text:
A small, good thing
Tessa June 23, 2019 July 12, 2019 Uncategorized
Bella Burgess does more than her fair share for the environment. She was born a vegetarian, has never lived in a household without a compost and has just gone back to university to refocus her career on ecology. But there's one thing she's doing that will have more impact than all of it — she's decided not to have children.
Bella, 32, reckons she's always felt having children was not for her. She was brought up in an environmentally-conscious family, and has long known that one of the world's biggest issues was overpopulation.
So she's opted not to add to it.
"Every extra person on this planet uses resources and has an impact and people are vastly overpopulating the world, and the only ethical way to reduce the world population is to not have children."
Bella is one of a growing number of young women who are deciding not to have children, in large part because of climate change and other environmental issues.
The world's population has doubled from 3.6 billion to 7.5 billion in the last 50 years, and while the population growth rate is slowing, it's predicted to reach 9.8 billion by 2050.
As David Attenborough put it in a 2017 talk, every one of those people need space — for their homes, to grow food, to build schools and roads and airfields.
Bella agrees.
"Even if you raise a child in the best, most environmentally responsible way, it's still a person putting a burden on the resources of the world and it's not needed."
It's a fairly straightforward decision for Bella and, to her, a humane action.
"The future of the planet is pretty uncertain. You're talking about [having a child] who might live until 80, bringing them into a potentially disastrous world, which has been created through the actions of our generations and earlier. It seems like a really unfair thing to do to someone — it's like choosing to have a baby into a war."
People can feel confronted by Bella's decision not to have children.
Despite her matter-of-fact approach to the issue of children, Bella says it still feels taboo to talk about it, and family and friends squirm a little when she says she doesn't want children.
"A lot of people try to change the subject, or look like I've said something that is almost frightening. People feel quite scared.
"I'm not someone who goes around telling off pregnant women, that would be an awful thing to do.
"But now I'm in my thirties, people take me a little more seriously and it confronts them a little bit more."
That includes her parents, who nurtured her "deep environmentalism" and brought her up to understand that her actions have an impact.
"My parents always thought I would change my mind. They thought it was a phase. It's only now, when I guess they think biology should be kicking in, that they finally have started taking me seriously and now know it was something I had been intending the entire time.
"For them there's been a little bit of grief, they want to be grandparents — though my brother and sister are there — they find it quite sad."
Bella says people's reactions may be due to the conflation of the intense emotions around people who are unable to have children despite wanting to, and those who have chosen to not have children.
"Which is surprising to me, because it's not a sad thing — my life is enriched and I have lots of friends with children and I love them, but I feel very fulfilled in my life and I don't think it's a loss at all."
Bella Burgess says the decision to not have children was an easy one for her.
Bella's partner is on the same page about not having children, so it hasn't been an issue her relationship either.
Talking to her peers about it, Bella says she's been surprised by how little some of them have thought about the fact that they have an option to not have kids.
"They find it quite an astonishing concept to deliberately not have children rather than accidentally."
A study published in 2017 found that the four actions most substantially decrease an individual's carbon footprint were: eating a plant-based diet, avoiding air travel, living car-free, and having smaller families. Yet the study also found government and schools weren't promoting these actions as an effective way to reduce impact on the environment.
For Bella is just makes sense to do the thing that has the most impact, and as from a person in a developed nation she feels we perhaps have more of a responsibility to reduce the size of our families than those in developing – often more populous – countries.
"It's more important for people in developed nations to not have children, because our lifestyles are the ones that have the heaviest impact. One child in a developed country creates a vast amount more waste than a child in a developing country.
"The average impact of a person living in India, as an example, is a blip compared to someone living in New Zealand or Australia. It's not necessarily a choice, it's that our society has greater environmental cost to it than a developing country."
New Zealand's carbon footprint is a small fraction of that of bigger nations like the United States and China, but that's not the whole story.
Per capita, New Zealand is in the top 25 greenhouse polluters in the world, ranking above Russia, Japan and the UK to name a few. Boiled down to just the OECD countries, we're in the top five.
Bella's right — a person born in New Zealand is responsible for about 17 metric tonnes of CO2 a year, but a person born in India is responsible for about 2.5. The footprint is in the society we've built for ourselves — the way we live, work, vote, travel, eat, and buy.
Asked if individual actions really make a difference, given the scale of the issues, Bella says it doesn't really matter.
"You should always take the opportunity to do a good thing. And if you have the opportunity to do a small good thing, you may as well fucking do it. Even if it doesn't have a massive impact, it's still a good thing you've done."
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Anarchy Online is a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) published and developed by Norwegian video game development company Funcom. Released in June 2001, the game was the first in the genre to include a science-fiction setting, dynamic quests, instancing, free trials, and in-game advertising. The game's ongoing storyline revolves around the fictional desert planet "Rubi-Ka", the source of a valuable mineral known as "Notum".  Players assume the role of a new colonist to Rubi-Ka.  With no specific objective to win Anarchy Online, the player advances the game through the improvement of a character's skills over time. After  more than 20 years, Anarchy Online has become one of the oldest surviving games in the genre.

Plot
Fighting for military and political power on Rubi-Ka are the Omni-Tek corporation (owners of the planet's one thousand-year lease), the separatist clans, terrorist groups, extraterrestrial life, and ancient civilizations. The narrative was developed to be played out as a series of virtual "role-play" events over the course of four years, influenced by the actions of those taking part in the game.

According to the game's back story, the "Source" of all life deep inside the planet created the first forms of life, who called themselves the Xan. They began as a small, perfect, immortal civilization, living in peace and harmony. The Xans' eventual discovery and research of the Source's power lead them to create powerful technology. They built a great civilization, but this made them greedy and arrogant. Two factions formed within the Xan, calling themselves the Redeemed and the Unredeemed. These groups fought over how best to use the Source — now strained and unstable from their tampering. They tried in vain to fix the problem, but discovered it was too late - the Source would soon destroy the planet. Rubi-Ka was ripped apart in a cataclysm, leaving it a barren rock. The Source, and small fragments of the Xans' dead civilization, were thrown into another dimension known as the Shadowlands. The survivors left in search of other habitable planets, where they planted versions of their species; they hoped that one would prosper and eventually return to Rubi-Ka. Earth was one of their destinations.

In the year 28,708 AD, a mining survey ship from the mega-corporation Omni-Tek rediscovered Rubi-Ka. The Interstellar Confederation of Corporations (ICC)  granted Omni-Tek a one thousand-year lease on the planet shortly after. It was a seemingly useless, arid landscape far from civilization, until the discovery of the mineral Notum, unique to Rubi-Ka. Research of Notum and its properties led to major leaps forward in nanotechnology, making possible the creation of powerful new technology, as well as the resurrection of the dead. After terraforming a portion of Rubi-Ka and constructing several cities, outposts, and transportation infrastructure, the company began importing colonists under contract as miners and other professions.

The first five hundred years of Omni-Tek's control of Rubi-Ka were marked with an exemplary worker treatment record. However, as time passed, their policies degraded. Their scientists' tinkering with the mutating effects of Notum on the colonists in a quest for efficiency lead to large numbers of failed experiments. Survivors of these experiments became the game's four playable races, or Breeds, each designed by Omni-Tek to specialize in a type of work. Together with the original "Solitus" race, the genetically engineered Herculean "Atrox," the intelligent "Nanomages," and the nimble "Opifexes," they continued their labor in the midst of an increasingly hostile and totalitarian culture. This caused a significant number of workers to rebel, and begin to trade stolen Notum to a rival corporation. These rebel groups, collectively calling themselves the Clans, fought a series of wars with Omni-Tek over the next several centuries.

Player point of view
Anarchy Onlines story, from the player's point of view, began in 29,475, after the most recent peace treaty had been signed between Omni-Tek and the Clans. ICC peacekeeping troops later moved into some cities to protect neutral observers of the war who had rejected their contractual obligations with Omni-Tek, but did not align themselves with the Clans. Omni-Tek, the Clans, and the neutral observers make up the game's three playable factions and control much of Rubi-Ka's terraformed surface.

After scientists opened a portal to the Shadowlands, players found the Source, killing the guardian the Xan had left there to protect it. This prompted an alien race known as the Kyr'ozch to begin attacking Rubi-Ka. The story's current plots revolve around the fight by all sides for control of the planet.

Gameplay

Players assume the roles of new colonists to Rubi-Ka or the Shadowlands. The game world is occupied by human players and computer-controlled characters, both friendly and hostile. The game begins with the player creating a unique character, choosing its name, gender, height, weight, and facial features. Each character is also one of the four humanoid "breeds". The final choice is that of the character's profession, similar to the character classes of other role-playing games.

The game's multiplayer nature and "free-form" gameplay encourage creating personal networks, and cooperating and fighting with other players. Players interact with Anarchy Onlines interface via a keyboard and mouse. The game's heads-up display consists of a series of windows, menus and buttons located on the periphery of the screen. Players communicate with each other by typing text in chat windows, and occasionally through emotive character animations. Communication with computer-controlled characters is executed via text windows, in which players chose from a menu of possible responses to the conversation being shown. Like most role playing games, Anarchy Online provides structure for role-playing events. Most major cities include night clubs and other venues specifically for this. Events are organized either by players, or officially by Funcom staff.

