#it spawns multiple characters of multiple organizations of multiple countries

[thedevilsrain]

parallels / foreshadowing in FEwL chapter 14: emperor waltz

[fuckheadwitha]

Listening to Rolling Stone's Top 500 Albums of All Time

Rolling Stone released an updated list of their top 500 albums of all time and being trapped in the purgatory of covid quarantine this seems like the perfect moment to tackle what an almost completely irrelevant former counter-culture institution has to say about music (we can’t actually blame Rolling Stone for this list, a huge number of musicians and critics voted to make it). I am going to listen to every single one of these, all the way through, with a level of attention that's not super intense but I'm definitely not having them on in the background as simple aural wallpaper. Two caveats though: I can make an executive decision to skip any album if I feel the experience is sufficiently miserable, and I'm also going to be skipping the compilation albums that I feel aren't really worth slots (best ofs, etc.). In addition, I will be ordering them as I go, creating a top 500 of the top 500 (it will be less than 500 since we've already established I'm skipping some of these).

Here are 500-490:

#500 Arcade Fire - Funeral

I can already tell I'm going to be at odds with this list if one of the most important albums of my high school years is at the bottom. That being said, I haven't actually given this whole thing a listen since probably the early 2010s, before Arcade Fire fatigue set in and the hipsterati appointed band of a generation just kinda seemed to fade from popular consciousness. I actually dreaded re-experiencing it, since the synthesis of anthemic rock and quirky folk instrumentation which Arcade Fire brought mainstream has now become the common shorthand of insufferable spotify friendly folk pop. Blessedly, the first half of the album easily holds up, largely propelled by dirty fast rhythm guitar, orchestration that's tuneful rather than obnoxious, and lyrics which come off as earnest rather than pretentious. The middle gets a little sappy and “Crown of Love”, a song I definitely used to like, really starts the grate. And then we get to “Wake Up”, whose cultural saturation spawned thousands of dorky indie rock outfits that confused layered strings and horns with power and meaning. This song definitely hasn't survived the film trailers and commercials which it so ubiquitously overlayed, but the line about "a million little gods causing rainstorms, turning every good thing to rust" still attacks the part of my brain capable of sincere emotion. This album is probably going to hold the top spot for a while, because although so many elements of Funeral that made it feel so meaningful, that made it stand out so much in 2004, have been seamlessly assimilated into an intellectually and emotionally bankrupt indie pop industrial complex, the album itself still has a genuine vulnerability and bangers that still manage to rip.

#499

Rufus, Chaka Khan - Ask Rufus

Before she became a name in her own right, Chaka Khan was the voice of the band Rufus, and it’s definitely her voice that shines amongst some spritely vibey funk. That’s not to say that these aren’t some jams on their own. “At Midnight” is a banging opener with a sprint to the finish, and although the explicitly named but kinda boring “Slow Screw Against the Wall” feels weak, this wasn’t really supposed to be an album of barn burners. This was something people put on their vinyl record players while they chilled on vinyl furniture after a night of doing cocaine. “Everlasting Love” is a bop with a bassline like a Sega Genesis game, and the twinkling piano on “Hollywood” adds a playful levity to lyrics that are supposed to be both tackily optimistic about making it big out in LA and subtly realistic about the kind of nightmare world showbiz can be. “Better Days” is another track that manages to be a bittersweet jam with a catchy sour saxophone and playful synths under Chaka Khan’s vamping. This album definitely belongs on a ‘chill funk to study and relax to’ playlist.

#498

Suicide - Suicide

We’ve hit the first album that could be rightly called a progenitor for multiple genres that followed it. Someone could say there’s a self-serving element of this being on a Rolling Stone list (the band was one of the first to adopt the label ‘Punk’ after seeing it in a Lester Bangs article) but the album’s legacy is basically indisputable. EBM, industrial, punk, post-punk, new wave, new whatever all have a genealogy that connects to Suicide, and it’s easy to hear the band in everything that followed. But what the band actually is is two guys, one with an electric organ and one with a spooky voice, doing spooky simple riffs and saying spooky simple things. Simplicity is definitely not a dis here. The opener “Ghost Rider” makes a banger out of four notes and one instrument, and the refrain ‘America America is killing its youth’ is really all the lyrical complexity you need to fucking get it. “Cheree” and “Girl” have almost identical lyrics (‘oh baby’ vs ‘oh girl’) but “Cheree” is more like a fairy tale and “Girl” is more like a sonic handjob. “Frankie Teardrop” has the audacity to tell a ten minute story with its lyrics, but of course there is intermittent, actually way too loud screaming breaking up the narrative of a guy who loses everything then kills his family and himself. The song is basically a novelty, and I think you can probably say the whole album is a novelty between its brevity and character. But for a bite sized snack this album casts a huge shadow.

#497

Various Artists - The Indestructible Beat of Soweto

The fact that this particular compilation always ends up in the canon has a lot to do with the cultural context it existed in, being America’s first encounter with South African contemporary music during the decline of apartheid (it wouldn’t end until a decade later in 1994 with the country’s first multi-racial elections). Music journos often bring up the fact Ladysmith Black Mambazo, the all male choir singing on the album ender “Nansi Imali”, sang on Paul Simon’s Graceland like their virtue is they helped Paul Simon get over his depression and not, like, the actual music. But also like, how is the actual music? Jams. Ubiquitous, hooky guitars propel the songs along with bright choruses over low lead vocals, but I didn’t expect the synthesizer on the bop “Qhude Manikiniki”, nor the discordant hoedown violin on “Sobabamba”. “Holotelani” is a groove to walk into the sunset to.

#496

Shakira - Donde Estan los Ladrones

So this is the first head scratcher on the list. It’s not like it sucks. And I think I prefer this 90s guitar pop driven spanish language Shakira to modern superstar Shakira. But I mean, it’s an album of late nineties latin pop minivan music, with a thick syrupy middle that doesn’t do anything for me. The opener and closer stand out though.  ‘Ciega, Sordomuda’, one of the biggest pop songs of the 90s (it was #1 on the charts of literally every country in Latin America), has a galloping acoustic guitar and horn hits with Shakira’s vocals at their most percussive.

#495

Boyz II Men - II

So, if you were alive in the 90s you know Boyz II Men were fucking huge, and the worst song on the album is the second track “All Around the World”, basically a love song to their own success, and also the women they’ve banged. You can tell it was written specifically so that the crowd could go fucking wild when they heard their state/city/country mentioned in the song, and I’m not gonna double check but I’m sure they hit all fifty states. Once you’re over that hump though you basically have an hour of songs to fuck to. “U Know” keeps it catchy with propulsive midi guitar and synth horns, “Jezzebel” starts with a skit and ends with a richly layered jazz tune about falling in love on a train, and “On Bended Knee” has a Ragnarok Online type beat. Honestly this album can drag, but you’re not supposed to be listening to it alone in a state of analysis, you’re supposed to have it on during a date that’s going really, really well.

#494

The Ronettes - Presenting the Fabulous Ronettes

A singles compilation of the Ronettes, the only ones I immediately recognized were ‘Be My Baby’ and ‘Going to the Chapel of Love’, the latter of which I didn’t know existed since the version of the song I knew was by the Dixie Cups, which was apparently a source of drama since the Ronettes did it first but producer Phil Spector refused to release it. I feel like as a retro trip to sixties girl groups it’s full of enough songs about breaking up (for example “Breaking Up”) getting back together (for example “Breaking Up”) and wanting to get married but you can’t, because you’re a teenager (“So Young”).

#493

Marvin Gaye - Here, My Dear

This album only exists because Marvin was required by his divorce settlement to make it and provide all of the royalties to his ex-wife and motown executive Anna Gordy Gaye. It’s absolutely bizarre, phoned in mid tempo funk whose lyrics range from the passive aggressive (“This is what you wanted right?”) to the petulant (“Why do I have to pay attorney’s fees?”). There is a seething realness here that crosses well past the border of uncomfortable. I don’t think it’s an amazing album to listen to, but it’s an amazing album to exist: Marvin Gaye is legally obligated to throw his own divorce pity party, and everyone's invited.

