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Ginkgo Forte GP (60)
Ginkgo Forte GP contains standardized Ginkgo biloba (50:1) extract (24% ginkgo flavone glycosides and 6% terpene lactones), and standardized Gotu kola leaf extract (12:1) (10% asiaticosides).
The potent Santegra®'s formula created to support the cognitive function, improve blood circulation, and prevent cardiovascular diseases - Ginkgo Forte GP is a natural and safe remedy to make life better!
Ginkgo biloba is the world's oldest tree, a "living fossil". It's difficult to imagine that ginkgo biloba existed 200 million years ago. It is extremely hardy plant, resistant to many insects, diseases and pollution, which can reach heights up to 125 feet. Individual trees have been known to live as long as 1000 years. The Nature preserved this ancient tree, which unique properties are very beneficial for human health nowadays.
Native to China, Japan, and Korea, it was brought to Europe in 18 century, and after 50 years to North America, now it grows worldwide.
The Ginkgo tree has been used in Traditional Chinese Medicine for over 4,000 years. Various parts of the Ginkgo tree were used in the treatment of respiratory ailments, to improve circulation, as a digestive aid, as a tonic for memory loss in the elderly and as a longevity elixir.
The main therapeutic effect of ginkgo biloba extract is improvement of blood circulation. Ginkgo improves blood flow to the brain and the transmission of nerve signals. (1)
It helps to support brain function, enhance memory and concentration, improves the mood. (2)
Ginkgo biloba extract is beneficial for the cell's metabolism, increases the uptake of glucose by brain cells, and promotes the energy balance in the cells. Ginkgo enhances the neurotransmitter synthesis, such as dopamine, epinephrine, norepinephrine and acetylcholine. Additional neurotransmitter production positively influences endocrine, cardiovascular, and nervous systems.
Ginkgo biloba decreases vascular permeability, improves blood vessel elasticity, and normalizes blood pressure. (3)
Ginkgo biloba reduces activity of platelet activating factor, and thus reduces tendency of blood to clot.
Ginkgo biloba is a potent antioxidant, and its antioxidant action may also extend to the brain and retina of the eye. Preliminary trials have suggested potential benefit of ginkgo biloba extract for people with macular degeneration and diabetic retinopathy. (4)
Ginko biloba extract is used to support cardiovascular system. Ginko biloba has been shown to strengthen nervous system, improve cognitive function.
According to the clinical trials, the dosage of 120-160 mg Ginkgo biloba per day (standardized to 24% ginkgo flavone glycosides and 6% terpene lactones) for 8-12 weeks is suitable.
Ginkgo biloba extract is one of the most popular herbal remedies in the world, there are hundreds of different company's formulations, but only few contain all active ingredients in the essential concentration.
Ginkgo Forte GP contains 80 mg of standardized Ginkgo biloba (24% ginkgo flavone glycosides and 6% terpene lactones) in one capsule. The recommended dosage is 2 capsules a day, thus the daily intake of ginko biloba is 160 mg, which satisfy the requirements.
The guaranteed content of the active ingredients is Ginkgo Forte GP main benefit that provides its efficacy and consistency.
The second active ingredient in Ginkgo Forte GP is Gotu kola (Centella asiatica).
Gotu kola has been important in the medicinal systems of central Asia for centuries. Gotu kola historically is considered to be a brain tonic; it is called "food for the brain".
In Sri Lanka, it was used to prolong life, as the leaves are commonly eaten by elephants, famous for their longevity.
In China, Gotu kola is one of the reported "miracle elixirs of life". This was attributed to a healer named LiChing Yun who, legends say, consumed gotu kola regularly and lived 256 years.
Gotu kola also has a historical reputation for boosting mental activity and for helping a variety of illnesses, such as high blood pressure, rheumatism, fever, and nervous disorders. Some of its common applications in Ayurvedic medicine include heart disease, water retention, hoarseness, bronchitis, and coughs in children, and as a poultice for many skin conditions. (6)
Nowadays Gotu kola is widely used all over the world. It is considered that Gotu kola enhances memory, stimulates thinking processes, improves brain and peripheral circulation, lowers intracranial pressure, has been used successfully to treat varicose veins, acts as a mild sedative, speeds wound healing process, has mild diuretic properties.
Ginkgo Forte GP contains 150 mg of standardized Gotu kola leaf extract (12:1) (10% asiaticosides) in one capsule, which meets the recommended dosage and guarantees the efficacy of a new product.
Take 1 capsule with a large glass of water in the morning with a meal, or as directed by your healthcare practitioner.
Individual intolerance, pregnancy.
If you suffer from low blood coagulation or increased blood pressure, consult your doctor before taking this product.
The two groups of phytochemicals to which ginkgo biloba is normally standardized, ginkgo flavone glycosides and terpene lactones, are considered to be the primary active constituents.
The flavone glycosides, which include quercetin, kaempherol and isorhamnetin, are responsible for the antioxidant properties of ginkgo biloba extract.
The terpene lactones, which include ginkgolides A, B and C, as well as bilobalide, possess several activities. These activities include neuroprotection, improvement of choline (a neurotransmitter) uptake in brain synapses and inhibition of platelet activating factor (which reduces the tendency of the blood to clot).
Interesting "side effects" appeared in the experiment with rats, which were assigned a diet that included either ginkgo biloba extract or placebo. Results showed that rats receiving ginkgo biloba extract learned quicker and made fewer errors than control animals, and unexpectedly, lived an average of five months longer. (Winter, 1998)
The primary active constituents of gotu kola are saponins (also called triterpenoids), which include asiaticoside.
Gotu kola supports circulatory system, improves circulation, strengthens veins and capillary, and normalizes high blood pressure.
Gotu kola helps stimulate nervous system, restore energy. Nervous system is supported due to the high content of vitamin B in this plant, which also helps to transform food into energy. Triterpenoids take part in transmission of nerve signals in the brain, thus improving the function of the central nervous system.
Ginkgo Forte GP contains standardized Ginkgo biloba leaf extract (24% ginkgo flavone glycosides and 6% terpene lactones) and standardized Gotu kola (Centella asiatica) leaf extract (12:1) (10% asiaticosides), which guarantees its efficacy and consistency.
A meta-analysis, published in the British Journal of Pharmacology, analyzed the research conducted in over 40 clinical studies investigating Ginkgo biloba extract in the treatment of cerebral insufficiency. Cerebral insufficiency is associated with age-related mental decline or dementia. The resulting analysis concluded that the reviewed research was on par with research conducted on traditional prescription medications for treatment of dementia and that Ginkgo biloba extract is effective in reducing all symptoms of cerebral
insufficiency, including impaired mental function. (6)
In a placebo-controlled, double-blind, randomized study, 72 patients with cerebral insufficiency (lack of blood flow to the brain) were subjected to a computerized test of short term memory. At the end of six weeks, the group receiving Ginkgo biloba extract exhibited a statistically significant improvement in short term memory capacity while the placebo group showed no
significant increase. (7)
Clinical evidence indicates that Ginkgo biloba extract may be useful in the treatment of certain types of depression, notably "resistant" depression. In one placebo-controlled study, patients who continued to exhibit symptoms of depression after the use of antidepressants were given 240 mg per day of Ginkgo biloba extract. The patients receiving Ginkgo biloba extract experienced a significant reduction in depressive symptoms as well as an improvement in cognitive function. (8)
In an open clinical trial of 60 patients having erectile dysfunction, taking 60mg of ginkgo per day, 50% of the patients regained potency and 25% showed improved arterial blood flow
following 6 months of supplementation (5% showed no improvement). (9)
Recently there has been much speculation, that Ginkgo biloba extract may act as a 'smart drug' or nootropic agent in the healthy young to improve intelligence. A 30-d randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical trial was conducted in which 61 participants were administered a battery of validated neuropsychological tests before and after treatment with Ginkgo biloba extract. Statistical analysis indicated significant improvements in speed of information processing working memory and executive processing attributable to the EGb. (10)
The effect of Ginkgo biloba extract (EGb(50)) on nerve regeneration and its dose-effect relationship was investigated in a rat model. Sciatic nerve transection and repair was done in 120 Sprague-Dawley rats. The animals were divided into four groups and given normal saline, low-dose EGb(50) (50 mg kg(-1) d(-1)), moderate-dose EGb(50) (100 mg kg(-1) d(-1)), and high-dose EGb(50) (200 mg kg(-1) d(-1)), respectively. Electrophysiological, histological examinations, and functional evaluation were conducted at various postoperative intervals. Sensory regeneration distance, sciatic functional index (SFI), motor nerve conduction velocity, compound muscle action potential, axon regeneration index, and muscle mass were significantly higher in EGb(50) groups than in saline groups. All but SFI of those parameters were better in high-dose group when compared with those in moderate- and low-dose groups. EGb(50) has the effect of promoting regeneration of injured peripheral nerve.The higher the dose, the better the result. (11)
A large body of data emphasizes the central role of mitochondrial dysfunction during aging and as an early event in neurodegenerative diseases. In one study PC12 cells and dissociated mice brain cells, as well as isolated mitochondria were used to investigate the effects of Ginkgo biloba extract on mitochondrial functions. Mitochondrial abnormalities during aging were mimicked by using external factors (nitrosative stress, serum deprivation and complexes inhibitors) consequently altering mitochondrial processes, such as energy metabolism. As markers for the function of mitochondria, ATP levels and mitochondrial membrane potential were measured. Ginkgo biloba extract alleviated mitochondrial functions in vitro at concentrations as low as 0.01mg/ml. Treating two different age groups of mice with Ginkgo biloba extract 761 (100mg/kg body weight for 14 days) showed beneficial effects on complexes I, IV and V of the mitochondrial respiratory chain and against nitrosative stress. Interestingly, these effects were only observed in the aged mice group, proving higher efficacy of EGb 761 during aging. The single components of Ginkgo biloba extract showed in both cell models protection of the mitochondrial membrane potential indicating that a complementary action of the components is responsible for the versatile actions of EGb 761. (12)
The prevention or deceleration of atherogenesis is one of the most significant anti-aging objectives since this is a matter of avoidance of myocardial infarction and stroke. To approach this prophylactic aim, phytochemical nutrition counteracting peroxidation of blood lipids based on their scavenger qualities for reactive oxygen species (ROS) can possibly serve. For example, oxidized LDL particles are highly atherogenic. Against this background, we investigated in a pilot study the effect of Ginkgo biloba (EGb 761: Rökan novo), the free oxygen radical scavenging properties of which are well-documented, on the atherosclerotic nanoplaque formation in cardiovascular high-risk patients. In eight patients who had undergone an aortocoronary bypass operation, the reduction of atherosclerotic nanoplaque formation amounted to 11.9 +/- 2.5% (p < 0.0078) and of nanoplaque size to 24.4 +/- 8.1% (p < 0.0234), respectively, after a 2-month therapy with Ginkgo biloba extract (EGb 761, 2 x 120 mg daily, Rökan novo, Spitzner Arzneimittel, Ettlingen, Germany). Additionally, superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity was upregulated by 15.7 +/- 7.0% (p < 0.0391), the quotient oxLDL/LDL lowered by 17.0 +/- 5.5% (p < 0.0234) and lipoprotein(a) concentration decreased by 23.4 +/- 7.9% (p < 0.0234) in the patients' blood after the 2-month medication regimen. The concentration of the vasodilating substances cAMP and cGMP was augmented by 37.5 +/- 9.1% (p < 0.0078) and 27.7 +/- 8.3% (p < 0.0156), respectively. A multimodal regression analysis reveals a basis for a mechanistic explanation of nanoplaque reduction under ginkgo treatment. The atherosclerosis inhibiting effect is due to an upregulation in the body's own radical scavenging enzymes and an attenuation of the risk factors oxLDL/LDL and Lp(a). Furthermore, the significant increase in the vasodilator cAMP and cGMP concentration powerfully supports the maintenance of an open bypass. (13)
The antidepressant effect of Ginkgo biloba extract was examined using two behavioral models, the forced swimming test (FST) in rats and tail suspension test (TST) in mice. Ginkgo biloba extract significantly reduced immobility time in the FST at a dosage of 10 and 50 mg/kg body weight after repeated oral treatment for 14 d, although no change of motor dysfunction was observed with the same dosage in the open field test. These results indicate that Ginkgo biloba extract might possess an antidepressant activity. In addition, v markedly shortened immobility time in the TST after acute inter-peritoneal treatment at a dosage of 50 and 100 mg/kg body weight. The present study clearly demonstrated that Ginkgo biloba extract exerts an antidepressant effect in these two behavioral models. (14)
The free-radical-scavenger activity of Ginkgo flavone glycosides has been proved in "in-vivo" and "n-vitro" experiments by French scientists.
Free radicals are involved in numerous skin diseases, especially inflammatory reactions and photosenescence. To identify possible free-radical scavenging by an original terpene-free Ginkgo biloba extract containing 33% Ginkgo flavone glycosides, mostly quercetin and kaempferol derivatives, they studied its activity by means of in-vitro and in-vivo experiments, using superoxide dismutase (SOD) as a positive control. By means of an in-vitro electron-spin resonance (ESR) assay they compared the activity of the Ginkgo extract with that of its two aglycones, quercetin and kaempferol. Quercetin and Ginkgo extract had significant antioxidant properties without pro-oxidant effect. In contrast, kaempferol, above an optimum antioxidant concentration, behaved as a pro-oxidant. The in-vivo experiments were conducted on an anti-inflammatory model. The cutaneous blood flux which reflects the skin inflammatory level was recorded by means of a laser Doppler perfusion imager. The data confirmed the free-radical-scavenging property of both Ginkgo extract and SOD. The Ginkgo extract significantly inhibited (37%) cutaneous blood flux to the same extent as SOD. These data confirmed the antioxidant property of Ginkgo extract. A complementary spin-trapping technique would enable identification of the free radicals involved. This Ginkgo extract should be useful for protection of the skin against free radicals. (15)
Clinical trials have also shown gotu kola can help those with chronic venous insufficiency.
Gotu kola strengthens the collagen lining of vein walls, enhances circulation, and reduces inflammation in varicose veins.
Ninety-four patients suffering from venous insufficiency of the lower limbs participated in a multicenter, double-blind versus placebo study. After randomization, they were allotted for a treatment period of two months to one of three groups: TECA 120 mg/day, TECA 60 mg/day, or placebo. A significant difference (p less than 0.05) in favor of TECA was shown for the symptoms of heaviness in the lower limbs and edema, as well as for the overall evaluation by the patient. The venous distensibility measured by a mercury strain gauge plethysmograph at three occlusion pressures was improved for the TECA groups but aggravated for the placebo group. The results showed a significant dose-related improvement in the treated groups. (16)
Since antioxidants have been reported to play a significant role in the wound healing process the scientists studied the effect of asiaticoside on the levels of certain antioxidants in the wound so as to explore the possible involvement of such a mechanism in the asiaticoside induced wound healing. Asiaticoside application (0.2%, topical) twice daily for 7 days to excision-type cutaneous wounds in rats led to increased enzymatic and non-enzymatic antioxidants, namely superoxide dismutase (35%), catalase (67%), glutathione peroxidase (49%), vitamin E (77%) and ascorbic acid (36%) in newly formed tissues. It also resulted in a several fold decrease in lipid peroxide levels (69%) as measured in terms of thiobarbituric acid reactive substance. However, continued application for 14 days showed no significant difference in these antioxidants compared with their values in vehicle treated wound tissue. It appears from the present study that asiaticosides enhanced induction of antioxidant levels at an initial stage of healing which may be an important contributory factor in the healing properties of this substance. (17)
Triterpenoids have been shown to aid in wound healing, prevent scar formation. One preliminary trial in humans found that gotu kola extract improved infectious wound healing. (18)
Oral treatment with 50 mg X kg(-1) day(-1) of crude methanol extract of Centella asiatica for 14 days significantly increased the anti-oxidant enzymes, like superoxide dismutase (SOD), catalase and glutathione peroxidase (GSHPx), and anti-oxidants like glutathione (GSH) and ascorbic acid decreased in lymphoma-bearing mice. (19)
Gotu kola has been used in traditional Ayurvedic medicine to treat anxiety. In the clinical trial, scientists gave 40 healthy adults either a very high onetime dose of 12 g of gotu kola or a placebo. Then they measured the subjects' startle responses with loud bursts of noise. After 60 minutes, the gotu kola group displayed less than half the startle response of the control
group. (20)
Preliminary studies showed Gotu kola ability to boost memory, overcome stress and tiredness.
Two Indian studies reported that it helped improve intelligence, general mental abilities, and behavior in mentally retarded children.
Interesting results were shown in animal study. Rats that ate gotu kola every day for 14 days had three to 60 times better retention of learned behaviors than rats that took a placebo.
1. Drieu K. Preparation and definition of Ginkgo biloba extract. In: Rokan (Ginkgo biloba): Recent Results in Pharmacology and Clinic. Fünfgeld EW, ed. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 32-6.
2. Mix JA, Crews WD. An examination of the efficacy of Ginkgo biloba extract EGb761 on the neuropsychologic functioning of cognitively intact older adults. J Altern Complement Med 2000;6:219-29.
3. Clostre F. From the body to the cell membranes: the different levels of pharmacological action of Ginkgo biloba extract. In: Rokan (Ginkgo biloba): Recent Results in Pharmacology and Clinic.Fünfgeld EW, ed. Berlin: Springer-Verlag, 1988, 180-98.
4. Lebuisson DA, Leroy L, Rigal G. Treatment of senile macular degeneration with Ginkgo biloba extract. A preliminary double-blind, drug versus placebo study. Presse Med 1986;15:1556-8 [in French].
5. Kartnig T. Clinical applications of Centella asiatica (L) Urb. In Herbs, Spices, and Medicinal Plants: Recent Advances in Botany, Horticulture, and Pharmacology, vol. 3., Craker LE, Simon JE (eds). Phoenix, AZ: Oryx Press, 1986, 145-73.
6. Kleijnen, P Knipschild. Gingko biloba for cerebral insufficiency. British Journal of Clinical Pharmacology 1992 34: 352-8.
7. Grässel E. Effect of Ginkgo-biloba extract on mental performance. Double-blind study using computerized measurement conditions in patients with cerebral insufficiency. Fortschr Med. 1992 Feb 20;110(5):73-6
8. Schubert et al. Depressive episode primarily unresponsive to therapy in elderly patients: efficacy of ginkgo biloba extract (EGB 761) in combination with antidepressants. Geriatr Forsch 1993;3:45-53.
9. Sikora R, et al. Ginkgo biloba extract in the therapy of erectile dysfunction. J Urol 1989;141:188A.
10. Con Stough, Jodi Clarke, Jenny Lloyd, Pradeep J. Nathan. Neuropsychological changes after 30-day Ginkgo biloba administration in healthy participants. The International Journal of Neuropsychopharmacology (2001), 4: 131-134 Cambridge University Press
11. Abdel-Kader R, Hauptmann S, Keil U, Scherping I, Leuner K, Eckert A, Müller WE. Pharmacol Res. Stabilization of mitochondrial function by Ginkgo biloba extract (EGb 761). 2007 Dec;56(6):493-502. Epub 2007 Sep 15.
12. Lin H, Wang H, Chen D, Gu Y. Microsurgery. A dose-effect relationship of Ginkgo biloba extract to nerve regeneration in a rat model. 2007;27(8):673-7
13. Siegel G, Schäfer P, Winkler K, Malmsten M. Ginkgo biloba (EGb 761) in arteriosclerosis prophylaxis. Wien Med Wochenschr. 2007;157(13-14):288-94
14. Sakakibara H, Ishida K, Grundmann O, Nakajima J, Seo S, Butterweck V, Minami Y, Saito S, Kawai Y, Nakaya Y, Terao J. Biol Pharm Bull. Antidepressant effect of extracts from Ginkgo biloba leaves in behavioral models. 2006 Aug;29(8):1767-70
15. Hibatallah J, Carduner C, Poelman MC. In-vivo and in-vitro assessment of the free-radical-scavenger activity of Ginkgo flavone glycosides at high concentration. J Pharm Pharmacol. 1999 Dec;51(12):1435-40
16. Pointel JP, Boccalon H, Cloarec M, et al. Titrated extract of Centella asiatica (TECA) in the treatment of venous insufficiency of the lower limbs. Angiology 1986;37:420-1
17. Shukla A, Rasik AM, Dhawan BN. Asiaticoside-induced elevation of antioxidant levels in healing wounds. Phytother Res. 1999 Feb;13(1):50-4.
18. Morisset R, Cote NG, Panisset JC, et al. Evaluation of the healing activity of hydrocotyle tincture in the treatment of wounds. Phytother Res 1987;1:117-21.
19. Jayashree G, Kurup Muraleedhara G, Sudarslal S, Jacob VB. Anti-oxidant activity of Centella asiatica on lymphoma-bearing mice. Fitoterapia. 2003 Jul;74(5):431-4.
20. Bradwejn J, Zhou Y, Koszycki D, et al. A double-blind, placebo-controlled study on the effects of Gotu Kola (Centella asiatica) on acoustic startle response in healthy subjects. J Clin Psychopharmacol. 2000;20:680–684.


