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Q: AS3 computeSpectrum fft true I am just trying to understand what the values sent back from computeSpectrum(bytes,true,0) mean. I have values ranging from 0 to 1 for each float i read from the byte array but does each value represent a range of Hz.

A: The ByteArray returned (well, modified) by computeSpectrum() contains 512 bytes.  The first 256 are for the left channel and the second 256 are for the right channel.  Each byte represents the normalized energy level for 1 of 256 frequency bands.  The bands are divided linearly from ~6 hz to ~11khz with a bandwidth of 43.0664062 Hz (source: http://blog.benstucki.net/?p=60).  So each float value you're looking at is the energy of that frequency band.  Be aware that you might want to compensate for the linear distribution if you don't want visually skewed results.

A: In my opinion each of the values represents the amount of energy a band of frequency has, considering the resolution.

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Home > Conferences > JOE > Vol. 58 > No. 1 (2020)
Novel Method for Determining Sale Eligibility in Station-Tested Beef Bulls
Kevin S. Shaffer, West Virginia University
Operators of central bull test stations often determine sale eligibility using a selection index, whereas coordinators of the Wardensville Bull Test use independent culling levels derived according to deviation from contemporary group mean. Data from the 2013–2015 Wardensville Bull Test program were used for determining mean numbers of bulls culled for six eligibility criteria for three variation-based culling levels. Then comparison of these methods was used for determining the most appropriate method relative to program goals and producer needs. Suggested sale eligibility criteria are provided. Extension professionals can educate relevant audiences regarding the value and correct application of the variation-based method.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 4.0 License.
Shaffer, K. S. (2020). Novel Method for Determining Sale Eligibility in Station-Tested Beef Bulls. The Journal of Extension, 58(1), Article 8. https://tigerprints.clemson.edu/joe/vol58/iss1/8
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It opens in 1926 as Newt Scamander has just completed a global excursion to find and document an extraordinary array of magical creatures. Arriving in New York for a brief stopover, he might have come and gone without incident, were it not for a No-Maj (American for Muggle) named Jacob, a misplaced magical case, and the escape of some of Newt's fantastic beasts, which could spell trouble for both the wizarding and No-Maj worlds.
Additional Contributors: Rowling, J. K.
Yates, David 1963-
Redmayne, Eddie 1982-- Actor
Waterston, Katherine - Actor
Fine Frenzy 1984-- Actor
Depp, Johnny - Actor
Chan, Gemma 1982-- Actor
Miller, Ezra - Actor
Farrell, Colin 1976-- Actor
Kravitz, Zoe 1988-- Actor
Perlman, Ron 1950-- Actor
Warner Home Video (Firm) - Publisher
Read more reviews of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them at iDreamBooks.com
TEENREVIEWBOARD May 05, 2019
3/5 stars. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a 2016 fantasy film directed by David Yates set in J.K Rowling's Wizarding World, acting as a prequel to the Harry Potter series. In my eyes the motivation to produce this film is obvious; the Harry Potter series is still rife with profits that Warner Bros can suck from the public's interest. Despite this flawed motivation, the film wasn't half bad. The films is a high quality, slick production with excellent effects and decent acting, but it is not a memorable movie. The plot is forgettable and has very little to do with fantastic beasts as the title would suggest. Clearly the plot was woven in an attempt to connect back to the original Harry Potter series, but it is sadly not very interesting. There is none of the magic, pardon the pun, of the original movies. The nostalgic elements, excellent cast, and memorable moments of the Harry Potter series are what make it re-watchable to this day. This film has none of that. I will not watch it a second time, because truthfully, while it is a fine movie, it is boring. @Joaquin of the Teen Review Board at the Hamilton Public Library
This movie is a prequel and a spin off of a Harry Potter series, it is set before Harry's story. This movie has a really good look to it, it was set in 1920's so with that they have the freedom to just go all out with the production design and the costumes especially, the costumes in the movie were really look great and I'm always a fan of a big giant special effects extravaganzas set in the past like anything during nineteen sixties, and it does capture that era really well. I also love the design of all these magical creatures. Overall, it was a good movie lots of action and fantasy. 4/5 Stars. @moviefanatic of the Hamilton Public Library Teen Review Board
ScorchingSun Apr 15, 2019
Just going through the motions. No real spark or imagination here.
Rowling must have expended all the air in her brain balloon while writing Harry Potter.
Diana_Solomon Mar 18, 2019
Too much CGI and too much of habitual NY destruction from the very beginning.
MrsNikki Mar 01, 2019
kmobuckeye Feb 26, 2019
Brings the wizarding world back to life
robinandrews10 Feb 26, 2019
Great movie. I love the the wizardi h world is alive and well.
555timstiles Jan 30, 2019
LaNomada01 Jan 12, 2019
The Potter-verse continues! Eddie Redmayne is a mumbler in this movie and that kind of annoys me, but his character is great. Newt Scamander is the type of wizard I imagine I would be if I were in this world. The expansion of the wizarding world into America was great. What I really liked the most was encountering the adult world of wizards. With Harry Potter, we got the privilege of seeing a young kid growing into a wizard, but here these are already masters of their magic - and they go all out. It's what makes the battles and the magic so entertaining to watch. It was getting a peek at what it means to really be someone with full power in the human world. I also like the setting of the movie in the 20s era. It works.
ADragonInTheLibrary Nov 26, 2018
Pretty good movie, all things considered. Eddie Redmayne is fantastic as the awkward Newt Scamander.
JackofAllFandoms3234 Nov 05, 2018
Outa the way, Britain!
America's turn!!
Really good movie. I liked that it was set in the 20's. I also liked that it was set in New York, where most of America's population is. I can't wait for "The Crimes of Grindelwald!" I hope that "The Crimes of Grindelwald" is set in America as well as Britain. We'll see a younger version of McGonnagal, so...
(o^▽^o)
JasonO2006 Mar 28, 2019
JasonO2006 thinks this title is suitable for 11 years and over
VaehGrace Oct 22, 2018
VaehGrace thinks this title is suitable for All Ages
Gwen904 Feb 22, 2018
Gwen904 thinks this title is suitable for 11 years and over
Kyndaljoy Aug 23, 2017
Kyndaljoy thinks this title is suitable for 12 years and over
blue_cheetah_8821 Aug 03, 2017
blue_cheetah_8821 thinks this title is suitable for 14 years and over
gailbro Apr 17, 2017
gailbro thinks this title is suitable for 12 years and over
applesing Apr 03, 2017
applesing thinks this title is suitable for 13 years and over
green_shark_1088 Feb 25, 2017
green_shark_1088 thinks this title is suitable for 9 years and over
Gwen904 Jun 05, 2018
Set before the events of the original Harry Potter series, this film begins with the arrival of magizoologist Newt Scamander in New York. When a magical suitcase filled with strange and exotic beasts from the wizarding world is accidentally opened, Newt takes part in a hunt to recapture all the escaped animals. Meanwhile, an even darker and more sinister plot is about to unfold involving repressed magic and a dangerous monster. Will Newt and his newfound NY friends Tina, Queenie, and Jacob be able to solve the mystery and save the city from disaster and a villain no one expected?
RedCherries Apr 14, 2018
In mid-20s New York, Newt Scamander, the British young activist wizard, arrives in town, holding a mysterious leather suitcase which shelters a wide array of diverse and magical creatures that exist among us. Amid an already fragile equilibrium of secrecy, and the increasing disasters ascribed to the dark wizard, Gellert Grindelwald, Newt's precious suitcase will be lost--and to make matters worse--several creatures will manage to escape. Before long, this situation will catch Senior Auror Percival Graves' attention who will target Newt, in the background of an invisible, devastating, and utterly unpredictable menace that still wreaks havoc on 5th Avenue. In the end, is there a hidden agenda behind Graves' intentions; moreover, what will happen to the remaining fantastic beasts still loose in the streets? Written by Nick Riganas
Oh you poor thing, he hasn't eaten anything all day! And oh that's rough, he didn't get the money he wanted for his bakery. You bake honey?
- Queenie Goldstein
"Don't panick."
"What would you suggest I do instead?"
-Newt Scammander to Tina Goldstein
"Hey Sam ... Does Cecily know you've been seeing Ruby?"
"How did you-"
"Let me obliviate this guy and she'll never hear it from me."
- Queenie Goldstein to some guy named Sam.
jimg2000 Apr 12, 2017
Are all No-Majs like you?
-No, I'm the only one like me.
There's loads like me.
-No. No. There's only one like you.
You were thrown out of Hogwarts for endangering human life...
-That was an accident!
With a beast. Yet one of your teachers argued strongly against your expulsion. What makes Albus Dumbledore so fond of you?
Six shots of gigglewater and a lobe blaster, please.
Quiet life for me from now on. Back to the Ministry. Deliver my manuscript.
-I'll look out for it. Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.
I was, I was never even supposed to be here. I was never supposed to know any of this. Everybody knows Newt only kept me around because... Newt, why did you keep me around?
He has broken one of our most sacred laws.
-A law that has us scuttling like rats in the gutter!
People are easiest to read when they're hurting
Witches — Drama.
Wizards — Drama.
Magic — Drama.
Science Fiction Films.
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Last week was my first face to face client meeting… not being the client. I traveled alone, met and worked with the client alone (except for some here and there support from an EXTREMELY busy Sr. Account Manager) and conducting sessions with the client alone. The result from the client's (horse's?) mouth. "This is the best project we have going with you guys.". Ah was that soooo great to hear!
I believe that my background working on the client side has enabled me to have empathy for the client while also having an awareness and knowledge of what is going on in the agency. I've decided that I enjoy both realms so far, and really just focus my choices on the types of work that come.
First client trip: Check! Let's see what's next :-).


