#very excited for all the new technological advances Remedy is doing

[redactedshapes]

Paranatural women and their sidekicks!

is it just me or so they have the same hairstyles?

[kyuuppi]

Hi!! I'm kinda gonna be rly busy these days and your writings make me smile and i rly love ur works:)

so if ur requests are open I would like to request tighnari, heizou, and albedo with and S/O that had a past life in the modern world as a doctor(preferably a neurologist-) bc I've kinda wanted to be one hehe

Edit: omg, realizing I very much misread this ask, sorry. :,,)

Gender-neutral reader / *un*established relationship / reader recently came to past Teyvat from the future / neurologist - naturopathologist - bioengineer reader (separate)

AU notes: Because it is just the “future” Teyvat, I assume many species and lore are the same but, in order for modern medicine to exist, a lot of the magic of Teyvat including visions (and by extension, the archons) have been lost to time. This is just some headcanons tho so I didn’t get too deep into world-building and there may be some inconsistencies.

Ft. Tighnari; Heizou; Albedo

⭐Tighnari // Naturopathologist

→ Naturopathology is a distinct field of medicine that combines the wisdom of nature with the rigors of modern science. Naturopathic doctors use traditional Chinese medicine, herbalism, and diet-based therapies. They emphasize the power of nature over man-made drugs.

Knowing you practice medicine and are from the future, Tighnari is immediately super excited to learn from you

You may have knowledge that could help the people of Sumeru, especially his dearest friend and assistant Collei

He assumes you use really advanced techniques and technology that Teyvat is thousands of years from inventing, so he’s really surprised to learn the ingredients and remedies you talk about are the same as his own

You explain to him that not all modern medicine is quite as amazing as he had assumed and there are many illnesses that still can’t be treated or modern pharmaceutical drugs with adverse side effects such as internal bleeding and psychological addiction – so instead, you prefer to use old wisdom and nature to heal people

You introduce him to new ways to utilize and process many herbs he is already used to working with

Likewise, he teaches you about some species that have been forgotten over time or are already extinct in your own timeline, proving to you the importance of conservation

“In modern times, the improvement of international travel efficiency and climate change have led to an increase in pandemic diseases–how do you keep your immune systems so strong without vaccines in Sumeru?”

Tighnari immediately perks up at your question, tail swishing in thinly-veiled excitement. The amount of people who show interest in the flora of Avidya forest are few, even among scholars, so he is quick to jump on any opportunity to talk about them–particularly with someone as intelligent as you who understands what he’s talking about.

“Avidya forest is home to a diverse range of mushrooms, each with potent medicinal properties,” he begins, gently grasping your hand to lead you through the thick patches of brush beyond camp. 

With how close you and Tighnari have grown over the course of the weeks, the forest watchers find it difficult to believe you had appeared out of nowhere just a little over a month ago. Tighnari was previously known to work mostly alone. While he offered regular lectures and was always more than willing to provide guidance and instructions to any forest watchers or visitors who asked, he tended to spend most of his time on solo patrols visiting the places he deemed too dangerous for anyone else. In the rare moments he wasn’t out and about, he generally stayed holed up in his tent, meticulously penning detailed research notes. 

The closest Tighnari seemed to have to a social life was the daily check-ins on Collei’s condition and Cyno’s occasional but unappreciated visits. 

Thus, seeing Tighnari spend his nearly waking moment practically glued to your hip, discussing flora and herbs in such detail even senior forest watchers would get lost listening to your conversations, was quite a surprise to everyone. The rare toothy grins usually reserved for lost animals or research breakthroughs have now become commonplace as Tighnari attentively listens to your every word. The lovesick smiles and starstruck expressions he constantly gives in your present are clear as day to anyone around. The forest watchers make it a point to leave the two of you alone on your “dates” – partially because it means they’re less likely to be subjected to a forest safety lecture from Tighnari when you’re distracting him.

Finally, the two of you reach a small river bank surrounded by cheerful yellow nilotpala lotuses in an otherwise nondescript location one would not think twice about. Tignari lets go of your hand to step forward and carefully lift a decaying tree log. There, a bed of bright orange fungus is revealed. They stand clustered together in varying heights but all dusted a bright orange that somewhat resembled a certain modern cheesy corn puff chip famous in some parts of modern Teyvat. 

You gasp softly, immediately recognizing them from the illustrations in your medical school textbooks. 

“Cordyceps!” you cheer.

Tighnari’s lips stretch into a boyish grin.

“Correct – when dried and ground they have a strong nutty flavor that pairs well in many savory dishes. They seem to have strong anti-inflammatory effects but concrete research is still lacking.”

“This is amazing,” you say somewhat breathlessly, slowly stepping forward to get a better look. Unbeknownst to you, Tighnari’s gaze never once strays from your figure. He seems to take in your every reaction in an equal fascination to your own as you gaze upon the fungi.

“We still use them in modern times,” you explain, “they’ve been shown to shrink tumors–but they’re extremely rare now and only grown in a few labs. It’s amazing to see so many of them just naturally occurring like this…”

“Really? That’s a shame–they’re aromatic and delicious in a mild curry or stew,” Tighnari claims.

Then, almost shyly, he adds: “Perhaps…if you come to my tent later we could share some for dinner tonight.”

⭐Heizou // Neurologist

(disclaimer: I literally knew nothing about Heizou and just read through his wiki page & voice lines to write this so it is likely really ooc x_x)

→ A neurologist is a specialist who diagnoses and treats conditions of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves. This can include muscle diseases and disorders that affect thinking and behavior.

Heizou values innate abilities above any learned skills and tends to see things in black and white – people are either good or evil and those who are evil must repent through proper trial and punishment in the criminal justice system 

smh what a bootlicker

So he’d probably really underestimate you at first

He thinks nothing and no one is better at gauging the mind of others than his own intuition, not even your years of schooling and professional experience can beat genius detective Shikanoin Heizou!

You kinda have to prove yourself to him

Like maybe you happen to be tagging along when Heizou solves a case and correctly identifies the culprit to a petty crime – except even the culprit themself doesn’t fully remember committing the crime and they seem oddly confused and disoriented

After hearing the circumstances of the case and asking the suspect several questions, you learn that they had recently recovered from a very severe infection and deduce that they may be suffering from some negative cognitive effects from it that impairs their judgment and memory

You explain the concepts of neurological trauma and how physical illnesses can affect the thinking and behavior of people – sometimes criminals themselves are just victims of circumstance

After that, Heizou is much more receptive and openly interested in your profession and future world. He asks you to explain all kinds of different neurological disorders and degenerative diseases

He’ll listen to everything and try to understand the complexities of the human body as you describe them but he’s a little lost at times tbh…

He’s really interested in how your field is used in criminal cases in the future; you explain to him how medical professionals are sometimes called in during trials to explain why the victim or criminal may have acted in a particular way

Disorders relating to dementia kind of freak him out — he can’t imagine many things more terrifying than forgetting everything you’ve ever known without even being aware of it; what if he lost his intuition from a small concussion? He might be even more reluctant to get into physical fights from now on…

Since coming to Inazuma, you have become a frequent guest of the Tenryou Commission and, more accurately, of the top detective, Shikanoin Heizou. While your relationship initially began with you being the subject of intense interrogation and scrutiny – “How exactly did you get here from the future? What are your intentions for coming to Inazuma? Do you hold a grudge against the Raiden Shogun?” – over time, your honesty and pure heart – his words, not yours – earned the trust of Heizou and thus the rest of the Inazuman people.

Eventually, hours of grueling interrogations between the two of you became playfully competitive card games and battles of wit. Heizou absolutely loved to test your intelligence but not because he doubted it. On the contrary, you were honored as one of the few he considered nearly on par with his own quick wits. Even if you always lose, Heizou is convinced you’re one of the most intelligent people in Inazuma–maybe even all of Teyvat! 

One of his recent favorite games to play is one in which he gives you a hypothetical patient with a list of symptoms and asks you to tell him the diagnosis. You’re pretty sure he wouldn’t even know if you were right or not but you decide not to ruin his fun.

“Okay, how about this – muscle weakness, poor vision, and difficulty standing still,” Heizou rattles off, apple green eyes watching you expectantly. 

“Age of patient,” you inquire.

“Old.”

“How long did it take for symptoms to manifest?”

“Hmm…a few days.”

You look away thoughtfully as you mentally sift through multiple possibilities, Heizou’s gaze darting across your face with each small twitch of emotion. Watching you think has become something of a fixation for him.

“Possibly… Gullain-Barré Syndrome? Would need to do some NCV and cerebrospinal fluid tests to be certain though,” you finally conclude.

Heizou grins at your rudimentary diagnosis, seeming just as satisfied as he is after solving a cold case.

“As I thought, you really are a genius!”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” you sheepishly brush off, feeling slightly shy under Heizou’s enthusiastic praise. From what others in the commission have told you, Heizou is generally not one to throw around empty words of flattery. You find that somewhat hard to believe considering how often he compliments you, from your sharp intellect and wit to even less obvious aspects of your personality you have never considered praise-worthy. 

“Nonsense,” Heizou simply brushes off, “my intuition tells me so and my intuition is never wrong.”

⭐Albedo // Biomedical Engineer

→ Biomedical engineers apply the sciences of engineering to the art of medicine in order to improve the function and life of individuals. They study, design, develop, and evaluate biological and medical systems such as artificial organs. 

This is the one closest to my field IRL so my bias is going to be so obvious LOL

Albedo was interested the moment he heard someone from the future had come to Teyvat – there are numerous things that can be learned from the future, whether technological advances or social inclinations

However, when you explained your specific profession, Albedo’s immense excitement was apparent

Albedo wants to know literally everything

He’s smart enough to be able to piece together the bits you give him. Even if you don’t fully know how to explain future technology in simple terms that people from thousands of years ago would understand – how do you explain a laptop to people who don’t use electricity? – Albedo somehow gets it

He wants to document every single bit of information you give him. He listens intently and has everything you tell him basically memorized word-for-word but he still makes an effort to write down a summary at the end of each day.

While you claim there are still many limits of science in the modern world, the advancements your society has made are beyond even his own imagination and they give him hope that his goal of understanding the truth of the world may one day be possible

“So these stem cells are able to be harvested from bone marrow and transplanted to any part of the body where they naturally proliferate and regenerate damaged tissue in any part of the body?” 

Albedo sits across from you in his office with uncannily perfect posture, right hand resting under his chin in thought as his gaze remains steadily on your own. Neatly-written report papers decorate the desk between the two of you, your own wonky diagrams doodled between his neat penmanship. 

“Yep,” you chirp, “we have even made whole organs and organ systems with them. Simple tissues like muscle are much easier of course, but we have successfully created even more complex organs, like the heart. In the future, we hope to eliminate the need for human organ donations, especially for organs with the longest waitlists, like kidneys.”

“Fascinating,” Albedo murmurs, gaze becoming distant as he seems to lose himself in his thoughts for a moment. His attention snaps back to you before you can spend too long admiring his delicate features– a habit you have admittedly shamefully indulged in over the past few weeks.

“If you can create organ systems from cells, creating human life must be less than a century away,” he reasons. 

“Actually, we’ve already created model embryos which all major organs and a beating heart, but consciousness is concept that eludes even modern science,” you begin. 

With anyone else, you’re sure the start of your rambling would be met with bored, glazed over eyes or pleas to ‘please stop talking like an encyclopedia’ but Albedo’s attentiveness does not waver in the slightest as he seems to hang on to every word. The only times he breaks eye contact are to briefly add to his notes when you share something particularly novel that he wishes to discuss further in detail after you finish talking. With Albedo, there is no need to fear boring or confusing him. 

And while Albedo finds your life from the future far more interesting than anything his world has to offer, you firmly disagree and are eager to learn about alchemy and visions, as they are not widely practiced in the future. He was a bit startled to learn visions are practically nonexistent in your timeline but he concludes that your science is far more magical than anything a vision can be used for. 

As you learn more about each other’s worlds, you naturally come to learn about each other on a more personal level as well. You share some bits of your daily life and hobbies only as off-handed remarks but you’re surprised to find Albedo is just as interested and inquisitive about them as he is your science. 

Similarly, you discover his artistic talents by accident one day when you mistakenly pick up his sketchbook instead of the notes he’d asked you to look over.

“This is amazing, Albedo!”

“They’re just some simple sketches,” he dismisses, glancing at the familiar leather-bound book in your hands.

“These are more than just sketches. Your shading is so good and you capture their expressions so perfectly! These belong in a gallery…”

Albedo finds himself fiddling awkwardly with his gloves as an uncharacteristic warmth rises fills his chest cavity from your praise. Over time he finds you elicit all sorts of uncharacteristic feelings within him, both psychological and physical. He wonders if perhaps instead visions your people have their own invisible magic that affects him so peculiarly… 

The idea of exploring this particular area of research with you fills him with an amount of excitement he didn’t think possible

“I appreciate your compliments,” Albedo concedes, “however…”

Your gaze shifts from the open sketchbook in your hands to meet his own, finding him already staring at you with an expression you can’t quite decipher.

“I believe I require a model to truly improve my talents. If you don’t mind, I would be honored to practice with you.”

[cesaroilb097]

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See related articles below:

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[sunlitneon]

Fashion - Become an Alpha Male

To come to be an alpha Jewellery Design Competition  male you need to recognise how to mission yourself within the satisfactory viable mild. Image may be defined as a intellectual concept of an individual.

Our photo of someone is created with the aid of the beliefs that we have approximately that person. It can be the impressions we form when meeting someone new or it is able to be an character's popularity that has evolved over the years. Our impression about other humans may be based totally on how they look, speak or behave. A character's standard image might also consist of a variety of things, inclusive of their apparel, grooming, voice tone, vocabulary, frame language and social behaviours. Your picture is so crucial because other human beings will make assumptions primarily based on constrained facts. For instance, any person can be perceived as sincere because they keep strong constant eye contact. They may be judged as succesful, expert, a success, intelligent and wealthy due to the fact they're nicely dressed. The opposite is likewise true. This chapter will focus on the way to create a powerful and superb image through dress feel and style.

In all societies during history, style has served as a hallmark of social reputation and cultural belonging. It is authentic that the way in which people dress declares their area in a given society.

