Expat Capital is the largest independent Bulgarian company for managing individual investment accounts. It manages three mutual funds and over 500 clients with their personal portfolios of financial instruments. Expat Capital is the brainchild of Nikolay Vassilev, who was minister in two governments in the 2000s. Vassilev, who had been an investment banker before he took up politics, has now made full circle.
I would describe Expat as the alternative to the traditional saving methods in the country. We operate by following the model of the large investment banks in Zurich and London, and we also provide an approved and secure manner of long-term personal savings and family wealth management through opportunities for greater security, profitability and control. Via their Expat accounts, the investors can control and manage the different investments as they always have full information and reporting.
What differentiates Expat Capital from ordinary Bulgarian banks?
In Bulgaria, deposit accounts are the widespread form of "investing" and saving. In Western Europe and North America, however, the average citizens amass their family wealth in personal investment accounts rather than in banks, thus participating in mutual or pension funds, or by holding individual investment portfolios managed by professional managers at investment companies.
The money in the deposit accounts of the commercial banks behaves in a completely different pattern than the money in the investment accounts under the licensed investment managers' control. The banks usually take deposits and then inject them back in the economy as credits. Under normal conditions, the well managed and well capitalised banks offer interest rates slightly above the inflation rate.
If an individual is seeking higher yields, maybe it is time for them to consider alternative means of investing. That is exactly what we offer. In our opinion, the long-term savings of the individuals should be in the financial markets where a large part of people's savings around the world are.
What is the difference between an individual investment account and a traditional savings account?
Most of the people who live abroad, regardless of their earnings, entrust their personal wealth to specialised firms which are far more prepared to react upon the changing economic and market conditions. In our country, there are very few asset management companies that offer quality level or scale of the service provided that is comparable to the Western models for long term active individual portfolio management. We compose an individual strategy for each client and we also seek to build a long-term relationship with them. Often whole families or a few generations of a single family are our clients.
We aim to offer our customers better diversification for their savings. Due to objective reasons, usually a Bulgarian client would have a strong concentration of Bulgarian political and economic risk: their business, family occupation, homes and, most probably, a large part of their assets are based in Bulgaria. That is why it is recommendable for the family savings not to be influenced by the domestic environment whatsoever. Thus, our strategy is to invest primarily in foreign instruments.
We are in partnership relations with numerous foreign brokers and banks so that we can trade and hold different asset classes from throughout the world for our clients. During a period of very low interest rates, the individual investment account may gain returns times above the annual deposit interest rates in euro offered by stable banks. The investor has full information and control of what is being invested in and also has immediate liquidity. All instruments in the portfolio can be immediately sold in the global financial markets.
What are Expat's major advantages?
Security, profitability, control. These are the three stepstones on which we build our client relationships.
When one has a problem with their heart or kidneys, they seek the best doctors they can possibly trust. When it comes to their money, however, one is utterly mistrustful and even prefers to hold the scalpel on their own. We all think that we know best about football, politics and investing. It is quite sensible to refer to asset management companies where professionals, equipped with technologies and software, perform serous analyses and compose their own monitoring and grading systems on a daily basis. We regularly observe hundreds of stocks and bonds from throughout the world and are capable of timely recognition and reaction upon the changing market conditions.
Nikolay Vassilev has been Managing Partner at the investment company Expat Capital since 2009. Before joining the private sector, he took part in two consecutive governments (2001-2009) as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Transport and Communications, and Minister of State Administration.
Before coming back to Bulgaria, Vassilev worked in the areas of equities and emerging markets as Senior Vice President at Lazard Capital Markets, London; Associate Director of UBS in their Tokyo, New York and London offices; Tax Consultant at Coopers & Lybrand, Budapest.
Nikolay Vassilev studied Economics and Finance in Hungary, the Unites States and Japan. He has the Chartered Financial Analyst qualification. He speaks English, Hungarian and Russian, and has basic knowledge of French, German and Japanese.


Professional carpet cleaning offers a deep clean that removes dust, dirt, and allergens along with stains and pet odors. However, some people are hesitant to take advantage of this service because of a few falsehoods they've heard. The team at Yaeger Rug & Furniture Cleaners has been serving the Rochester, NY, area for over 60 years and understands every part of the process. They dispel a few misconceptions about rug cleaning by providing facts.
Many homeowners assume they can bypass routine cleanings if their carpet is relatively new, but this is a fallacy. Whether your carpet was installed a month ago or five years ago, it's used every day, so dirt, pollen, and other substances will accumulate deep in the fibers. Regular carpet cleanings will prevent this buildup and extend the life of your rugs.
People sometimes think carpet cleaning causes carpets shrink. However, this incident is rare and occurs only when a large amount of moisture is left behind — by an unqualified carpet cleaner who doesn't have the knowledge or equipment to do the job correctly. An established residential carpet cleaning company has skilled employees and state-of-the-art cleaning machines that remove almost all water from the flooring.
Advertisers often imply carpet cleaning products sold in grocery and hardware stores are equal in quality and strength to professional methods. While they're often effective on light stains, they can't provide a deep cleaning and might cause fabric discoloration. Many retail products also contain chemicals that could be hazardous to children and pets. Yaeger Rug & Furniture Cleaners uses eco-friendly and pet-safe solutions is a better choice.
Now that the myths have been debunked, schedule professional carpet cleaning with Yaeger Rug & Furniture Cleaners. Boasting an A+ rating from the Better Business Bureau®, AngiesList Honor Roll. they have a track record of providing high-quality rug and upholstery cleaning services to the greater Rochester area. Visit them online for more information about their services and call (585) 671-7390 to schedule residential carpet cleaning. Follow them on Twitter for additional tips from their specialists.


20/04/2012 · I could use a circle/oval tool to draw perfect circles, which is actually pretty difficult for me to do myself, or even make them a little off, just to the degree that I want them to be. This is what I was talking about with tools assisting me.... Circle as the line and rectangle is a simple shape. This shape is also very useful. Circle usually will be used to draw the holes for drilling. We can draw a circle using one of several options.
Circle as the line and rectangle is a simple shape. This shape is also very useful. Circle usually will be used to draw the holes for drilling. We can draw a circle using one of several options.... 20/04/2012 · I could use a circle/oval tool to draw perfect circles, which is actually pretty difficult for me to do myself, or even make them a little off, just to the degree that I want them to be. This is what I was talking about with tools assisting me.
Draw squares with Scratch Imagine This!
Begin by drawing three dots in a triangle. Join them as in the second picture, then change the joining lines to make the knot more the shape you want. Once you have the basic shape, turn the line into a wider string and make it go over, then under, then over, then under the strands it crosses.
20/04/2012 · I could use a circle/oval tool to draw perfect circles, which is actually pretty difficult for me to do myself, or even make them a little off, just to the degree that I want them to be. This is what I was talking about with tools assisting me.


Matevž Jekovec has been busy working at the coal face of SWIG to add support for C++0x, the forthcoming C++ standard. Matevž has managed to achieve close to full support for C++0x. The C++0x Wikipaedia article details the numerous planned new features and Matevž has put together a SWIG C++0x page documenting the new SWIG support for each of these. In summary the enhanced C++ language can now be parsed by SWIG, which in itself is a great step. There is much more than just this though, as most of the information parsed is used to create useful wrappers of C++0x code. The work can be tried out on the C++0x branch which should be merged fairly soon into a forthcoming release.
Miklos Vajna has been working on SWIG's PHP support to implement an advanced SWIG feature already supported for most other target languages, but not PHP. The feature is called "directors" and allows cross-language polymorphism - wrapped C++ classes can be subclassed in PHP and virtual method calls work in the natural way, whether they're made from PHP or C++ code. You can read more in the new PHP Director documentation. Miklos made such great progress that we were able to merge this support into SWIG 1.3.40, which was released even before the Summer of Code finished. Miklos also spent some time working on improving SWIG's test suite for PHP, and fixing bugs in the PHP support.
Ashish Sharma spent the summer adding support for Objective-C as a new target language. Objective-C is a major language on the Mac OS X platform. This means that now SWIG can be used to generate Objective-C wrappers over C++ code. In particular the wrappers include proxy classes, which preserve the class hierarchy from the C++ code. Ultimately this means that from the user's perspective, proxy objects look no different to objects originally written in Objective-C. Adding a new target language is quite a considerable task and Ashish is keen to add plenty more improvements over the coming months. Ashish's work is in Subversion and can be accessed in the ashishs99 branch.
Baozeng Ding has also added a new target language, in this case for the Scilab language, a free numerical computing package. He has coded up support for all the C features: variables, functions, constants, enums, structs, unions, pointers and arrays and also intends to develop it further in the near future. Documentation for SWIG and Scilab can be viewed online direct from Baozeng's Subversion branch.
Kosei Moriyama has been working on Perl bindings for the Xapian library using SWIG, to replace some existing bindings implemented by hand. He's achieved almost complete compatibility with the API of the existing bindings (the only real omission is callbacks which are waiting for completion of director support for Perl in SWIG). He has also wrapped features which weren't previously accessible from Perl. You can view Kosei's work online in his Subversion branch.
Finally, many thanks to Google for sponsoring the Summer of Code and a special thanks for all the hard work done by the students, mentors and Olly Betts, the co-administrator.


