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Thread: The Illustrated Dragonlance Reread
Keltest
Titan in the Playground
Re: The Illustrated Dragonlance Reread
Originally Posted by zimmerwald1915
Putting the onus on the victim, are we?
Its kind of a fundamental premise of free will that you have responsibility for the choices you make. Others may have responsibility for taking some away, but in this particular instance, Raist didn't do that. She had the ability to back out if she wanted to. She simply didn't.
"Evil is evil. Lesser, greater, middling, it's all the same. Proportions are negotiated, boundaries blurred. I'm not a pious hermit, I haven't done only good in my life. But if I'm to choose between one evil and another, then I prefer not to choose at all."
zimmerwald1915
Lake Wobegon
Originally Posted by Keltest
This gets back to the point about any affirmative action. Which is to say that affecting any other person necessarily scars their perfect freedom, which can only exist in perfect isolation. So from the perspective of preserving free will, the sleight of hand tricks are just as objectionable as the magical puffery as would be a charm as would be domination.
Fortunately, free will isn't real.
You, who have nothing at all to believe in; to you, whose motto is "money comes first;" who are you, to tell us that our lives have been wasted? That all that we've fought for has turned into dust?
Originally Posted by Peelee
I'm jumping on the Zim bandwagon.
Human stick-figure Twilight Sparkle by me. Find more here.
Im pretty sure youre just misunderstanding the concept of free will here, frankly. Your definition cant exist, and is indeed an oxymoron, since the very act of having a decision to make means you are being acted on by some outside entity. Its no wonder you think it doesn't exist in light of that, but its also not what people actually mean when they talk about free will.
RossN
Ettin in the Playground
Guys, I get this a heated topic but this is a reread thread I'm really enjoying; let's try and avoid derailing things - maybe take it to PMs?
Not my fault if people use terms wrong. Unfortunately, explaining why they use this term wrong would involve a lot of theology.
Last edited by zimmerwald1915; 2019-06-06 at 08:05 PM.
Forum Explorer
Originally Posted by bguy
The party wasn't in any immediate danger when Raistlin cast that spell. Nor had they even tried regular diplomacy. (Which might well have worked. Raistlin was doing pretty well impressing the gully dwarves with his sleight of hands tricks before he broke out the enchantment magic, so it's perfectly possible he could have won over the gully dwarves without the use of actual magic.)
Fair enough. I just reread that part of the book, and you are correct that Bupu wasn't supposed to actually sneak into the lair with the party. Still, the plan was for Bupu to be with Raistlin while he caused a distraction (which was intended to get the attention of the dragon.) Being with someone who is trying to provoke a dragon is perhaps not quite as bad as outright sneaking into the dragon's lair, but it's still a really dangerous mission, and thus not the kind of thing that it is fair to ask someone to do after you have magically compelled them to adore you.
And you don't think that magically rewriting someone's brain so that they see you as a friend is a massive subversion of their free will? Look at it this way, if someone slipped you a drug that made you think of them as your best friend, and while under the influence of that drug you gave them your most valuable possession and risked your life for them, are you really telling me you would not feel that you were horribly taken advantage of by them once the drug wore off? And that's what a charm spell is. No, it doesn't fully obliterate free will. (Even the Dominate spells can't do that.) But it definitely subverts free will by magically changing your feelings for another person.
He forced her to see him as a friend. Everything else flowed from that initial violation.
I guess that would be the difference between the Friendship spell (which as you described it seems to just temporarily raise a person's charisma) and a Charm Person spell (which is a direct mental subversion of another person.) The former could certainly be viewed as deceptive (since it is creating a false impression of the spell caster), but it still seems much less invasive than the later (which is directly mind-altering.)
The interesting thing is in how Raist treats Bupu
Spoiler: Major spoilers for future stuff
Not only does he treat her much better than the rest of the party, he's actually offended when they insult her. He also makes sure to send her away to safety instead of having her accompany the group
Furthermore it's suggested that Bupu is protected by Raist after he becomes a god and that's why she's one of the last beings to survive.
Also it's important to remember that the spell should only last a couple minutes. A day at most in some editions. Now Dragonlance doesn't follow D&D rules strictly, but still, it's not a permanent spell. And her affection persists far beyond that. Likely because Raistlin actually treats Bupu better than anyone else.
Spoiler: I'm a writer!
Spoiler: Check out my fanfiction[URL="https://www.fanfiction.net/u/7493788/Forum-Explorer"
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]Fate Stay Nano: Fate Stay Night x Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha
I Fell in Love with a Storm: MLP
Procrastination: MLP
Spoiler: Original Fiction
The Lost Dragon: A story about a priest who finds a baby dragon in his church and decides to protect them.
bguy
Orc in the Playground
Originally Posted by Forum Explorer
I'm not entirely sure which version of D&D was in effect at the time the Chronicles were written, but in the early versions of D&D, Charm Person lasted a lot longer than just a couple of minutes (and especially when used on a person of low intelligence.) In ODAD I believe it was permanent until dispelled, and in AD&D 1st edition, the spell typically lasted until the target made an intelligence check (with a person with a 7-9 intelligence normally only getting such a check once a month, a person with a 4-6 intelligence only getting such a check every 2 months, and a person with a 3 intelligence only getting such a check every 3 months.) Thus Bupu would certainly have been charmed the entire time the party was in Xak Tsaroth.
Though the spell almost certainly would have worn off by the time of the Legends books, so I agree with you that Bupu's affection for Raistlin in those books would have been genuine.
Gnoman
Troll in the Playground
Since this quite obviously was not a Charm Person spell, how that spell worked in older editions is irrelevant.
Originally Posted by Gnoman
What's your basis for saying it wasn't a Charm Person spell? Raistlin seems to cast two spells in this chapter when dealing with the gully dwarves: the first spell on the group of gully dwarves (which does appear to be a Friendship spell) and then a second spell later on (which he only casts on Bupu.) The later spell certainly reads as a Charmed Person spell having only a single target and resulting in said target thereafter being enamored with Raistlin.
There's also Raistlin's own words on the subject:
"Dragons are the most ancient of magic-users. She could charm you as I have charmed my little friend." So clearly Raistlin thinks he cast a charm spell on Bupu.
Last edited by bguy; 2019-06-06 at 09:35 PM.
Firbolg in the Playground
It's Charm Person rather than Charm Monster because a gully dwarf is a demihuman human-equivalent by the rules, right? Not a monster?
My thought is the spell exists in the book for a reason, and good parties used it, or did use it, for its intended purpose. There are a lot of ways that Raistlin could have gained Bupu's "cooperation"; certainly the Seeker's guards don't seem to waste any time or energy on magical means when brute force will work just fine.
That's why I'm willing to give him a break; he believed that gaining the co-operation of the gully dwarves was not very likely without magical aid, and they really needed that co-operation if they plan to go into a dragon's den and come out alive.
And even so some will not; it will take divine intervention to keep some of the party alive when all is said and done.
That's why I don't consider this an evil act; because necessity has narrowed his choices and options. This is not all that different from Vaarsuvius charming the Linear Guild's Kobold in the last book of OOTS. And I will say that Raistlin was much kinder to Bupu than Vaarsuvius was to his prisoner.
Mind, I'm not saying it's a good act either. It's neutral, like sticking a sword in an enemy soldier.
"Every lie we tell incurs a debt to the truth. Sooner or later, that debt is paid."
-Valery Legasov in Chernobyl
2019-06-07, 01:38 AM (ISO 8601)
I think the context of the story is definitely important here. In Star Trek, manipulating emotions like this would get you a stern speech from Picard on the sanctity of free thought. In Star Wars, it's a standard tactic of the local Paladin-Monks and nobody bats an eye or says Obi-Wan is Evil.
In the setting of a fantasy adventure, manipulating the bad guy's minions so that you can proceed without hurting them is boy scout level behaviour. I certainly don't feel we can criticize Raistlin for it.
Khedrac
Ogre in the Playground
A couple of points on the actual situation:
The spell cast was the first edition "friends" - we know it wasn't "charm person" because it wasn't a single-target spell. We know the edition was 1st Ed AD&D because some of us has at least 1 of the adventures, and the books were published before2nd Ed AD&D.
Although the spell gives a saving throw for negative effect, it is essentially the same spell as the 3.X "Eagle's Splendor" and makes no change to how the targets choose to act, merely to how likeable they view the caster as being. Therefore any moraliity argument you make for it must also be applicable to "Eagle's Splendor", or if not, different only because the spell affects fewer people and gives a saving throw for negative effect.
Arguments on the morality of actions taken with or without a charisma boost are another matter - because they apply to the behaviour not the spell.
That said, the discussion of the morality of spellcasting is very off-topic for this thread and has come close to the point where I woudl report it for Moderator assessment several times - please drop it or take it to another thread so the rest of us can read the entertaining Dragonlance comments.
Last edited by Khedrac; 2019-06-07 at 02:45 AM.
Originally Posted by pendell
My thought is the spell exists in the book for a reason, and good parties used it, or did use it, for its intended purpose.
There are certainly instances when a good party could use such a spell. (Neutralizing an adversary who was trying to actively attack the party.) But that wasn't what happened here. The gully dwarves weren't attacking the party or threatening to turn them into the draconians. They were actually acting in a friendly manner towards the party.
That's why I don't consider this an evil act; because necessity has narrowed his choices and options. This is not all that different from Vaarsuvius charming the Linear Guild's Kobold in the last book of OOTS.
That kobold was actively shooting at Vaarsuvius when V dominated him.
And I will say that Raistlin was much kinder to Bupu than Vaarsuvius was to his prisoner.
I agree with this.
Except it wasn't an attack on an enemy soldier. It was an attack on a neutral non-combatant.
Rodin]I think the context of the story is definitely important here. In Star Trek, manipulating emotions like this would get you a stern speech from Picard on the sanctity of free thought. In Star Wars, it's a standard tactic of the local Paladin-Monks and nobody bats an eye or says Obi-Wan is Evil.
Spoiler: The Thrawn Trilogy
Well for what it's worth in The Thrawn Trilogy, Luke does express concern over using the Force to manipulate the minds of others and worries that it is touching on Dark Side behavior.
These aren't the bad guy's minions though, they are the bad guy's slaves.
Originally Posted by Khedrac
Except Raistlin cast two seperate spells. One on a group of gully dwarves (which I agree was the "Friends" spell), and then a second single target spell directly on Bupu (which was clearly Charm Person.) That there were two seperate spells is clear in the books because they show Raistlin using the language of magic (which is how the authors tend to depict spell casting) in two different moments.
There's another point, though, and I'll have to discuss future events in spoiler block.
The compassion and affection the two had for each other long outlasted the spell's duration. Raistlin would watch over her and care for both her and her tribe for years. When the Twins Trilolgy happened, it was her goodness and decency which helped bring Raistlin back from the place he'd been in.
I grant you it was Raistlin who cast the spell, but I can't believe a mere spell could have accomplished all that. It may not have began well, but what came out in the end was genuine friendship, unforced by magic.
In other words, it was Raistlin who cast the spell, but it was Bupu who charmed Raistlin.
diplomancer
