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Video Games Nebula
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Tag Archives: humour
I'm ashamed to admit this. I think the Three Stooges had more of an influence on my life than video games.
Filed under Video Game Misc.
Tagged as humour, influences, life, Three Stooges, video games
I'm a Man of Few Words
[Goes to play video games.]
Tagged as humor, humour, video games, words
The Video Games That Keep Me up All Night
My eyes felt like they were carrying a heavy burden. I could only relieve myself of this burden by shutting them. I slowly started to close one eye, and then the other became green with envy and followed suit. I sat on my couch about to enter another world. The world was full of comfy pillows, jumping sheep and rest. It was the world of sleep.
I only had to swim across the mental moat separating the two worlds. I dove into the water and let it caress me, let it push me slowly and gently into sleep. But the tranquil ripples turned into a roaring waterfall in an instant, and I nearly drowned. I woke up as if I just surfaced, wiping the perspiration off my forehead.
Clap, flap, clap, flap! All I heard were these sounds that resembled chattering but sadly not the sweet songs of birds. I turned to my right and saw a stack of video game cases flapping their lids as if I wasn't even there. Imagine the rudeness!
I could not keep my lips sealed. "Will you use wise guys shut your cases! I'm trying to sleep here, and your blathering is keeping me up."
Tagged as humor, humour, video games
1 Weird Trick to Get Better at Video Games
To begin, you will need 500 mg of Doctor Von Blunderbuss' magic elixir. You'll know you have the right product when you see the green and purple bubbles boiling, and your nostrils sting from a strong a sulfur smell. After downing the bubbles, this product will ignite your adrenaline, and give you the edge you need to be a winner.
Other doctor hate this guy's powerful elixir because he's putting them out of business. And you can have this powerful product all to yourself to fuel your gaming marathons. But don't stop there!
Try the new "Bat" visor with patented aim assist technology. For the visor to be effective, you must wear it all the time and learn to see the world as we want you to see it. But this control over your vision is a small price to pay. After all, you can beat the pros at their own game. You can take on gaming legends and win without them ever knowing what hit them. Now you could settle for beating the pros and other enemies, or y0u could go further. You could have these enemies begging at your feet for mercy. To get them begging, you need to use "The Edge."
"The Edge" is a pill that has been clinically shown to eliminate all distractions from your play time. No person or thing can stop you from dominating in your digital fantasy playground. Believe in yourself. And then take this dangerous drug that allows us to control your mind, and you'll win in no time.
Wait! You don't need any of this junk. You want one trick to get better at video games? Play them more.
Tagged as humour, trick, video games
Untold Story of a Blockbuster Game
A rooster crowed as Jack rubbed his eyes.
"Wait, what? When did I get a rooster?"
Sure enough, the rooster crowed as it pecked at a carpet of newspapers laid out on the floor.
Then he rubbed his temples and the fog cleared in his mind. Now he saw clearly, as the light streamed through the windows, that his apartment was a disaster zone. He remembered only fleeting images of a booze soaked nights, but the empty bottles and greasy pizza boxes refreshed his memory.
Jack Smith, a video game developer, tip-toed and carefully lifted his long gangly legs over the mess. The rotting, fly infested garbage inspired Jack to do something great.
"I decided on making a game called Happy Pizza Beer Party then and there. I hadn't fully planned out what the game was yet, but I knew my life would chang forever. My previous games hadn't worked out. I alienated friends, co-workers and teammates during production with my boorish behaviour. I figured I was about due this time for success."
Smith liked to party, to take risks and gamble. He had saved up enough change after years of playing cards to create this game. "I felt like nothing could stop me from making this game," he said.
Smith spent half of his money to work on the concept alone. To do it, he went to the local bar. The bartender asked, "What will you have? The usual?" "Nah, I'll have a cocktail napkin," he replied.
The bewildered bartender handed over the white square. "Something wrong?," he asked. Smith was busy scribbling down the game's concept on a napkin and ignored the bartender. He wrote these words "drinking and pizza eating simulator and/ or competition."
After a couple of drinks, Smith fleshed out his central idea. Players would have to balance their health meter while they aimed to guzzle the most beer and devour trays of pizza. They could tap buttons at a certain speed to pace their digestion and stay alive. Players would need to balance health with the urge to eat.
To realize his plans for the game, Jack assembled a team of game developers in New York City. First he had to test their mettle in a drink-off. He subjected the winners who still stood after downing a keg to a pizza show down. Smith thought the nine winners of these competitions had proven their dedication to him, and by extension, his video game. He hired them and they started developing the game in March 2012.
Sadly, a wave of misfortune hit the team as they worked. They couldn't afford to hire extra staff so each team member had to work twice as hard. When the team lost government funding, they let go of two employees and lived off of ramen. They had hit rock bottom. But Smith refused to give up and forced the team to work on weekends. In fact, finishing the game became his obsession destroying his relationships with everyone.
As one ex employee said "He was like a dictator, and we followed orders to stay alive. All hands were on deck to finish the game."
The team finished a prototype one year after they started work on the game. They paraded the game at local conventions where the air was thick with nerd sweat. The feedback they received led them to revise the game, submit it to publishers, then throw it out and start again.
Two months later, the team squashed all the bugs and released the game. Jack's team spent $2 million dollars making the game and sold it for $10. Jack and the team received universal praise from fans and critics. The fans wrote love letters to the team. Almost every critic had something positive to say about the game.
Video games Nebula called it "…a breath taking revelation, an electrifying experience made all the more intense because I accidentally dropped a toaster in the bathtub while playing." However, some guy in pajamas in his parent's basement called it "sub par" and said he'd "rather spend time with his blow up doll." But that guy was the exception.
The game went on to sell millions of copies worldwide. Jack summed up the game's significance best: "Wow! I can't believe it worked. Never has so much creativity come from binge drinking."
Sometimes I wonder about the origin stories of my favourite games. Did any of them have similar stories? I have immense respect, though, for the hardworking developers who make games.
Filed under Silly Video Game Inspired Fiction
Tagged as humour, silly, video games
Video Game Weapons Could Save The World
It seems like every game has guns these days, but most of these weapons are not memorable. However, the two games below have cool weapons that could also help our world.
(1) Ratchet and Clank: A Crack In Time
The Ratchet and Clank series is famous for its weapons, and one of my favourites is the Groovitron Glove. It launches shiny disco balls and plays music that causes any enemy to dance. For a moment, you are at disco club full of bad guys. Feel free to laugh at the giant mech's lame dance moves. It can't hurt you when it feels the rhythm deeps in its cold circuits.
So the glove sounds great in a video game. I mean, it can stop bad guys and entertain you. But you might have overlooked its practical use in life.
This glove is one of those rare video game weapons that could help people. I'm not much of a dancer and feel self-conscious about my "moves." But pull out the Groovitron at a wedding and – bam ! – I could become the life of the party.
Better yet, the Groovitron could bring us word peace. If you dance non-stop, you won't have time to start or continue a war. Imagine a peace conference where everyone danced their way to a mutual understanding.
Now we must buy a large supply of disco balls in the name of world peace. It's all on us, people! Do you want to explain to the next generation that you were too cheap to prevent war?
I think Insomniac, the developer of A Crack in Time, made this glove to promote peace and have a laugh. The Groovitron is their plan to solve the world's problems.
At the very least, they seem proud of all their weapons. They took the time to make humorous, cartoon movies to introduce the armaments. I love these movies and appreciate when developers add details like this to a game. The details often set games apart, keeping them in your memory long after you beat them.
(2) BioShock
Plasmids are serums that give gamers magic powers in this game. Plasmids include, but are not limited to, telekinesis, an electric bolt attack, and an "insect swarm" power that shoots bees out of your hands. I guess the bees are useful when you want to sting and irritate the skin of your enemies.
But the "insect swarm" plasmid might help the world's bees. It seems colony collapse disorder kills honey bees all around the world. Do not fret. If we need healthy bees for agriculture, we could always use the plasmid to spawn them on demand.
I suggest you play BioShock and do some research on bees. While you play, I recommend you watch the humorous cartoon movies that introduce each weapon with a touch of class.
I love the creative weapons in A Crack in Time and BioShock. But you don't need to play these games to appreciate the Groovitron or insect swarm. You should know that these weapons/ powers could solve world peace and bee deaths.
Tagged as entertainment, facetious, humour, video games
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Video Games Nebula · Out of This World