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Query 1.12B: Down the Rabbit Hole
"Right this way Mr. Py." The secretary spoke with immaculate professionalism as she escorted Py through the antechamber of what was ostensibly a floor dedicated to the happiness and placation of a titan of industry. Py was brand new and still he'd heard stories that Cain could, and would, in times of ire, dispense projects and deadlines of an odious nature to anyone who dared molest his sage agendas. So, it was with some trepidation that Py stepped closer to the large, wooden doors.
"Just Py." He replied politely, his eyes wandering over the field of corporate artifacts, glistening like the stained glass of gothic cathedrals, each depicting a victory or miracle in the history of Vergeron. Every piece a testament and inspiration to what one could achieve as part of a magnanimous whole. The items meant to raise spirits, motivate every person to be kind, generous, and, of course, profitably productive.
"I'm sorry?" The secretary asked, the salt and pepper curls of her hair bobbing in time with her steps as she tilted her head to the side, never slowing her pace.
"Just Py." He replied passively, his interest shifting to the large doors and the uncertainty behind them. "Not Mr. Py."
"My apologies." She said with sincerity, wasting no time as she opened one of the large wooden doors. "Right this way."
"Thank you." Py nodded graciously as the assistant closed the door behind him.
The office was immense, bigger than any ten combined that Py had ever found himself in. It was impossible upon entering the space not to fixate on the man in the big chair, resplendent as the light of Delphi touched his shoulders. The windows behind him invisible, opening to a wide and spectacular view of the city below.
"Py, good to see you 'on the outside'. How's Vergeron treating you?" Cain rose from his throne and moved around the latest model light-desk to extend his hand in greeting, which Py quickly took.
It felt like his first time meeting the man. The scenario of Cain's previous visit was somewhat obscured by Py's own delirium. He was unsure if the man before him would align with the dream-like creature of his recollection. Py felt he had built a rapport with Cain, their parting warm and friendly, but it seemed a risky assumption to make when approaching what Py had recently discovered was one of the most prominent figures in Delphi. Perhaps something more formal...or not? Either could work he supposed. Or be offensive? Politics were not Py's favorite thing in life. The need for decorum seemed to him directly proportional to the difference in the price of any two vestments appearing in a room. At this point, probably about $2,000 worth of decorum was appropriate.
Ah… Split the difference. $1,000 worth of decorum.
"The coffee's great. Never runs out. A lot like the paperwork. Based on the number of forms I've had to sign, HR has you guys bent over a table." Py released the hand and Cain took a step back to lean on his desk.
"Yes, well, turns out lawsuits are expensive. That paperwork is our magic talisman Py, making inconvenient people disappear." Cain seemed to be joking, teeth flashing in a winning smile. People often used hyperbole for the purpose of humor. Cain seemed to find more humor in honesty, the more brutal the better. "HR aside, how's the work? Interesting? Demanding? Boring? Come to mention, what the hell is it?"
That same informal comfort was still there, still so strange. Py had thought he must have imagined it. He didn't warm up to people often, but whether because of masterful manipulation, or some kind of ethereal kinship he felt with the man, Cain was just downright likable.
"I've attended several meetings and been buried in email. I spent three hours the other day listening to people argue over how much beer should be drunk in the new film The Awkward Adolescence of Pennywise the Clown. I've answered a lot of questions about how much I like sneakers, or how deeply I feel about breakfast burritos. To be perfectly frank, I'm not sure which items are the most relevant to my work?"
Cain gave a small nod. "We're not really sure either. That's part of the puzzle. Tell me...what do you know about the big data principle?" Cain's tone had changed with the question. There was something behind his eyes now, a hunger so familiar that Py wondered why he couldn't place it.
"I know companies have been hoarding data on every aspect of life," Py lectured with his matter of fact mannerism, "tracking what we watch, what we buy, where we go, how long we stay, crawling the IoT to see how often we water our lawn, or do our dishes. Even private data has been released to companies with the proper clearance. The government has been paying military contractors to intercept and scan our correspondence for evidence of terrorism for years. Now, these same contractors are authorized to scrub the information and sell it to civilian institutions. With specific regard to marketing, since I'm told that's what you do here," Py's voice now dripping with sarcasm, "the exploitation of cognitive bias has been refined to an art, generating billions of dollars in marketing revenue. Actually, several laws have been passed banning some of the marketing techniques derived from big data research, sending many once profitable companies scrambling to find new methods of generating revenue.
Cain gave another nod as Py concluded his oration. "That's a pretty good summary," Cain confessed, "and if I'm honest, we've had our fingers in all of these things. But I personally believe that this is just the surface of what big data can teach us. We need you to help us quantify the problem. For us it's a money game. You're right, marketing was hamstrung a few years ago when our corporate lobbying met a particularly idealistic administration. While we were busy fighting each other, the government blindsided us with detrimental legislation. In hindsight a good old fashioned oligopoly would have been effective, but that wasn't the fashion of the day. Under the 'Federal Reconstruction Act' many antitrust laws were nullified. Companies had incentive to crush competitors. Part of that was the development of brutal marketing tactics to 'encourage' brand loyalty. An arms race to command the consumer will."
Cain stood up from his casual position against the desk and walked over to gaze out at the impressive cityscape.
"That race is still underway and I have a strategy to establish complete and total market supremacy for years to come. Legislation often trails innovation by decades, and if properly circumvented we can run unchecked and unopposed. In a word," Cain glanced back at Py," complete and total victory. Vergeron's board hasn't bought into the idea yet, but you Py, you are the seed from which this strategy will bloom. Now, what do you know about dark matter?"
Py was a little surprised by the non-sequitur, but was happy to talk about something other than marketing.
"It's a hypothetical construct that astrophysicists have theorized in order to explain the behavior of the observable universe," Py replied. "Discrepancies in the way the universe expands, as one example."
"Dark matter can't be seen, touched, or tasted," Cain added with an almost mystic flair. "We have no evidence of its existence except for the indirect observation of how objects move around it. Yet some scientists believe that dark matter and dark energy constitute as much as 96% of all matter and energy in the universe. We've had amazing success predicting what shoes people will buy, or what potato chips they'll eat, but we've had almost no success predicting more interesting behaviors. We can't predict when a burglar will break into a house. We don't know when a terrorist will start a shooting in a public place, or even how a jury will rule in a murder trial. In fact, we find that almost 96% of our predictions on the world at large fail. We call this behavior dark behavior. It's behavior we can't explain, perceive, or predict. And I personally believe that understanding this dark behavior will lead to the next breakthrough in the study of the human condition. What we're looking for are people who can help us see past the current barriers in the big data scenarios, decode dark behavior and make this the most profitable company in the world."
Cain had mentioned 'dark behavior' briefly during their first meeting in prison. Py hadn't really latched on to the concept at the time. Honestly, it had felt like business speak, flashy words without substance. Comparing unpredictable behavior to dark matter was the worst kind of false equivalence. It was like those people who said 'everything is relative' in casual conversation, letting Einstein validate their bullshit pop psychology. Still, Py decided to let it slide for the moment. Cain seemed to be having fun, so what the hell.
"That's all a little… broad. Can you give a more specific example?"
Cain whipped around, as if waiting for Py to say that very thing. It was then Py recognized what was in Cain's eyes...obsession.
"Last November, Vergeron had five candidates scheduled for inauguration. This was not an unusual year, no indication that the opposition had anything unorthodox or unaccounted for in play. Every candidate Vergeron has sponsored for a position in the past decade has secured that position. Not one single candidate won this year. It goes without saying that we have investigated this from every angle: bribery, extortion, hacking, gerrymandering, we've even studied subjects for the after effects of brainwashing, or post hypnotic suggestion. Yet we have nothing to explain the sudden and aberrant behavior of thousands of people deciding to do...something different! A large part of Vergeron's business comes from government spending. We invest money in candidates to ensure that funding comes to us and not our competitors. Needless to say the forfeiture of five seats represents a huge financial loss for the company. We can't allow this trend to continue, but we currently have no actionable recourse."
Cain spread his hands and Py half expected him to bow.
"So… that's what I'm doing?"
"No. Not at all. Without the boards buy-in we can't let an untested criminal near our political machine. We have to work you up to that. Thus," Cain swept his hand before him in a grand gesture, "marketing."
"I see," Py began, absentmindedly rubbing his chin, his eyes drifted out of focus, "so it's a research position then?"
"After a fashion." Cain, finally unwinding the fine print. "There's research involved, but you'll need to produce results on a predictable basis. Our clients pay for results, not academia. Lucky for you, we have the single largest data store in the history of man and the capability to process it."
Cain had delivered an exuberant performance and now was ready to yield the floor. He turned to Py with what appeared to be genuine interest.
"So, having heard all that, what's your initial strategy?"
Py stood for a moment in silence. It seemed polite to let the air settle after Cain's litany, even though he already had an idea of how to proceed.
"It sounds like you have everything you need and can't find what you want. I'll need to narrow things down. I think I'll start filtering problems by how much their worth to the company, some ratio of expected gain to reported earnings. From there, filter out projects that failed due to run-of-mill human deficiency: manufacturing defects, the things that are inherent to 'behavior of the masses', something along those lines. I'll have a better idea after I've crawled the data. I'll need some scripting or AI assistance. I'm not sure how long it will take me to build all the tools?"
"We have a new system under development that may be able to do some of this work for you. I'll arrange for you to meet Dr. Whitechapel. He's the project lead. I think they call it Alice."
"What's it used for?"
"Nothing at the moment. Another problem that needs solving. Speaking of, I do have one specific project that requires attention. A subsidiary of ours, the news outlet NYC, is getting crushed by a competitor, Hearst Communications. Much like our election woes, we have no leads. The marketing group is stumped. They're convinced it's some sort of witchcraft. We need to figure out what's really going on and turn it back on them. I consider it something to ease you into your new position. Dark behavior or not, solving this would go a long way to convincing the Board of Directors that my approach is sound."
"It feels like you're putting a lot of eggs in my basket."
Cain's face split into another wide smile. "I'm not. You are but one path to victory. Only fools approach a problem from a single angle. Now, information on the project is already in your email. You just have to find it. With that in mind, I suggest you meet with Dr. Whitechapel. I'll upgrade your security credentials to give you access to his research area."
"Do you want to schedule meetings on this project?" Py asked, his own experience telling him that people in power loved nothing more than good old fashioned oversight.
"I'll be sure to ask for you randomly and at my own personal convenience. I will, however expect regular project updates submitted electronically."
Cain moved back around the light-desk and took his seat. While Py hadn't been directly dismissed, this was clearly curtain call. Py turned and started heading for the door.
Before he could exit, Cain said one last thing.
"I expect great things from you Py. Do keep your nose clean. I'd hate any project you're on to be interrupted by something as silly as incarceration."
This was the second time Cain had ended a conversation with a threat, bundled up neatly with terms, conditions, and a generous smile. Py'd never feared the prospect of getting fired, the yolk of financial instability probably had less hold on him than the average person. Perhaps a steady stream of respectable positions had created an unrealistic sense of security. This was very different. Five years of clean living with the threat of returning to prison at the hands of an ambitious man with unilateral thinking. A man Py didn't know well, and all of this punctuated by a new found respect for the 'amenities' of prison life.
With all of these thoughts boiling in his head, Py shuffled out the room, the full force of his situation settling like a ton of bricks. Py had to work, not just because it was expected of him, but because the all consuming nature of it was something akin to solace. It was possibly the only comfort he would find in this strange, sprawling cage.
Posted by More Et Al at 7:23 AM
Query 1.14: The Chosen Few
Query 1.13: Angles of Incident
Query 1.11: The Third Man

