#what if we were two of the best cyclists in the world from our relatively small nation chatting after the national champion road race

[oneminutefiftysixseconds]

Slovenian National Championships 2023

[mopeytropey]

Author’s note: This moodboard for chapter 3 was not a shameless excuse to post Lincoln glistening and shirtless ... OR WAS IT? 

a beer buds series: chapter 3

(available below & posted on AO3 here)

Timeline: this takes place during chapter 3 of 'apu' after Clarke has gone running with Lexa but before game night at Lexa + Costia's apartment

Beer: Whirlpool NEW ENGLAND PALE ALE

Soft and citrusy, Whirlpool is Night Shift's flagship New England pale ale. Pours hazy blonde with a nose of ripe peach and grapefruit. Sips juicy, fruity, and crisp, with minimal bitterness and big clementine notes. A bright, vibrant beer that’s wonderfully drinkable and remarkably refreshing.

ABV 4.5%

Whirlpool: Night Shift (Everett, MA) Lexa slows at the base of an incline, bracing her weight with her hands on her kneecaps while catching her breath. Lincoln extends his run by a few extra strides, resting his torso against the black metal railing of an overlook that juts above the harbor. They stand just six feet apart, regulating their breathing, while pedestrians, cyclists, and young children in strollers filter past. Although the sun wanes, arching towards the water, its heat has soaked Lexa’s shirt and shorts so that the material sticks to her skin in several places.

“Bit more intense than your last run?” Lincoln asks when he circles back to stand beside her.

Lexa stands to her full height, using the bottom of her shirt to wipe sweat from her face. “What do you mean?”

“Octavia tells me you managed to coerce Clarke into running with you the other day. Somehow I can’t imagine there were any interval sprints in that particular course.”

That jolt of nerves—of which she is now regretfully quite familiar—at the mention of Clarke has Lexa shrugging off a laugh and heading for the shade of the Memorial Bridge overpass. Her mind betrays her in the worst way as visions of Clarke in running gear, jogging beside her and cracking jokes, resurface yet again. She would kill for some ice cold water.

Either to drink or dump over her head.

She walks with her hands folded atop her head, triceps stretching pleasantly as she leans against the bridge piling. The cold stone presses into her skin through the material of her shirt, and Lexa focuses on the sensation. Lincoln follows her with an expectant smile.

“Clarke can be coerced by nothing, I assure you. She was the one who asked to come with me.” Lexa kicks lightly at Lincoln’s chiseled calf muscle. “Anyway, I sort of lost my running partner when he started getting laid, didn’t I?”  

“Hey, whoa, whoa,” Lincoln laughs, defensively holding up his palms towards Lexa. “You have not lost me.”

“Well, you’re certainly not as available.”

“Guilty,” Lincoln shrugs. “But, come on, you know how it is. You remember.”

She does remember. Lovedrunk and saturated by lust and desire—that overconsumption of physical touch that leaves no room for anything or anyone else. She remembers those first few reclusive weeks with Costia, both of them cancelling plans and shutting out the world.

It feels like someone else’s memories. A fading mirage from another life.

Lexa nods, conceding with a short exhale. “Yeah, sure. Of course.”

She stands to stretch her limbs and suddenly feels like she could run another ten miles.

“Let’s grab a beer,” Lincoln suggests, and Lexa is grateful for the change in subject.

“What—now? Where would we go? I’m disgusting,” she says, plucking her shirt from where it sticks to the skin of her stomach.

Lincoln bobs his head up the sidewalk, and Lexa’s stomach clenches to see the bright white siding of Dockside. “Octavia’s working. Let’s go bother her.”

“I need to shower,” Lexa stalls.

“Nah, come on.” Lincoln strongarms her, quite literally, by wrapping his arm around her shoulders and walking farther beneath the shadowed overpass. “The girls won’t care. We’ll sit outside.”

“Linc, I—“

“Nope, no arguments. Anyway, it’s Wednesday so Clarke is probably there too. Don’t you want to see your new best friend?”

Yes. All of the time. She is both the best and worst thing in my life at the moment. It is exceedingly problematic.

Lexa admits to none of this and instead allows herself to be escorted down the short path towards Dockside’s sunny patio. She angles her head so that she can see Lincoln’s face of self-satisfaction and scowls at his ridiculous smile.

:::

“You might not want to hug me, I’m incredibly sweaty right now.”

“Like that’s gonna stop me,” Octavia says, practically jumping into Lincoln’s embrace and landing a soft kiss against his mouth.

It’s brief and chaste, but Lexa nevertheless averts her eyes and lets her gaze fall across the boats in the harbor. They’ve approached the bar from its rear side, closer to the delivery hatch, crunching through the gravel lot that separates Dockside from the bridge.

“You guys are staying for a drink, right?”

Lexa quickly wonders if she can still sneak away for a shower and meet up with Lincoln later now that he’s got Octavia in his arms. “Actually—“

“Oh, no, sorry,” Octavia smirks. “That wasn’t a question. You’re staying.”

Lexa fully surrenders after that, following Lincoln and Octavia towards the patio entrance with a short laugh. Things could be worse than having friends hellbent on spending time with her.

It is this misguided thought that precedes Lexa’s gaze landing on Clarke through the windows that line the water.

Oh no, things are actually the worst they could possibly be.

Clarke in a strapless, summery dress. Clarke with her hair twisted at the back of her head in a delicate bun so that Lexa’s vision narrows to the shape of her bare neck and shoulders. Clarke’s bright smile as she spins to collect empty glasses from a table of two college-aged girls.

Lexa’s smile drains from her face, and when Clarke looks up to see her on the patio, she feels it like a punch to her abdomen.

She had not been wearing this particularly offensive dress during Trikru’s delivery this morning, and Lexa wonders if she often goes home on her long Wednesdays to freshen up and change clothes between shifts.

Perhaps she has a favorite customer coming in later whom she wishes to impress. Perhaps Clarke has invited someone to come visit her specifically, to make the gruelling shift more bearable. Perhaps—

“Grab a seat out here.” Octavia’s direction interrupts Lexa’s inconsequential thoughts.

Perhaps Lexa should stop theorizing about Clarke and her goddamn dress and pull her life together.

“There’s this obnoxious group of guys at the bar who keep trying to flirt with Clarke about kayaking,” Octavia continues. “I have to go rescue her, but I’ll be back with drinks.”

She leaves them with a quick brush of her fingers down Lincoln’s chest, and Lexa struggles to push images from her mind of Clarke being hit on as she climbs onto a stool across from Lincoln. The patio hasn’t yet filled with a late afternoon crowd, and she and Lincoln enjoy a minute or two of relative quiet.

Lincoln hadn’t undersold the location: the views at Dockside are stunning. The harbor is aglow as boats slice its shimmering surface. Lexa allows herself to relax under a setting sun. The sound of gulls in chorus with a quiet, perpetual clanging of cars going over the bridge soothe her previously racing thoughts.

When Octavia returns, it is with glasses of ice water, two, dripping pints of beer, and Clarke at her heels.

Lexa’s relaxation vanishes in a blink.

“Night Shift. Whirlpool,” Octavia says by way of explanation of their beverages.

Greetings overlap as Octavia places coasters and pints on the table, but Clarke’s voice, most prominently, rings in Lexa’s ears. “Hey.”

“Hi.”

“I didn’t know you guys were coming by today.”

“Yeah, neither did I,” Lexa responds, avoiding Lincoln’s eye as he kicks her running shoe beneath the table.

She studiously ignores the swoop in her belly when she catches Clarke’s playful gaze instead.

“You two look properly gross and sweaty,” she comments with that unnecessarily striking smile of hers.

“Pretty sure our run was just a bit more intense than the casual little jaunt you and Lexa did the other day,” Lincoln teases.

“Hey!” Clarke reaches across Octavia for the sole purpose of pinching Lincoln’s bicep until he squirms. “I was remarkably athletic and agile, thank you very much.”

“Yes, we’re all incredibly proud of your fitness,” Octavia adds, condescendingly patting the top of Clarke’s head.

Clarke turns to Lexa. “Tell them!”

“Your endurance should be commended,” Lexa tells her entirely straight-faced.

“I hate all of you,” Clarke responds, narrowing her eyes at the three of them.

Lexa plucks at the strap of her damp tank top and represses a grin. The movement curbs Clarke’s teasing smile when she spies Lexa’s hand.

“How’s your hand?”

Lexa looks at the bandaging wrapping her right palm, almost as if she had forgotten it was there.

“Oh. It’s fine. It didn’t bother me at all during the rest of my deliveries. Stings a little now—probably from all of the gross sweat.”

Clarke rolls her eyes as Lincoln finishes a sip of beer and asks, “What happened?”

“I caught that sharp edge on the truck latch this morning.”

“Shit, I keep forgetting about having that looked at,” Lincoln says. “Did you let Indra know?”

“Yes. I had to fill out paperwork for the injury, and she said she’d have the latch replaced.”

“Why don’t you come inside and let me change the bandage.”

Having Clarke’s doting attention when it’s just the two of them is challenging. Withstanding her genuine care and concern in front of their friends is horrible.

“Oh, you don’t have to—it really doesn’t feel that bad, Clarke.”

“Hey listen, I’m not covering your deliveries tomorrow if that thing gets infected and gangrenous,” Lincoln tells her.

Lexa shoots him a look across the table for his ludicrous commentary.

“There’s no sense in you sitting there in pain just because you’re stubborn. I have all the supplies inside. Come on, it’ll just take a minute,” Clarke says and then hesitates as if she had briefly considered reaching out for Lexa’s upturned hand.

Lexa squeezes her fingers into a fist, sending a sharp, stinging pain against her injured palm. It does nothing to lessen the image of Clarke reaching out to her, but it curbs her own reckless impulses to run her fingers along the delicate curve of her shoulder just to see if—

She buries the thought and swallows hard.

“Okay,” she finally says, sliding from her stool so that she is stood beside Clarke. Eye-to-eye with Clarke’s stunning blue gaze. “Thanks.”

A tingling suspicion runs up the back of her neck as she trails behind Clarke off the patio. When they enter the cooler, darker interior of Dockside’s main room, Lexa turns to see Lincoln and Octavia huddled together and ignoring them completely.

Her paranoia—among other things—is really getting out of hand.

Clarke leads them behind the bar counter and through a swinging door into the kitchen. Lexa has never had such unfettered access to this section of Dockside, and she suddenly feels acutely aware of her damp hair and running clothes underneath the bright fluorescent lighting. Clarke grabs a plate of something from the salad line, says a quick thank you to the woman removing stems from baby spinach leaves, and they exit through another door into a dim hallway.

“My corner office with a view,” Clarke says upon approaching a heavy-looking wooden door. “Just kidding, there’s no windows in here.” She bangs open the door with her hip and steps inside, waiting for Lexa to follow her. “But, it’s where I keep the first aid kit.”

Lexa steps across the threshold with a timid smile. She’s never been inside Clarke’s office and already it feels like a line she should not have crossed. When Clarke had patched her hand that morning, they had stood in the drafty storage room with its high ceilings and spacious shelving lining the walls. It was a familiar space and vastly different atmosphere.

This room is cramped and dim. Intimate. Lexa feels out of her depth within seconds.

Clarke sets down her plate of food to fetch the box of medical supplies and is already stood too closely. Lexa thinks she can actually smell her shampoo because Clarke is just that much shorter and her head is angled to focus on removing the old bandaging from Lexa’s hand.

“You didn’t have to do this.”

“I know,” Clarke says.

Her words are felt in short puffs of breath against Lexa’s upturned wrist. Lexa’s other hand fiddles the hem of her running shorts while her breathing shallows and her heart hammers loudly in her ears.

She hopes the tremors building in her stomach don’t translate to her hands. Particularly while one of them is gently held by Clarke’s careful fingers.

“Your mom is a doctor so I can trust you know how to properly assess a wound, right?”

“God no,” Clarke laughs. “She would probably be horrified by my technique. Or lack thereof.”

“Great. I feel better already.”

Clarke looks up at her with a smile so utterly devastating, Lexa thinks she should have risked infection instead. “I’m pretty sure you’ll survive.”

She wishes she had a modicum of chill when it comes to Clarke, but truthfully, she does not.

Lexa tries to keep her eyes anywhere other than trailing down the slope of Clarke’s shoulder, which is unfairly close and appears soft and smooth under the low light. She skims over the minimal clutter of Clarke’s desk to stop herself from shamefully ogling a close friend doing her a favor.

There is an assortment of hodgepodge frames that hang on the dark wooden wall behind Clarke’s desk. She sees a picture of Clarke looking much younger with a boy around her age, arms wrapped around each other and stood in front of Dockside.

She hears herself asking, “Who’s that?” before she can silently advise herself to mind her business and get out of this room as quickly as possible.

“All set,” Clarke says, and then turns to face the wall behind her desk. “Who’s who?”

There’s finally some small distance between them, and Lexa breathes out slowly. She looks down to her hand, freshly wrapped in soft white gauze, and flexes it twice into a fist.

“Thanks.”

Clarke’s voice is as soft as she has ever heard it. “You’re welcome.”

For a beat, they hold a steady gaze. It passes quickly, but not before Lexa’s pulse accelerates and her palms begin to ache with nerves. She breaks eye contact first, as she often does. She can hear Clarke quietly exhale a second later because the room is remarkably compact, but also because Lexa has started to believe that her body is attuned to Clarke’s the more time they spend in the same place.

Or, she’s just being dramatic.

“The, uh, middle frame. The kid hugging you outside of the bar.”

“Oh! That’s Wells.” Clarke walks towards the frame and plucks it off the wall so that she can examine it more closely. “He’s one of my closest friends and the reason I get to play bar manager at this lovely establishment.”

That has Lexa’s attention instantly, and she forgets her nerves in favor of learning something new about Clarke. “Oh, really?”

Clarke often does this—unintentionally creating distractions from Lexa’s problematic internal narrative. She drops these little tidbits of information that snare Lexa’s curiosity. Each time, it becomes easier to just relax and enjoy Clarke’s company without overthinking the way the air condenses around them when they are stood too closely. Between that and her penchant for terrible jokes, it explains why Lexa has been able to maintain any semblance of friendship.

“Yeah, we became friends in high school—we were both into the arts, so total nerds—but he left for San Francisco right after graduation. His dad owned and ran this bar for ages, but when his memory got worse and he had to retire, Wells more or less inherited a business he never wanted to manage.”

“And he asked you to take it over,” Lexa supplies.

“Yeah, he sort of caught me at an opportune time when I had no idea what the hell I was doing with my life.” She replaces the picture to its nail on the wall, crosses her arms over her stomach, and exhales a humorless laugh.

Lexa raises her eyebrows and nods. “I can relate.”

“Right.” Clarke’s short laugh is the last lingering sound in the room.

The moment stretches, Clarke watching her as if trying to solve a riddle. Three rapid knocks at the open doorway interrupt the heavy silence, and Lexa is glad she isn’t forced to be the one to look away this time.

“Call for you on line one, Clarke.”

Lexa recognizes Mindy’s voice at her back and watches as Clarke smiles and nods. “Okay thanks, I’ll take it back here.”

“Okay, boss.”

Lexa can hear Mindy’s retreating footsteps a moment later and shifts on her feet to prepare her own exit.

“I should let you—”

“I’m just gonna—”

Words trip over one another until Clarke’s embarrassed smile matches her own.