Irony alert: Maybe BUPU used some kind of spell turning effect on Raistlin. She is a gully dwarf, after all, and therefore evil, according to the foremost authority on them, Flint
The morality of Charm Person has been beaten to death recently in the 5E forum, and different people have different ideas, but at least it was in the appropriate thread. Why don't we keep this one on Dragonlance?
Originally Posted by diplomancer
I must confess that I'm a little surprised by seeing this reaction from so many people. Why would discussing Raistlin's actions in Dragons of Autumn Twilight be considered off-topic for a discussion of Dragons of Autumn Twilight?
Spoiler: Other books
Not exactly. As far back a Soulforge it was revealed that Raistlin has a ton of compassion for the downtrodden, shunned and unfortunate. To the point of risking his life multiple times to care for them.
Bupu just stayed with Raitlin the longest.
I haven't read the 5E forum so this is all new to me. Regardless, I note your wish that this not turn into 5 pages of dragonlance commentary and 45 pages of argument over the alignment issues of charm person. Which, come to think of it, has never been positively established as the spell being cast here, although it is likely.
I find it rather interesting that the longest, most passionate arguments on this board revolve around putting an alignment stickie on the actions of a given fictional character (Danerys in the GoT thread, Rasitlin here) then hashing out every aspect for pages until we've arrived at a board consensus as to the exact degree of good/evil of the action and the consequent alignment of the character.
JadedDM
If nothing else, I'm sure we can all agree, that certainly the authors did not intend for Raistlin charming Bupu to be seen in a negative light. (In the same way that they seem to intend Flint's racism to be comedic, instead of a sign of him being a bad person.)
Originally Posted by JadedDM
Can we also agree that, if we accept this, it says more about how we ought to view the authors than it does about how we ought to view their creations?
Sure, that's fair. I mean, I love Dragonlance, but I'll be first in line to criticize certain aspects of it. It was written in a different time, after all, and by today's standards can be terribly regressive at times, even though I'm sure the authors never meant it to be.
Nope! After all, this is a very much D&D high fantasy sort of setting. That carries different expectations about what is acceptable, just by dint of tropes. Just because said tropes are preset doesn't mean the author agree with those tropes.
Why would I want to see the authors in any way? I dont know them.
They say Beethoven was a horrible person. It does not subtract one bit from my enjoyment of his music, but I would not want to be his neighbour.
warty goblin
Tail of the Bellcurve
Wow, who'd have thought charming gully dwarves was such a moral quandary?
I don't think I'll count it as Raistlin being evil, simply because when he is evil, one is generally not left in any doubt.
And now for the Dragonlanciest chapter that ever Dragonlanced a Dragonlance.
18: Fight at the lift. Bupu's cure for a cough
There are two holes in the floor, with a large wheel set between them, and a heavy chain running over the wheel. At one end of the chain there's a gigantic pot, level with the floor. The other end disappears into the other hole, through which mist is billowing. Around the pot are four (not two) draconians, one of whom starts to threaten to flay the gully dwarves on account of their lateness, when Caramon charges out of the mist, and tosses it against the wall. Sturm - calling out the knight's salute - takes the head off another.
The remaining two (actually two) draconians don't think much of this fight. One trips the mechanism that releases the chain, the other jumps into the pot. Tanis figures it's going for reinforcements, but Tas, looking into the other hole, says that the other pot is headed up, loaded with about twenty draconians (apparently the pot at the top is a lot heavier than the pot at the bottom?)
The other draconian jumps into the falling top pot, and Caramon, never one to pass up a fight, jumps in after it. The gully dwarves find this enormously amusing. Sturm grabs onto the chain to shinny down after Caramon. Tanis tries to establish some sort of order, and succeeds in getting Goldmoon and Riverwind to stay up top to reverse the chain, but Tas, having the time of his life jumps on the chain. Flint tries to follow, but misses his grip and plummets into the pot, where Caramon promptly steps on him.
Not that this is really Caramon's fault. He's busy having a no-holds-barred sword/fist/dagger/claw fight with the two draconians in the pot with him. He's starting to come off a bit worse, when Sturm gets close enough to kick one of the draconians in the face. Flint, who's getting rather squashed underneath Caramon, wrenches his helmet back to straight (priorities!) and, with a tremendous effort, stands up. Since he was underneath Caramon, this makes Caramon fall over.
Tanis keeps Tas from jumping into the melee, before doing so himself. Tas, disappointed at having to stay on the chain when the pot looks so much more interesting, contents himself with fishing a rock out of his pouches to drop onto an enemy - hopefully. All the thrashing about is making the pot sway alarmingly, and all the extra weight is making it fall even faster, which naturally is bringing the other pot, packed with draconians, up faster as well.
Up top, Riverwind is trying to figure out how to stop the elevator mechanism, when Raistlin - closely followed by Bupu - rushes past him and jabs the Staff of Magius into the mechanism. Surprisingly, the staff jams the wheel and doesn't break. The other gully dwarves have all clustered around the holes, and are watching the fight below with great interest.
Caramon manages to toss one of the draconians overboard, while Tanis, Sturm and Flint between them finally kill the other. At this point the mechanism stops, thanks to Raistlin's staff, and the pot gives a great jerk. Unfortunately it stopped basically level with the other pot, and the draconians are preparing to jump over - it's only about twenty feet, and they have wings.
Tragically there aren't any pictures of this fight, which is just an unbelievable oversight. So here's the cover for Riverwind the Plainsman, showing Clyde Caldwells' take on a draconian. Also, abs. Never leave on an epic adventure without at least a six-pack.
Caramon leans out and takes a great swing at the would-be boarders, but misses, and his swing makes the pot start to spin. This makes him trip and fall against the edge, which makes the pot tilt over sharply, and makes Tanis fall over. The first draconian jumps across, so Tanis shoves Caramon to the other side of the pot to keep it from tilting too much. The draconian manages to grab the edge of the pot, but a second gets the distance right, and lands directly inside, right next to Sturm, who's trying to dislodge the first draconian. Caramon starts to rush back into combat, but Tanis tells him to stay put, as the draconian hanging on the edge of the pot, probably tired of Sturm trying to cut its fingers off, jumps off and floats down into the mist.
Tanis tries to fight the draconian that landed in the pot, but trips over Flint. Leaning over the edge of the pot, he gets a sickening view of the ruined city far below them. He pulls himself from the edge, to see Tas hanging onto the draconian's back, trying to bash it in the head with a rock. Flint picks up a dagger that Caramon had dropped earlier, and knifes the draconian in the leg. Tanis looks up, and calls to Riverwind and Goldmoon to get them pulled up before they're overwhelmed by draconians from the other pot, then something hits him in the head, and he passes out.
Raistlin, having figured that this was going south before Tanis called out, and tells the gully dwarves that the big bosses want to hurt him, and he needs their help. The gully dwarves decidedly aren't going to join in the fight, but all Raistlin needs them to do is to hop on the chain leading to the draconian's pot. They do that all the time, so are happy to help out a friend. They jump on - except Bupu - and Raistlin pulls the staff out of the wheel. With the extra gully dwarf mass added to the draconian side, their pot starts to fall back towards the ruined city below.
The companion's pot reaches the top level again, and they disembark, including a woozy Tanis, whom Goldmoon heals with the staff. Sturm points out that they can't take the pot elevator now, and should probably not stick around. Bupu is distraught at the idea of Raistlin getting hurt by the bosses (apparently she thinks he's pretty), and tells him she knows a secret way to get to the Highbulp. The others figure they've got no real choice, they can hear the draconians coming, and follow. Bupu stops in front of a section of wall, pulls out a dead rat, and waves it, at which point a section of the wall slides open. She claims this is magic, but Tas realizes it's a hidden switch on the floor, and that Bupu probably just tripped over it while carrying the rat at some point, a suggestion Bupu finds deeply offensive.
The map for Xak Tsaroth, showing just how much stuff there is going on in this dungeon.
Epistemology of gully dwarf wall opening methods notwithstanding, they hurry after her through a couple of rooms, until they get to a four foot diameter pipe, sticking out of the floor, and absolutely coated in nasty green slime. Bupu says that the bosses can't follow. Tas jumps cheerfully into the pipe, but Caramon's not sure he'll fit, and Tas' reassurance that he'll "slip through like a greased pig" does not reassure him. But they can hear draconians coming, and so all slither into the pipe. Caramon's so big and awkward it takes the firm application of Tanis' boot to his backside to get him in. Tanis follows him, pausing to look at Sturm, who, naturally, goes last.
"Sanity ended when we followed Tika into the kitchen of the Inn of the Last Home" Tanis tells him, to which Sturm agrees, sighing.
Tas is having a great time crawling down the pipe, but spots shapes crawling up the pipe towards him. He alerts Raistlin, who shines the light of his staff down the pipe, revealing a bunch of gully dwarves heading up to grab the lifts for the draconians, but Bupu overrides them; they're going to see the Highbulp, and apparently that's more important.
Raistlin is temporarily overcome with a fit of coughing, brought about by the foul air in the pipe. Concerned, Bupu starts digging in her pouch, producing first an emerald, which Raistlin eyes covetously. She gives it to him without a second thought, before producing what she was really looking. A very dead lizard, on a string. If Raistlin wears it around his neck, Bupu explains, it will cure his cough. Raistlin assures her that the cough is better, and eyes his new emerald.
They come to a fork in the pipe, which Bupu says they should take. It turns out to be just as slimy as the pipe they were already in, and very steep. Tas goes shooting down it at a terrific pace, utterly unable to stop himself, and flies out the far end. The others manage more dignified exits - Caramon was big enough that he didn't really end up going very fast anyway, to find themselves in another room, which is filled with some strange billowing white smoke or fog. This causes Raistlin to disintegrate into another coughing fit.
Tanis gets everybody rounded up, when he notices they're missing Tas. Then a short, miserable figure crusted in white appears, which Tanis figures is the kender. Tanis asks what happened, but Tas, apparently too overcome by the tragedy, just points. Directly opposite the pipe is a stack of burst bags of flour. Tanis tries to hide his smile.
This chapter is pretty much straight up action, and it's just wonderful. It's also a hella good fight scene on its own merits. The scenario is legit inventive, with some nice verticality as they say about videogame levels, things go sideways in believable sorts of ways, Caramon gets a chance to shine a bit, and our heroes have to give up and find an alternative method. This isn't even like losing at the lowpoint of the story so they can come back strong and satisfying later, it's just a bad tactical situation they need to get the hell out of. That might make it unsatisfying, or feel like a waste of pages, except this fight is just so darn much fun to read.
Seriously, I challenge anybody to read this and not crack a smile. People jumping in pots, nearly falling out of pots, stepping on each other, falling over, it's almost full on combat slapstick, except that the book is smart enough to play this with an entirely straight face. It isn't a parody, it's simply a scenario that's funny to read about, even while the protagonists are 100% serious about the whole thing. This sort of secene done with isn't-this-silly irony, fourth wall breaks, self parody and the other host of modern methods used to disguise having a genuine feeling of delight would be just intolerable, but fortunately this is Dragonlance, and therefore both completely sincere and utterly excited about everything.