Military uniforms offer a very obvious indication of energy, repute and rank. By adopting a uniform you're making a clean statement of your alliances. In politics, leaders of nations will deliberately modify their appearance while coping with foreign cultures. Eastern leaders will dress of their personal fashion of their own united states however when travelling and negotiating with a Western country, they will abandon their traditional clothing in favour of a Western-fashion in shape. Similarly, European politicians will cautiously calibrate their wardrobes to set up a hyperlink with a selected target market.

Perhaps the best example of the strength of appearance passed off in the course of the televised 1960 presidential debates among John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon. Kennedy seemed younger, tanned and comfortable in his slim-reduce match. Nixon had a five o'clock shadow, seemed rumpled and perspired in the course of the talk. After the debates, polls indicated that people who had listened at the radio overwhelmingly idea that Nixon had come out on pinnacle. But among people who noticed the debates on tv, the massive majority felt that Kennedy had achieved a far advanced activity. And all of us know how that election grew to become out.

Fashion Tips 1

Many men have serious issues with regards to fashion. It can price a lot and garb trends and patterns exchange so speedy. Of route, there is no simple option to fashion. Everyday your fashion may additionally trade relying on a variety of various factors. This section will educate you, intensive, the satisfactory way to look your absolute pleasant, in every state of affairs. Once you are completed studying it, pass over the principle factors to internalise the lessons and your fashion feel will improve dramatically.

Take Note of Stylish People

The first step of favor excellence is to grow to be aware about what other humans are carrying. Compliment human beings on their styles and in case you see someone who's specially properly-dressed, do not hesitate to prevent and ask them in which they bought it. You will select up more fashion guidelines on this way than you could likely realise. Most human beings will pretty thankfully tell you the nice shops to keep in and you will have a much higher information of what is in fashion, what to put on on certain activities, and how to great spend your money. When you are flicking through magazines, make a mental notice of the pleasant dressed celebrities, specially if they're photographed over numerous days, wearing exclusive clothes. Make observe of the colors and the styles and exit and purchase a mix and match of comparable gadgets. Every style icon began out through emulating the fashion of others and this is one of the exceptional methods to get your fashion up to the mark.

Make Sure your Clothes Fit

So many humans overlook this vital precept. Most guys who see a dressmaker jacket for a bargain fee will purchase it despite the fact that it a length too large. It's so important which you put on suit you perfectly. If your pinnacle is too big, the extra material can make it look like you are swimming to your shirt. If you are of a slender build, simplest put on unmarried or double breasted blazers and make certain to tailor them so that they suit properly in the course of your entire frame. Make certain to avoid any free material underneath the arms or in the shoulder vicinity. An oversized blazer that does not suit your measurements will go away you looking sloppy. There are sure fashion procedures that you could rent to cover your very own flaws and accentuate your bodily attributes. No count number what your frame kind, there's a private fashion of dressing to be able to fit your needs great. With jeans, this is specially relevant. Starting out, the maximum dramatic improvement you may make on your style is to make sure the whole lot fits. Sizes will vary with special brands however proper fit is crucial. Bad suit is a deadly disease, remedy your self.

Queer Eye for the Straight Guy

Who amongst all your buddies has the excellent style feel? Going purchasing with someone who has remarkable flavor is continually a wonderful idea. Make sure they're sincere with you and are comfortable enough to inform you what does not appearance good on you. The folks who work in the shop can often lead you off beam by choosing the most costly object over the one that surely suits you first-class. Stick with your pal's opinion and agree with them enough to go away your consolation sector. If the advise something that sticks out a little, go together with it and see what response you get. By standing out, you painting a whole lot of self confident and other humans will frequently perceive you as exciting. If you're in a party, women may also open communique with you via commenting for your attire. The subsequent time you are buying along with your friend, strive on some objects you usually would shrink back from. You may be amazed at how tons they fit you.

Men's Jewellery

Recently guys's jewellery has visible a renaissance. Now, a new technology of young, city metrosexuals are seemingly secure sufficient with revealing their female aspect to put on a pendants, rings, bracelets and jewelry. Although men's jewelry nonetheless represents a fraction of typical jewellery income, the MTV bling appearance has helped promote diamond-faced watches as well as huge diamond earrings. Mass market jewelry stores have cottoned on to this trend and are in a race to get actors to advise their huge variety of fellows's jewellery. Tiffany had quietly increased its ordinary watch and cufflink collections to encompass silver pendants, rings and bracelets.

When pics of Brad Pitt seemed in magazines, displaying the actor wearing a silver pendant and cufflinks for the movie Oceans Twelve, men were out looking to buy "Brad Pitt" portions. Similarly, Orlando Bloom has been photographed carrying guys's jewellery on mag covers and the actor Johnny Depp is well known for his leather-based bracelets. George Clooney has additionally been seen sporting jewelry in a totally understated, assured manner. It's now not unexpected then that jewelry stores will paintings the celeb circuit in any feasible manner. At this year's Cannes festival, there was a determined race to dress movie stars with brilliant attire, footwear and jewellery. The jeweller Chopard employed the entire ground of the Majestic hotel dedicated to a heavily guarded treasure suite so that it will trap celebrities to borrow a number of their jewels for the occasion. Also new pieces had been flown in day by day from Geneva for actors to borrow.

Award shows and fashion shows are becoming all essential show off arenas for jewellery shops. Competition among jewellery makers is increasing because the market for jewelry and guys's jewelry expands with the increase of economies in Asia and america. In truth, some thing a person can put on show is the important thing to nifty accessorising. According to new studies out via Verdict, British men now spend £1.1billion a yr on add-ons, one fifth of this is spent on jewellery and watches. So as some distance as men are concerned, men's earrings may be just as critical an accessory as wearing a watch or wearing the cutting-edge cellular smartphone. The equal trend is seen in India, in which young guys appear greater open approximately revealing a extra feminine aspect. Jewellery shops in primary Indian cities have visible a increase in income of men's rings, bracelets and jewelry.

[emeraldwaves]

Title: A Dragon’s Magic Chapter 1 Pairing:  Kacchako Rating: M Word Count:  3,072 Summary: Uraraka Ochako has always believed in dragons, though she was constantly told they were long since extinct. Now an adult and professional mage, she’s ready to help her parents as a healer for their village. The last thing she expects is for her beliefs to become a reality, but when a dragon attacks her village, she learns there’s more to magic than she ever could’ve realized. Read on AO3 Thanks to @its-love-u-asshole @youaremynewdream @roraewrites & @liziscribbles for reading this ahead for me and for all the support! I’m hype to finally be sharing this!! Full prologue under the cut!!

"Uraraka!" A tall blue-haired boy with glasses thrust his hand up into the air, posing sharply as he always did. "Congratulations!"

"Congratulations!" The green-haired boy next to him smiled wide, both looking incredibly proud of her. "And Happy Birthday!"

A smile pulled across her face and she charged towards them, waving frantically. "Iida! Deku! I did it! I passed!" she called out. She held the small scroll up, flailing her hand in the air.

"We knew you could it!" Deku said, and she leaped towards them, wrapping her arms around both of their necks as the three of them tumbled into a hug.

"Wait a minute..." she said, pulling back. "How did you know I passed?"

"Actually," Deku laughed, rubbing the back of his neck. "We didn't. But we kinda assumed."

"Your Mom told us to meet you here, since she has a cake to celebrate," Iida said.

She raised her eyebrow, turning towards her mother as her parents approached their house. "What would you have done with the cake if I failed?" she asked.

"You would've needed a good pick me up!" she chuckled. "Cake would've been the perfect remedy. Plus, it’s your birthday, you deserved cake regardless of the results."

Ochako laughed; she couldn't deny her mother knew her well.

"But it doesn't matter because you passed!" Her father's voice boomed, opening the door to their cottage.

"We had complete faith in you, Uraraka!" Iida smiled, nodding his head.

"Do you have faith in me? Or do you just want me to share my cake?" she smirked, narrowing her eyes at the two.

"W-What?! No! We have faith in you! B-But... we wouldn't mind if you shared," Deku smiled.

Ochako couldn't help but smile at her oldest friends. Neither of them were magic users, but the three grew up together. They were the only two who never made fun of Ochako, even when she used to spout nonsense about dragons, mermaids, and other mythical creatures being real.

For the record, she still believed.

As a child, her grandmother would tell her all kinds of stories. Stories about dragons and magic... humans and dragons working together to use magic. She told stories of pirates and mermaids, fairies and goblins. Ochako would listen to them all, wide-eyed and excited.

Her grandmother had the utmost faith dragons and mermaids and mythical creatures were real, and there was no one Ochako believed more than her grandmother. However, when she got to school, she was immediately labeled as 'the weird dragon girl' because she talked about it too much.

Deku and Iida were the only two not to shy away from her; they'd been inseparable since they were small children.

"I guess you could each have a piece," she smiled, helping her mother pull out some plates and cutlery. "It is my birthday, so I'm feeling generous!"

"For a second I thought she might not let us..." Deku murmured, looking relieved.

"Of course! Uraraka would never be so cruel!" Iida laughed.

The room was filled with laughter as her mother pulled the cake out from the cupboard.

"So," Deku smiled eagerly. "Tell us all about your test!" Though Deku had no capability for magic even when using a magical object, he was fascinated by the subject. In fact, Deku wished to be a magical historian... a difficult task for someone who had no sense of magical energy. But he studied hard, and knew next to everything about magic.

In fact, he was one of the only people who believed along with her.

"It went well! It was the standard test until I used the gravity magic!"

"Did you use it on yourself!?" Deku asked, his eyes twinkling eagerly.

"Mhm!" she nodded. "It worked!"

"I cannot believe you took such a risk during the test! What if your magic was off due to nerves?!" Iida scolded.

Ochako waved her hands. "No, no! It was okay, besides magic doesn't really work that way."

"You have to show us next time!" Deku said, bouncing with excitement. "I bet they were so impressed!"

"They certainly were! We were as well," her father said, taking a seat. "I've never been so proud." He wrapped his arm around Ochako's shoulder, squeezing her gently.

"Thanks, Papa," she said, her smile trembling against her lips. She loved making her parents proud, so she couldn't deny the joy the words gave her.

"Should we sing?" she said, placing two small pieces down in front of the boys.

"No, Mom... please don't sing..." Ochako said, shaking her head.

"Uraraka! It's your birthday! We should indeed sing!" Iida said, pushing back from the table to stand up. "Happy Birthday to you!" he began, and the rest jumped into to sing along.

Ochako couldn't help but giggle. Surrounded by her closest friends, it only made her feel happier, her cheeks pinker.

The cake was admittedly delicious, her mother really knew how to bake, something Ochako herself was not very gifted at. Thankfully she wouldn't have to worry about it for a long time. She would probably be living at her parents’ clinic for the rest of her life, or at least, in close proximity to it.

After the cake was inhaled by the three eager teens, Ochako was the first to jump up. "Let's go to our secret spot," she winked.

"U-Uraraka, you shouldn't talk about that in front of your parents!" Deku hissed, waving his hand in front of his mouth.

"Oh, don't you kids worry, I know you love to play on the hill across the river."

"Ah! M-Mom! We're adults now, we don't play," she gasped and nervously looked at Iida and Deku.

"Right. Of course, I misspoke. I meant you go and talk on the hill across the river," she smiled.

"Yeah, okay, if that's what you want to think," Ochako snorted, trying to cover up a poorly kept secret.

Both Iida and Deku snickered. It wasn't as if their spot was really all that secretive. Anyone could've found it if they crossed the river which cut through Ochako's backyard. Though as children, there was something fantastical about calling it a secret spot.

Ochako reached over, yanking Iida and Deku out the door. "Thanks for the cake Mom! We'll be back!" she called out, slamming the door behind her.

"So when did you let it slip to your mom about the secret hill?" Deku asked.

"I didn't! I swear!" she whined, rolling her head down. "I think she just figured it out..."

"Parents are often quite intuitive about such things," Iida explained, nodding sagely as the group walked towards the small bridge across the river.

As children, crossing the small river in her backyard felt like they were going on a grand quest. Ochako would bring her staff, and Deku would carry a few books and Iida, a compass. When they discovered the hill which looked out onto the fields outside the village, Ochako felt as if they discovered a new world.

She always wondered, wide-eyed and thrilled, what could possibly lay beyond the grassy hills and rolling fields.

As an adult, she now knew other villages lay beyond, but as a child, she felt she was staring at the ocean, unexplored territory simply laid out before them.

She missed the sense of wonder... the joy she experienced dreaming what it would be like to explore the world.

Plopping down on the grass, she stared up at the sky and let out a long sigh. "We made it," she hummed softly, her nose pulling in a long breath of fresh air.

"Are you okay, Uraraka?" Deku asked, leaning towards her.

"Mmm... Yeah..." she said softly. She kept her eyes shut, not quite ready to face the reality in front of her.

"That was not very convincing at all," Iida said.

She let out a long sigh and swung her arms up, pulling herself to a sitting position. "You guys know I want to help my parents more than anything, yeah?"

Both boys nodded. "Of course we know that!" Deku smiled. "You care about your family so much, it's why you worked so hard to be a mage!"

She was silent, watching the clouds move slowly overhead.

"I thought you would be happy you got your pro mage license..." Deku said.

"Yeah! I am!" she nodded, staring down at the grass. She flopped onto her back, staring up at the sky. "It's what I've always wanted to do... but... I guess when I think about being stuck here forever, I get a little anxious... is that weird?"

Iida tilted his head. "You can always go on a trip?" he said.

"It's not that really..." she mumbled. Of course she could take a vacation. Her parents wouldn't stop her if she wanted to explore or visit friends from her magic school... "I guess I'm just not quite ready to grow up," she said. "I thought I was. But then I think about how much fun we had running through the fields looking for fairies or pretending to fight dragons."

"You miss pretending?" Iida asked.

She pouted and sat back up again. "Iida! How many times are Deku and I going to have to explain to you that fairies and dragons are real?!"

He sighed. "Not this again..."

"It's two against one, Iida!" Deku laughed. "I think Ochako is right."

"Exactly! I want to go on a quest to find them!" she sighed, puffing out her cheeks. "But... we have responsibilities now. It's so sad..."

"Next time we all have more free time, we should go on a quest together!" Ochako cheered and gently touched Iida's shoulder. "You can call it a vacation!"

"It'll be fun!" Deku said.

