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aces-to-apples · 1 month ago

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Fic Writer 20 Questions

Tagged by @dead-cowboy!

1.) How many works do you have on ao3? Across three accounts and like 1......1? years, jesus, 154. (I think. Give or take a couple anonymized that I may have forgotten.)

2.) What’s your ao3 word count? 325,886. Somehow.

3.) What fandoms do you write for? Previously? Red vs. Blue, The Magnificent Seven (2016), The Musketeers (2014), Warcraft (2016), RWBY, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, The Umbrella Academy, The Hobbit trilogy, Supernatural, and Star Wars. Currently: Dragon Age, Jak and Daxter, Skyrim, Ted Lasso, Kingdoms of Amalur, and Star Wars.

4.) What are your top five fics by kudos? A trite, originally tumblr not!fic about OWK (anonymized), the sequel that tricked me into liking Darth Maul (anonymized), an old Cody/OWK Week fic from 2020, the first Sith!Cody fic in the tag (anonymized), and Renegade (time-traveling clones from 2018). Seven out of my top ten are anon, and eight of the top fifteen, so I figure we can just leave it there lmao.

5.) Do you respond to comments? Why or why not? Not really, no. Most comments I get are.....cursory? Obligatory? They aren't substantive, is what I mean to say. "Thanks for writing this", and whatnot, which not only don't necessitate a reply, but like, what reply can there possibly be? If there's a non-rhetorical question that I can answer, or the commenter had something to say, or even just has fun energy, then I try to respond in kind, but those kinds of comments are uhhhhhh. Not something my work attracts lol. Basically, I'm not going to send a thank-you card for a thank-you card, you know?

6.) What’s the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending? Uhhhhh, I don't know, I don't really deliberately do angst? Maybe a Dogma/Hardcase ficlet with ghost!Hardcase, but also depending on your point of view, maybe the Sith!OWK Kenfetti fic. It's hard for me to judge, I don't think I've ever even tagged something with angst, but that definitely seems like the darkest ending I've written? Idk.

7.) What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending? God this is much harder than I thought it would be. Somehow I don't think these two were meant to be the hardest-hitting questions lmao? *scrolling down my fic summaries* Hmm, learning things about myself that I'm not sure I appreciate... Maybe "she wore it wonderfully well" (Mag7, Emma/Vasquez)? Trying to find something unambiguously happy that I also am less embarrassed to link is. Difficult.

8.) Do you get hate on fics? Not especially. I have guest comments turned off, my fics are locked, and I generally don't write ships with wide readerships to start with. For the most part I occasionally get something rude and entitled that I delete, but I tell you FFN readers are some of the most hostile people you'll ever meet, they're truly dedicated to being haters of anything even resembling creative writing, it's very funny.

9.) Do you write smut? If so what kind? I do, it's not very good, and honestly I think the most prevailing trend is consent issues and power dynamic fuckery. My first smut fic was anonymous mindsex, and my second was sex-pollened enemies lmaoooooo.

10.) Do you write cross overs? What’s the craziest one you’ve written? Not as often as I'd like to, but yes! Allow me to introduce you to (and please ignore that it's a fusion), DRUMROLL PLEASE!, The Worst AU In The World (Game of Thrones/Winx Club)! If you want an actual crossover though, I did just write Dorian "Dragon Age" Pavus/Savage "Star Wars" Opress, so that was fun.

11.) Have you ever had a fic stolen? Not to my knowledge; I doubt it.

12.) Have you ever had a fic translated? Um. Yes. About eight years ago someone translated a Warcraft smutfic of mine into Chinese. That's the only one I know about.

13.) Have you ever cowritten a fic before? No, I genuinely don't even know how that would work.

14.) What’s your all time favourite ship? Hmmm. I can't say I have one. I'm a multifandom multishipper at heart, I've burnt out of several fandoms, burnt out of several ships, and I'm too AuDHD to be able to pick a favorite anything. Trent Crimm/Jamie Tartt.

15.) What’s a WIP you’d like to finish, but doubt you ever will? To be fair, most of them. But also the Dooku POV installment of the first two most-kudosed fics' series, and the Locus/Tucker roleswap RvB fic, and the Locus time-travel fic, and the Dragon Age/Star Wars crossover Maulrexsoka fic. Just off the top of my head.

16.) What are your writing strengths? I've been told my fics tend to be very high concept and I do weird things with syntax. And honestly, that's already me knowing too much.

17.) What are your writing weaknesses? Quickest answer? Plot.

18.) Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language for a fic? I'm monolingual and don't have any cultural baggage around it, so I generally find it at least some level of fun and engaging, but it's also easy for it to become gimicky when it's a conlang (guilty) and not well-executed when it's a canonically code-switching character (also guilty). I maintain however that all of that should be forgiven in Red vs. Blue fics though; the entire point from the ground up is that all the Spanish is wrong.

19.) First fandom you wrote for? ....................................Yu-Gi-Oh!. With reader-insert. I plea Not Guilty by reason of I Was Fourteen.

20.) Favourite fic you’ve ever written? See, recency bias says "cat-scratch" (amnesiac!Sabretooth AU) but brand loyalty says "peace is a lie" (JesseMaul). Maybe I'll split the difference, end up with a net-zero, and say "memento (mori)" (Cailan Theirin/Female Surana).

Honestly I think our biggest takeaway here is that I can't be trusted to answer questions about my own content because I harsh the vibe by tending to not like it lol

Tagging whoever wants to play!

#i was tagged #tag games #by apples

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tarmac-rat · 1 month ago

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10, 13 and 25, please?

10. worst part of fanon

This is so mean of me to say and I really hate to do it but..........some of the modded clothes y'alls Vs wear for VP photoshoots...................guys if I worked an actively-strenuous job and had latex stretched over my rack and cooch like that to do it, I think I would literally set myself on fire in the middle of Corpo Plaza.

I need to clarify that this is not a "I'm against revealing outfits" opinion, this is a "Do you have ANY idea how tight rubber feels against your nipples?" opinion.

13. worst blorboficiation

Johnny's an obvious contender, and because he's a main character there's a lot more discussion centered on him for people to blorbofy, but I'm gonna go and say Rosalind Myers gets this a LOT. It's honestly kinda startling how many people I see using Rosalind as a vehicle for shipping fodder when she's arguably the overarching villain of the entire DLC, and I don't think the game really intends for you to sympathize very heavily with her. But if you check her tag it's full of people using her for ships or discussing how cool she is. Yes I like morally-questionable women but I like ADDRESSING that the women are morally questionable before letting them top me.

I also think it's unfair that people will bend over backwards to debate the morality of people like Reed and Songbird and not bat an eye about the woman who called in a hit on the former that led to them being stranded in Night City for a near decade, and used the latter as a literal Blackwall probe for god knows how long. Wonder fucking why.

Other characters who I would've given this to are Takemura-- a corporate-trained bodyguard/assassin who I feel like sometimes gets shoehorned into a weird 'malewife' role in fan works, fuck if I know why-- and Kerry-- the guy's charismatic I get it but I feel like we kinda just gloss over the fact that he was more than ready to shoot three 20-year-olds for literally no justifiable reason.

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

So many, but I'll go over my personal highlights:

"Johnny should've been a love interest!"-- I like SilverV don't get me wrong, but I'm a firm believer in the fact that shoehorning a romantic relationship between the two of them into the narrative would've nuked Johnny's character development. Protagonists don't always need to get together romantically guys, friendship is allowed here.

"Panam is a spoiled brat!"-- Panam is suffering from what people in the industry like to refer to as 'a character flaw', which is a helpful little tool that will allow her to experience growth at a later point in the game.

"I can't believe they made one of the love interests a cop!"-- such an annoying complaint that I actually addressed it this week.

"There's such a huge focus on promoting fem!V now! What about masc!V??"-- 1) masc!V was the center of all the base game promotional materials from 2018-2020 so it makes sense that fem!V gets to be the center of promotion around the DLC, 2) the game is pretty much over so they're hardly advertising it anymore, and 3) advertising in the video game industry still relies so much on the male eye and is still so male-dominated in terms of thinking and ideation, having fem!V get a little bit of the promotional focus is fine. It's an RPG that's 4 years old, literally who gives a shit anymore

"The game's not cyberpunk enough!"-- I don't agree nor disagree with this opinion-- I do think the game could've gone a little further with its messaging-- but I'm fucking sick of hearing people parrot this talking point blindly because the game lets you participate in consumerism by buying cars and occasionally working with corporate clients. There is nothing worse to me personally than a stale, repeated argument from someone who played the game for 2 hours and refuses to engage with the text.

#biowareruinedmylife #aldi speaks

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inevitably-johnlocked · 2 years ago

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Hello!

I hope you're doing well! I'm trying to read more fanfiction, but I don't really know where to start. So, I'll split my ask into two categories:

Essential fanfics that I shouldn't miss

Personal favourites

It doesn't have to be a long list (I imagine you're busy), but any recommendations would be appreciated 😊

Thank you so much for everything!

(P.S. If I'm not mistaken, I think I saw you're from my neck of the woods. I hope you weren't affected by the outages last week!)

Hey Lovely!

*HUGS* I hope YOU were okay from the storm!! Yes, I live in the Capital region, but thankfully the worst I had in my neighbourhood was a tree next to my building literally was PEELED from the ground (it looked wild, LOL). A couple of my coworkers who live on the QC side said they had no power for over 2 days, so their Easter was pretty poopy, bleh. It's SO weird now thinking just a week ago we had that wicked storm when today is a BEAUTIFUL summer day, 20˚C and sunshine. WEIRD.

ANYWAY, I always have time to try my best with recs!! I'm not always spot on, but I hope I can at least direct you to a few lists you'll enjoy!

Check these out:

ESSENTIAL FICS:

Top Five Fandom Fics on Ao3, Plus 1M Hit Fic (Dec. 2018)

Fandom Favourites / Popular Fics

My List of “New Classics”

I-J’s Last 50 Bookmarked Fics (June 2017)

Last 17 Bookmarked Fics (July 2017)

Last 30 Bookmarked Fics (November 2017)

Last 86 Bookmarked Fics (Jan 2019) || [MOBILE]

FAVE FICS:

Top 20 Fave 40K+ w. Fics (April 2017)

Ten Fave Short Johnlock Fics (Easy Reads April 2018)

25 Fave Johnlock One Shots (April 2018)

Top 10 Fave Fics (September 2018)

Top 20 Bookmarks of 2018 (March 2019)

Another Top 10 Fave Fics (June 2019)

Top 30 Read-Again Fics (March 2019)

Top 30 Read-Again Fics Pt. 2 (Sept. 2019)

Top 25 Fave Non-Ao3 Fics (Nov. 2019)

Top 25 Fave Non-Ao3 Fics Pt 2 (Apr 2022)

Top 25 Bookmarks of 2019 (Dec. 29/2019)

Top 30 Bookmarks of 2020

Top 25 Bookmarks of 2021

Top 20 Bookmarks of 2022

Fave Read-Again Fics (10) (Dec 11/20)

Top 20 Comfort Fics (Feb 2022)

Top 30 Fave Angst Fics Under 10K

25 Fics for Fic Rec Bingo

I hope these lists bring you joy, and if there's anything else you're looking for, let me know!

