#the whole 2000s were about learning new and improved technologies

[uselessgay10101]

Ok I genuinely don't see why everyone is being huges jelly beans about the use of AI in multiple different settings. Be it work, art, apps, or anything (Feel free to inform me! Heaven and Hell know I despise being uniformed)

It's not that I necessarily agree with it (it is laying ppl off work. Stealing art- etc), but AI isn't necessarily bad it's literally just being used wrong! You can blame the creators and government for not setting regulations. Ai is not only made to do bad things and to cover the work ppl do, but to take some of the workload off people do. Or can't do.

Is it good?

.................... Questionable.

You can feel stingy about Ai for stealing art, work, and dawned MONEY

But! Seriously try to at least understand why instead of instantly hating the use of AI all together

We often times get SO into a thing we forget to take a step back and really acknowledge the big picture! I do that shit too! and trust me it a lot harder to see you're doing it lest someone taps u asking "yo you good?"

Ai isn't bad but it can be if it's influenced by bad people. And we can be pretty f-ing bad. And not in the cool way.

[e-adlirez]

The last question you answer about violet having a grasshopper pet being stereotypical make me realize that the girls do be kinda stereotypical in the very first book…(which fortunately isn’t there anymore as the series progress). Though, I hope you don’t mind me asking, but I would love to hear your take on the cultural aspect of the thea sisters books. In your personal opinion, do you think the books do a decent job in cultural representation?

It started out with a decent chunk of stereotypes, but what allows me to look past them and love them is the fact that they show the girls growing out of them. For example, Vi (the only one I can actually speak on) is very much the smart and shy Asian kid stereotype (and the occasional esoteric proverb or two), but I love her because she grew into the role of being the group braincell. She's the group braincell, the straight man, the nanny holding four leashes at once, the anxiety-riddled bean who wants to move out of her comfort zone but is scared to do so on her own and thus leans on her friends for support ohmygodshe'sjustlikemefr--

For a series made in the early 2000s, the representation is pretty good! Definitely not perfect (stares at the Chinese proverb thing and Pam being a sasslord with weird-ass slang), but it was very much ahead of its time! The girls did start out stereotypical, yes, but one thing that it did was expand the girls beyond the stereotypes they initially started out with. Violet started as the Asian smart kid, but her character was expanded (if I described how we'd be here all day); Colette started out as a diva, but grew out of it and became a proud girly girl who gets along with Pam even though their tastes in fashion are different; Nicky does have that crazy Aussie in her (which I love), but she's also a goofball and passionate nature advocate a la Steve Irwin (still crazy tho, see that one time she crawled on the roof of a moving train); Pam I think changed the most, seeing she started off as the sassy one with weird slang but is now more the comedic relief who takes charge of the girls culinary itineraries and keeps them grounded; and Paulina's stayed the most consistent, but I dunno if that's saying a lot because she doesn't get that much screentime compared to the others.

One thing I will also appreciate is the extra bit of character building that the girls have that tie the little bits together. Vi has many things she's into and is good at? She is a curious type open to new learning experiences and is also a perfectionist (with anxiety coding), said wumbo combo means she's pretty good at a lot of nerd-flavored things like art and strategy and attention to detail. Pam likes pizza? Her family runs a pizzeria. Nicky is crazy? Yeah she's crazy, she's really good at thinking on her feet even if it means jumping off the outstretched ladder of a speeding firetruck to catch a perp. Colette is a fashionista? She likes looking good and has a good eye for different fashion styles and how to elevate them (and is most likely the reason Pam doesn't just have the most basic of clothes to wear everyday). Paulina is an IT kid? She is also chronically online :D (:'D) and she uses technology to try to improve her corner of the world and remain in contact with her family, mainly her little sister.

Oh yeah and the plots of the books were not that stereotypical, either! Tho take my statements with a grain of salt because I'm not part of any of these cultures, their trip to Japan didn't involve a single ounce of sushi or origami or samurai-- it involved bunraku and a theme on tradition versus passion. Their trip to Hawai'i did involve hula, but that was because they were there to compete in totallynottheMerrieMonarchFestivalweswearsincerelyScholastic, and they do mention the whole volcanic eruption thing without having to talk about Hawai'i religion beyond the white dog superstition, with a little side comment of how business corporates can be more than willing to pull all the strings they can to exploit the natural beauty and the people of Hawai'i. They went to New York and the plot was intertwined very much with the NYC housing crisis in such a way that was easy to digest, even for kids! They went to India and not only set it in an underrated part of the country (Tamil Nadu), they didn't lean into mainstream media stereotypes about India and let the story tell itself as it deserved to! They went to Italy multiple times and, get this, they didn't make a single pasta joke. (Because it's an Italian series that'd be weird if they did.)

But yeah, they treated these cultures with a surprising amount of respect. Like I said, not perfect, but it is a relief how a good chunk of the books still stand up to the test of time.

If you're from any of the cultures they explored in any of the books, feel free to let me know ^^

[svetlanathebrunette]

Tell me more about Sheldon and Fiona and what's their hobby and stuff like that

Yooo thank you for your question and interest! I'm not good at using Tumblr but I'm learning! I tried my best to give you my present half lore details, I'm still working on the lore so here are some details about them!! They are teammates who try to protect the humanity in a world where there is no more normal nature and old humanity. Humans killing the nature and themselves with the help of technology, wars, toxicness ETC. In 3000s, as they being saved by Mr Richard, they woke up in capsules(they stay physically and mentally 18)

They are the members of the team who fight to protect at least the half of the world. Sheldon was a nerd and having issue with socializing. His biggest dream was to become the leader of the team and the right hand of WECA's leaders. As he becomes the leader, he learns to lead his team to win, to become successful but still..he is too young to take responsibility of protecting the whole world. He stays in his form which is mentally and physically 18 after being saved by mr Richard. So sometimes he struggles with it, he gets stressed a lot but no matter how much the teammates including Fiona sometimes being tired of his leads and forcings, they still love Sheldon. They wouldn't be able to become where they are if Sheldon's nerdness and leadership didn't exist. He is stressed but smart, likes to hang out with Mr Richard and other commanders. Sometimes he forces his team to do something useful instead of using their time for nothing. His hobby is using his brain and explore useful things. He is teachers' and commanders' favorite!

Fiona is in Sheldon's team. She was a popular lucky girl everyone loved, appreciated but as she grows up she lost her fame and got hate instead. Losing her loved ones when she was famous, having her parents divorced, losing a crush who bullied her a lot and made her insecure, becoming a shy and quiet person in the class, being ignored by the people at her ages and some issues like that made her struggle to identify herself. She struggled to understand who she was. She also struggled to trust others because of her past, she always wanted to love and being loved in a romantic way but afraid to trust and love someone in that way. In reality she is sweet, humourous and understanding person but in her class people see her as a shy and quiet person which is the reason they bullied her in the past before she became a teammember of WECA. She is not good at expressing her emotions, especially her love. She would struggle to say words or act around if she had a crush. She would hesitate to love because she would be scared. She is also a cleanfreak. In the past she was afraid of being herself, especially some people at her age were saying that wearing feminine things, acting feminine is cringe. So she had to wear stuff she wasn't comfy with. She can also act masculine sometimes,but mostly she is into feminine things. She was also so into learning to defend herself. She decided to improve herself,with time she decided to go to GYM, learn martial arts and stuff. She also had a sweet mother who taught her martial arts since kid, which made her easy to learn it. After becoming a team member of WECA, she became one of the strongest soldiers and be feminine at the same time. She showed that being feminine and strong is possible. Especially her legs were strong, it was a hobby for her to climb on trees where the nature was normal back in 2000s, she was a best friend of nature, she was flexable. Fiona finds friends after becoming a teammember and meets new people. She grows up as everyone does. She learns. As Sheldon is Fiona's leader, she and Jaiden doesn't listen to him at first, or they too focused on jokes, making chaos and stuff, they sometimes fail to win because of Jaiden and Fiona which makes Sheldon mad but still they care about each other. Fiona sometimes struggles to work a lot, sometimes she likes to spend time with being young but with the force of Sheldon and commanders she has no choice lol. Katsu(one her best friends at WECA) helps her improve at martial arts better. They're both from Asia, but Katsu is from Japan and Korea which is made him become more successful at martial arts. As time flies, she starts to miss nature and stuff slowly even though she liked the new cyber and technologically improved world at first.

As I said, there is so many things and details about them but I'm still working on!! I just gave you basic details which is I hope it helped you to know about them, I will make the story/lore to make it more sense, more psychologic and philosophic including humour and human feelings. I hope you enjoyed while reading!👐🌸

[meeedeee]

Here is a list of fan-run, professional and semi-professional virtual conventions for the rest of 2020. This is not a comprehensive list, feel free to drop a link below (Name; URL; dates; type; whether the event is free or charges a fee)

https://tinyurl.com/virtual-cons

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vLyi3qcuOUZGcPKWd0PF4mTtYNlpEbgmjhQtR1sHKv8/edit 

 I am also posting a recent essay about  the history of virtual conventions written by Claudia Rebaza with her permission

________________________________________________________

Many fan conventions aren’t being held this year but some are going virtual. Surprise – this isn’t actually new!

by Claudia Rebaza

Pandemic restrictions have meant that many events are moving to some kind of online equivalent, but fan conventions have offered online alternatives for a very long time. What’s more, conventions have only been one type of activity fans can take part in online with other fans.

Although numbers are hard to agree on, there’s little doubt that fan conventions have never been more popular. But while it’s possible to find a fan gathering in most cities (or even on the ocean!), there are still barriers that keep many people from participating. Whether it’s because of high costs, difficult travel schedules, physical disabilities, or social anxiety, many people have found themselves on the outside when it comes to fandom events. However fans have always been inventive, so the virtual convention developed decades ago. These virtual cons might mean:

an entire convention held online

live streaming of a physical gathering

activities taking place online at the same time as other fans were meeting in person

The 2000s Say Hello

Yuri Con began in 2000 not as an in-person gathering, but an online fan community. A few years later it sponsored a three-day anime and manga convention in Newark, NJ. The convention brought together fans of Yuri with panels, an academic lecture series, games, vendors and video programming. This was similar to FemSlash Con, which ran from 2012-2017.

Femslash, which is art, fiction and more involving female/female romantic pairings, was celebrated with panels for different TV shows as well as workshops for the creation of fanworks.

In the UK, VidUKon has been held since 2008. The convention focuses on the making and sharing of a style of fan videos called vidding, and features showings, panels, and workshops. People who can’t attend can still follow along with events through the use of convention memberships, which allow access to real time streaming as well as access to content after the convention ends.

But if an event isn’t online or doesn’t offer access to drop into the in-person event, there’s a third option. For example, the Starsky & Hutch fandom's Share Con began in the 1980s and is now held every other year. Like many conventions it has a mailing list and a Facebook group, but some fans also held a Virtual ShareCon from 2012-2016. The virtual con was a side event that took place at the same time as the physical gathering for people who couldn’t meet up in person. At the virtual con, members met at a community on LiveJournal, with an organizer making posts and people commenting. They watched an episode of the show together, watched fan videos together, played a trivia game, had panel discussions, and had a drawing for prizes. Attendees also contributed to the creation of a virtual goody bag with pictures of Starsky & Hutch items.

Virtual con attendees also used the opportunity to prompt one another to create fan art and fanfiction in what has become a common practice among fans – the challenge or fest.

Challenges and fests

Given that not all convention activities are free, and many a fan is having a particularly hard time economically this year, there are fan events that don’t cost a thing. They do, however, require some time and creativity. A fanworks challenge or fest, is an organized event that prompts participants to create fanworks. These events can take many forms, one of which is the “challenge” where people create fanworks to fit certain criteria, or an “exchange” where people create fanworks to order for one another. The fandom wiki Fanlore lists nearly 800 entries on fests that have been held for a wide variety of fandoms over the decades, with many more out there.

The fest is a typical option for a virtual con, so that fans who are not going to an in-person gathering can celebrate as well. In some cases people sign up ahead of time to create fiction, art, videos or other fanworks to share on an assigned day. In others, people respond randomly to prompts from the fest organizers or other participants in a more game-like activity. But in the case of a virtual con, the fest is important for both keeping people engaged, as well as producing new content that outlasts the few days during which the con is held. That way the benefits can be shared with people who couldn’t attend the virtual con due to its timing.

Sometimes virtual con events are held at the Archive of Our Own which includes a feature for fanwork collections and tools for creating specific types of fests. Some virtual convention contributions that can be found on the site include fanworks for Due South, The Closer, Shadowhunters, Game of Thrones, Highlander, and the K-pop group B.A.P. 

The con on your laptop

With large public gatherings prohibited almost everywhere, many fan conventions have been cancelled or postponed, including the mega-popular San Diego Comic Con. But other organizers and fans alike are still trying to keep fan activities going. As a result some events are still being held, only online, and sometimes at no charge.

