#joseph gartner

[tenth-sentence]

These alone are the unimportant differences which Gärtner is able to point out, between hybrid and mongrel plants.

"On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life" - Charles Darwin

[valiantwarriorsquadroncomic]

MISSION 5

Joseph sat there, letting the giant, Iron crossed shaped medal spin on its velvet necklace. Its golden border twinkled as it spun like a a top, unwinding, and then rewinding itself again. Head in hand, his gaze met to fritz, who was completely awed by the anime OVA had invited joseph to watch. The 1995 classic “BIO-MENACE ALICE” continued to blare on Fritz’s large, flat screen television. It’s not like joseph wasn’t disinterested in this classic that almost got banned in Germany for its intense gore and dark themes. This was the first time joseph saw fritz from his own personal perspective. Within his plush, cozy room on the Harris, was his own cushy, king sized bed with satin comforter and silk bedsheets. A personal desk with a high-tech laptop that joseph only saw in cutting edge tech magazines. Multiple journals and sketchbooks were neatly piled upon the desk, arranged from barely touched, to worn and completed. A small, golden choir trophy sat proudly on the front of his desk. Yet the one thing that distracted joseph most of all was a small section of wall, covered in photos of Fritz’s personal life. They enshrined a large oil painting of Fritz himself, dressed in medieval German armor with a very large sword. He struck a majestic looking pose while clutching a helmet with bat ears. The photos surrounded fritz detailed a very large, monstrous and bat-like woman who looked like an almost spitting image of veronica, cradling fritz, who had a large bandage set on the middle of his giant forehead.

“FRAU GARTNER, BLESSED BY GOD ALMIGHTY, HAS HAD A SECOND CHILD” was written under the photo. Next, was a 4 year old fritz sitting on the knee of a grim looking white man with a mustache as an 8 year old veronica stood by his side. Despite the scars and the sunken cheeks, the grim looking man’s eyes seem to twinkle with soul. A warm, inviting smile stood immortalized within the photo. Joseph recognized the man as the two sibling’s uncle. Another photo caught Joseph’s eyes as Fritz began standing up and cheering as the genetically altered main character Alice had cut a “private security type 23 cyborg” in half with their tattered blade that looked more like a giant paper cutter. The gore was rendered explicitly, even the severed tendons were given detail is they snapped under the blade. Joseph’s gaze returned to The photo depicted fritz, smiling and crying as he received a degree from a middle eastern man with a tall fur hat and black trenchcoat. A small handwritten note was embroidered in a golden frame. “Happy 20th birthday.” It read in its oddly lavish container. Joseph continued fiddling with the splendorous medal he was given at yesterday’s ceremony. Compared to the standard VWS medal he had received after surviving his first mission , its splendorous, golden borders twinkled as it spun. As it came to an end of its spinning, he quietly recited the motto on its back.

“ONLY GIVEN TO THOSE WHO RISKED THEIR OWN LIVES TO RESCUE A GERMAN CITIZEN IN THE HEAT OF BATTLE, GERMANIA GIVES HER THANKS. PRAISE CHARLEMAGNE, MAY HE WATCH US REBUILD HIS EMPIRE AS HE OBSERVES US IN HEAVEN.” He put his necklace back in his pocket.  Both his iron cross necklace and second iron cross were much more fanciful than the CNGS medals and the large red star medal he received for assisting in URSA’s rescue.

“Is something wrong?” Joseph snapped out of his trance as fritz paused the movie.

“It’s nothing.” Joseph said. The two continued to watch the main character, ALICE, screaming towards the sky as she held the lifeless corpse of her only friend, a homeless man amidst a city that had been razed to the ground. “You know, my pal Logan and I got in trouble for showing this to our anime club.” Fritz broke his gaze with the credits as he continued to listen. “The guy who ran the club got super mad, calling it gross, violent schlock and that we were bad people for liking it.” Fritz was taken aback. “He said we had “toxic masculinity problems” and we’re going to hurt someone for liking a fucking anime”

“To think that such childish notions towards art aren’t isolated. He said as he prepared to skip to BIO-MENACE ALICE OVA 4: WITH BLOOD, WITH AGONY. “One of the HCA superiors dragged me off by the ear after he saw me watch the skull explosion scene.” He crossed his arms. “Told me that Japanese animation was disgusting drivel destroying young people’s minds.” Joseph became suddenly animated.

“How can they HATE the SKULL EXPLOSION SCENE?!” joseph cried as he began becoming passionate about BIO MENACE ALICE.

“EXACTLY, Its so LOVINGLY, EXQUISITELY DRAWN!” Fritz continued as he skipped back to a scene where an antagonist’s head explodes from a missile. “NO cgi, no digital ink or paint, that was all done by hand, like a REAL artist!” The two cheered as the skull explosion scene played, the antagonist's head going up like a fire ball as blood and brains smeared the walls. “Why can’t we get more tributes to THIS scene instead of that god forsaken scene from toshio’s journey with that guy sliding briefly in a car?!” Joseph laughed.

“I remember seeing that scene with Logan, it was the COOLEST shit ever.” Joseph said, sitting up and stretching after being almost still for an hour and a half. Fritz was a bit surprised that joseph opened up about his own life, as he didn’t even mentioned his other friends had perished in the northern Iran bioweapons disaster.

“I’m sure if he was still around, I’d be good friends with someone who can get that emotionally invested in art like BIO MENACE ALICE” Joseph did a double take.

“No, he’s still alive.”

Fritz’s ears shot up in embarrassment. “Oh…I’m terribly sorry…I just thought he was-”

Joseph held up a hand. “It’s no problem, man, this film brought back some memories of him.” As the film came to a close, the Japanese word for END had scrolled up from the bottom of the screen, with a still, painted shot of ALICE in her monstrous form, still cradling the deceased, nameless homeless man in her arms. “I think he’s stationed somewhere on a CNGS-American base near Corsica.” Joseph stated as the lights began to slowly illuminated the once dark room. “He once told me the main villain, Christopher Benton reminded him a lot of his own dad.” Joseph smiled as he reminisced, the rare sight of joseph being happy made Fritz’s face blush and his heart flutter. “He said that once as a joke and we both laughed so hard, I almost puked.” The dour fritz also began to smile, even if it was guarded and stifled.

“I can hardly imagine having a vile snake like Benton as a dad.” Joseph’s slight laughter turn to sighs.

“He used to tell me his dad was a good man, but just put pressure on him from time to time. Fritz frowned as Joseph’s own smile turned back into his usual sad scowl. “One time I did catch his dad yelling at him, that he needed to act like a real man for once in his life.” Fritz became more troubled as joseph seem to dig up the bad times with the good. “He had been drinking, and then for some reason he began ranting about South Africa was once the jewel of Africa before the ninties-” He suddenly stopped when a booming voice on the intercom blared.

ATTENTION, AT 12 AM SHARP, ALL ACTIVE VWS ARE TO MEET IN THE RENOVATED MEETING ROOM, QM AND HCA PERSONNEL WILL BE PRESENT IN THE MEETING VIA VIDEO CALL.” As the crackled died, Fritz crossed his arms.

“Would it kill these people to communicate this to us in a timely manner?” Fritz grabbed Joseph’s hand and proceeded to drag him towards the meeting room as the clock hit 11:40 pm.

“I think we have some time before the meeting.” Joseph noted to Fritz’s manic attitude.

“It NEVER hurts to be punctual, even if it’s a meeting with those Marxists.” Fritz stated matter-of-factly. A short while later, the two friends almost reached their destination.

“So, guys have some history with these…QM guys?” Joseph asked.

“Since my superiors, The Holy Charlemagne Assembly , are recognized as “allies to global security”, we’ve been involved in diplomacy with QM with some time. Fritz said as he neatly prepared pads for notes. “The CNGS had declared the group a terrorist organization for some time, but began to soften as it had declared war against the ALA and all its non American factions and splinter cells.” Fritz brought out a good pen before continuing. “The CNGS had become strangled by its own foreign policy and paperwork, so they allied themselves to groups who recognized CNGS borders, did not interfere with CNGS affairs, and provided active and passive support when requested.” He was amazed and flattered as joseph continued to listen intently, as everyone else he explained it to seemed to just get bored. “ the “Allies to Global Security” grants certain organizations and independent countries special diplomatic immunities and privileges as long as you’re willing to play nice with the CNGS politicians.” He shook of his sudden feeling of coyness around joseph to finish. “The CNGS appears to be making serious amends with this collaboration and ceasefire with QM especially.”

As the two rounded a corner, fritz walked a little too fast, being too invested to infodump on joseph. In his lecture, he accidentally bumped into a rotund figure. He looked up to find himself staring face to face with another large monster woman, who was taller than laleh. Joseph was in awe at the 8 foot tall woman who looked like a furless, mangy badger. Fritz was frozen in fear, still pressed into the woman’s large stomach, her tight catsuit hugging her bust and large hips. Her intimidating gaze was made all the more terrifying as she looked directly into his eyes with her horizontal pupils. A gnarled, wicked grin curled a cross her lips, revealing her sharp teeth, but it was somewhat mitigated by her gaze becoming more softened and warm.

“It seems even the stick-in-the-mud prince is bewitched by my striking beauty…” she teased, making a provocative pose. Fritz’s entire face turned almost blood red as he quickly jumped back.

“I’m extremely sorry, madam.”

“Oh, it’s not a problem at all.” She said, looking at herself at one of the reflective mirrors. “Not many men can resist my godlike physique and gorgeous face.” She said, flexing in the mirror, attempting to suck in her large gut. Fritz and joseph shot confused looks at each other.

“We’ll be more careful next time, ma’am, we were in a hurry to get into the meeting.” Joseph explained as she exhaled, letting her physique return to its rotund, but muscular shape as she cheerfully ran her hand over her stomach.

“Great, let’s go together!” She sang cheerfully, clapping her hands. “As a senior captain in the VWS, it’ll be great to learn about my two junior officers~!”

“I didn’t know there was a rank higher than captain.” Said joseph as she clasped both of her hands on each of joseph and fritz’s shoulders, walking them to the room. Upon hearing Joseph’s lack of an explanation, the large woman’s gaze became severe and frightening.

“Once again, I have to do Nathan’s job of relaying important VWS info to the juniors. She growled as her muscles tensed and bulged. Her gaze softened again “not to worry, I’ll gladly answer…” her eyes shifted towards the woman with the metal arm walked past her. “Most…of the questions you have about the VALIANT WARRIOR SQUADRON, SENIOR OFFICER CORPS.”