I decided to make a tipsy version, as usual. But it's very simple to cancel the hard and make it a soft drink (just substitute mint extract for the alcohol).
Now let's get to it, boy-o.
In a blender, combine the ice cream, heavy cream, sugar, creme de menthe, and food coloring until smooth and creamy.
*You could also make half of it green and half of it white, then swirl it together to make a cool leprechaun-y effect.
Pour into a nifty looking glass, and top it off with the whipped cream and cherry. (You can see mine is not quite as vibrant as the McDonald's version, but if you'd like yours to be more green, just add a couple more drops of food coloring).
But really, that's it. Two easy steps and some pretty simple ingredients. It's cool, minty, creamy, and so appropriate for your St. Patty's shenanigans. And the best part is, you can have this drink year round…why wait for March to come along? (Stealing McDonald's customers one shamrock shake at a time).
Let me know how you liked this recipe; I love getting your feedback. I hope you all have an exciting and happy Saint Patrick's Day! And if you find that pot o' gold, share it with your friends (I am your only friend).


The next few posts are from samples I made for my Mini Madness Event. This one uses the Night & Day Specialty papers in the Mini catalog comprising 12 sheets : 2 each of 5 double sided designs plus 2 printed window sheets which I've used here. The stamp set is Bird on a Branch.
This is the card lying down. Most of the front of the card was cut away to show off the spotty printed window sheet and I added an eyelet border to pretty it up. By having the "overhang" I was able to sandwich the window sheet between the pink and black layers and conceal the sticky strips.


text:
Cornwall, ON – Michael Kohlsmith, 41, of Cornwall was arrested on January 14th, 2022 on the strength of a warrant. It is alleged on November 30th, 2021, the man failed to attend court for a threats offence and a warrant was issued for his arrest. On January 14th, 2022, the man attended police headquarters to deal with the matter. He was taken into custody on the strength of the warrant and released to appear in court on March 24th, 2022.
DOMESTIC MISCHIEF
Cornwall, ON – A 24-year-old Cornwall man was arrested on January 15th, 2022 and charged with two counts of domestic mischief. It is alleged during an altercation with his ex-girlfriend on January 15th, 2022, the man damaged her phone, as well as a piece of jewellery belonging to the woman. Police were contacted and an investigation ensued. During the investigation, he was taken into custody, charged accordingly and released to appear in court on March 29th, 2022. His name was not released as it would identify the victim in the matter.
Cornwall, ON – A 28-year-old Cornwall woman was arrested on January 16th, 2022 on the strength of a warrant. It is alleged the woman failed to attend court on September 28th, 2021 for a domestic mischief offence and a warrant was issued for her arrest. On January 16th, 2022, she was taken into custody on the strength of the warrant and released to appear in court on March 29th, 2022. Her name was not released as the charge stems from a domestic-related incident and would identify the victim in the matter.
Cornwall, ON – A 41-year-old Port Perry, ON man was arrested on January 16th, 2022 on the strength of a warrant. It is alleged between 2014 and 2020, the man engaged in threatening conduct towards his wife, in addition to assaulting her on two occasions and making threats to kill her. Police were contacted and an investigation ensued. On January 16th, 2022, he attended police headquarters to deal with the matter. He was taken into custody on the strength of the warrant and released to appear in court on March 24th, 2022. His name was not released as it would identity the victim in the matter.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Representatives from all five East End town police departments — as well as the Suffolk County Sheriff's Office, courts, corrections, and New York State—filled the Hyatt Hotel's Sea Star Ballroom in downtown Riverhead to capacity for the 49th Annual Police Awards ceremony on Friday night, January 25.
The Southampton Kiwanis Club, now celebrating a half a century, sponsors the annual dinner which honors outstanding peer-selected police officers who regularly rise above and beyond the call of duty on the East End. New York State Police Captain Jose Febo recognized Trooper Michael Masino and Riverhead Town Police Officer Richard Freeborn, who worked together to locate and rescue a 44-year-old man who had fallen into the water at Grangebel Park on September 19. Though unresponsive at first, the officers were able to regain a pulse after providing CPR. Captain Febo said that collaboration showed him an unprecedented willingness of separate agencies to work together to fight crime.
"The level of cooperation — on the street, at the chief level, the intermediate level — is something I haven't seen in my career path in 25 years," he said. "It's very nice to see that trying times bring people together." The evening's 14 winners were all in the running to be the Kiwanis member-chosen winners of two overall awards: The illustrious Howard C. Stock Memorial Award, as well as a brand-new honor named for former Hampton Bays Fire Department Chief, as well as both Southampton and Sag Harbor police officer, Gerard Buckley, who died in March 2017.
The Gerry Buckley Award was presented to Suffolk County Court Officer Randy Caparco by Ann Buckley, the late Buckley's wife. Event chair Debbie Brown said the recipient chosen best emulates Buckley: Someone who has a huge heart, never looks for recognition nor thinks about risk to himself. "Buckley was the type of person who would see someone in distress and jumps into action," said Brown.
Other officers awarded for their bravery and hard work: Southampton Town's Ryan Hughes, Southampton Village's Andrew Cassel, Westhampton Beach's Andrew Kirwin, William A. Gladding of Quogue, Suffolk County Sheriff Department's Deputy Sheriff Investigator Brian Grazidei, East Hampton Town's Arthur Scalzo, Eben Ballo and Bethany Semlear of the East Hampton Village Police Department, Sag Harbor's Robert Drake, Christopher Delaney of Suffolk County Corrections, and Southold Town Police Officer John Crosser.


During February 2011-June 2012, invasive infection with Neisseria meningitidis serogroup W was identified in 11 persons in southeastern China. All isolates tested had matching or near-matching pulsed-field gel electrophoresis patterns and belonged to multilocus sequence type 11. The epidemiologic investigation suggested recent transmission of this clonal complex in southeastern China.


I greatly appreciate all your wonderful talent and expertise – you are the BEST!
Jim is a first rate designer. I learned a great deal from Jim about book design and the process of book manufacturing. Jim is an artist. His sensitivity to color, design and form are evident in everything he does. I am very proud of what he and I have accomplished. If you are looking for high quality, then Jim is the designer for you.
I used Jim for my book Unintended Consequences. I utilized Jim's services for the book cover, as well as the interior layout. All I can say is Jim did an amazing job with both. His insights and suggestions made the entire process extremely easy, especially since this was my first endeavor into the world of self-publishing. Moreover, his turn around time is first class. On top of everything, his prices are more than reasonable and I would recommend Jim's services to anyone. In fact, when I decide to do my second book, Jim will be definitely involved in the entire process.
~Annie Galvin Teich, New Day Publishing, Inc.


Start to lay your mat using the adhesive strips on the mat.
Cut the mat backing to turn the mats back and forth to cover your area. You may have to release the cable from the mat for more awkward areas. The mat can be laid cables facing up or down.
Although our mat lies very flat, make sure the mat is well adhered to the sub-floor and use gaffer tape to stick down any end cables of the mat should they stick up.
Cover the mat in self leveling compound (flexible).
Use flexible adhesive and tile.
When installing mat systems you must make sure you do not order too much. When you have ordered the correct sized mat clean the floor to make sure it's clear of dust. It's a good idea to apply some tilers primer (Not PVA). Now start to plan where the mat will go in the layout of your room.
When you start to lay the mat we recommend that when installing the mat system you do so with the cables facing upwards. The Warmtoes 2mm mats have a sticky mat backing.
2. When the mat is rolled out and you come to the end of your run, simply cut the mat backing (never the wire) and turn the mat. Repeat this process back and forth until you have covered your floor.
WAIT 14 DAYS before using the heating.
Installing mat systems is generally quicker than loose wire underfloor heating. When the mat is installed we then recommend applying a layer of self levelling compound. This acts to protect the mat when installing tiles. Should a tile be damaged in the future you will be able to replace the tile without damaging the underfloor heating beneath it. If you wish to keep the floor height low you can tile directly on top of the mat.
Now install the tiles using flexible adhesive. You must wait 10 to 14 days before you can turn the heating on to allow the adhesive to dry naturally.


text:
Q: React Native set state an element of array of objects I have an array in my state:
this.state = {
  data: [
    {
      quantity: 0
    }
  ],
  tempQuantity: 0
};

I want to update my data[0].quantity in a TextInput so i use:
onChangeText={tempQuantity =>
  this.setState({
    tempQuantity,
    data: [...this.state.data, { quantity: tempQuantity }]
  })
}

And i have a <Text> to show the result:
<View>
  <Text>{this.state.data[0].quantity}</Text>
</View>

But I get 0 every time!

*

*How can I update each element of each object in an array?

