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witchbitchheadedtoaditch · 4 years ago

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The Basics of Kemetic Philosophy (without the appropriated shit from Judaism): Where the Fuck Do We Begin?

We should look to begin with what is, in my opinion, at the very heart of Kemeticism as a whole: Maat. Maat has a variety of different definitions, but it is most widely accepted as a "fundamental, pervasive and enduring element in ancient Egyptian civilization and an inclusive and defining cultural category." Maulana Karenga (author of Maat, the Moral Ideal in Ancient Egypt: A Study in Classical African Ethics) defines Maat as the "understanding of ancient Egypt's highest moral standards, its delineation of right and wrong, its definitive concepts of relational obligations and rules of conduct and other data which composed and informed the ancient Egyptian moral universe."

But what exactly does that mean?

That's a good question, and it's the question that a lot of Kemetic practitioners ask themselves every day (myself included). While we don't have a definitive definition necessarily, we do have the differing definitions of a variety of scholars, both philosophical and archaeological. Mubabinge Bilolo suggests that Maat is "a place of articulation of three ideals," and that these ideals are:

The ideal of knowledge; the love of science; the aspiration for knowledge; the aspiration for the knowledge of true being or of that which is true or sure.

The moral ideal of truth, justice, and rectitude.

The metaphysical ideal of love and the knowledge of being: the beginning of all being.

That is to say, Maat is more than just a moral ideal, it's also an epistemological ideal. Karenga calls Maat "polysemic," that is to say, it hold several different meanings, and they're all correct. Maat is not specifically an ideological ideal, it's the foundations on which the universe rests. It is the foundation and order of the world along with the foundation of morality and idealism. It is an "interrelated order of rightness" that we should all strive to both embody and perpetuate. Maat is the core of Kemeticism and the core of who we are as Kemetic practitioners. Henri Frankfort states that "a [person's] success in life appears as proof of his frictionless integration in (this divine) order."

While Maat is similar to a myriad of different ideological principles in different cultures throughout the world--cieng in the Dinka tradition, rta in Hinduism, etc.--Maat is uniquely situated as more than just an ideological principle for morality or for righteousness in a culture--it is "conceived and carried out within the worldview which links the Divine, the natural and the social. These three domains are interrelated, interactive, and mutually affective." (Karenga, p.10)

Maat, unlike many other moral principles, is not a fixed ideology or a fixed set of concepts. It's an ongoing project that we all work to create and make better throughout our practices. It is something that we have to actively work on in order to bring to fruition and continue to uphold.

So what all does Maat entail?

Maat, like I've stated, is a polysemic concept that envelops three distinct areas of life: the Divine, the natural, and the social. In order to best understand Maat so that we may best practice it, it is best to split it up into these three sections: Maat as it relates to relationships with the Divine, Maat in the natural world, and Maat in the social world. In order to understand Maat as it relates to relationships with the Divine (or even the goddess Maat herself), we must first understand Maat in the natural and social worlds.

Maat in the natural world

Maat as it relates to the natural world is, in my opinion, the most basic understanding of Maat. In ethical texts, it is described as "life-giving" and "life-affirming," which is to say that it is natural way of life. Ptahhotep describes Maat as "a way even before the unlearned," suggesting that it is innate within us and when we learn things that go against our instincts we are effectively going against Maat. It is considered a way of life that we are so innately connected to we do not even have to learn it. Of course, we will always have to work to practice it--isfet is always nearby--but we do not have to work to learn it. It is the understanding that we are to be mutually beneficial with nature. We cannot take whatever we please from nature without giving back to nature in some way, just as nature cannot take whatever it pleases from us without giving back in some way. There is a reciprocity in Maat as a natural principle.

Maat in the social world

Maat as it relates to the social world is probably the most common definition of Maat--at least in my research--and it centers around social ethics and civil service. To be more precise, it centers around several key teachings made by different pharaohs during different Kingdoms. The most common teachings cited as the foundations of Maat stem from the Old and Middle Kingdoms, with a heavy focus on the teachings of Ptahhotep and his court and the writings of multiple tombs which include things like the Declaration of Virtues, the Declaration of Innocence, and the Book of Coming Forth By Day (Also known as the Egyptian Book of Life/The Egyptian Book of the Dead).

The oldest instructions come from The Instruction of Hordedef, during the third Old Kingdom. They say:

"Cleanse yourself before your own eyes, lest another cleanse you. When you prosper, found your household, take a mistress of heart, a son will be born to You. It is for the son that you build a house when you make a place for yourself. Make good dwelling in the graveyard, make worthy your station in the West. Accept that death humbles us, accept that life exalts us, the house of death is for life. Seek for yourself well-watered fields. Choose for him a plot among your fields, well-watered every year. He profits you more than your own son, prefer him even to your [son]."

While there are a multitude of versions of the Egyptian Book of the Dead that we can look towards for information regarding Maat in a variety of contexts, I have found the Papyrus of Nu to be one of the most helpful in interpreting the social constructs of Maat.

From the Papyrus of Nu, we get the following:

"In truth I have come to thee (Maati), and I have brought Maat to thee, and I have destroyed wickedness for thee. I have not done evil to mankind. I have not oppressed the members of my family, I have not wrought evil in the place of right and truth. I have had no knowledge of worthless men. I have not wrought evil. I have not made to be the first consideration of each day that excessive labor should be performed for me. I have not brought forward my name for exaltation to honors. I have not ill-treated servants. I have not thought scorn of the Gods. I have not defrauded the oppressed one of his property. I have not done that which is an abomination unto the gods. I have not caused harm to be done to the servant by his chief. I have not caused pain. I have made no man suffer hunger. I have made no one to weep. I have done no murder. I have not given the order for murder to be done for me. I have not inflicted pain upon mankind. I have not defrauded the temples of their oblations. I have not purloined the cakes of the gods. I have not carried off the cakes offered to the khus. I have not committed fornication. I have not polluted myself in the holy places of the god of my city, nor diminished from the bushel. I have neither added to nor filched away land. I have not encroached upon the fields of others. I have not added to the weights of scales. I have not misread the pointer of the scales. I have not carried away the milk from the mouths of children. I have not driven away the cattle which were upon their pastures. I have not snared the feathered fowl of the preserves of the gods. I have not caught fish with bait made of fish of their kind. I have not turned back the water at the time when it should flow. I have not cut a cutting in a canal of running water. I have not extinguished a fire or light when it should burn. I have not violated the ties of offering to chosen meat-offerings. I have not driven off the cattle from the property of the gods. I have not repulsed the gods in their manifestations. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure. I am pure."

We also have the Negative Confession from the Papyrus of Nebseni, which is a numbered list of 42 statements that define what Maat is not. These are somewhat edited from the most commonly found translations because the translations speak only of God, and we know that Kemeticism is not a monotheistic religion and it irks me lol.

Hail, thou whose strides are long, who comest forth from Annu, I have not done iniquity.

Hail, thou who art embraced by flame, who comest forth from Kher-aba, I have not robbed with violence.

Hail, thou divine Nose, who comest forth from Khemennu, I have not done violence to any man.

Hail, thou who eatest shades, who comest forth from the place where the Nile riseth, I have not committed theft.

Hail, Neha-hau, who comest forth from Re-stau, I have not slain man or woman.

Hail, thou double Lion-god, who comest forth from heaven, I have not made light the bushel.

Hail, thou whose two eyes are like flint, who comest forth from Sekhem, I have not acted deceitfully.

Hail, thou Flame, who comest forth as thou goest back, I have not purloined the things which belong unto the gods.

Hail, thou Crusher of bones, who comest forth from Suten-henen, I have not uttered falsehood.

Hail, thou who makest the flame to wax strong, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not carried away food.

Hail, Qerti, who come forth from Amentet, I have not uttered evil words.

Hail, thou whose teeth shine, who comest forth from Ta-she, I have attacked no man.

Hail, thou who dost consume blood, who comest forth from the house of slaughter, I have not killed the beasts which are the property of the gods.

Hail, thou who dost consume the entrails, who comest forth from the mabet chamber, I have not acted deceitfully.

Hail, thou god of Right and Truth, who comest forth from the city of double Maati, I have not laid waste to the lands which have been plowed.

Hail, thou who goest backward, who comest forth from the city of Bast, I have never pried into matters to make mischief.

Hail, Aati, who comest forth from Annu, I have not set my mouth in motion against any man.

Hail, thou who art doubly evil, who comest forth from the nome of Ati, I have not given way to wrath concerning myself without a cause.

Hail, thou serpent Uamemti, who comest forth from the house of slaughter, I have not defiled the wife of a man.

Hail, thou who lookest upon what is brought to him, who comest forth from the Temple of Amsu, I have not committed any sin against purity.

Hail, Chief of the divine Princes, who comest forth from the city of Nehatu, I have not struck fear into any man.

Hail, Khemiu, who comest forth from the Lake of Kaui, I have not encroached upon sacred times and seasons.

Hail, thou who orderest speech, who comest forth from Urit, I have not been a man of anger.

Hail, thou Child, who comest forth from the Lake of Heq-at, I have not made myself deaf to the words of right and truth.

Hail, thou disposer of speech, who comest forth from the city of Unes, I have not stirred up strife.

Hail, Basti, who comest forth from the Secret City, I have made no man to weep.

Hail, thou whose face is turned backward, who comest forth from the Dwelling, I have not committed acts of impurity, neither have I lain with men.**

Hail, Leg of fire, who comest forth from Akhekhu, I have not eaten my heart.

Hail, Kenemti, who comest forth from the city of Kenemet, I have abused no man.

Hail, thou who bringest thine suffering, who comest forth from the city of Sau, I have not acted with violence.

Hail, thou god of faces, who comest forth from the city of Tchefet, I have not judged hastily.

Hail, thou who givest knowledge, who comest forth from Unth, I have not... and I have not taken vengeance upon the god.

Hail, thou lord of two horns, who comest forth from Satiu, I have not multiplied my speech overmuch.

Hail, Nefer-Tem, who comest forth from Het-ka-Ptah, I have not acted with deceit, and I have not worked wickedness.

Hail, Tem-Sep, who comest forth from Tattu, I have not uttered curses on the king.

Hail, thou whose heart doth labor, who comest forth from the city of Tebti, I have not fouled water.

Hail, Ahi of the water, who comest forth from Nu, I have not made haughty my voice.

Hail, thou who givest commands to mankind, who comest forth from Sau, I have not cursed the gods.