Groups of players, large or small, are often required to complete objectives. In addition to forming teams and informal chat groups, joining a player organization is encouraged. These are, like guilds in similar games, officially recognized groups bound together for technical and social benefits. Organizations are able to build their own cities across the game world, control areas of land, run player markets, and access other special content.Getting Started on Rubi-ka pg. 72–75

Among the most distinct gameplay elements of Anarchy Online are dynamic missions. Missions, or quests, are a traditional gameplay element in the role playing genre. The player or team is given a set of tasks—usually related to the story—to complete somewhere in the game world; in return, they are rewarded with experience points, items, and money. Dynamic missions are similar to traditional missions in purpose, but are created at the player's request. Once they choose its difficulty and other options, the game generates a new indoor area filled with computer-controlled enemies. The player or team are told to go to its location, and finish some task inside for their reward. Dynamic missions, like many other encounters in Anarchy Online, are "instanced": each mission area is available only to the owners of the mission.

Skill system
Much of what characters can do, and how well they do it, is determined by the game's eighty-three distinct character skills. A skill is a numerical representation of a character's proficiency in an area of skill, starting at zero. As players kill computer-controlled enemies, they gain experience points for their character. After gaining enough points, the character levels up. The current maximum level is 220. At each new level, the character is given some "skill points", which are used to increase any combination of the eighty-three skills that they choose.

Any character can access and increase any skill. The character's profession, however, provides unique resources — "perks", "alien perks", "research", and "nano programs"—that increase specific skill further. This makes each profession more adept at elements of gameplay than others. Doctors, for instance, can increase skills related to healing much higher than a Soldier because of these additional resources. Perks are chosen from a menu when the character reaches certain levels. Alien perks are gained when the player kills enough of a specific type of alien enemy. Research is gained by diverting a percentage of earned experience points toward personal or faction-specific research projects, instead of new levels. Nano programs give temporary increases to certain skills.

Combat
After targeting another character and initiating combat, the player and his opponent will damage each other automatically with their weapons. This continues until the player stops or the target is dead. Each profession's unique nano programs, perks and research also provide combat abilities used by the player during the fight. These can heal the owner, cause additional damage, lower the skills of the enemy, blind them or otherwise hinder the enemy's ability to fight. Once the target is dead, the player is able to loot money and items from the enemy's body.
After death, the character's skills are reduced for several minutes, making them much less powerful in combat during that period.

Combat between two or more human players, known as "player vs player", or "PvP" is encouraged by both the reward of special equipment, and the social nature of the game. Killing other players also rewards characters with a "PvP ranking", permanently shown beside the player's name, which represent how many other human players they have killed. Player versus player combat is controlled by the percentage of "suppression gas" in the area that dictates whether a player can start combat unprovoked with another player. Generally, this percentage approaches 100% in major cities, providing safe havens, and decreases while moving to more remote areas.

Combat was updated with the release of the Battlestation expansion. This allowed for a pure PvP environment where Clan and Omni could square off in a spacestation arena (Neutrals could join any side; much later, due to a declining playerbase, clans and omni were allowed to join teams side by side.) Battlestation points were scored by capturing "capping" up to four locations, one in the middle and three down long corridors; teleporters shortened the distance between the corridor ends. Battlestation allowed for much higher team and individual kill scores; the highest scoring team kill player of all time was Ndonaden (a doctor class Omni).

History

Development
Preliminary development for Anarchy Online began in 1995 at Funcom's Oslo, Norway studios. Up until that point, the company had only developed offline video games for consoles, including the critically successful Speed Punks for the PlayStation. In a 2007 interview, former project leader Gaute Godager said Funcom's management wanted to put substantial resources into developing a new MMORPG; they believed the genre's user base would expand in the coming years. Unlike most other games in the genre, which had traditional role-playing fantasy themes, Anarchy Online featured a science-fiction theme. The game would also feature a relatively large playable area, and graphics that were, at the time, more advanced than existing MMORPGs. Godager said he and many other developers saw the idea as "crazy", describing the project as "very ambitious". The project's team grew steadily between 1995 and 2001 to include at least 70 developers.

In a 2001 interview, gameworld designer Morten Byom said that the process of creating Rubi-Ka's virtual world had "taken more time and effort than anyone imagined when we first started." The team took inspiration from a number of sources including science-fiction books, movies, architecture in Oslo, and other games in the genre. They stated one of the biggest challenges as finding ways to encourage players to use the entire game world as they play, not to "gather in one corner". Byom said he wanted to give the world as much detail as possible to make the game "convincing" to the player.

Composers Morten Sørlie, Tor Linløkken, and Bjørn Arve Lagim created the soundtrack and music of Anarchy Online.  Using a system they call "Sample-based Interactive Music", the game mixes numerous music samples to create dynamic music.  By starting, stopping, fading, and layering samples based on where the player is, and what they are doing, the game creates a continuous stream of background music. Bjørn Arve Lagim stated the music is inspired by the "traditional sound" of a film score, using both orchestral and electronic instruments. Longer full-length versions of some songs were later released on compact disc with a special edition of the game in 2002.

Anarchy Online was officially announced at the 2000 Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). GameSpot, and other online sites, published articles tracking the game's development over the next year. It made its second appearance at E3 in May 2001, one month before launch. Based on the beta version shown there, GameSpot stated they were "confident in the game's progress, given what we've seen". At the European Computer Trade Show in 2001 it was awarded Multiplayer Game of Show. A public beta test began two weeks before launch, during which 100,000 players downloaded and played pre-release versions of the game, helping the company find bugs and other technical problems with the software.

Release
Anarchy Online officially launched to the public on June 27, 2001 in the United States and Norway and on September 28 of the same year in the rest of Europe. In addition to being distributed as a retail box from physical and online stores, Anarchy Online was one of the first MMORPGs available via online digital distribution.

During its first month of release many stability, registration, and billing issues hurt public perception of the game. Some gaming reporters claimed it was the worst launch of an MMO in the history of the genre. Funcom spent about 6 months fixing the game, particularly the beginning experience.  The company then took the "fixed game" on a press tour to convince reporters to give it another try, even though reviews and scores had been printed months before. At the same time, the company needed to build subscribers, which was very difficult given the reputation of the game. Funcom introduced the first "free trial" of the game and gave out returned boxed copies for free at the 2002 Game Developer's Conference. Some gaming publications informed their readers of the improved game, although they did not change their original scores. By the end of that year, Anarchy Online had recovered from the launch woes and won the MMO of the Year award from PC Gamer. The company went on to create expansions, including the Shadowlands expansion in 2003 that earned several Editor's Choice awards.

Two months after its release in August 2001, Funcom began offering free trial subscriptions, now common practice for other games in the MMOG genre. New players were able to sign up for accounts that remained free for a limited number of days. This required them to supply some personal information, including a credit card number. After their trial period, players could either cancel their accounts, or keep them to continue playing the game at the cost of the monthly subscription fee.

Expansions
Periodic free updates are released as content patches on an average of three per month since the game's release. These fix bugs, and add relatively small amounts of new content. The patches are downloaded and installed automatically when players start the game software. Larger updates, called expansion packs and booster packs, are available for purchase to further extend the game, typically adding new playable areas, creatures, equipment, and story progression. Expansions tend to introduce large amounts of new content; boosters are considered "too large" for a patch, but "not large enough" to warrant a full expansion.

{| style="width:100%;" class="wikitable sortable"
|+ List of Anarchy Online expansion and booster packs
! style="width:120px;"| Title
! style="width:40px;"| Year
! style="width:70px;"| Type
! class="unsortable" | Notes
|-
| Notum Wars
| 2002
| booster
| Notum Wars was the game's first major content update in 2002. It introduced the land control areas which are now a central gameplay feature. It also added a new character creation system, flying vehicles, aesthetic improvements to the game world, and improvements to the game's rendering engine.
|-
| Shadowlands
| 2003
| expansion
| Shadowlands has been the largest expansion to date. Seven themed areas, and dozens of other new locations significantly added to the game's playable area. It raised the maximum character level from 200 to 220, and introduced the perk system. Also included were a new user interface, two new player professions, improvements to the game's rendering engine, new dynamic missions, and a "flood" of new items.
|-
| Alien Invasion
| 2004
| expansion
| Most of ''Alien Invasions content centered around player organizations. "City plots" were placed throughout Rubi-Ka which organizations can buy to erect custom cities. These cities give skill bonuses, access to unique equipment, access to new dynamic missions, and venues for role-play events. It also included a new starter area—which serves as a training ground for new characters—and new user interface. The perk system was extended with the introduction of "alien experience points".
|-
| Lost Eden| 2006
| expansion
| Lost Eden was the first expansion released after the original story had ended. It focused almost entirely on player versus player combat, although new dynamic missions were also included. The battle stations were introduced, and the pilotable vehicles for use on them and the land control areas. New weapons and armor affect skills useful against other players. It also introduced the research skill system.
|-
| Legacy of the Xan| 2009
| booster
| Legacy of the Xan focused on "end-game" content for existing players. It added new areas, equipment, and weapons for players whose characters have reached a high level.
|}

Free Play program

On December 15, 2004, Funcom replaced trial subscriptions with a business model supported by in-game advertising  called the "Free Play" program. Under this program, new players are allowed indefinite access to the full original game without supplying a credit card number. With the exception of the first booster pack Notum Wars, the offer does not include access to content added with expansion or booster packs. Free subscribers are shown advertisements provided by Massive Incorporated, a company that supplies in-game advertising. The ads appear on virtual billboards placed in high traffic areas of the game world. Paying customers have the option to replace these ads with ones for fictitious products related to the game.  Free subscribers may also purchase paid points to participate in micro-transactions and purchase in-game items that do not directly impact combat related gameplay.