*If I use it this way, it will work dynamically? I mean i want to create an object (with all properties of the main object) every time I press a <Button>. [ for example: data[0] with quantity of 10 - data[1] withquantity` of 12 - and ...  ]

A: To use a single event handler for every element in your array, you could pass in the index as well as the event and update the quantity for the element on that particular index.
Example

class App extends React.Component {
  state = {
    data: [
      {
        quantity: 0
      },
      {
        quantity: 10
      },
      {
        quantity: 100
      }
    ]
  };

  handleChange = (event, index) => {
    const { value } = event.target;

    this.setState(previousState => {
      const data = [...previousState.data];

      data[index] = {...data[index], quantity: value };

      return { data };
    });
  };

  render() {
    return (

        {this.state.data.map((element, index) => (

            <input
              type="number"
              value={element.quantity}
              onChange={event => this.handleChange(event, index)}
            />

        ))}

    );
  }
}

ReactDOM.render(<App />, document.getElementById("root"));

A: You have to modify your data array before setting it to state. You can do it in the following way:
Suppose you have an array with following items:
var data = [
{name: 'a', age: 12},
{name: 'b', age: 15}
]

You need to modify it before setting to state again in the following way:
var newData = data.map((item) => {
return {...item, age: 20}
})

Now your newData will be
var newData = [
{name: 'a', age: 20},
{name: 'b', age: 20}
]

This newData can be assigned to state.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


text:
Hi there and welcome this tutorial on using the RingCentral REST API to create default avatars for the RingCentral Address Book.

This tutorial uses the community Ruby SDK and is available on Github as part of the RingCentral Avatars Ruby Gem.

## SLIDE

As you may know, RingCentral currently uses a single default avatar for all users without photos, but it is nice to have differentiated avatars for each user such as user initials or identicons. We'll cover how to do this in this tutorial using the RingCentral Profile Image API.

## SLIDE

For this tutorial and demo, the end result we want to achieve is updating the default avatars to use user initials as in this screenshot.

## SLIDE

We'll assume you know how to use the community Ruby SDK, including instantiation and authorization, so we'll move on to this specific use case. If you need to learn or brush up on SDK basics see the Ruby SDK's documentation on Read the Docs.

## SLIDE

To upload default avatars for all users without photos, we'll need to do three basic things.

First, we'll need to get a list of all users without avatars.

Then, for each user, we'll need to create and upload an avatar image.

Finally, we'll need to handle rate limit throttling for multiple API calls.

Let's take a look.

## SLIDE

To get a list a of users, we'll call the account extension API. This API can retrieve up to 1000 extensions at a time so if you have less than that in your account you won't have to do any paging. If you have more, you'll need to page.

To filter on users without an image, we'll look for the profile image etag property. If this property does not exist, then the user does not have an image. It is also updated whenever the image is updated so you can use it to check for changes.

## SLIDE

Here's what the profileImage property looks like in the extension object. You can see the etag, contentType and lastModified dates along with URIs for the images themselves.

## SLIDE

If you need to page, you should check the paging and navigation properties which tell you how may pages there are and provide URLs for you to follow.

## SLIDE

Here is some sample code for paging.

## SLIDE

Next let's create an avatar. We'll need to decide what kind of avatar we want to create. This can use user initials, identicons or even robots via the Robohash project. For this demo, we'll use user initials.

There are several good avatar libraries on RubyGems already. We'll use user initials which are a common default for applications such as Gmail and Exchange Online. For this, the avatarly gem provides good functionality. Identicons can be created using the ruby_identicon library.

## SLIDE

To upload the image we'll use the SDK's Faraday client and create a Faraday::UploadIO object to upload. We'll create a temp file first, create a Faraday::UploadIO object for that file and then send it to the API.

## SLIDE

Also, if we have many users in our address book, we'll need to consider rate limit throttling. When an application is throttled it will receive a status 429 error and a retry-after header populated with a value in seconds that the app should wait before retrying the API call. A simple way to do this is shown.

## SLIDE

In the case of the Ruby SDK, automatic retry handling including waiting is available simply by turning on the parameter to true. To perform this functionality, the SDK uses code from the Faraday Request Retry middleware which is linked at the bottom of the slide.

## SLIDE

Finally, let's put this all together. The RingCentral Avatars gem has an example script called update_avatars.rb that we'll run and see the avatars change in the RingCentral softphone.

## SLIDE

DEMO

Let's see a quick demo.

For this demo, I've configured my RingCentral credentials in the .ENV environment file which will be automatically loaded when using the load_env configuration parameter.

I'm also going to be overwriting existing avatars since I've already configured this account. When the avatars are updated on the server, the RingCentral softphone will receive a notifiation and automatically retrieve the new images, which will show up as different random colors.

<EXECUTE>

So there you have it, updating RingCentral address book avatars.

## SLIDE

I'd also like to thank WebPro for their Reveal-md project which was used to create this presentation. This presentation is written in Markdown and available online.

## SLIDE

The following resources are available and if you have any questions, please reach out to the RingCentral Developer Community or Stack Overflow. You can also reach me online using my handle, grokify.

This concludes this tutorial. Thank you for watching.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


The attorneys of Stites & Harbison assist clients with tax planning and litigation on the federal, state and local levels. The firm's tax practitioners include a former United States Tax Court law clerk and a former attorney for the Internal Revenue Service's Office of Chief Counsel (Tax Court). Several members of the tax practice group have master-of-law degrees in taxation. The firm is the Kentucky member of the American Property Tax Counsel ("APTC"), a national affiliation of law firms with a property tax practice. Membership in APTC is limited to the preeminent property tax law firm in each state.
The firm helps clients structure corporate reorganizations, redemption transactions, spinoffs, splitoffs, liquidations and tax free exchanges. It also regularly represents clients before the Internal Revenue Service Appeals Office, the United States Tax Court, the U.S. District Courts and federal appellate courts on federal income tax matters. Notable successes have included the defense of a Chicago Board of Trade option trader in what is believed to be the largest case involving the tax treatment afforded to tax straddles; rulings obtained for a billion dollar charitable organization; and the successful negotiation of multi-million dollar tax refunds in connection with a major insurance company insolvency.
We recently filed a petition for writ of certiorari with the United States Supreme Court seeking reversal of a decision of the Kentucky Supreme Court upholding legislation that retroactively revokes the corporation income tax refund claims owed to approximately twenty-nine (29) corporations doing business in Kentucky. See Johnson Controls, Inc. et al. v. Miller, United States Supreme Court, Case No. 09-981. The total refund claims, including interest, are estimated to exceed $200 million.
"Miller v. Johnson Controls, Inc. and the Dangers of Retroactive Tax Legislation," IPT Income Tax Report, November 2009 (co-authored with Jeff Mullins of American Airlines).
"Refunds for Court-Resolved Issues and Retroactive Statutes," IPT Income Tax Report, April 2009.
"Any one may so arrange his affairs that his taxes shall be as low as possible; he is not bound to choose that pattern which will best pay the Treasury; there is not even a patriotic duty to increase one's taxes." —J. Learned Hand, Helvering v. Gregory, 69 F.2d 809, 810 (2d Cir. 1934), citing United States v. Isham, 84 U.S. (17 Wall.) 496, 506, 21 L.Ed 728 (1873).