Joseph was in awe at the good meeting room. A long, polished wood table rested in the middle of the room. A long row of expensive looking swivel chairs adorned each side. A large projector, sleeker, shiny, and obviously more maintained, was attached the ceiling. The gang was ushered by ERASURE UNIT guards to sit on one side, as the senior officer members where ushered to sit across from the on the other side. “What, are they too good to sit with the lower rank guys?” joseph thought, noticing the clear intent of separating the seniors from them. As everyone got seated, they were greeted with Cpl. MacMillan, and the senior officer’s CO, as he sat at the head of their table next to Nathan. The room got dark as the powerful projector clicked and projected on three separate screens at once, each screen dedicated to a different faction. One was of Andrew Norman and several unknown CNGS politicians and military advisors. The middle screen, noticeably the more tarnished screen, was QM. Mrs. Q and a small bevy of QM’s higher ups had just gotten seated. The final screen had the chancellor, a man with an eyepatch with a coat of arms that adorned the star of David, and several HCA authority figures. On QM’s side, the masked woman with the dragon medal peeled off her mask to reveal her shocking red hair.

“My name is BEIRA, field commander of E-12’s counter-imperialist strike force.” She announced as she re-adjusted her beret. “From what I understand we were all brought here for an important debrief regarding a prison rescue.”

Andrew Norman was done sipping tea from a fine china glass that was adorned in Vietnamese iconography. “Correct, miss BEIRA, as the ALA continues to lose territory, they’ve been forced to consolidate prison space for several important POWS.” Another projector clicked, showing a dilapidated building surrounded by armed guards, surrounded by mountains and ruined buildings. “This makeshift prison facility is within the more dangerous parts of Prospera, where prosperan chapter of the ALA, MUERTE BLANCO still hold territory.” The projector clicked to tired and injured MUERTE BLANCO soldiers were struggling to unpack rounds of ammo and other equipment. “They have been suffering terrible losses after their leader and the last dictator of prospera, SGT. GUSTAVO JESUS RODRIGUEZ, went into hiding and has been radio silent.” Another clicked show a group of white European ALA members with a disorganized group of white mercenaries. “As a result of their crumbling chapter, ALA high command is demanding more auxiliaries from the united states, Argentina, and south africa, as well as using mercenaries and volunteers as canon fodder.” A slide clicked to an all female battalion of ALA soldiers.

“Some ALA high command members have been forced to abandon their highly patriarchal and backwards standards for soldiers, and getting a concerning amount of volunteers from the women they’ve employed for sabotage, espionage, and intel gathering.” BEIRA described as the all women battalion charged E-12, seeming to target WRAITH. They are guarding 17 POWS, many of which are important CNGS, QM, and HCA personnel.” BEIRA clicked something to show a 20 year old man, with pale skin, black hair, and a warm smile. Joseph was hit with a wave of horror and despair. “This young man, Logan Crawford, is also in this prison facility, Fort Gimlé.” Joseph’s eye twitched. He was disconcertingly silent. MRS.Q, who was informed about Logan’s dilemma, struggled to speak.

“I wish this was some sort of cruel joke.” She sighed. “This poor young man and his mother had no idea their father was an ALA informant, feeding CNGS intel to ALA spies within the CNGS-American armed forces.” Fritz and Laleh gingerly begged joseph to sit back down as he returned to his seat, almost paralyzed with grief and bewilderment. “To gain an authoritative role within the ALA, he had sold out his son to be altered into a super soldier under his complete control.” Joseph simply sat still, looking forward unflinchingly. A picture flicked to show a soldier in a skull like helmet, a crest adorned the mask like structure, a single, red mechanical eye adorned the white mask. Two red hoses slinked out of each side of the mask’s “mouth”. Mrs. Q fell silent as she allowed Andrew to continue.

“You five, with Senior Captain AKROPOLIS, are tasked with infiltrating the facility and rescuing him.” He took another sip. “QM’s special forces, E-12, will be tasked with rescuing the rest of the hostages.” He turned to Joseph. “Normally, I would not assign a soldier with intense emotional connection to this sort of mission, but taking you off a search and rescue mission of this sort would be unwise.”

“I understand sir, I’ll make sure to save him.” Joseph said quietly.

“I’m very much sure you will.” Andrew replied.

“I feel it’s a large task to ask of us.” Said a QM higher up, his face masked with a black box. His garbled tone a clear sign his voice was being disguised for anonymity. “We have no qualms about striking against the fascists, and liberating prisoners, but we feel we are being submitted to the most dangerous tasks.”

Andrew held up his hand. “Your concern is understandable, MR.O, which is why are we are also entrusting you with one of our senior officer corps members and our own Seargent to accompany your forces.” He nodded to the Japanese man and Vietnamese woman that sat parallel to Nathan. “EQUINOX and DEATH LOTUS shall not fail you.” Andrew wiped his mouth with a fancy napkin. “You also needn’t worry about facing a a large enemy force, hopefully you haven’t forgotten our combined forces will also be distracting the ALA away from the facility as we destroy their anti-aircraft as a team.” The QM side burst into hushed whispers. Joseph could see that even their allies weren’t quite as trusting and united, even during active collaboration. “Not to mention, that Senior Captain HECATE will also be guarding ALL of our diversionary forces, including yours.” He gestured towards the other enormous monster woman that sat next to AKROPOLIS, both of them 8 feet tall, and slightly stockier than laleh. HECATE was pale white as a ghost, and wore the skin tight catsuit made of plastic and other artificial fibers. A harness hugged her chubby, muscular body tightly as she sat up and saluted in stone-faced Stoicism. “Let’s just say we’ve given her a new little toy to assist in aerial and ground targets.” AKROPOLIS playfully bumped into HECATE with her bulging hips, prompting HECATE to roll her eyes and cross her arms. “Our combined diversionary forces will wreak havoc away from the facility, forcing the ALA’s attention while your rescue team will snatch up the POWS as the ALA panics and crumbles even further.”

“Our air division is still assigned to destroying remaining ground targets, as well as enemy aircraft, and QM destroys the anti-aircraft weaponry on the ground, correct?” asked the chancellor, adjusting his gloves

A quiet smile crept across Andrew’s lips, making the VWS’s lower ranking members uneasy. “That is correct, Chancellor. For a moment, Hecate’s eyes briefly, nervously darted towards Andrew’s disquieting smile. “Before we wrap up, I’m also happy to announce that we have located both George Smith and Sgt. Gustavo, and we’ll soon have them facing good old fashion American justice.” Andrew always wore the the same blank expression, and now he seemed to cheerfully revel on the oncoming death and destruction that would soon transpire…

As everyone vacated quickly to their respective departures, joseph was still unnervingly calm. Laleh was quite upset that her friend was clearly bothered as this Logan person was quite close to him, as he had divulged a very close secret regarding him to her. “Hey…did you need to talk?” Before she could put her hand on his shoulder, nathan butted in.

“You need to make sure you’ve got proper medical equipment, the ALA treats his prisoners like animals.” Laleh looked back at her captain fearfully. “I got this.” He said with a smile.

“Right away, captain.” She said with a sigh.

Nathan turned towards joseph, clearly enraged. “Hey buddy, let’s just have a little talk about…uh…your friend.” “I can tell you have a lot to get off your chest.” The two made their way to an empty conference room, with Nathan shutting the door. “MacMillan, I’m handling a potential code yellow, it’ll be just five minutes.” He said as turned off his communicator as joseph sat in the chair. Nathan took off and showed his ear-piece was dead silent. “No one else can hear us.” Joseph looked up at Nathan in a dead stare. “I swear on my life, just let me have it.”

Joseph was borderline screaming as his vitriol came out like a wave of water from a burst dam. “Why in GOD’S NAME did LOGAN HAVE TO BE DRAGGED INTO THIS?!” Nathan stood there quietly. “IT’S NOT ENOUGH THAT THEY KILL PEOPLE, BUT THEY HAVE THE BALLS TO JUST SNATCH PEOPLE UP AND UPROOT THEIR ENTIRE LIVES FOR THEIR OWN GAIN!”

“I’m really sorry buddy…believe, I wish I could-”

“Issac, you piece of SHIT…” he said clenching his fist, his scars flaring wildly. “God DAMN IT ALL!” “I KNEW there was SOMETHING so OFF when you went off about south africa becoming a dystopia after the nineties!.” Joseph banged his fist on the flimsy desk. “I thought it was just because you were stressed, or something, but there was other SHIT I should’ve picked up on.” He suddenly became limp in his chair. “He was practically waving a red flag in my face…I just didn’t think he’d be a crony to those fucking monsters…”

“That’s the saddest damn part about extremists, they don’t need fancy weapons or walking crimes against nature to brainwash people to their side.” Nathan sighed. “They apparently had a bigger influence on the American public than we thought, and in places we never thought they’d breach.” Joseph slumped back in this chair, rubbing is face.

“I still feel like shit, but it beats feeling like I’m about to explode.”

“Good, and improvement is an improvement, even if it’s minuscule.” Nathan replied. Joseph and nathan left the room to rendezvous with the others. Laleh had finished preparing supplies for the most certainly emaciated, and mistreated prisoners as joseph walked up to her. “I hope you’re doing better.” She told joseph.

“A lot better than I was a little bit ago.”

“We’ll save him, I know we will” said Laleh reassuringly. Joseph smiled back at his friend, now in a better and determined mindset. Only laleh knew the extent of the situation regarding him and Logan. Many times he would regale her of amusing stories when they went to the same high school together. Laleh was just as much as a close confidant to him as Logan, as he went so far to explain that he and Logan were secretly dating in highschool, and they vowed they’d return to each other’s side when they left active military service. Joseph simply wasn’t going to rescue his friend, but his boyfriend. Once the clock hit 4 am, During the suit up, Fritz and Laleh had dawned their combat armor and helmets in preparation for an intense battle. AKROPOLIS was preparing a large bevvy of explosives, pliers, and tools alongside the rest of the VWS.

“A combat engineer will invaluable to our infiltration.” Fritz spoke up as he noticed her packing her pink bag with a cartoonish illustration of herself, but fully furred. “We’re very lucky to have a senior captain assisting us.” He had donned combat armor with a masked helmet just like his sister. However, the “horns” which protected his large ears curved slightly backwards.” “Damn straight, I can’t wait to knock down that shitty little facility.” She said while flexing, her enormous muscles seeming to bulge even more.

“HELL YEAH!” replied veronica, as she also flex next to the senior captain. Joseph was in the room behind the gaggle of monster soldiers, cleaning his carbine in dead silence. The usual banter he’d share with the rest of the gang suspiciously absent. Laleh was finishing preparations for several medical evacuations, and Veronica was busy running diagnostics on the RISENFLEDERMAUS. “Is uuhh…the new guy alright?” AKROPOLIS asked, bumping into fritz with her large body to his attention. Fritz quietly walked up to joseph as he double checked his magazines.

“I can’t imagine what you’re feeling right now, but I want you to know I’m here for you.” The scarred young man looked up with a forced smile.

“Thanks, I really appreciate that.”

The VWS and AKROPOLIS soon touched down near the prison facility, QM soldiers soon swarmed the jet to guard it. The VWS were greeted with near dead silence outside of the QM scouts contacted their superiors about successfully reaching “the bat.” Laleh nervously side-eyed the unbreaking gaze of the soldiers, both impressed and frightened by the speed, mobility, and coordination of how they quickly found and surrounded their jet. Nathan clicked on his headpiece.

