornwall the first week and two of the first few Brown Boobies in the UK ever seen had turned up! On the second day of the holiday we went to Kynance Cove where one had been reported and saw it sitting on a rock. An honour to see this it was a mega and a Champions League standard bird for sure I was over the moon to see it. I talk about this more in my penultimate post of this thread on Christmas Eve about the Cornwall holiday.

The only way to follow the Brown Booby would be with another mega and that we did later in the month by seeing the Eastern Olivaceous Warbler that dropped into Farlington Marshes. It was a really beautiful bird to see and one that was so distinctive. I was lucky to get some really good views of it that day as it flew in and out of thick vegetation. This top bird sighting came at such a good point in my year that weekend too with so much else happening to make it one of my most memorable two days.

My next new bird came on 21st October as we finally managed to catch up with a Wryneck after so many times trying to see one. This was at Hill Head where we had a really good search for apparently two that had showed up. We and some other birdwatchers got some joy when we looked around the chalet area and were thrilled to spot one in someone’s garden. We enjoyed a glorious good few minutes with this beautiful and sensational species watching it fly west, giving some fantastic views in trees and on the ground. I took the 7th picture in this photoset of it. It was such a feel good twitch and really one of my main standout moments in my 2019 birdwatching a year that has been amazing for me. This was the fourth woodpecker species I’ve ever seen, my 266th bird in my life and a very important milestone 190th bird of 2019 for me which took it level with my 2017 as my joint second highest ever year list that day. I did go onto see more than 190 bird species this year of course.

Other bird pictures I took in 2019 I have included in this photoset are; Moorhen and chick along the river Itchen in June one of my favourite spring pictures this year, Pied Wagtail during winter’s Big Garden Birdwatch for the RSPB a standout moment I had a really good year for seeing a variety of garden birds generally and other wildlife around the garden and house like a Hedgehog, butterflies and moths and Avocet at Brownsea Island, Dorset in October. Going back to the garden birdwatch and I very much enjoyed doing a similar event yesterday Birdaware Solent’s Great Solent Birdwatch doing it at Weston Shore as I said in my post last night. These were just two of a whole host of citizen science surveys for various organisations I was proud to take part in this year for all wildlife. On another avian photography note in November I found out some of my bird photos from this year (Lesser Redpoll at Blashford Lakes, another Waxwing, Totton one and Blackbird out the back) I’d entered into the Blissful Birder calendar competition earlier in the year had made their ‘Birds of England’ calendar 2020. I was very proud of this. It was a real honour to see some of my pictures alongside some superb work which displays how proud we should be of English birds. It was fitting this happening as one of my earliest birdwatching memories was buying an RSPB calendar which led me to join their Wildlife Explorers with a link to it on the back a big early staging post in my interest after I had got the famous (for me) sticker book of birds which started my interest. So 10 years into me being into photography started by birds to get my own pictures on a commercial calendar felt amazing.

[skaylanphear]

S. Kay Lanphear’s Tentative Writing Schedule

(this is all subject to change)

December 21st of 2018

To Patreon/AO3/Tumblr/Twitter - Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 23

To Patreon/Tumblr/Twitter - Dragon Seer: Chapter 1 / Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 1

2019 Patreon Calendar

There will only be one tier and it will cost $1

Story update every Friday

Video upload last Tuesday of every month

January

4th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 24 - part 1

11th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 2

18th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 24 - part 2

25th – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 2

29th – Video

February

1st – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 25 - part 1

8th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 3

15th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 25 - part 2

22nd – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 3

26th – Video

March

1st – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 26 - part 1

8th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 4

15th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 26 - part 2

22nd – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 4

26th – Video

April

5th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 27 - part 1

12th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 5

19th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 27 - part 2

26th – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 5

30th – Video

May

3rd – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 28 - part 1

10th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 6

17th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 28 - part 2

24th – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 6

28th – Video

June

7th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 29 - part 1

14th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 7

21st – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 29 - part 2

25th – Video

28th – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 7

July

4th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 24 goes up on AO3

5th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 30 - part 1

12th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 8

19th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 30 - part 2

26th – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 8

30th – Video

August

1st – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 25 goes up on AO3

2nd – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 31 - part 1

9th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 9

16th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 31 - part 2

23rd – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 9

27th – Video

September

5th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 26 goes up on AO3

6th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 32 - part 1

13th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 10

20th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 32 - part 2

24th – Video

27th – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 10

October

3rd – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 27 goes up on AO3

4th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 33 - part 1

11th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 11

18th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 33 - part 2

25th – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 11

29th – Video

31st – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 28 goes up on AO3

November

1st – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 34 - part 1

8th – Dragon Seer: Chapter 12

15th – Serendipitous Fate: Chapter 34 - part 2

22nd – Caution Tape (rewrite): Chapter 12 (book 1 finale)

26th – Video

December

BREAK

As I said above, this is all tentative. It’s a lot to do, so some things might be removed, but this is what I’m shooting for in the next year. It will also be wholly dependent on how well my patreon does. If, after six months, this work is getting me nowhere financially, I may have to reconsider the entire concept. 

