When you are experienced in the beauty industry, you have definitely learned some tricks along the way that can help you save money or time. So read what beauty industry professionals have to say what beauty tricks helped them time after time.
1.To get the most out of your serum, mix a little oil with your favorite serum in a small travel bottle. You will get a cocktail that will absorb deeper and get anti-age ingredients to the skin layer that produces collagen.
3. When you know you will be exposed to the sun for a long time apply sun block cream on the brows to protect it from UV rays and therefore prevent them from turning them lighter. Try the one in the stick like this one.
4. How to best contour your cheeks? Put your thumbs in cream bronzer, rub it against each other and apply it just below the cheekbone. Try Chanel Soleil Tan Bronzing Makeup Base and you won't regret it. If you never used cream bronzer before you will feel such amazing difference.
5. At the first glance, if it seems like you used your gloss(or maybe even foundation) to the end, leave the tube or the bottle in warm water for about ten minutes. It will melt the rest of it from the sides so you can use it few more times just for the time you get the new one.
6. You want a lipstick to last long on the lips? Get a good blush same shade as lipstick. Apply it over the lipstick and then on top of that apply lip balm. This wacky advice comes from famous makeup artist Bobi Brown, so we would definitely try it out.
7. Take a bag of soothing tea(i.e. camomile)and put it on the slice of cucumber and leave it all together in the freezer for a few minutes. Apply it to your eye area for about 10 minutes. The effect? It soothes skin and reduces dark circles perfectly. Use it after removing makeup to soothe the skin or in the morning to reduce puffiness around the eyes.
8. If you have sensitive skin or eyes, stick to the eyeshadows in earthly colors because those tones have less pigment and would not be that irritating as dark or metallic shades.
9. Looking for a perfect lipstick? Match the hue of the lipstick with the hue of your gums. You will be surprised by how awesome is this simple hack.
10. If you want your clothes to smell like your favorite perfume spray it on before ironing. Heating will make it stay for a long time.
11. If you have sensitive skin, redness or dilated capillaries, before face or body scrub use natural oil(jojoba is gonna be huge this year) It will protect you from harsh peeling and leave your skin perfectly smooth.
13. Did you know that the cheapest eyebrow gel is your regular soap? Use old and clean mascara brush, rub in the soap and through the eyebrows. Voila!
14. Tired of swollen eyes in the morning? Before going to sleep apply eye serum as dehydrated eyes can be responsible for your puffy face in the morning. Try Advanced Night Repair Eye Serum.


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Коларовка — название населённых пунктов на Украине:
 Коларовка — до 2016 года название села Болгарка в Приморском районе Запорожской области.
 Коларовка — до 2016 года название посёлка  Каравеллово в Витовском районе Николаевской области.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
How To Encrypt an Email In Microsoft Outlook
Know The 10 Hidden IT Risks You Should Know About
Download Our Free eBook.
Enter your Information Below and We Will Send Directly To You
Nachman Networks respects your privacy. We will not sell or share your personal information.
There is any number of reasons to encrypt an email in Microsoft Office Outlook, anything from details about your salary to negotiations to purchase a business. With the state of cybersecurity, you need to know that you are protected from individuals who may attempt to hijack your email as it is in transit between locations, too. Fortunately, Outlook has the functionality built in that will allow you to quickly and easily encrypt your email as well as stop people from forwarding the email message.
Why Is Email Encryption Important?
The rise of malware and ransomware has made many users wary of opening emails, and definitely can make you question opening any attachments — even those from a known user. One of the key reasons for utilizing email encryption is to prevent an attacker from intercepting emails and reading them, or even adding a questionable attachment that could be infected with malware. While there are some web-based encryption platforms, the most effective are often those that are built directly into the email platform being used by staff members on a daily basis.
Email Encryption in the Enterprise
Email encryption options have been around for years and can provide your email and attachments an added level of security that could be necessary for sensitive conversations. In the past, it's been a bit more challenging to apply encryption and even required an add-in or separate application in order to ensure that your corporate emails are safe in transit. As far back as Office 2007, there's been the ability to add one-click encryption that applied to a single message. You also have the option to encrypt all outgoing messages, a crucial addition for financial and legal organizations. Network eavesdroppers will be thwarted by this advanced function of Microsoft Outlook. If you are using the Office 365 suite, you can find instructions for encrypting your emails on Microsoft's help site.
How Does Email Encryption Work?
It's important to understand that email encryption is a two-way street. Not only is it required that you have the software options available to encrypt messages that you are sending, but your recipient must also be able to remove the encryption with a key in order to view the message or attachment. In Outlook, there is a certificate generated that allows you to store the email in your Sent items as well as provides recipients with a way to respond to the email — as you'll have to open the encrypted file when it is returned to you. This can become problematic when you have multiple people on a distribution list for your email. When recipients are within your organization, Exchange server stores a copy of the encryption key for each individual on the server for ease of use.
Microsoft Outlook is one of the most widely-used email platforms in the country, especially for business professionals. The simple instructions for email encryption and the quick application of the rule for all emails means it is easier than ever to protect your confidential messages.
Nachman Networks is an IT Support and Computer Services company based in Centreville, Virginia. Some of the cities we serve include Fairfax, Springfield, Chantilly, Centreville, Lorton, Clifton, Alexandria, Manassas, Woodbridge, Occoquan, Dale City, Triangle, Mount Vernon, Vienna, Tysons, Falls Church, Herndon, Reston, Arlington, Rosslyn, Ballston and Washington D.C. We know businesses need technology support in order to run highly-effective organizations. Don't neglect your technology services! Contact the computer support professionals of Nachman Networks now at (703) 600-3301 or sales@nachnet.com
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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NECC Home / About NECC / Strategic Plan 2022-2027 / Equity Statement
Strategic Planning Process
Goal: Community Impact
Goal: Academic Innovation
Goal: Assessment and Informed Improvement
Goal: Student Support
Goal: Employee Excellence
Success for All at NECC
Statement of Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion
Our Strategic Plan seeks to remove structural barriers, and create a more equitable, more diverse, and inclusive college
Northern Essex Community College (NECC) is a positive and supportive learning environment of cultural inclusion, which challenges prejudice, celebrates differences, embraces all identities, and inspires all students, staff, and faculty to succeed. As a Hispanic Serving Institution, we place particular emphasis on closing racial equity gaps and ensuring the success of Hispanic members of our college and community.
This ongoing work is foundational and at the core of the strategic plan. Our Strategic Plan seeks to remove structural barriers, and create a more equitable, more diverse, and inclusive college that reflects the cultures and identities of the people who are part of the NECC community.
Justice, Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion (JEDI) Principles – NECC uses the following definitions to guide our understanding and intentions for our equity work.
Justice – recognizing and eliminating structural racism in higher education policies, practices, and expectations for students, faculty, and staff
Equity – providing all individuals and groups with the support, resources, and contexts of learning they need to reach their educational and professional goals; equity differs from equality and fairness because equity begins with the understanding that different people have different needs for success
Diversity – intentionally including people who represent different identity groups in our college community; an asset-based perspective that seeks first to recognize the contribution that each different perspective brings to our campus spaces
Inclusion– ensuring that all members of our college community have access to resources, spaces for participation, and feel a strong sense of belonging
Strategic Themes – We understand these themes to be infused in all of NECC's Strategic Goals.
Identifying and working to eliminate barriers faced by students, faculty, and staff through intentional actions / initiatives
Recognizing the value that diversity within our students, faculty, and staff brings to the college
Identifying the core causes of gaps in equity for students, faculty, and staff then addressing them within our sphere of influence
Increasing the diversity of our faculty and staff to better reflect the communities we serve
Implementing successful retention strategies to retain students, faculty, and staff
Increasing capacity for impactful / intentional JEDI work through professional development and shared experiences


Newbold Advisors provides value to the Federal sector by providing industry practitioners with unmatched expertise and experience. We are able to deliver our zero-learning curve resources, strategic consulting and mortgage operations support services into the Federal sector.
We provide resources who know the processes, systems, regulations, industry stakeholders, common issues, and risks before they walk in the door – improving project success rates while also reducing risk and expense resulting from re-work, failure or non-compliance.


text:
Q: AMD A10-6700 Support? I cannot get Ubuntu installed on my new ASUS system. How do I find a list of AMD A10-6700 and Asus support issues? Specifically installation problems.
Thanks

A: I have similar problem
I have bought an Asus X552E, AMD A4 with Radeon HD 8670M gpu. I want to install ubuntu 14.04 on it but I have a strange problem. when I start installing, the LCD of laptop encounters with graphical problems. it shows the screen in pixel pixel format as if the gpu is out of order! but when I reboot the laptop and use Win 8.1, there is no graphical problem in the screen!
I have checked the gpu in support of Asus in my country, they told me this chip is fine and maybe the ubuntu is havibg conflict on AMD or Radeon gpu!
I dont know what to do!

