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Shawki Ibrahim Abdel-Karim Allam, Contributor
Egyptian Grand Mufti, Professor of Islamic Law
If We Want To Eradicate Terrorism, We Must Stand Together
11/16/2015 04:06 pm ET Updated Nov 16, 2016
BERLIN, GERMANY - NOVEMBER 16: A young Muslim woman lights a candle outside the French Embassy among candles, messages and flowers left by mourners commemorating the victims of last Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris that have left over 130 people dead on November 16, 2015 in Berlin, Germany. Eight Muslim organizations in Germany issued a common statement earlier in the day condemning the Paris attacks and citing Islam as a non-violent religion. The Islamic State (IS) claimed responsibility for the attacks and has vowed to launch more. (Photo by Carsten Koall/Getty Images)
I was as shocked as any sensible human being would have been when I learned about the senseless, heinous, appalling and cowardly act that took place in Paris this week. This attack is shocking, and offends the conscience of every sane person, regardless of their religious identity. I wish to stress, categorically and unequivocally, our complete solidarity and unwavering support for the French people in their plight and their determination to combat terror. The innocent victims and their families are in our thoughts and prayers. The whole Muslim community is in a state of mourning, like French people are, since an attack of this magnitude is actually an attack on all humanity, as our Holy Book emphasizes.
Terrorist groups flagrantly use religion as a cloak to cover up for their cowardly acts of violence. Their ideological fallacy reveal their warped logic and ill-informed and unauthentic sources, which they turn to in order to justify their insatiable desire for power, control and bloodshed. These ideologies of hate and terror must be challenged and expunged.
But where did all this begin? In Islam as well as in other religions, we are witnessing a phenomenon in which people without a sound foundation in religious learning attempt to represent themselves as religious authorities, even though they lack the scholarly qualifications for making valid interpretations of religious law and ethics. It is this unruly and incongruous attitude towards religion that paves the way for extremist interpretations of Islam that are not based in reality.
Furthermore -- and this is very important -- none of these extremists have been educated in Islam in credible centers of Islamic learning. They are, rather, products of troubled environments and have subscribed to distorted and misguided interpretations of Islam that have no basis in traditional Islamic doctrine. Their aim is to create havoc and chaos in the world.
There is, it must be said, another part to this equation. I have been absolutely clear and candid in condemning all acts of terrorism and vigilantism like this one, and I reiterate that Islam stands strongly against extremism of all kinds. If we wish to tackle this problem, however, we must make an effort to properly understand the many factors that drive terrorism and extremism of all kinds in the modern world. Otherwise, we run the risk of never being able to properly address and eradicate this plague. There is no option but to understand this if we are serious about building a better future, one which confronts and ends this serious situation that threatens people in all parts of the globe.
We must remember, however, that as recent events in many parts of the world indicate, violent extremism knows no particular faith. It is rather a perversion of the human condition, and must be dealt with as such. We are all responsible, collectively, to fight against such deviance. Muslims, Europeans, Americans, Asians -- we all have homework to do to eradicate this menace, and the burden must be shared by all of us.
A true spirit of cooperation is indispensable at this critical time -- for that reason, I worry about the exploitation of raw emotions by fanatical groups, who could place the very existence of Muslims in Europe in jeopardy. Blaming an entire religion, and targeting a diverse and overwhelmingly peaceful religious community because of the actions of a few outcasts is not only patently unfair, but also counterproductive with regards to achieving our shared goals of combating terror.
It is important for us at this time of great sadness to stand together and process this horrific incident in a way that is fair and just. It is important that we refrain from demonizing Muslims without cause -- not because that would benefit Muslims, but because our ability to eradicate terror depends on it.
