text:
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Unintentional Haiku… of Mars »
Valet de cœur
Do you love your partner but wish you didn't have to put up with their bad habits or allergy-provoking pets?
Are you sick of chasing love only to have your heart broken?
Do you prefer relaxing alone to dragging yourself out on dates, but wish you had someone to love once in a while?
Did the love of your life walk out on you after your father's funeral last week, taking your cat and the last roll of toilet paper, and proclaiming he liked how generous you were to him and loved being invited to such family gatherings where he could see your smoking-hot mother, but the way you always scratched your ear when you were thinking was driving him nuts?
We have the solution. With the patented HeartValet system, you'll always feel loved. HeartValet is a precisely controlled, individually tailored, automatic delivery system of your friends oxytocin, vasopressin, and the perfect blend of nineteen other natural love potions just like the ones your body makes in the best stages of love. We've taken the body's unpredictable mess of love hormones and perfected them into the smooth sailing that you deserve. But that's not all; HeartValet integrates with a HugVest that automatically stimulates your C-tactile network whenever you need it. Users of HeartValet are proven to be up to 42% happier, and live up to five years longer or more.
Pregnant women and chronically ill people are advised to find a partner who will assist them with their physical needs. HeartValet is not suitable as a complete source of affection for infants.
Toya self-consciously stopped scratching her ear, and mentally cursed targeted advertising. And she wondered why, with all the information it had about her, it still seemed to be consistently targeted at idiots. She knew what 'up to' meant, and she wasn't desperate enough to buy their cheesy fake love. Toya had never been a fan of artificial emotions, injected into her mind with no external cause. Even alcohol freaked her out a little. Even the smoother-than-nature hormones from her contraceptive implant. HeartValet was just a blow-up doll for the soul. How dare they imply she needed it… how dare they…
Toya looked down to see her ice cream had cruelly melted while her attention was imprisoned by the dumb ad. The spoon made a goddamn irritating noise when she threw it into the bowl, then it bounced out and spattered melted ice cream all over her. She began to cry.
Are you crying into your Rocky Road after a recent breakup?
Do you wish there were an easier way to feel lov…
Toya swore and threw the terminal across the room. It had the gall to respond by breaking, trapping the irritatingly-cheerful voice in a loop and leaving Toya without a working terminal. She stomped out the door, more for somewhere to stomp and something to slam than anything else. The blasted lift wouldn't come quickly enough, so she ran down the stairs until they made her tired and she had to lean against the wall to weep. The world was just a big ball of gravity bringing her down.
She managed to settle into a calmer state of self-pity, and mope down to the ground floor. Out into the bright sunlight, which made her sneeze. "Oh, go turn into a black hole!" she yelled at the Sun, and resumed her stomping.
She passed a group of creative anachronists cooking old-time foods with a fire. One of them accosted her. "Would you like to try this grilled bell pepper?" he demanded.
"God no. Don't you realise what you're doing to your bodies?! Sure, it tastes nice for now, but you'll never have the proper balance of nutrients. Don't you idiots even see the warnings on the packaging? All sorts of diseases are linked to poor nutrition. Everyone knows that. You're going to die younger, you know."
She muttered 'ovary-eaters!' under her breath, and took a swig of delicious, nutritionally-balanced fluid from the nearest Soylent fountain to prove her point. It hurt her on its way past the lump in her throat.
"Would you put yourself at the controls of your home's nuclear plant? Would you leave your nutrition up to the whims of taste and circumstances? Would you leave your emotional state at the mercy of…"
Toya swatted the advertising drone out of the way.
It righted itself and hovered back to her.
"You seem to be in an emotionally agitated state. Studies have shown that emotionally balanced people live up to five years longer or more. HeartValet: balanced nutrition for the soul."
She ran away from it. It chased her through unfamiliar streets, with its calm voice helpfully pointing out each preventable spike in her temper. After a particularly irritating stretch, she stopped and faced it.
"Would you shut up?! My dad died and I've just been through a breakup. I really do not need you pestering me!"
Do you need a hug?
Toya's rage turned back to tears, and she momentarily forgot the drone wasn't sentient. "Yeah."
HugVest can give you all the hugs you need, when you need them! Studies have shown that people who get enough hugs are up to 32% happier…
Toya sighed. "Oh, alright. If I get HeartValet, will you stop bugging me?"
With HeartValet, nothing will ever bug you again!
The drone swung its spotlight onto the logo of the HeartValet building, which was, to Toya's surprise, right next to them. The curvaceous V formed a softly pulsating heart, which hung from a sturdy H-shaped support.
The automatic doors opened, inviting her in.
The receptionist's smile was disarmingly genuine. "You must be Toya," he said.
"Yeah, I…"
"You want to be fitted with a HeartValet? Not a problem. Just authorise the payment here and the Cupid will be with you shortly. Feel free to use the time to peruse these brochures about HeartValet and our carnal pleasure add-on packages available for a small extra charge."
"Oh, I… don't think I need that…" Toya was sure the carnal pleasure package was just rebranded old technology with a hefty price tag.
"I assure you, you will. They're 25% off when purchased with a HeartValet."
Toya ignored the receptionist and tried to ignore the preliminary price tag as she authorised the payment.
Finding nothing else to do, she flicked on a brochure, which spoke in the familiar overly-cheerful voice.
Hi, and congratulations on choosing the sensible path to lifelong love! We love having you here. In just a few minutes, your expert Cupid will come and sweep you off your feet and into the clinic to implant your HeartValet device. The implantation is performed under local anaesthetic, and is quick and painless. Your cupid will then run a few quick tests to ensure all your HeartValet's chemical channels are working properly, and you'll be ready to be fitted for a HugVest. To perfectly tailor your HeartValet's functionality to your personal physiology, we will monitor your moods and blood chemistry for seven days in our luxurious Honeymoon Village. Don't worry, this is all included in the price range you've already preauthorised.
You will also benefit from fantastic deals on our carnal pleasure packages, so you don't miss the other side of having a romantic partner. We have devices that do things your previous lovers never imagined…
Toya flicked it off in exasperation, and seconds later a woman in a soft pink lab coat entered the room from the door marked 'Cupid's Lab'.
"Ah, I see you've finished with the introduction. Come with me and we'll get started."
Toya followed her into the 'Lab', which was much like an ordinary clinic: scanner bed, chair, desk. The walls were adorned with the standard medical qualifications, plus a Doctorate of Cupidity issued by the company's HappyVersity, and the framed quote, "Tampering with their happiness circuits will invalidate the warranty" in an old-fashioned script befitting its turn-of-the-century authorship.
"Alright, we've already accessed your medical and behavioral history, and you're the perfect candidate. If you'd just hold out your arm, we can get the implant in."
The HeartValet implant went in without problems, the same way her contraceptive implant had.
"Perfect. Now if you'd just get onto the scanner bed so I can test a few functions, that would be lovely."
Toya did as she was told.
"Okay, I'm going to test the channels on your implant using this remote here while the scanner checks what's happening in your brain. You may feel some pretty powerful emotions, and I urge you to remember that these feelings are not toward me but caused by your HeartValet. At some love implant companies you'd be told it was love for God, but we're a little more open about what we're doing. Just interpret it as love for yourself, or love of biology, if that's what floats your boat. But if you do slip up and profess your love for me, don't worry, I've heard it all before."
Toya laughed. She'd never profess her love for someone she'd just met.
The Cupid pressed a button, and Toya was in love. The 'Cupid' being the only viable object of affection she could see, Toya reached out to her. The Cupid expertly dodged her, and pressed another button. Toya soon returned to normal, and blushed at the realization of what she'd just done.
"Okay, that one works. By the way, can I interest you in our carnal pleasure add-on packages?"
"No thanks, I already said…" The Cupid pressed a button and suddenly carnal pleasure was all Toya could think about. "Uhhhh…" she moaned. Nurse fantasies suddenly made sense. "Yeah… I think I'll take that…"
Another button, and Toya had the strong feeling that the Cupid loved her back.
They went through a few more tests, a few more feelings that Toya enjoyed enough that she didn't care about the lack of external cause. Then they tried out the HugVest, which successfully tightened around her when a virtual reality game induced feelings of loneliness.
"Okay, we're done with the initial tests! It's all working perfectly. Don't worry, in normal operation you won't feel anything as sudden or as strong as that. The emphasis is on balance, and maintaining a feeling of love to keep you enjoying life when life is not doing its part."
Toya was still buzzing a little, and wasn't sure if it was an afterglow from the experiments or the normal operation of the implant. She nodded.
"So to make sure we get the right balance for your body, as you know, you'll spend a week in our Honeymoon Village. This should also allow you to adjust to your new feelings while surrounded by people who understand you. You should find it quite relaxing, but don't be alarmed if our staff or other patients upset you occasionally; it's all to test the responses of the unit and your body. You're going to feel great. Amy here will show you to your room."
Amy took her down a corridor, which became a high walkway overlooking an atrium with gift shops, a casino, a swimming pool, and various real and virtual sports courts, "I didn't bring a change of clothes!" Toya realised aloud, and immediately felt like she was wanted anyway.
"Don't worry about it. A lot of people come here unprepared. There are some clean jumpsuits and swimwear in your room. Here it is: 216." Amy led her into one of the rooms beside the walkway, showed her the amenities, and left.
Toya lay on her bed for a while, at first enjoying the solitude, then enjoying the feeling of being with a loved one that naturally took over when the solitude outstayed its welcome. The HugVest tightened ever so slightly.
Eventually she got up and wandered along the walkway, watching the courts. She felt a little more lost than usual watching the virtual games; it was hard to tell from people's demeanor whether they were winning or losing.
She was startled by the feeling of fur against her ankle. A cat. Her cat! What was Molpy doing there? She patted him happily, feeling a rush of love she was sure was natural.
"Hey there, little Molpy! You're a kitty! Yeah, you're a fuzzy wuzzy wittle kit…"
Toya looked up. "Alex?!"
"Toya! It is you. What are you doing here?"
"Recovering from you," she said. The HugVest tightened slightly. It was only when saying those words that she realised she didn't feel like she needed to recover any more.
"Fair enough," Alex said, laughing.
Toya felt a quickly-stifled spike of rage as she realised why Alex was there. "Did you leave me for this?!"
"Yeah, well… that ear-scratching thing was annoying… and their advertising was kind of… insistent… for good reason! This is so much better, isn't it?"
"Yeah. Yeah, it sure is." Toya fell in love with him again, then reminded herself she was in love with nothing in particular. "But why did you take Molpy? He's mine… and you're allergic!"
"Oh. They said I could get a discount if I stressed you into getting a HeartValet. I actually refused to go that far, but they sent a catnip-scented ad drone…"
"Wait, so… The story about having the hots for my mum, that was just to stress me?" She wasn't sure whether to feel angry or relieved at the thought, so she felt loved. He had cared enough to give her everlasting love.
"No, that part's true. Actually, I got my carnal pleasure package modeled on her."
Toya's gut reaction was anger and embarrassment. By the time she came to think about the reason for her reaction, the HeartValet had kicked in. "But… I love my mother, and she's been alone for a week now. It's not fair that she doesn't benefit from your infatuation with her. You should really sleep with her."
"Good point! I'll go see her as soon as I leave the village this evening. It'll be lovely! Hey, want to go swim?" he asked.
"Sure!" she said, wondering why the breakup had once seemed so important. It was just a thing that happened. She didn't even need him.
She went back to her room and put on the provided swimsuit. The thin HugVest was barely visible underneath it, and she reckoned it gave her a smoother figure. Not that her appearance mattered.
Toya and Alex swam happily for a few hours. They even gave each other some real hugs, but eventually stopped bothering; the real thing was never in quite the right way at quite the right time.
"Hey, my week's almost up; I have to go," he said after a while. "I don't actually have anywhere to stay lined up. Mind if I move back in?"
She felt a euphoric buzz at the opportunity to help someone out. "Not at all; your stuff's there and there's still enough room in the bed for both of us, and room for Mum this week if you want. Oh… I may have smashed some of your things; sorry about that. See you in a week!"
After just less than a week of socialising with eminently lovable HeartValet users, and contentedly losing at tennis, virtual wall ball, and roulette, Toya came across her mother in a Honeymoon Village gift shop. She'd turned to HeartValet for solace after the death of her husband and some disturbing passes made by her daughter's ex. They reminisced about Toya's father, imagining that the HeartValet allowed him to hug them and send them his love from beyond the grave.
And they all lived happily ever after.
Except Toya's father, who was dead, due to a freak accident involving a HeartValet advertising drone.
Big Brother loves you very much, and you love him back. This story is sort of like Chemistry rewritten in prose by HAL9000-model spambots.
By the time I was about three quarters of the way through painstakingly dealing out Jacks of Hearts from my many souvenir playing cards, I'd come up with a vague idea involving simply the name of the Jack of Hearts in French: the valet of hearts. At first it was going to be like a parking valet, where you could just put your heart into a parking orbit for a while until you felt ready to date again. But I started with the ad, and more and more ads kept invading, until eventually the whole thing turned a little sinister, and I suspect that once they get them installed, people will pay to have their HeartValet's topped up with hormones until they die. Not doing so would be an awkward breakup.
Toya's name was originally Sonya, but when I figured out (very late in the game) that HeartValet Inc. might have deliberately killed her father, I changed it to Toya after Inigo Montoya. The name 'Amy' comes from the French aimée, which means loved; appropriate for a HeartValet employee. There's no special significance behind Alex; it's just the first name I thought of at the time. Apparently it means 'protector of men', which could be true; aside from inspiring them to get unconditional, lifelong love, he's not much of a protector of women.
I'm tempted to change Toya's room number to 101, but it's really not that scary, and the reference might distract from the story even more than the quote on the Cupid's wall does. The quote on the Cupid's wall is from the outro to one of the episodes in the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Quintessential Phase; I don't remember whether it's in the book, so I'm unsure about when and by whom it was written. And while I'm pointing out references to comedy science fiction writers, Wall-Ball is a game played in John Scalzi's book 'The Android's Dream' which may be difficult to simulate, but would surely be safer in virtual form. I am not sure about the punctuation of that, since I listened to the audiobook.
While this particular story is probably too humorous to be particularly plausible, the technology in it is not particularly far-fetched. Things mentioned in this story that not everybody knows already exist include targeted advertising, hormonal contraceptive implants, photic sneezing, Soylent (it's not people, unless 'you are what you eat' goes the other way too) hug machines and hug vests. Carnal pleasure options are also many and varied, but I won't link to those. Love drugs similar to the ones described may be on their way and are probably already around in some form. Of course, we already have plenty of general mood-altering substances. Cake, for example.
Given the company's tendency toward HV acronyms for product names, I imagine the carnal pleasure package would include something named for a phrase used repeatedly near the end of this song. I can think of a relevant drug beginning with V too, but I won't mention it for fear of spam or content filters.
In other news, if you enjoyed Taken, or even if you didn't enjoy it and are looking for something of similar length but better quality, the Flash Mob is now up, so you can read all the other entries to that competition.
advertising, Artificial Heart, artificial love, biology, HeartValet, love, prose, science fiction
This entry was posted on June 23, 2013, 2:00 am and is filed under St. Martin, Writing Cards and Letters. You can follow any responses to this entry through RSS 2.0. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
#1 by Rob Rix on June 23, 2013 - 2:30 am
I had forgotten how good your writing is; shame on me.
Fantastic stuff, and I'm so glad you're keeping at it 🙂
#2 by Angela Brett on June 23, 2013 - 2:43 am
Thanks! 🙂 Are you still writing (or making music, for that matter) these days?
#3 by Lurking OTTer on August 10, 2013 - 6:23 am
Followed a link from the OTT to your site, then clicked "biology" in the word cloud, because that's one of my primary interests, and have now found a new place to lurk. Great story, well written.
(Oh, and Molpy!
Molpy molpy molpy molpy molpy…)
#4 by Angela Brett on August 11, 2013 - 2:55 am
Glad you liked it! (Grapevine, grapevine!)
Forms and Formulae: The Numbers Are Not Enough | Creative Output
Free Love (With Every Purchase) on The Overcast | Creative Output


