I've been getting email into the Grubbstreet address (see right) that the pictures are not showing up on other people's machines. If this is happening to you, then drop me a line, telling me machine and browser you're using. I think it is a comcast thing, but I'm not sure. Thank you for the interruption, and I'll be back to ranting soon.
We tend to be a bit parochial here in the States, even when it comes to such things as computer games, an international phenomena.
I have mentioned here before that I was working on a game with Blue Byte Software in Düsseldorf - Settlers: Rise of an Empire. My contribution has been story, continuity, and cut screen scripts, similar to my work with ArenaNet. The game has been released, and did quite well in Europe, but was much quieter on this side of the Atlantic (where there is a lot more attention to Assassin's Creed, also by parent company UbiSoft).
That's a pity, because I thought the concept was really cool, and I appreciate all the work by the brilliant team, including Benedikt Grindel, Andreas Suika, and Alex Brueggemann (who were my main contacts in a very long-distance work relationship).
But I was surprised to learn that we (meaning the game) had picked up no less than six awards for the German Developer Prize, including "Game of the Year", and, my fave "Best Cutscene Intros". That last one made me particularly happy, since I thought they turned out great (One friend, looking over my shoulder during the development, said he would BUY the game based on the cutscenes).
L to R: Benedikt, Pepe (graphics artist), Andreas, Alex, Ralf Wirsing (director of Ubisoft Germany) and presenter Arne Peters.
Congratulations to the team, and delighted to see that Settlers: Rise of an Empire has gotten its well-deserved props!
If I am very, very lucky, the leaden feeling that has taken over my body is merely exhaustion, topped by a mild hangover. If I am less fortunate, I am finally succumbing to a long-avoided cold (I hope not, touch wood).
The holidays can be a hectic times, even for those without kids or close relations near at hand. In our case, we spent the last few days wrapping up last-minute Christmas shopping, preparing for the Grand Holiday Feast, and cleaning. Lots and lots of cleaning. I think we hold parties primarily as an excuse to clean up the house. I think it's the first time I vacuumed in the home office since the LAST major shindig, and I was surprised to discover I actually have a rug underneath all my clutter.
I did I have a chance to break away and attend Monkey King and Shelly's Christmas Eve. It was a haven of LJ bloggers - Sigtrent, Oni Anne, Freeport Pirate, Nikchik, MysticalForest, TrueUnicorness, and the everpresent LittleElfHat. Met Quizro for the first time (Hi, Wade!). It was fun (conversation was made, lives were updated, absinthe was studiously avoided), but I had to get back to the house, where the lovely bride was in the grips of fighting the cheescake for the Grand Holiday Feast.
Ah, the Grand Holiday Feast - Made less stressful by the aid of the attendees. Bill and Miko brought mini-calzone hot pockets. Wolf and Shelly brought a waldorf salad. John and Janice brought peas. We provided the turkey, mashed potatoes, stuffing, and rolls, as well as rumaki appetizers and cranberry cheesecake and (Death by) chocolate cake). There was a plethora of champagne, wine, desert wines, and hot tea with the meal. With all the aid, it was a lot less stressful than usual, and thank you to the guests. My only regret is that we let the 24 pound bird stay in the over about a half-hour too long so that it was tasty but not a succulent as in years past(but the gravy made up for part of that). Bonus points for the fact that we got Christmas snow - a light dusting during the day that melted by the time it was time for everyone to go home.
All said and done, it is all said and done, and I am exhausted, still waddling around the house and feeling heavy-headed. I hope this is the result of a sin of commission (imbibing too much) as opposed to a sin of omission (not taking better care of myself while cleaning everything).
More later, and Happy Boxing Day.
Grubb Street wishes you and yours a Merry Christmas and a very happy holiday season.
So, about a year ago I broke my computer. It was a stupid thing, a drop of some 4 inches with the computer in its supposedly-protective case, but the Fujitsu design (by no means unique) is such that any sharp impact breaks the the thin glass tube used to light the back screen. This was the third time it had happened, but the first time when the computer was out of coverage, which meant pricey repairs.
Soon afterwards, the Lovely Bride needed a machine to access some web sites (her iMac dates from before the millennium). Instead of doing the smart thing (getting a new machine), we chose to slave my broken machine into service. Which means I had to attempt to get the machine repaired (which was interesting, but, alas, a failure), then hook it up to another monitor (which took a little longer, since the monitor in question was also stone-age tech).
And after it was all said and done, the sound went dead. Further mounting frustration. In attempting to make repairs, did I kill something important on the sound card? I checked the various control panels and programs and, as far as they were concerned, it should work. So I felt even crankier about it - not only had I fobbed off a blind machine on the Lovely Bride, but a deaf one as well. It was as if the machine was purposefully seeking its revenge on me.
Then, in the past week, the LB started to hear faint sounds from the machine. Nothing definite, but small pings and sounds from the web sites.
Now I was driven to full-bore madness - not only had I given my bride a busted machine, but NOW it was somehow healing itself and trying to communicate (the other option was that the LB was experiencing dementia, an option discussed and reluctantly discarded). It was a technological ghost, a condemnation of my inability to repair it. So I sat down one more time with my old foe, and strove to figure out what I missed this time.
And it was at that point I found a little disk on the side of the machine, with faint numbers far enough apart that they didn't show up. And spinning the dial, the computer left the world of the mute and rejoined the world (to the tune of Nowhere Man by the Beatles). The Lovely Bride had jostled the dial moving the machine around. Yet finally, I had triumphed over it. And so just for good measure, I got her set up with iTunes as well.
But now I'm angry with myself for screwing up and not catching this sooner. Argh.
And speaking of the Beatles - Here, enjoy this.
It is interesting what you find when you're looking for other things. I was digging on the Bigs as far as the writer's strike, and came up with something about Clear Channel.
Clear Channel is a big, though not in Hollywood. They are a radio and billboard conglomerate, owning 1,100 radio stations, 30 TV stations, and a good chunk of that roadside signage you see on the highway. They have been powerful with their conservative slant and support for the current administration.
So it is with surprise that I came across the fact that they are now owned by a private equity firm, Bain Capital. They bought them last year.
Now here's the interesting bit, Bain Capital was founded by three partners, one of whom was presidential candidate Mitt Romney. Odd how this doesn't get mentioned anywhere. Now, mind you, Romney has officially left Bain, but there is this Cheney/Haliburton vibe going that no one has seemed to pick up (compare it to the horrors expressed over the fact the Murdoch/FOX has a marked preference for Guiliani).
None of this is "news" - just came across it when digging through the wikipedia about ownership (Oh, other cool thing - Romney was president/CEO for the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City - good job, that (No, seriously)). It is hiding in plain sight. But no one seems to connect that one of the companies that has benefited from media consolidation has a strong connection with a major contender.
Yeah, I'm going to keep coming back to this. As well as back to the writer's strike as well. It is one of the strengths of blogging is that you can pick your subjects and stay with them as long as you choose to. Me, I'm still concerned about the effects Katrina has had on the Gulf Coast, including such locations as Biloxi, which has pretty much slid off the radar while New Orleans, hardly in a better position, gets the media attention (if not much in the way of better treatment).
Anyway, the flood from a few weeks back. While I noted that we were pretty safe up on the hill, down in the Renton Valley things were a tad bit dicier. Most of the localized flooding we got was the result of storm sewers being clogged up by debris and massive rains, but it was still pretty impressive. These filmmakers got some good shots outside of the local IKEA, where the road was overwhelmed (and the businesses were slightly higher up. (And here's a clip of Snoqualmie Falls - known best for the site of the hotel in "Twin Peaks").
Also, down in the Chehalis area, the Seattle Times is reporting that Weyerhauser, the big lumber operation, is re-examining its policies, seeing how it clearcut a bunch of hillsides that were officially too steep, but for which they got permission after a company geologist vouched that they was safe. Now that a good chunk of those hillsides have washed into downtown Centralia, they're having second thoughts about the wisdom of that move (and the geologist who gave the thumb's-up should be relocated to Phoenix by now).
And lastly, the flood did have an effect on my local commute. Part of I-405, the chunk between routes 167 and 169, was severely undercut by a sinkhole (yeah,, you heard right, a sinkhole and requires emergency repairs. Said repairs involve lane closures and are definitely screwing up the daily transportation, mainly because travel options are relatively infinite for the chunk of land between the foothills and the lake. The Times takes due notice, then goes back to campaigning for more coolness for I-520. Ah, well.
You scored 55% domestic, 33% gregarious, 39% trickster, and 55% intellect!
Domestic, Solitary, Serious, Intelectual: you are the Cat!
Cat represents a balance of strength in both physical and spiritual, psychic and sensual powers, merging these two worlds into one. Curious, intelligent, and physically adept, cat people tend to live in a world all their own.
This test categorized you based on four different axes of personality, which were then associated with a different animal. The four axes, as well as all possible results are explained below.
Wild/Domestic: This first axis categorizes you based on how much you are drawn to the outdoors, versus how much you are drawn to civilized situations. Domesticity has many shapes and forms, and varies from the joy of dolphins leaping next to a ship to the steadfast loyalty of a family dog.
Gregarious/Solitary: This axis measures how solitary you are. If you scored high, it means that you enjoy the company of other people, while a low score indicates that you prefer a more solitary lifestyle.
Trickster/Serious: This axis measures how well you line up with conventional trickster archetypes. People who fall into this archetype have a sense of humor and an excitable, highly chaotic streak. Scoring low doesn't mean that you don't have a sense of humor; it just means that you probably don't think dynamite is very funny.
Intellectual/Emotional: This last axis determines whether you are more emotional -- acting based on feelings and instinct, or rational and intelectual -- acting more on thought than on your gut feelings.
Plus - Crud, It turns out that I'm Elminster.
So one of the challenges of living an eighth of the way around the globe from your genetic relations is Christmas presents, not only the selecting of, but the delivery to. So any thoughts of procrastination are driven out by the inborn need to get everything together. And while my Noble Siblings may be understanding about "its in the mail", getting the gifts to my Good Parents are a priority (a sympathy my Noble Sibs will understand and endorse).
So this morning I was up early to get to the Post Office to get their gifts on their way. I brought a book, because if there is one thing about the Post Office in the holiday period, there will be a line.
And such a line. The PO opened at 9, and there was a line of some forty people, queuing politely (the Brits would be SO jealous), curling around the outer office. There was despair among the peoples. And then technology rode to the rescue.
A polite young postmistress came out and pointed out that there was package-mailing kiosk available there, unattended, in the lobby, and if anyone was interested, she would walk them through the process. Like suspicious great apes, none of the patrons budged from their line, save for one woman with a package. And I got in line behind HER.
And for all of the complaints about modern tech, whoever programmed the automated postal center did a bang-up job. The menus were clear, the information they asked for was easily understood, and the buttons on the touch-screen were big enough for hands not used to text messaging. In ten minutes, I was out the door, my parental presents on their way.
Dealing with Post Office is one of the challenges of the holiday season, and full marks to the Post Office for making it less so.
Of course, I got home, and realized that I left the BOOK I brought behind on top of the machine, and had to go back, but that is hardly the Post Office's fault.
Sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander. I'll be honest, I'm going to be voting for one of these guys. But lets take a look at them, and I will try to say things that you haven't heard a kurjillion number of times before.
OK, seriously, the greatest danger of this more-moderate Dem is that she will leave in place a lot of the power-grabbing debacles that the previous administration have come up with. Slow drawdown on the Iraqi occupations, further erosion of Constitutional Rights, keeping the candy-colored "Terror" button on her desk.
