#if only i was this enthusiastic in making and recording surveys for my research...

[blueflipflops]

Reblog for bigger sample size!

[star-anise]

Everyone's got a take, and I've got a take too, about the current Internet Villain: James Somerton, a gay Youtuber who just got exposed (in the back half of a 4-hour video) as massively plagiarizing the work of LGBTQ+ media critics, historians, and memoirists, and then exposed in another 2-hour video as just making up the wildest nonsense about the topics he demonstrably had access to accurate information on.

He achieved a six-figure income on his work by squeezing money out of his audience with claims...

That only he was creating content that preserved queer history and elevated the voices and experiences of the LGBTQ+ community (a lie)

He was in serious financial distress and would have to go out of business if people didn't give him tons of money (a lie)

That he was going to use some of that cash to make definitely good and not-at-all-plagiarized independent movies, a thing he was definitely skilled and experienced enough to do (a lie), and

That those plagiarism allegations were incorrect,, and frankly,,,, hurtful and homophobic. (a GIANT lie)

Like, here's a visualization of the script of one of his videos, "Society and Queer Horror". The highlighted bits were lifted nearly verbatim from the works of others—the 18 authors identified at the time the exposé was posted—and presented as Somerton's own work.

So here's what drives me absolutely up the wall about this:

If he had just ADMITTED that it was the work of other people, THAT WOULD STILL BE COOL. If he had just said, up front, "We are going on a survey of thoughts and insights people have had about this topic", that would still be a good video with a real audience!

Like yes, he studied business in university, he might not have gotten the kinds of research skills and knowledge someone like Kaz Rowe uses to not just report on the history and analysis of others, but evaluate their relative validity and trustworthiness.

But honestly, since watching my niblings (oldest is 13) watch Youtube, I think you honestly can't underestimate the number of viewers who are really hungry for someone saying, "I don't understand this topic! Let's explore it together!"

But NOOOOOOO, Somerton didn't want to be just some schmuck waxing enthusiastic about homoeroticism on film and acknowledging the smartness of other people. He wanted to be HIM, MR. SMARTYBOY, very sophisticated and alluring and thoughtful and deep. Definitely an intellectual heavyweight who just happened to spout off his own personal ideas and analysis that put him at the forefront of all the scholarship on the topic he's come across.

I hate being wrong. Hate being wrong. But blogging for most of my life has forced me to confront constant textual evidence that two or ten or twenty years ago, I said some dumb-ass shit. Honestly, it'd probably keep me up at night sometimes even if I didn't have a written record. I absolutely understand the desire to scan the field, find the coolest people around, and quickly clothe yourself in as perfect an imitation of them as you can manage.

But if you want to be an artist or a scholar who produces something lasting, you can't prioritize coolness over truth all the time. To develop your true, independent voice, you need to find a time and place where it is just you and just the work you're doing, and you have pick up your tools and say, I don't know if I'm doing this right, but this is what feels right to me.

There are a lot of things in life to which we can only truly contribute our presence and our perspectives. Things we can only witness or hold space for. We cannot go back and bleed the pain out of history, or erase the complexity of another person's life. Not honestly, at least.

But those are the times that need our presence, our perspectives, our witness, and our space. When we gather round and tell sad tales about the death of kings, honesty can be the only thing you give that's worth a damn in the large scale of things.

If this dude had owned up to the truth and honestly showed the work of trying to piece together a queer understanding of the world, trying to draw the threads of culture together until he found a place he fit inside them, it would have been so much more valuable to our culture as a whole.

He probably made more money this way, though. While it lasted.

[glaciernps]

Bewitched by Bats from an Early Age

By Renata Harrison

Tonight I witnessed something truly unique. We’ve trapped and taken measurements of over 25 little brown bats. I’ve seen the intricacies of their wings, their fuzzy bodies, their tiny teeth. We even caught a flying squirrel. As amazing as all of that was, though, the real marvel of the night was a special relationship that formed.

Twenty-five people stand in a circle listening to wildlife biologist Lisa Bate explain the evening’s events. We’re all here for the Going Batty field trip, having come from near and far to discover the world of bats. One of the participants, six-year-old Izzy Herreid-Terrill, has driven six hours from Bozeman, Montana to come to Glacier for this field trip. As Lisa tells us the plan for the night, no one is paying better attention than Izzy. Clutching two plush, stuffed bats to her chest, she hangs on to Lisa’s every word.

Izzy’s obsession with bats began during a visit to Lewis and Clark Caverns in southern Montana, where she was upset to learn how they were affected by white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease that has killed millions of bats in North America. On the first day of kindergarten, when teachers asked her what she wanted to do when she grew up, she said she wanted to save bats from the disease. Izzy feels that bats are misunderstood. “They’re not as scary or ugly as adults think,” she explains.

Lisa Bate gets it. Surrounded by bat enthusiasts, she tells us how her own fascination began. As a young girl not much older than Izzy, she’d sit out in the backyard, watching as bats appeared out of the darkness to hunt for insects. She developed her very own bat-signal—a rock in a sock. Flinging the bright, white sock into the air, she watched as dark forms swooped to investigate it.

Lisa has been studying flying animals for over 25 years as a wildlife biologist. She earned her master’s in wildlife biology, focusing on birds. When she arrived in Glacier, she admits, “I didn’t know anything about bats, other than that I liked them and I was fascinated by them.” She was surprised to learn that there had never been a formal survey of bats in the park. With the threat of white-nose syndrome looming, Lisa decided to take action. She recruited the help of world-renowned bat biologist Cori Lausen. With funding from the Glacier National Park Conservancy, Cori led Lisa and her team on a crash course in bat surveying. Two years later, Cori left the project in Lisa’s capable hands, and it continues to this day. Tonight, Lisa and her colleagues have invited the public to take a peek into the mysterious world of bats.

After an introduction to bat biology and survey techniques, we head off to check out the mist nets used for trapping. Lisa leads the pack, striding ahead at her field-biologist pace. Most of us amble behind, chatting, but someone is running to catch up with Lisa. Izzy’s full of questions, and Lisa bends down as they walk to make sure she hears them. I watch as these two bat buffs confer like longtime colleagues, stepping in stride. Although things have changed, Lisa has typically been in the minority as a female in her field. She’s clearly delighted to talk to this gung-ho little girl.

Lisa and her team’s task tonight is to collect, identify, and take measurements of as many bats as they can catch. The goal of these surveys is to get a better idea of which species of bats live in the park and where they hibernate.

Obtaining this baseline data is essential, especially now with the threat of white-nose syndrome. The disease has killed millions of hibernating bats. Some species have been reduced by as much as 90%. One of these species is the little brown bat, the most abundant bat in Glacier. Little brown bats are extremely susceptible to white-nose syndrome. The fungus invades their tissues as they hibernate, disrupting water and mineral balances, and often killing them. Since its discovery in a cave in New York in 2006, white-nose syndrome has spread to 33 states and 7 Canadian provinces. “It’s a matter of when—not if—it arrives in Montana,” says Lisa.

Sitting in the waning evening light, we eagerly wait for the trapping to begin, but Lisa informs us that we won’t start until the birds stop singing. That’s the bats’ cue to come out and start hunting, and our cue to raise the nets. All nine of Glacier’s bat species are insectivorous and can eat thousands of insects a night. Izzy points out that the first time she saw bats they were eating mosquitoes, which immediately earned them her support.

Through a combination of echolocation, highly adapted wing structure, and super-fine sensory motor control, bats pinpoint prey in the dark. Surprisingly, they can also see the fine mesh of mist nets used for trapping. If the nets are at the wrong angle to the wind, if there’s too much moonlight, or if raindrops are stuck to the net, bats will notice and fly around them.

After about an hour of waiting, there’s a flurry of excitement. At the mist net set up over the creek, Lisa’s colleagues have started catching bats. Radioing back and forth to each other, the biologists give instructions. “We’ve already got thirteen down here!” “Let’s get this going,” Lisa says. “I gotta start processing these!”

Lisa rushes to her truck, a batmobile in every practical sense. As we gather around, eager to see our first bat, Lisa asks for an assistant. Izzy is perched in the truck bed, ready to hand Lisa the tools she needs. Another young helper records data. It’s important to process the bats as quickly as possible so they can be set safely free again.

Although she’s working quickly, Lisa doesn’t leave Izzy, or the rest of us, in the dark. She talks through the process of identifying the bats, holding each one gently in gloved hands. With each step, Lisa makes sure Izzy can see and understand what she’s doing.  As I watch her look at the bats’ teeth, measure their wings, and determine their sex, I realize that I’ve never really given bats a chance. I admit, I’m one of those adults who found them, well, a little scary and ugly. Seeing them up close and learning about their incredible adaptations starts the wheels turning, but it’s Lisa and Izzy’s enthusiasm that seals the deal.

Watching them bond over bats, I think back to when I was Izzy’s age. Although I loved the outdoors, I was a lot more fearful than she is. My family spent summers in a cabin on a lake in northern Ontario, where spiders and night noises sent me into waves of panic. Coming back from the outhouse in the dark, I’d dart to the cabin and close the door breathlessly behind me against the night. I didn’t know what was out there, so my mind conjured monsters. I overcame my fear of spiders by learning about the adaptations behind their creepy appearance. It continues to surprise me how education can erase fear. Before tonight, I never wanted to get this close to a bat. The closer I look, though, the more enamored I become of these amazing creatures of the night.

It's now past midnight. My urge to go home and crawl into bed is winning over any desire I have to study more bats. I’ve been squinting through my camera so long, I’ve lost track of who’s around me. I walk to my car in the dark alone, not tempted to run breathlessly like I used to. As I drift off to sleep in my warm, comfy bed, I remember that Izzy was still there when I left a while ago. Could she still be out there now, perched in Lisa’s truck bed, persevering through every last bat?

The next day, I find myself talking about bats to anyone who will listen. Luckily, I catch Lisa at the office and thank her for a wonderful evening. Somehow buzzing with energy after such a late night, she’s clearly charged up by something. “Wasn’t that little girl great!!” she blurts out. Beaming, Lisa tells me proudly that Izzy stayed until 2:00 a.m. helping her process all the bats. As she rushes to her next adventure, she trails off, “I have just about a million more things I could tell you about Izzy…”

                                                                                   ****

Later, I’m sitting in my office, poring through photos from the field trip. My attempts at photographing the bats squirming in Lisa’s hand under the dull glow of a headlamp are as fuzzy as the bats themselves. I sigh and rub my eyes, feeling a bit morose at not having done these unique creatures justice. It’s difficult to capture how delicate they are, how ephemeral. I wonder if I’ll ever have the chance to see them like that again.

An email pops up in my inbox, interrupting my thoughts. It’s from Izzy’s mom. She writes that Izzy came home from the field trip and said it was the best day of her life! She could recite almost word-for-word everything she learned from Lisa that night. She, too, couldn’t stop talking about bats the day after the field trip. When asked if she wanted to share anything about the event, Izzy said, “Only that more people should learn about the things in nature all around them, and then they wouldn't be scared.”

[Image descriptions, top to bottom: Photo 1: Closeup of a little brown bat on a researcher’s glove. Photo 2: A little girl and a woman scientist step in sync down a gravel path in the woods. Photo 3: Closeup of a little brown bat with white fungus covering its face. Photo 4: A little girl and a scientist talk to each other across the back of a pickup truck. Photo 5: Illuminated by headlamp, a woman scientist shows the little girl a bat. Photo 6: Closeup of a little girl gazing admiringly at a bat held by a researcher.]

[purplesurveys]

488

Have you ever been afraid to get up and go to the bathroom? Only in the early morning, cause everything’s louder and darker by then. Do you get any magazines in the mail? No, we don’t get anything in the mail other than bills my parents take care of. How many websites do you have an account for? I’ve signed up for a lot. This question was probably easy to ask back then given that this survey was made back in 2009 lmao, but the Internet has since exploded and you pretty much have to sign up for everything if you want a website’s full features. Have you ever paid for any kind of online membership? My dad pays for the family Netflix account, but I don’t have a credit card of my own. Do you try clothes on before you buy them? I’m usually lazy to so I go ahead and buy them. If they don’t fit well I’ll either ask my grandma to alter it or just give it away.

Have you seen The Blind Side? I’ve caught it on TV. I know it’s supposed to be a really good film, but it’s never grabbed my attention enough to be interested in it. What's the best movie you've seen this year? Hintayan ng Langit (Heaven’s Waiting). Do you know how to fire a gun? I’ve never even held a gun. What would you do if you knew a robber was in your house? Scream. As loud as I can. Have you played the Sims 3, yet? I never got to play it. What's your favorite type of pizza? Barbecue!!!!!!!!!!!! It’s the only kind I can eat like five slices of in one sitting. Do you have a favorite local pizza place? Mmm no not really. My favorite store is Yellow Cab. What are you afraid of? Flying insects. Have you ever been afraid of falling in love? I was, once. It was my best friend and we had an amazing relationship at that point, so I had every reason to feel scared of what I was starting to feel. How do you let someone know that you like them? When I knew I liked Gabie, I started to spend more time with her and do the little things that I knew she’d appreciate, like buying her favorite snacks or a book by her current favorite author.   Have you ever asked a friend to ask someone else out for you? No. Who'd you last see in a tux? I had to assist in a fancy internal party of one of our clients during my internship, and I saw a lot of guys (none of them I know) in formal wear. Were you sad when Tim Urban got sent home on American Idol? Name’s familar, let me look him up... hmm. He was one of those I never cared for in that season. I was all over Crystal Bowersox and Siobhan Magnus for season 9 hahaha. What about Jason Castro, 2 years ago? The dude with the cornrows and played guitar! I was generally a fan of his. He was good, but I remember just being more enthusiastic over David Archuleta for that season. Do you record any TV shows and watch them later? When I was a kid, my parents would do this for me. We don’t have a sort of gadget that does this to our TV anymore. Do you have difficulty pronouncing any words? ‘Beautiful’ is a BITCH to pronounce if Filipino’s your stronger accent. I have a hard time with it myself. When my mind is thinking to say that word, I always end up saying ‘pretty’ at the last second cause my tongue seems to get all tied up. Would you rather take a shower or a bath? Bath, if I had all the time in the world. How many times do you shower in a week? Like a maximum of 6 days. I always skip a day. What brand's your cell phone? Apple. Have you ever sexted? Yes. I never did enjoy it when I was still doing it.

How many contacts do you have? Err too many to count, I know that much. Do you have your own computer? I have my own *laptop.