The Free Play program was originally set to last one year, but its length has been extended every year since its creation. As of April 2020, the free to play program still exists. Former game director Craig Morrison stated in a 2008 interview that the program has "been a vital part of the success of the game."  In January 2008, Funcom rebranded their subscription model as a "tier subscription system", adding a third options for customers to access to the game. Customers can access the original game and Notum Wars booster pack for free via the Free Play program, pay the full monthly subscription fee for access to all expansion and booster packs, or pay a reduced monthly fee for access to only the Shadowlands expansion pack. The Shadowlands-only option was later removed.

Present
The "Free Play" program, started in 2004, allows new players indefinite access to the original game in return for viewing in-game advertisements. Vital to the game's continued operation, the program created 400,000 new subscriptions in its first ten months, and had generated US$1 million in advertising revenue by 2006.

Funcom announced in June 2007 that they would be updating the game's 3D rendering engine. While the current engine — Funcom's proprietary Dreamworld — had received incremental improvements with the Notum Wars booster in 2002 and Shadowlands expansion in 2003, the 2008 announcement stated it would be completely replaced with more modern software to "release the game fresh". Originally, a modified version of the open-source rendering engine OGRE was used. Funcom released a short video demonstrating an early version of its implementation, and stated it would be completed by the end of 2008. OGRE was dropped in May 2009 because it did not provide "the full featureset" they had anticipated. Current game director Colin Cragg stated Anarchy Onlines "small development team" could not afford the "growing [cost] estimates" involved in making the necessary modifications to it.

Funcom decided to instead use a recent version of the Dreamworld engine, the same version used for their 2008 MMORPG Age of Conan. This new engine features improved water rendering, particle effects, and character animation. It also includes incremental improvements to technologies already used in Anarchy Online, such as the dynamic weather system. No new release date has been announced, although periodic status updates are published in the game's official weekly development blog Friday With Means.

Also introduced in 2008, Funcom added micro-transactions to the game called paid points.  Paid points may be acquired through several ways.  First, players may purchase them outright via their account management page, which then becomes available to their characters in game.  Alternatively, players are also awarded bonus paid points based on number of months of subscription purchased.  These paid points may be used to purchase items that were given as pre-order bonuses such as a fully decor-able apartment in game, or newly created vehicles that are otherwise not available through in-game currency called credits.  All items available for purchase with paid points are strictly cosmetic in nature, with the exception of a Personal Scout Mech, a combat vehicle that was a pre-order bonus for the Lost Eden expansion.

In 2010, the player community became involved in development of the game, with community-created inventory icons and planet map being accepted into the official game.

A game engine upgrade was originally slated for release in 2013.  The new engine, also used for Age of Conan and The Secret World, was planned to be supported concurrently with the previous engine.

This new 'dreamworld' engine was successfully released to the public for use on the live servers on June 25, 2015. While the engine is still in a 'beta' state, it is available for use with the 'live' production servers.

Server mergers
For much of its existence, Anarchy Online featured two game servers for English-speaking players, Atlantean and Rimor, and one for German-speaking players, Die Neue Welt. In 2010, Die Neue Welt was brought offline with most of its player population distributed between the two English-speaking servers. In 2013, the two remaining English servers, Atlantean and Rimor merged to form a single unifying server to host remaining Anarchy Online players.

Music
Following an innovative concept for the release time, game's music was thought to stick interactively with ingame actions, taking many parameters into account (area, faction, activity, danger, time, etc.). To accomplish this, the various musical tracks of the game were divided into 1400 sound files of 5 to 10 seconds in order to adapt in realtime to any event.

Their musical composition was done before game release and then following various extensions by several musicians : first and mainly, composers Morten Sørlie, Tor Linløkken & Bjørn Arve Lagim on classic game and then its Shadowlands expansion ; a part of these works were released through 2 Compact Disc volumes in 2001  and 2004; then joined in composer Leon Willett for Lost Eden extension in 2006 and electro band Ayria in 2009 during the addition of the virtual club named "The Grind" accessible ingame from ICC.

All the music linked to the game, unreleased and animated series included, were gathered into a collection of 4 volumes of 56 tracks free to download (packed with all visuals to self-print CDs & booklets) through Steam  for AO's 16th birthday.

Reception

After the launch of Anarchy Online and the subsequent technical problems, Funcom issued a statement to reviewers asking them to "hold back on a full review until we have solved these problems." Some video game reviewers, such as Computer Games Magazine, published reviews anyway; others, such as GameSpy who described the game as "nearly unplayable", chose to wait one month before publishing a formal review. The troubled release has had a lasting effect on the game's reputation,  and is nearly always mentioned in the generally positive reviews of later expansion packs as a juxtaposition.

While Anarchy Onlines launch problems had a negative effect on initial critics, the game itself was generally reviewed favorably; it scored an average of 7.6 out of 10 from GameSpy, GameSpot, and IGN. GameSpy later described it as "a promising game with some big technical flaws." IGN called it a "brilliant, engaging, profound MMORPG," but added it came with "atrocious technical problems." PC Gamer magazine said that it "will be [...] the next great MMORPG," but that the game needed "some serious work" before it would reach its potential; they would award the game with Best Massively Multiplayer Game the next year.Computer Games Magazine described Anarchy Online as a "'science-fiction' Everquest"—EverQuest was a popular fantasy MMORPG at the time—in that it took the traditional fantasy elements of the genre and gave them "science-y sounding" words. They went on to praise the game's large, detailed game world, and its "evolutionary" user interface. GameSpy said the game's soundtrack was "grand, cinematic, and very appropriate" in their review. PC Gamer magazine said that the intricate skill system gave the game "incredible character depth".

The dynamic mission system was met with mixed reviews. PC Gamer called it a "brilliant" solution to camping — the practice of waiting for a computer - controlled character in the outdoor game world to appear so that it can be killed and items looted. Computer Games Magazine said that while the missions were a good idea in theory, they are "too simple and similar", claiming that this caused players to become bored and camp for items outside anyway. Visually, they called the missions "cramped, boxy, and generally unappealing," compared to the rest of the game.

The editors of PC Gamer US later named Anarchy Online the best massively multiplayer game of 2001. They wrote, "After AOs abysmal launch and well-deserved public drubbing, Funcom dedicated itself to fixing the game's myriad troubles[. ...] The result has been admirable".

The first booster pack Notum Wars was released in 2002; at that time, the first expansion pack Shadowlands had already been announced. Staci Krause of IGN noted the new character creation interface made the game's introduction to new players easier. The "land control" areas, one of the major additions in Notum Wars, were described by Krause as "not only interesting, but fun." She also said that the new additions to the game world, and improvements to the 3D rendering engine, "add to the sense that Rubi-Ka is a busy planet." Yahoo! criticized the land control areas as being complicated and expensive, and said that participation in battles was difficult for players not in an organization.

The Shadowlands expansion was the most critically acclaimed by far, winning several Editor's Choice Awards from IGN, CNet, GameSpot, GameSpy and others in 2003. Critics applauded the size and scope of it, such as Andrew Park of GameSpot who called it "absolutely enormous." Tom Chick of GameSpy praised the "distinctive and exotic" art direction of the new areas. Critics of Shadowlands noted that the expansion's design was too "fantasy oriented", as compared to the original game.Alien Invasion, released in 2004, did not receive the same abundance of praise as its predecessor, although most scores were above 7 out of 10. The new content it introduced, in critics' eyes, was not designed for new players. G4 TV wrote that it would be a "tough sell to new players", but added it "offer[s] existing players a solid reason to keep playing." GameSpy wrote that the expansion's new features, such as improved user interface and chat system, "make the game more enjoyable to play."

After twelve years, Anarchy Online has become one of the longest-running MMORPGs in operation. Publications who had reviewed the game's previous additions did not review the Lost Eden expansion in 2006, or the Legacy of The Xan booster in 2009. GamesRadar+'s Sarah Borger wrote of Lost Eden that the game's aging graphics and user interface "make the world hard to interact with," but she went on to acclaim the new player versus player content it added.