#492

Bonnie Raitt - Nick of Time

I have never heard of Bonnie Raitt before but apparently this album won several grammys including album of the year in 1989 and sold 5 million copies, which I guess goes to show that no award provides less long term relevance than the grammys. The story around the album is pretty heartwarming, it was her first massive hit after a career of whiffs, and Bonnie Raitt herself is apparently a social activist and neat human being. I say all this because this sort of 80s country blues rock doesn't really connect with me, but the artist obviously deserves more than that. I unequivocally like the title track though, a hand-clap backed winding electric piano groove about literally finding love before your eggs dry up.

#491

Harry Styles - Fine Line

I do not think I have ever heard a one direction song because I am an adult who only listens to public radio. I’m totally open to pop bands or boy bands or boy band refugee solo artists, but I don’t like anything here. It’s like a mixtape of the worst pop trends of the decade, from glam rock that sounds like it belongs in a car commercial to folky bullshit that sounds like it belongs in a more family focused car commercial. This gets my first DNP (Does Not Place).

#490

Linda Ronstadt - Heart Like a Wheel

Another soft-rock blues and country album which just doesn’t land with me. But the opener “You’re No Good” is like a soul/country hybrid which still goes hard and the title track hits with the lyrics “And it's only love and it's only love / That can wreck a human being and turn him inside out”.

Current Ranking, which is weirdly almost like an inverse of the rolling stones list so far;

[beans-and-rice101]

DO YOU SEE THE WAY HIS JAW WOBBLES WITH HIS GROWL AND THEY DROOL AND HIS SQUINT OH FUCK I WANT RIOT TO VORE ME!!!

RANT

My biggest complaint about Venom was the sheer lack of physical presence from the Symbiotes. All of them. Riot is actually the first Symbiote we see, bonding to the paramedic just after the crash. And yet we don't SEE him until the third act - Venom himself doesn't come into the picture until the end of the first act, which I've seen lots of others point out - which gives us NO time to learn anything about him other than what Venom says about him. He's a leader (is he a general? An alpha? We may never know), he's aggro and he's much stronger than Venom; In the comics, it is stated that each new generation is stronger than the last, but the movie does nothing to clarify this. Are Riot and Venom related? Perhaps Venom was once the alpha/leader/whateverthefuck and when Riot was spawned he challenged him and won? That would explain Venom's "loser" status, having been beaten by his own offspring, further explains his being on the mission(as ex-leader he may have been there to advise?), and may explain Venom's resorcefulness(Venom uses nearby debris and objects in fights multiple times in the movie, while Riot uses a beam only once. Of course, he himself is a weapon, so that comment is kinda null). Or perhaps the level of power is dictated by training or hereditary traits? Either way, the movie explains nothing. It simply expects us to accept Riot's "status" and not question why Venom had doubts in the first place.

Another unanswered question is Riot's eating habits. This seems odd but bear with me. The most noticeable instance and the one that irked me in particular was the scene where we first see Riot's true form; the interrogation of Eddie. During this scene, Eddie starts off by lashing out at Treece, insults Carlton multiple times, and then insults Riot himself. TO HIS FACE. A N D Y E T Eddie remains alive. Riot doesn't punish him at all. No slicing, no biting, not even lifting him up by the neck, chair and all, to show off his size. NOTHING! Riot could easily have disposed of Eddie, gotten live food and (unknowingly) left Venom without his boyfriend host. I suppose this may have conveyed just how insignificant Eddie was to Riot but??? He roared in his face in annoyance??? Carlton stated out loud that Eddie was now useless. But left Treece, who had so far been of no help, to dispose of him. The next scene we see Riot is when one off Carlton's employees attempts to abort the launch. Riot, in an obvious show of force, stabs him through the chest and then destroys the rest of the room. But again. No eating? He doesn't even take a hostage to eat on the way? My main issue lies in the fact that we are shown Venom being CONSTANTLY hungry, going as far as eating Eddie's organs due to lack of proper food. Riot spent the majority of the movie traveling cross country. Did he eat anyone? We aren't shown it. Did he resort to feeding off his hosts? Not shown. Did Riot even eat at all!? He doesn't show signs of weakness or hunger, only bloodlust, which I find strange as all fuck!

I saw a lot of potential in Riot, and for the time he was on screen, he made me just as excited as Venom. I wish they'd have done more with him, given him more character, anything! Alas, Drake was the talker, it seems. Ah, well. At least I still have my shiny shithead~

[multiverseforger]

The Dragon was found in a burning field by Lt. Frank Darling. At the time, Chicago was being terrorized by villainous "superfreaks" (Larsen's collective term for superpowered characters), namely the criminal gang called the Vicious Circle, led by the mysterious Overlord. Realizing that the Dragon's superhuman powers would be a terrific boon to the police in battling the Vicious Circle, Darling asks the Dragon to join the police. At first, the Dragon refuses and takes a job in the warehouse of Darling's cousin. After a number of serious incidents, including the murder of the superhero Mighty Man and the brutal mauling of SuperPatriot, Darling takes drastic action. He pays Vicious Circle members to threaten his cousin in the hope that it will prompt Dragon to reconsider his offer. Although this achieves Darling's desired result, the two criminals, Skullface and Hardware, kill Darling's cousin and detonate a bomb in his warehouse. The Dragon joins the police, but Darling is now under the thumb of the Vicious Circle, causing him to steer the Dragon away from Vicious Circle activities.

Later, the Dragon gains a girlfriend, Debbie Harris, only to see her shot dead in his apartment by her jealous ex-boyfriend Arnold Dimple. The Dragon falls into a deep depression as a result. Dimple returns to plague the Dragon on several occasions as the Fiend, who makes a deal with the devil to gain supernatural powers.

Chicago PDEdit

As well as being kept away from Vicious Circle activities, the Dragon was loaned out to other police forces across the country to help them in dealing with superpowered criminals. While on loan to the NYPD, he first met the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, whom he assisted multiple times in later comics. Also during his time in New York, a large prison break occurred and a number of powerful and dangerous criminals were killed. This is the first time the Chicago PD lost a star witness against the Overlord; Hardware, who intended to give evidence against the criminal, was shot dead.

Though Captain Darling's Freak Force program failed, the Dragon carried on a lasting relationship with one of its former members: Rapture, a former prostitute with electrical powers, who would later have his child. Meanwhile, the Overlord's second-in-command Cyberface broke away from the Vicious Circle to form a rival organization. Cyberface was later arrested but, like Hardware before him, he was killed before he was able to testify. Ultimately, Cyberface was resurrected and later led the Vicious Circle under the control of the Horde, another recurring villain.

Later, the Dragon made his first attempt to arrest the Overlord, who easily defeated him and left him impaled upon a church spire. The Dragon was believed to be dead, but regenerated from his wounds afterwards. This is not the only time the Dragon was missing and presumed dead; it becomes both a recurring theme and running joke in the series. During his recovery, the Dragon was attacked by a person under the mental control of a strange worm. Under the domination of this creature, the Dragon went on a rampage during which many innocent bystanders are injured or killed. He was finally stopped by the vigilante Mace, and the worms were traced to the Horde. The rampage resulted in a massive negative backlash against the Chicago Police Department, and the Dragon's biggest naysayer, R. Richard Richards, took this opportunity to attack the Dragon with a robotic weapon dubbed the "Dragon Slayer". Later, the Dragon encountered the She-Dragon, a young superpowered woman who modeled herself after him.

Following an attack on the police station and the murder of Cyberface (who is later resurrected), the Dragon led a SWAT team to finally take down the Overlord. The battle was harsh, and every member of the SWAT team perished except for the Dragon, who was skinned alive. Even in his weakened state, the Dragon finally unmasked the Overlord as Mafia boss Antonio Seghetti, who subsequently falls to his death.

After aiding the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles for a second time, the Dragon narrowly survived another attack by the Fiend, which left him nearly crippled after his bones healed incorrectly. To make matters worse, Chicago was in the midst of a brutal gang war that arose as a result of the Overlord's death. The Vicious Circle, once kept tightly organized by the Overlord, had since separated into several factions that were battling for criminal supremacy. The Dragon was found by a friendly cabbie and Mighty Man, who used his super-strength to re-set the Dragon's bones. After recuperating from this ordeal, the Dragon fought another prison break, this time in a maximum security facility torn open by a newly-resurrected Cyberface. This battle marked the end of the gang war, and Cyberface assumed command of the Vicious Circle.