And, best of all, BANDITS, PROSTITUTES AND SILVER became WU TANG HO'S, THUGS & SCRILLAH. I kid you not.
These films were made by the dozens in the 1970s and '80s, with 1978-80 being a particularly productive period. While Shaw Bros. and Golden Harvest made the more high-end films in this group, with stars like Gordon Liu, Fu Sheng, Jackie Chan and Sammo Hung, most of the tapes coming out at that time offered lower-budgeted films from much smaller companies operating in Hong Kong and Taiwan, and featured such stars as Wong Tao, John Liu, Tan Tao Liang, Cliff Lok, Hwang Jang Lee, Carter Wong, John Chang, Chang Yi, Angela Mao, Chia Ling (Judy Lee), Polly Shang Kwan, Doris Chen (Lung Chung Erh) and Hsia Kwan Li. Maybe not household names in the U.S., compared to Bruce Lee, Jackie Chan and Jet Li, but all certainly revered by longtime kung fu fans.
The tapes in question were mostly poor-quality pan-and-scan or full-frame transfers, dubbed in English and, worst of all, recorded at the slow speed, EP (Extended Play), like something you'd tape off TV when you were more interested in quantity than quality. There was a period there when the market was flooded with these things. Initially I was paying $10.99 per tape in some stores, which I'm still kicking myself for, but eventually the prices came down and they ran anywhere from $3.99 to $6.99 at most stores.
I did whatever research on the web that I could to see what hidden gems existed under those ludicrous titles and made my choices, amassing dozens of these tapes during that period. The other companies involved in releasing these tapes in the U.S. included entities named Arena, Eastern Heroes, Hong Kong Connection, Lion Video, Brooklyn Zoo, and Ground Zero. Some of them seemed to be owned by Xenon and I wouldn't be surprised if it turns out they all were.
On occasion, I'd get lucky and find a film that was letterboxed and/or in Mandarin or Cantonese with English subtitles. And I'd be especially lucky if I found one taped at SP (Standard Play). I hit a triple one day when I found HELL'Z WINDSTAFF (1979, aka DRAGON AND TIGER KIDS), which was letter-boxed, subtitled and SP! And the box even erroneously stated it was the English dubbed version. What luck! I made sure to put post-its on those tapes that had some special distinction like this.
All this came back to me when I recently picked up one of those Mill Creek DVD box sets of 50 movies for $19.99. This one was called Iron Fist Frenzy and contained 50 kung fu movies on 13 discs. Amazingly there were 43 films which I'd never seen and only 12 out of the 50 were already in my collection. What a bargain, I figured, even if the print quality on most was bound to range from poor to awful. Well, as it turned out, it offered a clean, letter-boxed copy (albeit English-dubbed) of a Yuen Wo Ping movie I'd never seen before, DRUNKEN TAI CHI (1984), that happened to be Donnie Yen's first starring movie. He's quite good in it and one can easily see why he became a star in Hong Kong films.
The set also offered a good print of KUNG FU GENIUS, an established classic of the genre starring Cliff Lok, that was letter-boxed and better-than-average.
And the print of THE WOMAN AVENGER, starring Hsia Kwan Li, was definitely a step up from my EP VHS copy.
I wound up going through my bedroom closet and its boxes of kung fu VHS tapes and digging out my originals to compare with the copies on the Iron Fist set and, in the process, I found a number of tapes I still hadn't viewed as well as quite a few I wanted to see again, so in between the high-class offerings of my three previous blog entries (WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE, PORTRAIT OF JENNIE, and Orson Welles), I crammed in over 20 kung fu films during the month of May.
Back when I started amassing these tapes, few reviews of these films existed on the web, so I wound up doing reviews and posting them to Amazon and IMDB starting in 2001. Here's what I wrote about HELL'Z WINDSTAFF in one of my earliest reviews for Amazon.
HELL'Z WINDSTAFF (1979) is an unsung kung fu classic that features four superb performers, three of whom are underrated, if not completely unknown, even among genre fans. There is an almost nonstop succession of fights, all very well staged and photographed on location and worked into the framework of a clever variation on a standard kung fu theme. In this one, a criminal gang plots to lure the young men from a Chinese town with promises of work in Borneo where a slave ring awaits. Two kung fu students and their teacher break up the gang's activities, but when the teacher is killed in a fight with the gang leader, the students must go into hiding to learn special techniques known as Rowing Oar and Dragon Hands from a reclusive master. Only by using those techniques in tandem will they be able to defeat the Devil Stick technique of the man who killed their teacher. The young leads are Meng Hoi and Meng Yuan Man and their teacher is played by Jason Pai Piao. Their opponent is the venerable high-kicking Hwang Jang Lee who makes one of the most formidable kung fu villains I've ever seen. He is really tough to beat and both kung fu masters are killed trying. It takes the superhuman efforts of the two students to finally emerge victorious. Genuine kung fu skills, including a high degree of stick fighting, are mixed with acrobatics, but without the usual trampoline stunts or wire work. It's the real thing throughout and is captured on film in a straightforward manner, with no camera or editing tricks. The Arena release, part of the Wu Tang Collection, is both letter-boxed and in Cantonese with English subtitles, neither of which are announced on the video box. These desired features are rarities among old-school kung fu films released in the U.S. We can actually see all of the fighting in the frame and hear the actors' voices in their original language. This was an amazing find. Also known as DRAGON AND TIGER KIDS.
You will find links to my Amazon and IMDB reviews throughout this piece.
The gold standard for Kung Fu VHS tapes back then was Ocean Shores, a Hong Kong company that offered legit copies with good transfers of licensed prints at SP speed, although they were still full-frame and English-dubbed. But the print and transfer quality were a lot better than the Xenon releases. I got a lot of them from Kim's Video on St. Mark's Place.
There were other companies that offered legit versions of these films, most notably World Video & Supply, Inc. and Saturn Video, but their copies were often just as bad as those put out by Xenon and they didn't have the most high-end films.
One other company, South Gate Entertainment, occasionally offered good-quality legit editions of kung fu classics.
THE CHINATOWN KID, a Shaw Bros. production, was not only letter-boxed and SP (albeit English-dubbed), but it was a better and more complete version of the film than we got from Celestial Pictures when they started releasing Shaw Bros. films on re-mastered Region 3 DVDs in the early 2000s. I wrote about the differences in the two versions here on May 14, 2014.
At the same time, I was also visiting the 43rd Chamber, on 43rd Street just off 8th Avenue. It had formerly been the 42nd Chamber when it was located in an old newsstand on the corner of 42nd Street and 8th Avenue just down the block from the old movie theaters that used to run these films incessantly in the 1970s and '80s, but the store had been forced to move in 1995 by the redevelopment of 42nd Street. I had been getting VHS copies of current Hong Kong films at this store since 1994, but by 1998, I was seeking out old-school kung fu and purchasing tapes there for $10 a pop, often choosing titles recommended by the regulars who hung out there–Shah, the proprietor, and his partner Charles Woods, John "the Commissioner," Greg Levine, Ian Rock, and several others whose names I didn't learn or have forgotten (a crowd I truly miss in the era where all our discoveries are most likely being made on YouTube).
Invariably, I'd make the purchase, take the tape home and find out that—guess what?—they were right! I did have to have those titles.
The tape quality really varied, but I did manage to discover a lot of worthy kung fu films this way.
Occasionally, the DVDs were made by the usual bootleg distributors and generally didn't look much better than the VHS.
My VHS copy of LADY CONSTABLES was not only full-frame, cropped and badly dubbed, but it was EP, so when I found a DVD copy of it, I bought it in the hope it was some kind of upgrade. When I checked the DVD counter to see how long the film was, it said 112 min., which gave me hopes of seeing an "uncut" version. (A pretty ridiculous hope, I realize in retrospect, given how rarely these films went over 90 minutes.) As it turned out, it was only that long because whoever made the transfer had left the tape running into black long past the film's 87-minute running time. Worse, the DVD was made from an EP copy, so it looked just as bad as the VHS. Sadly, this appears to be the only way to see the only starring team-up of the two reigning kung fu divas of the 1970s, Angela Mao and Chia Ling.
I watched both the English dub and the Hong Kong import DVD for this review. The HK version is completely reedited and includes footage from EIGHT MASTERS (aka 18 BRONZEMEN 3) and another, unrelated Kuo film, UNBEATEN 28. It also shortens scenes showcasing Polly Shang Kwan and Tien Peng and plays up Carter Wong's role. I actually found the English dub, despite being available only on full-frame VHS, the more effective version.
So I lucked out with the VHS version, which, despited being recorded at EP speed, was actually a pretty good print and transfer, far better than average for this distributor.
One gray market distributor, Crash Cinema, made a point of indicating on its tape/DVD cases which transfers were made from theatrical 35mm prints. Sometimes their offerings were the best around, in terms of transfer and print quality, and their releases included some genuine classics, including SECRET RIVALS, SECRET RIVALS 2, and MAR'S VILLA. I was astounded to find that their 2-disc release of MAR'S VILLA included both the English-dubbed version and the original Mandarin-language version with subtitles, something that wasn't even announced on the DVD case.
THE MARS VILLA (1978) is an old-school kung fu classic that offers a rousing showcase for both the acting and fighting talents of high kicker John Liu (SECRET RIVALS, INVINCIBLE ARMOR). The value of this edition is that it's a two-disc set with both an English-dubbed version and a Chinese-language version with English subtitles. The Chinese-language print is the superior one, transferred in its proper widescreen dimensions and boasting a sharp transfer and bright colors. The English dub is also letterboxed but not at the proper aspect ratio. The image on the dub is slightly squeezed and slightly cropped at top and bottom. It's a tad soft and the colors more muted. The subtitled version is the one to watch. Interestingly, there is no indication on Crash Cinema's DVD case that a second disc with the Chinese version is included. What a pleasant surprise this purchase turned out to be.
Here's a section from my Amazon review of Crash Cinema's DVD of CANTONEN IRON KUNG FU, which singles out the print source.
However, the original 35mm print from which this high-quality letter-boxed DVD transfer was made (courtesy of Crash Cinema's Pagoda Films Premium Collection) was in such pristine condition that it gives viewers a rare chance to see an old-school kung fu film in something approximating the way it was meant to be seen. While the film itself is no classic, it is well-made and entertaining enough to justify watching simply because it is in so much better condition than 95% of the kung fu films so far available in the U.S. My only quibble with the DVD is that it wasn't enhanced for 16:9 presentation.
Eventually, starting in late 2002, the high-end martial arts films made by leading Hong Kong studio Shaw Bros. began coming out in Region 3 DVDs, restored, remastered, letter-boxed and in their original language with subtitles. At this point, it seemed kind of foolish to keep buying bootleg VHS tapes.
Besides, the 43rd Chamber had moved again (to 41st Street) and soon went out of business. And the steady stream of all those tapes from Xenon & company slowed down to a trickle and I figured I'd gotten everything good I was going to get from them.
7 GRANDMASTERS (1978) is a legendary kung fu film that's been a fan favorite for over 25 years. Good home video copies were impossible to come by until this legit DVD which offers the film letter-boxed, with 16:9 enhancement, enabling most of us, for the first time, to see the breathtaking kung fu action in all its widescreen glory. Licensed to Tokyo Shock/Media Blasters by Hong Kong's Mei Ah, the transfer was made from a high-quality print that may be the best non-Shaw Bros. print of a kung fu film yet released in the U.S. The dual language track includes both the familiar English dub and the original Mandarin track, with English subtitles.
While the Shaw Bros. and Golden Harvest titles have largely been rescued from bootleg hell, the same cannot be said for the vast majority of kung fu films from that period and I doubt we'll ever see legit copies of some of the films mentioned in this entry. But at least I've got some kind of copy of so many of them–all packed away in my bedroom closet.
And pretty much every one of these films has wound up on YouTube, so they're at least accessible.
Finally, I now have to go through that Iron Fist Frenzy box set and see all of the (now) 41 films on it I've never seen. 18 SHAOLIN RIDERS stars Wong Tao, Chia Ling, Lo Lieh and Chen Sing. How could I have missed that one back in the day?
shaolin invincible guys on the iron frenzy 50 movie collection are the same quality as if they were bought on seperate releases?


