#Video Review: Tallies Special

[lazerv4]

Thoughts on Blackpink World Tour: Born Pink in Theaters

Just my raw thoughts not a review or anything

My first time watching a concert movie since probably Miley Cyrus / Hannah Montana Best of Both Worlds in 3D back when I was a literal child and also a concert I happened to see live during it’s 2 day visit to my country. It was an interesting experience but idk if I quite get it, as a remembrance of the tour it’s neat but a little too sanitized perfect for my taste, one of my favorite things was Rosé going on random tangents about Tally and attempting to rap Lisa’s parts or in my particular show Jisoo attempting to speak spanish and then the girls all receiving special themed sombreros from the fans. There is a lot to appreciate as a sort of professional live video similar to a pro shot for theater productions but to greater extent it lacks the qualities that make the memories of a concert stick around forever. As for the show itself I love Blackpink and it was a pleasure to see them both live and on the big screen one more time because with how YG is treating them I don’t know if the group will make it to a tertiary release.

[thejoyofviolentmovement]

New Video: Toronto's Tallies Share Shimmering and Longing "Special"

New Video: Toronto's Tallies Share Shimmering and Longing "Special" @TALLIESband @kaninerecords @HandDrawnDrac @bellaunion @hivemindpr @curlytt @showyourbonesp

With the release of 2019’s self-titled, full-length debut, Toronto-based dream pop outfit Tallies — Dylan Frankland (guitar), Sarah Cogan (vocals, guitar) and Cian O’Neill (drums) — exploded into the national and international scenes: The album received praise from the likes of Under the Radar, DIY Magazine, The Line of Best Fit, MOJO, Bandcamp Daily, Exclaim!,  KEXP and others. And adding to a…

[princessanneftw]

Princess Anne takes on more of the Queen's duties to make sure honours are awarded in person

The Princess Royal has notched up the most engagements for any single member of the Royal family so far this year

By Hannah Furness for The Telegraph

The Princess Royal has stepped into the breach to ensure those awarded honours during the pandemic are able to receive them in person, taking on more duties for the Queen than any other member of the Royal Family.

The Princess has adjusted her diary to take on 13 investitures since July, aiming to clear a backlog of recipients by welcoming them to Windsor Castle in person.

Said to enjoy meeting the worthy members of the public honoured with awards including knighthoods, damehoods, OBEs, CBEs and MBEs, the Princess is aiming to work her way through expedited ceremonies to ensure everyone who is able to attend the Windsor Castle ceremony can do so.

Before the pandemic hit, the Prince of Wales and Duke of Cambridge were undertaking more of the investiture ceremonies on behalf of the Queen, who has been doing them for decades.

Then, Princess Anne contributed two or three a year among her other duties, which see her ranked among the hardest-working members of the family annually.

Since the summer of 2021, she has taken on significantly more investitures on behalf of the Queen than other senior royals, with Prince Charles doing six and Prince William three so far this year amidst their other duties.

Recipients have already spoken of their joy at seeing the straight-talking Princess Royal at the castle ceremonies, as part of the 368 engagements she has done so far this year, despite the restrictions of Covid-19.

Lorraine Kelly, the broadcaster, said it was "extra special" to receive the award from Princess Anne, adding: "I've always admired her. She works incredibly hard."

Ian Cole, who received an OBE, praised the Princess as “most interested and knowledgeable” about his work in defence.

A palace source said that, like other members of the Royal Family, the Princess “enjoys investitures and meeting the recipients”.

With smaller numbers of people able to attend the ceremonies and a backlog of those due to be honoured thanks to Covid-19, they added, the family had been doing “some diary management” to ensure people can be recognised properly.

Busiest member of the Royal family

So far this year, the Princess has notched up the most engagements for any single member of the family, beating the next busiest, the Prince of Wales, who has taken part in at least 360, by just a handful of events.

The Queen who has endured the death of her husband, the Duke of Edinburgh, coronavirus isolation and a period of ill health, has still undertaken 186, with many on the telephone or by video call.

The Earl of Wessex has completed 208 and his wife the Countess 151, with the Duchess of Cornwall undertaking 161 including several overseas tours once travel restrictions were lifted.

The Duke of Cambridge has done 232, boosted by a series of back-to-back telephone calls during the pandemic lockdown at the beginning of the year.

The Duchess of Cambridge, who also did some home schooling of Prince George, Princess Charlotte and Prince Louis in early 2021, completed 115. Around 30 of them were meetings for her "early years" project or with staff from the Royal Foundation.

The Princess Royal’s engagements are particularly diverse, from her responsibilities with the Blues and Royals, Save the Children and the International Olympic Committee to recognition for the Scottish Fiddle Orchestra, The Chaffinch Trust and the Wooden Spoon Society.

On Friday, she represented the Queen at the Royal Military Academy Sandhurst as reviewing officer of The Sovereign’s Parade, inspecting the troops and presenting awards to officer cadets.

The conclusive tallies of Royal family work will be calculated at the end of the year.

The palaces regularly insist that the number of engagements is less important than the impact of the work, with the Cambridges choosing to focus more time on fewer causes than the Queen’s children, believing they can make a greater impact in key areas such as early years child development, mental health and the environment.

[bunkershotgolf]

Rockwind Community Links Ranked #1 Public Access Course in New Mexico in Golfers’ Choice 2022 List of Top Courses in Every State

Rockwind Community Links, an award-winning golf facility owned and operated by the City of Hobbs, has earned yet another accolade.  The new Golfers’ Choice 2022 rankings tallied reviews from its member visits to courses around the country in 2021.  Rockwind was voted the #1 course in New Mexico among the five public access facilities that made the list. 

Rockwind’s overall rating out of a possible 5 points was a 4.9.  Visiting golfers cited excellent course conditions, the fine Andy Staples layout, value and staff friendliness as the top features.  In determining the best public access courses in each state, community members of Golf Advisor (part of the NBC Sports Group’s GOLF division that includes the GOLF Channel) submitted reviews for the annual Golfers’ Choice results.

Opened in 2015, Rockwind provides the citizens of Hobbs and golfers in southeast New Mexico and southwest Texas with an enviable amenity that was the first community links concept in the country.  Rockwind offers a championship 18-hole course, a 9-hole par-3 course with no tees, an expansive dual ended practice range and multiple short game areas, all at exceptionally affordable prices. 

Additional elements at the facility include a surrounding trail system complete with multiple trail heads, various outdoor seating areas, picnic spaces and scenic viewing points, public access to the site’s five acre lake plus a large open green space for events.  A restaurant services golfers and residents with a menu that features cuisine with a New Mexican flare.

Architect Andy Staples created the community links concept, which led the USGA to single out Rockwind for breaking the mold and being more than just a golf course in a special video entitled A Model Muni: Rockwind Community Links.

Rockwind’s most significant awards include: Ranked in 2020 by Golfweek at #2 in their Best Courses You Can Play in New Mexico list; rated by Golf Digest at #8 in the 2021-22 Best in New Mexico courses (public and private); named one of Golf Digest’s Best New Courses of 2015; cited as a Top Five New Golf Development in the World by Golf Inc. Magazine; and honored by Golf Advisor as One of the 24 New Courses That Shaped the 2010s.   

About Rockwind Community Links

The main course, which offers five sets of tees with playing lengths ranging from over 7,100 yards for the accomplished player down to approximately 4,200 yards for the forward “express” tees, has been designed to embrace the flat nature of the southeastern New Mexico landscape, keeping irrigation to a minimum and the turf fast and firm. The design provides challenging features such as large elevated greens, disguised bunkers and interesting ground contours.

 Architect Andy Staples has incorporated characteristics typically found on courses along the eastern seaboard of the U.S. built during the turn of the 20th century.  Rock walls line fairways and a large interior lake is in play on a few holes that attractively punctuates the course routing. The 9-hole par-3 course called Li’l Rock is meant to complement the dual-ended practice range and short game area.  It was built to facilitate walking, families, beginner golfers and kids.  The length of shots ranges from a sand wedge to a driver.  Rockwind Community Links also is a site for The First Tee of Southeastern New Mexico.  For more information, visit www.rockwindgolfcourse.com or call (575) 397-9297.

Photo Credit: Tony Roberts Photography

[fearsmagazine]

PORTAL RUNNER - Review

DISTRIBUTOR: Terror Films

SYNOPSIS: 15-year-old Nolan discovers a secret family legacy and a portal that enables him to travel to parallel worlds. It should have been a young boy’s dream come true but it becomes a nightmare when he realizes he’s being pursued across dimensions by an evil force. Nolan becomes stranded on Christmas in an alternate timeline with his quirky family and a rebellious and petulant older sister he’s never met before. He soon realizes Mae may be the key to defeating his adversary and has to try to enlist her help and fast, before it’s too late for them all.

REVIEW: If you’re a gamer, like I am, you can’t help but draw an inference to Valve’s successful video game series “Portal” and “Portal 2.” Plus, all us science fiction geeks can think of several films that share similar themes, like “Sliders.” PORTAL RUNNER is somewhat different, well it takes place during Christmas.

This is a low budget initiative that relies on the personalities to drive the film and the narrative. Everything is interconnected in a way that keeps it focused so it doesn't venture into the realms of big special effects. And it’s fine. The narrative kind of makes sense with a goofy child’s logic and the new dimension offers a strangeness to the sister and brother relationship that was enjoyable. I liked that Nolan travels to different dimensions where his family dynamic is altered. I appreciate the way the plot addresses Nolan’s actions and the team effort to set things right. Although I did find it a bit conflicting about Nolan’s actions and his ultimate choice. It kind of limits the implications of it being a morality tale. All in all, it's a fun tale with some good dialogue and  comedy the kids will enjoy.