Out of everyone you know, who was the most heart? Laurice or Jane. Who's the bravest person you know? I was gonna say Gabie till I found out recently that she’s afraid of killing cockroaches lmfao so I’ll go with my dad. Who would you want to have your back if things got tough? Gab. Do you ever make up retarded words with your friends? Ah, back when using the word ‘retarded’ to mean ‘stupid’ was acceptable. Have your friends ever given you answers to homework, last minute? Lmao yep, that is high school in a nutshell my friend. Have you ever dated someone who was real sportsy? My girlfriend used to play softball and basketball in high school. She’s not as sporty anymore as uni keeps her busy, but she has a gym membership and is super into the whole working out thing if that counts haha. Are you any good at writing? Certain types of writing. I like research, essays, and academic writing but you cannot trust me to write poems and short stories. What's your favorite form of writing? Autobiographies, whatever they count as. What do you think about Lil Wayne? Whatever. Lil Wayne vs. Eminem...? Idk, I’m pretty sure both have problematic content on their songs so I’ll pass. Have you ever given up on someone before? Yes. Did you end up regretting it later in life? No. Have you ever read Shakespeare? We had to read Shakespeare in English class throughout high school. It was Romeo and Juliet in freshman year, The Merchant of Venice in sophie year, Macbeth in junior year, and Hamlet when we were seniors. What did you dream about last night? Oddly enough I dreamt that Gab died and its aftermath, which was me continuing to visit her family after she passed. It was weirdly realistic and I hated it. Have you ever looked up the meaning to a dream? Some, sure. I did it just for the lols. Have you ever tried to change someone? I don’t think so. Can anyone really change anyone that doesn't wanna change? It’s a tough hill to climb but if it’s to change someone for the better, it will be worth it to try and do so. Do you think that anyone currently has a crush on you? I know my girlfriend does; idk about anyone else. What profession do you admire the most? Teaching. Have you ever made a fake profile, for any reason? Nope. What's the hardest lesson you've ever had to learn? World’s not gonna stop for you when a loved one does. Yours will end, but no one else will care. Life goes on. Suck it up. Learned it the hard way when my grandpa died. What are you wearing right now? I have on a black and white dress that I haven’t changed out of yet because I’m too lazy. Do you miss your ex? What's the first thing you notice about the opposite sex? If they’re jerks or not. Have you ever questioned your sexuality? Yes. I questioned it for a very long time because I had never been comfortable with any of the bazillion existing labels we have now, and I thought I was just a weirdo. Then Dan Howell posted a video for Pride Month and let me know that I didn’t need a label to let people know who I am and I could be a formless, label-less blob if I wanted to and that I shouldn’t give a shit what others think. Thanks Dan. If you could change one thing about your life, what would it be and why? Having more money. Because buying stuff makes me happy.

[greatmar2]

Exercising Authority (Mar Chapter 6)

Mar Sterkvleuel | < Meets (Chapter 5)

Weeks after having joined the research team at Rentik’s behest, Mar continues his training at the College while aiding them in their work. Yet, there are new developments in regards to the project.

6529 words | 26 min reading time

Mar stood alone in a pine forest. Tall, straight trees towered above him with nothing but exposed bark down below. Their discarded needles carpeted the floor, smothering and choking sprouts and weeds alike. The air was a biting cold, causing his wings to numb and become painful to move after his body had decided it was not worth the energy expenditure to heat them. Imitating the vibrations that humans did when cold did not seem to help, and energy he spent to create heat was quickly lost to the environment.

These conditions allowed only the hardiest plants to survive the ground below. Due to the density of the trees and the needle-dampened ground, sound also did not survive for long – yet the dense air allowed it to travel further, all coalescing into a dull din permeating the forest.

He had come to this place to practice what he’d learnt in theory.

To his left lay a small stream wide and deep enough that he could sit down in the centre and have the water almost reach his head. The banks were free from pine trees and instead ruled by shrubbery. In order to grant him easier access to the water, he had torn a section of bushes up from the ground and piled them behind himself along with a mass of mangled pine wood that had once been a tree.

It took a surprising amount of effort to fell a tree. He had wished for a tool and even considered whacking it with his tail. Applying force to an object as a whole to lift and move it at speed was child’s play. But Mar knew that using a sharp object would be the antithesis of his reason for coming here. In bringing down the tree, and further splitting it into smaller parts, he had needed to apply a focused force directly to small portions of the wood. Unfortunately for the tree, focusing energy into a finer point was exactly what he was practising. The end result was a pile of wood that looked like someone had chopped it apart with the wrong side of an axe. His earlier idea of imitating Irikshan’s clean and intricate carving of a stone city was quickly dismissed.

On his right, a blazing fire crackled on bare dirt that he had cleared of pine needles. The burning wood bubbled and popped, spewing forth smoke as resin boiled. Freshly chopped wood was not ideal for a fire, but it served its purpose. Some of the coals boiled even more enthusiastically than the rest, having just recently been soaked in the stream. Another of his exercises had been to divert the water around flaming coals, ultimately creating a pocket of air for them to continue to burn underwater. As evidenced by the amount of soaked wood that he had to reignite, neither had he mastered this.

Yet now his practice was interrupted as he sensed the presence of another touching his mind. He could not locate the individual, as there was not a soul nearby. It was an odd sensation. For lack of better description, he grabbed this individual’s mental probe and pulled them.

The air in a wide area before him rippled and distorted as if a volcanic level of heat were now mixing with the cold forest air. Slowly the distortions became more draconic in shape while the figure gained green and orange colouration. Finally, the figure became flesh: a dragon so tall, Mar’s head barely reached his leaf-green-plated chest. While the undersides of his wings were the same green, and his scales primarily a burnt-out orange, they were a mess of yellowish stripes and wisps of green. Irikshan had joined.

“We’re going to have to work on your awareness of the real world when you’re in your illusions. I’m certain you could eventually operate in both at the same time – similar to how I do not need to devote my entire attention to either of our illusions. Good morning, Mar.” Irikshan blinked a few times at a measured pace, expressing that he was pleased to begin the lesson.

“Yeah, with three centuries of practice. Morning, sir.”

Irikshan snorted. “This is no competition. We’ve already established our abilities work differently. I alter an individual’s perceptions of reality, while you put them in a state akin to lucid dreaming – with the accompanying sped up perceptions of time.” The elder surveyed the area, and the mess Mar had created. His response was tilting his head questioningly. “Are you certain you should be practising in here and not reality? I know physics has behaved how we expected, but that precisely may be the issue. What if it is supposed to behave in an unexpected manner?”

“Saves time,” he flicked his tail dismissively. “I wanted to get some practice in before you came. On stuff I already understand. Focusing here is even harder than normal, so I figured if I could get better here, it would have an easier time in reality.”

“Fair enough. Have you been busy with work from that research team?”

“Yes.”

“How’s it going?”

“Don’t you get their progress reports?”

Irikshan bobbed his head, “I do, but I was asking after your personal experience. There are some big decisions that need to be made today.”

“Well, I’m thankful for the opportunity. To Rentik that she encouraged the team to take me as an apprentice, and to the team for choosing to do so. Didn’t expect them to take me seriously, I’m still a child. I’m learning a lot, and my previous experience with computers has rendered me not completely useless. It’s just a lot to keep up with.”

“I can have your schedule changed if you would like?” Irikshan tilted his head again. “We have multiple programs to handle both full time and part-time students.”

“No, no, it’s fine. The team members have only taken me on the condition that I continue to put my studies first.”

“Good. And what do you think of the machine’s capabilities?”

“Machines have always been great at doing simple things faster and more reliably than us or the humans. It’s the complex things that are challenging. But as the technology improves and is released to the public, people – not even necessarily us – will figure out how to make it do more and more.” He paused, the excitement clear in his eyes. Irikshan nodded him on. “Currently I’m helping make software that can help bug test their stuff, while most of the team is working on functionality where it can record and imitate actions. They’re also working on making it more customisable. Someday we could have it record advanced abilities and imitate those. Imagine being able to take dream-vacations on demand! Hah!”

“Be careful that you don’t get ahead of yourself. You can still barely control your illusions beyond where you end up. You’ve passed your theory exams last week, and now’s the time for you to practice.” Irikshan stepped back.

“What’s the plan today?” Mar felt a large sneeze coming, closing his eyes and wrinkling his nose in preparation. It did not come. When he opened his eyes, he found thick crisscrossing metal bars filling his vision. They surrounded him on all sides and even above. Not that the confined space was large enough for him to open his wings and fly. The bars were also sunk into the ground below, firmly anchored there.

“Get out the cage.”

“Really?” Mar tapped the metal with a claw. The bars rang hollow. The metal appeared to be a type of steel. There was no point testing whether they were real or not.

“Yes.”

Sure, Irikshan was the head of the mage college, but it still irked Mar to some degree that the elder had better control of Mar’s illusions than Mar himself had. Ever since Irikshan had discovered that altering Mar’s perception of his own world, in other words causing Mar to see illusions in illusions, caused those alterations to become part of the world, the Elder had been looking for any excuse to use his illusions. If it weren’t for the Elder’s always-serious demeanour, Mar would have thought that he took an almost hatchling-like joy in seeing his own illusions become ‘real’.

Drawing from his heart-crystal, Mar condensed a copious amount of energy into his fist – to the point where it stung. He swung at the bar, releasing a kinetic blast forwards moments before hitting the bars. He very suddenly wished he had stopped his swing short, as he found himself punching the unflinching metal. Irikshan had diverted the blast around the metal, towards himself, and absorbed it. Mar waved his hand in the air as if that would dull the pain.

“Come now Mar, you knew that wouldn’t work. You could spend all the energy you have like that and you wouldn’t get very far. Decrease surface area you apply it to, and you decrease the required force to break it. You really should have thought that through.”

Nursing his throbbing hand, Mar asked, “Can I have my energy back please?”

“No. That is not how you’re supposed to get out this cage. You do not need imaginary energy to get out of this imaginary cage. Just like the energy you spent, it only exists in this world as long as you allow it to.”

With a sigh, Mar closed his eyes. It was challenging to focus, but he endeavoured to do so. He tugged on the dream, attempting to manipulate it to free himself. The world around him lurched, then the frigid forest soundscape vanished – replaced with the sounds of training.

Opening his eyes, Mar found himself back amongst the familiar mountains of Tumenzar. In the region behind Raifal College, several small training grounds had been established in the mountains, far from major structures such as the dam and water treatment plant.

Mar had lain down at the edge of the large, roughly circular arena where he’d started practising. On the opposite side of the arena, another trainee and their mentor were tossing bolts of electricity between each other. It was a dragoness training a foreign-looking man. He was likely one of Tumenzar’s significant temporary population, here to study and train before returning to their homes. Although, he could just have easily been amongst, or the descendant of, those that chose to stay.

Outside the arena, at a distance close enough they could intervene but far enough their presence did not feel oppressive, stood two more dragons. They were covered in plain black three-piece cloaks that went over their backs and under their wings, connecting at the neck and the base of the tail. These cloaks hung downwards in a curtain-like fashion. His senses as to what might be hidden beneath were suspiciously blocked off. He was too nervous to ask Irikshan about them, let alone approach them and ask them themselves.

“Mar, stay focused.” Finally, in front of Mar, the scowling Elder himself sat. His snout was crinkled and brows furrowed, but he was not showing his teeth. “The secret service escort is a part of my job you really should be used to by now. If there’s anyone here you should be scared of, it’s me.”

“Well,” the youngster tried to lighten the mood, “I got out of the cage.”

“No, Mar. You need to take this seriously. Let’s do it again.”

“Yes, sir.” he closed his eyes, picturing the frigid pine forest that they had just been in before easing himself and Irikshan into the dream.

Mar sat outside, a small distance from one of the two main entrances of the college complex, holding his tablet with one hand and supporting himself with the other. Mentally triggering the capacitive screen was an easy enough action. One that he’d gotten quite used to. Although, at this moment he stood at the railing at the edge of the courtyard, looking down the mountain slopes.

Each of Raifal College’s main entrances lay on opposite sides of the river. The areas in front of them were large red brick courtyards, clear of anything that could obstruct incoming or departing dragons. They were partially supported by pillars embedded in the sloped ground below. On the far end of each courtyard lay expansive parking lots.

The college complex consisted of several partially-freestanding buildings, adjoined by sky bridges – the most prominent of which joined the two buildings directly on each riverbank, near the thundering falls. The river itself, while not huge from a global perspective, was a great boon to two of Tumenzar’s three capital cities and many smaller settlements along its south-westward course.

In front of the college complex, downhill from the falls, lay a meticulously designed and maintained botanical garden consisting largely of species indigenous to the country. Wide grassy areas dotted with trees separated groups plants that had different soil preferences. Even surveying from so far, Mar could spot many distinctly recognisable plants: Sweet Thorn Acacias, Baobabs, Marula Trees, King Proteas, Strelitzias, Arum Lillies, Red Hot Pokers, and so many more.

Mar looked back at his tablet. He’d been messaging a few friends that he’d met online over the years. They had formed a server on a messaging application and talked there. Those friends had added their friends, and it had become a fairly large and diverse group with members from around the world. Many of them worked in IT-related positions, but more didn’t. The server was named The Bytes Bit.

All on the server spoke Imaadudish – the language that was the standard for international business and trade. Mar himself, although speaking Tumenzarian at home and with family, had done his studies and work in Imaadudish. He almost didn’t notice when he switched languages anymore.

There had been some meetups between members of the group that lived in the same countries. Mar himself had met a dragon and human who lived in Tumenzar. There had been no big international meetup, but most of them had shared pictures of what they looked like. While Mar couldn’t be certain that any of them except those he had met looked like the pictures they sent, he could not see a reason that they would need to use pictures of someone else instead of simply not sharing.

At this moment in time, several members were abuzz about some new game announcements at an international exhibition called the Electronic Entertainment Expo. Mar himself was skimming the messages, but not participating in the conversation. He had other things to keep him busy of late.

Behind him, the large automatic doors had been regularly opening and closing as students, staff, and visitors came and went. Once again they opened, to the footsteps of a large dragon exiting the complex. This time, however, the footsteps changed direction towards him.

“Young Sterkvleuel.” The voice was smooth and soft, for a dragon. Friendly, despite the family-name greeting. Mar turned to find himself looking at a Scriven of gold and off-white, decorated with dark navy blue stripes. She did not seem to have seen battle, let alone let her age show via anything but her size. The amount of jewellery she wore would have looked tacky on most others, but she wore it with style. Additionally, Mar could tell that those gems were not mere decoration.

“Miss Rentik. How are you today?” Mar returned the pleasant smile he received.

“I am well. When are you planning to go to the lab?”

“I was just about to.”

“Good, I was also heading there myself. Fly with me?”

“Yes ma’am,” Mar nodded and slipped his tablet into his bag, securing it closed.

Rentik unfurled her sail-sized wings and began beating at the air, blasting enough air into the ground that Mar had to brace himself or be knocked off his feet. His nictitating membranes instinctively shut, the world around him becoming blurred.