There's some good annotations to this chapter as well. Apparently this does really come pretty straight from the playtest, which I think shows in a good way. Dragonlance often gets grief for its occasionally clunky writing, but it's worth noting just how often Weis & Hickman dump us into a big action scenes with complex environments and monsters turning to stone and characters everywhere, and actually pull it off. I've read stuff held in far higher regard that can't manage this for one person, let alone six. Having the basis of characters doing stuff in a game probably really helps with this, since it provides a concrete way to keep track of who does what, although they are able to do it later on when things really aren't coming straight from the modules anymore.
Also, according to Margaret Weis, Raistlin enchants the emerald to protect gully dwarves, kender and gnomes, because of course he does.
The best annotation however has nothing directly to do with the text. Apparently Tracy Hickman needed hospitalized for kidney stones in '86, and the doctor was a bit generous with the Demerol, resulting in a really excellent three day trip. While rendered more or less helpless, Margaret hung a large rubber lizard on a string around his neck, which attracted a certain amount of attention when it was time to leave the hospital.
Reminds me a bit of when I was a kid, when, for a short but magical time, I did in fact have a dead rat and a string to swing it with.
Blood-red were his spurs i' the golden noon; wine-red was his velvet coat,
When they shot him down on the highway,
Down like a dog on the highway,
And he lay in his blood on the highway, with the bunch of lace at his throat.
Alfred Noyes, The Highwayman, 1906.
Ah, yes, Bupu's Emerald, AKA Bupu's Revenge. Whenever a gully dwarf, kender or gnome offers the gem to an enemy as a bribe in a life-threatening situation, the enemy must make a save or become obsessed with accepting the gem. Upon taking it, they then need to make another save. Success is 2d20 damage and failure is instant death.
Yeesh... I like Clyde Caldwell's art but I'm not a fan of his draconian. I guess I prefer the dragon-headed humanoid look.
This was a fun chapter - and a lovely annotation.
Talakeal
A place near Boulder.
Originally Posted by RossN
Is that really supposed to be a draconian?
I always thought it was one of the Jarak-Sin (sp) lizardfolk.
Looking for feedback on Heart of Darkness, an old school RPG of Gothic Fantasy. Download full rules at heartofdarknessrpg.com
Barbarian in the Playground
A bit late to the discussion, but I had the impression that the well that the dragon came out of in Xak Tsaroth was a 'well' in the sense of a deep vertical hole - perhaps a sinkhole formed after the greater part of the city became buried - rather than being a literal well.
Originally Posted by warty goblin
This chapter really reminds me of Indiana Jones, or later imitators like The Mummy (the first one, not the later ones which went more into full slapstick). It's a serious action scene interlaced with comedy to keep things light. And it is glorious.
So, reviewing our last discussion , I have to wonder how much of the difference in viewpoint is based on the editions of D&D we played and the kind of challenges we faced in-game?
I don't want to take anything from modern players or come across as a "when I was your age orcs were a credible threat" player but... well, I kinda am. So I'm going to give my thought and I'm hoping younger players who have played 5e -- or better, those who have played both editions -- can correct.
Thing is, my recollection of old-school D&D of the dragonlance era and before was that it was brutal. Much closer to its wargaming roots.
1) The normal level of a party was some where between 6 and 9. Only a very few characters lived to level 13, and most of them retired shortly thereafter due to old age. IIRC, in the very early editions anything but human characters were level-capped earlier in some way. "Epic" characters simply didn't happen. If they existed at all, they'd be quest villain or a guest NPC who would only be in the party on a temporary basis. Odds are they'd be a god in disguise.
2) Experience penalties were harsh. There was no such thing as a "negative level". If you fought a wight and got hit even once that experience level was GONE. No chance to get it back in a day. No handy restoration spell to make it all better. No, you had to earn it all back. And if you fought a vampire, you lost Two levels.
3) Stuff like poison was similarly nasty. Save vs. constitution or die, full stop.
4) "death" happened at 0hp. No negative hit points. No chance to stabilize. No, you were at full strength right up to the point you hit 0, at which point you were dead. Nor was there such a thing as true resurrection. Raise dead or resurrection could bring you back, but at a cost of XP level. Also remember the levels that the team cleric would probably be playing at -- raise dead or resurrection probably wasn't something you could cast in camp at end of day, or next day after preparing spells. To get a sufficiently high level cleric you'd have to go to a temple, and probably not in the nearest village either. It would be a high priest of a major city, and the cost of bringing the dearly departed back would probably be a side quest in addition to gold. Easier to simply roll up a new character in almost all instances.
Come to think of it, I recall going through a lot of character sheets. We learned not to get too attached.
5) Magic items? As a rule, you were happy to find a +1 sword. Magic items were something you had to quest for. The only stuff you could buy in town, as a rule, was ordinary mundane equipment and a few basic potions.
6) Character creation was similarly stymied. Roll 3d6 six times. There are your stats, in order. No point buy, no trading problems for bonuses or higher stats. Nope, that is your character, and you have to make the best of him/her. Rolled an 8 for intelligence? Too bad, you're not playing a mage however much you want to.
Characters with 16+ int were rare and extremely hard to come by. Once you got one you bent heaven and earth to keep them alive, or they'd still be toast at level 3 before they'd got much beyond magic missile. After all, you'd still be starting this character out at level 1.
All of this meant that old-school D&D did not so much encourage heroic behavior so much as it encouraged survival behavior. For myself, I learned to take every advantage I could get, because even a 1-in-10 chance of instadeath would still kill if I kept taking that particular chance, and quickly too. I learned never to touch a die at all if I could help it. I learned to stack the deck as heavily in my favor as I possibly could, and never leave the smallest glimmer of room for the DM or the dice to kill me.
This meant that even my lawful good characters, much like Book-Faramir in Tolkien's Two Towers, had their morality tempered by a very strong streak of pragmatism.
I believe the newer versions, such as the kind we see in Rich Burlew's OOTS, allow the game to be played this way but they don't require it. So most people don't. The game as it is practiced has seemed to go more and more towards roleplaying superheroes fighting supervillains. Heck , D&D 4 converted villain henchpeople into low-level mooks though whom a hero was supposed to flash through like a whirlwind with knives. 5 has gone closer to the old roots, but it's still a game that has emphasized "fun" over wargaming, which means fewer chances to have the character you spent hours fleshing out brutally murdered with no save.
Which is why, say, I'm willing to give a party composed of 7 Level 4 to level 6 characters a bit of a break when facing off with an adult black dragon. Even in the later editions, if I'm using the CR calculator correctly, this is an unwinnable battle in a straight up fight. I'm willing to accept necessity as a justification or mitigation of their actions and allow stuff that I'd never allow in town. Because they're going to die unless they work every angle.
Is this fair? Or am I missing something?
At any rate, if it is fair than we should bear in mind when considering alignment actions that players in this campaign are at much greater risk of lasting consequences than your typical 5e party would be, and judge their actions accordingly.
ETA: I understated the difficulty because I treated Khisanth as an adult black dragon. In fact, the module calls her an ancient black dragon, CR 22 vs. CR 14. CRs were invented after dragonlance, of course, but I still think a 3.5 or later encounter difficulty calculator can still give a rough idea of the combat difficulty. Which makes the encounter impossible by straight combat; the players need some sort of "throw the ring into the volcano to end the villain" cheat to win.
Last edited by pendell; 2019-06-09 at 07:54 AM.
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The 3 "Cs" of Live Delivery: Requirements for Successfully Streaming Live Events at Scale
Live is the hottest thing in the industry today, and premium content like sports and TV channels are driving forces. Live events broadcasters are now struggling with three components, which we call the three Cs, to attract viewers. Getting these three Cs, i.e., capture, carriage and compliance, right is necessary, but no easy task. So, how can we solve this?
According to Freewheel, live video is a primary driver of online video consumption. Ad views in live content grew 43 percent year-over-year in Q1 2016, attesting to the overall growth of online video viewing. Long-form ad views increased 33 percent, and short form increased 14 percent. Live content also drives better engagement than on demand. Pre-roll ad completion rates for a 15-second ad are 90 percent in live content, and 84 percent in long-form on-demand video.
Clearly live delivery of premium content is booming online, but how to get live done right each and every time is the bigger concern.
In sports, this challenge is clear. Viewers expect you to minimize delivery delays, maximize picture quality and keep up with demand. Getting the video from the live production facility into the cloud for distribution is the first critical step in that journey. The video platform you choose needs to capture the video reliably, encode it quickly, and deliver it with fidelity.
However, live still has a life after the moment is passed. The exact time when a goal is scored, a tackle made or an injury occurs may be unpredictable, but viewer response is not. People will want to instantly re-watch, share and discuss what happened. That means the video platform used must allow providers to capture the moment. It requires video clips to be tagged, extracted and delivered in real time as the action continues.
Reliable, scalable carriage
Providing reliable carriage of the video is the next biggest challenge. Handling the unpredictability of scale is tricky. For example, HBO Now's streaming service failed during the broadcast of its runaway hit "Game of Thrones", and didn't recover until after the episode was complete.
These challenges are just part of the problem faced by the emerging skinny-bundle providers, which are providing only the basic, most cared about, channels. Services like Sling TV and PlayStation Vue, and new entrants like Hulu and CenturyLink, face the same capture and carriage challenges of live sports. However, skinny-bundle providers also deliver traditional TV channels as part of their service. And they need to capture all the content in the live channel feeds so that it can be provided on demand, in network DVR and catch-up services.
Compliance is key
Skinny bundles are beginning to attract larger audiences. And with the success of live online comes regulatory attention.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is beginning to subject online delivery of linear TV channels to the same rules as cable TV. For example, content broadcasted in linear channels online must provide closed captioning. It's also likely that online skinny bundles will become subject to other pay-TV requirements, including emergency alert service (EAS) broadcasts and commercial advertisement loudness mitigation (CALM.)
However, live delivery online has additional compliance challenges. For example, ensuring that ads are counted by Nielsen in online TV channels is a critical requirement for broadcasters. And this extends beyond just live delivery. Nielsen is now counting ads in shows that are delivered on demand within three days of the original broadcast (C3), and may expand that to 7 days (C7). Any live-delivery video platform must be able to prove that the content it delivers is in compliance.
When it comes to providing live online, whether it be sports or TV channels, providers need to ensure that their technology platform can handle the three Cs of online video: capture, carriage and compliance. Verizon Digital Media Services' Live Streaming Solution simplifies live streaming management for you. Now you can deliver live events with quality, simplicity and scale easily and with the help of just one partner.
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Fonderie ghisa Spoleto S.p.a. è stato uno stabilimento impiantato nel 1963 a Spoleto; produceva e vendeva all'ingrosso raccordi in ghisa malleabile. Rappresentò uno dei più grandi centri fusori di ghisa italiani. Il suo insediamento contribuì a contenere la disoccupazione nel comprensorio, dopo la chiusura delle miniere di Spoleto.
Nel corso degli anni diversificò la produzione realizzando anche getti di ghisa per impianti elettrici e componenti destinate al mercato auto-motoristico.