This victory was followed by difficult times for the Dragon. After a number of crossovers with other Image Comics characters including WildStar and The Maxx, the Dragon encountered Spawn and ultimately was sent to Hell by the Fiend. The Fiend can possess living bodies, and his powers are fueled by the capacity for hate of those possessed. His last victim was Debbie Harris' mother, who was unaware that the demon possessing her was the spirit of her daughter's murderer. While in Hell, a fist-fight occurred between God and the devil. As God finally overcomes the devil, he warned his defeated opponent: "Don't fuck with God." Just as the amnesiac Dragon begins to ask about his origins, God returned him to Earth.

Afterward, things grow steadily worse for the Dragon. He was unable to save ill fellow officer Phil Dirt with a blood transfusion. Meanwhile, Rapture (pregnant with the Dragon's child) suffered internal damage when the baby kicked—the unborn child having inherited its father's strength—and Rapture entered premature labour. The Dragon was not able to reach the hospital in time, and the baby appeared to have died. However, in truth, the infant was taken by the Covenant of the Sword, a shadowy organization bent on world takeover.

After a crossover with Hellboy, the Dragon was caught up in the Mars Attacks (Image) and Mars Attacks/Savage Dragon event, in which he was responsible for destroying the Martians' bases on Mars using a Martian growth ray. This resulted in their retreat and possible extinction. While he was gone, the Vicious Circle had taken control of the city. Returning home to a devastated Chicago, the Dragon was captured and publicly crucified by the Circle. The Dragon survived and defeated most of the villains, but the Dragon's new superior, Captain Mendoza, suspended him for having been missing for so long. During his suspension, the Dragon spent a few months as a bounty hunter and helped rebuild the city after the Martian invasion.

S.O.S. yearsEdit

Behind the scenes during this period, Rob Liefeld departed from Image Comics. The Mars Attacks Image event and the Shattered Image crossover were used as a way to phase out characters created by Liefeld from the collective "Image Universe", including Youngblood. In the pages of Savage Dragon, Larsen has the Dragon approached by the United States government to form a superhuman task-force to replace Youngblood. After negotiations, the team is dubbed the Special Operations Strikeforce, or S.O.S. This team includes much of the super-powered supporting cast of the book, including Jennifer Murphy, a super-strong, invulnerable single mother first introduced in The Savage Dragon: Sex & Violence miniseries. Despite being the founding member of the team, the Dragon spends little time as a member.

Later, on a dying parallel Earth, a murderous despot named Darklord begins to swap parts of his Earth with parts from the Dragon's. The Dragon leads a team of S.O.S. members, including Jennifer Murphy and his former girlfriend Rapture, to this world to stop Darklord. Rapture is killed by Darklord, and the Dragon and Jennifer are separated from the rest of the team. While the remaining members of S.O.S. manage to stop the transfer and escape back to their own Earth, the Dragon and Jennifer are forced to find their own way off of the dying planet. While they make their escape, Dragon attempts to find this Earth's Rapture, only to find that world's Debbie Harris instead.

The threesome is lost in space for some months, and the Dragon is once again presumed dead, eventually landing on Godworld, where Debbie dies but is revived as an angel. The Dragon and Jennifer are caught in a battle between Thor and Hercules, and then sent back to Earth by All-God; Debbie does not return with them. Following this, the Dragon fights a Dr. Doom-like armored dictator before returning to Chicago on leave and striking up a casual sexual relationship with his former partner Alex Wilde.

In the giant-sized issue #50, many of the series subplots are resolved, and in a climactic battle among most of the series cast, the Dragon is killed by the mystic Abner Cadaver; however, the wizard is murdered midway through this by William Jonson, and the Dragon is bonded with him.

William Jonson and the new OverlordEdit

Main article: She-Dragon

The series changed its title to Savage She-Dragon for five issues, featuring her as the main character during an attack by the God Squad to retrieve the various super-freaks that were descendants of gods. This led to the S.O.S. returning to Godworld and its accidental destruction by S.O.S. member and former Deadly Duo member Kid Avenger. During this time, William Jonson realizes he and the Dragon are sharing bodies, and shortly thereafter the Dragon finds he has the ability to take over Jonson's body, so they become a masked superhero. While he is helping the She-Dragon, Jonson's fiancé, Rita Medermade, is kidnapped by Jonson's brother Ralph and they both encounter an individual wearing the Overlord armor. While rescuing her, Jonson is shot, Ralph is killed by the Overlord, and the Dragon is given full possession of his body.

Abner Cadaver returns—made up of parts of dead God Squad characters, Darklord, and the Dragon's arm—and engages in battle with Fon~Ti, the mystical being who was once the Horde. After Fon~Ti's victory, he separates the Dragon from Jonson and returns the Dragon to his normal body. Having admitted their love, Jennifer and the Dragon begin to date. After a fight with Impostor, posing as Rapture, the Dragon proposes to Jennifer, and their wedding follows in the next issue, in which Jennifer is apparently killed by the new Overlord. In truth, she was replaced with Impostor beforehand by the Covenant of the Sword. Though he had only been semi-active before, the Dragon officially resigns from the S.O.S. and became the legal guardian of Jennifer's daughter Angel. In the following issue, the Overlord subplot is tied up after the Dragon defeats his new team. The Dragon kills the Overlord, and he is revealed as supporting character Vic Nixon, who had worn the armor to spy on Rita; the armor then corrupted him. After this, the Overlord armor is destroyed.

Single parent and Damian DarklordEdit

Following the resolution of the new Overlord plot, the series spent most of its issues wrapping up all the remaining subplots. This was preparation for the eventual revamp in issue #75, with the Dragon as a single parent looking after Angel and eventually losing a custody battle for her because of his dangerous lifestyle. The Dragon dated a television producer named Marcy Howard, resumed his casual affair with Alex Wilde, and dated Ann Stevens before she is murdered, while a number of super-powered children and adults were kidnapped by the Covenant of the Sword.

After losing custody of Angel and Ann's murder, the Dragon and Mighty Man (now former Freak Force member Dart) began searching for the missing SuperPatriot. This led them to the Covenant of the Sword, which had in its possession the SuperPatriot, Jennifer, and the Dragon's child. The Dragon and Mighty Man are captured, but eventually rescued in a large battle similar to the one in issue #50 in which a number of characters are killed.

It was revealed that the Covenant was formed by Damian Darklord, a time traveler who was the enemy of a vigilante named Super-Tough. This man became Darklord and started life as Damian, the son of Liberty, SuperPatriot's daughter who was raped during the Mars Attacks event. Damian also built and detonated the "Nega Bomb" made up of super-powered individuals that de-powered every non-natural "freak" in the world. The Dragon then kills him.

This Savage WorldEdit

With issue #76, the series changed into a Jack Kirby-inspired post-apocalyptic/dystopian story. The Dragon is stuck in a new reality he created by killing the infant Damian Darklord, which prevented him from going back in time, and with most of the mutated and monstrous populace of this world trying to kill him. The Dragon finds his house to be a crater and believes Jennifer and Angel are dead. The Dragon has encounters with WildStar (Image Comics) and Madman and finds out that during his time possessed, without Mace to stop him, he went on a much longer rampage, killing Alex Wilde. The Dragon also discovers that Cyberface is now President of America and has the SuperPatriot under his control. The Dragon organizes a group of old enemies and allies to defeat Cyberface. After fulfilling a commitment to Rex Dexter—who helped him overthrow Cyberface—by saving his daughter, the Dragon returns a hero and finds his way back to Chicago and is reunited with Jennifer and Angel, who had in fact survived.

The Dragon then finds his old world had survived as well as the Savage World. His counterpart from Darkworld, this Dragon, was defeated, but the Dragon's old Earth was destroyed by a world-devouring Galactus-like being named Universo, despite the best efforts of the Dragon and his son, Malcolm, who are left floating in space after its destruction. The Dragon is able to save Alex Wilde from that world. After this, the Dragon marries Jennifer and lives with her, Angel, and Angel's new "pet", Mr. Glum, who is secretly plotting to kill the Dragon.

