text:
Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/hal/wpaper/halshs-00553597.html
Export Diversification: What's behind the Hump?
Olivier Cadot
(CERDI - Centre d'Études et de Recherches sur le Développement International - UdA - Université d'Auvergne - Clermont-Ferrand I - CNRS - Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique)
Céline Carrere
Vanessa Strauss-Khan
(ESCP Europe - Ecole Supérieure de Commerce de Paris)
Olivier Cadot †
Celine Carrere
The paper explores the evolution of export diversification patterns along the economic development path. Using a large database with 156 countries over 19 years at the HS6 level of disaggregation (4'991 product lines) we look for action at the "intensive" and "extensive" margins (diversification of export values among active product lines and by addition of new product lines respectively) using various export concentration indices and the number of active export lines. We also look at new product introduction as an indicator of "export-entrepreneurship". We find a hump-shaped pattern of export diversification similar to what Imbs and Wacziarg (2003) found for production and employment. Diversification and subsequent re-concentration take place mostly along the extensive margin, although the intensive margin follows the same pattern. This hump-shaped pattern is consistent with the conjecture that countries travel across diversification cones, as discussed in Schott (2003, 2004) and Xiang (2007).
Olivier Cadot & Céline Carrere & Vanessa Strauss-Khan, 2011. "Export Diversification: What's behind the Hump?," Working Papers halshs-00553597, HAL.
Handle: RePEc:hal:wpaper:halshs-00553597
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Olivier Cadot & Céline Carrère & Vanessa Strauss-Kahn, 2011. "Export Diversification: What's behind the Hump?," The Review of Economics and Statistics, MIT Press, vol. 93(2), pages 590-605, May.
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international trade; Export diversification;
F1 - International Economics - - Trade
O11 - Economic Development, Innovation, Technological Change, and Growth - - Economic Development - - - Macroeconomic Analyses of Economic Development
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text:
Lowe's Senior CLASS Award CIAA Division
Men's Award
Women's Award
The CIAA's premier award for senior basketball players.
Women's 2021-22
Hailey Gipson
Finalist University Profile
Winston-Salem State
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She also completed internships with both Red Ventures and the Winston-Salem State Computer Science Department in preparation for life after basketball.
Gipson truly exemplifies leadership, both on and off the floor.
She leads her team by being the mouthpiece of her head coach when playing point guard on the court. Gipson showcases the same level head and composure that she has in a game around campus.
Gipson has served as Vice President of the Omega Chapter of Zeta Phi Beta, Inc. She is proud to carry the Zeta legacy in her family.
Gipson has also been a listening earner her teammates and fellow student-athletes around campus. Her strong, positive character has led her to become a mentor for first-year students at WSSU.
Gipson has been extremely active in the community at Winston-Salem State.
She volunteers both with her sorority and teammates, always helping others in need. Gipson has been a constant with the Ronald McDonald House, Habitat for Humanity, Triad Minority Business Expo. She also volunteers at local nursing homes, where she hands out hot lunches in conjunction with Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina.
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You are here: Civilisation > Books > But Have They Starved?
Sinking from thought to thought, a vast profund!
Then writ, and flounder'd on, in mere despair.
The Distressed Poet made his appearance in print in 1736. He was still there, in the same attitude and in want of money and inspiration, in 1836. By 1936 his quill pen had become a typewriter. In 2016, it is a MacBook.
How much for a book review? How much for a first novel? How much for the film rights? How much for a man of letters to sacrifice his dignity — as Kingsley Amis did — to advertise wallpapers and home furnishings?
The question "How much?" is of particular interest to me a year after leaving a well-paid newspaper job with prospects, pension and private medical insurance, for freelance writing. As I sat down to write this review, an email arrived from an editor on a woman's glossy magazine apologising for the "genuinely pathetic amount of money" they were able to pay.
The question posed by Taylor after "How much?" is "For how much longer?" With rates for journalism so low (£100 for a 700- word review in the Independent, according to Taylor — and the print edition of that newspaper has folded since The Prose Factory was published) and getting lower (one broadsheet has cut its rate from 45p a word to 35p in the last six months, according to my payment slips) and with the average professional author earning £11,000 a year, according to the Author's Licensing and Collecting Society, how sustainable is it to flounder on with a career in writing?
In too many commentaries, the term "writer" ignores the thousands of journalists, copywriters, scriptwriters, editors, paid bloggers,and others who - mostly through their familiarity and skill with words - manage to pay off the milkmaid (and more) every day. Maybe we should scrap the idea of what constitutes a "real writer" and substitute "wordsmith," a term that potentially contains and embraces just as much honor as "writer."
Interesting review of an obviously very engaging volume. I do not question whether the book lags where FR Leavis is discussed, but I have to take exception to the characterisation of Leavis as having "no ear, no taste, no judgement." In fact, Leavis was a great success in teaching people about literature and why it is important. I can't imagine anyone thinking otherwise.
Great review! I'll have to read this book when it comes out over here across the pond. I am not a full-time writer but $2000 last year was not much even for a part-timer. So why do we do it? Sometimes I think it's an illness, other times, what else would one want to do? Thanks for the humorous quotes, too, especially the one about Leavis.


text:
Scotland: Holyrood rejects Brexit plan
In a symbolic, non-binding vote in Holyrood, Scotland's devolved parliament overwhelmingly rejected UK Prime Minister Theresa May's plan to exit the EU.
The majority of the Scottish electorate voted to remain in the bloc in last year's in-out referendum.
Scotland's First Minister Nicola Sturgeon has repeatedly pushed for her nation's interests to be taken into consideration during the Brexit negotiations.
But last month (January, 2017) the Supreme Court ruled there was no legal need for Scotland's parliament to give its consent to the triggering of Article 50, beginning divorce proceedings from the EU.
Last week (January 31), Sturgeon's Scottish National Party attempted to block the bid to formally begin the exit process.
It says the UK government is not complying with a pledge to consider Scottish proposals regarding Brexit.
The Holyrood vote, which argued that too many questions were left unanswered was backed by 90 to 34.
Parliament gets Brexit vote, but Britain gets Brexit
No-deal Brexit looms larger as Johnson, Hunt declare backstop 'dead'
Watch again: Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt continue bids to be UK's next prime minister
Parliamentary debate


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redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


text:
Book Excerpt: Huey "Piano" Smith and the Rocking Pneumonia Blues
May 1, 2014 by: John Wirt	1 Comment
After working hard for many years, Jon Wirt has finished writing the biography Huey "Piano" Smith and the Rocking Pneumonia Blues. It is published by LSU Press. In this excerpt, we learn about the making of "Sea Cruise."
Just as Huey knew "High Blood Pressure" was a great record, he knew that "Sea Cruise," with its contagious groove, sparkling lyrics, and driving horn chart, was destined for success.
Old man rhythm gets in my shoes
No use to sittin' and singing the blues
So be my guest, you got nothing to lose.
Won't you let me take you on a sea cruise?
"I was always able to tell a hit before it came out. Evidently, someone else also could tell." That someone was Joe Caronna. A hard-drinking, heavy-smoking Italian, Caronna like to brag about his heart condition. "I got half a fucking heart!" he boasted. Johnny Vincent's partner in the New Orleans-based record distribution business, Record Sales, Inc., Caronna had moved into artist management. He told Huey the day after "Sea Cruise" was recorded that Frank Guzzo, a young white singer from nearby Gretna, would cut a new vocal track for the song. Caronna believed that this big-voiced eighteen-year-old, a performer since childhood, would be America's next teen idol. "Johnny Vincent agreed that if you can sell a million on this record, Frankie can sell ten million," he told Huey. The song's creator begged Caronna not to take "Sea Cruise" from him, but the die was cast. "That's the way it's gonna be, and there ain't nothing you can do about it," Caronna said.
"I was crying as he said that," Huey remembered. "I had been drinking a little bit. It hurt me to my heart when he told me he was taking that. Cosmo let him listen at it. They went in Cosmo's studio late at night, behind closed doors. We had never heard of Frankie Ford. Joe Caronna substituted that voice in there, him and Cosmo, and sent that thing up to the pressing plant. Johnny Vincent had never even heard my "Sea Cruise." He was in Jackson, Mississippi. But Johnny went along with it, all right." On the "Sea Cruise" record label, Guzzo's stage name, Frankie Ford, appears in large letters while "Huey 'Piano' Smith and Orch." appears in tiny letters below.
Billboard's December 22, 1958, issue predicted success for "Sea Cruise." The magazine placed the Frankie Ford—credited "Sea Cruise" and "Roberta," formerly known as "Loberta," among its "spotlight winners." "'Sea Cruise,'" the review states, "is a rocking blues on which the artist is backed by a driving, colorful arrangement." 'Roberta' is also a blues that gets an authentic shout."