For the majority of human beings, one inevitable part of childhood is the chicken pox. We all get it, we all suffer through it, and while most of us soon forget about it, some are left with a lasting reminder—scars. Oftentimes scars will eventually fade, but depending on your personal attributes, chicken pox scars can hang around for a long time. Here are several effective ways, both at home and in clinic, that can help to get rid of old chicken pox scars.
Apply Vitamin E Oil to your skin. Vitamin E helps to nourish and heal the skin. Apply the oil twice daily until you see the scars fade.
Ingest products high in Vitamin K. Foods that are high in Vitamin K are good for you skin because vitamin K helps to heal and protect the skin. Add foods like green cabbage, spinach, green turnips, tomatoes, liver, broccoli, lean meats and dairy products to your diet for a natural fading of old chicken pox scars.
Brush fresh lemon over the scars. By passing a fresh cut lemon over your chicken pox scars you can help to remove dead skin and will give you a healthy glow. It also acts as a bleaching agent; it can help to lighten the scars. Stay out of direct sunlight for about 30 minutes after applying the lemon to your skin.
Drink lots of water. By drinking at least 80oz of water every day, you can greatly diminish unwanted chicken pox scars. Water intake increases circulation and increases the natural production of collagen which helps to keep the skin firm and even. An even skin tone will diminish the look of unwanted chicken pox scars.
Consider clinical alternatives. The above suggestions can help to get rid of old chicken pox scars, but the older they are the tougher they are to remove. If you've tried all the at home remedies, it may be time to consider visiting a dermatologist or a medical spa for a skin consultation.
Undergo a consultation. Before choosing a treatment plan, undergo a consultation with a dermatologist or with a certified skin specialist at a medical spa or clinic. There are several treatments, both invasive and non-invasive, that can help to effectively get rid of old chicken pox scars. Depending on the severity of your situation, some may work better than others.
Get a Microdermabrasion. Microdermabrasions are non-invasive facial treatments that work to revitalize and regenerate damaged skin. This procedure effectively removes the surface layer of the skin to allow the treatment area to appear fresher and healthier. This treatment can help with mild chicken pox scars, but severe scars will need a stronger solution.
Undergo a Photo Facial: Photo Facials or photo rejuvenation techniques utilize laser light to rejuvenate and revitalize the skin from the inside out. The photo facial procedure is able to break apart the pigment that gives the scar its color, while at the same time it promotes collagen growth in the deeper tissue layers which helps to even out the outer layers of skin. This treatment works better for deeper, more severe chicken pox scars.
Consider excision. If you find that the non-invasive techniques for chicken pox scar removal just aren't working, depending on where the scars are located, you may want to try a more surgical route. Excision is an invasive treatment that will surgically remove the scar. While the incision will still leave you with a scar, it will be minimal when compared to your original scar. This route should only be necessary when individuals have deep-pitted chicken pox scars.
It is best to consult with a dermatologist or skin specialist before trying any treatments to get rid of old chicken pox scars.


