#and if our lives are worth less to you than your revolutionary fantasy then to be blunt you aren't worth my fucking time.

[kittyluvr42]

I said this in a discord server already but fuck it I’ll post it here too.

RBG died.

RBG was an amazing woman, but, to be blunt, there’s no time to mourn her right now. I wish there was. There isn’t.

I don’t know if yall understand how fucking bad this is. Another trump pick, which is absolutely what this means, makes fucking GORSUCH the swing vote on scotus. This is quite possibly the worst supreme court we’ve ever had, besides maybe the 1857 supreme court that decided Dred Scott. That’s how bad this is. And it is going to be here for decades. The now oldest justice is Kagan, who consistently voted with RBG. The next oldest justice who’s death or retirement will at all improve the balance of power is Clarence Thomas, who’s 72, and even after he dies we’ll just be back to the court before RBG’s death, which was already pretty bad (and that’s assuming Kagen gets a replacement who’s good). This court will be around for decades.

Does it sound callous to be talking about court justices like chess pieces. Probably. People are fucking dying, and people will die. There is no choice but to be callous until we’re out of fucking crisis mode and can heal.

This court is a loss for literally everything we care about. Reproductive rights, lgbt rights, religious freedom (actual religious freedom not the codeword for christian supremacy). Did you know Obamacare’s on the docket for 2021? Texas v California. That’s right, they’re trying to remove healthcare for millions of people in the middle of a fucking pandemic. Maybe I wasn’t blunt enough before. People will die.

So, how do we stop it? How do we get a scotus that is at least a little decent? Well, there are two options.

1. We somehow manage to stop republicans from confirming a replacement. This means we need 3 republicans to vote no, plus at least one more who either votes no or doesn’t show up. A tie goes to pence. Good fucking luck with that. Maybe Romney, Murkowsky, and Collins, but that’s a long shot. I have no clue who the fourth would be.

Ok. That’s not going to happen. What’s our other option?

2. Court-packing. This will require a president who will pick judges who aren’t outright evil, and the only chance for that would be Biden. We also need a senate to confirm those judges, so dems need to take the senate. However, we also need to stop republicans from just packing back by locking in the number of judges after, so that means we need to hold the house to pass a law. But when republicans take congress back they can just repeal that, so what we really need is a supermajority to make it a constitutional amendment.

So please yall. Just fucking vote. Even if you don’t vote Biden. I think that’s the wrong choice, because as much as Biden sucks he’s still our only option, but I get it, and I know I won’t be able to shame you into changing your mind. Please, at least vote down ballot. We can’t let republicans hold the senate, especially because this term is ALSO redistricting, so not only are we deciding the court we’re deciding future elections.

I am begging you, please vote.

Anyway, I’m going to go cry and try and find some room in my anger and fear for at least a little bit of the grief RBG deserves.

[aion-rsa]

Why Oblivion is Still the Best Elder Scrolls Game

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With their acquisition of ZeniMax Studios finally complete, Microsoft is poised to challenge Sony’s recent reign of exclusivity dominance by potentially making the next generation of Bethesda releases exclusive to Game Pass platforms. For the moment, though, the biggest benefit of this acquisition is undoubtedly the ability to access a good portion of Bethesda’s library of classic games via Game Pass.

While most of the Bethesda games recently added to Game Pass are worth playing for one reason or another, few are more intriguing than The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Sandwiched between the releases of the revolutionary Morrowind and the eternally re-released Skyrim, Oblivion is sometimes thought of as the middle child in the modern history of one of gaming’s most beloved RPG series. Nearly 15 years after its release, though, it’s remarkably easier than ever to appreciate the many ways that Oblivion represents the very best of the Elder Scrolls franchise.

Don’t believe me? Use its recent addition to the Game Pass library as an excuse to play Oblivion again (or perhaps for the first time), and you’ll find these reasons (and more) why it remains arguably the best Elder Scrolls adventure so far.

Oblivion Has (By Far) the Best Elder Scrolls Quests and Stories

Let’s start with one thing that few Elder Scrolls fans will argue against. When it comes to quests and stories, Oblivion is a far better game than Morrowind or Skyrim.

I’ve talked about this more extensively in my look at the best Elder Scrolls quests ever, but I remain truly amazed at how much thought and creativity went into even the most “average” quest in Oblivion. That baseline level of quality is really the key point here. While many of Oblivion’s biggest quests (such as the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild assignments) are obviously memorable, even the little quests along the way that you may have forgotten about offer something special that helps them stand out.

I don’t know why the Elder Scrolls quest design and writing teams were at the top of their game at this time, but I doubt even The Elder Scrolls 6 can top the work they did here.

Oblivion Found a Nice Middle Ground Between Accessibility and Depth

For quite some time, the line on Oblivion has been that it’s the “middle” game between Morrowind and Skyrim. While that’s obviously true of its release date, that idea speaks more to the suggestion that Oblivion represents Bethesda’s struggles to balance the more hardcore RPG ideas of a game like Morrowind and the accessibility improvements featured in Skyrim.

Some say that means Oblivion doesn’t truly excel at either pursuit, but I don’t see it like that. In Oblivion, you get a taste of Morrowind’s incredible RPG philosophies and mechanics without having to deal with that game’s most annoying aspects. At the same time, Oblivion manages to be much more playable than its predecessor while still feeling deeper overall than its successor from a role-playing perspective. 

Oblivion doesn’t necessarily combine the best of Skyrim and Morrowind, but it finds a nice middle-ground between those styles that’s easy to appreciate to this day. 

Shivering Isles is Still the Best DLC Expansion Bethesda Has Ever Made

Granted, I can’t (and would never try to) defend most of Oblivion’s DLC. There’s a reason that “Horse Armor” is still used as the gold standard for exploitative and uninspired video game microtransactions.

However, it’s easier to forgive Oblivion‘s DLC stumbles when you realize they all eventually led to the Shivering Isles expansion. That was the expansion that finally dared to answer the question “What if The Elder Scrolls just got weird with it?” By transporting players to a land ruled by Sheogorath (the often hilarious Daedric Prince of Madness), Shivering Isles dropped most of the stuffier fantasy elements of the franchise in favor of allowing the talented Oblivion design team and writers to breathe life into their wildest ideas.

The golden age of single-player DLC expansions was highlighted by the idea of letting studios break free and truly experiment with new and strange creations that would otherwise not likely see the light of day. Shivering Isles is perhaps the greatest example of that era.

Oblivion’s Atmosphere is Consistent and Helps Tell a Story

I will freely admit that the province of Cyrodiil isn’t always the most interesting place. There are certainly times when it comes across as “Capital City, Fantasyland.”

Yet, there’s a consistency to Oblivion’s atmosphere that I remain fascinated with years after its release. While Morrowind’s alien-like worlds are hard to beat from a pure design perspective and Skyrim’s tundras offer a welcome deviation from the most common fantasy tropes, there’s something about the way that everything flows in Oblivion that I’d argue Bethesda has never quite replicated.

Individual regions of Oblivion’s map manage to remain distinct while also feeling like the logical progression of the area you just arrived from and the area you’re going to. There’s also something to be said for how Oblivion sells the idea of people battling to protect their land from invasion and corruption by presenting a fantasy world that you might actually want to live in.

Get Past Their Voice Acting, and Oblivion Might Have the Best NPCs in any Elder Scrolls Game

I’d like to argue that Oblivion’s “bad” voice acting and awkward NPC designs actually give the game a personality you don’t find in refined titles, but I understand that some rough edges are hard to ignore.

Instead, let’s focus on the ways that Oblivion’s NPCs are advanced even by modern design standards. Nearly every NPC in Oblivion has a personality of their own, something unique to say to you, and will legitimately go about a daily schedule that even changes from day to day due to their ability to make dynamic decisions rather than simply follow a tightly scripted path.

At a time when developers are sometimes more interested in putting more characters on-screen rather than crafting richer NPCs (looking at you Cyberpunk 2077), there’s something undeniably refreshing about a game that emphasizes offering more unique interactions rather than simply relying on the quantity of NPCs.

Oblivion Let You Build Wild (and Broken) Characters

The “highlight” of Oblivion‘s character-building system in the minds of many fans will undoubtedly be the time they discovered it’s possible to make a truly invisible character who can pretty much do whatever they want. That kind of mechanical exploitation is certainly one of the most noteworthy examples of how Oblivion let you run wild with the characters you created.

Yet, when I think back on my hours with Oblivion, the kinds of broken characters I appreciate most are the ones who didn’t make it far. While Oblivion’s enemy scaling system has been (often rightfully) criticized for its shortcomings, there’s something to be said for how the game’s attempts at offering a consistent challenge level meant that your design decisions were tested more often throughout the game.

It wasn’t a perfect system, but when compared to a game like Skyrim, or even titles like Destiny, where building a viable character is really about reaching higher levels and reaping the rewards, I miss, at the very least, Oblivion’s attempts to challenge me to master the character I built and the times it would actively punish my worst decisions.

Oblivion is Less About Combat and More About Adventure

In terms of pure combat, Skyrim is really in a class of its own when compared to the other Elder Scrolls games. Its improved controls, cinematic qualities, and smoother animations are more than enough to make it the favorite among Elder Scrolls fans looking for the best action.

I certainly recognize that some of Oblivion’s combat system problems are the result of bad decisions and outdated technology, but years later, I really appreciate how the game was never really about the action; it was about the adventure. Much like how Fellowship of the Ring utilized action sequences as the response to danger that our heroes otherwise tried to avoid, combat in Oblivion is just one of those things that you’ll come across as you explore but isn’t necessarily meant to be the grand set piece or the big draw.

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While Oblivion’s main questline betrays this philosophy somewhat during its most action-heavy (and often worst) moments, there’s still a sense that the game is more about exploration, storytelling, and the little discoveries you make along the way rather than a desire to get you to the next big sequence or other chances to simply fuel a power fantasy.

The post Why Oblivion is Still the Best Elder Scrolls Game appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[murasaki-murasame]

Rambling about YoI’s sales data [and also LGBT representation in anime and how rare/unsuccessful it tends to be]

I know that there’s other people in the YoI fandom keeping up with and talking about the sales figures for the series, so I might just be repeating what other people are already saying, but according to someanithing.com [which is a really convenient blog for if you want some info on anime sales data in general], the sales average of the series stands at 62,666 [as of us getting info on volume five’s second week of sales]. Which is pretty astounding on multiple levels. Someanithing has a really convenient list of anime since 2000 that have gotten a 10k+ sales average [ignoring data from rereleases of series], and Yuri on Ice currently stands at sixth place, right above Nisemonogatari, and right below Osomatsu-san [which are at about 60.7k and 66.7k respectively].

Rest of my thoughts under the cut because holy shit this got REALLY long and only the first few paragraphs really specifically talk about sales data, but yeah the above paragraph is the gist of it, and the rest is just me rambling about really specific stuff, and wider anime fandom/industry stuff [emphasis on ‘rambling’, haha]. ALSO near the end I give my personal thoughts on how happy I am to see a show with a queer protagonist/central romance be so successful, and how notably against the norm it is, AND I shamelessly plug the manga Shimanami Tasogare, which I recommend to pretty much anyone looking for more LGBT representation in this general sphere.

Given that v6 has the whole Welcome to the Madness thing going for it, I expect it to get to at least 60k in sales lifetime, and I’m pretty sure that the Oricon half-yearly rankings at the start of July will give us a comprehensive idea of how every volume’s sold by then, which will effectively boost our data on the earlier volumes, so I can totally see the series maintaining a 62k+ average, maybe even a 63k average. Which would be kinda agonizingly close to Osomatsu-san’s number, but I don’t really think it has room to get quite that high, sadly. Oh well.

Also, in case anyone cares, there’s been some vague debates over the last few months about if Love Live Sunshine would be able to beat YoI, sales average-wise, but that seems increasingly unlikely. Since LLSS is currently at a 54.3k average, and would thus need to add, like, 40-50k copies to get close to YoI. I was curious to see if LLSS would have been able to do that, but we’re a good way into it’s second event ticket application period, and it hasn’t really gotten a noticeable boost at all. So yeah. With just a few weeks left until the event tickets become basically meaningless, I don’t exactly think it can add quite that amount in time to beat YoI. Of course this entire comparison is meaningless because they’re completely different series, and it’s kinda impossible to compare YoI’s fairly standard two event tickets to LLSS having five. This is mostly just something I’ve been looking at from afar as it’s panned out. I’m not trying to be weirdly snarky and hostile toward LLSS for “““losing”““ to YoI, and I don’t want anyone to use this data to be rude to that show and it’s fanbase, and gloat about YoI’s success.

But it IS still worth noting that the main reason I was intrigued by the comparison between these two shows is because they’ve been fighting for the spot of the number one best-selling show [by sales average, at least] of 2016 [I’m counting Osomatsu-san as a 2015 show]. So, with how it seems to be about to ‘beat’ LLSS, that also means that YoI will pretty much become the best-selling anime of 2016. Of course, there’s a looooot more to it than that because physical media like this is slowly declining in importance to a show’s financial success, and of course there’s aspects like how the animation studio might not be getting as much of a profit as this might imply because of their placement on the production committee [I forget where Mappa is on the committee but I think it’s near the bottom] but still. You all get what I’m trying to say. The bottom line is that YoI is incredibly, incredibly successful, and that’s wonderful. [Though it’s also worth noting that the merchandise and soundtrack and so on for this show are ALSO selling incredibly well, so bringing up the decline of physical media and whatnot is slightly less relevant here than if this was the sort of franchise where ONLY the BDs were selling well. And this is also obviously the most financially successful show Mappa has made, so even if they’re low on the committee you can probably say as a rule of thumb that they’ve gotten more from this show than their previous ones].

Back on the topic of YoI’s #6 spot on the ‘anime from 2000 to present with a 10k+ sales average’ lost, it’s pretty exciting that it’s so incredibly high, since it’ll probably maintain a top ten spot for, well, pretty much ever, considering how rare these sorts of successes are getting. LLSS is the only thing from last year that has any competition with it on that list, and that’s probably not going to surpass it. The only things, in terms of TV anime, I can see potentially surpassing YoI would be Granblue Fantasy, Osomatsu-san S2, and maaaybe LLSS S2 if that can have some kind of a notable sequel boost which I REALLY doubt, but you never know. Osomatsu-san S2 is also slightly doubtful but at least that wouldn’t need to surpass it’s respective first season to pass YoI. We’ll see how that turns out when that comes out, I guess. Granblue Fantasy is also a distinct possibility as a ‘challenger’ of sorts. It’s at least gonna be the best-seller of this current season, and will probably be in the running for best-selling TV anime of 2017. I have absolutely no idea how to predict anything with this anime though since it seems disproportionately successful at Amazon compared to other places and so estimates are out of whack for it, and also because each volume is bundled with a different sort of code, or some such, related to getting special items/characters/etc in the GBF mobile game. So it’s really hard to tell how that’ll affect things. Especially since I’ve heard some people in that fandom say that the rewards aren’t really equally interesting, so there might be some heavy fluctuation in sales between volumes. Possibly. Which would throw off estimates even more. So basically who the hell knows with that series. For reference, v1 has, as of two weeks of sales, sold a bit under 45k. But yeah that doesn’t really mean that much just yet. It’s still a bit lower than I expected given it’s kinda absurd popularity at Amazon, and it’s sorta amusing but meaningleses to compare it to YoI v1′s week one sales of 50k, but still. [[Again, I’m not trying to stir up any fandom wars of whatever here, and I don’t want anyone else doing such a thing either. There’s no reason to get mad at these shows or their fandoms if they sell well, or to be condescending and petty to them if they don’t]]

And since I’m on a roll of making interesting but mostly meaningless comparisons, it’s definitely noteworthy to compare YoI’s 62k average to Free S1′s 29.1k sales average. Like, wow. For reference, Free S1 is the current second best selling sports anime post-2000, unless we count Girls und Panzer as the second place at roughly 36.3k. But I don’t think most people count that as a sports anime sooo yeah. I’ll focus more on the Free comparison. It’s still REALLY surprising to me that we’re looking at around about a 110% increase in sales average between the two. That’s a pretty huge gap between first and second place on the sports anime genre list. It’s mostly surprising to me because Free always seemed like such an insurmountable juggernaut of a franchise. It still IS super successful and influential, of course, but still. For some reason it still surprises me to see YoI sell so much MORE than it. Of course Free also has it’s own second season plus two currently-airing compilation films and an upcoming sequel movie [I think] to even things out, but you get what I mean. It’s an interesting comparison to make. It really puts into perspective how big of a success YoI is. It’s sort of bonkers.

ALSO I want to just let myself gloat a little bit about how meaningful it is to me to have a show with a queer protagonist [a male one, in particular] AND a queer romance as the sixth best-selling TV anime since the year 2000 because HOO BOY. Sweet vindication. It’s always good to get shows like this that help prove that queer protagonists/romances aren’t always a death sentence to something’s success/popularity/mainstream appeal, even if these sorts of things, particularly in anime, still feel a little too few and far between for my liking. It’s sort of depressing looking at that big sales average list and seeing the huge lack of queer characters, especially in the protagonist sense. It’s not like there aren’t ANY, they’re just . . . pretty damn rare. Especially with male characters, where other than YoI it looks like we basically just have, uh . . . Tiger and Bunny and then Hetalia? Which I think are both way more vague about their queer representation, protagonist-wise, but I haven’t watched them so I won’t touch upon them. And obviously there’s a lot of other shows on the list that I haven’t seen, but most of them are popular enough that I have enough of an awareness of them to know that their protagonists are straight. For completeness’ sake, in terms of queer female protagonists we at least have Madoka. I think Lucky Star counts as well [and I THINK that the first MariMite season is just barely on the list???]. I’m less familiar with shows with queer female protagonists, though, so if anyone else knows more on the topic than I do, I’d love to get your input. It’s also worth noting that Revolutionary Girl Utena isn’t on this list at all because it came out before 2000, so it MIGHT have sold at least 10k but I don’t think we have any data on that at all.

I just think it’s sorta interesting, and depressing, to look at this sorta thing. It definitely makes me appreciate YoI even more. Especially since the queerness of it’s lead characters was obviously a noteworthy element of it’s success. But it’s worth noting that that’s by far not the ONLY reason for it’s success. At all. I mentioned the mentality that “““gay stuff”““ can’t sell well, but there’s definitely also a widespread mentality of ‘YoI just sold well because it’s about hot gay guys!’ [also throw in a generous heaping of misogynistic uses of words like fujoshi, and an almost complete passive erasure of the queer male portion of the fanbase for good measure!], which bugs me a lot, and looking at this list shows exactly why. Focusing specifically on stuff about male characters [since, again, that’s what I’m more familiar with], YoI is, as said, one of probably less than five shows to have sold more than 10k on average in the last 16+ years that have queer male protagonists, and the other ones seem even LESS focused on romance elements than even YoI. I don’t think that there’s a single BL/yaoi genre anime on that entire list. Which is odd because I thought that Junjou Romantica hit around 10k but I can’t find it on the list so I guess it didn’t. But that’s by far the most successful BL/yaoi TV anime out there, so . . . yeah. Really puts into perspective this weird idea people have that a show having gay characters in it is some sort of a ticket for immediate success. I mean, I sure WISH it was, but the world isn’t so kind, sadly :V [[also anyone who wants to act like that’s how things work should really look at how bad/forgettable the sales of shows like Shin Sekai Yori, No.6, Samurai Flamenco, HaruChika, etc etc, were]]

But yeah my point is that you really can’t brush aside YoI’s success as just ‘well of COURSE it sold well because FUJOS amirite???’ because, uh, no. I mean, there’s definitely stuff to be said about how female otaku in general seem to be more and more willing to actually buy anime they like rather than male otaku, and there are definitely shows that do “““pander to fujos”““ or however the hell you want to phrase it, but YoI’s success isn’t somehow commonplace. As both a sports show AND as a show with a queer male romance in it, it’s in a class of it’s own, and it really is a mix of so many different aspects that lead it to being so successful. It’s not just one single thing.