It's not about feeling good or at least better.
It's about trusting the God of love and power.
Only then will we live real life.
Only then will we begin to thrive.
Click Below to Find Out How to Bring the Inspiring Evangelism Conference to Your Church!


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Q: Openlayers 3 - How to garbage collect Canvas ReplayGroup objects? I've got an issue with ol.render.canvas.ReplayGroup objects not being let go to garbage collection.
The layer that this is for is an ol.layer.Image, created from an ol.source.ImageVector, in turn created from an ol.source.Vector source.
The sequence of events that I'd like to have result in some garbage collection is,
   the Image's style is set to null with setStyle(null);
   then the Image's source is set to null with setSource(null);
   then the ol.layer.Image object is removed from the map with setMap(null);
This does result in the layer being removed from the map ( I think, it disappears ), but when I profile the web page with Chrome's heap allocation profile, the canvas.ReplayGroup object is still there, never to be used again.
Is this something anyone else has run into? I've tried to use the map.addLayer() instead of layer.setMap( ), same results.
== edit ==
I forgot to write, the ol.layer.Image has been added to an ol.layer.Group.  More specifically, that last part above was map.addLayer( group ) and also group.getLayers().forEach(function(l){ l.setMap(map); }), no difference it seems.

A: https://github.com/openlayers/ol3/blob/master/src/ol/source/imagevectorsource.js
In the ol.source.ImageVector that's the source for the ol.layer.Image, I found a reference to the replay group classes called replayGroup_.  Setting that 'private' property to null after setting the layer source to null results in garbage collection.. yay!
var imageVector = layer.getSource();
layer.setSource(null);
imageVector.setStyle(null);
imageVector.replayGroup_ = null;
imageVector = null;

This works for me for now

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


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Postcard from Australia: Good Shepherd Microfinance and the Financial Continuum
A new scheme is aimed at the bottom rung of Australia's wealth ladder
Elisabeth Rhyne
On a trip to the antipodes you expect to find things a bit upside down. You look out on the underneath side of the universe and see mammals that lay eggs. On my recent trip there, I discovered that the microfinance world is a little upside down, too.
The biggest microfinance program in Australia, Good Shepherd Microfinance's No Interest Loan Scheme (NILS) is mind-bendingly different from most microfinance operations. In the first place, it charges no interest or fees – technically it's a repayable grant. Secondly, it is explicitly designed to assist people to obtain consumer goods, such as a refrigerator, washing machine, or laptop, not to operate a business. And thirdly, far from addressing the informal sector, most of the borrowers are recipients of some form of public welfare support.
The NILS program makes over 20,000 loans a year through 650 locations across Australia. Its loan capital is provided by National Australia Bank (NAB), one of Australia's four main banks, and its operating budget is mainly supplied by the government. In fact, NAB has pledged $130 million in loan capital.
To understand the rationale for this scheme, it helps to realize that NILS is aimed at people on the very bottom rung of a continuum that goes from financial crisis through resilience and into wealth (see below). The people NILS assists have financial lives so fragile that a setback like a broken car or washing machine can make their lives unworkable. They cannot support interest-bearing loans, but a no-interest loan can allow them to solve an immediate crisis without making things worse. In the Australian context, they are close to the poorest of the poor.
From a public sector perspective, this program helps families stretch their public assistance funds by paying for lump sum expenses that would otherwise be hard to manage with public assistance payments that come in monthly.
From the banking perspective, the $130 million contribution NAB has made will last many years, given that high repayments allow the funds to be loaned out multiple times. In effect, the loan capital is the equivalent of a much smaller charitable grant paid out annually for as much as a decade.
From an operational perspective, it is the link to public assistance (known in Australia as Centrelink) that accounts for the program's scale. The assurance that Centrelink funds will be available to repay the loans allows them to be made by staff in hundreds of community organizations who would otherwise not have the training to underwrite a loan.
But what about self-sufficient microfinance, operated on a business-like basis? Adam Mooney, CEO of Good Shepherd Microfinance, has outlined the rungs of a Financial Inclusion Continuum that shows that as they move up the ladder, people can and do access services on closer to commercial terms.
Financial Inclusion Continuum (click to enlarge)
Good Shepherd Microfinance offers two of those products, the StepUP loan and the AddsUP matched savings account. Unlike NILS, the StepUp loan is an actual bank loan, although at below-market interest. The savings match in AddsUp must also come from public funds or charitable contributions. The organization recently signed an agreement with Australian insurer Suncorp to offer insurance – most likely home-content and/or auto insurance – as well. Further up the continuum, people are able to access market-based financial services, including credit cards and eventually investment products. According to Good Shepherd CEO, Adam Mooney, a report released in March, Life Changing Loans at No Interest, showed that four out of five NILS clients experience economic mobility, meaning they are moving away from crisis and hardship, towards stability and resilience. In addition, most NILS clients stopped using payday lending.
The relationship between the products of Good Shepherd Microfinance and Centrelink (and other forms of public assistance) demonstrates the challenge of delineating the roles of public assistance and financial services in places where there is a social safety net. People receiving public assistance still need financial services to manage risk, smooth consumption, save, and make investments such as those in education. It is possible that financial services can play a key role in enabling people to emerge from public assistance. Good Shepherd Microfinance believes it has evidence to support this case. Therefore, it is important for public assistance to be designed in ways that allow for and even encourage the use of financial services, not, as in some instances, disqualifying people if they receive a large lump sum or accumulate savings.
Agreement around the Financial Inclusion Continuum adapted to the local context would provide an excellent basis for public and private policy making and partnership in every country.
Image credit: Aristocrats-hat
Figure source: Good Shepherd / Daymark, 2012
Australia's Flourishing Financial Consumer Protection
In Defense of Formal Financial Services: Moving Beyond the Parking Lot and Onto the Highway
CFI Joins Industry Leaders in Impressing Financial Inclusion to the G20
Financial Inclusion Week Round-Up – Day 3
Set to Grow in 2015: Islamic Microfinance

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


The National Museum is pleased to announce the reopening of the National Museum Planetarium. Exhibition is free but the museum charge for planetarium shows.
Visit the National Museum of the Philippines Planetarium shows and join the journey to the wonders of our Ethno astronomy, learning how planets and stars have guided us in sea navigation, agriculture, fishing and the right timing of celebrating life.
The National Museum of the Philippines address is located at Padre Burgos Drive, Rizal Park, Manila. It is open on Tuesdays-Sundays, 10:00 AM – 5:00 PM.


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>Anglo-Saxon England
>Volume 35
>The representation of the mind as an enclosure in Old...
Anglo-Saxon England
The representation of the mind as an enclosure in Old English poetry
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 June 2007
Britt Mize
The frequent representation of the mind as a potentially secure enclosure in Old English poetry has unrecognized implications for interpretation. The mind as imagined by Anglo-Saxon poets exhibits both capabilities of an enclosure: containment and exclusion; but the most common image is one of containment, specifically of reified thoughts, knowledge or discourse as figurative treasure objects. This model's interaction with traditional value systems invests it with ethical meaning: what is inside or outside of the mind either should or should not be allowed to pass through its boundary. Mental valuables are closely analogous to material wealth and are subject to the same imperatives for their management and use. The poetry also reflects anxiety about the privacy of the individual mind, which allows the accumulation and concealment of a perverse hord of deceit, sin or folly that can cause social harm through a failure of containment.
Anglo-Saxon England , Volume 35 , December 2006 , pp. 57 - 90
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2006
2012. Anglo‐Saxon Keywords. p. 283.
Cavell, Megan 2015. Formulaic FriÞuwebban: Reexamining Peace-Weaving in the Light of Old English Poetics. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 114, Issue. 3, p. 355.
Lockett, Leslie 2016. Mind the Gap: Cognitive Approaches to Early Medieval Poetry and Audiences. Exemplaria, Vol. 28, Issue. 2, p. 181.
Schrock, Chad 2016. Light Without Heat:Beowulf's Epistemological Morning. English Studies, Vol. 97, Issue. 1, p. 1.
Matto, Michael 2016. Vernacular Traditions: Exploring Anglo-Saxon Mentalities. The Journal of English and Germanic Philology, Vol. 115, Issue. 1, p. 95.
Saltzman, Benjamin A. 2018. Secrecy and the Hermeneutic Potential in Beowulf. PMLA/Publications of the Modern Language Association of America, Vol. 133, Issue. 1, p. 36.
Brooks, Britton 2018. Intimacy, Interdependence, and Interiority in the Old English Prose Boethius. Neophilologus, Vol. 102, Issue. 4, p. 525.
Williams, Kelly 2020. Movement, Space, and Power in Cynewulf's Juliana. Exemplaria, Vol. 32, Issue. 1, p. 72.
WELTON, MEGAN 2020. THE CITY SPEAKS: CITIES, CITIZENS, AND CIVIC DISCOURSE IN LATE ANTIQUITY AND THE EARLY MIDDLE AGES. Traditio, Vol. 75, Issue. , p. 1.
Louviot, Elise 2021. Grief, Resurrection & Renewal: geniwad in Old English Verse. English Studies, Vol. 102, Issue. 8, p. 969.
Otter, Monika 2022. Openness in Medieval Europe. Vol. 23, Issue. , p. 127.