What I am having a problem buying is the sudden concern about "dynasty" government offices. Not only because we just had a third-generation government type in office (and look how well THAT worked out), but that the media is similarly ignoring that one of the "New Hotness" Reps, Mitt (short for Mittens) Romney is the son of Michigan Governor and former GOP candidate George Romney. If we're worrying about Pols in the family business, why has no one brought this up (And for that matter, where was all the concern about G. Romney's religion back in '68, when HE ran for Prez).
Let me explain the appeal about Obama, because it is a uniquely Democrat thing. It is not about youth or race or messages of hope. The big attraction to Obama is: He gave a great speech. No, really, back in 2004, at the Democratic Convention. I can think of no other place where you can suddenly put yourself on the map as a major contender just because of a single speech. Cuomo, Dukakis, Muskie - you really wonder where the Dems come up with candidates like these - it is because they gave a great speech. It's the Democratic party's version of American Idol.
On ethnicity, we have no one to blame for this other than FOX. No, I'm serious. "24" gave us not one but two African-American presidents in a row, reaching out to America and saying "Yeah, anyone can be president, if Jack Baur is hanging around to help". Good going, FOX.
But I look at the GOP frontrunners and I do shake my head. The conventional wisdom is that the Republicans are looking forward to tough sledding because of the massive unpopularity of the present administration in regards to practically everything, coupled with a scandal du jour sleezefest that ranges from the merely perverse to the constitutionally illegal. But I don't think this is really the cause for the lack of traction the current field exhibits.
Rather, here's the prob: The GOP field consists of Democrats. Not only that, they are Democrats that we have seen before.
Don't believe me? Here are some brief descriptions of the front runners.
- Tough-talking, scandal-prone, relationship-challenged New Yorker who is unapologetic on support for the war.
- Flip-flopping politician from liberal Massachusetts with questions of religious loyalty and nuanced views of earlier statements.
- Just-folks, weight-challenged, former Governor of Arkansas who radiates common sense but may have errors of judgment from his term in office.
What party am I talking about, here? No wonder most of the rank-and-file is having problems. These are the guys they have been programmed to hate for the past eight years. All they need is a details-oriented, wonky intellectual with a Nobel Prize for saying things they don't want to hear, and they'll have the full set of Democratic bogey-men.
Looking at that, you can see the appeal of gimmicky candidates like Thompson (TV lawyer) or Ron Paul (blimp and a lot of signage). I miss the fact that the media has pretty much written off McCain, who always reminded me of John Glenn in that "real American hero" vibe. Can we run a 1990s version of him?
Now I just need some lyrics to go with the song titles.
My band is Quimby Pipe Organs and our new album is Adrian Riggs.
This was autogenerated from random Wikipedia article names. Get your own Wikipedia Album.
© 2007 Barbara Davies Records Limited. Recorded at John Stallo studios. The copyright in this sound recording is owned by Barbara Davies Records Limited, an Elizabeth Of Vermandois company.
Chehalis and Centralia, the hardest hit of the Washington State locales from the recent flooding, are about an hour south of here. Situated on the broad flood plain of a couple rivers (the swollen Chehalis among others), this stretch of road is treated as little more than a road stop for traffic heading from Portland to Seattle. It is also home to a lot more development over the past decade, which may have made a bad situation worse.
But the area is also the home of Red State Sam, one of the more polite terms I've seen used for a billboard alongside one of the I-5 exits. Red State Sam is a big billboard with outsider art picture of Uncle Sam that looks like he's been cooking up meth, with an offensive, ever changing political scrawl. The screed is usually against democrats, bureaucrats, state government, national government, government in any form, immigrants, the UN, and black helicopters, and is pretty much the best encouragement for people NOT to stop along this stretch of road.
The raison d'etre for this long-standing bit of antic hate speech actually makes sense - I-5 plowed through the original owner's farm, and ever since, he used the location as his personal free speech area, inflicting his views on anyone who passed and pretty much convincing those passing through to just keep on passing through. When the original owner sold the original farm he kept an easement to let him keep the sign, and with his passing, his son has picked up the torch. Red State Sam shows up in the news every so often to show that "free speech is alive" usually quoting his less-offensive captions.
But with all the footage of the flood, I've been thinking about Red State Sam, and most of all his absence from any of the footage that has made the news. He's the closest thing to the scenic highpoint of the region, but I've seen nary a shot from any of the cams, and not a mention on youtube. Is he gone, or does his anti-government hate-fest not play as well as people have mobilized at a personal, corporate, state and now national level to bring relief to the people living there? When you're trying to get people to help, the crazy old uncle shouting about Mexicans and the Masons isn't really an attraction.
Where have you gone, Red State Sam? The nation turns its lonely eyes to you.
Update: The challenge that Chehalis and Lewis County faces is not one that will ebb away with the next big story to hit the region. I've been keeping track with this link to the local paper, the Chronicle. It has been doing the best job laying out the devastation and response. Go check it out.
So, as I mentioned here earlier, we're fine despite the heavy flooding in the region (up on a hill and all that). My office park was flooded out, but that returned to normal quickly. One car left in the parking lot beneath the building over the weekend was flooded (water over the bottom of the door). And walking around the property, there is a lot of new islands and heavy silt clogging up parts of the canal (which means it needs to be dredged, or else we're more likely to see repeats).
Not everyone in the region is so fortunate. Woodinville, just north of where Shelly in Seattle lives, took a hard hit, and people were flooded out of their homes. And I-5 itself is flooded down by Chehalis, about an hour south of us. (You're looking at the bridge OVER I-5 in that shot). I-5 is one of the two major highways into the region (The other being I-90, over the passes, which are sporadic as the winter months set in and closed by avalanches). So there is already a bit of tightness in supplies getting into the region.
And in the midst of this, I started wondering about the levees in Auburn, Kent, and Renton. The Green River was channeled a few decades back, and the surrounding region has been heavily developed since. A little digging came up with this, detailing how King County got a major chunk of restoration work done right before the storm hit. I'm still digging to see what else I can come up with, but so far it seems that the levees down here are holding.
Interestingly enough, the week before the storm, there was this article and others of its stripe about FEMA's expanding the definition of the floodplain along the Green and elsewhere, cast in terms of "Oh, big government, is evil, keeping us from developing our land". Has anyone gone back there recently to see if there is any standing water on those properties now?
The studios have moved past stage one - "We refuse to negotiate!" to stage two - "Here's a horrible offer which we're telling you is great!" Next in line should be stage three - the Confusing Offer, one so ornate and baroque that only the corporate lawyers can figure it out. Meanwhile, the buzz in Hollywood is surprisingly not when the various writers will cave and cross the picket lines, but which of the Big Six will break ranks and seek a separate deal.
I mentioned the Big Six last time out, and did a little research on who these guys were and, more importantly, what they owned. They are the big-headed wizards behind a LOT of media product that we consume every day. Is it any wonder that the writers have had to seek out alternative media to get their message out? The bigger question is, with all this concentrated power, why have the major media players been so BAD at getting their message across (perhaps, if I may suggest, it is a really sucky message).
Reality: We own your childhood. Do what we say and no one gets hurt.
Owns: ABC, ABC Family, Walt Disney Studios, Walt Disney Distribution, Disney Channel, ESPN, Walt Disney Parks and Resorts, Pixar, Jetix, Touchstone, Hollywood Pictures, Miramax, Dimension Films, Jumbo Pictures, Lifetime (50%), A&E (37.5% - includes A&E. The History Channel, The Biography Channel), Citadel Broadcasting (which owns ABC Radio, but is in turn 57% owned by Disney stockholders), Disney-ABC Domestic Television, Hyperion Publishing, Infoseek, Go.com, Jim Henson's Muppets, Mammoth Records, Hollywood Records, Avalanche Software, Propaganda Games, Fall Line Studios, Junction Point Studios (Hi, Warren!), CrossGen comics, 10 TV Stations (reaching 24% of US households).
Reality: Used to control cable news, before the dark time, before the Murdoch.
Owns: HBO, Cinemax, HBO Films, Turner Broadcasting System, Adult Swim, Cartoon Network, Court TV, TBS Superstation, TNT, TCM, WTBS, CNN, E! (49%), Airport Network, Headline News, Toonami Jetstream, New Line Cinema, New Line Distribution, Warner Bros., Castle Rock Entertainment, The WB (deceased) CW Television Network, (with CBS), Hanna Barbara, Looney Tunes, Kids WB!, Time Magazine, Entertainment Weekly, Fortune, Cooking Light, Sports Illustrated, Eidos, Monolith, AOL, Moviephone, CompuServe, Netscape, MapQuest Atlanta Records, Rhino Records, (but oddly enough, NOT Time Warner Book Group, which was purchased by Hachette Livre, the largest book company in France), DC Comics, Time Warner Cable, Adelphia (13 million subscribers to its cable systems), the Atlanta Braves.
Reality: Catering to your baser instincts for two decades now.
Owns: 20th Century Fox, 20th Century Fox Television, Fox Searchlight Pictures, Regency Television (50%), Fox Broadcasting, MySpace Records, MyNetworkTV, ITV (British, 17.5%), Fox Business Network, Fox Classics, Fox Sports Net, Fox News Channel, FX Networks, National Geographic Channel (67%), MySpace, Photobucket, Jumptheshark.com, HarperCollins (30+ Book imprints), The Sun, The Times, News of the World, New York Post, The Weekly Standard, Wall Street Journal, TV Guide (running THAT one into the ground), Buncha Australian Newspapers, Colorado Rockies (15%), 35 TV Stations (reaching 50% of US households).
Image: Not nearly as important as you'd think.
Reality: Yeah, just as important as you'd think.
Owns: MTV, VH1,CMT, Comedy Central, BET, Spike, Paramount, Dreamworks, Spelling Television, Go Fish Pictures, Republic Pictures, MTV Films, Nickelodeon, Nick at Night, Neopets, Harmonix, GameTrailers, TVLand, Blockbuster video. But get ready for the shell game – majority Viacom ownership belongs to an unknown firm called National Amusements, which also owns CBS (including CW (with Time/Warner),) 28 television stations, CBS Records, CBS Radio, Showtime, Simon & Schuster) and Midway Games. National Amusements is totally owned by Sumner Redstone and his daughter.
Image: Technologists - we bring good things to life.
Reality: Just like Dr. Frankenstein did.
Owns: NBC, 10 TV Stations, Universal Studios, NBC Sports, A&E (with Disney, others), Bravo, CNBC (With Dow Jones), MSNBC (with Microsoft), Sci Fi Channel, Sundance (minority), USA Network, Telemundo, TiVo (minority), qubo, ION Media Network, Universal theme parks.
Image: Nothing to see here. Just doin' our jobs.
Reality: Sony. That sounds like an American name, right?
Owns: Sony Pictures, Columbia Pictures, TriStar Pictures, Screen Gems, Destination Films, Triumph Films, Sony Pictures Television, Mandalay Entertainment (partial), MGM, United Artists, Samuel Goldwyn Company, Orion Pictures, MGM Television, Columbia Records, Epic Records, Sony Computer Entertainment (PlayStation), Sony Online Entertainment (Everquest), Semiconductors, Half of Japan.
I'm going to go out on a limb and say that GE and Sony would break ranks first, if only because they have major investments in other areas, so any subsidiary sitting idle would represent a loss of overall profitability. Then again, maybe Rupert Murdoch may REALLY Be missing new episodes of "The Family Guy".
I have a rain gauge, the present of my folks, which I keep mounted on the back porch, and the first of every month, I empty it.
And this morning, two days after emptying it, I had to empty it again. We have received 5 inches of rain in the last 48 hours here on Grubb Street.
But we are up on a hill, so that's not too bad. And we are away from the edges of the hill, which is even better (yes, those two factors were a consideration when we bought this place). But where I WORK is in a valley.
I may have mentioned this before, but my place of business is located in a very lush office park, where the buildings are up on concrete pylons and overlook the nearby slough. I have called it "The Ewok Village", and it is my choice for location for my evil mad scientist lair, because NO ONE thinks about this place. but it IS right next to a series of canals and wetlands which is where all the rain for the past two days is draining.
But despite this, I headed for work this morning without thinking about the results of all the rain. I wasn't even off the hill before my cell rang and I got word from a co-worker that the office had been closed because of rising water. The office park management gave the order (with our group, as long as the servers were above water, we'd show up), and the management had already closed one of the two entrances to the park.
So it is a work-at-home day, with email connections and a mental note to get the VPN hooked up for this machine. And yeah, I should have remembered that just because I am up on a hill, doesn't mean everyone else is as well.
So the Lovely Bride and I are making bread.
Gods, we are so domestic.