A: Have you checked this answer on a similar question.
This might resolve the issue.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaStackExchange


How to do the followig operation?
listbox has not selecetd value ?
I hope my question is enough clear, I'm using PHP and MySQL database.
I have one quite simple solution, hope it will be enough.
Make a regular Record form and for field in question use textbox (TextBox1).
inserted into textbox, and textbox value is submitted. Voila!
> How to do the followig operation?
> listbox has not selecetd value ?
> GetValue and SetValue ?
> I hope my question is enough clear, I'm using PHP and MySQL database.


text:
The Celebrated Leaping Frog
2017-10-15 news MSK 007 electronics design
I've spent most of this week working on the second and third prototypes for the Leapfrog VCF. I'm hoping to have this product available for sale by the end of the month - maybe in time to have some kind of spooky Halloween tie-in for the launch.
I did most of the electrical design before I started the company, and at the time it wasn't intended as a commercial project. The green-board prototype (still visible on the shop page, though I'll eventually update that with newer photos) came from that effort, and it had a number of issues that I knew would have to be fixed before I could even share, let alone sell, the design. Probably the biggest was that the panel potentiometers were all mounted backwards (!) - turning the main tuning knob, for instance, would give higher frequencies for counterclockwise and lower for clockwise, and the VCA/volume knob would give louder volume for counterclockwise and softer for clockwise. There were also issues with the panel layout (knobs too close together, a subject about which I've written before), tuning ranges, and so on. But prototype 1 was still good enough for me to record some demos. I more or less put it on the shelf while starting the company, and this month now that that's more or less up and running, I have the chance to develop the design further.
What you see in the photo above is the second prototype, with blue "version two" boards incorporating all the design changes I wanted to make after testing the first one. All the knobs go in the right direction this time, though I must admit I've gotten sufficiently used to having them backwards that I still sometimes try to turn them the wrong way on prototype 2 because I'm expecting them to go backwards like on prototype 1. That's likely a problem nobody else will have.
The main agenda item for prototype 2 was to do a whole bunch of testing - determine exactly what response curve it was producing, sort out the adjustment procedure for making it obey the intended response curve, determine whether any more design changes would be needed, and so on.
The Leapfrog's filter core contains five integrators, as opposed to the two integrators in the average modular synth state-variable filter. That is part of the reason the Leapfrog is a larger, more complicated, and more expensive module than people may typically expect for a filter; but that's what it takes to get the sound I wanted. In principle, optimal performance requires that each of the five integrators should have its time constant exactly right, and then the output mixer should mix together exactly the right proportion of each of the five integrator outputs - a total of ten adjustments in all, two for each of the five integrators. You can see the ten multi-turn trimmers for that on the back of the module (photo below), along with one more trimmer for core DC offset. The complete module also has two more trimmers on another board, not visible from this angle, for controlling VCA DC offset and volt/octave tracking. Beyond paying for the multiturn trimmers themselves, there is the labour cost of making 13 different adjustments on the module; this is a design on which most manufacturers would cut corners.
So, one of the important questions to settle with prototype 2 was how necessary the complete phase-difference adjustment procedure for these trimmers actually is. In experimenting with the first prototype I'd established a fairly complicated process that started with "pre-adjustment" on the PCB containing the trimmers alone, using just a multimeter, followed by full "adjustment" on the module as a whole, with all boards plugged together, feeding an external signal into it and watching the results on a digital oscilloscope. There is some careful design in the way the boards connect together, with some of the connections between parts of the trimmer-carrying PCB made only through the other boards when they are assembled, so that disassembling the module breaks up the resistor network into fragments that are easier to test with an ohmmeter. The full adjustment procedure is time-consuming and difficult; it requires measuring a bunch of phase differences among different test points while the module is powered up and filtering an input sine wave. The phases fluctuate a lot because of the feedback, my oscilloscope isn't all that good at measuring phase differences anyway (and I think it's typical of the scopes my customers will be using), and after each adjustment you have to wait for the phase to settle down and then try to find the middle of the range it's varying over before you know which direction to make the next adjustment.
This is a multiple feedback filter, and feedback loops are notoriously difficult to adjust. Each of the five time constant trimmers affects the behaviour of the entire filter core, so as soon as you adjust one, the others may all need to be re-adjusted. But on the other hand, one of the big advantages to the leapfrog topology is that in a certain sense it is optimally robust against component tolerances: if components vary, or trimmers are out of position (which is equivalent to components varying), the filter curve should remain quite stable. Other core designs attempting to achieve this response curve would be so sensitive to component inaccuracies as not to work at all. The multiple feedback loops, although annoying, help to compensate for errors. And my experience with prototype 1 was that even before I did any adjustment on it, when I just plugged it in impatiently right after building it, it still worked pretty well. Could I consider dropping the full adjustment procedure and depending on the pre-adjustment alone? If so, that would save a lot of time and effort both for me and for DIY builders. In particular, it would reduce the amount of potentially expensive test equipment needed to successfully build an MSK 007 kit.
The plot of test results on prototype 2 pretty much speaks for itself.
The overall shape of the curve is basically the same both with and without the full adjustment. There's just a little bit of extra insertion loss below the cutoff for the module when only pre-adjusted, and the slope looks a little less steep and (to the extent it's possible to measure, which is limited by the test conditions and equipment I was using) the attenuation above the cutoff may not be as good as it should be. So there is still some advantage to really doing the full adjustment properly, and I still plan to do it for the fully assembled modules I sell. But I'm declaring it optional for kit builders. Someone who only has a multimeter and not an oscilloscope can still expect to get very nice performance and shouldn't be scared away by the full phase-differencing adjustment procedure. That's the good news from the prototype 2 measurements.
The bad news was that (as I mentioned last week) the DC offset is bigger in prototype 2 than I expected. This filter is DC-coupled throughout. I thought hard about whether to do that and decided that yes, it's the right thing; but it means that all the DC offsets of all the LM13700 amplifiers (potentially significant on each one, and there are six of them) can add up around the feedback loops to give an unacceptably large offset at the module output. There are two trimmers meant to compensate for that, and they were designed (based on my measurements of prototype 1) to be able to apply what I thought should be a larger adjustment in either direction than component tolerances would ever make necessary. And it wasn't enough. Even with the core DC offset trimmer all the way at the end of its range I couldn't put enough trim onto prototype 2 to counteract its DC offset. I ended up modifying the prototype with an extra resistor soldered in parallel to the existing one that sets the adjustment range for the trimmer, and with that change I was able to get the DC offset to be reasonable - still larger than I really want, but small enough I can say it's just part of the unique charm of the filter.
So I figure I have to change the recommended value for that range-determining resistor. I'm now building a third prototype with what I hope will be the final value, and I'll see how it goes. I'm hoping that prototype 2 was near the worst case for component tolerances and prototype 3 will be trimmable to acceptable performance without requiring further modifications. If so, it's not a big deal - I can still sell these boards with little stickers over the offending component value and a careful explanation in the build instructions of what resistance should go there. There is no difference in the electrical parts of the circuit board, it's just a matter of mounting a resistor value in one place that is not what the board silkscreen says. And this is simply part of the calculated risk I took when I ordered the prototype batch of boards - buying a bigger batch saves money by reducing the price per board, but buying a smaller batch reduces the issues if design changes turn out to be needed.
Building the third prototype is a slow process because now I'm also taking the photos for the instruction book. Where I would normally stuff most of a board with components and then solder them all in one go, on this build I'm doing every component value as a separate step and taking a photo before going to the next. Everything has to be done in the same sequence I plan to write up in the manual, and it takes hours. So far I've finished two of the three boards.
On the board at left you can see the five silvery-coloured polystyrene integrator capacitors. Those are quite expensive, and (because they're made with pure tin foil, which is close to melting at solder temperatures) they're finicky to work with. You can't heat them too much when putting them in or they'll be damaged. When installed properly they do work well, though. In prototype 1 I used silver mica capacitors because I had some and I thought they would be cool to try, but those are even more crazily expensive and they have some disadvantages when used at audio frequencies. The polystyrene caps cost a little less and seem to actually be better for this circuit. In particular, with polystyrene caps prototype 2 is able to oscillate over a wider frequency range than prototype 1, even with the DC issues which aren't beneficial to the oscillation range. I'm interested to see what the results from prototype 3 will be, so I can start to get a clearer picture of how much variation there will be among individual filters. It seems likely there will be some variation, but that too is part of the charm of analog electronics. Every module will be its own slightly different thing, even before people get into "modding" them.
To support modding, the circuit board has extra pads for the integrator capacitors (even including a surface-mount footprint) so home builders can substitute other caps. NP0 ceramic would be worth a try; silver mica like I used in prototype 1 (though I don't particularly recommend it); or whatever else. I'd really like to try glass capacitors, but I don't think I can sell those because it's hard to get them except as old-stock military surplus. Glass capacitors are especially appealing to people building missiles (because they can withstand a lot of acceleration), and I don't want to get into selling anything with parts in it that could attract the wrong kind of attention to me from the export-control authorities. I've already had to go through one round of convincing a parts supplier that I'm not a steely-eyed North Korean missile man, nor a reseller acting on their behalf, and that was only over stupid audio panel controls that are not subject to any important export restrictions in the first place.
Further on modding, the Leapfrog module is designed so that pretty much all the components that determine the filter response curve are on just one of the three PCBs, the one on the back with the 11 trimmers. If you built that board differently (different resistor values and adjustments), you'd get a different filter curve. There are even some extra holes on the board for mounting components that other curves might require and this one doesn't. So although I'm launching it with just the near-elliptic low-pass response, there's a strong possibility of building other filter responses from the same basic design. High-pass, band-pass, maybe a "formant"-like filter with two band pass segments... there are many possibilities. With the right configuration it can produce almost any five-pole response, which basically means the curve can have five bumps on it. Referring back to the curve I measured for prototype 2, there's a bump near 0Hz, one near 733Hz, one at the cutoff of 1.0kHz, and then two more down in the stopband at higher frequencies off the right of the diagram - those positions chosen to optimize the slope of the cutoff. Having five poles allows for a fair bit of complexity, though not an unlimited amount.
What other filter responses will people want? I don't know, and given the cost of developing them, I'm not going to try to work out any such modifications before I sell some of these filters with the basic low-pass response. Each new curve requires some fairly involved calculations and then building a prototype to see that it really works. The Leapfrog project is already way behind schedule (I had been hoping to sell them before the end of 2016 and it looks like ten months later is the best I can hope for), and if the business as a whole is going to work, I need to see some real sales figures. But I'm thinking about what other responses people may want, and I'm thinking of staging some kind of promotion where people who buy the low-pass Leapfrog can place votes for what kind of response curve they want me to develop next.
◀ PREV Nucleosynthesis || Temperature compensation with NTC thermistors NEXT ▶