Sales and subscriptions
Five days after the game's launch, public relations director Marit Lund announced that "35,000 registered accounts" had been created.Funcom has periodically stated subscription totals in press releases and financial statements. The amounts represent subscriptions "to date", and it is not specified whether canceled subscriptions or limited trial accounts are included. In the United States, Anarchy Onlines sales reached 47,356 units by the first week of November 2001, a performance that GameSpot's Desslock described as "woeful". By 2002, the total number of subscriptions created since launch was stated as 150,000. After the release of the Shadowlands and Alien Invasion expansion packs, total subscriptions had risen to 700,000 in late 2004. Sales of the game, its expansion packs, and monthly customer subscriptions had generated US$28 million dollars by 2005.

The "free play" program, started in 2004, has had the most significant effect on subscriptions to date. "More than 400,000 new players" signed up for free subscriptions in the program's first ten months according to Funcom CEO Trond Arne Aas. The next year, the number of free subscriptions created, independent of paid subscriptions, was stated as one million. The income from the program—which had generated $1,000,000 by its second year—supplements revenue from paid accounts.

Funcom attributed "higher than expected" company profits in 2006 to Lost Eden'''s release in December of that year. Subscription revenue during this time was described as "steady" and "profitable". Subscription revenue remained "steady" for the next three years, until 2009 when they were described as "slowly declining". It was stated that close to two million subscriptions, both free and paid, had been created by July 2008.

Notes and references
General

Specific

External links

Official Anarchy Online website
Prophet Without Honor (Anarchy Online Book 1)

Funcom games
Science fiction video games
Science fiction massively multiplayer online role-playing games
Video games developed in Norway
Video games with expansion packs
Windows games
Windows-only games
Massively multiplayer online role-playing games
2001 video games
Persistent worlds
Multiplayer online games
Active massively multiplayer online games
Free-to-play video games

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


We have put together 6 fantastic organic garden ideas. A beautiful garden is a part of every dream house. While you may not have a huge garden with every plant in the world and a large pool or a fountain, it doesn't mean it can't add beauty to your home. However, traditional gardening products and methods involve heavy use of chemicals. It isn't healthy for you or the environment. That is the reason the world is moving towards organic gardening.
Organic gardening means gardening without any synthetic products. Everything produced in your organic garden will be free of any traces of toxins and chemicals. Organic alternatives are used instead of those harmful chemicals. Many define it as gardening incorporation with nature.
Since we have been relying on synthetic products for ages, organic gardening isn't as easy as it sounds. You have to plan everything very carefully. From the types of plants you choose to where you choose to plant them, every aspect plays a role in keeping your garden green.
If you are a beginner, you need to equip yourself with organic garden ideas that actually work. We are going to share 6 organic garden ideas that will help you keep your garden green and growing.
The soil is to a garden what blood is to our body. If soil condition isn't good enough, nothing good will grow out of it. We all know some chemicals treatments and fertilizers can artificially make it more fertile. These chemicals can seep into the food that grows on that soil. In the long run, these chemicals will harm the beneficial bacteria and microbes in the soil, leaving it useless.
While there are ways to improve your soil quality and condition organically, first you need to get the soil tested. The test results will give you a better idea of what your soil actually needs. The results provide a breakdown of nutrients in the soil along with the pH level and other specifics. Now you know what your soil really needs.
You can add organic manure, compost, leaves, and grass clippings to condition the soil according to its requirements. The more organic matter it contains, the more fertile the soil will be. Having great soil is probably one of the most important organic garden ideas.
Now you know your soil is naturally nutrient-rich and ready to be used; it is time to think about the plants you will grow on that soil. We all want the best fruits and the most beautiful flowers in our garden, but that isn't always possible. Climatic conditions of your region play an important role here. Every plant has different requirements. Some grow in dry, humid conditions while others require a lot of water and moisture. Some require too much sunlight, others grow better in the shade. You can get complete instructions on plants that grow well in your area from your local department of agriculture.
The safest bet is to go for native varieties as their seeds are easily available in the area. Look for organic seeds. You can also research plants that can grow in any condition. Herbs such as coriander and dill are among such options. Flowers such as sunflower, poppies, and morning glories are also resilient in most conditions.
If you happen to live in an area where most plants grow easily, you need to limit your choices. Too much diversity on one piece of land is never a good idea. So, plant only what you eat. For flowers, do not go for more than four types of flowers per season.
Too much of anything can be unhealthy. While all plants need water, it is important to know how much water each plant needs.
That said, you should also know that there is a right time to water your plants. Early morning works best for most plants. It is generally a cooler time, so the water loss due to evaporation is minimal. The afternoon sun will soak in all the moisture from the surface of the plants. If you water them in the evening, they will remain damp. This increases the risk of bacterial and fungal disease. Since organic gardening doesn't involve chemical treatments for such diseases, prevention is essentially the best cure.
Keep in mind that not all plants will need regular watering. Some just need it twice or thrice a week. Be sure to educate yourself about the watering needs of all the plants you have in your garden.
Where there are plants, there are weeds. We all know chemicals available in the market make it easier to manage weed problems, but organic solutions aren't ineffective either. Mulch is the best way to keep the weed away. It can be created from a multitude of things including paper, lawn clippings, straw wood chips. You can apply it to the soil to prevent excessive weed.
Mulch will prevent weed to an extent but won't eliminate it entirely. You will still have to take it out every now and then. The best way to go about it is to use your hands.
Be wary of mulch that is high in nitrogen. Not every plant needs too much nitrogen. If you are using mulch that is high in nitrogen, plant it near the plants that require more of it.
There are natural ways to keep pesticides away from your garden. Predators such as lizards, frogs, and even birds are nature's most powerful pesticides. Even some insects such as ladybugs are there to benefit your plants and crops. You can invite more of this beneficial insect by adding plants that attract them the most. Plants that have small blossoms are usually the most attractive ones for these insects.
You can also use nets, covers, and cages to keep pests away from the plants. Fruit cages are often used to cover the fruit-bearing plants from birds without keeping the birds off the property.
That said, let's not forget that there are commercially available organic pesticides that work just as effectively as the chemical-laden products used in traditional gardening. A company called Terramera is a fine example of a plant-based gardening product manufacturer trusted by organic gardeners around the world.
Lastly, let's not forget the importance of aesthetic aspects of gardening. Whether you are growing fruits and vegetable or herbs and flowers, you want a garden that is breathtakingly beautiful. You can make your organic garden ideas beautiful with with proper planning.
No matter what you plant, make sure there are at least three different colors of blossoms at any given time. Plant crops on raised beds and leave enough space between the beds to create a visible structure. For herbs, you can use beautiful hanging pots. Just place them closer to the kitchen window so that they are easily reachable. The hanging pots will also provide a great view of the garden from the inside of the house.
There you have it, 6 organic garden ideas to get your started. Hopefully it is not as difficult as you may have imagined. If maintained properly, it can look just as beautiful as any home garden. Spend some time on learning more about the plant you plan to grow and invest some money in the right organic products, that's the secret of growing a beautiful organic garden. We hope you have enjoyed this article on organic garden ideas.


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package com.ocdsoft.bacta.swg.precu.controller.game.object.command;

import com.ocdsoft.bacta.soe.controller.Command;
import com.ocdsoft.bacta.soe.connection.SoeUdpConnection;
import com.ocdsoft.bacta.swg.precu.message.player.BadgesResponseMessage;
import com.ocdsoft.bacta.swg.precu.object.tangible.TangibleObject;
import org.slf4j.Logger;
import org.slf4j.LoggerFactory;

@Command(id=0xca604b86)
public class RequestbadgesCommandController implements CommandController {

	private Logger logger = LoggerFactory.getLogger(getClass().getSimpleName());

	@Override
	public void handleCommand(SoeUdpConnection connection, TangibleObject invoker, TangibleObject target, String params) {

        BadgesResponseMessage responseMessage = new BadgesResponseMessage(invoker, target);
        client.sendMessage(responseMessage);

	}

}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


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Viet Lê
Visual Artist, Writer & Curator, Vietnam/US
Việt Lê is an artist, writer, and curator. Lê is an Assistant Professor in Visual Studies at California College of the Arts (San Francisco | Oakland). Lê received his M.F.A. from the University of California, Irvine, where he has also taught Studio Art and Visual Culture courses. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Southern California (Department of American Studies & Ethnicity). In Taipei, he was a postdoctoral fellow at Academia Sinica. His writing has been translated into Chinese, German, Khmer, and Vietnamese.
Viet Lê aimed to research and complete a series (photographic portraits and hybrid documentary music video) on the legacies of French Indochina, particularly Vietnamese immigrants living in Marseille. Vietnam was one of France's colonies, leading to large numbers of Vietnamese to settle in France, including Marseille and other metropolitan areas. The video art project consists of oral interviews with Vietnamese immigrants living in the Marseille area combined with an original music soundtrack and improvised choreography. The soundtrack pays homage to the hybrid Vietnamese and French songs that have been popular in Viet Nam and its diasporas since the 1930s onwards.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Effective communication informs and empowers people to respond appropriately to a crisis.The rapidly spreading outbreaks of avian influenza among wild and domestic birds and the rare but increasing cases of bird flu among people are alarming.If the H5N1 virus changes into a human strain, it would make it possible for person-to-person transmission and trigger a human flu pandemic. The world must prepare for such a pandemic.
People are becoming infected because they do not know how to protect themselves and how to avoid risky behaviour.The importance of public information support to induce behaviour change and reduce risks of ill-health in animals and humans is increasingly recognized in both national and international avian and human influenza programmes. WHO has issued guidelines for outbreak communication with a focus on public information and media relations.In addition, WHO, FAO and UNICEF have developed consensus on a key set of behavioural outcomes and measurement indicators to guide communication for behaviour change for preventing bird-to-bird, bird-to-animal, and bird to human transmission at community level.


