#Neil Gain - Generations (Original Mix)

[mobile-application-ideas]

Crafting Like-Worthy Content: Strategies for Engaging Your Audience on Instagram

Introduction

In the digital age, social media has become an indispensable part of our lives. Among various social media platforms, Instagram stands out as a powerful tool for businesses and content creators to engage their audience and build a loyal following.

Crafting like-worthy content on Instagram requires a strategic approach that focuses on understanding your target audience, creating visually appealing posts, and using the platform's features effectively.

In this article, we will explore six key strategies that can elevate your Instagram game and help you connect with your audience in a meaningful way.

Crafting Like-Worthy Content

Knowing Your Target Audience

Understanding your target audience is the foundation of a successful Instagram strategy. To craft like-worthy content, you must know who your audience is, what they are interested in, and what resonates with them. Conduct thorough research and create buyer personas to gain insights into their preferences, demographics, and pain points.

Strategies to Create Engaging Visual Content

Visual content is the heart of Instagram. To stand out and capture your audience's attention, focus on creating visually stunning posts. Utilize high-quality images and videos that align with your brand's aesthetics. Experiment with colors, filters, and composition to create eye-catching visuals that leave a lasting impression.

High-Quality Photos and Videos

High-quality photos and videos are essential to crafting like-worthy content. Invest in a good camera or hire a professional photographer to capture the essence of your brand. Use natural lighting and choose picturesque locations to make your visuals stand out.

Captivating Captions and Stories

While visual content grabs attention, captivating captions and stories provide context and personality to your posts. Craft engaging captions that tell a story, evoke emotions, or encourage interaction. Be authentic and use your brand's voice to create a genuine connection with your audience.

Utilizing Instagram Reels and IGTV

Instagram Reels and IGTV are powerful tools to showcase your creativity and engage your audience in new ways. Use Reels to share short, entertaining videos that showcase your products, behind-the-scenes moments, or quick tutorials. IGTV allows you to create long-form content, such as interviews, tutorials, or brand stories, providing more value to your followers.

Leveraging User-Generated Content for Likes

User-generated content (UGC) is a goldmine for generating likes and building trust. Encourage your followers to create content featuring your products or services and share it on their profiles. Repost UGC with proper credits, showing appreciation for your loyal customers and strengthening your brand's community.

Expert Insights

To enhance your knowledge on crafting like-worthy content, let's explore some expert insights:

Gary Vaynerchuk: "Understanding your audience and giving them what they want is the key to crafting content that resonates. Listen to your followers, engage with them, and use their feedback to improve your content strategy."

Jenn Herman (Social Media Consultant): "Visual storytelling is essential on Instagram. Use a mix of images, videos, and carousel posts to tell a cohesive narrative that connects with your audience on a deeper level."

Neil Patel (Digital Marketing Expert): "Leverage Instagram's algorithm by posting consistently and at the right times. Analyze your analytics to determine the best posting schedule for maximum engagement."

FAQs

Q: How often should I post on Instagram to maximize engagement?

A: The frequency of posting depends on your audience and the nature of your content. Aim for at least three to five posts per week to maintain consistency and keep your followers engaged.

Q: Can I use stock photos for my Instagram posts?

A: While using stock photos is convenient, authentic and original content performs better on Instagram. Invest in creating unique visuals that align with your brand's identity.

Q: How do I encourage user-generated content?

A: Create interactive campaigns or contests that encourage your followers to create content featuring your brand. Offer incentives or rewards to motivate participation.

Q: Should I use hashtags in my captions or comments?

A: Both options work, but using hashtags in your captions allows your content to be more discoverable. Use a mix of popular and niche hashtags relevant to your post.

Q: How can I measure the success of my Instagram strategy?

A: Instagram's analytics and insights provide valuable data on your content's performance. Monitor metrics such as likes, comments, shares, and profile visits to evaluate your strategy's effectiveness.

Q: Can I schedule Instagram Reels and IGTV posts in advance?

A: Yes, using a social media management tool, you can schedule Reels and IGTV posts ahead of time, ensuring timely and consistent content delivery.

Conclusion

Crafting like-worthy content on Instagram requires a mix of creativity, strategic planning, and a deep understanding of your audience.

By knowing your target audience, creating engaging visual content, leveraging Instagram's features, and embracing user-generated content, you can build a devoted community of followers and increase your likes and engagement.

Remember to be authentic, stay consistent, and keep evolving your content strategy based on audience feedback and analytics.

Enjoy Instagram Likes.

[bopinion]

Album of the month / 2021 / 08 August

I love listening to music - gladly, all the time, everywhere. That's why I would like to share which music (or which album, after all I'm still from the vinyl generation ;-) I enjoy, accompanies me, slides up my playlists again and again...

The Beatles & George Martin

LOVE

Rock-Remix / 2006 / Parlophone, Apple, EMI (Universal Music Group)

When you hear the term "remix," it's usually a DJ putting a danceable techno beat under a pop or rock song. And often enough, this leaves the original performer or composer turning in his grave to the same frantic beat. But there are also exceptions. And one of them this time is my album of the month.

34 years ago in Québec I visited a kind of circus performance that was new to me. There were no animals, but excellent artistry. The whole thing was embedded in an almost psychedelic production of sounds and music and light effects and projections. Although individual acts, the whole was dramaturgically staged like an opera or a musical in one piece. The name of the circus was "Cirque du Soleil". A concept that in the following years and decades went from French Canada around the world and celebrated legendary successes everywhere - including artists in residence in Las Vegas. The visionary founder Guy Laliberté also became known worldwide as an impresario and, incidentally, a billionaire.

There are bands I really regret never having seen live. For example, The Queen with Freddie Mercury, although at least I met the latter once in a club in Munich - well, we were in the same room for a few hours. But there is also the opposite, for example The Beatles. As much as I appreciate these musical titans, a concert seems rather witless to me: film footage shows four musicians on stage, initially even dressed alike, operating their instruments without notable movements or show effects and trying to permanently drown out screaming young ladies. But maybe I only comfort myself with this assessment, because I was and am simply too young to be able to experience John, Paul, George and Ringo in their active time on stage. Anyway.

Guy Laliberté and George Harrison were friends. And at some point - I imagine the two of them over a cup of yogi tea after meditative yoga, one handing the other the joint "You, I have an idea..." - the idea was born to bring together the two cultural phenomena Cirque du Soleil and The Beatles. As a composition for all senses, new and timeless, ecstatic and colorful. After all, it was Harrison who was always eager to experiment. He converted to Hinduism in the 60s, gained experience with psychedelics and transcendental meditation and introduced oriental instruments, first and foremost the sitar, into Western music and is thus considered one of the most important pioneers of world music. A development that goes hand in hand with my personal taste: the longer their hair got, the more I liked their music.

It was only after Harrison's death that Laliberté was able to close the deal with the rights holders of the music (Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, Yoko Ono and Olivia Harrison), which can thus probably be considered a kind of Harrison's legacy. For the show was not to simply put together a soundtrack of the old familiar hits, nor were the compositions to be reinterpreted by other musicians. No, the original multi-track recordings were to be used to create new adaptations of the original songs. And who would be better qualified for this than George Martin, who had already produced groundbreaking albums with the Beatles themselves. In the process, he advanced from mere producer to arranger and idea generator, who also revolutionized recording technology by using overdubbing, for example. It's hardly surprising that he is often referred to as the "fifth Beatle".

In general, Sir George Henry Martin, Commander of the Order of the British Empire, is a man of musical superlatives. He is recorded as the producer of 4,836 titles, but one assumes considerably more. And that includes not only The Beatles, but also a wide variety of works for Emerson, Lake and Palmer, Gerry & the Pacemakers, Manfred Mann, Little River Band, Ultravox and many more. His 30th number one hit was "Candle in the Wind" by Elton John. Martin founded the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts with McCartney, was one of a handful of producers inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, and received the BRIT Award for "Best British Producer of the Past 25 Years" in 1977, among countless other honors.

So George Martin went into the studio with his son Giles Martin, who had produced INXS and Kate Bush, among others, following in his father's footsteps. And not just any studio - of course it had to be Abbey Road Studios (again). With the original recordings, the team not only created new variations of the original pieces, as they could have been created alternatively with the Beatles themselves. For example, they enriched the acoustic version of "While my Guitar gently weeps" with an orchestral accompaniment and combined the rhythm of "Tomorrow never knows" with the vocals of "Within You without You". Thus, a soundtrack project for a circus stage show ultimately became a new album by the Beatles. No wonder that Sir Paul himself described "Love" like this: "This album puts The Beatles back together again. It's kind of magical." And Ringo added "George and Giles did such a great job combining these tracks. It's really powerful for me and I even heard things I'd forgotten we'd recorded."

The documentary "All together now - A Documentary Film" by Adrian Wills (director) and Heidi Haines (screenplay), which won a Grammy in the category "Best long form Music Video", also fits the project's ambition. It tells the entire story of LOVE's creation, from the first meetings of the creative team around Martin and Laliberté to interviews with, among others, McCartney, Starr, Yoko Ono, John Lennon's widow, and Neil Aspinall, the Beatles' longtime road manager and event technician, to the first rehearsals of the stage show in Montréal.

LOVE is more than a medley of hits by the mushroom heads, but rather a kind of rock opera that is a first-class listening experience even without the accompanying show. Says George Martin: "The Beatles always looked for other ways of expressing themselves and this is another step forward for them." And father and son succeeded with remarkable creativity. The new version of "Because" is still directly harmless, since it uses the birdsong of "Across the Universe" as well as the final chord of "A Day in the Life" played backwards. "Glass Onion," on the other hand, became a grandiose collage with elements of the songs "Things We Said Today," "Hello, Goodbye" (background vocals), "I Am the Walrus" (background vocals), "Penny Lane" (flute), "A Day in the Life" (orchestra), "Magical Mystery Tour" (effects) and "Only a Northern Song" (effects). State-of-the-art technology in digitization, mixing and mastering also ensure the finest sound quality.

Speaking of sound quality: a show that relies so heavily on music must of course also rely on a perfect acoustic performance. Created by French designer Jean Rabasse, the LOVE theater at The Mirage / Las Vegas houses 2,013 seats set around a central stage. Each seat is fitted with three speakers, which sums up to a spectacular sound system with 6,351 speakers designed by Jonathan Deans. The stage includes 11 lifts, 4 traps, and 13 automated tracks and trolleys. The theater features 32 digital projectors creating very large high definition digital 100' wide panoramic images, even on four translucent screens that can be unfurled to divide the auditorium. That's what I call "being in the middle of the action".

Reportedly, the theater cost more than $100 million - which doesn't even include the development of the show. And unfortunately, it also means LOVE can never go on tour. So I won't be able to avoid traveling to Las Vegas one day for that reason alone. Which I trust will be on the event calendar for a few more years to recoup its costs. And so the circle closes: Decades later, I would once again enjoy Cirque du Soleil in North America - and thus also experience The Beatles live in a somewhat different way.

Here's a trailer for the Las Vegas Show LOVE from the Cirque du Soleil:

https://youtu.be/hIJZAfyRlD4

[mikkeneko]

I gotta say, of all the posts I’ve ever written here on the blue hellsite, definitely the one that I have the most mixed feelings about is that death god post (as opposed to, say, that ‘characters you like but have a negative associations with’ post, which I have pretty unilaterally negative feelings for and trust me have been justly punished for.) 

to start with, this was not originally written as a profound speculation on the nature of mortality and humanity’s place in the universe. it was an idle story-crafting post for a very specific concept: here is a fantasy god  for a fantasy setting  and ways in which this character  might interact with your protagonists and their narrative arc.

this pretty quickly got redirected, in reblogs, into a more generalized interpretation of coming to terms (in real life) with the ideas of mortality and dying. the most popular version of the post is the one that first added the idea of kindness  to the character concept, but that wasn’t in the original. at all.

that version of the post has gotten over 130,000 notes to date and I swear to god that at least 100,000 are people showing up to tell me that Terry Pratchett’s Death from Discworld exists (and another 5,000 to tell me that Neil Gaiman’s Death from Sandman exists, but not quite so many as to have developed the near-violent irritability I’m coming to have to it.)

now. i say mixed  feelings because i have also seen a lot of replies from people saying, in various ways, that this post made them feel good and in some way helped them come to terms with their own mortality or the death of a loved one, and you know what? i’m happy the post was able to do something for these people! genuinely am. that’s the sort of impact that creators can only dream of making with their audience really, the notion that something you wrote actively made someone’s life better. 

but those responses are pretty solidly drowned out by the “did you mean discworld’s death????”  replies, and here’s my beef with this very, very, very, very, very common reaction to this post:

1) every single one of these responses seems to think they’re saying something insightful and novel. they are not! terry pratchett and the discworld series are incredibly popular and widely read and you are not imparting new secret knowledge to the world when you reference it!

2) some of these responses are in a spirit of delight and excitement at getting to connect with other people over a series/character/idea that they love, and that’s fine. but a lot  of these responses are incredibly  condescending. “um, maybe you didn’t realize this,  but a very popular mainstream author already did this? maybe try picking up a book??”