text:
How central banks are relieving a major liquidity crisis
By Tom McCarthy | 26 March 2020, 3:30pm | comments |
The RBA is doing what it can to keep the major banks functioning during the pandemic (Screenshot via YouTube)
Having been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the RBA is taking measures to ensure commercial banks can still function as lenders, writes Tom McCarthy.
OVER THE PAST FEW WEEKS, Australia's central bank, the Reserve Bank of Australia, has announced a series of extraordinary measure to support the "repo" market – a short-term money market between the RBA and banks – which is experiencing significant strain as a flow-on effect of the coronavirus. The U.S. Federal Reserve has done the same, injecting a whopping US$700 billion into its equivalent market.
But what is this actually designed to achieve?
While it might seem a bit clichéd, in order to get a proper understanding of why these measures are being deployed by central banks, we have to consider the infamous collapse that befell the global financial system around 2008.
The Global Financial Crisis, for all its drama, left us with several key lessons. And financial regulators the world over seem to have devoted most of the past decade to ensuring that those lessons are suitably reflected in the current-day machinations of financial markets.
Australia is likely to experience a painful recession. The solution cannot be to keep blowing air into an unsustainable bubble, but bold action. #auspol #coronavirus #Covid_19australia #COVIDー19 #coronavirusaus #Coronaaustralia #COIVD19au #RBA #stimulus https://t.co/i0bvxLe7TB
— SpectatorAustralia (@SpectatorOz) March 23, 2020
One such lesson included that, in order for banks to remain solvent and functional during a financial markets crisis, the quality of assets they hold as security against the loans they make needed to improve from the time of the GFC. Perhaps the easiest way to conceptualise this is by thinking about it in terms of an individual loan. Where a bank makes a loan, it is required to take "collateral" from the borrower. Collateral refers to the assets the borrower pledges as security, giving the bank the right to sell those assets if it defaults on the loan.
However, as you can imagine, if the pledged assets are Uzbekistani government bonds or relate to the sub-prime housing market (as was the case in the GFC), then one should not assume that the collateral will hold its book value in the face of a large-scale financial crisis, which happens to be the very time when the bank is most likely to need to sell those assets to cover a default by the borrower.
Since the GFC, laws with fancy names like "Basel" have been introduced, encouraging banks to de-risk their positions by having access to liquid, stable assets, should they need to realise collateral or pledge it to raise cash. To this end, values are assigned to different categories of collateral assets, to reflect risk. Aside from cash, the highest quality asset of them all is a U.S. Government bond, commonly known as the "UST" (U.S. Treasury).
In addition to the UST being considered a high-quality asset in the eyes of regulators, it also has the added benefit of being tradeable in the "repo" market, where banks and other large financial institutions temporarily convert their USTs to access the most valuable commodity of them all — cash.
Seemingly, the UST reigns supreme in the modern banking world.
However, in recent times, that supremacy has been brought into question. In mid-September last year, the repo market spiked, implying that there wasn't enough cash available in the system to satisfy banking liquidity requirements. But just when banks might have started to doubt the power of the UST, the U.S. Fed stepped in to save the day, temporarily injecting around US$300 billion in cash to restore normality. But perhaps also enabling the view that USTs are as good as cash.
Coronavirus Australia: RBA to lower interest rates, boost Australian economy amid jobless spike warning https://t.co/0MOxq5mwSm
— Vik Bataille (@VIKBataille) March 19, 2020
The only problem is, they're not. While ordinarily USTs might be converted to cash in the repo and other short-term markets, ultimately this is a market function and not a legal right of the UST holder. If there's insufficient spare cash to be traded in the market, then banks, notwithstanding that they are UST-rich, might be left cash-poor. This presents a real challenge in the current environment, as corporate and other bank customers face an extreme and sudden hit to income and therefore find themselves in desperate need of cash. Companies cannot pay their staff and bills in USTs.
Take the global airline giant Boeing, for example, which has reportedly been forced to draw down (borrow from banks) the total amount of a US$13.8 billion facility, the majority of which it was meant to be keeping up its sleeve for a rainy day. This will, of course, not be a unique scenario. Suddenly, big banks and financial institutions around the world need to convert their collateral into cash — and fast. But if all the banks in the repo market need cash at the same time, then there's no one on the other side of the trade to supply it.
That's where the likes of the U.S. Fed and RBA come in. Having quickly realised the dire and urgent need to relieve this market conundrum – which threatens to freeze up the entire banking system and, in turn, the economy – central banks have scrambled to get enough cash into the system to ensure that commercial banks can continue to fulfil their crucial function of lending. The RBA is triaging our repo market, committing billions and providing longer terms for repayment.
What becomes of repo markets is now anyone's guess. Almost overnight, they have gone from a mechanism to smooth out routine liquidity ebbs and flows to an emergency cash facility of epic proportions. It's hard to see corporates and other borrowers being in a position to pay down debt anytime soon, as the revenue impact caused by the coronavirus persists. So, at least for the foreseeable future, central banks are going to become exactly what their name implies. Central. Vital. The economy's last line of defence from widespread insolvency. Hopefully, they have enough ammunition.
COVID-19 hitting the hip-pocket nerve in Australia https://t.co/lICNAq0xzA @IndependentAus
— IndependentAustralia (@independentaus) March 5, 2020
Tom McCarthy is a corporate analyst whose areas of experience include money markets and collateral management.
Coronavirus: The banks are offering a life-line to small businesses as COVID-19 cripples the economy, announcing generous new measures to help them survive. An 81-year-old NSW woman has become Australia's seventh coronavirus victim. https://t.co/A9rqfKuHPZ #Coronavirus #7NEWS pic.twitter.com/wIc4O0nDiS
— 7NEWS Australia (@7NewsAustralia) March 20, 2020
Support independent journalism Subscribe to IA.
COVID-19 coronavirus Reserve Bank of Australia RBA commercial banks repo market Global Financial Crisis recession loans borrowers
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Wear your costume now, score deals and freebies, plus where to score a FREE pumpkin!
Halloween is still a couple weeks away, but you don't have to wait to get in the spirit. In fact, it's encouraged to dress up now!
For all of October, if you go to AZ on the Rocks in Scottsdale and climb in your costume, you'll score half off a Day Pass.
That's BIG SAVINGS! To put it into perspective, if you need gear, a Day Pass is $22.50 for kids under 12 and $25.75 for adults.
AZ on the Rocks is also hosting a Halloween photo contest all this month. Take photos climbing in your costume, tag AZ on the Rocks and use #HalloweenOnTheRocks.
A winner will be announced November 1st. The winner gets three months of an all-inclusive family membership, and the runners-up get a one-month membership.
We can't forget "Trick or Treat at 31 Feet!"
Friday, October 26 through Sunday, October 28, guests can climb in costume and score goodies at the top.
Here's another event that organizers planned just in case October would be warm!
Check out Opendoor's In-Door Pumpkin Patch happening in Chandler this Sunday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Bring your families, friends, and neighbors INSIDE to score one free pumpkin per family.
There will also be face painting, a scary photo booth, candy and more!


text:
package calc.server.tcp;

import java.io.IOException;

import calc.server.Calculator;
import edu.asu.ser.jsonrpc.exception.JsonRpcException;
import edu.asu.ser.jsonrpc.lite.server.TCPServer;

public class CalculatorTCPServer implements Calculator {

	@Override
	public int add(int a, int b) throws NumberFormatException, JsonRpcException {
		return a+b;
	}

	@Override
	public int sub(int a, int b) throws NumberFormatException, JsonRpcException {
		return a-b;
	}

	@Override
	public int mul(int a, int b) throws NumberFormatException, JsonRpcException {
		return a*b;
	}

	@Override
	public int div(int a, int b) throws NumberFormatException, JsonRpcException {
		return a/b;
	}

	public static void main(String[] args) throws IOException {
		TCPServer serv = new TCPServer(new CalculatorTCPServer(),8080);
		serv.start();

	}
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Apollonia Poilâne wants to teach the world to bake - Spear's Magazine
What is a family office and who are they for?
How to invest in whisky
Apollonia Poilâne wants to teach the...
Feature - Home Page Carousel / The Good Life / Food & Wine / The Good Life
Apollonia Poilâne wants to teach the world to bake
9th March 2021 by Rasika Sittamparam
Apollonia Poilâne, scion of the world's leading baking dynasty, wants to teach the world to bake
As a newborn, Apollonia Poilâne was cradled in a wicker breadbasket made by her father Lionel – a man who built a bedroom out of dough for Salvador Dalí and petitioned the Pope to remove gluttony from the list of cardinal sins.
When she was 16, with the encouragement of her mother Ibu, Apollonia took up an apprenticeship at the family's famous Parisian boulangerie.
'I was serious about taking over the bakery at some point,' says Poilâne, now 36, speaking over the phone from Paris.
But she hadn't planned on it happening so soon. When her parents were killed in a helicopter accident, she was just 18. Poilâne speaks English with an American accent and a pleasing crystalline tone, but her voice cracks as she remembers.
'No one dreams of losing their parents when they're 18 years old,' she says. 'No, absolutely not.'
But their knowledge and passion had already been imparted. 'I was exposed at a young age to what would become my job. My family's craft and understanding was linked with just about every domain of knowledge.'
Still a teenager, Poilâne resolved to complement her upbringing with skills that would help her keep the family business going. She applied to study economics at Harvard and, in her admissions essay, wrote that 'the work of several generations is at stake'. She got in.
Today, the company that bears her family name is flourishing.
In addition to the original bakery in the swanky 6th Arrondissement, there are three others in Paris and one in London, in Belgravia.
As well as chefs – Marco Pierre White, Nigella Lawson, Tom Aikens and others – Poilâne's fans include the likes of Kylie Minogue, Paul Smith, Philip Treacy and Robert de Niro. Each year, 200,000 orders are delivered to foodies in 20 countries, from Saudi Arabia to Japan.
In 2012 the New Yorker described Poilâne as 'bread's most venerable brand, the Louis Vuitton of boulangers'.
This reputation is well deserved.
Although Poilâne produces everything from croissants to rye-and-raisin bread and hazelnut-filled king cakes, its signature is the rotund miche loaf. It weighs almost a kilogram and is scored with a cursive 'P', but the most extraordinary thing about this bread is that it is still made with the original sourdough 'starter' used by Apollonia's grandfather, Pierre.
'It's so cool,' Poliâne says, 'that when I have a piece in my hand, I know that it was started by my grandfather – in 1932.' (Truly, the family can claim to have been into sourdough since before it was cool.)
Other than this vital constituent, the only ingredients that go into the loaves are flour, water and sea salt. When mine is delivered from the Belgravia store, it is soft and firm, but not chewy. It is crusty, but without those shards that can scour the roof of your mouth.
The texture of the dough is light and airy, but consistent. Its sourness is noticeable, but subtle. It absorbs butter perfectly.
Even though the concept of continuing a family business is no longer 'sexy' in France, Poilâne says she is committed to the endeavour and to prioritising 'intention over expansion'.
Modernisation, however, is not off the table.
Poilâne has signed a deal with MasterClass, which produces premium online self-improvement videos. Her classes – teaching viewers how to make bread the Poilâne way – now sit alongside videos by Serena Williams on the perfect forehand, Martin Scorsese on filmmaking and Salman Rushdie on storytelling.
Viewers may not be able to replicate the facilities at Poilâne's premises in Bièvres, which is fitted with two dozen 100-tonne wood-fired ovens designed to replicate her grandfather's original 300-year-old old oven. But aside from this, they will have all they need – to this day, none of Poilâne's bread is kneaded by machines.
The woman at its helm says she plans teach the world to bake using an underrated but 'most sophisticated' tool: 'My hands.'
Web: poilane.com
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Dominion uses drones, hidden and handheld cameras to expose the dark underbelly of modern animal agriculture, questioning the morality and validity of humankind's dominion over the animal kingdom.
A dance performed by Shia LaBeouf and Maddie Ziegler.
A contemporary dance performed by Maddie Ziegler to Chandelier by Sia.
Music video for Sia's song, Big Girls Cry. The song comes from the album This Is Acting.
An L.A. family with serious boundary issues have their past and future unravel when a dramatic admission causes everyone's secrets to spill out.
Music Video for Sia's song Cheap Thrills. This song is the second single from her seventh studio album entitled 'This is Acting'.
Set in the 1930s, an American with a scandalous reputation on both sides of the Atlantic must do an about-face in order to win back the woman of his dreams.
Awards for music are presented and stars perform different songs.
This Sia song is an emotional tribute to the victims of the Orlando shooting that killed 49 individuals at the Pulse Nightclub. It stars Sia's muse, Maddie Ziegler. Choreography by Ryan Heffington; directed by Sia and Daniel Askill.
Danish version of 'Who Wants To Be a Millionaire'.
Michael McIntyre hosts a night of comedy, music and speciality acts.
Two sisters; one who is typical and another who is autistic, try to navigate their lives together.
Details the story of a sober drug dealer and their disabled sister.