But anyway, I’m just posting this so y’all have some kind of idea as to what my plans are. If you have any thoughts or suggestions or anything, really, feel free to let me know. A lot of this is going to be very new to me, so I’m down to hear what other people think :D

[scifigeneration]

Look up! Your guide to some of the best meteor showers for 2019

by Jonti Horner and Tanya Hill

The 2018 Geminids meteor shower recorded over two very cold hours on the slope of Mount Lütispitz, Switzerland. Flickr/Lukas Schlagenhauf, CC BY-ND

The year gets off to a bang with the Quadrantids, the first of the annual big three meteor showers. Active while the Moon is new, it gives northern hemisphere observers a show to enjoy during the cold nights of winter. Sadly, the shower is not visible from southern skies.

The other two members of the big three — the Perseids and Geminids — are not so fortunate this year, with moonlight set to interfere and reduce their spectacle.

So, with that in mind, where and when should you observe to make the best of 2019’s meteoric offerings? Here we present the likely highlights for this year – the showers most likely to put on a good show.

We provide details of the full forecast activity period for each shower, and the forecast time of maximum. We also give sky charts, showing you where best to look, and give the theoretical peak rates that could be seen under ideal observing conditions – a number known as the Zenithal Hourly Rate, or ZHR.

It is important to note that the ZHR is the theoretical maximum number of meteors you would expect to see per hour for a given shower, unless it were to catch us by surprise with an unexpected outburst!

In reality, the rates you observe will be lower than the ZHR – but the clearer and darker your skies, and the higher the shower’s radiant in the sky, the closer you will come to this ideal value.

For any shower, to see the best rates, it is worth trying to find a good dark site (the darker the better) – far from streetlights and other illuminations. Once you’re outside, give your eyes plenty of time to adapt to the dark - half an hour should do the trick.

Showers that can only really be seen from one hemisphere or the other are denoted by either [N] or [S], while those that can be seen globally are marked as [N/S].

You can download this ics file and add to your calendar to stay informed on when the meteor showers are due.

Quadrantids [N]

Active: December 28 - January 12

Maximum: January 4, 2:20am UT = 2:20am GMT = 3:20am CET

ZHR: 120 (variable, can reach ~200)

Parent: It’s complicated (comet 96P/Macholz and asteroid 2003 EH1)

Despite being one of this year’s three most active annual showers, the Quadrantids are often overlooked and under-observed. This is probably the result of their peak falling during the depths of the northern hemisphere winter, when the weather is often less than ideal for meteor observations.

For most of the fortnight they are active, Quadrantid rates are very low (less than five per hour). The peak itself is very short and sharp, far more so than for the year’s other major showers. As a result, rates exceed a quarter of the maximum ZHR for a period of just eight hours, centred on the peak time.

The Quadrantid radiant lies in the northern constellation Boötes, relatively near the tail of Ursa Major, the Great Bear. The radiant is shown here at around midnight, local time, as it begins to climb higher in the northeastern sky. Museums Victoria/Stellarium, Author provided

The Quadrantid radiant lies in the northern constellation Boötes, the Herdsman, and is circumpolar (never sets) for observers poleward of 40 degrees north. As a result, observers in northern Europe and Canada can see Quadrantids at any time of night. The radiant is highest in the sky (and the rates are best) in the hours after midnight.

For this reason, this year’s peak (at 2:20am UT) is best suited for observers in northern Europe - and given that peak rates can exceed 100 per hour, it is certainly worth setting the alarm for, to get up in the cold early hours, and watch the spectacle unfold.

This false-color composite image shows a combination of Quadrantid and non-Quadrantid meteors streaking through the skies over NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center, in the US, on the night of January 3-4, 2012. NASA/MSFC/Meteoroid Environments Office/Danielle Moser and Bill Cooke, CC BY-NC

Alpha Centaurids [S]

Active: January 31 - February 20

Maximum: February 8, 1:00pm UT = February 8, 9pm (WA) = February 8, 11pm (QLD) = February 9, 12am (NSW/ACT/Vic/Tas)

ZHR: Variable; typically 6, but can exceed 25

Parent: Unknown

The Alpha Centaurids are a minor meteor shower, producing typical rates of just a few meteors per hour. But they are famed as a source of spectacular fireballs for southern hemisphere observers and so are worth keeping an eye out for in southern summer skies.

Alpha Centaurids are fast meteors, and are often bright. As with most showers that are only visible from the southern hemisphere, they remain poorly studied. Though typically yielding low rates, several outbursts have occurred where rates reached or exceeded 25 per hour.

The shower’s radiant lies close to the bright star Alpha Centauri – the closest naked-eye star to the Solar System and the third brightest star in the night sky.

The Alpha Centaurids are well placed for the southern hemisphere. This view from Brisbane around the time of maximum activity. Museums Victoria/Stellarium

Alpha Centauri is just 30 degrees from the south celestial pole. As a result, the radiant essentially never sets for observers across Australia. The best rates will be seen from late evening onward, as the radiant rises higher into the southern sky.

This year, the peak of the Alpha Centaurids coincides with the New Moon, making it an ideal time to check out this minor but fascinating shower.

Eta Aquariids [S preferred]

Active: April 19 - May 28

Maximum: May 6, 2pm UT = May 6, 10pm (WA) = May 7, 12am (QLD/NSW/ACT/Vic/Tas)

ZHR = 40+

Parent: Comet 1P/Halley

The Eta Aquariids are possibly the year’s most overlooked treat, particularly for observers in the southern hemisphere. The first of two annual showers produced by comet 1P/Halley, the Eta Aquariids produce excellent rates for a whole week around their peak.