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Editors' Introduction to the Special Issue on Novel Risks and Sources of Volatility: Identification and Measurement Challenges for Portfolio Management
Frank J. Fabozzi and Ahmet K. Karagozoglu
The Journal of Portfolio Management Novel Risks 2021, 47 (9) 1-4; DOI: https://doi.org/10.3905/jpm.2021.1.289
Frank J. Fabozzi
Ahmet K. Karagozoglu
Guest Co-Editor
In a broad sense, novel risks arise from environmental-, governance-, healthcare-, social responsibility–, sustainability-, and technology-related shortcomings of or challenges faced by firms, as well as the uncertainty caused by potential domestic and global regulatory policy responses. The recent announcements made by the Securities and Exchange Commission during the first quarter of 2021 highlight the importance of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) risk and climate change risk, as well as how rapidly the regulatory and policy framework is evolving for these risks. The most recent ransomware attacks in May 2021 targeting a major US energy distributor and a major US food processor underscore the proliferation of potential vulnerabilities from cybersecurity risk. These developments have been taking place as the financial markets process the impact of COVID-19 pandemic, which has been affecting the world since February 2020 (as of writing in August 2021), bringing pandemic risk to the forefront of risk taxonomy and heightening sensitivity to geopolitical risk as the perfect storm of novel risks seems to converge on economies across the globe.
In the lead article, "Novel Risks: A Research and Policy Overview," Ahmet K. Karagozoglu presents a review of the recent academic literature, identifying common themes for data and measurement and discussing future directions for research and regulatory policy development. According to the author, recent academic literature suggests that there are parallels among ESG risk, climate change risk, cybersecurity risk, and geopolitical risk in terms of measurement challenges, including but not limited to emerging data and measurement methods; similarities in terms of their insufficient, noncomparable, less-specific, and non–decision-useful disclosures; and the potential interaction between these risks. Karagozoglu concludes that the establishment of consistent disclosure policy and reporting requirements and improvement in measuring the impact of these novel risks on asset prices, volatility, and global financial stability are at the forefront of contemporary financial economics and portfolio management.
Many corporations will have to adjust their operations and/or their products and services to meet their countries' nationally determined contributions and future climate policies, which vary significantly across countries, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in line with the 2015 Paris Agreement's goal of keeping the increase in global average temperatures to well below 2°C. In their article, "Foundations of Climate Investing: How Equity Markets Have Priced Climate-Transition Risks," Guido Giese, Zoltán Nagy, and Bruno Rauis examine the extent to which climate risk has been priced into equity markets by developing fundamental economic transmission channels to explain the potential impact of climate change on equity prices. They find that carbon-intensive companies have seen a relative downward trend in their price-to-book ratio valuation, which means markets started to effectively discount book values that can be linked to carbon-intensive activities. In contrast, their results show that companies with high exposure to green revenue have seen their price-to-earnings ratio rise, which means investors are willing to pay an increasing premium to gain exposure to technology that has the potential to replace the existing carbon-intensive infrastructure. They conclude with a discussion of how to measure and categorize companies' climate-risk exposures and how to integrate climate-transition risks into risk models.
Climate risk has become another important dimension, especially because minimum-variance strategies are massively implemented by ESG institutional investors. Therefore, the question of carbon metrics is important for portfolio construction. In "The Market Measure of Carbon Risk and Its Impact on the Minimum Variance Portfolio," Theo Roncalli, Theo Le Guenedal, Frederic Lepetit, Thierry Roncalli, and Takaya Sekine decompose carbon financial risk into a common (or systematic) risk factor and a specific (or idiosyncratic) risk factor. Focusing on the common risk factor that drives carbon risk, the authors assert that the carbon betas they introduce in their article are market-based measures that are complementary to carbon intensities or fundamental-based measures when managing investment portfolios. They show that this market measure is very different from a traditional fundamental measure of carbon risk because, according to their findings, carbon intensity is not the only dimension that is priced by the market. Their results show that investors that are sensitive to relative carbon risk prefer stocks with a negative carbon beta over stocks with a positive carbon beta, whereas investors that are sensitive to absolute carbon risk prefer stocks with a carbon beta close to zero. The authors conclude that managing relative carbon risk implies having a negative exposure to the carbon risk factor, whereas managing absolute carbon risk implies having zero exposure to the carbon risk factor.
Climate change is a source of considerable uncertainty, especially for long-term investors. The transition to a sustainable economy in various climate change scenarios poses significant risks and opportunities for investors' portfolios. In "Top-Down Portfolio Implications of Climate Change," Yesim Tokat-Acikel, Marco Aiolfi, Lorne Johnson, John Hall, and Jessica (Yiwen) Jin present a quantitative assessment of the impact of climate change on expected returns and strategic portfolio allocation across major public assets from a top-down macroeconomic perspective. They use estimates in well-accepted risk scenarios to assess the potential impact of alternative climate scenarios on economic growth, inflation, and asset returns for major asset classes. Their top-down cross-asset analysis suggests that the most direct impact will be on growth-oriented assets, such as equities and corporate credit. They find that the impact on developed sovereign bonds, real-estate investment trusts, and commodities is likely to be more localized at the micro level of individual securities than at the asset-class level. Using hypothetical portfolios designed based on top-down assumptions, the authors explore portfolio allocation implications and show that a climate risk–aware portfolio would tilt away from regions and assets that are expected to be adversely affected to obtain better risk-adjusted returns.
Among nonfinancial drivers of financial risk, perhaps none is at the forefront of investors' minds more than geopolitical risk. Financial markets are governed by institutions that are part of the connective tissue of nation-states, which in turn are the primary actors in international affairs. Therefore, the interactions of states with one another and important non-state actors can have significant impacts on market performance. Joseph Simonian, in "Geopolitical Risk in Investment Research: Allies, Adversaries, and Algorithms," defines and explains the basic dimensions of geopolitical risk as it pertains to portfolio management, in particular considering the challenges of uncovering and analyzing the sources, dimensions, and potential impacts of geopolitical risk on investment outcomes. Simonian's article provides an overview of the rational choice paradigm and its applicability to the analysis of geopolitical risk, especially discussing how game-theoretic methods can be combined with machine learning to build detailed simulations of strategic interactions. The author also demonstrates how a well-known matching algorithm can be used to analyze international alliances and how the incorporation of geopolitical views in portfolio construction can be achieved by presenting a concise and simple optimization approach.
The recent prevalence of ransomware attacks shows that cybersecurity exposure has a direct impact on targeted firms' operating cash flows and how it affects the financial situation of targeted firms more directly than reputational damage. Such incidents highlight the vulnerability of the overall economy and the necessity of managing and controlling cybersecurity risk at the firm level. Nazli Sila Alan, Ahmet K. Karagozoglu, and Tianpeng Zhou, in their article "Firm-Level Cybersecurity Risk and Idiosyncratic Volatility," develop a measure of firm-level cybersecurity risk by employing a pattern-based sequence-classification method from computational linguistics to determine the proportion of time devoted to issues related to cybersecurity risk during earnings conference calls. They use this new firm-specific cybersecurity risk measure to investigate the relationship between cybersecurity risk and firm-level return volatility, which in turn is a novel intraday return-based measure of idiosyncratic volatility. The authors find that firm-level cybersecurity risk is positively correlated with idiosyncratic volatility on the days that earnings calls are held, suggesting that the discussion of issues related to cybersecurity risk during earnings calls is related to an increase in the component of volatility that responds only to firm-specific news. Their results indicate that this positive relationship is robust to alternative measurements of the language in the earnings call discussions and to industry classifications.
Environmental issues, including mitigating climate change, reducing pollution, and halting exhaustion of natural resources, are no longer marginal cultural issues but have become parts of serious government plans, with substantial funding in both the United States and Europe. Government plans explicitly call for sustainable growth with no (or minimal) use of resources. In "Investment Management Post Pandemic, Post Global Warming, Post Resource Depletion," Frank J. Fabozzi, Sergio Focardi, and Zenu Sharma argue that moving from the current notion of quantitative growth to a new notion of growth that is both quantitative and qualitative requires changes in economic activity and theoretical changes in economics that should allow policymakers to gain a proper understanding of qualitative growth. They assert that the green transition has two aspects. The first is that a progressive reduction of emission of greenhouse gases is a major change of technology that will offer several profit opportunities; the second is that sustainable growth without the use of natural resources will require profound social changes. The authors suggest that in aggregate the green transition might not reduce the amount of profit available to investors; however, the redistribution of profit opportunities from conventional to more complex and environmentally friendly goods and services would result in a substantial overhaul to investment management.
Early in 2020, the world was severely disrupted by COVID-19 as the pandemic triggered extensive health, environmental, and social devastation. As the scale of the effects quickly escalated, investors—probably for the first time—witnessed how a medical phenomenon can have an enormous financial impact on businesses and investors worldwide. Dominique Outlaw, Aimee Hoffmann Smith, and Na Wang, in their article "The Implications of Contemporary Research on COVID-19 for Volatility and Portfolio Management," synthesize recent and ongoing research in finance and economics on pandemic and disaster risk related to the COVID-19 pandemic, which is characterized by pronounced market movements and extreme volatility. They indicate that the uniqueness of the COVID-19 pandemic's shock to market returns and volatility has shed light on several puzzles in finance and motivated the updating of asset-pricing models by incorporating novel risk factors. According to the authors, financial economists now have fresh perspectives on the transmission of pandemic-induced uncertainty to the financial markets via channels pertaining to investor beliefs and behaviors and corporate strategies and outcomes. Although some effects of the pandemic on market volatility are transitory in nature, there is evidence suggesting long-lasting impacts resulting from investors' updated risk perceptions and corporate management's evolving approaches to investing and financing decisions.
It is certainly too early to claim that the COVID-19 pandemic will mark a turning point in favor of a better integration of environmental, social, and governance issues—the so-called ESG factors—into firms' valuation. In "Socially Responsible Investing Strategies under Pressure: Evidence from the COVID-19 Crisis," Gunther Capelle-Blancard, Adrien Desroziers, and Olivier David Zerbib investigate the resilience of socially responsible (SR) strategies during the COVID-19 crisis using SR indexes from a worldwide sample and comparing them to conventional benchmarks to control for sectoral and geographic biases. The financial performance of SR strategies is shown to have substantial heterogeneity, whereas SR impact strategies slightly outperform corresponding benchmarks. The authors find that the resilience of SR strategies is a little stronger in countries and during periods in which the number of COVID-19 cases was increasing. They control for public attention to the COVID-19 pandemic, as well as the economic effects of new policies implemented during the crisis, including lockdowns and fiscal and monetary policy changes. The authors conclude by recommending a careful review of SR investment selection because not all such investments have provided equal returns in the face of the pandemic.
Over the past decade, sustainable and responsible investing have gained momentum and continue to grow in popularity among investors, and it is increasingly recognized that the financial system has a particularly important role to play in the transition toward a low-carbon and climate-resilient economy. In "Measuring and Managing ESG Risks in Sovereign Bond Portfolios and Implications for Sovereign Debt Investing," Lionel Martellini and Lou-Salomé Vallée examine the impact of ESG factors on the risk and return of sovereign bonds. In particular, they investigate how to measure and manage ESG risks in sovereign bond portfolios and the implications for sovereign bond portfolio strategies. They show that implementation choices matter with respect to how ESG constraints are incorporated into sovereign bond portfolio construction and present evidence that negative screening leads to more diversified portfolios and lower levels of tracking error, whereas positive screening leads to higher levels of improvement of ESG scores at the cost of an increase in absolute and relative risk budgets. Martellini and Vallée conclude that sound risk management practices are critically important in allowing investors to incorporate ESG considerations into investment decisions at an acceptable cost in terms of dollar or risk budgets.
TOPICS: Risk management, tail risks, ESG investing, legal/regulatory/public policy
Novel Risks 2021
You are going to email the following Editors' Introduction to the Special Issue on Novel Risks and Sources of Volatility: Identification and Measurement Challenges for Portfolio Management
Frank J. Fabozzi, Ahmet K. Karagozoglu
The Journal of Portfolio Management Sep 2021, 47 (9) 1-4; DOI: 10.3905/jpm.2021.1.289


text:
OmniMyth Fables
Welcome to the OmniMyth
OmniMyth: Fables is a character-driven fantasy roleplaying game where the adventure is secondary to the friends you make along the way. You'll wield unique and powerful weapons and abilities to fight back the forces of your Guide's imagination. If you feel so inclined, traipse through the scenic town of Tana's Dell and discover the sordid alchemical secrets it contains between the trees.
Principles:
1. Subvert the hero's journey: It's great for stories, but makes for a poor group play experience.
2. Play the character that you want: Classes can be restrictive. This is my take on a "classless" RPG system, which instead allows you to create your own abilities and have some flexibility in how you change them as you level.
3. Combat should be interesting and fast paced: No more slog-boring, phone-checking combat sessions. OmniMyth has fast-paced, brutal combat where the tables can be turned at the drop of the hat.
4. Death should be interesting: Death is boring in an RPG. Throwing away your old character and rolling a new one can feel heartbreaking. So, how about playing as a ghost instead? Or going on a quest to come back to life? Death in OmniMyth can be the beginning of a new play arc.
OmniMyth: Fables is full of beautiful illustrations and tips for a successful campaign. In addition, you'll find a blank character sheet for your use. Form-fillable character sheets are available at OmniMyth.net
The ability creation system allows you to create more than 500,000 unique spells, techniques, and abilities to accurately represent your character's skills, personality, and goals.
Also featured at OmniMyth.net is a random character generator, so that you can jump into play with a unique character at a moments' notice.
OmniMyth: Fables is a beta of the final OmniMyth game and may undergo changes in the following year, when the final version is released all those who purchased a copy of OmniMyth: Fables will be given the PDF of the final release version of the game.
Community Copies:
If you purchase the game at $12 or more I will add additional community copies. These copies are freely available to those who are otherwise unable to purchase the game. The $12 copy of the game comes with a small hand-written thank you message from the author on the "inner cover" of the PDF.