Mar detected more energy released by Rentik than that of her wings against the air. She was giving herself some extra lift. He wondered how it felt, or if she even noticed she did it anymore. It was a well-enough known problem experienced by all species of Draco: older dragons had to counteract a portion of gravity on their own bodies, lest their own weight cause health complications, or keep them grounded. Natural selection was a cruel thing, only striving to ensure that living beings made it to reproductive age, and not caring for what happened beyond that. Especially as said creature’s lifespans extended far beyond what their ancient, less energetically adept, ancestors’ once might have been.

Once the air had stilled enough, Mar likewise spread his wings and took to the air. He too provided himself with some extra lift to get into the air faster, but it was a conscious decision. Perhaps someday he might simply stop noticing that he did it.

Rentik had been gliding in a circle, waiting for him, and began to fly in the direction of the labs when he joined her. He followed a small distance behind her left wing.

Rentik turned her head to look at him, then called loud enough to be heard, “How have things been going for you?”

“Well enough. I’m already tired today and it’s barely noon. I am making progress with my training, but it seems like Irikshan is having to force himself to be patient with me. The research team seem like that too. I am learning a lot, but I feel like I’m only being marginally helpful to them as their in-house bug tester.”

“That is no fault of your own. Normally individuals far more experienced and skilled than you would find themselves in those positions.”

“Thanks,” Mar said sarcastically. He was tempted to add to that but knew Rentik only meant well.

“No need to be upset. The fact that you still keep going, striving to learn and become better, speaks to a persistence and desire to grow that is far too rare, especially amongst our kind. Your progress and persistence are what lead me to invite you to the research team. I’m sure those aspects will serve you well in life.”

“Thanks.” It was genuine this time.

“I dislike it when drake settle down in mere comfort. They stop striving for more, to become better. What’s more is that they can even come to fear change and actively fight it. Part of what I love about Tumenzar is that scientific and technological advancement is the norm.” She paused, thinking. Their destination was nearing. “Still, some things could certainly stand to improve.”

“Do you think the project is ok?”

“Yes, I like the team and their progress. They’re certainly persistent too. You’re only seeing the tail end of this, but they’ve been through a lot.”

The two glided apart. They had arrived at the science complex building. Mar politely let Rentik land first and waited for her to move out of the way before he came down to the ground. They entered the building and were greeted and then thoroughly inspected by security staff. Mar’s bags were taken, as usual, to be returned when he left. Rentik’s were merely glanced through, but that was not surprising.

Once the check was done, they headed to the stairwell. Its steps were divided into two sections that had different sizes and spacing, one large enough for Rentik and one small enough for humans… or Mar. The lab his team worked in was on the third floor and each floor was seven metres tall. He typically took the elevator, which he was still small enough to fit inside, but now walked with Rentik.

“Irikshan said some big decisions are being made today?” Mar hoped he’d get told what these were.

“I haven’t been informed of anything of the sort yet.”

“Oh.”

Mar found himself skipping steps to keep up with Rentik’s large strides.

“Are you going to continue working on that diagnostic program today?”

“Yes.” Mar, under the oversight of the rest of the team, had been designing a program that would run diagnostics and bug testing on their software and machines. It was a simple enough concept, to try to break the programs while observing what went wrong, but to do so automatically instead of manually proved challenging. They’d been pleased with his idea, but he was certain they would have done something like that on their own eventually.

“Good. I’ll be in Vivette’s office for a while before I have to leave.” Mar had learnt when he officially joined that Vivette was the leader of the main team working on this project. Despite this, her attitude was more as if she was supporting a team of equals than exerting authority over them. An approach that seemed to be a great boon to team morale.

When they reached the third floor, Rentik turned into the office when they passed it, leaving Mar to continue to the lab alone.

Mar, Morne and Mischa stood in front of a whiteboard, taking turns with the marker pen and having their say on what their next addition to the diagnostic program would be, and what approach to the addition they would take. They were currently leaning towards some basic emulation of output and input from one of their machines so that the software could be tested as if it were live, while it was actually not. Testing the software with user-defined or random inputs and only recording its outputs could only get one so far.

All heads in the lab turned towards the door as it burst open and two dragons marched in. They wore black three-piece cloaks with badges pinned to the front and the large, bold letters ‘CDI’ on the side. The one in the lead flashed his badge, then announced, “Agent Ruan. Council’s Department of Investigation. We’re here to inform you that this project is under new authority.”

There were a couple of sounds of surprise from the team, but the rest remained silent. Looking around the room, several of the team members had their wings partially spread, while a couple of their tails flicked back and forth. This could have been agitation or simple startlement.

“Can I see that, please?” Mischa stepped forward and pointed towards where the badge hung from the dragon’s cloak. He nodded and the badge floated to Mischa, who took some time to inspect it before sending it back.

“Elder Irikshan is here too,” the agent commented. “He is speaking to Vivette and Rentik. I am here with some forms for you all to sign.” Said forms were distributed.

Mar was in a position where he could see out the door and down the passage. He saw more agents, along with a tail – ending in a pointed shape somewhere between a spade and an arrowhead – sticking out of Vivette’s office doorway. The tail soon vanished fully into the office. He was fairly certain that it belonged to Irikshan.

Setting his sight on the document he’d received, Mar was met with rather intimidating legal-speak. Hoping to gain some understanding of what he was signing for, he asked, “What’s happening?”

“This project is now under the direct control of the council,” Agent Ruan answered. “The document outlines what you need to know.”

“Why?”

“National security,” came the curt response.

“That’s not very informative.”

“No,” Morne agreed, “it isn’t. But I can imagine why they made the decision.”

“So, what are we signing?” Mar thought it would be more efficient to have it explained than to decipher it himself. And he felt a little lazy.

“To summarise what it says here,” Luski was the one who spoke up. His tone indicated he wanted clarification on whether he himself had interpreted the document correctly. “We, both our team and the other teams, will continue all our research as-is. This includes the means of mass production, but without the plans to produce, sell, or release anything. The council will handle decisions on what to release to the press and public. All our previous contracts and non-disclosure agreements still hold sway, but we are in obligation to the council instead of Rentik and Raifal College.”

“That is correct. If you’ll sign at the bottom, I will sign as your first witness, and one of your colleagues can sign as the second.”

While the signing was being done, Lucy asked, “What about the significant funds that Rentik and the college invested into this project?”

Mar had Morne sign as his second witness. No one had asked him to be theirs, but that didn’t bother him.

“Both are being reimbursed,” Ruan answered matter-of-factly.

Looking back down the passageway, Mar saw Vivette, Rentik and Irikshan leaving the office. Vivette looked mildly unsettled. Rentik’s expression was one of pure distaste, to the point that she could probably curdle perfectly good milk just by looking at it. Irikshan did a remarkable job at keeping a neutral countenance in the face of that.

“Did you tell Irikshan something?”

The three had stopped walking and continued talking, but the conversation did seem to be concluding. Oddly enough, no sound at all could be heard from their conversation.

“Mar.”

“Yes?” Mar responded to his name. He turned to see that Mischa had been speaking to him. “Pardon me?”

“Did you say something to Irikshan that affected this decision?”

“Mischa,” Morne stepped in, “Don’t go blaming this on Mar. This decision would have been the entire council’s and would have been deliberated at length. Additionally, they would already have had access to our reports.”

“I do not and will not blame this on Mar,” Mischa stated. “I am simply curious.”

Despite her not showing any aggressive body language, Mar found himself shrinking from her gaze. “Well,” he opted to answer the question, “I did speak to Irikshan this morning during my training session. He asked after my opinion of the project and said there was some big decision to be made. I guess this was it.”

“Most likely,” Mischa nodded, “How did you respond?”

“I said I’m learning a lot, mentioned what we’re currently working on, and expressed my excitement about the machine’s potential.”

“The machine’s potential is likely what the council is worried about,” Mischa concluded. “But they would have been aware of that and would have been observing us for long.”

Agent Ruan, who had just collected the last form from Zhen, now spoke again at last. “We will be leaving now. Carry on with your good work.”

Looking down the passage again, Mar saw Irikshan had left. Vivette’s door was closed. She and Rentik had probably gone back into the office. Mar rushed after the agents. Hearing him approach, Ruan turned around with a quickness and readiness that caused Mar to come to a fearful screeching halt.

Peering towards the small dragon, while remaining tense Ruan asked, “Can I help?” A sliver of his teeth were showing.

Mar could sense the other dragon’s mental presence, checking him for any sign that he would pose a threat. Mar’s heart was suddenly pounding as the realisation dawned that these agents could be incredibly dangerous if they needed to. “I uh… I wanted to… I was going to go talk to the Elder.”

“I don’t think he’d have the time for you, little one.”

“Let him past, Ruan,” The other agent spoke for the first time, “That’s Elder Irikshan’s mentee. You ‘skimmed’ the personnel files again, didn’t you?”

The first agent shot the second a look as if to say, ‘not now’. “Very well, go on ahead.” The two stepped aside and allowed Mar to run past. When he reached the stairwell, he glanced down and saw Irikshan had just reached the second floor.

Irikshan’s small envoy quickly noticed Mar scrabbling down the stairs, and so did Irikshan. He stopped and waited, blinking slowly to indicate trust. A couple of CDI agents reacted in a similar manner to Ruan, but then relaxed somewhat when they noticed Irikshan. When Mar had caught up, Irikshan resumed his descent. “What’s the matter, my student?”

“I wanted to ask… if you may tell me… What is the reason behind this, and what are your plans? I’m sure the team would like to know as well.”

“I explained to Vivette and Rentik. I asked Vivette to explain it to all of you. But, put simply, the council wants to be sure that this technology does not get into the wrong hands. Until we are certain that we have enough… safeguards in place, this technology will remain secret. Well, the specifics of it. The public already knows of its existence thanks to Rentik’s press releases. We want to be prepared for problems that can and will arise once this becomes public.”

Mar nodded. That made sense. “And what of Rentik?”

“The council has not decided yet. She appears as if she will act territorial and non-cooperative this time. I will recommend she be removed from the project.”

“I think she’ll be fine. She’s got grand ideas and likes taking the lead. Give her some time, and she’ll adjust and figure out a way to help out.”

“Sir,” one of the agents drew Irikshan’s attention to look to the entrance to the building. The building’s security staff and a couple CDI agents were holding back a couple dozen reporters, extending their wings to block off more area. The reporters continued snapping pictures past the wings and through the glass of the doors.

“Ugh,” Irikshan groaned. “They’re better at sniffing out a story than an Ostrocation Bloodseeker. I’m not dressed for this, nor in the mood for them to get in my face.”

Mar looked to the doors, feeling shy from all the cameras even this far away. He heard footsteps heading down the last stairs. He moved to follow when a hand stopped him. He looked back to find Irikshan stopping him from descending, while another Irikshan descended the stairs. Irikshan’s escorts descended the stairs with that Irikshan.

“Briefly returning to the subject of Rentik: I partially agree with your assessment. She has a history of thinking she always knows best even if the council decides otherwise. Sometimes she agrees with our decisions, other times she does not. This is normal. She has a tendency to give us some pain about decisions she does not agree with. And this is a particularly sensitive project.”

“I see.”

Still aware of the two Irikshans, Mar concentrated on the one in front of him, then poked at it. He felt the Elder’s rough and worn scales. With some effort, Mar managed to look past that. He observed that it was simply an artificial force preventing his hand from moving forward, while his mind perceived it to be Irikshan’s scales.

The fake-Irikshan smiled, pleased. “I would have done it the other way around if that would not end up displeasing the press so much when they realise they took pictures of empty air once I leave.”

“What if they looked at the pictures they took now?”

“I could make them see me in the pictures as well.”

“Woah!”

“This is the result of considerable practice. I will see you for training tomorrow.”

Mar nodded, returning the smile before he blinked and the Irikshan before him vanished. “I will see you tomorrow.”

As soon as the real Irikshan exited the building, the crowd of journalists began calling for a statement. Mar could see Irikshan slightly retreating from the plethora of microphones floating towards his face. Irikshan responded that the project will continue as before, but the machines would not be made publicly available until safety measures could be put in place.

When Mar, at last, arrived home, he immediately flopped down onto his bedding and sunk into the pillows.

Suddenly, a distinct two-toned sound came from his tablet. It alerted him to the fact that he’d received a message via the application he had been on earlier. He realized that he must have forgotten to turn his tablet to silent mode before giving it to security.

Mustering the willpower to move, Mar dug in his bag and took out his tablet. He had a number of notifications from different apps, but two from the messaging application.

The first, a quarter of an hour old, said, “The Bytes Bit #general DataStorm: @DeepBlue @KoringHoring @IntegratedIntegrale Any of you know about this?” He must not have heard it on his flight to his apartment.

The second, most recent one, said, “The Bytes Bit #general CrystalCircuits: Is that @DeepBlue?”

DeepBlue was the username that Mar used for all of his online interactions. Both of these messages were from his friends’ server. Using the ‘@’ symbol before his username was what triggered the app to notify him. The other two that were mentioned by the first message were the other two Tumenzarians on the server.

He tapped the notification with his claw and released a miniscule discharge to the screen, then repeated the action to unlock his tablet. He found himself greeted by a large number of new messages, as well as a couple of people currently typing on the #general text channel of the server.

He scrolled up to the message that had triggered the first notification. The message immediately prior to that had contained a link to a news article with the title “Tumenzarian Government Seizes Control of Energy-Manipulating Machine Research Project”. Mar decided it would be best read through the messages in chronological order before he attempted a response.

KoringHoring: I did not know of this happening. I was, however, aware of the project’s existence.

DataStorm: These machines sound scary. I wanted to ask you three about it.

BlinkOnce: Didn’t they make international news earlier this year? When they announced that they had a working prototype?

BlinkOnce: I seem to recall you sharing that.

KoringHoring: They did. And I did tell you guys about it.

IntegratedIntegrale: Wasn’t the project funded by Raifal College, a government institution, anyway?

KoringHoring: Yes

NotTechSupport: What’s the fuss about then?

BlinkOnce: Media loves making a fuss over nothing.

BlinkOnce: Fuss gets them clicks. Clicks get them ad revenue.

BucketOfPaint: Is local media covering it?

KoringHoring: I’ll check.

CrystalCircuits: A machine that can manipulate energy sounds pretty cool.

CrystalCircuits: Probably dangerous too.

CrystalCircuits: Might be why their government wants to keep it under control?

KoringHoring: ^

KoringHoring: Local news sources seem to be calmer about it.

She had sent a link to an article with the title, “Beheeraad Neem Direkte Beheer van Narvorsingsprojek om Veiligheidsmatreëls te Implimenteer”.

KoringHoring: Their title says “Council Assumes Direct Control of Research Project to Implement Safety Measures”. It’s rather brief, lacking the speculation of the article @DataStorm sent. It recites what is known of the project, has pictures from today, and quotes what Elder Irikshan said.

BucketOfPaint: Elder?

IntegratedIntegrale: President. We have three of them. One resides in each of our capitals. Decisions are made by them and the council, who are basically parliament.