“Thanks again for …” Lexa raises her right hand to show its fresh bandaging.

“Try not to be so clumsy next time, yeah?” Clarke sits at her desk with a smirk and Lexa takes one, measured step backwards.

“I’ll do my best,” she grins.

She thinks that if Clarke showed up to the delivery hatch wearing that dress next Wednesday, she may very well sever her entire hand from her body from sheer distraction.

“Okay, you should get out of here—Lincoln will think I’ve taken you hostage, and I’m very busy and important taking calls in my fancy office.”

Lexa laughs in response, backing her way towards the open doorway. If Octavia has stayed to keep Lincoln occupied at their table, there’s no way he’s even registered her prolonged absence. She mock salutes to Clarke once she is back in the hallway.

“I’m leaving, Madame President. Proceed with your executive responsibilities.”

Lexa exits the darkened hallway to the trailing sounds of Clarke’s laughter.

:::

[graydad6]

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[kitskittle]

Exactly How To Rob People At ATMs In GTA V

GTA 5 Money Cheats: Exactly How To Get Even More Money In Grand Theft Auto 5 And Also Gta Online

The packing displays in GTA 5 Online will inform you which settings, if any kind of, are providing double GTA $. A reasonable break-in organizer could draw in only $400K for completing the final and fifth heist. These goals are fun and challenging tasks for a team of four players who know exactly how to collaborate well, yet the money reward is poor thinking about how much time it requires finishing. The 2nd way to generate income legitimately in GTA 5 Online is to, you understand, play the game. The principal ways to make big money are jobs, multiplayer suits, and also Heists.

There’s also some excellent information, though, as an entirely genuine approach exists to gain $200m+ throughout your three characters, though it requires some forward preparation and preparation. To do this, you need to save Lester’s murders until the end of the significant game, when you have finished all the other break-ins and also story missions. For the full information of this technique, please look at our GTA 5 Stock Market and Lester’s Assassination Missions overview. However, while there’s a great option of GTA 5 cheats that let you change virtually every element of the video game when it concerns GTA 5 money cheats or alternatives to secure free GTA Online money points aren’t as straightforward as you could hope. There are choices, yet do not expect to fix all your problems with two buttons presses.

The other hand is that if you’re considering a private yacht in GTA 5 Online that costs 8 million GTA $, you might check out your in-game savings account and laugh. Unfortunately, there are no simple exploits to create money. However, that doesn’t imply you run out good luck.

With the 1.01 upgrade, you can no more repetitively pick up the plans. Remove the upgrade patch from your console and disable automatic upgrading (this will likewise disable your GTA Online gain access to) if you want to use the manipulation.

Item Delivery objectives, and also even Supply Taking objectives, are relatively straightforward. Please look at our full GTA Online generating income overview or our most Profitable Tasks overview for where Cyclists Businesses fit in the system of things. Rockstar Gamings issued a spot right after they subjected the problem.

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[entergamingxp]

Pro Cycling Manager 2020 – The Waiting Game

June 4, 2020 11:00 AM EST

How far will one man go to manage the male, digital version of his wife to Tour de France glory in Pro Cycling Manager 2020?

Before we begin, it’s important to make clear that I do not care about nor understand professional cycling. I have, quite literally, never watched a race in my life and am the last person you should be coming to if you’re looking for a review for Pro Cycling Manager 2020. Or any cycling game, for that matter.

However, my wife watches the Tour de France every year with her dad and they take part in local races relatively often. She’s also bad-to-mediocre at video games. She’ll dispute that, but it’s a fact. And so, I decided to put our two brains together and see if we could somehow win the virtual Tour de France. Going in, I felt I had some idea of what was going to happen. I’ve played quite a bit of games like Football Manager and Total Extreme Wrestling. My management experience mixed with my wife’s knowledge was sure to be a winning combo.

At least, that’s what I hoped.

So, this isn’t a review of Pro Cycling Manager 2020. This is one man’s journey to create the male version of his wife and lead her to virtual glory in the greatest cycling race known to man.

Season 1 – What Have I Gotten Myself Into

The first thing I’m greeted with is choosing what type of racer we’ll be building. Honestly, I was hoping for something a little more granular. We were totally planning to go out to the local park and time her cycling to give our racer the most accurate starting stats possible. Heck, my wife even did something she calls “math” to figure out how tall the racer should be in comparison to her. It looked like wizardry to me, but she’s a computer engineer, so I assume she knows what she’s doing.

Anyway, Amos Frech was quickly created as the world’s next great “Stage Racer.” I don’t know what that means, but it sounded better than “Northern Classic” or whatever “Baroudeur” is. Frankly, it seemed like it would only be a matter of time before we could join my wife’s favorite team, Team INEOS. I’m told that’s “where the good ones are from.”

In our first few races, I immediately started to realize I might’ve bitten off more than I can chew. In games like Football Manager, you don’t directly control the on-field action. Instead, you’re setting up tactics and choosing the players to execute on your plans. Maybe the team mode on Pro Cycling Manager is more like this, but in the Pro Cyclist mode, you’re in complete control.

With zero understanding of how the sport works or what any of the terms mean, this feels like one of those nightmares where you wake up in your old high school and are about to have a test that you didn’t study for. And, for some reason, you’re naked.

In our first race, I see an option for something called infinite relay. As far as I know, this could mean your racer hops off the bike to have a cup of tea or he instantly wins the race. It could mean anything and I would believe you. That said, it is, by far, the coolest-sounding option, so, being an idiot who loves action, this becomes my go-to maneuver.

It seems to work decently well. I mean, we’re not winning any races, but we aren’t in last either. Slowly, I start to get objectives in races. Most of these tell me to “get in a breakaway for 100 km.” I read this as “be in first place for two-thirds of the race.” At our current skill level, that’s impossible, so I just ignore them.

By some miracle, I’m able to win a few races during the season. But the most notable thing to happen is seeing a cyclist get ran over by a pacer car. Most of the time you just phase through them and all the other cyclists. However, in one race, he just blows right through him and I get a notification that the racer has “withdrawn.” But we all know they left out “from this mortal coil” at the end of that notification.

We end the first season in one of, what I assume is, the bigger races in our division. I assume this because members of Team INEOS are here. My wife’s favorite dude Chris Froome is, unsurprisingly, not one of them. However, I go for a good showing in the hopes that these men will tell their senpai tales of Amos Frech’s dominance and get us a spot on the team.

Amos gets 31st and we’re on to season two.

Season 2 – Lesson From The Past

Heading into season two, I start to think about how my dad must have felt when he realized he had a soccer-playing child. My old man had probably never even seen a soccer ball before randomly signing me up for the U4 league. However, he quickly realized that his abnormally tall three-year-old was going to be half-decent at this weird British sport.

Much like three-year-old me, Amos is unquestionably skilled. He is one of the best in the world already at climbing mountains and whatever “prologue” is. However, I don’t understand the strategy of the game and cannot consistently guide him to victory.

Well, just like my dad once picked up a book on how to play soccer, I too will pursue knowledge. And so, I do the modern-day equivalent of reading and watch some YouTube tutorials. I know now what a breakaway is and somewhat understand how to correctly set myself up for success in races. It’s time to finally turn that corner and become the racer we’re meant to be.

However, there’s a problem. See, as I mentioned above, Pro Cycling Manager isn’t a “set it and forget it” kind of game. If Football Manager is the Easy-Bake Oven style of management sims, Pro Cycling Manager is more like working in a high-class restaurant that requires everything to be perfect.

Except, in this analogy, nobody comes to your restaurant. So, on your eight-hour shift, you’re maybe doing ten minutes of actual work. The rest of the time you’re just fiddling with your cell phone, watching the world burn on Twitter. While that ten minutes of actual cooking is pure bliss, the rest of the time is something between boring and distressing because you’re realizing you could be doing something much better with your time.

Pro Cycling Manager requires you to watch entire races where you don’t really have to do anything until the last 20 kilometers of a race. Sure, you can speed it up, but it’s still mostly boring. And even when you’re outside of the races, you’re just staring at the screen watching all the other races sim.

Honestly, Steam says I’ve played Pro Cycling Manager for roughly 40 hours now, but realistically, I’ve probably only “played” the game for four or five of those hours. For the most part, I’m just sitting around waiting to do something.

At this point, it’s not a question of “can Amos win the Tour de France?” It’s a question of “can I mentally stay engaged long enough?” Amos’ body is willing, but my brain? Not so much.

So, sure, Amos pulls out all the stops and wins three smaller tours in his second season. He even moves up into the next division and joins a more prestigious team. I just don’t know if I’ll be able to see out the final victory.

Season 3 – The One That Breaks Me

I tried everybody. I really did. There’s just only so much sitting and staring at men riding bicycles at hyper-speed that one man can take. Sure, Amos is quickly moving toward a spot in the Tour de France, but this third season has broken down my will to continue. What started as a fun lark has become borderline soul-crushing. It’s just so much waiting.

To be clear, I’m not saying Pro Cycling Manager 2020 is bad. If you like cycling and want to play a management sim, this is probably the best way to do that. Granted, I’m far from an expert, so what do I know?

It’s also worth noting again that I only played the Pro Cyclist mode. In that mode, you don’t have complete control of your team. Meaning it was very difficult to set up sprint trains (see, I learned something!) at the end of races. It also meant that there was no way for me to use my other cyclists to pick up points in other ways besides winning races. So, playing in that mode could easily mitigate my boredom. I’ll just never know if that’s the case.

So, no, Amos Frech will never become the best cyclist in the world. And yes, I can’t remember playing a more consistently boring game than Pro Cycling Manager 2020. However, until it just got to be too much, I’ve never had so much fun playing something so tedious. If that’s not a ringing endorsement from someone who literally couldn’t care less about cycling, then I don’t know what is.

June 4, 2020 11:00 AM EST

from EnterGamingXP https://entergamingxp.com/2020/06/pro-cycling-manager-2020-the-waiting-game/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=pro-cycling-manager-2020-the-waiting-game

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The Best Comics of 2019

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Comics gave us everything we needed in 2019. The best ones surprised even us.

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e stand at the end of a decade of massive change, and the comics industry is not immune to those shifts. There are more ways to read more comics about more things than ever before. That’s why the best comics of 2019 contains not one, but three Superman books.

I’m joking. There are only two textual Superman books, but they’re both wildly different, and they and the rest of the best comics of 2019 are a vastly different set than we would have seen even five years ago. There were some really great comics published this year, so even going to 20 won’t catch all of them. And, of course, I’m not independently wealthy or able to manipulate time, so I absolutely missed some great ones that you should feel comfortable yelling at me in the comments about. With that in mind, here are our best comics of 2019!

  20. The Lone Ranger

Mark Russell and Bob Q

I could have made this list all Mark Russell comics if I wanted to. Wonder Twins is one of the most pleasant comics surprises I’ve ever had, and I gushed over Year of the Villain: The Riddler for how it broke out of Russell’s comfort zone and gave us a fantastic, relatively straight cape story. But I went with The Lone Ranger over Riddler because Russell sustained his straightforward superhero story for longer here. And also I couldn’t care less for any hero than I do for the Lone Ranger.

It’s a pretty straightforward western story: big landowners are stealing more land, and the Lone Ranger and Tonto have to stop them. But Russell plays it like a heist movie, having the duo outsmarting their opponents, and infusing it with some sharp populist satire that plays really well right now (for me, at least). Bob Q is a revelation here, too - his art is clean and sharp, with brisk action pacing and the kind of facial expressions and body language you need to sell the hell out of Russell’s humor. It’s just a really well-made comic from start to finish, and even if you’ve never cared for the Lone Ranger before, you should give this book a shot. 

read The Lone Ranger on Amazon.

  19. The Life and Death of Toyo Harada

Joshua Dysart, CAFU, Andrew Dalhousie & others 

I think my favorite villain in all of comics is Toyo Harada? I know that’s a weird statement to make in a universe with a Jonathan Hickman-written Magneto in stores and a Jonathan Hickman-written Doom on my shelf, but there’s a big difference between good big-2 bads and Harada: Harada’s right.

read more: The Best TV Episodes of 2019

Harada’s goal is to push humanity to a utopia. He’s extremely down on the current construct of global governance, so his methods are decidedly authoritarian, but his diagnosis of the problem and his end goal are both 100% correct, and that makes him a fascinating villain. And this book, created by the people who helmed most of the flagship books of the first wave of Valiant comics since it returned in 2013, feels like a way to close off that chapter by putting Harada back in a box for a little while. Every issue of this series has CAFU doing present-day art and an all-star guest (Doug Braithwaite, Adam Pollina) drawing flashbacks to earlier periods in Harada’s life. It looks fantastic. And it reads great: Harada is every bit the manipulative bastard he’s been since the first Harbinger book rolled out years ago.

read The Life and Death of Toyo Harada on Amazon

18. Coda

Simon Spurrier, Matias Bergara, Michael Doig

God, what a gorgeous comic Coda is. Matias Bergara is well on his way to stardom because of it, and it’s well deserved.

Coda is a story about a marriage falling apart, set against a high fantasy backdrop where a catastrophe stripped the world of almost all of its magic. Over the course of its 12 issues, it morphs from a fairly stock fantasy comic with flashes of brilliance in its relationships, into a story about stories that manages not to climb up its own ass and perch on some intestinal pretense. The last quarter of the story is elegant, sweet and earnest, and more than makes up for some dragging in its middle.

read more: The Best Movies of 2019

What keeps the story moving through that middle, and what lands it so beautifully, is Bergara’s stunning art. It’s more mad and inventive than what the story implies, but bright and clear all the same. It’s almost like early period Chris Bachalo but with modern production values. When I first thought this, my inner monologue said it in a hushed whisper, like it was blasphemy. But the further into the book I went, the more confident I was in the assessment. Coda is a moving story that’s also one of the best looking comics of the year.

read Coda on Amazon

17. BTTM FDRS

Ezra Claytan Daniels (W), Ben Passmore (A) Fantagraphics

True story: I was about a third of the way through BTTM FDRS and I sat down with a goal of reading 15 or so more pages. I stood up 40 minutes later having ripped through the last 200 pages of the comic, and regretted it from about five different angles. You'll hit a point where you won't be able to put it down. It’s a terrific horror story.

BTTM FDRS is transparently a story about how awful gentrification is. Two hipsters move into an old industrial building in a not-quite-yet up and coming neighborhood, and they’re pretty shitty. They meet a neighbor, a theme rapper who dresses in colonial gear and calls himself Plymouth Rock. And then they all get trapped in their new haunted house, one that’s full of environmental and body horror.

On its surface, BTTM FDRS is extremely not subtle. One of the gentrifiers is wearing one of those hideous 80s cyclist hats that says “RAP” on the bottom of the upturned brim. But at the same time, the horror components of the book are much more subtle about the overall theme. I don’t want to spoil it too much, but the monster ties into the gentrification idea very nicely. Passmore does a great oozing monster and outstanding terrified cartoon faces, and the end result is a smart, thoughtful, great looking comic.

read BTTM FDRS on Amazon

16. The Immortal Hulk

Al Ewing (W), Joe Bennett (P), Ruy Jose (I), Paul Mounts (C) Marvel Comics

The Immortal Hulk is easily the best horror book to come out this year. At least the best deliberate horror book, that’s not about gross medical malpractice or the hellscape our world has become. It’s incredibly fun to watch comic creators jump from good but underappreciated to superstars, and to see two creators do it on the same book is even better. That’s what’s happening here: Ewing and Bennett are going from “oh man, how great was Ultimates 2/52” to “holy shit I need to buy everything they do." 