3) the fact that these responses are so reductive -- essentially, saying “this concept is redundant and doesn’t need exploration because X exists” pisses me the hell off, because it’s allowed to have more than one exploration of a concept! more than one execution of an idea! “didn’t you know that X already exists --” every idea under the sun has been written! every one of them! there are no new concepts! people are allowed to goddamn explore concepts in their own sandbox without being told to stop talking because the concept has, somewhere else, already been explored!

4) which really only heightens the irritation of the fact that it is in fact not at all the same concept, because every person who replies with “this is just Death from Discworld” is missing the point of the original post by a fairly wide margin. the death god proposed in the original post is a very specific character trope, a death god, an authority figure who rules over a demesne of the dead, whose population and thus sovereignty increase through the inevitable press of time. it was not ever intended to be a parable about kindness;  that was someone else’s gloss. it was a character trope about power, and mortality.

do you know why this isn’t the same as Discworld’s Death? Because Discworld’s Death is not a king.  There was an entire goddamn book on the topic of Discworld’s Death being not a king. He doesn’t gain power from an increased number of dead people in existence because they don’t reside in his demesne; they pass on. This is integral  to the concept of Discworld’s Death (and also Neil Gaiman’s death; there was a lot of creative collaboration between the two.) Which makes me think that y’all chucklefucks didn’t even read the books you are all telling me to read.

in conclusion, the ONE (1) person who replied to my Death God Post with “did you mean bwonsamdi?” is the only goddamn valid motherfucker on this site, because yes, I did  mean Bwonsamdi, but you know what, the fact that Bwonsamdi exists doesn’t mean that other people can’t explore additional executions on the same concept.

[catbreeds2]

Scottish Fold Cats

There’s nothing a Scottish Fold — named for his folded ears — likes increased than to be collectively together with his people, collaborating in regardless of they’re doing.

In 1961 Scottish shepherd William Ross seen a white cat with uncommon, folded ears at a neighbor’s farm near Coupar Angus throughout the Tayside Space of Scotland. Realizing the individuality of this cat’s ‘lop’ ears, he requested spherical and positioned that the feline was a barn cat of no express pedigree. Named Suzie, the cat belonged to Ross’s neighbors, the McRaes.

Ross realized that Susie’s mother was a straight-eared white cat. Her father was unknown, so it was unclear whether or not or not Susie was the first of her kind, or whether or not or not the folded ears had merely in no way been seen sooner than. Susie’s brother was moreover a Fold, nevertheless he wandered away, certainly not to be seen as soon as extra.

Ross and his partner, Mary, have been enchanted by the feline and when Susie produced two folded ear kittens a 12 months later, they acquired one, a white magnificence like her mother whom they named Snooks.

The Rosses started a breeding program and proceeded to analysis establishing a model new breed by attending cat reveals and talking with breeders. Proper now, they often known as the breed ‘lop-eared’, after the rabbit choice.

In 1966 the Rosses began registering their cats with the Governing Council of the Cat Fancy and, along with completely different followers, began the prolonged means of accomplishing acceptance for his or her folded associates. By the tip of the final decade the breed was renamed the Scottish Fold.

Inside the early 1970s, nonetheless, the GCCF stopped registering Folds on account of points about ear issues akin to infections, mites, and listening to points. To proceed inside the current ring, the Scottish Fold needed to give up its kilts and bagpipes and switch to America.

Folds had been first launched to the US in 1970 when three of Snook’s kittens had been despatched to Dr. Neil Todd on the Carnivore Genetics Evaluation Coronary heart in Massachusetts, who was researching spontaneous mutations. He lastly abandoned his evaluation, nevertheless positioned homes for his Folds. One in all his cats found his choice to Salle Wolfe Peters in Pennsylvania, who’s primarily responsible for rising the breed in america. Totally different Folds had been later imported to america. All actual Scottish Folds may very well be traced once more to Susie’s line.

The Scottish Fold was accepted for CFA registration in 1973; in 1978 it acquired Championship standing. In an amazingly fast interval, the Fold earned acceptance in the entire cat associations and a spot throughout the U.S. cat fancy’s prime ten hottest breeds.

The prolonged haired mannequin of the breed was not formally acknowledged until the mid-1980s, although longhair kittens have been cropping up inside the Scottish Fold litters as a result of the genesis of the breed. Susie might need carried the prolonged hair gene, being a barn cat of not sure origin. Utilizing Persians in early crosses moreover helped to find out the longhair gene. CFA, CCA, ACFA, NCFA, ACA, CFF, AACE, UFO, and TICA have accepted the Scottish Fold Longhair for Championship.

The Scottish Fold Longhair is assumed by four utterly completely different monikers, counting on the affiliation and area you reside in. ACFA, AACE, and UFO seek the advice of with the breed as a result of the Highland Fold. TICA, NCFA, ACA, CCA, and CFA title the breed the Scottish Fold Longhair, and CFF refers again to the breed as a result of the Longhair Fold. Canadian breeders moreover identify them the Coupari.

Life Span: 11 to 14 years

SCOTTISH FOLD PERSONALITY

The Scottish Fold cat persona is outgoing, cuddly and lovable. The overall cheeks and angelic expression don’t mislead – it’s a very sweet breed. This cat simply is not your best choice for busy individuals who aren’t residence alot because of they need plenty of love and gentle, playful interaction.

These cats present distinctive breed traits like hugging with their entrance paws when held shut, and whispering whereas cuddling.

They’re acknowledged to sleep inclined on their backs and to “sit-up” with their entrance paws resting on their ample bellies in a sort of Buddha-pose.

Although gaining in recognition and considered one of many additional recognizable pure-breeds, the Scottish fold stays to be a relatively uncommon pure-bred or “pedigreed” house cat.

The Scottish Fold is accessible in any coloration or pattern. The coat is dense with an opulent undercoat. Shedding may be extreme and customary grooming is definitely desired.

These are fairly chunky, medium-sized cats that do have quite a few breed-related nicely being factors, most of which will likely be prevented if extra care throughout the alternative of a breeder is employed.

On account of it is mellow, nice, and considerably needs interaction, the Scottish Fold is an impressive family cat that does exceptionally correctly with, and often seems to cherish children.

SCOTTISH FOLD HEALTH

Every pedigreed cats and mixed-breed cats have varied incidences of properly being points that may very well be genetic in nature. A typical lifespan is 15 years. Points that may affect the Scottish Fold embody the subsequent:

– Degenerative joint sickness, notably inside the tail however moreover inside the ankle and knee joints, inflicting ache or poor mobility. It’s essential to cope with the tail fastidiously if it has developed stiffness. – Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a kind of coronary coronary heart sickness, has been seen inside the breed, nonetheless it has not however been confirmed to be a heritable kind of the sickness.

SCOTTISH FOLD CARE Comb the Scottish Fold’s coat weekly to remove ineffective hair and distribute pores and pores and skin oils. A longhaired Fold may should be groomed a couple of events each week to ensure that tangles don’t develop.

Brush the enamel to cease periodontal sickness. Daily dental hygiene is best, nonetheless weekly brushing is finest than nothing. Trim the nails every couple of weeks. Wipe the corners of the eyes with a cushty, damp materials to remove any discharge. Use a separate area of the fabric for each eye so that you just don’t run the hazard of spreading any an an infection. Check the ears weekly, significantly in the event that they’re tightly folded. If they offer the impression of being dirty, wipe them out with a cotton ball or snug damp materials moistened with a 50-50 mixture of cider vinegar and warmth water. Steer clear of using cotton swabs, which could hurt the within of the ear.

Preserve the Scottish Fold’s litter discipline spotlessly clear. Cats are very particular about bathroom hygiene, and a transparent litter area will help to keep up the coat clear as successfully.

It’s a superb suggestion to keep up a Scottish Fold as an indoor-only cat to protect him from illnesses unfold by totally different cats, assaults by canine or coyotes, and the other dangers that face cats who go exterior, resembling being hit by a vehicle. Scottish Folds who go exterior moreover run the possibility of being stolen by someone who need to have such an exceptional cat with out paying for it.

SCOTTISH FOLD COAT AND GROOMİNG

With one of the best ways his small ears match like a cap over his rounded head, the Scottish Fold is usually described as resembling an owl. The ears fluctuate in look from a single fold, bent forward about halfway up the ear, to a double fold, significantly tighter, and the triple fold, lying tight to the head, which is fascinating for current cats. Kittens are born with straight ears, which might or couldn’t fold after they’re about three weeks earlier. In depth open eyes gaze out on the world with a sweet expression. The medium-size physique can be rounded, completed by a medium to prolonged tail that usually ends in a rounded tip.

A shorthaired Fold has a dense, plush coat with a easy texture. The longhaired choice has medium-long to prolonged fur with britches (longer fur on the upper thighs), toe tufts, a plumed tail, and tufts of fur on the ears. He might also have a ruff throughout the neck. The Scottish Fold is offered in quite a lot of colors and patterns, along with steady, tabby, tabby and white, bicolor and particolor. Eye shade depends upon coat color. For example, white and bicolor cats can have blue eyes or odd eyes (each eye is a definite coloration).

SCOTTISH FOLD KITTENS

Scottish Fold kittens are often very quick to adapt to a model new setting. They’re normally a bit on the clumsy side, and kitten-proofing, considerably with regard to avoiding extreme places, is extraordinarily recomended.

These is not going to be the type of kittens to get lost and get misplaced, though. You may likely know the place they’re all the time – very close to you, if in a roundabout manner on you!

Although they’re vivid and playful, teaching is normally considerably troublesome and this generally is a kitten that may miss the litter subject for only a few weeks, or presumably years.

There could also be little or no sense of urgency, and these mellow kitties will match correct in with the whole family. Solitude will make them sullen, nonetheless, and these often should not good various in case your schedule requires you enable the cat alone for prolonged intervals.

Demand for this superb breed has risen in the previous couple of years. Scottish Fold cat breeders are fairly simple to hunt out, nonetheless kitten prices are going up and prepared lists are frequent.

SCOTTİSH FOLD CAT BREED TRAİTS

The Scottish Fold’s folded ears are produced by a dominant gene that impacts the cartilage of the ears, inflicting the ears to fold forward and downward, giving the highest a rounded look. As a result of the gene is dominant, all Scottish Fold cats ought to haven’t lower than one folded ear mum or dad to have folded ears themselves. When a Fold is bred to a straight-eared cat, roughly 50 % of the kittens can have folded ears, although the number of Folds in any given litter can vary enormously.

Breeding Fold to Fold will enhance the number of Fold kittens, however moreover considerably will improve the probabilities of skeletal deformities. Homozygous Folds (Folds that inherit the folded ear gene from every mom and father) usually tend to develop congenital osteodystrophy, a genetic scenario that causes crippling distortion and enlargement of the bones. Avoiding Fold-to-Fold breeding reduces the problem; however, controversy surrounds the breed on account of this defect. Thickness or lack of mobility of the legs or tail are optimistic indicators of trouble. You presumably can determine tail flexibility by transferring your hand down the tail in a extremely gentle, barely upward-arching movement.

All Folds are born with straight ears. At spherical three weeks the ears begin to fold, if they will. Because it is not readily apparent what variety of Folds one has, breeders ought to play a prepared sport until the ears develop their final folds. Even then it’s powerful to tell if the folds could be the tight folds preferred inside the current ring or the looser, pet-quality folds.

No matter being folded, the ears are nonetheless expressive and swivel to concentrate, lay once more in anger, and prick up when the can opener whirrs. The fold inside the ear can become a lot much less pronounced when the cat is in heat, upset, or sick. Although some Fold householders report an elevated manufacturing of wax buildup of their cats’ ears, apparently the folded ears do not make the cat additional vulnerable to mites or infections. The beforehand reported susceptibility to deafness is also related to the reality that many early Scottish Folds had been white, and white cats might be liable to deafness unrelated to the fold gene.

SCOTTISH FOLD BREED STANDARD

Head Type: The highest is spherical with a company, chin and spherical, full cheeks. A flattened, or dish face is typical, nonetheless not necessary. Males can appear pretty jowly as they mature and it’s a fascinating trait. The ears must be small, folding over forward and downward. Tightly folded, tiny ears are extraordinarily fascinating. The ears are set to the sides, and ideally, physique the rounded skullcap on each aspect. The eyes must be spherical and pretty enormous with a sweet expression. Certainly one of many breeds most beautiful choices. Any eye shade nevertheless some preferences counting on coat shade.

Physique and Tail: The physique is medium dimension and properly rounded with hips equally as giant as shoulders. Company, muscular and thick. Legs are transient to medium with good bone and large, spherical, well-knuckled ft. The tail is medium to prolonged and tapering. A protracted tail is fascinating.

Coat: Fast in measurement, plush, delicate and dense. There are longer coats typically.

Pattern: All colors and patterns are accepted.

Complete Look: This have to be a medium measurement, significantly cobby cat, in some other case well-formed and of fundamental shorthair sort. The excellent ears, coupled with the big, spherical eyes set it apart and gives this cat perhaps primarily essentially the most distinctive expression throughout the feline world. Pretty inside and outdoors, the Scottish Fold cat is an distinctive choice.

A FEW MORE SCOTTISH FOLD CAT FACTS

Scottish Fold kittens are born with common ears that begin to fold over throughout the third week of life. Normally occurring all through the same litter, some individuals ears in no way fold, and these cats are referred to as, not very cleverly, “straights.”