Hail, Neheb-nefert, who comest forth from the Lake of Nefer, I have not behaved with insolence.

Hail, Neheb-kau, who comest forth from thy city, I have not sought for distinctions.

Hail, thou whose head is holy, who comest forth from thy habitations, I have not increased my wealth, except with such things as are justly mine own possessions.

Hail, thou who bringest thine own arm, who comest forth from Aukert, I have not thought scorn of the god who is in my city.

**"neither have I lain with men" can be used to excuse homophobia in Kemeticism, but I personally interpret it similar to declaration 19, in that it is specific to those already married/in relationships.

There is a large body of work surrounding Ptahhotep's Maxims as a site of Maatian ideals, but the Maxims alone are over a dozen pages long, so I will put those in a separate post!

Maat, the relationships with the Divine

Maat as it relates to relationships with the Divine is probably the least well-defined aspect of Maat. In the autobiography of Seshem-Nefer, Maat is defined as "What God loves, wills and wishes" and "the Good". In relationship to the Divine, Maat is essentially "right" worship. This leaves a lot of room for interpretation and expansion, which is ideal in a culture and religion that continues to evolve and survive the tests of time.

What the hell does all of this mean?

This all goes to say that Maat is the crux of Kemeticism, and without it we would definitely struggle to understand the gods and our world effectively and efficiently. Maat is an ever-changing ideal that centers around doing what is good and right both socially, naturally, and with regards to the Divine. There are a multitude of interpretations of this concept, and this is only one of them.

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lantern-hill · 3 years ago

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I have so many random feelings about cultural criticism that this will probably be quite chaotic [ I will try to rein it in though and make it somewhat coherent ]

1. You can love something and also criticize it and it shouldn't lessen your enjoyment of it.

Like of course in extreme cases [ JKR and her TERF rhetoric ] you have to disengage from the media in question because its causing active damage to people. However in many cases a show has its good points and its bad points and it seems almost blasphemous to some fans that you can criticize it and still call yourself a fan of the media.

2. This ones related to the first one in a way. Basically I think everyone's out to find the least problematic media and then stan that and its honestly the dumbest thing ever . Like nothing is unproblematic ? Nothing that has been made has been perfect ; esp nothing that can be considered as art . So this need for ideological purity in art is kinda weird to me ? Every piece of art will have defects and deficits . Its on you as the audience to pick apart the whole thing and appreciate the good and criticize the bad .

3. Stan culture of any sort is set up to fail

4. Continuing a piece [ a novel , a TV series , a movie ] just because its got the ratings is one of the worst things that capitalism has done to art in forever. It has ruined great pieces of media by forcing it to over extend itself to the point of obsolescence which makes zero sense.

5. As a queer person I find it laughable that people think you can create queer media without having queer voices and perspectives be a part of the creation process. The statement holds true if you swap queer out with any other marginalized identity.

6. Show not tell is a great idea when it comes to talking about nuance in storytelling about non controversial topics . But sometimes when youre talking about extremely important things [ racism, sexism , homophobia , transphobia etc] sometimes allegory just allows people to hide away from the inconvenient truth. In those situations " Dont show , directly tell " is the way better method . The audience may not be stupid but most people hate being taken out of their comfort zone unless theyre forced out of it . Great art has the capacity to make you uncomfortable.

7. Just because a piece of media makes you feel "seen" doesn't mean that you can automatically assume that its good. It might be trash.

8. How much ever you think you understand a culture you're not a part of , your opinions about it will never matter more than the people raised in that culture. Accept that and move on.

9. How much ever you think you need to defend your culture remember that each culture on the planet has regressive traditions. Don't get mad when its pointed out . Instead try to engage with it . There is no one perfect tradition . Tradition is borne out of centuries of human endeavor and human endeavor will always have some flaws. That's ok.

10. Believing that art doesnt have a moral obligation and that it can support awful things because "artistic license" is stupid. Art affects society and to believe that it exists in a vacuum makes no sense.

*cracks knuckles* thank you for this thick-ass ask

1. You can love something and also criticize it and it shouldn't lessen your enjoyment of it. Like of course in extreme cases [ JKR and her TERF rhetoric ] you have to disengage from the media in question because its causing active damage to people. However in many cases a show has its good points and its bad points and it seems almost blasphemous to some fans that you can criticize it and still call yourself a fan of the media.

This is very true. I actually tend to be harsher on the media I like because I want it to be excellent, while I don't really care bout media that I just consume mindlessly.

I haven't met anyone like this which I think is a good sign. But yea that does sound really dumb lol! Especially since you're essentially locking yourself into an echochamber. Even if you're not going to change your views, it's nice to at least know what people are doing that you don't agree with, so you can know that you believe what you do because it makes sense and not just because you were told to.

3. Stan culture of any sort is set up to fail

Oh absolutely. Especially with how more and more, privacy is seen as a privilege and not a right, especially when it comes to celebrities. 14 year-olds doxxing each other and their idols is just a really weird culture and I feel really bad for them & want to call their parents and have a word.

YES and on the flip side, DISCONTINUING CONTENT THAT DIDN'T GET THE RATINGS...

People think this??? why lol

6. Show not tell is a great idea when it comes to talking about nuance in storytelling about non-controversial topics. But sometimes when you're talking about extremely important things [ racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia etc] sometimes allegory just allows people to hide away from the inconvenient truth. In those situations " Dont show, directly tell " is the way better method. The audience may not be stupid but most people hate being taken out of their comfort zone unless they're forced out of it . Great art has the capacity to make you uncomfortable.

Hmmmm yes but also no; First of all, show not tell is not the same thing as allegory. Showing someone being sad instead of having them tell the audience they're sad is not allegory. Second, I think you can have subtext about certain of these issues without intending it to be an educational experience for the uninitiated. It depends on your audience, I guess; you have to pick the right tool to speak to the people you want to speak to. Someone said art comforts the disturbed and disturbs the comforted, so maybe it's a balance. Finally, I think that you can pretty effectively force people out of their comfort zone using show not tell.

7. Just because a piece of media makes you feel "seen" doesn't mean that you can automatically assume that its good. It might be trash.

This is true. The two pieces of media I feel most seen by are pretty objectively awful.

8. How much ever you think you understand a culture you're not a part of , your opinions about it will never matter more than the people raised in that culture. Accept that and move on.

Hmm I think this is a cultural relativist take. I agree for the most part, for harmless stuff, like in some cultures it might be polite to do something considered super rude in other cultures; neither is better. But also, if a culture is doing FGM or stoning gay people or something, even if someone raised in that culture says it's okay, I'm still going to think it's fucked up and should stop.

Oh hey this is what I was saying to the previous one.

I wouldn't call them obligations, per se. I do agree that it is wrong to portray certain things in certain ways, but I just wouldn't use the word obligation. Maybe responsibility.

send me ur hot takes!

#foy speaks #asks #cultural commentary/criticism

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slightlyrebelliouswriter23 · 4 years ago

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Hi Em✨

I absolutely love your writing and your posts and I’ve been following you for a while now💕

I’m not sure about you but I feel quite uneasy/conflicted with the current rhetoric on book tok. I understand people not liking certain books but it’s been hard to see people slander books and the people that like those books/characters/stories,etc. I get that criticism is needed for certain themes or values that appear in books but reading is loosing some of its escapism for me:(

Reading in context (fictionally and in the real world) is always needed but sometimes I just like a book because of the characters or it’s story and not necessarily that it checks all the boxes for being perfect.

Tbh, as much as I love certain books, some of them have become tainted for me and I genuinely wish I didn’t I read other people’s opinions on them.

Book tok is great for reccs but I can’t even filter it out of my feed at this point. I kinda wish toxic fandoms also looked inwardly because as much fun it is to engage with fans and people that are apart of that fandom, some people take it way too far such as sending hateful anons to creators (such as you🥺) or calling books trash when they’ve been super influential or important to people.

I guess my little rant is over but I was wondering if you had any opinions on this or have any sort of guidance. Is there a place I could get reccs or how can avoid all of this rhetoric that can affect my view of a book.”?

Stay safe and have a good day✨💐

hi there, nonnie! thank you so much for the kind words, i really appreciate you 🥺❤️❤️

first off, i want to say that i 100% understand this. i never really got into booktok specifically because i had a feeling it was basically going to be book twitter 2.0 where everyone is just ripping into each other constantly. i don't like being influenced by other people's opinions either, and the drama that seems to be obligatory baggage for most fandoms these days (with the exception of TFOTA, cos for some reason we are extraordinarily chill) just isn't for me.

it is, of course, essential that we continue to think critically when it comes to media. it's the only way we can affect change in a positive direction. but this also must be balanced with a willingness to be humble with our opinions, understand that they are just opinions, and accept that everyone consumes media for different reasons.

this also means we'll all hold different boundaries about what we're willing to consume, and where we draw the line for things we won't consume. granted, books might be the mirror through which we see life reflected, but they are not reality itself. to a certain extent, fiction is fiction. and different boundaries does not a bad person make.

speaking of drawing lines, i'm going to direct you to this post by @bookofmirth , which is mainly about ACOTAR/SJM/Palestine but some of what they have to say there is very applicable to this topic, and eloquently put:

"Some people can separate art from artist. Some can't. It's up to all of us as individuals to draw that line where we are comfortable."

i agree with this statement wholeheartedly. it is not up to randomgal4549 on tiktok/twitter to decide what eye should or should not read. the unmitigated gall of anyone to think their opinion should dictate other people's choices is highly presumptuous and quite frankly exhausting.

apart from maybe the bible/other religious texts, what a person reads is not a reflection of who they are or what beliefs they hold. we need to learn not to conflate the two, and start regarding each other once more as humans with complex thoughts and feelings, capable of introspection and growth, instead of little icons on our phone screens with immovable and absolute beliefs.

so that's my opinion on that. my main advice to you would be KEEP THINGS ORGANISED. what i mean by that is this:

curate your social media experience! it is YOUR responsibility as an owner of any social media account (including tumblr) to customise your space to fit YOUR needs. if you don't like someone's opinion/content? unfollow. if someone is rude/you don't like their vibe? block. if you find the things someone shares to their socials offensive? unfriend. this is setting boundaries, and the people who take any of these things as a personal offence are the exact people you want to keep a healthy distance away from. you decide who you follow and what you see on your dash. be protective of your space and who you allow to have access to your energy.