There’s a lot to love about Immortal Hulk - the way Ewing juggles so many characters, or how deliberately paced the story and the additions of new gamma characters is. But the best part is how utterly perfect the body horror is. The Rick Jones Abomination monster is the most disgusting thing I’ve seen in comics all year. A grasping hand for a face is somehow grosser than those fish with the human teeth that make a mass extinction an okay tradeoff. The way Hulk’s powers are played as grotesque metamorphoses is the best I’ve ever seen it done, and the slow burn mystery of the gamma world is what makes me rush back to this book every new issue. 

read The Immortal Hulk on Amazon

15. Excellence 

Brandon Thomas (W), Khary Randolph (A), Emilio Lopez (C) Image Comics

Khary Randolph makes some of the most dynamic, visually entertaining comic art in the business, so you can probably guess how fast I jumped at him doing design work and interiors for a magic story. And it was the right call: Excellence is...well...excellent. 

Spencer Dales is the son of a prominent ruling magical family who gets his magic late, and as a result watches his father bond with another kid as he teaches his new mentee how to wield mystical power. If you’re rushing past it, Excellence vaguely resembles Harry Potter, but it's full of resentment and totally different family drama, and the visuals are much flashier. It’s always near the top of my stack to read when it comes out.

read Excellence on Amazon

14. DCeased

Tom Taylor (W), Trevor Hairsine, James Harren & Stefano Gaudiano (A), Rain Beredo (C) DC Comics

I can’t believe this worked. I should have seen it coming - Tom Taylor, DCeased’s writer, was behind a lot of great comics in the last few years, including several (I’m looking at you, Injustice) that just shouldn’t have worked, but did. And yet, I saw “DC Zombies” and I rolled my eyes hard. 

I shouldn’t have. DCeased is a gorgeous comic that made me cry at least twice. It does a better job of capturing the essences of pretty much the whole Justice League one by one than most of their solo books do: Batman, Superman, Flash, Black Canary, and Green Arrow all get amazing moments. To do this inside a zombie story is extremely difficult, but Taylor’s script is emotional and incisive, while Hairsine and Gaudiano work magic with the character acting and the horror of the book. It was so good that there’s still a part of me that can’t believe how much I want a sequel.

read DCeased on Amazon

13. They Called Us Enemy

George Takei, Justin Eisinger, Steven Scott (W); Harmony Becker (A) Top Shelf Productions

I’ll be honest, I came into this book not wanting to like it. It’s a non-comics celebrity airdropping into our medium - it felt a little bit like a stunt. But almost as soon as I cracked it open, I was struck by how much emotion Harmony Becker put into her art. George and his siblings are immediately charming and innocent, so when that innocence is stripped away from them by the way my country’s horrific internment of Japanese-Americans hits her, it hit me too, like a wave of shame. 

Internment during World War II is one of the most shameful episodes in American history, and even an autobiography that tells that story must walk an incredibly delicate path - too far in one direction, and you’re sugarcoating terror; too far in the other and you drown the reader in sorrow and miss some of the human moments that make the story real. They Called Us Enemy walks that tightrope beautifully: throughout the book, you feel what George and his siblings felt. It’s a good story well told that is shamefully relevant to our world today.

read They Called Us Enemy on Amazon

  12. Second Coming 

Mark Russell (W), Richard Pace & Leonard Kirk (A), Andy Troy (C) Ahoy Comics

Second Coming is the other Russell book to make the list because this feels like where his comics career has been going the whole time. It’s got the brutal ridicule of modern society that made The Flintstones so amazing, and the incredibly thoughtful take on Christianity that was just beneath the thin veneer of comedy in God Is Disappointed In You. And shockingly, it might also be the nicest comic on the stands.

The hook of the story is exactly what it says on the tin: Jesus is back. Only this time God sent him to live with his brother, obvious-Superman-analogue Sunstar, because he got bullied so hard last time. So Russell, Pace and Kirk are putting a very biblically traditional Christ into a superhero crimefighter story and using both angles to mock (or gently rib, mostly) the other. It is a book that’s obsessed with pointing out how much better it is to treat people with kindness, and it’s really funny about it. Pace handles the God pages, and does everything with a scratchy, inky sketchiness that I love; he does layouts for the Sunstar pages, and Kirk and Troy finish them, and it’s pretty amazing how effortlessly the art goes back and forth between that scratchy 80s indie look and traditional, very good superhero art. Second Coming is a lot of fun to read.

read Second Coming on Amazon

11. Swimming in Darkness

Lucas Harari (W/A) Arsenal Pulp Press

Swimming in Darkness mixes a psychological thriller with a haunted house story, and the result is a haunting, creepy, gorgeous comic that sticks around in your brain far longer than you’ll be comfortable with. 

Harari’s story takes main character Pierre, a French student who left school after a nervous breakdown, to the Vals Thermal Baths in the Swiss Alps. The Baths have a legendary architecture, and a myth around them that every hundred years they eat a foreigner. The book is the story of what he discovers while there. 

The book is a lot of sitting quietly in weird architecture - it’s all mood and tension, and Harari does a great job with both. The Baths look wonderful, angular and bizarre, and the deliberate pacing goes a long way to making this book so effective. 

read Swimming in Darkness on Amazon

10. American Carnage

Bryan Edward Hill (W), Leandro Fernandez (A) Vertigo

American Carnage will go down as the last great Vertigo book. It’s just brutal from start to finish.

Hill and Fernandez send Richard Wright, a mixed race ex-FBI agent who can pass as white who was booted from the Bureau for killing a teenager who pulled a cell phone on him, deep undercover to infiltrate the white nationalist army being formed by a California billionaire and his daughter. 

This is pure mid-period Vertigo out of the Scalped/100 Bullets mold. Everyone in this comic is an awful person, but they’re all terrible for their own reasons. And of course, there’s nothing even close to a happy ending. Fernandez’s art is a terrific match to the story. He’s loose and sketchy but always tells a clear story. American Carnage was an excellent comic. I hope we get Hill and Fernandez working together again soon.

read American Carnage on Amazon

9. Runaways

Rainbow Rowell (W), Kris Anka (A), Matthew Wilson (C) Marvel Comics

I liked Runaways a lot when it was originally created, but I wouldn’t call myself a dedicated fan. But I binged Rowell, Anka and Wilson’s newest volume, and I was shocked: at how easy they made it to step right into basically an in-progress retcon; at how masterfully Rowell juggles a HUGE cast of characters; and at how much damn fun the book is. 

This book is pure teen soap opera. The point of the book is unambiguously the emotions of the characters and not high action and adventure, and Rowell makes each character’s distinct voice so entertaining to track through the melodrama that it’s now one of the first things I read when a new issue hits. Anka does faces and acting deceptively well for such a fashionable artist, and Wilson is, as usual, amazing. Runaways is a great book; you should definitely think about giving the first volume to comic reading friends as a holiday gift. 

read Runaways on Amazon

8. The Banks

Roxanne Gay, Ming Doyle, Jordie Bellaire TKO Studios

The best heist stories are a little bit angry, and Roxanne Gay, Ming Doyle and Jordie Bellaire's The Banks gets a family crew together for some purposeful theft that's amazing fun to read. The book sets three generations of women on a path to a big score that takes down some garbage people, including the man who killed the youngest Banks' grandfather. 

The heist is fun and tense, but it's Doyle and Bellaire's artwork, and the relationships between the three generations of Banks women that make this comic so good. Doyle tells a hell of a story: the art is crisp and clean and clear, with wonderful subtelty to the body language and really sharp character designs. Bellaire's colors make the book drip with atmosphere. And Gay and the rest of the team do an outstanding job of building conflict into the leads. You ache with them at the murder of Clara's husband, and you feel the anger when Clara and Celia butt heads. That makes the payoff to the story even better: the deeper into the family dynamic you are, the higher the tension is, and Gay, Doyle and Bellaire do a great job of pulling you in.

read The Banks on Amazon

7. Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen

Matt Fraction (W), Steve Lieber (A), Nathan Fairbairn (C)  DC Comics

I’ve already talked at length about what makes Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen so incredible, but I want to bring up one thing I’ve missed: its fundamental compassion. This book is every bit as hilarious and even a little daring for a mainstream superhero book (not often you get a joke at the expense of the internet’s collective foot fetish in a Superman comic), but underneath that, Jimmy Olsen is an incredibly empathetic, compassionate book. Packed in between panels of invisible Jimmy running from monsters and growing tusks at a pie-eating contest, there’s one quick panel of an exhausted, broken Jimmy in full fatigues and bullet proof vest, and Clark looking over his shoulder, worried. 

Photography in a war zone is an incredibly dangerous job that kills a lot of real world journalists. To slip that in with Clark as the audience stand in completely changes the nature of the book - Jimmy’s every bit as tough as Lois and Clark are, dedicated to showing people the horrors of war to the point where he puts his own life in grave danger, and the fact that one time he took a shower in pink Kryptonite doesnt’ change that at all. Superman’s Pal, Jimmy Olsen is an amazing, hilarious comic, but it also deeply cares for the Superman universe’s mythos and is adding some great stuff to it.

read Superman's Pal Jimmy Olsen on Amazon

6. These Savage Shores

Ram V (W), Sumit Kumar (A), Vittorio Astone (C) Vault Comics

I’m constantly looking for something I’ve never seen before. Ram V, Sumit Kumar and Vittorio Astone gave me that with These Savage Shores, and they did it with some really impressive technical skill.

These Savage Shores is a period piece about a vampire/demon battle that plays out between London and Calcutta via the East India Company. It manages to be a monster story, a period drama, a monster book and a history lesson all at the same time. Ram V balances each piece of the story delicately and makes it really tough to put down. 

Kumar’s art is a huge draw. This is the first work I’ve seen from him, but holy socks it’s terrific. The figures and backgrounds have a very Bilquis Evely/The Dreaming feel to them, but the layouts are spectacular. The way he uses the nine panel grid is simultaneously deliberate and dynamic. Astone’s colors are a perfect pair - London is gray and drab and rainy, while the jungle outside Calcutta is close and sticky and warm. It’s phenomenal work.

read These Savage Shores on Amazon

5. Assassin Nation

Kyle Starks (W), Erica Henderson (A) Image Comics

Kyle Starks is great. He’s absolutely hilarious, and fills his writing with a surprising amount of heart and an overwhelming amount of imagination. But if we’re being completely honest, the guy who wrote Sexcastle is maaaaybe not the most subtle comic talent out there. But to be honest, I didn’t realize that subtlety would improve his work until I saw Erica Henderson do it for him, and the resulting comic, Assassin Nation, is brilliant and one of my favorites from either creator.

The book is about the world’s greatest assassins - all ranked according to skill and kill counts - and a set up that’s causing them to be picked off in large numbers. It’s jammed with jokes of every kind - sight gags, satire, inane absurdism (Fuck Tarkington is the breakout character of 2019). Henderson is an absolute wizard. She’s such a good storyteller that I’ll read anything she does, with any writer and any characters. I knew Assasin Nation would be good when I heard about it, but I had no idea how great it would turn out. 

read Assassin Nation on Amazon

4. Superman Smashes the Klan

Gene Luen Yang (W), Gurihiru (A) DC Comics

Gene Yang is one of the best writers working in comics. He’s thoughtful and diligent about his characters, which lets him get deep inside their heads and flesh them out fully, both through their actions and how he poses them in the story. And he took an old Superman tale - Superman Smashes the Klan is based on a story from the old radio show - and made a couple of tweaks to it to turn it into one of my favorite character studies of Superman and Clark Kent that I’ve ever read.

By putting Roberta and Mrs. Lee in the story, we get an entirely different point of entry to the tale, and two new point of view characters to look at Superman through the immigrant experience. I still don’t want to spoil anything, more because I won’t be able to relay the elegant simplicity of the statement the same way the text does, but it recast, for me, Clark Kent’s existence specifically in a way that makes my whole relationship with Superman as a character richer. 

Gurihiru is the perfect art team to pair with Yang on this. They make Superman accessible and welcoming, but intimidating and obviously super at the same time. This is a great Superman story told well, and exactly what I want out of the character. 

read Superman Smashes the Klan on Amazon

3. House of X/Powers of X

Jonathan Hickman (W), Pepe Larraz/R.B. Silva (A), Marte Gracia (C) Marvel Comics

There’s probably not much more that I can say about HoXPoX that I haven’t already said. The “two series that are one!” were everything I hoped they would be going in: intricately plotted, skillfully told and wholly different from what came before. I wasn’t expecting career-making work out of Larraz, Silva and Gracia, but their art was so good that people will be holding this run up to everything they do in the future as an incredibly high bar for them to hit again. These 12 issues were the best X-Men comics I’ve ever read as they came out.

I do think the entire experience of HoXPoX changed my expectations from comics. Hickman talked a lot in interviews about giving readers the most bang for their buck, and the care put into every detail on every page made that concern evident. I spent as much time pouring over every page of these comics as I do reading all the rest of my books combined every Wednesday. The data pages were an immersive, interesting way of dropping information on the reader - because they were presented as data collected by the characters, instead of pace-breaking infodumps, they brought you deeper into them. And the internet was legitimately a blast while these comics were coming out. I’ve never actually had fun on Twitter before, but the X-community made this reading experience even better, and a book that wasn’t up to these standards, even if it was still excellent, wouldn’t have inspired that.

read House of X/Powers of X on Amazon

2. Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos

Lucy Knisley (W/A) First Second

Kid Gloves, Lucy Knisley’s half women’s health explainer, half memoir about her pregnancy, was making the list about halfway through the book, when I realized I had ripped through that much of the story in only 20 minutes, and I was retaining just about everything. I knew it was going near the top of the list when I ended the book in tears, muttering “you sue that doctor until he’s dead” at it.

Knisley has a gift for conveying information, and the parts of the book that aren’t memoir are thoroughly researched, deeply informative and entertainingly presented. Parts of it read as a history of women’s health, and parts as an infographic about the current state of it, but all of it will make you mad and want to change things. But the memoir segments are brutally honest about how joyful and shitty and terrifying and mundane pregnancy can be, about how normal the scary parts are and how extraordinary the whole process can be. Kid Gloves was extra real to me because I’m still close enough to my family’s experience where it was like a read along, but her honesty and her cartooning skill make it easy to disappear into her story regardless of what you’re bringing to it as a reader. Kid Gloves was a delight to read.

read Kid Gloves: Nine Months of Careful Chaos on Amazon

1. The Hard Tomorrow

Eleanor Davis (W/A) Drawn & Quarterly

Eleanor Davis is something else. What she does with pacing and perspective made me feel unlike any other comic I read this year. It’s truly exceptional comic art, and even if you don’t like the politics of the book, you should pick it up. I promise you won’t be able to put The Hard Tomorrow down.

The comic is about Hannah and John, two young lefties living out of a car trying to get pregnant and build their own house. Hannah is a home health aide and a member of a protest group, and John’s a stoner who grows weed and trades it to their handyman for his work. The book follows the two of them through their lives as the cops clamp down on the group, and John gets roped into their handyman Tyler’s Infowars-ish compound. 