May saw Balticon 54, WisCONline/WisCON 44, Con Carolinas, and the 2020 Nebula Conference go virtual. July will see more taking place from smaller events such as CON.TXT 2020 (free) on July 24-26, to major cons like CoNZealand (WorldCon 78), host of the Hugo Awards, on July 29-August 2. Just as with the early virtual cons, these events will adapt activities to online space, and not just for panels and vendor rooms. In the past many fans have paid to shake hands with their favorite artists, writers, or actors in quick meet-and-greets, photo or autograph sessions. Some events are shifting these bookings to one-on-one video chats, where each person has a few minutes in which to spend some face time with those celebrities. 

What about next year?

Researcher Dr. Naomi Jacobs published an article on virtual conventions in 2018. Discussing the future of such events, she said “I think that as the barriers between online and offline fandom become more fluid, and as technology improves, we might see new ways that conventions become digital spaces as well as physical ones. Conventions are about fans coming together to share experiences, to ‘convene’, and it is no longer the case that this has to involve a face to face meeting.”

Jacobs studied fans’ experiences at Supernatural conventions and found that, while most of them preferred meeting in person, there were various reasons why virtual attendance was important. For some fans who go to many conventions a year, attending them is a part of one’s social activities and a way of staying up to date on happenings in their community. Jacobs said, “Being part of the digital space during a convention seemed to be almost as important as being at the event, particularly because there were so many conventions each year and many people attend several, but very few could go to them all.”

For fans whose favorite part of attending a convention is meeting celebrities, a virtual con might not seem like much of an alternative. But for many fans, the principal draws of a convention might be interacting with other fans, shopping, or sharing information about their fandom interests through meet ups or attending panel discussions, all things that could be done in other ways. There are many conventions whose principal draw is activities rather than celebrity guests – although even celebrity appearances will be going virtual in some cases.

For example, one staple of conventions that has become a central part of many fans’ experience is cosplay. While you’d think that this kind of fanwork would be something missing at a virtual con, being online doesn’t have to be a barrier to sharing one’s costuming skills. A lot of cosplay experience has already gone virtual. For example, in 2015 Nicolle Lamerichs wrote about the rising popularity of cosplay music videos (CMV) which are created and shared after the event. In discussing common factors for the videos, Lamerichs notes that “the videos are usually shot at the fan convention and are also a means of preserving the performances and making them accessible to a wider audience.” The practice has developed to the point that “some CMVs are also fan works in their own right." 

Is it for you?

While the virtual con may not replace the experience of an in-person gathering for the majority of fans, it does address the importance of these events for both specific fandoms as well as fans as a whole. When writer/producer Alison Zeidman wrote that comic books changed her life, the examples she gave were of personal experiences surrounding comic books, such as attending a fan convention. "At Wondercon, I was the most relaxed I’ve been in years, but it was also so incredibly creatively stimulating and inspiring. And I realized that how I felt on that exhibition floor is how I want to feel every day of my life: constantly learning, seeking out new experiences and meeting new people — whether or not they’re dressed in a custom-made Captain Marvel uniform.” Whether in-person or online, many fans share that feeling.

[sciencespies]

How Ancient DNA Unearths Corn's A-Maize-ing History

https://sciencespies.com/nature/how-ancient-dna-unearths-corns-a-maize-ing-history/

How Ancient DNA Unearths Corn's A-Maize-ing History

Smithsonian Voices National Museum of Natural History

How Ancient DNA Unearths Corn’s A-maize-ing History

December 14th, 2020, 3:00PM / BY

Erin Malsbury

Sequencing entire genomes from ancient tissues helps researchers reveal the evolutionary and domestication histories of species. (Thomas Harper, The Pennsylvania State University)

In the early 2000s, archeologists began excavating a rock shelter in the highlands of southwestern Honduras that stored thousands of maize cobs and other plant remains from up to 11,000 years ago. Scientists use these dried plants to learn about the diets, land-use and trading patterns of ancient communities.

After years of excavations, radiocarbon dating and more traditional archaeological studies, researchers are now turning to ancient DNA to provide more detail to their insights than has ever before been possible.

In a paper published today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, scientists used DNA from 2,000-year-old corn cobs to reveal that people reintroduced improved varieties of domesticated maize into Central America from South America thousands of years ago. Archeologists knew that domesticated maize traveled south, but these genomes provide the first evidence of the trade moving both directions.

Researchers at the Smithsonian and around the world are just beginning to tap into the potential of ancient DNA. This study shows how the relatively recent ability to extract whole genomes from ancient material opens the door for new types of research questions and breathes new life into old samples, whether from fieldwork or forgotten corners of museum collections.

Cobbling together DNA

DNA, packed tightly into each of our cells, holds the code for life. The complex molecule is shaped like a twisting ladder. Each rung is made up of two complementary molecules, called a base pair. As humans, we have around three billion base pairs that make up our DNA. The order of these base pairs determines our genes, and the DNA sequence in its entirety, with all the molecules in the correct position, is called a genome. Whole genomes provide scientists with detailed data about organisms, but the process of acquiring that information is time sensitive.

“In every cell, DNA is always being bombarded with chemical and physical damage,” said lead author Logan Kistler, curator of archeobotany and acheogenomics at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural History. “In live cells, it’s easily repaired. But after an organism dies, those processes that patch things up stop functioning.” As a result, DNA begins breaking down into smaller and smaller fragments until it disappears entirely. This decomposition poses the greatest challenge for scientists trying to sequence entire genomes from old or poorly-preserved tissue.

Researchers wear protective suits and work in sterile conditions in the ancient DNA lab to prevent contamination. (James DiLoreto, Smithsonian)

“You have to take these really, really small pieces of DNA — the length of the alphabet in some cases – and try to stitch them back together to make even a 1000 piece long fragment,” said Melissa Hawkins, a curator of mammals at the Smithsonian who works with ancient DNA. “It’s like trying to put a book back together by having five words at a time and trying to find where those words overlap.”

This laborious process prevented researchers from sequencing whole genomes from ancient DNA until around 2008, when a new way to sequence DNA became available. Since then, the technology and the ability to reconstruct ancient DNA sequences has grown rapidly.

Ancient DNA still proves challenging to work with, however. Kistler and colleagues collected 30 maize cobs from the thousands in the El Gigante rock shelter in Honduras. The material ranged in age from around 2,000 to around 4,000 years old. Of the 30 cobs that the researchers tried to extract DNA from, only three of the 2,000-year-old samples provided enough to stitch together whole genomes. A few others provided shorter snippets of DNA, but most of the cobs didn’t have any usable genetic material left after thousands of years.

The second biggest problem researchers face when working with ancient DNA is contamination. “Everything living is a DNA factory,” said Kistler. When working with samples that are thousands of years old, the researchers take extra precautions to avoid mixing modern DNA into their samples. They don sterilized suits and work in an air-tight, positive-pressure lab designed specifically for working with ancient DNA.

A-maize-ing possibilities

The ability to sequence whole genomes from thousands of years ago has allowed researchers to ask questions they couldn’t think of answering using individual genes or smaller DNA fragments.

“A whole genome is comprised of several hundred ancestral genomes, so it’s sort of a time capsule of the entire population,” said Kistler. For important staple crops like maize, this means researchers can study the genes associated with domestication and determine when and how people changed it over time. And knowing what communities were doing with crops provides insight into other parts of life, such as land-use and trading.

“Whole genome sequencing of ancient materials is revolutionizing our understanding of the past,” said co-lead author Douglas Kennett from the University of California, Santa Barbara. The authors dug into the whole genome for information about how maize domestication occurred and where it spread.

The cobs from 4,000 years ago and before did not have enough genetic material left for researchers to produce genomes. (Thomas Harper, The Pennsylvania State University)

Before their results, it was widely assumed that maize was mostly flowing southward. They were surprised to learn that improved maize varieties were also reintroduced northward from South America. “We could only know this through whole genome sequencing,” said Kennett. Next, the scientists plan to pinpoint more specific dates for the movement of maize and connect its history to broader societal changes in the pre-colonial Americas.

Growing applications

The same technological advances that made Kistler and Kennett’s maize study possible have also created new uses for museum specimens. Scientists use ancient genomes to study how humans influenced plant and animal population sizes over time, species diversity and how closely related organisms are to each other. They even expect to discover new species hiding in plain sight.

“Sometimes, species are really hard to tell apart just by looking at them,” said Hawkins. “There is so much more that we don’t know.” To make extracting and sequencing DNA from older museum specimens easier, the Smithsonian is in the process of building a historic DNA lab. This space, separate from the ancient DNA lab, will allow researchers to focus on older collections with tissue quality that falls between ancient samples from archeological sites and freshly frozen material.

The ancient DNA lab at the Smithsonian takes several precautions to preserve existing DNA and prevent contamination. (James DiLoreto, Smithsonian)

“It’s really amazing that we have the opportunity to learn from samples that have already been here for 100 years,” said Hawkins. “We’ve unlocked all these museum collections, and we can do so many more things with them now than anyone had a clue was possible even 15 years ago.”

Related stories: Our Thanksgiving Menu has Lost a Few Crops Scientists to Read DNA of All Eukaryotes in 10 Years Safety Suit Up: New Clean Room Allows Scientists to Study Fragile Ancient DNA

Erin Malsbury is an intern in the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History’s Office of Communications and Public Affairs. Her writing has appeared in Science, Eos, Mongabay and the Mercury News, among others. Erin recently graduated from the University of California, Santa Cruz with an MS in science communication. She also holds a BS in ecology and a BA in anthropology from the University of Georgia. You can find her at erinmalsbury.com.

More From This Author »

#Nature

[frishay8]

Big Bertha Irons - A Brief History

Big Bertha. In the world of golf, this is a name that is synonymous with forgiveness, feel, and performance. Introduced by Callaway Golf in 1994, the Big Bertha Irons began a mouseover with an iron designed to push pressures to the margins of the club. This unique design became the foundation upon which Callaway would continue to improve, amazing ourselves with each and every new model. In 1996, Callaway released an updated interpretation of the original Big Bertha Irons with a few modifications. In the new model, designers used the extent of the club head and the amount of the hollows to push pressures farther out to the edges of the club head. A Bore-through hosel which actually extends through the club rods rendering more steadfastness and the emotion that is expected of all Callaway products. The Sole was modified slightly configuration to allow for the club to pass through poor lies with even less scraping than the before.

Callaway also introduced the Big Bertha Gold Series Iron in 1996. Using the prototype of the original Big Bertha Iron, designers repositioned the sweet spot, added a new contoured sole and redistributed the compression in the head. The Big Bertha Gold Series has a RCH Series 96 shaft and are manufactured from an aluminum bronze alloy for a softer feel. The Gold Series Iron retained the original's 360-degree undercut channel and the consistently thin face. The Great Big Bertha Tungsten Titanium Iron hit the encircling in 1997. In this design, Callaway used Titanium with a Tungsten insert to create a club top that was perfect for use in just about all conditions. The Insert represents only 15 percent of the club head capacity but description for 40 percent of the weight, maintenance the degree perfect and the hearts of severity exactly where it should be.

The Big Bertha X-12 Irons and X-12 Pro Series Irons followed in 1998. Featuring a lower core of solemnity than the original Big Bertha Irons, the X-12 was designed to assistance golfers get the heavens airborne. The X-12's retained the 360-degree undercut channel, Callaway's patented S2H2 and Tru-Bore Technologies. The Pro-Series was designed for lower handicap golfers and featured the Less-Offset formatting which enables the more experienced golfer the talent to work the sky more easily. Also featured are the 360-degree undercut channel, the S2H2 and Tru-Bore Technologies. The X-12 Irons were the first Stainless Steel Irons introduced by Callaway and many believe it was this iron that set the ancestor for high attainment irons to follow. The Steelhead X-14 Irons followed the X-12 in 2000 and quickly became the best-selling Iron in Callaway history. Also offered in a Pro-Series, the X-14 featured stainless steel construction and Callaway's Variable Face Thickness (VFT) Technology that ensured a perfectly located center of seriousness (COG). Optimized in the long, mid and the shot iron, the Face Thickness tapered from vertex to beds and scoundrel to toe. The Pro-Series designed for the advanced golfer was designed with Less-Offset than the regular X-14

Callaway's original Big Bertha Irons were upgraded once more in 2002. In this iron set, Callaway added all of it's latest technologies which accordance the original and very popular appearance and shape the Big Bertha Irons were known for. These technologies took the windowpane of the golfer using them to a whole new tier with increased pity and maximum performance. Also introduced in 2002 was the Hawk Eye VFT Irons. Quite simply, in this set, Callaway simply used all of their design learning and added the titanium package. The bulk popular addition to the Hawk Eye VFT irons, however, was the internal weight pocket that allowed designers to policies the crowd middle and low across the clubface. This design provides for unequaled path without sacrificing pity or feel. The chasing year, Callaway went back to the layouts crew to create the new Steelhead X-16 and the Steelhead X-16 Pro-Series. Changes included a shorter paddle extensiveness and wider topline plus the addition of Callaway's latest technology, Notch Weighting. The X-16 features included a low center of gravity, a cambered sole, and a satin finish. The Pro-Series were given a more blade-like design, Less-Offset, a thinner topline, narrower sole, and a straighter leading edge.

With best online shopping experience, Frishay is designed for our Worldwide customers needs. Get the latest products with great discounts. Our Golf Club P7TW Irons is really amazing. We have variety of lengths available from which you can choose.