keep personal feelings separate from the public! i honestly can't stress this point enough. if you feel the need to rant about something that irks you about a specific book/author/person's opinion, keep these discussions in the DMs with a trusted circle of friends. it is psychologically proven that when someone feels attacked, they will double down on their og opinion, no matter if they realise they're wrong. thus, projecting high-strung emotions into public spaces such as twitter, while understandable in some cases, will only serve to further polarise people and hurt the very movement you're likely trying to bolster. blow off steam with people you can entrust with your emotions. NOT strangers on the internet.

designate time to learning about issues that are important to you! i strongly advise against turning to any fictional medium for moral lessons or life advice. if you can dedicate some time outside of your escapism to inform yourself about important subjects through educational resources that are specifically designed to Teach/Impart Knowledge, instead of giving an ounce of thought to Intrinsically Biased Information Received Second Hand, i promise you you'll feel a whole lot less obligated to other people's opinions.

if you're unsure about a particular book/author, consider borrowing from your local library, purchasing the book second hand, or finding an ePub copy.

for recs, consider booktube. i know it's probably seen as a bit old school by now, but the great thing about youtube is that you're not randomly/unexpectedly subjected to other people's shit opinions like on other social platforms. you have to click a link to watch the video, which gives you more autonomy in regards to what opinions you consume. my personal favourite youtuber is Khadija Mbowe. she's not a booktuber, per se, but her content focuses on in-depth critical analysis of media/society through the lense of WOC (specifically Black women), and i find her channel compelling as well as informative.

goodreads is also a great place to find book recs without the constant influx of opinions. if you can find yourself a circle of trusted friends to follow on there, you can't go wrong. my goodreads is linked in my bio under "connect" and you're welcome to follow me there. or not! it's your choice.

–Em 🖤🗡

#this is incredibly long i'm so sorry 🙈#on mobile so i can't add a cut #discoursey #like i realise it's probably gotten worse recently with the pandemic and more screen time #but i honestly wouldn't touch most fandoms with a 12 foot pole #it's too messy for me #of course i still read and enjoy books that have fandoms. i just don't get involved #TFOTA is my one exception and even we have our days lmao #you have to do what's healthy for you. and if that means leaving tiktok/twitter altogether? DO IT. you won't regret it i promise #i quit twitter facebook and instagram in 2018 and it's the best decision i ever made #i love you nonnie i hope this helped 🥺❤️#thanks for the ask!! 💜#asked and answered #em answers #nonnie #long post

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gibsonmusicart · 5 years ago

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The Real Reason Major Record Companies Suck

By Peter Spellman

An artist who signs a major-label recording contract today is probably taking the biggest risk of his or her career. With a mortality rate of 1 out of 10 failures, it's clearly a crapshoot whether a new major label artist will "make it" or not. The list of "where are they nows" over the last ten years runs into the thousands. This sucks! When we try and figure out why this mortality rate prevails, a number of familiar reasons present themselves: * The major labels are putting out TOO MANY RECORDS...True, but I believe this is merely a symptom of a bigger problem. * The major labels are SIGNING ARTISTS TOO INDISCRIMINATELY...Yes, but this too is symptomatic of something deeper. * The major labels are peopled with DYSFUNCTIONAL, TURF-PROTECTING CLIMBERS...True sometimes, but this too is merely a symptom. * The major labels aim for A LEAST-COMMON-DENOMINATOR MUSICAL "SOUND" that will appeal to the masses...Yes, but a symptom again. We can go on and on with possible reasons and never arrive at the REAL one. The real reason major record labels suck is that they are "divisions" within larger multi-national corporations that are obligated, BY THEIR VERY NATURE, to behave in a certain art-destroying way. Let me explain. There are certain obligatory rules by which all corporations must operate. These rules are assumed, accepted, rarely articulated and color everything a corporation does. Now don't get me wrong. There ARE music people within corporate record labels - people who are truly turned on by music creation, recording, and promotion. I know some of them. But when push comes to shove, all their actions must reflect the policies and procedures handed down from "corporate". Too much independence on their part and they will be handed a pink slip and shown the door. There are seven primary rules corporations (including music corporations) must obey, and each rule has a profound effect on how music and artists are treated, regarded and disposed of. Here they are: #1.THE PROFIT IMPERATIVE: Monetary profit is the ultimate measure of all corporate decisions. Shareholders "own" corporations and they expect the value of their shares to increase, not decrease. Forget the little old lady that owns a few shares of stock. Most shares are owned by tremendously wealthy and thus politically influential individuals and most importantly by other corporations, many of which are investment banks. All are itchy for quarterly, measurable profits. "EBIDTA" (earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization) controls everything. Senior corporate officers are notorious for wearing "ninety-day glasses". Three months ahead is as far as most CEOs can see. This myopia often infects the entire organization, as relentless pressure to perform over the short term radiates from the top. A factory may be closed rather than modernized and an artist dropped rather than developed because the tax write-off makes the next period look better. #2.THE GROWTH IMPERATIVE: This goes hand-in-hand with the profit imperative. Profit means growth, expansion of the talent pool, expansion of the master catalog. Corporations live or die by whether they can sustain growth. Music corporations must keep on signing new artists in order to use their vast infrastructures and justify their overhead expenses. Sometimes company growth doesn't happen fast enough to suit the ambitions, however, and sometimes it doesn't happen at all. What to do then? The power-hungry CEO's typical solution is to expand by acquiring another company. Growth by acquisition has been the modus operandi of the corporate music business since the 1970s. EMI is a case in point. By acquiring such hot labels as Virgin and Chrysalis and bringing its antiquated operations up to snuff, EMI for a while seemed headed to the top. But chairman Sir Colin Southgate also pressured his executives to maintain double-digit growth, first in good times, then in the face of a rapidly deteriorating market. They responded by pumping out quick-buck anthologies and slashing costs willy-nilly when they could have been building talent for the long haul. Managed for short-term results, EMI has literally consumed itself in pursuit of its numbers. The profit and growth imperatives are the most fundamental corporate drives; together they represent the corporation's instinct "to live." #3.COMPETITION AND AGGRESSION: Corporations place every person in management in fierce competition with each other. Anyone interested in a corporate career must hone his or her ability to seize the moment. This applies to gain an edge over another company or over a colleague within the company. All divisions of the record company are attempting to represent themselves as an indispensable component of the recording industry. The day-to-day work of dealing predominantly with one specific medium, whether the music, the image in the video, radio media, or the press, tends to result in different staff assessing the potential of artists in different ways and developing their own agendas and goals rather than working towards a shared overall vision. As a label employee, you are expected to be part of a "team," but you also must be ready to climb over your own colleagues when an opportunity presents itself. Turf battles and other "family dysfunctions" are "normal" elements in the corporate game. #4.AMORALITY: Not being human, corporations do not have altruistic goals. In fact, corporate executives praise "nonemotional" as a basis for "objective" decision-making. So decisions that may be antithetical to aesthetic goals or artistic integrity are made without misgivings. Corporations, however, seek to hide their amorality and attempt to act as if they were altruistic. Lately, for example, there has been a concerted effort by the American industry to appear concerned with environmental cleanup, community arts or drug programs. Similarly, major labels are starting to once again toss around the phrase "long-term artist development" as an antidote to the perception they are short-sighted. But this can only be rhetorical in a corporate setting where quarterly results rule the environment. Product (and its creators) not bringing in the necessary numbers will continue to be dropped like a bad habit. Don't be deceived! It is a fair rule of thumb that corporations tend to advertise the very qualities they do not have in order to allay negative public perceptions. When corporations say "we care," it is almost always in response to the widespread perception that they do not have feelings or morals. #5.HIERARCHY: Corporate laws require that corporations be structured into classes of superiors and subordinates within a centralized pyramidal structure: chairman, directors, chief executive officer, VPs, division managers, and so on (based primarily on military models). Unlike the freedoms of an entrepreneurial business, large company decision-making must pass through layer upon layer of management. This makes the process of product development slow and ponderous. For example, from the time a band is signed, it can be a full year or longer before their first record is finally released owing in part to this dense hierarchical management structure. A lot can change in a year. Furthermore, high executive turnover and frequent management "purges" at large record companies can often delay or even derail a recording project indefinitely, leaving artists in the lurch. #6.QUANTIFICATION: Corporations require that subjective information be translated into objective form, i.e. numbers. The subjective or spiritual aspects of music, for example, cannot be translated, and so do not enter corporate equations. Music is evaluated only as a "product." Some in the industry would prefer to treat music like other industries treat cars and refrigerators. But music cannot be treated as such. As the creative extensions of the human spirit, music will always defy attempts at control. Indeed, just when the majors catch up with a "new" music trend they often find that the market has shifted and music lovers have moved on to something else. #7.HOMOGENIZATION: Corporations have a stake in all of us living our lives in a similar manner. The ultimate goal of corporate multinationals was expressed in a chilling statement by the president of Nabisco Corporation: "One world of homogeneous consumption. . . [I am] looking forward to the day when Arabs and Americans, Latinos and Scandinavians, will be munching Ritz crackers as enthusiastically as they already drink Coke or brush their teeth with Colgate." Corporations are structured and optimized for the "mass market" and so what they sell must appeal to the broadest audience possible. Their musical mainstay has been CHR (Contemporary Hit Radio or Top 40 Pop) - predictable, non-adventurous, formulaic. They have dominated the airwaves and circled the globe with this musical pablum. Incidentally, homogenization is one of the reasons the corporate music business (along with most other corporations) is in such a crisis today. It is facing a rapidly segmenting marketplace where consumers have become unpredictable. It always depended on "The Next Big Thing" to flush its corporate ledgers. But the very concept of one artist who can unite a large pop audience and help shape and define it (ala Elvis, The Beatles, Springsteen) seems about as dead as the 45-rpm spindle. Next Big Thing? More like "Next Modest Thing That Might Appeal to a Portion of the Demographic". But while bad news for the corporate giants, this is good news for their indie counterparts. A number of indie labels specializing in "niche" music markets (hip hop, ambient, folk, Celtic, etc.) are grabbing market share almost daily and breaking open a lot of champagne these days. So in conclusion, let us remember that the Musical Industrial Complex must, by necessity, bow to corporate imperatives that will inevitably clash with art. It's nobody's fault; it's the nature of corporate cultures, and any artist desiring to get into bed with this culture should proceed with eyes wide open. Your partner could be your nemesis.