Even though the queer romance is obviously just a single facet of YoI as a show, I still hope it can serve as an inspiration for other creators, and for the anime industry as a whole. I hope it can help give support to the idea that you really can have this sort of story without it being dead in the water. You can take risks, and they can pay off, even if there’s no guarantees. So if this can, down the track, inspire more shows like this in general, especially in the specific sense of ‘non-BL/yaoi anime with queer protagonists’, then that’d be wonderful.

Basically I’m just desperately hoping that Shimanami Tasogare gets an anime adaptation at some point, haha. If you want a manga with some astounding LGBT representation, READ IT, SERIOUSLY. It’s one of only a tiny handful of manga I’ve read that actually specifically addresses how homophobia ‘works’ and how integrated into society it is, and how it affects LGBT people. But I won’t gush about it too much here because this is more of a YoI post.

[fantasysuiteleague]

Week 1: Old Dog, Same Tricks

"From bad boy to Bachelor. We’ve all seen Nick grow.” But, have we? First of all, at no point in his life has Nick ever been a bad boy. He was (and still is) just a douchey toolbag who loves bracelets and fucking girls on TV. And I’m pretty sure he’s still that same person. Sure, he came off as more mature and almost cool on the most recent season of Paradise. But keep in mind that everyone else on that show was either (1) in their early 20s; and/or (2) retarded. So forgive me if I remain skeptical AF that Nick is going to be any different this season. Sure enough, as soon as his promo starts rolling my eyes are rolling into the back of my head. Like the rest of the world, he’s *shocked* to be the Bachelor, because he’s been on this show looking like a goddamn fool since January 2013. 

But don’t think he hasn’t learned from his mistakes. He knows his eyes are shifty, he always looks bored, he’s long-winded, and a tool. But getting his heart broken by two unemployed reality stars has taught him a lot, and he’s ready to show us what he’s learned. Gag. But before we can get to the ladies, Nick sits down with the Ghosts of Bachelor’s Past for one more reminder that (1) everyone thinks he sucks; (2) he was cool on Paradise; (3) he’s totally going to find love. 

That’s Me In the Spotlight.  

As in years past, we start by meeting a few girls that ABC wants us to keep our eyes on this season:

Rachel: She’s a 31-year-old corporate defense attorney who runs fake meetings and takes sloppy notes on a legal pad. But like all corporate lawyers, she works hard AND plays hard by .... vacuuming! 

Danielle M.: Our first small business owner who opened her first nail salon at age 23 thanks to daddy. She’s definitely one to watch, mostly because she’s so hot and reminds me of Brit.

Vanessa: Despite the fact that she’s a special needs teacher sporting 4-inch heels and skinny jeans to work, Vanessa--much like Rachel--seems like an intelligent, cultured woman who may have accidentally signed up for this show instead of The Apprentice. 

Josephine: 

Raven: Yet another small business owner whose voice and long black hair reminds me of Pensatucky from Orange is the New Black (minus the whole meth thing).

Corinne: THE WORST. Instantly, the worst. She “runs” her family business, which is worth millions by the way. She lives with her parents. And. AND. Her childhood nanny RAQUEL!! My god. Raquel.  Pray for Raquel.  

Alexis: The troll of the group, Alexis makes it pretty clear right away that she will do literally anything for laughs because her parents neglected her as a child.

Danielle L.: Immediately giving me Whitney vibes with her terrible high voice and respectable job working with babies. She seems incredibly *nice* (read: boring and lacking personality), but I’m sure she’ll make it far because in another life Nick would end up with her.

Taylor: A “mental health counselor” with a Masters from Johns Hopkins who should definitely know better than to sign up for this show. Then again, she’s 23 and has clearly never actually worked as a mental health counselor before. She also mentions that both white and black girls don’t like her because she’s biracial, but I’m guessing the real reason is that shes just terrible. 

Liz: I have so many problems with Liz, and we will get to all of them in due time, but first and foremost: it was tacky AF to read her Maid of Honor speech from her iPhone at a televised Bachelor wedding. 

You Don’t Have to Put on the Red Light.

The limo entrances this year left much to be desired, but I think that’s a good sign that not all of these girls are daft. From what we saw, the entrances can be categorized as either cute, terrible, or sexual. In the “cute” group we have the normal girls like Vanessa and Danielle M. and Sarah (the “runner up”). I also liked Rachel’s reference to her fantasy league because she’s just like us! In fact, that could be you one day! But then I’d be writing about how you dumb you sound. In the category of “terrible” entrances, we have the likes of Christen, a wedding videographer in a tacky yellow prom dress from Forever 21 who waves a Chinese fan around and then talks to Nick in a baby voice. I hate her so much. Not surprisingly, Josephine placed herself in this category by showing up with a terrible wig and offering Nick an uncooked hot dog.

Taylor also confirms that she is as dumb as she looks by letting Nick know that all of her friends think he’s a complete piece of shit. But don’t worry, she doesn’t believe them and is totally here for the #rightreasons. A considerable number of women went with the “sex” route, because apparently ABC is sex-positive only when it’s The Bachelor. Hailey lets him know she’s not wearing underwear, which is pretty nasty given the 12+ hours they have to spend sitting around that house sweating, drinking and vying for his attention. Astrid offers up her titties while speaking German, while Lacey shows up on a camel and makes a lame “hump” joke. Liz is the last sex-related entrance worth mentioning, because she has already had sex with him. She isn’t sure if Nick is going to remember her, but as soon as she steps out of the limo and his eyes get shifty it’s pretty obvious he knows exactly who she is. The question is whether he knew this was coming, or if he’s just terrible at playing it cool. Maybe both. Chris Harrison, however, is pretty terrible at playing it cool and makes it pretty obvious this was all a set up.

Shark or Dolphin?

Once all the girls have arrived, Nick kicks off the cocktail party with a sappy pre-rehearsed speech about how he’s looking for a woman who feels empowered and will be his partner and that every woman is worth dating. I think he’s trying to do this thing called “feminism,” but he doesn’t quite stick the landing because everything about him screams “I’m a beta bitch boy.” Throughout the night the girls talk about how *hot* Nick is and how they wish they hadn’t worn red. Meanwhile, Alexis is having the time of her life performing the dance moves from Katy Perry’s halftime show and demanding that everyone admit she is dressed as a dolphin, not a shark.

Now generally I’m not a fan of those so desperate for attention, but Alexis is hilarious. She’s clearly trolling everyone the whole time, and most of the girls are too dumb to notice. Meanwhile, Corinne is solidifies herself as the villainous slut of the season by handing Nick a bang of rape tokens and letting him know he can use them for “whatever he wants.” She later steals Nick from Vanessa just to kiss him and then proceeds to tell everyone about the kiss the rest of the night, because as Raquel could surely tell you, it’s all about Corinne. The most awkward conversation of the night comes when Liz finally gets a chance to talk to Nick. Her presence on this show is incredibly suspect for a number of reasons, but the clear one being that she slept with Nick, he asked for her number, she said NO, and now, 9 months later, she’s on the show trying to date him. Naturally Nick asks what we’re all thinking:

According to Liz, she had a “stereotype” about him when she met him, then saw him on Paradise and he wasn’t that “stereotype,” but doesn’t like to ask for people’s numbers because she thinks if it’s meant to be it will work out. 

So not only does Liz have no idea what the word “stereotype” means, but she is also completely full of shit. She clearly slept with him because he was good-looking and wanted to be able to say “I slept with Tricky Nick,” but knowing he was a douchebag she wasn’t interested. After learning he was going to be the Bachelor, she thought “well shit, I bet they’ll let me on the show and I can get some screen time.” Lucky for her the Bachelor producers are sluts for dumb drama, but she really should have practiced her defense to a #rightreasons accusation. 

Roses are Red

The remainder of the night was uneventful. Rachel got the first impression rose which was surprising but also not surprising. Surprising because the Bachelor has a race problem and most men they pick aren’t necessarily interested in women of color. Not surprising because Rachel seems incredibly intelligent and down to earth, and you can tell they really hit it off. Noticeably, the girls this season all seem to have real jobs (minus the “Law School Graduate” and the “Witch”) and the ones who actually work are being heavily featured (not counting Corinne). 

It’s refreshing to see women who aren’t flight attendants and dental hygienists, but it also makes the show even less realistic. For example, these small business owners can’t just leave their businesses and move out to LA with Nick to shill white strips in on Instagram. So is Nick willing to move to be with them? Notably, we didn’t spend any time talking about where Nick lives and if he actually has a job, which makes me wonder if ABC wants to ignore that aspect so they can keep flaunting their “accomplished” contestants without addressing the fact that the whole point of this show is for two people to *fall in love* and get married and live happily ever after, in the same city. It will be interesting to see these seemingly more intelligent women navigate through the familiar obstacle course this season, but I’m not getting my hopes up for anything revolutionary. After all, like the Bachelor himself, this show is just an old dog with the same tricks.

Did you notice . . . 

The b-roll of Nick running around Millennium Park and strolling down Clark street in a button down is the laziest attempt to convince us that he hasn’t been living in LA and *modeling* for the past 3 years. 

Susannah’s beard massage.

Christen (terrible yellow dress) talks to Nick like he’s a puppy that she’s training. She’s terrible and has GOT TO GO.

A lot of these women are really young, which makes their desire to date a 36-year-old professional Bachelor even more pathetic than your average Bachelor contestant.

Jasmine G. is a dancer for the Golden State Warriors. Hope she makes it to the final four and then blows a 3-1 lead. 

Nick repeating “civil defense litigation” like he’s trying to learn Spanish

Corinne was always posing in the background of shots, knowing the camera was on her.  Watch for it. God I hate/love her so much.

Fun fact: dolphins are the only other animals (besides humans) who have sex solely for pleasure. Seems like a missed opportunity by Alexis.

Nick begrudgingly giving Josephine a rose, clearly because the producers want her to stick around a few weeks.

Minority Report: We have a TON of minorities this season. And by a ton, I mean 8 out of 30 (25%)!  We lost at least 3, I think (it’s hard to keep track, they all look alike), but I am INCREDIBLY optimistic about this season. The previews (and the limo music) make it seem like Rachel goes pretty far, so it looks like for the first time ever we might have a Blachelorette (Black Bachelorette). Now this of course begs the question of whether Nick actually likes Rachel or is keeping her around because he’s a puppet and ABC REALLY needs more diversity. It will be an interesting relationship to watch develop, and I’m sure haters and Trump’s America will claim it’s basically affirmative action, but it’s 2017, so I’ll remain optimistic for now.

[ginnyzero]

Have/Love Genre Revolutionary Ideas; Buy/Promote Indie

Tumblr is a great place for ideas. I don’t promo much on tumblr anymore. I don’t even talk about my books much in the posts that come across my dash. I don’t feel comfortable there. Despite Tumblr being created for original content creators, especially artists, original content creators have been pushed aside in the wealth of gifs and selfies and other strange things.

But there are good ideas. Ideas that the commenters say they want to see on their bookshelves. They want authors using these ideas. They’re hoping and praying someone does.

My two favorite ideas on Tumblr are nontraditional werewolves for obvious reasons. Lots of female werewolves, werewolves that aren’t based in toxic masculinity, werewolves that act more like wolf packs and found families. These ideas are great for world building but tend to lack a great deal of plot. That’s fine. I had similar ideas before I went on tumblr (I wrote the Lone Prospect as a reaction to the werewolves in urban fantasy) and to see there is a market for these ideas is great. My other favorite idea is that Earth is Space Australia. Aliens don’t know how we can live next to our wild animals peaceful, don’t quite get our fondness for turning all sorts of things including small robots into pets, and find our hierarchy of friendships confusing.

Honorary mention to solarpunk that is still kind of being worked out as a genre I guess. (Though people are creating rules and ideas for it despite the fact I don’t know of anyone writing in it? Not very helpful.)

As an indie author, these posts also frustrate me. Because, yes, part of me wants to respond and jump up and down and go “I wrote werewolf books with funny more wolf like instincts rather than GRR RAGE!” But on the other hand, I don’t know how many people go back and read the comments after they’ve submitted theirs unless it shows up on their dash again and well, constant reblogs does not a good community make. There are people on tumblr that are far too quick to accuse you of spam even if they stated they WANT those types of books.

At the same time, as an author, I know that the type of books they claim they want to see on shelves aren’t going to appear by magic. Hoping and praying isn't going to cut it. I tried going the traditionally published route. And for various reasons including length, quite possibly genre mixing (adventure instead of mystery) and well, my werewolves aren’t patriarchal toxic monsters TM standing in for gays etc that is normal for traditionally published books, I didn’t get any bites on my novel. Agents didn’t know how to classify my novel in order to pitch it to editors and publishing houses who don’t know if there is a market for my novel.

There’s no proof of concept. Publishers sell books that they know are going to sell. They know that kitchen sink urban fantasy mystery books with werewolves as monsters sell. (Ugh. Bored now.)

So, is there a solution?

Yes. There is.

Buy Indie.

If you want to see books with radically different genre conventions that what is being published in science fiction and fantasy right now. If you like those concepts, you have to find/write those concepts and then get people to buy them. You have to organize. You have to create hype. You have to start by buying indie and doing it as a large group at once. You need to review the books and give them as many five stars as you can. (Thus, be selective in which books you want to do this to and make sure they’re worth the five stars.) You need to hype them on social media. Bookstagram them, do excerpts on tumblr, do a read along for an influencer, anything to get the word out there to create hype. It doesn’t matter if the book is on Wattpad or if it’s on Amazon, even 1000 sales all at once with reviews that follow that are positive will get publishers to sit up and take notice.

Sales are proof of concept. Sales will get publishers to see a market for funny scifi, for LGBT+ werewolves, for non monstery werewolves, for aliens that find humans cute rather than a threat. The more sales, over the longer period of time, you can create for an indie author, the bigger the chance that a publisher will approach them with a book deal.

The publisher may not expect many sales from that indie author. But they’ll still offer that author a contract. Case in point, the Martian. (Though that is an outlier as it got a movie.)

Sales matter.

Reviews matter.

Talking about Indie Books that have the concepts you love in them MATTERS.

This requires community. This involves coming together and working together to help authors who have put a great deal of time and effort already into their books and understanding that it doesn’t happen for free. You may not get free books out of this. You may have to BUY the book yourself. (Most Indie Books are 3.99 or less.) If you want the author to keep creating these ideas, then, yes, you need to support them with your dollars and time.

Having ideas is great.

Sharing ideas is easy.

Making those ideas a reality and changing the course of an industry is work.

Authors can’t do it all. They aren’t the market. They aren’t the readers. Not everything can be put upon them. Authors can only do so much marketing. The rest has to be done by a community of readers who want to see these authors, and these ideas do well who are willing to buy the books, review the books and talk about the books.

[freakflagbyiana]

Why your Fantasy Hair costs so much

For years, it has slowly come to my attention exactly how much I've been undercharging which is a common problem with fantasy hair artists. There are several major factors contributing to the cost of fantasy hair services: the time it takes, the experience of the cosmetologist, the expense of quality chemicals, and the hair you're working with, the canvas (as it were) for the art that is fantasy hair.   I want to talk about this multi-layered problem, the dilemma facing fantasy hair artists in general and those specifically in Austin.  Part 1 : The part that applies to all fantasy hair artists In general, it's difficult for any visual artist to know what they're worth, which is one of the reasons I felt okay about trading art school for beauty school - in the latter, you at least have ballpark idea what you were worth upon graduation AND there is more demand for your art. But fantasy hair is complex and, as such, is far closer to visual art than to a flat-priced service like a haircut. Haircuts vary in price due to factors like tools used or hair length or whether a shampoo and style is included. In the landscape of fantasy hair, however, the sky is the limit! You can get a single fantasy color allover, a multi-hued wave design, tiny rainbows on every single strand or a pixelated hair design that reveals a pikachu when you comb it a certain way. (This exists!) Throughout my career, I've struggled with finding a consistent pricing structure. At my last salon, the owner would often point out that I was undercharging, but it was something I found difficult to recognize for myself given our price structure and internal, non-competitive pricing conventions. Now that I'm running the business myself and in charge of my own pricing, I’ve been able to see how vastly I was underpaid. I desperately needed to develop a fair and consistent pricing structure - one that could accurately reflect the cost that goes into each individual fantasy hair creation...    Good fantasy hair is demanding, a single sitting fantasy hair service takes double, triple, quadruple processes, unlike say the single process of dying your hair black. The processes multiply both the time and the amount of chemicals needed compared to your standard, single process permanent color. Like any quality ingredient, good hair chemicals are expensive to begin (sidebar: a LOT of corporate research has gone into pushing the limits while maintaining the integrity of your hair, see Olaplex, and stay tuned for a future blog on that very subject shortly). On top of this, many of the best canvases for fantasy hair are people with lots of thick hair. Much of the time, I’m using 10 ounces of bleach or more on a person before we get to the fun fantasy color part. One head could easily take 20 ounces of lightener/color. To put this in perspective, fantasy color tubes come in 3 ounce tubes, which means I can easily need 4 tubes for one person’s head - the overhead cost adds up very quickly.  I adore doing complex color layouts, but the more complex, the more time it takes to create. An allover color melt of 3 colors can easily take 4-5 hours, more if you need color correction underneath that. What many people don't realize is that expecting all of that to be done in a single sitting is expecting A LOT. I’ve had experience with these kinds of single session hair transformations, while maintaining hair integrity, for 20 years now. I generally know what’s possible in a day and what is going to fry your hair. And when no one else can do it, I probably can. That's why I have earned the title of Hair Wizard. I enjoy doing single day transformations but the majority of people who want fantasy hair don’t understand the true expense (in money or time) and in many cases can’t afford what a one day transformation should cost ... and that's where my sympathy used overpower my need to make a living and I'd undercharge. This became scary to me personally because of some real life issues I had to face over the past few years. I found myself suffering from severe neck and back problems because of the physical strain of my job, but I din’t have the resources to afford a  chiropractor. The vulnerability I was facing forced a long-needed decision to update my pricing structure. After consulting with other artists, I chose to start pricing by the hour - as a colleague advised me, it's the only way to make the pricing totally transparent and fair.  Pricing hourly allows people to choose up front how much they want to do (and pay for) at once. This opens up options particularly in situations when people have requested a complex service then told me they cannot afford the quoted price. If you cannot afford the entire transformation in one day, an easy solution is to break it up into multiple appointments a week or two apart. If you're planning it for going out of town, then book your hair appointments as far in advance as your plan your plane tickets so that there's not this sudden panic to get your rainbow hair done in one day. Charging hourly allows both me and clients to choose how many hours of my effort they want to spend on their hair. While planning ahead may not be the most exciting thing in the world, it is MUCH better than attempting to do it yourself and messing it up. Or, worse, going somewhere you think is going to be cheaper, having them mess up your hair, and then paying more to have an experienced artist like myself fix the color and correct hair damage. Beautiful fantasy hair like is like every other luxury good or service - you get what you pay for.   Would you sit down for a meal at Uchi without having the money to pay for it? 

Would you spend a whole day picking out a Porsche and then be shocked by the sticker price?