(PS: and I'm SO EXCITED to know other people live near me, LOL!)

#steph replies #johnlock fic recs #my fic recs #fave fics #fandom faves #fic masterlist

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insanityclause · 1 year ago

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Zoe Saldana stars in "Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3"SOURCE: MARVEL

That’s not to say Marvel — along with all studios and streamers — doesn’t face some hurdles going forward. But the nature of those obstacles for Marvel are frankly pretty obvious; it’s mostly things Marvel has overcome before; and regardless of those issues and the need to address them, Marvel is still actually doing pretty good right now even amid the problems they’ve had.

So let’s just unpack what’s really going wrong, and what it means for Marvel Studios.

The situation with actor Jonathan Majors — the star of several Marvel films and streaming shows, as the MCU’s time-traveling villain Kang the Conqueror — is that he faces multiple accusations of abuse, and is scheduled to stand trial for one recent case. After that case was initially reported, other accusations surfaced, as did previous public statements from years ago by performers who asserted accusations of abuse were already circulating about Majors.

So yes, Marvel will almost certainly recast Kang. Lucky for Marvel, the character literally exists across a near-infinite number of alternate realities where he takes different forms and changes appearance. Likewise, Marvel has had to recast characters in the past, just like lots of other franchise or TV/streaming series. This isn’t brain surgery, and the framing of this issue as something that could sink Marvel’s whole future plans is frankly nonsense.

Just one great example, Marvel could offer the role to John Boyega (who I’d argue should’ve been the top candidate for the role in the first place). Or maybe Denzel Washington as an iteration of Kang who sat out the in-fighting and collective efforts of the rest of the Kangs and grew older and wiser as he made his plans to take over. Or maybe Ray Fisher could be offered the role, if Marvel wants to poke DC and WBD while scoring a great casting option.

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Or perhaps Marvel could offer the role to Leslie Odom Jr., Lakeith Stanfield, O'Shea Jackson Jr., Daveed Diggs, Stephan James, or any number of other fantastic casting choices to take over the role of Kang in the MCU.

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The point is, the worst part of the situation with John Majors is if the allegations are true and women suffered this abuse while Hollywood ignored it. The casting “problem” is small potatoes by comparison, and is easy to solve.

So let’s look at the financials now, since a central claim to the “Marvel is in trouble” narrative is that the studio is struggling at the box office while streaming is an unpopular mess.

At the box office, it’s true Marvel hit a high point with their back to back releases of the two-part Avengers conclusion to the Infinity Saga. The $2.79 billion from Endgame and $2 billion from Infinity War elevated the final global gross for all 22 films in that saga to more than $20 billion, for a per-film average of around $935 million.

In 2018 and 2019, the MCU put up the following numbers: Black Panther hit $1.34 billion, then Infinity War topped $2 billion, then Captain Marvel scored $1.1 billion, and then Endgame took $2.79 billion. Ant-Man and the Wasp at $622 is the only MCU film in those 24 months that failed to top $1 billion.

Since the Infinity Saga ended, Marvel’s releases have taken north of $8.1 billion across 10 movies so far, with a Multiverse Saga per film average of about $815 million. The difference between $815 million and $935 million is not insignificant, but nor is it disastrous, and it’s certainly not hard to understand why it’s happening.

The 2018 and 2019 slates for the Infinity Saga benefited from a decade of build-up, and it was those last four (out of five total) blockbusters topping $1-2 billion each that provided the final heft and resulted in an even higher per film average. We are only in the first half of the Multiverse Saga to date, and so far we haven’t had a single Avengers movie in this new saga, while as noted the Infinity Saga ended with a one-two Avengers punch good for more than $2 million per film.

And then the fact of the Covid pandemic alone accounts for most of the rest of the downturn in Marvel Studios’ average box office performance. Even during the Covid pandemic, when films were flopping or going straight to streaming/PVOD, Marvel’s three releases that performed “badly” due to the global health crisis still managed to finish between $379.7 million on the lowest end and $432 million. That’s better than the DCEU can perform even after theaters reopened and box office started its climb back toward something resembling “normal” — at least for the right films, since 2023 has been a roller coaster ride for theatrical.

Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania underperformed earlier this year and wound up the weakest performer of that franchise at $476 million, but Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3 scored blockbuster results with $845.5 million.

Indeed, Vol. 3 is currently the fourth-highest grossing movie of 2023, both domestically and worldwide. And for the record, as disappointing as its box office was, 2023 has been so cruel to theatrical releases that Quantumania is still a top-10 box office performer.

We’ve seen one would-be blockbuster tentpole after another face-plant or otherwise disappoint, and often when a tentpole has managed a healthy box office performance it’s at a more moderate level than expected or typically enjoyed by the given franchise and/or its prior financial trajectory.

Other than Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Oppenheimer, and Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, nothing else truly put up top-tier results this year. Fast X topped $700 million, but is fourth film in a row from the series to suffer a decline from its predecessor’s box office gross, and the lowest box office for the franchise since 2011’s Fast Five, so it’s a mixed bag there.

Besides that, 2023 saw three films in the $500-600 millions range, four in $400 millions territory, and a couple of $300 millions.

The makeup of the top 10 this year looks like this: Barbie, The Super Mario Bros. Movie, Oppenheimer, Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 3, Fast X, Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse, The Little Mermaid, Mission: Impossible - Dead Reckoning Part One, Elemental, Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania.

Notice, there are three Marvel superhero movies in the top 10. Yes, one of them underperformed, but the point is that it seems silly to talk as if audience are in any widespread or large scale way turning away from superhero cinema, or that Marvel is somehow reeling from a downfall and have lost control.

The Marvels is currently tracking toward a shockingly low debut this weekend, with most projections pointing to a $130-$150 million global opening. Without at least average holds, the film could struggle to get past $300-400 million. On the other hand, I think tracking has proven pretty unreliable these days, and I believe a significant part of these disappointing numbers is the fact a lot of people are confusing this film with being another new Disney+ Marvel show, or think it is coming to Disney+ as a film soon. There’s also the general 2023 ongoing curse to consider.

But regardless, The Marvels should’ve been a home run sequel. While we can point to the unethical shenanigans and toxic behavior of fans and of certain organized hateful online voices obsessed with attacking women-driven movies or shows, if this film flops or underperforms rather than merely suffering a downward adjustment consistent with the genre overall (which would mean a box office for The Marvels in the $700 million range, I’d say), then it’s entirely fair to call it a big stumble for the studio.

The large-scale tainting of superhero cinema by the DCEU’s overarching failure the past several years (eight films in a row across five years, all failing to reach $400 million and averaging in the roughly $250 million range) coinciding with the Covid pandemic and theatrical downturn, coupled with a leveling off — not uncontrolled free-fall or any other hyperbolic situation — of Marvel’s must-see “event” status in the aftermath of their 11-year Infinity Saga’s conclusion (and lack of any Avengers team-ups for four years and counting) has no doubt reduced the dominance of the superhero genre and audience’s previous high-level anticipation.

But that sort of heightened “event” status is impossible for any franchise or genre to maintain, and no serious person expected the genre or any one studio’s piece of it to be some perpetual ever-increasing profit machine

Neither Marvel nor the genre in general need to treat the usual ebb and flow of primacy in entertainment as if it’s some major crisis threatening the existence and profitability of the studio or genre. That’s just the natural clickbait mentality driving entertainment journalism. We should be able to report on and assess such situations without resort to exaggerated portrayals for melodramatic purposes, nor parrot claims from those with obvious incentives and ulterior motives behind any of that sort of hyperbolic claims. We know better, but that doesn’t mean the profession behaves better, and so we get clickbait and studio drama delivered up like silly reality TV, and everyone pretends not to recognize it as the nonsense it usually is.

Marvel has to recast a major lead actor, something we’ve seen plenty of times by studios and projects, including literally by Marvel themselves on more than one occasion. Marvel’s first two films of 2023 grossed a combined $1.3 billion in box office. Even if The Marvels only does about half the box office of Captain Marvel — a vastly bigger drop than the Ant-Man franchise experienced, but let’s just use a 50% dramatic decrease to make the larger point — the MCU will have grossed a total of about $2.45 billion for 2023, an average of $815 million per film.

If that figure sounds familiar, it’s because I mentioned it earlier since it’s the per-film average for the MCU ever since the end of the Infinity Saga. Marvel settled back a bit from the high per-film average of $935 million, and for four years we’ve consistently seen this same new average level of performance for their films. Again, not insignificant as a drop, but in context it’s easier to understand and recognize as not a sudden emergency situation, and I suspect most studios would be happy if they could average north of $800 million per film on average every year.

And let’s face it, once the latest Avengers movies hit the radar, we’ll see the average per film gross go up during those years, just like always, and in the long run if the two scheduled Avengers movies play at the $2 billion level, that will actually result in an increase in the final average per-film gross for the Multiverse Saga, just as those huge Avengers box office grosses at the end of Infinity Saga seriously raised the saga’s per-film average.

This is all fairly predictable, within an obvious margin of error but not frankly too far of deviation. Which doesn’t negate the fact of the downturn in average performances, but rather puts it into less histrionic perspective as solvable problems for a still overwhelmingly successful studio that’s seeing per film averages still far superior to what any other studio can claim.

On streaming, where audience trends and preferences have likewise evolved during the Covid era, Marvel

First we got the ABC broadcast series: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., Agent Carter, and Inhumans. Want to take a moment to recall how did those all fair with audiences and critics?

Then came Netflix's slate, with Daredevil, Jessica Jones, Luke Cage, Iron Fist, The Defenders, and The Punisher — half of those got mostly good or great reviews, a couple got mixed to negative reviews, and along the way different seasons of a given show had their ups and downs. Many fans and reviewers bemoaned the general lack of tie-in to the cinematic releases, a point that's amusing in light of how the same reviewers and fans completely reversed course a few years later to bemoan the fact the newer MCU shows often try to tie in to the MCU.

So next up are The Runaways and Cloak and Dagger, shows with younger casts and less direct connection to the rest of the MCU, but both were short lived and appeared on two different streaming services.

Which brings us to the MCU shows on Disney+, overseen by Marvel Studios itself and consisting of WandaVision, The Falcon and the Winter Soldier, Loki, What If...?, Hawkeye, Moon Knight, Ms. Marvel, She-Hulk: Attorney at Law, and Secret Invasion.

While The Falcon and the Winter Soldier and What If...? received mixed reactions, WandaVision and Loki got generally good to great reviews, as did Hawkeye and Moon Knight.