text:
Q: Using JSON markers in Google Maps API with Javascript I am quite new to programming, so I'm a little scared to post. But I've been working on something that's likely quite simple for most of you for two days and thought I'd try here...
I am trying to create markers in the Google Maps API.
If I hard code the data into javascript, like this, it works like a charm.
var locations = [
['1 Bedroom House', 55.1111, -100.1111, 1, 'This house has 1 bedroom.'],
['2 Bedroom House', 56.1111, -100.1111, 2, 'This house has 2 bedrooms.'],
['3 Bedroom House', 57.1111, -100.1111, 3, 'This house has 3 bedrooms.'],
['4 Bedroom House', 58.1111, -100.1111, 4, 'This house has 4 bedrooms.']
];

I have a JSON request and need to get the marker data from there instead.
Before you say it, I'm sure I'm WAY off on here... but this is what I got:
var locations = new Array();

$.getJSON("[URL]", function(json) {
        for(var i = 0; i < json.houses.length; i++) {
            var name = json.houses[i].house.name;
            var markerlat = json.houses[i].house.lat;
            var markerlng = json.houses[i].house.lng;
            var description = json.houses[i].house.description;

locations[i] = new Array();
locations[i].push('\'' + name + '\', ' + markerlat + ', ' + markerlng + ', ' + i + ', ' + '\'' + description + '\'');

}
});

Thanks!

A: By looking at that part of your code, I wonder if it could be solved without the separate locations array.
Could it work if you extend the for loop in the success handler of the $.getJSON function with following kind of code:
new google.maps.Marker({
    position: new google.maps.LatLng(markerlat, markerlng),
    title: name,
    map: [id of the map canvas element]
    });

If you want to have the descriptions also available, you'll have to attach listeners to the markers that trigger info windows. More details of the Info Window overlays and their usage can be found from Google Maps API documentation site.


Say hello to Oklahoma, he is a laidback fella who is waiting to find his perfect forever home! This beautiful Boxer pup has been vet checked, is up to date on shots & wormer and can be registered with the AKC. Oklahona also comes with a 30 day health guarantee provided by Elmer Lapp. To learn how you can make this sweet pup all yours, please contact the breeder today.


Compressibility and Recovery Tester is particularly built and created for gasket materials. There is an iron block, which is a solidified and ground base for retaining the sample. In the analyzer, there are incorporated an arrangement of metal penetrators in round shape of determined shape and sizes according to the way of material to be examined. On the iron block, there are affixed double dials for computing the breadth of test example at the season of preloading also complete pressure. These double dials are given so that the precise breadth can be computed by taking the mean value. Further, in our inspecting device, preload incorporate the load of the penetrator as well as different weights to provide the value determined in ± 1%.
Exceptional programming is introduced in the load screen that shows to take note of the dial meter reading via a alarm only following usage of preload and significant load for a predetermined time period.
The development of the penetrator is performed with manual configuration or mechanical configuration. For its development, manual configuration is utilized whereas for inspecting, mechanical configuration is utilized. In auto configuration, alter the penetrator and pick the configuration simply following turning off the computerized screen and after that again turn it on the automation screen. For down and up movement in manual configuration, initially press the rotational switch. Finally for the checking, press the push following retaining the examine sample on the iron block to inspect switch.


Mona felt a certain something upon colliding with the wall.
That is, they are too strong. It's not the difference in power or the teamwork. It is the difference in the attitude towards the fight. She felt they were different from herself.
Certainly, Yua is powerful and able to cast chantless, but before that, Mona felt her resolve to die in case she lost.
The same goes for Lily. Until now, she was just using her power in simple ways, but once she changed her form, her skill greatly increased and her attitude changed. Almost like she was resolved to protect something.
What Mona felt was right.
Before meeting Seiya, or, to be precise, before being involved in a plan of an advanced magician clan, Yua didn't have such a resolve. However, after their journey through the Great Dalis Canyon, her attitude underwent a change.
Yua fought her best and experienced death. That's why she unconsciously thought that she would die if she lost.
The same was true for adult Lily too. In the past, she lived in the Great Dalis Canyon and fought to protect her home.
But since losing to Seiya, the desire to protect another Lily was born inside of her.
That resolve was reflected in the fight. The Lily of the past would have played with Mona inside of the water cylinder for a while. However, now, Lily was too focused on victory and immediately attacked.
In that way, the two were resolved to fight to the death. In truth, Selena and Aishi also noticed that.
The fact that those three fought completely differently from them.
Their own fight looked like a game in comparison. Their attitude was further fueled by the「Strongest three」title.
The three decided to fight seriously for the first time.
Selena dashed with the magic guns in her hands. The red magic stone shone and the fire-attributed bullets were shot.
She aimed for Seiya and Yua, those two. When they blocked the mana bullets, they always did so with their weapons. Selena aimed for that opening.
The bullets were going straight for Seiya and Yua.
The two tried to deflect the bullets with their respective weapons. At this point, Yua switched to Yuriel again.
However, right before they were able to do it, the bullets curved as if a baseball player threw it.
And the mana bullets attacked them from the sides.
The two soon figured out. The perpetrator behind the sudden curve was Mona.
Towards the bullet, she cast『Wind Way』to change its trajectory. But for Mona, it was a gamble.
After all, 『Wind Way』required her to set the size and weight of an object in advance. In other words, she wasn't able to manipulate objects with the different size or weight at this moment.
Against the mana bullet, Seiya exercised『Single Light』to strengthen his legs and dodged it. Yua followed suit and successfully dodged it too.
Lily, who received Seiya's orders, was ready to attack.
The spell turned her right arm into multiple water snakes. The water snakes approached Mona.
The water snakes closed in on Mona, following Lily's will. That's how it should be. After all, they were created with Lily's fingers as a base. It almost felt like she simply stretched her hand.
Mona was watching the water snakes with a grin.
Right after, Lily's water serpents were repelled by something. Lily searched for this something that repelled her fingers and found it rolling on the ground.
There, were several bullets reflecting the sunlight.
Their size was visibly the same as the mana bullets from before. Most likely, the weight was the same too.
Lily immediately understood. The bullets rolling on the ground were created by Aishi.
By creating the bullets of the same size and weight, she made it possible for Mona to manipulate them.
Normally, it is impossible to create a complete copy of an object made from mana using ice.
After all, the size and the mass of an object made from mana changes depending on the motivation and condition of a caster.
It's impossible to produce it continuously without concentrating on it on purpose. However, there are no magicians who are able to be conscious of it every single moment.
Instead of concentrating on it, it is better to put your efforts in the casting and firing speed.
However, this time is different. Each one of Selena's bullet is completely identical to the previous one.
Knowing the size and mass, it was possible for Aishi to reproduce it.
That voice came from behind. Lily quickly turned around and found Aishi with a one-handed sword in her hand.
Against approaching Aishi, Lily directed her right arm, which returned to original form, Aishi's way and cast a spell.
Lily's confidence was justified. But Mona didn't aim for it in the first place. Immediately after, Lily, who tried to attack Aishi disregarding Mona, sense an abnormality. Lily frowned and lost her balance.
That was Mona's true intention. With her head and right hand turned behind her, her center of gravity shifted. Mona, who was able to perceive that, broke her balance with just wind alone.
With her balance crumbled, the water cannon, of course, didn't hit Aishi. Aishi took advantage of it and slashed with her sword.
Aishi was convinced of her victory and Lily agreed with her.
She was prepared to lose.
At that time, she heard a voice in her head. Right after, the light wall appeared above her and repelled Aishi.
The yellow wall that appeared above her was, of course, Seiya's『Wall of Light』.
Lily, who was saved by Seiya, immediately recovered. At the same time, the light wall disappeared and Aishi lost her momentum and fell down.
She tried to correct her posture, but due to rebound of the light wall, she continued to fall down.
Aishi was falling down. Against such Aishi, Lily unleashed the finishing move.
She turned her body and lifted her palm towards Aishi. However, nothing came out from her hand. Aishi looked completely fine.
You can think that it was some kind of failure. However, soon enough, an abnormality occurred.
When Aishi landed on the ground and pointed her sword towards Lily, she suddenly collapsed.
Mona called Aishi, but the silence was her answer. Forget about an answer, she didn't even move.
She didn't have any external wounds or other traces of receiving an attack. Lily's last attack was supposed to be a failure. That being said, Aishi suddenly fell down and lost her consciousness.
Mona wasn't able to comprehend this.
However, Lily had no intention to answer, she had no such duty.
Actually, her previous attack was successful. It didn't misfire and properly reached Aishi.
Certainly, there were no external injuries, but the same wasn't true for the insides. That spell agitated the water that naturally existed inside the human body.
Because of that, Aishi's body malfunctioned and was in no condition to move.
Lily initiated a new spell by gathering vast amounts of water behind her and forming a sphere. The water sphere rapidly expanded and revealed a giant dragon's figure.
Together with the water dragon, Gedo-chan, she attacked Mona.


