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/ Points of View / What's Wrong with an "Off-the-Shelf" Solution? (Part One)
What's Wrong with an "Off-the-Shelf" Solution? (Part One)
What makes a great advertising or advocacy campaign? Why do some hit the mark and others fall flat? Our most successful client relationships start with an innovative approach rooted in a deep, evolving understanding of the problem.
We often say, "Don't call and say you need an ad." An ad may be exactly what's necessary. But it just as easily may not. Instead, the E&V approach is to focus on the key problem or opportunity. Before settling on a one-size-fits-all approach, consider this: What does the communication need to achieve, and what action do you want your audience to take?
Eckel & Vaughan develops unique solutions for clients, leaning heavily on six key principles:
Break through the clutter to arrest your targets' attention.
Consider more cost-effective methods to reach your target audience.
Look inward first before creating outward change.
Are you communicating with the wrong audience?
Evolve and embrace new communications channels.
In Part One, we will delve into the first 3 principles. In Part Two, we'll tackle principles 4-6.
Key Principles for Developing a Campaign that Makes an Impact
1 Break through the clutter to arrest your targets' attention.
In the early 2000s, Dove was being overshadowed by competitors, and executives began looking for a way to revive the brand. They conducted a study of more than 3,000 women in 10 countries to learn more about women's priorities and interests. What they found was startling. Only 2% of the women interviewed considered themselves beautiful. This key insight led to a huge opportunity. As they were making a push to move beyond soap and introduce other products such as shampoo and body wash, could they also start a conversation about beauty? Would a campaign that tapped into what women were thinking and feeling help Dove become more relevant?
Ten years after its launch, Dove's Campaign for Real Beauty is one of marketing's most talked-about success stories. The campaign has expanded from billboards to television ads and online videos. The 2006 video, "Evolution," went viral before "viral" was even a thing. And, Dove's 2013 spot, "Real Beauty Sketches," which shows women describing their appearances to a forensic sketch artist, became the most-watched video ad of all time.
This is a critical insight, especially when organizations are attempting to earn attention in such a noisy world. Eckel & Vaughan leveraged this principle in North Carolina's "Talk It Out" campaign, with TV and radio ads that captured interest and started conversations.
2 Consider more cost-effective methods to reach your target audience.
When TowerCo came to us in need of help reaching a small and elusive target audience— site acquisition consultants—its larger competitors advertised almost exclusively through trade publications, which generated leads but were very expensive.
We studied TowerCo's target audience and devised new ways to reach them, including using social media advertising and paid search for the first time and redirecting TowerCo's trade show budget to creating a high-impact event.
By leveraging these cost-effective tactics, TowerCo substantially grew its return on investment, generated thousands of leads and strengthened its brand equity. In fact, the approach was so successful that it wasn't long before many of TowerCo's competitors had followed suit.
3 Look inward first before creating outward change.
Two of NC's Local Management Entities/Managed Care Organizations (LME-MCOs) merged in 2015. This was just one of several mergers taking place across the industry at the request of the state. Eckel & Vaughan was charged with establishing a new brand that would remain relevant through future consolidations. As we began work, we noticed that many employees had grown nervous about the future of their company and the security of their jobs. As a way to boost employee engagement, we involved them in the creative process. That strategy gave employees ownership over the new brand and the future of their company and enabled them to become effective advocates for the newly created LME-MCO when the new brand was introduced to the region.
Dive deeper into principles 4-6 in Part Two (coming 6/11).


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BTS' "Dynamite" is one of the biggest YouTube videos ever, as if anything else stood a chance
Photo: Alberto E. Rodriguez (Getty Images)
K-pop fans have proven that they can bend the internet to their will when co-opting racist hashtags or diverting attention away from racist politicians and their racist rallies (not to name anyone specific), so it should come as no surprise whatsoever that they'll also happily use their powers to benefit the K-pop bands they love. Bands like, say, BTS, which just released its first-ever all-English single and video last week with "Dynamite." A day or so later, Variety says "Dynamite" had broken the record for most viewers of a YouTube video premiere, hitting 3 million right when it launched and 4 million immediately after.
Within six hours it had more than 40 million views, and within 24 hours it had 98 million—destroying a record set by Blackpink's "How You Like That" (which only managed to get 86 million in its first 24 hours) and giving "Dynamite" the most views in its first 24 hours of any YouTube video ever. It is now Sunday, and "Dynamite" nearly has 164.5 million views. That number will continue to go up, both from BTS fans rewatching it and from new people who want to see what all the fuss is about by clicking the video at the end of this story, and it will presumably increase even further when BTS performs the song at the MTV VMAs next week.
Now, with that out of the way, BTS fans need to get back to their day-jobs and hijack some racist hashtags ahead of the RNC this week. More people need to hear about BTS, fewer people need to hear about the honorable Ivanka Trump.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


I have been using this add-on for years, particularly the "On disk" flag which shows me whether messages in my IMAP folder have downloaded to the local disk. This has been a super useful feature. Unfortunately, the add-on is not working with the new Thunderbird release from mid-November 2018. I really miss it because I have now no idea about the synchronization status of my several Gb of E-mail.
I wonder whether an updated version of this add-on (or at least the "On disk" flag) could be developed.
Rock solid, I've been using it for years, albeit just for one feature that's probably considered minor: having a flag that turns on when a message in an IMAP folder has actually downloaded completely and can be displayed.
This add-on is the only one I could ever find that displays this information.
I can't believe I'm the only one that gets frustrated when I click on a recently-arrived message to discover that it's got a 10MB attachment and that TB won't display _anything_ until it's finished downloading the whole thing.
Was about to lose the plot with searching in TB. This add-on allows you to include/exclude folders from indexing - should be in the base. Thanks!!
If you have some IMAP folders with a lot of messages that you do not need to search, this plugin will make thunderbird run very very fast. On a particular imap server I connect to thunderbird was unusable without this plugin. THANK YOU!!!
Great - real useful tool to eliminate that nasty indexing from junk and temporary folders! Should be a core feature! Indexing hundreds of mails each day in my spam folders is real nasty - so thanks for this.
Love the ability to limit indexing on some folders -- this should be a core feature of Thunderbird.
This review is for a previous version of the add-on (0.3.0).


We're in a boom time for superhero movies, with something like 20 more planned for the next five years. Nevertheless, Steven Spielberg predicted last week that it wouldn't last, saying the genre would "go the way of the Western." And surprisingly, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice director Zack Snyder doesn't necessarily disagree.
"I feel like he's right," Snyder admitted. Still, he thinks Batman and Superman will stand the test of time — unlike, say, "flavor of the week Ant-Man." Read the Zack Snyder Steven Spielberg superhero comments after the jump.
Snyder first addressed Spielberg's predictions in an interview with Yahoo.
He might not be wrong. I think it puts more pressure on us, the filmmakers, to not just crank out superhero movies for the sake of it. To me, the one thing I love working in the DC universe is that Superman and Batman and Wonder Woman are American mythology. It's not about making a superhero, it's a mythological universe that we live in. That I hope stands the test of time. They stood the test of time. That's hopefully the sort of magic bullet. But who knows what audiences will want in the future.
To me it's about the drama, the humanity of it. Those are like Shakespearean characters, Bruce Wayne and Clark Kent, they have inherent drama built into their makeup.
Snyder then followed up his comments in a separate conversation with The Daily Beast, taking the opportunity to get in a dig at the competition.
I feel like he's right. But I feel like Batman and Superman are transcendent of superhero movies in a way, because they're Batman and Superman. They're not just, like, the flavor of the week Ant-Man—not to be mean, but whatever it is. What is the next Blank-Man?
As the director of Man of Steel, Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, and the two Justice League movies, Snyder is really setting the tone for the DC Extended Universe, and he envisions it as epic.
It's a tricky process, setting up the DC universe, or Justice League. The credit goes to [Batman Begins director] Chris Nolan because he set the die for the DC Universe in a great way that I tried to emulate. I look at it as more being mythological than, say, bubblegum. And I think that that's appropriate for Batman and Superman because they're the most mythological of our superheroes.
It's already pretty clear that the DCEU is darker, heavier, and grittier than the MCU, which is neither good nor bad — just different. And as much as the two franchises like to throw friendly jabs at each other, it's probably best for the superhero genre that they're so unlike each other. Nothing would sink the superhero genre faster than a flood of carbon-copy releases.
Snyder's massively mythological, totally non-bubblegum Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice opens March 25, 2016.