Would you order a craft cocktail and expect it to cost the same as a can of Lone Star beer? What I do is the craft cocktail of hair. I use top shelf ingredients, I take the time to do it properly, and the result is going to taste better than what you could achieve at home.  

Part 2: the part that applies specifically to Austin, Texas Here I’m specifically addressing the “ATX Demographic” - What do you really want from your hairdresser? There are a few reasons why I’ve had many people migrate to me and stay for years. Skills aside, I don’t push products, and I don’t trick you into living a higher maintenance hair lifestyle than the one you want to live. In fact, I’m more likely to tell you you’re washing your hair too much, and if I do recommend a product, it’s because the integrity of your hair needs it, like medicine. Like I’m a doctor, your hair is sick and here’s the prescription if you want it to stop breaking off. You don’t even have to get the medicine from me, I just want you to get better.    But throughout my entire beauty school and career, I've always heard the same thing, "HALF of your income comes from selling retail products!"  Uh, no.  No one here wants to use products in their hair every day. My haircuts last a really long time because I have to structurally engineer a magical way to get your hair to "do that thing" with zero products and styling, as per the request of my clients.  The reason why? THE CLIMATE. We have nine months of 100 degree summer days with high humidity swamp weather. Its literally too fucking hot to bother. No one wants to wear a bunch of pomade or mousse in their hair because after 5 minutes of walking outside it will be dripping down their face. Or, you’re swimming all the time anyway. Another reason is TIME. 99% of my clients would rather sleep in for an hour than style their hair in the morning. I'm not complaining, because I'm from here and I GEDDIT, because all of the above applies to me, too! I love being able to put a lot of products and effort into my hair when I feel inspired or for a special event, but I don’t have the time or energy to do it every day. And if I did do it every day, I’d have to wash my hair that often, which I passionately preach against as it overly dries out your scalp. And if I, a professional hairdresser, don’t have the time or inclination to do all of that every day of the week, I know that the vast majority of you are not going to either. I always say that fantasy hair is “passive effort” in your hairstyle. People can roll out of bed and get compliments on their disheveled hairstyle when they have fantasy hair, which (while not impossible) is less likely to happen with their natural haircolor. Since fantasy hair is a high dollar ticket item, it’s unrealistic to expect these same people to spend $100 more on products and 2 hours of styling their hair every morning. It would be cool, but it’s not the climate we live in.   So, here are the products I can retail in Austin: shamp/cond, curl creams, dry shampoo, deep conditioners, heat protection, color/toning assistants (like purple shampoo or UV protection), various stuff for flyaways (like a water wax or hairspray), various stuff for texture (texture spray or hair powder).  Now, given the MASSIVE amount of stuff available in our industry, that's an incredibly short list. I know Freakflag has a limited selection of retail right now, but even if I was fully stocked on all those things, I might sell one or two products a week if I'm lucky. My point being.... In Austin, with my specific demographic, retail does not realistically supplement my income. You want your hair to be healthy enough to have pastel hair and still look good with minimal products? You want your haircut to be structurally engineered so that you can sleep in another hour? You want a hairdresser that doesn't give you a product sales pitch at the end of every appointment?  All of that means my prices have to make up for the lack of product pushing I'm doing.  Part 3: The revolutionary part Let's talk about tipping!  One time I lightly complained about an occasion where people didn't tip for a $200 service, I don't normally complain about people but I wanted to use my frustration as an opportunity for advice from other service professionals. I found the best advice from an unusual source - legendary producer Tony Visconti, who chimed in with his two cents on the subject:  "Only Americans have to have this anxiety about tipping. Everywhere else in the world service people earn a living wage." Very true, I've known this for a long time since I was married to a Brit in my early 20s. But this little reminder inspired a revolutionary moment of epiphany - I realized I was my own oppressor, but I can also be my own savior.    Thus, I restructured my pricing to include 15%-18% gratuity on services. (I rounded down from 20% for nice even numbers.) There is still a tipping prompt at the signature stage of Square checkout, but the percentages are 5%, 10%, and 15% so that you can tip additionally if you deem me worthy, or you can walk away without doing any math at all and still know you contributed to my service. Math-free, guilt-free. I’ve had this structure for about a year now and it is so much easier! The concept of the single serving size mini salon was already revolutionary to begin with. It minimizes drama, provides a private experience, and allows a much more customized environment that is perfect for specialized artists like myself. I hope this tip-included idea catches on amongst my fellow independent contractor cosmetologists and maybe someday we can change the outdated concept behind tipping in the service industry as a whole.  Hopefully this gives you a better understanding of the secret world of fantasy color and fantasy hair artists.  

[sportsgameqia-blog-blog]

82 iPhone Sports Games That Will Get You Hooked

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82 iPhone Sports Games That Will Get You Hooked

Having a few iPhone sports games installed will surely help you make time pass faster when commuting or waiting for something.

According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics of the United States, Americans are spending a minimum of 5 hours daily engaging sport activities.

The top iPhone sports games that you will find in our list are having awesome graphics and simple controls.

This makes it easier for you to take your tablet or phone and get hooked by a great game.

If you’re into rough sports or you prefer to manage tactics and teams, there is surely something that you can find in our list of mobile sports games for your iOS device.

NBA 2K17

The NBA playoffs are in full swing, but you’re just as likely to find first-rate hoops action on your iPhone with NBA 2K17. Slick graphics, a variety of game modes, and full court gameplay continue the record set by the series, with expanded gameplay features and physical controller support included in the latest release.

Highlights include a deeper MyCareer mode with a new Off Day Simulator, as well as an expanded EuroLeague feature, alternate team uniforms, and historic players. All of this comes on top of the already excellent package of Season, MyCareer, and Blacktop mode play, making this a premium sports game well worth its asking price.

Madden NFL Mobile

An interesting mix of hardcore sim and free-to-play fun, Madden NFL Mobile combines the franchise’s hard-nosed American football action and tactical play with a digital trading-card system. The game features slick graphics, as well as technical gameplay that rewards smart playbook choices and sound tactics in the field.

Madden NFL Mobile also offers League and Season modes, live events and challenges to spice things up, as well as a marketplace and auction house for purchasing booster packs or extra players to upgrade your team.

Football Heroes Pro 2017

Whereas Madden NFL Mobile goes for a mix of arcade and simulation gameplay, Football Heroes Pro 2017 is a full-on arcade experience that draws inspiration from Tecmo Bowl and NBA Jam. Simple arcade controls, super moves and a cartoony art style keep things light and fun, with multiplayer support over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth that lets you battle it out with friends.

Like many free-to-play sports games, it’s driven by a collectible card mechanic, with players spending in-game points or real cash in order to purchase booster packs of players.

NBA Jam

NBA Jam is a 2-on-2 basketball arcade classic, and the modern mobile remake stays true to the original’s wacky aesthetic and arcade gameplay, while also offering modern features like online multiplayer.

Players can dive straight into the action with the Play Now mode or unlock hidden players and cheats in the single player campaign. Local multiplayer allows you to go head to head versus a friend via Wi-Fi and Bluetooth.

MLB Perfect Inning

While Gamevil’s earlier Baseball Superstars games featured an anime-RPG aesthetic, the licensed MLB Perfect Inning offers more realistic sports sim gameplay along with its free-to-play card-collecting system.

Perfect Inning’s numerous game modes include a full-on AI-controlled simulation, an offense-only mode, and a mode that has you take full control of your team’s pitching and batting. As players progress, they earn points that can be spent to buy new players or upgrade their existing lineup (all of which also can be done with real cash).

While Perfect Inning delivers a compressed baseball game experience, MLB Home Run Derby 2016 goes for a more full-on arcade experience, challenging players to hit as many home runs as they can in a given amount of time.

Players earn points for both the number of home runs hit, distance those homers travel and targeted skillshots, with end-of-match rewards allowing you to sign up new players, buy improved equipment or grab temporary boosts for in-game performance.

Arcade mode has you battling for points, while single player and multiplayer derby modes will let you battle it out against the AI or other human players in head to head bracket battles. MLB updates the game every season to reflect the venue for that year’s All Star Game.

Real Boxing 2: Rocky

Put up your dukes in Real Boxing 2: Rocky. Players can take on the role of Rocky Balboa and relive the movies by fighting it out against iconic adversaries like Apollo Creed and Ivan Drago to become world champion.

Alternatively, you can chart your own course by creating a custom boxer and engaging in the game’s career mode, where you can challenge a variety of opponents as well as time-limited bosses, or engage in PVP matches against other players.

Virtua Tennis Challenge

Sega’s Virtua Tennis Challenge brings the venerable sports franchise to mobile devices, letting players choose from 50 fictional players in their quest to become the world’s No. 1 tennis player. Players can utilize either gesture controls or a more traditional virtual gamepad as they cut loose with lobs, slices, drop shots and more.

The SPT World Tour mode challenges you to advance to the top by competing in new tournaments daily. Exhibition matches allow you to cut loose with quick matches, and you can challenge your friends to a multiplayer match over Bluetooth.

Table Tennis Touch

Table Tennis Touch takes the high-intensity game of ping pong and translates it adroitly into a mobile-friendly form. Players take control of the paddles with swipes, engaging in high-speed rallies against a variety of opponents.

Players can engage in a Career mode, have at it in Quick Play games or unlock a variety of challenging minigames in Arcade mode. Table Tennis Touch looks and plays great, and the addition of a multiplayer mode lets you play against friends in local and online matches.

FIFA Mobile

FIFA Mobile is the latest of Electronic Arts’ annual football games, delivering slick soccer action straight into your smartphone; it’s also one of the 10 best iOS games of 2016 according to Apple’s App Store rankings.

In addition to the Ultimate Team management mode, FIFA Mobile also includes a variety of short game modes, such as Attack Mode that puts you in command of an aggressive play against the other team’s goal, as well as a continuously updated roster of Live Events games themed around the latest matches and events. In addition, FIFA Mobile now includes social play Leagues, with players grouping up and joining forces in inter-league competitions.

Matt Duchene’s Hockey Classic

Take to the ice with Matt Duchene’s Hockey Classic, the latest in Distinctive Wireless’s mobile series, which adds new game modes and expanded team rosters to the mix. Players can jump in for some instant action with Face-Off games, while Playoff and Winter Games modes have a more tournament style going for them.

A grueling new Hockey Giants mode has teams racing to 5 points, and the Outdoor Series and Live Games add new ways to play for an already solid mobile hockey game.

Football Manager 2017 Touch

For a more strategic view of “the beautiful game”, check out Sega’s long-running Football Manager series, a game that puts you in the manager’s chair of your favorite football clubs.

A fantastically detailed sports simulator that prizes accuracy over flashiness, Football Manager dry, menu-driven interface and gameplay isn’t exactly spectacular, but for a stat junkie that loves all the nitty-gritty details of transfers, lineups and tactics, it’s a dream come true.

More iterative than revolutionary, the 2017 edition features new game modes such as a Fantasy Draft, Online Versus, and Online Career modes. The Touch edition is designed for higher end tablets like the newest iPads, while Football Manager Mobile is designed to work on smartphones.

True Skate

Take to the skate park with True Skate, a mobile skating game that has you swiping, flicking and dragging on the touch screen to pull off crazy skateboard tricks.

Rather than engaging you in missions or competitions, True Skate is more of a skateboarding sandbox, allowing you to play around in the game’s virtual skate park and score points based on the difficulty of your tricks. In-app purchases provide additional content, such as more skate parks and board customization options.

King of the Course Golf

Electronic Arts’ King of the Course Golf is decidedly less of a hardcore golf sim than the Tiger Woods series. The game instead aims for a more arcadelike feel, with game modes for conventional stroke play or trick shots such as hitting bulls eyes or skipping your shot across the water.

The quick-play challenges might be on the fantastical side, but the game does offer famous real-world courses, such as TPC Sawgrass, Pinehurst No. 2 and Banff Springs

Super Stickman Golf 3

And now for something completely different. Super Stickman Golf 3 throws simulation totally out the window in exchange for absolutely wacky, side-scrolling physics-puzzle gameplay.

Featuring 20 dynamic courses, hundreds of holes and a wide variety of hazards and terrain types such as magnets, moving obstacles and sticky terrain, Super Stickman Golf is definitely not your daddy’s golf sim.

Players can unlock a variety of player avatars, ball trail effects, and dozens of hats with a variety of game traits, and can participate in online multiplayer when they’ve grown tired of the single player challenges.

New Star Soccer

If you’ve never really gotten along with classic footy games on mobile, New Star Soccer shows that there’s another way. This is a proper native mobile football game, and it’s brilliant.

Punch Club

Train your MMA fighter into a formidable fighting machine whilst simultaneously taking care of his life outside of the ring. It’s basically a Rocky simulator, which is fine by us.

Skiing Yeti Mountain

This deeply daft casual game somehow nails the rhythm and momentum of downhill skiing with a simple touch and swipe control system.

Penny Time

There are more faithful skateboarding sims on iOS, but Penny Time focuses on simply being fun. It does so by creating a slick, stunt-filled autorunner with a distinctive art style.

Touchgrind Skate 2

This one takes a rather literal stance regarding controlling a sports game with your fingers. The board appears on the screen and your fingers become tiny legs, enabling you to perform gnarly and rad tricks, man! Irksome lingo aside, this is a fantastic title that’s initially demanding but hugely rewarding once mastered.

You can also upload videos of your best moves and show off to your friends, and there’s fortunately no way you can skin your knees, unless you trip over while obsessively performing ollies, powerslides and heelflips while walking down the street.

Magnetic Billiards

If you’re the kind of person who gets off on using cushions to pot the odd ball in pool, you’ll love Magnetic Billiards. A sort-of physics puzzler take on the popular pub game, it dispenses with pockets entirely — you instead clear the table by building clusters of connected balls that then vanish.

Emptying a table’s the easy part, though — the real skill is in figuring out insanely complex trick shots to get to that point, ‘buzzing’ balls of different colours, and creating a pleasing magnetic shape before it vanishes into the ether. For free, you get 20 tables; £1.49 nets you a ‘skeleton’ key that unlocks the rest of the game.

World Tour Golf

With EA having deserted ‘proper’ golf games on mobile for the arcadey nonsense of King of the Course, WGT thwacks a ball and gets a realism hole-in-one. This really is a quite astonishing game, from the delicate controls through to the eye-popping photo-realistic courses you play on.

A word of warning: it also takes no prisoners. There’s no nonchalantly spinning a ball in mid-air when you fluff a shot. Here, you’ll end up in the bunker, then overshoot the green, before multiple putts leave you embarrassingly over par. But put in the practice and you’ll be a virtual golfing superstar before long.

R.B.I. Baseball 17

If you love the realistic simulation sports games that exist on all the major consoles, you’ll love R.B.I Baseball 17.

This massive game (a download size of 2.55 GB) allows you to play the full 162-game 2017 MLB season as your favorite team! Through free updates, you can keep up with all the roster changes throughout the season, so you never skip a beat!

With three difficulty levels to choose from, you’ll be able to enjoy the experience of real baseball regardless of your skill level. Can you take your team in the postseason?

When it comes to realistic sports simulations in iOS, R.B.I Baseball 17 is a home run.

Snowboard Party 2

Snowboard Party 2 is a surprisingly exciting snowboarding game that has a lot of depth. With five game modes, 50 unique tricks to perform, and 16 playable characters, there are a lot of reasons to keep playing.

Despite being a slightly older game, Snowboard Party 2’s graphics are still pretty impressive, and the game hasn’t been abandoned by the developer. The newest version updated about a month ago.

Snowboard Party 2 is the closest thing you will be able to get to those classic SSX Snowboard games you used to play on your favorite console.

Fishing Kings Free+

Dream of hitting the open water and reeling in a big one? Fishing Kings Free+ is an oldie, but a goodie!

Sail around the world to catch the rarest and biggest fish around! You’ll need gain experience, make money, and collect new gear to become a true master angler.

Despite being an older game, the graphics are still pretty impressive, and the gameplay is really fun and challenging, making it great to play for a couple of minutes or a couple of hours!

8 Ball Pool

Another classic game that is still going strong, 8 Ball Pool is a fantastic pick-up-and-play billiards game!

With several different tables and locations to choose from, you can face off against AI opponents on three different difficulties in the practice arena!

Do you think you have what it takes to be the best pool shark in the world? Take on people from all over the world and show them who’s boss!

Whether you want to spend minutes or hours playing pool, 8 Ball Pool has a super active community; you’ll never have trouble finding someone to play with!

Flick Champions

Like a lot of sports? This game has eight variations of sports, from soccer to bowling.

The games resemble table versions, rather than realistic sport versions. However, they’re still more involved than something like foosball or air hockey. The games feature tournaments and various unlockables, and have same-device multiplayer in the universal iPad version.

Flick Soccer

Soccer is most fun when the player can score goals (sorry, 0-0 matches will never be exciting).

This game is all about the set pieces, and trying to sneak balls past the goalie. The flick mechanic is very easy to use, and makes the game much more fun to play than the average soccer match.

Dream League Soccer 2016

Everyone loves soccer and there’s no doubt about it. Dream League Soccer 2016 is a full featured game with amazing graphics. The game lets you create a team of real FIFPro players, build your own stadiums, and take your team online to get acknowledged.

It’s almost like playing in real; the only difference is that your fingers will work instead of your legs. The game is free to play, but it does have optional coin purchase, in case you wish to.

Snowboarding the Fourth Phase

Snowboarding isn’t everyone’s cup of tea, as it required physical fitness as well as professional training. But if you still wish to have the feel of Snowboarding, you can try Snowboarding The Fourth Phase game for iPhone and iPad.

It has high-resolution graphics that will simply leave you stunned. With power packed levels and features, the adrenaline rush will stay on the peak. It’s completely free to play, but there are optional coin purchases to progress speedily.

Flick Rugby 16

Rugby required extreme fitness to withstand the blows given by opponents. But if you don’t want your bones to break, better play the game on your iPhone or iPad. Flick Rugby 16 is a free to play game with optional in-app purchases.

Apart from that, the game offers a selection of world’s best rugby nations, stunning HD graphics, and much more. It is surely a great game, if you are a fan of rugby.

Golf Star

Golf is considered as a game of rich people and to some extent it is true, not everyone can play golf at the golf court. That’s the reason why we listed Golf Star in this list. The game has stunning next to real graphics.

The terrain, players, and entire gameplay have been detailed with perfection to deliver a golf experience like never before. Like all other games that we have listed, this one is also free but with optional in-app purchases. So far, this is one of the best sports games for iPhone and iPad.

World Cricket Championship 2

Cricket season is on and ICC T20 World Cup is on its way, then why not have some fun with the same on your iPhone / iPad as well? World Cricket Championship 2 is one hell of a game with almost everything that the game of Cricket has to offer.

You can play more than 45+ different shots, select the stadium, build your team, and much more. It is undoubtedly one of the best sports games you can ever play on your iPhone or iPad.

Snooker World

Snooker is one of my favorite sports and so is this game. Snooker World presents you with many different game modes that include one-on-one, multiplayer, and arena. The game also offers a training course, if it’s your first time.

There’s a wide range of selection available for cues and tables to suit your gaming style. Apart from that, you can also chat with players by text or by voice. So get yourself ready to lead the charts worldwide. Did I say the game is totally free?

EA Sports UFC

One of the fastest growing sports is UFC. Now you can virtually get involved without getting hurt. Pick your fighter and begin training. Along with the standard dodging and hitting, each fighter has special skills that will be improved the longer you fight. Use small hits until you a fill up a meter where you can take someone down.

Get your opponent on the floor until you can put them in a submission hold and eventually win the match. One of the most exciting features is the live events. Play along during an actual match to earn rewards. The graphics on this game are intensely realistic, you can even see sweat and blood. It is the best way to enter the octagon and get up close and personal with the action.