[olderthannetfic]

Vidding absolutely counts as a fandom, and Escapade is key to the history of vidding.

Notice how the terminology shifts over the course of Escapade: The first year, it’s ‘songtapes’ being shown, then ‘songvid’ or ‘song video’ predominates for much of the 90s, and then we move on to ‘vidding’ and ‘vids’.

The vidshow moves from being more of a curated presentation of old favorites to having a lot of premieres. It goes from just one night to two, then back to one. Vidshow panels where you just watch vids for a whole panel slot come and go. In 1998, vid review starts up: This is a Sunday morning panel for in-depth critique of the vids shown the previous night and is a famously contentious part of the con. And then there was this:

2002, Friday, 6pm - VividCon Discussion (Come discuss the proposed VividCon, tentative time/location, August/Chicago.)

Yep. Escapade was where Vividcon was born!

By 2008, people were talking about how vidding had moved on from Escapade. In 2011 a vidshow retrospective was added to try to counter the lack of vidding-centric programming. There was a big resurgence for a few years, including such hard-hitting topics as:

2016 - Vidding Aesthetics (”Why is there so much show audio in this vid?", "Why didn't that cut hit on the beat?", "What do you mean 'Cheesy?' She's Celine Dion!" and other immortal questions of vidding aesthetics. If you've ever watched a vid, we want your opinions.)

Why yes, it was my panel. Why do you ask?

There were rounds of warnings wank, caused by Oz vids and by that time Absolute Destiny sent a vid of a violent coming of age film.

Check out this 1994 panel description from Fanlore:

"[The technology in fandom panel] included several things that people can now do in-home that they couldn't do five years ago: cutting and splicing songs on Macintosh computers (to remove inappropriate choruses, verses, or the word "girl"); the soon-to-be-easier ability to select different people from different clips and combine them onto a new background (also for songtapes); printing vhs video frames directly to computer screens, printers and/or color copiers (for fun); and zines and/or libraries on disk. Most of the new technology possibilities were followed by comments that the actual work we can do is illegal [...]. Which comments were followed by the statements that seventeen years ago, writing and publishing a slash fanzine was illegal.... [...] a few people [...], talked to me at different times throughout the con about getting accounts or modems [...]”

This is interesting not just technologically but aesthetically. Is the word ‘girl’ bad in a slashvid? Different communities have disagreed.

Conversations about digital vidding and digital vs. VCR really heated up around 2001, much later than you might expect if you’re coming out of an AMV background. While most of Youtube vids on Sony Vegas--a Windows-only program--at Escapade, Mac has been the norm.

The topics that have remained big are vidding aesthetics, including things like how to make an effective pimp vid, discussions of hosting options and where the community is hanging out now, and how-tos for people who want to get into vidding.

(And before anyone asks, the answer is that you should download DaVinci Resolve because it’s free and cross-platform. And you should encode with h.264 because it’s widely compatible.)

The 2020 vidding panels are:

Vidding 101: The Vid Bunny Farm So you’ve had an idea, and it’s gnawing on your leg? Or maybe you have too many vid ideas and can’t choose? Or you want to make a vid but don’t know where to even start? Aspiring fan vidders, unsure-vidders-to-be, and experienced vidders welcome alike to share vid bunnies, brainstorm together, and talk about the processes of conceptualizing a vid.

Vidding Genres Then & Now We’ve come a long way from “living room vids” vs ‚”con vids‚” or have we? Let’s talk about evolving fanvid genres, from ship vids to AU vids to multivids, from character vids to fake trailers, from genre-bending vids to long form vids to cosplay music videos, and more. Let’s talk about all the genres of fan videos floating around YouTube, Billibilli, AO3 and beyond, and also consider if the old school genre terms still apply.

Escapade has had many, many vidding panels. So many that even I feel the need for a readmore. I’ve pulled out the meta ones and left off some single-fandom vidshows and whatnot. Sorry for the wonky formatting, but Tumblr, in its infinite wisdom, seems to have removed the horizontal rule feature.

1991  - "Classic" songtapes were shown at 9:00 on Friday.

1994 - Song Video Roundtable (Bring works in progress or finished works you're having difficulty with for a quick jump-start. Open to anyone who enjoys videos as well as the people who make them.)

1994 - Songvid Editing (Authors get edited and usually have to do at least one rewrite of a story. Artists have erasers. What stops songvid makers from doing drafts and re-edits of their work? Let's talk about editing style (what cuts to use for best emphasis) and technique (how to physically do the inserts.)) [Notice how much of an issue editing is. These are VCR vids, edited in order, so insert edits are a gigantic pain.]

1995 - Techno Vids—Media Cannibals, (What's available with the new computer hardware and software? Can have Bodie & Doyle screwing on screen if we apply the right touches. Should we? How and when?) [Yes. Sweatily. Always.]

1995 - Video Workshop (video makers & watchers discuss the art.)

1996 - Music Video Critique and Workshop (Roundtable critique of videos, how to tell/recognize story, POV, rhythm. Also, tricks of the trade.)

1997 - Music Choice for Song Vidding (Finding the right song for the fandom is almost as great a challenge as finding the right clips for the song. Discussing what to look for in music choice.)

1997 - Songvid Critique (An exploration of different elements of media vids, with an emphasis on aesthetics. We'll look at segments of different songs to see how the images were used in conjunction with the varied rhythms of the music, and to enhance the mood.)

1998 - Media Cannibals Self-Indulgence Hour (Stunned to look back on vidding effort, MC plans to show -- and talk about -- some of their best and worst vids, pointing out some happy accidents and some annoying f*ckups. This is a great panel for people who want to learn about vid-making, the work that goes into them, and what to look for when watching them.)

1998 - Con Vids vs Living Room Vids (What are the elements that make a music vid accessible to a large crown, or more appropriate to an intimate setting?)

1998 - Music Video Show Review (Selected vids from Saturday's show will be replayed and discussed for their aesthetic, technical and musical choices. Open to all, for feedback and fun.) [Perhaps the start of the Sunday vidshow critique, which was also such a feature of Vividcon?]

1999 - Songvid Aesthetics (An exploration of theme, color, mood, and rhythm. Choosing clips to relate to the music and convey your message to the viewer.)

1999 - Sunday Morning Vid Review (Selected vids from Saturday's show will be replayed and discussed for the aesthetic, technical and musical choices. Open to all, for feedback and fun.)

2000 - Vidding Basics (Or "you want to learn how to make a music vid, huh?"—Carol and Stacy will take a group of novice vidders from the basics of what you need on your VCR, to all your hardware set ups, thru the selection of music, to actually doing some hands-on putting a dip (or two) into a music vid. So if you're interested in music videos and you want to try your hand at making one... you know what panel you need to go to.)

2000 - Songvid Appreciation 101 (Remember Art Appreciation? "Why is this painting good?" Well, we're doing the same for vids, using examples from the ESCAPADE Video Show. Let's take advantage of the fact that we've all just seen these vids, and use them to illustrate how to do cool things in a vid. We'll look at clever POV changes, appropriate choice of music to theme, skillful uses of musical changes within a vid, storytelling techniques, changes of mood, cutting on the beat vs. cutting on the lyric line, the different approaches to serious and humorous vids, or single fandom vs. multiple fandom vids, and more.)

2001 - Vidding Workshop (2 hours) (This workshop will cover: a comparison between digital and analog vidding; a how-to for analog vidding; a how-to for digital vidding; and a discussion of the artistic side of vidding, including song and clip choices, and techniques to avoid.)

2001 - Impact of Computer Tools on Vidding (Vidding used to be push-and-pause between 2 vers, and a LOT of patience. Now with I-movie and Final Cut and Macintosh G4's, the technological leap is here and it isn't going anywhere. Are vids better for the technology available to them?)

2001 - Songvid Appreciation (2 hours) (Comments and feedback on vids you saw last night, Escapade style.)

2002 - Art Manipulation Using Photoshop (A how-to overview, with demonstrations in Photoshop, and more detailed techniques for creating photo manipulations, web graphics, and zine graphics. Depending on interest, creation of vid titles and overlay vid graphics may be included.)

2002 - Digital Vidding (An overview of the digital vidding process, including some advice on the hardware and software you need to get started. Learn the basics of editing with Premiere and similar programs, and get an overview of some of the fun options you have when using a computer to vid.)

2002 - Vidding Workshop: Art After Craft (What is the Art of Vidding?)

2002 - Vid Revision (The art and craft of revising vids—how you get from a song in your heart and a bunch of clips on your hard drive to the final product. We'll show multiple versions of a few vids, critique them, and talk about what improves a vid. No technical knowledge needed; come whether you make vids or just like watching them.)

2002 - Vids: Pro vs Fan Editing (A long time fan vidder and a professional editor discuss techniques.)

2002 - Sunday Morning Vid Review

2002 - VividCon Discussion (Come discuss the proposed VividCon, tentative time/location, August/Chicago.) [VVC started 6 months later, in August 2002, and ran until 2018]

2003 - How to Vid on the Computer (A brief intra vidding on computers. It will touch on hardware requirements, software options, and basic concepts of non-linear editing and what makes for a good vid, and, time and tech permitting, it may also include a demonstration of some of the editing basics. There will be handouts.)

2003 - Vid Show Review (A discussion (and literal re-viewing in some cases) of some of the vids from the Saturday night show.)

2003 - Also Premiering Vid Show (The "Also Premiering..." vid show is for vids premiered in the last year that aren't going to be shown in the Friday or Saturday shows. This will be an informal setting and we'll go by participant preference — if folks want to see a vid a second time, or want some time to chat about it, or if a vidder wants some feedback on it, we can decide to do that on-the-fly. If you'd like to show any vids in this show, just bring them to the show itself. There are no hard-and-fast limits on number of vids; we'll just go with what shows up and take turns until we run out of time. Afterwards, consider going out to lunch with other participants to talk about the vids!)

2004 - I want to vid! (But I don't know how) (Introduction to vidding hardware, software and maybe some concepts if we have the time.)

2004 - Made On a Mac: The MacFen Symposium (So you're a slasher and a Mac user. Come and share your tips and tricks for HTML coding, photo editing, website management and vidding on a Mac, Share the programs that have and haven't worked for you and hear some helpful tips from the front lines.)

2004 - Vidding: Creating Mood (Why do rapid cuts of short clips create tension? What does a wipe *feel* iike? A vidder's toolbox Includes more and more options, but how do we know what emotional effect each technical effect will produce? Leave the music at the door; this one's about the visuals.)

2004 - Editing Techniques and Vidding (How can you edit together clips from widely different episodes and movies into a seamless whole? A familiarity with concepts in filmmaking can help you achieve the results you're aiming for. A look at some of the common rules of continuity editing and how they relate to vids.)

2004 - The changing face of vids (How has increasingly cheap technology, wider highspeed access and the new flood of vidders changed vidding? What should we rejoice about and what should we worry about? How do we help make it a winning situation for all?)

2004 - Vid Review (A retrospective on the Saturday night show.)

2005 - Vidding: Let the Lyrics Help You (How to look at lyrics to add depth and structure to your vid. or why top 40 songs usually make you do all the work.)

2005 - Vid Review (A Sunday morning tradition at Escapade, and a chance to discuss those great vids.) [See how it’s a “tradition” by this time.]

2006 - The Changing Vid Audience (The move to digital vidding, the availability of vid source and software, and the expectation of online distribution have all radically affected audience desires and expectations. What do audiences want from vids now? Vidders, share your historical perspectives. Vid fans, this is your chance to tell vidders what you want.)

2006 - Defining the Character Study Vid (We love character study vids, so how do you go about making a good one? What's the difference between a vid about a character, a vid about a universe, and a vid about seeing the universe through the eyes of a character?)

2006 - Marketing Your Vid (How can you stand out among the swelling ranks of vidders? What's the best way to present yourself, and to draw attention to your work? We'll focus on knowing your audience, timing your release, pimp communities, etc.)

2006 - Vid Review  (Like Ebert and Roper, but much better looking.)

2007 - Ulead Media Studio Pro 8 and Why It's Better Than the Rest (A compare and contrast of the semi-professional video editing software programs with a strong emphasis on Ulead Media Studio Pro 8. If you are new to vidding, or interested in upgrading your video editing software, this panel should help you make an informed choice.)

2007 - Mac Workshop (The ins and outs of vidding on a Mac.)

2007 - Vid Show Review (Take apart what worked and what was missing from selected vids in the Saturday show. Audience participation at its finest.)

2008 - Ulead Video Editing Introduction (Intro to Ulead Video Studio/Media Studio Pro for those who are interested in vidding but don't have a clue as to where to start. or wouldn't mind a refresher course.)

2008 - Vid Review (Last night was for watching, today is for analyzing. What worked, what didn't, and why?)

2009 - Fannish Aesthetics: Extrapolation v. Subversion (How do we as writers (and especially as vidders) interact with the source material? Is that relationship evolving? What can we say about where we've been and where we're headed?)

2009 - Vid Review (Last night was for watching, today is for analyzing. What worked, what didn't, and why?)