What good is exploring a huge world of endless possibilities if you can't do so with your friends? This is precisely what we were thinking! The Crew System allows you and four friends to easily group up and start adventuring together.
The Crew System is very much like a group system from traditional MMOs, except it's persistent; so sort of like a mini-guild. This is separate from Alliances, as Crews allow you to easily band together, whereas Alliances are big communities that don't use this kind of grouping functionality. This particular iteration is our first pass on Crews that Alpha testers will be playing, so certain things may be subject to change or have a bit of polish before actual release – the feedback that our testers provide us will be vital in this process.
So…let's see how it's all done!
Pressing TAB will bring up your character menu – there you will find a button labelled "Crew". Pressing that will take you to the Crew menu where you can click "Create" to form your Crew.
As a Crew Leader you simply type the name of a player and hit invite. You will see the pending request take up one of your slots and are free to cancel it at any time.
Once a player has accepted the invitation you will have your first Crew! This allows you to have global chat to all members using /crew before any messages.
Note: The 'add slot' options are potentially a way for players to increase crew size that we haven't come to a decision on yet, as we want to keep the ability to easily meet up quite limited.
If you have been invited to a crew you will get a chat notification and can head over to the crew menu to either accept or reject the invitation.
Once you've accepted you will get a couple of options at the top of the screen, one of which is the crew beacon. This is a limited one-a-day teleport that will transport you to the nearest revival chamber of your crew leader. They can either meet you there or you can simply explore the local area to find them!
Once you're all set and everyone has met up you are free to chat over any distance and organise your ship building, exploring or pirating ways, it's up to you to decide what kind of crew you want to be.
So far so good! I hope this system expands for larger Alliances in the future!
Hyped for me and my crew to start playing this game!
Can't wait! I got all of my friends into this game, so maybe we could finally start working together!
So cool! I think you guys should keep the "add slot" option so larger alliances can add crew members to cover their player base.
Ok! Thank you for this! Спасибо за это!
Thanks for dat statement, but! u dont tell us u cant see any crew member with name…every player could be ur member…fail…why they dont marked like mmorpgs with a green name ahead.
2. why could a crew have only one ship /shipyard? ok yes u can confirm with pin but u lose our own ship at this moment…why?
You have removed the crew option why?


Endorsements – Thermoskin – Supports and braces for injury and pain management.
The Australian Physiotherapy Association actively supports products that offer excellent health outcomes for all Australians. After meeting strict criteria, the Thermoskin range of heat retainer products has been endorsed – the first and only such range to carry the APA name.
Thermoskin products provide heat therapy to reduce pain for people with soft tissue injuries, arthritis or repetitive strain injuries.
We are excited to put our name to such an excellent range of products.
The Fremantle Dockers have used Thermoskin products since our introduction into the AFL in 1995. Universally the players have found these products to be comfortable and effective. In particular, the knee derotation brace is our brace of choice following ACL knee reconstruction for our players returning to the rigours of AFL football.
I believe thermoskin products are the most supportive and best heat products available. They are an essential part of my medical kit.
It is well documented in Sport Science research that compression, or increasing temperature will increase a muscle's ability to generate force. Thermoskin provides both effectively, and hence is an essential component in our return to play rehabilitation.
I believe the thermoskin products are the best to aid in compression and support after an injury as well as assisting players returning to training from injury.
I have been using Thermoskin products at the South Sydney Rabbitohs since 2007. They allow players to recover quicker from sports injuries by providing additional support, compression and heat therapy to injured sites.


Adilah Aalee has joined our team in 2015. She has started her venture as a reporter and quickly climbed the ladder to become the head of the news reporter.
In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family. Traveling is one of her hobbies and plans to visit a new country on a yearly basis – so far, she counts 12 countries.
Anisah Baseer has joined Islamic News as a freelance photographer in 2016. She proves her experience and style in no time, so she leads our photographer team now.
She is one of the most diversified people in our team and has a plethora of hobbies. Most importantly, she enjoys crafts and tried to engage in all kinds of projects in her free time.
Abdul Hannan is one of the co-founders of Islamic News. He is one of the main news editors within the company as well.
He is married and has four children, so his family represents his main priority. He likes spending time traveling around and enjoys a day out whenever he is off duty.
Masood Bukhari is one of the co-founders and has become one of the main reporters – if something happens, he will be there.
Prior to enlarging the team, he used to do everything for Islamic News. He has more time to spend with his family now, not to mention his hobbies – traveling, swimming and days out.
Here at Islamic News, we take pride in our team. We know that everyone has a fit role in a perfectly running environment. Without one of our members, the whole system falls apart, so we take care of our staff.
We are proud to mention that we have managed to gather together a team of professionals who love what they do and do it to fuel their passions. We are a team, rather than a bunch of people.
We know what people think about the press – everyone is biased. Not us! Islamic News is one of the most unbiased portals in terms of news and editorials. We present you the news as they happen – we are one of the first sources of information in terms of speed, but you can be ensured that what you read is the actual reality. We have already built our reputation on how serious we are when it comes to relating events, so you can leave yourself in good hands.


This week, the Coalition took its regularly scheduled meeting "on the road," holding it in the East Wing of the Capitol. All four chairs of the House and Senate transportation committees were kind enough to meet with us, and the turnout of our own members — about 50 — was quite impressive.
After introductions, APC's Bob Latham kicked it off by recapping the issues that Coalition members currently face: the need for more revenue for our transportation system, stopping the leakage of transportation funds for non-transportation uses, and the impending loss of a $400 million annual revenue stream for public transportation.
The chairpersons then made brief remarks. They are Sens. Kim Ward and John Sabatina (Republican and Democrat, respectively) for the Senate committee, and Reps. Tim Hennessey and Mike Carroll (Republican and Democrat, respectively), for the House committee.
Of those four, only Senator Sabatina has served as a chair of his committee, and Senator Ward had not previously served on her committee at all, so the meeting was a great opportunity to get to know one another. A big thank you to all the Coalition attendees, and an even bigger on for the committee chairs.
We also discussed plans for a series of regional Coalition outreach meetings, which will begin next month. They will be similar to the candidate meetings we organized last fall before the election as we do our part to keep transportation funding issues on the policy agenda. We will share details as these events come together.
An op-ed article in Governing Magazine suggests that a weakening economy makes this the right time to invest in all forms of infrastructure, improving an essential component of economic growth and creating good jobs.
The Federal Highway Administration green-lighted beginning the final design of a two-mile stretch of the Central Susquehanna Valley Thruway in Snyder County.
PennDOT unveiled plans to widen part of I-83 on the Capital Beltway and I-81 from the Maryland line to I-78.
Pennsylvania was lauded for a balanced approach to encouraging development of electric vehicles, a model that could encourage market expansion across the country.
Of Philadelphia's 96 fatal vehicle crashes in 2018, 21 occurred on Roosevelt Boulevard. Speed cameras are expected to be installed later this year.


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Viyellas – What I Saw
It's been a while when Viyellas came out with their first demo, Song 22. Since then they've been through many shows and it's time to proudly present their debut single 'What I Saw'!!!
Ahmi – First Moon
Here is a four man band from Michigan, playing math rock grooves which was very inspiring for us. Ahmi's whole new album is full of great tunes tracks, it's absolutely worth a check! Enjoy! Support this awesome band on Bandcamp! Follow Ahmi on Instagram Follow Ahmi on Facebook
Bridge of Souls – The Answer
6 people, 6 different cultures, 6 vagabond souls, begin their journey through their memories, feelings and lives. Bridge of Souls is an alternative rock group tinted metal originating from Nancy. They will make you discover a world full of energy through their melancholy and their hopes. The diversity of each one is pooled to give […]
Twelve Boar – Elders From The Deep
As mentioned in a post later, Twelve Boar's 'No Forgiveness' was out on 8th September 2017! Following hot on the heels of last year's critically acclaimed 'Beyond The Valley of The Triclops' and 2015's equally praised 'Pitworthy'; 'No Forgiveness' raises the bar once again, seeing the power trio hitting new heights in song writing and […]
Valerie Warntz – I Don't Love You Anymore
Valerie Warntz is an 19-year-old singer-songwriter who has many stories from her life to share with the world. She has been musically inclined since childhood so at 9-years-old she entered into The Sviridov's School of Arts where studied guitar and piano playing, chorus and sol-fa. During the education, she became the winner of many International […]
Single By Sunday – N e v e r e v e r e v e r
Now it's time to listen to a four man band from Glasgow. Single By Sunday's got many fans and a massive following base on social media, playing pop rock, making everybody wet on the dancefloor, especially girls. Check out the music video for they song called 'N e v e r e v e r […]
Indian band Criss Cross is back with a collaboration with Aatrey in Wanderer! A bit melancolic, a bit indie, but a very sophisticated one, with all of the beauty of the tunes they play! And now you can get it on iTunes or on Spotify!
Prufrock – Humming
Prufrock – Canada's coolest poetic artist is back and this is the time to get a taste from his new album 'DemSay' (just released)! Listen to 'Humming' – our favourite from his new release – a classic track, back to hip-hop's original roots. Really a dope one with it's sounding! Enjoy!
AYVY – D.O.S.
"AYVY is an Electronic-Pop and Alternative-Rock duo formed in Helsinki at the beginning of 2015 by Hugo J and Mark V. The name resulted as an acronym out of "Audio and Video And…", denoting the aspirations to eventually make AYVY an art collective branching into Films and other mediums. The Latin American background of its […]
The Vansaders – Roll the Dice
Here is the opening track from The Vansaders' new album 'No Matter What', an evidence of today's hidden rock treasures in the USA! Listen to their music and you won't hear a difference between their professionalism and between a band from the top of the pop-rock charts! Absolutely talented music performers with passion in their […]


Spring returns to the sides of Arthur's Seat, after the snows of the week before.
It may look picturesque, but I could have done without the three extra days stuck in/around Croydon.
Whitehill Grove in concert at Edinburgh's Liquid Room.
It's dark and creepy in the woods at night.
A sign that, perhaps, the worst of winter is behind us again.
Lighting up the surroundings. Why Not? – North Berwick.
In the Town House, Haddington.
Snow at the cross, Pencaitland.
Town square, Duns, Scottish Borders.