text:
Fights In Tight Spaces
Fights In Tight Spaces review: a unique twist on the deckbuilding genre that pulls one too many punches
Plenty of time to die
Review by Jai Singh Bains Contributor
Published on Dec. 13, 2021
Fights In Tight Spaces review
Fights In Tight Spaces is a unique and thoroughly enjoyable twist on the deckbuilding genre thanks to its grounded tone and turn-based tactics, but it falls slightly short of being something truly special.
Developer: Ground Shatter
Publisher: Mode 7
Release: Out now
On: Windows
From: Steam, GOG, Epic Games Store
Price: £19/€21/$25
Fights In Tight Spaces is about one specific trope that all the spy movies I've seen love to use: our main character's got to a part in the story where they can relax a bit, inevitably they let their guard down, and on cue, a mystery assassin erupts from the shadows to take advantage of the opportunity. The hero's got nothing but their brawn to make it out, but then, surprise! They actually use brains instead. Nobody ever saw it coming. The thing is, watching those movies, we all know the main character's not really going to die. I mean, it's called The Bourne Identity. There'd be no movie without a Bourne! (The Jeremy Renner one doesn't count.)
Instead of non-stop fast and frenetic action, Fights In Tight Spaces goes for a different approach, and dissects those same action sequences into a turn-based battle. Rather than the scene being a choreographed piece of stunt and camera work that's over in a matter of seconds, it's a roguelike deckbuilder that puts the player in charge of every minute decision an action hero would have to make in one of those situations. Which means, if that untouchable main character dies at any point, it was because of what you did. Most of the time anyway.
In Fights In Tight Spaces, you play as an anonymous spy known only as Agent 11, who's employed by an equally mysterious espionage organisation. Your handler provides you with various dossiers on crime syndicates for you to take down, which in turn become the procedurally generated levels you make your way through. You get into fights, you improve your deck, and then eventually face off against a boss. It's very Slay The Spire-y.
But Fights In Tight Spaces trades in the magic and swordplay for just, straight up, punching a dude in the face. It's not entirely dissimilar to John Wick Hex, but all of your attacks come in the form of cards. As juvenile as it sounds, every attack you would ever want in a game like this is here. And they've all been realised fantastically through some cartoon-y yet visceral animation work. You can headbutt enemies, throw them into walls, and even counter attacks as they come in towards you. Even Guile from Street Fighter's Flash Kick is in here. Plus, for the deadlier blows you land, the game will cut to a close-up angle to give you a front row seat to your own handiwork. It's so much fun kicking enemies across a room, then watching their bodies ragdoll and crumple up on the floor.
The twist is that each fight takes place in a tiny closed-off 3D isometric plane, rather than a 2D one, so managing your positioning and the space around you is equally as important as your deck building skills. As well as attack and defense-based cards, you have to think about including movement ones, and there are also combinations of both available, like jumping towards an enemy to punch them right in the chest. Later down the line some areas mix this up by having semi-open environments, like a tram car with its doors open, or a railing blocking you off instead of a wall. If you can find a way to push, kick, or throw an enemy out of the map, it's an instant kill.
A lot of the time though, using your movement creatively is just as much, if not more, satisfying than regular combat. That's because the game provides you with the foreknowledge of what attacks the enemies are going to do in their next turn, as well as displaying exactly where they're going to hit, like in Into The Breach. So, if you (quite literally) play your cards right, you could end up tricking two enemies into shooting each other, while you've slipped past them and are busy dealing with a third. This is such a great idea, and I got into it way more than directly attacking enemies. Every fight is like picking up a half-complete game of chess and trying to finish it. I highly recommend saying "why are you hitting yourself?" in an overly sarcastic and whiny voice as you do it.
Fights In Tight Spaces visual style is immediately eye-catching. It seems inspired by the CGI intro to Casino Royale (or perhaps Superhot, if we're comparing it to other games) and as minimalist as it is, it never gets boring. You battle through tons of unique locations, like a motorcycle club, a prison stairwell, even a pub, and they all have surprisingly stark identities. It's supported by great lighting work, too, which adds a welcome layer of depth to the game's look.
There's such a brilliant core to Fights In Tight Spaces, genuinely unlike anything else I've come across, but unfortunately it's directly connected to one of the biggest flaws the game has: there's barely any replayability to it. To be fair, you do unlock new starter decks as you progress through the game, as well as a card compendium for you to fill in, both of which are acquired through an XP system. They're kind of pointless though, because you already have access to every single card in the game from the very start, since they appear as rewards from fights, so nothing really changes between runs.
The other deckbuilders I've played, like Slay The Spire or Monster Train, usually force me to drastically change how I think about the game depending on the playstyle I've chosen. In Fights In Tight Spaces, it felt like if I tried to play in any way besides the initial balanced attack and defense deck, I was at a disadvantage. If I went for a deck that made enemies bleed and take damage over time, I'd miss out on bonus objectives to end fights quickly. If I played with an aggressive deck, I'd die immediately in later boss battles, because of their giant HP bars tanking my hits. In the end, it felt fairly pointless experimenting with the various deck archetypes, because whenever I did, the game was ironically fighting against me because of it.
There's a daily challenge to incentivise you to keep playing, but all it made me realise is that I don't think procedural generation benefits this game that much. After a few hours, the fights started to blend together for me, and the random enemy encounters didn't shake up enough to keep it feeling fresh. There are only so many ways you can place a bunch of enemies in a small enclosed map. I beat the game on, like, my sixth run (which admittedly took me several hours), and after that I had pretty much seen everything it had to offer. There weren't branching levels to explore, and there weren't any characters with new playstyles either.
Fights In Tight Spaces does have multiple difficulty settings, though, and they ended up resolving this problem for me, because they're designed to fundamentally change how the game works. The "Classic Plus" mode adds the ability to retry rooms if you die, and you're allowed to undo up to three moves per encounter. This turned the whole affair into a puzzle game, and I enjoyed it way more as a head-scratcher, rather than planning around permadeath.
Weirdly, the thing that felt most underdeveloped was the setting. As integral to the game as it is, there's not really a story, and outside of brief humourous conversations between levels Agent 11 is dead silent. I don't think there's anything wrong with a silent protagonist in the right game, but I associate this kind of action spy film tone far more with plot twists, campy characters, and on-the-nose dialogue - at least as much as, if not more so, than the action sequences in them. I'm not asking for the game to be an Austin Powers adaptation but toppling an entire crime family without even saying a single word to their leader is extremely strange.
Still, as negative as I've been, I would recommend Fights In Tight Spaces wholeheartedly as it is, because the action at the heart of it is honestly incredible. When everything's going right, it engages my brain like I'm doing a particularly hard sudoku. The problem is there isn't much besides that going on. The whole game feels like it should be one of the best things I played this year, but somehow I came away from it saying just "okay."
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Do you need a boost? Join one of our Health and Wellbeing holidays focusing on personal development or mindfulness in Greece - choose from either Atsitsa Bay or The Skyros Centre on Skyros Island. If you'd like a weekend break why not try a short wellbeing course at The Grange by the Sea in the UK.
Join Sarah Warwick on an exciting journey of vocal discoveries including dance, song, harmony and toning.
What would Your Best Year Ever look like? Take home tools to make it happen from this course with Andrew Risner.
Seven night holistic holiday all-inclusive of inspiring courses, delicious Mediterranean meals and rustic accommodation.
Courses and activities this week include yoga, digital photography, singing, dance, comedy, bodywork, abseiling, kayaking and life writing.
Courses and activities this week include yoga, watercolour painting, singing, clowning, mindfulness, kayaking, abseiling and life writing.
Courses and activities this week include yoga, drawing & painting, singing, clowning, mindfulness, windsurfing, kayaking and comedy writing.
13 night holistic holiday all-inclusive of inspiring courses, delicious Mediterranean meals and rustic accommodation.
Courses and activities this fortnight include yoga, painting, singing, dance, alexander tech., performance, T'ai Chi, windsurfing, abseiling, kayaking and creative writing.
Courses and activities this week include yoga, weaving, singing, dance, meditation, comedy, alexander tech., kayaking and creative writing.
Reawaken your appetite for the richness of life on this life-coaching weekend with psychotherapist Malcolm Stern.
Join coach and therapist Cate Mackenzie and learn how to connect with others through a method called Bridging.
Join inspirational yoga teacher Ken Eyerman for his course Yoga with Awareness. Book before this sells out!
Explore how mindful present awareness can be a simple path to our core self in this course with Michael Eales.


A lightly refurbished antique Tipton penny door lock by Lockerbie & Wilkinson of Tipton in almost a Rose brass. This one probably dates from around the 1920/40's. These were usually on the outside of toilet doors in train stations and the like. Hangs on the door with screws on slotted holes on the back plate (upside down in the image, we'll flip it round).
Some of the internal workings are missing so it doesn't work with coins and the slide bolt function doesn't work either so its really a door latch for the outside with a slide bolt for the inside. The keep for the main bolt is a reproduction. Two different styles of keep for the slide bolt.
All the brass has been cleaned and through a multi stage polishing process, easily polished when it starts to tarnish.
Overall pretty good for something that's been in commercial use, quite a few scratches and dents on the the main case. The vacant/engaged doesn't work, the mechanism doesn't work and no keys.


James A. Hadley, MD, FACS, is currently in private clinical practice of otolaryngology, head & neck surgery in Bonita Springs and Estero, Florida.
ESTERO, FL, April 16, 2019 /24-7PressRelease/ -- James Hadley, MD has been included in Marquis Who's Who. As in all Marquis Who's Who biographical volumes, individuals profiled are selected on the basis of current reference value. Factors such as position, noteworthy accomplishments, visibility, and prominence in a field are all taken into account during the selection process.
James A. Hadley, MD, FACS, is currently in private clinical practice of otolaryngology, head & neck surgery in Bonita Springs and Estero, Florida. He was previously the Medical Director of Physicians Regional Medical Group and in the clinical practice of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery with the Physicians Regional Medical Group in Naples, Florida.
He was a Professor of Otolaryngology in the Department of Otolaryngology at the University of Rochester Medical Center Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery associated with the Residency Program until 2010. He received his medical degree from the University of Bordeaux II, Faculty of Medicine, in France and completed a surgical internship at the Hospital of 51. Raphael in New Haven and a medical internship at Greenwich Hospital, both in Connecticut. His additional postgraduate training included residency in Otolaryngology, Head and Neck Surgery at the University of Rochester Medical Center completed in 1983.
Dr. Hadley completed his 10 year term as a Director for the American Board of Otolaryngology in 2014. He is a Past President of the American Rhinologic Society (2003-2004) and completed his service as elected Director-at-Large to the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Otoraryngology-Head & Neck Surgery in 2000-2003. He was also elected President of the American Academy of Ololaryngic Allergy from 1995-1996.
He is currently a Fellow of the American College of Surgeons, American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy, American Rhinologic Society and the American Academy of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery and received the Distinguished Service Award for Meritorious Service twice.
Dr. Hadley's clinical practice specializes in general otolarynogology with emphasis in rhinology and sinonasal disorders, otolaryngic allergy and general otolaryngology.
His other professional duties included serving as an Examiner for the American Board of Otolaryngology since 1999. He is a past Chairman of the AAO-HNS Allergy and Immunology and Medical Devices and Drugs Committees and member of the Slide lecture and Self Instructional Committees. He served on the Educational Advisory Committee of the AAOHNS as Chair of the Rhinology and Allergy Committee until 2011.
He has also received the Golden Head Mirror award for excellence in teaching by the American Rhinologic Society and the Golden Apple award from the American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy for his role in teaching.
In addition to his academic teaching in surgery and otolaryngology, He has been an Invited Speaker and Instructor on guidelines for the management and treatment of these disorders at numerous meetings of the American Academy of Otolaryngic Allergy, American Academy of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery Foundation and the American Rhinologic Society. His work has also appeared in such scientific journals as The Laryngoscope, Otolaryngology Head and Neck Surgery, Archives of Otolaryngology Head & Neck Surgery, Current Opinion in Otolaryngology, Allergy and Asthma Proceedings, ENT Journal, Otolaryngology Clinics of North America, Medical Clinics of North America, Journal of Managed Care and the American Journal of Rhinology and the textbooks: Community Acquired Respiratory Tract Infections, Allergy and Immunology. an Otolaryngic Approach and Primary Care for Women.
He has been selected for inclusion in Who's Who in America, Who's Who in Science and Engineering and Who's Who in the World. Looking toward the future, Dr. Hadley intends to experience the continued success of his career.