The radiant rises in the early hours of the morning, after the forecast maximum time, and best rates are seen just as the sky starts to brighten with the light of dawn. It can be well worth rising early to observe them, as rates can climb as high as 40 to 50 meteors per hour before the brightening sky truncates the display.

Look for the Eta Aquariids before sunrise and catch Venus and Mercury too. Museums Victoria/Stellarium

Eta Aquariid meteors are fast and often bright, and the shower regularly rewards those who are willing to rise early. Spectacular Earth-grazing meteors that tear from one side of the sky to the other can be seen shortly after the radiant rises above the horizon.

This year conditions are ideal to observe the shower, with New Moon falling on May 4, just two days before the forecast maximum. As a result, the whole week around the peak will be suitable for morning observing sessions, giving observers plenty of opportunity to see the fall of tiny fragments of the most famous of comets.

Southern Delta Aquariids, Piscis Austrinids and Alpha Capricornids [N/S; S favoured]

Active: Early-July to Mid-August

Maximum: July 28 - 30

Combined ZHR: 35

Parent: Comet 96P/Macholz (Southern Delta Aquariids); Unknown (Piscis Austrinids); Comet 169P/NEAT (Alpha Capricornids)

In most years, the approach of August is heralded by keen meteor observers as the build up to the Perseids – the second of the year’s big three showers. This year, moonlight will interfere, spoiling them for most observers.

But this cloud comes with a silver lining. A fortnight or so before the peak of the Perseids, three relatively minor showers come together to provide an excellent mid-winter show for southern hemisphere observers. This year, the Moon is perfectly placed to allow their observation.

These three showers – the Southern Delta Aquariids, Alpha Capricornids and Pisces Austrinids – favour observers in the southern hemisphere, though they can also be observed from northern latitudes.

Regardless of your location, the best rates for these showers are seen in the hours after midnight. Reasonable rates begin to be visible for southern hemisphere observers as early as 10pm local time.

The radiants of the Southern Delta Aquariids, Alpha Capricornids and Piscis Austrinids ride high in the southern hemisphere sky around local midnight. Museums Victoria/Stellarium

For northern hemisphere observers, the radiants of the same three showers sit low to the horizon around local midnight. Museums Victoria/Stellarium

The Southern Delta Aquariids are the most active of the three, producing up to 25 fast, bright meteors per hour at their peak, which spans the five days centred on July 30.

The Alpha Capricornids, by contrast, produce lower rates typically contributing just five meteors per hour. But where the Southern Delta Aquariids are fast, the Alpha Capricornids are very slow meteors and are often spectacular.

Like the Alpha Centaurids, in February, they have a reputation for producing large numbers of spectacular fireballs. This tendency to produce meteors that are both very bright and also slow moving makes them an excellent target for astrophotographers, as well as naked-eye observers.

An Alpha Capricornid meteor captured among the star trails in 2013. Flickr/Jeff Sullivan, CC BY-NC-ND

Taurids [N/S]

Active: September 10 - December 10

Maxima: October 10 (Southern Taurids); November 13 (Northern Taurids)

ZHR: 5 + 5

Parent: Comet 2P/Encke

The Taurids are probably the most fascinating of all the annual meteor showers. Though they only deliver relatively low rates (approximately five per hour from each of the two streams, north and south), they do so over an incredibly long period – three full months of activity.

In other words, the Earth spends a quarter of a year passing through the Taurid stream. In fact, we cross the stream again in June, when the meteors from the shower are lost due to it being exclusively visible in daylight.

So a third of our planet’s orbit is spent ploughing through a broad stream of debris, known as the Taurid stream. In total, the Taurid stream deposits more mass of meteoric material to our planet’s atmosphere than all of the other annual meteor showers combined.

So vast is the Taurid stream that there is speculation that it originated with the cataclysmic disintegration of a super-sized comet, thousands or tens of thousands of years in the past, and that the current shower is a relic of that ancient event.

The two Taurid radiants, as seen from northern Europe before dawn [Paris 6:30am, October 10] Museums Victoria/Stellarium

The November maximum will be hindered by the Moon, this view as seen from Melbourne during the early hours of November 13. Museums Victoria/Stellarium

Taurid meteors are slow, and are often spectacularly bright. Like the Alpha Capricornids, they have a reputation for producing regular fireballs, making them another good target for the budding astrophotographer.

Rather than having a single, sharp peak, Taurid activity stays at, or close to, peak rates for the best part of a month, between the maxima of the northern and southern streams, meaning that it is always possible to find some time when moonlight does not interfere to observe the shower.

Geminids [N/S]

Active: December 4 - December 17

Maximum: December 14, 6:40pm UT = December 15, 4:40am (QLD) = December 15, 5:40am (NSW/ACT/Vic/Tas)

ZHR: 140+

Parent: Asteroid 3200 Phaethon

Another of the big three annual meteor showers, the Geminids are probably the best, with peak rates in recent years exceeding 140 meteors per hour.

A composite image of the Geminids shower from the vantage point of Johnson Space Center, US. NASA/Lauren Harnett, CC BY-NC

The Geminids are visible from both hemispheres – although the radiant rises markedly earlier for northern observers. Even in the south of Australia, the radiant rises well before midnight, giving all observers the rest of the night to enjoy the spectacle.