James Rivers, the young saxophonist who'd been so badly hurt in the automobile accident that Huey and his band experienced in Florida, had been thrilled to be on the "Sea Cruise" session. "We were just so happy to get in the studio," he said. "I used to like to say, 'Oh, I'm on that record. That's me playing, right there.'" After the "Sea Cruise" session, Rivers assumed Bobby Marchan would add his vocals to the music later. "Bobby wasn't there when we did the session, but he was singing with the band at that time," Rivers said. "Man, about a month later, I'm hearing 'Sea Cruise' [on the radio]. I say, 'That's not Bobby Marchan!' We was shocked when we was coming down the road hearing something that we had put the music behind and the disc jockey said, 'That was Frankie Ford!' 'Frankie Ford? Who the hell is that?!' Man, we didn't even know no Frankie Ford. Huey wrote the songs and, of course, he wrote it for Huey Smith and the Clowns."
Saxophonist Robert Parker, another "Sea Cruise" and "Roberta" session musician, was shocked too. "The business part of it, I don't know whether they took the song or what," Parker said. "I do know Frankie Ford is getting all the credit for it."
"A lot of heavy-duty stuff went on," Dr. John said. "I mean, that whole scene with Johnny and Joe Caronna, and him just taking the 'Sea Cruise,' Huey's big follow up to "Don't You Just Know It,' it's so crazy. Look, Joe Caronna, Johnny Vincent, naw. It's like no respect for Huey. It's like here was the guy making 'em all the money they made and what do they do? Listen, it had to have shattered a lot of stuff in Huey, in anybody." Despite the financial disappointments and social hardships Huey and his Clowns faced, Dr. John added, they didn't lose sight of the job at hand. "They had a good time making the people have a good time, no matter what they went through to get to do that. If you go down the line of what wasn't cool, by the time you got to what was cool, it was them."
Huey and Frankie Ford's versions of events surrounding "Sea Cruise" and "Loberta" are as different as black and white. Huey read Ford's multiple explanations for the switch in a succession of interview through the years. "Of course," Ford said "'Sea Cruise' was cut to be the follow-up of 'Don't You Just Know It,' the Huey 'Piano' Smith song. And then when they heard me, and Huey didn't need a song at that time, they put it out on me… Huey taught it to me. Somewhere I have the original chart with his handwritten remarks."
"That's stupid," Huey countered. "Well, why didn't I write the words to the other side, 'Loberta'? See, that's proof of it. You're singing the wrong words. We, the background voices, still singing 'Loo-berta.' You hollering, 'Roberta!' Roberta is a white girl's name. Loo-berta was a black gal. Believe it or not, I don't even write. I scribble, I scratch. I never wrote nothing. And you claim you was a member of the Clowns. You just now realized that that was against the law*? You are white, aren't you? How could you have been a member of the Clowns? Let's tell it like it is."
FeaturesHuey "Piano" Smith and the Rocking Pneumonia Blues
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Please come out of retirement Huey! We all would love to come see you play again!


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The highly anticipated Box Street All Day San Antonio restaurant has a sneak peek pop-up this weekend
By Missy Evans Last updated Aug 17, 2021
Photo courtesy Box Street all day
Box Street All Day will open at the Hemisfair '68 complex in SA by the end of the year.
The long-awaited downtown Box Street All Day restaurant is expected to open its doors by the end of the year.
But for those who can't wait, Chef Edward Garcia and co-owner Daniel Treviño are offering a pop-up on Saturday the 21st.
The event will feature bubbles and brunch items from Garcia's upcoming Box Street All Day menu, which he believes can be described as "American eclectic."
"We like to interpret food the way we want it," said Garcia the "Current". "That doesn't mean there will be a 'fusion', but it will definitely be brunch-heavy. We like to play with food and like to eat, so I think that's what really drives this menu. "
Dishes available in the pop-up include a Scottish egg with breakfast sausage from the local butcher Swine House and bacon jam slider with ground brisket patties and American cheese on homemade milk rolls, which are served with the local fries of the same name.
The box fries are a staple from flagship food truck and catering company Box Street Social, recognized as the nation's fourth best food truck in 2019.
The pop-up takes place from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. at The Espee Pavilion, the entertainment venue in the east of downtown, formerly known as Sunset Station. Tickets are $ 85 and include a cocktail hour with fizzy drinks, a five-course brunch, and tunes by local DJ Despeinada.
Garcia and Treviño teamed up with local designer Caroline Garcia-Bowman to create Box Street All Day, a 3,600 square foot space in the downtown Hemisfair complex. The new company offers hearty brunch dishes and other amenities that are not yet developed in the area, such as a small market and a coffee program.
"We will have both a bar and coffee program so a large part of our interior space will be bar seating, but we will also have a bottle shop with some cool boutique wines and beers to take away." , as well as some take-away foods, "said Garcia-Bowman.
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Kimberly Tung Wasley is a vice president in the consumer investment banking group at Piper Jaffray. In her role, she focuses on providing investment banking and M&A advisory services to consumer companies.
Tung has seven years of consumer investment banking experience, having successfully executed numerous M&A, equity and debt transactions for both private and public companies.
Tung received a bachelor's degree in business administration from the Marshall School of Business at the University of Southern California.


In the sixth pAsuram, parAnguSa nAyaki's friends said "If you engage in madal boldly like this, your mother will not survive and the people will blame you"; parAnguSa nAyaki replies "I have been captivated by krishNa's qualities and activities; what do I care about anyone else's acts?".
Subsequently, parAnguSa nAyaki says to her friends who arrived in a group "I am captivated by his attractive qualities, you can give up your desire for me".
Sixth pAsuram. Previously parAnguSa nAyaki said "annai en seyyum" and her friends said "she cannot tolerate your act". parAnguSa nAyaki replies "What can I do for her intolerance? ". Her friends say "if she knows your attachment in this, she will not survive" and parAnguSa nAyaki asks "how does it matter whether she lives or dies?".
annai en seyyil en Ur en sollil en? thOzhimIr!
en – what does it matter?
Oh friends! I have been caught in an inescapable manner in the web of emperumAn who is the son of vasudhEva who is having the greatness of being the leader of the primordial nithyasUris, who is having the quality of being the king of SrImath dhvArakA which has unlimited wealth, and who is having an attractive blue gem like beautiful form; now, it is not required for me to be obeying you all; what does it matter for whatever my mother does? what does it matter for whatever the people of the town say?
annai en seyyilen – The mother says "I cannot live anymore. Let me die". SrIvishNu purANam 5.18.22 "kurava:kim karishyanthi" (When we are burning in the fire of separation, what will the elders do?) – what is the use of talking to the one who has decided to give up her life?
Ur en sollilEn – When the friend says "If the people of the town blame you saying that you are so captivated by emperumAn's beauty etc that you don't even give up on him, even after seeing your mother perish", parAnguSa nAyaki says "Ur en sollilEn" (who cares about what the people say?) – what is the use if they blame me or praise my qualities? This is explained in thiruvAimozhi 6.7.4 "kollai enbarkolO guNam mikkanaL enbarkolO" (would they condemn me as crossing the limits or praise me as one with great qualities?).
thOzhimIr … – Instead of telling me "so what if your mother does anything, so what if the people say something?" and make me more attached to emperumAn, you are blaming me saying "Mother will not survive, the people of the town will blame you".
ennai – As said in periya thirumozhi 5.5.4 "thAy vAyil sol kELAL than AyaththOdu aNaiyAL" (She does not listen to her mother and does not mingle with her friends), I who am attached to emperumAn that I don't withdraw from him thinking "mother may not survive, people will blame me).
ini – after becoming uncontrollable by you.
umakku – for you all who are trying to make me withdraw myself from him citing that engaging in madal is wrong.
