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ashflamethewaffleangel · 8 months ago

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I've been browsing the WoJ website, as one does, and realized just how excited Mr. Author seems to write Mirror Mirror Marcone, and now I'm very excited for that book too.

Do you have any theories about how that will go? Will Marcone be a good guy? 👀 Omg what if he went from the army to law enforcement. Imagine what that man could do in SI. ⚰️

YOU HONOR ME WITH THIS QUESTION HOLY SHIT (so very genuine; you are my beloved Dresden Files mutual) but bear with me because this is gonna be a long post. I have toooo many thoughts. God I'm sorry. /jov

BUT GOD. YOU HAVE HIT THE QUESTION I REPEATEDLY THEORIZE WITH MY PARTNERS. OUUUGH. There are SO many ways this could go I am gonna be SO very real and I love every single one of them bc it keeps my brain shoomvin'!

But considering WOJ has mentioned that this particular universe is ours but gone to shit MUCH quicker due to one of Harry's earlier decisions "Mirror universe Harry is different by one choice. One. And everything else just follows after that." WHICH MEANS. WHICH MEANS EVERYTHING STAYS THE SAME. UP TO THAT CHOICE. (I can't remember how early, so it could be a pre-books decision, or it could be a in-canon alternate decision) so Marcone depending on how early in the canon it is, I see a couple different options!!

NOW OBVIOUUUSLY. There are an ABSURDDDD Number of choices Harry coulda done EXTREEEEMELY DIFFERENT!!!! However. one that comes to mind-- at least if he's talking early series!! and from the sounds of it, he is, because he says everything goes to shit a lot fucking faster than our timeline-- is in Fool Moon.

Marcone gives Harry a choice in the Fool Moon garage; sign on and become an employee of his, or die by the people he's trying to protect Harry from. Marcone ALSO gives Harry the choice to stay off the case in Book 1.

What if Harry chose EITHER of these options? What if he stayed off the Victor Sells case? The entire series spiraled from there--- THAT'S THE REASON MARCONE CAME TO HIM FOR HELP IN BOOK 2!!! MARCONE, UPON NOT BEING ABLE TO GET HARRY'S HELP, RESORTED TO FBI AGENTS WHO BETRAY HIM AND TRIED TO FEED HIM TO A LOUP-GAROU. AND THEY WOULD'VE GOTTEN AWAY WITH IT IF IT WEREN'T FOR EVERYONE ELSE (including Harry) STUCK IN THE PIT BELOW WITH HIM.

Now Jim has said he's very excited to write Marcone; so I imagine he's not fucking dead but. What if this series of events leads him to Nicodemus instead of Monoc? What if he becomes a knight of the Denarius THAT FUCKIN EARLY so he could better protect Chicago?; ESPCIALLY SINCE HARRY HASN'T KINDA LED HIM THROUGH TRIAL BY FIRE AND SAVED HIS ASS ON MULTIPLE OCCASIONS (as does Marcone vice versa).

But if Fool Moon has the changing point, then we've got a different route; Harry working for Marcone. That now begs the question of-- Would that have made everything gone to shit that much faster??????? Maybe !! As a consultant for Marcone? And telling him all the BULLSHIT that the White Council does? That the Red Court is doing? In his city?? Our evil Harry might be Marcone's enforcer-- as Mister Jimothy mentions, "If [Harry] was Lawful Evil I’m pretty sure he’d be Marcone’s enforcer."

Or might have been, at one point, in this particular universe. Either way, a very DELIGHTFUL choice of thought, but probably not where Mister Butcher is gonna take it.

Option 2; Marcone is FBI/Special Investigations -- LAW ENFORCEMENT TIME BABYYYYY!!! LAWFUL EVIL MAN STILL ON HIS LAWFUL ACT BUT THIS TIME IN THE MORE LITERAL SENSE! (/very jovial) I see this one happening if it's a complete Star Trek Mirror Mirror moment; he's still a powerhouse, he's still an ice-cold mf, but he's more of a deadly serious Fox Mulder, especially if the same event took place that made Marcone-- well-- Marcone! I'd see him being the same type of character, but more on the ground this time around; like he was in White Knight type beat; manpower and in-the-know folks taking down monsters to protect the citizens. Maybe he'll be giving our Harry a helping hand!! Especially if Harry is being framed for, you know, MURDER, as it's being told to us. Maybe we'll be having a soul-gaze, and because (I PRESUME) this universe's duo has already shared a soul-gaze it's a "Oh. Yeah no you're not lying. What. The fuck. Okay." OR, he's one of our main obstacles! BOTH ! AND!!!! Considering that Mister Butcher mentioned that we'll maybe be seeing something related to Marcone's capital n Name in this book... Definitely a possibility.

Option 3; He's literally just a guy! -- Less likely of the options? Yes. Still an interesting thought experiment? Also yes! This is ALSO based on this specific WOJ;

Q: I read the short story from Marcone’s point of view, “Even Hand,” and I noticed that John Marcone is not his real name. Is that going to be significant? Sure is if somebody tries to cast a spell at him using the name “John Marcone”! That’ll be a big deal. But we’ll have to see how that works out. Actually, the character that’s really interesting is the Mirror Mirror universe Marcone, and we’ll get to him in a few books.

Maybe! He's not John Marcone! Or, more accurately, he's the Marcone we see in Helen Beckitt's vision! Maybe he's still that charming motorcyclist who works for the mob! Probably VERY aware of word on the streets about Harry, and in Mirror Mirror, we'll see him go "huh. what the fuck." about our Harry! because THAT'S not the guy everyone dreads! This is a fucking goober! Powerful goober-- but tall, lanky ass, goober! Built his own paranet perhaps, due to the fact that Harry is not a "good" man in this universe.

I very honestly don't know, there's so many variations of these, ever so slight changes, and I am CHOMPING on my theorizing bit.

#whispers from the void #screaming at the screen with rea #long post #The Dresden Files #Harry Dresden #John Marcone #Mirror Mirror #Dresden Files Spoilers #<- just in case my partner (Kore) decided to read this too early #thank you for the ask btw my friend I LOOOOVVVE rambling I love it sm. thnak you. please talk to me more often /nf #also if you or anyone who reads this have your own theories PLEASe for the love of god add on I would LOVE to read them.

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wolfvirago-m · 2 months ago

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All about culture: beliefs :3c

all about culture [accepting] [x]

This might be a long one lmao. I'm going to go over a few key points in Shinto religion that I researched and a couple ways it manifests in Robin's story.

The thing about Robin's culture is that there isn't one sole belief system. It's not purely one religion over the other-- though there have been many points in Japan's history where one was considered the "correct" religion or pushed upon the masses by the government.

These two beliefs are Buddhism and Shintoism. As I have done more research into Shinto, I primarily use that system for Robin's world.

Shinto, at its core, is the belief in the world being inhabited by kami, or spirits. Everything has a spirit. Over time, spirits grow more powerful, especially if worshipped by living humans. This allows the kami to become more like gods, with powers greater than normal ghosts or ancestors may have. Often, ancestors and loved ones who have passed are worshipped with small altars in family homes or at their graves. Festivals like Obon honor the souls who have departed. Holidays like Setsubun involve rituals like throwing beans at demons to purify homes at the start of spring.

There is no one set god/kami to worship, which is inherently different from a good handful of Abrahamic religions. Moreso practicians of Shintoism practice traditions and rituals rather than devotion to a singular god.

At one point in time, the Japanese government/royal family enforced an absolute devotion by claiming their leaders descended from Amaterasu-omikami, widely regarded as the sort of "leader" of the kami, as she was the sun deity and ruler of heaven.

In Robin's universe, Amaterasu is still the lead of the kami. Her influence is Very Important to the Kobayashi clan, with stories of her image manifesting in the Sun Wolf that the clan worships. Amaterasu manifested herself in the head priestess of Ise, Inu's, visions, urging her to take up divine arms to face the Dark One.

Inu's battle with the Dark One was retold over generations as a kagura-- one of Shinto's divine rituals that is at heart a powerful dance offering to the gods/kami. You can view a similar kagura here.

This ritual awakens the Sun Wolf, urging her to swallow up the darkness and purify it. At the core of Shintoism-- there is no good or evil. There is only purity and impurity, similar to the belief of Ying and Yang in other cultures. These values must be balanced to have equality.

The Lost Woods, at its core, is dangerous because the balance has been thrown off. Impure yokai and dark energies have been leeching into the sacred earth for many generations, accelerating further once Robin becomes the guardian. This is because the Dark One's vessel has been allowed to gain more impurities and power-- as Robin has not performed the Kagura at all. She refuses to, as the memory of her mother's performance gives her only intense grief.