09 Apr 2015 by Albert Strasheim.
When I joined CloudFlare about 18 months ago, we had just started to build out our new Data Platform. At that point, the log processing and analytics pipeline built in the early days of the company had reached its limits. This was due to the rapidly increasing log volume from our Edge Platform where we've had to deal with traffic growth in excess of 400% annually.
Our log processing pipeline started out like most everybody else's: compressed log files shipped to a central location for aggregation by a motley collection of Perl scripts and C++ programs with a single PostgreSQL instance to store the aggregated data. Since then, CloudFlare has grown to serve millions of requests per second for millions of sites. Apart from the hundreds of terabytes of log data that has to be aggregated every day, we also face some unique challenges in providing detailed analytics for each of the millions of sites on CloudFlare.
For the next iteration of our Customer Analytics application, we wanted to get something up and running quickly, try out Kafka, write the aggregation application in Go, and see what could be done to scale out our trusty go-to database, PostgreSQL, from a single machine to a cluster of servers without requiring us to deal with sharding in the application.
As we were analyzing our scaling requirements for PostgreSQL, we came across Citus Data, one of the companies to launch out of Y Combinator in the summer of 2011. Citus Data builds a database called CitusDB that scales out PostgreSQL for real-time workloads. Because CitusDB enables both real-time data ingest and sub-second queries across billions of rows, it has become a crucial part of our analytics infrastructure.
Before jumping into the details of our database backend, let's review the pipeline that takes a log event from CloudFlare's Edge to our analytics database.
A web browser makes a request (e.g., an HTTP GET request).
An Nginx web server running Lua code handles the request and generates a binary log event in Cap'n Proto format.
A Go program akin to Heka receives the log event from Nginx over a UNIX socket, batches it with other events, compresses the batch using a fast algorithm like Snappy or LZ4, and sends it to our data center over a TLS-encrypted TCP connection.
Another Go program (the Kafka shim) receives the log event stream, decrypts it, decompresses the batches, and produces the events into a Kafka topic with partitions replicated on many servers.
Go aggregators (one process per partition) consume the topic-partitions and insert aggregates (not individual events) with 1-minute granularity into the CitusDB database. Further rollups to 1-hour and 1-day granularity occur later to reduce the amount of data to be queried and to speed up queries over intervals spanning many hours or days.
Previous blog posts and talks have covered various CloudFlare projects that have been built using Go. We've found that Go is a great language for teams to use when building the kinds of distributed systems needed at CloudFlare, and this is true regardless of an engineer's level of experience with Go. Our Customer Analytics team is made up of engineers that have been using Go since before its 1.0 release as well as complete Go newbies. Team members that were new to Go were able to spin up quickly, and the code base has remained maintainable even as we've continued to build many more data processing and aggregation applications such as a new version of our Layer 7 DDoS attack mitigation system.
Another factor that makes Go great is the ever-expanding ecosystem of third party libraries. We used go-capnproto to generate Go code to handle binary log events in Cap'n Proto format from a common schema shared between Go, C++, and Lua projects. Go support for Kafka with Shopify's Sarama library, support for ZooKeeper with go-zookeeper, support for PostgreSQL/CitusDB through database/sql and the lib/pq driver are all very good.
Use a queue with persistence to allow short periods of downtime for downstream servers and/or consumer services.
Make the data available for processing in real time by scripts written by members of our Site Reliability Engineering team.
Allow future aggregators to be built in other languages like Java, C or C++.
After extensive testing, we selected Kafka as the first stage of the log processing pipeline.
As we mentioned when PostgreSQL 9.3 was released, PostgreSQL has long been an important part of our stack, and for good reason.
Foreign data wrappers and other extension mechanisms make PostgreSQL an excellent platform for storing lots of data, or as a gateway to other NoSQL data stores, without having to give up the power of SQL. PostgreSQL also has great performance and documentation. Lastly, PostgreSQL has a large and active community, and we've had the privilege of meeting many of the PostgreSQL contributors at meetups held at the CloudFlare office and elsewhere, organized by the The San Francisco Bay Area PostgreSQL Meetup Group.
Performance: Our system powers the Customer Analytics dashboard, so typical queries need to return in less than a second even when dealing with data from many customer sites over long time periods.
PostgreSQL: We have extensive experience running PostgreSQL in production. We also find several extensions useful, e.g., Hstore enables us to store semi-structured data and HyperLogLog (HLL) makes unique count approximation queries fast.
Scaling: We need to dynamically scale out our cluster for performance and huge data storage. That is, if we realize that our cluster is becoming overutilized, we want to solve the problem by just adding new machines.
High availability: This cluster needs to be highly available. As such, the cluster needs to automatically recover from failures like disks dying or servers going down.
Business intelligence queries: in addition to sub-second responses for customer queries, we need to be able to perform business intelligence queries that may need to analyze billions of rows of analytics data.
At first, we evaluated what it would take to build an application that deals with sharding on top of stock PostgreSQL. We investigated using the postgres_fdw extension to provide a unified view on top of a number of independent PostgreSQL servers, but this solution did not deal well with servers going down.
Research into the major players in the PostgreSQL space indicated that CitusDB had the potential to be a great fit for us. On the performance point, they already had customers running real-time analytics with queries running in parallel across a large cluster in tens of milliseconds.
CitusDB has also maintained compatibility with PostgreSQL, not by forking the code base like other vendors, but by extending it to plan and execute distributed queries. Furthermore, CitusDB used the concept of many logical shards so that if we were to add new machines to our cluster, we could easily rebalance the shards in the cluster by calling a simple PostgreSQL user-defined function.
With CitusDB, we could replicate logical shards to independent machines in the cluster, and automatically fail over between replicas even during queries. In case of a hardware failure, we could also use the rebalance function to re-replicate shards in the cluster.
CitusDB follows an architecture similar to Hadoop to scale out Postgres: one master node holds authoritative metadata about shards in the cluster and parallelizes incoming queries. The worker nodes then do all the actual work of running the queries.
In CloudFlare's case, the cluster holds about 1 million shards and each shard is replicated to multiple machines. When the application sends a query to the cluster, the master node first prunes away unrelated shards and finds the specific shards relevant to the query. The master node then transforms the query into many smaller queries for parallel execution and ships those smaller queries to the worker nodes.
Finally, the master node receives intermediate results from the workers, merges them, and returns the final results to the application. This takes anywhere between 25 milliseconds to 2 seconds for queries in the CloudFlare analytics cluster, depending on whether some or all of the data is available in page cache.
From a high availability standpoint, when a worker node fails, the master node automatically fails over to the replicas, even during a query. The master node holds slowly changing metadata, making it a good fit for continuous backups or PostgreSQL's streaming replication feature. Citus Data is currently working on further improvements to make it easy to replicate the master metadata to all the other nodes.
At CloudFlare, we love the CitusDB architecture because it enabled us to continue using PostgreSQL. Our analytics dashboard and BI tools connect to Citus using standard PostgreSQL connectors, and tools like pg_dump and pg_upgrade just work. Two features that stand out for us are CitusDB's PostgreSQL extensions that power our analytics dashboards, and CitusDB's ability to parallelize the logic in those extensions out of the box.
PostgreSQL extensions are pieces of software that add functionality to the core database itself. Some examples are data types, user-defined functions, operators, aggregates, and custom index types. PostgreSQL has more than 150 publicly available official extensions. We'd like to highlight two of these extensions that might be of general interest. It's worth noting that with CitusDB all of these extensions automatically scale to many servers without any changes.
HyperLogLog is a sophisticated algorithm developed for doing unique count approximations quickly. And since a HLL implementation for PostgreSQL was open sourced by the good folks at Aggregate Knowledge, we could use it with CitusDB unchanged because it's compatible with most (if not all) Postgres extensions.
HLL was important for our application because we needed to compute unique IP counts across various time intervals in real time and we didn't want to store the unique IPs themselves. With this extension, we could, for example, count the number of unique IP addresses accessing a customer site in a minute, but still have an accurate count when further rolling up the aggregated data into a 1-hour aggregate.
The hstore data type stores sets of key/value pairs within a single PostgreSQL value. This can be helpful in various scenarios such as with rows with many attributes that are rarely examined, or to represent semi-structured data. We use the hstore data type to hold counters for sparse categories (e.g. country, HTTP status, data center).
With the hstore data type, we save ourselves from the burden of denormalizing our table schema into hundreds or thousands of columns. For example, we have one hstore data type that holds the number of requests coming in from different data centers per minute per CloudFlare customer. With millions of customers and hundreds of data centers, this counter data ends up being very sparse. Thanks to hstore, we can efficiently store that data, and thanks to CitusDB, we can efficiently parallelize queries of that data.
For future applications, we are also investigating other extensions such as the Postgres columnar store extension cstore_fdw that Citus Data has open sourced. This will allow us to compress and store even more historical analytics data in a smaller footprint.
CitusDB has been working very well for us as the new backend for our Customer Analytics system. We have also found many uses for the analytics data in a business intelligence context. The ease with which we can run distributed queries on the data allows us to quickly answer new questions about the CloudFlare network that arise from anyone in the company, from the SRE team through to Sales.
We are looking forward to features available in the recently released CitusDB 4.0, especially the performance improvements and the new shard rebalancer. We're also excited about using the JSONB data type with CitusDB 4.0, along with all the other improvements that come standard as part of PostgreSQL 9.4.
Finally, if you're interested in building and operating distributed services like Kafka or CitusDB and writing Go as part of a dynamic team dealing with big (nay, gargantuan) amounts of data, CloudFlare is hiring.