The Moon interferes with the Geminids, which radiate close to the bright star Castor. This view is from Perth in the hours before sunrise. Museums Victoria/Stellarium

Moonlight will seriously interfere with the peak of the shower this year, washing out the fainter meteors, with the result that observed rates will be lower than the ZHR might otherwise suggest.

But the shower regularly produces abundant bright meteors, and yields such high rates that it is still well worth checking out, even through the glare of the full Moon.

Ursids [N]

Active: December 17 - December 26

Maximum: December 23, 3:00am UT

ZHR: 10+

Parent: Comet 8P/Tuttle

The final shower of the year – the Ursids – is a treat for northern hemisphere observers alone. Much like the shower that started our journey through the year, the Quadrantids, the Ursids remain poorly observed, often lost to the bleak midwinter weather that plagues many northern latitudes.

But if skies are clear the Ursids are visible throughout the night, as their radiant lies just 12 degrees from the north celestial pole. As such, they make a tempting target for observers to check out in the evening, even if the radiant is at its highest in the early hours of the morning.

Most years, the Ursids are a relatively minor shower, with peak rates rarely exceeding ten meteors per hour. They have thrown up a few surprises over the past century, with occasional outbursts of moderately-fast meteors yielding rates up to, and in excess of, a hundred meteors per hour.

The Ursid radiant, in the constellation Ursa Minor, is circumpolar for almost the entire northern hemisphere, as it lies just 12 degrees from the north celestial pole. It is shown here as it would be seen at 11pm from near Tokyo, Japan. Museums Victoria/Stellarium

While no such outburst is predicted for 2019, the Ursids have proven to be a shower with a surprise or two left to show and so may just prove to be an exciting way to end the meteoric year.

About The Authors:

Jonti Horner is a  Professor of Astrophysics at the University of Southern Queensland and Tanya Hill is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Melbourne and Senior Curator (Astronomy) at Museums Victoria

This article is republished from our content partners at The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. 

If you have a good photo of any of this year’s meteor showers that you’d like to share with The Conversation’s readers then please send it to readerspic@theconversation.edu.au. Please include your full name and the location the photo (or any composite) was taken.

[khalilhumam]

How the US military is prioritizing great power competition

New Post has been published on http://khalilhumam.com/how-the-us-military-is-prioritizing-great-power-competition/

How the US military is prioritizing great power competition

By Michael E. O'Hanlon, Adam Twardowski Nearly three years into the implementation of the January 2018 National Defense Strategy, developed under Secretary Jim Mattis but still prominently emphasized by Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, how much impact is the renewed focus on great-power competition actually having on U.S. military priorities? One telling way to answer this question is to examine the deployment of Department of Navy assets—particularly, aircraft carrier battle groups, as well as amphibious ready groups and their associated “Marine Expeditionary Units”—to the broader Persian Gulf region.  It is that Central Command region, of course, that has consumed so many American military resources and so much policymaking bandwidth for at least two decades. President Barack Obama tried to “rebalance” away from it, and more towards the Asia-Pacific region, in his presidency, and then refocused on Europe as well starting with Russia’s seizure of Crimea in 2014. President Donald Trump took the logic a step further with his National Security Strategy, and its clear emphasis on China and Russia. Mattis and Esper have followed suit with their Pentagon document. But does a National Defense Strategy really tell us much about resource allocation in the U.S. Department of Defense? After all, with sixty treaty allies or close security partners around the world, the United States has many responsibilities in many theaters. Moreover, the Middle East tends to suck back even those most determined to break free of its strategic embraces. If we look at naval deployments, then the answer to this question would seem to be yes—to a degree. There hasn’t been a radical change, but there does appear to be a modest reduction in overall U.S. naval commitments to the region. We have examined deployments of carrier battle groups and amphibious ready groups on a month-by-month basis since mid-2017 using the U.S. Naval Institute’s remarkable “fleet tracker” database. Two main deviations are evident from the historical norm—by which the United States usually had one of each type of modern-day armada present in the broader region, ranging to the Gulf of Aden and northwestern Indian Ocean region. First, starting in the spring of 2018 and lasting through the calendar year, the United States did not deploy an aircraft carrier battle group—centered on the large-deck state-of-the-art behemoths that hold some seventy-five planes each—to the region. This was not entirely unprecedented, but it was rare and was depicted as a direct result of the National Defense Strategy. Instead, the carrier that would have gone to the Gulf under previous paradigms went to the Baltic Sea region instead—consistent with Secretary Mattis’s injunction that the American armed forces should be “strategically predictable but operationally unpredictable.” Alas, by early 2019, tensions with Iran were growing, and the United States no longer felt it could make do without a carrier in or near Persian Gulf waters. Carriers were sometimes present, sometimes not in the winter and spring of that year, but by June have again consistently maintained a presence in the region—and that has remained the case until this day.  Ironically, it was General Frank McKenzie, taking over the reins at CENTCOM after helping write the National Defense Strategy, who requested and received the carrier presence. But such is life when theory and high-level strategy collide with the realities of maintaining stability in a tense and still-important (if somewhat less crucial than before) broader Middle East region. Perhaps partly to compensate, starting in the fall of 2019, the United States no longer maintained a consistent afloat Marine Corps capability in the broader region. It did send an amphibious group to CENTCOM in the spring of 2020, soon after the killing of Qassim Suleimani, but that only lasted a few months and has not yet been succeeded by any new deployment of Marines.  These amphibious groups have only about one-third the airpower of a large-deck carrier and come with some two thousand Marine Corps infantry.  They are a potent force for certain kinds of missions that may involve small fights on land, and/or on ships or oil rigs or other assets in the broader Persian Gulf region. For these reasons, it would not be surprising if an amphibious group arrived in the CENTCOM region again soon. On balance, though, give two cheers to the Defense Department—given the practical requirements of undergirding global commitments and alliances, a net reduction of some 20 to 30 percent in major surface naval deployments to a key strategic region does add up to a meaningful shift in resources in response to a new national defense strategy.

