text:
Cyclone Yaas Makes It Harder To Fight Huge Fire On Ship With Chemicals
HomeWorldCyclone Yaas Makes It Harder To Fight Huge Fire On Ship With Chemicals
This Article is From May 27, 2021
The Singapore-registered vessel, within sight of the shore, is carrying 25 tonnes of nitric acid as well as other unspecified chemicals and cosmetics, the navy said.
WorldAgence France-PresseUpdated: May 27, 2021 1:58 pm IST
Thick smoke billowing from the Singapore-registered container ship MV X-Press Pearl.
Colombo, Sri Lanka:
Sri Lankan authorities battled Wednesday to put out a fire raging for a week on a stricken container ship loaded with chemicals to avoid a potential marine environmental disaster.
Eight of its nearly 1,500 containers fell overboard on Tuesday, one of which washed ashore at the Negombo tourist beach 40 kilometres (25 miles) north of Colombo.
Strong winds associated with a cyclone hitting eastern India hampered efforts to put out the blaze as a huge cloud of black smoke rose from the MV X-Press Pearl.
Sri Lanka's airforce used helicopters to drop about 425 kilograms (935 pounds) of fire retardant chemicals on the ship Wednesday.
Dharshani Lahandapura from the Marine Environment Protection Authority said containment measures were being prepared in case chemicals or fuel oil are spilled from the ship's engine and fuel tanks.
"Computer modelling showed any spill from the ship will reach the Negombo beach and we are ready to tackle it," Lahandapura told reporters in Colombo.
"Given the monsoon wind pattern, we are concentrating on this area and we are moving equipment to deal with a spill," she said.
Navy spokesman Captain Indika de Silva said the 25-member crew had been evacuated safely but one had been hospitalised with minor injuries.
The container ship was on its way to Colombo from Gujarat in India when the fire broke out on deck on May 20 around 14 kilometres (7.5 nautical miles) offshore.
Residents in Negombo were seen scavenging plastic raw materials that washed ashore on Wednesday morning.
Tugs and naval ships were leading the efforts to douse the blaze and three Indian coastguard vessels were expected to join the effort later Wednesday.
India already sent another ship and an aircraft on Tuesday to assess the damage and coordinate fire-fighting efforts, the Sri Lanka navy said.
In September, a crude oil tanker caught fire off Sri Lanka's eastern coast after an engine room explosion that killed a crewman. That fire was put out after more than a week with the help of India's coastguard.
Sri LankaCyclone YaasFire In Ship
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Lauren Barnett of Cañon City competes for Miss…
Lauren Barnett of Cañon City competes for Miss Jr. Teen title
Lauren Barnett
PUBLISHED: August 29, 2015 at 7:28 a.m. | UPDATED: April 15, 2019 at 4:38 a.m.
Local young lady competes for Miss Jr. Teen title
Lauren Barnett of Cañon City was recently selected to participate in the 2015 Miss Jr. Teen pageant competition that will be Sept. 20. Lauren learned of her acceptance into this year's competition when the pageant announced their selections following interviewing in the local Colorado Springs area. Lauren submitted an application and took part in an interview session that was conducted by this year's Colorado Springs Pageant Coordinator.
Lauren will be competing for her share of thousands of dollars in prizes and specialty gifts that will be distributed to contestants. Lauren will be competing in the Miss Jr. Teen division, one of four divisions that will have young ladies ages of 7 through 19 competing in modeling routines, which include Casual Wear and Formal Wear. Most importantly, Lauren will display her personality and interviewing skills while interviewing with this year's judging panel. Personality is the number one aspect that each contestant is judged on during all phases of competition.
If Lauren were to win the title of Miss Jr. Teen, she would represent Colorado Springs and the surrounding communities at the National Competition that will take place in Orlando, Florida. Over $30,000 in prizes and awards will be presented at the National Competition while each winner enjoys this expense paid trip of five nights and six days in Orlando, Florida.
Community businesses, organizations and private individuals will assist Lauren in participating in this year's competition by becoming an official sponsor to her. Through sponsorship, each contestant receives all the necessary training, rehearsals and financial support which will allow Lauren to become a very confident and well-prepared contestant in this year's Pageant.
Many thanks to all of Lauren's generous sponsors: Dee Dee Larson – Bella Capelli Salon & Botique, Dan Schalek -Edward Jones, Graham & Associates CPAs PC, Jolene DeVries at Law and Staff, Harwood Cremation and Funeral Service, James and Helen Graham, and Aurice and Bob Worley.
University of Wyoming Spring Semester Dean's and Dean's Freshman Honor Rolls
The University of Wyoming lists the following nonresident students on the 2015 spring semester academic Dean's and Dean's Freshman Honor Rolls.
The honor rolls consist of regularly enrolled undergraduates above freshman standing who earned a 3.4 or better grade point average, and freshmen who have earned a 3.25 or better grade point average.
To be eligible, students must have been enrolled for a minimum of 12 credit hours taken for letter grades.
The students are Alex Skerjanec and Timothy J. Skerjanec of Cañon City.
CCPD thanks local girl for support
The Cañon City Police Department would like to thank Adoni Branam for raising money for the department's K-9 program. Branam recently opened a lemonade stand and raised $2.50. Branam also gave a small brown stuffed dog to the department to protect the K-9 team during their patrols while Duke is out protecting her.
Daily Record Staff