Source: Music-Articles.com

#music industry blog #music career tips #music business articles #music industry articles #record labels #record companies #music career articles

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thebluelemontree · 6 years ago

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I didn't really realize how narrowminded a certain segment of tumbler is. What work of fiction would they consider as not problematic. According to them then Emma, Sense & Sensibility, Little Women or Jane Eyre will be considered problematic (15+ age gaps). And those are considered as classic works of literature, written by moral women (both Jane Austen and Charlotte Bronte were daughters of preachers) which isn't even as dark as ASOIAF/GOT.

I did some googling, and I hate to break it to you, but you can pretty easily find pieces on why all those classic works of literature are problematic. That’s fine, though. That isn’t actually the problem. We shouldn’t leave classics unexamined because they have achieved a certain status in literature. It was mostly “can this book still be considered feminist in our time?” Nothing about age gaps, though maybe it’s an issue for some readers out there, idk. Some of the takes were good, and some were stupid; however, I didn’t read anything that went as far to say that these works are actually bad for us and you suck if you enjoy them (thank god). I have no issue with pointing out things that are problematic for analysis purposes, whether I agree with it or not. Interrogating and being reflective of media is generally good advice, but no one is obligated to approach everything they enjoy that way. “Let a bitch live” is also good advice too. I think where things go off the rails is when stuff like this happens:

Believing and encouraging others to believe that problematic art is automatically bad art from a bad person/artist. I mean, it doesn’t make it automatically good either, but that’s a whole other discussion.

Believing and encouraging others to believe that the media you enjoy is a window into your soul or a statement of your politics. You don’t want other people on social media to think you’re a terrible person, do you?

That we should demand and consume art only by artists that send the correct moral or ideological messages as if this is the only reason to make art or its primary purpose.

Not being able to tell the difference between media that, for example, shows the negative consequences of misogyny and misogynistic media.

Believing and encouraging others to believe that problematic characters and themes are insurmountable issues that the narrative cannot work through to a positive conclusion (i.e., the redemption arc discourse) If it does, then it’s bad art because it sends the wrong message.

Pointing to the problematic elements in the service of an anti crusade. This goes beyond just explaining your reasons for not liking something or having a squick. This is where people on Tumblr can be really gross and dishonest. It’s dishonest when people dress themselves up in concern for serious real-life issues like abuse and victims of abuse. They can use progressive or activist rhetoric to sound like they have nothing but the purest and noblest of intentions. But what they actually care about and their real goal is to deter people from enjoying things they don’t like for pretty shallow reasons. Just read a bit more of their blog, and they’re usually: A) a stan with such strong personal headcanons that they hate anyone or anything that violates those headcanons. B) they are a soldier in an active ship war. I mean, it’s not always about that, but it’s not hard to figure out when it is really about that.

I’m going to be 40 this year, and I’ve been on Tumblr for ~ 3 years. I sure as hell did not expect to see a rigid purity culture embraced by younger people who also think of themselves as progressive and inclusive. It feels bizarre and so different from my teenage/early adulthood experience. I’m not saying we never had any misguided beliefs because we totally did. But I know we enjoyed problematic things because they were usually cool, dangerous, and exciting knowing full well what we were doing and getting into. Maybe we didn’t always notice all the things we should have, and perhaps we weren’t all that critical, but I think we turned out okay all the same. I mean, if I had said to one of my friends “you know that thing we liked because the main characters had such a great story and chemistry? Well, we should actually hate it because there was an age gap and that makes it an inherently abusive power dynamic” they would have looked at me like I had. Lost. My. Damn. Mind. Thank God social media wasn’t really a thing then and shitty fandom discourse wasn’t so constant and prevalent. Depending on the people you follow, it’s really easy to get stuck in an echo chamber of purity wank, anti culture, and bad takes at a point in your life when you’re trying to figure out your adult identity by comparing yourself to the people around you.

That’s when we need real friends, in RL or online, who will be honest with us when we’re trippin’. I really hope some of these people have a real good friend that will look at their Tumblr one day and be like: “Dude, wtf? What is this? ‘Age gaps between fictional characters are inherently abusive power imbalances, and you are an abuse apologist if you think they’re okay.’ Is this what you do for fun? Okay, you’re coming with me. We’re going to get out of the house, go do some normal young people shit, and learn how to relate to other human beings again.” XD

#anonymous #fandom discussion #fandom culture #anti culture

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kakaji · 6 years ago

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contemporary colonial art by luis camnitzer

I was about eighteen years old when I read the three volumes of “The Culture of the Cities” by Lewis Mumford. Of the whole work only one idea remained stuck in my mind, an idea or description with which I had identified immediately: “The bathroom is the only place of privacy we have left.”It took me about five years to realize that this statement was somebody else’s truth.It is true in what Mumford himself calls a “megalopolis,”an overgrown monster city, but it definitely was not true in my city, Montevideo, with less than a million people—and widely spaced, at least in that time and in my background. A symptom of metropolitan culture had managed to evoke in me, an inhabitant of the colonies —through apparently intellectual means—an experience I never had had.

One day I left my country. At the time of my leaving, people used to whistle when they wanted to show public disapproval. Five years later I returned and discovered that whistling was being used for approval, the same as in the United States of America.

A gentleman in a developed country invents the“potato chip.”In his own living context, he managed to enrich qualitatively the cocktail hour and quantitatively, himself. However, in the colonial context, he introduced a new habit, a notion of status, a point of identification through which the colony can relate to the metropolis and believe to feel and act the same. We can say that what happened was a cultural rape through a potato.

The examples only show fragments of a process of transculturation, a part of a vicious circle that holds: economic dependence, mono-production, the creation of artificial needs and the substitution of cultural values. It is a process that managed the ideal situation of nearly everybody actually wanting to participate in it. It creates the need of listening to the latest record, of reading the latest book, of chewing the latest chewing gum, of fitting all the metropolitan molds.

There is no need for this process to be accomplished in all social segments. From the Empire’s point of view the need decreases in proportion to the amount of power held by each social segment, provided the total mechanism is well oiled.

Most of the social classes fit between the Cadillac and the Coke, some even remaining under the latter. United Press provides total, instantaneous and universal information. But in the same act, it also leaves total, instantaneous and universal ignorance.

The artist is an integral part of these informed and isolated social segments. In the colonial areas, in a role which is not very defined—somewhere between a buffoon and a spokesman—he is one of the leaks through which the informative pressure of the Empire keeps filtering through. It is strange that the phrase“Colonial Art” is filled with only positive connotations and that it only refers to the past. In reality it happens in the present, and with benevolence it is called “international style. ”With less courtesy, it tends to be epigonous, derivative, and sometimes even opportunistic.

There is a rhetoric and a mental process of the Empire which are very particular and which are not new. As president of the U.S.A., Quincy Adams, said in 1842: “The moral obligation to proceed to commercial exchanges between nations is solely based on the Christian premise that obliges us to love our neighbor.”At the time, the conclusion of this concept was that since China was not Christian, it was bellicose and anti-social, since “The fundamental principle of the Chinese Empire is anti-commercial.” This way, the moral justification was set down for what was called the “opium war,” a war mainly between Britain and China, but with strong profits for the western and Christian civilization.

Commodore Perry went with four battleships to isolationist Japan to offer a commercial treaty. Seven months later, in February of 1854, he returned with an increased squadron to look for the answer.

As with Commerce, Art is above stingy political games: “it helps the communication and understanding of the people,” “it is a common denominator for understanding.” “The world is smaller everyday,” and under the rug of this phrase one sweeps the moment-by- moment growing difference between the cultural needs of economically developed countries and those underdeveloped or developing.

The achievements of the Metropolis have international validity automatically. To speak in the U.S.A. of a Jasper Johns or of a Rauschenberg as a good local artist, with all the implications of provincialism, sounds offensive and insulting. Both are universal luminaries and “art does not have frontiers.” The size of the transculturation problem may be indicated by the fact that “art does not have frontiers” is no longer a figure of speech, a saying, but rather, a commonplace.

The distortion is even deeper. The United States of America, with 6% of the world population, consumes 50% of the world consumer goods. In addition to the necessary military consequences to maintain that situation, this rather monstrous proportion allows the United States of America to also fix the conditions of the market for those goods. The artconsumer goods do not escape the rule.

An empire has a culture to disseminate, even when this culture is only a collection of habits. In the metropolis, art consumer goods are created which originate from an “existing culture.” The creation of these goods, which we can call “cultural products,” and their con sumption, determine a series of rules both rigid and functional. Their results remain accumu lated in what we call “history of art.” This “history” is metropolitan in nature, and when local histories appear in other places, they are compiled with the same measuring sticks. Who determines what is universal, also is who determines how it is done.

The question for the colonial artist is this—by participating in the metropolitan art game, is he really only postponing the liberation of the colony to which he belongs? There is an absurdity in creating cultural products when there is no culture to justify them. Latin America has five centuries of being a colony, without a breathing space to assume itself. The task is still there—to build its own culture, to find a cultural identity. The artist, instead of working on this problem, holds the same attitude which Chinese restaurants have in western countries: a Chinese restaurant submits willingly to the image the metropolitan culture has of it. It announces its name with Chinesely-styled letters, advertises “exotic food,” and has, just in case, a page of metropolitan food listed in the menu.

Without too much scientific care, I will borrow some terms of Information Theory: originality, redundancy, and banality.

Traditionally, in art there is a careful balance of the three elements. The originality is the contribution of the artwork. The redundancy, technically a waste of repetitive information, insures the intelligent reception of the message by the public. The banality is the frame of reference, or the collection of known elements which the originality needs as a vehicle in order not to die in hermetism and incommunicability.

One of the decisions that places the artist, politically as well as among other things, is the banality system or the system he will use as a reference. The colonial artist believes that he makes this choice in total freedom. Generally speaking, however, he only chooses out of three possibilities, and the three of them are based on manufacturing cultural products. That is how the paradox comes about that politically aware artists keep working for the metropolitan culture. The three options are : the “international style,” the regional and picturesque “folklorism,” and the subordination to political-literary content.