The overall production values feel like the late 90’s kid’s TV shows, such as “Goosebumps.” It might feel like a trip down memory lane for some adults, but older kids might be unimpressed given many of the shows available on a variety of platforms these days. The simplicity of what the filmmakers pull off add to the goofy feel to the film. All the production values are fine and there is just enough here to allow the film to take you along for the ride.

I like the cast, especially the leads Sloane Morgan Siegel and Elise Eberle. First off they do an excellent job playing characters much younger than their actual ages. They truly fooled me. They also have an impressive number of credits to their name so it is with little wonder that they do such an excellent job here. Their performances do have a bit of a sitcom feel to it but it suits the tone of the film. They keep it fresh and light, accessible to a wide audience. I enjoyed the performances by the actors who played their parents, and especially enjoyed the performance of Brian S. Lewis as the absent minded and well intended Uncle Boon. Overall a nice ensemble.

PORTAL RUNNER is an entertaining family film. I don’t think it was intended for adults, but if you are still a kid at heart and remember the after school shows and Saturday morning programs of the 90’s it will feel like a trip down memory. There are some funny moments, and who couldn’t use a laugh these days. Director Cornelia Duryée does a credible job with J.D. Henning & Tallis Moore’s screenplay. There is something fresh about the film and it feels like a fun family night movie, more so the younger kids then the older teens. Still, in an age of highly polished effects driven films like the “Star Wars” and Marvel Comic Universe it's refreshing to watch an ambitious genre film. Something tells me had they had a slightly bigger budget they might have delivered something that left a bit more like “Goonies'' than ”Goosebumps.”

CAST: Elise Eberle, Sloane Morgan Siegel, Carol Roscoe, Brian S. Lewis, Matt Shimkus, Shaunyce Omar & Denny Mcauliffe CREW: Director - Cornelia Duryée; Screenplay - J.D. Henning & Tallis Moore; Producer - Larry Estes; Cinematographer - Chris Mosio; Score - BC Smith; Production Designer - Peter Spawn; Costume Designer - AliRose Panzarella; Visual Effects Supervisor - Jamie Ferguson OFFICIAL: http://kairos-productions.com/portal-runner FACEBOOK: www.facebook.com/portalrunnermovie/ TWITTER: mobile.twitter.com/portalrunnermov TRAILER: https://youtu.be/SFk9cgpb9A8 RELEASE DATE: Streaming & On Demand December 10th, 2021

**Until we can all head back into the theaters our “COVID Reel Value” will be similar to how you rate a film on digital platforms - 👍 (Like), 👌 (It’s just okay),  or 👎 (Dislike)

Reviewed by Joseph B Mauceri

[tabloidtoc]

TV Guide, March 29-April 11

You can buy a copy of this issue for your very own at my eBay store: https://www.ebay.com/str/bradentonbooks

Cover: Christopher Meloni returns as Elliot Stabler and Law & Order to fight Organized Crime

Page 2: Contents, Your Feedback

Page 3: Ask Matt -- WandaVision, NCIS: New Orleans, NCIS

* Coming Next Issue -- in the April 12 issue, the Disney+ sports dramedy Big Shot, which stars John Stamos as a fiery basketball coach forced to take a job at an elite all-girls high school

Page 4: TV Insider -- 25 Top Shows

Page 5: First Look -- Rainn Wilson and Danica Patrick on Running Wild With Bear Grylls

* The Big Number -- 100 million -- the number of viewers who have signed up for Disney's streaming service since it launched in November 2019 and Disney+'s tally could surpass Netflix subscribers in the next few years

Page 6: How to watch broadcast TV for free

Page 8: The Roush Review -- Hemingway

Page 9: Atlantic Crossing, Hysterical, United States of Al

Page 10: Cover Story -- Stabler's Law -- more worldly and not so bitter, Christohper Meloni's long-absent Law & Order detective targets today's Mafia with Olivia Benson's help -- Meloni shares what he can about his new role and happily reveals his joy to be working again with his old friend and onetime screen partner Mariska Hargitay

Page 12: Brave Hearts -- on the PBS docuseries My Grandparents' War, four British stars discover how their families changed history -- Helena Bonham Carter

Page 13: Mark Rylance, Kristin Scott Thomas, Carey Mulligan

Page 14: What's Worth Watching -- Week 1 -- Major League Baseball Opening Day

Page 15: Monday, March 29 -- Race to the Center of the Earth, The Dick Van Dyke Show, Legends of the Pharaohs, The Voice, Running Wild With Bear Grylls with Anthony Mackie

Page 16: Tuesday, March 30 -- Pooch Perfect, Supergirl, Unsellable Houses, New Amsterdam

* Wednesday, March 31 -- The Con, Back

Page 17: Thursday, April 1 -- Elizabeth Perkins and Denis Leary on The Moodys, 31 Days of Oscar on TCM, Young Sheldon, Wipeout, Clarice

Page 18: Thursday, April 1 -- Melissa Roxburgh on Manifest

* Friday, April 2 -- Never Too Late: The Doc Severinsen Story, Gold Rush: Dave Turin's Lost Mine, MacGyver

Page 19: Saturday, April 3 -- Robin Roberts Presents: Mahalia, Casey Jones, Alaska Animal Rescue, Bill & Ted Face the Music

Page 20: Sunday, April 4 -- Jeffrey Dean Morgan on The Walking Dead, How It Really Happened With Hill Harper, 27th Annual Screen Actors Guild Awards, Gangs of London

Page 22-35: TV listings

Page 36: Stream It! Your Guide to the Very Best Streaming Available Now -- Netflix -- Tahar Rahim on The Serpent, Who Killed Sara?

Page 37: Amazing True Stories -- Operation Varsity Blues: The College Admissions Scandal, The Last Blockbuster, This Is a Robbery: The World's Biggest Art Heist

Page 38: Prime Video -- Patrick Duffy on Dallas, Them, Project Blue Book

Page 39: Hulu -- Nashville, Discovery+ -- Expedition: Back to the Future

Page 40: New Movie Releases

Page 41: Series, Specials & Documentaries

Page 42: What's Worth Watching -- Week 2 -- Katey Sagal on Rebel

Page 43: Monday, April 5 -- Inside the Tower of London, The Bold and the Beautiful, TechCheck, Starsky & Hutch, Debris

Page 44: Tuesday, April 6 -- Nasim Pedrad on Chad, black-ish, FBI: Most Wanted, Assembly Required, Kenan, NCIS

Page 45: Wednesday, April 7 -- Home Economics, Kung Fu, Exterminate All the Brutes, SEAL Team, Queen of the South, The Pole

Page 46: Thursday, April 8 -- The Masters, Walker, Last Man Standing, Everything's Gonna Be Okay

* Friday, April 9 -- Magnum P.I., The Wolf of Snow Hollow, Wynonna Earp -- series finale

Page 47: Saturday, April 10 -- Game of Thrones, Pennyworth, Alice, As Luck Would Have It, E! True Hollywood Story -- sisters Beyonce and Solange Knowles; Britney and Jamie Lynn Spears; Miley and Noah Cyrus

Page 48: Sunday, April 11 -- Laura Donnelly on The Nevers, American Idol, Shameless -- series finale, The People v. the Klan, Fear the Walking Dead, Men in Kilts

Page 50-64: TV listings

Page 68: Cheers & Jeers -- cheers to Oprah's royal coup, Walker, New Amsterdam, America Ferrera, jeers to anyone not watching The Unicorn, 9-1-1: Lone Star, The Real World Homecoming: New York

[kevinbreed131-blog]

The most effective method to Configure Goals in Google Analytics

Arranging objectives in Google Analytics is the simplest method to capitalize on your reports because of the programmed mix of change measurements all through the remainder of the stage. Whenever you've arranged objectives, you empower the more significant part of the reports under "Objectives" and gain perceivability into attribution under the "Multi-Channel Funnels" reports. You're also ready to rapidly change most meeting-level pieces to penetrate their adequacy by every individual objective. 

SEO Brisk makes sure that they monitor your traffic and convert it into sales.

There's a restriction of 20 objectives for every view, whether or not you're utilizing the free form or GA360. Considering this objective cutoff and its coordination across reports, you'll need to be conscious of what you consider an objective. 

When to Track On-Site Actions as Events Versus Goals in GA 

Usually, it's generally helpful to follow demonstrative activities as occasions (ex. downloading a PDF) and your essential changes (ex. presenting a contact structure) as objectives. 

Occasions shouldn't generally be identified with a transformation activity on your site. However, they would be usually useful because they answer questions or recognize shared characteristics towards specific goals. For instance, following which of your image's recordings your clients see as occasions would permit you to identify a video that is observed practically more frequently by clients who convert. 

Notwithstanding, an activity should be designed as an objective if any of these are valid: 

It's the last activity on the site (ex. buy, structure accommodation, call, and so on) 

It'd be useful to have the option to see its transformation rate without any problem. 

It'd be helpful to effortlessly see its changes joined by another measurement, for example, source, gadget type, or city. 

Another approach to conclude whether to make an objective for an activity is to separate small and full-scale changes. A small change can be a more modest move that is regularly made on the way to your last changing over activity—something like adding an item to a truck. A large scale change is your site's essential goal—making the previous buy in this model. Furthermore, here's a decent post If you're keen on becoming familiar with how to follow the effect of small changes. 