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NICOLE HENRY: Time To Love Again (Banister Records)
Nicole Henry is an American jazz singer who works in and around Miami. (She did, though tour the UK in 2019 in an Aretha tribute show). She's been on the US scene since 2004 and has released seven albums. 'Time To Love Again' is her eighth long player and it received plenty of positive reviews from the US press last year. The "Jazz Page" for instance described the nine tracker as "a truly superb recording from start to finish…uplifting and poignant". Maybe that praise (and plenty more like that) prompted some of the more savvy European soul and jazz stations to seek out the album and to playlist some of the tracks. On the back of that support Ms Henry and her team are re-promoting 'Time To Love Again' and if you're a fan of classy smooth, lounge jazz, impeccably performed with conviction and a soulful undertow, then investigation here will yield plenty of rewards.
The album's repertoire is a seemingly mixed bag – eclectic even, probably reflecting the material Ms Henry performs in the bars and lounges of her Miami hinterland. She's as at ease tackling the "great American Songbook" (Rodger's and Hammerstein's 'I Didn't Know What Time It Was') as she is giving familiar soul a distinct workover (Stevie's 'Overjoyed'). Amongst the other cuts are versions of 'Feeling Good' (best known maybe in its Nina Simone version), Sade's 'It's A Crime' and 'Wild is the Wind' (originally a 50s hit for Johnny Mathis). That list should give you a feel of the breadth of material; then there's a take on Joan Armatrading's 'Love And Affection' and, maybe the most unusual, a cover of Buffy St Marie's folk classic 'Until It's Time For You To Go' . The album's most alluring track is a laid back cover of Maria Muldaur's 'Midnight at the Oasis', made the more laconic with the addition of some melancholy harmonica from Swiss-born harmonica player and composer Gregoire Marét.
What gives this seemingly disparate material a unity is Ms Henry's convincing delivery and her team's successful attempts to deliver the familiar in new settings. Sure, there's nothing here that's too radical or experimental; just sound, pleasing interpretations of some great songs – the kinds of thing that I'm sure Nicloe delivers in her live shows which after all is probably her bread and butter.
Tags: Nicole Henry


You'll see us riding different bikes on the various episodes of Two Wheel Oklahoma- most are courtesy of our special and wonderful sponsors- like an Aprilia from Brookside Motorcycles, or a Triumph courtesy Roadhouse Motorsports. But we're often asked about the bikes we own- the bikes we ride most of the time. So here's a quick look at the two-wheelers in our garage.
Brad and I both own BMWs. We didn't get together and agree on buying BMWs- it's not any sort of master plan or multi-million dollar contract for product placement. Unfortunately. No, it just happened to work out that way.
In fact, neither of us ever really considered ourselves (make air quotes here) "BMW People." We both ended up owning Beemers by different paths and for very different reasons. And yes, they're both yellow- but otherwise the two could hardly be more different.
I ride a GS model, which has been called the Swiss Army Knife of motorcycles. It's a 2005 R1200GS (on the right above) and my third BMW. Most people think it looks like a cross between a dirt bike and the Mars Rover. I like to point out the Mars Rover got stuck and so far I never have.
The GS is a comfortable bike to go long distances, long-legged for rolling over bumpy stuff and tall enough to see over urban traffic. Downside is... um... there's too much aftermarket stuff available? I can't afford all the farkles? Basically, I have very few complaints.
Now Brad, on the other hand rides a BMW that's not really much like most BMWs. Brad rides a 1200S which (until recently) was BMW's offering for the sporting crowd. It was sort of their first stab at making a 21st century crotch rocket. His R1200S dispels the typical Old Farts on BMWs stereotype. It's a full-on sportbike and pretty much the polar opposite of my GS.
Which is why I have to carry everything.


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Cities and Urbanization
Long-Term Investing, Infrastructure and Development
'Daylighting'- the new trend that's transforming cities
Towns in Europe, Asia and Australasia are breaking open culverts to reveal hidden urban rivers.
Image: REUTERS/Kevin Coombs
John McKenna Senior Writer, Formative Content
Waterways were once the beating hearts of our cities.
They bore the boats laden with the goods, tradesmen and settlers that transformed inlets and backwaters into hubs of humanity.
However, all that changed 200 years ago with the advent of the industrial revolution: as cities became crowded, rivers were polluted with human and industrial waste, becoming sources of disease; at the same time the development of the railways meant waterways were no longer the essential mode of transport they once were.
The result was that all across the world cities covered over their rivers, forcing them into culverts or tunnels below the metropolis.
Today, waterways across the world are fighting back.
Seeing daylight
In a trend known as "daylighting", towns in Europe, Asia, North America and Australasia are breaking open culverts to reveal the hidden rivers that have always been at their heart.
The two most active cities by far have been London and Zurich.
The British capital was the world's largest city during the industrial revolution.
As a result, despite being famous for the River Thames, dozens of London's rivers were covered over or converted into sewers during the Victorian era.
Image: Canal River Trust
Some of these hidden rivers have world-famous streets that run above them: the Fleet, the Strand.
While these iconic roads are unlikely to be torn up anytime soon, many other rivers in the city have seen daylight.
The UK's most famous river restoration project is the clean-up of the River Lea for the London 2012 Olympics.
At the same time, more than 17km of other waterways have been opened up across the capital since 2009.
It is a trend being repeated across the UK, with the most recent example of daylighting coming in the centre of the Yorkshire city of Sheffield.
While the UK's industrial heritage means it has plenty of rivers to de-culvert, it is Zurich, Switzerland's largest city that has carried out more daylighting than any other to date.
Since the 1980s Zurich's officials have supported the Bachkonzept (Stream Concept), which seeks to "daylight" as many covered watercourses as possible.
There have been two main drivers behind Zurich's daylighting of its hidden rivers.
First, there's a public desire to recapture lost spaces and improve quality of life in the city.
Second, there's an economic incentive: by having clean water flowing through rivers instead of sewers, it means less water flows to sewage works, reducing wastewater treatment costs.
The combined social, environmental and economic benefits help explain why daylighting is becoming so popular around the world.
The Cheonggyecheon stream in Seoul is an almost 11km-long artificial water corridor that diverts water from an underground river.
Located in the city centre at the site of what used to be an elevated expressway, the stream is both a tourist attraction that draws more than 60,000 visitors each day, and a major flood-relief channel.
Image: Visitseoul.net
At a time when the planet is experiencing record levels of flooding, opening up hidden rivers to use as flood channels can help relieve some of the flooding in towns and cities.
It is also believed that waterways can help cool cities and reduce the Urban Heat Island effect.
As well as climate benefits, daylighting also brings benefits for wildlife: the opening up and cleaning of the Saw Mill River in Yonkers, New York, has created a natural habitat for migratory fish and native vegetation to attract insects and encourage food chains.
In addition, the Saw Mill River project is expected to create 950 permanent jobs in the area surrounding the river.
Little wonder daylighting is so popular among urban planners today.
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Беллерофо́нт () — в древнегреческой мифологии сын либо коринфского царя Главка, либо Посейдона и Евриномы. В молодости нечаянно убил брата и был вынужден бежать в Тиринф к царю Прету. Там его полюбила жена царя Сфенебея, но, не пользуясь взаимностью, оклеветала перед мужем. Тогда Прет отправил Беллерофонта к своему тестю Иобату в Ликию с письмом, в котором содержалась просьба убить юношу. Иобат дал гостю несколько смертельно опасных заданий, в том числе убийство чудовища Химеры, которые тот с честью выполнил. Беллерофонту покровительствовала Афина, которая помогла обуздать крылатого коня Пегаса.

После того как правда раскрылась, Иобат выдал замуж за Беллерофонта свою дочь. Окрылённый успехами герой решил подняться на Пегасе к богам на Олимп. Зевс, чтобы не допустить такого святотатства — самовольного проникновения смертного в чертоги богов, — наслал на крылатого коня овода. Пегас взбесился и сбросил Беллерофонта на землю. Хромой, слепой и всеми покинутый герой скитался до самой смерти по Алейской долине. Будучи слепым стариком, он примирился с богами и осознал свою гордыню.

Культ Беллерофонта был распространён по всей Элладе. Особым почитанием он пользовался в Коринфе, Ликии и Карии.