[thesophiewhit]

On Writing My First Audio-Drama Podcast

A daring solo adventure with a big love for audio-drama (Welcome to NightVale. What’s the Frequency. The Enoch Saga. Raising the Dead (Again), The Byron Chronicles. Harlem Queen and more!) and absolutely zero idea how to work a proper editing program except for iMovie.

A recipe for disaster, you say? Or is it a daring adventure? 

I decided it was a little bit of both, mixed with a chaotic storm of utter, well, chaos. But, I went with it anyway. 

And what did I learn from producing? (Producing solo. Yes, that includes but is not limited to: writing the 200 pages for a first season, recording different voices like I’m Gollum, finding copyright free music, producing an original song cover even if I’ve never sang before, editing recaps, theme songs, setting up Twitter accounts, Instagram, YouTube channels. Email addresses. Websites. Blog tours.)

And on top of that, still waiting on getting approved by podcasting hosts? (Cries in impatience).

I have a little screensaver on my phone that says: write, finish things, keep writing from fave emo author Neil Gaiman. @neil-gaiman​ (the inside home screen says something about managing anxiety and is super sweet.)

So, I listened to virtual motivator Neil Gaiman and got to writing the audio drama. 

I am an indie producer who’s really new at this, so take my word with a whole lot of NaCl grains, but here goes...

AUDIO-DRAMA PODCAST TIPS FROM SOMEONE WHO’S STILL LEARNING THE ROPES

1. It is a non-universally acknowledged fact that a podcast episode goes for 20 minutes- 1 hour. My episodes hit the 20 minute mark. 9 Episodes = approximately 180+ minutes of footage. 

2. In script speak, a single page of a script runs for approximately 2 minutes of edited dialogue (leaving room for adding SFX and music). One episode for me (20 minutes), meant writing 10 pages of a very non-formatted script. (But it worked for me. What works for me might not work for you, vice-versa)

3. Music makes a podcast sound professional. I used FreeMusicArchive for a lot of my music. When I needed to produce an OG song for my season finale, I went with “House of New Orleans” and made it sound, you know, ghostly. It’s a horror podcast, it fit my theme

3.5. SFX also make your podcast sound so good. Yes, laugh at my for iMovie editing, but the SFX are free for use (iMovie encourages this). Aside from good dialogue, sound design really helps you build your world. (Outside of music, of course). Think of it like watching a movie. That sound of someone creeping along wooden floors in a horror movie, the background noise of traffic on a busy NYC street, even knocking on a door. These elements bring your audio-drama to life. I favored SoundBible and FreeSounds.

4. Speaking of themes! Pick a genre for your audio-drama. You can mix genres too, within general reason (this is for marketing purposes, you understand. And social media loves to limit how many characters you get to type. Twitter, I’m looking atcha). Comedic drama. Horror mystery. Romantic necromancy, whatever. Just find a branding theme and stay there. This will help you build a podcasting family! For example, I have a horror/paranormal podcast family. We’re tight knit. Lots of goth clothing.

5. Reach out to other podcasting peoples. You’re family, not dueling rivals. When I was starting out (heck, I’m still a pod-baby), I asked so many questions. I tweeted out into the void with my #PodernFamily #AudioDrama hashtags and asked about marketing yourself, sound design, podcast hosting etc.

6. Speaking of which, you’re going to need a HOST before you get your Podcast released onto iTunes, Google Play etc. I used Anchor, but I know others who used SoundCloud etc etc.

7. The host might automatically publish your show onto podcast providers (iTunes/Google Play etc), or you might need to manually submit your RSS feed. You can find it from your podcast host (Anchor you access settings, I believe), but this RSS is your ticket to distributing said podcast TO THE WORLD.

8. Set up a Ko-Fi or Patreon so you can have a lil nudge into buying equipment/funding your art. (Mine is https://www.ko-fi.com/sophiefae , what’s up? *winks*)

9. Make things. You’re the number one marketer on your team. Make trailers. Make graphics. Make a kickass cover for your audio-drama so people want to click on that badass-looking icon. I find this fun, some people might find this irritating. I’m just living my best life with PhotoShop even if I have no idea what I’m doing. What’s up?) 

10. Learn how to do sound design. Okay, I’ll admit, I’ve been using iMovie up until now because I’m a coward. But a very lovely podcasting community helped me learn how to use Audacity. We’re getting there, fellow new-programs-are-scary-and-have-demons learners. We’re getting there.

Edit together bloopers/ a highlight reel/ a behind-the-scenes interview, or a little season trailer to play before your episodes so people can just dive right into your drama of the audio.

My trailer for Grimm and Glitter, by the way: (sup *winks*)

Have any other tips for budding podcasters or audio drama makers? Leave them below! 

Social media for Grimm and Glitter Podcast if anybody’s curious...

Twitter: @GrimmGlitter @Fae_Sophie (like cheeky horror movie GIFs, me too)

Instagram @FirstAmongFae (fun if you’re into goth cosplay)

YouTube: Sophie Fae (trailers and episodes)

Website if you wanna listen to an audio-drama about goth and prep girlfriends battling demons together in a small beach town: 

https://firstamongfae.wixsite.com/grimm/grimm-glitter

Meet Grimm & Glitter- two superpowered teens who fight evil in an isolated beach town. Just don't look behind the red door...

In the middle of butt-nowhere called “Calamity Beach”, 16-year old Grim and 17-year old Glitter find a hole in the abandoned amusement park just outside the town. The tunnel leads to a locked red door that not even light can get through.  Things would all be fine and dandy (no questions asked) except for the strange noises seeping out of it.

That, and ever since going down there, Grim and Glitter suddenly gain mysterious powers. Grim can’t stop hearing people’s thoughts, and Glitter can see the ghosts of the dead.  

Can these two teenagers discover the secrets lying beneath Calamity Beach? Or will time run out before the summer ends?

[newstfionline]

Saturday, May 8, 2021

Govcoins (The Economist) Government digital currencies, or “govcoins”, are a new incarnation of money. They promise to make finance work better but also to shift power from individuals to the state, alter geopolitics and change how capital is allocated. Instead of holding an account with a retail bank, you would hold one directly with a central bank, through an interface resembling apps such as Alipay or Venmo. Rather than writing cheques or paying online with a card, you could use the central bank’s cheap plumbing. And your money would be guaranteed by the full faith of the state, not a fallible bank. Over 50 monetary authorities, in America, the EU, Britain and elsewhere, are exploring digital currencies. China is experimenting and the Bahamas has already issued its own. Governments and financial firms need to prepare for a shift in how money works that is as momentous as the leap to metallic coins or payment cards—a shift that promises a vast spectrum of opportunities, but also real dangers.

Health Advocate or Big Brother? Companies Weigh Requiring Vaccines. (NYT) As American companies prepare to bring large numbers of workers back to the office in the coming months, executives are facing one of their most delicate pandemic-related decisions: Should they require employees to be vaccinated? For the country’s largest companies, mandatory vaccinations would protect service workers and lower the anxiety for returning office employees. That includes those who have been vaccinated but may be reluctant to return without knowing whether their colleagues have as well. And there is a public service element: The goal of herd immunity has slipped as the pace of vaccinations has slowed. But making vaccinations mandatory could risk a backlash, and perhaps even litigation, from those who view it as an invasion of privacy and a Big Brother-like move to control the lives of employees. “While legally in the United States, employers can mandate vaccines while providing accommodations for religious and for health reasons, socially, in terms of the social acceptability of these decisions, it’s much more tenuous,” said Laura Boudreau, a professor of public policy at Columbia University. “And so the reputational risks to these companies of getting this wrong are really high.”

Biden plans to add $600 billion to the U.S. ‘care economy’ (Reuters) President Joe Biden’s $4 trillion plan to rebuild the U.S. economy aims a flood of cash at something millions of women in America do for low pay or no pay at all: taking care of other people. Biden’s “American Jobs Plan” would boost an existing government program with $400 billion more over a decade, to give more elderly and disabled people basic care they need, while his “American Families Plan” creates free universal ‘pre-Kindergarten’ and adds other childcare to the tune of $200 billion. The White House’s team of economists and economic advisers, many of them women, argue that this influx of government cash is essential to fix and grow the U.S. economy. It will get women back into the workforce who left because of the coronavirus, allow other stay-at-home caregivers to take jobs, and pay the people who do care-giving work as a job a more livable wage. The entire premise, though, is proving to be one of the most controversial parts of Biden’s plans. Republicans and some Democrats question why taking care of children, the elderly and disabled should be counted as infrastructure, should be funded by the government, or whether women want this aid at all.

Battlefield Colombia (Foreign Policy) Clashes between protesters and security forces paralyzed Colombia this week, leaving at least 23 protesters and one police officer dead. Another 87 people were reported missing. These are dramatically high totals for a democracy, and they point to skyrocketing discontent with President Iván Duque’s government. They also offer a warning to other Latin American nations: Passing the bulk of pandemic debt bills onto the poor and middle class could lead to significant pushback in the streets. Colombia’s more than eight days of on-and-off protest originally focused on a proposal to hike taxes on utilities while introducing new income taxes for both lower and higher earners, among other measures. Duque said the changes would allow the government to continue offering financial support to those affected by the pandemic, but 80 percent of Colombians opposed them. When Duque had introduced an earlier tax hike in late 2019, it became one of many sparks for mass protests that November and December. Protests this week, too, featured a mix of grievances. As news spread of security forces firing live ammunition at protesters, the outcry increasingly focused on police and military abuse in the country.

Chernobyl smolders (Sciencemag.org) Thirty-five years after the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant in Ukraine exploded in the world’s worst nuclear accident, fission reactions are smoldering again in uranium fuel masses buried deep inside a mangled reactor hall. “It’s like the embers in a barbecue pit,” says Neil Hyatt, a nuclear materials chemist at the University of Sheffield. Now, Ukrainian scientists are scrambling to determine whether the reactions will wink out on their own—or require extraordinary interventions to avert another accident. Sensors are tracking a rising number of neutrons, a signal of fission, streaming from one inaccessible room, Anatolii Doroshenko of the Institute for Safety Problems of Nuclear Power Plants (ISPNPP) in Kyiv, Ukraine, reported last week during discussions about dismantling the reactor. “There are many uncertainties,” says ISPNPP’s Maxim Saveliev. “But we can’t rule out the possibility of [an] accident.” The neutron counts are rising slowly, Saveliev says, suggesting managers still have a few years to figure out how to stifle the threat.

Afghans Fleeing Home Are Filling the Lowliest Jobs in Istanbul (NYT) In a derelict house in one of the oldest quarters of Istanbul, a group of Afghan migrants were welcoming new arrivals—two teenagers who had survived the perilous two-month journey on the migrant trail from Afghanistan. They said they had just arrived overnight in Istanbul after a 60-hour trek over the mountains from Iran into Turkey. The number of Afghans arriving in Turkey has soared over the last seven years as the United States and NATO forces have wound down their military presence. More than 200,000 Afghans were caught entering Turkey illegally in 2019, many of whom were deported back to Afghanistan. But despite a reduction of overall numbers in the last year because of the pandemic, Afghans still represent by far the largest migrant group making the dangerous crossing by sea or land to Greece. And their numbers are set to grow as the Taliban take control back home.

India’s disaster hangs over countries facing COVID-19 surges (AP) Countries worldwide wrestling with new coronavirus surges are trying to ensure they aren’t hit by an India-style disaster. They face many of the same risks, including large populations and fragile health systems shaken under the strain. In a province along the Nile in southern Egypt, hospitals have been flooded with COVID-19 patients, a main hot spot in a third spike swelling across the country. Doctors in Sohag province warn the health system there could collapse, even as the government rushes in new supplies. “My estimate is that there is no family in Sohag that does not have a corona case,” said Dr. Mahmoud Fahmy Mansour, head of the province’s doctors’ union. “We lost five physicians in one week.” Egypt isn’t alone in seeing mounting new infections. Worldwide, more cases have been reported in the past two weeks than in the entire first six months of the pandemic, World Health Organization director general Tedros Adhanom said. India and Brazil accounted for a large part of that, “but there are many other countries all over the world that face a very fragile situation,” he said.

China trade surges as global demand recovers from pandemic (AP) China’s trade with the United States and the rest of the world surged by double digits in April as consumer demand recovered, but growth appeared to be slowing. Global exports rose 32.3% over a year ago to $263.9 billion, in line with March but down from the explosive 60.6% rise in the first two months of 2021, customs data showed Friday. China’s trade gains look especially dramatic due to comparison with a year ago, when global economies shut down to fight the coronavirus. Despite the jump in April’s headline figures, exports are leveling off. The trade outlook is overshadowed by a tariff war with Washington. President Joe Biden has yet to say what he might do about reviving talks aimed at ending the trade war.