We have prepared 5 tips for you to wear plaid shirt. Now buy your plaid shirt from MENSSHIRTSSHOP and combine it with men's jewelry.
It's always good to have at least a chess piece in the wardrobe, ranging from warm colors (pink, red, orange), cool (blue, green, purple) and neutral (less contrasting variations).
Print with print can overwhelm the look. When using Plaid Shirt, bet on more discreet accessories such as rings and leather bracelets .
Who has a style more stripped and laid back will have no problems in using Plaid Shirt open with a neutral color t-shirt underneath. White works as an open field to combine current and silver cord of different sizes, perfect for a more rock and roll.
Plaid Shirt tied at the waist is trend and can be exploited by those who like to keep up with the latest from the fashion (although this style is considered retro by have made success in the past). You can match it with a pair of jeans ripped (or hand), neutral color race, a cross necklace or a scapular modern to complete the look.
Enjoy that we live in a tropical country and invest in combination Plaid Shirt + shorts, but avoid heavy fabrics and warm, as the flannel, huh? Complement the look with chains, bracelets and rings, choosing the metal that makes your head. Remember, there are men's jewelry for all styles.
Now that you know all about Plaid Shirt and men's jewelry, separate the wardrobe items that you want to use today and put your hands in the look of the day.


COLUMBIA - Christmas weekend has arrived and stores are helping customers check items off their last-minute holiday lists. Many stores in Columbia extended their hours this weekend through Monday to accomodate customers.
Target: Sat. 8:00 a.m.-Midnight and Sun. 8:00 a.m.-11:00 p.m., Christmas Eve 7:00 a.m.-9:00 p.m.
Columbia Mall: Sat. 8:00 a.m.-10:00 p.m. and Sun. 10:00 a.m.-7:00 p.m., Christmas Eve 8:00 a.m.-6:00 p.m.
All the stores listed above are closed on Christmas day.


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Next up, PAX East 2019!
Home / Next up, PAX East 2019!
by Leith Caldwell | PAX Starport Delta | 0 Comments | 08 Dec 2018
We are super excited to announce that the Cloudfire Studios team will be bringing Starport Delta to PAX East 2019!
So, what's PAX?
PAX is a series of gaming conventions held in Seattle, Boston, Melbourne, Philadelphia, and San Antonio. Founded by Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik, authors of the popular web comic Penny Arcade, each PAX is a show dedicated to supporting and celebrating video and tabletop gaming.
Since PAX's inception, millions of attendees have enjoyed the expo floor halls filled with booths from major game publishers and independent developers, panels from video game industry insiders, game culture-inspired concerts, LAN parties, tabletop gaming, competitions and much more.
PAX East is held in Boston, and was established in 2010 after the original Seattle-based PAX (now PAX West) just kept growing and growing. The first PAX East drew tens of thousands of attendees in its inaugural year, so we're really looking forward to being a part of next year's event. With thousands of game players and games fans, creators, publishers and media, it will be an amazing opportunity to meet some like minds from all over the world and is sure to be a brilliant (if exhausting) experience.
We'll be there at booth 24090, so come by to say hi and play the game! We'd love to meet as many people as we can while we're there.
This past week has also been the first week of our closed alpha for Starport Delta, and it's been exciting starting that process and getting it out to players away from the hustle and bustle of conventions and group settings where we've been showcasing the game so far. We're distributing alpha builds through Steam (you can wishlist Starport Delta now!) and communications are being handled through Discord. You can sign up on the Cloudfire Studios home page if you'd like to apply to join our play-testing programme or keep up with our news via email.
The gaming community has been fairly abuzz over the last few weeks, with announcements from Steam indicating they would (slightly) lower their percentage cut from 30%, but only for extremely high earners on their platform (many millions of dollars). Needless to say, this upset a lot of the long tail of indie developers. There was also a large bug in update to the discovery algorithm in October which started to get a lot more press about its impact became more noticeable when there was a month's worth of stats for developers to look at. Again, it seems to be the indie developer crowd that's suffering. On the heels of this comes the altogether-completely-expected announcement from Epic that they are starting a digital storefront. After the success of Fortnite and their recent round of raising more than a billion dollars in capital, the competition is serious and is certainly welcome. To add to this, they also announced that the store cut will be only 12%, and that would include the Unreal license royalties if it's a UE4 game! This is going to be an interesting space to watch to see what kind of pressure this puts on Valve/Steam, as all the indies ask the same question: how do I get my game onto the Epic Store?
For more information follow Starport Delta on Facebook, Starport Delta Instagram, Cloudfire on Facebook, Cloudfire on Twitter and check the Starport Delta page here on the Cloudfire Studios website.


This is a placeholder page for Larry Hinson, which means this person is not currently on this site. We do suggest using the tools below to find Larry Hinson.
You are visiting the placeholder page for Larry Hinson. This page is here because someone used our placeholder utility to look for Larry Hinson. We created this page automatically in hopes Larry Hinson would find it. If you are not Larry Hinson, but are an alumni of Central Cabarrus High School, register on this site for free now.


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Shop > Producers > Bunker Hill Cheese
Bunker Hill Cheese Extra Hot Ghost Pepper Monterey Jack
Premium Extra Hot Cheese
Ghost Pepper
Scoville of 620,000!
"I Ain't Afraid of No Ghost!"
MORE DELICIOUS PRODUCTS FROM BUNKER HILL!
The Bhut Jolokia, also known as Ghost Chili Pepper is an interspecific hybrid chili pepper cultivated in Northeast India. It is a hybrid of Capsicum chinense and Capsicum frutescens. Just because it has the lowest Scoville rating of it's Bunker Hill "Extra Hot" siblings, doesn't mean you won't be reaching for the milk.
Perfect for that hardcore spice lover in your life.
Scoville rating of 620,000! Don't say we didn't warn you!
Bunker Hill Cheese
Our Grandfather, John (Hans) Dauwalder, trained as a master cheesemaker in Switzerland, and came to the United States in the 1920's to display his artisan talents in a growing cheese market. After several successful years at the Bunker Hill Cheese Co-op, John decided to return to his hometown in Switzerland to further his romance with Lili Mueller. The two fell in love and were married in 1933.
In 1948, John and Lili, together with their two children, Peter, our Father and Marguerite, our Aunt, sold the family farm in Switzerland to join John's Brother Crist in the United States. Crist had purchased Bunker Hill Cheese in 1935 and asked John to join him in building the family cheese business.
In 1962, our parents Peter and Nancy, who were married in 1955, acquired Bunker Hill Cheese. Today it is one of the premier cheese retailers east of the Mississippi River, and one of the most successful wholesale manufacturers serving clients throughout North America.
Our family business continues to be the primary outlet for the local farms in the region. The relationship between the farmers and the Dauwalder family is personal, and together we are committed to continuing on into the 21st century.
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WHOLESOME HAS SO MUCH MORE!
Bunker Hill Cheese Bermuda Onion
Local Cheese, European Craft
Small Batch, Local Ingredients
Bermuda Onion Flavor
Aged 60+ Days!