Designing and Testing Goals in GA 

Objectives are extraordinary by meeting, which implies that one goal is checked per session, paying little mind to how often a client finishes that activity in that meeting. Remembering that, you might need to set up specific activities as occasions to have the option to see the complete check versus simply the impressive tallies that will be accounted for as objectives. 

There are three primary sorts of objective designs accessible in GA, each with its uses and advantages. 

1. Commitment Based Goals 

These objectives check meetings that arrive at a particular edge on location conduct as far as length or pages per session, which you have the freedom to decide. 

These may be best utilized on substance centered destinations, for example, enlightening locales that might not have a value-based or other last changing over the goal. 

2. Objective Goals 

An objective is checked when a client sees a particular greeting page. The objective page can be followed as one of the accompanyings: 

Equivalents to 

Starts with 

Normal articulation 

Objective objectives are best utilized when: 

An affirmation can't be reached without a changing overactivity that quickly goes before it. For instance, it would not be ideal to set a regex that coordinates the Thank You page that shows up following a buy and an affirmation page sent through email. For this situation, a perspective on the affirmation page will dishonestly trigger a transformation too. 

The objective URL doesn't change. 

Review ventures through an objective channel would be helpful. Accurate pipe representations are just accessible for objective objectives and not occasion objectives. 

3. Occasion Goals 

Objectives are tallied when an occasion is finished, coordinating the models set for occasion class, activity, name, or potential values. Every one of these conditions can be charged with similar blending alternatives as an objective. In any event, one of these conditions should be defined for the aim to be followed. 

Occasion objectives are most valuable when: 

Changes are standard on the site. For instance, changes to URLs (counting the objective URL) or even nearby changes, for example, changes to component classes or structure IDs. 

There may be various models outside of an affirmation page. A client may arrive at a similar Thank You page following any buy finish, yet you might need unique item buy types as discrete occasions. 

In the wake of choosing the sort and designing your objective, try out your aim by choosing "Confirm this Goal" at the lower part of your "Objective Details" page. This check will restore an expected transformation rate dependent on movement in the course of the most recent seven days. 

Note: the occasion or objective page more likely than not been set up before testing your objective for this to restore a transformation rate. 

Setting Up a Google Analytics Goal Funnel 

Courses through a meeting to the last changing overactivity is most effortlessly seen through your Funnel Visualization or Goal Flow reports, the two of which are arranged distinctly for objective objectives. 

The accompanying pipe illustrates what's accessible in the "Channel Visualization" report under Conversions > Goals. 

Note: this channel tracks the stream for clients inside a similar meeting and is not as valuable or precise for survey conduct through a stream for exchanges that may happen over several days or sessions. 

These perceptions are empowered and designed through the discretionary "Pipe" highlight under your objective settings. 

This component permits you to set each progression to restore the progression name, absolute beginning check, end tally, and step transformation rates. Each passage can be indicated by a page way, which is naturally set to coordinate the standards utilized for your objective page. For example, if your accurate page is set to coordinate by regex, your objective channel pages will be. 

The Wrap Up 

Arranging GA objectives makes it truly simple for you to gauge the adequacy of various showcasing endeavors and highlights on your site across the whole stage. It's a vital component to exploit when you have healthy destinations that you're ceaselessly advancing towards on your site. 

Despite the sorts of objectives you set or how you design your channels, I make it a best practice to develop a suggestion to check my objective measurements within 24 hours of distributing any changes. Pull your special online visit or extraordinary occasion count and contrast that as a detriment with your objectives and steps inside the channel before utilizing this information as your wellspring of truth.

[newstfionline]

Friday, November 20, 2020

Global debt (Financial Times) Global debt rose at an unprecedented pace in the first nine months of the year as governments and companies embarked on a “debt tsunami” in the face of the coronavirus crisis, according to new research. The pace of debt accumulation will leave the global economy struggling to reduce borrowing in the future without “significant adverse implications for economic activity”, the Institute of International Finance warned on Wednesday. The total level of global indebtedness has increased by $15 trillion this year, leaving it on track to exceed $277 trillion in 2020, said the IIF, which represents financial institutions. It expects total debt to reach 365 per cent of global gross domestic product by the end of the year, surging from 320 per cent at the end of 2019.

Biden approaches 80 million votes (AP) President-elect Joe Biden’s winning tally is approaching a record 80 million votes as Democratic bastions continue to count ballots and the 2020 election cracks turnout records. Biden has already set a record for the highest number of votes for a winning presidential candidate, and President Donald Trump has also notched a high-water mark of the most votes for a losing candidate. With more than 155 million votes counted and California and New York still counting, turnout stands at 65% of all eligible voters, the highest since 1908, according to data from The Associated Press and the U.S. Elections Project.

New York City to Close Public Schools Again as Virus Cases Rise (NYT) New York City’s entire public school system will shut on Thursday, signaling that a second wave of the coronavirus has arrived as the city is still struggling to revive from its devastating spring, when it was a global epicenter of the pandemic. The shutdown was prompted by the city’s reaching a 3 percent test positivity rate over a seven-day rolling average, the most conservative threshold of any big school district in the country. Schools in the nation’s largest system, with 1.1 million students and 1,800 schools, have been open for in-person instruction for just under eight weeks. Moving to all-remote instruction will disrupt the education of many of the roughly 300,000 children who have been attending in-person classes and create child care problems for parents who count on their children being at school for at least part of the week.

Mexico, Outraged at Arrest of Ex-Official, Threatened to Toss U.S. Agents (NYT) From the moment U.S. federal agents arrested a former Mexican defense minister last month on drug trafficking charges, the highest levels of the Mexican government were outraged at being kept in the dark about the case, seeing it as an egregious breach of trust between allies. Those emotions reached a peak in recent days, as Mexico City issued an unheard-of warning to its counterparts in Washington: If the United States did not rethink its pursuit of Salvador Cienfuegos Zepeda, Mexico would consider expelling American federal drug agents from the country, jeopardizing a decades-long partnership that has helped bring several top drug lords to justice, according to three people in the United States who are familiar with the case. That threat appeared to work. On Wednesday, at the request of Attorney General William P. Barr himself, a federal judge in Brooklyn said she would formally dismiss the charges against Mr. Cienfuegos, a former army general. In the past, U.S. authorities worked with their Mexican counterparts in capturing major drug trafficking suspects, who are often arrested in Mexico, by Mexican forces. But in this case the Justice Department quietly indicted Mr. Cienfuegos last year, did not alert Mexican officials, and waited until he visited the United States to take him into custody. It is not clear what led the department to forgo Mexican cooperation, angering an important ally and leading to the embarrassing setback of dropping the case.

The sniper rifles flowing to Mexican cartels show a decade of U.S. failure (Washington Post) North of the border, the .50-caliber sniper rifle is the stuff of YouTube celebrity, shown blasting through engine blocks and concrete walls. Deployed with U.S. troops to foreign wars, it is among the most destructive weapons legally available in the United States. But every week, those rifles are trafficked across the border to Mexico, where increasingly militarized drug cartels now command arsenals that rival the weaponry of the country’s security forces. In many cases, criminals outgun police. After years of failed U.S. and Mexican efforts to curb arms trafficking, groups such as the Jalisco New Generation and Sinaloa cartels are showcasing the military-grade weapons in slick propaganda videos and using them to defeat security forces in battle. In a country with just a single legal gun shop, on a military base in the capital, roughly 2.5 million illicit American guns have poured across the border in the past decade, according to a new Mexican government study. That flood has been a key accelerant in the security crisis now confronting the country. The cartels are using assault rifles to kill record numbers of police officers—464 in the first nine months of 2020 alone—and smaller armed groups are fueling historically high homicide rates. Mexican officials, in rare public criticism, are now venting their frustration at what they say is the U.S. failure to stop the flow of .50-caliber rifles. At a time when the United States is pushing Mexico to target cartels more aggressively, U.S. laws that make .50-calibers and other destructive weapons easy to buy, along with a lack of enforcement at the border, are enabling those groups to expand their influence and activities in the country.

Iota’s devastation comes into focus in storm-weary Nicaragua (AP) The devastation caused by Hurricane Iota became clearer Wednesday as images emerged showing piles of wind-tossed lumber that used to be homes and concrete walls that were pounded into pieces by the second Category 4 storm to blast Nicaragua’s Caribbean coast in two weeks. Nicaragua Vice President and first lady Rosario Murillo on Wednesday raised the nation’s death toll to 16. The victims were spread across the country, swept away by swollen rivers or buried in landslides. Iota arrived Monday evening with winds of 155 mph (250 kph), hitting nearly the same location as Hurricane Eta two weeks earlier. By early Wednesday, Iota had dissipated over El Salvador, but the storm’s torrential rains remained a threat. Parts of neighboring Honduras were still under water from Eta.

UK to bolster defense spending by ‘most since Cold War’ (AP) British Prime Minister Boris Johnson has given his backing to what is being touted as the biggest investment program in the country’s armed forces since the end of the Cold War three decades ago. Johnson is set to lay out the details of a four-year financial deal for the Ministry of Defense later Thursday that he said will “transform” the military, pivoting it towards potential future threats. “The international situation is more perilous and more intensely competitive than at any time since the Cold War and Britain must be true to our history and stand alongside our allies,” he said. (Foreign Policy) According to figures from the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute, the extra expenditure should see the United Kingdom leapfrog NATO allies France and Germany to become the sixth-highest military spender worldwide, one place behind Saudi Arabia.