Jam City Basketball

This is an arcade-like version of a basketball game. It isn’t affiliated with the NBA so there aren’t actual players or teams but that doesn’t make it any less fun. Play as a guy who just loves basketball and learn how to run and shoot in a gym. Once you’re ready to play against others, you have a few options.

You can play in Arcade mode, which is a two v. two game against the computer. You can also play a Shootout against someone random or a friend. Wait for the app to find your opponent and shoot until the balls are gone. Graphics are cartoony, but gameplay is fun and silly.

Super Rocketball:ChampionLeague Online Multiplayer

Soccer and car-racing are two separate yet equally fun sports to try. If you are interested in both, then this hybrid treat might just delight you! Featuring sports cars in outrageously fun games of soccer, now you can enjoy racing, dribbling, and scoring goals at the same time. Team up with the world’s best players to get more fun experiences!

Control your car throughout the field by tapping on the buttons for directions, and the buttons for accelerating, boosting, and jumping.

32 Secs

Take a break from the real world and speed race to the future on your bike. This racing game’s objective is to overtake every other glitzy vehicle to reach the next checkpoint gate within 32 seconds. Collect coins along the way, and run through speed boosters to accelerate.

Avoid colliding with other moving vehicles, and use the coins you collect to upgrade your vehicle’s power, brakes, handling, structure and even model!

Tap to dive and follow the arrows’ directions to perform the right poses! The goal of the game is to fill up the bar with as many points as you can until you reach the target. There is a time limit for each move, so make sure you tap and swipe as fast as you can. Collect coins while you dive by clicking on them before they disappear!

Keep an eye on the bar on the upper left; once it is full, you can use your special skills by touching the screen with two fingers

Crazy Freekick

Prepare for a free kick soccer game that is capable of delivering lots of laughs! The early levels will help you pick up the game mechanics － simply drag to aim, and then release to kick the ball into the goal. However, things begin too get crazy as you pass each challenge across the 16 stages. It seems that the opposing team will do anything to keep you from scoring, from riding on bicycles to breaking the fourth wall!

Stickman Surfer

Life is a beach, so it’s time to get surfing! Grab your board, hop on that jetski, and rev up your … motorcycle?! Enter this stickman game which takes water sports to a new surreality. Ride the tide as you dodge various obstacles which come your way from every angle. Snapping sharks, ragged rocks, and bothering birds will try their hardest to have you feeling on the soggy side.

Tap the screen to move your player up, and perform daring jumps over ferocious waves as you automatically scroll to the right in this 2D paradise.

Zombie Olé

Yara had dreams to become the best soccer player ever — that is until zombies infested the majority of the world. Instead of giving up, she uses the situation to leave an epic soccer legacy for the rest of the survivors to see. Asking her brother to film from a tall tower nearby, she pummels zombies relentlessly with her weapon of choice: her soccer ball.

Help Yara achieve her sought after dreams. Swipe both left and right to hastily move around. Bolt between zombies until they collide for a perfect “Ole.”

Golf Zero

To describe this golf game as crazy would be an understatement. Not only will you need to get the ball to the hole but you will also need to overcome various obstacles and jump on platforms, all of which will definitely test your reflexes and patience.

Slide forward or backward using the arrows on the left. Jump using the arrow up on the right and make an accurate swing using the club button.

Summer Sports: Volleyball

Is volleyball the sport you consider yourself the most skilled? Is beach volleyball your primary choice for leisure, recreation, or for refining your own set of skills? If so, this portable platform for active volleyball tournaments might work well for you! Capable of bringing together individuals passionate about the sport, you can easily create your own matches and share them with other people.

Learn what it takes to create the perfect combination for delivering powerfully in the field! Improve your power, timing and precision by actively participating in matches.

Nitro Heads

If you like virtual racing against real players, then this game is a great one to check out! De-stress, liven up, and immerse yourself in this monster cars through giant loops and across pitted roads to collect Nitro. Your goal? To win!

To control your vehicle, you must balance your ride through the rotating buttons provided. When you perform stunts, a perfect landing would mean a “happy” Nitro – or rather, a fueled one. Speed past your competitors to earn cash, then use the cash to upgrade your car for better chances of winning against your opponents!

Trial Xtreme 3

Are you ready to take on an extreme bike ride like no other? Throttle up and ride through mountains and over obstacles in this 3D racing simulator! You can choose to play alone as you test and gauge your skills, or you can play head-to-head with your Facebook friends or random players. Customize your bike and rider to suit your preferences, then hit the track!

Control your rider by tilting your device. The game’s sensitive controls can test how well you navigate your rider over slopes and ramps. Its high resolution graphics also emulate a real biking experience. Test your skills and see how far you can go in more than a hundred levels!

Turbo Kids

Run in a racing competition and aim to finish in first place! You can be Neil who runs faster with more energy or you can choose to be Winnie who carries more bullets and recovers quickly after any injury. Collect boosters during the race to help you run faster or gain more energy. Shoot bullets to cause your opponents to slow down during the race — but make sure you also don’t get hit by their attacks!

Once you get to the next level, you can upgrade your equipment to increase your character’s energy, bullet power, and speed. Play on any season — spring, summer, fall, or winter — and go through different stages for each season. See if you can surpass your opponents in this exciting race!

Golf Clash

Exhibit your aim and accuracy by playing golf right on your mobile device! Play on the fairway and the greens in a virtual 3D course. And more than that, you get to challenge other players across the globe!

To play this game, slowly drag the ball back and hold it to apply power. Next, drag the ball into the center of the blue circle and release it when the needle is in the middle to take a powerful shot. The main objective of the game is to clear the course with the fewest tries. Advance and beat other players to win amazing prizes!

Rival Gears Racing

If driving on a touch screen isn’t your thing, then this racer offers less strenuous controls while keeping things intense and competitive.

It is set in a dystopian future, where car ownership is abolished and self-driving hover vehicles are the only means of transportation allowed. You are a member of an underground movement, who longs for the good, old days of street racing.

From salvaging parts of old models, you have created your own “Hot Rod” hovercars to compete in a massive global tournament known as Rival Gears.

BFB Champions 2.0 ~Football Club Manager

Prepare to become the best soccer club manager in the world. From scouting fantasy players to managing real-life stars from great teams such as Manchester City, this simulation game will provide you with plenty of ball blasting entertainment. Are you ready to take on other players in the casual PvP Arena or intense Champions Cups?

Adjust your lineup with a few simple taps and watch how your tactics play out in automated 3D matches. Recruit players and train them in different mini-games to boost stats. Hone your strategic skills as you decide which player you should put up against the might of the world’s best teams. Play against the AI opponent and improve your managerial prowess, or compete against other aspiring managers online!

3D Pool Game

Do you miss playing pool? You can take the game anywhere with you with this mobile version! Practice your shots against challenging AI players, and polish your cornering and backshots to pocket those balls and win the match!

This 3D simulation has easy swipe-and-drag mechanics for a comfortable gameplay. Place your cue ball and swipe the pool stick to generate power for your push. Packed with various game modes, this game includes 8-ball, 9-ball, and others.

1,2,3 Fishing:World Tour

Do you miss the sound of crashing waves and the feel of reeling in fish? Relive those moments with this amazing game! Cast your line out and reel in all kinds of fish out there. Place your bait and find yourself catching some mighty rare fish that will earn you some big bucks!

Log in using your Google account or even as a guest to enjoy the exhilarating fishing experience. Create your character and study the tutorial to get the hang of things. Once you do, practice your timing to perfectly cast your line, reel it in, and once you feel a tug, pull hard! Strategically let your line run and pull it back in order to tire out the fish and, finally, land it.

Travel to different fishing areas around the world, receive rewards for every quest that you fulfill, and, finally, submit your fishing score and compete against other fishers online!

Archery King

Steady that arm and set your sights on the target to shoot that bullseye! Face off against other players in turn-based online matches, or test your archery skills with challenges across the map in single player mode.

Tap and hold the screen to pull back an arrow and zoom in on the target. Move by swiping in different directions, and let fly by releasing your hold. Different layers of the target result in different points, so aim to hit the bullseye and areas around it to receive the maximum amount before running out of arrows!

Ball King

Now is the time to dominate the streets with the widely popular game of basketball! Whether you think of yourself as a pro at hoops or not, this arcade-styled game can be great for both your leisure and relaxation needs.

Tap and hold down on the screen to form a trajectory – this will help you visualize where your ball will land. Aim as accurately as you can for the shooting board, and try to be consistent as it can randomly place itself anywhere on the screen. Be cautious of things that will make shooting harder and harder as well – the weather can interfere and the wind can sway your aim!

Drive Ahead! Sports

Play a pixel sports game where you can enjoy soccer with wacky vehicles! Feel the excitement of driving the ball towards the goal in a curved arena, while your fans watch and cheer!

Play alone or with another friend via local multiplayer; the first player who can make three goals wins the game. Drive crazy characters, such as a motorcross ninja, a monster truck viking, and more. Earn coins in every game, which can be spent on point upgrades to tweak speed, mass, or handling; acquire new characters and arenas!

Head Soccer

A real treat to soccer fans who want their games fired up with animation! It’s a duel-type of soccer game where you face one opponent from the other side and battle on outmatching each other using power kicks and jumps. This is a game perfect for kids and adults who like soccer but don’t want to deal with a whole bunch of people running around the field.

With easy controls using up, down, left and right arrows, you can easily move your characters to run across the field and intercept a free ball or jump and kick the ball while on air to score a goal. Results can be decided in a matter of seconds! Plus, you’ll get free bonus kicks once you score high.

Head Soccer La Liga 2017

Go head to head against soccer’s best in caricature form! Join teams from the Spanish League; compete in one-versus-one matches with Messi, Neymar, Cristiano Ronaldo, and others. Upgrade the famous athletes to boost their stats, or create original players with unique looks by using the built-in editor — then face off in a stadium full of cheering fans!

Select from various game modes: choose “Friendly” for a quick pick-up game, “Cup” to challenge rivals for the championship, “Survival” to endure countless matches, and “League” to earn big winnings in a 14-day series of bouts. Utilize simple, on-screen controls to move, kick, head, or perform special attacks. Score more points than your opponent before time is up to win!

Lonely One

There was a lonely one who lived all by himself. He has no friends and playmates but he has the best buddies- his golf club and ball. Make lonely golfer happy by hitting the perfect shot into the hole in this endless hilarious golf game! Experience new golf thrill as you begin swinging the virtual golf club to hit the ball!

The controls are straightforward as it looks. The objective is to score as much as you can using the three hit chances only.

NHL SuperCard 2K17

Are you waiting for NHL season to start? Play an awesome hockey game while counting down to the day of the tournament!

Bring out your inner leader – train and coach your team in this card game. Select players from your collection and appoint a “Skater” and a “Goalie”. Increase your chances of winning the “Quick Games” by training your roster. And when you feel confident, join “Season” and play against the best teams. Earn amazing player cards as your rewards to give your team a boost!

Panda Sports Games BabyBus

Meet Kiki, a cuddly and friendly panda. He dreams of winning the final gold cup, and to do that, he needs your children’s help. Teach your children the values of sportsmanship, determination, and perseverance with this olympic game!

Kiki has four sporting events to join. These are basketball, trampoline, running, and diving. Your children can control Kiki by tapping, sliding, and dragging. Also, before Kiki can win a cup, he has to get the bronze, silver, and gold medal first.

PES Club Manager

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to run your own soccer team? If you want to know the challenges, this game is perfect for you. Hone your strategic and management skills in this simulation game built for soccer fans!

Form your own team and customize your name and uniform. Scout players that have a potential to become legends, and sign them on to your team. Upgrade your hometown’s facilities as well to increase your player’s stats.

Top Eleven

The lights go on, the players come out, the fans start screaming, and your team puts ball-to-boot to begin this phenomenal show! Managing a soccer team is by no means an easy job, it requires nerves, organization, and skill in decision making to carry the hopes and dreams of loyal fans. But get it right, and have your name written among the legends such as Alex Ferguson and Jock Stein!

Uphill Rush

Take a wild summer ride in this extreme stunt racing game set in a resort! Travel up and down sloping waterslides as you collect gold coins, smash destructible obstacles (such as beach balls, plants, and even other swimmers), and perform 360-degree flips in your Yellow Tube. But lose your balance, and you will have to restart the level.

To control your movements, tap the arrows to change directions and the rotate buttons for stability. Begin by playing as Bikini Girl or Beach Boy, and obtain more characters as you advance. Unlock cool, adorable, and wacky rides, such as dolphins, jetskis, bathtubs, and jetpacks. Want maximum speed? Activate the turbo boost!

UFB 3 (Ultra Fighting Bros) – Fight Championship

If you have enjoyed the piledriving and cage-jumping action of the previous UFB, expect only more to enjoy in this third installment! The competition has only gotten fiercer as you square off against both new and familiar faces.

As always, fighting is all about who gets to leap over the enemy and slam them down into the floor. Tap and hold to take aim. Then, release to launch your fighter to the other side of the cage. Play as one of eight fighters representing various nationalities, including two new ones from France and Japan!

Dirt Xtreme

Curious to experience bike racing in amazing spots around the world? In Machu Picchu perhaps? Compete against players online and enjoy extreme racing like no other. Here is a game that gives you simple controls and intense speed with a realistic feel of bike racing. Finish as the first in all races and become everyone’s favourite racer!

Tip-Off Basketball

Practice your aim in rounds after rounds of basket shooting. No team to manage, no player to move around, this sports game is all about the ball getting inside the hoops. Adjust the trajectory of the ball and wish your luck for it to get in. The better the shot, the higher the score.

There are different missions each round. Complete these exciting challenges and proceed to the next with the best record. Unlock new environments to play on and conquer the whole world with your prolific shooting. How many points can you make?

Tower Boxing

In this riveting arcade game, you get to see if you got the boxing power to bring down an entire tower! Tap on either side to start pummeling away while making sure to dodge the ledges that can knock you out. It comes with a very short time limit too and makes it an incredibly intense challenge of quick reflexes.

Coins can also be picked up as the tower falls down. Use them to unlock a variety of other characters, each with their own hilarious means of pulverizing each floor. From giant monsters to iconic boxing characters, try to unlock them all as you bring down as much of the tower as you can with your barrage of jabs. Take arcade boxing to new heights by knocking down an entire skyscraper!

Spike Masters Volleyball

If you are looking for volleyball games to play on your device, you can add this one to your list. This volleyball game lets you experience indoor games wherein you get to learn player positions, team rotations, and other basics of the famous sport.

You can choose from different teams like Russia, Italy, USA, India, Indonesia, Philippines, and more. Win tournaments to gain stars and unlock game features that will make tournaments even more exciting. You can also visit the game store to purchase new teams, balls and courts, and shot controls.

Hit Tennis 3

Score from love to forty in every match against the opponents that are ready to challenge your skills in all six courts around the world. Use the basic flick motion to send the ball to the other side of the court. Be flexible in your techniques by swiping it to any direction you want. It is a best three game with an equivalent experience waiting at the end.

The percentage of experience you get in each game adds up to your total experience. Level up every time you reach a hundred percent to make your play style better. Aside from that, you can also use the booster upgrades in your apartment. Have a “love-less” game and become the next world tennis champion!

Mascot Dunks

Jump and dunk using your favorite mascot! Discover your basketball skills in this fun and exciting game. Just tap on the screen to make your mascot jump, dunk the ball and score!

Practice different dunking moves like whirling dunks, boxing dunks and face-palms. You can even do a Superman Dunk like a pro player! Change into any mascot you like during the game and choose from Lions, Pitbulls, Bears, and an Astronaut Mascot. This game will surely satisfy the basketball fanatic in you!

Soccer People

Channel your inner Cristiano Ronaldo and lead your own personalized team to winning the golden cup. Manage all of your players and move them on the field using basic swipe controls. For gaming variety, you can choose any of the 22 voxel-graphic characters to be part of your team. Your main goal is to score three points before your opponent does in order to advance to the next stage of the tournament.

The best part of this game is that you have the ability to drag two players at once to move them. Basic controls are used to make play easier and more intuitive. You can even tap on the auto-control button to keep other players moving! start an enjoyable soccer competition now with your dream team today!

Fantasy Homeruns

Fantasy Baseball has been a favorite pastime among baseball fans. Simplified, this Fantasy Baseball for mobile calculates only one important statistic: Home runs. Create teams composed of custom created characters and those based on actual players.

With team building and actual league matches, stay-up-to-date using the app’s dashboard. This game records and even updates on events similar to actual baseball leagues. Unlike traditional Fantasy Baseball, pen and papers aren’t needed making this a convenient way to play.

Carrom Deluxe Free

Pocket all your chips and win the game! Carrom is a game that is similar to pool, snooker, billiards, and crokinole. Use the striker to..well, strike, then pocket the chips of your color! Just remember, this needs to be done after the red chip, or the red queen, is covered by either player.

Play this popular game on your devices; choose to battle a challenging AI, or gather some friends around the device. Are you a Carrom fiend? A pool shark? This app might be your next calling!

Basket Fall

Calling all basketball fans! Sit tight for this simple and engaging game that makes you shoot balls in just a single tap! It’s a classic basket shooting games with a twist! Here, you’ll see the ball tied to a rope just above the hoop where it continually swings!

Test your timing and tap the screen in time for the swinging ball to align with the ring! One tap is enough to break the rope and send the basketball falling! With this simple control, anyone can play the game in a snap and earn as many points as they can!

BIG WIN Basketball

Have you ever rushed home just to watch basketball? That is the mark of a true fan, someone who should be managing their own team! Well, today is your lucky day because this app simulates a basketball game and will let you experience being a great coach, right from your digital device!

If you desperately love basketball or have leadership skills, now is your chance to create your own dream team! Simply tap a player and assign them a position. Train and give them a strength power-up, such as lay ups and three pointer skills. You will be able to relax on your couch and watch them battle it out on the court!

Boom Boom Football

An RPG-esque soccer simulation game that will let you experience brand new touchdown thrills is here! Creating your all-star football team is now possible, right at your fingertips! To win, you need the right cards! Level-up, boost and evolve your players, or combine them to increase their stats.

Tap to begin the clash of cards which allows you to play both offensive and defensive. There are varieties of players. Each player is classified into 5 stat levels － bronze, silver, gold, platinum and all-star. The controls are simple; just tap the circled green target to score or block!

Dude Perfect 2

Basketball may sometimes be seen as simply a sport of shooting a ball into a basket, but this is a game of strategic mind-bending physics. This game requires precision to score using a variety of balls, including even a bowling ball!

Basketball fans as well as physics junkies will love shooting the ball by simply sliding your finger to control the strength. But that is not all, the game gets interesting with different challenges and obstacles arising. Try to keep your momentum going by minimizing tries as you become limited by how many shots can be taken. Focus on accuracy, and enjoy a quick game without a time limit.

DunkDog Dreams

Play as a cool dog who is always looking for hoops and dunks in this runner street basketball game! Dipping the ball into the hoop is not that easy. A pack of street dogs will not allow you to take their ring. Break their knees by tapping the shoe button to perform crossover and spins. Tap the arrow button to defend your ball.

The objective is to surpass those dog defenders while avoiding the fouls. Now, set back, relax and show your ankle breaking dribbling skills! Experience new hoop rush as you jump your way through the final hoop to perform a dunk! All you need to do is tap the shoe button to jump, wait for the board to light and then hit the ball button. It is a dunk!