Robin's blade is pure light contained within ancient materials-- the Demon-Cutter. It's power is slowly nourished by the sun and devotion to the kami. In moments where Robin does believe in the kami and her goals of keeping the forest safe, the blade and her abilities will become stronger.

It is this belief in purity of intentions, of the will of humanity and the kami coming together that gives Robin her celestial power. She does not understand this fully, but by the end of her story, it becomes one of her greatest strengths.

Further reading if y'all are interested:

Amaterasu Sun Queen of Japanese Mythology: A Comp…

Wolf Gods: Japan & the Ainu: Wolf Mythologie and Wolf Gods, Mythologie japonais des loups, Creation Myths, Wolf Shrines in Japan, Mitsumine Jinja, Yamazumisama, Shirookami, white wolf, pure god, dieux-loups au Japon - Homepage Ralph Häussler

Living with Kami - Shinto Beginner Guide

@villciny

#villciny #;from the depths of the woods where the wind was born (meta)#;letters delivered (asks)#long post /#religion /

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berenices-commas · 11 months ago

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USS Wasp - 1807-1812

Warship – 434 tons burden – 140 crew

In 1805, as part of the gradual expansion of the US Navy, two sloops were commissioned to supplement the existing six frigates. These ships, the Hornet and the Wasp, would be maintained permanently, in contrast to the civilian vessels hastily purchased for use against French privateers in 1798. Initially they were planned to be rigged as brigs, and would indeed have been very similar to British sloops of the period. But when the Hornet was launched her rig was the subject of complaints, and Wasp was constructed with three masts and a ship rig instead.

The result was a vessel that was not exceptionally fast or manoeuvrable, but could still outrun larger ships and possessed a real advantage in endurance over two-masted sloops. The Wasp was very well-suited for long-distance voyages, being somewhat larger than her British counterparts – after all, the USA planned to operate just two sloops rather than hundreds, and could thus afford higher upkeep costs. The Wasp’s sting comprised sixteen 32-pounder carronades and two 6-pounder cannon in the bow, providing adequate firepower for her size at close range.

For several years after her launch in 1807 the Wasp was occupied in anti-smuggling operations, enforcing President Jefferson’s restrictive trade policies. She continued to patrol the American coastline after the outbreak of the War of 1812, but that year she engaged a British sloop escorting a trade convoy. This ship was slightly smaller than the Wasp but just as well-armed, and was captured only after a bloody battle. Unfortunately, the Wasp’s rigging was badly damaged in the engagement, and she was unable to escape when a British third-rate appeared to take both ships. She was subsequently employed by the Royal Navy against the USA, under the names Loup Cervier and then Peacock, until she was wrecked at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay in 1814.

The Wasp and Hornet were commissioned as a pair, and their names were clearly intended to convey both speed and a level of threat suitable for light ships.

#wasp

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nn1895 · 2 years ago

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AU August Fic 19

Spies and Assassins

:Meister,

My employer would like to hire you for a job. We can pay your full price upfront. All we require is that you provide us:

Proof of termination

2-4 witnesses with clean background who can speak at a trial

A time window so that my employer and his family can cultivate an alibi

We are not interested in exchanging names and all business will be done through a proxy and through me. Once the job is finished we will release the credits to whichever account you provide for us.

Please send us your acceptance promptly.:

:Tell Loupe that I’ll take his job and that he needs better security than a cheap technopath like you and a VPN. Better security at his house too. I could have gone my whole life without knowing that his bonded and him shared a lover.:

:My employer is amused at your attempts to unnerve him. Save the tales for the news sites.:

:So you haven’t told Loupe that you and his lovely, new, young bonded have been fragging in his bed every afternoon? That’ll be a surprise.:

:Your money will be delivered after you complete the job. Remove this thorn in my employer’s side and we may find more work for you.:

:Sure. Send the files, my mech. Who’s the lucky bot that’s got Loupe thrown for a loop?:

:A Praxus enforcer has followed him all the way to Iacon. He thought he was clever, hiding himself among the Polyhexian refugees. Sending the files now.:

0-0-0

:Prowl,

We have reason to believe your cover has been compromised. Retreat.:

:I will be fine. Please stand by.:

:This is not something to take lightly, Captain. Your target has employed the services of an assassin.:

:I am hardly going to miss a hitmech following me around. I will be fine. Please stand by and do not interfere.:

:Not a hitmech. An assassin. Prowl, this is an order. Retreat.:

:Prowl?:

:Prowl, reply.:

:Fraggit Prowl!:

0-0-0

Jazz dropped from the roof and used his magnets to slide down the side of the building. He’d given Loupe a time and made sure that he would have an alibi. He’d scheduled several witnesses to swear to Loupe’s location.

He was level with the window now. Carefully, his shifting gray and brown blending him perfectly with the shadows, Jazz leaned down and looked in.

A clean room, if a little bare. A table set for one. A pile of datapad on the side table by the couch.

This was just sad.

Jazz slowly lifted the window and slipped inside. The dim glow of the kitchen light illuminated the room. He could hear someone moving around in the kitchen.

What a pathetic little room and what a miserable existence. It didn’t even have a screen to watch movies on.

The light dimmed and Jazz turned to look at the mech in the doorway.

Black and white with flat yellow stripes and details. Forgettable enforcer paint and style.

“I suppose Loupe sent you,” the enforcer said.

“Maybe,” Jazz replied, smirking. “What exactly are you going to do about that?”

“Considering your reputation, I doubt there is anything I can do about that now.”

“Brave of you to try and take down someone like Loupe,” Jazz taunted as he walked over and settled himself on the couch. He was going to enjoy this.

“I assure you I am not alone in this. If you think -” Jazz waved his words away.

“Nah, mech. I know all about the enforcer sting. I got all my bases covered before I came calling.”

“Did you?” the enforcer asked skeptically, walking forwards and picking up the empty cube and a few goodie wrappers.

“Yep. I got all the time in the world ta make ya talk ta me.” Jazz stretched and draped his arms over the back of the couch.

“I highly doubt -”

The door to the berthroom creaked open and something small and black darted out on all fours. It bumped into the table. Two dark servos clamped on and it used the table to pull itself up.

The sparkling was matte black all over with a single neon green stripe running down its arms and legs. It had two enormous audials that dwarfed its helm, twitching towards each noise. It stared at Jazz, a sparkling sized block stuck in its mouth.

Jazz frowned, but the sparkling was unaffected.

“Has carrier been letting you sneak out here and stay up late, watching his shows?” Jazz asked, trying to look angry.

The sparkling only dropped the block and squeaked. It used the table to shuffle over to Jazz’s legs. It grabbed onto a pede and waited.

“Prowler, ya have ta stop bringing ya bitlet ta work wit’ ya.”

“Well he couldn’t very well go with you, now could he?” Prowl rolled his optics and took the cube to the kitchen.

“I bet he’d like like ta climb up and down the side of the building!” Jazz called after him, lifting his pede and the excited sparkling up and into his lap.

“Hey, bitlet! Did ya have fun wit’ carrier? Spyin’ and spookin’ on people?”

“He’s a natural,” Prowl said when he returned. The bitlet squeaked and held out a servo to its carrier. “I suppose Loupe thinks I’m going to be murdered sometime tomorrow?”

“Yep! Let slip - terrible of me - that his bonded and his secretary were hiding money. That should be enough of a threat to get the two of them to turn on him and release all of Loupe’s secrets. The enforcers should be arriving any minute now.”

On cue, the wail of sirens cut the night. The bitlet’s audials swiveled towards it and it peered at the window curiously.

“‘S nothing, Radar. Just ya carrier’s friends.” He kissed the little helm and received a happy hum.

Prowl settled in beside him.

“It is late. You should get some rest.”

“You’ve been working this case a lot longer than I have. You should be resting.”

Prowl was silent.

“It’s the premiere of one of your shows, isn’t it?” Jazz sighed. Beside him Prowl bounced slightly.

“It’s the prequel reboot of Rescue Bots: Underground where we get to see their origin story as abandoned sparklings in the underground world of Bolt.”

“I thought they were mystical representations of -”

“That was only in the Limelight movies. This one is based on the original comics - the reboot of the comics. The original original comics had them be an ordinary rescue team that went into stasis deep in space -”

Radar snuggled in and turned one audial towards each creator. The new habsuite was boring and didn’t have all his toys, but being able to sit up with carrier had made it all worth it.

#transformers #maccadam #maccadams #transformers fanfiction #jazz x prowl

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princelestatdelioncourt · 4 years ago

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Character Name

The Innamorati (Lovers Class)

(The characters of Isabella, Lelio, Flavio and Vittoria are all part of the Innamorati. However since there are so many more Commedia dell'arte characters that are part of this same class that are not fully developed by Commedia dell'Carte, we gave them their own "catch all" page to include research on this vital class of commedia characters that may not be specific to the four characters listed above. If you are seeking general information on the Innamorati, but sure to consult the web pages of the afore mentioned characters as well.)