This premise occupies a prominent position on Benburb St in Smithfield, Dublin 7. The premises is in an open plan rectangular shape with potential to divide into separate rooms. To the rear is a W/C and area plumbed for kitchenette.
The surrounding Smithfield area has seen wide scale redevelopment over the past number of years, with new apartments, offices, artist studios, shops, hotels, gyms, cinema and restaurants. The pedestrianised Smithfield Square, has been given a major facelift, with the Plaza now lined with trees and landscaped green areas.
The Luas Red Line stops nearby, and the premises is within walking distance of the Criminal Court, Four Courts, Banks, and Legal Offices.
The new DIT campus at Grangegorman is just north of Smithfield and will be home to 20,000 Students by 2020. There are a number of large scale student accommodation developments under construction in both the Smithfield area and south of the quays in the Thomas St / Liberties area.


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Biografia e carriera
Enrico Bellone si è laureato in Fisica nel giugno del 1962 presso l'Università di Genova con Antonio Borsellino, del cui gruppo di ricerca in biofisica del CNR fu borsista fino al 1966, dopodiché i suoi interessi si rivolsero alla storia e filosofia della scienza.

Dopo un periodo di ricerca alla Domus Galilaeana di Pisa (1967-70) e vari incarichi di insegnamento di storia della fisica all'Università di Genova, divenuto ordinario di Storia della scienza nel 1980, ha insegnato presso l'Università di Lecce e, nuovamente, l'Università di Genova, quindi alla cosiddetta Cattedra Galileiana di Storia della Scienza dell'Università di Padova, appositamente creata per lui nel 1994 dall'allora preside della Facoltà di Scienze, Cesare Pecile. A Padova, ha diretto dal 1998 il Centro Interdipartimentale di Ricerca in Storia e Filosofia delle Scienze della stessa Università.

Nel 1995, diventa Direttore di Le Scienze , versione italiana della statunitense Scientific American, rivista di cultura scientifica fra le più prestigiose in Italia, direzione che lascerà nel 2009. Dalla nascita, avvenuta nel 2003, è stato anche direttore della rivista Mente&Cervello.

Dal 2001, ha insegnato all'Università degli Studi di Milano, dove è stato ordinario di Storia della Scienza e delle Tecniche presso la Facoltà di Scienze Matematiche, Fisiche e Naturali.
Nel 2004, gli è stato assegnato il Premio "Capo d'Orlando" e, nel 2008, con George Lakoff, il Premio "Giulio Preti" per il dialogo fra scienza e democrazia.

È morto nel 2011, all'età di 72 anni.

Opere
 Opere di Kelvin (a cura di), Torino, UTET, 1971.
 Aspetti dell'approccio statistico alla meccanica (1849-1905). Saggio sull'uso di parametri probabilistici nella fisica teorica della seconda metà dell'Ottocento, Pisa-Firenze, Domus Galileiana/Giunti-Barbera, 1972.
 I modelli e la concezione del mondo nella fisica moderna da Laplace a Bohr, Milano, Feltrinelli, 1973.
 Attualità del materialismo dialettico (con Ludovico Geymonat, Giulio Giorello e Silvano Tagliagambe), Roma, Editori Riuniti, 1974.
 Il mondo di carta. Ricerche sulla seconda rivoluzione scientifica, Milano, Mondadori, 1976.
 Le leggi della termodinamica da Boyle a Boltzmann, Torino, Loescher, 1978.
 Le leggi del movimento da Hume a Laplace, Torino, Loescher, 1979.
 Il sogno di Galileo. Oggetti ed immagini della ragione, Bologna, Società editrice il Mulino, 1980.
 La relatività da Faraday a Einstein, Torino, Loescher, 1981.
 Opere scelte di Albert Einstein (a cura di), Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1988.
 I nomi del tempo, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1989. ISBN 8833904695.
 Caos e armonia. Storia della fisica moderna e contemporanea, Torino, UTET Libreria, 1990. ISBN 8877500611 (con successive edizioni).
 Saggio naturalistico sulla conoscenza, Torino, Bollati Boringhieri, 1992. ISBN 8833906507.
 Galileo Galilei: processo al pregiudizio (con Paolo Budinich e Umberto Curi), Trieste, Editoriale Scienza, 1992.
 Spazio e tempo nella nuova scienza, Roma, Carocci, 1994. ISBN 884300137X.
 Galileo – La vita e le opere di una mente inquieta, Roma, Edizioni Le Scienze, 1998.
 I corpi e le cose. Un modello naturalistico della conoscenza, Milano, Bruno Mondadori, 2000. ISBN 8842498068.
 La stella nuova. L'evoluzione e il caso Galilei, Torino, Einaudi, 2003. ISBN 8806164694.
 Lo specchio della mente, Torino, Radio RAI, 2003 (radiodocumentario).
 La scienza negata. Il caso italiano, Torino, Codice Edizioni, 2005. ISBN 8875780234.
  L'origine delle teorie, Torino, Codice Edizioni, 2006. ISBN 88-7578-057-9.
 Molte nature. Saggio sull'evoluzione culturale, Milano, Raffaello Cortina, 2008. ISBN 9788860302151.
 Galilei e l'abisso. Un racconto, Torino, Codice Edizioni, 2009. ISBN 9788875781347
 Qualcosa, là fuori. Come il cervello crea la realtà, Torino, Codice Edizioni, 2011. ISBN 9788875781910.
 Galileo, Keplero e la nascita del metodo scientifico, Roma, Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, 2012.

Curiosità
Nella parte finale della canzone "Il dito medio di Galileo" di Caparezza è inserita una parte della lezione del professor Bellone sul pensiero di Galileo registrata per la collana "Beautiful minds" pubblicata in allegato a La Repubblica e L'Espresso. In particolare, il frammento citato parla dei rapporti tra Galileo e il Vaticano e delle accuse di eresia a suo carico.

Note

Altri progetti

Collegamenti esterni

Direttori di periodici italiani
Professori dell'Università degli Studi di Genova
Professori dell'Università degli Studi di Milano
Professori dell'Università degli Studi di Padova
Professori dell'Università del Salento
Studenti dell'Università degli Studi di Genova

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


My friend Mimi recently shared this article with me. It's a piece on the site Her.meneutics about the December issue of French Vogue that caused a huge uproar. As most December issues are, this one was dedicated to holiday gift giving, with a special section on selecting the right gifts for your loved ones. Doesn't sound so controversial right? The problem was, many of the "gifts" were modeled by children of about six or seven years of age. This is an extreme example of the sexualization of children, certainly. But, I think we all need to ask ourselves if such a depiction of little girls is really that much different from those that are offered by clothing lines that are made specifically for children. For example, Beyoncé's clothing line for children displays little girls in outfits that aren't that different from those in French Vogue, expect that they're the right sizes for the children.
Now, I love fashion. I think it can be a fun way to express your individuality and personality. What I oppose is the message that we're sending to kids when the options we provide them with to express their individuality are all about sexuality. Come on, there are more original and smarter ways to express oneself than that! There are age appropriate clothing choices out there for children. Aside from t-shirts for girls that say "Future Trophy Wife" and for boys that say "Moms, lock the girls up," there are options that allow our children to express themselves while remaining children. It's time for us to let children be children, and to say no thank you to those who would push them out of childhood so soon. It's not fashionable, it's harmful.
This entry was posted on January 4, 2011 by Jennifer Shewmaker in Acting, Cooperating, For Teens and Tweens, Recognizing and tagged distortion of beauty, Media and children, media and gender, media and girls, media harms girls, media messages and children, parents and children, sexualization of children, what can parents do.


We're going back in this post to 2006 to a one-person show I had at Panopticon Gallery when it was in Waltham, MA. It was still owned by Tony Decaneas then and Panopticon Imaging, which was the lab and printing component of Tony's business, was run by the wonderful Paul Sneyd with a lab in the basement.
I got it in my head that for this show I was going to exhibit "series works" so over the course of the previous summer and fall made whole series into fairly small inkjet prints, then matted and framed everything. My book, "American Series" had been published the year before and I was working to draw attention to it.
The gallery was quite large so this ended up being a big show.
By 2006 I was working in color, by shooting transparencies and color negatives, then scanning and making inkjet prints. But this show was all black and white.
The Mutter Museum photographs. I had just finished this body of work the year before.
I practically killed myself making the prints and doing all the framing. In fact, Shannon from Panopticon Imaging can tell the story of how I delivered the work bent over and almost unable to walk with a bad back. I remember I spent most of the opening on a stool as standing was very painful.
Summer Hill in Atlanta, Georgia on the left and Wheat (the large one in 8 x 10 and the smaller aerials in 2 1/4).
On the right, Old Trail Town, Cody, Wyoming.
The space was right on Moody Street in downtown Waltham and had a classic storefront window.
I remember arriving at the opening reception to find that Barbara and Tom Dunn had already arrived. Babs has just recently died. She was in her 90s. But these two were longtime family friends of my parents' generation. Babs was a wonderful artist and had been hugely influential to me when I was starting out. They lived in Lincoln MA which was not far from the gallery but by 2006 Tom was very frail and didn't go out much. This was a big effort to get to my opening and it brought me to tears to see them there.
It was difficult to get people to come to Waltham to see the work. I'd like to think this was a better show than the venue that displayed it, not because of the quality of the gallery but because of where it was. The opening reception attracted modest numbers. I believe Tony felt the same way. He got out soon thereafter and moved his gallery into the current space at Commonwealth Hotel in Kenmore Square in Boston.
Was it worth it? Absolutely. Most often it is better to show work than not to. I have a longstanding belief that making photographs is a process of communication. This means that the end result is having the work be seen. The show that year at Panopticon Gallery did just that, although not to as many as I would have liked. Another benefit to showing this work was that I could put it behind me and move on to new projects.That year I started photographing with a digital camera, making projects and series works for the first time that were all digital. That was a sea change in the way that I make my art and is the way I work now. In some sense the Panopticon show was a way to put the methodology of analog behind me and to allow new ways of working and seeing to be front and center.
This is a project made while living in Cody, Wyoming the summer of 2005.
Prints are archival inkjet @ 12 in square.