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Creative Capital Celebrates 20 Years, Moves to New Annual Award Cycle
New York, NY (June 14, 2019) — For two decades, Creative Capital has helped to make possible some of the most powerful and enduring works of art produced in the United States. The Creative Capital Award has provided not only monetary assistance, but a wide-ranging and holistic program to help artists of all disciplines develop sustainable practices—a long-term investment in the culture, the power of art, and the importance of dialogue and exploration. And as the needs of those artists continue to evolve, with changing artistic practices and economic realities, Creative Capital will change to meet them.
So now, in recognition of its 20th anniversary and on the occasion of this year's artist retreat, which brings together Creative Capital Awardees with producers, editors, curators, and more in support of their projects, Creative Capital is pleased to announce that it will be moving to an annual cycle of awards and retreats, thereby allowing the organization to provide steady, consistent support for artists, whenever they need it most. Awardees will each continue to receive $50,000 in project funding, supplemented by an additional $50,000 in career development services, for a total value of $100,000.
This year's artist retreat will mark the beginning of the organization's 20th anniversary celebrations, and take place June 13 – 16 at Bard College in Annandale-On-Hudson, NY. Bringing together cultural leaders, book editors, museum curators, art gallerists, theater and film producers, and more to provide important networking and collaboration-building opportunities for Creative Capital Awardees, and continuing to expand the nationwide artistic community that Creative Capital endeavors to build and sustain.
The new award cycle is a natural extension of Creative Capital's mission to support artists who explore and push boundaries. An annual award cycle will allow prospective awardees more clarity and flexibility in the application process, and ensure that Creative Capital support is available for cutting-edge projects when that assistance is most critical.
In recognition of the increasingly blurred boundaries between genres, the awards will also continue the new practice, begun in the 2018 award cycle, of accepting all applications without regard to discipline, and engaging a multidisciplinary panel of esteemed practitioners and experts from a wide range of fields to select awardees.
"Annual awards, open to projects of all disciplines, will ensure that we're accessible to artists when they need us most," says Suzy Delvalle, President and Executive Director of Creative Capital. "The new award cycle reflects both our mission to amplify the full spectrum of the country's artistic voices, and our commitment to growing and strengthening Creative Capital itself."
Since its founding in 1999, Creative Capital has supported 561 projects representing 700 artists with over $45 million in funding; professional development opportunities; legal, financial, and other consulting; artist retreats and gatherings; and more, with the aim of fostering and developing artistic exchange and a thriving cultural commons across the United States.
Over the past two decades, Creative Capital has supported the realization of some of the most powerful and innovative films, visual art, performances, and literature to be produced in the United States. The twelve classes of Creative Capital Awardees, dating back to the year 2000, include Janine Antoni, Edgar Arceneaux, Sanford Biggers, Nick Cave, Rachel Chavkin, Mel Chin, Julia Christensen, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Ramona S. Diaz, Chris Doyle, Faye Driscoll, Yance Ford, LaToya Ruby Frazier, Theaster Gates, Jeffrey Gibson, Ken Gonzalez-Day, Barbara Hammer, Brandon Jacobs-Jenkins, Vijay Iyer, Miranda July, Lisa Kron, Suzanne Lacy, Young Jean Lee, Lynn Hershmann Leeson, Simone Leigh, Ralph Lemon, Taylor Mac, Eileen Myles, Beatriz Santiago Muñoz, Maggie Nelson, Narcissister, Lorraine O'Grady, Laura Poitras, Postcommmodity, Alex Rivera, Penny Lane, Jae Rhim Lee, Daniel Bernard Romain, Paul Rucker, Dread Scott, Wu Tsang, Basil Twist, Reggie Watts, and many, many more.
About Creative Capital
Creative Capital supports innovative and adventurous artists across the country through funding, counsel, gatherings, and career development services. Its pioneering venture philanthropy approach helps artists working in all creative disciplines realize their visions and build more sustainable careers. Since 1999, Creative Capital has committed over $45 million in project funding and advisory support to 561 projects representing 700 artists and has worked with more than 18,000 artists in over 800 creative communities across the country.
Creative Capital receives major support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Lambent Foundation, Toby Devan Lewis, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Hewlett Foundation, Booth Ferris Foundation, Bloomberg Philanthropies, New York Community Trust, William K. Bowes, Jr. Foundation, Muriel Pollia Foundation, Paige West, Stephen Reily and Emily Bingham, The Theo Westenberger Estate, and more than 100 other institutional and individual donors.