_______________ This post first appeared on HuffPost Germany.
Read More Paris Coverage
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In The Wake Of The Paris Attacks, A Dose Of Humanity
Obama Says He's Still Committed To Accepting Syrian Refugees
Paris Hero Who Saved Pregnant Woman Has Been Found
Investigation Turns To Belgian Suspected As Mastermind In Attacks
Anne Sinclair: Morning of War, 2 Days Later
Turkey 'Twice Warned France About Paris Attack Suspect'
Artists Share Images Of Peace And Solidarity After Paris Attacks
Imams Sing The French National Anthem Outside The Bataclan
Not In The Name Of My Faith
Syrians In Paris Look For Ways To Help
Thousands Use #MuslimsAreNotTerrorist To Combat Islamophobia
Read French-Language Coverage At HuffPost France
Islamic State France Paris Shootings


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gyrocop
PSN Profile
Everything posted by gyrocop
Trophy names
gyrocop replied to TheMightyImp2's topic in Missile Command: Recharged
They've done this for each game in the "Recharged" series. Centipede is Blue Öyster Cult, Asteroids is Queen, Black Widow is Electric Light Orchestra, Breakout is Pink Floyd, Gravitar is Laurie Anderson, and Yars is Rush. I think it's just a silly little thing they do with artists that were big at the time of the original games' release.
Smobile Games Rant
gyrocop replied to APeskyAxolotl's topic in Mobile
It doesn't. At least not significantly. I'm arguing the reverse. That the broader gaming landscape affects this. I'm trying to validate this issue as a symptom and not a cause. Broader trends in gaming and corporate culture has brought this nuisance (however insignificant it may seem), and how annoying it is differs from people to people. But the insignificant and the significant issues have the same source. Blatant profiteering. I kind of just wanted us to unite in that knowledge rather than feed into devisive rhetoric of who has the bigger problem. I don't mind bad art. I actually have real affinity for a lot of bad art. Soul Axiom was universally pandered, but I love it. It's such a mess of bonkers ideas that it feels like a dumb sci-fi fever dream. Even things like My Name Is Mayo (which usually gets ridiculed here) at least had a premise and charm that made it feel like it was created with an artistic purpose and/or vision. What I dislike is soulless corporate art created for the sole purpose of profit. Like those ugly monkey NFTs. I fail to see how asset flips or basically recycling the same game is a purposeful creative statement and not just greed in video game form. I don't like it because it is bad art. I don't like it because it doesn't feel like art at all to me. If you think that these games have genuine artistic purpose or that games don't need to have that to be considered worthwhile, then I'll agree to disagree. There is nothing but subjectivity in those discussions.
Okay. This is going to be slightly meta, so bear with me here. The reason why I initially replied to this thread, was that I disagreed with the idea that since something was worse than something else, talking about the less bad thing is misguided or nitpicking. If that was the case, then we'd all just talk about global warming and nothing else forever. You're right that me being inconvenienced when finding good unknown indie games seem trivial. I can truthfully argue that Steam has gotten so bad that I have given up trying, but seen in context with things like micro transactions and loot boxes it seems slightly petty, and I should have done more to stay on the topic of profiteering, because that is my real big gripe. The idea I wanted to pitch in my original post was that the mentality of making these garbage games whose only real selling point is easy trophies, is the same mentality that leads to these more serious DLC problems. The disregard of the artform of making games in lieu of profit. And by just handwaving smaller issues away, we're denying a bigger picture. I didn't want to get the idea across that this is some world ending issue, but rather that it too plays a part in why and how corporate greed influences the video game industry. By refusing to acknowledge the ways big companies make things worse for the culture than just the biggest, most egregious examples that we know of, we kinda lose sight of overall systemic problems that cause stuff like micro transactions, season passes, and smaller companies like Smobile hitting the addiction center of a subset of gamers for profit to exist. It makes the artform worse. Even if it plays just a tiny part. Which is why it shouldn't be ridiculed to talk about stuff like this. Even if the OP seemed a bit dramatic.
I don't think people can't see the difference in quality either. That wasn't my argument. As I said, I think only diehard trophy hunters are the ones buying these games. I'm just kind of lamenting that it works. That a company profits over the instant gratification Skinner box that is trophy hunting, and it clutters up the store, making finding worthwhile hidden gems more tedious, and that Sony is willfully letting this happen since they profit off it too. That's it.