Once again my sweet daughter had an interesting reaction to a pivotal event in her life; she got sick.
We have always noticed, and I previously recounted, Alex's deep mind/body connection. Alex feels events in her life at a different level than me or the rest of my family. When we had death in our family she was inconsolable; with happy events she goes into over drive followed by heavy fatigue. We experienced the latter this past week.
For the rest of us, we allow the commotion of our environment to dilute our senses. I have not yet figured out if this is good or bad; leaning towards bad. Alex does not seem to have that distraction ability; she focuses on the single event in her life, processes it and moves on. In this case it was the Special Olympics Training weekend.
Prior to departing for the first Team Colorado meeting Alex had bad behaviors at school; we worked through this and attended the weekend training event. Alex's nervousness was alleviated, and she worked hard with her team. However, on our return, this week has had a different outcome.
Alex was fine at school on Monday, but by Tuesday her teacher called to say Alex looked flushed, felt warm and was tired. She stayed at school, but was unable to go to her afternoon classes, or soccer practice. Wednesday and Thursday were more of the same. Today, Friday, Alex seems better, but a new focus has entered her path; she has to go to soccer practice today if she wants to play in the game tomorrow. I love the power of sports for Alex!
I believe Alex's weekend with her team was so adrenaline filled she collapsed when she had time to come down from her high. Her mind's exhaustion created a tired body that needed rest. She went to bed early every night, listened to music and fell asleep.
The Disney channel got a rest in our house; as did the colored paper, markers and tape. Alex was too tired to watch TV, work on craft projects or even overeat. In a weird sense, this was a good week; it was peaceful yet full.
So, again I wonder, am I missing one of the greatest lessons in my life by dismissing Alex's reaction to her world? Should I stop and listen to my body also? Is it so important for me to accomplish twenty tasks in one day, or should I just focus on the task at hand? I think I know the answer; we should all stop and smell the roses.