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GOLFER'S JAIL TIME STEEP FOR CHARGE
Drug dealers get out of jail on bond. So do armed robbers and even some murderers.
But not Charles Carey, who has spent three weeks in an Indiana jail without being allowed to put up bail.
Carey's heinous crime? He allegedly cheated on his score during a charity golf tournament.
Carey was charged with theft for shaving at least 13 strokes from his score to improve his chances of winning a tournament at the Hanging Tree Golf Club outside of Indianapolis. He won the second-place award - a $50 gift certificate.
Carey was arrested in the parking lot after accepting his prize. A local judge set bond at $7,500 but put a hold on it because Carey also is wanted for forgery in Colorado.
If convicted, Carey could be sentenced to three years in prison and a maximum fine of $10,000.
Although Carey isn't exactly a fine, upstanding citizen and may, in fact, be a con man, violent criminals with lots of prior convictions often get better treatment.
Carey's actions certainly appear to be unethical and fraudulent, and if he is found guilty, he should be fined and ordered to spend many hours doing community service work. But three weeks in jail without bond is a pretty extreme measure for a guy whose crime was fudging his golf score.


If there's a war for online music and radio services it's probably going to be between Pandora and a service like Spotify. We can't really count iTunes in this battle because the streaming in it isn't up to the same level as those other two.
The battle is heating up now as Spotify has unveiled Spotify Radio, a new service similar to Pandora that will roll out as an extension to the company's desktop client. The service allows users to create artist-based stations that will stream an unlimited amount of music similar to the artist selected.
You can be the DJ and skip between stations and tracks, or choose a station and just go with the flow. If you like what you hear, you can save the song to a playlist or play it again on demand.