While I don't disagree that the current DLC culture is a bigger problem, acknowledging that is not really a good counter-argument to what's been said. Especially since what's happening here attest to a bigger problem. These games are absolutely not just "goofy little games". They are low effort palette swaps most likely ported from mobile. That's why they can release so many so quickly. They are essentially using the trophy hunter fanatics to earn a profit (because I honestly don't see what other demographic would willingly buy more than one of these games). It's the same thing with that Bible game company. Unfortunately Sony's ever-increasingly lax policy for what can be put on their storefront is negatively impacting actual good indie games and the consumers, because not many wants to wade through this money-grubbing schlock to find an actual gem. It's the reason why storefronts like Steam or the iOS/Play store are such hot garbage. Because while there are a lot of worthwhile entertainment it gets buried in free-to-play nonsense and asset-flips. The PS Store isn't as bad yet, but the quality has been slipping over the past five years, and these cashgrab games are definitely contributing to that culture. Is it the worst part of the corporate gaming sphere? No. But I don't think you should just wave away this stuff, since it's another piece of puzzle that is this hellscape we call modern day video gaming.
SPOILERS: what did you think of the ending?
gyrocop replied to Rando-Calrisian-'s topic in Legendary Edition: Mass Effect 3
It's not an ideal ending and it does have some major problems that seem antithetical to the nature of the entire trilogy, but I'm honestly getting some nostalgia seeing people talk about ME3's ending. AAA games have fallen so far in terms of artistic quality that replaying the trilogy felt like a breath of fresh air and a direct time capsule to a time where every game didn't have to be an open-world Skinner box and where the biggest controversy was a bad ending. Seeing the ending through that lense, it is honestly not that bad... or maybe it's even worse. A sign of what came after. A game that actually had vision, worsened by corporate time restraint and some bad development decisions. What lit the fuse of the downward spiral of big budget blockbuster games in to the dreary trench of loot boxes and low effort.
gyrocop replied to Abby_TheLastofUs's topic in Unreleased Games
As much as it pains me to say it, being a fan of the franchise for almost two decades; I think I'm going to jump off the Kingdom Hearts train now. The gameplay has consistently become worse ever since hitting the peak in KH2. It prioritizes spectacle rather than actual thought out combat. Well-balanced combat challenges can only come so far apparently. What is more important is to make the screen flash fun colours all the time, and to fill out the combat with pointless minigames that don't add anything substantial to the base gameplay loop. The story is a mess, but worse than that Nomura seems incapable of giving it any sort of closure, keeping the series in absolute perpetuity by never letting things fully return to a form of status quo, leaving every single ending unsatisfying. Even as we embark on this new arc, we have a lot of unexplained baggage and recapping from the previous games, which is going to probably take up most of the first half of KH4 together with pointless Disney worlds that are paradoxically both the bread and butter of the franchise and complete filler at the same time. The final half of the game is going to be setup for the next game. Continue this loop of KH games until the Big Freeze claims us all. It's all setup, no real payoff. A lot of this is probably also just due to me getting older and the world getting worse. Disney is no longer a magical place, but a world-conquering money-hogging entity, sucking the soul out of everything they touch, and it is most likely impacting the story that could be told here. KH used to be a fairly magical franchise, but the mask is slipping. I guess, I just don't want to be there when it finally falls off revealing Bob Chapek knee deep in blood soaked money and Nomura making out with his own butt.
Looks like a fun game! (Trophy thoughts)
gyrocop replied to Munde_Mohawk's topic in Save Your Nuts
Aw, you're telling me now? My dog got neutered last week and they just threw them out!
How many unearned trophies do you have?
gyrocop replied to broy300's topic in PlayStation Network
I'm teetering dangerously close to 30,000.
Announcing PlayStation's new partnership with Discord
gyrocop replied to Aranea Highwind's topic in PlayStation Network
I think attributing some kind of success story to Jim Ryan here is going to only get people complacent about the less than ideal changes that will pop up every now and then. Jim Ryan does not care about the consumers, he cares about their money, and it just so happens that the consumers' wishes and corporate greed have common interest here. This is 100% a business decision, and a no-brainer at that. "Should we partner with the biggest chat platform catered to gamers?" Like, duh, obviously they should. Financially, that is just an easy decision. I'm not saying that this isn't good for the consumers. Granted, sole distributors of services on any type of platform discourages competition and it furthers the Discord domination to become some sort of virtual monopoly, so I could. But I'm not. I'm just saying that Sony didn't do this for you, but their shareholders. And praising them for something like this, is just sort of dangerous, because it is eliciting a positive response for something that didn't require a moral discipline to accomplish. If Jim Ryan makes a decision that is not financially secure, but great for consumers, based on some sort of moral principle or diligence of doing the right thing for the consumers, THEN I will be impressed. To underline: I don't blame anybody for being happy about this. I just don't want anyone to conflate this rational business decision with any actual respect or affinity for the player base.