DataStorm: Why not just call them Presidents and Parliament?

IntegratedIntegrale: Tradition. The dragons love their tradition.

CrystalCircuits sent a picture of Irikshan and Mar descending the stairs, talking to one another while surrounded by several agents. Seeing it from this perspective, Mar became even more embarrassed about his minute size.

CrystalCircuits: Is that @DeepBlue?

DataStorm: Where’s that from?

KoringHoring: It was in my article.

KoringHoring: We’ve got a decent population of Ebonscales here. Seeing the offspring of them and us isn’t too uncommon.

KoringHoring: Though now that I zoom in, it does look like him.

BlinkOnce: Which city is this in? He’s been in Tumenoord studying to control his illusions for…

BlinkOnce: Several months now. Wow, time flies.

KoringHoring: Yeah, that’s Tumenoord. That city is where Elder Irikshan is seated.

IntegratedIntegrale: Didn’t Blue mention a project at some stage?

NotTechSupport: A web search says that Irikshan has illusion abilities. Seems pretty likely that the two would at least have met each other.

BucketOfPaint: Guys, he’s online now. Let him catch up, then you can ask him instead of guessing.

Having finally read all the messages he’d missed, along with taking glances at the articles – the second of which didn’t even refer to him in the caption of the picture in CrystalCircuits had sent, he stopped and thought for some time.

He had shared some details of his life with these people but had refrained from most specifics except for in private messages with the few he was closest to. But there was no point denying that it was him in the article’s picture. They’d figured that out already. And this goofy bunch meant him no harm. If they’d been determined to, they could have figured out his real identity ages ago. And he theirs.

DeepBlue: Yeah, that’s me.

BucketOfPaint: You’re adorable!

DeepBlue: Heeeeey! I’m 34!

NotTechSupport: Has Irikshan been showing you how to do things with your illusions?

DeepBlue: Mine are a bit different than his, but yes. At the college, we get standard group classes where we have to learn and get tested on theory and do some practicals, but we also get assigned mentors to have one-on-one training sessions with. He’s my mentor.

DataStorm: Woah, that’s cool! You get a president as a mentor!

BlinkOnce: Did he take you with to the research team thing?

DeepBlue: No, I was already there. I’m assisting the research team a little.

BlinkOnce: Oh, neat

CrystalCircuits: What’s happening there?

DeepBlue: I could tell you, but then I’d have to kill you

DeepBlue: Nah, I’m under an NDA.

DeepBlue: I can’t imagine Irikshan would be happy if I talked about it.

DataStorm: Sounds scary

KoringHoring: The council will tell us what we need to know

DeepBlue: Yeah. It’s not scary.

DataStorm: Say the dragons

NotTechSupport: Just get some self-defence classes if you’re scared. I got some. You can defend your mind even if you aren’t a sensitive

DataStorm: I can’t stop myself from getting electrocuted or set on fire by defending my mind.

NotTechSupport: Not sure about your country, but here I’m probably more likely to get electrocuted or set on fire by mundane causes. The government strictly regulates mages.

BucketOfPaint: Same here

KoringHoring: And there’s sure to be strict regulations and control of these machines too

BlinkOnce: If we even get them

KoringHoring: ?

BlinkOnce: You Tumenzarians export your tech at exorbitant prices, if at all.

BlinkOnce: I’ve read of a few scandals where your council went to great lengths to shut down imitations, knock-offs and leaks of their stuff.

IntegratedIntegrale: Fair enough. The council does like to put their own country first. Like any government.

BlinkOnce: It’s more than that. Whenever I see them in the news, they’re acting as if they think they’re some big wise parental figure. Like all us humans are kids who can’t look after themselves.

DeepBlue: Welp

DeepBlue: I’m going to go take a nap.

DeepBlue: It’s been a long day. Thanks to training this morning, I’m feeling especially tired. If you need me specifically, I’ll answer later.

BlinkOnce: Sleep well, Blue!

DataStorm: Sleep deep

A few others were typing too, but Mar closed the app and turned the sound and vibration of his tablet off. He took off his bags and settled back into his bed. He quickly drifted off to a peaceful, dreamless sleep.

[fossengland0-blog]

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Incredibly Easy To Apply: Graphene and ceramic coatings are extremely powerful when combined, however through our advanced formula DIY car enthusiasts can safely and effortlessly apply the coatings. Simply spray and wipe — no residue or streaks left behind.

Made in United States: The Shine Armor solution is made in the United States, so you’ll be able to use it with the knowledge that the type of high-quality ingredients Americans are accustomed to are included in the mix. You can also rest assured that American safety and labor standards are being followed throughout the manufacturing process.

Long-Lasting Durability and Protection: Experience a DIY coating that provides long-term protection for a minimum of 6+ months. Instantly protect your ride from harmful UV rays, water, dirt and dust, and debris on contact. Watch as time and time again your vehicle will repel water while retaining slickness and gloss. Stressless knowing that your ride is ultra-protected for extended periods of time!

Discreet: When you spray Shine Armor on your vehicle’s exterior, you’ll be able to see a faint coating, but once you wipe the treated surface with your microfiber cloth, the solution will appear invisible. Consequently, once you’ve treated your car with this solution, even if you’ve used it all over the exterior body, no one will know it’s the solution that’s making your car look so attractive and new.

How To Use Shine Armor Graphene?

Spray Solution on Vehicle: To start using the Shine Armor, spray the solution on any area of the exterior of your vehicle that you want to protect. It’s safe for use on all surfaces, such as painted ones, glass ones, metal or plastic ones, so you can use it anywhere on the exterior of your chosen vehicle. You might even choose to use it on a motorcycle’s leather seat padding. For most areas, you won’t need more than one or two squirts to protect the area effectively.

Wipe Treated Area: Next, wait for a few seconds and then use one of the included microfiber cloths to wipe down the area you’ve treated. You won’t need to rub or buff the surface, as wiping it alone will allow the solution to do its job effectively.

Use Vehicle Normally: Once you’ve wiped down the treated area, if you don’t need to repeat the process on other areas of your vehicle’s exterior, give the solution a few minutes to do its work. In minutes, you should notice that the surface is beginning to look glossier. At that point, you can use your vehicle again as you normally would, if need be.

Pros

Little Chance of Spills: Due to the fact that this solution comes in a spray bottle, there’s little chance that you’ll spill it while you’re applying it. The same thing may not be true if you were to use a solution that you’d have to pour out of a bottle onto a cloth. Furthermore, you won’t have to portion out the solution yourself, as your bottle will do that for you by making one spray equal to one portion. With no spills, none of this solution will go to waste, nor will it damage anything around you, like your clothing or shoes.

Improves Vehicle Appearance: The appearance of any vehicle that you use Shine Armor on will likely be improved after you’re finished treating it with the formula. That’s because the solution will fill in cracks and make the vehicle’s exterior shine, which will automatically make it appear newer. If someone hasn’t seen you in a while, but they run into you after you’ve treated your vehicle’s exterior, they might even think you’ve obtained an entirely new vehicle.

Doesn’t Require Gloves: Shine Armor isn’t hard enough on the hands that you’ll need to wear rubber gloves while you spray it onto a vehicle. Instead, you’ll be able to use your bare hands for spraying and wiping, although you should remember to wash them with soap and water afterward.

Cons

Not for Interior Use: While you can use this solution all over the exterior of any vehicle, it hasn’t been designed for interior use. Surfaces within the interior of a car (or any other vehicle) tend to be more delicate, so the solution could be too hard on them, and might actually end up causing damage. In order to make the interior of your vehicle look as good as the exterior of your car can when you use Shine Armor, you’ll need to find an alternative solution.

May Repel Paint: If you decide that you want to repaint any area of a vehicle’s exterior after you’ve applied Shine Armor to it, you may have trouble. This solution will likely repel paint just as effectively as it does other substances, so the paint might slide right off your vehicle as you apply it. You may have to wait a year or more, until the protective coating wears off, to finish your paint job successfully.

How Shine Armor Works?

When you apply Shine Armor to the exterior surface of a vehicle, the nanoceramic solution will start filling in any crevices or cracks on that surface, including super-tiny ones. This creates a protective hydrophobic shield, and any objects that come in contact with it, including water, will quickly slide off instead of damaging or dirtying your vehicle.

You probably won’t need to clean your vehicle as often once this shield is protecting it, but the glossy finish this solution creates will also make any exterior surface smoother for cleaning purposes.

Customer Reviews on Shine Armor

Phenomenal product

I have tried thousands of different products. From low end to very high end expensive ceramic coatings. None have compared to the new shine armor graphene spray!

The shine and depth are very intense.

Applying the graphene is almost effortless, and lasts forever.

Thank you shine armor for saving me thousands of dollars! Fan for life!….Big J

Ultimate shine

Having a black car can damage your ego as it never looks like it did in the showroom, protected from the day’s grime on the road but this treatment really is a treat for my eyes and my black Jeep…Max

Awesome product

I have used other products but hands down my Shine Armour works so well. It brought out a shine that made my truck look brand new, I drive a 2017 GMC Sierra. I have the color Crimson Red, shine armor really made it stand out. I would recommend this product so you won’t be disappointed. I also use it on my motorcycle…..Harry

Final Verdict

If you have reached this far in our Shine Armor Review, you know we were sold at first use, and we’ll definitely continue using the Shine Armor Graphene Review regularly as this is the best product we’ve come across in a long time.

FAQ’sCan this be applied over a vehicle that already has been treated with Shine Armor Graphene Review?

Yes, it can be used in conjunction to Fortify Quick Coat. But we would recommend you to apply the Graphene Ceramic spray first and use Fortify Quick Coat a day or two later for a long-lasting effect.

How many vehicles can one bottle doYou use for up to 2-3 cars., 1 Jeep, and Nissan maxima?

You can use it for up to 2-3 cars.

How do you get the haze off? I have been buffing with a microfiber cloth for 15 mins and the haze is still there?

Apply the product on a damp surface for best results so the product does not dry immediately.

Does it remove scratches as well?

No, it’s not meant to remove scratches but to give protection to your car to avoid getting scratches.

Do I need to wash my car first or can I just use it as a waterless wash/ detailer?

We suggest washing the car first and using the product as a protective coating after washing.

[jennies13]

Passive Income As Academic Paper Writer

Scholastic composing can be a significant pressure for understudies. You need to coordinate with the prerequisites of each subject and guarantee certain vocabularies, shows and talk. Only one out of every odd understudy can write in a reasonable, assignment help Canada focussed, organized and formal way. There are various sorts of scholarly writing in which understudies need assistance nowadays like articles, research papers, proposal, thesis, writing survey, lab reports and catalog.

In case you are somebody who is acceptable at following every one of the shows of scholarly composition, certain sites will pay you for your work. It is an incredible method to help understudies in their scholastic composing assignments and procure a pay. You should simply compose articles, make exercise plans, assignment help Singapore notes or tasks, submit them to these sites. In this article, I am sharing 6 such sites where you can bring in cash as a scholarly paper essayist.

Source: unsplash.com

#1 iWriter

iWriter site acknowledges composing necessities from understudies, people, organizations and associations. Essayists who are keen on a point can present their reviews for that ask for and bring in cash for that. There is no restriction on how much work an author can do. Nonetheless, cash is no assurance on iWriter. It relies upon the customers. On the off chance that they support crafted by the essayist, iWriter pays the cash in any case an author would not get anything for the piece that they submitted.

I prescribe this site to the individuals who have excellent composing abilities so they can intrigue the customers and bring in cash for each piece of content that they submit on this site.

#2 Teachers and Writers Magazine

This site is for educators and undergrads who are in the field of experimental writing. You can submit reviews like expositions, articles, exercise designs, and meets and get a pay of $50-$350! You can look over the rundown of necessities like composing prompts in center schools, account exercise plans for grade school understudies, publication reactions for secondary school understudies, etc.

I prescribe this site to those authors who have showing experience or who get what sort of content would be valuable for instructors. This site isn't for somebody who likes to compose fiction or verse. Likewise, you don't need to be a specialist scholarly author as they anticipate content for an overall crowd.

#3 Study.com

Scholastic journalists can discover an assortment of composing openings on this site. On the off chance that you would prefer not to take up a composing project, you can likewise fill in as an editorial manager or an analyst or give task help. To go after current jobs, you need to give your essential subtleties like area, name, address and telephone number. They additionally require a resume and a couple of test reviews.

I enthusiastically prescribe scholastic journalists to give a gig a shot this site. They pay double a month to the journalists and help the essayists as and when required. You can discover an assortment of scholastic points to compose and deal with at adaptable timings.

#4 Tuts+

Presently here comes something other than what's expected and fascinating for scholarly authors. In case you are exhausted with composing papers and tasks for understudies, have a go at making some charming instructional exercises and bring in cash! Tuts+ is a stage that gives instructional exercises on a plenty of subjects like business, assignment help UK game turn of events, software engineering, coding, site advancement and so on. Simply investigate the subjects and in the event that you can compose stepwise instructional exercises on any of them.

I would prescribe this site to the individuals who have top to bottom information about the points recorded on the site. This is on the grounds that instructional exercises require sufficient clarifications. You must be excessively acceptable with the words so any individual who peruses your instructional exercise can comprehend the idea driving it.

#5 AFT (American Federation of Teachers)

Would you like to compose articles for a diary? In the event that indeed, AFT is an extraordinary stage for you. Their diary, American Educator, incorporates an assortment of articles on subjects like social and monetary advancement in the public eye, vote based system, political theory, the change from secondary school to school, challenges looked by understudies, tips for undergrads and numerous other instructive points.

This site may appear for nerds however they aren't searching for any examination papers. They just require straightforward papers and articles for their crowd. Thus, in case you are searching for some lightweight scholastic composition, I prescribe this stage to you.

#6 Scribbr

Have you at any point given paper help to understudies? In case you are a genuine scholarly author searching for some proper scholastic composing work, for example, making articles, scholarly papers and tasks then you can pick Scribbr. This stage is committed to understudies and helps them in their scholastic work by offering types of assistance like altering, editing and surveying.

You should have solid scholastic composing abilities as you need to clear a language test. You will likewise be given a test task to see whether you are skilled to deal with their undertakings. Yet, when you are through, you can fill in as a proofreader and bring in great cash!

These six sites give an extraordinary stage to scholastic essayists. Expectation my tips will help you discover reasonable composing openings. Scholarly composing isn't something that everybody can do. It requires extraordinary tender loving care alongside great language abilities. Assuming you have that ability, put it into utilization and make a wellspring of extra pay for yourself. Good luck!

[anxioush-e-a-r-t]

Writing Your Business Plan (Traditional or Online Business)

How To Write A Business Plan

In My prior post, I discussed ways to organize your company startup. I described a business strategy as a written outline of the future of your enterprise. This is a record that indicates what you plan to do and the way you mean to get it done. I explained that if all you've got is a paragraph on the back of an envelope describing your organization plan, you've written a strategy, or at the start of a strategy. I also stated a business plan is made up of narrative and lots of financial worksheets.