To coincide with the 2004 U.S. presidential election, Larsen created a corrupt politician Ronald Winston Urass, who engineers a successful write-in campaign to elect the Dragon President of the United States. However, once his criminal intents and relationship to the criminal Dread Knight are exposed, the Supreme Court disallows these votes. This leads a vengeful Urass to attack the Dragon using the armor of his father, the Dread Knight, who was an old foe of the SuperPatriot's.

Behind the scenes, Erik Larsen was made publisher of Image Comics, causing a nearly year-long publishing gap between issues #121 and #122 of the series. The title resumed regular publication in January 2006, with the first story involving a vengeful scientist from Iraq sending an almost unstoppable robot to kill the President.

Mr. Glum's plans for world domination were realized using the power of the God Gun (a weapon able to grant three wishes to its user). Glum fires the gun and asserts his control of the planet while the Dragon is incapacitated in a hospital, having lost his rapid healing abilities. Glum was, at the time, on the run with the Dragon's stepdaughter Angel after he caused her to grow to more than 100 feet tall, and she accidentally destroyed her house and crippled her mother. The two become partners and Angel adopts a murderous, merciless personality, while Glum set the people of Earth to work with the impossible task of making the planet look like his face (as his old world did).

The Dragon is revived with his healing abilities restored and is able to defy Glum's control because of a loophole in his wish that means he cannot control extraterrestrials. The Dragon is unable to get close enough to Glum due to the various robots and villains Glum has under his control. However, the intervention of a number of characters from the comic series Wanted, who had come to steal the God Gun, allows the Dragon to destroy the weapon, negating Glum's wish.

During the story, Vanguard's spaceship is destroyed, freeing Universo who was imprisoned on it. He begins to suck the energy from Earth once more. Universo and its herald are killed by Solar Man, a Superman-like hero who became murderous and was wished out of existence using the God Gun, a wish undone by the Dragon's destruction of the weapon. The She-Dragon also returns from Dimension X with the Angel from the Dragon's original world of origin. They are being pursued by the Darkworld Dragon and a new villainess, Battleaxe.

Back to BasicsEdit

After Angel and Malcolm's return to the new world, the Savage Dragon is left to face a new array of troubles. With Jennifer having disappeared and presumed dead, two superstrong kids ill-equipped to face the return to normalcy after months spent in isolation (Angel has learning deficits and Malcolm is nearly illiterate), and no income to care for his family, the Savage Dragon returns to the police force.

Meanwhile, a new Overlord takes over the Vicious Circle, resuming his attacks over the city, and the Savage Dragon, hospitalized after a fight, is ambushed and killed by a new freak with the power to steal the memories and the life force of his enemies. Due to the huge amount of lifeforce held by the Dragon and his powerful immune system, the freak absorbs all of his memories and physical characteristic, becoming essentially a new iteration of the Dragon. The Impostor Dragon has the remains of his former body packed in a preservative solution by Rex, and resumes his normal life.

Even this new lease at life appears to be short-lived, as the new Overlord, after trying to bargain with the Savage Dragon for his allegiance, literally blows his head and torso away: the Impostor Dragon, brought in the Vicious Circle laboratories for analysis, revives himself as a crazed, unstoppable, deformed powerhouse with conflicting memories, bent on nourishing himself on the superpowered Angel and Malcolm.

Still knowing nothing about the actions of the Impostor Dragon, Angel and Malcolm seek a way to revive the body of the Savage Dragon, despite being faced by Rex with the prospect of creating nothing more than a soulless being or a mind-addled monstrosity, due to the brain matter lost during the attack. They set off to ask Nurse Stevens for the last blood sample of the Dragon, hoping to use its regenerative abilities to speed up the recovery and the resurrection of the Savage Dragon corpse. The Vicious Circle, however, overpowers them, stealing the blood sample to create an army of Dragon clones.

As a last resort, after being faced by the Impostor Dragon who attacks Rex and is frozen in the preservative solution, Rex and Malcolm agree to transfuse part of Malcolm's blood into the Dragon's corpse. The Dragon revives, but has no memories of his former life.

Dragon WarsEdit

Concerned about the new, harder attitude of the Dragon, the new Overlord sends the Dark Dragon after the Savage Dragon. Showing a callous disregard for human life, the Savage Dragon ultimately reveals to have regained every shred of his past memory as Kurr the Emperor (see above), and after beating up the Dark Dragon, he eats his brains, killing him for his defiance.

He then proceeds to alienate from himself Malcolm, planning vengeance over the Vicious Circle, now using the Dragon's blood to empower his members. The new Overlord decides to strike a truce with the police department as seen in #159.[7] He lends the help of all the superfreaks in his command to stop Kurr. As the last attempt fails,[8] Kurr sheds his facade, proclaiming his identity and retelling his origins (see below), for the first time in-universe speaking, to Malcolm and Angel. Battling his way through several enemies, including Vanguard, an unnamed Shapeshifter taking the She-Dragon's appearance, Glum, the original Angel, and other friends and foes from his past, Kurr cleanses Earth of human life using a special venom.

After he battles and kills Malcolm, the Impostor Dragon wakes up, this time with the Savage Dragon's personality fully in charge, and avenges his offspring and world by killing the Kurr-Dragon. Damian Overlord proceeds to restore his original look and body, giving the Savage Dragon the opportunity to greet his species and leave the cleansed Earth in their care.

Distraught by the consequences of Kurr's actions, he pleads with Damian Overlord for the power to travel back in time and kill Kurr before he unleashes the potion, thus creating another divergent timeline where his family is still alive. Damian grants his wish, mercilessly killing him shortly thereafter as "Savage Dragon is a dangerous wildcard for the world". Despite a red herring implying Damian transplanted Savage's personality into WildStar's body, in the "restored" timeline Kurr's alien son, along with a "mysterious gentleman", takes away Virus' corpse (as he is now calling the Impostor Dragon), taking it on to his spaceship, where Virus and Kurr are used to return the Savage Dragon to life. The Savage Dragon decides to keep his resurrection hidden to Earthlings, and to make amends with his species, offers to help them to find a suitable planet.

After the Dragon Wars, Malcolm Dragon has taken the Savage Dragon's role, along with his sister Angel, acting as protectors of the city. A schism in the superfreaks has brought the Overlord working with the police department, with a part of the freaks still engaging in villainy, and Malcolm to keep them in check.[

[ecommercewebsitecompany]

Designing Your Ecommerce Website

Shopping has ended up being a vital part of modern living. Going through plenty of items without leaving the conveniences of your office or home, or while waiting in serial or on a bus, makes shopping a convenient means to shop in a modern-day standard.

Some sellers see shopping as a hazard to physical stores. Smarter merchants learned to tap e-commerce and also not fear it to increase sales.

Newcomers are in the retail industry also found it much easier to discover an area in the highly competitive field thanks to shopping. It is just most likely to reveal that e-commerce is an essential part of any type of retail organization today.

We have created a thorough guide that can assist you to begin your own shopping company - and also not simply any kind of e-commerce website, but a practical one at that.

Parts of this guide:

- Designing Your Ecommerce Website

- Choosing Domain Names

- Choosing and Comparing Different eCommerce Platforms

- 24 Ways to Make Your First Sale

- Setting up and also Managing Your Ecommerce Analytics

- Shipping and Fulfillment 101

- Other Web Resources

Designing Your Ecommerce Website

In its most basic form, a shopping website is much like any other website-- offered a name, established on a platform, loaded with appropriate web content, and afterward made available to end-users. What makes it unique is its objective, and you will certainly require to design it by doing this.

Here are 10 shopping design principles that will assist your best eCommerce website in becoming a full-fledged shopping store.

1. Develop your very own one-of-a-kind design

Providing your site its very own one-of-a-kind character will aid set it besides the competitors. Naturally, this must be performed in a great and clever means. Consider your shopping website as a physical shop. Offer it a one-of-a-kind design that can entice your consumers to find back repeatedly. Make visiting your shopping business experience in itself.

2. Recognize your target audience as well as design for them

Companies of any nature need to determine their target market. That way, you can do your best to fit them. Targeting multiple markets is likewise not a good idea for organizations that simply started.