In the 2018-2019 season, we are making it easier than ever to support the arts in the Greenbrier Valley. We are combining the benefits of our sponsorship and membership programs to form one Annual Investor Campaign. Please see the below opportunities and contact Development Director, Molly Arbogast, at development@carnegiehallwv.org or 304.645.7917 for more information.


Jessica House specialises in helping clients identify and correct blocks to healing.
She teaches her clients a step by step process to reset and restore the root causes imbalances.
With so much conflicting information out there Jessica coaches her clients to access their intuition and listen to the communications of their body.
Your body will always let you know when you are on track and off track.
Her success, and her clients success is based on her medical intuitive ability to quickly access the root cause of the issue and remove blocks to the body's natural innate healing ability.
The approach is to transform thought, feeling and behaviour (including eating) patterns and support the body to recalibrate the immune system function naturally.
The process takes time to apply and is carried out in stages over a biweekly period of three months.


Fading Suns Revised Support - FASA Games, Inc.
The suns may have faded but they aren't gone yet.
Just want to put a note out there that we are still going to sell the Fading Suns Revised product (in PDF at least) as long as we can, and of course will continue to support it as long as seems reasonable. I know there is some excitement about a future new edition but it could be a while until a new edition is forthcoming and the Known Worlds have many stories that need to still be told.
So does this mean that the Merchants of the jumpweb book is out the airlock then?
Yeah. I was told to drop the project for Merchants. So sad, but I take the responsibility for not being a good enough project manager at the beginning. The learning curve is steep, who knew so much went into making a finished game product.
As for future products, I have no idea. I hope they stay with a semblance of the Victory Point system, maybe some tweaks to streamline it. At the moment it is all out of my hands. Of course, if asked I am sure I would lend a hand. Maybe they'll pick up a rock star game developer or one of the originals to get the name recognition. I believe Ulisses modus operandi is to kickstart everything now so they'll need a bunch of good marketing for product launch.