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Automation and Optimization, End-to-End Supply Chain, Environment and Sustainability, Global Trade, Ports and Terminals, Shipping Lines, Smart Technologies and Digitalization
World Maritime University Collaborates Against Piracy
Dr. Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, President of World Maritime University and Mr. Masafumi Kuroki, Executive Director of ReCAAP ISC sign a Memorandum of Understanding. Image courtesy of ReCAAP.
The ReCAAP Information Sharing Centre (ISC) and the World Maritime University (WMU) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to further collaborate on knowledge sharing around the areas of piracy and sea robbery in Asia.
ReCAAP (The Regional Cooperation Agreement on Combating Piracy and Armed Robbery against Ships in Asia) is a regional government-to-government agreement that promotes and enhances cooperation against piracy in the Asia region — consisting of 20 member states across Asia and Europe and including America and Australia.
The new partnership between the organizations will involve ReCAAP ISC sharing its experience combatting piracy and armed robbery in Asia with the postgraduate students at WMU's campus in Malmö, Sweden.
ReCAAP ISC will also host postgraduate students at the WMU during their field studies to Singapore.
Executive Director of ReCAAP ISC, Masafumi Kuroki, said: "In 2015, ReCAAP ISC delivered the first lecture to students at WMU.
"Since then, both organizations have had useful mutual exchanges in the promotion of maritime safety and security as a vital topic for maritime leaders.
"ReCAAP ISC highly appreciates WMU's shared interest in having their students gain a better appreciation of the piracy and sea robbery situation in Asia, and this MOU provides a framework to deepen our mutual cooperation."
Read the latest paper from Captain Andrew E. Tucci on effective cybersecurity for the supply chain as a whole
Mr. Masafumi Kuroki presents a memento of appreciation to Dr. Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry. Image courtesy of ReCAAP.
President of the World Maritime University, Dr. Cleopatra Doumbia-Henry, commented: "The threat posed by piracy and armed robbery against ships has been a focus of the IMO's agenda from the early 1980s until today.
"This MoU with ReCAAP will advance the University's commitment to supporting IMO's work and strengthen our mutual effort with ReCAAP in fighting piracy at sea in Asia.
"The expertise shared by ReCAAP will inform maritime security research at the University as well as educate future maritime leaders from around the globe.
"It also follows on the heels of the ILO's recent adoption of Amendments to the MLC, 2006 providing for seafarers to continue to be paid if held captive as a result of piracy or armed robbery against ships, an important milestone in protecting the rights of seafarers."
The port of Riga has signed a partnership with the port of Shenzhen to promote cooperation and knowledge sharing between the two ports
300cubits has announced that it is going through rounds of system demo sessions with users for its blockchain shipping platform


Living with a chronic illness that is extremely debilitating in terms of energy and concentration has been arduous. Having to give up all my former social and physical activities was difficult but I've come to a stage of acceptance now that I can live with most days.
The one creative activity that I refused to give up has been my knitting. Even when I felt so sick I couldn't get out of bed for days at a stretch, I kept my knitting beside my bed and would work a few stitches at a time, stopping when I felt too weak or dizzy. When it was just too much of an effort to pick up my needles, I would visualize my next design, planning the most delicious colors and softest texture to whet my knitterly appetite. At 4:00 am when sleep eluded me, I fantasized about creations concocted of luscious mohair and creamy cashmere, in shades of purply plum and brilliant turquoise. During this period most of my knitting projects were small - hats, scarves, bookmarks - since I found myself overwhelmed by larger items and the volume of stitches they required.
I was at a very vulnerable stage in my illness when I decided that I would learn how to knit a sock. In retrospect, I can't believe that I subjected myself to this seemingly hopeless task while suffering from a severe inablity to concentrate for more than a few minutes at a time. I'm not sure why I was determined to learn this process, but I remember thinking I had to do this one thing in order to feel better about my situation. It was important to me that I learn something new. It felt like everything had been taken from me, my energy, quick wit, ability to reason, verbal skills, manual dexterity. Somehow I had to regain a sense of pride in learning a new skill and producing a finished item. My mom had tried to teach me sock knitting years earlier and we had ended up weeping with laughter, our hands intertwined in the yarn and needles as she tried to guide me through the steps. Now I was on my own, but I could hear my mother's voice inside my head, telling me that it was easy once you got the first few rounds completed.
How can any sane human hold four small pointy sticks with two hands and somehow manipulate a fifth stick and a ball of yarn and expect to produce a wearable garment? I would feel the frustration boiling inside me as my patience wore down and my fingers fumbled over and over again with the needles. My hands became slippery with sweat as I concentrated, biting my tongue in the process. Suddenly, I noticed that I'd just moved over to the second needle without dropping or twisting any stitches. When I managed to complete several rounds without stabbing myself or having a stroke, I could have wept with sheer exhaustion and pride. Now I couldn't stop no matter how tired or ill I felt. I pushed myself to complete the top 10 rows of ribbing and lay back in bed, a huge grin spreading across my face as I contemplated the beginnings of my first sock.
When I had become fairly competent at producing a wearable sock, I showed a friend how the process evolved, while the sock was still in the gusset decrease stage and spread over four needles. He was in awe, turning the half-finished sock over and studying the design. I suddenly realized that I had created something extraordinary. For weeks I kept waiting for someone to bestow a special commendation on me for my impressive needlework and would bore friends and relatives with minute details of my sock in progress. Finally, when the initial novelty had worn off, I was able to take this new proficiency in stride and I could almost hear my friends sighing with relief.
Through many traumatic moments of this illness, I would pick up my knitting and escape inward, weaving the pieces of my broken life back together with the knit and purl stitches. When I was scheduled for a series of medical tests, I took my latest sock project along and knitted my fears and anxieties into the pattern. This is one pair of socks I will never part with. Months later, when my condition had stabilized and I had acquired some stamina, I was able to knit a vest for myself using all the blue shades in my yarn stash, changing colors midstream as I ran out of yarn or my interest waned. It turned out to be a size too small and the final result did not match my expectations, but it felt satisfying to complete something unique.
Knitting has given me a link to the life that I inhabited before I became ill. Because of it, I've managed to retain my sense of self and feel creative in the process. Every project that I've completed during these past two years has given me more pleasure and joy than anything I created before. I'm also fussier about details and mistakes now. If this is all that I can bring into being at this moment, then it's going to be the very best. I've ripped out more projects than I've completed, but the effort has been worth the final results.
I find that when I'm immersed in my knitting, I'm able to forget all the emotional and physical upheaval in my life and concentrate on knitting one beautiful stitch at a time. Nietchze's observation that "out of chaos comes a dancing star" is an accurate portrayal of my search for creative and spiritual expression in the midst of suffering. Knitting has helped me accomplish that objective.
Mary Anne has been knitting intermittently since she was a teenager, but in the past two years, she's knit through all the trauma of a disabling illness. The soothing rhythm brings comfort to her painful days and sleepless nights.
Knitting keeps her mind focused and her fingers flexible. Perfect medicine for the soul.
© 2002 Mary Anne Mitchell. Contact Mary Anne.