Kemco games
gyrocop replied to The_Kopite's topic in PlayStation 4
Haven't played the rest of the series, but in Asdivine Hearts 1, you can buy special items for the different party members, and if you give them the one they hate, you can lower their affinity and thereby engineer the endings you get just right before you face the final boss. You just need to have done the normal endings before you save over your files for the true endings.
Sephirothic Stories is pretty quick, around 10-15 hours, but out of the ones I've played it's also the worst one by far. I'll recommend Alvastia Chronicles. It's one of the quicker ones (20 or so hours) and it's also pretty good. The stories are all super JRPG-y with no real new beats or twists. Heard Dragon Sinker should be good, but I haven't gotten to that one. I've only played a bit of Revenant Saga, but I sorta remember the story being a bit darker and more interesting than the usual Kemco fare. I think you're thinking of Rideon who made Marenian Tavern Story and Blacksmith of the Sand Kingdom which from what little I have played are much longer affairs, but also pretty cool, and have a bit of management sim attached to their JRPGs. Kemco also sometimes publishes a couple of different types of things like the visual novel Raging Loop to the Mom Hid My Game series and Citizens Unite! Earth x Space. They also have a couple of more Japan-only titles like that.
PS3 Store delves into a deeper pit each day
gyrocop replied to cris3f's topic in Off Topic
What's the alternative? Not using DRM-based marketplaces at all? Why didn't I think of tha- oh right, they don't exist. Even arguing that you should totally forego using PSN, Xbox Market, Steam and all that, and go with completely disc-based purchasing methods, what would that accomplish? Patches are fairly often tightly controlled by DRM, DRM are usually also put in the disc, either in form of security, mandated downloadable files, or "always online services", and this is becoming ever more present, and long term supporting physical media will do squat to steer clear of these problems. Like, sure, if I had the foresight to always buy physical I might not have the trouble with the PS3 as I have now, but in the future that whole argument is going to be null and void. You also have to think about what the consequences of "not supporting something so unsustainable" actually are. If we all, hypothetically, revert ourselves to a time where everything we did was disc-based (PS2 style), this will completely drain the now booming indie scene that really truly started due to downloadable content. Blu-ray manufacturing on a global level is not cheap, and if it was, it would be completely unsustainable with how many games are released every day now. Now this might be a reasonable sacrifice for you personally, but is it actually a good thing for the medium overall? I'm not convinced. By limiting the amount of money that can flow to small time developers you are essentially putting a much higher threshold on what games can be produced. And the ones with the ressources to actually still produce games? Yup, those are the ones that are going to force more DRM nonsense down our throat. By buying anything, anywhere, you are feeding into an ecosystem of anti-consumerism. By just having a PS3/4/5 and buying games for it in any capacity, physical or digital, you are essentially supporting an industry and corporations that do this stuff. And in the end it wouldn't even matter. People less discerning about these DRM restrictions than you or I, people who are just casual users of video games, people who don't really care about preservation, will just keep on trucking, feeding into a loop of anti-consumerist practices. It's true, everything dies. GOG is pretty cool about DRM issues, but you still have to use their servers to download things. Steam isn't going to exist forever. Eventually my PS3 will perish. And I too, will die. The future is downloads, and it's already here and have been for decades, and there is just no way around that, no matter how much we whine and flail our arms about it. Trying to negate a wider dystopian trait by personally investing in physical is like trying to fight climate change by going vegan. It's admirable that you want to do something about it, but it's not going to matter. We need policy. We need to have this be an issue, that Sony or Microsoft or Nintendo or Valve can't just legally handwave away. Have preservation of art on the agenda. The laws of practically every country are majorly outdated when it comes to these things, and until policies are in place to help this, it's just going to be very hard to preserve games no matter what you do. But don't go blame this on consumers. By doing so, you're essentially taking Sony's side. "It's your fault that things are this way. You could have just not supported it. We totally didn't stack the deck or mislead you in any way to support these practices. This is on you." Sorry for the wall of text. This was not intended to be this long.