Asai illai – You can give up your attachment towards me.
thOzhimIr – Previously, parAnguSa nAyaki was only sharing her grief with her best friend; now seeing her great anguish, all her friends came together thinking "we should say something and get her back"; seeing that group of her friends, she is saying "thOzhimIr" (Oh friends!).
agappattEn – When the friends say "We considered and told this for your well-being and should you not know the difference between the mother and people of the town, and us?" parAnguSa nAyaki replies "alright, there is no shortcoming in you; but I have been caught in this ocean, so what can I do?".
munnai … – I have been caught in the ocean which drowns everyone without differentiating between small and big personalities. SrI rAmAyaNam ayOdhyA kANdam 3.29 is explained here – "rUpaudhAryaguNai:" (beautiful form, generosity and other qualities) – rUpam indicates physical beauty. audhAryam indicates his generosity of letting everyone enjoy that beautiful form. guNam indicates Seela (simplicity) guNam, where he is too humble even while giving to others. If he gives manifesting his supremacy, there may not be anyone who will receive it [since people are generally egoistic and feel humiliated while accepting anything from others]; hence he keeps himself humble while giving also. "pumsAm" – Such form, generosity and humility will even melt a diamond [which is very hard by nature], it can make the hard-hearted [men] go through the same emotions as the innocent girls. Alternatively, these can attract every [chith (sentient)] entity [which is different from achith (insentient)]. "dhrushti chiththApahAriNAm" – Eyes, without needing the help of mind, will make the heart follow them [the eyes]. It is capable of even separating mother and son [kaikEyi and bharatha got separated from each other due to disagreeing with each other in SrI rAma's exile to forest].
munnai amarar – Those who are explained as "yathra rushaya: prathamajAyE purANA:" (In that paramapadham, those nithyasUris who see everything, who are eternal and who are always engaged in enjoying bhagavAn).
mudhalvan – emperumAn who is having the greatness of being the cause for the sustenance of such nithyasUris. Alternative explanation – for those who are enjoying eternally, he is the reason for eternal desire – I am caught in such emperumAn's matters.
vaN thuvarApathi mannan – Did I get caught in the one who does not have an assembly where his supremacy is manifested? I have been caught in the one who gives his divine body to the girls. It is said in periyAzhwAr thirumozhi 4.9.4 "padhinARAmAyiravar dhEvimAr paNiseyyath thuvarai ennum adhil nAyagarAgi vIRRirundha maNavALar mannu kOyil" (the temple which is occupied permanently by krishNa who remained in the grand assembly of dhvArakA where he was served by 16000 wives).
mannan – Looking at his reign, his supremacy in dhvArakA where he came to manifest his simplicity, appears to be greater than his supremacy in the great assembly of paramapadham.
maNi vaNNan – His physical beauty which cannot be given up even if those two [supremacy and simplicity] are not present. Naturally, a beloved girl usually becomes obsessed over her beloved's physical beauty only.
vAsudhEvan – Even if he does not have physical beauty, he has the high family heritage. sIthAp pirAtti consider herself to be the daughter in law of dhaSaratha as the greatest fortune as said in SrI rAmAyaNam sundhara kANdam 33.15.16 "snushA dhaSarathasyAham" (I am emperor dhaSaratha's daughter in law). [Same SlOkam] "Sathru sainya prathAbhina:" (one who tortures the armies of the enemies) – if my father in law were alive, would I be in this [sorrowful] state now? He is not of the nature where both he and his enemies survive [he will simply finish them].
munnai amarar … – As his cruelty and mercy do not make a difference for her, as the praising and the blaming of the people of the town do not make a difference for her, both his supremacy and simplicity attract her towards him in equal measure.
valaiyuL agappattEn – Instead of getting captured in such common aspects, I got captivated in his glance towards me and his smile towards me. AzhwAr thiruvarangap perumAL araiyar, while performing araiyar sEvai [the dance/drama performance done in front of emperumAn], showed the posture of a net to indicate "valai", emperumAnAr who was witnessing it, mercifully showed him the divine eyes [indicating that emperumAn's eyes are the net which captured parAnguSa nAyaki]; it is said in nAchchiyAr thirumozhi 14.4 "kamalak kaN ennum nedum kayiRu" (the long rope which is your lotus eye). I was caught in the glance of emperumAn which presents itself as favourable and captures us.
This entry was posted in thiruvAimozhi, thiruvAimozhi 5th centum on June 19, 2017 by Sarathy Thothathri.


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Media Discussion
Beyond Equestria
Does Anyone Else Have Trouble Getting Into Bethesda Games?
By OmegaBeamOfficial,
June 19, 2017 in Media Discussion
OmegaBeamOfficial 617
OmegaBeamOfficial
Yeah, It's another help forum. Surprise surprise. I must REALLY be annoying the always online users at this point. But yeah, this post was sparked by when I was installing all my games onto my Xbox One (which I can now do much easier thanks to the S's 2TB hard drive, that's my motivation) and eventually reached Fallout 4. I remember getting the game soon after release, trailers and such were honestly really interesting and dragged me into the hype. It was my first Bethesda game, and when I eventually sat and played it, I really struggled to get into the swing of the gameplay. I just can't seem to get used to Bethesda's trademark gameplay style. Since Fallout 4 I've played more of their games and have the same problem every time. Fallout 3 and Skyrim, along with Fallout 4 are all games I have the same issue with: Little to no guidance. It feels like throwing a baby into bathwater the minute after they come out of the womb, that's the best way to describe it. After a very short intro sequence which only quickly glosses over the basics, you're thrust into the fray of the open world with no sense of direction or help. These are key to video games, you need to ease the player into the game and let them get accustomed to It's mechanics before just dropping them into the world and saying "go nuts". On top of that there's always so many cluttered menus, gameplay features and such everywhere that it feels like you can't keep track of anything and will end up spending HOURS cycling through everything constantly inbetween the action. With an open world that's so vast and mazelike to explore, it doesn't teach you half of what you need to know. And the games being sequels isn't an excuse, plenty of sequels get franchise newcomers, and even Fallout 3, the first game in the franchise to use the formula it has today, does a poor job of explaining the mechanics. Every game of theirs I own hasn't got much playtime from me. It pains me because I WANT to love these games, I'm interested in the lore of the worlds Bethesda make and the characters, I wanna explore it and find out more, and the game itself too, I wanna fight dragons, I wanna run around in a badass power suit, but I can't summon the will to get to those parts when I can barely get myself started, and that's not including having to scavenge and search for every item in a room before moving on to stand a chance. Any thoughts?
cmarston1 5728
cmarston1
I have never played one before, and while I am sure they are decent games, they never seem like something that I would want to play.
SugarCoatxMarblePie 699
SugarCoatxMarblePie
Skyrim even Elder Scrolls fans find similar criticism for like stale repetitive dungeons and similar quests every time, which is visit here gather x come back so annoying. Theres no personal investment.
Then fallout4 the story is meh.
So if you wanna play Fallout get new vegas, if you wanna play an Elder Scrolls get Morrow Wind. Watch some gameplay first like first hour or so.
But fallout and skyrim have TONS of mods, I love it, idk about console tho. I know FO4 had some, Skyrim I doubt has any.
K.Rool Addict 713
K.Rool Addict
Only Bethesda games I have been able to truly "get into" were Fallout 3 and Elder Scrolls 4 Oblivion. Spent over 1,000 hours on the both of em combined @_@
Elder Scrolls games? No. Fallout games? Yes. I personally adore the Elder Scrolls franchise, as it is a totally different world to explore and learn about. Even just walking in the snowy lands of Skyrim makes me feel engrossed in it. Fallout, I cannot get the same sense of awe and wonder. They are in just an apocalyptic version of our world, and that alone makes it less interesting to me. The whole apocalypse thing makes it pretty obvious what all the world in going to be like and then the fact that it is the real world takes a lot of wonder away. For me at least.
Redeye 396
1 hour ago, OmegaBeamOfficial said:
Little to no guidance. It feels like throwing a baby into bathwater the minute after they come out of the womb, that's the best way to describe it. After a very short intro sequence which only quickly glosses over the basics, you're thrust into the fray of the open world with no sense of direction or help. These are key to video games, you need to ease the player into the game and let them get accustomed to It's mechanics before just dropping them into the world and saying "go nuts".
I'd like to point out that this is nearly 100% false. While not detailed, the tutorial sections provide a heavy chunk of the mechanics that you need to be able to fight. On being thrown into the open world, the games LITERALLY give you a quest menu that tells you where you can go to continue the main quest, and even provides you with Quest Markers that pinpoint exactly where your next objective is. The games, I believe, also have Help Menus that you can read through if you're ever confused.
Back on topic, while I do love the Elder Scrolls series, and am really hoping that ES6 comes out within the next few years, Fallout is boring. Something about it doesn't give me the same feel as Elder Scrolls does. I had more fun exploring Skyrim than I did Massachusetts. I'd much rather get ahold of Skyrim VR than Fallout 4 VR.
Sky Spark 4061
Sky Spark
Council of the Lavender Book Horse
Yes, they are overrated games that I have never understood the appeal of. I played Skyrim for an hour and it got boring fast. Fallout is okay but still overrated. Todd Howard is a sham who overhypes his games and they run like shit, and Skyrim is basically as big as an ocean but as deep as a kiddie pool. If you want a good open world action RPG, Witcher 3 trumps Skyrim in every way.
GeekySonic 1145
GeekySonic
Evil Changeling
Not really? I played a lot of Fallout 3, New Vegas, and 4. I never had much difficulty adapting to them, they just kinda clicked (though it probably helped that I often watched my dad play Fallout 3 when it first came out). Skyrim? I dunno why, but I couldn't get into that game at all. It was kinda boring.
Twilight Dirac 712
Twilight Dirac
Its not just you Omega. Bethesda games have always been like this. Vast open worlds with little direction or focus. People play them for the shear size and scale of the games, but the design of the games themselves isn't very tight and the environments definitely get repetitive and samey after a while. And these games get constantly interrupted by crappy minigames like lockpicking and hacking as well as the constant inventory management (which the various crafting systems tend to contribute to). They're passable exploration games and the combat in the Fallout versions can be a lot of fun, but they do tend to wear on you after a while. Of these types of games, I have only ever managed to complete Fallout 3 (no expansions), the others I always got bored with after a while.
Edited June 21, 2017 by Twilight Dirac
7 hours ago, Redeye said:
Well, It's been a while since I've played, so maybe I didn't remember it right I guess, I dunno. I just remember feeling lost and not having a clue what to do, because of issues I mentioned in the original post. And giving me a quest menu is fine, but I haven't seen many waypoint markers as I've been playing, or at least don't remember seeing them, nor have I seen any help menus. I'm not saying you don't have a valid point however, I'm just saying it feels like you're trying to make what I'm saying seem completely invalid.
Oh, and yeah, I don't think ES6 is happening yet, most games have a 2 year production span or around that time, and Bethesda usually don't seem to make sequels quickly one after another. I believe there were around 7-8 years between Fallout 3 and 4, so if we go by the same logic and you cross your fingers it should be out by 2018 or 2019, though I'd bet more on 2019 since we didn't see it at E3 this year. Just a prediction though.
6 hours ago, Celli said:
Well, It's like I said, I'm interested in the world and characters but when you can't really get the hang of the game after the tutorial you won't see any of the cooler stuff, or in my experience with Skyrim, I'll just get bored and stop playing. I wouldn't really touch any Witcher games since the art style Isn't my thing, but I'm sure there's better stuff out there.
5 hours ago, GeekySonic said:
I guess you're just really good at it then, more power to you.
Edited June 20, 2017 by OmegaBeamOfficial
10 minutes ago, OmegaBeamOfficial said:
Well, It's like I said, I'm interested in the world and characters but when you can't really get the hang of the game after the tutorial you won't see any of the cooler stuff, or in my experience with Skyrim, I'll just get bored and stop playing. I wouldn't really touch any Witcher games since the art style Isn't my thing, but I'm sure there's better stuff out there
Can I ask why you don't like the art style?
Also, Witcher does a fantastic job with immersing you with it's characters and gameplay, and sidequests. There's just so much to do.
5 hours ago, Twilight Dirac said:
Its not just you Omega. Bethesda games have always been like this. Vast open worlds with little direction or focus. People play them for the shear size and scale of the games, but the design of the games themselves isn't very tight and the environments definitely get repetitive and samey after a while. And these games get constantly interrupted by crappy minigames like lockpicking and hacking as well as the constant inventory management (which the various crafting systems tend to contribute to). They're passable exploration games and the combat in the Fallout versions can be a lot of fun, but they do tend to wear on you after a while. Of these types of games, I have only ever managed to complete Fallout 3 (no expansions), the others I always got board with after a while.
I can't comment on the lockpicking stuff or the minigames, but I think the crafting system thing might as well be the worst part of it, I haven't been able to craft anything, but from the pure amount of items you have to run around picking up just within the first hour and the cluttered menus I mentioned before, I think that might be the main issue here.
1 minute ago, Celli said:
I'm not sure really, It's hard to explain or put it into words. Now take what I'm saying with a LOT of salt because apart from the box art and some gameplay videos/trailers and whatnot I've barely seen that much of Witcher 3, but from what I have seen, it just doesn't have anything that sticks out to me, while I've complained about Bethesda in this post, I wouldn't have bought there games if there wasn't something that attracted me to them, Fallout has the idea of exploring a post apocalypse nuclear wasteland, and Skyrim has all the dragons and dudes with really cool armour, but what does Witcher 3 have? It's not just that either, I feel like the color palette from what I've seen is really bland, I've only seen a lot of browns and murky colors that make it look kind of boring and uninteresting, a game can have the most advanced graphics in the world but if the art style doesn't look appealing in the first place how am I supposed to get invested in the world I'm gonna be exploring for the next 8-10 hours?
6 minutes ago, OmegaBeamOfficial said:
Have we seen the same game? I've sunk hours into Witcher 3 and the visuals are very colorful and vibrant, I'm not sure where you're getting this brown and murky color from.
You really need to look deep into it more, at first glance it might seem generic but it's not. I'd highly recommend watching some extensive gameplay.
Also, if you ask me Skyrim's visuals are much more grey and murky, and just doesn't look good.
Just now, Celli said:
Perhaps I will, I should probably give it a closer look before trying to say what I think of It's art.
Just now, OmegaBeamOfficial said:
I will also show a random screenshot of the game running on a PC, I think this really shows how good the game looks, at least imo:
Snow Frostflame 3553
Snow Frostflame
The Master of Ice
As a kid, no... I had more hours on Skyrim, Fallout 3, and Fallout New Vegas than I'm willing to admit. Now a days I still own all 3 games (plus Fallout 4) I have them downloaded, and ready to play on my Xbox One, but they just sit there collecting dust. I dunno why I just seem to of lost all interest in the games, despite being some of my favorite games.
Steve Piranha 18937
Steve Piranha
A dude
Only have experience with Fallout 3, at least in the open world RPG department. Yeah, the beginning it's tough, but you will get used to the mechanics and they'll get better as you improve your character. What frustrated me however, is that the game becomes increasingly unplayable as you continue due to the savefile becoming heavier and Bethesda doesn't have the best trackrecord in the technical department . I think I'll stop playing Fallout 3 altogether in my PS3, and start from scratch years later when I join the master race
On June 19, 2017 at 6:47 PM, Celli said:
Skyrim is basically as big as an ocean but as deep as a kiddie pool.
^I would say Fallout 4 fits that description far more snugly than Skyrim. Of course, Skyrim was rather disappointing too, just not completely devoid of any redeeming qualities.
Nerdy Luigi 2047
Nerdy Luigi
On 6/19/2017 at 4:02 PM, Kyoshi said:
Actually the exact opposite of this in my case. XD
I can get into Fallout, but I can't really get into Elder Scrolls at all. Part of it is that I really prefer a post-apocalyptic setting over a medieval one. Part of it is that most of the time I end up finding the games to either have one spot that's so difficult I just stop trying or have a weird problem with my save file (Only explanation of how I couldn't get past the Frost Troll in Skyrim. Literally the only one I can think of. If it's my character build, than yeah it makes it worse to be honest). I never really had such issues with Fallout games at all, I've beaten Fallout 3 and all of the DLC as well as Fallout 4 and all of the DLC (except for Old World Blues, because I bought the DLC separately like a moron). But, I've only played about 2 hours of Morrowind (Yeah, I only got two hours in and ALREADY had trouble with something absurdly cheap), and got to the Frost Troll in Skyrim (Seriously, that was TOTALLY ridiculous. Heck, I even killed a DRAGON grinding (I didn't even die ONCE doing it either). How does that freaking work?) To me comparing my immersion in the two would be like comparing Grand Theft Auto (Which in my opinion is totally BORING and gets old after 45 minutes. I'm not big into sandbox games with no linearity) and Borderlands (Which I really, REALLY like and can binge. I binged BL2 after I lost my internet and I don't regret even one minute of doing it honestly :P)
Floppy Pug-Bunny Star Wars Man 4909
Floppy Pug-Bunny Star Wars Man
As much as I always managed to spend lots of time with Bethesda's games I can point out real issues most of them have to me.
Little to no interesting NPCs - come on, Bethesda, look on how the rest of open world games look like. NPCs that just talk with no sign of emotion or background are not working anymore. Skyrim is a shining beacon here. Wedding in Skyrim is so awkward I felt uncomfortable during it and the afternath of it.... I have no words for it lol. I failed to find any interesting NPC, I cared far more about dog You find while randomly roaming around the world (I loved it so much I literally cheated to prevent it from dying and I regret nothing, nobody hurts the doggy). It was just typical Bethesda trying to reflect real world interactions so hard it eventually becomes awkward to watch. I really hope they paid more attention to it. I mean, look at New Vegas. Obsidian managed to do it right in an open world game, Bethesda must be capable of doing it as well.
Enormous world with no sense of direction - You get the short intro and then... You're on Your own, literally. Of course not everyone likes that, because it means You have to walk around for literal no reason before finding quests to participate in. And... speaking of quests
Some of them are boring. In Skyrim particulary there are endless go there, grab stuff, come back quests and then we have legendary Fallout 4 meme ANOTHER SETTLEMENT NEEDS OUR HELP. Come on, Bethesda. Get more creative, at least give better background story to quests so I can feel like I want to do this chore and enjoy it.
Story is generally rather generic and boring. Skyrim says enough. Played almost 200 hours. Never finished the game. Never gave a damn about finishing it lol. Oblivion has similiar problem, only that time I finished main story, because I hated Oblivion Gates being spawned all over the place and annoying me with monsters spamming from them.
Bethesda is not a bad developer. But it really needs to work on the way it writes story or characters. Witcher 3 already showed how big masterpiece can a game become if it combines open world with deep characters. Time for Bethesda to do the same.
Halberd 87
Bethesda is one of the few publishers that makes content that I regularly don't get bored with. I'm still playing The Elder Scrolls IV: Skyrim and it's been out for nearly six years at this point. Same goes for Fallout 4 and previous Fallout titles. I remember some years after its release I picked up The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind and played the hell out of it because there was just so much content in it. This would have been in 2008....and keep in mind that the game came out back in 2002. Like Rockstar and Bioware, Bethesda are on a totally different class from other publishers/developers. It's why I keep buying their games.
I've never found them interesting either, to be honest, though most of my friends played them.
KatonRyu 983
KatonRyu
In Oblivion and Skyrim I had no problems whatsoever getting into them, but from what I've seen and heard of Fallout 4 it's just not an RPG anymore since the new dialogue system makes it pretty much impossible to project yourself onto the character and reduces the amount of options you get. I really don't think I'd be able to get into that game based on that. In Skyrim, there's a lot of repetition and overall you don't really have that much impact on the world, but because everything's such a blank slate you can still have a lot of fun with some imagination. Fallout 4 seems to lack that. I hope that when Elder Scrolls 6 eventually comes out Bethesda will go back to their normal dialogue system, though I don't have much hope for it.
Discordian 5983
Discordian
It should be noted that not every game is required to keep the training wheels on for very long. A game can be hindered by trying to cater to gamers who want easier games. Some games even deliberately avoid going the easy path to force players to learn how to play well on their own.
My suggestion is to keep playing games like this until you get good at them. Until you learn to be able to direct yourself. It's not a sin for the game to expect initiative of its players.
SONICchaos 814
SONICchaos
I love Bathesda games. Just wish I had the time and attention span for them. I really tired to get into Oblivion but absolutely couldnt get past the first few story quests past into the portal before losing interest. The combat was clunky as hell as I was never sure if I was hitting or not and there didnt seem to be any real difference other than damage between most weapons. I never liked playing a mage as I died too often to get far enough to matter.
I was absolutely engrossed in Fallout 3 putting in over 200 hours over several characters and even finishing all the expansions. Yeah the game felt super easy except when you run into random OP monsters somewhere and yeah there's almost no difference in location landscape on the overworld but still had alot of fun trying out all the different weapons. I never felt like it was the original Fallout (which for me is a good thing) so I never felt like there was a "wrong" way to spec my character. Sometimes I just want to make a brass knuckle fist character that tanks super mutants with gut punches.
After that I havent had the opportunity to play more as my PC has been limited by its lack of upgraded hardware. I basically told myself that i'd build a new PC when this one dies which isnt far off as everything inside except for the Graphics Card is mediocre at best coming from a prebuilt. I doubt I would be able to play Fallout 4 or Skyrim at an enjoyable framerate.
How I have to enjoy Skyrim
Edited July 3, 2017 by SONICchaos


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Tandem B
Two things of which I am not really a fan: The "Tandem Starting Pitcher" System and the "No blocking the plate rule" for catchers. Just to prove that I am not an inflexible dinosaur doomed to go into extinction as the game is "sped up" and becomes more "limited attention span" friendly, on one of these two issue I have changed my mind.
I have watched several games now in which the Ports are using this "Tandem Starter" system. The idea is that you have pairs of SP's who rotate starts. So Pitcher A starts game 1, pitches 4 innings or 65 pitches and then is relieved. At the next clean start inning (hopefully the 5th), Starter B comes on to pitch his 4 innings of 65 pitches. Four days later, Starter B goes first, then Starter A relieves him in the 5th (if all goes well).
Okay, I get it. Pitch counts and arms are important. As I mentioned the other day, Gil Patterson made his bones as a teacher by protecting young arms from overuse. But here's the downside. First, what happens if Pitcher A (or B), can't make it 4 innings? What happens when they get shelled in the 1st – not an unusual occurrence in the Cal League – and they stagger into the 2nd with 35-40 pitches?
Okay, scenario 2: It's 2 out in the 4th inning, Pitcher B has 62 pitches. He's down 2-1 and runners on 1st and 3rd with the #4 hitter at the plate. He gets it to a 1-2 count, but that's his 65 pitches. Now sure, you could pull him and bring in a reliever on the 1-2 count and say to yourself, 65 is THE limit. Period. If you do that, have you taught your young pitcher anything at all? Barring injury, would any Major League SP be pulled in that situation?
By the time these kids get here, to Stockton and High-A Ball, an SP ought to be conditioned well enough to go 5 innings. Frankly I'd say 6, but I lost that argument with Zack. So let's say 5 innings and raise the pitch count to 85 with a 15 flex to finish the 5th. First, that qualifies the SP for a W decision. I know, the SABER people have snit fits about wins not "meaning anything," but the truth is that they do, even if it's just in our minds. A kid who goes 0-0 over ten starts in the minors, regardless of how he is rated, isn't going to feel as successful as a guy who goes 4-2 or 7-1 or even 3-6. Their ERA is going to be higher just because it's the Cal League. Those wins can do something to bolster confidence and a winning attitude.
Most importantly though, is the effort it takes to dig deep and get through adversity. No Pitcher has all his stuff every single day. It's just not realistic or even expected. Some days the Fastball is a mile per hour slower or doesn't move at all. Maybe the curve doesn't quite break or the slider breaks too much. A Pitcher has to know how to overcome those things. If pitch 1 isn't working, what is? And if none of them are, can I mix it up, change speeds and movement enough to get outs? Can I pitch to my defense?
Somehow, I just feel like 4 innings or 65 pitches isn't enough to get that done.
As for the Catchers no longer being able to block the plate. I was born and raised a catcher. I have scars and bruises and bones that never really healed from plate collisions, almost all of which resulted in outs. The greatest moment of my athletic career – I broke Willie Burger's nose – was a collision at home plate where I had it blocked. I also limped away from other collisions and had to be carried off after one of them.
Frankly I though that what I once called the "Buster Posey Is a Pussy" rule was a bad idea and wussyifcation of the game.
I was wrong.
I've watched it now for several years and while at the MLB level it's still a little iffy, the kids down here are learning how to do it, get the out and stay safe. The sweeping tag from in front of the plate is effective and exciting. In fact, I think it might be teaching infielder skills to catchers. But the biggest thing is the reduction in injuries. Not just broken legs, but the little things, bruises and aches from the jarring. Heck one such collision I had even popped a filling out of my tooth!
I am left to wonder how my life today might be different had the rules prohibited blocking the plate in my day?
Logan Shore
Catchers are smart – the smartest players on the field by far and away – so I knew that they would adapt to the rule. And now, maybe some of them can stick around longer because of it.
Ports win last night 5-2 in another 1st inning scoring show followed by settling down and good pitching. Throw in back to back triples (very exciting) and you have the makings of a good win. By the by, Pitcher A struggled, but Pitcher B (Shore), coming on in the 6th, was lights out getting the save over 4 innings pitched.
Posted in 2017 Season, 2017 Season, Minor Legue, Ports
Tags: 2017, Buster Posey, Catcher, Tandem Starters
Baseball Lemurs
Matt Sergey once pitched for the Laredo Lemurs.
That one fact you must keep in mind or nothing else that follows will seem magical. Or creepy.
After a disastrous five run 1st Inning in which Ports Tandem Starter Caesy Meisner was victimized by wind, an error and some weird bad luck, the game settled down into a relative pitching duel that saw the Ports go hitless into the 6th and the Modesto Nuts go quietly for five innings before adding one last run in a 6-1 shellacking of Stockton.
As so often happens during such a game, a new pitcher was brought in to try and calm things down, which Matt Sergey, who once pitched for the Laredo Lemurs, pretty much did. He went 2.0 innings, gave up a hit and walked one, but otherwise turned what was starting to be Modesto going #United on the Ports into a reasonable baseball game.
After a short discussion (on air) by Zack about the proper pronunciation of the word "lemur," (le-muré, lah-mur, and so on), the discussion moved to the fact that lemurs are pretty much indigenous to Madagascar, not Texas, which is also where San Jacinto is located.
Lemurs, as it turns out are named after the Roman lemures, which were the malignant spirits of unburied and very unhappy dead people. They were also used by Mephistopheles to dig the grave for Faust. While singing, no doubt, in a terrifying and very German manner.
In ancient Rome, there were actually three "holidays" dedicated to placating the lemures, What you did, if you were an ancient Roman with a lemure problem, was get up in the middle of one of these three nights (May 9th, 11th or 13th) and have your Paterfamilias throw black beans behind himself with his gaze carefully averted. If that didn't work (the beans were an offer of life to the malignant spirit), then you would bang a couple of pots together until the neighbors called the cops who told you to stop believing in lemures and quit disturbing the neighborhood.
Then a lemure would eat one of the cops and soon everybody would be throwing beans and banging pots.
Life was great in ancient Rome!
Name your team after me or I WILL EAT YOUR SOUL!!!!!
Needless to say, when the Shreveport-Bossier Captains of the American Association of Independent Baseball relocated to Laredo, Texas, in 2011, they were looking for a mascot that would strike fear and awe in the hearts of their opponents. They chose the lemur, an animal species that had been named by Carl Linnaeus (seriously, look it up) because of their "slow nocturnal movements" and satanic bug eyes that reminded him of the ancient Roman fear of such creatures. In other words, the Laredo Lemurs are represented by a cute, furry, slow moving, nocturnal mammal that is named for terrifying, zombie-like malignant spirits who are eternally unhappy and hungry.
After the game today, I will never, ever look at the lemurs at the Pt. Defiance Zoo the same way. I will also bring black beans and a pot with me when I go.
The other thing I finally learned today was the difference between a Slider and a Cutter. Yeah, I know, I'm behind the times. But just in case you don't know either, both are essentially fastballs. The Slider moves down, while the Cutter moves horizontally. It also, as it turns out, is an easier pitch to teach and has been the salvation of several pitching staffs and pitchers over the past decade or so. And while there are no doubt imitators and copy-cats, the one man truly responsible for the Cutter Revolution or Evolution is Gil Patterson.
Gil, as he introduced himself to me in the press box, was once the hottest young pitching phenom in baseball. In early 1977 he was set to take the American League by storm. Boston's Carl Yastrzemski called him the best young pitcher he'd ever seen. But the Baseball Gods, which might be lemures after all, saw things differently and the Yankees prospect blew his shoulder to shreds just ten short, glorious games into the 1977 Championship Season. His comeback was nothing short of remarkable, including learning to pitch left-handed, but ultimately he was not able to get back to the Majors.
If it ended there, it would have been sad. What I love so much about Baseball is that it is such a metaphor for life.
Gil Patterson started teaching. He became a Minor League Coach and used his own experience to protect young pitchers from overuse. Along the way, he started teaching the Cutter. And today, he was in Stockton watching over the pitchers as the Athletics Pitching Coordinator.
And in just one minute listening to him talk to Zack, I learned more about managing a baseball game that I had watched with my own eye than I possibly imagined. What I thought was a Pitcher getting pounded in the first inning was less a episode of bad pitching and more about positioning. There were positives here, and to an eye like Gil Patterson, those things were clear. I am also sure that he saw the problems, and he works with pitchers throughout the A's Minor League System to fix those.
All these years later, he is still teaching and still having a direct and noticeable effect on the game. World Series Championships might shine, but how many people can point to a bunch of players who are having great success on the field at the highest levels and say, "I helped him do that."
Gil Patterson can and does.
And that is how you really chase away the lemures.
Ports lose 6-0 getting one hit. But for all that, after the first inning the game was actually quite enjoyable. And I learned more than I ever imagined I would…
Tags: 2017, Cutter, Gil Patterson, Lemurs, Modesto Nuts, Stockton Ports
2017 Underway
Life as the season begins, is really kind of up in the air. We are in the final planning stages of our big move back to Tacoma, which most people assume is because we are bailing on the craziness which has taken over California (gas taxes, service taxes, other insanities, etc.) but it isn't that at all. For all it's wackiness, California still has five Major League Baseball Clubs, two AAA level teams and an entire league of high A teams, virtually all of which are within a few hours drive time.
Seriously, from where i sit right now, in 1.5 hours I could drive to two MLB teams, both AAA teams and at least three of the A teams, one of which is fifteen minutes away. The loss of the Bakersfield franchise after last season has left something of a hole in my annual trek to see my parents and catch a few games, but really, where else in America – except during Spring Training – is there so much baseball so close?
As I said though, we are leaving, by the end of June, to move back to Tacoma from whence my wife came to marry me and where our children and grandchildren still live. Obviously, Tacoma isn't a bad place to be. The Rainiers are wonderful and the Mariners reasonably close. The Aquasox are a bit of stretch though and beyond that it's all a bit barren.
So opening day and week was something that I was really going to savor this year. And of course, we were on the road so my wife could interview for a couple of jobs up north.
Meanwhile the Ports were at home, but the Rainiers and the Mariners were not. I ended up listening to the Ports on the stream, and watching a lot of games on MLB.tv.
Then the Ports and the Rainiers (in Sacramento) got rained out on opening day. I felt bad for the players and fans. It's such a buildup and a thing to look forward too, and then it doesn't happen. kinda like when your wife gives you that look – you know… that look – at 3 in the afternoon. Then when all the kids are in bed and the day is over, you're both wiped out and just too tired to even think about going out for ice cream.
Skye Bolt
The Ports made it up with a double header, which is great. In the minors that means two seven inning games which became almost magical when Stockton dang near no-hit the Quakes in the opener. In the night cap the Quakes said, "Hey, let's give that a shot ourselves" and did no hit the Ports. Not a lot of hitting, but certainly fun and interesting baseball. Driving home I was able to listen to the Dodgers play the Rockies (and lose) and later the Ports beat the Quakes again. On Sunday, Skye "Usain" Bolt raced home on a bottom of the 9th hit to score the winning run which even Zack Bayrouty (Ports Announcer) insists was a blown call and he was out. Maybe the Umps wanted to go have an early dinner?
The 2017 season is off and running. Ports host Modesto before heading to San Jose for the weekend. with the Passover holiday i have time to take in a day game on Tuesday at banner Island, and with school out on Friday I am trying to convince the wife to go to San Jose. The Dodgers head to Chicago to be the victims of the World Series Banner presentation, which is fitting I suppose after the NLCS, and the Rainiers, after a rain soaked 0-2 start are still hanging gout for a doubleheader in Sacramento.
We're off and running!
Posted in 2017 Season, Dodgers, Minor Legue, Ports, Rainiers


Cottage Home Company — Make. Things. Good.
Cottage Home Company is a NE Florida-based, luxury home builder. Over the course of 4 months, I worked at rebranding the company in every aspect to accurately reflect the high-end homes being built by the Cottage team.


Construct approximately nine miles of Express Lanes south of the current terminus near Garrisonville Road to Route 17 in Stafford County.
This component would complete one of the longest Express Lanes system in the U.S., from Washington, D.C., to Fredericksburg, and unlock a major point of daily congestion in the region.
Construct two Collector-Distributor Lanes on Southbound I-95 from Exit 133 (Route 17) to Exit 130 (Route 3), including a new bridge over the Rappahannock River.
The interchanges at Exit 133 and 130 will be reconstructed to address significant bottlenecks.


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REPORT: TOP EXPORT DISTRICTS OF INDIA
Tarun Nangia
Under the 'Districts as Export Hubs Initiative', products and services with export potential have been identified for all districts of the country. The list of such identified products and services is regularly updated on the basis of inputs received from the States/UTs. Under this initiative, district export action plans have been prepared for such identified products and services for overseas markets, which include specific actions required to support local exporters / manufacturers in producing/manufacturing identified products in adequate quantity and with the requisite quality, for reaching potential buyers outside India. These plans also include identifying and addressing challenges for exports of such identified products/services, improving supply chains, market accessibility and handholding for increasing exports.
Regular compilation of district-wise export data has been started from April 2021. India's top 30 districts of exports along with top 5 exported commodities during the period April-September 2021-22 and the products/services identified with export potential are given below:
This information was given by the Minister of State in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry, Anupriya Patel, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.
EVEN A SINGLE ACT AGAINST PUBLIC PEACE AND ORDER CAN BE SUFFICIENT GROUND FOR DETENTION: J&K HC
EXPERIENCING NOKHA HOUSE BY FIRANGI DELI WITH SUJIT RATHORE
INDIA TO ADD 50 FRESH UNICORNS IN 2022: STUDY
REHTHIK RAZDAN
In India more than 50 startups have the potential of entering the unicorn club in 2022 as showcased in a new study. This will take the total tally of India to well over 100 startup unicorns(those well valued over $1 billion each). The year 2022 has shaped up nicely to become a matrix and a petri-dish of startups and with each success the chances of others joining them becomes well over-precedent. The growth of startups can be attributed to various national economic policies and the ease of doing business norms. The shopping capabilities and buying parameters of the people also has to do a lot with this, the report by a consultancy firm suggested.
Amit Nawka, partner(deals and startup leader) in PwC India, which conducted the study said that, " We can say that the base of these companies in growth stage and late-stage deals have improved have improved significantly in the calendar year 2021, depicting a stronger base of companies having the potential to reach the unicorn status. With market sentiments favourably inclined towards startups, and the large base of scaled startup companies at the end of CY21, we expect the startup' unicorn tally to go well beyond 100 by the end of 2022." Over $10 billion was invested in the Indian startup ecosystem in the October-December quarter alone, according to the report.
81 is the total number of startups in India as of now with a total valuation of 4274 billion. Of these 44 unicorns with a total valuation of $89 billion were born last year, shows data from Invest India, the national investment promotion agency. The PwC report shows that in the fourth quarter, startup funding crossed the $10 billion mark.
If we talk about categorisation, Fintech startups raised nearly four times more funds last year as compared to the previous year. Edtech followed closely with a growth of 86% compared to $2.2 billion raised in 2020. Software as a service came in a close third. Growth and late-stage deals comprised around 85% of the total funding. Among the most persistent and active investors were Sequoia Capital, Accel and Tiger Global. A December 2021 report by the Hurun Research Institute had mentioned that India is the third largest home for unicorns globally but trails the US and China by a wide margin.
Bengaluru and the Nation Capital Region witnessed nearly three-fourth of the total funding by venture capital and private equity funds, the report said. In its list of 50 potential unicorns it placed companies like Khatabook, Whatfix, Practo, Ninjacart, Inshorts, Pepperfry as among the candidates because of their history of having raised over USD 100 million to date.
Effect of high rated fuel on country's economy
Divya Joyce
High fuel taxes combined with a recovery in international crude oil rates has affected millions of people, slowing down the recovery of the country. The price of petrol and diesel hits a new record everyday. In Mumbai, petrol can be bought at Rs 109.98 per litre and diesel costs Rs 94.14 for one litre as on 18th January.
Experts have warned that rising fuel rates could severely derail India's economy, which is already under pressure due to the impact of the second Covid-19 wave. High petrol and diesel prices have not only impacted vehicle owners, but also people who do not own a car. Rising fuel prices have resulted in a sharp rise in retail inflation, making a host of essential commodities and services costlier for citizens.
Elevated tax levels are playing a major role in the current record high prices in India. The central government had last year increased levies on petrol by Rs 14 per litre and on diesel by Rs 16 per litre to shore up revenues as the pandemic forced a sharp slowdown in the economic activity. Central and state taxes currently account for about 53.5 per cent of the pump price of petrol and about 47.6 per cent of the pump price of diesel in Mumbai
The rising crude oil prices, and the higher taxation impact, have also contributed to the prices of petrol and diesel regularly setting new record highs across the country in 2021. Petrol in nation's capital is priced at Rs 95.41 per litre while diesel in the national capital is retailing at Rs 86.67 per litre. India has seen a faster recovery in the consumption of petrol than of diesel after pandemic-related restrictions with petrol consumption up 9 per cent in September compared to the year ago period but diesel consumption remaining 6.5 per cent below 2020 levels. Diesel accounts for about 38 per cent of petroleum product consumption in India and is a key fuel used in industry and agriculture.
India has long pushed for Middle eastern countries to remove the Asian premium that Asian countries have to pay for crude oil as key oil producers set higher prices for India than for the US and European countries. Despite a 40 cent per barrel cut in the official selling price of light crude to Asia, Saudi Arabia is still charging a $1.30 premium on the benchmark price for light crude sold to India compared to a $2.4 discount on the benchmark price for European customers.
Experts have noted that countries like India do not have much bargaining power in the current market scenario where supply is lower than demand and that India's bargaining power may be reduced further if we try to further diversify crude oil procurement. Also, the level of output and pricing benchmarks are decided by cartels such as OPEC.
So, Experts believe that the government should cut excise duty to some extent as it will provide some relief to customers and lead to higher sales and revenues which will accelerate the economy. But economic recovery will become tricky if the government continues to ignore rising fuel prices. If the commodity becomes too expensive, it would see a sharp decline in revenue.
India-born top the list of founders among US unicorns: Study
It is not only in India but in the US too that Indian founders are creating unicorns.
A study by Professor of Finance at Stanford University's Graduate School of Business, Ilya A. Strebulaev researched that 90 out of 1,078 founders and entrepreneurs across 500 US unicorns were born in India which signalled a significant presence of Indian-Americans in the country's startup and tech economy. He tweeted that, "Over four out of ten unicorn founders are first gen immigrants". Indian born founders were followed by the ones from Israel and Canada with 52 and 42 founders respectively.
Some of the Indian origin founders of prominent unicorns include: Rohan Seth of Clubhouse, Baiju Bhatt of Robinhood, Dheeraj Pandey, Mohit Aron, Ajeet Singh of Nutanix, Apoorv Mehta of Instacart, Aayush Phumbhra of Chegg, among many others.
The research undertaken by Strebulaev is ripe at the time when India based technology want to return back home. Indian immigrants in the US are increasingly leaving their American dream behind because of visa issues and also because of the allure of a thriving startup culture in the home country. America has had a history of extremely successful Indian-origin entrepreneurs including Kanwal Rekhi, Pramod Haque, Sanjay Malhotra among others. India born executives are not only fueling the startups of the US but they are the executives of the most powerful tech giants.
U.S based Kaufman Foundation 33.2% of the co-founders of technology and engineering founded by immigrants in the US were Indians. Kaufman Foundation found out that Indian immigrant contribution in tech and startup industry was the only one that increased, all other immigrant contributions saw a decline. Another finding showed that 33 of the top 50 AI companies have at least one first generation immigrant founder. And 53 of the 125 founders are first generation immigrants. India and Israel were the largest senders of immigrant AI founders followed by the UK, China and Portugal.
India has a vibrant and an ever growing startup ecosystem. A recent report by venture capital fund Orios Venture Partners said Indian startups raised $42 Billion in 2021 up from $11.5 Billion in the previous year. The newly minted unicorns include ShareChat, Cred, Meesho, Moglix, MPL, Grofers(now blinkit), upGrad, Mamaearth, Acko, Spinny and others. India with 90 unicorns is the third largest unicorn hub behind the US(487) and China(301) and ahead of the UK(39). According to the report Flipkart was the most valuable unicorn($37.6 Billion).
India has seen four decacorns(companies with a valuation of USD 10 billion and above) so far- Flipkart, Paytm, BYJU's and Oyo Rooms. While Bengaluru was the 'Unicorn Hub' with 18 unicorns emerging from the city in 2021 and 35 in all. It also happens to be the seventh largest unicorn city in the world.
KARNATAKA'S ROLE IN BUILDING A $5 TRILLION ECONOMY WILL BE SIGNIFICANTLY LARGER, CHIEF MINISTER BOMMAI
Hardika Sharma
Karnataka is expected to play a significant part in the economy of the country in the future. The state is home to 13,000 of the country's 54,000 startups. The Karnataka government has taken a number of steps to stimulate the formation of new businesses. The government is providing guidance and scientific support, according to Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai.
In an online message on the occasion of 'National Startup Day' on Sunday, the Chief Minister stated that the notion of a New Karnataka for a New India would be realized. In accordance with the Prime Minister's wishes, the state has commemorated Startup Day in a meaningful way. The state government will give a major boost to startups, innovation, scientific thinking, and entrepreneurship in the coming days, he added. "Thanks to the Prime Minister's long-term goal, the number of startups, which was once about 500, has already surpassed 54,000." He has given a tremendous boost to innovation and entrepreneurs by establishing a forum to assist them and free them from government limitations. "On behalf of the state's youth, the Prime Minister has been the inspiration for the biggest development of startups in the state," Bommai added, thanking the Prime Minister.
Bengaluru is home to around 180 science and research institutions in a variety of sectors.
'WEALTH OF 10 RICHEST INDIANS ENOUGH TO FUND HIGHER EDUCATION OF CHILDREN'
Ankit Pattnaik
According to a new study, it has been found that the wealth of the 10 richest Indians is enough to fund school and higher education of children for over two decades (approx. 25 years). When most of the country was gripped by the Covid-19 pandemic, the combined fortunes of the Indian billionaires more than doubled during this period. The superrich count in the country has now shot up to 142, rising by 39 per cent.
The annual wealth inequality survey reported presented by Oxfam India at the Davos Agenda Summit of the World Economic Forum (WEF) said that an additional one per cent tax on the richest 10 per cent can provide nearly 17.7 lakh extra oxygen cylinders to the country. None of us can forget how there was a huge rush for oxygen cylinders and insurance claims during the second wave that struck last year.
On the other hand, a similar wealth tax on the 98 most-affluent families can finance Ayushman Bharat – world's largest health insurance scheme, for more than seven years.
The report further finds that 142 Indian billionaires together own a wealth of $719 billion (over Rs 53 lakh crore). The richest 98 amongst them have the same wealth ($657 billion or nearly Rs 49 lakh crore) as the poorest 55.5 crore populace who are placed in the bottom 40 per cent.
It was found that if all of the top 10 richest Indians go on to spend $1 million every day, then it will take them 84 years to do away with their current wealth.
Exports target of US$650 bn within the current financial year achievable: Piyush Goyal
'$400 Bn target of Merchandise exports is within sight and the Services sector should strive for $250 Bn exports.'
The Minister of Commerce and Industry, Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution and Textiles, Piyush Goyaltoday said the exports target of USD 650 Billion within the current financial year is achievable. Chairing a Review Meeting of all major Export Promotion Councils (EPCs), Goyal said the $400 Bn target of Merchandise exports is within sight and the Services sector should strive for $250 Bnexports.
Expressing his satisfaction that India achieved $300 BnMerchandise exports in the first nine months of the current FY (April-Dec, 2022), Goyal assured the EPCs that his Ministry will do whatever it takes in handholding the EPCs and resolving their issues to attain even higher export targets in the next FY.
Shri Goyal said we can set a much higher goods exports target in the current last quarter of this FY. "In December alone we touched $37 Bn goods exports despite the Omicron fear factor weighing high. This month, in 15 days till January 15th, we have reached $16 Bn."
oyal said the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi has himself set the pace by setting "transformational results" and not "incremental growth".
The Commerce & Industry Minister urged the EPCs and entrepreneurs to avail of the Government's initiatives towards Ease of Doing Business such as obtaining clearances through the National Single Window System. He assured the Industry representatives to pursue their demands during the various FTA negotiations.
Speaking of the government's efforts to improve the ease of living and the ease of doing business, Goyal said that more than 25,000 compliances have been reduced.
"In December alone we touched $37 Bn goods exports despite the Omicron fear factor weighing high" – Piyush Goyal


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Cycling Injuries
Meniscus Injury Management
Cartilage Injury
Sports Surgery
Ligaments are fibrous connective tissues that attach bones at the joints, and connect bones to bones. These are different from tendons, which connect muscles to bone.
Ligament Reconstruction and Repair
Ligaments are fibrous connective tissues that attach bones at the joints, and connect bones to bones. These are different from tendons, which connect muscles to bone. The main function of the ligament is to stabilize the joint by limiting movements that may result in excessive wear, instability or damage.
Ligament injuries are common sports injuries that happens when excessive pressure or stretching is applied on the joint beyond its capacity, causing the ligament to tear away from the bone. These frequently occur in athletes, with weight-bearing joints being the most commonly affected. Severity of the sports injury ranges from mild stretching to partial or complete tearing. Symptoms include swelling, joint instability and impaired function.
Treatments for ligament tears depend on the severity and location of these injuries. For mild to moderate cases, rest, anti-inflammatory medicines, therapy and at-home care are enough to help the ligament recover after a few weeks. In some instances, a brace may be required to speed up the healing process. Complete tears, on the other hand, are major injuries that require therapy and surgery.
Among sports injuries, ligament damage in the knee is one of the most common. The knee is composed of four major ligaments:
Anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) - controls the forward movement and rotation of the shin bone (tibia).
Posterior cruciate ligament (PCL) - controls the backward movement of the shin bone (tibia).
Medial collateral ligament (MCL) - stabilizes the inner knee.
Lateral collateral ligament (LCL) - stabilizes the outer knee.
Among the four, ACL is the most debilitating and usually requires surgery for reconstruction.
In order to diagnose the severity of the injury and prescribe the most appropriate treatment, a sports surgeon or physician may perform physical exams such as the Lachman test to check the integrity of the ligament. Imaging tests like X-ray, ultrasound and MRI, and joint aspiration to detect inflammation and infections, may also be conducted.
Most ligament injuries can be treated using the PRICE method - Protect [from further injuries], Rest, Ice, Compression and Elevation - as well as prescribed antin-inflammatories or painkillers. For more serious cases, rehabilitation and surgery may be necessary. Tears that result in instability and impaired function of the knee are often repaired through a minimally invasive procedure known as arthroscopy.
During the operation, the surgeon will remove the damaged ligament and replace it with a tendon, either from the patient or from a deceased donor. This graft, which will be fixed in place, will act as a bridge on which fresh ligament will grow and assimilate (ligamentization). It takes several months for a new ligament to be fully reconstructed.
After the operation, a brace will be fixed on the affected area to protect it from further damage. At-home treatments can also help hasten recovery. Therapy sessions may be required, in which exercises are given to strengthen muscles and joints and improve their flexibility.
Ardmore Orthopaedic Clinic offer highly advanced and safe procedures for the diagnosis and treatment of knee-, foot- and ankle-related sports injuries, including ligament reconstruction and repair. To make an appointment, call our Sports Surgeon, Dr Sean Ng, at (65) 9631 7637 today.
OUR CLINIC PROMISE TO OUR PATIENTS
Prompt & Attentive Service
Honest & Transparent Pricing
Personalised & Customised Treatment
Patients' Needs Always Come First
Here to Keep You Active: Immediate & Long-Term
If you have further enquiries or would like to make an appointment at Ardmore Orthopaedic Clinic, simply fill in the form below or call us at +65 9631 7637. We will get back to you as soon as possible.
Mount Elizabeth
3 Mount Elizabeth #14-13,
Mount Elizabeth Medical Centre,
Mon - Fri	: 09:00am to 1:00pm & 02:00pm to 5:00pm
Sat	: 9:00am to 1:00pm
Closed on Sundays and Public Holidays
24Hr Emergency Hotline +65 9631 7637 or +65 9731 6622
A Member of Ardmore Medical Group
1 Farrer Park Station Road, #15-05
Connexion, Singapore 217562
Fax No:


RedLand Strategies' savvy, proactive, and reputable team provides trustworthy, time-tested services to support your goals. When crisis strikes, RedLand Strategies is here for you.
We pride ourselves on being solution-driven and achieving results. We are persistent, professional, and determined overachievers.
We get things done: whether it's anticipating and planning for problems before they arise, building relationships with the right person at the right time, navigating complex government terrain, or providing guidance toward the path to success.
RedLand Strategies' three pillars of business are: Government Relations, Emergency Management & Crisis Communication, and Business Development. We have the knowledge, experience, and relationships to get you the right meeting, with the right person for the right results. We know the most effective yet tactful ways to succeed. Most importantly, we love a challenge.
At RedLand Strategies, we believe your success is our success. We help to anticipate problems before they arise and provide you with the support you need, when you need it. We proudly offer our clients an array of services.
From established global corporations to start up companies and from healthcare providers to financial institutions, our clients have a desire to connect with government entities, assistance, and services. We will get to know your organizational structure and needs to create an effective and customized plan ahead for you and then help you turn those plans into actions.
Keeping Long Island's lights on doesn't "just happen". It requires thought, focus and innovation.


If you don't find what you're looking for, please ask here.
How much does CERT training cost?
NOTHING -- no cost to you; whether you join CERT or not (we hope you do).
Funding for the program is provided by the Department of Homeland Security.
How long does the training take?
Do I have to be a resident of Bedford?
While this program is predominantly targeted to people living in Bedford; anyone from surrounding towns may attend if their town does not have an organized CERT presence.