Date Amphibious Groups Carrier Groups September 14, 2020 1 August 10, 2020 1 July 6, 2020 1 June 1, 2020 1 1 May 4, 2020 1 1 April 6, 2020 1 1 March 2, 2020 1 1 February 3, 2020 1 1 January 6, 2020 1 December 2, 2019 1 November 4, 2019 1 October 7, 2019 1 September 3, 2019 1 August 5, 2019 1 1 July 1, 2019 1 1 June 3, 2019 1 1 May 6, 2019 1 April 1, 2019 1 1 March 4, 2019 1 February 4, 2019 1 January 14, 2019 1 December 3, 2018 1 1 November 5, 2018 1 October 1, 2018 1 September 4, 2018 1 August 6, 2018 – – July 2, 2018 1 June 11, 2018 1 May 7, 2018 1 April 2, 2018 1 March 12, 2018 1 February 5, 2018 1 January 2, 2018 1 December 5, 2017 1 1 November 6, 2017 1 October 3, 2017 1 1 September 5, 2017 2 1 August 7, 2017 1 1 July 10, 2017 1 1

[trentteti]

New LSAT Dates for 2018

In 2018, the Law School Admissions Council (LSAC) is making some changes to the LSAT schedule. Before 2018, and since time immemorial — well, technically, since the introduction of the current LSAT in 1991, but for most Millennial test takers, Nirvana has been played on classic rock stations for their entire lives and the first Bush Administration may as well be the middle ages — there were four LSATs in a given year. There would be an exam in February, in June, in either late September or early October, and then in December.

And this pattern held all the way through 2017, during which we were treated to tests on February 4th, June 12th, September 16th, and December 2nd. But with the turning of the calendar to 2018, LSAC is turning the page on its classic LSAT schedule. It’s making some radical changes. Let’s check them out:

OK, OK. If you just look at the 2018 exams, we’re not exactly seeing at a seismic shift. There are no real changes to the February and June exams. The September exam is a little bit earlier than usual. The biggest change is that the December exam has been scheduled a couple weeks earlier and will now be held in mid-November.

If you look at the 2019 dates, you’ll see more significant changes, and the slight change to the 2018 exam starts to make more sense. As we previously discussed, LSAC made some noise this year when it announced it would start administering six exams per year. A 50% increase from the aforementioned schedule of four exams per year! But in order to get a seamless transition to this new schedule, LSAC had to engage some clever calendar chicanery. The first year in which it will provide six exams is actually some new, made-up 2018-19 calendar year that spans from, I guess, June 11, 2018 to June 10, 2019. You’ll notice that the first exam given in Year 1 A.D. (After December test) is on June 11, 2018. And the sixth exam given in this year is on June 3, 2019. So they just barely got that last one in, but there will technically be 6 official LSATs administered in the made-up year of 2018-19.

But why did they make this seemingly arbitrary change? Well, right now, LSAC is fighting a war on two fronts. The first front was the precipitous decline in the number of LSAT takers and law school applicants. Now — thanks, perhaps, to the efforts of our real Commander-in-Chief — LSAC is finally making advances on that front, with test takers and applicants way up this year. The second front, however, involves the encroachment of the GRE as a viable alternative to the LSAT, as law schools are increasingly allowing applicants to take the GRE rather than the LSAT. Unfortunately for LSAC (which, to be clear, administers the LSAT and profits from students taking that exam, but neither administers nor profits from the GRE), it is very much losing ground on that front.

So rather than resting on its laurels and hoping that pre-law types get scared by the math sections on the GRE, LSAC is trying to make the LSAT a more appealing alternative to the GRE. And one way to do that is making it easier to take the LSAT — hence eventual increase in the number of LSATs administered per calendar year, made up as those calendar years may be.

But for the actual calendar year 2018, the schedule hasn’t changed that much, so our advice on when to take the test won’t change much either. Which is the “best” LSAT to take? No matter what, the answer to that question will always be the test you can dedicate the most study time to.

So take a look at the above schedule, and then take a look at the 2-4 months before each test date. Which 2-4 month time period will allow you the most time to hunker down and learn how to do the LSAT?

If you’re just now thinking about taking the February 2018 exam, well, you’re already a little late to that party. The February exam is a little more than a month away, so it may be too late for you to dedicate adequate study time to it. But if you’ve studied for the LSAT in the past and have a solid foundation on the logical concepts it tests and if you’re able to find a lot of study time in January — seriously, like, 2-4 hours per day — you might be able to knock out the LSAT early, giving you plenty of time to get your application materials together for the 2018-19 application season.