Just because something isn't shocking doesn't mean it shouldn't be criticized. That's an oversimplification of the problem. The problem is that closing down the store is anti-consumerist and anti-preservation, and while it staying up is better, it just rusting away, decaying in a solitary group of servers with no sense of pride or dignity, getting progressively worse and worse, like an Alzheimer's patient with no family, is also bad. Nobody said that it staying up is worse. People are just annoyed that they are not being well-maintained or updated for more contemporary needs. Two things can be bad simultaneously.
How to reset all progress
gyrocop replied to Lake013's topic in HITMAN 3
I think I know why, but I don't have a way to fix it. I did all of the challenges in Singapore, but I never bothered during it in Siberia. "Capital Punishment" unlocked for me despite never having done any of the requirements, leading me to believe that doing all challenges in Singapore pops the wrong trophy. I think they linked both locations to the same trophy or something, in which case resetting progress might not fix that one particular trophy.
No Platinum?? It's insane
gyrocop replied to BadAssMarine13's topic in HITMAN 2
Honestly, I'm just stoked to see how many trophies they are gonna cram into Hitman 3. Will it be over 200? I hope it's over 200.
"Bloated Content?"
gyrocop replied to IntrepidHunter's topic in Immortals Fenyx Rising
I'd say that this is probably the game with the LEAST bloat that UbiSoft has released in years.
Trophy Thoughts?
gyrocop replied to ShadowGreenBeav's topic in Just Dance 2021
They still make these...? Oh boy.
Sony Launching New PS Store on Web and Mobile This Month
I couldn't care less about the aesthetics unless it breaks functionality and not having the game's title in plain text under the thumbnail does that extravagantly. Some games don't use the thumbnail to house the title, and for those games you don't know what the game is before clicking on it. Plus, for the games that do have it it's still stupid. Title cards have artistic liberty. It needs to be readable, sure, but it can get away with a lot for the sake of aesthetics and to tie things thematically, but having to rely on them in small thumbnails are really disrespectful to the visually impaired. Also, in a big sale, you need to sift through tons of pages of games (since you can't wishlist anything anymore), and small thumbnails with artsy title cards that are not even aligned for easy reading just doesn't scan. This is awful design.
gyrocop replied to TheHarryGamer99's topic in Beast Quest
This looks like an Easter egg of some kind to me. You've triggered something and ended in a sky box that is a 360 degree image of some real place on Earth. How and why, I don't know.
Which is the most underrated game of all time?
gyrocop replied to kratosgreatsword's topic in Off Topic
Here are five for the PS4. Each with a platinum trophy for those who care: 428: Shibuya Scramble - Next to Steins;Gate as my favourite visual novel. It's all told in real life photography and probably has a good chunk of Western appeal, plus one of the most engrossing and funny stories I've ever experience in a video game. Linelight - Amazing small puzzle game. Puzzle design is elegant and difficulty is spot on. Sleek art style, and great ost. Songbird Symphony - Extremely charming pixelated adventure/rhythm game. That this has fewer than a thousand owners on here is a tragedy. Octahedron - Trippy and difficult platformer with a pretty unique game mechanic of making platforms underneath you. Not for people who wants an easy plat. 88 Heroes - Fun and funny platformer where you have 88 lives. Each life is a hero who all have different ways of controlling, some of them extremely experimental and weird. This is like a game design masterclass. God tier opinion. Claymation, endless halls of lore, devious puzzles, and the best game ost ever made? This game has it all.