“MACMILLAN, WE’VE TOUCHED DOWN NEAR THE CAGE, WHEN WILL THE FIREWORKS BE STARTING?” he asked.

“IN ROUGHLY 2 MINUTES.” MacMillan answered. Meanwhile, AKROPOLOIS pulled out what looked like a small drone and threw it with great force over their path. The drone clicked to life, the top popped up like a lawn sprinkler and assumed flight on its own. AKROPOLIS pulled out a PDA which beeped and produced several areas covered in red exclamation points.

“Yep. Bastards have some minefields up.” She announced as she pulled out some large gun-like device with an overhand carrying handle like a minigun. “CLEARANCE LASER CHARGED.” The gun said in an automated voice. “The minute the bombs go off, I’m clearing the mines.” As the VWS continued to follow AKROPOLIS, joseph snapped out of his trance, becoming self aware of his surroundings. He looked around to see the destroyed buildings in the distance.

“I thought the polluted river was bad, but this place is like the war never stopped.” He said, viewing the carnage. His gaze met with a billboard on top of a ruined building. It depicted a picture of SGT.Gustavo Jesus Rodriguez, triumphantly pointing upwards, his hand on his hip as a large arrow pointed upwards on a graph. “SGT. GUSTAVO: JOB MAKER OF PROSPERS.” Read the words. The condition of the board, however was in stark contrast. The words “Soy el diablo” were smeared in red to his left. To his right, a vicious caricature of him as the devil was smeared on the right, the words “il mostro.” The giant arrow pointing up was vandalized by a red arrow going down. A the other bit of graffiti was sprayed over Gustavo’s image. “WHAT DID YOU DO WITH OUR AUTISTIC FRIENDS AND FAMILY, YOU MONSTER”. Nathan soon got the green light, signaling the squad to their positions. Joseph loading his carbine as everyone held their breath for the enormous explosion.

Sure enough, a large explosion went off a quarter mile away. The facility went into high alert as ALA soldiers poured from the facility to combat the combine CNGS raid. AKROPOLIS smirked behind her balaclava. “That’s my CUE!” she bellowed before pulling the trigger. A small, piecing laser shot out into the darkness, causing several mines to explode. She continued to move forward, sweeping the area. She had accidentally stepped on one, causing a loud bang and debris to go flying beneath her. With the exceptions of some scratches on her vest and helmet, she didn’t seemed upset or hurt at all. “That tickled.” She said in a bemused tone before continuing her sweep. The ALA forces soon flooded from the facility to stop their anti-aircraft from being damaged. Nathan once again received new orders.

“Several QM spies from in the facility have confirmed that we are free to continue our raid into the facility.” He ordered, pointing to the building. AKROPOLIS led the charge, her large, plump body absorbing automatic rifle and submachine gun fire. She brought up her laser again, and unleashed a literal hellfire onto the front of the facility. Soldiers screamed as their flesh charred or were engulfed in flames.

“If these assholes weren’t neo-nazis, I’d feel kind of bad for them.” Joseph said internally, counter sniping several marksmen. He began to have a psychic vision. “TRAVEL THE SERPENT’S BACK.” Said joseph suddenly. The gang stopped confused until they noticed a small stone trail that snaked around the prison. Nathan suddenly grabbed Veronica, who head tread a bit too far while crawling through the untended area. Her eyes widened as she was 2 inches away from an anti tank mine covered in grass and litter. Nathan motioned his team to take the stone path as the fighting seemed to intensify. More and more of the ALA operatives rushed to the other side of the base, weakening their rear defenses. While the American and European members were well kept, MURETE BLANCO snipers looked disheveled, the same chocolate chip camo coated in sweat stains. Large black bags under their eyes alongside their visible cheekbones gave them an almost zombie like appearance. As joseph shot back, the snipers and fallen one by one, many losing heart and fleeing. Several beat up electric vehicles began to travel down the prison’s vehicle bay towards the VWS’s position.

Veronica squinted in confusion. “Is that some sort of dinky little van coming after us?” She scoffed, insulted that MUERTE BLANCO’s fighting vehicles were jury-rigged civilian vehicles more suited for picking up children after a school day rather than defend a military base. Small platoons of MUERTE BLANCO soldiers charge the vws with tattered carbines and civilian semi automatic rifles, the rest only had handguns. “This is so fucking sad.” Nathan grimaced as his powerful hand gun punched a hole right through the electric engine of an armed civilian pick up truck. The occupants screamed in horror as they fled the flaming vehicle before it exploded. The one truck that wasn’t taken out or simply stopped functioning from poor maintenance.

“Apparently the ALA administrative have no problem letting their useful idiots die in waves with faulty equipment.” Muttered fritz as he finished off the rest of the poorly trained ALA snipers.

“Either they’re more evil than I thought, or they’re just running out of competent soldiers.” Replied Joseph, reloading his carbine as he dashed towards the prison block door.

“I assure you it’s very much both.” Said AKROPOLIS as she prepped plastic explosives around a large iron door. The VWS didn’t need to be told to find over as AKROPOLIS finished. “FIRE IN THE HOLE!” she screamed, blasting the doors. Laleh prepared herself to act as a living shield as veronica loaded her machine gun. Nathan prepped his handgun as the smoke cleared.

“YOU TWO!” Nathan barked at veronica and fritz. “USE YOUR FLASHBANGS AND SWEEP THE AREA.” Two nodded, their masks would protect them from the heavy smoke and dust of the poorly constructed building.” Fritz and veronica threw multiple flash grenades into the gaping hole in the wall. Fritz went in first, submachine fire and screams echoed from the wreckage. Veronica unsheathed her large machine gun, chasing after him. Joseph could sense Logan’s presence.

“I’ve got a lock on him, just tell me when to lead the way!” joseph told Nathan. Nathan gave him a thumbs up as he signaled AKROPOLIS to take point. The VWS followed joseph through empty, dilapidated cells and the bodies of white American and European mercenaries. Joseph’s scars flared. “EVERYONE STOP!” he bellowed prompting everyone to halt, including veronica and fritz, who were on the walkways parallel to them. Sure enough, fritz clicked his mask to infrared, and saw a mass amount of trip wire towards Logan’s position.

“Guess some of these fascist idiots have at least some competent members.” Veronica said. Nathan was receiving information from MacMillan and the QM spies.

“Take a right, and straight ahead.” Nathan explained. “There’s another door to Logan!” soon, several ALA soldiers barged from another door. All of them where white American and European women with shaved heads. The let out a cacophony of screams as they charged the VWS. The gang easily dispatched them, as they rounded the corner. Laleh quickly shielded Joseph and Nathan from gunfire, as one of the female ALA soldiers limped towards them, her hand over the wound on her abdomen, but still opening fire with her handgun before finally collapsing.

“Jesus, these sociopaths simply do not understand when to quit.” Fritz snorted as he took point. On the south wing of the complex, a woman wearing red ALA combat armor and a hood was continuing to set up tripwire, her soldiers rushing into the facility.

“IT WAS A TRICK!” she hissed in a robotic voice. “Those CNGS bastards drew our firepower away from the facility.”

“It is YOUR responsibility to guard the prisoners.” Said a voice in a south african accent.”

“I HAD NO CHOICE!” she screamed. “IT WAS EITHER LOSE THE PRISONERS OR LOSE OUR ANTI-AIRCRAFT TO PROTECT THE BUNKER!”

“And now…it appears you’re losing both, ARACHNEA.” ARACHNEA’s fist clenched as she saw HCA aircraft destroy their aircraft in the sky, CNGS special forces destroy their anti-aircraft and SAM missiles mean to protect the bunker where George smith was being kept under custody. “Every since you failed to kill one of the HCA’s HOMO CENTONIBUS experiments with that rocket launcher trap, your performance has gone downhill.” Another explosion went off at the opposite side of the building. She shut off her intercom as she had another disaster that she’d be forced to face alone.

Before the VWS got to the door where Logan was held, joseph noticed it had a giant sign on the placard, its description in an almost boasting tone; RM V. It was all guarded by poltergeist commandos, who all made an improvised barricade out of gurneys and dead heavy abominations. Inside the lab, medical workers were finishing preparations for their masterpiece, RM V before they were to flee the cell. He was equipped in a light, dull red vest, and heavy armor. A Skull mask that had a large crest with a single robotic lens placed in the middle.

One of the scientists connected him to an IV fluid bag filled with a clear substance. Suddenly,WRAITH,dropped from the ceiling. The scientists panicked, bringing out hand guns to shoot the intruder. To their shock, she threw down several flash bangs and tear gas grenades, and the scientist they’d been working with for over 4 months proceeded to climb into the open shaft during the chaos. The ALA scientists were all viciously dispatched by WRAITH’s hand to hand combat skills, their weapons confiscated. RM V’s holding harness, freeing him from the restraints. Realizing they had been tricked, and at the mercy of a super solider while their vision and motor skills were impaired, they all threw up their hands in surrender. A giant flash of light burst outside the door, and the gunfire from down the wing went silent. A familiar voice rang out from the Operative that freed RM V .

“WRAITH, IS THE TARGET SECURE?” asked BEIRA. A raspy voice answered in kind. “AFFIRMATIVE.” WRAITH turned towards RM V. “ALL QM SPIES HAVE BEEN RESCUED, AND I HAVE 4 ALA SCIENTISTS WHO HAVE SURRENDERED.” Nathan held up her hand to the younger soldiers.

“HOLD YOUR FIRE, THE E-12 OPERATIVES GOT THE SITUATION UNDER CONTROL.” The lab door opened with 4 scientists with their hands still visibly up in the air, WRAITH offering a shoulder to Logan, who was now maskless.

“Why…?” Said Logan.” his voice was filled with repressed sobbing. "Why would he do this to me…?”

“LOGAN!” cried out joseph, putting his gun away. Logan, upon hearing his real name, was in utter shock.

“No…they told me you died in Iran.” Logan broke free from WRAITH’s grasp, his once wobbling gait turned into a thunderous sprint. Joseph and Logan embraced in a tender hug. "My dad…” Croaked Logan as he gripped joseph tighter. “He…turned me into thisss…” Joseph only looked towards the door, his scars pulsating in anger, he knew Cpl. Issac Crawford had shit to answer for, but he never expected him to do this. Not in his worst nightmares.

“It’s okay, you can explain later when we get you out of here.” Joseph assured him, and Fritz immediately leapt to their side, his submachine gun illuminating the hallway as several poltergeist commandos attempted to advance towards them. As joseph gazed upon fritz, he began to have a revelation. “Things really aren’t going to be normal in my life ever again…have I just been so deep in denial?”

“Hey, uh Nathan?” Whispered veronica as she saw Logan rip an assault rifle away from a dead ASSASSIN abomination. “I think we got company.” Nathan adjusted his radio as fritz was holding off a hoard of POLTERGEIST commandos while he and the rest of the gang took shelter behind AKROPOLIS and the mass of dead abomination soldiers. Nathan’s ear-piece clicked again as he listened to the orders.