text:
poppins-pr-vote
===============

[![NPM version][npm-version-image]][npm-url]
[![Apache License][license-image]][license-url]
[![NPM downloads][npm-downloads-image]][npm-url]

[Mary Poppins](https://github.com/btford/mary-poppins "btford/mary-poppins") plugin for keeping track of votes in PRs.

![poppins-pr-vote in action](https://raw.github.com/frapontillo/poppins-pr-vote/master/img/in-action.png)

When Mary Poppins is started on a repository with `poppins-pr-vote` as a properly configured plugin, it will automatically:

* add a post as soon as a PR is submitted on that repo (see upper image)
* listen for issue **and** diff comments on that PR and any commit in it
* look for strings that represent positive or negative votes
* update the first post with an updated "**yes**" and "**no**" counts, enriched with an **entropy** measure
* optionally update the PR by assigning **labels** (see the [Configure section](#configure)) according to both votes and entropy

Of course, "yes" and "no" measures represent the number of positive and negative votes, while the [**entropy**](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Entropy_%28information_theory%29#Rationale) gives you a compact idea of how "messy" the PR is if related to people's votes:

![Entropy for dummies LOL](http://upload.wikimedia.org/math/3/2/8/328a1ee1f0db87e7c6aefa87efcac491.png)

## Prerequisites (aka Get Poppin')

You need a [Mary Poppins](https://github.com/btford/mary-poppins "btford/mary-poppins") instance already configured on your repository.
We will quickly cover the main aspect of the initial setup, for further information please refer to the official [README](https://github.com/btford/mary-poppins/blob/master/README.md).

Install `mary-poppins` as a global `npm` package:

```shell
npm install -g mary-poppins
```

Then, create a basic `config.js` file in any directory you like by running:

```shell
mary-poppins init
```

At this point, you need to configure the config file that was just created by editing the appropriate attributes of the `poppins.config` object, e.g.:

```javascript
poppins.config = {
  // Github repo to watch
  // https://github.com/target-organization/target-repo
  target: {
    user: 'target-organization',
    repo: 'target-repo'
  },

  // Credentials for user who leaves comments, etc.
  // You may want to load these from a seperate file like `config-credentials.js`, and
  // add this file to your `.gitignore` list
  login: {
    username: 'awesome-bot',
    password: 'password123ofcourse'
  },

  // GitHub will send WebHooks events here
  hook: {
    url: 'http://my-mary-poppins-url.com',
    port: '4567'
  }
}

```

Mary Poppins is now able to automatically install the WebHook by running:

```shell
mary-poppins install config.js
```

## Install

In the same directory of your `config.js` file, run:

```shell
npm install poppins-pr-vote
```

![run to mary oh sweet mary](https://raw.github.com/frapontillo/poppins-pr-vote/master/img/run-to-mary-poppins.png)

## Configure

Before setting up the plugin, you need to edit the Webhook previously created by `mary-poppins` by enabling the `pull_request_review_comment`, named "Pull Request review comment - Pull Request diff commented on".

To use this plugin, you need to load it in your config file with `couldYouPlease`:

```javascript
// config.js
module.exports = function (poppins) {

  // we already took care of this
  poppins.config = { /*...*/ };

  // load the pr-vote plugin
  poppins.couldYouPlease('pr-vote');

  // pr vote main settings
  poppins.plugins.prVote.greeting = 'Thanks for the PR!';
  poppins.plugins.prVote.responseBody: 'Yays: <%= yays %>\nNays: <%= nays %>\nEntropy: <%= entropy %>';
  poppins.plugins.prVote.closing = 'Farewell.';

  // pr vote configuration
  poppins.plugins.prVote.voteYay = ':+1:';
  poppins.plugins.prVote.VoteNay = ':x:';

  // pr vote labels
  poppins.plugins.prVote.labelEntropyLow: 'pr:nice';
  poppins.plugins.prVote.labelEntropyHigh: 'pr:mess';
  poppins.plugins.prVote.labelYay: 'pr:yay';
  poppins.plugins.prVote.labelNay: 'pr:nay';

  // pr vote thresholds
  poppins.plugins.prVote.thresholdMaxLowEntropy: 0.45;
  poppins.plugins.prVote.thresholdMinHighEntropy: 0.65;
  poppins.plugins.prVote.thresholdAcceptableVote: 0.65;
};
```

By default, Mary Poppins will automatically count votes and respond or edit her (its?) first comment with updated counts and entropy. If labels are set, they will be automatically updated.

The following is the complete list of every configuration you might want to set.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.greeting`

String to start the response with.
Defaults to `"Thanks for the PR!"`.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.closing`

String to start the response with.
Defaults to `"Farewell."`.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.responseBody`

String to be interpolated with `yays`, `nays` and `entropy` values.
Defaults to `"Yays: <%= yays %>\nNays: <%= nays %>\nEntropy: <%= entropy %>"`.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.voteYay`

String that will be matched for a positive vote.
Defaults to `":+1:"`.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.VoteNay`

String that will be matched for a negative vote.
Defaults to `":x:"`.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.labelEntropyLow`

Label added to a PR if the votes entropy is lower than [`poppins.plugins.prVote.thresholdMaxLowEntropy`](#poppinspluginsprvotethresholdmaxlowentropy).
Defaults to `"pr:nice"`. Optional, if `undefined`, such label won't be added/removed.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.labelEntropyHigh`

Label added to a PR if the votes entropy is higher than [`poppins.plugins.prVote.thresholdMinHighEntropy`](#poppinspluginsprvotethresholdminhighentropy).
Defaults to `"pr:mess"`. Optional, if `undefined`, such label won't be added/removed.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.labelYay`

Label added to a PR if the voting proportion outcome is positive (higher than [`poppins.plugins.prVote.thresholdAcceptableVote`](#poppinspluginsprvotethresholdacceptablevote)).
Defaults to `"pr:yay"`. Optional, if `undefined`, such label won't be added/removed.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.labelNay`

Label added to a PR if the voting outcome is negative (lower than [`poppins.plugins.prVote.thresholdAcceptableVote`](#poppinspluginsprvotethresholdacceptablevote)).
Defaults to `"pr:nay"`. Optional, if `undefined`, such label won't be added/removed.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.thresholdMaxLowEntropy`

Maximum entropy value for a "good" PR.
Defaults to `0.45`.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.thresholdMinHighEntropy`

Minimum entropy value for a "bad" PR.
Defaults to `0.65`.

### `poppins.plugins.prVote.thresholdAcceptableVote`

Minimum positive votes rate for a "positive" PR.
Defaults to `0.65`.

## Start!

All you need to do now is to start `mary-poppins` by pointing at the `config.js`:

```shell
mary-poppins start config.js
```

# License

```
   Copyright 2014 Francesco Pontillo

   Licensed under the Apache License, Version 2.0 (the "License");
   you may not use this file except in compliance with the License.
   You may obtain a copy of the License at

       http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0

   Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software
   distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS,
   WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied.
   See the License for the specific language governing permissions and
   limitations under the License.
```

[license-image]: http://img.shields.io/badge/license-Apache_2.0-blue.svg?style=flat
[license-url]: LICENSE

[npm-url]: https://npmjs.org/package/poppins-pr-vote
[npm-version-image]: http://img.shields.io/npm/v/poppins-pr-vote.svg?style=flat
[npm-downloads-image]: http://img.shields.io/npm/dm/poppins-pr-vote.svg?style=flat


text:
<resources>
    <string name="app_name">记账本</string>

    <string name="login"></string>
    <string name="menu"></string>
    <string name="add"></string>
    <string name="del"></string>

    <!--自定义alertDialog-->
    <string name="alert_dialog_text">AlertDialog提示</string>

</resources>


This Mother's Day, we salute the everyday heroes in our lives: Mothers. Find out how you can make Mother's Day special for her, and extend the love to mothers and kids in warzones, as well as nurture your own kids into heroes for the less fortunate at our upcoming family event!
"As we enter the 8th year of this ruinous war in Syria, it is harrowing to hear of the alleged attacks in Douma," says World Vision Syria Response Director, Wynn Flaten. Recent escalations in Eastern Ghouta and Douma have devastated families and children in Syria. Children are still trapped in Syria, exposed to violence and are at risk of severe injury. World Vision seeks your help to send aid to those still in Syria, as well as refugee children who have grown up in settlements around Syria. They still need your help.
Catch a glimpse of the next generation of healthcare workers who will be part of the vision of universal health coverage.
As Syria's complex and dire conflict rages into year eight, at what point will daily stress factors become too much for children, and have an irreversible impact on their long-term emotional and physical well-being?
World Vision spoke to more than 1,200 Syrian children, in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, to find out.
Easter is a celebration of new life made possible through Jesus Christ. It is the miracle that catapults our faith, giving us new meaning. But what comes next? How does Jesus call us to live in light of His sacrifice?