"Everything we do together is fun!" she smiled, but quickly frowned when she felt the earth rumble beneath her. Strange. It vibrated against her fingertips, as though machinery was nearby. They were nowhere near a city however, and their small village didn't have the capability for such advanced technology. Oddly enough, the vibrations didn't feel very deep. An earth mage would've been able to pinpoint the source, but Ochako was completely at a loss.

"Did you feel that?" she gasped, turning towards Iida.

"I did..." he said, pushing himself up.

"Earthquake?" Deku muttered, tapping on his chin.

"The earth hasn't quaked in years... why would it start now?" Iida asked, glancing around. "It could've been any number of things. Machinery isn't really near here, but perhaps a visitor from one of the cities?" he said, spurting out potential reasons for the shaking.

There was a large cry in the distance and Ochako attempted to squint across the field. There didn't seem to be anything nearby.

"What was that?" Deku yelped. "Maybe the rumble was some sort of animal?" he suggested, watching Ochako inch further down the hill.

"Did that come from the woods?" she asked, stepping towards the bottom of the hill.

"A strange earthquake, a mysterious cry..." Deku's eyes were darting back and forth, as if he was searching his brain for the logical answer.

"Deku..." she muttered.

"Maybe we should go back?" Iida said. "I've never heard a cry like that before. And we don't want to get trapped outside if a creature is on the loose."

"Yeah..." she said, suddenly hyper aware of the fact she left her staff back in the cottage. "You're right Iida, we should go-"

It was then the golden creature fell from the sky. It plummeted fast, wings tucked in tight, a roar so loud and deafening it shook the entire earth to its core, rumbling heavier than the prior time.

Ochako's eyes widened as she stared at the sky, unsure if she was actually witnessing what she thought she was. It’s golden neck stretched forward, wings close to its side. It roared again, baring it’s large teeth, it’s long tail trailing out behind it. Golden scales shimmered against the sun and large spikes trailed down its spine.

"A dragon..." she whispered. Her mind took a moment to process just what was happening. "A-A dragon!"

A real dragon!

And it was headed straight for the village.

She turned on her heel, practically slipping as she scurried up the hill, running back towards her cottage.

"Uraraka?!" Iida called after her.

"Guys! We have to do something!" she yelled, already rushing back towards her house. She couldn't do anything without her staff. She didn't know if she could do anything really, but she couldn't pass this opportunity to see a real dragon up close!

Ochako practically rolled down the hill, her boots slippery against the grass. She dashed through her large yard, running down towards the familiar cottage.

Her feet pounded against the bridge, forgetting about Iida and Deku trailing behind her as she pushed the door to the cottage open, trying to catch her breath momentarily.

"Ochako! Did you feel that? What was that?! What's going on!?" her mother asked, her words frantic.

"DRAGON!" she yelled, yanking her staff off of the table.

"Not this again..." her father sighed. "Ochako..."

"Papa! I saw it!" she said, grabbing her hat and shoving it onto her head.

"We definitely saw and heard something," Deku mumbled, breathing heavily as he and Iida stood at the doorway.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean..."

"Well I'm not gonna stand around here to find out!" she said, running past them with her staff in hand.

"Ochako! You're not an elemental mage!" her mother said, but Ochako was already running towards the direction of the village

"Uraraka! Wait!" She heard both Iida and Deku chase after her.

She didn't wait for them however, and she pushed off her feet, rushing towards the center of town. She couldn't stop now! Not when she was so close.

As she ran, she glanced towards the sky, looking for any sign of the large creature. If she could just glance at it again...

The town came into view, and Ochako noticed more people were outside, looking confused. The closer she approached the more she could hear the murmurs. It would've been impossible to miss how much the ground shook, or how loud the large cry was.

"Where are you?" she whispered. Coming to a halt, she glanced at the fear on people's faces. Of course they were terrified... a mysterious cry... a large rumble... it was as if the world was ending.

"Uraraka!" Iida called out, Deku following right behind him.

"You're okay!"

"Of course, I'm okay! But I don't see anything-"

Right on cue, another giant roar rumbled through the sky. Ochako immediately turned towards the sky, looking for the golden creature.

It was close. The cry was unlike anything their village had ever heard. People frantically looked about. It was as if no one could pinpoint the exact location of the sound, since it seemed to envelope the town. It vibrated, shaking as if the earth moved with it.

Then, the line of fire appeared from the sky. The flames curling and shooting towards the earth with dangerous speeds.

Screams echoed through the town as chaos took over the townspeople. Ochako immediately jumped back, grabbed Iida and Deku as they dove out of the way, tumbling towards the ground. She moved them towards the small house closest to them.

The fire hit the ground, immediately catching on the grass, a long row of flames cutting directly through the town. The heat was prevalent, and Ochako breathed heavy, happy they dove out of the way in what seemed to be the nick of time.

"WATER GUARDS!" A voice cried, and the town guards were immediately on the scene. Water shot towards the flames, the smoke rising high. The flames were thick, twisting and twirling against the grass, and the guard struggled to keep it away from houses.

The creature’s roar shook the earth once more as it came barrelling out of the sky, falling to the earth. It cried out once again, the fire moving towards the guards with the breeze from the cry.

Ochako's eyes glimmered with joy as she stared at the creature who stood on the edge of town. It was indeed a dragon; golden scales shimmered under the sun and large wings pressed against its body. Dark smoke curled out from its nostrils and it looked to be in pain, panting heavily. From the way it came out of the sky, Ochako wondered if it was injured.

Mostly, she couldn't believe her eyes. Dragons were real! She was right. Her grandmother was right!

The creature opened its mouth, a red glow appearing in the back of its throat.

"It's... it's going to breathe fire again," she yelled, knowing there was nowhere for them to run.

"ICE GUARD!" the same voice cried out, and magical energy pulsed through the air. Ice covering the ground quickly, rushing right towards the dragon.

"No," she gasped, realizing they were going to attempt to freeze it.

The mage guard rushed forward, past the fire and ice as the ice mages built their ice prison immediately around the creature. Fire pushed against the thick blockade, and the creature rolled its head back and forth. It tried to use its wings, but it pushed against the ice, unable to break the intense walls the mages kept adding to.

"T-They're going to hurt it!" Uraraka gasped, covering her mouth.

"Uraraka! They have to subdue it or it will destroy the whole town!" Iida exclaimed, gently wrapping his arm around her shoulder. "If you hadn't grabbed me and Deku we might all be dead!"

Her eyes trembled as she watched the creature struggle. It moved about in the giant ice prison, frantically trying to escape. It was a miracle its roars didn't break the ice, since it kept screaming and screaming, thrashing about angrily.

She stood up. "They're hurting it... w-what if they kill the only dragon we've ever seen!"

"W-We don't know what it is... Uraraka, sit back down," Deku stammered, gently grabbing her wrist.

"I want to see!" she yelled, but Iida and Deku wrapped their arms around her, not wanting her to go any closer.

The golden dragon let out a giant cry when its body began to glow. Looking towards the sky, it collapsed towards the ground, glowing brighter and brighter.

When the light dissipated, the particles melting into the ice, there lay a blond human man... half naked and completely passed out.

[business-owners-guide]

The 12 Things All New Internet Marketers Should Know

The 12 Things All New Internet Marketers Should Know

The author gives an easy to follow 12-point guide and advice to all new Internet marketers and online business owners to help them excel in this very interesting, exciting, rewarding and yet challenging business venture.

1) It has been reported that there are about 600,000,000 people on the Net world wide at the moment. And the annual growth of the number of surfers is exponential! You can imagine the potential market for Internet business is immensely huge. The chances of your success in the business online are tremendous. Your journey towards that would be a very exciting and rewarding one indeed.

2) Plan your work and work your plan. Like any other forms of work, you must have a plan for your Internet business. Set an achievable short term, medium term and long term objectives, prepare a budget and stick to them as far as possible. Carry out periodical checking to determine any deviations from the plan and take the necessary remedial actions.

3) Do not ever try to spam i.e. sending unsolicited e-mails to unexpected recipients under any circumstances. I get very annoyed when I find chunks of unwanted e-mails plugging my mailbox resulting in the e-mails from my friends and business associates being "lost" in the midst of these junks mails. The frustrating process of deleting them is enough to drive me through the roof! If you insisted on "spamming", you'd very likely have your name terminated by the server. It is therefore not worth the while because eventually your business would suffer.

4) Do not try to be a Jack of all trades. Choose only a niche product or service or something where your own expertise lies in. Then consolidate your business by focusing on what you do best. Many Internet marketers have developed very enterprising, lucrative and rewarding online businesses doing what they enjoy and love best i.e. hobbies.

5) Respect, understand and always keep abreast with the advance of technology because it could help you achieve your business vision and personal goals. The ever changing technology provides us with countless tools with which we could use to enhance our businesses. A very good example is the advent of BLOGs. The software used for this today is so simple and friendly that old hats with rusty and somewhat retarded brains like me very often find the process of blogging as enjoyable and relaxing as a breezy walk in the park!

6) Design your web page or blogs with quality content that would exert yourself and your business as an authority in your field. You should have a content that is not only attractive but also informative to advise especially the first-time visitors what benefits they would enjoy from your products or services. It should be able to persuade customers to keep coming back to your website to repeat their orders and convert casual visitors to prospects and prospects to customers.

7) You'd be tempted with countless of seemingly very attractive offers and promises from the Web to help improve your business. Do not fall into the trap of some of these promises. Just stay with a handful of strategies that work and stick with them.

For example, if you're submitting articles to drive free traffic to your sites and it's showing positive dividends, stick to it and continue with this strategy while improving and fine-tuning others.

8) By all means, study your competitors, watch their activities and every move. But love thy competitors, not hate them. Do not "knock" them into oblivion. Unlike conventional business, you should always find ways to work along them if not with them. There are many online organizations, big and small, working very closely together even in the same product or service market sectors. Very good examples are the joint venture partnerships and link exchanges among the so-called competitors.

9) Do not be too "innovative" by creating and marketing new and unproven products or services that the market is not willing or ready to buy. Conduct a web research to identify products which command good market and offer them to the hungry and ready market. You could do some modification to improve it in order to have product differentiation and hence enjoying better comparative advantage over your competitors.

10) In Internet marketing, always remember three very important words. They're…LIST, LIST and LIST. Also, do not forget the popular Internet adage "The Gold is in your LIST!" This means that a big chunk of your time, effort and concentration should be directed to getting the right strategy to drive traffic to your site. Advertising is therefore of utmost importance.

11) Although this is a home based business with all the freedom in the world, it's prudent to have some form of discipline. Once you've decided to sit in front of the computer to start working online, you must stay focused and do not allow any distraction to affect your concentration. Treat it as your business and not a hobby. It would be nice to stick to a schedule which is also made known to other members of your family so that they'd know when to leave you alone. However do not get carried away and spend too much time in front of your PC because your loved ones, including your pets also deserve your attention and time.

12) Internet marketing is still one of the best businesses one could venture into especially when there is no demand for big capital outlay. With this huge and expanding audience coupled with the fact that marketing and advertising can be done on the Internet so easily and at only a fraction of the costs of traditional methods, we now have a fantastic opportunity to be successful in online business.

Many companies have now positioned themselves profitably with the Internet which has created many new paradigms in the past few years. Passive incomes are made available to people from all walks of life. You can now make money online with simple and proven formula used by many to earn multiple streams of residual income.

However, like any other conventional businesses, there would be times when you would encounter failures and disappointment. Do persevere as this is not a get-rich-quick scheme. Time, effort and some financial input are necessary. It would take a while to see the fruit of your effort. Use any failures to your advantage by learning from them. See success in every failure and opportunity in every threat.

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[girlbookwrm]

James Rhodes and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day

THE MIGHTY ENDGAME REWATCH CONTINUES WITH IRON MAN 2

Typing this up the morning after The Roommate @goteamwin and I watched Iron Man Two and upon reflection, the movie is about 800x better if you  think of Rhodes or Nat as the POV character, with Tony as the main villain -- because let’s face it, Tony is always the main villain of the Iron Man franchise (and other franchises too, sometimes)

ANYWAY ON WITH THE REWATCH.

Ivan Vanko hiding with his face in the corner, clutching a bottle of Vodka is extremely hashtag relatable. Also, is he feeding his dying father vodka-soaked ice chips? is this an old Russian folk remedy? The Roommate says: it’s a nice foil to CATFA: “ah yes. you haff procedure tyomorrow. make sure you haff plenty of vodka. stay nice and hydrated.”

hey we saw all this last time. back in the days when Marvel still felt the need to recap. now they’re just like “HOPE YOU DID YOUR HOMEWORK BITCHES.”

Tony Stark is dropping out of a plane, in a weaponized exoskeletal suit, over New York City, in 2010. I know he's Tony Stark , but he should not be able to do any of this. (but tbf presumably Pepper arranged this YEARLONG EXPO (holy shit) and Pepper Potts can do Literally Anything.)

The backup dancers feel like another callback to CATFA but this came out BEFORE CATFA so maybe the backup dancers are a callback to this???? but in-universe, it's the other way around???????

i mean of course Tony built a specialized gadget to test his blood toxicity but also TONY YOU BUILT A SPECIALIZED GADGET TO TEST YOUR BLOOD TOXICITY??? GO TO THE DOCTOR

is that olivia munn?

pooOOTERRRRR

IS THAT KATE MARA??

oh no gary shandling noooooooo

“he insists it’s a shield” ohohoHOHOHOHOHOHoho burn.

but no, actually a burn because it’s deffo a callback to the Great Works that Howard Stark Did.

RIGHT RHODES!!!!!!!

ah yes. an LG starkphone. before Vevo got their dirty paws all over the Avengers product placement money

it’s nice of JARVIS to sum this up for us. And So Snarkily!

seriously, Tony is giving away his worldly possessions, talking legacy, quitting his job... HOW DOES PEPPER NOT SEE WHAT’S HAPPENING HERE

Natalie Russian?

The Roommate points out that she hated ScarJo the first time she saw this, but now literally cuts her hair to look like ScarJo

this got me thinking about what this scene is like from Nat’s POV. She’s a KGB assassin, trained from (birth?? probably?) and she’s been with SHIELD no less than a year (if the Winter Soldier shot her while she was working for SHIELD in 2009) 

And now she has to do this shit.

elon musk?

Tony literally looks HIMSELF in the eye and says: “You got any other bad ideas?” TONY IS THE VILLAIN OF THIS PIECE.

in what way is tony qualified to do this

Poor Nat. “Get close to him” they said. “evaluate him for the avengers initiative” they said. “a plush assignment” they said. fuck you nick.