“HEAD OUT THE WAY WE CAME, WE’RE HEADED BACK TO THE FLEDERMAUS!” he commanded. joseph and the rest of the team dashed from the lab, laleh in the back taking the brunt of the fire and using Flashbangs and Smoke grenades to disorientate their pursuers. An ASSASSIN dropped from the ceiling with a combat knife, and began chasing down the gang. Before leaping on joseph, he was killed when wraith disarmed him and cut his throat with his own knife.

“I didn’t think you’d go out of your way to protect a coalition dog.” Sneered veronica.

“No, I’m making sure a man of color isn’t murdered by neo nazis or their boot-licking sellswords.” WRAITH spat back.

Everyone excluding WRAITH began to quicken their steps in a panic. Joseph noticed Logan began lagging behind. “I…just wanted to make him proud….” Logan muttered in a despair filled tone. “It’s because I kept on disappointing him…why do I deserved to live…if I can’t make him happy…” Joseph slowed down to his pace with a determined look.

“You have a lot more worth than what your dad dictates, and I don’t give a shit about what awful things he called you, and neither should YOU.” Logan was taken aback by Joseph’s curt and confident tone. “I know you’re in a dark place, and recovery is going to fucking suck, I won’t sugarcoat it.” He continued as he fired at the poltergeist commandos. “But I know you will HEAL from this and find happiness outside of your dad and this shit he did to you.” As The poltergeist commandos began to get closer, Logan’s pace began to pick up once more, Joseph’s words piercing the veil of his sorrow and despair as the morning light pierces dusk. Laleh was shocked, as he was almost using the same words she used to console him in his quarantine.“I might not be with you everyday” Joseph concluded “But I’ll be by your side when I can,I will keep you in my thoughts and you will always have worth to me.” Upon these words, Logan turned around to the wall above Joseph, shooting in five specific places. Five poltergeist commandos then crashed down from the ceiling ahead of the gang, all shot in the head and chest.

“You’ll…always have worth to me, too.” Said Logan, as he changed his weapon’s magazine. “Some days…were harder than others…they stuck me with needles or beat me…but I thought about how you wouldn’t want me to give up…” Logan proceeded to fire back into the crowd of Charging poltergeist commandos, killing multiple ones at the same time as they grew closer. By the time they reached the outside of the complex, several QM members were waiting with armored vehicles to take them back the the RISENFLEDERMAUS as the ALA began to regroup. The VWS, now with Logan, stood their ground and fired back at the poltergeist commandos as they used the labs windows as improvised cover. Joseph made sure to cover Logan as he sluggishly reloaded his rifle again.

“You always did stand up for me…didn’t matter if it was a 9th grader, another soldier, or even my own dad…” AKROPOLIS stepped out again with her laser weapon. She stepped from cover clicked a switch on the side of her weapon.

“WARNING, THIS SETTING IS FOR IMMEDIATE EMERGENCIES ONLY.” A short, but powerful laser stream cut into the base of the front office, causing it to partly collapse. The poltergeist commandos screamed as they were immolated or fell from the windows,collapsing into rigid heaps. QM’s escape vans opened up, ushering the VWS and WRAITH to flee.

“Guys, I got good news from our forces on the second raiding team, all of the POWS have been rescued and they’re hauling ass out of this place.” On the opposite side of the prison, an ALA helicopter opened fire on the second team, only for another laser weapon to fire and knock it out of the sky. “Looks like I owe my Sargent a drink when I get out of here.” AKROPOLIS chirped as she took another hail of assault rifle fire.

Joseph and fritz collapsed with relief, sitting together on one side of the van. In another, Laleh was tending to Logan, hooking him to an IV for his dehydration as GOLEM gingerly inspected him for wounds. Laleh nodded to joseph before GOLEM closed the van. The VWS was soon at veronica’s jet and airborne.Logan was in a secure medical gurney, in a bad condition. Joseph strained to look at his dear partner in a terrible state until Laleh put her enormous hand on his shoulder.

“He’ll be okay, I promise.” She said reassuringly. Joseph nodded, knowing that of all people, SHE would make sure Logan would survive his ordeal. As the gang made their way to the HARRIS, an enormous aircraft passed them.

“What the hell is that?!” Veronica cried as her cameras picked up the aircraft that resembled a giant robot out of an anime, but much MUCH smaller.

“That’s the thing Charlotte pilots.” AKROPOLIS said flatly. “She thinks she’s all that just because she gets to fly an experimental aircraft never thought possible to be designed and produced by human hands.” She snorted, crossing her arms. Veronica noticed the red stains on the aircraft’s “hands”. Its large frame riddled in bulletholes and seared metal. The VWS touched down to the Harris, and prepared to get logan to immeadiate medical care.Meanwhile on a highly guarded area of the Harris, VWSSOC secretly brought several enemy POWS to a confidential interrogation room. One of the pows wore the same red fatigues as the abomination soldiers, but his mask was torn and bloodied, and his arm band barely legible from the blood smeared on it. The second pow was a prosperan man in a regular FPU uniform in combat fatigues. The third POW was a white man with an ALA mercenary company tattoo had scabbed over from a vicious cut. SGT Nguyen grabbed the man by the throat.

“Very clever of you steal one of the hostage’s clothing and make your escape off the base, Corporal Johnson” the white american man gulped as his eyes bulged in fear. Using her free hand, Sgt.Nguyen tore off one of his sleeves. His neck was seemingly free of any blemish or body hair. However, upon closer inspection, a large, flesh colored bandage began to peel off from the sweat. Sgt.Nguyen ripped off the bandage. Covered in a transparent, sticky adhesive, as a large tattoo that was bordered by an SS waffen style lightening bolt. The tattoo was three letters followed by a mix of letters and numbers. “WNM6” SGT Nguyen’s metallic arm rotated and clicked, causing her finger reveal two metallic pincers. Electricity violently surged and sparked, illuminating the darken room, causing her and the other senior member, EQUINOX, become more severe and threatening.

“Looks like we caught one of the ALA’s low ranking puppet masters, now tell us everything you know before things get violent.” The VWSSOC medic, EQUINOX stabbed Johnson with a syringe.

“The cyanide and any other poison in your body has now been neutralized. There is no escape.” Johnson let loose a blood curdling scream, silenced by the room as Nguyen began her interrogation.

TO BE CONTINUED IN VOL 6.

[esforcados-gti]

ERP – UMA VISÃO GERAL SOBRE O SISTEMA DE GESTÃO EMPRESARIAL

DESENVOLVIMENTO DO ERP

O uso da tecnologia e dos sistemas de informação para gestão e administração nas organizações e empresas hoje é imprescindível. Através destes, podemos ter o melhor controle dos processos e maior auxilio para desenvolver estratégias e melhorar o desempenho da organização. Para isso temos os sistemas integrados de gestão empresarial, ou Enterprise Resourse Planning (ERP).

O ERP é um software informatizado que facilita o controle dos processos gerenciais integrando todos os setores empresariais dando auxilio para a coordenação das diversas áreas da empresa. Com ele podemos automatizar processos que costumavam ser manuais e sintetizar informações de maneira mais eficiente e eficaz centralizando todo o fluxo de trabalho e concentrando todos os dados de maneira integrada para uma análise mais organizada e pratica das operações.

VISÃO GERAL SOBRE O DESENVOLVIMENTO DO ERP

O desenvolvimento do ERP inicia no século 20 com a criação do Economic Order Quantity (EOQ) ou Lote Econômico de compras (LEC) pelo engenheiro de produção norte-americano Ford Whitman Harris. Esta metodologia é um cálculo que ajuda a descobrir a quantidade ideal de estoque para um produto a fim de minimizar os custos totais para manter o processo de produção mais econômico ajudando a reduzir despesas.

Com base nessa metodologia, mediante o crescimento da demanda de produção da Toyota nos anos 60, Joseph Orlicky cria o MRP I (Material Requirement Planning) que é um sistema de planejamento de recursos de produção. O MRP I calcula quantos matérias e recursos você precisa para atingir as necessidades da empresa e a demanda dos clientes, quais tipos de materiais serão necessários para produção, e auxilia no monitoramento os estoques prevendo a disponibilidade dos mesmos.

Eventualmente, na década de 70, surge o MRP II (Manufacturing Resource Planning) agora controlando não só a disponibilidade de materiais, mas também a capacidade de produção e finanças integrando o departamento de vendas, engenharia e controle de produção. Com esse sistema é estipulado também o impacto de custos que um aumento de demanda pode trazer analisando a disponibilidade financeira.

Com a evolução das redes de computadores e servidores e tendo base nos métodos anteriores, a partir da década de 90 surge o ERP. A Gartner Group foi a primeira a utilizar o termo para definir o sistema que abrangia ainda mais funções empresariais tais como recursos humanos, gestão de projetos, contabilidade entre outras. Esse sistema é composto por módulos que abrangem diferentes áreas operacionais, assimilando todos em um só e permitindo a facilidade de compartilhamento de informações sobre diversas áreas operacionais da empresa aumentando a eficiência de atividades e tomada de decisões.

MODULOS DO ERP

O sistema ERP é integrado a outros sistemas e dividido em módulos que são conjuntos de funcionalidades de cada área que o sistema controla. Sendo alguns deles:

Modulo de Recursos Humanos:

Este modulo cede controle sobre o a acompanhamento do desempenho e desenvolvimento dos trabalhadores, controle de baixa de salários, administração do departamento pessoal e relação com os colaboradores.

Modulo de CRM:

Auxilio no gerenciamento das relações aos clientes, organização dos dados dos clientes, analise da jornada do consumidor (tendencias, como consomem seu produto, como atendem as necessidades do cliente) entre outros.

Modulo de logística e transporte:

Emissão de documentos fiscais para empresas com transportes de carga, logística do armazenamento e estoque de itens movimentados, gestão de pedidos de compras para transportadora.

A IMPORTANCIA DO ERP

O sistema não só torna os processos gerenciais mais rápidos, mas também oferecem uma segurança maior aos usuários com armazenamento em nuvem. Na era dos dados, ter um sistema de assimilação das mesmas para criar informações uteis sobre seu negócio é fundamental e não utilizar desses sistemas é um atraso muito grande. Os “modos manuais” estão ultrapassados e é necessário que todo empresário ou gestor entenda como usar dos sistemas de gerenciamento organizacional, sabendo como alimentar o sistema com os dados e o que fazer com as informações retiradas delas.

Autor: João Pedro Lu

[19eighties]

Auditorium of the 66 West 12th Street Building New School Archives

A Building With Personality

“On West Twelfth Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues, you will see a new and peculiar looking building, if the snowstorm permits. Its nature and purpose will be a trifle difficult to guess at first, for no structure of the sort will ever have met your eye before. But if your gaze strays down far enough, you will perceive that it is the new home of the New School for Social Research.” That was the beginning of the New York City Post’s article of December 30, 1930, promoting the opening of the school’s new building at 66 West 12th Street. 