text:
How to Contact Pia Mia: Phone Number, Fanmail Address, Email Id, Whatsapp, Mailing Address
May 25, 2022 Deepak
Pia Mia: 8 Ways to Contact Her (Phone Number, Email, House address, Autograph Request, Social media profiles)
Full Pia Mia: Ways to Contact or Text Pia Mia (Phone Number, Email, Fanmail address, Mailing Address, and Autograph Address) in 2022- If you're looking for Pia Mia 2022's contact information, such as her phone number, contact information, WhatsApp number, or social media profiles, you've come to the right place.
Pia Mia Bio and Career:
Pia Mia is a global pop phenomenon who has acquired a sizeable fan following because to her catchy tunes, which can be found all over the world. Both 'We Should Be Together' and 'Do It Again,' two of Pia Mia's songs, have charted in the top 100 songs in the United States and the UK, respectively. In addition to those things, she is a model, a dancer, and a style icon who aspires to become the next Pop Diva. On September 19, 1996, the talented artist was born on the island of Guam
. Pia Mia Perez is the name of her mother, Angela Perez, and her father, Peter Perez Jr. Pia Mia was born in the United States and currently resides there. Additionally, she is of a racially complex heritage (Chamorro, Italian, Dutch, and Hungarian). Her astrological sign is the Virgo. In a similar vein, she will turn 24 this year.
Pia Mia is the middle sibling of three total siblings. She is the third of four children, with two sisters named Kandis and Paloma and a brother named Peter after their mother's father. Since they were little, the four siblings have shared a strong bond. Pia Mia receives her education from her mother at home.
At the age of eleven, she started writing her own versions of cover songs and uploading them to her YouTube channel. On her YouTube channel, you may still find cover songs and singles she's released. She uprooted her life and moved to Los Angeles in the hopes of advancing her singing career there. She had a hard time getting through the beginning, particularly with individuals who didn't want to support her, but then she met Kylie Jenner, who is now her best friend.
Pia Mia Profile-
Known By Name– Pia Mia
Zodiac Sign-Virgo
Date of Birth-19 September 1996
Birth Place-Guam
Age -25 years (As 0f 2022)
Height-NA
She has not received any awards to date. Furthermore, we don't know much about her previous accomplishments. However, we anticipate her winning a number of awards in the near future as a result of her exceptional talent.
Pia Mia Phone Number, Email, Contact Information, House Address, and Social Profiles:
Perez was found by producer Babyface during her first year living in Los Angeles, and they went on to collaborate together. In 2013, she was brought into contact with Abou "Bu" Thiam, who is Chris Brown's manager and who works in the record industry. She started posting covers on YouTube on a regular basis and began working on tracks with producer Nic Nac.
Late in 2013, Kylie Jenner, who is Perez's good friend, extended an invitation to her family for dinner. During the course of the dinner, it was requested of Perez that she perform a cover of Drake's song "Hold On, We're Going Home," and she consented to do so. Kim Kardashian posted a video of the performance to her various social media accounts, and it currently has more than one million views.
On December 9, 2013, she released her first song, "Red Love," along with the music video for it. Her notoriety at the time was due in large part to her viral videos. In the later part of the same month, she released her debut extended play, titled The Gift, online for free. It contained eight tracks. In February of 2014, Pia Mia signed a contract with the American record label Interscope Records for the release of many albums.
During the same month, Perez and Chance the Rapper laid down their versions of "Fight For You," an original song that was featured in the science fiction action movie Divergent, which was released in 2014. In 2014, Perez began work on her debut album, and over the course of the next year, she recorded approximately 100 tracks for the album.
At the beginning of 2015, she disseminated the promotional tune titled "Fuck With You," which featured G-Eazy, an American hip hop recording artist and producer. Even though it was planned to be the first single off of Mia's debut studio album for Interscope, the label ultimately decided not to release it. Mia's first song to reach the top of the charts .
Do It Again," which was released on May 4, 2015, and featured vocal contributions from both Chris Brown and Tyga. It reached its highest position at No. 8 on the UK Top 40 list, No. 71 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, No. 19 on the Rhythmic Songs chart, and No. 70 on the Canadian Hot 100 chart.
Ways to Contact Pia Mia :
1. Facebook Page Contact: @Pia Mia
Pia Mia has a Facebook page where he shares her photos and videos. The above-mentioned link will take you to her page. It has been reviewed, and we can confirm that it is a 100% accurate Pia Mia profile. You can follow him on Facebook, which you can find by clicking the link above.
2. Youtube Channel Contact: @Channel
Pia Mia had her own YouTube channel, where he posted her music videos for her fans to enjoy. She also amassed a million subscribers and lots of views. Anyone interested in seeing her uploads and videos can use the account name link provided above.
3. Insta Profile: NA
Pia Mia also her an Instagram account, where She has over a million followers and receives approximately 100k likes per post. If you want to see her most recent Instagram photos, click on the link above.
4. Twitter: @Pia Mia
Pia Mia started a Twitter account and has a large number of followers. If you want to tweet about it, go to the link above. We've provided her Twitter handle above, and we've verified and authenticated it. If you'd like to contact her via Twitter, click the link above.
5. Phone number: NA
Many phone numbers in the name of Pia Mia have been leaked on Google and the internet, but none of them work when we checked them. However, we will update this page once we have the exact number.
6. Fan Mail Address :
Pia Mia Perez
William Morris Endeavor Entertainment
Beverly Hills, CA 90210-5213
7. Email id: NA
8. Website URL: NA
Also Checkout: How to Contact Pia Mia : Phone Number, Fanmail Address, Email Address, Whatsapp, House Address
see also: http://How to Contact Heather Morris: Phone Number, Fanmail Address, Email Id, Whatsapp, Mailing Address
lt;center
How to Contact Karen Gillan: Phone Number, Fanmail Address, Email Id, Whatsapp, Mailing Address
December 25, 2022 Mike Jenner
How to Contact Charlize Theron: Phone Number, Fanmail Address, Email Id, Whatsapp, Mailing Address
Previous: How to Contact Matt Bennett: Phone Number, Fanmail Address, Email Id, Whatsapp, Mailing Address
Next: How to Contact Derek Deso: Phone Number, Fanmail Address, Email Id, Whatsapp, Mailing Address


text:
Białe złoto – stop złota z niklem, cynkiem (25%), czasem srebrem i palladem imitujący barwą platynę.

Większość nowych obrączek z białego złota ma srebrny kolor. Spowodowane jest to tym, iż są poddawane rodowaniu, tzn. pokrywa się je warstwą rodu. Z czasem rod się ściera i obrączka ma wtedy również kolor srebrny, ale nie ma już takiego blasku jak z warstwą rodu. Istnieje jednak białe złoto nierodowane i jednocześnie posiadające właściwy kolor i połysk – jest to stop złota z niklem. Właściwości fizyczne białego złota różnią się, ponieważ zawiera ono inne domieszki i może wykazywać np. większą twardość. Właściwości chemiczne są praktycznie takie same jak złota innych kolorów.

Przypisy

Linki zewnętrzne

Jubilerstwo
Stopy metali nieżelaznych
Złoto
Cynk
Nikiel

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Thomas Morrow (8 October 1923 – 18 June 2002) was an Australian rules footballer in the Victorian Football League (VFL).

Prior to playing with Geelong, Morrow served in the Australian Army during World War II.

See also
 1951 VFL season

References

External links

Geelong Football Club players
Geelong Football Club Premiership players
Geelong Football Club captains
North Geelong Football Club players
Australian rules footballers from Victoria (Australia)
1923 births
2002 deaths
One-time VFL/AFL Premiership players


Per today's N&O, it appears one of the planks in Gov. Perdue's "consolidation plan" to be unveiled next week will include shifting the responsibilities of procuring basic goods and services for state agencies to a private company.
A state audit released Tuesday concluded that the N.C. Department of Administration is doing a poor job of managing an Internet-based procurement system that is supposed to save money through the use of established government contracts for basic goods and services.
An example is the multiple state contracts for recycled printer toner cartridges. Auditors found that there were at least 24 products with multiple vendors and different prices, costing the state at least $12,500 by not making all the purchases from the lowest-priced vendor.
In addition, many agencies were buying new toner cartridges at $120.65 under one approved state contract rather than buying the cheaper remanufactured ones for $28.37, wasting at least $41,211 on purchases of that item, according to the audit.
The audit reveals what is obvious to most observers: someone spending their own money would have done due diligence to find, for example, toner at the much lower price; but state employees are spending other people's money so there is very little incentive for them to be frugal.


Attention Business Owners! Looking for a solution on how to grow your small business in 2017? The SBA may have the answer. Recruitment for the SBA's Emerging Leaders 2017 training cycle is now underway. Since 2008, Emerging Leaders has trained more than 4,000 promising small business owners in underserved communities, and continues its impact in helping small business owners grow and create jobs. Find out what Emerging Leaders can do for you!