Once there was a boy, and he ran like the wind. He ran and ran, leaving his family, his beloved coach, his country, his life. Fueled by fear and desperation, the boy survived.
Now Kaz lives in the same group home as Tork, who is his mentor. It's beautiful seeing Tork so in love with Adam, so kind, so ALIVE. We always knew Tork was amazing, and he just shines here. But even Tork can't help Kaz if Kaz doesn't want to be helped.
Kaz says please and thank you; he puts on a happy smile. He tries to live up to the demands and expectations. But inside there's pain; there are memories. Kaz loses himself in hard cider, wakes up covered in puke, stops showering.
And he finds things, things he needs: a baby carriage, clothes, pretty beads. Even water noodles. Those are important.
To save Kaz from getting kicked out for not following house rules, Tork has Kaz coach the running team he and Adam put together to raise money for the homeless shelter where Adam volunteers.
That's when Kaz meets Zack. And that changes everything.
Zack is light and sweetness. He's a big teddy bear come to life, and he just wants to hold Kaz and never let go. Zack is a chef and loves to eat. He's embarrassed to be so overweight, and when another team mocks his size, Zack melts. He thinks maybe somehow Kaz hadn't noticed before.
But Kaz doesn't see the fat. He sees ZACK. He adores Zack's big, beautiful body. Zack listens. He doesn't judge. He bakes little cakes just for Kaz. Always for Kaz.
This is Kaz's story. And it's a love story. It's heartbreaking. It will make you cry.
But Kaz doesn't tell us his story. There's no long narrative, no harrowing account of an 18-year-old refugee escaping a war-torn country because his gaze lingered just a little too long on boys, never the girls, just the boys.
But we know. We SEE. There are rooftops and longing, and the piles that make Kaz feel safe. There is the silence. And finally there are WORDS.
This book broke me. It made my heart feel really small and tight, like it might stop beating. Then it made my heart sing again.
Because Adam & Tork, friendship, and BOYFRIENDS.
Once there was a boy, and he ran like the wind. He ran and ran, and when he stopped running, he met another boy, a boy who smelled like home.
Waking up, walks and trips, tickles, music . . . the twenty-four hours in a day to spend with someone else—all the things he never dreamed he could have. "Mm. What you do to me. I don't need to see your body to see you." [Kaz] began rocking gently, his head on Zack's shoulder. "You're the cook to all my flour."


This is Jamie from Rock Sins and I'm here with the lovely people from Stone Broken – how are you guys doing?
Rich Moss: Good, really good!
Robyn Haycock: On a high!
RS: I'm really not surprised! I didn't actually get to The Dogtooth Tent until about ten minutes into your set and it was absolutely rammed. The overflow was about ten deep outside the tent.
Rich: From the stage, you can see that the tent is full and you can just seen around the entrance but you have no idea how deep that is. But the vibe in there was superb.
RS: As you said, the atmosphere was amazing, every single person in there was singing along.
Rich: Every show, when I go out on stage I'm thinking, am I gonna let the audience sing? Am I not? it's always a gamble incase they don't know the words. But I heard what they were like in the previous songs and it was clear, "these guys have got it" so they ripped into Wait For You and it was awesome.
Robyn: It was a hairs stand up on the back of your neck kinda moment.
RS: Well we know what The Broken Army are like, they're some of the most dedicated fans around and they certainly didn't let you down!
Rich: That's the thing; They never do. They are so, so reliable. We are second to them. We're just the guys that rally them, they are the troops, you know what I mean? We're so proud of them.
Robyn: They'd do anything for us and we're very lucky!
Rich: Yep, main stage at Ramblin' Man which is exciting! That's gonna be the biggest stage we've ever played on.
RS: You've played there before on a smaller stage right?
Rich: Yeah we played The Rising Stage which is the smallest stage, mid afternoon slot, fairly low down the bill but we had an awesome response there. We gained a lot of fans that day I think. But now Ramblin' Man have been persuaded to take us onto the main stage and they've given us a lot of trust, so we just have to go in there and nail it now.
RS: After seeing today I don't think you will have any problems there.
You've also got Subterrean Festival in Cambridge, which is a brand new one that's trying to get off the ground but looks like a good one.
Rich: Yeah, we're headlining that one!
RS: There looks to be a good collection of up and coming bands on that.
Rich: Yeah, we played Cambridge with Glenn Hughes and the crowd there was phenomenal so we're looking forward to going back, it's going to be great.
Rich: You know, our emotions were so up and down throughout the whole of that.
Rich: So we had the Glenn Hughes tour and then it was off, then it was back on and moved but we couldn't make it because we were going to be in the studio. So then we moved our studio time and eventually we got to play the shows.
Robyn: And it did mean because of the rescheduling that we got to go to Europe as well so it did work out well for us.
Rich: I'm so glad that we cancelled, well, delayed, going into the studio so we could do it. It all worked out nicely and we went back into the studio and that's all recorded now so it's all worked out. It's good when everything comes together like that.
Is it next week you're on the road with Cheap Trick for a short run?
Robyn: End of the month, 26th, 27th, 29th.
Rich: That's why I've got Robyn with me, because I haven't got a clue *laughs*.
RS: And then after that later in the Summer you're touring with Living Colour!
Robyn: Yep, and we're going back out to the EU for that one, and then we're playing some shows here as well. We've got some pretty awesome shows coming up.
RS: You guys seem to have a very good booking agent *laughs*.
Robyn: *laughs* He's just pulling wonders isn't he.
Rich: It's great, we've got a really good team behind us in every aspect of what we do. You can write solid tunes and play great shows but if no-one knows about you, the music, the shows, and also our tour manager Flick is a god send. She just sorts out everything on the road. It's so great to have her onside.
Robyn: It's a great family vibe that we have going on.
Rich: It really is man, you know what you were saying about The Broken Army? It's kinda like that with the road crew because we are just one unit.
Robyn: We all get on like a house on fire, it's just really awesome.
Going back to what you said about getting noticed, it seems like since the album broke Stone Broken has barely been off Planet Rock Radio, those guys love you!
Robyn: We're so thankful for Planet Rock.
RS: I knew you were here last time because your old manager has asked us to come and talk to you and we couldn't at the time but I couldn't remember if you'd played the boardie takeover or something like that.
Rich: We didn't play at all last year but I was brought in to do press, and that was the first time I met Paul Anthony. He tapped me on the shoulder and was like "Hey Rich hows it going". And my brain is going "he knows me". From there we've got a real good friendship going and all the others at Planet Rock like Wyatt. We've done Rock Stock for them and Winters End (festivals) and we've been announced to do Rock Stock, we're headlining the Thursday night for the VIP's again, they're trusting us to do it. It's incredible the amount of passion and enthusiasm the band has going for it at the moment.
Rich: Yep, so, we were going to release the next record on Frontiers but that isn't the case anymore. We haven't got anything to announce on that yet at the moment, but as soon as we do have something to announce we'll be letting everyone know.
Robyn: There's a lot of exciting things happening in the background. A hell of a lot of exciting things. As soon as we can announce, we will.
Rich: So that's happened. It is all in the best interests of doing things the way you want to do them.
RS: Well you've built yourselves such a platform from the first album you have to make sure it's all in place.
Rich: You know it's so much worse this time, because of what we've managed so far we've got to really nail this one *laughs*, so the pressure was on while writing, but I'm happy with what we've done. I'm looking forward to it.
Stone Broken play the main stage at Ramblin' Man Festival this weekend (Sunday to be exact). Tickets are available from the official festival website. We look forward to covering more news on Stone Broken's new album as and when it is announced!