Cambiò più volte assetti proprietari, societari e denominazioni, fino alla chiusura avvenuta nel giugno 2020, causa fallimento.
Localmente era noto come La Pozzi; a partire dal 2001 è noto come La ex Pozzi.

La storia

Fonderie ghisa Spoleto S.p.a.
La decisione di impiantare una fabbrica di ghisa a Spoleto venne presa in seguito allo smantellamento del reparto ghisa malleabile alle Acciaierie di Terni, che avevano deciso di terminare la produzione polisettoriale per concentrarsi sulle commesse delle centrali elettriche. La sede per il nuovo stabilimento venne individuata nella zona industriale di Santo Chiodo e occupò circa tredici ettari; le risorse investite furono di un miliardo e mezzo di lire; 400 i posti di lavoro creati. Fu inaugurato il 18 aprile 1963 come ramo produttivo delle Fonderie e smalterie Genovesi, un'azienda del Gruppo Pozzi con sede legale a Milano.

Nel 1972 un imprenditore, il ragionier Raffaele Ursini, acquisì il 50,1% del Gruppo Pozzi attraverso complessi passaggi azionari riconducibili a Michele Sindona, amicizia nata quando entrambi erano affiliati alla loggia massonica Giustizia e libertà; l'anno dopo acquisì anche il 50,1% della Richard Ginori. Ursini riorganizzò entrambi i gruppi accorpando le attività produttive omogenee in quattro diverse società: Pozzi-Ginori per le ceramiche, Porcellane Richard-Ginori, Ceramiche industriali e Fonderie smalterie genovesi; le fuse nel 1975 per dare vita a un'unica grande struttura: la Società ceramica italiana Pozzi-Richard Ginori con circa 9500 dipendenti in diverse regioni italiane. Il fallimento del Gruppo Ursini (che comprendeva anche le aziende Liquigas, Liquichimica, SAI, ecc.) e l'arresto con l'accusa di truffa dello stesso Ursini nel luglio 1978, precipitò la Società italiana Pozzi-Ginori in una grave crisi che ebbe pesanti ripercussioni sullo stabilimento spoletino nel biennio 1979-1980: furono licenziati molti operai, altri furono messi in cassa integrazione; seguì un lungo periodo di chiusura e la messa in liquidazione della fabbrica.

La città di Spoleto si unì compatta a sostegno dello stabilimento, in difesa del sistema produttivo cittadino e dei livelli occupazionali, organizzò scioperi generali e manifestazioni. Il Gruppo Pozzi-Ginori non mise in campo le soluzioni finanziarie e produttive auspicate, volte alla riqualificazione e alla continuità aziendale, ma si limitò a sollecitare interventi statali che si concretizzarono nel 1982-83 con l'intervento del Cipe (Comitato interministeriale per la programmazione economica) e la partecipazione diretta della Gepi SpA (Società per le Gestioni e Partecipazioni Industriali).

Raccordi Pozzi Spoleto S.p.a
La Raccordi Pozzi Spoleto SpA si costituì nel luglio 1985; i soci promotori furono la Gepi SpA,  con una quota del 75%, e ancora la Pozzi-Richard Ginori Spa, con una quota del 25%, poi trasferita alla nuova holding Finanziaria Pozzi Ginori SpA controllata dal gruppo Ligresti. Il nuovo assetto proprietario garantì la continuità produttiva dei raccordi in ghisa malleabile, ma reimpiegò solamente 200 degli 800 dipendenti della Fonderia Ghisa Spoleto SpA. Successivamente, soprattutto a causa della concorrenza italiana e non solo, lo stabilimento diversificò la produzione aprendo anche al settore dei tubi in ghisa e in materie plastiche.

Casti Group
Tra il 1991 e il 1992 di nuovo la fonderia passò di proprietà: i fratelli Claudio e Gianfranco Castiglioni, titolari della Cagiva SpA, della Fonderia Ferriere di Dongo (ex Falck, unico altro produttore nazionale di raccordi) e di altre attività nel nord d'Italia, rilevarono sia la quota della Finanziaria Pozzi Ginori SpA, sia la quota di maggioranza detenuta dalla Gepi SpA. L'obiettivo dei Castiglioni era quello di razionalizzare il settore dei raccordi e concentrarne la produzione, affinché fosse economicamente più solida e competitiva con le importazioni. Ammodernò i vecchi impianti per elevare gli standard di qualità dei prodotti a favore dell'industria meccanica e edile, ma non sottopose mai a ristrutturazione e bonifica il capannone della ghisa, nemmeno negli anni successivi, nonostante la presenza di amianto nelle strutture.

Industrie Metallurgiche Spoleto - Alluminio Spoleto SpA
Nel 2000, d'accordo con i sindacati, il Gruppo Casti scorporò lo stabilimento di Spoleto in due unità operative riconducibili a due società: le Industrie Metallurgiche Spoleto SpA (conosciute anche con l'acronimo Ims) e la Raccordi Pozzi Spoleto SpA che contava un ramo produttivo anche a Dongo. Nella stessa area di Santo Chiodo, in un nuovo capannone, venne inaugurata la nuova linea di produzione dedicata all'alluminio, con l'innovativa tecnologia Lost-Foam, alla presenza del ministro dello sviluppo economico Enrico Letta.

Fu così che dalla Raccordi Pozzi Spoleto SpA, un vecchio opificio che lavorava ghisa, derivò la Alluminio Spoleto SpA, una moderna fabbrica per la realizzazione di manufatti leggeri in alluminio,  mentre lIms continuò a lavorare la ghisa. Per il nuovo progetto la Casti Group ottenne cospicui contributi regionali sulla base di un piano aziendale che prometteva seicento nuovi posti di lavoro.
Ma ancora nel 2003 le assunzioni erano molto inferiori alla misura annunciata e non aumentarono in modo significativo negli anni successivi.

Nonostante tutto, nella seconda metà degli anni 2000, l'azienda spoletina tornò su livelli produttivi di eccellenza, confermandosi uno dei motori trainanti dell'occupazione locale, con circa 300 lavoratori a tempo indeterminato e 90 a tempo determinato. Castiglioni nel 2000 aveva acquisito la Franco Tosi Meccanica S.p.A e nel 2003 il marchio Isotta Fraschini, acquisti che favorirono la produzione di componentistica in alluminio per auto e motori d'auto, negli stabilimenti di Spoleto e Dongo.

Per rilanciare il mitico simbolo automobilistico delle auto di lusso e la loro favolosa storia iniziata ai primi del '900, l'industriale varesino variò la denominazione e la ragione sociale degli stabilimenti dedicati all'alluminio: si passò da Alluminio Spoleto SpA, a Isotta Fraschini Fonderie Alluminio S.p.A. (IFFA S.p.A.), a Isotta Fraschini S.p.a., a Isotta Fraschini S.r.l., con sede legale a Spoleto e sedi produttive a Spoleto e Dongo.

La crisi
Nel 2010 lo stabilimento Isotta Fraschini di Dongo manifestò i primi segnali di crisi: tutti i dipendenti furono messi in cassa integrazione guadagni straordinaria per un anno.

Al polo di Spoleto la crisi dell'economia mondiale fece sentire i suoi effetti nell'estate 2011: si verificarono importanti ritardi nel pagamento degli stipendi, giustificati con il mancato incasso di una grossa commessa (circa 1,2 milioni di euro) già consegnata al committente, una nota fabbrica automobilistica europea. Oltre agli stipendi, la mancanza di liquidità compromise l'approvvigionamento delle materie prime, necessarie alla produzione, e il pagamento delle utenze; i magazzini erano vuoti, il comparto dell'alluminio completamente fermo, senza prospettive di ripresa. A fine agosto i 300 operai furono messi in cassa integrazione e i 90 posti a tempo determinato furono tagliati. Seguirono scioperi generali, mobilitazioni cittadine, cortei e incontri istituzionali durante tutto il 2012, con interruzioni e riprese a singhiozzo dell'attività nel solo comparto ghisa.