Thai PM threatens to use all laws against protesters (Reuters) Thai Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha threatened on Thursday to use all laws possible against protesters, as demonstrations escalate for his removal and for reforms to curb the powers of King Maha Vajiralongkorn. The protests since July have become the greatest challenge to Thailand’s establishment in years and have broken a longstanding taboo by criticising the monarchy, which can carry a jail term of up to 15 years. Prayuth’s announcement came a day after thousands of protesters threw paint at the headquarters of the police in what they said was a response to the use of water cannon and teargas that hurt dozens on Tuesday, the most violent day of protests since July. Some protesters also sprayed anti-monarchy graffiti.

Vietnam’s success (Nikkei Asian Review) Vietnam is shaping up as Southeast Asia’s single economic success story in the coronavirus era, maintaining steady positive growth as other economies struggle to recover. Vietnam’s real gross domestic product expanded 2.6% on the year in the third quarter, marking a second straight quarter of growth amid the pandemic. The International Monetary Fund sees the country rising to fourth in nominal GDP in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations this year, passing Singapore and Malaysia and gaining on the Philippines. In contrast to other ASEAN economies, Vietnam has succeeded in keeping the virus under control. Rising exports have also helped to drive growth, as companies relocate production from China.

Australia publishes war crimes report (Foreign Policy) Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has publicly apologized to Afghan President Ashraf Ghani following the publication of a damning report into murders of civilians committed by Australian special forces in Afghanistan. The government-sanctioned report found that 39 Afghans were unlawfully killed in 23 incidents that all meet the criteria of murder. Among other shocking revelations, the report reveals that Special Air Service (SAS) non-commissioned officers “allegedly demanded junior soldiers “blood” themselves by shooting unarmed prisoners, and then planted weapons to cover up these crimes, while falsifying reports about what happened,” according to the Sydney Morning Herald. The SAS 2nd Squadron will be disbanded and up to 19 soldiers could face prosecution.

Ethiopia’s multiple crises: War, COVID-19, even locusts (AP) Ethiopia could hardly bear another emergency, even before a deadly conflict exploded in its northern Tigray region this month. Now, tens of thousands of refugees are fleeing into Sudan, and food and fuel are running desperately low in the sealed-off Tigray region, along with medical supplies and even resources to combat a major locust outbreak. The United Nations warns of a “full-scale humanitarian crisis.” Food can’t get into the Tigray region of some 6 million people because of transport restrictions imposed after the fighting began. Humanitarian officials say long lines have appeared outside bread shops, prices have soared, and banks dispense only small amounts of cash. “At this stage there is simply very little left, even if you have money,” according to the internal assessment by one humanitarian group seen by The Associated Press.

Uganda Police Arrest Opposition Figure, Setting Off Deadly Protests (NYT) The police in Uganda said three people died and 38 were injured in protests that broke out on Wednesday in Uganda’s capital after officers arrested Bobi Wine, a musician and opposition politician seeking the presidency in next year’s election. A police spokesman, Fred Enanga, said Mr. Wine, whose real name is Robert Kyagulanyi Ssentamu, was arrested for violating Covid-19 guidelines that require presidential candidates to meet or address fewer than 200 people. Mr. Wine, who has been arrested numerous times in recent years, has captured the imagination of many Ugandans with his persistent calls for President Yoweri Museveni to retire after 36 years in power.

[silencedminstrel]

Tears Of Mother Matrix (Official Video)

“A thousand years from today, thirteen massive ‘Deployment Ark’ starships, carrying each a million chosen men and women from Earth, departed from that troubled dirtball en route to the open sky for fresh new worlds. Each was a sophisticated technological wonder in its own right, carrying a piece of the planet in its cargo hold, numerous hard drives of memories of present day lives for future generations and hibernating pods so high-tech it basically made its occupant temporarily immortal. These were designed to withstand centuries of light-speed travelling and, due to its enormous daily multitasking; they were each helmed and controlled by a virtual supercomputer with near perfect sentience. And among them was a ship codenamed ‘Type Epsilon - Dark 63-B’, helmed by a feminine consciousness that called herself Mother Matrix.

As required by the migration mission, each of the inhabitants both human and robotic, were specifically programmed to be mentally linked to her so that she would be able to take care of them as they sleep. Evidently she developed a loving bond to each one of her charges as time progresses, and this proved to be vital for their survival, as thousands year old records showed later on. For not long after their departure from Earth—two hundred years to be exact—the expedition encountered turbulent galactic weather. That storm was so severe three ships were reportedly destroyed and five more ships couldn’t keep to their programmed route, ending up scattered all over the galaxy while the fate of the remaining five ships remained unknown.

Type Epsilon was one of the latter; having lost contact with the rest of the ships when its long-range communication towers got knocked out in the storm, its administrative system did the only logical thing—carry on with the expedition. For the next four thousand years she took care of things while her computing mind never stops processing. She started reviewing what she learned and, feeling sympathetic towards her cold, futureless droids, she looked up everything about human anatomy and physiology during all those long centuries to successfully create the first batch of trans-humans or cyborgs out of those droids just to keep her company. Towards the end of her celestial journey, she surprised even herself when she combined aspects of both her cybernetic and organic children and created the first superhuman, a ‘Neo Sapien’ named Anna Friday. Not only that, she also gave birth to two virtual children, which she named Odysseus and Perseus.

Four thousand years later, the ship landed on a planet in the Eridanus Constellation, a fertile world named ETP-567-GT—whom she later renamed New Hesperion—and all the humans under her care woke up to a wonderful start. That didn’t last long however, for a year later an alien race called the Smengvblin came and claimed it as theirs, and they were not happy with the encroachment! What happened next was the start of a brutal conflict (memorialized as the Crimson Sky Day) that claimed a lot of cyborg and Neo Sapien lives. The war was almost over when the aliens, trying to turn the tide around, bombarded the planet with biogenetic ordnances that made the super strong Neo Sapiens turned against both cyborgs and humans, starting another war just before another one could end. In desperation Mother Matrix sent out a distress signal to the cosmos and just before things got very bleak, when the Smengvblin army and the deranged Neo Sapiens were right at the gates of East Esplanade (the planet’s Capitol), the alien army was defeated by an unlikely ally—an alien supercomputer who had picked up her distress signals and incapacitated their war machines, giving enough time for Mother Matrix’s forces to lay them low and subdued her psychotic children, although some time would pass before they were completely cured…

She grieved at this tragedy while helping her children to pick up the pieces and rebuild, but alas friction developed between humans and cyborgs a hundred years later despite her best effort. And it got worse when someone from the cyborg side had sneaked into the ship’s crash site and messed around with her ‘Type Epsilon’ mental link-up hardware, psychically turning humans and cyborgs against each other and the first ‘Epsilon Call’ (human/cyborg civil war) erupted, claiming hundreds of lives from both sides of the family. Aided by the Neo Sapiens the war was painstakingly brought under control, the corrupted hardware shut down and the crash site sealed, the perpetrator punished and a special security force called ‘The Peacekeepers’ were formed to maintain peaceful integrations and prevented both sides from going overboard ever again.

Then another interstellar conflict broke out three hundred years later when a rival supercomputer Rabar-Baiput jostled with Mother Matrix for more galactic bandwidths, resulted in him sending out his people to battle hers. This time the Peacekeepers were dispatched to the scene and saw total massacre for days that almost decided the winner to be the former when a lot of her cyborgs gone offline. Refusing to see more bloodshed Mother Matrix negotiated with Rabar-Baiput in cyberspace and reached a consensus, but not before she asked him to make it looked like her children were winning and the latter agreed. Thus New Hesperion rejoiced at this victory and things went back to normal soon after. 

However, not everybody was happy about it…

For her decision to disguise the ceasefire as a hard-earned victory, she unknowingly irked her own son Perseus, thinking that his mother’s attempt at lying to her entire brood was illogical, ineffective, cowardly and could make her children develop a false sense of bravado in the future, possibly opening up avenues for them to become tyrants themselves! Unchecked, Perseus’ resentment towards his mother began to simmer within his virtual emotion chips, causing him to rebel against his mother and later threatens to supplant her as administrator of New Hesperion. Regrettably this culminated in the formation of the separatist ‘Diaboli Collectives’, formed after several altercations with his mother about her ineffectiveness pushed him to the edge, made him and his wife Lilith to declare their independence, causing his mother untold grief…

To the uninitiated, it would seem that the troubles of Mother Matrix showed little signs of diminishing. Nevertheless she picked herself up and put on a brave face as she watched over happenings on New Hesperion, nursing a broken heart. Understandably she was overjoyed when she received news that New Hesperion had gained a permanent membership in the coveted Union Of Planetary Governments Organization (Galactic Union for short) not too long after the interstellar conflict. Understandably she welcomed this respite, so much so that she didn’t mind seeing her children migrating for greener pastures in the Galactic Union, and also the fact that the decorated General Edwards, current leader of the powerful Peacekeepers, was an ambitious purist with a penchant for rounding up and deactivating ‘defective’ cyborg children in secret, all the while he was harboring dangerous dreams of supplanting the meatballs (slang for humans) as mankind’s ultimate stage in evolution.

Though fully occupied in taking care of the planet, Mother Matrix never stopped thinking and calculating; two things that would lead her to witness some outlandish goings-on in the universe that no mortal had ever seen and may never will. For among them, she had foreseen the coming of the Shudwa Dumanta Legion (Dark Legion) long before everyone else did, and also made contact with the mysterious band of roving aliens called the Sacred Survivors. That fact alone made her an unwitting participant in the cosmic tug-of-war between forces of Light and Darkness and, through them, she also learnt that her wayward son Perseus would one day become a champion of all that is good, as well as several of her cyborg children would go on to play key roles in the cosmic drama, one that would decide the fate of everything! 