Long before the construction of The New School’s University Center, 66 West 12th Street, now known as Alvin Johnson/J.M. Kaplan Hall, was the center of the school’s campus. The idea for the structure arose in the 1920s, when the school (then called the New School for Social Research) was housed in six leased brownstones on West 23rd Street in Chelsea. As the lease was coming to a close, director Alvin Johnson decided to create a permanent home for the school, one that would “express [its] ideals” and “give visible form to its personality.” A new building would enable the school to strengthen its identity and protect it from the whims of the real estate market. “I hated the idea of leased premises,” Johnson stated in his autobiography. “How could we possibly develop institutional personality in forty thousand square feet of footage in an office building?”

However, having operated for less than ten years, the school lacked an endowment to pay for a new building. A fundraising plan was needed, along with an architect with a spectacular vision that would prompt funders to open their wallets — a significant challenge, especially since the country was entering the Great Depression.

Johnson thought of two architects who he believed could produce such a visionary design — Frank Lloyd Wright and Joseph Urban. Johnson decided on Urban and, with the aid of Board of Directors member Clara Mayer, approached the architect.

Originally from Vienna, Urban had a flourishing career as an architect before immigrating to the United States to work as a set designer for the Boston Opera Company. He was soon designing sets and lighting for the Metropolitan Opera of New York, the Ziegfeld Follies, and other companies and productions before being drawn back to architecture.

“Johnson/Kaplan Hall was unique for the time it was built, both because of the architectural vocabulary that it chose to use — call it International Style or geometrical shapes — and because Urban wasn’t a conventional architect,” said Lia Gartner, vice president for Buildings at The New School. “Now we talk a lot about cross-disciplinary theory, but Urban represented that 90 years ago. He was a designer of all types of things; he wasn’t just a builder or an architect.” 

A hallmark of Urban’s design is his use of color, which is vividly demonstrated in the basement dance studio and first floor lobby area. “Urban was very much inspired by color and how it affects mood and environment,” said Gartner. “His was a very theatrical approach to architecture, and he created his own system of colors to express his vision.”

One of the most dramatic features of the building is the egg-shaped auditorium, the first to be built in that shape. Unlike courses at today’s New School, where class sizes are kept small, courses offered by the school at the time were sometimes attended by enough students to fill an auditorium. Johnson wanted Urban to create one that would break down the separation between instructors and students and encourage interaction. The design, with wide arched bands and reflected light, was intended to produce an intimate space with the feel of an open-air theater but the benefits of an indoor auditorium, such as temperature and acoustic controls. The shape did have one drawback: the potential to cause problems with the acoustics.  

Along with Floyd Rowe Datson, a University of Illinois professor of experimental physics, and New York engineer T.F. Bludworth, Urban devised an ingenious solution. The three designed a plaster ceiling in the form of a grill, with perforations that kept sound waves from bouncing back into the space from the ceiling.

Believed to be the first International Style structure built in the United States, 66 West 12th Street was Urban’s last architectural work before his death in 1933. His influence can still be seen in one of New York’s landmarks, Radio City Music Hall, whose interior incorporates features from his designs, including that of the auditorium at 66 West 12th Street.

[gasthausnostalgie]

Old Vienna

Anno 1928

Wien: 𝐁𝐥𝐮𝐭𝐭𝐚𝐭 𝐢𝐦 𝐊𝐨𝐧𝐳𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐮𝐬

Das Wiener Konzerthaus mit seinen vier großen Sälen befindet sich in der Lothringerstraße 20 im Bezirk Landstraße und wurde 1913 in Anwesenheit von Kaiser Franz Joseph I. eröffnet.

Am 3. November 1928 fielen kurz vor dem Start eines Violinkonzerts Schüsse im Großen Saal des Konzerthauses. Der 48-jährige ehemalige Rittmeister Felix Gartner tötete seine Angebetete, die 35-jährige ägyptische Prinzessin Deydey Muheb Pascha mit fünf Revolversalven. Das Tatmotiv war Eifersucht, da die schöne „Djidji“ – so ihr Spitzname in der Wiener Gesellschaft – beabsichtigte, demnächst einen orientalischen Prinzen zu heiraten. Der Verschmähte musste völlig verzweifelt gewesen sein und war bei dem Attentat nach dem Konsum von vier Flaschen Sliwowitz stark alkoholisiert.

Gartner behauptete später, einen Revolver bei sich gehabt zu haben, um seinem Leben ein Ende zu setzen. Warum er dann die Pistole gegen seine Angebetete gerichtet hatte, konnte er sich selbst nicht erklären. Nach der Tat wurde der Verdächtige umgehend ins Polizeigefangenenhaus auf der Rossauer Lände gebracht. Am 9. Juni 1929 sprach das Gericht Felix Gartner einstimmig des Mordes schuldig und verurteilte ihn zu zwölf Jahren schweren Kerkers.

Foto (Konzerthaus 1913)

Foto (Vater der Ermordeten 1928 vor dem Gericht)

[room9125]

Johari Window

Psychologists Joseph Luft and Harrington Ingham created a framework for understanding conscious and unconscious bias. By using four quadrants they allow participants to identify what they know about themselves, and what others know about them. There are 4 areas of understanding which come as a result of this deduction:

Open area: Anything you know about yourself and are willing to share with others

Blind area: Anything you do not know about yourself, but that others have become aware of

Hidden area: Anything you know about yourself and are not willing to share with others

Unknown area: Any aspect unknown to you or anyone else

Gartner. (n.d.). Definition of Johari Window - Gartner Human Resources Glossary. [online] Available at: https://www.gartner.com/en/human-resources/glossary/johari-window#:~:text=The%20Johari%20Window%20is%20a [Accessed 15 May 2023].

Mind Tools (2022). MindTools | Home. [online] www.mindtools.com. Available at: https://www.mindtools.com/au7v71d/the-johari-window [Accessed 15 May 2023].

In analysing this process I have been able to identify and categorise my own biases of the memories I recall. I have also decided that within my community involvement I could use this framework within a workshop. As part of my budget I have specified that I'm willing to exchange teaching time for the use of space so having a starting point of asking participants to write down characteristics or interests that fit in the know categories, then asking them to work with the unknown and visualise what version of their self is seen by others.

[wilwheaton]

Question: How do you explain the connections between the Big Lie, Q-Anon and conspiracy theories more generally? Answer: Noted psychiatrist Robert Jay Lifton developed the concept of "malignant normality." This explains how a malignantly narcissistic leader can change the reality of the society so that people actually believe the Big Lie or other propaganda. It becomes the new conventional wisdom. Right-wing authoritarians are fundamentally paranoid. Their paranoia functions such that everything that is "bad" is projected outward. It is like a mirror reality for them. Using the Republican Party as an example, they use projection to gaslight: "Whatever I am doing, I will accuse you of doing." Joseph Goebbels said much the same thing: "Accuse them of whatever you're doing." For the psychopaths at the top who are perpetrating these things, it is not an unconscious psychological process. Instead, it is an intentional strategy. The people who are vulnerable to such a tactic exist in a social context where they live in a bubble of information. They also have personalities ready to believe any paranoid conspiracy theory. It's fundamental to their personality to believe that other bad people are doing crazy things that need to be defended against, and there's really no limit to what those bad people could be doing or what theories you could have about them — especially if you and your group are doing some of those bad things.

Dr. John Gartner on America after Trump: "Dystopian science fiction ... is actually happening"

[xeverglow]

[danitacdoleman]

Applications of Artificial Intelligence in Daily Life

Numerous real-world uses can be made using artificial intelligence. For example, it is frequently used to plan and build autonomous machines to assist humans with challenging, tiresome, and hazardous activities. In addition, there are numerous AI applications, including chatbots and navigation tools. The sector is developing swiftly, but there is still a long way to go before we can use these tools to offer personalized recommendations. Nevertheless, this technology may soon simplify people's lives by providing individualized recommendations based on prior usage patterns.

AI boosts an organization's effectiveness and production because of its natural capacity to learn from data. Large-scale data processing, for example, is an activity that used to require human labor but can now be automated by AI. Thanks to these abilities, a person could never read and analyze data at the level that AI can. In the end, improved productivity benefits businesses significantly. One illustration is Netflix, which employs machine learning to enhance the customer personalization of its videos. As a result, it had a 25% increase in customer base in 2017.

Even though artificial intelligence (AI) has advanced significantly since the first sentient robots appeared in Greek tales, the idea has a considerably longer history. The term "artificial intelligence" is credited to Alan Turing, the "father of computer science," who did so in 1950. In his writing, Turing proposed the Turing Test, which asks the interrogator to be able to tell the difference between a written response from a human and one from a computer. Although this test has since been examined, it is still a significant moment in the development of AI.

The field of AI is constantly changing. The emergence of artificial intelligence was prophesied during a recent symposium on AI hosted at Dartmouth College, which also attracted significant support from the business and government sectors. Since then, AI has made some significant advancements. For example, while Joseph Weizenbaum's ELIZA natural language processing program and McCarthy's Lisp programming language created the foundation for chatbots, Newell and Simon's GPS method could not handle complex situations.

AI has repercussions for the law, the economy, and society. The consequences of AI on society and the economy are the subject of current research. Robotics, automated trading and the electricity grid are just a few applications of AI systems. AI can potentially develop into deadly weapons in addition to being beneficial to civilization. Therefore, to ensure that the technology is advantageous to everyone, these problems in AI research must be addressed.

DeepMind Technologies created a neural network that mimics human short-term memory. Later, driverless vehicles were developed using this technology. In the automotive business, this technology is becoming more and more prevalent. Even though this technology is still in its infancy, more companies will start using AI soon to address particular issues. According to Gartner, 50% of businesses will have AI platforms by the end of 2025.

Costly, challenging to create, and require highly skilled individuals, AI initiatives are pricey. As with any technology, businesses should consider when and where to implement AI in their systems. For instance, when journalists used human writers to write short pieces about a company's earnings, the Associated Press discovered that integrating AI into its news system produced 12 times more earnings stories than humans. The journalists were, therefore, able to make more in-depth pieces due to the enhanced productivity.

The threats of superhuman AI have drawn the attention of many in the scientific and technological communities, but many think the moment has yet to come. Risk-averse individuals have suggested that safety studies ought to begin right now. The solutions to many of these problems, though, may take decades. This implies that if technology develops superintelligence, it will impact people's existence on Earth.

The most successful form of AI realization is called weak or narrow AI. Narrow AI can be used for specialized tasks like computer search engines and medical diagnosis. The economic viability of countries has dramatically benefited from narrow AI. It can enhance people's lives and society greatly. The technical data architecture that underpins this technology is crucial to its advancements. Artificial intelligence is a complex and expanding field.

Businesses can use AI in many different aspects of their operations. For example, applications of AI can frequently increase productivity, personalize customer interactions, and enhance corporate outcomes. These factors make it a strategic necessity for many businesses.

