#already release date in japan but usa waits another day

[mysticdragon3md3]

Fanart of FE3H Dimitri and Claude dressed as Engage's Alfred and Fogato by hksi1pin✨️✨️✨️:

https:// twitter.com /hksi1pin/status/1616109355526676482?t=g5iq26iWy5skTCpyifFv6A&s=19

[goldstarnation]

MARCH 2020 GOLD STAR MEDIA SCHEDULES & REVIEW

Members may earn 3 points each (up to 6 points) for writing, by the end of April 7 KST:

A solo para of 400+ words based on their monthly schedule (does not count toward your monthly total).

A thread of six posts (three per participant, including the starter) based on their monthly schedule.

Threads do not have to take place directly during an important date listed on the schedule, but must be related to what the muse is mentioned to be doing in the paragraph explaining their schedule/the company’s schedule for the month and/or their thoughts on the mentioned activities or lack thereof.

These schedules may be updated throughout the month if new information needs to be added.

Reminder: February schedule posts are due by the end of March 7 KST.

Overall Company

There’s not much to report at Gold Star this month. Idols are doing well, with different groups and soloists in different phases of touring or comebacks or, more likely, preparation for one of the two. It feels like the higher-ups are comfortable with the company’s successes, but comfortable isn’t always a good thing when any other company would be happy to take Gold Star’s spot.

Important dates:

N/A

Gold Star Soloist 1

After much wait from fans, she’ll be releasing a single this month. It’s a pre-release for her album and having no music video doesn’t stop it from being the great success all of her releases are and hitting number one. It seems to be a good omen for the rest of the album, though nothing less was expected from management or her fans. This month, she’ll be focused on promoting the single before she finishes up album preparations next month.

Important dates:

March 15: Release of “Love Poem”, promotions continue until April 15.

Gold Star Soloist 2

The first stop of her Korean tour last month went off without a hitch and now she’s back for another concert, this time in Gwangju (see January schedule for special stages). While she’s not known for having a very large core fan base, her concerts are popular with the general public, making for a full house for her performances and glowing critical reviews after the fact.

Important dates:

March 14: I AM : RE-BORN tour concert at Kimdaejung Convention Center in Gwangju, South Korea.

Gold Star Soloist 3

“Love Die Young”, which he’s releasing next month won’t have a music video featuring him, as Gold Star has instead opted for the low budget of a lyric video. He should take the extra time to get more than comfortable performing the song live this month. As it’s the last month before his comeback, most of his work is logistics work behind the scenes. Before his comeback, Gold Star also insists he film another cover video of the popular song “Bad Guy”. It’s a song that has found popularity in both Korea and the English-speaking market, so Gold Star wants it to get the attention of both audiences and expand his fan base.

Important dates:

March 22: Release of “Bad Guy” cover video.

March 30: Performance at Seoul Spring Festival Day Concert (see event).

Silhouette

To prepare for the release of their Japanese comeback next month, the members are tasked with filming the music video in the second half of March after learning the choreography in the first half. The music video is simple with choreography shots and singing shots with a total of two outfits that will be given to the members at the shoot instead of sending them through true fittings. It’s pretty low budget, but Gold Star expects to ride the hype of their recent tour in Japan to sell the song instead of a high promotional budget. Earlier in the month, they have a simple photo shoot for men’s magazine Arena Homme Plus.

Important dates:

March 9: Photo shoot for Arena Homme Plus’s April issue.

March 20: "Bad Girl For You” MV filming.

Aria

Aria will be holding their fanmeeting in the second half of the month. For the event, the members are asked to write a short note to fans that will be copied and distributed at the fanmeeting as well as provide management a short list of items they’d like to suggest be included in gift bags for fans at the fanmeeting. On top of fanmeeting preparations, Aria will be called into a concept meeting for their next album near the beginning of the month and will begin recording songs for the album shortly after. Their comeback is slated for June.

Important dates:

March 21: Aria Melodic Fanmeeting at Sejeong University Daeyang Hall in Seoul, South Korea.

March 30: Performance at Seoul Spring Festival Day Concert (see event).

Origin

Their schedule for the past few months has mainly consisted of CF filming and behind the scenes work, but beginning next month, Origin is back to meeting with their fans as they begin holding their Japanese fanmeetings. After their short break last month, they’re expected to be refreshed so that they can jump straight into dance and stage rehearsals for the fanmeetings. 

Important dates:

March 14: Japanese fanmeeting stage outfit fittings.

March 30: Performance at Seoul Spring Festival Day Concert (see event).

Impulse

Their Seven Secrets Fanfest in Bangkok falls around the middle of the month, so the members will have some additional time to practice the vocal or dance covers they’ve chosen for their specified date. Impulse is noted for being extremely popular in the country, so Impulse is expected to do their best to pay back some of their most loyal fans. The dates each member will get to perform their solo cover in the set list is as follows:

March 19: Maknae/main dancer/vocal

March 20: Lead rapper/lead dancer (1st show), Main vocal (2nd show)

March 21: Lead vocal/lead dancer (1st show), Lead rapper (2nd show)

March 22: Main rapper (1st show), Leader/main vocal/lead dancer (2nd show)

Important dates:

March 19: Seven Secrets in Bangkok Fanfest at Union Mall in Bangkok, Thailand (one show).

March 20: Seven Secrets in Bangkok Fanfest at Union Mall in Bangkok, Thailand (two shows).

March 21: Seven Secrets in Bangkok Fanfest at Union Mall in Bangkok, Thailand (two shows). 

March 22: Seven Secrets in Bangkok Fanfest at Union Mall in Bangkok, Thailand (two shows).

Fuse

Now that they’re back in Seoul from their Switzerland trip, it’s time for the Fuse members to begin preparing for their next concert tour. They will only hold the Seoul dates before they make their comeback, but most of the set list will be already existing songs, save for “La Rouge”, a new song that will be on their next album they will record this month in order to rehearse. The members haven’t heard the other new songs decided for their next album yet, but this will give away to the members and fans that they’re going for a more R&B sound than they did with the first two parts of the series. The leader/main rapper/lead dancer/vocal and the lead vocal/rapper will get solo dance section, while the main vocal will get a solo dance highlight near the end of Really Bad Boy (RBB). All members with solo releases will also get a solo stage to perform their most recently released solo song as of the time of the first concerts (please check here to see who this applies to and which song that will be).

Important dates:

March 30: Performance at Seoul Spring Festival Day Concert (see event).

Element

Now that their North America tour is finished, it’s full steam into comeback preparations. This month they’ll learn the choreography and spend hours rehearsing it until they have it down by heart. At the end of the month, they’ll pay a visit to their stylist to try on potential stage outfit and music video outfits. Since they have costumized outfits to fit the concept for this comeback, the fittings will be outside of Gold Star. They’ll be filmed both rehearsing the choreography and going to fittings for the accompanying comeback documentary.

Important dates:

March 21: MV and stage outfit fittings.

Femme Fatale

After BEE’s contract with Mise En Scene ended, Femme Fatale have been chosen as the new ambassadors of the hair brand. It’s an honor to follow in the footsteps of such a legendary group and they’ll film their first CF for the deal early in the month after returning from their Kuala Lumpur tour dates. They have one other tour date this month in Taipei that will be the last date of their Asia tour (and both  will continue to be filmed for their video diaries, along with comeback prep). After that, they return to Seoul for a short time to practice for their comeback and shoot their photo book pictures before flying out to New York from March 16-20 to make some television appearances performing songs from their last comeback and shoot covers for Billboard Magazine. After coming back to Seoul, they’ll shoot their individual teaser videos and film their comeback music video over two days.

Important dates:

March 1: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Malawati Indoor Stadium in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

March 4: Mise En Scene CF filming.

March 8: Femme Fatale In Your Area World Tour concert at Linkou Arena in Kuala Taipei, Taiwan.

March 10: Photo book [2] [3] [4] shoot.

March 16: Performance on The Late Show With Stephen Colbert in New York, NY, USA.

March 17: Cover photo shoot for Billboard magazine.

March 19: Performance on Good Morning America in New York, NY, USA.

March 19: Interview and performance on Strahan and Sara.

March 21: Kill This Love individual teaser videos [lead vocal] [main rapper] [main vocal] [main dancer] shoot.

March 22 & 23: “Kill This Love” MV filming.

[omdaily10]

WRAPPED UP

Guest Artist: Travie McCoy

Writers: Olly Murs, Claude Kelly, Steve Robson, Travie McCoy

Producers: Steve Robson

Album: Never Been Better

Release Date: 16/11/2014

B-Side: ‘Wrapped Up (Cahill Radio Mix)’ (Credits as above)

Chart Positions: #3 (UK), #1 (Japan), #2 (Scotland), #3 (Belgium), #7 (Ireland), #9 (Czech Republic), #11 (Germany), #15 (Australia), #15 (Poland), #16 (Finland), #16 (Slovakia), #17 (Netherlands), #18 (Switzerland), #18 (Spain), #21 (Austria), #21 (Sweden), #40 (USA)

Sales: 600k (UK, Platinum), 35k (Australia, Gold), 40k (Sweden, Platinum)

A lot can happen inside a year, particularly in a world so fickle and trend dominated as pop music. Hence having been everywhere and anywhere for much of the previous year, 2014 was, by comparison, a very quiet time indeed for Olly. In fact, the only signs of him still being present in the public eye came in the form of a couple of one-off charity appearances, and also that June, at his now bi-annual venturing out onto the pitch at Old Trafford for Soccer Aid, a celebs and pros football match raising money for UNICEF (Olly has played five times in total for the England team now, and captained them to a win at the 2018 match).

For the first time since the start of his career, he was able to go take time out purely to focus on music (and in his words 'grow a beard and get fat'), hence the first nine months of 2014 were spent cooped up in the studio, writing and recording the songs that would go onto make his fourth album. Things certainly changed in a big way, for during the time Olly was away, there seemed to be a sudden explosion of solo male competition in the charts.

Ed Sheeran was now the biggest popstar on the planet, having just released his multi-platinum second album 'X' and huge hits like ‘Sing’ and ‘Thinking Out Loud’, and Sam Smith and George Ezra both released their debut efforts this year. It was clear that whatever Olly decided to come back with, it would have to make as big an impact as possible to remind people he was still at the top of his game despite being away for the best part of a year.

So already there was a lot riding on 'Wrapped Up' even before he unveiled it with a world exclusive first play on national radio at the beginning of that October. Coming off the back of the biggest selling album of his career to date, it made business sense on paper to repeat the formula of that album's trajectory again - launching the album with a killer floor filling pop stormer that just so happens to have an international guest star on it, even if some critics suggested it was a lazy move.