About two thirds of the way through the book, it starts barreling towards its climax - a bunch of leaders of Hannah’s protest group get arrested, the resulting protest turns into a riot, and the leaders eventually sell the group out to get their families and lives back. Meanwhile, John visits Tyler’s compound and gets subjected to Tyler’s increasingly deranged worries. Hannah gets a call from one of the freed group leaders and told that they’re being hung out to dry, and when that call ends, the panel pulls way back to show Hannah and the woman she’s caring for sitting alone, shocked, from a distance. Two pages later, Tyler tries to convince John to learn to shoot and hands him a gun, and we get a full page splash closeup of the handgun in John’s hand. This is incredible storytelling - Davis starts really building to the climax with this sequence, and it hit me like a violin crescendoing into a string snapping on a minor chord. She does the same thing with the end, slowing time down and using five splash pages almost like a flipbook animatic to hammer home her semi-resolution. The Hard Tomorrow is an incredible piece of comics storytelling, easily the best comic I read this year.

read The Hard Tomorrow on Amazon

Read and download the Den of Geek Lost in Space Special Edition Magazine right here!

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The Lists Jim Dandy

Dec 23, 2019

Mark Russell

DC Entertainment

Valiant Comics

Image Comics

Vertigo

Boom! Studios

IDW Comics

Marvel

from Books https://ift.tt/34Rjuw0

[biketrash]

Hotter ‘n Tandems Hundred

 With the sun still asleep, we were unloading the tandems. Many might think it to be ridiculous to be awake this early. For us, that barely scratched the surface of our insanity. Today, Marde and I, were riding our second Hotter than Hell Hundred on our tandem. In a year’s time we have forgotten the sting of the saddle sores, the heat of an unrelenting sun, the never ending headwinds. All we could recall was the satisfaction of finishing a hundred miles on our bicycle. At least that’s how we sold it to Donald and Amanda. “Get a tandem” we said. “Ride a hundred miles” we said. “It’ll be fun” we said.  Donald and Amanda have a natural talent for the tandem. Whatever their weaknesses may be on single bikes, they are quickly overcome on a two seater. They ride faster and can go farther working together. In the few months they’ve shared the horsepower at the rear wheel, they’ve clocked in several high milage rides. Today, however, would be their first triple digit ride. That is, if they made Hell’s Gate in time.

Pre ride smiles

 We find ourselves packed in with many other tandems, along with recumbents. Among our ranks are even a few recumbent tandems. The organizers are well aware of the herky-jerky start hundreds of tandems and recumbents initiate. Starting us with the 10K+ single riders that will participate today is a recipe for disaster. Instead, the Cat 1&2 (pros and pro like) take off first, quietly and without fanfare. At an average pace of nearly 30mph, they are not worried about making Hell’s Gate on time. Marde and I will focus on a 12-15 mph pace. That will keep us on track to make the gate. Donald and Amanda should have no trouble pacing with us.

Marde’s view

Hell’s Gate is a timing strip laid out at mile 62. This imaginary gate closes at 12:30. If you are late, you will be turned to a shorter (75 mile) route. Donald is determined to make it. Everybody needs a good challenge every now and then.  At roughly 6:45, they release our rag tag renegade fleet of odd looking bicycles. The race for the gate is on! Thinking in race terms, makes the first miles hard. It’s not as tough physically as it is mentally. You have to pace yourself. Start too fast and you just won’t last. With the cool morning air and relatively flat road, it’s hard to not push yourself. This is, after all, the best you’ll feel all day.

EZ chair riding

 In the initial chaos, we lose Donald and Amanda. The nice thing about the tandem is that I won’t lose Marde. We wind our way through a sea of flashing red lights and catch up to our tandem friends. Before we realized we’ve made it very far, we arrived at the first rest stop. We were ten miles into the ride already. Donald and Amanda were as excited as they were at the start, they were ready to hit the road again. A quick photo with the Beatles, a banana, and we’re off just behind the first surge of a 10K+ armada of single bikes that had finally caught up to us. With the weeble-wobble bikes spread out, it was easier to keep up with Donald and Amanda. That is, until the hills began. North Texas doesn’t offer the worst hills ever cycled. Still, a tandem is a slog as it progresses up them. The slog turns into a rocket as the handlebars angle back down though. This super speed will be thwarted time and time again, as single riders will eclipse us as we make our way up each hill. Brakes will get much use as we avoid running over the (now) much slower pack of riders. Occasionally, we are able to get around, but the slope turns back skyward and the tandem slows to molasses. This yo-yo effect continues all the way to mile twenty and rest stop two. 

The Force was strong at the second rest stop

 Pickles and cookies are scarfed down. Our metabolisms have ratcheted to high boil. From this point on, everything consumed will be turned directly into energy. Still feeling great, we get back on the road. The gate waits for no one. The sun has been up for awhile now. Luckily, we can’t see it. An overcast is hiding it from us and subsequently keeping the temps not so Hell like. We are not complaining. Well, except for the headwind that has developed. I’m complaining about that. This isn’t my first HHH though. Headwinds come with the ride. I know that and I still come back. The ride is definitely worth it, yet for this moment I will bad mouth this wind.  A hard left takes us off a narrow two lane and back on Business 287. A shoulder and a recent repave has us clicking off the miles with little effort. The surrounding riders are now a mixed assortment. Mainly single riders, but still a fair number of recumbents and tandems remain. A plethora of color. I enjoy seeing the many different brands of bicycles and their approach to finding what works for the consumer. Marde is enjoying the latest train we’ve seen today. Donald and Amanda are simply enjoying the  ride on roads the’ve never seen before.

A stampede of singles

 We are coming into the sleepy town of Electra. Marde’s phone begins ringing. It’s our daughter Makaidi attempting to FaceTime us! Having just recently enlisting in the Navy, we are adjusting to a new life of not having her home. It’s a tough transition, but Marde and I are extremely proud of her choice to join the Navy. “What are y’all doing?” Makaidi asks. “Just riding” is Marde’s response as she pans the phone around allowing Makaidi to see the cyclists all around us. The conversation is all too short. Marde and I will take what we can get. The third rest stop is in Electra. There is an endless line of people doing the pee dance. Legs crossed while shifting side to side. Marde hears the music and joins in. I find myself making repeat trips back to the cookies as I kill time. I also top off our waters. With Donald and Amanda by our sides, we head out of Electra. A hard right sends us due north along with a tailwind. Oh, blessed free speed. If only for a few miles, we will savor this beautiful thing.

It’s a tandem life

 Heading east on Texas 240, we are in full push to make Hell’s Gate before the 12:30 deadline. The clouds are beginning to break up, revealing a bright blue sky. We are still twenty plus miles away and the clock is ticking. The wind is hitting us on our right side. I miss the push of a pure tailwind. With the increasing sunlight, I am appreciating the cooling breeze though. A pure tailwind has a stagnate feel because you are flowing with the wind and not feeling it actually move. Find the silver lining. The cool breeze is our silver lining.  Determined to take in the day’s full suffering, we push hard. We could easily pull back a little and miss the cut-off. It would mean twenty-five less miles. Our mental stress would be eliminated. It was, after all, completely self imposed. We could ride through the Sheppard Air Force Base. We have heard great things about riding through the base. If only we’d slow down and hurt less. Instead, we embrace the challenge a century presents. We want that one hundred miles!  We make it to Burkburnett knowing we are close on time. Still full of excitement, we keep the speed up, blowing by the final rest area prior to Pyro Pete. “You still have plenty of time!” a voice calls out over a PA system. We are taking no chances. Full of hot air, Pyro Pete towers over cyclists anxious to get their picture taken with him. We too, are anxious. We are also relieved. We made it to Hell’s Gate! Donald and Amanda will make their goal today, provided they can tough out another thirty-eight miles.

Hell’s Gate with Pyro Pete!

 After the gate, Marde and I relax a bit. At our more relaxed pace, we fall behind Donald and Amanda. Regret from skipping the last rest area creep in. This fat boy needs a break and takes one. Marde shares a protein bar with me. We don’t want to bonk now. A few miles later, we arrive at an official rest area. With the realization that we could have easily made it without our impromptu rest stop, we share a laugh. As we refuel, Donald and Amanda are prepared to leave. Pushing seventy miles and they are still smiling. Marde and I will spot them a head start while we grab a chair in the shade.  Partly cloudy skies and vast expanses are easier to take in with the current pace. Farm houses, windmills, and strange old trucks catch the eye. We can also take advantage of what a tandem really allows a couple to do. We can talk. We won’t solve world peace or figure out the mathematics of flying to Mars. We don’t need to. Just the simple conversations that keep a relationship working.  With just over twenty miles to the finish line, we are reunited with our fellow tandem travelers. With a catch in his back, Donald was taking an extended break. This allowed Marde and I to catch up at our meandering pace. A century is a hard goal to achieve. It gets especially hard in the last fifteen to twenty miles. From saddle sores to cramps, and even a catch in the back, a tired body finds the final miles hard to manage.

Ready for the final push

 Donald will need an impromptu break along with the official rest areas to make it to the city limits of Wichita Falls. The rest of us need it to get our butts off of saddles that have turned evil. As the city’s skyline comes into view however, our pains all seem to recede. Rolling through the downtown streets, numb hands regain feeling. Crossing the finish line, the excitement from the day’s start hits us again. We made the century! It was a long hot day full of fun, bicycles, and friends. This is my third Hotter than Hell Hundred in a row. Two years ago I rode it solo. Last year Marde joined me, making it all the better. Now, my friends Donald and Amanda came and conquered the hottest hundred miles in North America. I like the trend. Perhaps next year, you’ll cross the line with us!

[ayngelface]

MWC 2019 Qualcomm Booth Tour - 5G Avengers Assemble

What many of you might already know is that Qualcomm Tech is at the core of almost all the Android flagships smartphones you’ve seen on the market so far. Going into 2019 the trend continues.

This year Qualcomm has introduced the most power 7nm processor to date. The SUPER Snapdragon 855. We will a significant jump forward in processing power and power efficiency and connectivity with all the phones utilising the Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon X50 modems.

I got a chance to check out some of these 5G devices at the MWC 2019. Be sure to check out my MWC19 Highlights video here.

On the Qualcomm booth, they were demonstrating a variety of Qualcomm tech. Let start with Automotive.

AUTONOMOUS DRIVING - One day you’ll be able to fall asleep at the wheel

So Qualcomm had a mock-up of an autonomous vehicle on display, demonstrating the power of the NEW Snapdragon 8155 Gen 3. This incredible processor can power up to six displays as well as all your infotainments need. Be ready to start seeing this new tech popping up in vehicles of the future very soon.

Also, onboard this space-aged vehicle was the Qualcomm CV2x which is a device to device safety system. With the 5G era officially here, and connectivity becomes ever more prevalent. The CV2x will be able to detect and monitor the surroundings of your vehicle. For example, it will know where pedestrians, cyclist, street lights and other vehicles are relative to your vehicle. The dream is that tech like the CV2x warning system will keep us all safer when commuting.

ULTRA LOW LATENCY - 5G Cloud Gaming

Oneplus & Oppo also had a stand the Qualcomm MWC19 booth. They were demonstrating the power of 5G cloud game streaming. Booth devices on display where streaming hi resolution games all the way from the Shadow service in Amsterdam.

The major difference between 5G cloud gaming & 4G is the latency. This is incredibly important to gamers. There is nothing worse than a laggy connection when playing online…trust me I know.

To put this into perspective for you, 4G at best can deliver 70 millisecond latency. Whereas 5G can deliver games to you in full quality with just 15 millisecond latency speeds. That’s the difference between life & death in the gaming world.

Find me on PubG if you want ;) username: WhatGear

CONNECTED ACCESSORIES - Smartwear Everywhere

While Qualcomm is most well known for Flagship Smartphone processors, they also have a big part to play in Smart wearables. Everything from smartwatches, fitness trackers, headphones (like my Sony WH-1000XM3) and even augmented reality spectacles.

Yes, these Clark Kent glasses have a superpower! An augmented heads up display. Unfortunately, I didn’t get to try them. They kind of remind of the glasses the secret agents use in that film Kingsman. Did you see that film?

Some of the Smartwatches on display were sporting the new Qualcomm Snapdragon wear 3100 processor. If you want to learn more about what’s new with Snapdragon wear check this video out - Snapdragon Wear 3100

5G Server Demo - LG V50 ThinQ & Dual Screens

LG had an interesting stand where they were demonstrating the flexibility of the new Snapdragon X50 modem. When it comes to 5G waves there are two bands. Millimeter wave and Sub6. The dominance of either one will vary from country to country.

The LG demo showed how one device utilized as a server could stream full HiRes content from device to device over 5G. With one device using Sub6 and the other Millimeter wave. I can tell you it works extremely well.

Also, LG had a cool looking dual screen setup. It was not quite a folding phone scenario but still impressive none the less. This might be the coolest phone cover you can get on a smartphone…a second full quality screen. More on that in another WhatGear video.

5G 4K HDR Video - Sony X1 5G prototype

Although Sony didn’t officially announce a 5G device at MWC 2019. They did, however, show us that it is something they are working on. On display at the Sony stand was a pretty bulky 21:9 prototype 5G device.

This year it seems that Sony’s focus for the Xperia lineup is the new ‘Cinewide’ displays. With the Sony Xperia 1 have the worlds first 4K HDR OLED screen on a mobile device. So the importance of 5G when it comes to delivering this kind of content is paramount… and yes now with 5G it is possible.

If you want to learn more about the Xperia 1 smartphone watch this WhatGear Video : Xperia 1 release date

STAY READY, SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET READY - Extreme Mobile Computing

Back in December Qualcomm announced their NEW Snapdragon 8CX processor. This chip was built from the ground up for PC purposes. What this means is we will see a giant leap for mankind in terms of battery life on snapdragon powered PC’s. (watch this video for more details.

In terms of what this thing can do. The Snapdragon 8CX CPU performance is comparable to that of an Intel i5, and its graphics processing power is comparable that of the i7. On top of that just imagine 25 hours continuous use battery capabilities. That’s what the SD 8CX will bring to the table.

EXTEND YOUR REALITY - 5G will broaden our horizons

VR & AR has been around for while now and it’s always improving. We saw the emergence of the new Microsoft Hololens 2 at the MWC19. Many of the VR devices on the forefront are rocking Qualcomm tech, such as the HTC Vive and Oculus rifts. At the booth Qualcomm they had various demo’s showing how powerful these experiences can be.

One day we could all have in Tony Stark (Ironman) augmented interactive computer in our homes. Only we won’t need to have a desktop computer because Qualcomms advancements in this field are becoming more and more advanced.

With 5G streaming, we will see a day where you can use a VR headset and actually be on the sidelines of your favorite sporting events in VR. Something tells me a new VR streaming service are going to start popping up soon.

There where plenty more demo’s to see at the MWW Qualcomm booth, such as the NEW ultrasonic fingerprint sensor as seen in the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the all NEW Qualcomm codec the AptX Adaptive. Which I made a video about click here if you want to check that out.

The long story short. Qualcomm’s president Cristiano Amon assembled the 5G Avengers at the booth for Champagne toast. All the major players from the world of Android smartphones and all the major mobile operators. The 5G era is here and this is just the beginning.

Click this link to check out my personal highlights video from MWC2019.