2010 - 2010: A Vidding Odyssey (Current trends in vidding, including what's changed and what's remaind the same when it comes to slash, vidding in particular. We will show some examples of "classic" slash as well as some of the newer develpoments in constructed reality.)

2010 - Vid Review

2011 - Escapade Songvid Retrospective (A trip back to the days of yesteryear, when vids were made on VCRs and Escapade was the place for vids and vid programming. Compiled by Kandy Fong, this show will survey vids from a variety of vidders and shows, covering Escapade 1992-2001 in a fun, informal environment.)

2011 - Decoding Vid Meaning (How do you read a vid? Clip choice, lyrics, structure, symbols or the tone of the music— vids offer plenty of clues, and we decipher them as we see fit. Come watch a vid (or two!) and discuss how we get meaning from what we see and hear to develop a deeper understand of what's going on in the vid. Multiple viewings are required!)

2011 - Vid Review (Flash all the way back to Saturday night to dissect our favorite (or not) vids from the show.)

2011 - The Vidding Explosion (1985-1990) (Who taught whom. The growth of storytelling, technique, and sophistication. Includes vid show and presentation.)

2012 - Vidwatching 101 (Vids have their own language and their own framework for discussion. It can be tough to translate vids into words, but if we have the same language, vid discussion can be wonderfully rewarding for both vidder and viewer. This panel is a primer to get us all on the same page.)

2012 - The State of Vidding Fandom (Ten years of VividCon and roughly the same years vids have been distributed online, let's talk about the state of vidding and the community of vidders. Is there one? Where is it? How do vidders fit in with fandom at large? What are the different options for watching/releasing vids, and how do they stack up for vidders and viewers? If you love vids, join us—whether you vid or not.)

2012 - Festivids Review (Festivids is a fannish vid exchange inspired by the Yuletide fic exchange. This will be a vid review-style panel where we show clips from some of this year's highlight vids and talk about the challenge.)

2012 - MVD Vid Retrospective Show (Sometimes the oldies really are the goodies. Mary Van Duesen has made songvids since the 1980s, working in a range of fandoms. She has also remastered many old vids, and they look better now than they ever did. Come see some old favorites, or find some new ones.)

2012 - Vid Show Review

2012 - Nearly New Vids (So many wonderful vids were submitted for the Escapade show that we couldn’t fit them all in the early show. Here’s your chance to see the rest in the daylight hours (replay of the late-show vids).

2013 - Mac Vidders Roundtable (What’s the best way to vid on a Mac? Our vidding options have changed a lot in the last few years, and it’s been a while since we had a roundtable to discuss and compare our tips, tricks, and processes. This panel is for all of the above.)

2013 - The Art of the Pimp Vid (What makes a pimp vid so addictive one hit will get you hooked? Let’s talk vids for people outside of your fandom. Plot arc vids, character vids, pairing vids: How do you grab a new audience hard and never let them go? Hey there, little fangirl, the first taste is free!)

2013 - The Bestivids of Festivids (This year’s Festivids featured everything from incest testtube babies to care bear Avengers to a surprisingly large amount of kickass femslash. Let’s watch and discuss some favorites from Festivids 2012.)

2013 - So You Want To Be A Vidder (Nobody vidding your OTP anymore? Sad that vidders haven’t discovered your new favorite show? Why not vid it yourself? Come learn the very basics, from choosing programs in your price range to dos and don’ts if you’re planning to submit to cons.)

2013 - How Do Vids Work? (Let's talk about the techniques (not just the feelings!) that make a slash vid work. What makes for a vid that we watch over and over and that sticks with us long- term? We'll talk about these things with reference to a couple of specific vids, see what strategies, commonalities, and differences we can identify, and then open up discussion to additional favorites from the audience.)

2013 - Vidding Aesthetics (Vidders and vid watchers: let’s talk vidding aesthetics. How have styles changed over time? What makes a good vid and what’s just a matter of personal taste? What do you want to BURN WITH FIRE? Let’s get this cage match... err... discussion going.)

2013 - Vid Review (Flash all the way back to Saturday night to dissect our favorite vids (or not) vids from the show.)

2014 - Vidding 101 (Never edited before? Haven't made a vid since the VCR went the way of the dodo? Come learn how to turn those vidbunnies into reality!)

2014 - Vids for the Viewer (We often discuss writing from the perspective of a reader, but vidding from the perspective of vid-watchers not so much. Let's talk about how to read a vid, different vidding aesthetics and how accessible or popular they are with viewers vs. vidders, and impostor syndrome in vid review.)

2014 - Vid Review (Flash all the way back to Saturday night to dissect our favorite (or not) vids from the show.)

2015 - Best of Festivids. From the slashy to the merely sublime, what tickled our fancy in this year’s Festivids?

2015 - The Perfect Slash Vid. What makes the perfect slash vid? Is it the song choice? The point of view? The abs? (Okay, you got me: it’s the abs.)

2015 - So You Wanna Be A Vidder. Bring your laptop or at least a pen and paper and find out how to get started in vidding.

2015 - Vid Review: Flash all the way back to Saturday night to dissect our favorite (or not) vids from the show.

2016 - The State of *Vidding Fandom. Sunday, Noon, San Diego 2. What's going on in vidding fandom today? Where are people hosting and posting? What's next?

2016 - Vid Review. Flash all the way back to Saturday night to dissect our favorite (or not) vids from the show.

2016 - Vidding Aesthetics (”Why is there so much show audio in this vid?", "Why didn't that cut hit on the beat?", "What do you mean 'Cheesy?' She's Celine Dion!" and other immortal questions of vidding aesthetics. If you've ever watched a vid, we want your opinions.)

2017 - Vidding 101 - Have you dreamed of making a vid but just aren’t sure where to start? We’ll go step by step, talk finding your source(s), choosing music, finding your way with non overwhelming tech-tools, brainstorming ideas, finding collaborators, and learning by doing. Already a vidder? Come and help new vidders find their way, find new collaborators, and make new ideas happen.

2017 - Let’s Collab! New Forms of Collective Fan Creativity , Newport Changing technologies mean that we collaborate with each other in ever-evolving ways when we create fic and vids. What are the possibilities for collaborating beyond geographic boundaries with digital technologies? How are you collaborating with fellow writers and vidders these days? Are you interested in finding new collaborators and new ways to connect? And are these new forms of collaboration creating new forms of creative fan work?

2017 - Vid Review, Marina del Rey On Saturday night, we watched the vid show. On Sunday morning, we talk about it. Join Rache to discuss the good, the better, and the great of the show, including techniques and all of the reasons Charlotte doesn’t vid anymore and never will again.

2018 - Noon (Vids from the Vault, Part One Kandy Fong Newport A curated retrospective of vids from early Escapades.

2018 - Fanvid Feels (What vids do you return to again and again because they just make you *feel* things, thrill you, or fill you with joy, or even sadness? Maybe a vid introduced you to a pairing, or a fandom, or perhaps you love it even though you’re not really that into the source? Let’s look at some of our/your favorite vids and think about what makes them tick. Come with vids you want to talk about in mind, or just come to watch and talk about vids that make us feel stuff.)

2018 - Vid Review (Flash all the way back to Saturday night to dissect our favorite (or not) vids from the show.)

2019 - 3-Minute Pimp Vid (Forget telling: Show us your canon with a vid or clip! (3-5 minutes each.))

2019 - Lend Me Your Ears: Vids and Music (Have you ever discovered a song or musician because of a fanvid? Do you have thoughts on what music works and doesn't with fan vids? Let's talk about all the ways in which different types of music can work in vids, and look at some vids that work with music in awesome or surprising ways. Plus maybe there will be a little singing along...)

2019 - AO3 But For Fanart and Fanvids (AO3 has been great for fic, we need safe harbors for art and vids too. Let's talk about it!)

2019 - Pitch a Vid Bunny, Find a Vid Beta (Have an idea for a fanvid you'd love to see happen? Come with concept, song, source ideas, characters--share your bunnies, find some cheerleaders, brainstorm together. For newbie & experienced vidders alike, all welcome!)

2019 - Vid Review (Rehash the Saturday night vid show with a room full of fans.)

[sciforce]

Big Data is not so big: Data Science for small- and medium-sized enterprises

New basis for any business

Current advances in technology are in many ways fueled by the growing flow of data coming from multiple sources and analyzed to create competitive advantage. Both individual users and businesses are switching to a digital system¹, which in turn generates pools of information. In their turn, organizations share data with other companies, giving rise to digital ecosystems that begin to blur traditional industry borders. As the amount of data available grows, the size, diversity, and applications of it are accelerating at a near-exponential rate, and businesses are discovering that traditional data management systems and strategies do not have the means to support the demands of the new data-driven world.

If several years ago data analytics was used mostly in finance, sales and marketing (such as customer targeting) and risk analysis, today analytics are everywhere²: HR, manufacturing, customer service, security, crime prevention and much more. As Ashish Thusoo, co-founder and CEO, Qubole, pointed out, “A new generation of cloud-native, self-service platforms have become essential to the success of data programs, especially as companies look to expand their operations with new AI, machine learning and analytics initiatives.”

While, according to a report by Qubole³, only 9% of businesses already support self-service analytics, 61 percent express plans for moving to a self-service analytics model. With different forms of data collected and connected to aid businesses in drawing analogies between datasets, coming up with actionable insights and improving decision-making, Big Data and Data Science have moved to the foreground of the industrial and commercial sector.

However, the volume of data may not be the decisive factor for optimizing business operations. Small- and medium-sized businesses need to understand the benefits that intelligent data analytics can bring and the opportunities for data collection and management.

Big Data and its relation to Data Science

Big Data is a term covering large collections of heterogeneous data whose size or type is beyond the ability of traditional databases to capture, manage, and process. Big Data encompasses all types of data, namely:

structured (such as RDBMS, OLTP, transaction data, etc.)

semi-structured (XML files, system logs, text files and such), and

unstructured information (emails, blogs, digital images, sensor data, web pages and many other types).

The sources of big amounts of data are multiple and varying depending on the industry or the business sector: data may come from sensors, devices, video/audio, networks, log files, transactional applications, web, and social media, with much of it generated in real time and on a very large scale.

The heterogeneity of data and inclusion of unstructured information in the data set require specialized data modeling techniques, tools, and systems to extract insights and information. Analyzing large amounts of data allows businesses to make decisions based on the data that was previously inaccessible or unusable with the help of advanced analytics techniques such as text analytics, machine learning, predictive analytics, data mining, statistics, and natural language processing. In this sense, the term Big Data refers to the whole range of the processes that information goes through, encompassing data gathering, data analysis, and data implementation.

Such scientific approach which applies mathematical and statistical ideas and computer tools for processing big data is called Data Science. It is a specialized field that combines intersecting areas such as statistics, mathematics, intelligent data capture techniques, data cleansing, mining and programming to prepare and align big data for intelligent analysis to extract insights and information.

Hence, the field of Data Science has evolved from Big Data, or Big Data and Data Science are inseparable.

The big Vs of big data:

The concept of Big Data as is known today was rolled running in the early 2000s when industry analyst Doug Laney articulated the now-mainstream definition of Big Data as the three Vs⁴:

Volume: with data coming from sensors, business transactions, social media and machines, there is a problem of the amount of data required for analytics is considered to be solved.

Velocity, or the pace and regularity at which data flows in. It is critical, that the flow of data is massive and continuous, and the data could be obtained in real time or with milliseconds to seconds delay.

Variety: for the data to be representative, it should come from various sources and in many types and formats.

The initial concept has evolved to capture other factors that impact the effectiveness of manipulations with data, such as:

Variability: in addition to the increasing velocities and varieties of data, data flows can be highly inconsistent with periodic daily, seasonal or event-triggered peaks that need to be taken into account in analytics.

Veracity: in most general terms, data veracity is the degree of accuracy or truthfulness of a data set in terms of the source, the type, and processing techniques.

As technology evolves, more aspects of data come into the foreground giving rise to new big Vs.

Challenges posed by Big Data to businesses

Even though the amount of data collected is sufficient for analytics, it cannot guarantee that the analytical findings will be useful for the company. The problems that companies face in their quest for effective analytics can be triangulated into the problems related to the overabundance of versatile data, the lack of tools and the talent shortage.

On the data processing and machine learning side, analyzing extremely large data sets (40%), ensuring adequate staffing and resources (38%) and integrating new data into existing pipelines (38%) were called the primary obstacles to implementing projects.

Oversized pool of data

The research firm Gartner forecasts that in 2019 we will see 14.2 billion connected things in use⁵ resulting in a never-ending stream of information that can become a challenge for drawing meaningful insights.

Lack of adequate tools

To successfully compete in today’s marketplace, small businesses need the tools larger companies use. In its 2018 Big Data Trends and Challenges report⁶ Oubole, the data activation company, stated that 75 percent of respondents also reported that a sizeable gap exists between the potential value of the data available to them, and dedicated tools and talent dedicated to delivering it.

Changes in labor market

The spreading of new technologies will shift the core skills required to perform a job. The Future of Jobs Report⁷ estimates that by 2022, no less than 54% of employees will require re- and upskilling. According to Qubole, 83 percent of companies say it is difficult to find data professionals with the right skills and experience.