Today Captain Mike was very happy to report yet another phenomenal day of local Porgy and Seabass fishing aboard Island Current II. As on most trips, customers are seeing coolers full, buckets filled, and Rods bending the entire day! Getting in on the great Porgy action every day sailing at 8 AM aboard the 76 foot island current III.


text:
"The Fires of Heaven" by Robert Jordan- A Christian (re)reads the Wheel of Time
Posted by J.W. Wartick ⋅ October 30, 2019 ⋅ Leave a comment
"The Wheel of Time" is a massive fantasy series by Robert Jordan (and, later, Brandon Sanderson) that is being developed into a television show for Amazon Prime. It's cultural impact is huge, the series having sold more than 44 million copies. Here, we continue the series with Book 5, The Fires of Heaven. There will be SPOILERS in this post for the series.
Power Corrupts, and Politics and Religion?
In The Fires of Heaven, we are introduced to the Prophet of the Dragon, Masema. He has used Rand's name to build himself a power base, and it is unclear yet whether he actually believes the things he says about the Dragon Reborn or not. What does seem clear is that this is a case of power corrupting. Masema goes mad over violations of protocol, he believes he has the right and the need to restrict even what people wear, how they act, and the like. His unification of religious belief and political power has become a corruption that is dangerous even for those who are trying to help Rand. In our own history, the unity of political and religious power has often played out in totalitarian ways as well, with absolute power corrupting and leading to danger for any who disagree.
The question of how the church and state ought to interact is an ancient one, and one heavily tinged by cultural referents. In the United States, it has become influenced greatly by the notion of "separation of church and state," a dogma repeated so often it has become enshrined in the political sphere. There are many, many perspectives on the question, and my own preferred one is that of the Lutheran view of the Two Kingdoms–that the Kingdom of God is able to offer correction to the Kingdom of the World, but that the Kingdom of the World must not interfere with the Kingdom of God. Similarly, the realm of the world is generally to be left to the governance of human reason, only called upon to repent when needed.
With The Fires of Heaven, one might ask what kind of divisions of the political and religious are being suggested. There is certainly a sense of unease about Masema and his policies, but what will happen going forward? What kind of commentary might Robert Jordan be offering here?
Moiraine gives her life up (maybe?) to defeat Lanfear. Birgitte nearly does the same to fight another Forsaken. Here we have the theme of sacrifice playing out rather clearly, though the implications of these sacrifices won't be found out for some time yet. In Birgitte's case, it leads to a linking of Birgitte with Elayne as a Warder. The theme of sacrifice hasn't played prominently so far in the series, and it is clear Moiraine's sacrifice is totally unexpected to Rand, who was blindsided by it.
Actions have Consequences
Balefire gets much discussion in this book, with its possibility of burning away threads of time and altering the past in unpredictable, terrifying ways. This ties into a broader sense of consequence throughout the series, in which actions have consequences that tend to be far ranging. Whether its simply walking through a town as a Ta'veran and causing weddings, accidents, and more or burning away an enemy permanently, there are serious repercussions for actions in the world. One can't help but think of our own world, in which some of the smallest actions can have wide ranges of impact.
I have to say I thought The Fires of Heaven was a bit slower moving than the previous books. Despite its massive length, there also didn't seem to me to be as much to discuss from a worldview perspective. What did you think of this novel? What worldview issues did you notice on reading it? Let me know in the comments.
The Wheel of Time– Read all my posts on The Wheel of Time (scroll for more).
Book Reviews– There are plenty more book reviews to read! Read like crazy! (Scroll down for more, and click at bottom for even more!)
The Death Penalty and "Just Mercy" – Bryan Stevenson's personal look at capital punishment
Posted by J.W. Wartick ⋅ October 28, 2019 ⋅ 3 Comments
Bryan Stevenson is a lawyer who has dedicated his life's work to challenging bias against people of color and poor people in the criminal justice system. His book, Just Mercy, is a deeply personal look at the death penalty, and one that I think many readers would at least be challenged by. I came to the book as part of a book group in which we choose one book pro- and one book con- a position and then discuss it. I used to be for the death penalty, but a deeper look at the statistics about how the death penalty is more likely to be used and carried out against people of color, the possibility of using it against innocent people, the extreme cost of the system, and the failure to make it meet standards of avoiding cruel and unusual punishment moved me against it just a few years ago. Like many topics, it is one where I felt a deeper study of the complexity of the issue led me to a different position than I once held. The book has some graphic depictions of violence in it, and I will try to avoid those in this post, but the topic itself can be emotionally jarring.
Stevenson's book is stunning. Yes, it is emotionally jarring, but filling in the cracks between the emotional arguments are a number of real stories that have to be accepted by those who favor the death penalty as consequences of the system. For example, there are stories included in the book of the unjust way people were sentenced to death, including children. One of these stories talks about a black 14 year old accused of murder who was then put in a courtroom that was segregated (by keeping all African Americans who were not on trial or witnesses) to face trial, defended by a lawyer with political aspirations who called no witnesses for the defense. The prosecutions "only evidence was the sheriff's testimony…" that the child had confessed. He was convicted by an all white jury and sentenced to death in the electric chair (158-159). Yes, this is an emotional story, but it begs several questions about how the criminal justice system is set up in such a way that each of these steps could have been allowed to happen. How can we accept the death penalty as a viable punishment when people are sentenced to death on such flimsy evidence and such a clearly uninterested defense? What of the racial tensions in stories like these? Do these matter when people's lives are at stake?
Of course, executing children seems counter-intuitive in the extreme, even if the child in question commited a heinous crime. As Stevenson points out, there is an "incongruity of not allowing children to smoke, drink, vote… and a range of other behaviors because of their well-recognized lack of maturity and judgment while simultaneously treating some of the most at-risk, neglected, and impaired children exactly the same as full-grown adults in the criminal justice system" (270). Restrictions on the death penalty for children seem to be one of those areas that perhaps even those on both sides of the issue could come to agreement on.
The primary story throughout the book, though, is that of Walter McMillian, who was convicted of murder despite having dozens of witnesses who could place him at his own home at the time of the murder. The case was another in which an all-white jury was selected. He was sentenced to death based on the testimony of people who said he committed the murder, despite conflicting accounts and, again, many witnesses who saw him elsewhere. Actually, he was sentenced to life in prison, but the judge, Robert E. Lee Key, overruled the sentence and gave him capital punishment. He spent 6 years on death row before being released on lack of a case. Following this case throughout the course of the book, one is exposed to the many difficulties facing poor people of color when it comes to defending their cases. People who can afford top-tier lawyers are less likely to receive the harshest penalties. People who are white are also less likely to face capital punishment. These statistics suggest trends that need to be corrected for true justice to be accomplished.
Central to Stevenson's book is the concept of just mercy, as the title implies. How can we have justice that also includes mercy? He hints at it when he discusses human brokenness, a passage that can serve as a way to close this look at his work: "simply punishing the broken–walking away from them or hiding them from sight–only ensures that they remain broken and we do, too. There is no wholeness outside of our reciprocal humanity" (290).
"The Shadow Rising" by Robert Jordan- a Christian (re)reads the Wheel of Time
Posted by J.W. Wartick ⋅ September 30, 2019 ⋅ Leave a comment
"The Wheel of Time" is a massive fantasy series by Robert Jordan (and, later, Brandon Sanderson) that is being developed into a television show for Amazon Prime. It's cultural impact is huge, the series having sold more than 44 million copies. Here, we continue the series with Book 4, The Shadow Rising. There will be SPOILERS in this post for the series.
The Allure of Evil
Robert Jordan has already developed some strands of plot through the series in which it is clear that evil isn't always easily identified. In The Shadow Rising, though, he takes it to another level, and does this by making a more real picture of the allure of evil. That allure is found in the person of Lanfear, who has teased Rand through the earlier works in the series and now shows herself more fully as one of the Forsaken. The ways in which evil weaves itself into our lives and being is not as easily spotted as some may think.
Trust in Security and State
Another aspect of this allure of evil is the way in which we tend to put our trust and interest in the desire for security rather than peace. I have written more extensively about this theme elsewhere, but here in The Shadow Rising we see it illustrated to perfection. Back home, Perrin finds that the people of Two Rivers have come to giving up their own peace of mind in exchange for the security and protection allegedly offered by the Children of the Light. But this protection comes at a high cost. It may mean that Trollocs don't kill them in their beds–maybe–but it also means that they have to submit to the inquisition that comes with having the Children in town. They don't tolerate differences of opinion; they love throwing accusations of darkfriend around. This resonates with contemporary culture as well, as we use labels like "liberal" or "fundamentalist" to deride others and silence their opinions. Moreover, in the United States, we have consistently exchanged true peace for the security that is allegedly offered by guns, by keeping the feared "other"–immigrant, asylum seeker, refugee–out of our country, and by constant arms races that seek "peace" through force. But that kind of security also comes at a stiff cost. Is it worth it?
Moreover, if we put our trust in the state or in any other powers of the world (Children of the Light, the Republican Party, the Democratic Party), we have essentially elevated those powers to the place of God. Rather than trusting in God, we trust in the idol of the state, the leader, the organization. That is indeed idolatry, and frankly is something that Dietrich Bonhoeffer, for example, called blasphemy.
Cool Moments
Okay, setting aside the theological and philosophical inquiries for a moment, how many really awesome moments happened in this book? We once again run into Verin, and series veterans will know who she is and enjoy the interaction with Perrin here. Perrin gets married!? Yeah, he does. Faile is totally perfect for him, too. Rand makes it rain in the Waste. Nynaeve fights against a Forsaken, and wins! There are just so many awesome moments here that it is hard to contain them all. Which ones were your favorites?
Ted Chiang's Religious Vision and Critique in "Exhalation"
Posted by J.W. Wartick ⋅ September 9, 2019 ⋅ Leave a comment
Ted Chiang is one of the more well-known names publishing science fiction and fantasy short stories today. His short story, "Stories of Your Life" was the basis for the film "Arrival" (which I discussed here). His latest collection, Exhalation: Stories is another thought-provoking, moving collection of stories that will make readers think deeply about many questions. What struck me is that, despite Chiang being an atheist, his is remarkably knowledgeable about religion and, though he challenges various religious traditions at points, he also writes stories that resonate with them. I wanted to discuss his religious vision and critique in this book. There will be SPOILERS for some of these stories ahead.
Readers who have done a lot of digging into the esoteric origins of young earth creationism will recognize the title of this short story a nod to one of the most obscure but also earliest examples of young earth literature, Omphalos: An Attempt to Untie the Geological Knot by Philip Henry Gosse. In Gosse's book, written before the publication of Darwin's On the Origin of Species, he argues that the fossil record was actually created with the appearance of age and thus doesn't give evidence of the actual age of the earth. Gosse effectively introduced the argument of "appearance of age" into the young earth creationist repertoire of arguments for their position, and he did it before the evidence for evolution had reached the stage it has now.
In Chiang's short story, he imagines a scientist interacting with the world that genuinely does appear to be young. In this world, fossils are found that show no evidence of prior age. Tree rings do not falsify a young earth. The evidence on the planet all gives way to yielding the result that the Earth really is young. But some evidence isn't fixed. The multiplicity of language begins to show that it is from accident rather than by design. Moreover, some question comes into mind as to why the universe was created–was it really made for us, or for some other group of beings somewhere else? The evidence for the miraculous continues, but the purpose of the character we follow in the story begins to get called into question. This leads to the challenge that if this person was not created with a specific purpose, they are left to their own devices to find purpose, and they choose to search… for purpose.