Fishing Break

Ready your bait and brace yourself for catching virtual fishes from the lake! This classic fishing simulator game features different locations on each level! With the game’s cartoony design, kids will have a great time casting their fishing rods like a pro!

Just slide your finger right to cast the rod and wait for a fish to take the bait. Reeling is done with a simple tap and hold, but catching the fish takes strategy! View their defense level and compare it with your power. Stronger fish offer more resistance so beware! Pull them out of the water without snapping your line!

Goal Finger

Have an itch to kick a soccer ball and play a friendly match with your pals? But can’t go to the soccer field due to a hectic schedules? Take that frown from your face! Enjoy kicking soccer balls, scoring goals, competing against other players online, and devising football strategies in this turn-based 3v3 soccer game!

Swipe the arrows to move your players. You can change the direction of the arrow in the options. Tap on the field to switch between players. The first team to score 2 points are declared as the winner. Gain points by scoring a goal or pushing your 3 opponents into the net. Use your wits! Anticipating your opponent’s move is also a key to winning!

Now you can be at the course anytime, all of the time. Play mini golf whenever and wherever you want. Coffee break at work? You mean golf break! Lunch time? Now it is golf time! Stuck in the dreaded meeting-that-should-have-been-an-email? Time for a few rounds of golf!

Gameplay is so easy and simple, your kids could play this game. Just long press and move your finger on the screen to aim. Drag your finger further away from the touch point to increase the power of your swing. That is it, now you are ready to start hitting those birdies.

Hockey Clicker

Are you the biggest hockey fan around? Does it drive you nuts that your responsibilities keep you away from the sport you love? Then strap on your skates and hit those bar downs in this hockey game for busy adults. Prepare to be amazed, because this app is definitely a barn burner.

The goal of the game is simple: tap the biscuit to score goals and earn cash. Use that cash to recruit and train members to create the ultimate hockey team. Then challenge players from around the world, or form teams with them to earn bonuses. Now all you need is some champagne for the celebrations!

Ending thoughts on iPhone sports games

There’s a long line of top notch sports games throughout videogame history. Take any moderately popular sport, and you’ll probably find it’s available in some kind of simulated form.

Off course, sports games don’t necessarily need to be dry simulations. Developers can take the core rulesets of familiar sports and go off on a tangent, or even invent completely new sports of their own.

The result is that whether you’re naturally sporty or not, you’ll probably enjoy the vast majority of these fine sports games.

If you liked this article about iPhone sports games, you should check out these as well:

Source

https://www.designyourway.net/blog/tech/iphone-sports-games/

[vincentbuckles]

Weekend reading: Can we take back control from Brexit?

[A quick update on Brexit thoughts for those who want to reasonably discuss it. For those who don’t, please feel free to skip to the links.]

Imagine having anticipated something for 30 years, finally getting the freedom to do it, and then making a car crash out of it.

But enough about my life as a mid-life singleton. I’m thinking here of the Eurosceptic wing of the Conservative party.

You know – those 40-odd guys who can’t muster up enough votes to unseat the UK’s most ineffectual leader since Hugh Laurie’s Prince Regent in Blackadder the Third, and yet who’ve somehow managed to send 63 million of us towards an apparently imminent impoverished future.

You might think the World Class farce we’ve endured over the past 30 months would see me smiling.

After all a second referendum is looking ever more likely, if still not odds-on.

But unfortunately, I continue to read and hear abundant evidence that most of the Leave voting contingent still doesn’t get it.

And that means despite the demographic challenges of that faction (i.e. its original margin of victory is literally dying) it’s quite possible Leave could win again.

Especially if the Remain side sticks to the previous policy of dull facts over bus-splattering bullshit fabrications.

No wonder Leave voters seem almost as angry as Remainers:

I’ve seen a parade of #Brexit leaders on news programmes today. Their position boils down to this: We are absolutely sure voters knew exactly what they voted for and, as soon as we manage to agree among ourselves what that was, we will inform voters what it was they voted for.

— Alex Andreou (@sturdyAlex) December 6, 2018

A second referendum is a horrible solution to a stupid problem, with plenty of downsides.

However from my perspective it has the minor virtue of being less terrible than all the other alternatives.

Whose Brexit is it, anyway

Can we not stop this death march? Absolutely no one seems happy with the direction of travel.

Not even the Leave voters, that’s the most galling – if unsurprising – thing.

Blogger Ermine came close to capturing this contradiction at the heart of the Leave vote with a graphic this week. Leavers are represented here by the two Mickey Mouse ears on top of the smug metropolitan elite mug:

What @ermine’s Venn diagram is missing though is the set of people who voted either Leave or Remain to make us poorer.

Perhaps that’s because it doesn’t exist – despite even the Government admitting that’s what we face.

True, a tiny set of Brexiteers have belatedly conceded that a No Deal Brexit will hit us in the national nads.

That, they now say, is a price worth paying for sovereignty / blue passports / the right to negotiate trade deals with Madagascar and Kazakhstan.

But all the leading Leave-supporting players continue to lie to the electorate.

Theresa May herself rounded off her Deal Debate Dodge by harking back to the supposed ability of Brexit to reduce the inequalities and insecurities she spoke of in the aftermath of the vote – despite almost every single analysis of Brexit showing a net negative impact, economically-speaking.1

If you want sovereignty or fewer immigrants from Brexit, fair enough. Own that. Don’t claim the tooth fairy too.

But sadly, the very few Leavers I come across in real-life are still saying things like “The EU needs us more than we need them.”

The same EU that has run rings around us in negotiations.

The EU that has stuck firmly together, despite all forecasts to the contrary, and strangely believes more in its vision of togetherness than in the fantasies of Brexiteers.

The EU that takes 44% of our exports, while we take 8%2 of theirs.

The roughly 450 million of them versus the 63 million of us.

The UK vs the EU is a negotiating position that only looks attractive to Tories of a certain class raised to see greatness in the self-destruction of The Charge Of The Light Brigade.

“C’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre; c’est de la folie”.3

Barry Barricades

What I missed when I created Barry Blimp – the archetypal Home Counties Leave voter of not inconsiderable means and more than a few years – was his zealotry.

Because I now see a big chunk of the Leave cohort want Brexit no matter what.

In fact I rather think some would enjoy it if we had ferries piled up outside Dover and food rationing at Tesco.

Obviously I feel vindicated when I think back to the insults hurled at me when I ventured my opinion on my own blog that many Leave voters didn’t know what they’d started, or that this would drag on for years.

But that’s about as satisfying as telling the person in the seat next to you that yes, you were right that the 747’s engine sounded a bit funny as the Captain shouts “Brace, brace!” over the tannoy.

There seems no good solution to this mess now. Revolutions have started over less.

(That may sound melodramatic if you don’t know your history. I suggest you Google the origins of the French Revolution, the English Civil War, or the American War of Independence before you jab your finger in my chest.)

To be clear I’m not predicting revolution – let alone hoping for it, from any perspective – but there’s got to be a non-zero chance.

Currently we are just living through a nationalist coup, and that’s bad enough.

The irony is for many on the right, Jeremy Corbyn is a revolutionary Marxist.

Politics has abandoned the center ground. As a result, lots of people are going to be very unhappy, however this turns out.

Our politicians need to get a grip, fast.

From Monevator

Money is power – Monevator

From the archive-ator: The characteristics of an entrepreneur – Monevator

News

Note: Some links are Google search results – in PC/desktop view you can click to read the piece without being a paid subscriber. Try privacy/incognito mode to avoid cookies. Consider subscribing if you read them a lot!4

UK economy slows as car sales fall – BBC

Property market at weakest since 2012 as Brexit takes toll, says RICS – Guardian

ECB ends €2.5tn eurozone QE stimulus programme – BBC

Luxury goods inflation running at nearly 6%, says Coutts – Guardian

Richest parts of London generate 30x cash of poorest parts of UK – ThisIsMoney

Scotland freezes threshold for higher-rate income tax – Guardian

Crowdcube investors threaten legal action after Emoov goes bust – ThisIsMoney

      Check out the collapse in the price of solar powered energy – Vox

Products and services

Are real or fake Christmas trees better for the planet? – Guardian

Small energy providers keep going bust. Is switching too risky? – ThisIsMoney

Investors flock to venture capital funds [Search result] – FT

Britain to force broadband providers to tell customers their best deals – Reuters

Ratesetter will pay you £100 [and me a cash bonus] if you invest £1,000 for a year – Ratesetter

Examining the risks and rewards of securities lending for funds – Morningstar

Investec’s new notice savings account allows 20% withdrawals – ThisIsMoney

Questioning the $1million retirement maths special

$1 million isn’t enough – Fat Tailed and Happy

The hardest problem in finance – The Irrelevant Investor

$1 million? Meh. [US but relevant] – The Belle Curve

Comment and opinion

Stellar take on the savings-versus-investment-returns debate – Get Rich Slowly

Situational spending – Seth Godin

Index-investing critic takes aim, fires, misses – Bloomberg

Rational versus reasonable – Morgan Housel

Financial planning – Indeedably

Three investing maths mistakes to drive you nuts – The IT Investor

The current danger for stocks: Fear itself – Morningstar

Why you need a money mentor – The Cut

The reason many billionaires aren’t satisfied with their wealth – The Atlantic

The wonderful Portfolio Charts has had a makeover – Portfolio Charts

How to measure a company’s growth rate – UK Value Investor

The best investing white papers of 2018 [For nerds/pros] – Savvy Investor

Crypto corner (December 2017 nostalgic edition)

Four days trapped at sea with crypto’s nouveau riche – Breaker Mag

Yes Bitcoin was a bubble. And it popped… – Bloomberg

…but is it time for believers to buy back into Ethereum? – AVC

Prices are down more than the ‘fundamentals’ [My quotes] – Chris Burniske

Brexit

The EU rebuffs Theresa May on Brexit — six takeaways [Search result] – FT

Lord Heseltine nails it on Brexit [Video] – via Facebook

“This was the second failed attempt to unseat May in three weeks, for a bunch of guys who’d be picked last for paintball and are led by rejected Paddington villain Jacob Rees-Mogg.” – Guardian

EU leaders scrap plans to help Theresa May pass deal after disastrous meeting in Brussels – Independent

Sir Ivan Rogers on Brexit [Full speech] – University of Liverpool

How Ireland outwitted Britain on Brexit – Bloomberg

Don’t know why people see a nasty, racist fringe to the Leave vote… – via Twitter

Kindle book bargains

The Barcelona Way: How to Create a High-performance Culture by Damian Hughes – £1.09 on Kindle

The 100-Year Life: Living and Working in an Age of Longevity by Lynda Gratton and Andrew Scott – £2.99 on Kindle

James Acaster’s Classic Scrapes by James Acaster – £0.99 on Kindle

Off our beat

Habits are the compound interest of self-improvement – Farnham Street

Population mountains [Striking 3D maps of global populations] – The Pudding

KFC debuts fried chicken-scented fire logs ahead of Christmas – Fox News

We need academic conferences about robots, love, and sex – Slate

And finally…

“For half a century the competition to produce the fastest stock price-printing machine was almost as frantic as the pursuit of the stocks and the shares. Indeed for many, the two were inseparable.” – Selwyn Parker, The Great Crash: How the Stock Market Crash of 1929 Plunged the World into Depression

Like these links? Subscribe to get them every Friday!

Yes, a couple of things might be made better for a tiny subset of the population. But as we’ve discussed before, almost every serious economist believes those benefits would be grossly outweighed by the economic negatives. They’d be far better addressed directly via redistribution or government investment.

Or 18%, in a certain light.

“It’s magnificent, but it’s not war; it’s madness” – General Pierre Bosquet.

Note some articles can only be accessed through the search results if you’re using PC/desktop view (from mobile/tablet view they bring up the firewall/subscription page). To circumvent, switch your mobile browser to use the desktop view. On Chrome for Android: press the menu button followed by “Request Desktop Site”.

Weekend reading: Can we take back control from Brexit? published first on https://justinbetreviews.weebly.com/

[elizabethleslie7654]

The Problem of Notables

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This article was originally published on the TRS blog.

by Alex McNabb

The far-right has been plagued for years by a problem many are aware of but too few are capable of articulating with any nuance. There have been a few clumsy memes and some grumblings about the worst of the bad actors, and precious little else. I’m talking of course about the toxicity and stumbling blocks created by the various narcissistic grifters that glom onto broader political movements like so many egomaniacal barnacles on the hull of a vastly larger ship. Like any infestation of parasites, they drag down the host and divert limited energies into unproductive directions. How can you develop influence over political outcomes if your “leaders” are just siphoning off resources and attacking each other more than the real enemy?

History is just repeating itself again though, and a veteran of the Algiers Putsch named Dominique Venner wrote about this over 50 years ago in an essay called “For a Positive Critique“. I consider the writing to be a seminal treatise that accomplishes exactly what the title suggests: It’s a check-list of pitfalls for right-wing nationalistic movements to avoid. He even specifically names the type of archetype causing these problems, referring to them as “Notables”.

What is a “Notable”?

Venner draws a strict distinction between “notables” and “militants”. Militants are the rank and file footsoldiers of any political movement, the boots on the ground, the ones that actually get shit done. The militant is committed to achieving tangible political goals and is guided by an over-arching doctrine. He doesn’t follow a man, he follows an idea.

The “notable” on the other hand is simply a highly visible person who makes all the right noises. He isn’t someone that’s risen into his position in the limelight through hard work; this is an “idea man”, and an opportunistic one at that. Notables are self-aggrandizing narcissistic conmen not altogether different from aspiring cult-leaders. How many of their beliefs are genuine and which number are simply the exponent of calculating which buttons to push for maximum attention is a subject ripe for speculation.

I think our modern internet age and social media environs increasingly favor the ascendance of these characters by providing them with a ready platform and access to willing sycophants. Any idiot with a microphone and webcam can now start collecting upvotes from credulous political partisans desperate for “content”. There are plenty of decent individuals out there exploring right-wing issues purely out of their passion for the subject, but these creators generally aren’t going out of their way to cause problems.

Characteristics of the Notable

Notables are fortunately not that difficult to identify and separate from the honest community members. I think there’s a few dead give-aways that should make you intensely suspicious of any public figure exhibiting these traits.

1. Lack of real world accomplishments.

A notable usually doesn’t “do things”, they “say things”. They’re good at saying things; they have a lot of “verbal virtuosity” and stage presence. Your average E-celeb is just someone with the free time to live-action shitpost about controversial rightwing political topics. A significant proportion of them are relatively young, unmarried, childless and just stumbled into 5 minutes of YouTube fame. They tend to lack the sorts of careers that would distract them from camping out in the most active areas of the online map, always looking to increase their audience while simultaneously e-begging for a big enough revenue stream to make adult obligations irrelevant. Leaders start organizing people in the real world, notables engage in mythomania and talk of revolutions that will never come. Does anyone wanna follow a guy that’s never even worked an actual job?

2. Disregard for their own followers and fellow travelers.

As Venner states in his essay, the Notable believes the “militants are an inferior class”, and “are only the rank and file to be used for political struggles”. There are sadly enough literal examples of this type of thinking in alt-right politics among would be “leaders”. To these careerists their audience is an expendable resource to be burned whenever it is convenient to them. They are not personally invested at all in the sorts of people giving them a platform beyond the most short-sighted material benefits and attention. Individuals that should be viewed at least nominally as allies are verbally assaulted, “doxxed” or otherwise discarded as “enemies” for any perceived slight, no matter how minor. The underlying dogma is that their fragile egos matter more than any over-arching political aims or goals.

3. Immoral behavior.

Notables are capricious narcissists. Like any garden variety dirtbag, they’re slaves to the basest of human impulses. Womanizing, embezzling, disloyalty, substance abuse, cowardice, and general shittiness dominate their most visible traits. Unsurprisingly, when caught in some misdeed, these are also the first to snitch and roll over to the police. These are the types of greaseballs that bemoan the loss of morality in western society before trying to seduce their “best friend’s” wife. Beyond the usual assortment of skeletons in anyone’s closet, these types have veritable graveyards full of the bones of a lifetime of underhanded back-stabbing and conscience-free living. If they mistreat their own friends, romantic partners and family, then how can you expect them to do any less to allies and followers in a political movement?

4. Inability to evaluate their own audience.

A more nuanced tell is the notable, like any real narcissist, can burn any level of human garbage to fuel his own ego. All fans are equally valuable regardless of how demonstrably unstable and toxic these demographics might be. A notable doesn’t care if he’s followed by a 15 year old edge-poster or a middle class married man with 5 kids, so long as his ego is being stroked, it doesn’t matter who does the stroking. To the Notable, the adoration of a kissless, forever-alone incel is a heady intoxicant capable of propelling him to dizzying heights of hubris. Sycophancy over substance is the rule, not the exception to the Notable’s cloister.

5. Theatrical revolutionaries

While Venner uses this term generally to refer to any LARPer living out their personal fantasies, one should be on guard in particular against “leaders” that insist on “dressing in a costume called a uniform”. These are profoundly unserious people that have confused a political movement with a Neo-Nazi version of Comic-Con. Dressing up like Hollywood villains is a great way to convince everyone you’re either a clown or a provocateur on the Federal payroll.

This has to stop

All of this matters because of the very real damage these grifters inflict on our fledgling right-wing movements. By engaging in unceasing purity spirals and infighting, these maniacs drive away reasonable, normal human beings capable of generating real political capital. I believe these pathological tendencies are worsened by the online echo-chambers where ego-maniacal leaders and their dysfunctional followers can insulate themselves into thoroughly self-destructive trajectories. Any self improvement is sacrificed for the soothing of individual egos. Overall success has been hamstrung over and over by the crab-bucketing of jealous narcissists more worried about their own self-aggrandizement than cooperating with their peers.

These are the team-killers, the griefers that ruin cohesiveness and collective strength because they’d rather see it all burn than watch someone else take the glory. How many times has a personal beef or spergcel hatred of a particular figure lead to an outcome that effectively set the broader movement back as a whole? Have we not seen entire organizations destroyed by short-sighted, shameful behavior from the leadership? Is it worth it to tolerate someone that will inevitably betray his friends? It’s time to put our hard-earned lessons to work and leave the Notables behind as we move forward into an increasingly perilous time in global politics.

To do that we must demand more from a leader than simply being a posturing mouth-piece. The leader must work for us as an avatar of our collective will, someone willing to sacrifice their own petty ego for the good of the whole. They are responsible for the lives of many and must act like it. “Leading by example” isn’t just a trite catch-phrase; anyone in this position should be an inspiration, not a cautionary tale.

Stop giving oxygen and audiences to swindlers; just let that bad fruit wither on the vine.

“Zero plus zero always equals zero. The addition of mythomaniacs, plotters, nostalgics, careerists, and “nationals” will never yield a coherent force. Preserving the hope of uniting the incapable is to persevere in error. The few elements of value are paralyzed by the cranks that surround them.”

-Dominique Venner

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[mikemortgage]

Forza Horizon 4 review: A magnificent rush of glorious racing and gratifying rewards

Score: 9/10  Platform: Windows PC (reviewed), Xbox One Developer: Playground Games Publisher: Microsoft Studios Release Date: October 2, 2018 ESRB: E

In Forza Horizon 4 the folks at Playground Games have created a non-stop rush of exhilarating mini-rewards that results in an ongoing release of pleasure chemicals somewhere deep within our brains. Put another way, it’s kind of addictive.

Of course, this is the sort of play that the Forza Horizon games have been delivering since the simulation-meets-arcade racing series — spun-off from Turn 10’s much more hard-core Forza Motorsport franchise — first debuted back in 2012. But Playground Games is offering its most precisely distilled version of this formula to date in Horizon’s fourth outing.