MORE QUALCOMM VIDEOS FROM WHATGEAR

Source: https://www.whatgear.net/technology/qualcomm-mwc-2019

[so-goodbye-smile]

MWC 2019 Qualcomm Booth Tour - 5G Avengers Assemble

What many of you might already know is that Qualcomm Tech is at the core of almost all the Android flagships smartphones you've seen on the market so far. Going into 2019 the trend continues.

This year Qualcomm has introduced the most power 7nm processor to date. The SUPER Snapdragon 855. We will a significant jump forward in processing power and power efficiency and connectivity with all the phones utilising the Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon X50 modems.

I got a chance to check out some of these 5G devices at the MWC 2019. Be sure to check out my MWC19 Highlights video here.

On the Qualcomm booth, they were demonstrating a variety of Qualcomm tech. Let start with Automotive.

AUTONOMOUS DRIVING - One day you'll be able to fall asleep at the wheel

So Qualcomm had a mock-up of an autonomous vehicle on display, demonstrating the power of the NEW Snapdragon 8155 Gen 3. This incredible processor can power up to six displays as well as all your infotainments need. Be ready to start seeing this new tech popping up in vehicles of the future very soon.

Also, onboard this space-aged vehicle was the Qualcomm CV2x which is a device to device safety system. With the 5G era officially here, and connectivity becomes ever more prevalent. The CV2x will be able to detect and monitor the surroundings of your vehicle. For example, it will know where pedestrians, cyclist, street lights and other vehicles are relative to your vehicle. The dream is that tech like the CV2x warning system will keep us all safer when commuting.

ULTRA LOW LATENCY - 5G Cloud Gaming

Oneplus & Oppo also had a stand the Qualcomm MWC19 booth. They were demonstrating the power of 5G cloud game streaming. Booth devices on display where streaming hi resolution games all the way from the Shadow service in Amsterdam.

The major difference between 5G cloud gaming & 4G is the latency. This is incredibly important to gamers. There is nothing worse than a laggy connection when playing online...trust me I know.

To put this into perspective for you, 4G at best can deliver 70 millisecond latency. Whereas 5G can deliver games to you in full quality with just 15 millisecond latency speeds. That's the difference between life & death in the gaming world.

Find me on PubG if you want ;) username: WhatGear

CONNECTED ACCESSORIES - Smartwear Everywhere

While Qualcomm is most well known for Flagship Smartphone processors, they also have a big part to play in Smart wearables. Everything from smartwatches, fitness trackers, headphones (like my Sony WH-1000XM3) and even augmented reality spectacles.

Yes, these Clark Kent glasses have a superpower! An augmented heads up display. Unfortunately, I didn't get to try them. They kind of remind of the glasses the secret agents use in that film Kingsman. Did you see that film?

Some of the Smartwatches on display were sporting the new Qualcomm Snapdragon wear 3100 processor. If you want to learn more about what's new with Snapdragon wear check this video out - Snapdragon Wear 3100

5G Server Demo - LG V50 ThinQ & Dual Screens

LG had an interesting stand where they were demonstrating the flexibility of the new Snapdragon X50 modem. When it comes to 5G waves there are two bands. Millimeter wave and Sub6. The dominance of either one will vary from country to country.

The LG demo showed how one device utilized as a server could stream full HiRes content from device to device over 5G. With one device using Sub6 and the other Millimeter wave. I can tell you it works extremely well.

Also, LG had a cool looking dual screen setup. It was not quite a folding phone scenario but still impressive none the less. This might be the coolest phone cover you can get on a smartphone...a second full quality screen. More on that in another WhatGear video.

5G 4K HDR Video - Sony X1 5G prototype

Although Sony didn't officially announce a 5G device at MWC 2019. They did, however, show us that it is something they are working on. On display at the Sony stand was a pretty bulky 21:9 prototype 5G device.

This year it seems that Sony's focus for the Xperia lineup is the new 'Cinewide' displays. With the Sony Xperia 1 have the worlds first 4K HDR OLED screen on a mobile device. So the importance of 5G when it comes to delivering this kind of content is paramount... and yes now with 5G it is possible.

If you want to learn more about the Xperia 1 smartphone watch this WhatGear Video : Xperia 1 release date

STAY READY, SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET READY - Extreme Mobile Computing

Back in December Qualcomm announced their NEW Snapdragon 8CX processor. This chip was built from the ground up for PC purposes. What this means is we will see a giant leap for mankind in terms of battery life on snapdragon powered PC's. (watch this video for more details.

In terms of what this thing can do. The Snapdragon 8CX CPU performance is comparable to that of an Intel i5, and its graphics processing power is comparable that of the i7. On top of that just imagine 25 hours continuous use battery capabilities. That's what the SD 8CX will bring to the table.

EXTEND YOUR REALITY - 5G will broaden our horizons

VR & AR has been around for while now and it's always improving. We saw the emergence of the new Microsoft Hololens 2 at the MWC19. Many of the VR devices on the forefront are rocking Qualcomm tech, such as the HTC Vive and Oculus rifts. At the booth Qualcomm they had various demo's showing how powerful these experiences can be.

One day we could all have in Tony Stark (Ironman) augmented interactive computer in our homes. Only we won't need to have a desktop computer because Qualcomms advancements in this field are becoming more and more advanced.

With 5G streaming, we will see a day where you can use a VR headset and actually be on the sidelines of your favorite sporting events in VR. Something tells me a new VR streaming service are going to start popping up soon.

There where plenty more demo's to see at the MWW Qualcomm booth, such as the NEW ultrasonic fingerprint sensor as seen in the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the all NEW Qualcomm codec the AptX Adaptive. Which I made a video about click here if you want to check that out.

The long story short. Qualcomm's president Cristiano Amon assembled the 5G Avengers at the booth for Champagne toast. All the major players from the world of Android smartphones and all the major mobile operators. The 5G era is here and this is just the beginning.

Click this link to check out my personal highlights video from MWC2019.

MORE QUALCOMM VIDEOS FROM WHATGEAR

source https://www.whatgear.net/technology/qualcomm-mwc-2019

[changebikeuk]

The History of The Folding Bike

The folding bike has long been the saviour of commuters and cyclists all over the world. When folded, it’s small enough to carry around, take public transport, and it’s a lot easier to store in your home or office. It may seem like a modern invention, but the history of the folding bike dates back further than you might think.

Folding Bikes in the 19th Century

Bicycles, in their regular form, were becoming more and more popular towards the end of the 19th century, so naturally inventors started trying to improve on the design, and make them more portable. In 1887, the American inventor Emmit Latta was granted a patent for his design of the first folding bike. He stated that it would be easier to manoeuvre, take up less room when not in use, and be easier to transport. The design of the bike shows that it literally folds in half, with the wheels ending up next to each other. The Pope Manufacturing Company purchased the patent from Latta, but it’s not known if they actually went ahead and produced the bike, as no examples of it have ever been found. Pope purchased many other bicycle patents around the same time, because the bike industry was growing, and they wanted to get ahead of their competition. They included some patents for folding tricycles, which were also created by Emmit Latta.

Folding Bikes Used in the Military

In 1900, Mikael Pederson adapted his Pedersen bicycle into a folding model, and this was used by the British army. It weighed 15 pounds and the wheels were 24 inches in diameter. By the time World War II came around, the army wanted a folding bike that could be carried by soldiers parachuting out of a plane, and would also withstand being dropped onto the ground. The Birmingham Small Arms Company were chosen to manufacture these bikes, and they had to adapt the frame so that it could be folded. It was designed so that the wheels would be protected from the impact of hitting the ground, with the saddle taking the brunt of the fall. However, the weight more than doubled to 32 pounds as a result. These folding bikes were even used during the D-Day Landings, but were soon forgotten about once the war was over. Several other countries around the world also used folding bikes for their military. One example is the Columbia Compax, which was used in America by paratroopers in 1942. However, this didn’t actually fold, as they claimed. It completely came apart at the middle, and could then be transported as two separate parts.

The Modern Folding Bicycle

It wasn’t until the 1960s that manufacturers started to consider making folding bikes again. This was mainly due to the design of the newly released Moulton bicycle in 1962. It wasn’t a folding bike, but it didn’t have the usual diamond shaped frame, that were commonly used on bikes at the time. Alex Moulton decided to change the frame shape by removing the top tube, making it easier to get on and off, especially for women. He also gave it much smaller wheels, which made it faster than a normal bike, and a lot lighter too. Companies saw the potential of adapting the design to include the folding element. By the 1970s, lots of manufacturers were producing folding bikes, with the majority of them offering a model in that category. The most famous was the Raleigh Twenty, and this was initially called the Stowaway, when it was introduced in 1971. It was produced for 13 years, and proved extremely popular. It was similar in looks to the Moulton, but it had a hinge in the middle, which allowed it to fold in half. The hinge design in folding bikes is still widely used today, amongst other methods.

Bickerton Portable

After the success of the Raleigh Twenty, Harry Bickerton decided to design another form of folding bike, called the Bickerton Portable. He made the frame entirely out of aluminium, which is very light in weight, and didn’t use any welding. The bike had lots of levers and clamps, and folded in on itself to be even more compact in size. This greatly influenced the next form of folding bike, called the Brompton.

Brompton Folding Bike and Dahon Folding Bike

In the 1980s, the folding bike, as we know it today, really started to take shape. In 1981, Andrew Richie started to produce his first Brompton folding bike, after visiting Harry Bickerton’s workshop. Also, in 1982, Dr David Hon began production of the Dahon folding bike. These bikes are still the most widely used brands of folding bikes in the world today. Both Richie and Hon looked at all of the folding bikes that had been previously produced, including their flaws, and designed their models to be better and more efficient. Montague Bikes was another company started in 1987, by the father and son team Harry and David Montague. Instead of creating another smaller folding bike, they created a full-sized folding bike, which some cyclists prefer, and it still folds up relatively compactly.

The Advantages of a Folding Bike

Folding bikes are becoming more popular all the time, and for good reason. Their unique frames and size give them lots of advantages over normal bicycles.

Storage –

A folding bike clearly takes up less space than a normal bike. If you’re short on space at home, then your bike will easily fit into a cupboard, under your stairs or even in the boot of your car. This is the reason folding bikes are more prevalent in big cities, where living space is limited. This has benefits from a security aspect too, as if you can bring your bike inside more often (at the office for example), then there’s no chance it will get stolen or damaged.

Easy to Transport –

The best folding bike will be light and easy to carry around. This gives so many more possibilities for cyclists. Folding bikes can be taken on a train when going to work, and even onto an airplane if you’re going on holiday. Most modern folding bikes will be roughly the size of a suitcase, and some even come with bags to carry them around in. They are easy to fold too, so if you’re in a rush to catch your train home one day, you won’t have to stand there for ages trying to fold your bike up. Also, if someone has to climb lots of stairs to get to their home or workplace, then carrying a folding bike makes this a much easier task.

Speed –

Folding bikes are fast, and it’s possible to accelerate quickly, even when you’re just setting off. They’re lightweight, meaning the cyclist won’t have to use as much energy when riding it. Some folding bikes are going electric too, with small motors in them to give the cyclist a slight boost when they need it, which is especially useful for commuters who are rushing to work. They don’t actually add much weight to the bike, and don’t take up any more room.

Variety –

There’s a lot more choice out there if you’re looking to buy folding bike online. It’s not just commuters that are purchasing these bikes, but they are being purchased for recreational use too. It’s important to consider why you’re buying one, and ensure you get the best folding bike for your needs. Consider where you’ll be using it, how fast you need it to be, and if you need any special features on it. For example, if you’re using it for leisure reasons, and will be riding it across rough terrain, then a folding mountain bike would be the best folding bike to choose.

Tried and Tested –

It’s becoming more popular to buy folding bike online, which also means there are lots of reviews out there. This is useful if you’re looking to change bike, as you can read the reviews, see which bikes are the most popular, what their faults are, and make sure you’re buying the best folding bike available to you. Cyclists know what they want, so when certain models are better sellers than others, it will be because of their quality and features. Reading about how comfortable the bike is when riding it, and how easy it is to fold up, are other bits of information to learn before purchasing.

The folding bike has evolved over the years, and today’s designs are getting lighter and more compact. So for people wanting to change bike, whether it’s a normal folding bike, or a folding mountain bike, then this could be the right option for them. There’s likely to be further innovation in this field in the years to come, so it’s exciting to see what the folding bicycle will look like in the future.

Thanks for taking the time to read this post! What would you like to see now?

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[newstfionline]

Headlines

Global warming to push billions outside climate range that has sustained society for 6,000 years, study finds (Washington Post) Just like insects, birds and animals, humans have a particular climate niche, scientists have found, with 6,000 years of human history demonstrating how society thrives when we stay within it and the turbulence that ensues when it is pushed out of this zone. In a stark new finding about the planet’s rapidly warming climate, a study finds that for every 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit (1 degree Celsius) of global average warming, 1 billion people will have to adapt or migrate to stay within climate conditions that are best suited for crop production, livestock and a sustainable outdoor work environment. The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on Monday, breaks new ground by quantifying the temperature range society is most adapted to and projecting how climate change will push people outside it.

The coronavirus pandemic is pushing America into a mental health crisis (Washington Post) Three months into the coronavirus pandemic, America is on the verge of another health crisis, with daily doses of death, isolation and fear generating widespread psychological trauma. Federal agencies and experts warn that a historic wave of mental health problems is approaching: depression, substance abuse, post-traumatic stress disorder and suicide. Just as the initial coronavirus outbreak caught hospitals unprepared, the country’s mental health system—vastly underfunded, fragmented and difficult to access before the pandemic—is even less prepared to handle this coming surge. Data show depression and anxiety are already roiling the nation. Nearly half of Americans report the coronavirus crisis is harming their mental health, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.

As World Comes to Halt Amid Pandemic, So Do Migrants (NYT) Border closures, suspended asylum programs, interruptions in global transportation and stay-at-home lockdowns have drastically curbed migration around the world, particularly from poorer nations to rich ones. In Latin America, once-crowded migratory routes that led from South America, through Central America and Mexico and to the United States have gone quiet. But the phenomenon extends well beyond the Americas. The number of East Africans crossing the Gulf of Aden to seek work in the Gulf States has plunged. Farms in western Europe are contending with severe labor shortfalls as travel bans have blocked the movement of seasonal migrant laborers from Eastern Europe. “The pandemic has essentially—not absolutely, but essentially—stopped international migration and mobility dead in its tracks,” said Demetrios G. Papademetriou, co-founder and president emeritus of the Migration Policy Institute in Washington. In some places, migratory flows have seemingly made a U-turn, as migrants no longer able to earn a living abroad have decided to return home, even if their home countries are mired in political conflict and economic ruin.

Venezuela: 2 US ‘mercenaries’ among those nabbed after raid (AP) Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro said authorities arrested two U.S. citizens among a group of “mercenaries” on Monday, a day after a beach raid purportedly aimed at capturing the socialist leader that authorities say they foiled. Maduro held up a pair of blue U.S. passports, reading off the names and birth dates on them in a nationwide broadcast on state television. He showed images of the fishing boats the alleged attackers rode in on and equipment like walkie-talkies and night-vision glasses collected in what Maduro called an “intense” couple of days. He blamed the attacks on the Trump administration and neighboring Colombia, both of which have denied involvement.