Этимология
Существует две версии относительно происхождения имени «Беллерофонт». Первая трактует его, как состоящее из двух частей: βέλεμνον, βελόνη, βέλος («снаряд, дротик, метание копья, игла, стрела») и -φόντης («убийца»). Согласно второй «Беллерос» или «Беллер» является не оружием, а собственным именем. Тогда Беллерофонта можно представить «убийцей Беллера». Кем был этот Беллер — человеком или сверхъестественным существом, дошедшие до наших дней древнегреческие мифы умалчивают. Возможно, έλλερον в данном случае обозначает «зло» как таковое, что делает Беллерофонта «убийцей зла». В этом контексте прослеживается связь с румынским драконом и персонификацией зла Балауром, которого побеждает герой Фэт-Фрумос, что является отголоском мифов индоевропейского происхождения.

Современные источники, в отличие от античных, подчёркивают, что «Беллерофонт» — эпитет древнегреческого героя, в то время, как его имя при рождении было «Гиппоной».

Мифы

Происхождение. Ранние годы. Ссылка в Арголиду
Впервые упомянут в «Илиаде» Гомера в качестве сына царя Коринфа Главка и Евриномы. По версии Гигина Евринома родила сына не от мужа, а от бога морей Посейдона. Нечаянно убив своего брата , Беллерофонт был вынужден отправиться к царю Тиринфа Прету. Согласно Павсанию, ещё будучи коринфским царевичем сватался к дочери правителя Трезена Питфея Эфре. Однако после того, как Беллерофонт из принца превратился в изгнанника, помолвка расстроилась. В Арголиде он впервые показал свой талант наездника, выиграв скачки на погребальных играх по Пелию.

Жена тиринфского царя Прета Сфенебея воспылала к юноше любовью, но была им отвергнута. Тогда царица оклеветала Беллерофонта перед мужем, обвинив в домогательстве. Прет решил перепоручить месть своему тестю — ликийскому царю Иобату. Беллерофонту было поручено доставить письмо отцу Сфенебеи, в котором содержался приказ убить его подателя.

Современные антиковеды находят сходство и возможную взаимосвязь в истории Беллерофонта и Сфенебеи с библейским сюжетом об Иосифе и жене Потифара.

Также лингвисты указывали на то, что во времена, когда возник миф о Беллерофонте, у греков отсутствовала письменность, поэтому письмо со «злоковарными знаками», которое должен был передать Беллерофонт, могло быть воспоминанием о Линейном письме Б микенской эпохи.

На службе у Иобата

Беллерофонт с письмом благополучно добрался до Ликии. Иобат принял его благосклонно и угощал за своим столом на протяжении девяти дней. На десятый день, когда ликийский царь прочитал письмо, то оказася перед дилеммой, так как не мог ни отказать зятю, ни убить человека с которым он «преломил хлеб и соль» согласно почитаемым в то время законам гостеприимства. Тогда он приказал Беллерофонту убить Химеру — огнедышащее чудовище о трёх головах: спереди — льва, в середине — козы, сзади — змеи.

Перед тем как отправиться на выполнение задания, Беллерофонт сумел приручить крылатого коня Пегаса. По версии Гесиода, его подарил сыну Посейдон. По Страбону, Беллерофонт поймал коня на водопое около коринфского источника Пирены. Согласно Пиндару и Павсанию, Пегаса мифологическому древнегреческому герою помогла получить, или даже собственноручно для него обуздала, Афина. В связи с этим в Коринфе — городе, где Беллерофонт пользовался особым почитанием, — богине Афине Халинитиде (Обуздывающей) посвятили святилище.

Взлетев на Пегасе над Химерой, Беллерофонт поразил её стрелой из лука. Вслед за выполнением первого задания Иобат поручил ему победить воинственных солимов — народ, населявший Ликию ещё до прихода переселенцев с Крита, потомки которых стали ликийцами. После победы над солимами Беллерофонта отправили сражаться с амазонками. Когда же он и их победил, то Иобат собрал самых смелых жителей своего царства и поручил им убить Беллерофонта по пути назад. Они спрятались в засаде, но были обнаружены и перебиты.

В сочинениях Плутарха содержатся ещё две версии мифа относительно действий Беллерофонта после того, как намерения Иобата его погубить стали явными. Победитель Химеры и амазонок вошёл в море и взмолился своему отцу Посейдону покарать ликийцев. Выйдя на сушу, он отправился к Иобату. В этот момент за ним стала прибывать вода, затапливающая сушу. Местные жители безуспешно просили Беллерофонта остановить бедствие. Тогда женщины Ксанфа подняли хитоны и пошли навстречу сыну бога морей. Пристыженный Беллерофонт повернулся и побежал назад. Вместе с ним отступила и вода. Согласно другому мифу, несколько оторванному от основной сюжетной линии, представляющему собой пересказ Плутархом части сочинения Нимфиса Гераклейского, Беллерофонт убил дикого кабана, который опустошал ликийские земли. Не получив за свой подвиг награды, он обратился к Посейдону. Разгневанный бог сделал все поля этой области бесплодными. И только снизойдя к мольбам женщин Беллерофонт попросил отца снять заклятие. В этих историях Плутарх находит обоснование исключительно ликийской, нехарактерной для Эллады, практике вести свой род по материнской, а не отцовской линии.

Поражённый силой Беллерофонта, Иобат показал ему письмо Прета и упросил остаться при дворе. Также он отдал замуж за героя свою дочь Филоною и завещал новоиспечённому зятю царство. От Филонои у Беллерофонта родились двое сыновей —  и Гипполох — и дочь Лаодамия.

Судьба Сфенебеи
Античные источники по-разному описывают судьбу Сфенебеи, из-за козней которой Беллерофонт оказался в Ликии. По одной версии, когда отвергнутая женщина узнала о судьбе юноши, которого хотела погубить, то покончила жизнь самоубийством, выпив яд. По другой, более поэтичной версии, изложенной в не дошедшей до наших дней трагедии Еврипида «Сфенебея», Беллерофонт вернулся в Тиринф, поклялся жене местного царя в любви и уговорил бежать с ним из города. Во время полёта на Пегасе сбросил её в море.

Неудачный полёт на Олимп. Дальнейшая жизнь
Окрылённый успехами Беллерофонт стал надменным и утратил здравый рассудок. Он решил подняться на Пегасе на вершину Олимпа. Зевс, чтобы не допустить такого святотатства — самовольного проникновения смертного в чертоги богов, — наслал на крылатого коня овода. Пегас взбесился и сбросил Беллерофонта на землю.

Хромой, слепой и всеми покинутый герой скитался по Алейской долине (в дословном переводе «долине странствий») до самой смерти. Будучи слепым стариком, он примирился с богами и осознал свою гордыню.

Античные попытки рационального трактования мифа
Античные писатели пытались найти историческую подоплёку внешне невероятных историй о Беллерофонте. Плутарх и Палефат делают предположение, что Химера представляла собой не чудовище о трёх головах, а пирата Химару, который на своём корабле с изображениями на носу и корме льва и дракона наводил ужас на ликийцев. Его и победил Беллерофонт на судне «Пегас». Также существовали предположения о том, что Химерой назывался зеркальный утёс, отражающий солнечный свет, что вызывало пожары. Беллерофонту удалось стесать его гладкую поверхность, тем самым устранив причину возгораний.

Относительно истории с наступающим морем было высказано предположение о разрушении Беллерофонтом природной плотины. Ватиканский аноним утверждает, что крылатый конь Пегас был вымыслом, а Беллерофонт — учёным, который изучал астрономию и поднялся на небо благодаря размышлению.

Почитание

Культ Беллерофонта был распространён во всей античной Элладе. Так как он происходил из царского рода в Коринфе, то именно в этом городе Беллерофонт был местным героем, которого почитали особо, приблизительно так же, как афиняне Тесея. Беллерофонту в Коринфе воздавали почести как полубогу (ἥρως), его статуя с Пегасом находилась в храме Посейдона. Перед городом располагалась кипарисовая роща Кранеон, часть которой занимал священный участок Беллерофонта. На деньгах Коринфа чеканили атрибут Беллерофонта Пегаса. Эти монеты, называемые в просторечии «жеребчиками» (πολος), имели множество подражаний и стали наиболее распространёнными в западной половине греческого мира, а именно на берегах Адриатического моря, Апеннинского полуострова и Сицилии в V—IV столетиях до н. э. Также на коринфских монетах встречаются сюжеты связанные с мифами о Беллерофонте, в частности статуя Афины «Обуздывающей» с уздечкой в правой руке, Химера и др. Соответствующие монеты в Коринфе чеканили и в составе Римской империи, вплоть до времени правления Александра Севера (222—235 годы н. э.), в качестве провинциальных денег.

Кроме Коринфа Беллерофонт пользовался особым почитанием в Ликии и Карии. Жители карийских Афродизиаса и Галикарнаса считали этого героя основателем своих городов. В этом современные антиковеды видят обоснование территориальных притязаний полисов на земли соседей, которыми должен был править их мифический основатель, в силу обстоятельств не занявший трон ликийского царя.