[tenth-sentence]

He experimentized on some of the very same species as did Gärtner.

"On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life" - Charles Darwin

[ericvick]

Pfizer, Alibaba, Amazon, Alphabet and Qualcomm in Focus

Monday (February 1)

Tuesday (February 2)

Wednesday (February 3)

Thursday (February 4)

Friday (February 5)

Earnings Calendar For The Week Of February 1

Monday (February 1)

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS, NXP SEMICONDUCTORS, ON SEMICONDUCTOR

VERTEX PHARMACEUTICALS: The biopharmaceutical company is expected to report a profit of $2.55 in the fourth quarter, which represents year-over-year growth of 50% from the same quarter a year ago when the company reported $1.70 cents per share.

However, Wall Street forecasts the company’s revenue to grow about 12% to $1.58 billion.

“Q4 estimates for Vertex‘s CF franchise appear achievable based on recent trends. With industry-leading growth and its fundamentals largely intact despite COVID-19, we expect the current dislocation between Vertex Pharmaceuticals’ (VRTX) trading price and the value of its CF franchise to be only temporary. We would use the recent stock weakness to build a position,” said equity analysts at Cowen and Company, who also gave a price target of $300.

NXP SEMICONDUCTORS: Eindhoven, Netherlands-based semiconductor manufacturer will post earnings of $2.11 per share in the December quarter on revenue of $2.46 billion, up from $1.98 per share on revenue of $2.30 billion same quarter last year. For the December quarter, the forecasts revenue in the range of $2.375-$2.525 billion which, at the midpoint, represents growth of 8% sequentially and 6% year-over-year.

“Management remains upbeat about near-term demand, including 2021, especially regarding its mobile chip business as the firm’s ultra-wideband connectivity solutions are rapidly gaining adoption within newer smartphones. We raise our fair value estimate to $150 from $130, and with shares trading around $134, we view shares as slightly undervalued,” said equity analysts at Cowen and Company.

ON SEMICONDUCTOR: Phoenix, Arizona-based semiconductors supplier company will post earnings of $0.28 per share for last quarter of 2020. The revenue is expected to slump 3.0% on a year-over-year basis.

Story continues

TAKE A LOOK AT OUR EARNINGS CALENDAR FOR THE FULL RELEASES FOR THE FEBRUARY 1

Ticker

Company

EPS Forecast

TMO

Thermo Fisher Scientific

$6.52

OTIS

Otis Worldwide Corp

$0.59

RYAAY

Ryanair

-$1.11

ON

ON Semiconductor

$0.28

AEIS

Advanced Energy Industries

$1.34

ITUB

Itau Unibanco

$0.10

CACC

Credit Acceptance

$7.22

WWD

Woodward

$0.68

NXPI

NXP Semiconductors

$2.11

RMBS

Rambus

$0.25

ARE

Alexandria Real Estate Equities

$0.48

KRC

Kilroy Realty

$0.36

CRUS

Cirrus Logic

$1.86

OMCL

Omnicell

$0.80

KMPR

Kemper

$1.55

PCH

Potlatch

$1.37

KMT

Kennametal

$0.09

FN

Fabrinet

$1.04

IBTX

Independent Bank

$1.33

CBT

Cabot

$0.87

VRTX

Vertex Pharmaceuticals

$2.55

BKRKY

Bank Rakyat

$0.17

BECN

Beacon Roofing Supply

$0.63

LBRDK

Liberty Broadband Lbrdk

$1.06

IX

Orix

$1.95

RBC

Regal Beloit Corporation

$1.57

MFG

Mizuho Financial

$0.08

  Tuesday (February 2)

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: PFIZER, ALIBABA, AMAZON, ALPHABET

PFIZER: The world’s largest pharmaceutical giant is expected to report a profit of $0.52 in the fourth quarter, which represents a year-over-year decline of about 5.4% from the same quarter last year when the company reported $0.55 per share.

The pharmaceutical company, which ranked 64th on the 2020 Fortune 500 list of the largest U.S. corporations by total revenue, will report revenue of $12.85 billion, up 1.3% from the year-ago quarter. According to chief executive officer Albert Bourla, Pfizer is likely to post this year’s earnings in the range of $3 to $3.10 per share.

“We lowered our 4Qe revenue by 5% from $11.6B to $11.0B and EPS by 6% from $0.40 to $0.38 to reflect lower doses delivered in 4Q. We lowered our 4Q COVID vaccine revenues from $683M to $150M (assuming $19.50/dose). Our prior model assumed 35M doses, which we lowered to 7.7M doses based upon CDC distribution allocations,” said David Risinger, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.

“Our 4Q projections are well below consensus, but we do not see 4Q results as a stock driver given all of the confounding factors. We are instead focused on management’s 2021 targets.”

ALIBABA: The largest online and mobile e-commerce company in the world is expected to earn $2.65 per share for the third quarter, according to equities analysts at Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer also set EPS estimates for FY2021 at $7.48 and FY2022 at $9.33.

The Chinese multinational technology company has surpassed consensus estimates with an average of about 25% in all four previous quarters.

“We expect healthy GMV growth of 16% to drive core of core revenue growth of 18% on better monetization, but slower adjusted EBITA growth of 11% due to continued investment in new initiatives. Stay Overweight on F2022e non-GAAP P/E of 19x; lower price target to $320,” said Gary Yu, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.

“We forecast total revenue of Rmb216bn (+33.8% YoY, +39.3% QoQ), non-GAAP EBITA of Rmb61.5bn (+21.4% YoY, +49.2% QoQ) with margin at 28.5% and non-GAAP net profit of Rmb57.2bn (+17.7% YoY, +16.1% QoQ) with margin at 26.5%.”

AMAZON: The eCommerce leader for physical and digital merchandise is expected to report a profit of $7.16 in the fourth quarter, which represents a year-over-year decline of over 10% from the same quarter last year when the company reported $6.47 per share.

The Seattle, Washington-based multinational technology giant will report revenue of $120.4 billion, up over 37% from the year-ago quarter. The company expects net sales between $112- $121 billion during the quarter.

“Amazon‘s high-margin businesses continue to allow Amazon to drive greater profitability while still continuing to invest (last-mile delivery, fulfilment, Prime Now, Fresh, Prime digital content, Alexa/Echo, India, AWS, etc),” noted Brian Nowak, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.

“Amazon Prime membership growth drives recurring revenue and a positive mix shift. Cloud adoption hitting an inflection point. Advertising serves as a key area for both further growth potential and profitability flow-through.”

ALPHABET: The parent of Google and the world’s largest search engine, which dominates Internet search activity globally will post earnings of $15.68 per share for last quarter of 2020. The consensus mark for revenues is pegged at $44.09 billion, implying growth of 17.3% from the year-ago reported figure, according to ZACKS Research.

TAKE A LOOK AT OUR EARNINGS CALENDAR FOR THE FULL RELEASES FOR THE FEBRUARY 2

Ticker

Company

EPS Forecast

HOG

Harley Davidson

$0.21

WAT

Waters

$2.87

ST

Sensata Technologies

$0.78

HUBB

Hubbell

$1.76

LITE

Lumentum Holdings Inc

$1.89

AMG

Affiliated Managers

$3.68

HAE

Haemonetics

$0.65

MAN

ManpowerGroup

$1.14

GPK

Graphic Packaging

$0.27

ABG

Asbury Automotive

$4.11

ATHM

Autohome

$9.54

MDC

MDC

$1.73

PFE

Pfizer

$0.52

XOM

Exxon Mobil

$0.01

UPS

United Parcel Service

$2.14

BP

BP

$0.08

HCA

HCA

$3.57

RACE

Ferrari

$1.24

EMR

Emerson Electric

$0.68

ETN

Eaton

$1.21

COP

ConocoPhillips

-$0.25

IDXX

Idexx Laboratories

$1.39

SYY

Sysco

$0.34

MCK

McKesson

$4.14

MPC

Marathon Petroleum

-$1.27

SIRI

Sirius XM

$0.06

MPLX

MPLX

$0.63

CTLT

Catalent

$0.55

BR

Broadridge Financial Solutions

$0.71

ENTG

Entegris

$0.66

TECH

Bio Techne

$1.37

BEN

Franklin Resources

$0.72

LII

Lennox International

$2.65

MMP

Magellan Midstream Partners

$0.85

BABA

Alibaba

$20.59

SANM

Sanmina

$0.81

MTCH

Match Group

$0.50

DOX

Amdocs

$1.14

MANH

Manhattan Associates

$0.32

POWI

Power Integrations

$0.44

MKL

Markel

$9.04

TENB

Tenable Holdings Inc

$0.05

FEYE

FireEye

$0.10

EPAY

Bottomline Technologies

$0.28

ATGE

Adtalem Global Education Inc

$0.67

MRCY

Mercury Systems

$0.51

BRKS

Brooks Automation USA

$0.42

GL

Globe Life Inc

$1.72

APAM

Artisan Partners Asset Management

$1.02

AMGN

Amgen

$3.39

CB

Chubb

$2.82

EA

Electronic Arts EA

$2.94

CMG

Chipotle Mexican Grill

$3.73

PKI

PerkinElmer

$2.95

STE

Steris

$1.52

AMCR

Amcor PLC

$0.17

FBHS

Fortune Brands Home Security

$1.16

ATO

Atmos Energy

$1.57

BCH

Banco De Chile

$0.31

AMZN

Amazon

$7.16

GOOG

Alphabet

$15.70

GOOGL

Alphabet

$15.68

SMFG

Sumitomo Mitsui Financial

$0.19

ASEKY

Aisin Seiki Co

$1.19

SNE

Sony

$0.80

RCL

Royal Caribbean Cruises

-$5.04

TDG

TransDigm

$2.09

IT

Gartner

$0.82

QGEN

Qiagen

$0.66

NPSKY

NSK ADR

$0.19

JKHY

Jack Henry Associates

$0.88

IPHI

Inphi

$0.88

SWI

Solarwinds

$0.25

BDC

Belden

$0.75

ILMN

Illumina

$1.10

BP

BP

£0.01

  Wednesday (February 3)

IN THE SPOTLIGHT: QUALCOMM

QUALCOMM: San Diego, California-based multinational corporation that creates an intellectual property, semiconductors, software, and services related to wireless technology is expected to report a profit of $2.10 in the fiscal first quarter, which represents year-over-year growth of over 110% from the same quarter last year when the company reported $0.99 per share.

The semiconductor company will report revenue of $80.3 billion, up over 60% from the year-ago quarter.

“We see an improvement in smartphone demand in 2021 after declining 5% in 2020 due to COVID-19. We also see 5G adding greater dollar content and supporting industry-wide handset volume growth. Qualcomm’s (QCOM) leadership in cellular technologies (3G/4G/5G) puts the company in a favourable position to maintain leading market share,” wrote Joseph Moore, equity analyst at Morgan Stanley.