Britain and the state bankroll (Daily Telegraph) More than half of Britain’s adult population is now being bankrolled by the state amid warnings from the Chancellor that the furlough scheme could soon cost as much as the NHS. Analysis of official figures shows that 27 million people are now being funded by the Government amid growing concern over the devastating toll to the economy wrought by the coronavirus pandemic. The figure includes people being paid through the furlough scheme and those now claiming benefits after being made unemployed because of the virus. The remainder are public sector workers and pensioners. On Monday night Rishi Sunak, the Chancellor, said that the cost was “clearly not a sustainable situation” as he said that Britain must get back to work.

European Union Chairs $8 Billion Vaccine Drive (Foreign Policy) The European Union on Monday helped raise $8 billion dollars for a coronavirus vaccine as over 30 countries contributed to a global fund to address vaccine development. Norway contributed the highest amount: $1 billion, a figure matching the European Commission’s donation. “I believe 4 May will mark a turning point in our fight against coronavirus because today the world is coming together,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said. The United States did not participate in the fundraising drive, but highlighted its own efforts to fund a vaccine, including $2.6 billion through the Department of Health and Human Services’ Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority. The worry is that the United States will continue to go it alone on vaccine development, potentially delaying access for other countries. A German company in March denied a local news report that the Trump administration was trying to purchase exclusive rights to a potential vaccine on behalf of the United States.

Want to exercise in Spain? You have to wait for your shift. (Washington Post) For the first time in seven weeks, millions in Spain—one of the countries hit hardest by the coronavirus—ventured outdoors this weekend as the government gingerly eased Europe’s strictest nationwide lockdown. But there were rules—and plenty of them. People were allowed outside to exercise—no lounging—only during specific times designated by age group, to keep crowds relatively thin and to protect seniors from possible exposure. A seven-hour block was set aside for children under 14, but each child had to be accompanied by an adult, had to stay within one mile of home and could be outside for only one hour. Masked police officers stood watch to ensure compliance. People were also ordered not to drive to a chosen exercise spot, to leave the streets clear for cyclists, runners and walkers—spaced roughly six feet apart.

Internal Chinese report warns Beijing faces Tiananmen-like global backlash over virus (Reuters) An internal Chinese report warns that Beijing faces a rising wave of hostility in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak that could tip relations with the United States into confrontation, people familiar with the paper told Reuters. The report, presented early last month by the Ministry of State Security to top Beijing leaders including President Xi Jinping, concluded that global anti-China sentiment is at its highest since the 1989 Tiananmen Square crackdown, the sources said. As a result, Beijing faces a wave of anti-China sentiment led by the United States in the aftermath of the pandemic and needs to be prepared in a worst-case scenario for armed confrontation between the two global powers, according to people familiar with the report’s content, who declined to be identified given the sensitivity of the matter.

[savegraduation]

John Hensle, 1993-2016

It was three years ago today that my friend and fellow NYRAnian John Hensle passed away.

I first met John in 2010 when he was 16. I had finished the first draft of my libretto for The Bittersweet Generation (then called Angst). For those who haven't read my previous posts wherein I reference it, The Bittersweet Generation is a rock musical I'm writing that tells the story of a year in the life of six teens (Melanie Hayworth, Bryce Schlitter, Paul Moreno, Trina Evangelisti, Alan Isaacs, and Sarah Chiang) in the fictional Sun Belt suburb of Armando, starting in the summer of 2007 just before school begins, and ending with the alternative prom in 2008. They experience their struggles with youth rights issues. Their high school, Dulcevida High, has an assistant-principal named Mr. Pittman who lectures students about how they "must obey the rules", despite being very underhanded himself, a social conformist math teacher named Mrs. Dahlgren, and a believe-the-worst-stereotypes-about-Millennials AP Bio teacher named Mr. Orozco, among other faculty. One student is even framed for doing graffiti in the boys' restroom by Mr. Pittman as revenge for being intransigent when his teacher and assistant-principal expect him to take his hat off. It is highly recommended reading. (Oh, and the songs are great too.)

I had the libretto and lyrics, but wanted someone to set my lyrics to music. John, who was posting under the screenname Badlands1790, contacted me by PM on the NYRA Internet forum, telling me he was willing to collaborate on my rock musical. He said he played guitar and had had writer's block "for the longest time". He put up a YouTube video for our song "Students of the World, Unite!", which he later took down. "Students of the World, Unite!", the song sung at the climax of the story, is a pop-punky rocking tune that sounds something like Green Day, the Offspring, or Lit. John's melisma on such lines as "Now we form a wall that is gia-ant" is superb.

I researched John Hensle's activities with NYRA and learned that John had coauthored a booklet to help youth with students' rights issues with a number of other NYRAnians. I maintained an interest in John's posts on the NYRA board.

After a few Facebook conversations with John, I discovered John and I had many things in common. I discovered, for instance, that we were both youth rights supporters and both rocked out. We were both fascinated with drugs. We also share our dislike for the way the holidays are hyped and our deist religious views. There are some differences, though. For example, John is an INTP per the Myers-Briggs taxonomy of personality, while I'm an ENFP. And John was an avid cyclist, whereas hearing or reading the word "bxke" makes me have to pick my navel due to my logaesthesia (it feels as if a jagged piece of metal is caught in my navel).

Shortly after we met, I discussed my logaesthesia with John. He told me he had been diagnosed with Asperger's when he was 2 years old, but called for an end to all the IEP's in the eighth grade after he stopped meeting the diagnostic criteria. He had his diagnosis revoked, and said it was the only time a student with a diagnosis of an autism spectrum disorder had been undiagnosed and taken out of special ed in his school district.

Once I was discussing the cynicism that led many people to McCarthyesquely accuse youth rights supporters of being pedophiles, and commented that if a state senator or assemblyperson wants to lower her or his state's age of consent from 18 to 16, someone in the audience is sure to claim that that politician really wants to touch 7-year-olds' junk. John replied: "Yeah, I wish the general public could have intellectual debates about actually understanding articulate points, instead of reacting to a word or two and painting a negative stereotype. The world would be a lot better of a place if we could do that." That has become one of my favorite John Hensle quotes of all time!

Another time John said: "Youth is largely a relative construct, I would agree . . . but it's a matter of society seeing potential in youth. Society does not see youth as a period immediately useful to it so it marginalizes it and doesn't give young people meaningful opportunities."

When I asked John about his religion, John said: "I have come to believe in destiny and it's a great way to live life. You can't prove it either way, so you might as well believe what makes you happiest is true."

Sometimes when I created art, I'd listen to John Hensle's masterpiece with Secret Lands, "Voyager Golden Record". It is still my favorite Secret Lands song, as it makes me think of creating alien conlangs!

John hoped to meet me in person when he was coming over to the West Coast, but that never materialized. John began smoking weed and attending Buddhist meditation sessions and later Bahá'í temples in college. As his college years progressed, John became deeply into weed and later psychedelics. He once rode his car into the wilderness under the influence of drugs. He became a Shia LaBeouf fan and suggested I try a guided psychedelic experience to help me with my logaesthesia. In 2015, John was diagnosed with schizophrenia. While he had been a down-to-earth, even cynical realist when I met him -- he reminded me of Howe & Strauss' description of the Nomad archetype -- his drug-induced schizophrenia made John start to sound like what Howe & Strauss would call a Prophet instead. All this for a Millennial born in 1993. (Although, to be fair, few Millennials I know fit the dutiful authoritarian description of the Straussian generational theory.) At the end of 2015, he closed down his Facebook account. I emailed him, and he replied that there were too many people he didn't care about following him on Facebook (but that I wasn't one of said people). In May of 2016, his Facebook account was reactivated. I last spoke with John on October 22. We never met in person.

In mid-December of 2016, I was shattered when I went to John's Facebook wall and saw messages about how he had passed away. At first I was just numb -- in shock -- but then I lay down on my bed and started to feel ill. I knew John was into psychedelics, so at first I suspected it was a drug overdose, but then I read the obituary that said he "passed away on Dec. 5, 2016, in his sleep". At first I was just in shock -- stunned. Then I lay on my bed and felt really bad.

When I heard John had passed away, I thought about the things Landau & Hensle will never be able to do together, like accept music awards. I read the stale obituary, which didn't do justice to this amazing friend with an amazing and unconventional mind. I want to meet John again, but I don't know when or under what circumstances it's going to be. I want to share so many new songs with him, but I don't know whether he's hearing them as I play.

Until December of 2016, my circle of friends didn't overlap much with John's circle of friends. To the people in my life, John was just "the boy who's writing the music for James' play". And to John's Facebook friends, I was just "the boy who's writing a rock musical with John". But after John passed away, I've had his friends reach out to me.

I wrote John Hensle's mother on Facebook on January 3. For almost 5 months, she didn't even read my IM. Then, on June 2, she read my IM and friended me. I later learned that John was hit by an 18-wheeler while riding his bicycle in Terre Haute (where he’s from) in November. He had his tibia replaced with a rod, and John said, "Thank you all. I hope I didn't bum out your day too much." as he was lifted into the ambulance. On December 5, John finally passed away. The official cause of death was given as cardiac arrhythmia.

John jammed with Daniel Mutchler in the John Hensle & Daniel Mutchler Unnamed Project. He also did a number of songs on a project called Secret Lands, which are up at Soundcloud. Secret Lands released such songs as "Trap", "Ebbinghaus", "Floating" (about his transmale ex-girlfriend), and "The Final Girl Lives On", which can be read at the /secretlands directory on Soundcloud. I enjoyed all the times I spent songwriting with John and remember the dreams we share to have our music become part of the national repertoire.

I never met John in person, even though we discussed meeting up on many occasions. Our friendship was an online friendship, and yet it was much more than another online friendship. We were like soulmates. We were artistic partners. I was his brother from another mother.

After Avatar composer James Horner was killed in a plane crash, someone wrote, "I hope, you are somewhere, you would want to be after the death". This is the best wish John can receive. I, too, hope John went where he wanted to go, instead of the popularized version of the Christian Heaven where angels play harps and sit on clouds all day, doing notiing but singing songs that never run out of things to say about the glory of God and how he has saved us all from our sins.

And that song, "Students of the World, Unite!"? A few days after John passed away, I searched for it in my email box at Yahoo, and finally found a demo version of John singing the first verse, with his guitar, on video. You may email me at savegraduation@yahoo.com if you'd like a copy.

In commemoration of John today, I've been listening to his favorite artists on my iPod -- the ones I also have (Muse, Primitive Radio Gods, the Sundays, Third Eye Blind).

John has always had the view towards life and death that Patrick Henry had:"Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!" He believes life is not worth living if you can't enjoy it, which is a very youth rights attitude. It's ageists who believe in enforcing punitive laws like curfews and MIP's that punish teens "in order to protect them from their own stupidity". His views on life and death are attested to in his song Six Feet Below.

Although I'm sad my friend passed away three years ago today, I hold onto my conviction that it would have been unspeakably wrong to arrest him for smoking weed and trying hallucinogens in college, while his brain was supposedly still developing according to the "25" myth. (Technically, your brain is still developing during the college years, but it turns out this is a canard, as science has now discovered that the brain continues to develop and change all throughout a person's life. It's like saying a 50-year-old shouldn't have any legal rights because her brain is "not finished changing".) It was John's choice, and John's having the freedom to choose drugs without being arrested or jailed for it was so much more important than whether John had a capacity to make what social-conservative arbiters would judge as "good" decisions.

Here's to John Hensle, youth-rightser extraordinaire. You don't look a day over 23. (OK, maybe 5 months over 23.)

R.I.P. John Alfred Hensle, July 5, 1993 - December 5, 2016

[tamboradventure]

Rediscovering the Lost Art of Travel

Posted: 5/16/2019 | May 16th, 2019

Seth Kugel is the former Frugal Traveler columnist for the New York Times and author of the new Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious, from which this is adapted. I’ve known him for years and our travel philosophy dovetails a lot. I read his book last year and thought “If I were ever to write a book on the state of the travel industry, this is the book I would write!” It’s a great book and today, Seth excerpted part of the book for us!

Stenciled in white block letters on a dreary cement wall in Mezöberény, a tidy but fraying town of twelve thousand in the hyperbolically named Great Hungarian Plain, appeared the word:

SZESZFÖZDE

Hours earlier, in the overcast predawn hours of a nippy January day, I had stumbled off the Bucharest-to-Budapest train to see what it would be like to spend the weekend in the opposite of a tourist destination. Mezöberény was not just absent from guidebooks — it did not have a single restaurant, hotel, or activity listed on TripAdvisor, something that cannot be said for Mbabara, Uganda, or Dalanzadgad, Mongolia. I did have some info on the town, though, thanks to its municipal website: resident József Halász had recently celebrated his ninetieth birthday.

Or that’s what Google Translate told me. Hungarian is a Uralic language, more closely related to the output you might get falling asleep on a keyboard than to English or German or French. That makes even basic comprehension a challenge, as I found as soon as I rushed from the train to the station’s restrooms and faced the urgent need to choose between two doors: FÉRFI and NÖI. The authorities had apparently saved a few forints by not splurging on stick-figure signs.

The day had been born cold and gray and stayed that way as I walked through the town, slowly getting my bearings, intrigued by the pre-war, pre-Communist homes and the more than occasional bike rider — there were almost more bikes than cars — who waved hello. But then a winter drizzle took up, causing an abrupt decline in the number of cyclists even as the number of wandering American visitors held steady at one. To me, a travel day that turns rainy is like a piece of chocolate I’ve dropped on the floor: it’s significantly less appealing, but I’ll be damned if I’m going to throw it away.

It was in the first minutes of rain that I came across that stenciled sign on an otherwise residential street. Beyond the wall, down a cracking, now puddle-pocked driveway, were a dozen or so plastic barrels lined up like nuclear-waste drums. Beyond them, maybe a hundred feet from where I stood, was a one-story L-shaped building. What was this place? Well, SZESZFÖZDE, apparently. But what was that?

In the old days (say, 2009), I would have pulled out an English-Hungarian phrase book or pocket dictionary, but instead, I activated international roaming on my phone, carefully spelled out S-Z-E-S- Z-F-O-Z-D-E, and tapped Go.

The less-than-lightning speed of Great Hungarian Plain mobile service provided a dramatic pause. And then came my answer:

DISTILLERY.

You don’t say.

I would have guessed PRIVATE PROPERTY maybe, or DANGER—STAY OUT, or MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS, YOU MEDDLING FOREIGNER! But a distillery? A wave of adrenaline washed down my torso as my lips curled into a dumb-luck smile.

Two rather gruff-looking men emerged from the door, the older one smoking a cigarette and wearing a sweater and work-stained trousers that suggested Warsaw Pact 1986 more than modern-day European Union. I waved to them, pointed to the bulky Canon 7D hanging from my neck, and then to the building. Old-school Google Translate.

They waved me in and gave me a tour.

Inside the ancient but fully functioning distillery, the men let me take pictures as they gave me a vaguely intelligible lesson via pointing, expressive looks, and smartphone-translated Hungarian, on how pálinka — Hungarian fruit brandy — was made.

Those barrels I had seen outside, it turned out, were full of fermenting pear and grape and apple juices. Inside, it was distilled somehow through a looping and tangled system of pipes running out of tin tanks up and along the walls. It looked like the laboratory of a mad scientist with a penchant for tacky linoleum flooring.