Owing sonic motifs to disco classics by Evelyn 'Champagne' King and - in a spooky forbearing of his future work, though he didn't know it then - Nile Rodgers and Chic, 'Wrapped Up' was a guitar driven dance pop funk workout with a stormer of a chorus and a cheekily placed double entendre involving locks and keys that screamed chart topper from the first play. The appearance of a guest rap from Travie McCoy, the lead rapper and founder of Gym Class Heroes, who had also scored big success with Bruno Mars on his worldwide hit 'Billionaire' in 2010, enhanced its credentials further.

One thing that Olly had also quietly achieved in the UK - without anyone realising it at the time - was the unique distinction of being the only British male solo artist to notch up a number one single with each lead release from a brand-new album. It surely stood to reason then, that 'Wrapped Up' would be joining that list and making it four in a row. However, several changes of circumstance meant this didn't go according to plan.

International promo was the focus from quite early on in the campaign, with the single being released and promoted in Australia first before we got it here in the UK. It meant that no thanks to an administrative error at Sony Music - who'd been slowly releasing select tracks off the new album as 'Instant Grat' teasers - that 'Wrapped Up' was mistakenly available for a couple of days to download off the UK store of iTunes two whole weeks before its official UK release date. One can only speculate what might have happened had they corrected the error sooner - but then this was compounded by another turn of events.

With just over a week to go until release, Olly then recieved a call from music legend Sir Bob Geldof, the man who'd put together the historic Band Aid single 'Do They Know It's Christmas' and subsequent Live Aid concerts to raise money for those living in developing countries. Olly was asked if he wanted to appear on the 30th anniversary recording alongside the likes of Bono, Chris Martin, One Direction, Rita Ora and Ed Sheeran, and he duly obliged.

As he returned to The X Factor live shows to launch 'Wrapped Up' proper with a homecoming performance on its release date of 16th November 2014, Sir Bob was there too to give the first play on terrestrial TV of the video for the Band Aid 30 recording of 'Do They Know It's Christmas'. He jokingly apologised to Olly on air after his interview with Dermot O’Leary, who now knew full well that 'Wrapped Up' was set to miss out on the top spot.

Seven days later, and this is exactly what happened. Even outsold by 'Real Love', the then new single from contemporary dance pop outfit Clean Bandit, who'd had a phenomenal year with their hit 'Rather Be' with Jess Glynne (and whose then violinist, Neil Amin Smith, was incredibly vicious about Olly on social media at the time, stating he was only fit for a low rent musical theatre career. He left the band over a year later and hasn’t been heard from since. Go figure), 'Wrapped Up' had to be content with a #3 debut and peak - still a great chart position, but by no means what was needed at this point.

It meant that Olly was on the UK's number one single that week, but just not the one he intended, with Band Aid 30 selling over a quarter of a million copies to top the chart, despite a heft of negative reviews and feedback from music critics, social commentators and soapbox preachers alike for the new version of 'Do They Know It's Christmas' on Twitter. Along with ‘Wrapped Up’, it was absent from the top 10 by the time Christmas came.

Despite the chart topping success of the parent album, and being a top 20 hit in thirteen other countries (including Japan, where it gave him his first chart topper), it was clear from the performance of ‘Wrapped Up’ that things had slipped a bit compared to the mammoth fanfare that had greeted ‘Troublemaker’ two years previously, and it wasn’t unfair to say that Olly suddenly had something to prove five years into his career. Fortunately, another huge single was waiting in the wings to quell those doubts...

OTHER THOUGHTS

A remix from top dance DJ and producer Cahill was the main B-side on both the digital bundle and the Europe only CD single. UK fans were also treated to the non-rap version of ‘Wrapped Up’ and a special acoustic rendition of the track recorded for the website of Fabulous, the free glossy magazine that comes inside the Sunday edition of British national newspaper The Sun. Olly has appeared on its cover more times than any other male star to date – since 2011 he’s made a total of seven appearances.

[wolfgabe]

Nintendo E3 2019 Thoughts  Part 1The Direct

ce Okay so with yesterday behind us I felt I might as well offer my own opinions on the main event of the day the Nintendo Direct.

To start off I like how rapid fire a lot of Nintendo’s Directs have become. While it’s not as flashy as a full blown conference it pretty much cuts out most of the padding and helps make things arguably more focused. I wasn’t expecting them to cram so much in within 40 minutes and I admit I thought at times they would do a Smash Ultimate and spend a bunch of time on one title which of course never happened now then onto the games themselves

Dragon Quest Hero or should I say Dragon Quest Gang for Smash. Pretty much something most of us expected. Personally I have nothing against Erdrick and Pals and it was inevtiable really that we got Dragon Quest representation in Smash considering how in Japan DQ is pretty much on the same level as Call of Duty, Fortnite, and Minecraft here in the States. As easy as it is to complain about more anime sword boys when you look at it DQ was pretty much one of our only options for an additional SE rep considering how stingy SE is with Final Fantasy as well as the fact that Sora is pretty much a massive legal minefield for obvious reasons. I kinda find it clever really that rather than just represent 1 game they instead use the Hero as a means to represent the entire Dragon Quest series as whole.

Following that up fittingly is another trailer for Dragon Quest 11

Doug Bowser makes his E3/Direct debut and already the memes are out in full force

H̶o̶t̶e̶l̶ ̶M̶a̶r̶i̶o̶ ̶2̶/Luigis Mansion 3 is looking great. Seriously I just love how clean everything looks. It’s almost like the Luigis Mansion Dark Moon Artwork come to life/ Too bad we didn’t an actual release date but really for a game like this I would be surprised if they don’t go for  an October release.

A Dark Crystal Game That was unexpected

Link’s Awakening now with Dungeon Maker. Seriously I can’t help but keep imagining a Zelda spinoff that’s basically a Zelda themed Dungeon Keeper

Trials of Mana and Collection of Mana Not exactly my cup of tea but it’s cool seeing The Mana Collection available on Switch right away

Witcher III for Switch. Another rumor that  turned out true. Bring on all the oerformance jokes and PC master race trolls. Panic Button doesn’t appear to be handling this one but I can’t help but wonder what sorcery they used to get this game running on Switch

Fire Emblem Three Houses Not really big on FE myself. I get why some people are complaining they basically spoiled the big twist but I figure that Nintendo may have did it on purpose to show fans that it’s not just Harry Potter with a Fire Emblem Skin

More Resident Evil love for Switch which is nice although I can’t help but wonder why they chose a port of RE6 over the remake of RE2

No More Heroes III another bit of a surprise. I admit for a second I thought I was looking at some new Power Rangers mech game. Great to see after Travis Strikes Again

That new Contra game looks eggghhhh but its cool we are getting the Contra collection too

Daemon x Machina. I actually did get some enjoyment out of the demo and what I saw with the mech customization looks interesting but I seriously hope they fixed the framerate in the final release.

Panzer Dragoon Another one that came out of nowhere. Switch has been seeing quite the amount of Sega love. Now if only we could get a Sega Ages port of Daytona USA

Pokemon Sword and Shield get a brief shoutout. Figured they wouldn’t spend too much time on it considering how it just got a direct last week. And like that the R34 crowd has already abandoned Sonia for Nessa go figure.

Astral Chain got a new trailer. Pretty interesting game and no doubt it will probably have an insanely over the top final boss as with fine Platinum tradition

Empire of Sin pretty interesting management/strategy game looks like it might be worth a shot when it comes out.

Marvel Ultimate Alliance 3 Not a big Marvel person but personally I think its a bit funny really that UA3 has better models than the SE Avengers game.

Cadence of Hyrule Finally have a release date and its right at the end of E3 which is cool

Mario and Sonic at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games. Figured they would give a shoutout to this game.  Eggman looks surprisingly hot in shorts.  Why is nobody talking about the majesty of Barefoot Wario?

Animal Crossing New Horizons Finally the game pretty much everybody was waiting for. So it would appear Animal Crossing has now transformed into Minecraft. Jokes aside I can’t help but love the idea that you are pretty much now building the town yourself and populating the island from scratch. Okay actual path creation tools and the ability to place furniture outside this is too much. It’s kind of a bummer the game won’t be out till next March but its understandable really considering how packed Switches release schedule looks for the rest of 2019.  Also Tom Nook being a greedy little shit as usual and where is Isabelle please don’t tell me Nintendo you forgot our precious doggo girl.

The obligatory switch game/port sizzle reel. Nice recap of things to come. Another MS game confirmed with Super Lucky’s Tale. Also the Spyro Reignited Trilogy has finally been confirmed for Switch and PC which is great.  Alien Isolation? didn’t expect to see that game get ported. Still no release date for A Hat in Time Switch though

Now for what is arguably the two biggest bombshells to come out of this presentation

First off, Banjo Kazooie in Smash. I cannot freaking believe it a character where the Grinch Leak actually ended up turning out to be right!!! I admit even I had my doubts that we would actually see this come to fruition since I never thought MS would be that chill about letting Banjo show up in a game hosted by one of their own competitors. Of course competitor may not be the right word here considering how surprisingly chummy MS and Nintendo have gotten with each other as of late. I can’t help but find a sense of inner happiness and satisfaction when my own theories and hunches end up being proven correct. I just knew there had to be a reason why Blast Corps and Jet Force Gemini spirits were found in the game files for Smash Ultimate never mind the fact that MS in their E3 schedule clearly suggested we should watch Nintendo’s own E3 presentation. I admit when I first saw that Jiggy bounce by I kinda started to lose my collective shit. The whole reveal was just so brilliant from the way they basically parodied their own trailer to how happy the DK crew was to see Banjo again. Its almost like Sakurai and Nintendo were reading everyone’s mind. I am really liking Banjo’s Smash design and how they basically went for more updated version of his classic look rather than just settle for the Nuts and Bolts design. A perfect way really to drive home the point that Banjo has pretty much come home. And I cannot believe it they actually got Grant Kirkhope himself on board to compose new music for Smash. I admit I am loving that Spiral Mountain remix and you can even make out bits and pieces from other Banjo levels too. I can’t wait to hear what else there is with Banjo. While I am mainly a Nintendo person I would just like to give thanks to Phil Spencer for helping make so many Nintendo and Smash fans wildest dreams finally come true. Now perhaps see if you get the original Banjo games as well as maybe a Nintendofied version of Rare Replay perhaps on Switch

And finally capping off the direct was the reveal that an actual follow up to The Legend of Zelda Breath of the Wild is now in development. When we will see this title in full I am not sure but the brief teaser looks like they are hinting that Ganondorf himself could be back from the grave. Now I am hearing how the devs say they were inspired by Red Dead Redemption 2 does that mean more detailed horse mechanics?