text:
US Department of Defense successfully tests hypersonic glide body
By David Szondy
US Department of Defense succe...
A common hypersonic glide body (C-HGB) launches from Pacific Missile Range Facility during a Defense Department flight experiment on March 19, 2020
Oscar Sosa, Navy
The US Department of Defense (DOD) has completed a successful test of a hypersonic glide body that will be the basis for a future class of hypersonic weapons. The US Army and US Navy jointly launched the Common Hypersonic Glide Body (C-HGB) from the Pacific Missile Range Facility on the island of Kauai, Hawaii, on March 19 in what the DOD describers as "a major milestone towards the department's goal of fielding hypersonic warfighting capabilities in the early- to mid-2020s."
Hypersonic missiles that travel at Mach 5 (3,800 mph, 6,125 km/h) and above are a potential game-changers for military planners. A strategic or tactical warhead flying at varying altitudes at over five times the speed of sound can stroll past current defenses before they have a chance to detect, track, or counter them. As a result, the major and middling military powers are keen on developing hypersonic weapons, as well as hypersonic interceptors to counter them.
According to the DOD, the recent test of the ground-launched C-HGB saw it reaching hypersonic speeds before hitting its designated impact point. During the exercise, the US Missile Defense Agency monitored the vehicle's telemetry data, which will be used in developing weapon systems for countering hostile hypersonic missiles as well as general hypersonic technology.
"This test builds on the success we had with Flight Experiment 1 in October 2017, in which our C-HGB achieved sustained hypersonic glide at our target distances," says Vice-Admiral Johnny R. Wolfe, Director, Navy's Strategic Systems Programs. "In this test, we put additional stresses on the system and it was able to handle them all, due to the phenomenal expertise of our top-notch team of individuals from across government, industry, and academia. Today we validated our design and are now ready to move to the next phase towards fielding a hypersonic strike capability."
Part of the DOD's goal of fielding hypersonic weapons by the mid-2020s, the C-HGB is being developed by the Navy, Army, and private industry. It is a common hypersonic platform that will use a conventional warhead, guidance system, cabling, and thermal protection shield. This will then be adapted for each armed service's individual weapons and launchers for use on land or sea.
"Hypersonic systems deliver transformational warfighting capability," says Mike White, Assistant Director, Hypersonics, OUSD Research and Engineering (Modernization). "The glide body tested today is now ready for transition to Army and Navy weapon system development efforts and is one of several applications of hypersonic technology underway across the Department."
Source: Department of Defense
MilitaryHypersonicDepartment of DefenseUS ArmyUS NavyMissile DefenseNew Atlas Audio
David Szondy
David Szondy is a freelance journalist, playwright, and general scribbler based in Seattle, Washington. A retired field archaeologist and university lecturer, he has a background in the history of science, technology, and medicine with a particular emphasis on aerospace, military, and cybernetic subjects. In addition, he is the author of a number of websites, four award-winning plays, a novel that has thankfully vanished from history, reviews, scholarly works ranging from industrial archaeology to law, and has worked as a feature writer for several international magazines. He has been a New Atlas contributor since 2011.
Kpar March 24, 2020 08:53 AM
I understand the need to develop weapons such as these, but they fill me with dread- our time to react, in an intelligent way, will be reduced to almost nil. The possibilities of things getting out of control are endless, and a simple mistake could end up being catastrophic.
Jeff7 March 24, 2020 11:53 AM
I can sleep easy knowing that wiser men than me think this is the answer. And Kpar is correct - just one lunatic could destroy us all.
ljaques March 25, 2020 07:40 AM
We need portable petawatt lasers to take down attackers' hypermissiles. I'm glad we're getting these missiles, but entertain the fear the others are relating, as well.
Milan Markovic March 26, 2020 11:38 PM
Better spend this money for health care system. It is falling apart.
DARPA program seeks night-vision goggles as light and compact as glasses
Milirem's Type-X robotic armored combat vehicle begins ground testing
British Army trialing "heavy-duty" Bug nano drone
F/A-18 Super Hornet makes first launch from a "ski-jump" ramp


text:
NHK | Eurasia: East and West
NHK – Eurasia: East and West (2004) 2of8 Quest For The Forgotten Alexandria
Eurasia – 2500 years of history and conquests. A magical voyage through time and space, exploring the history, culture and religions that link East and West: from the Persian Empire of Alexander the Great to the huge Mongolian Empire of Kublai Khan, the destinies of highly developed civilizations intermingled until they converged to take the shape of a Eurasian civilization shared by all of us. Babylon, Persepolis, Ai-Khanoum, Baghdad, Rome are virtually recreated with incomparable realism by computer generated images.
Part 1: Alexander The Great Conquers The World
Alexander was been the king of a tiny realm. He was only twenty when he embarked on one of history's most cherished dream : to unite the East and the West. He proved to be a political and military genius and he succeeded in conquering the greatest empire of his time, an empire that reached to the borders of India. In only thirteen years, he imposed a new vision onto the world.
Our series begins 2 300 years ago at the outset of his great conquest : after leaving Macedonia, Alexander and his army headed for the great Achaemenid empire of Persia. He fought memorable battles against Darius and conquered a territory stretching from Afghanistan to India. Following Alexander closely, we also witness what he discovers for himself : the intelligence and sheer splendour of the Persian and Egyptian cultures. The experience had a profound effect on him he became fascinated by the different forms of government When his army deserted him upon reaching the Indus, he turned back, disenchanted. He died three years later on 13 June 323, probably by a fever he caught in Babylon. He was not even 33 years old.
The Greek universe, which had ended at Byzance only ten years earlier, now stretched to the Indus valley. But his dream to unite all under the same law, just like the infinite light of the sky died with Alexander.
Part 2: Quest for the Forgotten Alexandria
Is it myth or reality ? It has always been said that Alexander left a string of some seventy cities in the wake of his conquests all named Alexandria in his honour. However, none of these legendary cities was ever found, except for Alexandria in Egypt and, naturally, generations of archaeologists have been searching for them
In 1961, Mohamed Zahir Shah, who was then King of Afghanistan, discovered a Corinthian capital while he was out hunting. It was the first evidence of a yet unknown archaeological site : Ai-Khanoum. Ceramics and fragments were unearthed as well as hundreds of coins marked with names of Greek kings and Greek inscriptions. Gradually, it became evident that this city separated from the Mediterranean world since the 3rd century BC had been colonised by Greeks who continued to speak their own language, use their own scriptures. They had lived in harmony with the peoples of Central Asia: the Bactrians, Scytes Sogdians and Tokharians.
It was like entering the Greek universe 5000 km from Greece A virtual reconstruction of Ai-Khanoum takes us back through time and history to the forgotten Alexandria.
Part 3: Buddha Wins Over the Souls of the East
In India in the 6th century BC, Sakyamuni, "a wise man of the Sakya tribe", had been meditating under a tree when, suddenly, he was struck with the comprehension of all things. He became Buddha, meaning the Illuminated . His message, based on a pragmatic philosophy, taught how to free oneself from all needs in order to achieve illumination. After the death of the Enlightened One, his disciples a few monks began to spread his teachings all over India, from Ceylon to the Himalayan.
Fearing man's penchant for idol worship, Buddha expressly forbade that his image should be represented in whatever form. Therefore, the Indian philosophers told his life story without ever showing in any form other than that of a simple lotus, a tree or a horse without a rider. The Buddhist missionaries began to build monasteries they discovered that the local population was a mix of settlers from Greece, Egypt and Antioch as well as descendants from Alexander's soldiers.
Influenced by Greek sculpture, Buddhism began to represent the Enlightened One in a Hellenised form. The Buddhist philosophy became less abstract and was better understood and henceforth widely adopted. Buddhism is a blend of spirit and culture which is unique in the history of mankind it achieved the successful encounter of East and West.
Part 4: The Romans Open the Sea Route to China
Ancient Chinese documents dating back 1600 years have revealed the presence of Romans at the very heart of China as far back as the year 166 AD. According to these chronicles, they had been emissaries sent by the powers in Rome in order to establish relations with the Han Empire. Were they ambassadors or just ordinary merchants ? Maybe they were both
At the times of Augustus, Rome's first emperor, the empire had been enjoying two prosperous centuries. It was the era of the Pax Romana and Rome's power was to expand rapidly due to contacts and trade. Endless caravans supplied a steady stream of goods from the Orient to the ports of the Mediterranean. Each trip represented a perilous voyage of 11 000 km with dangers lurking along the trade routes, not least of them being the Huns who turned travelling into a dangerous and uncertain enterprise.
Setting out from Antioch (Antakya), the merchants sent their goods to Asia via the terrestrial trade routes to Lo Yang, the capital of China. Along the road, intermediaries forced themselves upon the Roman and Chinese traders: the Parths, an Iranian tribe which occupied Persia. Their hold on the caravan routes was to become so powerful that the Romans looked for alternatives: it would be the maritime route.
During the reign of Augustus, some 120 ships crossed the Indian Ocean. On behalf of the Romans, Tamil sailors expanded their maritime routes towards the golden land, in other words Indochina, then crossed the Malacca straits to reach China. The Romans had established trading posts all along the coast of Indochina and put Tamil or Indian agents in charge of them.
Part 5: The Silk Road Unites East and West
Chinese Empire. After a perilous trek of some 11 000 kilometres across steppes, mountains and deserts, the caravans entered China through the Jade Gate. For seven hundred years, one particular tribe of caravaneers, the Sogdians, held the monopoly of crossing these hostile regions and became masters in the art of organising and leading caravans between East and West. They were among the best merchants the Silk Road had ever known.
Their ancestral trading tradition had been the result of Sogdianas privileged geographical position: the only possible route for caravans from India to reach Russia, or for those from the Mediterranean to travel to China was to cross Sogdian territory. No other trading route in history has been used for so long and by so many. In the year 674, the Sogdian city states would be conquered by the Arabs from the Middle East. They allowed the defeated Sogdians to keep their own language, Persian, but they forced them to convert to Islam. Still – looking back in history – no other people without an empire or military might has contributed more to the cultural encounter between East and West than the Sogdians.
Part 6: Science Thrives in Bagdad
Today, Baghdad is a battered city. But we need to remember that before the ruins, from the 8th to the 13th century, Baghdad had been the capital of a refined civilisation !
Over thousand years ago, Baghdad had been named Madinat al Salam, the City of Peace with the ruling Abbassids – named after Caliph "Abu al-Abbas" – who had founded the dynasty. In 749, the Abbassid Caliphat further spread its sphere of influence, reaching from Spain to the borders of China.
As a protector of ancient knowledge, Baghdad had translated Aristotle, Plato, Euclid. The head of its medical school, Ali Abu Ibn-Sina or Avicenna, a Persian from Bukhara, was also a commentator on Aristotle's writings.
Baghdad, city of A Thousand and One Nights , was a cultural melting pot where craftsmen, poets and merchants were able to get together through to their common language, Arabic. Baghdad enjoyed a culture of commerce and trade inspired by the Coran – which had been unique for its time: very sophisticated financial transactions cheques issued in Baghdad and cashed in Cordoba, Spain, some 4000 kilometres away.
This side-by-side of different languages, cultures and races turned Baghdad into a cosmopolitan city, a dynamic and colourful metropolis, which had been unequalled at its time. However, after five centuries of grandeur, secure in its comfortable lifestyle and weakened by in-fighting, Baghdad was to collapse all of a sudden. In the 13th century, 12 000 Mongol horsemen under the command of Hulagu-Khan, grandson of Gengis Khan, stormed the city and laid siege to Baghdad and its one million inhabitants, for seventeen days. The event heralded the end of Baghdad as the capital of the Caliphat. The city would never again recapture its intellectual radiance, nor its splendour.
Part 7: The Pope Declares War on Islam
Jerusalem, Holy City three times over. For fifteen centuries, the possession of the city had been incessantly fought over and caused bloody battles. It is hard to believe then, that in the thirteenth century History had been afforded a breathing space through the unlikely friendship between two visionary sovereigns a sultan and a Christian emperor who brought a miraculous period of grace to Jerusalem.
The Christian sovereign was Frederick II Hohenstaufen, Emperor of the Holy Roman-Germanic Empire and King of Sicily. The Muslim was Malik Al Kalmil, Sultan of Cairo and Guardian of the holy shrines. Between the two of them started a friendship which was unique in history . They admired each other without ever having met and against the advice of their respective counselors they decided to put an end to 135 years of wars and crusades.
On February 11th, 1229, after five months of hard bargaining, the two sovereigns won the day still without having met each other face to face. Frederick and Al-Kamil signed the treaty of Jaffa, an outstanding diplomatic achievement in the history of relations between Christianity and Islam. Even more so, this treaty was to be a model of its kind as it drew a line between religion and politics which was totally opposed to the accepted vision of the era.
Upon his return to Sicily, Frederick had been publicly repudiated by Pope Gregory IX, who believed that this peace treaty with the Muslims was a pact with the Devil. He attempted to have Frederick assassinated and upheld the excommunication which he had pronounced against him.
Al Kamil died a lonely man in 1238. He knew that – after his death – Jerusalem would never again find peace. True enough, six years after his passing, his successors would take Jerusalem back from the Francs for good. Two further crusades by the Christians would not succeed in re-conquering the Holy Land. St. John fell at Acre on the 18th May 1291 it would be the end of any Western presence in Palestine. Frederick, the excommunicated emperor, died in 1250, twelve years after his friend.
Each of them had been living a fragment of the longest dream in History , the dream to reconcile East and West. Their dream was to last for only fifteen years.
Part 8: Khubilai Khan Becomes World Ruler
Protected by its great wall and by three thousand years of history, the Middle Kingdom felt forever safe from invaders. That was counting without the hordes of nomadic horsemen who came from the Mongolian steppes, commanded by Kublai.
The great Kublai Khan, grandson of Gengis Khan, was born in 1214. He was the very incarnation of twelve centuries of invasions of sedentary civilisations by nomadic people.
His great ambition was to complete the conquest of the northern part of China which his grandfather had started by defeating the southern part of the country. To him, China was more than just an empire: Kublai's goal was to conquer a civilisation and make it his own. Since the beginning of its three thousand-year-old history, China had kept to itself. When conquering Siang Yang, Kublai Khan became the only ruler of the Middle Kingdom. From then on, China, Turkestan, Persia and Russia had been united in one Empire, under the authority of the Mongol princes. For the following century, the newly established Yuans dynasty would continue in the traditional lineage of the old Chinese dynasties. Kublai the Nomad carried the ostentatious mantle of the Chinese emperors and adopted their ceremonial protocol.
For the first time in its history, the Middle Kingdom opened to the outside world and established direct relations with Persia and the West. The Mongols, who had secured safe passage for the caravans, opened both transcontinental routes, which had been closed since the end of antiquity. Travellers from Europe could from then on take either the Southern route which led through Persia to the Jade Gate, or opt for the Northern route from the Crimea, crossing the south of Siberia reaching China via the north.
In 1275, a Venetian merchant travelling through Tai-tou, asked to be received by Kublai Khan. His name was Marco Polo who wrote in his memoirs about his reception at the Kublai's palace, describing the magnificence and splendour of his court. Kublai died in Peking in 1294 at the age of 80. It had taken seventy years for the Nomadic horsemen from the steppes in order to make the dream of Alexander the Great come true: unite the East and the West.
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Just came back from watching the new animated movie Tangled. I left the theater thinking that the animation team that created this did an incredible job. In terms of 3D effects, it's one of the best movies I've seen. The hair in particular is incredible. There is also a scene with water crashing down and breaking things, which is really spectacular. Also, I thought the lighting was very well executed. In the middle of the movie, I caught myself checking out the face animation and other aspects of the rigging. Extremely detailed work here too. I really recommend it to anyone interested in 3D.