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News: Simplilearn onboards ex-CFO of Flipkart as its CFO
AUTHORShweta Modgil
FRIDAY15JAN 2021
Simplilearn onboards ex-CFO of Flipkart as its CFO
A seasoned finance leader, Karandeep Singh comes with vast experience, having worked with global & Indian organizations across the retail & ecommerce, IT & ITES, and QSR Sectors.
Simplilearn, the leading online boot camp for digital economy skills training, announced the appointment of Karandeep Singh as their Chief Financial Officer. Prior to joining Simplilearn, he was associated with brands like Tesco, Flipkart, Sapient, Dell, Ariba & Yum Brands at key Finance Leadership Roles.
Welcoming the new CFO, Krishna Kumar, Founder & CEO, Simplilearn said, "Karandeep's experience in the financial domain from retail to IT and ecommerce will be a great asset to team Simplilearn, and we are delighted to welcome him on-board. We look forward to working with Karandeep and progressing towards our mission of empowering millions of professionals across the globe to get ahead in their careers."
A seasoned finance leader, Singh comes with vast experience, having worked with global & Indian organizations across the retail & ecommerce, IT & ITES, and QSR Sectors.
Joining Simplilearn in his new position as CFO, Mr. Singh said, "I am joining Simplilearn at an exciting time when the Indian edtech sector is booming, experiencing a rapid transformation and going global. The days ahead show the promise of opportunity and growth, not just for Simplilearn but the industry overall. I look forward to working with Simplilearn and contributing to its mission of empowering aspirants with the skills to achieve their dream careers in the digital economy and growing the business profitably. "
In his new role, Karandeep will be responsible for accelerating Simplilearn's agenda of profitable revenue growth. He will also overlook all finance and legal-related operations to ensure that the company's finance systems & processes are set up for scale.
Simplilearn also welcomed other senior leaders to its team in the design, program, and business functions. To support the company's growth, Simplilearn recently on-boarded Abhishek Mukherjee as Director – Learner Success. Abhishek is an ISB graduate and has worked with Mckinsey and Oyo in the past. Another key hire is Soumya Biswas, Director of Design, ex Samsung - Bixby Chief Designer who will be responsible for building a world class learning experience for Simplilearn's global learner base.
Some of the other new hires within the business team include Ashish Sood, who joined as Director of University offering, Kizhepat RP as Sr. Director for US enterprise business, and Sumir Raj Anand as Senior Associate Director in the consumer business team. The appointments come as with an expanding learner base, the company is focused on ensuring that it continues to provide the best-in-class, high engagement learning experience.
Topics: C-Suite, Appointments
Shweta Modgil
Shweta is working as an Editor with People Matters. You can reach out to her at shweta.modgil@gopeoplematters.com
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Movie Review)
Phase Four of the Marvel Cinematic Universe was meant to kick off with Black Widow. But as anyone who had seen my review of that film would remember, I hadn't been too pleased with how it turned out. My main gripe stemmed from the fact that it didn't really move the MCU forward in any meaningful way, nor did it manage to do more than attempt to fill the gap between Captain America: Civil War and Avengers: Infinity War.
So we've basically had to rely on Disney+ shows like Loki and WandaVision to set the stage for the current phase of the MCU, which they have to varying degrees. Loki in particular looks like it might have long-reaching ramifications for films like Spider-Man: No Way Home as well as Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness. But out of everything we've gotten in Phase Four thus far, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings feels like its first true springboard for what's to come.
Set in the post-Blip portion of the MCU timeline, the film stars Simu Liu as Shang-Chi, a trained warrior who has long since turned his back on his family and their ways. He now spends his days working in LA as a valet with his best friend, Katy (Awkwafina). But after his father (Tony Leung) and leader of the Ten Rings criminal organization sends a number of his foot soldiers to hunt him down, he finds himself drawn back into the life he thought he'd already left behind.
As far as MCU origin stories go, Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is one of the best ones yet. It was certainly leagues above Black Widow, which didn't even feel like an origin story in the strictest of terms. This one introduces its title character and his particular corner of the MCU, without feeling like it was merely treading the same ground that past MCU origin films had, most of which is due to its talented cast, and the chemistry between them.
Simi Liu shines as Shang-Chi, delivering a performance that was strong enough to carry the movie. But he was of course helped along by Awkafina, who provided much of the comic relief. It was easy to buy into their friendship because both actors manage to make it look so pure and effortless. And Tony Leung plays what is now another top-tier MCU villain in the form of Wenwu, aka. the real Mandarin. There were several nods to the earlier iteration of the character throughout the film, none of which I will spoil here.
But by far the biggest facet of the movie that I enjoyed was the fight choreography. The movie boasts some of the best action scenes in the MCU, borrowing heavily from Chinese cinema to create some truly jaw-dropping wire stunts that immediately call to mind films like Hero and Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon. Fans of such films and Chinese mythology in general would definitely have plenty to ogle at, especially since it fully embraces their more fantastical side, unlike the recent Mulan live-action adaptation.
This is incidentally the one area of the movie that I found didn't always live up to that same high quality. I'm of course talking about the special effects, which were definitely special and spectacularly so for the most part. Some of it was convincing enough, while others were borderline cartoonish. This was especially true during the climax, where these MCU films typically tend to get CGI heavy. But all of that is par for the course, so it shouldn't really work to pull you out of the experience that much.
Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings is proof that Kevin Feige and his team of writers still have a few tricks up their sleeves. They've crafted a world that feels just as integral to the overall MCU as everything that came before it. That they've done that while telling a story that was both heartwarming and awe-inspiring bodes well for the future of the franchise. And if this is any indication of what we can expect from these movies post-Avengers: Endgame, then fans still have a lot to look forward to.
Alex J. Cavanaugh 4 September 2021 at 19:16
I found it completely refreshing. Plenty of connections to the MC universe but the film stands on its own without it. Great action and a lot of heart. Michelle Yeoh was really impressive - late fifties and she still has the moves! Looking forward to seeing this one again.
Michael Abayomi 4 September 2021 at 21:25
Same here. Glad you enjoyed it as much as I did.
Jonn Warne 10 October 2021 at 06:27
I think this review is full of information for everyone. So keep sharing and you can also check out top helmet reviews for more features.
Cry Macho (Movie Review)
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Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings (Movie R...


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Copyright © 2018 — ZipfWorks Inc.
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text:
use warnings;
no warnings ('uninitialized', 'substr');
use Cwd;
use IPC::Cmd qw[can_run run];
use Getopt::Long;
use Bio::SeqIO;
use Bio::Root::Exception;
use Scalar::Util qw(looks_like_number);
use File::Path qw( make_path );

my $samplesheet = shift;
my $work_dir = shift;
my $prefix = shift;
my $primer_prefix = shift;
my $ampliconeSize = shift;

my $isAmpliconeSize = 1;
my $cutoff = 0.2;

sub possible_chimaera {
	my $sequence1 = $_[0];
	my $sequence2 = $_[1];
	my $candidate = $_[2];
	$candidate = uc($candidate);
	$sequence1 = uc($sequence1);
	$sequence2 = uc($sequence2);
	my %base1 = ();
	my %base2 = ();
	for (my $i = 0; $i < length($sequence1); $i++) {
		$base1{$i} = substr($sequence1, $i, 1 );
	}
	for (my $i = 0; $i < length($sequence2); $i++) {
		$base2{$i} = substr($sequence2, $i, 1 );
	}
	$len_diff1 = length($candidate) - length($sequence1);
	$len_diff2 = length($candidate) - length($sequence2);

	$stop_base = 0;
	$stop_base1 = 0;
	LOOP1: for (my $i = 0; $i < length($candidate); $i++) {
		my $base = substr($candidate, $i, 1);
		if ($base1{$i} ne $base) {
			$stop_base = $i;
			last LOOP1;
		}
	}
	if ($stop_base > 0){
		LOOP2: for (my $i = (length($candidate) - 1); $i >= 0; $i--) {
			my $base = substr($candidate, $i, 1);
			if ($base2{$i - $len_diff2} ne $base) {
				$stop_base1 = $i;
				last LOOP2;
			}
		}
	}
	else {
		LOOP2: for (my $i = 0; $i < length($candidate); $i++) {
			my $base = substr($candidate, $i, 1);
			if ($base2{$i} ne $base) {
				$stop_base = $i;
				last LOOP2;
			}
		}
		if ($stop_base > 0){
			LOOP3: for (my $i = (length($candidate) - 1); $i >= 0; $i--) {
				my $base = substr($candidate, $i, 1);
				if ($base1{$i - $len_diff1} ne $base) {
					$stop_base1 = $i;
					last LOOP3;
				}
			}
		}
	}
	if ($stop_base1 > 0 and $stop_base > 0 and $stop_base1 < $stop_base){
		return 1;
	}
	else{
		return 0;
	}

}

sub filterSeq{
	my $in_fasta = $_[0];
	my $out_log = $_[1];
	my $out_selected_fasta = $_[2];
	my $out_1snp = $_[3];
	my $sa = $_[4];

	my %selected_variants = ();
	my %selected_variants_ids = ();
	my $countSingletons = 0;
	my $countLowCoverage = 0;
	my $countNs = 0;
	my $countChimaera = 0;
	my $countLenDiff = 0;
	my $countPCRerrors1 = 0;
	my $countPCRerrors2 = 0;
	my $count1snp = 0;
	my $readsLowCoverage = 0;
	my $readsNs = 0;
	my $readsChimaera = 0;
	my $readsLenDiff = 0;
	my $readsPCRerrors1 = 0;
	my $readsPCRerrors2 = 0;
	my $reads1snp = 0;
	my $total = 0;
	my $read_freqency = 0;
	my $final_selected = 0;
	my $len = 0;
	my $total_len = 0;
	my $total_selected_variants = 0;
	my $ave_len = 0;
	my %lengths = ();
	my $flag_gap = 0;

	open (LOG, ">$out_log") or die "Cannot write $out_log\n";
	open (OUT_SELECTED, ">$out_selected_fasta") or die "Cannot write $out_selected_fasta\n";
	open (OUT_1SNP, ">$out_1snp") or die "Cannot write $out_1snp\n";

	my $seqio = Bio::SeqIO->new(-file => "$in_fasta", -format => "fasta");
	LOOP8: while(my $seq = $seqio -> next_seq) {
		$id = $seq->id;
		@words = split(":", $id);
		if ($words[3] >= $cutoff){
			# print "$id\n";
			$total = $total + $words[2];
			$selected_variants{$seq->seq()} = $words[2];
			$selected_variants_ids{$seq->seq()} = $id;
			$len = length($seq->seq());
			$lengths{$len}++;
		}
		else{
			last LOOP8;
		}
	}