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Scotland's Contribution to Ontario's Agriculture
BY C. C. JAMES, M.A.
(Deputy Minister of Agriculture, Ontario.)
THOUGH Champlain made in his memorable tour of the province in 1615 by way of the Ottawa, Lake Nipissing, Lake Huron and the Trent Valley to Lake Ontario, the period of settlement began only in 1784, at the close of the American War of Independence. The history of our agricultural development, then, is confined to a period of less than 125 years. The consideration of our subject gives us three main divisions: First, from 1784 to 1812, the early settlement of the frontier townships along the St. Lawrence River, Lake Ontario. and Lake Erie, mainly by families from the neighbouring States; second, from 1825 to 1850, when the great streams of British immigration poured into this country and filled up the townships between and in the rear of those earlier settled; and third, the recent years, when the surplus population moved about, filling up the vacancies still left in that portion of our province between the Ottawa, the St. Lawrence, and the Great Lakes, and flowed westward into the Northern States and the new Province of Manitoba.
First, we ask as to whether Scotland contributed anything to the first settlement. The lands were first allotted to the Americans who had remained true to Britain, and who desired to move or were compelled to move out and seek new homes under the protection of the British flag. Many had borne arms for Britain, and they were promised homes in Canada, being officially designated as United Empire Loyalists. Those from the New England States first chose lands in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick near at hand and in proximity to New Englanders who had, some years before the war, been settled on the rich dyked farm lands previously occupied by the exiled Acadians. Quebec, to a point just beyond Montreal, was held largely under seignorial tenure; therefore the Loyalists from New York and New Jersey were offered lands in the western or upper portion of the province along the St. Lawrence above Montreal, on the Bay of Quinte, an arm of Lake Ontario, and along the Niagara River. The New York and New Jersey Loyalists were composed of a very mixed nationality; there were descendants of the Dutch of New Netherland, of Palatine Germans sent out in Queen Anne's reign by the people of London, of French Huguenots, who had made settlements along the coast, and of Puritans and Quakers, who had drifted in from New England. But there were some sons of Scotland also.
Most of the U. E. Loyalists who settled around Niagara and on the Bay of Quinte were Protestants. In Sir John Johnson's Royal New York Regiment were a large number of Scottish soldiers, most of them Protestant, but some Catholics. The former settled on the St. Lawrence in the counties of Stormont and Dundas; the Catholics made a small settlement in Glengarry. Soon after came a large accession to their numbers, the Glengarry Fencibles, with their gallant and devoted leader, Father Macdonell, afterwards the first Roman Catholic Bishop of Upper Canada. The story of Bishop Macdonell and his Highlanders is full of interest. Born in 1762, in Invernesshire, he was educated for the priesthood. He went back to minister to his own people, and found them in dire distress because of their small holdings being turned into sheep walks. He arranged with Glasgow manufacturers for their employment, and came down from the Highlands with 700 or 800 stalwart laborers. Soon after occurred the French revolutionary troubles, and a stagnation followed in the great work centres of England and Scotland. Father Macdonell then formed his followers into a Catholic regiment, of which he became chaplain, and their services were offered to their country. They saw service in the Channel Islands and in Ireland. When peace came the Glengarry Fencibles were disbanded. Previous to this bands of Highlanders had left for America at various times, one settlement being made in South Carolina, another in Prince Edward Island, and in 1773 another band had gone to find a home in the Mohawk Valley at the request of Sir Wm. Johnson. At the close of the revolution they had been settled along the St. Lawrence. Father Macdonell naturally looked across the sea for a future home for his flock, and, after many difficulties that we have not space to mention here, we find these fighting Highlanders located on grants of land in Glengarry County. Canada owes a great debt to the Highlanders of the St. Lawrence, both Protestant and Catholic. They were born fighters, and in the war Of 1812 they all stood true to their old reputation of fighting to the last for the honor of the mother land. If you look over the history of our early lumbering industry, and the construction of our railroads and canals, you will find that they were also great in peace and commerce as they were great in war and conquest.
In later days other Scotsmen came across the seas and settled down beside them to make homes for themselves and help to develop the agriculture of to-day. There are to-day no more patriotic citizens than those of Scottish origin, and it may be difficult for the rising generation to realize what the forefathers felt as they cut loose from the hills and dales of auld Scotia to seek new homes across the sea. Scotsmen at home can understand what this old Canadian boat song meant that was sung years ago in Gaelic on the banks of the St. Lawrence:
Listen to me, as when you heard your fathers,
Sing long ago, the songs of other shores;
Listen to me, and then in chorus gather,
All your deep voices as ye pull your oars;
Fair these broad meads —those hoary woods are grand;
But we are exiles from our fathers' land.
From the lone sheiling on the misty island
Mountains divide us, and a waste of seas;
Yet still the blood is strong, the heart is Highland
And we, in dreams, behold the Hebrides.
We ne'er shall tread the fancy-haunted valley,
Where, 'twixt the dark hills, creeps the small clear stream,
In arms around the patriarch banner rally,
Nor see the moon on royal tombstones gleam.
When the bold kindred, in the time long vanished,
Conquered the soil and fortified the keep,
No seer foretold the children should be banished,
That a degenerate lord might boast his sheep.
Come, foreign raid ! let discord burst in slaughter,
Oh, then, for clansmen true, and keen claymore!
The hearts that would have given their blood like water,
Beat heavily beyond the Atlantic's roar.
Fair these broad meads—those hoary woods are grand;
They loved their fathers' land and they sang in their sorrow; their grandchildren love this province, but their love is of a new growth.
The agriculture of. the early period was of a rude and laborious nature, the clearing away of the forest, the building of simple but comfortable log houses, the growing of wheat, the care of a few cows and sheep—the daily struggle for existence with the slow but sure progress, through the simple agricultural life of a backwoods settlement,—this may not seem much but it counted for much, it was the laying of the foundation upon which our present agriculture has been built.
With the incoming of tens of thousands from England, Scotland and Ireland, began a great forward movement in Ontario.
The following figures giving the population at the various years shows how we grew by leaps and bounds:-
In 1851,'61 arid'71,the census of Canada recorded the nativities of our population and for Ontario we find the following statement as to countries of birth :-
In 1871 for the first time was introduced an enumeration as to origin showing that there were in Ontario, 439,429 persons claiming to be of English and Welsh ancestry; 559,442 of Irish; and 328,889 of Scottish. The people have now become so intermingled and the increase direct from the British Isles has fallen off so much that the nationality of the youth of Ontario can be classed only as Canadian. To-day the number of our citizens who were actually born in Scotland is comparatively small, but Scottish blood is widely distributed all over this province. The question now arises as to what this Scottish element in our population brought into this country to develop our agriculture, our greatest source of wealth.
An examination of the map of Ontario will lead a non-resident to conclude that the great lake and river system has given us especial transportation facilities. These great lakes have given us also a temperate climate. Examine our land elevations and you will see that our countless rivers and streams are swift, giving us an abundant supply of clear water. To these add a naturally rich soil and you have the explanation of our very favourable agricultural conditions. All that was needed was a class of settlers that would make good farmers. Such we got when the old country settlers poured into this fair province. In the early days Ontario was largely a grain growing section, and her farmers limited their cash returns to the sale of wheat, timber and ashes. When the Scottish and the English farmers came they brought with them their love of live stock and their experience as growers of roots. At once a change began to come over our agriculture. Sheep began to whiten our hill sides, cows increased rapidly, and the heavy horses of England and Scotland began to take the place of the oxen. Dairying on an extensive scale became one of the possibilities. The keeping of live stock for beef or for milk, and of sheep for wool and mutton, accompanied by the extensive introduction of root growing, has elevated the farmer of Ontario from a precarious condition into one of progress and prosperity.
It is not always easy or satisfactory to prove general statements like the above by statistics; however, the following may be of some value.
In 1861, apart from the Scottish born residents of the cities of Toronto, Hamilton, London and Ottawa, there were 91,334 persons distributed over the 43 counties and districts. Of these, 47,924 were found in ten counties, viz., in descending order of numbers— Wellington, Huron, Grey, Middlesex, Bruce, Oxford, Perth, Ontario, York and Simcoe. There was a predominant Scottish element in these counties. These ten counties to-day hold thirty-five per cent, of our rural population. Let us see whether Scottish blood has told for anything in their case. We give the official figures for 1899 (Ontario Department of Agriculture).
These ten counties hold thirty- five per cent. of the rural population; on their farms are to be found forty- one per cent, of the rural live stock and the annual sales are forty-six per cent, of those of the entire province. In these ten counties are to be found more than one-half of the breeders of pure stock. One more item illustrative of the Scot in these ten counties may be cited. In 1899 there were 53,401 acres of mangel-wurzels grown in Ontario, of which these ten counties had 28,928; and there were 153,440 acres of turnips of which these ten counties had 92,211. The Scot, of course, would not claim credit for every bullock and sheep, and every acre of roots, but to one who is not of Scottish origin, it is quite noticeable that the Scottish-Canadian farmer has early gathered about him a flock of sheep, a herd of cattle, some pure bred horses, and he has not failed to produce roots for feeding. Go where you will through the many fine herds and flocks of Ontario, you are pretty sure to find a Scotsman looking after their welfare, either as owner or as herdsman.
The Scottish farmers also have assisted materially in building up our great dairy industry. Space does not permit enlargement on this point. Oxford, Perth and Middlesex, are among our greatest cheese-making counties. Among the men who have for many years been intimately associated with this industry may be named Ballantyne, Macpherson and Maclaren. They have made money while assisting in advancing the industry, and their names are selected because Scotsmen will recognize them as of their own. Professor J. W. Robertson, formerly Professor of Dairying at the Ontario Agricultural College, and now Agricultural and Dairy Commissioner for Canada, is a native of Scotland.
It may be worth mentioning here that Ontario has made such progress in dairying that she has a large and well equipped staff of instructors for her own dairy work, has provided a number of instructors for the other provinces of Canada and for several of the states of the Union, and she has even sent over some teachers to Scotland, to the best dairy districts, to give instruction in the Canadian method of cheese making.
Dairying is the most distinctive feature of the agriculture of Eastern Ontario. While this may be attributed to some extent to the extra good pasturage and the favourable weather conditions, no little credit must be given to the Ayrshire cow, which contributes the largest share to the pure blood of the Eastern herds. The "Canada Ayrshire Herd Record," Vol. I., of 1886, stated that there were at that date not less than 50,000 pure bred Ayrshires in Canada, and 300,000 Ayrshire grades. Whence came these? The importation of pure bred Ayrshires is clearly traced to the arrival of Scotch ships bringing them for the use of passengers on the voyage." They were sold at Montreal or taken on up the St. Lawrence to the settlements along the river.
The Galloways and the Aberdeen-Angus Polls, the "black doddies," of course, trace back to Scotland, and need no further reference. But what about the Shorthorns, the basis of the beef- breeding in Ontario? The importation of Shorthorns into Ontario goes back to about 1825, but did not assume very great proportions for a quarter of a century after that. In the early days a few English animals were imported, but about iS6o the attention of the breeders turned towards Scotland. A few only of the breeders can be mentioned here. In i86i, Simon Beattie, and in 1864, Hon. David Christie, brought over some Scotch blood, the latter from the celebrated herd of Douglas of Athelstaneford. Beginning in 1867, a Scotsman, George Isaac, began bringing over cattle that made a lasting impression here, and his son, John Isaac, followed in the same good work in 1874. John S. Armstrong, of Wellington county, Joseph S. Thompson, John Miller, and John I. Davidson, all of Ontario county, made noteworthy and extensive importations. Two other Ontario county importers must be mentioned, Hon. John Dryden and Mr. Arthur Johnston. The former began with a Cruickshank in 1871, and in addition to many other purchases, bought up the entire Lethenty herd of Edward Cruickshank in 1887, consisting of forty prime animals. Mr. Johnston started in 1874, and has just at the time of the writing of these notes returned to Canada with thirty head of Scotch Shorthorns from the best Aberdeen herds.
One word more. The first settlers, the U. E. Loyalists, settled the front townships. These are of the mildest climate, they include the districts where the finest peaches and grapes are grown. The old country settlers, therefore, have, as far as horticulture is concerned, been limited to the sections where our apples and hardy pears and plums are produced. The Scottish farmers of this province are, as a consequence, not noted as great fruit growers. But go to our cities, examine the parks, step into the private grounds and look through the conservatories - in nearly all cases you will find these places in charge of English or Scottish experts, and the probability is that the head gardener or florist will entertain you in good broad Scotch.
The Scottish Canadian has done much for Canada in trade, commerce and transportation, but the debt we owe to the Scottish Canadian agriculturist is, I believe, much greater, though it has not received the same prominence or public consideration.