Do you have an embarrassing literary secret?
I could rarely get past the first two chapters.
Now that I'm older and revisiting some of the "greats," my experience of so-called modernism is different, but not entirely.
But my overall experience ended up being the same as it was when I read his novel The Sound and the Fury: there are passages of brilliance alongside passages that strike me as incoherent (or at least thoroughly confusing and impossible to follow). There are scenes that move me profoundly. But by the time I finish the book, I feel let down. Why did it end there and not a hundred pages earlier? Or a hundred pages later? I don't experience an integral whole. It's just like dipping in and out of a great man's mind — complete with liberal use (or illiberal use) of the dreaded N-word.
Am I still too immature for modernism?
If you think I'm missing the point, please feel free to say so.
Or if you have any of your own literary bugaboos, let us know.
I'll ask this question again tomorrow night at the Bookworm Hangout: bookworms.liberty.me at 8 PM ET every Wednesday. All are welcome.
For me, the key question would be: What was the theme(s) that Faulkner (and any great author) was trying to explore in his/her work? Once you answer that question, you can view the text through that lens to determine whether he or she succeeded in the endeavor.
My embarrassing secret: I tried so hard to read "Atlas Shrugged". I HATED it. I slogged through half the book and finally gave up. Everybody RAVES. I mean, the writing was wooden, the characters 2 dimensional, and I felt like I was being beaten over the head with a message I already got.
Actually, that's a very valid interpretation. Once you understand Rand's philosophy, you don't really need to continue reading her fiction.
I haven't tried Atlas Shrugged, but your description, Toni, perfectly matches my experience of The Fountain Head.
I once thought that creating a non-prescription sleep aide called "Dickens PM" could be a viable business plan. I might still think that.
I loved the Fountainhead. But I read it when I was about 15-16 and at peak teenage angst. It maps so perfectly onto the particular brand of 'I'm so misunderstood' that many creative people feel in their teenage years. I think this is what makes that book stand out. I tried to re-read it but now it strikes me as juvenile and 2-dimensional as others have said. But I will always respect it as an homage to creative integrity. For all her looniness, Rand really could make a strong story about integrity.
Atlas I never really liked. I did read it… but damn was it a chore. I will never understand the ravings about it. I flirted with Objectivism briefly but can't stand the stuff now.
The last time that happened was at the end of '93 by Victor Hugo about 6 years ago.
And now I can add another to my list of teary confessions. I just finished listening to a great audiobook version of Stranger in a Strange Land, one of my favorite novels by Robert A. Heinlein. I teared up at the end. I don't recall doing that on any previous reading. It could have been the art of the voice actor, but I suspect it's a novel that resonates differently at different ages.
Oh, I think I can top that, Zach!
I cried while reading Bridges of Madison County.
Harlan Ellison, whose stuff I used to love much more than I do now, talked about living one's live to be unblackmailable. I think this thread serves that purpose.
The last book that made me cry was "The Art of Racing in The Rain" by Garth Stein. And that was just the first chapter!
It got better. I love dogs and I love car racing so I totally loved the book. One of my personal all time favorites.
I posted a version of this confession to a Facebook announcement of the Bookworm Hangout, where Jeff Riggenbach replies re Light in August and "high modernism." Just FYI.
I have a B.A. in English. In several of my classes in college we were assigned "The Dead" by James Joyce. My professors and classmates raved over the story, but I did not understand what was so great about it.
I read Anthem by Ayn Rand in high school. My teacher suggested it for an essay contest. I never entered. I started writing but I did not enjoy the book. I wasn't a libertarian back then so it didn't resonate with me in any way.
My secret shame: I can't bring myself to read fiction. If I can concoct an allegorical meaning to the fiction, I can sort of force myself to read it by pretending the author is imparting factual information to me in a clever way.
Other than that, I just don't have anytime to read fiction anymore than I do to watch soap operas on television.
That is my terrible secret.
Sean, I read less and less fiction. What nonfiction do you read?
I have got into books about investing which started a long time ago with "the Zurich Axioms", "Investing for Dummies", and more recently books by Schiff, Casey, Rogers, etc.
Books by conservatives like Sowell and Paul.
Books about history have a special shelf. I read a lot of those.
OK, so now I want to know about your history shelf. I have one too, although mine is just a virtual shelf in my Kindle library.
History of the Ancient Ryedales- written by an ancient relative about the history of my family in the "new world" based on local records.
Albion's Seed- a history about separate cultural migrations from England to the eastern seaboard. Awesome.
Cracker Culture- a history of the importation of Scots-Irish people to the South.
Cracker: the Cracker Culture in Florida History- a truck stop guide to cracker food and old home-sites of the Deep South.
Just what I'm feeling tonight!
Sean, I think I sense a theme!
I may look into Albion's Seed. Tom Woods mentions it in his Politically Incorrect Guide to American History.
BK, I'm thrilled to hear that Tom Woods has mentioned <i>Albion's Seed</i> however I'm confused why it wouldn't be considered "PC".
I like history a lot but cultural and ethnographic studies are some of my favorites.
There are some confessions I know haven't made it to this thread. Apparently it's easier to confess some things in the Bookworm Hangout than it is to confess them here in The Book Scene.
I've read all the Harry Potter books!!!
My shame (see below) was similar, and I've read them all, too. Which one is your favorite?
While we wait to learn John's favorite Harry Potter novel, I'll say that I found each book better than the previous one. I enjoyed book 1, but by books 6 and 7, I was finding the story quite moving, sometimes even profound.
I have to agree with B.K. They got better and better.
I liked the newness of this fantasy world in the early books. The dread just built and built as the characters grew up. Really a well done story.
I was a huge Hobbit and Lord of the Rings fan when I was young so I was naturally drawn to these books even if they were for "kids".
Totally, once I saw Catching Fire the next day I read The Mockingjay. I have always been a fan of young adult fiction, but I try to choose those books wisely or else I will lose a week an a half to books in the genre. They are really engaging.
I'm 58 and I totally loved the Hunger Games series. Then for Christmas, my sister-in-law gave me 'Divergent', which I hadn't heard of before. I read it, and it was okay, but it seemed like a shallow imitation of HG. Not horrible, but way too predictable.
Oh, that's definitely accurate. I liked the idea of factions each being correlated with an overindulgence in one value and ignorant of the rest – in theory – but it wasn't well written and the plot development wasn't very impressive. It was actually written more like a screenplay would be than a novel. I never finished the series. I read part of the next book and hated it – and I usually finish fiction even when it's terrible.
Courtney, what are some titles? Does Hunger Games fit your description?
Of course! Hunger Games is probably the epitome of dystopian fiction right now. The correlation of the Capitol and the decline of the Roman Empire was intriguing to me, especially because I had been studying Roman history at the time I first read it.
The Matched trilogy was fairly interesting. It was more in the vein of Brave New World (one of my favorites!). It features children that grow up in a Society that destroys all culture except "approved culture" – so basically the only choice they have is 100 approved books, 100 songs, 100 films, and so on. It's the idea that if you remove choice completely people will riot, but if you give them just a few options they can be conformed to a mold. There's more to it, but though YA, a good read.
One of the first dystopians I read was when I was… oh, my, probably 9 years old – called the Shadow Children series by Margaret Peterson Haddix. It's a society where it's illegal to have more than 2 children, but many people do so in secret, and what it's like to be a child that isn't supposed to exist. Those books are a super easy read because they're basically chapter books, but they ask amazing questions about intrinsic rights and what it takes to make your voice heard.
Those kinds of books, that I can read easily and relax with while I'm working on other material that's harder to digest, are just fun.