Select a target market initially, make sure that your items are appealing to them, as well as design your site in methods that can attract them to it.

3. Ensure that your eCommerce website is easy to use

Navigation is essential for shopping web sites. Your site probably has 10 to a few hundred and even countless items that you don't have the moment to scroll through with potential buyers. Organize your products right into classifications, as well as provide a search feature so the customers would certainly be able to go straight to items that they desire.

4. Ensure site security in any way times

Shopping companies are most commonly targeted by cyber-felons not only as a result of the money can be found in yet likewise with the consumer info that these on the internet offenders unleash a lot of chaos with. Your responsibility is to include in your design the guarantee that your consumers are risk-free as they transact with you. And do not just claim it - do it!

5. Maintain your shopping site light

Some individuals exaggerate their e-commerce web sites. They fill it heavy items, large-sized pictures, and also flash documents, which at one side makes their sites rather enticing, but on an additional side makes it slower, unresponsive, prone to collisions, and not friendly with mobile devices.

Because it will just turn your clients away, visual appeals should never compromise your eCommerce website's efficiency. Don't get lugged away with decorations, alright?

6. Think about minimalism

One method to help keep your eCommerce website light is by practicing minimalism—always goal to be easy as not to bewilder your customers. Get rid of unnecessary as well as repetitive components. Don't utilize as well much variation of shades and font styles.

7. The Search option is really vital

We mentioned the search function as part of enhancing user-friendliness; however, we would love to discuss it once again since its value deserves reiterating. The search function can significantly distinguish your site from those that do not have it.

8. Be severe with the item descriptions

The product summary is just one of the most underestimated aspects of eCommerce websites. Unlike physical shops, shopping websites can not give the customers an on-hand experience of the items prior to acquiring. This is among the downsides of shopping. Counter this by providing product descriptions that can give the clients a look as well as a virtual feel of the items for sale. Your consumers would really value websites that do this.

9. Put your brand name to work

The function of your brand name is to give identity to your organization. Maintain your brand noticeable on all pages, and keep your brand name symbols consistent. This will certainly assist your consumers in recognizing your brand from a pool of various other brands. Develop your brand as well as make it benefit you.

10. Use the power of Call to Action

You started your organization to enjoy revenues. Your website will certainly have many site visitors, and a great deal of these would certainly consider your item offerings, yet not all would eventually buy.

One method to aid you in enhancing your conversion price is by utilizing a contact us to action. Contact us to action is a term that implies to welcome people to make an instant response. In your situation, these actions inevitably bring about a purchase.

Certainly, saying "Buy Now" will not precisely work as-is, so you can take advantage of various other methods like "Claim this Exclusive Discount."

When developing your shopping shop and you are sure to come up with a brilliantly-designed site, always remember these steps.

Picking Domain Names

Selecting a name is always a difficult task to accomplish. It may be called a spawn, a pet, a vehicle, a personality in a video game, an organization, and when it comes to shopping sites, your domain. When you recognize that this would be permanent, you actually just can't recklessly come up with a name particularly. By the time that you are establishing your eCommerce site, we assume that you already know the kinds of items that you will sell, along with a concept of what your company will be called. We'll concentrate on selecting your domain name.

By the time that you are setting up your eCommerce site, we assume that you already understand the kinds of items that you will undoubtedly market, in addition to a concept of what your business will be called. We'll focus on selecting your domain name. Your system would certainly more than likely deal you a domain name that includes the platform name, or yourstorename.yourchosenplatform.com. You also have the alternative to get a domain that does not include your system as well as goes directly.

Your system would more than likely deal you a domain that consists of the platform name, or yourstorename.yourchosenplatform.com. You also have the option to acquire a domain name that does not include your system and goes straight as yourstorename.com.

When developing a domain, you should think about the adhering to why it is important to assume it ultimately:

1. Your domain is your permanent online address

Your domain is your permanent address on the large internet. This is what your customers would have to browse to get to you as well as your items. You can do a whole lot with your site because you can do a great deal with your home. However, the address stays the very same. So think of an on the internet address that you want to carry over time.

2. Your domain can help in raising your brand name awareness

Your store name is the greatest piece of your domain name. Again, you can select to buy a domain regarding not include your platform, and this can better boost your brand name understanding. We recommend that you invest the extra investment since if you do include your platform, you would certainly share the spotlight with it, and you are aiding advertise it free of charge.

3. Your domain can help gain your consumers' count on

Having your very own domain assists ensure consumers that you are a reputable organization. Investing a little bit a lot more can assist in strengthening your reliability, so why not?

We wish that we were able to encourage you to really take that extra action to get your own domain name-- the one that does not include your system-- because it genuinely deserves it.

Currently, below are some things to keep in mind when generating a domain for your e-commerce company:

1. Make it brief as well as appealing

Make sure that your domain name is short, very easy to mean, simple to articulate, and memorable enough to be born in mind.

2. Play with words to find up with a unique domain

One way ahead up with a distinctly yours domain, and at the same time, appealing and memorable. Consider precisely how YouTube and Facebook are such distinct names. Ideally, you as well will be able to generate a domain that will one day be as popular as these two are.

3. Pick a high-level domain name that functions ideal for you

Typically, websites opt for ". com" top-level domain; however, you may take into consideration country-specific domain names if you mean to maintain your service in a specific nation.

4. Choose a domain name that you can expand with

Due to the fact that you are simply beginning, your items may be restricted at the minute, yet this is. You should pick a domain name that

will certainly still be able to represent products that you might wish to contribute to your offerings in the future. Better yet, don't make use of a domain that is as well restrictive, so if you do add products, your domain will not make your consumers think that you do not use such items.

5. Keep it legal

Ensure that your domain is not as well close with a rival and that you do not go against any individual's trademark.

6. Seek the help of name generators

There is a lot of tools out there that can assist you in coming up with possible names for your service, which in turn will certainly assist you in creating a domain name. Use name generators to help you brainstorm; however, it would still be ideal if you can design a domain name that is distinctly yours.

Your products may be limited right now; however, this is because you are just beginning. You must choose a domain that will still be able to represent items that you could wish to include in your offerings in the future.

Better yet, do not utilize domains that are as well restrictive, so if you do include items, your domain won't make your clients believe that you do not provide such things.

[rewindfrequency]

Organ Trail Complete Edition Review

Organ Trail: Complete Edition Review

Developed and Published by: The Men Who Wear Many Hats

Played on: Microsoft Windows

Also Available on: Linux, PS4, PS VITA, IOS, and Android

Organ Trail is a parody of the much-beloved Oregon Trail. This game flips the classic Oregon trail on its head. As with all rogue-like games there isn’t much story here. It’s a straight to the point plot of you and four of your friends (whom you can name) are stuck in Washington D.C. when the zombie apocalypse starts. You receive the help of a man named Clements, who teaches you how the game works and drives you to D.C. in his trusty station wagon. But within the first five minutes of the game, he dies and you’re on your own. Shortly afterwards you hear on the radio that D.C. is going to be nuked by the military and the only safe place in America is “Safe Haven,” which happens to be in Salem, Oregon. In this game, while the car is on the road you don’t do any actual driving. The car moves on the path you set it on. You can choose where you want to go after you are done visiting your current stop. The majority of the gameplay centers on your character walking around shooting zombies or bandits. Shooting in this game is old school, requiring you to pull back on the mouse and release to fire a shot.

The gameplay mechanics are the same as Oregon Trails with a zombie twist on them. The wagon is replaced with a station wagon, your family is replaced with your friends, outposts are now cities and random stops, and hunting is now scavenging. Most of the gameplay takes place in the car. Since you are driving from D.C. to Salem, you need to stock up on supplies. At the beginning of the game you get a certain number of points that you use to stock up on supplies. You can stock up on fuel, food, car parts, et cetera. The higher the difficulty the less points you get. In the complete edition of the game you have many branching paths that allow you to travel all over the country. Most stops are in the “danger zones,” which are areas with high amounts of radiation that wear on your party’s health. There are two types of locations you can find in this game: cities and locales. In cities there is always an auto shop where you can get your car fixed and buy new tires and so on. In locales there are combat trainers who can teach you “skills” such as how to make your bullets travel faster and how to find medkits while scavenging. You can pick up jobs at these road stops, such as fending off an approaching zombie horde or finding a package someone left behind. The best type of job to take is graveyard. Even though it’s the most difficult job to take, it can really be exciting. In this mini-game you are stuck within a graveyard and have to retrieve a package. As you run towards the package the dead rise from their graves and chase after you. Not only do you have to be accurate with your shots but you also have to find the best way out while more and more zombies rise from the grave. This game mode is only in the complete edition. No matter the difficulty you play on, these missions have their own difficulty levels that increase as you go west. A big part of road stops however is that you can rest at them. As you drive on the path to Safe Haven your friends take damage. You can mitigate that damage by giving them more food per hour, but that has its own issues.