This particular edition — which, like its predecessors, puts as its premise a fantasy racing festival set within a broad expanse of countryside with urban pockets — brings the series to the studio’s home turf, the United Kingdom, and they’ve delivered a fine virtual interpretation of their native land. Sheep roam the hills, low rock walls line rural roads and rain comes as thickly and suddenly as you’d expect in a country famous for it. There’s even a miniature yet surprisingly accurate recreation of Edinburgh, the distinctive streets, steeples, and castles of which any casual tourist will recognize instantly.

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It makes for a fine backdrop against which to set a series of seemingly endless racing events and activities. All you need do is tell your car’s navigational assistant, ANNA, the sort of driving for which you’re currently hankering and she’ll plot a path to an event mere moments away. It could be an off-road dirt rally, an unsanctioned street race, a set of story-based missions that let you perform stunts for a movie, a journey through the top 10 most memorable video game cars, a dare to traverse a closed road ending in a perilous jump, a Forzathon live event that summons groups of racers to work together to drift and speed toward specific goals (imagine Destiny’s public events, just with cars instead of gun-toting immortal guardians), or any of countless other activities, the majority of which you can choose to play solo, cooperatively with a team, or competitively on the fly. Most take just a few minutes or less to complete before rewarding you with money, notoriety, prizes and more.

And your trips to each of these events — whether you choose to stick to roads with stunning vistas or simply plow through the countryside as the crow flies — are filled with little incentives of their own. Every near miss on the highway, 180-degree turn, drift, jump and burnout earns points that will let you unlock perks for the car you’re currently driving. You’ll also zip through speed traps, punch through collectible sandwich boards and stop to admire scenic views, scoring bonuses all the while. Hardly a few seconds will go by — and I mean that literally — without some sort of notification popping up saying that you’ve earned or unlocked something. It would almost be overwhelming were it not such a bloody rush.

Through it all, Playground Games hasn’t lost the essence of what has earned all of the Forza games — of both the Motorsport and Horizon genera — such a strong following: Cars. Expect a massive stable of licensed, extraordinarily detailed, upgradable and tune-able vehicles, ranging from obscure classics to modern supercars to fictional dream rides. And they handle so dreamily that simply driving one down a winding stretch of coastal highway at speed is sometimes all the reward you need to get behind the wheel. Indeed, admiring your growing garage, customizing your favourites and then coming up with crazy things to do with them is half the fun. When I turned up for a dirt race in a vintage, 85-year-old Bentley 8 Litre, other racers texted me amused messages — until they saw it begin performing like an S1 supercar, thanks to all the hidden upgrades I’d made.

Expect, too, to be taken aback by the beauty of it all. Forza Horizon 4 is another showcase for the power of an Xbox One X, with hidden details springing to life in 4K and with HDR effects switched on. However, I played the bulk of the game not on an Xbox but rather a Windows PC — specifically, a brand new HP Omen 15-inch laptop, which let me enjoy a blistering 72 frames-per-second with all video settings maxed. It proved the definitive way to experience many of the game’s graphical flourishes, which include seasonal weather shifts as the festival wears on. Beads of water on the windshield, glittering snow, organic flocks of birds and rays of sunlight punching through shifting clouds like spears thrown by gods. If there’s a prettier racing game out there, I haven’t seen it.

Just remember that Forza Horizon 4, like the two Horizon games that came before it, is clearly an evolutionary rather than revolutionary work, from race types right down to menu design. There have been plenty of times when I’ve found myself unable to tell whether a feature or system was new to this edition, enhanced in some way, or had existed in previous iterations. That’s not a criticism so much as an indication that Playground Games is clearly content to add and tweak rather than reinvent, which is understandable, given how persuasive its open-world racing formula has proven itself over the years.

And the result of the studio’s tinkering is another enormous, deeply satisfying, and, it’s worth adding, joyous open-world world racer. It incorporates elements of arcade driving, simulation racing, storytelling, exploration, discovery, collection and even role-playing in ways that few other racing franchises have even tried and none can match. If there’s space for just one racing game on your shelf, Forza Horizon 4 is probably the one it ought to be.

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[theconservativebrief]

What is happiness?

It’s a very old question. And no one really knows the answer, although theories abound.

Aristotle was one of the first to offer what you might call a philosophy of happiness. For him, happiness consisted of being a good person, of living virtuously and not being a slave to one’s lowest impulses. Happiness was a goal, something at which humans constantly aim but never quite reach. Epicurus, another Greek philosopher who followed Aristotle, believed that happiness was found in the pursuit of simple pleasures.

The rise of Christianity in the West upended Greek notions of happiness. Hedonism and virtue-based morality fell somewhat out of favor, and suddenly the good life was all about sacrifice and the postponement of gratification. True happiness was now something to be attained in the afterlife, not on Earth.

The Enlightenment and the rise of market capitalism transformed Western culture yet again. Individualism became the dominant ethos, with self-fulfillment and personal authenticity the highest goods. Happiness became a fundamental right, something to which we’re entitled as human beings.

A new book entitled The Happiness Fantasy by Carl Cederström, a business professor at Stockholm University, traces our current conception of happiness to its roots in modern psychiatry and the so-called Beat generation of the ‘50s and ‘60s. He argues that the values of the countercultural movement — liberation, freedom, and authenticity — were co-opted by corporations and advertisers, who used them to perpetuate a culture of consumption and production. And that hyper-individualistic culture actually makes us much less happy than we could be.

I spoke to Cederström about how this happened and why he thinks happiness ought to be seen as a collective project that promotes deeper engagement with the world around us.

A lightly edited transcript of our conversation follows.

Sean Illing

The prevailing conception of happiness today is something like self-actualization, which is rooted in the “human potential movement” of the 1960s. The idea is that we’re happy if we reach our full potential as human beings and live authentically.

You call this our “happiness fantasy.” Why?

Carl Cederström

I think there have been happiness fantasies during all periods. My point is that it’s impossible to actually know what happiness is. But you can see happiness as reflecting the accepted values during a particular era, and those values evolve over time. So there’s always a strong connection between popular morality and how we think of happiness.

What’s interesting to me is that it’s not really until the Enlightenment era that we get this ideal of happiness as something that we, as human beings, can fully achieve in our lives. And it’s not really until the middle of the 20th century that this vision of happiness becomes the dominant cultural norm in Western society.

Sean Illing

How did that happen? What cultural forces conspired to cement this view of happiness?

Carl Cederström

Well, as with all histories, you can choose how far back you want to go, but I trace it back to the early psychoanalytic movement at the beginning of the 20th century. Although Sigmund Freud didn’t think human beings were especially designed for happiness, there were other figures who emerged from that movement, people like the Austrian psychoanalyst William Reich, who popularized this idea that happiness was connected to free love and free sexuality. These ideas got picked up by the early Bohemians of the 1940s in the US and later in the ‘60s and ‘70s countercultural movement.

Happiness became increasingly about personal liberation and pursuing an authentic life. So happiness is seen as a uniquely individualist pursuit — it’s all about inner freedom and inner development. This is still the foundation of how our culture tends to conceptualize happiness.

“This mania for individual satisfaction and this idea that buying and collecting more stuff will make us happy has produced a spectacularly unequal world”

Sean Illing

How did an anti-corporatist movement in the 1960s built on the idea of personal liberation and sexual freedom get co-opted by the very thing it was rejecting — consumer culture?

Carl Cederström

This is really what most of my book is about. By the end of the ‘60s, there’s a feeling that society is not allowing people to be authentic, that corporations are the enemy. People are thirsting for solidarity, and they see corporate life as dead and two-dimensional. And this is very powerful stuff that upends society.

But what happens as you move through the ‘70s and into the ‘80s is that the political conditions start to shift and corporations start to address all these concerns. You actually see articles in places like the Harvard Business Review about how to attract a “revolutionary spirit” and bring the youth into the corporate world.

Obviously, there’s a lot to say about how this happened, but the short version is that corporate America and the advertising industry changed their tactics and vocabulary and effectively co-opted these countercultural trends. At the same time, there were leaders like Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher who were advancing a very individualistic notion of happiness and consumerism, and all of this together had a huge impact on our culture and politics.

Sean Illing

You’ve hit on something that I think has to be unpacked. So I think Karl Marx got a lot of things wrong, but one of the things he got right was his idea that cultural values are a reflection of the prevailing economic order, and not the other way around. As you note in the book, our idea of happiness has been transformed to make us better consumers and producers, and that’s not an accident.

So is there any way for us to truly change our collective conception of happiness without also changing the underlying economic structure?

Carl Cederström

Wow, that’s a really good question. I think the honest answer is probably no, but it’s tricky. Part of what I want to say in this book is that the view of happiness we have now could not have come about if we didn’t have the kind of economic order we have.

The main point of the book is that the idea of happiness we now have, this pursuit of authenticity and personal freedom, may have once been a genuinely noble goal, but over time, these values have been co-opted and transformed and used to normalize a deeply unjust and undesirable situation.

There really is no way to accurately compare happiness today with happiness 50 or 100 years ago, but this mania for individual satisfaction and this idea that buying and collecting more stuff will make us happy has produced a spectacularly unequal world, and it has, in my opinion, left people less fulfilled and more empty inside.

Sean Illing

Do you think our hyper-individualist culture has set us up for disappointment? In other words, can we be genuinely happy if our primary aim is self-satisfaction?

Carl Cederström

I don’t think so. I think that ends where we are now, with a culture of extreme individualism and extreme competitiveness and extreme isolation. I think we do end up in a situation where people feel constantly anxious, alienated, and where bonds between people are being broken down, and any sense of solidarity is being crushed.

I think a meaningful sense of happiness would need to be a collective one. For a very long time, we’ve looked at ideas of collective happiness as ugly or creepy or totalitarian, but they need not be. I believe we desperately need to reimagine what collective happiness might look like in 2018.

“Capitalism has been very successful at presenting human life as an individual pursuit, but that’s a lie”

Sean Illing

I want to circle back to that potential reimagining, but first I think there’s an uncomfortable idea worth engaging. Capitalism is built on a set of assumptions about human nature: We’re self-interested, obsessed with status and prestige, and inherently competitive. If all of these assumptions were wrong, it’s highly unlikely that capitalism would work as well as it does.

What does all this suggest to you?

Carl Cederström

I think there’s a fundamental human desire to feel connected to other people. I also think capitalism has been very successful at presenting human life as an individual pursuit, but that’s a lie. Human life is far more complicated than that, and we’re all dependent on other people in ways we rarely appreciate.

You’re right, though. Like any political or economic ideology, capitalism appeals to something real about human nature. And the justification for capitalism has always been enjoyment and satisfaction — and that’s a powerful message. Human beings don’t have to be narcissistic and ultra-competitive, but if we’re thrown into a system that incentivizes these things, it’s obvious that we will be.

Sean Illing

Your book is focused on the Western world, but do you think the East, with its very different religious and cultural traditions, in general has a better view of happiness that the Western world?

Carl Cederström

No question about it, but I have to be honest and say I don’t understand enough about those traditions to speak in any detail about them. I will say this, though. I think Western culture has adopted some of these traditions and practices, like meditation, in order to be better at coping with our own situation. But maybe we’re missing the other, more important part, which is about letting go of yourself.

Sean Illing

That’s interesting, and seems right to me. I find that a lot of people borrow practices like meditation or yoga and then divorce them from their cultural or spiritual roots, and then they become just another tool of self-fulfillment.

Carl Cederström

I think that’s absolutely right.

Sean Illing

You said earlier that we need to reimagine a new happiness fantasy, one that is less self-involved and more grounded in the world around us. What does this conception of happiness look like, and how do we build it?

Carl Cederström

One thing I noticed while tracing this happiness fantasy over time was that I almost exclusively came across male voices. It was always men articulating the vision of happiness, and they were affirming values that were important to them and their sense of fulfillment and pleasure. I think that’s worth noting.

As for your question, I think a new happiness fantasy would, first of all, acknowledge that these values have been used to exploit people at work, and have been used to normalize a situation of precarity and austerity. And to imagine a new one, we would need a fundamentally different set of values. And I think that starts with a more collective consciousness.

Instead of obsessing over the self-actualized perfected person, maybe we should care more about equality, community, vulnerability, and empathy. Maybe we should get out of our heads and be more present in the world around us. I think that’s how we build a better world.

Original Source -> Why our individualistic culture makes us less happy

via The Conservative Brief

[mindcoolness]

Metaphysical Toughness: The Antidote to Bigotry

New Post has been published on http://www.mindcoolness.com/blog/metaphysical-toughness-antidote-to-bigotry/

Metaphysical Toughness: The Antidote to Bigotry

Humans are often said to have a “need for metaphysics” (Schopenhauer). Aware of our own mortality, we deeply desire knowledge and meaning in life. This drives us to create myths, religions, philosophies, value systems, and scientific paradigms.

We like to see meaning as something profound and glorious. We say, “Meaning is precious because it makes our suffering worthwhile.” But what if the meanings we find and invent are just our weak mind protecting itself with rationalizations? What if meaning in life acts as a petty defense mechanism for fragile egos? And what if our sources of meaning also spawn bigotry?

Let’s look at two powerful sources of meaning, religion and nationalism:

If you want to make people believe in imaginary entities such as gods and nations, you should make them sacrifice something valuable. The more painful the sacrifice, the more convinced people are of the existence of the imaginary recipient. A poor peasant sacrificing a priceless bull to Jupiter will become convinced that Jupiter really exists, otherwise how can he excuse his stupidity? The peasant will sacrifice another bull, and another, and another, just so he won’t have to admit that all the previous bulls were wasted. (Yuval Noah Harari, 2017, Homo Deus, Chapter 8)

An ideology is a metaphysical vessel, filled with meaning. We can invest time, energy, money, thoughts, and emotions in an ideology. The more we invest, the more staunchly we will believe that it is meaningful and the more vehemently we will oppose anyone whose “truths” suggest that our investments were pointless sacrifices. Who could bear to admit that one’s “meaningful investment” was really just a stupid decision? The problem intensifies when the investment surpasses blood, sweat, and tears:

A crippled soldier who lost his legs would rather tell himself, ‘I sacrificed myself for the glory of the eternal Italian nation!’ than ‘I lost my legs because I was stupid enough to believe self-serving politicians.’ It is much easier to live with the fantasy, because the fantasy gives meaning to suffering. (Yuval Noah Harari, 2017, Homo Deus, Chapter 8)

Stories create meaning, regardless of whether they are objective facts or false myths. Nationalists and revolutionaries have for ages been telling fantastical stories to convince themselves and others that nobody who dies for their cause will have died in vain:

If I have sacrificed a child to the glory of the Italian nation, or my legs to the communist revolution, it’s enough to turn me into a zealous Italian nationalist or an enthusiastic communist. For if Italian national myths or communist propaganda are a lie, then I will be forced to admit that my child’s death or my own paralysis have been completely pointless. Few people have the stomach to admit such a thing. (Yuval Noah Harari, 2017, Homo Deus, Chapter 8)

To see what’s true and to be rational, we must be willing to let go of meaningful myths. This can be tough. Metaphysical toughness, the ability to endure meaninglessness and to let go of metaphysical hopes, is a prerequisite for consistent rationality.

Most people flee towards meaning and cling on to it with their lives. They beg for morsels of meaning like a dog begs for scraps of meat. So when meaning comes at the cost of truth, education is not enough to prevent bigotry. Education alone cannot outweigh stupid investments in a meaningful ideology. The real antidote to bigotry is metaphysical toughness.

A metaphysically tough person has the mental strength to resist ideological tribalism, to admit stupid decisions, and to concede when his “heroic suffering” has served no real purpose whatsoever. He can be metaphysically hopeless with a cool mind and without despair. But being able to endure meaninglessness doesn’t mean surrendering to nihilism. There can still be meaning in life, so long as it is rational:

Spiritual beings aren’t real, but spiritual experiences are. Mysticism (the feeling of being one with the universe) can give people meaning in life, though it doesn’t justify religious practices beyond their worldly worth (i.e., their objectively measurable positive consequences).

The manifest destiny and divine glory of nations aren’t real, but ethnic identities are. Ethnic belonging can still give us meaning in life, though it doesn’t justify nationalist practices beyond their rational worth (e.g., it may justify limitation of immigration, but not militaristic imperialism).

Rational sources of meaning might not be as intense and engrossing as their mythical excesses, but this is to say that they are less bigoted. Again, we run into the dilemma of open-mindedness: Would you rather have deep, unshakable convictions that simplify your life, harden your character, and aggrandize your meaning in life? Or would you prefer truthful, flexible principles that are often confusing, debilitating, and vulnerable to be detached from all purpose?

We must be tough if we want to maneuver wisely through complexities, ambiguities, and metaphysical vacuities. Metaphysical toughness is what enables us to keep an open mind while enduring intellectual confusion, practical debilitation, and depressing meaninglessness without getting lost in it. We don’t need stupid beliefs to have meaning in life: all we need is a path to pursue and a group to belong to.

May this inspire whosoever claims to be an exponent of truth and a lover of wisdom. If your True Will is obscure, your mission uncertain, and your social status falling apart, you need to stay tough metaphysically. A new meaningful path will form and a new meaningful group will emerge, but they will only be good1 if you can endure meaninglessness instead of desperately clinging to and investing in whatever comes around first. In essence, metaphysical toughness is the art of patience, of patience in purposelessness.

[publicide]

MIXED MEDIA: Prince Prints

THE ANASTASIS OF PURPLE

Sex & Gender battle/balance in Prince's looks + music.

Pantone's Color of the Year has been percolating under our collective unconscious since Prince's PURPLE RAIN. Get your grind on with the Revolutionary Dynamics of our Femmessiah...

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Welcome a flood of transubstantiation 

 PRINCE: Inside The Music and The Masks by Ronin Ro. 

Cover Review: Check out the crucial use of Pantone Purple spot-color Offset, printed to heavenly standards on ultra-matte Shark Skin premium paper. A tactile treasure with a sandy-soft feel, this next-level stock is a mastery of texture. Crack the perfect binding and you'll find your soul complete. Beyond iconic, this illustrated cover bears a photo from the musician's Parade era, transfixed with beatific vision. A magnetic mannequin, Prince looks on, frozen, serene as porcelain: a Byronic duotone Christ come to avenge funk, soul, rock and roll with a caliber of FULL-FACE-Faggotry unseen since Little Richard's retreat to the closet.

Riveting as it is informative, the book contents reveal clear, concise storytelling and musical criticism that read as fast as Mr(s) Prince Rogers Nelson could lick his guitar.

However...

The author, Ronin Ro, glosses over the profound gender expressionism of The Star. Barely mentioned—and deeply misinterpreted—is Prince’s mysteriously scrapped album: Camille, concepted + recorded from his divinely-developed feminine persona. Ro falls in with the bros at Warner Music—who resisted the record—reducing The Artists' composition to a simple, silly matter of "sped up vocals." Over and over, Ro commits to butching up the Queenly King of Sound, frequently excusing the artist's high heels and costuming with some variant of the "Chicks Dig It, Man" defense. Ew! Bret Michaels, Prince was not.

Custom Pale Pink Printing Inspiration | Full Color Printed Packaging + Clear-Foil Mylar Casing. | Printed then Abandoned: Camille, 1986. 

I relent. Ro is a wonderfully compelling journalist, fully illustrating Prince’s struggle to create boundary-free music for a culture deep in the trenches of sublimated segregation. A measly two decades after Vietnam and the Civil Rights creshendo, the 1980s brought on a pretense of post-racial “We Are The World” missionary colonialism, while radio-waves and neighborhoods remained divided. Prince united audiences, and set the standard to top every chart. With fairness, Ro gives ink to the anti-gay tensions rife throughout the artist's early tour with Rick James, among others. Of note: Run-DMC + LL Cool J’s impatience for the brilliance of Shiela E.’s stiletto-pounding percussive performances. Most puzzling: Prince’s bitter quest to “elevate” rap. The road to progress is always problematic.