"Omphalos" serves as a lens to question: what would it mean if the universe were not made for humans? (I don't think it was, and wrote this article to that effect, though it has diverged some from my current views in 6 years.) Chiang's story is a masterful look at how we might perceive the universe differently as what we think collapses around us. It also asks questions about purpose in a universe in which we don't have our own, unique purpose. It's a thought experiment but one that needs to challenge us.
The Merchant and the Alchemist's Gate
The first story in the collection, "The Merchant…" is a series of smaller stories about how some different rings that allowed for time travel impacted people's lives in a fantastic setting with explicitly Muslim religious expression. As the stories told by the merchant make the reader understand, the longing to be able to change the past and set events right to make up for mistakes is strong. But the concluding lines of the story make clear the point:
Nothing erases the past. There is repentance, there is atonement, and there is forgiveness. That is all, but that is enough. (36)
I have read this story before in another collection of Chiang's, but it still struck me as forcefully as it did the first time. The deep yearning to change the past is found in so many of us now. But it is a longing we can't fulfill. Yet even without magical rings that allow for time travel by passing through them, we can still find what is enough: repentance, atonement, and forgiveness.
Exhalation: Self-Destruction and Miracle
The title story of this collection, "Exhalation," was a Hugo Award winner for best short story. In this story, there is a society of mechanical beings with brains that work based on pressure of the air. One of these beings discovers that its society is beginning to slow down in computations and the reason is due to the way they're using their resources, pumping air from one place to another, which changes the air pressure and thus their capacities. From this, the being basically finds the second law of thermodynamics and posits that all things will eventually move towards equilibrium–dooming its society.
This short story has many intriguing threads. First, the notion of self-destruction by actions that are initially seen as good or profitable or beneficial. Clear parallels exist between this story and our own, as humanity continues to destroy the good creation of God through our own efforts to seek ease of transportation, luxury, and profit over all else.
Another startling aspect of "Exhalation" is the conclusion towards the end, that life itself is miraculous, because it manages to survive in a universe that is bent upon ultimately driving it out (the second law of thermodynamics means there will be an inevitable heat death of the universe). Life does seem to be a miracle: its diversity, persistence, the emergence of consciousness, and the very fact that life exists stand out. Though there may be natural explanations for these stages, the wonder of them cannot be totally explained in such naturalistic means. There is a sense of the miraculous in life.
There are many other themes found throughout this collection of stories, as well as his others. Questions about what it means to be a person; what mental life is like; how we destroy ourselves; and more. What are some themes you've picked up? What stories resonated with you? Check out Exhalation: Stories for some though-provoking stories.
"The Dragon Reborn" by Robert Jordan – A Christian (re)reads "The Wheel of Time"
Posted by J.W. Wartick ⋅ August 26, 2019 ⋅ Leave a comment
"The Wheel of Time" is a massive fantasy series by Robert Jordan (and, later, Brandon Sanderson) that is being developed into a television show for Amazon Prime. It's cultural impact is huge, the series having sold more than 44 million copies. Here, we continue the series with Book 3, The Dragon Reborn. There will be SPOILERS in this post for the series.
The Creator, The Dark One, and the Pattern
There are extended portions in The Dragon Reborn that finally begin to draw out the relationship between the Pattern–a kind of stand-in for fate–as well as the Creator and the Dark One. The most extended discussion makes it clear that in this world, the Dark One and even the Creator are subject to the weaving of the Pattern. The Pattern itself runs along the Wheel of Time, setting a course for thousands of years, including the actions of individuals throughout the Pattern. Though the Pattern is active, weaving itself around individuals that have been picked out mysteriously as ta'veren, in the broadest sense, it is predetermined.
This leads to a kind of fatalism among the characters that many of them are constantly striving against. Rand is the most clear example, but the three ta'veren we've encountered–Rand, Mat, and Perrin–all work actively to try to thwart the pattern. Yet even their efforts seem to be taken into account and woven therein.
Again, even the Creator is explicitly said to be subject to the pattern, and this becomes an interesting point of worldview later in the series as speculation about the exact meaning of this abounds. Contrasted with the Christian worldview, in which God is radically free to act as God wills (though of course there is some debate about what this may mean), there is a great divide here between the world of The Wheel of Time and the real world.
Now that we have some more insight into the notion of a Creator in "The Wheel of Time," what is interesting is that the Creator here does not necessarily seem to be some kind of omnipotent or omniscient being. We already noted that the Creator seems bound by the Pattern, but we find here that the Creator seems to be a kind of demi-urge; an almost deistic creator who makes the world but then allows it to play out as woven by the pattern. "The Dragon Reborn" really only gives us a few hints of how this plays out, and so we will look at any other time the Creator appears to see what more is revealed.
Prophecy Fulfilled
Another dimension to all of this discussion is the notion of prophecy, which we find out from multiple Aes Sedai exists in huge amounts in the world. There are many, many prophecies of the Dragon, several of which appear to contradict. So for Rand to come and fulfill what is said to be the first step to revealing the Dragon Reborn remains yet something that some people reject. I can't help but think about the prophecies of the Messiah in the Bible and how many yet did not believe in Jesus. Prophecy in The Wheel of Time can seem confusing and require the eyes of believers to see it. Is the same the case when it comes to Christianity? One example may be that of the virgin birth, a prophecy that was apparently fulfilled in the Old Testament (see Isaiah 7:10-17–the context shows that it was an immediate sign for Ahaz). Prophecy, it seems, is not as black and white as some would like it to be. It can take some discernment to draw out the meaning fully.
The Dragon Reborn is another fascinating step in the world of "The Wheel of Time." Reflecting on its worldview, it is here we begin to find some of the greatest deviations from Christianity, particularly in its elevation of the Pattern/The Wheel over the power of the Creator and the character of the Creator. However, it is interesting to see how this notion of fatalism truly begins to play out in later books. We'll delve into those as we go. For now, let me know your thoughts up to this point in the series!
Horus Heresy: "Horus Rising" and "False Gods" – the False Gods of statism and totalitarianism
Posted by J.W. Wartick ⋅ August 5, 2019 ⋅ Leave a comment
A huge series of novels set within the Warhammer 40,000 universe, the "Horus Heresy" tells the story of a massive rebellion against the Imperium of Man started by a man who was once the darling son of the Empire, Horus. Here, I want to discuss the way that the first two novels discuss religion and, in particular, the notion of "false gods" while setting it alongside false gods we face in our world today.
The Gods of Humanity
One of the background ideas in the Horus Heresy series is first introduced in the novel Horus Rising by Dan Abnett. This is the notion that the Emperor of Mankind has waged a lengthy Crusade to unite humanity, and that one of the primary aspects of this Crusade was the destruction of all religions. This theme is expanded greatly in False Gods by Graham McNeill, the second book in the series. Here, we find utter contempt from several of the main characters for those who carry along in different religious traditions. In this fictional world, it is unclear whether Christianity or any other major world religion ever existed, though a few analogues exist here and there. The main characters who express this disdain for religion, though, are also those who are pushing forward their own religionless agenda of one rule and a totalitarian state.
The False Gods of Statism and Totalitarianism
It is there–in the agenda of the totalitarian state combined with a kind of cult of statism that we find the true "false gods" in the novel False Gods. Yes, that's a confusing sentence, but let's parse it some. For Horus and those who follow him, the notion of the state itself has become a kind of idealized deity. There are even some who are working in this fictional world to deify the Emperor, and readers of the other fiction will know how that turns out. Horus and his ilk have worked for an ideal society, and it is one they don't know how to stop fighting for. By making their god into the state, they ritualize violence and sanctify war. Their fall from grace, as it begins in this book, is surprising in some ways, but almost inevitable in others, due, again, to the way that violence in the name of the state has become an end for itself.
We live in times in which statist violence is still sanctified. Whether it is dropping bombs on civilians in the name of our protection or the revision of history to make our own nation state the side that is in the "right" no matter what, the protection of the state leads to the worship of violence and the lifting up of war as an end rather than as a means (as one might argue for in Just War theory). I'll be very interested to see if these themes continue to develop in the Horus Heresy, which can almost, so far, be seen as a critique of the worldview of the "good guys" in this fictional universe.
Book Review: "Haunted by Christ: Modern Writers and the Struggle for Faith" by Richard Harries
Posted by J.W. Wartick ⋅ July 24, 2019 ⋅ Leave a comment
Haunted by Christ is a riveting look at how modern writers dealt with lingering doubts, anger, sorrow, and the question of Christianity. Richard Harries asks readers to engage with several writers to ask them questions that might not normally be asked, and he challenges readers in ways that are intricately tied into these authors' lives.
First, it is worth pointing out that the concept of "modern" here is being used in the technical sense, related to modernism. Harries sets this period starting with Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821-1881) and Closing in the early 20th century. The authors Harries surveys are Dostoevsky, Emily Dickinson, Gerard Manley Hopkins, Edward Thomas, T.S. Eliot, Stevie Smith, Samuel Beckett, W.H. Auden, William Golding, R.S. Thomas, Edwin Muir and George Mackay Brown, Elizabeth Jennings, Graham Greene with Flannery O'Connor, Shusaku Endo, and Evelyn Waugh, C.S. Lewis and Philip Pullman, and Marilynne Robinson. Readers familiar with the works of these authors will know they run the gamut from skeptics to devout Christians. What ties them together, in Harries reading, is that their works are "haunted" by the supernatural, and specifically through a grappling with the person of Jesus Christ.
As a reader, I was unfamiliar with many of the authors, not having read much from the modernist movement. (This line makes me want to say sorry to my English teachers.) Nevertheless, Harries gives enough biographical information on each author to understand the points he's making. Indeed, most of the information in the book is biographical, as Harries draws out each authors' struggle with faith and coming to terms with the person of Jesus Christ. Even the skeptics surveyed clearly interact with Christianity, even if in negative ways.
I found several chapters of particular interest. Seeing C.S. Lewis's and Philip Pullman's competing mythologies set alongside each other for examination was fascinating. The chapter on W.H. Auden and his quiet, almost "polite" faith drew to light the great impact culture can have on one's perception of religion and the work of God. The chapter on Golding makes me want to read more from him, despite not enjoying The Lord of the Flies. Emily Dickinson as "smouldering volcano" was an insightful look at a phenomenally successful poet. Each chapter had something that struck me, though the book also left me wishing I did know more about the authors and their works. I suspect Harries would be pleased to know his work led me to reach out and start reading some of these other works.
The biographical way Harries writes integrates worldview questions into the writings of each author. It never felt as though he subverted their own personal narratives, however. He didn't pull punches in describing the way a skeptic like Pullman spoke about religion. Nor did he cover up aspects of authors' lives that some might find unappealing. It's an honest, almost unyielding book. It made me uncomfortable at times, but in ways that challenged me to learn and understand.
Haunted by Christ is a fascinating work. Harries offers insight and vision into Christianity in ways that I hadn't really thought of before. It made me want to read many of the authors mentioned. And it made me want to know what someone who actually was more familiar with these authors might think. Recommended.
Disclaimer: I was provided with a copy of the book for review by the publisher. I was not required to give any specific kind of feedback whatsoever.
"The Great Hunt" by Robert Jordan – A Christian (re-)Reads "The Wheel of Time"
Posted by J.W. Wartick ⋅ May 27, 2019 ⋅ Leave a comment
The Great Hunt is book two in Robert Jordan's epic "The Wheel of Time," a series that has sold more than 400 million copies. There will be SPOILERS, though I will try to limit those for later in the series. Fair warning, though, I may not.
Evil is Deceptive