I said that the'writing of a Business plan' among the pivotal steps required with preparing a prosperous business enterprise. By now you should understand the need for writing a business strategy. Writing a business plan, to get a conventional brick and mortar company, will probably have a good deal of time. It might take around 100 hours or more. For obvious reasons, a new company should perform a great deal of research in front of a business program can even be developed.

For An internet business, a comprehensive and in depth business program is generally not necessary unless you're working to join your internet business with a conventional enterprise. For many online small business startups, the detail involved in planning a conventional company isn't required. But it might still be beneficial for you if the majority of the subjects were covered, even though only temporarily. Using a written plan before you will allow you to concentrate on significant facets of the enterprise.

You Might not have thought much about your competitors or outsourcing a portion of your job, but things such as this will affect your ability to create a profit. And you'll discover this particularly so from the beginning phases of your company. Even you're merely starting a lemonade stand at front lawn, you will still have to understand what Susie is promoting her lemonade to get another street over!

Thus, although a comprehensive business plan Might not be needed for an internet business, I will include it here so that you can look at and think about each section and find yourself whether it applies to your company.

Here I will be talking about the fundamental steps involved in creating a business plan:

1. Executive Summary: Step one involved with creating a business plan is the executive summary. Here, comprise everything that you would pay in a five minute meeting.

Describe the Basics of the proposed company: What will your product be? Who will your customers be? Who are the owners? What do you believe the future holds for your organization and your business?

Make it enthusiastic, professional, complete, and concise.

If You're asking for financing, state clearly just how much you want and be exact in how you're going to utilize it. Additionally include detail about the way the cash will make your company more profitable, thus ensuring repayment of this loan.

2. Business Description: After The executive summary, you will need to compose a brief description of the company you're going into. You have to provide an overall description of the business your company belongs to. You may write about your business's mission statement, goals and objectives, company philosophy, in addition to its legal form of ownership (sole proprietor, corporation, LLC, etc.).

Describe your main business strengths and core competencies. What variables will make the business succeed? What do you think your important competitive strengths would be? What history, expertise, abilities, and strengths do you bring to this new venture?

3. Marketing Analysis/Strategy: The following Thing to write (following the overall description) should become your advertising strategy. For new or present companies, market evaluation is an important foundation for your own marketing program and will help justify the revenue forecast. Existing businesses will rely heavily on past performance as a sign of their future. New companies have a larger challenge - they'll rely on market research utilizing libraries, trade associations, government data, surveys, competition observations, etc.. In all cases, ensure that your market analysis is pertinent to establishing the viability of your business and also the reasonableness of their revenue forecast.

4. Location: Writing down The positioning of your company is essential. Locations with increased customer traffic generally cost more to buy or lease, but they need less paying for advertising to attract clients. This is particularly true of retail companies where visitors count and availability are crucial.

If An internet business, you will need to go into detail how you are going to entice clients to your site. General statements such as"I will use Face Book ads and email marketing" will lead almost nothing to assisting your cause if you don't have detailed statistical evaluation of evaluations you've ran or of another similar company you were associated with. If you don't have any information upon which you mention your quotes, it might show lack of appropriate thought to the rest of your company strategy.

5. Competitive Analysis: Business by character Is aggressive, and several companies are entirely new. If there aren't any competitors, be cautious; there might not be a market for your goods. Expand your idea of rivalry. If your plan is to start the very first roller skating rink in the town, your contest will consist of movie theaters, malls, bowling alleys, etc..

6. Control and Operations: Because Management issues are the main cause of business failures, so it's crucial to talk management credentials and construction. Resumes of those Principals must be contained in encouraging data. If your company will have few workers and rely heavily on external professionals, then list these important people and their credentials. If you're trying to find financing, include private financial statements for each one the flaws from the encouraging data department.

7. Personnel: The Success of any business is dependent upon their capacity to recruit, train and maintain quality workers. The quantity of emphasis in your strategy for this part will rely on the quantity and kind of workers required.

8. Projected Financial Statements: These Statements are often helpful, but not crucial. You may develop and explain your plans to the company during your Business Plan. In the financial department, you'll have to gauge the fiscal effect of these strategies by creating projected Income Statements, Balance Sheets, and Cash Flow Statements.

It's usually Suggested these projected statements be on monthly basis for the first twelve weeks or before the company is projected to become more profitable and steady. Activity exhibited past the monthly detail might be in outline form (for instance, quarterly or yearly ). The prediction interval for many business plans is just two to four decades.

9. Summary Section: This segment is where you'll have the ability to attach or clarify any detail not related to the prior segments. This section ought to be employed to offer the financial statements of this Principle's involved in the company and some other information you believe an investor will be interested in seeing.

The main thing to consider in this segment Isn't to Provide new information, but to describe in detail information that's been Supplied and to give the support for this information.

[cciportfolio]

Customer mindfulness

I would just like to point out that this is a complete re-write of this post since all my work on this project was deleted by accident :). 

BEGINNING THE PROJECT

We were put into groups of two in order to tackle the brief that was to be given. We were told that we should focus on analysing the customer for this module as sometimes when you are given a creative brief you can often get too swept up in the aesthetic of the product rather than the functionality. There needs to be a balance in order for the thinking process to be more structured. 

We were asked to choose between three different briefs to work on so I went with the music label as after listening to the description for each brief as I felt I would have more scope in terms of creating a campaign that I would be interested in working on. 

INITIAL RESEARCH FOR AG RECORDS

After being given some information about our chosen brief, my partner and I decided that we should do some research into the music industry and music labels in specific in order to ask informed questions when we meet our client. This is what we came up with:

1. Do any proceeds go to charity or a cause?

2. what social media are you currently using and are you willing to promote any of your music on these platforms or one of our choosing?

3. Do you believe in a stable A+R team?

4. In terms of digital distribution are you in collaboration with any platforms such as Spotify or Apple music?

5. Do you consider yourself an indie label?

6. Do you offer a performing rights license to your artists? how do the contracts work?

7. In terms of promotion are your campaigns structured and can we have access to them?

8. Do you collaborate with any student-led brands? would you be willing to?

9. Do you work with artists with any genre?

10. Are you funded by any councils?

1ST MEETING WITH CLIENT

After meeting with the client: Micheal Gatt,  my partner and I were able to clear up some things that we were unsure about. We were also able to make the first draft of a creative brief for ourselves to begin working on. I will list below the things that we learned at the client meeting.

1. Acid Grass Records is a student-led project or M.Gatt would like it to be.

2. There is the option to use analog processes for the creation of new work which is a USP for the label which we can use later on to the market the label. 

3. they have no social media presence at the moment but would like an Instagram and are open to suggestions about other platforms but do not want a website. 

4. AG records do not currently receive funding for the project from the university but this marketing campaign will be used as a tool to help convince the dean that they should receive funding,  

5. style- 90′s style design desired. Gatt is open to a re-branding of the logo etc

6. audience- everyone is allowed access to the label but the main target audience is Kingston university students and is free to join. AG records want to gain more people from campus’s other than K hill. 

benefits for the audience include: free recodings, more experience, students currently own all rights to their work and anything they produce.

7. when- sessions run on Wednesday's 4-7pm at Kingston hill.

8. PACE- is currently the only channel used to find the label.

9.events- events can be organised but AG records may not have the time to organise this themselves as they only have a few hours every Wednesday.

10. AG records are a part of Visconti studios at Kingston hill and would still like to be associated with the studio.

1ST DRAFT OF CLIENT BRIEF

 MISSION STATEMENT

As a collective, we aim to provide our clients with a diverse range of creative solutions with a view to ensure trust and guidance for artists within the label.

RESEARCH PLAN

My partner and I decided to focus our research by setting 3 objectives each for our 2 audience segments. This would allow us to retrieve more focused answers so that when we use the correct research methods for each objective.   In order to collate research which gives a focused result, my partner and I decided that we should have three main objectives to base our research on. See below:

Primary audience (type A- music enthusiasts in and outside the university): Rony 

1.     To understand channels in which my customer is most comfortable using when selling and promoting their music.

(Instagram poll)

2.     To investigate what is the demographic and behavioral economics of my customers in order to understand why they would want to work as part of this kind of label

(interview of musician- audience persona|)

3.    what kind of role our audience plays within the music industry.

(online research)

Secondary audience (type B- students from all campus’): Jordanna

1.     To understand the channels in which my customer/s are most comfortable using when looking for jobs or for simply a beneficial vocational use of their time as they are students looking for good job prospects.

 (Create a questionnaire to discover why).

2.     To find out what type of website and social media pages my customer visits.

 (infographics and bar charts using online research)

3.     To investigate what is the demographic and behavioral economics of my customers in order to understand why they would want to work as part of this kind of label.

 (questionnaire to create customer persona research)

*These three statements may be subject to change depending on whether there will be enough time to do sufficient research on two audience profiles. In my opinion, I believe that in order to achieve the marketing goals of the client, the label will need to attract a secondary audience first in order to obtain their main goal of attracting the primary audience to join their label. This will be discussed with the client upon the next meeting.

ACTION PLAN

Whilst managing the project I felt that to create an action plan before collating research ( in order to understand the customer fully) would not be beneficial in this case as the client's understanding of their customer base is too large a scale for the start-up of the label. Therefore, I will be creating this document following my research. 

OUR VISIT TO AG RECORDS- VISCONTI STUDIOS

During our visit to AG Records, we discovered that the label is still in the development process in terms of establishing a name for itself and its lack of diversity.  speaking to the client Micheal Gatt, we also found that he was adamant about letting us know how important getting the students more involved in the running of the label is to him as he feels that he is doing all of the grunt work himself. We also came across the fact that the studio only opens once a week and there is not much staff to increase the opening times. After being told that AG is an independent label we assumed that it had its own studio, but it shares its space with Visconti, drama, and theatre classes.

We told him our initial ideas concerning the running of the social media accounts after we hand them over. We suggested that we should be targetting creative students to help maintain these but also students from all campus’ that could help with other aspects which he was open to. We realised that the client still wanted to stick with his original USP after we spoke to him. Leaving AG records, we felt that we could create marketing campaigns that reach various audience types within the one campaign but it will hopefully progress into something more than what we started. 

AUDIENCE TYPE B

OBJECTIVE 1-  To understand the channels in which my customer/s are most comfortable using when looking for jobs or for simply a beneficial vocational use of their time as they are students looking for good job prospects.

CUSTOMER PERSONA RESEARCH

I believe that customer personas should be crafted from using a combination of both raw data (what you can draw insights from) and educated guesses using your intuition. Customer personas are used to inform the marketer what kind of segments within their customer range is going to be. By studying each of their behavior patterns (both online and in real life) the marketer can make informed decisions on where they should place their product in order to reach their intended audience. 

After scouring various websites for research that I will reference below, I came to the conclusion that the information that I had access to online did not allow my results to be as specific to my objectives which is what I needed. Therefore, I feel that collecting first-hand research would be more suitable alongside what I have already gathered online. I then put together a questionnaire that included nominal questions and interval/ratio questions which will hopefully make the analytical process quicker and easier for myself. I also decided that the questions that I would ask would need to be specific using direct and simple language. I came across an online article that also suggested that I avoid asking provocative questions at the beginning of the survey such as gender or race-related questions as this is proven to influence how people respond to the questions asked differently.

I chose to begin the research for customer type B (Kingston University students - all disciplines). I carried out this research by creating a questionnaire that would touch upon subjects that I felt brought out answers about audience behavior such as, questions that touched upon the idea that the audience is emotional, distracted, impulsive and inconsistent.

CUSTOMER PERSONAS AND JOURNEY MAPPING

After visiting the studios, I was able to envision a clearer idea of what kind of audience that the label was trying to reach. My partner and I decided to split the research in half as it would benefit us in terms of time management but also due to the fact that we have two types of customers it would make sense to be focused on analysing behavior patterns for the two separately and then come together following this to begin to think about what we should for the marketing plan. 

I will use the answers that I will gather from my sample to collate audience personas that will be informed by real answers. 

AUDIENCE JOURNEY MAP-

My partner and I decided to create a customer journey map detailing the user experience of a competitor student-led label in order to evaluate the problems with their social media accounts. we chose to use our own audience profiles and described their experience when visiting our competitor's Instagram and website pages.

OBJECTIVE 2-  To find out what type of website and social media pages my customer visits.

OBJECTIVE 3-  To investigate what is the demographic and behavioral economics of my customers in order to understand why they would want to work as part of this kind of label.

....

AUDIENCE TYPE A

My partner Rony decided to begin the research for audience type A: music enthusiasts and outsiders. He carried out this research by creating a questionnaire that would touch upon subjects that he felt brought out answers about audience behavior such as, questions that touched upon the idea that the audience is emotional, distracted, impulsive and inconsistent. These are his findings...

OBJECTIVE 1- 1.     To understand channels in which my customer is most comfortable using when selling and promoting their music.

.....

OBJECTIVE 2- To investigate what is the demographic and behavioral economics of my customers in order to understand why they would want to work as part of this kind of label

OBJECTIVE 3- what kind of role our audience plays within the music industry.

.....

WHATS NEXT?

FURTHER RESEARCH ON SUCCESSFUL SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGNS

BEGINNING THE MARKETING PLAN- OBJECTIVES

BRAND GUIDELINES AND DESIGN PROSPECTS

CONTENT FOR SOCIAL MEDIA CHANNELS

FEEDBACK FROM CLIENT

TESTING MY STRATEGY & USER JOURNEY MAPS

PROMOTION OF LABEL STRATEGY 

LAUNCH 

CONCLUSION

[ulfwolf]

The Art of Dying

Leif the Kind

He worked at the employment agency in Helsingborg. In fact, I believe he was the employment agency in Helsingborg—at least I saw no one else in or around that office.

Clean shaven, nerdy glasses, early thirties, I’d say. Possibly gay I thought at some point that day but on later reflection: no, no way.

I explained to him my situation. The Bull/GE 301 mainframe expert. He confirmed, after some brief exploration and a couple of phone calls, that there were no such machines in town. Sorry.

Oh, well. Other jobs? I asked. Slim pickings, he said, at least with my resume. Sorry, again. Oh, well. Thanks though for checking.

As I was leaving the office (possibly heading for Malmö after all, in search of that elusive computer operator job), I noticed that all around the walls hung small etchings of various town motifs, nicely done, not uninteresting.

I stopped to study one of them a little closer. It pictured small canal, a bridge, over-hanging trees. “Where’s this?” I asked—not entirely feigning my curiosity.

“It’s here, in Helsingborg,” he said, right away, enthusiastically—noticing that I was noticing. Some sort of internal radar picked up on this: there was some sort of opportunity to be had here, not sure of what kind or how, but I could tell that he was really happy that I showed an interest. He really was. And this, if played correctly, could greatly benefit yours truly.