In Italian, the Lovers (of whom four-two would-be pairs - are usually needed for a full scenario) are called innamorati. The males have names such as Silvio, Fabrizio, Aurelio, Orazio, Ottavio, Ortensio, Lelio, Leandro, Cinzio, Florindo, Lindoro, etc.; the females: Isabella, Angelica, Eularia, Flaminia, Vittoria, Silvia, Lavinia, Ortensia, Aurelia, etc. - Rudlin

Whether their names are Flavio, Ottavio, Orazio, Silvio, Leandro or Cinthio del Sole; Federigo, Lelio, Mario, or Fulvio - all reveal a fatal trace of fatuity. - Duchartre

Status

High, but brought low by the hopelessness of their infatuation. -Rudlin

Costume

The latest fashion. Males sometimes dressed as young soldiers or cadets. Wigs. Actresses would show off their wardrobe in the better companies by changing costume several times during the course of the action. -Rudlin

They had no particular costume, but dressed in the latest fashion of the period to which they belonged. - Duchartre

Wore stunning silk dresses, often in antique Renaissance style with necklaces of gold and pearls. - Gordon

Gentry-class dress, nice looking, modest, cute. Usually with a heart motif -Little

Origin (History)

The aristocracy of the Italian Renaissance courts amused themselves with a form they called commedia erudita based on the plays of Terence and Plautus, for example Calandria by Cardinal Bibbiena which, like Shakespeare's later Comedy of Errors, is based on Plautus' Menaechmi. As the professional improvised comedy looked to extend its range it seemed to have borrowed the Lovers from the amateur form. - Rudlin

The most prominent Isabella, Isabella Andreini, belonged to the troupe of Gelosi. - Laver

Physical Appearance

Had to be young, well set up, courteous, gallant even to the point of affectation - in short, a blade and a dandy. - Duchartre

Young and attractive – Rudlin

The lovers and wooers of the Commedia dell'arte were always dapper and engaging and just a trifle ridiculous. - Duchartre

Mask

No actual mask, but heavy make-up. Mascara and beauty spots for both sexes. The make-up in fact becomes a mask enabling performers to play the role well into middle age, or even beyond - Giovan Battista Andreini, son of Francesco, played Lelio until he was 73. Vizard or loup could be worn for disguise, usually made of black velvet. This was a normal accoutrement for society ladies when walking to a rendezvous and could be half- or full-face. But since it has not expression it does not count as a mask in the Commedia sense, although it does provide plenty of plot potential, enabling, for example, Columbina to attend rendezvous in her mistress's place. - Rudlin

Occasionally wore a mask that just covered eyes or a loop mask. - Laver

Signature Props

Handkerchief. Posy. Fan for women. -Rudlin

Stance

They lack firm contact with the earth. Feet invariably in ballet positions, creating an inverted cone. Chest and heart heavy. They are full of breath, but then take little pants on top. Sometimes when situations become too much for them, they deflate totally. – Rudlin

Always very proud.

Walk

They do not walk as much as tweeter, due to the instability of their base. First the head leans the other way to the body sway. Then the arms have to be used, one above the other, as a counterweight. -Rudlin

Poses

Various depending on individual character.

Movements

Actors would use the same dancing masters as the well-to-do whom they were parodying in order to point up the ridiculousness of exaggerated deportment. Movement comes at the point of overbalance leading to a sideways rush towards a new focus, with the arms left trailing behind. Stop at the new point (usually the beloved or some token thereof) before (almost) touching it. The Lovers have little or no physical contact. When there is any, the minimum has maximum effect. - Rudlin

Exaggerated movements of the hands, like feathers flapping in the wind. -Fletcher

Gestures

Often while holding a handkerchief or flower, etc. in the leading hand. The arms never make identical shapes. Because of their vanity, they frequently look in a hand mirror, only to become upset by any minor imperfection which is discovered. Even in extremis they are always looking to see if a ribbon or a sequin is out of place. A button found on the floor or a blemish in the coiffure equals disaster. - Rudlin

Speech Language

Tuscan, making great display of courtly words and baroque metaphors. Well read, knowing large extracts of poems by heart (especially Petrarch). They speak softly in musical sentences - in contrast with the zanni. Their sentences are often flamboyant, hyperbolical, full of amorous rhetoric. By the end of the 17th Century in Paris, the Lovers spoke French. - Rudlin

Animal

Various depending on individual character.

Relationships

They relate exclusively to themselves - they are in love with themselves being in love. The last person they actually relate to in the course of the action is often the beloved. When they do meet they have great difficulty in communicating with each other (usually because of the nerves). And they relate to their servants only in terms of pleading for help. The Lovers love each other, yet are more preoccupied with being seen as lovers, undergoing all the hardships of being in such a plight, than with actual fulfilment. Consequently they frequently scorn each other and feign mild hatred; they rebut, despair, reconcile, but eventually end up marrying in the way of true love when the game is up and they know they cannot play any more. After a quarrel the male may try a serenade to win back favour. This will be (dis)organized by Zanni: he employs musicians who are drunk or spends the money on something else and has tu use tramps off the street. The result is total chaos, but in the end the serenade is beautifully played and sung because everyone miraculously turns out to be good at their job after all. - Rudlin

Relationship to Audience

Extremely aware of being watched. Play with the audience for sympathy in their plight. Occasionally flirts with spectators. -Rudlin

Frequent Plot Function

Indispensable. Without them and their inability to resolve their own problems, there would be no function for the zanni, no struggle between the ineffectuality of youth and the implacability of age. The lovers are never alone on stage - they always have someone with them or spying on them. - Ruldin

Their function was to depict a state of mind rather than to paint a personality. - Duchartre

Characteristics

Thought their protestations would melt a heart of stone, there always seems to be a comic side to everything they say. One wonders if the explanation does not lie in the fact that love often robs the lover of all sense of his or her own absurdity, even though he or she may be the most rational of living men or women under ordinary circumstances.

Whatever the names of the lovers in the commedia dell'arte, they had no other trait as 'characters' than that of being in love. - Duchartre

Three, like primary colors: fidelity, jealously and fickleness. They are vain, petuluant, spoilt, full of doubt and have very little patience. They have a masochistic enjoyment of enforced seperation because it enables them to dramatize their situation, lament, moan, send messages, etc. When the Lovers do meet they are almost always tongue-tied and need interpreters (i.e. a zanni and/or a servetta) who proceed to misinterpret their statements, either through stupidity (Zanni), malicious desire for revenge (Brighella) or calculated self-interest (Columbina). Their attention span is short like young children’s. The fear that they might be nobodies keeps them hyper-animated. Their element is water: they are very wet creatures indeed. The females are more passion-wrought and energetic than their male counterparts.

The lovers exist very much in their own world- and in their own world within that world. Self-obsessed and very selfish, they are more interested in what they are saying themselves and how it sounds than in what the beloved is saying. They are primarily in love with themselves, secondarily in love with love, and only consequentially in love with the beloved. What they learn, if anything, from the tribulations of the scenario is the need to reverse these priorities.

They do, however, come off better than most other Commedia characters: there is no viciousness in them, and less to be reproached for – except vanity and vapidness, which, given their parents, they can hardly be blamed for. They represent the human portential for happiness. – Rudlin

The lover had to play with dash and be able to simulate the most exaggerated passion. - Duchartre

“If then true lovers have ever been crossed It stands as an edict in destiny. Then let us teach our trial patience, Because it is a customary cross, As due to love as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs, Wishes, and tears – poor fancy’s followers.”

Shakespeare

#commedia dell'arte #the innamorati #lelio #Isabella #flaminia #lestat de lioncourt

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sinful-liesel · 5 years ago

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«Kickstarter» Beast x Light

This project will support the production of an English edition of the BL Visual Novel “Beast x Light”

Synopsis:

This is a world in which there is a nation of humans and a nation of therianthropes. Close to the border that separates these countries, the bodies of human victims of a massacre have been discovered, seemingly having been attacked by therianthropes. Citizens of Bokkai, the nation of humans, are in a furor over this incident, which has been termed the Loup-Garou Incident, and fissures are appearing in the until-now amicable relations between the two countries.The name of the protagonist, a journalist, is Light.He, too, is interested in the Loup-Garou Incident, and heads to the nation of therianthropes, the United States of Corona, to cover it. Light insists on telling the truth, and will often stop at nothing to do so, even disregarding danger to himself. As he sniffs around the circumstances of the incident, he is arrested for suspicious activity by the Public Safety Bureau of Investigations, a law enforcement agency of Corona. Still, he treats this only as an opportunity, and attempts to extract information from the therianthropes serving as investigators. But this incident and Light’s involvement with the therianthropes will see him swept along on the currents of fate-

youtube

Cast:

Hikaru Kagami: Masato Kawamura

Travis Carter: Yaiba Aoshima

Eugene Fox: Atsushi Domon

Billie Joe Smith: Kazune

Al Voice: Jun Teratake

Gibeon Voice: Higeuchi Waruta

Leonardo Butterworth: Shinobu Horikawa

Ruri Kagami: Yuma Aoi

#BL Game #Beast x Light #elementree #anakare #kickstarter #boys love #masato kawamura #yaiba aoshima #atsushi domon #kazune #jun teratake #higeuchi waruta #shinobu horikawa #yuma aoi

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thecreaturecrossroads · 6 years ago

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Candice and Robin

Name: Candice GrimWalker (Candy)

Race/Species: Native American+ French+Russian/ Loup Garou and Skinwalker

Nationality/HomeCountry: ??/ Monster Country

Voice Claim: If Sam Elliot had a Sister...