All in all I would rate Nintendo’s E3 Direct an 8/out of 10. A few points were docked from the Animal Crossing delay but there was still a lot of games that I am interested in due out in the near future as well as some wonderful surprises to boot. I would personally say Nintendo was probably the best part of E3 this year and they made me a very happy gamer

[aion-rsa]

The Rod Serling Christmas Movie You Never Saw

https://ift.tt/2LtOQF3

A Christmas Carol is the definitive Christmas story. Yes, you might try and argue it’s the nativity, but the volume of movie adaptations begs to differ, and I can tell your heart’s not in it. And yes, I see those of you rushing to the comments to tell us it’s Die Hard and I think you’re very big and clever.

But A Christmas Carol has everything, all the trappings of Christmas, that sliver of darkness running through the whole thing, and above all a strong seasonal message to remind us what Christmas is about.

The story has been reimagined and retold endless times since Charles Dickens’ book came out, from textually accurate recreations such as A Muppet Christmas Carol (seriously) to modern-day reimagining like the Bill Murray vehicle, Scrooged.

And across all of these different retellings, the seasonal message is usually the first casualty. Scrooge’s lesson is often softened into “charity is good” or “don’t be mean to people”, or, at its worst, Scrooge’s sin is made out to be that he doesn’t like Christmas.

But A Christmas Carol itself is unflinching in its look at poverty, and poverty as a direct result of the actions of the powerful, and Scrooge’s argument for “decreasing the surplus population” still wouldn’t look out of place in several mainstream journalism outlets today. Very few adaptations of the book, even the faithful ones, capture the anger that runs through the original story. It’s not a general anger at the idea of “meanness”. It’s a very specific anger targeting political ideas and rhetoric that people held then and now.

Over a hundred years later, Rod Serling was another writer who wasn’t afraid of using his writing to express political anger. Anyone who’s seen even a handful of episodes of The Twilight Zone will know Serling used his platform to target McCarthyism, war, bigotry, and conformity.

The opening narration of one of the most famous episodes, ‘To Serve Man’, reads:

“The world went on much as it had been going on, with the tentative tip-toeing alongside a precipice of crisis. There was Berlin to worry about, and Indo-China and Algeria and all the other myriad of problems, major and minor, that somehow had lost their edge of horror because we were so familiar with them.”

That atmosphere of dull, routine, existential terror will sound familiar to anyone who has just lived through the post-2016 Hell Years.

But while Serling was determined that The Twilight Zone would tell stories about the issues he cared about, he also had to fight tooth and nail against networks and advertisers that wanted nothing less than to be associated with anything “political”. So Serling’s political messages were frequently veiled in magic, “Men from Mars” and hypothetical futures.

So it’s surprising that, in all 156 original Twilight Zone episodes, most of them written by Rod Serling himself, that the show never tried its own twist on the classic Christmas story that was in many ways tailor-made for the Twilight Zone treatment.

Except Rod Serling did write his own take on A Christmas Carol, as a TV movie featuring Peter Sellers, and it’s been almost completely forgotten.

A Carol for Another Christmas

A Carol for Another Christmas was a TV movie, aired on the American Broadcasting Company on the December 28 1964. It was the first in a planned series of movies promoting the United Nations. The final one of these films, about a UN narcotics agent, is believed to be the last story written by Ian Fleming before his death.

Read more

Movies

A Christmas Carol: The Best and Worst Adaptations

By Robert Keeling

That A Carol for Another Christmas was part of this series is probably why Serling was free to be far more openly and explicitly political than we’ve seen in even the angriest episodes of The Twilight Zone. It takes the line “Mankind was my business!” from Charles Dickens’s story, and turns it into a tale about America’s role on the international stage. It doesn’t linger on the trimmings of Christmas, instead taking a long, hard look at the dead, the dying and the suffering. At times it feels like a Christmas special from the makers of Threads.

The film also boasts a turn by Peter Sellers as a terrifying post-apocalyptic cult leader.

Peter Sellers appears in a modern remake of A Christmas Carol penned by the writer of The Twilight Zone and Planet of the Apes seems like a genuine piece of television history, and yet it’s virtually impossible to find today. Since its first broadcast in 1964, the film was only available to view at the Paley Center for Media in New York and Los Angeles and the UCLA Film and Television Archive in Los Angeles, and rare bootleg copies.

In 2012 TCM broadcast it for the first time since its original showing, and has done annually since, and has made it available for limited-time on-demand streaming via TCM.com. But there has never been a home video or DVD release and the film has never been broadcast elsewhere.

So as we go into a recap of the film itself, we’ll issue the standard spoiler warning, but also beware that if you’re waiting to watch it yourself you might have a long search ahead of you.

Three Very Different Ghosts

Watching A Carol for Another Christmas is a strange experience. The film is both frighteningly relevant but also weirdly dated, and extremely of its time. The structure of the story is the one you already know.

Scrooge- here called “Daniel Grudge”, is approached by his nephew, argues with him about Christmas, then is approached by three ghosts bearing the three usual messages, “You weren’t always this way”, “Others are not like you”, and finally “This is what will happen if you continue this way”.

Grudge, a wealthy industrialist, is approached by his nephew, Fred, who is furious because Grudge has put a stop to a foreign academic exchange scheme, and we’re already seeing here where Serling is leaving the source material behind.

Grudge’s sin isn’t mere miserliness. He’s an all-out American isolationist. He wants the foreigners to stay behind their fences while America stays behind its own, and Fred’s argument that America has no choice but to engage in the international community falls on deaf ears.

Grudge’s motive for this is that his son, Marley, is a soldier who has died fighting a war elsewhere (based on the timing we can reasonably guess it’s Vietnam). He’s angry that every 20 years the US gets dragged into a foreign war, and sees the UN and foreign exchange schemes and similar as getting involved in and giving handouts to places where it isn’t America’s business. His ideal is for the USA to stay behind its fence, building faster jets and bigger bombs so that other countries know to leave it alone.

After seeing a brief apparition of Marley, Grudge is transported to a boat, filled with coffins covered in the flags of different nations. The Ghost of Christmas past that introduces himself to us is as the war dead. Not just the American war dead, but an amalgamation of everyone who ever died in a war.

In a line that will have unexpected resonance for modern viewers, Grudge describes the war dead as a “sucker brigade”.

It’s a fascinating but confusing exchange. Serling, through his stories and his words, was openly against the Vietnam War, and yet his proxy, the Ghost of Christmas Past, makes a passionate case for America’s involvement in foreign wars “every twenty years” with a clear nod towards the combat in Vietnam. Ultimately, the Ghost of Christmas Past is arguing for the importance of talking. “When you don’t talk, you fight,” he says.

The most chilling moment comes when the Ghost reminds Grudge of his comment that other countries need to know America “isn’t too chicken to use the bomb”, and points out that they already know it.

The next scene takes Grudge back to his naval service, inspecting a hospital in Hiroshima after the bomb was dropped, and for a piece of 1960s prime-time Christmas viewing, it does not pull its punches. Rod Serling served in the occupational force in Japan and he has no time for sugar-coating this.

A doctor introduces young Grudge to Japanese children who looked up as the bomb detonated and had their faces flash burned off. The film lingers on these children and refuses to move on until you get a sense of the true horror of Hiroshima. It’s something you can’t picture TV doing today, and definitely not on ABC on the 28th of December.

“Watching Makes all the Difference”

The Ghost of Christmas Present at first seems far more like the one we remember from the Muppets. A man in a dressing gown gorging himself on a banquet. The Ghost of Christmas Present isn’t here to take Grudge on a rooftop flight, however- even with 1960s TV budget permitting.

Read more

TV

How The Twilight Zone Influenced Are You Afraid of the Dark?

By Chris Longo

Instead, the dark background lights up to reveal this banquet table is right next to the barbed wire fence of an internment camp for displaced peoples, another image that is horribly resonant for modern audiences. As Grudge criticises the ghost for eating his feast while starving refugees watch, the Ghost simply responds that the “watching makes all the difference”.

Once again, Serling isn’t here to talk about “the needy” as some vague concept to make people feel better about themselves. He talks about giving people around the world vaccinations for their children, rolls off figures such as 13 million people with tuberculosis, 130 million with malaria, three billion suffering from hunger. He talks about people closing their windows as violent crimes occur in the street- mere months after the murder of Catherine Susan Genovese, the story which would eventually lead to the codifying of the “By-Stander Effect”.

The Ghost of Christmas Past says “You were not always like this”, the “you” is America, the “were not always like this” is (even with Hiroshima) a somewhat rose-tinted view of America’s foreign policy interventions.

The Ghost of Christmas Present says “Others are not like you”, and in this case shows us the suffering around the world and the USA’s responsibility to it.

Anyone who’s seen a version of A Christmas Carol before knows what comes next, and it doesn’t take a Ghost of Christmas Future to guess what the next vision will entail.

Grudge finds himself in his local town hall, a bombed-out wreck. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come, a far more verbose spirit of Christmas future than we’ve come to expect, points out that in this future people have “less need for a platform for debate”.

One of the things that most jars with a modern audience watching this film, aside from an oddly uncritical perception of America’s role on the world stage, is the film’s constant refrain that “debate” is a good thing. In this film “debate” is what you do instead of fighting, it’s a way to find compromise, to solve problems. It rings very strangely in a time when “debate” is mostly associated with rhetorical games played in bad faith, and the idea we have some sort of duty to listen to and validate even the most toxic ideas.

We learn, unsurprisingly, that when the talking stopped the fighting started, and now the last few humans are living in the radioactive ruins of the civilisation that came before.

Then we meet Peter Sellers’ character, the Imperial Me. This is Sellers at his most comic and sinister, dressed up like an 18th-century pilgrim wearing a huge hat with “ME” written on it in giant sequins. Sellers is leading a horde of post-apocalyptic cultists to war against a nearby community that wants to “talk” and “debate”. The Imperial Me takes Grudge’s philosophy to its ultimate extreme, all that anyone should look out for is themselves. The Individual Me is above all, and after this tribe has killed off all the other rival tribes, they will set to killing each other, until the last individual is alone in the perfect society.

I’ve friends who work in the NHS with patients who won’t wear a mask “because it protects you, it doesn’t protect me”, so this scene hasn’t lost any of its bite.