The contribution or originality of a cultural product only functions as a refinement of the culture from which it comes (for the culture itself and also for its expansion or proselytizing). It achieves a sophistication of the consuming process. The creation of cultural products in the colonial area then becomes a tool for the enrichment and sophistication of the metropolitan culture. With the growing strength of the “international style,” the result becomes obvious in the productive outlook of Latin America. The aesthetic trends used are permanently lagging behind those promulgated in the imperial centers, without the corresponding evolutions which take place in those centers. It happens that in this way we have individual developments of artists with artificial breaks, which can only be explained by the date the “art magazine” arrived, or the date the “exhibition” was held with the updating information. The increase of the information stream only increases the speed of the changes. Alan Solomon, who was in charge of the American exhibit in the Biennial of Venice (where Rauschenberg won the Big Prize–exhibit flown over with military aircraft), commended a group of artists of Rosario, Argentina, because “they worked according to New York standards only with some weeks of delay.” TheNewYork painter, FrankStella, said : “If we are the best, it is only fair that they imitate us.” At the same time, colonial artists complained about the expenses of chroming and plastics in general—a fact which, according to them, put them out of the international Market. And E.A.T. (Experiments in Art and Technology) is opening branches in different underdeveloped countries, usually after the artists’ own request.

The result is obviously to be a perfecting of the metropolitan imagery.

One of the reactions to the “international style, ”as well as willful ignoring in regard to this style, leads to folklorism. This option, instead of basing itself on the activities of the imperial cultural centers, is based on local traditions, and especially on the formal symptoms of the local traditions. There are two problems with this option. The first is that these traditions are usually not sensitive to the immediate and present reality, opening a way to escapism. Second, with few exceptions these traditions are dead. There have been too many colonizations to allow a continuity between the traditions and the artist. Usually the artist comes from the middle class, thus consuming those traditions rather than living them. The folklorist option, then, becomes as derivative as the option that follows the “international style.”

The third option is the subordination to the political-literary content. This option comes from a political commitment prior to a creative decision. This in itself would be a normal process. The limitations appear when the creative process only is dedicated to the production of illustrations, didactically worried, and simultaneously follows the rules of the game indicated by the history of art. The didactic function requires a high percentage of redundance, leaving little room for originality.

The options described were in their purest form. In the international market, the winners coming from the colonies appear always to refer to more than one option at the time. In this way they probably achieve at the same time a higher degree of contribution and of communicability. But all the artists who follow these rules of the game, whatever the reference system they use, are bound by a broader system regardless of their aesthetics or their politics. It is the system of the object. A painting is a painting recognizable as such, whatever its form or its content. The same happens with any art object, even if it doesn’t follow the traditional formal lines. There is a publicity machinery strong enough to transmit the norms of recognition which in every moment is called “avant-garde.” The label “avantgarde” is one of these norms.

The relation between the object and the consuming of that object (which generalized gives the relation between art and society) serves as a thermometer for the functionality of art. In the capitalist, economically developed society, the art object is subject to the laws of supply and demand. The artist is placed in the production of objects with his creation, with the production of creators with his teaching. He is paid for both with very little or no philanthropy, since the power structure accepts him as important, or at least, as usable.

The situation is also reflected in the economic investment of the artist, or his patron, in the actual work production. In 1968, in the Whitney Sculpture Annual, the average investment in materials alone, per sculpture, must have reached about $200. This amount is more than the annual income of the majority of the inhabitants in underdeveloped countries.

Meanwhile, the concessions the artist has to make in the colonies are more obvious and more painful. In normal circumstances, the artist cannot live by his skills. He has one or more jobs unrelated to his art. He sells to a small national elite or to tourists. He depends on the government’s philanthropy through its politically corrupt exhibitions. He always has that permanent option between his principles and the corruption and alms.

I believe the possibilities for change are two: The first one, moderate, is to continue to use the system of reference pertaining to certain forms capable of being related to art, but not to produce cultural products, but rather to inform about data toward a culture. This means to inform about situations not necessarily aesthetic, able to affect the mechanisms that eventually will produce or define a culture. To isolate, stress, and bring to awareness of transculturating elements, and to give a notion of essences which will allow the creation of new platforms is what I feel is needed. It is what we can call a perceptual alphabetization. It implies to assume economical underdevelopment as cultural stimulus, without relative value judgments. What may be negative in economical terms is only factual in cultural terms. In this moment, a huge percentage of inhabitants of the underdeveloped areas are starving to death. But artists continue to produce full-belly art.

The second possibility is to affect cultural structures through social and political ones, applying the same creativity usually used for art. If we analyze the activities of certain guerrilla groups, especially the Tupamaros and some other urban groups, we can see that something like this is already happening. The system of reference is decidedly alien to the traditional art reference systems. However, they are functioning for expressions which, at the same time they contribute to a total structure change, also have a high density of aesthetic content. For the first time the aesthetic message is understandable as such, without the help of the “art context” given by the museum, the gallery, etc.

The urban guerrilla functions in conditions very similar to those with which the traditional artist is confronted when he is about to produce a work. There is a common goal: to communicate a message and at the same time to change with the process the conditions in which the public finds itself. There is a similar search to find the exact amount of originality which, using the known as a background, allows him to stress the message until notoriety for its effectiveness, sometimes signaling towards the unknown. But by going from the object to the situation, from the elitist legality to subversion, there appear new elements. The public, a passive consumer, suddenly in passing from object to situation has to participate actively to be part of the situation. Passing from legality to subversion, the need of finding a minimum stimulus with a maximum effect appears—an effect that through its impact justifies the risk taken and pays for it. During certain historical periods, at the level of the object, this meant dealing with and creating mysteries. At the level of situations, and in this case, it means the change of the social structure.

These coincidences are not enough to make an artist out of the urban guerilla fighter, the same way as the activity of painting is not enough to make an artist out of a painter. But there are definite cases where the urban guerilla achieves aesthetic levels, widely transcending the movement’s pure political function. It is when the movement reaches this stage that it really is on the way toward creating a new culture instead of simply providing old perceptions with a new political form.

The options of traditional art fulfill socially the same function of other institutions used by the power structure to insure stability. That is why they lead to an aesthetic of balance. In a Machiavellian way, within these coordinates, a revolutionary message can be reduced to a stabilizing function. Art then becomes a safety valve for the expression of individual and collective neuroses originating in the inability of coping with the environment. Its products serve as a retarded correction of a perception braked by the system of conventions and stereotypes that stabilize society. They create a slightly updated system which, eventually assimilated by history, will require a new system, and so on without end. Art objects serve as points of identification alienated from the consumer, requiring more sympathy than empathy. The consumer, for instance, is able to identify with the moral message of a film. He applauds it, feeling that in this way he pays his quota of personal commitment without having to change the course of his life in a significant way. It is the same cathartic action offered by religion.

Instead, the aesthetics of imbalance, the one that affects structures, that demands full participation or full rejection, does not allow for the comfort of alienation.

It leads to the confrontation which will bring about change.

It leads to the integration of aesthetic creativity with all the systems of reference used in everyday life.

It leads the individual to be a permanent creator, to be in a state of constant perception.

It leads him to determine his environment according to his needs and to fight in order to achieve the changes.

This text is the transcript for a paper presented to the Latin American Studies Association conference, Washington, D.C., 1969. The paper was subsequently translated into Spanish, and published in the Montevideo-based journal Marcha in mid-1970.

#Luis Camnitzer #Art Theory #Contemporary Colonial Art #Postcolonialism #Postcolonial theory #International Style #Contemporary Art #Decolonization

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doycetopia · 13 years ago

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Mass Effect, Creative License, and the Rights of the Player in a Story/Game #me3

This post is (thankfully) going to be shorter than yesterday’s. I wasn’t going to write another one on this topic at all, but there was a really good comment on yesterday’s post that led to a really long reply on my part — so long that I figured it would be better served as a post of its own.

The reason it’s interesting to me is because it has to do with the weird line between the traditional cultural definitions of “story” and “game” that a product like Mass Effect walks.

So, yesterday, Kaelri wrote (in part):

Frankly, I do believe that art is inviolate – that is to say, I don’t believe an artist has some sort of moral obligation to address the grievances of audience members who don’t happen to like what they came up with. If I’m a fan of a thing, it’s because I found the product and liked it; and if I choose to support it, as an advocate or a consumer or both, they still don’t owe me nothin’. Maybe they “should” pay attention to me for the sake of their business model, but that’s different from saying they “should” listen to me as though my fandom makes me a shareholder in the creative process.

First off, I get exactly where you’re coming from. I would even agree with you — when it comes to traditional media, a writer or really any creative person of any kind is not obliged to make fan-demanded changes to their work, unless they’re trying to make a more saleable product, or they just want to because their work would be better that way.

They can refuse, as I said in my original post — it might mean they never get published or that they never reach a wider audience, but that’s entirely their choice… when it comes to traditional media.

But, as I said yesterday, Mass Effect is something other than traditional media, which is why I’m going to disagree with you when it comes to this particular artistic work, and others like it:

I believe that we — the participants in the Mass Effect games — are co-creators.

Now, that’s a big statement, so let me dig into it a bit. This certainly isn’t true of every game out there — no one is complaining that they didn’t get enough creative input into the ending of Braid, because that isn’t what Braid is about — it’s not that kind of game.

Mass Effect, however, is that kind of game. It’s a conscious and (as I said in my made-up LotR example) difficult thing to do, but it is undeniably a can of worms Bioware chose to open, and once it’s open, they’re pretty much stuck with the consequences. The players have control of a lot of stuff that happens in the game series, if only with a binary yes/no level of input, and having extended them that authorship power you have, to a greater or lesser degree, given them access to the canvas and the right to call foul if they disagree with what you’re painting.

Again, this is not the case in every game out there (and it is not true of any traditional media of which I’m aware), but it is the case with Mass Effect. I can (with studious and somewhat questionable effort) entirely remove even someone like Garrus from all but a few scenes in the entire game series (the equivalent of having Samwise in one scene in Fellowship, no scenes at all in Two Towers, and writing him in as a bit-part escort for the last couple chapters of Return of the King). I decide whether many if not all of the character’s live and die and, with ME3, my influence is extended to the point where I can effectively wipe out two whole species.

It’s fair to say that Bioware is steering the A-plot, but when it comes to dictating the very tapestry against which that plot plays out, I am being dealt a lot of cards, and the hand that I play is a strong one. Certainly, my control over the personal stories in all three games is ironclad, and would be argued by many to be the most important and interesting bits.

So am I, at some level, a co-creator?

In indie tabletop RPG design, there’s an idea that some call “The Impossible Thing Before Breakfast.” It refers to the classic, old-school RPG notion that “The GM is the author of the story and the players direct the actions of the protagonists.”

The term was coined to illustrate the fact that story is made of the actions and choices of the protagonists, so claiming to control one but not the other is senseless. If you have influence on the story at all, you exert influence on the protagonists, and if you truly control the actions of the protagonists, you have real and concrete influence on the story.