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Anne-Marie Waters: I'm Prepared For Exodus If I Win
Guido found Anne-Marie Waters hiding out with staff at a cafe outside UKIP's conference in Torquay. She had not been seen inside the conference centre all day. Asked how she would deal with a mass exodus from the party if she wins the leadership she said:
"We'll see if there is one, let's see what happens… I don't see how they come to the conclusion that criticising a religion, a religion that's responsible for misery and suffering around the world, will never be racist."
Spoiler alert: there will be an exodus if she wins…
mdi-timer 29th September 2017 @ 3:04 pm 29th Sep 2017 @ 3:04 pm mdi-comment Comments Is UKIP Finished?
I'm just getting ready… pic.twitter.com/Yqbt74tCAH
— george garbow (@forgefarbow) September 24, 2017
If Anne Marie Waters wins Nigel Farage says UKIP is finished and there is no future for UKIP if it is led by her. With most of the votes in and the count due on Friday her noisy supporters on social media are convincing themselves she will win. The bookies agree. Calling UKIP sources who are usually in the know it is clear no one really knows. Did her recently joined UKIP supporters register in time to vote? Do most 'Kippers pay any attention to social media?
Guido has a hunch that Peter Whittle will win. Arron Banks' Leave.EU has backed David Kurten. There is a surprisingly long list of candidates. The threat by the UKIP MEPs to resign en masse if Anne Marie Waters wins will surely have been noticed by ordinary members. If Anti-Sharia Anne Marie wins the UKIP rebrand at their conference this weekend will be colourful…
mdi-timer 25th September 2017 @ 2:49 pm 25th Sep 2017 @ 2:49 pm mdi-comment Comments UKIP Leadership Candidate: We're In Danger of Becoming Nazis
UKIP leadership candidate Henry Bolton is not a star name but he has boosted his profile in the party during this year's contest and has won a lot of support from members. Bolton says he's the Farageist candidate and counts Nigel as one of his supporters. Today he has issued a fairly extraordinary statement warning that if Anne Marie Waters (who he doesn't name) becomes leader then UKIP could become "the UK Nazi Party". It's strong stuff…
"Under the wrong leadership, we could see a swing away from our traditional, secular values and stances; towards something far darker… we could easily slip towards the ideals of National Socialism. The last thing UKIP needs is to become the UK Nazi Party… In my opinion, using broad brushstrokes of ignorance to target and denounce one group within the UK population is absolutely wrong. In fact, it's very reminiscent of the policies invoked under both fascist and communist regimes during the 20th century… Frankly, seeking to blame one section of our community for society's ills is not patriotism; it's a form of totalitarianism that goes against everything UKIP as a political force has ever achieved. UKIP was set up to fight the 'totalitarian' effects of EU influence on British society. Therefore, I will not sit back and watch the party be hijacked by those who seek to now seize on our success to drive forward their own agenda."
Kippers starting to seriously worry about what becomes of their party if Waters pulls off an upset…
mdi-timer 11th September 2017 @ 3:10 pm 11th Sep 2017 @ 3:10 pm mdi-comment Comments
Anne Marie Waters' UKIP Candidacy Challenged
UKIP leadership hopeful Henry Bolton is challenging the candidacy of anti-Islam candidate Anne Marie Waters, accusing the party's NEC of violating its rulebook by allowing her to stand. Bolton said:
"I believe the National Executive Committee's decision to allow Anne-Marie Waters to stand in the party's leadership election is in violation of the party's Rules of Procedure… I have initiated this challenge in an attempt to preserve the governance and future of our party. There is little point in having Rules of Procedure if they are not applied…"
The party's rules state that a leadership candidate must have been in "good standing continuously" for two years, but Waters was banned from standing as a UKIP candidate at the general election. Was a surprise that they let her on the ballot…
mdi-timer 25th August 2017 @ 11:44 am 25th Aug 2017 @ 11:44 am mdi-comment Comments Farage Slaps Down Anti-Islam UKIP Candidate
What will happen if @UKIP elects an anti-Islam candidate as leader? "The party would be finished" @Nigel_Farage tells @EllieJPrice #bbcsp pic.twitter.com/w6ZHZwFumZ
— DailySunday Politics (@daily_politics) July 16, 2017
Nigel Farage has slapped down UKIP's anti-Islam leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters and warned members the party would be "finished" if she became leader. Nige says of Waters, the Walter Mitty socialist-turned-Tommy Robinson wannabe:
"If UKIP goes down the route of being a party that is anti the religion of Islam, then frankly it's finished… The party would be finished."
Sensible 'Kippers will listen to Nigel rather than scream that he has joined the establishment. Tough one for the alt-right / Breitbart crowd to take.
mdi-timer 17th July 2017 @ 2:13 pm 17th Jul 2017 @ 2:13 pm mdi-comment Comments Anne Waters Mitty: Strike-Backing Socialist and Self-Proclaimed "Left-Winger"
UKIP's anti-Islam leadership candidate Anne Marie Waters can be revealed as a strike-supporting socialist and trade unionist who played an active role in the Labour Party for a decade and described her political views as "standard left-wing". Waters is the supposedly hard-right, Tommy Robinson-endorsed candidate in the UKIP leadership race. UKIP figures are concerned she is a Walter Mitty character, self-publicist and entryist who has taken a less than credible political journey. A 2011 video obtained by Guido shows Waters, then a prospective Labour candidate in Thurrock, talking up her socialist credentials:
"Most of what I believe would be standard left-wing… I believe in what I believe in. I believe in a strong public sector, I believe in the NHS. If there was a traditional left-wing, yes… that's what I believe in…
I definitely endorse the right to strike and I think the Labour Party needs to stand up for the right to strike more often… I always support the trade unionists, I'm naturally inclined to support the trade unionists and I think Labour needs to reconnect with the trade unions… Generally I support strikers and certainly I support the right to strike…
The first issue and the one I am most concerned about is the NHS. I think we've lost sight of why we had an NHS. We've lost sight of why the Labour Party created the NHS and we need to return to those principles. And it's under very sustained attack now by the Tories. They're gonna try and do now what Thatcher couldn't do, which was entirely privatise the NHS."
Words which will rule her out as an option for traditional UKIP members.
Guido can reveal Waters was a Labour Party member for ten years. She was a Labour council candidate in London and ran to be Labour's parliamentary candidate in Brighton Pavilion. In her 2013 resignation letter – deleted from the internet but obtained by Guido – Waters says she "spent endless hours canvassing, door-knocking, minute-taking (as constituency secretary) and I held several posts at branch, constituency, and borough level".
There is of course a long tradition of left-wing nationalists, from Oswald Mosley to Marine Le Pen. Though Waters' political journey from Milibandite to the female Tommy Robinson suggests she is not so principled. UKIP supporters have taken to calling her "Anne Waters Mitty"…
mdi-timer 4th July 2017 @ 11:58 am 4th Jul 2017 @ 11:58 am mdi-comment Comments Previous Page Next Page


The SFU Research Council in composed of two sub-groups, the Student Research Council and the Professional Research Council. These two councils work together to promote the research agenda of the SFU and reports directly to the SFU Executive Council. The Research Council works to provide knowledge of and access to the comprehensive body of SFBT research. The SFU Research Council also works to increase the exposure of SFBT practitioners to relevant research that may positively impact their clinical work with clients and trainees. The Research Council is dedicated to increasing the amount of SFBT research available that addresses how SFBT can be used to aid underserved and marginalized populations in a meaningful and effective manner.
The Student Research Council is comprised of promising student researchers who are interested in SFBT from any academic field. These student researchers may be undergraduate or graduate students. The Student Research Council works under the direction of the Professional Research Council and supports the efforts of the Professional Research Council. However, with guidance from the Professional Research Council advisor, the Student Research Council also produces original research for publication.
The Professional Research Council oversees the research agenda of the SFU. This Council works to produce original innovative research, oversees the distribution of the SFU Research Grant(s), advises and collaborates with the Student Research Council, and provides outreach to the SFU community and larger mental health communities regarding research related topics. The Professional Research Council works to expand the visibility and accessibility of the SFBT research. The Professional Research Council is particularly interested in expanding the SFBT research relevant to underserved and marginalized populations.