Ms. Marvel likewise received strong positive reviews, aside from resentful fans mostly motivated by racism or sexism who bashed the show (the same way angry bigoted fans harassed Brie Larson and tried to manipulate online reviews for Captain Marvel, and to this day engage in bizarre conspiracy theories pretending movies with women leads are secretly propped up by studios buying up tickets), and the same mob of boys and men perpetually upset that everything isn’t just a mirror reflecting themselves were incensed that She-Hulk dared make fun of them for being immature, bigoted, and all-around goofy.

Granted, She-Hulk did often have what looked like rushed and unfinished CGI, but it was also still miles ahead of most TV CGI and it didn��t detract from the entertainment value of the show and was generally fine. (Yes, plenty of folks just didn’t enjoy these shows, and I’m sure it’s entirely a coincidence that for many of them it always happens to be women-led shows that bother them or are declared “meh”).

Secret Wars is the most recent new MCU show (besides a new season of Loki), and it got mixed reviews that lean mostly positive but still point to trouble in the decision-making to develop the series, questions about

The point of all of this is, Marvel’s had a lot of superhero shows for a long time during the reign of the MCU, and the shows have tended to mostly get good or great reviews, while often suffering complaints of inconsistency in tie-ins vs stand-alone abilities, or iffy VFX, or questions about who is in charge and why certain decisions were made. Sound familiar? It should, because it’s a broken record of reality at this point, the sort that gets mentioned as if it’s a new development any time someone is pushing the latest version of the “sky is falling” narrative.

Not that there aren’t issues needing solutions. The budgets are too high, and Marvel — like many streamers — is discovering it’s simply not sustainable to spend $20 million or more per episode with rushed production schedules and increasingly unreasonable demands on VFX workers.

But the shows themselves are so far working and working pretty well, if you aren’t focused entirely on social media debates and media exaggerations. Most every MCU show on Disney+ has enjoyed positive reception from critics and viewers, enjoying good (and sometimes record-setting) viewership. Fixing the problems for the Marvel streaming plans is not really any more difficult than fixing the theatrical issues, because it’s easy to identify the problems, easy to see where the problems arose, and easy to see what is necessary to end those problems.

Nobody foresaw the Covid pandemic (or at least the extent of it) or the utterly shameful, failed public health response it elicited from governments and organizations that are paid and entrusted to prevent or deal with such crises. Marvel was caught off guard like every studio, Marvel suffered the same box office downturn as every studio, Marvel leaned into streaming like every studio, and Marvel is now having to make adjustments to adapt to the still-evolving environment theatrically and in streaming.

So media and fans and others in Hollywood pretending this is some shocking, Marvel-specific situation are making disingenuous claims, and they should know better. Most probably do, but the truth is more boring than doomsaying — and with everything else in the world falling apart, clickbait and hyperbole are the best way to get attention for entertainment news during a drought (caused by few new films/shows releasing, and the likelihood of strikes dragging into next year because studios put money toward bonuses, yachts, and private jets rather than pay artists, writers, and performers living wages from a fair share of the revenue they generate).

Marvel will recast Kang, they’ll reduce the number of shows and films in production at a given time, they’ll get budgets under control and allow more time for VFX work, and they’ll refocus on the approaches and measures that worked so well in the past to determine which projects to greenlight and how to return to the sense of a big shared world the Avengers have to team up to save.

Luckily, with the X-Men and Fantastic Four reboots around the corner, Marvel has a couple of big teams with lots of potential for precisely the sort of storytelling Marvel does best at the blockbuster level. They could even simply move toward a post-Secret Wars setup that lets Fantastic Four, X-Men, and a handful of other existing popular franchises carry the Marvel brand forward for a while.

We will also probably see the temporary return of Robert Downey Jr., Chris Evans, and Scarlett Johansson reprise their popular MCU roles for Avengers: The Kang Dynasty and/or Avengers: Secret Wars.

And looking at the upcoming slate, it’s not hard to see there’s plenty of reason to feel confident Marvel will continue to enjoy success, even if it’s at a slightly moderated level due to the myriad factors we’ve discussed, including the idea that superhero genre films are settling into a more consistent long-term level of popularity and performance from now on.

The next four years brings Deadpool 3, Captain America: Brave New World, Thunderbolts, Blade, Fantastic Four, Avengers: The Kang Dynasty, and Avengers: Secret Wars, and at some point thereafter Armor Wars and the X-Men. Of these films, the two Avengers movies are likely to be blockbuster hits, as is Deadpool 3. Captain America: Brave New World is an established franchise, lacking the original series lead but with a continuing cast and brand that I think are enough to avoid any significant downturn in box office, even if we see some drop from the peak levels of the Infinity Saga.

Blade and Thunderbolts are the riskier properties here, but the former is a previously successful cinematic brand and the latter is a team-up movie including some recognizable characters and stars. Still, this is where we might see more underperformances. Fantastic Four could likewise either perform at a blockbuster levels, or might wind up in the $700 million range, but as a key property getting lots of attention and must-work oversight, I think it’ll avoid being a problem.

Armor Wars as an extension of the Iron Man movies — and possibly/probably coming after we see Robert Downey Jr. again in some Avengers action — should perform well, and X-Men is a known successful brand getting an MCU reboot and polish as a big team franchise including younger cast members, so I think it’ll at least be capable of playing at the Guardians of the Galaxy level, if done right.

This isn’t a debacle, it’s not doomsday, and Marvel isn’t in disarray. The internal difficulties they’ve faced are frankly typical and easy to identify and solve, as much as everything else we’ve discussed here. The bottom line is this: we’ve seen Marvel Studios kick off with a big hit in Iron Man and an outright flop with The Incredible Hulk, after which Captain America: The First Avenger and Thor performed at okay levels but didn’t set the box office on fire by any stretch.

We got the original Avengers movie off the strength of Iron Man and Iron Man 2, and to really help put this into perspective I’ll point out the average per film box office of Phase One was $634 million. Phase Two’s per film average was $876 million.

Marvel worked hard to build what they created, and it’s a tremendous historic success full of ups and downs that so far have ultimately maintained an impressive level of successful across a large slate of films and series. To look at this history, this math, and think Marvel Studios is in deep trouble, struggling, or never really was very good to begin with, is unreasonable and contrary to the data and any serious considerations.

#exactly the kind of data we need to remember #Thor TFA and TDW weren't huge hits

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golbrocklovely · 9 months ago

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I hope I'm not the only one and I hope I don't sound too mean but I don't think I've watched that many Sam and Colby videos since like earlier last year. Also srry if this gets long 💞

I mean, I have been dealing with personal stuff so I genuinely haven't really been able to watch them at all over the last year. But at the same time, I just feel kind of exhausted with their content, especially the amount of collaborations too. Sometimes the humour in a lot of videos is just too much like I can handle a touch of it but not to an excessive and unecessary amount.

The last video I watched of theirs was the one with Daz Black because I like his content and it was more chilled out to me, like the humour wasn't over the top and it felt like a 2021 video all over again (kinda) which 2021 was my favourite era for them even if I didn't really like some of their guests at the time.

I also really liked when they did that video and investigation when it was just the two of them like late 2022 and I hope they do more videos like that at some point because I miss them.

And with all due respect I kind of just miss when they weren't as popular tbh, like I'm so happy that I found them in 2019 because it was such a laid back time for me and their content was so enjoyable in my opinion. Of course I'm happy that they're gaining more subscribers and all that but I feel like their fandom is just so insensitive now and I force myself to watch their content just to support them silently.. 😒

hey i get it. i’ve gone thru ebbs and flows with snc’s content over the years.

i think some of their videos can be hits or misses bc of who they collab with, and other times their vids surprise me bc of the collabs being so good. it’s a toss up, so skipping out on some isn’t a bad thing. it’s not like they’re a tv show and missing an episode is gonna make the show now make sense lol

general curiosity usually keeps me coming back. and also bc even the worst snc video is still pretty good to me so… it is what it is.

i’m happy i found them when i did as well, me in 2018. it was fun to be a fan back then. but to watch their trajectory has been amazing and they genuinely deserve their fame and success. as for the fandom…. taking a step back and just enjoying snc for their content and nothing else ain’t a back thing. if the fandom is stressing you out that much, best thing you can do is find a group of ppl you like or tolerate the most. that’s what i’ve been able to do on here. pretty much every other platform pisses me off lol

i will say, one good thing to keep in mind is that the majority of the fandom is good, it’s just the annoying ones that are the loudest. like if you really think about it, how many ppl can you point to in the fandom that really, genuinely upset you/have bad takes? maybe 10? 20 max? that’s not even a .01% of the fandom et large. so just try to remember it’s really only a few that suck, so don’t let them get under your skin too much.

#ask #personal #sam and colby

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pokemon-card-of-the-day · 1 year ago

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Pokemon Card of the Day #2923: Rayquaza-GX (Celestial Storm)

Rayquaza-GX was immediately one of the more impressive cards when it came out. It had potential Energy acceleration to itself by just coming into play, Max Elixir and Vikavolt to accelerate more, and was a Basic Pokemon that could get pretty strong if the set-up found the cards it needed. It did rely pretty heavily on actually hitting its cards, and having a slow start was a real risk for a GX that was on the lower end when it came to HP. This was something to work around, because there was clearly the chance of a big, relatively early hit here, and on a Pokemon that wasn't hard to get into play.

180 HP was on the low end for Pokemon-GX, though not rare by any means for a Basic one. It was just high enough to survive a single hit from a lot of the format until things like Pikachu & Zekrom-GX and Mewtwo & Mew-GX came around. Things like Buzzwole-GX were still a bit of a threat and there was always the mirror match earlier on, however. The Fairy Weakness wasn't the worst, as Gardevoir-GX use had fallen off dramatically, though the Fairy-type Alolan Ninetales-GX and the later Gardevoir & Sylveon-GX were able to take advantage of it. Rayquaza-GX was certainly past its prime by the time Gardevoir & Sylveon was a problem, however. The Retreat Cost was 3, and you likely would have room to fit some switching cards in, especially in the BKT-On format where you didn't really have to run Vikavolt and therefor had a ton of space for Trainers.

Stormy Winds was a nice Ability that you could use if you wanted to when putting Rayquaza-GX into play from your hand onto your Bench. It let you discard the top 3 cards from your deck and then attach a basic Energy card from your discard pile to Rayquaza-GX. This could get Energy into play quickly, with a bit of a risk of discarding something good. The risk was typically worth it, as each Energy added to the power of each of your Rayquaza-GX which was the entire point of the deck.

Dragon Break required a Grass, a Lightning, and a Colorless Energy. The damage varied, as it got 30 damage for each basic Grass and Lightning Energy attached to all of your Pokemon. The goal was to get a few Rayquaza-GX into play, accelerate Energy with Stormy Winds and either Max Elixir or Vikavolt (Max Elixir rotated out with the final XY sets, so it depended on the format), and hit hard as soon as you could. The strategy was pretty effective, though there was still a little luck involved to hit everything at once since you wanted to start swinging as soon as possible.