text:
Mixed Bag Freebies
Rock Star Arnel Pineda's Documentary Film, "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey" to be Featured in Bay City's Hells Half Mile Film Festival
February 18, 2014 by jio-admin
Rock Star Arnel Pineda's documentary film, "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey" will be featured in San Francisco Bay City's Hells Half Mile Independent Film Series on Saturday, February 22, 2014 at 4:30 pm. The venue would be at the Delta College Planetarium, 100 Center Avenue at the Bay City.
Arnel Pineda with Journey
"Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey" details the challenging journey of Filipino rocker, Arnel Pineda, to fame and fortune. The film shows Arnel's resilience and unwavering faith, as a relatively unknown singer, until he became the lead singer of the legendary rock band, Journey. It is a Cinderella story that could inspire numerous aspiring singers that they could succeed in the entertainment industry if they would not stop believin'.
Journey's "Don't Stop Believin" is also the most downloaded song of the 20th century, and has been a national anthem of sorts in the US and around the world. It will always be one of the significant songs in the set list of Journey's concerts.
Apparently, Arnel Pineda and his Journey band mates, Neal Schon, Deen Castronovo, Ross Valory and Jonathan Cain would have a riot in their hands should they fail to sing their signature song.
The "Audience Award" given to the documentary film during the Tribeca Film Festival is only one of the various awards that the film received from prestigious award giving bodies.
Journey is scheduled to go on a US and a Canadian Tour this 2014.
Categories Entertainment, NewsTags "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey" in Hells Half Mile Film Festival, Arnel Pineda, Documentary Film "Don't Stop Believin': Everyman's Journey", Journey Rock Band, Journey's docu to be Featured in Bay City's Hells Half Mile Film Festival, Rock Star Arnel Pineda's Documentary Film	Post navigation
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text:
'use strict';

const request = require('./request');
const WAIT_TIME = 6;

/**
 * Promise to wait a certain number of seconds
 *
 * Might make this centralized for other tests to leverage
 *
 * @method promiseToWait
 * @param  {Number}      timeToWait  Number of seconds to wait before continuing the chain
 * @return {Promise}
 */
function promiseToWait(timeToWait) {
    return new Promise((resolve) => {
        setTimeout(() => resolve(), timeToWait * 1000);
    });
}

/**
 * Finds a build in a given pipeline. It will look for a build associated with a pull request
 * when given pull request-related information. Otherwise, it will look for the main job
 * by default.
 *
 * @method findBuilds
 * @param  {Object}  config                     Configuration object
 * @param  {String}  config.instance            Screwdriver instance to test against
 * @param  {String}  config.pipelineId          Pipeline ID to find the build in
 * @param  {String}  [config.pullRequestNumber] The PR number associated with build we're looking for
 * @param  {String}  [config.jobName]           The job name we're looking for
 * @return {Promise}                            A promise that resolves to an array of builds that
 *                                              fulfill the given criteria. If nothing is found, an
 *                                              empty array is returned
 */
function findBuilds(config) {
    const instance = config.instance;
    const pipelineId = config.pipelineId;
    const pullRequestNumber = config.pullRequestNumber;
    const jobName = config.jobName;

    return request({
        json: true,
        method: 'GET',
        uri: `${instance}/v4/pipelines/${pipelineId}/jobs`,
        auth: {
            bearer: config.jwt
        }
    })
        .then((response) => {
            const jobData = response.body;
            let result = [];

            if (pullRequestNumber) {
                result = jobData.filter(job => job.name.startsWith(`PR-${pullRequestNumber}`));
            } else {
                result = jobData.filter(job => job.name === jobName);
            }

            if (result.length === 0) {
                return Promise.resolve(result);
            }

            const jobId = result[0].id;

            return request({
                json: true,
                method: 'GET',
                uri: `${instance}/v4/jobs/${jobId}/builds`,
                auth: {
                    bearer: config.jwt
                }
            });
        });
}

/**
 * Finds a build created by latest event in a given pipeline.
 *
 * @method findEventBuilds
 * @param  {Object}  config             Configuration object
 * @param  {String}  config.instance    Screwdriver instance to test against
 * @param  {String}  config.eventId     Event ID to find the build in
 * @param  {String}  config.jwt         JWT for authenticating
 * @param  {String}  config.jobs        Pipeline jobs
 * @param  {String}  config.jobName     The job name we're looking for
 * @return {Promise}                    A promise that resolves to an array of builds that
 *                                      fulfill the given criteria. If nothing is found, an
 *                                      empty array is returned
 */
function findEventBuilds(config) {
    const instance = config.instance;
    const eventId = config.eventId;

    return request({
        json: true,
        method: 'GET',
        uri: `${instance}/v4/events/${eventId}/builds`,
        auth: {
            bearer: config.jwt
        }
    }).then((response) => {
        const builds = response.body || [];
        const job = config.jobs.find(j => j.name === config.jobName);
        const build = builds.find(b => b.jobId === job.id);

        if (build) {
            return builds;
        }

        return promiseToWait(WAIT_TIME).then(() => findEventBuilds(config));
    });
}

/**
 * Searches for a job's build in a Pipeline. It is assumed that the job is the main job, unless
 * pull request information is provided.
 *
 * If a build does not meet the desired criteria, it will wait an arbitrarily short amount of time
 * before trying again.
 *
 * @method searchForBuild
 * @param  {Object}  config                     Configuration object
 * @param  {String}  config.instance            Screwdriver instance to test against
 * @param  {String}  config.pipelineId          Pipeline ID to find the build in
 * @param  {String}  [config.pullRequestNumber] The PR number associated with build we're looking for
 * @param  {String}  [config.desiredSha]        The SHA that the build is running against
 * @param  {String}  [config.desiredStatus]     The build status that the build should have
 * @param  {String}  [config.jobName]           The job name we're looking for
 * @return {Promise}                            A build that fulfills the given criteria
 */
function searchForBuild(config) {
    const instance = config.instance;
    const pipelineId = config.pipelineId;
    const pullRequestNumber = config.pullRequestNumber;
    const desiredSha = config.desiredSha;
    const desiredStatus = config.desiredStatus;
    const jwt = config.jwt;
    const jobName = config.jobName || 'main';

    return findBuilds({
        instance,
        pipelineId,
        pullRequestNumber,
        jobName,
        jwt
    }).then((buildData) => {
        let result = buildData.body || [];