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US President Donald Trump and China's President Xi Jinping. File Photo Credit: White House video screenshot.
Can The US And A Rising China Avoid Thucydides's Trap? – Analysis
July 28, 2017 YaleGlobal Online 1 Comment
By YaleGlobal Online
War between established and rising powers like the US and China is not inevitable, but predictability is crucial.
By Börje Ljunggren*
China's rise and the relative decline of the United States have produced a plethora of books. Among the most prominent is Graham Allison's Destined for War: Can America and China Escape Thucydides's Trap? While far from flawless, the book has undoubtedly succeeded in sharpening our focus.
Thucydides was a general and historian in Ancient Greece, and his History of the Peloponnesian War is regarded as the first major historical work. He maintains that the 27-year war, from 431 to 403 BC, was a consequence of the anxiety that Athens's rise caused in Sparta, an ascending power challenging an established power: it was "the rise of Athens and the fear that this instilled in Sparta that made war inevitable." This sentence inspired the term "Thucydides's trap," launching Allison's project at Harvard's Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs – identifying 16 major power rivalries during the last 500 years between a ruling and emerging power, 12 of which led to war.
Bust of Thucydides. Source: Wikipedia Commons.
A comforting fact may be that of the two cases since World War II – the Cold War and Germany's reunification – neither led to war. Germany's reunification was successfully achieved within the framework of the European Union. The Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962 is, as Allison sees it, "the most dangerous confrontation in human history," presenting "the starkest counterfactuals of all – and the lessons most relevant for the current US-Chinese dilemma."
Today the idea of winning a world war seems truly insane. The nuclear threat is real, and as Allison notes, major powers could irrevocably destroy one another.
The book analyzes all 16 cases, but the focus is on the risk of war between the United States and an ascending China. Allison's main thesis is that the two nations are "on a collision course for war – unless both parties take difficult and painful actions to avert it."
China wants, says Allison, to "regain its rightful place," and the return to the prominence of a 5000-year civilization is "not a problem to fix but a condition."
Among his concerns is that "many Americans are still in denial about what China's transformation from an agrarian backwater to 'the biggest player in the history of the world' means for the United States."
The United States lacks a coherent strategy for dealing with a rising China.
Allison devotes considerable space to describing China's dramatic development, ranging from GDP growth to top rankings for Chinese universities. Like Kissinger, who served as US secretary of state during the Nixon administration, Allison is seduced by the country. He is impressed not least, by how President Xi Jinping consolidates his power, making himself "chairman of everything." Allison does not problematize China's situation with regard to challenges posed by either the party-state or the economy driven by investment and credit, generating surpluses in steel and other commodities threatening the global economy.
Xi's great nightmare is to meet the fate of the Soviet Communist Party, and he is not taking any risks, strengthening the party's control over the administration and armed forces, the ultimate guarantor of power. China, embracing the engine of globalization, has moved beyond demanding what the late Lee Kuan Yew referred to as "being accepted as China, not as an honorary member of the Western world."
No other country has profited as much from globalization as China. At the same time, the country has, despite 730 million internet users, remained a party-state. Thus, a key concept in Xi's arsenal is "internet sovereignty." Rather than undermine the party-state, the internet has become an indispensable tool of China's "controlocracy," to quote Stein Ringen, with glaring absence of a true civil society and human rights, China's proposed "social credit system" for monitoring and rating citizens as soon as 2020 is a logical development.
Germany's rise in the beginning of the 20th century is alone among the 16 cases that Allison addresses in detail. The rapid expansion of German naval forces, the potential challenge to Britain's hegemony, is a major theme in his analysis of the origins of World War I – with significant bearing on the growing Chinese navy and prevailing US presence in the Pacific. A salient illustration of China's growing notion of its own global role is the 2014 military strategy stating that "the traditional mentality that land outweighs sea must be abandoned and great importance must be attached to managing the seas and oceans, and protecting maritime rights and interests."
Almost 600 years have passed since China was a naval power. Today, naval power is a major objective for China. During the Obama administration, the US defense budget shrank, but still amounted to one third of global defense expenditure. US President Donald Trump is determined to reverse that trend, and naval power could be the epicenter of the emerging great power rivalry.
China naturally wants to see itself as hegemon in a Sinocentric East Asia. Xi has explained that the Pacific is big enough for both nations, but the US forward defense line in Pacific Asia runs near China – manifested through key alliances and naval presence.
In his impressive By More than Providence – Grand Strategy and American Power in the Asia Pacific Since 1783, Michael Green reconstructs the history of the United States as a Pacific power. His conviction is that "if there is one central theme in American strategic culture that has applied to the Far East over time, it is that the United States will not tolerate any other power establishing exclusive hegemonic control over Asia or the Pacific." National interests necessitate that the Pacific "remains a conduit for American ideas and goods to flow westward, and not for threats to flow eastward toward the homeland."
The dynamics identified by Thucydides will intensify. Preserving the status quo is impossible. Under Xi's leadership, China has in a short time moved from Deng Xiaoping's cautious maxim that the nation should "hide its power and bide its time" to an increasingly assertive role, taking advantage of strategic opportunities and embarking on major initiatives. And Trump contributes to "making China great" by turning his back on the liberal economic order, scrapping the Trans-Pacific Partnership and rejecting the Paris climate agreement.
While each personifies his country's deep aspirations for national greatness, the two leaders differ – Trump is a narcissist with scant knowledge of crucial issues on his watch; Xi spent his life in the Communist Party, the last decade at its innermost power center.
Allison's ultimate ambition is to raise awareness and prevent collision between the United States and China. He identifies four core ideas based on "structural realities": clarifying vital interests, understanding the aims of the other, crafting strategy and addressing national challenges. Predictability is crucial.
Barack Obama was deeply aware of the value in developing predictable US-Chinese mechanisms for managing the power rivalry. He also showed that the two countries could contribute to a better world, as with the Paris agreement. It's hard to envision such efforts during the Trump era.
The world is in the midst of a drama with many hard-to-predict scenes. "Economic Asia" prevailed for a long time, but today "security Asia" is reemerging and East Asia is not short of serious unresolved conflicts. "East Asian Peace," as explained in the book by Stein Tönnesson in 2017, served the region well in recent decades, but is increasingly fragile.
A major war is hardly inevitable, but confrontations are an ever-present risk. Strategic distrust will define an increasingly complex US-Chinese relationship, but there is ample scope for joint efforts beyond distrust.
*Börje Ljunggren is former Swedish ambassador to China and author of Den kinesiska drömmen – Xi, makten och utmaningarna (The Chinese Dream – Xi, Power and Challenges), 2017.
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YaleGlobal Online
YaleGlobal Online is a publication of the Whitney and Betty MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies at Yale. The magazine explores the implications of the growing interconnectedness of the world by drawing on the rich intellectual resources of the Yale University community, scholars from other universities, and public- and private-sector experts from around the world. The aim is to analyze and promote debate on all aspects of globalization through publishing original articles and multi-media presentations. YaleGlobal also republishes, with a brief comment, important articles from other publications that illuminate the many sides of this complex phenomenon. To the extent permitted by copyright arrangements, YaleGlobal archives such articles and makes them available for search and retrieval.
One thought on "Can The US And A Rising China Avoid Thucydides's Trap? – Analysis"
Robert Stein, Ph.D.
Mr. Ljunggren cites many already tired themes in his piece. China in fact is on the verge of either a dramatic decline in productivity or a major collapse. This stems from the substantial headwinds which nations inevitably encounter as they seek to steer an entirely independent course, instead of continuing to ride in the wake of the western system. These headwinds include massive banking debt, loss of faith in the Communist ideology Mr. Xi is trying to rehabilitate and deflation stemming from soon to impact population declines. Further, Mr. Xi's phony war on corruption in a massively corrupt society, is only a ruse to increase his own political power and remove opponents. China is a closed society, that flaunts western values. They sell organs of executed prisoners and oppress all of their own minority groups. Chinese refuse to purchase their own infant formula, because it is contaminated. It has alienated almost all of its neighbors with either outright aggression or threat. This is not a formula for long-term success.


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You are here: Home » Helpful Info » Benefits of Readers Theater » Readers Theater Prepares Future Leaders
Readers Theater Prepares Future Leaders
author/source: Carol Montgomery
Of course you know many of the benefits of using Readers Theater with students, but do you know any actual classroom stories? Do you have stories of your own?
"The Power of Reader's Theater," an article by Jennifer O. Prescott in Instructor magazine, recounts some amazing stories and research. Wow! If you want a quick motivator and super summary on why we should incorporate readers theater into the classroom or homeschool setting, don't bother reading my article. Just go to this link: The Power of Readers Theater (Valid in April 2017.)
The author of the article, Jennifer O. Prescott, is the managing editor of Instructor magazine (a trade magazine for teachers published by Scholastic). Scholastic happens to be the world's largest publisher and distributor of children's books, although they also publish educational materials for schools, teachers, and parents. Scholastic's Instructor in the January/February 2003 issue published Prescott's article, entitled "The Power of Reader's Theater".
Fourth Grade Teacher Results
Prescott's subtitle summarizes her perspective on Readers Theater: "An easy way to make dramatic changes in kids' fluency, writing, listening, and social skills." Who wouldn't want that for their students or children?
Prescott goes on to share real-life stories, including one of Lorraine Griffith, a fourth-grade teacher in North Carolina. Apparently Griffith saw dramatic results in her classroom as Prescott writes, "Reader's Theater proved to be almost a magic solution for Griffith: In just 10 weeks of using RT, every child in her class had gained a full grade level in reading. After a year, the children's gains had jumped to three years of growth." That's powerful!
The Reading Teacher Study
Prescott continues to share about a 1999 study in the professional periodical, The Reading Teacher, "which showed that second graders who did Reader's Theater on a regular basis made, on average, more than a year's growth in reading."
The dramatic results come from the fact that Readers Theater improves fluency--reading with ease. A student who reads with fluency can concentrate on the meaning of the words because the student reads accurately and effortlessly with expression. Reading is not a chore because the words become vehicles to drive meaning.
Picture a baby learning to walk. The baby gets up, tries a few steps, then sits down. Progress is slow. Imagine that same baby taking a "crash course" in walking, learning at an accelerated rate and even running within a month. That's what researchers and teachers say about using Readers Theater in a classroom with growing readers; Readers Theater accelerates student reading progress.
How is reading progress measured? Sometimes tests are used and sometimes it is a subjective opinion. In any case, I have not heard of anything negative from incorporating Readers Theater into a school or homeschool curriculum!
If you haven't checked out the Instructor article yet, you'll still want to do that because Prescott has resources for you! "The Power of Reader's Theater" includes sections on getting started, practicing, performing, and writing your own scripts. Of course, you can find this information elsewhere--including Readers Theater All Year--but, sometimes different perspectives are helpful.
Struggling Students
Prescott also shares about the ability of Readers Theater "to develop interpersonal, social, and collaborative skills--particularly among struggling students." She gives an example of special needs students from a Harlem school in New York who miraculously blossomed after the addition of Readers Theater. So what are we waiting for?
Content Areas and Leadership
Ah! You don't have beginning readers anymore? Well, Prescott doesn't address the value of Readers Theater in the content areas (e.g., history, health, science), but teachers continue to recognize the benefit in their classrooms.
And, Prescott doesn't mention much about Readers Theater building leaders and creators, although she shares a bit on overcoming shyness. There's an old saying--attributed to at least three different sources--that says, "Leaders are readers". That's the truth!
It seems to me that if we can add some creative fun while building reading, writing, AND leadership skills, then let's do it! Readers Theater will help you and your students succeed in ways beyond measure. Isn't that the way we want it?
Of course you know many of the benefits of using Readers Theater with students, but do you know any actual classroom stories? Do you have stories of your own? "The Power of Reader's Theater" an article by Jennifer O. Prescott in Instructor magazine recounts some amazing stories and research. Wow! "Readers Theater Prepares Future Leaders" serves as a quick motivator and super summary on why we should incorporate readers theater into the classroom or homeschool setting.
Talking Pets—Beyond Earth Day (R = 4.8)
Francis Scott Key, the Flag, and the Song (R = .9)
Francis Scott Key and the Star-Spangled Banner (Simplified) (R = 4.6)
Francis Scott Key and the Star-Spangled Banner (R = 5.9)
Alexander Graham Bell and the Talking Dog (R = 2.1)
Fly a Bike? (R = 3.4, 2.7)
The Rich Fool (R = 1.5)
Here Comes Spring, Silly or Not! (R = 2.9)
Fifty Fabulous Fables--Beginning Readers Theater
Civil Rights Meddle (R=6.0)
General Readers Theater Checklist for Success
Readers Theater All Year™ LLC builds leaders and creators for positive influence through an inexpensive, easy, flexible system. Readers Theater All Year™ LLC curriculum services provides a caring community for using and creating Readers Theater scripts for families, classrooms, homeschools, camps, and drama clubs.


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				Issue 3 - May 1982
				Microwave

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An Apple ][ Emulator in JavaScript written by Will Scullin

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  						<input type="checkbox" id="green_screen" accept=".dsk, .do, .po, .nib, .2mg" onclick="updateScreen()" checked="checked">

Microwave

					Microwave is described in Softline's May 1982 issue as a variation on that "popular eat-the-dots game" (ahem Pac-Man). Instead of a pie-shaped head, you maneuver a teddy bear through a series of mazes, picking up objects and dodging aliens. In addition to losing lives by running into the aliens, you can also lose a life by running over a flashing grenade.

					Quick Start

					Press K to start the game using Keyboard controls.

					Press the Left and Right arrow keys to move continously left and right. A and Z move the character up and down.

					In the May issue of Softline, the high score for Microwave was 12,550.