Height: 5'6

Gender: Female

Age: 38-40

Hair color: Black with grey streaks

Eye color: Yellow-green

Likes: Motorcycles, steak, donuts, apples, Her son Robin, her job. Fixing things, Running in her werewolf form. Grilling. Sports. Bell peppers.

Dislikes: Liars, Criminals, HER EX-HUSBAND. Pranks. Dog Jokes. Short Jokes and silver.

Personality: Candice is rough and tumble and in your face. Gruff and less likely to be in a crowd. Quiet and very much a protective single Mom. But she’s also a kind person. She’s tough but fair, and honest in her dealings with other people. She’s all about quiet and effective service for others when things need doing. She’s the first to arrive to help, and the last to leave just to make sure the work is all done. And the first to call out any wrongdoing among her fellow officers if she sees any.

Her son is her whole world and she works very hard to make sure he’s okay.

Back Story: Candice’s mother died when she was young. Her father was not a very affectionate person but he did love his daughter. In his own way. Candice was raised mostly by her grandfather. A gentle old man who liked to fix and tinker with cars and motorcycles. Which is where she got her love for motorcycles. Her first one actually was one he gave to her. Candice poured her heart into her schooling because it got her praise from her mostly absent father and made her Grampa proud. She loved sports and running and always watched out for the little guys in school. Any bully that came at someone would find themselves with a bloody nose.

So it was only natural she went into law enforcement. She was good at her job and eventually took a job with the FBI. Working on high stakes cases. Her last one dealing with Jazz and her kidnapping and hostage case. She met her now Ex Husband, Terry, sometime during those years. He was not a very good man but he was charismatic and handsome and a Werewolf himself. They were married for 3 years before Robin was born. And when Robin a year she found out her Ex was cheating on her. With 3 other women. She decided she’d had enough of his Bull S..t and served him with divorce papers. It was a very bitter and long fight which ended her career with the FBI. She has full custody of Robin but Terry still has visitation rights. Which he usually ignores unless he wants something from either of them. He’s stolen money from both of them on several occasions. So her feelings for the man she once loved are very bitter.

It was after the divorce that Candy and her Father really seemed to connect as family and he helped her raise his grandson until he died of cancer when Binny was 6. She loves her son very very much and works really hard to provide for him, and to be there for him.

Skills: She can track scents better than a bloodhound, keep up with most cars on a freeway, and can jump about two stories high. She can see in the dark and can phase into her werewolf form at will. Only on super or blood moons is she ever not in control of herself in this form. She generally can do most repairs and fixes around the house and can fix a car or motorcycle with ease.

Position/Rank/Job: Mom, Cop. Former FBI Agent. ((In Wild West AU she’s a Ranger.))

Quotes: "I’d be much obliged if ya didn’t do that.” “Binny, time fer school.’

Theme Song: Little Lion Man by Mumford ‘N Sons.

((Wild West AU, but still pretty accurate.))

Name: Robin (Binnie) GrimWalker

Age: 10

Gender: Male

Hair Color: Black

Eyecolor: Yellow

Likes: Space, swimming, chicken. pizza, reading, and all around being a kid. Broccoli and snickerdoodle cookies. Video games and dinosaurs.

Dislikes: Tomatoes, his Dad. Thunder. Squirrels.

Personality: Binnie is a bright kid who loves swimming and his mom. He sees how hard she works and tries his best to help her out as much as possible. He’s sweet and friendly and wants to be big and strong like his Grampa. He doesn’t like Math but does like history.

His favorite thing is when his mom takes a small vacation and they go camping in the woods and get to wolf out and run around for a day or two.

#Candice #Candy #Werewolf mom #Robin #About Candy #under the cut because it's long

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jacobsmith321 · 4 years ago

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Contextual Studies: Global Discourse and Design

Explanation

Around the world there are many cultures and races of people, all with their unique aspects, practices, beliefs and life styles. However, throughout the years there has been more racism and displacement set in today’s world. Though it’s not as bad as it used to be, this does not mean that it still doesn’t exist or still doesn’t has massively occurrence.

Displacement is when you’re taken away from where you belong or you live, such as your home, your country or an environment, and in 2019, 79.5 million people became refugees, which had gone up to 9 million in the recent 6 months. These are due to things such as being persecuted for a crime or current conflict.

Artists and Animators such as George Butler and Loup Blaster, with Photographers like as Daniel Etter and Yannis Behrakis, have depicted and captured the effects and examples of how refugees suffer, with realistic and real expressions, problems and issues, presented via still and animated formats.

At the moment, we’re living in what’s called a ‘diasporic world’, which the word ‘diaspora’ means ‘people who spread from their homeland’. The world we live in has also become culturally hybrid.

Brands

In today’s times, people want to see more diversity and brands are no exception to this idea, as they want to seem inclusive and diverse.

This can either work or backfire, because you now have emojis that can have different skin tones (there’s still the neutral yellow but there are 6 more real ones to choose), like on facebook. The emoji for people who were of an Asian culture, had a depiction of someone with squinting eyes and a hat, which was found very offensive, but it’s been changed to look less offence over time, even allowing the different race feature onto it to wear the hat.

But there’s been some controversy around the Nike Hijab; the idea behind the Hijab could have been a legit way of wanting to give the culture a product from their sports line and to show support for their religion, but at the same time it can and has been seen as corporate greed for wanting to cash in on a sacred aspect of that religion, not realising that there’s a line or limit to what’s legit support and what’s just “I want money, because”.

Media/History

When it comes to media, there was ran incident that occurred 3 years ago called the ‘Grenfell Tower Fire” where 71-2 residents had tragically died and this was seen as a racist act, because a large majority of people who lived and died there, were of different races and culture, but there were no arrests for whoever started the fire.

In response to false or racial arrests, Barbara Walker made some paintings called “Louder than Words” where cities and people of coloured decent, where covering a lot of police documents, where it’s saying that instead of actual statistics, some enforcements were arresting based off background/colour.

There’s the aspect of White-Privilege, where it’s seen and described as people who are of a light colour, get easy hand outs and are less likely to get in trouble, along with the fact they are more wide spread in media, depictions and representation, making it harder for other races to get equal opportunities.

There’s a very important and interesting description by, Reni Eddo-Lodge, where he talks about people shouldn’t be like “I don’t see race” as a way of being equal, because it clearly exists and if we want to make things better, we should see it, accept it and understand it, as ignoring the issue can make it worse for them to be not be accepted or represented.

Britain’s systemic racism stemmed from colonialism, which means to take over another land. This stemmed to Britain in the past taking over the lands and treating other races poorly, but post-colonialism is the damage done by colonialisation, and how it affects the consequences to those people and their country, via exploitation.

Colonialism also caused “othering” which is the aspect of viewing or depicting other races very differently, as shown back in the old days of Disney and Warner Bros, where there were horrible and insulting depictions of African Americans and having those from Indian Tribes looking puffy and red faced. These were back in old days, when these practices were ‘appropriate’, but they’re very offence and are still very distasteful.

As some examples of colonialism, it’s still a massive shocker that there is a museum dedicated to what happened during colonialism, but the artefacts don’t belong to Britain and people taking a step back, realised they should be given back to their lands and the museum’s seen as a massacre.

Another example is the ‘The Recovery of Discovery’ piece by Cyprien Gaillard, where people would go in and take 1 or 2 drinks from a pyramid of boxes, but at the very end, the boxes ended up flying everywhere, there’s a mountain of glass and cardboard and there’s shattered bottles all over. This shows the affects of colonialism and how much damage it does.

Graphic Design

When it comes to graphic design, there are many types of supportive or offensive aspects, as there jokes that may seem funny can have destructive or offensive impacts. Described by Ruben Pater, we are all biased to our own culture and this is one of the reasons why it’s hard to communicate.

There are also cultural stereotypes too, like a lot of slashes stick like fonts that relate to Chinese characters and illustrations that have people working at takeaway and dry cleaners looking like old medieval Chinese workers.