Tempest GX needed a Grass Energy and had you discard your hand to draw 10 cards. Since leaving a Pokemon-GX vulnerable without doing damage was a big risk, this was something to use very early in a game. It was nice in that moment to get through more of your deck (and potentially get Energy into the discard pile for other Rayquaza-GX) and was a lot less vulnerable to something like N when used early. It certainly helped the deck if able to be used on the first turn.

Rayquaza-GX had a reasonably good chance of getting off a big attack after just a turn or two, and while it wasn't perfectly reliable it was certainly one of the better BKT-On options due to that explosiveness. Decks could get overwhelmed by early Dragon Breaks, and there was a reason that it had 3 top 8 and 5 top 16 finishes at Worlds 2018. After Max Elixir rotated, the deck turned to Vikavolt, which made the deck a little slower on average but a little more reliable as well, and the deck had some good finishes until the power level of the game skyrocketed in the Tag Team set. This was definitely worth keeping in mind when building for the BKT-On or any early SUM-On format due to how it could take over games when it all came together.

#pokemon #pokemon tcg #card of the day #rayquaza #rayquaza-gx #celestial storm

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standardlovers · 11 months ago

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top movies of the year !! tagged by @sommerregenjuniluft who asked specifically for 10 and i will take any opportunity to talk abt films i watched <3

no pressure tagging: @sugarsnappeases @beaniebaby @casstration @bardofavon

Commentary on the films & honourable mentions below:

A Little Life (2023, dir. Ivo van Hove) this was a live show however i watched it as a movie and i hadnt even read the book bc everyone i saw who read the book was so deeply emotionally distraught that i avoided it BUT someone wanted to see it and i agreed to go with them bc it looked good and i like bonding activities. yeah its SAD AS FUCK. its complicated and devastating and very triggering at times and i recognised two of the cast and focused far too long on why do i know this guy but it definitely hit me hard as part of this years viewing experiences

The Book Thief (2013, dir. Brian Percival) this truly has been the year of sophie nélisse for me she has captivated me so ofc i revisited this and bought the book, both still as devastating as i remember

Talk To Me (2023, dir. Michael & Danny Philippou) HORROR OF THE YEAR EVERYONE!!!!!!!!! oh this did blow me away this was so fun to watch and while some of the symbolism was slightly on the nose it was never overbearing to draw away from the plot it really was engaging and had some amazing cast

The Sound Of Music (1965, dir. Robert Wise) i hadnt seen this despite being on my list for YEARS !!!! but when i did oh i was not ready its fun its sweet its whimsical its political its interesting its sad its a musical

Saw X (2023, dir. Kevin Greutert) HEHEHE SAW !!!!!!!!! MANDY CAME BACK !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WHAT ELSE IS THERE TO SAY !!!!!!

The Poughkeepsie Tapes (2007, dir. John Erick Dowdle) this was so interesting !!! many people consider this a very intense horror and i was expecting the worst but i think primarily the fear factor of this is that it is formatted as a documentary discussing the events and tapes although they are real and some of the content is unnerving but ultimately as someone who deeply enjoys horror i did find the format and the approach to this new style of serial killer horror so engaging and creepy, however i wouldnt recommend it for people who arent already into horror

Beautiful Boy (2018, dir. Felix van Groeningen) i actually started this in 2022 but couldnt sit through timothee chalamet reciting poetry so i turned it off and tried again this year but it was very moving and i have like 100 beautiful boy edits in my tiktok folder

All Quiet On The Western Front (2022, dir. Edward Berger) if you are going to watch a war movie: WATCH ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT it is very engaging from the perspective of german soldiers during the end of world war i.

The Spiderwick Chronicles (2008, dir. Mark Waters) Bring Back Fun !!! Bring Back Whimsey !!!!

Take Care Of Maya (2023, dir. Henry Roosevelt) oh this was Intense, this is a documentary about a real life legal case following the Kowalski family who have recently finished their trial against the hospital that put their family and their chronically ill daughter through severe trauma and suffering, it was deeply interesting and very painful but also so necessary for the many people who experience similar cases and circumstances. (Post Film Update/Not shown in the documentary: The Kowalski family has since won their trial and been granted over $250million for their trauma and damages. Maya is now seeking further legal action for other circumstances she endured during this time.)

Honourable Mentions:

[REC] (2007, dir. Jaume Balagueró & Paco Plaza) this was just a GOOD horror it had a slower introduction but once it got into the plot it was so interesting and intense and just a Fun movie which is interesting because its the second to technically include found footage (i have seen people call the poughkeepsie tapes found footage in some ways also) and i dont particularly enjoy found footage but this year it seems to have appealed to me more than i realised!

Uptown Girls (2003, Boaz Yakin) THE BOND BETWEEN A GIRL AND THE MESSY 20 SOMETHING SHE DOESNT WANT TO RELATE TO BUT DOES . "HER AU PAIR CALLED MY NANNY A SLUT BAG WHORE !"

Pamela, A Love Story (2023, dir. Ryan White) which is Pamela Anderson's documentary about her life so far and was very interesting even as someone who didn't know much of anything about her beforehand

Ferris Bueller's Day Off (1986, dir. John Hughes) which is, as always, a classic and lighthearted experience <3

Totally Killer (2023, dir. Nahnatchka Khan) because it is so good to see a cheesy modern slasher just be Fun again, it doesn't take itself too seriously and that's why it was so enjoyable to watch!

#tagged #ted talking

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leclercenjoyer · 1 year ago

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tagged by my beloved @ayceeofspades thank u 💖

tagging @wolfiemcwolferson @duquesademiel @river-ocean @gaslybottoms

1. How many works do you have on AO3?

11 (10 under my username and 1 on anon)

2. What’s your total AO3 word count?

30,363! my goal for the year was to hit 20k total so ive already smashed that

3. What fandoms do you write for?

f1 babyyyyy

4. What are your top 5 fics by kudos?

something borrowed (my first fic which im genuinely quite proud of)

tip of the tongue (literally just pwp)

treat with care (girl brainrot)

no poor substitute (my a/b/o unwellness which was. shockingly well received)

helping hand (esteban hand propaganda)

5. Do you respond to comments? Why or why not?

i WANT TO but i always feel so awkward and i never know what to say 😭 i dont know how to adequately express my emotions so i just end up. never getting around to it and i feel BAD ABOUT IT

6. What is the fic you wrote with the angstiest ending?

muscle memory... its like. my singular angsty fic. the ending is nice and hopeful right up until i shatter it with a hammer but it Had to be done. its simply how it is.

7. What’s the fic you wrote with the happiest ending?

i think all the other ones!! possibly no poor substitute or treat with care because they both end on an "oh this is a New Relationship now" while something borrowed and tip of the tongue are both more like. we were already hooking up but i guess its serious now.

8. Do you get hate on fics?

no and if i ever did i would cry forever

9. Do you write smut? If so, what kind?

almost exclusively jdkjhdkjhs it is my Favored Terrain. i feel like my smut is. emotional and grounded? or at least thats what i hope.

11. Have you ever had a fic stolen?

no, not that im aware!

12. Have you ever had a fic translated?

non! but i would be delighted if anyone did.

13. Have you ever co-written a fic before?

no but i hope to one day!!!

14. What’s your all-time favourite ship?

i have been thinking about pierresteban literally non-stop for the past 14 calendar months i am so fucking sorry to everyone who knows me

15. What’s a WIP you want to finish but doubt you ever will?

my singular wip on ao3 is on anon and... i dont know if i'll ever finish it but i hope i will at some point. and as for unpublished wips... i have a lot. i dont know if ill ever get around to finishing most of them.

16. What are your writing strengths?

i have consulted the gang and i have been told that i am good at tying the physical and emotional together (which is something i do Deliberately try to do as much as i can) and that i am very meticulous with what words i choose to use to carry a mood

17. What are your writing weaknesses?

DIALOGUE GOOD GOD. every single bit of dialogue ive ever written has been like pulling teeth. the thing is i dont know how to talk like a human person and i dont know how human people talk so it is my worst nightmare. one of my eternal wips is one i started and got like 3k words into before realizing that the dialogue would have to do the heavy lifting for the rest of the fic and then i was like "oh god damn it im an idiot arent i". also sentence structure that isnt subject-verb-object. but im kind of leaning into it tbh.

18. Thoughts on writing dialogue in another language in fic?

my honest to be honest opinion is just. write the dialogue in english and if you NEED to specify what language the character is speaking just be like "he says in [language]" UNLESS the pov character doesnt understand what theyre saying. literally simple as that.

19. First fandom you wrote for?

f1 baby!!! this is literally the first fandom that has broken through the barrier in my brain thats kept me from writing fic my entire life. not even amc's the terror 2018 could do that.

20. Favourite fic you’ve written?

honestly? something borrowed. it was the first fic i ever completed literally in my life and i have such a soft spot for it and people were so UNBELIEVABLY nice to me about it!!!!

#tag meme

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baileye · 2 years ago

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The researchers Charlotte Brand, Alberto Acerbi and Alex Mesoudi analyzed more than 150,000 pop songs released between 1965 and 2015. Over that time, the appearance of the word “love” in top-100 hits roughly halved. Meanwhile, the number of times such songs contained negative emotion words, like “hate” rose sharply.

Pop music isn’t the only thing that has gotten a lot harsher. David Rozado, Ruth Hughes and Jamin Halberstadt analyzed 23 million headlines published between 2000 and 2019 by 47 news outlets popular in the United States. The headlines, too, grew significantly more negative, with a greater proportion of headlines denoting anger, fear, disgust and sadness. Headlines in left-leaning media got a lot more negative, and headlines in right-leaning publications got even more negative than that.

The negativity in the culture reflects the negativity in real life. The General Social Survey asks people to rate their happiness levels. Between 1990 and 2018 the share of Americans who put themselves in the lowest happiness category increased by more than 50 percent. And that was before the pandemic.

The really bad news is abroad. Each year Gallup surveys roughly 150,000 people in over 140 countries about their emotional lives. Experiences of negative emotions — related to stress, sadness, anger, worry and physical pain — hit a record high last year.

Gallup asks people in this survey to rate their lives on a scale from zero to 10, with zero meaning you’re living your worst possible life and 10 meaning you’re living your best. Sixteen years ago, only 1.6 percent of people worldwide rated their life as a zero. As of last year, the share of people reporting the worst possible lives has more than quadrupled. The unhappiest people are even unhappier. In 2006, the bottom fifth of the population gave themselves an average score of 2.5. Fifteen years later, that average score in the bottom quintile had dropped to 1.2.

In an interview, Jon Clifton, the C.E.O. of Gallup, told me that in 2021, 21 percent of the people in India gave themselves a zero rating. He said negative emotions are rising in India and China, Brazil and Mexico and many other nations. A lot of people are pretty miserable at work. In the most recent survey Gallup found that 20 percent of all people are thriving at work, 62 percent are indifferent on the job and 18 percent are miserable.

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maerynaire · 1 year ago

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With pride month coming to an end, I will now take a moment to rank some pride flags based on how much I, personally, want to eat them.