I'm going to lie about how many times I let a man break my heart, how many times I looked in his eyes hoping for a piece of myself, and finding nothing, crawled into the animal warmth of his body, gambling against the time when there was nothing left to take or give. I'm going to lie about every time I went back and begged him to break me again.
This gritty truth-telling reaches its apex in the title poem, a ten-part long poem sequence where a daughter who feels herself inadequate addresses her abusive mother. The raw imagery, bold address, and dreamlike progression are reminiscent of Galway Kinnell's early masterwork, The Book of Nightmares.


text:
The Alchimical voyage - 2
This film is in English, but it is also available in French.
Ce film est en anglais, mais il est également disponible en version française.
A documentary by Georges Combe
© PGA films - 2009
The Alchimical voyage - 2 (55 mn)
ENGLISH LANGUAGE VERSION
Of "Le voyage alchimique - 2"
Second stage : The cathedral of Chartres
72h rental (VOD): €5.90 Rent in VOD
The DVD: €16.00
First stage : Bruxelles, the big place
Of "Le voyage alchimique -3"
Third stage : The Mont Saint-Michel
Other English films
« The Journey » is a 14½ hour documentary film by Peter Watkins, made between the years 1983 and 1985 on several contin...
Thirteenth episode
« The Journey » is a 14½ hour documentary film by Peter Watkins, made between the years 1983 and 1985 on several continents, released on film in 1987 at the Toronto Film Festival. It is structured around the theme of nuclear weapons, military spending and poverty. Ordinary people are asked about their awareness of these issues.
Virgile has been nearly everywhere, or so it seems. Long distance travels on the bike in Africa, hitchiking thourgh the Russian continent, on trains in Asia...
Virgile has been nearly everywhere, or so it seems. Long distance travels on the bike in Africa, hitchiking thourgh the Russian continent, on trains in Asia... he knows it all. Yet there's one place left where he didn't experience adventure: his home... The Jura mountains in France. He thus launch himself on a new quest: local exploration.
Gueorgui CHICHKINE, painted, in a mill from the region, a riding a scene for the painting "Spirit of Nature".
With Gueorgui CHICHKINE, Pastellist Master.
Gueorgui CHICHKINE, Guest of Honour to the Société des Pastellistes de France during the Feytiat International Pastel Festival in 2008, near Limoges, painted, in a mill from the region, a riding a scene for the painting "Spirit of Nature".
My Life as a Double Bass
Histoire, Musique
My Life As A Double Bass is a musical « Road Movie » following the 140 year career of a double bass. She carries her bassist on the trail of her history meeting instrument makers, musicians and historians along the way. Through her story we discover the evolution of music making in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.
Parole de king !
Portrait, Société
If the Drag Queens are in the limelight in cabarets, few people know the Drag Kings who use the codes of masculinity to play with those of femininity.
Découverte, Spiritualité
Sadhana recounts the Odyssey of a young Westerner who follows the call of his soul to India—the land of ancient and spiritual Wisdom of the East. One man's journey to India, along the mystical Ganges to the majestic Himalaya.
Guyanese Sketches
The Guyanese natural environment is a refuge of life and a peace sanctuary for a fauna and a flora of an exceptional diversity.
Sketches.


Moscow London sent four diplomatic notes, and in the answer received only formal replies. This was announced by the foreign Ministry of Russia, reports RIA Novosti.
The foreign Ministry added that I believe the actions of the London, in connection with the case of the former GRU Colonel Sergei Skripal information and political shows.


Wreck-it Ralph Hd Wallpapers Desktop Wallpapers: We present here new selected HD Wallpapers with high quality and widescreen. All Wallpapers HD will be in various size and other resolution. David Warner download these wallpaper hd to create Wreck-it Ralph Hd Wallpapers your desktop computer, any mobile, laptop and ipad.


27th Sept 2015 was a special day. For once in a blue red moon, a rare astrological phenomenon coincided on the actual day of the Chinese Mid Autumn Festival. This was the last of the 4 red-moon lunar eclipses that occurred since last April 2014. The next occurrence will take place in another 18 years in 2033. As it was a cloudy day in Hong Kong, I didn't managed to get a shot of the "blood moon". What I did captured was a bright yellow "egg yolk" with my point-&-shoot superzoom Nikon P900. For the least, the world is not ending soon I hope.


text:
Forthcoming Executive Decisions
Decision details
Contract Procedure Rules Review and Update
Find out more about this issue
Decision Maker: Strategy and Resources Committee
Decision status: For Determination
Is Key decision?: No
Is subject to call in?: No
The Committee considered the report of the Director of Resources presenting the revised Contract Procedure Rules (CPR) (attached at Appendix 1 to the report) for approval by the Council. It was noted that the 2019 / 20 audit had identified recommendations and the revised CPR addressed some of these.
The report set out a number of proposed changes that had been made to the CPR along with the reasons behind them. It was noted that the revised CPR would support the current work being carried out to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of the Council's procurement processes.
The Chairman thanked the COVID-19 Reset and Recovery Working Group for their work and bringing the items forward to the Committee. He then put the recommendation as set out in the report and this was duly seconded.
In response to questions, the following information was provided by the Lead Specialist: Procurement:
· an update on the current procedure for tenders which would have previously required publication through the Official Journal of the European Union and it was noted that the Government were looking to simply the process. Following Brexit no tenders were being sent to companies outside of the UK.
· a recent procurement policy note issued by the Cabinet Office which sought to put emphasis on Small Medium Enterprises, local businesses and reserving by area was currently being reviewed and discussed.
The Chairman moved the recommendations as set out in the report and these were duly agreed, by assent.
(i) That the revised Contract Procedure Rules at APPENDIX 2 to these Minutesare approved.
(ii) That the Director of Resources is authorised to make minor changes to the Contract Procedure Rules; minor changes are defined as:
· Changes in statutory framework, such as references to new or updated legislation;
· Changes in titles, names or terminology;
· Changes consequential to other constitutional changes already made.
Date of decision: 28/01/2021
Decided at meeting: 28/01/2021 - Strategy and Resources Committee
Accompanying Documents:
13 Contract Procedure Rules Review and Update PDF 220 KB
Appendix 1 PDF 309 KB


Scrivi la tua recensione di 'Hammer'.
Really cool and comfortable looking jeans very pleased with them and they fit perfectly.
These jeans look great! Perfect fit and they have a comfortable stretching waist as well!
Perfect fit, with a comfortable stretching waist and perfect length in the leg!!


This was a lesson I did with a class of elementary level learners yesterday. My class were quite young, hence some of the content below, but it is quite easily adaptable to other ages and levels. It doesn't need any preparation, though the students will need pens / pencils and paper.
I started by eliciting "an ID card" and then by eliciting the kind of information you typically find on an ID card. The class came up with: name, age, date of birth, Card expiry date, and address.
I then said we were going to make our own ID card – what other information could we put on it? And elicited: likes & dislikes, abilities & skills.
Having done this, I got the learners to work individually for five minutes or so to create their own version – a weird and wacky ID card for whatever alien monster their imagination could come up with. An alternative for adult learners might be to channel various celebrities – it doesn't matter if they don't know – they can at least imagine!
When the cards were ready, I elicited the questions they would need to ask for each but of information: What is your name? What do you like? etc. I then drilled the pronunciation of these.
Finally, the students did a mingle, introducing themselves to each other, asking and answering questions. The twist is that after each Q&A session, they swap ID cards with their interlocutor. So if John and Jane are talking, at the end, John walks away with Jane's ID card and vice versa, and John therefore has to introduce himself as Jane to the next person he meets.
It worked really well as a lesson and was a nice way for me to gauge the ability of the learners in the class. Everyone had fun and it was a nice light start to proceedings!
If anyone has any variations – let me know!
I love a fun teacher!


text:
Max J. Nichols
Inducted: 1995
MAX J. NICHOLS (1934- ) launched his colorful career as a sports writer for the Oklahoman and then spent many years as an award-winning writer, editor and columnist for the Minneapolis Star. He was national president of the Baseball Writers Association of America in 1972. After returning to Oklahoma City in 1980, he has been editor and columnist for the Journal Record, taught journalism at Oklahoma City University, worked for the Oklahoma Historical Society and wrote a double biography on John and Eleanor Kirkpatrick.
Donovan Banzett
W.P. "Bill" Atkinson
Milo W. Watson