Vanko: ~cool guys don’t look at explosions~

TONY YOU BROUGHT A CHAIR TO A WHIP FIGHT. TONY YOU’RE A HOT MESS. YOU LITERALLY ARE. YOU ARE ON. FIRE.

I love the way the iron man suits keep getting smaller. i feel like this is a real reflection of how technology has evolved in the real world -- keeps getting smaller and faster and more advanced.

good work to the blonde extra standing behind justin hammer she is giving 112%

Vanko in his budgie smugglers here. He had literally no plan? he’s just, like, making it up as he goes? actually, wtf was he doing on the racetrack anyway? he didn’t know tony would be there??

~cool guys don’t look at explosionsss~

So Vanko Sr got shipped back to Russia but Zola gets to stick around long enough to turn into a bank of computers?

RIGHT RHODES!

Q U E E N S

the scene where Nat’s helping Tony get ready for the party:

The Roommate: See this is why I didn’t like Natasha the first time she turned up. I thought she was going to break up my OTP. Like. What-- what’s she doing here? 

Me: It’s a test. It’s all a test. It’s always a test. And Tony. Is. Failing.

Tony. what are you doing. tony. stop.

James Rhodes And The Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, but also.

wwwwwow, rhodey is

Very.

Hot. 

Tony yelling at his own reflection again, because he’s a strong independant protagonist who don’t need no villain he can be his own villain, clearly.

They crossed the streams!

Rhodey manages to make the Iron Man mask look Disappointed. *patrick stewart voice* ~acting~

eyyy! it’s that guy from IM1!

hey let’s make an aside here, because earlier in the movie Tony mentions Uncle Sam and let’s just all agree right here right now that Rhodey and Sam definitely know each other. They know each other before Sam becomes an Avenger. first time Steve brings Sam to the tower and Rhodes is there, it’s like “OH HEY MAN HOW ARE YOU? STILL FLYING WITHOUT A PLANE? GOOD TO SEE U DUDE.”

they’re going to get along so well with Carol I’m already excited

oh hey Fury’s here.

I love how proud Fury is of his daughter.

his adopted russian daughter. Such A Proud Dad.

“a vodka fueled rage” he says. “not a good environment to raise a kid in” he says. And what kind of environment was tony raised in?

“you can solve the riddle of your heart” they sure did make Samuel L Jackson say those words. 

PHIL’S HERE

god i love phil

I love that Rhodes takes the arc reactor out before Hammer gets here.

“I call it the Ex Wife”

The Roommate: ugh of course you do.

I also love how deadpan he is. “I think I’ll take it.” “Which one?” “All of it.”

The Roommate: James Rhodes here, continuing to be Very Sexy. Don Cheedle is definitely sexier than Terrence Howard FIGHT ME.

Me: why would anyone fight you on that YOU’RE RIGHT

To answer my earlier question: A scotch-fueled rage.

Howard 2.0 being very Walt Disney here.

“I didn’t come here to apologize” MAYBE YOU SHOULD, BUDDY.

Pepper: No.

The Roommate: Pepper’s superpower is calling the authorities and saying no.

i love that pepper and nat are bros now, like. it’s like that story when the girl meets her boyfriend’s side chick and they become BFFs.

Tony figuring out the thing with the pavilions:

The Roommate: Tony really actually is smart, but it gets lost in all the bullshit.

PHIL’S HERE

Fanboy Phil.

“Not that much.” God I love phil.

B I C E P S

tony should always wear tank tops

always

side note: this is tesseract material, right? i mean we’re all agreed that the element that Tony rediscovers is whatever the Tesseract is made of. right? 

Justin Hammer: Maybe I’ll get laid.

The Roommate: You Will Not.

Pepper and Nat in matching outfits I love this.

Ok as soon as that glass starts falling -- i mean. all these people are dead, right? everyone who came to the expo is pretty much dead now.

JAMES RHODES AND THE TERRIBLE HORRIBLE NO GOOD VERY BAD DAY

Pepper and Nat are the real dream team here.

“nice work kid” SO CUTE

OMG PROPERTY DAMAGE????

We Do Not Care for ScarJo’s Wig Here. This scene would’ve been so much better if she left her hair in that bun it was in earlier. her hair is all in her face all through this scene NAT WOULD NEVER BE THIS CARELESS, HAIR LIKE THAT IS GOOD FOR GRABBING AS EVERY WOMAN WHO HAS EVER WALKED IN THE DARK KNOWS

subnote: happy she does not require your assistance. 

Tony and Rhodes are literally playing a video game here, they might as well be back at MIT in Rhodey’s dorm room playing call of duty or whatever game they played back in the day.

they’re crossing the streams! 

The Roommate: I like the little vroom vroom noises the suit makes

“you deserve better”

Me And The Roommate: Yeah, she does.

“you couldn’t afford me.” Dat Ass, Tones. Dayum.

JAMES RHODES IS A NATIONAL TREASURE, GARY SHANDLING, GOOD OF YOU TO NOTICE

oh hey phil’s here

[manchesteronlinebookingtaxi-blog]

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4. Price-effective

The costs should never examine an airport automobile solution business it bills its customers. The values need to be contrasted in tandem with the options continually offered. Airport autos, with their value-added services like well-mannered behavior, risk-free taxis, and unwavering commitment to consumers, provide full value for loan for people. As soon as you arrange them rapidly and get involved in them, you can be sure that you ride would most certainly be no much less than adequate for you. Currently, you can reach the flight incurable or leave from the airport with no eleventh-hour rush or hassles, as you have the support of the local taxi Heathrow to bank on.

Situating a taxi to the flight terminal can become a frustrating job. Usually, there are none troubles involved in this technique of transport; you can swiftly obtain a cab to the flight terminal. However, on some miserable days when you are running late, you may find no taxi, and it is immediate to get to the airport terminal on schedule, or you miss the urgent journey. Get planned for today. Taxis aren't merely those black taxis that leave the roads. You can make the previous scheduling with some taxi company. This can be a great hassle-free alternative for obtaining on the online booking taxi Heathrow to the airport.

When you publication, your firm needs to have the ability to educate you the appropriate price included, so you understand what your spending plan is before leaving. You obtain a taxi in London at your door, and you can manage the full timetable with the company they will undoubtedly send the airport terminal taxi to your house, and an expert chauffeur will undoubtedly take you to the airport in time.

The flight terminal airport taxi in London remedies can be of significant usage in service as well if you are to take a trip to many locations in a single day. You can use their driver options where the incredibly experienced vehicle driver will certainly take you to the wanted destinations in vintage cars and trucks. The drivers of such automobiles are educated, and they can take care of the trip in heavy traffic and take you out of internet website traffic to ensure that you reach your location in time. And this will certainly also supply a considerable impact before your clients.

Transportation at the airport is shown for making travel a lot more uncomplicated for you. When you travel to or from the airport, it is exceptionally essential to depend on a reputable flight incurable taxi option to see to it that you reach your location rapidly and safely. If you are still questioning why choosing the appropriate vehicle driver is essential, the adhering to variables ought to persuade you.

1. City proficiency

Flight terminal taxi solutions are typically focused near flight terminals. Consequently, they have first-hand details relating to the different terminals at a specific airport, timetable of your trips, and various other pertinent information. If you are taking a trip in a hurry to capture your trip promptly, you can feel unwinded understanding that you have a community expert as your auto motorist.

2. Easy booking

When you pick a flight terminal taxi solution, you can be guaranteed of routine timetable and function of these vehicles. The majority of the reputed business have sites, where you can quickly select the type of automobile that you desire and the timing that you want it to select you up. You will undoubtedly be intimated immediately about the auto accessibility, registration variety of a truck, and the info of the driver. This offers you a considerable reduction to understand that you have a car waiting on you when you land in an unidentified city.

3. Time Cost savings

Among the notable highlights concerning an excellent London airport transfer service is that their motorists are full experts. They are professionals in the area where they are set up and can take you to your destination rapidly, even during optimum internet site web traffic hrs. They comprehend the faster ways, and they have smart systems for tracking as well, so you do not have to fret about obtaining shed midway.

4. Value-added services

Precisely, how would certainly you feel if your vehicle driver doubles up as a tourist guide as well? Typically, chauffeurs of these vehicles are detailed with the local city where you are driving with. Consequently, they can offer you ideas on several of the must-visit places there, the historical importance of specific websites, and even more. Some business appoints chauffeurs that can talk many languages. So, do not be astonished if you are designated a car motorist that speaks your language! These flight terminal taxi remedies take terrific like see that their customers are handled well.

5. Flexibility

You might appear or leave from a flight terminal at weird hrs. What do you if your journey lands in a new city at relating to 3 AM? At such an unearthly hr, it ends up threatening to travel alone. This is where a trip incurable taxi solution concerns your rescue. These businesses have lorries that operate regularly to make sure that their customers do not deal with any troubles.

If you wish to enjoy the above benefits, you need to select a trip incurable taxi solution that is comprehended, in the firm for a long time and appreciate high examinations from clients. Before you make your online reservation, make sure that you do a substantial research study on the web to look for the top quality of these cars, courteousness of drivers and various other associated realities to make sure that you can be sure that you have made the very best option.

Flight terminal taxi solutions can be a pain if you have not hired advancement. You need to wait in the taxi line to get to where you desire to go. Mean there was somebody you could contact us to get to and from the trip terminal in the quickest approach feasible. You can request a taxi solution in advance that will take you to the flight terminal on a set cost. This is practical because web website traffic and miles do not count. It pertains to the area that you are originating from. You want a taxi to airport in London solution that is a fast and comfy journey for you when you don't have another selection. Whether you live at the much side of the area or the close to the bottom of the city, it will be the same price.

Anon, the online booking taxi in London solutions, are far better than routine options because they don't get lost or overcharge. They recognize where whatever is and do not trick you into thinking that they don't know where they're going because of the looked after price. You will certainly have the capability to reach your zone with no troubles. It is the most affordable and time hesitant to transfer service as a result of its comfort and integrity in their ability to acquire you and your travel luggage from the airport terminal to your destination.

Visit To The Website for getting more information related to Heathrow taxi.

[batchelorbatchelor05-blog]

Stratis Wallet Core

is Stratis Wallet Core associated with many blockchain-as-a-service (BaaS) jobs, together with the focus initially was initially company logistics. In the couple of years it possesses been recently developing this scope of the project extended significantly, and as most of us go to the end connected with 2018 Stratis is some sort of full-blown growth network contending with the loves involving NEO and Ethereum.

Even though Ethereum was the primary blockchain network to employ sensible contracts, Stratis may possibly come with an advantage over first-mover Ethereum. That advantage can be as a result of the programming terminology employed simply by each project. In which Ethereum uses typically the exclusive Solidarity; unity language, Stratis makes use of the well known C# for Microsoft�s. INTERNET framework. It means there will be by now millions of designers who also can program about Stratis. Stratis has also been going rapidly to catch-up to be able to Ethereum. They were capable in order to launch a good alpha variant of sensible contracts in May, and an alpha edition of sidechain support the next month. The fact that was enough to place Stratis on par with the top smart contract communities. Because Stratis uses C# that is actually a popular remedy for many set up companies. These kinds of old guard technological organizations might definitely not have any blockchain software engineers, nevertheless they do have the glut of computer programmers that are familiar using C# and the. INTERNET framework. It�s almost a number of they would choose this answer rather than acquiring to learn Solid design. In point, in April 2018 Stratis announced that many people had become a Microsof company Sterling silver partner. Stratis offers said they are going to have manufacturing releases for full-node, side-chains and smart contracts by simply the end of 2018. There are Stratis Core Wallet Windows which is released before the particular end regarding 2018 because well, and once these kinds of development releases are live life the old-guard companies will have a platform that enables them to easily construct their particular private blockchain options safely and safely on a Stratis side-chain. With typically the production functionality involving Stratis so close to launch let�s look at the particular technology powering this project, as well as this STRAT cryptocurrency that provides gas to the network. Stratis Review: Precisely what is Stratis? Stratis was designed because a new stand-alone blockchain along with a good stable of C# progress tools to allow some other to create their personal chains that will benefit coming from the security of the particular Statris main-chain. This will certainly allow existing organizations for you to take advantage of blockchain technology properly, and devoid of the need to devote exceedingly to hire new blockchain programmers or to migrate existing software program to help a new platform. From its most basic amount Stratis is an enterprise friendly edition of Bitcoin. However, the idea improves in Bitcoin if it is quicker, even more scalable, and it has gotten away from source strenuous Proof-of-Work as some sort of general opinion device. And then it enhances further by simply adding sensible contracts, decentralized applications, plus side-chains. Stratis has brought blockchain to all the particular legacy developers as properly, since this is created within C#. That makes blockchain growth easily accessible to the greater than 6 thousand C# computer programmers. In addition, Statis has its consultancy companies and a new Stratis Ecole that makes it possible for developers plus organizations to gain a deeper understanding of how they may create on top of often the Stratis Podium. Stratis permits these companies that might not know where to commence using blockchain get away from to a new good start off. Stratis Review: Typically the STRAT Coin Stratis made a decision to employ Proof-of-Stake as its agreement device, and it features the native coin that will uses the particular STRAT ticker. As a Detr�s or maybe there�s no costly hardware needed o acquire the particular coin, and no massive drain on our assets. It is a poor pumping cryptocurrency, and users can produce rewards through running a masternode. Stratis Wallet Core requires a stake of 250, 000 STRAT, and as of December twenty-five, 2018 that can be worth $179, 337 on the gold coin price connected with $0. 717348. That�s certainly not for most involving us, although Stratis possesses put forward the notion connected with creating lower tier nodes with smaller stake demands. STRAT is primarily a utility token as it is used to give natural gas for the system. Of Stratis Wallet , it is made use of as a risky expense by some, in fact it is shown on roughly 12 different exchanges. The finest exchange volume is in Binance, followed by Bittrex together with Bithumb. The $0. 717348 price on The fall of twenty-five, 2018 gives STRAT an industry capitalization of just around $71 million and tends to make it the particular 58th most valuable coin shown with Coinmarketcap. com. Stratis reach an all-time a lot of $21. 21 on January eight, 2018 and has gone down continuously throughout 2018. Stratis experienced its ICO all the way up back in June/July 2016, and it also was one associated with the first successful ICOs. Stratis has struggled inside 2018 One of often the larger moves Stratis produced in 2018 was the introduction of an ICO podium in May, just like the carry market has been returning after the brief April respite. Could makes this seem as if typically the leadership at Stratis is often a bit out of contact with reality, overall that is always a strong task. The fall in this price of the STRAT coin can be put down to often the good bear market in cryptocurrencies in 2018, and also on the $0. 717348 selling price the coin increased extra than 10, 000% from its ICO price of $0. 007 just over a couple of years ago. That certainly is a new pretty substantial two season return. Stratis was listed in the Microsoft Azure Current market in the start connected with 2018, through October 2018 it had come to be some sort of Microsoft Silver Mate, which in turn promises even more rapidly advancement for the platform. Stratis has moved quite little by little however, when compared together with other related projects. A number of have captured and exceeded Stratis, although the project is regaining floor now that the production nodes, side-chains and smart contracts happen to be nearly ready. Stratis had an early ocasionar advantage, but the early excitement over typically the venture wasn�t turned directly into a lot of early re-homing. The Microsoft collaboration is definitely huge to be sure, but there haven�t been any various other definitely huge relationships future for Stratis. Most likely that will change now that Stratis is an formal certified silver partner. Stratis Review: Final result As this first successful ICO Stratis possessed a good start, and the project remains to be reliable today, but this hasn�t gotten to acquire advantage of its beginning good results as well while may have been expected. The strong technology plus the joint venture with Microsoft are both exceptional causes, but still the project hasn�t seen a wonderful deal of usage. With any luck , the launch connected with creation nodes, side-chains in addition to great contracts will raise it has the growth curve. Possibly although the STRAT expression features been hurt by typically the have market in cryptocurrencies in 2018, it remains way up more than 10, 000% from its ICO value, and that certainly is particularly remarkable. Stratis Wallet are quite pleased with his or her returns. Stratis Core Wallet Windows connected with a ICO program while in a bear cryptocurrency market may not appear often the best idea, but in the event you look further you are getting to see that ICOs own raised more than $22 million in 2018, which will is just about four moments the 2017 ICO counts. The use of C# to create an venture blockchain solution may not necessarily sound like an exilerating make use of of the new technology, nonetheless this is merely the basic sort of employ case that could find yourself dominating the business landscape designs. The moment the production solution is all set Stratis may possibly see a new long series of heritage tech organizations lining up to work with their very own C# based blockchain technology. There is a ton of guarantee throughout Stratis, but the idea remains to be to be seen in the event that that will translate to actual results.