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LelalMekha Jedi Grand Master
Oh, that I know! I've got all those Casus Belli stories, actually. Some of them are very entertaining, and some have very nice art too. If I had time and courage, I'd translate them all into English for everyone to see.
LelalMekha, Mar 16, 2015
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Darth Dreadwar Jedi Grand Master
Also wanted to add a little to Sinre's compilation of evidence for a vast pre-Adas Sith Empire and evil deities ruling it.
For starters, my favourite source, Tales of the Jedi Companion. This work tells us that the Sith spread across the galaxy before the Dark Jedi ever arrived (and note that the Dark Jedi arrival was intended to be the First Great Schism, so this says something of the author's intent for the Sith's pre-Republic power), spreading terror and becoming so notorious others took their name upon embracing their ideology, again, even before the Dark Jedi adopted the name. Then we have the Killik Sith Lord (who had a holocron, so another pre-Adas holocron alongside the 104,000-year-old Dark Holocron) on Alsakan and Sarafur in 30,000 BBY (right around the time the Killiks incurred the Celestials' wrath, interestingly enough), the library-temple on Krayiss II being built in 28,000 BBY (before the Sith could have ever stolen Rakatan spaceships and reached there), a contemporary of Adas becoming the spirit which guarded a spellbook in a Sith armoury on Onderon, ancient Sith ruins on Muzara (thanks again TOTJ Companion), a Sith warlord who created a dark side citadel on Alpherides >18,000 BBY, Veeshas Tuwan being built on Arkania in 7,000 BBY, Malachor V and the Trayus Academy >24,000 BBY, and that's just scratching the surface.
So what of these evil deities? Well, there are the immortal gods of the Sith, of whom we know of only one: Typhojem. But then there's the fact that the neatest meaning of the title Darth - seemingly of Rakatan origin - is 'immortal god-king,' and enter the fact Sith were running around in the Infinite Empire (the Infernal Council of Soa) and the 'red demons' the Black Rakata say they feared in KOTOR, and it raises the question of whether the Sith became the "Dark Lords of the Rakata" in an interesting parallel to what the Dark Jedi later became. But there's more. What of the Knell of Muspilli, who could summon apocalyptic deities beyond the Gunninga Gap? What about the fact the cult of The Five worshipped the Left-Handed God (the Sith deity Typhojem), yet also worshipped other deities such as the "Soulworm" and the "Lady with the Locust Heart?" This, to me, speaks of a great pantheon of Sith who, like Abeloth and the Ones, passed beyond the mortal coil to become terrifyingly powerful entities, who led a Sith-ruled Infinite Empire in war against the 'good gods' (or less worse gods) of the Celestials, defeating all of them apart from the Ones of Mortis and the Precursors of Kathol.
Absolutely. The missus knows French too, so that's three; should be swift-going.
Plaristes? Your move.
Darth Dreadwar, Mar 16, 2015
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I have already started translating "Le Facteur X." How well can you translate French, if you don't mind my asking?
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I'm decent, and I have help from someone fluent, so the translation should be good enough.
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Plaristes Jedi Master
Man, Sinre, LelalMekha and Darth_Dreadwar, it sounds like you'd find fascinating Joe Bongiorno's "Supernatural Encounters," which explores in detail lots of prehistoric evil deities like Typhojem, including the Soulworm. It's a massive shame it was never published.
Plaristes, Mar 16, 2015
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Abel, in your description of Busteromuchmacho and the Arc to Infinity you mentioned a "Force demon." Is that supposed to be a "Force Demon" of the same species as Wutzek? If so, that's the only published reference I'm aware of to them outside Wutzek's original appearance (of course, Joe Bongiorno had a lot to say in "Supernatural Encounters," necessitating the "published" qualifier). Also, what is the "trans-dimensional gamester of life-and-death"? That almost sounds like a reference to Star Trek's Q.
I wasn't keen on Bongiorno's associating Typhojem with the Bedlam Spirits, as I believe they are the more ill-conceived of Star Wars' various deific entities, and places the origin of the Sith pantheon outside of the Sith themselves (which is incongrous with the deification of Adas, and Darth-linked titles such as immortal god-king). Of course, the second can be forgiven as Supernatural Encounters was written before the link between Pall and Typhojem was made, but it'd still have been inconvenient for our rampant fanonising.
I do agree it was a shame it was never published, but The Clone Wars and Fate of the Jedi would have probably undone its tidy rendering anyhow.
I was aware of that article, but I didn't know that it contained all that info, since I don't read French. Did whoever wrote that article for the wook read it in French, or is there a translation somewhere?
The article in question was written by "Le Passant", who is a real francophone. Although I haven't read "Le Facteur X" in a long time, I seem to recall that the article is pretty faithful.
I might try and tackle one or two of them some day, if people are interested.
i started translating Le Factuer X, but it was too painstaking - I'm not a French speaker!
Eyrezer, Mar 17, 2015
Grand Admiral Paxis said: ↑
It's quite a long list, so I apologise if I miss anything. I'm quite sure that Abel would forgive me if I say that he's quite the Atha Prime fan, and he's tried to bring him into canon in a number of reimagined formats, only to be rejected during the editing process. Just to list the ones that I noticed:
That was a very thorough job, Paxis. I'll just make a few relevant comments.
- In fleshing out his retcon of Anakin and Ventor engaging in a Condorance of Fealty, a ritual of swapping lightsabers that expalns why the comic set on Skye featured the S'kytri remembered Luke's father and the man who became Vader possessing different lightsabers despite being the same person, Abel made reference to a "genetic terrorist" experimenting on Skye. That individual was intended to be Atha Prime, although the name was cut.
Right. That was from "Aliens in the Empire, Part 2: To a Traitor Go the Spoils."
- The original design of Atha Prime was based off concept art for the Imperial Royal Guard, that later got reintroduced into canon as the freakishly tall Imperial Sentinels in Dark Empire. Zeta Magnus is mentioned as looking reminiscent of Magi Sentinels, following the exact same design of his original character, right down to the large height.
You're right about tracing the evolution of the incarnations from Nilo Rodis-Jamero Royal Guard concept art > Atha Prime > Imperial Sentinel > Zeta Magnus.
But there's an additional reference here, and I don't blame anyone for missing it -- though you could say it's been right under our collective noses since 1994. Yes, the "Magi" in Magi Sentinels does refer obliquely to Zeta Magnus (trivia: for a good while, I styled the name Zeta Magus, the singular form). But more specifically, the guys Magnus took inspiration from for his (for expediency, I'm going to stop trying to use gender neutral pronouns for the character) getup, i.e. the Magi Sentinels, are these dudes:
...from The Freedon Nadd Uprising. The story was written by Tom Veitch, naturally, who gave us the Dark Empire Imperial Sentinels. So these guards seemed to me an obviously intended antecedent of some sort, even if only in spirit. Zeta Magnus thus became the missing link. I just had to name them.
- The background of Atha Prime mentioned him as being a clone master who lived in exile, ruling over a territory known as the Dark Worlds. Zeta Magnus rules over the Dark Worlds in the Unknown Regions, a fitting place for an exile from the galaxy.
- Atha Prime was attended to by a droid known as Blue-Four, the concept art of which looked vaguely similar to a tactical droid in some respects. Zeta Magnus is attended to be a tactical droid known as Blue-Tark, with Tark being the Thyrsian number for Four.
Ah, good. I'd hoped that would come across.
- Concept art had Atha Prime possessing a starfighter known as the Apex Invader. While Magnus' starfighter was known as the Skyriver Invader, with Skyriver being the Nagai term for the main galaxy, the ship matches the description of the concept art of the Apex Invader and at least carries the latter word over.
The starfighter's design looked peculiar to me in that way almost unique to Cynthia Martin's illustration of Nagai ships. And because I had Magnus using Nagai cloaking technology, I thought the implication that the starfighter was acquired by the cloner from them would play.
- Atha Prime, as a clone master, possessed an army of so-called "Clone Warriors" whose concept art looked reminscent of clone troopers. In SkyeWalkers, Magnus is shown commanding clones of Thrysian rather than Mandalorian stock, nevertheless dressed in the same armour.
- In one of Abel's attempts to introduce Atha Prime back into canon, he intended for Prime to be the source of the clone troopers used in Grand Moff Trachta's attempted coup-de-tat against the Emperor. It's hinted that Trachta may know how Magnus' clones were introduced into the Kaminoan stock and thus allowed to infiltrate the Republic ranks. Therefore, a relationship between Trachta and Magnus can be implied.
Tark Squad's members are also referred to as "drones" in the narrative once ... you know. That was to play up the connection to Trachta and his stormtroopers in Empire: Betrayal, since that's what the grand moff calls them.
I knew from the start I wanted non-Mandalorians to represent Zeta Magnus' drone warriors. The idea to make them Sun Guards -- the in-universe co-inspiration, along with the Death Watch, for the Royal Guards, according to the Imperial Sourcebook -- simply fell perfectly into place during the outlining stages. Afterward, the idea that a Sun Guard was nearly chosen as the prime donor for the Grand Army of the Republic emerged from Dan Wallace's work on the Galaxy at War sourcebook -- though I can't remember anymore if Dan put that in as a favor to me or it was just a fortunate coincidence.
- Another abortive attempt to reintroduce Atha Prime into canon involved him being another identity of Cronal, with the profile of Shadowspawn in The Imperial Warlords: Despoilers of an Empire mentioning a rumour that Shadowspawn was an alias of K'am'ir Zaarin, an Arkanian geneticist who possessed a clone of Grand Moff Tarkin. The original Kenner storyline involvng Atha Prime involved Tarkin somehow returning fro the dead to lead the Empire, with K'am'ir Zaarin being identified in SkyeWalkers as one of Magnus' aliases.