Whilst attending SIHH 2018, Angus Davies spent time admiring the Urwerk UR-105 CT Streamliner, a contemporary timepiece infused with Art Deco influences.
This detailed review of the Urwerk UR-105 CT Streamliner includes live images, specification details and pricing.
Several of the watches made by Urwerk feature revolving satellites to impart the prevailing hour. However, despite this commonality, each timepiece exhibits its own unique appearance. This is perfectly illustrated with the new Urwerk UR-105 CT Streamliner, a watch which shares some DNA with its siblings while evincing an aesthetic all of its own.
In 1997, Martin Frei left his native Switzerland and moved to New York. Felix Baumgartner, another Swiss citizen, chose to fly to the 'Big Apple' and join his friend Martin. The dynamic duo would go on to establish Urwerk, a niche watch brand which is now regarded as an exemplar of horological ingenuity.
It was during their time in New York that the pair fell under the spell of Art Deco buildings and gleaming metal work. Some twenty years later, Felix and Martin drew upon their happy memories of New York and chose to design a timepiece which embraced bold geometric forms, mirror-like metalwork and the symmetrical lines popularised by the Chrysler Building.
Interestingly, the name of the Urwerk UR-105 CT includes the nomen, 'Streamliner'. Streamliner Moderne was a type of late Art Deco architectural design which appeared in the 1930s. It embraced curving forms, long horizontal lines, and, occasionally, nautical elements.
Holding the Urwerk UR-105 CT Streamliner in one's hands, it is clear to see the stylistic influences of this eye-catching timepiece.
Three satellites are located atop three, beryllium bronze 'Geneva crosses' which in turn sit upon an openworked aluminium carousel. Each satellite features four surfaces, each displaying a different hour. As the satellites rotate clockwise, they take their turn to revolve and reveal the prevailing hour, against a minute track.
This type of display has been used before, for example on the Urwerk UR-105 TA 'Clockwork Orange'. However, the display of the Urwerk UR-105 CT Streamliner appears very different. A hinged cover forms the upper surface of the watch. The cover can be opened by sliding a latch, allowing the movement underneath to be seen. When the cover is closed, it hides the movement and leaves just the current hour and minutes exposed. The result is that the display delivers the essentials of time and eschews the extraneous.
To the right of the dial sits a power-reserve indicator, where a soupçon of red indicates the movement is depleted of energy.
Positioned on the left hand side of the dial is a 'digital seconds' display which shows 10-second integers. I must confess I did find this display a tad difficult to read.
The case is formed of titanium and mirror-polished steel. Urwerk does offer an alternative option in titanium and PVD coated steel but the gleaming surfaces of the mirror-polished version uphold the Art Deco theme better.
As stated earlier, an openable cover adorns the upper surface of the case. It is this cover which is the focal point of the watch for much of the time. Its shiny surfaces are endowed with straight grooved lines, ingeniously replicating the aforementioned Art Deco forms.
The Urwerk measures 39.5mm x 53mm with a case thickness of 17.3mm. On the face of it, the Urwerk UR-105 CT Streamliner sounds large, however, owing to its near-rectangular footprint, it does not unduly burden the wrist.
I have previously had the good fortune to wear an Urwerk UR-210 for a number of weeks. Despite this watch being larger than the Urwerk UR-105 CT Streamliner, the UR-210 proved incredibly comfortable to wear. After enjoying a short period of association with the Urwerk UR-105 CT Streamliner I can report that the smaller watch matches the ergonomic prowess of the UR-210.
One reason for the elevated levels of wearer comfort relates to the positioning of the crown at 12 o'clock. It does not gouge or impinge on the free movement of the wrist. Indeed, its location seems eminently logical and should be adopted by more brands.
The calibre UR 5.03 is a self-winding movement, however, owing to this being an Urwerk timepiece, ingenuity is never far away. The watch employs two turbines which have the capacity to slow down the rotation of the rotor as required. When the wearer is engaged in vigorous activity, the rotation of a rotor can prove detrimental to the movement. A lever to the rear of the case allows the wearer to select 'FULL', 'RED' and 'STOP'.
'FULL' should be selected when the wearer is inactive. This allows the oscillating weight to freely rotate, energising the movement.
'RED' should be used when the wearer is engaged in more physical activity. The turbines create resistance, slowing down the rotation of the oscillating weight, mitigating potential wear and reducing the risk of damage.
'STOP' should be chosen when taking part in particularly vigorous exercise. In this mode, the oscillating weight is unable to rotate.
Beyond the avant-garde appearance of the movement, Urwerk has not abandoned traditional craftsmanship. Circular graining, sanding, brushing and chamfered screw heads all illustrate the brand's impressive standard of finish.
The frequency of the balance is 28,800 VpH and the movement contains 52 jewels.
There is always a sense of occasion when wearing an Urwerk watch. Revolving satellites fanfare the time with a flurry of style. The company's range of models embrace modernity and look quite different to any other watch on the market. Indeed, Urwerk could never be accused of plagiarism.
In my opinion, the Urwerk UR-105 CT Streamliner is the best iteration of the UR-105 series. It is contemporary yet incorporates Art Deco influences. Furthermore, despite the seemingly disparate design schools, the model's aesthetic appearance is cohesive.
Another aspect I find endearing is the hinged cover. Beyond its stylish prowess, it reminds me of an old Hunter pocket watch of yesteryear. A key attribute of the cover is that it hides the movement and frames the current time with a simple aperture. There are no distracting parts to hinder interpretation, the time is succinctly delivered, but should the wearer choose to inspect the carousel, Geneva crosses and satellites, they can slide the latch and sate their curiosity.
The Urwerk UR-105 CT Streamliner captures the pizzazz of New York and the Art Deco buildings which grace the city's grid-like avenues. This watch also showcases the creativity and watchmaking expertise of Martin Frei and Felix Baumgartner. Since their original trip to New York, Urwerk has grown in size and is now 20 years old. During this period, the Swiss pair have created many different watches, some with satellites and some without. The dynamic duo have shown an incredible capacity to surprise. It is with this in mind that I look forward to discovering more avant-garde creations in the future, especially those influenced by the travels of these two talented individuals.


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January 16, 2021 | 3 Shevat 5781
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Construction of new Kotel site may begin within one month, Sharansky says
Posted April 10, 2013 / Ben Sales, JTA
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Lesley Sachs, director of "Women of the Wall," is detained by police due to her wearing a "tallit" (prayer shawl) visible at morning prayers together with "WOW" at the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest site, in Jerusalem on April 11, 2013. (Miriam Alster/Flash90/JTA)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Natan Sharansky said the implementation of his plan to expand the non-Orthodox prayer site at the Western Wall could begin in as little as one month.
In an interview Thursday with JTA, Sharansky sounded cautiously optimistic about his proposal to create an egalitarian space equal in size to the current men's and women's sections combined.
The Jewish Agency for Israel chairman was charged last year with finding a solution to mounting tensions over women's prayer at the Western Wall.
After three months of consultations with a wide spectrum of Israeli and American Jewish leaders, Sharansky unveiled the proposal Tuesday in New York. Now back in Israel, he will present the plan to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
He hopes his solution — to improve an already existing egalitarian space in an archeological park known as Robinson's Arch — could be implemented within one to two months.
An illustration of Natan Sharansky's proposal, which will expanded the Western Wall and create a permanent egalitarian space in the Robinson's Arch area. (Photo: Creative Commons/Graphics by Uri Fintzy)
"This issue will keep haunting us all the time as long as there is no basic agreement," Sharansky told JTA in his Jerusalem office. "There must be an opportunity for every Jew in the world to pray at the Wall in the manner he or she wants without interfering with the prayers of others. I believe it is possible to reach a very broad consensus."
The plan calls for the Robinson's Arch area, currently excavated many feet below ground by archeologists, to be raised to the level of the current Western Wall plaza. The two sections would share an entrance.
Sharansky told JTA that the Mughrabi Bridge to the Temple Mount, which now separates Robinson's Arch from the main plaza, would remain intact.
Accommodating non-Orthodox groups while the plan advances remains a pressing question, and Sharansky was vague about how to address it. He said a permanent agreement would "decrease tension."
Tensions rose again on Thursday morning when five women were arrested by police for wearing prayer shawls at the Western Wall, which contravenes Israeli law requiring respect for "local custom" there.
According to a statement from Women of the Wall, an advocacy group that has pressed for women's equality at the Wall, a Jerusalem judge subsequently ruled that there were no grounds for the arrest and that women's prayer does not disturb public order.
Under Sharansky's plan, women would be allowed to wear prayer shawls at Robinson's Arch.
"In the absence of an agreement we'll have this morning every month, no doubt," Sharansky said.
Netanyahu must convene a forum to formally approve the plan before a "specialized group of professionals" conducts negotiations featuring the relevant parties, including the Western Wall's rabbi, Shmuel Rabinowitz, and Israeli Conservative and Reform leaders. After that, a timeline would be established for construction and an interim solution found for non-Orthodox worshipers. Only then will the space be dedicated and construction begin.
"Only one week ago, I was told [there was] no chance I'll get an agreement from different sides to discuss seriously this option," Sharansky said. "As you can see, all the sides expressed their reservations, but everyone understands that the dangers of not having a solution are much bigger."
Sharansky acknowledged that the plan could still face myriad hurdles. Even if the process goes smoothly, it could be derailed by archeological concerns at Robinson's Arch, opposition from the Waqf — the Muslim body that controls the Temple Mount — or a budget shortfall.
"There are so many bureaucratic obstacles and so many organizations that can destroy and undermine" the plan, Sharansky told JTA. "Tomorrow, we'll find out that archeological authorities have their problems and local authorities have their problem."
Sharansky said that "not one brick connected to Mughrabi will be touched and not one area under control of the Waqf will be challenged, but I can't decide for them what to do."
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"those who fail to wind down such activities with Iran by the end of the period will risk severe consequences" (US, White House 2018).
"Europe, Russia, China, international traders should stand up and challenge the American decision in the United Nations and in the WTO. We have to stand up against it. It's a question of principle. After World War II, we created a very positive empire of norms, and we should defend these norms and standards" (Tehran Times, 30 May 2018).
He also said that though it was "likely to result in a loss of economic benefits to Iran, the Europeans, Russia and China are likely to look for as many ways as possible of compensating for that economic loss" (Tehran Times, 28 May 2018). In a statement, Federica Mogherini, the EU's foreign policy chief, said that the 28-nation bloc would be united in preserving the international nuclear deal. She said that member states were closely coordinating their efforts "to protect the economic investments of European businesses that have legitimately invested and engaged in Iran" during the past three years since the nuclear deal was agreed (The National, 28 May 2018).
Yet, she considered the nuclear deal, in which Iran agreed to discontinue any nuclear weapons development in return for the easing of sanctions, "an important pillar we don't want to do without" (Deutsche Welle [DW] 9 May 2018). French President Macron said that he regretted the United State's decision to withdraw from the nuclear deal. Yet, he said, he would work towards a broader agreement that also encompassed Iran's ballistics programme and regional activities. Macron admitted that "the nuclear non-proliferation regime is at stake" after speaking with Trump (France 24, 8 May 2018).
Russia's Permanent Representative to the European Union Vladimir Chizhov said that the nuclear deal would stay in place, regardless of Trump's position, but there would be problems with its implementation. He said that whatever the White House might say, it would mean that there could be problems on a path of its implementation. But it in no way means it would be broken down.
"It is a multilateral document approved unanimously, including by the United States, at the United Nations Security Council in the corresponding resolution." "So, I am convinced that the rest five nations (Russia, China, the United Kingdom, France and Germany – TASS) will stay committed to this deal, and I hope Iran will stay committed to it too," he said (TASS, 8 May 2018).
"It might even be easier for us on the economic front, because we won't have any limits on economic cooperation with Iran. We would develop bilateral relations in all areas – energy, transport, high tech, medicine," he said. "If the United States breaks an international agreement backed by UN Security Council resolutions, it will be the United States that should suffer the consequences. Neither Iran nor China nor Russia nor the European states should lose out," Yermakov said (Ibid).
"India has always maintained that the Iranian nuclear issue should be resolved peacefully through dialogue and diplomacy by respecting Iran's right to peaceful uses of nuclear energy as also the international community's strong interest in the exclusively peaceful nature of Iran's nuclear program. All parties should engage constructively to address and resolve issues that have arisen with respect to the JCPOA" (India, MEA 2018a).
Later, India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj (image on the right) stated that India, a long-time importer of oil from Iran, only complies with United Nations-mandated sanctions and "not any country-specific sanctions." The press release of the MEA, after meeting of the Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif with the Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj noted that "all parties to the agreement should engage constructively for peaceful resolution of the issues" (India, MEA 2018b).