On the road to Safe Haven you will eventually run out of food or scrap metal needed to fix the car. You can get more food and scrap and other items by scavenging. Buying these items is possible at all road stops, however this can cost a lot of money and you can find that while scavenging as well. This is probably the most boring part of the game. Essentially, you walk around a box with little bits of environment thrown in and pick up items that randomly appear out of nowhere. If you wait for the afternoon hours when there aren’t many zombies, you only have to shoot a few zombies and maybe the occasional bandit. Because this is something you have to do constantly, it can get real boring really fast.

You can also trade with other survivors. Most of the time the deals they give you don’t make any sense. If you run out of fuel they’ll try to make a deal such as “I’ll give you 1 fuel if you give me 25 scrap”. On the flip side, they also give deals that disadvantage them such as “I’ll give you 5 fuel for 10 ammo”. Ammo is very common, by the way. Over time your car will break down from driving so you can fix it in one of two ways. You can either use scrap metal and play a time based mini-game to fix the car or use money to pay someone at a city auto-shop to fix it for you.

While playing Organ Trail you will encounter random events on the road. These are both comical and serious. One time I walked into a church where are man asked me to shoot him to get his soul into heaven. Another time I saw a mad scientist get consumed by the Box O’Zombies device. These events are enjoyable because they make you feel like a real survivor having to deal with other people who are suffering and having to make decisions that affect your party. But I’ve noticed through many of my playthroughs that while situations rarely repeat, they are few and far between. These random encounters are probably the best part of the game and there are so few. And if you detour into the extra areas in the complete edition sometimes they don’t happen at all, even though the steam store page says there are more random encounters.

But Organ Trail does make up for it somewhat by adding in tombstones. You also encounter these randomly on the road. They are messages written by the developers and kickstarters of the game. They tend to be funny and if you’re lucky you can get a car upgrade out of them.

Even though random encounters are fun and all, another factor that makes this game so funny is what happens to your friends throughout the game. Not only do they get infected with cholera and super dysentery, they also react to their surroundings. “Ben sits on 4 scrap and ruins it,” “Michael is taken hostage by a bandit and you ‘accidently’ shoot him.” They don’t help you in combat. They don’t help you get supplies. They don’t really do anything for you because if you die the game is over. The only time they help is when you need to navigate a zombie horde or when they provide cover fire at the end of the game (Which I won’t spoil).

The normal story mode ends once your team enters Safe Haven but there is still more content to play through. They have endless mode, which is like the core game except it doesn’t end until you die. During this mode you are far more likely to encounter random events and tombstones than in the normal game. In this mode, instead of starting with a certain number of points, you spend for supplies based on your difficulty level you instead pick a loadout which is a prepicked set of items you will need on the road. There are 20 of these but you start with 5. You unlock more loadouts by completing skulls, which are challenges such as traveling a certain distance without dying or killing so many of one type of zombie. This mode is also useful for unlocking content in the story mode and endless mode. There are 10 characters to choose from, but you only start with four and have to unlock the other six. You only start with the station wagon but, are able to unlock 4 more vehicles each with their own advantages and disadvantages. Endless mode can get old however because even though you have the random encounters and tombstones to keep you entertained, it can get old after awhile. The game tries to vary things up by adding challenges to give you more points, such as starting the game with every survivor infected or having a baby in the car that you need to keep safe. This definitely adds length to the mode, but overall I feel like it’s a secondary feature.

The game has more content buried in the extras section. This includes the tombstones you have found while on the road in both endless and story mode. You unlock 50 new tombstones after beating story mode. A Halloween mode which adds little holiday-themed quirks to the adventure such as replacing food with candy and the campfire with a jack-o-lantern. The final piece of extra content is Clements’ Quest. It’s meant to look like a poorly made flash game where you drive the car as Clements to Safe Haven, and then have to drive backwards to D.C. again. These are nice little additions that really keep the game fresh.

The aesthetics of the game perfectly parody Oregon Trail. It’s pixel art style is not only inviting, but harkens back to its inspiration, which can really bring nostalgia out of older players and invoke a sense of having played Oregon Trail in younger players. The soundtrack, while simple, fits the mood perfectly. At times the music sounds like it’s a race against time to get to Safe Haven, while at other points it feels more like a relaxing tone that shows the journey is long and will take time. I have to say that not only as a parody but also a game, the Organ Trail is able to both honor the game that spawned it while carving its own path, making it truly unique.

I am going to give Organ Trail: Complete Edition an 8 out of 10

Pros:

A great parody with its own identity

A great sense of humor

A gameplay formula that remains entertaining through multiple playthroughs

A variety of jobs to do at road stops

Cons:

More random events in story mode would be nice

Scavenging is boring and repetitive

CHECK OUT MY WORDPRESS!

https://wordpress.com/posts/rewindfrequency.wordpress.com

[topworldhistory]

Halloween's focus on horror and make believe has spawned creepy legends, ghost stories—and hoaxes.

On Halloween, people shed reality for a day and mark the holiday with costumes, decorations and parties. Creepy legends and characters have evolved based on real, terrifying events. And a Halloween tradition of confronting the dead has led to legions of ghost stories—and hoaxes.

Read about Halloween traditions and legends below:

A Fear of Vampires Spawned by Consumption

Illustration of a family member dying from consumption in the 19th century.

During the 19th century, the spread of tuberculosis, or consumption, claimed the lives of entire families in Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont and other parts of New England.

Before physicians were able to explain how infectious diseases were spread, hopeless villagers believed that some of those who perished from consumption preyed upon their living family members. This spurred a grim practice of digging up the dead and burning their internal organs.

Read more about the 19th-century exhumations here.

Why Haunted Houses Opened During the Great Depression

Halloween night mischief inspired communities to open haunted houses during the Great Depression.

In the period leading up to the Great Depression, Halloween had become a time when young men could blow off steam—and cause mischief. Sometimes they went too far. In 1933, parents were outraged when hundreds of teenage boys flipped over cars, sawed off telephone poles and engaged in other acts of vandalism across the country. People began to refer to that year’s holiday as “Black Halloween,” similarly to the way they referred to the stock market crash four years earlier as “Black Tuesday.”

Rather than banning the holiday, as some demanded, many communities began organizing Halloween activities—and haunted houses—to keep restless would-be pranksters occupied.

Read more about Great Depression-era Halloween pranks here.

Jack-o-Lanterns and the Legend of 'Stingy Jack'

The original Jack-o-lanterns were carved out of turnips.

An Irish myth about a man nicknamed “Stingy Jack” is believed to have led to the tradition of carving scary faces into gourds. According to the legend, Jack tricks the Devil into paying for his drink and then traps him in the form of a coin. The Devil eventually takes revenge and Stingy Jack ends up roaming Earth for eternity without a place in heaven or hell. Jack does, however, have a lighted coal, which he places inside a carved turnip, creating the original Jack-o-lantern.

Read more about the origins of Jack-o-lanterns here.

Abraham Lincoln’s 'Ghost' in the White House

One of the last photographs of President Abraham Lincoln taken on March 6, 1865.

For years, presidents, first ladies, guests, and members of the White House staff have claimed to have either seen Abraham Lincoln or felt his presence. Grace Coolidge, wife of Calvin Coolidge, the 30th president, was the first person to report having seen the ghost of Abraham Lincoln. She said he stood at a window of the Oval Office, hands clasped behind his back, gazing out over the Potomac, perhaps still seeing the bloody battlefields beyond.

Read more accounts of Lincoln’s ghost sightings here.