- In following in the attempt to merge Prime's character with Cronal, the Sorcerers of Rhand are mentioned as bestowing their blessing upon Magnus and his Dark Worlds, with the Rhandites being the cult that spawned Cronal.
Man, the Blackhole/Cronal/Lord Shadowspawn/Atha Prime/Zeta Magnus thing is so ******* convoluted.
Anyway, because I didn't know if I'd get a shot at continuing the story, I knew I had to end SkyeWalkers in a way that left open both the possibility of a direct sequel and the possibility that the post-Return of the Jedi Atha Prime storyline actually happened. Because the Lord Shadowspawn biography I'd originally written for "The Imperial Warlords: Despoilers of an Empire" (merging the character with the post-ROTJ Atha Prime storyline) had to be re-written after Matt Stover successfully resurrected my officially rejected idea from "The Emperor's Pawns" of merging the character with Blackhole instead, I figured a "rumor" by the sensational reporter Andor Javin would help to give some closure, however nebulous. It was hard to bite my tongue when that came out.
- The original Kenner toyline also included a character called the Mongo Beefhead Tribesman, who was an ally of the Rebels. Mongo Beefhead was mentioned in the epilogue, with the implication being that Magnus was feasting on him if I read that scene right.
100% right, except he was more accurately an example of the species species than a specific character.
Bly said: ↑
This was absolutely beautiful, a smorgasbord of loving references to pretty much freaking anything you could think of and the introduction of Atha Prime Zeta Magnus into the Star Wars universe.
Thank you so much, Bly.
Now all we need is for Vader's Legacy to be resurrected and the circle will be complete.
Perhaps, my good man. Perhaps one day.
Although, I had to laugh at the BBEG's name.
Zeta Magnus sounds very Cybertronian to me ...
You're actually the second person to say that to me. I actually (shamefully) never saw the Transformers movie, so I had to have the "Ultra Magnus" reference explained to me. (Consequently, I never understood what the hell happened to Optimus Prime, either.)
ZOMG ... Optimus PRIME! It all fits!
Halagad_Ventor, Mar 18, 2015
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Onderon1 Jedi Master
- Onderon1
Onderon1, Mar 18, 2015
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Darth_Henning said: ↑
I'm crying this is so beautiful.
This literally made my month.
Me too, Darth_Henning. Thank you, brother.
cthugha said: ↑
"I told Hal not to have that bantha breakfast biscuit."
Bungo n Rusti FTW
One of the best Star Wars comics. The kind of stuff that made the Adventure Journal one of the all time greatest Star Wars publications.
Let him come here! He must see our happy faces. Don't you, Halagad_Ventor?
I'm here, and I do, LelalMekha. Thank you so much for the huge welcome.
At the beginning of the novella, there's a note stating that the events in this story occur between the films Attack of the Clones and The Clone Wars. We know that both movies occurred in 22 BBY. However, the Battle of Skye was dated to 21 BBY (more precisely somewhere around 20.9-20.8 BBY) in The New Essential Chronology. Is the NEC date superceded by that note? I tend to think that it isn't, given that the note is completely out-of-universe, while the New Essential Chronology had an in-world perspective. Then again, Abel began writing SkyeWalkers three years after NEC was released, so maybe the 22 BBY placement should be the final word...
I operated on the assumption that the Anakin-as-Padawan phase of the timeline had been compressed due to The Clone Wars TV series. More specifically, I wrote SkyeWalkers as taking place between the Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars micro-series and the Dave Filoni Clone Wars series. That said, I also understood that the Clone Wars timeline was a mess and made an active effort to avoid as many time stamps within the text as I could.
Thank you so much Abel Halagad_Ventor, if and when you read this, for ensuring the last gasp of Legends was one of its strongest. Truly, up there with Darth Plagueis, Traitor, Shatterpoint, Yoda: Dark Rendezvous and the Heir to the Empire trilogy as one of my favourite works in all the EU, and definitely my favourite novella.
Bulging to bursting with references, surpassing even the reference-intensive inclinations of Luceno, full of witty and immersive dialogue, a beautiful writing style with a vocabulary to rival Stover's, and one of the most brilliantly realised (and so long did it take for him to be realised!) villains (and characters in general) in Zeta Magnus/Atha Prime. The references to real-life science (Dawkinsian immortal genes, quantum immortality, timeless identity/mental replica theory), as well as fleshing out of in-universe science (Class-D absolute disruption, cloning and flash memory dumps, harmful resonance caused by shared midichlorian signatures, midichlorians resisting the dark side artifice of memory rubs), was a real treat for me, having always longed for more rational approaches and empirically grounded explanations of underlying mechanics in Star Wars.
I hope you continue to write Star Wars novels and novellas for the new canon. You write fantastic prose!
Well. That's everything I could have ever hoped for in a review.
Thank you so darn much, Darth_Dreadwar.
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You made Kharys interesting enough that I wanted to know more - how her recruitment by Vader went - the story of Katya M'buele & Han Solo escaping from her - and so forth.
Iron_lord, Mar 19, 2015
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I've been away from this thread for HOW long? Inconceivable! Ridiculous wall of text incoming ...
As others have noted, this is the inevitable and unfortunate result of the Clone Wars TV series having forced all prior Clone Wars media that references Anakin as a padawan into the first month or so of the war. Pretty much every single date in the NEC was made obsolete by the T-canon historical revisions brought about by the series ... all before the stories themselves became obsolete, from a certain point of view, by the ending of the EU and the rebooting of Star Wars continuity.
*Waves his hand* Those stories aren't obsolete in my book. They'd have to snatch them from my cold, prying fingers.
Hence, "from a certain point of view." Regardless of anyone's personal convictions, those tales are not a part of the story being told going forward by Disney/LFL.
...the apocalyptic deities beyond the Gunninga Gap in opposition to the Architects ...
I set out to do something special with SkyeWalkers. Not being able to talk about it for 7 years (3 writing it, and 4 sitting on it) was difficult to say the least.
I can but imagine. Just knowing this existed was challenge enough to be quiet about.
So, thank you. Thank you for sticking with me for 15 years since "The Emperor's Pawns.
Fifteen years. Egads. Time flies. Also, that means nearly half your SW-writing career has had SkyeWalkers hanging over your head to one degree or another.
And thank you so much for your enthusiastic reactions and kind words for this labor of love.
Earned, every one.
If you have any favorite parts, questions or criticisms, let me know ... or just any favorite continuity shout outs. Because as I said on SkyeWalkers' Acknowledgements page: "This story is dedicated to the fans … always."
For I am one of you.
One of the best of us, Abel, one of the best of us.
Awwww... you.
jSarek, thank you again for your feedback on the story and kicking off this thread. I deeply appreciate it.
My pleasure, on both counts. Particularly on the first count; it was an honor and privilege, not to mention unabashed joy, to have had the opportunity.
I currently don't have plans on doing an "Endnotes"-style blog for SkyeWalkers like I did for some of my works in the old days ... the story's just too darn massive. But what I could do is possibly post the margin notes I passed on to LFL. They won't cover every single bit of continuity that's alluded to, but there are a lot of them.
I think this would be of benefit.
Unfortunately, by the time I finished the story, Star Wars Insider was bought by Titan Magazines and a moratorium on all fiction in the magazine was put in place—the effects of which some may yet remember.
Such a dark place we found ourselves, never to return. :-(
Abel did a wonderful job, I thought, of capturing Kenobi's voice in both pieces. In SkyeWalkers, the words just sound like they're coming out of James Arnold Taylor's Kenobi's mouth.
Hear, hear. It's about time SOMETHING addressed her existence in the days when Jedi were not just a distant memory.
At the risk of sounding like an idiot, it only just dawned on me that Zeta Magnus' throneworld of Rennek is Kenner spelled backwards.
If so, I'm an idiot, too.
The way he confronted Mari at the end was probably the best confrontation between a Jedi and a darksider I've read since Jacen going against Onmi in The Unifying Force. It's that good, that true to the Jedi ideal. This isn't a story about Obi-Wan going around killing people with Luke strapped to his back, it's a story about Obi-Wan being forced to come to terms with the fact that his life is radically different now, but the ideals of the Jedi, the ideals that he's clung to all his life, are still there. Jedi serve life, and they serve the Force.
Obviously, I now think differently. I also probably owe Valin_Kenobi an apology.
I doubt he'll mind. ;-)
Yeah, I suggested a few less obvious acronyms. Abel wasn't having it. ;-)
He did. He really did.
Star Wars is over the top and silly often times, and that's part of what I've always loved so much about it.
Which is why I didn't press the issue, even though to this day the use of the word "Abhorrer" stands out to me like a three-eyed mutant. ;-)
Or did the Mount Sorrow reference displease you as well?
Not at all. It was so ... artistically done.
I don't think all the references CAN be caught. There are a few references to obscurities beyond my ken, to paths not taken that never even made it into continuity, and even to notorious bits of fanon (see, for instance, at least one of Magnus's aliases). Abel is a wizard. A wizard! wizard.
Just a man who spent a far too much time with this stuff. But thank you, my friend. Where else could I be praised for such an inordinate indulgence.
That's what Lit is here for! ;-)
Maybe what Obi-Wan did in A New Hope with the mind trick was just as morally questionable as what Qui-Gon did to Watto with the chance cube in The Phantom Menace. Yeah, each act was relatively harmless, maybe even utilitarian, but even with their good intentions in mind, can we say these acts were ethical? I don't propose a definitive answer, and neither does "Lone Wolf" -- merely the question sharpened to a point.