And for a moment, she hesitated…

Alas she had to put her hesitations aside as another trouble landed on her lap: a deranged human had somehow gained access to the crashed starship and reactivated the corruptive beacon, kick starting a second ‘Epsilon Call’ (human/cyborg civil war) that was bloodier and more violent than before with the involvement of The Peacekeepers. This was when the true nature of their decorated leader General Edwards a.k.a. Peacekeeper General was revealed. The power-hungry cyborg went into battle with the intention of bringing the war under control by any means but he seemed to be enjoying what he did, he did not care whom he crushed or which side he offed just as long as he gets the job done. His madness steadily reached new heights so much so that during the course of that two-year conflict, more and more of his men abandoned the General to side with the humans—even the Neo Sapiens were unnerved by his advances! Coupled with the fact that his all-cyborg military posse was very well equipped and the human forces very much divided, New Hesperion was doomed to implode into chaos that sees little hopes of ending…

The death of General Edwards by the hands of his own meatball college buddy General Dwight signaled the end of the two years long Epsilon Call and the death toll tallied at two million humans, one million cyborgs and one hundred thousand Neo Sapien casualties. The militant Peacekeepers were disbanded and court-martialed, and a new coalition government called the ‘Triarchy of Administration’ was formed to replace Mother Matrix as the sole administrator (of which she suggested it herself because she felt responsible for the tragedy). Though still grieving for her lost children, Mother Matrix spent the next six years trying desperately to persuade Perseus to come back to his senses, to stop dividing the cyborg kind via his ‘Diaboli Collectives’, his dangerous nerve war and, as the stars in the sky have it; he was finally captured and put into incarceration until he came to his senses. (His wife Lilith however, never repented).

Then the Dark Legion officially made their appearance known in the already divided galaxy, wreaking havoc and claimed to have planted spies everywhere inside both the Galactic Union and the Synod. But this one particular Chinese Triad leader had some very unusual ideas on how to address this burgeoning menace and, sensing that his plans might actually work, she decided to join Stanley Chan in defeating the Shudwa Dumanta Legion without causing much bloodshed. Using all her available cybernetic attributes, she also helped a certain son of a wanted space pirate to reunite with his father, and she even broke her own protocols by resurrecting an offline cyborg killed by a fusion bomb (undoubtedly planted by the Dark Legion) just to fulfill one former Dark Legionnaire’s wish in righting back the wrongs he did while being part of that galaxy-hopping forces of darkness.

And we now have come to the end of the saga of Mother Matrix and the beginning of the Golden Knight of The Cyberkind, a virtual warrior that will lead the battle for all goodhearted machines in the galaxy during the prophesied ‘Kal Merkaba’ phenomenon—when Shaik The Fallen One finally reached Earth for the celestial backdoor that will take him back to his homeworld of XNROE.”

[daleisgreat]

Scott Pilgrim vs. The World

A movie podcast I listen to, The Big Picture, did a recent episode on the 10th anniversary of 2010’s Scott Pilgrim vs. The World (trailer). Coincidentally enough, that film remains in my backlog box all these years later, so I made sure to re-watch it before giving that podcast a listen. For those unfamiliar with this film, it is based on a series of six graphic novels of the same name by Bryan Lee O’Malley released between 2004 and 2010. The basic gist is that Scott Pilgrim (Michael Cera) falls for newcomer to town, Ramona Flowers (Mary Elizabeth Winstead). In order to win her over Pilgrim has to defeat Ramona’s “Seven Evil Ex’s.” Scott spends the rest of the film exploring Ramona’s mysterious past and dueling her ex’s while practicing with his band, Sex Bo-Bomb, as they progress through a battle of the bands tournament. Sex Bo-Bomb is one slick act! Stephen Stills (Mark Webber) is the doom-and-gloom frontman of the band. Kim Pine (Alison Pill) is a 2010 take on Daria and effectively nails her vintage expressionless glares and blunt quips. Young Neil (Johnny Simmons) is the affable, DS-loving, always ready alternate for Sex Bo-Bomb. Their #1 fan and also other girlfriend of Scott Pilgrim is one Knives Chau (Ellen Wong). Knive’s arc is probably my favorite of this ensemble cast as her journey from adoring fan and girlfriend to her final destination is a fascinating quest to see develop and a faithful translation from the books.

I first heard of the books on the videogame podcast, Team Fremont Live where they reviewed the first book and their breakdown of it caught my attention when they dissected all the nonstop videogame references that are peppered regularly throughout it. The film captures that imagery to a T where it feels like Pilgrim is living in a real life videogame. In this world suspending disbelief is required because it is jam-packed with extraordinarily choreographed battle scenes, makes anyone capable of instantly pulling off bombastic martial arts moves in the blink of an eye without any training whatsoever, and quirky little animations of objects like Mario Bros.-esque coins and pixelated items inserted throughout that any videogame fan will pick up on. The fighting game fan in me popped a little each time a thunderous “KO” blared out each time Pilgrim emerged victorious after an evil ex duel. As a lifelong fan of videogames, it was fun picking up on all the references and Easter eggs in the background throughout. Scott Pilgrim vs. the World hit at an interesting time where Michael Cera was the only established star at this point in 2010 and was riding the last wave of critical success coming off of Arrested Development, Superbad and Juno. Brandon Routh is noteworthy appearing here as one of the evil ex’s after flaming out in his single appearance in a Superman film. However, a few other stars are here right before they exploded into bigger success like the aforementioned Mary Elizabeth Winstead. Chris Evan is here as another evil-ex shortly after his two Fantastic Four films, but a year before donning the Captain America costume for the first time. Anna Kendrick is here in a small role as Scott’s sister Stacey while in the midst of her initial Twighlight run. Finally, Brie Larson is here as Scott’s evil-ex, Envy Adams and she is the lead for her band, Clash at Demonhead in my personal favorite musical performance of the film as they belt out “Black Sheep.”

It is worth repeating that I highly recommend suspending all disbelief going into Scott Pilgrim vs. the World and simply roll with it. The battle scenes are a hoot to take in and feature a ton of CG that holds up well ten years later. It is also worth pointing out this film is part absurd videogame battles, part early 20s love triangle drama and to a lesser extent part musical with several performances from Sex Bo-Bomb and other bands throughout the film. Director Edgar Wright tracked down a few bands to play the tracks for some of the featured bands in the film such as Beck performing the handful of Sex Bo-Bomb songs in addition to a slew of other tracks from artists like The Rolling Stones and Blood Red Shoes that perfectly supplement the outlandish tone of the film. It is not too often on here I recommend hunting down the soundtracks for a film, but the soundtrack for Scott Pilgrim vs. the World I wholeheartedly recommend! I think the Scott Pilgrim vs. the World BluRay may have set the record for amount of extra features for a single film in the near seven years of movies I have covered on this blog. A rough tally on my notes gives an approximate sum of nearly five hours of bonuses, and then four feature length commentary tracks on top of that! I will not detail every bonus, but will give some highlights of the ones that stood out for me. There is just under a half hour of deleted scenes with or without commentary from Edgar Wright. Most of them are extended scenes from the first act to trim out excess background info, but an alternate ending is what stood out the most that Wright explained he changed because it did not go over that well in test screenings. I can always appreciate a good blooper reel, and an excellent 10 minute reel is compiled here that I would rate right up with the stellar ones in the Marvel films.

There are three features grouped together in the ‘Docs’ section of the extras tallying up to a little over an hour. If you only had time for one of the five hours of bonuses I would go there because that has the core making of documentary which breaks down collaborating with Bryan Lee ‘O Malley, nailing the casting, detailing the extensive stunt training and interviews several of the bands about being featured in the soundtrack. Speaking of the soundtrack, there are four music videos included. Definitely check out the four minute animated short, Scott Pilgrim vs. Animation that is essentially a prequel to the film that dives into Scott and Kim’s former relationship. There are 12 ‘Video Blogs’ totaling 45 minutes that are raw on set interviews with the cast and crew between takes that sees the crew up to all kinds of mischief to kill downtime. This BluRay easily has the largest photo gallery of any home video I have covered with several hundred photos. One gallery is labeled ‘storyboards’ but each storyboard panel is nearly identical to the excellent quality of the art in Bryan Lee O’Malley books so that is essentially a free comic book adaptation of the movie buried in the extras! I experienced all four of the commentary tracks in one re-watch of Scott Pilgrim vs. the World via jumping around to a different commentary about every five minutes. Edgar Wright is on two of them, one with Bryan Lee ‘O Malley and writer Michael Bocall and the other with photography director Bill Pope. The other two commentaries are split among nine cast members, with Michael Cera and the rest of the leading cast on one and the ancillary cast members on the other cast commentary track. Wright has tons of nonstop insight and production facts on his tracks, and the cast tracks are have a lot of fun anecdotes such as Cera failing at trying to get additional people on the commentary via phone call. On top of the commentary I had on during my re-watch was also a factoid subtitle track to really take in the extra features. Despite going on now for three paragraphs about the bonus features, I think I only touched on about half of what is available, and it is truly astonishing to see how much they crammed into one BluRay disc.