Spirit Photography Claims to Capture Ghosts on Film

A "spirit" photograph taken by William Mumler in the post-Civil War era.

In the post-Civil War era, when many Americans were reeling from loss, a photographer named William Mumler claimed to capture ghosts on film. While taking self-portraits for practice, one of Mumler’s prints came back with an unexplainable aberration. Although he was “quite alone in the room” when the shot was taken, there appeared to be a figure at his side, a girl who was “made of light.”

Mumler showed the photo to a spiritualist friend who told him the girl in the image was almost certainly a ghost. Mumler then began a swift business in so-called spirit photography.

Read about Mumler's work—and legal troubles—here.

Irving Writes ‘The Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ After Fleeing Yellow Fever

An illustration from 'The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.'

Washington Irving's 1820 tale of a headless horseman who terrorizes the real-life village of Sleepy Hollow is considered one of America's first ghost stories—and one of its scariest. Irving may have drawn inspiration for his story while a teenager in Tarrytown, New York. He moved to the area in 1798 to flee a yellow fever outbreak in New York City.

Irving’s story takes place in the New York village of Sleepy Hollow. A lanky newcomer and schoolmaster, Ichabod Crane, is chased by a headless horseman. In the tale, Irving weaves together actual locations and family names, and a little bit of Revolutionary War history with pure imagination and fantasy.

Read more about the origins of the famous Halloween story here.

Horror Movies Inspired by 'Real' Stories

The Amityville house that inspired a book and a movie series.

On November 13, 1974, 23-year-old Ronald “Butch” DeFeo Jr. murdered his entire family in their sleep. One year later, the Lutz family purchased the house in Amityville, New York where the horror took place. George and Kathy Lutz then claimed they experienced shocking paranormal phenomena in the house: green slime oozing from the walls, a creature with red eyes and multiple family members levitating in their beds.

The claims appeared in Jay Anson’s 1977 book, The Amityville Horror, which inspired the 1979 movie of the same title, which inspired many more movies.

Read more about real stories behind horror movies here.

Why Mary Shelley Carried Her Dead Husband’s Heart

Mary Shelley, 1831.

Frankenstein author, Mary Shelley, is world renowned for her terrifying fiction, but few know that she had a dark secret of her own. Shelley’s husband, Percy, drowned at the young age of 29 when his boat was caught in a storm in July 1822. 

Percy's body and those of his fellow sailors were found 10 days later. Percy Shelley and the others were cremated, but Shelley’s heart did not burn (perhaps due to a bout of tuberculosis earlier in this life). Mary Shelley eventually took ownership of her late husband’s heart and is said to have carried it around in a silk bag. Watch a video here. 

from Stories - HISTORY https://ift.tt/2BWc3Yw October 30, 2019 at 04:30PM

[weprajith]

Here's Why Social Commerce Is Fast Becoming the Only Way to Acquire Products and Services Online

The old school method of selling products and services online is fast fading. Traditionally, the process of e-commerce has typically happened in the following sequence:

1. Setup an online website or a store and populate it with applicable product(s) or service(s)

2. Work on organic search ranking for relevant keywords associated with the products or services in the hopes to achieve top search engine rankings so as to be found easily as visitors search

3. In addition or sometimes, as the only way, advertise via PPC and Media Buy campaigns and capture visitors

4. Visitors gained either via organic search or paid search are directed either to the product or service page directly or they are directed to a targeted landing page, where something of value is offered in exchange for their contact information (such as name, email, phone etc.). They are then followed up via email and voice auto-responder campaigns, again, with the goal to eventually convince them that the product or service being offered is worthy of their consideration to buy.

Today, the above mentioned steps, as the only method of sell, is almost non-existent. There is always some element of interactivity beyond the one-way approach that got e-commerce started. Blogging started the interactive revolution and is here to stay. Videos, with the availability of broadband, has become common-place.

Over the last few years, the interactivity has really blossomed. Although not for commerce, people started using the online media to get social. Communities started forming. MySpace kicked off the Social revolution, albeit targeting the young generation. Facebook also started off with the younger generation, but found a way to crack through to reach the wider audience as the place for social networking. Then Twitter came along, as the micro-blogging platform, where one could share the traditional blog thoughts in an easy-to-use 140 character snippet. YouTube became the go-to place for videos. This led to a full-fledged Social Networking revolution, with multiple Social sites spawning - whether for social networking or social bookmarking or other forms of social media. Today, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and YouTube (let alone all other networks) are so popular and so widely used that put together, if a Country; would be one of the most populous in the world!

One might think that we have come a long way after the humble internet beginnings of Netscape. Yes we have, although, we are only now getting started. With e-commerce and social media having fully matured in their own worlds, the marriage of e-commerce and social is now in the early stages of giving birth to a new industry. Welcome to new world of Social Commerce!

Social Commerce is fascinating. In the new Social Hub, Sellers won't sell based on forced pitches, or extensive landing pages, they will sell with s-commerce in mind. The Social Market will be one where Buyers will look to what other buyers say in review sites, what they share as opinion in social networks, what they recommend as social shopping to others, and will seek social rewards for doing so, in the process. Social Commerce Marketplace will break the bounds of traditional commerce and will bring everything in the open. Social Commerce Platforms will form and will help manage the interaction with Buyers and Sellers efficiently. Outsourcing will lead to Social Outsourcing and no longer will people just source help, they will look to social sourcing. Buyers will look more for certainty, and less on haggling and negotiations. Fixed Price shopping would become the norm. Fixed Price Service offers will become common place. Social Commerce today is just starting up and social commerce websites are few and far between, however this is just the beginning. Social Commerce today is where E-commerce was in the early 90's. The new S-commerce revolution is here.

http://www.yuuzoo.com/

YuuZoo is a cool Social Commerce Platform. User can shop, play , and mingle in single platform.

[flauntpage]

Marcus Hayes Took Jeffrey Lurie Woefully Out of Context and Spawned a Liberal Twitter Meltdown

I, for one, can not WAIT until the iPhone X comes out, so I can animate everything Marcus Hayes writes exclusively through poop Emoji. Honest to God, I might just make it a running feature on this site where I read every Marcus Hayes column as a pile of poop. You think I’m kidding. I am not kidding. I might do dramatic readings and make it for subscribers only. If this is my path to getting rich, then so be it.

I am going to try to lay out the nuts and bolts of what happened today that has led to ultimate social justice warrior Shaun King – a Black Lives Matter activist with over 700k Twitter followers who has a habit of piling on injustices – lambasting the Eagles and Jeffrey Lurie on Twitter and eliciting a response from the team itself, all while Hayes spins down the drain of his own ineptitude. Truly, this is incredible. Riley Cooper is even invoked for good measure. We’ve come full-circle in so many ways that I don’t know what to make of it.

Last week, Lurie held an impromptu press conference during which he was asked about Colin Kaepernick. I noted in my… notes… from the presser that his answer – “I don’t think anyone protesting the National Anthem in and of itself is very respectful… but I think we can sometimes misinterpret what those are” – was far from a ringing endorsement of Kaepernick, especially from arguably the most liberal owner in the NFL. He followed it up by explaining that often those gestures aren’t protesting the National Anthem itself,  but rather using it as a platform to bring attention to something specific, which is even better when backed up with good work in the community, like Malcolm Jenkins does.

Thankfully, no one took Lurie’s quote out of context.

Until today… when Marcus Hayes wrote a column about Lurie’s stance on Kaepernick and, incredibly, managed to remove those words from their necessary context ALL WHILE TRYING TO DEFEND LURIE, bringing scorn unto both himself, as a bigot and as an inept reporter, and Lurie.

Here’s how Hayes framed it in a piece titled “Colin Kaepernick’s act is a non-starter for Jeffrey Lurie’s Eagles“:

Lurie earned a Ph.D. in social policy at Brandeis, whose curriculum examines social and racial inequality. Dr. Lurie (Dr. Lurie?!) is infinitely more qualified to address this complex and divisive issue than his peers, such as the newsprint manufacturer who owns the Patriots. Robert Kraft has only an MBA from Columbia (and, of course, five Super Bowl rings).