Also, you should be aware that the February exam is still undisclosed. That means that the February exam, unlike the others, doesn’t get released to test takers (or test prep companies, if you want to empathize with our plight). So you’ll get your score back, but that’s it. It’s not a big deal, especially if you only have to take the LSAT once — and it definitely doesn’t mean the February exam is “harder” or “easier” than any others — but you should be aware of that difference.

If you’re considering the June 2018 exam, then you should consider whether you’ll be able to study from February or March until test day. Most people study for the LSAT while still in college. For those, the June exam falls uncomfortably close to finals week. For those on the semester system, the June exam is about a month after finals. For those on the quarter system — such as students at UCLA — the exam falls on the same week as finals week. Either way, studying for the LSAT will overlap with studying for finals. Think of the LSAT as like studying for two or three classes, and honestly assess whether you’ll be able to handle that increase to your workload. On the plus side, check-in time for the June exam is 12:30 pm, as opposed to the ignominiously early check-in time of 8:30 am for the other exams. If at 7:00 am you have trouble thinking about anything other than how to exact revenge on the thing that woke you up that early, consider the June exam.

The September 2018 exam will make the most sense for most of those in school, since they can use their summer break — between May and August — to dedicate a ton of time to the LSAT. In fact, by moving the September exam up a few weeks, the new schedule offers even more advantages to undergrad students. Before, when the exam was in late September or early October, it would conflict with the start of the fall semester for most students. On the years in which this fall exam was given especially late, it could even butt up against some students’ midterms. Now that the September test is given in early September, it’s safely in the I’m-still-just-figuring-out-where-my-classes-are-located-and-definitely-not-worried-about-midterms-or-papers-yet period of the fall semester, and way before fall quarters begin. Plus, this September test has the added bonus of following Labor Day, giving students one extra holiday to make the final push before test day.

The biggest change is shifting the December exam up to November 17th, which is brings both good and bad news for test takers in school. First up, the good. The December exam, whether it was given in early- or mid-December, always conflicted somewhat with finals week. By moving it up a few weeks, students will be able to finish the LSAT before getting to work on finals. Which would make for a very intense November and December, but would excuse any and all indulgences of the holiday season. Additionally, by being a few weeks earlier, students will be able to apply earlier in the application cycle, potentially giving them a better shot at admission (more on this below). Plus, this November exam is right after Veterans Day, giving these students an extra holiday of study time.

But there are some drawbacks too. The first is that Thanksgiving break was always hugely beneficial to those studying for the December test. Those days off from school or work being the equivalent to Squanto teaching the Pilgrims how to fish for eel and harvest maize. Those studying for the November test, occurring as it does before Thanksgiving, will no longer see that benefit. The second is that the December exam was often useful for those who were re-taking the exam following a disappointing September score. By moving that exam up a few weeks, those students now have less time to study. Finally, although those taking the November exam will be able to apply earlier in the application cycle than those who took the December test in the past, so will everyone else who took the November exam. Taking the winter exam earlier won’t really create a competitive advantage for those test takers, since they’re not competing against students who will take the exam in December. Really, moving up the winter exam to November will allow everyone to apply a little bit earlier than in the past. This might, paradoxically, make the February exam a little later in the application cycle, despite that exam being held at basically the same time as years past.

So take the above information into account when planning on when you’ll take the LSAT. Not much has changed with the new schedule. Least of all the fact that more study time means a better score. So plan accordingly, and good luck in 2018.

New LSAT Dates for 2018 was originally published on LSAT Blog

[germanfulbrighteta]

What day of the week was that?

You don’t have to be a savant to be able to guess the day of the week from any year.

First off, I want to give full credit to Grey Matters for their article on how to perform this trick. I’m just going to cover the absolute basics here, but you can access their article below for a much more detailed tutorial: http://gmmentalgym.blogspot.de/2011/03/day-of-week-for-any-date-revised.html

That being said, this is one of the easiest, most useful and most fun math tricks you can learn to perform. To be able to hear any date and immediately respond with what day of the week that was is a powerful tool that will save you the time of looking through a calendar and simultaneously wow your friends and family.

So, how does it work? Let me ask you a question: can you do 6+5+1 in your head? I’m guessing you probably can, and believe it or not that’s about all the math you’ll need to master this trick. I’ll go ahead and give you the equation you’ll need to progress from here:

Day code + Month code + Year code = Day of the week code

The day code is the easiest because all you have to do is look at the day and that’s the code. I am writing this on January 13th, 2018, so let’s use today as our example. My day code is 13. Done.

13 + Month code + Year code = Day of the week code

Now, what about the month code? Each month has its own code, all of which I’ve written below for you to memorize:

January = 6 February = 2 March = 2 April = 5 May = 0 June = 3 July = 5 August = 1 September = 4 October = 6 November = 2 December = 4

Wait, why these numbers? There is a perfectly logical explanation for that, but I want to keep this short and simple. If you’re really curious, check out the Grey Matters blog - otherwise, you can just memorize the codes and move on. This month is January, which means we put in 6 for the month code:

13 + 6 + Year code = Day of the week code

We’re almost there! To figure out the year code, you need to know two things. Firstly, 2000 has a year code of 0. After that, things follow very easily: 2001 has a year code of 1, 2002 has a year code of 2, etc. However, leap years add one additional number, so 2004 has a year code of 5, not 4 (repeat, NOT 4). After that things continue like normal: 2005 has a year code of 6, 2006 has a year code of 7, and so on. (IMPORTANT NOTE: The only pitfall with leap years is that you can’t forget that they leap AFTER February, so don’t treat January or February of 2004 like it has a year code of 5 just yet, it’s still 4 for those two months).