Hong Kong’s Continuing Crackdown (The Guardian) On Wednesday, a Hong Kong district court judge convicted three 20-something activists on riot charges and sentenced them to lengthy jail terms. The judge said even though there was no evidence the trio were involved in any rioting, their presence at the rally in October 2019 encouraged other protesters. The harsh sentences were required as a deterrent, he said, and under the “joint enterprise” principle, the accused must face the same punishment as those who broke the law. In a separate case, democracy activist Joshua Wong, who has been arrested and jailed numerous times, was sentenced to an additional 10 months incarceration, this time for breaching Covid restrictions by participating in an unauthorized vigil on June 4, 2020 that commemorated the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. Well over 50 pro-democracy activists, former legislators, social workers, and academics have been arrested on subversion and other charges under the National Security Law, effectively quashing any pro-Beijing opposition.

Three Months After Coup, Myanmar Returns to the ‘Bad Old Days’ (NYT) Every night at 8, the stern-faced newscaster on Myanmar military TV announces the day’s hunted. The mug shots of those charged with political crimes appear onscreen. Among them are doctors, students, beauty queens, actors, reporters, even a pair of makeup bloggers. Some of the faces look puffy and bruised, the likely result of interrogations. As the midnight insects trill, the hunt intensifies. Military censors sever the internet across most of Myanmar, matching the darkness outside with an information blackout. Soldiers sweep through the cities, arresting, abducting and assaulting with slingshots and rifles. The nightly banging on doors, as arbitrary as it is dreaded, galvanizes a frenzy of self-preservation. Residents delete their Facebook accounts, destroy incriminating mobile phone cards and erase traces of support for Myanmar’s elected government. As sleep proves elusive, it’s as if much of the nation is suffering a collective insomnia. Little more than a decade ago, the most innocuous of infractions—owning a photograph of pro-democracy leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi or an unregistered cellphone or a single note of foreign currency—could mean a prison sentence. For the better part of 60 years, the military’s rule over Myanmar was animated not by grand ideology but by fear. Today, with much of the population determined to resist the coup-makers, a new junta is consolidating its grip by resorting, yet again, to a reign of terror. “Myanmar is going back to the bad old days when people were so scared that their neighbors would inform on them and they could get arrested for no reason at all,” said Ko Moe Yan Naing, a former police officer who is now in hiding after opposing the coup.

Locked down during Cambodia’s virus outbreak, people are running out of food (Washington Post) Thea is worried that he will go hungry. He hasn’t left his home in Phnom Penh since April 15, when Cambodia’s government imposed a citywide lockdown. As Western countries gradually conquer the virus through mass vaccination, the pandemic is flaring up again in some poorer regions of the world, including Southeast Asia. In Cambodia, which had avoided the worst of the pandemic, a surge in cases has led authorities to resort to an extreme lockdown that some residents say has pushed them toward eviction or starvation. On Friday, officials announced 558 new cases, bringing the total to 18,179 with 114 deaths. While the government eased restrictions in some places this week, high-risk areas remain under lockdown. The most draconian measures apply to neighborhoods deemed “red zones,” where no one is permitted to leave home, not even to buy food. Officers patrol the streets at all hours and are authorized to fine or arrest anyone moving around without a permit. In some cases, police officers have beaten people with sticks for violating the rules—punishment the government considers “necessary” to enforce stay-at-home orders, according to Phay Siphan, a government spokesman.

European powers tell Israel to stop settlement expansion amid tension in Jerusalem (Reuters) France, Germany, Italy, Spain and Britain urged Israel on Thursday to halt settlement-building in the occupied West Bank. The joint statement came as tensions mounted in East Jerusalem ahead of a hearing that could see Palestinian families evicted from Sheikh Jarrah, a neighbourhood where Jewish settlers backed by an Israeli court have taken over some homes. “We urge the government of Israel to reverse its decision to advance the construction of 540 settlement units in the Har Homa E area of the occupied West Bank, and to cease its policy of settlement expansion across the Occupied Palestinian Territories,” the European nations said. If implemented, the decision to advance settlements in Har Homa, between East Jerusalem and Bethlehem, will cause further damage to the prospects for a viable Palestinian State.” Jerusalem, which contains sites sacred to Judaism, Islam and Christianity, is at the heart of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

[asfeedin]

10 Social Media Fails to Avoid in 2020

Chances are you’ve witnessed a social media fail sometime in the past year. It usually results from a sense of urgency, or a miscommunication that ignores common sense, all for the sake of gaining attention.

It’s true: Follow just a bit of poorly-advised posting on social media, and you, too, can create your very own brand fail in a matter of minutes.

Many brands are over-concerned with posting frequency and speed, and not concerned enough with tactics that ensure quality and proper context. A single spur-of-the-moment tweet can cause irreparable damage. And even after it’s deleted, the examples below show that content on social media never truly dies — so make sure you have a plan in place that establishes clear boundaries and best practices.

As proof, here are ten of the worst social media fails you might ever come across.

11 Social Media Fails to Avoid

1. Chase’s Poem About Financial Woes

In 2019, Chase posted a #MondayMotivation tweet that aimed to encourage audiences to save money. However, it came off like the bank was teasing its audiences for bad spending habits.

Source

Then, the situation got worse for Chase when presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren tweeted in reply.

Source

2. IHOP’s April Fools Rebranding

Leading up to April Fools Day 2018, IHOP announced on social media that it was rebranding from the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) to the International House of Burgers (IHOB).

For 60 pancakin’ years, we’ve been IHOP. Now, we’re flippin’ our name to IHOb. Find out what it could b on 6.11.18. #IHOb pic.twitter.com/evSxKV3QmT

— IHOP (@IHOP) June 4, 2018

People began tweeting criticisms for the brand while also making fun of the name. Even though the joke aimed to gain attention, it seemed like the reaction was pretty mixed and confused.

Because almost everyone knew IHOP was up to something, the joke fell flat despite its major online chatter. 

3. EA Posts the Most Downvoted Reddit Comment in History

A few years ago, Reddit gamers were discussing a pricing issue on a subreddit related to the EA game they were playing. These gamers felt like they had to spend more money on a game they’d already purchased to get to new levels. At this point, in an effort to do damage control, EA wrote a PR-like response to one of the Redditors explaining and standing by the pricing of the game.

Redditors, who were more interested in solutions rather than excuses quickly downvoted the item. It soon was sent to the bottom of this subreddit becoming the most downvoted comment in Reddit history. 

4. Massachusetts’ Bay Transit Authority Asks Audiences to Post “What They Love About It”

On Valentine’s Day this year, the MBTA launched a contest asking Twitter audiences to tweet a 60-second video about something they loved about MBTA. Those who entered the contest could win a round-trip JetBlue flight for two.

At this point in time, the MBTA has dealt with major criticism related to fair increases and ongoing rail construction. Twitter users that enjoyed complaining about the MBTA swarmed to this tweet about a number of sarcastic replies stating what they “loved” about the system. Here’s one great example:

5. Rhode Island or Iceland?

Good intentions fell flat for the Rhode Island Commerce Corporation in 2016, when it made one grave error in a $5 million promotional video — and used footage not of the great state itself, but instead, of Iceland.

The mistake went viral and gained far more attention than an Iceland-free version of the promotion would have, but it wasn’t exactly the type of publicity we imagine the bureau of tourism was hoping for.

Thanks to the social media skills of Rhode Island Governor Gina Raimondo, you can enjoy your very own private viewing of this social media fail.

Help tell Rhode Island’s story by sharing our new brand video #weareRI https://t.co/alIIcZ2DIghttps://t.co/qh3YtF0q0s

— Gina Raimondo (@GovRaimondo) March 29, 2016

6. Amazon Offers 10-cent Discount on PlayStation

In 2015, Amazon created #PrimeDay as its own corporate version of a Cyber Monday. Unfortunately, at that point, many of the discounts and offerings didn’t quite live up to consumer expectations — and the hashtag went viral for all the wrong reasons.

One kicker came when Amazon offered a whopping $0.10 discount on the Sony PlayStation 4 Console. It didn’t take long for #PrimeDayFail to start trending on Twitter.

Damn been waiting for the PS4 to go down 10 cents

#AmazonPrimeDay pic.twitter.com/eIiThMX9IT

— lupe (@cherryyyybomb) July 15, 2015

7. Apple’s #bendgate

Any time a brand winds up with a trending hashtag that includes the word “gate” in it, you know there’s trouble.

In 2014, Apple released the iPhone 6 with great fanfare, with one of the most aggressively highlighted features being that the phone wouldn’t bend under pressure in, say, your back pocket.

In a video that now has more than 69 million views, Unbox Therapy squashed Apple’s claims by demonstrating how easy it was to bend the iPhone 6. Once the damage was done there was no going back. A war of words promptly took place between avid Apple fans and detractors, garnering even more attention on social media. 

    8. Greggs’ Turns a Fail into a Win

Robots aren’t always smarter. In 2014, a Google bot mistakenly attributed an offensive slogan to U.K.-based bakery, Greggs. Hilarity — to some, at least, ensued when Greggs’ Digital Brand Manager, Neil Knowles, turned a potential brand disaster into a monumental win.

Thanks to the clever back-and-forth between Knowles and the Google team, and the massive publicity garnered by the exchange, Google’s original error wound up being one of the best things to ever happen to Greggs.

Hey @GoogleUK, fix it and they’re yours!!! #FixGreggs pic.twitter.com/d5Ub7qtrLG

— Greggs (@GreggsOfficial) August 19, 2014

9. Coca-Cola vs. Russia and Ukraine

If you’re going to create a huge promotion that displays a giant map of Russia, it’s generally a good idea to make sure that map is accurate. Or, better yet: When in doubt, don’t show a map.

Coca-Cola received massive backlash from Russian citizens when it posted a promotional branded image made to look like a map of Russia — which left out Crimea. In response, many consumers took to Twitter to post images of themselved pouring Coke into their toilets, leaving a trending impression.

Then, in response to the backlash, Coca-Cola published an updated map that included Crimea — which was promptly bombarded by outcries from Ukrainian citizens, due to tensions resulting from Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014.

Lesson learned: Don’t publish original content that’s inaccurate, and has the potential to be highly (and globally) controversial.

Source: The Guardian

10. A Giraffe for Ghana Tweet from Delta

Sometimes, all it takes to avoid a social media fail is a simple Google search.

During the 2014 World Cup game between the USA and Ghana, Delta sent out a congratulatory tweet to the U.S. soccer team. The tweet included an image of the Statue of Liberty with a “2” representing the U.S. score, and a giraffe with a “1” that was meant to represent team Ghana’s score.

There was one tall problem: Ghana doesn’t have giraffes. Of course, Twitter users jumped all over that one. 

PHOTO: Delta Airlines thinks there are giraffes in Ghana. There aren’t. http://t.co/9VsWsCfQSe pic.twitter.com/pGMJ6p0ljA

— theScore (@theScore) June 17, 2014

Just remember: It’s always best to take extra time to conduct some easy research, and avoid social media gaffes — no pun intended — like this one.

Avoiding Social Media Disasters

You might have noticed a pattern in some of the “fail” examples. Twitter is not to be trifled with. Once something goes viral it lives on forever. The best way to avoid a social media brand fail is to establish a meticulous social media management approach. This allows you to control the types of content you post and the messaging your brand communicates with.

Regardless of how small your audience is or how innocent something might seem, there’s always a reason to quality-check before posting.

Editor’s Note: This post was originally published in September 2017 but was updated for comprehensiveness in February 2020.

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Tags: 10, 2020, Avoid, fails, media, Social

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[ramajmedia]

Netflix's Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance Cast & Character Guide

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance sports an absolutely massive cast, employing a diverse group of actors and puppeteers to bring the many creatures of Thra to life. Netflix's Age of Resistance is a prequel to 1982's The Dark Crystal, a dark fantasy film directed by Jim Henson and Frank Oz that still impresses with its incredible puppetry and practical effects.

Set years before the events of the original film, The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance sees three Gelfling uncover a horrible secret about their ruling lords, the Skeksis. The events of the Netflix series directly set up The Dark Crystal, and fans of that film will undoubtedly enjoy recognizing all that ways in which the movie is referenced. However, unlike the original Dark Crystal, Age of Resistance is a much longer and more thorough exploration of Thra, with a cast of over 30 characters brought to life with 20 principle puppets and an additional 90 supporting characters. Simply put, Age of Resistance is a massive production.

Related: Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance World, Creature & Terminology Guide

Building the world of The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance by introducing so many characters at one time requires a truly stellar cast. Thankfully, Age of Resistance is employing some of the best in business. Here's the full cast of actors and puppeteers for Jim Henson's The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance.

The Gelflings

Taron Egerton as Rian (puppeteer: Neil Sterenberg) - Taron Egerton is voicing Rian, a Gelfling of the Stonewood Clan who also serves as a castle guard. Egerton most recently starred as Elton John in Rocketman, and has previously held lead roles in Kingsman and Eddie the Eagle.

Nathalie Emmanuel as Deet (puppeteers: Beccy Henderson, Katherine Smee) - Fresh off her work on HBO's Game of Thrones as Missandei, Nathalie Emmanuel voices Deet, a Gelfling of the Grottan Clan who cares deeply for the animals of Thra. Emmanuel can next be seen in 2020's Fast & Furious 9. In addition to puppeteering, Beccy Henderson has also appeared as Aisling on Derry Girls, while Katherine Smee has also puppeteered for films like Star Wars: The Force Awakens and Muppets Most Wanted.