(Note, this is not a commentary on the anything regarding the origins of the flags, any surrounding politics/discourse, or the designs themselves. Just flavor potential.)

All under the cut for your convenience!

Progress flag 2/10, there's just too much flavor here. There's the tropical candy flavors of the rainbow, the rich and chocolately flavors of the brown and black stripes, then the marshmallow flavors of the blue, pink, and white. It's just too much for one mouthful.

Agender flag 1/10, it's like a minty center in an oreo cookie. I'm not a big fan of mint paired with any flavors other than mint so this is going to be a hard pass for me.

Aromantic flag 2/10, more of a lime than a mint, still repping that oreo though. Citrus and oreo don't mix well, in my experience, but I'll take it over the mint.

Asexual flag 3/10, this one pairs grape candy with oreo. Purple is just kind of an unappetizing color in general. I AM a fan of grape soda though, and grape soda with oreos isn't the WORST combo...

Bear flag 0/10, this feels like it would be like biting into a scented candle.

Bigender flag 4/10, this isn't cotton candy, but cotton-candy-flavored other candy. And those are reaaally hit or miss for me. I mean I'll TRY IT, but it's a complete toss up whether it'll taste good or not.

Bisexual flag 6/10, this has the vibes of one of those over-engineered cocktails. The kinds that cost like 40 bucks a pop and come in like a fish bowl. Taste-wise... eeehhhh... As long as I can't taste the alcohol it's probably a decent drink.

Gay flag (1979) 9/10, delicious. This is skittles or starbursts or jellybeans. Candy you eat in handfuls. Point deducted because it's bad for your teeth.

Philidelphia flag 4/10, introduced chocolate cookie crunch to my bowl of jellybeans. The texture clashes more than the flavor, to be fair, but I have sensory issues with food so I will absolutely be taking that into account. If I can pick the cookie bits out and eat those later you can consider it an 8/10.

Genderfluid flag 2/10, I don't know what flavor this parses as. Maybe no flavor at all? Maybe it's like... strawberry/blueberry Lacroix where it's more about the smell and aftertaste than the immediate flavor.

Intersex flag 0/10, this is like a splash of grape flavoring in lemonade. I'm a slut for lemonade but once I chased a capful of nyquil with it and I threw up.

Genderflux flag 5/10, see this would be DELICIOUS if it weren't for the grey stripe. Without it, it parses as a light, tropical candy with a bit of tartness to them. Something with a powdery texture.

Genderqueer flag 0/10, this would be like chomping down on a handful of clover that you pulled from the pasture. I really don't like leafy flavors at all, but my bunny would absolutely love eating this flag so that's a 10/10 from him.

Lipstick lesbian flag 0/10, yup, those are lipstick colors. It would taste like lipstick. I ate a whole tube of lipstick as a child once and it was a bad time.

Lesbian flag (2018) 8/10, this is a creamsicle. A bit of orange and rasberry with a vanilla creme. A delicious treat on a hot summer day.

Nonbinary flag 0/10, way too many clashing flavors here. You've got the grape and lemon, but this is a particularly sour lemon, plus the cream and cookie of an oreo mixed in. If I ate this I would get a tummy ache.

Pansexual flag 10/10, DELICIOUS. This is another cold summer treat but this time it's like a bomb pop. I'm a fan of sour flavors and this bad boy is aaalllll sour. A tart cherry/strawberry at the top, lemon in the middle, blue raspberry at the bottom. Perfect, mouth-watering, no notes.

Transgender flag 8/10, this is some sort of early-springtime marshmallow treat. Or maybe some kind of fancy layer cake with a lot of frosting. Very good and sweet, however it might be a bit rich for me to eat more than a couple of bites.

Polyamory flag -10/10, this does not parse as food in any capacity. Plus I can't eat math.

#long post #like really long post #pride #shitpost

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technologycompanynews · 4 months ago

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The slow, wet, meandering destruction of Tropical Storm Debby - Journal Today Internet - BLOGGER https://www.merchant-business.com/the-slow-wet-meandering-destruction-of-tropical-storm-debby/?feed_id=159595&_unique_id=66b57e03e702a Tropical Storm Debby, a plodding, waterlogged system that has already saturated four southeastern states, bears many characteristics of a warming planet, climate scientists say. It’s reminiscent of other catastrophic tropical cyclones that have battered the United States over the past eight years.On Wednesday afternoon, the storm was drifting at 5 mph near the South Carolina coast, about the pace of a monarch butterfly. It is expected to pick up speed today as it heads through North Carolina, where a foot or more of rain could fall in the southeastern part of the state and 6 to 8 inches are anticipated in the central Piedmont.North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper declared a state of emergency this week, warning residents on Wednesday to “be prepared for a deluge.”A warmer atmosphere holds more water; likewise, warmer temperatures accelerate evaporation. “There’s a lot of water in this system that’s just ready to come out,” North Carolina’s state climatologist, Kathie Dello, said. “We’re pulling more of that moisture into the air and essentially supercharging the atmosphere. Or, as I like to say, get a cup of coffee and pour in a few shots of espresso.”Tropical Storm Debby has arrived in what is on track to be one of the top 10 warmest years on record in North Carolina. As recently as late June, 99 of the state’s 100 counties were experiencing drought conditions ranging from abnormally dry to severe, according to the State Climate Office.That pattern reversed in July, when several cities reported their wettest July on record.“Swings between wet and dry are something that we’re expecting with climate change,” Dello said. “The extremes become more extreme.”Tropical Storm Debby is reminiscent of two historic hurricanes that hit North Carolina — Matthew in 2016 and Florence in 2018. Although both were Category 1 storms by the time they landed in the US, they caused disproportionate damage because they stalled over land and dumped historic amounts of rain — as much as 3 feet — in eastern North Carolina. Thousands of people were left homeless and damages totaled in the billions of dollars.Tropical storms and hurricanes are producing heavier rain over the US, an indicator of climate change, according to a study published last month in the Journal of Climate, a publication of the American Meteorological Society.John Uehling co-authored the paper with Carl Schreck III, both of whom are scientists at the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies.Uehling told Inside Climate News that Tropical Storm Debby is “a classic case of what we’ve seen a lot in recent years,” including with Hurricanes Harvey and Florence, “where we have a stalling storm near the coastline that basically dumps rain over the same areas for an extended and prolonged period of time.”Using historical rainfall gauge data, Uehling and Schreck found that instances of heavy rain associated with tropical cyclones are becoming more frequent and extreme. Major hurricanes — those in categories 3 through 5 — show the largest increases in extreme rainfall.“The real impact that we’re seeing is where the worst events are getting significantly worse,” Uehling said, whereas, in general, “your more run-of-the-mill events are not increasing at nearly the same rate.”The study’s findings could help local governments, planners, and residents prepare for these weather disasters to occur more frequently, Uehling said.That includes inland areas in particular, where the study found the highest increases in rainfall: Alabama and Mississippi through southern Appalachia, including the mountains of North Carolina. Flooding in higher elevations presents different threats — including mudslides and more challenging evacuations — than coastal areas.“Places that have not been used

to dealing with these kinds of threats are going to have to start dealing with them more often,” Uehling said.“It’s important that people keep in mind that our climate is changing, that these sort of events are occurring with more and more frequency, and that the impacts seem to be getting greater,” he said. “We have a duty as a society not only to mitigate against these changes, but to do what we can to prevent them from getting worse.”Debby made landfall Monday morning near Steinhatchee, Florida, in the state’s sparsely populated Big Bend region, so named for the way the peninsula meets the panhandle. The Category 1 storm forged a path similar to that of last year’s Idalia, a Category 3 hurricane that was the strongest to strike this part of the state since 1896.Hundreds of thousands of Floridians lost power and Gov. Ron DeSantis declared a state of emergency in 61 of the state’s 67 counties. More than 9,400 feet of what his administration characterized as flood protection devices were deployed at critical infrastructure sites such as schools, health care facilities, and roads and bridges. For the first time flood control barriers also were positioned around utility substations, to try to prevent more power outages, his administration said.Florida officials feared more flooding later in the week, as water continued to flow south from the rain-soaked states of Georgia and the Carolinas. By Wednesday, the Florida Division of Emergency Management had pumped more than 104 million gallons of floodwater from communities across the state, the DeSantis administration said.“This could take anywhere from three to seven days,” said Kevin Guthrie, executive director of the Florida Division of Emergency Management, of the duration of the flooding in the state. “This is going to be about a weeklong event that we’re going to be monitoring.”Some of the worst flooding occurred about 200 miles from the Big Bend region in Sarasota, a beachy community south of Tampa. As much as 12 to 18 inches of rain pummeled the community as Debby’s outer bands swirled some 80 miles offshore. The totals constituted some of the highest rainfall amounts in the state, said Tony Hurt, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service in Ruskin, south of Tampa. Florida typically receives roughly 50 inches of rain annually.At least 500 Sarasota residents were rescued from flooded houses, according to the police department. To the north, in neighboring Manatee County, 186 residents were rescued, the local government said. Officials characterized the rainfall as record-breaking.“Any kind of event like this you just try to be as prepared and stay as flexible as you can,” said Terry Chapman, minister at the South Trail Church of Christ in Sarasota. “We are thankful that it was not worse.”Some of the church’s parishioners had friends and family members who were affected by the flooding, and the congregation was considering the best ways to offer help. One area that was especially hard-hit was east of Interstate 75, well away from the Gulf Coast.“Those are newer houses,” Chapman said. “Those are houses that were built within the last 20 years.”Warm sea surface temperatures in the Gulf of Mexico powered a rapid intensification of Debby, a phenomenon that is becoming more common because of climate change. The warming climate also is leading to more water evaporation, producing more water vapor that can feed heavy downpours like those experienced with Debby, said James Marshall Shepherd, director of the Atmospheric Sciences Program at the University of Georgia.“For Floridians, the intensity of the rainfall falling from the afternoon storms and hurricanes has likely increased,” he said. “The pump is primed, if you will. I like to say these hurricanes probably are a little juicier because of the additional water vapor capacity.”The atmosphere today holds about 10 percent more moisture, said Brian Soden, professor of atmospheric sciences at the Rosenstiel School of Marine, Atmospheric, and Earth Science at the University of Miami.