For business these challenges mean that they need to choose between retraining their existing personnel, hiring new talent with required skills and invest into developing their own tools for data collection and processing, purchasing third-party analytical products or finding subcontractors for doing Big Data Analytics.

Applications of Big Data

Big Data affects organizations across practically every industry and of any size ranging from governments and bank institutions to retailers.

Manufacturing

Armed with the power of Big Data, industries can turn to predictive manufacturing that can improve quality and output and minimize waste and downtime. Data Science and Big Data Analytics can track process and product defects, plan supply chains, forecast output, increase energy consumption as well as support mass-customization of manufacturing.

Retail

The retail industry largely depends on the customer relationship building. Retailers need their customers, the most effective way to handle transactions, and the most strategic way to bring back lapsed business — and Big Data provides the best solution for this. Originated from the financial sector, the use of large amounts of data for customer profiling, expenditures prediction and risk management become the essential Data Science tasks in the retail industry.

Marketing

The digital marketing spectrum is probably the biggest application of Data Science and machine learning. Ranging from the display banners on websites to the digital bill boards at the airports — almost all digital advertisement is decided by Data Science algorithms. Based on the user’s past behavior, digital advertisement ensures a higher CTR than traditional advertisement targeting the audience in a timely and more demand-based manner. Another facet of digital marketing is recommender systems, or suggestions about similar products used by businesses to promote their products and services in accordance with the user’s interest and relevance of information.

Logistics

Remaining a new application for Data Science, logistics benefits from its insights to improve the operational efficiency. Data science is used to determine the best routes to ship, the best suited time to deliver, the best mode of transport ensuring cost efficiency. Furthermore, the data that logistic companies generate using the GPS installed on their vehicles, in its turn creates new possibilities to explore using Data Science.

Media & Entertainment

The current consumers’ search patterns and the requirement of accessing content anywhere, any time, on any device lead to emerging new business models in media and entertainment. Big Data provides actionable points of information about millions of individuals predicting what the audience wants, scheduling optimization, increasing acquisition and retention as well as content monetization and new product development.

Education

In education, data-driven insight can impact school systems, students and curriculums by identifying at-risk students, implementing a better system for evaluation and supporting of teachers and principals.

Health Care

Big Data Analytics is known as a critical factor to improve healthcare by providing personalized medicine and prescriptive analytics. Researchers mine data to see what treatments are effective for particular conditions, identify patterns related to drug side effects, strategize diagnostics and plan for stocking serums and vaccines.

How it works

Step 1. Discover the data sources

The first step for processing data is discovering the sources that might be useful for your business. The sources for Big Data generally fall into one of three categories:

Streaming data — the data that reaches your IT systems from a web of connected devices, often part of the IoT.

Social media data — the data on social interactions that might be used for marketing, sales and support functions.

Publicly available sources — massive amounts of data are available through open data sources like the US government’s data.gov, the CIA World Factbook or the European Union Open Data Portal.

Step 2. Harness data

Harnessing information is the next step that requires choosing strategies for storing and managing the data.

Data storage and management: at present, there are low-cost options for storing data in clouds that can be used by small businesses.

Amount of data to analyze: while some organizations don’t exclude any data from their analyses, relying on grid computing or in-memory analytics, others try to determine upfront which data is relevant to spare machine resources.

Potential of insights: Generally, the more knowledge you have, the more confident you are in making business decisions. However, not to be overwhelmed, it is critical to select only the insights relevant to the specific business or market.

Step 3. Choose the technology

The final step in making Big Data work for your business is to research the technologies that help you make the most of Big Data Analytics. Nowadays there is a variety of ready-made solutions for small-businesses, such as SAS, ClearStory Data, or Kissmetrics, to name a few. Another option to tackle your specific needs is to develop — or subcontract — your own solution. In the choice it is useful to consider:

Cheap, abundant storage;

Fast processors;

Affordable open source, distributed big data platforms, such as Hadoop;

Parallel processing, clustering, MPP, virtualization, large grid environments, high connectivity, high throughputs and other techniques to optimize analytics;

Cloud computing and other flexible resource allocation solutions.

Conclusion

In the past, Big Data was used primarily by big businesses, since they were the only ones who could afford the technology and channels used to collect and analyze the information. However, today, even smaller-scale businesses can take advantage of Big Data and Data Science by choosing the relevant information they might use for their specific needs, and selecting tools or teams that can accessed remotely and on demand.

Critically, the importance of Big Data doesn’t revolve around the amount of collected data, but around the specific insights it may bring to a specific business or an industry. The combination of relevant Big Data with high-powered and targeted analytics can serve the following tasks:

Determining causes of failures and defects in near-real time;

Generating advertisements or promotion campaigns based on the customer’s buying habits;

Recalculating risk portfolios in minutes;

Prediction of stocks and sales;

Detecting and prevention of fraudulent behavior and much more.

References

https://www.forbes.com/sites/joshbersin/2016/12/11/how-everything-is-becoming-digital-and-why-businesses-must-adapt-now/

https://www.ibm.com/analytics/nl/nl/?cm_mmc=OSocial_Blog-_-IBM+Analytics_Data+Science-_-IBN_NL-_-NL+BLOG+ANALYTICS&cm_mmca1=000017WL&cm_mmca2=10003914&

https://insidebigdata.com/white-paper/report-depth-look-big-data-trends-challenges

https://blogs.gartner.com/doug-laney/files/2012/01/ad949-3D-Data-Management-Controlling-Data-Volume-Velocity-and-Variety.pdf

https://www.gartner.com/en/newsroom/press-releases/2018-11-07-gartner-identifies-top-10-strategic-iot-technologies-and-trends

https://insidebigdata.com/white-paper/report-depth-look-big-data-trends-challenges

http://www3.weforum.org/docs/WEF_Future_of_Jobs_2018.pdf

[cactusnotes]

Cultural Globalisation

Cultures and traditions, through globalisation, have been intermingling, creasing a whole array of good and bad impacts, the base for striking debates, and for me importantly: a chunk of what my exams are probably going to be on. Well, here are my notes and case studies:

In 1959, Fidel Castro declared Cuba to be a communist country, separated from Western capitalism. It remained isolated for 50 years, relying on subsidies from communist USSR until 1991, when it collapsed. Cuba seemed to have no other option but to allow in tourism to develop its economy, resulting in increasing awareness of other cultures. 

In 2008, Fidel Castro resigned, and his brother took over, and decided to weaken communism. Free enterprise businesses were allowed to set up, in a relaxed communism that somewhat reflected China’s. Since 2012, Cubans could buy and sell houses, take out loans and start businesses, at the loss of state-employment guarantees and state-owned farmland was sold. This allowed USA-Cuban relations to improve. However, it has increased divisions, with some wealthy Cuban entrepreneurs living in luxury, while some live in tumble-down houses, with no variety in their simple diet--bread, eggs and plantain and state rations. This is as differences in wealth, and person leads to different chances of success. From then, it’s positive feedback, as the poor cannot help their kids do better. Capitalists too, don’t have such incentive to help their workers.

Today, Cuba is in a state of change. Tourists, TV and the internet have allowed Cubans to broaden their knowledge of the wider world, and learn about the challenges to their values and traditions, so globalisation is diluting Cuban culture. This cultural erosion has also led to a detriment in the environment, with the coral reefs at risk as beach-side tourist resorts are erupted.  This process is called cultural diffusion: Western attitudes and values have spread to Cuba, and also to around the world. Maintaining a strong Cuban identity is very difficult.

The economy changes, ways of life changes, attitudes and values change. Global changes are impacting how people view the world, and these global changes can be seen on a local level: called glocal cultures. British cities have been transformed by inwards migration to hubs of cultural diversity, with its own new character, new identity, compared to just a mix of others. These areas are called ethnic enclaves, with some examples being Indian populations in London, South East, and East of England.

There are several key ideas surrounding this concept of globalisation of society: culture is the ideas, customs and social practices of a particular people or society; cultural diffusion is the spread of cultural beliefs and activities from one group (ethnicities, religions, nationalities) to another through communication, transport and technology; cultural erosion is when cultural diversity is reduced through popularisation; cultural imperialism is when one culture of a nation is promoted over another, otherwise known as westernisation. 

The main culprits of cultural imperialism, westernisation and americanisation are, of course, Europe and North America, turning western culture into a global culture. The factors amplifying this today include TNCs, tourism, global media and migration. The main protector of individual cultures is language: things don’t translate straight into each other, something is lost in translation. But as the same groups control global media, which impacts language, there is increasingly common vocabulary.  Global homogenisation is the process of culture everywhere becoming one.

News Corp, owned by Rupert Murdoch, impacts political and cultural thinking worldwide. They have 101 newspapers in Australia (national and suburban); four in the Uk including The Times and The Sun; over 25 papers in the USA including The New York Post and The Wall Street Journal and a 33% share in Russia’s leading financial times paper. Television wise: Fox is theirs; My Network TV; channels in Eastern Europe, Israel, Indonesia and NZ. Their satellites are: BSkyB in the UK, Foxtel in Aus, SKY in NZ/Ita/Ger and StarTV in Asia. Politically, Fox TV in the USA openly supports the Republican Party, while every winning party in the UK since 1979 has been promoted by the Sun (EW, WHY UK?).

IT and digital communication means that the rate and desire of consumption has changed, and the products themselves have changed, as hybrid products are on the rise, where global TNCs create a cultural mix. What we consume generally is based on the work of small groups of big TNCs. 90% of the music market is owned by five companies: EMI, Universal, AOL, Time Warner, SonyBMG. They’ve focused on cutting the range of successful artists: it’s easier to promote one than promote several. This one becomes universal, rather than having different, local artists, contributing to homogenisation in the music world. Globalisation is the new term for cultural imperialism, and helps this musical homogenisation as it promotes the spread of TNCs due to easier connections to promote one thing worldwide, and distribute one product rather than  just producing local music.

Some may consider the change of value as a good thing (the fact that the textbook author portrays this as good literally demonstrates this westernisation, as he proposes that these values are right. Don’t get me wrong, I 100% agree that these values are good, but the fact that he’s portraying them positively is literally proof of what he’s saying and it’s funny. Or is that just me? Just me, sorry, ignore this). One of these is the attitude to disability. In China, 2011, official data reported that only 25% of disabled people could find employment. They were stigmatised, marginalised, abused. Yet, in 2012, they won the paralympics. This helps to destigmatize disability (but boy, have we got far to go!) as described by disabled Australian TV presenter Adam Hills: “Sydney was the first Paralympics to treat Paralympians as equals. London was the first to treat them as heros”. The West is adopting more liberal ideas on ethical issues, such as gay rights (gay rights!), and we can see that homogenisation is far off from total control, with how this contrasts with attitudes in places like Russia and the Middle East.

There is obviously resistance to globalisation. I personally feel like these notes do portray it as negative until the last few paragraphs. It’s perceived to be exploitation of people and the environment. The general criticisms link to: the environment, third world debt, animal rights, child-labour, anarchism, and mostly anti-capitalism and opposition to TNCs. There are many anti-globalisation and environmental pressure groups rejecting globalised culture and TNCs especially (like tax avoidance). The Occupy is one such group, and held demonstrations in cities like London and New York (now that is ironic). The main targets for anti-globalisation movements are the WTO, IMF and World Bank, as well as large US TNCs like McDonald and Starbucks, on the exploitation of the workers, and environment, making it easier for the rich to get away with wrong, and erasing cultures (Americanisation).

Anti-globalisation and rejection of cultural diffusion can even occur on a governmental level. Iran confiscated Barbie Dolls for being un-islamic in the 2000s, but ended up liberalised due to a need for international assistance in dealing with radicalism, and the youth still accessing banned social media, like Twitter and Facebook. Until the 2000s, France led the anti-globalisation movement, limiting broadcasting of foreign material--40% of broadcasts had to be French and no more than 55% American film imports--but has had to liberalise this due to internet downloading of media and due to successful TNCs from France, like EDF energy.

In Norway, for hundreds of years, local fishermen have hunted whales and the food source was considered part of their tradition and culture. The Norwegian representatives claimed that their northern coastal villages depended on hunting and fishing for their livelihoods. Although whaling is not a big part of the Norwegian national budget, it is still considered a crucial source of income for those fishermen who need it. They also argued that the global effort to prohibit the hunting of whales amounted to an imposition of other countries' cultural values that contradicted their own, since it cannot be environmental concerns, for the whales they hunted were not endangered--it’s all based on values. The US Department of Commerce has even suggested that trade restrictions be imposed upon Norway, because it was violating the International Whaling Commission's ban on these kinds of whaling activities. Here, the environment, different values and nationalism clash.

Papua New Guinea has over 7000 cultural groups, with different languages, diets, etc. living in different villages or hamlets, and generally sustained by subsidence farming, fishing and collection. People who are skilled and also generous in getting food are well respected. Then, colonisation meant tribal tensions were crushed, and people were used on plantations and integrated into a new economic and political system. Christianity and western ideals have come forth, with value being placed in well-educated and successful workers, and intermarriage between tribes has lead to losses of languages and direct cultural conflict. Mining took place in one tribal area, meant to benefit all, but the local tribe was doubtful, and resented those on the mainland for allowing the Aussies and Brits to come in and mine. They developed into a revolutionary army, causing conflict in the 1990s, fighting between citizens, youth gangs, riots, looting, returning tribal warfare and huge law and order problems.