"No. Hurt you I won't. Trust you I will, trust you…and the Force. The Jedi way that is."
Well, I should say that I think Dan's work on Plagueis may be my favorite of my friend's works in its creativity. It blew my mind ... especially given how obscenely fast he wrote it. There's a reason Daniel Wallace is Daniel Wallace.
I wish I knew how he does it. Dan Wallace is a machine that takes any raw material as input and outputs AWESOME.
This was one of my favorite little bits of backdoor retconning in the whole piece. I never would have connected these guys with the Sentinels if you hadn't pointed it out.
Orson Wells' last movie, in fact. But yes, the whole voice cast was impressive.
And the soundtrack! So deliciously 80s. Nothing is shorthand for "simplistic Hero's Journey" like Stan Bush.
Anyway, time to see if the internet will even let me post this silly wall of text I've just written ...
jSarek, Mar 20, 2015
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Ooh, neat catch!
I'm going to run with this and take it as further evidence for my fan theory of the Rhandites being an ancient Sith offshoot like a counterpart to the Sorcerers of Tund, what with Norse aesthetics and names (e.g. Marka Ragnos) prevailing among the ancient Sith and all.
Only to a point, no? There's still all the indications that consciousness is an emergent property of neural computation in the Star Wars galaxy, only that there's perhaps an 'additional' ingredient as well, e.g. the anima or pneuma. Shooting Greedo in the head will still result in the loss of his consciousness and ego, even if his luminous being floods, like a drop of water into an ocean, into the totality of the Force (thus losing coherence and discrete individuality). Even the Jedi seem to believe this constitutes the loss of identity, with the technique of the Whills being so distinguished precisely because one's identity is preserved or retained even while being one with the Force.
But even if there is a discrete soul that survives death (regardless of Force ghosting) in the Star Wars Universe, there's not really any definition of physical identity that could exist that could apply to one's 'original self' while excluding identical copies.
Halagad_Ventor and Iron_lord like this.
whiskers Jedi Grand Master
Iron_lord said: ↑
whiskers, Mar 22, 2015
I think the dates of the NEC for Clone Wars material have been and should be ignored at this point. It could have been argued before that the battle of Skye needn't have happened during the two weeks to seven months ( ) that Anakin was still a Padawan under the most recent version of the Legends Clone Wars timeline , which supersedes the Chronology's version. However, Abel has clearly taken the Marvel story at its word that Obi-Wan's fellow Jedi during the battle of Skye were his current apprentices. (Which, I think, is more effective than assuming the inhabitants of Skye didn't know what they were talking about at all in the original Annual.)
When I started writing SkyeWalkers, The Clone Wars movie hadn't been released yet, and the timeline hadn't yet been compressed. Once it was, I seriously wrestled with making Anakin a Jedi and Halagad a Padawan in order to keep the story further up in the Clone Wars timeline, but the "brothers" dynamic I'd already been fleshing out just wasn't playing naturally. There were already so many moving parts to the continuity inherent to SkyeWalkers -- Star Wars Annual #1, the Concordance of Fealty, Zeta Magnus/Atha Prime, Star Wars Gamer #1 -- I just had to draw a line and go with my instincts on making them both Padawans, despite how crowded the pre-Clone Wars TV series time frame abruptly became.
Fortunately, the entire story takes place over the course of only a day--it seems to have been written with an extremely compressed timeline in mind.
Yeah. Making that deliberate was a concession to the new timeline (though it wasn't that difficult, frankly).
(Though there is one other Anakin/Obi-Wan/Halagad adventure hinted at; an encounter with vulture droids and the Church of the First Frequency on Otranto. This likely, but not definitely, took place during the Clone Wars as well. I really don't think there's any more room for another time when the three of them could have worked as a team during the war but prior to Anakin's knighthood, so this might as well be their previous mission.)
Good catch, TC. I left this intentionally ambiguous precisely to exploit either possibility once the Clone Wars timeline finally shook out. If there was enough time, I figured I could make the "Otranto Mission" a Clone Wars-era story so that I could give Halagad some "buddy time" with Anakin and Obi-Wan as warm up to SkyeWalkers. If there wasn't enough time, I had two other general time frames pegged: just before the Clone Wars or (least preferably) during their initial meeting when Halagad and Everen were running their investigation.
Now that we've seen where Ventress's arc leads, I'm not sure if this is possible or desirable, but it's definitely back on the table. (Though the story was intended to be released in 2011, SkyeWalkers, like the Essential Warfare cut material, has been edited to account for the events of TCW through Season 5, so there must be a reason the scar reference was left in.)
No, unfortunately the edits didn't make it that far. Some of the glaring examples include the one above, as well as:
2) the reference to the "military-grade" stun blasts of the clones' DC-17m blasters, which were meant to account for the surprise scene in Darksaber where Callista is unable to use her lightsaber to successfully deflect a stun blast from Admiral Daala. This "military-grade" stun technology compromise was meant to explain why Luke and others (particularly in the Young Jedi Knights series, IIRC) had, by contrast, easily deflected stun "bolts" -- but my seemingly clever explanation ended up being, if not outright contradicted, at least heavily challenged by the episode "The Wrong Jedi," where Ahsoka is deflecting clone trooper stun blasts quite ably without them collapsing on her blade, much to my chagrin. 3) In the Interludium, there is a complex Easter egg that essentially ended up being contradicted by the TV series. Magnus refers to "that corniculate half-bot I revivified for the paltry fee of a double-necked, eight-string quetarra and one more quaint nom de guerre." If you read this carefully, it is actually a reference to cyborg Darth Maul, who I'd already previously referred to in "The Story of General Grievous: Lord of War": the parts about a "corniculate half-bot" referred to his appearance in the comic "Old Wounds"; the payment of a "double-necked, eight-string quetarra" was a reference to Randy Martinez's "Sith Rocks" illustration
and "one more quaint nom de guerre" was a reference to the fact that Magnus had taken the alias "K'am'ir Zaarin" (a.k.a. Khameir Sarin, the supposed birthname of Darth Maul cut from official Episode I English materials but supposedly printed in some official foreign translations).
I never imagined The Clone Wars TV series would actually resurrect Maul, let alone do so as he appears in "Old Wounds," and consequently negate the possibility of Magnus' involvement in his resurrection (although this is technically more due to The Sith Hunters and The Wrath of Darth Maul, than the TV series itself).
Anakin's appearance on the cover is closer to TCW than AOTC, though it's closer still to ROTS so this may need to be chalked up to artistic license.
Yeah, that one is best attributed to artistic license. This is especially clear if you read the descriptions of Obi-Wan, who is still described as having his mullet.
The scene where he is fighting the Sun Guards armed with flame throwers goes on to say that his hair catches fire during the fight, implying that this is why he cut his hair short for the TV series.
On the other hand, the story ends oddly and doesn't dovetail directly into TCW at all:
As I said before, I didn't know that I'd be able to write a sequel, so I only needed the story to dovetail into The Clone Wars TV series well enough -- that is, indirectly. I relied on subtleties such as
Anakin's scar and Obi-Wan's fried mullet
to do the work for me. In essence, I relied on continuity and hardcore fans' abilities to extrapolate the implications.
Anakin and Obi-Wan are at odds thanks in part to Anakin's immature behavior towards Halagad, which fits more with their attitudes and behavior in the pre-TCW stories than Anakin's relative maturity and their strong bond of brotherhood in TCW.
For the record, I also wrote SkyeWalkers with the mindset that it took place shortly, even immediately, before Jedi Trial (i.e. the mission they returned from "only two standard days earlier"). I thought Jedi Trial might be able to be slammed in between SkyeWalkers and The Clone Wars TV series (despite the vague 2 1/2-year reference/time stamp in Anakin's dialogue with Sergeant Grudo). I figured it was in Jedi Trial, as originally intended, where Anakin's maturation into a quote-unquote "Jedi Knight" would occur after SkyeWalkers in time for the TV series.
It's possible Abel intended there to be a sequel story that dealt with these issues, but until he arrives to answer questions we can only guess.
I certainly did hope for that possibility. And, given the chance, I would've answered some loose ends regarding the Postludium directly, but the rest probably only indirectly.
I'd said about all I had to say concerning Team Obi-Wan, Anakin and Halagad. The band doesn't get back together.
I hope Hal had plenty of blue sauce handy. ;-)
It was the blue sauce that made him sick!
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It helped that I've had my nose in Norse mythology (among a slew of other things) for weeks now in prep for an RPG campaign.
Okay, this I'm just not seeing. Marka Ragnos sounds a little bit Scandinavian, but that seems to be the exception - Naga Sadow, Ludo Kressh, Dathka Graush, Adas, Simus ... none of these sound terribly Norse to me. And the ancient Sith aesthetic seems very much Egyptian in theme.
It seems as if that "additional" ingredient is the bearer of identity, though, at least for beings that possess it. The technique of the Whills may be a rare and special practice, but it nonetheless proves that the important elements of a practitioner's personal identity are all present in the coherent, discrete, persistent ghosts that survive thanks to it.
*Physical* identity, perhaps, but that's not the be-all and end-all of identity in a world where materialist interpretations of selfhood are empirically deficient. Unless the cloning/flash imprinting process somehow also photocopied the "luminous being," which we're given no reason to believe, then the presence of the entity which contains our personal selves remains a singular, defining aspect of the original that physically identical copies do not possess.