But, how do you quickly determine what year code 2018, the present year, has? For simplicity’s sake, I’ll go ahead and say that 2018 has a year code of 1. That also means that 2019 has a year code of 2, 2020 has a year code of 4 (leap year!), and so on.

Wait, why 1 and not 22? Because, rule number two, you are looking to finish your entire equation with a number between 1 and 7. Why? Because (drumroll) there are only 7 days of the week. This means anytime your year code, day code or final number is equal to or exceeds the number 7, subtract as many multiples of 7 from it as you can. There is no such thing as a 57th or 1,088th day of the week, so make the numbers as small as possible. The 13th day of the week is the same as the 6th, the 22nd the same as the 1st…makes sense, right?

Failure to do this last simple calculation results in final numbers that are big, clunky and just hard to compute in your head. Watch the calamity that happens when I DON’T do this:

13 + 6 + 22 = 41

So, we have a final number of 41. Great. Anyone here know what the hell the 41st day of the week is? I sure don’t. Let’s make things way, way easier by subtracting 7 from the day code of 13, as well as 21 from the year code of 22. Just like back in elementary school:

13 - 7 = 6 22 - 21 = 1

Let’s try our equation one more time:

6 + 6 + 1 = 13

That looks much better, doesn’t it? To me, it even FEELS better. Now we have a day of the week code of 13. The 13th day of the week is the same as the 6th day of the week though, so we can subtract 7 one more time. 

6 + 6 + 1 = 13 - 7 = 6

Our final number is 6, which means today is a Saturday!

Monday = 1 Tuesday = 2 Wednesday = 3 Thursday = 4 Friday = 5 Saturday = 6 Sunday = 0 (Because 7 - 7 = 0)

Of course, you could just end up with a big fat number and just subtract all the multiples of seven at the end and get the same result (41 - 35 = 6), but I find it easier to work things out with smaller numbers as you go along.

That’s it. You’re done. Now you’re able to tell me what days of the week May 9th, July 4th and August 21st of 2018 will be, right? (Solutions at the bottom). In any case, I hope my explanation of the trick made sense! And for those of you who are like me and may be wondering how you figure out your birthdays in the 20th century, just add one more to the year code in the 21st century (if 2018 = 1, 1918 = 2, meaning 100 years ago today, January 13th, 1918, was a Sunday). For more tips on how to quickly jump among the year codes and other related shortcuts, definitely check out the Grey Matters blog.

Enjoy your new powers. Use them wisely.

SOLUTIONS:

Day code + Month code + Year code = Day of the week code May 9th: 2 (subtract 7 from 9) + 0 + 1 = 3, a Wednesday. July 4th: 4 + 5 + 1 = 10, subtract 7 = 3, a Wednesday. August 21st: 0 (subtract 21 from 21) + 1 + 1 = 2, a Tuesday.

[calendars2print]

September 2018 to February 2019 Calendar

September 2018 to February 2019 Calendar

September 2018 to February 2019 Calendar – 

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[screenandcinema]

A Decade at the Movies: An Analysis

Over the past decade, from January 1, 2010, until December 31, 2019, I made 453 trips to the movies. That equates to 45 movies a year and about one trip to the theater every eight days. This is only counting movies seen in theaters mind you, new movies seen at home or streamed aren’t counting. To the mark the end of this decade, I wanted to do a deep analysis of the movies I saw, when I saw them, where I saw them, how I saw them and what trends could be derived from the data.

In those 453 trips to the movies, I only saw 441 new movies, since there were a handful I saw multiple times including Fast Five (2011), The Hunger Games: Catching Fire (2013), and Mission: Impossible - Fallout (2018). Not to mention the six movies I saw as a part of the Avengers marathon in 2012, all of which I had seen in theaters already. Strangely enough Fallout in 2018 was the first time I saw a movie in theaters for the second time since 2013′s Catching Fire almost five years earlier. At the point in time, my need or desire to see things multiple times in theaters had almost disappeared.

Looking back at all the movies I saw over the past decade, there are a handful of movies that jump out at me now that I don’t remember in the least including Monte Carlo (2011) starring Selena Gomez, The Vow (2012) a Nicholas Sparks wannabee drama starring Channing Tatum and Rachel McAdams, Enough Said (2013) featuring Julia Louis-Dreyfus and James Gandolfini in one of his last roles, and the thriller The Perfect Guy (2015). I remember these movies now, but seeing their titles on my decade-long list of movies, I honestly had to look them up to figure out what they were. And who could forget the two-month, six-movie stretch in 2015 where I only saw movies that started with the word “The”. From The Gift to The Man From U.N.C.L.E. to The Martian to The Walk.