1.2 TRAVEL NATION carries on business under the regulations of the Association of South African Travel Agents ("ASATA") and provides clients (YOU/YOUR) with travel and/or other services on behalf of principals and/or other agents engaged in, or associated with the Travel Industry, including inter alia, airlines, tour operators, hotels, shipping companies, car hire and other providers of air, land, sea or any other travel arrangements, products or services ("the Supplier/s").
This website can be accessed at www.travelnation.co.za ("The Website") and is made available by Fly First Pty Ltd. This enables you to book flights, land arrangements, packages and tours with third party suppliers ("the Suppliers" ) where content will appear on the website or a call to the Agent might be necessary. The Agent is not responsible for any third party supplier deals, products on offer.
The Website includes links to booking engines such as Billian and a banking/payment gateway products, which are not owned by the Agent or under the Agent's control and for which products you acknowledge the Agent is not responsible in law. As such, you acknowledge that the part of the material accessible through these products on the Website, is provided by such third parties, and the Agent is not responsible for this material.
3.1 TRAVEL NATION acts as agents/brokers only on behalf of the Supplier/s and accordingly on receipt by TRAVEL NATION of any booking, TRAVEL NATION shall transmit any such booking to the Supplier/s concerned and endeavor to secure the necessary reservations and arrangements.
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All bookings made or reservations held by TRAVEL NATION on your behalf, are subject to payment being made by credit card or internet transfer (eft), on or before the due date specified in the booking confirmation. In the absence of other arrangements/time periods for payment, specified in the booking confirmation, full payment for any booking shall be due at least 6 (six) weeks prior to departure.
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TRAVEL NATION will endeavor to assist you in obtaining or meeting the requirements for passports, visas, health documents, insurance, foreign exchange, Reserve Bank and other bank approvals, use of credit cards, customs and immigration regulations as well as other peripheral requirements or services falling outside the actual travel booking due to the constant changing nature of such peripheral requirements and services, TRAVEL NATION shall not be liable for ensuring that these requirements and services are provided correctly or timeously or at all, nor shall TRAVEL NATION be liable for the accuracy of any information or any lack of information provided by TRAVEL NATION relating to such requirements and/or services.
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Mobility of the future: What will it look like?
Elevators, escalators and moving sidewalks transport billions of people every day. The business division Escalators and Moving Walks of Schindler, a Swiss company which is one of the world's leading manufacturers of elevators, escalators and other mobility solutions, asked how it could bring the best knowledge available worldwide for a large-scale innovation project into the company. Which external experts should be included in a global "dream team" with which Schindler could take a major leap forward into the future of mobility solutions?
winnovation worked with the company to identify various search fields which define the challenges of a new product generation in the form of specific problems.
On that basis, winnovation carried out a tailored international Expertise Search which generated outstanding results: We were able to connect our client with highly qualified lead experts and lead users from various organizations and countries who were in a position to develop solutions to the defined problems and were interested in working together with Schindler.
The "dream team" which ultimately worked with Schindler's Escalator division included members from far beyond the boundaries of mobility solutions: Within a short time, these lead experts and lead users provided knowledge and insights from other, often highly advanced areas of application (analogous market effects) and thus made substantial contributions to a major leap in innovation and the implementation of the project.


text:
Bingo in Swansea
Maya Arulpragasam's world.
"World music" is a category that does nobody any favors. Entirely disparate performers, like the dapper Brazilian singer-songwriter Caetano Veloso and the African blues guitarist Ali Farka Toure, get lumped together in American record stores simply because they don't sing exclusively in English. Also, European and American pop have saturated the world to such an extent that Kylie Minogue and Tupac are now more world music than, say, the Malian singer Oumou Sangare. Finally, most of what you find in the world-music section tends toward the gentle, melodious, and uplifting, as if the world were that way.
The music of Maya Arulpragasam, a twenty-seven-year-old Sri Lankan Tamil who moved to England when she was nine and performs under the name M.I.A., is not like that. Anyone who has trolled through bins on Canal Street for videos of kung-fu movies or reggae mix tapes will recognize M.I.A.'s first single, "Galang" (2003), as an example of actual, on-the-ground world culture: synthetic, cheap, colorful, staticky with power. The beat is shuffling and abrasive, made from what sounds like the by-products of some other, more polite song. It most resembles Jamaican dancehall patterns, but with a twist. Alongside the beat runs a distressed motif that may have been a melody before it was Xeroxed fifteen times. The lyrics combine the exhortations of dancehall ("London calling and speak the slang now, boys say wa, go on girls say wa wa"), the embattled war mentality of American hip-hop ("Fed's gonna get you pull the strings on your hood / One paranoid youth blazin' through the hood"), and a scenario that sounds far removed from Leicester Square: "They say river's gonna run through / work is going to save you / praying you will pull through / suck a dick, he'll help you / don't let them get to you / if he's got one you get two / Backstab your crew sell it out to sell you." The verses are simply stitched together, without dogma, by a chorus that is classic dance-floor doggerel: "Blaze to blaze, galang a lang alanga / Purple haze, galang a lang a langlang."
And then the music stops. We are left with a queasy keyboard peal as a multitrack chorus of Mayas calls out, "Ya ya heeey, woy oy ee he hay yo." It isn't a pop chorus, or any sound that you'd hear on American radio, even if the station were playing, you know, world music. It's a voice from a place where kids throw rocks at tanks, where people pull down walls with their bare hands. It could be the sound of a carnival, or a riot.
This year, Arulpragasam began performing live, and, as she was preparing for her first appearance in England, I arranged to meet her in the lobby of a stylish central London hotel. She is small but not fragile. Her hair is long and wavy, and she moves deliberately, confidently. She was wearing a cotton jacket and pants, both imprinted with a pattern that you'd see on pajamas, and carried a handbag of the same fabric and pattern, with the colors inverted. Her lacquered yellow pumps looked, to a New Yorker, like a repurposed cab door. Except for the shoes, every item was made by her or her friends. "That's just the way of living, with Sri Lankans," she said. "You just make everything. If you want clothes, you make it. If you want a table, you make it."
Arulpragasam said that her mother brought her and her siblings to England in 1986, as hostilities between the ruling Sinhalese and the Tamil minority were ramping up. Her mother is a seamstress—"She sews medals for the Royal Family and world leaders for minimum wage." The family took a flat in Phipps Bridge Estate, a housing project twenty minutes south of London. "We were one of the two Asian families that lived there," Arulpragasam said. "I used to come home from school and see people burgling my house, just walk past with my telly. But it wasn't as horrible as being in Sri Lanka." Eventually, the family found better housing, and at twenty-two Arulpragasam graduated from Central St. Martins College of Art and Design with a film degree.
In 2001, Justine Frischmann, who leads the rock band Elastica, commissioned Arulpragasam to make a film of the band on tour. Between shows, Arulpragasam began tinkering with an instrument called the Roland MC-505 Groovebox, an all-in-one drum-machine-and-keyboard unit that lets a musician create rough, electronic songs quickly. It suited her pragmatic nature.
M.I.A.'s début album, "Arular," will be released in February. Arulpragasam wrote most of its thirteen tracks at home on the 505 and then fleshed them out with the help of a series of professional producers, including Richard X, Anthony Whiting, and Switch. The over-all effect is like what a politically minded class of fourth graders might do for a term project if they had access to a lot of electronic toys: joyous, spring-heeled, impatient, unafraid to speak out. "Someone like me has never made it on the radio before, ever, or on anyone's TV," Arulpragasam said. "And the boringest channels I can make it on the better. I want people to listen to me while they're playing bingo in Swansea."
Maybe. On the album, Arulpragasam talks about teen-age prostitution, "part-time jobbers in call centers," and "comfort bars." It's hard to imagine Clear Channel approving "Sunshowers," which blends a small, delightful thump with a melody quote from a seventies song by Dr. Buzzard's Original Savannah Band. After calling out, "From the Congo to Colombo!"—the Sri Lankan capital—Arulpragasam sings, "Can't stereotype my thing yo / I salt and pepper my mango," and, later, "Like P.L.O., we don't surrender." What makes this genuine world music, aside from the references, is the weaving of the political into the fabric of what are still, basically, dance tunes. Any division of life into personal and political halves is absent. Even in "Amazon," where Arulpragasam sings of being "blindfolded under homemade lanterns / somewhere in the Amazon, they're holding me ransom," she also observes, "Palm trees in the wet smells amazing." In the song's chorus, she sounds utterly casual, like an American teen-ager calling her mom after getting out of a movie at the multiplex: "Hello, this is M.I.A. / could you please come get me?" In the world, disasters can be everyday events.
M.I.A.'s live show took place on the evening of November 5th, Guy Fawkes Day, at a Camden rock club on Chalk Farm Road. Yellow bonfires burned on side streets all over the city. Inside, the crowd was young, scruffy, and nearly all white. Arulpragasam's British manager duct-taped a banner reproducing M.I.A.'s spray-painted, circular orange-and-green logo to the turntables, which were suspended from the ceiling by chains. The d.j., an American from Philadelphia known as Diplo, played a set of fast, rhythmic Brazilian music called "baile funk"—itself a variation of a dance music from Miami called "bass"—and then began playing Jamaican dancehall songs. The crowd seemed happy but unsure what to do with, or to, the pulsing music. After half an hour of other people's music, Arulpragasam took the stage with her backup singer, a woman named Cherry, who came to England from the Grenadines.
A stark rhythm started, followed by distorted handclaps, a low thrum, and a tiny cover of metallic bangs and screeches. Arulpragasam appeared in an elaborately embroidered satin jacket, something you might see on Chinese gang members in those pirated kung-fu DVDs. She began to knock her knees together in a bowlegged dance borrowed from Elvis Presley and the Jamaican singer Sean Paul. "Pull up the people, pull up the poor! Pull up the people, pull up the poor!" she sang, squeaking up an octave on the word "people." The beat was flecked with bits of shiny material, as if competing with the holiday fireworks outside. Diplo suddenly began tossing out CDs. People caught them or were hit by them, and began to realize that they should be dancing. When the show ended, Diplo kept d.j.ing, and Maya and her friends stood by the stage, unwilling to stop moving. They didn't look much like anyone in the club. It didn't seem to bother them. ♦
Sasha Frere-Jones worked at The New Yorker as a staff writer and pop-music critic for ten years, beginning in 2004.
More:ConcertsDance MusicDiploIndians