“The potential elimination of a major competitor in the Chinese market, HiSilicon, should benefit QCOM as Huawei currently does not pay royalties. To the extent competitors that do pay royalties are able to pick up market share, that would be beneficial for QCOM.”

TAKE A LOOK AT OUR EARNINGS CALENDAR FOR THE FULL RELEASES FOR THE FEBRUARY 3

Ticker

Company

EPS Forecast

ABBV

AbbVie

$2.85

LAD

Lithia Motors

$5.23

APTV

Aptiv PLC

$1.01

HUM

Humana

-$2.37

BIP

Brookfield Infrastructure

$0.10

HWM

Howmet Aerospace Inc

$0.17

GWW

Grainger

$3.84

SC

Santander Consumer USA

$1.10

BIIB

Biogen

$4.75

CHKP

Check Point Software Technologies

$2.11

LFUS

Littelfuse

$1.58

BSX

Boston Scientific

$0.31

DT

Dynatrace Holdings

$0.13

SPOT

Spotify

-$0.53

APO

Apollo Global Management

$0.50

INGR

Ingredion

$1.46

SMG

Scotts Miracle-Gro

-$0.77

CPRI

Capri Holdings Ltd

$0.97

MSGS

Madison Square Garden Sports

-$1.67

EVR

Evercore Partners

$1.93

EPD

Enterprise Products Partners

$0.50

SLAB

Silicon Laboratories

$0.74

ASH

Ashland

$0.69

MUSA

Murphy USA

$2.14

ALGT

Allegiant Travel

-$2.27

BSMX

Santander Mexico Fincl Gp Sab Decv

$0.14

CENTA

Central Garden Pet

-$0.01

RGLD

Royal Gold Usa)

$0.86

ALGN

Align Technology

$2.14

AXTA

Axalta Coating Systems

$0.43

THG

Hanover

$2.34

AFL

Aflac

$1.05

KLAC

KLA-Tencor

$3.18

MAA

Mid-America Apartment Communities

$0.59

GRUB

GrubHub

$0.07

AVB

AvalonBay Communities

$0.85

CTSH

Cognizant Technology Solutions

$0.90

VVV

Valvoline Inc

$0.37

RYN

Rayonier

$0.05

QCOM

Qualcomm

$2.10

LNC

Lincoln National

$1.92

MET

MetLife

$1.52

CTVA

Corteva Inc

-$0.05

UHAL

Amerco

$0.12

QRVO

Qorvo

$2.66

MXL

MaxLinear

$0.36

ANGI

Angie’s List

-$0.02

HI

Hillenbrand

$0.73

CCMP

Cabot Microelectronics

$1.73

UGI

UGI

$1.13

KLIC

Kulicke And Soffa Industries

$0.71

AFG

American Financial

$2.13

IEX

IDEX

$1.31

FORM

FormFactor

$0.39

EBAY

eBay

$0.83

MITSY

Mitsui & Company

$7.96

LGND

Ligand Pharmaceuticals

$0.99

RAMP

Liveramp Holdings Inc

$0.06

NVO

Novo Nordisk A Fs

$0.60

TMHC

Taylor Morrison Home

$0.82

AVY

Avery Dennison

$2.08

SAVE

Spirit Airlines

-$1.40

GSK

Glaxosmithkline

$0.62

IRBT

Irobot

$0.21

COTY

Coty

$0.09

PAG

Penske Automotive

$2.11

COHR

Coherent

$0.78

DTE

DTE Energy

$1.33

ENSG

Ensign

$0.79

FLO

Flowers Foods

$0.24

SKM

Sk Telecom

$0.22

IBA

Industrias Bachoco Sab De Cv

$0.63

NEU

NewMarket

$5.60

BBD

Banco Bradesco

$0.11

PYPL

PayPal

$1.00

NMR

Nomura

$0.18

BSBR

Banco Santander Brasil

$0.17

SAN

Banco Santander

$0.06

  Thursday (February 4)

Ticker

Company

EPS Forecast

GPI

Group 1 Automotive

$5.94

ALXN

Alexion Pharmaceuticals

$2.58

NYT

New York Times

$0.34

BCE

BCE (USA)

$0.59

BMY

Bristol-Myers Squibb

$1.41

NJR

New Jersey Resources

$0.46

PM

Philip Morris International

$1.21

CMI

Cummins

$2.80

TPR

Tapestry Inc

$0.99

ARW

Arrow Electronics

$2.67

CMS

CMS Energy Corporation

$0.55

BAX

Baxter International

$0.75

YUM

Yum Brands

$1.01

CG

Carlyle

$0.44

CLX

Clorox

$1.77

AGCO

AGCO

$1.12

MPW

Medical Properties

$0.27

ABB

ABB

$0.18

JHG

Janus Henderson Group PLC

$0.73

CI

Cigna

$3.66

MMS

Maximus

$0.91

MRK

Merck & Co

$1.38

WEC

Wisconsin Energy

$0.73

XYL

Xylem

$0.68

TW

Towers Watson

$0.33

PENN

Penn National Gaming

$0.26

HSY

Hershey

$1.43

PH

Parker-Hannifin

$2.60

ICE

Intercontinental Exchange

$1.08

BSAC

Banco Santander Chile

$0.34

RL

Ralph Lauren

$1.64

SNA

Snap-On

$2.94

DGX

Quest Diagnostics

$3.98

ODFL

Old Dominion Freight Line

$1.57

COR

CoreSite Realty

$0.45

WD

Walker & Dunlop

$1.47

TKR

Timken

$0.92

IP

International Paper

$0.81

AME

Ametek

$1.03

BLL

Ball

$0.78

PBH

Prestige Brands

$0.77

ABC

AmerisourceBergen

$1.94

APD

Air Products & Chemicals

$2.18

LEA

Lear

$3.43

LANC

Lancaster Colony

$1.48

PTON

Peloton Interactive, Inc.

$0.08

SU

Suncor Energy USA

-$0.17

SKX

Skechers USA

$0.32

MTD

Mettler Toledo International

$8.72

PCTY

Paylocity

$0.25

ARWR

Arrowhead Research

-$0.22

SNAP

Snap

-$0.07

FTV

Fortive Corp

$0.62

NWSA

News Corp

$0.09

DECK

Deckers Outdoor

$7.06

EXPO

Exponent

$0.28

FTNT

Fortinet

$0.97

ALL

Allstate

$3.83

MDU

MDU Resources

$0.54

SYNA

Synaptics

$2.13

TDC

Teradata

$0.25

FLT

Fleetcor Technologies

$2.82

NBIX

Neurocrine Biosciences

$0.59

POST

Post

$0.71

CSL

Carlisle Companies

$1.16

NOV

National Oilwell Varco

-$0.14

GILD

Gilead Sciences

$2.01

WERN

Werner

$0.78

ESS

Essex Property

$1.02

CPT

Camden Property

$0.35

MPWR

Monolithic Power Systems

$1.24

WWE

World Wrestling Entertainment

$0.29

LPLA

LPL Financial

$1.33

OFC

Orate Office Properties

$0.38

ZEN

Zendesk

$0.15

MTX

Minerals Technologies

$0.91

PFPT

Proofpoint

$0.42

MSI

Motorola Solutions Msi

$2.74

COLM

Columbia Sportswear

$1.24

ATVI

Activision Blizzard

$1.17

F

Ford Motor

-$0.08

UNM

Unum

$1.19

HIG

Hartford Financial Services

$1.33

PRU

Prudential Financial

$2.57

DXC

DXC Technology Co

$0.54

KB

Kb Financial

$1.50

CHT

Chunghwa Telecom

$0.36

MCHP

Microchip Technology

$1.58

NWS

News

$0.09

AIV

Apartment

$0.67

SSUMY

Sumitomo ADR

$0.26

DB

Deutsche Bank

-$0.03

OHI

Omega Healthcare Investors

$0.41

KWHIY

Kawasaki Heavy Industries ADR

-$0.18

PFSI

Pennymac Financial Services

$5.90

TRNO

Terreno Realty

$0.37

BCO

Brinks

$1.04

VSAT

Viasat

$0.02

YAMCY

Yamaha DRC

$0.47

RDSA

Royal Dutch Shell

£0.17

NRZ

New Residential Investment

$0.33

RICOY

Ricoh Company

-$0.06

WYNN

Wynn Resorts

-$2.29

ITOCY

Itochu ADR

$1.87

TOT

Total

$0.46

MYGN

Myriad Genetics

-$0.12

BDX

Becton, Dickinson and Co.

$3.07

ARNC

Arconic Inc

$0.32

TM

Toyota Motor

$3.65

RHHBY

Roche Holding ADR

$1.28

CDW

CDW

$1.53

ARRY

Array Biopharma

$0.05

HL

Hecla Mining

$0.02

TWOU

2U

-$0.10

ALNY

Alnylam Pharmaceuticals

-$1.88

DD

DuPont

$0.85

CARR

Carrier Global Corp

$0.37

OMVJF

OMV

$0.74

TPL

Texas Pacific Land

$4.54

AUOTY

AU Optronics

$0.27

  Friday (February 5)

Ticker

Company

EPS Forecast

HRC

Hill-Rom

$1.05

ADNT

Adient PLC

$0.87

TT

Trane Technologies PLC

$0.92

LAZ

Lazard

$0.97

SNY

Sanofi

$0.69

EL

Estée Lauder

$1.68

LIN

Linde PLC

$2.16

AON

AON

$2.46

ZBH

ZIMMER BIOMET HDG.

$2.07

ITW

Illinois Tool Works

$1.79

REGN

Regeneron Pharmaceuticals

$8.23

CAH

Cardinal Health

$1.44

SPB

Spectrum Brands

$0.75

BERY

Berry Plastics

$0.94

HMC

Honda Motor

$0.75

NFG

National Fuel Gas

$0.99

CHBAY

Chiba Bank ADR

$0.77

SOMLY

Secom ADR

$0.26

ASX

Advanced Semiconductor Engineering

$0.12

BNPQY

BNP Paribas ADR

$0.55

FE

FirstEnergy

$0.50

  This article was originally posted on FX Empire

More From FXEMPIRE:

[jbaquerot]

In his latest book, “Thank You For Being Late,” Thomas Friedman highlighted 2007 as one of the most pivotal years in technology: 2007 saw the birth of Hadoop, the iPhone and Amazon’s Kindle for instance. My bet is that 2018 will start a new era for the technology space, very much like 2007 did. I see two reasons for this: the cloud will change the game because it has become a measurable strategy for Microsoft, Google and Amazon. Big Data will be less about technology. It will be more about management practices and processes. And data engineers will be forced to rethink their world as the enterprise mindset for analytics excellence shifts.

However, there is ‘a catch’ embedded in each of these predictions. Let me try to convince you of my beliefs and let me know if I don’t.

The Cloud Fallacy

You’ve heard it before: the Cloud is huge. Microsoft, Amazon and Google have built multi-billion dollar businesses because enterprise CIOs are betting big on it. Just a few years ago, enterprises confessed they were ‘dabbling’ in it. This year, they are ‘all in”. I recently invited to attend the banking technology conference where executives of a large multinational bank spelled out the change when they told me: “The Cloud and nothing else”.