As they led me around, I engaged in that most intrinsic of travel activities: trying to see the world from the vantage point of someone utterly different from me. What was their life like? Had they traveled? Who were their parents and grandparents? The language barrier that did not allow them to answer did not stop me from wondering.

After soaking in every rusty detail and every glint of pride in the men’s tired eyes, I typed, “Come visit me in New York” into Google Translate — laughs all around — then headed back onto the drizzly streets of Mezöberény, utterly elated.

What was so great about this moment? Sure, the szeszfözde was a neat little story for friends, and in my case, worth a few paragraphs in the newspaper. But wasn’t it just a grimy business making local hooch in a town that even most Hungarians would classify as the middle of nowhere?

It was a great moment because I discovered it. Not an earth-shattering discovery in the sense of a cure for AIDS or a previously unknown species of poison-spitting neon frog the size of a pinky nail. But it was 100 percent unexpected, 100 percent real, and 100 percent mine.

Discovery used to be the lifeblood of travel, at least for those of us who shun tour-bus groups and all-inclusive resorts. We used to leave home knowing relatively little about our destination — perhaps with some highlighted guidebook pages denoting major attractions and local tipping etiquette, a list of tips culled from well-traveled friends, or articles copied and pasted into a Word document. For the ambitious, maybe a notional feel for the local history or culture gleaned pre-trip from a historical novel.

Beyond that, we were on our own.

Paper guidebooks frozen in time helped us along, as did pamphlets and paper maps from tourist information booths and tips from a hotel concierge. Earlier this century, Google searches in internet cafés also lent a hand. But otherwise, there was no choice: You decided what to do with your own eyes and ears, by wandering, by initiating human-to-human contact. Tips came from hearing fellow travelers’ stories over hostel or (non-Air) B&B breakfasts, entering a shop to ask directions and ending up in a conversation with the owner, or catching a whiff of fresh bread or sizzling chilies and following your nose.

Of course, all that still happens today — but only if you really go out of your way to make it happen. Not only is nearly every place in the world documented to within an inch of its life but that documentation — which comes dressed as both fact and opinion — is overwhelmingly and immediately available, thanks to pervasive technology. That’s great for many things in life — medical information, how-to videos, shorter commutes. But don’t we travel to break our routine? To experience the unexpected? To let the world delight us?

If we do, we have a funny way of showing it. We pore over online reviews for weeks, plan days down to the half hour, and then let GPS and the collected wisdom of the unwise lead us blindly. We mean well — no one wants to have a romantic dinner go wrong or to get lost and miss out on a “must-see attraction” or to risk chaos by failing to keep the kids entertained for three minutes.

But isn’t that just a digital version of the old-fashioned group tour? Well, almost, except that on the bus tour, you actually get to meet the person whose advice you’re taking.

One of my most ironclad rules of travel is this: the number of visitors a place receives is inversely related to how nice locals are to those visitors. Mezöberény, as far as I knew, had received precisely no foreign tourists ever. It was the anti-Paris, and this distillery the anti-Louvre.

People who inhabit the still-plentiful tourist-free swaths of the planet tend to be not only just nicer but more curious. They say a bear in the wild is just as scared of you as you are of it. I say people in places where outsiders rarely go are just as curious about visitors as visitors are about them. The question is not why the distillery workers invited me — a camera-toting, gibberish-talking stranger — in for a tour, it’s why wouldn’t they? If it were me, I’d be thinking: “What is this odd foreigner doing outside our szeszfözde with a camera? Wait till I tell the kids! And by the way, isn’t it about time we took a break?”

More importantly, is it possible that stumbling upon a dank distillery might be just as thrilling as a tour of one of the world’s great monuments? Did the surge of emotion I felt when the word distillery popped onto my screen match what I felt when I first glanced up at the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?

Probably not, although I remember the distillery moment quite precisely and barely recall what I felt at the Sistine Chapel. Why? Because although Michelangelo’s prophets and sibyls and biblical re-creations are several trillion times lovelier than rusty pipes in a concrete building reeking of fermented fruit, I had seen them before in photos, heard professors talk about them, and read other travelers’ accounts as I sought the best times to avoid crowds.

That’s why I believe it is time we rediscover travel and recognize the value of what an overdocumented world has taken away: the delight of making things happen on your own.

***

Seth is the former Frugal Traveler columnist for the New York Times and author of the new Rediscovering Travel: A Guide for the Globally Curious, from which this is adapted.

In this book, Kugel challenges the modern travel industry with a determination to reignite humanity’s age-old sense of adventure that has virtually been vanquished in this spontaneity-obliterating digital age. You can purchase the book at Amazon and give it a read.

Book Your Trip: Logistical Tips and Tricks

Book Your Flight Find a cheap flight by using Skyscanner or Momondo. They are my two favorite search engines because they search websites and airlines around the globe so you always know no stone is left unturned.

Book Your Accommodation You can book your hostel with Hostelworld as they have the largest inventory. If you want to stay somewhere other than a hostel, use Booking.com as they consistently return the cheapest rates for guesthouses and cheap hotels. I use them all the time.

Don’t Forget Travel Insurance Travel insurance will protect you against illness, injury, theft, and cancellations. It’s comprehensive protection in case anything goes wrong. I never go on a trip without it as I’ve had to use it many times in the past. I’ve been using World Nomads for ten years. My favorite companies that offer the best service and value are:

World Nomads (for everyone below 70)

Insure My Trip (for those over 70)

Looking for the best companies to save money with? Check out my resource page for the best companies to use when you travel! I list all the ones I use to save money when I travel – and that will save you time and money too!

The post Rediscovering the Lost Art of Travel appeared first on Nomadic Matt's Travel Site.

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[cosmichemist]

MWC 2019 Qualcomm Booth Tour - 5G Avengers Assemble

What many of you might already know is that Qualcomm Tech is at the core of almost all the Android flagships smartphones you've seen on the market so far. Going into 2019 the trend continues.

This year Qualcomm has introduced the most power 7nm processor to date. The SUPER Snapdragon 855. We will a significant jump forward in processing power and power efficiency and connectivity with all the phones utilising the Snapdragon 855 and Snapdragon X50 modems.

I got a chance to check out some of these 5G devices at the MWC 2019. Be sure to check out my MWC19 Highlights video here.

On the Qualcomm booth, they were demonstrating a variety of Qualcomm tech. Let start with Automotive.

AUTONOMOUS DRIVING - One day you'll be able to fall asleep at the wheel

So Qualcomm had a mock-up of an autonomous vehicle on display, demonstrating the power of the NEW Snapdragon 8155 Gen 3. This incredible processor can power up to six displays as well as all your infotainments need. Be ready to start seeing this new tech popping up in vehicles of the future very soon.

Also, onboard this space-aged vehicle was the Qualcomm CV2x which is a device to device safety system. With the 5G era officially here, and connectivity becomes ever more prevalent. The CV2x will be able to detect and monitor the surroundings of your vehicle. For example, it will know where pedestrians, cyclist, street lights and other vehicles are relative to your vehicle. The dream is that tech like the CV2x warning system will keep us all safer when commuting.

ULTRA LOW LATENCY - 5G Cloud Gaming

Oneplus & Oppo also had a stand the Qualcomm MWC19 booth. They were demonstrating the power of 5G cloud game streaming. Booth devices on display where streaming hi resolution games all the way from the Shadow service in Amsterdam.

The major difference between 5G cloud gaming & 4G is the latency. This is incredibly important to gamers. There is nothing worse than a laggy connection when playing online...trust me I know.

To put this into perspective for you, 4G at best can deliver 70 millisecond latency. Whereas 5G can deliver games to you in full quality with just 15 millisecond latency speeds. That's the difference between life & death in the gaming world.

Find me on PubG if you want ;) username: WhatGear

CONNECTED ACCESSORIES - Smartwear Everywhere

While Qualcomm is most well known for Flagship Smartphone processors, they also have a big part to play in Smart wearables. Everything from smartwatches, fitness trackers, headphones (like my Sony WH-1000XM3) and even augmented reality spectacles.

Yes, these Clark Kent glasses have a superpower! An augmented heads up display. Unfortunately, I didn't get to try them. They kind of remind of the glasses the secret agents use in that film Kingsman. Did you see that film?

Some of the Smartwatches on display were sporting the new Qualcomm Snapdragon wear 3100 processor. If you want to learn more about what's new with Snapdragon wear check this video out - Snapdragon Wear 3100

5G Server Demo - LG V50 ThinQ & Dual Screens

LG had an interesting stand where they were demonstrating the flexibility of the new Snapdragon X50 modem. When it comes to 5G waves there are two bands. Millimeter wave and Sub6. The dominance of either one will vary from country to country.

The LG demo showed how one device utilized as a server could stream full HiRes content from device to device over 5G. With one device using Sub6 and the other Millimeter wave. I can tell you it works extremely well.

Also, LG had a cool looking dual screen setup. It was not quite a folding phone scenario but still impressive none the less. This might be the coolest phone cover you can get on a smartphone...a second full quality screen. More on that in another WhatGear video.

5G 4K HDR Video - Sony X1 5G prototype

Although Sony didn't officially announce a 5G device at MWC 2019. They did, however, show us that it is something they are working on. On display at the Sony stand was a pretty bulky 21:9 prototype 5G device.

This year it seems that Sony's focus for the Xperia lineup is the new 'Cinewide' displays. With the Sony Xperia 1 have the worlds first 4K HDR OLED screen on a mobile device. So the importance of 5G when it comes to delivering this kind of content is paramount... and yes now with 5G it is possible.

If you want to learn more about the Xperia 1 smartphone watch this WhatGear Video : Xperia 1 release date

STAY READY, SO YOU DON’T HAVE TO GET READY - Extreme Mobile Computing

Back in December Qualcomm announced their NEW Snapdragon 8CX processor. This chip was built from the ground up for PC purposes. What this means is we will see a giant leap for mankind in terms of battery life on snapdragon powered PC's. (watch this video for more details.

In terms of what this thing can do. The Snapdragon 8CX CPU performance is comparable to that of an Intel i5, and its graphics processing power is comparable that of the i7. On top of that just imagine 25 hours continuous use battery capabilities. That's what the SD 8CX will bring to the table.

EXTEND YOUR REALITY - 5G will broaden our horizons

VR & AR has been around for while now and it's always improving. We saw the emergence of the new Microsoft Hololens 2 at the MWC19. Many of the VR devices on the forefront are rocking Qualcomm tech, such as the HTC Vive and Oculus rifts. At the booth Qualcomm they had various demo's showing how powerful these experiences can be.

One day we could all have in Tony Stark (Ironman) augmented interactive computer in our homes. Only we won't need to have a desktop computer because Qualcomms advancements in this field are becoming more and more advanced.

With 5G streaming, we will see a day where you can use a VR headset and actually be on the sidelines of your favorite sporting events in VR. Something tells me a new VR streaming service are going to start popping up soon.

There where plenty more demo's to see at the MWW Qualcomm booth, such as the NEW ultrasonic fingerprint sensor as seen in the Samsung Galaxy S10 and the all NEW Qualcomm codec the AptX Adaptive. Which I made a video about click here if you want to check that out.

The long story short. Qualcomm's president Cristiano Amon assembled the 5G Avengers at the booth for Champagne toast. All the major players from the world of Android smartphones and all the major mobile operators. The 5G era is here and this is just the beginning.

Click this link to check out my personal highlights video from MWC2019.

MORE QUALCOMM VIDEOS FROM WHATGEAR

Source: https://www.whatgear.net/technology/qualcomm-mwc-2019

[bookedsuccess]

DAY FORTY TWO

The Book “Slipstream Time Hacking” in Three Sentences

Summary by James Clear

What if we measured our lives based on “distance” traveled rather than time elapsed? If we measure life by distance rather than time, then it becomes very clear that you can hack time by figuring out how to jump further along the timeline of life. This enables you to live many lives in one lifetime. For example, someone who retires at age 30 will free up an extra 40+ years of life compared to their peers, which means they can live an entire second life that many people will never get to experience.

Slipstream Time Hacking summary

This is my book summary of Slipstream Time Hacking by Benjamin Hardy. My notes are informal and often contain quotes from the book as well as my own thoughts. This summary includes key lessons and important passages from the book.

The faster someone moves toward a desired destination, the slower time moves for them.

But what if we did measure time as a distance? How would our lives look? What if rather than focusing on how long something took, we focused on how far we went?

According to Einstein’s special relativity theory, time is a description of distance traveled.

This is how time relativity works. Time feels the same to each individual but can be vastly different—speed is relative to each person.

What if we were to measure our entire lives as we measure light-speed—as distance traveled rather than time elapsed? How would each day look, if rather than passing through 24 hours, we measured how far we moved that day?

“The man who has lived the most is not he who has counted the most years but he who has most felt life.” —Jean-Jacques Rousseau

After acclimating to the speed of my new system, it became obvious to me that I had covered more ground in terms of time-distance than many of my associates. In other words, while we had all experienced the same few years, I felt like I had aged, or changed, by decades.

Today, innovation is so fast that we accomplish more in a day than previous generations did in a lifetime.

If we measure life by distance rather than time, some people may travel great distances on a given day while others can’t remember a single significant thing they did.

If time is relative, we don’t need to assume one minute means one minute. Perhaps, five minutes could be squeezed into one minute, of five hours, or five years. The compression of time is not a matter of compounding activities, but the compounding of meaning.

If the goals you are pursuing do not require wormholes, your approach to life is far too small. The highest pursuits available are those that literally require exceptions to the rules, because such aims cannot be done conventionally.

Nobody achieves the impossible without thinking they can.

Once-in-a-lifetime opportunities aren’t really that rare.

Those who don’t believe in magic will never find it.” —Roald Dahl

The Jewish physicist, Albert Einstein, centered light as the single constancy of the universe with his special relativity theory. Rather than time being the absolute and unchanging force as previous theorists assumed, Einstein rendered light-speed constancy as the unchanging backdrop to his theories. Light is the framework of the universe and the fundamental reality.

For example, to a person driving a car, the objects in the car (his iPod or Big Gulp) appear to be motionless despite the fact that they are moving at the speed of the car. The objects are at rest with respect to the driver.

The faster an object travels through space, the slower its progress in time.

The faster an object travels through space, the slower its progress in time. If an object could travel at the speed of light, time would stand still.

To move fast is to have all the time in world.

If we have a lot of time, it tends to be filled with busyness. If we are crunched for time, we use that time efficiently.

Thus, to slow time, one only needs to set shorter timelines. If the goal is to get to Hawaii in 15 years, reduce that timeline to 15 months and voilà, put on your flower-shirt.

If a task is perceived to be unimportant, it will take enormous amounts of time to complete. Conversely, if a task is perceived to be important, it will get done soon—sometimes immediately, depending on how important and urgent.

By pursuing things we believe to be important and breaking them down into their smallest parts, time slows and more is accomplished.

Certain people are moving so fast that they can arrive at destinations in moments that would take most of us decades.

For example, assuming Tim and I had the same goal, if Tim could accomplish this goal in one day (like make a successful multi-million dollar investment) the same would likely take me 10 or more years. Tim is moving over 3,650 times faster than me. Thus, time has dilated 3,650 times for Tim. While he can now set grander and greater goals, I continue plugging along. One day to Tim is 3,650 days to me.

Bill Gates is another who is moving so fast he has potentially traveled the same distance in his life as the combined distance of millions of people.