The USA and UK have faced increasing nationalisation as a political movement. These are potentially seen in things like the Brexit vote, and election of Trump. Some follow it due to the dilution of their native culture and loss of sovereignty, others due to the low-income and low-level education people in HICs feel as though they have been left out of the benefits of globalisation. While it has the same benefits of protectionism, nationalism can lead to negative impacts, most notably through marginalisation/persecution of ethnic minority groups, ironically emphasising the whole trope and reason for cultural imperialism in the first place.

[unchainedandstillunfree]

my albums of the year 2019

Somn - The All-Devouring American Football - LP3 Employed To Serve - Eternal Forward Motion Vi som älskade varandra så mycket - Det onda. Det goda. Det vackra. Det fula. WRVTH - No Rising Sun Eat Your Heart Out - Floresence Outlander - The Valium Machine Nionde Plågan - Reflektion Northlane  - Alien Shirokuma - Clothes I Wear For The Spaces I'm In After The Burial - Evergreen This Gift Is A Curse - A Throne of Ash Fallujah - Undying Light Mayfield - Careless Love Renounced - Beauty Is A Destructive Angel Counterparts - Nothing Left To Love Sleep Talk - Everything In Colour Earth Moves - Human Intricacy Ghost Iris - Apple of Discord We Never Learned To Live 100 gecs - 1000 gecs Parliament Owls - A Span Is All That We Can Boast Mireplaner - A Mountain of Saola Hooves WVNDER - Nothing Stays Presence of Soul - Absence of Objective World

Somn - The All-Devouring

Post-black metal is a bit of a hit and miss genre but I can’t think of anything about this album that possibly could be improved. The compositions move beautifully between slow buildups and fast black metal parts, the soaring melodies and savage riffs are stunning and the dynamics between the two vocalists bring something really original to their music. Absolute perfection.

American Football - LP3

American Football really outdid themselves here, the quality of songs on LP3 is of another world to their first two albums. Somehow these songs about being a jaded middle-aged father resonate with me more than their first album which was about leaving university and pining for those years and lost love. But there are so many beautiful, memorable moments on this, it’s impossible not to be moved.

Employed To Serve - Eternal Forward Motion

One of the tightest UK heavy bands right now somehow got even tighter whilst expanding their post-metal influences. The package is diverse but somehow the whole thing rumbles past effortlessly and you find yourself wanting to start all over again. I saw them live twice this year too and they were spectacular both times, seething with menace and emotion.

Vi som älskade varandra så mycket - Det onda. Det goda. Det vackra. Det fula.

I’ve really gotten into screamo in the last year or two and this came late in the year to blow me away. The instrumentals feel more influenced by post-rock than they do by hardcore but the buildups and heavy moments still hit hard. Excellent vocals sung exclusively in Swedish, I can’t wait to delve into them properly.

WRVTH - No Rising Sun

I will miss this band a lot. Another one that’s difficult to describe but sits somewhere in between tech-death, post-metal and emo. It’s a truly exhausting emotional experience to listen to all the way through but the density of ideas will keep your attention throughout.

Eat Your Heart Out - Floresence

Pop-punk is meant to be a bittersweet genre but Eat Your Heart Out really perfect this dynamic with angelic vocals constrasted with surprisingly heavy riffs.

Outlander - The Valium Machine

Mostly instrumental “doomgaze” from Birmingham. The atmospheres they manage to slowly build and build are so wonderful and dreamy.

Nionde Plågan - Reflektion

Another stunning, diverse screamo album that draws heavily on post-metal and crust. Repetitive, hypnotic, looping riffs and an anguished atmosphere with more harsh Swedish vocals.

Northlane  - Alien

Dammit, Northlane brought back dubstep breakdowns and nu-metal riffs in 2019 and managed to make it sound so good. This band couldn’t make bad metalcore music if they tried.

Shirokuma - Clothes I Wear For The Spaces I'm In

I spent a lot of time this summer when I wasn’t listening to this album thinking about the album. The atmosphere is unbelievably dense and oppressive with screeching vocals but beauty manages to shine through 

After The Burial - Evergreen

How many progressive metalcore bands manage to improve this much on their 6th album, especially after tragically losing their main songwriter? Never more full of ideas and of course some of the heaviest riffs of the year.

This Gift Is A Curse - A Throne of Ash

A wonderful blend of post-black metal, hardcore and crust punk done in a way that only a Swedish band really could. Filled with riffs that range from brutal to haunting. I keep coming back to this album throughout the year.

Fallujah - Undying Light

The new vocalist was divisive but I absolutely loved Anthony Palermo even before he joined Fallujah. The songwriting was a bit lacking in the middle of the album but it’s still head and shoulders above what most bands in this genre are doing and the last minute is one of my favourite moments in Fallujah’s discography.

Mayfield - Careless Love

The best Counterparts album this year was released by Mayfield, who draw from across melodic hardcore and metalcore but especially from their compatriots to fill this album with groove and emotional moments and grief.

Renounced - Beauty Is A Destructive Angel

A lot of people though Renounced were done but they came back with the most Renounced album yet, really leaning into the early-2000s metalcore sound and aesthetic 

Counterparts - Nothing Left To Love

Okay but Counterparts’ new album was pretty great too. As heavy as they’ve ever been and a lot of memorable songs (we’re just going to ignore that absolute travesty of a last song)

Sleep Talk - Everything In Colour

Wonderful melodic hardcore from Australia with desperate vocals and the addition of some wonderful choruses and gang chants. This album is very easy to listen to over and over again 

Earth Moves - Human Intricacy

Another exciting UK metal band with an expansive post-hardcore/post-metal album. Every song has a different flavour and it really shows the talent of the band in a way which previous releases didn’t quite get to.

Ghost Iris - Apple of Discord

Metalcore band from Copenhagen that really showed potential on previous albums but here managed to really tighten up their sound and create a set of wonderful songs filled with groove

We Never Learned To Live - The Sleepwalk Transmissions

Of all of the bands making music about technology and screen culture, WNLTL managed to really capture the feeling of the day and write a poetic letter to the future. Fantastic post-hardcore from another(!) exciting UK band

100 gecs - 1000 gecs

If you know you know.

Parliament Owls - A Span Is All That We Can Boast

More post-hardcore that is reminiscent of Dance Gavin Dance and The Fall Of Troy. Truly wonderful songs 

Mireplaner - A Mountain of Saola Hooves

“chaotic post-metal” on their bandcamp describes this perfectly. 

WVNDER - Nothing Stays

Andy Cizek absolutely smashed it this year with two releases and appearances with two other bands. His vocals here are wonderful and the songs create a perfect vibe of “summer of sadness”

Presence of Soul - Absence of Objective World

Haunting post-metal/doom from Japan. When they actually hit the heavy moments, it absolutely floors you.

[ottofreycinet87-blog]

Western Music Historical past

Contemporary folks music refers to all kinds of genres that emerged within the mid 20th century and afterwards which were related to conventional folk music Starting within the mid-twentieth century a brand new form of popular folks music evolved from traditional people music. Lounge music refers to music played in the lounges and bars of hotels and casinos, or at standalone piano bars. Typically, the performers embrace a singer and one or two different musicians. The performers play or cowl songs composed by others, especially pop requirements, many deriving from the days of Tin Pan Alley. Notionally, much lounge music consists of sentimental favorites loved by a lone drinker over a martini, although in practice there is rather more selection. The time period may also refer to laid-back electronic music, additionally named downtempo, due to the reputation of lounge music as low-key background music. First, bradleykavanagh7.wikidot.com I see lots of people saying, properly this is only a small segment of music. There may be plenty of good music being made right now!" Perhaps so, however that wasn't the purpose of the post nor the video. The video discusses how fashionable music right this moment is not very good, and how most of what frequently makes the top 40 is homogenized crap. Both jazz and classical symbolize just 1.4% of whole U.S. music consumption a bit. Nonetheless, Classical album sales were larger for 2014, which places Jazz on the bottom of the barrel. An ideal instance of Tubby's deft touch for reverb is current on the observe Dub You Can Really feel." Listen for the reverb on the snare — it's the classic spring reverb boing" impact common in dub music. Learning to play a musical instrument can usually be costly so purchasing around is a good suggestion. The typical value of studying a musical instrument in the UK can fluctuate anything from £15 to £40 depending on the tutor, the area, the instrument and the extent of expertise, and naturally can typically be much more, particularly in areas resembling London.

Sensible! I applaud your ability to data mine, nevertheless lots of your questions and fatal flaws in your logic may have been reply by researching the fundamentals of main key harmony. Music Theory" is not a law, however an explanation of how western music makes use of chords in a key, eloiseortega.pen.io and what carefully or distantly associated keys a song may modulate to. These can usually have genre specific explanations. Take some concord courses and then figure those patterns" into your analysis and you may find some solutions. Syd Nathan, the top of King Records, thought it was a lousy idea. R&B followers don't shell out for stay albums, he tried to inform his headstrong star, a hit single is what they dig. So James personally financed the recording of this blazing half-hour set on the storied Harlem theater, and soon radio DJs were taking part in total LP sides on the air. Had this historic doc accomplished nothing more than introduce the wider world to the majestic, violent grace of a James Brown dwell performance, that'd be lots groundbreaking. However as Dwell on the Apollo crossed over to the pop charts, it convinced each artists and businessmen that black music might thrive commercially not by making concessions to genteel white tastes. Part heady avant-garde improv, half properly-thought of Molotov cocktail, all methods disorienting, Throbbing Gristle's debut steamrolled a new path for underground noiseniks by eschewing many of the formal guidelines of rock music — drums, guitars, melody and, on Aspect B, pulse completely —going instantly for the primal enchantment of distortion. "Industrial Music for Industrial Folks" learn the tagline for the band's personal Industrial Records, spawning a style fueled on grinding, mechanical terror and offered affect for everyone from Nine Inch Nails to Aphex Twin. Built on disturbing samples, disturbing electronic textures, and disturbing live recordings, Second Annual Report employed the LP as a medium of moveable transgression. Those that are good at writing songs in line with a new pattern or involving elements which might be new and authentic will, in all likelihood, not be those that rise to famous person status, at the very least not straight away. Just have a look at Vangelis. He may not have the views" that Bieber has on Youtube, however, musically speaking, he is about 88 000 656 890 x more authentic. That doesn't imply he is higher than Bieber, in fact (regardless that he clearly is). As an enormous fan of Laborious, basic and Psychedelic rock and being based in India, I would know. I've to say Rock music has taken a nosedive off a cliff in the past decade here and there actually will not be any music coming from this nation. The earliest songs that may very well be thought-about American popular music, versus the popular music of a particular region or ethnicity, have been sentimental parlor songs by Stephen Foster and his peers, and songs meant to be used in minstrel reveals , theatrical productions that featured singing, dancing and comedian performances. Minstrel shows generally used African devices and dance , and featured performers with their faces blackened, a method known as blackface 1 By the middle of the 19th century, touring firms had taken this music not solely to every a part of the United States, but in addition to the UK, Western Europe, and even to Africa and www.magicaudiotools.com Asia. Minstrel reveals have been typically marketed as though the music of the exhibits was in an African American model , though this was often not true.Rock's late-Sixties psychedelic sojourn was brought to a screeching halt with the August 1968 launch of the primary country-rock masterpiece, an album whose reverberations can still be heard in the arduous-rocking sounds of nearly every current nation hit. The industrial success of the Eagles, America, the Doobie Brothers are all attributable to fledgling Byrd Gram Parsons's resolute perception within the cosmic power of actual nation music. Parsons fan Elvis Costello introduced the phrase back to the punks on Almost Blue; the Blasters, Long Ryders and even X added a twang to their sound; and "cowpunk" turned a thing. Likewise, Uncle Tupelo's 1990 No Depression album; band spinoffs Wilco, Son Volt and Bottle Rockets; and numerous subsequent alt-country advocates can all be traced back to Sweetheart.For as faithfully as they recreate their namesake, YouTube's '80s remixes really remind me of a newer second. The internet music culture of the late '90s and early 2000s was a interval of fast transformation, however whilst illegal file sharing accelerated music discovery, the shortcomings of the technology saved things grounded. MP3 collections took up vast amounts of digital area and have been playable only via certain packages. And, like file retailer crate-digging excursions, online hunts didn't always pan out: You may spend hours downloading a music, solely to seek out out it had been mislabeled.

[peijia-blog]

Week 10: Social Gaming

So, what’s social gaming?

Social games are structured activities with contextual rules through which users can participate in each other. Social games must be multiplayer and have one or more of the following functions: turn-based, based on social platforms, to provide users with identity and freedom (Nick O’Neill,2008). Therefore, social games enable users to take turns and realizing the behavior of others in the game. Another most important element of social gaming is the social part. It is similar and different from multiplayer games in games like Call of Duty. Social games are of course strictly multiplayer games, but they use different ways to play multiplayer games. Social games are usually built around a more intimate interaction between players. Sharing items, evaluating a friend's trading compliments, and inviting new players to join are part of most social games. Usually social games are based on different type of social platforms such as facebook, Steam, Garena. In the context of social gaming, social platforms provide users with an identity and also can provide the backbone for simple forms of communication (such as notifications, etc).