[saltineofswing]

Prime Fragment: REMEDY MISDIRECT

“I SAID, we NEED some BACKUP!!” Viggo didn’t shout so much as scream ingloriously into the comm receiver as the triple-thud staccato of Bronto Cannon fire marched a line of smoking craters into the burnt-out shack that Viggo and Alathar were crouched in; Moon bounced back and forth on the roof as if dancing over hot coals, and the crackling rapport of her hand cannon matched Viggo’s pulse as he beat his fist against the stack of telemetric technology beside him. “CRIMES! Does any of this thrice-shat waste-of-time Dead Orbit tech ACTUALLY work!? Or do they just stack empty boxes together and call it a fucking bargain? When we get back I’m gonna stuff this antenna up Arach Jalaal’s–“

Viggo’s panicked rant was cut off by a tremendous roar and the roof above them simply evaporating. The double-size Cabal tank that was currently rolling through the Sludge on its way to the City by way of the Farm had a main cannon roughly the size of a Worm god’s skull, and thanks to the recent fiasco on Mars that was unfortunately a definable quantity. The flash of fire and heat overhead made a line of blisters boil across the back of Viggo’s neatly-shorn scalp even through his helmet, and Viggo screamed into the noise and flattened himself down on his belly, grabbing for his Pulse Rifle.

Alathar slammed his shoulder against an invisible force barrier in the world and a towering convex shield erupted in front of them, soaking up Cabal fire as cracks splintered across its surface. He panted to himself and turned to glance at Viggo. “Where’s Moon?” He asked, voice rising as the noise of Cabal munitions threatened to drown them out once more. Viggo snapped his head up in a panic to search for the Hunter that had taken it upon herself to be his mentor, Moon-5, who had moments ago been on the roof.

The roof that had just gotten eaten by a massive line of molten solar fire.

His query was not long left unanswered, thankfully; Her body landed face- up in the muck about fifty feet behind them with a wet squelch, her cape fluttering down over her face and her Ghost spinning out in the open to assess the damage. Viggo held his breath for a moment before one of her arms popped up, thumb held high. “I am O-Kay!”

He sighed, exasperation and panic bludgeoning one another for prominence in his chest. “God! She’s nuts! She’s nuts, and I’m gonna die, and it’s because she’s a fucking loon!”

“Relax,” Alathar said evenly, lifting his rocket launcher onto his shoulder. “Deep breaths, young one. Cover me.”

“Why?”

“I’m going to shoot them with a rocket.”

Viggo whipped up and leaned his gun on the windowsill of the shack, firing precision shots into the crowd of Cabal escorting their latest horrible military death machine. Each triple-burst of his Swift Ride popped pressure seals or burned holes in brain stems, giving Alathar time to rise with measured patience from his crouched spot, step around his Barricade, and fire a warhead across the street into the crowd.

There was another boom of munitions as his rocket struck a Centurion in the chest and turned his torso into a gooey jigsaw puzzle, and the explosion scattered the procession. Moon vaulted off of Alathar’s shoulders and a raucous rush of Light adorned the ignition of her Hand Cannon. Six shots cracked out in three seconds and one of the rear thrusters keeping the massive wartank aloft crumpled and died.

Moon whooped as she wheeled around to cover, her cape singed nearly a foot shorter. “How’s that for a bit of adrenaline?” She asked savagely, thumping Viggo’s chest.

“Why are you so excited?” He shrieked, fumbling a new clip into his Pulse Rifle. “We’re going to DIE!”

“Who isn’t?” She retorted. “Load up, rookie, we’ve still got about forty Cabal out there and they did not bring party favors!”

“Move,” Alathar cautioned, grabbing Viggo by the scruff of his shoulder-length cloak and heaving him up. Moon scrambled under the hulking Titan’s feet and bounded across the clearing as the noisy hum of the tank’s main gun charging filled the air.

Seconds later the shack they’d just been hiding in was nothing but a molten crater, and the three of them were hiding behind a stack of ancient cars with the Dark Forest directly at their back.

“Oh Light,” Viggo hissed through his teeth. “Oh, I hate this. I hate this! Why did it have to be here?”

“What’s so bad about here?” Moon said, her voice forced into a chipper mask as she reloaded her handgun and pretended not to have noticed the oozing hole in her side. “Besides the tank, I mean.”

“Maybe ten more seconds until we have to move,” Alathar cautioned. “It will keep pushing us in the opposite direction of its advance until we can make it to that warehouse.”

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe it was the fact that the last time we were here, that headcase corpse-monster in the woods turned you into a modern art sculpture, and made Al blind!” Viggo spat. “With his MIND!”

���Only for a few minutes!”

“That doesn’t make it better!!”

Alathar’s rocket launcher spat heat again and the rocket crashed against the fore shields on the tank. The explosion still managed to half-incinerate the pair of Psions stationed by the vehicle’s primary thrusters.

“That Guardian,” Moon murmured thoughtfully; she stroked her chin in a peculiar way that Viggo didn’t understand, especially considering she was wearing her helmet. “The Corpse. Yeah.” He’d once seen Cayde-6 make the same motions and asked if she’d gotten it from him; Al had said that Moon was a great deal older than she seemed, and that it was the other way around. He’d gotten the mannerism from her.

“Yeah? What do you mean, ‘yeah’?”

Moon stood and checked the clearing for a moment. “Can you hold down the fort here, boys?”

Viggo blanched, appalled. “No!”

Alathar simply checked the ammunition on his auto-rifle as if he was used to this. “Why?”

“I have an idea. A bad one, but an idea.”

“Ikora told us not to bother that thing in the Forest,” Alathar reminded her mildly, stuffing a cluster-munitions rocket into the tube of his launcher. He dragged two fingers across the inside of the wrist that held the launcher by the grip and made a circle with his forefinger and thumb against the scuffed plating. Out. “Yeah, but these are extenuating circumstances.” She stuffed her hand cannon in its holster and crouched down in a sprinter’s crouch.

“Moon, you can’t just kite a bigger, badder monster in to solve our problems,” Alathar said pointedly. “Five seconds. I can hear the gun charging.”

“Why not? Either he gets vaporized or he turns that tank into mulch. Either way that seems like a win-win from where I’m sitting. One way or another a threat gets taken out of the equation.”

“I don’t like you talking about a Guardian like that.”

“Whatever he was before, he – Oop! Move.”

They scattered like rats as the tank discharged again. White filled Viggo’s vision until it went black and his legless torso splashed into the mud. Alathar slid to a halt next to him, suppression-firing into the crowd with his auto-rifle, until their Ghosts could channel enough light together to knit Viggo’s body back together from the ether. He dry-heaved inside his helmet and scrabbled on hands and knees behind cover at the edge of the cliff face that separated this portion of the Sludge from the road that ran past the Farm.

Moon helped him to his feet. “Are you okay?” She asked, gentler than she ever was in any other circumstance as he tried to get his newly-remade stomach to stop flipping end over end. “Can you breathe? Deep breaths. Stretch your knees. Roll your ankles. You’re okay.”

“Maybe half a minute until the tank re-emerges from around the warehouse,” Alathar judged.

Viggo slapped his hands against his helmet and successfully suppressed the urge to vomit in his helmet. “Green,” he rasped hoarsely. “Green. I’m reading green.”

“Good.” She thumped the forehead of his helmet with the side of her fist. “I’m off. Keep the light on for me.”

“Moon, wait!” He pleaded. “What if it just kills you?”

“It won’t! I’m too fast for that.”

“Okay, what if he kills us?” Alathar snapped.

“He – it – did once before, almost! Why should this time be any different? We’re Guardians!”

“I just got my legs vaporized,” Viggo mumbled queasily. Moon sighed, and took a moment to huddle with her fireteam.

“Listen,” she said earnestly. “We don’t have the firepower to break this thing before it breaks us. Viggo, you said it yourself, Dead Orbit’s radio-tech is scraprust-garbage. That means we either put this thing away here, or we pray to the Traveler that there are enough Guardians lingering at the Farm to stop it.” She put her hands on the backs of either of her teammate’s helmets. “And before they do that, it’ll vaporize a lot of stuff we can’t just Glimmer back together. This is us, Guardians. We smash the hard place with the rock we get stuck under. So trust me, okay? I’m moderately certain this will work.”

Alathar sighed, shaking his head slightly, but his expression was inscrutable behind his helmet. “Very well, Moon,” he rumbled. “It’s your call.”

“Thanks, Meat Mountain. Don’t die until I get back, ‘kay?”

“I will do my level best.”

“That’s the spirit!” She patted Viggo’s cheek and then turned and sprinted off towards the treeline.

“Think we’ll ever see her again?” Viggo said glumly.

“For at least a couple of seconds. Tether,” Alathar responded, hefting his rocket launcher.

Viggo spun out from behind their cover and pulled a short leather-wrapped handle from his belt; a phantom bow curled off the material component of his Nightspell and he drew the drawstring as swirls of void-light pooled at either end. “Choice of dispersal?”

“Center mass.”

“Yes sir.”

The arrow careened through the air like a twirling angelic mortar, burst just above the crowd, and sent a spiderweb of branching void-tendrils snaking through the crowd, binding them to the pulsating globule of Void Light that dragged them all inward.

Alathar’s cluster missile turned thirty more Cabal into so much Solar dust. And so the dance continued; Viggo and Alathar darted from cover to cover and left a molten pile of slag behind everywhere they crouched, trying to keep up with the thankfully now much slower ultra-tank as it trundled along through the Sludge. The forward Cabal guard clashed with Taken and Fallen while the tank and what was left of the battered rear guard tried in vain to deal with a pair of wily Guardians. Lives were on Viggo and Alathar’s side. Firepower was on the Cabal’s. The battle was pitched, and Viggo eventually passed Alathar his shotgun so that the Titan could charge the tank and blast the other rear thruster pod to smithereens with it, but the result was Alathar’s exasperated Ghost muttering ‘Why do you enable him?’ To Viggo while Viggo fed it enough Light to unscramble Alathar’s molecular waste and return him to the world of the living with a saucy chuckle and a light dusting of ash.

After almost twenty long minutes of following the tank, which now drove at a snail’s pace with the back half grinding along as it dragged thrusterless behind the front end, Viggo heard something from the abyssal trees and looming Shard behind them.

“Oh, shit,” he whined; a ghastly wail had picked up, wavering and rising with the wind. Even Alathar had to shudder at the sound of it, swiftly growing closer. Viggo felt it like a shadow blotting out the sun, or a demon chasing him through a bad dream, just behind and growing ever-closer in his Nightstalker senses. This thing, this once-guardian, it trembled in the bloom, suffuse with Voidlight unlike any Voidwalker or Sentinel he’d ever encountered before. Ikora was a bottomless well of stillness. The Corpse was like a slavering black hole.

Moon came ripping out of the Forest, one of her arms missing from the shoulder down, metal curled into springy strips and her hand cannon conspicuously missing.

“Run!” She shouted gleefully as she tore past them, dirt and mud flying up in a mist under her heels.

Behind her the Forest lurched, gravity-distortion waves bending the world momentarily as the Corpse screamed out of the treeline, jittering forward as if Blinking soundlessly from point to point. Viggo turned and sprinted out into the open after his mentor, panic seizing his heart, and heard the surprised grunt and thundering footfalls of Alathar just behind him. Moon laughed like a lark into the open air as she ran, her remaining arm flying into the air over her head. She was running so fast that her hood had fallen back, and Viggo kept one hand clapped to the crown of his head to keep the same from happening to him.

“WHAT DID YOU DO!?” Alathar roared, uncharacteristically fussed, as the Corpse’s screaming behorned form chased them across the ruined city street.