“It just compounds the problems you get from hurricanes,” he said. “You have not just the wind but more intense rain events. You have storm surge and higher sea levels, and gradually the sea levels rise higher. That means it takes longer for the rainfall to run off into the ocean in coastal regions, and that further compounds the flooding problems you experience.”Debby was the second hurricane to menace the US this year, after Beryl offered an explosive start to the season as the earliest Category 5 hurricane recorded in the Atlantic Ocean, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). Beryl lost strength before making landfall on July 8 as a Category 1 storm near Matagorda, Texas, between Corpus Christi and Galveston. The hurricane season begins June 1 and peaks in August and September before ending November 30.NOAA had predicted an extraordinarily active season with 17 to 25 named storms, the greatest number the federal agency had projected since the forecasts began in 1998. The agency expected eight to 13 hurricanes and four to seven major hurricanes of category 3, 4, or 5 strength, packing winds of 111 miles an hour or more.NOAA based its unprecedented forecast on a confluence of factors, most notably unusually warm sea surface temperatures, which the agency said could power more storms. The forecasters also cited an anticipated quick transition to La Niña conditions, leading to a decrease in wind shear or atmospheric choppiness that can weaken or break apart storms. The average season features 14 named storms, including seven hurricanes and three major hurricanes.“This story was originally published by Inside Climate News and is reproduced here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. Tropical Storm Debby, a plodding, waterlogged system that has already…”Source Link: https://www.vox.com/climate/366041/climate-hurricane-debby-drenches-the-southeast http://109.70.148.72/~merchant29/6network/wp-content/uploads/2024/08/pexels-photo-4874232.jpeg BLOGGER - #GLOBAL Tropical Storm Debby, a plodding, waterlogged system that has already saturated four southeastern states, bears many characteristics of a warming planet, climate scientists say. It’s reminiscent of other catastrophic tropical cyclones that have battered the United States over the past eight years. On Wednesday afternoon, the storm was drifting at 5 mph near the South … Read More

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frontproofmedia · 7 months ago

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Jaron Ennis and Cody Crowley Meet at Philly Presser

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Published: May 10, 2024

IBF Welterweight king defends his crown against unbeaten mandatory challenger on July 13 at Wells Fargo Center

Jaron Ennis and Cody Crowley came face-to-face at a launch press conference today in Philadelphia – as tickets flew for the homecoming defense of Ennis at Wells Fargo Center on Saturday July 13, live worldwide on DAZN.

TICKETS ARE ON GENERAL SALE NOW FROM TICKETMASTER.COM

Ennis fights at home for the first time as a World champion and the first time since November 2018, and fans flocked to snap up tickets for the next household name of the sport, with presale tickets selling out on Thursday and then the general sale tickets proving a huge hit. PRESS CONFERENCE QUOTES: Jaron Ennis “He’s got to get in that ring and it’s going to get nasty. Keep talking and he’s going to get the worst beating of his life. I promise you that. We can make a bet or whatever. You’re in my city. It’s going to get nasty, man. “Look, I’m glad you accepted the fight. July 13 at the Wells Fargo Center. I’m very excited. It's the first big fight here and it’s a blessing. I’m glad I’m going to be able to be here and put on a show. I want to look good and retain my belt in a beautiful, knockout fashion, in front of my friends, family and supporters. “Listen, there’s really no pressure on me. I’ve been in this game since I was a baby. There’s no pressure. It’s normal for me. My brother has been at the top and I’ve seen all this stuff before. This is like being at home in my house right now. It’s natural for me and it’s normal. “On fight night, I can’t wait. He [Crowley] has got more pressure than me, I’ll tell you that right now. He’s going to have 20,000 fans against him and that’s way more pressure on him than me. For me being here, it will be like sitting at home with my feet up. “You know, he’s definitely a good fighter and a tough guy. But on July 13 it’s going to get nasty and I’m telling you that now. I’m going to put on a beautiful show and I’m going to look good. We’re going to do it in a knockout fashion. “My main focus right now is Cody Crowley. My eyes are on him. After this? Definitely undisputed, for sure. I want to go and collect all the rest of the belts, then go up to 154 and do the same thing there. “By the time I fight on July 13, it’s going to be a year. Everybody's missed me. I’m the best. I’m the best at this game, I’m the most exciting in this game and the fans love to see knockouts, so of course they’re going to come out to see me. For sure. They’re going to come and see me put on a show, beat him up, beat him down, then get the knockout. “I want to thank Cody for coming out to fight. I appreciate that. But I’m sorry it had to be you. “You know my story and I can’t wait for this. Don’t miss it and make sure you tune in because on July 13, we’re going to put on that beautiful show. We back on tour, that P-I-A-C tour. Let’s get it, CBG! “July 13, we’re taking him to the church. Philly, you in?” Cody Crowley “I’ve been out of boxing for the last year after people on my team done stuff, so I’ve been totally out. I had people trying to negotiate on my behalf when I’ve been out. Then I tried to get back into boxing and then I had emergency double eye surgery. I just said I got my eyes taken from me and I’m still getting booed? This is kind of… hey, we don’t have to have a show on July 13! It takes two to tango and I am very, very excited to be here and I am very excited to fight Boots Ennis because I have wanted to fight him for a while. “I wasn’t even fighting, and I’ve been dealing with a lot of mental health. I didn’t even want to live for the past couple of years. Then my dad [passed away]. Just like everyone else in this room, when you have things happen to you it takes time to get over it. It takes time to heal yourself and come back and step up. “So, I went away and did what I had to do to try and heal myself. Then I had people who weren’t even on my team trying to negotiate for me. Like I said, I just wanted to reach out to you [Boots], DM you and say how can we just make this happen? “I want to fight for a World title and if I fight for a World title, there is one, two, three, four World titles, I want to fight the very best in the world. And I believe that at 147 right now that Jaron Ennis, you are that guy. So why would I want to fight anyone else? Out of respect to you Jaron, I love you. I hope you have the best sleep on the Friday night because on the Saturday, I want the best you to show up because I want to be there. The best me is going to show up. “There’s a lot of people who didn’t [step up] and it takes two to tango. You can’t even put on the gloves by yourself. You need your dad to put them on. “I had WBC opportunities, I had WBA and WBO opportunities, but I chose you. How comes World champions at 147 are moving up to 154? How comes former World champions won’t even fight him for a certain amount of money? It’s because he has got the crown. He's the man right now. “Listen, this is a real-life Rocky Story. I’ve had my whole, entire life taken from me. I’m ready to die on July 13. He has a man in front of him who is ready to die. I'm serious. “The last time I was going for the IBF, I was going against the No.1 contender, and I went from No.6 after I beat him to No.14. So that tells you none of this s*** is real and it’s all f****** illusions. I don’t care about this IBF title. I don’t need the title. And I don’t need any of your guys’ acceptance. I’m whole in myself and I’m happy. I’m just proud of myself to be here. All the s*** that I’ve been through, I pulled on and I kept going. How many of you have stuff going on in your life and when you wake up you question whether you get up and keep going, or do I sit here pop a Coke and have a little potato chip? It’s much easier to do that and be comfy every day. But I’m a champion at heart. I’m a champion at life. I get up and I don’t quit. “I went through the back door to get here. There are gatekeepers and certain things you have to do to get to this level. I had my own promotional company, and I was my own promoter. I’ve done everything I had to do to get to this moment and I’m not going to let anyone steal my happiness or my joy. My heart is way too powerful for that. “I can’t wait. The second I get to walk out in front of all these people booing me, and in front of Jaron looking at me thinking he’s going to walk right through me, it’s going to be the most beautiful moment of my life where I get to actually show up the highest version of myself. I have to walk through that fire and every decision I have made in my life is going to show on July 13. “I’m pretty excited for this to happen and I’m pretty excited to become a champion of the world. I want to thank Jaron Ennis because in this fight, you are setting me free. “I’m an honest guy and Jaron, you know I am coming to fight. So, it’s going to be an exciting time and I’m going to be right there for you so we can allow the best man to win. I’m going to put my heart down and I know he is going to do the same thing. That’s it. “For my dad, up in heaven, this one is for you. I love you.” Matchroom Sport chairman, Eddie Hearn “What a great reception and what an incredible turnout. Before we get started for this incredible event on July 13, live on DAZN, judging by the pre-sale yesterday and judging by the general sale this morning I think we should make an official announcement that the Wells Fargo Center is now the home of Jaron ‘Boots’ Ennis. “It took me five years to sign this man. I remember the first meeting we had in Las Vegas it was during the Canelo-Daniel Jacobs fight week. Someone said to me we had a chance to get Boots Ennis. Now there’s a lot of people here and it’s no secret here that everybody has known for a very long time that this guy is the real deal. A year later, then six months later, I said to everyone stop wasting our time. But shout out to Shaun Palmer and Kevin Rooney that they kept trying. And recently, of course, we made the huge announcement that Jaron Ennis would be signing with Matchroom Boxing and DAZN. “Now, this was a massive announcement for us. The news and the ramifications it’s had in the world of boxing has been simply incredible. The numbers we saw from it and the excitement it generated with many saying, finally he is going to get let off leash and show the world how great he is. “But the most important thing to me was to bring him home to Philadelphia – and we made it happen. When you have a fighter as special as this and you have a city as great as this – and people don’t even understand the history of boxing in this city – how has he never even fought here before? “Well, now, it’s time for all of that to change. And on July 13, your champion, Philadelphia’s champion, will defend his IBF Welterweight World title against a mandatory challenger in Cody Crowley live on DAZN around the world. “When I walked in the arena this morning, the first thing I said to myself was: “Wow. Wow. What a place.” And I looked out and in the middle of the arena was Jaron Ennis doing exactly the same thing. “What a great thing for someone from this city, who has dedicated his whole life to the sport with his father Bozy and his family, who has lived the life and is a great ambassador for you all, to finally get his moment and fight here and fight in front of his people and his city on July 13. “But you know the great thing? And I shouldn’t really say this! But sometimes I go to a city and I tell a little bit of a 'porky pie' – that’s a ‘lie' in the UK – and I might say something like: “Oh, this kid! He's going to be a World champion. He could be a great, he could be this…” and that’s my job. But the difference is when you have a fighter like Jaron Ennis, I’m not even lying. So now the whole city can say not only are we bringing big-time, World championship boxing back to Philadelphia, we’re doing it with a young man who may the very best in the entire sport. “Of course, he’s got to prove it and he’s got to prove it against a very, very tough and undefeated mandatory challenger, Cody Crowley – who, I’ve got to say, is just as excited as Jaron Ennis by the way. He came up to me earlier too with a huge smile on his face. He’s already run the Rocky Steps this morning and he said to me that this is his dream, and this is his time. He said he knows that this is the big homecoming. But, as he said on his Instagram earlier today, ‘I’m going to steal the hearts of Philadelphia’. Come on guys… I thought it was a nice line! “Just a word or two before I start this press conference, but this fight is part of an unprecedented schedule live on DAZN. “DAZN has absolutely become the global home of boxing. Last week we had Canelo against Munguia. A couple of weeks before we had Haney versus Garcia. Tomorrow night in Mexico we have a huge card with Rocky Hernandez and Erika Cruz defending her world title. And, of course, next week we have Fury against Usyk live on DAZN for the World Heavyweight Undisputed Championship in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, where Joe Cordina and Jai Opetaia will be defending their world titles. “Then we fly back to the UK for a huge, all-British domestic fight with Josh Taylor against Jack Catterall in Leeds before we head back out to Riyadh for a historic night with Dmitry Bivol and the 5-v-5. Then we are in Puerto Rico for another World Champion, Subriel Matias, defending his World title before we’re back to the UK for an incredible card in Birmingham. Then we’re in Phoenix for Bam against Estrada – what a fight. Then we have July 6, which we’ll announce shortly and on July 13 we will be here in Philadelphia. I cannot wait. “It always takes two fighters to make fights to happen and I promise you there aren’t many fighters in the world who want to take on the challenge of fighting Jaron Ennis. Everything Cody has been through has brought him to this moment. I want to thank him for coming today and I want to thank him for accepting this fight. We look forward to seeing you in Philadelphia on fight week. “And, of course, the man who will fill this place up and bring big-time boxing back to this city, the reigning and defending IBF Welterweight World champion, Jaron ‘Boots' Ennis. “As I said, the pre-sale and general sale has been incredible. We’re already at 10-12,000 and we want to fill this place up. Spread the word, we’re bringing World championship boxing back to this great city and it will be live on DAZN.” Bozy Ennis, father and trainer of Jaron Ennis “The way you talking [to Anthony Girges, Cody Crowley’s manager], after they fight maybe me and you get the gloves on. We can go to my gym now. We’ll see. “Why didn’t you accept the challenge last year [for Crowley to face Boots]? We offered you $300,000 to fight him and he turned it down. He turned it down. What happened? I like you Cody, but he [Anthony] is talking that tough s*** so I will stop him. I'll stop him. “Cody, let me say one thing. They said you were trying to go for the WBC. But they made you take the IBF because you were the mandatory for the IBF. Understand this, we wanted to fight Crowley and we wanted to fight Spence. We didn’t ask nobody to take the title. We wanted him to fight us. “We appreciate Cody for taking this fight because so many other people turned Boots down. Even the top guys. We wanted Spence. We wanted Crawford. Virgil. All of them. We sent them to word. “I want to thank everyone for coming out, buying tickets and everything. I appreciate Cody and his team for taking the fight. He’s a good fighter. You can’t take anything away from him and I respect him. But you are going to see something different. “Cody can fight. But you’ll see him [Boots] go to another level, which you saw in the last fight he went to another level when he’s in with someone who is real good. He might go to a different level this time too. It all depends on which version of Cody’s coming out. “One more thing. We fight all ways. You want to fight, we’ll fight. You want to box, we can box. We can do everything.” Anthony Girges, manager of Cody Crowley “He is more than ready. Nobody has seen this version of Cody Crowley. From everything, A-Z. From the management team to the training team to the resources. A-Z, nobody has even seen him. Boots shouldn’t even watch videos of him because he will be unrecognizable on fight night come July 13. “I see you already forgot the belt at home. Are you ready to lose it? Yeah. Bro, you got emailed that belt. You didn’t even win it. You’re not even a champion. Just so you know, we’ve had plenty of opportunities. But he’s been waiting for you. He’s here. “Eddie, I’m really sorry that this is his [Boots] first fight under Matchroom. I apologize because I like you. He [Cody] is the real-life Rocky Story and he’s in your hometown. We didn’t turn anything down before. We are here. “Cody will be walking out of here on July 13 as the new World Champion. That’s all I’ve got to say.”