        if (desiredSha) {
            result = result.filter(item => item.sha === desiredSha);
        }

        if (desiredStatus) {
            result = result.filter(item => desiredStatus.includes(item.status));
        }

        if (result.length > 0) {
            return result[0];
        }

        return promiseToWait(WAIT_TIME).then(() => searchForBuild(config));
    });
}

/**
 * Waits for a specific build to reach a desired status. If a build is found to not be
 * in the desired state, it waits an arbitrarily short amount of time before querying
 * the build status again.
 *
 * @method waitForBuildStatus
 * @param  {Object}  config               Configuration object
 * @param  {String}  config.instance      Screwdriver instance to test against
 * @param  {String}  config.buildId       Build ID to find the build in
 * @param  {Array}   config.desiredStatus Array of status strings. The status of the build to wait for
 * @return {Object}                       Build data
 */
function waitForBuildStatus(config) {
    const buildId = config.buildId;
    const desiredStatus = config.desiredStatus;
    const instance = config.instance;

    return request({
        json: true,
        method: 'GET',
        uri: `${instance}/v4/builds/${buildId}`,
        auth: {
            bearer: config.jwt
        }
    }).then((response) => {
        const buildData = response.body;

        if (desiredStatus.includes(buildData.status)) {
            return buildData;
        }

        return promiseToWait(WAIT_TIME).then(() => waitForBuildStatus(config));
    });
}

/**
 * Remove the test token
 * @method cleanupToken
 * @param  {Object}  config
 * @param  {String}  config.token         Name of the token to delete
 * @param  {String}  config.instance      Screwdriver instance to test against
 * @param  {String}  config.namespace     Screwdriver namespace to test against
 * @param  {String}  config.jwt           JWT for authenticating
 * @return {Promise}
 */
function cleanupToken(config) {
    const tokenName = config.token;
    const instance = config.instance;
    const namespace = config.namespace;
    const jwt = config.jwt;

    return request({
        uri: `${instance}/${namespace}/tokens`,
        method: 'GET',
        auth: {
            bearer: jwt
        }
    }).then((response) => {
        const match = JSON.parse(response.body)
            .find(token => token.name === tokenName);

        if (!match) return Promise.resolve();

        return request({
            uri: `${instance}/${namespace}/tokens/${match.id}`,
            method: 'DELETE',
            auth: {
                bearer: jwt
            }
        });
    });
}

/**
 * abort all working builds
 * @method cleanupBuilds
 * @param  {Object}  config
 * @param  {String}  config.instance      Screwdriver instance to test against
 * @param  {String}  config.pipelineId    Pipeline ID to find the build in
 * @param  {String}  config.jwt           JWT for authenticating
 * @param  {String}  config.jobName       The job name we're looking for
 * @return {Promise}
 */
function cleanupBuilds(config) {
    const instance = config.instance;
    const pipelineId = config.pipelineId;
    const jwt = config.jwt;
    const jobName = config.jobName;
    const desiredStatus = ['RUNNING', 'QUEUED', 'BLOCKED', 'UNSTABLE'];

    return findBuilds({
        instance,
        pipelineId,
        jobName,
        jwt
    }).then((buildData) => {
        const result = buildData.body || [];
        const builds = result.filter(item => desiredStatus.includes(item.status));

        return Promise.all(builds.map(build =>
            request({
                uri: `${instance}/v4/builds/${build.id}`,
                method: 'PUT',
                auth: {
                    bearer: jwt
                },
                body: {
                    status: 'ABORTED'
                },
                json: true
            })));
    });
}

module.exports = {
    cleanupToken,
    cleanupBuilds,
    findBuilds,
    findEventBuilds,
    searchForBuild,
    waitForBuildStatus
};

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Complete Jewish Bible (CJB)
Complete Jewish Bible
11 so that, because of the cloud, the cohanim could not stand up to perform their service; for the glory of Adonai filled the house of Adonai.
12 Shlomo said, "Adonai said he would live in thick darkness. 13 But I have built you a magnificent house, a place where you can live forever."
Copyright © 1998 by David H. Stern. All rights reserved.
The Complete Jewish Study Bible, Flexisoft Leather, Dark Blue


text:
Southern Still Failing
3rd July 2018 3rd July 2018 David Bookless
Southern's services continue to fail
Further to MLAG's Press Release of 31 May, published in RyeNews on 1 June, we continue to have issues with the reliability of SouthernRailways service following the introduction of the new timetable on 20 May. The first service failure was on 31 May but it was quickly followed by similar failures on 6 and 13 June. It should be said there have been other service outages but these have been as a result of trespass on the line or (on Tuesday of this week) a fire at Eastbourne – but MLAG does not assign blame to Southern for interruptions to the service outside its control.
But, as advised in the earlier Press Release, we were looking for Southern to explain the issues that gave rise to the service failures and advise us what they were doing to mitigate problems in the future. This is particularly irritating since we reasonably expected an increase in service reliability to be one dividend for the shortening of the length of the MarshLink service (from Ashford – Brighton to Ashford – Eastbourne) and therefore the availability of an additional unit operating the MarshLink service.
Having received inadequate responses, MLAG raised the matter at a meeting with Southern this week to discuss a range of issues with the new service and this matter was high on our agenda. We intend to publish the response we receive.
As to the other issues discussed, these will be reported on in due course.
Stuart Harland
MarshLink Action Group
Events, Latest News, Press Statements. permalink.
Kent Route Study Published
Crowded, Crowded Trains


MiAI Speaker Mini is a artificial intelligence speaker, which is 24-hour online and easy to wake up by voice. And there is rich high-quality Internet audio content in it. Moreover, the artificial intelligence speaker also control other smart devices. Its saponaceous and minimalistic appearance can be fully integrated with the home environment. During the conversation with users, the hidden breathing light on the speaker's top change to different conditions to give users better experience. Relying on the biggest intelligent hardware platform – Xiaomi intelligent hardware IoT – MiAI Speaker Mini can control over 50 smart home facilities including robot sweeper, air purifier and table lamp, etc. Meanwhile, it has been accessed to 4 kinds of Internet audio content – music, radio, news and information, which can meet users' audio requirements at home to a great extent. The more important point is the price of less than €20 provide people with a cost-effective choice and enable users to get more than one facilities at different rooms of their home to realize linked operation easily.


Model Predictive Control (MPC) has become one of the dominant methods of chemical process control in terms of successful industrial applications. A rich theory has been developed to study the closed loop stability of MPC algorithms when the plant model is perfect, referred to as the nominal stability problem. In practical applications, however, the process model is never perfect and nominal stability results are not strictly applicable. The primary disadvantage of the current MPC design techniques is their inability to deal explicitly with the plant model uncertainty. In this thesis we develop a new framework for robust MPC synthesis that allows explicit incorporation of the plant uncertainty description in the problem formulation. The robust stability results are developed for general uncertainty descriptions. Hard input and soft output constraints can be easily added to the algorithms without affecting closed loop stability. Robust stability is achieved through the addition of constraints that prevent the sequence of the optimal controller costs from increasing for the true plant. These cost function constraints can be solved analytically for the special case of bounded input matrix uncertainty. The closed loop system also remains stable in the face of asymptotically decaying disturbances. The framework developed for bounded input matrix uncertainty for stable plants can also be used for integrating plants. Two formulations are developed; a single stage optimization method that minimizes the state error at the end of the horizon, and a two stage optimization method which minimizes the state error at the end of the horizon in the first stage but uses the remaining degrees in a second stage to minimize state deviations over the full prediction horizon. Hard input and soft output constraints can be easily added to the algorithms without affecting the closed loop stability.
Ralhan, Sameer. "Robust model predictive control of stable and integrating linear systems." (2000) Diss., Rice University. https://hdl.handle.net/1911/19549.