Anya Taylor-Joy as Brea (puppeteer: Alice Dinnean) - Anya Taylor-Joy is voicing Brea, a Gelfling princess of the Vapra Clan and daughter of the All-Maudra. Joy rose to prominence with roles in The Witch, Split, and Glass and is slated to appear as Illyana Rasputin/Magik in The New Mutants.

Gugu Mbatha-Raw as Seladon (puppeteer: Helena Smee) - Gugu Mbatha-Raw voices Seladon, Brea's older sister and princess of the Vapra Clan. Mbatha-Raw's breakout role came as the lead in Belle. She's also appeared in Beauty and the Beast, Fast Color, and A Wrinkle in Time. Helena Smee is the sister of Katherine Smee and has previously worked for The Jim Henson Company on productions like Muppets Most Wanted and Solo: A Star Wars Story.

Caitriona Balfe as Tavra (puppeteer: Neil Sterenberg) - Caitriona Balfe is voicing Tavra, another of Brea's sisters and a warrior for the Vapra Clan. Most will recognize Balfe from her lead role as Claire on Outlander, but she has also appeared in films like Super 8 and Now You See Me.

Helena Bonham Carter as Maudra Mayrin/The All-Maudra (puppeteer: Louise Gold) - No stranger to dark fantasy, Helena Bonham Carter voices the All-Maudra, leader of the Vapra Clan and the head of all Gelfling clans. Known for playing Bellatrix Lestrange in Harry Potter and collaborations with Tim Burton, Bonham Carter most recently appeared in Ocean's 8 and she'll play Princess Margaret in the upcoming season of Netflix's The Crown.

Lena Headey as Maudra Fara/The Rock Singer (puppeteers: Alice Dinnean, Louise Gold) - Another Game of Thrones alum, Lena Heady (Cersei Lannister) trades one crown for another by voicing Maudra Fara, the leader of the Stonewood Clan. Headey will next appear in the action flick, Gunpowder Milkshake.

Harris Dickinson as Gurjin (puppeteer: Dave Chapman) - Harris Dickinson is voicing Gurjin, Rian's best friend and a Gelfling of the Drenchen Clan. He also serves as a castle guard. Dickinson is a relatively new talent, appearing next as Prince Phillip in Maleficent: Mistress of Evil and as the lead in The King's Man. Dave Chapman, however, should be familiar to Star Wars fans as one of the two puppeteers responsible for bringing BB-8 to life.

Shazad Latif as Kylan (puppeteer: Victor Yerrid) - Shazad Latif voices Kylan, a Gelfling of the Spriton Clan and friend to Rian and Gurjin. Latif is best known for his role as Lieutenant Ash Tyler/Voq on Star Trek: Discovery.

Hannah John-Kamen as Naia (puppeteer: Beccy Henderson) - Hannah John-Kamen voices Naia, a Gelfling of the Drenchen Clan and Gurjin's twin sister. John-Kamen recently had roles in Ready Player One and Ant-Man and The Wasp, in which she played Ava Starr/Ghost.

Eddie Izzard as Cadia (puppeteer: Olly Taylor) - Eddie Izzard is voicing Cadia, a Gelfling soothsayer from the Sifa Clan. Izzard is a comedian and actor, starring in FX's The Riches and most recently appearing in Victoria & Abdul. Olly Taylor has puppeteered for Muppets Most Wanted and Star Wars: The Force Awakens, among other films.

Alicia Vikander as Mira (puppeteer: Helena Smee) - Alicia Vikander voices Mira, a Vapra Gelfling who is Rian's girlfiend as well as a castle guard. Vikander has starred in films like Ex Machina, The Man From U.N.C.L.E., and most recently in Tomb Raider as Lara Croft.

Toby Jones as The Librarian (puppeteer: Kevin Clash) - Toby Jones lends his voice to the Vapra Clan's librarian. Jones had his breakthrough role playing Truman Capote in Infamous, and most recently appeared in Out of the Blue. Jones also portrays Armin Zola in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Kevin Clash is a veteran puppeteer best known for portraying Elmo on Sesame Street until 2012. He was also the subject of the documentary, Being Elmo: A Puppeteer's Journey.

Natalie Dormer as Onica (puppeteer: Louise Gold) - Yet another Game of Thrones cast member involved is Natalie Dormer (Margaery Tyrell), who voices Onica, Tavra's girlfriend and a Gelfling of the Sifa Clan. Dormer is next appearing in the spinoff series Penny Dreadful: City of Angels.

Mark Strong as Ordon (puppeteer: Dave Chapman) - Continuing the connection with the Kingsman franchise, Mark Strong voices Ordon, Rian's father and a warrior from the Stonewood Clan. Strong played Merlin in both Kingsman: The Secret Service and Kingsman: The Golden Circle. He also played Dr. Thadeus Sivana in Shazam!

Theo James as Rek'yr (puppeteer: Olly Taylor) - Theo James is voicing Rek'yr, a Gelfling of the Dousan Clan. James is best known for his role as "Four" Tobias Eaton in the Divergent series.

Louise Gold as Maudra Argot/The Shadow Bender (puppeteer: Louise Gold) - Louise Gold is another veteran of The Jim Henson Company and the only puppeteer reprising their role (as skekAyuk The Gourmand) from the original Dark Crystal film. In Age of Resistance, she is also voicing and puppeteering Maudra Argot, the leader of Grottan Clan in addition to puppeteering the All-Maudra, Onica, and The Gourmand.

Kemi-Bo Jacobs as Maudra Seethi/The Skin Painter - Kemi-Bo Jacobs is voicing Maudra Seethi, leader of the Dousan Clan. Jacobs has appeared in London Has Fallen, McMafia, and Doctor Who.

The Skeksis

Jason Isaacs as skekSo/The Emperor (puppeteer: Dave Chapman) - Hollywood's go-to actor for baddies, Jason Isaacs' latest villainous role is that of the Skeksis emperor, skekSo, the ruler of Thra. Isaacs portrayed Lucius Malfoy in the Harry Potter series and most recently Captain Gabriel Lorca on Star Trek: Discovery.

Simon Pegg as skekSil/The Chamberlain (puppeteer: Katherine Smee, Warrick Brownlow-Pike) - Simon Pegg has perhaps the most difficult task in voicing skekSil, The Chamberlain, seeing as Barry Dennen's portrayal in The Dark Crystal is downright iconic, but Pegg proves well-suited. Most viewers will be familiar with Pegg from his and Edgar Wright's Three Flavours Cornetto Trilogy as well as his work in the Mission Impossible and Star Trek films. Warrick Brownlow-Pike regularly works on such Jim Henson Company productions as Sesame Street.

Awkwafina as skekLach/The Collector (puppeteer: Helena Smee) - Actress and rapper, Awkwafina voices skekLach, The Collector, a Skeksis who as their name suggests loves to collect things, particularly other creatures. Awkwafina gained prominence with parts in Ocean's 8 and Crazy Rich Asians.

Benedict Wong as skekUng/The General (puppeteers: Katherine Smee, Kevin Clash) - Benedict Wong is another MCU alum in the mix, here voicing skekUng, The General and commander of the Skeksis' army. Wong played Master of the Mystic Arts Wong in Doctor Strange and reprised the role for both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame.

Harvey Fierstein as skekAyuk/The Gourmand (puppeteer: Louise Gold) - Harvey Fierstein voices skekAyuk, The Gourmand, the Skeksis who prepares their many feasts. Fierstein is a prolific actor of the stage and is probably best known to moviegoers for his roles in Mrs. Doubtfire and Independence Day.

Andy Samberg as The Heretic (puppeteer: Damian Farrell) - Andy Samberg is voicing a Skeksis known simply as The Heretic, having been exiled by his fellow Skeksis. Samberg is a member of The Lonely Island and currently stars in the NBC (originally FOX) sitcom, Brooklyn Nine-Nine. Damian Farrell frequently works as a creature and droid puppeteer in the Star Wars films.

Ralph Ineson as skekMal/The Hunter (puppeteer: Kevin Clash) - The final Game of Thrones actor involved in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance is Ralph Ineson (Dagmar Cleftjaw) and he is voicing skekMal, The Hunter, the most viscious of all the Skeksis. Ineson has also appeared in the Harry Potter series and Star Wars: The Last Jedi.

Alice Dinnean as skekEkt/The Ornamentalist (puppeteer: Alice Dinnean) - Alice Dinnean is a veteran puppeteer for The Jim Henson Company and here she is both puppeteering and voicing skekEkt, The Ornamentalist, the Skeksis who designs their flamboyant outfits. Dinnean has also puppeteered roles for The Muppets, Sesame Street, and even that one Community episode where the characters become puppets.

Keegan-Michael Key as skekZok/The Ritual-Master (puppeteer: Victor Yerrid) - Keegan-Michael Key voices skekZok, The Ritual-Master, who is responsible for rituals like the Ceremony of the Sun. Key is best known for being one half of Key & Peele with Jordan Peele, also starring with Peele in Keanu, and most recently voicing characters in Toy Story 4 and The Lion King (2019).

Mark Hamill as skekTek/The Scientist (puppeteer: Olly Taylor) - No stranger at all to voice work, Mark Hamill is voicing skekTek, The Scientist, the Skeksis who begins experimenting on the Dark Crystal. Hamill is, obviously, best known for portraying Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars films and voicing The Joker in several DC Comics animated projects.

Neil Sterenberg as skekOk/The Scroll-Keeper (puppeteer: Neil Sterenberg) - Neil Sterenberg is another veteran puppeteer who here is both puppeteering and voicing, skekOk, The Scroll-Keeper, who serves as the castle's historian. Sterenberg is also puppeteering the Gelfling Rian and Tavra.

Aughra, The Mystics & More

Donna Kimball as Aughra (puppeteers: Katherine Smee, Kevin Clash) - Donna Kimball is voicing Aughra, a character who is the embodiment of the planet Thra. Kimball is also a puppeteer for The Jim Henson Company, previously working on such projects as The Happytime Murders.

Ólafur Darri Ólafsson as urVa/The Archer (puppeteer: Olly Taylor) - Ólafur Darri Ólafsson voices one of only two urRu to appear in The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance, urVa, The Archer, who as their name suggests is a skilled archer among the Mystics. Ólafsson has appeared in the surreal Netflix comedy, Lady Dynamite, and is currently in AMC's NOS4A2.

Bill Hader as urGoh/The Wanderer (puppeteer: Olly Taylor) - Bill Hader is voicing the other urRu, The Wanderer, a Mystic who, well, wanders. Hader is an actor and comedian currently starring in HBO's Barry as well as the impending horror film, It Chapter Two.

Victor Yerrid as Hup (puppeteer: Victor Yerrid, Katherine Smee) - Victor Yerrid provides the voice of Hup, a Podling who befriends Deet on her journey, in addition to puppeteering the character with Katherine Smee. Yerrid is also puppeteering for Kylan and skekZok. He's previously worked on such shows as Greg the Bunny, Crank Yankers, and more.

Sigourney Weaver as The Myth Speaker - As one of only two characters that isn't a puppet, Sigourney Weaver lends her voice to the narrator for the series, here called The Myth Speaker. She begins The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance by retelling a brief history of Thra. Weaver is an accomplished actress best know for Alien and will next appear in the still untitled Avatar 2 and Avatar 3.

Dave Goelz as Baffi - Dave Goelz is responsible for the vocal work (and presumably the puppeteering though that's unconfirmed) of Baffi, Maudra Fara's eyepatch-wearing Fizzgig. Goelz is veteran puppeteer for The Jim Henson Company, originating the role of Gonzo.

Theo Ogundipe as Vliste-Staba/The Sanctuary Tree - Another non-puppet character, Theo Ogundipe voices The Sanctuary Tree, Vliste-Staba, a wise tree that grows on the mountains above Grot. Ogundipe is largely a stage actor, appearing with the Royal Shakespeare Company, but he has also worked on Eastenders and Doctors.

Next: Netflix: The Best TV Shows & Movies This Weekend

The Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance season 1 is now available on Netflix.

source https://screenrant.com/dark-crystal-age-resistance-cast-character-guide/

[mynameismichaelkern]

Mouth Moods and the Mouth Trilogy: The Dangers of Nostalgia

An auditory disaster of a mash-up album is a good vehicle for dissecting nostalgia. The Mouth Trilogy is the trio of mash-up albums by Neil Cicierega. They are notable for inducing dissociative episodes and confusion. For some it elicits pure revulsion, and for others, they’re just some dumb fun. The evolution of the trilogy is what is probably the most interesting part of the series. On its face they are simply mash up albums, but they are more than that. They are directly critiques of nostalgia and it’s values.

Mouth Sounds was a much more violent experience. It had teeth to it - it was destroying the idea that nostalgia is a comfortable thing. It used nostalgia to launch an auditory assault upon the listener. It continues to incur Smash Mouth’s “All-Star,” a song from the Mystery Men, The Digimon Movie, Rat Race, and most notably, Shrek soundtracks. It is easily recognizable and immediately incurs nostalgia of one’s youth, if one was born in the 90s. Because of the boom of the internet just as someone from that generation would begin to feel nostalgia for their youth, it’s spread is easy to see. It’s a silly, upbeat song that has lyrics that are easy to remember. It’s the perfect target to pin to the wall if one wants to skew  nostalgia. This constant reiteration of this target continues to slam home the message: “Fuck your nostalgia.”  It’s mocking those that think their past is worth celebrating.