Though the average number of movies seen in a given year over the past decade was 45.3, the actual number varied from year to year with a high of 62 movies in 2013 and a low of 27 movies in 2017. Both this high and low are easily explained away by an over excess of free time present in 2013 and with 2017 being the first full year with a new baby in the house. From 2011 to 2014, I was averaging 58 movies a year which equate to a new movie almost every 6 days, more than one a week. While from 2016 to 2019, I only averaged 35 movies a year, one movie every 10 days or so.

I saw movies every day of the week over the past decade, with a Saturday visits the cinema doubling its closest competition, Sunday. Saturday and Sunday together account for 56% of all the movies I saw over the past decade. Monday through Thursday accounted for a third of the movies I saw, with Wednesday having the lowest numbers of all. Probably due to federal holidays, I saw just as many movies on Friday over the past decade as I did on Monday.

Similarly, movies were seen in all months of the year, with May edging out the rest of the calendar to take the top spot. Following by November and then, surprisingly, March. September brought in the lowest numbers of any month, followed closed by February, August, and October. In total, I saw twice as many movies in the three months of May, June, July, then I did in the following three months of August, September, and October.

Some months out preformed others. By ignoring May 2012, the month in which I saw six extra movies due to the previously mentioned Avengers marathon, the most productive month over the past decade was March 2011 in which I saw 11 movies in theaters including The Adjustment Bureau, Cedar Rapids, and Limitless. Over the past ten years encompassing 120 months, there were only three months in which I didn’t see a single film - October 2010, where work commitments made movie-going all but impossible, September 2016, my first full month with a new baby, and February 2017, a down month in an overall down year. Looking back, lots of good movies that I subsequently saw at home came out during the month of February 2017, The Lego Batman Movie, John Wick: Chapter 2, and Get Out, but none of them were films I saw in theaters. 

I only attended three midnight showings over the past decade, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (2010), Thor (2011), and The Avengers (2012). Conversely, I had attended the same amount of midnight shows in 2008, just two years before the decade began. There are two compelling reasons for the lack of midnight shows over the past decade. Firstly, as I got older the desire to attend a movie at midnight became non-existent. And secondly, with earlier and earlier first showings for new movies on Thursday night, the need to attend a midnight screening is gone. Case in point, following 2012′s The Avengers, I attended the Thursday night first-showings of eight other films that were much much earlier than midnight, including five Star Wars films (after seeing both Star Wars films of the prior decade at midnight).

There were many opportunities for multiple movies in a single day, as occurred in December of 2013 with Frozen and The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug, November of 2016 with Rules Don’t Apply and Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, and in January of 2017 with The Post and Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle. There was also the three-day stretch in March of 2019 and another in November of 2019 where I saw three movies on consecutive days.

Where I saw movies over the past decade varies as well. During my 453 trips to the movies, I visited 41 different movie theaters. A vast majority of the theaters were in Florida, but there were some in non-Florida cities including Atlanta, Little Rock, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Seattle, and Vancouver. Understandably so, almost two-thirds of all the movies were seen in one of my two local theaters, a Regal and a Cinemark, with the Cinemark alone accounting for more than 40% of all the movies. This is due to the Cinemark, while further away from the Regal, offering morning showtimes over the years, and more recently luxury recliners and reserved seating. My third most visited theater is a Regal in South Florida where I lived at the start of the decade and I have only seen one movie there since summer 2012. Those three theaters which I have visited 180, 104, and 47 times each, account for almost 75% of all the movies I’ve seen over the past decade.

During most of the past decade, 3D continued to be a factor with a little over 12% of the films I saw in theaters being presented in that manner (56 total films). However looking back at the last three years, I only saw 5 films in 3D. Movie seen over the past decade on a large format screen (like IMAX or XD) accounted for 13% of the total movies seen (61 films), however, 21 of those trips were in the last three years, more than four times 3D films over the same period.

As we enter a new decade, more movies are being released straight to streaming services, new theaters are being opened with new innovations in the movie-going experience being developed. The how and where we watch movies is changing, but nothing we will be the experience of when the lights going down and the projector turning on and being transporting to new worlds across space and time. That is the power of cinema, and that will never change.  

-MB-

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Monthly Calendar Sep Oct Nov Dec 2019 Jan Feb 2020

Monthly Calendar Sep Oct Nov Dec 2019 Jan Feb 2020

Here we are providing free Printable Monthly Calendar Sep Oct Nov Dec 2019 Jan Feb 2020 Template for your personal and official work. If you are searching for the Blank September October November December January February 6 Month Calendar, here you will find all the calendars and templates for this month.

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September 2018 to February 2019 Calendar

September 2018 to February 2019 Calendar

Free September 2018 to February 2019 Calendar and Templates

The best calendar images can be downloaded here. All templates are designed by our team and we always try to make the best calendar for you. The Six Month printable calendar that you will download from here can be easily edited and totally free of cost.

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September 2018 to…

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Monthly Calendar Sep Oct Nov Dec 2018 Jan Feb 2019

Monthly Calendar Sep Oct Nov Dec 2018 Jan Feb 2019

Here we are providing free Printable Monthly Calendar Sep Oct Nov Dec 2018 Jan Feb 2019 Template for your personal and official work. If you are searching for the Blank September October November December January February 6 Month Calendar, here you will find all the calendars and templates for this month.

Monthly Calendar Sep Oct Nov Dec 2018 Jan Feb 2019 Template

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