Impact of Social gaming

One of the many themes raised during the Qutee study was the benefits of the game to society as a whole. In an online survey, players were asked what they thought was the main benefit of the game. More than 40% said gaming improves emotional well-being. If you think that one out of every five people in the US will experience mental health problems every year, it will be a serious benefit. This is in stark contrast to the general view that playing video games can lead to violence and other anti-social behavior. According to Qutee, 93% of players think this is wrong.Kevin Anderton,(2018). Another benefit is the formation of a strong friendship. About two-thirds of gamers claim that they met five friends while playing games, and 37% said they have done more. Playing games provides a great way to break the ice, get together, and spend time together. It leads to strong friendships, which is natural. Playing video games is associated with performance advantages and improvements in many visual and spatial tasks. By requiring players to practice games that extract spatial information from the screen, specific visual space skills and tasks that include these skills can be improved. The positive impact of video games on visual-space skills has been found in related research (eg, Green & Bavelier, 2003) and experimental studies (eg, Okagaki & Frensch, 1994). In many visual and spatial tasks, Garners has been found to outperform non gamers, exhibiting faster visual response times, improved target positioning and psychological rotation (Green & Bavelier, 2003; Achtman, Green, & Bavelier, 2008; Green & Bavelier, 2007). Experimental studies have shown that only 10 hours of video games can improve spatial attention and psychological rotation (Feng, Spence, & Pratt, 2007; Green & Bavelier, 2003). It's worth noting that most of the research that has found video games to influence visual space skills uses fast-paced video games that are often violent.This reminds people that video games don't fit the good or bad dichotomy - they have many effects that can have both positive and negative effects. Educational video games have been found to be effective teaching aids in a wide range of fields. Video games often reinforce student behavior, attract enough students to play games multiple times, provide clear goals, and need to be actively involved (Gentile and Gentile, 2008). Education video games have been successfully used to teach students some school subjects such as mathematics, reading and biology (Murphy, Penuel, Means, Korbak, & Whaley, 2001; Corbett, Koedinger, & Hadley, 2001). Employers also recognize the power of video games and combine games to teach the work skills employees need. For example, Volvo uses online games to train car salespeople (Entertainment Software Association, 2011b). Educational video games can also be used to explain health and encourage a healthier lifestyle. Many studies have shown that video games are an effective teaching tool to help young people understand health conditions such as cancer and diabetes (Brown et al., 1997; Kato, Cole, Bradlyn, & Pollock, 2008; Lieberman, 2001). These games can also bring behavioral changes.

In contrast, the findings reviewed in this chapter lead to the conclusion that social game effects are complex and better understood from multiple dimensions rather than good or bad dichotomy. The major impact of social games has been proven in many areas. Some of these effects are desired by parents, such as the impact of prosocial social games on empathy and help (Greitemeyer & Osswald, 2010). Other social game effects are worrisome to parents, such as the impact of violent video games on aggression (eg, Anderson & Dill, 2000), even a single game can have multiple effects on a person, some of which are harmful, some of which are beneficial (for example, a violent game that improves visual space function, but also increases the risk of physical attacks). More research is needed to increase our understanding of how prosocial sosial gaming can exert their influence on empathy and help to explore the impact of video games on attention and cognitive control and increase our understanding of the symptoms and consequences of game addiction. Given the large number of children and teens who play video games, increasing our understanding of the effects of positive and negative social gaming is a relevant research topic that is important for public policy debates, theoretical developments, and potential intervention strategies designed to increase positive impact and reduce the negative impact of playing social games.

References

Achtman, R, Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D 2018, Video games as a tool to train visual skills, Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, 26,435-446.

Anderson, C. A., Shibuya, A., Ihori, N., Swing, E. L., Bushman, B. J., Sakamoto, A., & Saleem, M. (2010). Violent video game effects on aggression, empathy, and prosocial behavior in Eastern and Western countries. Psychological Bulletin, 136,151-173.

Anderson, C. A., & Dill, K. E. (2000). Video games and aggressive thoughts, feelings, and behavior in the laboratory and in life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 78, 772-790.

Brown, S. J., Lieberman, D. A., Gemeny, B. A., Fan, Y. C., Wilson, D. M., & Pasta, D. J. (1997). Educational video game for juvenile diabetes: Results of a controlled trial. Medical Informatics, 22(1), 77-89.

Corbett, A. T., Koedinger, K. R., & Hadley, VV. (2001). Cognitive tutors: From the research class-room to all classrooms. In P. S. Goodman (Ed.), Technology enhanced learning (pp. 235-263). Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

Entertainment Software Association, 2011, Games: Improving education, viewed 23 May 2019, <http://www.theesa.com/games-inproving-what-matters/ESA_FS_education_2011.pdf>

Gentile, D. A., & Gentile, J. R. (2008). Video games as exemplary teachers: A conceptual analysis. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 37,127-141.

Green, C. S., & Bavelier, D. (2003). Action video game modifies visual selective attention. Nature, 423,534-537.

Green, C. S.,& Bavelier, D.(2007).Action video game experience alters the spatial resolution of attention.Psychological Science, 18(1), 88-94.

Greitemeyer, T., & Osswald, S. (2010). Effects of prosocial video games on prosocial behavior. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 98,211-221

Kato, P.M., Cole, S. W., Bradlyn, A. S., & Pollock, B. H. (2008). A video game improves behavioral outcomes in adolescents and young adults with cancer: A randomized trial. Pediatrics, 122, 305-317.

Kevin Anderton,(2018).The Impact Of Gaming: A Benefit To Society [Infographic]

Nick O’Neill,(2008). What Exactly are Social Games? Available at: https://www.adweek.com/digital/social-games/

Peng, J., Spence, I., & Pratt, J. (2007). Playing an action video game reduces gender differences in -spatial cognition. Psychological Science, 18, 8.50-855.

Sim, T., Gentile, D. A., Bricolo, F., Serpelloni, G., & Gulamoydeen, F. (2012). A conceptual review of research on the pathological use of computers, video games, and the internet. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction. DOI 10.1007/s11469-011-9369-7

[warehouse13pod]

Show Notes 106 "Burnout"

What’s that on your back, Agents?

This is the second, improved attempt for Tumblr users

As always, you can click here or you can click play on the embedded player below to listen to this week’s episode as you read through the show notes.

We kicked off this week talking about writing teams, because this week’s Writer Appreciation Corner focuses on the duo of Matthew Federman and Stephen Scaia. We’ll be issuing a formal correction in the podcast for 108, but I mistakenly said that writing teams were paid a full salary each. I was incorrect! And Stephen Scaia himself was kind enough to correct me!

This is important, because 1) we always want to give you the most accurate and complete information we can 2) this is not the only time or the only writing team we will be dealing as we make our way through Warehouse 13 together.

Miranda and I discussed how our podcasting partnership mirrors that of a writing team. Often it seems that we share a brain, and we’re always super supportive of each other.

Moral of the story? Get yourself a BFF like this.

We talked a little about how this episode had a darker, more X-Files-esque tone. We thought it worked really well for this episode but wasn’t sustainable in the long term, because who would want to tone down this fun energy?

We also talked a bit about how much we loved the whole team behind this episode for letting the mystery play out for us instead of relying on formulaic storytelling techniques. We liked how it showed a trust in the audience to be smart enough to follow a more complex narrative.

Leave a comment below about how you feel about these things!

Miranda pointed out the retro-futurist implications of the massive library-style card catalogue in the Warehouse 13 office.

My personal head-cannon is that they write information about new artifacts on cards and then the data automatically transfers to the digital display screens in front of each artifact in the stacks.

We mentioned that Artie and Claudia’s relationship as well as the conflict between his luddite ways and her more technology-driven approach to life gave us strong Willow-Giles vibes.

Yes, that is another Buffy the Vampire Slayer reference. #NoRegrets

After Claudia’s adorable *big reveal* of her hologram projection machine…

…Artie realizes that she’s used something called a “Bell and Howell Spectroscope.” You can find out more about that here. And you can learn about how that figures into Claudia’s hologram projector here! This whole website a great resource for all Warehouse 13 fans looking to learn a bit more about the artifacts we don’t get to talk as much about one the podcast.

In the episode, Miranda calls Claudia a necessary “fly on [Artie’s] butt” and explained that it was a reference to a Platonic philosophy. Miranda was referring to the concept of a “social gadfly.” It is the most perfect way to describe Claudia and Miranda is, as always, brilliant for thinking of the exact right term.

When Claudia smacks her hologram projector, she refers to the process as “percussive maintenance,” which is a term that anybody who lived through the 1990s and early 2000s would consider quite useful. (We all did this all the time)

Even though Artie didn’t acknowledge Claudia’s brilliance as she deserved, Claudia didn’t let it get her down! Listeners and readers, my wish for us all is that we have the confidence of Claudia! Let us not depend on others for external validation, but be kind enough to ourselves to recognize our own strengths.

(But also, don’t be Artie. When someone does something great, let them know! Everyone like compliments!)

Regarding another turn of phrase, we mention that Claudia says she “upgraded the whole megillah.” Here’s some information about that phrase here and more information about what the megillah is here and here.

Claudia realizes that the tattoo on the body of the as-yet unnamed warehouse agent is a marine symbol, but I’m not sure we get a super clear view of it. So here’s an image of what that symbol looks like.

Moving forward, we talked about the cool luggage carousel-like thing and how that brought up some major Star Trek: The Next Generation vibes.

Specifically mentioned the Holodeck and Moriarty.

We talk about Rebecca being amazing by offering Pete some cookies and we get this great pop of emotional brightness when Pete takes all the cookies!!!! One of the best moments of the whole episode.

Miranda used her amazing brain to highlight the amazing items on Artie and Claudia’s brainstorming board. The items are listed below and hyperlinked to more information about what they are/might be:

Babylonian Battery (wikipedia info here)

Teller’s Microfusion Reactor - Likely an artifact that they were brainstorming might exist based on the life and works of Edward Teller.

The Dayton Project

Gilbert’s Headstone Amber - This one took some digging to figure out! So, William Gilbert was 16th century physician, philosopher, and physicist (say that five times fast!) who is one of the people who invented the term electricity, and he used amber both as in his physical research into electricity but also as a metaphor for electric attraction. Whoever wrote that item on the chalkboard is a genius who really does their research!

Thunderer of the Nite—now I can’t see miranda’s notes, so it could have said “nite,” but I couldn’t find anything about that. What I could find was information about something called Thunderer of the Nile.

Magnetohydrodynamic Generator

Faraday

(this one reminds me of Fringe and all the Faraday cages)

ELF transmitted through Kennedy HH… (we couldn’t get the whole item there)—ELF likely refers to Extremely Low Frequency but I have no idea about the second part.

…and last but not least, the Egg of Columbus! Why did I save this one for last? Well, because I think it’s the funniest. Also, because there are three possible answers. The most likely answer is Tesla’s Egg of Columbus. But I talked with friend-of-the-show Tobie James, and she shared two other fun things that could be described as “Eggs of Columbus.” The first is the actual egg mentioned in the story of the previous link, and the second refers to puzzles of both the tangram and mechanical variety.

Thanks to Miranda and her amazing brain for capturing this list so we could ogle at the brilliance of whoever in the Art Department is responsible for this amazing and detailed background imagery. Thanks for being our Artie/Watcher, Miranda.

Yes, that is another Buffy reference! #TakeAShotEveryTimeWeReferenceBuffy #YoudBeVeryDrunk

After this, we figure out that this is called the “Spine of Saracen.” And we would like to wholeheartedly thank our amazing Expert of the Week, Dr. Suleiman Ali Mourad. He illuminated a lot of information about the term Saracen and its Crusade-age origins.

Dipping into some ~heavy themes~

Please be mindful of how you use the term “Saracen” in daily life. If you’re unsure of how to use it, don’t use it at all. Dr. Suleiman referred to the fact that it’s not always a negative term, but it can be as offensive as the N-word. Personally, I wouldn’t use it to refer to anything other than Matt Saracen of Friday Night Lights. (But seriously, though. Please don’t use the word if you’re at all concerned it could be misconstrued as offensive.)

Anyway, we talk a little bit with him and with each other about how the Islamic Golden Age flourished years before the European Renaissance. It didn’t make the final cut of the episode, but we talked a little bit about how the fall of the Eastern Roman Empire (Byzantium) led to Eastern nations of the ancient world inheriting the important cultural works of the Greco-Roman Empire—which meant inheriting the words of Galen, the originator of most medical and nutritional knowledge in the world until the modern era. We’re talking the dominant source of knowledge for literally thousands of years. So, while the nations flourishing the the Islamic Golden Age advanced medical knowledge, Western Europe lost most of that knowledge and was plunged into the Dark Ages. You can learn more about this from a source we referenced in our 101A and B Show Notes, Food: A Cultural Culinary History by Dr. Ken Albala. More purchase options linked in the 101 A and B Show notes linked above.