It’s never more clear than when Imagine by John Lennon is mixed with a horrifically slowed down version of the lyrics of All-Star. The former is a song about a dream for a better world, while the latter is a song about going with the flow and being the best you can be despite a world that fights against oneself. It is synthesis of two of the most recognizable songs of their respective eras. They are both mockeries of each other and by doing so, Cicierega accomplishes the feat of skewing not just a reverence of 90s nostalgia but nostalgia in general. It mocks John Lennon’s dream of a better world in the future, by saying “This is the future we inhabit,” by slowing down All-Star’s lyrics to such an absurd degree it can only be seen as farce.

Mouth Silence, the follow-up to Mouth Sounds, deemed a prequel, is a clearer album. Mouth Sounds is furious but Mouth Silence decides to subdue it’s rage for the sake of clarity.  It relies on songs that are much slower than it’s predecessor. In the grand scheme of things it was partly a thank you for listening to Mouth Sounds, while also asking for the audience to take a clearer look at the unsaid thesis statement of these albums. Each of these album’s first minutes is full of distorted sounds as it struggles to find it’s themes and ideas. It’s as if the sounds themselves are adjusting to their shell and morphing. Mouth Silence has an almost choral sound about it. It’s a promise things are going to be a bit more clear. This can be seen in it’s splicing of using news clips. It’s firing spears not just at the music but the culture that reacted towards the mainstream. It shows the silliness of the media as it overreacts to the Pokemon trend.

While putting larger culture in its crosshairs, the album does not ignore the disgust at nostalgia and that is never more clear than in Crocodile Chop, the mash up of Crocodile Rock by Elton John and Chop Suey by System of a Down. Chop Suey is about how death is treated differently depending upon one’s cause of death, while Crocodile Rock is a song about appreciating nostalgia itself. One is obsessed with the future, the other the past. Crocodile Rock is a much more carefree song and together, they seem to simply mock the ideas of death. On a deeper level though, it can be seen as those that are obsessed with the past see the future as a joke.

The most interesting part of Mouth Silence is its relating of Death and Nostalgia. It’s My Life by Bon Jovi and Born to Run by Bruce Springsteen are lyrically featured, acknowledging death and its inevitability. These memories of the past are vital to thoughts of death - one cannot exist without the other.  These songs are not mocked in their mash ups. These three songs are actually unique in that each of them are mashed up with songs that lack lyrics. Born to Run is mixed with Alley Cat by Bent Fabric. It’s My Life is mixed with The Liberty Bell, a traditional military march that is most associated with being the theme song of Monty Python’s Flying Circus. With only the lyrics on display it emphasizes the lyrics that settle on death. In Born to Run, there is the idea that death is inevitable so it’s best to keep going and not settle on the past. In It’s My Life, the theme is that again, Death is Inevitable so live your life how you want.

There is one song on this album that cements the idea that nostalgia is a convenient distraction from death. It’s a track titled Space Monkey Mafia. It mixes the lyrics of It’s The End of the World As We Know It by REM and We Didn’t Start The Fire by Billy Joel. In the background is a polka/electronic track. (As far as I have been able to find, it’s an original track.) The inclusion of an original track on a mash up album is notable in itself - most mash ups rely upon the familiarity of pre-existing tracks to make an impact. The lyrics of the two songs clash and compete for prominence. Their ideals, one in which it's the end of the world and death is around the corner for all, and the other which is a collection of allusions to the past. In combination, “the fire” of We Didn’t Start The Fire can be seen as the cause of “the end of the world.” All of the past is what’s responsible for the end. Nostalgia - yearning for a past - is what’s going to lead to the end of the world in this album’s eyes.

Mouth Moods is notable because it is actually fun. Mouth Moods is the eyeroll, accompanied by a smirk, before finally succumbing to relative’s proddings and dancing at the family reunion, of the Mouth Trilogy. In its first minutes, it combines the notable lead ins for multiple catchy songs, Smash Mouth’s All-Star included. What it loses in pointed criticism towards nostalgia, it gains in playing with the format itself. Early on in the album, the piano intro for Vanessa Carlton’s A Thousand Miles opens up the possibility for literally any mash up. It breeds anticipation in the listener until the satisfaction of the screaming lyrics of AC/DC’s Back in Black. The subdued piano of A Thousand Miles actually acts to highlight the strangeness of Brian Johnson’s voice that seems so natural in any amount of AC/DC songs.

Nowhere is that fun more apparent in the track titled “Bustin’.” Simply re-doing the lyrics of the song to the theme song of the theme song of Ghostbusters. The song is introduced with a clip from an interview Bobby Brown did with Larry King, talking about having sex with a ghost while filming Ghostbusters II. The song then launches into the familiar tune of the Ghostbusters theme before manipulating Ray Parker Jr.’s lyrics to insinuate he exceedingly enjoys “bustin’,” specifically with ghosts. It’s a silly song made more for a joke than to actually point any sort of criticism. It’s a corruption of a familiar song to provide a joke.

This album is actually much more confident using the straight audio of commercials and reports. It is confident that the absurdity of the past can stand for itself and does not need to be enhanced as much. Instead of criticising nostalgia, it instead is criticising the sacred temples of culture. Ghostbusters is considered an institution but it reduces to sex with ghosts. Immediately following it is the lyrics of TLC’s No Scrubs with the dirge-like backing of Stairway to Heaven by Led Zeppelin.

In one of the stranger turns on the album is Hans Zimmer’s Time scoring the lyrics to The Village People’s Y.M.C.A. It’s an inversion of the mocking of something sacred. It’s amplifying something that is an advertisement for the YMCA or as an appreciation for a gay hook up spot - whichever interpretation of Y.M.C.A  you enjoy more. This amplification acts as an act of tearing down what would be considered awe-inspiring. In this sense, institutions and what they stand for are what is put to task. There is a further inversion going on in this track :institutions, in this case, is the score of Hans Zimmer, not the YMCA which is an actual, physical, institution. Hans Zimmer’s music stands for a sort of elevated status. His music makes moments bold. Y.M.C.A. is a song you do at the family reunion because your grandmother with a weak hip can do it.

It is in this album that Neil Cicierega has mastered his craft and knows what is expected of his mash ups. All-Star, a staple of the series is withheld for the penultimate song - a mix of Under Pressure by Queen. The lyrics of All-Star are teased earlier in the album. The audience is expectant of the All-Star mash up. Using Under Pressure is acknowledging that nostalgia does have it’s use - the song is fundamentally about the pressure of society and how it can get to people, hoping tomorrow can be better, and how there isn’t enough caring and compassion in the world. The use of All-Star here is the declaration of nostalgia being the way people ignore the issues and problems of today - a warm blanket of the past - a past which has been criticized over the trilogy of being worth mockery.

The fact that there’s another track after the All-Star/Under Pressure stands as it’s own statement that nostalgia will stand regardless of criticism. It’s the album’s acknowledging remixes and mash-ups will continue on, despite the insults levied at it and at its core, it is the shrug and laugh at the end of it all.

The Mouth Trilogy stands as a counterpoint of the Mash-up genre, while being securely within that same genre. It is skillfully done from beginning to end and maintains a cohesive theme while taking different angles of attack to get to the core of what they are supposed to represent. The Mouth Trilogy has meaning in its attack - it is not merely a wild swipe into the dark. It is precise and calculated in its mash-ups. Its message is valuable, as long as you can stand those first few minutes.

[travelxbritt-blog]

7 WAYS THE BELLEVILLE THREE CHANGED THE MUSIC SCENE FOR E-V-E-R

THE MUSIC SCENE FOR E-V-E-R

Have you ever heard of Detroit ? The motor city? You’ve probably heard about the city’s tough economic circumstances with the American automobile industry. Now have you heard of The Belleville three? Regardless of the fact that Detroit has so much complicated history, it is a very special and noble place in the music world.

3 men from Detroit by the names of Juan Atkins, Kevin Saunderson, and Derrick May form the Belleville three. Not only was it groundbreaking what the Belleville three did and continues to do, it was also monumental in the music scene.

From the mid to late 80’s, Kevin Saunderson, Juan Atkins, and Derrick May changed the game of techno music forever. From the US to European dance floors, the Belleville three opened doors for the next generations to come in the music world. They put techno on the map, giving it a voice, and a very important introduction to the world.

So where does the name Belleville three even come from? All three of them grew up and went to highschool together in Belleville, Michigan. That name to identify them has stuck around to this day.

THE BIRTHPLACE OF TECHNO

Being that i’ve personally gone to Detroit twice, I’m a bit familiar with the birthplace and history of techno. However, there is always room to learn. Prior to going to La Riviera in Madrid last Friday to see them perform, I watched this documentary named “Hi Tech Soul.” Instantly I thought I have to put this on people’s radar as this is a great documentary to really learn how all of this magic started. You can even tell it’s such a raw documentary from 2006 by the quality. It’s main thing is about the message, not the imagery. I love and always appreciate rawness and authenticity!

Undoubtedly, there are infinite reasons we can say these 3 legends changed the music scene forever, but here are 7 things we absolutely have to shine light and give them huge credit to.

1. CREATING A NAME AND IDENTIFYING THE GENRE

Juan Atkins gave the name of the music genre Techno. Why this is SUCH a key factor is because before he named it techno, nobody was identifying this music as “techno.” Techno music goes way back but it’s musical identity started with Mr. Atkins. Originally Juan wanted to name his first compilation of their early music “the house sound of detroit.” Yet the first track Juan submitted within his music network was named “Techno Music.” After getting feedback from Virgin UK hearing the compilation, they changed the compilation’s name to “Techno! The New Dance Sound of Detroit.” Europe took a major role in this album’s success as the track “Big Fun” by Inner City (Kevin Saunderson and Shanna Jackson) went number one in the UK.

The Belleville three states to have inspirations from Kraftwerk, Soul Sonic force, and Giorgio Moroder to name a few. Though techno is still an incredibly young music genre, we can thank The Belleville three and everyone who came after for giving this music genre SO much light and giving it the exposure it needed from the mid to late 80’s. Furthermore, they gave it a name and a genre to become something unique.

BIG FUN youtube link -  https://youtu.be/Gr-zG-IXDyo

2. THE BELLEVILLE THREE MADE A NEGATIVE SITUATION INTO A POSITIVE ONE -

Detroit has been a tough and unstable city since back in the day. Though Detroit still struggles today, the Belleville three was able to make music and bring positive attention to Detroit. This is remarkable because who in the 80’s would really think to create something so unique during such a complicated economic crisis? Those old abandoned warehouses came to use when they were looking for venues. It brings so much history into the picture when your throwing parties at an old, abandoned, factory. It combines techno, a brand new sound, with the raw industrial history of Detroit and America.

The complications of this era really shines light on how creative and innovative The Belleville three and other Detroit artists were at the time. They came together and created something sustainable for themselves. Instead of just hoping Detroit’s abandoned buildings would occupy, they formed musical experiences and parties in these abandoned warehouses for people to come together to bond over this music.

If you ever get to visit Detroit, you will definitely experience this grungy, rawness, that there is to the city. When I went for Movement all the venues for the fiestas almost look haunted. It looks so old and historical, like the venue itself has so much to say. Throw some good music in there and it’s one hell of an experience back in time. When my friends and I went to check out Moody Man, it was almost in a secret place. It was in the basement warehouse of a jazz club and a restaurant. Something you would never guess nor combine if you were to look at the place. If you really pay attention, Detroit overall is a very unique and quirky city that looks like it’s almost completely abandoned outside of the city center.

3. THERE WAS A GOAL TO MAKE TECHNO MAINSTREAM

This was not only for economic or personal reasons. The Belleville three mixed and experimented with multiple different types of sounds and mixed it into a unique one to put it on the map. This wasn’t for them to only gain an income, this was because they really genuinely wanted the music to get exposed. It was their goal for people to experience new music. They wanted people to listen and for it to become something else other than underground and grungy. Derrick specifically really wanted it to be extremely accessible to his audience.

The Belleville three has done a great job at bringing techno music into society. The music is taking itself to its next level with the second wave of Detroit and all the artists that came after and are still up and coming. Being so passionate and supportive to each other about growing is inevitably a contributor to their success. This was a big moment for the Techno movement as they were able to strategize and network with the right people eventually.

Neil Rushton reached out to Derrick May and it was all uphill from there. Once Derrick met Neil Rushton (former British dj and reporter), a lot of doors opened for the Belleville Three and their social circle. They were individual but worked as a team so all of them privileged from meeting Neil. Once they started working with him he created a business direction. It also led to major gateway for their music to get exposed in a brand new scene, Europe. It was a home run for everyone considering, The Belleville Three had top talent and knew of other artists that were just starting out, and Neil knew where to take the music.

TAKING MUSIC AROUND THE GLOBE

They were able to take music across the world. Things blew up and blossomed quickly. One thing that is SO interesting that the documentary “Hi Tech Soul” talks about is that the music scene is so big and different in Europe compared to the US. Taking things to Europe is what actually caused a lot of success for their music. The Belleville three and other djs are considered celebrities in Europe where in the US it is possible not everyone would even recognize them. In the US, techno is so off the grid and underground that you merely cannot compare it to the music scene in Europe.