Some Ratalaika Games Are Actually Hard
gyrocop replied to PalaceOfLove706's topic in Off Topic
This is what kinda kills me about the whole company. I've beaten several Ratalaika games even past the requirement for the platinum, because I thought the games were fun. They didn't need the easy trophy bait. The games are good enough on their own. By making these bait easy trophy lists with multiple regions on both PS4 and Vita, Ratalaika doesn't exactly exude confidence in the quality of the games they publish, and that is honestly disheartening. I remember thinking fondly of Metagal, Warlock's Tower, and Daggerhood. And in a way I can't really blame Ratalaika for doing this. The indie market is flooded at this point, so companies tries to find any avenue to make their game appeal broadly. I'll say that easy trophy lists are a bit of a pathetic way to go about it (I say, while having multiple of those platinum trophies (hey, I'm only human)). I bought "Adventures on the Prairie" (not by Ratalaika) for the plat, and immediately regretted it. That game is just trophy fodder, and I swore to myself to never do that again. Rataliaka kinda tests my beliefs on that. On one hand, many of the games are good, on the other I don't know if I want to support these kinds of practices. They devalue trophies as a concept... which is forgivable in my opinion. What is less forgivable, is that it also devalues the games. It's negative advertisement. Trophy lists that are overly easy on purpose might sell, but it's not something that's being associated with high quality games. As a publisher, they're kinda throwing their developers' reputation under the bus.
Any chance of this on PS4?
gyrocop replied to jackmadrox's topic in Ghostbusters The Video Game
This thread is really funny in hindsight.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


We are only a couple of days away from 2019. Are you ready to discover brand new climates and habits in the upcoming year?
We looked at the map for you and chose the best routes for an unforgettable Asian journey. As Asia is a difficult region in terms of climate, it is important to choose the best time in 2019 to plan your holiday to Asia. In this list, you will find the best time to discover the Asian metropolitans, as well as the exotic cities. There you have it! Here are our suggestions for the best time to visit the heart of tourism in Asian countries. Read it, then choose your route and click here for the most affordable flight tickets.
Cambodia has two different seasons; the seasons of heavy rain and light rain. The average temperature is 27 ºC. The average precipitation throughout the year is 1312 mm. As the climate is tropical in the region, it is rainy from April to November. The average precipitation during these months are above 24 mm. Especially September, October, and November are the rainiest seasons throughout the year with 27 mm rainfall. June, July, August, September, and October are also called "typhoon months". Compared to summer, there is less rainfall in winter. For this reason, November, December, January, February, and March are the best months to visit the country. From March to August, it is the hottest season in Cambodia: the temperature becomes as high as 36 ºC. During this period, the difference between the day and night temperature becomes 8 to 10 ºC.
In May and September, the south and west parts of the country, and in October and January, the north and east parts of the country are in monsoon season, so you might want to sit at home and make holiday plans, as there is heavy rainfall in the country in these months. The annual rainfall in Sri Lanka is about 1020 mm in the dry regions in the north, while it becomes 5080 mm in the eastern slopes of the mountains.
Least rainfall for the east coasts: April and November; for the west and central parts of the country: December and March. As it is an island country, the wind has a significant impact on the climate, and the temperature varies from region to region. Throughout the year, the average temperature is 5 to 20 ºC in central parts and highlands, and 30 to 35 ºC in other parts.
The best time to visit Sri Lanka, which has a tropical monsoon climate, is in December, January, and February. During these months, when Sri Lanka has a lively summer season, there is literally a tourist boom in the country. Of course, the cost of flight tickets, accommodation, and tourism services also increase in this period. If you want to experience the warm, silky sands and the Indian Ocean, you should arrange your visit in this period to fully enjoy the paradise island.
The climate is tropical in the country, and the temperature is shaped by the monsoon rains. The average temperature throughout the year is 30 ºC. It is very humid. April and May are dry, but there is a sudden rise in temperature during these months. You can see 40 ºC in this period. The most rainfall is seen in June and September. From November to March, monsoon rains are not frequent, but the temperature is lower compared to the rest of the year. This cool and dry period is the best time for a trip to Thailand. As the temperature and humidity are low in this period, you will not be exhausted. So, hooray!
From June to October, Monsoon rains affect the whole country. There even occurs problems in transportation when there is heavy rainfall. If you plan your journey in this period, which is called "hot season", you should take the monsoon rain into consideration as well.
Monsoon rains are in Taiwan as well. Let's take a look at each month together: in April, the weather starts to warm up and there is no rain yet. May is the month of Plum Rains. In June and September, the weather gets hot and humid. In August and September, strong typhoons cause severe destruction in the country. Based on these, we can say that the best time to visit the country is January, February, and March – when there is less rain. There is a tropical and subtropical climate throughout the country, and the level of humidity is high, like many other Asian countries. The country is very cold in winter, and the temperature is not very high in summer either. For Taiwan, typhoons have a bigger impact than monsoons. You need to plan your journey accordingly and avoid visiting in typhoon seasons. As Taiwan is an industrial country rather than a touristic one, there is no such thing as an astronomical price difference.