Kraft also is one of seven NFL owners who have donated at least $1 million to President Trump, Kaepernick’s Critic-in-Chief. Lurie didn’t give The Donald a dime, but that doesn’t mean he disagrees with Trump’s distaste for the Colin Kaepernick experience:

Sitting out the anthem; wearing socks with cartoons of pigs in police uniforms; wearing a shirt that featured Fidel Castro; equating Hillary Clinton with Trump, and not bothering to vote in November.

It’s the anthem thing that Lurie can’t get past.

“I don’t think anybody who is protesting the national anthem … is very respectful,” Lurie said. “If that’s all their platform is, is to protest the national anthem, then what’s the proactive nature of it?”

Ironically, both Hayes and Lurie are today being attacked by liberal thought leaders too eager to feign outrage and not bother to check to see that both Hayes and Lurie would typically side with them on most issues.

It started with King absolutely trashing the Eagles and Lurie:

Dear @Eagles,

I fundamentally reject the deeply offensive way Jeffrey Lurie characterized Colin Kaepernick's activism over this past year.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

It's amazing the @Eagles owner found it in his heart to have grace for a white player calling Black folk niggers – draws the line w/ Colin. https://t.co/dP9vkxJPKP

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

Dear @Eagles,

Your owner – Jeffrey Lurie – has ABSOLUTELY NO IDEA what he's talking about concerning Colin here.https://t.co/kbnv3PvGkS

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

For those of us who work closely w/ Kaepernick – he's not just writing checks – he has just chosen not to be a media whore with his service.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

Colin Kaepernick has met directly with police officers who are deeply disturbed by police brutality and want to change the system.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

Colin Kaepernick has hosted camps for kids across the country to give them the skills & encouragement they need. He plans & manages them.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

When my 10 year old son & I attended Colin's first @yourrightscamp – he was up past 2am, during a bi-week, packing book bags for kids.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

I'd encourage @Eagles owner Jeffrey Lurie to be in a room full of children when Colin Kapernick walks into it.

He is a deep HERO to them.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

I've seen 500 kids sit silently and attentively for HOURS as they learned about their history, health, finances, and more @yourrightscamp

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

I've seen Colin Kaepernick study hundreds of grassroots charities in America to evaluate how he can best support their work on the ground.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

I've gotten the texts from Colin asking, "Shaun, who is on the ground protecting immigrants. What do they need? How can I help?"

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

I've directly connected Colin w/ families affected by police brutality and been there when he called them to console them and send his love.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

And stop this foolishness about Colin protesting and not having a plan. You just don't know the plan because you don't care to know it.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

Colin is perhaps the most meticulous and organized athlete I've ever worked with. And he does so with a peaceful grace & warmth & kindness.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

I've seen Colin try to track down exactly how much money his jersey sales are making so that he can be sure to give every cent to charity.

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

I've seen Colin daily be compared to criminals and men who've murdered and maimed and raped – and for him to keep his cool & keep doing good

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

I've seen Colin work out like a man possessed, 6 days a week to get back into the league then see white commentators say he isn't committed

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

Here’s the thing: Lurie never mentioned any of that stuff Hayes wrote about. Maybe it was implied, but Hayes extrapolated a whole lot, using Lurie’s answer to cite the fine work done by Jenkins.

Incredibly, the Eagles waded into the fray:

@ShaunKing Your recent claims are entirely unfair and inaccurate. Here is the unedited transcript of what was said: http://pic.twitter.com/mE8f2BKqvN

— Philadelphia Eagles (@Eagles) September 14, 2017

Of note:

“It’s a big problem in America, social injustice. It’s a big problem around the globe. Anybody who wants to do proactive things, to try to reverse social injustice, I’m all in favor of. It has to be respectful. It certainly has to respect the military and the people that serve, the women and men that serve our country, emergency responders, whoever that is. You’ve got to, I think, do it in a respectful way.

“But I applaud anybody that can find respectful ways of trying to use their platform in some way to discuss social injustice. We all need to discuss it. We’ve all seen it around us. We live in a city that has a lot of it. There are multiple issues. They’re not simply racial issues. There are a lot of economic issues.”

…

“I don’t think anybody who is protesting the National Anthem, in and of itself, is very respectful. If that’s all their platform is, is to protest the National Anthem, then what’s the proactive nature of it? But I think we sometimes can misinterpret what those are. I’ve talked to Malcolm Jenkins about it. He’s very involved in our community here…”

In response, King falls back on a MARCUS HAYES ARTICLE and asks the Eagles to reject him and all of his works:

Do you the reject this local characterization? Because it frames it in a troubling way. https://t.co/uiFBlaQKIU

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) September 14, 2017

In truth, the Hayes article wasn’t entirely unfair. He seems to have an issue with Lurie’s assertion that there are more “respectful” ways to protest, while also clearly pointing out that the Eagles’ owner is not a racist or fascist.

From the Hayes piece:

Lurie frowns on anthem protests, but he can stomach them as long as they are part of a larger, pointed strategy to effect change. He isn’t a fan of alienating police and the military, or their supporters, but he’ll risk alienation as long as the offending protests have a specific point, and if the protester is willing to work to fix the problem.

Inevitably, the Michael Vick situation comes up:

He compared Kaepernick’s situation to that of a felon whose sadistic cruelty to animals sickened a nation:

“With Michael Vick, there was a complete vetting of: ‘How is he as a teammate? What is his character? What is his potential? What is his football intelligence? Can he be a backup?’ ”

Sigh.

Then, towards the end:

Consider it a moment of poor judgment by Lurie. He has earned a pass for using the “football intelligence” dog whistle. Few owners have been as color-blind as he. Ray Rhodes and Emmitt Thomas, the first head coach and defensive coordinator he hired, were black. Personnel executives John Wooten and Dick Daniels helped rebuild the franchise. Randall Cunningham, Rodney Peete, Donovan McNabb and Vick played quarterback for Lurie. Oddly, Jason Peters calls Lurie his “best friend.”

Of course, Hayes is now being dragged into the mud, both because of his defense for Lurie and because he’s an idiot:

Understand this: if the method of protest diminishes the message, nothing will ever change. Lurie supports the message But not the messenger https://t.co/D6et0qR6UU

— Marcus Hayes (@inkstainedretch) September 14, 2017

This tweet my Marcus Hayes regarding @Eagles owner Jeff Lurie is beyond insane. Have either of you protested ANYTHING?! https://t.co/lvdN8JLr93

— rolandsmartin (@rolandsmartin) September 14, 2017

Marcus Hayes sounds very privileged and ignorant and more than happy to swim in the pool of microaggressions he spews… JihaD

— 4 AM in Dallas (@ZipSquad_JihaD) September 14, 2017

MARCUS FUCKIN HAYES THIS GUY IS UNREAL LOLOL https://t.co/6BLrfHiEbl

— d a n u (@DanuGladobili) September 14, 2017

One thing blacks/whites liberals/conservatives can all agree on: Marcus Hayes is complete trash

— Nittany Tar Heel (@NittanyTarHeel) September 14, 2017

Marcus Hayes is literally crazy and see things in a Trump-esque sort of delusion, you need to delete this tweet ASAP dude

— Fran McNamara (@anonymous2384) September 14, 2017

I think I speak for everyone in Philly in saying that Marcus Hayes is one of the worst writers you'll ever come across…..

— michael ruzzi (@daruz51) September 14, 2017

Glad to see that the rest of the country can experience the "quality" writing of Marcus Hayes.

— BC (@bjcohen76) September 14, 2017

Philly locals stopped reading at the by line. Marcus Hayes is hot trash https://t.co/7u5Z1YA5bz

— JSaq (@jsaquella) September 14, 2017

TFW you see somebody support their argument with a Marcus Hayes article http://pic.twitter.com/b7EWI08pzC

— Paul Getz (@getzy89) September 14, 2017

Needless to say, the media at large has now picked up on these Lurie quotes FROM LAST WEEK which were today taken out of context by Marcus Hayes, which led to King blasting the Eagles, who were forced to tweet the entire context, because Marcus is a big dumb idiot:

Marcus never ceases to amaze.

Marcus Hayes Took Jeffrey Lurie Woefully Out of Context and Spawned a Liberal Twitter Meltdown published first on http://ift.tt/2pLTmlv