В искусстве

В изобразительном искусстве

В античном изобразительном искусстве мифы о Беллерофонте были чрезвычайно популярными. Особенно часто изображали битву с Химерой в вазописи и скульптурах, а также на римских мозаиках. Также известны рельефы и росписи, отображающие другие связанные с ним сюжеты, такие как наказание Сфенебеи, Беллерофонт с Пегасом и др. Современные исследователи видят в Беллерофонте тот же архетип, что и в мифах о Персее и Андромеде, Кадме, Геракле, Ясоне, Аполлоне, побеждающем Пифона, Митре и других змееборцах Индии и Китая. Он состоял в том, что молодой юноша-герой приходит в чужую землю и убивает дракона или другое чудовище, спасая тем самым жителей края от его разрушительной силы. Общий архетип Персея с Беллерофонтом, а также переплетение мифологических сюжетов привели к поглощению образа коринфского героя убийцей Медузы Горгоны и освободителем Андромеды. Эта тенденция проявилась ещё в Античности, а затем получила распространение в последующие эпохи, когда Персея, а не Беллерофонта, стали изображать укротителем Пегаса. Наиболее отчётливо это видно на картине Питера Пауля Рубенса «Персей освобождает Андромеду».

Внешние сходство и общность сюжета победы Беллерофонта над Химерой и Георгия Победоносца над змием дало основание ряду исследователей называть античного мифологического героя прототипом одного из наиболее почитаемых христианских святых.

Среди произведений западноевропейского искусства к мифу о Беллерофонте обращались сравнительно редко. В IX веке миниатюры с Беллерофонтом поместили в Евангелие Лотаря и Библию Карла Лысого. Достаточно известны бронзовая фигура «Беллерофонт верхом на Пегасе» Бертольдо ди Джованни (1420—1491) и эскиз Питера Пауля Рубенса (1577—1640). В 1840—1850-х годах скульптор Юлиус Трошель создал барельеф «Пегас с Беллерофонтом», экспонируемый ныне в Новой пинакотеке в Мюнхене.

В 1829 году 23-летний русский художник А. А. Иванов написал картину «Беллерофонт отправляется в поход против Химеры». Работа лишена традиционного героико-патетического пафоса, характерного для того времени. Художник наделил молодого героя человеческими чертами, отобразил решимость совершить подвиг. В работе достаточно чётко отображён мифологический сюжет. Беллерофонт прощается с Иобатом. Влюблённая в юношу дочь царя горько переживает разлуку и беспокоится за жизнь молодого героя. Рядом с Беллерофонтом стоит готовый взлететь Пегас, а за ними возвышается фигура богини-покровительницы героя Афины Паллады. Тема произведения была задана художнику в качестве экзаменационной «для окончательной проверки его способностей перед отправлением за счёт Общества поощрения художников в Италию».

В литературе
В промежуток между 432 и 431 годами до н. э. Еврипид поставил трагедию «». Произведение до наших дней не дошло. В нём согласно пересказам других античных писателей герой отрицает само существование богов и сетует на то, что малые города с благочестивым населением зачастую попадают под власть сильных, но нечестивых народов. В XX веке обнаружили части считавшейся до этого утраченной драмы «Сфенебея». Часть монолога Беллерофонта содержит рассуждение о том, как плохо незнатному человеку, когда он женится на богатой. Монолог проникнут идеей прославления чистой любви.

Также к мифологическому сюжету в утерянной драме «Иобат» обращался Софокл.

Через 2,5 тысячи лет после античных трагиков в 1945 году немецким драматургом Г. Кайзером была написана драма «Беллерофонт».

В музыке

В XVII—XVIII веках были созданы связанные с мифами о Беллерофонте оперные либретто пьес «Беллерофонт» Томы Корнеля, Бернара Фонтенеля и Никола Буало, ставшие основой одноимённых опер Жана-Батиста Люлли и Кристофа Граупнера. Также в это время появились оперы «Беллерофонт» , Ф. Арайи и Й. Мысливечека, «Иобат и Беллерофонт» Р. Кайзера. В XX веке к сюжету вернулся румынский композитор Д. Куклин, написавший оперу «Беллерофонт».

«Капитан Беллерофонт» — песня российской рок-группы «Аквариум» с альбома 2011-го года «Архангельск».

В науке
Именем Беллерофонта был назван вид южноамериканских бабочек Caligo bellerophon Stichel, 1903.

Комментарии

Примечания

Литература

Античные источники

Литература XIX—XXI веков

Герои древнегреческих мифов
Мифы Коринфа
Цари Ликии

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text:
Home › Television › CBS ANNOUNCES 16 NEW "BIG BROTHER" HOUSEGUESTS ›
CBS ANNOUNCES 16 NEW "BIG BROTHER" HOUSEGUESTS
Submitted by Critical Blast Staff on Mon, 06/19/2017 - 08:08
CBS announced today 16 Houseguests who will embark on a new season of BIG BROTHER. This season's cast includes a government engineer, a rodeo clown, a microbiologist and a cosplay artist, among others. CBS' summer reality hit debuts with a two-night premiere event on Wednesday, June 28 (8:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT), and Thursday, June 29 (9:00-10:00 PM, ET/PT), on the CBS Television Network. Julie Chen returns as the host of the hit summer series.
CBS All Access will give subscribers the opportunity to meet the Houseguests before anyone else via a live stream of their first interviews beginning this morning at 8:00 AM, PT/11:00 AM, ET. CBS All Access subscribers can watch the live stream online at CBS.com or the CBS App for iOS, Android and Windows 10, and on connected devices, including Roku Players, Apple TV, Chromecast, Android TV, Xbox One, PlayStation 4 and Fire TV.
The following 16 new Houseguests will spend the summer competing for $500,000:
Christmas Abbott (35)
Hometown: Lynchburg, Va.
Current City: Raleigh, N.C.
Occupation: Fitness Superstar
Matthew Clines (33)
Hometown: Arlington, Va.
Current City: Arlington, Va.
Occupation: Renovation Consultant
Dominique Cooper (30; turns 31 on 7/11/17)
Hometown: Tuskegee, Ala.
Current City: Woodbridge, Va.
Occupation: Government Engineer
Elena Davies (26; turns 27 on 8/19/17)
Hometown: Fort Worth, Texas
Current City: Dallas, Texas
Occupation: Radio Personality
Jason Dent (37; turns 38 on 7/12/17)
Hometown: Humeston, Iowa
Current City: Humeston, Iowa
Occupation: Rodeo Clown
Jessica Graf (26)
Hometown: Cranston, R.I.
Current City: Los Angeles
Occupation: VIP Concierge
Cameron Heard (24; turns 25 on 8/27/17)
Hometown: North Aurora, Ill.
Current City: Woodridge, Ill.
Occupation: Microbiologist
Mark Jansen (26)
Hometown: Grand Island, N.Y.
Current City: Grand Island, N.Y.
Megan Lowder (28)
Hometown: Cathedral City, Calif.
Current City: Phoenix, Ariz.
Occupation: Dog Walker
Josh Martinez (23)
Hometown: Miami, Fla.
Current City: Homestead, Fla.
Occupation: Hair Care Sales
Cody Nickson (32)
Hometown: Lake Mills, Iowa.
Current City: Plano, Texas
Occupation: Construction Sales Rep
Alex Ow (28)
Hometown: Thousand Oaks, Calif.
Current City: Camarillo, Calif.
Occupation: Eco-Friendly Marketing Rep
Jillian Parker (24)
Hometown: Celebration, Fla.
Current City: Las Vegas, Nev.
Occupation: Timeshare Sales Rep
Kevin Schlehuber (55; turns 56 on 8/7/17) (pron Sleigh-huber)
Hometown: Boston, Mass.
Current City: Boston, Mass.
Occupation: Stay-at-home dad
Ramses Soto (21) (pron Ram-zees)
Hometown: Grand Rapids, Mich.
Current City: Grand Rapids, Mich.
Occupation: Cosplay Artist
Raven Walton (23)
Hometown: DeValls Bluff, Ark.
Current City: DeValls Bluff, Ark.
Occupation: Dance Teacher
Details about the house and some of this season's new twists will be announced shortly.
Following the two-night premiere, BIG BROTHER will air Sundays (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT), beginning July 2; Wednesdays (8:00-9:00 PM, ET/PT), beginning July 5; and Thursdays (9:00-10:00 PM, live ET/delayed PT), beginning July 6, featuring the live eviction show hosted by Julie Chen. Last summer, all three editions of BIG BROTHER ranked among the top 10 summer series in adults 18-49, adults 18-34 and adults 25-54.
BIG BROTHER follows a group of people living together in a house outfitted with 87 HD cameras and more than 100 microphones, recording their every move 24 hours a day. Each week someone will be voted out of the house, with the last remaining Houseguest receiving the grand prize of $500,000. BIG BROTHER is produced by Emmy Award-winning producer Allison Grodner and Rich Meehan for Fly on the Wall Entertainment, in association with Endemol Shine North America.
Vote for the Best of 2021
Contest: I Spit On Your Grave 4K Ultra HD + Blu-ray
It's Ragnarok for the Critical Blast Bombshell Feature -- So Here's Thor!
Gift Guide and Giveaway: Middle-Earth 11-Disc Ultimate Collector's Edition
Giving Thanks for Cosplayers: November 2021 Bombshell of the Month, Hannah in Wonderland