Dr. Mourad talked about how this Islamic Golden Age was heavily tied to the Translation Movement in the Islamic Civilization of the age. This is a fascinating subject that I did not know about before Miranda spoke with Dr. Mourad.

That’s what I have for this week.

Hope you’re buzzed for the next ep, Agents.

[brbct]

Reflective Journaling Piece

The Experience

The Creative Technologies experience that I would like to focus on for this piece is the first proper assignment that I did to begin my BCT journey. The Cards For Play assignment, This assignment taught me a lot about working with others, catering for everyone’s needs and interpreting everyone’s different ways of thinking and expression. The part of this assignment that stood out the most was definitely how much the idea of prototyping was drilled into us, every time we came up with a new concept we would develop it more and more and then scrap it and start over again, this process was incredibly helpful to reform my thinking as a Creative Technologist and show me how as humans we tend to stick by our first idea, our ‘baby’ too much and hold it close to our hearts when in reality most of the time these infantile ideas are very basic and flawed, being able to kill ideas, be critical and move on is an incredibly vital part of this course as has been made clear to me by the Cards For Play Assignment.  

What Were the Issues and Why?

As a group we were severely inhibited by how we held onto our first idea for far too long and weren’t critical enough of it in the very early stages, we took it so far as to developing a near ‘final’ design and then we realised, ‘hey this game sucks’ so we killed it right there on the spot, just over two weeks of work gone in minutes. That very afternoon was absolutely hellish, we sat for about two hours as a group and just tried to come up with something, anything that could save us with the due date looming closer every second. Our silent cries for help were eventually answered and our knight in shining armour, Charles came to check on us, The advice and exercises he offered were brilliant and managed to get us back on track as the structure of them allowed us to be very critical and also to draw involvment from every member of the group. After reforming our play aesthetics to instead focus on the creative pillars of Challenge, Fellowship and Narrative which in itself was ironically a huge challenge, that feeling of despair and loss I felt, that we all probably felt when we threw away two weeks of work  just completely deflated us. As it turned out in the end I’m definitely glad that we made the critical decision to scrap the first project as it enabled us to move on to something that I personally was able to connect with quite a bit more as our first idea was basically a quiz game based around popular culture from the early 2000′s and to be honest I don’t really remember much from that period at all. The new idea that we came up with was a simple card game in which the players would be given item cards and have to use them to solve a given problem. The big move to this sort of idea was something I really tried to push as much as I could as I knew that by creating a game in this category we would be providing a tool for people to help them improve the skills of creative thinking and thinking on their feet which are both incredibly useful and can be applied in so many different situations, no matter who you are. If I recall correctly, the idea to change to a simple card game with a purpose came about after we had scrapped our first idea, we were all tired, and just totally over it. Somehow the idea of going to the bar after class came up and then we took a step back and realised that a comedic card game would also work perfectly in a social drinking/party sort of environment. A lesson I and the other members of the group learned from this part of the creative process is that you just cannot force it to happen, no matter how hard you try. 

Approaching issues & Development

Part of the development process that was key for this project was definitely the vigorous play testing that we underwent with our game to ensure it met every need for the target audience. We play tested so much after getting even just the first prototype done, we had gone around the class and tested it with two or three different groups. We did end up taking a lot of their feedback into consideration, especially the idea to have separate ‘Serious’ problem solving type problems and ‘Silly’ ones and having separate decks for each, we did end up phasing this out as through yet more play testing it ended up becoming irrelevant and people enjoyed the less serious ones more because they allowed for a bit more creative freedom and for players to escape the boundaries of reality. Going back and reviewing our presentation of the card game which we ended up naming ‘What You Do?’ I would say that it went as smoothly as it could have, all things considered. Towards the end of the project we were all staying extra hours and working round the clock to get the final product finished. We definitely had less time here as a result of us throwing out our previous idea and starting from scratch with 2 weeks until the deadline. We were all really worried about the final presentation as we didn’t feel as if we’d had quite enough time to polish everything well enough. It did go well though and much laughter was had, people really seemed to engage with the game perfectly, the mix of serious and silly items forcing players to think quickly and come up with a witty answer as fast as possible. I think it went so well in the end despite all our pitfalls, because we had play tested it so much at every stage of development with different groups of people in our target age range, we had even been out in the university, testing on students outside of our course which helped us to iron out any creases that we had. 

Investigation & Behind the Scenes

I’ve found several pieces of seemingly trustworthy research that do directly correlate with my own ideas and things that I experienced during the first assignment of the BCT - the Cards For Play assignment. Firstly, this chapter from a book  ( Nieveen N, van den Akker J., Branch R.M., Gustafson K., Nieveen N., Plomp T. )  details the importance of prototyping and although it’s more about implementing educational changes to a curriculum, the underlying idea and concept is still the same in that prototyping allows us to “demonstrate practical reasons for change” (Nieveen N ) and to see the flaws in a product or idea before it is distributed or officially released. Going through this process myself I can definitely attest to its crucial impact for the overall creative process. Another very interesting piece of research is the first chapter from a particular book about group dynamics and working with others, what’s important and relevant about it is how it approaches this, it specifies that “each member influences and is influenced by other members.” ( B.T TYSON ) and for this I would mostly agree but there is also the cases of certain members not contributing that much if even at all, just sort of hanging along for the ride and letting others do all the heavy lifting which definitely does happen in all group environments no matter where you are.

Looking to the Future

To close up this piece, I would definitely say that the Cards For Play project was quite different from any sort of project I’ve done in the past, the vigorous and brutal prototyping process was unlike anything I’ve ever done before. I think that if it wasn’t for this whole new way of approaching the creative process, killing ideas and re-iterating as you go then we definitely would not have completed the project to such a high standard in a way that we all connected with. Moving forward, I’ve definitely found the ideas that we explored very handy in the current project - Data Objects, we’ve gone through a very similar creative experience with it, killing many ideas and moving on very quickly, there’s just really not a better way to ensure pure, fleshed-out ideas. In future projects I’m aiming to contribute more to the group from the very beginning, as with the Cards Project my involvement was more exponential as I warmed to others in the group. From applying the Kolb cycle in this reflection it has become clear that to a great extent, the Cards For Play project reformed my creative thinking and approach to group situations, in future I will definitely be taking the vigorous prototyping process forwards with me as I progress in the BCT

References-

¹ Nieveen N. (1999) Prototyping to Reach Product Quality. In: van den Akker J., Branch R.M., Gustafson K., Nieveen N., Plomp T. (eds) Design Approaches and Tools in Education and Training.

²B.T TYSON. (1989) Working With Groups (2nd Edition) Chapter 1, Key concept 1 - Group Development.  

[billehrman]

There’s No Place Like Home

The U.S. stock market finished its best quarterly performance since 2009 rising by nearly 13% with the 10-year treasury bond ending at a breathtaking 2.4%. The pundits/experts have been fighting this every day, constantly calling for a market top anticipating an economic downturn or even a recession by year end due to the inverted yield. We disagree!  The turning point for the market and for us occurred when the Fed did an about face in December and was no longer going to be a threat to our economy. Interestingly, Larry Kudlow recently called for the Fed to reduce rates 50 basis points as an insurance policy to keep our economy going, fearing contagion from weakness abroad. We appreciate his position but would rather the Fed just remove the hike it made in December which was a mistake.

The U.S. economy is in fine shape. While we do not agree with the administration that growth will reach 3% this year, we are confident that our economy can expand by over 2.4% in 2019 and beyond for all the reasons stated last week: accommodative Fed; large growth in total employment and wages over the last year; highly stimulative fiscal policy including big tax cuts; large increases in technology spending resulting in accelerating productivity gains; and regulatory relief.  And if there are trade deals, our economy is likely to accelerate into 2020 due to declining trade deficits.

Clearly the United States is not only the current engine of the world but key to future global growth. While we are confident that China’s economy will do better moving forward due to all the domestic stimulus, we believe that a trade deal is essential for continued progress for China moving into 2020. Not so in the United States where trade is a much smaller share of GNP. And if there are no trade deals, the Eurozone, Emerging Markets and Japan will remain stuck in the mud doing well to stand still.

The bottom line is that we continue to find the U.S. markets undervalued with less risk than almost any other market. We are tired of hearing market pundits/experts say that our market is fully valued today at 17 times forecasted 2019 S&P earnings with a 10-year treasury yielding 2.4%, the Fed on hold for another year plus and bank capital/liquidity ratios at their highest levels in over 20 years. Do the math yourself. Ask Buffett what the appropriate stock yield/multiple should be relative to the bond yield? Why can’t the market easily sell at 19+ times earnings even if yields rose to 3.0% which won’t happen unless the global economy accelerates along with inflation. If so, earnings growth will accelerate offsetting any decline in multiple.

Let’s look at the recent data points that support our belief that there’s no place like home.

1.) Economic activity has picked up slightly in the United States: new home sales rose to an 11-month high in February; consumer sentiment rose to 98.4 in March; consumer spending increased modestly by 0.1% in January after a very weak December; personal income rose by 0.2% in February with a saving rate at a relatively high 7.5%; the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge tied to PCE actually fell 0.1% in January and is up only 1.4% year over year, the lowest number reported in 2 years; and the trade deficit fell to $51.15 billion in January as exports rose 0.9% from December whole imports fell 2.6% with the deficit with China declining 14% which we take with a grain of salt due to threats of added tariffs beginning January 1st boosting December exports from China. On the other hand, business saw some softness in February as the composite PMI Output Index fell to 54.3 from 55.5 in February. We have increased our estimate of first quarter GNP to slightly less than 1.8%, up 0.5% from a month ago. There were three other worthwhile events that need to be mentioned as they play a pivotal role in our investment assessment and why we believe there is no place like home.  First, venture capital funding hit $99.5 billion in 2018, a level not seen since 2000. It is paramount that the U.S. remain at the forefront of technological change if we are to remain the dominant global economic force over the foreseeable future. Clearly protecting our IP is probably the key issue in our trade negotiations with China. It does not hurt that Lyft went public last week at a valuation of nearly $30 billion which only adds fuel to the fire for more venture capital funding as Lyft investors made a fortune. It is widely believed that this will be a record year for new issues of truly great companies disrupting markets and making a difference. Second, fourth-quarter stock buybacks set a 4th consecutive quarterly record hitting $233 billion and $806 billion for the year. We see no reason that corporations will slow their buybacks in 2019 out of free cash flow and additional repatriation of foreign retained earnings. And finally, the Mueller report came out clearing Trump and his aids from conspiring or coordinating with the Russian government’s 2016 election interference and reached no conclusion of obstruction of justice Attorney General Barr pronounced the President clear of committing any criminal offense. Basically, this report removes any threat that Trump will be impeached removing a possible impediment for the markets.

The U.S. is well-positioned to outperform the rest of the world over the foreseeable future. Trump’s apparent exoneration from the Mueller investigation will only invigorate him to push his agenda “To Make America Great Again.” While we continue to disagree with his tactics and social views, we do agree with most parts of his economic, financial, regulatory and trade agenda. We are sure that the Chinese, Europeans and Japanese negotiators appreciate his renewed strength/confidence after the Mueller report improving our odds at getting a favorable outcome in the trade negotiations. Not bad!

2.) We remain cautious at best as to the prospects for growth in the Eurozone and Japan without trade deals. The flash eurozone PMI Composite Output Index fell to 51.3 in March; the services PMI fell to 52.7; the manufacturers PMI Output Index fell to 47.7 and the Flash Eurozone Manufacturers PMI fell to 47.6, a 71-month low. The Flash Japan Manufacturers PMI index remains at 48.9 with further production cuts and weaker new order inflows. Business confidence continues to fall. Need we say more?

The Eurozone desperately needs financial, regulatory and trade reforms. Will it happen? We doubt it except for the possibility of a trade deal with the U.S. before year end. Then there are growing risks of a hard Brexit. Europe is really between a rock and a hard place. Japan is only slightly better off, but the country has no room for added domestic stimulus as its aggregate debt to GNP is out of slight already. Trade deals is their only possible salvation which we do expect by this fall.

3.) We continue to believe that China’s economy will respond favorably to all the domestic fiscal and monetary stimulus. While it is likely to boost growth for the rest of the year, we doubt that it will be sustainable without a trade deal with the U.S.. Little deals with Italy and France won’t push the needle in China to make a difference.

The bottom line? There’s no place like home.

In closing, we fully recognize that we live in volatile times. We have learned to stay true to our core beliefs; stay open-minded willing to change when/if any of the key variables shift; and be patient as change takes time. Listen to all of the company conference calls so that you can discern the differences in strategies and invest in only the strongest companies as successful investing is a marathon, not a sprint. Paix et Prospérité continues to outperform.

Our portfolios include drug companies benefitting from new product flow; global industrials and capital goods companies with unit growth 1.5X GNP; technology at a fair price to growth including semis; low-cost industrial commodity companies generating huge free cash flow; capital companies with content; and many special situations where managements have strategies to close the gap between current price and intrinsic value. We own no bonds and are flat the dollar.

Remember to review all the facts; pause, reflect and consider mindset shifts; analyze your asset mix with risk controls; do your own research and…

Invest Accordingly!

Bill Ehrman Paix et Prospérité LLC