The island, which is hot and humid throughout the year, receives a huge amount of rainfall from October to March. There is less rain from April to September, and the weather is less humid, the sun is mostly shining during this period. So, you know what to do: choose this period for your holiday. We should mention that there is no dry season in Bali. The average temperature is 27 ºC, and the annual average rainfall is 3428 mm on the island. The highest precipitation is in July with 684 average – so stay away! March is the hottest month of the year with 28 ºC, stay away! In August, the average temperature is 25 ºC, the lowest average throughout the year.
As the biggest economy of Bali is tourism, there can be price differences from April to September; but in general, Bali has affordable and below the average prices for accommodation and for food and drink.
The average temperature in Hong Kong is 23 ºC. Average precipitation throughout the year is 2152 mm. Transition periods, such as Spring or Autumn are ideal for visiting Hong Kong. In both seasons, the weather is 18 to 24 ºC, so you could visit everywhere without getting exhausted from the heat. But still, you should not forget about the rain. From May to September, the tropical climate is at its peak in Hong Kong. In addition to high temperatures as high as 34 ºC, heavy rainfalls, as well as typhoons, can be seen. If you accept the possibility of rain, you might be relieved to learn about the affordable prices in the city for almost all activities in this period. Moreover, the temperature is 15-20 ºC in the daytime, but it gets as low as 12 ºC at night time during winter.
Singapore gets heavy rains throughout the year with its tropical climate. The precipitation is very high even in the driest months. The average temperature of this island country is 26 ºC, and the average rainfall is 2378 mm. September is the driest month with 163 mm precipitation. The precipitation is highest in December with 298 average, while May is the hottest month with 27.4 ºC, exhausting Singaporeans with heat. In January, the average temperature is 26.1 ºC, and it is the lowest average throughout the year.
The region affected by northeast and southwest monsoons receives the most rainfall from November to March, and from May to September. So, the best time to visit Singapore is from April to May and from October to November. These months have the least rainfall and the optimum temperature. But please don't forget, if you are going to Singapore, you should always be prepared for rain.
That's the end of our recommendations for the best seasons of Asian countries for now. Why not sign up for our weekly newsletter and be the first to take advantage of fast-selling fares to your favourite destinations? Click here to never miss the best travel deals.


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Boxing Scoring FAQ and Discussion
Thread starter Juiceboxbiotch
Start date Jun 2, 2013
Juiceboxbiotch said:
I haven't been able to find anything official on that one Rob. It's a great question. The way I score fights, effective punching is always above the rest... but that's just me, an untrained, amateur couch judge. If you are able to find anything that explicitly states anything about one criteria being more important than the others, post it up brother. I will add it to the original post.
For me this is the issue with fight scoring at this point in time. There is no consistent understand of what the rules are. Some just focus on effective punching, others heavily value defense, others factor in all 4 criteria.
From everything that I can see, all 4 criteria are equal, because nowhere does it specifically list clean effective punching being the most important.
Juiceboxbiotch
Rob said:
Sounds fair enough to me!
dftaylor
Harold Lederman often states that clean punching is given the highest precedence. There's a good video with him explaining it.
It IS simple. Who did the most damage in the round? Who landed the most effective punches? Volume shouldn't come into it unless the gap is so huge it's clear.
dftaylor said:
I know the video your talking about, but even in that he basically says he is ignoring the actual written rules to score a fight that way. What stood out for me in that video is when he talked about defence he talked about blocking punches and not slipping.....but maybe he just missed it.
doylexxx
You just said it wasn't subjective and then went on to make my counter argument for me.
Nobody would have argued if one of the judges had actually scored it 10-7. It would have been fair and the judges were free to do so at their discretion. But the knockdown didn't actually occur in that case, and so its a bad example.
It is totally subject but especially in the states there is some unwritten rules if you will like:
no even round cards
some wont go past 10-7 even if enough knockdowns due to making too much of a gap
and a few others
[video=youtube;YHnEva3lC9Y]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YHnEva3lC9Y[/video]
thehook13 said:
So make up your own rules basically!