Anyway, you know how the story goes from here. Grudge asks if these are things that will be or things that may be. He wakes up at home on Christmas morning. He reconciles with his nephew, admitting that “no man is an island”.

Read more

TV

The Twilight Zone Forever: Celebrating 60 Years of Rod Serling’s Classic Anthology

By Anne Serling

But one thing this version misses is Grudge doesn’t then go on to eat a fabulous feast with his family. Instead, he takes his morning coffee in the kitchen, while his black servants work around him (and probably wish he’d sod off back to his study). It’s an oddly sparse ending compared to what we’re used to with our Christmas Carols.

Carols for Other Christmases

At the time this strange, didactic retelling of A Christmas Carol saw mixed reactions. It’s a film that doesn’t mind lecturing its audience, and quite a few reviewers took against it for that. The right-wing advocacy group the John Birch Society particularly took against it, organising a letter-writing campaign against the film before it was even broadcast.

Is the film preachy? Hell yes. But so is the source material. Where it differs from the source material is that it offers far less comfort, far less of the warmth we see with Fred and Fezziwig and Bob Cratchit, while the threats it warns of are a great deal more severe.

Perhaps it’s a film that is most interesting as an artefact of a particular time and the anxieties it had.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

But also it’s an example of the power of Charles Dickens’s story when it’s allowed to be more than a twee festive tradition. It’s a story that should have a sharp political bite as much as warm fuzzy nostalgia. As much as it’s a Christmas story, A Christmas Carol is a ghost story, and ghost stories are meant to be scary.

The post The Rod Serling Christmas Movie You Never Saw appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3ncuoXn

[newstfionline]

Thursday, November 5, 2020

Presidential election: Race to 270 electoral votes still on (USA Today) By early Thursday, Joe Biden led with 264 electoral votes to 214 for President Trump, both short of the 270 necessary to win the presidency. Biden also had an edge in the popular vote. The Trump campaign announced Wednesday it is pursuing court actions to stop ballot counting in Michigan and Pennsylvania, and to prevent the counting of absentee ballots in Georgia that it claims arrived after an Election Day deadline. Launching a multi-state legal battle to secure a second White House term over Biden, the campaign also made plans to seek a recount in Wisconsin.

World waits nervously, impatiently for US vote count (AP) From Ford Model T cars that popped off the assembly line in just 90 minutes to 60-second service for burgers, the United States has had a major hand in making the world a frenetic and impatient place, primed and hungry for instant gratification. So waking up to the news Wednesday that the winner of the U.S. election might not be known for hours, days or weeks—pundits filled global airwaves with their best guesses—came as a shock to a planet weaned on that most American of exports: speed. But as world leaders generally refrained from commenting on the outcome until it was clear, the particularly fractious and contested nature of the vote was already sparking concerns overseas that the superpower’s sharp divisions and internal conflicts exposed by the election might endure long after the winner is declared. “The battle over the legitimacy of the result—whatever it will look like—has now begun,” said the German defense minister, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer. “This is a very explosive situation. It is a situation of which experts rightly say it could lead to a constitutional crisis in the U.S.,” she said on ZDF television. “That is something that must certainly worry us very much.” Overall, uncertainty ruled. In the vacuum of no immediate winner, there was some gloating from Russia, Africa and other parts of the world that have repeatedly been on the receiving end of U.S. criticism, with claims that the election and the vote count were exposing the imperfections of American democracy. “Africa used to learn American democracy, America is now learning African democracy,” tweeted Nigerian Sen. Shehu Sani, reflecting a common view from some on a continent long used to troubled elections and U.S. criticism of them.

Fighting words (NYT) The disputed election was a “sham” and a blow to democratic traditions. The country was in “a crisis,” as rival electoral candidates had both declared victory. There were “convincing reports of serious irregularities with ballot counting and reporting of election results.” For four years, the U.S. government has offered stern words on disputed elections around the world. The condemnations fit into an American tradition of promoting democracy that dates to World War II and using pressure to fight autocratic rivals. The U.S. presidential election, which pits President Trump against Democratic challenger Joe Biden, looks to be as tense as any U.S. vote in living memory. Trump has previously refused to commit to a “peaceful transition of power.” With disputes over mail-in ballots and the electoral college likely to dominate the post-election discussion, U.S. democracy is already being called into question by election observers from groups such as the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. Experts like Sarah Repucci, vice president of research and analysis at Freedom House, warn that other nations will be watching closely. “There’s an issue where people will say: ‘Well, who are you to tell us what to do?’ “ Repucci said. “ ‘You’re not doing it right yourself.’”

Some Americans say they want to leave if Trump wins again (USA Today) Some Americans have threatened to move to another country depending on the election outcome Tuesday, reminiscent of the dismay they felt after the 2016 presidential contest results. But not everyone ditched the USA as they claimed they would, including actor Samuel L. Jackson and comedian Jon Stewart. One sheriff in Ohio, Richard K. Jones, is already mocking celebrities who said they’d leave four years ago but didn’t. Now he’s offering a one-way ticket for them out of the country. Still, record numbers of Americans have wanted to flee in the U.S. in recent years during President Donald Trump’s administration, according to Gallup’s World Poll in 2019. The 16% of Americans who said in 2017 and again in 2018 that they would like to permanently move to another country is higher than the average levels during either the George W. Bush (11%) or Barack Obama administrations (10%). The number of Americans, particularly young women, who say they desire to leave the U.S. permanently is on the rise. In fact, 40% of women younger than 30 say they would like to leave, the study showed. An estimated 9 million U.S. citizens live overseas as of 2019, according to the State Department.

Hurricane Eta weakens to a tropical storm as it sets course toward US Gulf Coast after slamming Nicaragua (CNN) Tropical Storm Eta still has days of devastation in store for Central America, and after lingering there the storm is set to move on to the US coast. Reports of Eta’s catastrophic damage from rains, winds and flooding in Nicaragua and Honduras have begun to roll in, but it could be days until residents there are able to survey the totality of the impact. The slow-moving storm made landfall along the coast of Nicaragua as a Category 4 hurricane Tuesday afternoon. Eta had maximum sustained winds near 140 mph at landfall, but by Wednesday morning had dropped to tropical storm status with 70 mph winds, according to the National Hurricane Center. Though it has weakened, the storm will linger over the region for the coming days, bringing “catastrophic, life-threatening flash flooding, river flooding and mudslides,” according to the NHC.

Pints poured, retail therapy: England readies for lockdown (AP) Thirsty drinkers in England will be enjoying their final freshly poured pints in a pub for a month Wednesday while shoppers will get one last dose of retail therapy as the country prepares to join large swathes of Europe in lockdown as part of intensified efforts to contain the resurgent coronavirus. Pubs, along with restaurants, hairdressers and other retailing outlets deemed to be selling non-essential items, such as books and sneakers, will have to close their doors Thursday until at least Dec. 2 following a sudden change of course last weekend by the British government. Prime Minister Boris Johnson had for weeks argued in favor of more regional strategies to contain the virus, but said he had to be “humble in the face of nature.” England’s lockdown follows similar restrictions elsewhere in the U.K. and across Europe, as nations grapple with mounting new COVID-19 infections and clear signals that the number of people being hospitalized—and subsequently dying—from the virus are increasing,

Austrian attacker named (Foreign Policy) Austrian police have arrested at least 14 people in connection with Monday’s terrorist attacks in Vienna, which left four dead and 22 wounded. The arrests came as authorities identified the man they believe to be the sole assailant, Kujtim Fejzulai, a 20-year-old Austrian who had served time in prison for attempts to join the Islamic State in Syria. The Islamic State has claimed responsibility for the attack, although it is not yet known to what extent Fejzulai was affiliated with the group.

Spain’s former king Juan Carlos faces new corruption allegations (Guardian) Spain’s attorney general has instructed supreme court prosecutors to investigate new corruption allegations against the country’s disgraced former king. Juan Carlos, who abdicated in 2014, is already under investigation over his alleged role in a deal under which a Spanish consortium won a €6.7bn (£5.9bn) contract to build a high-speed rail line in Saudi Arabia. Reports emerged in March suggesting Juan Carlos had received a $100m (€88m) payment from Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah in 2008, three years before the contract was awarded. The king was covered by constitutional immunity while on the throne, but lost the protection when he stepped down to make way for his son, King Felipe. The attorney general’s office did not give details of the new investigation. Juan Carlos announced in August that he was going into exile to protect his son from further embarrassment. In a letter sent to Felipe and released by the royal house, Juan Carlos said he would move from Spain because of the “public repercussions that certain past events in my private life are causing”.

Facing pandemic economic woes, Nepal reopens to adventurers (AP) Adventurers looking to scale Nepal’s Himalayan peaks and trek its mountain trails can finally do so for the first time in seven months, as the country reopens to foreigners even as the coronavirus pandemic has left it short of hospital beds. Foreign visitors are a major source of income for Nepal and the closure has impacted the estimated 800,000 people who work in the tourism industry. For now the reopening will come with restrictions and mainly be limited to those seeking to climb or trek its famous peaks. Nepal is home to the eight of the 14 highest mountains in the world, including the tallest, Mount Everest.

China punishes Australia, again (Foreign Policy) The relationship between Canberra and Beijing hit another new low this week, after China effectively imposed tens of billions of dollars in trade curbs on wine, barley, sugar, and other goods—but wouldn’t admit to them. Imposing unofficial boycotts and increased costs is part of Beijing’s playbook, such as the harassment of South Korean firms after the decision to install a U.S. missile-defense system there. Such use of state power violates trade rules, but complaints aren’t likely to move the Chinese government.

As Japan moves to revive its countryside, pandemic chases many from cities (Reuters) When the coronavirus outbreak caused rice and instant noodles to disappear from supermarket shelves in Tokyo this year, Kaoru Okada, 36, decided to leave the capital because he was worried about food security. Okada settled in the central Japanese city of Saku, Nagano prefecture, about 160 kilometres (100 miles) northwest of Tokyo, maintaining his online retail and export business while growing vegetables in shared farms and threshing rice. “Living close to a food-producing centre and connections with farmers give me a sense of security,” Okada said. As the pandemic has pushed many companies to allow telecommuting, it has also caused population to flow out of Tokyo—the first time that has happened in years, the latest government data showed. The shift could boost Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga, who made revitalising Japan’s decaying rural regions a core plank of his socioeconomic platform. Despite a lack of jobs and infrastructure to support them, local governments and businesses have been trying for years—largely in vain—to draw more people to rural areas.