It is for this reason that the Sith, and Magnus's accelerated transgenic decoy, view essence transfer as a necessity for immortality.
Better the meal upsetting your stomach, than you upsetting the meal's stomach!
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Well, Ragnos being derivative of Ragnarok seems fairly clear. But you also have the Old Norse 'Bo Vanda,' the Old Frisian 'Ieldis,' Tulak Hord sounds distinctly Norse (though only the surname is descended from it - 'Hodd' - with the first name being Czech), 'Garu' and 'Rrogon' are Gaelic, Wyrmuk evokes the Old English (but descended from Germanic mythology) 'wyrm,' Bavik is Belgian, and 'Skarok-Nur' sounds fairly Scandinavian, so there's definitely plenty of old European linguistic influences there even if not entirely Norse.
But mostly it's the aesthetics. Ancient Egyptian and Babylonian aesthetics in clothing prevail in KJA's depictions in GAotS and FotSE, it's true, but the ancient Sith have been described in numerous sources as being famed for their horned helmets, and Veitch's TOTJ, as well as Empire's End, show distinct and cliche Viking-style helmets the clearest. The fourteen Dark Lords interred in the Great Temple, its guardian statues and the Graushes are examples.
Yes, but that's a specific technique, so I'm not too sure how distinct it is from essence transfer (and therefore, in turn, the purely technological Rakatan mindspears, mind traps or those few Sith holocrons bearing what seems to be a complete copy of identity), or the Sith alchemical art of binding one's spirit to a physical anchor. The mechanism behind it could be as mundane and materialistic as Rakatan technology, e.g. a whole brain emulation (or 'upload') existing in the computational substrate of the Force; I'm not saying it is, only that the possibility can't be entirely discounted. But all those who haven't learnt such specific methods of preserving one's identity in the Force? Well, there's every indication that one's being becomes one with the Force, which Plagueis understood to be a nice way of nicely dressing up the loss of one's discrete and coherent identity. He theorised one's being persisted for only a few seconds after death, before dissolution.
In other words, consciousness is information; it arises from and is supported by squishy brains, but the pattern - one's identity - can also be potentially supported by crystalline holocron matrices, silicon-based computer banks, in cloned brains, a soul anchor (as with the haunting Sith spectres) or within the Force itself (as with the Whill method).
Even if we go full-blown dualist here, you still have, say, an Arkanian being born, acquring memories, experiences, developing a personality, and so on, and even if you say there is a soul entirely extricable from and perhaps powering the squishy brain and so forth, then you still have the fact that the memories and personality and nature of that soul - one's identity - is being determined by physical happenings, and that the very definition of a mentally identical copy - which is what Magnus is capable of creating - is that that identity is preserved. Say you create an identical brain of that Arkanian; this gives rise to (or merely by logical necessity yields, if you prefer an acausal interpretation) an identical soul 'attached' to that brain.
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Vthuil Force Ghost
So, a bit off-topic, but Darth_Dreadwar, about this pet theory you have about an pre-Republic galactic Sith Empire, I've been wondering: what exactly is your argument for where it went? The Sith at the time of the Second Great Schism are pretty primitive, after all.
Vthuil, Mar 29, 2015
darklordoftech likes this.
Vthuil said: ↑
Well, I theorise this was essentially the same Empire as the Infinite Empire, and that the Infinite Sith and Celestials largely destroyed one another, leaving scant remnants around which the remaining Celestials (the Ones of Mortis and the Precursors of Kathol) erected barriers of spatial disturbances. The Stygian Caldera and Nihil Retreat represented the two largest concentrations, the former falling to primitivism and being invaded once the Infinite Empire (bereft of its Sith leaders - the immortal gods of the Sith e.g. Typhojem) fell into various infighting factions (such as the mixed Rakata-Sith Infernal faction which warred with Adas', and those Rakata who imprisoned Soa and various Sith on Belsavis), the latter joining with the Knell, Kanzer Exiles and a Taung sisterhood to form the Sorcerers of Rhand. But Infinite Sith influence also remained on Alsakan, Arkania, Alpherides, Krayiss II, Onderon, Muzara and other worlds, and their dark spirits threaten to intrude upon the physical realm once more from the Chiloon Rift...
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Barriss_Coffee Chosen One
Style-wise, the Vikings were copying from the much earlier "bucrania cult" that began sometime during the domestication of the bull from the wild aurochs in the Middle East. Once bull/cow domestication happens, you see that "cult" start to spread throughout Europe, starting in Turkey and moving west. Veitch is probably copying the Vikings because that's what became most popular in our culture today, but the Vikings were one of countless groups that were doing it for millennia. For instance, the Late Bronze Age Mesopotamian god/elite headdresses looked very "Viking": http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Mesopotamian_-_Cylinder_Seal_-_Walters_42564_-_Impression.jpg
Language-wise... I'm letting you guys duke that out. I suck at languages and you guys sound like you have degrees in it. But I can see where the Sith style overlaps with both the Norse and Egyptian.
Barriss_Coffee, Mar 29, 2015
Halagad_Ventor, Zorrixor and Darth Dreadwar like this.
I finally read it after waiting to savor it. Just magnificent. The continuity was dense, but it felt natural and immersive, and really pointed out how much depth the EU had to offer in terms of setting and storytelling. Brilliant work, not just in terms of references, but in telling an immersive, atmospheric adventure with depth to the characterization. It's a shame this didn't get to come out earlier, because it's one of the best Clone Wars stories we've gotten.
Havac , Apr 25, 2015
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darklordoftech Force Ghost
Ragnos being derivative of Ragnarok seems fairly clear.
Maybe Ragnos was named such because by recruiting Exar Kun, he caused a Ragnorok-like event for the GFFA.
darklordoftech, Apr 25, 2015
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May the Fourth be with you, guys!
Thank you for continuing to read SkyeWalkers and Lone Wolf and keeping the thread active. (Actually, could I make a small request of one of the moderators and ask if "Lone Wolf" could be included in the title as well?)
My apologies, also, for my recent scarcity. Celebration Anaheim was a blast (and I got to finally meet several friends from these boards), but now that it's over, I finally found the time to compile the first series of footnotes for SkyeWalkers, as promised. As I mentioned, these are editorial notes rather than a reference checklist, like previous endnotes efforts of mine, but I think they're in a way more interesting for that if you're curious about the process of writing for a major franchise.
Anyway, I've posted part 1 on my blog:
SkyeWalkers: A Clone Wars Story Footnotes/Endnotes, Part 1
I'll be back shortly to pick up the conversation where we left off.
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opens this thread for the very first time
How did I never see this thread before?
My brain... its... melting... oh my... wat... huh... omg... woh... what...
I think I am in love.
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text:
By Compiled from wire service reports by Robert Kilborn, Steven Savides, and Kristen Broman-Worthington
The world must "deal harshly" with Hamas and those who kill innocent people with the intent of preventing the establishment of a Palestinian state, President Bush said Sunday. In his most extensive comments since a wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence last week threw his Middle East peace "road map" into turmoil, Bush said he still believes peace is possible. Meanwhile, in an address to the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Congress Saturday, Secretary of State Powell said the US "will never waver" in its determination to push for peace in the region. He called on Israel and the Palestinians to turn their "courageous commitments into peace on the ground."
Days after comparing some Roman Catholic bishops to the mafia, the former Oklahoma governor appointed to lead a panel examining the priest sex-abuse scandal was planning to resign. The Los Angeles Times reported that Frank Keating will leave as head of the church's National Review Board this week, before the bishops' semiannual meeting. Keating's spokesman conceded the timing was "awkward," but said the move was planned a while ago.
At least nine people died and two others were reported missing when a fishing boat they'd chartered capsized in choppy seas off Oregon's northern coast. Eight others survived after swimming hundreds of yards to shore or being rescued by firefighters and bystanders. The 32-foot Taki Tooo capsized in heavy surf Saturday as it sailed out of Tillamook Bay past a 1,000 yard-jetty, an area known for high waves and swirling currents. Local authorities and the National Transportation Safety Board launched investigations.
AmeriCorps is expected to cut funding for some of the more than 2,000 nonprofit and other groups it supports. The Corporation for National and Community Service, which oversees AmeriCorps, Monday is expected to announce its first round of program grants for the coming year, leaving off the list some programs that have received funding in the past, a spokes- man said. He declined to say how many groups would be affected by the cuts.
Former Vermont Gov. Howard Dean said he's "throwing down a marker" with a $300,000 television ad campaign designed to set himself apart from the field of Democratic presidential candidates. Dean is scheduled to launch the first TV commercials of the 2004 presidential election cycle Tuesday when he begins airing his ads in virtually all markets in Iowa, where precinct caucuses in January will launch the presidential-nominating season.
CORRECTION: An item in this space Friday, June 13, should have referred to NBC-TV's nightly newscast between 1956 and 1970 as "The Huntley-Brinkley Report."
Obama, Clinton mark the 20th anniversary of AmeriCorps
Navy SEAL killed in Iraq: Who was Charlie Keating IV?
Maria Shriver launches service program to honor her dad