It seems vague but IMO he probably means not make it too complicated for yourself. A real judge has to look at all 4 criteria but to the layman, the harder cleaner damaging shots has much of the criteria covered. Basically use common sense and don't over complicate it.
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Great thread. Scoring the fights myself has always been a passion of mine and some of the questions here I've wondered about, but never discussed.
I will also add that I'm involved in this site Eye On The Ring that is exclusively for fan cards. If you're following this thread, it might be of interest. If you keep a notebook of cards, it's a nice to have an online option.
The site is still mostly unknown. So we're looking for more fans to try it out and post about it on their blogs or Facebook.
http://www.eyeonthering.com/
Reactions: Juiceboxbiotch and KO KIDD (ESB EX-Patriot)
zoe said:
Wow great post. I looked at that website and I'm kind of excited about it to be honest. I'll be spending some time there in the future.
Nice. The site really appeals to a lot of fans. Those who find it that is - we are still mostly unknown.
HaroldLederman on a reddit AMA 10 monthes ago. Asked for tips on scoring a fight.
Well, you know, you go by the 4 criteria. Clean punching, effective aggression, ring generalship, and defense. Now, the textbook answer is you score 25% each, but that's not the truth. The truth is clean punching is 99%, and the other three are if you can't make up your mind. At the end of the round, you say which guy hurt the other guy more than him and basically that's it. It's that simple, you try to determine who did more damage.
It's that simple really, they just complicate it with terms like effective aggression.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Boxing/comments/4hvd8l/i_am_harold_lederman_hbo_ringside_scorer_and/
Same AMA. Lederman asked about the accuracy of punchstats.
Well, Bob Cannobio who invented punchstat, never claimed it was going to tell you who won the fight. It's just an interesting thing to have. As far as being accurate, these guys do it all the time, you've gotta hope they've developed a talent for counting. For example, Lampley always tells you if a fighter lands more than 50% of power punches he's going to win, and that's usually right.
It just adds a little to the broadcast. I would feel devastated if we had a fight without the punchstat guys. They do a wonderful job, they give us good numbers and I find it's an interesting part of the broadcast. It's not the same as the judges and doesn't tell you who won but it's interesting.
Reactions: Juiceboxbiotch
Effective aggression, ring generalship, and defense are combined 1%? I say no. But I would say most judges, ringside and fans, do far outweigh clean punching over anything else, which does make sense. I just don't think less than a % for the other three is good judging.
I think youre taking harold ledermans words a little too literal.


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text:
Арма́нд Жюли́ Бове́ (; 6 сентября 1783, приход Пойнт-Купи, Луизиана — 18 ноября 1843, Новый Орлеан, Луизиана) — американский политик, судья, 7-й губернатор Луизианы.

Биография
Арманд Бове родился 6 сентября 1783 года в приходе Пойнт-Купи, штат Луизиана. Получил домашнее образование.

В 1810 году Бове был назначен судьёй прихода Пойнт-Купи. С 1814 по 1816 год, а также с 1818 по 1822 год он был членом Палаты представителей Луизианы. С 1822 по 1830 год Бове был сенатором штата, в том числе с 1827 по 1830 год — был его председателем.

6 октября 1829 года скончался губернатор Пьер Дербиньи, и Бове, который в то время возглавлял Сенат Луизианы, принял на себя обязанности губернатора согласно конституции штата. Во время короткого пребывания Бове в должности, резиденция правительства была перенесена из Нового Орлеана в Доналдсонвилл. 14 января 1830 года Бове не был переизбран председателем Сената, поэтому ему также пришлось покинуть пост губернатора.

Бове вернулся на своё место в сенате, чтобы закончить срок своих полномочий. В 1833 году он вновь был назначен сенатором штата, чтобы заполнить оставшийся срок полномочий подавшего в отставку сенатора Шеневерта, и служил в этой должности до 1834 года.

В 1839 году Бове столкнулся с финансовыми трудностями и распродал всё своё имущество на открытом аукционе. Губернатор Арманд Бове скончался 18 ноября 1843 года.

Примечания

Литература

Губернаторы Луизианы
Партия вигов (США)
Спикеры Палаты представителей Луизианы

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


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