But there has also been typography and logo alterations, like showing what the subway, burger king and fedex logo would like like if read from right to left, like in a lot of eastern cultures (but it also shows the actual shapes and colouring reversed too, showing a bit too much of a stereotype).

In design though, there have now been new plasters, where they have different skin tones to match yours. This may not seem like much, but plasters are normally skin coloured to avoid them looking obvious as to some people, they can feel embarrassed by or not want to look at their plaster, but skin tones plasters now come in different verities so every can have one that won’t distract them or look obvious.

In a lot of advertisement and even still images for websites and social medias, there are a lot of diverse groups that can be seen to show a variety of inclusivity.

In conclusion

There is still a lot of diversity around today but it wasn’t always like that. There are still a mass amount of issues present, and affects from long ago that still haunt today’s times.

The best way to fight it, is being accepting and understanding to people’s race and culture.

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newstechreviews · 4 years ago

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Though it’s tempting to view the courtroom sketch as a quaint relic of legal decorum, the physicality of drawing is urgent in a way that camerawork can’t always match. If you’re so inclined, you can Google a color-crayon courtroom drawing from October 29, 1969 showing Bobby Seale—cofounder of the Black Panthers and one of eight men put on trial that year for staging anti-war demonstrations at the 1968 Democratic National Convention in Chicago—gagged and bound to a chair. Earlier, in a fit of justified anger, he’d verbally interrupted the proceedings; the judge responded by ordering court officers to remove him from the court and restrain him. The drawing, by Howard Brodie and preserved in the Library of Congress, shows Seale holding his strong posture to the degree it’s physically possible, as he strains to write something on a legal pad; a Stravinsky-like stanza of strokes, slashes and loops, the sketch is an urgent, evocative work of reportage. That this could happen in an American court of law was and still is unthinkable, yet not unbelievable. Brodie’s drawing challenges a nation to face its own shame. To look at it more than 50 years later is to recognize how slow we’ve been in taking that shame to heart.

Brodie’s drawing comes to life, with all its somber weight, in a key scene in writer-director Aaron Sorkin’s The Trial of the Chicago 7, a movie as simultaneously entertaining and galvanizing as anything you’ll see this year. (It opens in select theaters on September 25 and will be available on Netflix beginning October 16.) Sorkin has detailed for us the half-circuslike, half-solemn drama of this intense pocket of American history, during which eight anti-war activists were tried for conspiring to incite violence at the convention. The Trial of the Chicago 7 is Sorkin at his Sorkinniest, in the good way, a work attuned to civic responsibility and small-d democratic ideals. It’s as lively as other Sorkin-scripted pictures like Moneyball (2011) and Charlie Wilson’s War (2007), and as astute as The Social Network (2010) was: we couldn’t have known at the time, though maybe we should have, that this story about the rise of opportunistic iconoclast Mark Zuckerberg was really a warning from the future.

And although The Trial of the Chicago 7 is only the second picture Sorkin has directed—the first was Molly’s Game, from 2017—in its construction, pacing and casting, it’s the work of an old soul. Sorkin takes a rather dense, complicated court case—one peopled with figures who clung to stubborn differences even in the context of their shared ideals—and keeps it aloft every minute, as if he were following the aerodynamic principles of hang-gliding rather than moviemaking. Best of all, he brings out the best each actor in this enormous ensemble cast has to offer; every character is rendered with jewelers-loupe clarity.

Read More: ‘The Violence Was Inevitable.’ How 7 Key Players Remember the Chaos of 1968’s Democratic National Convention Protests

You need that gift of specificity to tell this story properly. These eight men were anything but a homogenous group, though that didn’t stop the nation’s conservative forces at the time from lumping them into one: Tom Hayden (here played by Eddie Redmayne) and Rennie Davis (Alex Sharp) were clean-cut, crew-neck-sweater-wearing members of the Students for a Democratic Society, or SDS, a left-wing group active since 1960. Staid dad and Boy Scout troop leader Dave Dellinger (John Carroll Lynch) was a longtime pacifist and a member of MOBE, the National Mobilization Committee to End the War in Vietnam. Abbie Hoffman (Sacha Baron Cohen) and Jerry Rubin (Jeremy Strong), members of the Youth International Party, or Yippies, were the Abbott-and-Costello wild card, a virtual comedy team steeped in marijuana vapors and leftist ideals. John Froines and Lee Weiner (played by Danny Flaherty and Noah Robbins) were two less-notable figures who were nonetheless happy to stand up for their ideals with the rest of the group. (One of them likens the trial to the Academy Awards. “It’s an honor just to be nominated.”) The eighth defendant, Bobby Seale (Yahya Abdul-Mateen II), of the Panthers, had never even met the others: he had arrived in Chicago to give a speech and departed within just a few hours. Even so, he was tossed in handily with this group, because the authorities believed the inclusion of a Black Panther in the proceedings would prove to the American people just how menacing this assemblage of citizens who had sought to exercise their right to protest truly was.

There’s a lot of talking in The Trial of the Chicago 7; it’s a courtroom drama, after all. But as fixated on words as Sorkin is, he knows they’re only part of the language of movies. The federal government’s prosecuting attorneys, Thomas Foran (J.C. MacKenzie) and Richard Schultz (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), show up to court in dark suits so crisp they could stand up by themselves. Meanwhile, one of the two lawyers enlisted to defend the seven, William Kunstler—played with the perfect degree of low-key bull-doggishness by Mark Rylance— shambles in wearing a rumpled tweed suit, a fake-leather glasses case peeking out of the breast pocket. You know just by his rushed, shambling carriage where he’s coming from. (Kunstler did not represent Seale, who had unsuccessfully sought to delay the trial because his own lawyer was undergoing a medical procedure.) And when Judge Julius Hoffman (Frank Langella) sweeps in, the silent rustle of his robes suggest that he thinks he’s jurisprudence royalty. The rest of the movie shows him up as a pompous, vindictive serpent, and sort of a boob to boot. Watching The Trial of the Chicago 7 is a little like reading Dickens: much of the fun lies in picking up on the signals of individual characters.

Even if you already know the basic story of the Chicago Seven—also commonly referred to as the Chicago Eight, to include Seale, although his case was severed from that of the others after a mistrial was declared on his behalf—Sorkin’s movie is so richly layered with detail that you’ll surely find something new. The Chicago DNC protests began peacefully and erupted into stunningly brutal violence, and Sorkin captures its horror here, weaving in some archival footage in the mode of Haskell Wexler’s groundbreaking 1969 fiction-nonfiction blend Medium Cool. The trial, instigated by newly installed Nixon attorney general and flunky John Mitchell, applied as gospel the assumption that the riots couldn’t possibly have been started by police; surely, law enforcement would never instigate a public disturbance. But when Sorkin shows us the young, bespectacled, somewhat fragile Rennie Davis being cracked across the back of the skull with a police baton—and the unfiltered, visceral response of his best friend, Tom Hayden—it strikes like lightning. Even the simmering distrust between certain members of the group—for example, the disdain preppy-proper Hayden shows for goofball-intellectual Abbie Hoffman—is woven firmly into the movie’s fabric. Every detail has meaning in the end.

I can hear what some of you are thinking: This movie is just two-hours-plus of men talking; who wants to watch that? I, too, dread movies about talking men, but the Trial of the Chicago 7 won me over in its first, fleet 10 minutes. In places, it’s unapologetically charming, particularly when it focuses on Hoffman and his sidekick, Jerry Rubin. As the two saunter into the courthouse, dressed in their usual hippie gear of tunics and headbands, Rubin handily catches an egg that one of the many bystanders—some supportive, but many angry—has thrown. It’s a neat trick, and Hoffman expresses his awe, before asking, “But now what do you do with it?” The small shadow of sadness that crosses Rubin’s face—what do you do with it?— is as perfect as the smooth surface of his rescued egg. Later, the two will show up in court draped in judge’s robes. When Judge Hoffman angrily demands that they remove their phoney-baloney costumes, they comply, revealing the Chicago police uniforms they’re wearing underneath.

That really happened, because just about everything in The Trial of the Chicago 7 really happened. Including the shackling of Seale. From the moment Seale is led away by officers, Sorkin is careful with this scene. He shows the beating of Seale in flashes of fast cutting; the suggestion is that the officers’ kicks and punches were calibrated so they’d leave no visible marks on Seale’s body. But the moment Seale is led back to his seat, his limbs constrained, his mouth bound by a wide lashing of white tape, the very texture of the air in the courtroom changes. Sorkin somehow conveys this invisible yet shattering atmospheric shift; it’s hard to map exactly how, even beyond the fact that Gordon-Levitt’s prosecutor Schultz—who’s shown from the start to be a semi-sympathetic foe—verbally expresses dismay at the sight of Seale’s condition, and not just because he knows it will damage his case. Sometimes a great scene induces a kind of synesthesia in a viewer; an image you see onscreen summons a metallic taste in your mouth, or some other weird, specifically physical sensation. I felt that way watching Seale being led back to his chair. The Trial of the Chicago 7 reminds us of the chant that arose from the Chicago protestors as the police descended upon them with batons and, some sources have indicated, gloved fists fortified with metal: “The whole world is watching.” At what point do you look away? The Trial of the Chicago 7 details events that happened more than 50 years ago. The time to look away is never.