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text:
package org.jboss.seam.faces.conversion;

import java.io.Serializable;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.Map;

import javax.enterprise.context.Conversation;
import javax.enterprise.context.ConversationScoped;
import javax.faces.component.UIComponent;
import javax.faces.context.FacesContext;
import javax.faces.convert.FacesConverter;
import javax.inject.Inject;

import org.jboss.solder.logging.Logger;

/**
 * A basic converter that works with any kind of object. NOTE: It should only be used in long
 * running conversations!
 *
 * @author Jason Portera>
 */
@ConversationScoped
@FacesConverter("org.jboss.seam.faces.conversion.ObjectConverter")
public class ObjectConverter implements javax.faces.convert.Converter, Serializable {

    private static final long serialVersionUID = -406332789399557968L;
    final private Map<String, Object> converterMap = new HashMap<String, Object>();
    final private Map<Object, String> reverseConverterMap = new HashMap<Object, String>();

    @Inject
    private transient Conversation conversation;

    private final transient Logger log = Logger.getLogger(ObjectConverter.class);

    private int incrementor = 1;

    @Override
    public Object getAsObject(FacesContext context, UIComponent component, String value) {
        if (this.conversation.isTransient()) {
            log.warn("Conversion attempted without a long running conversation");
        }

        return this.converterMap.get(value);
    }

    @Override
    public String getAsString(FacesContext context, UIComponent component, Object value) {
        if (this.conversation.isTransient()) {
            log.warn("Conversion attempted without a long running conversation");
        }

        if (this.reverseConverterMap.containsKey(value)) {
            return this.reverseConverterMap.get(value);
        } else {
            final String incrementorStringValue = String.valueOf(this.incrementor++);
            this.converterMap.put(incrementorStringValue, value);
            this.reverseConverterMap.put(value, incrementorStringValue);
            return incrementorStringValue;
        }
    }
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Updating your profile photo is done on your user profile page.
1) Click on your current profile photo. If you are adding your photo for the first time, your photo will be the default user photo.
2) The profile photo cropping dialog will open. Click browse to select a photo from your computer.
3) Resize and move the crop selection region over your photo to the desired size and position.
4) Press the update button to update finish cropping your profile image.
5) Press the save button to save your profile.


As a part of her work for her Masters Degree in Media Studies, Sophie completed a documentary research-creation project called Un jour ou l'autre that speaks about the migration of elderly people into residential homes. Sophie is working on PAR, a series of collaborative digital media projects exploring the potential of new media tools for use by community-based groups that are headed by elders. She has been involved with RECAA: New Media Methods and Ethnocultural Resources Against Elder Abuse, a Participatory action research initiative that demonstrates the social, political and community-based potential of new media and design. She has also worked on the AddressKnown project. Apart these projects, she loves to meet great people and work within community-settings.


text:
How Madrid new boy, Jovic could fit in under Zinedine Zidane
Luka Jovic
Luka Jovic, one of the stars of the 2018/19 Bundesliga season, is set to fit into Zinedine Zidane's plans at Real Madrid next season. Jovic joins Real Madrid with a strong reputation built in Germany.
Jovic has completed a £52.4m (€60m) move to Real from Eintracht Frankfurt, according to Sky sources
But how will he fit in at Madrid during an expected summer of transition at the La Liga giants? We take a closer look…
Jovic's rapid career rise
The 21-year-old Serbian striker arrives at the Bernabeu for a hefty price tag and the inevitable expectation to be a consistent goalscorer straight from the off in Spain.
Jovic performed admirably well in the just concluded season
But he is used to being the centre of attention. Even as a 17-year-old working his way up at Red Star Belgrade, the Serbian SuperLiga club's general director Zvezdan Terzic said "Jovic will become the best striker in Europe".
ALSO READ Arsenal complete the comeback in feisty battle with Rennes
Jovic left Belgrade aged 18 and moved to Benfica where he struggled to make a breakthrough, rotating between the senior team and Benfica B before a two-season loan switch to Frankfurt arrived in summer 2017.
After scoring eight goals in 22 appearances in his opening season in Germany, the 2018/19 Bundesliga season concludes this weekend with Jovic accumulating 17 goals in 31 games.
Five of those arrived in a 7-1 thrashing of Fortuna Dusseldorf in October. And before he departs, Jovic may also have a say in the German title race as Frankfurt can prevent Bayern Munich from lifting the trophy on the Bundesliga final day.
Former Frankfurt striker Alexander Meier labelled Jovic "the best finisher I ever played with" and spoke of his ability to strike with both feet and his threat in the air.
Real's financial commitment to the forward shows they have more than taken notice and may even result in declining game-time for Karim Benzema.
ALSO READ 'How I was forced into submitting ballot papers for massive thumb-printing' —Corper
Despite Real's trophyless season involving three managerial changes, the 31-year-old striker is coming off his best season in terms of goal output. It is the first time Benzema has scored 30+ goals in all competitions since the 2011/12 campaign.
But with Barcelona set to trigger Antoine Griezmann's release clause and an expectation to be genuine title contenders again next season, the introduction of Jovic could mean an overhauled frontline.
With Zidane's preference for a 4-3-3, it seems likely there will be room for just the one out-and-out striker in the first team.
Jovic to spearhead a new front three?
Vinicius Junior's starting XI game-time has predominantly come under the now-departed Santiago Solari, but his time on the pitch has been disrupted by a knee ligament injury and the 18-year-old has only recently returned to competitive action.
ALSO READ UEFA Fines United, Warns Mourinho Over Late Valencia Kick-Off
Madrid likely front three of Hazard, Jovic and Vinicius
Vinicius, who joined Real from Flamengo for £38m, has scored three goals in all competitions this season but has shown flashes of brilliance amid a disappointing campaign for Real.
He is heavily tipped to feature for Brazil in the Copa America this summer. A strong showing in South America's most prestigious tournament and his first-team opportunities under Zidane could be bolstered further.
Eden Hazard has stated he has already made a decision over his futurewith Real confident they will sign the Chelsea forward.
Perhaps he can be the one to finally fill the void on the left-wing since Cristiano Ronaldo's departure last summer clearly still being felt and Hazard only having one year left on his Chelsea contract.
Tags: chelsea, Frankfurt, Hazard, Madrid, odogwublog.com, Zidane
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