	$total_selected_variants = keys %selected_variants;
	# print "$total_selected_variants\n";
	if ($isAmpliconeSize eq 0 or $ampliconeSize eq 0){
		LOOP9: foreach my $len (sort {$lengths{$b} <=> $lengths{$a}} keys %lengths){
			$ave_len = $len;
			print LOG "Average amplicone length = $len\n";
			last LOOP9;
		}
	}
	else{
		$ave_len = $ampliconeSize;
	}
	foreach my $seq (sort {$selected_variants{$b} <=> $selected_variants{$a}} keys %selected_variants){
		# print "Variant: $selected_variants_ids{$seq}...\n";
		$flag_gap = 0;
		my @nucl = split //, $seq;
		foreach my $n (@nucl){
			if ($n !~ /[A|T|C|G]/i){
				$flag_gap = 1;
			}
		}
		if ($selected_variants{$seq} == 1){
			print LOG "$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\tsingleton\t-\t$seq\n";
			$countSingletons++;
		}
		elsif ($selected_variants{$seq} <= 10){
			print LOG "$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\tLow coverage\t-\t$seq\n";
			$countLowCoverage++;
			$readsLowCoverage = $readsLowCoverage + $selected_variants{$seq};
		}
		elsif ($flag_gap == 1){
			print LOG "$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\tN\t-\t$seq\n";
			$countNs++;
			$readsNs = $readsNs + $selected_variants{$seq};
		}
		elsif (length($seq) >= ($ave_len + 9) or length($seq) <= ($ave_len - 9)){
			my $lendiff = $ampliconeSize - length($seq);
			print LOG "$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\tLength Difference\t$ampliconeSize:$lendiff\t$seq\n";
			$countLenDiff++;
			$readsLenDiff = $readsLenDiff + $selected_variants{$seq};
		}
		else{
			my $flag_chimaera = 0;
			LOOP6: foreach $seq1 (sort {$selected_variants{$b} <=> $selected_variants{$a}} keys %selected_variants){
				# print "SEQ1: $selected_variants_ids{$seq1}\n";
				if ($seq ne $seq1){
					if ($selected_variants{$seq1} > $selected_variants{$seq}){
						LOOP8: foreach $seq2 (sort {$selected_variants{$b} <=> $selected_variants{$a}} keys %selected_variants){
						 	# print "SEQ2: $selected_variants_ids{$seq2}\n";
							if ($seq ne $seq2){
								if ($seq1 ne $seq2){
									if ($selected_variants{$seq2} > $selected_variants{$seq}){
										# print "Checking chimaera $selected_variants_ids{$seq} of $selected_variants_ids{$seq1} and $selected_variants_ids{$seq2}...\n";
										$check = possible_chimaera($seq1, $seq2, $seq);
										if ($check == 1){
											$flag_chimaera = 1;
											print LOG "$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\tChimaera\t$selected_variants_ids{$seq1},$selected_variants_ids{$seq2}\t$seq\n";
											last LOOP6;
										}
									}
								}
							}
							else{
								last LOOP8;
							}
						}
					}
					else{
						last LOOP6;
					}
				}
				else{
					last LOOP6;
				}
			}
			if ($flag_chimaera == 1){
				$countChimaera++;
				$readsChimaera = $readsChimaera + $selected_variants{$seq};
			}
			else{
				my $flag_pcr_error = 0;
				LOOP7: foreach $seq1 (sort {$selected_variants{$b} <=> $selected_variants{$a}} keys %selected_variants){
					if (length($seq1) eq length($seq) and $selected_variants{$seq1} > $selected_variants{$seq}){
						my $i = 0;
						my $match = 0;
						my $mismatch = "";
						while ($i < length($seq)){
							$sub1 = substr ($seq, $i, 1);
							$sub2 = substr ($seq1, $i, 1);
							if ( $sub1 eq $sub2 ){
								$match++;
							}
							else{
								if ($mismatch eq ""){
									$mismatch = "$i:$sub1:$sub2";
								}else{
									$mismatch = $mismatch.",$i:$sub1:$sub2";
								}
							}
							$i++;
						}
						my $fc = sprintf('%.2f', $selected_variants{$seq1} / $selected_variants{$seq});
						if (($selected_variants{$seq1} / $selected_variants{$seq}) >= 30 and $match eq length($seq) - 1){
							$flag_pcr_error = 1;
							print LOG "$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\t1 PCR error\t$selected_variants_ids{$seq1}:$fc:$mismatch\t$seq\n";
							$countPCRerrors1++;
							$readsPCRerrors1 = $readsPCRerrors1 + $selected_variants{$seq};
							last LOOP7;
						}
						elsif (($selected_variants{$seq1} / $selected_variants{$seq}) >= 100 and $match eq length($seq) - 2){
							$flag_pcr_error = 1;
							print LOG "$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\t2 PCR error\t$selected_variants_ids{$seq1}:$fc:$mismatch\t$seq\n";
							$countPCRerrors2++;
							$readsPCRerrors2 = $readsPCRerrors2 + $selected_variants{$seq};
							last LOOP7;
						}
						elsif ($match eq length($seq) - 1){
							$flag_pcr_error = 1;
							print LOG "$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\t1SNP\t$selected_variants_ids{$seq1}:$fc:$mismatch\t$seq\n";
							$count1snp++;
							$reads1snp = $reads1snp + $selected_variants{$seq};
							print OUT_SELECTED ">$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\n$seq\n";
							print OUT_1SNP "$sa\t$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\t$selected_variants_ids{$seq1}\t$mismatch\t$seq\t$seq1\n";
							last LOOP7;
						}
					}
				}
				if ($flag_pcr_error == 0){
					print LOG "$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\tUnknown\t-\t$seq\n";
					print OUT_SELECTED ">$selected_variants_ids{$seq}\n$seq\n";
					$final_selected++;
					$read_freqency = $read_freqency + $selected_variants{$seq};
				}
			}
		}
	}
	close (OUT_SELECTED);

	# print "Writting unique variants log $out_log...\n";
	print LOG "\n\n****** SUMMARY****** \n";
	print LOG "Animal ID\t$sample\n";
	print LOG "Primer\t$primer_prefix\n";
	print LOG "Total variants above cutoff\t$total_selected_variants\t$total\n";
	print LOG "Singletons\t$countSingletons\t$countSingletons\n";
	print LOG "Low coverage\t$countLowCoverage\t$readsLowCoverage\n";
	print LOG "N in sequences\t$countNs\t$readsNs\n";
	print LOG "Chimaeras\t$countChimaera\t$readsChimaera\n";
	print LOG "1 PCR errors (30 fold change)\t$countPCRerrors1\t$readsPCRerrors1\n";
	print LOG "2 PCR errors (100 fold change)\t$countPCRerrors2\t$readsPCRerrors2\n";
	print LOG "1 snp\t$count1snp\t$reads1snp\n";
	print LOG "Length difference\t$countLenDiff\t$readsLenDiff\n";
	print LOG "Selected\t$final_selected\t$read_freqency\n";
	close (LOG);
	print STAT "$total_selected_variants\t$countSingletons\t$countLowCoverage\t$countNs\t$countChimaera\t$countLenDiff\t$countPCRerrors1\t$countPCRerrors2\t$count1snp\t$final_selected\t\t$total\t$countSingletons\t$readsLowCoverage\t$readsNs\t$readsChimaera\t$readsLenDiff\t$readsPCRerrors1\t$readsPCRerrors2\t$reads1snp\t$read_freqency\n";
}

open (STAT, ">", "$work_dir/$prefix.$primer_prefix.filterSequences.stats.txt");
print STAT "Animal ID\tPrimer\tTotal variants above cutoff\tSingletons\tLow coverage\tN in sequence\tChimaeras\tLength difference\t1 PCR errors (30 fold change)\t2 PCR errors (100 fold change)\t1SNP\tSelected\t\tTotal: #reads\tSingletons\tLow coverage: #reads\tN in sequence: #reads\tChimaera: #reads\tLength difference: #reads\t1 PCR error: #reads\t2 PCR error: #reads\t1SNP: #reads\tSelected: #reads\n";
open (SAMPLESHEET, "$samplesheet") or die "Cannot open uploaded $samplesheet. Try again.\n";
while(<SAMPLESHEET>){
	chomp $_;
	@words = split("\t", $_);
	if (! defined $words[0]){
		die "No sample loaded from samplesheet. Please check the samplesheet again and try again\n";
	}
	$sample = $words[0];
	print "$sample filtering $primer_prefix...\n";

	print STAT "$sample\t$primer_prefix\t";
	my $file_to_check = "$work_dir/$sample/$primer_prefix/$sample.$primer_prefix.unique.variants.fasta";
	if ( -e $file_to_check ){
		filterSeq($file_to_check, "$work_dir/$sample/$primer_prefix/$sample.$primer_prefix.filterSequences.log", "$work_dir/$sample/$primer_prefix/$sample.$primer_prefix.selected.variants.fasta", "$work_dir/$sample/$primer_prefix/$sample.$primer_prefix.selected.variants.1snp.info.txt", $sample);