I know this may seem obvious, but it bears thinking on more closely: evil is deceptive. The Dark One is a deceiver, just as Christian theology teaches about Satan. In The Great Hunt, this most clearly strikes home in the prologue, as a man who calls himself Bors is entertaining himself at a party, seeking out the deceptions within deceptions all around him. Ultimately, the Dark One–or perhaps a Forsaken?–makes an appearance, leading all to cower in fear, but also to wonder at the possibility of lies and plots even here. Evil, you see, is deceptive: it is dangerous even to itself, tricking other evildoers into great plots and twisted ends.
The deception of evil isn't limited to the prologue, though. Perhaps the most clear example of evil being deceptive is one not revealed in this book. In fact, there are several threads that dangled in The Great Hunt without being fully revealed. Readers, get ready for some upcoming revelations! Some of them will take many books until we get to them.
Hatred and Justice
Some of the most poignant scenes in this book center around the Seanchan. I think that the scene in which Egwene is captured by the Seanchan and the subsequent scenes following her imprisonment are some of the most emotionally jarring in a book that I have ever read. I felt true loathing for the Seanchan and even though I knew the outcome of these events, having read the series before, I felt a true sense of dread throughout these scenes. The characters involved are no less emotional. Nynaeve says that the Seanchan deserve hatred, but also justice. I was struck by this. It is an almost offhand remark, made by Nynaeve in her efforts to get everyone moving out of a dangerous situation, but it is a statement offered unchallenged. Perhaps it is a commentary from Jordan on morality and justice as well.
For Jordan, there seems to be less room–if any–for mercy or forgiveness. Enemies are hated, justifiably, because they are evil. It's almost as though he has painted a truly black-and-white world, one in which evil is evil and good is good and that's all there is. The magical elements related to the evil powers help enforce this feel. I can't remember if forgiveness becomes a theme later in the books, but I'm curious to read more. According to a few bios I've seen of Jordan, including one on Tor, the publisher's page, he was an Episcopalian, so I'm wondering how much of his faith comes out in his books. On the other hand, it is clear he was drawing from many religious beliefs and myths to build his world, telling a story in the best way he knew.
Time works differently in The Wheel of Time. From what we can tell so far, it seems to be a wheel, constantly repeating in a circle. Many scenes with Rand show us this theme, as he is attacked by the Dark One who constantly tells him he will fail "again" and "again." Rand sees many possible (former?) lives in several different scenes. More and more, what this means becomes more clear. It is with this theme–reincarnation–that we see a more significant divergence from Christian belief. What does it mean for Rand to be Lews Therin reborn? What kind of ideas are involved in such rebirth and renewal? The future books will have to answer those questions.
The cyclical view of time seems to be quite different from a view of time from a Christian perspective. Though some Christian theologians through history can be found to hold to things like a B or Static theory of time, including an eternal universe, these are in the minority. Such musings about time take us far afield from what is clearly taught in the Bible, though. But reincarnation seems to be rather more clearly rejected. Though proof-texting out of context is a practice I tend to avoid, something like Hebrews 9:27-28 appears to go against reincarnation: "Just as people are destined to die once, and after that to face judgment, so Christ was sacrificed once to take away the sins of many; and he will appear a second time, not to bear sin, but to bring salvation to those who are waiting for him." Though again, here, we see the thrust of the text is not on the point of dying once, but rather on Christ's once-for-all sacrifice to take away sin. Other verses could be mustered, and the overall teaching within the Bible about humanity seems to be: life (not from eternity but born into time), death, judgment, and then final ends, whether eternal life or eternal death.
"The Eye of the World" by Robert Jordan – A Christian (re-)Reads "The Wheel of Time"
Posted by J.W. Wartick ⋅ April 8, 2019 ⋅ Leave a comment
"The Wheel of Time" is a massive fantasy series by Robert Jordan (and, later, Brandon Sanderson) that is being developed into a television show for Amazon Prime. It's cultural impact is huge, the series having sold more than 44 million copies. Here, I begin my re-read of the series. There will be SPOILERS in this post for the series.
The Cost of Darkness
Evil has a real, palpable effect on the world in The Eye of the World. Everything it touches, it corrupts. Darkfriends–those who aid the Dark One–are not always visibly evil, but a key figure–a darkfriend who had been a merchant to Two Rivers–gets twisted into an almost unrecognizable form. Trollocs are the "standard" bad guy in the Wheel of Time, and their features are distortions of reality: human forms mixed with those of beasts. The Forsaken, who make an appearance later, are again visible distortions of nature. If I wanted to go all Aristotelian-Thomistic on it, one could argue the evil has impacted the nature of these things, turning them from their proper ends and towards ends that lead to physical abnormalities and certainly impacting their capacity to see beyond their evil desires. The Foresaken, in particular, are twisted to the will of the Dark One and against each other. Evil, in Jordan's world, has real impact. It is not just something to shake our heads at.
Yet even in our world–the real world–evil does have an impact. It doesn't physically distort its perpetrators, but it does impact their well-being. It may not immediately show up in their everyday lives, at least from the outside, but by going against proper ends–by going against that which is good–evildoers distort nature and disrupt it. Sin corrupts and needs to be healed–it is not something that heals itself.
A theme throughout the whole series is the interactions between men and women. In some ways, Jordan seems to play into tropes of chivalry and the like, but then he subverts them, sometimes playfully, throughout the book. There are multiple scenes that become running jokes to fans of the series in The Eye of the World, whether it is Perrin and Rand each wishing the other were there to confide in about women or the hair tugs, there are several things Jordan integrates into his storytelling that seem to, at first, perhaps reinforce gender norms. However, the shared heritage of the One Power, which men are unable to touch at this point without going insane, is one way he subverts these norms. Another is through having the women themselves subvert expectations within the narrative. Egwene and Rand's story, for example, seems like a clear setup for a love story settling in over time, but when push comes to shove it becomes much more. Egwene and Nynaeve each go against expectations, realizing roles for themselves that push them beyond what their cultural expectations were. For example, Egwene in The Eye begins to see her potential for the One Power, as does Nynaeve, yet back in Two Rivers and abroad this may as well paint them as Darkfriends–or worse, something to be feared and totally unknown. It will be interesting in this re-read to see how Jordan continues to play with broader gender narratives.
Myth and Reality
A constant theme throughout The Eye of the World is that of myth and reality, which is itself set alongside prophecy and fulfillment throughout the whole series. The folk of Two Rivers see Aes Sedai as practically myths themselves, but when it comes to the news of false Dragons or even the mundane things like Trollocs, they're nothing more than myths in the unreal sense. But myth has a way of worming its way into reality. The people of Two Rivers, unfortunately, must face reality rather starkly when those legends come to life and Trollocs attack. More broadly speaking, Rand and the others must come to realize that their perceptions of what is real or possible may be wrong.
This theme of reality and myth resonates with the real world. Many things are dismissed as wrong or fairy tales when they are in fact grounded in reasonable beliefs. Others try to deny evidence that is directly before them (like those who deny that Jesus even existed, for example). But our world is one that is full of wonder and mystery still. Perhaps it is time to confront our own presuppositions and skepticisms and allow evidence to sway opinions. And that's just it–evidence does sway opinions in The Eye of the World, sometimes in very quick and easy ways–seeing a Trolloc attack–but other times it takes much more. Seeing is believing, as they say, but testimony is also evidence, and Rand and company are just beginning to learn about more myth breaking in to reality.
Prophecy and fulfillment, as I said, goes alongside this notion of myth and reality. The Dragon is a terrible, fearsome one who is prophesied, and there are seemingly clear ways to know when the Dragon has come along. Many false Dragons have come and gone. The world awaits with fear the one who will fulfill the prophecies. It's not quite like the anticipation of the Messiah, but it does show how expectations can be very different from what one thinks a clear reading of the texts entails.
The Eye of the World remains a compelling narrative nearly 30 years after its initial publication. Jordan wove myth, narrative, prophecy, and humanity together into a coherent whole that only begins with this first book. What questions do you have coming out of reading the book? What other worldview issues did you see arise?
"The Changeling" by Victor LaValle – Seeing the Humanity in the Other… or not
Posted by J.W. Wartick ⋅ December 12, 2018 ⋅ Leave a comment
I don't think it is a secret to say that I love books. Part of loving books as much as I do means joining book clubs, and places like Goodreads allow for networking about books around the globe. I am somewhat active in the Science Fiction and Fantasy Book Club on Goodreads, and in August, we read The Changeling by Victor LaValle. I found it to be deeply moving, at times disturbing, and, on reflection, ingenious. LaValle seems particularly interested in the notion of seeing humanity in those we consider "other." There will be SPOILERS in what follows.
Amal El-Mohtar at NPR had an intriguing post on the book as well, which gives a summary, with a caveat:
Here is more or less what most synopses I've seen of The Changeling say: Apollo Kagwa is a rare book dealer and new father, in love with his wife, Emma, and their infant son Brian, named after the vanished father who haunts Apollo's dreams. But when Emma commits an unspeakable act of violence and disappears, Apollo's left grasping at the threads of his unravelled life, following them through a labyrinth of strange characters, mysterious islands and haunted forests, all occupying the same space as the five boroughs of New York City.
This is accurate — but the experience of reading the book is something else. The storytelling gets compressed and decompressed at various points like the air in a bellows, stoking the fire under the story, burning away its disguises and sending it shrieking up the chimney.
When I finished reading the book, I initially thought it was a bit odd. Like El-Mohtar, I could summarize the book, but the more I thought about it, the more it felt the various threads in the plot needed to be stripped away and removed, so that I could see what was underneath. What his plot summary leaves out is that Emma is ultimately found vindicated because their son was replaced with a changeling by a man whose family has been working to steal children to feed to a troll for an extraordinary length of time. But all of this is tied, in a way, back into a discussion of racism. The main characters are almost all people of color, while the two characters who work to feed the trolls the children of people of color are white.
As I thought about the plot of the book, I realized that it could be a kind of metaphor for talking about race relations in the United States. The idea of whites taking away black children to give to a "troll" is a poignant way to think about slavery. The heartless attitude of those who take the children away is also similar to the comments made about various "political" issues like immigration or shootings.
I asked the author on Twitter a bit about the interpretation of the book. He replied that the idea of seeing it as a commentary on race relations was on track, but also that one of the white characters had the motivation that he simply couldn't imagine a correspondence between how much he loved the children and how much their own parents did. There's a kind of disconnect in understanding the "other" that leads to heinous acts. It is this disconnect that is perhaps most alarming and heart-rending in the book. LaValle draws readers in with a truly beautiful story of falling in love, loving books (I have to admit the used book seller aspect of the plot gave me much joy) and then hammers home a point about the brutality of our world so suddenly that it shocks the reader.
Sin has that same effect. It breaks into a peaceful picture, most violently when we see it in Genesis 3. Into God's very good creation comes sin, and it changes everything. The serpent offers a substitute–a changeling–for reality, pushing a vision of the future to Adam and Eve that they accept instead of trusting God. Racism is sinful, and LaValle's work highlights the intensity of violence and the person-destroying nature of that sin.
Near the end of the book, there is this brief aside at the end of Chapter 102:
Apollo lingered. He approached the stones, skirting around until he found the largest one, what had been the troll's head. He could still make out the soft depression of those great blind eyes. He brushed each one with a finger. He leaned close to the stone and pressed his forehead to it. He felt as if he was finally burying what had been haunting him since he was a child. A funeral not for his father but his fatherlessness. Let that monster rest.
A funeral for his fatherlessness. I was deeply moved by this line and have been thinking about it ever since. I don't really know how or why it made me think so much about it, but it has stuck with me. Just another aspect of a book that forces its readers to reflect.
The Changeling by Victor LaValle is a moving, disturbing work. I recommend it highly, and would love to discuss it with you.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