Express train derailment could have been sabotage..
Crime Investigation Department (CID) additional Deputy Inspector General Dwaraka Tirumal Rao said that it is yet to be ascertained whether the derailment of Hirakhand Express yesterday in Vizianagaram, is caused by an accident or sabotage. Such an accident could not have occurred under normal circumstances, some railway officials said. National Investigation Agency (NIA) team will visit the spot this evening to inspect. Civil Aviation team and bomb squads too are about to visit the site to investigate from the sabotage angle.


text:
California shelved a batch of vaccines for allergies
Scarlet Nexus Cosplay guide will help you look like Kasane and Yuito
Spaniards killed conquerors and killed women and children-KOMO News
The Mets may not complete the deal for Joey Lucesi
With the support of the Russians, Paller appeared again…
The actors revealed that Betty White and Ryan Reynolds showed lively "hatred" in the "Proposal" scene
Home / Health / Fed announces COVID-19 vaccine agreement with pharmacies
Fed announces COVID-19 vaccine agreement with pharmacies
November 13, 2020	Health 0 Views
Federal health officials have reached an agreement with pharmacies across the United States to distribute these vaccines after they have approved and provided free coronavirus vaccines to the public.
The ultimate goal is to get a COVID-19 vaccine like a flu shot.
The agreement reached with major pharmacies, grocery market pharmacies, and other chains and networks on Thursday covers about three-fifths of pharmacies in the 50 states and territories (such as Puerto Rico). Looking forward to sometime next spring, vaccines that have not yet been approved will begin to be available outside of priority groups such as healthcare workers and nursing home residents.
Secretary of Health and Human Services Alex Azar said: "The vast majority of Americans live within five miles of pharmacies," and he called the agreement "to ensure that all Americans have access to safe and effective A key step in the COVID-1
9 vaccine. ."
The announcement of the plan for the nation is to see the pandemic, and President Donald Trump's most widespread viral surge has put the brakes on the organization of collaboration with the president-elect Biden's transition team. The number of new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday exceeded 127,000, an increase of nearly 75% from two weeks ago. More than 60,000 Americans are hospitalized and the death toll is rising.
A successful pandemic handover between the Trump and Biden administrations will be regarded as one of America's biggest priorities. This is shelved and Trump refused to acknowledge Biden's victory in the election, even though Biden has appointed a coronavirus advisory group to guide his transition team.
The list of pharmacies joining the distribution partnership includes retail chains such as Rite Aid and Walgreens, supermarket pharmacies such as Albertsons and Publix, and large pharmacies such as Costco and Walmart.
The agreement came after working with CVS and Walgreens to provide vaccines and vaccinations to nursing homes.
Since the pharmaceutical giant Pfizer Pharmaceuticals announced earlier this week, optimism about the vaccine has continued to increase, with preliminary data showing that the vaccine is 90% effective.
Pfizer has been conducting its own vaccine research and development, while other manufacturers have been operating in the "Operation Warp Speed" supported by the White House, which aims to provide vaccines as soon as they are approved.
But Pfizer is also linked to Operation Warp Speed. The company signed a contract to provide 100 million doses of vaccine, and the government can also choose to purchase another 500 million doses.
Officials said the initial supplies will be restricted and will be distributed to states so that they can be assigned to priority groups such as health care workers and first responders.
The agreement reached with pharmacies on Thursday aims to act as a bridge to facilitate the distribution of vaccines as supplies increase, but before the government has enough power to withdraw and let the private market take care of things.
There is currently no approved vaccine for COVID-19, but officials said they expect to approve one or more vaccines before the end of this year.
© Copyright, Associated Press 2020. all rights reserved. Do not publish, broadcast, adapt or redistribute this material.


Merry Christmas from all of us at Cafe Laurel.
We will be Closed on Sunday Christmas day, and Monday (we are always closed on Mondays).
We will see you Tuesday.
This image above is our inspiration. I love the grand scale of it, the colors, and well, everything.
And above, our version. A little more rustic, but all done with found objects and for absolutely no money.
Not having a large frame, and challenging myself to do it with only found objects, and for no cost, I am happy with the outcome. I do have to admit, that if I was going to spend money on it, I would put a frame around the outside, yes, a big gold one like the inspiration tree.
Now, if I could just get some better pictures.
One large heavy wood door. Lots of small nails. Some found in the garage blue lights, and our box of oranaments out of the garage, add in some ribbon, and we were good to go.
We like the rusticness of it, and we really enjoy looking at favorite ornaments of years past.
Now....if I had wanted to spend some money, I think I would have put a frame aroud the door. But you know what, we do like the rustic, homespun look of it.
Now, what are you doing for a tree?
Our Snowflake Windows are complete! Wow, what did we get ourselves into? It did take a day or two longer than we expected to hang. But, we are sure glad we did. Glitter everywhere and all.
We used multiple sized coffee filters for the paper snowflakes. The glitter snowflakes are available at various Dollar Stores, we also found some great ones at Home Depot as well. They are sold in groups of 3, 5, and 10, so they are economical to do in bulk. We liked the mix of paper, and the hanging glitter ones as well. To hang we simply used fishing line, straight out of the garage.
How did you Deck your Halls? Let us know.


Data are typically a bunch of numbers. But the best examples of data journalism sometimes don't have any numbers – or at least very few of them.
Ron Nixon, a Washington correspondent for The New York Times, talked the how's and why's of data journalism in a session with Paul Miller fellows at the National Press Foundation. He said some data-focused stories are so packed with numbers that they're indecipherable – akin to the sci-fi movie "The Matrix," he said.
Nixon (bio, Twitter), whose work has focused on a range of investigative topics with a recent emphasis on homeland security, led fellows through a description of what tools to use, and why to use them. He also has experience as a data expert at the Minneapolis Star Tribune and Investigative Reporters and Editors, which maintains a library of federal databases and trains journalists in the practical skills of getting and analyzing electronic information. He described the methods he uses to decide when to dive into a data story – as well as what to avoid.
Over his career, he has used statistical software such as SAS and R; spreadsheet programs such as Excel; ArcGIS for mapping; SQLite for simple database work; and Python or Ruby for heavy data analysis.
He counsels journalists not to be afraid of the math inherent in data-focused stories – despite the well-known phobia of many reporters and writers to numbers and stats. For starters, he said, it's vital these days to know math and statistics, since they help run the world and are the language of policymakers.
But beyond that, it doesn't have to be that complicated. "A lot of this is the same math you would have done in the eighth grade," he said.
Beyond simple data tools such as Excel and SQLite, sometimes reporters need to up the game and use more sophisticated and powerful tools. For those cases, Derek Willis of ProPublica learned how to build his own databases, often by teaching himself the programming skills necessary to do so.
Of course, that doesn't mean he's a savvy enough in programming that a tech start-up is in his future.
"My programming talents are in the service of journalism, not the service of programming," Willis (bio, Twitter) said.
Much of programming deals with repetitive tasks, such as retrieving the same kind of data from multiple websites. Willis explained "web scraping," which is the process of taking data from the websites in an efficient, automated way.
"If there are parts of your reporting data that involve repetitive tasks, consider automating part of it," he said.
He uses the programs Perl, Ruby, Python; any of them will work – just pick the one you're most comfortable with (a Wiki comparing them is here).


text:
Universal Changes
By Dara Anderson Johnson ('21) in the Fall 2021 Issue
Starting this fall, the campus newspaper will never be the same.
How it started, how it's going: the Daily Universe has changed a lot since its first issue in 1956. Here, current staff compare the first Universe (center) to the last newspaper (left) and first magazine edition. Photo by Bradley Slade.
It's the end of the Universe—or, at least, as we know it. For the first time since 1956, the Daily Universe—BYU's student-produced newspaper—will no longer fill campus racks. With its last issue as a newspaper published in August, the Daily Universe hit campus this fall semester as a monthly magazine.
In today's fast-paced digital world, breaking news from any source outside the web becomes outdated in seconds. But that doesn't mean print is dead. It's now a space for deeper, more meaningful stories. This past year communications faculty, armed with a BYU President's Innovation Grant, set out to bring the BYU journalism experience to the cutting edge of the news-media industry.
"We should always be pushing innovations, creating new ways of doing things, . . . but without harming the traditional quality of education that we've had," says Edward L. Carter (JD '03), former director of the School of Communications and a member of the faculty task force.
With that in mind, they proposed the new approach to the Universe: a monthly magazine that prints long-form, in-depth reporting, with breaking news stories published in the online edition of the Daily Universe.
Journalism professor Miles F. Romney (BA '05) says he hopes "our BYU community and our campus will resonate with the changes that we're making and will appreciate . . . the deeper storytelling."
And with a new range of online, social-media, and long-form print skills, journalism students will be better prepared for a changing industry.
"It's definitely a new challenge to do more of these longer, in-depth stories," says Cassidy N. Wixom ('22), campus editor for the Daily Universe, who helped write a cover story on news literacy for the inaugural September issue. "But it's been fun. I'm excited to see what it'll look like."
What's White and Blue and Read All Over?
See the world through the eyes of BYU students at times like WWII through the old student newspaper.
Endless Knight
A beloved BYU landmark once again fulfills its original purpose.
Reach for the Summit
Homecoming 2009 honors Timpanogos Roberts, the tradition's founder and a physical education revolutionary.