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Roger Skillings, former CEO, inducted into Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame
On May 3, 2021, the Board of the Greater Victoria Sports Hall of Fame announced its Class of 2021. Among the four inductees is former BC Games Society CEO and honourary Board Member, Roger Skillings.
BC Games & Team BC Alumni Honoured at Athlete of the Year Awards
Sport BC celebrated the 54th Annual Athlete of the Year Awards virtually on Thursday, March 25, 2021.The Athlete of the Year Awards recognize the province's best in amateur sport including athletes, coaches, teams, and officials for outstanding performances in their sport over the 2019 season. Each finalist was nominated by their Provincial or Multi-Sport Organization, High School, College, or University.
Buddy Check for Jesse
During the current COVID-19 pandemic, mental health awareness is more important than ever. The Pacific Institute for Sport Excellence (PISE) and viaSport have recently partnered with the Buddy Check for Jesse Society, a program bringing awareness to mental health in sport.
Members of the BC Games Family Win the Eric Whitehead Inspired Service Award
The BC Sports Hall of Fame held its 2020 Annual Summit virtually on Friday, September 18th, to celebrate the 125th Anniversary of curling in B.C. and to announce the winners of the Eric Whitehead Inspired Service Awards for 2020. Presented in partnership with the BC Sports Hall of Fame Foundation, these awards recognize inspired service in and to sport in B.C. and we are proud to say that all six of the recipients have been part of the BC Games family in roles such as Provincial Advisors, coaches, participants, officials, and sport partners.
Biennial Provincial Sport Organization meeting goes virtual!
On October 28, 2020, the BC Games Society met with its Provincial Sport Organization (PSO) and Disability Sport Organization (DSO) partners to discuss the Games and the important working relationship between organizations. All 36 organizations involved in the BC Winter and BC Summer Games were represented in the Society's first ever virtual sport organization meeting.
Judo BC's Jeremy Grant Awarded 2020 Presidents' Award
The BC Games Society would like to recognize the exceptional work of Jeremy Grant from Judo BC, this year's recipient of Sport BC's Presidents' Award for the BC Games Society. Although the ceremony was unfortunately cancelled this past March due to COVID-19, we would like to take this opportunity to honour Jeremy for his dedication to the sport of judo and his support of the BC Games.
2014 BC Winter Games (126)


Your server is associated with a custom profile that grants it full permission to your Amazon S3 bucket. Thus, any command issued through the AWS command line interface or through one of their SDK's will work automatically without the need to add a key pair to your environment.
If you require access to your bucket outside of the Healthcare Blocks environment, please create a support ticket, and we'll allocate a key pair you can use externally.
Files containing PHI should have their S3 object permissions set to "private" via the AWS SDK. If you need end users to be able to retrieve content directly from S3 (even if your application obfuscates the S3 object URL and does an internal redirect), your application should create a pre-signed token that automatically expires within 5 minutes. This prevents users from distributing a valid object URL externally. The AWS SDK (for each programming language) contains pre-signed S3 URL functionality - please refer to the respective documentation.
If you are storing any PHI in S3, you will need to set the server-side encryption option when using the AWS SDK in your application. Please refer to the documentation for the relevant AWS SDK.
New! On November 6, 2017, AWS rolled out a feature that enables the setting of a default encryption policy for a bucket. Healthcare Blocks has turned on this option for all buckets. If your bucket was created prior to mid-November 2017, any objects that require encryption should have used the AWS SDK to set an encryption flag. If you need to encrypt existing objects on a global scale, please create a help desk ticket.
S3 does not obfuscate object names, therefore it is important that you do not embed patient names, SSN, and other PHI identifiers in the file names of the objects saved to S3.
The "--sse" flag is important because it enables server-side encryption.
Also, note that you don't need to be in the same directory as the file, since the aws command works from any directory, e.g.


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Usually you would expect once you get in an auto accident that you simply have to file a claim to your insurance agent to handle issues such as damage to your vehicle or the one you hit, or to cover your medical costs. Sometimes it does go smoothly and you're reimbursed for the damage according to your policy; but there are situations where you may file a claim and be denied. Sometimes this may be an error on your part, and you just need to refile the claim correctly, or possibly consider updating your policy with better coverage. But other times you may need to fight a longer battle to auto insurance leesburg fl claim honored if the insurance company won't hear your side of the story.
There are any number of reasons your insurance company may deny your claim, but common ones according to AllLaw include not getting medical treatment right away, having a pre-existing condition, you were driving while intoxicated or are not listed on the car owner's policy, or medical records aren't backing your claim up. You should be careful if the other driver is at fault that you don't accidentally file an uninsured motorist claim if they are insured because in that case their insurance will be responsible for covering you. You also should make sure if your vehicle has damage that your deductible isn't too high, or that you have the correct collision insurance on it that will cover most of the cost. Also, don't fall behind or default on your payments because the insurance company has grounds to deny claims for that.
While sometimes it is on you for improperly filing a claim, there are times when the insurance company may deny your claim in bad faith when your case warrants honoring it. As Kiplinger points out, you should have the accident documented and have photos and details taken down, and in some cases an insurance app can allow you to upload them onto your claim filing. It's also worth noting that you should get the police accident report number, and then later meet with the appraiser at the auto body shop to get the right repair estimate, and then make sure the claim you file is within your policy amount. If you and your agent are still being denied any payment even though the insurance company is required to cover only part of the cost, you may need to contact the Florida Insurance Department. If you still believe the insurance company is acting in bad faith for either vehicle repair claims or medical claims, you may need to contact an attorney.
The best way to avoid running into insurance claim filing problems is to discuss clearly with your agent what you are purchasing in your policy and have all your questions answered as to how you're being covered. You should also have a reliable emergency contact to come help with your accident situation if you're injured from a crash and need help documenting the scene. But most importantly, any injuries however minor you think they are should always be checked out at a hospital immediately so that your insurer knows they were the direct result of the accident.


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#include "BaseMemoryLibInternal.h"

/**
  Fills a target buffer with zeros, and returns the target buffer.

  This function fills Length bytes of Buffer with zeros, and returns Buffer.
  If Length > 0 and Buffer is NULL, then ASSERT().
  If Length is greater than (MAX_ADDRESS ? Buffer + 1), then ASSERT().

  @param  Buffer      Pointer to the target buffer to fill with zeros.
  @param  Length      Number of bytes in Buffer to fill with zeros.

  @return Buffer.

**/
VOID *
EFIAPI
GlueZeroMem (
  OUT VOID  *Buffer,
  IN UINTN  Length
  )
{
  ASSERT (!(Buffer == NULL && Length > 0));
  ASSERT (Length <= (MAX_ADDRESS - (UINTN)Buffer + 1));
  return InternalMemZeroMem (Buffer, Length);
}


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Family caregivers make sacrifices in order to help their loved ones to lead a normal life, as independent as possible. The biggest problem, however, is when they need to take a longer break and go on vacation. Sometimes vacations can be even more stressful because they worry what is going on with their loved ones. This can lead to the development of caregiver anxiety and caregiver stress, but with these simple tips for caregivers during the holidays, it doesn't need to be that way.
If you are not spending time with your elderly during holidays, you must plan everything in advance. Talk to your loved one and agree on the seasons when you should take holidays. Consider the needs of the both and adjust everything.
Home care agencies are very common these days and there are usually several providers in everyone's neighborhood. They offer wide range of services and one of them is respite care. Consider this type of service and contact the agency in advance. Ask about the respite care and check what services it includes.
Using technology is one of the best tips for caregivers during the holidays. You can use it in numerous ways and not just talking via Skype. There are so many mobile apps that will make your life much easier. You can set up alarms when medications needs to be taken, use sensors to detect inactivity, use caregiver monitor, etc.
If your loved one needs full-time monitoring, and for some reason you don't want to use respite care services, then ask your family members if they can step in. Let them know about your holidays so they can check if they are available at the time.
These are some basic tips for caregivers during the holidays. If you need more advice, check here what else you can do for your loved one while you are on vacation.