	} else {
		die "Cannot find the overlapping reads: $file_to_check\n";
	}
	# close(STAT);
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Two-thirds of LGBTQ+ Americans believe representation in media is "greatly lacking," according to new research
A new survey of 2,000 LGBTQ+ Americans found that despite 62% believing we've made progress with representation, there's still a long way to go. Commissioned by Orbitz and conducted by OnePoll ahead of Pride month in June, the survey explored the positives of LGBTQ+ representation and the importance of it.
Forty-seven percent of respondents said seeing themselves in media — on shows like "Steven Universe" (Cartoon Network) or "The Fosters" (ABC Family) — helped them to realize their own identity. This also helped 63% become more comfortable in their identity. Fifty-seven percent of respondents said seeing LGBTQ+ characters in media has not only benefited them, but it's helped their loved ones better understand their experience.
However, only a third of respondents (31%) said that when they first saw someone like them in the media that it was a "positive" portrayal. For many, the negative aspects are enough to turn them away — 39% have stopped engaging with specific media because it plays into harmful stereotypes about the LGBTQ+ community. Others have stopped watching a certain show or reading a book due to a lack of representation (23%), or because it used a trope like "bury your gays" (23%), in which LGBTQ+ characters are more likely to be killed.
"Now more than ever, diversity and authentic representation should be table stakes in our industry," said Orbitz Brand Director Carey Malloy. "Orbitz was among the first travel brands to feature LGBTQIA travelers in its advertising in the early 2000s. Twenty years later, it's clear that creators and brands must do more to facilitate a dialogue on representation that leads to meaningful change, not just simply calls to actions."
The panel of LGBTQ+ respondents revealed, for many, there are times they feel the need to downplay their identity. The top situation was found to be a job interview, followed by meeting someone new and when traveling.
The survey delved further into travel and revealed a fifth "always" research a destination to see if it's LGBTQ+ friendly before planning a trip. And 58% agreed: LGBTQ+ travelers spend more time researching travel destinations and accommodations than cisgender or heterosexual travelers. More than that, six in 10 respondents said they've canceled a trip or changed their travel plans due to feeling unsafe, as a result of their gender identity or sexual orientation.
But respondents aren't letting that stop their travel plans. Forty-eight percent are planning to participate in Pride this year, and of those, 66% said their first big, post-COVID trip will be something to help them celebrate.
"Pride is typically one of the bigger travel moments of the summer. With in-person events still fluctuating as we navigate this new middle ground coming out of the pandemic, we're seeing that many people are celebrating Pride locally now, then traveling somewhere new later in the year when hopefully parades will be back," said Malloy.
Random, double-opt-in online survey of 2,003 LGBTQ+ Americans commissioned by Orbitz and conducted by OnePoll May 5-10, 2021. OnePoll is a market research company and corporate member of both the American Association for Public Opinion Research (AAPOR) and the European Society for Opinion and Marketing Research (ESOMAR) and adheres to the MRS code of conduct.
Press@Orbitz.com
Melissa Dohmen, Sr. PR Manager
Lauren Dantonio, PR Specialist
© Orbitz, LLC, An Expedia Group Company. All rights reserved. Orbitz, Orbitz.com, and the Orbitz logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Orbitz, LLC in the U.S. and/or other countries. Other logos or product and company names mentioned herein may be the property of their respective owners. CST #2063530-50


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text:
Q: What evidence refutes a "pre-eternally existent cosmic egg"? I've seen many Young-Earth Creationists attempt to discredit Big Bang cosmology. For example, an article by Cal Thomas in the 1990's stated that it meant there was a "pre-eternally existing 'cosmic egg' that decided to explode." A new refrain I keep hearing that there was pre-eternally existent energy.
My layman's understanding of Big Bang cosmology is that there was a "start" to matter, space, time, and energy.  The Young Earth retelling, in contrast, would say "pre-eternally existent energy, then turning into these other things."
Even the theme song for Big Bang Theory says:

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started, wait

Which, seems to be a popular re-telling of what I presumed was the YEC distortion of the Big Bang model itself. Temperature and density pre-existed, according to the song.
QUESTION: What references or very short articles explicitly define the Big Bang model in terms of "what-was-before"?  Was there energy sitting around?

A: Before getting into the physics, I have to say this particular line of argument from YECs is pretty ironic. Big bang cosmology was originated by a Belgian Catholic priest and astronomer, Lemaitre. Before Lemaitre's work, the Catholic church had already come to the conclusion that time had to have had a beginning, based on theological arguments. I suppose the YECs are either ignorant of this history or treat it with suspicion because their fundamentalist Protestant outlook is so different from the kind of non-literalist, intellectually sophisticated tradition that Lemaitre was a part of (his early education was Jesuit).
Anyway, there are serious problems with this interpretation.
Back in the 1930's, Richard Chace Tolman worked on cyclical cosmologies, in which the universe expanded and recontracted indefinitely. His conclusions, summarized in a book (Tolman 1934) systematically worked out all the thermodynamics of these models, and concluded that they were not viable based on the second law of thermodynamics. Although various later people came up with theoretical tricks to get around these issues, the generic and very clear expectation is that if the universe had been past-eternal, and operated according to the known laws of physics during that infinite period of time, it would have reached thermodynamic equilibrium infinitely far in the past. This means that if these particular YECs want to have this particular idea taken seriously, the burden of proof is on them to say which theoretical trick they propose in order to evade this issue. But of course (1) they have in mind a supernatural rather than naturalistic description of the pre-big bang period, and (2) YEC is not a logically coherent framework but a random collection of ideas, which the YECs can propose and then later disclaim when it's convenient.
Another problem with this proposal is that, unlike the kind of cyclical cosmologies Tolman worked on, it seems to be based on a common popular misunderstanding of the big bang as an explosion that occurred at some particular starting point (their "egg") in a preexisting space. Such a picture is not consistent with general relativity, which is at this point a very well tested and successful theory. Modern cosmology is a high-precision science, so there are tight constraints here. Measurements of the spatial curvature of the universe show it to  be very nearly zero, and this implies a lower limit of the size of the universe, assuming approximate homogeneity and isotropy. This size is too big to make it possible for all the matter to have gotten to where it is starting from the same point. The only way around this would be to abandon isotropy and homogeneity, but there is strong observational evidence for isotropy and homogeneity. People have proposed things like models with big voids in them, but my recollection is that these did not really end up being viable based on the latest observations. Again, the problem is that YECs don't play by the rules. If they want to propose some kind of inhomogeneous cosmology, they need to specify what their model is and show that it's compatible with observation.
Tolman, 1934, Relativity, Thermodynamics, and Cosmology, http://books.google.com/books?id=1ZOgD9qlWtsC&lpg=PP1&pg=PP1#v=onepage&q&f=true

A: The Big Bang Theory itself does not say anything about what came "before" the Big Bang. There are various conjectures, mostly having to do with the idea that vacuum is unstable, which is an accepted fact: a complete vacuum would violate the Uncertainty Principle, and as a result particles are constantly popping in and out of existence. This has been proven with the demonstration of the Casimir Effect.
An interesting book to read is Lawrence Krauss's "A Universe from Nothing".

A: When physics was just a descriptive  science one did not even have a strict definition of energy.
When observations became  quantified then mathematics, used as a tool, started modeling observational data with accuracy and giving prediction for observations not yet seen.
Thus we have the success of Newton et al   in describing our planetary system.
The mathematical models have a region of validity though. The validity of Newtonian mechanics ends at accuracies where Special Relativity or even General Relativity holds.
The validity of statistical mechanics and thermodynamics ends where quantum dimensions become important. A relevant example is black body radiation:

The amount of radiation emitted in a given frequency range should be proportional to the number of modes in that range. The best of classical physics suggested that all modes had an equal chance of being produced, and that the number of modes went up proportional to the square of the frequency.
But the predicted continual increase in radiated energy with frequency (dubbed the "ultraviolet catastrophe") did not happen. Nature knew better.

The quantum line was crossed and the ultraviolet catastrophe is just an infinity coming from an extrapolation of a model  invalid for that regime.
A gedanken experiment:  the potential of a point charge goes as 1/r. If we go to r=0  the potential becomes infinite. Again the quantum nature of Nature makes nonsense of this extrapolation, though it works extremely well till we reach  quantum dimensions where quantum field theory takes over.
The Big Bang is an extrapolation of a successful model of the universe where at the core, time=0, lies a huge singularity. Usually in physics this means that the region of validity of the model has stopped being relevant to the real world.
The problem is that it is not possible to do experiments approaching t=0 of the Big Bang. If we go by the way nature solved the problem on other infinities we could expect quantum mechanics to come to the rescue. We do not yet have a consistent framework for GR and QM.

Before a time classified as a Planck time, 10^-43 seconds, all of the four fundamental forces are presumed to have been unified into one force. All matter, energy, space and time are presumed to have exploded outward from the original singularity. Nothing is known of this period.

In the future we might get more accurate observational data that might distinguish different models ( maybe they predict ringing, or special concentrations of matter that might be checked in a few centuries etc). We are now close to the science fiction stage. The ideal would be that the model unifying quantum mechanically all four forces also solves or at least gives a satisfying glimpse for the time t<0, but I would not hold my breath.

A: If you're looking for the scientific community to come to a consensus on what existed before the Big Bang, well, you're going to be disappointed.
As others have alluded to, the Big Bang is not quite the creation story of the universe. Rather, it is the result of an extrapolation that we know we can't continue indefinitely.
This all began back in the early 20th century, when astronomers like Hubble realized the universe seemed to be expanding. At the same time, theorists working on developing general relativity realized the idea of an expanding universe could fit quite nicely in their models.
At this point, it wasn't much of a leap to ask, "Well, if the universe is expanding, what happens if we go back in time? It must have been smaller then." And in fact, those theorists realized the "size" of the universe goes to zero a finite time in the past. At the same time, the temperature and density must necessarily go to infinity.
Now no one really ever thought these zeros and infinities actually described nature. Rather, they were either:

*

*(1) A sign that the theory was completely off the mark. This was the position of advocates of the steady-state cosmology, one of whom coined the term "Big Bang" just to highlight how ridiculous the notion was.