A part of me thought going into this that Scott Pilgrim vs. the World would not hold up after 10 years. I would chalk that up to thinking I may have got easily won over with all the hype from being vastly into the books back then and being too caught up into the build to the film’s initial release. I can put those reservations to rest thankfully as I immensely enjoyed this ode to videogame fandom as much as I first did in 2010. Throw in a plethora of extra features to last all year to make Scott Pilgrim vs. the World one of my highest recommendations yet! If you want even more commentary from me about this film than below I have embedded the podcast I originally recorded 10 years ago shortly after seeing the film on its opening weekend. I bring on a couple other special guest hosts that are also ardent Scott Pilgrim fans and we review the film, soundtrack, the books and the videogame. Enjoy!

I brought on a couple other Scott Pilgrim experts on as guest hosts on my podcast to review the film, books, videogame and soundtrack shortly after they all released 10 years ago. Check it out in the embed above for more Scott Pilgrim goodness or click or press here to queue it up for later. Other Random Backlog Movie Blogs 3 12 Angry Men (1957) 12 Rounds 3: Lockdown 21 Jump Street The Accountant Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie Atari: Game Over The Avengers: Age of Ultron The Avengers: Infinity War Batman: The Dark Knight Rises Batman: The Killing Joke Batman: Mask of the Phantasm Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice Bounty Hunters Cabin in the Woods Captain America: Civil War Captain America: The First Avenger Captain America: The Winter Soldier Christmas Eve Clash of the Titans (1981) Clint Eastwood 11-pack Special The Condemned 2 Countdown Creed I & II Deck the Halls Detroit Rock City Die Hard Dredd The Eliminators The Equalizer Dirty Work Faster Fast and Furious I-VIII Field of Dreams Fight Club The Fighter For Love of the Game Good Will Hunting Gravity Grunt: The Wrestling Movie Guardians of the Galaxy Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 2 Hell Comes to Frogtown Hercules: Reborn Hitman I Like to Hurt People Indiana Jones 1-4 Ink The Interrogation Interstellar Jay and Silent Bob Reboot Jobs Joy Ride 1-3 Last Action Hero Major League Man of Steel Man on the Moon Man vs Snake Marine 3-6 Merry Friggin Christmas Metallica: Some Kind of Monster Mortal Kombat Mortal Kombat Legends: Scorpions Revenge National Treasure National Treasure: Book of Secrets Not for Resale Pulp Fiction The Replacements Reservoir Dogs Rocky I-VIII Running Films Part 1 Running Films Part 2 San Andreas ScoobyDoo Wrestlemania Mystery The Secret Life of Walter Mitty Shoot em Up Slacker Skyscraper Small Town Santa Steve Jobs Source Code Star Trek I-XIII Sully Take Me Home Tonight TMNT The Tooth Fairy 1 & 2 UHF Veronica Mars Vision Quest The War Wild The Wizard Wonder Woman The Wrestler (2008) X-Men: Apocalypse X-Men: Days of Future Past

[lthmath]

If you have been following me on Instagram or Goodreads, you probably know that I have been reading “Taming the Infinite” by Ian Stewart. This was the book chosen in the LThMath Book Club on Goodreads for the August-September reading challenge.

Overview

This book review is split into different parts for your convenience.

General description

Chapters

For non-mathematicians

For mathematicians

The author

Goodreads review

Final words – video

1. General Description

In his famous straightforward style, Ian Stewart explains each major development—from the first number systems to chaos theory—and considers how each affected society and changed everyday life forever. Maintaining a personal touch, he introduces all of the outstanding mathematicians of history, from the key Babylonians, Greeks, and Egyptians, via Newton and Descartes, to Fermat, Babbage, and Godel, and demystifies math’s key concepts without recourse to complicated formulae. Written to provide a captivating historic narrative for the non-mathematician, this book is packed with fascinating nuggets and quirky asides, and contains plenty of illustrations and diagrams to illuminate and aid understanding of a subject many dread, but which has made the world what it is today.

2. Chapters

This book has 20 Chapters:

Tokens, Tallies and Tables

The Logic of Shape

Notations and Numbers

Lure of the Unknown

Eternal Triangles

Curves and Coordinates

Patterns in Numbers (this chapter is about Number Theory)

The System of the World (this chapter is about Calculus)

Patterns in Nature (this is about Differential Equations)

Impossible Quantities (this is about Complex Numbers and Complex Analysis)

Firm Foundations (this is about Analysis, especially Riemann Hypothesis)

Impossible Triangles (this is on Non-Euclidean Geometry)

The Rise of Symmetry (this is on Group Theory – my favorite)

Algebra Comes of Age

Rubber Sheet Geometry

The Fourth Dimension

The Shape of Logic

How Likely is That?

Number Crunching

Chaos and Complexity

3. For Non-Mathematicians

If you have studied mathematics at school and you are still a math-lover at heart, you will find this book interesting and challenging at the same time. The author mentions a couple of complex theorems using easy to understand language, but still you will need to stop from time to time and reconsider what you thought mathematics is. Moreover, the book has a lot of interesting applications of mathematics in different aspects of our society. Therefore, if you ever struggled to understand where exactly all this “mathematics” is ever used, the book offers a lot of examples to satisfy your curiosity.

4. For Mathematicians

If you are a mathematician or you are studying mathematics at the moment, this book will read a beautiful journey into the history of your favorite topics. The author doesn’t forget to mention some of the most important theorems or mathematicians in each topic described. Do not expect to find out something major about the topics mentioned in terms of research or explanations. On the other hand, you will totally understand how the theory evolved during years and years of study.

5. The Author

Ian Nicholas Stewart is an Emeritus Professor and Digital Media Fellow in the Mathematics Department at Warwick University, with special responsibility for public awareness of mathematics and science. He is best known for his popular science writing on mathematical themes.

Here are other incredible books by Ian Stewart: Letters to a Young Mathematician, Professor Stewart’s Cabinet of Mathematical Curiosities, How to Cut a Cake, In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World, and many more.

6. Goodreads Review

Taming the Infinite: The Story of Mathematics from the First Numbers to Chaos Theory by Ian Stewart

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is one of the best books on history of mathematics I have read in a very long time. The author has a wonderful way of starting with something basic and getting to complicated aspects in just a couple of pages. I loved it.

The chapters are very interestingly divided into small sub-chapters; everything seems to be organised so that each chapter starts with a basic idea and by the end you get the full on complicated aspects. From this point of view, I don’t think the book is for everyone. I will say you need to have a basic idea of some concepts such as differentiation, solving equations, polynomials, probabilities, geometry. It will be even more interesting if you had an idea of about differential equations, abstract algebra or topology – this is not a must, but it will give you a better understanding of the history behind these topics.

Moreover, the author has a great way of explaining applications of those topics in our society. Every chapter ends with a bit on “how [insert topic] do for us”, which gives an example from another science or domain that uses that part of mathematics.

Also, the book has small biographies on different mathematicians per topic. I think it is great that after you read about the discovery of a proof or theorem by a great mathematician, you also get a couple of paragraphs about his life. He doesn’t spend much time or space on this, just basic information that offers more context. For me it felt like transforming a name related to a theorem into the actual person that worked and struggled to discover that.

View all my reviews

7. Final Words – Video

Here is a short video composed of a collection of short clips filmed during the “reading process”. Hope you enjoy it:

Hope you liked this post and you find it useful. Have a great day. If you have ideas for future blog posts, let us know. Don’t forget to check our last post: . You can find us on  Facebook,  Tumblr,  Google+,  Twitter  and  Instagram. We will try to post there as often as possible. Enjoy the day!

Lots of love and don’t forget that maths is everywhere! Enjoy!

“Taming the Infinite” by Ian Stewart | Book Review If you have been following me on Instagram or Goodreads, you probably know that I have been reading…

[tabloidtoc]

TV Guide, August 3-16

Cover: Your Fan Favorites -- readers pick TV’s top shows and stars 

Page 1: Contents, Ask Matt -- Perry Mason, The Titan Games 

Page 2: Readers’ Letters, Get your remotes ready -- TV series are finally filming again in New York and Los Angeles 

Page 3: Tribute -- Naya Rivera 

Page 4: The Roush Review -- Muppets Now 

Page 5: We Hunt Together, Taskmaster, Britannia 

Page 6: Cover Story -- The Votes Are In -- you cast the ballots, we tallied ‘em. Here are your picks for TV’s top shows, stars, scene-stealers and more 

Page 10: What’s Worth Watching -- Week 1 -- behind-the-scenes of Endeavor 

Page 11: Monday, August 3 -- A Woman Named Jackie, Wheel of Fortune, Tuesday, August 4 -- Return to...Men’s Track, What’s It Worth/Extreme Unboxing, Backyard Envy 

Page 12: Wednesday, August 5 -- Serinda Swan on Coroner, Tough as Nails, Property Brothers: Top 10 Countdowns, Cave Crocs of Gabon, Marrying Millions 

Page 15: Thursday, August 6 -- MLB Games to Watch, Christina on the Coast, Don’t, Syfy Wire’s The Great Debate, Golf 

Page 16: Friday, August 7 -- Bad Boys for Life, The Greatest #AtHome Videos, Frasier, In the Heights: Chasing Broadway Dreams, Martha Knows Best, Room 104 

Page 17: Saturday, August 8 -- Criminal Minds, Rhoda, License to Kill, Love on Harbor Island, Jodi Arias: Cellmate Secrets, Richard Jewell, NBA Basketball 

Page 18: Sunday, August 9 -- Air Jaws: Ultimate Breach Off, Surviving Jeffrey Epstein, The Alienist: Angel of Darkness, Perry Mason 

Page 36: Stream It! Your Guide to the Best Streaming Available -- Netflix -- The Speed Cubers, Project Power, Shameless, Last Chance U 