text:
FEARLESS FEATURES
Bold Faith. Biblical Truth. Real Stories.
Fame without Fortune Part 5: Becoming Fearless
Many years before I had even met Amber, I was neck-deep in a terrible business deal I had foolishly gotten myself into, producing a late night comedy TV show. We shot the show on-location every week in a bar. It was a mix of stand-up comedy performances that were usually skirting the edge of broadcast decency standards and behind-the-scenes "reality" tv. As an astute producer, I had quickly learned how to drive the ratings up, and it wasn't through quality content. The dirtier the jokes on-stage and the more risque' and sexual the humor off-stage, the better the show did. Our special guests would routinely include musicians, dancers and bikini models, and any drunken patrons we could exploit for a storyline were fair game. The adjoining concert venue / bar provided us a regular supply of well-known guests. The week we had rapper Afro Man as a guest, we made the show's running joke theme for the night all about smoking pot (his biggest hit was called "Because I got high"). I was about halfway through my first season commitment when it really started to bother me just what we were putting on the air every week.
I had one of those moments one morning, straight out of the movies, when I woke up after a late night of producing the show, walked into the bathroom and just stared at myself in the mirror. Looking into my own eyes, I said "What are you doing?" I couldn't believe how low I had sunk. Just a few years prior, I was going places, making good progress, producing quality content. Now? Now I was stuck in a terrible business deal, producing terrible content, and I realized I had to get out as soon as I could.
The next week, in a production meeting where I expressed my feelings on the show to my business partner in the venture, I got brutally honest. "It's not like we're changing the world with this show, you know. We tell dirty jokes for an hour on TV every Sunday night. Let's not kid ourselves into thinking we're enriching anyone's lives here."
He was incensed. By his and the world's standards, we were doing exactly the right thing. Because of the changes I had made to the show, the ratings were higher than they'd ever been, and we had a waiting list for show tickets every week because people wanted to be there the night we were shooting. By all worldly measures, I should have been happy, but more and more often at the end of the night, I couldn't get out of there fast enough. What once seemed like a great time where I was the hero of the party now repulsed me.
When I told him I was not renewing my contract to produce any more shows at the end of the season, he and many others with the show became furious with me. How could I break up the party? But for me, the question was more like How could I go on even one more night? My conscience just couldn't bear it any more. Even then, the Holy Spirit was convicting me as to how much I was grieving the Lord. "It's time for you to leave," I heard the Lord say to me. As soon as I could complete my contractual obligations, I left the show and never looked back.
Everyone, no matter what walk of life or career they're in, wants to feel like their work matters for something. Artists are especially vulnerable to this. I dare say that the notion of needing significance in your life and your work is what drives most artists to create as they do. Art is language, just like the spoken word. And as with the spoken word, some artists are more eloquent with that language than others, and still some can speak to one audience while another can speak more fluently to another. My experience with the comedy show was the manifestation of knowing that I was in the wrong place, with the wrong people, speaking the wrong words to the wrong people. Admittedly, the accumulation of many occurences of that exact experience over the years had been a major contributor to my walking away from film as I did. I just didn't feel like anything I did made any difference any more.
Coming back to my first love of filmmaking wasn't just a financial decision. Weeping on my knees in the back of a freight truck, crying out to the Lord wasn't an appeal for a financial blessing. It was a man pouring out his heart, asking the Lord to let him try again, resolving to do things differently. Right there in that moment, I made a covenant to the Lord that I would go hungry before I would let anything dishonoring to Him come from my work, and I intended to honor that promise. It would prove to be one of the hardest decisions I've ever made, but also the most freeing. Never again will I feel shame before the Lord for something I've made. He is my audience of one. No one else matters.
But the challenges to this promise before God were tested early. As if there were a billboard announcing my return to active production, over the year leading up to this point I had been offered and turned down three different movies. I knew it was part of the test to see how serious I was about holding the line to only do my work for the Lord, as all three of the projects were stereotypical dark comedy indie films, not unlike my first movie years prior. I can't lie, it was hard to say no to the last one. The first two were just stupid projects with terrible scripts, and all they really wanted me to do was find them money. But the last film offer came with the added caveat of director. At that stage in my re-emergent career, I was hungry for a project of significance again, but I prayed about it and immediately knew that it was not for me. I turned it down and continued working on those "unsexy paying jobs" that led to much-needed financial returns.
In December of 2015, I filmed what would, ironically, be the last of a series of simple on-camera testimonials to be used at our church. To me, there was nothing magical about it. It wasn't like I felt like I was producing a masterpiece. Just a simple, single-camera interview setup, basic lighting, and no re-enactments or anything of that sort. I shot it, handed it off to them, and forgot about it. It was a man by the name of Joe Cox and his wife, Diana, talking about their individual stories of salvation, and how they came together after both being widowed years earlier.
On February 12, 2016, Joe Cox died in the line of duty as a sherriff's deputy. The news of his death rocked the community. The next morning, I went onto the church's television ministry Facebook page and simply re-posted Joe and Diana's stories (it was a 3-part video series). I thought nothing of it, other than wanting people to know that Joe was a follower of Christ, and that he and his wife had shared their testimony for all of us to watch and hear, and that it was his greatest desire to share his faith with everyone around him. I made the post, then went about my work for the day.
A few hours later, I took a break from my editing and looked at my phone. The Facebook notifications were numerous, to say the least. As the admin for the video, I got notified of every single like, comment and share it received. I swiped my phone and opened up Facebook to clear out the notifications.
Since I had originally posted the videos in late December, they had gotten maybe a hundred views combined between the three parts of the video. But today, in just the few hours since I had re-postedJoe & Diana's story, it had garnered over 2,500 views, dozens of shares, hundreds of likes, and it didn't show any signs of slowing down. Amber and I both stared in disbelief as we looked at the numbers. Over the next week, we watched Joe and Diana's story – sharing their testimonies of faith in Christ – climb to a combined total of over 50,000 views (as of this writing, they have a combined viewership of over 62K views). In all of my life, I had never seen anything like it before. Amber and I started to feel convicted.
We had discussed over many months leading up this this point how we wanted to use our filmmaking skills and resources to reach people for Christ, but hesitated as to how to implement it. That prior year, we had started producing a series of life stories of people who had come through the local rescue mission and found the hope and the help they needed to move on with their lives. We talked many times about how, if we just took that format and expanded it, without the financial and scheduling limitations of a client and broadcast television's time restraints – it could be an amazingly powerful tool for reaching people with the gospel. But, we had been on the fence about it for months. Who in the world would watch it, and would our business suffer for telling stories of faith in Christ and staking so much of our reputation on it?
We couldn't ignore it any more. What we saw happening before our very eyes with Joe & Diana's testimonies was simply mind-blowing. In all of my decades of filmmaking, producing films that won Sundance awards, went on to be released by major studios, films that starred Oscar nominees and Golden Globe winners, tv projects too numerous to count with the huge names in comedy and up and coming musicians that went on to have massive careers – in all of that mess of a career-to-date, I had never seen anything I produced have even remotely the impact that Joe & Diana's story did. Joe's testimony, in fact, had such a profound impact on people that over 21,000 people watched the live video stream of his funeral a week and a half later on Facebook. People even gave their lives to Christ just as a result of watching Joe's funeral and hearing his story. Amber and I sat and watched in tears as people proclaimed new faith in Jesus over the livestream on Facebook. We couldn't wait any longer. Even at his own funeral, Joe was leading people to Christ! We had no excuse. We knew that it was time for us to act.