A letter from my role models. I felt perhaps it's time to share more & you'll better understand my work & my open heart.
In view of the recent events (election), it is a big deal and it is not. When you look at things in life and how they affect us, The US constitution as you know, is a wonderful document, and has worked very well for the last couple of hundred years, so this is just a bump in the road. There will be better people and women will win the presidency sooner than you think. Our lives matter more than some politicians, remember that. This guy will be remembered for a lot of things, but your lives are more important to fret about a politician.
Take care of yourselves that is what's important, and leave the other stuff to them. You have voted and you did your job, and there is no guarantee of the outcome.
As someone once said, don't sweat the small stuff, because life is full of surprises.


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text:
22nd Jun 2017
AIPMT-NEET Biology Aspirants, read out the next AIPMT-NEET Biology Study material/ Notes of Binomial nomenclature. In this we will learn about rules of Binomial nomenclature important for AIPMT-NEET Biology. Free online notes for AIPMT-NEET.
Biodiversity refers to the number and types of organisms present on earth. There is about 1.7 to 1.8 million species in the world, which are known to us and are described.
Species are said to be the group of similar or related individuals or organisms that can mate and produce fertile offspring.
Species are the fundamental units of systematics and are the basis of classification.
New organisms are continuously being identified by researchers and there identification and nomenclature is done to standardize them.
Standardization of name of living organisms is necessary so that a particular organism is known by the same name all over the world and there is no confusion created by the local names, which varies from place to place.
So, Nomenclature is the process of giving a standard scientific name to the particular organism so that it is known by the same name all over the world.
Identification is the process of recognition of essential characters of the organism so the organism is described correctly and nomenclature is done accordingly.
For identification and scientific nomenclature of organisms, scientists have established certain rules, principles and criteria, which are acceptable to biologists all over the world.
For plants, these rules are set by International Code for Botanical Nomenclature (ICBN). For animals, these rules are provided by International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) from 1901. Previously, it is named as International Rules of Zoological Nomenclature.
Scientific names ensure that each organism has only one name.
Description of any organism should enable the people (in any part of the world) to arrive at the same name.
Scientific name ensures that such a name has not been used for any other known organism.
Binomial nomenclature was first used by Swedish naturalist Carl von Linne (Carolus Linnaeus). He listed all the known plants of that time in his book Species Plantarum (1753).
Then in 1758, he published tenth edition of book naming Systema Naturae. In this book (Systema Naturae), he used binomial nomenclature for the first time. In Systema Naturae, Linnaeus listed 4,387 species of animals.
Before Linnaeus, Plato and his pupil Aristotle also used the binomial nomenclature, but their work did not get recognized. Linnaeus work was quickly adapted by biologists due to his prestige and influence. That's why Linnaeus is called as Father of Taxonomy. So, any nomenclature published before 1758, i.e. before work of Linnaeus is not considered valid.
Binomial system of nomenclature consists of two components/two words for each name. These two words are Latin words. Two components of name are: Generic name and specific epithet, i.e. genus and species.
Latin language is used for nomenclature because it is a dead language and will not change over time.
Universal rules of nomenclature are as follows:
Biological names are generally in Latin and written in italics. They are Latinized or derived from Latin irrespective of their origin.
First word in a biological name represents the genus while the second component denotes the species.
Both the words in a biological name, when handwritten, are separately underlined, or printed in italics to indicate their Latin origin.
First word denoting the genus starts with a Capital letter, while that of species starts with a small letter.
Name of the author who described the species is also written (with year of publication of name)after the name of species, in complete official format. It is written in an abbreviated form.
If a species described in a given genus later gets transferred to another genus, then name of the author of the original species, is enclosed in parentheses.
Let's take up an example of mango: The scientific name of mango is written as Mangifera indica.
In this Mangifera represents the genus while indica, is a particular species, or a specific epithet.
Written in italics as it is printed.
Genus starts with Capital letter and species with small letter.
Mangifera indica Linn. It indicates that this species was first described by Linnaeus.
Mountain Lion: binomial nomenclature is Puma concolor (Linnaeus) indicates that Linnaeus originally classified and named this species. He classified it in the genus Felis, but it was later reclassified in the genus Puma.
NOTE: Recently 4 new frog species are discovered in India from Western Ghats (UNESCO World Heritage site & one of the biggest biodiversity hotspot) by Indian scientist "SD Biju (Frogman of India)" and team. These species are listed as smallest known frogs in the world, ranging between 12.2- 15.4 mm.
Trinomial Nomenclature: includes 3 components in name. Genus, species and sub-species. Cabbage is Brassica oleracea var. capitata.
Tags: Rules of Binomial Nomenclature