Advances in technology are a great example of time dilation. Due to the rapid progress of technology, humanity is able to progress hundreds to thousands of times faster than we used to.

From a linear perspective of time, Bill Gates will live the same years as most other people do. From a nonlinear perspective, he is squeezing the same amount of life into seconds that most people experience in their entire lifetime.

Each of us has a vision of the ideal life we want to live. Living congruently with our ideal is how time slows down. Consequently, success is defined as living that ideal for the maximum amount of time. The sooner we get there, the longer we have to live.

“A man is rich in proportion to the number of things he can afford to let alone” —Henry David Thoreau

When we were children, time slowed down. Time meant something; or more likely, we were oblivious to linear time. Ignorance of time literally was bliss.

In contrast, if we know what we want and align our life to what matters most, to reality, time will slow down. All of those things we have spent our life chasing are nothing more than a distraction from what matters most.

The closer we get to reality, our authentic self and desires, the slower time goes.

What good is money when you don’t have time?

A person choosing to spend large portions of time in an unsatisfying job in order to make ends meet is on a fast track to his deathbed.

You may be young in years, but you are closer to death than you think.

If a moment is remembered, no matter how quickly it passed, that moment lasts forever.

You could live more life in one congruent day than many people live their entire lives.

The goal isn’t an infinite quantity of time, but the highest quality of time. This is where time slows down.

People who think “I will be happy when…” are speeding up their time rather than slowing it down. In other words, they believe that once they accomplish a certain task or goal, only then will time slow. If we could learn how to get to where we want instantaneously, we could learn the truth that happiness is now. Time can slow now.

There is always a way to get to where we want to go almost instantly.

Newtonian time’s most fatal flaw is determinism—the present is determined by the past.

Don’t let what may appear to be a setback become a missed wormhole of opportunity.

Change doesn’t have to take a long time, it happens the instant we decide.

Each person lives in their own perceived reality. Stephen Covey expressed, “We don’t see the world as it is, but as we are.”

When another cyclist rides directly behind the first, they get caught in this particle trail and experience a large reduction of resistance while simultaneously being pulled forward by the front rider’s momentum diffusion. Riding in the slipstream allows a rider to keep pace while using approximately thirty percent less energy.

The root of the word decision means to cut-away and remove other options. Thus, when a decision is made, it is separated from other decisions which could have been made. There are opportunity costs to every decision.

When choosing a slipstream to enter, it is crucial to be mindful. Destinations, as well as paths, must be chosen wisely.

Don’t get stuck in one slipstream just because it worked in the past. What got you here, won’t get you there.

Psychologists have found that the ability to experience joy has a ceiling effect.

Whatever we seek—we imagine the satisfaction to be far greater than it really is. Eventually life is just life again.

This is the experience of the successful. To them, life is normal. Not worrying about time, money, or volatile relationships is just how life is. The newness has long since worn off. However, even they have moments where they wake up and cannot believe how far they have come.

To push my own progress, I chose to surround myself with people several decades (literally) older than me. I made friends with people who were near retirement or already retired. I began to see movies with them, hang out at their houses, and engage in their same activities. I wanted to learn now what took them an entire lifetime of experience to learn. I gradually reduced my time with people my own age, recognizing they were at best, in the same boat I was in, and therefore had less experience and wisdom to offer.

When we buy a new home, it isn’t really costing us $300,000. What it really costs is the time spent working to pay the monthly mortgage.

Sadly, people today not only spend the time they have, they also spend away their futures. To accrue debt is to sell away our future time.

Not only is time the ultimate currency, but in actuality time is our only currency. Our time is the only thing that really belongs to us. Everything else belongs to the world and the universe. We can’t take our money or stuff with us when we die. Although we may “own” something, we don’t really own it. At most, we are stewards over our possessions, but they are ultimately the Earth’s. The only thing that is fundamentally ours is our time. To waste our time is to waste ourselves.

There are three distinct requirements for personal freedom: 1) a heart at peace, 2) healthy relationships, and 3) upright character.

There are many successful businesses but few successful families.

Meaningful moments exist forever in our minds—memories are timeless. We get to relive them again and again.

Leadership is not forcing people to follow. Rather than the bee going out searching for honey, it’s being the flower and allowing the bees to come to you.

In our world with limitless options, limitless books to read, limitless clothes to wear, limitless paths to take, it is extremely important to be picky.

We must not be afraid of committing to our true desires at the expense of forgoing others.

I’m not going to be lured by a great opportunity when it’s the wrong opportunity.

Those who become the greatest and go the farthest are highly selective about what they take on. They are clear on where they want to go and recognize that most of what life offers will not get them there. Almost everything in life is a non-essential distraction

“Most people don’t know why they’re doing what they’re doing. They imitate others, go with the flow, and follow paths without making their own. They spend decades in pursuit of something that someone convinced them they should want, without realizing that it won’t make them happy.”

“Anything is possible, but not everything is possible” —Tyler Rex

Right now, most of us engage in far too many priorities. If we have more than three priorities, we have none.

Everything is a myth. It’s not only impossible, it’s ridiculous. You can��t have it all.

The fewer the priorities in our lives the better.

“The life of every man is a diary in which he means to write one story, and writes another; and his humblest hour is when he compares the volume as it is with what he vowed to make it.” —J.M. Barrie

The gap between what we know we should do and what we actually do is enormous.

Despite turbulence and other conditions keeping the plane off course 90% of the flight, most flights arrive in the correct destination at the correct time. The reason for this phenomenon is quite simple—through air traffic control and the inertial guidance system, pilots are constantly correcting. Essentially, the plane is on a straight course and keeps getting nudged a degree off course here and pushed a degree or two off course there. When immediately addressed, these course corrections are not hard to manage. However, if a pilot only occasionally checked the course the aircraft could potentially become so far off course that the requisite corrections would take substantial time and resources to execute.

True commitment can only occur when turning back is no longer an option. This moment constitutes conversion in the highest regards. Failure is no longer caused by a lack of commitment. If you are going to fail, you are going to fail epically. If you are going to succeed, you will live at your highest level.

“It’s easier to hold to your principles 100 percent of the time than it is to hold to them 98 percent of the time.” —Clayton Christensen

When you commit to something 100%, all of your future choices are already made—no matter how attractive the circumstances

A true pro gets paid, but doesn’t work for money. A true pro works for love.

“To the individual, character is destiny. To the organization, culture is destiny.” —Tony Hsieh

Essentialists are people who make fewer decisions, but take the time to contemplate those decisions. By doing so they make fewer, better choices.

Avoid checking email or answering the phone during the first few hours of your day—that time is sacred. Checking your email is simply a database of other people’s agendas. Thus, by checking your email at the beginning of the day, you have already set a pattern that your day is not going to be designed by you, but someone else.

Leveraging other people’s time, skills, and money is essential for getting where you want to go faster. You simply don’t have the time to do it all.

“If you ever find a man who is better than you are – hire him. If necessary, pay him more than you would pay yourself… If you always hire people who are smaller than you, we shall become a company of dwarfs. If, on the other hand, you always hire people who are bigger than you, we shall become a company of giants.” —David Ogilvy

Hundreds of thousands of years ago, the world was local and linear. Humans were hunter gatherers, with limited goals, living in limited space. Consequently, our brains have evolved to think locally and linearly. However, today’s world is global and exponential.

We all have invisible doors in our direct proximity that will transport us decades into our best futures.

The people that have moved the needle of humanity live on forever. The time they have expanded for others is their contribution to humanity—their footprint on evolution.

“Do what is right, let the consequence follow.”

Life is filled with an almost infinite wealth of hard decisions. You are bound to fumble along time way.

One thing is certain, life rewards those who act—the hustlers; not the wishers.

When the end of life comes, we leave with nothing but our relationships.

[ukresinboundsurfacing]

Storm Brian didn't stop my coast to coast cycling holiday with my family

Micki Beck is a writer, cyclist, sailor, wife and mum from Cornwall

We could have happily kept going - so roll on next October half term

I found the emotional effort of ensuring everyone else was happy, warm, dry and fed as great a challenge as the physical effort

Micki Beck is a writer, cyclist, sailor, wife and mum from Cornwall.

She and her family love to explore by boat and bicycle. Last October they cycled the Devon Coast to Coast route into the headwinds of Storm Brian with their daughters (Ella, 1, in a trailer and Holly, 4, on a bike with a trail gaiter). 

In this blog, Micki tells us about her experiences pedalling for four fun-packed days from Barnstable to Plymouth.

As time passes the years merge into a pool of memories, some vivid, some distant. The small things fade but it seems the adventures stay vibrant and clear, and the greater the effort the more firmly they’re fixed in the memory.

Life has a sneaky habbit of zipping by in a whirl of daily routine- the school run, food shopping, cleaning, cooking, work, on and on it goes. School also imposes unfortunate restrictions on the freedom to nip off on an adventure.

To stem that flow and mark the years with milestones of fun we’ve pledged to plan a variety of annual family antics, and October half-term is biking week. My husband Tim and I are keen (but to be honest pretty out of practice) mountain bikers. Our aspirations are to someday do some longer off-road camping rides with the girls. 

The potential for cold, wet autumnal days in October steered our planning to look for a gentler introduction to bike touring for the two little ones. Living near Plymouth, the Devon Coast to Coast seemed like a great option, with the added bonus of starting with a train ride and cycling home. 

The kit for a family cycling adventure

We carried all our kit in panniers- rear for me, front and rear for Tim. As the forecast was dire, we double bagged everything in ziplock bags and bin-liners. We packed the panniers so that everything we’d need during the day was in one place and we wouldn’t have to open the other bags in the rain. 

Tim, in a moment of last-minute inspiration, bought a shower cap to cover Holly’s helmet and some clear safety glasses that kept the rain and wind out of her eyes. In combination with wellies, waterproof dungarees, coat, gloves, buff, hood and helmet our little trooper stayed warm and dry. 

Ella had the relative luxury of the trailer. As it was previously untested we coated it in many a layer of waterproofing spray. In another moment of last-minute genius by Tim, we added the buggy rain cover over the whole trailer and Ella stayed perfectly dry, albeit a little steamy at times.

Bad weather beckoned 

Scrolling through a news feed the night before we set-off brought word of an unwelcome addition to our party- Brian, Storm Brian that is! The Dawlish train line was closed due to high winds and it looked unlikely we’d even make it to the start in Barnstaple.

But with a new day brought new hope. The rain continued but the trains were running, and we loaded our three bikes, a trailer and two kids. 

Transferring our load between trains and platforms was a real logistical operation. Thankfully the helping hands of fellow passengers and the wonderful station staff made light work of it.

Travelling’s a wonderful way to prove the generosity of human nature and this trip proved no exception.

The full route of the coast to coast starts in Ilfracombe. Not wanting to bite off more than we could chew we joined the trail heading south where the train line ends in Barnstaple. In short, skipping the first section. 

The first day of our adventure 

As we discharged from the train at Barnstaple, the glimmers of sun lasted long enough to get our rig on the road before the force of Brian hit us.  

The flat open expanse of the Taw estuary left us exposed to the battering headwinds. They slowed us to a snail’s pace and shocked our legs into a burning, turning cycle of effort.

Our smaller crew picked the pit stops along our ride, of which there were many as we all got used to life on the road. The playground at Fremington proved excellent shelter for our first picnic lunch. 

Ella vocally announced another stop was required near Bideford. She shouted full volume to get out of

the trailer until we happened upon a pub serving cream teas in front of a roaring fire.

Spirits revived, the wooded Torridge valley gave a welcome respite from the wind.

It’s a great long traffic-free stretch, in fact it was pretty people free too as most sensible folk appeared to have made a drier plan for the half term. Aside from dodging the odd fallen branch on the path, Storm Brian did little to halt progress.

After a few navigational consultations, we turned off the track a little past Great Torrington. We cursed tired legs and heavy loads, but every puff and push were worth it for our overnight stop. We had reached our first stop-off at the Week Manor, where we were hosted by the lovely Lucy. 

After the initial surprise that we hadn’t cancelled, we were greeted with wonderfully warming hospitality. It was wonderful to see and hear the enthusiasm and support for our silly venture. Praise and respect from people outside the family brings a new level of pride and confidence in little ones and it’s great to see them glow with their achievements. It was the best possible way to end a long and at times challenging day.

The rest of the journey 

Another day, another round of wind and rain. Restored from our comfortable night's rest, we hit the Devon hills, rolling up and down the quiet lanes as we approached the edge of the moor.

The weighty tow behind each bike challenged our untrained legs and put us out of our comfort zone. We kept the distances short enough to be manageable and enjoyable.

The girls settled into life on the road quickly. Ella happily playing, snoozing and watching the world go by from her fug-filled trailer. Holly kept entertained by her electric horn (emitting an eclectic assortment of noises, from sirens to belly dancing music, neighing to buzzing bees). 

By day three, Storm Brian was starting to fade. His feisty forcefulness diminished, leaving just a tail of soggy showers in his wake. The Granite way started our third leg with a refreshingly flat cruise.

There’s nothing like having two ticking time-bombs on the back with fuses of unknown length to keep the legs going. A bit of a balance is needed between pressing on while the going’s good but still making time to stop, explore and enjoy the sights on the way.

After the first day settling into the routine both girls amazed us with their stamina, patience and perseverance. We made sure they were dry, warm and well fed which proved enough to keep spirits up and the wheels rolling.

Sightseeing along the way​

A castle is always excellent entertainment for the little ones, and the Saxon fortifications at Lydford were met with suitable enthusiasm.

The cake at the National Trust café nearby was met with equal enthusiasm on what was the most leisurely day of the trip.

The rolling lanes past the iconic church in South Brent delivered us to Tavistock in time to see the ducks on the canal and rumble on the playground before pub dinner- a winner all round.

The home stretch 

Our last day started with a full English breakfast in the pub that set us up for the home run to Plymouth. Knowing this bit of trail well, we were surprised to find the up-hill to Yelverton easier than we remembered. Those three days on steep Devon lanes had obviously had some beneficial effect. We cruised down the Plym Valley, free-wheels clicking satisfyingly as our legs rested.

Our legs may have arrived in Plymouth rested, but our minds were unprepared for the shock of returning to civilisation. 

After the tranquil beauty of four days of off-road riding, deserted lanes, wooded valleys and open moorland, landing into the urban rush of Plymouth hit our senses for six. 

I love my cycle commute into Plymouth for work, but I can’t say that the last five miles home through the busy streets with tired legs and kids in tow after days of peaceful solitude was a pleasant experience.

We made it home without incident and what a feeling of achievement as we crossed the Tamar Bridge back into Cornwall, our journey complete. We did about 110 miles in total over four days and definitely achieved our aim of an amazing family adventure with memories that will last a lifetime. 

Onto future adventures

I found the emotional effort of ensuring everyone else was happy, warm, dry and fed as great a challenge as the physical effort. But that’s a part of adventuring with a family and brings its own rewards.

The people we met were a total highlight of the trip, cycle touring gives an instant conversation starter and opens a world of kindness. I hope people know the value of their kindness that shapes us and our futures.

We could have happily kept going - so roll on next October half term. Hopefully, the adventures will grow with the years and one day Holly and Ella will be encouraging us to keep up as they set the route over hill and dale.

Find out more about challenge rides on the National Cycle Network 

Cycling

Lifestyle

Young people

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