But taking a stand for Christ is not a popular notion these days, especially in the world of filmmaking. As we searched online for other ministries similar to what we were contemplating, what we found was that there are a lot of church-specific testimonials, and a lot of rich and famous testimonials, but many of them seem to miss the mark when it comes to what exactly they are confessing. Over and over, we would watch video testimonials that looked nice and sounded nice and had famous and pretty people and people with tragic stories in them, but we would listen to what they were saying and noticed the one word that always seemed absent: Jesus.
People love to talk about "God". People love to talk about "Faith". People love to talk about how God loves us and how their faith got them through this or that, but conspicously absent over and over is the name of Jesus. Take a stand for anything else. Talk about anything else. Celebrate anyone else. But don't you dare say that name: Jesus. Why?
"You say that you believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe, and shudder." (James 2:19).
Believe it or not, even in Hollywood it's easy to talk about God. People will excuse you for it and just label you as a "good, religious person". It's easy to talk about faith there, too. I mean, it's Hollywood, people have faith in all sorts of things. It's trendy to talk about the word, but nobody takes it any further. Faith in what? Faith in who? Yourself?
Amber and I knew that if we took a stand and told real stories of faith in Christ, putting all of our combined filmmaking and marketing skills together and not being afraid to put our names on it – to own it – it wouldhave a detrimental effect on our business. In fact, we were sure of it. God has become a nebulous term in our culture, so has Faith. You can say those words in pretty much any crowd and find acceptance somewhere. But not so with Jesus, because his very name reminds us that we are sinners, and we can't accept one part of Jesus without accepting the rest of him. You can't claim that He died for your sins and then disavow what He said about your sin. And let's face it, we love our sin. The world has convinced itself that you can have God and Jesus and Faith and remain unrepentant, dare I say defiant, in your sin. Jesus himself said otherwise.
I've produced plenty of controversial stories over the years, but nothing in this world is so divisive, so offensive and so powerful as the gospel of Jesus Christ, what it means that he died on a cross for our sins, and our desperate need for his grace to save us. It's offensive and divisive because it confronts us to our very soul, and we must either acknowledge our absolute, desperate need for Him or reject Him completely. There is no in-between. And in business and filmmaking especially, controversial material is uncomfortable, and you never want to make your audience or your client uncomfortable. You want them to have fun, relax, feel like it's okay, like they can identify with characters who do those same things they do at home and at work and make a joke about it. You want them to stay, laugh, and buy popcorn. You just don't remind them that they're lost without Jesus. That's just an uncomfortable conversation, isn't it? We like to be comfortable.
And so, together, Amber and I started to pray. We knew it would not be popular by the world's standards. We knew it would probably not garner us new clients. And, we knew it would take all of our resources to start it up and to keep it going. But, we also knew that the Lord was calling us to tell the most powerful, life-changing stories in the world. Stories not about the nebulus versions of "God" and "Faith" and "Church", but stories about Jesus Christ, and what He can do in people's lives.
It was time for us to believe in miracles. It was time for us to become Fearless.
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The Mandarin hasn't had properties in Beijing until, well, now. In fall/winter this year, the hospitality brand is opening not one but two new hotels in the Chinese capital—the Mandarin Oriental, Wangfujing and the Mandarin Oriental, Qianmen.
The Mandarin Oriental, Wangfujing will be located in new urban development WF Central (under the umbrella of Hongkong Land) and designed by world-renowned architects Kohn Pedersen Fox—think lush garden terraces and lots of glass.
Qianmen is one of Beijing's most charming—and still standing—historical neighbourhoods, with hutongs and traditional courtyard houses dating back to the 13th century. The Mandarin Oriental, Qianmen will reflect the same architectural style of these surroundings and will be dispersed throughout the Qianmen East Hutong Quarter, in the middle of a labyrinthine of alleys, private houses, restaurants and cultural venues that make the area so special.
Set to open its doors in late 2018, the Iraph Sui will be the latest addition to The Luxury Collection's portfolio in Japan. It's an island resort, located on an elevated headland on the southwestern coastline of Irabu, a small islet just off Okinawa. The secluded property will have just 57 guestrooms, each boasting sea views, plus nine luxury suites with private plunge pools.
The location is ideal for scuba diving enthusiasts—the Miyako islands are famed for their underwater rock formations, colossal Ryūkyū limestone arches, underwater caves and grottoes, as well as vibrant coral and sea life. Not into diving? The white-sand beaches are a pleasant alternative to fill your day.
Canggu is Bali's hippest—and hippiest—destination, so it was only a matter of time before luxury hotels started popping up in the area. The one we're most excited about is Como Uma Canggu.
Top that with nourishing food menus and a neat beach club with live music and DJs, and you've got a winning formula for the hottest place to see and be seen on the paradise island. Expect this to be the most sought-after destination for bearded creative types, socialites, surfers and fashion mavens alike when it opens next month.
Luxury tented encampments are getting more popular by the day, and if there's one thing the Rosewood group is excellent at, it's understanding and anticipating what well-heeled travellers want. The new Rosewood Luang Prabang, set to open in the first quarter of 2018, presents beautiful tented villas in the middle of the lush green jungle that surrounds the Laotian town.
Taking inspiration from French-Lao architecture and the ancient temples that characterise Luang Prabang, the interiors of the property will feature wood and high ceilings, natural materials and deep, earthy hues.
Laos is currently running a "Visit Laos Year 2018" campaign to boost tourism, which offers the perfect excuse to a) go and b) book the Rosewood Luang Prabang.
The Six Senses Hotels and Resorts group is having quite a year, with seven new resorts and two spas slated to open by the end of 2018. We are particularly intrigued by the five satellite lodges that will make up Six Senses Bhutan, three of which will open in August and two by fall.
Drawing inspiration from the spirituality and main sites of the secluded Himalayan Kingdom, each setting will reflect different themes and experiences using different materials, fixtures and features.
The Thimphu lodge, for instance, named after the capital, will place emphasis on culture. Punakha will be designed around the feeling of a traditional farmhouse, with materials and fixtures to reflect that.
First, there was the Opposite House in Beijing. Then, The Upper House in Hong Kong and The Temple House in Chengdu (and EAST, the business hotel offshoot). Now there's The Middle House, Swire's fourth House Collective project, set to open in Shanghai in April.
Designed by Italian architect Lissoni, the new baby of the family is all about clean silhouettes and bold lines, sleek interiors—which offer an updated take on Chinese craftsmanship and furniture—and minimalist style. Carved Chinese design elements and artworks will adorn the rooms, as a homage to old and new Shanghai.
It's going to be hip, and you're going to want to stay there when you visit our neighbour in ton mainland. Fact.
With a building dating back to 1927 (it used to be the New Law Courts), views of the Irawaddy river from its rooftop bar and pool, and a location bang in the middle of colonial Yangon, the Heritage Hotel Kempinski Yangon is going to be a total charmer.
Set to open in spring, the hotel has gone through five years of extensive renovations under the helm of the Yangon Heritage Trust, which brought back some of its original elements—high ceilings, a stately entrance, gorgeous wood fixtures and imposing columns, to name a few—as well as all the modern comforts of a five-star hotel like bircher muesli for breakfast, the aforementioned rooftop pool and even kale power shots to help you get through the Yangon's heat.