Ethiopia sends army into Tigray region, heavy fighting reported (Reuters) Heavy fighting broke out in Ethiopia’s Tigray region on Wednesday, diplomatic sources said, after the prime minister launched military operations in response to what he said was an attack on federal troops. In September, Tigray held regional elections in defiance of the federal government, which called the vote “illegal”. The row has escalated in recent days with both sides accusing each other of plotting a military conflict. Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed’s office said that early on Wednesday, the Tigray People’s Liberation Front (TPLF) tried to steal artillery and other equipment from federal forces stationed there. “The last red line has been crossed with this morning’s attacks and the federal government is therefore forced into a military confrontation,” it said, adding that the aim was to prevent instability engulfing the country and region. Tigrayans ruled Ethiopian politics since guerrilla fighters ousted a Marxist dictator in 1991, but their influence has waned under Abiy. Last year, the TPLF quit his ruling coalition. Since Abiy came to power in 2018, many senior Tigrayan officials have been detained, fired or sidelined, in what the federal government describes as a clamp-down on corruption but Tigrayans see as a means to quell dissent.

Ivory Coast police surround opposition leaders’ houses (Reuters) Police in Ivory Coast surrounded the houses of two of President Alassane Ouattara’s main rivals on Tuesday after the government accused them of sedition for creating a parallel administration in defiance of Ouattara’s landslide win in Saturday’s election. It was not immediately clear if anyone had been arrested. But the moves deepened a bitter standoff over the president’s bid for a third term that has cost more than 35 lives since August, including at least five during election day on Saturday. The dispute followed a campaign marred by violent clashes between Ouattara’s supporters and opponents that spurred fears of longer term unrest. More than 3,000 people were killed in a brief civil war that followed a 2010 election that brought Ouattara to power.

[attract-mode-collective]

Finally, The ET Video Game That You’ve Been Waiting For

Since there was no proper game culture wrap-up last week (again, sorry about that), along with how I’m filing this at the end of the week instead of the beginning (there’s… stuff happening, so consider this one of the more minor examples), there’s a lot to cover this time around. Including a bunch of happenings from the word of art.

So kicking things off is the latest from Amanda Visel X Michelle Valigura. Much like their Star Wars, Beetlejuice, and Heathers cabinets, here we their ideas of what arcade games based upon ET and Aliens could and should look like. And yeah, playing as Gertie is an approach that could salvage its reputation in the video game sphere, plus I totally want an Alien/Aliens video game starring Newt.

Actually, hasn’t something similar already happened? Sorry, haven’t kept up with the video adaptations; last one I played was for the Jaguar. Anyhow, and unfortunately, both pieces are sold out online. Though… and I’m not 100% certain, but… they’re both at the Thailand Toy Expo, so maybe they brought a few extras with them?

Elsewhere in Asia, Japan to be exact, are not just one but two other notable shows, and both focused on electronic entertainment. First is something you’re probably familiar with, the My Famicase Exhibition, and not just because it’s been around for 13 years. As of this writing, the entire assortment has yet to be shared officially, so you’ll have to turn to Twitter to see the participants boasting their own handiwork.

[UPDATE: 5/7/17] Actually, all the pieces are finally viewable on the Famicase homepage proper. Here are my faves…

… I particularly love Saturdays’s flavor text: “The gateway opens once a week. Tomorrow I’m going in.”

… You kinda need to see the actual cart in the wild to understand; here’s a pic courtesy of @mandimappy…

And finally...

… It’s maybe pointing out that the artist responsible for the concept above also did a piece for last year’s event as well, which ended up becoming something that’s actually playable! Hope history repeats itself cuz I really want a game about an all cat band with gross lyrics.

Now, the other show is something you may know nothing about, cuz a. the 16 Bit Models Exhibition has only been around for two years and b, was only open for just one day, hence why it’s fallen under many radars.

Admittedly, I found last year’s assortment a bit more up my alley, most due to my affinity for the obscure. Yet I can still appreciate this very realistic take on the Super Mario Bros (btw, am also sorry that I don’t know who’s responsible for what)…

Along with this realistic take on Pauline and Donkey Kong…

Yet the exhibition was a reminder that not every Nintendo game out there has been paid tribute to death, specifically Urban Champion…

The dioramas are easily the best parts of the 16 Bit Models Exhibition. Here’s an equally impressive one, featuring Castlevania…

Though once again, the obscurer the better, so this tribute to Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa gets a thumbs up from me…

Which is the lesser known game: Bio Miracle Bokutte Upa or City Connection? The latter at least was released on the NES at the time. Then again…

Moving onto fashion, UNIQLO recently unveiled an upcoming line based upon Mario and company. As one might expect from UNIQLO, they look quite nice! Here’s the campaign movie from Japan…

The best part is that UNIQLO’s entire line is headed towards the US! Was not expecting that. Alas, certain designs are not available to everyone, and I know more than a few adults who wouldn’t mind that Kirby tee. So here comes YUMMY MART to the rescue…

Somewhat along the same lines is Namco enlisting the talents of PAYNUS, who represents some of the esoteric offerings in the Pac-Store…

The constant reference to pizza is something that’s present in both the PAYNUS designs and Namco’s own in-house efforts…

Meanwhile, back at METEOR, in addition to the latest Famicase exhibit, they’ve also been busy with a collab with THUNDERBOX (which I highlighted just a few weeks ago). And from the looks of miki800.com’s post, MOUNTAIN GRAPHICS is also involved? Talk about a holy trinity…

Whereas the previous combination makes sense, the following is… unexpected. Recently discovered that R23X has teamed up with the The Yetee of all folks to produce a line of shirts showcasing glitched VHS stills. Including one that’s game related (technically two; there’s also a crop top version as well)…

Looks neat and all, but I’m less of a Final Fantasy 7 fan and more of a Wave Race 64 aficionado, and would therefore love to see this on a tee…

I’d also love to get my hands on one of these 100 yen pins that @rgb_club posted a couple weeks back, though no word on when it might be available…

Here’s another thing that’s not for sale, mostly cuz there was only one, which is of this baseball player made to look like a Street Fighter…

Which had the better Spinning Bird Kick; Street Fighter: The Legend of Chun-Li…

Or City Hunter (yup, that’s Jackie Chan; via tenshokyaku)…

Sticking with leggy video game stars, thanks to thevideogameartarchive, we finally have an answer as to whether Link is boxers or briefs…

And sticking with Link for just a bit more, I particularly dig nozovis’s summary of the fun times him and Zelda have in Breath of the Wild…

Along those same lines is a zine that @WPR_haru made that’s filled with all the photos he took, one that I’d love to have a copy of…

Which fan art featuring a character from behind do you prefer; this Breath of the Wild piece by James Kochalka…

Or this Overwatch piece by some unknown artist (if anyone knows, plz let me know)…

Here we have @RAStyle85’s Astro City with a lots of buttons, for playing whatever game that requires that many inputs…

And here we have former Taito graphic designer Atsushi Iwata’s custom-built device, for producing pixel graphics!

Such things were used in other places, like SNK. Here we have a quote from someone who worked there, courtesy of videogamesdensetsu…

“The sprite editor used by artists for a number of SNK fighting games (Art Box) was written for the Neo-Geo, and uses the Neo-Geo as the interface. As in, you would use the joystick and the buttons to draw the sprite. He didn’t believe this when he started there, until one of the higher ups showed him by firing up one of the machines and drawing a kickass sprite of Robert Garcia in like 10 minutes”.

Does the Art Box sound familiar? Well, it should be.

The latest from The Gaming Historian, on the creation of the d-pad, answers the one question I’ve had for ages: if Nintendo was able to patent the control input, how were Sega and others able to get away with something seemingly similar?

Remember the 8bit Harmonica from last week? Well here’s another project involving the Famicom by Ugoita that’s a bit more… random?

This post has gone on for far too long without any Sega. Time to fix that with some gifs of Sonic from Sega Saturn de Hakken!! Tamagotchi Park, which as you may have guessed is a Tamagotchi title in which you can raise Sonic (and sorry, chilli dogs was Sonic’s fave food in the US, though I believe Sonic Generations would later recon that; via pr0jectneedlemouse)…

Though you can also raise other Sega personalities, like Opa Opa and Alex Kidd, plus even a Mega Drive cart (via grooveonfight)?

Super obscure Sega humor doesn’t get more obscure than this folks (note to self: on the next car trip, bring along the soundtrack to Super Hang-On cuz repeated plays of OutRun and Daytona USA tunes can get old after a while; via dnopls)…

I know the following has been shared liked crazy (hell, even NPR posted the damn thing), and for good reason. All I can say is, Pikachu #14, get your sh*t together…

Speaking of Pikachu and his pals, The Pokemon Center released a line of Ditto Gachapon figures that are supa kawaii (via retrogamerblog)…

Though the one piece of plastic I want the most is the also recently unveiled Samus from Metroid Prime figure by Good Smile Company, which looks hella cooler than the previously released Other M Figma…

Am embarrassed to admit that I have no idea where this following screenshot is from, nor the tune that accompanies it, both courtesy of radicalhelmet. If anyone would be kind enough to clue me in, would be supremely appreciated…

I wonder what the cover girl of this issue of Spoon is playing (via sixteen-bit)…

And this week’s recommended reading comes courtesy of mah boi Don Miller, and is actually something that Oliver at Minus World also picked up on, which is a book produced by the creator of LSD: Dream Emulator, among other things, and someone I’ve mentioned quite a few times around these parts. It’s called The Art of Computer Designing: A Black and White Approach and is available via archive.org…

As someone who has always planned on transforming an old iMac into a fish tank, thanks to Phazed, I know have other ideas…

And finally, and I also know that I’ve been saying the same thing over and over again, but Super Attractive Club members will be receiving another round up game culture snapshots, hopefully very soon! Until then, please enjoy this still life courtesy of peazy86…

BTW, peazy86 also does music, plus music videos…

Don’t forget: Attract Mode is now on Medium! There you can subscribe to keep up to date, as well as enjoy some “best of” content you might have missed the first time around, plus be spared of the technical issues that’s starting to overtake Tumblr.