“I SHOT HIM!” Moon called gaily back. The Cabal were so stunned by the sight of them that for a moment none of them fired; the tank’s main cannon warmed, gurgled with heat so intense that Viggo watched the foliage peel and blacken off the slagged cars on either side of it, and slowly came to bear on them. He took a split second to glance over his shoulder. Sure enough, a bright violet wisp was drifting up and away from the Corpse’s torso from both sides, the singe of golden fire undoubtedly from Moon’s Golden Gun already dimming as the Corpse was slowly filled in as if time had decided to reverse course around the wound.

Viggo dodged and weaved for his life through Cabal slug guns, rockets, and Bronto-shot. He did his best to stay calm. Hit the hard place with the rock you’re stuck under. Viggo sucked his breath in through his teeth. The Corpse overflowed with Void Light. It was like the thing’s anchor. He could feel it pulling at the gravity under his boots as it glided like a nightmare after them. Okay. He could work with that.

“DOWN!!” Viggo shouted as he leapt upwards, vaulted off nothing, then triple-jumped for maximum height. Moon and Alathar dove to either side as he drew his Bow once more, reached into the Möbius quiver at his hip, and fired as many tethers as he could across the tank and the crowd of Cabal. The second his feet hit pavement he dove and rolled for all he was worth, holding his breath, feeling the Corpse fall upon them –

“I AM! Legion! Crimson tide! Forgotten army! Self-deluded castoffs lost and cowering away from Calus’s love/hate!” The Corpse rocketed past them, tattered robes fluttering in the wind. “WALLBREAKERS! CITY IN CINDERS! Ghaul’s pathetic final whimpers drain away like scattered dust in the vastness of the Datasphere! Yarrow says GO HIDE IN A HOLE SOMEWHERE, YOU UGLY FROGS! I AM NOT!”

The cannon fired and Viggo gritted his teeth and forced himself not to look away as the massive beam of solar power streaked towards the new biggest threat; but before it could impact the Corpse and turn it into ash, the magnetic field shaping the superheated energy unspooled in the fathomless Void, and the cannon’s discharge looped and spun away into nothing. The yawning nothing within the Corpse stretched out, and the massive cannon crumpled, screeching metal upon screeching metal, peeled open like a flower.

The Cabal unloaded their full retinue of fire on the Corpse, but the munitions spun away into the Vortex crowned above the creature’s umbral horns. It held its arm out, palm forward, wailing into the sky, and Viggo’s eyes nearly popped out of their sockets with how hard they bugged as he watched the tank begin to buckle from inside. It let out a sickening groan of metal straining against gravity, crunched, bent in half, and then began to crumple like a tin can, dragged inwards as a second Vortex spun up from a pinprick somewhere in the bowels of the great machine...

Viggo blinked and it was gone. The sudden still and quiet was deafening to his ears and when he brought himself to pay attention, he noticed that all of the Cabal were now dead, too; they lay here and there, some in heaps, some sprawled alone in the middle of the street. All grey, as if the very color had been leeched out of them, with staining rust and green moss crawling across their armor as if they had been dead for decades.

The Corpse shuffled quietly back the way it had came, hugging itself like a lost civilian, hunched and small as if it were just a ghost. Viggo got to his feet first. He felt a pang of... emptiness. Longing. It was incomplete, he thought, and he approached it warily but at a firm pace.

“Hey,” he mumbled, trying his best to ape Moon’s ‘comforting Rez-sick newbie Guardian’ voice. “Can you hear me? Is– is there anyone in there? Hey.” He reached out, but the moment before his fingers touched its shoulder it began to fade, its image vanishing right before his eyes as if it had walked behind an invisible shroud and out of sight.

The oppressive weight of its presence instantly guttered and went out.

The three victorious Guardians stood in a silent triangle, alone with an empty crater and fifty dead Cabal.

“We need to talk to Ikora,” Viggo said breathlessly.

“Dammit,” Moon pouted. “I’m going to get in trouble.” 

[brandluxe-uk]

Geneo First Usage

I have always had problematic skin. Redness, an oily T-zone, sensitivity and acne-like blemishes are just some of the issues that I have faced, and continue to experience on an ongoing basis, especially when I feel particularly stressed out.

Did you know that clinical studies indicate that between 40 and 55 percent of the adult population aged between 20 and 40 suffer with low grade, persistent acne and oily skin? I didn’t either! But I do take comfort in knowing that I’m not the only one out experiencing such problematic skin, so we are very much in this together!

I’ve used a number of serums, moisturisers, beauty tools and masks, (the list goes on!) to try and combat my skin concerns. Some have worked, but I often find that these home-use remedies are just not proficient enough to target such acute issues.

I have also turned to professional aestheticians to try and understand exactly how to best manage my skin flare-ups. I have had a number of very costly facials to help improve the condition of my skin and my overall appearance. Although I have found them to be beneficial, unfortunately, due to the hefty price tags of these sessions, I am only able to have these done periodically.

I had been doing a lot research on what professional home-use technologies exist that can help me in my fight against my bad skin. I came across a device called The Geneo Personal, which is home use beauty device. Produced by an Israeli company called Pollogen, (I know Israel to be a very advanced nation when it comes to the development of high-tech beauty solutions) the device uses a very special way of rejuvenating the skin. The Geneo Personal works by oxygenating the skin from within. What does this mean exactly? I asked the same question and found that oxygenating the skin is supposed to:

“Provide a deep cleansing of the skin, exfoliation of the upper skin layer, oxygenation of the skin from within and absorption of the skin for nourishment of active ingredients. The result: Skin renewal, improvement of skin tone and texture, glowy look, hydration and dull skin improvement.”

This sounded like a dream home-use device solution, and at under £200, if the Geneo Personal does everything it’s supposed to, it would be totally worth it. I have spent in excess of £200 for a single facial treatment in the past! So, based on being able to keep the device and use it an infinite number of times, I didn’t hesitate in purchasing the device.

After receiving my Geneo device, I immediately charged it, excited by the thought of conducting my own facials at home. I love the look and feel of the Geneo unit itself, it’s a nice weight and really easy to hold, this is down to the egg shape. So, my first thought was that I think it would be suitable for anyone to use, especially for those that might have struggled with heavier home use devices in the past, when they were not so portable.

I soon got to work tackling my skin, by starting with the silicone head to cleanse my face. It was reassuring to see that Geneo have used silicone, as it’s the most hygienic material, over a brush for example, meaning that bacteria won’t cling to its surface after use. This is really important if you suffer from break outs as often the bacteria can inflame broken skin, causing further stress to the skin and the healing process is exasperated.

I used my everyday cleansing solution with my Geneo and It took around 3 minutes to fully cleanse my skin; I used circular motions to ensure that every inch of my face was squeaky clean. The vibrating sonic technology meant that my skin felt super renewed immediately afterwards; it felt as though I had had an exfoliation treatment already, and I hadn’t even started on the oxygenation step of the process! The second step was to remove the silicone head and to replace this with an oxygenation capsule (these are in the pink sachets). I applied the treatment gel (this comes in the green sachet) all over my skin, spreading a thin and consistent layer across the whole of my face. In total you get 4 capsules and 4 gel sachets, meaning that you should be able to give yourself 4 oxygenation treatments. The refill pack works out to be just under £30 so this works out to be just £7.50 per treatment, which I think is exception value based on the fact that you are getting a professional facial. I found that the capsule didn’t fully dissolve away after my first treatment, so I was able to save that for my next!

Anyway, back to the oxygenation effect itself. What you then need to do is turn the Geneo on and again use circular motions to activate the ingredients within the capsule. It’s the reaction between the gel and the capsule that actually creates the bubbles, and this is really satisfying to see happen! It felt quite tingly at first, (in a nice way) which is a good sign to me, as that made me think that something was really happening here. I managed to complete my entire face in under 6 minutes, which was perfect a I don’t have much patience! I found that adding drops of water to the capsule meant that the capsule was more reactive, the bubbles that formed were bigger and bubblier! I noticed that my skin started to look a little red, which initially concerned me, as aforementioned, I do have very sensitive skin. I then realised that the redness wasn’t a bright, alarming red, is was more of a dewy red shade, which made me think that actually this wasn’t any kind of sensitivity but actually the glow from within that the Geneo makers describe:

“Geneo works by creating a layer of Co2 bubbles on your face. This causes the body to release oxygen to the skin cells, increasing blood flow to the tiny vessels and encouraging the skin rejuvenation process, leaving skin glowing and radiant.”

It was amazing to think that my body was reacting to the Geneo in this way, and that I could see first-hand how a professional treatment feels and looks, as you run through the steps — the whole process felt satisfyingly therapeutic. I had felt like I had done something really good for my skin! After the exfoliation process I rinsed and dried my skin. As I wiped away the excess water on my face, I was stunned to feel HOW soft and silky my face felt. “Wow, I don’t think my skin has ever felt like this before” I remember thinking. I couldn’t stop touching my face, any roughness had been eliminated, and after the initial red glow had subsided, my skin remained fresh and dewy. It honestly felt as though I had been to my local beautician and had a very expensive facial.

I completed my treatment using the Geneo anti-ageing cream. It’s a lovely light cream, that gently glides onto the skin and sinks in really quickly. I actually noticed how quickly it absorbed, maybe that’s because I had just professionally exfoliated my skin?

As the Geneo Personal home-use device is a scaled down version of one of Pollogen’s substantial salon devices, it’s a verified treatment that is clinically proven to rejuvenate facial skin and is suitable for all skin types.

I could immediately see why there were so many good reviews about this new technology, and I was looking forward to my next session already!

As you can use the cleansing mode (silicone head) daily and then the treatments are once a week, Geneo really becomes your ultimate skincare tool.

I recommend the Geneo to everyone that has some time in the week to spend on themselves. Give it a go and see the wonderful results for yourself!

Originally published at https://thebrandluxe.com.

[alishbakhanus]

19 things every bride and groom forget when planning their wedding

The farm is already reserved, the photographer hired and the floral decoration chosen. The dress is ready, after several tests and some touch-ups. The menu has already been confirmed and the invitations have been sent. The wedding list is going from strength to strength and there cannot be a better destination than the one you have chosen for your honeymoon.

1. Bridal bouquet and rings

The big day has arrived. You have slept a little badly because of your nerves and they are already knocking on your door: hairdresser, makeup artist and photographer. They leave you radiant and you start to put on your beautiful wedding dress, you take pictures with your mother and your sisters, even with that friend who has come to calm your nerves in the last moments. You’re all set to go on your way to the ceremony!

2. Thanks to the guests

One of the things that brides often forget is to thank their friends and family for attending the wedding and for entering a gift on their wedding list. A wedding is your big day but do not forget that it is still a commitment for the guests and a large outlay of money. It is a very elegant gesture to thank each of them, either in person on the wedding day or after it, by email or WhatsApp, according to protocol professionals. You can even choose to send a postcard to each of the homes of your honeymoon guests, it will be a nice gesture!

3. The wedding is up to you

Many grooms want the time to get married and, when it arrives and the long months of planning the wedding begin, they forget that they are the protagonists and those who must take care of all the aspects related to the big day.

You entrust certain tasks to your friends or your closest relatives and “we do it together” becomes your star phrase. Its okay for your mother, sister, mother-in-law and friend to help you with the preparations, but don’t delegate the entire wedding organization to them, don’t forget that the wedding is your thing!

4. Emergency kit for the bride

Each bride must be ready for any unforeseen event on her wedding day, you must be able to face any emergency, alone or with the help of the mother, sisters, friends or witnesses. Do not forget that it is a day of many nerves and very little time to solve unforeseen events, therefore, for what may happen, leave a relaxing herbal tea to calm anxiety in the last moments, a lip gloss for an always perfect smile, a handkerchief for the more than certain tears, plasters for possible scratches from new shoes, a nail file, some spare stockings and a small sewing kit.

Nothing can surprise you anymore! You have all the remedies for possible problems that may arise during the big day. Now nothing can go wrong.

5. A guest kit

Yes, in September wedding you have already prepared but … what about the guests? When planning your wedding it is essential that you take your time to take care of your guests. These are small things that will not take you long and that they will appreciate if a setback occurs.

For example, prepare for them in the services an emergency kit with wipes, bandages, needle and thread, makeup to touch up, hand cream, stain remover and anything else that can help them in the event of a small incident. Between one toast and another, you know…

6. Rehearse your best photographic profile

Don’t forget to rehearse your best face. We all have a profile and a smile ready for the ‘photo moment’. When you do your dress, hairstyle and makeup tests, take the opportunity to take some pictures. Ask your photographer for advice on this topic.

A camera will be what you see the most on the big day and, although it is true that photographs should be natural and spontaneous, it will not hurt to try your favorite pose. For this, the most advisable thing is to do a pre-wedding session, you can face the camera together for the first time and lose your fear. “We always recommend the pre-wedding report, and fortunately, more and more couples realize that it is absolutely necessary,” says the team, wedding photographers based in Ciudad Real. “It is very important that, from minute one, there is chemistry between the two parties: boyfriends and photographers,” they explain. “The connection from us and from them it is much more special if there is a pre-wedding, “they say. Do not hesitate to put the advice of professionals into practice!

7. Indications for restoration

The sweet tables, the catering, the food truck, the recipe and all the surprises with which you will delight your guests at the wedding are exquisite, but be careful! Maybe not everyone likes exotic dishes or cupcakes, some of them may even be allergic or intolerant to some element.

Do not forget to write a specific meeting with the caterer you have hired to discuss these issues in your wedding planning agenda. The catering should guide you on the best for your wedding, what to offer according to the type of guests and their tastes, the season in which the wedding is held and even the place. And offer all this, without neglecting quality, both in the dishes and in the kitchens.

The use of the best technologies and the flexibility of its team are hallmarks of Quality Catering. Your customers will be able to choose from endless possibilities to get the most suitable menu for each type of celebration. They are based on a concept of services that goes far beyond the traditional one, and that they themselves have called “Anywhere Restaurant “, reaching levels of quality that are very difficult to achieve.

8. Donating to the church

In general, the parents are in charge of it, but sometimes the excitement and the nerves that everything goes well causes this to be forgotten. They take care that the bride arrives after the groom, that everything is correct in the ceremony, that they receive the guests, etc. And they forget to make a small donation to the church.

Therefore, the best way to prevent this from happening is for the donation to be made a few days before the wedding celebration or to entrust this task to a friend that you know will not have to be actively involved with the preparations.