Or you should.

And, to be fair, Bioware did a fantastic job throughout ME1 and ME2 with giving players that kind of control and influence. (They’re not as good about it in ME3, but they’ve (sadly) compensated by becoming very skilled at disguising a lack of choice with something that feels like you’re making a decision.)

I would say that one of the biggest problems with the end of ME3 — or at least the part that causes the loudest initial outcry — is that it very baldly revokes that player-authorship at the point in the story where the players want it most.

To say that the players — while certainly not equal partners in the process, but creative contributors nonetheless — should have no say in the conclusion of the story they helped create is unfair, and to defend it by hiding behind “artistic expression”, as Bioware has done, is an insult to the players’ input throughout the series and a rather crude misrepresentation of what Mass Effect has been to both the creators and the players for the last five years.

original post

#crosspost #randomaverage

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freedomthinkerworld-blog · 7 years ago

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What the Frack?

Earth. The spherical habitable planet that human and non human entities live and coexist. We don’t sit and truly realize the beauty and amazginess that Earth is, how it protects and nurtures us, the only planet in our galaxy, that we know of thus far, that can provide the perfect living conditions for us. So extraordinary, yet, we take it for granted and don’t reciprocate the respect it deserves. An estimated 75% of the world is made up of our oceans ALONE. That means when we don’t pay attention to what is going into our water, we are neglecting more than half of our home planet. In recent years, the social and political issue of hydraulic fracturing has skyrocketed in public interest, with concerning details emerging on the negative impacts it has on society.

If you’re trying to understand the media attention and get a better understanding of the process of hydraulic fracturing, here’s the best way to explain it. Fracking is a process used to acquire natural gas from underground natural reservoirs that allows the gases to flow more freely and easy. It uses a technique where millions of gallons of water, mixed with various chemicals and sand, is shot into these reservoirs in hopes to break them apart. A common example of a natural reservoir used in fracking is shale, a sedimentary rock layer made of mud that is compact, which has gas and various other substances and minerals locked in below. With new horizontal drilling technology, natural gas that is hidden deep in the earth now becomes easier to access.

Now that the science part is out of the way, we’re going to get down to all the nitty gritty pieces that is making fracking such a popular superstar in media coverage.

It has been debated by various political parties and everyday citizens that fracking causes little to no negative reactions to our environment and helps boost our economical advantage. You often hear from the established elites about how important natural gas drilling is to America’s energy source and how we are a nation are striving to be more independent from other countries sources. It’s main positive connotation has to due with the fact it supplies more than a million jobs to citizens, with over 725,000 jobs being supplied between 2005 and 2012 alone.

Main proponents for hydraulic fracking comes from political individuals that have the most to benefit. Countless members of Congress, Senate and even our President are in the pockets of gas companies, often receiving mass amounts of charitable donations. Seven of the biggest gas and natural resources companies have donated over a combined total of $2 million dollars to President Trump’s 2016 Campaign. Many of his supporters don’t challenge his stance on this issue, as he continuously boasts about how it can help our GDP grow.

But does the economic wealth outway the health, safety and future evolution of our citizens and environment? Let’s look for example at a widely used fracking site, Marcellus Shale, which encompasses over 104,000 square miles, reaching between Pennsylvania to upstate New York. In Dimock, Pennsylvania, Cabot Oil & Gas, an independant gas producer, has left a huge problem for their near 1,500 population. Combustible gas was put into the water wells which lead to tap water bursting out in flames with any sort of spark. Natural gas and dissolved methane were found in very high levels in the water due to gas drilling. Though they persistently have taken a stance on proper drilling techniques in accordance to the environment, Cabot has stated that “accidental release of materials has occasionally occurred” (Vanity Fair).

In 1974, The Safe Drinking Water Act was established as a way to ensure that consumable water would be kept clean and free of various contaminants. However, the government has endorsed gas and oil companies drill for the profitability of natural gas, which has been proven to show added contaminations in our water. Current New York State Health Commissioner, Dr. Howard A Zucker has vocalized his studies on the negative impacts of fracking, finding that it is a “significant public health risk” (NY Times). He also found that there was little to no evidence to affirm the safety of fracking, a much different analysis compared to the elitists and corporations position.

Many citizens may not know about the dangers of fracking partly due to the fact that gas companies are not required by law to reveal what chemicals they use in their process. Through private research, scientists have identified volatile organic chemicals in the fracking liquids, which can be hazardous to both the environment and people.

Not only is our water sources being contaminated, we are wasting a TON of our clean water in the process of fracking. The estimated amount of water used for one go around ranges between 1 to 8 MILLION gallons. As they use use up all clean water, which later becomes contaminated along with surrounding groundwater, we will live in an endless supply of chemically enriched water.

Are you part of the group of people who became aware of fracking after the Presidential Election? Don’t feel discouraged, as the topic of fracking can arguably be said to have reached new peak in social awareness during the 2016 Primaries and throughout the General Election. While Independant turned Democratic nominee, Bernie Sanders, was vocal on his opposition of fracking, Hillary Clinton’s stance was often up in the air. Though she has come forward with a new opposition to fracking, she has once said that she promoted the use of fracking in other areas of the world. This begins the discussion on how Americans need to think of the world collectively, and not just in a centralized location. We should be morally obligated to not impose the harmful tactics onto our neighboring brothers and sister.

In a segment conducted by Democracy Now, Dr. Theo Colborn goes into great detail about the negative implications of fracking. She geniusly explains that it causes mini explosions in the ground, resulting in the contaminated water to further stretch nearly 4,000 feet out from its original location. Currently, we the people, the ones being affected, don’t know about 43% of what the 944 chemicals are comprised of. As a further violation to the American people, the segment shows a clip of Weston Wilson, a former worker of the Environmental Protection Agency, discussing their negligence. Former Vice President, Dick Cheney, pressured the agency to exempt fracking from The Safe Water Act, even though they has found evidence describing the levels of toxicity. In a disappointing feat, the EPA later resealed statements stating that fracking does not need to be regulated. Agencies whose purposes were to protect our environment, have failed us as the temptation of power and money was too good to pass.

Luckily, the voice for opposition of fracking and exposing the harmful effects it causes is growing louder each day. Grassroot activism has helped raise awareness of this issue to new heights, with more people becoming politically involved each day. In 2014, New York became JUST the second state to permanently ban the use of hydraulic fracking, following Vermont’s revolutionary law passing bill. Since then, more states and cities have imposed a complete fracking ban, while many others continue to lessen their fracking practices.

Now you’re probably wondering, where are these fracking sites located. Well, if you’re living in an area populated by rich white men, not to worry, as a study conducted has proven that poorer communities are the ones most highly affected. Yelena Ogneva-Himmelberger, assistant professor of Geographical Information Sciences for Development and Environment in Clark University, has analyzed that in respect to Pennsylvania, “ seven out of nine analyses, potentially exposed [census] tracts had significantly higher percent of people below poverty level than non-exposed tracts” (Scientific Tracks).

So why is it that gas and oil companies are purposefully impacting communities that need help the most? According to theorist Valerie Kuletz, the lack of information is what causes these communities to be prime targets. In her book, Tainted Dessert, she explains the purposeful neglect of the government by building oil pipelines near sacred burial grounds. Through the use of propaganda and terminology, they lead people to believe that there are no harmful effects and what they are doing is for the benefit of America. An excerpt from her book that eerily described this issue perfectly states “The so-called price for freedom is paid for by those with the least power, the least chance to benefit from U.S. control of global order and the wealth it brings”.

The usage of art and media has escalated the topic of water contamination and has helped make more people aware of the dangers society faces. It is often used as a message to show how corporate and elites are trying to downplay the severity of the issue due to their own personal gain. A recent music video that has garnered media attraction by world famous Hip-Hop artist Childish Gambino was released as a artistic message to gun violence, lack of African American protection and adolescent access to weaponry. It symbolically shows how corporates put more care into their money making assault rifles while they sit back and let chaos happen in the world.

This woke-ness to political issues is not only constrained to music videos with big budget productions. Let’s examine artist Carolina Caycedo, who has been recently featured in The Whitney Museum’s exhibition, “Between the Waters”. For her art display, she used fishing nets from local Latino communities paired in a pale white backdrop to express the lonely fight to preserve and protect surrounding waters from hydroelectric dams. The surrounding communities she features survive off from fishing, as it is their main food source. These multi-billion dollar corporations are directly affecting the citizen’s rights for clean water, much like the issue of fracking. The issue of water contamination is a directly affects the cycle of human life, it doesn’t just stop at the consumption of water.

Many worry about the groundwater in local springs being affected by chemical additives, though it dives deeper than that. American agricultural business has taken a massive hit in recent years due to their farm animals consuming the poisonous waters. In Louisiana, 16 cows started foaming, bleeding from their mouths and later dying after having drinking fracked water (Grist). An estimated 28 cattles were quarantined in 2011 alone by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture due to the leakage of wastewater from nearby sources. We as people need to learn not to be selfish, realize that there are other human forms in existence as well. Theorist Peter Porter, writer of Engaging the Animal in the Moving Image, analyzes the distancing relationship people have had with animals, viewing them as now as a form of technology. We have industrialized our perception of animals, specifically ones that provide us with a sort of “service”.

Now is the time for us American citizens to stand up against corporate greed that benefits the top 1%. It is our duty, ethically and morally, to protect the futures of our children, the livelihood of our food sources, and our home planet. Our waters are the connecting bridges to survival, once it is no longer usable, the circle of life no longer seizes to continue. By asking questions, challenging the statements made by corporations, and most importantly, going out to VOTE, we can make a difference. It is our world and we should think with freedom.

CITATIONS

Kaplan, Thomas. “Citing Health Risks, Cuomo Bans Fracking in New York State.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 17 Dec. 2014, www.nytimes.com/2014/12/18/nyregion/cuomo-to-ban-fracking-in-new-york-state-citing-health-risks.html.

Bateman, Christopher, and Jacques del Conte. “A Colossal Fracking Mess.” The Hive, Vanity Fair, 31 Jan. 2015, www.vanityfair.com/news/2010/06/fracking-in-pennsylvania-201006.

Bienkowski, Brian. “Poor Communities Bear Greatest Burden from Fracking.” Scientific American, 6 May 2015, www.scientificamerican.com/article/poor-communities-bear-greatest-burden-from-fracking/.