Entrambe le società Industrie Metallurgiche Spoleto e Isotta Fraschini presentarono nel settembre 2012 distinti ricorsi al Tribunale di Spoleto con il piano aziendale e la proposta di concordato preventivo, che il tribunale autorizzò l'anno seguente. Sembrò possibile superare lo stato di crisi e porre le condizioni per un nuovo sviluppo aziendale; nell'estate del 2013 qualcosa si rimise in moto nella sola Ims, riprese il lavoro e gli stipendi furono pagati puntualmente. Il piano prevedeva la possibilità di cedere le aziende entro un biennio, mantenendo la continuità produttiva e tutelando i livelli occupazionali. La Casti Group si mise a caccia di nuovi e freschi capitali, ma tutte le strategie messe in atto per uscire dalle procedure di concordato naufragarono: impianti vecchi di oltre 35 anni, bisognosi di interventi di manutenzione straordinaria, e soprattutto le necessarie ma onerose opere di bonifica del suolo, rendevano l'affare poco appetibile.

Lo scandalo finanziario
La notizia arrivò nel giugno 2014 come un fulmine a ciel sereno sul futuro della fabbrica e degli operai: arrestati a Varese Gianfranco Castiglioni e i vertici della Casti Group per frode fiscale. L'accusa riguardava una lunga serie di illeciti compiuti nel periodo 2004 - 2013, con profitto quantificato in 63 milioni di euro; coinvolte tutte le società controllate dal gruppo, usate per evadere le imposte e per ottenere indebiti rimborsi Iva attraverso false fatture infragruppo. Seguirono provvedimenti disposti dal gip di Spoleto al termine di un'indagine durata circa due anni: sequestro delle quote sociali, del patrimonio immobiliare della famiglia, di yacht, conti correnti e macchine di lusso per un valore di 30 milioni di euro.

Lo scandalo fece precipitare Spoleto e Dongo in una situazione drammatica, aggravata dalla revoca della domanda di concordato presentata nel settembre 2012. Tutta l'economia del comprensorio spoletino, già gravemente penalizzato da precedenti chiusure di realtà produttive come le Arti grafiche Panetto & Petrelli e le Industrie Minerva S.p.a., risentì pesantemente dell'aumento della disoccupazione.

La decapitazione della Casti Group fece scattare la procedura di amministrazione straordinaria con la nomina di tre commissari; prima di procedere ad azioni di risanamento, lavorarono per attivare gli ammortizzatori sociali e per risolvere i problemi legati agli stipendi arretrati, questione di non facile soluzione, dato il blocco dei conti correnti della Casti Group.

Definitiva chiusura della ex Pozzi
Commissari e maestranze si impegnarono per non perdere commesse preziose (consistente quella della FIAT), per mantenere attiva la fabbrica e favorire la cessione del sito di Spoleto.
Nel 2015 gruppi industriali manifestarono interesse per le due aziende; altri interessamenti, anche da parte di imprenditori locali, si registrarono negli anni successivi, ma non si concretizzarono mai in offerte vincolanti. Andò a buon fine soltanto la cessione del ramo Isotta Fraschini di Dongo a una multinazionale cinese nel 2018.

Avendo mancato l'obiettivo della cessione, la procedura di amministrazione controllata che, grazie a interventi normativi avvenuti nel tempo, era durata più di cinque anni, venne chiusa.
Dopo oltre 57 anni di storia, la ex Pozzi, che al suo apice produttivo impiegava circa 450 persone e lavorava per colossi quali Fiat e Opel, si avviò verso il fallimento.
La fine per i 160 operai rimasti, sostenuti per circa sei anni dagli ammortizzatori sociali, venne scritta dal Tribunale di Spoleto il 9 giugno 2020.

Scomparve così un altro pezzo della storia industriale spoletina, vittima di spregiudicati immobiliaristi, banchieri e imprenditori.

Note

Altri progetti

Aziende di Spoleto
Aziende metalmeccaniche italiane del passato
Aziende siderurgiche italiane del passato

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
UpwardAction Salutes Isabel dos Santos
Isabel José dos Santos is an entrepreneur and investor who, in January 2013, was named by Forbes magazine as Africa's first female billionaire with a net worth estimated at USD $1.9 billion. Forbes also named her as one of Africa's richest people.
9 Facts about Angola's Isabel dos Santos
1. Ms. dos Santos was born on April 1, 1971 and is a citizen of Angola.
2. Her father Jose Eduardo dos Santos, has been President of the oil-rich country African nation – Angola since 1979, four years after the country gained independence from Portugal.
3. She graduated from King's College in London, England.
4. In the early 1990s, Ms. dos Santos started her career as an engineer and project manager.
5. At age 24 she started her first business, a restaurant called Miami Beach.
6. Currently, Ms. dos Santos owns 19.5% in Banco BPI one of Portugal's largest publicly traded banks.
7. She is a board member and own a 25% stake in Banco BIC Portugues, the parent company of the nationalized bank, Banco Portugues (which in 2013 was estimated to be worth round $160 million).
8. Ms. dos Santos also owns a 28.8% stake in Portugal's ZON Multimedia, a cable TV and Internet company (which as of 2013 was reportedly worth $385 million according to Forbes magazine).
9. She is married and is mom to three children.
You can read more about her on Wikipedia and about her accumulation of wealth on Forbes.com.
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Monkton Combe School is a leading independent school in Bath. After a number of break-ins, and on police recommendation, the Board agreed that surveillance across all of its entrances would help to keep pupils, staff and property safe. However, with several listed buildings, seven boarding houses and extensive grounds, finding an unobtrusive and affordable solution was a going to be challenge.
The school's Risk and Security Officer approached several companies and eventually chose iFacility, who installed nine cameras at the school. These sophisticated, high-definition cameras work in minimal light, use intelligent motion detection and have wide-angled lenses, providing excellent coverage of the school's many entrances. All footage is monitored from a central control point and can be viewed at any time.
Providing security across the school site - which comprises a number of separate buildings - but allow all cameras to be monitored or footage reviewed conveniently in one place.
Installing in buildings that are English Heritage Listed, ensuring all hardware and necessary cabling is as unobtrusive as possible.
Providing a solution that would work conventionally and at low light levels using intelligent motion detection to identify any unauthorised activity.
After several break-ins prior to installation there have been none since. The School has seen it's insurance premiums fall in real terms.
Health and safety monitoring has increased thanks to camera coverage of the weights room and swimming pool, augmenting the staff monitoring these areas.
Spotting the unexpected: poachers operating in the School grounds have been identified by the cameras so unambiguously they ended up helping the police with their enquiries.
"I would have no hesitation in recommending iFacility to other schools and colleges and would urge them to get in touch."
"iFacility took great care to establish our requirements and came up with a solution that offered superb picture quality, minimal disruption and the best overall coverage."
"The school management team has been so pleased with the results, not only in terms of security but also health and safety, that since the initial installation we have increased the coverage."
"We're ... able to spot when pupils leave the school grounds without authorisation, or come back in during school holidays."


text:
Le brie de Melun est un fromage au lait cru fabriqué en France à partir de lait de vache. Il bénéficie d'une appellation d'origine contrôlée depuis 1980 et d'une appellation d'origine protégée depuis 2009. Bien que l'histoire des fromages de la région reste largement méconnue, il est parfois considéré comme l'ancêtre de tous les bries. Il tient son nom de la région naturelle de la Brie et de la plaine de Melun dans le département de Seine-et-Marne en France.

Sa meilleure période de consommation s'étend de juillet à mars.

Description
C'est un fromage à base de lait de vache, cru, à pâte molle à croûte fleurie, d'un poids moyen de 1,5 kg pour 27 cm de diamètre. Il est moins grand que le Brie de Meaux mais plus fort en saveur et en odeur, avec un goût légèrement salé. Le Brie de Melun existe aussi sous la forme de « Vieux-Brie », ou Brie noir. C'est un brie plus sec et de couleur brune qui est encore plus fort et a un goût de paille.

Consommation
Sa période de consommation idéale s'étale d'avril à septembre après un affinage de 10 semaines, mais aussi de mars à décembre. On l'accompagne souvent avec du pain de campagne et un vin de Gaillac. Les confréries des deux AOC sont d'ailleurs jumelées. Il se marie également très bien avec un Bourgogne ou un côtes du Rhône.

C'est également l'ingrédient de base de plusieurs spécialités culinaires régionales de la Brie, dont la croûte au brie.

Fabrication
Autrefois, la fabrication était uniquement le fait d'agriculteurs. La production fermière n'a pas cessé mais des laiteries industrielles en produisent également.

Le Brie de Melun a une période de fabrication beaucoup plus longue que les autres bries. Le lait cru est mis à mûrir dans des cuves durant 20 heures, puis 18 heures dans des bassines avant d'être caillé, coupé, puis moulé. La température de la pièce dans laquelle est effectué le moulage doit être portée à 33 °C durant quatre heures, afin de faire évacuer le lactosérum, puis à 24 °C durant six heures et enfin à 19 °C. Le lendemain, les fromages sont démoulés puis salés : ils restent alors dans la salle de salage pendant deux jours. Ensuite, les fromages sont mis dans une salle à 12 °C dans laquelle ils vont commencer à s'affiner, leur couleur blanche commencera à apparaître. Au bout d'une semaine, les fromages seront mis dans un autre réfrigérateur à 7 °C pendant encore, au moins, trois semaines pour qu'ils atteignent leur maturité. La période de fabrication du Brie de Melun dure trois mois en tout.

Aire d'appellation
Le Brie de Melun doit être produit sur un territoire limité à la Seine-et-Marne, ainsi qu'une partie des départements de l'Yonne et de l'Aube.

Département de Seine-et-Marne : toutes les communes.

Département de l'Aube : Avant-lès-Marcilly, Avon-la-Pèze, Bercenay-le-Hayer, Bourdenay, Bouy-sur-Orvin, Charmoy, Courceroy, Dierrey-Saint-Julien, Dierrey-Saint-Pierre, Échemines, Faux-Villecerf, Fay-lès-Marcilly, Ferreux-Quincey, Fontaine-Mâcon, Fontenay-de-Bossery, Gumery, Louptière-Thénard, Marcilly-le-Hayer, Marigny-le-Châtel, Marnay-sur-Seine, Mériot, Mesnil-Saint-Loup, Motte-Tilly, Nogent-sur-Seine, Palis, Planty, Pont-sur-Seine, Pouy-sur-Vannes, Prunay-Belleville, Rigny-la-Nonneuse, Saint-Aubin, Saint-Flavy, Saint-Lupien, Saint-Nicolas-la-Chapelle, Soligny-les-Étangs, Traînel, Trancault, Villadin.