9. The dress code

One aspect that is often overlooked for the future marriage is the clothing of guests, family and friends. It is not that you should impose a true dress code, but it would be appropriate to give at least a couple of guidelines in both colors and styles, especially so that they look in harmony with the celebration itself. A good option would be to check the trends in party dresses for guests or how to dress at a day or night wedding .

Another aspect that is overlooked is the clothes that the bride and groom will wear during the preparation in the morning before the wedding. You have to keep in mind that you must wear something comfortable while you are combing and putting on makeup and that it does not pose a problem when removing it to put on the wedding dress.

10. Plan B

Design a plan B, that is, an alternative option. Even if your wedding is in summer or in a place where the sun always rises, like Seville, the weather can always surprise you. If you have thought about holding an outdoor celebration, it would not hurt to consider the option of preparing a covered venue in case the rain appears.

Nothing can spoil the big day! You have to be proactive in an event as important as this! It makes sense to choose a location that lends itself to magical outdoor celebrations and enchanting indoor weddings, if the weather calls for it. Even in the Andalusian capital you have to be far-sighted, therefore, a wonderful place like Real Club Golf has lounges and gardens that blend modernity and warmth in a unique setting. Its jewel is the Room, which occupies an area of 439 square meters, and its capacity varies between 500 people if it is a cocktail, 400 if it is a banquet and 100 if the distribution is school type. There ACS Catering serves, and both teams are merged into one for the best results. Of them, it is worth highlighting the closeness and trust with the couple. “The personal treatment with the client, the transparencies in what was agreed, the range of possibilities to personalize your wedding”, is what defines them as the best option, they clarify.

11. The texts to read at the ceremony

It may not have crossed your mind, but that’s what we’re here for. Don’t forget to personalize the texts that will be read at your ceremony! The wedding is a good time to display feelings and emotions , the best moment for everyone to know what you think and say those things that we keep to ourselves many times. Prepare a text and propose to a family member or friend to read it at your ceremony.

Many are the cases in which the couple have forgotten this and have proposed it to someone at the last moment. For everything to turn out great, the ideal would be that whoever was going to read had a short text prepared in advance and could even customize it to their liking. This way, the ceremony will be more emotional and the guests will always remember it with great affection.

12. Traditions

How could you not think of this? Traditions are very important at a wedding: don’t forget to bring something new, something old, something borrowed, and something blue. Consult with your mother and your friends about the option that they can leave you something that at the same time means a lot to you. It will be great if at that moment you are wearing a little bit of all of them that are such an important part of your life!

For the groom, the tradition is that if he marries during the day, he dresses in a morning coat, and if he does it at night, with a suit or tuxedo. They can advise you on protocol, colors and accessories, the most prestigious multi-brand luxury fashion store for men and women. And its success comes from the fact that it is one of the few tailoring workshops that still work 100% by hand. “Mainly, what the bride and groom seek is to show the best version of themselves. They want to look good with a suit that is contemporary and elegant, but breathes fresh air. In addition, the suit must fit with the concept and type of wedding they have in mind”.

Its experts recommend starting with the suit three months in advance, although they indicate that if “you are looking for something very specific, working earlier helps to find it and define it well.” At this point, they distinguish between the industrial measure and a suit cut and sewn by a tailor: “In the case of ordering the suit from the tailor, the groom, advised by our assistants, will be able to choose all the details he wishes since the tailor will to make for him a unique garment adjusted to his body”.

13. Rest

Yes, although it seems very obvious, no girlfriend does. The stress caused by the wedding days before is so intense that it will not allow you to stop for a single second. Do not be overwhelmed, for this you have been planning this great day for months. It is advisable to rest and spend a day relaxing in a spa, it is the best way to release tension and calm anxiety. Do it!

14. Consider key days and peak times

If, for example, you are getting married on a Friday in the city at 8:00 p.m., it is essential that you notify your guests of the possible traffic jam that they are going to catch. These are crucial hours and days that can make you late for your wedding! Keep this in mind if you do not want to leave the groom standing for more than an hour at the altar.

15. Distribute petals

Even if you want everything to be pink at your wedding and the only thing that falls on you when leaving the church are petals, do not despair! You are not going to get it. Rice, although it is a tradition that many of us want to erase from the map, it is not so easy to get it out of the minds of the guests. For this reason and to make it, above all, a lesser evil, you can distribute petals instead of rice bags. You will be right!

16. Anticipate the presence of unwanted guests

And we are not referring to that neighbor who always looks at you over her shoulder and that of course you have not invited to your wedding and we hope she does not show up, but to those guests that you cannot control.

August, seven in the afternoon, sunshine, farm with pool, floral decoration, delicious snacks and … mosquitoes, wasps, bees and a host of bugs that can ruin that look that you have been planning for so many months with which you look beautiful. Make sure there are citronella candles, insecticidal air fresheners and, just in case, you get bitten by whatever bites you… wear After Bite!

17. Pay attention to bathrooms

Make sure that the bathrooms are clean before and during the celebration, if necessary hire a cleaning service that takes care of the sinks at all times and restocks the kit that you have prepared for the guests. It would give a very bad image if not everything was in order, the guests will come to this space on several occasions to touch up and review their makeup and they could dirty their dress. The same can happen to you with your wedding dress, make sure you are not going to stain yourself in any way!

18. After the party

Another important point is the collection of objects and gifts after the party. You will be so busy that you will forget anything! Have someone collect all the gifts when the party is over and bring them to your home. Don’t allow a single worry on your wedding night.

19. Smile

A wedding is a day full of true love and, although worries and nerves want to overshadow your smile, don’t allow it! It has to be a day to enjoy to the fullest with those you love the most. Don’t forget to smile and be happy!

Now that you are aware of the 20 things you probably would have overlooked before reading this article, don’t forget to check out the mistakes 9 out of 10 girlfriends make and the 23 times you’ll need your best friend on the big day.

Courtesy: best event planner in Lahore

[jbaquerot]

1. Machine learning for response (semi-)automation

In 2016, we predicted a shift from detection to intelligent investigation. In 2018, we’re predicting a shift from rich investigative information toward distilled recommended actions, backed by information-rich incident reports. Infosec analysts have long stopped clamoring for “more alerts!” from security providers. In the coming year, we’ll see increased customer appetite for products to recommend actions based on solid evidence. Machine learning has, in large part, proven itself a valuable tool for detecting evidence of threats used to compile an incident report. Security professionals subconsciously train themselves to respond to (or ignore) the evidence of an incident in a certain way. The linchpin to scale in information security rests still on the information security analyst, and many of the knee-jerk responses can be automated. In some cases, the response might be ML-automated, but in many others it will be at least ML-recommended.

Why now?

The information overload pain point is as old as IDS technology—not a new problem for machine learning to tackle—and some in the industry have invested in ML-based (semi-) automated remediation. However, there are a few pressures driving more widespread application of ML to simplify response through ML distillation rather than complicate with additional evidence: (1) market pressure to optimize workflows instead of alerts—to scale human response, (2) diminishing returns on reducing time-to-detect compared to time-to-remediate.

What can you do?

Assess remediation workflows of security analysts in your organization: (1) What pieces of evidence related to the incident provide high enough confidence to respond? (2) What evidence determines how to respond? (3) For a typical incident, how many decisions must be made during remediation? (4) How long does remediation take for a typical incident? (5) What is currently being automated reliably? (6) What tasks could still be automated? Don’t force a solution on security analysts—chances are, they are creating custom remediation scripts in powershell or bash. You may already be using a mixed-bag of commercial and open source tools for remediation (e.g., Ansible to task commands to different groups, or open source @davehull’s Kansa). Assess how existing solutions can help simplify and automate remediation steps. Check out Demisto, or Endgame’s Artemis.

2. Machine learning for attack automation

“Invest in adversarial machine learning” was listed in our previous two yearly trends because of the tremendous uptick in research activity. In 2018, we’re predicting that one manifestation of this is now ripe for adoption in the mainstream: ML for attack automation. A caveat: although we believe that 2018 will be the year that ML begins to be adopted for automating—for example, social engineering phishing attacks or bypassing CAPTCHA—we don’t think it’s necessarily the year we’ll see evidence in the wild of sophisticated methods to subvert your machine learning malware detection, or to discover and exploit vulnerabilities in your network. That’s still research, and today, there are still easier methods for attackers.

Why now?

There’s been significant research activity to demonstrate how, at least theoretically, AI can scale digital attacks in an unprecedented way. Tool sets are making the barrier to entry quite low. And there are economic drivers to do things like bypass CAPTCHA. Incidentally, today’s security risks and exploits are often more embarrassing than sophisticated, so that even sophisticated adversaries may not require machine learning to be effective, instead relying on unpatched deficiencies in networks that the attacker understands and exploits. So, it’s important to not be an alarmist. Think of ML for attack automation as just an algorithmic wrinkle that adds dynamism and efficiency to automatically discovering or exploiting during an attack.

What can you do?

Protect your users by more than simple image/audio CAPTCHA-like techniques that can be solved trivially by a human. Chances are that if it’s trivially solved by a human, then it’s a target for machine learning automation. There are no easy alternatives—but, moderate success has been obtained in image recognition showing fragments of a single image (say, a scene on the road), and asking to pick out those pieces that have a desired object (say, a red car). Calmly prepare for even the unlikely. Ask yourself: how would you discover whether an attack on your network was automated by machine learning or by old-fashioned enumeration in a script? (Might you see exploration-turn-to-exploitation in an ML attack? Would it matter?) Familiarize yourself with pen testing and red-teaming tools like Caldera, Innuendo, and Atomic Red Team, which can simulate advanced manual attacks, but would also give you a leg-up on automated attacks in years to come.

3. Model compliance

Global compliance laws affect the design, engineering, and operational costs of security data science solutions. The laws themselves provide strict guidelines around data handling, movement (platform constraints), as well as model-building constraints such as explainability and the “right to be forgotten.” Model compliance is not a one-time investment: privacy laws change with the political landscape. For instance, it is not clear how Britain leaving the European Union might affect the privacy laws in the UK. In some cases, privacy laws do not agree—for instance, Irish DPA considers IP addresses to be personally identifiable information, which is not the case across the world. More concretely, if you have an anomalous logins detection based on IP addresses, in some parts of the world the detection would not work because IP addresses would be scrubbed/removed. This means that the same machine learning model for detecting these anomalous logins would not work across different geographic regions.

Why now?

Building models that are respectful of compliance laws is important because failure to do so not only brings with it crippling monetary costs—for instance, failure to adhere to the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), set to take effect in May 2018, can result in a fine of up to 20 million Euros, or 4% of annual global turnover—but also the negative press associated for the business.

What can you do?

As an end consumer, you would need to audit your data and tag it appropriately. Those who are on AWS are lucky, with Amazon’s Macie service. If your data set is small, it is best to bite the bullet and do it by hand. Many countries prevent cloud providers from merging locality-specific data outside regional boundaries. We recommend tiered modeling: each geographic region is modeled separately, and the results are scrubbed and sent to a global model. Differentially private ensembles are particularly relevant here.

4. Rigor and repeatable experiments

The biggest buzz of the NIPS 2017 conference was when Ali Rahimi claimed current ML methods are akin to alchemy (read commentary from @fhuszar on this subject). At the core of Rahimi’s talk was how the machine learning field is progressing on non-rigorous methods that are not widely understood and, in some cases, not repeatable. For instance, researchers showed how the same reinforcement algorithm from two different code bases on the same data set, had vastly different results. Jason Brownlee’s blog breaks down the different ways an ML experiment can produce random results: from randomization introduced by libraries to GPU quirks.

Why now?

We are at a time where there is a deluge of buzzwords in the security world—artificial intelligence, advanced persistent threats, and machine deception. As a field, we have matured to know there are limitations to every solution; there is no omnipotent solution—even if it were to use the latest methods. So, this one is less of a trend and more a call to action.

What can you do?

Whenever you publish your work, at an academic conference or a security con, please release your code and the data set you used for training. The red team is very good at doing this; we defenders need to step up our game. Eschew publishing your detection results on the KDD 1999 data set—claiming state-of-the-art results on a data set that was popular during the times of Internet Explorer 5 and Napster is unhygienic. (“MNIST is the new unit test,” suggested Ian Goodfellow, but it doesn’t convey a successful result.) Consider using a more realistic data set like Splunk’s Boss of the SOC curated by Ryan Kovar. We understand that in some cases there are no publicly available benchmarks and there is a constraint to release the data set as is—in that case, consider generating evaluation data in a simulated environment using @subtee’s Red Canary framework. When you present a method at a conference, highlight the weakness and failures of the method—go beyond false positive and false negative rates, and highlight the tradeoffs. Let the audience know what kinds of attacks you will miss and how you compensate for them. If you need inspiration, I will be at the Strata Data Conference in San Jose this March talking about the different security experiments that spectacularly failed and how we fixed them. Your efforts to bring rigor to the security analytics field are going to benefit us all—the rising tide does raise all boats.

What won’t happen in 2018

To temper some of the untempered excitement (and sometimes hype) about machine learning in information security, we conclude with a few suggestions for things that we aren’t likely to see in 2018.

Reinforcement learning (RL) for offense in the wild

RL has been used to train agents that demonstrate superhuman performance at very narrow tasks, like AlphaGo and Atari. In infosec, it has been demonstrated in research settings to, for example, discover weaknesses of next-gen AV at very modest rates. However, it’s not yet in the “it just works” category, and we forecast another one to two years before infosec realizes interesting offensive or defensive automation via RL.

Generative adversarial networks (GANs) in an infosec product

Generally speaking, GANs continue to see a ton of research activity with impressive results—the excitement is totally warranted. Unfortunately, there’s also been a lack of systematic and objective evaluation metrics in their development. This is a cool hammer that has yet to find its respective killer application in infosec.

Machine learning displacing security jobs

In fact, we think the assimilation causality may go in reverse: because of ever-improving accessibility of machine learning, many more infosec professionals will begin to adopt machine learning in traditional security tasks.

Hype around AI in infosec

It is a fact that, especially in infosec, those talking about “AI” usually mean “ML.” Despite our best efforts, in 2018, the loaded buzzwords about AI in security aren’t going away. We still need to educate customers about how to cut through the hype by asking the right questions. And frankly, a consumer shouldn’t care if it’s AI, ML, or hand-crafted rules. The real question should be, “does it protect me?”