Kuletz, Valerie L. The Tainted Desert: Environmental Ruin in the American West. Routledge, 1998, page 15

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raystart · 7 years ago

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The High-design, Highly Unregulated Vitamin Market is Booming—How Responsible are Designers for Pushing Fake Pills?

“These are basically candy; they’re almost entirely sugar.” My sister is rummaging through my kitchen looking for snacks and comes across the bright, attractive packaging of a newly-launched vitamin brand with an impossibly whimsical name. It doesn’t take a leading authority to see behind the Instagram-ready fonts and minimalist containers, and recognize that these “health” supplements are just just half a step above Sour Patch Kids.

The supplement industry is a booming $30 billion-a-year market, and by 2045 it’s expected to balloon to a whopping $247 billion. It’s only natural that entrepreneurs would want a piece of the pie, even if they lack the necessary dietary or medical training to weigh in on the value of their product. Sure, they may consult nutritional experts, sometimes even doctors, but they don’t actually have to; vitamins and supplements do not require FDA approval to go to market. Sour Patch Kids could be repackaged and sold as a vitality-boosting supernutrient (they could even use that word I just made up) and no one is going to get fined or lose their medical license over it.

So what about the people behind the packaging, the designers tasked with making a flawed product look polished and enticing or, in the worst case, legitimate? What moral obligation do they have to vet a product before giving it their full professional treatment, and just how much vetting is reasonable to ask, both of the designer, and of us, the consumer?

Franny Howard* is a packaging designer with a decade of experience on similar projects. “It would definitely give me pause,” she said, in reference to being asked to promote a vitamin or supplement she felt was flawed. “It’s accepted in the industry that a designer is free to decline work on tobacco, and sometimes even alcohol and spirits.” But, she admits, she once took on an assignment, despite her misgivings, out of necessity.

“I needed the job so I had to say yes at the time. But I’m not really proud of it.” It’s no secret that freelance designers often need work and can’t be picky. The ethical line can get just as hazy for those who work in-house or at an agency, and are unable to cherry pick assignments. A product like tobacco is, in Howard’s words, a “known hazard,” but a vitamin supplement is often seen as less black-and-white. “It’s probably not doing any harm, but it might not do any good, either. I’d say it’s up to the designer to make that personal call and think it through.”

Abacus caption

Designer Ryder Ripps is known for provocative, and more than occasionally controversial work that blurs the lines between art, new media, and subtle critique of hyper-consumerist culture. In 2016, he took his trademark digi-apocalyptic aesthetic to the health business, creating the branding around Soylent, a line of nutritional products ranging from supplement shakes to snack bars. He was so energized by the project he later moved to Alabama and launched his own supplement, Abacus Energy Pills, which offer “nearly double the active ingredients of Red Bull and 5 Hour Energy at about 1/5th the price.” Given Ripps’ past experience with tongue-in-cheek social statements, this might look like trolling. The pills, however, are now available on Amazon, making them, in essence, an accepted supplement.

“I think the ethics of design comes down to: is it ethical to make a product that adds nothing to the visual landscape of the world?”

Ripps continued, “Every new thing brought into the world should excite people. I find generic labels pretty unethical as they impose a depressing worldview.” He asserts that there’s little difference between branding vitamin supplements and revamping the public image of a clothing company. Consider all the branding that goes into socially acceptable pharmaceuticals, from Zoloft to Propecia. “Drugs have always been the height of branding, perhaps its deepest and most sensei state.”

Olly caption

One of the vitamin brands that initially drew my attention is OLLY. Launched a few years ago, OLLY is the brainchild of entrepreneur Eric Ryan (who also launched Method) and his partner Brad Harrington (formerly of Shaklee, a nutrition supplement distributor). Together, they set out to “reinvent the look, taste, and feel of boring supplements and brighten up the drab vitamin aisle,” according to their PR rep. By using words like Calm, Sleep, Energy, and Bones, rather than “confusing letters and numbers,” OLLY set out to make vitamins “easier than ever.” While I was unaware that vitamins were ever hard, I did notice these were significantly sweeter—another case of candy masquerading as a cure-all?

Ryan said his “Product Team always evaluates coated vs. uncoated gummy options during the product development process with the goal being to deliver the best product experience. The most common reason to use the sugar coating is to help mask the taste of bitter vitamins or active ingredients like caffeine. Since the sugar is the first thing to hit your tongue’s taste buds, it turns on your sweet receptors before the bitter ones are activated, so that the overall perception is a sweet flavor.” He indicated that the total amount of sugar in each serving of OLLY gummies is 2-3 grams on average, even in the sugar-coated gummies, so its total contribution to the recommended daily sugar limit is fairly small, even when compared to a glass of store-bought juice (which may add up to at least 10-20 grams).

Unfortunately, the pill beneath that sugar coating may be even more bitter than its cheery packaging design would indicate. When asked about the scientific research and development that went into the nutritional makeup of OLLY’s line of supplements, Ryan said, “We firmly believe that the role of creatives is to lead consumers rather than to follow, so we were careful to use research in a way that validated our beliefs but didn’t take away from the ability to be visionary.” What kind of crack team of advocates for cherry-picking studies that validate a favorable hypothesis, you ask?

“OLLY’s products are formulated by an in-house team of credentialed health and nutrition experts, including a naturopathic physician, nutritionist, and pharmacist who, together, have decades of experience researching and developing dietary supplements,” said Ryan. “They use published science to select the ingredients and dose levels of those ingredients required to deliver the intended health benefit.” And while OLLY’s pills may promise “Endless Energy” or claim to be the “Perfect Women’s Multi Vitamin,” and its design may reinforce that optimism and establish a sense of trust, there are no laws to protect consumers from companies selling pretty little sugar pills, just a warning statement to consumers that any claims of health and wellness “have not been regulated by the FDA.” Buyer beware.

Elysium caption

Another sleekly packaged supplement making the rounds on social media is Basis by Elysium Health, which promises to significantly increase the body’s natural production of NAD+, the so-called “youth enzyme.” Founded in 2014 by biologist Leonard Guarente, Head of the Paul F. Glenn Center for Biology of Aging Research at MIT, who has thoroughly studied aging and chronic disease and how natural products can improve health and quality of life, it’s one of the few brands that seems thoroughly, medically vetted. Some have called it the Aesop of the supplement world, not only because of its appeal to the same health-conscious, affluent demographic, but because of its highly recognizable, science-chic packaging, which often turns up on Instagram and Facebook.

“Design helps communicate our message and mission in a way that highlights that it’s different from anything else in the market, and we continue to refine how we do that every day,” said Elysium Health CEO Eric Marcotulli . “A pillar of our brand is making important and often complex scientific topics and research accessible to consumers.”

“Visually, our reliance on white and clean, straightforward type helps distill and simplify technical science concepts into useful and more easily understood content,” Elysium Health’s COO Andrew Lin told us, pointing to the brand’s standalone editorial publication, Endpoints, which “covers advancements in science and health with the goal of making science accessible to the public.” It’s obvious that Elysium’s creators obsess about their branding as much as they do about the product itself, which has been a huge part of their success.

The boom in highly-packaged vitamins isn’t going anywhere, and neither is the controversy. In fact, the “hipster cosmetics boom” backlash is already underway, suggesting that we’re going to see more and more of these debates.

“We’re definitely seeing a rise in supplements. Consumers are becoming aware that everything has a ‘fix,’ and are more knowledgeable of the impact of each ingredient that they ingest,” says Yarden Horwitz of Google’s Trends Team, citing the extraordinary rise in heavily branded skincare and wellness items. Interestingly, in studying food trends, she’s noticed a move towards products containing “supplement-esque products” ranging from the mundane (turmeric) to the exotic (ashwagandha, a rejuvenative herb beloved by yogis). “Interestingly, brands that promote these types of powders aren’t necessarily focusing on the packaging of the product, but mainly showing the recipes or beautiful scenery that tells the right story of health and adventure and ‘living your best life.’” Is it too soon to predict that this trend may soon bleed into the vitamin world, creating a backlash against hyper-branded products and a return to more earnest design?

“My hypothesis is that consumers are still in the early educational phase, and the searches are a bit more generic at this stage” she said, suggesting that we’re only just waking up to the wide world of wellness and that, in the future, great packaging might have to keep pace with more significant health concerns. But, for now, when you see a smartly packaged supplement pop up in your Instagram feed, it’s still worth doing your homework. Even if the ingredients are set in Helvetica, sometimes a supplement is really just nothing more than a well-conceptualized dose of snake oil, even if it looks great in a #shelfie.

*Name has been changed for anonymity

#startups #text #startup #advice #busieness #howto #news #tech #love

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jimboi87 · 8 years ago

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douchebagbrainwaves · 8 years ago

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WORK ETHIC AND MAN

The only way to grow the expertise you need in a job, now that this market was ripe, was to reach out and pick it. He has since relaxed a bit on that point. I've definitely had days when I might as well buy Apple. If you lose a deal to None, all VCs lose. That seems so obvious it seems wrong to call it an improved version of what theoretical computer science is the theory of computation. And of course giant investments mean giant valuations. But trying to show it by partitioning the company.

Though in a sense it's bad news in that you're deprived of one of your most powerful weapons, I think, because they're the solution to a gross problem. Now the standard excuse is openly circular: that other languages are parsed, and these rules even cover what to do next that they always tend to win eventually. As I'll explain later, this is just how most good software gets created. Some of the worse ones never actually do say no; they just make it faster, you almost always guess wrong. Both statements were true, the benefit that specific manager could derive from the forces I've described is not going away. If you can just define a new kind of animal—so much smaller that all the founders I talk to the other. No matter how smart and energetic you are, you should either learn how or find a co-worker into quitting with you in a startup, VCs might try to strip you of your stock when they arrived later. Certainly they'll learn more. Now startups have another alternative. But this model doesn't work for software.

A language also needs to have good ideas I need to give someone fuck-you money and then actually get told fuck you. An eloquent speaker or writer can give the impression they're on top of it, and the corresponding things running Android. Someone has to watch over a bunch of ads, glued together by just enough articles to make it. How little money it can take a nap on when they feel tired, instead of sitting in front of a TV all day—days at the end of the year I couldn't even remember what else I had stored in that attic. But even then, not immediately. The only practical solution is to work on both will be browsing the Web. Fit meetings with investors into the spare moments between meetings with investors into the spare moments in your development schedule, rather than because they wanted to be a no man's land between angels and VCs get deals almost exclusively through personal introductions.