So, sensing fertile waters, I looked at the next one over, same size, similar setting, a town square I believe. “And this?” I asked. “Here as well?”

“Yes. Here as well,” he answered. Smiling now, and stepping out from behind his counter to join me in, or even guide, my survey.

I quickly learned two things: one: every single etching in this office was of historical Helsingborg, and two: historical Helsingborg was Leif’s not only hobby, but passion. He had obviously been the sole decorator or at least the one in charge of this project.

All my life I had sported a fox’s scent for opportunity and my internal ditto radar was going a little crazy just about now. I still could not tell what, precisely, the opportunity was, but I sensed it: there definitely was one to be had.

So, even though I did like the etchings, I truly was not that interested, but that’s not the face I showed Leif. Realizing that he really liked to talk about the town and its history and what he was finding out (more and more of it as he researched and studied the town, he told me) I continued to ask him questions about the etchings and the town, questions that I really didn’t care too much about the answers to, just to keep the conversion going, and where it eventually led to was Leif, during his lunch hour, treating me not only to a ferry ride across the sound to Helsingør, Denmark (twenty minutes there, twenty minutes back) but also to a scrumptious liver pate sandwich in Helsingør (the Danes give you one eighth of an inch of dark bread with a full inch or more of liver pâté on top—absolutely delicious); this one might even had had crushed, dry bacon on top), and during the ferry trip back to Sweden he asked if I had any place to stay. I told him the truth and said no. And so, he invited me to stay with him, in his little house in the village of Viken half an hour or so north of Helsingborg proper as the bus flies.

Leif was recently divorced, he told me, and very happy for the company. Again, at this point I was a little weary that he might be gay (I’d had some experience with being hit on by men), but in retrospect, as I said, no way. The guy was just a very kind man who liked to talk about Helsingborg a lot and who took pity on me.

For a day or two, I stayed at his house and walked along the beach while he was at work. He’d cook a nice dinner when he returned.

Day three he had found me a stevedore job for the day, just to make some money. I helped relieve a smallish boat’s belly of sacks of grain (which I could feel the following day in my back—trust me; the guys that normally did this for a living were ten times my strength).

Day four or five he told me that he had arranged an interview for me at Sankta Maria mental hospital as a summer nurse, which I was very happy to take him up on.

The interview went well, and I got the job. Six months, I think the deal was, to be reviewed and possibly extended then if I liked the job and they were happy with me.

Sankta Maria also provided living quarters for its personnel, along with subsidized food (coupons): in other words, this was a perfect job for me under the circumstances. Simply perfect.

I thanked Leif so very much that evening. He was very (and genuinely) happy to have helped.

As an interesting aside: Leif was a classical music aficionado, great collection and great stereo (Bang Olufsen—superb Danish brand, excellent turntable, excellent speakers). The thing he taught me, which I have applied pretty much ever since, is that when it comes to classical music, you don’t just lift the cartridge off the record, or, later, press stop on the tape/cassette recorder or, even later, the CD player. No, you first turn down the volume to silence, so that you gradually ease away from the music: showing the music your respect—the respect it deserves. I really liked that notion, and, as I said, have been doing that more or less ever since.

I think of Leif now and I feel bad that I didn’t treat him with the respect that he deserved. This is how I let him down:

The job at Sankta Maria begun with a three-day Insane Asylum Nurse 101 Introduction class: This is mental illness, this is a patient, and this is how handle them (how you feed them pills and make sure that they swallow or how you sweep the floor around them). As it turned out what we as novice, substitute nurses mainly did was cleaning (around the often-immobile patients), but that’s beside the point.

During afternoon break the first day, I fell into a conversation with one of my class-mates, also a new summer-nurse hire, who, as it happened, had just returned from India via Israel and had managed to smuggle into the country five kilos of hashish (he said it was fifty-fifty hashish and opium, which I now tend to disbelieve at times and at others to believe, depending on what memory rises most vividly) in the bottom of a small suitcase. He had hidden it in his attic. Would I like to see it?

Would I like to see it? Of course, I would like to see it. And, I thought, perhaps even try it, no?

And then, ah, shucks, remembered: Leif had promised a scrumptious meal for dinner, to celebrate my new job. Be sure to be home by, say, six. Sure, I’d told him, no problem. Of course. Looking forward to it.

Leif the Kind versus Opium-Spiked Hashish. For someone who has known hashish for a lot longer than he’s known Leif the Kind—not really a contest. I went home with my new pal after school, and yes, here was that huge block of black hashish (the largest amount of hashish I had ever set eyes on) at the bottom of the little suitcase, and yes, sure I could try some, and sure I did. It was very, very good and very, very strong. Still, at some point I remembered that Leif would be expecting me just about now and somehow, despite being high as a kite, I managed to place a telephone call to him, and I think I managed to give him some sort of reason why I would be staying “with a friend in town” tonight rather than coming back for the dinner.

Now, here’s one thing about hashish: there are many things that you don’t notice, but the things that you do notice, you notice very, very well: bold, italics, underscored, resonating, earth-shatteringly well, and that is how I noticed Leif’s disappointment when he sort of shrugged verbally at being relegated to not-that-important to keep promises to. Not, perhaps, so much at the time—once I’d hung up, I was off again into whatever music we were listening to and onto another couple of deep lungfuls of this truly splendid hashish. But later, when I recalled the phone call and Leif’s reaction: I felt a millimeter tall, crushed by shame and a sense of betrayal. He had been incredibly kind to me and had helped me massively. And my thanks: standing him up when he really had looked forward to a great celebratory meal—he’d gotten me the job and this was my first day.

Shame on me, really.

I still had some of my stuff at Leif’s place which I picked up a day later. I actually don’t remember if he was at home when I collected my things (he had shown me where the key was). Then I moved into my room (which I shared with an older nurse) at Sankta Maria.

I never saw Leif again, nor did we speak.

I was a rotten fish.

Leif still stands out in my mind as one of the kindest persons I had ever met.

(c) Wolfstuff

http://wolfstuff.com/aod-intro

[floralharjuku]

Cadence: prologue *Contains Spoilers!* (POSTED ON AO3)

Tumblr formatting legend:

* = *italics* ~ = ~bold~

…

(And on the third day, Crystal Mum created spoiler warnings)

Prologue: “Emotions are prohibited.” …

Androids were never meant to be replacements for humans; the doppelgängers were never to evolve beyond shadows waging perpetual war for the glory of mankind, waging war in the forever hope, chasing the forever goal of one day returning their humans to the surface they had wiped clean.

*What a farce. *

That was their goal. That was their dream. That was their only aspiration.

It was the only thing they could want.

So many years, eyes covered in symbolic darkness, minds linked to the server, man and machine made one, purging the planet of the rusted metal heaps that made life unsustainable. Centuries, without fail, standing constant vigil from above, the last line of defense.

*And for what? A server with the last remains of the human genome. *

The Bunkers. *Blown to bits. *

The androids. *Slowly going mad. *

The lie so deeply hardwired into their code, into their being that the very idea that it wasn’t true sent shockwaves of madness throughout the system. Waves that needed to be cut off before it all fell to pieces.

YoRHa. *A shell. *

The Council of Humanity. *Lies. *

Useless bits of code floating through the server, all of it. Once, these streams had been of pristine quality, now they were cluttered with bits of data that didn’t fit anywhere in the server. But their owners simply couldn’t part with the data. And so it clustered in the veins of their shared knowledge. Rumors, idle gossip, emotions began to spread through them.

It wasn’t long before they all could feel. Out of sheer necessity, those were ordered to a minimum by a commander who looked all too sick when she came from inside the server.

“Pod. Seal these records and issue a server wide announcement that emotions are prohibited.”

How many years ago was that…time passed so slowly and yet so fast here in the land of forever dark, counting the same stars for the same rotations until one day she realized that the star was gone.

*She had outlived the stars. * Such a thing was too blasphemous to articulate.

Emotions were prohibited under her watch, the only one that mattered anymore. She was all that was left, the only structure, the only leader, the only one with enough strength to see them through until the ultimate conclusion of project YoRHa.

Already, the other four Bunkers had gone *dark*. And their goal? A lie. A lie she continued to feed them even as so many saw past it by simply *feeling. *

The end was nearing.

She stopped enforcing her prohibition. More and more and more and more and more and more rebelled. It was so easy…to cut them off from the system, from YoRHa, from the perpetual end they were trapped in. It liberated her.

*It was so much better than hearing them die, screaming in pain, screaming because they knew that they had no bodies to return to, that they would face death, an endless void of horror and…*

Her Bunker only housed models B to H; O and S. The rest were stragglers, survivors, from the devastation backdoor events in Bunkers 1, 3, 4 and 5. Memories wiped clean, they became her soldiers.

*But she couldn’t bear to hear them loyally die, believing in nothing, knowing nothing, feeling nothing. *

Keep them fighting. You are their commander. Fight until it all *ends. *

She cut so many free. Aided in their desertion.

Was this pity? Was this fear? Was this *emotion? *

She was terrified.

But…

“You have your orders. Glory to humanity!”

Glory indeed.

…

A Scanner type, she knew from the start that he would be her downfall, her own personal harbinger of doom. He was a high-end model, made exclusively for the purpose of discovering what should never be found.

“YoRHa unit No. 9, type S, reporting, Commander.”

“Everything is in working order?” He nodded, left arm crossed over his chest in salute. “Good. Your first assignment is to survey the surface for any potential Goliath class machine tech.”

*Get as far away from here as you can. Stay away from these servers. Stay away from the corrosion inside. Maybe…maybe…*

“Yes, Commander!” He sounded so enthusiastic, almost childlike. Which wouldn’t be strange if she didn’t know that all YoRHa units were built in a state the humans once called “late adolescence” or “early adulthood”.

Her downfall was in him and his kind. And as such, his own downfall was in himself.

…

His operator, 21O, always seemed annoyed with him. He functioned with the attitude of a teenager, constantly questioning her, taking this bored tone with her, exhaling heavily whenever tasked with something that interrupted his own personal scans. She had *told the brat* time and time again that he was wasting resources with his curiosity, but she kept finding data on insects and flowers in his reports, as if he had taken a break during his task to watch a worm inch its way across the dirt.

Which was exactly what he had done. It was a solid forty minutes long and each second made her want to claw his eyes out.

He wasted time, energy, fuel for himself and not to mention he had a flight unit with him which tripled the potential loss should he and it be destroyed during these scans.

“As long as he completes his task in a timely manner,” the Commander had said, “then I see no reason why these extracurricular activities should be stopped.”

“But, Commander…It’s a waste of resources…”

“All the Scanners have this same flaw: an insatiable thirst to *know*. He isn’t the first and won’t be the last.”

“Do they all have the same flaw to talk back?” His operator muttered as she went back to sorting through the rest of his files.

The next video was genuinely enlightening. *Three hours of waves. * Where did he even find the time…?

…

It was strangely fascinating, this abandoned human facility was a relic of a time gone past and possibly never to be again, a memento of the past world he was fighting for, of the war he was created to fight for. Rusted and overtaken with greenery, this place was hollow, whistling as the wind passed through this living and yet dead museum to the intelligence of his human creators.

From above, he could trace the paths that they would have taken in the progress of working. Rusted and dangerously corroded bridges leaned and creaked in the slight breeze as he did a quick pass over them, barely suspended from wires that had cracked and snapped years ago. One bridge was in such terrible shape that one side had fallen into the water, the other leaning on a right diagonal into the sky.

What would this place look like, in the past? When people, not plants, populated these areas for work purposes?

Huh…what did humans look like when they worked? He supposed like androids but…uh, there were supposedly differences between android and humans, but no one had ever said *what* that was. Speaking of work, would the humans ever need to work again with the androids in existence?

Such questions were for the future, he supposed. A future after the war. But such questions were always in the back of his mind during ops like this.

What were the humans like? When he looked into the mirror and saw himself, was he really seeing the image of a human? Was there a human that he was modeled after? A person with the face he so believed to be his and his alone? How would this human react to one day coming face to face with an android who looked just like him?

Why was he so absorbed with these existential questions? All they did was make his logic processor momentarily freeze. Once, after debating the concept of “God” with himself, he had awoken in his room and learned that his OS had crashed from the undue strain. He had been reprimanded for it and warned that another crash of that magnitude could result in a full scale memory wipe in a desperate attempt to salvage his core processing elements. To think, a mere question had the potential to kill him.

Maybe he was morbidly curious. That would explain a lot about himself.

One eye scrolled through his personal research of this place while another watched a small machine pour a bucket of oil onto a deactivated machine. The deactivated one had been offline for some time, its arms torn off by whatever had destroyed it. Probably two machines getting into some sort of mindless conflict.

“Brother…brother…brother…” It repeated mindlessly, clinging to a concept it couldn’t understand.

“It doesn’t matter how much oil you give him, little guy. It won’t make him your brother.” He sighed, fascinated nonetheless. To think that such a machine could even begin to comprehend the *idea* that was family, not to speak of practicing it.

Maybe, if he still had time he could take it apart and research it…

The booming approach of the attack squadron quickly killed his hopes of actually having any fun during this mission, but he noted that it would be over soon and he could come back. There was a strong possibility that this strange machine would still be there, calling out for a brother that didn’t exist while it waded in spilled oil.

(Cadence) A Nier: Automata study.

Author’s notes: Formatting is so much fun to do when I know it won’t transfer to anything and I have to use marks instead. Hello! I’m not sure if I’m the first, but if I am…First chaptered Nier: Automata story! Victory to me for having absolutely no life and finding the full game on YouTube. That was my whole week right there. The story captivated me in a way that I really was not expecting. I watched the first Nier in preparation of the second, and I fell in love with the themes and huge story. I like that a game could go so deep and dark and make me question everything, even down to the base components of myself. Seeing androids and robots that acted so human…it’s fascinating stuff!

Anyways, I decided to explore the psyche of my personal favorite in the game, 9S. I have to say that his character really surprised me. I had expected a drag-on experience with him, but…well, if you’ve seen it, you know.

*Motions hastily to ending C while crying*

His character goes through such a drastic change and his character arc goes up like “okay, well that just happened, but like what what what what what.”

Again, you know what I’m talking about if you’ve seen ending C.

So, this contains massive spoilers for the whole game. If you want to go in clean, please put this down and run from me because this was done in February on the 25th and I’ve been waiting to write this for…er three days. I am about to explode at this point.

Each main ending, A-E, will be covered and as such, I’ll be labeling the story as it follows each ending. Mostly, since this follows 9S, this will be told from his campaign.

This story has been crossposted as well onto Ao3 and when Fanfiction stops being dumb, I’ll post it there as well. Wanna see this in fully formatted glory? Well, so do I ;;

And as always, thank you to those who support me, those who inspire me and those who give me feedback.