					If you ever can't control the game with your keyboard, try clicking on the screen.

					Impact

					Microwave can be described as a clone of Pac-Man. Clones are games similar to previous popular games and were common during early PC history in the 1970s and 80s. While some clones could be considered knockoffs, Microwave was described as challenging and a good game if players were bored with the more traditional games of that genre.

Production History

					Microwave was created in 1982. It was created by Jay P. Zimmermann and James L. Nitchals. Microwave was published by Cavalier Computer, which stopped making games after 1982.

Help

				The Game page contains game play information, a link to a manual (if available), and the impact and history of the game. This is where you will upload and play the game you downloaded on the Magazine page.

			Playing a Game

Select Load Disk on the Apple II emulator (Your File/Finder window will appear)

Select the game .dsk file in the Download folder in your File/Finder window

Click Open in the File/Finder window after selecting the game .dsk file

Play the game in the Apple II emulator

      CLOSE

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HomeUNCATEGORIZEDWhere does Bengaluru's e-waste go? | Peripheral Ring Road to come up soon | We win yet another award
Where does Bengaluru's e-waste go? | Peripheral Ring Road to come up soon | We win yet another award
December 11, 2014 News Desk
Bengaluru this week
CITIZEN MATTERS
Bangalore's own interactive newsmagazine
Speak up, it's your city!
Citizen Matters co-founder Meera K receiving Manthan award in New Delhi. Pic: Navya P K
We are very proud to announce that your local web newsmagazine Citizen Matters has won the Manthan Award (South Asia and Asia Pacific) in the e-News and Journalism category. Our co-founder Meera K received the citation last week at the award ceremony in New Delhi. This is our sixth award in six years! Thank you, for your unfailing support to us, by reading, giving feedback, contributing findings, data, articles and donating… It truly reinforces our faith in the work that we do!
Also read: What another award for Citizen Matters means to me – Citizen Matters co-founder, Subbu Vincent's take on awards in general.
City news that matters
And before the summary of our own stories, here's a curation of the latest news from Bengaluru.
Following the alleged rape of a woman in an Uber cab in Delhi, when other states have banned Uber, Karnataka has framed 25-point guidelines to be followed by cab aggregators and operators. The companies now have to compulsorily register themselves with the Transport Department. A month's time has been given to them, and most aggregators have welcomed it.
This news reveals a LOT about the mindset of our politicians: A BJP MLA was caught on camera by a TV channel in the assembly, studying the anatomy of a Congress leader: He was watching Priyanka Gandhi on his cell phone; he even zoomed into the picture, to see god-knows-what. Another MLA was caught on camera playing Candy Crush Saga. Isn't it time to ban mobiles in the assembly?
In an effort to keep a check on water theft in the city, BWSSB plans to take up a pilot project to install automatic meter readers that will emit radio frequency signals and record readings through the day.
Plans to implement the suburban rail network in the city may have gotten a boost, with IISc presenting a paper stating that such a network would help decongest the city.
Bengaluru and Chennai have joined the '100 Resilient Cities' network in a bid to become more resilient to physical, social and economic challenges. They were to only two Indian cities to be selected from 331 applications from across the world.
A TV channel showed a list of alleged fake Occupancy Certificates (OCs) given to many big housing projects from reputed builders, without paying BBMP. FIRs have been filed against 100+ BBMP officials for being involved in this scam. Make sure your apartment has legally valid OC, before buying a property! (Meanwhile we are on it, we will give you the full story soon!)
A water tanker mowed down a pedestrian in Electronic City. Following this, villagers went on the rampage, setting the water tanker on fire and blocking the road.
BRICS rating projects IISc as the No.1 university in India.
Namma Bengaluru Foundation award nominations are on. Click here to nominate your heroes..
This week's highlight
Between flames, fumes and bare hands – The untold story of Bengaluru's e-waste
Informal recyclers extracting resources from e-waste with their bare hands. Pic: Varsha Parashiva Murthy
» Have you ever wondered about what happens to the e-waste that you generate? The quantity of waste generated is unknown, and facilities for scientific processing, non-existent. How then, does the e-waste get processed? Our intern, Varsha Parashiva Murthy finds out: The journey of e-waste in the city.
» Chandra Shekhar Balachandran goes down memory lane in his column, Southern Bengaluru Chronicles. This time it is about Mangamma, and her uncompromising attitude towards work. Read: "If I drop everything and rush there, will he come back to life?"
» 30 years ago, the rape of a 16-year-old Dalit girl in a police station led to the formation of rape laws in India. Sakuntala Narasimham asks: From Mathura rape case to Nirbhaya and beyond: What has changed between now and then?
» All along the railway tracks, from Bengaluru to New Delhi, there are huge quantities of litter strewn all over, by passengers and Railway employees. Is it perhaps time for the Railways to clean up its act?
Living in the city
» Construction of the Peripheral Ring Road, BDA's much-awaited infrastructure project is slated to begin by mid-2015. The cost, initially pegged at 550 crores, has now gone up to 9,600 crores.
» As talks are under-way to split BBMP for better administration, Mathew Idiculla explains why it is important to examine how decisions regarding cities and their boundaries are taken. Read: Who decides where your city ends?
» The Subramaniam Committee has prepared and submitted its report on amending environment and forest-related laws. Read the report that was submitted by PM Modi's on amending green laws.
» The latest from Bellandur – Completion of Green Glen layout road, ground water and biodiversity survey and blood donation drive on December 13th. Read the Bellandur Buzz newsletter.
Culturati
» Chitra Srikrishna writes about her experience at The Raga Connection, a workshop to introduce children to ragas, by tracing the roots of popular Bollywood music.
» The children of Cooke Town have planned a special fundraiser event on December 14th to give a new lease of life to their beloved neighbourhood hangout, High Street Park. Read: The Amazing Super Mela.
» Malleshwaram is all set to become the domain of cyclists and skaters. The first Sunday of every month has been earmarked as Cycle Day. Here's all that transpired at Malleshwaram's very first Cycle Day.
Nature feature
» Have you ever observed how a bird fishes? Deepa Mohan is back with her column Nature Feature, with a lovely write-up on the fishing technique adopted by Painted Storks. Read: Umbrella fishing by Painted Storks.
» Puttenahalli Lake has some visitors from Europe. Garganey Ducks, which were first sighted at the lake in 2011, are back again this year for the winter. Read: The Garganey Ducks are back.
The Kolkata Photographers Club will be presenting An Ensemble of Stories – 2, a photo exhibition, at Vismaya Art Gallery from December 12th to 14th.
Strawberry Fields, Bengaluru's rock festival is taking place from December 12th to 14th at National Law School. Be there at the music festival which launched renowned bands like Motherjane and Thermal and a Quarter.
The Bangalore Chamber Singers is performing a variety of melodic choral pieces at Nava Spoorthi Kendra on December 13th.
Pradarshana Kalaa Samsthe is staging Vaave, a Kannada play based on the unclear relationships that one has is life, at KH Kala Soudha on December 13th.
Catch one of Bengaluru's most-loved comedy performances, The Improv, where the actors improvise on the spot based on situations given by the audience, on December 14th at Alliance Francaise.
Bangalore International Centre is hosting a talk with author and theatre personality Poile Sengupta on her book Inga on December 15th.
You can also have a look at the complete listing of events coming up in Bengaluru here.
latest bangalore news
Weekly News Roundup
About News Desk 1161 Articles
The News Desk at Citizen Matters puts out Press Releases, notifications and curated information useful to the urban reader.
Major Bengaluru e-guides now available on Newshunt, Rockstand
Rs 4000 a month: Salary of a contract street sweeper in Bengaluru!
Bandh on Sept 26th; Documents to check while buying property; Will Bengaluru see more power cuts?; Got dengue?
September 24, 2015 News Desk
Find out about the various documents you need to check before buying a property in the city. Also understand why a bandh has been declared on September 26th, and why you have been at the receiving end of power cuts. If you or anyone you know has had dengue, please take our survey.
Bengaluru Buzz: Over 500 new dengue cases in four days | HC order to restore 19 lakes | Suicide rates spiking…and more
August 17, 2019 News Desk
Huge spike in dengue cases, High Court orders state government to create artificial lakes if it can't restore encroached ones, BBMP to map vulnerable structures – read more on what happened in the city this week
Ola, Zipgo to run buses: is there a legal issue?; How much water does your ward consume?; BDA's 2,200 crore mutual fund scam
In this edition of Bengaluru This Week, we feature a story on the entry of private players into public transport, why residents of HSR Layout are excited, yet wary about having a vehicle-free day in their area, and an analysis of the BDA's 2,200 crore mutual fund scam. All this and more…


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I was fortunate enough to attend a free screening of Million Dollar Arm and I really enjoyed the movie. At first, I wasn't very interested because I'm not a big fan of sports movies. I was actually pleasantly surprised. It wasn't just the storyline that became interesting, but I loved seeing footage from India and hearing the Bollywood music. I don't get out of the country much so whenever I can experience anything that has to do with another country, it's neat!
This movie is based on the true story of sports agent JB Bernstein. We watch him as he struggles financially and become hopeful when he comes up the idea to travel to India to recruit cricket players for his business. Lol, if you're like me, you're thinking, "Uh what is cricket?" Apparently, it's a big thing over in India. Looks like a cross between bowling and baseball. With the go-ahead from his financial sponsor, he heads to India and starts spreading the word. After a few months, the actual Million Dollar Arm contest is held in India and two 18 year old winners, Rinku & Dinesh, are chosen to come back to the U.S. and train so they can try out the MLB. Funny thing is: these guys don't like cricket and have never played! They just happen to have great arms! Back in the U.S., JB enlists the help of a college baseball coach (played by Bill Paxton) and realizes that it will take longer than he though to get these guys ready.
Million Dollar Arm made me laugh quite a bit, but it also had thoughtful moments. I got teary-eyed, darn it! Amit was hands down my favorite character in the movie lol. :) Fun stuff there with that man! Another thing I loved: the rolling credits at the end of the movie. I normally dislike sitting through the end credits, but it was really interesting to see what Rinku and Dinesh actually looked like. Also, learning that JB had a happy ending in his life as well.
I definitely would see this movie again! I recommend it to those looking for a cheap visual getaway, those wanting to learn a history lesson, or those just wanting some laughs!
While I did attend a free screening, I was not obligated to write a review of this movie nor did I receive any monetary compensation.