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« It's Immersive! | Home | Into The Depths »
It's Tragic
It seems that every so often, someone out there thinks we need a little gloom in our games. A dark cloud to go with the silver lining. A touch of tragedy.
This popped up last year, for instance, when, in Move To Black?, we considered the suggestion that developers look to film noir for inspiration. That genre is certainly tragic.
Then, just awhile ago, there was The Flaws That Refreshes?, which looked at character flaws, although from a slightly more positive angle. That is, flaws as dramatic points in a game, weaknesses to be overcome. Of course, in noir, it's the flaws of the main characters that bring them to a sorry end.
Now, we have Psychochild (and Coyote) pondering tragedy in games. They seem to be looking at it strictly from the main character point of view. The "noirish" type. But is that necessary to have tragedy?
Yeah, if you went through the game making wrong decisions, you could end up with a terrible finale. It would also be terribly disappointing. Who really wants to put in hours of work, and get a slap in the face?
Even worse, what if you made all the right decisions, and ended up badly? Remember Infidel? That was one of the few Infocom games that gave you a "pre-genned" character, and he was a creep. You went through the game, solved all the puzzles, and ended up buried alive. It still upsets me to think about that one.
On the other hand, who says tragedy has to be "big"? There can be painful moments in a game. You could make a wrong decision now, and have it come back to bite you later, without necessarily affecting the ending (at least to the point where the game ends "tragically").
Suppose there's a small village that asks for your help. You say sure, and it's #16 on your "list of dreary side jobs". So you whizz off, doing this, that, and the other. Finally you get to the village job.
Only there's no village. The orcs came, the orcs left, and now there's nothing but burned buildings and bodies. And unless you want to replay a whole bunch (presuming you have a save that far back), you're stuck. This could also happen if you turn down the job, having already so much to do.
That would certainly be a tragedy. Not just because you missed out on a reward; an entire village was destroyed because you made a bad decision. Incidents like this (not many, I hope) could add tragic elements to a game, and that's just one way to do it.
This needs to be done with a light hand. Too many "bad things" happening will just turn players off. After all, in the end, we play for fun. Tragedy isn't fun, especially when it happens to us.
Tragedy in Video Games on Coyote's blog
Tragedy in Games on Psychochild's blog
This entry is filed under Editorials/Essays. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.
10 Responses to "It's Tragic"
grassBlade says:
One of the Ultima games (4/5?) had a tragic element: the beheading of one of the henchmen. It was definitely tragic from my point of view.
The 'endangered village' concept would enhance a game in that quests would seem more necessary and immediate and the pc's actions more meaningful.
Coyote says:
Depths of Peril…. :)
It's on a smaller scale, though, and nothing is truly permanent, which robs consequences of their emotional impact (other than being frustrating).
Scorpia	 says:
Coyote, you would get a mention of that game in, huh? ;) Too bad that "nothing is permanent", though.
GB, I don't recall any of your companions being beheaded in any Ultima. However, in U7, either Black Gate or Serpent Isle, Dupre the paladin sacrifices himself for a reason I no longer remember. That was rather startling!
They could have a busload of lawyers with an empty seat going over a cliff, that would be tragic.
Scorpia: Hey, I call myself an "indie evangelist," so I figure I'd better walk up to the title!
Xian: Could be worse with two empty seats, I guess…
Tumbleweed says:
What about a game where tragedy IS the point?
I can't think of any game where this was done(can anyone else?), but now that I'm mulling the concept over, I can can think of some attractive points to a game where the whole point is to deal with or instigate tragedies.
Of course such a game would be pilloried.
Dunno, Tumbleweed. There could be some small indie game out there that has tragedy as the main point, but I haven't heard of one myself.
You're quite right. My guess is, critics might like it, but most gamers wouldn't.
Xian, hehe.
Well, if you follow the Anarch ending of Bloodlines, then the Prince pretty much dies of his own hubris. Or if you choose the power-hungry ending, I guess, you die of your own hubris. Well, that, and a bomb…
As far as indie games where tragedy is the point… I guess there's Super Columbine Massacre RPG, but I wouldn't really wish that one on anyone.
Verbose	 says:
Also in the twisted ending category is the ARPG qwest mode of the Genesis game Gauntlet IV. The player gets promised fabulous wealth and immortality if he storms the castle and slays the dragon guarding the treasure. Well, after the endless slogging–27,9xx dead monsters' worth in my case–the player polishes off the dragon and gets his "reward."
Specifically, he gets his soul yanked into the resurrected dragon's body, and the first order of business thereafter is blowing away the shell of his painstakingly built-up former self. Sigh. After that's done, whee, you're immortal and filthy rich, but you can't leave the castle, and now other adventurers will come to slay you….
I felt more than a bit cheated as the end credits rolled over that ending. Definitely a heavy-handed meditation on the love of money being the root of all evil.
Avernum 3 has a tragic plot event that happens if the player doesn't complete the game in a fairly posthaste fashion, and the game ends ugly if the player doesn't clean up said tragic event in a truly posthaste fashion. Those idiots in the Tower of Magi never learn….
Avernum 3 doesn't make an issue of it, but an earlier section ends badly for the player's horses if he (logically) rides them to a certain dunjon that he can only clear–surprise!–by destroying it. The mandatory evacuation route doesn't allow getting back on the horsies.
Subsections of the Fallouts have tragic epilogues if the player didn't do things right while in that town.
Wow Verb, that ending is right down there with Infidel. I think I would've smashed the disk, cartridge, or whatever had that happened to me. "Cheated" is an understatement.
It also seems a good thing I didn't play Avernum 3. That stuff sounds more like "trick the player" than anything else.
Fallout, yeah, had some nice twists to it. Those made sense.


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Opelousas budget fails to pass at council meeting
The Opelousas operating budget failed to pass Tuesday evening at the city's council meeting
Council members Julius Alsandor, Tyronne Glover, and Blair Briggs voted no to the proposed budget.
"I voted no tonight because the auditor told us that all the numbers are not in. I would rather all the numbers be in and make a conscious decision moving the city forward making sure the numbers are where they need to be," Alderman Tyrone Glover said.
The city's Chief Financial Officer, Steven Woods, said there is nothing wrong with the budget as reflected in a legislative auditors opinion, however, he is more comfortable moving forward in September when the numbers are available.
"To be honest with you, I could make your budget look really good, but come August you may be visiting me down through Angola somewhere. So in order for me not to do that, I rather do that the right way … and if we have to … that's what we have to do," Woods said.
Mayor Reggie Tatum and the CFO said the city is going into the new budget year with a two million dollar surplus. Alderman Blair Briggs pointed out a discrepancy in the budget.
"It's not a two million dollar surplus according to this budget, it's a two million dollar fund balance. The surplus for this projected year is about $125,000. That's the projection. It's $125,000," Brigs said.
Briggs said for a city the size of Opelousas, $125,000 may not be actually what's left after all expenses for the year are paid.
Other council members like councilwoman Jacqueline Martin felt the budget should have been passed Tuesday night.
"I voted yes to adopt the budget because I was pleased with the interview Mr. Woods gave me. He went down the budget line by line and I was satisfied with what I was told," Martin said.
The 2018-2019 budget was introduced earlier this month by Alderman Jacqueline Martin. The next budget meeting will be held September 21, 2018. A meeting to vote on the budget will be on September 28, 2018.