Département de l'Yonne : Belliole, Brannay, Champigny, Chapelle-sur-Oreuse, Chaumont, Chéroy, Compigny, Courlon-sur-Yonne, Courtoin, Cuy, Dollot, Domats, Évry, Fouchères, Gisy-les-Nobles, Jouy, Lixy, Michery, Montacher-Villegardin, Pailly, Perceneige, Plessis-Saint-Jean, Pont-sur-Yonne, Saint-Agnan, Saint-Sérotin, Saint-Valérien, Savigny-sur-Clairis, Serbonnes, Sergines, Thorigny-sur-Oreuse, Vallery, Vernoy, Villeblevin, Villebougis, Villemanoche, Villenavotte, Villeneuve-la-Dondagre, Villeneuve-la-Guyard, Villeperrot, Villeroy, Villethierry, Vinneuf.

Production
En 2008, la production commercialisée a atteint 213 tonnes. Elle concerne 30 agriculteurs producteurs de lait, 3 fabricants industriels et 2 familles d'éleveurs fromagers fermiers, 2 affineurs exclusifs. En 2003, elle s'élevait à 231 tonnes (-14,3 % depuis 1998). La production se stabilise au cours des années suivantes (234 tonnes en 2021).

Notes et références

Annexes

Articles connexes
 Brie.
 Brie de Meaux.
 Brie de Nangis.
Brie de Montereau.
Brie noir.
 Fromage fermier.
 Fromage industriel.
 Liste des fromages français en AOC.

Liens externes

 Cahier des charges de l'appellation « Brie de Melun » enregistré à la Commission européenne
 Brie de Melun, site des fromages AOP
    Site de la Maison du Lait
  Site de France fromage
 Confrérie du Brie de Melun
  Portail du département Seine-et-Marne

Appellation fromagère française
Fromage fermier
Fromage industriel
Fromage au lait de vache
Fromage au lait cru
Fromage à pâte molle à croûte fleurie
Fromage AOC
Fromage bénéficiant d'une appellation d'origine protégée
Fromage de Seine-et-Marne
Fromage de l'Aube
Fromage de l'Yonne
Melun
Brie (fromage)


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Ian's Memoirs
We were "zinzins!"
Charlie's Middle School photograph during sixth grade, in early 2008.
(The photos on this page are from 2000-07: later photos of Charles are in 2008 Journal or 2009 Journal or in later posts under "Children," all on the right).
Here he is, "notre chou-chou à nous tous." You have to understand French to get that phrase, which translates into something like "here's our little cabbage, who belongs to all of us." It actually sounds okay in French!
Charlie in his Breakers uniform late in 2006. The Santa Cruz County Breakers was his youth soccer team for five years, through 2010.
The key words are "all of us." Charlie cemented our family, our three families. Each of the older children took to him immediately. They may not have had both parents in common, but Charlie was everyone's little brother.
A Happy Valley School photo from September 2000. For many years, this was his mother's favorite of him.
Marie-Hélène's and my wedding almost two years later was superfluous for the children. Charlie made us all a family. From the day he was born they each and all looked after him and took care of him. That's never changed. Neither emigration nor the parents' separation nor anything else has ever reduced the caring and love that Charlie and then Alex evoked in their siblings.
Here he is with his kid brother during our 2000 summer vacation, at Disney World in Florida. He's a pretty nice big brother, as this picture shows (and as do many others, including on their various shared pages), although Alex has been known to get bopped more than once or twice!
I've thought about why that is, and of course have a theory: I always have a theory!
Alban, Daphné, Nick and Tom were all pretty happy when Marie-Hélène and I moved in together, even if Pierre and Sunshine, their respective other parents, were telling them that what she and I were doing was terrible and wrong. But that rabid animosity from one of their own parents, and rabid is not an overstatement, meant that the children couldn't really let go and enjoy their new lives together, their new living situation. Over time, each learned distrust of his or her step-parent, or if not distrust a reserve reflecting his or her biological parent's bad feelings.
On a sled in Tahoe in March 2007. At a soccer fund-raiser, ours was the winning bid for a weekend at an Alpine Meadows condo. The weekend was warm, one of the last of that season, and we had a blast. There's a picture of Alban on his page during the same weekend.
That is the terrible hold that parents can exert on their children. Not all divorced parents do, but when they do, the children cannot block it. That's part of why the parent does it, as a kind of validation of what she or he is feeling. Pierre and Sunshine each felt unjustly abandoned: each ignored his or her own contributions to their respective separations. Their pressure on their children sought validation for that point of view, confirmation of the injustice that each was suffering.
Racing to cross the finish line, first he assures us, at the Happy Valley School annual sports day in 2006.
But it's not validation, of course, when a young child goes along with what the parent insists on. That's just infantile loyalty, a small child's survival instinct. The more vehemently the parent insists, the more the small child's survival depends on agreeing with what the parent is insisting on. So he or she agrees. Ours tried valiantly to agree with every parent.
And then along came Charlie!
Nobody outside the family could resent him from afar, not even Sunshine and Pierre. If they did, the children could easily see it for what it was, a silly kind of jealousy, and ignore it.
We found him in the dryer in my apartment in Irvine during Thanksgiving 2003. He was pleased with himself: this was a great hiding place! Note that he did not neglect to bring the fabric softener, presumably so that he would be more aromatic after being dried.
Our older children were free to express everything positive that their new lives together and with us were bringing them, without reserve. It wasn't all positive, of course, our blended family, but it was pretty good during the early years. Charlie gave his older siblings reason to rejoice when they felt like it without offending or hurting the absent parents, and when they did rejoice, it was in him.
Charles was born at the end of our 1995 summer vacation in La Grée. He was born in the same clinic as Daphné eight years before, la Clinique des Augustines, managed by nuns whose spiritual and moral predecessors had helped allied airmen escape the Nazis and cared for wounded resistance fighters during World War II.
This is the roof of La Samaritaine department store in Paris, August 2003. Needless to say, it is not supposed to be climbed on! He snuck up there while the parents were admiring the lovely views of the Seine and its islands from the roof-top cafe. Unfortunately, he seems to have a thing for climbing on roofs!
The Clinique's wartime Mother Superior, Yvonne-Aimée, was decorated by both the French and the English Governments for her courage during the war, and the Clinique itself received La Croix de Guerre, an extraordinary honor merited by the nuns' collective heroism.
In part because of their considerable contribution to upholding national honor, the nuns were able to continue managing their warm but little maternity ward for many years after it ceased being efficient when viewed from a simply economic perspective. Daphné and Charles were our beneficiaries of this governmental largesse. Unfortunately, the local government finally insisted on economies of scale and closed the maternity ward, although the Clinique remains open.
Here he is, climbing again, this time in Grandpa's doorway at La Grée. The summer of 2007 was the climbing and jumping vacation for him and Alex, at least until he hurt his ankle jumping down from playground equipment in an English pub.
Even though he has spent all but the first 22 months of his life in Santa Cruz, Charles has been able to maintain contact with his birthplace. La Grée, his grandfather's retirement cottage, was where we were staying when he was born at the Clinique. It also remained our vacation home even after we moved to California. Charlie and Alex visited Brittany and their grandfather almost once a year.
In some ways, he stayed and stays loyal to his country of origin, as it were, his mother country, his mother's country. The vacation visits helped, of course. Then there was always a French presence at home, and not just his maman. She had a French TV channel, courtesy of Dish Network, and we had regular visitors from France, some Marie-Hélène's family, some her friends.
Here's one of Charlie's favorites at the time, the Mask taken during our 2006 summer vacation at La Grée.
Charlie's loyalty to France showed up in different ways. One is a bit of a disappointment for those of us who are of English origin, and serious soccer fans. He tends to support the French national soccer team! Can you believe that? Also the US team, of course, but when it comes to a choice between England or France, Charlie favors France. How could he! The fact that the French team has obtained consistently better results than the English team during his lifetime should not influence him!
We invented the game in England. The soccer club in my little town, Marlow FC, was founded in 1870, eight years before Manchester United and 16 years before Arsenal. Cuthbert John Ottaway. England's captain in what is acknowledged to have been the world's first ever real international match when England played Scotland back in 1872, played once for Marlow FC. I'm not quite sure how all that is relevant to Charlie, but some of us in the family support the English national team!
Charlie's Happy Valley School photograph in September 2003.
Even his favorite players tend to play for France. For several years, his number one player was Thierry Henry, a lanky and thrilling French forward who plied his trade for Arsenal and for the French national team. Charlie asked us for "Henry" shirts for both teams, which he wore and wore. Zinedine Zidane, the best player in the world for a few years, played for France and he too was one of Charlie's favorites. The four of us, Alex, Charlie and the parents, watched the 2006 World Cup final, pitting France against Italy, from a bar in Brittany. The disappointment was palpable (and shared to be honest) when Zidane was sent off and the French lost.
With his sunglasses, July 2003.
At the same time, he has been raised American. His schools are American, his buddies are American, his music is American (mostly) and his movies are American (mostly). He even has that quintissentially American quality of having immigrated here from somewhere else! With French and English parents, it all makes for an interesting mixture of influences and sensibilities. At least, for me. For him, for now, that's just who he is.
For his ninth birthday, a computer, an eMachines, a modern version of his brother Nick's, but Charlie received his four years younger than Nick. It tends to go that way in the family. The younger boys seem to benefit from everything earlier than their older siblings.
He had a great early life with all those older siblings and all that love, positively charmed. Until the older children reached adolescence, when of course from time to time things became more complicated! Not to speak of when he himself reached adolescence, which added another layer of complexity! Through it all, the big kids are all still there for him, just as they were before he could even walk.
Unfortunately, the arrival in 2007 for Charlie's birthday of the much-desired and greatly appreciated computer did not supersede the TV. Here he is, remote poised, with that glazed-eyed look of the long-term TV watcher.
His interests were formed early, and principally by his older siblings. The first to take hold of him, and the longest lasting, has been soccer, his number one kick (tee-hee!). Alban had been the first in the family to embrace the beautiful game (remember, Nick and Tom were held back for two years in Paris after the rest of us arrived in Santa Cruz). Alban had started playing soccer, and excelled at it right away, during his first term at Happy Valley School, in the fall of 1997. Charlie watched, started kicking the ball around at home, and waited with bated breath for his turn.
Escorting his maman on Market Strret in San Francisco, in January 2004. She is very fond of this photo.
That came when he started at Happy Valley School, which has the amazing advantage of a soccer field on the premises. The children played there together during most breaks for most of the year. Charlie did so as soon as he started kindergarden, and like Alban excelled right away. (You might want to check out his under 10 soccer team on the fall 2005 soccer season post).
The significance of this photo is not self-evident. On August 19, 2000, in a swimming pool on Key Biscayne, Charlie showed us all that he could swim unassisted. BRAVO Charlie!! He couldn't lift his head to breathe yet, but he could swim! Daphné was there just in case he wanted any help. By the end of the Florida vacation, he was breathing at the same time as well. Just before turning five years old, he learned that all by himself.
Alban also pointed him in the direction of skateboarding. That too Charlie adopted with alacrity, but skateboarding didn't last for him the way that it did for Alban himself. Charlie started before he was four years old, and there are great photos of him skateboarding here (alone) and here (with Alban and Alex).
The bottom line is that he likes most any sport that he tries. Which has included at one time or another swimming, recreational biking, cross-country, skiing, track and field, and of course video games.
One of two very different moods from one short ferry trip, across from the mainland to Nanaimo on Vancouver Island during our Canadian vacation in April 2003.
Especially don't forget the video games!! He never does!
The older siblings came into the picture again, leading by example with the adoption of tech and video games. Charlie asked for a PC and access to one or another game console (they evolve as fast as PCs, and cost almost as much!) pretty early on. He built his own website, www.charlesrocks.com, in 2006, but has not updated it recently. Shame, that. From time to time he makes videos, and posts some on YouTube.
By the end of this tapestry in 2010, the end of our blended family living together, he had moved on to the local junior high school, but not a lot else had changed. His number one kick was still soccer, and he was still as kind and sensitive as always. Perhaps not unrelated, his relationships with the fairer sex seem good, as they have since a young age.
The other of two very different moods from that same short ferry trip. He has always felt a lot.
The one drawback with this sensitivity was that he found the parents' separation particularly trying. In part, this may also have been a function of his age when I moved out, 14. It's not an easy age for a parental divorce.
We're sorry kiddo. It's all our fault: we know that. Don't you worry too much, or assume any of the responsibility. It's your mother's and mine. We screwed up big time. Blame us. Let us worry about it, and over time try to fix whatever can be fixed. Nobody's perfect, certainly not us. Hopefully, time will heal even this monumental botch-up! In the meantime, it's not your problem. Just let it be.