[wristwatchjournal]

The Statement Of Horological Position Mid-2020: Lockdown Lows And China Saves The Show

BY HARLAN CHAPMAN-GREEN

I think it’s fair to start this article by saying that 2020 turned out to be the year none of us was prepared for. The year began with a few passing news reports of a new virus being detected in China, but generally, all was rosy, and we were set for another year of fun. It feels like that was years ago now. Most of the world has been under some form of lockdown since March. Businesses have been closed, people staying at home safely and an army of healthcare, retail and distribution workers have been fighting to keep some form of normality going in the background. 2020 was not our year, and it certainly wasn’t the year for the Swiss watch industry, either. So, let’s take a closer look at how the Swiss watch industry performed. In the same way that a company has to provide a statement of financial position (or a balance sheet), WristReview provides for you its Statement of Horological Position.

Before we begin, we should mention that this only covers the Swiss watch industry and its exports to other countries, and does not include Japan, Germany or other exporters of wristwatches. Also, some figures represent exports to countries, and not necessarily business sales to the end consumer, and therefore cannot give an accurate representation of how individual companies are performing sales-wise, this article is not intended to compare different businesses. Finally, it should be noted that some export data from the FHS used in this article was provided to the FHS by the Swiss Federal Customs Administration and it is, therefore, possible for the figures to change.

A quick snapshot

The first thing to remember about this year is that we’ll be seeing some significant drops in statistics. Several of the top players including Rolex and Patek Philippe closed their factories and halted production altogether following advice from the Swiss government. 

Overall, in the first half of the year, Swiss watch exports fell by 35.7% compared to the same period last year, with exports reaching 6.9 billion Swiss Francs in value. The same period in 2019 saw exports valued at 10.7 billion Swiss Francs, which was a 1.4% increase on the previous year.

A total of 2.1 million mechanical wristwatches were exported in this period along with 3.4 million electronic watches. Compared to last year’s figures, this is a drop of 44.9%. The FHS figures do not differentiate the ‘electronic watches’ category into quartz timepieces and Swiss-made smartwatches such as TAG Heuer’s Connected model. 

As expected, every watch category based on value saw a decrease in exports. The FHS divides watches into separate groups based on their retail price (sub-CHF200, CHF200 – 500, CHF500 – 3000, over CHF3000). Watches priced under CHF200 were affected the most, with a drop of 55.4% in unit exports leading to a total value drop of 48.1%. The category affected the least was the CHF200 – 500 range, which saw a decline of 36.8% in unit exports creating a value drop of 36.5%.

In terms of exports by geographic regions, very little changed between January-June of 2020 and the same period in 2019. Asia still has the largest market share by continent, followed by Europe and the Americas. The ‘Rest of World’ category comprises Africa and Oceana, which have market shares totalling 0.7% and 1.3% respectively.

In the first half of the year, all of the five largest export nations saw a decrease in exports overall, with China having the smallest percentage decrease and Hong Kong the largest. According to the FHS figures, Hong Kong is now the third-largest export market, having dropped from being the largest in the same period last year. The USA is still ahead of China, Japan held on to its position as the fourth largest export market, and Singapore overtook the United Kingdom by 22.6 million Swiss Francs.

June 2020 saw a different order for the top 5 most significant export markets, with China being the only nation to see an increase in comparison to June 2019’s figures. Germany also replaced Japan in the fourth position and overall had the lowest decline in exports of the nations.

Cause & effect

I think the main factor involved in the decline of exports over the past six months should be clear to anyone who’s not been living under a rock for the past year. In June, China was the only country of the top 5 nations to post an increase in exports, an increase of nearly 50%. The FHS explains that this could well be because of China’s recovery from the Covid-19 outbreak, meaning they were just able to squeeze in a growth while every other nation posted a loss.

Dial R for ‘Rona – Alfred Hitchcock – 1954

Covid-19 is the most severe threat to human life at the moment. As such, all around the world governments have been advising (and forcing) people to stay in their homes. The last time people were told to stay at home on such a colossal scale in the UK, the sky was filled with German bombers. 

Switzerland was one of the first nations to respond with force if I recall correctly. Early on into the European outbreak, Switzerland banned all large scale gatherings, which put SIHH and Baselworld out of action. To further demonstrate to the world just how serious the threat was (and how serious the Swiss are about tackling it), multiple watch manufacturers closed their doors for a month or more.

Nearly all the major Swiss brands closed their doors for at least a month. Rolex, Tudor, Breitling, Zenith and Patek Philippe all announced they would be closing their doors. Surprisingly, the Swatch Group never officially closed its factories, but it did limit the amount of staff on the premises at any time, which limited production. This will have resulted in a monumental backlog of work that needs to be done, and anyone currently on a waiting list will have had their delivery time pushed back by at least a couple months while the manufacturers get themselves organised in a way that allows them to work and be socially distanced as well. Generally, watchmakers themselves aren’t too cramped together, at least for the bigger brands who can afford more space, so we’ll see what this means for those when things get fully back to normal.

When it came to model releases, we saw nearly the entirety of the industry take to online advertising to show off the new 2020 pieces. Almost every brand used the internet as a replacement for trade shows, except for Rolex and Tudor which decided to delay their releases until 2021. That was until they changed their minds and decided they would, after all, release their new pieces on the first of September. 

I, for one hope that this scenario has pushed onto manufacturers just how much they need to co-operate with large-scale watch press such as WristReview. We’re a unique part of the watch industry that is trusted by the audience and potential buyers to formulate opinions, but we also give constructive feedback that is very useful to watch manufacturers. We also spread the word about new timepieces, so it’s in their interest to work with us.

Baselworldy Snicket’s ‘A Series of Unfortunate Events’

I didn’t want to spend too long on this topic, but as this is one of the somewhat rare times where I as an author can speak solely for myself, I wanted to say that I was incredibly disappointed in the way the MCH Group dealt with the issues surrounding Baselworld earlier this year.

If you’re not familiar with what happened, when it became evident that Covid-19 was going to have a significant impact on the Swiss watch industry, the showrunners at Baselworld decided to move this year’s show to January of 2021. This wouldn’t have had much of an effect had Baselworld not already agreed to co-ordinate its dates with Watches & Wonders Geneva show (formerly SIHH). Watches & Wonders would run in Geneva under the new banner, and then Baselworld would open the day after Watches & Wonders finished so that it was a lot less hassle to get everyone to Switzerland for the big reveals.

However, where Watches & Wonders decided to cancel their show for 2020 altogether, Baselworld chose to postpone until January of 2021. This meant that all the exhibitors both big and small (Baselworld plays host to a wide array of boutique watchmakers and jewellery brands) had their deadlines for press-releases, staffing, costing and all manner of things brought forward by three months. When we visited Chopard back in 2017, we toured their factories the week before Baselworld, and it was chaos, very professional chaos, but chaotic nonetheless. To get everything ready for the show, get the staff together, get the funding sorted and then head over to Basel and get the booths designed and built (the brands assemble and deconstruct their display stands every year, rather than leaving them up) is a massive job that simply wasn’t going to be done in time for January.

Then there are the costs of Baselworld. There, the MCH group gave the exhibitors two options: either put nearly all their funds for this year into the 2021 show with the rest going to MCH, or receive a small refund with fewer funds going to next year’s show. When confronted by several brands who were, at this point, rather upset, the MCH Group said that it legally didn’t have to refund them at all. A terrible move indeed.

As a response, all the significant exhibitors that remained (Rolex, Tudor, Patek Philippe, Chopard & Chanel) turned their back on the MCH Group and decided to form their own show. This departure was soon followed by the remaining brands from the LVMH Group (Bulgari had already stated it wasn’t returning). A slew of panicked emails from the organisers at Baselworld seemed to be attempting to reinforce with us that all is well, despite everyone leaving. The last we heard from them, the organisers of Baselworld indicated they had somewhat arranged a plan with the brands that were going, but their email came across as if they felt they were in the right all along. I can guarantee you that, while legally they were correct, they handled the situation so poorly I’m amazed it happened at all, especially considering the amount of financial losses Baselworld has suffered recently.

In the same way that I feel the Swiss watch brands should respect us as valuable gears in the engine that is the Swiss watch industry, I also think that big corporate shows should not abuse their position and make wild claims about how useful they are. They are only there because the brands fund them, and that is the end of it.

The post The Statement Of Horological Position Mid-2020: Lockdown Lows And China Saves The Show appeared first on Wristwatch Journal.

from WordPress https://ift.tt/2OMBTEN via IFTTT

[hudsonespie]

Report: U.S. to Evacuate American Citizens from Diamond Princess

The U.S. government is making arrangements to evacuate American citizens from the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, a top official with the Centers for Disease Control has told the Wall Street Journal.

The State Department is arranging two flights with enough space to give the ship's 380 American passengers the opportunity to return to the U.S., according to Henry Walke, director of the CDC Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections. Those accepting the offer would be evaluated by a CDC health team in Japan, and if they pass a checkup, they would be flown to Travis Air Force Base in California. They would be required to wait in quarantine for an additional 14 days after returning to the U.S.

At least one passenger would rather wait it out. Matthew Smith, who has meticulously documented each shipboard meal on Twitter throughout the quarantine, noted that there are just a few days left until February 19, the date that Japanese authorities have said they will allow passengers to leave. 

"As long as the official plan by Japanese health officials is to release those of us who are still healthy from quarantine in just under four days, why would I want to interfere with that by taking up an offer from U.S. officials to fly us back to Travis AFB?" he wrote. "For me and my wife . . . we would like to just finish the quarantine on the ship as planned, decompress in a non-quarantine environment in Japan for a few days, then fly back to the U.S. pursuant to our own arrangements."

The process of disembarkation is already beginning: the Japanese government is giving some elderly passengers aboard the Diamond Princess the option of transferring to shoreside accommodations. On Friday, 22 out of the 3,500 people on board received permission to enter a quarantine site on shore, and 11 accepted. Only passengers over the age of 80 are eligible in the initial round, and priority is given for those with pre-existing conditions and those with interior cabins. 

218 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and have been evacuated from Diamond Princess so far. 11 of these identified patients are now in serious condition, according to Japan's Ministry of Health. 

Coronavirus fears lead to disruption for cruise lines in Asia

Taiwan has declared its ports temporarily closed to international cruise ships due to concerns over the novel coronavirus, and Vietnam appears to have followed suit. Norwegian Cruise Line told USA Today on Friday that Vietnam's ports are no longer open to cruise ships, and that this has forced the cancellation of an upcoming sailing of the vessel Norwegian Jade.

In addition, Vietnamese authorities did not give permission for the cruise ship AIDAvita to enter the port of Cai Lan on February 13-14, an AIDA spokesperson told USA Today. The vessel diverted to the port of Laem Chabang, Thailand instead. 