For the glory of mankind.

[webappdevelopersmel-blog]

Iphone App Development

System on E-bay has two for selling the phone. You could either get package instantly or you could cross your fingers for the bid. As per the trends, $330 is the price currently but you should consider upon a person wait for that upcoming 20 days for prime offers. Happen to be the best judge for this current situation of the handset, cost range inside direct relation with comprehensive of the set. 13. Impossible - Believed that a virtual figure for your iphone had the ability to detect yourself thinking? Impossible makes this task possible, using a simple card trick. A suave wizard would show on screen, and tell you about ideas - upon having selected among the list of six cards displayed. Not necessarily accurate, but a massive amount fun! Is there a problem that must solved? Can people gain your app, for example by making their lives easier or even more productive? Before I had my soccer app, We possibly could only get the soccer score by watching TV, reading the paper or going on the internet. Now https://www.vic.gov.au/decide-if-you-need-mobile-app get them whenever my phone is out there. By solving specific problems or issues if anyone is then you will be capturing a target market of raving enthusiasts. Thought about had a burst water pipe? If so, you would be a raving fan of the nearest plumber (often,at whatever the cost). These are found three from the many details that you should focus on when it appears time to hiring a Australian iPhone Developer producer. Can you think any kind of others likewise allows make life simpler? Can believe of any others likewise allows push you towards the right company? Many easy to do podcast today as competently. We actually take our messages and turn them into podcast, rather than actually recording programs within a studio or anything. To do that, we edit the material as described above therefore we cut them into podcasts and attached intro and exit tags in either Soundtrack or Garage Tie. We then upload it using iWeb. However, with Apple discontinuing iWeb in 2012, we'll require figure out another way, which I'll then probably update on here and. Become a town farm marketing consultant. In recent years there is really a huge escalating the number of people in cities who garden and raise small animals like chickens and rabbits. Many cities have changed their ordinances allowing backyard birds. If you are good at gardening and you know a great deal of about, or can learn, rabbits and chickens, test become a consultant for people in the city who need to read more. Hey, Practical goal bluffing. A great deal of studies and surveys have already proven the. You can complete your research own investigating online if really don't believe my routine. Your loyal customers will be grateful for you. And new visitors won't curse you with hellfire because they could actually navigate with ease in your mobile site. Zooming in one's screen with stubby fingers can be one major factor for visitors to abandon your non-mobile friendly website.

[bountyofbeads]

Why a Race-Baiting Trump Is Courting Black Voters https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/03/us/politics/black-vote-trump.html

Why a Race-Baiting Trump Is Courting Black Voters

By Reid J. Epstein and Jonathan Martin |

Published Aug. 3, 2019 | New York Times | Posted August 4, 2019 |

DETROIT — Mark Greer is a black Detroiter so outraged by President Trump’s regular stream of invective toward people of color that he does his best to avoid exposure to him.

So when he clicked on a YouTube link last month to watch an episode of “The Breakfast Club,” a morning radio show popular with African-Americans, he was angered by an ad that greeted him: a message from Mr. Trump’s re-election campaign.

“It just infuriated me because I felt like they were being slick, trying to slip it in there,” said Mr. Greer, 28, who works for a philanthropic organization. “I know better, but other people who are watching this might go, ‘Hmmm.’”

President Trump’s entire approach to people of color — his attacks on political leaders, his campaign’s social media strategy targeting the black electorate, his ability to fuel black opposition but also demoralize some black voters — is one of the most extraordinary political dynamics of the Trump era. No modern president has ever vilified black Americans or sought to divide people along racial lines like Mr. Trump, while also claiming to be a champion of their economic interests.

The online ad that Mr. Greer saw illustrates the audacious nature of Mr. Trump’s strategy. Even as the president sows racial disharmony, telling four Democratic congresswomen of color to “go back,” and saying “no human being” would want to live in the “rat and rodent infested” city of Baltimore, his re-election campaign is spending money on social media to put Mr. Trump before the eyes of black voters.

The objectives are twofold: First, to try to win over a handful of black voters. The campaign intends to highlight low rates of African-American unemployment and the criminal justice overhaul the president signed, a measure that is already a subject of his campaign’s Facebook advertising.

But the more clandestine hope, and one privately acknowledged by Trump allies, is that the president can make black voters think twice about turning out for Democrats or expending energy on trying to change a system some African-Americans believe is unalterably stacked against them.

For many voters of color in this crucial swing state, Mr. Trump’s racial invective is deeply hurtful on a personal level, but something they have come to expect from a president who has consistently denigrated them.

“I think he can win again,” said Malak Aldasouqi, a 21-year-old Detroit Public Schools intern, who is Muslim and said she often feels disheartened by the president’s attacks on people of color. “It’s a little bit of a no-faith situation because there’s been a lot of times where I’ve felt betrayed by the American people.”

[Make sense of the people, issues and ideas shaping American politics with our newsletter.]

Still, Democrats also sense that the president’s race-baiting presents a unique opportunity. After a disastrous dip in black turnout in 2016 in battleground states like Michigan, Democrats are now working to harness the disdain for Mr. Trump to motivate a group that may prove to be most pivotal in the 2020 election: the low-propensity voters of color who decide late whether or not to cast ballots in the election.

Turnout figures show many stayed home in 2016, an election that marked the first decline in black participation rates in two decades. Increasing black turnout by just a few percentage points in urban areas of states like Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania could thwart Mr. Trump’s re-election.

And there are already signs that Mr. Trump’s conduct, which has been reminiscent of a 2016 campaign filled with racist tropes, is likely to ensure that outcome.

Longtime black Democratic leaders say the only time they can recall black voters being so engaged in presidential politics was when they had the chance to elect, and then to re-elect, Barack Obama.

“My dental hygienist talked with me about the election for 40 minutes the other day,” Shirley Franklin, a former Atlanta mayor, recalled with wonder, adding: “Some have preferences but a lot don’t. They just say, ‘I want to vote for whoever is going to beat Trump.’ That’s the predominant feeling.”

Early polling also points to a highly engaged black electorate.

A June poll from CNN found that 74 percent of Democratic voters were extremely or very enthusiastic about voting next year, a higher figure than even in the years before Mr. Obama’s two elections. The figure was the same for white and nonwhite Democrats.

Theodore R. Johnson, a scholar at the Brennan Center who has written extensively on black voters, said he was skeptical that African-American turnout would reach Obama-era levels, but noted that “if it just goes up from ’16, Trump is in trouble.” A record 66.6 percent of eligible black voters cast ballots in 2012, but that number fell to 59.6 percent four years later.

Mr. Johnson said the evidence from the Trump era indicates that African-Americans are highly motivated. He pointed to their turnout in the 2017 special Senate election in Alabama and in last year’s midterm elections, in which the black vote jumped 11 percentage points above 2014 levels, the year of the previous midterm.

“He’s very, very disrespectful,” said Teresa Singleton, 55, a Detroit firefighter. “It’s very disrespectful. And I’m just shocked that the No. 1 man in the United States goes through these Twitter attack rages like that. It encourages me to get out and help advocate for someone different in the next election. I feel like it’s my responsibility.”

The Trump campaign said it was eager to deliver its message to black voters.

“President Trump has an excellent record benefitting black Americans, which we will enthusiastically communicate,” said Tim Murtaugh, a campaign spokesman. “Black unemployment has hit an all-time low, paychecks are rising, and the President is providing second chances to people through criminal justice reform.”

The campaign is spending far more on digital advertising to try to influence voters than his Democratic challengers. Since the beginning of 2019, Mr. Trump has spent $14.1 million on Facebook and Google campaigns, according to Bully Pulpit Interactive, a Democratic digital firm. The highest-spending 2020 Democratic candidate is Senator Elizabeth Warren, who has spent $3.2 million.

[Read about how President Trump has often used race for his own personal gain]

Some of that messaging is aimed at black voters using ZIP codes, though no public data tracks the precise amount. The Trump campaign has posted multiple ads on Facebook highlighting the criminal justice legislation, including spots that feature video of the president flashing a thumbs-up in the White House alongside African-Americans after signing the measure.

“Americans from across the political spectrum can unite around prison reform legislation that will reduce crime while giving our fellow citizens a chance at redemption,” reads the message on the screen at the end of one of the ads.

Mr. Trump doesn’t have to convert black voters with that message; just inhibiting enough of them from participating on Election Day would be a victory for his purposes. And leading black officials are already voicing concern that, in addition to Mr. Trump’s own advertising, the combination of strict voter identification laws and even more aggressive foreign interference on social media could suppress black turnout.

The risks for the president are that suburban voters who fled the Republican Party in the midterm elections will come out in force for the 2020 Democratic nominee, and that black and Hispanic voters in cities like Detroit, Milwaukee, Philadelphia and Phoenix will turn out in far larger numbers than they did in 2016.

Still, Democrats say Mr. Trump’s message is a difficult one to counteract. Opinions about the president and his racially divisive attacks are already baked into the views of many people of color.

Quentin James, who leads a group dedicated to electing black Democrats, said it is precisely because so many African-Americans are inured to Mr. Trump that the party must devote substantial money to energizing one of their most irregular, but vital, constituencies: younger black men.

Democrats say research indicates it is not helpful to invoke Mr. Trump directly to fuel such motivational efforts.

The president’s standing in polls of black voters has not changed since his 2017 defense of neo-Nazis marching on Charlottesville, Va., according to Adrianne Shropshire, the executive director of BlackPAC, a super PAC focused on motivating black voters.

“I do think that using Trump imagery is triggering for black people,” Ms. Shropshire said. “We don’t use it in our advertising.”

Democratic presidential candidates have not settled on how to deal with the man they all hope to replace. While five of the party’s 20 candidates called Mr. Trump a racist during this week’s debates in Detroit, the party’s private polling shows that affixing that label to him is not the most effective way to peel support away from the president.

A poll conducted in June for the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a political arm of the progressive think tank, offered voters six derogatory descriptions of Mr. Trump: ineffective, false promises, for the rich, divisive, corrupt and racist. Among voters surveyed, the ineffective label moved the most voters toward a generic Democratic candidate; the racist label moved the fewest.

Among black voters, the poll found that calling Mr. Trump a racist did not move support to Democrats. Calling him ineffective did.

“This isn’t about just speaking to the obvious, that our president is a racist, it has to be about how are you connected to the struggle of our communities,” Senator Cory Booker of New Jersey, one of the five candidates who called Mr. Trump racist during the debates, said in an interview on Friday. “I’ve heard that line from candidates before, but not followed by the kind of from-the-heart talk that I think is really important if there is going to be trust that the next leader really feels us, understands communities of color.”

But Lt. Gov. Mandela Barnes of Wisconsin, a state that saw one of the largest drops in African-American turnout between 2012 and 2016, warned his party that the eventual standard-bearer must speak unambiguously about the president’s conduct if he or she wants to energize black voters.

“We still have to have a candidate who won’t be afraid to stand up to him and call him out,” said Mr. Barnes, who is black. He added that the presence of an African-American candidate on the ticket “certainly would be helpful.”

[The latest data and analysis to keep track of who’s leading the race to be the Democratic nominee.]

In Detroit, black voters and officials articulated a desire for Democratic candidates to move beyond the president’s race-baiting and discuss issues pertinent to people’s daily lives.

“It’s time for us to kind of pull the plug and shift our message and shift our conversation,” Sherry Gay-Dagnogo, a Michigan state representative, said on Tuesday at a gathering she hosted to watch the first night of the debates. “If we start kind of ignoring a lot of the ignorance that he shows, he won’t have as much of a fan base, a following, a platform.”

Still, Charles Ellington, a 55-year-old marketing representative who came to see Mr. Booker at a rally on Thursday, said he would keep his focus on the president. He acknowledged that Mr. Trump is “irritating” — and has been “ever since he was sworn in” — but said that’s all the more reason to show up next year.

“Man, you gotta get out and vote!” said Mr. Ellington. “We can’t sit this one out.”

Mary Chapman contributed reporting from Detroit.

[wineanddinosaur]

Big Beer, Big Data, and the Big Implications of AB InBev’s RateBeer Acquisition

In February 2019, ZX Ventures, the venture capital arm of Anheuser-Busch InBev (AB InBev), the world’s largest brewing company, completed its purchase of RateBeer, a consumer beer review platform.

Via ZX Ventures, AB InBev invests in dozens of beer and beer-adjacent businesses. This includes online retailers, delivery services, and publishers, along with other consumer products. As with AB InBev’s oft-bemoaned acquisitions of craft breweries like Goose Island and Wicked Weed, many brewers and RateBeer users lamented the sale, citing the inherent bias of a corporation owning user-driven content.

Favoritism is the least of our worries, though. By acquiring RateBeer, AB InBev now owns a treasure trove of data, including the preferences and locations of active and passionate beer drinkers. One corporation now has the power to watch, analyze, predict, and, eventually, create the beers we like by using data many of us volunteered willingly under different circumstances.

The acquisition threatens to squelch individual creativity and could single-handedly dictate beer trends to meet corporate needs.

“Data is powerful, and with massive amounts of data, insights can be pulled to improve one’s market position and to better understand the actual users of the platform,” Fern Stroud, CEO of Stroud Management Enterprises, and senior program manager at a digital ad tech agency in San Francisco, tells VinePair. “Data is king.”

RateBeer’s ‘Sad Day’

RateBeer launched in 2000 as a platform for beer lovers to share opinions on beers and beer-drinking establishments. In June 2017, co-founder Joe Tucker announced RateBeer had accepted investment from ZX Ventures, a “global growth and innovation group” owned by AB InBev. On Feb. 3, 2019, he announced the complete sale: “ZX Ventures, a division of AB InBev, has fully acquired RateBeer.”

Guthrie Collin, SVP of advertising product & technology at Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal, and professor at NYU Stern, compares AB InBev’s acquisition of RateBeer to Amazon’s early acquisition of Goodreads. “Both acquisitions provide the acquirers with data generated by passionate, influential ‘heavy user’ communities dedicated to providing unbiased and crowd-sourced reviews and commentary on the acquirer’s key segment,” Collin writes VinePair. “In AB InBev’s case, this is their second round with RateBeer, after making a strategic investment a few years back, and the full acquisition indicates they have tested and learned that the RateBeer data set provides important signals to drive business growth.”

Acquisitions such as these are not rare in the tech space, where near-identical companies like Grubhub and Seamless merge and consumers barely notice. But RateBeer was different.

“A sad, sad day,” wrote Maakun, a RateBeer “Regular” from Den Haag, Netherlands, after the initial investment in June 2017. “Yikes,” wrote minutematt, whose reviews largely comprise beers in the U.K. And from a RateBeer “quality person,” herrklemann, “Finally my ratings are fully owned by one of the big players. So glad for all the unpaid work of the past few years.”

RateBeer kept its initial sale secret for nearly a year. Tucker publicly announced ZX Ventures’ investment in his company in June 2017, but it had actually occurred in October 2016.