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Memorandum submitted by the British Retail Consortium (G1)
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) represents the whole range of retailers including large multiples, department stores and independent shops, selling a wide selection of products through centre of town, out of town, rural and virtual stores.
In December 2001, the retail sector employed some 2.8 million people[1] and retail sales were £221 billion 2001[2]. Grocery retailing is equally significant in macro economic terms and was valued in 2001 at £99.8 billion[3].
The spectrum of government departments, non-departmental public bodies and directorate generals of the European Commission the policies of which impact on the retail sector is considerable. BRC therefore welcomed the change in structure which amalgamated environment, food and farming policy as in principle, this promises better opportunities for "joined up" Government and in time a better understanding of the impact of proposals on the retail sector.
We also welcomed the importance placed on the promotion of a competitive and integrated food supply chain which is responsive to the needs of consumers. UK grocery retailing relies heavily on the domestic supply base and, where possible prefers, to source from within the UK. However our primary focus must be to meet the needs of the British consumer and the importance of the global supply base must be recognised in this respect. While retailers are willing to work together and with other food chain partners on non-competitive food chain issues, food retailers are instinctively competitive. To survive in the market they must provide real value for money to the consumer and to respond faithfully to his or her changing demands as a primary and overriding objective.
It is difficult to comment definitively on DEFRA's performance after only 12 months of operation, particularly given the unforeseen consequences of the Foot and Mouth Disease outbreak which has been dominant over the past year.
We can however offer the following comments and hope that they will be useful in the Committee's Inquiry.
Is the vision set out by the Secretary of State appropriate and what progress has been made towards that vision?
The BRC supports the aims and objectives of the new Department and on balance believes it has a sound appreciation of the importance of preserving economic viability while pursuing environmental sustainability goals.
In May 1999 Government published its strategy for a UK sustainable development programme entitled "A better Quality of Life, a Strategy for Sustainable Development in the UK". This called for concerted action by business sectors, encouraging trade associations to develop sectoral sustainability strategies. The retail sector was one of the first to publish a strategy, joining the Sustainability Pioneers Group with likeminded trade associations committed to developing sectoral sustainability strategies. BRC is currently investigating the extension of its retail sustainability strategy to cover food as part of its response to the Curry Report.[4]
However, retailers feel that there have been times where the important partnership between industry and Government has not been fully exploited. Closer involvement with the retail sector could have provided important early warning signs during negotiations on the Ozone Depleting Substances Regulations that would have highlighted problems with implementation. Had industry concerns been acknowledged the resulting fridge mountain may have been avoided. The DTI retail sponsor function played no role in helping to make the retail case which leads us to question Government's ability to think across departments and again to suggest that a greater examination and definition of the sponsorship role takes place.[5]
FOOD CHAIN ISSUES
Much of food retail's relationship with DEFRA has been dominated by the outbreak of the foot and mouth disease in the UK. FMD created significant operational problems for the food retail sector, not least in distributing food to Northern Ireland. If we have one criticism to make of the Department it is that it tended to view the crisis solely as an animal health issue and not one which also had the potential to undermine consumer confidence in food safety and to disrupt the supply of food to the consumer.
The BRC also welcomes the increasing Government recognition of food retail as equal partner in an integrated food chain. We welcome the recent enhancements to the Food Industry Division and in particular the creation of a special responsibility for food retailing. While we are optimistic that the division will help ensure that the concerns of food retail are heard across Government, we note that at current staffing levels this will be an ambitious task. As an interim suggestion, we would welcome the introduction of a more formal programme of secondments between Government and food retailing to ensure that officials are given the opportunity to witness first hand the practical impact of policy making. The BRC would be happy to co- ordinate such a programme. Certainly, in crisis situations, it is important that DEFRA look for the experts in issues to help them, even if they come from industry. It is also important that the communication channels for issues are clear. During FMD for example it was difficult to get through to key staff. For food retail it is important to have queries dealt with so we are in a position to reassure customers.
As regards the role of DEFRA as the food retail sponsor, we believe that this area would benefit further definition to promote a clear mutual understanding between food retailing and Government.
RURAL ISSUES
BRC has had little contact with the Department during the development of the rural agenda. This is regrettable given the potential for retail-led regeneration in rural areas. We look forward to developing a closer relationship with the department in this area in the coming year. We believe that the option of moving responsibility for rural development from DEFRA to the Department for Local Government and the Regions may have some merits. It could then be considered alongside the strategy for the regeneration of urban areas.
Is the Department engineered to deliver its objectives?
We have mixed views about effectiveness of the DEFRA structure. In principle the amalgamation of farming, food and environmental policy should create opportunities for joined up Government. However in reality, on the environment side we feel that in recent negotiations the department has displayed a lack of understanding of the practical impact of proposals on retail. Industry has already expressed concerns over the possible implications of both the Landfill and Waste Electronic Equipment Directives. While the transition of European policy has been well tracked by officials, the lack of understanding of industry impact and practical measures required for implementation has once again been disappointing.
FOOD CHAIN
For food retailers the biggest challenge of recent and future times is to respond positively to the recommendations of the Curry report. The Committee should be aware however of overlaps in policy responsibility between Government bodies which will have a bearing on our response. For example the Food Standards Agency is currently working on consumer expectations of farm assurance schemes which we will need to take into account. We raise this, as in the past, we feel that early cross Government working between DEFRA and FSA could have improved the way issues have been dealt with. For example, earlier involvement of the Food Standards Agency during the FMD outbreak might have created a greater awareness among officials that FMD had the potential to undermine consumer confidence in food safety and was not simply an animal health issue. Nutrition is another example of an area where DOH, DEFRA and FSA have a stake. In handling all these issues it is important that the sector not only sees joined up Government, but also clarity of response.
Finally on the question of structure we would underline the importance of policy decisions driven in England being co-ordinated as far as possible with the devolved administrations of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland. Part of the success UK retailing can be attributed to its centralised/national approach to business which has afforded new efficiencies and economies of scale. These economies can be undermined if opportunities for synergy between territories are overlooked.
1 Labour Market Trends, National Statistics. Back
2 SDM28 Retail Sales, National Statistics. Back
3 IGD. Back
4 Towards Retail Sustainability-Protecting our Environment for the future-BRC. Back
5 The pioneers group is a joint initiative from the Sustainable Development Commission (SDC), DTI and DEFRA providing a forum for the exchange of best practice amongst around 20 organisations. Back
Prepared 14 November 2002


Lymphdiaral® sensitive-cream is a homeopathic remedy used to relieve symptoms of swelling and inflammation, such as pain, fever, swollen lymph nodes due to injury or recurrent conditions such as earaches, tonsillitis and sinusitis. It has been used worldwide for over 50 years and has excellent tolerability. The sensitive-cream from Pascoe is a great option for children and for application on sensitive areas.
To learn more about how to apply Lymphdiaral sensitive-Cream, please see the Applying Cream guide here.
Lymphdiaral® Sensitive Drainage-Cream is an effective first aid to relieve symptoms of injuries and also a great remedy for relieving symptoms of chronic injuries or recurrent conditions. It is suitable for children over the age of 2.
Lymphdiaral uses the power of nature to help relieve symptoms of swelling and inflammation. Made with conium, calendula, and colchicum, plus other ingredients from nature.
For non-sensitive option see Lymphdiaral® Drainage-Cream, which is especially useful for larger parts of the body and less sensitive areas.
For Oral administration see Lymphdiaral drops, which is especially useful for swelling and inflammation associated with infection.
A direct comparison to Traumeel.
Adults and children (2-12 years old): Apply the cream sparingly one to three times daily, first in the lymph node drainage area (neck, groin), then in the area where you are experiencing symptoms.
Cetostearyl alcohol may cause local skin irritation (e.g. contact dermatitis). Consult a healthcare practitioner before using in pregnancy or breastfeeding. In the absence of adequate experiential documentation, this homeopathic remedy should not be used in children under 2 years of age.
There have been very rare reports of itching skin rashes, which resolve after discontinuation of the ointment.


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Broccoli is an amazing superfood. With over 200% of your daily needed vitamin C, it's an amazing staple to any diet, even if you aren't vegan. With broccoli readily available, fresh or frozen, it's easy to have it as part of every dinner! While steaming broccoli makes it soft and delicious, doing it often can get the family turning their nose up at it. Here's a helpful recipe to change up how to cook up this tasty vegetable!
The lemon in this dish helps balance out the rich flavour of the broccoli. Adding a bit of acidity to anything that has a strong flavour is always a good tip! With anything from vegetables to sauces, spritzing a little lemon juice on top of something adds a little zest and a little kick, giving it more than one note and making the dish a little less bland.
Using a sharp knife, slice up the broccoli length-wise, keeping the pieces long and thin. Since roasting them will shrink them, be sure to not cut your pieces too small!
Quarter your lemon, removing seeds as needed.
Place your broccoli on a baking dish in one flat layer, making sure no pieces overlap. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkling evenly with salt. Squeeze the quartered lemon over the broccoli.
Let roast in the oven for 15-20 minutes, depending on how soft you'd like your broccoli.
This is a great side dish to go along with any meal, and the recipe is fool-proof and almost effortless! It's easy as pie to throw it in before starting on your main dish, and can even be done with frozen, pre-cut broccoli. Just make sure to let it roast a little longer.
With the crisp texture and rich flavour of this side dish, you can show even non-vegans that healthy and cruelty-free eating can be exciting and rewarding.


The English translation was corrected and arranged by Roderick Russell-Jones, who is a Briton, living in the South of France for many years now. He has decades of experience with sighthounds, first with Lurchers back in England, later with Greyhounds and Galgos, with whom he successfully participates in shows and sports.
Originally bred in its homeland, Spain, for hunting hares, the Galgo Español has found his way into the rest of the world. One reason surely is that the breed is also suited as a pleasant companion and a family dog.
Galgos show the typical characteristics of sighthounds. At home, they behave relatively calm and unobtrusive as they save their energy and their Spanish fire for the outside walks. They are very affectionate with their master and their family. Galgos are gentle and sensitive with children and get along easily with other dogs and even with cats, when they have got used to them.
Galgos are not stupid and in contrast to the generally held opinion that sighthounds are not obedient, they are relatively easy to educate and are willing to learn all the most important commands. Once you have got a Galgo as a companion, you will never want to be without him again.
"Congratulations on an excellent book!"
"I really enjoyed reading the English book and especially the chapter on "Appearance". That chapter should be a must for anyone who wants to judge the Galgo Español."
"We've just adopted a 2 yr old Galgo Espanol & though expensive, this book has given us a great deal of insight & information about a wonderful breed of dog, often abused & discarded in it's native land."
"This book (which I read in one sitting the day it arrived) has been very helpful and interesting. It has reinforced other information I read and is also true to my experience, so far, of living with my lovely hound."