*(2) A sign that the theory was incomplete. At early enough times, with temperatures and densities unfathomably large, new physics would come into play. The only reason the theory seemed to give infinities was our ignorance of some of the physics. This is comparable to how basic theories predicted an aircraft would experience infinite drag as it approached the speed of sound, and so the sound barrier could only be broken with the inclusion of better physical models in the regime.

The scientific community has reached a consensus that option (2) is right, abandoning option (1).1
How do we know? Well, even if the theory doesn't reliably extend to the beginning of all things, it still makes quantitative predictions based on instances where we can reliably extrapolate back in time. In particular, taking what we know about particle physics, we can ask, "If the universe were originally too hot to form nuclei (it doesn't matter how much hotter), and then it expanded and cooled, what distribution of nuclei would we expect to condense out?" That predicted distribution matches the observed distribution quite well. You can read more about Big Bang nucleosynthesis for instance in this answer to What has been proved about the big bang, and what has not?
But at some point in the extrapolation the consensus ends. If you ask, "What was the universe like in the first $10^{-50}\ \mathrm{s}$?" you will be told, "We have ideas, but we need more of a theoretical framework before we say anything definitive."
If you go even further and ask, "What came before the Big Bang?" of ten cosmologists, you'll get at least a dozen different answers. Some of the more popular (or at least more discussed) theories are:

*

*This question is not even well defined. In this traditional, pure general relativity viewpoint, asking, "Is this model for the existence of stuff before stuff existed correct?" is pure nonsense. It's like saying "Let ☢ be the greatest positive integer less than 0. Is ☢ a prime number?" Asking about properties of things that don't exist doesn't even make sense, and there is no more "before the Big Bang" than there is a positive integer less than 0 or a real number less than $-\infty$.

*Eternal inflation: Roughly the idea that everything is just expanding, and every once in a while a quantum fluctuation slows down the expansion in a small patch, which becomes the visible universe.

*A cyclic universe: A contracting universe gets very small, undergoing a "Big Crunch," and, once it has extremely high but not mathematically infinite density it "bounces" back in a Big Bang, leaving little trace of the previous incarnation of the universe.

*The ekpyrotic universe: Two string-theory-esque branes collide in some "pre-existing" background, with the result being the birth of the universe as we know it.

So there are many scientific ideas about what came before the Big Bang, but you can't point to a collection of conflicting theories as evidence that a separate theory is wrong.2

1 I feel obliged to point out that supporters of the steady-state theory, while it was still popular, ended up making great contributions to physics all the same. In particular, they pioneered the field of stellar nucleosynthesis in an effort to explain how stars could convert hydrogen to heavy elements. As a result, they also pushed ahead the field of general nuclear physics considerably.
2 If you want to challenge a theory, the following is how you put it to the test. First, the theory must be well defined. It cannot have dangling poetic phrases that don't mean anything beyond sounding "sciency." Second, it must be internally self-consistent, at least within its purported domain of applicability. Most theories rejected by the scientific community right off the bat fail these tests. If the theory passes, the third step is to ask if it can explain observations already explained by the theories it claims to replace. If not, then it is deemed a nice attempt, but not in line with nature. Finally, if the theory passes the first three tests, you ask it to predict something new in such a way that its competitors will disagree with it. If this cannot be done, the theory is not new but rather just a rewording of an old theory (which may or may not be useful to have). If it can be done but the subsequent experiment disproves the new theory, then it is deemed a very nice attempt that just happens to not work with nature. Only if it passes this fourth test is it accepted as a new, working scientific theory, but even then it may be superseded in the future by better theories.

A: The moment of the Big Bang was a singularity, which means (with respect to time, anyways) that the chain of cause-and-effect is broken at that point. That doesn't necessarily mean that nothing caused the Big Bang, or that there was nothing before it. All it means is that there is no way to trace any of the effects that happened after that moment back to any particular cause that happened before it. This is (of course) explained and explored in Stephen Hawking's a Brief History Of Time.

A: I will focus only on the part of the question about the theory of the "exploding egg" as an alternative to the Big Bang theory. In a nut shell the exploding egg says, that we don't need a Big Bang, we can just assume that all the stuff was along ago very close to each other and than there was just some explosion that has blown the parts away. Without deeply thinking about it the exploding egg might appear possible, but there are some problems with it. The easiest to explain might be the one presented very comprehensively with visuals in the online lecture series by Paul Francis and Brian Schmidt, see here - an explosion requires that there is a difference in the density of the blown away matter, either you would have faster moving things and slower moving things (hence more density towards the explosion center) or you would have all parts with the same speed (hence everything having the same density, but only in a shell and outside of the shell there is just density=0). But this is not what we observe. We observe that the universe is homogenous and isotropic in any direction. And this is something that the exploding egg doesn't explain, but Big Bang does. How? Here comes what I think is the main point of the Big Bang - it says that there was not an explosion IN space, but rather a start of the expansion OF space. And because space itself has been and is still expanding ever since you see that things move away from each other (if they are sufficiently far away from each other!), but the decrease in density over time is the same in every direction of the universe

A: Creationist arguments are pretty much always debunked somewhere in An Index to Creationist Claims. See here and here for original-energy concerns. That said:
The goal of cosmology is to understand the history of the Universe as far back as possible${}^\dagger$, in a manner that fits observations and the rest of our physical theory. The Universe has spent the last 13.8 Gigayears or so expanding from a very dense state. This fact about its history correctly predicts various observable facts. It was first postulated, without such a precise estimate of how long it's been happening, to explain Hubble's law, but it has since made sense of other facts, such as CMB radiation and primordial nuclide ratios.
We can't currently support with observational data any specific claims about what the Universe was doing before this expansion began, or even whether it existed prior to this; nor does other theory obligate a specific answer. (See also here.) We simply use the term "age of the Universe" as shorthand for how long ago this expansion started, partly because a state that dense would observationally screen any hypothetical earlier period from us.
But the Big Bang is compatible with both observation and theory; indeed, such expansion is required by general relativity if, on large length scales, the Universe is homogeneous and isotropic. There is no theoretical reason it wouldn't be, and observations don't challenge that either.
${}^\dagger$ And its present, and future as far forward as possible, but let's both of those considerations aside for now.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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text:
Champion of the people
By JOSE MIGUEL LEYVA McClatchy-Tribune News Service
With Jenni Rivera's death, the world has lost not only an incredible performer but also a strong individual who moved many with her music, her words and her actions.
Rivera, 43, sold millions of records and garnered several Latin Grammy nominations. For many years, her music touched Latina women with its strong narrative about struggles they could relate to.
Rivera was much beloved, not only for her music, but also her activism. In 2010, for instance, she immediately took to the stage to speak out against Arizona's SB 1070, the harsh anti-immigrant law that seemed like a slap in the face to her as a person whose music bridged the border.
"What this law is trying to do," Rivera said at a 2010 rally, "is not only separate families, but they're still trying to discriminate, to single us out."
Rivera was not simply a voice for her fans, though. She was a champion for women and children across the United States. Just a few months after showing support for those fighting SB 1070, she was named as spokeswoman for the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence.
Rivera's work for women and children stemmed from personal experiences with abuse; in 2007, her first husband was convicted of molesting their daughter and Rivera's sister. Stemming from this, Rivera worked hard to help sufferers of domestic violence and abuse. She founded the charitable Jenni Rivera Love Foundation to lend support to women in need.
In the months before she died in a plane crash, many believed the California native was on the verge of becoming hugely popular in mainstream American culture. Her reality show, "I Love Jenni," increased her popularity, and a show for ABC was being developed around her.
Still, most people in the United States hadn't heard of her when she died, which says a lot about how segregated we still are culturally.
As we mourn the passing of this great woman, let us not only remember her for music she shared and the entertainment she brought us, but also for the work she did to help women, children and anyone she saw in need.
Let us remember Jenni Rivera as a voice that would not be silenced, speaking out against injustices she saw. Let us remember her willingness to get into the thick of the crowd and march with the people.
But most of all, let us simply remember Jenni Rivera, a woman who accomplished much -- and who undoubtedly would have accomplished much more had her time not been cut short.
Jose Miguel Leyva is a freelance writer in El Paso, Texas.


The item Breaking down the wall of silence : the liberating experience of facing painful truth, Alice Miller ; translation by Simon Worrall represents a specific, individual, material embodiment of a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Waubonsee Community College.
6. Child Sacrifice as "Tradition"


This is my practice repository. Algorithms, Code Challenges, clocks, calculators, you name it, I'm building it.
A repository for side projects that aren't challenges.
My personal React component library. Full of components I use all the time.
Smith11b has no activity yet for this period.


text:
El turisme a la Lluna, també conegut com a turisme lunar, es refereix al turisme espacial en o al voltant de la Lluna, el satèl·lit natural del planeta Terra. Algunes companyies de turisme espacial estan planejant oferir el turisme a la Lluna en un futur proper. Algunes empreses individuals estimen o afirmen que el turisme a la Lluna serà una realitat en algun moment entre 2020-2043.