Whether you are a Jones College Prep "Eagle" or a Jones Commercial/Jones Metropolitan "Jonesite," you are a vital part of the legacy that brings Jones to its proud history celebrating more than just years. Certainly much has changed at State and Harrison since it's beginning, but the Jones spirit and dedication to excellence remains the same.
The Jones Alumni Network is dedicated to more fully engaging and connecting with Jones' alumni and their families. Our current efforts include a quarterly newsletter that's full of class notes and alumni updates, as well as various ways for you to stay connected to this special community.
OUR SECOND ANNUAL ALUMNI NIGHT AT THE THEATRE WAS HELD ON MARCH 23, 2019. ATTENDEES ENJOYED A RECEPTION HELD ON THE 2ND FLOOR BALCONY, FOLLOWED BY COMPLIMENTARY TICKETS TO SEE JCP'S PERFORMANCE OF SPAMALOT! A GREAT TIME WAS HAD BY ALL!
PICTURED TO THE RIGHT: A GRADUATE OF THE CLASS OF 1940, MR. HAROLD KULAT LATER WENT ON TO BECOME A TEACHER AT JONES FOR OVER 30 YEARS.
BELOW LEFT: RECEPTION DECOR BY FOJ'S JULIE KUJRAL, JENNI PENCYLA, AND KK CLELAND.
BELOW CENTER: ASST. PRINCIPAL MR. ERIC MITCHELL, MR. KULAT, AND MR. MANNY ONATE. MANNY IS A JONES' ALUM AND PARENT OF A CURRENT JCP JUNIOR!
BELOW RIGHT: TWO RECENT GRADUATES ENJOYING THEIR TIME BACK.
Chicago Public Schools does not maintain an active database on CPS alumni. Former students and their families can register for the Jones Alumni Network, hosted by Friends of Jones, to ensure we have your most recent contact information.
To register as an alum or parent/guardian of an alum, please click here. Once you have an account set up, you will be able to log in directly from the FOJ website simply by clicking on FOJ Login at the top of the page.
We hope you'll also follow us on our Jones Alumni Facebook page where we post more frequent information and school updates www.facebook.com/JonesAlumni.
We know our Jones alumni and alumni families have a great deal to be proud of, so we hope you'll share your news and reconnect with Jones. And if you can, please help us spread the word! If you know Jones alumni or former Jones parents, please share this information with them so that we can keep in contact with as many Jones alumni as possible.
Welcome back to Jones! Go Eagles!


text:
The Street of Crocodiles and Other Stories (Paperback)
By Bruno Schulz, Jonathan Safran Foer (Foreword by), David Goldfarb (Introduction by), Celina Wieniewska (Translated by)
Availability: Call or email to ask for estimate.
Published: Penguin Classics - March 25th, 2008
The world of this small village where these stories take place has no boundaries, they expand on the page. The greatest strength of Schulz, besides his incredible prose, must be his ability to recreate the frightening, bizarre realm of childhood. Street of Crocodiles is beautiful, funny, odd, philosophical... and fertile. That's the word I always return to, because it is sticky and fecund and seemingly uninhibited by any restraints of the mortal world. You will read this and ask yourself "How have I never heard of this book before?"
The Mezzanine (Paperback)
By Nicholson Baker
Published: Grove Press - July 13th, 2010
This is a neurotic little novel that puts tons of little things that we see and experience on a day to day basis under the microscope. There's a lot of joy in this book, which I think is why I like it. It's a celebration of banal, unappreciated things like vending machines, hand dryers, milk cartons, paper bags, and saying 'oop!' when you accidentally go the same way as someone you're trying to get around. Though it is celebratory in tone for the most part, there is a tinge of melancholy throughout, as you realize how transient these small things are. The people of the future will never know or appreciate the slight convex curve of the metal buttons to a payphone.
Dhalgren (Paperback)
By Samuel R. Delany
Published: Vintage - May 15th, 2001
I don't really read Sci-Fi, and this book was frequently recommended to me because of that; It's sort of an anti-sci-fi sci fi novel. The story takes place in a city where something catastrophic has happened--but no one knows what it was, even the people that were there when the catastrophe occurred. In the ruins of this metropolis a kind of anarchist utopia arises where people are allowed to be whoever they want. This suits the main character very well, as he doesn't really know who he is or why he has traveled to the city. In spite of that or because of it, he becomes something of a celebrity: the poet laureate of the city, and leader of a rough street gang called the Scorpions (think The Warriors). The pace of the book switches often from "action packed" to "hang out," and there's a huge cast of characters that effortlessly come to life on the page.
The star of the book, however, is the city of Bellona. The mystery of what happened there kept me turning the pages (there are about 800 of them) and the way that streets would change direction, fires would never be put out, and celestial bodies came crashing into the earth kept me enthralled.
The Complete Stories (The Schocken Kafka Library) (Paperback)
Published: Schocken - November 14th, 1995
There are a handful of Kafka stories that are indisputable classics, that are widely anthologized and assigned, and for good reason: they are some of the most inventive short stories of the 20th century. I'm talking about "The Metamorphosis," "In the Penal Colony," "A Country Doctor," "A Hunger Artist." These are all great, but Kafka wrote so much more. All of his short stories are collected here, all of them are just as profoundly odd as their famous cousins. I particularly adore the very short stories collected in the last hundred pages or so, as they seem to be the perfect medium for his unique sense of humor.
Last Days (Paperback)
By Brian Evenson, Peter Straub (Introduction by)
Published: Coffee House Press - February 9th, 2016
Last Days concerns a private investigator who finds himself entangled with a religious sect that practices self-amputation. (Enough said?) This is a rather hard-boiled novel of body horror that can be quite gruesome at times, and yet it's literary, funny, and compulsively readable too. I recommend absolutely anything written by Brian Evenson--if a book even has a blurb by him, I almost certainly pick it up. Last Days is a perfect introduction to his work.
The Collected Stories of Lydia Davis (Paperback)
By Lydia Davis
Published: Picador - October 26th, 2010
Lydia Davis is known for writing very short stories, but I think she should actually be known for exploding the form of the short story. In these pages, a 'story' takes many forms: from a travelogue of a 19th century British merchant, to a jury selection interview, to an in depth study of letters sent by a fourth grade class to their ill peer. Some might compare her to Amy Hempel or Lorrie Moore; I compare her to Kafka. She has a prickly, wry wit, and she's my favorite writer still working today.
Bluets (Paperback)
By Maggie Nelson
Published: Wave Books - October 1st, 2009
What is Bluets? A beautifully braided book-length lyric essay that captures the gem-like thoughts of the author as she attempts to write a book about the color blue. The effect is a kind of montage or collage of philosophy and personal pain. To attempt and pin this book down to a genre would be a mistake. Do yourself a favor and pick up this bona fide modern classic.
Capitalist Realism: Is There No Alternative? (Paperback)
By Mark Fisher
Published: Zero Books - December 16th, 2009
The premise of this short book is simple: it is now easier to imagine THE END OF THE WORLD than it is to imagine the end of capitalism. Fisher draws from heady theorists and popular culture to create this brief primer that brings this bleak period of our history into relief.
The Voice Imitator (Paperback)
By Thomas Bernhard, Kenneth J. Northcott (Translated by)
Published: University of Chicago Press - October 15th, 1998
These stories are short, grim and often very funny. Bernhard is known for his breathless novels and plays full of morbid eccentrics
--this book acts as a brief introduction to his pitch black world view and macabre humor.
The Rings of Saturn (Paperback)
By W. G. Sebald, Michael Hulse (Translated by)
Published: New Directions - November 8th, 2016
The main character of The Rings of Saturn wanders the English countryside in search of peace... only to find himself constantly
sucked back into the wreckage of the past. Sebald brings obscure corners of history to life, fictionalizing them only in the sense that he is writing it down. The mood is thoughtful and elegiac, the pace is slow--this is a book of thought. His sentences wind around the pages, and the photos embedded in the text are like flashes from last night's dream. My highest recommendation.
Água Viva (Paperback)
By Clarice Lispector, Stefan Tobler (Translated by), Benjamin Moser (Preface by)
Published: New Directions - June 13th, 2012
Agua Viva has Clarice Lispector taking photos of perfume: a couple hundred attempts at scratching beneath the skin of reality and the result
is like a slow motion shock down the spinal cord. Though this book is very short, I would encourage a reader to frequently pick it up
and put it down and sit with Clarice's crystalized wisdom. Recommended for artists of all mediums.
The Hearing Trumpet (Paperback)
By Leonora Carrington, Olga Tokarczuk (Afterword by)
Published: NYRB Classics - January 5th, 2021
The book begins with 90-something vegetarian Marian Leatherby reconciling with the prospect of her family putting her in an old folks home. It ends with the world as we know it coming to an end, and a new fruitful world becoming possible. Carrington was a surreal painter and her novel reminds us that the written world is perhaps an even more malleable medium because its only limits are our imaginations.
The Book of Delights: Essays (Hardcover)
By Ross Gay
Published: Algonquin Books - February 12th, 2019
This is a book of essays in which the poet Ross Gay searches for something that produces happiness. Sometimes, they are odd, like sleeping on the street. Sometimes as he sits to write his daily delight he finds that there is nothing delightful to write about. It is a book, then, searching for the gratitude of a given day, something which we can all learn from.
Chaos: Charles Manson, the CIA, and the Secret History of the Sixties (Paperback)
By Tom O'Neill, Dan Piepenbring (With)
Published: Back Bay Books - June 23rd, 2020
This long-reported book upends the narrative of the Manson family's infamous Tate-LaBianca murders that for many marked the end of the 60's feelings of groovy hippydom and heralded the 70's feelings of paranoia and ennui. Looking into the murders decades after they occurred, O'neill finds a bottomless pit of sinister possibilities, some of which implicate the CIA and the FBI. Put on your tinfoil hat.


text:
Pietro Ferrero
For other people named Pietro Ferrero, see Pietro Ferrero (disambiguation).
(1898-09-02)2 September 1898
Farigliano, Kingdom of Italy
2 March 1949(1949-03-02) (aged 50)
Farigliano, Italy
Chocolatier, confectionery company founder
Ferrero SpA
Michele Ferrero
Pietro Ferrero Jr.
(grandson)
Giovanni Ferrero
Pietro Ferrero (Italian pronunciation: [ˈpjɛːtro ferˈrɛːro]; 2 September 1898 – 2 March 1949) was the founder of Ferrero SpA, an Italian confectionery and chocolatier company.[1] His company invented Nutella, a hazelnut-cream spread, which is now sold in over 160 countries. The famous Ferrero Rochers are also made by his company, Ferrero, as were Tic-Tacs and various Kinder chocolates.[2]
^ "The story of Ferrero Group and its Mission". Ferrero Corporate. Retrieved 16 April 2017.
^ Mitzman, Dany (2014-05-18). "Nutella: How the world went nuts for a hazelnut spread - BBC News". Bbc.com. Retrieved 2017-03-18.
This business-related Italian biographical article is a stub. You can help Wikipedia by expanding it.
Retrieved from "https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Pietro_Ferrero&oldid=989347409"
People from the Province of Cuneo
Italian businesspeople
Ferrero family
20th-century businesspeople
Italian business biography stubs
AC with 0 elements