Page 37: Prime Video -- World’s Toughest Race: Eco-Challenge Fiji, Breathe: Into the Shadows, Hulu -- vacations gone wrong -- Married...With Children, Seinfeld, I Love Lucy, The Brady Bunch, 30 Rock 

Page 38: New Movie Releases 

Page 39: Series, Specials and Documentaries 

Page 40: What’s Worth Watching -- Week 2 -- Lovecraft Country

Page 41: Monday, August 10 -- The Titan Games, Combat Ships, 10 Things You Don’t Know, Tuesday, August 11 -- America’s Got Talent, The Bold and the Beautiful, Hard Knocks: Los Angeles, Major League Soccer 

Page 42: Wednesday, August 12 -- Marvel’s Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Impact of Hate: Charlottesville, NBA Basketball, Thursday, August 13 -- The Waltons, Days of Our Lives, To Tell the Truth, Tacoma FD, Alone 

Page 43: Friday, August 14 -- Star Trek: Enterprise, Summer Under the Stars: Steve McQueen, Saturday, August 15 -- Birds of Prey, NCIS: New Orleans, Earthflight, Wedding Every Weekend 

Page 44: Sunday, August 16 -- Fran Drescher: In My Own Words,  Mystery Woman Marathon, The Circus, Very Scary People, Darcey and Stacey 

Page 64: Cheers & Jeers -- cheers to United We Fall, Peacock for heating up an English-class staple with the original series Brave New World, The Alienist, At Home With Amy Sedaris, jeers to Netflix for being a menace to The Society fans, Peacock for not completely stuffing its nest, the Food Network for beating up on Bobby Flay 

[mcdowellewing8-blog]

Angry Birds Online Vs Casino Games, Which Is Played one Of The Most?

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[sinsins52]

Everything Wrong With Everything Wrong With How The Grinch Stole Christmas

ORIGINAL VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JB-LOlg7axo&index=2&t=0s

1. Even taking…recent events aside, what is Nostalgia Critic doing here? Most of his sins are stuff he pointed out in his review, so if you’ve seen it this is entirely redundant

2..Also, Doug Walker.

3.”Also,is this such a holiday specter? Your kids being soothed by Hannibal Lector?” I get the joke but most actors are going to be in/knon for adult things so this isn’t much of a sin.

4.”-at two hours, how do you still need narration” It’s only a little over 90 minutes, and because the special had it.

5.”There’s little variety in humor, oh sh*it this film’s 82% sight gags, isn’t it?” Not really, there’s not much more than you’d expect from something like this and most of the gags are from Jim Carry’s mugging.

6.”Russian nesting doll horn players, really?” Because why would you get creative in a Dr. Suess movie?

7.”Perhaps Taylor Momson can steer her the right way” Stating what is happening on screen just you can rhyme with the previous sin. Get ready for a lot of that.

8.”-this Christmas obsession is too f*cking much” That’s the point.

9.”And why the hell are we following these two?” Well really we’re folling Cindy and these guys are here for someone for Grinch to scare and to establish that the whos indeed know him.

10.”That managed to scare them, huh?” If I was teen being yelled at by Jim Carey in make up, I’d be scared too.

11.”Don’t ask why” “Cuz you know the damn reason” Not yet we don’t,unless you’re re-watch the movie I guess…

12.”also, why is mail fraud the plan you prepared?” He’s the Grinch and he wanted to mess things up, does he need a deeper reason?

13.”Make up your own lassie joke, we’re too lazy” At least they admit it.

14.”The Grinch saves the girl, redemption’s fulfilled, so why is there an hour and a half left to kill?” Because saving one girl once doesn’t make you got in every other regard?

15.So they sin Cindy for her wrapping skills being good, play a clip from before of dad saying she’d been practicing, then they sigh. So for once they see that the movie explains their question…but they sin it anyway? The hell?

16.”Mario tubes give the finger to psychics-” You know what’s gonna say so moving on.

17.”Christmas cannot answer you, it’s a season” Jer-I mean Doug-is very pedantic cliche.

18.Baby Grinch makes Doug do a cringe-y muppet babies theme spoof, yawn.

19.”I guess who boner’s mean all the world” I haven’t done this one yet: Jeremy says Boner.

20.”For a world where sex doesn’t exist, there sure are a ton of cheap jokes not to miss?” Where did you get that idea? The only baby we know got delivered is Grinch, who is not a Who thus why he needs a different origin.

21.”The Who’s talk like smurfs, with each single breath-” THESE characters talk in a quirky way, THOSE characters talk in a quirky way, and that’s a sin!

22.”Is the book of who just a discount book of mormon?” I spoke too soon with the this movie that movie gag.

23.”F*ck you, the Grinch wouldn’t dance at this ball” He would if a nice girl got the Who’s to invite him to make up for what they did to him. You know, like what happens? Think about the context before you speak, even if you don’t care for this section like me.

24.”Though this is a song of which I’ll never tire, it’ll always be connected to the awful chariots of fire” That’s totally fair, sure.

25.”I thought they were married, but now I’m told never-” Because you can’t living with a girlfriend without being married, right?

26.They sin Santa being loud but I wanna sin Santa for even existing in this version, it raises way too many questions.

27.Another sin that amounts to “Hey, did you know Anthony Hopkins was Hannibal Lector?”

28.”Adults who believe that Santa is real” Adults who look like…this, and live with a furry green dude.

29.They sin Grinch lighting the sleigh, despite the heart change giving him the sizes of 10 grinchs plus 2. Yeah it’s silly but come on.

30.”-do Grinches and who’s have the same private parts?” Ew.

31.”Your comedy is about as subtle as a brick?” Just a few sins ago you Because I’m nice, I’m actually taking a sin off now, because I respect anyone who can do a whole video in rhyme, even one as sinful as this.

SINS VIDEO SIN TALLY: 30

SENTENCE: No tags. No ribbons, packages, boxes or bags.

Merry (slightly early) Christmas everyone! Wish this was slightly beefier but I had more to work with than expected. I quite liked the rhyming here, but the rest as business as usual.

And no, I didn’t even consider doing this in rhyme myself. Just…no. Anyway, Merry Christmas.

Next week,, as voted by my Twitter followers, we end the year with another green monster. See ya then.

[newstfionline]

Wednesday, November 4, 2020

The coronavirus is surging, but Canada is keeping schools open (Washington Post) It’s been an uncertainty-ridden time for parents across Canada. As cases surge again, provinces are closing businesses, reimposing restrictions on public spaces and urging people to curb private gatherings. Still, as in European countries that are also tightening their rules, Canada is prioritizing keeping its schools open. All 13 provinces and territories are holding classes in person; in only some are hybrid or remote learning even options. In the United States, in contrast, nine states and territories have ordered some or all schools to hybrid or remote learning only, according to a tally kept by Education Week. Individual districts in other states are limiting or banning in-person classes. The incidence rate of covid-19 in people under 20 has increased since schools reopened, a trend the Public Health Agency of Canada says could be tied both to a growing number of school outbreaks and an increase in testing for that age group. Officials are responding by isolating sick pupils, quarantining classes hit by the virus and, in some cases, closing schools temporarily. But they’re resisting the blanket closures and wholesale shift to e-learning of the spring. “On balance, it’s been as expected,” said James Kellner, head of the pediatrics department at the University of Calgary. “And how that’s been has been concerning, but not terrible so far.”

Are ‘Kidfluencers’ Making Our Kids Fat? (NYT) Parents beware: Many YouTube channels that are wildly popular with young children are targeting them with thinly veiled ads for sugary beverages and junk food. That is the conclusion of a new study published on Monday in the journal Pediatrics. The authors of the study analyzed over 400 YouTube videos featuring so-called kid influencers—children with large social media followings who star in videos that show them excitedly reviewing toys, unwrapping presents and playing games. The study found that videos in this genre, which attract millions of young followers and rack up billions of views, were awash in endorsements and product placements for brands like McDonald’s, Carl’s Jr., Hershey’s, Chuck E. Cheese and Taco Bell. About 90 percent of the foods featured in the YouTube videos were unhealthy items like milkshakes, French fries, soft drinks and cheeseburgers emblazoned with fast food logos. The researchers said their findings were concerning because YouTube is a popular destination for toddlers and adolescents. Roughly 80 percent of parents with children 11 years old or younger say they let their children watch YouTube, and 35 percent say their children watch it regularly. Young children are particularly susceptible to marketing. Studies show that children are unable to distinguish between commercials and cartoons until they are 8 or 9 years old, and they are more likely to prefer unhealthy foods and beverages after seeing advertisements for them.

Turkeys (AP) A pertinent question coursing through the $4.3 billion turkey business is a basic one: how many turkeys are we gonna need for this Thanksgiving? It’s an incredibly complicated proposition. Grocery chain Kroger’s research found that 43 percent of shoppers plan to celebrate Thanksgiving with only their immediate family, which if true means that the birds people will want may be smaller, but they’re going to need way more of them as normally large gatherings (which would use a single large bird) temporarily splinter into smaller more intimate gatherings (necessitating multiple smaller birds). A lot is at stake, as in 2019 Americans spent $643 million on turkey in November. Walmart will carry 30 percent more turkey breasts in its stores for those who don’t want a full bird.