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Look at Nokia making waves! The phone manufacturer (among other things) hasn't come out with a decent handset in a while, but shocked everyone and their mother at Mobile World Congress 2013 when they introduced the Nokia 105 — a $20 smartphone that features a 1.45" bright color screen and a battery that can last a full month on a single charge!
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Freaked out yet? If not, you're about to be. The price for this ridiculously awesome toy—$14,000.
That's right—approximately 200 of our awesome portable speakers. For a pet dinosaur.
Money no object for you? Then you'll be pleased to know that H. Grossman offers options so you can have some variety in your backyard Jurassic Park. The model above is the T-Rex, but there's also the Triceratops model available, too. They all do the same thing—sensors pick-up nearby movement and spring to life when anyone walks past them.
This whole story is a bit tongue in cheek, of course—not everyone can afford this toy. And H. Grossman is aware of this. That's why they have smaller versions of these dinos available for a bit more reasonable price too.
Need to get a gift for a person that you pretend to like but secretly want to see suffer just a little bit? Here's an idea: an alarm clock. Not just any alarm clock though: the singNshock alarm clock.
Sure, on the outside it might look like a normal clock. Heck, it even functions as a normal alarm clock. But what makes this the perfect gift for the snooze-happy friendemy in your life is that it possesses the ability to deliver an electrical pulse to shock them awake.
Created by 19-year-old automotive design student Sankalp Sinha, the clock's electricity is transferred via the device's snooze button, a large aluminum coated button at the top of the clock. Every time the person rolls over to hit the snooze, they'll receive a few millivolts through their hand.
Sinha came up with the idea after using electric shock to jumpstart his brain in the A.M. after waking up late for class a few days in a row. The feature can, of course, be turned off. Also worth noting about the clock: digital touch panel on front controls battery power, speaker volume, brightness, music selection, and time. There's a MMC slot for a 32GB SD memory to store favorite music, and while the clarity of the sound is nowhere near that which you'll find in one of our amazingly loud portable speakers, there are speakers built into the back of the device.
Try this on for size — inflatable earbuds that are guaranteed not to pop out.
Asius Technologies presented this solution at the just-concluded International CES show in Las Vegas (which was also the site of some shenanigans being pulled by the makers of the world's best portable speaker — but I digress). While they might look like mini airbags, what they lack for in style they make up for in the form of some pretty-damn-cool technology. You see, the strong yet flexible Gore-Tex earpieces are able to inflate time and again in accordance with the sound pressure created by one's listening device.
This means the buds themselves possess the ability to shift their shape as one's ear canal changes—this could be during a yawn, while chewing, or naturally, as an individual grows. They're essentially moldable earbuds that fit more easily and effectively than anything Apple or the Beats by Dre clan has put out in the last few years.
The result is not only a better grip in your ears, it also makes for better sound by eliminating outside noise that would otherwise creep in through the crevices created by an unnatural fitting earbud.
Durability's not an issue either — the prototype the group created has already lasted two years with constant inflating / deflating.
Also, beyond listening to music, the earbuds can be used for hearing aids and for performance artists at concerts or shows, where they're a bit more physically engaged in moving around the stage.
From one group of audiophiles to another, nice work Asius!


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Handicapping the trophy races heading into NHL's awards show in Las Vegas
LAS VEGAS, Nev. - The NHL's best players walk the red carpet at The Palms on Wednesday when the league holds its annual awards show. The Canadian Press takes a shot at handicapping the winners (all awards decided by a vote of the Professional Hockey Writers' Association prior to the post-season unless otherwise noted):
Hart Trophy (most valuable player to his team)
Nominees: Corey Perry (Anaheim), Daniel Sedin (Vancouver) and Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay).
Who will win: Perry.
Who should win: Tim Thomas.
Skinny: Perry's strong surge at the end of the season — he scored 19 times in the final 16 games to finish with 50 goals — probably resonated strongest with reporters casting votes in April, but a record-breaking season from Thomas is most worthy of the honour. The Boston Bruins goaltender registered the highest save percentage in league history and was the main driving force behind his team's success from October through June. Perhaps the biggest thing working against Thomas is the position he plays — a goalie hasn't won the Hart since Montreal's Jose Theodore in 2002.
Ted Lindsay Award (outstanding player as voted by his peers)
Nominees: Corey Perry (Anaheim), Daniel Sedin (Vancouver) and Steven Stamkos (Tampa Bay).
Who will win: Sedin.
Who should win: Perry.
Skinny: The players will find it tough to ignore Daniel Sedin's league-leading point total of 104. Fair enough, it was an impressive accomplishment, especially coming one season after brother Henrik accomplished the same feat. The biggest factor working against Daniel is that he might not have been the most outstanding player on his own team — Ryan Kesler and Henrik have a case — and that can't be said of Perry, the league's only 50-goal man.
Vezina Trophy (outstanding goaltender)
Nominees: Roberto Luongo (Vancouver), Pekka Rinne (Nashville) and Tim Thomas (Boston).
Who will win: Luongo.
Who should win: Thomas.
Skinny: The NHL's 30 general managers vote on this award and will likely be inclined to reward Luongo for helping the Canucks to a dominant regular season that included the Presidents' Trophy. However, no goaltender was more outstanding than Thomas, who took a team with less skill than Vancouver and elevated them into a contender. The Canucks saw it firsthand during the Stanley Cup final.
Norris Trophy (outstanding all-around defenceman)
Nominees: Zdeno Chara (Boston), Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit) and Shea Weber (Nashville).
Who will win: Weber.
Who should win: Chara.
Skinny: There's little doubt this award will sit on Weber's mantle one day, but this is not the season. Somehow, the six-foot-nine Chara seemed to slip below the radar despite being at his dominant best — as evidenced by a league-leading plus-33 rating (Weber was plus-7, Lidstrom minus-2).
Calder Trophy (outstanding rookie)
Nominees: Logan Couture (San Jose), Michael Grabner (N.Y. Islanders) and Jeff Skinner (Carolina).
Who will win: Skinner.
Who should win: Skinner.
Skinny: It didn't take long for the baby-faced Skinner to become a rock star in Raleigh. The NHL's youngest player made a major impact on the Hurricanes just a few months after being drafted sixth overall, leading the rookie points race from beginning until end. Skinner's final total of 63 was slightly ahead of Couture (56) and Grabner (52) — players who benefited from time in the American Hockey League before arriving in the NHL.
Jack Adams (outstanding coach)
Nominees: Dan Bylsma (Pittsburgh), Barry Trotz (Nashville) and Alain Vigneault (Vancouver).
Who will win: Bylsma.
Who should win: Vigneault.
Skinny: The NHL Broadcasters Association votes on this award and traditionally recognizes the coach in charge of the league's biggest overachiever. Bylsma fits the bill after leading Pittsburgh to 106 points in a season where Sidney Crosby, Evgeni Malkin and Jordan Staal all missed significant time with an injury. However, Vigneault did an even more impressive job with the Canucks, who dealt with the weight of high expectations and put together the best season in franchise history.
Selke Trophy (top defensive forward)
Nominees: Pavel Datsyuk (Detroit), Ryan Kesler (Vancouver) and Jonathan Toews (Chicago).
Who will win: Datsyuk.
Who should win: Toews.
Skinny: Like death and taxes, you can virtually count on Datsyuk winning this award for a fourth consecutive year. He's established the gold standard for two-way play by a forward, but the time has come to recognize the next generation. We give the edge to Toews because he had the highest point total of the three (76), best plus-minus (plus-25) and was among the league leaders in faceoff percentage.
Lady Byng (most gentlemanly player)
Nominees: Loui Eriksson (Dallas), Nicklas Lidstrom (Detroit) and Martin St. Louis (Tampa Bay).
Who will win: Eriksson.
Who should win: Lidstrom.
Skinny: While it's hard to argue against recognizing Eriksson after a season where he took just eight penalty minutes, Lidstrom's time has come. The NHL hasn't had a more gentlemanly player than him over the past two decades. Amazingly, the last defenceman to win this award was Red Kelly in 1954.


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By (author) Alphonse de Lamartine Edited by Mr Léon-François Hoffman
Ebook (VitalSource) - £60.00
Length of book:
University of Exeter Press
This is a new critical edition of an unjustly forgotten drama by Alphonse de Lamartine, written in the early 1840s but only given its first, and last, performance in Paris in 1850. It draws a compelling image of Toussaint Louverture, the father of Haitian Independence. Lamartine proved something of a visionary by stressing his hero's search for a coherent racial and national ideology, a theme which has become fundamental in Négritude and post-colonial literatures.
This edition is the first to provide a critical apparatus covering the history of the text, the political and social background against which it should be read, the reception of the work from the time of its original performance to today, and to offer notes on the historical figures included in the cast of characters, as well as a selection of variants, explanatory footnotes and an extensive bibliography.
This volume is in the series Textes littéraires/Exeter French Texts. The text, introduction and essential notes are all in French.
Quite rightly, Hoffmann has no illusions about the play as viable theatre. Instead he directs us straight to its interest for us today, the remarkable sensitivity with which Lamartine anticipates Césaire, Senghor and Fanon by creating for Toussaint and his Haitians many of the psychological traits of what will be known as negritude a hundred years later. The play deserves to be better known by students of the latter as well as those—let us hope there are some in the year 2000—still studying Romantic idealism; this impeccable edition is what they need.
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