If there is already such a place, please let me know.
> > work to me.
> A materials window would be nice: indeed, extend that for all resources.
> replication/effects/transform - array/mirror et al - is the object.
> love: it still takes far longer to do some tasks than it should.
> complex window surrounds over a building's face.
> a parent of the main one, and not independent, so it's always active.
> [Setting Windows to point-to-type is a Bad idea: lots of UX things break].
> app windows, so a "topmost" child can be hidden by other apps.


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Talk Sci-Fi
Talk Sci-Fi is a continuing podcast by Gerri Donaldson and Eugenia Stopyra, featuring discussions about all things Science Fiction and a range of interviews with stars from sci-fi TV and film.
Episode 7 - Talk Sci Fi with Rodger Bumpass
January 14, 2016 Gawler Radio
Comics, cartoons and animations everyone loves them and so do we! Remember those days when you had to find someone kid to take to a Disney movie if you did not have your own? No longer are you seen to be too old to go to the movies that are animated if you are over ten years of age! Animation is a genre for everyone. In this episode we talk to an amazing voice actor, Rodger Bumpass, better known by his alternate name of Squidward from Spongebob Squarepants! Roger has a fantastic ability to use his voice and has been in many shows and movies and you have watched over the years, check out his IMDB. We love to interview voice actors because you never know who might just turn up in the interview!
In Science Fiction Podcast Tags Sci Fi. Podcast, Celebrities, Science Fiction, Interviews
Episode 6 - Talk Sci Fi with Peter Davison
December 19, 2015 Gawler Radio
Who could we be talking about with an interview with Peter Davison? Doctor Who of course, the show that has been on and off Australian television for the last 50 years. This is the show that had many children hiding behind their sofas when one of the greatest villains invented for a TV show and of course that is the Daleks with 13 Doctors (well there was more, but they don't really talk about him) the show gives us many thinks to talk about and for what we hope is your listening pleasure the 5th Doctor, Peter Davison.
Episode 5 - Talk Sci Fi with Jed Brophy
December 3, 2015 Gawler Radio
The Lord of the Rings and the Hobbit who has not watched them? So in this episode we talk about these movies and of course that means talking about New Zealand as well. Has Sir Peter Jackson taken over the country, are there Hobbit houses all over the place and if you visit will you see Orcs? In this episode we talk about those kind of things (we love New Zealand) and of course those movies that we mentioned before! So whom do we talk with about them? One of the Dwarfs, Nori played by Jed Brophy a long-time collaborator with Peter Jackson on many projects across the pond!
Episode 4 - Talk Sci Fi with Clare Kramer
November 20, 2015 Gawler Radio
Buffy the Vampire Slayer, really do we need to say anymore? One of the most popular of the genre shows on television and it had a "girl" hero! Buffy loved and inspiring to many a young women showed that you did not have to be big, strong and hairy to overcome a vampire and many other supernatural creatures! Did Buffy restart the supernatural show on TV or was it just in the right place at the right time? We discuss the many aspects of Buffy and not only the girls, but some of the many interesting demons, vampires, ghosts and even human baddies. Was Spike or Angel the better vampire? Did you have a favourite "baddie"? Well we talked to one of them, one that got Buffy killed (she was killed a few times), playing Glory the Demon (who also was a good guy!) Clare Kramer talks about the fun she had playing the role.
Episode 3 - Talk Sci Fi with Chandler Riggs
November 5, 2015 Gawler Radio
Zombies, Zombies and more Zombies they seem to be all over television now with so many shows revelling in brain eating undead, is there one that stands out? In this podcast we talk about the emergence of the Zombie genre and why we think that it seems to gel with the viewing public. We discuss which of them we like best and which is a little on the "unrealistic" side. The interview for this episode is Chandler Riggs, who plays Karl the son of Rick on the show! This interview with Chandler was done a few years ago and it focuses on how a young actor deals with life in the entertainment industry.
Episode 2 - Talk Sci Fi with Alfie Allen
October 29, 2015 Gawler Radio
The Game of Thrones is one of the most popular shows in Australia, popular that is, as being one of most quickly downloaded shows after transmission in the US. So in this episode we talk about that show in all its sadistic, in your face, and hand over the eyes glory. This show is made in the town where one of us was born (Gerri) and is made in the shipyard, now a studio, where the Titantic was built, the show though has had a longer run than the ship though! A complicated and enthralling storyline that is taken from the world of George R. R. Martin's books it has brought compelling viewing to the world. So, have a listen to us chat about the show before listening to an interview we did with Alfie Allen better known as Theon Greyjoy to fans of the show.
Episode 1 - Talk Sci Fi with Avery Brooks
Welcome to the Talk Sci Fi a new podcast with Gerri Donaldson and Eugenia Stopyra (that's us). As you can see by the name we like to talk about Science Fiction be that movies, television or books. We have been very lucky to be able to interview some of the actors in the genre and we are happy to have another place to share them with you. So, what is in a Talk Sci Fi Podcast? The format of the podcast is that we introduce the interview by talking about the show from which the actor etc is in. In this podcast for instance we have an interview with Star Trek: DS9's Captain Sisko otherwise known as Avery Brooks a very interesting man! We hope that you enjoy these podcasts as much as we did in interviewing the actors!
In Culture Tags Talk Sci Fi


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Communist Leader Mobilizes Native Americans for Democratic Victory in 2020
Posted on October 16, 2019 by TMH
By: Trevor Loudon | The Epoch Times
Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) speaks at the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum on Aug. 20, 2019, in Sioux City, Iowa. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)
Judith LeBlanc, a leading member of the Communist Party USA (CPUSA), is organizing Native American communities in several states to turn out in high numbers for the Democratic Party in 2020.
At just over 2 percent of the population, the Native American vote could be enough to swing several key U.S. Senate races and even the presidency. LeBlanc also organized the nation's first Native American Presidential Forum in Sioux City, Iowa—especially to lift Native American voter interest and drive turnout.
A member of the Caddo Tribe of Oklahoma, LeBlanc joined the CPUSA in 1974 and has served at the highest levels of party leadership. LeBlanc has served as a vice-chair of the party and formerly chaired its Peace and Solidarity Commission. She has traveled to Japan, Australia, Israel, Lebanon, and "Palestine" on party business, which included a 2002 meeting with the late Palestinian terrorist leader Yasser Arafat.
On Nov. 29, 2010, the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, LeBlanc "had the honor of speaking on behalf of civil society organizations to a special meeting at the United Nations," according to the Peace Action blog.
In recent years, LeBlanc has been assigned to work on Native American business through her role as national coordinator of the Native Organizers Alliance—the country's leading Native American activist group. This work included a training role in the 2016 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux reservation in North Dakota. In mid-September 2016, LeBlanc led a "four-day training at Standing Rock with tribal officials, native-led non-profits, and local community and political leaders on power mapping, strategic campaign planning, and direct action," according to Inequality.org.
Now, LeBlanc's role is to build on the energy and unity generated at Standing Rock. Her job is to ensure that millions of traditionally low turnout, yet Democratic-leaning Native American voters go to the polls in 2020.
Presidential Forum
Working in partnership with the South Dakota-based, Rosebud Sioux-affiliated voter registration organization Four Directions, Inc., LeBlanc's Native Organizers Alliance hosted the Frank LaMere Native American Presidential Forum on Aug. 19 and 20 in Sioux City, Iowa.
Named after a recently deceased Winnebago leader, the forum featured interviews with 11 Democratic candidates, including front-runners Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.).
The forum was partially underwritten by the leftist funding group The Praxis Project, which is closely linked to the pro-China communist group Liberation Road. The Praxis Project was founded and led until recently by former Communist Workers Party militant Makani Themba-Nixon.
In her opening remarks to the forum, LeBlanc referenced the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe's action to stop the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota.
"We are moving on a continuum from protest to power. … Standing Rock interrupted the narrative, and when we left Standing Rock, we went back to our cities and our reservations to organize," she said, according to Religion News Service.
LeBlanc told the Liberation Road-linked website Organizing Upgrade:
"Our goal for this first-ever Native presidential forum was twofold. The first was to energize the Indian electorate. We reached hundreds of thousands through the live stream of the event and the vast array of media coverage, including both the Indian and mainstream media. The second goal was to educate the presidential candidates about our strategies for overcoming the challenges in Indian Country.
"It was powerful. For example, Secretary Julian Castro spent quite a bit of time prior to the forum collecting input from various leaders in Indian Country. He issued a very excellent Indian platform prior to the forum. The week of the forum, Elizabeth Warren did the same. … The debate that happened during the forum, the back and forth with tribal and community leaders over the course of two days, will influence how whoever gets elected governs. For example, most of the candidates said they would have (or would consider) a cabinet-level representative of Indian Country."
So promises of power have been made. But the only way to collect is to win the 2020 election.
The organized hard left—especially CPUSA and Liberation Road—want to win the next election on a Rainbow Coalition strategy. They intend to update Jesse Jackson's presidential campaign strategy from the 1980s—unite all the racial and ethnic minorities with the base of white "progressives" to achieve a winning majority. Don't fight a losing battle on policy—make it all about race.
When Jackson last ran for president in 1988, minorities were about 12 percent of the population. Now, they are 38 percent. It only makes sense to focus resources on Native Americans to increase the chances of victory in what could be a very tight race in 2020.
LeBlanc also told Organizing Upgrade:
"Four Directions, our sister organization, did research and found there are seven states where the Indian vote would be decisive in determining the outcome of 77 electoral votes. These 7 states include critical Senate races. From that scientific basis, Native Organizers Alliance and Four Directions began to organize traditionally, to reach out to the community groups that we have relationships within those seven states."
It's all about "transformational change"—LeBlanc's euphemism for a socialist revolution.
"We're also turning our attention to working in those seven states where the Native vote will be decisive. Native Organizers Alliance is working with groups in Wisconsin, Arizona, Minnesota, Michigan, and Nevada. We'll be doing the kind of voter registration, education and mobilization that ensures that our grassroots groups and tribal entities expand their organized base. The day after the elections, we will be ready with a stronger organized, politically empowered grassroots base. …
"In order to protect and deepen democracy in the long run, we need strong, vibrant social movements who understand that voting is one of the tools of social change along with protest, advocacy, governing and popular political education. That holistic strategy is needed for us to make transformational change which deals with the systemic nature of the problems that our communities face. …
"We need science and people power."
In 2016, President Donald Trump won 18 states by less than 250,000 votes. By targeting knife-edge states like Wisconsin, Arizona, Minnesota, Michigan, and Nevada, LeBlanc and her Native Organizers Alliance could well have a major influence on the 2020 election. If Trump loses Wisconsin, Arizona, and Michigan and is denied possible victories in Minnesota and Nevada by the Native American vote, LeBlanc will deserve much of the credit.
Most Americans (including most of the Republican leadership) seem to think that the Communist Party has no influence on U.S. politics. They might be shocked to find that just one comrade may be able to determine the outcome of the 2020 election.
Trevor Loudon is an author, filmmaker, and public speaker from New Zealand. For more than 30 years, he has researched radical left, Marxist, and terrorist movements and their covert influence on mainstream politics.
This entry was posted in Authors, News, Politics, Trevor Loudon. Bookmark the permalink.
American Maoists Re-brand, Focus on Electoral Politics, Target the South
Schumer, Pelosi to Address J Street Conference: Should Israel Be Worried?


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