Chris has owned a much-loved ancient Italian city bike handlebar for many years. It's a little like our Milan bar, but with zero rise. We've long wanted a similar bar, but with slightly longer grips. It's finally here and called the Postino bar after a wonderful Italian film.
The Postino bar is ideal for those who like a slightly forward position and those who like to ride fast. Like the Milan bar it's ideal for converting old racing bikes for urban use.


Important reminder that all incoming seventh graders are required to have immunizations prior to the first day of school. Schedules will be held until proof of immunizations is provided to the clinic. Click on the immunization sidebar for more information. As always, please call the clinic if you have any questions.


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I resisted Elden Ring for quite a while. I wouldn't call myself a Dark Souls hater, because I like a lot about those games. I finished Dark Souls 3 and I tried all of them. They're not for me, though. Some of the "git gud" mentality those games have built around them brought an ugliness that was largely confined to multiplayer games into the single player realm. Many of the Dark Souls clones and copycats have hidden crap controls and level design behind overly difficult gameplay with the excuse of "git gud". If you tell me your game is Dark Souls but open world, I'm less interested.
What made me experience true joy in Elden Ring is that it largely ditches "git gud", namely the forced memorization and blunt force trauma of past games. Elden Ring isn't Dark Souls; it's Morrowind.
When I started Morrowind, I didn't know what to do. I had a paper map and a vague direction to talk to someone. The map in Morrowind is a critical piece of that game. When I looked at that map, I could pick out any landmark, and it would be there in the game. If something looked like a building, a building was in the game. There are countless crypts and dungeons and ruins to explore on that map. In some areas, I came across enemies too powerful for me to defeat. I took that as a sign I needed to do more exploration, or find a way around that enemy.
Elden Ring functions the same way. In the open world, there are hundreds of little locations not on the critical path to explore. If you want to git gud, you can ignore all of this. Just march straight from the opening in the direction you're given and you will run face first into a meat grinder of angry monsters. What Elden Ring offers me that I never felt from Dark Souls is an option to spend more time exploring the world to the benefit of becoming more powerful so I don't have to git gud.
It works! It's great! I had so much fun riding around the open world, jumping into dungeons and caves, and testing the boundaries of my ability. I didn't succeed every time, but I never felt like I was trying to bash through a brick wall. I had options. I had smarter ways of playing than git gud.
2022 Dream of Waking Video Game Awards
I've tried to write this a few times, but I just can't get it off the ground. The rest of this is what I have in draft.
I'm dedicating 2023 to not doing the expected thing. I'm not talking a midlife crisis. I'm not talking about disrupting the system. I'm talking about changing a few things up because they don't work for me. I've spent a lot of time writing little video game reviews that no one reads. It's easy, sure. But do I have something to say that someone else hasn't already said in their own little video game review? Is my point of view all that unique? If the answer is no, then I don't really need to write something. I'm looking around for a good solution to tracking what games I've completed across platforms.
I'm also just a little lost on social media. Twitter has been my place for a few years, but Twitter is in bad shape lately. Not sure I want to stick around. I like other platforms for what they do, but none of them really have the same people I like on them. The Twitter diaspora is real.
Also, I've been a reddit moderator for the last (almost) six years and today I stopped doing that. Done moderating on Discord too. I'm done moderating. I sort of want to write about that experience, but does anyone care? Sharing knowledge so that others can learn is something I deeply believe in, but I too often feel like I'm just talking to myself. Change of venue might be necessary.
Anyway. Here's to 2023. Let's do something different.
2022 Game of the Year
Hardspace: Shipbreaker
I spent a lot of this year playing games that did not come out in 2022, but Hardspace: Shipbreaker would have been hard to beat even if I did. I could not get enough of taking apart space ships.
RU: Solar Ash, Axiom Verge 2
2022's 2021 Game of the Year
Chasm: The Rift
Playstation Game of the Year
The "I'm Never Going to Finish This" Award
The "Why Did I Play So Much Of This?" Award
Movie of the Year
Book of the Year
Infamous: Second Son
It's been a long time since I played Infamous. I remember it being a fun open-world game in the vein of Prototype, except less slimy. But that's all I remember. Lightning bolts and draining street lights. I finished Infamous, but not Infamous 2.
It's wild that this game is 8 years old. I skipped the entire PS4 platform, but the improvements since then, to include PS4 Pro, Xbox One X, etc, feel so incremental that it doesn't feel like I'm on a PS2 playing a PS1 game. It just feels like I'm playing a slightly dated game, even though it's almost a decade old.
This one shows its age in ways I was not expecting. One of the first things it asked me to do was to hold my controller vertically and shake it, like a spray paint can. Soon it asked me to swipe on the touch pad to open a cage. And then it wanted me to press my right thumb on the touch pad to drain smoke energy. All these sort of unnatural interactions became intuitive quickly enough, but it feels very tech demo-y.
Beyond that, this is a lot of what I remember of Infamous. I can't fly, but eventually I got enough powers to move fast enough to not need flight. But there was enough pain in the beginning with manual jumping and climbing that I spent those opening couple hours wishing I could fly. I started with smoke powers, but the game introduces other elements into the repertoire. These all functionally feel pretty similar but they have enough differences to be unique. They certainly did their best to map each power to the same button regardless of element, which helps integrate them into my brain.
Like the previous Infamous games, this one has the hero/villain morality system. Like those games, this one has no room for shades of gray. It feels designed to push me into one direction or the other with high powered abilities requiring a certain level of hero or villain reputation.
Here's what threw me. At the end, you confront the antagonist. She describes her motivations for her terrible actions. Her motivations do not redeem her horrible actions, but they present an interesting future. I pursued the hero route, defeated her, and the epilogue does not engage with that potential future at all. It's a terrible ending. But not so terrible that I want to replay the game all over again for a villain route to see if that ending is any better.
I devoured Infamous: Second Son. It's fun to play and there is a lot of little open world activities that I just gobbled up. But that's in part because the game is not particularly difficult and it's fairly short.
Infamous: First Light
I also played Infamous: First Light, which takes one of the side characters of Second Son and gives her a story of her own. It functions as a sort of extended demo for Second Son, and a prequel. It's standalone, but after playing Second Son, takes too long to get started and it's way too easy. I didn't die even once in First Light. It ditches the morality system and replaces a lot of the open world activities with even simpler equivalents. It's fun for an afternoon.
When I think of The Last of Us, the first thing to come to mind is how it makes my eyes hurt. I can't explain it. I got The Last of Us for PS3 ages ago. I started playing it on PS3. I never finished it because playing it for long stretches of time made my eyes hurt. Maybe it was the color. Maybe it was the radically high detail in every environment. Maybe it was the degree of focus I was putting into what I saw on screen. This time around, I completed The Last of Us Remaster on my PS5. I still felt some of that eye pain but not as badly as I did before.
The Last of Us looks expensive. Everything looks amazingly high resolution. Everything is littered and dirty and realistic. The look of the game is an accomplishment in itself.
To call The Last of Us a fun game is sort of a misnomer. Is there fun to be had in it? Sure. But it's mostly a stress game. I could never carry too much crafting supplies, too many crafted items, or too much ammo. There's something a little funny about being able to pocket three molotov cocktails and nail bombs, but only one bottle or brick. If I'm not trying to trick humans into going somewhere else without shooting them, then I'm trying to trick infected into ignoring me. If I have to fight, then I spend ammo and supplies I can't use to fight later. I played on "normal" and never felt like I was forced into stealth, but that's mostly because I made that choice to avoid conflict myself. I knew what I was getting into from the start.
If The Last of Us isn't a fun game, then is it a enjoyable game? Why would anyone play this? I liked The Last of Us for three reasons. The first is that wildly high graphical fidelity. It's really impressive to see. The second is the story, and the third is the pacing of that story. While the story isn't wholly original, cobbling together pieces of survival/post-apocalypse fiction into a new but familiar package, it's effective at telling that story.
The contrast between the pacing of Final Fantasy VII Remake and The Last of Us could not be starker. Where I felt like Final Fantasy VII Remake was herky-jerky from start to finish, with the last couple hours being some real slogs, The Last of Us built to a satisfying conclusion with a real gentle ramp in stakes. When I achieved the narrative goal, I was expecting some gameplay knife in the back. It never came. I got to the end and achieved the goal and the game was over. A game that put me in a fictional post-apocalypse with a emphasis on being grounded in a real world didn't end with an outrageous boss fight.
The Last of Us is a game that I'm glad I played but I'm not sure I'd ever play it again.
Let's keep this one quick: I don't remember much about Bayonetta 2. I finished it over the course of more than four years. I have picked it up and put it down throughout that time and just completed the last three levels in the span of about two hours. What scraps I can recall of the plot are unimportant.
Bayonetta 2 is a great action game but I put it down because it's so intense. It's not particularly difficult, but it feels very stressful to play. By the end of every level, I am tightly gripping my controller. I've given myself headaches from focusing so hard on the action on screen. There's no explainable reason for this. I'm only competing for a score that I don't care about; I'm not replaying this game to get a better score.
Because it took me four years to complete a (relatively) short game, it's hard for me to say that I love it. I like it, even though it stresses me out.
I have an long history with Final Fantasy VII. When I was young, I read a lot of video game magazines that wrote glowingly about Squaresoft and, specifically, Final Fantasy III. Final Fantasy III was out of reach for me, but I got Chrono Trigger as a gift. It didn't immediately gel with me, but I caught on to it within a year and ended up loving the game, the world, the look, the style, the music, all of it. I managed to get my hands on Final Fantasy, and it was okay. Ugly. Slow to action. I didn't love the random encounters. It was no Chrono Trigger.
I learned that the follow up to Final Fantasy III, confusingly titled Final Fantasy VII, would be coming to Playstation. I got to experience the Playstation because my girlfriend's family had one. I played demo discs and Crash Bandicoot. When Final Fantasy VII arrived, I bought it immediately. I had no income, no Playstation, but I had this game. I played it on my girlfriend's family's Playstation. It was fine. Good looking backgrounds, but blocky characters. Great music. More active than Final Fantasy, but still not direct input. Those dreaded random encounters.
It was no Chrono Trigger.
I didn't finish Final Fantasy VII on my girlfriend's family Playstation. I moved on and played Wipeout or Crash or more demo discs. I eventually got my own Playstation and took another run at Final Fantasy VII. I didn't finish it again. Over the years, I picked up those incomplete saves, eventually completing the first disc of the three disc game, but I never finished Final Fantasy VII.