DI Bernardo Bader designed this house with a valuable "indoor environment quality" achieved by the inner garden courtyard which is hidden from outside views.
The parcel of land, just measuring 500 square meter, is located in a soon-to-be populated area of settlement at the outskirts of the village sulz. It lies between existing development and the agricultural green belt and girded by highly frequented paths leading to the recreational area in the close neighborhood.


Though controversial, Iron Man 3's Mandarin twist marked a shift in how Marvel Studios approached its super-villains - for the better. Over the course of its three phases the Marvel Cinematic Universe has become a beloved box-office juggernaut, causing various other studios to attempt to replicate their huge success.
However, Hollywood's premier shared universe has encountered some problems as it has expanded. As audiences have flocked to see each new Marvel release in greater numbers, the studio's superhero films have come under increasing scrutiny and, until recently, it was generally acknowledged that the Marvel Cinematic Universe's weakest point was its villains.
Despite being played by acclaimed actors like Christopher Eccleston and Tim Roth, Marvel villains were generally less developed and less memorable than their respective protagonists. Yet Marvel's latter films have beefed up their villains, with Erik Killmonger (Michael B. Jordan) and the Vulture (Michael Keaton) standing as examples of rounded rivals with understandable motivations. Whether you love it or hate it, Iron Man 3's big twist was a turning point, and the Mandarin approach has made Marvel's villains more interesting and memorable.
Prior to his cinematic debut, Iron Man was not the most famous of Marvel's superheroes, and neither was his de-facto nemesis, the Mandarin. In his comic book appearances, this unnamed Chinese warlord possesses ten powerful, mystical rings, which he uses to vanquish his enemies. The Mandarin is also an expert martial artist, scientist and strategist, and has clashed with Tony Stark many times in his quest for power.
Despite the Mandarin's relatively low status in Marvel's villainous hall of fame, anticipation begun to build for his induction into the MCU. Marvel had proved that they could compellingly adapt their source material's more outlandish concepts and characters, so hopes were already high for a similarly straightforward, modern take on the Mandarin. Indeed, his ominous presence had been teased since Tony's fateful cave sojourn in Iron Man, which was orchestrated by the terrorist group known as the Ten Rings. Thus, fans were excited to see Stark's nemesis finally realized onscreen. As Iron Man 3's opening weekend neared, it seemed as if everyone's expectations had been met.
With veteran actor Sir Ben Kingsley in a comic book accurate costume, the threat of the Mandarin loomed over the film's promotional material. Indeed, each trailer teased an epic, desperate test for Tony Stark, whose home and personal life literally crumbled under the Mandarin's onslaught. Yet upon its release, this turned out to be a huge misdirection. In a large deviation from the comics, the real villain was actually scientist Aldrich Killian (Guy Pearce), and it transpired that Kingsley was really playing Trevor Slattery - a sleazy, drunken and drug-addled actor. Slattery had been paid to embody the fake persona of the Mandarin to manipulate American politicians and take credit for Killian's wrongdoings.
This bait and switch left many fans disappointed, since they had been expecting a dynamic and faithful take on the character, not a humorous and deconstructive iteration. Similarly, Pearce's Killian wasn't given much screen time to step in after Slattery's façade had been lifted. As such, many have complained that the promised, grandiose end to the Iron Man trilogy had fallen rather flat. Certainly, the furor over Iron Man 3's twist lingers – on the internet and in conversation – years after its cinematic run. But rather than damaging Marvel's winning streak, it has enhanced it.
Whilst Kingsley and Pearce's interpretation of the Mandarin deviates from the traditional Mandarin rather substantially, the reasoning for this change is sound. As director Shane Black explained, the Mandarin was altered so that the filmmakers could simultaneously sidestep and address the character's troubling racial aspects.
In the comics, the Mandarin has often appeared as a Fu Manchu caricature, which obviously reflects the prejudices of the time he was created in. In Iron Man 3, only a small number of the Mandarin's Asian trappings remain, but these are a deliberate, in-universe choice. Indeed, in the series' post 9-11 setting Killian dresses Slattery in this way to capitalize on America's tense preoccupation with the Middle East. In doing so, Iron Man 3 recontextualizes the Mandarin to not only suit modern audiences, but to reaffirm the trilogy's critical look at the USA's unethical military industrial complex.
Does the Mandarin twist succeed, or does it squander the film's potential? Fans continue to argue both cases based on the above information; and that is precisely the point. As the superhero genre (and its multitudes of fans) multiply in number, Iron Man 3 is repeatedly dissected and discussed. And, during these revisits, the Mandarin twist is an unavoidable part of those conversations, because it is a deciding facet of the film's plot and its appeal. Shocking plot developments in movies and TV shows have dominated social media and become "water-cooler moments" for colleagues, friends and families to discuss far more than would have done in years gone by. By implanting the Mandarin into a pivotal mid-movie twist, Marvel Studios ensured that the Mandarin would never be forgotten.


Shares of Chipotle Mexican Grill Inc. slid in Tuesday's extended trade after the company posted earnings for a quarter which it described as the "most challenging" in its history following an E. coli outbreak at several of its stores. The Mexican-style fast-food chain reported its fourth-quarter earnings nearly halved to $67.9 million, or $2.17 a share, from $120.2 million, or $3.84 a share, in the same quarter last year. Revenue dropped 6.8% to $997.5 million. Analysts surveyed by FactSet had forecast earnings of $1.86 a share on revenue of $1 billion. Same-store sales, a key metric for retailers, sank 14.6% in the quarter. Chipotle shares declined 2% in the after-hours session.


Category Archives for "thoughts and travel tips"
The oldest commercial district in North America, the Rue Petit-Champlain in Old Quebec is a holiday extravaganza during the month of December. At the base of Cap Diamant where the Chateau Frontenac sits grandly overseeing the river and city, the street is bordered by Breakneck Stairs on one end and a large mural depicting the history of the district including the bombardments of 1759, landslides, and fires at the other. Reminiscent of Old Europe, clusters of souvenir shops and small restaurants like La Lapin Saute provide shelter from the cold and Santa is a celebrity.
The Sunshine State may have gotten a bad rap in recent months from the racially-charged Zimmerman-Martin trial, but that hasn't stripped Florida from its deserving honor as a great vacation paradise for many Americans and international visitors.
If you're looking for good travel, Florida should be on your list of top five locations. The state's many charms help it to be a favorite holiday destination. Florida has it all: sunshine, great beaches, amazing luxury hotels, exciting cities, tourist activities and alligator farms. You can't forget the alligator farms.


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Amy B.Z. Zhang
https://cornell.zoom.us/j/94971390717?pwd=a2xvS2hRUG9ydEIzMlRmZGtLaXdsZz09
Personalized Recommender Systems: Technological Impact and Concerns
Most of our online activities are, at least in part, powered by personalized recommender systems. While automatic pattern extraction as a technology holds great promise, it can also have alarming adverse impacts. This talk will give a high-level overview of common techniques for personalized recommender systems, and how they connect to problems on both the personal and social level. It will also discuss some alternative approaches addressing these issues, and why a solution cannot come from technology alone.
Amy Zhang is a PhD Candidate in Operations Research and Information Engineering (ORIE) at Cornell Tech, working with Prof. Itai Gurvich on approximate control optimization in an evolving system. Her research focuses on approximating large systems by a small number of clusters in settings that can be modeled as Markov Decision Processes (MDP). She would like to extend the results to applications where "best" actions are learned through interactions, in particular personalized recommendations, and enquire into what qualifies as "best": 1. How to tradeoff/ combine the profit goals of the entity making the recommendation vs the value to the person receiving the recommendation? How to account for the human part of the value such as feelings in algorithmic design? 2. Could the clustering structure in the approximation be leveraged to reduce the "echo chamber" effect in certain contexts such as media or news? Or going further, how much should an algorithm be concerned about better vs preferred? 3. Might there be potential implications of the technique on the ability to replace individual data with group level ones? Is it still valuable if an algorithm is not privacy preserving but makes the user feel less "watched"? As a DLI Doctoral Fellow, Amy seeks to pursue discussions underlying these questions and explore what downstream societal impacts can be contained at the level of algorithm design.