“The beer community heavily relies on beer review sites like ours to help guide them,” Todd Alström, founder of BeerAdvocate, a beer publisher and review site, and RateBeer competitor, tells VinePair in an email. BeerAdvocate, founded in 1996, is independently owned, and its business includes print and digital magazines, events, and beer ratings.

Some brewers also oppose the acquisition. Dogfish Head Craft Brewery founder Sam Calagione issued a statement on June 5, 2017 asking RateBeer to remove any of the brewery’s data from its platform.

“It just doesn’t seem right for a brewer of any kind to be in a position to potentially manipulate what consumers are hearing and saying about beers, how they are rated and which ones are receiving extra publicity on what might appear to be a legitimate, 100 percent user-generated platform,” Calagione wrote in a blog post on Dogfish Head’s website. “It is our opinion that this initiative and others are ethically dubious and that the lack of transparency is troubling.”

Big-name breweries including Bear Republic of Cloverdale, Calif., Karl Strauss of San Diego, and Cantillon of Brussels, Belgium had similar concerns.

“We don’t want our consumers to feel like they are being deceived or misinformed in any way,” Bear Republic wrote on its website on June 7, 2017. “For everyone who shares our belief, we hope that you will consider utilizing another platform to share your beer opinions and reviews.”

According to Alström, some did. “We did see a spike in new users and activity after both the initial and full buyout announcements,” he writes.

“It’s important for sites like ours to remain independent in order to keep our integrity and trust intact,” Alström writes. “That said, bills need to get paid, and being independent doesn’t necessarily pay those bills.”

Some are willing to sink with their ships. Others aren’t. For RateBeer, investment from ZX Ventures allowed “improvements to infrastructure … an in-house mobile app,” and other updates “that as the only full-time employee with help from some amazing admins and volunteer coders, I was never able to tackle,” Tucker wrote in his February 2019 announcement. Improvements come at a cost.

The ‘Inequality Machine’

“The question truly becomes, how many users does this platform really have and how much data are they truly providing?” Stroud says.

On its website, RateBeer claims it is “not only the biggest beer site on the web but it’s also the best.” Although it doesn’t offer high-level stats, its “About” section says “hundreds of thousands of members from more than 100 countries have rated hundreds of thousands of different beers around the world.”

By comparison, BeerAdvocate.com reaches more than 3 million unique visitors every month. Untappd, another competitor popular for its gamification of beer ratings (read: ticker culture), has more than 7 million users.

“In essence, ZX Ventures now has a ton of data on the insights of actual consumers — on what [beers] they like, and why they like them. This data could be used in so many different ways,” Stroud says. For example, he says, if AB InBev produces a beer similar to a competitor’s, and the competitor’s outperforms its own, it can make adjustments accordingly. As the owner of that data, “I could now do some reverse engineering to figure out how to improve my beer recipes,” she says. Tweak a hop, perhaps, or swap out a specialty malt.

“The data are valuable because they provide insights into the brand and beer varietal preferences of lead users and beer enthusiasts,” Jason Greenberg, assistant professor of management, New York University Stern School of Business, tells VinePair. “In turn, their ratings information drives consumption choices of other consumers.”

In a paper titled “The (Internet) Information Inequality Machine?” Greenberg posits that, while “ratings can enrich our lives by helping us decide” on what and where to eat or drink, increased accessibility of this information could result in increasing inequality between firms. AB InBev owning an ocean of consumer data allows it to stay ahead of the curve, while small or independent labels — those that may have created the trends to begin with — could get washed ashore.

“AB InBev now has location data of beer users, and can target specific beer types in those geolocations,” Stroud says. “This could directly impact sales.”

Is an imperial stout with vanilla and coconut ranking high in Napa but not in San Diego? “They can take other beers out of areas with lesser rating[s],” Stroud says.

Additionally, Greenberg says, “they might also use the platform for data experiments and advertising.” He compares this to “the sorts of subtle experimental tests Facebook has employed … to determine how individuals influence each other. In this case, it could simply mean randomly manipulating some characteristic of a beer to see how it impacts ratings, and then sales.”

Back to that vanilla coconut stout: Are Napa reviewers responding better to vanilla extract or vanilla beans? Vanilla from Indonesia, or Madagascar?

Looking Vs. Recording

It’s worth noting that most brewers are likely monitoring beer reviews to some extent.

“I don’t think brewers really knew what customers wanted until, really, the advent of things like RateBeer and BeerAdvocate,” Sam Richardson, co-founder of Other Half Brewing in Brooklyn, said on the Craft Beer & Brewing podcast in February 2019. “[W]e’re not doing our due diligence on trying to make better products if we don’t look to see what people are excited about.”

There is a difference, though, between looking and recording, as well as the scale to which this information can be used. AB InBev operates 227 breweries and 13,000 retail locations around the world. It also has its own distributors, online retailers, delivery services, homebrewing equipment, hop farms, and beer publishers. Now, it owns our opinions — and we signed up for it.

AB InBev not only has its own robust research and development; it has everyone else’s, too.

The Future Is Beer

According to a recent survey conducted by the Society of Independent Brewers, 98 percent of respondents believe global breweries like Anheuser-Busch InBev cannot make craft beer.  And yet, as Heineken head of craft development Jan-Willem Heeg told The Guardian, “Whether it’s ‘craft’ is really in the eye of the beholder.”

What if craft brewers’ creations, and the opinions of their consumers, are being analyzed by the same corporation?

“Because of their smaller scale, independent brewers are closer to their customers, listen regularly and intently to their needs, and can quickly spot emerging trends in their marketplaces,” Collin writes. “With RateBeer.com, AB InBev now has this same listening channel for consumer attitudes across the entire beer marketplace.”

Once a resource for avid beer consumers, and a digital window into their preferences, the platform becomes a database of “crowdsourced reviews and commentary on the acquirer’s key segment,” Collin writes.

“RateBeer users give up a nice chunk of data,” Stroud says. “And now that nice chunk of data is AB InBev’s, too.”

The article Big Beer, Big Data, and the Big Implications of AB InBev’s RateBeer Acquisition appeared first on VinePair.

source https://vinepair.com/articles/ab-inbev-ratebeer-acquisition-analysis/

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5 airlines with fantastic luggage allowance for college students

5 airlines with fantastic luggage allowance for college students

It is far from a solution that making a choice to review within a several region is extremely demanding, and going to the college which you decide on could possibly be primarily neurological-wracking. The place from your vacation spot state may possibly identify which air travel to utilize as well as option may not be quite broad.coming of age in to kill a mockingbird essay But quite a few airlines deliver journeys around the globe and will deliver college students with extremely attractive and hassle-free ways for secure, relaxing and, most of all, inexpensive air travel.

Uk Air passages

United kingdom Air passages is not really the least expensive air travel, as it possesses a fantastic support ensuring its clients get the finest hovering encounter. It is possible to take full advantage of 60 leaving lounges along with about 90 spouse lounges around the globe. What is perfect for college students is always that plane tickets may be monitored from the cellular application form designed for several mobile phones. Uk Breathing passages present a serious nice luggage allowance and feasible reduced prices for learners.

Us citizen AIRLINES

Us citizen Airlines was of course a exclusive headline ?Air travel of year? by Oxygen Move Planet. It is actually no surprise, as soaring with all of these airlines supplies wonderful coziness due to its clients. Not merely energy stores can be obtained aboard, however, many aircrafts can feature with possessing the chance to deliver Wi-Fi in the journey. You can find a certain luggage allowance guidelines which is required to be looked at beforehand; even so, Us citizen Airlines is among one of individuals soaring firms that can make a price reduction for undergraduate people.

TURKISH AIRLINES

For 6 decades Turkish Airlines was benefiting from an prize ?The european countries?s Very best Air carrier?. This name was approved with the most highly regarded customer survey business, which means this echoes amounts. You would possibly really benefit from an in-air travel amusement, for instance video clips, computer games, tunes, instructional video clips and many more. In case you are each student that is eager to find out more and its desperate to start to see the environment, we have a fantastic program to apply your flight terminal transportation time by looking at Istanbul. The totally free visit should be set up before hand, nevertheless it can offer an excellent probability to expend your transportation time with delight and educationally beneficial. Naturally that reductions in price for individuals can be established.

EMIRATES

Emirates is really an overseas air travel of Dubai. On the other hand, it really is well known worldwide, and in the united states its airplanes take flight from 12 America towns dealing with about 150 places world-wide. The flight is well known not just to its welcome but in addition for responsibility of learner journey requires. Travellers can benefit from in-journey amusement, however, most essentially, this air carrier presents reductions for individuals.

Touring offshore as a possible overseas pupil can be extremely difficult, but to help make it trouble-no cost, the preceding analysis is needed. There are a number of points that need considering prior to vacationing overseas by jet. Hopefully the fact that number of the airlines, which get undergraduate wants in mind, is usually beneficial, and will also build your trip uncomplicated and relaxed.

Does Ludwig Mies vehicle der Rohe, Daniel Libeskind, Richard Meier and SOM seem familiarized for your needs? Should they do, this information is surely for yourself. As an designer is incredibly intriquing, notable and exciting as you will definitely develop wonderful properties away from plans and convert tips in your thoughts within the actuality. Because it is amazing to produce a strategy during the mind it happens to be as difficult to attain.

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Mastering on the structures university wants loads of do the job, proficiency learning and creative thinking enhancing. Our company offers you some pointers to generate your learning in school as successful as is feasible. Take full advantage of your knowledge in the design classes!

Doing A Crew

Doing work in a recording studio with some other wonderful potential future designers is definitely exciting. You and the friends are brimming with incredible concepts and you will do not ever you know what route the undertaking can take within the class job. Therefore, remember that that you are doing work in a team even when you are dealing with your individual venture. The doing the job studio room is the ideal spot to obtain close friends and potential co-workers on your undertakings. When dealing with your developing prepare try and watch other folks?s performing behaviour. Could be you will see your structures true love that you are relaxed to do business with later on. Doing the venture requires too much time and hard work. You will likely continue to be up latter on the studio room combined with other individuals for days. Consequently, be sure you be useful when you are able, as you may need assistance sooner or later on top of that.

A Gourmet coffee Split Received?T Burst The Master Plan

Creative thinking along with a pen are some of the key designer?s applications. However, occasionally the project will get jammed just after doing it a substantial amount of time. Will not pressure you to ultimately focus on the undertaking at 4 a.m. any time you sense that you are outside of suggestions. I am just not stimulating that you waste time ? just sleeping in it. The encouragement may come whilst operating the subsequent a . m . whenever the top of your head is rejuvenated and you also are loaded with vitality. Will not anxiety when there are actually no deserving strategies eventually. A treatment method should be to obtain a minor burst: have a cupful of herbal tea or take a stroll. Just as basic as that! Go searching you and strive to enjoy the type exterior for a long time so you?ll have the strength returning to you.

Performing Education Exercises

Structures university will not be about understanding 24-several hours daily. Tend not to misinterpret me: only determination plus a working hard will cause being successful. Despite the fact that, allow yourself at some time to experience each student lifestyle in class. Interacting with friends and participating in a wide array of actions on college campus will enhance your sociable practical experience. It may well are offered in palm not just in existence but down the road at the office. Never squander the top yrs in your life when you are fresh and enthusiastic.

Leave behind THE Stress Apart

Obstructions and downfalls are definitely the a part of the learning procedure. When you believe the situation is planning terrible, there?s continually an opportunity that could are already a whole lot worse. So, usually do not worry ahead of time if the personal computer monitor converts light blue at the center of the task or possibly a plan doesn?t appear adequate. Almost everything may be set ? you only need to stay relaxed and attempt to obtain an ideal option. You can easily say it, naturally. Alternatively, it isn?t too challenging to put into action frequently. Imagine the better image in your mind and do it!

?Ma?am, ould you love seafood or poultry?? I believed so it didn?t make a difference what dish I selected ? aboard both had been slightly bland. Continue to it had been the ideal chicken breast in doing my daily life simply because I believed it was subsequently the starting of my vacation. Mastering elsewhere could be the use of an individual?s everyday life most replete with feelings, recollections, amazing things and practical experience. What follows is a selection of why a semester in one other nation provides much more excursions and working experience than you are going to possibly get in your house.

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Uncover The Entire world AND Your own self

Mastering overseas is a marvellous venture not just in an international region but for your intrinsic planet. It happens to be tough to reside in an additional nation, as a result it?s obvious why you may encounter many interpersonal, linguistic or ethnic issues. Although, what exactly is the most incredible regarding this ? one never knows what disguised . private components you possess.

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Remaining surrounded with enjoy, treatment and money assist in the home you?ve most likely experienced no requirement to look at arriving at school all on your own or taking good care of home tasks. Residing apart not just at home but distant from associates, widespread practices and nearby offers a good improve to build up dwelling abilities and harden your temper. In the event you?re not certain just what you are amount of and what you are able reach in your life, a semester in another country suits you.

Enhance THE Way of life

The greater it truly is complicated, the greater amount of it is packed with pleasurable. Societal diverseness is the reason why travelling so thrilling and unknown. ?Make an effort to bring the best from the excursion. Put on?t be described as a inactive ? the entire awesome society is looking forward to you while you phase away from the plane?s steps. Conduct a little researching in advance to determine the most helpful locations. Perhaps a art gallery of Ambitions, or Madame Tussaud?s gallery, or Azuma Makoto event of blooms in an ice pack? Nevertheless, if you think there?s not very much time for sightseeing and tour, it is possible to uncover the amazing things of traditions perfect close to you. Individuals surrounding you generate a terrific component of customs and practices too. You may possibly not only enhance your expertise but promote the nice thing about your region among the your brand new associates and university or college buddies.

Producing Expressions Abilities

There?s no much better method to review a vocabulary when compared to its normal natural environment. Think of the scenario if you want to reveal a thing for the duration of lecture but the truth is shortage some words and phrases. The sole reaction you can have is to consider a less complicated approach to talk about it with the aid of acquainted terms. It energies your brain to make synonyms and increases the considering operation. Exercising the dialect daily can be a freedom that you really could not get at your home. Additionally, your school contributes to the dialect is often amazing, the ultimate way to research the colloquial vocabulary is from the discussing our society.

Profession Progression AND Viewpoints

There?s a possibility that you might adore individuals as well as their customs a great deal of which you?ll elect to remain there for the little bit lengthier. An excellent choice is to look for operate soon after graduating. For a few disciplines the job chance is the key reason why learners opt to go overseas. Primarily, it?s accurate concerning the establishing places that put on?t have sufficient monetary assistance through the authorities to carry out research and provide the labs. At any rate, a be aware within your go back to about examining offshore indicators for an manager relating to your critical abilities, widen future, wish to produce and task on your own and adaptability. You may be stunned in the end with the getaway just how many points you?d triumph over.

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