I played all of the Final Fantasy games up to Final Fantasy X before concluding that I did not like Final Fantasy games. The closest I got to finishing was getting pretty far into Final Fantasy VIII. After owning Final Fantasy VII for years, before I ever owned a Playstation, I sold it to a friend. He wanted an original copy without the Greatest Hits packaging. I didn't need it anymore; I was done with the game.
Many years later, Final Fantasy XV was released. I read reviews that said it was a different kind of game with more direct input. I received a copy of it as a gift. It didn't immediately gel with me, but I caught on to it within a year and ended up love the game. The boys, the world, the look, the style, the music, all of it. I played it like a character action game. It was a lot of fun.
After finishing Final Fantasy XV, I was ready to give the Final Fantasy series another go. I went back and played Final Fantasy XIII, which was bad, and Final Fantasy XII, which was okay. I didn't finish either of them. I'm looking forward to Final Fantasy XVI. In the meantime, Square Enix was working on Final Fantasy VII Remake.
Final Fantasy VII Remake is good and I'm writing this review because I finished it. Or, I should say, I finished this part of it; the remake is still incomplete. I've technically gotten further in Final Fantasy VII than I have in Final Fantasy VII Remake, but that's because they're releasing the remake in parts. With that breaking up of the game, they've also expanded what constitutes the part that they have remade. Stretching my memories, I could not describe exactly what has been added (with one major exception) to the game but I know that it is more Final Fantasy VII than Final Fantasy VII.
Final Fantasy VII Remake gets a lot right. It introduces more direct control in line with Final Fantasy XV, which I appreciated, while still allowing me to switch between party members and directly control their actions mid-combat. I found myself playing it like Final Fantasy XV, in which I mostly controlled Cloud and let everyone else just do their thing, and that was a mistake. The game wanted me to use every character in combat and it encourages this with the weapon proficiency system.
Each weapon comes with a special ability. If you use that ability in combat enough times, that character becomes proficient with it and you can use that ability with any weapon. The trick to this is that abilities require ATB, ATB builds faster with the character you control, and just playing Cloud all the time will never get you enough proficiency to get all of the weapon abilities, which are useful. I was making the game much harder for myself by playing it like Final Fantasy XV.
What I did not love about Final Fantasy VII Remake was the pacing. Across 18 chapters, the last third of the game feels like a real slog. The last two chapters are a combination of the game's largest dungeon and a gauntlet of boss fights. This, combined with several other sections of the game that drag on, make it feel padded. Sometimes it feels like they're fleshing out the city of Midgar and the people who live there, but more often it feels like they're putting stuff in to take up time so that this remake takes longer to complete than the original because they had no intention on doing this all in one game.
In completing Final Fantasy VII Remake, I have not done anything that I haven't already done in Final Fantasy VII, except it took much longer for me to make the same amount of narrative progress. I've gotten further in less time in the original game than the remake will allow. I still feel some sense of accomplishment in reaching the end of the remake. I haven't yet slain the Final Fantasy VII dragon, but I reached the end of this segment of the game. This gives me hope that will reach the end of the next segment of the game, and could see it to its conclusion. Maybe, if I revisit the original, I could reach the end of that game too.
Assassin's Creed Valhalla is too long.
I started playing this game two years ago. I sank 65 hours into it and got something like 2/3rds into it. I might've gone further but I was tired of playing it. A patch introduced severe performance problems and I stopped. I had played enough Valhalla.
With recent talk of a new Assassin's Creed, I decided to check back in with Valhalla. To no surprise, the performance problems were sorted out and the game ran great again. 30 hours later, I saw the ending, probably.
I say probably because the ending is so inconclusive that I can only assume from context clues that I've finished the game. I completed the main quest. I completed the major side quests. I fought a boss and watched some cutscenes. Credits never rolled and I definitely was not satisfied by how it ended, but I got as close as one can get without completing every single activity.
There are a lot of activities, which pad out an already lengthy game. Stuff to collect everywhere. Common people to aid everywhere. It's not the icon-packed map of Unity, but it's almost worse in that there is a ton to do, and lots of space between spots on the map to travel between them.
While I like the core gameplay of Valhalla, as I've liked Origins and Odyssey before it, this one went too far, ends too poorly, and suffers from the same problems as those two previous games. It's fun and beautiful but it's too much to a weak ending.
Two of my favorite games in the space dogfighting genre are Freespace 2 and Colony Wars. These games aren't on opposite sides of the genre, but they represent two approaches to the genre. Freespace 2 is the PC keyboard full of controls and systems. There is a large array of pilotable ships and weapons to equip them with. There are multiple ways to toggle targeting and what is being targeted on each ship. It's complex and rewarding. Colony Wars, a console game, has simpler targeting, fewer weapons and ships, but a emphasis on using the right weapon for the right target. You've got to wear down enemy shields with one weapon, and damage the hull with another. Chorus lands in the Colony Wars end of this spectrum, with some twists.
What Chorus brings to the genre is an open-world style of gameplay, and special abilities. Once I got out of the (slightly boring) tutorial, the map opened up and I was free to explore a big area of space with lots of little stories. Chorus isn't the first to do this, but other games in this genre with an open-world are closer to Privateer and Freelancer, where trade is part of the equation too. Chorus has no trade, except the accrual of credits and spending them on weapons.
The special abilities also make Chorus stand out. The first is sort of radar that highlights objectives, enemies, items to collect, etc. Again, starting a little boring. But the second is a teleport that puts you behind the enemy you're facing. These abilities only get more powerful from here, and it's how this game makes it possible for one ship to take out dozens. In Chorus, I was rarely supported by allies. It was me versus the cult, and the cult always had me outnumbered.
I liked Chorus a lot. Despite the limited ship selection and arsenal, it delivered some really intense and varied action with the special abilities. The open-world gave me things to explore and find outside of the relatively straight forward main quest. It left the door open for a sequel, and I'd welcome it.
I've played a lot of simulator video games lately. I'm not talking about your traditional sims, like Sim City or Flight Sim. No, I'm talking about what I've classed as "drudgery simulators". I call them this because they make a menial, repetitive task into their core gameplay. Here's a few of the ones I've played recently, roughly ranked from worst to best.
What it says on the tin. I rode around on a mower, mowing virtual grass in virtual lawns. When I wasn't at 100% complete, I walked around with a weed-whacker and finished off the job. I had grass vision which highlighted uncut grass. Lawn Mower Simulator is about as enjoyable as actual lawn mowing. Your shoes won't turn green but you don't get the smell of fresh cut grass either. Not really my kind of boring.
Putting this on the "worst" end of this scale might ruffle some feathers, but it's just driving a truck on roads I could drive in real life. I see more appeal in Euro Truck Sim because those aren't places I could see with road markings I don't recognize. I've driven from Illinois to Washington. I've driven for 16 hours. I've even driven a big truck. This isn't very fun for me. It's a safe zone out game but too real.
Power Wash Simulator
Now we're starting to get into the "hours of my life lost" area. It's not much more than what it describes. I used a power washer to blast virtual dirt off of virtual buildings. The first time I played this, I made myself a little motion sick from bouncing my view up and down blasting dirt. There's really not much progression here either. I bought more powerful washers and nozzles that let me reach further, but I was still blasting dirt. It's a bit more satisfying than Lawn Mower Simulator because the results of my work were more obvious, but it's purely repetitive.
Gas Station Simulator
Where the previous games were almost entirely repetitive, Gas Station Simulator is a juggling act. Yes, the focus is on pumping gas and I pumped gas. But there's a convenience store, where I stocked shelves and swept and scanned items. I scooped mounds of sand and cleared out trash on my lot as my business expanded. I got a service garage and replaced tires, side view mirrors, and fixed scratches. I chased off an annoying child by throwing things at him, and watched him vandalize my store when I had no trash to throw because it was too clean. I had a lot of fun playing this because there was a lot of shallow little tasks to do. I only stopped playing because its performance is terribly uneven. The game runs fine for a while and then, for some reason, completely plummets into single digit framerate. This is pretty close to legitimate fun.
Yes, I wrote a whole review for this, but it's deep in the same vein as the rest of them. This is probably my GOTY. I had a lot of fun cutting up those space ships and learning how to cut them up faster and more efficiently. While ships follow a particular pattern, they're all different and I learned how to be a better shipbreaker with each ship I dismantled. It's the best kind of repetitive task: the kind that teaches me a skill that I can't use in the real world.
Getting Dumber
I'm probably going to ditch my fitness tracker within the next six months. Maybe this is a 40 thing, but I've been examining why I use "smart" things I do and if they're worth it. I was super early on Amazon Echo, pre-ordering the first model, and we ditched it a couple years ago. We were using it for a kitchen timer and a music speaker and nothing else, but it was listening to everything we said. That's sort of an awful trade.
Lately, I've been thinking about my Fitbit. It's annoying. I wear it all the time, but I have to charge it twice, three times a week. It always starts doing something I don't want it to when I shower. If I run in sleeves, the sleeves cause it to stop tracking my run and do all kinds of things that aren't tracking my run. I've been putting up with these minor annoyances for quite a while, and now I'm asking myself why. Let's run down why I started using it to begin with, and see if those reasons are valid.
The reason I got any non-dumb watch was to track my runs with a GPS. Several years ago, I wanted to know how far I was going, how long it took me to get there, and what my heart rate was. I was a less experienced runner, and I thought these things would help me train. And they did. But nowadays, if I run, I know where I'm going and I have other tools to map distance. I could know how long it took without a GPS. And the heart rate is nothing I really use. I'd lose some interesting stats like number of steps and elevation and whatnot, but that's not really helpful. I don't need to wear a fitness tracker every day to track runs anyway. I could do that with a running watch, or just my phone.
The next use was tracking my steps. This is something I started doing after I got my first running watch, but not the reason I got one. Tracking my steps helped me stay active in that first year of the pandemic, and it helped me start losing weight. Today, if I don't hit my step goal, I don't really care. I know I'm going to have days where I'm more active and days when I'm less active. Missing my step goal isn't the end of my world, and I make no effort to hit it. I could replace this with some sort of exercise calendar.
I've used my Fitbit to check out my daily fitness stats, like heart rate and sleep and stress. These are all useless. Looking at them has done literally nothing for me. I look at this stuff maybe once a month. I don't really need this.
Now that I type this all out, I can say that I need to know what time it is, and I'd like to be able to track my runs, and that's about it. Both of these things could be done with my phone, and both could be done with a running watch that I don't wear and charge and wash and sleep with everyday. I thought I'd enjoy some of the social aspects of having friends on Fitbit but that never coalesced. I can stop feeding all my daily PHI to Google.