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Secret Man Cave Hideout Found Under NYC Subway
Many New Yorkers were not impressed, however.
Rose Heichelbech
Grand Central Station (now formally known as Grand Central Terminal) is one of the most beautiful buildings in New York City. But, recently a secret man cave was discovered underneath track 114 at this busy station, leading to disciplinary action for 3 Metro North employees. The small area, a former locksmith supply holding for Metro North, was outfitted with all kinds of things that break rooms don't normally have.
Via/ Office of the MTA Inspector General
The room was labeled as the foreman's office, but inside was actually a secret apartment. Inside there was a microwave, a fridge containing beer, a flat screen TV, and other conveniences.
There was a hide-a-bed concealed by a plywood cover, as well as an inflatable air mattress, and a futon found inside the area.
Employees using the secret break room also had a streaming device installed which was powdered by a phone plan hotspot so that they could stream TV and movies.
After several complaints in 2019 the Office of the MTA Inspector General launched an investigation into the matter. According to one statement the employees who outfitted the secret man cave used the area to "hang out and get drunk and party." Statements during the investigation revealed that at times this had happened while the 3 employees were on the clock.
When asked about the unauthorized break room on public property, many New Yorkers were not troubled at all. One man said that, "…in the current scheme of corruption and mis-spending of public dollars it's hard to excited. I'm sorry, but you know, it's small change." Another New Yorker gave the employees credit by stating that they were "innovative" in their use of an otherwise boring space.
Find out more details in the video below of this secret man cave break room under the tracks at Grand Central Station.


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An entire country demands to speak to the director
1 week ago Mia Thompson
At a specialty grocery store in Traverse City, Michigan, a manager named Shea O'Brien was recently accused of not being able to read an angry customer that a type of fish advertised for sale was out of stock. In another instance, O'Brien said, a man who did not want to wear a mask verbally assaulted another employee, mixing personal insults with impromptu monologues about freedom and tyranny until the employee started crying.
"I kept screaming, and the governor said we don't have to wear masks anymore," O'Brien said. The woman's reaction – that they were still mandatory in places where there were a certain number of workers – angered him even more.
Finally, the owner came over and "told the customer never to come back again," O'Brien said.
It's not your imagination: people's behavior has really gotten worse. In a study of 1,000 American adults during the pandemic, 48 percent of adults and 55 percent of workers said they expected in November 2020 an improvement in US citizenship after the election.
By August, expectations for improvement had fallen to 30 percent overall and 37 percent among workers. Overall, only 39% of respondents thought the US accent is civilized. The study also found that people who didn't have to work with clients were happier than those who did.
"There is a growing bifurcation between office workers and those who interact with consumers," said Micho Spring, head of global corporate practice for strategic communications firm Weber Shandwick, who helped conduct the study.
At the same time, many consumers are saddened by what they see as poor service in companies that do much of their business online – retailers, cable TV operators, car rental companies and the like – and because they seem almost concerned with preventing customers from talking to real people.
"The pandemic has given many companies permission to reduce their focus on the quality of the customer experience they provide," said John Picoult, founder of Watermark Consulting, a customer service consultancy.
Mia Thompson
"Award-winning zombie scholar. Music practitioner. Food expert. Troublemaker."
Previous How did the Israeli Pegasus surveillance program appear?
Next Greenhouse gas emissions are growing faster than the economy. United States example
CDC urges Americans to avoid travel to Israel due to spread of COVID-19 The Times of Israel
13 hours ago Mia Thompson
The Colombian government expects to close 2021 with an economic growth of 9.7%.
The private sector cuts Mexico's growth forecast to 5.59% for 2021
1 day ago Mia Thompson
Imports grew 39.5% through November and reached their highest peak in seven years
2 days ago Mia Thompson
Tanzania, Burundi sign agreement to build $900m railway and seek financing
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Delta Air Lines is joining the ranks of other top US airlines like American and United in using iPads and iPhones for pilots and in-flight service personnel. The company currently uses Microsoft Surface tablets and Lumia 1520 smartphones, but will switch to Apple 10.5-inch iPad Pros and the iPhone 7 Plus in early 2018.
The iPad Pros will replace the Surface tablets that have been used as electronic flight bags since 2014, while the iPhone 7 Plus will replace the Nokia Lumia 1520 phablets that flight attendants have used since 2014 as in-flight point of sale and onboard customer service devices.
Apple's mobile computing effort with IBM is definitely paying dividends, particularly in the airline industry. One good point about having iPads and iPhones on all of the aircraft in the Delta, United and American fleets is that it places those Apple devices in the direct view of millions of passengers every year.
The word came not from Delta, but from Apple podcaster Ken Ray. Ray received emails from two separate people yesterday -- with one being a full press release -- but couldn't find verification of the announcement. The Mac Observer says it was able to verify what Ray heard.


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Corregidor is one of the most visited tourist attractions in the Philippines. What was once a place where you'd hear deafening sounds of gunfire, is now a peaceful and quiet place. The only sounds you'll hear now are of nature.
The Sun Cruises Tour to Corregidor leaves early in the morning, from a pier on Roxas Boulevard, Manila. It's about an hour ferry ride to the island. The tour included, a round-trip ticket, a guided trolley tour of the island (about four hours), and a lunch at the Corregidor Hotel.
The Corregidor Island Tour includes the Lorcha Dock, where General MacArthur left to go to Australia where he said this famous words "I Shall Return" and the Malinta Tunnel, which was used as a hospital for wounded soldiers and as the headquarters for US officials.
The next stop is the Pacific War Memorial Museum, a dedication to the fallen American-Filipino soldiers. The memorial is excellent. This is only one of two war memorials built by the US government. The other one is at Pearl Harbor, in Hawaii.
There are other memorials on the island including, the Japanese Memorial, where Japanese tourists pray for their dead, General Wainwright, American nurses, General MacArthur and the Filipino heroes.
The barracks used by the Allied forces is 1,520 feet long. You're not allowed to go inside, because of falling debris. You're allowed to take pictures in front of it.
Next, you'll stop at the big guns that were placed in different areas of the island. You'll spend more of the tour time here. You don't have to be a military person to appreciate those canyons.
The highlight of the tour is the 30-minute light and sound show at the Malinta Tunnel (pictured left). It was about the fall of Corregidor. It is so intense, that you'll see some teary eyes around you. You'll wonder, what was it like for those people who actually experienced it. They must have been very scared.
The tour is very educational and fun. At times, you'll get emotional, but that's okay.
And by the way, the tour guide is very helpful—quite knowledgeable of the islands history.
Aside from the ruins of the war, you'll appreciate the lush landscaping and natural surroundings that Corregidor has to offer.
Picture source: Main picture (top) was taken by SunKing.
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Q: Create hidden input field with script I have a form with multiple checkboxes. When checked, the value will be "yes" when submitted. I am trying to find the best way to assign the value "no" to all unchecked checkboxes when the form is submitted.
I can't seem to get this to work. Here is what I have:
$('#foo :checkbox').submit(function() {
  var $this = $(this);
  // $this will contain a reference to the checkbox
  if ($this.is('not(:checked)')) {
    // the checkbox was not checked
    var input = document.createElement("input");
    input.setAttribute("type", "hidden");
    input.setAttribute("name", $(this).attr("name"));
    input.setAttribute("value", "no");
    //append to form element that you want .
    document.getElementById("#foo").appendChild(input);
  } else {

  }
});

Why isn't this working?

A: Following on from the other answer...
The event is triggered on the form, so:
$('form').submit(function() {
    var $this = $(this);

    // Set checked inputs to value yes
    $this.find('input:checkbox:checked').attr('value', 'yes');

    // Set unchecked inputs to value no
    $this.find('input:checkbox:not(:checked)').attr('value', 'no');
});

will trigger when the submit is triggered.
Assuming the HTML is something like:
<form>
    <input type="checkbox" />
    <input type="checkbox" />
    <input type="checkbox" />
    <input type="submit" />
</form>

A: From https://api.jquery.com/submit/

The submit event is sent to an element when the user is attempting to
  submit a form. It can only be attached to <form> elements

So you can only attach the event to the form, not to the checkboxes.
Which means that your code won't actually even run.
The above answers your question, as far as I can tell (ie it says why it doesn't work).
Here is something that might work instead:
$('#foo').submit(function() {
  var $this = $(this);
  // $this will contain a reference to the form
  $this.find(':checkbox' ... // your code here

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I'm a bigger guy. I like a good book, and to joke around. I like to talk, but only once I get to know someone.
Howdy from a montana country boy.
i hate this "describe yourself" thing. how the heck am i going to do that. you'd think i stand infront of the mirror every morning and say," im good enough, im smart enough, and dog on it...people like me." freaking stewart smiley. and if you dont know who that is, your too young for me.


There are roughly some 30 to 60 species of woody plants known as dogwoods. with most of them being deciduous trees or shrubs, with some of them being perennial herbaceous shrubs and a few being woody evergreens. Several have small inconspicuous flowers surrounded by large white or pink petal like bracts, while others have more open clusters. The leaves are usually opposite, simple and smoothed edged with vines that distinctly curve when they near the leaf's margins.
Native throughout much of the temperate and boreal Eurasia and North America, with the richest areas being in China, Japan and the southeastern United States.


text:
<?php
/**
 * @property String Id
 * @property String ProductName
 * @property String ProductPrice
 * @property String Sku
 * @property String ShortDescription
 * @property String Taxable
 * @property String Weight
 * @property String IsPackage
 * @property String NeedsDigitalDelivery
 * @property String Description
 * @property String HideInStore
 * @property String Status
 * @property String TopHTML
 * @property String BottomHTML
 * @property String ShippingTime
 * @property String InventoryNotifiee
 * @property String InventoryLimit
 */
class Infusionsoft_Generated_Product extends Infusionsoft_Generated_Base{
    protected static $tableFields = array('Id', 'ProductName', 'ProductPrice', 'Sku', 'ShortDescription', 'Taxable', 'Weight', 'IsPackage', 'NeedsDigitalDelivery', 'Description', 'HideInStore', 'Status', 'TopHTML', 'BottomHTML', 'ShippingTime', 'InventoryNotifiee', 'InventoryLimit', 'Shippable');

    public function __construct($id = null, $app = null){
    	parent::__construct('Product', $id, $app);
    }

    public function getFields(){
		return self::$tableFields;
	}

	public function addCustomField($name){
		self::$tableFields[] = $name;
	}

    public function removeField($fieldName){
        $fieldIndex = array_search($fieldName, self::$tableFields);
        if($fieldIndex !== false){
            unset(self::$tableFields[$fieldIndex]);
            self::$tableFields = array_values(self::$tableFields);
        }
    }
}

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