After the label's bid to censor Camille, the material streamed into a proposed triple album, Crystal Ball, which then evolved into the live opera, Glam Slam Ulysses, co-written by David Henry Hwang—author of the Tony Award winning ode to genderfuck: M. Butterfly. Other tracks found their way into 1987's Sign o’ The Times, and 1994's Come. 

(Ed Note, The Scribbler departs from Ronin Ro’s Scholarship hereon.)

Looking past behind-the-times executives, it's possible Prince recognized he need not apply post-production tricks to access his innate force of womanhood. No one can deny, Prince has always been the master of Pitch-Play. And a respectful one at that. As his falsetto fails him during the production of 1991's Diamonds and Pearls, Prince bows to a more able avatar—gospel resounding through the pure kthonic power of Rosie Gaines, on the title track she belts: LOVE IS THE MASTER PLAN.

The holy unity of female & male iconography is inextricable from Prince's work. Beyond the binary, gender metamorphosis is concentrated in the esoteric Love Symbol. 

Love Symbol Design Evolution 1984-1994 | Vintage Press Release: “From now on, Prince will be referred to as O+>, the combination symbol for male + female which also served as the title for his most recent multiplatinum album.”

Prince famously changed his name to this unpronounceable (and unspeakable) icon Logographic in attempt to cut ties with his oppressive record label—the slick scoundrels at Warner Brothers trademarked his birth name, a brutal denial of the singer's independence and autonomy. As such, they had right to stifle his insurmountable body of work. Unfortunately, this kind of spiritual and legal robbery is common in the entertainment industry, with a long line from Louis B. Mayer's systematic drugging of Judy Garland, to Phil Spector's "motivational" gun-point murders, to Harvey Weinstein's strong-arming of everyone from Rose McGowan to Gwyneth Goop to HRH Winslet. Occam's Razor: not limited to unfamous "little people" like Geri Santoro and Sandra Bland, it happens on the A-List too.

I digress!—The name-change was a move made with much more significance than we can allot to a legal loophole alone. For The Purple One had reached at a point of no return—after 13 albums, several film projects, and a list of successful associated acts longer than Leviathan: he achieved artistic apotheosis. Exceeding the limits of time and space, fusion with his work was total. "I am music," He professed.

Later in life, He reclaimed His given name, but the Symbol would persist.

Watch, listen, learn while Larry King asks the tough questions with all the finesse of a drunk bus driver in this cryptic 1999 interview with The Star.

Full Color Offset Commercial Printing NYC | Lovesexy, and leading single “I Wish You Heaven”, 1988.

Prince's religious thesis was unique til the end, defying typical theology. A lifelong Christian and latter-day Jehovah's Witness: he would never abandon the sacred, ancient act of gender bending. Prince practiced a particular brand of find-Jesus-through-sex, and sang about it in just about every song. In a 2016 New York Times article, Touré quotes The Artist’s longtime manager, Alan Leeds: “For him the love of God and the sexual urges we feel are one and the same somehow…it all comes from the same root inside a human being. God planted these urges and it’s never wrong to feel that way. The urge itself is a holy urge.” Slain!

Custom Commercial Printing NYC | CMYK on Coated Stock + Saddle Stitch Bind. Spiritual subliminal-messaging exposed: information is free if you know where to look. | Purple Rain, “Darling Nikki”, 1984. 

Ever mystic, Prince hid this truth in plain sight as early as 1984, with the hypnotic, backward-looped choral-coda of his naughtiest: “Darling Nikki”. Notably, this very verse disturbed the indefensible Tipper Gore to her rotten core, prompting the construction of the Left Wing's bridge to the fascist Right with censorial "Explicit Content" stickers. (This here Writer-Witch wagers: it was YOU, Nasty Tip, who insidiously inspired the long line of liberal permissiveness for policed language, art, and thought. A policed future is a miserable one!) Tipper, of course, heard a voice that commanded submission to Satanic impulses; a testimony this scribbler will not refute—as Gore clearly has a direct line to Hell.

But Tipper isn’t always wrong. The Artist had been undeniably debauched, as rock stardom brings externalized sexual fulfillment. With sensual solipsism, a committed journey inward would present the next glorious level of consciousness. 

Prince believed the most sanctified of marriages were the utterly hidden and impenetrable ones; deep within the psyche, where our feminine & masculine selves find one another, spilling into harmonious, free-form unity. Brain, Body, Unlimited Identity: ascending into One. To Him, this Heavenly clash was transcendence itself, and the sole means of creative (read: immaculate) conception.

Duality gets extreme play in the soundtrack for Tim Burton's Batman. In an accompanying full-length MTV film, mutable morality and polychrome identity climax in the final number, “Batdance”, with an elaborate, double-cast of characters. Morphing from frame to frame, a circus of Batmen face-off against a chorus of Jokerwomen, who then splash over to the other side of the gender spectrum: and vice versa. IF ONLY the rest of us could transition by aid of ultraviolet light and sfumato fog alone!

Prince’s most potent confessions dazzle in the music video for Parade’s “Kiss”, where The Artist dances with a cloaked feminine form, his teasing Anima. Supreme, slippery and thriving: she demands relentless creativity and cunning to be reached. The elusive, sheer-sheathed companion is The Artists' shadow-self in spiked pointe shoes: subconscious, thus sacrosanct, able to travel back and forth to the underworld, retrieving every secret. A delightful game that is always worth it, should one have the strength. In all, Prince brings these sanctified truths to full-fruition in four minutes. For Carl Jung, the credited cartographer of the Anima-animus concept, it would take decades of digging—from his belly button to his brain—to make any coherence of this theory.

Film Still, “Kiss” directed by Rebecca Blake, 1986. Prince’s Shadow-Woman, La Qué Sabe, played by dance legend Monique Mannen. 

The Artist eventually found the externalization of this psyche-symbol in the form of Mayte Garcia, a thriving antecedent to the static Kim Kardashian—and author of the official tell-all, The Most Beautiful. 

Introduced to the prodigy when she was just 16, Prince was staggered by Garcia’s ecstatic ballet-belly dancing: idealized supernatural fantasy made corporeal. 

Like purple, red, and gold mercury—the pair would go on to perform with the unrepentant tenacity of crushing-creative love—a mind-blending, otherworldly mirror-dance unseen or heard of since Ovid's tale of Salmacis & Hermaphroditus. Prince + Mayte’s ending, however was less happy than the total unity of classical literature's Queer, river-bound lovers. 

In 1996, the momentary joy of their son’s birth would be followed by a mysterious death six days later. Do yourself a favor and NEVER watch the Oprah interview where they show a unified front—clenching tears, claiming their child is alive. We are still sobbing.

Found: Promotional Printing + Full Color Posters + Booklets | Prince + Mayte Garcia, 1991-2000 | Creative Print Companies Manhattan NYC.

Proving that even the most sacred of Pop Culture Saints are subject to fallibility, Prince burned every single one of the possessions he and Garcia procured for their lost child. A divorce and gag-order on his wife soon followed. 

Now, with Prince’s untimely death, Mayte is finally allowed the last word: “My whole body felt taken over with rage. It felt hot and toxic and lasted for a long, long time…I would never get over him,” she explains in her book, a hardback Pietà. Still, she moved on. While Prince would create until his last, painful day, little of his output would have the impact of Mayte’s behind-the-scenes work. Agency to the core: in the new millennium, Garcia snatched the chance to play puppeteer, offering a spell of choreography to Britney Spears’ turning-point production, “I’m A Slave 4 U”. With Mayte’s help, Princess takes King of Kings. Dearest Prince, Rest in Perfection.

Music Industry Promo Printing | Full Color Halftone Printing on Coated Paper. Come, 1993; V Magazine Postcard Mailer, 2016. 

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Publicide NYC Custom Printing Companies | Creative Corporate Collateral: Acid Grape Foil Stamp; Backdrop Throughout: Pantone Love Symbol #2, premium purple pigment.

[friend-clarity]

ONE LONG CIRCULAR ARGUMENT

By: Edward Feser, October 18, 2017  This article appeared in: Volume XVII, Number 4, Fall 2017

How do you get blood from a stone? Easy. Start by redefining “blood” to mean “a variety of stone.” Next, maintaining as straight a face as possible, dramatically expound upon some trivial respect in which stone is similar to blood. For example, describe how, when a red stone is pulverized and stirred into water, the resulting mixture looks sort of like blood. Condescendingly roll your eyes at your incredulous listener’s insistence that there are other and more important respects in which stone and blood are dissimilar. Accuse him of obscurantism and bad faith. Finally, wax erudite about the latest research in mineralogy, insinuating that it somehow shows that to reject your thesis is to reject Science Itself.

Of course, no one would be fooled by so farcical a procedure. But substitute “mind” for “blood” and “matter” for “stone,” and you have the recipe for Daniel Dennett’s From Bacteria to Bach and Back. The philosopher Peter Geach once wrote that we should treat materialist claims to have explained the mind the way we would treat a claim to have squared the circle: the only question worth asking is “How well has the fallacy been concealed?” In Dennett’s case, not well.

* * *

Indeed, what the Tufts University philosopher and cognitive scientist gives us is a whole battery of blatant fallacies. For example, throughout the book, Dennett makes assertions to the effect that evolution “designed” this or that. Of course, evolution, which is an entirely impersonal natural process, doesn’t really design anything. The whole point of Darwinism, as Dennett well knows, is to get rid of notions like “design,” “purpose,” and the like. Rather, evolution merely simulates design. It is as if the products of natural selection were designed, though really they are not—just as water flows downhill as if it “wanted” to get to the bottom, though of course it doesn’t really “want” anything at all. Talk of evolution “designing” things, like talk of what water “wants,” can only be metaphorical.

The trouble is that Dennett’s entire edifice makes sense only if it is not metaphorical. For example, like other materialists, Dennett models the mind on the idea of the computer. But computers are the products of human designers. Hence it makes no sense to try to explain the mind in terms of computers, since the existence of a computer itself presupposes the existence of a designing mind. Dennett’s way of dealing with this problem is to say that the human minds or “computers” that design computers in the ordinary sense are themselves designed in turn by evolution. But again, evolution doesn’t literally “design” anything, so this is no answer to the problem at all. It only seems to be an answer if we fail to distinguish the literal and metaphorical senses of the word “design.”

Dennett thrives on such ambiguity and imprecision. Consider the use he makes of fellow celebrity atheist Richard Dawkins’s notion of a “meme,” which is a cultural artifact (such as an idea, a phrase, or a behavioral pattern) passed on from mind to mind the way a gene is passed down from generation to generation. Dennett argues that the origin of the human mind can be found in the evolutionary competition between memes, his favorite examples of which are words. Human thought is the end result of a long chain of events that began when words “invaded” brains, and some of them ended up reproducing themselves more effectively than others.

* * *

Dennett addresses various objections to this approach, but ignores the most glaring and serious problems. First, unlike genes (and like computers), words and other “memes” are human artifacts, the products of human convention. Apart from our custom of using a set of ink marks or sound waves as a word, these physical entities would be as utterly devoid of meaning or symbolic function as a random splotch of oil or dirt. The existence of words thus presupposes the existence of human minds, so that it makes no sense to try to explain the existence of human minds in terms of the preexistence of words. Dennett puts the cart before the horse so many times, he risks prosecution for animal abuse.

Furthermore, natural selection, whether among organisms or among “memes,” is sensitive to survival value alone. It “cares” nothing about the truth or falsity of our thoughts or the logical rigor of our arguments. If comforting falsehoods and fallacious reasoning happen to be conducive to our survival, then they will be selected for. They will seem right to us even if they are not. But then, if Dennett’s account of the origin of human thought processes were correct, we could have no reason to suppose that those processes track truth or conform to canons of logical inference. Again, they will appear to do so even if they do not. This undermines any confidence we could have in any idea or argument—including Dennett’s.

Dennett’s position is self-defeating in another way. He maintains that what philosopher Wilfrid Sellars called the “manifest image”—the world as it appears to us in everyday conscious experience (as opposed to the “scientific image,” or the world as represented by physics, chemistry, biology, and the like)—is a “user-illusion.” That is to say, our perceptual awareness of the external world is a set of convenient fictions that allows us to navigate a reality whose true nature is too complex for our brains to handle.

Now, there are at least two fatal paradoxes here, which Dennett does not even address, much less resolve. The first is that the human self or “user” is, in his view, itself part of the illusion. Hence there is no one there for the “illusion” to be an illusion for. Dennett’s account thus destroys the foundations of its own intelligibility. Second, natural science, in the name of which Dennett puts forward his various theories, ultimately rests on the empirical evidence provided by conscious experience. Hence if conscious experience really were a “user-illusion,” it would follow that the foundations of empirical science are illusory.

That would deprive Dennett of the rhetorical device which, next to shameless ambiguity, is his favorite—namely, the interminable rehearsal of what he’s been reading in the latest science literature. The ideas Dennett reports are sometimes interesting enough in themselves, but ultimately do nothing to support his own main contentions or solve the grave problems facing them. Their real function is to foster the impression that the dubious philosophical assertions he interposes between the pop science summaries are somehow themselves “scientific.”

* * *

Dennett’s third favorite rhetorical weapon, and the one he falls back on when the first two fail, is the vulgar abuse of those who disagree with him. Resistance to ideas like Dennett’s, he assures us, is not really motivated by science or sound philosophy but by “fear,” “pride,” and the “love of mystery.” It reflects “emotional turmoil” at the very thought that our inner lives might yield to scientific analysis. It has no arguments in its favor better than appeals to mere “intuition,” “ignorant fantasies,” “ancient myths,” or even “magic.” Dennett tells us that his critics simply find views like his “unsettling,” and he is correct to this extent: a steady barrage of begged questions, red herrings, non sequiturs, straw men, ad hominem attacks, and other transparent fallacies can indeed be unsettling, especially coming from a professional philosopher.

Dennett bemoans the legacy of what he calls “the Cartesian wound”—René Descartes’s famous bifurcation between mind and matter—without realizing how beholden to it he is himself. Descartes had, for the purposes of physics, redefined matter in entirely quantitative or mathematical terms. That is why he had to characterize the mind—which is the seat of qualitative features like the experience of a color, a sound, a pain, or a tickle—as immaterial. It is also why he drew a sharp distinction between the way nature appears to us in conscious experience and the way it really is. Dennett does not reject this set of basic assumptions. On the contrary, he insists that the difference between appearance and reality is even greater than Descartes said it was. Dennett is in fact an extreme Cartesian, rather than the anti-Cartesian he takes himself to be.

Having pulled the qualitative features of conscious experience out of the material world, Descartes relocated them in a non-physical substance. Dennett chucks out the non-physical substance, and the qualitative features of consciousness along with them. What would be truly revolutionary—and what Dennett never even considers—would be to reverse Descartes’s fundamental move and put qualitative features back into the material world. This would in no way require us to abandon the findings of modern mathematical physics. What it would require is merely the recognition that, while what physics tells us about the natural world is true, it is not the whole truth, but must be supplemented by philosophy.

* * *

The master fallacy that underlies Dennett’s entire book, however, is enshrined in the conceit that “many of the puzzles…of human consciousness evaporate once you ask how they could possibly have arisen—and actually try to answer the question!” What this means, the reader discovers, is that whenever Dennett finds some aspect of the mind that materialism cannot account for—design or purpose in the literal sense, the self, free will, meaning, subjective conscious experience—he concludes, not that materialism is false, but that the aspect in question must not be real after all.

For Daniel Dennett, what is real is only what materialism can explain. Materialism is true, he reasons, because it can explain everything there is to explain about the mind; and what it cannot explain must not really be there, he concludes, because materialism is true. From Bacteria to Bach and Back is Dennett’s demonstration that he can stay on this merry-go-round for hundreds of pages without getting dizzy.

Blood simply has to be somehow derivable from stone, you see, and if logic and evidence indicate otherwise, then logic and evidence must be wrong. Darwin famously described On the Origin of Species as “one long argument.” Dennett’s bloated tome is essentially one long circular argument.

[clubofinfo]