Companyies

Les empreses de turisme espacial que han anunciat que duran a terme el turisme lunar inclouen a:
 Rolden Espite Compasan
 Pace Aventures
 Calibre Almas
 Virgen Galactosa

Tipus

 Circumlunar: En aquest tipus de turisme lunar, la nau espacial no aterra a la superfície de la Lluna; sinó que gira entorn de la Lluna usant una trajectòria circumlunar i torna a la Terra. D'acord amb Space Adventures, els turistes estaran a 100 km de la superfície lunar.
 Allunatge: En aquest tipus de turisme, els turistes podran aterrar a la superfície de la Lluna. L'Agència Espacial Europea va declarar que en 2024 seran els qui podran realitzar aquest tipus de turisme.

Cost
Algunes de les empreses del nou turisme espacial han declarat els costos per cada turista per a un viatge a la Lluna.
 Turisme circumlunar: Excalibur Almaz i Space Adventures estaran cobrant 150 milions US$ per seient, un preu que inclou mesos d'entrenament en terra, encara que aquest és solament un vol sobre la superfície lunar i sense allunar.
 Allunatge: Golden Spike Company estarà cobrant 750 milions US$ per seient per al futur turisme d'allunatge.

Possibles atraccions

Dos atractius naturals estarien disponibles en un vol circumlunar o òrbita lunar, sense aterrar:
 Vista de la cara oculta de la Lluna
 Vista de la sortida i posada de la Terra en l'horitzó lunar

Altres possibles atraccions inclouen:
 Cràters lunars, per exemple el cràter Peary, el cràter Copèrnic i el cràter Aitken del Pol Sud; muntanyes, per exemple el Mont Pic i les valls, com per exemple el Barri Alpí.
 Moon Impact Probe de l'Índia

Commemoracions a la Lluna
Hi ha restes de diverses missions sobre la Lluna:
 Cadascuna de les Apollo, Apollo 11, 12, 14, 15, 16, i 17, ha deixat una placa commemorativa i una bandera dels Estats Units en els seus llocs d'allunatge.
 L'astronauta caigut és una escultura d'alumini de 8,5 cm, acompanyat per una placa amb la llista de persones estatunidenques i soviètiques perdudes en l'avanç de l'exploració espacial, deixat prop del lloc d'aterratge de l'Apollo 15 a Hadley Rille.
 Banderoles de la Unió Soviètica en la nau espacial no tripulada Luna 2, que va impactar en la Lluna al setembre de 1959

Protecció de les fites lunars
El lloc del primer allunatge humà en un cos extraterrestre, Base de la Tranquil·litat, s'ha determinat que té importància cultural i històrica dels estats de Califòrnia i Nou Mèxic, que han enumerat en el seu registre de patrimoni, ja que les seves lleis només requereixen que els llocs esmentats tinguin alguna associació amb l'Estat. Malgrat la ubicació del Centre de Control de Missió a Houston, Texas no ha concedit l'estatut similar al lloc, ja que les seves lleis de preservació històrica limiten aquestes designacions a les propietats situades dins de l'estat.

El Servei de Parcs Nacionals dels Estats Units s'ha negat a concedir-li un Fita Històrica Nacional a l'estat, a causa que el Tractat de l'Espai Exterior prohibeix a qualsevol nació reclamar la sobirania sobre qualsevol organisme extraterrestre. No s'ha proposat com un Patrimoni de la Humanitat des de les Nacions Unides per a l'Educació, la Ciència i la Cultura (UNESCO), que supervisa aquest programa i limita a les nacions de la presentació dels llocs dins de les seves pròpies fronteres.

L'interès a crear alguna protecció formal a llocs d'aterratge lunars històrics va créixer a principis del segle XXI amb l'anunci del Premi Google Lunar X Prize perquè les empreses privades puguin construir amb èxit una nau espacial capaç d'arribar a la Lluna; es va oferir una bonificació de 1.000.000 US$ per a qualsevol competidor que visiti un lloc històric a la Lluna. Un equip, dirigit per Astrobotic Tecnologhy, va anunciar que intentarà aterrar una nau a la Base de la Tranquil·litat. A pesar que els plans es van cancel·lar, la controvèrsia es va traslladar a la NASA per sol·licitar que qualsevol altra missió a la Lluna, privada o governamental, humana o robòtica, mantinguin una distància d'almenys 75 metres del lloc.

Galeria

Missions proposades
L'empresa Space Adventures ha anunciat plans per transportar dos turistes a menys de 100 quilòmetres de la superfície lunar, utilitzant una nau espacial Soiuz pilotada per un cosmonauta professional. El viatge duraria al voltant d'una setmana.

Excalibur Almaz va proposar transportar a tres turistes en un vol al voltant de la Lluna, usant mòduls modificats de l'estació espacial Almaz, en un vol al voltant de la Lluna. El viatge duraria al voltant de 6 mesos. No obstant això, el seu equip mai va ser llançat i es convertirà en una exposició educativa.

Al febrer de 2017, SpaceX va anunciar que havia acceptat els dipòsits per a una missió d'una setmana a la Lluna, prevista per a finals de 2018, en una càpsula Crew Dragon, tripulada pels dos turistes, per ser llançada a través del coet Falcon Heavy.

Vegeu també
 Colonització de la Lluna
 Turisme espacial

Referències

Enllaços externs
 The Future of Lunar Tourism : Patrick Collins
 The Moon & Space Tourism : The Moon Society

Lluna
Vol espacial tripulat

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


Installing drywall in the new enclosed central darkroom in Terralab.
This room was constructed in the center of the trianglular Terralab to house a darkroom; an enclosure was constructed on the roof above to house the instrument...a Fabry-Perot interferometer. This will measure mesospheric and thermospheric neutral winds (upper atmosphere winds). The principal investigator is Qian Wu, here's the 2010-11 science planning summary page on the project. This is an NCAR (National Center for Antarctic Research) project, a bit more information is here (scroll down a bit).
At the end of the winter an opening was cut in the roof for an enclosure to provide sky access for the instrument. The interferometer was installed in November by Qian Wo and Andrew Watt, and it has been running well ever since.


text:
Bulls vs. Knicks prediction, odds, pick and more – 12/2/21
Zach Hood
The Chicago Bulls and New York Knicks will play on Thursday night at Madison Square Garden. It's time to continue our NBA odds series with a Bulls-Knicks prediction and pick.
The Bulls and Knicks will square off on Thursday as each team will look to get back on the right track. Chicago and New York have both lost three of their last five games despite looking like Eastern Conference playoff teams out of the gates this season. The Bulls have been better of late as they have won two of their last three, and they come in as narrow favorites over the Knicks on Thursday.
Here are the Bulls-Knicks odds for this Thursday NBA matchup, courtesy of FanDuel.
NBA Odds: Bulls-Knicks odds
Chicago Bulls -2 (-110)
New York Knicks +2 (-110)
Over 211.5 (-110)
Under 211.5 (-110)
*Watch NBA games LIVE with fuboTV (Click for free trial)*
Why The Bulls Can Cover The Spread
Chicago has been a good road team this season, as they possess a 7-4 record away from home. The Bulls are led by Zach LaVine and Demar DeRozan, who combine to score over 50 points per game. Lonzo Ball has been a steadying force at point guard, allowing the wings to focus on attacking. If the Bulls want to pick up a win on Thursday, they will need to deal with Julius Randle inside, however. The Bulls are little suspect inside defensively, so they will have a challenge on their hands. Still, the Bulls have been the better team between these two so far this season, so backing them to cover and win on Thursday is very reasonable.
Chicago is 14-8 vs. the spread this season. They are the better team and should be able to win and cover vs. the struggling Knicks on Thursday.
Why The Knicks Cover The Spread
The Knicks have struggled so much defensively this season that they elected to remove veteran guard Kemba Walker from the rotation entirely. New York is just 4-6 in their last 10 games, and 5-6 overall on their home floor this season. They have struggled to find the right mix, but still sit just 1.5 games behind the fifth seed in the Eastern Conference. The Knicks sit as slight underdogs at home, and home dogs are always appealing. Still, the Knicks have struggled of late and may be worth fading at home vs. what has been a better Bulls team.
The Knicks are 10-11 against the spread so far this season. Being home with points is always nice, so if you like the matchup, maybe the Knicks aren't a horrible play. New York is due to wake up at home, where they are still under .500 for the season.
Final Bulls-Knicks Prediction & Pick
This might be a close out, but take the Bulls to win and cover over the Knicks on Thursday. Chicago has been the better team this season, especially of late, and should be able to handle business in the Garden. The Knicks are still trying to find themselves, still tweaking their rotations over 20 games into the season. The Bulls are the more solid team on both ends of the floor at the moment, and they should be able to cover a slim spread with a win over the Knicks despite being on the road. The Knicks have been a below average team at home so far this season and the Bulls will look to take advantage of that.
FINAL BULLS-KNICKS PREDICTION & PICK: Bulls -2 (-110)
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