Like the Westerdam - another Carnival Corporation vessel that recently had difficulty finding port access in Asia - AIDAvita's passenger complement was reported to be in good health, with no suspected cases of coronavirus on board, AIDA said. 

As for Westerdam, her long journey is now over. After calling in Hong Kong, a port that is subject to travel restrictions due to concerns over the coronavirus, she was refused entry in Taiwan, Japan, Guam and Thailand. With the help of American consular officials, she gained permission to enter the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, where she began disembarking passengers on Friday. 

Passengers disembark the Westerdam in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, February 14 (U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh)

from Storage Containers https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/report-u-s-to-evacuate-american-citizens-from-diamond-princess via http://www.rssmix.com/

[wrestlingcultur-blog]

Backstage Update On Lesnar's Return, why he wasn't mentioned, Undisputed Era vs. Mustache Five-Starred and more

In the Latest Editions of Wrestling Observer, Dave Meltzer, Bryan Alvarez and Mike Sempervive talk about including ROH getting Madison Square Garden over WrestleMania weekend, Brock Lesnar returning at SummerSlam and Undisputed Era vs. Mustache Mountain Match This week's NXT. If you use any portion of the quotes in this article please credit Wrestling Observer Newsletter with an H/T to WrestlingCulture for the transcription. On Brock Lesnar Return at SummerSlam: "Brock Lesnar will be returning to WWE, defending the title at summer, slam against who I don't know yet, but that is his next scheduled date and I believe his last scheduled date unless they once again sign him to another extension. "Dave Meltzer is confirmed. Lesner will be back in the ring for a debit of the premier summer show. It is not known who he will face. A multimillion match was originally set for Extreme rules that would have determined the next contender, but that was canceled as part of the storyline where negotiations for listeners. Next title defense fell through Roman reigns and Bobby Lashley who were the first to announce for the belt, will instead battle in a singles match, which as of right now, we don't even know if that's supposed to be a number one contender's match. "Brock Lesnar showed up at UFC on Saturday night challenge Daniel Cormier. He is entered himself into the Usada testing pool. He cannot fight in UFC until early January. So there's no rush to get the title off of the guy. He is contracted for one more show after Wrestlemania. They signed him to two events. One was the greatest royal rumble and one was to be determined and it looks like at this point that's going to be summer slam. Now obviously they could sign him to another extension if they really want to fool people. If they want to not put the title in Roman reigns again, I don't know what they're going to do. I don't know what their plan is, but if you recall on Monday there was zero mention of Brock Lesnar on the show to the point where Roman reigns said in a promo that he was going to beat Bobby Lashley and quote, move onto bigger things. " On why Lesnar was not mentioned on Monday Night Raw: A building up brock as an outsider, as somebody who is tied up with UFC, is someone who is distracted does not want to be bothered with the people and the employers that he is currently with hates the people that he's got to perform in front of, wants to go overseas, looks bind to shoulder, sees that other girl, the girl looks like Dana White. He lusts after her as WWE stands there and you're talking about all of this and how it affects Roman and how it affects bobby and they did a good job with Rom bob this past Monday. But why then would you not mentioned anything at all about Brock Lesnar? Because the explanation that Dave had, which was well, he didn't want to take anything away from, from Roman and bobby. I don't see how announcing that this being for number one contender ship or this just being them wanting to kill each other to get each other out of the way for the real mission that both of them have expressed in the past that they wanted. Why you couldn't have brought that up on Monday. It was conspicuous by its absence. It was I think, head scratching for a lot of people that just didn't understand why you didn't mention his name two days after he gets into it. The biggest pull apart and sports all over the place. With Daniel Cormier, it just didn't make any sense whatsoever. The idea was we've got to push the pay per view, but that was a bad excuse when he has been a part of the pay per view build as a shadow of those two men. Hey, whole reason they're fighting. Let me. Let me, let me give you this. Okay. Maybe the idea was to completely ignore him, a to push the idea of the pay per view and be for you to think that they're even bigger issues between the two sides and maybe he's really not coming back. Dude, when do they ever do? They can always show the footage later and you know what the other thing, they may not even have rights to the footage and that's the other meal hat they you. No, absolutely not. You didn't have to have rights to that footage. Everybody saw the footage. All he had to do was mention it, you know, payment can still shots of it from the USA today or ESPN or your other media partners." On ROH And NJPW Getting At Madison Square Garden: Got a lot of news to get into here today. Not going to waste any time. All Ego. Ethan page joining us at some point here today on the program while it appeared at the show had fallen through Ring of Honor set to run at Madison Square Garden in Twenty 19. After all our weight. New Japan announced yesterday G1 Supercard, a co-branded show from the two companies taking place at Madison Square Garden. April six, 2019 the Saturday of Wrestlemania weekend in New York and New Jersey. Are you? Japan's gets Chico Kata or wishy-washy tonight. Already. Advertise along with quote all of the top ROH stars. So all I can tell you is that I talked to a couple of people from Ring of Honor yesterday and they have no idea how this thing. "I know we'd already heard about this before. Now if they had got the date on like just some random day, then maybe, maybe not, but the fact that they're getting Madison Square Garden on Wrestle Mania weekend after WWE had put the ixnay on this. It just tells you the power of Sinclair. Here you go. there was no reason for Sinclair to not be able to, excuse me for Ring of Honor to not be able to get this date because there was nothing planned from WWE. There was nothing. They had nothing. So what was the reason that it was being stopped? It was a long relationship where somebody made a phone call and somebody's got that phone call and said, Hey, hold on, wait, hold on. Here. We've got a relationship with these guys. But that relationship has been framed for a long time. Barclay Center became the thing. Madison Square Garden for whatever reason has driven a lot of people away from it and a lot of it obviously it has to do with the money. Sinclair's fine with paying that money. He should have been very open to it and I guess they were. Some people were, but yeah, I mean I'll blame WWE for trying to get in the way, but they tried. They failed and I don't know if this has got a lot to do with legal threats as much as somebody with the ability to fight WWE on this just pointed out something very obvious which was there's no reason for us not to be able to run here, explain it and it has a square garden. Just frankly couldn't explain it and you can see the tack that they've taken and social media and with some of the releases that they've put out there. Welcoming ROH now with just wonderfully open arms." On Undisputed Era vs. Mustache Mountain Match This week's NXT: All I know is that match last night may have been the greatest nxt main event I've ever seen on the television show. Maybe not better than any takeover match. I don't know what I don't know. I don't know. If I would not give it five stars, I'd have to watch it again. Would that match was over? I thought that's a five-star match right there. I don't know if it was better than the Briscos in the books I'm talking to nxt. What? Briscoes in the box. You're given years. You're looking at stars around here, champ. We got. We got tagged matches this year. That had been. Had been very good. You're putting it in rare air inputting in the rear air. What did you guys think to watch that match last night and the last five minutes of that match was so incredible to me. The fans were living and dying, living and dying with the last five minutes of that match. It was the drama. I mean maybe the Gargano chump five-star matches were better bell to bell, but as far as sure drama, I think that this match was the best NXT match of the year. " If you use any portion of the quotes in this article please credit Wrestling Observer Newsletter with an H/T to WrestlingCulture for the transcription. Source: Wrestling Observer Newsletter Read the full article

[soorasaab]

iPhone X release date in India is November 3, with pre-orders starting on October 27

iPhone X was at the centre of the Apple launch event tonight as the company launched three iPhones at the same event for the first time. The new iPhone X is placed above the new iPhone 8and iPhone 8 Plus, and has several features that the other two models do not. The highlight, of course, is the bezel-less design, along with the Face ID facial recognition system. In fact, the Touch ID fingerprint sensor - a staple of the iPhones since the iPhone 5s - had to make way for the bezel-less design, thus Face ID is the only means of identity authentication. While iPhone 8 models will be available from September 22, those looking forward to the iPhone X release will have to wait till November.

iPhone X price in India, release date

iPhone X price in India is Rs. 89,000 for the variant with 64GB storage, and the 256GB model's price is Rs. 1,02,000. This makes the higher-end iPhone X the most expensive mainstream smartphone in the country, and the first such model to be priced above Rs. 1,00,000. Coming to the iPhone X release date in India, prospective buyers will have to wait till November 3; pre-orders in the country will start on October 27. This makes the iPhone X launch date in India part of the first phase rollout, which is interesting as the iPhone 8 and iPhone 8 Plus India release is part of the second phase.

The iPhone X price in India is Rs. 89,000 for the 64GB variant and Rs. 1,02,000 for the 256GB model

  If we talk about the iPhone X price in the US, Apple's home market, the 64GB and 256GB variants are priced at $999 (roughly Rs. 64,000) and $1,149 (roughly Rs. 73,600). 

iPhone X specifications, features

The first thing you notice on the iPhone X is a near bezel-less display on the front side. It is larger than ever at 5.8-inch. There is a notch on the top, but the company has pushed the screen resolution to 1125x2436 pixels, more than any previous generation iPhone models, and calls it the Super Retina HD Display.

The iPhone X is the future of smartphones, the executives said. Apple is doing away with the Touch ID, the fingerprint scanner embedded with Home Button that it introduced with iPhone 5s model. The iPhone X hosts a range of sensors including flood illuminator, infrared camera, front camera, and dot projector to allow customers to unlock the iPhone X by just looking at it - a system called Face ID.

Face ID is faster and more secure than the Touch ID, thanks to specialised hardware and algorithm driving that hardware. "The facial recognition grows with time. It learns your face and adapts to your face" Phil Schiller, Apple VP of Worldwide Marketing said. "It works in day, it works in night." While Touch ID could be tricked one in 50,000 times, Apple said, Face ID sees one error in one million times, citing its own internal data. Face ID will work with third-party apps as well, Schiller said.

The new iPhone X Face ID facial recognition system replaces the Touch ID fingerprint scanner

  The depth-gauging front camera can be used for another purpose, Schiller said. You can create animated emojis - called Animoji - that resemble your facial expressions. Users can make use of this feature in Messages. The company is also betting on augmented reality as a selling point in the iPhone X model.

The iPhone X features a duo of 12-megapixel rear cameras, that are larger (f/1.8 and f/2.4 apertures), and faster. It has deeper pixels, quad-LED True Tone flash, Schiller said. For the 7-megapixel selfie camera, the company says it is bringing Portrait mode feature, which it introduced with the iPhone 7 Plus last year.

In some ways, the company is testing the loyalty of its customers with the Rs. 89,000 price tag, more than it has ever asked before for its phone. Analysts however noted that the company might still be able to sell enough of these models. In a survey earlier this month by Creative Strategies and SurveyMonkey, 21 percent consumers said they would buy the costlier iPhone regardless of the price, though 33 percent existing iPhone users said they would not upgrade if it was too expensive.