#Blogger

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qvault · 5 years ago

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JavaScript vs Java – Differences, Similarities, and History

By @wagslane (twitter)

JavaScript and Java confuse many new programmers. They sound so similar, so one might think they have the same use-cases, or perhaps the same company created both languages. Neither of those hypotheses is true! Let’s go over the differences and history in this quick read.

Java – Brief History

Java was created in 1991 by James Gosling of Sun Microsystems. Sun Microsystems wrote software for many different devices, and re-compiling or restructuring code to run on various CPU architectures became time-consuming.

Fun Fact: The founding team had a hard time thinking of a good name for their project, and while out for coffee, decided to name the language after their coffee.

Cross-Platform (JVM)

Java is a general-purpose programming language that allows developers to run code on any device. Code is compiled into Java-specific byte code, then the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) converts that byte code into machine compatible code. When code is compiled in this way, Java becomes completely cross-platform, which is a major contributing factor to Java’s success.

Object-Oriented Design

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/object-oriented-programming-oops-concept-in-java/

Java rose quickly to fame and adoption mostly due to its cross-platform nature and object-oriented programming (OOP) pattern. OOP was and remains popular due to the ability to reuse code and think about entities within a program as hierarchies of types. Java is a king of the OOP design pattern, and requires that everything in the program be a class, even the main function!

OOP was so popular in the 90s and early 2000s that it became (in my opinion) ubiquitous. These days it has more appropriately found its niche, but when JavaScript was first coming into existence OOP was the name of the game.

JavaScript – Brief History

In 1995, 4 years after Java got its start, JavaScript was created by Brendan Eich while he worked for Netscape. At the time, Netscape had complete market control of the web browsing industry, and Microsoft was just starting with the Internet Explorer project.

In an attempt to beat Microsoft, Netscape partnered with Sun Microsystems and branded JavaScript with the name it has in order to latch onto the Java hype train that was plowing ahead in the developer community.

JavaScript’s Success

JavaScript started as a small scripting language to perform actions on the client-side within the browser. Development was rushed and interesting design choices were made, including:

Optional semi-colon line endings

Objects and classes but with limited encapsulation

Single-threaded (Callback based, no concurrency)

However, JavaScript was positioned uniquely which would contribute to it becoming the most used programming language today. The following points attributed to its widespread success:

The “JavaScript” naming ploy to steal marketing hype

Not seen as competition because web development was “not serious development”

Monopolizing browser programming, again, because other projects didn’t see browser scripting as a serious programming

Many developers considered “front-end” development to be for artists and designers. After all, “it’s just styling and templating, right?”

This was the case for a long time, but in the last decade, front-end development has become just as serious as backend development. Single page apps, and frameworks like Angular, React, and Vue, have pushed logic that used to be controlled by the backend directly into the user’s browser.

Runtimes, Speed, and Benchmarks

Most compiled languages like C, C++, and Go compile code directly into machine instructions. Those instructions are specific to a CPU architecture and operating system. Neither Java nor JavaScript are typically compiled in this way.

Java and JavaScript operate in distinct ways. For this comparison, we will assume Java is compiled to JVM bytecode, and JavaScript is being run in a NodeJS interpreter.

Note: Java can be compiled to native code, or run via an interpreter, and JavaScript can run outside a browser via Node, but we will stick to these speicifc use cases for now.

Java Virtual Machine (JVM)

The JVM compiles code (.java files), into compiled classes (.class files). These class files make up a complete compiled Java program, with the requirement that one of the class files has a “main” function as an entry point. Class files are typically archived and distributed together in a .jar file, which makes it easier for users to download a single executable file.

The JVM runs faster than interpreted languages like JavaScipt because code is compiled to machine code before runtime. The JVM is slower than most natively compiled languages because it misses out on architecture-specific optimizations, and still has to do JVM –> CPU conversions at runtime.

NodeJS – V8 Engine

JavaScript is an interpreted language that has many different interpreter implementations. One of the most common ways for JavaScript to run in production is by using the NodeJS interpreter. Node uses Chrome’s V8 engine to interpret and run JavaScript.

As you can see in the following benchmarks, Java fairly consistently performs better than Node in regards to memory and CPU:

https://benchmarksgame-team.pages.debian.net/benchmarksgame/fastest/javascript.html

What really slows JavaScript down is that it is interpreting code at runtime. At *roughly* each line of execution, the interpreter has to convert the JavaScript into machine code, a very slow process to be doing at runtime.

Classes and OOP

In Java, everything is a class, and OOP is enforced in a fascistic manner.

In JavaScript, classes are optional, and functional programming is possible and even encouraged lately. JavaScript has most of the OOP paradigms available in the language, but encapsulation is not as robust as it is with Java.

Threading and Concurrency

JavaScript is single-threaded, which means that it will never execute code at the same time. Concurrent programming is a feature of most languages, and JavaScript is fairly unique in not being able to accomplish the task.

In Java concurrency is readily available and you can read more about it here: https://howtodoinjava.com/java-concurrency-tutorial/

The way JavaScript makes up for being single-threaded is by use of asynchronous programming and the event-loop. Whenever an API Call or some other long-running process needs to happen without blocking the execution of the rest of the program, the event-loop is responsible for doing the waiting. When the asynchronous task completes, the main thread is able to detect the results of the task.

You can experiment and play around with these ideas here:

http://latentflip.com/loupe

Thanks For Reading

Lane on Twitter: @wagslane

Lane on Dev.to: wagslane

Download Qvault: https://qvault.io

The post JavaScript vs Java – Differences, Similarities, and History appeared first on Qvault.

source https://qvault.io/2020/01/14/javascript-vs-java-differences-similarities-and-history/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=javascript-vs-java-differences-similarities-and-history

#cryptography #bitcoin #programming #crypto #security

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fknhost · 5 years ago

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Predictive tech needs more of everything: Education, data, and regulation

CES 2020 panel discusses the risks and rewards of data-hungry tech ranging from smart home sensors to computer-brain interfaces. More from CES 2020 Predictive tech won't work without consumer data. That's the bottom line whether you are a tech company selling smart home cameras and sensors or a consumer buying these devices. Alexa may have enough baseline data right now to distinguish between a sneeze triggered by dust and one that signals an oncoming illness. But, because smart home devices are still operating independently, Alexa can't talk to other devices to take action to address a possible case of the flu, like scheduling a telemedicine appointment. Explaining this kind of anticipatory tech and helping consumers opt in or opt out are the two current challenges facing companies building products and services that could predict a person's next thought or action. There's also not enough discussion of how this technology could be used by criminals and trolls. CNET hosted a predictive tech discussion with entrepreneurs leading the way in the anticipatory tech space and privacy advocates at CES 2020, "IoT: Moving Into An Anticipatory Tech World." As CNET Editor-at-Large Brian Cooley described it, each company in the conversation is working with a different level of scrutiny. Doug Clinton, co-founder and managing partner at Loup Ventures, is investing in startups including neurotech companies developing computer-brain interfaces technology. Some products in the fund's portfolio require FDA approval. Clinton is interested in technology that could use a person's thoughts to take action. Instead of hitting a button on an app to turn down a smart thermostat, a user would think, "Adjust the heat, I'm too hot." Rana el Kaliouby, co-founder and CEO of Affectiva, is using machine learning and computer vision to understand emotions by analyzing expressions and vocal tones. Her company is a member of The Partnership for AI, a consortium focused on establishing best practices and educating the public on the impact of predictive technology. Michelle Turner, senior director of product management for smart home ecosystem at Google Nest, is operating in the "Wild West" with few formal regulations but high profile problems as well. Cindy Cohn, executive director of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, was the consumer advocate on the panel who balanced out the best case scenarios from industry insiders with the reality of how predictive tech can be used maliciously. Cohn said adding technology to existing systems that are unfair only makes them worse. "What if this data is shared with your insurance company, will you get kicked off your insurance? Will the cops show up at your door?" she said. "When we add technology on top of those systems, we wish those problems away or make them worse."