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text:
David Vidales Ajenjo (León, 1 mei 2002) is een Spaans autocoureur.

Carrière
Vidales begon zijn autosportcarrière in het karting in 2013. In zijn eerste twee jaren werd hij Spaans kampioen. In 2017 werd hij derde in de WSK Final Cup. Dat jaar werd hij tevens tweede in het CIK-FIA wereldkampioenschap karten. In 2018 werd hij derde in de wereldcup en in 2019 eindigde hij een positie hoger in dit kampioenschap.

In 2020 maakte Vidales de overstap naar het formuleracing, waarin hij debuteerde in de Eurocup Formule Renault 2.0 bij het team JD Motorsport vanaf het tweede raceweekend op het Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari. In zijn eerste race behaalde hij direct de pole position en de overwinning, waarna hij ook de tweede race van dat weekend won. Hierna behaalde hij weliswaar geen zeges meer, maar stond hij nog wel vier keer op het podium; tweemaal op het Circuit Magny-Cours en eenmaal op zowel de Nürburgring als het Circuit Zandvoort. Met 169 punten werd hij zesde in het kampioenschap. Hij werd tevens achter Alex Quinn tweede in het rookiekampioenschap.

In 2021 begon Vidales het seizoen in het Aziatische Formule 3-kampioenschap, waarin hij uitkwam voor het Abu Dhabi Racing by Prema als vervanger van Dino Beganovic. Hij nam enkel deel aan de laatste twee raceweekenden, maar behaalde desondanks een podiumfinish op het Dubai Autodrome. Met 38 punten werd hij dertiende in de eindstand. Vervolgens keerde hij terug naar de Eurocup Formule Renault, dat werd samengevoegd met het Formula Regional European Championship en ook onder deze naam verder ging, en kwam hierin opnieuw uit voor het Prema Powerteam. Hij won de eerste race van het seizoen op Imola, maar behaalde hierna nog slechts twee podiumfinishes op het Circuit Ricardo Tormo Valencia en het Circuit Mugello. Met 102 punten werd hij tiende in het klassement.

In 2022 debuteerde Vidales in het FIA Formule 3-kampioenschap, waarin hij uitkwam voor het team Campos Racing. Hij behaalde een overwinning op het Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, maar in de rest van het seizoen kwam hij nooit verder dan een zevende plaats op het Circuit de Spa-Francorchamps. Met 29 punten werd hij zestiende in de eindstand.

Externe links
 Officiële website
 Statistieken op Driver Database

Spaans autocoureur

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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For our scholarship purposes, the term 'developing' includes middle income countries. The following is a list of countries considered to be 'developed'. If your country is not on the list then you are eligible to apply.


text:
SM Tb 54T – austro-węgierski torpedowiec z początku XX wieku i okresu I wojny światowej, piąta jednostka typu Kaiman. Do 1913 roku nosił nazwę Wal, następnie oznaczenie 54T, a od roku 1917 sam numer 54 (skrót przed numerem SM Tb oznaczał Seiner Majestät Torpedoboot – torpedowiec Jego Cesarskiej Mości). Po I wojnie światowej służył w marynarce Królestwa SHS (późniejszej Jugosławii) jako T 12.

Budowa
Stępkę pod budowę okrętu położono w stoczni Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino (STT) w Trieście 12 grudnia 1905 roku, kadłub wodowano 10 września 1906 roku, a okręt oddano do służby 15 czerwca 1907 roku (wraz z bliźniaczymi "Seehund" i "Delphin"). Początkowo nosił nazwę "Wal" (wieloryb), lecz od 1 stycznia 1914 roku zastąpiono ją przez alfanumeryczne oznaczenie 54 T (litera "T" oznaczała, że okręt zbudowano w Trieście). Rozkazem z 21 maja 1917 roku z oznaczeń torpedowców usunięto ostatnią literę i do końca wojny okręt nosił  tylko numer 54.

Służba
Okręt brał udział w I wojnie światowej, pełniąc głównie służbę patrolową i konwojową na Adriatyku. 20 września 1915 roku był nieskutecznie atakowany przez francuski okręt podwodny "Fresnel".

Po wojnie okręt w ramach podziału floty Austro-Węgier przekazano wraz z trzema innymi Królestwu Serbów, Chorwatów i Słoweńców (SHS), gdzie służył pod oznaczeniem T 12. Został wycofany jako pierwszy w 1926 roku (publikacje na ogół podają, że cała czwórka została wycofana w latach 1927-1928).

Opis

Okręt posiadał dwa kotły parowe typu Yarrow i jedną pionową czterocylindrową maszynę parową potrójnego rozprężania. Okręt uzbrojony był w cztery armaty kalibru 47 mm L/33 (po dwie na każdej z burt) oraz trzy wyrzutnie torped kalibru 450 mm. W 1915 roku uzbrojenie wzmocniono pojedynczym karabinem maszynowym Schwarzlose 8 mm.

Przypisy

Bibliografia

 René Greger: Austro-Hungarian Warships of World War I. Londyn, 1976. . (ang.)

Jugosłowiańskie torpedowce
Okręty zbudowane w Stabilimento Tecnico Triestino
Torpedowce typu Kaiman


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