Client Challenge: The company's existing events and wedding catering activity proved to be very seasonal, putting pressure on the business to scale up and deliver over short periods of time. This highly competitive market place also comes with equally high expectations from customers regarding food creativity, service delivery and value for money. The pressure is always on to come up with something new and different, which is time consuming and impacts on the financial returns.
The owner had identified contract catering as a more constant and growth-sustaining business model for the future. However, she was unsure how to go about finding and winning new business with corporates and other large organisations.
Approach: Initially, our consultant conducted a competitive review and collaborated with the owner and her team to create a new brand positioning strategy that would differentiate their catering offer from the competition and demonstrate the strength of their service more successfully. Following on, the consultant developed a full sales and marketing delivery plan, which outlined the tactical activities required to support this strategic approach. This included a range of business development activities, content marketing, revised website, tasting events and brand partnerships.
The owner and her team are now confident they have the right plan in place to deliver their longer-term objectives for the business. The management team also continues to have monthly coaching sessions to support the successful delivery of the plan.


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Home Forex Brokers Forex Sports Sponsorship: Russian FX broker TeleTrade backs Premier League club Burnley FC
Forex Sports Sponsorship: Russian FX broker TeleTrade backs Premier League club Burnley FC
Brokers December 18, 2017 —by LeapRate Staff 0
Russia based online broker TeleTrade and Premier League club Burnley FC have announce their  partnership, whereby TeleTrade will be designated as the Official Forex Trading Sponsor of Burnley FC.
Burnley FC is one of the major success stories of late in English football. The small-market team – Burnley is a town of about 75,000 north of Manchester – qualified for the Premier League last year after winning England's second tier league in the 2015-16 season. And, sitting sixth in Premier League play this year ahead in the standings of teams such as Tottenham, Leicester City and Everton, Burnley stands a good chance of qualifying for Champions League play next year.
TeleTrade is one of just eight Retail FX brokers which have been granted a Forex dealer license by the Bank of Russia. The agreement with Burnley FC is being concluded via the TeleTrade Group's CySEC licensed subsidiary Teletrade-DJ International Consulting Ltd, which operates the teletrade.co.uk and teletrade.eu websites targeting UK and EU customers. TeleTrade was founded in 1994 by Russian online entrepreneur Vladimir Chernobay.
Andreas Samatas, Director of Teletrade Europe (pictured at left, above), commented:
It is truly a cause for celebration to have the chance to work with a historic football club that shares the same principles of Responsibility and excellence. Burnley Football Club is known for being one of the smaller football clubs ever to be playing in the most competitive league in the world, the Premier League, has demonstrated that persistence and hard work can get you to the top of your League. Their example is inspiring both for us and our traders, as we strive day in, day out to provide the best possible services for our traders to succeed in the fierce and exciting world of the financial markets.
Anthony Fairclough of Burnley FC (pictured at right, above) commented:
This is a very first for Burnley Football Club, having struck a deal with a Foreign Exchange Company and we are proud to have finalized, yet another International Partner. It demonstrates the global platform we now find ourselves on and Teletrade can take full advantage of our world presence and the Billion households the Premier League transmits to. This is a deal that will take us to December 2018 and hopefully many years beyond.
forex sports sponsorships
Vladimir Chernobay
ANZ completes sale of 20% stake in Shanghai Rural Commercial Bank
ESMA updates Q&A on MiFIR data reporting
IronFX sponsors 2018 Offshore Racing Congress (ORC) European Championship
FXTM Brand Ambassador Lewis Pugh reaches finish line of the Long Swim
ATFX sponsors Duke of Edinburgh Cup qualifying competitions
Shares of Hong Kong FX broker KVB Kunlun tumble 18% after move to HKEX Main Board…BrokersManagement of Hong Kong retail forex broker KVB Kunlun Financial Group Ltd (HKG:6877) probably had other ideas when they decided to move the company's…
Saxo Bank says it welcomes ESMA's proposed 30x Forex and CFD leverage cap…BrokersCopenhagen based multi asset broker Saxo Bank has issued a statement coming out strongly in favour of new FX and CFD brokerage rules proposed by pan-E…


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Can Peter Jackson break the steampunk curse?
Maya Phillips
Screenshot/YouTube
Is 2018 the year steampunk finally gets its big break on the big screen?
This month Peter Jackson, best known for bringing Middle Earth to Hollywood, presents another epic film with epic aspirations. Written and produced by Jackson, Mortal Engines is an adaptation of Philip Reeve's YA novel of the same name and depicts a futuristic world of cities that have evolved into giant, cannibalistic moving machines. The movie is rife with anachronisms: The characters collect contemporary technologies (laptops, smartphones, even toasters) but they exist alongside machinery that recalls the Industrial Age — think large gears, furnaces, and, yes, steam. These are the trademark elements of steampunk, a subgenre of science fiction that has never quite found its footing in live-action American cinema.
But perhaps Mortal Engines can break the steampunk curse.
In its narrowest definition, steampunk takes place in an alternative Victorian-era society in which fantastical machinery abounds. But in a broader sense, steampunk preoccupies itself with questions of time: time travel, time periods, and most importantly, technologies that are both of the time and outside of it. In its broadest sense, steampunk isn't even limited to genre; it's an aesthetic, a subculture marked by its fashion: bustles and gears, gadgets and top hats.
While the genre can trace its inspiration all the way back to 1927 with the release of the famous German silent film Metropolis, it's never really had a sustained run of success. Popping up only every few years, steampunk films generally suffer from middling-to-negative critical reviews or disastrous box office numbers.
The most famous steampunk disaster was probably 1999's Wild Wild West, starring Will Smith, Kevin Kline, Kenneth Branagh, and Salma Hayek in a gaudy, over-the-top circus of a production with more gadgets and hijinx than you could count. Cowboys on steam trains with ejecto-seats? Unmistakably steampunk — but also a failure. The movie, which had a production budget of $170 million, only grossed $113 million domestically. "The movie is all concept and no content," Roger Ebert snarked in a 1999 review. "The elaborate special effects are like watching money burn on the screen."
While Wild Wild West is certainly one of the most egregious failures of the genre, it was closely followed by a few others: The Time Machine (2002), which Ebert called a "witless" remake; The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen (2003), sadly unimpressive despite its rich source material; the painfully campy Around the World in 80 Days (2004); the utterly forgettable Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (2004), existing somewhere between steampunk and dieselpunk; and the gothic, gadget-heavy Van Helsing (2004).
A few years later, The Golden Compass (2007), based on the first novel in Philip Pullman's popular His Dark Materials trilogy, seemed promising but performed poorly in the United States and received mixed reviews. City of Ember (2008) similarly failed to make a blip on the radar, as did The Three Musketeers (2011).
In 2011, however, Martin Scorsese made waves with Hugo, which still failed commercially though swept stages at awards season. Even so, Hugo differentiated itself from its steampunk peers in a subtle way, drawing from the aesthetic while maintaining its grip on prestige filmmaking. Distinguished by its rich, romantic shots and gestures toward the art of filmmaking itself, Hugo was a highbrow take on the genre. (And, of course, the fact that it was made by Scorsese helped too.)
The seminal problem of many of these steampunk films has to do with identity. The tricky part of the genre, like its futuristic cousin cyberpunk, is how it's defined so broadly, how it by its very nature is a postmodern hodgepodge of different elements and thus frequently ducks between multiple genres: Is it sci-fi? Is it fantasy? The lines get blurred.
That isn't to say that all hybrid genre films are fated to fail. The problem is when the films engage in different individual elements to the hindrance of the cohesion of the final product. In a 2011 review of The Three Musketeers, AV Club writer Keith Phipps wrote that the film "can't decide if it wants to be an old-fashioned tale of swashbuckling adventure and palace intrigue or a cheeky, effects-heavy rethink of some iconic characters a la the Guy Ritchie-directed Sherlock Holmes. So it tries to be both at once, with annoying, if hardly disastrous results."
But another problem steampunk films face is one many other genre films face, of tone and the degree of realism versus sci-fi/fantasy. In the movies that dove headfirst into the genre, like Around the World in 80 Days and Wild Wild West, the result was mercilessly campy, shallow, and cartoonish. In the films that simply incorporated some elements of steampunk, like Van Helsing and The Three Musketeers, the inclusion felt unnecessary, a way to brighten up already flawed films. For a genre defined by illogical juxtaposition, of past meeting present (or future), so often its success depends on how well filmmakers can navigate the genre's contradictions within their films' own particular universes, incorporating them in a way that both makes sense and feels essential to the plot and overall world.
That said, steampunk hasn't been cursed to a fate of critical and commercial failure in every kind of filmmaking. Some animated films have had a decent showing of the genre. Though both still underperformed domestically, the animated 9 (2009) and Atlantis: The Lost Empire (2001) became cult favorites. And Hayao Miyazaki was known for flawlessly and imaginatively incorporating steampunk elements, from flying airships to intricate battleships, into his much-loved animated films, like Howl's Moving Castle (2004), Castle in the Sky (1986), and Nausicaa of the Valley of the Wind (1984).
But the question remains if a critically acclaimed and financially successful steampunk movie can change the genre's tide of poorly executed and poorly received films. For Mortal Engines to be successful, Peter Jackson will have to make history again.
More from Maya Phillips
Legion is a superhero story unlike any other on screen
The problem with authors writing fan fiction
How The Magicians dispels the magic of the singular hero


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Sigle
Nippon Yusen Kaisha compagnia di navigazione giapponese
New York Knicks, squadra di pallacanestro statunitense

Codici
 NYK – codice aeroportuale IATA dell'aeroporto civile di Nanyuki (Kenya)

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