Parting thoughts

The year 2018 is going to bring ML-for-response, as well as the milder forms of attack automation, into the mainstream. As an industry, compliance laws for machine learning will affect a more general shift toward data privacy. The ML community will self-correct toward rigor and repeatability. At the same time, this year we will not see security products infused with RL or GANs—despite popularity in ongoing research. Your infosec job is here to stay, despite more use of ML. Finally, we’ll see this year that ML is mature enough to stand on its own, with no need to be propped up with imaginative buzzwords or hype.

[aion-rsa]

How Xbox One Shaped the Future of Console Gaming

https://ift.tt/3plyw92

I never owned an Xbox One, and to be honest, I’ve never really regretted that decision, even as I prepare to get my hands on the Xbox Series X.

In some ways, the legacy of the Xbox One is defined by shortcomings. Microsoft’s infamously botched reveal of the console was lowlighted by the console’s investment in the now-defunct Kinect peripheral as well as its apparent dependence on a constant internet connection. And even though Microsoft addressed most of these issues over time, the tech company faced one problem it never entirely solved: an inability to consistently deliver compelling exclusives.

From Sunset Overdrive to Forza Horizon 4, there are definitely Xbox games from the last generation that you need to play that you can’t on a PlayStation 4 or Nintendo Switch. The problem is that there just never seemed to be enough Xbox One exclusives released in any given year. The GameCube suffered from a similar problem, but that console is at least fondly remembered for gifting the world with some all-time great games. It’s highly debatable whether there are any Xbox One console exclusives worthy of that honor.

All of these problems — and other factors, such as Microsoft’s continued struggles in certain international markets — led to what many see as a sound defeat for the Xbox One in the console war against the PS4. The numbers are never quite as bad in that area as some fans would lead you to believe, but the fact remains that current tallies suggest that PlayStation outsold Xbox in the last console generation at an almost a 2:1 ratio. When you’re talking about a margin as substantial as that, it’s easy to argue that something went wrong.

That’s the fascinating thing about the Xbox One’s legacy, though. It’s the rare video game console that deserves to be remembered as much for how it benefited those who owned it as it benefited those who did not.

The reason I can tell you about the Xbox One’s great exclusives despite never owning an Xbox One is that I got to play most of them on PC. While Microsoft has always had a closer relationship with PC gaming than other console manufacturers, the Xbox One was the console that broke down nearly every barrier that kept certain titles on consoles in the apparent hope of tempting PC gamers to purchase a new device for just a handful of games. It’s not a stretch to suggest that Microsoft’s success in the current PC market is a big part of the reason why studios like Sega and even the PlayStation team are supporting PC gaming in ways they never did before.

Remarkably, Microsoft’s continued support of the PC platform may be the least impressive example of the company’s two greatest virtues during the Xbox One generation: accessibility and consumer-friendly ways to play on the platform. 

When I say accessibility, I’m of course talking about the Xbox team’s initiative to develop devices, such as the Adaptive Controller, that allow gamers with various disabilities to enjoy the titles they love with as few restrictions as possible. This is something that Microsoft doesn’t always get enough credit for (likely because it’s another measure of success that can’t be measured in sales figures alone), but it’s arguably a big part of the reason why we’re seeing so many developers work to include expanded accessibility options in their games. 

But I also want to use the word in a broader sense. The fact remains that Microsoft championed accessibility during the Xbox One generation in ways that Nintendo and Sony often did not. 

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Microsoft began supporting cross-play at a time when Sony was arguing that the feature wasn’t good for its userbase. Sony eventually relented, especially as cross-play games like Fortnite and Call of Duty Warzone grew more popular, and gamers now expect nearly every multi-platform multiplayer title to have some kind of cross-play functionality.

The Xbox team also began developing cloud gaming technology when many still rightfully believed it was a pipe dream. But with services like Google Stadia, Amazon Luna, and NVIDIA GeForce Now, it’s clear Microsoft was ahead of the curve on this one. Even Sony confirmed in 2019 that it has partnered with Microsoft to further the advancement of cloud gaming on the PlayStation platform.

Microsoft also championed the importance of backward compatibility at a time when players had surrendered to the idea that the only way to play classic games on modern consoles was to purchase remastered re-releases. The company’s efforts in that field may be part of the reason why the PS5 will feature a (comparatively limited) backward compatibility system that the PS4 infamously lacked. With extensive backward compatibility options on Xbox Series X, Microsoft remains at the forefront of innovation in terms of finding new ways for more people to play more games than ever before. 

Of course, you can’t talk about Microsoft’s consumer-friendly innovations without mentioning Xbox Game Pass. A “Netflix for gaming” has always been a hollow talking point, but Microsoft has made great strides in offering a service that almost replicates the streaming functionality of Netflix, especially with the cloud-based Xbox Game Pass app on mobile devices. Game Pass has cleared many of the hurdles of starting a gaming subscription service while also proving their growing necessity. Thanks to Game Pass, the idea of buying one $60 (or more) game at a time is beginning to feel archaic.

Game Pass wasn’t the first video game subscription service, but it was one of the first to feature the right combination of features and compromises. No, it doesn’t let you stream game on consoles, but it does let you download them with the option of purchasing them later at a reduced price. It even debuted for under $10 a month even though similar services proved that Microsoft could have easily charged more and few would have batted an eye, which is still a highly competitive price point when compared to other services.

From the very beginning, Game Pass was designed to be functional and accessible. Microsoft’s philosophy was that if you got people to try it, they wouldn’t want to go back. From there, the company grew Game Pass in ways that nobody anticipated. Who would have thought that Game Pass would eventually include day one Xbox exclusives at no additional cost? Who would have thought that Game Pass would grow to feature titles from EA’s own subscription program? It’s no wonder the service now boasts 15 million subscribers across all compatible platforms. The service is simply one of the best deals in gaming, even if you don’t own an Xbox and want to use it on PC.

If you break down all the ways that Game Pass eventually grew into the greatest subscription service in gaming, you’ll find that nearly every milestone was something that was ultimately good for Game Pass subscribers. Game Pass has proven to be valuable for Microsoft in ways that the Xbox One hardware never really was. It’s a big part of the reason why the next-gen console wars likely won’t be measured purely in terms of hardware sales. As the industry becomes increasingly reliant on engagement as its primary metric, it becomes harder to deny the long-term value of a service such as Xbox Game Pass. Even PlayStation Now has struggled to compete, largely due to Sony’s hesitance to port day one exclusives to the service. 

That isn’t to say that Microsoft has been perfect or that it’s making all the right moves across the board. The Xbox Series X’s limited launch library shows that Microsoft hasn’t quite remedied its software shortcomings. And while the company’s acquisition of Bethesda might seriously beef up the next-gen console’s first-party lineup, the deal has also left gamers with serious questions regarding whether Microsoft will do the “consumer-friendly” and make future Bethesda titles available on competing platforms. When it comes to the games, Microsoft has to figure out how its going to balance accessibility and exclusivity in a way that makes sense for the fans and (let’s be honest) the shareholders.

When I think back on the legacy of the Xbox, it’s difficult not to view the mistakes Microsoft made through the lens of how it learned from those same mistakes. You could argue that the early version of the Xbox One was a little too forward-thinking for its own good, but I’d say that the biggest problem with the early days of the Xbox One was Microsoft’s inability to convey what it was trying to achieve. With its eyes on the future, Team Xbox overlooked what people wanted in the present. It would have been easy for Microsoft to stubbornly stay the course, but the company instead opted to admit what it did wrong, take a step back, and make sure the issues were addressed before it tried to take a bold leap forward again.

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You may not have owned an Xbox One, either. You may have no real desire to purchase an Xbox Series X based on its current library of games. Yet, when we look back on the evolution of console gaming, it’s going to be hard to deny that the Xbox One paved the way for a more exciting path forward that will continue to unfold in the next generation. 

The post How Xbox One Shaped the Future of Console Gaming appeared first on Den of Geek.

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Meet Fairfield University’s School of Engineering Dean Andres Leonardo Carrano, PhD

Photo: Andres L. Carrano, PhD.

A few weeks into his new role as dean of the School of Engineering, Andres L. Carrano, PhD introduced himself to the Fairfield University community in an interview with Jeannine (Carolan) Graf ’87 of the Marketing & Communications Department. Their conversation covered everything from the new dean’s first impressions of Stag country to how he spends his time when he’s not working in a lab, classroom, or office.

You took on your new role as dean of Fairfield’s School of Engineering in the midst of a pandemic and the same week that Tropical Storm Isaias roared into town – quite a welcome! What was that like?

Indeed, it has been a very interesting experience to say the least – almost surreal in a way. With the ongoing pandemic, the safety our students, faculty, and staff has been my main concern since day one. But having just relocated from Savannah, Georgia, (and having previously lived in Auburn, Alabama) where hurricanes and tornadoes make regular appearances, I found it ironic that one of each kind welcomed me in my first week here at Fairfield. Despite my unusual start, and perhaps because of it, I have received tremendous support and understanding from all units and people across campus and that has made my onboarding that much easier!

Given the current coronavirus-related restrictions on campus, how have you been able to meet and connect with engineering students since the semester began? How are they doing?

This pandemic hit us at a time when videoconferencing technologies are mature enough that we can enjoy some degree of freedom in how we design our interactions. For example, we conducted our first-year convocation and open houses mainly via Zoom. As the Dean’s Office works from several locations in order to reduce staff density, we communicate via Teams and other tools. Within the circumstances, generally speaking, the students are appreciative and grateful for the opportunity to be on campus and have some in-person classes.  

What excites you the most about becoming dean of Fairfield’s School of Engineering at this time? What do you most look forward to in your first year?

I was very attracted to the immense potential of this School, the superb location in the Northeast Corridor, the beautiful campus and facilities, as well as the Jesuit pedagogical approach and values, all of which makes us a very unique program in the country. During the first year, I look forward to spreading the word and increasing awareness so that Fairfield Engineering becomes well-known outside the Northeast. I am also very excited about the launches of our newest master’s programs in cybersecurity, data science, and entrepreneurship & technology (coming soon), as well as our renewed focus on biomedical engineering.

What are the biggest challenges facing the School of Engineering?

Without a doubt, the biggest challenge right now is to conduct our instruction and research activities in a safe manner. Some of the day-to-day activities we always took for granted are our biggest challenges – for example, conducting socially distanced manufacturing lab sessions where instructor proximity is needed for safety reasons.

You received your BS in industrial engineering from Universidad Católica Andres Bello, the oldest, largest Jesuit university in Venezuela. How has your undergraduate Jesuit education prepared you for your current position at Fairfield?

My undergraduate Jesuit education has prepared me not just for my current position but for life. I often mentioned that it took me more than 25 years to connect the dots and realize the profound impact that my Jesuit formation has had on me. Also, a little-known fact is that I am part of a multi-generational, Jesuit-educated family: my father and all my siblings attended and graduated from Jesuit institutions. Now my daughter is also attending one.

With regard to my preparation, I think engineering programs at Jesuit institutions are very special programs. I say this because, in my opinion, the principles of discernment, social justice, and others take a special meaning in our profession. They are also more challenging to incorporate into a very packed, accreditation-constrained, technical curriculum.

Having said that, engineering has had one of the most significant roles in the advancement of human living standards throughout the course of history. From the technologies behind the procurement of clean water from far distances, the power systems that move everything, the electrification of cities, all the way to the ice cube in your drink — that you sip while you open an app on your phone to place a purchase. I firmly believe that graduating engineers with a deep sense and awareness of social and humanitarian issues is paramount to remediating some of them. I have a tremendous amount of faith in these younger generations of engineers who, if equipped with the right tools and armed with the right motivations, will accomplish things we could not even dream of.      

What do you see as the biggest advantages to studying engineering at a university with a liberal humanistic approach to education?

I believe that a solid liberal arts foundation is fundamental for engineers, as it is for most other disciplines. In fact, it pains me to see the trend in some other engineering programs around the country to remove liberal arts content and become much more specialized in a technical discipline. While this may maximize short term proficiency, technologies become obsolete within months (if not sooner) and we cannot anticipate the technical preparation that someone might need to tackle problems 10 or 20 years from now. Rather, we can focus on forming the best professional engineers, who in addition to a solid technical education, possess excellent communication and interpersonal skills, are able to solve problems in teams of people from a variety of backgrounds, and have a profound situational awareness and emotional intelligence. Perhaps more importantly, our engineers will be mindful of the larger issues, including social justice, environmental problems, etc. Because of this, our engineers are always poised to become effective leaders everywhere they go. We cannot achieve this unless we have a more holistic approach in the engineering curriculum and that involves a comprehensive liberal arts foundation.

As an industrial/mechanical engineer in an increasingly virtual software-controlled world, how important is hands-on, experiential learning across engineering disciplines?

Experiential learning is crucial in engineering as it has been demonstrated countless times that the longest knowledge retention occurs when performing the activity or, in other words, learning by doing. Furthermore, engineering is based on problem solving and design skills and both are best understood through tactile (in the broadest sense) experiences. At Fairfield Engineering, we pride ourselves on incorporating experiential learning throughout the curriculum through ample laboratory opportunities, hands-on class projects, internship with local industry and other. We also have extracurricular opportunities in which hands-on learning occurs, such as the many clubs (including the Baja racing team, Engineers Without Borders, Biomedical Engineering Society, etc.) international service trips, and our professional development/leadership series. Finally, and because you mentioned computers and software, there are wonderful opportunities to provide experiential learning through these – including digital simulations among others.

Your bio includes an impressive range of engineering scholarship. Can you tell us a bit about any research or other projects you have recently finished or are currently working on?

With my former research group (the 3D Printed Biosurfaces Lab), we just published the results of a study that showed how a very cool 3D-printed complex sphere (that we modeled mathematically to optimize the surface area) could be used as biofilter media to clean wastewater much more efficiently than commercial products. Well, technically speaking, by cleaning wastewater, I mean converting ammonia nitrogen and producing nitrates. It combines many of the basic sciences (biology, chemistry, math) to engineer a better water-processing system – the kind of stuff NASA and the likes might be interested in!      

Beyond professional accomplishments, what does Andres Carrano like to do when not on campus?

On a daily basis, I am pretty much a homebody who likes to spend time with my family. I also have two large dogs who take a good chunk of my time. On the hobby side of things, I like to watch European soccer, eat out at the many wonderful ethnic hole-in-the-wall restaurants in the Bridgeport/Fairfield/New Haven area, and love international travel that takes me off the beaten path.