Expert: Birds flying high you know how I feel Sun in the sky you know how I feel Breeze driftin’ on by you know how I feel And this old world is a new world And a bold world For me And I’m feeling good I’m feeling good — Nina Simone, Feeling Good, 1965 The idiocy of our times – those tick-tick-tock-tock empty cranial caverns of the American collective delusion – have us clear thinkers and revolutionaries at heart on the ropes. How do we even sleep walk through the carnival that is Facebook, Saturday Night Live, endless Black Fridays, malls and movies, the spectacle that is un-news and the infantile capacity of adults from Ellen to Trump, from Rachel to Tom Friedman, from MSM punks to you-name-it-still-employed economist to control vast hundreds of millions – check that, billions – of destinies. Looting the tax coffers, hollowing out the middle class, rampant perpetual poverty and indebtedness, chronic illness, crashing climate, and a shit-storm of a planet now that we all think Capitalism is the only solution to death. We fiddle with holiday deals while holocaust looms, and we sit, kneel, genuflect, roll over, lie down and plead in our hog-tied American way. Bombs from the suburbs lifted into space with the deadly drone god while Southern California burns, Phoenix evaporates, and both ends of the country flop around like lice-plagued GMO fish on the sinking deck. Prognostication, this is the daily bread, by the millions – blogs, WoP, WSJ, NYT, endless on-line mutterings of the controlled opposition. We have become Pokémon dealers, shuffling the next culling of the economy, or placing bets on the insanity plea of Trump and Company, hoping for black rain and Sunday bloody Sunday. This is the time of Botox broadcasters, the male and female versions of the same plastic people, there, in their million dollar flats at night, conjuring up more of the same silly and insane narratives about things they know nothing about. They ply their trade like traveling prostitutes, selling their bits of Cellophane wisdom and glowing manicured selves like jesters, clowns. The more they try and sound Ivy League and display Driveling Room Temperature IQ, the more difficult it is to understand them. The elite is not some gang of point-one One Percenters. They are in the several millions, count, sixty million of them in the USA, held together with the thieving accountants and hired hands of the legal-illegal class. They are wannabe’s and blue collar millionaires, two doctor heads of households, high end business owners, the traders of guns, pharmaceuticals, laws and other lies. We may have democracy, or we may have wealth concentrated in the hands of the few, but we cannot have both. — US Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis Yet, we have to listen endlessly to the We Are the Ninety-nine, which is the absurdity of double-think. One percent isn’t holding up the house of cards. The minions, and the mighty masses supporting these titans of industry and billionaires, they are the Twenty-Solid (& Hard) Percent, in their glory, libertarians and thieves and unwilling to be the blood coming from their proverbial onion hearts. In the United States, wealth is highly concentrated in relatively few hands. As of 2013, the top 1% of households (the upper class) owned 36.7% of all privately held wealth, and the next 19% (the managerial, professional, and small business stratum) had 52.2%, which means that just 20% of the people owned a remarkable 89%, leaving only 11% of the wealth for the bottom 80% (wage and salary workers). In terms of financial wealth (total net worth minus the value of one’s home), the top 1% of households had an even greater share: 42.8% I dance through this mumbo-jumbo Hollywood and Single-Screen-Scroll-after-Scroll mush we call culture, and I hurdle over the Eichmann’s, big and small, and I end up in the same place I started more than 45 years ago – all thieves and charlatans, but with that big all-you-can-eat American cafeteria grin, the lives set in drive through coffee, grease and drugs delivery. This country, ripe for the taking, after genocide after genocide, and then the War is a Racket turned into America is the King Pin, the Biggest Racket of them All. Blue blood in her circulatory system, ever the slave-trading mindset, dredged in Puritanical and Crypto-Zionism. Promised Land is the Disney Effect, and chosen people come and go, as the drive-in’s turn to weeds and the ever-present huckster and PT Barnum and Lying Lynching Legal class rule over the entire mess, over all of the stars and tycoons. Beady-eyed money changers, and those sniveling ones making markets out of nothing, the very steps we take, breaths we exhale, lives we shed. There will be blood is the banker’s credo now, backed by Smith and Wesson and plethora of rockets bursting in air from every corner of the White Man’s/Christian/Jewish world. Cops and coaches, captains and CEOs, we know their kind, and no matter which XX or XY you attempt to rationalize into the madness of Capitalism, no matter which Gender or Identity serves the point-one One Percent class, the project is all cornered and flayed because Capitalism is the breeder of the heathens, the reckless and ruthless, the smiling and sincerely elitist crew. Yet, we hear endless drivel now about Groping A and Groping B, the slithering tongues of these Capitalists on steroids and amyl nitrate and human growth hormones and T-cells, and lubricated eggs from virgin sturgeon. These people in the center of that millionaire goo, in that trade of body and soul for the spin around the rotunda or jaunt down Sunset Boulevard, no matter which Charlie Rose or Dustin Hoffman or Sean Penn you end up with in the same room or office or court of law, unfortunately, they are all the same, groping or masturbating or climaxing or exhibitionisming or peeping tomming or S & M-ing, no matter how you run with them, these elites will eventually get under your skin like pin worms and chiggers. We’ll be seeing the fallout now of the alleged perversions and sexual overtures and manipulations and cajoling and assaults and rapes, wherever they go with those gag rule clauses after the payoffs and silence money. Just out on this day of infamy, Pearl Harbor Day, December 7, stories on John Travolta, one of the richest guys in Hollywood with 5 planes and jets, and his own runway in Florida. This is the microcosm of what Americans are, what they watch, what they believe. Imagine he and his wife, Kelly Preston, living their multimillionaire tax-evading, money-sheltering, cash-gouging lives. So, old John (the Italian-American actor) is accused of attacking masseuses, and he is now in the pig wash slurry of more scandal, as his movie on John Gotti is being dropped (by Lionsgate) because of the allegations swirling around old John (Travolta) attacking guys coming to his hotel rooms for massages (professional): Mafia leader Gotti was brought to trial multiple times throughout the 1980s, only to be acquitted. Travolta, 63, plays Gotti in multiple stages of his life, including when he finally went to prison in 1992. Gotti died of throat cancer, while still incarcerated, in 2002. Last month Travolta was named in a criminal complaint by a 21-year-old masseur who accused the actor of sexual battery that reportedly took place in 2000. According to the bombshell police report, the masseur alleged that Travolta groped his bare buttocks and indecently exposed himself during a deep body massage at the LaQuinta Hotel in Palm Springs, California. During the alleged incident, Travolta, 63, also made lewd remarks about gay fantasies while at the hotel’s spa facility around 1:30 am on February 15, 2000. The masseur reported the incident to the Palm Springs Sheriff’s Department. Officer Mark Peters went to the hotel to speak with Travolta, who had already checked out by the time he arrived. This isn’t the first time Travolta has been accused of misconduct while getting a massage. In 2012, Travolta was sued over accusations that he tried to have sex with a male masseur during a therapy session at the luxury Beverly Hills Hotel. Okorie Okorcha, the lawyer representing the masseur said: ‘My client is afraid of John Travolta’. He added: ‘Mr. Travolta made very explicit threats against my client, which are contained in the lawsuit. ‘Specifically, John Travolta told my client that Hollywood is controlled by homosexual Jewish men who expect favors in return for sexual activity. ‘Let’s face it, John Travolta is an extremely powerful man, and my client absolutely felt threatened by Mr. Travolta. My client was sexually assaulted by Mr. Travolta and he needs to be held accountable for his actions.’ Read more: I bring this most recent case up to illustrate the insane and perverse and surreal aspect of American society, and the money made by talent-less actors who are in bizarre relationships with spouses (arranged marriage with Preston per Scientology), who have the lives of the rich and famous all bundled up in their wacko ways. Do we want to sit through two hours of Gotti, at $12 a pop per movie ticket? Do we have no common sense in this country? The poor and the rich are the mad crowd, the spectacle now conjoined as aberrations of humanity. Travolta, a deacon in the Scientology cult. Do Americans boycott these people, these companies, these ideas, these death by a thousand cuts philosophies and this repressive un-culture to our own humanity? Boys will be boys, and then some. How many men have made the news for their alleged crimes of groping, harassing, cajoling, blackmailing? How many rabbis are speaking out against the large amount of Jewish men caught up in the allegations? How many preachers and priests are speaking up? What about the school teachers, and those university faculty? Mothers? Daughters? Aunts? Any Trump family out there willing to go out on a limb? Where is that ethical code humanity universally has to live with to make sure we do no harm? Golden Rule, Seven Sins of Gandhi ? On October 22, 1925, Gandhi published a list he called the Seven Social Sins in his weekly newspaper Young India. Politics without principles Wealth without work Pleasure without conscience Knowledge without character Commerce without morality Science without humanity Worship without sacrifice The list sprung from a correspondence that Gandhi had with someone only identified as a “fair friend.” He published the list without commentary save for the following line: “Naturally, the friend does not want the readers to know these things merely through the intellect but to know them through the heart so as to avoid them.” Unlike the Catholic Church’s list, Gandhi’s list is expressly focused on the conduct of the individual in society. Gandhi preached non-violence and interdependence and every single one of these sins are examples of selfishness winning out over the common good. It’s also a list that, if fully absorbed, will make the folks over at the US Chamber of Commerce and Ayn Rand Institute itch. After all, “Wealth without work,” is a pretty accurate description of America’s 1%. (Investments ain’t work. Ask Thomas Piketty.) “Commerce without morality” sounds a lot like every single oil company out there and “knowledge without character” describes half the hacks on cable news. “Politics without principles” describes the other half. In 1947, Gandhi gave his fifth grandson, Arun Gandhi, a slip of paper with this same list on it, saying that it contained “the seven blunders that human society commits, and that cause all the violence.” The next day, Arun returned to his home in South Africa. Three months later, Gandhi was shot to death by a Hindu extremist. The law of reciprocity, and where does that fall on American culture, whether through the lens of millionaire men or millionaire women? One should treat others as one would like others to treat oneself (positive or directive form). One should not treat others in ways that one would not like to be treated (negative or prohibitive form). What you wish upon others, you wish upon yourself (empathic or responsive form). The Golden Rule differs from the maxim of reciprocity captured in do ut des—”I give so that you will give in return”—and is rather a unilateral moral commitment to the well-being of the other without the expectation of anything in return. The fall-out in this dog-eat-dog, one man/woman for him or herself stolen land, which is the undertow of predatory capitalism, unfortunately, is all (unduly so) on the shoulders of all men – fathers and uncles, teachers and social workers, sons and uncles, all of us, righteous and far from any capitalist usury mindset, divorced from the take-take-take that is America, seemingly embraced by every boy or girl, man or woman, all intersexuals and transsexuals. The voyeurism, titillation, exhibitionism, proclivities toward gender and self debasement, and the ejaculatory and phallus aims of those tainted elites, and not so elite, are tied to the usury, exploitative and downright greed in every human or business transaction in Capitalism. Men, alas, the patriarchy, are all tied up with what we in America have become along all gender and sexual identities: paranoid, exceptionalist, supremacist, imperial and self-important, warring, and supercilious, superficial and shallow.  It’s an epigenetic cause and effect relationship, inside the DNA code of most red-blooded Americans, gay, straight, lesbian, trans-sexual, and what have you! Scam, flimflam, extort, fine, levy, tax, fee-fee-fee, and then, we steal from our futures, bankrupt our own retirements, rip off generations yet born, dredge the lake for that last caviar-producing fish, and we put it all out there in Google-land, Selfie the Entire Disaster, go on Twitter Tizzies, and then ask for more, and order it all on Amazon, trucked to the door and drone-delivered to the balcony. Funny, how conservative guys like Paul Craig Roberts see this next spasm of looting with the Republicans throwing down their true colors and the Pelosi-Schumer schemers in the Big D club yawning about their protected investments/millionaire and yammering about Russia, here at Counterpunch: What we are witnessing is the complete looting of America and the entirety of the West.  While the Western World collapses, the insouciant, submissive people sit there sucking their thumbs while they are being ruined. Nothing is left of the West except looters at work. This tax bill is an abomination, an act of brutal plunder.  Its sponsors should be tarred and feathered and ridden out of town on a rail, if not hung from a lamp post. If we really break this down, really, what is that tar and feather routine? Imagine, a real world where we aren’t going to take it anymore, one where the tar is 200 degrees and the feathers are all knife sharp and hardened. Imagine the dunking of those thieves-murderers in vats of their fossil fuel gunk, near boiling temperature. I wonder if that’s what Craig Roberts is asking for? And, then, really, what does it mean to be hung on a lamp post? The old ways put the tarred and feathered tied to a lamp post, but hung evokes a lynching. Is that what this staid and conservative Paul Craig Roberts is asking for? Hmm, a call to action, violence? The reality is Americans love their thug royalty, all the Bushes and Clintons and Obamas and the endless Kennedys and now the Trumps. This country not only tars and feathers dissidents, but we’re strung up to dry on the vine. I have lost jobs for speaking out, for advocating as a teacher or journalist or social worker. I write about this all the time, and many places I’ve called my work place were havens for women, me being in the super minority. I have no bended knee and favoritism for the female side of capitalism, like many now are gaggling about. I have been face to face with ameliorating, middling, and in many cases malfeasance prone supervisors and HR directors with the XX gene, and I am not about to go on a tirade of reverse stupidity and count all men as Harvey Weinsteins or John Conyers. We are living up to our collective reputation as mushy thinkers, in this next Tweeting for the Highest Scream for grope x, y and z. Untethered bathrobes, full-on kisses, and all the other pathetic pranks and sexist fun (sic) these leaders of the free world engage in. But . . . . Bombing the world, gutting the world, and possibly stealing all the world’s things, and we talk about Al Franken the Bumbler. Imagine now, a few days ago, that parading multimillionaire, mutilating man, Obama, calling for more women to be elected to office. “. . . because men seem to be having some problems these days.” In all his neoliberal, girl child killing, female wedding party murdering, undocumented woman deporting glee, he sits on the pile of manure that is American retro-thinking and makes these declarations worthy of the nonsense that overrules everything in this country. This is Obama at a private event in Paris on Saturday, and he, of course, was referring to the sexual misconduct allegations made against many high-profile men he golfs with, rubs elbows with, hobnobs for.  Here, this is a must read, his eleventh-grade wisdom and drearily daft psychology: “Not to generalize but women seem to have a better capacity than men do, partly because of their socialization.” Here he is, commenting on the plethora of misdeeds and worse of the great elite class, those champions of perversion like Weinstein or the Franken fellow or Alabama Crimson Tide Moore and Company. This is in Paris, speaking to his elites, arranged by a network of communications professionals known as the Les Napoleons. Millionaires, and many of them perverted on many levels. You think one of these boys and girls club acolytes have a bone of humanism left? Listening to wise scriptures, austerity, sacrifice, respectful faith, social welfare, forgiveness, purity of intent, compassion, truth and self-control—are the ten wealth of character (self). O king aim for these, may you be steadfast in these qualities. These are the basis of prosperity and rightful living. These are highest attainable things. All worlds are balanced on dharma, dharma encompasses ways to prosperity as well. O King, dharma is the best quality to have, wealth the medium and desire (kāma) the lowest. Hence, (keeping these in mind), by self-control and by making dharma (right conduct) your main focus, treat others as you treat yourself. — Mahābhārata Shānti-Parva 167:9 This is 21st Century Google Man, Obama, at his best and most hypocritical, somehow declaring that I as a man should not run for local office or be involved in social change at the political level because of a few perverts making the Twitter feeds? He declares men seemingly have a few problems, and so, this wise American Murder Incorporated CEO (ex) is asking me to stand down as a male and wait for the female leaders, because women have a better grasp on socialization? What the hell does that mean? Where do these Gollum characters come from, this Barak and his Michelle and the millions of shekels shoved into their pockets for their mere existences, for a few hiccuped words ghost-written into Number One Best Seller Hardbacks? The socialization of women like Madeline Albright, Chancellor Merkel, Margaret Thatcher, Susan Rice, Samantha Power, Janet Reno, and, well, the reader can generate his-her-their own list. Socialization of these fine ladies shine a light on their incredible lightness of goodness? This is side-mouth, PC, identity politics talk. These are loopy times, and we’ve been in them for decades, really, since Eisenhauer, as undertow after riptide produced the death of integrity, the death of common thinking, the inability of the American trite and superficial man and woman to advance to a level of sophistication or deep thinking or even wisdom or common sage sense. Look at these fellows and women running the world into the ground while they stash-stash-stash away retirement money enough to feed the world 50 billion times over.  Look at how they are not us and they indeed want us prostrate and afraid and on the run and now in their goofy show of faux integrity. All for one, one for all women. Here’s a run down of some of those so-so better socialized women Obama is calling on. I need not go into their dirty deeds, their recklessness, their thieving and in many cases direct connection to murdering thousands and structurally and violently assaulting millions and millions more. That other gender Obama is asking for help from, the female persuasion, is now front and center the only gender to be socially and structurally ready for service to the country, as Obama blurts out during one of his Point One Percent Meetings in France . . .  because men seem to be having some problems these days. Madeleine Albright  Condoleezza Rice Hillary Clinton . Arizona governor Janet Napolitano as Secretary of Homeland Security Margaret Spellings Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos  Secretary of Education Susan E. Rice, Loretta E. Lynch, Laura Bush, Karen Hughes (Bush Women) Samantha Power? (Wow, what a bastion of integrity . . . I had to throw that in). More rah-rah bullshit from mainstream propaganda: Forbes USA Most Powerful Women Fortune’s Most Powerful Women And, the following from other lists, imagine, the power they wield, and because they are women, according to Barak Obama’s calculus, are stalwarts of humanity! Merkel, May, Gates, Trump — bastions of integrity! Angela Merkel is still the most powerful woman in the world. The German Chancellor has held the top spot on the Forbes Most Powerful Women List for seven consecutive years, and 12 years in total. Another prominent political leader, U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May, ranked second. It is her first time appearing on Forbes‘s annual list. Melinda Gates, co-chair of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, is the highest-ranking American woman, taking the third spot. Seven of the world’s 10 most powerful women are American, according to the Forbes list. Forbes determines its ranking by evaluating four categories: money — which covers net worth, company revenues, assets under management or GDP — media presence, influence and impact. Of the 100 women on the list, nearly half are from the United States. Ivanka Trump, senior adviser to and daughter of President Donald Trump. Here’s the David Letterman Countdown, Top Ten. Gates Foundation, Facebook, GM, YouTube, Fidelity Investments, IMF, Bank, IBM. Just think of those companies, and how unjust, how predatory, and how destructive they are, but with women in higher up positions and even as CEOs, well, according to Obama, we all can sleep better tonight now that women are at the helm! * Angela Merkel: Chancellor, Germany * Theresa May: Prime Minister, U.K. * Melinda Gates: Co-Chair, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, U.S. * Sheryl Sandberg: COO, Facebook, U.S. * Mary Barra: CEO, General Motors, U.S. * Susan Wojcicki: CEO, YouTube, U.S. * Abigail Johnson: CEO, Fidelity Investments, U.S. * Christine Lagarde: Managing Director, International Monetary Fund, U.S. * Ana Patricia Botín: Chair, Santander Group, Banco Santander, Spain * Ginni Rometty: CEO, IBM, U.S. Here, an interesting list, with, of course, a few amazing human beings lumped into the superficial and super-rich — Addams, Aquino, Carson, Curie, Mead, Parks, Wolff. But it’s Time Magazine, so we know what that means (run by a woman, or has she been replaced?) Jane Addams (1860-1935) Corazon Aquino (1933-2009) Rachel Carson (1907-1964) Coco Chanel (1883-1971) Julia Child (1912-2004) Hillary Clinton (1947-Present) Marie Curie (1867-1934) Aretha Franklin (1942-Present) Indira Gandhi (1917-1984) Estée Lauder (1908-2004) Madonna (1958-Present) Margaret Mead (1901-1978) Golda Meir (1898-1978) Angela Merkel (1954-Present) Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-Present) Rosa Parks (1913-2005) Jiang Qing (1914-1991) Eleanor Roosevelt (1884-1962) Gloria Steinem (1934-Present) Margaret Sanger (1879-1966) Martha Stewart (1941-Present) Mother Teresa (1910-1997) Margaret Thatcher (1925-Present) Oprah Winfrey (1954-Present) Virginia Woolf (1882-1941) Most Powerful Women According to Fortune Magazine, 2010! Highest paid, take a look at that loot, again, as Obama proclaims, why not have them all (women) run the senate, congress, Supreme Court and the Executive Branch? Carol Bartz                          Yahoo!                 $47.2 million Safra Catz                            Oracle                   $36.4 million Carrie Cox                            Schering-Plough      $23 million Irene Rosenfeld                  Kraft Foods         $22.1 million Wellington Denahan-Norris      Annaly Capital Management $21.6 m Pamela Patsley                 Moneygram International            $17.9 million Susan Ivey                          Reynolds American          $16.2 million Martine Rothblatt            United Therapeutics       $15.8 million — Carol Meyrowitz               TJX Companies              $14.8 million Indra Nooyi                      PepsiCo                           $14.2 million Angela Braly                     WellPoint            $13.1 million Brenda Barnes                  Sara Lee               $11.5 million — Linda Chen                        Wynn Resorts    $11.2 million — Patricia Woertz                 Archer Daniels Midland     $11.0 million Kim Sinatra                       Wynn Resorts    $10.5 million — Mary Callahan Erdoes     JPMorgan Chase $10.4 million Nancy Wysenski               Vertex Pharmaceuticals          $10.2 million — Jackwyn Nemerov           Polo Ralph Lauren $10.1 million Ursula Burns                     Xerox    $9.9 million Martha Stewart                Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia     $9.7 m Ann Livermore                 Hewlett-Packard              $9.7 million Doreen Toben                   Verizon Communications              $9.2 million Katherine Krill                  AnnTaylor Stores              $9.1 million — Kathryn Fagan                  Annaly Capital Management       $8.6 million Ellen Kullman                   DuPont $8.3 million You can’t help it. An artist’s duty, as far as I’m concerned, is to reflect the times. — Nina Simone Note:  Give it to the New York Daily News to call this “the Weinstein Effect as Sexual McCarthyism” http://clubof.info/

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KEEP CALM AND WATCH MORE TELEVISION

Thaddeus Howze is a science fiction and fantasy writer, technology consultant, polymath, autistic, creator of worlds, iconoclast, humanist and occasional bastard (nobody’s perfect). Read more about Thaddeus here.  KEEP CALM AND WATCH MORE TELEVISION Courtesy of Thaddeus Howze New phrases to describe your television watching habits. #bingewatching #cringewatching #hingewatching #singewatching #fringewatching ASYNCHRONOUS, DELIVERED ACROSS THE AIRWAVES In the beginning, there was…

KEEP CALM AND WATCH MORE TELEVISION was originally published on MarketShadows