Why is techno so big in Europe and not as much in the US? I’m not sure, in my opinion I contribute this to culture just because Europe’s dance scene has been so big and established for years. Anyways, combining British and American forces, Neil and the Belleville three were able to take music across the world and make techno more mainstream.

4. BROUGHT NEW LIFE TO THE CITY

With the efforts of many people such as George Baker, Alton Miller, Frank moore, and the Belleville three DJing, they were able to create a musical experience as a party they named “The Music Institute.” They sold memberships to a lot of teenagers and other young people, and would rent out abandoned warehouses in the innercity of Detroit for these parties from 12am -6am. They contribute “The Music Institute” to bringing techno to the next level. They were extremely innovative musically, they were techno innovators.

The music was new to everyone. At a time where most clubs in Detroit were playing punk, top 40, or alternative, it rocked the nightlife seen. People loved it and it was a major success. This was home to one of the only places at the time that you could hear that kind of music, techno. It became such a success that people talked about it like wildfire even with limited promotion. Yep, that means nobody was putting money behind promoting and marketing, yet this movement was so strong that it attracted the right people and created a powerful experience for so many.  Derrick May has actually mentioned that there has never been a place he has performed like the Music Institute. This was a very simple venue that actually didn’t even sell liquor nor allowed smoking to keep police at bay. Meaning, it was always about the music.

IT WAS PURELY ABOUT THE MUSIC

These weren’t raves with fur and glow sticks with attendees who had no idea what music was playing. It was a very simple dark venue with good music and a strobe light. Simple, yet effective. There were hardcore fans. Once this ended, it was really depressing for some. People like Richie Hawtin used to go to the Music Institute. This place is super historical and monumental. I mean just think of these musicians and djs who came up listening to this music.

Where would they have gone if things like the music institute didn’t even exist back then? One other thing I find so interesting is that Richie Hawtin states in “Hi Tech Soul” that the Music Institute reminded him of Berlin and the dark European dance floors. I can definitely see the comparison as both Berlin and Detroit are super grungy cities with such a tough historical background. If you want to learn even more about the music institute, you can go here.

5. SUPPORTED EACH OTHER AND BROUGHT NEW LIFE TO THE NEXT GENERATION

Stacy pullen, Jeff Mills, Carl Craig. These people are actually each others competitors but its remarkable how they talk about the team work and the efforts to help each other in this documentary. Can you imagine what would’ve happened if anyone got greedy with success? A clear reminder how powerful things can become if we support one another.

Imagine if Juan Atkins tried doing all of this alone? That would’ve been tough! Juan Gave Derrick May the confidence to make music, he was like a mentor for everyone. Juan also got into the music scene as early as his Highschool years. His dad’s background also came from music as he was a concert promoter. He took music courses at Belleville highschool and eventually met Rick Davis at Washtenaw Community College where they created the music group Cybertron.

Some other big support systems were “ The Electrifying Mojo” who was a mysterious DJ and radio personality who wasn’t traditional. He would play all the hottest tracks on the radio. Including the Belleville Three’s and other talented artists. If it was hot it was on his station, if it was not, he wasn’t playing it, no matter the $. Which again goes back to the fact that this movement was solely for people to find out about good music. Mojo is another important aspect to this Detroit movement as he was able to really show people a lot of up and coming artist’s music.

He went against modern society and played something different even though he was targeting African Americans. He wanted people to listen to something new. Some people even contribute Mojo to a lot of how Jeff mills (used to be known as) the wizard was discovered, Mills used to play as a guest on WJLB radio.

6. KEVIN BEING MORE EXPERIMENTAL AND EXPLORING WITHIN CERTAIN GENRES HELPED HIM REACH MORE COMMERCIAL SUCCESS

All 3 of them are very successful yet Kevin definitely differentiates himself because he has the most commercial success out of them. The documentary credits it to him being experimental and that incorporating a lot of unique sounds helped him attract a much larger crowd. Derrick and Kevin got into music together. Funny story they actually had a fight before they even became the best of friends. Word on the street in the film is that Kevin knocked Derrick out. (How ironic right? Too funny!).

So what made Kevin so different? You can say the house music, the more dance music vibes, the vocals, and overall just being more experimental. It also seems like he had a bigger vision for commercial success and for a different sound. All members of The Belleville Three had a role. Kevin as the elevator, his job was to make sure everyone’s music in his circle got to the masses in other words.

With a lot of eyes on Kevin, this task was simple for him. He sold a whopping 6 million records of Inner City. In the film he states some of his influences were dance, disco, and music having a consistent pulse. His group, Inner city is also coming up with a lot of new fun things being that his son is now involved in and they are making more music. If you are interested in checking out their website, click here.  Just a heads up, there’s music automatically coming from the website so don’t get startled if you hear tunes randomly coming from your computer.

7. ALL MEMBERS OF THE BELLEVILLE THREE HAD THEIR OWN SEPARATE ROLES IN THE MUSIC’S SUCCESS.

They call Juan the originator, Kevin the elevator, and Derrick the innovator. So who was responsible for what? Juan who’s the originator – changed lives. He put all of the complicated ideas together and kept everyone on track. Him making music influenced Stacy pullen and so many others to make music. It is like a revolving circle of how all of these amazing musicians inspire one another. Juan also was the first one who wanted to really put techno music on a level for people to know what it was, somewhere it existed.

Derrick who was the innovator, knew Juan since 9th grade. They were both into the music and would have late night dance a thons. (How freaking cute!) Derrick was also the member who brought the artistic aspect to it. He wanted to make it commercial and went about that in unconventional ways with his attitude and persona which really worked.

The film also talks about Eddie Fowlkes having a big part of Techno but he for some reason seems to always get miscredited. Not sure, seems like that is up for debate for the crew’s personal reasons.

Kevin – the elevator. His role was to make sure the music got in front of people. As someone who had a bit more commercial success, he was on the radar and was able to connect these musicians to where they needed to go.

SECOND WAVE OF ARTISTS

As the first wave of Detroit Techno grew, I have to talk a little about the second wave of Detroit artists. To name a few these are Carl Craig, Jeff Mills, Underground Resistance, Richie Hawtin, Stacy Pullen, Mad Mike Banks.

There are an infinite number of artists in the second wave, i’d be here all day to write them all. Anyways, my point in naming some of these artists is that the second wave was also very important as they started to break techno up into sub genres. These artists experimented and made their own sound. Jeff mills for example, woke people up to a harder scene. Actually in the film he mentions that when he finished “Your time is up” with Mike Banks under underground resistance he went back home and his mom said it was good but it needed more bass. That’s just charming. Way to go mom! Mom’s always right. Anyways, he went back and remixed it and made a killer track!

THE TIME IS UP youtube link -  https://youtu.be/L-W6HfKZCRU

It’s remarkable to see and learn more about such talented individuals that had one goal in mind, bring people together over music and to make and expose new music. At the end of the day, It’s incredibly powerful how music connects us all. #fortheloveofmusic.

Here’s the link for Hi Tech Soul! https://youtu.be/1E7ROANO630

See you on the dance floor - XO,

Britt 

[neilfogarty]

New Post has been published on Neil Fogarty

New Post has been published on https://www.neilfogarty.com/leader-language-llqi/

Leader Language: LLQi

Leader Language: LLQi

When I look back over three decades in business, I see how central our communications skills are to success. Leader Language : LLQi is about communications.

When I became a certified performance coach, I appreciated some of the psychology of internal and external dialogue. It probably wasn’t until 2009 when I developed my understanding of Emotional Intelligence that I really started to ‘get it’.

So where are we now? Well, I am now a Master Practitioner in Emotional Intelligence, a published writer, blogger, speaker, advisor, consultant. Call me what you like as long as I help fix your problems.

Every conversation, meeting and activity is a learning opportunity. My international work has helped me to pull a lot of understanding (and misunderstanding) into what is LLQi.

LLQi blends psychology, communications, behaviours into a way that is practically applied.

Leader Language : LLQi, Neil Fogarty

Foundations of Leader Language

The best way to start writing a book is to start writing

There’s quite a leap from talking about wanting to write a book and actually doing it.

Taking the leap

At the start, my biggest problem is that my own knowledge of a topic is light compared to subject experts. But I do come with advantages: a) it’s a learning journey b) I am able to connect different dots to build a story c) I am agnostic about specific topics whereas a subject expert many be focused on one area.

However you look at it, writing is research-intensive to begin with.

My starting point for the book was to ask 3 questions:

What is a leader

What is language

How does it fit together

Out of this span a LOT of thoughts ranging from how to identify a leader and the components of internal and external language. Importantly, how do we embrace new thinking and apply it in a way that isn’t ‘forced’?

I started the process by reviewing my understanding of leadership traits and elements of powerful communication. I then checked with some very helpful psychologists. This was a mix of sanity-check where my general beliefs were challenged, followed by taking some new directions.

On from there, it was a case of reviewing a lot of work in the application of communications. This included leadership, collaboration, conflict, etc. and how culture informs and is informed by communication.

Going ‘public’

I tend to talk-to-think which can be frustrating for people who think that the first thing I say is my final thought on a matter. As I read numerous books on therapy and counselling, I would walk with my smartphone on standby.

Getting words down on paper

As I walked, I talked. I would speak into the phone, recalling key elements of books I’d read; connecting new dots; asking myself questions.

Writer’s Block may or not be a real thing – life can be the bigger block as there’s so much to do… and then how we react to that is where the block kicks in

Over a few months, I had recorded hours of these and, from this, started to pick the bones out for the book.

Prepare to be criticised

With about 25,000 words done, I started to pass out the first half of the book to people who I knew were downbeat. I love upbeat people and am naturally drawn to them – my wife is super-upbeat, for example. But, if a book is to sell, I didn’t want people who wouldn’t sternly critique the text.

The feedback was that, whilst the content was good inasmuch as it was informative, it was a little dry. It needed more stories, metaphors, etc. and so opened it up to interviews with senior people in business.

Rip it up & start again

So the original 25,000 LLQi words have been shredded and rebuilt whilst modifying how the second half was being laid down.

Nine months on from the first words being written on page one, the book is evolving and revolving – and gets closer to the publisher being happy with the content.

As to the first words:

Before we get into it, let’s cut to the chase.  This is a book about language and communication and how our current habits can inform how an organisation operates.  This isn’t a book about ‘leaders’ but is a book about how anyone with leadership traits would gain greater influence through verbal, non-verbal and behavioural connection.

Leader Language : LLQi – Neil Fogarty

The book has certain models involved that reflect input from psychology without explicitly turning into a psychology book. First, this is because I’m not a psychologist and we all hate frauds. Second is that, in my experience in the Association for Business Psychology, psychologists all have their personal favourites and many discussions slip into disagreements or a desire for proving the greater academic credentials.

As the book is heavily pushed towards practicality and applicability, I have tried to reduce the points of distraction.

Writer’s Block

I do tend to think that Writer’s Block is a real thing. I know that people say that if you are a professional writer, there is no block. Well I write blogs and articles all the time as they pay the immediate bills – and this blocks time off to work on the book.

Whilst it’s important to get something down on the page… it feels like it’s always short of perfection

I write in big bursts – I get tangled up with the text, working it into something legible. My obsession is to be the l’enfant terrible producing something that may not be palatable but can be ingested.

Inelegant but with a flow

I don’t consider myself to be an elegant writer yet but I know that I can create ‘flow’. Whether I am designing a workshop for a client, plotting out a a speech, or blogging… I focus on the flow. I like how people feel that I am just having a chat that happens to have a point.

Yeah, that would be a fair description of my style: a chat that happens to have a point.

So I am tidying the first 25,000 and laying down the other 25,000 – not too far off target in terms of putting a product in front of the publisher. It won’t be the finished article as none of my work ever is. Most of my work never can be as the topics of psychology, business, leadership are all evolving. What may sound great today can sound passé extremely quickly.

And here I sit, at the table with the Mac staring at me, challenging me to say something. Killing Joke sings on Spotify and the damnable hound lies on my chair, coating my stuff in beagle hair.

Killing Joke is leading the way

Dogs recognise leaders, regardless of age or title: they just know. They may not understand what’s being said, but they understand tone, pitch and volume. The damnable hound knows good behaviours from bad.

Maybe the hound should be at the keyboard at times.

Anyway, to continue the process of talk to think, I have been recording a series of 2-minute vignettes to try to cover the elements of leader language.

As well as keeping an eye on the videos as they are released on Vimeo and YouTube, be sure to follow LLQi on Twitter.

[nedostajeminasaljubavmila]

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Analysis Draft - First Draft

- reflect on skill are

- aspirations

- what youve done for module

- ethics - speak about them??? maybe (after easter??? maybe second draft) style? racism? LGBTA+ issues? Don’t be offensive. Working hours (can apply to self now - don’t burn yourself out stooopid), how set up work space - dont mix with play. Being mindful of social presence and intellectual stuff.

weave it in, but in a cool way

----------------------------------

In this reflective analysis I will be analyzing the skills I have developed over the length of this course and how they can be applied in the industry I aspire to enter. 