(Featured Photo: Andrew Maclean/Matchroom)

#HF #Jaron Ennis #Cody Crowley #Matchroom Boxing #DAZN

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abhithewriter · 7 months ago

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HOW THE ENGLAND FOOTBALL TEAM WENT FROM CHOCKERS TO CHALLENGERS IN 5 YEARS

A few years back, the English football team was considered a joke by many of the fans and the pundits. This occurred due to the disastrous performance of the team, not just in Internal fixtures, but in the major tournaments as well. The standard and the quality of English football had been deteriorating since the start of the century. Since 2000, there have been several low points in English football, with each being lower than the last one like not qualifying for the Euros in 2008, early elimination in the 2010 world cup and the 2014 world cup, just to name a few. In the latter, they scored just two goals, secured a solitary point in 3 games, and got knocked out in the group stages. But the moment when England hit rock bottom was in the 2016 Euro tournament.

When it came to the qualifiers of the 2016 Euro’s, there was optimism among the fans. This was due to their performance in the Qualifiers where they topped their group by winning all 10 games, scoring 28 goals, and only conceding 3. Another reason why the qualifiers was a big plus for England was because of the introduction of fresh faces such as Danny Drinkwater, Harry Kane, Jamie Vardy and the performances of John Stones, Danny Rose and Keiran Trippier in defense which resulted in England conceding only 3 goals in 10 games in the qualification stages.

But their performance in Euro 2016 of one of their worst in their entire tournament history. The finished second in a group consisting of Wales, Russia, and Slovakia, three teams who England should have beaten comfortably on paper. Instead, they drew to Russia, just got past Wales and drew 0-0 to Slovakia. There was optimism about England reaching the quarter finals as they had to face Iceland in the round of 16. But their tournament got worse as they lost 2-1 and crashed out of the Euro’s. The backlash from this tournament was heavy as several players such Raheem Sterling and Harry Kane were criticized for their poor performance and Roy Hodgson had resigned after a 4-year reign.

There were several theories formed by fans and pundits as to the reason for the poor performance of England in major tournaments. The problems were made clear from their Euro 2016 debacle. Many people felt that the team selection was wrong and people who were in the team did not deserve their place in the squad. Players such as Danny Drinkwater was left out of the Euro squad after a good performance in the league leading to a title win for Leicester city. The inclusion of Jack Wilshere had not gone down well amongst the fans either as he spent 8 months of the 2015/16 on the sidelines with an injury and had played only 141 minutes in the entire season. England had appointed Sam Allardyce as the new England manager, but he was sacked after one game after he was charged with corruption.

England appointed Gareth Southgate as their caretaker manager, following the sacking of Sam Allardyce and was made the permanent manager on 15th November 2016. This did not make England fans optimistic. The reason was because he had previously managed Middlesbrough who got relegated and he was the coach of the England under 21 team who had not been performing well under him.

Under him, they had performed well in the World cup 2018 qualifiers finishing toppers of their group with 8 wins and 2 draws out of 10 games and conceding only 3 goals. The pundits and fans were not excited about their chances in the world cup.

In the tournament, they won all 2 out 3 group games, losing to Belgium 1-0. They won in the round of 16 against Columbia in the penalty shootout and won the quarter finals against Sweden. When it came to the semifinals, England got the lead in the 5th minute through Kieran Trippier but eventually lost 2-1 to Croatia who went on to lose in the finals to France. England finished the campaign in 4th place after they lost their 3rd place playoff game against Belgium 2-0. Despite losing in the semifinal, players like Harry Kane, Kieran Trippier and Jordan Pickford drew a lot of praise for their performance in the tournament with Harry Kane winning the golden boot.

Following this their next stage of preparation was for the 2020 Euro. In the qualifiers, they had a strong performance, topping the group with 7 wins out of 8, conceding only six goals but scoring 37 goals. Fans and pundits lauded Gareth Southgate for giving chances to players who did not just play for a top six club. Players like Declan Rice, Kalvin Phillips and Jack Grealish, Dominic Calvert Lewin and Conor Coady were given their chance to shine in the qualifiers. Southgate also gave chances to youngsters such as Bukayo Saka, Jude Bellingham and Jadon Sancho were given chances in the tournament.

Going into the tournament they had an squad with an average age of a little over 25. They had a mix of experience and talented youngsters. They topped their group in Euro, won in the round of 16 against Germany, brushed aside Ukraine 4-0 in the Quarter finals, won 2-1 against Denmark in extra time through a Harry Kane goal in the 104th minute. In the final against Italy, they went ahead inside two minutes through Luke Shaw but eventually conceded from a corner which was scored by Leonardo Bonucci. The game eventually went into penalties. Pickford had made two saves in the shootout, but Italy cliched the final after misses from Marcus Rashford, Jadon Sancho and Bukayo Saka.

England finished the tournament as runners up, but there was a lot of appreciation from the fans and the pundits for the performance of the manager and team players, especially the youngsters. They were a laughing stock in the 2016 Euro and nearly won the 2020 Euro.

There has been steady progress that has been taking place in English football and Gareth Southgate deserves a lot of the credit for much tough decisions and giving chances to player to shine. The Euros are taking place in Germany this year and Gareth Southgate has a chance to take the England team one step further and guide them to the title before leaving his job as England Coach. England go into this tournament with a little bit of negativity, considering their performances against the big teams in the last 2 years, but this tournament is a chance for them to but these negative talks to rest.

#england fc #harry kane #bukayo saka #gareth southgate #euros 2024 #fifa world cup

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newstfionline · 1 year ago

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Wednesday, August 23, 2023

Travel Will Soon Be a $15 Trillion Economy (Bloomberg) The crowds of travelers filling airports in many parts of the world this summer are a telltale sign of what’s ahead for tourism. By 2033, travel is set to become a $15.5 trillion industry—accounting for more than 11.6% of the global economy. This represents a 50% increase over its $10 trillion value in 2019, when travel represented 10.4% of the world’s gross domestic product.

Gun deaths among U.S. children hit a new record high (Axios) Firearm deaths among children in the U.S. hit a new record high in 2021, according to a study published Monday in the journal Pediatrics. There were 4,752 pediatric firearm deaths in 2021, or a rate of 5.8 per 100,000 people—an 8.8% increase from the year before, the study found. The study, based on government data, points to the worsening of an already distressing trend, after guns became the leading cause of death for children for the first time in 2020. “Spikes in firearm purchasing during the pandemic were substantial, resulting in roughly 30 million children living in households with firearms, a known risk factor for pediatric firearm injury,” the researchers wrote.

US car prices (AP) The Mitsubishi Mirage is the last model of automobile in the United States that is still selling on average for less than $20,000, with last month the vehicle averaging $19,205 at sale. Other vehicles are priced at under $20,000, but exceed it on average after factoring in options and shipping. The average vehicle in the U.S. costs around $48,000, particularly as the big three automakers ditch compact and subcompact cars in favor of massive trucks and SUVs, which are considerably more profitable. As it stands, 32 models sell for above $100,000 on average, up from 12 models in 2018.

Two dead, thousands homeless in Chile after heavy rains (Reuters) Two people are dead from flooding in the central-southern region of Chile on Monday, while thousands of others have been evacuated or left homeless from dangerous rains pounding isolated communities. President Gabriel Boric declared a state of catastrophe on Monday while visiting one of the worst affected areas, some 250 kilometers (155 miles) south of the capital Santiago. In late June surrounding areas had experienced some of the heaviest rainfall in three decades, exacerbated by the El Nino weather pattern that has led to rainier winters and springs in the central-southern part of Chile, as well as warmer temperatures. More than 26,000 people remain cut off from basic services and almost 34,000 have been evacuated, according to the Chilean disaster agency Senapred. Some 38,000 are without electricity in the affected area that is home to rural farming communities.