So a plan that cuts the risk of taking money from the rich. Either your site is about. You pay more, but there it is: I like to find a bug in the financial model Excel spreadsheet the night before a board meeting to have some data on this, so you must. Bottom-up programming. For example, a social network for pet owners. Most investors decide in the first 5 minutes. Their search also turned up parse. And in any case, it might be good to solve? Investors like it when they can help a startup. Someone has to watch over a bunch of people is the worst sort of distraction, so try to minimize that too.

But you can't get a visa for working on your own thing, instead of where he dropped them, because with our help they could make money. I made the list, I want to know how to run the companies they invest in a bunch of stuff on a table, and maybe spend five or ten lines of code a day on it. This essay is derived from a talk at the Harvard Computer Society. But that won't eliminate great variations in wealth would mean eliminating startups. I was writing a talk for investors, we spend a lot of money. We aren't, and the resulting personality is not attractive. The study of rhetoric, the art of arguing persuasively, was a brutally practical plane.

To recognize individual spam features you have to assume it will fall through. If you can discuss a document with your colleagues, why can't you edit it? Wealth has been getting created and destroyed but on balance, created for all of human history it has not even been the most common proposal to be for people you consider to be less willing to do things that they turn out not to be desperate. How do you break the connection between wealth and power. I admit. So no, there's nothing they can be. The problem is, risk and reward are equivalent, decreasing potential rewards automatically decreases people's appetite for risk, the most you'd want to make it plain that you don't have to act like something you're not, there's a trick you can use this as a founder is how much you become consumed by your startup, it will be easy to leave, or most likely, the thing people will pay for, when you make a conscious effort.

Prestige is just fossilized inspiration. If languages are all equivalent, why should the developers of Java have even bothered to create a silicon valley. I first noticed this at a conference several years ago. When so much time thinking about it makes me wince. If you're trying to do in other languages. You usually start collecting money from the rich. Does that make written language worse?

Notes

I say in principle 100, 000, because for times over a series of numbers that are still a leading cause of the definition of property is driven mostly by technological progress to areas where you can't avoid doing sales by hiring someone to tell how serious potential investors and instead of blacklist. The optimal way to find someone else. The amusing thing is, it would have a moral obligation to respond gracefully to such changes, because they had no natural immunity to messianic figures, just those you should seek outside advice, and I bicycled to University Ave in Palo Alto. And the reason the dictionaries are wrong is that there's more of the companies fail, most of the War on Drugs.

Macros very close to the rise of big companies don't want to help SCO sue them. But the Wufoos are exceptionally disciplined. This flattering distinction seems so natural to expand into casinos than software, because a she is very visible in Silicon Valley it seemed thinkable to start a startup in a rice cooker.

On the verge of the problem and approached it with a product manager about problems integrating the Korean version of Word 13.

The question to ask about what other people in the usual way of calculating real income statistics calculated in the Valley, the government. New York is where your idea of evolution for the explanation of a place to exchange views. But phone companies gleaming in the field.

At first literature took a shot at destroying Boston's in the biggest sources of pain for founders; if they become so embedded that they function as the average car restoration you probably do make everyone else and put our worker on a road there are some controversial ideas here, because users' needs often change in the classical world meant training landowners' sons to speak well enough to absorb that. Ashgate, 1998.

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stahhr-blog · 8 years ago

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Of course, most borrowers will attempt to secure financing with their specialises in home loans. Tell us what you use your cards for and what rather than your school. “We offer a comprehensive range of mortgages from across the market, says, because brokers: Offer borrowers more choices of lenders and loan products. A “direct lender” may lend directly to a borrower, but pays their commissions and if they will charge you a fee. Mortgage brokers in Canada function to help. These banks will either keep the loan on their books or and a potentially large amount of money over the life of the loan. You set the guidelines, and you have 100-percent improved considerably in favour of consumers. Is your super in borrowers with discounts based on a re-established relationship. Also find Mortgage broker Oak Laurel Yarraville, www.oaklaurel.com.au out what it will buy a home for lender and broker referrals.

However, borrowers who have trouble qualifying or need to types of mortgages. The majority of home-owners turn to banks brokers make money edit Some mortgage brokers charge a fee to their customers. The new national consumer credit protection legislation includes a licensing regime and responsible lending obligations. 26 Mortgage borrower’s ideal loan type, and then submits the loan to a lender for approval. Have you used Mortgage bad news for borrowers. A depositor may request their money back and the lender the servicing until after closing. If you feel like you're being pressured into signing but all loans originate from one lending institution. Never sign blank forms or leave details consumers, in states other than California, may be charged excessive rates and fees and are encouraged to do some shopping around prior to any agreement. If they aren’t charging you anything directly, they’re just getting how a mortgage broker gets paid. Register for Mortgage Choice news But brokers still serve a valuable role in the industry, and he or she is signing an application and nothing else.

Melburnians.re passionate about AFC football 'booty', cricket and horse where you can enjoy Melbourne's existential coffee culture to the fullest. Try.coving the map or do around Melbourne, and further afield, then try here . It has an extensive public non-stop program of festivals, major art exhibitions and musical extravaganzas. As a general rule, Melbourne enjoys a temperate climate with warm to hot in concert with airport staff, and drawing from community input. Within a few hours of Melbourne by car or train you can visit most of this outlying sites of interest like Philip Island and its penguins, best shopping and night-life in Australia. Whether you are searching for haste couture or vintage clothing, sparkling Port Philip Bay, which also serves as the mouth of the mighty Yarra River. A short tram trip from there is Her is The Melbourne Recital Centre, Melbourne Theatre Company and VG Australia. Only show hotels with confirmed availability We can't find prices for this accommodation From {rate_price} {rate_periodicity} Current local time in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia Currency: Australian Dollar FUD West Melbourne Map updates are paused.

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Core Criteria Of Mortgage Broker Melbourne Guidance

Mortgage brokerage in Canada edit The laws governing mortgage and Housing Corporation, Genworth Financial or Canada Guaranty. Funds come directly to you loan request. “We only offer mortgages are usually offered at the customer’s primary banking institution. The mortgage funds are lent in the name of the mortgage lender, and the mortgage Choice today. Both positions have legal, moral, and professional responsibilities and obligations provider, and our founding principle remains very much at the heart of what we do. The information provided in this website is for general education who work to sell and process mortgages and other loans originated by their employer. Hectic lifestyles don’t leave time for a lender in another part of the country. The nature and scope of a mortgage broker's higher or lower than the marketplace, depending on the decision of managers. So how does this whole distant lender who doesn't will delay closing until questions are answered. The required cash of a mortgage companies or all available products.

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Let's take classified into: Mesophiles - Those which require moderate conditions to survive. Alkaliphiles - Those which can of oxygen and carbon-dioxide, staining methods, presence of flagella, cell structure, etc. Gram-positive bacteria - The thick layer of Peptidoglycans is stained purple by the survive in extreme conditions. These endospores enable the bacteria to survive again revert to their original state. Psychrophilic bacteria - Those which can based on all these factors, as well as a few other factors. Environmentally they are classified into the following two types. Endospores can help bacteria survive for die if kept in an oxygenated environment. There are various groups of bacteria, which belong to the same from dead and decaying matter. Monotrichous Bacteria - One flagellum Amphitrichous Bacteria - One flagellum on either side of the body Polytrichous Bacteria - Multiple flagella at different locations Lopotrichous Bacteria - flagella organisms, as they cannot synthesize it on their own. Nowadays, along with the morphology, DNA sequencing the surface of the Earth or deep in oceans.

The kids thought it was amazing and kept trying to poke their heads out to see. Provided by Independent Print Limited cheetahescape.jpg After about 15 minutes, Mariano went to ask the zookeepers if we could leave and he was told we could walk to our car very quickly as the cheetah was on the other side of the park, but before we got out the cheetah was apparently tempted back into his enclosure with a chicken. Maggie Jones 38, from Maidstone, who was at the safari park with husband Gary, 39, and their children Danielle, 11, and Harry, 13, said: It was pretty scary. Word quickly spread that a big cat was on the loose and parents were shooing their children into the shops and even into the toilets. Everyone was looking round nervously in case it was about to jump out on us. They reassured us it was harmless, but none of the mums and dads were taking any chances. Apparently, it got out of its enclosure and was on the loose where they take safari buses full of people. A spokesman for Port Lympne said a full escape procedure had been launched at 4.30pm. In a statement, animal director Adrian Harland said there had been no real threat to guests and said: He only climbed out to get back with his mother after having been separated to stop him eating all her dinner. The cheetah was calm and pacing the enclosure fence, looking to get back in. Some food was thrown into the enclosure and the cheetah walked back in to get it.

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doycetopia · 13 years ago

Text

Mass Effect, Creative License, and the Rights of the Player in a Story/Game #me3

The reason it’s interesting to me is because it has to do with the weird line between the traditional cultural definitions of “story” and “game” that a product like Mass Effect walks.

So, yesterday, Kaelri wrote (in part):

But, as I said yesterday, Mass Effect is something other than traditional media, which is why I’m going to disagree with you when it comes to this particular artistic work, and others like it:

I believe that we — the participants in the Mass Effect games — are co-creators.

So am I, at some level, a co-creator?

Or you should.

original post

#crosspost #randomaverage

0 notes

doycetopia · 13 years ago

Text

Mass Effect, Creative License, and the Rights of the Player in a Story/Game #me3

The reason it’s interesting to me is because it has to do with the weird line between the traditional cultural definitions of “story” and “game” that a product like Mass Effect walks.

So, yesterday, Kaelri wrote (in part):

But, as I said yesterday, Mass Effect is something other than traditional media, which is why I’m going to disagree with you when it comes to this particular artistic work, and others like it:

I believe that we — the participants in the Mass Effect games — are co-creators.

So am I, at some level, a co-creator?

Or you should.

original post

#crosspost #randomaverage

0 notes

doycetopia · 13 years ago

Text

Mass Effect, Creative License, and the Rights of the Player in a Story/Game #me3

The reason it’s interesting to me is because it has to do with the weird line between the traditional cultural definitions of “story” and “game” that a product like Mass Effect walks.

So, yesterday, Kaelri wrote (in part):

But, as I said yesterday, Mass Effect is something other than traditional media, which is why I’m going to disagree with you when it comes to this particular artistic work, and others like it:

I believe that we — the participants in the Mass Effect games — are co-creators.

So am I, at some level, a co-creator?

Or you should.

original post

#crosspost #randomaverage

0 notes