I wrote last year about how the Cloud model was disrupting the economics and the deployment requirements of on-premises vendors. I explained that many data management vendors would struggle to adapt to the Cloud and support their prospects’ evolving needs. I called it the “Cloud fallacy”.

This year, I want to bring your attention to the risk of the “Cloud Lock-In”. We’ve seen this movie before: in the old enterprise data management days, vendors that had started out selling database products, progressively moved up the stack, acquired or built applications to keep people engaged with their data warehouse and ultimately ‘locked’ customers into their suites. While CIOs liked the fact that they had one vendor to go to in case of issues (the “one throat to choke” theory), they also suffered from the fact they had one vendor to go for licensing. What was convenient at first, created less flexibility and leverage for CIOs.

If you missed this “lock-in” trend, look at Oracle’s acquisitions over the past decade and you’ll see what I mean…

Why this matters: as you start embarking on the “all cloud” journey, beware of the “lock-in”. Not every cloud is created equal. Amazon’s cloud has different options than that of Microsoft or Google. Each integrates differently with the rest of your environment. Most integrate best with their own stack. You will want to architect your technical environment in a flexible manner. Learn from the last 2 decades: you might likely want to switch from one vendor to the next over time so you’ll want to make sure that the work you’re doing for one cloud is portable across all other applications. One of our customers moved from a traditional data warehouse to a large on-premises Hadoop cluster, then to the Google Cloud in less than 9 months. That’s less time than it used to take to build a data warehouse in 2008. So, in 2018 and onwards, educate yourself around the concept of semantic layers and don’t get locked in!

Big Data, Big Schmdata

In 2008, Hip-hop band The Black Eyed Peas came up with catchy tunes that urged their fans to get ahead of their times. One of the lyrics that stuck with me was Fergy’s claim: “don’t be 2000 and late”.

When Big Data became big in 2008, enterprises started to hire data scientists and data engineers. In 2009, Hal Varian, chief economist at Google, claimed the sexy job in the next 10 years would be a statistician. Enterprises, for fear of being “2000 and late” on-boarded scientists galore and instructed to “start coding”. Some the applications that came out of that work were cool. But many CIOs were left with poor results: hiring tens, hundreds or sometimes even thousands of scientists to support the ever-accelerating data needs of enterprise employees, simply didn’t scale.

Industry analysts such as Gartner or Forrester will tell you that machine learning and artificial intelligence will come to save the day. That’s all well and good. But, when I meet with some of my most customers’ successful chief data officers, the first thing they talk to me, is NOT technology. It’s organization structure and the mindset change required to win. Forward-thinking CDOs talk about their journey to “Insights-as-a-service” and how they are building the “Amazon of Big Data Analytics” inside their corporate walls.

Why this matters: I learned about the concept of the “Amazon of Big Data Analytics” from Joseph DeSantos, VP Data Analytics at TDBank, and one of our customers. The way he articulated his vision for the center of analytics excellence was quite a contrarian. He explained that, in the past, the enterprise I.T. group’s raison de vivre was to “full-serve” the business. This meant that I.T. hired staff to lay out data infrastructure, build datamarts, and deliver fully baked reports and dashboards to business people, based on their requirements. The “self-service” data analytics area saw business users take control of the construction of reports, even sometimes the building of datamarts, data extraction and transformation tasks that were traditionally owned by I.T. This threw the enterprise for a loop. While CIOs liked to enable the business, they realized quickly that enabling the business with tasks they weren’t fully trained to do and data they weren’t technically entitled to see, meant all hell broke loose. If you think about I.T. as the owner of a restaurant, “self-service” was the equivalent of inviting guests into the kitchen and letting them use professional-grade appliances.

What CDOs have now realized is that they need a better way to enable the business and protect the enterprise. They want to hire people who think of themselves as ‘educators’ of the business. They want to build systems, processes and organizational structures that let employees gain agility and freedom, while the employer firm keeps control over their governance framework. In “restaurant speak” this would be the equivalent of a “salad bar” I suppose.

So, while you’ll hear a lot about machine learning, artificial intelligence and other cool trends, I suggest you keep an eye on IaaS (Insights-as-a-Service). According to Forrester, that market will double, with 80% of firms relying on insights service providers for some portion of insights capabilities in 2018. All technologies are welcome but they need to be deployed as part of the right people-structure and they need to be applied for the right use case.

[michellemagly]

Computer Color is Broken

New Post has been published on https://computercoolingstore.com/computer-color-is-broken/

Computer Color is Broken

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[pumpkinqueen-bonecollector]

Computer Color is Broken

New Post has been published on https://computercoolingstore.com/computer-color-is-broken/

Computer Color is Broken

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MinutePhysics is on Google+ – And facebook – And twitter – @minutephysics

Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics — all in a minute!

Music by Nathaniel Schroeder

This video made possible by the following Patreon Supporters:

Mark Wes Brown John Green Florian Philipp Rens van der Heijden Bob Bolch Daniel Ametsreiter Joël Quenneville Richard Pearson David Dailey Steven Mulder Karim Ethi Raj Ryan Kyle William Ricketts Collin Mandris Matt Jonathan Foster Siddharth Sadanand Maarten Daalder Robby Olivam Alan Browning Jonathan Piersa Julia Person James Craver Sarah Chavis Yonatan Bisk Richard Campbell Chris Barrett Jan A Christopher Coleman Daniel “YoureDown” Breger Hendrik Payer Daniel Yip Matt K William Pearson Kevin Lynch Nick Ward Kevin john eriksson Allan Farrell Tobias Olesen Chris Chapin Michael Keefe Jon Mann Bert Goethals Joji Wata Adam Naber Rob Ibsen Jacob Gumpert Peter Collier Andi Davis Aarthy Raymond Cason Evan Gale Paul Tori McClanahan Andrew Stobie Dominik Steenken Danilo Metzger Christian Altenhofen Ezra Lee Roy Morgan Olivia Darroch Amber Ciarvella ryan horlacher Keith Chang Milokot Janel Christensen Will Scherer Mike Fulcher Larom Lancaster Liam Callaway John Harman Christos Papandreou Fernando Pazin Johnathon Kinville Jason Medrano Andrew Barnett Katharina Schuchmann John Gietzen Michael Tardibuono Matthew Hebert Christy Filipich Pierre-Louis Bourgeois Genevieve Lawrence Brian D’Agostini Chris Dominik Menzi Ryan A. Schauer Daniel Johnson Nico Houbraken Michael Carr Ragnhild Elizabeth Meisterling Lysann Schlegel Magnus Krokstad Chase Turner Owain Blackwood Russ Arrell Brenden Bullock Asaf Gartner Mark Samberg Tina Johnston Mike Cochrane Tom Murphy Peter L Jeff Erica Pratt David Artur Szczypta David Drueding Nicklas Ulvnäs Nigel W James Nelson Mary Foster-Smith Clayton Neff Michael Merino Jason and Gayle Corfman Mihaly Barasz Steven Klurfeld Richard Bairwell Tamas Bartal Erven Justin Prahl Michael Maitlen John Harman Hans van Staveren Kasey Karlin Nazario M K Jacques LABBÉ Geralyn Byers jason black Candice Blodgett Daniel Gibbs Henry Berthelsen Andy Kittner Steve Hall Erdumas Rob Snyder John Kelly Jessica Rosenstein Bill Tomiyasu Vasco Simões Eoin Simon Hammersley iain Holger Alexis Carpenter Jay Goodman Joseph Perry Mark Govea Eduardo Rampelotto Gatto Created by Henry Reich

[the-etranger]

Computer Color is Broken

New Post has been published on https://computercoolingstore.com/computer-color-is-broken/

Computer Color is Broken

Thanks to for supporting this video!

MinutePhysics is on Google+ – And facebook – And twitter – @minutephysics

Minute Physics provides an energetic and entertaining view of old and new problems in physics — all in a minute!

Music by Nathaniel Schroeder

This video made possible by the following Patreon Supporters:

Mark Wes Brown John Green Florian Philipp Rens van der Heijden Bob Bolch Daniel Ametsreiter Joël Quenneville Richard Pearson David Dailey Steven Mulder Karim Ethi Raj Ryan Kyle William Ricketts Collin Mandris Matt Jonathan Foster Siddharth Sadanand Maarten Daalder Robby Olivam Alan Browning Jonathan Piersa Julia Person James Craver Sarah Chavis Yonatan Bisk Richard Campbell Chris Barrett Jan A Christopher Coleman Daniel “YoureDown” Breger Hendrik Payer Daniel Yip Matt K William Pearson Kevin Lynch Nick Ward Kevin john eriksson Allan Farrell Tobias Olesen Chris Chapin Michael Keefe Jon Mann Bert Goethals Joji Wata Adam Naber Rob Ibsen Jacob Gumpert Peter Collier Andi Davis Aarthy Raymond Cason Evan Gale Paul Tori McClanahan Andrew Stobie Dominik Steenken Danilo Metzger Christian Altenhofen Ezra Lee Roy Morgan Olivia Darroch Amber Ciarvella ryan horlacher Keith Chang Milokot Janel Christensen Will Scherer Mike Fulcher Larom Lancaster Liam Callaway John Harman Christos Papandreou Fernando Pazin Johnathon Kinville Jason Medrano Andrew Barnett Katharina Schuchmann John Gietzen Michael Tardibuono Matthew Hebert Christy Filipich Pierre-Louis Bourgeois Genevieve Lawrence Brian D’Agostini Chris Dominik Menzi Ryan A. Schauer Daniel Johnson Nico Houbraken Michael Carr Ragnhild Elizabeth Meisterling Lysann Schlegel Magnus Krokstad Chase Turner Owain Blackwood Russ Arrell Brenden Bullock Asaf Gartner Mark Samberg Tina Johnston Mike Cochrane Tom Murphy Peter L Jeff Erica Pratt David Artur Szczypta David Drueding Nicklas Ulvnäs Nigel W James Nelson Mary Foster-Smith Clayton Neff Michael Merino Jason and Gayle Corfman Mihaly Barasz Steven Klurfeld Richard Bairwell Tamas Bartal Erven Justin Prahl Michael Maitlen John Harman Hans van Staveren Kasey Karlin Nazario M K Jacques LABBÉ Geralyn Byers jason black Candice Blodgett Daniel Gibbs Henry Berthelsen Andy Kittner Steve Hall Erdumas Rob Snyder John Kelly Jessica Rosenstein Bill Tomiyasu Vasco Simões Eoin Simon Hammersley iain Holger Alexis Carpenter Jay Goodman Joseph Perry Mark Govea Eduardo Rampelotto Gatto Created by Henry Reich

[tenth-sentence]

He always compares the maximum number of seeds produced by two species when crossed and by their hybrid offspring, with the average number produced by both pure parent-species in a state of nature.

"On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life" - Charles Darwin