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Detroit Tigers: Exploring Nicholas Castellanos Trade Scenarios
By Andy Patton
TORONTO, ON - JULY 1: Nicholas Castellanos #9 of the Detroit Tigers hits a grand slam home run in the fifth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on July 1, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
TORONTO, ON – JULY 1: Nicholas Castellanos #9 of the Detroit Tigers hits a grand slam home run in the fifth inning during MLB game action against the Toronto Blue Jays at Rogers Centre on July 1, 2018 in Toronto, Canada. (Photo by Tom Szczerbowski/Getty Images) /
The Detroit Tigers are in rebuilding mode, and many of their most valuable players will be on the trade block, including right fielder Nicholas Castellanos.
With Detroit Tigers' General Manager Al Avila admitting that basically everyone is on the block, it's time to talk about Nicholas Castellanos. Castellanos has been Detroit's best player this season, putting together an All-Star caliber campaign. He is slashing a blistering .305/.359/.517 with 15 home runs. His 48.8% hard hit rate is once again among the league leaders.
Additionally, his defense, while still not good, is improving in right field. He has a UZR/150 of -9.5 in nearly 800 innings this season, compared to a -53.5(!) last season.
Castellanos is a borderline superstar, and is under team control through 2019. The Tigers and Castellanos discussed an extension before this season began, but were not able to come to an agreement. While Castellanos has said he wants to stay in Detroit long-term, the Tigers need to consider all options with their burgeoning star.
That could include dealing him this season, while his value is at an all-time high. Teams would need to be prepared to surrender quite a bit in prospect capital to acquire Castellanos, as he is an all-star caliber player on a cheap contract who is under control for another year.
That, coupled with a limited market for outfielders and a plethora of other options (Adam Jones, Shin-Soo Choo, Corey Dickerson, etc.) will likely keep Castellanos in the Motor City.
However, what's July without some speculation? If the Tigers do decide to move Castellanos, here are a few teams who could show interest and what a potential return could look like.
(Note: The Indians are probably the most outfield needy team that is buying, but Castellanos to the Indians is flat-out not going to happen, so I didn't write it up)


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Q: Making @username point to user's profile We use @username in comments and other places to refer to others here on stack exchange communities , so I guess  it would be good if @username automatically points to the profile to user 'username'.

A: It might be nice, but if i want to ping @Joe in this post, which one of the 66 Joes on MSE will it link to? Because usernames aren't unique, the system can't know who to link to. You'll just have to do it manually.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange