text:
"SCS 750"
T. Coraghessan Boyle
The following is a story from T. Coraghessan Boyle's I Walk Between the Raindrops. Since the mid-1970s, Boyle has published eighteen novels and twelve collections of short stories. He won the PEN/Faulkner Award in 1988 for his third novel, World's End, and the Prix Médicis étranger (France) in 1995 for The Tortilla Curtain. His novel Drop City was a finalist for the 2003 National Book Award. He is a Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus at the University of Southern California.
At first, we tried wearing masks to throw off the facial-recognition algorithm just to see what would happen, but the cameras were able to identify us by our body movements, the way we walked, held our shoulders, flicked our fingers to the brims of our caps when the wind came hurtling down Zhima Credit Street. The whole thing—charade, whatever you'd like to call it—was Devin's idea, and I do want to emphasize this point: it was Devin's idea, not mine. Trust me on that.
It happened like this: we were sitting around my apartment one afternoon not long after the rating system went mandatory, wondering if we could buy alcohol, Juul pods, and video games without them keeping track of just how much we were using, and Devin said, "We wear masks, that's all—and maybe baggy old clothes from the Goodwill or wherever. What do you think?"
We would have to pay in cash, of course, so there would be no credit record, though cash was frowned upon just about everywhere but the black market. And you didn't want to go there. You definitely did not want to go there. If they caught you negotiating for anything on the black market, no matter how innocuous or even socially positive—diapers, Windex, acai juice—your score would plummet out of sight. "I don't know," I said. "Why bother?"
"Because I like to vape? Because I'm bored with Red Dead Resurrection and I want to be able to buy more than two games a month without having to worry about what it's going to do to my score?" He gave me his choking-dog look. "Masks, come on—how are they going to know?"
The masks were state of the art, Second-Skin Silicone, a whole universe beyond the ones you saw in the old movies like Mission Impossible and Face/Off, each one made individually to conform to your bone structure so that no one who wasn't right there in House of Magic with you when you bought it would have suspected a thing. I chose a generic face, snub nose, balanced ears, lips that weren't nearly as puffy as the ones I'd been born with (and always hated—my nickname through five long years of elementary school was Blowfish). I liked the mask so much I was about to walk out of the store with it on before Devin caught hold of my arm and pointed out that it would defeat the whole purpose—the first street camera would capture the image, check it against the database and my purchase history, and know just whose face underlies the mask inside of thirty seconds. So we took our masks home in a bag, pulled them on, and played around with them in the apartment all afternoon, trying on different outfits and throwing our voices to confuse the voice recognition systems on the video feeds—we even watched sitcoms for a while, trying to mimic the way this character or that talked. As soon as it got dark we went to Zhima Liquor, where the girl behind the counter tried to act as if she'd never seen cash before (until she didn't, and took it), and then we tried GameStop and got what we wanted without having to jump through too many flaming hoops. It was pretty exhilarating. We got drunk and played games and felt we'd gotten away with something, which made it all the more exhilarating.
Right. Sure. Who were we trying to kid?
The next day when I got home from work—within five minutes of walking in the door—a representative from the Ministry of Public Safety was pushing the buzzer. What did she want? She just wondered if I had a moment to chat, that was all. She was a girl, actually, more or less my age, dressed all in black, with her straight black hair cut so it framed her face like the folded wings of a bird. Her eyes were the same color as her hair, and they gave up nothing.
"So what's this about?" I asked, even as she edged into the room, set her z-Pad on the coffee table, and brought up the video of Devin and me in the liquor store. She didn't say a word, just stared at me.
I wanted to tell her it was Devin's idea, not mine, but I could see from the look she was giving me that it wouldn't have mattered. "It was just a joke, that was all," I said.
Her lips were made of stone. They never moved except when she spoke. "Not a very funny one, I'm afraid."
"Come on, we were just goofing around. No harm done, right?"
"Halloween's in October," she said. She might have been pretty if she smiled, but I got the sense that smiling wasn't part of her job description.
"Come on," I repeated, a whining tone creeping into my voice. "This isn't going to cost me points, is it?"
I was too young to remember a time before our leader became our leader, but I did have enough experience in my teens and now my early twenties to compare the way things were ten years ago and the way they are now. Which didn't make me a critic or rebel or anything even close—I was like anybody else, happy to live in a society where we could all prosper and love one another and work toward a common goal without worrying about getting ripped off or defrauded or attacked in a dark alley (actually, there were no dark alleys anymore, except in the cop shows on TV, but you get the point). Regimes of the past may have used punishment as a way of enforcing laws and regulations, but the Social Credit Score program was more reward/reward, like vying for gold stars on your report card when you were a kid. It was self-regulating, that was the beauty of it, everybody doing everything they could to raise their score and avoid any hint of negativity. As our leader says, "Zhima Credit ensures that all roads are open to the good citizens, while the bad ones have nowhere to turn."
It was a guy, older, in his thirties, who came to Devin's door, and he was no sunny personality either. Devin told me about it the next night when we were shooting hoops at the park, and he seemed genuinely put out when I told him I'd been docked 10 points, my score (which had been on shaky ground anyway after my second jaywalking citation) dropping to 605 on a scale that topped out at 800, a level only our leader and a few celebrities attained, and his problem with it wasn't necessarily that I'd been penalized 10 points but that he'd been docked 20.
"Well," I said, "it was your idea."
He gave me that gagging look again, the ball thumping rhythmically under the wrist action of his right hand. "It's not like I had to twist your arm or anything. And it was just a goof, right? I mean, are you telling me we're living in a society where you can't even have a sense of humor? Or what, tell a joke?"
"Not lame ones," I said. "And that's all you know." "Did I ever tell you the one about—"
"Yes," I said, and we were both laughing.
The ball thumped, but he made no move to take a shot. A pair of doves, too slick looking to be certifiable, came in low, then made a graceful arc and perched on the electric wires overhead. "You know what? I'm not done yet. There's got to be a way to score what we want, like a case of Sapphire gin or enough Juul pods to last a year, or what, porn, without this constant shitty oversight, because really, so what if I want to jerk off in my own bedroom or play FlexKill III all weekend? How does that hurt anybody?"
I was stunned. His score was already hovering around 550, and if it dropped any lower he could find himself in that gray zone where you had to ride third class on the train and couldn't go to any of the resorts on vacation and might even have a problem just keeping your job. A perfect score was out of sight, but anything in the 700 range put you on the fast track to all the perks, from air travel to renting a car without putting down a deposit to getting prime seats at a concert and discounts on just about everything. I'd never heard of anybody below 500, which was the territory of pariahs and foreigners and other marginal types. Anything south of that and you might as well shoot yourself. "Count me out," I said, and even as I said it, he feinted to my right and drove past me for a perfect lay-up.
That was around the time Jewel came into my life. I was on my way home from work, thinking I'd kick back with this new game I was obsessed with (WraithQuest, which seems a thousand years old now, but was the hottest thing going back then) and just microwave something out of the freezer and wash it down with a couple of beers, when I saw her coming up the street toward me, oblivious, her eyes on her phone. I recognized her from work, though I'd never spoken to her and, in fact, hadn't seen her in the building for a while, if she was even still there, and I felt my face flush as I tried to think of what to say to her beyond, "Hi, how're you?" Or, even lamer, "Long time, no see."
She was in a short skirt and white leggings that dropped into a pair of red ankle boots and some kind of satiny blouse that caught the light and threw it back again. I saw that she'd cut her hair in the style of the girl from the Ministry of Public Safety, like that was the thing now—bird's wings—and she had on a pair of eyelashes that must have been fifteen millimeters long, which, I had to admit, I found very sexy. Just as we were about to draw even, she looked up from her phone, stopped right there in midshuffle, and gave me a smile. "I know you, don't I," she said, making it more a statement than a question, as if she'd been aware of me all along and had the phrase right there on her lips. After I fumbled around a bit—was she still at Alibaba, because I hadn't seen her there like for weeks, or no, months, wasn't it—and she told me she'd gone over to WeChat, which was only like three blocks away and she was making better money and thought she was happier there, not that Alibaba hadn't been good to her—I asked her if she was doing anything and she said no. So we went to a bar I knew where they had a killer sound system and people hadn't started clipping their score badges to their breast pockets yet, which was about as obnoxious a form of self-promotion as I could think of. This was a neighborhood bar, my neighborhood bar, or the closest thing we had to one. The patrons were mostly people our age, so it was cool, very cool, and whoever designed it framed everything—from the bar top to the molding to the mullions on the windows—with thin neon tubing in the soothing blue your phone gave back when you reached a 750 score (not that I'd experienced anything like that yet, but I had aspirations, which, in fact, was the name of the bar itself, looped over the front door in the same cool color only in letters three feet high).
She ordered a watermelon-cucumber mimosa and I had a beer, which was what I would have had if I'd gone home. A minute later I was watching the way her lips—her taut, glistening model-slim lips—pursed in a miniature O over the tip of her striped paper straw, and I was glad I hadn't. The sound system offered up a feast of the music I liked best, and we found we had a common bond there, and then she told me about herself (living at home, one sister, one brother, a cat, a hamster, and a tank of neon tetras), and I told her whatever there was to reveal about my boring life without making it sound so boring as to drive her away. Finally, over the third drink, we revealed our scores, because there was nothing more intimate than that unless you were one of these rawbies that went around wearing them on their shirts. She was a 715, and I was impressed. And took her word for it, because she didn't offer to display it on her phone. Which would have been rude, right? And because she wasn't rude, wasn't flaunting it, it made me like her all the more. When I told her about the mask adventure she laughed—"That sounds so cool!"—but made an elaborate sad face when I told her what it had done to my score. "That and two jaywalking citations inside of a month," I added, feeling a little surge of panic at the thought that she might get up and walk out the door.
But she didn't. She just waved her forefinger back and forth and said, "You naughty boy. Didn't your mother ever tell you to cross at the light?"
A few nights later I was back at Aspirations, this time with Devin, and if I'd been thinking about Jewel off and on all day, being there brought it back to me in a kind of golden haze, and I couldn't help envisioning her sitting there beside me, instead of him. As if that weren't enough, there were two girls in a booth by the window, both of them sporting bird's-wing cuts and sipping mimosas, and I saw it as a sign. I had to call Jewel, ASAP, before she forgot about me (and in the process maybe see if she was doing anything later tonight). I was working up my courage to go dial her number in one of the stalls in the men's because I didn't want Devin or anybody else hearing what I had to say, when Devin laid a hand on my arm. "You know I'm in trouble, don't you?" he said. I felt a tick of alarm. He was making one of his tragic faces, the one he liked to call "Death in the Afternoon," his eyes like cue balls and his chin plunging to his chest, only I could see he wasn't putting me on, not this time. "What do you mean?" "I mean I'm fucked."
The bartender set two fresh beers down beside the ones we hadn't finished yet—without asking. We were regulars, so why not? We were trustworthy. We were known. We had privileges. I drained the old beer, which was still more or less cold, and took a tentative sip of the new one. "Yeah, go on—you're not going to keep me in suspense, are you?"
That was when he slipped his phone out of his pocket, and holding it down out of sight below the bar so nobody could see, showed me the screen.
I don't want to say I was shocked—in reality, I could have seen this coming a long way off, the mask incident and what he'd said about gaming the system on the basketball court like flares shooting off the deck of a ship plowing into a reef—but I couldn't help sucking in my breath when I saw the color. The screen was orange. I'd never seen anybody with an orange screen before except Freddie Cheung, who was expelled from our local branch of Zhima Credit University for bringing a tuna sandwich and a bottle of Snapple into the exam room for Third-Level Finals (somebody claimed he had the answers inscribed in nanoscript on the underside of the bottle cap, which was never proven, not that it mattered—if the camera says you did it, you did it). I wanted to come up with a quip—that was how we related, how we'd always related all the way back to elementary school, when he was the only kid to stick up for me when the bullies came round pinching me till I bruised and calling me Blowfish and Blobber Lips and the like—but I couldn't find the words. "Jesus," I said, "what did you do?"
He shrugged, pressed the new beer to his mouth, swallowed, fought back a belch. The song that was just then playing ("One Drop Bosco Roy," a ska/C-pop tribute to our leader that I usually couldn't get enough of) seemed to disappear down some aural canyon. "They're accusing me of a speech crime."
I felt afraid suddenly—for him, yes, but most of all for myself. In the eyes of the system, you were who you hung out with, and if your friends' scores dropped—or your family's, even your second cousin's—it could adversely affect your own. "You're messing with me," I said.
He shook his head dolefully. "I wish." The beer bottle went to his lips again, but he didn't drink, as if his throat had stopped up, as if he didn't even deserve the consolation of a cold beer after work. "It was last week on the basketball court? The doves, remember?"
It was amazing what they could do with animabots these days—they had feathers, beaks, eyes, their wings even flapped. "Aw, shit," I said, and I was frantically trying to reconstruct our conversation that day. Had I said anything? Had I been complicit? "They're claiming I have individualistic goals. They're saying I'm a drunk because I want to buy more than one bottle of gin at a time. They're saying I'm a backslider and a traitor to the spirit of Zhima Credit. And Larry Soloso, my boss? He's saying don't bother coming back to work till this screen's as blue as the sky at noon."
Jewel told me to meet her at Plus-Citizens, a dance club on the other side of town. Her voice was whispery and confidential, as if we'd been dating for months, and though the guy one stall over was vomiting with a machinelike gasp and snort that I was afraid she could hear over the line, I felt elated, felt like I was already in love. I got the feeling Devin wanted me to stick around, have a third beer, a fourth, buddy up when he needed it most, but I told him I had a date.
"You? A date?" He dredged up his eyes, grinning, and gave me his Rocket-to-Mars face. "Is it somebody you met online? No, come on, don't tell me you're posting on WeDate?"
I was uneasy, I have to admit, on a number of counts. First and foremost was the knowledge that the surveillance cameras were picking up everything. I wasn't saying anything that could be interpreted as untrustworthy or even remotely negative (dating was a plus, dating could lead to marriage and the production of additional trustworthy citizens, to homeownership and diaper buying), but here I was in conversation, intimate conversation, with a guy who had an orange screen, and what did that say about me? Plus, I wouldn't have wanted to discuss Jewel with him anyway, even if we were sealed in a meat locker or a time capsule. What I felt about her—or what I was beginning to feel about her—was private, strictly private. I said, "It's just some girl from work."
"Really? Is she hot?"
I felt myself blushing. I didn't know what to say so I just nodded.
"You got a picture?"
"Uh-uh," I said, shaking my head, and I don't know why I denied it, because I had seven selfies of the two of us I took the night we were here for drinks, and I must have studied them a hundred times in the interval.
His grin vanished. "Bullshit," he said, "you don't have a date. You just want to get rid of me. I'm a liability now, right? All those years, all the shit that went down between us, what does it mean? Nothing, right?"
I pulled out my phone, which glowed a copacetic lima green, the hue that would give way to forest green and then teal and turquoise as you moved up the scale to powder blue, periwinkle, and finally the deeper blues. I didn't say anything, just brought up a picture of me with my arm around her as she leaned in close for the selfie, her eyes wide and her lips ever-so-faintly aglow with the residue of her third mimosa.
Jewel was waiting for me out front of the club, her shoulders hunched in a tight pink rayon jacket, her purse slung over one shoulder and a cigarette at her lips (which alarmed me, because it could cost her, depending on how many she smoked daily; I didn't smoke myself, but I'd heard from a smoker friend that anything in excess of five per day counted as self-destructive behavior, which was by definition untrustworthy). There was a line of maybe twenty-five or thirty people behind the rope to the right of the door, but she wasn't standing in it. She was slouched against a lamppost, her head down, smoking, as if she had no intention of going inside. "Thank God," she said when she saw me coming up to her, and I thought I should hug her or pat her back or something but her body language said no, so I raised my hand, lamely, in a kind of childish wave.
"I forgot my phone," she said, looking distressed behind the beating fringe of her eyelashes. "I must have left it on the table when I went out the door, because, I mean, I was doing my makeup, and then I changed my outfit like three times because I wanted to look nice for you. You like it?" She twirled round so I could admire her, before casually dropping the cigarette to the sidewalk and grinding it under the toe of one of her pink suede kitten-heel mules. Which, if they were watching—and they were always watching—could have constituted littering. Which made me even more nervous than I already was, so I went down on one knee to retrieve the butt and tuck it into my jacket pocket for lack of anything better to do with it.
"Okay," I said, smiling, "you ready to do a little stanky leg in there?"
She looked at me, puzzled. "What?"
"Dance. I mean, that's what we're here for, right? At a dance club? A little nae-nae? Harlem shake? Wapoo?"
Her face fell. "We have to wait in line, because, like I told you—I forgot my phone? And you're like, what, a six-oh-five?"
"Six fifteen. Didn't I tell you I've been volunteering at the Bosco Roy Oncology Center, and that's been pushing my score up? And within three months the jaywalking thing's going to expire and for sure I'll see an uptick there, plus—"
At that moment, a couple dressed like they'd just stepped out of an AliExpress store glided up to the doorman, who instantly pulled back the rope for them. I only caught a glimpse of them as they went by, but both were wearing score badges, and though I couldn't tell exactly what shade they were displaying, it was blue, definitely blue.
"Yeah," she said, after turning her head to watch them pass through the brassy double doors in a burst of light and a quick pulse of intoxicating music, "but we're shit out of luck now, aren't we?"
I didn't want to point out that she was the one who'd left her phone at home, because that would have spoiled things, and besides which, I didn't mind waiting on line—waiting on line was socially positive, the very foundation of cooperation and selflessness. I didn't like the phrase she'd used either, not that I didn't curse sometimes myself, but it was different for a girl, or at least in my limited experience of girls, who always did what was right and unfailingly garnered points. I told her I didn't mind waiting if she didn't, and actually things turned out fine. We only had to wait for forty-one minutes, and the club was as hot as they come, absolutely destroying us with all the up-to-the-minute songs from z-Tunes and Tencent, and we danced till our legs were like overcooked noodles.
Afterward I asked her up to my apartment, and she said she had to work in the morning. "So do I," I said, "but just for a snack or something—aren't you hungry?" I gave her one of Devin's faces, the one he called the Pleading Hound, all sagging cheeks and bleeding eyes. "After all that dancing, I mean? I could make us, I don't know—scrambled eggs? You like scrambled eggs?"
I watched her eyes run through a series of calculations, and then she said, "Okay, but only for a minute."
Actually, neither of us really wanted to bother with food—or another drink; we'd both had enough—so I popped a couple cans of pomelo Zhima Water and we both had a sip, as if to rinse our mouths before the main event, which was intertwining our tongues and groping each other. We did that for ten minutes or so, till I thought I was going to burst. "You want to go in the bedroom?" I whispered.
She sat up suddenly, looking around her as if she didn't know where she was. After she'd had a moment to gather herself, she said, "You know, I like you. I really do. And your lips—I love your lips, they're so kissable, like big stuffed pillows—but to be honest, I can't really see myself getting serious with anybody under, say, seven hundred?" She smiled. "Minimum."
A month went by. We went out a couple of times, maybe three or four, I don't know, but I made a point of calling her almost every day just to hear her voice and chat about games and music and the comings and goings of various celebrities, especially our leader's teenage twins, Zora and Zofar, who were constantly in the news doing socially positive things like feeding the giraffes at the zoo or cutting the ribbon at the new robotics factory out on Bosco Roy Boulevard. Jewel always seemed happy to hear from me, and when we went out she was upbeat and affectionate—not as affectionate maybe as I'd want her to be, but I was persistent. As our leader says, "Persistence is the superhighway to achieving long-term goals," and my volunteer work at the oncology center—and the fact that I'd taken my grandmother in for her treatments at the Human Performance Hub three times in a single week—was gradually improving my score. And it didn't hurt that in the absence of Devin, who just seemed to have vanished (and no, I didn't try to call or text him, for obvious reasons), I'd begun cultivating two friends at work who maybe weren't as simpatico as he was, but whose scores were bound to elevate my own. Was I sucking up? Yes. Sure. Of course I was. Really, was there an alternative?
And then, just as things were improving for me, Devin showed up out of nowhere. I'd just sat down at the console with a beer and a bowl of kung pao chicken when the buzzer sounded and there he was, looking pathetic and giving me his done-and-done face to underscore what his body language was already telling me. He looked as if he hadn't showered in a week. And his Mavericks jersey was so faded you couldn't even tell it was blue anymore.
I didn't exactly block the door, but I didn't move out of the way either.
He said, "Hey," and I said "Hey" in return. And then—we hadn't moved yet, both of us trying to adjust to this new reality interposed between us—I said, "Did anybody see you coming up here?"
"Are you shitting me? In a country of five hundred million surveillance cameras? Like the ones at either end of the hallway we're standing in and that pinhole lens in the doorframe?" He stamped his foot for emphasis, and I saw that his Nike Hyperdunks, which used to be his pride, were filthy and abraded. "For shit's sake," he said, "aren't you going to let me in?"
Suddenly I felt ashamed of myself. He was my best friend, or had been. "You want a beer?" I asked, pulling the door open.
So we had a beer and I microwaved a bowl of kung pao for him and we just started playing WraithQuest till we lost all track of time and space. It was half past ten by the time I got up and started putting things away. He was still working the gamepad, wasting wraiths and dire wolves and stockpiling weapons. At that point I started rattling the plates in the sink in a suggestive way, and he set down the gamepad and glanced up at me. "You know, I was just wondering . . ."
"Is it okay if I spend the night?"
He lived two stops away, ten minutes or less on AliRail. "What are you talking about—why not just catch the train? I mean, I've got work in the morning . . ."
That was when I found out how low he'd sunk. He'd lost his job and then his apartment, and for the past two weeks he'd been living with his mother out in the ass-end of the suburbs, which was hard enough in itself, but just that morning she'd told him he had to leave. "You know what a shopper she is," he said.
"Grade A, Number One, shop till you drop. And she does love her discounts and the VIP sales and the end-of-the-year plus-point cruises. She told me she loved me, for what it's worth, and she promised to advance me fifteen hundred at the end of the month, but right now I just need a break, you hear what I'm saying?"
I heard him, but I was already shaking my head.
The next night, I took Jewel out again, this time to a restaurant that rated four stars on the WeDine app. I had General Tso's Chicken, sweet and chewy, a dish I'd loved since I was a kid, and she ordered two appetizers and the Angry Lobster (a two-pounder coated with spicy Szechuan chilies and fried garlic and sprinkled all over with black-bean dust). We shared a bottle of French wine the waiter recommended, and when I asked how her lobster was she plucked up a dripping morsel and held it out to me on the tip of her interlaced chopsticks, which was nice. I looked into her eyes as she watched me eat and swallow and then frantically drain my water glass—it was that hot. Her laugh was musical and friendly, though not without a hint of one-upmanship. "Too much for you, big boy?" she asked, then laughed again.
It wasn't until we got back to my place that she realized she'd left her purse at the restaurant. Though I was on tenterhooks to see what would come next, what with my SCS climbing and the way the lobster had set her eyes afire, I volunteered to run back to the restaurant and reclaim it for her. It was eight long blocks, and when I said I'd run I wasn't speaking metaphorically. The girl at the hostess stand had the purse right there—a little black beaded thing hardly bigger than a z-Phone—and I was back out the door before it even had a chance to ease itself shut. By this point my jacket was sweated through, and though I'm in fair-to-average shape, I had to slow to a brisk walk on the way back, which was what gave me the time to contemplate what I was doing—or to contemplate just what it was I had in my hand, that is. Her purse. Jewel's purse. Which contained the only object anybody really needed in this society: her phone. It came to me then that she'd never displayed it for me, though she must have seen mine half a dozen times. Was it trustworthy of me to stop under the big Zhima Credit display across the street from Sesame Appliances and look through her phone? Snoop, that is?
It was an inert slab, black and faceless, but all it took to bring it to life was a single on-off switch. (No need of a code—codes were things of the past, when breaches of trust were as common as flies piling up on a windowsill during the first autumn cold snap; these days there's no reason for anybody to hide anything.) I turned it on, and if by this point you might have guessed what's coming, I tell you, I was stunned. At first, when they were still ironing out the kinks in the system, your SCS was upgraded or downgraded weekly, but now it happened in real time, minute to minute, day by day, so there was no denying or excusing the bright citrusy orange of that display and the harsh black numerals fixed right there in the dead center of it: 515.
There was a scene at the apartment. I handed her the purse and watched her eyes enlarge when she realized from the weight of it that something was missing—and it wasn't her compact either. She didn't look ashamed, only angry. "All right," she demanded, "hand it over."
"Deceit," I said, quoting our leader, "is the ice pick in the kidney of trust."
From next door, through the too-thin wall that separated my apartment from my neighbor's, came the shush-shush-shush of the magneto guns in the latest iteration of StarLoper I was dying to purchase when I got my paycheck at the end of the month.
"I was going to tell you," she said, switching to penitent mode.
"Yeah, right. What were you waiting for—till my score dropped to like five hundred? Do you know how . . . how rude that is?"
She took the phone from me and zipped it back in her purse as if it were going to infect the whole room, the whole building, but it was already too late for that.
"If it means anything, it was unintentional," she said, her lashes congested with droplets of liquid that might have been tears, that were tears, though I didn't believe them. "So my mom got sick," she said, as if everybody in the country should have known about it. "And because she was accused of a speech crime back in her student days, way before the SCS came along to elevate us all, she ranks as a Grade D citizen, which meant she couldn't get proper treatment—it was cancer, cancer of the colon?—and we all pitched in, my brother and sister and I, to nurse her and try to pay for all the tests and her operation . . . In the end, I had to drop out of school and go to work, and I wound up defaulting on my student loans, okay? But my mom's better and I'm paying down my debt, and I tell you Zhima Bank's just merciless—"
I was no longer listening. It was an impossible situation. Not only had she deceived me—and been haughty about it too, as if she were doing me a favor by letting me pay for her Angry Lobster and her mimosas, and she was a drinker too, let me tell you, and a smoker on top of it—but just knowing her, just having her there in my apartment when the security cameras had watched the way we'd snuggled when I turned the key in the door half an hour ago, put me at risk.
I gave her one of Devin's faces, the one he called the Shroud, and pointed at the door. "You know the way out," I said.
It took me a long while to recover—over a year, actually—but at least I knew why my score had been so slow to rise even after the slate had been wiped clean on my second jaywalking offense. I worked hard to be trustworthy, doubling up on my hours at the oncology center and joining the Campaign for a Trash-Free City, which was sponsored by Zhima Credit itself. Most important, I was careful about who my friends were—once burned, you know? For the last two months I've been dating a 750—a legitimate 750, who wears her score badge pinned at the neckline of her blouse and isn't shy about it either—and if she isn't absolutely as attractive as Jewel, she has plenty to offer, and I've been thinking about surprising her with an engagement ring, though I haven't quite got around to going to the jewelry store yet. But I will. Soon. That's a promise. Meanwhile, my two friends at work—they're both 700s and both named Bosco, after our leader, which is a plus, and why hadn't my parents thought of that?—have become fixtures in my life, especially after my score topped the magic 700 plateau and they didn't have to worry about me anymore. And give them credit here, because they saw something in me even when I was down. That's loyalty, and you can't really put a number on that.
From I Walk Between the Raindrops by T. Coraghessan Boyle. Copyright 2022, T.Coraghessan Boyle. Excerpted by permission of Ecco, an imprint on HarperCollins.
How Seriously Should We Consider the January 6 Insurrection As a Threat to the American Republic?
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How Seriously Should We Consider the January 6 Insurrection As a Threat to the American Republic? Hosted by Andrew Keen, Keen On features conversations with some of the world's leading thinkers and writers about the economic,...


Chelsea, who were without the likes of Frank Lampard, Ashley Cole and John Terry, registered a 2-1 win over Wigan Athletic after grabbing a last minute winner in this must-win game.
Chelsea interim manager Roberto Di Matteo earlier said the Blues' season would only be successful if they won a trophy (the FA Cup remains their only realistic title triumph this season) and finished in the top four of the Premier League, so as to ensure Champions League football next season. His boys certainly seem to be heading in the right direction, no matter what.
The match started off rather slowly, with both sides clearly showing a lack of momentum. Chelsea still appeared hung over from their Champions League victory over Benfica. Still, the hosts did create a number of chances, which they failed to capitalise on, in the first 45 minutes.
Wigan also did manage a couple of attempts (which were easily blocked by Cech) through winger Victor Moses.
The visitors missed a golden opportunity in the opening minutes of the second half, when defender Emerson Boyce put a header wide off an excellent Jean Beausejour cross.
The match, which looked very much in the balance, opened up in the 62th minute via a very controversial goal by Serbian defender Branislav Ivanovic. Ivanovic was clearly offside when he struck the bottom left corner of the post through a Raul Meireles cross. In spite of several protests by the visitors, assistant referee Dave Bryan and referee Mike Jones still awarded the goal to the lucky Blues.
Moments later, Chelsea also missed a very good chance to double their lead, when Juan Mata, off an excellent Drogba assist, blasted the ball over the cross bar.
However, now, the frustrated Wigan side, who received two bookings as a result of those frustrations, struck back. The visitors took advantage of Terry's absence and started putting pressure on the Blues' defence. The host finally cracked in the 82th minute of the match, when Senegalese defensive midfielder Mohamed Diame, from outside the box, struck a powerful shot past past Cech, off a Ben Watson assist.
Finally, just as the game looked to be heading towards a draw, Spanish winger Juan Mata stole a late winner for Chelsea, in the 93rd minute, via a brilliant strike from the left side of the six yard box.


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text:
\section{Introduction}
The mergers of binary neutron stars (BNSs) are one of the prime targets for the second generation gravitational wave (GW) detectors such as the advanced LIGO/Virgo and KAGRA \citep{Abbott2018}. During the inspiral the dynamics of neutron stars (NSs) is well described and the gravitational waveforms increase continually in both amplitude and frequency. After the merger the waveforms reflect the oscillations of the formed remnants (either black holes or supramassive NSs) and are much more complicated (in the case of the black hole formation, the waveforms terminate with the ringdown signal). The inspiral signal has a duration of tens of seconds (or even longer) and a low frequency (up to $\sim 1$ kHz), which is within the sensitive region of the advanced LIGO/Virgo and KAGRA detectors. The ringdown signal for black holes formed in BNS mergers is instead at frequencies of quite a few kHz, which is usually unmeasurable by the second generation detectors unless the sources are extremely close. The signals from the pre-collapse remnants are at frequencies lower than the ringdown, but still so high that a detection is challenging \citep[see][for a recent review]{Baiotti2019}. Such post-merger gravitational waves, anyhow, carry fundamental information on the equation of state (EoS) of the ultra-dense matter as well as the fate of the remnant formed in the BNS merger, and the interest in catching such a signal with the upgrading second generation gravitational detectors is growing. Important progresses have been achieved in the numerical simulations of the post-merger gravitational radiation \citep[e.g.,][]{Xing1994,Ruffert1996,Shibata2000,Damour2010,Hotokezaka2013,Bernuzzi2014,Bauswein2015,Bernuzzi2015,Zappa2018,Most2019,Bauswein2019,Baiotti2019} and dedicated efforts have been made to develop new data analysis methods \citep[e.g.][]{Clark2016,Yang2018}. An interesting finding of the numerical simulations is that the post-merger gravitational waves carry away in total about $0.8-2.5\%$ of mass-energy of BNS system, depending on the properties of the NSs as well as the EoS of the dense matter \citep{Bernuzzi2016,Zappa2018}.

On 2017 August 17, the advanced LIGO/Virgo discovered the gravitational-wave signal (i.e., GW170817) from the coalescence of a pair of NSs \citep{Abbott2017}. Very recently, \citet{Abbott2020} reported the detection of a new GW event GW190425 that involves at least one NS \citep{Han2020}. In comparison to GW170817, GW190425 was just detected by LIGO-Livingston and has a much lower signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). The dedicated search in the data of GW170817 found no signal from the post-merger remnant \citep{Abbott2017b}. In this work we evaluate its amount of post-merger GW radiation in two other ways. We find that the properties of the BNSs involved in GW170817, additionally constrained by PSR J0030+0451, the maximum gravitational mass of the non-rotating NS ($M_{\rm TOV}$) and some nuclear data, are in favor of efficient post-merger GW radiation. We further show that the strong post-merger GW radiation is preferred in improving the consistency among the $M_{\rm TOV}$ inferred from GW170817/GRB170817A/AT2017gfo and the latest mass measurements of pulsars. These two independent pieces of evidence are encouraging and the detection prospect of the post-merger GW signals from GW170817-like events in the full sensitivity run of LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA is found to be promising.

\begin{figure}[!ht]
    \begin{center}
    \includegraphics[width=0.95\linewidth, height=0.7\linewidth]{f1.pdf}
    \end{center}
    \caption{Upper panel: the $\kappa_{2}^{T}$ distribution of GW170817. { The solid red (magenta) line represents the probability distribution function (PDF) of $\kappa_{2}^{T}$ of GW170817 directly evaluated from the posterior samples of the piecewise (spectral) method of \citet{Jiang2020}, while the solid green line is for the $\kappa_{2}^{T}$ evaluated from nonparametric result of PSRs+GWs+x-ray/Riley case in \citet{Landry2020}}. The dark blue dash-dotted line shows the best fit relation between $\kappa_{2}^{T}$ and the reduced GW energy emitted in the post-merger phase, { and the shaded blue region shows the corresponding $1\sigma$ fitting error}. Lower panel: the $\kappa_{2}^{T}$ distribution of GW190425 and some Galactic BNS systems that will merge in the Hubble time scale and have accurate mass measurements of individual components. The $M_{\rm tot}$ of each system \citep{Alsing2018,Lynch2018,Ridolfi2019,Abbott2020,Shao2020b} is marked. { Note that the PDF value of GW190425 has been reduced to half for clarity.}}
    \label{fig:k2t}
\end{figure}

\begin{figure}[!ht]
    \begin{center}
    \includegraphics[width=0.9\linewidth, height=0.65\linewidth]{f2.pdf}
    \end{center}
    \caption{ Estimated GW energy emitted during the whole post-merger phase. In the upper panel, the solid lines represent the estimated post-merger energy of GW170817 if the fitting error of eq.(\ref{eq:fit_func}) is not considered, while the dashed lines show the ones including the fitting error. In the lower panel, the $E_{\rm GW,p}$ of all the BNS sources considered in this work are shown, which have taken into account the joint posteriors of three different kinds of EoS parametrization method and the fitting error of eq.(\ref{eq:fit_func}). For the  two specific GW events, the error considered joint result of GW170817 is shown with the thick red dash-doted line, while the GW190425 is shown in the solid black line and its PDF is halved for clarify.}
    \label{fig:egw}
\end{figure}

\section{Strong post-merger gravitational radiation of GW170817}
\subsection{Prominent post-merger gravitational radiation anticipated for the properties of the BNSs of GW170817}
So far, the only way to theoretically quantify the radiated GW energy is to perform numerical relativity simulations. It turns out that $\kappa_{\rm 2}^{T}$, which parameterizes at leading-order the tidal interactions in the general-relativistic 2-body Hamiltonian, waveform's phase and amplitude \citep{Damour2012}, plays a very important role in estimating the GW radiation \citep{Bernuzzi2015,Bernuzzi2016}. The parameter $\kappa_{\rm 2}^{T}$ for a BNS system takes the form of
$\kappa_{2}^{T} = 3{(M_{\rm A}^{4}M_{\rm B}\Lambda_{\rm A}+M_{\rm B}^{4}M_{\rm A}\Lambda_{\rm B})}/{(M_{\rm A}+M_{\rm B})^5}$,
where $M$ is the gravitational mass, and $\Lambda$ is the dimensionless tidal deformability of a NS, which is related to the quadrupole Love number $k_{2}$ and the radius $R$ of the NS by $\Lambda=2/3(Rc^2/GM)^5k_{2}$ ($c$ is the speed of light and $G$ is the gravitational constant) \citep{Damour2010}. In general, the larger energy emissions correspond to smaller values of $\kappa_{2}^{T}$, which, in turn, gets smaller values for larger masses, more compact NSs and softer EoS. Using a large set of numerical relativity simulations with different binary parameters and input physics, \citet{Zappa2018} has found an empirical relation between $\kappa_{2}^{T}$ of the BNS system and the reduced gravitational-wave energy $e_{\rm gw,p}=E_{\rm GW,p}/(M_{\rm tot}\nu c^2)$ emitted in the post-merger phase, { which reads
\begin{equation}
e_{\rm GW,p}( \kappa^T_2 ) =
        \begin{cases}
            0.02  & \kappa^T_2 \lesssim 63 \\
                - & 63 \lesssim  \kappa_2^T \lesssim 73 \\
            a(\kappa^T_2)^{-\frac{7}{10}} + b & 73\lesssim \kappa^T_2 \lesssim 458 \\
            c \kappa^T_2 +d  & \kappa^T_2 \gtrsim 458,
        \end{cases}
\label{eq:fit_func}
\end{equation}
where $M_{\rm tot}$ is the total gravitational mass of the system, and $\nu=M_{\rm A}M_{\rm B}/M_{\rm tot}^{2}$ is the symmetric mass ratio. And the best fit values are $a = 2.44$, $b = -0.019$, $c =-5.1 \times 10^{-5}$, and $d = 0.038$ (please see the technical note at https://dcc.ligo.org/T1800417/public/ for the details)}. Their result is shown by the dash-dotted line in Fig.\ref{fig:k2t} and the left low $E_{\rm GW,p}$ region represents the prompt black hole formation scenario. { We have incorporated the non-negligible fitting error of this formula (see the upper panel of Fig.\ref{fig:k2t}) in a Monte Carlo way by using the distribution of the residual as done in the \citet{2019PhRvD..99l3026K}, and the broadened $E_{\rm GW,p}$ results are shown in the upper panel of Fig.\ref{fig:egw}.}

In this work, the parameter ranges are for 68\% credibility interval unless specifically mentioned. With eq.(\ref{eq:fit_func}), the amount of the post-merger gravitational radiation can be reasonably/qualitatively evaluated as long as $\kappa_{2}^{T}$ (i.e., the EoS) is known. However, various EoS models have been proposed in the literature and it is not possible to be uniquely determined even in the foreseeable future. Fortunately, under the reasonable assumption that all NSs follow the same EoS, their properties can be jointly/reliably constrained with the nuclear data, the GW data, the measured masses and the estimated radii of some NSs \citep[e.g.,][]{Lattimer2016,Tews2017,Abbott2017,Most2018,Landry2019}. The masses of NSs in some binary systems have been accurately measured and there is a robust lower limit on $M_{\rm TOV}\geq 2M_\odot$ \citep{Cromartie2020,Kandel2020}. The radii of NSs, however, usually are just evaluated indirectly and suffer from large systematical uncertainties. Thanks to the successful performance of the Neutron Star Interior Composition Explorer ({\it NICER}), the situation has changed and very recently the first-ever accurate measurement of mass and radius together for PSR J0030+0451, a nearby isolated quickly rotating NS, has been achieved \citep{Riley2019,Miller2019}, which favor a stiffer EoS than the data of GW170817. Hence, GW170817, PSR J0030+0451, some nuclear data as well as the lower limit on $M_{\rm TOV}$ can be combined to reliably constrain the EoS as well as the bulk properties of NSs. This can be done either in the EoS parameterizing methods \citep{Raaijmakers2019,Jiang2020} or the non-parametric approach \citep{Landry2020,Essick2020}, and the results are well consistent with each other. Here we directly adopt posterior samples of $\{M_{\rm A}, M_{\rm B}, \Lambda_{\rm A}, \Lambda_{\rm B}\}$ obtained in \citet{Jiang2020} to calculate the $\kappa_{2}^{T}$ for GW170817. Note that the region of $\kappa_{2}^{T}<63$ represents the prompt black hole formation, which is irrelevant to GW170817 because of the delayed collapse of the remnant \citep{Metzger2019}. { So we neglect the posterior samples that give $\kappa_{2}^{T}<63$ for GW170817. At $90\%$ credible level,} for the piecewise polytropic expansion method we have $\kappa_{2}^{T}=100^{+54}_{-34}$, while for the spectral decomposition method we have $\kappa_{2}^{T}=108^{+41}_{-38}$. { We also adopt the method described in \citet{2019PhRvD..99l3026K} to evaluate the nonparametric posterior of PSRs+GWs+x-ray/Riley case in \citet{Landry2020} and get $\kappa_{2}^{T}=107^{+103}_{-40}$ for GW1708017. The incorporation of the strong phase transition possibility by \citet{Landry2020} favors lower $k_2^T$ than ours (note that the $\kappa_{2}^{T}<63$ region is excluded), but has an overall agreement with the piecewise result and the spectral result (as shown in upper panel of Figure \ref{fig:k2t}). For this reason we combine equal sample of $k_2^T$ calculated from these three different parametrization methods to perform all the calculations in this work unless specially specified}. Clearly, the inferred $\kappa_{2}^{T}$ is well within the region that predicts the very prominent post-merger GW radiation, which is rather encouraging. { The post-merger energy is then estimated to be $E_{\rm GW,p} = 0.041^{+0.036}_{-0.026} M_{\odot} c^2 $ ($90\%$ confidence level) when the fitting error is considered for the combined posterior (see upper panel of Fig.\ref{fig:egw}). For B1534+12, B2127+11C, J1757-1854, and J0453+1559, we expect that they would emit almost the same amount of energy as GW170817 in the post-merger phase. This is understandable considering the comparable total mass of these systems. For lighter BNS systems like J0514-4002A, the expected post-merger energy is relatively small because of the large $\kappa_{2}^{T}$. While for heavier BNS systems like GW190425, we predict prompt collapse scenario and thus emit a small amount of energy in the post-merger phase (see the lower panels of Fig.\ref{fig:k2t} and Fig.\ref{fig:egw}).} To our knowledge, this is the {\it first} time to combine the intriguing numerical finding of \citet{Zappa2018} with the EoS constrained with the multi-messenger information of NSs and then demonstrate that GW170817 is likely the most efficient post-merger GW emitter { among the observed BNS GW events}.

\begin{figure}[!ht]
    \begin{center}
    \includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{f3.pdf}
    \end{center}
    \caption{The probability distribution functions of $M_{\rm TOV}$ { (in the cases of $j=j_{\rm kep}$ and  combined $E_{\rm GW,p}$)} inferred from GW170817/GRB 170817A/AT2017gfo and the mass distributions of PSR 0740+6620 \citep{Cromartie2020} and PSR J2215+5135 \citep{Kandel2020}.}
    \label{fig:mass-distribution}
\end{figure}

\subsection{Significant post-merger gravitational radiation: { indication} from the electromagnetic data}
The collapse time of the supramassive NS formed in GW170817 has been inferred to be $t_{\rm c}=0.98\pm 0.31$ s \citep{Gill2019},
when the uniform rapid rotation of the NS is insufficient to support against collapse. This imposes a constraint
on the $M_{\rm TOV}$ and the most-widely quoted limit is $\leq 2.17M_\odot$ \citep[e.g.,][]{Margalit2017,Shibata2017,Rezzolla2018}.

Very recently, \citet{Shao2020} derived an empirical relation among the critical total mass of BNSs ($M_{\rm tot,c}$), the mass and compactness (denoted by $\zeta_{\rm TOV}\equiv GM_{\rm TOV}/R_{\rm TOV}c^{2}$) of NS in the non-rotation maximum equilibrium configuration, the dimensionless angular momentum of remnant at the onset of collapse ($j_{\rm c}$) and the total mass lost apart from the remnant core ($m_{\rm loss}$), which reads
\begin{equation}
M_{\rm tot,c}\approx M_{\rm TOV}\left[1+0.122({j_{\rm c}}/{j_{\rm kep}})^2+0.040\left({j_{\rm c}}/{j_{\rm kep}}\right)^4\right](0.798+0.971\zeta_{\rm TOV})(1-0.091~M_\odot^{-1}~m_{\rm loss})+m_{\rm loss},
\label{eq:j-general}
\end{equation}
where $j_{\rm kep}\approx 1.24 \zeta_{\rm TOV}^{0.5}$ is the dimensionless angular momentum of NS spinning at Keplerian angular velocity. Supposing that the GW radiation just carried away a few percents solar mass energy in the post-merger phase, the pre-collapse remnant is expected to rotate at the mass-shedding limit \citep{Zappa2018}, as assumed in \citet{Margalit2017}. In such a case, we have $M_{\rm tot,c}\approx 1.162 M_{\rm TOV}(0.798+0.971\zeta_{\rm TOV})(1-0.091~M_\odot^{-1}~m_{\rm loss})+m_{\rm loss}$. At the collapse time ($t_{\rm c}\sim 1$s) of the central remnant of GW170817, $m_{\rm loss}$ consists of two parts, one is the kilonova/macronova outflow with a mass of $M_{\rm ej}\approx 0.05\pm0.01M_\odot$ \citep{Pian2017}, and the other is the accretion torus with a mass of $0.015-0.134M_\odot$ (90\% confidence level; and the most plausible value is $0.035M_\odot$, as found in the GRB 170817A/afterglow modeling by \citealt{Wang2019}). So far, $\zeta_{\rm TOV}$ is still not directly measurable and here we adopt the joint constraints set in \citet{Jiang2020}. Under the assumption of that the pre-collapse remnant was a supramassive NS supported by the rapid uniform rotation (i.e., $M_{\rm tot,c}=M_{\rm tot}$), we can evaluate $M_{\rm TOV}=2.16^{+0.06}_{-0.06}M_{\odot}$ (the 68\% credibility interval includes also the uncertainties of the EoS insensitive relationships adopted in \citet{Shao2020}) and the probability distribution is shown in Fig.\ref{fig:mass-distribution}. So far, the most massive NS is widely believed to be PSR J0740+6620, which has a mass of $2.14^{+0.10}_{-0.09}M_\odot$ \citep[][]{Cromartie2020}. PSR J2215+5135 may be more massive \citep[$M=2.28\pm 0.10M_\odot$;][]{Kandel2020} while the measurement method is not as direct/widely-accepted as that of PSR J0740+6620. $M_{\rm TOV}$ should be larger than the gravitational mass of any stable slowly-rotating cold NSs. For the inferred $M_{\rm TOV}(j=j_{\rm Kep})$, such a request is satisfied for PSR J0740+6620 but mildly violated for PSR J2215+5135.

The powerful GW radiation effectively carries away the angular momentum of the merger formed supramassive NS \citep{Shibata2019}. With a stronger GW radiation, the supramassive NS will rotate slower and a higher $M_{\rm TOV}$ is needed to support against the collapse \citep[e.g.][which is also evident in eq.(\ref{eq:j-general})]{Fan2013,Breu2016}. { Note that the inferred $E_{\rm GW,p}$ has a wide distribution (see Fig.\ref{fig:egw}) and the corresponding constraint on $M_{\rm TOV}$ will be modified in comparison to the case of $j=j_{\rm kep}$.} We therefore fully reproduce our calculation made in \citet{Shao2020}, adopting the $E_{\rm GW,p}$ found in Fig.\ref{fig:egw} (the combined case) and obtain { $M_{\rm TOV}=2.17^{+0.09}_{-0.09}M_{\odot}$ ($2.17^{+0.15}_{-0.12}M_\odot$ for the 90\% credibility; With the fixed $E_{\rm GW,p}=0.07M_\odot c^{2}$ we will yield $M_{\rm TOV}=2.23^{+0.12}_{-0.11}M_{\odot}$, which is similar to the mass of PSR J2215+5135)}. Intriguingly, \citet{Landry2020} found $M_{\rm TOV}=2.22^{+0.30}_{-0.20}M_\odot$ (90\% credibility) in the non-parametric constraints of NS matter with gravitational and pulsar observations \citep[very similar values have also been reported in][]{Essick2020}. The consistency between our results and those independently found in the non-parametric constraints of NS matter is encouraging and can be taken as an additional support of our current approach. {  As shown in Fig.\ref{fig:mass-distribution}, the combined $E_{\rm GW,p}$ case has a higher possibility to have $M_{\rm TOV}\geq 2.3 M_\odot$ than the case of $j=j_{\rm kep}$ because of the range extending to $E_{\rm GW,p}\geq 0.07M_\odot c^{2}$. If NSs as massive as $\approx 2.3M_\odot$ have been accurately measured (say, the mass of PSR J2215+5135 has been firmly confirmed) in the future, $E_{\rm GW,p}\approx 0.07M_\odot c^2$ (i.e., the post-merger GW radiation of GW170817 reaches the most promising range) will be needed if our current understanding of GW170817/GRB 170817A/AT2017gfo is robust, unless the high temperature effect has played a key role in softening the EoS and then triggering the collapse \citep{Shao2020b}.}

\begin{figure}[!ht]
    \begin{center}
    \includegraphics[width=0.8\linewidth]{f4.pdf}
    \end{center}
    \caption{The detection prospect of post-merger GW radiation of GW170817-like events in the O4 and O5 (design sensitivity) runs of the advanced detectors of LIGO/Virgo (the sensitivity curves are adopted from \citep{Abbott2018} and https://dcc.ligo.org/public/0161/P1900218/002/SummaryForObservers.pdf). Peak frequency of the post-merger GW is estimated using the eqs.(7-8) of \citet{2019PhRvD.100d4047T} with the posterior data taken from \citet{Jiang2020}.}
    \label{fig:detection-expect}
\end{figure}

\section{Detection prospect of the post-merger gravitational radiation of BNS mergers}
GW170817 was detected by advanced LIGO/Virgo in their second observing run. Though the SNR of the event is high, the sensitivity at $2-4$ kHz is still insufficient to catch the post-merger GW radiation \citep{Abbott2017b}. The improvements of the sensitivities are underway\footnote{\url{https://dcc.ligo.org/public/0161/P1900218/002/SummaryForObservers.pdf}}. In comparison to the O2 run, the sensitivity of the O5 run is expected to increase by a factor of $\sim 3.3$. This enhancement is about 1.5 times better than the initial design sensitivity. Therefore the detection prospect is more promising than that previously estimated with the initial design sensitivity. In Fig.\ref{fig:detection-expect}, the dashed lines indicate the maximum $h_{\rm rss}$ possible for a narrow band GW signal with some fixed energy contents $E_{\rm GW,p}$, under the most optimistic assumption that the whole energy available after merger is radiated in GWs at a certain frequency \citep[see also][]{Abbott2017b}, where the distance of the source is assumed to be the same as GW170817. Even so, the post-merger GW radiation of GW170817-like events is unlikely to be measurable in the upcoming O4 run for the strongest post-merger GW radiation with $E_{\rm GW,p}\sim 0.1M_\odot c^{2}$ (see the purple dashed line in Fig.\ref{fig:detection-expect}). A positive detection, anyhow, is plausible in the O5 observing run when the detectors reach their current design sensitivities for two good reasons. First, with a BNS merger rate of $\sim 10^{3}~{\rm Gpc^{-3}~yr^{-1}}$ (note that LIGO-India is expect to join in 2025, which will increase not only the total SNR of the event but also the factor of the duty cycle), we anticipate the detection of an event as close as $\sim 40$ Mpc in the next decade. Second, as shown in the lower panel of Fig.\ref{fig:egw}, except for the lightest and the heaviest BNS systems known so far, the $e_{\rm GW,p}$ values are in favor of efficient post-merger radiation of $E_{\rm GW,p}\sim {\rm quite~a~few}\times 10^{-2}~M_\odot c^2$. { Thus the hatched area in Fig.\ref{fig:detection-expect} should be taken as the fiducial case.} Different from the case of GW170817, now we calculate $\kappa_2^{T}$ in a simplified way. \citet{Jiang2020} have obtained $\Lambda$ as a function of $M$ (see Fig.3a therein; the piecewise method and the spectral method). As long as the gravitational masses of the BNSs are known, it is straightforward to estimate $\kappa_2^{T}$. { While for the non-parametric result, the universal relations in \citet{2019PhRvD..99l3026K} and the posteriors in \citet{Landry2020} are used to calculated the $\kappa_2^{T}$}. In the lower panel of Fig.\ref{fig:k2t}, besides the Galactic BNS systems with accurately measured individual masses, we include GW190425, for which the mass information is taken from the website\footnote{\url{https://dcc.ligo.org/LIGO-P2000026/public}; the IMRPhenomDNRT low-spin case.}. \citet{Abbott2020} speculated the prompt formation of black hole for GW190425 and here we do find weak post-merger GW radiation of $E_{\rm GW,p}\sim 0.014^{+0.009}_{-0.008}M_\odot c^{2}$. In the literature, with the dedicated numerical simulations, people have found that for some EoS models the post-merger GW radiation could be detectable for the sources as close as GW170817 supposing the sensitivity can reach a factor of a few times the initial advanced LIGO/Virgo sensitivity \citep[e.g.][]{Clark2016,Torres-Rivas2019}. { Our estimates of $E_{\rm GW,p}$, however, are EoS-insensitive} and the detection prospect are consistent with these EoS-dependent numerical evaluation.

\section{Summary}
So far, two BNS merger events (GW170817 and GW190425) have been reported by the LIGO scientific collaboration and Virgo collaboration and the measurements are solely for the inspiral signals. The post-merger gravitational waves carry fundamental information on the EoS of the ultra-dense NS matter as well as the fate of the remnant formed in the BNS merger, and have attracted wide attention. The typical frequencies $\sim 2-4$ kHz of the post-merger signals however are out of the most sensitive region of the second generation GW detectors, which well explains the absence of such signals in current BNS merger events. Thanks to the rapid progresses made in the numerical simulations, an intriguing relation between $\kappa_2^{T}$ and the strength of the post-merger GW radiation has been suggested in the literature \citep[e.g.,][]{Bernuzzi2016,Zappa2018}. We have calculated $\kappa_2^{T}$ of the BNSs involved in GW170817, benefited with the further constraints from PSR J0030+0451, some nuclear data as well as the robust lower limit on the maximum gravitational mass of the non-rotating NSs. { With the distributions of $\kappa_2^{T}$ for three parameterization methods considered in this work and the numerical fitting relation, we transform the $\kappa_2^{T}$ to the $E_{\rm GW,p}$ which in favor of efficient post-merger GW radiation (see the upper panel of Fig.\ref{fig:egw}). Moreover, we also show that if in the future neutron stars as massive as $\approx 2.3M_\odot$ have been accurately measured, the post-merger GW radiation of GW170817 should be within the high end part of our inferred distribution (i.e., it is a very efficient post-merger GW radiator) unless new effects/assumptions have been introduced.} We finally show that for typical BNS systems, the post-merger GW radiation are expected to be strong (see the lower panel of Fig.\ref{fig:egw}). Together with a BNS merger rate of $\sim 10^{3}~{\rm Gpc^{-3}~yr^{-1}}$, in the O5 run of advanced LIGO/Virgo/KAGRA/LIGO-India, a few events as close as GW170817 are expected and their post-merger GW radiation are detectable. The successful detection would shed valuable lights on the physical properties of the ultra-dense matter.

\section*{Acknowledgments}
We thank the anonymous referee for the constructive suggestions. We are also grateful for the kind help from P. Landry and F. Zappa. This work was supported in part by NSFC under grants of No. 11525313 (i.e., Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars), No. 11921003 and No. 11773078, the Funds for Distinguished Young Scholars of Jiangsu Province (No. BK20180050), the Chinese Academy of Sciences via the Strategic Priority Research Program (Grant No. XDB23040000), Key Research Program of Frontier Sciences (No. QYZDJ-SSW-SYS024). This research has made use of data and software obtained from the Gravitational Wave Open Science Center \url{https://www.gw-openscience.org}, a service of LIGO Laboratory, the LIGO Scientific Collaboration and the Virgo Collaboration. LIGO is funded by the U.S. National Science Foundation. Virgo is funded by the French Centre National de Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), the Italian Istituto Nazionale della Fisica Nucleare (INFN) and the Dutch Nikhef, with contributions by Polish and Hungarian institutes.\\

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


text:
The best Japanese sports cars
August 15, 2018 /0 Comments/in Car News /by Gavin Braithwaite-Smith
What's the greatest Japanese sports car of all time? Once again, this feels like a poison chalice, as not every car can make a 25-slide showcase. However, we've done our best to be all-inclusive, with a strong mix of the small, the affordable, the fast, the furious and the unattainable.
We've steered clear of hot hatches – that could be a gallery for another day – and, for the most part, we've restricted ourselves to one example of every make and model. First up? The Far Eastern E-type…
It has been labelled the 'Japanese E-type', but this is unfair. Whisper it, but we reckon the Toyota 2000GT is prettier than the Jag. Launched in 1967, the 2000GT was powered by a 2.0-litre six-cylinder engine developing 150hp, enough for it to hit a top speed of 136mph. By the time the last car rolled out of the factory in 1970, the 2000GT had set numerous speed records, appeared in a Bond movie and put Japan firmly on the world sports car map. Just 337 cars were built.
Autozam AZ-1
If the Toyota 2000GT is the prettiest sports car to emerge from Japan, the Autozam AZ-1 is arguably the cutest. Sold by Mazda under its Autozam brand, the AZ-1 was built by Suzuki and featured a pair of gullwing doors. Power was sourced from a Suzuki 657cc turbocharged engine producing 63hp at 6,500rpm. Weighing just 720kg, the AZ-1 could hit a top speed of 87mph. Just 4,392 were produced before the AZ-1 fell victim to the Japanese recession.
The Lexus LFA was a long time coming: development work started in 2000, with the final production version not appearing until October 2009. It was worth the wait. "If someone were to offer me the choice of any car that had ever been made, ever, I would like a dark blue Lexus LFA," said Jeremy Clarkson. Powered by a 4.8-litre naturally-aspirated V10 engine, the LFA can hit 200mph, and just 200 were built.
Datsun 240Z
In the Toyota 2000GT, Japan had built a sports car for the wealthy and the glamorous, but in the 240Z, Datsun delivered something a little more blue collar. "The difference between the Datsun 240Z and your everyday three-and-a-half thousand dollar sports car is that about twice as much thinking went into the Datsun. It shows. For the money, the 240Z is an almost brilliant car." This quote from Car and Driver in 1970 tells you all you need to know about the 240Z. It was built to mess with the sports car establishment and it went on to outsell all European rivals in the U.S..
The vast majority of cars in this gallery are icons from yesteryear, but here's one you can buy new today. That's assuming you have the £82,000 required to purchase a Nissan GT-R. It's a sports car for the digital generation, powered by a 3.8-litre twin-turbocharged engine developing 570hp and 470lb ft of torque. It's a proper, old-school sports car, requiring focus from the driver and dedication to the cause. A new GT-R is on the way, so be quick if you fancy the current model.
Styled by Pininfarina, the Honda Beat was built to comply with Japanese kei car regulations. Much like the Suzuki Cappuccino, the Beat paid homage to the likes of the MG Midget and Austin-Healey 'Frogeye' Sprite, and offered mid-engine and rear-wheel drive fun in a tiny package. Although not officially offered in the UK, it's not hard to source a Japanese import. In fact, you could bring one over in your hand luggage.
Mazda Cosmo Sport 110S
Unveiled at the 1963 Tokyo Motor Show, before being formally announced a year later, the Cosmo featured futuristic styling, a name inspired by space travel and a 982cc twin-rotor engine. Sold domestically as the Cosmo Sport, and 110S overseas, this was the world's first volume production rotary-engined sports car, and is therefore the godfather of the RX-7 and RX-8.
Nissan Skyline GT-R (R32)
Make no mistake, when the Nissan Skyline GT-R R32 arrived in 1989, it was the most advanced road car you could buy. It didn't so much upset the establishment, as send its rivals scurrying back to the drawing board and looking back in wonder. Nissan's engineers cited the Porsche 959 as the benchmark, so it's hardly surprising that it could outmanoeuvre just about any car in the world. A proper icon.
Often described as the 'Japanese Mk2 Escort', the Corolla GT – factory codename AE86 – arrived in 1983, and was Toyota's rear-wheel drive answer to the front-wheel drive hot hatches of the day. It was powered by the same 125hp 1.6-litre twin-overhead-cam engine you'll find in the original MR2, and it could complete the 0-62mph sprint in 8.3 seconds, before hitting a top speed of 122mph.
The original everyday supercar, the NSX was Honda's attempt at building a more reliable, practical and faster version of the Ferrari 328 (and later, the 348). Initially powered by a 3.0-litre quad-cam 24-valve VTEC V6, later models saw the displacement increased to 3.2-litres. In this larger guise, the NSX would hit 62mph in 5.7 seconds and was good for 168mph. Obviously, it was quick, but raw pace was only half the story. The soundtrack as it raced towards the 8,000rpm redline was a real highlight.
Looking back, it's amazing to think that the British car industry thought the days of the two-seater sports car were over when the production of the TR7 stopped in 1981. The brilliant MR2 – Toyota's first mid-engined car – provided the proof that not everybody wanted a front-wheel drive hot hatch for their cheap thrills. It offered styling far beyond its sub-£10k price tag, a brilliant twin-overhead-cam engine, and superb handling. If you can't find a decent first-generation MR2, the subsequent models are worth a look.
The Subaru BRZ and the Toyota GT86 might be new, but they have an old-school feel to them. The 2.0-litre, four-cylinder Boxer engine is mounted low in the chassis, giving the car a lower centre of gravity, while it develops 200hp at 7,000rpm, meaning you have to rev it hard to get the best from it. Sure, it could use more power, but that could upset the equilibrium of the finely-balanced sports car. The best Japanese sports car of all-time? No. But one of our favourite new cars? Absolutely.
The Mazda MX-5: enough said.
If only Honda built something like this today. Although it was based on Civic, the Honda CRX was five inches shorter than the three-door version and sat two inches lower to the ground. Honda positioned it as a 2+2, but in reality it was more like a hot hatch with a large boot, making it perfect for those who fancied a little extra practicality to go with their sports car. In its day, it was brilliant.
Selecting the best Mitsubishi Evo would be a challenge – and put us at the mercy of the car's legions of fans. If push came to shove – and the Evo has plenty of that – we'd opt for the Tommi Makinen edition, which arrived in 1999 and was named after the Finnish rally driver who'd won four WRC drivers' championships in a row. It featured Recaro seats, white Enkei alloys and optional go-faster stripes.
Toyota Celica GT-Four
Toyota launched the original Celica GT-Four in 1986, with power sourced from a new 3S-GTE turbocharged and water-intercooled engine. With 185hp on tap, it was, at the time, Japan's most powerful 2.0-litre engine. A fifth-generation model followed in 1991, including a limited edition Carlos Sainz model for the UK, before the sixth-generation GT-Four arrived in the UK in 1994. By now, the power had increased to 255hp – enough for a 153mph top speed and 0-60mph time of 6.1 seconds.
Honda Integra Type R
Is this the greatest front-wheel-drive performance car of all-time? Probably. By today's standards, the Integra Type R certainly isn't quick – although a 0-62mph time of 6.7 seconds isn't too shabby – but few cars could keep up with this Honda on a twisty road. It's almost perfect, with a low-slung driving position, a rev-hungry engine and a superb gearbox.
If the Integra Type R is best front-wheel-drive performance car, the third-generation 'FD' Mazda RX-7 is in with a shout of being one of the best-looking sports cars ever made. The car pictured is a lightweight Bathurst limited edition, named after Australia's most famous race track and sold only in Japan. With a 280hp rotary engine, it'll hit 62mph in just 4.7 seconds, before reaching a top speed of 160mph.
We've already covered the Skyline with the inclusion of the R32, but you'll excuse us for wanting to add the R34 to the mix. It offered supercar-levels of performance in a PlayStation suit, with power sourced from a 2.6-litre inline-six turbocharged engine. Thanks to a sophisticated all-wheel drive system, it could hit 62mph in 4.7 seconds, before reaching a top speed of 165mph.
In a world of lazy turbocharged engines, the Honda S2000 is a real tonic. At its heart lies a 2.0-litre four-cylinder engine developing 240hp, making it, at the time, the most powerful naturally aspirated engine on a power-per-litre basis. It'll rev to 9,000rpm, with peak power arriving at 8,300rpm, meaning you have to work really hard to get the best from it. We'd recommend a later S2000, by which time Honda had tweaked the suspension, fitted better tyres and added stability control.
The first Toyota Supra arrived in 1978, with the last car rolling off the line in 2002 after close to 600,000 units had been produced. After four years of development, the fourth-generation A80 was launched in 1993, with the turbocharged version offering supercar-taming levels of performance. It appeared in a myriad of computer games and movies, cementing its legendary status and ensuring that the new Supra – which has been a long time coming – has a lot to live up to.
Subaru Impreza 22B
The Impreza 22B was built to celebrate Subaru's three successive WRC Constructors' titles, and the 40th anniversary of the company. Limited to just 400 examples in Japan, a further 16 cars were imported to the UK under the Single Vehicle Approval scheme. Its 2.2-litre turbocharged engine produced 280hp, while the extra wide bodywork from the rally cars delivered proper race car for the road styling.
Developed in partnership with Chrysler, the Mitsubishi 3000GT was also known as the Mitsubishi GTO and Dodge Stealth. This was a tech-laden sports car, featuring four-wheel drive, four-wheel steering, active aerodynamics and electronic suspension, not to mention the small matter of a 3.0-litre twin-turbocharged engine.
Suzuki Cappuccino
We conclude with the Suzuki Cappuccino, while acknowledging that there are so many other Japanese cars we could have included. The Nissan 350Z, the Honda S800, the Mazda Cosmo (JC), the new Honda NSX, the Nissan 200SX and 300ZX and the Mitsubishi Lancer 2000 Turbo spring to mind, not to mention countless hot hatches. But we had to draw the line somewhere.
https://i2.wp.com/www.motoringresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/08/01_Japanese_sports_cars.jpg?fit=1366%2C768&ssl=1 768 1366 Gavin Braithwaite-Smith https://www.motoringresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/mr-top-motoring.svg Gavin Braithwaite-Smith2018-08-15 07:30:142018-08-15 07:30:14The best Japanese sports cars
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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
InnoTrans — найбільша в світі виставка, орієнтована на промисловість залізничного транспорту. Проводиться раз на два роки у виставковому центрі Messe Berlin. Виставковий центр має відкриті залізничні під'їзні колії стандартної ширини, які можуть використовуватися для виставки залізничної техніки..

Історія
З 1996 року кількість експонатів виставки InnoTrans неухильно зростає. 2010 року організатори ярмарку оголосили про збільшення до 2000 екземплярів залізничної техніки з 44 країн світу. Вперше з часу проведення територія комплексу була заповнена.

Примітки

Залізничний транспорт
Засновані в Німеччині 1996
Виставки

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


text:
Rune Haugseng is a Norwegian handball player.

He made his debut on the Norwegian national team in 1998, and played 23 matches for the national team between 1998 and 1999. He competed at the 1999 World Men's Handball Championship.

References

Year of birth missing (living people)
Living people
Norwegian male handball players


The tidy boxwoods perfectly lining the front of the house and the beautifully landscaped yard are your first hint that this home is a hidden treasure tucked in Austin's hip Ridgetop neighborhood. Nestled under the shade of a mature Sycamore tree, you can watch the world go by under the twinkle lights adorning the front porch.
A perfect place to call your own, this stylish house features a spacious and light-filled living room. With large windows on two walls and hardwood floors underfoot, the living room is comfortable and warm. The adjoining dining room expands your living space and features an expansive view to the scenic backyard. Whether you are cuddling on the couch or entertaining, this flexible floor plan is ideal.
The intimate farm-house style kitchen has white cabinets, butcher block counters, white subway tile backsplash, and on-trend grey wood floors. A red schoolhouse light fixture adds a pop of color. It's a fresh and functional space.
The home also includes two large bedrooms, each with its own closet. You'll love the windows and the abundant natural light in these rooms.
A retro-chic bathroom includes period details like shiplap walls, black and white tile floors, and a subway tile shower. The wall-mounted sink created additional space, and there's ample storage with the floor-to-ceiling open shelving.
Vintage lovers will delight in the nostalgic interior details throughout the home like the original hardwood floors, cased entryways, architectural details, and phone nook in the hall. It's soulful elements like these that give Central Austin homes their unique character.
Large sliding glass doors in the dining room seamlessly connect the main house to the beautiful backyard. The house and large outdoor patio easily function as one, creating a large space to gather with friends and family. The backyard is designed with a mixture of lawn, drought-tolerant succulents, and hardscaping. There's even an outdoor cold-water shower to rinse off after a day in the sun.
The backyard oasis is enclosed with a wooden privacy fence, and strategically placed potted bamboo enhances the secluded feeling. A separate storage shed provides additional storage. The yard is shaded by two large pecan trees, while a Japanese maple and crepe myrtle add seasonal color. It's modern, serene, and manicured.
In addition to the main house, the property also includes a separate studio with a full bathroom and laundry facilities. Built in 2007, the 416 square foot studio has an entire wall of oversized Pella sliding doors that bring in natural light and connect the space to the beautiful backyard. This flexible space is ideal for a home office, art studio, man cave, tenant, gym, or more.
Located in the Ridgetop neighborhood, you'll love the convenience of this home's Central Austin location, as well as the close proximity to downtown Austin (10 minutes), the Domain (15 minutes), or the Arboretum (12 minutes). A private entrance and parking are available through the alley access in the back of the home.
When you're ready to venture out, you won't have to go far to find fun things to do. This home is a pleasant walk to all the hot spots along Airport Boulevard, including Kome, Tyson's Tacos, and Eastside Pies. Head to Drink Well for happy hour, Sala and Betty for dinner, then satisfy your sweet tooth at Casey's New Orleans Snow Cones. And if you need a coffee fix, Flight Path and Epoch are nearby. Restaurants like Loca D'Oro are also convenient in the nearby Mueller neighborhood.
Currently being prepared for sale, 906 East 53rd Street will be listed in March. In the meantime it's available for purchase at our pre-listing price of $475,000. Please reach out if you'd like to see this fantastic bungalow, and be sure to share it with someone you know that's been looking for a house they'll love.


Classic Derby Tweed waterproof jacket. Three layer contruction, the outer Tweed, breathable waterproof interlining and the inside lining of warm lightweight quilt. High storm collar with Moleskin for comfort. Two handwarmer pockets and large bellows cartridge pockets, Moleskin lined for easy access. Inside wallet pocket and a map pocket, Velcro fastened. Two way brass zip with storm proof studded flap. Inner storm proof woollen cuffs. Matching breeks and flat cap available.


The City of Lincolnton Parks & Recreation Department is proud to work with the Lincolnton High School Athletics Department to offer a wide variety of youth sports camps every summer! These camps focus on teaching the fundamentals of the sports, as well as developing and improving the participant's skills in a fun and positive atmosphere!
Registration for our 2019 youth summer sports camps is open!


We are a nation of pet lovers, however millions of us are begrudgingly shelling out as a lot as £50 a month for some sorts of pet insurance policies, thanks to an increase in veterinary bills which have had a knock-on effect for insurers. Per situation – no time limit: unlike normal 'per condition' insurance policies, these policies will pay out for conditions needing remedy yr after year.
Even without any main illnesses or accidents, I still saved cash by choosing a pet insurance supplier that did not have the lowest premium, however did cover the most.
Lifelong cowl: An insurance coverage that covers your pet for so long as they dwell, even when they develop to a ripe previous age.
Hollard Pet Insurance is underwritten by The Hollard Insurance Company Limited (Hollard), and administered by PetSure (Pty), Ltd.
There isn't any restrict on how many instances the situation might be coated on this approach, so long as the insurance coverage coverage stays in force.


text:
We've all dealt with pests in the basement before. Possums. Raccoons. Your greasy son who just won't stop playing video games and get a job. But Hags?! That's a different story altogether! The Kingmakers face off against a co...
We've all dealt with pests in the basement before. Possums. Raccoons. Your greasy son who just won't stop playing video games and get a job. But Hags?! That's a different story altogether! The Kingmakers face off against a coven of Annis Hags and their wicked leader, Betty Rustfingers, in the cellar beneath the Drelev Keep. But who else resides in this castle of creeps? Giants? Guards? Cruel, calculating summoners with a disdain for life in favour of his studies? Or perhaps an old friend who just won't take a hint and get lost? One way or another, nothing's gonna stop these heroes- vive la revolution, it's time to put some nobles on ice!
Hands get chopped. Windows get jumped. Lightning gets arced.
All this and more in this episode of Dice Will Roll, the Gayest Pathfinder Podcast on the Planet, where we ask the hard questions like... is it that weird to have a bag full of human molars?
RPG League: http://www.rpgleague.com


Choose to Create, Innovate, and Drive Change. Choose Valorem Reply.
Choose Valorem Reply for the challenge and stay for the opportunity. At Valorem Reply, we are pushing the boundaries of innovation in technology. Our people are what make Valorem Reply the leading-edge company it is today, and we know that where culture thrives, passion follows. Come join an amazing team of people who have the grit to make great things happen.
Not an early riser? No problem. Keep up with meetings and deliverables, and we will work with you to create a schedule that suits your needs and ours.
No tummy rumblings here. From coffee, to soda, to popcorn and fruit, we've got the snack thing covered.
Know someone who can do awesome work? Refer a friend to our recruiting team, and if they're hired, you get a referral bonus after 90 days of employment. Pretty cool, huh?
Your talent and expertise matter! This is why we give our people plenty of opportunities to speak at high-profile events and conferences all over the world. You grow your influence and represent Valorem Reply in style—a win-win for everyone.
We have access to the hottest tickets in town. You may just score some tickets to a warm summer day at the K, a musical under the stars or a rock concert at the Sprint Center.
"What we do matters and to be given the opportunity to make a difference and impact change while also improving yourself is amazing."
"I love working for Valorem Reply because it is amazing to work with extremely intelligent and highly motivated people who stop at nothing to get the job done."
"As a software developer, I am able to stay current with changes in technology and increase my skills by applying what I have learned to current projects."
Working with us brings a global opportunity to grow your career, a career where innovation and ongoing growth are instilled at our core. We foster a diverse and inclusive culture, where sharing your perspective is valued. It's those perspectives and working together that will lead to impacting your community and communities around the world.
Broken bones, root canals, contacts… We've got you covered! Valorem Reply offers competitive benefits for medical, dental and vision.
No need to count those PTO hours. Get your work done, plan your time off and enjoy the well-deserved R&R.
We are invested in your success, and we want to help you continue to hone and develop your skills. We have a budget to help continue to grow your career!
It's never too early to start saving for those golden years. Valorem Reply makes planning for your retirement a focus.
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text:
La stagione 2000-01 dei Boston Celtics fu la 55ª nella NBA per la franchigia.

I Boston Celtics arrivarono quinti nella Atlantic Division della Eastern Conference con un record di 36-46, non qualificandosi per i play-off.

Roster

Staff tecnico
Allenatori: Rick Pitino (12-22) (fino all'8 gennaio), Jim O'Brien (24-24)
Vice-allenatori: Jim O'Brien, Lester Conner, John Carroll (fino all'8 gennaio), Kevin Willard, Mark Starns
Preparatore atletico: Ed Lacerte

Note

Collegamenti esterni

Stagione 2000-2001 delle squadre di pallacanestro
2000-2001


One of the greatest things we can teach our children is to seek a heart of wisdom.
They will make foolish choices, to be sure. That is part of the maturing process. But there is no greater joy than seeing our children become adults who make wise decisions. Because we know, often by experience, the devastating result of making foolish choices. And that is the last thing we want for our sons and daughters.
Embracing wisdom results in a life that is free of the consequences and entanglements of foolish living.
The Book of Proverbs is loaded with wisdom. Wisdom is understanding how to use the knowledge we learn from God's Word. When I was young, my dad encouraged me to read one chapter of Proverbs every day. There are thirty-one chapters in the book, and at most, thirty-one days in a month. I followed his encouragement and have read through the Book of Proverbs many times.
Sweet Mama, the TruthBytes app is perfect for devos on the go. But I challenge and encourage you to take this a step further. Once again, I'm reading the Book of Proverbs every day, each month this year. Looking for different nuggets each time through. Will you join me in reading a chapter a day, just this month?
Better yet, find a translation that is easy to understand and read it with your kids! They may not have the attention span for an entire chapter, so choose a verse or two that is relevant for them. Yes, this is another challenge for you. It's hard enough prioritizing your own time with the Lord. But intentionally creating this time with your children will have life-long and eternal consequences—the good kind!


With flying colours at the CeMat 2018 in Hannover, we demonstrated what's possible with colour.
Get seen from a distance and enhance your brand awareness. Use your corporate house style to colour your loading bays.
In Hannover we showed a few customer examples from international market players in warehousing and distribution; how colour can make a big difference. What an effective way of getting noticed and reinforcing your brand. Black is of course the standard traditional colour for loading bay shelter curtains, but why not freshen-up and colour your warehousing facility or distribution centre?
We also showed a compact array of major loading bay solutions for a wide range of industries and applications and all with health, safety and the environment in mind.
The bespoke COMBILOK ® vehicle restraint system as well as the innovative EDGEDOCK leveller show how a solution is just round the corner for all types, shapes and sizes of logistics centres.
So we challenge you today.. brighten-up your loading bays and find the right and safe solution for your loading and unloading challenges.


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A Long Day in November
A Long Day in November (2013)
One morning, six-year old Sonny is awoken by his crying mother, who tells him that, come tomorrow morning, they are leaving to go to "Gran'mom's" house—without Sonny's father, Eddie. Later that morning, Sonny witnesses a fight between his parents, which revolves around his father having stayed out late the night before because his car had broken down. Eddie has apparently been neglecting his wife and son, devoting his free time instead to repairing his old car. In order to win back his wife, Eddie—with Sonny in tow—pays a visit to Madame Toussaint, an old lady knowledgeable in the ways of voodoo, who tells Eddie that the only way to save his marriage is by burning his car to the ground.This unforgettable story leads the reader through an eventful day on a Southern sugarcane plantation, and shows, through the eyes of a child, what life was like in the rural South of the 1940s. This new edition of A Long Day in November features Ernest J. Gaines's original introduction, as well as the black-and-white illustrations that accompanied the first edition of the book.Ernest J. Gaines's 1993 novel A Lesson Before Dying won the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction, was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize, and was an Oprah Book Club pick. Gaines has been a MacArthur Foundation fellow, awarded the National Humanities Medal, nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature, and inducted into the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres (Order of Arts and Letters) as a Chevalier. He lives in Oscar, Louisiana.
Author of A Long Day in November
Ernest Gaines
The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman
Conversations with Ernest Gaines
A Gathering of Old Men
The Tragedy of Brady Sims
In My Father's House
Of Love and Dust
Bloodline: Five Stories
Catherine Carmier


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Laura Poitras's Nan Goldin documentary powerfully balances biography with anti-Sackler activism
In All the Beauty and the Bloodshed, currently showing in Toronto, the Sacklers become a personification of the oppressive social order that cost many of Goldin's peers their lives
Mark Asch
A scene from All the Beauty and the Bloodshed (2022), directed by Laura Poitras Courtesy of TIFF
If there were any doubts about how the Nan Goldin bio-doc All the Beauty and the Bloodshed would fit into the oeuvre of film-maker Laura Poitras, the investigative journalist and director of the Edward Snowden documentary Citizenfour, they are dispelled by the opening scene, depicting a covertly plotted act of civil disobedience: the 2018 protest during which Goldin and other members of Pain (Prescription Addiction Intervention Now) tossed empty bottles of Oxycontin into the moat surrounding the Temple of Dendur in the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Sackler Wing.
The film—which won the Golden Lion at the Venice Film Festival last week, shortly before its North American premiere in Toronto, and will be the centrepiece of the New York Film Festival in October—is a significant reflection on Goldin's own body of work. It draws connections between her life, her art, her addictions and her activism, in particular her present-day crusade to remove the name of the Sackler family—members of whom, as the owners of Purdue Pharma, the makers of Oxycontin, grew unimaginably wealthy off the American opioid crisis they did so much to foster—from the many institutions complicit in artwashing their dirty money. Both a friendly introduction to and critical appraisal of Goldin's work, the film tracks between the personal and political to sing a ballad of memory, family, power and, of course, dependency—chemical as well as sexual.
After the credit-sequence flash-forward, the film begins at the beginning, with the familiar click of a carousel slide projector and flickering progression of snapshots, particularly of Goldin's older sister Barbara, who died by suicide as a teenager. These earliest photos intimate an archetypal repressed suburban 1950s upbringing from which both Barbara and Nan tried to flee, only one of them successfully. Barbara's suicide provided the foundational trauma of Nan's life, and the inspiration for the chosen-family slideshows The Other Side and The Ballad of Sexual Dependency (dedicated, of course, to Barbara's memory). The film follows Nan through a youth spent finding her people, in the gay bars of Boston and Provincetown, Massachusetts, and the downtown Manhattan of the late 1970s and early 80s.
Poitras has, of course, quite a photo album to leaf through, one which also includes, alongside Goldin's photographs, de facto home movies in the form of underground films by the likes of Vivienne Dick and Bette Gordon (like the photo-shoot sequence featuring Dick and Goldin trying on outfits in Gordon's Empty Suitcases, during which you can see Goldin take her famous 1980 photo Vivienne in the Green Dress). This is, cumulatively, an insular and often celebratory group portrait, and the film pulls many familiar faces from the archives, in both famous photos and outtakes—Suzanne Fletcher, David Armstrong, Cookie Mueller, Vittorio Scarpati, Jim Jarmusch and Sara Driver. Poitras duly pays tribute to the party atmosphere of Goldin's early projector performances by scoring photo montages to The Velvet Underground and Screamin' Jay Hawkins.
Goldin's project is radically transparent, starting with the Ballad's famously intimate dual portraits of her and then-boyfriend Brian Burchill in bed, and her subsequent self-portraits taken after being beaten by him. (If you know her work you know what's coming; the film's only real misstep is the ominous low string hum that builds on the soundtrack as Nan begins to tell the story behind her 1984 photo Nan One Month After Being Battered.) With Poitras, she is publicly open for the first time about having done sex work. And she discusses her opioid use, including heroin in the 1980s, up to 18 pills of Oxycontin a day during the depths of her addiction in the 2010s, a near-fatal brush with fentanyl and, in a public hearing before the New York State Assembly Committee on Alcohol and Drug Abuse, her continued use of buprenorphine.
The Other Side and The Ballad depict people living lives of enormous precarity, economic and otherwise. The loss of her friends to drug use and Aids weighs increasingly heavily on her work, in this film's telling; the Goldin-curated exhibition Witnesses: Against Our Vanishing, which lost National Endowment for the Arts funding amid the uproar over David Wojnarowicz's incendiary catalogue essay, gets significant screen-time here, and it is obvious that activist group Act Up was an inspiration for Pain's die-ins at the Guggenheim Museum and Musée du Louvre.
It is as if, in the Sackler family, Goldin found the personification of the dominant social order that killed her sister and so many of her friends and colleagues, that gave her art its life-or-death stakes. And it is also as if, through her activism, she has found a new family—when Goldin delivers a victim's statement during the Purdue Pharma bankruptcy hearings, one of the younger members of Pain holds her shaking hand in a gesture that would not be out of place in one of her photographs.
It is in part because Goldin's images are, after all, in the permanent collections of many of the institutions Pain protested that the group had such success pressuring the Sacklers when the government failed, at least in its purposefully limited aims of making the family name toxic in the philanthropic world. This—and the knowledge that members of the Sackler family received distributions of more than $10bn (nearly half of which went to taxes) from Purdue Pharma as the opioid crisis was mounting, and used its bankruptcy to protect their personal wealth—makes the film implicitly an open-ended question about all the other reputations laundered through art.
All the Beauty and the Bloodshed plays at the Toronto International Film Festival on 12 September at 6pm and 13 September at 3pm. It then plays at the New York Film Festival on 7 October.
DocumentaryNan GoldinSackler familyOpioid CrisisToronto International Film Festival