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5 Aspects of Games to Leverage for Increased Millennial Engagement & Retention
Do you track your American Express points, your frequent flyer miles, Fitbit steps, Weight Watcher points, or your LinkedIn profile strength bar? If so, you have fallen victim to being engaged through gamification. But it's okay because as humans we are wired to play games. Have you ever thought to harness the power of gaming to engage your Millennial employees?
Wikipedia defines gamification as the use of game design techniques and mechanics in a non-game context to solve problems and engage users. The key word there is engage. And what's more engaging than video games? According to Millennials, nothing. Understand and play to Millennial's hard-wired gaming needs to effectively engage and retain them as employees in the workplace.
How big has the world of gaming become? Consider the below statistics from American game designer, Jane McGonigal's book, Reality Is Broken: How Games Make Us Better and Can Change The World:
• 69% of all heads of households play computer or video games.
• 97% of youth play computer or video games.
• 35 is the average age of a gamer.
• 61% of surveyed CEOs, CFOs, and other senior executives say they take daily game breaks at work.
Why is it important to consider gamification in the workplace? Because we are seeing an engagement epidemic of epic proportions at work today. In fact, 70% of American employees aren't working to their full potential and are not engaged at work (Gallup). Actively disengaged employees cost the U.S. $450 billion to $550 billion in lost productivity per year (Gallup). And 91% of Millennials expect to stay in a job less than 3 years (Forbes).
I'm not advocating that we play games at work. But rather let's understand why games are so engaging and infuse those elements into our work culture. I believe if you create a culture of fully engaged employees, the retention of your next generation of leaders will take care of itself.
[Tweet "Let's understand why games are engaging and infuse that into work culture @HRCloud"]
1) Customize: Choices boost capacity.
Games offer the choices of who to play with, when to play, and what to play. Games offer the customization of the user profile or avatar (game character) with unique abilities, traits, and appearances. Gamers also thrive on the freedom to choose a specific mission or storyline. Similarly, Millennials are interested in customizing their career track and the specific work they do.
For example, Deloitte has a "Mass Career Customization" program that allows employees to customize their work preferences. It's like a "choose your own adventure" game when it comes to how, where, and when you work.
2) Control: Ownership produces outcomes.
Gamers are in control of the outcomes. With a controller in hand, gamers control their avatar's movement, decisions, and the ultimate outcome of the game. Much the same way, Millennials are interested in having control of their careers. They desire ownership of their positions, tasks, and the outcomes.
For example, Valve (ironically, a four billion dollar video game company) offers modular work where employees get to select the projects they work on the same way they would if there were freelancers.
3) Cultivate: Development triggers devotion.
Gamers learn and cultivate skills through action and failing. In fact, according to Jane McGonigal's Reality Is Broken, on average gamers fail 80% of the time and yet they still find the gaming experience enjoyable. Gamers have the option to enter tutorials where they can hone their skills or practice a level over and over to master it. The progress bar in games is very satisfying because we can see how far we've come and how much we have left to conquer. Millennials want a clear picture of what is expected of them and what skills are required to level-up and accomplish more at work. Communicate expectations clearly and provide environments where they can advance themselves.
For example, Zappos offers a "skill set" system that allows employees to get certified and received a pay bump with each new skill set acquired.
4) Collaboration: Involvement sparks innovation.
We build trust quickly with those that we play games with. We trust they will play within the rules and that they will stick with the game. Growing up
playing massive online multi-player games, Millennials came to understand that nothing significant can be achieved alone. The bigger the team, the epic-er the win. Millennials seek collaboration. They learn better and quicker in teams. And often times they will leverage their social networks to crowdsource their research or decision making.
For example, Treehouse, a company that teaches people how to build websites and apps, has an internal collaboration and project management tool called "flow" where employees can propose projects and then recruit people for the project.
5) Consequence: Purpose activates participation.
Gamers willingly struggle from level to level and puzzle to puzzle for the ultimate goal of saving the world. Gaming is engaging because the result is often bigger than ourselves and we surprise ourselves for what we are actually capable of. Millennials desire an epic win. Their definition of success is meaningful work. In reality and in games, they want to change the world. Communicate the consequence, "If you do this, you'll achieve this." If Millennials know "the why" of their work or your organization, they will throw their heart fully into their work.
For example, at Warby Parker, an eyeglass retailer, for every pair of glasses purchased, a pair is distributed to someone in need. There is a clear consequence for every pair sold and every employee's work is bigger than themselves. So far they've distributed over a million pairs of glasses to people in need—epic win!
Level-up your organization by infusing the engaging and transformative traits of games. Because if you do, the likelihood of having disengaged Millennial employees is...


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Browsing articles by Carolyn King
By Carolyn King on January 28, 2020
As climate warming turns up the heat, how will Canadian potato production be affected? "Potato crops are known to be sensitive to high temperatures," says Xiu-Qing Li, a research scientist at Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada's (AAFC) Fredericton Research and Development Centre. "Potatoes evolved high in the Andes of South America where conditions are relatively cool. So, they grow best at temperatures around 22 degrees Celsius, which makes Canada a great place for potato…
Better Sooner Than Later
By Carolyn King on October 9, 2019
Late blight is a deadly disease that requires integrated management, including foliar fungicides as a key tool. Usually potato growers make repeated preventive applications of broad-spectrum fungicides starting before row closure, and then use late blight-specific fungicides if the disease is found in their fields. Now studies in Ontario and the Maritimes are working on easy-to-use technologies for early detection of late blight that could allow more targeted fungicide strategies. Late blight…
Fine-Tuning Pink Rot Fungicide Timing
By Carolyn King on July 22, 2019
Jeff Miller, a researcher with Miller Research in Idaho, will be presenting his latest study on management of pink rot (Phytophthora erythroseptica) at the 2019 Potato Association of America (PAA) annual meeting. This persistent soil-borne disease causes tuber breakdown and yield loss. Miller's field trial is looking at the effect of the timing interval between spraying a phosphite fungicide for pink rot suppression and applying irrigation water. Miller provides some background information…
Pest Alerts to Help Fight Zebra Chip
In her presentation at the 2019 Potato Association of America Annual Meeting in Winnipeg, Man., Carrie Wohleb, an associate professor and a potato, vegetable and seed crops specialist with Washington State University (WSU) Extension, will be sharing the results from a monitoring network in Washington State that tracks potato psyllids (Bactericera cockerelli). These little flying insects are the vector for Candidatus Liberibacter solanacearum, the bacterium that causes zebra chip disease. Zebra chip was…
PVY Management Strategies that Work
At the 103rd Potato Association of America (PAA) Annual Meeting, Andrei Alyokhin, a professor of Applied Entomology at the University of Maine, talked about his recent studies on the transmission of potato virus Y (PVY), an aphid-borne virus that impacts potatoes worldwide. "PVY is an economically important virus that causes significant crop losses," he says. Depending on the potato cultivar and the strain of the virus, PVY can cause such symptoms as leaf…
Cultivar and Common Scab
By Carolyn King on February 26, 2019
According to Claudia Goyer, a molecular bacteriologist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Fredericton, N.B, cultivars differ in terms of how severe common scab will be. No cultivars have true resistance to common scab, where there is no disease at all. "All of them can get common scab. The tolerant ones get really minimal amounts of the disease, just a couple of lesions here and there. The susceptible ones get a…
Keeping Tabs on Late Blight
Strain monitoring in Canada over the past three decades shows successive waves of new strains have replaced older strains of the late blight pathogen. The latest findings from research to track and characterize the strains across the country are a combination of good and bad news with direct relevance for managing the current strains. Rick Peters, a research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) in Charlottetown, P.E.I., is co-leading this research…
Researchers Go Toe-to-Toe with PCN
Although extremely rare in Canada, potato cyst nematodes (PCN) are such a serious risk to potato production and trade that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) has strict surveillance and quarantine protocols. When PCN was discovered in Quebec in 2006, the CFIA immediately implemented quarantine measures for the affected fields. As well, the agency took other important steps, including working with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC) and other stakeholders to identify research…
New Prospect for Wireworm Control
By Carolyn King on February 5, 2019
A few years ago, Todd Kabaluk was given some fuzzy wireworms. That might not sound like an auspicious gift, but Kabaluk is a research biologist in integrated pest management with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada (AAFC). He was immediately interested. As it turned out, these fuzzy wireworms were the first step on the path toward a new possibility for controlling wireworms. Wireworms are the tough-to-control, soil-dwelling larvae of click beetles. AAFC has found…
Seeking a Whammy for Wireworms
By Carolyn King on October 30, 2018
"We have estimated wireworm costs Prince Edward Island's potato industry more than $10 million per year in damaged product, crop protection products, crop insurance claims, and costs associated with rotation crops to battle wireworm," says Ryan Barrett, research coordinator with the P.E.I. Potato Board. "While research by Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada researchers, such as Dr. Christine Noronha and Dr. Bob Vernon has provided growers with more tools to battle this pest, it…
Older Articles »


In Pictures: Ian Harford Hunting Eland in South Africa Ian Harford takes to the South African Brush on the trail for Eland.
Realtree Pro Ian Harford and Steve Wild return to the Alaskan wilderness on their epic self-guided hunting adventure. Over two weeks they will self-guide, hunt and try to survive deep within the Alaskan wilderness. The story that follows is as remarkable as the landscape.
All of the preparation, all of the effort, all of the sacrifice – it is all worth it.
Realtree recognise that wildfowlers are amongst some of the most passionate and dedicated to their sport.
Realtree AP Blaze – Stand out and Stay Safe.
The Essential camouflage pattern that effectively reveals hunters to other humans, while concealing them from the color-blind eyes of deer.
Realtree AP Blaze – Stand out and Stay Safe. The Essential Camouflage Pattern For Hunting in Europe.
Hunting laws throughout some Europe countries state that fluorescent colour must be visible throughout a hunt. Whether that's hunting from a high seat, during a driven wild boar hunt or even stalking deer.
Good training is the foundation of a representative hunter.
In 2004, I founded the FWCA, Walloon Federation of bow hunters, and I chaired this federation for more than 12 years, with some friends, we decided to invest our time and energy for the promotion of the bow hunting in our country, training was lacking! we had to react quickly and set up quality training.
The Best Images from Ian Harford and Steve Wild's epic Alaska hunting adventure.
Ian Harford Hunting Wild Catalina Goat in Argentina.
Ian Harford travels to the Calamuchita Valley in Argentina's South West corner of Cordoba Province. This time he's on the hunt for wild goats.
From boots to underwear, Ian Harford gives us the low down on his top essential Items for hunting in Alaska.
Whether you're preparing for the ultimate hunting adventure or simply want to stay active, here's a number of reasons it's good to get off the beaten track and take your running further afield.