For aspirations, I am incredibly interested in the pre-production stages of animation in movies, games, and the creative process behind designs in general. While I’d largely like to explore that wide berth instead of focusing solely on one aspect of the pre-production stage, I’d like to have a stronger suite in the pre-production industry that I’d favour more than the others, and am particularly looking at character design and concept art for this, due to a passionate interest I have for these; which is often found in my collection of concept books from any piece of media I find interesting, be it narrative wise or visually. I’m also particularly interested in the designs behind mounts used in games, partially due to having a background in handling horses and horse riding. Apart from character design and concept, I am also interested in the creative process behind script writing and storyboarding, somethings I have some minor experience with over the course of my education through filmography and past modules in this course.

Aside from pre-production, I do also hold interest I’d like to pursue in the comic industry, although I’d probably in interested in this more as the occasional job, or on the side of concept work, and possibly leaning towards being an occasional guest artist for comics I’m interested in, which I’m currently looking into via the online means of both creating fan-generated art inspired by webcomics I follow, and to create my own short webcomic over the summer. 

As well as building my own narrative pieces, I have also been looking into various companies whose work I’d admire, and mentally planning what working for them could involve and how to appeal to them, something I had originally only considered in passing before this course before developing further and broadening my search for companies that inspire me or I could work for; such as the local companies, like Atomhawk, or Ubisoft’s Gateshead team. Over the course of this module I have began to explore other companies and have attempted to see patterns for the type of work I’d like to do in the UK and other countries, including finding out that, aside from the large concept demand in London, there’s also some demand for concept artists in Glasgow, Horsesham and Guildford in the United Kingdom, as well as looking at two companies in Ireland - Cartoon Saloon (a company I’d idolized and followed on social media for a while) and another, smaller company; PaulKavanagh Studio, suggested to me by a speaker (Neil Bushnell), both of which I’m looking into.

One important aspect of making myself attractive to companies that this modules really helped to educate me on was how to conduct myself online, as well as how to interact with companies in a way that isn’t negative to my budding reputation. Particularly, what I enjoyed learning about was that simply following and interacting with a companies social media could lead to a possible job, or at the very least the company taking notice of you, and the very important lesson of ‘treating people like people’ which I feel like is something that can be easily forgotten in this industry, and that simply just being friendly and a pleasant person to other employees of companies and employers alike actually helps with building up trust and getting your name our there as well as simply, gaining new industry friends that I can also pitch work for them. 

This module also delved into how to create CV’s, alongside online presence (of which I had on a more personal level, but needed to expanded on a professional level with a Vimeo, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Twitter and any other account I could dedicated to art projects and for behaving more appropriately for a professional environment  than how I would behave on my personal accounts). While I had some minor experience with CVs, the idea of a colorful or creative CV was completely foreign, so it was a wonder to see this module show that is is actually acceptable to be more creative with CVs, and that they don’t have to be the originally ‘bland and serious’ looking CVs I was handing out.

To return to the subject of behaviour online, this module also got me thinking more about the ethics surrounding what my work could become, I’d like to say I constantly strive towards being ethical with my work and representations, but this module really helped to show the variety of things I must be aware of, especially as I am interested in the design and pre-production section of the industry, and that, while mistakes can happen, simply correcting them and looking out for them in future, is often the best path, as well as getting second, or third opinions, particularly from individuals whom could be hurt by content if it should be used unethically, either intentionally or not - as, once again, accidents and mistakes happen, but the positive impact of a well done representation that everyone is phenomenal (something I am aware of from personal experience of finding character in fiction that represent aspects of myself well and the confidence and strong loyalty to the company/artist that can come from that). And the ethical work doesn’t just focus on the misrepresentation of identities, but on work hours and environment, something I have been trying to manage - by setting up schedules to follow with allowing at least one rest day during crunch periods at university, and the knowledge that in the long run, to be healthy with good work is better than being ill with great work! Alongside maintaining a good, clean, and safe work environment.

To further put my name out there, I have been slowly trying to just put more art and animation out there, in the past I have been very reserved about doing pieces, fearing that a company may find me ‘testing out their style’ or even drawing/animating something from a franchise they have to be obnoxious or negative on my reputation, despite being shown in a community art show/stream a few years back for a game I love. I’ve recently been trying to break out of this mold of only doing art when asked to, as bizarre as it may seem, and to just have fun exploring and putting work out more frequently instead of passing my work off as redundant - and have slowly been posting more polished pieces (and some more humerus pieces) to document what I am capable of and how I’m developing outside of university and work, as well as gaining the confidence to try out a style of artist and companies I admire to, not only get my name out there to said artist/company, but to just have some fun exploring.

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edits to be made:

Fix structure

Knock out words

Look at language

Say how you’ve done what you’ve said you’re doing

Maybe talk about ettic 

Separate and work on structure

FULL STOPS

explain thoughts on ethics in workplace first THEN delve into what I’ve done

Explain mistakes that can occur in ethics. Explain that I’ll not do that

Turn brackets into proper sentences 

Put my thoughts on ethics first 

Change alongside, relate to what I’m doing (ask mum about health and safety)

Rephrase ‘to put my name out there’ and 'to promote myself’ 

Been developing portfolio and making visible online (online presence section) mention polishing 

Check spelling!!!!

[rivaco]

On the edge of the Internet of Things

A quick look at IoT and how it can change the world

Image Credit: jeferrb on Pixabay

One of our picks for this year’s technology trends, the “Internet of Things” (IoT) has the potential to transform the way we live and work. But what is it?

There are a lot of complexities around the “Internet of things” but let’s stick to the basics. A simplistic definition is that it’s all about connected devices that can exchange data, but this definition makes us miss the bigger picture.

IoT is about connected devices. It is also about the software that runs these devices, the platforms that bring all these devices together, and of course, the problems it solves. Oh, and it’s also about the insane amount of data these devices collect, and the need to analyze all that data instantaneously, with a focus on privacy and security. Smart homes, smart cities, smart offices, and workflow automation — IoT has unlimited use cases.

Image Credit: Gerd Altmann on Pixabay

From thin-client networks to today’s need for edge-computing, IoT has grown by leaps and bounds. Here is a quick look at what’s happening in this space:

Computing at the edge

The widespread availability of broadband internet led to an initial offering of connected devices that were not much more than a collection of sensors passively capturing data and transmitting it to servers in the cloud. The logic was that it’s more cost-effective to have many sensors collecting data while all the processing is done within servers housed in the cloud. And this logic still holds true, but for the elephants in the room — privacy and network usage.

As users realized the downside of always-on electronics in the home or office, a new generation of connected hardware burst on to the scene. These smart cameras, thermostats, and many more connected devices that live on the edge have sensors along with processing power. While they still transmit data to servers in the cloud for computation-intensive tasks, most of the processing can be done within a local self-contained unit. This serves the dual purposes of ensuring privacy and reducing network usage. These new generation of edge-computing connected devices are being lapped up by users all over the world.

A focus on analytics

Connected devices that can collect and process sensor data for immediate actions are great but one of the end goals of IoT is to gain actionable insights from data — and that requires both a new data infrastructure and better processes for data analytics.

Neil Barton, CTO of data infrastructure automation specialist WhereScape, says, “The blessing, and possibly the curse, of the staggering rate that companies are deploying IoT sensors is the vast amounts of data that is produced when tracking things in real-time.”

IoT devices collect data, a lot of it, and processing it will involve new data formats, information exchange protocols, data management practices, and the ability to analyze tons of data in real-time.

Gartner predicts that there will be 20.8 billion devices connected to the Internet by 2020, generating over 20 zettabytes of data.

Companies like SAS, SAP, and Teradata are a few of the players already working on solutions to handle data analytics for IoT projects. At some point, the deluge of data being collected will be too much for regular old machines, and we’ll probably need to use technologies such as machine learning and neural networks for data analysis.

Image Credit: Gerd Altmann on Pixabay

Looking ahead, here are a few use cases of how IoT is already changing workflows in some industries and how it can change the way we work in some others:

Improving customer experience

Forrester Research predicted that IoT will become “the backbone” of customer value, and retail was one of the first industries to jump aboard. Brands hope to harness IoT to connect with customers, and improve the overall customer experience.

Fitness First, a chain of fitness centers, has invested in iBeacon technologies to track customers entering their gyms and to send relevant information to them automatically.

“People want to pay for an experience that makes them feel valued, welcome and known. Technology can help with this and it does not need to be either complicated or expensive”, says Fitness First CIO Ed Hutt.

Insurer Aviva partnered with UK startups such as Canary and HomeServe Labs, and gave away 500 smart home cameras to new home insurance customers in 2015 with a goal to “harness all of the insights from that experience”.

No-friction attendance reporting

For regular office goers, IoT can eliminate manual or access card-based attendance tracking systems by automatically identifying employees stepping into the office. Data collected from cameras in the office can be analyzed to generate automated attendance reports!

Enabling real-time logistics

Worldwide logistics leader DHL has invested in a series of IoT pilots across the world. It partnered with Cisco and Conduce, an IoT startup, for warehouse pilots in Europe, and with Huawei for an automotive plant pilot in China. DHL plans to use IoT to help the organization be more efficient and enable real-time tracking of packages all over the world.

Improving patient care

Healthcare institutions are piloting IoT projects that connect with patients via wearable devices, and help doctors monitor patients remotely. This can provide more affordable patient care in hospitals by reducing the need for an in-room nurse, and gives medical professionals more time to help more patients.

The internet of things is taking shape as we speak and it will, someday, connect everything and everyone — in ways we can see now, and in ways we haven’t imagined yet. Enterprises are investing in IoT to realize business goals such as last-mile tracking of inventory, enhancing customer experiences, and improving patient care.

While a few pieces of the puzzle are still missing — the need for new data infrastructure and analytics tools — bright minds spread across the globe are working out solutions today, and the day when IoT is everywhere is not really far away.

Authored by Kesava Mandiga, who badly wants a Philips Hue starter kit, and can’t wait to change the lights in his life. Also, a content marketer at Flock.

One more thing…

If you like this article, show us some love — clap, share, and follow us. ;)

Consider these for your next read:

Mixing realities for workplace collaboration

IoT Explained — How Does an IoT System Actually Work?

On the edge of the Internet of Things was originally published in Flock Blog on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

[ramajmedia]

Tigers Are Not Afraid is 2019's Best-Reviewed Horror Movie So Far

Tigers Are Not Afraid is the best reviewed horror movie of 2019 (so far) on Rotten Tomatoes. A supernatural horror mystery drama written and directed by Mexican filmmaker Issa López, the indie flick premiered at Fantastic Fest in 2017 and gained support from horror titans like Stephen King, Guillermo del Toro, and Neil Gaiman over the months that followed. Despite this, it continued to tour the film festival circuit all the way through 2018, in an effort to attract a distributor. Finally, it was picked up by Videocine for a limited run, ahead of its launch on Shudder this fall.

Set against the backdrop of Mexico's drug wars, Tigers Are Not Afraid follows a group of orphaned children who are gifted with three magical wishes, but find themselves being haunted by the ghosts of their past in addition to the cartel that murdered their parents. Its blend of magical realism, folklore, and political allegory has been compared to del Toro's earlier Spanish-language films (Cronos, The Devil's Backbone, Pan's Labyrinth), and the film has been Certified Fresh on RT after 58 reviews. In fact, its score is strong enough to land it the top spot among horror movies in 2019 overall.

Related: Antlers Trailer Teases Guillermo del Toro-Produced Horror Film

RT has confirmed Tigers Are Not Afraid is the best-reviewed horror title of 2019 and currently sports a 95% Fresh rating (including, all Fresh reviews from the 13 Top Critics who've weighed in so far). That places it ahead of such acclaimed horror films as Jordan Peele's Us (93% Fresh), Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett Ready or Not (89% Fresh), and Ari Aster's Midsommar (83% Fresh).

While there are still four months left in 2019, there's a chance Tigers Are Not Afraid will hold onto its top spot among horror films on RT. Its main competition at the moment appears to be Robert Eggers' The Lighthouse. The filmmaker's followup to his acclaimed horror feature debut, The Witch, is currently sitting at 98% Fresh after 52 reviews, but has yet to screen for critics outside the festival circuit ahead of its October release. The Stephen King horror movie sequels IT Chapter Two and Doctor Sleep will also arrive over the next three months and are expected to play well with critics and general audiences alike. However, IT Chapter Two is generating mixed-to-positive buzz after its early screenings, so it probably won't be as well-received as its predecessor (which is at 86% Fresh after 359 reviews on RT).

Either way, it's always great when an original, independent genre film like Tigers Are Not Afraid breaks out the way it has. It's all the more noteworthy, considering how long it took for a distributor to acquire the movie in the first place. The film is only playing in 6 theaters right now and opened with $30K in the U.S. this past weekend, so hopefully the publicity from its RT rating will help Tigers Are Not Afraid to attract a larger crowd that's just now learning it even exists in the first place.

NEXT: 2019 Fall Movie Preview: The 30 Films to See

Source: Rotten Tomatoes

source https://screenrant.com/tigers-not-afraid-horror-movie-best-reviewed-2019/