Educating consumers about predictive tech

Turner from Nest said that there is a shift going on among smart home device makers that recognizes the growing demand for better privacy controls. "We know we hold very sensitive data, and we have to protect it," she said. "We can't deliver these anticipatory tech unless we have access to this very sensitive data." Turner stressed the importance of providing consumer education about these devices and creating an easy opt-out system. The panel agreed that this was important, but the real question is who is responsible for developing and enforcing this consumer friendly opt out system. No one has volunteered to build such a system, Cohn pointed out. "What does it mean if it goes wrong and who is responsible?" she said. "Right now there is a lot of shrugging going on when this comes up." Cooley pointed out that there are legitimate disagreements about what is a good use of data and what is bad. This makes it especially hard to set a common standard for industry to follow. Turner from Nest said that individuals should make their own data sharing decisions. "Every one of us has a different threshold of what is OK for what we're willing to share," she said. Cohn continued that the public should be setting these standards, not the companies making money from the data. "We have to have the law and the policy to protect us, and we have to have a society ready to deal with it," she said. SEE: Prescriptive analytics research report 2019: Tech leaders open to emerging technology (TechRepublic Premium)

Diversifying the data set

Cohn also brought up the risk of building technologies that limit the customer base to white people in affluent neighborhoods. "You're going to really hurt those other people if you don't anticipate how other people will be hurt by tech developed by middle class or rich people," she said. el Kaliouby said Affectiva has addressed algorithmic bias from the start by creating a database with information from people of different ages and genders. "If our data set is just composed of older white guys, our tech is not going to work on people who look like me," she said. Clinton said Loup Ventures looks for founders who understand the malicious use cases for predictive tech and address privacy issues directly. He also said that some problems are inevitable. "You know the components of the system, but you don't know how the tech will react in the real world and there will be an unknown that we can never anticipate," he said. el Kaliouby of Affectiva said she sees the most promise for predictive tech in improving health and wellness. "Our first application was with autistic kids and understanding non-verbal communications," she said. "We are also working with Parkinson's patients and even flagging signs of suicidal intent." Clinton said that Loup Ventures is particularly interested in the human ear and computer-brain interfaces with the ability to collect information from that data rich part of the body.

Improving competition to protect privacy

Cohn likes the idea of adversarial interoperability, which would allow consumers to switch from one tech service to another seamlessly. "Right now you really have to choose your prince and then you are beholden to that prince; things don't work if you want to leave," she said. Cohn also said that the US needs to shore up laws and policies to create more competition to give consumers more choice among tech services. "You sign on and get tracked all the time, or you don't sign on at all--there's a lot of space in there for innovation," she said.

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princelestatdelioncourt · 4 years ago

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Character Name

Lelio (DiCraprio)

Status

Lover, usually the son of either Pantalone or Dottre.

High in stature, but usually brought low by the hopelessness of their infatuation. - Rudlin

Member of Innamorati – Rudlin

Costume

The latest fashion. Males sometimes dressed as young soldiers or cadets. -Rudlin

Flowing and somewhat over fashionable in a color scheme that is very feminine with a great deal of panache. – Tim Shane

Gentry-class dress, nice looking, modest, cute. Usually with a heart motif -Little

Origin (History)

Physical Appearance

Had to be young, well set up, courteous, gallant even to the point of affectation - in short, a blade and a dandy. - Duchartre

Young and attractive – Rudlin

The lovers and wooers of the Commedia dell'arte were always dapper and engaging and just a trifle ridiculous. - Duchartre

Mask

Occasionally wore a mask that just covered eyes or a loop mask. - Laver

Signature Props

Handkerchief. -Rudlin

Stance

Legs tightly together, usually with only one foot firmly planted on the ground, and the other crawling upward like he has to urinate badly. The groin is usually inward and protected with the upper torso bent over it. – Tim Shane

Walk

Light, fluttering on tip toes, arms extended with wrists loose allowing the hands to flap like wings.- Tim Shane

Poses

1.) On toes in various ballet positions with wrists bent down.

2.) Anything that might look Vogue.

3.) Whenever sitting, legs crossed in a feminine manner. Head always sits very delicately on the frame of the body.

4.) Never stand up right, always with a hip cocked out to expresses “attitude”.

5.) Mimic poses of female lovers

6.) Back of hand against forehead, other arm outstretched.

Movements

Light and fluttery. – Tim Shane

Gestures

Foppish- Tim Shane

Speech

Language: Tuscan, making great display of courtly words and baroque metaphors. Well read, knowing large extracts of poems by heart (especially Petrarch). They speak softly in musical sentences - in contrast with the zanni. Their sentences are often flamboyant, hyperbolical, full of amorous rhetoric. By the end of the 17th Century in Paris, the Lovers spoke French. - Rudlin

Light and every sentence is like a sigh, adding occassional sighs in between words and speaking in crescendos and decrescendos. – Shane

Animal

Butterfly.

Relationships

When it comes to women, his words are the only thing that shows that he might have any interest. His body language, actions, tone, all contradict any infatuation he may have with a female. The only reason why he would express an interest in a female is because he loves the idea of love. However he seems genuinely more in love with himself and other male characters before he is in love with a woman. – Shane

They [the lovers] relate exclusively to themselves - they are in love with themselves being in love. The last person they actually relate to in the course of the action is often the beloved. When they do meet they have great difficulty in communicating with each other (usually because of the nerves). And they relate to their servants only in terms of pleading for help. The Lovers love each other, yet are more preoccupied with being seen as lovers, undergoing all the hardships of being in such a plight, than with actual fulfilment. Consequently they frequently scorn each other and feign mild hatred; they rebut, despair, reconcile, but eventually end up marrying in the way of true love when the game is up and they know they cannot play any more. After a quarrel the male may try a serenade to win back favour. This will be (dis)organized by Zanni: he employs musicians who are drunk or spends the money on something else and has tu use tramps off the street. The result is total chaos, but in the end the serenade is beautifully played and sung because everyone miraculously turns out to be good at their job after all. - Rudlin

Relationship to Audience

Extremely aware of being watched. Play with the audience for sympathy in their plight. Occasionally flirts with spectators. -Rudlin

Frequent Plot Function

Their function was to depict a state of mind rather than to paint a personality. - Duchartre

Characteristics

Whatever the names of the lovers in the commedia dell'arte, they had no other trait as 'characters' than that of being in love. - Duchartre

The lover had to play with dash and be able to simulate the most exaggerated passion. - Duchartre

Shakespeare

Lazzi

1.) Very afraid of women, and fears them as if they are monsters that want to rip him apart.

2.) Hypochondriac, feigning illness whenever possible.

3.) Very sensitive and is reduced to tears with the slightest stimulus or agitation.

4.) Likes to get lost in his thoughts and drop off into long soliloquies of rhyming poetry until silenced or knocked unconscious.

5.) Anything gay (as in happy).

6.) Talks with his handkerchief, occasionally making a scene out of picking it back up again.

7.) Being deafly afraid of women’s cleavage.

8.) Accepting a compliment and then adding to it and polishing it himself.

#commedia dell'arte #lelio #lestat de lioncourt #//does not some of these specifications reminds you of Lestats characteristics and attitude?#//wondering if Lestat is still Lelio after all this time

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thefomorturncoat · 8 years ago

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Supernatural American Revolution AU

The time is 1774. With the Boston Tea Party still fresh in the minds of the Colonist public, the crown has brought its full military might down onto the city of Boston, Massachusetts. Demanding reimbursement for the destroyed shipments, the harbor has been closed, with waters once bustling with busy trade now quiet save for the imposing British battleships bobbing on the waves.

The city itself is no less occupied. Redcoats openly march through the street, quartered by citizens regardless of their loyalty to the British Empire. A curfew has kept all but the most daring or desperate from walking about. That, among other things...

For the British have more than guns and ships at there disposal. The crown has sent powerful members of the Sorcerer’s League, England’s premiere organization of loyal magicians and wizards, to re-enforce the garrison through their own eldritch means and to root out smugglers through those same methods. The Royal Hessian Hounds, also known as the King’s Hounds or the Royal Hunt, stalk the streets, their keen senses alert for any who would dare to wander out past nightfall. There have even been rumors of the Redcoats enlisting faerie servants and other creatures imported from Europe.

In such dire straits, the Sons of Liberty have found themselves reaching out to some of the very elements their ancestors burned at the stake. Magicians eager to stick it to the Sorcerers League, rugged loup-garou with an ancestral loathing of the British, those who court the favor of inhuman powers, these are the people the would-be revolutionaries are trying to court. It would be these individuals, for better or for worse, that would determine the fate of a nation.

Whether they prevail against the military might and ancient magics of the British Isles... well, only time will tell

#AU #inspired by a conversation with a friend #will use this for a future thread #you wanna use it fine by me

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jobsearchtips02 · 5 years ago

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Segway stops production, marking completion of a scooter period

SAN FRANCISCO– The Segway PT, that two-wheeled vehicle that makes riders lean forward, will soon be no more.