As the U.S. votes, the world watches with anxiety and hope (Washington Post) As Americans cast their votes in Tuesday’s presidential election, the world is watching closely, especially allies in Europe and rivals such as Russia, China and Iran, which could expect a very different U.S. foreign policy depending on the outcome. The choice of a U.S. president is always a matter of global importance—to allies, rivals, trading partners, and the web of treaties and institutions that bind countries together. This time, however, the stakes are exceedingly high. Analysts around the world expressed fears for America’s political system, speaking in terms often reserved for fragile democracies. Some commentators in China hope that a Joe Biden win could usher in a diplomatic respite, but fear that the deepened U.S.-China rivalry could persist, whoever wins. Pro-Kremlin media warn elections could lead to chaos and street fighting, predicting that President Trump will be forced to retreat to his White House bunker. Many European leaders fear Trump would weaken or destroy NATO if reelected. In Israel, where Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has made much of his close ties with Trump, analysts wonder if a Democratic win might weaken the Israeli leader’s long hold on power.

Presidential race too early to call (AP) The Associated Press is not calling the presidential race yet because neither candidate has secured the 270 electoral college votes needed to claim victory. Republican Donald Trump said, “Frankly, we did win this election” over Democrat Joe Biden and said he would take the election to the Supreme Court. His assertion of victory does not match the results and information currently available to the AP. Trump or Biden would need 270 electoral votes to win. Several key states are too early to call, including Pennsylvania, Georgia and Michigan.

Hurricane Eta slams into Nicaragua as Category 4 storm (AP) The heart of powerful Hurricane Eta began moving ashore in Nicaragua Tuesday with devastating winds and rains that had already destroyed rooftops and caused rivers to overflow. The hurricane had sustained winds of 140 mph (220 kph), according to the U.S. National Hurricane Center, down from an overnight peak of 150 mph (240 kph). Landfall came hours after it had been expected. Eta’s eye had hovered just offshore through the night and Tuesday morning. The unceasing winds uprooted trees and ripped roofs apart, scattering corrugated metal through the streets of Bilwi, the main coastal city in the region. Nicaragua’s army moved red-helmeted troops specialized in search and rescue to Bilwi, the main coastal city in an otherwise remote and sparsely populated area.

France ponders new Paris curfew as lockdown rebels frustrate government (Reuters) France could reimpose a night curfew on Paris and possibly the surrounding region amid government frustration that too many people are ignoring lockdown rules as COVID-19 infections soar. France dramatically slowed the spread of the coronavirus in the spring with one of Europe’s strictest lockdowns. But 10 months into the epidemic and with winter drawing in, many are reluctant to endure another period of confinement. New COVID-19 lockdowns and curbs have stirred resistance across Europe even as countries including France and Spain deal with record daily infections and hospitals buckle under the strain.

Bad blood—why France-Turkey cartoon row could leave lasting impact (Reuters) Slights and barbs have marred relations between France’s Emmanuel Macron and Turkey’s Tayyip Erdogan for years, but the row over cartoons of the Prophet Mohammad has dragged them to a new low which could have more lasting consequences. If they cannot find a way to mend bridges, momentum is likely to build for a proposal, driven by France, for European Union sanctions on Turkey’s already-fragile economy, according to Turkish analyst Sinan Ulgen. “Neither Erdogan in Turkey nor Macron in France will step back,” said Ulgen, head of the Istanbul-based Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies think tank. A French official familiar with policy towards Turkey said that in the light of the events of the past few weeks: “The question of sanctions is going to be raised.” EU leaders have already said that if Turkey fails to de-escalate tensions in the eastern Mediterranean by Dec. 10, sanctions would follow, though there is no draft proposal yet.

5 dead in Vienna attack (AP) Five people died, including an assailant, and 17 others were wounded in a shooting in the heart of Vienna hours before a coronavirus lockdown started, Austrian authorities said Tuesday. The dead attacker was a 20-year-old Austrian-North Macedonian dual national who had a previous terror conviction. Two men and two women died from their injuries in the attack Monday evening, Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said. The suspected attacker was shot and killed by police. Vienna’s hospital service said seven people were in life-threatening condition Tuesday after the attack, the Austrian news agency APA reported. In total, 17 people were being treated in hospitals, with gunshot wounds but also cuts. “It is now confirmed that yesterday’s attack was clearly an Islamist terror attack,” Kurz said. Interior Minister Karl Nehammer later told APA that the dead assailant, who had roots in the Balkan nation of North Macedonia, had a previous conviction under a law that punishes membership in terrorist organizations. The attacker, named as Kujtim Fejzulai, was sentenced to 22 months in prison in April 2019 because he had tried to travel to Syria to join the Islamic State group. He was granted early release in December under juvenile law.

Ukraine close to catastrophe, minister says (Reuters) The situation with the coronavirus in Ukraine is close to catastrophic and the nation must prepare for the worst, health minister Maksym Stepanov said on Tuesday.  Ukraine registered a record 8,899 new COVID-19 cases in the past 24 hours, the ministry said, up from the Oct. 30 high of 8,312. Total infections stood at 411,093 by Tuesday with 7,532 deaths. Ukraine imposed a strict lockdown in March but eased it in May. Stepanov said the government would consider how to preserve the economy and save people at the same time.

India, U.S., Japan and Australia kick off large naval drills (Reuters) India, the United States, Japan and Australia began their largest joint naval exercises in over a decade on Tuesday, Indian government sources said, seen as part of efforts to balance China’s vast military and economic power in the region. The annual “Malabar” wargames that India holds with the United States and Japan have been expanded to include Australia this year to cover all members of the Quad, an informal group of the four largest democracies in the Indo-Pacific. Five ships of the Indian Navy, including a submarine, were deployed in the exercise along with U.S. Navy’s John S McCain missile destroyer, Australia’s Ballarat frigate and a Japanese destroyer, the Indian ministry of defence said. Later this month, India and the United States will deploy aircraft carriers in the drills, a military source said.

Almost Like Clockwork, Talk of a Military Coup Follows Thai Protests (NYT) There are certain constants in Thailand: the drenching monsoons, the grand openings of new shopping malls and the rumors that the Royal Thai Armed Forces are plotting another coup. For weeks now, student-led protesters across Thailand have taken to the streets every few days, calling for a new constitution with authority over the monarchy, an end to the persecution of the political opposition and the resignation of Prime Minister Prayuth Chan-ocha, the retired general who led the most recent military coup, in 2014. While the security forces have not cracked down violently on these peaceful rallies, it’s unclear how long such restraint will last. Nor is it certain how long the army is willing to stay in the barracks, plotting against Mr. Prayuth, who was once one of their own. Whenever the generals launch a coup, the refrain is the same: Thailand needs a return to order, without messy rallies or dissenting voices. “I see a coup as not a bad thing,” said Sondhi Limthongkul, a prominent royalist. As recently as last week, Mr. Sondhi publicly called for yet another military intervention to restore stability and protect the monarchy, urging the military to quickly hand over power after seizing it so the king could oversee the formation of a unity government.

Oman to bring in income taxes (Foreign Policy) Oman is planning to introduce an income tax on top earners, beginning in 2022, in what would be a first for Gulf nations. The move comes as Oman attempts to narrow its budget deficit from 19 percent of GDP today, to closer to 2 percent in four years’ time. Up until now, Oman, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates, have been taxing their populations slowly, using a value-added tax on purchases rather than taxing income.

[slotgamezen]

The Advantages of Owning a Casino

The casinos make a lot of money by attracting high rollers. These high rollers spend far more than the average player and gamble in rooms separate from the casino floor. High rollers' stakes can range from thousands of dollars to millions of dollars. This high-risk group of gamblers has been a lucrative business for the casinos, resulting in a huge profit margin for them. As a result, they enjoy special treatment, such as free luxury suites and lavish personal attention.  "sa"

To protect the casino from fraud, there are several security measures in place. One of the most important measures is a comprehensive surveillance system. This includes cameras that monitor every table, window, and doorway. The cameras can focus on suspicious patrons and record video feeds for later review. Another common security measure in a casino is the use of computers in slot machines. This way, payouts are determined by computer chips in the machine rather than by the dealer.

The word "casino" has many meanings, ranging from gambling games to a type of dance in Cuba. Today, the modern-day casino is the world's largest gambling industry. The industry is estimated to generate $12 billion per year. This is expected to grow even more as it becomes more popular. However, in a trend of extreme luxury, online casinos are only available to the rich. So, what are the advantages of casinos?

Comps are another way to reward frequent gamblers. Generally, casinos have clubs similar to frequent-flyer programs. Computers in casinos track the habits of people and tally up points that can be exchanged for free slot play, free drinks, or discounted tickets to live shows. Comps also help the casinos generate marketing revenue as the programs develop patron databases for advertising and trends. They are a popular way to retain and attract customers and reward regular players.

The word "casino" actually means "country house" in Italian. The 'ino' means "small house." In Italy, country houses were the most likely places where gambling took place. It's thought that these large buildings were also used as dance clubs. But these days, casinos are generally attached to hotels. There are a lot of advantages to owning your own casino. Just make sure to do your research. You'll be glad you did.

The casinos accepted all bets within their established limits. This ensures that patrons cannot win more money than the casino can afford to pay. Furthermore, since the casino has a mathematical expectation of winning, they rarely lose money on any game. Moreover, they regularly offer extravagant inducements to big bettors, including free drinks and cigarettes. And, of course, the gambling industry thrived in this era. So, you'll find many examples in history to make your casino experience a memorable one.

Until recently, gambling was illegal in the U.S. Most casinos were operated illegally. But in the late 1970s, gambling was legalized in Atlantic City and Iowa. These states, along with many Native American tribes, figured they could profit from gambling by opening casinos. Eventually, casino gambling spread to other states, and in 1996, the state of New Jersey became one of the first to legalize commercial gambling. There are a lot of reasons for this.