"The most expensive iPhone model, an iPhone 7 Plus with 256GB storage, already costs USD 962 unlocked and SIM free. If Apple adds a new model which costs a few dollars more it will have no impact on consumers who are looking to spend $150. They are completely different market segments," Ian Fogg, an analyst with IHS Markit told Gadgets 360.

"If the new flagship iPhone is genuinely different to other smartphones it will do two things for the mainstream India smartphone market: It will set a design theme which we will see other smartphone makers copy over the next few years, and eventually these design cues will be available in sub $150 smartphone models," he said. The sub-Rs. 10,000 smartphone market is the most popular in India, according to data from several marketing research firms.

"And, it will act as a halo product to encourage consumers to buy Apple’s entry level smartphone models, currently the iPhone SE and iPhone 6, so consumers who are attracted to Apple’s brand pick the models they can afford," Fogg added. "There will of course be some consumers in every country who are able to afford the most expensive iPhone whatever the cost. But Apple aims to create mainstream quality products, not a super niche luxury, not commodity products. A product which may fall into the luxury niche in India, could be a mainstream quality smartphone in Japan, USA, or parts of Western Europe."

#SooraSaab #Soora #Facebook #News #Gadgets #Technology #sports #Automobile #blog #youtube #smartphones #top #Tumblr

[hudsonespie]

Report: U.S. to Evacuate American Citizens from Diamond Princess

The U.S. government is making arrangements to evacuate American citizens from the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, a top official with the Centers for Disease Control has told the Wall Street Journal.

The State Department is arranging two flights with enough space to give the ship's 380 American passengers the opportunity to return to the U.S., according to Henry Walke, director of the CDC Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections. Those accepting the offer would be evaluated by a CDC health team in Japan, and if they pass a checkup, they would be flown to Travis Air Force Base in California for further screening. 

At least one passenger would rather wait it out. Matthew Smith, who has meticulously documented each shipboard meal on Twitter throughout the quarantine, noted that there are just a few days left until February 19, the date that Japanese authorities have said they will allow passengers to leave. 

"As long as the official plan by Japanese health officials is to release those of us who are still healthy from quarantine in just under four days, why would I want to interfere with that by taking up an offer from U.S. officials to fly us back to Travis AFB?" he wrote. "For me and my wife . . . we would like to just finish the quarantine on the ship as planned, decompress in a non-quarantine environment in Japan for a few days, then fly back to the U.S. pursuant to our own arrangements."

The process of disembarkation is already beginning: the Japanese government is giving some elderly passengers aboard the Diamond Princess the option of transferring to shoreside accommodations. On Friday, 22 out of the 3,500 people on board received permission to enter a quarantine site on shore, and 11 accepted. Only passengers over the age of 80 are eligible in the initial round, and priority is given for those with pre-existing conditions and those with interior cabins. 

218 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and have been evacuated from Diamond Princess so far. 11 of these identified patients are now in serious condition, according to Japan's Ministry of Health. 

Coronavirus fears lead to disruption for cruise lines in Asia

Taiwan has declared its ports temporarily closed to international cruise ships due to concerns over the novel coronavirus, and Vietnam appears to have followed suit. Norwegian Cruise Line told USA Today on Friday that Vietnam's ports are no longer open to cruise ships, and that this has forced the cancellation of an upcoming sailing of the vessel Norwegian Jade.

In addition, Vietnamese authorities did not give permission for the cruise ship AIDAvita to enter the port of Cai Lan on February 13-14, an AIDA spokesperson told USA Today. The vessel diverted to the port of Laem Chabang, Thailand instead. 

Like the Westerdam - another Carnival Corporation vessel that recently had difficulty finding port access in Asia - AIDAvita's passenger complement was reported to be in good health, with no suspected cases of coronavirus on board, AIDA said. 

As for Westerdam, her long journey is now over. After calling in Hong Kong, a port that is subject to travel restrictions due to concerns over the coronavirus, she was refused entry in Taiwan, Japan, Guam and Thailand. With the help of American consular officials, she gained permission to enter the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, where she began disembarking passengers on Friday. 

Passengers disembark the Westerdam in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, February 14 (U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh)

from Storage Containers https://maritime-executive.com/article/report-u-s-to-evacuate-american-citizens-from-diamond-princess via http://www.rssmix.com/

[hudsonespie]

Report: U.S. to Evacuate American Citizens from Diamond Princess

The U.S. government is making arrangements to evacuate American citizens from the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, a top official with the Centers for Disease Control has told the Wall Street Journal.

The State Department is arranging two flights with enough space to give the ship's 380 American passengers the opportunity to return to the U.S., according to Henry Walke, director of the CDC Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections. Those accepting the offer would be evaluated by a CDC health team in Japan, and if they pass a checkup, they would be flown to Travis Air Force Base in California for further screening. 

At least one passenger would rather wait it out. Matthew Smith, who has meticulously documented each shipboard meal on Twitter throughout the quarantine, noted that there are just a few days left until February 19, the date that Japanese authorities have said they will allow passengers to leave. 

"As long as the official plan by Japanese health officials is to release those of us who are still healthy from quarantine in just under four days, why would I want to interfere with that by taking up an offer from U.S. officials to fly us back to Travis AFB?" he wrote. "For me and my wife . . . we would like to just finish the quarantine on the ship as planned, decompress in a non-quarantine environment in Japan for a few days, then fly back to the U.S. pursuant to our own arrangements."

The process of disembarkation is already beginning: the Japanese government is giving some elderly passengers aboard the Diamond Princess the option of transferring to shoreside accommodations. On Friday, 22 out of the 3,500 people on board received permission to enter a quarantine site on shore, and 11 accepted. Only passengers over the age of 80 are eligible in the initial round, and priority is given for those with pre-existing conditions and those with interior cabins. 

218 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and have been evacuated from Diamond Princess so far. 11 of these identified patients are now in serious condition, according to Japan's Ministry of Health. 

Coronavirus fears lead to disruption for cruise lines in Asia

Taiwan has declared its ports temporarily closed to international cruise ships due to concerns over the novel coronavirus, and Vietnam appears to have followed suit. Norwegian Cruise Line told USA Today on Friday that Vietnam's ports are no longer open to cruise ships, and that this has forced the cancellation of an upcoming sailing of the vessel Norwegian Jade.

In addition, Vietnamese authorities did not give permission for the cruise ship AIDAvita to enter the port of Cai Lan on February 13-14, an AIDA spokesperson told USA Today. The vessel diverted to the port of Laem Chabang, Thailand instead. 

Like the Westerdam - another Carnival Corporation vessel that recently had difficulty finding port access in Asia - AIDAvita's passenger complement was reported to be in good health, with no suspected cases of coronavirus on board, AIDA said. 

As for Westerdam, her long journey is now over. After calling in Hong Kong, a port that is subject to travel restrictions due to concerns over the coronavirus, she was refused entry in Taiwan, Japan, Guam and Thailand. With the help of American consular officials, she gained permission to enter the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, where she began disembarking passengers on Friday. 

Passengers disembark the Westerdam in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, February 14 (U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh)

from Storage Containers https://www.maritime-executive.com/article/report-u-s-to-evacuate-american-citizens-from-diamond-princess via http://www.rssmix.com/

[hudsonespie]

Report: U.S. to Evacuate American Citizens from Diamond Princess

The U.S. government is making arrangements to evacuate American citizens from the quarantined cruise ship Diamond Princess, a top official with the Centers for Disease Control has told the Wall Street Journal.

The State Department is arranging two flights with enough space to give the ship's 380 American passengers the opportunity to return to the U.S., according to Henry Walke, director of the CDC Division of Preparedness and Emerging Infections. Those accepting the offer would be evaluated by a CDC health team in Japan, and if they pass a checkup, they would be flown to Travis Air Force Base in California for further screening. 

At least one passenger would rather wait it out. Matthew Smith, who has meticulously documented each shipboard meal on Twitter throughout the quarantine, noted that there are just a few days left until February 19, the date that Japanese authorities have said they will allow passengers to leave. 

"As long as the official plan by Japanese health officials is to release those of us who are still healthy from quarantine in just under four days, why would I want to interfere with that by taking up an offer from U.S. officials to fly us back to Travis AFB?" he wrote. "For me and my wife . . . we would like to just finish the quarantine on the ship as planned, decompress in a non-quarantine environment in Japan for a few days, then fly back to the U.S. pursuant to our own arrangements."

The process of disembarkation is already beginning: the Japanese government is giving some elderly passengers aboard the Diamond Princess the option of transferring to shoreside accommodations. On Friday, 22 out of the 3,500 people on board received permission to enter a quarantine site on shore, and 11 accepted. Only passengers over the age of 80 are eligible in the initial round, and priority is given for those with pre-existing conditions and those with interior cabins. 

218 people have tested positive for the novel coronavirus and have been evacuated from Diamond Princess so far. 11 of these identified patients are now in serious condition, according to Japan's Ministry of Health. 

Coronavirus fears lead to disruption for cruise lines in Asia

Taiwan has declared its ports temporarily closed to international cruise ships due to concerns over the novel coronavirus, and Vietnam appears to have followed suit. Norwegian Cruise Line told USA Today on Friday that Vietnam's ports are no longer open to cruise ships, and that this has forced the cancellation of an upcoming sailing of the vessel Norwegian Jade.

In addition, Vietnamese authorities did not give permission for the cruise ship AIDAvita to enter the port of Cai Lan on February 13-14, an AIDA spokesperson told USA Today. The vessel diverted to the port of Laem Chabang, Thailand instead. 

Like the Westerdam - another Carnival Corporation vessel that recently had difficulty finding port access in Asia - AIDAvita's passenger complement was reported to be in good health, with no suspected cases of coronavirus on board, AIDA said. 

As for Westerdam, her long journey is now over. After calling in Hong Kong, a port that is subject to travel restrictions due to concerns over the coronavirus, she was refused entry in Taiwan, Japan, Guam and Thailand. With the help of American consular officials, she gained permission to enter the port of Sihanoukville, Cambodia, where she began disembarking passengers on Friday. 

Passengers disembark the Westerdam in Sihanoukville, Cambodia, February 14 (U.S. Embassy in Phnom Penh)

from Storage Containers https://maritime-executive.com/article/report-u-s-to-evacuate-american-citizens-from-diamond-princess via http://www.rssmix.com/