Monster hunting at Loch Ness (NPR) Loch Ness is the largest lake in Great Britain by volume at 22 square miles and up to 788 feet deep, and the long-running claim that there is some sort of cryptid in the lake—the Loch Ness Monster—has gotten a lot of mileage out of that size. Now, the Loch Ness Centre is going to embark on the biggest search of the lake ever, claiming they will be using equipment and technology that had not yet been used on the lake before and recruiting the largest mass of volunteers in decades. While there had been claims of something in the lake going back to the times when people wrote “here there be dragons” on maps, the claims took off in 1933 when a couple claimed they saw a dragon. Since then, there have been 1,140 claimed and reported sightings.

Germany’s far-right party is more popular than ever (Washington Post) Maximilian Krah, the newly elected top candidate of the far-right Alternative for Germany for the European elections, has described Pride Month as “disgusting,” is a proponent of deporting immigrants and peppers his speech with allusions to white-supremacist conspiracy theories. Far-right experts say his recent election as lead candidate to represent the party in the 2024 European Parliament elections was just another sign of the AfD’s increasing radicalization. But the party is attracting a record number of German voters. In recent months, the AfD has surged to become the second strongest political force in the country after the opposition Christian Democrats, polling at around 21 percent, ahead of all members of the country’s liberal governing coalition. The AfD’s record-high position in the polls comes amid brimming dissatisfaction with Germany’s ruling three-party coalition, led by Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s center-left Social Democrats. It also comes on the back of multiple crises, including the pandemic and war in Ukraine that have boosted populists Europe wide. Krah puts the party’s success down to the population’s distain for liberal policies on climate, gender and LGBT issues, immigration and the war in Ukraine, saying established political parties have no answer to real issues German face.

Windows are shattered in a Moscow suburb as Russia says it thwarts latest Ukraine drone attack (AP) Russian air defense systems thwarted four nighttime Ukrainian drone attacks, Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Tuesday, with the falling wreckage of one drone shattering an apartment building’s windows and damaging vehicles in Moscow’s western suburbs. There were no reports of injuries in the latest drone attacks that Russia blamed on Kyiv, as the war approaches its 18-month milestone. Though the drone attacks on Russian soil have occurred almost daily in recent weeks, they have caused little damage. Even so, they have unnerved some Russians and are in line with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s pledge to take the war into the heart of Russia.

Americans told to leave Belarus (Washington Post) The U.S. Embassy in Belarus urged Americans to leave the country “immediately.” It said Americans should avoid traveling to Belarus because of a buildup of Russian military forces, the “arbitrary enforcement of local laws,” and the risk of detention and civil unrest. Lithuania, Poland and Latvia were considering closing more border crossings, the embassy warned.

Running It Cold: Why Xi Jinping Is Letting China’s Economy Flail (Bloomberg) Xi Jinping’s quest to rewrite the playbook that drove China’s economic miracle for a generation is facing its sternest test yet. The $18 trillion economy is decelerating, consumers are downbeat, exports are struggling, prices are falling and more than one in five young people are out of work. Country Garden Holdings Co., with 3,000 pending property projects up and down the country, is on the cusp of default and protestors have gathered at Zhongzhi Enterprise Group Co., one of the biggest shadow banks, demanding their money as payments are halted. Foreign investors are pulling money out, with the central bank boosting efforts to stanch the yuan’s tumble toward the weakest level since 2007. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen this month termed China a “risk factor” for the US while her boss President Joe Biden called China’s economy a “ticking time bomb” at a recent campaign event. But where Biden has opted to run his economy hot, spending trillions of dollars on household stimulus and infrastructure to goose the economy, Xi is running his cold in a bid to finally break China’s addiction to fueling growth with speculative apartment construction and low-return projects funded by opaque local borrowing. If China is a “ticking time bomb,” Xi’s aim is to defuse it. It remains to be seen whether it will work.

Japan to release water from Fukushima nuclear plant starting Aug. 24 (Washington Post) Japan will start discharging treated radioactive water from the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean as soon as Thursday, despite fierce opposition from neighboring countries and Japan’s fishing industry. Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said Tuesday that the release of more than 1 million metric tons of wastewater—equivalent to more than 500 Olympic-size swimming pools—will take place in a safe manner. Following a two-year review, the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) concluded last month that Japan’s plan meets international safety standards and would have “negligible” radiological impact on people and the environment. The water, filtered to remove radioactive elements and highly diluted to lower the concentration of tritium, will be released into the Pacific Ocean in a process expected to take more than 30 years. The concentration of tritium, a radioactive material that is extremely difficult to separate from water, will drop to background ocean levels after the dilution, Japanese authorities say. For years, the contaminated water has been stored in large metal tanks near the plant, the site of one of the worst nuclear disasters in history. But Japan is running out of space to build more tanks to accommodate the contaminated groundwater and rainwater that are still exiting the site.

Protests rock government-held areas in southern Syria as economy crumbles (AP) Protests spread Monday in two government-held provinces in southern Syria amid widespread anger over the crash of the Syrian pound and the dwindling purchasing power of many people in the war-torn country, opposition activists said. The rare protests are still limited to southern Syria and are far from government strongholds along the Mediterranean coast, the capital Damascus and the largest cities, including Aleppo and Homs. The U.S. dollar has gone from 7,000 Syrian pounds at the beginning of 2023 to 15,000 now. At the onset of Syria’s uprising turned-civil war in 2011, the dollar was trading at 47 pounds. The United Nations estimates that 90% of Syrians in government-held areas live in poverty and that over half of the country’s population of 12 million struggles to put food on the table.

Emmerson Mnangagwa—Zimbabwe’s ‘crocodile’ who wants another bite (BBC) When Robert Mugabe was ousted as Zimbabwe’s president in 2017, his replacement, Emmerson Mnangagwa promised a new start for his country’s people. But as President Mnangagwa seeks re-election at the polls later this month, Zimbabweans are grappling with the same problems—high inflation, poverty and a climate of fear. Known as “the crocodile” because of his political cunning, he came to power after a military takeover and mass demonstrations forced Mr Mugabe, long-time leader and Mr Mnangagwa’s former mentor, to resign. Mr Mnangagwa may have unseated Zimbabwe’s only ruler, but he is also associated with some of the worst atrocities committed under the ruling party since independence in 1980. Some of his former comrades in the liberation struggle used to describe him as a “very cruel man”. But his children see him as a principled, if unemotional, man. His daughter, Farai Mlotshwa—a property developer and the eldest of his nine children by two wives—once described him as a “softie”.

Adopting 8 therapeutic habits can add decades to your life, study says (Washington Post) In a study presented at the annual meeting of the American Society for Nutrition, researchers found that men who had adopted eight healthy lifestyle habits by middle age lived 24 years longer than men whose lifestyle included few or none of the habits. Women’s life expectancy increased by 23 years for those who had adopted the eight habits compared with women who had not. Described by the researchers as “therapeutic lifestyle factors,” the eight key habits were: Not smoking, being physically active, managing stress, eating a healthy diet, having good sleep hygiene, avoiding binge drinking, not being addicted to opioids, and having positive social relationships. Overall, people who adopted all eight were 13 percent less likely to die for any reason during the study period of about eight years, researchers said, and the mortality rate for participants declined as the number of healthy habits they followed increased. The greatest mortality risk was linked to smoking, low physical activity, and opioid use.

#headlines #news

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atlanticcanada · 2 years ago

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Health care, housing and leadership top issues as P.E.I. heads toward April 3 vote

Prince Edward Island Premier Dennis King called a provincial election for April 3 on Monday night, and political experts say the top issues on the campaign trail are expected to be health care, housing and leadership.

King's majority Progressive Conservative government is seeking a second term in office following four years marked by the COVID-19 pandemic, two major post-tropical storms and an ongoing struggle to repair a deteriorating health-care system.

At dissolution, the Conservatives held 15 of the legislature's 27 seats. The Green Party, led by Peter Bevan-Baker, had eight seats, and the Liberals under Sharon Cameron held four.

The vote in 2019 saw P.E.I. become the first province in Canada in which the Green Party formed the official Opposition.

Political observers say the electorate does not seem to be in the mood to change the government, but the campaign could prove pivotal because there are plenty of hot-button issues.

HEALTH CARE

Like other provinces in Canada, P.E.I. is facing its own health-care crisis. A growing number of Islanders are complaining about a lack of family doctors and long wait times for treatment.

During the 2019 election campaign, which brought the Progressive Conservatives to power, the incumbent Wade MacLaughlan faced withering criticism about the Liberal party's failure to deal with the doctor shortage.

Since then, the number of residents looking for a family doctor has continued to climb, leaving the ruling party vulnerable to opposition criticism.

But King's government is sure to draw voters' attention to the federal government's recent decision to give the province $966 million over the next 10 years for health-care funding, including more than $288 million in new money.

HOUSING SHORTAGES

The Island's rapidly growing population has led to a shortage of housing, but the problem is not new. P.E.I.'s vacancy rate hit a record low in 2018, and the problem has persisted; it was 0.8 per cent last year.

King has responded by offering developers low-interest loans to increase the housing supply, but the latest data suggests development is actually slowing down.

The Green Party has focused on this issue, pointing out in January that as the government was tearing down a tent encampment in Charlottetown, the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation was reporting that P.E.I. had one of the worst rental markets in the country.

"It doesn't matter if it's housing, health care or any other issue that matters to Islanders," Bevan-Baker said in January. "The bottom line is this. The King Conservatives are failing to meet the challenges of the day and the expectations of the public. And the quality of life on P.E.I. is declining because of it."

LEADERSHIP

King's government has come under scrutiny for how it has handled a number of major challenges, including post-tropical storms in 2019 and 2022 that caused widespread damage.

At one point, Bevan-Baker called for a public inquiry to investigate the government's response to post-tropical storm Fiona in September 2022, but King's government rejected the request.

Questions have also been raised about the government's handling of the potato industry's struggle with the potato wart fungus, which resulted in trade bans that cost the province about $50 million in lost revenue.

And much of the government's first term in office was defined by its response to the COVID-19 pandemic, which was declared after King had served as premier for just under a year.

"I don't know of any government in recent history that has had to deal with so many crises in their first term," says Don Desserud, political science professor at the University of Prince Edward Island.

Meanwhile, King's straight-talking, folksy style seems to have connected with the electorate. But Bevan-Baker has also proven to be an effective communicator.

As for the Liberals, leader Sharon Cameron is virtually unknown, having led the party for less than four months.

MOOD OF THE ELECTORATE

Peter McKenna, a professor in the political science department at the University of Prince Edward Island, says Islanders don't appear to be in the mood for a change in government.

He says there is no sense of fatigue or disillusionment with the party in power, despite the state of health care and the rising cost of living.

As well, he says the opposition Greens and Liberals don't seem to have any momentum as the campaign gets started.

The Greens appear to be "in a holding pattern," McKenna said. As for the Liberals, the professor says the party is practically a non-entity.

"The Liberal party has sort of faded from the political scene here," he said in a recent interview. "It's no longer a major political force on Prince Edward Island."

This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 7, 2023.

By Hina Alam in Fredericton and Michael MacDonald in Halifax

from CTV News - Atlantic https://ift.tt/XQ0UkCx

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