Segway-Ninebot said today that manufacturing of its most recognizable product will halt July15 The business said it was a choice based on economics. The PT, or individual transporter, made up only 1.5 percent of the business’s profits last year, Segway President Judy Cai stated in a statement.

Retiring what most just referred to as the Segway will maximize room for the business to concentrate on its more recent items, she said, that include a self-balancing “Wall-E”- pod-like car called the S-Pod, a more traditional-looking electric kick scooter and a smaller self-balancing vehicle controlled by the user’s knees.

” Offered our decades-long history, we recognize that this choice might come as a frustration to our strong and devoted following among personal owners, who see the Segway as one of the more ingenious creations of the early 21 st century,” Cai stated.

Indeed, the Segway has developed an impassioned however specific niche following in a couple of markets, significantly for city trips, shopping mall and airport security and some law enforcement departments. But even as companies and consumers have moved to a brand-new period of micro-mobility with shared trips, bikes and scooters, the gadget stopped working to keep up.

The Segway might have been introduced too early for its time, in a world where scooters were still thought of as kids’s toys. It was introduced in 2001 on “Good Morning America” and went on sale the next year on Amazon.

The scooter, a variation of which is still for sale for more than $6,000 on Segway’s site, stopped working to go mainstream. In 2015, Wired declared the gadget dead, writing that the scooter never removed in part due to the fact that it was clumsy to use inside buildings and there was no real method to utilize it on city streets. Plus, the publication included, it made individuals feel lazy.

That stereotype– that Segway riders slouched, that they must simply walk– was a huge downside for the Segway, which had actually been introduced with a withstanding “wow” aspect, said Loup Ventures partner Gene Munster.

Popular portrayals in the media, while cementing the scooter’s location as a cultural icon, likewise didn’t help its cool factor. The Segway is probably best understood in films and TELEVISION for being the preferred mode of transport for goofy shopping mall cop Paul Blart and for underachiever brother Gob in “Arrested Advancement.”

And Segway’s debut came years before docked bike-sharing options appeared in a widespread way and even longer prior to Lime, Spin and Uber scooters populated city streets.

” I believe that Segway didn’t get to a cheap-enough product fast enough to really win the micro-mobility race,” Munster stated. Still, he mentioned, the Segway lasted for almost 20 years– much longer than numerous fancy tech products.

The Segway was likewise ruined by controversy, consisting of safety issues when Segway company owner Jimi Heselden passed away after driving off a cliff while riding one of the devices.

In the meantime, there has been a e-scooter surge of the more traditional variation, with business such as Lime and Bird flooding the streets with motorized shared scooters that supply a more practical, cost-efficient technique of navigating.

Now you can purchase your own electrical scooter for less than $1,000 if you want, stated David Zipper, a visiting fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Taubman Center for State and Local Government. And while scooters got a pretty questionable start in some cities as they ran up against local regulations, the tides are beginning to turn as some individuals start to depend on them and bike sharing instead of vehicles.

” I think some people may not like dockless scooters, but you’re not laughing at them,” he stated.

As soon as scooters and electrical bikes and the sharing economy took off, it was truly only a matter of time prior to the big, once-innovative Segway cars took a back seat, Munster stated.

” When we had actually fixed the micro-mobility problem, it kind of wrote the last chapter for Segway,” he stated.

The Chinese company Ninebot bought Segway in2015 Segway stated 21 individuals will be laid off next month because of the discontinuation of the Segway PT and two other products.

Still, some businesses count on the Segway devices. A lot of those offer city tours to tourists who are looking for a novel method to navigate without strolling or driving.

Kenneth Lippman’s trip business, Another Side Tours, was established in 2007 in the back of his good friend’s Mexican restaurant “with 4 Segways and a dream,” he stated. It now provides a wide range of strolling, driving and Segway tours in Los Angeles and San Diego, so he has other offerings to lean on as Segways phase out. However even that will take rather a long time, he said.

Lippman still has a few of the Segways from his first tour in his fleet, and he anticipates his newer designs will last a number of more years.

” They’re developed like tanks,” he stated.

In Colorado, Rocky Mountain Segway owner Diana Greenberg and her other half, Sanford– passionately known in the market as “Segway Sandy”– own a visiting company and a sales and service center for Segway vehicles.

Greenberg figures individuals will still need to get their Segways repaired, and she has currently been selling other Segway-Ninebot products, so she is not too anxious. But she is worried for other services that are constructed around solely giving trips.

” Whenever I get on one, I always state ‘Oh my God,’ and away I go,” she said.

from Job Search Tips https://jobsearchtips.net/segway-stops-production-marking-completion-of-a-scooter-period/

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businessliveme · 5 years ago

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YouTube Plans to End Targeted Ads on Videos Aimed at Kids

(Bloomberg) — To satisfy regulators, YouTube officials are finalizing plans to end “targeted” advertisements on videos kids are likely to watch, according to three people familiar with the discussion. The move could immediately dent ad sales for the video giant — though not nearly as much as other proposals on the table.

The Federal Trade Commission is looking into whether YouTube breached the Children’s Online Privacy Act (COPPA). The agency reached a settlement with YouTube, but has not released the terms. It is not clear if YouTube’s changes to ad targeting are a result of the settlement. The plans could still change, said the people, who asked not to be identified citing an open investigation.

YouTube Videos Aimed at Kids Are the Most Popular

YouTube Managers Ignored Warnings, Let Toxic Videos Run Rampant

Kidfluencers’ Rampant YouTube Marketing Is Minefield for Google

A spokeswoman for YouTube declined to comment. A spokeswoman for the FTC declined to comment. The agency is expected to levy a multimillion-dollar fine.

Since targeted, or “behavioral” ads, rely on collecting information about the viewer, COPPA effectively bars companies from serving them to children under 13 without parental permission. These commercial messages that rely on mountains of digital data, such as web-browsing cookies, are integral to the business of Alphabet Inc.’s Google, YouTube’s owner.

YouTube has long maintained that its primary site is not for children. (The company says kids should use YouTube Kids app, which does not use targeted ads.) But nursery rhymes and cartoon videos on the main site have billions of views.

The platform’s many issues with children’s content– horrific imagery, problems that led to disabling comments– have troubled its video creators, worried parents and empowered rivals.

Getting rid of targeted ads on children’s content could hit Google’s bottom line — but this solution would be far less expensive than other potential remedies that aim to placate regulators.

In April 2018, a slew of consumer groups complained to the FTC that YouTube regularly collected information about minors to use in targeted advertising. Once the FTC picked up the case, these groups suggested that the agency force YouTube to move all kids’ videos to its designated app for children, YouTube Kids. Joseph Simons, the FTC chairman, has floated another idea. He asked the complainants in a July 1 call whether they would be content with YouTube disabling ads on these videos, Bloomberg News reported earlier.

YouTube’s new proposal is even less drastic.

Right now, YouTube sells two different types of video ads, broadly speaking. One simply pairs the context of a video with a commercial message. So, a YouTube clip about basketball might have an ad from Adidas. The other type uses an array of digital signals. With these ads, marketers can reach viewers in a demographic group, such as homeowners or new parents, based on Google’s vast data troves — websites people visit, searches they make and so on.

YouTube doesn’t disclose ad sales or prices, but most digital ads are more lucrative when paired with targeting data. Other tech giants, such as Apple Inc., have tried to cull back data-collecting tools in services that kids use.

Loup Ventures, a research firm, estimates YouTube’s revenue from children’s media between $500 million and $750 million a year. Paring back targeted ads would dent that revenue, although Google has the ability to make its contextual ads more compelling to mitigate the damage, said Doug Clinton, a Loup Ventures analyst. He pegged the potential impact of YouTube curbing targeted ads at 10% of its overall intake from kids’ videos– so about $50 million. “That would be the worse case, in my mind,” he said.

It’s not clear how YouTube would deliver this targeting ban with the thousands of video channels with whom it splits ad sales. It’s also unclear how YouTube would define which videos are “directed at children” and which aren’t.

One certainty: This proposal is unlikely to please complainants. In a July letter to the FTC, the groups argued that bans on YouTube ad targeting would be difficult to enforce. Removing the feature from select kids’ videos doesn’t guarantee that YouTube stops tracking web habits if children watch other clips, said Josh Golin from Campaign for Commercial-Free Childhood, a complainant. “Is Google still going to be collecting all the data and creating marketing profiles?” he said. “That wouldn’t be satisfactory either.”

Jeff Chester, executive director of Center for Digital Democracy, another complainant, said that if the FTC settlement only forced YouTube to curb targeting, his group would likely challenge the decision.

–With assistance from Ben Brody and Lucas Shaw.

The post YouTube Plans to End Targeted Ads on Videos Aimed at Kids appeared first on Businessliveme.com.

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